Interview: Rory O'Neill
on the Irish roots of some of drag’s most famous artists
This year’s St. Patrick’s Day festivities in London saw performer and activist Panti Bliss leading the parade as Grand Marshall, in a celebration that recognised our heritage and culture, as well as our contemporary community in all its rich diversity.
Thousands of people lined the streets and joined together in Trafalgar Square on the day, and to mark the fantastic occasion, we sat down with Rory O’Neill, also known as Panti Bliss, to discuss what the experience of leading the parade was like.
“I wouldn’t want to overstate the importance of a drag queen leading a parade, but I do think it does say something about where Ireland is now, how far Ireland has come really in a lot of ways,” O’Neill said. “I do hope also that younger queer people watching that, Irish queer people specifically, realise that they don’t have to be limited by their queerness”.
“Ireland is a brighter more welcoming, better place now than it was when I was growing up, and part of that is to do with the influence of queer people and the presence of queerness in the culture”.
History of drag performers in Britain and Ireland
The history of drag performers in Britain and Ireland is interestingly intertwined, in particular in the fact that some of the biggest stars happen to have Irish roots. Danny La Rue, one of the highest-paid entertainers in Britain in the 1960s, was from Cork, while Paul O’Grady whose Lily Savage character was a household name, was born to Irish parents.
“There is something in that about Irish people as entertainers and queer people,” O’Neill reflected. “That queer drag tradition, especially here in the UK is a performance art, a comedy art, most often. We have that great story-telling gift of the gab, and that definitely helps when you’re a drag queen! I think being Irish probably really did help Danny La Rue and Lily Savage, and I think it is definitely fair to say their Irishness influenced them”.
In a wide-ranging discussion, O’Neill explores the theme of Irish drag performers in Britain, from the days of La Rue through to the modern day, how the respective drag scenes in both countries interacted with and helped to shape one another, as well as how drag established itself in Ireland and began to flourish.