Limerick’s fabulous Madonna Lucia is an established Drag Queen and performing artist who, along with her partner in crime  Sheila Fits-Patrick, has appeared at numerous venues around the country. She has entertained the masses at Dublin pride and Alternative Miss Ireland in the Olympia theatre in Dublin.

Our girls aren’t just doing their thing on stage. Both Sheila and Madonna are active in their local community and enjoy attending events and supporting causes in aid of the LGBT community. Madge is currently hard at work with the Limerick Pride festival which has gone from strength to strength since its inception in 2007.

The tireless lady is an active canvasser for the visibility and equality of LGBT people and is proud to represent Limerick as an inclusive community where being gay is just part and parcel of everyday life. And you thought being a drag queen was just about wigs and make-up.

She managed to find time in her busy schedule to answer some questions about it all…

Tell us about Confession. Where is it on? When?

The club is hosted downstairs at Scotts in Alandale just off of the Dock Road, Limerick. Our resident DJ is the delectable Michelle McMahon of Spin South West fame who delivers an upbeat back to basics fun set of tunes to keep the party rocking into the wee hours. How the girl stands all night in heels and stays smiling is beyond me!

What type of crowd do you get?

A very mixed crowd so far! We have the perennial scene queens, young gays and lots of ladies, both gay and straight, older guys, drag queens, hags, men and women of all ages shapes and sizes. We are only three nights in so far, so it is too early to generalise. I will say with certainty that over half of the people who have confessed are new people. It really is a case of where have these people been hiding?

What’s the entertainment/music like?

I really wanted to set ‘Confession’ apart from ‘la Boutique’ in Dolans in terms of atmosphere and music, so this heavily influenced the musical feel I wanted for the club. I love Nicole Dunphy’s club, it always delivers, but there was no point in replicating that club down the road and just repackaging it. The idea is to offer a different club experience that compliments La Boutique, but gives customers options on alternate weekends.

I have gone for a vibe that is probably close to ‘New York New York’ in Manchester, lots of pop, lots of dance with a dash of eurovision and a sprinkle of cheese! It appears to be working as our dance floor is packed every night.

Michelle is a pro and knows how to work a crowd, so that is half the battle. Of course both Sheila and I can perform, but we want to get the club up and running before we start looking at shows. We dress up on different nights or depending on our humour, but we wanted management to take us seriously as club promoters as it is a business venture. In time we will definitely look at expanding that into shows.

How difficult has it been to set something up…the economy being a bitch and all that

The recession has opened so many doors its unreal. Last Christmas I was looking at another venue in town, however it went to a different client. It was so difficult just to get a face to face meeting with anybody. After that I became disillusioned with it but one day everything just came into focus and I just went for it.

I had done a drag show with Sheila in the Icon nightclub and the organisers put me onto their management who also run Scotts. I pitched the idea and promotional material I had worked on for the previous venture, and they were very receptive. I then went away and did my homework and after a lot of arsing about just did it. I think they were surprised with how well its going and are starting to make dates available in the venue and giving me preference or first refusal for things like Christmas and new years.

Why did you decide to set up the club?

I have always wanted to put on a club night, and I felt if we didn’t do it soon someone else was going to. It was the experience of going out in Cork and meeting people we hadn’t seen in years. Cork is only an hour away and has loads of venues so everyone was going there.

I think that the LGBT community is maturing and we are starting to communicate more and as a result we cross promote events and venues. We are all dipping into the same pot so it makes economic sense to share.

Madonna Lucia has opened doors for me and allows me access to people in clubs around the country, so when I perform with Sheila people have a vague idea of what we are about. You cannot buy positive press like that so all the hard work has started to pay off for us. Support for Confession continues to be fantastic, from locals, Gay Clare and Cork. Advertising openly as a gay venue hasn’t hurt either.

It seems like Limerick has a good scene and community. Tell us about it.

The Limerick scene has come a long way in recent years. The pub/club scene has come and gone in fits and starts, there have been numerous venues and clubs along the way, at one stage we had three venues running simultaneously.

The Alternative Miss Limerick has been running since 2001 and has raised visibility of the LGBT community, along with the now sadly defunct annual Garden Party in aid of Rainbow Support Services. Since Sheila won the Alternative Miss Ireland this definitely reenergised attention on Limerick and boosted the scene.  La Boutique is going strong and Riddlers gay bar is going from strength to strength.

Of course the annual Pride festival is becoming bigger and bigger each year, and with local business coming on board the LGBT community is finally being taken seriously as a paying customer that is visible, proud and worthy of investment.

It has taken time to get here but the only way is forward and this is a good thing. Rainbow provide a drop in café and other emotional support such as networking, and have a youth group called MYLGBT which is doing really well. Online may be where the real change can be seen on facebook, bebo and the new gayinlimerick website.

What do you have planned for Pride?

Lord! Too much probably but its one week out of the year and its worth it.

We are kicking off pride on September 11 with a Géilí, a night of Irish music and dance complete with tea and brown bread. Special guest musicians and performers will add to the craic.

Confessions is back on Saturday 12^th for a pre-pride party and the comedown party the following Sunday.

On top of this we have the launch party with Kylie, movie nights, drama and theatre at the Belltable with Myles Breen, a night of drag Gayhem at Riddlers, Mr Gay Limerick a marriage equality Q & A session and a Parade with a massive street party followed by Black Daisy at Dolans warehouse. Best not to think of the workload!

It’ll be a blast, and as usual the Parade is the highlight so please come and join in.

What have you planned for the future of Confessions and your own performing career?

It is my hope that I can keep the club fresh and deliver a good night out to our customers, so we are starting to make headway into things like drink promotions and theme nights. We are just finding our way; it comes down to the tiny details that make a place memorable.

We have ironed out a few of the kinks that any new venture will experience, such as sorting out all our dates up to Christmas and beyond. All things in time.

Both Sheila and Madonna have gotten this far because we have focused on longevity by dividing time between community events and other appearances in addition to charity work. It has never been about a quick buck or getting photos into papers. This helps yes but we only do it because we enjoy it.

The day I don’t get a kick out of drag is the day you nail the lid shut on the coffin.

I am currently working on video performances set to my own music. It’s pretty mental but that’s why youtube was invented!

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www.gayinlimerick.com

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