Going behind the curtain of Cork's drag scene — from Danny La Rue to Mockie Ah    

While shows like 'RuPaul's Drag Race' have brought the artform of drag to a global audience, a new documentary looks at its history in Cork. Mike McGrath-Bryan speaks to some of the performers and film-makers 

From left: Robin Guiton, director of 'Dragging Up the Past'; Mia Gold; Letycha Le’Synn; Konrad Im, project manager; and Vitor Oliveira, aka Vicky Gold.

Like many other elements of counter-culture that make their way to the mainstream consciousness, it can sometimes be easy to take the current prominence of drag for granted.

While the ongoing success of RuPaul’s Drag Race has taken the artform to living rooms the world over in the last decade, it’s far from its first brush with wider audiences: from the singular success of Cork-born Danny La Rue (at a time when UK television options were limited to a few channels) to performers such as Panti Bliss and Shirley Temple Bar, who have helped bring the genre and its story within LGBT culture to national attention.