Ahead of this year’s St. Patrick’s Day, Jason Reid caught up with a fellow proud queer Irish-person, award-winning cabaret artist and theatre-maker Xnthony, to chat about their night Sodom and Begorrah, modern day Ireland and more. Sure the craic was good…
Tell us about the origin of Xnthony and your background.
My stage name is Xnthony, and it was inspired by Xtina, XTube, YouTube, porn, and alter-ego nonsense like that. I’m originally from Roscommon in Ireland, which was the only county in Ireland that voted no in the marriage equality referendum. I started out about 10 years ago making performance art pieces with ice cream, half naked in dingy Irish pubs. Then Panti Bliss spotted it and put it online, and then I was officially a performance artist. Since then i’ve grown into a club/theatre-maker that does large-scale theatre pieces about things like Oliver Cromwell and Eurovision.
Ireland has changed considerably in recent years, as was shown with the marriage equality and Repeal the 8th votes. What factors do you think contributed to this huge societal shift?
It’s a mix of a few things. Surely those people who emigrated and returned in good times brought back new ideas and cultures. And Ireland has always had a highly educated population, since the 1960s. So there would’ve been a national inclination to open up to new things, Also, theres a lot of revolutionaries and visionaries like Panti Bliss and Sinead O’Connor who pushed forward new ideas. We’ve now become this leader in lifting up diversity – whether we think that’s true or not – but there’s massive issues in Ireland right now with homelessness and accommodation.
What do you think about the notion that Ireland finally found its voice and became this beacon of hope around the world because it broke free from the stranglehold of the Catholic Church?
You’re totally right. I forgot that the church was ever a thing. When I grew up it was massive. My first time onstage was being an altar boy, in 2000, and I was invited back to my local parish priest’s house for breakfast afterwards. It was great because we got on really well – he was really cool, I was really cool; he was single, I was single. The church was a huge part of our lives, and it still is for a lot of people in Ireland. But I think the abuses and Magdalene Laundries chipped away at peoples’ faith. There’s still a massive, weird performance of religion in Ireland, and people just go through the motions – which I think is disappointing.
What are your memories of St. Patrick’s Day growing up in Ireland?
Being dressed us up as Easter Eggs by the local art school, literally having crêpe paper spun around us. St. Patrick’s Day was seen as another mass; dad would pluck some shamrocks from the garden, we’d go to mass, then go for a spin in the car afterwards. It was always near Easter so it meant we were going into this three-day marathon of mass and crap and psalms, and all that nonsense. I think about those things from Ireland in the past and I’m like, ugh, no.
St. Patrick’s Day is a phenomenon across the world. Do you think it’s seen differently within Ireland than it is outside?
We’re the only country in the whole world that has this monopoly on our culture, and we really sell it. You don’t have people going to the US because of Denmark Day; you’ve only got the green, Irish Paddy’s Day. In Ireland they think it’s all about culture – which it is, and a lot of the communities will suffer this year because the celebrations have been cancelled due to the coronavirus – but it’s a great moment for us as a small country to promote ourselves. Comparatively, Ireland is doing really well and it’s kind of a moment to say ‘Brits out lol’.
Shocking that they’ve had to cancel the Paddy’s Day celebrations…
Well, Sodom and Begorrah will be fully going ahead at the Vaults on Saturday. Because, you know why? The Irish survived the famine, they can survive corona.
Tell us about Sodom and Begorrah and what to expect.
It’s a massive celebration of the best things that are Irish: storytelling, singing, music. Within that we bring in drag, Irish dancing, an accordion player, tea leaf reading. We’re trying to make a space that feels really inclusive and safe and fun for everyone. We’ll even let Protestants in.
Sodom and Begorrah is on Saturday 14th March at Underbar – The Vaults, Leake Street, London SE1 7NN
