‘Irish speakers are very rebellious. So a queer Irish speaker is welcomed’ – The Irish Times

The musician, singer and performer Tadhg Griffin, aka SexyTadhg, has been popping up a lot recently: on stage with Bricknasty and KhakiKid, supporting Loreen at the Academy in Dublin, at the Jerry Fish Electric Sideshow at Electric Picnic and the Ping Pong Disco at All Together Now, hosting their own birthday-party gigs and Christmas shows (raising money for the Muslim Sisters of Éire and the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign) and, memorably, at the Strawberry Fields tent at the Beyond the Pale festival this summer, with an electric atmosphere on and backstage thanks to dancers and drag queens, actors and comedians, musicians and burlesque performers.

In March they were awarded a residency on Clear Island, in Co Cork, by Aerach Aiteach Gaelach, a growing community of queer Gaeilgeoir artists – writers, theatre-makers, drag artists, photographers, film and sound artists – founded in 2020. Griffin created a haunting track that has more in common with tracing the outline of James Blake’s oeuvre than the cabaret context in which SexyTadhg often revels on stage.

Last year SexyTadhg won the Radical Spirit award at Dublin Fringe Festival for their performance in Egg Cabaret’s The Proclamation of the Irish Republegg. Now they have a Dublin Fringe Festival show of their own to look forward to, a cabaret musical called Television.

It was at an Egg Cabaret night at Bello Bar, in Portobello in Dublin, that a new era began for the young artist. “They put me on last, to close the show. I felt really out of my depth. I think at that time I was filled with a lot of self-doubt. I remember chatting to people backstage like Bella Agogo,” they say, referring to the cabaret artist and producer. “She’s jaw-dropping, incredible … One song, Never Been Loved in the Daylight, got a massive reaction. It was just, ‘Oh my God, this is where my music is meant to be, the audience I’m meant to be performing to.’”

Growing up in Carlow, Griffin played piano in the town’s cathedral. “Performance started for me in church. With performing in church, it’s a certain kind of performance that’s allowed. The people there are lovely, but I could never uncover myself, I suppose. I think that’s what music has been for me over the last five or six years especially: it’s been a tool for deep emotions or complex thoughts, a form of self-therapy where you pull it outside of your body.”

Griffin was always dreaming big, including in sport as an avid young golfer. “I was, like, ‘Golf is going to be my thing! I’m going to be on the PGA Tour! I’m going to be the next Rory McIlroy!’ But golf is quite a lonely sport at times … I went to rowing then. I did that for a few years. I loved rowing because it’s a very social sport … In my mind I was, like, ‘I’m going to the Olympics!’ I think it’s just being hopeful, wanting this fun, exciting future and looking forward to something. Some people would call it delusion. But I think it’s a grandiose hope.”

Another touchstone was watching drag queens from afar. “I remember starting watching Drag Race when I was about 18. Just seeing that transformation of somebody was really inspiring – how you can go from a normal-looking person to an absolute superstar. I also love how independent drag queens are. They’ll do the make-up, they’ll do the hair, they’ll do the costumes. Nothing stops them … I really like that initiative.”

Griffin recalls “going into Sam McCauley’s [pharmacy], which is where everyone gets their make-up in Carlow”. When they got home they said, “‘Ma, I’m going to start doing make-up,’ and she was, like, [quietly] ‘Okay’. God love her. I’ve been bringing her on quite the journey the last seven or eight years. Both of my parents are just fantastic, and really supportive … They’ll always say to me, ‘We’re proud of you no matter what …’ That’s something I keep really close to my heart, the idea that they’re proud of me, the idea of unconditional love. Not everybody gets that. I’m very lucky.”

An early single as Tadhg, Mise ‘gus Tusa, from 2018, which includes the line “Tusóigh ár saol le beagán saoirse” – “Our life will begin with a little freedom” – was a tender torch song. Fast-forward to 2024 and their latest single, Ride the Wave, is almost unrecognisable, their voice emboldened and unleashed. “It’s a funny one,” Griffin says of being a Gaeilgeoir, “because you’re not quite sure how to handle the pull of the language. It’s as if it’s an entity in and of itself. But it’s always reaching out for people. It’ll just grab you …

“Irish speakers are very rebellious. So a queer Irish speaker is welcomed. You’re viewed as a rebellious person. The community is too small to be picky about who joins it. I think for a long time it was very picky, and if you spoke broken Irish you weren’t welcome, or if you were queer you weren’t really welcome. But it has grown past that now. I think the internet has a lot to do with that as well. It’s great to see. It reconnects a lot of people with their Irishness and who they are as people.”

[ Una Mullally: Our ancient language is being made modernOpens in new window ]

What can audiences expect at their upcoming fringe show, which is based on SexyTadhg’s relationship with media? “High energy! Big energy! They’ll have a really fun time … Hopefully they’ll enjoy it so much they’ll come to the next show, and they can be a SexyFan.”

Television is at Project Arts Centre, as part of Dublin Fringe Festival, from Monday, September 9th, to Friday, September 13th