Woman in the Making: Panti's Memoir (29 page)

On the bar in Pod doing what I was paid to do – be the life and soul of the party.

Frank and Niall didn’t do anything half-assed, so when they decided to drag up for a party they did it right!

Panti started cropping up in lots of Niall’s work, like this 1995 poster for the Young Designer Awards, at which I performed and met a pre-drag Veda who would become a great friend and long-time drag collaborator.

Even cartoon versions of Panti and Niall were badly behaved on GAG flyers, 1996.

CONOR HORGAN

A flyer for HAM, which was, we ironically proclaimed, for “butcher queers”.

One of Niall’s sought-after Powderbubble flyers.

The tabloids make GAG front page news, and our time was up.

Big hair and small boobs. At Powderbubble with Niall and two Dublin queens, Attracta and the legendary Phyllis, an icon of rowdy good times on the Dublin gay scene.

Some of the Powderbubble gang draped over pool tables in Mosney holiday camp where we threw a party as part of a dance music festival in 1999. L-R: Veda Beaux Rêves, “Dancer Ryan”, Dizzy Dyin’ For It, Shirley Temple-Bar, Dolly Grip, Leah (in back), “Dancer Anthony”, Panti, Trish.

A gold foil, embossed flyer for HAM.

Niall, Tonie Walsh (in rubber priest drag), and Claire Crosbie outside GAG on the quays with a half-finished Gay Pride float, 1996.

DARRAGH SHANAHAN
Making smoking look glamorous with Veda. (Don’t smoke kids!)