‘Drag kings have been around for as long as drag queens, but they just haven’t been given as much exposure’ – 0800 Cupid creator Emer Dineen

Writer and performer Emer Dineen talks about her creative roots and the lockdown woes that inspired her genre-defying show to reconnect a lost generation

Emer Dineen plays Cupid in her new show 0800 Cupid in the Dublin Theatre Festival. Photo: Eoin Greally

Liadán Hynes

When Emer Dineen was in college at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London, her friends would tease her about her devotion to being Irish, comparing her to the meme of Lady Gaga, in which the singer protests repeatedly: “I’m Italian, I’m Italian.”

“That was like me, but Irish. It’s actually embarrassing,” she says with a laugh. Both of her parents are originally from Cork. They were the first generation of their family to move out of Munster for “as far back as we could record”.