‘For me, becoming a drag queen was definitely a calling’

Belfast city centre will have a carnival-like atmosphere today, with flamboyant costumes, extravagant floats, music, rainbow-coloured flags and general fabulousness, as tens of thousands of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, and their supporters, take part in the annual Pride parade.

Among those dipping a diamanté heel into the festivities will be Delishus O’Toole, drag queen extraordinaire, singer-songwriter, animal rights supporter and all-round rising star.

The resolutely glamorous Delishus, said: ‘‘I am really, really excited about Pride. It’s going to be amazing - I’m keeping what I’m wearing a secret, but it’s going to be fabulous.’’

She adds: ‘‘Belfast Pride gets bigger and bigger every year. There’s more people from Northern Ireland going to the event because they totally understand what it’s all about and they think it’s a very important cause to keep supporting.

‘‘It’s a great day. I see it as a celebration of where the LGBT community have come from and I would love, when I am a pensioner, that ‘coming out’ isn’t a thing - you wouldn’t have to come out to your parents - you’d just say ‘this is my girlfriend or boyfriend’, and that would be fine.’’

Delishus believes there has been a definite liberalisation of societal attitudes towards the LGBT community here in recent times, but says more could be achieved.

‘‘The LGBT community has come a long way from what it was 20 years ago. It is a lot more accepted in Northern Ireland than it ever has been and I have seen such huge changes. I see 14-year-olds holding hands on the street and I think that wouldn’t have happened for me 20 years ago.

‘‘But I think more education is needed. I still think there are people who don’t understand the community and I think the more these individuals learn more about it, the better.’’

Delishus, who describes herself as ‘35 going on 26’, is guarded about her identity, saying only: ‘‘I grew up in Belfast - the normal me is a very boring person. There’s nothing glamorous about me as a real person - all the glamour is about Delishus.’’

And when this ‘normal’ Belfast man gets all dolled up with the make-up, the wig, the sequins and the stilettos, he becomes his alter ego, Delishus, a strutting, hyper-feminine goddess.

‘‘I become a diva, the singer, the artist. I become this confident figure where anything’s possible.

‘‘ A lot of drag queens will tell you that when they put the outfit on, they become a character - they become a massive extension of who they really are as a person. Some people who are really, really shy become really out there. I become extremely colourful.’’

Reflecting on how the drag act took off, she says: ‘‘I always had dreams of being a singer so I learnt how to sing and went for singing lessons. As I got older I realised that being a drag queen was a calling because every time I performed somewhere people said ‘you sound like a woman - you should be a drag queen, you’ve got the look, you’ve got a pretty face’.

‘‘In the early years I performed at very small gigs, then I broke into drag and it all took off for me and it was after doing Belfast Pride 2016 dressed up like Mariah Carey that all the gigs came in and everything changed for me.’’

At the moment she has plans to release a record and there are rumours of a TV show appearance; and neither have her talents haven’t gone unnoticed in the celebrity circuit, with TV star Rylan heaping praise on her.

‘‘I did a talent variety show in London and Rylan was very supportive of myself and my act and he said ‘you should be in London performing, what are you doing in Belfast?’’

But, although Delishus is happy to gig there, she won’t be upping sticks to the neon-soaked streets of London any time soon.

‘‘I love living in Northern Ireland. I just couldn’t leave everyone - family is very important to me. My family are very supportive; they keep me grounded as a person. My mum and dad give me advice and I am very lucky that they accept me for who I am because there are so many people who are not accepted by their families, for whatever reason.’’

Underneath the pancake and the glitz, Delishus is a passionate campaigner for animal rights. Just recently she swam across the River Liffey in Dublin to highlight the lack of Government action on recent revelations that 6,000 greyhounds are killed each year for not being fast enough.

She gets emotional talking on the subject.

‘‘I was completely and utterly disturbed by what these poor greyhounds are going through, they are unwanted or they’ve got too old to race and are exterminated in such a horrible way. It’s disgusting and I thought I had to get involved. We need to wake up everybody that this can’t go on.

‘‘These animals have feelings, these animals have emotions and it is just barbaric what is happening to them.’’

A lot of people turned up to cheer Delishus on in her swim.

‘‘The Liffey’s not as easy as it looks when you swim from one side to the other in a big ball gown.

‘‘I was smiling and waving at everybody but I was getting dragged by the current and it was freezing as well.’’

She is also due to climb Cave Hill in September, wearing only her underwear and high heels as part of the sponsored ‘Wunderwear Walk.

All money raised will go to Lucy’s Trust, who aim to save Northern Ireland’s dogs from needless euthanasia.