A Woman's Heart is rejigged by drag queens and kings for Age Action

Only a Woman's Heart, the iconic song composed by Eleanor McEvoy, has been given the royal treatment by drag queens and kings.

They joined Ms McEvoy for a special performance of Only a Woman's Heart – With a Twist, to raise funds for Age Action.

Head of advocacy and communications at Age Action, Celine Clarke, said they were delighted that the “guys and girls” got together to produce the video.

Ms Clarke said promoter, Buzz O'Neill-Maxwell, led the production and Eleanor gave it her full support.

“It really has lifted our hearts to see that sort of support for Age Action and the work we do,” she said.

Ms Clarke said the video was also an important reminder that older LGBTQI+ people are more likely to live in isolation, be single and live alone.

“With Covid-19 and social distancing and the various other public health measures we are just quite mindful that there are people who are not able to connect with others in a way that they might have done easily before.

"Everything we do is based on a recognition of the diversity of identity and situation among older people and a concern for equality for all older people," said Ms Clarke.

Mr O'Neill-Maxwell said that in the five years since marriage equality more than 3,200 same-sex couples have married in Ireland but for many older LGBTQI+ people there was no happy ever after.

“They enjoyed the wave of euphoria that marriage equality has brought but I think Covid-19 has awoken ghosts for some of them," he said.

The pandemic has left a lot of the LGBTQI+ community feeling really isolated again and the video is to raise awareness of their vulnerability at this time.

“Because I am a promoter I know all the drag queens and kings and a lot of them have been very innovative in putting their shows online and keeping the rest of us entertained.

“We discussed doing a video that would be a little quirky and a lot of fun. We wanted something that was intrinsically Irish that would resonate with people of all ages but particularly an older audience.

“I had four or five ideas but everybody came back and told me it just had to be Only a Woman's Heart.

Mr O'Neill-Maxwell reached out to Ms McEvoy though television and film producer and director, Bill Hughes, who is involved in producing a documentary for broadcast on RTÉ about the release and tour of the legendary album A Woman's Heart.

“Eleanor said yes before I even asked her."

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