Galway’s ‘Queen of Trad’  

Ronan Clifford’s trad is anything but traditional. Clad in stilettos, glitter, and tall hair, this Galway-based performer plays the concertina in full drag as Devon Diva.

For Ronan, being able to meld two of his central identities in art is an honour, one that he has the privilege of doing every Friday night in historic Galway. 

Trad origins 

Ronan began playing trad music when he was five years old, after moving from Boston, MA to Ireland. His mother first encouraged him to start playing the fiddle. 

“I think she wanted to make sure I wasn’t too American,” he says, laughing. “I played the fiddle from the age of six, then with one of my best friends and we started a trad group in school.” 

His love of trad blossomed. He started experimenting with other instruments. “I became just sickly obsessed with the concertina because I thought it was just so cool,” he said.

Ronan became a regular at trad sessions across the city, playing the fiddle and concertina at famous pubs like the Crane Bar.  

An attraction to drag

His interest in drag came later. To celebrate his 18th birthday, Ronan went out with some friends in Galway. He saw a sign for a drag show at Róisín Dubh and knew he “needed to go in”. 

“I remember seeing Kiki St Claire … and I just looked at her and thought ‘oh my god, I need to go in’,” he said.  

He knew at that moment that he wanted to get involved himself. It was like a gravitational pull to start performing drag. 

“I was lucky enough to kind of know the queens … it was an advantage to know people in the scene,” he said. Through the Galway drag community, Ronan developed his drag persona. From there, ‘Devon Diva’ was born. 

Then Ronan got his chance when he received an invitation to perform at GASS – Galway’s premier drag show. After a successful run, Devon Diva became a regular on the Galway drag scene. 

Spreading joy

But Ronan never abandoned his first love: trad. On occasion, while dressed in drag, he would take up the fiddle or concertina. He started sharing those videos on his social media for his close friends. 

“I used to put videos on my private Instagram and some of the Galway drag queens responded saying ‘This is so funny, please do this’,” he said. He took their advice and began integrating trad into his drag performances.   

For him, trad and drag are a natural fit. He believes trad and drag have the same purpose: spreading joy.

“Trad just makes a lot of people happy because it’s so lively … so that’s what I try to do with my drag,” he said.   

Not everyone, however, has responded positively to his performances. “There was a lot of backlash when I did my first shows, these were in groups on Facebook,” he said. People online used homophobic slurs and accused him of degrading the history of trad.

“I always forget there’s just so many people in Ireland that are just so against anything gay,” he sighed.  

However, other members of the Galway community were quick to defend him. “The amount of people that came to my defense that I didn’t even know from Galway, they were like ‘This is Devon, we love her’,” he said.  

“And it was just really nice because Galway is such a community.”

Making trad more inclusive 

Within the Galway drag community, his trad background has made him an immediate standout. “It kind of blew up, like people really responded well to it,” he said.

“Irish people really love Irish things. We’re so cheesy. So as soon as I started playing the fiddle in drag, people loved it,” he said. 

Ronan’s performances have deepened his connection to queer spaces in the city. He feels that his performances have connected him to others, opening space for those that don’t fit into the mold of a traditional trad performer. 

“I met a lot of people I didn’t know before. And there are queer trad sessions all across the city, actually,” he said. He hopes to connect as many people as possible to these spaces. He sees himself as part of a wider movement to diversify the trad scene.     

“When I did my first trad performance, a trans woman came up to talk to me and said that she plays trad as well, but she just doesn’t identify as her true self when she’s playing in the pubs,” he said. He was able to connect her with other queer sessions in the city.

“I think having those queer trad sessions is kind of important because if people can’t express themselves in this group of older men, they have a new space to do so,” he added. 

Beyond Galway

Ronan dreams of bringing his act to as many people as possible, even beyond Galway. This summer, Ronan plans to live in Boston, MA. He hopes to share his act there.

“There are Irish sessions there in a couple of pubs and there’s a place in Quincy that sells second hand violins, so I’m going to buy a fiddle and I have a show lined up.” 

Ronan is changing the face of trad and he’s proud to be a part of that.