Junior Larkin

Junior Larkin (died July 2017), also known by his stage name Kylie O'Reilly, was an Irish drag queen and gay rights activist.

Career Larkin came out and became involved in gay activism in 1993. Speaking at the reaction to the Gay and Lesbian Conference in 1994, Larkin said that he had been attacked four times in one year due to his sexuality.

Larkin was one of the staff of Gay Community News in the early 1990s, overseeing the layout and design of the magazine. He acted as mentor to the future editor of GCN, Brian Finnegan. Larkin was involved in the Dublin Lesbian and Gay Youth Group. With this group, he hosted the annual talent show with Anthony McGrath, called Search For A Star. The winner of the competition would be featured on a cover of GCN. He was also involved in the International Gay and Lesbian Youth Organisation. After Larkin left GCN he set up a free gay magazine, Guyz, as a glossy magazine but it was not successful due to the difficulty in securing sponsors.

With John Pickering and Eddie McGuinness, Larkin formed the first all-gay boyband in 1996, 4Guys, which Larkin wanted to rival Boyzone. Launched in Wonderbar in April 1996, the line up featured Ken Quinn, Keith Lee, John McGuirke, Mark Power, and Karl Anderson. In 1996, Larkin was the subject of the radio documentary, By George, made by Kevin Reynolds for RTÉ Radio 1.

Drag act As Kylie O'Reilly, Larkin was one of the most famous drag queens in Dublin in the 1990s. He hosted nights at a number of Dublin gay bars, including The George. Larkin chose the name Kylie as he was a fan of Kylie Minogue. After the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Ireland in 1993, Larkin dressed as a pregnant Kylie O'Reilly in a wedding dress for Dublin Pride, and at the steps of Central Bank on Dame Street she threw her bouquet into the crowd.

As Kylie, Larkin wrote, performed and submitted the song Delicious Boyz (Lick Me I’m Delicious) to the Irish National Song Contest for Eurovision.

Later life Larkin retired from the gay scene in the late 1990s. Larkin died in July 2017.