Declan Buckley

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Declan Buckley is an Irish television personality and the man behind Dublin drag queen character, Shirley Temple Bar.

Born in the USA to profoundly deaf parents, a young Declan returned with his family to Dublin, Ireland where he attended school. After obtaining an honours degree in International Marketing from Dublin City University in 1992, Declan took a post with ITV in London where he worked in television airtime management handling campaigns for many major consumer brands.

Returning to Dublin in late 1996, Declan was persuaded to enter the 1997 Alternative Miss Ireland pageant. As his creation, Dublin schoolgirl Shirley Temple Bar, he won the hearts of the audience and the crown.

Since 1997, Declan has hosted a weekly bingo and drag show in Dublin's largest gay bar, The George and, in 2001, he caused a stir when Shirley Temple Bar took over the National Lottery gameshow, "Telly Bingo" on Irish television. The format of the twice weekly programme did not quite suit the drag character and in 2004 Declan started to present the show as himself.

Declan achieved a First Class Master of Arts degree in Digital Media Technologies in 2005 and now writes a weekly column in national newspaper, The Star on Sunday.