“I’m here because I’m gay and I love Pride and I have pride,” said Sean Conroy (23) from Wicklow, one of the thousands of people who turned out for the Dublin Pride Parade on Saturday.
The annual march, which also marked the 10th anniversary of the marriage equality referendum being carried, made its way from O’Connell Street to Merrion Square, a process that took some three hours.
“I love them,” Conroy said of the parades. “It is just so beautiful to see so many people out, lots of colours, dressing up and being happy. I think the happiness really shines through, and I think that’s really important.”
Conroy was joined by his mother, Colette.
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“I’ve been here with Sean before,” she said. “I love it. It’s a very positive, happy day. A good day to be in Dublin.”
There were Pride flags, Palestinian flags, Ukrainian flags, Brazilian flags and banners for gay rights groups, political parties, community groups, charities, public sector bodies, trade unions and the Garda Representative Association.
There were GAA teams, soccer teams, a pink hockey group, the Out and About gay hiking group, trans groups, Scouts, samba dancers, and the Dublin Gay Men’s Chorus (singing One Day Like This, by Elbow, as they arrived at Merrion Square).
The corporate sector was represented by, among others, AIB, Ryanair, EirGrid, Aer Lingus, PSTB, EY, Grant Thornton, Accenture, Bank of America, Volkswagen and Sky, while Garda, National Ambulance Service, fire brigade and Dublin City Council vehicles sported special Pride liveries.
“It’s a lot of fun,” said Jemma Kennedy (21) from Ballyfermot, Dublin, who was there with her mother, Sharon.
“It’s great to celebrate with other people and see how far we’ve come,” she said. “It’s upbeat, but you still have to remember that the origins aren’t that. The first Prides were violent, and it was about getting our rights. This is to celebrate how far we’ve come.”
“I think it’s great,” said Sharon. “It’s lovely to see it, the support, because there is a lot of hatred out there.”
Sean Feerick, from Westport, Co Mayo, who was there with his husband, Paul O’Connell, said he had been coming to Pride events in Dublin since the 1980s.
He noted the presence, at the front of the parade, of the long time gay rights campaigner David Norris and Taoiseach Micheál Martin.
Feerick said Norris “must have a lot to think about watching Pride now, which is so much a part of the fabric of the city”.
He said it made him proud to see the Taoiseach Micheál Martin walking at the front of the parade given the situation in Budapest, where the Pride march went ahead on Saturday in spite of measures introduced by prime minister Viktor Orban’s right-wing government seeking to halt it.
“We are so lucky, in this country, even though so many people still suffer from homophobia in various places, but there is a great commitment to try and make the country an inclusive country,” Feerick said.
Just a few decades ago, he said, homosexuality was a secretive thing and people were afraid to be outed “and now you see these kids in their 20s and they haven’t ever known any of that”.
In Merrion Square, he added, a type of garden party was taking place.
“It is a family day. People are there with their kids. It is making all of this normal. I mean, who you love is a personal matter, and love, basically, is better than hate, and I think, certainly, we are in a much different place that we were 20 years ago or 25 years ago.”
Jaster Dekay, from Florida, wearing a black leather outfit that included black headgear and straps across his face, was in Dublin to walk with the Leathermen of Ireland.
Globally, he said, Pride parades are essentially the same though certain places had more energy than others because those places were more liberal.
It was important, he said, that locations that had greater liberty held Pride parades to support those places that don’t.
“It’s a global effort.”
