As the sky over Dublin brightened on Saturday morning, a small group of socially-distanced people paraded down O’Connell Street wearing their Pride on their sleeves.
While rainbow flags were flying across a city and post boxes and pedestrian crossings had been painted in the Pride colours, they knew the main event would have to be low key.
But for the organisers, a parade, no matter how small, was an important symbol of continuity and community. And even though they were well aware it would not be a patch on the exuberantly colourful and joy-filled occasions of Prides past, they were able to take comfort, knowing it would only form a small part of a big day.
We had the rainbow flags going down O'Connell Street, we were bringing the love
Thanks to Covid-19 most of the Pride celebrations in Dublin have had to take place virtually rather than in-person for the second year in a row and, as in 2020, the Round Room in the Mansion House was at the epicentre of the virtual celebrations.
A Pride event was streamed live from the Lord Mayor's official residence with the day kicking off with Pride brunch followed by a virtual parade hosted by Paul Ryder and Phil T Gorgeous.
Eddie McGuinness was central to the event in the Mansion House and looked resplendent in his rainbow-coloured morning coat which shimmered under the television lights.
“I think this should be on national television I really do,” he told The Irish Times. “We are streaming this worldwide and what we are doing is telling everybody what Dublin Pride is about. We are the rainbow equivalent of St Patrick’s Day.”
McGuinness was one of those at the early morning parade. “We had the rainbow flags going down O’Connell Street, we were bringing the love,” he said.
There had been a handful of other people on the street. “I don’t know if they were coming in to town or going home but they all seemed happy enough,” he said. “And it was all very good-natured.”
He said there would always be a small number of people who would try to “target the rainbow” with homophobic attacks and slurs but he insisted that it would “always outshine them all”.
McGuinness was particularly pleased that Dublin City Council had painted pedestrian walkways in the rainbow colours and said Dublin had "the most of any city in the world."
He added that he had been celebrating Pride since 1993. “That was literally days after they had decriminalised homosexuality. Things have changed so much since those days.”
Different
The festival director of Dublin LGBTQ Pride, Jed Dowling, accepted that elements of this year celebration would be different because of Covid, but he stressed that there would be other elements that were the same.
He noted that the emphasis was on small events and gatherings that people would be able to engage with.
He acknowledged that more authorities and businesses were showing their support for Pride events. “There was a time when it couldn’t be celebrated across the city and companies couldn’t acknowledge it because it was a crime, workplace discrimination was sanctioned... so yes it is important to see offices and companies flying the flag.”
He said that there would be more to Pride this year than events in June and he expressed the hope that there would be physical events taking place in the late summer and autumn as well as a winter Pride that “will bring people together again because everyone has had to be apart for so long.”
