09/06/2021
RTE is the official public broadcaster in the Republic of Ireland. It has charted the many changes in attitudes and legislation towards LGBTQ people in the country, and now looks back at Pride internationally in Ireland and around the world in a lavishly illustrated essay by Jane Fallon Griffin. Ms Griffin writes: the first Pride march in Dublin took place on a Saturday, on 27th June 1974 when ten men and women, mainly members of Belfast's Gay Liberation Society and Dublin's Sexual Liberation Movement, picketed the British Embassy in Dublin. Griffin talks to Tonie Walsh of the Irish Queer Archive and notes “Pride Week has been marked in Dublin every year since 1979", Walsh notes. The marches proper began in 1983, but had fizzled out within three years, victim to massive emigration, burnout, despondency and the devastation of AIDS. The parades were re-instituted in 1992 and have been held without a break ever since”. There is a small microsite within RTE's web presence with a series of essays and articles on LGBTQ Life in Ireland. Fine them, at rte.ie.
