Northwest Pride

Northwest Pride started with a dream. 2006, in rural Leitrim, I wake up shouting ‘Pride in the Northwest!’ With brass necks, years of activism including Dublin Pride behind us and love for this wild countryside, myself and Izzy Kamikaze kick-started a Pride that ran for ten years and built community for people from Sligo, Leitrim, Cavan, Mayo, and Donegal, and a welcome for all.

That first year, volunteers were people we knew, or had just met. With no queer scene, word of mouth was the way to go. We planned a Parade (of course), pre- and post-events and a beach BBQ for Sunday (yes it rained and the tide came in, but it didn’t matter). Then with the idea of student accommodation to give people somewhere cheap and safe to stay with their community, the Pride Village was born.

A start-up loan of €300 meant we’d cover costs. We had banner-making parties in Leitrim and Easkey (they’re still flying in parades today). To parade your queer self down your home streets, where there’s been no visible LGBT+ presence before, is a huge step to take. It was up to those of us that could to make it happen, for all those who were afraid to be seen.

There were 100 people on that first parade – queer and straight, adults, young people, families with babies. Killian and Imelda brought giant carnival figures. We paraded from the Model to City Hall, where together we sang ‘Over the Rainbow’. There are tears of joy in my eyes, remembering it now.

What makes this so special, not just to me but to the hundreds who travelled miles to be there every year? An elderly man after the first parade, in tears, said: “I was never able to be myself here before.” And that’s what all regional Prides are about; letting people celebrate themselves in their own places, not to having to travel to a city ‘to be gay’.

Over the years, more delicious regional Prides appeared: Dundalk, Kerry, Mayo and in 2011, Sligo. Galway of course, for so many years before us was flying the flag of smaller communities with full-on community spirit.

Regional Prides promote a special kind of queer visibility – at home. They push the boundaries of small-town prejudice and the notion that all LGBT+ people flee to the cities. They let local people demonstrate their inclusivity and love. Regional Prides celebrate and make room for the isolated, the rural, the outsiders; all LGBT+ people of Ireland whose life and love was born in the wondrous wilds outside the Pale.