Galway gays split over Dyke Road pride party

Bradley Bytes – A sort of polical column by Dara Bradley

We’ll say one thing about the gay community, they’re always good for a row.  And the Galway gays have kept up the tradition of rancour associated with the city’s Pride festival, which concluded on Sunday.

The new committee of the festival, which boasted the Galway City Tribune as its media partner in 2016, apparently issued legal letters over Galway Pride branding.

Some of those who were issued threats responded in kind, with letters of their own.

As well as the usual personality clashes within the relatively small LGBT community, among other things, there was disagreement about the choice of venue for the main day of Pride, Saturday.

In other years the party, after the parade, usually centred down the West.

But this year’s committee, headed by Bruce Henry, branched out and moved the flagship event to the Black Box on the Dyke Road. It was hailed a huge success.

But change always heralds criticism, and this move didn’t go down well with everybody, particularly businesses back the West, who do rather well from pulling pints for the ‘pink pound’ during festivities.

And so a whole other festival – a fringe festival, if you like – took place simultaneously over the weekend in bars across the city, to rival the official event.

So Galway has gone from having no gays in the village just over two and a half decades ago, to now having so many it can put on two competing festivals for the same community at the same time.

Meanwhile, wannabe city councillor Tommy Roddy, who campaigned for marriage equality last year, threatened to boycott all official Pride events.

A member of the 2015 Pride committee, Tommy was not best pleased that his successors this year appeared to be pro-choice.

Pro-life Tommy was even less pleased that the pro-choice committee had organised an event which reflected their position on repealing the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution.

He did what he does best – wrote letters to newspaper editors to complain – and even ‘talked to Joe’ about it on RTÉ Radio One’s Liveline, the national stirrer-upper.

Although the animosity continued on Twitter over the weekend, the free advertising on the national airways generated by his public intervention did ensure a full-house at the discussion of reproductive rights in Ireland in Seven.

It’s not the first time pride has got in the way of celebrating Pride. But why can’t they all just get along?

 When Leo met Pádraig

Meanwhile, one of Fine Gael’s most well-known gays, Leo Varadkar, was the star attraction at Glasnevin Cemetery at the weekend, where he gave the graveside oration at the Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins Commemoration.

The highlight of the day for lucky Leo was when he met former Mayor of Galway City, Cllr Pádraig Conneely, who generously posed for a selfie with the Minister, and Blueshirt leader in waiting.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.