Showing Up With Pride – A Look Back, and Forward, from the Déise
The Pride of the Déise festival is currently ongoing in Waterford with a wide range of events and activities taking place
Pride of the Déise isn’t just a festival. It’s a shared moment in time where Waterford’s LGBTQ+ community and our allies come together, publicly and proudly, to say: we’re here, we matter, and we won’t be pushed to the margins.
But while we’re flying the rainbow flag and enjoying the celebration, it’s worth remembering that Pride in Ireland was built on protest, grief, and solidarity.
Let’s take a minute to look at how we got here - and how Waterford fits into the bigger picture.
Pride Began with Protest Back in 1979, Ireland saw our first Gay Pride Week, running from the 25th of June to the 1st of July.
It was organised by the National Gay and Lesbian Federation (NGLF), a group formed just a year earlier. A group of Queers put together a 10-day programme of events based in Dublin, with a Women’s Night, a political forum that featured sitting TDs, and an open night at the Hirschfeld Centre - a safe haven and community space for queer people.
This first Pride Week was inspired by the tenth anniversary of the Stonewall Riots in New York, but it was deeply rooted in Irish issues too.
Homosexuality was still criminalised here, and there were very few legal protections for our communities.
Simply leafleting on the street, which happened during that first Pride Week, was a radical act of visibility.
Then in 1982, Declan Flynn - a 31-year-old gay man - was brutally murdered in Fairview Park, Dublin. His attackers, a group of teenage boys, received suspended sentences.
The judge said they were “clean-living lads” who had tried to rid the park of people like Declan.
The outrage was immediate and widespread.
In response, in March 1983, Ireland’s LGBTQ+ community and our supporters held a protest march from Liberty Hall to Fairview Park. It wasn’t a celebration.
It was grief and anger and outrage poured out onto the streets.
But it was also a turning point. Later that same year, on the 25th of June 1983, Ireland’s first official Pride march took place.
It started at St Stephen’s Green and ended at the GPO on O’Connell Street, where speeches were made.
From then on, Irish Pride was an annual event - growing, shifting, and spreading around the country.
In those early years, Pride events happened at different times in different parts of Ireland.
That wasn’t just about local scheduling - it was a deliberate strategy. Activists and community organisers were often the same people showing up at every event. Staggering the dates allowed them to travel, support each other, and keep the momentum going in a time when visibility could be dangerous.
As SpunOut.ie notes:
“Pride events took place in different locations on different dates.
This allowed people from the community and the activists involved to travel around the country to attend and support each event.”
This spirit of showing up for one another is still at the heart of what makes Pride matter. It’s not just about your local community - it’s about being part of something bigger. And it’s something we still hold as an honour and a duty today.
We show up for each other.
Here in Waterford, Pride of the Déise is more than just a reflection of these national movements, important as they are.
We are grounded in local culture, history, and the kind of community care that’s often found in quieter gestures - like knowing someone is safe to be themselves at work or in their home, or seeing a young person come out and be embraced instead of getting judged or ostracised.
Waterford’s Queer community has been quietly present for generations, even if we haven’t always been loud or public. But that’s changing.
Pride of the Déise brings our presence out into the open, with joy and music and rainbow flags, yes - but also with workshops, conversations, community and support.
This isn’t a borrowed celebration. It belongs to the people of the Déise.
It’s shaped by our landscape, our humour, our families, and our hopes for a better future.
Pride is often framed as a celebration, and it is - but it’s also a reminder.
We celebrate the progress that’s been made, but we don’t forget how recent some of those changes are.
Homosexuality was only decriminalised in Ireland in 1993. Marriage for same-sex couples came in 2015.
Trans rights and healthcare access remain major issues today. Many LGBTQ+ people in rural areas or religious households still face silence or stigma. And with the rise of far-right ideology here on our very doorsteps, it’s up to all of us - community and allies - to make sure people are safe, supported, and can live freely as themselves.
Pride is a time to honour what’s been won, and recommit to what still needs doing.
Whether you’re walking in the march, working at the events, watching from the footpath, running a stall, or just quietly supporting someone you love - Pride of the Déise is stronger because you’re in it.
We carry forward the courage of the people who marched before us. We remember Declan Flynn, and the protest that followed. We honour the activists who travelled the country, showing up where they were needed. And we keep that spirit alive here in Waterford - together, in pride.
