Wexford held its first ever Pride event June 29. Over 100 people assembled in Redmond Park to celebrate. It was met with great enthusiasm from the county’s rainbow-clad LGBT+ community. The family event encouraged Pride-goers to dress up and be themselves at a family orientated Pride picnic.

The event commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, one of the most important events leading to the gay liberation movement and the beginning of the fight for LGBT+ rights in the USA and subsequently worldwide.

Founder of Wexford Pride Robert Crookes spoke about the event’s importance to the Wexford People: “Pride day normalises and humanises the community to those ignorant of difference in gender and sexuality within their own community.”

Resident Niamh Riabhaigh also spoke to the local news outlet: “I would love young people in Wexford to feel that pride and that freedom to be who they need to be […] But that will only happen if we now stand up and be counted and be a visible presence and positive role models.”

Wexford joins the increasing number of Pride events throughout Ireland. Fermanagh will have its first ever Pride this year.

The Pride in the Park event was organised by Wexford LGBTQIA+ Collective, an all-inclusive group which is dedicated to providing safe spaces and social events for the LGBT+ community in the county. The group says that they “strive to educate, engage and encourage healthy social interaction”. They hope to start and monthly meetup in the near future.

Ruby O’Connor, co-chair of the Wexford collective invites all those who are interested in joining in or helping out in the future should get in touch.

Membership of the group is free and you can join through their Facebook group.

Any inquiries can be sent to the group at [email protected].