Galway Pride is 28 years old this year and it claims the place of Ireland’s longest consecutively running Pride. In 1989, the local gay community got together to discuss homophobic behaviour in Galway and acknowledged that visibility was important for both the heterosexual and LGBT communities in Galway.
Galway’s very first Pride Parade was held in Eyre Square at midday on a sunny Saturday that year. The parade proceeded down Shop Street and was led by Natalie Zebolt and organised by Nuala Ward and Padraic Breathneach. There were 15 people in total at that first parade – three lesbians, two gay tourists and ten straight friends.
Since then the LGBT community has grown, with more and more people taking part in the very successful Galway Pride festival each year. In 2002 it was rebranded Bród Ireland, and with two gay bars then in the city, Strano, and Zulu, the numbers attending jumped. Since then the celebrations have been renamed Galway Community Pride, and the 2018 festival is expected to be bigger than ever.
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