While every Dublin Pride is cause for celebration and 2018’s was no different, there were a lot of legitimate complaints about the parade route once again being shunted to the back streets of the city, leaving the main thoroughfares clear. It was disheartening to watch the colourful march of our community’s biggest day of the year, which brought 60,000 people’s worth of business to Dublin, having to come to a stop every so often just so a Luas could pass.
Compare this to what happened when Pope Francis popped over for his contentious visit and basically shut the capital down. Those viewing on television clearly saw the Popemobile zip down an uncrowded O’Connell Street and around a Dame Street which has looked busier on certain Saturday nights, with obvious sizeable gaps between the onlookers.
Here we clearly had favouritism being shown to the head of an institution which has unarguably damaged the lives of generations of our nation, paying a visit which not only cost the taxpayer millions but meant a massive loss of earnings to retailers throughout the city. The double standards are infuriating.
Dublin City Council insists it would be too expensive for Dublin Pride to use the city’s main thoroughfares. But we were never a community to sit in silence and be told what we could and couldn’t have.