Forty years of celebrating Pride in Ireland

June is Pride Month and 2023 marks the 40th anniversary of the Pride movement in Ireland.

But Cavan and Monaghan Rainbow Youth (CAMRY) is adamant that Pride is not just for one month of the year.

Julie McGuirk from Youth Work Ireland Cavan & Monaghan explained that it is unfortunate that you only get a “buy in” from local community groups and local authorities during Pride month.

“They’ll put up their flag, which is great,” she said, explaining that the young people “love to see it”.

“As soon as pride month is over, we don’t hear about it,” she lamented.

Martin, a volunteer with CAMRY said he feels “annoyed” by this element of Pride month.

“They [local groups] go on and rave about it for the entire month and then it disappears until next June,” he said, saying it has become “disheartening” to see flags “just for the sake of money and nothing else”.

“They don’t care about LGBT community, that’s the way I see it.

“I’d like the organisations to be allies all year round, not just for one month of the year,” he said.

Martin explained that Pride Month is an opportunity for the LGBTQ+ community to “come together” and “be as one”, freely promote their gender identity, sexual orientation, and their identity as individuals. It is also used as an occasion to look back on history and recognise how far they have come.

In this spirit, the festivities of pride month have continued at CAMRY, with a masquerade ball, a booklet created to provide information on the community and their latest creation, the ‘Identity Within’ art piece, which CAMRY participants created with the help of artist Rosie Cole.

The piece, funded by the TUSLA Participation Programme, consists of different characters joined together. Each character of the piece was designed by a CAMRY participant and represents an aspect of pride they felt passionate about. One character is painted yellow and purple, which represent the intersex community, another has clothing designed by one of the members, while another has written memos from its creators.

Martin and fellow volunteer Saffron have been attending the group since 2019, when CAMRY came to Cavan Institute to speak about their work. They both decided to go to the group to see what it was like.

“It turned out to be one of the best decisions I have ever made,” said Martin.

For Saffron, she was never interested in sports in her local area and felt that she couldn’t express or be herself around friends. They knew about her sexuality, but she felt that she could never speak to them about it.

“They knew but they didn’t understand anything I was talking about,” she remembered.

Saffron and Martin now both volunteer with CAMRY, providing services to people like them. For Saffron, she particularly enjoys being a listening ear for young people in the group.

“These kids need somebody to talk to and I never had that when I was a teenager.”

Team leader Sharon Casey explained the group meet for two hours per week when those attending have a meal together, snacks, work on school projects, prepare for exams, cook and discuss educational aspects such as safety wellbeing and mental health. She detailed how members often come half an hour early and leave an hour late.

“Sometimes our young people don’t feel like they belong in other youth groups, they don’t feel safe,” she said.

“For most people it’s their only space where they can be themselves,” explained Martin, who loves being able to “make a difference” in young people’s lives.

He said they can come without “somebody attacking them or judging them”, something that can only happen due to the fact the meeting time and location is kept private.

Martin and Saffron represented Cavan LGBTQ+ young people during their Erasmus experience in Scotland. They have given talks to other young people and parents, as well as providing support to people in the group.

CAMRY are planning a Living Book Conference where young LGBTQ+ people will be able to share their experiences with others. They also plan to organise more trips abroad to allow members to interact with other LGBTQ+ communities.

CAMRY will hold their Regional Summer Pride Party in August and groups will go on all through summer.

“There’s big big plans for the Cavan and Monaghan Rainbow Youth groups,” Julie assured.