Last Sunday afternoon saw our community, our families, our friends and our supporters take to the streets of Dublin to march for civil marriage to be legalised for LGBTQ people.  I’d heard everyone for weeks saying that they’d be there but I wondered on the day how many would stay true to their word.

Sunday morning was bright and sunny as I walked with four friends and my mates mother from their apartment in town to Panti Bar.  When we arrived the bar was packed and there were crowds of people outside drinking tea and coffee and getting ready to head over to Dame Street, the atmosphere was wonderful and everyone was ready to make themselves heard.

As we made the short walk over to City Hall we could see that people were out in force with colourful banners and t-shirts and it was hard to keep the grin off your face.  It warmed my heart to see so many parents and colleagues out ready to support us and march to the Department of Justice, Stephen’s Green.

The rain appeared briefly as we waited to start but thankfully went away as quickly as it arrived and by the time we started to march the sun was beaming again.  As we marched someone would shout “what do we want” and we chorused “equal rights”, which was followed by “when do we want it”, “now”.  We managed to keep this up the whole way around.  Passers by waved us on and buses and cars beeped their horns in support.  At one point my friends and I were walking beside Gloria who were singing “Something Inside So Strong”, needless to say we joined in with gusto and what we lacked in ability we made up for with passion.  It was wonderful.

The members of LGBT Noise who organised the march should be very proud of themselves and I thank them for all the hard work that went into it.  When we arrived at the rally point they announced that 5000 people had taken part, a fantastic show.  The speakers were excellent, they included Patricia Prendevilleas well as Helen Doody whose reading of her letter to Mr Ahern left us all rooting for a tissue.

All in all it was a wonderful day, well organised and very well attended, just shows what we can do when we put our heads together.

You can see our slideshow of pictures from the day here

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