Week-long celebration as Navan's first Pride Festival set to welcome all

Colourful array of events leading to inaugural parade

The inaugural Navan Pride Festival takes place this summer to celebrate the LGBTQ+ people of the county town and surrounds.

After a small Pride gathering last summer, councillor and Mayor Eddie Fennessy, Samba Band and parade manager, Deirdre Gorman and local journalist, Patrick Lawlor, hatched a plan to organise a bigger Pride with a parade for this year.

Navan Pride's committee was formed in January, with Paddy Lawlor and Clare Nugent elected the co-chairs. Since then the Pride has flourished into a six-day festival with a colourful array of events planned.

It is essentially a week-long event, starting on Monday 26th June, culminating with a parade on Saturday 1st July, setting out at 2pm from the Solstice Arts Centre.

Several businesses in the town are involved in hosting the events, including Henry Loughran's pub, The Central, The Royal Meath and the Solstice, and the council has promised to raise rainbow flags at key locations in the town.

The Solstice is hosting several LGBTQ+ film nights during the week of the festival, from Monday to Friday. And there will be a special Pride Speed Quizzing night in Henry Loughran's pub on Monday 26th June.

There will be a queer open mic night in The Royal Meath, hosted by Sam's Collective on Wednesday 28th June, and The Central is hosting a Navan Pride Drag Bingo Night on Friday 30th June, with Queen CoCo Ri and a DJ set afterwards.

Henry Loughran's will also host a band night to close the festival on Saturday 1st July, beginning around 7pm and headlined by Kollective.

The Breaking Down Barriers talk on LGBTQ+ issues, with a range of guest speakers, is also planned for Thursday 29th June at 6pm.

The Navan Pride 2023 committee would like to get as many Navan residents and businesses to get involved in celebrating the LGBTQ+ members of our town in a fun, vibrant way. People from other towns and villages in the county are also encouraged to get involved. Anyone who is interested in being involved or just supporting the cause can email hello@navanpride.ie.

As part of the celebration, the Pride committee also wants to speak to LGBTQ+ people about their experiences and journeys to coming out. Given that many people left the town because of their sexuality or gender identity, the committee would also like to hear from such individuals or their relatives. These stories need to be told.

Patrick Lawlor, the committee's co-chair, said: "For many people in this town, celebrating diversity and in particular our LGBTQ+ brothers, sisters, friends and neighbours in such a vibrant public way will be a cathartic experience. It's not that long ago that it was illegal to be gay in this country. Many people would have left the town and some left the country in order to feel freer.

"We're eight years on from the Marriage Equality referendum being passed but there are a lot of people who still keep their sexuality hidden and while that is their choice, it would be nice if this town opened its arms to LGBTQ+ people to make them feel that bit more comfortable in their true selves.

"The event itself will be great fun and will bring a dash of colour to the town. This is also a great opportunity for businesses in the town to show they respect and love their LGBTQ+ customers. The event itself will likely attract a lot of tourism to the town. So this is a win-win for everyone who wants to be involved.

"It was a momentous occasion for us when councilors Eddie Fennessy, who set the ball rolling last summer with the mini Pride gathering, and Cllr Pádraig Fitzsimons arranged for us to walk on in the Navan St Patrick's Day parade. That was like a test run for the actual Pride parade and we got a great response."

Since then, several businesses have got on board to support Navan Pride with sponsorship, from Bus Éireann to local SMEs such as Skin and Bodyworks, the Valley Cafe, Jackal, Lydon Farrell Property, the list goes on... Specsavers were "particularly generous" in offering to host the Navan Pride launch night," said Mr Lawlor.

"Furthermore, for the Pride fundraisers in early June the amount of local businesses who offered vouchers and gifts for prizes was both surprising and heartening. The amount of donations that flooded into the Pride iDonate was also phenomenal. In addition several artists, including young Carly Keating who designed our logo, and Gail Gildea, who did a fabulous Seven Arches of Navan artwork, contributed with their amazing talents.

"But Henry Loughran's, The Central and The Solstice have been the three standout businesses in supporting us by putting on events and allowing us to use their premises for committee meetings."

Navan Pride also made the decision to collaborate with SOSAD Ireland for the inaugural event.

Mr Lawlor said: "SOSAD provide an invaluable service in this town to people suffering mental health problems, and many of those people are struggling with their sexualities and gender identities. SOSAD is very capable of helping these people, and we're blessed to have their service to direct anyone who may need their help.

"We decided to collaborate with SOSAD and to donate 20 per cent of any funds raised to SOSAD and look forward to sharing out that portion of funds raised with SOSAD after the festival is over."

Mr Lawlor added that the work rate of the Navan Pride committee has been "second to none".

"I feel so privileged to have such a great bunch of people on our team, working day in and day out to get this festival off the ground. I am very proud of them all."

Fellow co-chair, Clare Nugent also spoke about her Navan Pride journey, saying: "When I was approached by Paddy, without hesitation I immediately accepted his invitation to join the Navan Pride Committee. Witnessing the celebrations of the LGBTQ+ community in Dublin and other towns across the country each year, I often wondered why Navan lacked its own Pride event. Luckily, he shared the same sentiment and took the initiative to make it happen. I was thrilled to join him and the team in organising Navan's inaugural Pride Week.

"After our initial meeting back in January, it became apparent that a substantial amount of work lay ahead of us. It was clear that we needed everyone's support and involvement for the next few months.

"Paddy proposed that I become co-chair, and we wasted no time in getting started. Week by week, our team grew as more individuals joined us. We took to the streets, reaching out to local businesses, artists, and musicians, and slowly but surely, everything began to fall into place. The response we received was phenomenal. Now, we have an exciting week ahead that the entire town can celebrate proudly."