A new walking group has been set up aimed at providing a social outlet for Donegal’s gay community.
The project has been established by Julian Cunningham who now lives in Milford after spending 20 years in London.
He put the wheels in motion in June after realising there were few, if any, such social mechanisms already in place.
“I’d been living in London for 20 years before moving to Milford,” said IT project manager Julian.
“One thing I missed most about living in the city was having gay friends although I did meet a few gay people in Donegal by chance.
“We talked about a walking group, I set up the Facebook page and they invited their friends. That was eight months ago.”
To date the group has amassed 40 members, a number which is growing all the time. They have embarked on hikes along some of Donegal’s best known trails as well as social nights out together.
“We started with five or six people and initially the numbers fluctuated. We had three people come along, then eight and nine people. But now the group has 40 members on Facebook and we’ve been on eight walks as well as a night out bowling just before Christmas.”
Pictured centre is walking group founder Julian Cunningham flanked by friends Jeff and Antoin.
While set up with the aim of bringing the entire gay community together, so far it has been almost exclusively men who have signed up, an imbalance Julian would like to see rectified.
“We have two or three female members but we haven’t had a woman come along on a walk yet. We would love that to change and we’d be keen to see it happen sooner rather than later.”
Age has not proven to be any sort of barrier with interest shown by parties of all ages – from their twenties up to the late sixties.
“I’m kind of reassured because I did feel that there were people out there, they just didn’t have anything organised. When I moved to Milford I did a search for gay men in Donegal and absolutely nothing came up in terms of a social scene. There were no gay bars and people had to find each other through dating apps which wasn’t ideal for just making friends.”
So far people have travelled from Derry and from Donegal Town to take part in the walks, possibly a further indication of the lack of facilities and services that exist for gay men and women.
“The group is really about tackling isolation and it’s nice to meet up once a month to walk, talk and relax with absolutely no pressure. It’s not like going to a party, it’s more about building a circle of friends and about creating a support mechanism for people.
“Since setting up the Facebook page I’ve been contacted by people further afield than the north west who are saying that they intend to join us when the visit on their holidays.
“I think people even knowing that there is something like this going on, it will be good for them and we look forward to more getting involved as time goes on.”
The Facebook page is private but you can apply to be accepted by searching for Donegal Gay Walking Group and following the link from there.
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