by Louise Doyle

A LOCAL councillor and human rights campaigner has said hundreds of negative online comments sparked from a photograph showing a garda car festooned in Pride colours further underpins the importance of the event to challenge discrimination.

Large crowds of people supported Letterkenny Pride at the weekend. The three-day event is Donegal’s largest LGBTQ+ Pride festival, celebrating inclusion, diversity and visibility in the community.

This newspaper carried a story online at the weekend, ‘Colourful display in support of Letterkenny Pride event’, reporting how, in a vibrant show of solidarity and celebration, the Polestar Roundabout was illuminated in pink and blue, while the Progress Pride Flag was raised Letterkenny Public Service Centre.

The online story also featured a main photograph of a garda car decorated in Pride colours which drew almost 600 comments online, the majority of which were of a negative nature.

We contacted Letterkenny-Milford Councillor Declan Meehan for his reaction to the online story.

Cllr Meehan, who topped the poll in Milford in the local government elections in 2024, after a campaign run on inclusivity, making history as the first openly gay councillor in Donegal, said he “wasn’t surprised by the negative comments” garnered by the post.

“A lot of the promotional pieces that were done for Pride, even around the raising of the flag at the public services centre and the turning of the Polestar’s colours into blue and pink attracted a similar amount of negative attention. So, as important as those manifestations of public and civic support for the LGBTQ+ community are, they also underline the importance of Pride events, particularly in regional and rural areas. If that is the public discourse that is taking place then that only underscores the importance that these events take place to challenge those attitudes, and to provide a more inclusive and positive commentary.”

Cllr Meehan, who spoke at the Pride Festival on Saturday, said the nature of some of the comments could have a damaging impact on some of those reading them. People, Cllr Meehan said, campaigners are helping give a voice to.

“The theme of my speech was about how many people turned out to support the event. Pride is about positivity, inclusion, equality, and that is the image we want to project in Letterkenny for everyone.

“It is hurtful because they have no idea who’s reading those comments, how isolated they are. A big part of why we put on Pride events is because we are marching for people who can’t, for people who don’t feel safe enough or confident enough to do that.”

Cllr Meehan said he believes those behind the hurtful comments are a minority.

“They are a very vocal minority. They are an emboldened minority and an ignorant minority. At the end of the day, they do not represent the majority viewpoint.

“An awful lot of these people spend too much time online. I wonder do these people have pastimes or jobs because they spend so much time online commenting negatively on anything to do with diversity. They see it as their mission to be online as much as they can to undermine initiatives for diversity, equality and inclusion. We have to remember that, and get that message out because I think mainstream media can give an awful lot of airtime to this kind of minority viewpoint. We have seen that in elections, votes and referendums. This is a minority viewpoint.”

Asked was enough being done locally to challenge such attitudes, Cllr Meehan praised groups who tirelessly promote inclusion.

“There are fantastic groups out there, whether it’s the Letterkenny Pride Committee, United Against Racism Committee, the IPSC Donegal. There are so many active groups providing people with opportunities to stand up in solidarity against this narrow-minded mindset.

“As this kind of insidious narrative grows amongst these people it’s really important that there is a counter narrative to challenge that.

“With social media, you could have a lot of views on a post that is a picture and headline, but when you click in to see who’s reading the article it’s a minority percentage of that.

“In an age of shrinking attention spans, there is no room for nuance and discussion,” said Cllr Meehan.