Arcadia Ireland

“Say Tá to Grá” was a common slogan used during the marriage equality referendum that took place in Ireland in 2015, making Ireland the first country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage on the basis of popular vote. The slogan uses the Irish words, “tá” (Pronunciation: t-aw) which means to be, but can be used to mean yes, especially in regard to the context of a vote, and “grá” (Pronunciation: gr-aw), which is the Irish word for love. Though it has almost been an entire decade since the referendum, it still remains extremely vital “to say tá to grá '' and celebrate Pride and the continuous fight for the rights of the LGBTQ+ community, both in Ireland and across the globe.

This Pride month marks a very important year as it is the fiftieth anniversary of the first ever public LGBTQ+ rights demonstration, both in the city of Dublin and Ireland itself, that took place on June 27th 19974 and drew its inspiration from the Stonewall riots and the pride parades that followed in the USA.
Pride or Bród (Pronunciation: br-oh-duh), as it would be in the Irish language, Gaeilge (or Gay-lge as many Irish-speaking members of the LGBTQ+ community often jokingly refer to language as), has a slightly different format in Ireland compared to the USA and other countries across the world. The Pride parades and celebrations take place in different parts of Ireland, all on different dates, starting from May and running all throughout the summer until September, unlike in the US, where all parades usually occur during June, pride month itself.

The reason behind this difference in Pride festivities in Ireland stems from Irish LGBTQ+ history, where when the first ever Pride demonstrations were taking place across the country, there was not a large amount of people who attended due to the fact that very few people were open about their sexuality as before the year 1993 when homosexuality was decriminalized in Ireland and unfortunately like many countries, the LGBTQ+ community in Ireland was deeply affected by the AIDS crisis in the eighties and nineties.
As a result of this, all the Pride parades in Ireland took place on different dates, so that all members of the LGBTQ+ community could travel and attend each parade taking place in the different cities.
This tradition still continues in Ireland to this day to celebrate the specific history of Pride in Ireland, though the low attendance numbers are no longer an issue with Dublin Pride in particular being one of the largest Pride festivals across Europe.

We, in the Arcadia Dublin Center, are proud (no pun intended!) to celebrate Pride and the LGBTQ+ community, especially with it being such an important year for Pride in Ireland.
Arcadia stands strongly by a message of acceptance and equality in regards to both our students and our staff.
This year for Pride, we hosted a Pride Movie Night at the Dublin Center during the last week of June, which coincided with Pride Week in Dublin.
We had the students submit and vote on their favorite LGBTQ+ films and the film that won the vote and was chosen for our Pride Movie Night was “Love Simon”, a 2018 American teen romantic comedy movie directed by Greg Berlanti, who happens to be gay himself.
The film focuses on the theme of being a young gay person and navigating life in discovering your sexuality and yourself .
The movie was greatly enjoyed by our students who gathered in our center that was freshly decorated with pride flags and trimmings, as well as having several essential movie snacks like pizza, soda and popcorn!
During the movie, there were many laughs, some groans at awkward highschool moments, giggles at the “so 2018” references, a few head bops to the film’s soundtrack and a big joyful cheer at the main character’s happy ending in the conclusion of the film.
It was an extremely fun evening with an important message of celebrating Pride and the LGBTQ+ community.

Happy Pride Everyone/ Bród Sona Daoibh a Chairde!!! (Pronunciation: br-oh-duh sun-nah geh-eve ah chor-dah)