Dublin LGBTQ+ Pride – Theme Announcement: TAKING LIBERTIES
2025 marks another milestone anniversary year. Ten years since we won marriage equality by popular vote. Ten years since the Gender Recognition Act. Ten years since the Children and Family Relationships Act.
These fundamental freedoms that some take for granted were hard won for our community. Liberties, not granted, but taken. As the civil rights activist Philip Randolph said “Freedom is never granted; it is won. Justice is never given; it is exacted.”
We look back at the liberties we have taken, not just to celebrate them, but to remind ourselves how hard we fought to take them, and how hard we must be willing to fight to stop anyone taking those liberties away.
At a time when the liberties of our trans and non-binary family are being threatened and taken away, when Pride marches are being banned, and words like diversity, equity and inclusion are being demonised, we remind ourselves that at the root of Pride is liberty. Long before we were called Pride, we were called Liberation Day. The first Dublin Pride march in 1974 was organised by the Sexual Liberation Movement. We even start our march on the street named after ‘The Liberator’, Daniel O’Connell, whose 250th birthday falls this summer.
Taking liberties is what we do and will continue to do. We invite you to join us this June as we march in solidarity with our entire global LGBTQ+ family and send a clear message to the world: The liberties we have taken will not be taken back.
This year’s festival will run from June 20th to 28th, with our march and parade on Saturday, June 28th.
PREVIOUS THEMES
2024
Celebrating 50 years of Dublin Pride, our Golden Jubilee, this year’s theme was SHINE. Shine means to give forth light, but it also means to cast light into dark places, or to restore the brilliance of things that have gotten dull. Pride celebrates the light we all hold, but it is brightest when it is shared. We invite you to shine, both in your own pride, and to be a light for those who may be in the dark right now.
The Grand Marshall of the 2024 Parade was BeLongTo, the national LGBTQ+ Youth organisation.
2023
The theme of this year’s Dublin Pride was Protest.Remember.Celebrate. 2023 marked a series of anniversaries of important events in the history of Pride and LGBTQ+ rights in Dublin. The 50th anniversary of the establishment of the first LGBTQ+ group in Dublin, the Sexual Liberation Movement, in Trinity College. The 40th anniversary of that famous march to Fairview Park and the first Dublin Pride Parade and the 30th anniversary of the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Ireland.
The Grand Marshalls of the 2023 parade included the founders of the Sexual Liberation Movement, the organisers of the march to Fairview and the first Dublin Pride Parade, and the activists who fought for decriminalisation.
2022
A lot had happened since our last big Dublin Pride March & Parade in 2019, and not all of it was good. Especially this year, with wars & conflicts happening across the globe and hate crimes & hate speech against our community at a high – all of it against the backdrop of the climate crisis – what we need is courage. We need people to come together and stand up against oppression and hate. We’ve done it before, and we’ll do it again. So that’s our theme this year.
Courage.
Uchtach.
The Grand Marshall of the 2022 parade was veteran activist Rebecca Tallon-De Havilland.
2021
With the ongoing lockdown creating a wide sense of isolation, the theme of the 2021 festival was Community, highlighting the support we find in our chosen familes with the graphics taking the form of friendship bracelets in the colours of the Progress Pride flag.
Still under lockdown restrictions, there was a ceremonial parade but no large gatherings. The Grand Marshall of the 2021 parade was the whole community.
2020
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the festival was initially postponed until September 2020, but was later cancelled. Instead, the festival ran digitally online from 18 June 2020 to 28 June 2020. A virtual online parade took place and was led by the Lord Mayor of Dublin Tom Brabazon and frontline workers from across the city. The theme was “In This Together” to act responsibly in the best interests of all communities, to react to changing circumstances and to support the frontline workers.
Frontline services, represented by Vanessa O’Connell, an ISL interpreter seen at government press briefings, were Grand Marshalls of the festival.
2019
The theme was “Rainbow Revolution” to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising in New York City that in some ways marked the start of the international Pride movement.
Veteran activist Will St Leger was Grand Marshall of the festival.
2018
The theme was “We Are Family.”
Veteran activist Sara Philips from Transgender Equality Network of Ireland (TENI) was Grand Marshall.
2017
The theme was “Find Your Inner Hero.”
Moninne Griffith of BeLonG To was Grand Marshall.
2016
Celebrating the centenary of the Easter Rising, and honouring queer icon David Bowie who passed this year, the theme of the 2016 festival was “Rebel Rebel.”
Max Krzyzanowski of LGBT Noise was Grand Marshall.
2015
With the Marriage Equality Referendum freshly won, the theme for this year was “The Future Is Equal.” Just a few weeks after the festival, the Gender Recognition Act passed.
The Grand Marshalls of this year’s parade were the principle organisers of Yes Equality: Gráinne Healy, Brian Sheehan and Mark Kelly