DERRY JOURNAL Editorial: Foyle Pride continues unfinished business of civil rights at 30

​The demonstration will follow the original intended route of the Derry Housing Action Committee’s civil rights march of 1968 that was infamously beaten off the streets by the RUC at Duke Street.

Fifty-five years ago police batons may have temporarily hindered one civil rights parade from crossing the River Foyle and making its way to the city centre but they also brought Derry’s grass roots campaign for equality to the attention of the world.

Today, Pride continues that tradition, tracing its lineage to October 5, 1968, Derry, as much as to the Stonewall Inn, where less than a year later, on June 28, 1969, the LGBTQ+ community in New York City resisted police repression in Greenwich Village.

As the organisers remind us ‘the first Pride was A riot’. In Derry we are also reminded this week that the realisation of civil rights for all remains unfinished business.

The culmination of the 30th Foyle Pride comes hot on the heels of the 31st Gasyard Féile, another incredible manifestation of grass roots community activism and creativity with which it shares many common objectives.

It is incredible to think how Foyle Pride has grown from its relatively small beginnings in 1993 to the major celebration it has become today.

Check out the programme and get along to Waterside Railway Station on Saturday for what is likely to be the biggest ever Foyle Pride Parade. It leaves at 2pm.

Mayor lights up Council buildings in rainbow colours for Foyle Pride 30th anniversary