This weekend Inishowen celebrated their second-ever Pride festival in Buncrana.

On Friday, Disappear Here Film Club held a movie night screening five shorts reflecting LGBTQ+ stories so I popped along to check them out. I believe they are available on YouTube, and I’d recommend checking out one called Different by John Farrelly (Director). It’s beautifully shot, set in rural Ireland. Patrick — a promising young Gaelic footballer falls in love with another young man from his local village.

And also check out Bent out of Shape (Oral Walsh Director) which is set in a video shop. Filmed in 1995, this brought me back in time. I enjoyed scanning all the VHS cassettes in the background and it was a joy to watch the main character being shown in a positive light.

After the shorts, Karl Hayden and Oral Walsh took some questions from the floor. It was interesting to hear the people speak and discuss some issues that played out in the movies and other issues which are currently happening online.

There was also an exhibition called Where Love is Illegal, that featured beautiful photos and tough stories of people throughout the world — https://whereloveisillegal.com

Then onto the main event today with Pride. It was great to see the Main Street of Buncrana filled with such colour and everyone smiling. The sun was out this bank holiday weekend and the town was in full party mode. There’s been a lot of change in Ireland over the past few decades and being able to celebrate pride in a small town in Donegal is one I didn’t see coming, but I’m glad it’s here. The support that came out today was something else and I can’t wait to see it build year on year.

Here are some images from today.