Taoiseach defends decision to march in New York parade

Taoiseach Enda Kenny missed a demonstration by a gay rights group along the St Patrick's Day route in New York City protesting against the ban on marchers publicly expressing gay pride in the event.

Mr Kenny participated in the parade despite major drinks companies Heineken and Guinness pulling their sponsorship of the event and the city's mayor Bill de Blasio boycotting the parade, the first mayor of the city to miss the event in 20 years, because of the exclusion of openly gay marchers.

The Taoiseach left the Fifth Avenue parade route two blocks from where 50 demonstrators had gathered. They unfurled a long banner in the rainbow colours of gay pride with the slogan "Boycott Homophobia" and signs saying "Let All Irish March" and "You Don't Honour Ireland With Prejudice."

Mr Kenny marched with the New York Gaelic Athletic Association members and left the parade to meet Cardinal Timothy Dolan for a meeting before later returning to parade's reviewing stand.

Speaking beforehand, the Taoiseach, who met Mr De Blasio earlier in the morning at a St Patrick’s Day breakfast at his Manhattan residence, defended his decision to participate in the parade.

Mr Kenny said that 180,000 people marched and that his participation was an opportunity to express solidarity with Irish America.

“Many of those people in the parade today are also members of the gay community and they are marching proudly in the St Patrick’s Day parade,” he said.

He noted that the Government had sent a representative to the alternative gay St Patrick’s Day parade in Queens, New York and was offering people the opportunity to vote for gay marriage next year.

Asked about the exclusion of publicly gay marchers, Mr Kenny said there were “legal issues” around the decision to ban public expressions of gay pride. “I don’t want to get into the detail of this,” he said.

Emmaia Gelman, one of the protestors from the New York gay rights group Irish Queers, said that it was legal for the parade to exclude because it is a private procession.

“That doesn’t make it right and it certainly doesn’t make it right for public officials to participate in the parade. It is a private exclusionary message but public officials represent all of the people,” she said.

Mr Kenny will meet Mr De Blasio for a private meeting at New York City Hall later today.