Gay rights group invited to join St Patrick’s Day parade in Boston

Boston’s St Patrick’s Day parade organisers have invited a gay rights group to march on condition they don’t display signs or T-shirts with the word “gay” or other references to their sexual orientation.

The invite was extended to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual (LGBT) group MassEquality, allowing them to march under their organisation's banner in a compromise deal brokered on Saturday by Boston mayor Marty Walsh.

Mr Walsh, the son of Co Galway immigrants, has described the invite as "probably the biggest step in 20 years" for the South Boston parade, which is scheduled for March 16th, when Taoiseach Enda Kenny will be visiting the city.

The mayor had threatened to boycott the march, the second- largest St Patrick's Day parade in the United States, if gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender groups were not allowed to march.

His spokeswoman said in a statement to the Boston Globe that the mayor and Stephen Lynch, a US congressman for Massachusetts, had a "very positive meeting" with the parade's organisers, and that the politicians "remain optimistic that a solution can be reached that will work for all the parties involved."