Taoiseach hoping to attend Navan Pride following recent hate crime in the town

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar hopes to attend the inaugural Navan Pride Festival next month.

The Taoiseach has said he is hoping to attend Navan Pride next month after receiving an invite from the organisers.

It comes after around 100 people attended a 'Rally Against Hate' in the town in support for the 14-year-old assaulted last week. A video of that incident has been widely circulated online. 

In a statement to the Irish Examiner, a spokesperson for Mr Varadkar said: "The Taoiseach would like to attend in Navan if at all possible and is seeing if it it’s feasible given other commitments that week."

Organisers for Navan Pride said that since their expression of interest in the media of attending the celebrations, "including our parade, we have invited the Taoiseach, Tánaiste, and others to those events".

The office for the Tánaiste did not reply when asked by the Irish Examiner if Mr Martin would be in attendance prior to publication, though GCN.ie reported that a spokesperson for Mr Martin said he is "happy to consider" any invitation to attend.

Minister Thomas Byrne and several other politicians will attend the launch event for Navan Pride on June 12. The inaugural Navan Pride festival runs from June 26 to July 1.

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Gardaí continue to investigate an unprovoked attack on the child last week in which he suffered serious facial injuries. 

Gardaí have said they are treating the investigation as a hate crime.

The assault was filmed and widely shared on social media and has been viewed millions of times on social media. The teenager was walking home from school when he was assaulted by several boys.  

The victim was subsequently brought to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda for treatment. 

Five juveniles were arrested in connection to the incident but have since been released without charge.

A file will be referred in the first instance for consideration for admission to the Juvenile Diversion Programme in accordance with Part 4 of the Children Act, 2001.

Gardaí are continuing to investigate and a family liaison officer was appointed to the family.