Parading their rights

Your article showing a gay parade past St Patrick’s cathedral in New York, is a reminder that, in one way, Ireland is ‘ahead’ of the US in terms of gay rights.

In the early 1990s, before the ceasefire, IRA/Sinn Féin were not allowed to have floats at St Patrick’s Day parades in Ireland, while gay organisations were. In New York City, it was the reverse.

Now, Sinn Féin and gays have floats here, while, in 2011, then President of Ireland, Mary McAleese refused to be grand marshal of the New York parade, which still banned gay groups.