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Taoiseach Leo Varadkar at the Pride Parade 2017 in Dublin. Sam Boal/Rollingnews.ie
No compromise
Leo Varadkar to attend Belfast Pride event, but he won't attend the parade
The Taoiseach says he wants to express his support for equality for all in Northern Ireland.
2.30pm, 1 Aug 2017
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TAOISEACH LEO VARADKAR has confirmed he will attend the Pride breakfast event in Belfast on Saturday morning.
Leo Varadkar is travelling to Belfast on Friday to meet with leaders of the Northern Ireland parties about re-establishing the Northern Executive.
He confirmed to reporters today that he would be attending the Pride breakfast event, but said he would not be attending the Pride parade due to be held in Belfast on Saturday afternoon.
“The reason I am going on Friday, it is not Pride, it is to meet the leaders of the Northern parties, it is to make a speech at Queens [University] and also meet business, union and civil society leaders in Belfast. I won’t be able to attend the parade because I want to get back to Croke Park for the [Dublin versus Monaghan GAA] match,” said Varadkar.
No compromises
The Taoiseach was also asked about being conscious about the sensitivities with the DUP, which is opposed to same-sex marriage. Varadkar said he would not be making any compromises on the issue.
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“I will attend the Pride breakfast on Saturday morning in Belfast to express my support for equality before the law for Catholics, Protestants, non-religious people, men, women, gay people and straight people. And I won’t be making any compromises about that for anyone really.”
In June, Varadkar promised to use his position to campaign for same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland.
Addressing the annual Pride festival in Dublin, he said he would be “pressing for marriage equality in Northern Ireland where currently our citizens do not have the same rights as we do”.
Two years ago, Ireland became the first country in the world to bring in same-sex marriage by popular vote. However, the right does not extend to those in Northern Ireland.
Re-establishing the institutions
Northern Ireland is the only region in the UK which is yet to introduce same-sex marriage legislation.
The issue of same-sex marriage has become a sticking point between Sinn Féin and the DUP in re-establishing the Northern Ireland Executive.
Sinn Féin has accused the DUP of misappropriating the use of the Stormont Veto, known as a petition of concern, to block same-sex marriage becoming law in Northern Ireland.
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Ian dempsey played blurred lines a few weeks ago. ..the very last thing I ever want to hear again is the song finishing and Ian continuing with ‘I know you want it..’ puke!
Ian has recently taken to singing the last few lines of another song in an Irish /Caribbean accent “all about da bass, da bass” Makes me want to eat my own face!
Reminds me of the great Morecambe and Wise sketch when playing for Andre Previn – and he tells Eric that he’s playing the wrong notes – ‘i’m playing the right notes – but not necessarily in the right order’.
Another rip off, if you look hard enough you’ll probably find a lot of modern songs do this. I remember people used to say Kid Rock was putting his own twist on Sweet Home Alabama with that summer song he had, turned out he’d taken the whole thing from another song called Werewolves of London. In his case I think he had permission but he just keeps it quiet so people think he wrote it himself. A lot of these so-called musicians’ only talent is being marketable. It’s even more obvious now the only reason Pharrell Williams was brought in for Blurred Lines was exposure, not for his musical ability because they already had the bones of the song and anyone could turn Gaye’s into Thicke’s with the software that’s available now. It’s a soulless industry now.
Does there come a point where modern pop simply runs out of notes to play an starts to consume itself?
Anyhow, never mind all that. To my ears, pop music a la Spin South West sounds bloody awful. If young people were listening to stuff I liked that would be more of a concern. C’mon da Biffy an all that.
Anyone notice how much Dylan’s “With God on our Side” sounds like “The Patriot Game” by our very own Dominic Behan?
There’s a true scandal.
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