A 19-year-old trans man is receiving treatment in a hospital in Dublin for a fractured skull following a brutal Pride attack on five people after the after the city’s parade on 25th June
Pride Attack
Following Dublin’s Pride parade at the weekend, five people were attacked in St. Stephen’s Green, leaving the teenager with a “fractured skull and abnormalities in the brain” as attacks on the queer community continue.
The community was alerted to the attack after the Dublin TD*, Aodhan O’Riordain, shared a message he had received about the brutal assault:
This message was sent to me today from someone whose friends were attacked after Pride on Saturday.
We cannot be complacent.
Being LGBT+ means you are more likely to be assaulted. pic.twitter.com/mIZ70zkFZE
— Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (@AodhanORiordain) June 27, 2022
The message he received said, “Just messaging you on behalf of some LGBTQ+ friends. They don’t want to be identified but Saturday, after Pride, five of them were attacked at 6:50pm in Stephen’s Green.
“Three of them were hospitalised. One of them (age 19, trans-man [sic]) is currently still in hospital with a fractured skull and abnormalities showing on their brain.
“They just want to let people know that for all the happy and colourful stuff that happens at Pride, these attacks are going on in the background. I offered to pass this information on.”
The police confirmed that they had attended the scene, a spokesperson telling DublinLive, “Gardaí attended at the scene of a public order incident at Saint Stephens Green, Dublin 2 shortly before 7pm on 25 June, 2022.
“No arrests were made at the scene. Enquires into the matter are ongoing including number of allegations of assault arising from the incident.”
It is not clear, at the time of writing, what stage the police investigation is at. St. Stephen’s Green is one of the most popular tourist areas in the centre of the city. CCTV footage should not be in short supply, although where in the park the attack took place is not clear.
Until recently, Ireland had been seen as a safe haven for LGBTQIA+ people. In fact, just a few months ago, I was discussing how there hadn’t really been anything like the problems we’ve seen in England.
Over those few months and with this Pride attack, things have changed.
While figures for 2022 are not yet out, the south of Ireland saw a massive 80% jump in recorded hate crimes for the first half of 2021.
In the north, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) for the 12 months from 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022 recorded their highest tally since they began compiling these specific crimes in this particular manner in 2004/05.
From what I could see from a brief search of the main papers, four days later, none have covered this Pride attack on a trans teenager and other members of the LGBTQIA+ community, which is unsurprising. Like with the Guardian, trans writers are currently boycotting the Irish Times due to their transphobic coverage.
Many are also pointing fingers at RTE, Ireland’s national television and radio broadcaster, who recently gave prominent coverage on their flagship phone-in show, Liveline, to an anti-trans story which caused “two weeks of targeted abuse of the LGBTQIA+ community during Pride month.”
For more on that, I highly recommend reading Izzy Kamikaze’s excellent piece, LiveLyin: How RTÉ’s Liveline promoted a campaign of anti-trans lies. Izzy, if you don’t know, helped found Dublin Pride.
Here at Trans Writes, we hope all victims of this horrendous attack recover fully.
We also hope that the media will reflect on their role in whipping up anti-LGBTQIA+ hate in the race for clicks, given the very real world consequences we keep seeing and they keep ignoring. More events like this Pride attack will happen if they continue their dangerous action.
I am not optimistic about the latter.
*A Teachta Dála abbreviated as TD (plural TDanna in Irish, TDs in English), is a member of Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas (the Irish Parliament).
