DPR News
The President’s Pride Lunch 2025
The annual President’s Pride Lunch took place on Tuesday 29 July in the Hub Atrium as part of Cork Pride 2025. Last year, we made murmurations. This year, courtesy of the LGBT+ Staff Network, attendees were invited to take part in making a Living Pride Quilt – a lovely initiative and a shared celebration of unity and pride and started this year to commemorate the 10th anniversary of both the Marriage Equality referendum and the Gender Recognition Act.
Introduced by Anne-Marie Curtin, EDI Officer, guest speakers were Deputy President and Registrar Professor Stephen Byrne, who stood in for the President who could not attend, co-Chairs of the LBT+ Staff Network, Ciara Murphy and Diarmuid Scully, Communications and Engagement Officer of the UCCSU, Alex Fuertes Roper, and there was a surprise performance of a new poem in honour of the occasion by J.P. Quinn.
Pride is both a celebration and a protest. The activities and events taking place during Pride Week, both within and without UCC were more than a social or creative way to spend our time, they are important events, creating social and historical documents and they are symbols of our commitment to support our LGBT+ colleagues, friends, students, relatives, neighbours and members of our wider community.