BRENDAN FAY TO LEAD THE ANNUAL ST PATRICK’S DAY PARADE
EQUAL rights campaigner Brendan Fay has been selected as the 2017 Drogheda Grand Marshall for the annual St Patrick’s Day parade.
Honoured recently by President Michael D Higgins, Brendan has expressed his delight at the honour and will miss the famed celebration in New York to march in his home town.
‘He said he would be proud to accept the honour,’ Isabel San Roma from the organising committee stated.
‘Brendan has been a great voice for equal rights for all and we hope he’ll really enjoy the day,’ she stated.
He has been a member of the Irish gay rights group, the Lavender & Green Alliance, for many years and campaigned in New York to have the group included in the ‘Big Apple’ march. They marched for the first time last year.
Brendan Fay, a filmmaker, was a recipient of the 2016 Presidential Distinguished Service Award for the Irish aboard, presented by President Higgins, at Aras an Uachtarain before Christmas.
The award recognised “sustained and distinguished service to Ireland and Irish communities abroad.”
His family lives in the Drogheda area, while his mother was from Annagassan and his father from the Chord Road.
Brendan remarked at the awards ; ‘I’m humbled to receive this award as a gay man and to return home to a transformed Ireland. ‘