A representative of a group of residents from Newtownmountkennedy, Co. Wicklow have said they were not contacted by any of the media organisations who covered a story alleging threats had been made to protest an LGBT disco being organised in the town by Wicklow Pride.
Wicklow Pride initially announced, citing “threats of protests,” that they had cancelled the event, but the group has since updated the status of the ‘rainbow disco’, – an LGBT event aimed at 13-16 year olds – to “postponed”.
Wicklow Pride spokesman Patrick Bracken said that “appalling” comments had been made and that associates of the group had been “called paedophiles and groomers”.
Gript understands that members of the ‘Newtown Says No’ community activism group have been accused of planning a protest of the event. Gript contacted members of the ‘Newtown Says No’ group to ask if those claims were true.
Speaking on behalf of the group, committee member Terry – who did not wish to be identified further due to fear of being “doxxed”- said that, while there had been some concern about the “political ideology” behind the event, there was “never any intention of protesting” the event.
In a statement made on X, Terry said that “Someone [in the Newtown Says No chat group] suggested a protest, but with kids present it’d be bad visuals”, he added that this meant that “no protest is nor was ever going to take place.”
“Why would adults go and protest a child’s event?” he said adding, “It’s not something that we are interested in in any way at all.”
Speaking of the large amount of attention the story has been given by political figures and in the media he said, “I haven’t been approached by absolutely anybody” adding that “in a state of panic and being frazzled I drafted a poorly worded tweet yesterday and compiled as much information as possible to try and defend myself and to defend the community,”.
In response to the allegations, Minister Roderic O’Gorman said “Pride is about finding belonging and creating welcoming, safe spaces for everyone. What’s happened in Wicklow over the past few days has been unacceptable. It’s heartbreaking that a disco had to be cancelled due to a small minority sowing seeds of hate. We cannot let hard fought progress be reversed.”
Describing how none of the media outlets who covered the story had approached those accused of making the threats of protest against the disco Terry said, “It was scary to click into the phone and just see all these various updates from media outlets”.
He described the work of the journalists involved as “a copy paste job”.
Rejecting allegations of homophobia he said that he had voted in favour of gay marriage and had many supporters among the “LBG community”.
🚨Statement – Wicklow Pride Cancellation – Please Share🚨
Read to the End.. You are in for a treat❗️❗️❗️❗️
It has come to my attention first thing this morning that @OffgridIreland I and are being accused of "threats and intimidation" and the reason for @WicklowPride decision… pic.twitter.com/HgqD788bTA
— Terry K (@TezTruth81) June 26, 2024
Wicklow Pride has since deactivated its X account.
Gript contacted Wicklow Pride several times asking for evidence of the threats they say they have received, but at the time of publication we are yet to receive a response. Should we receive a response this article will be updated.