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August saw the return of the Foyle Pride Festival. The aim of Foyle Pride Festival is to acknowledge, empower and celebrate the LGBT community in the Derry area of Northern Ireland as well as the wider LGBT community as a whole. It is a non-profit grassroots organisation that was formed in order to hold, and continue, an annual Pride Festival.
The festival ran from Sunday August 21 to Saturday August 27 with the parade taking place on the final day.
The parade departed from Waterside Train Station at 2pm with celebrations afterwards in Guildhall Square.
Among the events that took place were the opening Foyle Pride Fun Day with many free activities at St Columb’s Park running track. On Monday August 22 the official launch and Foyle Pride Awards took place at the Guildhall.
The rest of the week saw a whole host of activities and thousands take part in the annual event.
Also celebrating in August were the Quigley family as Derry music legend, Johnny Quigley, celebrated his 90th Birthday in Derry’s City Hotel.
Johnny only retired ten years ago at 80 years old and his retirement didn’t come before gracing the music scene all over the world for more than 60 years.
The late great Gay McIntyre was a dear friend of Johnny and the family and toured with them often. Johnny still resides in Derry, surrounded by his beloved family who filled the room at the City Hotel that night to celebrate 90 years of leading and continuing to lead an extraordinary life.
August also saw Derry’s Royal Mail workers strike for better pay along with their colleagues across the country.
The action was organised by the Communication Workers Union (CWU), and involved roughly 115,000 employees, in a dispute over pay.
Workers protested outside Sorting Offices across Northern Ireland and beyond as the union rejected the latest pay offer after three months of talks.
August 29 was a tragic day for the island as we mourned the sudden loss of Derry teenagers, Reuven Simon and Joseph Sebastian, both just 16 years old.
They had been swimming at Lough Enagh with friends when they both got into difficulty in the water and tragically lost their lives.
The boys were from Derry’s Indian Keralan community and had been due to return to St Columb’s College in the city after receiving their GCSE results.An outpouring of support and grief waved across the city as the boys’ families thanked the community for all they had done, “The loss of our precious boys has left a massive hole in all our lives. These have been truly dark days but the community continues to be a source light among the darkness.”
A joint statement from their families said: “We, the families of Reuven Simon and Joseph Sebastian, and Derry’s wider Kerala community would like to express our heartfelt appreciation for all the kindness, love and support and prayers we have received since last week’s tragedy that cruelly took our two beautiful boys too soon.
“We have drawn enormous strength, at this dark and difficult time, from the sympathy and support we have received from Derry and beyond and for that we will always be grateful.
“It would be impossible to name individually all of you who have helped us but we do wish to put on record our appreciation and admiration of our emergency services and all those involved in the search, rescue and recovery operation for their courage and professionalism.
“We want to thank the public for their understanding of and cooperation with traffic restrictions that were helpfully managed by the PSNI to allow for the funeral procession.
“We wish to also express our sincere thanks to Reuven and Joseph’s friends and classmates who shared their stories of joy and laughter.”
The statement added: “People’s acts of friendship and kindness will not be forgotten.
“We will continue to rely on the support and prayers of the community in the time ahead as we grieve for our sons.
“Both Reuven and Joseph were beautiful, generous spirits – we will keep their memory alive by embodying that generosity of spirit, treating people with kindness and loving wholeheartedly.
“We hope that some good can come from this heartbreaking tragedy by ensuring better and safer management of all our lakes and waterways, and educating people of the very stark dangers of water.
“In doing so, we hope that other families will never have to suffer from the avoidable death of a loved one.”
