An Irish LGBT group will march in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in New York for the first time next year

It's been a long time coming.

The Lavender & Green Alliance will become the first identifiably Irish LGBT group to ever march in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in New York City on March 17, 2016. According to the Irish Echo, organisers have confirmed that following a meeting of the parade Board of Directors in Manhattan on Monday evening, the Irish gay organisation will be allowed to march in the parade, which has been staged in New York City since 1762. For years, parade organisers had notoriously forbade gay rights groups from participating in the parade, but the Lavender and Green Alliance will become the second LGBT group to take part, following in the footsteps of Out@NBC, who became the first gay group in the parade’s history to march on Paddy’s Day of this year. Founder and chair of the Lavender & Green Alliance, Brendan Fay, a Drogheda native, was delighted with the news. “We celebrate the welcome. St. Patrick’s Day, March 17, 2016, will be a great day for hospitality and inclusion,” Fay is quoted as saying in the Irish Echo. “The decision to invite an Irish Gay organisation, The Lavender & Green Alliance/ Muintir Aerach na hEireann, by the Board of Directors of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade sends a positive message across the Irish cultural landscape. “As LGBT Irish Americans we thank John Lahey and the members of the board for this historic decision which reflects the feelings of most Irish and Irish Americans. With the decision we cross a historic threshold and our members will proudly march up Fifth Avenue with our banner.”