Taoiseach to attend Belfast Pride

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar is to attend a gay Pride event in Belfast on Saturday.

Mr Varadkar confirmed he will be at a Pride breakfast to promote the rights of the LGBT community, but due to a prior engagement will be unable to attend the annual march through the city.

The Taoiseach is making his first visit to Northern Ireland since assuming the role.

He will meet with political leaders and attend a Pride breakfast event on Saturday morning before watching the All-Ireland senior football championship quarter-final between Dublin and Monaghan.

Mr Varadkar has said he will attend the Belfast event "to express my support for equality before the law for Catholics, Protestants, non-religious people, men, women, gay people and straight people.

"And I won't be making any compromises about that for anyone really," he added.

In June the Taoiseach, who revealed he was gay ahead of the Republic's 2015 same-sex marriage referendum, is believed to have angered the DUP when he said the party should stop using the controversial petition of concern mechanism to block the introduction of same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland.

The region remains the only part of the UK and Ireland where same-sex marriage is not recognised.

The DUP has used the voting mechanism to prevent a law change, despite a majority of MLAs supporting the move at the last vote.

Commenting on the issue at the time, Mr Varadkar said that during a meeting with Mrs Foster he expressed his "very strong view that marriage equality should be permitted in Northern Ireland".

Privately the DUP were angered at what they perceived as the Taoiseach interfering in the region's internal affairs.

Uniformed officers from the Police Service of Northern Ireland are due to participate in this year's Belfast Pride march for the first time.

Garda officers have also been invited to join them.