A kissing protest has taken place outside the Dail to highlight the lack of hate-crime legislation.
The ‘Shift The Hate Away’ demonstration follows attacks on two gay men in Dublin in recent weeks.
Campaigners claim the assaults on Danilo Matta and Marc Power are just two of many that take place, with most going unrecorded.
A kissing protest is taking place outside the Dail calling for hate crime legislation to combat homophobic attacks pic.twitter.com/asdwXO93mg
— Andrew Lowth (@AndrewLowth1) November 6, 2019
Niall Cowley, who helped organise today's event, said they just want to be able to show affection like anyone else.
"For a long time Dublin and Ireland had become very progressive and the LGBT community felt safer".
However, he said "in the last few months there has been a frightening surge of violent hate acts".
Today's demonstration is so "we can react to that", he said.
