Athlone's Heartlands Pride group shortlisted for five awards
Heartlands Pride Athlone has been shortlisted in five categories at the national LGBTQ+ GALA awards which take place in Dublin in October.
The recognition is a milestone for the group, which organised Athlone's first-ever Pride parade in June.
The shortlist of award nominees, revealed earlier today (Monday) showed Heartlands Pride Athlone was one of five finalists in the 'Pride of Ireland' category for organisations in various parts of the country.
Athlone artist Aoife Doolan was shortlisted in the 'Arts and Entertainment' category for her Síle na Gig float project, while Michelle Jinks was shortlisted in the 'Ally of the Year' section.
The chairperson of Heartlands Pride Athlone, Christine O’Mahony, has been shortlisted in the 'Person of the Year' award category, while there were a number of nominees from the group for the 'Noel Walsh HIV Activism' award.
Ciaran Hanniffy was shortlisted for the latter award, along with a Heartlands Pride HIV panel discussion, and Rebecca Tallon De Havilland, Grand Marshal of Athlone’s first Pride parade and an honorary member of the Heartlands Pride group.
The categories in which Aoife Doolan and Christine O'Mahony have been shortlisted are up for public vote, while the rest will be judged by a panel, and Heartlands Pride Athlone is encouraging the public to support Christine and Aoife via this link.
Commenting on the awards shortlist, Christine O’Mahony said: "This is the first time we asked for nominations for the GALAs - we were longlisted for eight out of the 14 categories and now after the shortlisting process we managed to get shortlisted for five categories.
"This is a huge achievement after our first Pride parade. I was told by the organisers that I was shortlisted for my category out of 175 people. I'm absolutely blown away," said Christine.
"We are hoping the people of Athlone supports us yet again as we represent the town at the GALAS in Dublin in October."
On October 3 this year, the GALA awards ceremony will be held at the Dublin Royal Convention Centre in the Radisson Blu Hotel.