March for Jesus Dublin 2025 'politely ignored' by media - in sharp contrast to Belfast parade a month before
The organiser of the March for Jesus in Dublin last weekend says it was "politely ignored" by southern media - in sharp contrast to interest in the Belfast parade a month before.
Pastor John Ahern from all Nations Church, which has branches in Dublin and Belfast, organised a March for Jesus in Belfast in August which attracted some 8,000 people.
Last weekend a follow-up parade was held in Dublin which he believes attracted some 25,000 people - twice as many as the same parade in the southern capital a year ago.
He believes the fact the Dublin parade doubled in size is because many people are seeking hope for their lives, in what he believes is a wider spiritual awakening.
According to March for Jesus, it is “an extravagant worship celebration for Jesus in full public view” which has 12 million participants in 170 countries.
Explaining the lack of interest from southern media in the parade last Saturday, he said: "I just think there's a suffocating left wing, woke consensus; if it doesn't fit within that it's just politely ignored.”
He had no interview requests in Dublin ahead of the event.
"It's quite strange. Because in the run up to the Belfast parade I got about 25 requests to do radio and newspaper interviews.”
RTE estimated the Dublin parade attracted only 10,000 but he stands by his figure of 25,000; He claimed that last year's parade filled Molesworth Street with 12,000 people but this year it filled Stephen's Green South - which he says is roughly twice as long and twice as wide.
Suggesting why the Dublin parade might have doubled in size, he said: "I think it is because people are looking for hope".
The pastor cited reports of a 'Quiet Revival' in Great Britain of younger people in pentecostal and Catholic circles, and similar reports in America.
"There were a lot of people a year or two ago who couldn't have ever envisaged themselves at something like this, but there were so many young people there."
"In an interview at the parade there were guys admitting they'd been involved in drugs and criminality and all sorts of darkness, and that Jesus Christ had set them free."
Mr Ahern said he is hopeful of organising another parade in Belfast next year “if feasible”.