Parents don’t always feel it’s their place to join in their grown-up children’s celebrations. In Dublin, there are dads who don’t feel it’s their place to be at the Pride festival, June 21 to 30 in Ireland. But they want to show their children that they are proud of them.

Dublin Bus is helping them do that – and adding its own support for the Pride Festival Dublin.

Through Irish agency, Rothco and director, Ken Wardrop, Dublin Bus is supporting these proud dads so they can support their children. Dublin Bus provided open-top buses that transported the proudest people at Pride – dads. Rothco and Wardrop are providing a documentary that rounds out the campaign of support, called Proud Dads Get On Board.

Ken Wardrop, director of Irish documentary about relationships, His & Hers, worked with director, Jamie Delaney, to make a heart-melting short film about these proud dads.

Delaney commented, “We started out looking for all sorts of proud people for the proudest bus, but the heartfelt stories we got back from proud dads really hit us, perhaps because men aren’t always as outward with their emotions. They can be a tougher nut to crack.”

One of the proud dads on board on the day, Stephen, noted, “I know how hard it was for my son to come out to me, so I wanted to do something for Pride to show him that I am truly proud of him, not for being gay, or for coming out, but for being who he is. Before all this, I never felt that it was my place to go to Pride, but I’ve realised it really is, because I am proud.”

The campaign is part of Dublin Bus’ championship of diversity and inclusivity. As the largest public service provider in Ireland, it carries in excess of 130 million customers per year.

The campaign film was released on Monday July 2 on Dublin Bus’ YouTube and social channels.