Touching photo from London's Black Lives Matter protest shows 'what day was really about'

Over the weekend, people gathered around the world for Black Lives Matter protests – from Paris to Sydney to Brazil.

In London, despite rain and thunderstorms, thousands of people marched through central London to the US embassy and to Downing Street. One photo from the march went viral – of a young man and an older gentleman sitting and talking.

People later identified the older man as Jim Curran, the chairman of the Irish Civil Rights Association from Longford, Ireland.

Curran said, “I chose to come down here today to focus attention on the appalling racism that happened in the United States of America and even here in England.”

He explained that he had been living in London since the 1960s and has participated in all kinds of protests and other marches for civil rights in the UK, and said that while he thinks the police have made some progress, there’s still a long way to go.

Another tweet lightheartedly poked fun at Curran.

On Twitter, plenty of people recognised him and pointed out that he had been going to protests around racism since 1967.

Other people shared their stories of meeting him at various anti-racist protests and demos over the years.

Other images from the protest went viral, including that video of the horse charging away from the protesters.