President:
Edmund Heaphy | Creative Director
The fourth day of campaigning consisted of three major events on top of the expected day-to-day presence by campaigners on campus.
At 11.30 am, the majority of election candidates attended a protest outside the Dáil, where dozens of nursing students were protesting in a campaign to increase introductory wages for entry-level nurses. Campaigners who attended the protest hope that such a move would help to counteract widespread emigration of nursing graduates.
When asked for comment at the protest by The University Times, Domhnall McGlacken-Byrne spoke about the disconnect between the issues affecting Health Science students and their involvement in student issues: “there is a bit of a conflict in that Health Science students don’t really get involved in student affairs, but among the most pertinent issues to students generally are those that affect Health Science students.” He was adamant that the issue of nurse’s pay is something that “needs to be rectified”.
Jasper Pickersgill did not attend the protest “due to course commitments”. However, with regards to nursing graduate pay, Pickersgill made it clear that it was an issue he was committed to by campaigning in D’Olier Street today. He said: “I spent the majority of my time campaigning today in D’Olier Street and speaking to nurses regarding their concern for student nurse pay and reaffirming my commitment to ensure greater lobbying from the SU to protect and advance the rights of nurses.”
Both candidates also appeared on Trinity FM for a radio debate after two o’clock, where the current Students’ Union President, Tom Lenihan, took part in the discussion and asked questions. However, audio issues meant that both the live broadcast and subsequent recordings accessible from the Trinity FM website were inaudible.
This evening, both candidates participated in the first-ever Cumann Gaelach Irish-language Hustings. Candidates were free to speak in English, but both McGlacken-Byrne and Pickersgill opted to speak in Irish about their manifesto points and the issues surrounding the integration of the Irish language into college life, while follow-up questions were generally answered in English. When asked, both candidates said they were willing to fight for Irish in Trinity.
With regard to the Hustings, Pickersgill’s campaign team said that they were “delighted with the response and glad that Jasper was able to articulate his commitment to the Irish-speaking community of Trinity and how he plans to incorporate greater support for the Irish language in future SU policy.” Speaking to The University Times by phone, McGlacken-Byrne said that it was difficult to get his points across in a second language, but said that while “the Cumann is a society, it really should have more of an affiliation with the SU, and particularly the communications office and particularly Éigse” and that there were “definitely inroads that could be made.”
Communications:
Paul Glynn | Senior Staff Writer
As well as having campaigners continue to hand out manifestos on campus and giving lecture addresses, Communications candidate Samuel Riggs, who stated that the campaigning day was “fantastic”, was present at the protest for student nurses outside the Dáil today, along with other candidates and their campaign teams. There, he spoke to some second-year nursing students about cuts to their starting pay. “It was a great protest and a cause I’d be eager to support if elected,” said Riggs afterwards.
Fellow candidate PJ Moloney announced that his “Trinity can be Happy” campaign video was selected to be circulated to the whole College community as part of promotion for Trinity Health Week which will take place on the week of the 24th of March. Moloney told The University Times that the later use of the video “will have nothing to do with the election” and that: “The point is someone randomly saw that video and saw a connection I never saw with promoting positive mental health in Trinity.” He added that this was an example of a positive media development that “never happens with traditional top-down, paper-based communication.” Moloney added finally that: “I am mentioning the Health Promotion Bulletin and advertising that to students interested in the SU election and some of the students reading this will make a mental note to read the bulletin when it comes out just because they heard about it here. Everyone wins.”
Both candidates were present at the Cumann Gaelach Hustings. Moloney praised the event, saying that it made for “a very interesting discussion”, and spoke about “initiating a conversation with students”, highlighting the suggestion from the PRO of Cumann Gaelach that The University Times elect a dedicated editor for the Irish language.
Riggs also enjoyed the Hustings, which was the highlight of the day for him and his team. “I got to whip out what rusty Irish I have, and tell everyone what the Comms Office can do for them if elected.” He also stated that he would “endeavour to create an Irish Language Correspondent for UT, which is something the society seemed really enthusiastic about”, and which was a new position he was “eager to implement”.
Welfare:
Fiona Gribben | Staff Writer
Dan McFadden had a jam-packed day today. At half eleven this morning, he attended the launch of the Union of Students in Ireland’s (USI) ‘Everyone Loves Nurses’ campaign. Student representatives and student nurses gathered outside Dáil Éireann to protest against the cuts to the salary of newly graduated nurses and the reduction in wages to student nurses on internship. Dan praised the USI for drawing attention to the issue, in particular the “great job done in utilizing social media to raise awareness.”
Dan then travelled over to St James’ Hospital to chat to the medical students from whom he received “a great response”. He was also in the Hamilton and the BioMed building followed by further campaigning in the Arts Block later on in the afternoon. At three o’clock Dan spoke on Trinity FM with Ian Mooney and current Welfare Officer Stephen Garry while at six o’clock he appeared at the Cumann Gaelach Hustings at the Seomra na Gaeilge. The bilingual hustings gave Dan the opportunity to outline how he planned to support and promote the Irish language in TCD if elected.
Ian Mooney was also pleased with how today went. He continued with his lecture addresses and like Dan, attended the nurses’ protest on Kildare Street. He said “it went fantastically, and the organisers did a wonderful job gathering such a crowd for it.”
Afterwards Ian and his team headed to St. James’ Hospital where he described the response from medical students as “very positive.” In the afternoon Ian continued campaigning in the Arts Block and Hamilton saying his team remained in “high spirits”.
Ian was very much looking forward to the Cumann Gaelach Hustings despite his self-confessed lack of mind for languages. Nevertheless he performed very well, outlining his idea for helping to better integrate international students into Irish life by proposing to set up an Irish Culture Night in conjunction with Student2Student, An Cumann Gaelach and An Oifigeach Na Gaeilge. Ian is very happy with how the week so far has gone and is enjoying the campaigning immensely, however he is understandably looking forward to a little respite from his hectic schedule at the weekend.
Education:
Sarah Ledden | Staff Writer
With the first week of campaigning coming to a close there is a fresh atmosphere around the college as campaign teams are less invasive and students are more informed of their potential future Students’ Union sabbats.
Katie Byrne, the uncontested Education candidate, spent the morning outside the Dáil protesting with student nurses against unfair wages. Byrne was proud to be involved in the demonstration saying she was “delighted to get a chance to support” the student nurses. After the protest she spent most of the afternoon in D’Olier Street campaigning, expressing how positive an atmosphere there was and that the “nurses are all lovely, they’re great to talk to”. Byrne admitted that “today was good” despite being much quieter than yesterday.
The Toghchánaíocht Cumann Gaelach (Hustings) were entertaining both in demonstrating the Irish abilities of the candidates and their excuses for not being better able to use the language. Byrne used minimal Irish in her address to the group, but successfully applied her three main policies to propose further integration of the Irish language into Trinity life. In her desire to bring more organisation and structure to the Education Office, she expressed the need for students to be “more aware” of and be granted “easier access to services” and “more accessibility through the Irish language”. She intends to inform class reps of the Irish services that exist and for them to encourage their classes to use them and,also, to use campaigns to utilise the Irish language as a global port, mentioning a project organised by ZooSoc, showing Irish wildlife accompanied with Irish phrases and commentary, for Éigse na Trionóide that reached over 1000 people worldwide.
Questions from the audience proved testing to Byrne with issues such as limited Erasmus options for Irish students and the clashes of course requirements for TSM language students raised. Byrne admitted that there were flaws in these arrangements and admitted the benefits for language students to study abroad were too great for these oversight to hinder Irish language students saying she would “love to look into it with anyone they can find to help solve this issue”.
Ents:
Emer Gerrard | Staff Writer
Ents campaigning was noticeably more subdued around campus today, with little visibility of any of the teams. This could be partly explained by events last night organised by both Finn Murphy and Ben O’Mathúin. Finn said that his event in the Village had brought “950 people in the door” and described it as a “great” night. Ben was also in good form after his UV party in Palace, describing the night as “a great success”. Unlike the disastrous night in Copper Face Jacks last Monday the 27th, which was linked to Ben’s campaign and left one girl in a “critical condition” in hospital, a perhaps relieved Ben stated that last night “everyone got in smoothly”.
A further dark cloud hanging over the ‘Bentertainment’ campaign is the continuing online ban which has been imposed on the campaign. He described the ban as “a bad blow”, caused by the “silly” mistake of uploading two videos without prior EC approval. He described feeling “terribly angry and upset” when news broke of the ban and worried it would spoil his chances in the election. However, he praised his team, stating that “we’re working harder on the ground” and that he is “confident we’re doing enough”.
Alex Giersz’s campaign has also run into difficultly with the EC, having received an online campaigning ban until last night. Alex’s big event, the Masquerade Boat Party, will take place next Tuesday the 11th. She said that finding somewhere to sell the tickets was difficult as “unfortunately, with the campaign on, I wasn’t unable to reserve a table to sell the tickets”, but stressed that “tickets are available for sale to anyone who is interested from any of the campaign members, and the tickets will also be on sale Monday morning at one of the stalls in the Arts Block.”
Finn, the only one of the three candidates not to have received penalties from the EC, accounted this success to experience. “Having been on Tom’s and Seán’s campaigns, I have quite a lot of experience of working with the EC which has led to ours being one of the only campaigns not to receive a fine thus far.” He explained that he saw this as a very favourable position to be in, stating that “the lack of (online) presence from Ben and Alex has really amplified ours.” It appears this achievement has left Finn in high spirits as the first week of campaigning draws near to a close. “Got one more trick up the sleeve this week for tomorrow and then hopefully I’ll have a weekend of sleeping!”
