Jack Leahy | News Editor
President
Conor O’Meara spent the first half of the day pitching to the students of St. James’, without his now trademark yellow couch, which would have been pretty hard to get onto the 123. O’Meara’s extensive network of campaigners and well-presented, ever-developing manifesto has established him among the front-runners in the race, but he is not the type of rest on his laurels so expect it all to continue.
Gabriel Adewusi and Nessan Harpur had reduced on-campus presence for most of the day, as most candidates opted to embrace the warm loins of the Hamilton or territories further afield. Still, their online presence remained strong, as Adewusi updates continued regularly and Harpur’s popular manifesto videos continued to flow.
Lynn Ruane, who still doesn’t show any signs of slowing down, held a demonstration-stunt outside of the Book of Kells entrance, with large bedsheets displaying the words “Equality, Inclusion, Access”. In between short online activity suspensions, she continues to post snippets from her quite extraordinary life before College, which serves to remind students that she is not the typical candidate for SU president.
Education
Molly Kenny’s seemingly inevitable march towards House 6 has not been threatened by events over the last two days, and the engineering student is proceeding with caution and diligence that belies her lack of competition. There will surely be more intense and pointed questioning to come, but for now it is a case of head down, t-shirt on, do the work and repeat. And it will get her elected without much worry.
Welfare
Muireann Montague chose today to launch her first major stunt, which took place in the Arts Building just before 3pm. Like Lynn Ruane’s dining hall polemic, it’s hard to do justice to how extraordinary a sight it was: the seven accompanying members of Montague’s campaign team removed their shirts (ed: her campaign hash tag is #TheFullMonty) on cue of her stirring and empowered monologue, which addressed sexual health, sexual openness, and mental health. Their bare chests had the name of a stigma – fear and shame, for example – to which she offered a swift but compelling deconstruction. Full points.
Conor Clancy and Liam Mulligan maintained their organised on-campus and online presences, with Clancy launching a primary school-style sports day on the cricket pitch in order to communicate the positive impact of physical health on mental health. It looked like quite a show from the SU’s Sports & Exercise Officer, so fair play to him. Yesterday evening, Mulligan launched a quite exquisitely-produced campaign video, which tracked the journey of a Trinity student through the ups and downs of an average day. It’s very much worth the full watch, if you can locate it.
Louise O’Toole, who confirmed to The University Times that her and campaign manager have parted ways by mutual decision, spent the first half of the day in James’, where she received a positive reception. O’Toole, a final year student of social work, has been well-received in off-campus sites. She returned to campus in the afternoon to orchestrate an army of pink t-shirts that shows no immediate signs of diminishing in size.
Aoife O’Brien and her campaigners were all over College today, popping up in lecture theatres in just about every part of the campus. In the circles that distribute this kind of reputation, Aoife is well-known for her fervent campaigning on social and feminist issues and this is a skill she brings to the election in bucketloads.
Communications & Marketing
Both candidates have escalated their campaigns in recent days, following a short-lived but intensely-held argument over the balance of priorities for the first ever communications & marketing officer. We are reliably informed that they are now well-wishing friends. Aifric Ní Chriodáin opened a pop-up curling salon in the arts building on Wednesday afternoon, offering consenting and unknowing passers-by to temporarily assume her trademark curled quiff-cum-fringe. Jemma O’Leary spent the day rushing between D’Olier Street and the Hamilton, addressing lectures with the support of a slightly-larger-than-life-size cardboard cut-out of herself. Explaining the stunt, O’Leary posted on her Facebook page that the alter-ego was like the SU, in that it was unresponsive, exists to most students only on paper, and was unlikely to be caught engaging anytime soon without a fairly dramatic change occurring.
The University Times Editor
Edmund Heaphy continues to campaign as if he is not unopposed. This is not because he perceives of beings that do not exist in the dimensions of us mere journalistic mortals, but because he is alive to the dangers of complacency. Heaphy was to be found addressing a 9am lecture in the Biomedical Sciences Institute on Pearse Street, which will have its own polling station for the first time in its admittedly short history. He continues to roll out a strong presence in all campus and off-campus concourses, emphasising his experience as UT’s deputy editor, his plans to expand the paper’s use of new media, and his plans to expand coverage of society events. He is contributing well to hustings events with some well-considered insights, even though he seeks to occupy a position of different responsibility to those with whom he shares the stage. Heaphy is the kind of character who will work hard until the elections are complete. It’s a good sign.
Entertainments
David Gray, who is probably sick of hearing about the guy who sang Babylon, was laid low today by an ear infection, and posted a picture of his medicine to Facebook for the avoidance of doubt. Still, he managed to rally and make it onto campus for Q Soc hustings, and we wish him good health. His campaign team were omnipresent as always, which almost made it feel like he was there anyway. Gray’s “50 Shades of Grey” parody campaign video continues to be widely-discussed. It is quite good, too.
This was the first day on which Katie Cogan’s campaign team and their pink hats weren’t the dominant sight in the Arts Building, but that’s just because they were busy wearing hats indoors in large numbers across the other buildings that students also frequent. If it felt like a quiet day from the Cogan team, then that’s only because they’ve worked hard at setting lofty standards for campaign participation thus far.
Conor Parle visited St. James’ hospital this afternoon, and regards his trip as having been quite successful. Parle’s volunteers were out in their usually large numbers in advance of his first campaign night tonight in the Opium Rooms. Parle is finding some success in presenting himself (with a background in society and cultural events) as an alternative to what he sees as more traditionally nights-out candidates in Cogan and Gray. This, of course, is a designation that they reject.
