A motion on a student-led 1916 centenary initiative was passed at a meeting of Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union’s (TCDSU) council tonight. Proposed by third-year history and political science student Liam Crowley, the campaign aims to commemorate the Easter 1916 Rising from a student’s perspective.
Proposing the motion at council tonight, Cowley described the rising as “a transformative event”, calling it the single most important event in modern Irish History. Cowley stated that the motion, which was passed with near unanimity, was a response to “appetite and demand for finding out more about the events 100 years ago”. No one spoke against the motion
Speaking to The University Times earlier today, Crowley explained the reasoning behind the initiative. “Just in terms of the significance of the year, the way I felt about it was there really has to be something done about it on a student level, because it would be a complete shame to not do something to mark the year. Especially given the relation of the students every day in Trinity to the area around us. We have Patrick Pearse’s birthplace south, meters away from the college, we’ve the old headquarters for Cumann na mBan a little bit further down on Pearse Sreet and then just behind you have the place where the Southside Brigade, if you like, of the Dublin IRA were situated from post-1916 to early civil war times. So we’re really saturated in the history and to not at least acknowledge it would I feel be too big a mistake.”
Numerous events have been organised by the initiative to date, including a walking tour based on 1916 Dublin in rebellion and a talk by a historian from Kilmainham Gaol on the role of women in the rising. Crowley emphasised the diversity of future events being planned: “Every two to three weeks we will be having an event looking at a different aspect of the rising, trying to cover as much as we can. Obviously there is so much involved, you’re talking about so many things here that it is difficult to get everything. But we are trying to give a broad range, so people who are interested in, say the likes of, the cultural stuff, the Irish language, the music can see how that relates to the whole thing as well.”
Two final-year Irish Studies students, a third-year history and politics student and a third-year law and politics student are co-ordinating the campaign along with Crowley. The initiative does not intend to set up a society, but instead aims to aid other societies which are trying to organise events based around the Easter 1916 Rising.
“We don’t want this to be a society in on its own, off in a corner. We want it to be part of a students’ union, under that umbrella, so that it is for all the 16,000 students and it is not kind of pocketed away, that it’s there and everyone has an equal opportunity to participate to whatever extent they want to.”
Speaking to The University Times earlier about the effect the passing of the motion would have on the initiative, Crowley explained that it would give the centenary status within the college and amongst the students. Crowley recognised that college will officially also run a commemoration for the Rising, but stressed the distinction that this initiative is student led and focused. Furthermore, Crowley said that the campaign would try co-ordinate with the official Trinity College commemoration and with similar initiatives organised in other third-level institutions across Ireland.
