In May 1974, a Maoist took hold of Trinity College Dublin. Famed by many accounts for his propensity to win arguments with a flourish of the Little Red Book, David Vipond was the last president of the Student Representative Council (SRC) before the body transitioned into what it’s called today, the Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU). Between the two entities, there has now been a sabbatical council of some sort for 50 years now, as any class rep will know (the anniversary is celebrated most obviously, with the curious randomness that has so often defined student politics, on the back of class representatives’ hoodies).
From Lynn Ruane to Joe Duffy and Averil Power to Mark Little, the last 50 years have thrown up some remarkable presidents – people who have gone on, quite reliably, to great success and renown. They have also, in the words of Ian Wilson, TCDSU president in 1977/78, offered an array of some “right fuckin’ eejits”.
For Mark Little, President in 1988/89, the most striking thing of all when he looks back is how much things have changed, but also how much has remained static. Little slots into the glorious lineage of union presidents risking legal action by printing abortion information in the freshers’ handbook, an issue which juddered into the spotlight this year with the Katie Ascough debacle. At pains to emphasise that “Ireland was in a very different place, and we were all very radical”, Little can’t help but marvel at the cyclical nature of the abortion debate: “It’s ironic to come back what, 30 years later and here we are, on the eve of a referendum on abortion itself. So for me, that’s a kind of a real reminder I suppose, looking back at my time, of how far Ireland has come, but also Ireland hasn’t – how far the debates have sort of stayed the same in many ways.”
If Little was a radical, and there is no reason to believe he wasn’t, then Wilson was more subversive still, living as he did in an even more conservative Ireland only beginning its emergence from the “comely maidens” era of Eamon De Valera. “Let’s put it this way”, Wilson grins, pride palpable even all these years later, “we went to town on it. The freshers’ guide in 1973 contained contraception advice. This was ‘wow’. And when I came in I did drugs advice and everything, we did a lot. We even put in lists of abortion clinics”.
This tradition of TCDSU fighting to liberalise an Old Ireland clinging to survival is one that has continued almost to the present day
This tradition of TCDSU fighting to liberalise an Old Ireland clinging to survival is one that has continued almost to the present day, even if much of what Little terms the “anger” of his union has dissipated slightly.
In 2015, before the marriage equality referendum that would legalise same-sex marriage, Laura O’Doherty, girlfriend of then-president Domhnall McGlacken Byrne, had an idea. On March 15th of that year, TCDSU released a video in which several well-known figures could be seen on the phone to parents and grandparents, discussing the ins and outs of the upcoming referendum. Equal parts awkward and touching, it struck a chord everywhere, garnering over 70,000 views and bringing a touch of humanity to a debate which had become increasingly polarised. For a measure of its impact, consider the fact that Australians campaigning for same-sex marriage equality in the country’s recent referendum adopted McGlacken Byrne’s (or rather, O’Doherty’s) campaign. “That was the highlight of the year”, McGlacken Byrne admits freely, “being involved in that”.
For Dave Tighe, TCDSU President in 1999/2000, the issue in his year was the potential re-introduction of student fees. “I know that’s always been a universal issue for students, but at the time it was very … it very much looked like fees, substantial fees, were on the table”, Tighe argues. It was an issue, he asserts, that the union campaigned particularly hard on, going up once again against the might of the government.
The union, then, has never been afraid to tackle the big, national issues, even up to the present day with incumbent Kevin Keane campaigning to repeal the eighth amendment. To what extent, though, should the union focus on these grand campaigns, even as local issues call for its attention every day?
Little argues there was “no contradiction” between the two issues, between looking out for the ordinary student “who first-of-all needs help every single day of every week” and acting as a vehicle through which students could “think about ideas such as sexuality” and “control over their own bodies in the case of women and abortion”. “If you’re not doing both”, he concludes, “you’re failing”.
Other presidents tell a similar tale, with subtle nuances informed by the differing issues that defined their tenures, but there is always an acceptance that TCDSU has woven an intrinsic responsibility into its very DNA to be, in some way, a voice for students at a national level. It is an issue which has clung like ivy to the union throughout its history and shows no sign of loosening its grip.
You can’t spend all day in your office
It is one thing to investigate the union and its history. It is another, however, to explore the impact it has had on the lives of those who have governed it. In Tighe’s case, it changed everything. Assuming the presidency after four years studying English, Tighe ended up as a successful member of Bank of Ireland. He is now Head of Innovation and has no problem admitting that “the union acted as a springboard for me … It connected me to political, social and business circles within Dublin and in Ireland in general”. Without a trace of irony, he announces: “Without that year behind me as students’ union president, I’d probably be a failed scriptwriter somewhere.”
McGlacken Byrne, now working as an intern in St James’s Hospital, admits that the influence of the union on his career path has not been so pronounced. He has not acquired a job as a direct result of his year in charge of TCDSU. However, the “zoomed out view” he acquired that year has stayed with him – it’s the “one thing I definitely would take with me into my career. That I hope to be a doctor but I also hope to be involved, in some capacity, as a kind of a representative or as an advocate, in the way that I was very lucky to do when I was SU president”.
Fifty years later, then, and TCDSU still stands, at times muddling, at times fighting, adapting to national issues and attempting to tackle local ones. As for its future? On Thursday night, all successful candidates will be charged with taking the union forward into its 51st year. They will need, according to their predecessors, to utilise their communication and listening skills. Little chuckles: “One of the things with student politicians is that they tend to talk – a lot.” Wilson, on the other hand, stresses the political aspect of the role. “You can’t spend all day in your office”, he contends, animated. “No fucking point in that. You gotta get out and meet people, man.”
