A student group pushing for freedom of speech on campus, the Classical Liberal Society, has concerns that it will not be granted official society status by the Central Societies Committee (CSC), due to a perception that the group’s mission is political.
Speaking to The University Times, Con Óg Ó Laoghaire, one of the leaders of the group, said the group is concerned that the CSC will not recognise the Classical Liberal Society because the committee considers it “political and unprecedented”.
“We’re not a political movement”, Ó Laoghaire said. “We just challenge and develop and make people think about things. We don’t advocate specific policy.” Societies are typically not permitted to have political stances.
The attempted establishment of the Classical Liberal Society in Trinity comes after the unsuccessful bid of the Free Speech Society for recognition in University College Cork.
Ó Laoghaire said that the Classical Liberal Society is very “staunch” when it comes to freedom of speech, saying that there should be “no limit” on it.
“If someone really holds horrible ideas, the best thing we can do is to put it right out in the light and be able to challenge their opinions”, he said.
Ó Laoghaire said he suspects the CSC “will leave us hanging. They won’t recognise us and they won’t officially say we can’t be a thing so as to avoid any conflict”.
The society was the original organiser of this evening’s Online Culture Wars event – a debate between Angela Nagle and Carl Benjamin, also know as Sargon of Akkad – but handed over the organisation to DU Politics Society (Pol Soc) after the CSC raised concerns about a non-official student organisation hosting the event.
The Classical Liberal Society is currently collecting signatures to be passed on to the CSC. According to Ó Laoghaire, 170 have been collected so far. To be recognised, societies need 200 signatures from students, a draft constitution and a clear statement of the aims of the society. Any new society’s purpose must not overlap with that of existing societies.
The society first emerged last year and started out as a Facebook group of students with common political interests. It is a chapter of Students for Liberty, a global non-profit libertarian organisation, and works closely with the national branch.
The Burkean Journal, a right-wing student publication founded last year, faced similar issues in putting on events and promoting itself as a non-official student group. Ó Laoghaire said that “ it looks like we might have things in common with the Burkean Journal because of the current political climate. Beyond freedom of speech, we diverge. They’re conservative, we’re liberal”.
In an email statement to The University Times, Hugh Fitzgibbon, the Secretary of the CSC, confirmed that “a group of students have been in touch seeking to establish a Classical Liberal Society”.
Fitzgibbon said that the CSC has not recognised any societies yet this year “in line with the CSC recognition policy” and that the committee would start working on proposals in the second half of this term or early in the second term.
Speaking about unrecognised societies, Fitzgibbon said: “If a group not recognised by the CSC advertises itself as a Trinity society, we contact said group to make them aware of College policies.”
In tonight’s Online Culture Wars debate, Nagle and Benjamin faced off in a debate concerned with identity politics. Benjamin is a YouTuber who came to prominence for promoting anti-feminism. He identifies as a classical liberal and regularly criticises identity politics. Nagle is best known for her book Kill All the Normies, which explored the role of the internet in facilitating the rise of the alt-right and incel movements.
The speakers debated the topic: “Is classical liberalism enough to rival the rise of identity politics?”
Speaking to The University Times before the event, the Chairperson of Pol Soc, Micheál Ganley, said his society agreed to host the event after being approached by the Classical Liberal Society. He said he expected the event to be “interesting”. “Obviously people have opinions – on both of the speakers actually – and people have expressed those to us but thus far people have been quite understanding and reasonable”, he said.
Last year, the CSC denied a request made by Dublin University Gender Equality Society (DUGES) to rebrand as the Feminist Society (Fem Soc), warning that a motion calling for a name change could “imperil” the future of the society. Speaking against the motion, Ben Ó hÓgáin, then Chair of the CSC, said allowing DUGES to change its name would “open the floodgates” to other societies wanting to take political stances.
