Thirteen candidates will fight for six positions in this year’s Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) elections, with only one race uncontested
Ben Cummins, Leah Keogh and Luke MacQuillan will all run for president, among a list of candidates announced on the steps of House Six tonight by TCDSU Education Officer Megan O’Connor.
Cummins, a final-year BESS student, was previously elected as JCR president in 2018. He has also held committee positions on Cumann Gaelach and Trinty Entrepreneurial Society.
Keogh is the current welfare and equality officer for TCDSU. She ran uncontested in last year’s sabbatical elections. Keogh, who is a social studies graduate, and was previously involved with TCDSU as class representative, chair of the Oversight Commission and secretary of TCDSU council.
MacQuillan, a third-year PPES student, is a financial analyst at the Trinity Student Managed Fund and the current captain of the Dublin University Football Club J4 team.
There are two candidates in the race for education officer – Bev Genockey and Daniel O’Reilly
Genockey, a third-year Zoology student, is the biology courses convenor and deputy STEM convenor for TCDSU and currently serves as the chairperson for the Diversity in Stem Campaign. Genockey is also a Laidlaw Scholar, a leadership and research programme run by College’s career service.
Daniel O’Reilly, a fifth-year mechanical and manufacturing student, is the current STEM convenor in TCDSU. He has previously held positions of class representative, chairperson of the Engineering Society and Head S2S Mentor for engineering. O’Reilly is also currently the activity leader for the food bank programme in VDP Soc.
Dylan Krug, Cathal O’Riordan and Sierra Mueller-Owens are the candidates running to be the next TCDSU welfare and equality officer.
Krug, a third-year environmental science student, is an established member of TCDSU. As well as a class representative, Krug is the TCDSU ex-officio for the SCS, SLD and S2S Student Advisory Board and a member of the union’s welfare committee. He is also on the editorial board of The Eagle: Trinity College Law Gazette.
O’Riordan, a final-year music student from Meath, has for the past two years held the position of Big Band Director in Jazz Society.
Mueller-Owens, a final-year law and political science student, has previously held the role of class representative and gender equality officer from which she was trained to be a consent workshop facilitator. She represented Trinity at the Union of Students in Ireland’s pink training, a workshop on LGBTQ+ community nationwide and in higher education.
Aoife Cronin, a final-year sociology student, is this year’s sole candidate for communication and marketing officer. She is the current public relations officer for Trinity Arts Festival, Icarus Magazine and the Design Editor for the Social Political Review. Cronin has also been involved with the University Philosophical Society, engaging in public relations work as well as serving one year as pro-Librarian and another as the Librarian.
Greg Arrowsmith, a third-year PPES student, is running against Antonia Brady, a final-year drama and modern Irish student, for ents officer.
Arrowsmith has held committee positions on Dublin University Hockey Club (DUHC) as well as Dublin University Sailing Club (DUSC). As social secretary for DUHC, Arrowsmith organised a multitude of events including the Shit Shirt Shindig in 2019, a night out at the Workman’s Club in memory of the late Alistair Tidy. As a committee member for DUSC, Arrowsmith helped organise virtual charity events in aid of mental health over lockdown. He also holds a committee position on Trinity’s newly formed BBQ Society.
Brady is the current Ents Officer of DU Players of which she has been a member for the last four years. Brady has organised weekly virtual events on Wednesday nights for DU Players since the pandemic broke out last March.
There are two candidates running to be editor of The University Times. Emer Moreau, a third-year English and psychology student, is the current deputy editor for the paper, having previously served as news editor. Moreau has also been bylined in the Irish Times as well as TheJournal.ie.
Peter Caddle, the other candidate running to be editor of the newspaper, is a writer for the Burkean, a conservative publication that has in the past been condemned for promoting eugenics.
Matt McCann is the Sports Editor of The University Times, and will lead coverage of the TCDSU elections this year.
