Beth O’Reilly has been elected President of the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) for the 2022/23 academic year, having run unopposed for the position.
O’Reilly is a University College Cork (UCC) politics and history graduate who served as Commercial and Fundraising Officer in the University College Cork Students’ Union (UCCSU) and was USI Vice President for Campaigns this year.
The Cork native was elected at the 2022 USI Congress, which is currently being held in Trim, Co. Meath.
There were originally three other candidates in the presidential race, but they all pulled out ahead of Congress.
In a press statement this afternoon, O’Reilly said: “I’m so delighted to have been elected President of USI, especially at our first in-person Congress since 2019.”
“It is so great to be back in a room full of Students’ Union representatives debating the issues that matter to students”, they added. “I’m excited to work with the excellent new team that has been elected today and I am very much looking forward to continuing to promote the student movement and to fighting for the liberation of higher education for all.”
“My immediate priorities will be working to get students re-engaged with the student movement after the COVID-19 pandemic. I want USI to help rebuild communities on campuses across the island and to getting students back on the streets in big numbers fighting for their rights and for a better society for all.”
Current Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) Welfare and Equality Officer Sierra Müller-Owens was elected USI Vice President for the Dublin region, having also run uncontested.
In the only contested race in this year’s elections, Ross Boyd of Dublin City University Students’ Union (DCUSU) beat out Maynooth Students’ Union President Liam Cosgrove to become Vice President for Campaigns.
Also elected today were Clodagh McGivern as the USI’s Vice President for Academic Affairs, Sarah Behan as Vice President for Welfare, John Fortune as Vice President for Equality and Citizenship and Róisín Nic Lochlainn as Leas Uachtarán don Ghaeilge.
Waqar Ahmed was elected Vice President for Postgraduate Affairs, Hannah Brennan was voted in as Vice President for the Border, Midlands and Western Region and Caoimhe Walsh was elected Vice President for the Southern Region.
Motions passed by Congress today included a boycott of the Irish Times and a mandate to lobby for conversion therapy to be banned.
Congress voted down a motion to oppose the “cultural death” of Dublin, on the grounds that the text of the motion was too Dublin-centric and neglected similar cultural decline in the rest of the country.
Correction: April 19th, 2022
An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Liam Cosgrove, one of two candidates for USI Vice President for Campaigns, is the incumbent president of UCCSU. In fact, he is president of Maynooth Students’ Union.
