NOTE: This article discusses sexual violence
Former Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU/AMLCT) President and career activist Jenny Maguire has been called many names. “A threat to women and girls”, is one that she recalls being christened with by angry callers to the administration in just her first few days as President, likely due to her existence as a trans woman. Yet, this, in addition to the constant pushback from officials for her activism, never discouraged her. After all, it spoke to the fact that all her protests, speeches, and campaigns were actually getting attention. What happens, then, when the people you are fighting for, rather than against, start to voice their concerns as well?
“This job is really hard”, admitted Maguire, when talking about her role as President. “You work 9-5 everyday and hope you do good. I think I did good, but I definitely feel wounded.”
The wounds no doubt came at least partially from her censure at the end of her term, which came about due to the involvement of Maguire and several other SU leaders in an anti-rape protest for Sexual Assault Awareness Month in April 2025. The protest involved the hanging and beating of several effigies labelled “rapist” around campus, which drew widespread condemnation from students and SU representatives. The protest and subsequent fallout are still, to Maguire, “too close to properly reflect on”.
“I regret any harm caused by it. I regret the additional work and emotional impact it had on my team. I regret putting the EC and OC under so much pressure so soon into their roles. I regret not being there and being more a part of the organising of it.”
A censure, being the strongest reprimand an officer of TCDSU can receive before impeachment, was enough to rattle Maguire and her concept of what it meant to be an activist. Her experience as a survivor of sexual assault resurfaced as a result of the controversy, further adding insult to injury.
“This is definitely from a place of trauma, including my own sexual assault. Going back to college now is something I was and still am a bit ashamed of, but my rape has already taken so much from me, I won’t let it take my degree, despite the two years I’ve lost because of it.”
“That’s never shut me up, however”, added Maguire. “In fact, it made me double down. I think it made me more secretive, something I’m trying to move away from.”
The anxiety involved a highly public position within College frustrated Maguire, she admitted, especially as a trans woman. It caused her, despite her growing public persona, or “brand” as she sarcastically calls it, to increasingly look inward and to those she kept close on purpose rather than by circumstance.
“Everything I continue to do or say, regardless [of] if it’s about being trans or not, would flood my inbox and replies with my deadname and harassment–so why listen to anyone besides those right in front of me?”
Maguire went on to describe how memories of her assault informed her behaviour during the censure proceedings.
“I was definitely too traumatised to be able to look at it in the wide, which I think for any other issue I would have been able to see. I was the student president of my own rapist. I saw students being constantly let down by the system, and it grabbed at my own fears and trauma.”
“I had made the decision I wouldn’t speak at the [censure meeting], because it wasn’t my place to, it was for everyone else to share their thoughts on their union. That sounds terribly dramatic, but it’s how I felt.”
Whether it was drama or not, Maguire was at least confident in her present opinions on the protest, despite the fact that it is an opinion that much of the student body disagrees with: “I stand firm that no ‘violence’ in the campaign could ever meet the violence the survivors had described to me. Fear must change sides.”
The desire for fear to change sides is admittedly to Maguire, a “traumatised” response. Yet no matter what the underlying reasons for her opinions are, her openness and honesty are undeniable; even when those conflicting feelings and emotions paint a complex picture for the thousands of students and survivors she represented.
Maguire was frank about this cognitive dissonance within her: “And a part of me sees it for what it was – a group of survivors looking to have fear change sides. Rape is about power, and they felt that [the protestors] wished to reclaim that power. The members of the union disagreed with the way they went about it, and expressed that as they are entitled to.”
The wounds have been enough to turn Maguire away from student politics for the time being, but have not been enough to turn her away from activism entirely. She hopes to get involved on a “grassroots level” with her community outside of College, and encourage other activists to do the same. Further, within College, she looks forward to seeing those she mentored in her time as President move on to have the same level of political success.
“I hope to be involved in a similar role in my community or at a national level, showing people that I am not special, and that they have the ability to do all the same things as I have, and hopefully better!”
Maguire named budding activists such as health science class representative Grace McNally and current BDS chair Harry Johnston as two individuals who she feels a sense of pride for. She attested to their skill, given that they were just a few of the many students she attempted to provide “with the skills and information [Maguire] had learnt over the years in order to see them do bigger and better things than [Maguire] could ever imagine”.
Yet the results of her marriage between her Presidency and activism were not without its share of wins. Overseeing the BDS encampment alongside then-President László Molnárfi, as well as overcoming the subsequent attempt by College to fine TCDSU €240,000 for its participation, Maguire eventually led Trinity to being the first university in the West to completely sever ties with Israel. This led to international news coverage and a historical change that Maguire called “the mission of the year”.
“They wouldn’t even say the word genocide. They wouldn’t say the word Palestine…I made a promise that I would not rest until [divestment] was done…and it was more important than anything”.
Now, with the advent of current TCDSU President Seán Thim O’Leary’s administration, the Union is expected to create a sexual violence taskforce during first council: a motion proposed by Maguire herself at the censure proceeding.
“I’m really glad the motion passed to give [O’Leary] the proper time to investigate how the union should campaign on this going forward. The union must campaign on it, and I really genuinely look forward to see how, and hopefully in a more grassroots way.”
For now, however, Maguire is leaving her usual place at the head of student politics in favour of increasing her community activism work. She has particularly enjoyed fighting for “economic justice”, which she calls her “main political cause”. After all, despite her outspokenness when it comes to queer issues, Maguire likes to keep things realistic. “It doesn’t matter if someone is using my pronouns or not if they’re evicting me”, she said.
Even as she shifts to a world beyond the small-time squabbles of student politics, Maguire has not forgotten what she has learned, including lessons she particularly attests to her final days in office, when she received her censure.
“Personally and politically, I think I’ve been changed by it for sure”, she said. “Politically, it made me examine my hesitancy to say no to things and take full control over things. It showed me the limits of horizontal work, though I still see its benefits greatly at the same time, such as in everything else we managed to do. I’m sure I will continue to learn from it.”
If you have been affected by the matters brought up in this article you may contact: Dublin Rape Crisis Helpline: 1800 77 8888
(24-hour freephone)
