Editor’s Note: This article is the result of a multi-week investigation into TCDSU/AMLCT President Seán Thim’s term thus far. Some sources were granted anonymity due to fears of professional or personal retaliation. All factual claims made in this article have been independently verified through documentation or corroboration with multiple sources.
Multiple Part-Time Officers (PTOs) of the Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU/AMLCT) and Union members with adjacent leadership roles have come forward about TCDSU/AMLCT President Seán Thim’s term, and have alleged that they have not fulfilled the mandates of their role. A total of nine people with leadership roles within and related to TCDSU spoke to The University Times, including Harry Johnston, the Chair of Trinity Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS); Chaya Smyth, Engagement Officer; Grace McNally, Health Sciences Convenor; Seán Radcliffe, Public Relations Officer for Trinity BDS; three anonymous Part-Time Officers (PTOs); a Union office committee member; and the head of a major Union-adjacent organisation. Johnston and Radcliffe also both formerly served on the committee of the Trinity Social Democrats under Thim as the chair.
All nine officers stated that Thim’s presidency had hindered their ability to continue to perform their roles, and all said they believed that the President “ought to resign”. Johnston also called a motion to impeach “inevitable”. The basis for these claims primarily involves the progress of campaigns, the running of Union Forum, allegations of general undemocratic behaviour, and the perceived lack of progress on campaign promises.
Campaigns
Smyth said the President has run campaigns “insincerely”. Johnston and Radcliffe both underscored a lack of investment from the President in protests. Radcliffe enumerated instances where the President didn’t, in his opinion, fulfil their duties as head of campaigns, including: “only attending the foreign affairs protest for twenty minutes” and “texting” during the action, referring to the “Save or Scholars” protest on August 19th. Furthermore, citing the President’s “refusal” to speak at the Fees protest with the Labour Party on July 8th and the Palestine protest at the Egyptian Embassy on August 8th. The President did speak, however, at a protest on July 2nd about discrimination against professional and support staff in relation to promotions, and spoke to RTÉ at a housing rights protest on July 5th. Radcliffe said his “final straw” was the President’s non-attendance at the Cearta Irish-language protest on September 20th. Johnston and Radcliffe also noted the President’s non-attendance at the Fórsa Youth and TCDSU/AMLCT joint conference on September 8th where the Education Officer, Buster Whaley, spoke in their place “last minute”, due to Thim meeting with AMLÉ (Aontas na Mac Léinn in Éirinn).
Several officers raised concerns that the President did not attend the “Flip the Fees” protest held on October 6th. In an interview with The University Times on July 4th, the President spoke at length about the potential fee hike, saying, “If I were to say anything I would have accomplished, it’s that this fee hike doesn’t go through”. They added, “There’s a good chance we get them to do that”.
The €500 fee increase was implemented permanently in Budget 2026 upon its announcement on October 7th, though it represents a €500 decrease from pre-COVID student fees. Several officers noted that plans were not made for a fee protest until two weeks before the budget was set to be released, when Thim made a campaign group chat on September 25th. Both the Union Forum (UF) minutes and the testimony of officers reflect that UF did not think there was enough time to organise a protest, culminating in a divided UF on whether to have the protest at all. According to an anonymous PTO, the disagreement “immobilised” Thim, further complicating planning. The PTO said that the President’s instructions afterwards, if given, were “vague”, leaving PTOs and Convenors to do the brunt of the organising work. The PTO noted that the protest ended up being attended by “less than two dozen” people, which they described as “embarrassing”, especially after “Seán said the protest would be attended by 500 people”. Radcliffe echoed these sentiments, also calling it “an embarrassment to be there”.
The President also allegedly did not “properly train” PTOs as stewards, according to Union officers present at a protest stewardship training. One PTO stated that Thim appointed “unelected friends” to lead a training on protest stewardship and legal observation who “had no experience in stewardship whatsoever”, and noted that the training was “the job of the President”. This allegation was added onto an earlier report that the PTO training that Thim conducted at the beginning of the term was “patroninising” to “a room full of experienced activists”.
An anonymous union office committee member noted that Thim has “no presence in the Union this year”, and Smyth said that during Freshers’ Week, people were “asking who the President was”, which she described as “alarming”. Several officers stated that they were worried about the President’s leadership abilities, with Smyth citing “an unwillingness to learn” and Johnston describing “chaos”.
Union Forum
UF is the central Union body dedicated to supervising and directing the work of full-time Sabbatical Officers, specifically, in devising campaign strategies, creating motions and discussion items for Council, and managing the Union. UF is chaired by the President, who is the head of the Union’s campaigns. Part-Time Officers, Faculty Convenors, the Chair of the Electoral Commission, the Chair of the Oversight Commission, and the Junior Common Room (JCR) President all attend. It meets every two weeks, and attendance is mandatory. All votes are created equal, and all officers have an equal voice in UF.
One anonymous PTO described UF meetings under Thim as “often chaotic and dragged on excessively”, specifically citing spending “50 minutes on one agenda item”. Smyth noted a “lack of structure and consistency”, with rules implemented by the President, like a speaking order, “randomly enforced [for some], then ignored for others”. Several sources reported that agenda items were skipped for weeks with no explanation. Another anonymous PTO said that Thim’s mandatory presidential report was once delivered 17 days late after two weeks of follow-up from them, which has been confirmed through text correspondence and minutes. The PTO also alleged that many items in the President’s reports were “exaggerated” to make it seem like the President was doing more work than they were. The President is confirmed to have missed a mandatory meeting of UF without providing the required notice. Three officers also noted that the reports had diminished in substance. After the President’s reports were provided to The University Times, it was evident the reports had shrunk, as the first two reports were roughly 350 words, while the fourth and fifth reports (which are the most recent) were around 100, representing a 71% decrease.
Johnston also said that BDS had been excluded from UF meetings where discussions about BDS took place, citing being “forced to wait outside of UF for hours” despite being invited to attend. In leaked informal UF minutes, Thim is recorded saying that they “would happily speak on behalf of BDS chair”; it was decided that Johnston, the Chair of BDS, was not allowed in the room. Further, according to UF minutes, Thim was asked by McNally to hold a vote on the matter as is standard practice. Thim then proceeded to hold a vote, as requested. Afterwards, the vote decided that Johnston was not to be allowed in the room, despite being told to come to UF by the President in anticipation of him being allowed to speak. UF minutes have also been “delayed and withheld”, according to Smyth, who raised concerns about the President’s “use of going on and off camera” (“on camera” means the parts of UF that are recorded).
Allegations of Undemocratic Actions
In an interview conducted by The University Times on July 4th at the start of Thim’s term, the President stated they were looking to “take more steps to democratisation” so “people have as much transparency about what officers are doing and pushing union in new directions” and when asked if they were to change anything about the Union, they said they would “push it further along that [democratic] line”.
The President specifically cited “posting every day” to increase transparency, referring to posting daily updates about their work as President on their personal Instagram story. This was something, at the time, they said they would “like to continue doing” to “put [their] money where [their] mouth is”. By July 15th, the updates became weekly, then biweekly on August 17th, August 30th, and September 15th, the latter of which was the last time updates were posted.
Officers also described UF as “hostile”, with four officers mentioning the President tolerating shouting from another PTO. Smyth reported feeling “frozen out” of campaigns and treated “like a tool” in campaigns as opposed to someone “with expertise”. McNally stated she saw “controlling, dictatorial tendencies” from the President. Several officers also reported that the President has a “tendency to refer to colleagues by titles” instead of their names, which was “confusing” and “dehumanising”, according to another PTO. Johnston stated that the President “created a culture where disagreement was suppressed”.
One PTO lodged a formal complaint against the President with the Oversight Commission about two of Thim’s personal friends, who are not in elected Union positions, being given “insider access and roles in campaigns”. They specifically alleged that the President claimed that a campaign idea came from “a member of UF” without identifying them, while later allegedly finding that an unelected friend of the President proposed the idea. The complaint cited Chapter 4.8 of the constitution, requiring that UF “develop, plan, and implement campaigns transparently” and stated that “By outsourcing campaign ideas to someone not on UF, the President has undermined these duties, replacing transparent, accountable structures with informal and unrecorded input”. Smyth also said that friends of the President were “boasting” about the “influence” they had over the Union, and described some of the President’s work as “under the table”.
Campaign Promises
The President’s manifesto was frequently cited by Union officers as a metric for Thim’s “failure to deliver on promises”, as one PTO put it. The President also stated to The University Times on July 4th that they were “definitely wanting to stick by all of [their manifesto]”.
The President’s manifesto highlights accommodation, advocating for “more College-run accommodation” and “change[ing] [the] definition of low-cost accommodation” among other policies through working “with the USI [now AMLÉ] and other civil society groups”. However, Radcliffe said the President had not worked toward this promise, specifically in their “refusal to allow CATU leaflets at Freshers’”. CATU is the Community Action Tenants Union, and Radcliffe said that despite repeated follow-ups by himself and another PTO, CATU was excluded from Union advocacy during Freshers’ week. Radcliffe also said there was “no visible progress on housing or rent campaigns” from the President.
In a run-through of campaign promises in the presence of four Union officers including McNally, Radcliffe, and Johnston, it was stated that the entirety of the “Improving Student Services” section of Thim’s manifesto (advocating for dental services, funding counselling services, gender-neutral bathrooms, and period product provision, among other items) had “no visible work product” from the President.
The manifesto also stated that Thim would bring back the student handbook, which was a document of tips and advice implemented at the start of the academic year, most recently by President László Molnárfi (2023/2024). This handbook was never made, and the officers had “never heard of it”. The manifesto also advocates for “Ensure[ing] the SU website is constantly and consistently maintained and kept up-to-date and accessible”. However, the Part-Time Officer and Faculty Convenor page has not been updated to reflect the elections that took place in April. Thim also advocated for more kettles and an SU fridge, and one PTO said that there were no new kettles but “there is a new fridge– in Seán’s office”. However, as far as work on student spaces, the President did conduct a student space survey at St. James’s Hospital on August 30th, according to their roundup reports on Instagram.
In the July 4th interview, Thim stated that to increase Union transparency and democracy, they wanted “More town halls, [to] increase engagement in everything the union operates, [and have] more consultation, [and] more transparency”. To date, no town halls have been scheduled. Smyth said Thim was “violating the principles of transparency they ran on”.
In the same interview, the President mentioned a survey with the Commuters officer regarding the pedestrianisation of College Green, which, according to one PTO, they “heard nothing about the results of”.
Johnston said in a final statement that the President had “consistently failed to represent the interests of students who worked for them”, citing a “lack of ambition, lack of foresight, and a lack of principles”. He continued that Thim had “failed to galvanise the power of the student movement, which has grown in recent years.”
An anonymous PTO said, “As a PTO, my positive impact on students is being diminished by being under a President [who is] ineffective”. Adding “My ability to represent students has been overall hindered”. McNally said she would “like the President to step down”, and the head of a major Union adjacent organisation said they would “be happy to see them go” and that “the President is affecting a lot of other people”. Smyth characterised it as a “lack of momentum, lack of plans” and a “hostile work environment”. A Union office committee member said that while they were “peripherally outside of the UF circle”, it “impacts everything without a President who’s available”. They added, “It would be more empowering to do things if we had a President who empowered us”, and “there’s nothing else that can be done [outside of resignation or impeachment]”.
Buster Whaley, Education Officer; Deirdre Leahy, Welfare & Equality Officer; Channing Kehoe, Communications Officer; Aoife Ní Bhriain, Oifigeach na Gaeilge; and Orla Norton, Entertainments Officer; were contacted for comment. The officers all declined to comment on Thim’s presidency or on the content of this article. Whaley, speaking on behalf of the group, said the following in a statement on behalf of the entire sabbatical team (except for Thim themselves):
“As democratically-elected representatives, we are all accountable to the electorate, which in this case means the entire student body. As such, we feel that it is not our place to encourage or discourage discourse among the electorate; furthermore, it would be inappropriate to weigh in on this issue given that we, too, have been elected to these positions, and are separate in that regard from the general student body.”
After a request for comment from The University Times, Thim made the following statement:
“I have been on a period of medical leave since last Friday, and will remain on leave for the coming week or so in order to prioritise my mental health. This is to deal with a flare up of my dysthymia, which is a form of depression. That I am taking medical leave was communicated to members of Union Forum earlier this week.
I disagree with many of the points raised against me. However, I acknowledge the need to do more to foster a collaborative and productive space within the Union, and I am constantly striving to improve in this respect even as I make mistakes. I am not a perfect president, and I accept that, but I hope to work constructively to rectify tensions within the Union once I am fully recovered.
Mental health is serious, and everyone deserves space to take care of themselves. I wish to be in the best state I can be to execute my duties, and hope to be when I return. I thank the other Sabbatical Officers and Union staff for the assistance they are providing.
I ask for respect for my privacy and wellbeing at this time.”
