In May 2024, during the final weeks of the academic year, Trinity College Dublin Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (TCD BDS) made a post on Instagram announcing that they would be initiating an “encampment” on campus, with a demand that the College “sever every single tie with Israeli institutions”. Tents were erected in front of the Book of Kells Experience, Palestinian flags hung, and negotiations that would continue into the summer were initiated. The move was a reflection of a growing campaign, formerly confined to some of the most elite United States college campuses, that had become an international movement of solidarity and outrage as universities retaliated against student protesters.
Ending on the 8th of May, five days after it began, the encampment was generally considered to be a success, with the College pledging to a “firm commitment” to cut ties with Israeli companies. Student activism — and institutional retaliation against it — had become the front page of every major news outlet. Student activists were gaining international exposure in a magnitude perhaps not seen since the anti-apartheid movement of the 1980s, or the anti-war protests of the 1960s, which likewise engulfed universities. But as summer began, it raised questions: in a school like Trinity, with a vastly international student body, where does the momentum of student activism go during the off-season? How can a movement be continuously advocated for, and promises be held, during a time of disconnect between students and the College?
Harry Johnston, Chair of Trinity BDS, says that while in the past there has been a “gulf between activity” during the academic term and summer, actions like signing petitions, making social media content, and engaging with campaigns online have digitally opened space for non-local students to maintain a connection with and advocate for College and Dublin issues. In this sense, Johnston says that BDS is “democratising and making the movement much more accessible”. It is, however, a constant challenge, he says, not just for BDS, but for all student organising groups to make sure there is a constant outreach to maintain momentum.
During the summer months, Johnston says they typically focus on more national issues, organising in collaboration with student activists from various other colleges. The “Save Our Scholars” campaign that took place between August and September of this year marked a significant win outside of the academic term, with 52 Palestinian students being welcomed to Ireland after pressure from BDS, among other groups, for the government to issue visas to the students. The campaign took place in collaboration with groups from University College Dublin, National College of Art and Design, Dublin City University, the Student Neutrality Front, and Aontas na Mac Léinn in Éirinn. When students see change happening, Johnston says, “they seize it”.
On the 4th of June, 2024, after the encampment had ended, when the College Board called a vote on whether to divest from Israel, Johnston says BDS was able to organise “several hundred people” to come out in support of the motion, which was ultimately a success. The demands of a student-led movement that had stretched outside the boundaries of the academic year had been won. But the work on their end, Johnston says, is far from over. In fact, BDS’s work is piquing students’ interest now more than ever. This year, for the first time, they have a full committee, and so far, more than a hundred students have signed up to be in organising groups. In any case, it is safe to say that student activism at Trinity, despite its association with the college, isn’t tethered to the academic term.
“I think a lot of people expected [BDS] to dwindle or die off slightly as a result of the divestment, because people had thought ‘we’ve got that so we’ve won’, but there is still so much more to fight for.”
