The first Comhairle of Hillary Term was held at 6.30pm on January 27th, 2026, in the Edmund Burke Theatre.
After the approval of minutes, Grace McNally, the newly elected SU President, delivered her first-ever report, stating that she will focus on the campaigns committee. Following McNally, Buster Whaley, the Education Officer, reported progress on the modular building group, as well as on the first-ever sabbatical elections held without pre-registration, and Welfare and Equality Officer Deirdre Leahy spoke about plans to bring therapy dogs in for the next exam week. Communications & Marketing Officer Channing Kehoe then reported €12,000 in revenue generated for the SU, and Orla Norton, the Ents Officer, spoke about Re-Freshers’ week events, which raised €500 for the Red Crescent, as well as upcoming events during this week’s RAG Week, with plans to raise €10,000 for the Irish Cancer Society. Aoife Ní Bhriain, Gaeilge Officer, shared the Union’s plans for next week’s Seachtain na Gaeilge (Irish Language Week) at Trinity. Charlie Hastings, Editor of the University Times, also delivered his report, sharing that the University Times won Best Student Publication in Ireland for 2025/26, as well as three other awards at the SPA Regional Awards held last Friday.
After the reports, Comhairle moved to “Items for Noting”, and the Oversight Commission (OC) Chair, Aaron Groome, presented a report on the Editor of the University Times. Groome said the constitutional obligations of the Editor that had not been fulfilled, including three reports that had been submitted to Comhairle late and a breach of the agreed-upon budget. The chair then recommended a motion of censure, which was subsequently brought to Comhairle by Mary Groome, because “two out of three of his [constitutional] duties aren’t being upheld”.
Speaking against the motion, Charlie Hastings apologised for the late reports, stating that while he “did explain to the OC why they were late, the OC has claimed that they do not know what needs to be contained in these reports”. Hastings also claimed that Groome had known and acknowledged that the reports were going to be late in advance
Aaron Groome, speaking in favour of the motion, restated his arguments that two out of three of the editor’s constitutional duties had not been fulfilled adequately. Deputy Editor of the University Times, Harper Alderson, then spoke against the procedural motion calling on the Comhairle to protect the power and the meaning of censure: “Don’t waste the power of censure on something as trivial as this”. She also noted that the message this censure would send would be a censorship of the UT. The procedural motion was then voted on by the union and failed to pass.
Grace McNally, previously Health Sciences Convenor, urged people to run for the Postgraduate and Undergraduate Health Sciences Convenor posts. Kate Grogan was nominated by McNally and automatically elected as undergraduate convenor, while no one stepped forward for the post of Postgraduate Convenor. Two candidates stepped forward for the post of an annual member of the Electoral Commission (EC), and Maureen Loftus was elected for the post.
A procedural motion was raised to debate motion C – Replacement of the Trinity Joint Honours (TJH) Committee Postgraduate Representative with a Mature Students’ Representative. The procedural motion passed, and Stephen Boyd spoke in favour of the motion, stating that it’s better to have a Mature Students’ Representative in the position rather than a Postgraduate, as Trinity doesn’t offer TJH on postgraduate level. Chaya Smyth noted that there is no guarantee that the mature student would be a TJH student. The motion passed, with the election due to be held later at the Comhairle.
The elections continued as Anna Moore was elected Officer for Students with Disabilities. Later, three people stepped forward for the post of Commuters’ Officer, and Sam Brooks was elected. Three students then nominated themselves for the position of International Students Officer, with Aman Bansal being elected. Grace McNally urged students to join the Campaigns Committee, with 5 positions open for OCM’s, four people were elected automatically. The newly created TJH Mature Student’s representative position was also open for nominations, no one nominated themselves, and it remained vacant.
The Motion on LTP Referendum on Modular Repeats, proposed by Buster Whaley was then brought to Comhairle. The referendum would pose the motion that TCDSU/AMLCT support the implementation of college policy that allows students to repeat individual modules while retaining “on-books” status, and that students are charged on a per-module basis, rather than full fees, while the second policy would involve the ability to “carry” failed credits while progressing to the next academic year. Whaley spoke in favour of the motion, stating that the first policy could potentially be implemented by next year. The motion passed unanimously.
The Motion to revise the Oversight Commission (OC), due to multiple proposed amendments, was interrupted by the procedural motion K, to be revised at the next UF and debated at the following Comhairle. The procedural motion was then withdrawn. Eve Martin, the proposer of the motion, explained that it would introduce two biennial members to help the OC with work and retain institutional knowledge, as well as introduce impartiality and conflict of interest clauses. The motion passed.
The motion to give access to the Trinity Recording Studio to Music Undergraduate students was then brought to Comhairle, with the proposer acknowledging that music students need such facilities to complete their assignment. This motion passed unanimously. The Motion for Establishing a Social Supermarket Initiative was then proposed by Lorenzo Cheasty, who noted that similar initiatives found success both abroad and within Ireland, citing the example of DCU’s “pantry”. Cheasty also answered questions about the cost, stating it “would cost students very little” as Trinity already has the infrastructure, and that “it depends on what we see as the most viable way of doing it, based on research. After a procedural motion to sum up and vote passed, the motion also passed. The Motion on Establishing the Contraception and Abortion Welfare Fund (CAWF) did not pass but was referred to the UF for further amendments.
The Motion for the Review of the BDS Terms of Reference – renew the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) Committee with certain changes. Seán Radcliffe proposed the motion and yielded his speaking time to BDS Chair Harry Johnston. An amendment was proposed by Aoife Ní Bhriain, SU Gaeilge Officer, concerning the Oifigeach na Gaelige’s obligations to carry out translation duties during BDS meetings. The motion passed. The next motion of Support for Student Housing Cooperatives was raised by Lorenzo Cheasty. This motion would mandate support for internal and external housing cooperatives from several SU officers. Harry Johnston spoke against the motion, acknowledging the housing crisis, nevertheless stating that “the job of the SU is to advocate for the improvement of housing, not to provide it”. The motion passed.
The Motion to Pass the Review and Renewal of the CATU MOA was raised by Grace McNally, moved to a vote, and passed. The final motion of the day was on the Creation of a Sexual Violence Taskforce, which was mandated at last year’s emergency Comhairle, following the effigies campaign, but has only now been brought to Comhairle. The motion passed.
With that the first Comhairle of the year was brought to a close, only four minutes overtime.
