The University Times sat down with Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU/AMLCT) President Grace McNally to discuss the start of her term. McNally was elected on November 28th via the union’s first-ever by-election (in recorded union history), following the resignation of former president Seán Thim on October 31st. McNally officially began her term on December 1st.
When asked how she was adjusting to her new role, McNally said it was going “very well”. She expressed some nervousness about her progress, but noted that “every other sabbat gets July and August to get into things”, and was grateful for the time during the winter break period to get adjusted. She described the first teaching week of this semester as an “explosion”, but said that the other sabbatical officers were “supportive and aware” of her situation, and “made it easy [for her] to not feel like an imposter”.
McNally specifically pointed to the union’s campaign committee, which she said had been relatively inactive under its former leadership, and expressed that she was “looking forward to getting things done” and that “they [were] all ready”.
When asked about what she hoped to accomplish, McNally said, “one of the biggest reasons I ran was to represent my faculty”. McNally was a health sciences student and studied nursing before being elected as TCDSU president. She described the faculty as a “very underrepresented and unsupported group of students”, adding that she wants them to know “there is someone there for them”. She also said she was “hoping to get a lot of campaigns done”, but added that “there is so much more to the job than [she] realised”, and that she was “okay with spending the next few months getting the union into a better position than it was”. She also said that she hoped that whoever is elected to the presidency next year is “ready to jump into campaigns”.
The University Times also asked McNally what she would change about TCDSU, and she said she wanted to empower class reps. She specifically noted that she is currently working on a project with the Chair of the Electoral Commission, Bailey Armstrong, to “pull them into the union” and show them “how much they’re capable of and can do”. She also said she wanted to uplift members of the Union Forum because “they unfortunately didn’t get the year they deserved”. She said: “Everyone has different opinions on what the union needs and deserves. I want everyone who has been working so hard all year to get what they deserve.”
McNally was then asked about challenges facing the union, and the University Times pointed out that in a similar interview, former president Thim said it was “distrust”. McNally said: “There is always going to be distrust, even in terms of societies or clubs, and that’s okay, it’s our job to do everything we can to support students.” She said, “it always [comes] from a place of support and goodness, and never maliciousness, at least with the past two presidents. I understand sometimes you don’t agree with campaigns, groups, or protests; that’s fine. You’re never going to please everyone. I try my best to support everyone.” She ended, “I don’t mind if you don’t trust me, I don’t mind if you don’t like me, I will still go out of my way to help, because that’s why I’ve been elected to this position.”
On specific challenges from her perspective, McNally described “a certain group of students who want to make the union a choice”. She said, “I disagree with that, I felt disappointed by the union all the time in first year, and thought they didn’t care about a random student in St James’s.” She added: “I’m glad I’m in the union, but if they sent me an email like ‘sign up to the union’, I wouldn’t have done that as a fresher.” She said “to make it voluntary brings up a lot of other conversions, people forget, understandably, the foundation [of the union]: students supporting students”. She said “there will always be challenges” but “we will continue working”.
When McNally was asked about things at College she was aiming to change, she laughed and described one of her main causes as “so niche”, but described how “nursing students are being forced to clock in [on the] staff rostering system”. She explained that the system works as an e-pay system for staff to be paid, but said “students don’t get paid” and “get no benefits”. She called it “totally revealing”, and explained that the system means students are treated as staff “queuing with doctors” even though they’re “there to be taught and trained”. She explained that even though the system was condemned at Comhairle, it was “symbolic” and “they never replied to [her]” in her previous role, but now that she is president, she has been able to meet with the college and “finally [make] headway”. She also mentioned reopening the SU Cafe in St. James’s, which she said had been shut down before the COVID pandemic.
McNally also stated: “There’s a lot on my manifesto I know I’m not going to achieve, which I said during my election. It would be ridiculous to think I would.” However, she said the latter two campaigns, against nursing students having to clock in and the SU Cafe, in addition to ending the Coca-Cola contract, were ones she was focusing on. She called ending the Coca-Cola contract “a big priority” so students can “study in a college without any BDS products staring at them”, and added that she was already being “sent on a goose chase by the college”.
At the close of the interview, McNally said she was “really grateful to be in this position”. She said: “Campaigning was really hard, and it got to a point where I was wondering if I was going to be okay and good for this job. I felt so exhausted campaigning and fighting with other people, who each and all have their own fights going on as well. But now that I’m here, I’m being welcomed even by random students on campus, in addition to my team of other sabbats and PTOs, and it’s really exciting. Everyone around me is what’s pushing me.” She ended by saying that she wants to “work with students who felt like they could never reach out to the union before. I was one of them, and I’m really glad I did. I was received so well last year”.
