Tadhg Ó Néil, one of the five Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU/AMLCT) presidential candidates running this year, entered the fifth floor of the Arts block with a searching look on his face and raindrops falling from his hair. We had originally agreed to meet near the front gate of campus to conduct our interview for his presidential campaign, but the torrential weather and lack of seating forced us into a drier spot inside. We searched among the enclaves of the schools of foreign languages for a suitable place to sit and chat before settling into a pair of chairs in a miniature library, snugly tucked under the collected works of Goethe and Kant, where Tadhg discussed his candidacy with me.
Tadhg Ó Néil is a Senior Sophister Computer science, Linguistics and Irish student from Dundalk. Although he has not held any position in the TCDSU before, he emphasised his two years of experience on the committee of the Pirate Party as well as his role as campaign manager for Jacob Barron in the bye-election last year as evidence of his involvement in student politics and events. The Pirate Party is a technology-oriented political student society that strives to oppose censorship and surveillance. When I asked him how some of this experience might translate into his role as President, he spoke about his time in the Pirate Party and reaching out to different organisations like the Free Software Foundation (FSF). Ó Néil said that as president, he would make a similar effort to reach out to local businesses “to create good deals for students” and to help with the cost of living.
Another on-campus event that students may recognise Ó Néil from is the Free Speech Forums he is involved with alongside his friend and now-Comms and Marketing candidate, Jacob Barron. According to Ó Néil, these forums are open debates organised with the intent to tackle issues that other debate societies like the University Philosophical Society (the Phil) and the College Historical Society (the Hist) “weren’t tackling” or “weren’t really tackling the way we would want them to be tackled”. Ó Néil highlighted former debate topics like the right to protest as well as the diverse range of opinions the forums yielded on topics like immigration. When I asked whether Ó Néil thought that the Phil would allow such opinions to be voiced at their events or not, he admitted he was “not super up to date on the Phil” but that “it seems to be the opinion of some other people there that that wouldn’t be a thing they would do”.
Within Ó Néil’s manifesto, there is a clear emphasis on using his presidency to change the culture of TCDSU, which he refers to as one of “bullying and general toxicity”. In our conversation, he specifically referred to the resignation of Seán Thim as well as the general “clique-y-ness” in the union as evidence of this culture. In his manifesto, Ó Néil pledges to take a “zero-tolerance approach” to this culture of bullying and states that it is his “top priority to ensure that the union is a safe place for the students it seeks to protect”. When asked how this zero-tolerance approach would be enacted and how it might conflict with some of Ó Néil’s ideals of free speech, he spoke about cases of “ostracism” and “lies being spread” in the union, which he would wish to put an end to.
Ó Néil also states in his manifesto that he wants to “clean up the union” by reforming its attitude to protests and campaigning. In our conversation, he referred to the disruption of the jobs fair last year and the blocking of Dublin Port by members of the union as examples of protests that harm students. Ó Néil made it clear that he was still in favour of protests on issues that the student body cares about, but that these campaigns should never adversely harm the students themselves, citing the blockade of the Book of Kells as a positive example of student protest.
Given Ó Néil’s attitude toward Thim’s resignation and student protests, one might guess that the candidate would fall into a natural conflict with Trinity Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions (BDS). However, Ó Néil’s thoughts on BDS seemed mostly positive. He clarified that he was “very much pro-Palestine” and that he thought that “they’ve [BDS] achieved many of their goals and some of them have been great”.
One issue that has come up frequently in the last two presidential elections is membership in TCDSU. As it stands, Union membership is mandatory, and its managing costs are covered by fees paid by the students. Ó Néil stated that he plans to advocate for an “opt-out” membership plan for the union, where all students would automatically be made members of the union, but that they would have the option to leave if they so wish, a right which is currently not available. In our interview, Ó Néil explained his reasoning behind this attitude, stating he believes that “it’s just completely immoral that people should be forced to be a member of any organisation for any reason that they don’t want to”. This has been a hot-button issue for a while now, with organisations like Freedom for Students advocating for an optional membership. When I asked Ó Néil about Freedom for Students and whether he was ever a member, he clarified that membership of Freedom for Students was “not a thing” but that he was in their group chat because “it’s where the wacky people in college go” and it was fun to talk to them.
Another pledge made in Ó Néil’s manifesto is to shift focus from wider political issues to more local and manageable solutions to student-specific problems. Ó Néil plans to try to subsidise the Buttery and the Pav to lower costs for students, as well as to increase the presence of on-campus smoking areas. As a student living in Dundalk, Ó Néil also wants to provide better assistance to students with long commutes. I asked Ó Néil what tangible assistance for long-haul commutes would look like from the union, and he answered that “we should be putting pressure on transport companies to have better hours and cheaper services”. He even floated the idea of a TCDSU hostel where students could pay to stay the night, but admitted that it was a very ambitious idea that he “would look into”.
Finally, we ended our conversation by discussing Ó Néil’s advocacy for the Irish language. As a Gaeilgeoir and an Irish student himself, it was clear that the language was very important to Ó Néil. He said that as president, he would hope to increase Irish visibility and signage across campus, believing that “every single thing that’s publicly facing should be in English and Irish” and that he would work with the future Gaeilge officer to do so.
— Update: 16th February 2026, 3:21 pm —
The above article was edited for grammar and tense, in addition to changing the second name of the former president from “O’Leary” to “Thim” . The content of the article has not been changed otherwise.
