An estimated 6,000 students, activists and trade union members have attended a rally calling for the protection of student supports and the recognition of education as a public good.
An official headcount from Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) pegged the Trinity delegation at around 250 people, making it the largest student delegation. Students were rallied in Front Square by TCDSU President, Domhnall McGlacken-Byrne, and his predecessor of 25 years Senator Ivana Bacik, before joining other protesters at the Garden of Remembrance on Parnell Street.
The union this morning purchased 500 rain ponchos to offset last-minute withdrawals due to downpours.
Following an initial delay, the march proceeded without incident to Molesworth Street via O’Connell Street, College Green, and Nassau Street. The TCDSU delegation, energised by Afro-Carribean Society drummers, kept the attendant crowds entertained.
The march culminated with a rally across the road from Leinster House, at which students’ union leaders and trade union activists called for the recognition of education as a social good.
The rally was opened by Dublin rapper Temper-Mental MissElayneous, who thanked the crowd for its energy and lamented a “lack of resources” repelling young people from education.
Ronnie Munck of the ‘Defend the University’ charter told students that “whatever problems [they] may have with lecturers harassing [them] for essays, we are on your side”, while Ethel Buckley of SIPTU declared that “education as a public good is worth fighting for”.
Craig McHugh, president of the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union (ISSU), spoke of his members’ anxiety over their future. In an address that proved a crowd-pleaser, he said that “students deserve the right to have something to work for” at second level.
USI President Laura Harmon concluded the rally, asserting that “we gather and campaign and argue because education matters” and pledging to ask Minister for Education and Skills Jan O’Sullivan to “play her part in making sure that education is central to our recovering”.
Acoustic hip-hop group Original Rude Boys then concluded the rally with five songs.
Speaking outside of the rally, Gardaí told The University Times that while they had not attempted a count, 6,000 protesters would represent ‘a good guess’.
Correction: 23:50, October 8, 2014
An earlier version of this article misspelled the surname of the “Defend the University” representative who spoke at the rally. He is Ronnie Munck, not Munk.
Sinéad Baker, Olly Donnelly, Eileen Guinan, Fiona Gribben and Dónal Ring contributed reporting to this piece.
Photo by Jack Leahy for The University Times.
