The Central Societies Committee (CSC) has granted Dublin University Rover Society provisional recognition.
Rovers are older scouts – who are typically in their 20s.
The campaign for a Rover Society was first launched in 2017 by Ray Carey, a history student, Peter Herbert, a physics student, and Aoife Brennan, a Spanish and Italian student.
In an email statement to The University Times, Ray Carey said: “We’ve had a lot of interest from both inside and outside scouting circles on campus.”
Carey also acknowledged the help he received from other Rover societies from universities across the country: “We’d also like to thank the Rover Societies, particularly in Maynooth, DCU, and UCC for their help over the last year and a half and are really looking forward to working with them in the future.”
The formation of a Rover Society in Trinity means that University College Dublin and the University of Limerick are the only two universities in Ireland not to have had a Rover Society. Dublin Institute of Technology also has a Rover Society. Queen’s University Belfast and IADT have had Rover societies in the past.
Carey revealed that the Rover Society will seek to “bring a variety of events to college, from film screenings to camping trips to bushcraft skills weekends.” Some noticeable skill that could be learned by the scouts within their bushcraft skills could be sharpening an axe and how to do so safely, wilderness survival as well as others skills.
Students will be able to join the society next Monday in the Arts Block and next Wednesday in the Hamilton. Students will have to pay just €1 to join the society for the rest of the academic year. Details regarding an AGM are expected to be announced soon.
