THE UNIVERSITY OBSERVER WOMEN ON WEB ARE ABORTION PILLS SAFE? ORLA KEAVENEY PAGE 10
GRAVITATIONAL WAVES WITNESSING A KILLANOVA AOIFE HARDESTY PAGE 12
1ST NOVEMBER 2017 VOLUME XXIV ISSUE3 UNIVERSITYOBSERVER.IE
POSTCARDS FROM ABROAD EXPLORING SEVILLE ON ERASMUS ISABELLE GERAGHTY PAGE 11
UCDSU PRESIDENT KATIE ASCOUGH IMPEACHED AOIFE HARDESTY EDITOR On Friday morning, the final results of the impeachment referendum were announced at 12.45am. The will of UCD students was clear: SU President Katie Ascough, would be impeached. Overall turnout for voting was 6611, one of the highest in recent years. Some UCD students queued for up to half an hour to vote. 69% voted in favour of impeachment. In her concession speech, Ascough stated, “I have been open and honest in answering very many questions. I have respected the law. I feel confident that I have done all that I could for the students that I am grateful to have been elected to represent. This is a sad day for me but it is also a sad day for our university. Universities should be a place of freedom of speech, freedom of thought, and freedom of association, fairness, respect for those who do not wish to break the law and respect for others with different beliefs.” A yes to impeachment vote was returned from every faculty buidling, even on Ascough’s home turf, Science, where 72% voted yes. A majority yes vote was narrowly
won in Quinn, with 55% in favour, 45% against. The largest turnout was seen in Arts, with 1787 students voting. 77% voted yes to impeachment in Arts and Agriculture, the largest percentage of yes votes for each building. Ascough first became involved in Students’ Union politics when she was part of the campaign Students for Fair Representation. This campaign sought to change the Students’ Union stance on abortion from pro-choice to neutral. They obtained sufficient signatures at the beginning of the 2016/2017 academic year to call for a referendum on the SU stance on abortion. A previous referendum in October of 2013 had resulted in a prochoice stance on abortion. Students for Fair Representation felt that a prochoice union did not fairly represent students who were pro-life or on the fence about abortion. The referendum had a large turnout and 64% voted for the SU to maintain its pro-choice stance. Fast forward to the second semester and Ascough’s presidential campaign began. When questioned, she did not deny her pro-life views, and promised to delegate on matters relating to abortion. However, she did not advertise her pro-life stance, which led to some students voting for her without knowledge of it. Thanks to student engagement, charisma, and ideas for positive change on campus, Ascough gained support. Support for her opposition was split amongst the other three candidates, ultimately strengthening her campaign. Much of the voting took place on the same day as the Strike 4 Repeal which meant that many
pro-repeal students were not on campus. On March 9th Ascough was announced as UCDSU President for 2017/2018. Officially, Ascough became President on 15th June, her 21st birthday. During the summer months, the sabbatical officers got along well with each other, and they ran a successful housing campaign that garnered interest from national media. The good work of the summer came to a head at the end of August, when Ascough, against the wishes of her fellow sabbatical officers, and against the advice of the COO of the union, made an executive decision to remove the Winging It in UCD handbooks from circulation and rewrite its abortion information. Ascough claimed that her reason for making this decision was that providing the abortion information in the handbook would be illegal under the 1995 Abortion Information Act. Written legal advice to Ascough from the SU’s lawyer Richard Hammond advised this route to be the prudent course of action, but in an earlier phone call he had stated he could defend the books in court. He also confirmed that the chances of a case against the union were extremely low as since the 1995 Abortion Information Act, no one had actually been charged for publishing similar information. When the decision to remove the abortion information was made public, a group formed and started a petition calling for an impeachment referendum.
CLAIRE HENNESSY INTERVIEW WITH IRISH AUTHOR AND EDITOR CLAIRE HENNESSY CLAUDIA DALBY PAGE 14
DANCE THE EVOLUTION OF DANCE SAMBHAVI SUDHAKAR PAGE 8
UCDSU TO SUPPORT MARRIAGE EQUALITY IN NORTHERN IRELAND Author: Caoimhe Donnelly A MOTION for the UCD Students’ Union and SU Executive to support the campaign for samesex marriage equality in Northern Ireland was passed unanimously at the most recent Student Council meeting. The motion was proposed by UCDSU Education Officer Robert Sweeney and seconded by Campaigns & Communications Officer Barry Murphy, and should be particularly focused on by the President and the Campaigns & Communication Officer.
In the agenda of the second UCDSU Council meeting, seen by the University Observer, the council noted that the mandate on marriage equality was close to expiring “at a time when not all citizens in the Island of Ireland have the right to equal marriage.” Furthermore, it was recognised that a “large majority of UCD Students support equal civil marriage” and that “the fight for
an individual’s liberty should take precedence over any personal belief or view of individuals or groupings associated to [the SU] or members of the SU.” This last addition ensures that the SU can support marriage equality even if one sabbatical officer does not support it. Additionally, the Council also mandated that an LGBT+ Pride Flag or poster declaring UCDSU’s position in relation to marriage equality be put up “in plain sight at the SU reception desk” to make the Union’s support evident. Currently there is a pride flag hanging from the SU reception desk. The SU is also mandated to work with Students’ Unions in Northern Ireland where possible to further the goal of the mandate. Speaking to the University Observer, Engineering Student Joshua Gorman-Climax stated that “there was upset when Northern Ireland was referred to as a separate country.” It was Gorman-Climax himself who made such a suggestion. Accepting that the SU
BUMP&GRIND INTERVIEW WITH THE DRAMA TROUPE holds a ‘pro-unity’ mandate, Gorman-Climax had atDYLAN O’NEILL PAGE 5 tempted to put a discussion on the agenda to clarify
what this stance entails, however, it was removed from the agenda by the chair of the council. Other motions included in the agenda related to replacing the “limited abortion information provided in this year’s edition of the Winging It handbook in any future similar campaigns.” This motion was proposed by Gender Equality Campaign Coordinator Sadhbh McCarrick and seconded by Stage Two Engineering Representative Paul McGoldrick. The council noted the “disadvantage of not having comprehensive abortion information available on campus during an unplanned pregnancy” and that the “fundamental rights of the members of the UCDSU” were being restricted by the recent retraction of abortion information from the Winging It in UCD handbooks.
FESTIVALS THE ART OF INVERSION RITUALS CONOR CAPPLIS AND AARON COLLIER PAGE 7 1ST NOVEMBER 2017 1