In 2009/2010, students staged a sit-in protest in the BLU library complex. Photo: Indymedia
Una Kelly | Online News editor
2009/2010: The youthful fresher days for our current fourth year students, and the year our SU sabbatical officers were occupied with all-night library sit in protests and a volcanic explosion in Iceland threatening to cancel Trinity Ball. What became of that year’s officers after they left House 6? The University Times caught up with Mick Birmingham, Ashley Cooke and Robert Donohoe as they tell us where they are now and impart their pearls of wisdom to the current candidates and those on the verge on graduation.
Mick Birmingham, Ents
Mick finished his finals in May 2012 and then went to work for a company called Scalefront, run by a fellow ex-sabbatical officer, Sean Blanchfield. He left in October to set up his own company, Gigstarter.com. “It will take the mystery out of running concerts, and provide the tools so anyone can do it,” he says. “So I guess I’m sharing my Ents experience and trying to scale it to make a career out of it.”
What were the best and worst parts of your year in office?
“The worst part of my year was the Icelandic Volcano and ash cloud. This happened two days before my ball, and made all the contracts void as they included flights. Luckily we managed to persuade the artists to ferry over, and for that I’ll defend the deal with MCD, because I wouldn’t have been able to fix that on my own, as the artists didn’t have a long term incentive to keep me happy in the way they had to keep MCD happy for future gigs.”
“The best part of the year, was then that ball. Imagine losing your phone, and then finding it. The joy, the relief, then multiply that by a factor of 100, that’s how good that felt. The crowd’s reaction to Dizzie Rascal’s Bonkers was an incredible moment.”
What advice would you give to those currently running for your position?
“Start early, ask for advice from everyone, be humble, delegate to those who have ambitions to run in the future and have reason to perform. Spend all of your budget. Work as many hours as the day gives, it’s not a holiday, you owe those that campaigned and voted for you a lot, deliver on it.
It’s one year, and if you do it right you won’t ever want to do it again, you’ll be exhausted, but it will stand to you.”
What advice would you give to fourth years about to graduate?
“Don’t hermit away, find a balance and enjoy your year. Study smart, not hard; see if you can find essays and notes from people who did the course before, and pass on notes to the year below. Don’t aim for the first, it will kill you, and sure a 2.1 is grand.”
Ashley Cooke, Education
Ashley moved to Edinburgh University to do a PhD as a Marie Curie ESR fellow in theoretical particle physics and is due to finish this year. He does not want to stay in academia and has no idea what’s next for him.
What were the best and worst parts of your year in office?
“The best part of the job was getting to sit at the negotiating table with people who had decades of experience, earned multiples of my salary, had personal assistants and grand offices and then being expected to hold your own against them. It was an amazing learning experience!”
“The worst part was how fast it goes! It’s a cliché but the year goes so fast. Just as you’re settling into the role you’re electing your successor. Then again I was followed in the role by some of the best Education Officers Trinity has seen.”
What advice would you give to those currently running for your position?
“I would say to those running that they should be aware that the problems they’ve identified have been plaguing the SU for years despite having some very competent sabbatical teams and that not everything can be solved in a year. However, I’d say to those that get elected to try to keep their enthusiasm and not become jaded if things don’t go to plan!”
What advice would you give to fourth years about to graduate?
“Enjoy your last year. The first year after can be tough and it’s good to hang on to the friends you’ve made in College.”
Robert Donohoe, Communications
Rob works for a large US-based private equity fund as a compliance analyst. “It’s a very different role than the one I did while working in the Union,” he says. “While it is very different, my experience is that employers are very keen on prospective staff that can demonstrate a more rounded CV than simply saying you have a degree from Trinity.”
Rob was a fourth year law student when he decided to run for what was then the position of Deputy President. He told us in detail about his year in office:
“I wanted to introduce change to the student media. Up until then the newspaper that was edited by the Communications Officer was the Record. The paper was seen by some as a students’ union hack newsletter, which was soft on the Union and contained lots of in-jokes.
I ran on the platform of remaking the paper, putting it at arm’s length from the Union, and redeveloping its editorial style. The race was a two horse one and after a long and tough campaign I was elected. In the period between election and taking office I was planning with the few staff we had on creating a totally new paper.
It may seem hard to believe now, but we found it very hard to get staff to work on the new paper, many late nights were spent in the office pleading with people to write something. However, when the paper first launched in Freshers’ Week, we got a very warm reception and started to have more interest from students who wanted to work with us.
After a long year we went to the Irish Student Media Awards, expecting very little, but we managed to take the top award as voted by the Irish Times, which had, up until then, been habitually won by Trinity News. The University Times has since gone on to win that award on two more occasions and I wish it the best of luck this year.
A big thing many current students missed out on about Trinity was the Buttery bar; before it was a coffee place it was a full service student bar. It used to be a great location to hold small gigs and to hang out in the winter when the Pav was too cold. However, when Barry Murphy became Ents Officer he shut the bar down because he felt it was unprofitable, as far as I know the Union still holds the license and was exploring ways to use this license in another venue.
During my year as an officer of the Union, we staged a sit in of the library to protest the cut in the budget. We went in just before closing and sat on the ground and told the staff that we were protesting. We remained for the night. One of the best things about the year as Communications Officer was the people I met and friends I made, not least the four other sabbatical officers; Conan, Ashley, Cormac, and Mick, all of whom did wonderful things for the students of Trinity.”
The University Times hopes to interview the other two 2009/2010 sabbatical officers in our next print edition.
