President:
Edmund Heaphy | Creative Director
The final day of the first week of campaigning centred around solidification of strategy: both Jasper Pickersgill and Domhnall McGlacken-Byrne made lecture addresses and visited off-campus locations. Both candidates released campaign videos. At six o’clock, they both participated in the disability hustings.
Pickersgill was filmed traversing a rural location in rugby shorts, alongside pigs, horses, bulls, and donkeys. The video, released this evening as part of his campaign, reiterated his manifesto and policy points.
McGlacken-Byrne’s video consisted of him and a number of others running in a race – a take on the classic Chariots of Fire. In the video, he wins the race and oversteps the pier on which the race was filmed, falling into the water. Upon emerging from the sea, he reiterates his manifesto policies.
Both McGlacken-Byrne and Pickersgill once again reiterated the main points of their manifestos at disability hustings, with both of them focusing on the notion of cutting red tape and bureaucracy so that things could get done in the college. Both of them also came equipped with anecdotes and personal stories relating to disability problems in the college – McGlacken-Byrne referenced the fact that both house six and seven, home to the Students’ Union and the Graduate Students’ Union, respectively, were completely wheelchair inaccessible, while Pickersgill spoke about a friend who broke her back and waited over a month for the disability service to assist her in coming to college.
When asked for comment about disability hustings, Pickersgill said: “I was happy with the response at the disability hustings and I believe that I outlined several practical and achievable plans for my time in office that can be easily implemented and will improve the College experiences of those students suffering from disabilities.” Neither McGlacken-Byrne or his campaign responded to requests for comment about today’s campaign issues.
Commenting generally on the day, Pickersgill’s campaign said that they were very happy with the release of the video, saying they set out to outline his policies in a “humorous and appealing way”.
Communications:
Clare Droney | Staff Writer
Communications candidate Samuel Riggs was very positive following his day of campaigning. Riggs told The University Times this evening: “People seem really enthusiastic about someone being elected who will listen to what they want from their SU, and communicate it to the rest of the Exec.” Riggs has continued his strong campaign presence on the ground as well as online. His campaign today focused on “getting to know people, covering every faculty, and hearing their ideas.” As regards his online campaign, Riggs was equally positive and noted his campaign’s growing Facebook presence. Riggs continued to encourage students to get involved in his campaign today by asking them directly what they want from their Communications Officer; some of the answers he has received so far are available on his campaign’s Facebook page.
Fellow Communications candidate P.J. Moloney maintained his strong online presence by posting some key campaign ideas on Facebook last night. He remains positive, particularly regarding the election poll recently conducted by Trinity News, commenting “It’s really interesting how the tone of the campaign has changed since the TN poll appeared.”
Moloney responded to recent criticism regarding his campaign strategy. He told UT, “People are trying to suggest that I don’t really want the job because I haven’t spent my time becoming an SU insider over the last four years. Supporters have been urging me to hit back at this kind of campaigning…My focus today has been on persuading friends and supporters annoyed by this kind of thing to stick to the big picture.”
Moloney says that he sees communications as central to all other SU sabbatical positions and highlights the importance of selecting the right candidate for the role, commenting “if the Communications Officer is not the right guy, with the professional skills, then every other officer’s job is harder.”
The main event of the day for the Communications candidates was an appearance on Trinity FM with current Communications Officer, Leanna Byrne. Riggs enjoyed the radio discussion, commenting “there was some interesting debate, and I’m confident that people will receive the ideas I put out there well.” The podcast will be made available by Trinity FM soon.
When asked about the upcoming UT election poll, Riggs commented, “I’m looking forward to it” and added that he is “feeling positive”.
Looking ahead, Moloney hinted at the possibility of releasing a second campaign video in the coming days. Both candidates were also present at the SU’s first Hustings for disability-related issues in the evening.
Welfare:
Charlotte Ryan & Fiona Gribben | Staff Writers
Today Dan McFadden and his team began campaigning in the Hamilton, moved to the nursing building on D’Olier Street and finished in the Arts Block in the afternoon. While there, Dan and other candidates took part in Fashion Soc’s NSync photo shoot. Key to his campaign is promoting the Welfare services available to students in college through the distribution of welfare cards which Dan says has been “received very well by students”, the general consensus being that there needs to be more awareness of the services available.
The TCDSU Landlord Database has proved the most popular aspect of Dan’s manifesto, reflecting the stress anticipated by many students in the search for accommodation in the coming months. Dan says his vision of Trinity students having “the opportunity to find a reliable landlord and achieve priority in the renting market” has been received extremely positively by students. He also says he is “very happy” with how the campaign has gone so far and intends to continue the same format next week. Asked about the upcoming University Times poll, he says he has no real feelings either way towards it as the most important thing to him at the present is ensuring all students get to know his policies and experience.
Ian Mooney continued his determined campaigning today across College campus. His campaigners were tired after the hectic week so to brighten it up they filmed a flash mob of “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” which had a huge attendance and will be released soon. The lecture addresses continued during the day with more campaigning in D’Olier Street before finishing with the Disability Hustings. Mooney said that it was probably one of the most “grilling” hustings, “which was good because it highlights some of the problems that both candidates and those attending might not be aware of.” Speaking of his experience during the past week, Mooney stated that “enthusiasm has been on the up all week” and felt positive about the coming week.
Education:
Sarah Ledden | Staff Writer
Despite physical and mental exhaustion creeping into campaigns, the unique Friday feeling and sights of the weekend fuelled one last enthusiastic push for candidates and their campaign teams. Katie Byrne specifically praised her campaign team for “keeping such high spirits” despite the tiring process.
Byrne has become gradually more relaxed in her campaigning as the end of the week approached staying primarily on campus today. Speaking to The University Times, Byrne confessed that she is in no way complacent about being uncontested but said she feels “more pressure to impress people and prove to them that she really is the right person for the job” in absence of direct comparisons and competition, admitting that the biggest difficulty of the campaign process is coming to terms with the reality of the amount of work that is potentially ahead of her if she is successful in her campaign.
On the Disability Hustings which took place today, Byrne admitted that she has “no experience with the disability services” but has not been isolated from disability issues, addressing some of the problems voiced at SU Council meetings by students with impairments. One such issue is the difficulty for students with visual or hearing impairments with lecture slides and auditory problems in large lecture theatres. Byrne expressed that lecturers should be obliged to accommodate for these students by making their materials available through more accessible mediums, such as recordings for students with auditory impairments and altering slide arrangements or fonts to combat visual difficulties. Byrne believes that these changes are “very sensible, practical and easy to achieve”, saying she would “love to work with the Disability Officer and services” to make these, and similar, changes possible.
Byrne also spoke out today in defence of the Student Counselling Service (SCS), of which she is a beneficiary. Welfare candidate Dan McFadden had criticised inconsistencies in the Student Counselling Service at both Cumann Gaelach Hustings and again at Disability Hustings, a reproval Byrne felt was “unfair” to make. In her experience with the counselling service, and that of many others she knows of, these inconsistencies were not evident. Byrne appealed for more effectiveness and time to be put into to better promotion of the SCS workshops.
Nearly all candidates greeted the end of Hustings with a sigh of relief as the first week of campaigning came to an official end. Byrne has said she is really pleased with how the week went and how, despite expected irritation from students, she is still being warmly received around Trinity.
Ents:
Patrick Lavelle | Staff Writer
Day 5 was the quietest day so far in the Ents Race, with a reduced presence from all teams around campus. Alex was in the Arts Block from 9.30am, while Ben spent his day in D’Olier Street, the Hamilton and the Arts Block. Finn’s campaign team was not out on campus. Speaking to The University Times, Finn’s campaign manager, Andy, said they were “easing off on in-your-face campaigning”, and “reconvening after the success of Wednesday night” in the Village.
The main event of the day was Disability Hustings. Finn was not in attendance; he later offered a quote to UT stating: “I was never invited to the Hustings nor was there any mention of it in any of the campaign briefs…[I] would have been in attendance had I been informed of it.”
The main issue both Ben and Alex addressed was accessibility for disabled students into nightclubs. Ben said it was an issue he had come across in his time working at club nights, and was one he was very keen to address. Alex said that one of her key manifesto points was using new venues and she felt this would include improving accessibility. The toughest question asked to both of them was in relation to accessibility issues at the Trinity Ball, which both promised to address if elected.
With voting taking place next week, there are sure to be a few tricks up each candidate’s sleeve to attract attention and votes. UT has been advised by a number of campaigners from each team to keep our eyes peeled for surprises on Monday.
Updated at 14:20 to include quote from Finn.
