Jack Leahy | News Editor
A campaign to achieve a pro-United Ireland mandate in Queen’s University Belfast Students’ Union (QUBSU), launched earlier today, has collected the requisite number of signatures to force a referendum, The University Times understands.
Over 700 signatures were collected today by the Queen’s branch of Sinn Féin with a view to calling a referendum on the union’s stance on a united Ireland. This equates to more than 2.5 per cent of the 24,000 student population in the university – the amount required by the QUBSU constitution to call a referendum.
The QUB branch of Sinn Féin made the announcement this morning that its members would be collecting signatures during QUB Freshers’ Week with the view of holding a referendum on the issue.
QUBSU is now expected to call a referendum in accordance with its constitution, meaning all QUBSU students will have the opportunity to vote on its union’s engagement with the issue of a united Ireland. The union’s current position with regard to the matter is neutral.
The move is expected to prove controversial. In May, a motion submitted to QUBSU council called for a ban on the sale of Remembrance Day poppies in the union, citing the interests of ‘inclusivity’ and avoiding offence.
Claiming that poppies were “contested symbols” and represented “military triumphalism”, then-QUBSU councillor Sean Fearon proposed the motion, which necessitated an elevated security presence at the meeting.
The motion was defeated by 40 votes to 15, but not before considerable national and international media attention, briefly reviving wider debates about sectarianism and the role of students’ unions in divisive issues of identity.
Fearon, who proposed the motion to the council meeting, is also understood by The University Times to be a member of QUB Sinn Féin and involved in the collection of signatures.
Fearon’s sister Megan is a Sinn Féin Member of the Legislative Assembly for the Newry/Armagh constituency.
In a post on its Facebook page, QUB Sinn Féin said that reigniting the debate had the potential to spark ‘a much broader discussion’ on the future of the island:
‘Highlighting and discussing the positives of ending partition among the 24,000 students at QUB has the potential to spark a much broader discussion on what the future of our island could look like.
‘A United Ireland is not just a republican pipe dream. It is in everyone’s interest, no matter their age, gender, sexuality, race, religion, nationality, background, or identity’.
QUBSU president Ciarán Gallagher has not responded to multiple requests from The University Times for comment. Chairperson of the youth wing of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) Clíona McCarney, however, was unimpressed with what she sees as “a sectarian head-count that benefits nobody” when she was contacted by this newspaper earlier today:
“I think this kind of debate is absolutely unhelpful, there are so many other things that our SU should be campaigning on without getting caught up in a sectarian head-count that benefits nobody.”
She went on to say: “For example; cuts to higher and further education across the island of Ireland and also the potential of increased fees at Queen’s. There are a plethora of other issues that our union should prioritise and we should leave the party politics out of the SU.”
