UCD election called off after cheating by President Aeonghus O Hourihane

by Donal O Liathain - UCD SWSS Sat Mar 02, 2002 04:45 IthinkIm at bigfoot dot com

It wasn't only after the C&E put up posters with Dan Finn's name (Aonghus's rival), it wasnt even after members of Aonghus's campaign team threatend Dan + team, it wasnt after the poster ripping/manifesto destroying that happened again and again, nor after Aonghus errupted with the timeless statement of "this is a load of Socialist bullshit" in reply to a college journalist... but only after the head of the sports department started to hand out leaflets telling people to vote for Aonghus (in return Aonghus would have voted in favour of some controversial issues) Being actively involved in this campaign really showed me how desperate a man can get in order to swing an election.
I almost felt sorry for him.......

Note the word almost.....

by hairy activist - none Sun Mar 03, 2002 23:36 hairyactivist at campus dot ie none none

The article is a bit off the mark. Eamon O'Lionnain is the only other Fianna Fail (KBC) president of UCD students union in recent years. Previous presidents, Carol Fahy, John Nisbet and Ian Walsh were politically independent but to various degrees had the backing of the right wing and establishment L&H.

Now in fairness to Eamon he wasn't as bad as Aengus. Eamon was known to actually do stuff like and he did take part in an occupation of the Customs House over the issue of grants last year.

Aengus in comparison has spent the year attacking his fellow officers without doing any real work on real student issues.

The rest of the elections did take place on Wednesday and they saw the KBC getting kicked out and they saw the heavy defeat of the KBC backed referendum to abolish the ents officer and replace the position with and ents manager. This defear showed that students want a union to fight for their interests not some sort of business.

Anyway in a few weeks students will have their cahnce in UCD to get the KBC out of the students union when the presidential election is rescheduled. Lets hope they decide to oust Aengus and the KBC and reclaim the union for students.

by Finghin Kelly - Socialist Youth UCD Mon Mar 04, 2002 17:31

This shows the extent the careerist rump of the Union is will to go in order to assure their grip on power. Hourihane knew his campaign was destined for defeat, Dan Finn was putting in an excellent campaign and was winning over the students. At one of the hustings Hourihane was booed and jeered at for admiting to be a member of FF. He knew that his demise was on the cards.

An indication of the defeat that he probably would have recieved was when his referendum was overwhelmingly defeated, despite FF putting O'Lionnan in charge of the YES campaign. This referendum proposal would have aboloshed an elected position and replaced it with an unelected and unrepresentative manager. Even Ag Science, once a FF stronghold voted NO!
Róisín Tierney Crowe FF candidate for Education office was also humiliated at the polls, she was dumped out in the 1st count with the winner recieving nearly a third over the quota.

The writing on the wall for the KBC, students are beginning to kick out the careerist Fianna Fail. But we can't be complacent, The KBC will fight back. Students should vote No.1 for Dan Finn, and other genuine candidates in April to insure that the careerist are kept out of the union.
Then the fight for a democratic militant students' union can begin!!

by silo Mon Mar 04, 2002 19:31

some clarifications:

1. I did not have all the details at the time of posting the original story, I apologise for leaving out the other details (candidate names, incident invoilving sports centre etc.)

2. hairy activist said "Previous presidents, Carol Fahy, John Nisbet and Ian Walsh were politically independent but to various degrees had the backing of the right wing and establishment L&H." As far as I am aware, Carol Fahy and Ian Walshe were members of Labour and John Nisbet was a member of Fianna Fail.

3. hairy activist said "Now in fairness to Eamon he wasn't as bad as Aengus. Eamon was known to actually do stuff like and he did take part in an occupation of the Customs House over the issue of grants last year." Eamonn was the president who deliberately made sure that the independent students' union media (The University Observer) was run by favourable candidates in contravention of both the wishes of the students as expressed in a referendum and the letter of the law in the Students' Union constitution. He has done far more than any other president to deliberately make sure that students *don't* know what's being done in their name. For example, the referendum on an ents manager (which was defeated) had the backing of the union, who expected to win by simply not informing people of any of the issues. The 'no' campaign was essentially run by two concerned students with some mopney for photocopying.

by John C. - UCD student Tue Mar 05, 2002 13:29

Congrats to Paul Murphy, the rest of Socialist Youth and the others who campaigned for a No vote. If it wasn't for their hard work we'd be faced with a less democratic union.

by Cian O'Callaghan - UCD Labour Tue Mar 05, 2002 18:40 redcian at hotmail dot com

I'd just like to add to some of the comments already made and in particular I think that Paul Murphy and his comrades did an excellent job in running the no campaign in UCD.

However just on the issue of political affiliation John Nisbet has never been a member of a political party, and Ian Walsh was and is not and never has been a member of the Labour Party to the best of my knowledge. Now I know that not everyone likes Labour but to say that Ian Walsh was a member is a bit harsh!

It is true that Carol Fahy was a member of UCD Labour, I don't think she was ever particularly active and all the Labour members that I knew at the time certainly didn't back her for president - Most of them voted for the socialist candidate Terry Connolly.

All the same its great to see the KBC losing their ground.