A delegation of about 60 students marched today under the TCDSU banner in the annual March for Choice. The students assembled from 12:30 at House Six from where they proceeded to march through the opened Front Gate to the Gardens of Remembrance to join the rest of the march. The march proceeded through Dublin city, concluding at Merrion Square during which speakers including Tara Flynn, Annie Hoey and Colm O’Gorman addressed the crowd.
The graduate students’ union was also present during the march. Speaking to Trinity News the GSU said that their group was separate from the SU one, but they were here in collaboration with the SU. The GSU pointed out that they had before received atheir own separate mandate from their own members.
The students’ union formally adopted a pro-choice position two years ago after both a preferendum and referendum were put to the student body. Today’s activities are the first in a more visible campaign undertaken by the SU after the formation of a committee over the summer to look at the issue.
Speaking to Trinity News previously, TCDSU president Lynn Ruane said that the campaign was about “engaging with people coming in, not being out to convert anyone.”
Annie Hoey, USI VP for Equality and Cutizenship, delivered an impassioned speech at the Garden of Remembrance before the March moved off. Hoey said that most students have never had the chance to have their voices heard on the issue of abortion and more specifically the Eighth Ammendment.
Hoey encouraged students to demand their local representatives to make a commitment to repeal the ammendment in the life time of the next government. If they could not do so, Hoey said, then “don’t you dare give them your vote.”
