This evening saw candidates in students’ union head to Dartry to be grilled by their counterparts from the Trinity Hall Junior Common Room (JCR) in the final hustings of the campaign season.
First-year presidential candidate Giovanni Li made up a significant portion of his year group in the room as few Halls residents actually turned out for the hustings. The crowd was primarily made up of campaign teams and former JCR members revisiting their old haunt.
A unanimous highlight of the evening was Li’s fluid switch to Gaeilge during his questions. He was the only presidential candidate to speak in Irish. The Irish language officer, Pádraig Mac Brádaigh, could be heard clicking in agreement from the back of the room.
In a majority of races, candidates were criticised for not having reached out to JCR officers ahead of their campaigns. John Garvey who currently leads in the welfare race, was accused of not contacting the JCR welfare officer, a position he himself held two years ago, but accepted that the communication may not have reached its intended recipient.
It was confirmed that he had indeed contacted both the JCR president and Ents officer.
Candidates in the education race spent most of their time explaining what various words on their manifestos meant. Conchúr Ó Cathasaigh was asked why he feels generative AI is an important topic for students while Buster Whaley spent so long explaining what modular billing is he had little time to explain how he would achieve it during his short tenure.
The candidates for Ents officer, excluding Finn Hallwood who was not present, were questioned primarily about how they would include first year students in events and ensure that they feel comfortable at events with older students. Yuv Garg was specifically questioned on if he would reach out to the JCR welfare officer to facilitate as ents officer, as he has not communicated with them while he has been the welfare officer on the ents team, to which he responded that his focus is currently primarily on ents but that the JCR committee is lovely and he has much to learn from them.
Orla Norton was asked about her involvement with the French society and if she would reach out to the JCR international officer, considering that international students make up a large portion of Halls residents. Norton responded that she would focus on specific cultural events and “obviously” liaise with the international officer.
Besides Hallwood, sole comms hopeful Channing Kehoe was the only candidate sensible enough to skip the hustings, the point of which was unclear even to those who did attend.
Both University Times Editors fielded questions regarding first year student’s lack of engagement with student journalism, despite there being seemingly no unique barriers for first years wishing to get involved in student media.
Ó thaoibh Gaeilge de, mheabhraigh Niamh Leddy agus Aoife Ní Bhriain ar cad atá ag spreagadh iad chun an obair crua a bhaineann leis an dtroid ar son ceártaí Ghaeilge a dhéanamh. Labhair Aoife faoin a hóige trí mheán an Gaeilge, ag rá gur “slí beatha í an Gaeilge” di. I gcomparáid le seo, chur Leddy béim ar an slí nár thógadh í trí Ghaeilge, agus an chaoi nár d’fhreastail sí ar Gaelscoil fiú – ag rá go bhfaigheann sí a hinspioráid ón dtacaíocht atá aici ag foghlaim Gaeilge orthaí féin agus lena chairde.
Following the end of proceedings, JCR members blasted jazz from a speaker too loud to be heard over, presumably to prevent discussion among attendees about the quality of their questions.
With reporting by David Wolfe, Annabelle Wadeson, Charlotte Kent, Emily Ní Shíocháin, and Faye Madden.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this article stated that Garvey was “falsely” accused of not contacting the JCR welfare officer. According to the officer, Garvey “contacted a welfare email that is no longer in service but was at the time of his term as welfare office [sic]. As you can deduce this means he did NOT successfully contact the welfare officer (myself) and made no further attempt”. Trinity News apologises for this error, which has been amended.
