Hailing from New York, Patrick Keegan is one of three candidates running for the SU presidency this year. He is currently the international students officer of the union, as well as being in his second term as business school convenor.
When I met with him for this interview, he was wearing a black wristband reading “Save Gaza”; fitting for the incumbent chair of Trinity Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) group.
In an interview with Trinity News, the junior sophister business and politics student described activism as almost “almost no free time”.
Keegan is bubbly and energetic, if that energy comes across a tad nervous at times. His enthusiasm for his work shone through in the urgency that accompanied his answers to questions, often cutting them off towards the very end in his eagerness to share his proposed plans for the union.
He came to be involved with the union when he ran for class representative in first year “on a whim”.
During his first interactions with the union, he realised “that it could actually get stuff done and kind of change things. Because, you know, [like everyone] in Trinity… as time goes by, you discover all of the problems.”
Keegan was motivated to run for president by his belief that: “The best way that I can actually change [these problems] is by continuing the campaigns. And for me, there’s no better position than president to actually be able to run those campaigns to fight for students’ rights.”
When asked why he thinks he would be a good fit for the role, he highlighted his “experience in planning direct actions and planning protests, in lobbying college and just all around planning campaigns.”
He believes his vast range of experience sets him apart from the other candidates: “I have the experience of basically going to the table at College and negotiating on issues, and also going to plan direct actions to basically force the college to that negotiating table.”
Regarding the present state of the union, he said: “We have grown a lot in the past few years… I think we’re on an upward trajectory at the moment, and we have a lot of potential to actually, you know, enact change.” He wants to “continue building the momentum” within the union, working in the same vein as his predecessors, Maguire and Molnárfi.
When asked what he thinks of his opponent Seán Thím Ó Leary’s petition to impeach then-president László Molnárfi in March 2024, Keegan said that he was not involved in that petition, and that he felt Molnarfi’s commitment to direct action was “very effective at actually getting stuff done.”
Keegan is heavily focused on direct action himself, describing it as having the dual purpose of being both fun and effective. He wants to see more of it carried out by the union: “The point of direct action is to disrupt the usual flow of activities… It forces people to pay attention.”
“I think there’s, like, an inherent kind of power imbalance between the college and the students, where the college has the power. But through direct action, through that momentum, we actually kind of upend that power imbalance and make it such that the college will listen to us.”
As president, Keegan wants to lobby College to install a “blue light” system on campus “that is standard in many colleges across the world” but is “absent in Trinity”.
His vision for the system is that it “would look kind of like a lamp post. Basically, you press the emergency button [and] from there, you’re contacting security automatically to send to your location.”
He acknowledged that while Trinity has the SafeZone app which may serve a similar purpose to the proposed blue light system, if you don’t have it downloaded or if your phone is dead, you can’t use it.
When asked whether he thinks on-campus security is a pressing issue, he said: “I don’t think it’s a crazy huge issue, but I think that in terms of the security, if there is any issue there, it’s something that the college must address.”
Keegan also wants to convert the former Jolt Cafe into a new student space. He acknowledged that, while this action is not the top priority considering the underfunding of other schools, it would constitute a “small kind of move in terms of a wide range of student spaces”.
“That’s the most ready-to-go student space you could have”, he said, referring to the fact that the space already meets fire safety requirements and should require no renovations.
Keegan is already mandated to lobby for this conversion as business school convenor, at his own proposal, but wants to pursue the idea further as president, believing that the conversion could take up to two years.
Though uncertain on specifics, Keegan also wants to organise a referendum that would streamline the union’s council meetings.
He hopes to hold consultations with students before deciding on exact changes: “What works for one student may not work for another student, so it’s important to have that conversation before we actually would bring anything to council.”
He suggested moving the election of part time officers online “so you don’t have to worry about managing it during comhairle [council]”: “When it comes to election time, that’s just a huge mess and could be off-putting to new students who are getting involved with the students union for the first time.”
Keegan emphasised the importance of upholding the democratic nature of the union, not just in the council referendum, but in everything it does: “Even if there was a long term policy [that students wanted to implement] which I would disagree with, I would still invest in my ability to advocate for that issue, because it’s up to what the students decide.”
“I don’t see it as the students’ union president can take any unilateral decision; any decision the students’ union makes in terms of campaigns, etc., must be democratically decided on by students.”
He is “very glad” that the recent constitutional referendum passed, and he thinks it is “a net positive for the union”: “I think that unions are political and that we must be political.”
“I think that it’s important that students have that democratic option to decide. I don’t think that students should be denied the option to take a position in terms of no confidence [in the government].”
“If somebody says… oh, you’re gonna affiliate with political parties – no we’re not. That’s not the exact thing. It’s about taking a stance against, not for.”
Referring to his own involvement with Ógra Shinn Féin, he said: “My party membership won’t be something that’s affecting my leadership.”
“I am an activist first and foremost and I view my party involvement as a simple matter by which I can actually channel that activism and try to enact change.”
