UCDSU Welfare Officer Eoghan MacDomhaill has stated in a Facebook post tonight that he is backing the impeachment of UCDSU President Katie Ascough. The post comes in the middle of the referendum as voting has already taken place and will continue tomorrow. The statement is a vast departure from another Facebook post a number of weeks ago when he said he would defend the president. MacDomhaill makes reference to this post saying “A few weeks ago, before this whole impeachment thing even started, I put up a status defending Katie in her role as president. I did this because I wanted to help protect my friend, someone who I thought was being vilified for her mistakes”.
MacDomhaill was the only sabbatical officer not to take annual leave to campaign for impeachment but did support the move.
MacDomhaill goes onto explain how he came to support the impeachment following Ms Ascough’s campaign. “Since the campaign launched and article after article came up I felt as though the circus would never end. In the beginning it was just weird with articles about boojum and thing like that and I was still happy enough in my decisions, however when articles come out referencing myself and the other sabbatical officers as sexists and liars, well at that point you begin reflecting on your life choices”.
Mr MacDomhaill states that Ms Ascough’s accusation that the college papers were biased was “the final nail in the coffin” adding “I’ve had my share of unfavorable article in both already, is that a bad thing? Were they wrong to do it? Absolutely fucking not! Media are here to hold elected officials to account, they inform everyone about the facts of the matter, so far neither paper have been asked to retract any information they’ve printed i.e its all being factually true. Giving out that they are printing too much true shit about you is like arguing that the polio vaccine was wiping out polio too well.”
The other three sabbatical officers have also come out in support of impeachment with all three writing open letters to the students of UCD whose statements can be read here and here. Eoghan MacDomhaill’s full statement can be read here.
Voting will continue tomorrow in Arts, Science, Ag. Science amongst other faculties across campus. The counting is expected to begin around 8pm tomorrow evening with a result expected around 11pm.
Rachel O’Neill
