University College Dublin Students’ Union has voted at Union Council tonight to join the Boycott of The Irish Times. The Union is now prohibited from sharing articles of The Irish Times after a clear majority voted to pass the motion.
Proposed by the class rep for mechanical engineering, stage 2, and seconded by the UCDSU President Ruairí Power, the mandate claimed that: “The Irish Times has been platforming an anti-trans agenda with numerous articles and letters to the editor attacking the trans community being published by the newspaper.” as well as condemning the spread of “medical misinformation and scaremongering” in the newspaper.
As a result of the mandate, the Students’ Union must join the boycott of The Irish Times started by the Trans Writers’ Union in August, which calls for The Irish Times to “withdraw and apologise for their recent conversion therapy article, published August 9, 2021.” and for “The Irish Times take practical, committed steps to adopting a trans-inclusive editorial line.”
Joining the boycott prohibits the Union from sharing, promoting or distributing any articles published by the Times, and the stocking, advertising or working in any commercial way with the national newspaper. As well as forbidding the Union from interacting with the newspaper in a commercial sense, the mandate calls for the sabbatical officers of UCDSU to write to the current editor of The Irish Times “to communicate UCDSU’s stance” as determined by the new mandate.
The staff of UCDSU must now “consider the effect The Irish Times has had on trans students when providing any future comment to them and that they work with other Student Unions on a coordinated approach to this issue [sic].”
At the same Union Council, the Students’ Union also voted in favour of the Union working to provide a food bank for students, saying that “the financial pressures [on students] have been exacerbated by ongoing student accommodation crisis” leading to the necessity of a food bank for students.
Hugh Dooley – News Editor
