TCD FINES STUDENTS €200k OVER PROTESTS
IRELAND’S top university has fined its student union more than €200,000 over protests on campus.
Regarded as Ireland’s most prestigious university, Trinity College Dublin fined its undergraduate student union €214,285 after a series of demonstrations about fees and rent as well as pro-Palestinian solidarity protests.
The students’ decision to blockade access to a key tourist attraction on the campus was cited as one of the reasons for the fine.
Visitors were prevented from accessing the famous Long Room library during the protests. It also prevented tourists from viewing the Book of Kells, which is considered to be a national treasure.
The president of the students’ union accused senior management at the university of “an ill-fated attempt” to threaten and suppress its protest.
Laszlo Molnarfi said: “Our fight for
Palestinian liberation and to make our university adopt the principles of boycott, divestment and sanction has seen us blockade and take disruptive action which is now being criminalised, essentially.”
The union was issued with an invoice for “partial losses” incurred as a “result of disruption to normal TCD operations”.
Five dates between September 13 and March 13 are listed on the invoice, with payment due on May 30.
Mr Molnarfi compared the reaction of the university to ongoing protests in the US.
The student activist said he and others had been called for a disciplinary hearing with the junior dean.
In a statement, Trinity College said it is a not-for-profit organisation that cannot “survive solely on Government funding and depends on other sources of income”.
It said the income generated from the Book of Kells is “vital to keep the university going” and that it supports initiatives such as student services and the student hardship fund
“Any loss of income at the Book of Kells Experience directly affects our ability to deliver services for our students, not to mention our legal obligation to financially balance the books,” they added.
THERE are plenty of familiar streets carrying the name O’Connell Street across the island of Ireland.
Beyond our main thoroughfare, you’ll find streets honouring the man they called ‘The Liberator’ in Sligo, Cork and beyond.
Perhaps most fittingly, there’s O’Connell Street in Cahersiveen, his hometown.
Undoubtedly the most famous Irishman in the world in his day, O’Connell is even honoured with a street name as far away as Australia.
The name is revered even today, with President Obama telling crowds on
College Green of the famous man.
He said: “Frederick Douglass, an escaped slave and our great abolitionist, forged an unlikely friendship right here in Dublin with your great liberator, Daniel O’Connell.”
Of course, his name also recalls the very impressive statue by John Henry Foley, which looks down over O’Connell Bridge and shows him standing tall, clutching the Act of Catholic Emancipation.
Yet when that statue was first unveiled in
THE capital’s main thoroughfare was once called Sackville Street until its name was changed on May 5, 1924.
It was renamed O’Connell Street after the Catholic emancipator, Daniel O’Connell, whose monument stands at the top of it.
Deemed the most famous Irishman in the world, O’Connell is even honoured in Oz.
So to mark the 100th birthday tomorrow, historian DONAL FALLON (left) recalls how it came to be, in a new Irish State looking to put its very own stamp on the nation.
1883, it stood at the top of a street with a different name entirely: Sackville Street. What we now know as O’Connell Street was called Sackville Street from its creation in the 1700s to its name change on May 5, 1924.
Map
Sackville Lane is one of the last clues on a map that Dublin’s main street went by a different name before. It’s not surprising that the new Irish state wanted to put its stamp - quite literally - onto things in the 1920s.
New stamps, new currency (not until 1928), and a
new green paint to cover up the very British post boxes that dotted our streets.
The first postbox painted stood - and still stands where Dame Street meets Palace Street, right outside Dublin Castle.
Changing street names was one relatively easy way to shape the identity of a newly independent Irish capital.
The only thing that stood in the way were the city ratepayers, who could petition against a name change if they felt it would hurt commercial interests.
So shops which had been several generations on Capel Street - and advertised