Simeon Burke’s message against bullying, intimidation and violence supported by hundreds
Issues of freedom, inclusion and respect were front and centre earlier this month after NUI Galway student Simeon Burke entered the race for Vice-President, Welfare & Equality at the Students’ Union.
The second-year Civil Law student threw his hat into the ring at the eleventh hour over his concerns regarding the exclusion and intimidation of those with an alternative viewpoint or belief at NUI Galway.
Burke highlighted that students across campus were telling him, “you are only welcome in the SU [Student’s Union] if you are 110% committed to the promotion of LGBT on campus”.
Running with the slogan “welfare for the many, not the few”, Burke’s campaign literature emphasised that “the welfare of every student should matter”.
“Six years ago when a peaceful table by the Christian Union society was ripped to shreds and death threats made to members, our Students’ Union had nothing to say. Welfare, it seems, only applies to a few.”
“Last year our SU, which is supposed to represent all of us, posted a video mocking and intimidating any student who believes marriage is between a man and a woman. Welfare, it seems, only applies to a few.”
The resulting “intense debates and controversy” around the race for Vice-President, Welfare & Equality were credited by the local student newspaper with “relighting a flame that had been long snuffed out in NUI Galway”.
Videos posted to Burke’s Twitter account garnered over 100,000 views in the first few days of the campaign, suggesting that Burke’s message struck a chord with many, both within the University, and further afield.
Campaign posters binned and burned
However, on the morning of Wednesday 04 March 2020, Burke arrived on campus to find many of his campaign posters ripped down and binned. A pile of ashes was discovered close to one location where six posters had disappeared.
NUI Galway has been heavily criticised in the past for failing to respond to the systematic ripping down of Christian Union and Life Society posters. The burning of posters, however, marks a new low for the campus.
A culture of rampant poster ripping and abusive behaviour towards Christian students on campus, largely unchecked by authorities, prompted the initiation of legal proceedings in the ongoing religious discrimination case Burkes v NUI Galway.
A noteworthy 482 first preference votes
The vote for Vice-President, Welfare & Equality was held the following day, Thursday 05 March 2020, and saw over 2,500 students casting a ballot, an increase of 50% on the turnout of the previous year.
Burke received a noteworthy 482 first preference votes, 18% of the valid poll. His primary opponent, Róisín Nic Lochlainn, won the contest gaining 1,192 first preferences (45%). Ellen O’Donoghue gained 895 votes (34%).
Vice-President-elect linked with assault
Vice-President-elect Nic Lochlainn served for three years as chairperson of the NUI Galway Ógra Shinn Féin branch (Sinn Féin’s youth wing). She has been associated with the physical assault of a politician in Galway last year.
As support for Burke increased during campaign week, Nic Lochlainn’s election bid was surprisingly endorsed on Twitter by politician Luke “Ming” Flanagan, member of the European Parliament for the Midlands–North-West constituency.
“A great and important conversation started”
In a video posted after the election, Burke said: “a great and important conversation has been started … I believe that this conversation we’ve started and this flame we’ve lit this week will lead to change.”
“Perhaps more important than anything has been the message of our campaign, a message that so many students have united behind, which is that we need a [Students’] Union that stands for respect, and doesn’t stand for bullying and intimidation.”
“You are allowed to have a belief on campus, and you should be free to vocalise that belief without fear of intimidation. That’s the message of our campaign, and that’s the message that so many students have responded to this week.”
Subsequent to the election campaign the Galway Pulse website was forced to remove an allegedly defamatory article and issue an apology to Burke. The Galway Pulse website is run by the MA Journalism cohort at NUI Galway.
NUI Galway, though endowed with the noble motto Deo Favente (“With the favour of God”), has become known in recent times as a place of extreme hostility towards the public manifestation of religious belief.
The discrimination case Burkes v NUI Galway is ongoing and raises troubling questions about the freedom of students at the University to express their beliefs on moral and spiritual matters.
