NUIG CU

NUI Galway Christian Union requests that today’s referendum on whether or not NUI Galway Students’ Union should promote homosexual marriage be called off.




There has been no toleration of any opposition to the motion. We draw attention to the following three points:

·         >> 22 A3 posters* were placed around campus on Tuesday at 2pm. Within 24 hours, 20 of these had been ripped down. The issue was immediately brought to the attention of the director of Student Services, Matt Doran, and an emergency USCG (University Societies Coordination Group) meeting was called on Wednesday morning. As yet, no action has been taken to remedy the situation.

·         >> On Wednesday evening, a further 17 posters were placed around campus. By Thursday morning, the majority of these posters had been ripped down.

·         >> On Wednesday at 1pm, the Christian Union stand at the university café was vandalised. Mr Gerry Nolan, the Head of Security, ordered that the stand be disbanded immediately, because it was disruptive. When members of the Christian Union refused to leave the stand, he personally ripped it down in front of a growing crowd of more than 100 students (video evidence available). During the incident, a female student ripped down a Christian Union poster from a nearby poster board, in full view of Mr Nolan and Gardaí who were present. No disciplinary action was taken and the student was not even questioned.  Those present were thus given the go-ahead to freely remove posters. As Head of Security at NUI Galway, Gerry Nolan is turning a blind eye to all such breaches of justice.

*All posters were put up legitimately in accordance with the postering policy of NUI Galway, and contained the NUI Galway Christian Union name, and a message encouraging students to vote no in the upcoming referendum.