DCU Young Fine Gael blame the location of their stand at the Clubs & Socs days for their drop in membership this year.
The political society, who are down from 43 members last year to 32 members this year, were located in the Old Bar conservatory due to stands being arranged alphabetically.
“This left YFG at a major disadvantage compared to other years, as the difference in foot traffic in the area was extremely noticeable. A number of other societies in our area mentioned the same problem”, Paul Henry, Chairperson of DCU YFG told The College View.
DCU Ógra Fianna Fail (Pádraig Pearse Cumann) are the biggest political society in DCU again this year with 72 members, a 36 per cent increase on last year. On Wednesday afternoon, they were joined by Fianna Fail leader, Micheál Martin.
Labour DCU’s membership is down 29 per cent, with 30 people signing up to the society this year.
Mystery surrounds Sinn Fein’s disappearance at the Clubs and Socs days; their stand was unoccupied for the Tuesday and Wednesday of the signing-up. The College View were unable to reach a member of DCU Sinn Fein for comment despite various attempts. It’s understood a DCU lecturer is SF’s representative on campus.
Chairperson of the Society Life Committee (SLC), Sean Rooney confirmed to us the stand was occupied by SF’s local elections candidate for Ballymun, Noeleen Reilly and SF MEP candidate, Lynn Boylan on the Monday. It is not known why there was no one at the stand on the Tuesday and Wednesday.
Brian Keane from Sinn Fein’s headquarters confirmed that 11 people applied to join DCU SF on the day, however Rooney told The College View they have not yet been registered with SLC’s database as being members of DCU SF.
Aoife Mullen
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