[dropcap]DCU [/dropcap]Students’ Union voted in favour of supporting the reunification of Ireland on Friday.
A total of 1,494 students voted to support the movement which was 76 percent of the overall votes counted.
DCU Students’ Union not only supports Irish unity after this referendum, but will also call on the State to hold a referendum on the reunification in question.
The petition for a referendum was brought to the Students’ Union in December by DCU Sinn Fein’s Republican Youth (DCU SFRY) who were delighted that the referendum passed.
“We are absolutely over the moon,” chairperson of DCU SFRY, Aaron O’Ruairc told The College View. “We are just so delighted. I want to thank the DCU4Unity team that we had.
“We felt that with regards to reunification, the results speak for themselves and it seems like students are very open to the idea of reunification. Partition isn’t an option for the country anymore. The country can’t survive partition for much longer. The students understood that.”
DCU4Unity, the group campaigning for this referendum, comprised of the DCU youth wings of Fianna Fail, Sinn Fein and Labour.
There was a lower voter turnout this year for both the SU elections and the referendums which were held on the same day. Niall Behan, President of DCU Students’ Union attributed this drop to Storm Emma and to the ongoing construction on campus.
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Read more: Vito Moloney elected DCUSU President despite 40% drop in voter turnout
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As a result of this, O’Ruairc said that DCU4Unity feared not making the quorum for a number of days before the referendum.
He said: “With regards to the referendum itself it went well considering it wasn’t that well known. It was up until the last day that we were unsure about quotas.
“But I think with the result and the turnout we hit really shows how hard we worked over the past few days to make sure we hit the quorum which we did and we are delighted.”
DCU has now joined UCD, UL and NUIG in the support of a united Ireland, while Trinity voted to remain neutral on the topic in March 2017.
DCUSU also voted to support working towards the elimination of single-use plastics across all three campuses.
The petition for referendum was put forward by DCU’s Sustainable Living Society two weeks ago. The referendum passed with 94 percent of votes in support of the removal of single-use plastics.
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Read more: DCU to vote on plastic free campus
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Speaking about the campaign, Danika Sugrue, the chairperson of DCU’s Sustainable living told The College View: “Zero-waste is extremely difficult to attain, which can be disheartening to those trying to achieve it. That’s why the campaign is based around plastic-free.”