Not in Our UCD protest attracted over a thousand students in response to UCD's handling of sexual violence.
A protest held today outside O’Reilly Hall attracted over one thousand students.
The protest was organised by UCD Students’ Union in partnership with Dublin Rape Crisis Centre (DRCC), AMLÉ, Ruth Coppinger TD and ROSA.
The protest was held in response to the recent publicity surrounding a UCD School of Medicine student who was the victim of sexual assault and image-based sexual assault. Media outlets, politicians and the victim herself have been critical of UCD’s lack of response to the student’s situation.
Speakers at the protest included UCDSU Education Officer Matt Mion, AMLÉ VP Campaigns Officer Faye Ní Dhomhnaill, a representative from ROSA, a representative from DRCC, Ruth Coppinger TD, and UCDSU Gender Equality Coordinator, Maeve Farragher.
Campaigns and Engagement Officer Kelvyn Fields also spoke, reading out a statement from doctors who penned an open letter to UCD’s School of Medicine criticising their handling of the case. “We are disappointed in UCD School of Medicine’s failure to address this case, both in its apparent disregard for the victim and its willingness to ignore the overarching issue of misogyny and gender-based violence,” the letter states. At the time of writing, the open letter currently has 883 signatures from doctors across Ireland.
The attendees marched from O’Reilly Hall to the area outside the Health Sciences Building, the home of UCD School of Medicine. The attendees took up the entire concourse area with chants including, “Not in our UCD”, “Orla Feely, shame on you” and “School of Medicine, shame on you”.