In an exclusive interview with The University Observer, UCDSU President Martha Ní Riada spoke about the aftermath of the incident that occurred on Monday, 22nd April, when Speaker emerita Nancy Pelosi was awarded an honorary doctorate by UCD.
In an exclusive interview with The University Observer, UCDSU President Martha Ní Riada spoke about the aftermath of the incident that occurred on Monday, 22nd April, when Speaker emerita Nancy Pelosi was awarded an honorary doctorate by UCD. Ní Riada called out Pelosi for her stance on the ongoing Gazan genocide and was forcibly removed from the premises by four security guards. During the honorary conferring, President Ní Riada, who has been active and vocal about Palestinian solidarity throughout her tenure stood up and addressed the ex-White House Speaker directly saying: “Pelosi is a Zionist and a war criminal.” As she was pushed out of the room by plainclothes gardaì she continued: “What, how is this legal?”. As she was dragged into the hall her final words to Nancy Pelosi and attendees were: “You said that support for Israel is in our DNA. No it’s not! What about Palestinian women?”.
Ní Riada called out Pelosi for her stance on the ongoing Gazan genocide and was forcibly removed from the premises by four security guards.
Ní Riada spoke about the response - or lack thereof - she received from UCD management after the incident. “The protest took place on a Monday, and by Friday I hadn't received any correspondence from the university. Some individual staff members, who I would be friendly with, had reached out and checked if I was okay, but there'd been no official communication from the university.”
Ní Riada then reached out to UCD President, Professor Orla Feely, to discuss the events: “On the Wednesday, when I met with the President, that was the first interaction I'd had with anyone from the university management, and I raised my concerns with how I was removed from the event.” Ní Riada revealed that according to Prof. Feely, the university “did not have responsibility” for what had happened since it was the Gardaí who removed her from the premises.
With regards to UCD’s stance on her statement, the UCDSU President said that although she was aware they would not agree with her, “I was expecting the university to care about students' welfare and to reach out to someone who had been forcibly removed from an event. I made that point clear to the President, [...] I felt the university still had a duty of care towards its students. What if I'd been another student? Would they have just allowed that to happen and not even checked in on them?”
Ní Riada revealed that according to Prof. Feely, the university “did not have responsibility” in what had happened since it was the Gardaí who removed her from the premises.
According to Ní Riada, Prof. Feely justified not following up with the UCDSU president “because they thought I was fine because I'd shared it on social media.” Furthermore, although Prof. Feely herself was abroad at the time of Mrs. Pelosi’s visit, “she had asked someone in the management team to reach out to me, and they said they would when the dust had settled.” At the time of publication, Ní Riada confirmed that nobody from UCD had reached out to her.
Although Prof. Feely told Ní Riada that “she didn't like to see me upset”, the UCD President made clear that “members of the governing authority were very disappointed with how I had acted.” “[UCD’s governing authority] did have respect for me, but now they're extremely disappointed and I think they've lost that respect.”
Ní Riada also reiterated the reputational damage that awarding an honorary doctorate to Nancy Pelosi would cause to UCD in today’s historical climate - especially given the overwhelming pro-Palestine support of the student body and the commitment to neutrality of the university’s governing authority.
“[UCD’s governing authority] did have respect for me, but now they're extremely disappointed and I think they've lost that respect.”
The University Observer has obtained information that a source close to the Governing Authority has raised concerns about the gardaí that had removed President Ní Riada being university staff. Indeed, had it been a matter of university staff assaulting another university employee, UCD would have had to answer for being permissive of such behaviour. The University Observer has been informed that no such concerns had been considered in the aftermath of Nancy Pelosi’s visit to UCD. When asked about the symbolism of having a democratically-elected representative of the student body forcibly evicted from an on-campus location, outgoing UCDSU President Martha Ní Riada said: “If I’m being honest. It really doesn’t look good. But I don’t think [UCD management] sees it at all. That’s also a point I was trying to make. I am not just a member of the Governing Authority, it’s important that people see that this is how the university treats the President of the Students’ Union, someone with a relative amount of power”.
The UCDSU President said then she had hoped for “an acknowledgment that what had occurred was very heavy-handed, and that it's not something that the university would want to happen again in future, and it's not a precedent that they want to be followed.” Ní Riada also hoped that the university would “put in place measures to protect students from something like this happening in the future.”
“I am not just a member of the Governing Authority but also that it’s important that people see that this is how the university treats the President of the Students’ Union, someone with a relative amount of power”.
“I think it's just, it's quite upsetting, not just for me, but I think for the student body as a whole, that this treatment can happen to someone on campus, where we're told about all the Dignity Respect measures that are in place and ‘we really care about students and student safety’, but then there’s this really aggressive and extreme use of force, it's just very disappointing.”
A representative of UCD President Prof. Orla Feely has responded to claims that UCDSU President Martha Ní Riada received no support after the events that unfolded on April 22nd by saying: “The President was out of the country at the time. She met with Martha directly on her return."