By Mia Waterhouse
In recent months the violence in Dublin City Centre has been top of the news agenda and it seems that violence has reached the university TU Dublin’s campus.
TU Dublin president, Professor David Fitzpatrick, wrote directly to the minister for justice Helen McEntee, appealing for more security around the campus for the safety of all students and staff.
In the letter earlier this year to then minister for justice Simon Harris, Fitzpatrick wrote to report about the anti-social behaviour and the lack of safety for students, “we have received reports that the response is slow and are also constrained by the fact that the University’s Estates and Security team cannot respond to off-campus incidents.”
The incidents have not been one-off attacks but have been regularly happening at the Broadstone Luas stop just outside campus.
“The Union has received increasing reports of anti-social behaviour in the Broadstone Plaza, right beside the Broadstone Luas stop, as well as the ‘main entrance’ to our Grangegorman Campus. Students do not feel safe entering and leaving the campus, particularly in the evening time,” said Brian Jordan, president of TU Dublin Students’ Union.
The attacks have also appeared to not be random students from the college as there has been a racial element. While it appears that ‘nobody is safe’, there appears to be a distinct racial element to many of the incidents. It’s also very possible from what I’ve heard and seen that these students are targeted specifically because of their race and/or ethnicity. Several victims of attacks here have reported that racial slurs were thrown at them during the incidents for example,” Jordan added.
With this still going on and no sign of any measures being taken by the college itself, the TU Dublin Students’ Union took matters into their own hands and held a demonstration at the Luas stop.
The union said the reason they held the demonstration was to ‘show solidarity with the students who consistently feel let down by the government’ and the second reason was to apply more pressure on the government and McEntee to coordinate a far better response between the Gardaí, Transport for Ireland (TFI), and TU Dublin.’
“There were several speakers, including myself on behalf of the SU, Nekesa who is our VP for Welfare & Equality, who also happened to be a mature and international student in TU Dublin, several local ‘opposition’ politicians, as well as current students within the University who felt more needs to be done.
We received very little communication from the University about steps being taken (an unfortunately common trend). However, after a particularly ‘viral’ incident last semester, media reported that the President of TU Dublin wrote to the then-Justice Minister requesting more policing in the area,” said Jordan.
The previous attacks saw some students getting pelted with eggs and racially abused and another getting her hair pulled. This all happened at busy times in the evening when students were waiting at the Luas stop. Witnesses described the offenders as all boys aged around 15 years.
When asked what the desired outcome Jordan said, “We want Justice Minister McEntee to provide adequate governmental support to improve the safety of the Broadstone Plaza. This means improving resourcing to policing in that area like more of a garda presence, as well as a collective response from TFI and TU Dublin. It should not be the role of the Union to constantly try to coordinate these stakeholders when we have an incredibly well-paid Government whose role that is.”
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