Roots of political, environmental, and social activism are regularly planted by courageous young students who are willing to disrupt the system. This has been particularly prevalent in the heightened pro-Palestine movement of recent months, and Nicole Lee finds out more from leading figures who spearheaded university encampments across Dublin.

Student activism has historically played a huge role in social change. Throughout the 20th century, students were at the forefront of civil rights movements, protesting the Vietnam War, and advocating for gay rights. I sometimes imagine these changemakers to be powerful, superhuman forces who fearlessly demanded a more equal society, but many of these legendary voices were simply brave young people who cared enough about injustices to do something.

Their calls for action are first met with resistance and slowly taken up by the powers of large. We’ve seen this pattern countless times, and it’s happening again today with the fight for Palestinian liberation.

I had the pleasure of meeting with two young queer Irish people who are leading activists of our time: outgoing UCD Students’ Union President Martha Reidy and current Trinity College Students’ Union President and co-organiser of Dublin’s Trans and Intersex Pride, Jenny Maguire. They talked with me about student activism in Ireland, the pro-Palestine Boycott, Sanctions, Divestment (BDS) movement, and elevating young voices.

Former UCD SU President Martha believes that the role of a students’ union is ultimately to represent the wishes of the students. While universities are easily influenced by boards and donors, students’ unions advocate for students when it comes to everything from housing and fees to global crises.

As the recently elected Aontas Mac Léinn Choláiste na Tríonóide/Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union President (AMLCT/TCDSU), Jenny acknowledges that a students’ union has two sides: a services side and a campaigning side. This is in some ways demonstrated by her official title of Chief Campaigns Officer, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Administrative Officer. While providing academic supports, job opportunities, and accommodation assistance is absolutely important, Jenny fears that some students’ unions have forgotten about the activism side and have instead become service providers. She cautioned that: “When students’ unions forget their roots, or what they’re capable of achieving, they become an extension of the university which ultimately neuters what a students’ union could be.”

Jenny noted that Trinity was built in 1592, and: “You have to move the status quo in order to have the university to follow suit and survive. That’s what I view the role of a Student President to be.”

Both Jenny and Martha were deeply involved with pro-Palestine protests at Trinity and UCD earlier this year. At the time of writing, over 40,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel’s military since October 7, 2023, sparking increased action and protests globally. Martha said: “Obviously it’s not a change, the occupation has been going on for 75 years, but it came to the forefront of students’ minds – trying to mobilise against the ongoing genocide.”

Some of the most high-profile pro-Palestine protests in Ireland were the university encampments that happened in May. While I met with Jenny, just beside me was a sign the students painted and hung from a window on campus the day Trinity agreed to divest from Israeli investment. It reads: “Victory to Students! TCD agrees to Divest! Free Palestine!”

Over the encampment, which spanned five nights, hundreds of students attended talks and workshops hosted by college societies, featuring everything from music and knitting workshops to educational seminars. Jenny was working 15-hour days even though she wasn’t officially president yet. She said: “We refused to be bored. We had lecturers come in who gave lectures about Palestine, liberation, and anti-war.”

She continued: “We went in with the college against us, it was an incredibly unpopular thing to do.” However, the students’ controversial, provocative work ultimately gave them a weapon stronger than anything: global public support. The encampment was the number one trending topic on X for five days, and ultimately, it worked. When Trinity announced that it would divest, Jenny said: “I remember falling onto the ground with a Palestinian who was in the camp, and we just cried. It was a celebration, all of us singing ‘Solidarity Forever’.”

While some aspects of the encampments were enjoyable, Jenny emphasised that the project was not easy. She noted the €214,000 fine that was issued as well as the fact that she was called for disciplinary hearings alongside four other students. She said, pointing to the official correspondence, “This is my letter they gave me. I got it framed because though we forgive, we can never forget!”

I asked Jenny if she got an apology from Trinity, and she said that it comes in the form of a continued working relationship and good faith. “We have shown that we have the bite and we’re unafraid to use it. We are here. We are the only people in this university elected to fully represent the students, so we should be respected as the experts that we are.

“As a result of this student movement, Trinity has completely divested from the occupied territories, has begun their divestment from all Israeli companies, has set up a task force to review academic ties, is pulling out of banks that are complicit; there are so many things happening that we wouldn’t have believed one year ago.”

Jenny noted that this action came after 10 years of pushing and advocating, but the encampment is what got everyone talking. “We’ve shown that direct action and standing up for students and oppressed people unapologetically without care for niceties is how you get real change. You can’t play with a system that was designed to protect itself.”

Martha shared that some of the most memorable moments from the four-week UCD encampment were Palestinians coming in to share their experiences. She also described seeing so much growth among the students, saying some reported feeling like “completely different” people and learned how to participate in Palestinian liberation in a deeper way.

Martha expressed that “Palestine has reignited the passion and fire within students,” adding, for example, that a group formed from the encampment will carry on the work of growing institutional knowledge within UCD and building up the student activism power that has weakened over the years.

In some ways, it feels like pro-Palestine students are the conscience of the world. They have effectively shamed political leaders for supporting genocide in Gaza in a way that is gaining momentum. There are some people, however, who say that advocating for Palestine is outside of the scope of student politics.

Martha immediately addressed this: “Who gets to decide what’s in the scope of student politics? It’s up to the students to decide what they want to advocate for, what they think is important. Everything is within the scope of student activism, because it doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It’s part of a broader movement.”

She added: “It is a student issue because there are students being murdered. And if we can allow something like that to happen, what’s to stop that new level of horror from happening in other countries?”

Martha also noted that advocating for Palestine helps students develop their moral consciousness: “Having that global solidarity is really important for students. If we just stick to the Irish housing crisis, none of the major systemic things are going to change.”

Similarly, Jenny stated: “Trinity is one of the most democratic unions in the country. That’s why we’re pro-Palestine. We are mandated to campaign for, boycott, divest, and sanction. I have a democratic mandate to campaign for Palestine regardless of my own views.”

Jenny emphasised that Trinity’s SU represents Palestinian students. She asked, “How are they meant to engage in their studies if no one in the university is saying the word ‘genocide’?” She added that every area of Irish life that stands for peace and justice should be vocal. “It has to be in our colleges, in our banks, on our streets. We must unequivocally oppose it.”

Both presidents emphasised that these protests and movements don’t come out of thin air, they come from students who bring the issues to the full-time union employees who are working for them.

When speaking about these politically engaged students, Jenny said: “We grew up with Marriage Equality in 2015 and Repeal the 8th in 2018. We’re a generation whose formative years were around these big moments that happened through collective action. We have seen capabilities of what we can do when we come together, we are finding more and more students unafraid to cause trouble for good.”

Both also noted that while the pro-Palestine encampments make headlines because they are provocative and part of a broader history of student antiwar protests, their day-to-day work is also important and happening in conjunction with more visible projects.

As Jenny said: “Most of my day is spent interacting with and supporting students while running campaigns alongside it. We’re able to do multiple things at once.”

In addition to Palestine, when it comes to the most pressing issues in student activism right now, both pointed to housing as the number one concern for students. Many students continue to present as homeless and others live in accommodations where they are mistreated. Martha noted: “Over the past couple of years housing has been particularly bad,” while Jenny highlighted “the illusion that Ireland does third level education well” despite the fact that the government failed to invest in education housing projects. In response to the issue, TCDSU and UCDSU joined forces to launch a Digs Drive urging homeowners with spare rooms to rent to students.

When it comes to other “on the ground stuff” that Jenny is most proud of, she named the fight for scrapping “ableist” Green Paper proposals, lobbying for an increase in funding for free period products, and what feels like “a million and one” other initiatives. She also mentioned the recent protests that allow Trinity students to bring their own food into The Buttery restaurant on campus, saying: “To be able to go somewhere inside away from the rain to eat your lunch, that’s been really well received.”

As I’m sitting in front of these young queer activists, I consider the disproportional labour transgender activists and women have continuously carried since Stonewall. While white cisgender gays were advocating for marriage equality and tax breaks, Black, Brown, and genderdiverse queer activists like Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson founded STAR (Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries) to support underprivileged communities who didn’t have the option of assimilating into a white, patriarchal society.

I asked them something that has been on my mind a lot lately: “What does being ‘queer’ in a political sense mean to you?”

Jenny described queer as a political identity, state of being, and way to view the world. “I think everything I do is queer,” she shared. “My view is queerness is an acknowledgement of the full roundness of our community, and taking in every perspective and viewpoint within it and moving towards true justice for us all.”

Martha agreed. She said: “Not to gatekeep queer, but I don’t think you can be queer unless you are in solidarity with other groups,” noting that all marginalised communities exist in a solidarity realm.

She also noted that there continues to be an absence of cis queer folk at Trans Pride, saying: “I know many people didn’t bother going because there wasn’t the same party element, and they don’t see themselves as activists who need to get active on these issues.”

Martha added: “If you are queer, you need to come out in solidarity. It’s not a community if you are only taking the good parts that serve yourself and ignore trans people who are being attacked.”

It is easy to look back in history and admire students for their activism and for doing the right thing. We want to believe we would have been fighting alongside them, and not among the so many people who didn’t care enough to help. I feel very lucky that I was able to spend time with two incredible voices who had the drive to do something. When I think about the activists we’ll cite in the future, I recognise that many will be student campaigners of their time.

Listening to and amplifying the work of young queer activists is an honour, but it isn’t enough. In addition to singing their praises, it’s time for the rest of us to pick up the torch and do the work. Solidarity with Palestine, solidarity with migrants, solidarity with disabled folk, solidarity with transgender and gender non-conforming people, solidarity with everyone in our LGBTQ+ community.

This article originally appeared in Issue 385 of GCN Magazine. Read it in full here.