Quick update and nazis in Dublin

It’s been a while since I’ve updated this, it has certainly been a very busy few weeks. So, we’re back. Summer’s well on the way out, freshers fortnight is over and it’s back to early dark, cold mornings, rain-coats and sensible shoes. Welcome back to college in Galway! First of I guess I better report on societies day, what an event that was. Propping up the Eco-Soc stall, the FEE stall and also the SU stall, I was more than a busy bee! While I’m actually not sure exactly why there was even an SU stall, we are only situated permanently in an office in the same building, it was also only really manned by a few non-exec volunteers, lovely girls but they only really seemed to be collecting people’s mobile phone numbers for some unknown purpose. FEE stall was awesome! I am over whelmed with response we got, the guys think we had around 600 people sign up to our mailing list which is unbelievable, I can only hope that 10% of those actually turn up to meetings and events, if this happens we will straightaway have a huge presence on campus at the very start of the year. Exciting times. To celebrate our success we decided to hold a good old fashioned picket for a little photo op for the website and also, just for the laugh really. We pulled out a few of the ole placards and picketed the Young Fine Gael stall for around 2-3 mins, myself holding a placard that read simply “rabble!”. While this was clearly a bit of a laugh, we managed to get told off by Riona, the societies manager and later on myself and Senan were told off by the SU Exec. Absolute non-sense in my opinion and something that I will take with a pinch of salt. Sooner or later these guys will learn the only really effective way to deal with people like me and Senan... Great fun altogether it was.  In other news it has come to my attention that one of my favourite people in the world; nick griffin, has been invited to a debate in Trinity College Dublin, hosted by the ever so respected Phil Soc... Personally I am absolutely disgusted with the Phil for this one, and the TCD Students’ Union for allowing this to happen unchallenged. This is outright offensive and amounts to nothing more than hosting a nazi rally. Nick Griffin, it is beyond any doubt is a disgusting and dangerous racist. He has been charged with the offence of inciting racial hatred, has had open links with the EDL, was a member of the English National Front and has campaigned against non-white people in the UK for most of his life. He is a holocaust denier, a homophobe and a nazi sympathiser and I find it outrageous that he has been given a legitimate platform to air his views in an Irish university. For this reason I will be travelling up to Dublin for the event and doing everything I can to disrupt the event to prevent him from speaking and also, along with AFA Ireland, LM;HR and other anti-racist organisation will take part in a hopefully massive demonstration sending out a clear and concise message that racism will simply not be accepted in any Irish school and where it exists will be met with extreme opposition. While I am and will always be a campaigner for freedom of speech and expression, I firmly believe that providing a legitimate and public platform for people to air views that are vile, counteractive and ultimately damaging to society extends far beyond our rights to freedom of speech. In my view, people like nick griffin (no caps) have every right to speak and to express their views, they do not, however, have the right to a be made legitimate by framing their arguments on a proper platform, behind a microphone and in front of hundreds of students. If this forms part of out entitlement to free speech, I want to know when it is my turn to address a debate in TCD. Another argument I made in an internet forum was that I have a friend who can put his ankles behind his head and shit his pants, should this be put up on a stage in front of a crowd or broadcast on TV? No. Of course not, it is vile, disgusting, damaging to society and sends out dangerous messages that it is ok to shit yourself in public. Does this interfere with my friend’s freedom of speech or expression? No. Of course not, people will argue that he has the right to shit his pants whenever he wants in the privacy of his own home and away from public. The same goes for airing racist and damaging views. People have fought for thousands of years, and millions have died in the fight for freedom of expression and freedom of speech. Who exactly do you think they were fighting against? Are these brave warriors wrong for silencing their enemies on the battlefield? Is this some sort of censorship? I don’ t think so. I don’t agree at all that confronting those who wish to take away freedoms such as the freedom of expression falls under the category of censorship, it is fighting for freedom and freedom of speech. These luxuries did not just fall out of the sky, they require constant fighting to keep, otherwise people like nick, nazi dick-hole griffin and his ilk will quickly take them away. I look forward to the 20th of October though I have a strong suspicion that TDC will realise just how stupid they are being for hosting this man.