UCD union apologises for `offensive' chants

THE president of UCD students' union has apologised to his counterpart in Trinity College after UCD students chanted "obscene and offensive" slogans while passing Trinity during a student demonstration.

In an echo of inter university rivalry in the 1940s, when Mr Charles Haughey and colleagues from UCD burned a Union Jack in front of Trinity, the current generation of UCD students jeeringly sang Arnhran na bhFiann outside the college during the march last November.

Their behaviour prompted a complaint from the president of Trinity students' union, Ms Priya Nair, who wrote to UCD students' union to express her "anger and disgust".

Ms Nair said some of the UCD students "seemed to be labouring under the illusion that Trinity College was actually Leinster House, since they assembled outside the front gate of the college chanting obscene slogans and making threatening gestures at Trinity students".

The UCD students were participating in a national demonstration against Government education policy organised by USI, the Union of Students in Ireland, which culminated in a protest outside the Dail. Trinity students' union, which is not affiliated to USI, was scheduled to take part in the march but did not appear.

In a letter to Mr Loughlin Decgan, president of the UCD union, Ms Nair said the actions of the UCD students, which she claimed were orchestrated by USI stewards, were "despicable".

In his reply, Mr Deegan accepted his members had chanted obscene and offensive slogans while passing Trinity and apologised unreservedly for his failure to restrain them. It was not premeditated but arose spontaneously "out of a combination of good natured rivalry and disappointment at the lack of any representation from Trinity at the march".

Sources close to the UCD union yesterday claimed the main reason the Trinity students had sought an apology was not the name calling, but the singing of the National Anthem outside the Provost's House.