Divisive border poll debate at Queen's University harms students

Two men protest outside the gates of Queen's over the vote to ban the sale of the poppy

Editor's Viewpoint

October 09 2014 10:07 PM

University is not just a place of learning for young people, but also where they begin to develop their views on a whole range of subjects. Thanks to Northern Ireland's segregated education system, it is the first opportunity many young people get to meet peers from the other side of the community and learn about each other's culture and beliefs.

Queen's University has a legacy of quite radical politics among the student body.

For example, it was there that mass support for the civil rights campaign in Northern Ireland began in the 1960s.

But in recent times there have been claims that the university has become something of a cold house for students from a unionist background. Certainly Sinn Fein's attempts last year to stop the poppy being sold within the Students' Union lent weight to this argument.

This was seen as particularly divisive, and was a strange tactic given that past Sinn Fein lord mayors in Belfast have honoured the sacrifice of men and women from all sides of the community in the world wars.

There is more logic to the move by Sinn Fein activists at Queen's to press the Students' Union to hold a referendum on the border.

The party at large wants the Secretary of State to hold a similar poll even though it knows there is no hope of a majority voting for a united Ireland.

Given the make-up of the student body at Queen's, there would be more chance of Sinn Fein getting its desired result in a border poll there, but it is an unnecessary exercise and one which is not conducive to good relationships among students in general.

Certainly campaigns on tuition fees or combatting undesirable behaviour by some students in the city's Holyland area would be a better test of the mettle of the political activists in the Students' Union and would be a more positive contribution to university life.

They are also issues that students from all political persuasions could unite on.

Belfast Telegraph