Wednesday, March 05, 2008

"It better be good!"

This is not just an idle threat to newly elected VP Campaigns and Communications, James Murphy, from runner-up Andrew Gordon. The Gown would like to prescibe this bitter little pill to the whole executive.

The crowd, gathered in Bar Sub, were privy to a few surprises as the results of the 2008 Executive Elections were announced. Although underdog Michael Collins did not take the Presidency, his 969 votes did not provide the landslide victory Helferty had expected. In fact, in the President-elect's acceptance speech he made an aside to confirm his shock at such a closely contested result.

What was originally pitched as a foregone conclusion, hopes of "The Dream Team", were dashed by James Murphy's election to the newly created position of Campaigns and Communications.
In his acceptance speech, Murphy stated: "I'd just like to thank all the voters, campaigners and well-wishers, as well as all those who congratulated me. Although one person's absence deserves note...it's a pity she didn't have the good grace to say 'well done'."

Paul Courtney, the new VP of Clubs and Societies left the crowd cringing at his no holds barred acceptance speech. He refused to apologise for 'pissing people off', open-handedly asking the crowd what they wanted him to do, "Cut it off?!".
Never one to comment, The Gown would like to leave the answering of this question to bloggers.
Courtney also lackadaisically apologised for his absence on the first day of voting: "Unfortunately I couldn't make it on Tuesday, but sure I was half cut".

Conceding her defeat to the position of VP for Clubs and Societies, Debbie McCook took the opportunity to thank her loyal supporters, especially those who put her straight on when exactly voting began.

Kelly, Brogan and McAleavey (the latter ran unopposed) made their appreciation clear in their acceptance speeches, rounding off an eventful round of election results.

The Gown looks forward to a colourful year with this not-so-secret Seven.

41 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Too many liberal lefties got elected, there is a distinct necessity of more strong unionist leaders in the SU, not bland and boring people who are everything to everyone just to get votes and enhance their CVs.

3/06/2008 3:25 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

What the hell kind of people voted for that ignorant James Murphy how rude is he? I dread to think what he is going to do this year!!!!

3/06/2008 3:38 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Gown team...firstly if you are going to write an article make sure you know who was running for what. Debbie McCook was running for V.P Clubs and societies not community. I (Laura Hawthorne) was not at the election party because I was given the wrong time arriving half an hour before the time previously stipulated. I was also preparing for the A.I sleep out as I am not one to neglect my duties!! On another note I was sure to congratulate James on his election to the post of campaigns and communications so no need to worry there. I hope not to involve myself too often in slanging matches which are counter productive and divisive but felt I had to right these wrongs. I congratulate all candidates on their election and look forward to working with them. Thank you.

3/06/2008 4:14 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Definetly a few shocks there! DIdnt think there would be such a close contest for the president! Ciarnan should have a look at collins' manifesto and make notes! lol.

3/06/2008 10:08 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Awwww

Laura is a realllllllll niceeeeeeeeee girl.

Well done to James Murphy - what a legend!!

Great to see more GAA and law society members running for election.

Helferty will have been shocked with the fact that only 4 of his candidates got elected. People like Laura Hawthorne and Shane Brogan make me sick. They don't stand for anything.

I voted for RON and even transfered to the Unionists because they are so bland!

3/06/2008 10:40 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Laura,well seen you're in the ciarnan helferty fan club - you've started to write the long essays about absolutley nothing. What a wonderful year we're gonna have with you being the "community" officer. LMAO!!!

3/06/2008 11:35 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

P.S Laura - we'll remember that one about "not neglecting your duties" when you like the rest of the wasters aka sabbatical officers spend your time doing absolutely nothing other than boasting your already inflated egos.
And there was me thinking that the 07/08 executive couldn't get any worse!

3/06/2008 11:45 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Just want to thank once again, all the well wishers INCLUDING lauar who i cant wait to work with. Also a thankypu to sarah McCaffery who was gracious and has offered me a helpful platform on which to build. Thanks everyone.

Liberal lefty, and ignorant ol' shite (apparently)
James Murphy

3/07/2008 2:21 am  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Laura-

I think the person James was refering to was Sarah Mc Caffrey.

Sorry to burst your bubble but your not actually important!

Good to see the CU do badly in the elections. Let's hope they go back to worshiping a non existant god or whatever they do.

3/07/2008 3:34 am  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

as if anyone wants unionists in the SU... nobody is interested in homophobia, bigotry and christian fundamentalism.

3/07/2008 1:35 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

as if anyone wants unionists in the SU... nobody is interested in homophobia,bigotry and christian fundamentalism

Yawnnnnnnnnnnnnn! This illogical statement suggests that you are an intellectual tadpole.

Not every Unionist is a Christian, much less a Christian fundamentailist. Even if they were, you lack the sense to see by saying "nobody is interested in.... Christian fundamentalisim" is wrong for two reasons the first one is that you yourself are being bigoted,(religious hatered and all that). Second of all the unioinsts for the little campaigning that they did (on a purely unioinst campaign) did suprisingly well so yourstatement that nobody wants this (even if you accept that the unionsts areall the above criticisms)is wrong.

Secondly if you are going to tell us they are homophibic or bigotted tell us how because from the above statement all we can see is your illogical ramblings of bigotry.

3/07/2008 3:42 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I feel it necessary to point out that Paul Courtney wasn't absent from the Union on Tuesday, the first day of voting. He may have been late, but arriving at 11.30am, less than two hours after some others, hardly deserves such a slating.

3/07/2008 5:58 pm  
Blogger Fergus said...

Anonymous.... im not the first and im sure i wont be the last to say this to you - but get a life. Students Union politics if you want to call it that shouldnt be based on your politics outside of the Uni. Perhaps the fact that all those elected this year are unafilliated politically speaks volumes.

You are in my opinion extactly what is wrong with the Union these days. What does it matter if one of the VPs is unionist or nationalist. You need to promptly remove your head from whatever orafice its stuck in and realise that they are meant to be there for the benefit of the union and the students - not to further politicise student matters or satisfy certain superiority complexes.

3/07/2008 6:12 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Aye right - with regards to your comment about Christians homophobia is not one which true Christians possess. The Bible is the book by which we lead our lives and in it amongst many others homophobia is a sin. There is nothing wrong with disliking the actions of some people - that is not homophobia. Ever heard of "hate the sin but not the sinner"!!

3/07/2008 6:47 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

NOTE TO THE GOWN: Brogan and Kelly WERE opposed! Brogan vs Crawford, Kelly vs Bower and McShane. Get your facts straight!!

3/07/2008 7:27 pm  
Blogger Gown Team said...

The brackets after McAleavey were meant to indicate that he ran unopposed, not the other two. Sorry if that was unclear.

3/08/2008 2:52 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

“Anonymous.... im not the first and im sure i wont be the last to say this to you - but get a life. Students Union politics if you want to call it that shouldnt be based on your politics outside of the Uni."

If you say this then to be consistent you are going to have to say that Socialists, Alliance members, Green members, Amnesty International members, GAA members, LGBT members and drove of other interest groups members SU politics must not be based on their politics outside of the union not just Nationalists and Unionists. If you say yes that is correct (to be 100% consistent) then you have basically wiped out most of the Council and Exec.

This is also silly because if a number of students feel strongly enough about it whether Unionism or nationalism whether capitalism or socialism whether Human rights or animal rights, it is a student issue and they have the right to express that and promote that in the SU. To say anything else is against the firmly enshrined belief in freedom of speech.

Furthermore if we state that there shall not be any political views outside of the student issues held or talked about etc. within the SU
Then we ourselves have created a political view from outside the SU politics and enforced it.

More to the point this statement is flawed because you cannot separate someone's political/ideological views from who they are, they will naturally be influenced by them so to leave them out of SU politics is nonsensical.

"Perhaps the fact that all those elected this year are unaffiliated politically speaks volumes."

Amnesty International and the GAA while not political parties are political organizations too this is also incorrect.

May I also remind you that no-one in the SU polled well this year as less than 1 in 8 voted in the elections. While I am not suggesting that a unionist/nationalist campaign would have done any better, the campaign that was run this year was certainly not connecting with the main student body.

"You are in my opinion exactly what is wrong with the Union these days. What does it matter if one of the VPs is unionist or nationalist."

If you looked at what I wrote I never said anything at all to do with this I was merely replying to someone’s illogical ramblings attacking unionists.

"You need to promptly remove your head from whatever orafice its stuck in and realise that they are meant to be there for the benefit of the union and the students"

With colourful language you detail something that I agree with. Note I have never suggested otherwise, maybe you should stop constructing a straw man putting my face on it and attacking him.

"- not to further politicise student matters or satisfy certain superiority complexes."

Indeed but you must also state what you mean by politicise do you mean merely Unionist nationalist issues or do you mean all political views because as I have said we cannot be selective on what is political and what is not.

I would also agree with what you said about satisfying certain superiority complexes but the question that we beg to ask after that is who is feeling superior to whom? Nationalists to Unionists, Unionists to Nationalists or middle of the road to Nationalists and Unionists?

Something that you forgot to mention there is that student representatives are there not to massage their ego or fill out their CVs they are there to deliver.

3/08/2008 7:20 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I think Bower was clearly the best man for the job! Some guy supported by no-hoper Micheal Harkin, and some Joe-Nobody who noone had heard of before Tuesday!! Hard luck Bower, the best man lost

3/08/2008 8:29 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Jaaaayyyyypersss

Y'se aren't much craic guys,,,

Shall we start a "Campaign for a better Gown" in which both the writers and readers all vow to lighten up a bit and stop their negative rants about absolutely everything....

What happened to the good old fashioned gown of last year that was a bit of fun and not just a forum for personal attacks.

You've lost your way Gownies
....

There was a perfect opportunity to have a reactionary press on campus that express student feeling on all sorts of issues...
Instead we have a troop of bitter students (old before their time) lashing out at people that are trying to get involved in student life....

3/09/2008 6:39 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I say we get in touch with James Murphy and get this Campaign for a better Gown moving... quickly!!

3/09/2008 7:07 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

well done to michael collins and the socialists on an excellent vote

3/09/2008 7:09 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Anon-

ROFLMAO

This has to be the most pathetic comment ever.

"Some guy supported by no-hoper Micheal Harkin, and some Joe-Nobody who noone had heard of before Tuesday!!"

Hilarious! Given the fact that both of these candidates scored much higher than your beloved Bower doesn't that undermine you argument?

Maybe they were a lot better known that you thought. Or perhaps they are unknowns, and it was the fact that Bower was an obnoxious loser that decreed that he would come 3rd in the election.

3/09/2008 7:43 pm  
Blogger Fergus said...

Anon...

"If you say this then to be consistent you are going to have to say that Socialists, Alliance members, Green members, Amnesty International members, GAA members, LGBT members and drove of other interest groups members SU politics must not be based on their politics outside of the union not just Nationalists and Unionists. If you say yes that is correct (to be 100% consistent) then you have basically wiped out most of the Council and Exec."

Read that again and re-word it. It makes no sense. Perhaps i credited you with too much intelligence but im sure you are aware of what i meant by based on politics outside it. Of course people are influenced by their personal beliefs as regards this Island, fair trade etc but does the fact that Joe Soap wants a united Ireland really prevent him from effectively, for example, representing a student in a disciplinary? I think not.

"This is also silly because if a number of students feel strongly enough about it whether Unionism or nationalism whether capitalism or socialism whether Human rights or animal rights, it is a student issue and they have the right to express that and promote that in the SU. To say anything else is against the firmly enshrined belief in freedom of speech."

Student issue, yes perhaps. But not

3/09/2008 11:57 pm  
Blogger Fergus said...

one that should overshadow everything else. I dont care if x is a communist if he gets disabled access to a building or whatever. Issue solved = job done.

"Amnesty International and the GAA while not political parties are political organizations too this is also incorrect."

There is so much wrong with this. Im sure the country's GAA players often lament the pros and cons of the devolution of justice powers etc as they run laps.

"May I also remind you that no-one in the SU polled well this year as less than 1 in 8 voted in the elections."

I dunno. these 7 ppl won an election. i reckon they polled pretty well. that paired with the fact that, according to some there have been records broken in certain categories as regards nums of votes cast kinda negates your argument.

"maybe you should stop constructing a straw man putting my face on it and attacking him."

I enjoy working with straw, and attacking a real man could get nasty. therefore, i will continue to bully my small, but growing collection of teeny weeny straw men.

"agree with what you said about satisfying certain superiority complexes but the question that we beg to ask after that is who is feeling superior to whom? Nationalists to Unionists, Unionists to Nationalists or middle of the road to Nationalists and Unionists?"

Attend a student council meeting and the superiority complex (es) i speak of will reveal themselves.

"student representatives are there not to massage their ego or fill out their CVs they are there to deliver."

True to a certain extent. Make sure you remember you wrote that if you ever complete work experience or achieve pretty much anything. Remember it, and dont put it on ur CV. Or feel good about yourself for achieving something.

Ah that took longer than i expected. Now if these guys screw up im gonna look like an even bigger jackass...

3/10/2008 12:10 am  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I believe that some of the comments made in "The Gown" edition are a bit over the top. I believe that these writers for the gown need to get a bit more humourous in their personalities because personally i think that they must be minus craic. Paul Courtney was present at the first day of the elections although he only attended the Union at 11.30. He has informed me that he was elsewhere campaigning. All campaigning doesnt have to be held at the Union you know.
Also, in his acceptance speech he had everybody laughing and not "cringing" as you have pointed out. And so what is he was half cut... he still got the job done. How about you grow up, grow a sense of humour and get your facts right because it can be seen already by the magazine that it contains enough faults.

3/10/2008 4:14 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hmmm, who could that anon comment defending Paul Courtney possibly be?

The man himself perhaps? Nah, I'm sure he has much better things to be doing than leaving comments on this blog. I'd say he didn't even know it existed until recently, or the sabbatical positions, or the student council, or the Union (bar the Mandela on a Monday night)...

Anyway, I was present at the election results that evening and do believe The Gown has reported exactly the words Mr Courtney uttered. I also believe there were a number of other witnesses.

3/10/2008 7:11 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

“Read that again and re-word it. It makes no sense. Perhaps i credited you with too much intelligence but im sure you are aware of what i meant by based on politics outside it. Of course people are influenced by their personal beliefs as regards this Island, fair trade etc but does the fact that Joe Soap wants a united Ireland really prevent him from effectively, for example, representing a student in a disciplinary? I think not.”

First of all what you said and what I am supposed to think what you meant, are two completely different things. What you said was that people should not bring outside politics into the SU political sphere (not exact quote), which is completely nonsense. If I am to interpret what you meant now that you want to keep NI politics out of the SU leaves you with an inconsistent belief as nearly all of the “Groups” on council have outside political interests. It is inconsistent to leave one type of politics out and allow a multitude of others in.

Second of all, the rhetorical question you employ in the above statement I have to disagree with, someone who holds a belief in a United Ireland may influence his/her treatment of a Unionist (or indeed vice versa) if this were not the case we would not have laws against it. For instance there were no laws on human cloning until it was discovered for until that time it wasn’t done.

Thirdly I have no disagreements with nationalists, unionists, communists or whatever ist the person may be, being a representative so long as they are elected fairly (that is called democracy). My point was pure and simple unionists have just as much right to be in office as non unionists. Remember the original comment to which I replied was to someone who branded (unfairly) unionists with a multitude of crimes and said basically who wants that?

“Student issue, yes perhaps. But not one that should overshadow everything else. I dont care if x is a communist if he gets disabled access to a building or whatever. Issue solved = job done.”

True, I agree but what I interpreted from what you were saying before was that one should keep outside politic totally out of SU politics.

“There is so much wrong with this. Im sure the country's GAA players often lament the pros and cons of the devolution of justice powers etc as they run laps.”

Of course the GAA is not (unlike A.I.) primarially a political organisation however one only has to look at the GAA’s history and consititution and see if the institution is political or not.

“I dunno. these 7 ppl won an election. i reckon they polled pretty well. that paired with the fact that, according to some there have been records broken in certain categories as regards nums of votes cast kinda negates your argument.”

Obviously records were broken 3 of the positions are new, even if in those 3 areas the winning candidate only got 1 vote the records would have been broken. However The fact remains that LESS than 1/8 of the people eligible to vote in the elections did, and the number of voters was down on last year.

“I enjoy working with straw, and attacking a real man could get nasty. therefore, i will continue to bully my small, but growing collection of teeny weeny straw men.”

In fairness if I was you I’d probably be doing the same by making fun of the imagery I envoked but you know what was meant by this, the straw man argument. Constructing an argument so that it is easy to knock over and suggest that the person you attack is guilty of saying it.

“Attend a student council meeting and the superiority complex (es) i speak of will reveal themselves.”

This is doesn’t really answer my question and I still don’t understand what you mean.

“True to a certain extent. Make sure you remember you wrote that if you ever complete work experience or achieve pretty much anything. Remember it, and dont put it on ur CV. Or feel good about yourself for achieving something.”

I am not against people putting something in their CV (when they have done something worthwhile) nor am I opposed to people feeling a sense of satisfaction for a job well done. The problem comes when people’s main motivation is not to deliver but to put something down on their CVs and when satisfaction turns into pride.

3/10/2008 7:45 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I won't hide behind an 'anon' username, this is Kevin Kelly and I will defend Paul. His comments quoted in the article are not exactly correct, some phrases have been taken out of context. As part of my campaign team, Paul was canvassing on Stranmillis outside Centra from 10am on Tuesday morning and arrived at the Union at 11.30am. He did not say he was absent from the first day of voting and then say sure he was still half cut, nor did he refuse to apologise for pissing people off. He said he "may have pissed some people off, apparently I got naked, but sure i was still half cut"...

So for the person who posted: "I was present at the election results that evening and do believe The Gown has reported exactly the words Mr Courtney uttered. I also believe there were a number of other witnesses."
I must say that you and these 'witnesses' who say the Gown reported it exactly, are in fact wrong.

Anyone who didn't find his speech even MILDLY amusing must have either been part of a losing team, or have no sense of humour.

3/10/2008 11:16 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Stephen Martin said...
Laura-

I think the person James was refering to was Sarah Mc Caffrey.

Sorry to burst your bubble but your not actually important!

Good to see the CU do badly in the elections. Let's hope they go back to worshiping a non existant god or whatever they do."


I will admit I did not vote for Laura but the sinister attacks that are being laid on her here are unjustified. Lets see how she gets on in the Exec. next year before you start tearing lumps out of her.

This comment is an absolute disgrace, you do not attack her religion just because you don't agree with her, I doubt very much that such a statement would be tolerated if it was the Islamic society!

3/11/2008 11:58 am  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Concerned alderman"

Good to see you sticking up for Laura as she is by far the most enthusiastic person (even more than the helf) to be elected to exec and will do a cracking job.

Your comment was spot on riggggggghht up until you made the age old argument "Christians should be permitted to chop peoples heads off too"

But sure ya cant have everything

VIVA Hawthorne

3/11/2008 4:55 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I hope to lead a bloodless coup to overthrow these "elected" goons.

3/12/2008 5:12 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I think we should cut the new executive some slack. They're hotter than last year's team!

3/13/2008 4:37 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I don't think it was Paul Courtney that had the crowd cringing...

Did you HEAR Bower's speech!?

3/13/2008 5:07 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Poor Bower-

Shows how unelected the alliance party are, not just in the real world, but in the nonsensical realm os tudent politics also.

3/14/2008 12:45 am  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

If anyone's speech had the crowd cringing it was certainly Ciarnan's, I don't think I've heard someone so patronising to their opponents in so long!

3/15/2008 11:25 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

maneater...have you got eyes?

3/19/2008 9:00 am  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

yes I do. Have you SEEN laura hawthorne!!?!?!?

3/20/2008 9:04 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

yeah she's got that cool hippy thing going on. I wished she'd stop hugging trees and hug me instead.

3/26/2008 10:14 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

'Hot for Hawthorne' would your time not be better spent doing some work for your university degree?

3/27/2008 3:57 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Laura Hawthorne - "hot hippy thing" I've heard it all now

LMAO!!!

3/31/2008 1:14 am  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Totally agree with the Hawthorne thing, she is hot!

As for the bitching about whether the exec. will do any work this year - who cares, there's probably only about 50 people in the whole uni (all of whom read this blog) who take notice anyway. We should just work out a system where we all get ourselves elected in rotation.

9/17/2008 4:29 pm  

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