Facebook pages call for USI president’s resignation


18 Nov 2010

A number of Facebook pages have emerged that encourage the resignation of the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) president, Gary Redmond.

With more than 300 users in total, the social media pages call for the current president to leave his post, insisting he is not fit to hold office and does not stand for the rights of students across Ireland, as reported in the ‘University Observer’.

The Facebook page with the most followers – ‘Gary Redmond Must Resign’ – labels Redmond a “member of Fianna Fáil” and claims he “endorses every single attack that Fianna Fáil have launched on the ordinary people of this country, including, and especially, all of the cuts across the whole of the education sector”.

The page adds that he should champion the rights of students against state sanctions, whether they come in the form of brutality or policy.

Redmond was the co-ordinator of USI protests against the Government’s proposed increases in registration fees and cuts in grants. Recent sit-down protests outside the Department of Finance in Dublin turned bloody earlier in November – as Garda forces and protesters clashed on the streets.