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NUI Maynooth students' union to raise Pride flag despite 'sick' anti same-sex marriage leaflet

Maynooth University in Co Kildare has voted in favour of raising the Pride flag on campus, despit...
Newstalk
Newstalk

11.22 31 Mar 2015


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NUI Maynooth students'...

NUI Maynooth students' union to raise Pride flag despite 'sick' anti same-sex marriage leaflet

Newstalk
Newstalk

11.22 31 Mar 2015


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Maynooth University in Co Kildare has voted in favour of raising the Pride flag on campus, despite receiving an anti-equality post card this morning.

President of Maynooth Students Union Ben Finnegan believes it was sent ahead of this afternoon's vote on the raising the Pride flag which was passed with an overwhelming majority.

“As far as I’m aware we are the only who has received this as of now, but everybody is outraged and I would implore nobody to take it serious and take the message serious.

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"If anything it has inspired me to campaign for a proper information campaign for this really important referendum," he said, speaking after the result of the ballot.

Mr Finnegan said the strongly-worded literature was delivered to the union's office by post this morning - just hours before a campus vote on whether the Pride flag should be raised in support of the upcoming same-sex marriage referendum.

Using the rainbow colours usually associated with LGBT rights, the leaflet calls for a NO vote on May 22nd in order to "protect children". 

It then reads: "Jimmy Savile, Glitter & Harris all propagated homosexual 'marriage'."

This 'No Way Is Ireland Gay' campaign leaflet was addressed to the Students Union in Maynooth.

"We have no problem with people who want to run a Yes or No campaign as long as it is factual. However, the "No Way Is Ireland Gay" campaign attributed to the leaflet, is inciting hatred and discrimination which has left some of our members distraught," Mr Finnegan told Newstalk.com, speaking before this afternoon's viote.

"[Maynooth] has always been quite neutral in its stance toward marriage equality, given its proximity to St Patrick's College, and we respect the views of all our members," he added.

The Student's Union is now considering if its members should hold an on-campus referendum on whether the union should publicly support the YES side.

"We had initially been planning to push an information campaign around the referendum but the distribution of a leaflet like this one has inspired us to go further," Mr Finnegan explained.

HairyBaby.com wishes to advise they are in no way connected to this organisation. The logo stamp is part of a marketing campaign with An Post and currently appears on all stamped mail. 


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