A MAYNOOTH professor helped get Bertie Ahern appointed as an honorary professor – just weeks after he attended the Fianna Fail Ard Fheis.

The former taoiseach was named as an ‘Honorary Adjunct Professor’ of NUI Maynooth’s new Mediation and Conflict Intervention programme on April 7. He was proposed for the post by the head of the university’s business and law school, Dr Robert Galavan.

The appointment has provoked outrage from a large number of students and academic staff.

On Thursday, a petition signed by more 1,200 students against the move was handed over to university president Professor John Hughes, after a protest march by 250 students.

The Irish Daily Mail has learned that Dr Galavan is a Fianna Fail member who attended the party’s Ard Fheis in the City West hotel in February.

Dr Galavan said he thought the appointment of Mr Ahern was a brilliant move. ‘I think it’s a fantastic idea,’ he said. ‘It’s got nothing to do with what I’m a member of or what I’m not a member of.’ The student petition said it condemned the appointment of Mr Ahern as it contradicted the views of large numbers of students and staff at the University.

NUI Maynooth has defended its decision to appoint former taoiseach Bertie Ahern as a visiting professor to the college, after more than 1,200 students and a number of academics signed a petition to protest at the appointment.

Mr Ahern was appointed an honorary adjunct professor by the School of Business and Law and is expected to give his inaugural lecture soon. No date has yet been set, however, and the students organising the petition said it appeared the matter was now “the best-kept secret on campus”. Read more »

Irish Times Front Page Piece (26/11/2009)

A GROUP of academics and students at NUI Maynooth has called on the university to suspend its appointment of former taoiseach Bertie Ahern as a visiting professor pending the outcome of the Mahon tribunal.

Campaigners said up to 1,000 signatures opposing the appointment had been collected among the student body and a public meeting on the issue took place last week. Read more »

At universities across Ireland (such as  NUIM, UCD and NUIG) students took time today to offer solidarity to education workers in a real,practical way- by joining them on picket lines.

The failure of the NUI Maynooth Student Union to support the one day strike did not deter a group of over 60 students from joining workers on various pickets at the University over the course of the day. Marchin

g together, a mix of students from various political organisations and campaigns, along with individual students, first took up residence at the en

trance to the North Campus.  Here, they joined members of Unite, IFUT and Siptu  who were picketing. The reception from staff to the  presence of students was fantastic. Read more »

STRIKE ACTION BY CAMPUS TRADE UNIONISTS, 24 NOVEMBER 2009

All of the trade unions representing staff working on the Maynooth campus are taking part in a one-day strike on Tuesday November 24th. The strike is protesting against the threat of further government-imposed cuts in the pay of university employees. Action is being taken following ballots in which the majority of members of the unions that are taking part voted in favour of coming out on strike. Read more »