Maynooth Students' Union (MSU; ) is the students' union which represents the students of Maynooth University and St. Patrick's Pontifical University, formerly St. Patrick's College, Maynooth.

History Maynooth Students' Union was formed in 1977, and celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2017.

In December 1981, the union organised a poorly-attended protest outside Leinster House to call on the government to open the higher education grant scheme to clerical students of SPPU, as it was open to secular students who had their degrees taught by SPC, Maynooth and only accredited by the NUI as MU was only established in 1998. They garnered the support of the then-Union of Students in Ireland, now AMLÉ, who had passed a resolution in support of this at their previous annual conference and whose president, Brendan Dorris threatened a student strike. The protest came as part of a 31 million pound supplementary funding vote to the HE sector, including 9 million pounds of effective bailouts due to increases in costs and expected improvements of HE bodies over the year.

The original students' union building and bar (on the west of the north campus) was replaced in 1993, shortly after the development of the restaurant and sports building, which was built in 1991. This housed the student's union offices and shop which had been in the Arts faculty block.The Bridge - Summer 2008 Maynooth Alumni Association, Summer 2008. In 2018, as part of the Maynooth University development plan, proposals for a new student centre were commenced, with completion proposed for 2022.Campus Master Plan Maynooth University However, in September 2022, Maynooth University announced that construction on the new student centre had been cancelled, citing rising construction costs. This prompted Maynooth Students' Union to engage the student body in an action campaign, known as #WheresMyLevy.

In 2017, former President of the union, Leon Diop sued LUAS for 75'000 euro on defamation grounds for alleged recurrent racial abuse, having accused the LUAS of "racial profiling". He stated he and his brother were asked to provide ID and asked to leave a carriage in 2016 when he was MSU President due to their skin colour. He lost the case in 2018, with the judge finding that while he may have felt "affront", the security company had qualified privilege in acting in the manner which they did. He won a High Court appeal in 2019, with the court finding that defamation had ocured when the pair were asked to leave the carriage after having produced valid tickets. As they were then permitted to re-board,Mr Justice Barr found the defamation was only momentary and was corrected and awarded Mr Diop his costs plus 500 euro. The court did not say whether the decision to inspect their tickets amounted, in itself, to racial profiling. Being treated "badly or unfairly", the court found, was not something which it could award damages for.

In 2025, Gavin Fanning, a former MSU President, together with Aoife Hynes, a former student senator and part-time officer, reportedly compiled a "dossier", containing alleged incidents of harassment, data breaches, and several failures to accommodate disabilities. According to the "dossier" and testimony by Fanning and Hynes, the "prolonged mistreatment and failure to act [by the union] contributed to a severe decline in Fanning's mental health" and reputedly "culminated in two attempted suicides during his time in office". It was also alleged that a staff member at the student's union "spread rumours that he [Fanning] was "faking" his disability", that disability aids were removed from his office, that "reasonable accommodations were denied" and that disciplinary actions were inappropriately threatened. The accusations, together with alleged data protection breaches, were reportedly submitted to the Data Protection Commission and the Workplace Relations Commission. The then-and-current Director-General of MSU, Dillon Grace, who it had been claimed was sweeping what the MSU sabbaticals were doing "under the rug" to avoid "being defunded" by the university was President of MSU during the 2016/2017 Academic Year, having been appointed in September 2021, with less than 4 years of management experience, all in MSU.

In 2026, the union reportedly changed its name to the dual Irish-English name of "Aontas Mac Léinn Mhá Nuad-Maynooth Students' Union" (AMLMN-MSU).

Between September 2023 and July 2026, the union had six different presidents

Affiliations Maynooth Students' Union is a constituent organisation of Aontas na Mac Léinn in Éirinn (formerly known as the Union of Students in Ireland or USI). MSU rejoined USI in 2009 after disaffiliating from it in 2001.NUIM students vote to rejoin USI University Observer, 28 February 2010. In 2013, 2016, and 2019 there were other student body referendums to disaffiliate from the USI, but students voted to remain.USI President welcomes affiliation changes www.sin.ie, 5 March 2013

Societies As of 2024, there were over 100 clubs and societies at Maynooth University. Among the oldest is the Literary & Debating Society, which was founded as part of St. Patrick's College Maynooth in 1795. Debating competitions historically associated with this society include the Maynooth Open (a debating inter-varsity competition open to all university debating societies) and the Aoife Begley competition (an annual secondary schools debating competition run by the Literary & Debating Society).

References

External links

Maynooth University Literary & Debating Society website (archived 2014)