Only one in five Queen's University Belfast students vote in Irish signs poll - though move scores overwhelming victory from those who did turn up
Only one out of every five Queen's University Belfast students voted in a much-publicised poll on building Irish signs poll across the campus.
The small minority who actually did cast a ballot over the past couple of weeks were, however, overwhelmingly in favour of the move – 91.88% in favour of plastering Irish signs across the campus and having the university change its name and logo to a bilingual version.
The vote breaks down to 4,607 votes in favour to 407 against. The students in favour equate to slightly more than 18% of the roughly 25,000 people attending Queen’s.
Yesterday the chair of a student wing of the Ulster Unionists, Jay Basra, told the News Letter “a victory won’t really have any substance” as it would only affect the position of the students’ union, not the university as a whole – and the union is already in favour of adding the Irish language to signs on campus.
He reinforced that after the result came in today, stating: “This policy, in practice, changes little from what already exists and cannot be binding on the university.
“We respect the outcome of this referendum as the democratic will of those who took part. However, we regret that a more inclusive, consensus-driven approach was not pursued, one that could have brought the entire student body with it, rather than relying on a vote in which only a fifth of students participated.
“Looking ahead, we expect and welcome meaningful support from the students’ union for Ulster-British and Ulster-Scots identities on campus.”