Ulster Unionist student says Queen's a 'cold house' for many unionists on campus with new levels of 'sneering and hostility' towards his society

It comes after Jay Basra had written an open letter to the leadership of the Students’ Union, saying that its members had experienced an upsurge in “sneering and hostility” at the recent Freshers’ Fair event, where clubs and societies literally set out their stall for new prospective members.

Mr Basra, a Queen’s student and chairman of the university’s Young Unionists Society (the UUP association on campus), also pointed to the appearance of dissident republican material near the campus as evidence of “intimidation” of unionists.

In particular he was referring to a sign affixed to a fence outside the David Keir Building from the group Lasair Dhearg, which described Northern Ireland as being “occupied” territory, “forcefully secured by over 20,000 British security personnel”.

In his open letter to the Students’ Union leadership, he said: “With recent protests by members of the Connolly Youth Movement at the PSNI and Officer Training Corps stalls during Freshers’ Fair, it will come as no surprise that many students within the Protestant/unionist/loyalist (PUL) community have felt that the language used in their statements was anti-unionist in nature.”

The Connolly Youth Movement (a republican communist organisation) for instance posted up a message after their protest denouncing “dawn raids on republican activists” by police, saying the PSNI had “interned” them “to be tortured in British jails”, and that the force is a “colonial militia”.

Mr Basra went on to add: “When hosting our own stall at the Freshers’ Fair, I witnessed sneering and hostility at a level not seen in the many years our society has participated. This has greatly concerned me.

“Many unionists already find it difficult on campus, but behaviour such as this is clearly becoming normalised.

“Therefore, feeding into the perception that Queen’s is a cold house for the PUL community, a perception which has continued to permeate and grow in recent years. This cannot be allowed to continue.

“There needs to be visible and public engagement by student officers with PUL cultural, religious, and political bodies on campus to address these concerns directly.

“The Students’ Union should never be regarded as a cold house for any student. Yet, for many within the PUL community, this has become the reality.”

He also complained of “a deep sense of alienation” over the Students’ Union’s direction, in particular its endorsement of bilingual signs, which he described as “an inherently politicised issue”.

However, Mr Basra also voiced optimism that things could change on campus, noting that his society had gone from about 15 members at the time he joined two years ago to about 74 now.

The News Letter put Mr Basra’s letter to the Students’ Union leadership and Queen’s itself, but no response was received.

Meanwhile, the Queen’s branch of the DUP, the Democratic Unionist Association, has written to the university to express concerns about a protest which took place on Thursday at the gates of the university.

Protestors there held up a banner saying ‘PSNI off our campus’ and chanted ‘I support Palestine Action’ and ‘up Palestine Action’.

Palestine Action is a banned terrorist group.