First Semester Review! Amnesty Maynooth did all this??!!!

by Ciarán Ó Cearbhaill

BOOM! One semester down and just Semester Two to go in which to save this mad world from itself. In this crazy modern world of mod cons, space flight and unnecessary Tron sequels it’s difficult to remember just what we accomplished, so let’s go on a journey through space and time to relive the year thus far........

·         Blog writer disclaimer: I’m listening to ‘Shakira – She Wolf' on repeat as I write this



Electric Picnic 2010 and Christina knew already it was going to be another long hard year with Amnesty



AGM: 6^th September 30 young, hungry human rights go getters attended our AGM with the aim to make the world a better place. After a couple of glasses of wine and generous helpings of cheesy snacks we were all sure we had already made the world a better place but decided to do the society anyway. We also played a ridiculously awesome ice breaker chair moving game where Stephen Eamonn Dunne won the right to stand in the middle every time and we elected reps for first years (Orladh Hannigan), international students (Nicole Roy) and post-grad students (Anne-Marie O'Reilly).



Fiach takes cover behind his death penalty sheet as a tongue happy dog approaches, fortunately for him the dog choose Stephen to lick.



Death Penalty Campaign: One of our major campaigns for first semester was our anti-death penalty campaign, especially for Sakineh Mohammadi Ashanti who faced death by stoning in Iran. The society put together a death penalty flash mob in the arts block that attracted the special attention of a dog that couldn’t resist Stephen’s charms. As for the video: *Award for Best Fall* - Paul Maher’s shot in the head fall, closely followed by Fiach’s delayed reaction collapse. *Award for Worst Fall* - Orladh Hannigan which was more like an old women getting into bed rather than instant death (seriously, watch the video, she even snuggles up).

Afterwards a stand was set up and we got 215 signatures signed and 3 people to be added to the mailing list! Yayy!  At the following Wednesday the society watched ‘The Stoning of Soraya M’ where the society learned that stonings are far worse in slow motion and accompanied by violins, so the group took decisive action and fast forwarded the movie. Problem solved.

Dean combines his love for alcohol and covering himself in baloons

Intervarsity:  11 members from the society set off to the wet and windy mountains of west Wicklow for a weekend of ‘Agents of Change’ human rights training. The weekend brought together 80 students from amnesty groups in 8 different universities. It consisted of workshops, special guest speaker David Norris talking about Georgian restoration work in his house and finished off with a flash mob for Roma rights which included people freezing their asses off at the Central Bank. The evenings were especially fun with a fancy dress competition, alcoholic beverages and people desperately trying to get enough TV reception to watch X-factor.

Some lucky punters manage to get TV reception to watch X-Factor at the Intervarsity
but failed in their quest to find the thermostat above their heads

Father Ted Table Quiz: (Sometimes the people that hold the raffle, win the raffle…eh Sorcha?) 50 people attended and we raised €287. We also had a petition against the mental health cuts and got another 50 signatures. Stephen Eamonn Dunne fended off fierce completion to win the ‘My Lovely Horse’ sing off, and a guy was seemed to be high on some drug cocktail wasn’t leaving the stage until he was declared the winner of the ‘Dancing-Priest dance-off’, beating a man on crutches in the process. Sorcha fended of stiff competition from Shmick (who bought half the tickets) to win the raffle (Winning number: 111, it took me a while to read out because I was holding it upside down). The evening finished with a rendition of the national anthem, but the only record we had was ghost town so we played that instead.

The dancing priest dance off *note: guy on crutches*

Emergency General Meeting: Laura Feeney cried so hard into the NUIM Amnesty constitution when Wagner was eliminated on the X-Factor we had to write a new one. The new constitution changed the name of the society to MSU Amnesty and eliminated any position Ciarán held on the committee which meant the new constitution was passed unanimously at the EGM. Anna Rourke was elected our new O.C.M. (ordinary committee member) but Paul Maher unfortunately had to step down from the committee and Ciarán stole his way back in, *sigh*.

Stephens plans a bank robbery...or a flash mob, who knows?

The semester ended with a pizza extravaganza Christmas party. Fiach went through a life changing experience during the movie ‘UP’ and had to be restrained from attempting to entre the movie through the screen on multiple occasions. Stephen Eamonn Dunne once again experienced problems with the chair moving ice breaker game, proving some things don’t change.

We also did loads of other stuff, LGBT debate, LGBT Christmas cards, attended NUIM open day, Christmas stall in arts block selling fair-trade amnesty goods and raffle tickets which raised €150, creative campaigning workshop, Ciarán gave a lecture on erectile dysfunction which raised €155 and terrified a lot of people, many members attended the riot march against fees and we sent people to clubs and societies meetings. Do we rock or what? WOOO!!!

That’s all I can remember plus I want to watch the Rubberbandits video again.

Roll on Semester Two! HOO HOO HOO! Merry Christmas.

MSU Amnesty with David Norris (and some other randomers who wish they were MSU Amnesty)