Kevin Barry Cumann

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The Kevin Barry Cumann is an Irish student political society. It is the branch of the Fianna Fáil political party in University College Dublin. The society, or Cumann, was established in 1957, by Gerard Collins, then a student organiser in UCD and later the Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs and MEP. It thus predates the founding of Ogra Fianna Fail[1] which was established in 1974. The Cumann is named after Kevin Barry (1902-1920), a former medical student of the University who fought and was executed during the Irish War of Independence. It is the largest cumainn in Fianna Fáil, with 517 members for the academic year 2006-07, though in recent years this has sometimes been less than 250.

KBC Logo

1 Members
2 Control of UCD Students' Union
3 Past Cumann Chairs
4 External links

[edit] Members

Prominent Fianna Fáil members who were members of the Cumann include current European Commissioner Charlie McCreevy, current Irish government ministers Dick Roche and Mary Coughlan, and RTÉ presenter Ryan Tubridy, among others. Prominent figures, including successive party leaders and taoisigh Jack Lynch, Charles J. Haughey, Albert Reynolds and Bertie Ahern, and others such as former Tánaiste Brian Lenihan and most cabinet ministers since 1957, have addressed Cumann meetings. The author and former political lobbyist Frank Dunlop was a member. The Cumann is run by an officer board elected by members annually at its Annual General Meeting. It is usually the largest student political organisation in UCD.

Albert Reynolds
A regular speaker at meetings

[edit] Control of UCD Students' Union

In the 1990s many of its members were actively involved in the UCD Students' Union, with a number of them being elected to Union Officerships. In the early and mid-1990s, members of the KBC, in an alliance with members of UCD Fine Gael and Labour branches, dominated the Students' Union Executive, replacing the previous radical left members who had dominated for some years. The then-Cumann chairman, Liam Kelly[2], become the Union Education Vice-President and ultimately Union President, while all three parties came to dominate the Students' Union Council. KBC member Ryan Tubridy was chosen to be the Union's publicity officer, while former Fine Gael chairman Jim Duffy edited the Students' Union News, the then-Union newspaper. Labour members held other Union positions as part of the arrangement. Fianna Fáil members continued to be heavily involved in the Union until the early 2000's, particularly in the roles of Education Officer and President.

However, with the threat of the re-introduction of third level fees in the summer of 2002 by the Education Minister of the time, Noel Dempsey, two successive left-dominated officerships were returned in the Springs of 2003 and 2004. In March 2005 James Carroll was elected as Union President and then went on to become the current chair of the Cumann.