Group campaigning for cross-border University to run Seanad candidate from Derry
Campaigners for a new cross-border university for Derry and Donegal say they intend to keep the issue on the national agenda by running a candidate in the forthcoming Seanad Éireann elections.
Derry novelist and former newspaper editor, Garbhán Downey, will be one of 19 candidates competing for three seats in the National University of Ireland (NUI) Senate Constituency.
Mr Downey, a graduate of NUI Galway, has been nominated by NUI alumni from across the island, and will be the only candidate from Northern Ireland in the race.
Downey, who co-founded the Derry University Group in 2013 to improve Higher Education provision in the North West, said: “The work we have completed so far shows us that Dublin is ready to move towards establishing a new cross- border university in Donegal and Derry."
“Derry was previously a member of the island’s national university structure, and there is now a perfect opportunity for us now to rejoin."
Mr Downey and his supporters hope that a new University would help stimulate economic recovery in the Northwest, and strengthen cross-border relations in the region.
“A cross-border development will also help us ensure that citizens from the North can retain the same rights to education and training as other EU states,” he added.
Voting papers will be issued to the over 112,000 registered NUI graduates this coming Friday, February 28, and they will cast their vote by returning their ballots by post before the end of March.
