A new campaign #HomeToVote has been launched by the NUS and USI that will support Irish students living and studying abroad in UK Universities to fly home to vote in the upcoming referendum to repeal the 8th amendment. USI and NUS have joined forces to offer a bursary of £55 - £110 for the students in question to travel home in time to vote.
This “Home To Vote” campaign allows student unions to offer a certain amount of funding to their Irish students to put towards their travel expenses, if they are unable to afford the cost of traveling home. If you are an Irish student living in England, Scotland, Wales, or Northern Ireland, and you’re registered to vote in Ireland, you are eligible to benefit from this campaign if your University has passed the motion. USI President Michael Kerrigan spoke about how to avail of this scheme:
“Any Irish citizens studying in the UK can get in touch with their Students’ Union and avail of a travel bursary fund that Students’ Unions can apply to. Students can get between £55 and £110 to pay for the flights home to vote ‘Yes’ on May 25th”.
NUS and USI both support the right to choose, and many No voters feel this scheme is an outsider interference with the referendum in favour of the Yes campaign.
Lets hope students who vote NO take advantage of this outside interference clearly aimed to affect a yes vote!UK Students’ Unions Create #HometoVote Fund https://t.co/8NbS72CFK7 via @universitytimes
— Myke Rosenthal-Engli (@SeelosinFuessen) May 13, 2018
More Irish students are studying in the UK than any other foreign country in the world. Many of the students are fully supportive of this new campaign and have helped bring it into their universities in order to help any student that may be struggling to pay for flights home to vote. Many Irish students are already flying home to vote in the referendum in support of repealing the 8th amendment.
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We're going #hometovote!
This time two weeks, we'll be taking planes, boarding boats and hitching lifts. We'll be voting with our feet for a better Ireland. For our sisters, our partners, our friends, and ourselves.
Who's with us?#repealthe8th pic.twitter.com/ntBK0dixY2
— London-Irish ARC (@LdnIrishARC) May 10, 2018
Séagh Keogh who’s studying a PhD in contemporary Chinese Studies at the School of Politics and International Relations in the University of Nottingham, when speaking to the USI as well, said:
"It is absolutely vital that anyone who is eligible to vote in the referendum on May 25th does so. This is a huge opportunity, a once-in-a-generation chance for everyone to have a say in shaping the future of Ireland and the kind of society we want to be a part of. Every single vote counts. For many of us currently scattered around the globe, Ireland will always be home and we want to return at some point. We want to make sure that it’s a safer, fairer and more compassionate place for everyone to live."
The Student Unions in Oxford University, University of Sussex and University of Nottingham have already passed the #hometovote motion and have begun making a fund available to those who need it. If you are looking for more information on this campaign, or looking to bring it to your University, visit www.hometovote.com
