This month Anthony O’Brien went out on campus to ask some questions for An Focal. With the 2016 General Election expected within a month, we wanted to know how many UL students knew about it and if they planned to vote.
1. Do you know about the General Election coming up in Ireland?
2. Do you plan to vote?
3. Do you mind if I ask who you intend to vote for?
Colin Brannan, Masters in Creative Writing
1.Yeah
2.Yeah
3. I haven’t decided yet, Probably Independents
Avril Horan, 2nd Year PME in Languages
1. No
2. I didn’t know about it, so no
Thomas McLoughin, 3rd Year in Pharmacutical and Industrial Chemistry
1.Yeah
2. I do
3. Haven’t decided yet. Fianna Fail maybe
Austin Duignan, 1st Year Medical Student
1. I do yeah
2. If I’m around yeah
3. I’m not sure yet. I’ll weight it up
Niamh McKenna, Final Year in Liberal Arts
1. I have a fair idea of it, but I’ve yet to register
2. Well I have the registration form printed off
3. No idea yet, I have to do some research
Sanobar Fahir Nehmin, 1st Year PhD in Optical Sensors
1. No, I don’t know about it
2. No, because I’m not from Ireland, I’m not an Irish citizen
Shane McNamara, 2nd Year Masters in Education
1. Yeah, I did
2. Yeah, I plan to vote
3. Not sure yet, undecided so far. Probably Fine Gael though
Padraig Leahy, 3rd Year in Business Studies
1. Yes, I’m quite aware of it
2. I plan to
3. I plan to vote for Fianna Fail
Patrick Laheesh, Final Year in Chemical Engineering
1. I don’t know about it
2. I’m actually in my final year, so I’m extremely busy with my projects, and need to focus
Edmund Kennedy, 4th year in Chemical Engineering
1. Yes I did, someone told me
2. I do if I have the time to get home to my local constituency
3. I don’t know at the moment, I’ve been too busy with final year stuff to pay attention to it
Seán McKillen, 3rd year PhD in History
1. Yeah, I’ve heard about all the potential election dates
2. Of course
3. I actually don’t know, I always fly towards the Independents but there’s so many types of them now. Limerick will be hotly contested. I think I probably lean towards the Social Democrats at this stage
Molly Cantwell 
Daragh De Klein