University College Dublin Students' Union

University College Dublin Students' Union (UCDSU; Irish: Aontas na Mac Léinn COBÁC) is the students' union of University College Dublin. It is the largest students' union in Ireland.

The Union was founded in 1975 as the successor of the Student Representative Council, with Enda Connolly acting as the organisation's first president. Its primary role is to represent its members views and defend their interests.

All students of UCD who are studying for a degree or postgraduate diploma of the National University of Ireland are, on registration at the university, members. The Union is funded by a membership fee paid at the same time as the student services levy ("registration fee") at the start of the academic year. In addition to its campaign work the Union also provides many services, such as three shops; welfare and education services such as an online second-hand bookshop; and the provision of a full-time Accommodation and Employment Officer. UCDSU has offices in the Student Centre and hosts clinics down in Smurfit once a week.

The Union has been at the forefront of pushing social change in Ireland, selling condoms starting in 1979, when the sale of contraceptives without a prescription was still illegal. The Director of Public Prosecutions considered legal action against the Union but ultimately demurred, believing the Union was deliberately attempting to provoke a case and that the "clearly unconstitutional" 1935 law prohibiting their sale had "little or no chance of being upheld". The sale of contraceptives without a prescription was finally legalised in 1985, and their general sale legalised in 1993.

The Union was also at the forefront of the fight for the right to publish information about abortion. In 1988, the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (Spuc) threatened the Union with legal action if information on abortion was published in its welfare guide. The Union went ahead and published information on abortion clinics in Britain and a case was taken against it, Spuc v. Coogan, that was later joined by the Trinity College Student Union and Union of Students in Ireland in Spuc v. Grogan. The case was initially dismissed in the High Court on the basis that Spuc lacked standing but Spuc ultimately prevailed in the Supreme Court leaving the unions involved with large legal fees. The case ultimately as far as the European Court of Justice, which established that under the Treaty of Rome abortion was a service and a Member State could not prohibit the distribution of information about a service legally provided in another Member State. While establishing the principle that Ireland could not block the publication of abortion information from foreign clinics or their agents, the Court found it was legal for Ireland the block information from third parties, so establishing a principle of freedom of abortion information but ultimately finding against the students due to their status as unconnected third parties and leaving them with their costs. The provision of information on abortion services legally available in other European Union countries was ultimately legalised in the 1995 Abortion Information Act.

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