Student leader who forced Trinity climbdown is in talks with students of other universities
TCDSU president László Molnárfi (third from left) with Harun Šiljak, Trinity BDS chair Isobel Duffy, welfare officer Aoife Bennett, USI campaigns vice president Zaid Albarghouthi, and Louie Lyons at a protest about the cost of campus accommodation. Picture: Norma Burke
The student who led the successful five-day Trinity College protest over the Israeli invasion of Gaza is in talks with other student leaders around Ireland.
László Molnárfi says he plans a series of workshops around the organisation and execution of student-led direct action.
The president of the Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU), whose protest blockaded the historic old library building that houses the Book of Kells, says he has already spoken to University College Cork.
The ‘solidarity encampment’ protest, which attracted world headlines, saw 100 students erect 70 tents on Fellows Square.
Just hours before a deal was struck to end the protest on Wednesday, the 23-year-old had told the he was prepared for it to continue “indefinitely”.
He believes the Gaza protest and resulting encampment is what Ireland can expect from a growing trend towards more direct action from students.
“There isn’t really a tradition of more radical mass student movement here in Ireland — but I would say there is now, and that way of approaching issues is being accepted as the way to do things,” said László, who is planning to apply for Irish citizenship in the future.
“Apathy has been replaced by faith in collective action," he said. “What we’re seeing is a popular resurgence of the student movement in Ireland, after more than a decade.
“Hopefully, the way we are doing things, taking direct action and speaking out unapologetically for student interests will spread like a wildfire across the country.”
He added: “Other countries, including the UK, have a much more engaged and radical student movement. Here in Ireland, that sort of culture needs to be established.”
Asked if he has been in touch with other colleges, he said he has and he will be hosting workshops about direct action.
"It has been said multiple times that the Trinity job has been a source of inspiration for students across the island,” he said.
He said he is in talks with student representatives in UCC and University College Dublin about protests.
While possibly the most high profile of protests the college has seen in recent years, the latest was one in a long line of them.
Last September, for example, he cost the college up to €100,000 in lost revenue when he arranged a blockade at the entrance to the Book of Kells, which fronts onto Fellows Square. The then newly-elected TCDSU president had organised the protest in reaction to the college’s 2% rise in rent of campus accommodation.
At the time, he proclaimed that “if [Trinity] take money from the students then the students will take money from the college”.
They did this by blocking access to an attraction that attracts at least one million visitors a year and earns up to €350,000 a week.
As a result of the day-long protest, Trinity College scrapped the rent rise a few weeks later and agreed to a rent freeze for the academic year 2024-2025.
His other victories include getting more lights put up around the campus so female students could feel safer on campus at night.
Born in Vienna in 2001, he was raised in Brussels by his Hungarian parents who work there for the EU Commission.
He attended the prestigious European School, Brussels 1 (ESB1), whose past pupils include European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and former UK prime minister Boris Johnson.
He was there from 2013 to 2020 and, by the time he reached high school, he was involved in student politics, serving as student council president before he left.
While at ESB1, he was taught by a number of Irish-born teachers and he says they are the main reason he moved to Dublin in 2020.
His tenure as TCDSU president ends at the end of June, and he plans to concentrate on his studies and on graduating with a joint-honours degree in Sociology and Philosophy next year.
Then, he said he plans to return with his girlfriend to Vienna where they will both get their masters degrees.
He said he plans to return to Ireland after that and become an Irish citizen.
“It’s going to be quiet for a while,” he said.
“I need to take a little break and I have to pass my exams, and to do my dissertation next year.
“I’d say I’ve done my bit, and I would say, now it’s time for other people to take the lead.
“After Vienna, I will be back. I don’t have a specific job in mind, but I’m looking forward to settling down here because I feel like I found my place.”
