Lecturer incensed at Saoradh recruitment posters on campus

A UCC lecturer has said he was completely incensed to see recruitment posters for republican group Saoradh on the university campus.

Investigative journalist Lyra McKee was shot and killed by the New IRA during riots in Derry last Thursday.

Saoradh was criticised for holding marches in Cork and Dublin with members wearing military-style outfits in the days after the incident.

Lecturer in Applied Social Studies at UCC, Paul Burgess, had been in contact with Ms McKee in recent months.

He told The Echo he was shocked and saddened to hear of her death, describing her as an “outstanding person” who was passionate about the causes she was involved with, as well as a very talented writer and journalist.

He added that he was incensed to see Saoradh recruitment posters on UCC campus on Monday, the day before Ms McKee’s funeral in Belfast.

“There were photos of guys in paramilitary gear and they were clearly recruitment posters asking people to join,” he explained. “On another day, I might have walked away but for the day that was in it, I was completely incensed.”

Mr Burgess explained that the placement of the posters inside display cabinets between the UCC library and student centre implied a level of “legitimacy” to them.

He immediately called campus facilities who indicated that they were removing similar posters from other areas across the campus but that they were unaware of these.

“They were shocked and set about taking them down as quickly as possible,” added Mr Burgess.

“They did say that as quickly as they were taking these things down, they seemed to go up again and that they were asking UCC security to examine CCTV footage to get to the bottom of it.

“If it’s happening in UCC, there’s every chance it’s happening at other third level institutes,” he said.

“There seems to be a concerted recruitment drive, and I had heard of that in the North, but the last place I expected to see it was UCC campus.

“Even if these guys got two or three recruits, that would be a win for them and once you’re in these organisations it’s very hard to get out again.”

A spokesperson for UCC said the posters were not authorised to be placed on campus and were being removed.