NEWS
By Rachel daly · 2 November 2026
Last month, October, marked Black History Month in Ireland. The theme of this year’s Black History Month celebrations in Ireland and the UK was “Honouring Our Communities”, a theme that celebrates black individuals “whose contributions are part of everyday life, yet too often go unseen” — this theme served as an opportunity to uplift community leaders, advocates as well as student and youth groups for example, in addition to the everyday members of the public across Ireland and the UK who support Black communities. University College Cork Students' Union (UCCSU) failed to organise or announce any events throughout the month, despite promising students that events would be planned.
On 12 October, almost halfway through the month, UCCSU published its first acknowledgement of Black History Month, sharing an Instagram post wishing the Black community at UCC a “Happy Black History Month”.
Despite indicating that “Black [H]istory [M]onth event details [were] to follow”, the Students’ Union made no further announcements. With October now concluded, UCCSU has neither announced nor held any events to mark Black History Month, which does prompt questions regarding the Union’s commitment to celebrating and uplifting the Black community on campus.
The Instagram post focused primarily on the challenges faced by the wider Black community and the accompanying caption read:
“Happy Black History Month to the Black community of UCC from UCCSU!
We hope that despite the struggles, you are able to feel a sense of pride in yourself and your community this Black History Month.
UCCSU will always fight against racism and discrimination of all types.
Black History Month event details to follow…”
The caption was accompanied by a quotation attributed to Martin Luther King Jr., which read: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”.
While the message acknowledged the challenges faced by the Black community, its emphasis on racism and discrimination offered little recognition of the celebratory purpose of Black History Month itself. The distinction between commemorating Black history and acknowledging the discrimination faced by Black communities would later form part of the questions put to UCCSU by University Express. On 29 October, University Express interviewed members of the UCCSU as part of a series of sit-down interviews, amongst other conversations, questioned the Union on their approach to acknowledging Black History Month.
University Express put the issue of the Union’s unfulfilled commitment to announce Black History Month events directly to UCCSU President Eleanor McCahill during the interview, asking: “At the beginning of Black History Month, which is celebrated in October in Ireland, the Union announced that it would publicise upcoming events related to the month, with details coming soon but those promised updates have not appeared by the end of October. How do you account for this failure to follow through within communications?”
McCahill explained that “the intention was to, between the executive and the equality working group and the different cohorts of students”, “come up with a plan of events [UCCSU] wanted to run” throughout the month. “We originally had plans in mind”, said the UCCSU president, “then due to availability of people within different, I suppose identified groups in terms of planning, that didn’t then come to fruition”.
McCahill went on to say that “[they] as a sabbatical officer team probably should have picked up the primary planning”, so that responsibility did not fall entirely on the Equality Working Group. The President added that she did “intend on having a broader statement of support put out by the end of the month”, and that she was conscious that the month was coming to an end. At the time of publishing, no such statement has been made.
Communications and Engagement Officer Luna Fleming also addressed the circumstances surrounding the absence of events, offering a further account of the Union’s planning process.
“After that post was made, my understanding is there was a meeting between the equality officer and the racial and ethnic minority rep on the equality working group to discuss what type of events they would do,” said Fleming. “And I’d say that was probably the same week the post was put up”. At the time of this comment, University Express was conducting sit-down interviews exclusively with sabbatical officers. Consequently, neither the Equality Officer nor aforementioned the Racial and Ethnic Minority Representative, both referenced by Fleming, were interviewed for this article. At the time of publishing, the UCCSU website lists the Racial & Ethnic Minority Rights Representative position as “unfilled”. The University Express welcomes comments from either individuals mentioned during the interview.
Fleming’s account suggests that discussions around potential events took place only after the Union’s initial acknowledgement of Black History Month, published on the twelfth of October, raising questions about whether any substantive planning had taken place before the announcement was made.
Fleming then continued:
“But I’m not sure what really happened after that because the equality officer would have had that information, but I think the next time it kind of came up was during our exec meeting earlier this week. And then we were kind of like, ‘Will we have to organise the event outside of October at this stage with such little notice, unfortunately?’ So that is the situation we’re in, unfortunately. Yeah”.
University Express also questioned whether, given Fleming’s role as Communications and Engagement Officer, the Union should have publicly acknowledged that no Black History Month events had been organised. Asked whether the absence of events should have been communicated to students, Fleming offered little elaboration, responding: “Yeah, perhaps. I can look into that going forward”.
UCCSU Entertainment Officer, Makhabbat Shaimakhanova, offered a further account of the Union’s approach when questioned about the absence of events. Asked whether the organisation of Black History Month events would have fallen within her remit, she suggested that potential activities could have centred on “peaceful strike[s]” and drawing attention to what she referred to as “the current situation going on” — making no reference to celebrations — and then subsequently maintained that this fell under the responsibility of “other officers”, rather than the duties of the entertainment officer. However, when asked whether entertainment events could have been organised to mark the month, the officer conceded: “To be fair, yeah, you’re right. Like, there could have been a few events.”
She went on to explain that she had been “so engrossed with the main, like, events and celebrations” taking place this semester and that she “probably didn’t pay, like, much attention to this”.
University Express then put the distinction between celebrating Black history and opposing racism directly to the officers. While the Black History Month Instagram post briefly stated that UCCSU would fight against racism and discrimination, it made little reference to the central purpose of Black History Month: to celebrate and honour Black history, culture and achievements. University Express emphasised that Black History Month is not synonymous with an anti-racism campaign, and questioned what specific focus would be placed on uplifting Black voices and recognising Black history through future events.
In response, McCahill said “we want to ensure that all students, you know, feel welcome” and that UCC is a place with “a broad range of types of students”. She added that these students make the UCC community “such a vibrant place” and that the Union would ensure their “contributions don’t go ignored”.
In response to the same question, Fleming said: “I can understand that point but I suppose looking at the caption the way I would have seen it, ‘We hope that despite your struggles, you’re able to feel a sense of pride in yourself and your community, this Black History Month’, I suppose I would have considered that part of the celebration as such”
As with the response offered by McCahill, Fleming’s response did not directly address the distinction raised; instead, the officer presented the caption as part of the celebration, despite its limited engagement with the theme of uplifting black voices and history.
When asked whether the Union’s failure to hold events during Black History Month constituted a failure on its part, McCahill replied: “I think they would”.
Expanding on this, the UCCSU president said she hoped the “some” celebrations would still go ahead at a later date, albeit outside the month itself. “I think that events that we do want to run in terms of, like, Black History Month…I do hope to run them at a different time with a similar theme — regrettably not within Black History Month”.
On the question of future events, Fleming stated: “We need to do better”, adding that the Union “will organise some events relating to it in the near future”.
UCCSU has a particular opportunity to celebrate Cork’s own place in the history of Black History Month, should it choose to follow through on its commitment next time. Ireland was the fourth country in the world to formally celebrate Black History Month, with the first celebrations taking place in Cork in 2010 as part of a pilot initiative established by Zephrynus Okechi Ikeh, acting in his capacity as Project Coordinator of Black History Month Ireland.
Frederick Douglass, the American abolitionist, also has a historic connection to Cork, having visited the city in 1845 during his campaign against slavery. His visit forms part of Cork’s own place in the wider history of Black liberation and the struggle for equality. The theme ‘Honouring Our Communities’ serves as a reminder that Black history is not solely defined by past struggles, but also by the achievements, contributions and lived experiences of Black communities today. Today, that history continues through the Black communities that contribute to the cultural and social life of Cork and Ireland.
Whether UCCSU’s proposed events go ahead, and how they are communicated to students, will be an important measure of the Union’s commitment to ensuring that Black history is meaningfully recognised across the UCC community.
