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Seems a relevant time to recall the visit of Stephen Donnelly to a meeting of @theUSI national council in November 2015
He had just co-founded the Social Democrats and was brought to Cork to meet 80 of us by a well-meaning former USI President. He started his address by telling us we could ask him anything and he would be honest because that was his style
About three questions in someone asked him a not particularly technical question around student grants, and he absolutely froze up. We’re talking around 30 seconds thinking in a silence that only got more awkward. “Tell me what, let’s flip it, what do you think?”
The question poser responded with a detailed answer to his own question and good old Steve just repeated to him what little of the response he could remember and said “does that answer your question?” And stood back with a satisfied “good man, avoided a tough one there” look
So yes I understand why this week has been tough for us all
To this day I don’t know what motivated him to drive from Wicklow to Cork on a Friday evening and offer to talk straight about a subject he knew nothing about with people who did
