Trinity’s new Senator, Tom Clonan The ex-army officer speaks to Trinity Today about his priorities for the Seanad where he will join Senators Lynn Ruane and David Norris representing the University of Dublin (Trinity) constituency T om Clonan wasn’t present at the count on 31 March to elect a new Trinity Senator to fill the seat vacated by Ivana Bacik’s election to the Dáil. ‘I’d made a commitment to a whistleblower group in Cork for that day, the War of Independence. They were an influence and I also had a sense of wanting to contribute to a better society. During the late 80’s in Ireland, there were no economic opportunities, the situation with the IRA and INLA was terrible, and you still and I just didn’t think I was in contention. The other candidates couldn’t buy condoms easily. But in Europe the Berlin Wall was - Maureen Gaffney, Hazel Chu, Ursula Quill, Hugo MacNeill - coming down and I remember how exciting it was to interrail were really strong. I was just hoping to increase my vote share across Europe after graduation and how different it seemed to on my previous runs [in 2016 and 2020].’ Ireland. I rather naively thought that joining the army would The vote went to 15 counts and he didn’t draw ahead until the tenth count, so his victory didn’t sink in help me contribute to making Ireland a place where you didn’t have to keep looking over your shoulder.’ until the next morning when he woke up in The cadetship was tough, physically and Cork with his phone alight: ‘There was a psychologically: ‘Out of 60 who started, call from the clerk of the Seanad saying I had to come in and sign the book, and a call from my employer, Technological University Dublin, saying I had to apply for a career break immediately. I hadn’t expected to win so I’d made no I was brought up in Finglas and educated by the Christian Brothers and I was the first in my family to come to Trinity, but as soon as I walked only 41 made it through - a third were either discharged or made to repeat’. He graduated sixth in the year and was then seconded to provide armed support to An Garda Síochána along the border. In 1995, he was sent to Lebanon preparations of what to do when elected.’ through Front Arch, I felt to support the Irish peacekeeping forces Evidently, he learnt the ropes fast: when at home and accepted in the UN. we meet in Leinster House he is clearly on top It was, he recalls, ‘a really violent deployment’. of his commitments, while retaining his sense of When Hezbollah stepped up attacks in January excitement in the place. It’s the summer recess so we don’t 1996, Israel launched ‘Operation Grapes of Wrath’ in retaliation: meet any TDs or senators but he greets staff in the café and the ‘In March and April, the area where we were stationed was corridors warmly by their first names. You expect the personal subjected to tens of thousands of air strikes and missile touch from Irish politicians but Clonan seems genuinely attacks. Our job was to provide security cover for the Red considerate and interested in people, which must have stood Cross. Pulling bodies with horrific injuries out of ruins - elderly to him, not only in his Seanad runs, but in the challenging years people and kids - it was just horrendous. It culminated in the of whistleblower reprisal. massacre of Qana. Forty-eight hours after Qana I was walking It’s been a fascinating and turbulent trajectory to the Seanad. He first came to Trinity in 1984 to the School of Education. ‘I was brought up in Finglas and educated by the Christian up Grafton Street, holding hands with my girlfriend. I didn’t have the language to know how traumatised I was, but I knew I couldn’t continue like that.’ Brothers and I was the first in my family to come to Trinity but Clonan remained with the army but began a PhD in DCU as a as soon as I walked through the Front Arch, I felt at home and route to an academic career. He chose as his subject, the role accepted. By Irish standards of the time, Trinity was diverse, and treatment of women in the Irish army. ‘I knew this was an with students coming from all over Ireland, urban and rural, issue that needed research because in my cadet training, there north and south. I did my degree through Irish, and a lot of my were just four women out of 60, and when I was providing class were from the west; we’re still friends today.’ armed support to the Gardaí I noticed there were no women After graduation in 1987, he worked as a primary school teacher in Lucan, but two years later decided to join the army. ‘There is a family history of serving in the security forces: my father was a guard, and my grandfather, and my maternal in senior intelligence and that women officers were subject to all kinds of restrictions - for instance women pilots couldn’t fly a plane if there were weapons on board. This made no kind of sense to me.’ grandmother was with the South Dublin Brigade of the IRA in
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