Sinn Fein has pledged to campaign against a decision to ban the party from setting up a cumann at Queen's University Students' Union. A motion of the Union council proposing recognition was defeated by 43 votes to 23. Students also voted against the Progressive Unionist Party setting up a branch. Sinn Fein councillor for south Belfast, Mr Sean Hayes, said: "Sinn Fein, a legal and democratic party which represents 45 per cent of the nationalist community, has been told by Queen's student unionists that we have no right to equal recognition within the Union.
"Republican students are being treated as second-class citizens and denied their right to participate fully in the life of the Students' Union. Sinn Fein has been barred from organising within the union for some years. "We have been excluded and criminalised, abused and intimidated, all of which has created an environment in which many republican students fear for their lives. Sinn Fein will not allow unionist bigots to prevent us from organising on campus.
The president of the Students' Union, Mr Paul McGarrity, said those who opposed Sinn Fein at the university were "surrendering to non-pluralist and exclusive forces" and acting against the spirit of the Belfast Agreement.