Originally from Annacotty in Limerick, Muireann O'Dwyer came to NUI, Galway to study arts, and is about to begin a year as the college's Students' Union President, following in the footsteps of Labour Party leaders Eamon Gilmore and Pat Rabbitte.

Muireann arrived in the city the Sunday night before her first year orientation, expecting great things from the city. Like a lot of Galway students, her decision was heavily influenced by her parents' college experiences here - her mother did her degree here "and seemed to have loved every minute of it."

From that example, Muireann decided to fully embrace college life, and became involved in different societies – she was Societies Chair in her third year.

"I've been pretty involved since second year. I was the vice-auditor and auditor of the Human Rights society and I also went along to a lot of events run by the Film society, the Philosophy society and the Lit and Deb.

"My first ever society event was an information talk with Botany Soc that a friend wanted to go to, as he had a crush on one of the girls running it! I'm involved in the various societies because of the events that interested me; to be honest, I'd have gone to more if I had the time. Human Rights Soc was great to be involved in, there is strong support for it on campus, and lots of supports both nationally and in Galway for campaigns and events"

Her decision to run for the position of Students' Union President was motivated by a number of factors.

"I'd been thinking about running for a while before the elections and the more I thought about it, the more it made sense to me. The Union in NUI, Galway is really strong and has so much potential that I really wanted to give it a shot. Students deserve someone who'll give it all for one year, and who won't be afraid to take risks and try new things. There are so many small changes that could be made to make student life here even better and I really wanted to be the one to make some of them happen."

As it turned out, her first taste of politics proved to be "quite an experience", with a weeklong election campaign that was as exciting as it was tiring.

"All the candidates will tell you how tiring it is to campaign; non-stop postering and talking to people and then the day itself, which runs from about 8am until well into the early hours of the next day. It definitely takes it out of you! Having said that, I really enjoyed the week, getting to talk to more students than I'd usually have a chance to and hearing the things they'd like to see done, or changed. There was a great buzz about elections this year on campus, which was great to be a part of."