The Gown 2024/2025 – We’re Back!
The Gown is back for the new university year! We’re delighted to return to your screens and hope that your summer has been nothing short of fantastic. Following the editorship of Fleur Howe, Chloe Jacob is our paper’s head editor this year alongside her deputy, Sibhéal McGarry. Our new website launch marks the start of a brand new era for the Gown and our editors have a very clear vision for this years publications with new editions to the paper, new Gown sanctioned events and more!
Our writing team has expanded this year allowing for new editions to our paper. This year readers will have access to the Gown’s very own Agony Aunts who will advise our readers on any topic they write to us about. All submissions will be anonymous so you can spill your heart out to us in secret. From flings to feelings we want to hear it all! We have also added a new edition of Society Spotlight: a look into QUB’s most prolific societies and their impacts on campus. We will be delving into the politics, structure, impacts and controversies associated with Queen’s Universities oldest, most well known societies to provide our readers with a greater understanding of campus goings on, while also bringing awareness to some of the amazing work societies are doing for the greater community. Finally we have added a designated reviews column to report on Belfast specific art, film, music and food recommendations to promote local projects across the city.
This year our primary reporting focus will centre upon Belfast, and more specifically QUB and the SU. We will be your go to news source for everything associated with student union elections, we will be placing a microscope up to Queens Universities policies and management, reporting on issues that you cannot read about elsewhere. We also plan to extend our reach into interviews of Belfast’s finest – and Belfast’s worst, from politicians to musicians and more!
The Gown has been intrinsically linked to the Belfast arts and culture scene since its founding in 1955. We want to continue this legacy and further the accessibility for upcoming artists and thus we are creating our very own the Gown Sessions. We are hoping to host these monthly to platform Belfast’s multi talented singers, poets, comics, performers and much more.
This year the Gown plans to expand its reach past our online publication. As we approach the 70th year in April of 2025, to honor the historical nature of the paper, we plan on publishing editions in print, that will be free for all students to read with our most popular, controversial and interesting pieces included. We are a paper for the students, and we want to go back to our beginnings of grass-root journalism.
We are still actively recruiting for new writers, editors and social media officers. If you like what you’ve seen come join us! Find our contact information in the About Us section. You can also find us at the Arts, English and Languages Welcome Fair on the 12th of September at 9:30am or at the Freshers Fair on the 18th of September.
The Gown is coming back with a bang and we hope to provide you the readers with the most reliable, funny and frequent student news source!
