SIN Volume 22 Issue 3

NUACHTÁN SAOR IN AISCE VOL. 22 Issue 03. 03 NOV 2020

Student Independent News

WINNER: BEST NEWSPAPER AT THE NATIONAL STUDENT MEDIA AWARDS 2019

University Management INSIDE Team refuse to cut levy Conor Brummell News and Current affairs editor Deputy.sined@gmail.com NUI Galway’s University Management Team (UMT) have confirmed that they will not be lowering the student levy fee of €224 this year, despite access to campus being restricted due to the Coronavirus.

Students have raised concerns about the fee being charged this year, as lectures have been moved online until after Christmas and most students are doing college lectures from home.

Investigating the matter, SIN can provide a breakdown of where student levy money goes to, and the University Management Team’s reasoning for not lowering the fee this year. The breakdown of the €224 is as follows: There is a Sports Centre Construction fee of €100, which was added to the student levy in the academic year 2007/2008 by referendum to aid in the costs of building the Kingfisher Gym, that SIN has previously reported on. €25.14 goes to the Students’ Union, Societies and Clubs both receive €19.18 each, The Student Health Unit gets €18.46 from the levy, as well as Flirt Fm receiving €4.92. On top of this, the student levy contributes €19.69 to the Student Project Fund and €17.23 to the Áras na Mac Léinn Fund.

The University Management Team has justified the decision to keep the student levy at this rate stating; “Flirt FM, the Students Health Unit and the Students’ Union will continue to operate as normal providing their service to the student community. The Students Project Fund has already made their allocations for the academic year 2020/21 and will be advancing their approved projects. The Sports Centre levy continues to service the loan provided to build the university indoor sports facilities.”

The funding for Societies and Clubs will be allocated at its usual rate, and the UMT has explained that both are still active within the college, be it at a reduced capacity, or online. “All sports clubs are currently active. They are preparing and submitting the Covid-19 protocols to the Sports Unit to meet the returned to play requirements. Dangan has been opened for training and competitive games up to last week.

“NUI Galway teams who are involved in national competitions have been deemed to be elite sports athletes by the national governing bodies and

are currently training and competing within the government guidelines,” the statement from the UMT continued.

As well as this, the UMT states that “Due to the reduction in the number of people allowed play or train indoors, we are currently negotiating additional spaces so that we can cater for our current numbers. A participation program has been prepared to offer our students physical activity both on the campus and on virtual platforms. This will be rolled out over the remainder of the semester.

The scholarship programme is being delivered virtually. Our physio service is also available for the scholars online.”

Societies have also been active, with 2,549 new members already this year, according to the UMT. “Societies have developed and maintain the YourSpace platform (which hosts extra- curricular activity from Societies, Volunteering, mentoring, CEIM, clubs and the Employability Award). They also host a virtual helpdesk from Monday to Thursday to assist students, have held a virtual Societies

Fair, and played a major part in First-Year Orientation. They are looking forward to coming back to the space in Áras na Mac Léinn as soon as it is deemed feasible under the relevant regulations.”

The contribution listed as ‘Áras na Mac Léinn fund’ goes directly to the annual running costs of the Áras na Mac Léinn complex, which includes the SU Offices, the Socs Box, the students’ Common Room, the Student Health Centre and the Baily Allen Hall.

SIN queried where the money raised through the Student Levy for the Áras na Mac Léinn fund will be going this year, as access to the building for the Students’ Union, The Flirt Fm Team and the Socs Box is currently off-limits, and the Bailey Allen Hall and the Students’ Common Room are not in use.

“The funding will not be used for anything other than the upkeep of Áras na Mac Léinn. Some years expenditure is higher than others, for example when an area is refitted. We don’t know yet what will happen for the remainder of the Academic Year 2020/21,” the statement from the UMT concluded.

The man that took down Delaney, SIN speaks to Mark Tighe, page 28.

Student nurses have their voices heard, as government commits to paying placement nurses during Covid-19 pandemic. Full story on page 4. Photo Credit; USI

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SIN Vol. 22 Issue 03

INSIDE

INMO welcomes decision to pay Student Nurses during pandemic 4 Students furious over level 5 lockdowns, as #EducationForAll trends on Twitter 5 Students’ Union push for further accommodation refunds to be given in open letter to landlords: 6 On-campus teaching in Universities will be deemed essential under level-5 – Harris confirms 7 Editor of The Galway Advertiser starts an MA in Writing in NUI Galway 8 Galway Christmas Programme in the works on announcement of the Cancellation of the Christmas Market 9 Trump to get trumped by Biden — US election analysis with Larry Donnelly 10 Mol na Meáin: Manchán Magan 11 First Year Diary & Final Year Diary 12 Creative jobs are real jobs: artists need more support through this pandemic 14 Innovative year for Baboró International Arts Festival 15 The perfect book for the lockdown : The Midnight Library 16 Haunting of Bly Manor review 17 Who’s your biggest fashion inspo and why? 18 What Autumn/Winter 2020 trends should you actually invest in? 19 Boo! *Tinder matches disappear* 20 Let’s talk about sex, baby 21 Staycation junkie: South-West Donegal 22 Homemade Oat Bars 23 The perils of online learning 24 Body Shaming Online Is Still A Major Issue — And the Media Is Enabling It 25 ‘Do you want to be on my Private Story?!’ 26 Could the money given to students in budget 2021 be used in a better way? 27 SIN speaks to Mark Tighe, co-author of the book that tells the tale of John Delaney’s demise. 28 Former NUI Galway student on brink of 6 Nations success 29 Weir brace sinks Galway’s promotion dream 30 A new face atop the throne: SIN’s All-Ireland SFC Predictions 31

EDITOR: Paddy Henry editor.sin@gmail.com LAYOUT: Shannon Reeves An bhfuil rud éigin le rá agat?

Cur litir chuig an Eagarthóir chuig editor.sin@gmail.com

Find us online:

www.sin.ie

In fairness who could have picked a better month to go into a Level-5 lockdown.

It’s not as if anything happens in November, the month where isn’t quite Christmas, and just after Hallowe’en, but boasts all the turgid weather to boot is perfect for staying inside.

Hello again everybody and a warm welcome to issue three of SIN. When I was writing my last editorial, we were preparing ourselves for a Level Three Lockdown, and all the uncertainty that came with that. But as we are all aware things change very quickly in the times in which we live, and the good old days of Level Three are now a far-flung memory, and a time where society resembled anything even close to normal seems like an almost foreign concept.

Alas, level five it is for the month of November, but in fairness who could have picked a better month to go into a Level-5 lockdown. It’s not as if anything happens in November, the month where isn’t quite Christmas, and just after Hallowe’en, but boasts all the turgid weather to boot is perfect for staying inside, watching Netflix and not having to venture more than five kilometres away from the cosy confines of your own home.

Us poor students however can’t be concerned with Netflix’s new releases or Amazon Prime’s top picks. November means one thing and one thing only when you’re a student. Midterms.

Dreaded midterms, and they all come at once in a sort of academic hailstorm with word counts being bombarded at you left right and centre. Getting through them is the main thing I suppose.

Perhaps I have been a bit harsh on the second last month of the year here. November of course also means moustaches aplenty in the guise of the much more cheerful sounding Movem-

ber! I reckon I’ll veer clear of partaking myself, I’ll support the cause from the side-lines. My mother could probably make a better crack at it than I could.

For those lacking in the moustache department, I guess we can be thankful for face masks for Movermber’s duration. Messing aside it really is a great cause and all the info on how to get involved is covered on page 8.

We have a particularly well packed paper for you to enjoy this time around.

Our writers clearly forgot they have assignments due! There’s plenty inside to get engrossed in for a while at least while as we count the days down until December 1st , as if it was the first of the month that succeeds it.

As always if you want to get involved with SIN do get in touch , we would only be happy to have you on board, drop me an email at editor.sin@gmail. com I’d only be delighted to hear from you. As always stay safe, keep going and keep you microphone off, if you’re otherwise occupied during a lecture!

You’re Never Alone – Here’s who to call when you’re struggling in lockdown

By Fiona Lee With the new restrictions being put in motion this week, all of us will struggle in our own way. There isn’t a soul who won’t be affected by this lockdown to some degree, and going into the wintery festive months, it just feels that bit harder than before.

SIN wants to reach out to its fellow students, Galwegians and our readers nationwide to remind you all that you are not alone. It’s completely normal to be frustrated, overwhelmed, disappointed, anxious or upset.

Reach out to friends, family, the guys and gals in your classes. Ask them how they’re doing and how they’re dealing with everything, or even just say hi and have a nice catch up.

Don’t be afraid to reach out yourself if you’re struggling. You are not a downer, you are not being bothersome, those around you will want to know how you’re feeling.

Also, there are many services out there with people waiting by the phone to listen to you, and we have listed some of them down below.

It’s a difficult time but we’ve already gotten through so much.

You are all incredible, we’ve got this!

Pieta House Call 1800 247 247 or Text “Help” to 51444

Samaritans

Crisis Volunteer Text 50808

Women’s Aid Call 1800 341 900 or Call 112/999 in an emergency.

Click (here - https://www.womensaid.ie/ help/immediatedanger.html) for advice on what to do if you are in immediate danger

Men’s Aid Call 01-554 3811 or Email hello@mensaid.ie

Call 116 123

Galway Rape Crisis Centre

Aware – 10am to 10pm, Monday to Sunday

Call 1800 355 355

Call 1800 80 48 48 or Email supportmail@aware.ie and they will respond within 24 hours

For information on how to connect with NUI Galway’s counselling services, click (here - https://www.nuigalway.ie/counsellors/faqs/)

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November 03 2020

NEWS EDITORIAL

By Conor Brummell Hello everyone, and welcome back to issue three for SIN this year. By now, we are in week six of our first ever full online semester, and I have to say the scariest thing about this year’s Hallowe’en was the deadlines we faced along the way. Thunder and lightning seem to be a recurring, if not ominous theme, over the past two weeks and I have to say I am not here for it. The evenings are dark, and full of terror… and the weather is not holding up.

It makes queuing for Aldi in Lockdown 2.0 an extremely difficult task.

Nonetheless, SIN is back with a bang!

(Get it? Thunder and lightning?) We have another packed issue for you this week, with some interesting articles for your browsing. The University Management Team confirmed to SIN that they will not be lowering the student levy fee of €224 this year despite restricted access to campus facilities, and we spoke to a student nurse about her experience of being on the frontline during unpaid placement.

INMO announced that the Government will start paying students whilst on placement, so here is hoping…

Nessa Gorrell tells us all about the Students’ Union’s new Mental Health Charity Challenge, and she also reports on new software that NUI Galway provided to UCD to allow Clinical Medical Exams to go ahead online. Paris Ediagbonya writes about NUI Galway providing new ICU Handwashing Toolkits to hospitals, while Daniel Brennan has your one shopstop about the Budget 2020/21 and how it affects students. Caoimhe Killeen also reports on the SU calling for accommodation refunds for students who cannot afford to stay in Galway.

Our Editor, Paddy has smashed it out of the park again, doing a deep dive into Corrib Village and the meal plans they were providing for students required to isolate under HSE Guidelines..

Chomh maith leis sin, tá Eimear Nig Oireachtaigh ar ais arís lena colún agus san éagran seo, labhair sí le Manchán Magan. Mar is gnáth, tá an colún an-suimiúil! An bhfuil suim agat féin i scríbhneoireacht trí Ghaeilge? An mbeadh sibh ag iarraidh rud éigin a chur isteach don pháipéar? Téigh i dtéaghmhail linn.

If you, or anyone you know, has a scandalous story that you would love to see blow up in the college paper, please do get in touch! We’re always on the look out for news tips and new contributors to get involved writing for the paper. Email myself at deputy.sined@gmail.com for more information, or send us a message on Twitter or Facebook!

FEATURES EDITORIAL

By Saoirse Higgins Hi Everyone and welcome back again! I hope this issue of SIN can comfort you

amidst our second lockdown, and you can read it cosied up by a fire with a warm blanket and a cup of tea before your online lecture. We have a brilliant features section this week, all the writers did a great job and I can’t wait for you all to read their pieces. So, let’s get stuck in!

We have our regular columnists back again with our first-year diarist Aine Fogarty detailing her experience moving back home for lockdown and how she’s finding the workload of college. We then have final-year columnist Tom Molloy talk sport and gyms during lockdown.

We then move on to our features this week. Fiona Lee wrote two great features this week. She details the Galway Christmas Market’s cancellation and what the council has planned instead to replace it. Fiona then detailed Movember, the men’s charity that raises awareness and donates to prostate and testicular and men’s mental health.

We then have a lovely feature from Caoimhe Killeen where she interviewed the owner of Bell, Book and Candle to see how they will cope with a second lockdown.

Niamh Casey then delves into how Writers Soc here in NUI Galway is coping with everything now online, in a lovely detailed piece.

I also got the opportunity to speak with Declan Varley, editor of the Galway Advertiser who has started an MA in Writing in NUI Galway about how he’s finding college and his new book.

All this packed in the paper this week.

Enjoy!

ARTS AND ENTS EDITORIAL

By Alice O’Donnell Hello everyone, and welcome to Issue 3! As I’m writing this, I realised that the Macnas parade should normally be on this evening – what a strange year 2020 is turning out to be! Hope you all are keeping well and busy, the world is certainly an uncertain place with lockdown back in business, as well as the autumnal weather gracing Galway. Hope you’ve all managed to take some time for yourselves – yesterday I went for a walk to Salthill, and even though I did get a little bit rained on it was so worth it (even just to get out of the house for once!)

This issue is absolutely jammed packed with some fab articles. A big thank you to everyone who contributed and helped make this section one I’m so proud to present. If you have any interest in writing for SIN, the arts and entertainment section accept creative writing, reviews and basically anything to do with entertainment. If this sounds like something you’d be interested in getting involved with, for sure shoot me an email at artsentertainment.sined@gmail.com.

This issue has Fiona Lee looking into the lack of government support for the arts industry, as demonstrated by the UK advert Fatima, which features a young ballerina who apparently will one day have a job in cyber. Fiona looks at the general public’s view of the arts, as well as interviewing two Galway locals highly

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involved in the arts scene. Definitely worth a read.

This issue also has a choice of three reviews – a book, a YouTube channel, and a Netflix show, meaning you have your pick of what will be your new obsession!

Sofia Hadef writes about The Midnight Library by Matt Haig, a book on loss and life, while Donagh Broderick shares the YouTube channel on all things science, Science and Futurism with Isaac Arthur, and I review Haunting of Bly Manor, a show sure to get you in the a spooky mood.

Hope you enjoy the read!

FASHION & LIFESTYLE EDITORIAL

By Anastasia Burton Hello my lovelies! It’s me, your favorite hedgehog mom. I am so very pleased with Issue 3 and so grateful to all my wonderful writers for bringing originality and honesty to my section in this issue. We have plenty of interesting articles this week ranging from fashion, food, mental health, relationships and so much more!

So why not flicker over to our side and have yourself entertained by our advice and suggestions for beauty brands, budgeting and lifestyle! I understand that this year sucks! But hey, it’s almost over so there’s that? The pages of my section are always looking for voices. Tell your story, tell us how you’re doing. It’s important to keep tabs on yourself and sometimes writing your worries and your fears on paper (in this case it’s a word document) will make you feel free, maybe even have a few people relate to what you’re going through.

For those who know my little hedgehog hasn’t been feeling well so reading all the stories that come in and help me distract my mind from all the things that have been on my mind lately, maybe you’ll find that it’ll help you too?

Don’t feel shy and reach out via my email: lifestyle.sined@gmail.com or my Instagram: @thevioletbumblebee Lots of love, Anastasia

OPINION EDITORIAL

By Darren Casserly Hello once again everyone and welcome to issue 3 of SIN, we may be at the start of a depressing second lockdown, but as always have some entertaining articles for you to read to take your mind away from the outside world for a while.

Inside we have Katie Barragry giving some helpful tips for how people can stay fit for these next few weeks while gyms are closed as well as how to develop some healthy habits for everyone stuck at home.

Matthew Geraghty writes about the interesting topic among many young people, which is the topic of private stories on social media and how it can show

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you if you really have a friendship with someone.

On the Covid front, Darragh Nolan gives us his opinion on the recent lockdown and what it will take for us to come out of it for good and how best for us to try and get back to anything like normality.

Róise Nic Dhonnagáin gives us her opinion on the disconcerting continuing trend of body shaming that happens online. The vile trend was brought into the spotlight again when online trolls attacked Billie Eilish who was photographed wearing something other than her usual baggy clothes.

I also ask if the money given to students in Budget 2021 could have been used to benefit students in other ways.

We have these articles and a lot more for you to enjoy in this issue. As always, a big thanks to our contributors for making the paper what it is. Finally, if you have any interest in writing for SIN or just have any questions about the paper you can email me at opinion.sined@gmail.com.

SPORTS EDITORIAL

By Oisín Bradley Hi folks, and welcome back to Issue Three of SIN! It’s been a tough time for everyone both inside the world of sport and further afield, so let the sports section take your mind away from the pressure and tribulations of online lectures and due dates!

Firstly, we have a fascinating piece from Paddy Henry, who sat down for a lengthy conversation with Mark Tighe.

Mark has received plenty of acclaim in recent times in the national media for his tell-all book, Champagne Football which details the many issues in the FAI in the past.

Mark, who has previously held roles in SIN himself, was kind enough to take time out of his day to be interviewed by Paddy, and we thank him for that.

Elsewhere, we have an interview with NUIG Biomedical Science student Clíodhna Nolan on her stunning victory at the European Under-23 Rowing Championships in Duisberg, Germany, a few weeks ago, and how she plans to be one of the lucky people heading on a plane to the Olympics next Summer.

We’ve been keeping a close eye on all things both Galway United and Galway WFC in the last few weeks as well, and we’ve been in the press box at three of their most recent fixtures, including the penultimate games of the Premier Division season against Drogheda United and UCD. We also covered Galway WFC’s clash against Peamount United in the Women’s National League.

As the All-Ireland SFC throws in across the length and breadth of Ireland, we were on hand to offer our opinions on who would be scooping the top honours across all four provinces as well on who would be taking home the Sam Maguire Cup over the Christmas period.

Also. we have a piece on how you can become a rugby referee, as well as a low-down on how Connacht players and former NUIG students are faring on the international stage.

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SIN Vol. 22 Issue 03

INMO welcomes decision to pay Student Nurses during pandemic

By Conor Brummell The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) have been lobbying the Government to pay Student Nurses and Midwives working on the frontline during the Covid-19 pandemic.

In a statement released online on the 16th of October, the INMO warned that students working on the frontlines in hospitals were “being exploited” and highlighted that many of them “on placements in hospitals across Ireland were facing additional Covid risks and were effectively being asked to work as staff for no pay.”

As well as this, student Nurses and Midwives working in hospitals have suffered income loss, as they are no longer able to work part-time as care assistants while studying, due to the infection risk

of working in a care home while also on placement in a hospital. In the same statement from the INMO, the group said that, “Before their final year internship, most student nurses and midwives get either nothing or an allowance of just €50.79 per week. A HSE scheme to pay many students healthcare assistant salaries was used at the start of the pandemic in March, but it is no longer operating,” and that, “Despite INMO meeting with Department Officials to discuss the issue, no progress [had] been made.”

A final year Nursing Student from Galway, Aoife*, spoke to SIN about the issues around not being paid on placement before the Government’s announcement. She preceded the * Name changed

conversation by saying she is in the fortunate position not to have to pay rent, as she is staying at home this year.

“I don’t have it as bad as others, thankfully, but still we’re not getting paid. A lot of us have had to give up our part-time jobs to do placement, which isn’t fair as most students have to pay rent and afford living costs.”

“This has been an issue before the pandemic started. We have been expected to do unpaid placements every year from first year despite sometimes doing as much as qualified nurses. You could be helping the nurses on the ward do their rounds, be administrating drugs to patients under their supervision, and working as a health care assistant (HCA) on twelve-hour shifts, but you’re doing it completely unpaid,” she continued.

Photo: nationalnursesunited.org

“You’re told that you’re learning and therefore you shouldn’t be paid. The problem with that attitude is that you are working too, whilst also doing college assignments, and it is exhausting.

So many student Nurses get burnt out because of this and get physically sick near the end of placement because they are so run-down.

“You then begin to feel guilty because you can’t do nice things with the money you have, like buy a coffee or treat yourself to something new, because there isn’t more money coming in at the end of the week. I don’t understand how anyone expects us to have the time to decompress on top of all of this- it feels like we are being used,” she stated.

The coronavirus pandemic has raised further safety issues for student nurses, which Aoife says worries her a lot.

“When on clinical placement, student nurses aren’t supposed to be on Covid wards because they would be putting themselves at unnecessary risk. However, it depends on staff shortages, and I’ve been told Student Nurses could be drafted in to help in Covid wards if needed.

“Obviously when you sign up to do a degree in Nursing, you can’t pick and choose what you’re going to do on placement. But at the same time, when it is unpaid and you are at risk, it is disheartening. We’ve to use public transport to get to placement; we have to be in the community to get groceries. You begin to hate coming out of placement, because you don’t know what you might have picked up,” she said.

“They were able to pay student nurses at the start of the pandemic, why can’t they pay us now? Everyone can see the work we have been doing and qualified nurses on the wards are grateful for the extra hands. It just doesn’t make sense how it hasn’t been done yet, and they need to stop talking about it and just pay us for the work we are doing.”

“You then see the Government coming up with hair-brained schemes like paying influencers on Tik Tok something like twenty-thousand euro to tell people things they already know (like wearing a mask, or washing their hands) when there is student nurses on the front line at risk and unpaid. How can the Government not see how wrong it is not to pay student nurses?” she finished angrily.

It was announced on the 26th of October, however, that the Government would pay student nurses and midwives for their contributions on placements.

INMO General Secretary, Phil Ní Sheaghdha, welcomed the decision, saying that, “This is a really welcome step from the government. It is good news for the students, who will now be paid for their work on the frontlines.

“It’s also good news for the wider health service. These are dedicated, talented, hard-working people who are keen to help in the global fight against Covid-19. Taking them on as paid staff not only values their work but offers them clear protections as employees.

“We will now engage with the government to determine the detail of this announcement, particularly on ensuring that students’ academic progression isn’t harmed by the crisis,” she finished.

Corrib Meal plan leaves bad taste in student’s mouths Paddy Henry Residents of Corrib Village have criticised a scheme

by Campus Living to provide meals to self-isolating students.

The NUI Galway accommodation complex initially announced it would be offering an optional two-week meal plan to students required to isolate in line with HSE guidelines The initial four-course plan provided by campus caterer Masterchefs amounted to €24 a day.

Students criticised the cost of the plan branding it as extortionate, one claiming that it took advantage of students “I think that it’s taking advantage of students that are already in a very frightening and worrying situation.

They knew that situations like this would arise and chose to extort students instead of helping them through it,” said one resident of the complex

Campus Living, who run the University’s two on-campus facilities Corrib and Goldcrest Village said that they were continuing in their efforts to support students.

In a statement Campus living said that they would continue in their efforts to support students, telling SIN; “We are supporting our students providing welfare telephone checks and other measures. We were dealing with mainly international students who hadn’t already shopped. A dinner only option may be more affordable for students.“ They also revealed that they were providing students with information on alternative options for students should they need to isolate, including a delivery service from the NUI Galway pharmacy for emergency situations.

The price of the plan has since been lowered to €17.50 per day over a 10-day period, with a dinner only option for €8

which students have argued is still too high.

Students welcomed the revised meal plan but claimed that it should still be lowered further. “‘I’m glad to hear that they’ve reduced it, although €245 is still very high for two weeks of food for a student. Maybe €15 would be a bit more reasonable at about a fiver a meal.”

Speaking to SIN, NUI Galway Student’s Union’s Welfare and Equality officer Róisín Nic Lochlainn condemned the meal plan and accused the accommodation providers of taking advantage of students.

“I think it’s disgraceful how far removed from reality do the University and the accommodation providers need to be to think that any student can afford that let alone during a pandemic.

“When you think about it and you put it into context the €250 that has been awarded to every student from the government is less than what Corrib Village

were originally charging for quarantine food for some of our most vulnerable students. This is what you call taking advantage of vulnerable students during a pandemic at its finest.

“We condemn it and we think that it should be as cheap as possible and the other cheaper alternatives should be advertised to students first and foremost.”

Corrib village has been ciriticised for the cost of its meal delivery scheme for isolating students. Photo: Galway Bay FM

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November 03 2020

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Students furious over level 5 lockdowns, as #EducationForAll trends on Twitter

By Conor Brummell It was announced last month that college campuses would remain open under level 5 restrictions in Ireland, as Minister for Higher Education, Research and Innovation Simon Harris stated they would be deemed as essential services.

The news led to students to express their anger and frustration about the price of Higher-Level Education, as well as highlighting the lack of supports and protections the Government has put in place for students who have paid for rental accommodations in college cities.

The hashtag #EducationForAll went viral after a series of questions from Sinn Féin’s Higher Education spokesperson Rose Conway-Walsh were posed to Minister Simon Harris in Leinster House.

The issues Rose Conway-Walsh highlighted were the problems facing third level students in Ireland, particularly in relation to accommodation, college fees and financial uncertainties because of Covid-19.

A final year denominated Psychology student from the United States told SIN that the Coronavirus pandemic has left her in a precarious situation. “We were advised to come back to campus, and I had to make the initial decision against their recommendation because I could not afford to stay in Galway if my classes were going to be cancelled,” she said.

The same student is working full-time in the USA to afford rent, and she says that this has added to her worries.

“So now I am suddenly paying €12,750 in tuition for online lectures that I cannot even attend live because it is often 4-5am for me. I have to rely on the college to give me reliable information and communicate with me. However, I have sent emails to three different lecturers in the past couple of weeks with little response back, and it is incredibly stressful,” she continued.

“The college needs to realise that they are creating so much unnecessary stress for students.

They need to listen to us and realise that we do not deserve what essentially feels like a punishment for not being able to be in Galway or on campus.

“It’s frustrating for people like me who are paying to take classes from 4,000 miles away, and who are unable to utilise campus at all,” she finished.

Domestically, a student from Offaly also expressed her woes about renting a private house that she signed a twelve-month lease for in June, and because of restrictions, has only been able to spend two weeks in Galway.

“I feel completely let down. I work in an essential service, so I have to be home every weekend, which means I can’t stay in the house I’m paying for, for the six weeks like we are being encouraged to do. I have to work to pay for this accommodation that I can’t even use. We need more communication and support; we cannot be left to fend for ourselves.”

A first- year Podiatric Nursing student expressed her fury over the decision to keep colleges open, as now she will have to travel from Tipperary to Galway to attend on-campus lectures.

“I’m going to have to get public transport to and from Galway two-three days a week and leave my house when the advice is clearly not to do so. I’ve no choice but to do so, and there is very little allowance for students travelling,” she told SIN. “I’m sick of colleges constantly being forgotten about and case numbers being so high,” she finished.

Conway Walsh put Minister Simon Harris under severe pressure with her questioning in the Dáil last month as a Level-5 Lockdown was announced. Photo: The Mayo News.

A final year Irish and Economics student, Cormac Gallagher, told SIN that he thinks it is a good thing the college is staying open; “I think that it is great that the library and the likes are being left open, as some students rely on it big time for study. They have all the correct measures in place for social distancing and no one is forced to go in, so if you are weary of Covid you do not need to be there. But a lot of students will use the library.”

NUI Galway’s Students Union Welfare Officer, Róisín Nic Lochlainn, has also condemned the inaction of the Government and University in preparation for students returning to college.

“According to surveys, students have been hit the worst off financially and mentally- so why is it students who have been the most abandoned? We are calling for partial refunds in tuition fees, radical reform of SUSI and for unused accommodation to be refunded,” she said.

In response to queries about international students contacting her, Nic Lochlainn says, “I have had plenty of international students who are stuck in Galway tell me that they feel trapped, that they were lured here on the promise it would be better than their home cities and then got here for everything to go online.

“A lot of them are struggling financially and socially and we’re hearing a lot of complaints of loneliness. Online college is hard for anyone to keep up with, never mind for students abroad in a different time zone and for students stuck in a new city with a new time zone, new people, and a new culture!

“Basically, where does level 5 restrictions leave students? It leaves them with many, many unanswered questions,” she finished.

In a letter sent to all students, President of NUI Galway Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh stated that under level 5 restrictions, a range of on-campus activities would still be available for students.

“Scheduled access to the Library will continue.

We are mindful of the need for other on-site study space and will continue to provide such spaces, while avoiding congregation risk consistent with Level 5 measures.

“Under Level 5, physical attendance at workplaces is only permitted for those providing and supporting the essential on-site activities outlined, where this cannot be delivered or supported remotely. Travel to and from campus for essential on-site activities in adherence with public safety guidelines is permitted under Level 5 measures,” the statement continued.

Campus accommodation is to remain open to students and staff, but no visitors will be permitted. The email also states that the University is “is refunding students who no longer require on-campus accommodation at this time,” and that they “know that many students in privately rented accommodation off campus are faced with uncertainty.”

“Last week, I joined with the Students’ Union to call on Galway’s landlords and student accommodation providers to follow the University and Menlo Park in refunding those students who no longer require accommodation in the city,” the statement from Ó hÓgartaigh finished.

Sinn Féin TD and spokesperson for Higher Education Rose Conway-Walsh spoke to SIN about her Dáil address on Tuesday night, which earned widespread acclaim from students on social media, saying that at first she was worried about the lateness of the debate, but that in fact it nearly worked out better because she got to raise a lot of her questions, and students were listening.

“It worked advantageously- a lot of students were listening, and they got involved online. There are two major issues that need addressed, and that is accommodation and the over-arching problem of online learning,” she said.

“There are only five universities currently offering students refunds for accommodation, and I would urge them to publicly reassure students that if they do not need accommodation, a refund will be fully given,” she continued.

“This is a problem that could have been avoidedthe Government knew since April that there would have been problems with online-learning, and they should have been advising students not to pay for accommodation unless they were sure they needed it.”

Deputy Conway-Walsh states, however, that she feels like these matters were left until the last minute.

“When Dublin went to level 3 restrictions, the decision to move teaching online came two weeks later. There was a lack of transparency and urgency, and it seems as if it was done purposely to make sure students had paid money for accommodation. The problems with getting refunds for students in March foretold that we did not want this to happen again.

“There’s a bill being put to the Dáil during the week about a ban on evictions- which should never have been removed in the first place- but there needs to be emergency provisions for students signed off on immediately,” she declared.

“When we have exceptional circumstances such as this, students need to have the provisions in place where they can access refunds. Minister Harris needs to provide this, and if it is a case of landlords losing income, then the Government needs to pay the slack. Students and their parents are the ones paying not only the Higher-Level Education debt, but also the gap on the rental market.

It’s a double-whammy.

“I don’t want to be standing up in the Dáil in six months time and speaking on this issue again as if it’s a surprise to Government. It’s not good enough for the Government to be spectators- we need more than words on these issues, we need action,” she finished.

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Students’ Union push for further accommodation refunds to be given in open letter to landlords:

By Caoimhe Killeen NUI Galway’s Students’ Union have pushed further in urging landlords and student accommodation providers to refund students who can no longer stay in Galway due to online learning.

It comes after the entire country was placed on a strict six-week lockdown under Level 5 restrictions.

A joint letter was issued by the President of NUIG and the Students’ Union President this week to all Galway landlords and student accommodation providers in a call to show “care and compassion to students during the Covid-19 emergency.” It also acknowledged that property owners were also facing a “stressful and difficult economic time” but there needed to be cooperation on both sides to “create an impression of Galway as a destination for study.”

So far, the on-campus accommodation of Corrib Village and Goldcrest village alongside the privately run Menlo Park apartments have offered refunds to students who are no longer taking up their accommodation offers.

“With the announcement that most teaching will be online for the current semester at NUI Galway, a lot of our students have found themselves with accommodation they no longer need and can’t afford,” says NUI Galway’s Students’ Union President Pádraic Toomey.

“This is adding extra financial pressures to students and their families at a stressful time of huge uncertainty. We are calling on all accommodation pro-

viders in Galway to talk to their tenants and look at how they can be flexible in their rental agreements.”

Students’ Union Welfare and Equality Officer Róisín Nic Lochlainn added: “We hope that other student accommodation providers and landlords in Galway will follow in the footsteps of Campus Living and Menlo Park and provide refunds to students who no longer need accommodation. I’ve met with representatives from most of the large student accommodation developments to try to

impress upon them the need for compassion this year so that students can afford to rent in Galway in future years.”

In an address to Minister Simon Harris in the Dáil, Sinn Féin Spokesperson on Further and Higher Education Rose Conway-Walsh also stressed that the Government cannot observe while students get “fleeced” for accommodation that cannot use because of the ongoing restrictions.

“Students followed the government assurances and paid for accommoda-

tion because they did not have their timetable finalised until it was too late.

Now, many no longer need this accommodation but have already handed over thousands and thousands of euro.”

Deputy Conway-Walsh also noted the uniquely vulnerable position of students in the rental market, due to them having to pay rent months in advance. “Since the outbreak of Covid-19, students and parents have had to fight to get refunds for unused accommodation…students are told that there is no protective leg-

islation in place for renters and that they will not be entitled to their money back... Surely that must mean that we put in place measures to ensure that they are given fair play.”

She concluded by echoing the statement that accommodation providers should be “instructed and enabled to allow for leases to be terminated without incurring fees or penalties and full refunds to be issued to those who request them. If this means emergency legislation, then this is what must be do.”

Menlo Park among the private student letting facilities offering refunds. Photo: Dream Ireland

NUIG Students’ Union is kick-starting a Charity Challenge Neasa Gorrell NUI Galway Students’ Union launched a Charity Challenge program which will challenge students and staff at NUI Galway to several different types of tasks and activities. The program is set to run from November through until April for the academic year 2020/21.

The aim of this challenge is to raise much-needed funds for various local charities that provide irreplaceable services to the Galway community. This

includes the Galway Autism Partnership, Galway Rape Crisis Centre and Helplink Mental Health.

The Galway Autism Partnership supports families and individuals affected

by Autism Spectrum Disorder, while the Galway Rape Crisis Centre is dedicated to providing a professional, caring and confidential counselling and support service for those in our community affected by sexual abuse and sexual violence.

Helplink Mental Health is also a charitable organisation providing accessible

counselling, information, and education mental health services locally, nationally and internationally.

Each month, those partaking in the program will face new challenges and goals to meet, or as the Students’ Union put it, exceed the challenge. The objectives of the challenges are routed in the idea of being active to benefit a healthy body and healthy mind, as well as actively being kind to others.

The first challenge will begin in November and will be the Kilometre

Challenge, which aims to motivate participants to complete a target amount of kilometres throughout the course of the month. This is followed by the Random Acts of Kindness Challenge in December, where participants will challenge themselves to complete any amount of kind acts to spread some festive cheer.

Speaking about the launch of the Charity Challenge, NUI Galway Students’ Union President, Pádraic Toomey said: “We are very excited to launch our Charity Challenge to raise much needed

funds for three amazing charities. Over the next six months this event will help our students and staff to feel part of the NUIG community, have fun and keep active while fundraising.”

NUI Galway Students’ Union has had long established partnerships with various charities within Galway City and wider area community to give back to those in need.

A spokesperson for Galway Autism Partnership discussed this partnership in line with the new fundraising endeavour, saying, “NUIG students have been volunteering with GAP for nearly a decade; now they will directly support the autistic children and adults of Galway city and county through their fundraising.’’

If you are interested in taking part in the Charity Challenge you can find the relevant information available and sign up through any of NUI Galway Students’ Union online platforms, such as on their Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.

You can also go directly to their website su.nuiglway.ie or for more information on the Charity Challenge you can email studentsunion@nuigalway.ie

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On-campus teaching in Universities will be deemed essential under level-5 – Harris confirms Paddy Henry; Editor.sin@gmail.com Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science Simon Harris has confirmed that on-campus teaching in Universities will be deemed essential under the new tighter Covid-19 restrictions, due to come into effect from Thursday, Higher and Further Education will be deemed essential, provided that onsite presence is required, or in scenarios where coursework cannot be completed remotely.

The Cabinet met last month to rubber stamp the implementation of a Level-5 Nationwide lockdown which is due to last for the entirety of the month of November, in an attempt to combat the recent surge in coronavirus case numbers nationally.

Speaking about what the developments meant for Third level institutions, Minister Harris said: “Our further and higher education institutions have already moved classes primarily online, with student and staff welfare being of paramount importance. I want to pay tribute to the collective efforts of staff and students in continuing educational programmes in this way.

“We are now in a scenario where Ireland as a whole must move to Level 5 of the Government’s plan for living with Covid, and that means that all further and higher education institutions should continue to deliver the vast majority of classes online.

research in laboratories, small group learning with learners whose particular needs require additional support and scheduled access to libraries and other onsite study space for those students who do not otherwise have suitable facilities or home environment to access learning remotely as potential parameters for essential on campus learning.

Added to these, research activities which cannot be undertaken remotely were also coined

by Minister Harris as examples of essential work for on campus access.

Onsite mental health services on campus were also deemed Minister Harris stated that it would be up to individual colleges among the services classified as to decide what services they deem essential. Photo: Extra.ie essential by the Minister.

On-Campus accommodation “The Level 5 measures announced designate complexes will be permitted to stay open under higher and further education as essential insofar the new rules, but visitors will not be permitted as onsite presence is required and such education in line with the current restrictions. activities cannot be held remotely. “ Harris encouraged students to avoid public The Minister stated that classification of transport where possible if they are traveling to what would be deemed essential for on-campus University. teaching will be determined by each instituSpeaking to SIN, Student’s Union Welfare and tion individually, but mentioned teaching and Equality Officer Róisín Nic Lochlainn welcomed

the announcement from the Minister, praising it for providing a degree of clarity for students.

“I think it’s good that Simon Harris has officially said that some teaching should be on campus where they can be. It’s giving students some sort of an oncampus experience. It’s good that he has concretely said what can and can’t happen”.

Nic Lochlainn did however express her disappointment that issues relating to private student accommodation were not addressed by the Minister.

“It is disappointing that Minister Harris didn’t mention anything about private student accommodation or anything about refunds for students.

“It’s a shame that there is no clarity over accommodation, which is probably the biggest issue affecting students right now”, she said.

She also welcomed the inclusion of mental health services on campus as an essential service which she says will give students in counselling more comfort.

“It’s good that he has said something concrete about that , something that we were fighting for was for the counselling service to have specific rooms on campus for students who don’t have any privacy at home and don’t have any comfortable safe spaces to have a counselling Zoom or phone call.

Hopefully, that will push the University to get those rooms on campus because that’s something we need for students who don’t have any privacy in their homes “.

NUI Galway publishes New Hand Hygiene Toolkit for Intensive Care Units

NUI Galway assists University College Dublin in carrying out remote clinical medical exams

Paris Ediagbonya

Neasa Gorrell

After more than three years of research led by NUI Galway, a hand hygiene toolkit designed to aid staff in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) has been published.

The toolkit, titled: ‘A Moment for Hand Hygiene in the Intensive Care Unit: How Can Compliance Be Improved?’ was designed to help staff identify and address barriers to hand hygiene compliance.

The research, funded by the Health Research Board, was carried out with the help of ICU staff nationwide, particularly those from the Saolta Healthcare group, the public, and national and international researchers.

The aim of the project, conducted by Dr Paul O’Connor from NUI Galway’s School of Medicine, was to take a scientific approach to establishing how to make hand hygiene practices in ICUs more effective.

Dr O’Connor said: “Although hand hygiene practice is simple to carry out, the behaviour related to hand hygiene is complex and is not readily understood, explained, or changed.”

The research found that ICU staff can overestimate the frequency in which they engage in hand hygiene and observed that staff did not find standardised training packages and audits, often used to help improve hand hygiene, effective.

Dr O’Connor continued, stating, “Hand hygiene is crucial to infection prevention and control.

There is no universal solution to improving hand hygiene practice. There is a need for an intervention to be tailored to the specific needs of a particular unit rather than a one-size fits all approach.”

Infections obtained in healthcare settings are the most persistent complications that impact patients, especially those in ICU. While healthcare associated infections affects 4% of patients worldwide and result in almost 100,000 deaths in the US annually, in ICU’s, there have been reported rates of infection between 20% and 30%.

Effective hand hygiene procedures were found to be the most successful way to combat this.

According to Dr O’Connor, hand hygiene recommendations made by organisations such as the World Health Organization, lack in research evidence to aid in implementing them.

“As a result, interventions to improve hand hygiene practices are often not based on sound scientific knowledge, may be of limited effectiveness, and limited resources are not being used efficiently,” he stated.

Dr Mairéad O’Driscoll, Chief Executive at the Health Research Board stated that, “Covid-19 has forced everyone to think about hand hygiene differently. Compliance with good practice is even more important in Intensive Care settings.”

21 potential interventions to improving hand hygiene were identified through this study and were rated in relation to their likely efficacy.

Ensuring that essential supplies were available was found to be the most important intervention, alongside senior leaders acting as role models and personal focused training. Disciplinary measures such as punishment letters were not well received.

“We know that hand hygiene interrupts the transmission of bacteria and viruses, it is more important than ever during the Covid-19 pandemic,” Dr Michael Power, Co-Principal Investigator on the project, finished.

On 19thof October, NUI Galway Spin Out successfully assisted UCD in facilitating several clinical skills exams for final year medical students.

NUI Galway were able to supply University College Dublin with Qpercom Observe-an advanced remote video technology and digital assessment solution commonly used in various medical practices. Qpercom Observe is a software that is now used in universities across the globe. It has added video integration, which allows for universities and other institutions to maintain time schedules, a crucial aspect for the educational community during the Covid-19 pandemic.

UCD were no longer able to carry out the clinical assessments at the on-site locations in St. Vincent’s University Hospital and Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, as Dublin progressed into level three lockdown.

It was then that NUI Galway called on Senior Lecturer of the school of Medicine, and CEO of Qpercom, Dr Thomas Kropmans to assist in facilitating the exams remotely.

Qpercom, a Galway-based IT specialist company, together with NUI Galway Spin Out were able to assist UCD in carrying out 90% of the examinations remotely for the approximate 200 students that partake in the examination each year.

This was no small feat for Qpercom or NUI Galway, as Professor Allys Guérandel, St Vincent’s Hospital, Department of Psychiatry, remarked, “These exams are crucial for our medical students and we are obliged to ensure that students are competent and well equipped to practice medicine.”

Enda Griffin, Technical Sales Executive at Qpercom, discussed the difficult design process involved

in the facilitation of the clinical skills examinations, stating: “It was not easy. Technically and logistically it was a major challenge but thankfully we managed the examination.”

In explaining the need for such technology, Dr Thomas Kropmans, CEO, Qpercom, said that, “Zoom, MS Teams and Google Meet have changed the world of communications, however this particular exam requires a flow of students going through a series of consecutive stations (video rooms) with simulated patients or actors while examiners complete their assessment form while observing the same video room. This functionality is missing in these established platforms but Qpercom’s platform can manage the process with ease.”

David Cunningham, Qpercom co-founder and Chief Technology Officer, gave us further insight into the technical processes carried out by the Qpercom Observe technology for this unique exam situation, in saying: “Moving students from one video station to the next, while all parties participate remotely, be they actors and patients or examiners and interviewers, and the retrieval of assessment data, all represent major logistical and technical challenges but they are challenges which we believe we have solved using Qpercom Observe.”

This was a huge success for both NUI Galway Spin Out and Qpercom in cooperating with the UCD Medical department, as it is the first research department in Europe supporting this proof of concept.

With the move to online learning for many universities and institutions around the world, there is no doubt that people will be hearing more about this innovative technology in the near future, and may even end up sitting an online exam facilitated

by Qpercom Observe.

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SIN Vol. 22 Issue 03

Editor of The Galway Advertiser starts an MA in Writing in NUI Galway Declan Varley chatted to SIN about going back to college, balancing the busy life of an editor with academia, his new book and the journalistic goldmine that is Covid-19.

By Saoirse Higgins Declan Varley, editor of the Galway Advertiser for the past two decades, has started a Master’s in writing here in NUI Galway. Declan has written several novels over the past few years including the well-reviewed novel ‘The Confession of Peadar Gibbons’ and ‘Nightmusic’.

He revealed to SIN that his decision to do the MA in writing was because he finally had the opportunity to focus on something he loves, “This is the first time I’m doing something that focuses on the writing which is at the core of everything I do.” Declan has always loved writing, “I nearly always have four or five writing projects on at a time… writing is my hobby. If I find a 15-minute break in a café

Photo: The Galway Advertiser

somewhere, I’ll take out the laptop or the notebook and make notes and work on things”.

Even with several books released, Declan felt the course would be of value to him, “You can always learn something new”, he says. Varley says his motto is to “never waste a minute”, so with everything now online, he took the chance for the course.

The MA in Writing in NUI Galway is widely renowned and is taught by some well-established writers such as Mike McCormack. Varley says the calibre of the course was one of several factors that attracted him to it, “the quality of modern Irish fiction that has come out of that course is remarkable”. As a news editor for the Galway Advertiser, he had a lot of connections with NUI Galway and knew how strong the course would be. Declan says he is enjoying every minute of the course, learning about different techniques. However, he says he is especially excited for the second semester, telling SIN, “I can’t wait to get my teeth stuck into a new project”.

With everything moving online, Varley says it was easier for him to balance his job at the Galway Advertiser and the course. He is still kept busy however as he has to “dash from one online lecture to getting a page together and back again”.

Along with juggling the course and his job at the Advertiser, Declan Varley also has a novel coming out in the spring. ‘From Under the Butterfly Shed’ will be out in 2021 and will be the story of

two women, Thelma and Louise style, smuggling €3 million across Europe by buying collectibles.

Declan told SIN that the writing course has already helped him with his novel, “I will improve my product because of this course, and I already have”.

Varley has had a long career in journalism, beginning 30 years ago in the Tuam Herald. Here he learned all the necessary skills for being a journalist and it has served him in a successful career in the Galway Advertiser. Declan has given several guest lectures in NUI Galway to the journalism students and his wife Bernadette Prendergast taught broadcasting to MA Journalism students for years.

Declan commented that Covid-19 is a “rich time” for journalists. He says there are loads of stories for journalists to uncover. Declan described the pandemic aptly; “Covid is our world war”. The pandemic is one of the first things that has come in and changed all our lives according to Declan.

This pandemic is a tough time for everyone, and everything is up in the air. As Declan put it, “that uncertainty creates chaos in the country”. Declan believes that journalism is more important now than ever. That we need journalism that accurately reports the situation and is “readable a hundred years from now”. He believes modern journalists are certainly up for the challenge.

Declan Varley’s novel ‘From Under the Butterfly Shed’ will be out in Spring 2021. Be sure to check it out and look out for Declan on our virtual campus.

Support Men’s Health with ‘Movember’ Ireland

By Fiona Lee Movember is once again knocking on our doorstep and asking for support in the next coming weeks.

Movember is the world’s leading men’s charity.

They want men to live happier, longer and healthier lives by focusing on critical points of men’s health: prostate cancer, testicular cancer and mental health and suicide prevention.

SIN spoke with Jack O’Connor, Country Manager of ‘Movember’ Ireland, to learn more about the charity’s goals and activities for this year’s campaign.

‘We have our annual moustache growing campaign where guys will grow moustaches for the 30 days of November. Others will take on our ‘move challenges’ which is a 60km run throughout November, 60k for the 60 men we lose to suicide every hour. People can also host events, but this will be slightly different this year, potentially a lot of Zoom Quizzes!

“The final way people can engage in the campaign is ‘Mo Your Own Way’ which is deliberately broad, that’s for people who want to take on more unique challenges. They can come up with their own way they want to support us and stick a moustache on it”.

The pandemic has put stresses on cancer services and everyone’s mental health, and Jack thinks it’s important to engage with the campaign more than ever.

“We were speaking to a doctor and he reckoned that in the next 12 to 18 months, there will a surge of late cancer diagnoses, which is obviously problematic. That is not even to touch on the obvious mental health side effects of Covid-19.

“We did a piece of research years ago that identified some of the prime risk factors of men’s mental health. That included loss of a job, parents being sick or a loss of a parent, breakdowns of relationships, and the stresses of parenting. All these things have been magnified in the pandemic. There have been many job losses, worries about parents getting Covid-19, people are bickering with their partners more because they are stuck in lockdown, or being in lockdown with their kids wrecking their heads!

“The things we all have readily available to combat these stresses are our social connections. Even they are under attack by the pandemic with the lockdown. We want people to remember to stay socially connected and be aware of the signs that something is off with their mates”.

Jack said that it is important to make more of an

effort to stay connected, pay attention and check in on friends during the next six weeks of lockdown and beyond.

“Some of the signs of someone who is struggling would be noticing changes in people’s behaviour.

So if someone is normally the king of the group chat and they’ve suddenly gone quiet and stopped replying to messages, or if someone is usually super chilled out and all of a sudden they’re eating the head off people for no reason. Listen to what people are saying, if someone is suddenly speaking very negatively in terms of despair like ‘I’m sick of this’ and ‘I can’t do this anymore’ or all that sort of stuff.

These are signs that someone might be struggling”.

Movember has designed a four step model called ALEC, that is designed to help you open a conversation with someone who might be struggling: A – ASK someone how they’re doing – something as simple as ‘You don’t seem yourself lately – are you feeling OK?’ L – LISTEN. Give them your full attention.

E–E NCOURAGE ACTION. Help them to focus on simple things that might improve how they feel.

C – CHECK IN. Follow up after your chat. This reinforces that you care and can help you to gauge if they’re feeling any better.

If you’re worried someone’s life is in immediate danger, go directly to emergency services (call 999).

Movember has gotten a lot of support but still needs people to step up and engage with the campaign.

“I’ve been really happy to see the amount of support we have gotten. We are slightly ahead of where we thought we would be now but it’s early in the game to say for sure how the campaign will go.

“It’s been heart-warming to see the support we’ve received. It’s easy to be negative with the lockdown in place, but I think people are gravitating towards positive things and a movement for good so I’m glad that Movember has been able to be that for people”.

There are different challenges you can take part in to engage with the campaign. Go to ie.movember. com to learn how you can help and pop a message to your friend to check in and see how they’re doing.

It has never been more important to look out for one another in these trying times.

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Galway Christmas Programme How Writers Soc in the works on announcement Have Been Coping of the Cancellation of the with Lockdown Christmas Market

By Niamh Casey

By Fiona Lee It was recently announced that the Galway Christmas Market will not be going ahead this year.

The market usually runs from early November to the end of December and attracts thousands of visitors from around the country and abroad.

Many have criticised the early announcement of the cancellation, including the organisers of the market, Milestone Inventive, who believe the decision should have been delayed.

Owen Hanley, a Social Democrat Councillor in Galway City, understands it’s disappointing but sees it as unavoidable.

“I think some people were surprised that the decision was taken so far in advance. The decision around granting licences in public spaces has to be made around 6 weeks in advance, so a decision

was needed. The view of the executive of the council was that it wasn’t feasible to put on the market. Anyone who has been through the Galway Christmas Market knows it is cramped at the best of times”.

The council has a vision for a socially distant Christmas and is working on a programme for the city’s festive activities.

“What I’ve requested, and I think it’s really important, is that we don’t just put out bad news. We are putting a plan together about what Christmas in Galway can look like that abides by restrictions and guidelines. We are putting together a list of programmes that people can look forward to because there’s not enough good news out there”.

The council’s focus this year is on supporting local communities and businesses in light of the financial struggles of Covid-19.

“Over the summer, there was a summer festival event with socially distant tents.

That is something we could be looking at. The Council will be fully funding the Christmas lights too. Some other things are up in the air, but I’m hoping we will have things going on, especially for local people, because things like the Christmas Market are really geared towards tourists. We have a market here in Galway that runs all year round! I’ve requested that we put in support for them so they can run during the Christmas period because they support the local economy”.

“Part of the decision was taken because we have local businesses that have weathered difficult times this year.

They are our focus. Hopefully, the Christmas Market comes back next year but right now, we want to support our own local market and our local businesses”.

The city’s Christmas lights are set to be turned on in November to begin the Christmas celebrations.

Usually a festive fixture in Galway City, the Christmas Market is the latest event to fall foul of the Covid-19 Pandemic.

Photo: Galway Independent

Societies week this year took place online through virtual booths and meetings. If there is one thing all societies can now relate to, it is the abundance of technical struggles that came with the shift to a solely digital presence. Many societies that had been strictly practical, or even just had a very small online presence, are now adapting to the new status quo in order to gain new members. Eadaoin Counihan, the secretary of Writers Soc, spoke about these new challenges and about how societies week went this year.

“For a while we all honestly thought we’d be back on campus, so we weren’t fully prepared. The Socs Box did send out emails and had video conference calls on how to set up the virtual booths. I was the one hosting the virtual booth for Writers Soc but unfortunately my connection was terrible. The Socs Box helped me a lot though. They moved us into a virtual room, which fair play to them, they worked so hard to understand my terrible connection and help give us access to YourSpace, which is where you could enter the virtual socs week. Thankfully now if you go into any of the society dashboards there’s videos on how to use YourSpace, because everything is done through that system, and it’s actually easy enough to use once you have good connection.”

Usually socs weeks draw a lot of people in , particularly first years, and the hall is laid out so that people get a chance to discover societies that they mightn’t have known about. Naturally, the numbers recruited were lower this year and there were much less people visiting the virtual booths than in previous years than would have been visiting the physical ones. As Eadaoin pointed out, Writers Soc begins with a ‘W’, so it falls towards the bottom of the list of societies and you would have to be searching for it in order to know it was there. The virtual booths were not what many expected when they clicked into them; “ A lot of people just expect

a video when you click into the virtual booths, just talking about the society. But they’re actually brought into a chatroom with us, and you have to say their names so that they know that you know they’re there, and it makes some people feel more welcome. It does catch a lot of people off guard though.”

Eadaoin did however find that first years are now more involved with Writers Soc. As she pointed out, first year students had to use the YourSpace platform for their orientation week, so they were much more familiar with how it worked when it came to Socs Week. Also, it’s understandable that this year many students would turn to societies as a way of meeting people who they might share interests with. “ Especially if they feel like they haven’t clicked with anyone yet. It’s definitely harder this year for first years.”

Society members get emailed the link to enter the virtual weekly meetings and attendance has been pretty good for Writers Soc. “We’re luckier than other societies because we actually can do a bit, even though before we never did anything online. We had our EGM because we needed committee members and they’re all really enthusiastic. It’s just really nice to see. Last week we had our first official meeting, and we played a prompts game and a word association game. We tend to do fun activities like that. It worked out really well.”

Eadaoin also talked about the society’s plans to do something for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), which is in November, and she also hopes to start up workshops and monthly poetry writing competitions. Writers Soc are really adjusted well to the new ways of doing things. Their discord chat room is working well and is a big part of the weekly meetings and is super welcoming, with options that allow you to choose your preferred pronouns.

They’re still developing their online presence too. People are welcome to join societies at any time in the year and writers soc love to see new faces, and all that is required to join is a passion for writing.

Oranmore Drones Deliver Flying Flat Whites

By Mary Raftery Many NUIG students are missing their pit stop at Smokey’s for their takeaway coffee before a morning lecture. However, if you are fortunate enough to live within a 2km radius of Tesco Oranmore, you have the option of getting your coffee delivered in minutes – by drone!

Manna Drone Delivery Service have partnered up with Tesco Oranmore, along with various other businesses in the locality, to provide local residents with a choice of almost 20,000 different products. If you are already in the festive mood, you can even order Christmas lights from Woodies!

Tesco store manager Catherine Swift spoke of her excitement to be on board with this innovative project.

“We’re really excited about this partnership and delighted that our store in Oranmore is involved in this trial.”, she said.

Oranmore is one of the first locations in the world to have a service like this.

Minister of State at the Department of Transport, Hildegarde Naughton TD, has spoken about Ireland and innovative companies like Manna leading in the drone delivery industry, “I’m heartened to see Ireland leading in the highly valuable drone delivery industry. It is a testament to Ireland’s indigenous technology industry, and to

the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) for their long-term vision on drones and the benefits that they can bring to our society.”

The trial service began delivering groceries, pharmacy items, hardware, medications and hot meals on Wednesday 21st of October, and it will run into mid 2021. If the initiative proves to be successful in the coming months, there will be plans to extend it further.

Manna trialled this service in Moneygall and it proved to be a huge success.

Operating Manager Naomi Cullen reflected on this successful trial and said, “We were honoured to be able to help the community in Moneygall get vital supplies during the lockdown, we saw the commu-

nity really embrace the project and enjoy having deliveries made by drone.”

The 8,000 residents in proximity to the drone hub can place an order online using their EirCode. The drone takes off from the roof of Tesco and travels at a speed of 80km an hour.

The delivery journey takes 3 minutes, but time is added to this to prepare and package the order. The order can be tracked in real time and when the drone arrives at the delivery location, it lowers the order down to the ground, by a biodegradable thread, at a height of 15 metres.

Certain aerospace-grade components of the Manna drones have been made by Éire Composites – an Irish company spe-

Image: The Irish Times cialising in high reliability components for rockets and commercial aircraft.

The drone carries a package the size of a shoebox, not exceeding 2kg.

Manna are already giving back to the community during these unprecedented and challenging times. They have implemented a corporate responsibility strategy by providing delivery to frontline workers free of charge. Manna will also waive the pharmacy delivery fee for the elderly.

10 F EATU R E S

SIN Vol. 22 Issue 03

TRUMP TO GET TRUMPED BY BIDEN

— US election analysis with Larry Donnelly

By Aaron Deering With the US election taking place within days on November 3rd , SIN spoke to Larry Donnelly an NUI Galway Law Lecturer, Boston Attorney and political columnist with the Journal. ie to get a proper insight into how this US election will unfold. This US election has seemed to grip the world’s attention compared to recent US elections even more than the 2016 US election, with all eyes firmly fixed to November 3rd to see if Donald Trump can pull off a David vs Goliath comeback to win a second term as US President.

Asked if there has ever been a more important election in US history than Trump’s November showdown with Obama’s former Vice-President.

Larry said; ‘People almost say this every four years, that this is a hugely significant election, I think it probably is. I think that because of Trump’s Presidency which has been unprecedented in so many ways that the eyes of the world are on America. I think the pandemic and the administration’s arguable mishandling of the pandemic adds another significant element to it so there’s no doubt that it is a very important election.

I think a lot of people are watching to see if America is going to continue down the path Trump has set, or whether it’s going to revert to form.”

An outsider looking in would see that America seems to be almost split as a nation into two different camps. When asked if the most important task the next US president will face is to heal the nation Donnelly thinks that Joe Biden is the only one of the two candidates to be able to do this; ‘I think if Biden is elected president that will be part of the work that he has to do but if Donald Trump is re-elected, I don’t think that will happen, I think that arguably some of these divisions might grow greater.”

“I think it’s worth looking back to when Donald Trump was first elected the reality is some of the things, he said in the campaign that he was going to do were actually unifying themes. Things like not starting any more foreign military entanglements, most Americans agreed with that, or rebuilding American infrastructure again most Americans agreed with that but those kind of unifying themes have been overwhelmed by a lot of his other rhetoric whether it’s about immigration or about some of the far-right groups in the United States

so in many ways some of the things he said he was going to do he either hasn’t done or have been downplayed in favour of more divisive rhetoric, which I think has been a real shame.”, he said.

Asked if the final debate had changed many voter’s minds or if the public’s mind has already been made up Donnelly’s inkling is that most people’s minds were already made up. ‘My suspicion is that most people’s minds have been made up. The Trump campaign and his allies really thought that the story about Hunter Biden and the emails on this laptop of dubious province would take hold. That this idea that Hunter Biden was using his position to make money that by virtue of being the then vice-president’s son that he was using that role to make money, that his father was in on the gig etc. I don’t think that story really got any traction and I think most Americans have discounted that in the current circumstances.”

“Really, Biden needed to avoid making any big mistakes in the debates. He didn’t make any big mistakes.

Some people are saying that his comments about oil and fossil fuel may cost him support in Pennsylvania and other battlegrounds that maybe the case but I’m not so sure but by in large I think that most people in the United States have their minds made up. What’s more 50 million people had already voted in early voting by the time the debate happened.”

One thing Donald Trump has been doing over the course of the campaign has been playing to his support base, but sometimes he’s over played it and has risked alienating the middle voter who took a chance on him in 2016, which Donnelly described as his biggest fault; “I think that’s been his biggest fault at least in the past two years even going back before the pandemic broke out. He’s been governing and politicking as if he only needs his base, as if that 40% of Americans that are going to vote for him come hell or high water are all that he needs. It seems as if he has forgotten the reality of the 2016 election and there were two groupings, I would say who helped extend his support to the level he needed to win. Those two groupings in the first instance were people who just absolutely despised Hillary Clinton and there is a lot of them, many millions of Americans for whatever reason just never warmed to her. That group voted for Donald Trump not as an endorsement for him but in order to keep Hillary Clinton out of the White House.

“The second grouping I think were an awful lot of women. Donald Trump won the demographic of white women which might surprise readers. I think the main reason he did was because these were typically middle-class and in some cases upper-class people who might not have liked Donald Trump’s persona or the things that he said but when it came to tax policies, “He’s forgotten about the soft Trump supporters and he’s gone after the base, and in doing so playing to the base he’s arguably alienated those soft Trump supporters, so I think he’s made a big, big mistake in that regard.”, he added, The polls got it very wrong in 2016 and didn’t predict the secret Trump vote, but Donnelly doesn’t predict that this will happen again. He urged people not to pay attention to national polls. ‘I have no doubt that there is a secret Trump vote. I’ve a number of friends who are going to be voting for Donald Trump but would never say it in a professional or even in some social settings because they know the repercussions it could have for them. There certainly is a silent Trump vote, the extent of it though is what I wonder about.”

I believe there is some that they’re missing but I’m just not sure that the polls could be that wide off the mark. What I would say to readers is number one in the context of an American Presidential election, please don’t pay much attention to national polls. National polls actually don’t mean that much because when you look at an American presidential election it maybe one country but it’s actually fifty separate winner takes all elections. What are much more important is polling in the battleground states and when you look at the battleground states I would encourage people to not to look at any single poll but instead go to RealClearPolitics.com which is a non-partisan aggregator of all polling data to account for outlining polls and to base any analysis that they’re going to make on that data’.

The NUI Galway lecturer pointed particularly to the states of Florida and Pennsylvania as crucial to the dynamic of the election; “The game doesn’t change, the dynamics of this campaign are unprecedented in many respects, but the game doesn’t change. As a first point I don’t see any path to victory for Donald Trump unless he again wins the state of Florida. If Trump doesn’t

win Florida, I believe the election is over. I also think it is very worth while paying attention to Pennsylvania. If Joe Biden were to lose Pennsylvania, then this thing takes on a whole new life.

“A lot of our predictions and a lot of those of us that think Biden is going to win is very much predicated on the fact that he’ll win Pennsylvania a state that Donald Trump took by a tiny margin last time around..”

After backing Hillary Clinton in 2016 Donnelly is hesitant to predict a winner this time around because of the element of uncertainty you get with Donald Trump but ultimately thinks that Biden will come out on top; ‘Look I think all of us are reticent to make predictions. Last time around I predicted pretty strenuously that Hillary Clinton would win the election.

This time around my suspicion is that Biden will win. I think over the last four years for a key segment of Americans which we talked about earlier those soft Trump voters or people who may have voted against Hillary but never thought Trump was as bad as his enemies portrayed him to be I think in their minds after four years of toxic tweets, distinctly unpresidential behaviour, of downplaying and minimising the pandemic. I think enough of them voters are going to say they’ve had enough of this and we’re going to want to move on so to that extent my guess is that it’ll be Joe Biden, but I certainly wouldn’t rule Donald Trump out’.

GNÉ -ALTANNA

November 03 2020

11

Mol na Meáin: Manchán Magan Le Eimear Nig Oireachtaigh Eagrán eile, duine suimiúil eile! An uair seo, bhí deis agam cúpla ceist a chuir ar Manchán Magan.

Chuala mé faoi don chéad uair mar gheall ar ‘No Béarla’, clár teilifíse a tháinig amach i 2007.

Chuaigh Manchán timpeall na tíre, gan focal Béarla a úsáid. Ar ndóigh, bhí sé sin an-deacair, agus tharraing sé aird ar an leibhéal Ghaeilge atá ag cuid mhór na tíre.

Tar éis é sin ar fad, cheap mé go raibh meon iontach aige faoi spreagadh an teanga: “An príomh-shuim atá agamsa ná chun eilimintí dearfacha don teanga a mhíniú agus a chur i n-iúl de dhaoine eile.” Agus tá sé sin go léir déanta aige i go leor slite éagsúla.

Luaigh sé an tionscadal is déanaí atá aige darbh ainm ‘Sea Tamagotchi’. I mí Feabhra (sula raibh aon eolas againn faoi víreas, nó céard a bhí i ndán dúinn!), chuaigh sé timpeall ceantair Ghaeltachta,

Bookshops in the age of Covid-19 — A conversation with Bell, Book and Candle

By Caoimhe Killeen “Here we go again” was the main sentiment that was no doubt echoed in households across the country, as Taoiseach Micheal Martin confirmed that Level 5 restrictions were to be imposed for a six-week period nationwide. And once again, for a lot of businesses here in Galway, a forced temporary closure. Some businesses deemed as “non-essential retail” may find this second lockdown more challenging than the last, especially smaller businesses who truly thrive on being self-sufficient. For one Galway business, that is certainly the case.

Bell, Book, and Candle is an independent bookshop and record store tucked away in the Small Crane, just off Sea Road. Set up by Paul Deacy in the 90’s, the shop prides itself on its large second-hand book collection as well as its impressive record collection. Paul’s initial reaction to the first nationwide lockdown back in March back when cases were only in the double digits was that of fear.

“I was worried that my shop would become irrelevant, that people would get used to not having the shop around” recalled Paul from behind the main counter the morning after the Taoiseach’s announcement. “So that at whatever stage I was going to reopen, a lot of people would have moved onto Kindles and all of those electronic options that I suppose I compete with in a weird sort of way. So yeah, I was afraid.”

Thankfully, this did not turn out to be the case.

As soon as the shop was legally allowed to reopen, the Galway community seemed to take on the message of shopping and supporting local businesses.

For Bell, Book and Candle, the process happened naturally without putting out any prompts. Paul admitted that he was shocked “at the amount of

people who started shopping local and I’m shocked that people actually came into my shop…there’s still an awful lot of people still in lockdown that weren’t back at their jobs and I am. I was impressed, and I’m thankful to those people who decided that instead of going out of town to do their shopping, that they took the time to come in and walk around the shop.”

Unfortunately, the generosity of his Galway customers will be cut short by the current Level 5 restrictions that will be in effect until the end of the month. Paul has had to find ways to be creative in how he can keep the business running over the second lockdown because Bell, Book and Candle currently does not have a website. He plans to use the Instagram page for the business with a following of over 800 people, as a lot of his customers view the page and tend to ring up the shop when they see something they want. Sometimes, the books are even sold over the Instagram page. However, an older yet classic approach is often used by Paul-the shop window display which normally changes once a week. He also relies on Ernie’s’ shop just around the corner as a display for some of his stock, as it is a business run by his family.

“I feel that they made the shop keep a little bit relevant... I don’t want the shop to leave people’s minds, I want people to keep remembering the shop and the window keeps the shop fresh and alive.” Yet, he notes that the shop still has a good few regular customers and that creating a website sometime in the future may help in making the shop even busier.

On the topic of customers, Paul hopes that lockdown will also be reverted to Level 3 on December 1st in time for Christmas. In his opinion, Christmas will allow Bell, Book and Candle to survive all the way to next March. “January is always a busy month, not as busy as Christmas. A lot of people who have been reading over the holidays will keep it up into January, so January is always busy.

But February is really quiet and income from Christmas helps to pay the bills in the heavy winter months, so hopefully I’ll be open for Christmas.”

On a parting note, Paul seemed to also empathise with students who are currently faced with online learning. “I know it’s hard to be self-motivated and if you’re attending lectures online and in isolation, and not in the canteen solving the problems of the world, it can be hard. So, if you’re studying and at home, it can be hard to be motivated!”

ag bailiú focail mara a bhí ar tí báis a fháil, “focail imeallacha”, mar a deir sé féin. Chuaigh sé timpeall Tír Eoghain, Maigh Eo agus Contae na Gaillimhe, mar chuid de Ghaillimh 2020. Ar ndóigh, bíonn go leor focal cósta in úsáid acu ansin, mar baineann a saol ar fad leis an bhfarraige. Is smaoineamh iontach é sin, i mo thuairim. Tá a fhios agam go bhfuil go leor focal againn i nGaeilge a bheidh caillte mura ndéanann daoine an obair seo!

Mar a dúirt mé, cuireann sé na heilimintí dearfacha don teanga in iúl i slite difriúla. Seachas an tionscadal ‘Sea Tamagotchi’, déanann sé drámaí dhá-teangacha. Ar ndóigh, níl sé sin déanta aige i mbliana, ach de ghnáth déanann sé ‘Aran-Im’.

Chuir sé síos air i slí iontach dom – “bácálaim arán taos géar agus úsáidim an próiséas bácála mar meafair chun na tuiscintí a thugann an teanga dúinn ar an dtimpeallacht, ár n-oidhreacht agus an saol inmheánach a léiriú.”

Má tá m’alt le Mícheál D. Ó léite agat, beidh sé sin cloiste agat cheana. Is téama é seo a bhaineann le daoine atá ag obair leis an nGaeilge, go dtuigeann siad go bhfuil níos mó i gceist leis an teanga ná díreach amháin an teanga í féin. I gcónaí, bíonn siad ag smaoineamh faoin tír ina n-iomláin, faoi oidhreacht na tíre, agus gach rud a théann leis sin.

Agus an píosa deireanach – céard é an rud is fearr leis faoin teanga álainn seo? “Bhí na céad focail a chuala mé riamh ó mo mháthair as Gaeilge: a mhuirnín, a bhuachaín séimh, a ghrá-gheal. Mar

sin bheidh nasc láidir, croíúil, diamhaireacht agam i gcónaí leis an teanga... Is maith liom freisin go dtugann an teanga leaideanna i gcónaí dúinn go bhfuil an saol osréalaíoch ann, agus go bhfuil sé díreach chomh tábhach leis an gceann atá os comhar amach na súile.” Is breá liom an cheist sin, mar bíonn freagraí difriúla i gcónaí ag daoine. Seo an chéad tagairt a fuair mé faoin saol osréalaíoch, agus tá an ceart ar fad aige, bíonn sé sin i gcónaí ann.

Má tá sibh ag iarraidh saothair Manchán a fheiceáil, tá a sraith ‘Nó Béarla’ ar YouTube, agus ceapaim gur sraith fhíorshuimiúil é. Ar an drochuair, beidh ort fanacht go dtí gur féidir linn dul ar ais sna hamharclanna chun a chuid drámaí a fheiceáil, ach idir an t-am sin agus anois, molaim ‘No Béarla’ go mór.

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12 F E ATU R E S

SIN Vol. 22 Issue 03

First Year Diary Final Year Diary

By Aine Fogarty Well, what a month October has been.

I’m writing this from my living room at home, because we’ve been put in a six-week lockdown and I chose to give up my accommodation. The new lockdown wasn’t much of a shock to me and I doubt it was for you.

The fact that labs and practicals are still going ahead shocks me. To think if I had chosen a course with practical parts to it, I would’ve had to stay on campus for 6 weeks and not return home, or chance using public transport shocks me. The fact that I can’t be refunded for those 6 weeks and had to empty my room and possibly return in February, with new roommates shocks me. If you can’t tell already, I’m not impressed with how this situation has been dealt with by the college!

What has kept me relatively sane during this time is I recently joined twitter and discovered ‘NUIG Confessions’. It has kept me from having multiple breakdowns and I am forever grateful to all you people out there anonymously confessing your inner thoughts! Coming into this course I didn’t expect to be having near breakdowns so soon, but I was wrong. Assignments are

descending and tutorials are in full swing. My workload is piling up and the first two weeks of November are already filled with assignments due. Why do assignments all decide to be due in the same week?

One thing we don’t have to do this year is figure out how our college work and college social life will balance out. This pandemic has made sure of that. Hallowe’en has been officially cancelled and even though I’m too old to trick or treat, I would’ve thrown quite a tantrum if I didn’t get my sweets when I was young. Since we can’t go out and have a spooky night with friends, I have some ideas for you! Plan a list of scary movies with your friends and have a marathon online. Since there’ll be little trick or treating, there’s loads of sweets in the shops that haven’t been bought. Binge on sugar while you carve a few pumpkins with your family or friends. Just because we can’t be together in person doesn’t mean we shouldn’t enjoy the spooky season.

I know this lockdown has dampened our spirits more but just think of how close Christmas will be once these weeks of lockdown are over. That’s what I’m thinking of to stay positive and hopefully we’ll have some snow too.

Comhairle Chomhaltas na Mac Leinn

AN FÉIDIR LEATHSA BHEITH AG CEANN AN tSLUA?

by Tom Molloy Level 5 lockdown is finally amongst us, probably a couple of weeks later than it should be. Six weeks of restricted movement and limited contact with others. To be honest, I’m very happy with my lockdown situation. I’m spending it down in Limerick with the most important person in my life. Others are not so lucky so we must keep them in mind. If we all do our bit, we can have some semblance of a normal Christmas this year and perhaps even get the chance to travel abroad to see family members and friends.

At least we still have sport. Some funny happenings in that universe recently. Mayo coming down to Tuam and winning for the first time since Poker Face was top of the charts, although to be fair Mayo play in Tuam these days about as often as Lady Gaga does. Aston Villa and Leeds occupy two of the four Champions League places over in England at the time of writing. Everyone is on the ‘90s nostalgia bandwagon now, even the Premier League apparently.

I’m getting used to online learning now, although the temptation to participate in classes whilst staying in bed remains great. Still beats missing them

altogether I suppose. No incidents of note during my online classes over the last fortnight, although the same can’t be said for poor old Mark in Maynooth. Things may change by the time I write my next diary entry however, as essay time creeps closer by the day.

I promised myself that I wouldn’t use this opportunity as a mouth-piece to vent about things that annoy me, because that would be incredibly immature, but there is one thing that has gotten on my nerves since lockdown started looming: the gyms. I find it incredible how a lot of gym-goers are calling for gyms to remain open in the middle of a oncein-a-century global health pandemic. We all like to imagine that our individual hobbies are more special than others’, and it’s true that our interests are important to our wellbeing, but insisting your hobby should be facilitated during these times is bordering on insane. You can lift a few weights at home and do some aerobic exercises within 5 km of your home if you need to. The gym selfies can wait until all this is over. Invest in a set of weights just like an avid movie-goer would invest in a Netflix subscription.

So, as always, stay safe and look out for each other. Chat soon.

GET INVOLVED Ways to get involved with your SU this year Bealaí le páirt a ghlacadh i do Chomhaltas i mbliana

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Take the Charity Challenge Glac páirt sa Dúshlán Carthanachta Join the Welfare Crew Glac páirt sa Chriú Leasa

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Run for Election Seas sa Toghchán Contact studentsunion@nuigalway.ie for more info Déan teagmháil le studentsunion@nuigalway.ieeolas le tuilleadh Bí í d’Ionadaí Ranga! Le tuilleadh a fháil,eolais a fháil dean teagmháil le su.education@nuigalway.ie @nuigsu

NUIGalwayStudentsUnion www.su.nuigalway.ie

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Become a Class Rep Bí i d’Ionadaí Ranga

Join the Event Crew Glac páirt sa Chriú Siamsaíochta

Contact studentsunion@nuigalway.ie for more info Déan teagmháil le studentsunion@nuigalway.ie le tuilleadh eolais a fháil

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14 A RT S & E NT E RTAIN M EN T

SIN Vol. 22 Issue 03

Creative jobs are real jobs: artists need more support through this pandemic

By Fiona Lee It’s an old and exhausting conversation in Ireland and around the world. As much as we enjoy, appreciate, show off and celebrate creative artists, we don’t value their work as ‘real’ work.

The Fatima Advert has packaged the rhetoric of ‘it’s time to get a real job’ very tidily, just in time for the pandemic that has destroyed the entertainment industry, with little hope in sight.

For those of you not familiar with the advert, it was pulled in the UK just a few weeks ago. It features a ballerina putting on her pointe shoes, captioned “Fatima’s next job could be in cyber, she just doesn’t know it yet – Rethink, Reskill, Reboot”.

The campaign, which also features images of people from other walks of life, was created for UK’s ‘CyberFirst’ in 2019, which is described as “a government outreach and education programme run by National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC)”.

However, very little people consider it relevant that the ad was not directly made in relation to the pandemic, as it just confirms how dismissive the UK government has always been about careers in the arts. Even our own Minister for Social Protection, Heather Humphreys, stated “Some jobs will not come back and there is no point in waiting... It is best that we help people to re - skill, retrain and look at other jobs they can take up”.

As a former Minister for the Arts, this feels like a mighty blow to the Irish Arts community.

SIN spoke to Youth Ballet West’s Artistic Director, Judith Sibley, and John Conneely, head man of a band of diverse musicians that hold residence in the Roisín Dubh on Sunday nights.

They shared their experiences as artists in this time of crisis.

Judith was disgusted by the Fatima advert, “There were 12 photos used in that campaign, but I think the reason the Fatima picture got so much response was because so many little girls wanted to be ballerinas when they were little, so it basically said ‘don’t have dreams’ and do something ‘practical’. As someone who has worked in the arts for 27 years, it’s so insulting.

Even when I was a dancer, people would say ‘What’s your real job?’. This is my real job! I have an apartment; a car and I go on holidays. I know a lot of people struggle financially in the arts, and I stress that I was never wealthy, but I always worked and I was never unemployed.”

The idea that being an artist isn’t a ‘real’ job is not foreign to John either, “It’s easy to say ‘sure look, just retrain’. It’s a historical and systemic joke in Ireland that if you’re a musician, or if you don’t work in a bank or a school, the question is ‘when are you getting a real job?’ The government’s reaction to

this crisis in the arts shows that this has never really changed.

“People are always happy for Irish artists, musicians and actors getting out there and banging the drum for the sake of the country, but the Covid-19 crisis just shows how they truly value our contribution to Irish society”.

Despite the comfort and stress relief that the arts give us day to day, we still take it for granted, and only realise how much we miss gigs and performances once they are gone.

“When everyone went into lockdown, the first thing people did to alleviate stress was to go to the arts, be it film, TV, music or live theatre online, whatever it is, that was the first protocol. It gave people a way to cope to be able to deal with all this”, said John.

The serious concern of the affects that the pandemic will have on artists’ careers is not lost on them, and John and Judith truly worry for the future of the industry.

Judith especially fears for her students only beginning their careers as dancers.

“I have cried, not for me, but for my students. I have had young dancers in their 20s calling me, working in supermarkets, that were in dance companies.

It’s so hard to get into a company.

“I’ve trained 40 dancers in Youth Ballet West to go on to vocational schools abroad.

It is a job! I currently have two girls in my adult’s class, which is going to Zoom now, that were formally trained by me and then trained abroad. One was working in Italy in a company and one was working on a cruise ship. They are going into a career that is decimated and my heart breaks for them.

They worked their whole lives to get to where they are, and they were succeeding.

“Some of them are trying to retrain because we don’t know when theatres will reopen. A lot of theatre companies are not highly funded, they may never reopen.

These dancers will not get their jobs back.

It’s devastating for them” she told SIN.

John sees no end in sight and feels like the government is not doing enough.

“The payment is grand but it’s the dole no matter how you break it down.

It’s necessary of course and the Covid-19 payment was amazing at the start of this lockdown, everybody panicked, and it was a relief. But now the issue is, when does this stop?

“When do the bars open again? This payment is just a payment to the landlord, it’s for your bills and that’s pretty much it. A lot of us are in the process of writing and recording, trying to make the best of this situation in lockdown, but that being said, there is no certainty going forward. It doesn’t look like anything is going to happen until Summer 2021, and that is a very long way off.

“They should be open to trying new things. We got lucky here in Galway that we got picked up to do the resident Sunday night in the Galway Summer Garden.

It was like a small Body & Soul; it was very well organised and it was great.

They should start exploring more things like that, but of course this can’t happen in Level 5.

“I understand the theory behind this lockdown, but it feels awful that we are all being told to stay at home and not work, when there are planes landing in Shannon airport from the US, and people from the UK are travelling back and forth all the time”.

Judith is also frustrated with the response from the Irish government, especially towards dance not being considered a socially distant activity.

“As far as I can see, I am an educator, as important as any teacher. Ballet is the most socially distant art form because you need to able to swing your legs front, side and back!

“We’re all working in pods, our studios are way bigger than classrooms and there’s no dancing across the floor anymore, we dance on the spot. We can track

and trace way better than any school. We don’t even do barre work. They stay on the spot! Parents were helping us ensure that distance was maintained in classrooms, and they were so happy that the classes could come back.

“I invested so much money in my studio, I got an air purifier, an official Covid-19 sign cost me €175! I bought hand sanitiser, and paper towel dispensers that were €110 each. I invested so much for just a few weeks. We’re trying to be allowed to open at Level 3.”

My brother runs a venue, An Táin Arts Centre, and he made a statement pre-lockdown saying “I’m delighted that we can continue our cultural activities in An Táin, with our drama and our music, but I have no understanding why we can’t carry on our ballet lessons, classical ballet is the most socially distant of art forms’. It’s a complete oversight”.

The arts have been left in the cold.

They have been lumped together and shoved to the side, considered a lost cause and being diminished by, once again, politicians not considering creative careers as ‘real’ or worth fighting for. We can’t lose our artists.

Judith points out that no one in tech has ever been told to become a ballet dancer or a musician, because they can’t, nor do they want to.

“It’s too hard a career, I think you have to be slightly mad to be an artist.

Dancers don’t become dancers because they’re good at it, they become them because they have an innate need to be a creative artist. It’s almost not a choice”.

Let creators create. Let them perform.

If the government can push as hard to find ways to support the artists of Ireland the way they have to keep the GAA afloat, they will get amazing work done.

Let’s do all we can to support the people who have given our lives the colour, emotion and joy that we all feel drained of now that they’re gone.

C U LT ÚR

November 03 2020

SIAMSAÍO CHT

7

Innovative year for Baboró International Arts Festival

By Sophia Hadef Based in Galway, Baboró International Arts Festival for Children is Ireland’s flagship festival dedicated exclusively to children and families. And as 2020 has changed all the festivals plans, Baboró had to present most of their performances and events online or outdoors. From the 5th October to the 18th of October, they adapted their programme to introduce audiences to ground - breaking digital experiences.

In September, I booked a few Baboró activities and events for my daughter. But when the government decided to enter Level 3 because of the Covid - 19 situation, Baboró emailed me saying that they sadly had to cancel some indoor events that were supposed to happen. No time to get disappointed, they immediately tried to solve the situation. Some events were online via Zoom, and we had a lovely time. Baboró is passionate about enhancing children’s lives with art and in these difficult times more than ever.

A second national lockdown didn’t stop the children’s festival from delighting and inspiring young minds across the city. Photo: Sofia Hadef.

Genevieve Lyons exhibition

By Niamh Casey The James Hardiman Library has launched a new digital collection of photographs, annotated scripts, letters, diaries and more all belonging to the actress and writer, Genevieve Lyons. The exhibition is a tribute to her achievements and documents her career and theatre life in Dublin from the late 1940s, 50s and into the early 60s.

Genevieve Lyons was born in Dublin in 1930, and her love of theatre grew while she was working and growing up in the city. This love saw her join the Brendan Smith Academy in 1948. Her talent as an actress developed and she graduated with a Diploma in Acting in 1950. The digital archive includes headshots of the young actress which would have been essential to have as someone debuting in the industry.

Lyons’ diary, kept in the late 1940s and early 1950s, gives a personal insight into the social life of Dublin city at the time, as well as her life as an emerging actress. The Globe Theatre Company of which Lyons was a central member of, was founded in 1954 by Godfrey Quigley, who was also Lyons’ husband. It was viewed as “a unique experience in the Irish Theatre” as its goals were to establish a place outside of the urban centre of Dublin city for professional theatre.

The Globe Theatre Company, as well as showing Irish productions, debuted many international productions to Irish audiences for the first time. Lyons took part in many of the plays they presented. Many of the productions she took part in were photographed, with the photos being included in the exhibition.

Some of the productions included in the Hardiman’s collection are ‘The Beaux Stratagem’ by George Farquhar, ‘The Male Animal’ by James and Elliott Nugent Thurber and ‘Dinner with the Family’ by Jean Anouilh.

The photographs in the digital archive really display moments between the cast captured, some

are on stage and some are behind the scenes. Lyons’ passion for her trade still shines through in these photos. Some of the other key roles include the role of Marion in the Irish premiere of J.P. Donleavy’s stage adaptation of his novel, ‘The Ginger Man’, which was famously censored and shut down after three performances in 1959 due to the disfavour of the Catholic Church. The church disapproved of the play’s depiction of sexuality and it’s comments on religion.

Lyons was well-known for her talent in theatre society. She often acted in Irish premieres of European and American plays. She performed for large crowds too, and acted in John Van Druton’s ‘I Am a Camera’, which was seen by over 15,000 people at the Gas Works Theatre in Dun Laoghaire in 1956.

The digital exhibition showcases her time spent with The Globe Theatre Company during her successful career as an actress. She left the company in 1960 to move to London, where she became a drama teacher to primary school students and also began her third career as an childrens’ author.

Genevieve Lyons was an exceptional woman, and her character has captivated many to this day. Dr Barry Houlihan, Archivist at NUI Galway, said: “The archive of Genevieve Lyons is a really significant collection. Genevieve was a hugely talented actress who brought so many new roles to life on the Dublin stage, from the Globe Theatre to the Pike Theatre, and to great acclaim. It is wonderful to be able to share this archive online with a global audience and preserve the papers among the vast number of theatre collections of the Hardiman Library.”

Lyons is an important person in Irish cultural history as she was a pioneer for challenging the norm and fighting for the right of liberal expression, both on and off stage. This exhibition really helps showcase an important part of Irish cultural history.

Photo: Sofia Hadef.

The Electric Kazoo by Paul Noonan was a great success. Paul Noonan, acclaimed frontman of Irish band Bell X1 presented a show on Zoom and Facebook and gave to all the children and their teddys an unforgettable moment. Every child could see a picture of their teddy accompanied by a dedicated song. Paul Noonan developed The Electric Kazoo during the first lockdown in Dublin with the support of his children (who appeared in the Zoom live with giant teddy bears – cuteness at its peak) and fans online all around the world. I also booked an ‘appointment’ with the virtual Children’s Books Ireland Book Clinic, and we loved it. The ‘Book doctor’ asked questions and made a prescription of the books that fit best with the kid’s personality. We laughed a lot, and we got a very long book prescription that we cannot wait to bring with us to our local bookshop around Christmas when (hopefully) normality will be back.

Other events were online such as ‘The University of Imagination and wonder’ set by the theatre company Cahoots NI in Belfast. They broadcasted their interactive theatre bringing magic straight to your home or classroom. Lively lecturers, themed rooms, puzzles and magical powers, the spirit of the extraordinary

theatre was genuinely present. Baboró was able to make outdoor events and activities happen. ‘Sing Me to the Sea’ was a multisensory magical adventure for children with special needs created by Bray - based director Anna Newel and composer David Goodall.

Their work has been seen from Broadway to South Africa, and now graces our shores through a tour of the Ireland and the UK. ‘Sing Me to the Sea’ was initially set in a hydro pool, but it was re-imagined to create connection during this time of social distancing.

Baboró ruled this 2020 edition, and we all look forward to next year’s edition with, we hope, no restrictions. You can donate to their charity on baboro.ie, every euro you donate goes directly towards a creative or cultural experience for a child.

Coiste Gno EXECUTIVE

COMMITTEE

Vice President / Education Officer Leas Uachtarán / Oifigeach Oideachais

President / Uachtarán

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Pádraic Toomey

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2020 -2021

Vice-President / Welfare and Equality Officer Leas-Uachtarán / Oifigeach Leasa agus Comhionannais

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Positions to be filled next semester/Poist le líonadh an chéad seimeastar eile: Societies Chairperson • SU Council Chairperson • Convenor of the College of Business Public Policy & Law • International Students Officer • Ethnic Minorities Officer

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16 A RT S & E N T E RTAIN M EN T

SIN Vol. 22 Issue 03

The wonder of Banksy

By Alice O’Donnell

CREATIVE CORNER

Softness

By Róise Nic Dhonnagáin I am more beautiful than ever.

The mirror whispers this to me, her watery surface, distorting, leaves me decapitated.

A face of sharp angles sinks like a stone, no one but Narcissus to accompany her, while the bloated body bobs upwards, free in a way that only balloons are.

This is the place where the best and worst things happen.

The same numbers flash before me, again, and again and again.

The room plummets, overwhelmed by the weight of empty.

So full of nothingness.

Destined to sink, but doomed to float.

The moon is awake already.

Her greedy eyes like saucers, I can feel her watching.

The thickest fabric could never block her out.

She, the half shell, always yearning to be full, Never full enough.

She can have my fullness, Gorge herself on the curves and rounds and dips and rises.

I have no use for it.

She boasts her ever changing cycle with pride, chasing the fleeting wholeness.

My cycle of smooth skin, coarse hair, flowing blood, does nothing but remind me of my failures.

Cursed to be soft, in a world made of steel edges.

The sharper the better.

I would purge myself of it all if I could.

Cut myself on the razor - edged world, Shorn of all that makes me soft and vulnerable.

Cut to bone and cut still, Leave me with the nothingness that feeds me.

Then, I shall start to feel whole.

Crop circles. The Bermuda Triangle. Bigfoot. Banksy.

The street artist seems to have firmly cemented himself (or herself!) in the ‘Unsolved Mysteries’ category of the world. Since they jumped into the street art scene in 1990, Banksy has slowly but surely captivated the world.

In more ways than one, he is a sort of weird, arty superhero. Real identity hidden, he appears and disappears across the globe, bringing attention to social and political issues before disappearing back into anonymity. His art being the only proof that he was ever there.

There is power in his lack of identity. His is nothing but his art, and his art is what Banksy is.

There is no personal life drama, no tabloid headlines, nothing to distract from his work.

He is unforgiving of extreme capitalism, and frequently focuses on loss of innocence, as seen with his arguably most famous work Girl with The Balloon (2004), as well as Bomb Hugger (2003) and Kids on Guns (2003). The latter two pieces also touch on another of Banksy’s favourite subjects

- the contrast of nature and love in the premise of war.

Bomb Hugger is credited as being one of Banksy’s earliest works, and is a black stencilled piece depicting an innocent girl hugging a bomb. Similarly, Kids on Guns is a silhouette of two children with a heart balloon between them, standing on a pile of explosives and guns. Makes you think, right?

Love Is In The Air is another of Banksy’s most famous works, and depicts a black and white rioter, about to throw a bouquet of delicate, colourful flowers. It has been reprinted millions of times, onto tops, posters, bottles, even pencils.

Is it really just a piece of art to be enjoyed, or is there a pointed political message behind it?

It’s worth noting that the location of Banksy’s art is almost as significant as the art itself. Love Is In The Air was painted in Jerusalem, on its West Bank Wall, a wall which separates Israel with Palestine. While Israel claim it is an antiterrorism measure, the Palestinians believe it is an apartheid wall. No matter its true origin and purpose, it is a symbol of suspicion and scepticism between two nations.

Banksy isn’t just an artist though - he is also a performer. Who could forget when his Girl with Balloon self - destructed at a sale, just after being

bided on for $1.3 million? Or his faux - theme park “Dismaland”, a mockery of Disneyland? It’s clear that Banksy is aware he is being watched by the world. How strange to be such a performer, and yet nobody knows his name.

Of course, not every single one of his pieces have deep symbolism. His 2009 art, Steam Roller Traffic Warden, humorously depicts a traffic warden seemingly flattened by a steam roller.

Similarly, Lenin on Roller Blades (2003) shows exactly what you think it would – Lenin trying to roller skate. There’s no secret message, no thought - provoking symbolism. It’s simply a work of art made to be viewed and enjoyed.

Banksy has unquestionably taken the world by storm. Only a week ago, one of his paintings Show Me the Monet went for £7.6 million, or the equivalent of €8.6 million. His Instagram alone has 10.3 million followers, and his drawing Game Changer, depicting a little boy playing with a nurse superhero toy after discarding his other Batman and Spiderman toys, has gone on to become to become the symbol of public gratitude to the NHS during the Covid-19 pandemic. His latest piece in Nottingham, claimed on 17th October, blew up headlines across the world, and showed that despite his identity being unknown, Banksy’s presence on the world’s stage is always felt.

The perfect book for the lockdown : The Midnight Library

By Sophia Hadef I was wandering in the streets of Galway when it started raining. I decided to go to my favourite bookshop ever: Charlie Byrnes. I was not looking for a specific book when a beautiful dark blue shade attracted my eyes. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig was like a magnet.

Its title, its cover – it has everything to please a bookworm like me. And when I read the quote in the back of the book. I knew. I knew I had to read it as soon as possible. “Between life and death, there is a library, and within that library, the shelves go on forever. Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived. To see how things would be if you had made other choices... Would you have done anything different, if you had the chance to undo your regrets?”

The story is about Nora, a woman who is going through a terrible period in her life. She feels that everything is always going wrong, that she never made the right choice. She is consumed with regrets and decides to end her life. This is how Nora ends up in the Midnight Library – an in between life and death. There, she read the Book of Regrets and feels invaded with all the sad emotions she had experienced over her life.

Nora had the choice to try many lives, each life stored within its own book, the lives she could have lived if she had made different decisions. Lives she could have lived if she had made different decisions.

I loved following Nora in all these normal and extraordinary lives. It was fascinating and so rejuvenating. This book talks a lot about mental health and all these feelings that obstruct our minds with darkness. In these times more than ever, I recommend this

beautiful story as it changed my point of view on life, on things. Being a quite pessimistic person in general, I struggle to see the good in everything; this precious book is such a great motivation to believe in this life, this world. It had an impact on me. Matt Haig is a talented writer and I already bought another novel from him. The Guardian has described his writing as “delightfully weird” and the New York Times has called him “a novelist of great talent” whose writing is “funny, riveting and heart - breaking”.

Below is a section of novel.

“Nora had always had a problem accepting herself. From as far back as she could remember, she’d had the sense that she wasn’t enough. Her parents, who both had their own insecurities, had encouraged that idea. She imagined, now, what it would be like to accept herself completely. Every

mistake she had ever made. Every mark on her body. Every dream she hadn’t reached or pain she had left. Every lust or longing she had suppressed.

She imagined accepting it all. The way she accepted nature. The way she accepted a glacier or a puffin or the breach of a whale. She imagined seeing herself as just another brilliant freak of nature. Just another sentient animal, trying their best. And in doing so, she imagined what it was like to be free.”

This story is a light in the tunnel if you suffer from anxiety or depression. Always remember that you are not alone, and if you need to talk, there are people willing to listen. Call Pieta at 1800 247 247 or Text “Help” to 51444, Samaritans Ireland at 116 123 and Women’s Aid Ireland at 1800 341 900. Live fully, sense the things around you, close your eyes, breathe, and believe in yourself, you are unique.

Photo: Sophia Hadef

C U LT ÚR

November 03 2020

7

SIAMSAÍO CHT

17

Haunting of Bly Manor review

By Alice O’Donnell Tis the spooky season. Pumpkins in every shop, shelves groaning under the weight of ‘Funsized’ sweet mixes, those weird jelly stickers on windows. It’s official.

And with the spooky season comes the need to get spooked. Luckily, the recently released Haunting of Bly Manor, on Netflix, has you covered.

Loosely based off the gothic novel, ‘Turn of the Screw’ by Henry James, the show follows Dani, a young, bright-eyed American running away from a tragic past, who gets a job as an au pair looking after two orphans. She arrives at their large mansion called (you guessed it) Bly Manor, where immediately she, along with the viewer, gets thrown into a wild world of creepy kids, odd dolls, and suspicious housekeepers.

Despite keeping a fair amount of its cast, this season was very different to its predecessor ‘Haunting of Hill House’. I’m not the biggest horror fan, so I actually enjoyed this season a lot more. There were less jump-scares, and it seemed to move away from the classic horror genre. Instead, the scariest moments were drawn out, disturbing the viewers rather than shocking them.

Of course, it kept the fan favourite element of ghosts in background shots. There were also wonderfully delicate references to the Haunting of Hill House, such as the quote; “People are like locked rooms…

You’ve got to guess the shape of their key” alluding to the Red Room in Hill House, as well as references to the “Forever Home.” My favourite connection was with Nell’s line, about love and how the “rest is just confetti”, a sentiment that is never quite echoed in Bly Manor, but hinted at repeatedly. The references between the two seasons are subtle and are more like watery reflections rather than identical images.

While the previous show focused on the haunting of the actual house, this season felt like there was more an emphasis placed on the haunting of the people. What I felt Hill House missed out on, Bly Manor expanded on to great effect. The best moment of both seasons combined was, for me, when the reason of Bly Manor’s hauntings gets explained, humanising the ghosts and the reasoning behind their hauntings. If Hill House was a scary horror, then Bly Manor is a gothic romance.

There’s also a wonderful play on the concept of dreams. The line (also featured in the trailer) “It’s going to sound strange but… I’m having someone else’s dream” really summarises this theme. I was reminded strongly of the film Inception in parts, which I really enjoyed.

While the heart of the Haunting of Hill House was about family, the heart of Haunting of Bly Manor is something more complex entrapment. Owen, the manor’s chef, summarises it well in one of the first conversations he and Dani have – “I’ve actually never liked Bly. The

people here, most of them, they’re born here, they die here. This whole town is one big gravity well. And it’s easy to get stuck.”

Each character in the season has their own ‘gravity well’something that traps them and refuses to allow them to leave Bly. They are all haunted, in their own way. For some, such as Owen, it’s a relatively simple case of having to leave the wonders of France to care for an aging mother. However, others have far more complex reasons, equally as fascinating as they are tragic.

I really enjoyed The Haunting of Bly Manor, and found it a far more complex and touching watch than Haunting of Hill House. If nothing else, it definitely puts you in the spooky spirit, with ghosts and ghouls abound.

If you find yourself somewhat bored one evening, I’d recommend you give it a watch (unless you’re home alone, then maybe wait until morning to start it).

YouTube recommendation

By Donagh Broderick Can we colonise blackholes? Are machine rebellions something to worry about? What might alien civilisations look like? These and many other questions and topics can be explored on the YouTube channel ‘Science and Futurism with Isaac Arthur’.

Hosted by the titular Isaac, a former soldier, as well a physicist, he started making videos in 2014, with the episode ‘megastructures’.

Isaac discusses a plethora of topics related to futurism, space colonisation, and answers to the fermi paradox on the channel. A key feature of these topics that Isaac discusses is usually their scale.

Matryoshka brains, ringworlds, Dyson swarms, and galactic colonization aren’t exactly small things and as Isaac will often suggest, you might want to grab a drink and a snack before settling in as the average video will run in excess of 20 minutes.

When discussing each topic, Isaac looks at things from the assumption that we are operating with no new physics defying technologies (aside from episodes such as ‘Clarktech’ where such technologies like artificial gravity are the whole point of the discussion) and explores how a future of humanity or advanced civilization might behave or operate with such things in a very grounded manner which really drives home the wonders a future humanity may be capable of.

Isaac will often work in examples of pop culture and sci-fi that have featured the topic in question. As the viewer quickly learns, sci-fi authors have a very poor sense of scale as most of what they envision is too small, or that many of the tropes we commonly accept from sci-fi, such as the Prime Directive from Star Trek, do not make sense when analysed to the extent that Isaac goes for.

Now of course it may seem that such videos can get technical and luckily Isaac, in the spirit of science communicators everywhere, is aware of the need to ensure he doesn’t get lost spouting terms that few outside his field understand. Minus a handful of episodes looking at things such as antimatter factories or graphene, there is not much

complex jargon to understand and when there is Isaac clearly explains it.

However, viewers may find themselves steering clear of any episodes older than four years. Isaac suffers from a speech impediment with his r’s, which he often jokingly claims make him sound like Elmer Fudd. This combined with inferior recording equipment used in those first episodes (which were also before Isaac had begun taking elocution lessons) means these videos can be difficult to follow. However, all of them do have captions so if the topic really intrigues you then you can still learn about it easily.

A key feature of these topics that Isaac discusses is usually their scale. Matryoshka brains, ringworlds, Dyson swarms, and galactic colonization... you might want to grab a drink and a snack before settling in.

Every monthly Isaac hosts a livestream Q&A where he takes questions from his subscribers and can demonstrate in full that even unscripted, his command of the subject matters he makes videos about is seemingly endless. Whether you are a writer of science fiction looking to dust off the outdated clichés from your work, someone studying science intrigued by its applications for our future, or simply curious about the wonders our future may hold then you should definitely check out Isaac Arthur.

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18 FA SH IO N & L I F EST Y L E

SIN Vol. 22 Issue 03

Who’s your biggest fashion inspo and why?

By Neasa Gorrell In today’s fashion world, you will likely see many clothing advertisements as you scroll through your Instagram timeline of the same influencers promoting the same fast-fashion brands over, and over, and over again.

It’s a relentless profiteering scheme carried out by most influencers looking to make a quick buck, prioritizing their possible earnings over the ethics of advertising unsustainable fashion brands.

Because of that, it is important for us to ask ourselves – ‘Who is your biggest fashion inspiration, and most importantly, why?’.

With the information available to us today, I’m sure that many consumers are very aware of the corruption that takes place in the fast fashion world.

With one quick Google search, an innumerable amount of stories and reports come up, most referring to the major online brands we’ve come to know over the past few years.

With information ranging from fast-fashion’s contribution to severe deforestation, the production of garments emitting more CO2 in the atmosphere than the aviation and the shipping industry combined, as well as contaminating the ocean with huge amounts of micro plastics from the synthetic material, and finally to full on modern day slave-labour within the production and supply chain.

All in all, fast fashion is vastly unfashionable from an ethical and informed standpoint. Everyone is likely to have heard some variation of these same environmentally degrading statistics, so that is why it is exhausting to see influencers continuing to push and promote fast-fashion brands into our fashion interest.

Admittedly, we all need to play our part in making informed decisions about the things we buy, and

this is not just in terms of fashion, but on a wider scale, we need to do what we can to be actively more sustainable members of society.

The reality of the fast-fashion industry and its partnerships with social media influencers and celebrities is that everyone involved knows they will make money, and fast! So, they prioritise the manipulation of followers over the health of our environment.

But, don’t lose out hope just yet, there are some sustainable queens and kings out there on the social media sphere. So, want to know who you won’t see doing all that fast-fashion-mumbo-jumbo?

This lovely, bubbly lady who is a self-confessed lover of charity shops, queen of up styling, and thrift shopping extraordinaire: Miss Tara Stewart. (@tarastewartdj) Tara Stewart is a personal social media fav of mine! She originally hails from the lands of the great down-under: Australia. She is a well-accomplished DJ for RTÉ 2FM and an icon in the Irish sustainable fashion scene.

She radiates fun, colour and style. She is all about owning your look, loving yourself and body positivity. For me, she is a breath of fresh air. She is undoubtedly a woke-queen, owning her style and rocking her platform ethically.

In many of her posts, Tara directly talks about up-styling old fabrics to make new fashion pieces, her most recent being a stylish facemask made from an old shirt.

She promotes many Irish second-hand charity shops for both fashion and homeware, and supports other Irish-owned vintage fashion outlets, such as Nine-Crows, Dublin Vintage Factory and Dublin Flea Market. Aside from that, she always promotes Depop as a go-to online fashion retailer, instead of any fast-fashion site.

Although Tara is making a huge effort with promoting sustainable living on social media, there are

many other ethical Irish icons worth mentioning.

Roz Purcell (@rozannapurcell) is definitely one to watch out for on the social sphere as she promotes a healthy alternative lifestyle. In terms of sustainability, she often promotes sustainable fashion brands, up-styling old clothing and she has a page dedicated to vegetarian cooking recipes and ideas. She is also all about body positivity.

Another page to look out for is @theuselessproject ran by Geraldine Carton and Taz Kelleher, and it too is focused on sustainable living, and looks at

First of all, you can consider joining the NUIG Style Society and NUIG Sustainability Society to focus on how you can make positive changes in your lifestyle, habits and fashion awareness.

Secondly, you can start shopping in the local charity shops in Galway and simultaneously fight fast-fashion while supporting good local causes!

There are many other ways to better your lifestyle and fashion consumption but any small change is still a start in the right direction.

Don’t lose out hope just yet, there are some sustainable queens and kings out there on the social media sphere. all things from fashion to food and other ethically Irish-made products.

So, in terms of living a sustainable fashion-forward lifestyle in Galway, what can you do?

BEAUTY BAG: END OF MONTH REVIEW

By Anastasia Burton Hello my darlings, it’s technically only been one issue since I last spoke about my beauty bag but you have to understand that for me it has been four weeks since my last update on how I’m doing with my beauty bag decluttering. In my last article we spoke about the items I had in my beauty bag which I needed to use up before I started anything new. For those who didn’t get a chance to read my previous article you can check it out in issue two, but I will still explain what the whole deal with the beauty bag section is!

Beauty bag is technically my project pan, I put items from my make-up collection into this bag to try and use them up so that I can give the items love and truly appreciate them. I would much rather do this than let them all sit there and gather dust.

Each month I will do two articles dedicated to my beauty bag, which means that this is technically my October review, in issue four I will mention what items made it to the November beauty bag!

Now, to the items that I had in my October beauty bag;

Maybelline New York: Baby skin instant pore eraser primer- USED So, I finally used up my Maybelline primer, it took ages! I originally thought I’d have it used up in the next month or two, but I completed it before that.

I will be repurchasing this primer since it did make my make-up more flawless and made it glide on nicely, very comfortable and lightweight and not to mention cheap!

Flormar perfect coverage foundation- USED

Essence lash princess mascara- NOT USED

Anastasia Beverly Hills Subculture palette- NOT USED

Horrible foundation! I did not use it up, but I decided to remove it from my collection entirely. It is way too drying and clings to your pores and imperfections, cracks easy and is quite heavy on the face even with a small amount. Not worth it unless you like very high coverage and have flawless skin. Will not be repurchasing.

This mascara is new enough to my beauty bag and still has a lot of life left in it. I believe that by January 2021 I will have it used up. Brilliant mascara, but the wand is uncomfortable. So, I may still get lash princess but different wand design.

Palettes are always harder to use up, but I am proud that I have made a larger dent in the shade “Dawn” which I expect will be completely gone by the end of November. I am practically done with the shade “Electric” and I am a lot closer to hitting pan on the shades “Cube”, “Adorn”, and “New Wave”. I expect to have hit pan on possibly all those shades in the next two months. I will more than likely not repurchase this palette again unless it is in a bundle deal for Black Friday ABH sales.

Illamasqua precision ink eyeliner- NOT USED This eyeliner is so difficult to like. It’s very moist and easy to make mistakes with, and I hate how it latches onto my lashes. It is also very hard to get off. I will definitely not repurchase this once I’ve finished it. I will try to use this eyeliner predominantly over the next two months with the goal of using it up and binning.

Essence Camouflage matt concealer- NOT USED One of my favorite concealers of all time. I have three more back-ups and i am very close to using up the shades “light honey” and “light rose”.

SoSu complete contour palette- NOT USED This contour palette had many different pans so it is hard to use up, but I have practically completed the concealer cream shade and am hitting pan on the setting powder and the contour powder. I realised that the lighter cream contour shade is too light for my complexion but the darker one is slowly making its way to pan. I trust that by the end of November I will have a better idea of whether I will be repurchasing or not.

Topshop Chameleon highlighter mother of pearl- NOT USED This is the most stubborn highlighter to use up!

There is just so much product I don’t see myself using this up anytime soon! I will not be repurchasing it either. Although I think that it’s beautiful, I’m getting very tired of it and I have way too many other highlighters to get through!

TheBalm: Balm Beach blush- NOT USED I didn’t mention this item in my previous article, but I’ve been trying to hit pan on this blush for months! I predict that I will be hitting pan with it by the end of November! I love it but I’m not a huge blush person, so more than likely I will not be repurchasing.

FAIS EAN

November 03 2020

7

NÓ S MAIRE ACHTÁLA

19

WHAT AUTUMN/WINTER 2020 trends should you actually invest in?

By Ethne Tierney Every year designers come up with clothes that they present on the runway. Those ideas become trends that are then used to design everyday clothing.

These trends are bombarded to us on our social media feeds by ads, influencers and celebrities. Some we may like more than others, but they don’t necessarily suit our personal style, body type or lifestyle.

Some of these trends don’t survive the passing of time either. Who hasn’t bought a trendy, overpriced fashion item that we were hoping to wear a lot, and ended up at the bottom of our wardrobe because we got tired of it or didn’t have anything to wear it with?

To feel happy and confident in your clothes we need to know our style and not rely on trends too much. Shopping smart is key, not only for your style, but for your pocket too. This is why we are reviewing some of the top trends for this Autumn/ Winter and their wearability.

Balloon Sleeves Balloon sleeves got a relative pass in the wearability test. The pass depends on how plain the top is and how big the sleeves are. A black top with small balloon sleeves, for instance, will be worn in many more occasions than a bold colour with lace details and a textured fabric.

Everything Gold Gold is elegant and it can make a real statement. The designer’s idea to use gold especially on gowns and suits won’t translate into street fashion.

Gold is still a great way to elevate even the simplest of outfits. Our suggestion? Use gold colored accessories in your hair, your earrings, a nice necklace or a watch. Spend money on small bits that are inexpensive, and you can incorporate into your everyday outfits. If, like most people, you are going to spend a great part of you day in a tracksuit or something comfy, combining this with a couple of comfy gold accessories will make you look super put together.

Cardigans

Fringes/Tassels

Cardigans are infinitely versatile. They are great to put over a floral dress, you can wear an oversized one over some sweatpants and a t-shirt, or you can use a cropped one with a pair of jeans as a top. The possibilities are endless!

Warm, comfy and stylish, cardigans get an A+ on wearability. This is the ideal time to purchase them too as there are so many colours, shapes and prints to choose from.

Tassels are an organic and feminine detail that, frankly, are pleasant. Is it worth investing in? Perhaps not. They get tangled, and wash after wash they tend to deteriorate very quickly. Many designers and brands have applied this trend in a ’20s flapper-style dress. The dresses are beautiful, but unless you are a character from ‘The Great Gatsby’ you won’t have many occasions to wear them, and when you do you will struggle to know how to match it with shoes, purses, etc.

If you fall in love with the idea of fringes, we suggest you go for items that have more of a hippie-chic or cowboyish vibe. The materials used for this style are more durable: denim, faux leather and others. Fringes in jackets, boots and handbags will last longer as they are washed less often.

Checkered Prints Checkered prints must be the easiest trend of the season. Designers are encouraging mixing them all together in one outfit. Burberry went for checkered hijab for this season’s collections.

Wearing an outfit with different checkered patterns and colours from head to toe is a possibility. If you need to make a statement with your outfit or wear something bold you can do so, but you can, of course, just grab your dad’s shirt and wear them over a top. And... voilà!

You look just like an Instagram influencer spending no money and no effort.

The beauty of this trend is that you will more than likely have checkered skirts and dresses from previous collections, borrow your parent’s old clothes, or even you granny’s scarf. Checkered patterns seem to always come back in one shape or another, so the chances are you have a few items to play with already.

The Matrix Coat The edginess of a dark XXL coat made of faux leather can be intimidating. It really depends on one’s preferences when deciding whether it is a good trend or not.

That being said, with regard to practical use the Matrix coat is a great investment. Waterproof and warm, it hugs your whole body with its long length. The colour and material will hide stains and will last for a long time looking its best.

If you tend to go for more edgy or goth inspired styles this coat will be your best

friend, but as practical as it is it won’t necessarily suit someone with a girlier, more colourful wardrobe.

Red Dresses Red is a very flattering colour for all skin colours and features. It is one of those colours that suits curvy, skinny and everything in between bodies. We have to give red a pass since even if you tend to go for neutrals or blacks, anyone can use a red dress for Christmas, for example.

Here’s a little tip: Red being a bold enough colour, means that red dresses tend to have less complicated seams, textures and patterns, which makes their production cost lower. This means you can get very beautiful pieces for an affordable price.

20  FA SH IO N & L I F EST Y L E

Shenanigan and Me; The bond between a pet and their owner knows no bounds, or distance.

By Maureen Breslin The greatest Christmas morning of my life was when a small, blonde ball of fluff came fumbling towards me as I wearily crept down the stairs. A red gift bow fell off his little, golden head and I scooped him up into my arms. I was instantly enamoured by our new member of the family, a golden retriever named Shenanigan.

Our furry friend’s name was given by my brother, in the tradition of giving our dogs an Irish name with a “sh-� prefix. Our last two dogs were named Shannon and Shamrock, and this new puppy was given the name Shenanigan for the Gaelic-derived word meaning playful mischief. The name is always a conversation-starter and Shenanigan himself is always turning heads. He is a clever dog who knows many tricks. He can catch treats off his nose on command, spin to catch a biscuit in midair and rollover at the snap of the fingers. Shenanigan always yearns to be the centre of attention, oftentimes living up to his name in order to gain it.

The Christmas we brought Shenanigan into our family was a very difficult one for us. We had just lost my grandmother only two weeks prior and one of the last things she told my mother was to let us

have a dog for Christmas. Shenanigan came into our home with a very special place in our hearts, knowing that Nana wanted us to have him.

Since Shenanigan has been in my life, he has been my best friend. As the old adage goes, a dog is man’s (or woman’s) best friend. Whenever I come home, Shenanigan barks and paces with excitement to greet me, he sits at my side as I work, lies beside me when I go to bed, and wakes me up with kisses in the morning. As an avid traveller, I miss him terribly when I’m on my trips, but whenever I arrive home in the airport, my father brings him to greet me with his head peeping out of the Jeep window as his barks echo through the terminal.

Right now, I am 3,000 miles away from my best friend, as an American student studying here in Galway. Every day, I ask my family to send me videos and pictures of Shenanigan and I video chat him. When I call his name through the phone, he starts to prance around and search through the window to see if I’m pulling in the driveway, finally having come home. I won’t be home to see Shenanigan until Christmas. Then, just like he was my gift on Christmas seven years ago, I will now be his when I come home for the holidays.

NUI Galway Students’ Union Ents Presents/Cuireann Comhaltas na Mac LÊinn OÉ Gaillimh

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SIN Vol. 22 Issue 03

Budgeting Advice

By Anastasia Burton Hello and welcome back to, ‘How not to spend your life in a cardboard box living off 25c noodles!’. In our previous budgeting advice section, we spoke about creating an actual budget book and how to split and organise it! I hope this was helpful to you since budgeting is a blessing when it comes to being a student who is either out of work due to the pandemic or is an essential worker struggling to pay the bills.

Today we will talk about shopping on a budget.

Because I’m not a monster I know how important retail therapy can be. Being broke doesn’t mean being sad. We will focus on two different forms of shopping: groceries and leisure. You cannot avoid buying food but let me tell you how to shop for food while saving money and making yummy meals. As well as shopping on a budget for new cute items for your wardrobe or bedroom.

FOOD! Now, when you go shopping for food, do you just walk out and pick up what you need without looking at the prices and walk out? Because if you are, stop it. Grocery shopping can be your most costly spending habit when you don’t know how to grocery shop efficiently. First piece of advice: avoid convenience stores, they usually hype up their prices unnecessarily. Try shopping in bigger supermarkets and buy their own brand products.

For example, did you know that Tesco’s own brand food is just as good as other big brands and just as tasty. Always compare prices, it may make your shopping longer, but it will also make it cheaper. Also make a list! Making a list will help you avoid temptations like donuts and all the little itty-bitty bits that make you want to treat yourself.

Go in strictly for what you need and if the item that you are craving is on sale, then pick it up!

Never buy anything expensive when it’s full price.

That’s just silly, since most places have deals and special offers each week, to help you track those offers download the apps of the store you’re visiting. This can often get you some money off, try Lidl plus and the like!

CLOTHES AND BITS: If you are still shopping in fast fashion stores stop it! You may love brands and you may love luxury items, but did you know that you can find branded items that are in almost mint condition in charity stores? Depop? Why pay the full price for anything when you can find deals that are to die for? I recently bought a Zara top worth ₏29.99 for 5 euro... The top still had its original tags and was in perfect condition. See how much money I saved? You can find such beautiful, trendy and cool items in charity stores while also making a difference by donating that money. It’s a great way to do something that benefits you and others.

Avoid vintage stores... Yes, they are great and the clothes in vintage stores are so fab, but the prices are hyped so much that it’s really not worth it. I found the sweater of my dreams in a vintage store, but it cost 55 quid, you’d be mad if you assumed, I’d spend that much on any item of clothing, ever!

I went to St. Vincent de Paul across the road and found practically the exact same sweater (if not better) for ₏7... I mean... It doesn’t take a genius to evaluate which was the better deal right? So, go crazy in charity stores when you can because chances are, you will find items you love, and you can up-scale and wear what you want without feeling guilty!

Boo! *Tinder matches disappear*

By Rachel Garvey When I was younger, I used to think that ghosting had something to do with ghosts, but I soon learned the truth when I hit my teenage years. Of course, there’s the fact that the term “ghosted� can tie in with ghosts; that tie being that ghosts can disappear in the blink of an eye. Just like all my previous Tinder matches!

One thing is for sure though, we will all experience being ghosted at some time in our lives and we will also experience being the person who ghosts someone else. The roles always get reversed, so we can’t exactly give off about people if they ghost us because we are just as guilty as them, but then again, we are all guilty of being hypocrites. It’s life!

Everyone has a story to tell; let me tell you mine‌ I decided to download Tinder, I was curious, and people seemed to be talking about it a lot. Apparently, everyone was on it, but it got mixed reviews some found it fun, others said they got bored of it quite fast. I ended up matching with this one guy who seemed genuine, but looks can be deceiving.

We chatted, starting off with a “Hello, how are you?� and the questions followed, telling each other where we were from and what we were studying in college. The conversation seemed to flow effortlessly, and I sat there thinking “Wow, this is easy�. I spoke too soon as this conversation became a bit too easy and suspicions surfaced quite rapidly. Everything I loved, he seemed to love and everything that I said he seemed to agree with. Let’s be real here, there have to be at least a few things that people

should disagree on, it gives the conversation an edge and opens it up to debate, but that never happened.

We decided to move on to Facebook instead because he didn’t really like using Tinder to converse which was fair; sometimes it doesn’t notify you of messages. The conversation continued to flow until he started calling me “babe�. I have no problem being called that if I was in a relationship, but if I’m not tied down to someone, I don’t like being called that. I shrugged it off and told myself it was just him being flirty, but what followed made me put down my phone and back away from it. The question of; “So, when do I get to meet the parents of my beautiful girl?�. I gulped hard and my mind went into this state of confusion. We had literally been talking for two days and he was asking when he could meet my parents! Part of me thought he was just joking around, but I wish that was the case; he was being serious.

I didn’t respond to him, and I didn’t even want to conjure up an excuse in my head. Instead, I got rid of him off Facebook and unmatched with him on Tinder. Yes, I ghosted him and didn’t reply to the flood of messages that drowned me on a daily basis.

It may seem a little harsh, but everyone reacts to things differently. I just didn’t want to be dealing with all that yet. Karma did, however, get me back for that as I was ghosted many times, but that’s life, we can’t win them all. Even if we dressed up in the most horrifying costume out there and went up to our crush and shouted “BOO!� in their face, the one thing they would most likely do is just laugh at us, I think that’s better than telling them we have feelings for them and have them disappear.

FAIS EAN

November 03 2020

7

NÓS MAIRE ACHTÁLA

21

Let’s talk about sex, baby

By Rachel Garvey Sex, sex, sex; a word that holds many different meanings to different people. It can excite some, but for others, it brings a variety of emotions like confusion, anxiety and sometimes even fear. There’s no point in sugar-coating it; sex is complicated. Of course, it can be used as a stress relief tool or just for fun, but for others, sex is merely a way to show the other person how much you appreciate them or that you want to be close to them. Now, let’s talk about sex!

Use your words Communication is a big thing when it comes to sex; both sides of the relationship need to be open and willing when it comes to trying new things together.

One simply can’t partake in sexual acts if only one side of the relationship is willing, while the other is still unsure. If you feel that you aren’t ready for sex then tell your partner, don’t just “go along with it”. Only you can decide when you’re ready, rushing yourself shouldn’t be an option and your partner should understand and respect your decision.

Experimenting Sex doesn’t have to be a complicated science lesson; you get to make the rules and if there’s something that isn’t working out then try again to see what

will give you a satisfying end result. Try something new and see how it works out for you! Trying new things will help boost both you own and your partner’s confidence levels. It will also bring you closer together. It means you get to have fun with it, trying new things can be quite funny because you can always have a little laugh about it afterwards.

Foreplay Part of this can tie in with experimenting, you can never have too much foreplay. It’s a lot more important than we make it out to be because of how it prepares us for what’s to come. Jumping straight into sex isn’t exactly fair to our bodies, is it? The answer is no! Foreplay is a great way to get our bodies ready for the final step; I’ll spare you the details, but you all know what I’m talking about. Do not underestimate the power of foreplay!

Wrap it up Consent is important when it comes to sex, but the other important thing to keep in mind is the forms of contraception available. Part of people’s fear and anxiety comes from the fact that they are afraid of contracting a sexually transmitted infection or falling pregnant. There’s a variety of condoms out there and contraceptive pills and other forms of barriers that can help protect you during sex.

Check-ups with your doctor will also help to relieve stress and anxiety to make sure your sexual health is good. Student’s Unions in colleges usually offer free condoms to students as part of their sexual health awareness programmes, so don’t be afraid of asking them for a free pack.

Keep your expectations real Sex isn’t going to be as straightforward as you think it is, it’s portrayed in films as this flawless act, but it never turns out to be what we imagine. Our expectations shouldn’t be high, but they should be realistic. If you’re anxious, then talk about your anxieties with your partner. If you’re insecure about a certain part of your body then tell your partner, it’s only one more thing for them to love and to respect. We all have that one part of our body that we feel insecure about, but once our partner is aware of our insecurities then they can help us build the confidence to love that insecurity.

Photo by Erik Lucatero on Unsplash

Beauty Brand Review – The Ordinary by DECIEM By: Ewelina Szybinska The world of The Ordinary, a skincare brand known to be extremely effective in dealing with skin-related issues. Minimalist bottles with cute droppers, affordable prices and waiting lists? Yes, you’ve read that right. Some of the most popular products are constantly out of stock! I’ve always had an interest in skincare and saying this, I’ve tried many different brands with ranging prices, but no product has ever given me great results. My skin would either get used to it and finally stop working or I would get a bad reaction. To provide you with a quick background, my skin has always been very sensitive, prone to acne and scarring.

I found it difficult to determine whether it was dry or oily but quickly concluded that it is in fact combination. While I was battling excessive sebum and mild acne and larger pores, I’ve also managed to maintain an even skin tone and reduce the appearance of any other skin irregularities.

Since coming across The Ordinary, my regime has changed for good.

I’d like to take you along on my journey with the products I’ve used and give you an honest review after testing the brand for over a year now. The brand has impressed me with its high quality and great pricing. You may wonder how it’s possible for the brand to continue with such prices. It simply saves on advertising. The brand has arrived in many homes and by good word of mouth, the company is simply thriving with excellent customer reviews!

This article is not sponsored! Just another happy customer hoping to help anyone else trying to find the right product for their skin.

At the beginning, finding the right mix of ordi-

nary products was scary, knowing which formulas can be used together in a regimen and which ones couldn’t be was an overwhelming thought. Playing around with various percentages of acids and strong formulations of vitamin C can cause more harm than good if applied incorrectly. If that is your concern, the ordinary website provides a detailed regimen guide into the multiple formulas that complement each other. I’ll make sure to mention those that left me with my desired results.

My Ordinary Favourites:

Niacinamide 10% + Zinc 1% (€5.90 - 30ml) ( €10.60 60ml) An all-time favourite product from the website! This high strength vitamin and mineral blemish formula will do just what the name suggests.

Acne scars will start to fade, and you’ll notice fewer spots due to sebum reduction and smaller pores. If you look up the advantages of using niacinamide and zinc on your face, you’ll quickly notice its positive effects. It is known to calm inflammation, control oil production and enhance the skin’s protective barrier. I have repurchased this item over three

times! Recently I have upgraded to a 60 ml bottle.

If you’re ever going to try out any of their products, this must be the one!

Mandelic Acid 10% + HA (€6.80 -30ml) Another 10/10! The peeling acid slowly penetrates through the skin making it a gentle form of exfoliation. The results will impress you from the first application regarding closure of larger pores and reducing sebum production.

The irregularities will disappear and create a smoother surface by eliminating small bumps. Have I also mentioned that it fades fine lines? Don’t be keen to use it more than it is recommended, it is advised to apply it once a day, after noon, as sunburn is highly likely to occur. I’m speaking from experience here. I’m only on my second bottle as it lasts for a long while! I’d recommend using this product three or four times a week although this may vary depending on your skin reaction.

Azelaic Acid Suspension 10% (€7.20 -30ml) I’m trying to put my thoughts together about this product and I’ve noticed that I use this formula quite irregularly. I find this to be an effective antioxidant

that does not need to be applied frequently.

It targets the appearance of blemishes and works towards creating an even skin tone.

It’s a great product to apply right before any makeup. Azelaic acid mattifies on the skin leaving the face feeling smooth! You can also rock it on its own if you desire a mattified finish.

100% Plant-Derived Squalene (€7.20 -30ml) A non-comedogenic formula that hydrates the skin and prevents loss of hydration!

Being non-comedogenic, it doesn’t clog pores and can be used frequently. Your skin will thank you and so will your bank account, this is one of the cheapest squalene products currently on the market. Lightweight and absorbent, this formula should ideally be used after water-based treatments.

If you’re looking to change your regime or maybe adjust it a little bit, I can’t recommend this brand enough! The entire range of products is affordable and really works wonders.

22 FA SH I O N & L I F EST Y L E Mental Health Column

By Ellen O’Donoghue Hey there, I’ve never actually written a column before. But here we are.

So, welcome, I suppose.

We’re not mentioning the C-word here. I’ve decided that much.

I’m Ellen O’Donoghue, I’m from Donegal and I’m in my final year of college this year and it is hard.

This column is procrastination really. And will continue to be for the duration of this year.

That probably sounds harsh, but I’m just being honest.

So, mental health.

I’m not going to lie, I’m definitely not the most mentally stable person out there. But I don’t think anyone holds that title.

Nobody has only good days, and that’s completely normal.

See, I have depression. And have had for a few years. People always tell me that I’m so strong and brave because I’m open about it but I really don’t get why I wouldn’t be.

I take my tablets, go to the odd counselling session every once in a while and take the bad days when they come because I know that regardless, there will be more good days than bad.

Depression is weird. It’s not really talked about much. It creeps up in so many different ways.

Sometimes you’re just really tired no matter how much you sleep, sometimes you can’t sleep at all no matter how hard you try, sometimes your brain is so foggy you can’t think clearly, sometimes you just can’t stop crying and sometimes, you just feel numb.

A lot of people don’t know they have depression until someone points it out. That’s what happened to me.

Depression is so much more than being sad. I want people to know that. It’s not talked about enough. Being distant, quiet, or even overbearing, and needing constant distractions from yourself. From your mind. People don’t talk about those parts.

Over the next few issues of SIN, I hope to write about my experiences with mental illness, some coping mechanisms I use, how I deal with my bad days and whatever else comes to my mind between now and then.

If you want me to cover anything in particular, drop me a DM on twitter @ellenodee123 Don’t be mean, remember your words have consequences and an impact on people. Don’t think that they don’t. Even if you’re behind a screen.

SIN Vol. 22 Issue 03

STAYCATION JUNKIE: South-West Donegal

By Ellen O’Donoghue Before anyone gets me started; I know we’re not permitted to travel outside our five kilometres right now. And won’t be for another few weeks, at least.

But I am blessed to not have to travel outside of my 5km for a lot of these activities, something I am extremely grateful for. South-West Donegal is among the most beautiful places in the country, if not on earth.

And my beautiful wee corner of the world only seemed to get the recognition it deserved from the Irish public once they were told they couldn’t go on their foreign holidays this year! There are countless things to get up to, and views to appreciate, if you need a break for a few days (when permitted, of course).

Also, unfortunately this is the kind of holiday you, or a friend, would need a car for. You’re going to be out in the sticks and there is no word of public transport to get by on these back roads.

Travel Junkie

By Maureen Breslin Travel has become a core component of who I am. Since I was seventeen, all I have wanted to do is venture out and see as much of the world as possible. It’s a constant itch that I can never seem to scratch enough. It always keeps me curious and wanting more with every new place that I go. Nothing has brought more joy, curiosity, learning, and passion to my life than exploring the world and I don’t mind any extremities in exchange for the experience. I have slept in cars, couches, 10 dollar hostels, and squished in hotel rooms on the floor. It doesn’t bother me, so long as I get to experience a new place, meet new people, learn about a different culture, and see for myself the world firsthand.

There are tricks to travelling on a budget if you are willing to be flexible. I come from Philadelphia, and to

To start out, I’d recommend getting an Airbnb for a few days- but booking early of course, because they have a tendency to be booked out well in advance in summer months!

If an Airbnb doesn’t suit, Ionad Siúl, a beautiful hostel in Glencolmcille, or Hegarty’s Sliabh Liag Lodge in Carrick are two lovely, affordable options if you feel like you don’t have enough people to fill an Airbnb!

Starting off in Kilcar, Muckross Head and Muckross Beach are two beautiful sights, the beach is popular among surfers and if the tide is out, you can walk over along the bottom rocks of Muckross Head. Depending on the season, you could stop off at Memory Lane Tea House for a lovely coffee and a snack too- or ice cream if it’s warm enough!

Heading in towards Glencolmcille, take the coast road and head to Teelin, where you can stop at the Salmon Leap to watch local catch-and-release fishermen to see if they can catch anything good. You can also enjoy great coffee from Brew in Thru there if you’d like!

From there, go on up to the majestic Sliabh Liag Cliffs, the highest accessible sea cliffs in Europe- higher than the Cliffs of Moher! If you’re the adventurous type, there are rock paths the entire way up for hikers to attempt too, but allocate 3-4 hours of your day for it and make sure there are no clouds looming because they have a tendency to drop as a fog quickly and you don’t want to get stuck!

If you want to see Sliabh Liag from a different perspective, go to Teelin Pier and visit Paddy at Sliabh Liag Boat Trips for a family friendly tour around the area from the water below, full of stories and legends that both young and old will enjoy, and you can also enjoy a swim in the vast expanses of the scenic Atlantic if you feel up to it! If there is a gang of you, you can also book out the boat for a few hours for just yourselves and enjoy a private tour.

If you’re feeling peckish after all of these activities, I have to recommend Kelly’s Kitchen at Hegarty’s in Carrick for a mean pint and a feed that will not leave you wanting more!

Heading in towards Glencolmcille now, you are really spoilt for choice. Driving down Cashel Hill the view is breathtaking, but make sure to watch for sheep on the road. Glencolmcille gives us the Folk Village which dons a magnificent insight into life as it was in the olden days, and the adjoining café does an amazing breakfast for a hangover too! Directly across from this is the stone map of Ireland and Glencolmcille beach, where you can bring a picnic to eat on the picnic tables if you’re balling on a budget. If that wasn’t enough, you can head over to An Cistin and get a reasonably priced tasty dinner and some top-class service on top of it.

Next up is the Silver Strand beach in Malin Beag, the most dramatic beach in Ireland. Donning a horse-shoe shape, with around 174 steps down to it, the workout is well worth the feeling of its soft sand on your feet when you make it down. The water is mesmerizing, and in my opinion, the best beach to swim at in the area.

If you’re not tired out after all of this, I’d recommend you take a trip to Port, an abandoned fishing village in the area. With soft, rounded stones instead of sand on its beach, the place is full of history and local heritage.

It speaks for itself.

I could go on, and maybe its because I’m biased. But South-West Donegal is up there with some of the most amazing places on earth. Just pray you get a sunny week to visit. It really is top class, if I do say so myself.

score good deals I keep my eye on flights from New York airports, which are only two hours away. There can also be great bargains from Washington or special prices for small flights out of tiny airports nearby, such as Atlantic City.

In Europe, budget carriers have even lower prices, making it easy to score a deal across international borders. That is, if you can make do with a backpack and your knees against the seat in front of you for a couple hours. To me, the discomfort is worth it and I will go in any capacity that I can afford. I simply want to get out there and see the world; it doesn’t matter how I arrived at my destination, just that I’m there.

I have been to five continents, twenty-two countries, and twenty-six US states and I have no plans on stopping there. Among my favorite places have been Tokyo, San Francisco, La Paz, Cairns,and of course, Galway!

Coronavirus may have dampened our ability to travel, but as I come from the United States, studying for my Master’s Degree here in Ireland is in itself an adventure.

Under Level 5 restrictions, the best thing to do for everyone’s health is to respect public guidelines.

However, when restrictions are eased, there are still many ways to experience the joys of traveling, even in the world of the coronavirus pandemic. There are so many special things to see, do, and experience in Ireland while still maintaining social distancing, wearing masks, keeping outdoors, and being safe.

While in full lockdown, the magic of travel doesn’t have to stop either. There is always some gold at the end of the rainbow, and planning for the days when we can travel again can help stay optimistic and give yourself hope with something to look forward to.

There are many television programmes on traveling, such as the popular Netflix show, Emily in Paris and Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown. These shows, and other similar ones, can help quench our thirst for travel while we wait to venture out safely again.

They can also help us plan for a trip in the future.

That way, when things are finally in the green once more, we can have a planned trip ready to go and get the travel industry, and our planes and trains, back in motion.

FAIS EAN

November 03 2020

7

NÓ S MAIRE ACHTÁLA

23

Homemade Oat Bars

By Ethne Tierney Bars are the ideal snack to take on the go. They are quick and easy to eat, they taste great and we can find apparently healthy alternatives in the shop. The problem is that for the size and nutritional value of them they are quite expensive -especially as a broke student! And although brands like Nature Valley taste good, there is always some kind of additive that is not necessarily good for our body included, along with refined sugars and cheap and dodgy oils. Not to mention that the packaging is not environmentally friendly at all.

To be as healthy as you can be while saving money, and the planet, you can make little changes on your everyday life. This week we have two different oat bar recipes that you will love. You can prep them on the weekend to eat them throughout the week.

Homemade Protein Bar INGREDIENTS: • 1 ½ cups of oats • 1 scoop of protein powder (chocolate recommended) • ½ cup of honey • ½ cup of peanut butter • 2 tsp of sugar free vanilla syrup, or essence • 2 tbsp of protein milk

• 3 tbsp of seeds of choice (we used some milled flax seeds, but chai, sunflower, pumpkin seeds or any other type will do!)

METHOD: 1. You can skip this step if you want to keep it simple, but we highly recommend that you put the oats at 170 °C for seven to ten minutes. This will bring out all the flavour of the starch and make your bars have a subtle toasted flavour.

2. In a big bowl, mix the oats, protein and seeds.

3. Put the peanut butter and honey into a container and microwave it for about thirty seconds. This will make it easier to combine them. Add the protein milk (we used Avonmore Vanilla Protein milk, but you can use any flavour you like) and the vanilla syrup or essence.

4. Pour the liquid mixture into the bowl with the dry ingredients and stir until it becomes a thick paste. Make sure not to add too many wet ingredients as this will make the bar soggy and it won’t have the correct consistency.

5. Put the paste in a flat container (a bake tray or some lunchboxes for example) and press it with the help of a big spoon or the bottom of a glass until it becomes very compact. This is very important for the bar to not be too crumbly and for it to have the right consistency.

6. You can put a few extra seeds on top of the base for decoration. Once that’s done, pop them in the freezer for 20 minutes to an hour.

7. Cut the paste into rectangular shapes and put them in an airtight container in the fridge.

! d e e N u o Y g n i th Every STUDENTS’ UNION

INGREDIENTS: • ½ cup of oats • ¼ cup of shredded coconut • ¼ cup of seeds of choice (we used chia seeds from Aldi) • ¼ cup of honey • ¼ cup of tahini (you can get it in most ethnic stores and supermarkets) • 2 tbsp of sugar free vanilla syrup/essence • Dark chocolate bar

METHOD: 1. Mix all the oats, seeds and shredded coconut in a big bowl.

2. In a different container, mix the tahini, honey,

vanilla syrup/ essence and heat in the microwave for about thirty seconds. Then stir until everything is combined.

3. Mix the wet and dry ingredients together until you get a thick paste.

4. Take the dark chocolate bar and chop it into little pieces so that they look like chocolate chips. Take half the chips and put them in your paste and stir.

5. Put the other half in the microwave for twenty seconds. Stir, and put them back in the microwave for another twenty seconds. Repeat the process until the chocolate is completely melted.

6. Put the oat paste in a flat container and press firmly with the help of a spoon so that the paste in compact. Pour the melted chocolate on top and spread it to create and even layer.

7. Pop it in the freezer for 20 minutes to an hour.

Enjoy!

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24 OPI NIO N

SIN Vol. 22 Issue 03

‘Anybody out There’: “Sit in front of your laptop, pay your Teaching in Lockdown €3000 fees, watch these videos, do your assignments, don’t see anyone and don’t complain about it.”

— The perils of online learning Dr Pádraig Lenihan, School of History and Philosophy

My personal reactions to teaching-at-adistance do not, I hope, sound whingey.

I’m getting paid, I’m out of the rain and no one is coughing or sneezing over me.

When we were told to lock up and go home back in March we were in the ninth week of a twelve week term so what remained was devising coursework assessment instead of essays, frantically scanning chapters for reading material to ‘put up’ on Blackboard and grading.

My preference for a hard copy and a biro isn’t just old fogeyism. Grading on a screen is wearying on eyes, neck and mouse arm, but paper is so much easier to count and keep track of essays so there are fewer mistakes.

I’m not sentimental about face-to face lectures. When they are bad they can be very bad. As a student many

some of the immediacy and, dare I say, variability of the lecture in a theatre. Ah theatre! That reminds me that a lecture is a performance that feeds of the energy of a live, present, audience.

As a ‘moderator’ of face-to-face tutorials and seminars I’ll try to kick-start a discussion of some problem that is relevant to the module maybe by posing a specific, targeted question from a document that the members of the group should have studied beforehand.

Everyone will look fixedly down at their notebook, laptop (displaying the class documents, you hope) or smartphone except for that mature student at the front. Then ask a question of one person and usually find that they’ve nailed the problem. Reluctance to speak in response to a general invitation is puzzling: Fear of looking foolish? Fear of seeming to show-off ? My point is that the face to face encounter demands social skill, emotional intelligence and

The face to face encounter demands social skill, emotional intelligence and ‘cop-on’. Push one student a bit harder? Back off and switch to someone else? The virtual encounter is one-dimensional, thin and rigid by comparison. I daren’t throw out a general question into the silence because I won’t know if my internet connection has crashed, your microphone isn’t working or no one wants to be the first to break the ice. years ago I made a false start in preMed and I will never forget a professor in, let’s say one of the core science subjects, happily conducting a mumbled conversation with the blackboard as he chalked up Greek letters and a diagram of a cylinder. On the other hand, to hear a skilled lecturer perform is an unforgettable experience.

It’s early days in autumn term but virtual lectures are not dauntingly difficult to set up. I favour robust and simple technology. It is easy to record, stop and ‘export’ to MP3 format on ‘Audacity’. I press record and don’t stop until the end because I haven’t worked out yet how to pause, to cut, or to edit. The result is an authentic sound that may include ringing telephones, my neighbour’s hedge-strimmer (she favours the ruthlessly pruned flat-top) or a barking dog. If I say the wrong word (I blurted ‘incest’ rather than ‘incense’ today when talking of Archbishop Laud) it can’t be unsaid. The recorded work may retain

‘cop-on’. Push one student a bit harder?

Back off and switch to someone else?

The virtual encounter is one-dimensional, thin and rigid by comparison.

I daren’t throw out a general question into the silence because I won’t know if my internet connection has crashed, your microphone isn’t working or no one wants to be the first to break the ice. And what is it about the general reluctance to switch on cameras unless the moderator makes an issue of it? I am veering towards a compromise that would let cameras stay switched off except for presentations. I really don’t know the cramped or crowded conditions that some students might have to work from.

That said, the habit of replying by typing into the ‘chat’ feature (something like WhatsApp) rather than speaking will be gently discouraged. The experience is already quite far enough removed from the real as it is.

But sure together we will make it as real as we can.

By Ellen O’Donoghue By the time this issue comes out, we’ll be into week 6 of our first ever fully online semester.

Halfway there. I’ll be six weeks into my first experience of online learning, because I was on work placement last year when the pandemic struck, and all went online.

This experience, for anybody, would be hard.

The uncertainty, the stress, the deadlines, the final year of college.

The most important year of my academic career to date.

And I’m doing it in the middle of a pandemic.

Love that for me.

In the beginning, I really thought that it was just me, that was struggling with the workload of final year, doing it from the spare bedroom in my home house in Donegal where I now reside. But I started talking to people and they feel the same. Even those who had done their final weeks of college last year online, said that they were struggling.

All arguments seem to be the same, and everybody seems to think that they’re the only one going through it.

I asked people, across all colleges and years in NUI Galway, to tell me how they’re doing, to see if it was just my course, just my final year of college, or just me struggling to get into the swing of things again.

This is what I got: “This online learning craic is so intense. They’re putting far too much pressure on us. Hopefully it eases off as the weeks go on (week 6 and it hasn’t).”

I feel as if some lecturers don’t realise how heavy some of the content is to get through. Some pre-recorded lectures are taking 2+ hours to get through when you factor in the extra stuff going along with them (videos, further reading etc.), which in isolation is okay but when it’s every week and more than one module does it, it really starts to add up. I don’t think it’s intentional, but I think work is being piled on us.

I feel like trying to make up for the lack of contact hours lecturers are piling on the work left, right, and centre.

I’m very fortunate that I have all live lectures, but I hear a lot of people are getting pre-recorded lectures which I don’t think is a great idea. I think to improve on these lecturers should be given a set number of hours. For instance, my lecturers have two-hour slots, so we get a full two-hour lecture. Not even ten minutes of a break.

We’re falling asleep after one hour never mind two! And then there’s piles of reading and pre lectures to watch before the live one? Please tell me how that makes sense!

I feel like lecturers are putting far too much of their content online which is putting a lot of stress and anxiety on students. I feel like some lecturers don’t realise we have other modules as well as theirs. Getting loads of blackboard notifications in the middle of the night doesn’t help things either. They are giving so much work it’s hard to keep up.

My course has moved online for the most part but they shoved all of our faceto-face learning so they can be done by the 20 October, and they did this by changing the timetables really fre-

quently. But you were penalised if you missed a face to face learning session because of the timetable change. I know someone who had to work when he had free time off on his timetable, and then the timetable switched so he had a session during his work, and he couldn’t go and was penalised for it. Along with this, the material we are doing is really heavy, but it’s just with the lack of any social interaction and having to study all day in our rooms, me and my friends have been finding it extremely hard to stay motivated and to have interest in the course anymore.

It’s not fair. That’s one thing that we can all take away from this year. None of this is fair.

Third-level students are being royally shafted right now and I am so sick of trying to explain this to people.

Teachers in schools can see their colleagues. Students can see their classmates. Construction workers can see their colleagues. Anybody who is working with anybody right now, or is in a different level of education, can see people and continue to grow socially because of this. Because it is important.

Third-level students can’t see anyone. Except their housemates, or family members if they’re living at home.

Here we are, simply being told no.

Sit in front of your laptop, pay your €3000 fees, watch these videos, do your assignments, don’t see anyone and don’t complain about it. Literally asking us to do exactly what they complained about something we were apparently always doing before. Instead of “get off your screen and talk to us”, it’s now “get on your screen and be quiet”.

Social interaction is one of the most important aspects of life, for growth and for mental wellbeing.

That’s what we grew up being told.

But now we’re grown, and we’re being told to go completely against it.

So, I hope this answers your question.

Has college this year been a more stressful experience than previous years?

Yes. Yes it has.

Give us a break, and for the love of God, don’t think we don’t deserve it.

Photo by jeshoots.com on Unsplash

TUAIRIM

November 03 2020

25

Body Shaming Online Is Still A Major Issue — And the Media Is Enabling It

By Róise Nic Dhonnagáin The body positivity movement has made huge strides over the years, leading to many breakthroughs, such as the more widespread use of plus-size models in advertising, and the normalization of body hair and stretch marks in print media. However, it seems that some people didn’t get the memo.

In the age of social media, we are all well aware

of the constant scrutiny that those in the public eye face daily. We’ve never had so much access to the lives of celebrities. Often, this means we can cross boundaries and make judgements on things that are none of our business. One such issue is the constant body shaming that so many face, particularly young women. From Love Island alumni, to global pop stars, no one’s body is safe from critiquing.

Take for example, twenty-one-year-old Molly Mae

Keeping fit at home: Student Edition

By Katie Barragry We’re back in lockdown. The gyms have closed, and many sports clubs have been suspended for the foreseeable future. What do we do now?

Over the last few months, many of us have learned how to adapt. We can do this! Here are a few tips and tricks in keeping fit while adhering to the new restrictions.

SET A TIME: Between online classes, assignments and work, you might find it difficult to squeeze exercise into your daily routine. Pick a time a few times a week and try to stick to it! Whether you prefer to work out early in the morning or late at night, establishing a routine will help you commit to getting your regular steps in.

GYM GEAR: Having nice gym gear can make the idea of exercise more appealing for some people. Whether you like colourful co-ords from Gymshark or GAA jerseys and shorts, pick something you feel comfortable in. Remember with sites such as Unidays, you can get student discounts on many online outlets including Asos, JD Sports and Sportdirect.

EQUIPMENT: You don’t need a fully equipped gym to keep fit. An exercise mat and a few weights can go a long way. Alternatively, use what you have at home for your home workouts, for example water bottles instead of dumbbells. Foam rollers, resistance bands

and weights are all readily available online.

WALKS AND RUNS: If you’re not already an avid walker or runner, you’re probably sick of people ranting about the value of getting out and about. Take half an hour to clear your head outside and choose a good playlist or podcast to keep you going.

YOUTUBE VIDEOS: Chances are you heard of Chloe Ting over lockdown. There are thousands of fitness videos on YouTube, catering for every ability. Whether you want a fun dance workout or a killer abs routine, make use of what YouTube has to offer, all in the comfort of your own sitting room.

APPS: Fitness apps like Shreddy, Nike Running Club and Map my Walk can be useful tools in mapping your daily exercise. There is a wide variety of apps available on the App Store with workout routines, pedometers, route mappers, meal plans and daily motivation.

WORKOUT BUDDY: A workout friend might be the motivation you need to get out and about. Having someone to cheer you on can help your progress significantly.

If you are exercising in groups, stay safe and make sure everyone adheres to social distancing guidelines.

FITNESS WATCH: If you’re the type of person who likes to track their progress, a Fitbit or an Apple Watch might be a good investment. Keeping track of your daily steps, number of calories burned, and distance covered might be the motivation you need to keep moving during lockdown.

Should gyms reopen? “We’ve taken every measure… it’s really a kick in the teeth”-says gym owner.

By Oisín Bradley Under the current level-5 Covid-19 guidelines laid out by the government at the end of October, gyms are deemed non-essential businesses along with the likes of barbers and clothing stores. They therefore required to shut their doors until December 1st There have been many who flocked to praise the government’s decision to close gyms across the country as part of their new lockdown restrictions to combat Covid-19. That said, it is a regulation which splits many and polarises opinion, with a significant degree of the population advocating for gyms to remain open.

Many gym owners believe that gyms are essential and thus should be remaining open. Speaking to SIN, one gym owner expressed their disappointment at the decision announced last week.

The impact that the closure as had on the sector was described as ‘hard to take’ by the gym owner, especially considering the stringent measures put in place to ensure the safety of their clients.

“For ourselves it’s hard to take, we’ve taken every measure we can to make sure we’re safe enough to keep ourselves open and it’s really a kick in the teeth

when we’ve worked so hard.

“We’ve went above and beyond with the technology and the cost we’ve put in to make it as safe as possible for everyone we have in for our classes, and it’s tough to take this news.”

They also believe that should gyms close, it will have a truly terrible impact on the health system.

“At all times, but especially at times like we’re in now, the mental and physical health of people is extremely important, and gyms like ourselves play a big part in that. If we close, it’s going to be really hard for people to keep themselves well.”

The gym in question has gone to extreme lengths to protect its users and patrons, spraying down all surfaces after each session and implementing the correct track-and-trace procedures and putting an increased emphasis on in class sessions. They also adopted a ‘no towel, no train policy’ in an attempt to limit the risk of spreading Covid-19.

“In our gym, we had implemented a ‘no-towel, notrain’ policy to ensure that people would bring sweat towels in with them. As well as that, we’ve tried to shift our emphasis to classes so people are in at dedicated times and stay at certain stations.”

Hague, a former Love Island contestant who made headlines in July for wearing a bikini. Yes, you read that right. After snapping some not-so flattering pictures of the star while on holiday, the Daily Mail went on to dedicate a whole article to her outing. Many comments were left on this article, with some people saying that Hague looked “average at best” and that she “reminds me of a pig”, and others advising her to “hit the gym”. The Daily Mail is infamous for its constant commentary on women’s bodies and, unsurprisingly has made no effort to prevent people from further harassing these women in their comment sections.

Another young woman whose body came under critique online recently is eighteen-year-old popstar Billie Eilish. The singer has often claimed in the past that she purposely dresses in oversized clothing so that people are unable to pass judgement on her body, saying, “Nobody can have an opinion because they haven’t seen what’s underneath.” However, when paparazzi pictures were released of Eilish in a more form-fitting outfit than usual, people were quick to take to Twitter with varying opinions on her physique. One user’s tweet went viral when he claimed that: “In ten months Billie Eilish has developed a mid-30’s wine mom body.” The author of the tweet has since gloated that despite the offending statement being mass reported, his tweet has remained on the platform.

Body shaming on the internet is far from uncommon, but what is incredibly concerning is the disregard media platforms have for this kind of harassment. Women in the public eye are expected to develop a thick skin and rise above the constant criticism their bodies are subjected to. Molly-Mae Hague recently responded to a question regarding the online hate she receives saying, “I receive that many [hate comments] that I’m genuinely emotionless to them now.”

However, it is clear that the criticism does indeed take its toll with many women, including Hague, resorting to surgical enhancements and procedures to rid them of any ‘imperfections’ they may have. And yet when these women take matters into their own hands, by either altering online images or opting for surgical procedures, so they can achieve the beauty standard demanded of them, they receive even further ridicule, being labelled as ‘fake’ and ‘unnatural’.

In this day and age, why are we still so obsessed with women’s weight and how they look? Quite frankly, it is none of our business. Whether someone is on the smaller or larger side, as long as they’re happy and healthy, nothing else matters – and that goes for both celebrities and the general public.

Women in the public eye may seem unattainable and completely separate to us, which in many cases they are, but they are still human. And no human deserves to have their body subjected to public trial.

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26 OPI NIO N

SIN Vol. 22 Issue 03

‘Do you want to be on my Private Story?!’

By Matthew Geraghty Listen up over 25s or those just not in the know- sorry for being ageist

but its probably true that you haven’t yet heard of the phenomenon of the private story or ‘finsta’. This is the new social media trend that’s sweep-

ing the nation, and has been for some time now, and no one seems to be writing about it.

The private story was a function

The private story or ‘finsta’ as its Instagram iteration is known, is the antithesis of what traditional social media has become. There is a huge irony in that people are over-sharing on social media through private stories as a release from over-sharing and critique on their public social media profiles, but the type of over-sharing done on private stories is quite different.

NOVEMBER

CHARITY

e g n e l l a h CKilometre

created by photo-communications app Snapchat in May 2017, which allowed users to create a new type of story (the function that allows you to share an image or video with all of your friends on the app). This is the Private Story. A feature which allows users to create a custom story with friends of their choosing, meaning not the entirety of their contacts list can see it. Users typically share a less edited version of their life on their private story than the one on their ‘public’ story or Instagram account.

People use private stories to share fun, personal moments with those closest to them.

The private story function has really taken off with young people in Ireland. Nowadays if you’re not added to someone’s private story it’s a sign that you’re not as close with them as you thought. Being added to someone’s private story, or ‘priv’ for short, is an acknowledgment that you’re an ally, someone to be trusted, someone they will let see their most embarrassing moments, because private stories are where the youth of Ireland are being the most authentic, unedited and fun versions of themselves.

Figures haven’t been published on this topic yet, but trust me when I tell you that the vast majority of young people have a private story for their closest friends to witness their best moments- in the way they really happened, not how the highlight reel on Instagram portrays them to have happened.

But why the rise of the private story, and why now?

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It’s because young people have become sick and tired of social media’s toxicity. And how do you get over a social media overload? ...

Share more, of course!!

Alas, not in the way you think.

Teenagers are tired of comparing how many followers they have to their friends, how many people wished them a happy birthday on Insta stories compared to how many well-wishes a friend got, having to comment ‘you look fab’ on an acquaintance’s latest post because you are afraid you might get a bitchy stare if you don’t, spending a day coming up with a quirky enough caption and then selecting a good enough picture which is a minefield all by itself.

The private story or ‘finsta’ as its Instagram iteration is known, is the antithesis of what traditional social media has become. There is a huge irony in that people are over-sharing on social media through private stories as a release from over-sharing and critique on their public social media profiles, but the type of oversharing done on private stories is quite different.

People share their real selves, as they are doing so in front of people they have chosen to view the story, they are posting to people they are comfortable around. They are posting their honest thoughts on topics, knowing it’s just their friends who are going

to see it and therefore not having to take every single possible backlash to an opinion into consideration before posting it. They share the moments that are simply too outrageous for mainstream social media accounts with a couple of hundred followers.

They share their authentic selves, maybe complaining about how tough it is to get study done, while on the same person’s Instagram or Facebook account you are more likely to find the post-exam night out pics. On a private story someone may post a funny cooking disaster whereas on their ‘public’ snapchat story they’ll share the finished version of the same meal, structuring the meal around the plate so that it looks optimal for pictures and by the time you sit down to eat, it has gone cold and has lost it’s flavour.

Maybe the private story is more in line with what Zuckerberg, Dorsey and co had originally intended for social media to become. A means in which to keep in contact with friends in a way not to be taken too seriously- rather than the weapon it has actually become in 2020.

More and more young people are seeing social media as a safer place since the birth of the private story as it is reassuring them that everyone is not as put together as they make their Instagram account seem. At the end of the day it is more refreshing to log on and see your mate post a funny rant about something irrelevant, or a video of them singing along to a cheesy mid-2000s hit with their friends, than seeing a video of a group of classmates humble-bragging by posting about their trip to the coolest restaurant in town.

TUAIRIM

November 03 2020

27

Return to lockdown is devastating but virus has to be quelled

By Darragh Nolan Let’s make no secret of it; lockdown is torturous.

We all experienced first-hand the struggle of being confined to the house with no social outlets. We spent months away from friends and loved ones and we watched as Covid-19 ravaged society and did untold damage to the lives of millions.

It’s ok to feel personal loss while staring down the barrel of six weeks of the toughest restrictions.

2020 has been the toughest year many of us have or ever will live through. People need social contact, normality, things to do beyond the confines of deskwork and Netflix.

Lockdown life is utterly soul-destroying and going back to it is devastating. That’s no excuse to continue on the trajectory we found ourselves on. Cases of the virus are soaring, and our health service was bound to become overwhelmed without a move to Level 5.

With 1,200 daily coronavirus cases becoming the norm and NPHET projecting that number would

rise to 2,000 per day unless Level 5 was swiftly implemented, there’s no legitimate argument against some form of tight restrictions.

The return to conditions similar to April and May will admittedly do untold damage to businesses and livelihoods across the country. The balancing act between the health of the nation and the health of the economy is a decision our country should never have to make. But in that scenario, the health of people must come first.

This virus has infected tens of thousands of Irish people and claimed over 1,800 lives at the time of writing. Lockdown brings recession the likes of which wasn’t seen even during the financial crisis of the late noughties. But recessions we can recover from. Economies can and will be revived. People on the other hand, only get one crack at this. And there’s no coming back for anyone who has lost their life to Covid.

For now, a return to what is effectively another lockdown is the right call. Indeed, it’s the only call given the circumstances. That is not to say the cycle

Recessions we can recover from. Economies can and will be revived. People on the other hand, only get one crack at this. And there’s no coming back for anyone who has lost their life to Covid.

Could the money given to students in budget 2021 be used in a better way?

By Darren Casserly Opinion Editor Recently, it was announced that in the 2021 budget, every third-level student would be given 250 euro to help with college expenses. This plan would cost around 50 million euro for the government, and while it will be greatly appreciated by the vast majority of people, is there a better way to help students with the 50 million euro?

The first thing that comes to my mind when thinking of alternative uses for the money would be to put it to the emergency relief fund for the students who need it the most. Lets’ be honest for a second, while very few students have any kind of sizable amount of money at their disposal, there is a percentage whose college enrolment depends of some kind of emergency relief in order to get by and putting an extra 50 million in the fund it will undoubtably have a huge impact on people and see some kind of a drop in the dropout rate in college.

Another use that comes to mind that would be a little more unrealistic, would be putting the money into building student accommodation around the country. While the problems with accommodation were softened this year thanks to this current pandemic, it will be a problem that will creep up again next year. There are areas around the country like Galway, Limerick and Cork where accommodation can be hard to come by, and Dublin is already far past capacity. Extra accommodation would lower

rent across the board not just for students. It would also mean that the dreaded digs will no longer be the norm. Unfortunately, no one wants to have students living anywhere near them and planning permission would be a nightmare, it would be mean that the 250 euro every student is getting would stretch a lot further, even if not every student can avail of it.

The last alternative use I’m going to discuss is using the money to lower the cost of tuition for students. This would mean that money wouldn’t be such a problem for anyone even thinking of enrolling in college. The cost of tuition has been a problem for students for years leading to Ireland being one of the most expensive countries in the EU to go to attend college in, and it is high time the government stem the tide of rising cost for students.

The 250 euro is a start, but that’s all it is, it’s getting harder and harder for students to pay their way through college and more people are beginning to question if college is worth it. We need people going to college to improve as a country, and while there are alternative uses for this money, what will be important is long-term support from the government so that everyone can go to college and let it be their focus, rather than letting people worry how much longer they can pay for their education because education should be a right and not something anyone should have to fight tooth and nail over to attain.

we find ourselves is in the best way forward. The government can’t sustain reducing cases with a lockdown, seeing numbers rise again after re-opening and follow it with another lockdown.

That is what we need at the moment. In the future there must be a plan put in place to ensure

Photo: Cork Beo

we safely maintain an open society. People simply will not cope with a constant back-and-forth from one level to another. By making sure lockdown doesn’t become necessary for a third time, we can put businesses and the economy on the road to recovery.

Health is at the core of the fight against Covid-19. Public health, mental health, economic health.

Level 5 is the best way to protect all of those things in the longterm. Beyond the six weeks of strict measures, the government must implement a strategy that allows people, businesses and services to break this cycle and beat this virus for good.

There is an end goal here if we follow the rules. It’s on the government to lead us the rest of the way. If the last few months have shown us anything, it’s that reduced numbers don’t mean that we’re out of the woods.

"WHAT ARE THE SDGS?" UN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS

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28 SPORT

SIN Vol. 22 Issue 03

SIN speaks to Mark Tighe, co-author of the book that tells the tale of John Delaney’s demise.

Paddy Henry Editor.sin@gmail.com It was November 2004, FAI CEO Fran Rooney had stormed out of the organisation’s Abbotstown offices with a six-figure severance package in his back pocket, ‘My Prerogative’ by Brittney Spears was top of the Irish charts, and Brian Kerr was the man whom the Irish football faithful had trusted to bring the glory days back.

Waiting in the wings was John Delaney, a no-nonsense, business like straight talker who had made a name for himself as a media darling during the Saipan debacle of 2002.

What was to ensue over the intervening decade and a half was a reign of deceit, corruption and costly failings, leading to the near collapse of the institution charged with running one of the nation’s most popular sports.

Sunday Times journalist and former NUI Galway student Mark Tighe was instrumental in the toppling of Delaney, who left the FAI in disgrace in September 2019, exposing the Waterford man’s dodgy dealings and bringing the topic of corruption in Irish football to the top of public conversation.

Mark sat down with SIN to discuss his bestselling, tell-all book, ‘Champagne Football’, which offers a deep dive into the Delaney administration documenting the mad, bad and downright bizarre of the Delaney era.

Looking back at Delaney’s rise to prominence, Tighe recalls viewing the man with a degree of fondness, seeing the Waterford man as a move away from the amateurish leadership of the FAI hat defined previous generations, “The 2002 World Cup was probably the first I heard of him, I was a student in DCU at the time and was aghast that Roy Keane had walked out or sent home by Mick McCarthy from that World Cup, our best player I’m a big football fan myself and John Delaney would have really came into prominence then, it’s the first time I would have seen him, I would have had a vague recollection of the night of the long knives, this thing where his father was thrown out of the FAI back in 1996, a few years after the 1994 World Cup. “I was in college in NUI Galway in 2005/2006 doing my masters in Journalism and Delaney had just been a year in the job at that stage and initially you could see in the media coverage at the

time and there was a general consensus among a lot of people, among football people and administrators that this guy is what we need, he’s steeped in football, he’s an accountant by trade, he’s got business experience , he’s going to professionalise what had been described as an exploding clown car of an organisation where the amateur blazers kind of ran the roost and the professionalism hadn’t really seeped through in terms of how it was run.”

“He very much said I’m going to bring in these reforms post Saipan and this thing called the Genesis Report. He ensured that the players were very well treated by and large which was something that hadn’t taken place previously where you had players down the back in steerage and the honorary people would have been getting all the executive travel. So he did swap that around, he brought in some good things so initially my first impression from just following the media was that this guy was going to be good, he knows football but he also professional. “

“I was kind of excited and second guessing it at the same time, as a journalist you have to be cynical, you have to have that fear that something may not be genuine, but on that March 1st I made a lot of enquiries straight away and nobody was telling me that this was a fraudulent thing. The reaction was very much that you’ve gotten something from inside here. There’s a family law connection so straight away after all those inquiries with the FAI Press Office with Delaney’s solicitor and the FAI directly my hunch was that this was genuine and we couldn’t see if it was declared in the company accounts so we suspected that we had found that first chink.”, he said.

“There hadn’t been leaks from the FAI for many many years but there was also suspicion that there was huge problems with their finances so I was excited and I thought it was a substantial tip so as we pursued it we were quite excited , we didn’t quite know what we had but we thought it was the start of something, we didn’t know what, we didn’t expect all hell to break loose like it did , but then suddenly when Delaney was taking us down to the High Court and trying to injunct us on that St Patricks Day we knew that he had a fear about this, and he could see that there could be a lot of consequences if this saw the light of day so that became a huge moment to win that court case.

As time passed on however it became clear to many that all was not as it seemed at the FAI... As the axe fell of footballing demagogues Delaney could not fashion an escape. It look a letter sent to The Sunday Times, containing a photocopied cheque for €100,000 between Delaney and his employers for the can of worms to truly open.

As time passed on however it became clear to many that all was not as it seemed at the FAI. Football administrative bodies had been steeped in controversy throughout the Delaney era, from Blatter’s FIFA to Platini’s UEFA the rot of corruption began to make its way into the public consciousness. As the axe fell of footballing demagogues Delaney could not fashion an escape. It look a letter sent to The Sunday Times, containing a photocopied cheque for €100,000 between Delaney and his employers for the can of worms to truly open. Donegal man Tighe recalls his initial excitement reaction to the astonishing find.

What came out of those initial findings led to the eventual toppling of Delaney’s house of cards. The reports made for grim reading. New FAI accounts had to be filed to give a true assessment of the organisation’s financial affairs under Delaney.

The new accounts revealed an organisation in financial peril, with liabilities of over €55 million. Delaney’s use of the FAI’s finances to fund personal luxuries was also revealed, Mark remained gobsmacked throughout with every revolution as surprising as the next.

“It was all surprising, even as I say when a whistle-blower contacted me

on the day that the story came out and I met them on the Monday, even the stuff they told me on the rent for Delaney and the credit card use and abuse and the other issues that led us on to the Susan Keegan story, I was gobsmacked, It was jaw-dropping stuff. To use FAI funds for your girlfriend or to use it on petty stuff repeatedly and all that cash withdrawals, that was just jaw-dropping!

“Even after all that and after all the madness with SportsDirect, the €6.5 million that was a loan and not a sponsorship, even after all that and the Con Martin money for the John Giles Foundation, even after all those Jaw-dropping stories to walk in in December and to get the new accounts and to show how bad it was it again we were all flabbergasted, and we were all thinking, Jesus, this keeps getting worse! So many times over that year I was just dumbstruck by what had happened and what we were uncovering and what was true and what had been hidden for so many years. Even since the book has come out, I’ve had people contacting me saying there’s other stories there, but there is so much there still.”

While never moving the focus of blame away from Delaney, Mark acknowledges that other actors were at play throughout the Delaney regime.

Weak board members that allowed Delaney to rule with an iron fist and de-facto watchdogs such as the Press and Sport Ireland failed to act early enough.

“He was using the FAI’s credit card for substantial personal expenditure on stuff like Limousines, VIP airport facilities, Jewellery, Duty-Free, takeaways, Executive Dry-Cleaning so that’s petty kind of stuff but you also had larger stuff like where he was using the FAI’s resources to finance defamation cases and then he would keep all the ‘winnings’ on the settlements and there was more extraordinary payments we unearthed such as payments to his ex-girlfriend Susan Keegan. There’s only a limit to the amount of blame you can apportion to other people for that. But there’s definitely blame that people like John O’Regan down in Kerry would say who did a big splurge on Delaney that other people in the FAI failed in their jobs to police him, be it the finance department or the FAI Board and especially the people in the positions of Honorary Treasurer and Secretary and whoever the President or Chairman of the day was, they all had a responsibility to oversee what was happening with their Chief Executive and what he was doing with the FAI’s money, and then as well there were the politicians and the media and Sport Ireland who all had watchdog roles to an extent and we all could have looked harder and pushed harder before 2019.”he concluded.

‘Champagne Football: The Rise and Fall of John Delaney and the Football Association of Ireland’ by Mark Tighe and Paul Rowan is available online and at all good book shops,

SPÓIRT

November 03 2020

“It’s great to be able to row in behind each other.”

European Under-23 Rowing Champion Clíodhna Nolan talks to SIN on her recent success, NUIG Rowing Club and balancing both college and Olympic Qualification.

By Oisín Bradley Sports editor sports.sined@gmail.com NUIG student Clíodhna Nolan was to the fore at the European Under-23 Rowing championships in early September, as she powered to victory at the finals along with fellow Irishwoman Lydia Healey in Duisberg.

Speaking to SIN, Carlow native Nolan reflected on the achievement in a race in which they smashed the previous world record for the distance, and how she felt that it was due reward for the training during lockdown.

“It was brilliant to do so well. It had been such a strange year after spending months training in lockdown, so we were delighted to even have a race at all.

We were so happy with even being able to race, so being able to win was something else, even on top of that.”

Nolan, who is studying Biomedical Science, remarked on how impressive the achievement was considering their relative inexperience in the Under-23 Lightweight Pairs event.

“It wasn’t a category that we would usually row in, but we took a chance with only having six weeks to prepare in that crew and in that boat. We had been going well in training and we surprised ourselves, and all things considered we were over the moon to get the win.

“It was fantastic both for the club and everyone around us to have something positive to take from the last few months.”

The academic year of 2020/21 will prove to be a challenging one for Nolan, who looks to balance the final year of her degree with the rigorous demands of trying to qualify for the Olympics in 2021.

She had pushed her final year back by a year last year in order to solely concentrate on her Olympic preparations, however Covid-19 scuppered those plans, and now Nolan has to juggle college life and being an elite athlete.

Despite those challenges, Nolan is raring to take on the challenge.

“Because last year was an Olympic qualification year, I was asked to take the year out and move down to Cork in order to train full-time. I moved down there for the year and obviously had no commitments to study or anything like that.

“I’ll be going through all the same trials and everything, but this year I’ll be in NUIG. It’ll be different, but it’ll be good to have different things to focus on, especially at the moment as a distraction from the training when there’s not much else to do at home!

Nolan is part of a group of four who are vying for qualification, and believes that the fact that the Tokyo Olympics was knocked back to next year could actually be beneficial.

The Irish Rugby Football Union have developed an online course for anyone interested in becoming a referee.

Speaking on the new course, IRFU Referee Development and Education Manager for Connacht Peter Fitzgibbon has said, “Starting off this should be something you should be enjoying, refereeing can take you anywhere if you have the ability, talent and commitment”.

To start your journey as a rugby referee you

first need to contact Peter Fitzgibbon on peter. fitzgibbon@irfu.ie to be given a link to complete an online training module, followed up by an Induction over Zoom with Peter and other mentors. During this meeting, you can also meet new referees who are partaking in the course.

Following from this, you become a trial member of the provincial referee association, where you can take part in online workshops to develop a better understanding on how to referee, before stepping onto the pitch as a touch judge to gain experience in the game. Following on from this, students will

Former NUI Galway student on brink of 6 Nations success Paddy Henry

“The four of us are all quite young, so we were more than happy to give it another year to try and qualify and prepare for the Olympics.

“At the moment I’m happy enough with the balance between studying and training.”

Nolan has been heavily involved with the college’s rowing club from the moment she walked through the door, however this year has justly decided to take a back seat in the committee.

Despite this, she believes that the club is in the safest of hands to flourish and develop as she sets her sights on the bright lights of Tokyo.

“For the past few years, I have been involved in the NUIG club. In my first year I was a first-year representative on the committee. In second year, I was the vice-captain and my brother Oisín was captain.

It definitely taught me a lot about the club and what was needed to be involved in such a club and the amount of work that actually goes in to running it.”

“Last year, I was on the committee as a health and safety officer, but this year I’ve decided to take a step back.”

The friends which Nolan had made while involved in the club on the banks of the Corrib is clear in how she talks about the club, and per the European champion, it’s a camaraderie she wants everyone to share in.

“I think the sense of friendship and camaraderie in all of our training is a big part of what makes us good. We train as one club: the men and women train together, and it’s excellent in a college setting having both clubs train together.

“There’s a great mix of about 40 men and 40 women, to have everyone alongside each other both in the boats and in the gyms. In the disciplined training it’s great to be able to row in behind each other.”

Online IRFU Referee Course Now Available with Connacht Rugby

By Louise Toal

29

be stepping into the referee role in the lower grade age matches. A mentor will be appointed to you and will give you pointers before, at half time and after the match.

Peter says, “After two or three matches you’ll find it’s not as daunting as you thought. After each match a report card of your performance is given by your mentor to improve on for the next match.”

Peter also adds that you have the option to referee both locally in your community or at an international playing field and that all travel expenses will be covered.

Former NUI Galway student, and Ireland back Robbie Henshaw is on the brink of securing another 6 nations winner’s medal.

A bonus-point win against France in Paris will be enough to ensure that Andy Farrell’s side reign supreme in the Championship, which was paused in February owing to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Henshaw, a former Arts student at NUIG was on the bench for his side’s Italian Job last weekend, where they put a half century past the hapless Azzurri at the AVIVA. He looks set to start at centre for the men in green at the Stade de France in place of Garry Ringrose.

A bonus point victory would see Athlone man Henshaw secure his third 6 Nations winners medal and the 27-yearold’s first since 2018.

The former Connacht man has featured in all four of his side’s fixtures in the campaign to date, scoring once in Ireland’s only defeat so far, a bruising 24-12 loss to England at Twickenham back in February.

There will be a strong Connacht contingent on show for the Saturday showdown with Bundee Aki set to start alongside Henshaw at centre, while Ultan Dillane, Dave Heffernan, Finlay Bealham are named among the replacements.

While a win with four tries will guarantee Henshaw and Ireland the 6 Nations crown, a lower scoring game could also secure Andy Farrell his first championship in his debut season at the helm.

His side are ahead of England on points difference, by a margin of 23, but with the last year’s Rugby World Cup Runner’s-up due to face an Italian side without a win in the tournament for five years, anything other than an English rout in Rome seems out of the question.

France for their part could yet break Irish hearts in the city of love and can stake a claim of their own for their first 6 Nations crown since 2010. Les Blues sit third in the table as it stands and Fabien Galthie’s men would need a bonus point victory against Ireland on their home patch to stand any chance of success on ‘Super Saturday’. Even if they pull that off, they would need to better England’s result against Italy by more than three points, which given the calibre of each side’s opposition seems unlikely.

30 SPORT

SIN Vol. 22 Issue 03

Last gasp students sink Galway Peamount power Galway United 2-2 UCD

By Oisín Bradley at Eamonn Deacy Park Evan Weir’s brace in the final ten minutes was enough to break Galway hearts and seemingly scupper their promotion hopes in the penultimate fixture of the First Division season. Play-Off hopefuls The result had seen Galway crash out of promotion contention. However, following a successful appeal by Wexford Youths for fielding an ineligible player, Cabinteely slipped out of the play-off spots, to the delight of John Caulfield’s side.

As the clock ticked into the dying seconds, it seemed that Stephen Christopher’s 42nd-minute strike would be enough to put John Caulfield’s men into the play-off spots, however Weir’s 81st-minute poacher’s goal and last-gasp screamer flipped the tie on its head.

Results elsewhere went United’s way, and had they held on in the final ten minutes, it would have been them, not Longford Town finishing in fourth place and heading to the UCD Bowl this weekend.

Both sides made two changes from their last fixtures. In the Galway side, Wilson Waweru and Stephen Christopher were brought in in place of Timmy Molloy and Enda Curran for the hosts, while the men from Belfield had Jack Kearns and Michael Gallagher making way from their recent 5-1 thrashing of Cabinteely. Paul Doyle and Eoin Farrell were the fresh faces introduced by Andy Myler.

The first half was one of few chances, as opportunities to ripple the net were at a premium for both sides. That said, the hosts were putting more pressure on the students.

Galway always looked more dangerous coming down the left flank via Shane Doherty, and were consistent in putting pressure on the UCD defence from placed balls. However, in the opening 30 the Dublin outfit coped well with any chances that fell their way.

In contrast to Galway, UCD offered very little offensively and barring a dan-

gerous free-kick only 20 yards out, had few chances to ripple Kevin Horgan’s net.

Eleven minutes in, Mikey Place found himself in possession just inside the box.

The ex-Finn Harps man produced an inch-perfect chance which looked destined for the bottom corner, however Paul Doyle produced last-ditch heroics to thwart Place and deflect behind.

Shane Doherty was causing serious headaches to the UCD rear-guard, driving down the flank and asking big questions of the full-back. Doherty fired a dangerous ball across the box 18 minutes in, but the ball was marginally behind Wilson Waweru as it sailed across the box.

Whilst the away side were struggling to offer any penetration, they would be the ones to force a save first with 36 minutes on the clock. Colm Whelan was played a precise through ball by Liam Kerrigan to send him on his way.

Whelan did well to turn Galway defender Killian Brouder and get a powerful shot off, it was a shot which was too central to cause any real issues for shot-stopper Kevin Horgan.

Whelan was causing all sorts of quandaries in the Galway box moments later as he turned the defence inside out. The shot was once again tame from the man in sky blue, who just couldn’t provide the crucial finishing touch.

With four minutes to half time, dangerman Doherty raced away and produced an excellent effort, and Lorcan Healy had to be at his best between the UCD posts to get low and tip the ball behind.

A minute later the pressure told, and Andy Myler’s charges caved. A corner produced what could only be described as pinball in the box, and when the ball fell to Stephen Christopher on the edge of the area, he did well to latch onto the ball and fire past an all at sea UCD defence and edge in front before the second half.

Galway sat back after the break and looked to soak up the UCD pressure, and in truth you could see in the visitor’s style of play that they were secure in their position in the playoff places.

It took thirty minutes for the first real chance of act two to rear its head. Paul Doyle cut inside from the right flank before unleashing a curling effort which beat the outstretched glove of Horgan.

Unfortunately for UCD, it creeped just wide of the post.

81 minutes in, the first real hammer blow to Galway’s promotion hopes came via the left boot of Evan Weir. Harry McEvoy’s cross from deep on the right flank was high and looping, and Weir drifted in at the far post to draw blood with a deft first-time strike.

John Caulfield rang the changes after the UCD goal, with Francely Lomboto, Conor Barry and last weekend’s hero Carlton Ubaezuonu looking to make themselves the heroes of the hour.

There was little that anyone could do about Weir’s sumptuous 89th-minute free-kick however. Weir was 35 metres out, but his free-kick was truly unstoppable, dipping under the crossbar just in time to ripple the net and leave the hosts at the base of a mountain.

Despite the seemingly impossible task at hand, Galway steadfastly refused to give up the ghost. Their persistence paid off, when Shane Duggan produced a thunderous strike from 30 yards out which nestled perfectly into the top corner. Despite this, it proved to be too little too late, and Tribesmen will be left to wonder what might have been.

Galway United face Longford Town in the First Division Play-Off Final at the UCD bowl on Friday 6th November, Kick-Off 7.45 pm.

Galway United: Kevin Horgan, Jack Lynch(Timmy Molloy 45+1’), Marc Ludden, Killian Brouder, Maurice Nugent, Shane Duggan, Mikey Place(Carlton Ubaezuonu 67’), Shane Doherty(Vinny Faherty 85’), Stephen Christopher(Conor Barry 85’), Sam Warde, Wilson Waweru(Francely Lomboto 85’).

UCD: Lorcan Healy, Harry McEvoy, Josh Colins, Luke Boore, Liam Kerrigan, Yoyo Nahdy, Colm Whelan, Mark Dignam(Dara Keane 61’), Paul Doyle, Evan Weir, Eoin Farrell.

Referee: Mark Moynihan.

Photo: Oisín Bradley

past Galway in opening fixture Galway WFC 0-2 Peamount FC

Photo: Oisín Bradley

By Oisín Bradley Sports Editor Goals from Aine O’Gorman and Lucy McCartan mean Galway WFC will head into matchday two of the Second Phase of the Wpmen’s National League without a win to their name after their defeat to Peamount at Eamonn Deacy Park.

In truth it was a game in which Peamount’s quality told, and whilst the hosts battled hard, the International quality in Peamount’s ranks was clear on the pitch. O’Gorman’s header in the opening half edged the Dublin side ahead, before McCartan’s shot on goal in the dying moments doubled the deficit and sealed the result.

Galway made one change to the starting eleven that swept aside Cork in their previous outing, with Chloe Singleton replacing Aoife Walsh, while the Peas had three different players from their starting side against DLR Waves.

Opportunities to break the deadlock were light on the ground early on, and Peamount probably had the clearer of the chances, when Alannah McEvoy fed Niamh Farrelly in the centre. Farrelly shot early, but the host’s defence acted quickly to smother the attempt.

The girls in maroon had the game’s first real moment ten minutes in, when a sumptuous chipped delivery from Savannah McCarthy unlocked the defence and set Aoife Thompson bearing down on Niamh Reid-Burke’s goal.

Thompson’s shot was ultimately tame, and Reid-Burke held it with little fuss.

Ten minutes later, it was Galway goalkeeper, Amanda Budden who was called into action. An attempted Galway clearance was smartly blocked and the ball fell to O’Gorman outside the box. The Peamount skipper produced a finelystruck shot curling for the far post, but Budden’s fine diving save pushed the ball behind the post.

There was little the keeper could do about the resulting corner however, and O’Gorman displayed strong aerial prowess to leap highest and head home to edge her charges ahead.

Billy Clery’s women were spurred on by conceding, and for the remainder of the half they were the ones pushing the visitors from Greenogue. 39 minutes in, Lynsey McKey tested Reid-Burke’s reflexes with a low-driven shot to the near corner. The ‘keeper reacted well to get a hand to the effort.

Two minutes later, Chloe Singleton’s cross looked like it would be dipping below the crossbar, however it just grazed the bar and went out. Just after, Jaime Turrentine tried her luck with a shot from deep which just went past the left post.

Galway manager Billy Clery rang the changes as the clock ticked past the hour mark, with three substitutions to try and turn the tide about 15 minutes. However, the Terryland outfit struggled to offer any penetration to a rearguard which was watertight.

Peamount mustered the first proper attempt of the second half when Karen Duggan found the ball at her feet in the 67th minute. Her shot contained a good deal of power, however the accuracy was marginally off as the shot inched over the bar.

There were lengthy delays due to clashes of heads midway through the half, and Galway found their groove after that. Substitute Elle O’Flaherty caused headaches for the Peas centreback pairing as she raced into the box, and her daisy-cutter of a shot was agonisingly close as it rolled wide at the far post.

A Lynsey McKey cross in the 75th minute was near-perfect, but no Galway attacker could manage to get purchase on the ball and it sailed across the goal.

The crucial goal which sunk the host’s hopes of an opening-day result came ten minutes from time. A fine cross found the feet of Lucy McCartan, who placed the ball expertly to leave the hosts with a mountain to climb.

The league leaders pushed hard to make it three as the clock ticked into the red, and peppered Budden’s goal with chances, however every attempt was frantically scrambled clear. By the time Bartley Folan’s final whistle shrilled, there was a clear winner, and James O’Callaghan will be satisfied with an assured performance as he heads back along the M6.

Galway WFC: Amanda Budden, Therese Kinnevey (Tessa Mullins 60’), Shauna Fox, Keara Cormican(C), Shauna Brennan (Rachel Barnes 60’), Savannah McCarthy, Meabh De Burca, Chloe Singleton, Jaime Turrentine (Elle O’Flaherty 60’), Lynsey McKey, Aoife Thompson.

Peamount Utd: Niamh Reid-Burke, Lauryn O’Callaghan, Niamh Farrrelly, Claire Walsh, Dearbhile Beirne(Niamh Barnes 86’), Karen Duggan, Lucy McCartan(Tiegan Ruddy 94’), Eleanor Ryan-Doyle(Louise Masterson 94’), Stephanie Roche(Mogan Smyth-Lynch 77’), Alannah McEvoy(Becky Watkins 86’), Aine O’Gorman(C).

Referee: Bartley Folan.

SPÓ IRT

November 03 2020

31

A new face atop the throne: SIN’s All-Ireland SFC Predictions

By Oisín Bradley 6 months. 26 weeks. 182 days. 4,368 hours.

262,080 minutes.

That’s how long has elapsed since the first ball was meant to be thrown in to kick-start the 2020 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship in the Bronx and the actual throw-in of the 2020 SFC. A lot has happened in that time, but one thing which hasn’t been changed is the hunger for every team and the fire in their bellies as they gear up for the race for Sam Maguire.

This Championship is about to roar into action, and has some intriguing ties across the board. Here, we’ll be casting our *expert* opinion on who will be capturing provincial crowns, as well as making our call on who’ll be capping off 2020 with an AllIreland to celebrate in Christmas week.

Leinster (Dublin)

All-Ireland (Kerry)

A marginally more competitive province than the previous, but one in which there is one winner nonetheless. Dessie Farrell has the unenviable job of stepping into Jim Gavin’s shoes, and in truth has not had the most incredulous of league campaigns. That said, the aim always will be the All-Ireland series.

Meath and Kildare are likely to play in the last4, and Meath gave the reigning Leinster and All-Ireland champions an entertaining and tight game in recent weeks in the Allianz League. Should all fall the way of the Royals, they could cause an upset with the likes of Bryan Menton and Jordan Morris firing on all cylinders.

Now for the really interesting one. There isn’t a single semi-final which isn’t destined to go to the wire from the offset. The first one sees Ulster’s finest pitted against the Leinster kingpins. Any side which manages to capture the Anglo Celt are no mugs, and if it’s Donegal, they’ll travel to Croke Park and give Dublin a real rattle.

Their forward line is stacked with mercurial talent such as Patrick McBearty and the lively Jamie Brennan. That said, Dublin’s defence should do just enough to withstand the onslaught, while their offensive arsenal will outgun the men from the Hills.

In the other semi-final, Mayo will likely be locking horns with old foes Kerry. This game has plenty of history, and the likes of Aidan O’Shea and the O’Connors will be gunning for blood. Whilst I think it’ll be tight to the death, the star quality in the Kingdom should see them through.

By any current reckoning, Dublin and Kerry are the finest teams in football at the moment. Both sides boast the tightest of defences as well as the brightest of stars in the forwards.

Photo: Sun

Ulster (Donegal) In my mind, it all comes down to the opening weekend of the Championship, and the team to get their hands on the Anglo Celt cup will likely come from the tasty derby clash in Ballybofey. These teams are set for a collision course, and it’s almost impossible to call.

Mickey Harte’s Tyrone men performed admirably to send Mayo through the League trap-door in the League, and the fresh face of Conor McKenna looks a fine addition, whereas Donegal’s seasoned heads like Michael Murphy and Ryan McHugh are well-rested after sitting out the reigning champions’ trip to Tralee.

Photo: Irish News

That being said, Dublin will be nearing their peak by Leinster final time, and the Delaney Cup isn’t likely to be leaving the capital any time soon.

Connacht (Mayo)

It’ll be close, but I expect Donegal’s stellar and well-rested attack to prove just too much for their near neighbours.

Whoever the winner may be, I expect to see them given a stern test at least once en-route to the trophy from Armagh or Monaghan. However, come Six o’clock on November 22nd, expect the Anglo Celt cup to be adorned in green and gold.

Possibly the tightest province to call. After James Horan’s men’s dispatch of Leitrim, they’ll be coming into a do-or-die clash with the Rossies brimming with confidence in the semi-finals.

Anthony Cunningham’s men do possess a propensity to cause an upset in their bids for provincial honours, however the men from the Yew County will edge Roscommon, with their star-studded forward line doing enough to secure passage to the decider by four.

Galway will have atoned for their poor form in the conclusion of the Allianz Leagues in their comfortable demolition of Sligo, and will come into this game with the wind in their sails. However, they will be without their Damien Comer-shaped fulcrum at the heart of their attack due to his hammer blow of an injury. Expect Mayo to edge this one and secure passage to the All-Ireland series.

In truth, much about this Kerry team evokes excitement in me. Their ability is breath-taking, and should their forward line catch fire they could blow any team out of the water, including the boys in blue. Come the New Year I forecast a usurping of the throne, and a new victorious captain in David Clifford.

Photo: Sky

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Munster (Kerry) From one team donned in green and gold tipped for provincial honours to another, it is difficult to see the men from the Kingdom relinquishing their iron grip on the Munster Cup any time soon. The only time I’m expecting a team to even cause them a minor inconvenience is in their last-4 clash with Cork.

Cork are the second-best team in the province and I predict them to at least hold a candle to their nearneighbours, and they do boast some talent as proven by their recent 5-14 to 0-12 demolition of Louth. However, the Division One kingpins will prove to be a whole different ball game altogether, and the men from the South-West will likely waltz through with ease.

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