Volume 15 Issue 10 by Student Independent News

News

INSIDE Jailbreak 2014 brings NUI Galway

Features

Free Student Newspaper | VOL 15, ISSUE 10 | 03 MAR 2014

students as far as Bali

Student Nurses to march to HSE Headquarters

Debate: Does university prepare you for life?

Belgium set to legalise euthanasia for children

Yellow Brick Road

Wanderlust: London

Where does the Student Levy go?

Students’ Union

and back to Dublin. We only booked our plane tickets on the way to register!" Alessandra was just as surprised as her team mate Niamh; “Ahah! Well personally I didn't think we would make farther than England but this week-end was full of surprises!" Team #30 Conall and David from TCD captured the infamous Jailbreak Rat who escaped from Kilmainham Gaol and jet-set off to Paris. The rat and his captors were soon met by UCD team Stephane and Dan. The two teams followed clues as to the Rat’s location given to Jailbreak14 competitors via Snapchat. The main aim of the game was to raise money for charity by getting as far away from Ireland as possible but for those not in the running for furthest distance travelled, there was The Gumball challenge where a list of dares and forfeits had to be completed such as: Find a Burrito bar, make a human pyramid and rub a bald man’s head for luck. Evidence can be found by searching #thegumballchallenge and #jailbreak14 on Twitter. Continued on page 2…

Interviews: with all candidates for full-time positions in the Students' Union Referenda: SU positions on abortion & Israel The Importance of SU Elections Debate: Are SU elections just a popularity contest? What’s it like in GMIT? What does USI do for us? Plus: Everything you need to know about voting

Lifestyle

having reached an altitude of 2,275m on the Peak of Concordia in Corones Kronplatz. They also managed to blag free lift passes and snowboards, check out their YouTube video on George’s channel: http://www.youtube. com/user/Negativelessness. Other Jailbreaker antics include Team Alessandra and Niamh from NUI Galway promising to get the name of whomever buys them a plane ticket tattooed on themselves, as well as few cryptic tweets about what they’d do for some Barry’s Tea “in the name of Pat the Baker”. Sin spoke with the girls prior to the charity event about where they planned to go. Alessandra Stella (22) an Erasmus student from Italy responded; “As far as we can!” when Niamh Casey (20) from Liscannor, Clare added: “as far as Bus Eireann will take us! We asked about Sydney, but they haven’t been very responsive.” After contacting the team post-Jailbreak14, Niamh said: "I didn't think we'd get as far as we did. I mean we went Dublin, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark

Arts

Sean Kearns and Aoife Ní Shúilleabháin enjoying some Bali sunshine after raising ¤900 for charity during Jailbreak14.

Election Special

Election Supplement Twelve pages of features, interviews & debates, including:

sport

Four universities, 36 hours, 75 teams, 40+ locations visited, 4,854 HQ tweets, two wedding dresses, one cream egg, 191,520 kilometres travelled, and above all over €36,000 and counting raised for Amnesty International and the Society of St. Vincent de Paul – what else could it be but Jailbreak14? At 9am on 21 February, 75 teams rushed from Kilmainham Gaol and their respective college campuses to beg, blag and borrow their way across the globe all in the name of charity. The aim of the fundraiser was to get as far away from Ireland as humanly possible with no money in 36 hours. 71 out of the 75 teams managed to blag their way out of Ireland leaving behind 4 teams from NUI Galway, UCC, and UCD who reached Letterkenny and Belfast. As for NUI Galway’s Frank and Sylvan… they got as far as 3 kilometres from the starting point – you go guys! Destinations reached include Zurich, Dubai, Honolulu and Sydney. Jailbreak14 winners were Kyryll and Salim from Trinity College Dublin who checked-in at Sydney ten minutes before the deadline having travelled a total of 17,223 kilometres from Dublin. It was a close-call between TCD and NUI Galway as to who would win in the intense final half hour of Jailbreak14. Not far behind Kyryll and Salim were NUI Galway team Séan and Aoife who checked-in their final destination as Bali a few hours before the deadline. Séan Kearns, who is Students’ Union President, and Aoife Ní Shúilleabháin, also

known as Oifigeach na Gaeilge in NUI Galway planned to jailbreak in bridal gowns promoting equal marriage rights. Team #2 travelled to Gatwick Airport in London where they remained tight-lipped for a few hours until they boarded their flight to Kuala Lumbar in Thailand. After a few hours in the blistering heat, Séan and Aoife were forced out of their wedding gowns and on another flight headed for Bali which put them straight into first place. “Bali is amazing and the people are so nice and friendly. They too are amazed by our adventure,” Séan told Sin while in Bali. “We have been really lucky and have sorted a way home thanks to the Coffee Company, Electric Garden and Theatre, and BWG Foods. We couldn’t have done any of this without their support.” Despite missing out on first place, NUI Galway teams won the University Award for ‘Best Money Raisers’ with an average €382 raised per team – Sean and Aoife managed to raise a whopping €900. Regardless of a few hiccups here and there e.g. ‘The Munich Curse’ and a few stranded teams here and there, the weekend was a success having doubled the donations Jailbreak received in 2013. The event went viral with over 12,000 tweets and retweets, 22 Facebook pages, numerous Instagram and Snapchat pictures, and of course a few update videos on YouTube - Wi-Fi permitting! One team opted for a different approach; instead of getting the furthest away, Team #27 Daire and George from TCD decided to reach a little higher (quite literally)

Final Word

By Jenna Hodgins

Pay the Bentley Staff

Wise Words

Androgenous Fashion

Upcoming Literary Festivals

Review: Yerma

Success for Archery Club

Interview with a jockey

Diary of the Smoky's Pigeon

What do they teach you in college?

2 News

Sin Vol. 15 Issue 10

Staff of The Bentley fight to recover owed wages By Áine O Donnell and Jenna Hodgins Former staff members of The Bentley nightclub have launched a social media campaign to claim wages and holiday pay owed to them by the nightclub owners. The premises closed on February 14 and the 30 staff members were informed via social media. The club also owes rent to the club landlord and rates to Galway City Council. The club shut down on January 13 for what was believed to be for a temporary basis but the venue never reopened. The permanent closure of The Bentley was announced on its Facebook page which is how staff learned of their redundancy. At the time of the initial closure, The Bentley staff was owed two weeks wages and holiday pay. They have subsequently launched a campaign via social media

urging the patrons of the Eyre Square nightspot to pay them the money owed. Brothers Shane and James Broderick from Knock, Co. Mayo launched The Bentley nightclub in June 2012. They have issued an assurance stating that they will pay their former staff the money which they owe them. The former employees of the establishment cancelled a meeting with management on February 9 after learning that the owners were going to plead insolvency and hand the responsibility over to Social Protection. Having heard that the staff were meeting to discuss going public, the owners offered an unofficial 'wages now, the rest later' settlement; however, the staff have stated that they no longer trust their former employers, and believe the rest of what they are due will be left to the state to pay. Aoife, a student and former bar worker at The Bentley

said; “I'm the only member of bar staff that has been working in The Bentley since the day it opened. There was a high turnover of staff; many never received their holiday pay once they left, although they did try to get it back. “I'm owed two years in holiday pay that I have never received. The day before the building was repossessed the general manger told me he had been to the accountant that day to sort it out. I've heard no word about it since. “I'm a student and I don't receive any form of grant, I was living week to week from my wages in The Bentley. I am thankful for the opportunity they have given me but I just want what's rightfully mine.” Many of the former staff members are students and part-time workers. Since the closure of the nightclub, the former employees are struggling to meet basic living costs such as their rent and bills, and because they’ve yet

to receive their P45s they’re ineligible to apply for social welfare payments. As a result, some of the newly-redundant workers have been forced to move back to their family homes. One such reported case is Andrew from Leitrim. “I was forced to move back home to North Leitrim where there is no work relevant to my experience,” said Andrew. “The withholding of payment meant that I could not remain in Galway to try and secure employment despite almost seven years’ experience in the service industry. “I worked at the Bentley for 17 months. I frequently worked on short notice, almost always during unsociable hours to the point that my fellow staff were the only people I would socialize with. “Due to the amount of time I invested in my work I would often go months without having time to return home to visit my family. I am extremely

disappointed at the way I and my colleagues have been treated and only want what I have earned so that I can put this horrible episode behind me, get back on my feet and move on with my life.” Similar to Andrew, Labhrás is another young former employee who has also had to return home; “I worked in The Bentley for 14 months. I requested holiday pay last Christmas, and there was no sign of it. “I have now been forced to relocate back home to my parents, as I simply have no money left, and have numerous bills to pay off. It’s only fair we get our money that we worked hard for. “ The owners also owe €200,000 worth of rent to the landlord, €100,000 in rates to Galway City Council and notable sums to several suppliers including a security firm. One disappointed worker, Jacqueline, said; “I am a single mother and a student, I

need the money for childcare. I worked there for 8 months in total. I enjoyed working there for the most part. I definitely made friends with a few great people. It’s just a shame that it all ended this way for everyone involved.” The staff has took over The Bentley Facebook page on February 6 to voice their anxieties regarding the situation. It wasn’t until after this, the owners of the closed nightclub made an attempt to contact the staff. Since, a Facebook page ‘Pay The Bentley Staff ’ was created and gained almost 2,500 ‘likes’ in three days. The former nightclub employees’ plight has been taken on board by the Galway branch of the ‘We’re Not Leaving’ campaign, NUI Galway and GMIT Students’ Unions, Paul Murphy MEP, and various trades union groups throughout the country.

Jailbreak brings NUI Galway students as far as Bali

Student nurses to march on HSE headquarters

Continued from page 1…

On Thursday 6 March student nurses and midwives from around the country will take part in a protest march at Dr Steevens hospital in Dublin, headquarters of the HSE. The protest is primarily related to pay rates for student nurse interns. Students’ Union President Sean Kearns is encouraging everyone to get involved; “As a student nurse myself, I am well aware of the issues that face student nurses all throughout their degree and the harsh situations they are now faced with in their internships and with this new graduate scheme. It’s time for the student nurses of Ireland and supporters of nurses to come together and call for action.”

Sin’s very own National and International News Editor as well as the Students’ Union Postgraduate Officer, Conor Lane, took part in Jailbreak14 alongside his girlfriend Léan, both of whom were kitted-out and eventually kicked-out of Galway and off to Prague by their sponsors DC Store Galway and comedian Des Bishop. “We're thrilled to have been involved with this great charity event. It felt like we were a part of a very special experience. Being involved with jailbreak made us feel that we had a shared world experience. We're delighted to have raised €360 so far and we're still trying,” said Conor. “Our efforts weren't just to go as far as we could in 36

hours but to spread the word of jailbreak wherever we were. We could have never imagined where we would end up and we're currently sitting in a 13th Century tavern in Cesky Krumlov. “We're entirely grateful to Des Bishop who donated air miles to us making this possible and we would also like to thank DC Store Galway for their donations.” Overall the weekend was packed with fun, forfeits and philanthropy all in the name of three (for us here at NUI Galway anyway) great charities, Amnesty International, SVDP, and Draíocht. Congratulations to all teams to took part and above all to the kind hearts to donated a cúpla euro to the cause.

By Simon O’Sullivan

This is part of an ongoing USI campaign, conducted primarily via social media (#everyonelovesnurses) as well as the USI website. A key component of this campaign is case studies written by nursing interns detailing their working conditions, published on www.nurses.usi.ie. The campaign also incorporates the Graduate nursing initiative, at present the only option to work within the HSE as a newly qualified nurse. During their final year of training, nursing students complete a 36-week “clinical internship” across nine wards, during which they work 35 hours per week in addition to reflective practice. Although they are still students, these interns are also employees of the HSE. During this period of internship students are paid an hourly rate of €6.49 for the first 12 weeks, rising in increments to €7.79 for the final 12 weeks. According to the conditions of the internship period nursing students represent half of one qualified nurse in terms of nurse to patient ratio and ward staffing lev-

els, and should be supervised in the care of their assigned patients. However, given the present chronic understaffing of wards, this is often not the case. The graduate initiative involves a two-year contract at 80% of the normal starting salary, representing a drop from €26,000 to €22,000. An educational component to the scheme has been suggested, though it remains unclear what this would involve, and what, if any, further certification could be gained. INMO president Claire Mahon has stated that the scheme sought to “exploit young professionals while expecting them to work, in areas of very poor staffing, without proper mentoring or support”. The INMO continues to argue that the pay-rates for student interns, as well as the conditions of the graduate initiative, are unjust, and has referred the present conditions to the labour relations commission. The LRC has acknowledged these claims and a conciliation conference is set to be held “towards the end

of March 2014” according to the INMO. The planned USI protest comes shortly after the publication of a major study in The Lancet. In examining the relationship between nurse to patient ratio and patient outcomes it was found that the ideal ratio was 3:1 while a maximum safe ratio was 6:1. In Ireland, nursing interns find themselves in a situation where they are required to take on unsafe numbers of patients, at times 6 to 7 or more, while not being adequately supervised in their provision of care. As a result, the care provided to patients can, at times, fall below an adequate level. This is primarily due to understaffing, and while student nurses help to alleviate this disparity, they are not always adequately experienced to provide optimum care. Mr Kearns, reflecting on the report in The Lancet, continued: “With reports showing that cuts in nurses being correlated with mortality rates, we have to stand up and have our voices heard. Let us be loud and let us be strong and let us unite."

News 3

March 03 2014

Editorial:

Don’t panic! We’re back! Editor in Chief: Jessica Thompson editor@sin.ie

By Jessica Thompson

Jailbreak 2014

Clockwise from top: Sean Kearns and Aoife Ní Shúilleabháin got as far as Bali and made some cool surfer friends; Conor Lane, current news editor for Sin, relaxing in the airport before going on his adventure to Prague with girlfriend Léan Crowley; Sean Kearns and Aoife Ní Shúilleabháin in a cell in Kilmainham Gaol, where all the craic kicked off. They wore those wedding dresses to promote marriage equality;Conor Lane and Léan Crowley sporting DC threads which were donated by the business who kindly sponsored the pair. Opposite: participants in Jailbreak 2014 pose for the camera before setting off.

My dearest readers, You may have been wondering why our Valentine’s Day issue was hanging around from the second week of February up until the beginning of March. ‘Where’s the new issue of Sin?’ I heard you scream. ‘Dear God, have they finished Sin already? What are we supposed to read?!’ I heard you cry. Even worse; ‘What if there is no more Sin?!’ I heard you dare to whisper, the panic rising in your throat as you realised the world may be coming to an end. But fear not, for we are back. I don’t know how many canvassers you’ve been bombarded with since the week began, but for those of you who walk around campus, noses in books or mobile phones, there are people in colourful t-shirts trying to encourage students to vote for their candidate in the upcoming, all-important Students’ Union Elections. These elections are taking place on Thursday 6 March, so I would highly recommend you listen to a few of these canvassers and find out what exactly it is you’re voting for. What issues are important to you? What do you feel needs to be done to improve your university experience? Do you even know what the SU does? This week is your opportunity to get involved. Talk to the candidates. Ask them about their manifestos. If you have an issue that you think needs

Layout: Shannon Reeves | contact via Ed. News Jenna Hodgins | localnews.sined@gmail.com Conor Lane | nationalnews.sined@gmail.com to be solved, mention it to them. Perhaps they can take it on board if they’re elected. On Thursday, you will also be asked to vote in two referenda. One will deal with abortion and whether or not the Students’ Union should take a neutral stance. The other will deal with the Students’ Union’s position on the campaign of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against the state of Israel. You’ll see debates on these referenda in our very comprehensive Students’ Union Elections supplement which you will find in the centre of these pages. ‘But what has that got to do with being deprived of Sin for an extra week?’ I hear you ask. If we had brought out an issue last week, we would have been too early to include information on the all-important elections. So we chose to wait until this week and produce a bumper issue, with 12 extra pages bursting with elections content. But don’t worry; to make up for the delay, we’ll also have an issue out next week! Enjoy the issue and don’t forget to vote! Until next week,

Jess @Jess__Thompson

Upcoming Sin Meetings

Got a story?

Thursday 6 March

The staff members at Sin are always happy to publish interesting and thought-provoking stories on any topic.

All meetings will take place at 6pm in the new location of AC215 this semester. AC215 can be found on the Concourse down the corridor on the right just before the Bank of Ireland. Turn left when you get to the end and we’ll be down that corridor.

Everyone is welcome to our meetings and we always welcome new faces and new ideas.

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Pitch your idea to editor@sin.ie

Features Leigh Ashmore | opinion.sined@gmail.com Michael Finn | features.sined@gmail.com Lifestyle Ciara Treacy | fashion.sined@gmail.com Arts and Entertainment Tracey Halloran | artsentertainment.sined@gmail.com Karen McDonnell | arts.sined@gmail.com Shannon McNamee | entsonline.sined@gmail.com Sports Daragh Small | sport.sined@gmail.com Céimin Burke | sport.sined@gmail.com Creative Writing Helen Hughes | creativity.sined@gmail.com Webmaster Valeri Tarassov | web.sined@gmail.com Photography Daniel O'Loughlin | photography.sined@gmail.com

Keep up to date with the latest news from the Sin team: Online: www.sin.ie Facebook: Sin Newspaper NUI Galway Twitter: @sin_news

4 News

Sin Vol. 15 Issue 10

Authorities report students were well- Students urged to behaved during Unofficial RAG Week take part in National By Maurice Brosnan Unofficial RAG Week took place in Galway from 17 to 21 February but student were repor tedly more behaved than previous years, with fewer anti-social incidents taking place throughout the week and better crowd management. Originally, RAG week functioned as an event for students to fundraise and give money to charity. However, it was cancelled in 2011 after a notable increase in anti-social behaviour and decrease in donations. The event still lives on representing a party week where students congregate in the city and as a result, has been more associated w ith antisocial behaviour since its cancellation. The event sprung to the attention of students this year in the form of a Facebook page ‘Galway RAG Week 2014’ which promoted events that were occurring ever y night of the week and offered encouragement to students to enjoy “buzzing, banter, beer”. Suddenly, e v e nt s b e c a m e m o re orchestrated and club promotions were displayed to students. O n Mo n d a y n i g h t , the dangers of numerous drunken students descending on one club were displayed for all to see. A queue formed outside Electric Garden and Nightclub and once patrons realized that the queue was too long for

everyone to get in, the crowd pushed towards the door in an effort to guarantee entry. This resulted in a section of the crowd breaking through the barriers and spilling onto the road. A window in Jaycee’s was broken from the pressure of the crowds. For all in attendance that night, the importance of proper crowd management was painfully illustrated. A condemning of RAG week was announced by both GMIT and the President of NUI Galway Jim Browne. Both institutions requested the unofficial event to end. A week prior to the event, Mayor of Galway Padraig Conneely urged students to go easy on the ‘boozy behaviour’ and criticised RAG week. Despite Monday night’s incident, many have commented on the seemingly superior crowd management in comparison to previous years. The decision to close Supermac’s before 2am reportedly ensured drunken students leaving clubs had no vast, public arena at which to gather, and the result was a substantial crowd gathering outside for a few minutes before people began petering off, driven away by the cold or the rain. Substantial increases in staff ensured accidents were avoided and stricter e nt ra n c e re s t r i c t i o n s applied. The rest of the week began to resemble a slightly busier Saturday night in Galway. The Head of the Super-

mac’s fast food chain, Pat McDonagh, defended the event to The Journal.ie and commented on this year’s RAG week as part of a culture that “made Galway what it is”. He sa i d ; “Stu d e nt s came into the City and brought youth and liveliness to it without incident”. Despite the good response from authorities on this year’s unofficial event where there is alcohol, there is nearly always an accident. Doctor John O'Donnell, Lead Consultant in Emergency Medicine, has to deal with these issues. While for many students it can often be amusing to try to decipher what exactly a drunken student is trying to communicate, for someone like Dr O’Donnell, this can be extremely frustrating and dangerous, as what they have taken or done cannot be communicated. “In general, patients who present with alcohol or drug intoxication and injuries are difficult to assess and to manage,” Dr O’Donnell admits. “They usually require extra resources to look after them, which may include security if they are disruptive, and often require extra investigations, such as CT scans in the case of head injury, as it is difficult to ascertain if their symptoms are due to alcohol alone or if there is an underlying serious head injury also.” Dr O’Donnell reports that Gardaí aren’t the

only services students are impacting; “These patients need to be observed in the Emergency Department until the effects of the alcohol or drugs wear off, which again requires scarce resources.” Even Dr John O’Donnell accepts that students will enjoy alcohol and while he doesn’t criticise this, he does urge students to act responsibly. “The message I would like to portray to the students on behalf of the Emergency Department is to enjoy alcohol but in moderation and to avoid taking any other substances as you really don’t know what is contained in some of the tablets etc. that you might be offered and some can do serious permanent harm,” he said. The real damage of students being admitted to hospital is that they are taking resources that could otherwise go to the seriously ill or elderly. On Monday 17 February alone, “there were 17 patient presentations to the Emergency Department that were alcohol or drug related”, according to Dr O’Donnell. RAG week has its place and can cer tainly be enjoyable. The majority of students conducted themselves in a respectful and dutiful manner. But for some students, the consequences of RAG week include damaged physical health, diminished funds and suffering attendance at college.

Student Survey First year, final year and postgraduate taught students in NUI Galway are invited to take part and add their voice to the National Student Survey between 24 February and 16 March. Students can have their say on StudentSurvey.ie. This is the first national survey of Irish students and is being carried out in all Irish Universities, Institutes of Technology and Colleges of Education around the country. The aim of the survey is to help enhance the quality of education Irish students receive by asking them in detail about their experiences, and it is important for the University to make sure that our students’ views are well represented. NUI Galway Deputy President and Registrar Professor Nollaig MacCongáil said; “Students are the lifeblood of both NUI Galway and every third level institution in

the country. Your views as students will help inform the decisions NUI Galway make in ensuring we remain at the leading edge of research, innovation and learning.” For every submitted survey, the University will donate €1 to the NUI Galway Financial Aid Fund for students. StudentSurvey.ie comprises 100 questions and should take no more than 15 minutes to complete. The survey is supported by the HEA, IUA and USI and was developed in response to a key recommendation of the National Strategy for Higher Education to 2030. The results will inform institutional and programme/course development, as well as national policy. Your answers could have a real impact on higher education in Ireland, so make sure to take the survey at www. studentsurvey.ie.

Business student and The Voice of Ireland contestant, Jay Boland, with fellow students: Emily Flanagan, Dean Reidy and Marie Hegarty. Jay will be singing for your votes in the live finals beginning Sunday March 16th.

Three NUI Galway Students Selected as Finalists of the 2014 Making an Impact Competition Three NUI Galway students were announced today by the Higher Education Authority (HEA) as finalists of the 2014 Making an Impact Competition. A total of five finalists were selected. The NUI Galway finalists are Linda Connor for her project 'Improving Honey

Bee Health', Robert Mooney for his project 'Movement and Performance in Elite Swimming' and Killian O’Brien for his project 'Blood May Hold the Key to the Riddle of Cancer'. The Higher Education Authority (HEA) and the Irish Independent had invited

postgraduate research students in any discipline at an Irish higher education institution on the island of Ireland, to make a short submission on the difference that their research work would make to a particular aspect of Irish life, to the country as a whole or in a global context.

The five research finalists, who were selected by an independent adjudication panel, for their innovative or challenging ideas will be invited to present how their research is making an impact at a public event at The Helix at Dublin City University on Wednesday, 12th March.

Each finalist will have a maximum of ten minutes to make the presentation, followed by a brief question and answer session with an expert panel. Tw o awards of €2,500, sponsored by the Irish Independent will be awarded to two individual

winners, one of whom will be picked by the panel and the other by second level students in the audience. Each of the five finalists’ research will be profiled in the Irish Independent. For further information on the 2014 Making an Impact Competition visit www.hea.ie.

UCD School of Mathematical Sciences

www.ucd.ie/mathsciences

ÂŠUCD

Graduate Studies UCD School of Mathematical Sciences UCD School of Mathematical SciencesÂ invites applications to its graduate programmes from graduate and final-year undergraduate students with backgrounds in quantitative disciplines such as Mathematics, Statistics, Engineering, Economics, Finance and Physics.

Programmes available: Grad Dip/ MSc Actuarial Science (Institute and Faculty of Actuaries accredited) MA Statistics/MSc Statistics (Royal Statistical Society accredited) HDip Mathematical Sciences, HDip Mathematical Studies & HDip Statistics MSc Mathematics, MSc Mathematical Sciences, MA Mathematics, Online Data Analytics Programmes available from March 1st PhD's in Statistics, Applied and Computational Mathematics, Simulation Science and Mathematics Further information and scholarship information

Questions?

www.ucd.ie/mathsciences/graduatestudents

Contact pgstudies@maths.ucd.ie

6 News

Sin Vol. 15 Issue 10

NUI Galway students and graduates receive Gaisce Gold award By Lisa Penski This year’s 50th President Award winners included five NUI Galway students and graduates. The five were part of a group of young adults receiving the Gaisce Gold Award for personal achievements. The award ceremony, which was held on February 17, honours young adults’ personal accomplishments in physical recreation, personal

skills, as well as social commitment and commitment to the community. NUI Galways’s winners Christina Quinn from Galway City, Sarah Kilduff from Ballinasloe, Co. Galway, Lorraine Farrell from Dromard, Co. Sligo, and Oisin O’Carroll from Birr, Co. Offaly excelled in their relevant fields whilst giving back to their communities. Christina Quinn, who graduated from NUI Galwau

with a Bachelor of Science in Marine Science, organised many fundraising events for charity, including fundraisers for Helping Hands and Temple Street Hospital. Christina travelled to Nepal to volunteer in an orphanage and combined the journey with a hike towards the Himalaya reaching Sherpa village at a height of 3600m. She has taken part in various marathons and races starting in 2012 with her first ever

marathon in Dingle, Co. Kerry. Sarah Kilduff, a Bachelor of Nursing graduate, did her part of physical recreation by completing a 133km pilgrimage of El Camino de Santiago in Spain and also travelled to Nepal to volunteer and help educate children and assisting locals in their homes and on farms with household tasks. She also volunteered with the Civil Defence to improve her first aid skills and help peo-

GMIT students develop App for Galway City Museum By Hazel Elliffe An innovative new app for Galway City museum has been developed by students from GMIT. Collaboration between students studying Fine Art, and Software Design and Development, the app offers information on the museum’s programme of events and artefacts in the Museum collection. The app provides smartphone users with information about 30 separate objects such

as an ancient burial urn, to a 17th century silver Freedom box, and the suspended ‘Martin Oliver’ Hooker in the museum. The App will enable visitors to Galway and locals to connect with the city’s museum and learn more about the city and county’s culturally rich heritage. The app will also notify users of exhibitions and events in the coming future, as well as offering informative insights into Galway’s local, national and international history alongside international trade and cultural

links the city has with the world. The project was inspired by Fintan O'Toole's original Irish Times series ‘History of Ireland in 100 Objects’, which applies the use of traditional research methods in conjunction with modern digital design. For more information visit: http:// www.100objects.ie/. Brendan McGowan, Galway City Museum Education & Outreach officer said; “The museum is delighted with the outcome of this partnership with GMIT”.

The students worked with museum staff to write information about the artefacts under the guidance of their lecturers from the Centre for Creative Arts and Media. Meanwhile Software Development students Enzo Lieghio and Barry Lennon, under the supervision of Damien Costello, a lecturer in GMIT’s Department of Mathematics & Computing, designed and developed the App. Development of the App began back in 2012 when the idea was initiated by GMIT lecturer of Art History Marion McEnroy-Higgins. “The aim of the collaborative project is to promote active education, innovation in digital design, and civic engagement, in partnership with Galway’s cultural tourism sector,” said Miss McEnroy-Higgins. “It’s an innovative project for students to be involved in and one that will add an exciting technological and research dimension to the visitor experience at the Galway City Museum,” added Mr Costello. The App ‘Galway City Mus eum’ is available now on Google store and Android phones.

ple in her community in times of flooding by removing them from danger zones and providing treatment where necessary. Lorraine Farrell, who had already achieved her Bronze and Silver awards while studying Education in St. Mary’s College in Ballisodare, Co. Sligo, managed to achieve her gold award by travelling to Solio, Kenya to volunteer on a development project with the Moving Mountains Organisation.

NUI Galway discovers new risk-factor for Schizophrenia By Chelsea Tabert A new risk factor linked to mental illnesses such as schizophrenia has been discovered by a multi-institutional team. The research was led by Professor Sanbing Shen, of the Regenerative Medicine Insitute (REMEDI) at NUI Galway. Although there is currently no effective treatment and little genetic factors for schizophrenia, Professor Shen and his team have identified a change in the gene called ULK4 in individuals with schizophrenia. Unlike many other genetic studies, the new research has also characterised how ULK4 functions within the human brain. When levels of the gene decrease, brain cell function tends to decrease. This in turn leads to a reduced synaptic function along with other results which are already known to pose as a risk factor for schizophrenia. Shen and his colleagues were also able to show how ULK4 helps the formation of the nerve fibres connect both sides of our brains. The

An evening in celebration of the life and work of Seamus Heaney By Lisa Penski On Wednesday February 26, writers, actors, artists and musicians gathered in the Bailey Allen Hall in NUIG for an evening tribute to Seamus Heaney, the famous Irish poet, play writer, translator, lecturer and recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1995. Seamus Heaney, who passed away in August 2013, was considered the most important Irish poet since W.B Yeats by fellow writers and contributed to the cannon of Irish literature

David McGurrin, student of NUIG and currently pursuing a Higher Diploma in Applied Science, joined the Reserve Defence Forces, learned to play the guitar and completed the Warriors Run and the Sligo Half Marathon. He also went on the pilgrimage El Camino de Santiago and did a Potential Non- Commissioned Officers course. Congratulations to all our winners making NUI Galway proud.

with works such as: Death of a Naturalist, Door into the Dark and Human Chain in poetry, The Government of the Tongue and Finders Keepers in prose and plays like The Cure at Troy: A version of Sophocles’ Philoctetes and The Burial at Thebes: A version of Sophocles’ Antigone. The evening was dedicated to his life and work featuring readings, plays, and musical performances by various writers and musicians such as: Stephen Rea, Tom Kilroy, John Behan, Sean McGinley, Marie Mullen,

researched produced by the team shows that if the gene ULK4 is deregulated it poses as a risk factor for schizophrenia, and similar mental illnesses such as autism, major depression, and bipolar disorder. Published last week in the Journal of Cell Science, the research was supported by genetic data provided by the International Schizophrenia Consortium, and was confirmed using new data generated from other mental illness groups. When speaking with NUI Galway’s research office, it was confirmed that follow-up studies are currently underway and will continue to take place in the university. The primary goal is to gain better understanding of the illness and how future drugs may be developed to target the ULK4 gene for the treatment of such mental illnesses. All research was funded by Science Foundation Ireland, NUI Galway, Cunningham Trust, Scottish Universities Life Sciences Alliance, Medical Research Scotland, and the University of Aberdeen.

Brendan Flynn, Eva Bourke, Moya Cannon, Rita Ann Higgins, Mary O’Malley, Mairtin O’Connor, Brendan O’Regan, Jimmy Higgins, Kathleen Loughnane and Mary McPartlan, among others. Tickets were €10 entry and all profits went to the local cancer care charity Cancer Care West. The ticket price included entry to a draw for a signed copy of Human Chain, his 12th and final poetry collection which deals with interpersonal relationships. The evening was a memorable and enjoyable tribute to one of Ireland’s greatest poets, made even more enjoyable by the fact that all proceeds were donated to a worthy cause.

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8 Features

Sin Vol. 15 Issue 10

This week’s debate: Does University prepare you for real life? YES: College both indirectly and directly prepares you for real life By Kieran Kilkelly They say college years are the best of your life for many reasons; the newfound freedom, the craic that you have and the friends you meet. But underlining all of this are lots of life lessons that you do not realise until you look back on those fond days. College both indirectly and directly prepares you for real life. When you look at things head on it’s easy to see similarities between college and the working world you aspire to enter after you get your degree. It is also easy to see very many differences but it is what is consistent with both work and college that is important. For those of you who aren’t first years, the lectures now starting on the hour rather than at ten past like before will not make much difference to you. However, for second years and above it will come as much change. Why was this put in to practice? I hardly doubt the lecturers wanted to come in ten minutes earlier on a Monday morning. In fact, a lot have complained about getting used to the time shift and are late as a result. Well, there’s the answer to why it was brought in. The majority of companies, workplaces and such all start on the hour and the fact that you would get into a routine of being on time before ten past wouldn’t hurt. This is the first instance where the college is trying to get you into ‘real-life mode’. The second, of course, would be the taking of attendance, an idea which is becoming more and more likely to be seen in lecture halls along with tutorials. Rewarding students with a certain percentage for their presence is a bit like getting paid for turning up for work. If you don’t turn up you don’t get paid, if you keep missing days you get penalised which ultimately would end up in dismissal (failing your course). While you may overlook these aspects and think that they may not be relevant there are more convincing reasons that college does actually prepare you for real life. Fair enough, it’s understandable that lectures on plant pollen will have absolutely no applicability for you in the future. Or ‘Schrodinger’s Cat’ will never be used by you again but there is more to college than actual college. I am of course talking about the whole aspect of gaining independence. You, as a person, going out and maturing, are making that progression from your late teens into your early twenties as most college students do.

The majority of teenagers are seen as wild. They get away from home for the first time, get a little bit of freedom and think it’s fantastic. College allows a structured way for this to happen. It mixes responsibility with pleasure. How does this prepare you for the world you ask? Well, look at celebrities who haven’t had the opportunity to have any responsibility at all. They are teenagers their whole lives, who, eventually, break down mentally because they cannot cope with real life despite their ever-growing fortunes. Take the celebrity status out of it and you get that person who is always texting you to go for pints at two in the day after they’ve just woken up. You might love to go but you have a two-thousand word assignment due the following day. And even if you do go, you realise the next day you should’ve done that assignment and a little part of you becomes more responsible. Of course, people do get on quite successfully in life without having ever attended a university. But when you take the basic elements of survival into it are they really surviving? Take for instance the ability to cook. If you have an ‘Irish Mammy’ chances are you don’t know how to turn on the toaster never mind the oven. That is, unless you are thrown in at the deep end, forced to fend for yourself. And where do most people learn to cook? I won’t answer that for you (but if you said college you were right). There are also things like cleaning and general upkeep of yourself that you learn too. Above all else though, it gives you the chance to experience life. Because very few say no to the excuse to of trying something new and that is what college and life is all about. If nothing else, it is a change from what you’re used to. And that is essentially what life is; a series of changes. And as college is the first major one, what better way to prepare you for the rest life throws at you?

NO: University is just a stepping stone By Siobhán Whyte Will this degree prepare me for the real world? This subject is much debated all over the world. With tuition fees rising each year, budget cuts, social welfare cuts and the like, it is getting harder for many young people to go to university. With all this extra cost, it is only sensible to question if it is worth it. Before I start my argument I will emphasize one point: University is what you make it. In this country, education is taken for granted. I would advise everybody to take a stab at it, but don’t expect to be instantly employable afterwards. Now I will tell my story. Many of my generation of school-leavers got a decent grant to go to college if we needed; it was almost expected that we would all go. Now, I’m not from a middle-class family with two parents and two cars – yet I still made it through along with most of the people in my class. I was delighted and felt grateful. A few years later and most of us have graduated. Most of us are unemployed – yeah, even the bright, hard-working ones who studied teaching in Mary I. If not, they have left the country and are working in a café in Canada or on a farm in Australia. There’s a recession, and we are the ones who have lost out. Some of us have worked hard and have lots to show for it. I got As; I did work experience and got great references; I did extra-curricular activities and socialized; I went out and I had fun. I made the most of my four years. It will help in the future. I have a good CV and yet I don’t get called back for an interview. I wouldn’t even know how to do an interview; a couple of practice ones with the careers office didn’t really prepare me. I have no confidence and I haven’t much to put on my work history except lots of volunteering that I’ve been doing to fill the time. I’m hoping this will all stand to me in the future where there are some jobs in the country. Of course, I gave up trying to find job and decided I may as well go back for an MA. The fees add up to over €6,000 so that just couldn’t happen right now without a job to pay for it.

Has university prepared you for reality or do you feel like you’ve learned nothing from college? Let us know on Facebook: Sin Newspaper NUI Galway.

This isn’t a therapy session, so I’ll leave it at that. My main point is that, from my personal experience, university didn’t prepare me for the workplace. Well, practically speaking, it doesn’t. Unless you did a vocational course or something like an engineering degree, you’ll have no idea how to get up at 9am and do a full days work. Realistically, many of us struggled to do four hours of lectures! Some people can do that (of course), but university didn’t teach them. Lectures give us knowledge which will, as I’m constantly told, never be a burden. Considering you get three to four years of ‘training’ – you really don’t know much at the end of it. At least, you probably can’t do much. For example, most Arts degrees need further study before you’re really qualified for anything. From University alone, you won’t learn office etiquette. As wonderful as it is that we can express ourselves freely at college, we just can’t in the real world. Despite campaigns for a more open approach to employing those with pink hair, nose piercings and tattoos, it just isn’t happening yet. Do you own clothes that you can wear to an interview? How about a wardrobe of clothes suitable for a working week? Do we really need sensible shoes? Have you learned how to deal with wind in enclosed spaces? (I’ve been told by people to just not eat curry on a week night). I’ve heard it said that it doesn’t matter which degree you have, as long as you have one. That statement seems to be true in a lot of cases. That’s because most degrees aren't practical enough. They give you knowledge, without the skills to apply that knowledge in a practical situation. Another common debate is ‘IT versus Uni’. Despite the somewhat pretentious, superior reputation of universities, ITs give much higher value when it comes to employability. This is because the classes they offer are that bit more practical. There are hundreds of archaeology graduates that don’t know how to dig – it’s laughable really. Purely as a financial investment, a degree is definitely not an advisable one right now. It’s expensive and you won’t see any money coming back in for a while yet until the economy recovers. Should you do it anyway? Yes. That’s because we shouldn't consider our worth solely on financial success. So, the reason I recommend college is because it teaches you to be independent. That’s a very important lesson. It gives you the space and time to grow up. Jumping straight from school to the workforce can be a shock to the system. College is a stepping stone to the real world – and that’s fine.

Opinion 9

March 03 2014

Online Dating and why you're better off alone

We want jobs, not JobBridge

By Leigh Ashmore

By Joseph Loughnane

With the rise of things like Tinder, the idea of walking up to someone and asking them out is now a horrific thought. More and more people are finding someone to share their lives and baggage with online. I've seen stuff like Tinder, and to be honest, after a few scrolls it gets pretty generic and dull, all fake tan and not much personality. Where can I go if I want something different? Something interesting? Something really weird and off-putting? There are online dating sites for every quirk, including ones for the very religious (Irish Catholic Singles), Star Trek fans (Trek Passions), people with a mental illness (No Longer Lonely) or STDs (Positive Singles). Unfortunately, no-one's thought of the opportunities of bringing the four together. It's a vast, unexplored scary goldmine. I suppose it all depends on what your tastes are. Apparently

some men out there are into women with some fire, and previous convictions. The site Women Behind Bars caters for men who want to meet a woman who's currently in prison. Surprisingly, the site doesn't tell you what their committed crimes are. Even more surprisingly, the site has a high customer satisfaction rate. Some people like to boil down the excitement and rush of new-found love to cold biological calculation, with the site Scientific Match, pairing up couples based on their individual DNA patterns. Apparently the perks of this are high rates of fidelity, better sex and the chance that you'll even like the smell of your new partner – and all for a measly €2000. Other people's perfect night out is a night in. You cuddle up on the couch with that special someone, stare into space, cough non-stop and refuse to turn around because there's some sort of ghost behind you that will suck your life force if you look directly into its eyes.

If this is you, then 420 Dating is probably for you. It's a site that allows hallucinogenic drug enthusiasts to get absolutely destroyed together, stare at each other’s hands and watch copious amounts of Adventure Time. Strangely enough the website says that it does not cater to those who ‘promote illegal activities’ or ‘advocate the use of any illegal substances’. However, on its main page it lists all its ‘featured smokers’ lighting up. Have you ever felt left out at a house party? Sitting alone on the couch in the corner, cradling a can of lager and feeling increasingly awkward while better, more attractive people mingle and connect around you? Well, that feeling of isolation and shame can be replicated on Darwin Dating. This site, with mind-blowing sensitivity, only takes on people it deems attractive, and refuses potential users who are too heavy, too short, too old or

in any way defy the Hollywood consensus of what's attractive. The site's sheer meanspiritedness is only matched by its own pathetic double standards, as a quick scroll through the content section shows photoshop that would make Stalin blush. If you really want to tread into the deepest, darkest pits of fetishism, then Daily Diapers is where it's at. If you want to find a grown adult who likes to wear children's clothes, eat baby food and not control their bowels, you can stop mucking about in pubs, nightclubs and the rest of civilized society; you've found your match. Perks listed say that your days will be filled with bathing, feeding and spanking your new partner. I held back from digging too deep into this particular site as it'll be hard to explain away after someone takes a glance at my browser history. If online dating is the future, there are probably many who'll be happy to live alone.

Free Margaretta D’Arcy By Joseph Loughnane It doesn't matter how old you are, if you dare to expose Ireland's apparent “neutrality” for what it really is then the forces of the state will construct any sort of paradigm to have you arrested. This is the situation in which 79-yearold peace activist Margaretta D'Arcy finds herself. Rather than listen to the concerns of this woman and many more across the world, the Irish government criminalises such dissent and continues to welcome US soldiers into Shannon Airport, selling it to the public as being “good for business” in the area. Ireland is obligated under customary international laws on neutrality to prevent US troops involved in wars to travel through Ireland, and to arrest any such soldiers found on Irish territory. The Labour Party pledged before the last General Election that they'd bring an end to the use of Shannon Airport as a warport, but like with other

'red line' issues such as student fees and child benefit, not only have Gilmore and Co. failed to act – they've actively ignored the fact that rendition flights are landing on this island. Meanwhile in a 2013 poll conducted for PANA by Red C, 78% of people expressed the view that Ireland should have a policy of neutrality. Galway Alliance Against War activists Margaretta and Niall Farrell have continuously highlighted the illegal use of this airport by those who bring “freedom” and “democracy” to Iraq and Afghanistan in the form of bullets and bombs. The campaign group, Shannonwatch, have provided evidence of these illegalities happening on our doorstep. Yet the response from the state has been to stifle protest and to target certain activists with court cases, barring orders, house searches and now imprisonment. When such ignorance is widespread, bringing attention to the presence of imperialist warmongers in this state leaves

you with very few options. That Margaretta's action of going onto the runway can be compared in any way with the brutal massacre of innocents abroad – supported by the Irish government's silence – exposes the level of fake moralism at play in a country caught up in the global military-industrial complex. When Margaretta's conscience gave her the courage to ignore signing a bond instructing her not to go back on the runway at Shannon Airport, a three month sentence was imposed. Across the world, more and more people are becoming aware that a 79-yearold with severe health problems is sitting in Limerick Prison for bringing attention to Ireland's non-existent neutrality. This woman has sacrificed her own freedom to open our eyes to the Government's silence. With the rise in drone warfare under Obama's presidency, we can be certain that drones are travelling through Shannon Airport on the many US Hercules C-130's that land

there. Yet like with rendition flights, our politicians deny such a state of affairs and ignore evidence to the contrary. What we must aim for now is not just the freedom and pardoning of Margaretta D'Arcy – it is incumbent upon all of us to raise our voices and call for the freedom of Shannon Airport from the US Military. The longer this woman is in jail, the more attention being brought to the continuous erosion of Irish sovereignty. If the Government thinks by imprisoning Margaretta that they have successfully hushed up any concerns raised about their support for imperialist nations, then they couldn't be further from the truth. At a time where unmanned aircrafts are killing innocents and “suspected terrorists” are being dragged off to military bases for “questioning” only to be released later, it is essential that the exposure Margaretta has brought to the use of Shannon Airport is raised on every media outlet across the country.

“Vote Yes for Jobs”. How many times have we heard that now? The Lisbon Treaty was meant to bring us jobs. It didn't. The Fiscal Treaty was promising work. There wasn't any. What do we have instead? JobBridge. In 2011, JobBridge was rolled out as the answer to all our problems. Suddenly, work experience was being promised through internship programmes. There was one catch however. No matter how many hours you worked or how intensive or mundane the “work experience” was, you'd only be paid €50 on top of your dole. Wait a minute... so the Government is paying you, what about the business taking you on? Well they get someone else to exploit for free and where possible they can replace paid positions with such internships. It is estimated so far that the scheme has cost the Government an extra €13 million on top of the regular welfare payment for those engaged in it. Fair enough, these interns are underpaid and are being used to undermine existing wage levels, but surely the positive must be that they now have work and it is one less person on the Live Register? To respond to that, I refer you to the Scambridge website: “The Sunday Times (6 May 2012) reports that the scheme had a 75% dropout rate. So the 38% of people who got a job is really 38% of the 25% who completed the scheme. Furthermore, of the 797 jobs that people got, less than 400 were with the companies who took on the intern. This means that only 6% of the people who took an internship with a company had, by May 2012, actually got a job with that employer.” Instead of providing paid work, the Government has taken advantage of people's desperation to find gainful employment. At a time when zero-hour contracts are commonplace and the scarcity of most positions is worsening, the only jobs programme Fine Gael and Labour have

to offer is an unpaid internship programme. Large corporations now view JobBridge as a source of free labour; dressing up mundane jobs in fancy language knowing the “intern” will gain no valuable experience come the end of the term. Advance Pitstop is the latest employer to take advantage of the exploitative scheme, advertising 28 internships nationally. Calculating that at minimum wage levels, this will save the company €377,000 over a period of 9 months. It seems the programme has been more effective at cutting costs for the private sector than it has for decreasing unemployment. For a jobseeker under 24 years old who is dependent upon €100 a week on the dole, their weekly wage of €150 breaks down to €3.75 an hour. The Government is not only pushing the idea of earning less than half of what the hourly minimum wage is, it is normalising the idea of working for free. Young people have been disproportionately affected by this. People deserve a decent day's pay for a decent day's work. The concept of “experience” should never replace paid work. It is clear that rather than acting as part of the solution to mass unemployment, JobBridge actually is part of the problem. Why would an employer pay someone to do a job when they can just use this exploitative scheme? Since it's been rolled out, hundreds of thousands of hours of free labour have been given to companies. What we need is stability and security in the workplace in terms of hours and income. There needs to be a move towards investing in a real jobs programme. Instead of paying off bankers and bondholders, this money needs to be funnelled into a massive public works programme with direct employment at the core of it. Instead of offering €50 on top of the dole to those who have a PhD in chemistry, the only solution is to scrap JobBridge and put an end to the normalisation of internship culture.

10 Opinion

Sin Vol. 15 Issue 10

Misogyny sells, unfortunately By Leigh Ashmore The words ‘Rape Culture’ are being used quite a lot in colleges these days and rightly so. Things like the Savita Halappanavar case and the nationwide anti-date rape campaign Don’t Be That Guy, among other things, have forced into the public eye the inequality that exists between the sexes. In the UK, the struggle has intensified further. Lately, several universities in the UK banned the song ‘Blurred Lines’ from being played on campus, saying that the song’s lyrics were blatantly misogynistic and trivialized the idea of sex without consent. But there are still other aspects of college life that have yet to be examined, and challenged. Despite how liberal and enlightened we may perceive our culture to be, our press often reflects many of our own prejudices. Taking a glance at the newsstand in the SU shop, you’ll have a better idea. Most newspapers and magazines will have on their front-page pictures of successful businesspeople, politicians and sports stars. The vast majority of the time, they’re men, with women featuring far less often. It’s a sad day when the most prominent woman in the news is Lucinda Creighton. Unfortunately, a newspaper section that will always have

women in its light is the Page 3, which features pictures of nude or semi-nude women. Last November, Kingston University Students Union moved to ban all newspapers from its SU shop that contained the Page 3. These newspapers will not be sold in the SU shop until the Page 3 section has been removed. So far, over 29 UK universities are taking part in the boycott. Though some may say it’s all hysteria, this is the way sections of society have always been repressed throughout history. For thousands of years, women were consistently depicted as second-class citizens, designed to fulfil the needs of a patriarchal society. What you see on the third page of the redtop newspapers is a carry-on from that ideology. The women on page 3 are depicted as passive, inert and silent. They’re treated more as a commodity – something to be owned and enjoyed. Regardless of the intent, the effect of things like Page 3 is to degrade a woman’s standing to a sex object – something that’s there for male gratification. It creates a warped perception of what a woman looks like and should aspire to. The women presented don’t really look like any woman you’d see in real life, but instead mirror the expectation of a patriarchal society, attractive, available and vulnerable. The Sun, with unrivalled sensitivity and taste, even ran

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interviews with a plastic surgeon who described what perfect breasts look like at length. The opposition’s argument will be pretty predictable, with howls of ‘censorship’ and ‘free speech’ coming loud and fast. But is this an issue of free speech? Are major publishers like the Sun or the Star going to be wounded or disenfranchised in any meaningful way? In reality, this is an issue of how our society views the place of women. Do we see women as fulfilling the same roles as men, as doctors, politicians, barristers, guards etc., or do we see them as a possession that should be coveted, something that really exists as a receptacle for a man’s urges? The truth is that we don’t live in an equal society. Women in Ireland have been the worst affected by the government’s austerity measures; women are often paid less than men; they’re daily victims of our country’s high

rate of domestic abuse and don’t even have control over their own bodies because of the massive restrictions to medical abortions and the awkward and often expensive procedures to get the pill. Women are also drastically underrepresented in politics, with only four women on the list of Ministers and Ministers of State. While boycotting newspapers that contain a Page 3 may seem like a small step, the start of a similar campaign in Ireland would draw attention to the quiet suffering of many women across Ireland, who live in a society geared towards serving the interests of men, whether they’re powerful bishops or the maledominated ruling business class. In Ireland, we should fight against newspapers like the Sun profiting off the exploitation of popular misogyny and the oppression of women.

Looking for a sugar daddy? By Samantha Kelly Has third level education become a privilege to only those who can afford it? What can a student do when fees are continuing to increase yearly; a part time job can only go so far when a student is in full time education. Have you ever thought of escorting? According to the Independant.ie many Irish students have turned to escorting and prostitution to pay off their ever-increasing student loans. But prostitution amongst students is not a new thing; it is just an increasingly worrying and dangerous job many more students feel they need to do to financially support themselves. Many escorting agencies such as Escort Ireland are targeting female students daily. However, according to one escorting agency, for every 11 female escorts there is one male escort. So it is evident that even though young women are at highest risk of falling into prostitution, young males are also wanted and recruited to escort. Following this a spokesperson for Ruhama Ireland, which supports women affected by prostitution, told the Sunday Independent; “What is worrying is that this escort website is using universities in Ireland as a marketing strategy and has the potential to lure young girls who may be under financial pressure into the sex trade.” The average prices for escorts are around “€160 each hour or up to €500 for a 12 hour night”, according to a male student escort. It must be said that sex is not always mandatory, however it is not a defiant no either. Commonly, rape occurs to those who only want to escort and not to engage in any other activity. SeekingArrangement.com is a website for “sugar babies” who are looking to find a “sugar daddy” in Ireland. There was a 17% increase in the last year of college students who signed up to this website. Apparently there is a mutually beneficial arrangement made before any events take place so that the “sugar baby” and the “sugar

daddy” (as they are called), are aware of what is going to happen before they agree to see each other. On average a “sugar daddy” spends around € 6,200 a month on the cost of his “sugar baby” for housing and expenses not to mention the extra gifts he splashes out, such as clothes and jewellery. In return his “sugar baby” is expected to go on work events and trips with him, not to mention, also having sex. On this list of young women who have signed up looking for a “sugar daddy”, NUI Galway has climbed up to number four, with 77 of our students signed on the list. This is a shocking number of female students struggling to pay their way through a three or four year course. The University of Limerick (UL) is number one with 99 of their female students on the “sugar baby” list. It is said that a “very small percentage” of these “sugar daddies” are married and the rest are either single or divorced. Although one should not judge the decisions another makes, especially when they are trying to get through college, most of these students are ashamed of what they are doing. A male escort said that he would “die” if any of his family or friends found out what he was doing. Contrary to this, a female escort says that she is “open-minded” about escorting men, considering the amount of money one can earn in a week; anything up to €2,000. But prostitution is rarely a choice for these women with 9/10 surveyed saying they would like to leave but feel unable to, according to UCD's paper, the College Tribune. This online website also highlighted the negative aspect to the lives these college students have to lead, saying that these young women are “sisters, daughters, girlfriends and best friends” who are only “trying to pay off the debts they owe”. The cost of education is on the increase and there are no signs of any financial help being offered to these students. What do you think is more appalling: these students escorting to fund college? Or feeling like they have no other choice than to escort to have the “privilege” to go to college?

Opinion 11

March 03 2014

Whether the winner is the EU or Putin, Ukraine will lose By Maurice Brosnan The long-running turmoil continues in Ukraine and the mayhem is damaging the country. On St. Valentine’s Day it was announced that Putin would welcome closer ties between the European Union and the Ukraine. However, regardless of who builds closer relations with the nation, Ukraine is destined to suffer as a result. The uproar stretches back to November, when President Viktor Yanukovych of the Ukraine made the decision to withdraw from a treaty with EU. He decided on closer relations with Russia rather than a trade agreement with Brussels. Many believe this trade pact is not all that is at stake for Ukraine, but also the possibility to join the EU in the future. Ukrainians, outraged at what they view as regression rather than progression, took to the streets in protest. These protests were met with violence, and events have spiraled out of control from there. Protests become broader and began to focus on political corruption and police violence. Demonstrations still continue with many lives lost so far.

On 16 January Yanukovych passed extensive laws in a bid to end protests. This bill was passed illegally, using a show of hands rather than the usual system of electronic voting and included laws against unauthorized tents in public areas and criminal responsibility for slandering government officials. Ukraine is also in recession and these riots are only further damaging the country. Political leaders have admitted the withdrawal from the EU agreement was as a result of

Russia in this alliance. Immediate benefits seem to include Russia investing $15 billion in Ukraine's government debt and the substantial reduction of a third off the price Naftogaz, the Ukrainian national energy company pays for Russian gas. But then there are the long-term and costly drawbacks; if reports are to be believed Ukraine will have to relinquish significant control of their extensive gas pipeline network which Russia utilizes and pay substantially

Like the proverbial doll caught in the middle of two desperate schoolgirls, Ukraine will not fare well from this situation. pressure from Moscow. Russian president Vladimir Putin has previously described the break-up of the USSR as one of history’s great tragedies. His desire is an economic alliance to counter the EU; events would suggest this is his bid to create such a coalition. Like the proverbial doll caught in the middle of two desperate schoolgirls, Ukraine will not fare well from this situation. If they decide on an alliance with Russia, immediately they become the relying understudy to

for. Yanukovych’s hopes for re-election in 2015 would appear slim at best and his main opposition are pro-EU which will only result in more to-ing and fro-ing and a distinct lack of much needed stability and continuity. History has clearly shown repeatedly, a country left in under Russian control or influence has no hope of democracy or required innovation. However, choose the EU and the all of a sudden Russia becomes a very real and dan-

gerous threat to the Ukraine. Given the EUs hesitancy to offer a clear possibility of future EU membership to the Ukraine one must assume in the event of Russian intimidation or pressure the EU would be slow to offer any real help. The Russia–Ukraine gas disputes of 2009/2009 illustrate that Russian politicians are not afraid of becoming involved in this sector which could potentially cause further financial problems for the Ukraine. A recent statement on Putin’s behalf that he would welcome closer ties between the EU and Ukraine and an announcement in Ukraine that all charges would be dropped against protesters if protests end before March 18th could signal the a end to the ongoing crisis. However, whether Putin means it is another matter and realistically a choice still needs to be made. Spurring the EU will cause significant political damage; spurring Russia will cause significant economic damage. Yanukovich best hope is to orchestrate this disaster as an intelligent bid to get the EU to offer better terms, and thus Russia to renegotiate also. Both ways a choice is needed and regardless of who wins Yanukovich’s vote, the Ukraine will lose.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership and the takeover of the people’s power By Andrew Brennan The “Trans-Pacific Partnership” is a juicy international trade agreement being covertly buttered in between the buns of multinational legislation. The TPP is being secretly added to the very helix of governance among 12 Pacific nations because of the erosive properties the TPP presents towards sovereignty. The TPP encompasses 40% of global GDP and 30% of world trade. This is more believable when you consider that the US, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Peru, Chile, Mexico, Japan, Malaysia, Vietnam Brunei and Singapore (big financial service centres) are the nations involved. The narratives spouted that the TPP is an ‘engine of growth’ against China are less then believable compared to the leaks telling of serious animosity towards national laws. Japan’s nostalgically nationalism focused premier, Shinzo Abe, has pushed Japan into the TPP solely to create an anti-China block. Abe’s driven rivalry with China is blinding Abe’s government to the risks of the TPP. Other Asian participants; Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore - while negotiating the TPP - have unilaterally partially joined China’s alternative “Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership”. All this competitiveness and desire for that ever chasing high of ‘economic growth’ in the debt based fiscal system is creating an environment of carelessness regarding sovereignty. On 15 January 2014, WikiLeaks released the secretive draft of the Environment Chapter of the TPP discussed in Salt Lake City Utah, between 19 and 24 November 2013. In the environment chapter, well structured policies regarding climate change, biodiver-

sity and fishing stocks as well as trade and investment in 'environmental' goods and services are all addressed, or are they? The chapter seems to have a deafening absence of enforcement measures, dispute mechanism are unbinding and penalties and criminal sanctions must be transcribed in invisible ink because they are non-existent to the naked eye. So far you might think “ah the TPP could be worse”; well actually it is. The TPP has the potential to become the largest ‘Free Trade’ agreement in history. However, ‘Free Trade’ doesn’t mean ‘Free Trade’. Anyone who has delved through

This is a dangerous precedent as Monsanto would only love to ‘forcefully’ enter into Asian nations and spread its ‘seed’ - pun intended - and that is a very frightening prospect regarding both food security and safety; food security, because Monsanto through copyright law, is consolidating control over certain seed groups and safety, because Monsanto products are downright dangerous as many studies have shown at the cost of scientist’s jobs. The TPP could allow bio-tech corporations to dictate how food is grown or what pesticides are used and remember cost effective

The TPP could allow bio-tech corporations to dictate how food is grown or what pesticides are used... a great many cattle in India died due to eating Monsanto’s fabled BT Cotton. the subterfuge surrounding this term will know that ‘Free Trade’ allows capital flow; deregulation of industry, destabilisation of trade barriers and increases not decreases inequalities and social fiscal gaps. All boats don’t rise in trickledown economics. This international trade agreement will effectively ‘strip’ nations of the power to regulate multi-national corporations (MNC) ‘corporate activities’ with TPP member nations. Why would any nation agree to this? Big business is the name of the game, promises of that ever chased high of ‘economic growth’ and because members of the negotiating teams are veterans of those ever shady government-corporate swinging doors. For example, the chief agricultural negotiator for the US is former Monsanto lobbyist Islam Siddique. Does anybody see a conflict of interest?

savings can always outweigh human welfare. There’s a reason the EU has banned GMO’s; there is a reason Hungary burned Monsanto grown crops; there’s a reason China blocked GMO American corn and there’s a reason a great many cattle in India died due to eating Monsanto’s fabled BT Cotton. In fact, the TPP and its interwoven ‘corporate politicians’ will grant MNC’s unprecedented rights to demand compensation for national policies deemed hazardous or profit blocking. The compensation will be taxpayers’ money naturally. Intellectual property is also another worrying sub-clause that could re-write national laws for the participating countries. Now the argument might be made that the TPP is akin to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and NAFTA was a ‘success’. The TPP is a NAFTA on methamphetamines.

However, NAFTA was only a ‘success’ for the stratified businesses in the US and non-state bodies. Introduced on January 1st 1990, NAFTA was foretold to create wealth for farmers through exports, to raise the Mexican living standard and reduce northward migration through creating economic opportunities in Latin America. These promises were empty and in fact the polar opposite occurred with nearly 5 million American jobs disappearing in 1994. Immigration across the Mexican border has steadfastly increased and the Mexican economy which was on the precipice of economic stability and prowess pre-NAFTA in the short years that followed, tanked. Free trade agreements are biased and only grant more suitable environments for ‘big-business’ to override domestic laws and creates a ‘race to the bottom’ in terms of welfare, rights and conditions for workers and citizens. Like NAFTA, the TPP is investor rights orientated instead of public right prioritised. The TPP is the Trojan horse of corporations. It will promote off shoring jobs to low-wage countries, clearly something business fancy’s but Asian and Latin workers will be further abused and if you thought environmental law was too lenient on resource extracting companies before, just wait and see what happens once this agreement is pushed through. The TPP is simultaneously the Formula 1 of ‘corptocracy’, a race to the bottom for the lowest expenses and a ‘Jurassic Park’ for profits where predatory capitalism is the Apex predator. The TPP has 29 chapters with five relating to trade. What do the other 24 relate to? No one yet knows and that makes my ‘spidey’ senses tingle.

12 Opinion

Sin Vol. 15 Issue 10

Belgium set to legalize euthanasia for Children By Niamh Towey Belgium is set to become the second country in the world to legalize euthanasia for terminally ill children, succeeded only by The Netherlands. Belgium first legalized adult euthanasia in 2002 and last month the Belgian upper house voted in favour of extending the law to children. Analysts expect the lower house to follow suit in a vote which takes place this week. The Netherlands allow euthanasia for children over 12 years of age, but this new Belgian law will not have any age restriction, making euthanasia available to children of all ages. The question here is one of morals, and is made increasingly complicated when applied to children who have questionable understanding of the concept. The vote will not be turned to the Belgian public for referendum, though opinion polls show a majority of public support for the move. The issue has caused heated debate and has split professions down the middle, with many doctors coming out in favour of the move whilst paediatricians and palliative care specialists have positioned themselves in general opposition. Daniel Baquelaine, a Belgian MP and doctor, has come out in favour stating; “It is not about deciding whether a child is or is not to die… death is coming quickly. It is therefore necessary to allow the child to express what he thinks of the end of life, about how to die.”

The Bill states that the child must “be in a hopeless medical situation of constant and unbearable suffering that cannot be eased and which will cause death in the short-term”. It also states that “the child must display a capacity of discernment and be conscious at the moment of the request”. The problem here is how to judge a child’s capacity of understanding such a concept – this depends of course on their age, illness and what they have been told by adults. The paediatricians in opposition to the bill have pointed to the fact that “in practice, there is no objective method for determining whether a child is gifted with the ability of discernment and judgment. This is actually a largely subjective assessment and subject to influences.” The paediatricians have called for a delay and further debate on the matter, as they have found several shortcomings and loopholes within the legislation, most of which are hard to ignore. Their first argument is that palliative care for these children is so advanced now that no child should have to endure unbearable suffering because carers are now able to “fully control the physical pain, choking, or anxiety of these children as they approach death”. Palliative sedation, whereby doctors increase pain medication to a point of unconsciousness, is already allowed in

Belgium and is something which Belgian senator Els Van Hoof (one of the few to vote against the bill) says is a step far enough. Other arguments against the bill centre on a child’s vulnerability in being persuaded into making such a request, and also a Religious argument which states that the law runs the risk of trivializing the sanctity of life. These arguments make sense and are easy to understand when read, especially from our eyes – a largely (if not dwindling) Catholic country, one which is not “liberal” in the same sense as Belgium.

What is not easy to understand is the desperation of the actual families faced with such a horrendous decision. How can we sit here and judge? How can we sit here and say it is never right to take a life when it is not us watching the light flicker from our child’s eyes? Who are we to judge when enough is enough, when the suffering is over? The Mother of Ella-Louise van Roy – a baby girl who died from Kabbe disease at the tender age of 10 months – is a woman who knows the enormity and complexity of such a decision, and also the feeling of helplessness and desperation a parent experiences in such a situation. “She died on Tuesday; on Monday, we saw on her face that she was still in pain. And then you start to get angry, because you know that there is no medication left to give her to take away that pain... in the end, it was bones and skin and no more baby left.” The morality of euthanasia for terminally ill children is indeed a topic worthy of debate, but we must remember the individuals involved – the pain and suffering, the helplessness, the indignity and the loved ones watching on – these are the people with authority on the issue; not the theorists, the politicians or the protestors. These are the people who we need to listen to.

If you oppose gay marriage, you are a homophobe By Dean Buckley Golly gosh, it’s been a tough couple of weeks for Irish homophobes. They thought they’d gotten off scot-free with using the threat of legal action to silence Miss Panti, but then it all began to unravel. The public was less-than-impressed with them doing it at all, but then nastier details emerged. Turns out the Iona Waters– O’Brien conglomerate turned down the opportunity to donate their pay-out to a neutral charity, instead putting it toward a memorial fund dedicated to advancing Iona’s political goals. They were pilloried far and wide with examples of their hypocrisy – an old letter to the editor from one Breda O’Brien explaining why she was opposed to newspaper columnists using legal threats to handle defamatory statements; evidence that John Waters unashamedly made a statement about Barnardos (I know, right!?) that couldn’t be broadcast on Tonight with Vincent Browne because it was so defamatory, any member of their staff anywhere in Ireland could have sued him into an early grave. Then the University Times tapes broke, drowning Waters in a sea of his own vitriol and paranoia. All this to say: they’ve been getting hit pretty hard lately. So I’m not going to beat on them further. However, as long as these people are in a position where they can

continue to victimise oppressed minorities, there will be never enough times I, or anyone else, can walk them through this simple fact: if you oppose marriage equality, you are a homophobe. There are no caveats or qualifications here. There is no “reasonable angle” here. And, no, when you are called a homophobe, it is not an attempt to silence you. If you feel so destroyed by the label of homophobe that you feel silenced, maybe that’s a clue that you need to critically examine the way you think and talk about gay people. I can’t count the number of times I’ve been directed toward a dictionary in the

In the real world, everything is politically-charged, every word is encoded with centuries of cultural connotations, and that’s before it’s placed in the context of other words, of its speaker, of time and space, or of how it’s expressed.

past few weeks. A “phobia”, I’m told, as if I didn’t already know, is an irrational fear. Therefore the label of homophobe only applies to people with an irrational fear of gay people. Right, well, if that’s the argument you want to go with, fine, thanks for confirming John “Gay People Want to Destroy Marriage and Thereby Civilisation Because They’re Jealous” Waters is an utter utter homophobe. Honestly, it was only a matter of time before the rest of ye cut him loose and set him adrift anyway. But let’s unpack the rest of this repeated refrain. No one would oppose marriage equality if they didn’t think it would result in some sort of bad outcome. Maybe you’ve been smoking your own hair clippings too long and believe that marriage equality will literally result in the destruction of civilisation. Or perhaps you’re a tad bit mellower, and just want us to Please Think Of The (Straight) Children. Either way, what you’re saying is that you view gay people being able to marry as some sort of threat. I’m going to make a bold claim here and say that, definitionally, people fear threats. I mean, if you’re not afraid of it, then how can you claim to feel threatened by it? And if you don’t feel threatened by it, how can you recognise it as a threat? So, I mean, if that’s the argument you want to go with, that’s fine, but it’s just a long-winded admission of homophobia.

Not that it matters. Dictionary definitions don’t matter. They’re sanitised, sterilised, clinical. Neutral. That’s not how language works in real life. In the real world, everything is politically-charged, every word is encoded with centuries of cultural connotations, and that’s before it’s placed in the context of other words, of its speaker, of time and space, or of how it’s expressed. So what is a more meaningful definition of “homophobia”? The best way to answer that question might be instead to define “homophobe”. Homophobes are people whom the gay community has identified as those who contribute to their continued oppression, denial of rights and structural victimisation. Following on from that, homophobia is any one of the many things that motivate homophobes to do what they do, be it religion, politics, malice or ignorance. Let’s give some power back to the victims here. Let’s trust them to be capable of identifying their own assailants. Most of us will never experience homophobia, so let’s not presume to have a say in defining it. If you support the continued exclusion and victimisation of gay people, you are a homophobe. And your best course of action upon learning this should be to stop and take a look at yourself, not start slinging mud back at the people you’ve been stepping on. If you’re reading this (or writing this, for that matter), you are probably a homophobe. Do something about it.

Features 13

March 03 2014

The Drowsy Columnist By Hazel Doyle I went to see ‘The Drowsy Chaperone’ last week. My head is filled with show-tunes now and I have a longing to tapdance. I cheered really loudly at the end, and the haggerdey woman beside me told me to shut up. She was no craic. I mean, come on you’re at a musical! Did you have no fun at all? If she were in a musical herself, she’d be Mrs Hannigan, the drunken orphanageowner from Annie, but without any singing, because she clearly doesn’t have any musical appreciation. This musical business (plus imagining the meanie-lady as a witch on a broomstick) got me thinking about how much fun it would be to actually live in a musical. It’s pretty convenient that this column is already called “Yellow Brick Road”. It’s as if this life I currently lead is the black and white bit at the start of The Wizard of Oz and soon, I’ll get a bump on the head and things will get

woozy, and I’ll be wearing ruby red slippers and singing with a man without a heart, and one without a brain. If I were in a musical for realzies, I’d always have fabulous lipstick on and my hair would never look like I’d been dragged through a hedge backwards and my mascara would never run in the rain. (I really need to start getting up a few minutes earlier so I can fix myself up a bit… if this were a musical, there’d be a make-up girl on hand to sort me out). In addition, if I were a leading-lady, the problems of my life would be scripted away. It would be wonderful! Picture this: I’m running late to hand in my final seminar project. I’m trying to staple the pages together, running out of Print That at great speed, and my head is elsewhere. I bump into someone and I drop all my pages. Now, in reality, I probably utter an unmentionable word and scramble to get my pages together, while the other rusher apologises and grabs some sheets in a higgeldy-piggeldy fashion, trying to be of assistance. Really, they just crease the pages trying to get them up so quickly and thrust them back at me apologising all the while, and then they run off to their lab or MCQ or whatever. I then spend the first ten minutes of my

Top 5 smartphone apps for students By Michael Farrell Smartphones have become an essential part of student life over the last few years, so here are some of the lesser known apps that could make your life easier. Evernote: This is an obvious one, but one of the most essential apps a student can have. It has the ability to take notes through recording lectures, scanning documents and writing reminders and important thoughts for later use. All of these notes can then be accessed through Evernote on laptop or tablet making the frustrating task of organising lecture notes much easier. The Evernote web clipper extension also supplements the Smartphone app well, allowing you to save articles or notes directly from your web browser to read later on your phone. Airdroid: Ever leave your phone upstairs or across the room and were just too comfortable to leave your seat and get it? The good news is that there is an app that can help you. Airdroid allows you to remotely control your phone from your web browser. You can send text messages, make calls and upload files from your laptop to your smartphone over your internet connection. Airdroid can also locate your phone through GPS and wipe all of your data if it is stolen. Unfortunately for iPhone users Airdroid isn’t available for iOS as of yet. Sleep If U Can: Let’s face it getting out of bed for lectures on a rainy morning at nine o’clock is difficult for anyone – even more so when your alarm clock comes with a built in snooze button.

Sleep If U Can has a novel idea to combat this. Before you go to bed you take a picture of for example, your shower, then next morning when your alarm goes off the only way for you to stop it is to drag yourself out of bed and go into the bathroom and take another picture of your shower. Sounds simple, right? Any.do: Being a student comes with the pressure of assignments in multiple subjects, possibly working a job and managing a hectic social life, so it is no wonder that many of our tasks pile up or are forgotten. Any.do provides a neat solution to this problem. It doesn’t do anything spectacular, but its simple interface, categories and reminders make it refreshingly easy to use. Another handy aspect of any.do is the web extension available for chrome which allows you to schedule tasks for later while using your computer. Quiz up: A quiz app would seem to be just too simple to be a global phenomenon. This is probably why the makers of QuizUp struggled for funding, but with over 10 million downloads on iPhone, QuizUp has become exactly that. With over 350 topics to choose from, there is something for everyone, from South America to Star Wars. The genius of QuizUp is the social aspect of the game, where you can challenge your friends on any topic. This app is perfect for killing 30 minutes of a bus or train journey, but should come with a disclaimer as it is highly addictive. You have been warned.

seminar trying to sort out the pages and decrease them a bit, thereby creating an unfavourable impression and leaving me feeling a bit down in the dumps about my essay. In the show biz baby, the other rusher I’ve bumped into is a dashing young gentleman. In our newer-edgier-cooler version of High School Musical, this boy is wearing a navy Hollister hoodie, he’s actually in one of my English lectures and he notices the title of my seminar on the heading of one of my pages. Hollister-Musical-Hero Boy reveals he did that same seminar last semester and we strike up a conversation. He wishes me good luck with the last assignment. He says he thought the mark he got was fair so I should be okay; reckons the professor is fair. All the while, despite my lateness, I am immaculately dressed, and my hair stayed straight and not at all frizzy in spite of the Galway rain. Our love-interest turns back towards me as I prepare to depart and asks “You’re in the Ulysses module aren’t you?” I respond in the affirmative. He goes “Yeah I thought so”, meaning that he has noticed me before. Because we are in a musical, it is evident that this is a good thing, and not because I’m that girl who always comes in late and has to sit up the front.

“I’ll see you tomorrow in the O’Fla so. Right in the middle, on the left-hand-side”, which is where I always sit, and then he throws in a radiant smile. As I walk towards class I am joined by other immaculately dressed girls, all more or less my height, with whom I share a natural affinity, despite having never met them before. Everyone breaks into song, and I sing about how cute that boy was and how I always noticed him before and how great it felt when he smiled, and how it tingled when he touched my hand – accidently – giving me back my sheets. It is a bit cringe, but it’s a pretty happy-go-lucky choon and it gets stuck in everyone’s head. And even though there’s been a musical number and I’ve been hopping all over the place, I’m still on time for class and not at all sweaty. In real life, I’d be the only one dancing, and I’d have to make up some excuse for being late, other than “I just careered down the concourse, doing some pirouettes and having the lols making up lyrics about the stranger I just bashed into”. And one other thing, if life were a musical people would clap for you all the time. That’d make you feel unreal about yourself. And… scene.

14 Features

Sin Vol. 15 Issue 10

Diary of a Cynical Graduate Week 3: Your Spelling and Grammar Check is Complete. By Shelly Madden Ahh, the Curriculum Vitae. The most reviled and painstaking 400 words in every student’s existence. Unless you belong to the entrepreneurial elite, the CV is a formality which must be followed by all those who like to eat. Loosely translated as ‘the course of life’, it seems odd

that the document should be so contradictory to this description. When you imagine your life flashing before your eyes, you envision a moving tribute; an epic chronology that encompasses all the highs and lows from your first steps to your deathbed. Your course of life is not denoted by exam results, contact details and other

Erasmus Diary of an Student By Áine O Donnell My Erasmus diary is beginning to turn into a curse. I started my last article talking about how hindsight is a wonderful thing and once again I have jinxed myself. In the last diary I talked about us heading off skiing and jokingly said I hoped I didn’t get injured. Not so funny anymore. I managed to land back to Poitiers with several injuries which included a loose tooth and a black eye. I naively went against my mother’s wishes and didn’t get a helmet then ended up

clashing heads with a guy on a snowboard on day one. Then on day two, I was feeling confident and decided I was advanced enough to try a blue slope and quite literally fell the entire way down the side of the mountain. I highly doubt I will be representing Ireland in the next Winter Olympics unless falling becomes an event. While skiing could be described as a disaster, I would love to hit the slopes again. Well… when all my injuries heal that is. In the spirit of being a woman of the continent, I headed off on my next adventure over to England

statistics; and if it is, you are a robot. So, why do we loathe the simple idea of glamorising our lives on paper? College demands a multitude of assignments with ungodly word counts on a weekly basis, so surely we should churn out a measly two pages with ease? No. Because this time, it’s personal. And we have no bloody clue what makes us a desirable candidate. Certain queries spring to mind: Does babysitting my little sister count as work experience? If I use Comic Sans font, will they think I am a clown? One must also learn the secret of savvy editing. For example, volunteering and general social outreach is positive, but when you resort to the Trocaire 24-hour fast you did in 2007, things start to look pretty dire. I think the reason many of us despise the Big Sell is our innate Irishness. We are hindered by our awkward nature that prevents us from getting too big for our boots. Growing up, we did everything to avoid the cardinal sin of ‘showing off’, which gradually manifested into a sense of humility, shyness and finally, sheer embarrassment.

It goes hand in hand with the inability to accept compliments. “That’s a nice top.” “Arrah shtop come here go away sure it’s only Penneys”. Likewise, we simply cannot bear to brag or even stretch the truth a little. While others may choose to sugar-coat a menial summer job as an independent money-making venture, we resort to listing individual Leaving Certificate subjects as accolades. And truthfully at that, because we live in fear of a white lie being exposed. What if an interviewer were to spring a random French aural exam on us? THE SHAME. The harsh reality, however, is that your masterpiece might never meet the eyes of Bill Cullen. Furthermore, urban legend warns us of the employer that once took a bunch of CVs, threw half in the bin and exclaimed that he would not hire an unlucky person. So the important thing to remember is not to agonise too much over the finished product. Chances are it will never be read anyway. On that note, think twice before you embark on a career journalism. Oh, and do not attempt to exceed two pages. Ain’t nobody got time for that.

for Valentine’s Day. Being amongst a nation of people who spoke my own language made me realise how much we take for granted. Everything in France takes so much planning and forethought because the person you are dealing with will more than likely not understand you. Not being understood is the most frustrating thing about being on Erasmus. Speaking of hassle, we tried to register for our courses this week. We had to deal with the international relations man called Olivier. He embodies every negative French stereotype and I can only describe him as despicable because I doubt what I actually said about him is suitable to be published. He spoke to us really patronisingly and was no help

whatsoever. We left his office absolutely fuming. To use a Donegal colloquialism, it was a hanlin’. While the majority of things have been unsuccessful of late, I am off to Madrid next week to visit Aifric. While I speak no Spanish other than what I learned off Dora the Explorer, I doubt it will be that different given not many people understand me in France and I have been learning French for eight years. I am really looking forward to meeting all her new friends and exploring Madrid. I always finish my diary with a little bit of French so in the spirit of my trip, I will finish in Spanish. As they say in Madrid, donde esta la playa which is completely arbitrary but I did say I couldn’t speak Spanish!

Wanderlust:

London By Carla Avenia Koency

London is infamously known to be one of the most expensive cities in the world, but there is still plenty to enjoy on a tight student budget. So hop on the next plane for a weekend away to the one of the coolest cities in the world. You can't say no; there's no language barrier (although some might beg to differ) and best of all, it's just over one hour away! You might not get weather that is any better than in Ireland, but if you're lucky enough to see the sun while in London, you have to make sure that your visit includes at least one lazy afternoon spent at a park. Whether it's Hyde Park, Regent's Park or Hampstead Heath, you can't go wrong with a few hours spent soaking in the scarce sun. Best done in the company of a cold one: because there's no law to stop you from drinking in public! After enjoying some local brews at a park, how about some culture? Most museums in London are completely free. If you like history, head over to the British Museum. Science buff? Then the Museum of Natural History is your place. More art-inclined? Then the National Gallery is your haunt. How about combining a bit of a history lesson with a visit to a popular watering hole? More specifically, to the oldest pub in London. Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese lives up to its name, and has a wonderful selection of locally brewed beers to quench your thirst for... eh, history. You'll be in good company: the likes of Mark Twain and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle are known to have also enjoyed a beer or two at this bar right off Fleet Street. How about some shopping? Besides the typical sprint down Oxford Street, you can try Camden market for something new... or maybe something old. Vintage, to be precise. If hunger strikes, pick up some grub from one of the dozens of food stalls with food from all over the world that line Regent's Canal. For some more pub tourism, stop at the Hawley Arms. Once again, you'll be in good company: Amy Winehouse was a well-known regular of this friendly Camden pub, and members of the Arctic Monkeys occasionally stop here for a beer. If you still crave more shopping and foodieapproved stalls offering a wide array of international cuisine, then make Brick Lane your next stop in London. Get lost among its world-famous market. From vintage clothes and accessories to records, you'll find everything that your thrifty heart desires. For delicious grub, the food hall is a budgetfriendly must. Where from? Several flights every day from Shannon, Cork, Knock and Dublin. From ¤20 one way.

Features 15

March 03 2014

Alumni Interview: How to be a Galway Stereotype Ciara Conway TD By Maurice Brosnan

for what was to come and my election campaigns to the local authority and then subsequently to the Dail.

Did you partake in any societies, sports clubs or volunteering at NUI Galway? I was a member of Labour Youth , The PDS political discussion society as you might expect and was involved a little with the SU in my part time role as Anti -Discrimination Officer. Name: Ciara Conway Year of graduation: 2002 Course at NUI Galway: BA Public and Social agus Dip. Sa Gaeilge Current Occupation: Labour TD for the Constituency of Waterford , Mother of one amazing 11 year old girl, former social worker and recent wife to Gary .

What is your fondest memory of NUI Galway? Having the Craic with some of my best friends who still even speak to me today (imagine and me a politician) and of course when we had a few quid being able to have our dinner in the College Bar and a wards roll

Has NUI Galway changed since you were here? It has by brother is currently studying medicine in Galway and of course the Labour Party has had a number of conferences on campus. The scale of the development around the campus , almost makes IT unrecognisable to me ....where has St Anthony's gone ??

How did attending NUI Galway develop you as a person? It was while i was attending NUI Galway that I joined the labour party and became politically active I was also elected to the SU so it certainly was a good training ground

‘Get SET’ Expo Science, Enterprise & Technology By the Careers Development Centre

This event provides the perfect once off opportunity for all Science, Enterprise and Technology companies to come together under one roof to collaborate, share ideas and information with students and recent graduates of NUI Galway. Date: March 4th 2014 Time: 12.30pm – 5.00pm Location: Bailey Allen Hall

What was the college newspaper like when you were in NUI Galway? Did you write for it? SIN was a great publication in my time but i have to say that my housemate Jennifer Allen was the editor. but it was the website that always captured peoples imagination before face book there was Mr. John Nolan and the 1st of the Digital Cameras !! It was a good read - a mixture of entertaining and informative. My friend was the Editor for a while so I know there were lots of allnighters put into its production.

How did your role in the Students’ Union set you up for your career after you left college?

The City of the Tribes has been around since 1124 and ever since has been a unique city of culture, music, sport and language. Everything in Galway is done to the extreme, whether it is the performances or the weather. What are stereotypical Galway traits? After being inundated with requests on how to be a Galwegian (because who doesn’t want to be one of us?), here is a quick guide on how to be a Galway stereotype. 1. If you haven’t been to Pearse Stadium, Pump Lane or the Galway races, you can’t consider yourself a Galway stereotype. 2. Galway is Irelands only city where hearing Irish spoken on the streets is perfectly normal, as is walking the streets with the trusted companion of a hurley. 3. The unusual mix of a vast rural area and a significant urban one results in a funny combination of competent culchies. It’s an exquisite mix of acting serious in not taking ourselves too seriously. 4. Then there’s the music. We know and love music. While there’s rarely an agreement on the genre you can also trust the old reliable of ‘The Saw Doctors’ and of course ‘Mundy’ with ‘Galway Girl’ (origi-

nally a Steve Earl song). We appreciate music and find it odd to walk down Shop Street and not see at least one busker on the way. 5. We’re always up for the craic. Galway people realise that means enjoyment rather than the drug and know exactly where to go to have a laugh (although really if you’re Irish you should know that). Swimming in Salthill and jumping off Blackrock diving board is so typically Galway it’s programmed in our DNA. A hint of sun and we arrive down in droves. It’s just second nature. 6. The presence of one of Ireland’s major Universities results in a massive student population, bringing people in from all over the country and beyond. It also makes Galway seem a lot more liberal and welcoming, attracting hippies and eccentrics, who eventually settle down here. 7. A sense of humour and of community will also be found in each Galway stereotype. If you ever leave you’ll receive a huge send-off and be welcomed back in similar extraordinary terms.

Galway is wonderfully unique, and above all, the Galway stereotypes are good people.

Well after college I went to UCC and studied to become a Social Worker and worked in that field for 6 years , I believe that the experience of dealing with peoples difficulties, being engaged in information campaigns etc while in the SU directly led me to my career in Social Work .

Do you think the SU is a good way for students to get involved in college life? Absolutely it is a great way to get to know what is going on on campus, as well as embedding yourself into being part of the college community

Do you ever miss NUI Galway? ALL THE TIME -it was some of the best time of my life so far.....I recently got married Dec 2013 and there were plenty of old college buddies and stories flying around that night

Did you ever get in trouble while you were here? ahemmmmm no ,but i think the key thing was i never got caught and rag week antics don’t count right ?

What advice would you give to current NUI Galway students? Enjoy it Galway is a good mix of academia and of good old fun , it is great the opportunities that students get while being from being involved in Clubs and or Societies .

If you could go back and do it all again, what would you do differently? No probably not but I should say something like study a bit harder and not have left my essay submissions to the very last minute , always an all nighter involved

welc om

To a n e of the wly enhan ced c art bu am excitin il g new dings, wor pus with ne ld resea rch p class facil w state rogra mme ities and s for 2013 -2014

u o y k n tha

for their rldwide o w ding i n lum y in fun To our a I Galwa cts on campus U N r fo n roje ambitio major p f these o y n a m

stay

connected With the Alumni Association and support NUI Galway’s vision for the future For more information on priority projects, events & activities contact Galway University Foundation. Visit us @ www.guf.ie l www.nuigalway.ie/alumni l T: 091 493536 Find us on Facebook and join National University of Ireland Galway on LinkedIn

16 Features

Sin Vol. 15 Issue 10

Student Speak By Siobhan Whitehead With the university buzzing over student elections, we decided to go out and ask students about the student levy. Students were asked: “Where do you think the student levy goes?” Azzimi Sohedein, Biotechnology I don’t have any idea.

Eoin Thornton, English, French and Film It’s not something I have ever thought of. I would guess it’s a government levy; so the money goes into the government and is redistributed to the colleges.

Elaine Nic Reamoinn, Professional Diploma The Students’ Union, I think.

Brend an Histor McNelis, A rts – y and I woul Geog d n r ’t aph b e able that be to ans y cause wer I have n If I tr o idea ied to . look it probab up I ly cou ld find out.

Jenna Pratt, Professional Diploma I haven’t a clue.

David McEnroe, English and Psychology Flood defences. Johnathon McIntyre, Ph ysics I suppose th e wages of Students’ Un the ion. I’m not totally sure – wasted I su ppose!

ck Michael O’Brien and Ja ry to His MA d, ar Be It goes to the college hospitality budget. Meanwhile, the students can’t even afford a drink anymore.

Students' Union Election Special

Everything you need to know about the upcoming SU Elections & referenda in twelve pages of interviews and features

Candidate Interviews

Opinion & Features

Referenda & Debates

The roles according to the Students’ Union Constitution

The Importance of SU Elections

Referendum on the Students’ Union Position on the Issue of Abortion

Students' Union President Declan Higgins Paul Jigs O’Donnell Stephen Duff Jack McDonnell Vice President for Welfare Aoife Ní Shúilleabháin Paddy McDonald Tam Alan O’Dowd Vice President for Education Conor Fitzgibbon Phelim Kelly

Are SU elections just a popularity contest? What’s it like in GMIT? What does USI do for us and our SU? Reeling in the Years: The SU

And More!

Referendum on the Students’ Union Position on the campaign of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against the State of Israel

Inside

VOTE on March 6th See back page for eveything you need to know about voting

2 Election SPecial Referendum on the Students’ Union Position on the Issue of Abortion

Vote YES

By Enoch Burke

On Thursday March 6th, you will be asked to vote on a proposal that the NUI Galway Students’ Union adopt a neutral position on abortion. At a time of economic difficulty, when students stand in the front line of cuts, we need a union that represents every student. A neutral union would commit the SU to what really matters – fighting for access to a quality education for all - and leaving divisive issues out of the picture. Free from advocating issues which the student body is not unified on, the SU could go forward with a renewed focus: to fight for the rights of a 17,000-strong unified student body. The Students’ Union at NUI Galway has only three full-time officers – the President, the Education Officer and the Welfare Officer. This means only one full-time representative for ca. 5,500 students. Such a statistic represents staggeringly poor representation, in a world of rising fees, smaller margins, tighter budgets and students “caught in the middle.” In the realm of student education, which is being influenced more and more by a corporate culture which more often than not does not have student’s best interests at heart, the burden of responsibility on full-time officers is intense. Put simply, the last thing which the President, the Education Officer and the Welfare Officer need is distraction – distraction from a representative role where so much is at stake. There are students at NUI Galway whose accommodation is cold, because they cannot afford another heating bill. There are students whose resources are being squeezed yet again as SUSI delays their grant or worse, halves the funding they expected to receive. There are students who know that this year at NUI Galway will be the last because the ends just simply don’t meet, who cannot afford the luxury of textbooks, bus transport and the latest laptop. Such students need hands-on support, not political slogans. They need full-time representatives to fight on their behalf, not political manoeuvring. It is a mockery of their plight to dilute the support of the SU and its officers, by hijacking it for political ends, as last year’s referendum did. Yes for neutrality. It is a call for neutrality on issues which divide rather than unite. At heart, it is a celebration of freedom of speech. In light of the ongoing protest at the college regarding the ripping of posters, the motion sets the stage for an academic environment where diversity of opinion can grow and thrive, making, as John F. Kennedy said, “the world safe for diversity.” Acknowledging that such diversity exists, we can make our unity on what counts stronger. In a student body replete with diversity, with many nationalities and ethnicities represented, no one view of abortion should be imposed on the students as a whole. Some students are in favour of partial-birth abortion and last trimester abortion. A considerable contingent of students in the SU holds to a polar opposite view of abortion.

The average student, whatever their views on abortion, has no desire to impose their particular view on a dissenting fellow student. They are here to learn and live, and are glad of the opportunity to do so free from intimidation or manipulation. Seeking to enshrine this debate in the prison cage of abortion services and women’s rights is unhelpful and misleading. This referendum is not about giving extra rights, but about protecting the most precious right of the student at university – that of freedom of belief and freedom of speech – so that the crucial issues of the SU can be attended to. To confuse the real issues in the name of women’s rights is dishonesty at best and conspiracy at worst. Too many referendums of the SU generate heat without light, emotion without reason. Refuse to be led by arguments from a bare passion. Thursday’s vote will decide only one

On Thursday 6th March you will be asked to vote in a referendum on whether or not the Students’ Union adopts a neutral position with regard to abortion. The wording which will appear on the ballot paper, requiring a Yes / No answer, will be: Do you agree with the following proposition:

Vote NO

By Sarah McCarthy

Last year, NUI Galway students voted overwhelmingly in favour of our union adopting a pro-choice position. Over 70% of votes cast agreed that our union should play an active role in the campaign for reproductive rights in Ireland. However we are being asked to vote on the issue again, just one year later. On Thursday 6 March, you will be asked to vote on whether the pro-choice position should be repealed and a “neutral” position adopted. Why should you vote No? First of all, it’s important to consider what a truly “neutral” position on abortion would look like. “Pro-choice” does not

Déardaoin, an 6 Márta, iarrfar ort vótáil i reifreann ar Sheasamh Chom haltas na Mac Léinn ar Cheist an Ghinmhillte. Is mar seo a leanas a chuirfear an cheist ort ar an bpáipéar ballóide, agus beidh ortsa freagra Tá / Níl a thabhairt uirthi: An bhfuil tú ag toiliú leis an moladh seo a leanas:

“That NUI Galway Students’ Union repeal the result of RFC13/1 (position on Abortion), which mandated the Students’ Union to adopt an active pro-choice position in relation to abortion.

“Go n-aisghairfidh Comhaltas an Mac Léinn, OÉ Gaillimh toradh RFC13/1 (Seasamh ar Cheist an Ghinmhillte), a thug mar údarás do Chomhaltas an Mac Léinn glacadh le seasamh gníomhach ‘ar son na rogha’ ar cheist an ghinmhillte.

Henceforth, the Students’ Union shall adopt a neutral position with regard to abortion.”

Glacfaidh Comhaltas na Mac Léinn le seasamh neodrach ar cheist an ghinmhillte as seo amach.

This referendum has been requested by 500 members of the Students’ Union in accordance with the Students’ Union Constitution, Article 16.

Tá an reifreann seo iarrtha ag 500 ball de chuid Chomhaltas na Mac Léinn de bhun Alt 16 de Bhunreacht Chomhaltas na Mac Léinn.

thing: whether or not we want to affirm that the hundreds of students who believe that the life of an unborn baby is sacred should be on board rather than disenfranchised, motivated rather than misrepresented by a union who will bring all students together to fight for relevant issues that affect us all. The mission of the Students’ Union has failed if students from Donegal to Dublin to Kerry cannot join hands, regardless of background or belief, in an effort to ensure that the next generation of students can enjoy the same and better access to the education they have enjoyed. Voting Yes on Thursday 6th will insure that the SU leads the way in creating and fostering unity on campus, rather than taking sides on divisive issues. Most of all, voting Yes is a vote in your best interests for a representative and inclusive SU that will carry us, together, forwards to focus on what really matters.

mean “pro-abortion”; it is a broad stance which encompasses many points of view. It is about realising that every child should be wanted, and that forcing a woman to go through with a pregnancy she does not want is simply wrong. Equally, it is about striving for a society in which all people have the support they need to have the children they want. Crucially, it is about trusting women to make decisions about their own lives for themselves. It is about respect and equality, values we should be proud to uphold. Conversely, to fail to adopt any stance on the issue of abortion in Ireland is equivalent to supporting our current laws which cause severe hardship for thousands of women. Every year over 5,000 women are forced to travel from this island to UK abortion clinics, and many more have to order abortion pills online. This includes increasingly large

numbers of students. We are facing rising fees, cuts to grants, and the disastrous SUSI system which has left many still without their grant. We have reached the point where so many students are on the brink of poverty that many SUs have begun handing out food boxes. How many of us could easily find the €500 - €2,500 needed to travel; and at short notice? Many are simply deciding to order abortion pills online and self-administer at home. While a medical abortion is a very safe procedure when done in the first nine weeks of pregnancy, this is hardly an ideal situation. One student from Dublin described her experience; “I couldn't afford to travel to the UK, so took the abortion pill at home at seven weeks pregnant... It was enormously stressful waiting for it to arrive... [It was] very stressful to take the pill with no medical supervision... Later I went to a family planning clinic for a check-up and they advised for me to have an ultrasound check. As a student I couldn't afford it so I just had some blood tests and hoped everything would be okay.” A consistent theme in such accounts is the loneliness and isolation that most women feel. Many speak of the anger they felt at having to hide their decision and others describe how they just wanted to be able to go home to their own bed. “Neutrality” will not help these women. It is important to be clear that Ireland’s laws against abortion do not prevent Irish abortion. We have a typical abortion rate, close to that of Britain. We need to face up to the reality that our restrictive abortion laws only work to place the most vulnerable women in a desperate situation when facing an unwanted pregnancy. If we adopt a “neutral” position, we will be effectively supporting this injustice. Students’ Unions have a long history of being at the forefront of the fight for reproductive rights. For decades they sold condoms illegally, and many gave out information about abortion against widespread public pressure and legal challenges. Senator Ivana Bacik almost went to jail for doing so. In Galway, the NUI Galway SU was heavily involved in setting up the first Family Planning Clinic, amid much controversy. For years the national Union of Students in Ireland (USI) has had an explicitly pro-choice position and in the past couple of years Trinity, UCD, IADT and DCU have all adopted the same stance. From gay liberation to women’s rights to natural resources, Students’ Unions have been instrumental in pushing Irish society forward, and they have always taken progressive positions long before they became the norm. A pro-choice stance is the natural position for our SU to take, and we shouldn’t be afraid of dealing with the tough issues. Make sure our union keeps up the good work; vote NO on Thursday.

Election Special 3 Position on the campaign of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against the State of Israel

Vote YES By Andrew Brennan

It was Edmund Burke who first uttered the immortal phrase “the only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing”. This moral edict, imbued with duty and carrying the gravity of responsible action, now more than ever stands in the world as a factual statement. When Apartheid South Africa would no longer be tolerated by vast masses of citizenry, slowly but surely South Africa’s political allies, who were complacent in immoral action, were made induce a Boycott scheme. This policy led to the isolation and eventual capitulation of the Apartheid political system of South Africa catering for Mandela to helm the era of the ‘Rainbow Nation’. The same tactic must now be employed against an antagonistic Apartheid Israel. This article may carry a sardonic tone. This is because of the utter need for the BDS tactic to be instilled internationally. No university should be complacent in acknowledging and not acting against the crimes of the Israeli entity which gains economically through the conquest of another people’s land. This is settler colonization plain and simple. Rapacious violations by Israel regarding illegal land acquisition, through false security pretenses, have allowed Israel to establish businesses in colonized lands. Israel is effectively creating produce and profit off of stolen lands where many Palestinians and Bedouins have been irrevocably displaced from their homes and left destitute in seas of tented towns. Israel has violated the Why River agreements, made a laughing stock of the Oslo Accords and is collectively punishing an entire society with the illegal embargo on Gaza. Israel has flagrantly ignored tomes of international doctrine specifically the Geneva Convention. Israel has also arrogantly flouted the 4th Hague Convention of 1907: Respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land with its settlement policy. The 4th Hague Convention forbade an occupying power from undertaking “permanent changes in an occupied area unless due to military needs in the narrowest sense of the term, or unless changes are undertaken for the benefit of the local population.” In fact ‘humanitarian customary law’ obliges Israel, as the occupying power, to protect the property of residents (Palestinians) of the occupied area and prohibits Israel from expropriating Palestinian lands. Any possession of privately owned land is by definition temporary and Israel is not entitled to sell lands to ‘others’. Israel however builds settlements such as ‘Gilo’ or ‘Ma’ale Adumim’ and then sells the houses to Israeli’ citizens only, excluding Palestinians from the services these settlements provide thus instilling segregation as a housing policy. This is in brazen defiance of the Hague Convention as Palestinians don’t benefit but are excluded. To transport populations into occupied land is also internationally forbidden so Israel provides settlers and business entrepreneur’s incentives, tax breaks and welfare supplements to live, to work and invest in annexed land. These actions are egregious but our inaction through letting our nation’s government’s or for a better word ‘administrators’ is also an odious crime.

Israel perniciously expands its territorial identity through land appropriation, security areas (S.S.A’s) and the duplicitous zoning of nature reserves. Such calculated actions leave Palestinians living in ghettos, an irony as the term ghetto was originally used in Venice to describe the Jewish segment where Jews were restricted and segregated. However, ‘cantons’ is the public relations term Israel prefers to use if they even acknowledge this fact in the first place. As Israel intentionally seeks to permanently alter the demographics of illegally held territories, its actions are tacitly disliked by most and overtly critiqued by some. We must now staunchly and rigidly challenge Israel with the same ferocity as Israel ignores international law. If Israel holds itself as a pariah of superiority and religious promise, accountable to none, and self-imposes the right to instill state sponsored segregation through laws and erroneous human rights abuse, then we should treat Israel as a pariah and exclude them completely from the international community.

On Thursday 6th March you will be asked to vote in a referendum on whether or not the Students’ Union adopts a position in support of the campaign of “Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against the State of Israel”. The wording which will appear on the ballot paper, requiring a Yes / No answer, will be: Do you agree with the following proposition:

Vote NO

By Valeri Tarassov

So it is that time of the year again, when our representatives in NUI Galway Students’ Union have decided to get involved in world politics. Yes the politics of the Israeli government can be at the very least described as controversial. But here I am trying to figure out how that involves us as NUI Galway students; how such actions may benefit us? As far as I remember, the main task and goal for any Students’ Union is the wellbeing of their students their welfare and possibly even their further careers. But we will circle back to that a little bit later. Ireland is supposed to be a neutral country; we did not even take sides during World War II. So why does the Students’ Union suddenly become so active and interested

Déardaoin, an 6 Márta, iarrfar ort vótáil i reifreann ar Sheasamh Chom haltas na Mac Léinn ar an bhfeachtas Baghcatála, Dífheistithe agus Smachtbhannaí i gcoinne Stát Iosrael. Is mar seo a leanas a chuirfear an cheist ort ar an bpáipéar ballóide, agus beidh ortsa freagra Tá / Níl a thabhairt uirthi: An bhfuil tú ag toiliú leis an moladh seo a leanas:

“That NUI Galway Students’ Union actively supports the campaign of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against the State of Israel.”

“Go dtacóidh Comhaltas na Mac Léinn, OÉ Gaillimh leis an bhfeachtas Baghcatála, Dífheistithe agus Smachtbhannaí i gcoinne Stát Iosrael.”

This referendum has been requested by 500 members of the Students’ Union in accordance with the Students’ Union Constitution, Article 16.

Tá an reifreann seo iarrtha ag 500 ball de chuid Chomhaltas na Mac Léinn de bhun Alt 16 de Bhunreacht Chomhaltas na Mac Léinn.

Isolation will affect Israel, Israeli’s fear such an action as this will be the precedent that announces their hubris will no longer be tolerated. Their economy will not be able to sustain such an onslaught as their produce from occupied regions would rot in shipping containers much like they let aid rot in hills of containers bound for Gaza but still idle in the Negev. Lack of investments to Israel will hurt their ability to create jobs for their people while still producing military hardware every day, they may have to think which is more important and their citizen will not like their jobs laying by the roadside as a new tank is rolled out. Finally, sanctions will hold Israel to account and for every amoral deed they allow, an economic penalty will occur. How can society combat such ills thrust upon a powerless people contained within ghettos? Simple, to use Israeli language ‘cut out the tumour’ and boycott Israel from the international community. Israel will recognise the language and what it means for its future.

in the life of a different state? Do we really have enough evidence and intelligence to understand the problem fully? How can we judge when the main source of information is coming from media and the human rights advocates “from the other side”? Or is it something people would discuss in a pub, moan about it and later forget, while battling the morning hangover? As a matter of fact, that is a course of action in most cases. When our own government makes decisions that hurt their citizens, we do the same; we drink we moan and we go and sleep it off. So one must ask, why suddenly such activity? I understand that the result of a positive vote in such a referendum would mean G4S, a private security firm that operates in Israel, being unable to provide services on campus. G4S is currently responsible for Corrib Village accommodation. So did G4S

hurt someone’s feelings in the Students’ Union, maybe by not allowing someone to do something …? A successful boycott would also mean that Israeli academics would not be able to visit our college. I don’t know how the SU feels about it, but if any of the research academics in politics or science want to come and lecture, I would love to hear what they have to say; I am sure it can be very educational. And how are academics involved in Israeli politics? I do not see the connection. They are not controlling the political decisions or the life of the country; they research and they teach. And as Israel is the leader in producing very cool electronic devices for civilian and military purposes it would be great to learn what they know. If you want to protest and show that you are against what is happening between Israel and Palestine, travel to their Embassy and protest the hell out of it, or if you are really brave how about standing with a placard outside the Mossad headquarters? Why not – they are the ones who run the show. Oh no, sometimes we are even too scared to protest against our own government. Do not make our students take sides. Do not deprive them of the potential academic knowledge and relationships; maybe some of us would like to visit Tel Aviv University and we surely do not want to listen to any remarks regarding our actions. And if history has thought us anything, Israelis forget nothing. Circling back to potential employment issues, do we really not know that there are a lot of Jewish communities around the world, and they do read? They are sometimes on very high positions in private enterprises and government institutions around the world. It seems that most of us will have to look for employment abroad after graduation; I do not want to have a diploma from a University that has been involved in a boycott like this. As I mentioned before, people who determine hiring do read, and if they are of Israeli origin, how do you think it will work out? And finally, will it change anything? Even considering that Israelis are over the line with their actions, will this boycott change anything? I don’t think that Mossad and Israeli government will determine their actions based on our opinion, so we are really not helping anyone, are we? This is like a University pro-choice referendum, sure we had a cool campaign and even spent a few euros on it, but hey, abortion is still not very much legal in Ireland. In my opinion, stop making fools out of yourself and your students. It is a different country and it is their business. We have no say in it. Do what has to be done to maintain wellbeing of your students and leave the world politics and international relations to the grown-ups.

4 Election SPecial DEBATE: Students’ Union elections are popularity contests and don't really make that much of a difference YES: SU elections are becoming hollow spectacles

NO: SU elections actually make a difference

By Leigh Ashmore

By Ciara Treacy

I'm not against having an SU. Students should be able to organize against things like attacks on university funding, services and the accessibility of education. But now that the elections are coming up, it's time to ask where our SUs have been going wrong. Fees are still increasing, grants are being whittled away and services cut back on. It would seem that the inability to combat these threats to the everyday lives of students signals a failure on the part of SUs nationally and make the upcoming elections seem like hollow popularity contests. The one promise that comes up on every campaign leaflet, without fail, is the promise to fight fees. It’s gotten to the point where noone could seriously run for the SU without making some vague promise to fight fees. And that’s the problem. The election promise to fight fees is a vague promise with no real direction, plan of action or strategy to help carry it out into reality. What we’ve seen, not just in NUI but in universities across the country, is a failure to engage with students politically and get them active in a consistent defence against the commodification of education by this government. Third level fees will soon reach the stage where they’ll cost a solid €3,000. Irish SU’s have largely failed to deal with this threat. Rather than an effective campaign against third level fees, what students see most of the time is a weak-willed, feeble effort at resistance. For the past few years, the USI and other Students’ Unions have been engaged in a largely toothless campaign to fend off the rise in third level fees. This includes having a planned march up to Leinster House, making a few speeches calling Ruairi Quinn a liar, and then quietly retreating back to their individual universities to use the drinks vouchers handed out earlier in the college bar. USI marches have become so sanitized and formulaic that members of the government don't really feel threatened by them anymore, they just know that they can wait until 6:30 and student protestors will have left in their buses home. The only people really affected are the people who have to clean up the litter in the wake of these marches. I’m not saying that there haven’t been people in individual SUs who haven’t been genuine about protesting third level fees, but the term has been said so often but put into action so little that it’s quickly becoming meaningless. If you’re approached by an SU candidate who has ‘Fight Fees’ on their leaflet, they should be immediately asked what is their

strategy, how do they plan to get it done and where the anti-fees movement has gone wrong in the past. I remember my first year in NUI Galway. When the SU elections came around, the concourse was filled with canvassers, human barriers handing out leaflets and wearing bright garish t-shirts. That’s fine, but they were also handing out sweets, lollipops and chocolate bars. I remember one canvasser had a puppy that students could pet in exchange for their man’s vote. There was no political edge to it, no engagement with students on issues, it consisted basically of ‘Here’s some free things, vote for X’. The idea of people handing out ‘sweeteners’ to promote their campaign became such a point of contention that it was eventually banned, though some later candidates managed to get around it one way or another. This still lingers on today, with frequent canvassers telling me how much craic their candidate is rather than what they actually believe in. It’s hardly a bold statement to make, to say that student politics is a home for careerists. Look at the austerity-championing politicians and poverty-spreading ministers who were once leaders in their third level years. Eamon Gilmore, Pat Rabitte, Ruairi Quinn, Michael Martin etc. all spent their formative years flying the banner of students’ rights before becoming the establishment pillars against things like the right to an education. As I’ve said, I’m not for destroying the SU, though maybe in its current incarnation. The SU needs to be used as a tool to legitimately take on the power structures in Irish society who are effectively turning the right of education into a product that can be bought or sold. It’s not enough to just have a national march once a year and then put that down as a staggering blow to the rise of fees. I'm sure there are people who've canvassed in the last few elections who can rhyme off the best points of the SU, yet the fact remains that SUs nationally are struggling to make any impact on the rise in college fees. Until a real, powerful plan is put into place to fight the idea that college education should be a privilege, SU elections will merely be popularity contests.

“Sure I didn’t see that last crowd all year”, “it's only people from X Society and Y Society that get elected” and “voting won't make any difference” are some of the cleaner statements one overhears during the week of Students’ Union Elections. In my time involved with several aspects of the most divisible week in NUI Galway, I've heard it all, worn the t-shirt (literally) and have also seen how every argument made against the Students’ Union is done so in vain. The most common argument made by Election-Sceptics is that the race for the three full-time positions is a popularity contest, with the most recognisable faces on campus succeeding at the count. Firstly if you happen to recognise the names on the ballot paper from societies/clubs/general campus events this surely cannot come as a surprise. Society members and class representatives are by their titles eager to get involved in campus activities and are generally well-informed about student issues as well as having dealt with the Union first-hand. Therefore for students with such a background to put themselves forward for election is an expected and almost natural progression. When one has seen the ins and outs of the Union up close, it’s easier to identify areas of improvement and problems which need to be addressed (not to say some ego-massaging isn't considered in the process at times too). I’m not saying that candidates with this experience are always best for the job, but there’s a valid reason why they would choose to run in the first place. Any student, regardless of experience, can contest them and should they lose this does not brand them victims of ‘popularity contests’. NUI Galway is celebrated for its diversity and for every big shot who thinks everyone knows him, there are far more who couldn’t pick him out of a police line-up. Just because people are well-known, doesn't necessarily mean they are well-liked and definitely does not guarantee they will win by virtue of their name or reputation. I have seen how initial favourites have lost out due to resting on their laurels for the week while newcomers put their all into a campaign which they are rewarded for at the polls. Last year’s elections in particular had so

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many candidates that even former executives got quashed at the polls by others with less experience. Anyone can win it in the week; it's just how you go about it. If we stick to the real meaning of popular, as someone who is well liked by many people, then yes you could say popular people win. Candidates who are most likeable for their personalities and/or manifestos, not because of their appearance or attendance at Galway’s nightclubs, will be victorious because they will be the most approachable to deal with as a full-time officer. It’s the students who vote, and while turnout was an improvement last year it’s still obscenely low in proportion to those who don’t vote. It’s incredible that students don’t show up to vote for a Union which governs more aspects of their daily student lives than they even realise. Think of the very seat in Smokey's you're reading this from – the Students’ Union provided this service and the SU President is the Chairperson of the Commercial Services who run it. To say the officers don't make a difference is an admission of ignorance to all the work that goes on behind the scenes daily in order to help individual students and the student population as a whole. Because you don't see them all the time proves just how busy they are – wouldn't it be more worrying if you saw them loitering around in the Concourse every day? The reality is they’re in their offices dealing with enormous amounts of case work, in talks with everyone from students to staff, attending USI meetings and dealing with the media regarding areas of national student interest. Before you complain you didn’t get an immediate email response from one of these officers, think of all the students with personal issues dealing with the Welfare Officer, those with serious academic problems with the Education Officer, and the lobbying done by the President to protect us students from damaging policies and proposed cuts to services. A lot of the individual work can't be publicised for obvious reasons but anyone who has approached the SU with a problem will nearly always come out with high praise for their sensitivity and dedication to helping students. Perhaps some need clarification on the real role of the SU and what they can and can’t achieve, and this is something the Union could improve upon. They are not in charge of the gym, or security, or the weather, but they will be a support for you, sticking firmly by the mantra “an injury to one is an injury to all”. And if you’re still not convinced, you can always vote for RON.

Election Special 5 What does USI do for us and our SU? By Hanna Macken The NUI Galway Students’ Union remains affiliated with the Union of Students in Ireland, but others have questioned this and sought to become disaffiliated in the past. Of what benefit is it to us that our SU remains a part of this national Student’s union? Is it really worth our while to stay with them and what becomes of the SUs that become disaffiliated? The most obvious benefit to an SU being part of the USI is that it offers students and SUs a united body, with which to act. This is generally of use when there is something being done to undermine the value and importance of education in the country. The USI has had its hand in many rallies and protests over the years; the benefit of this

is that there is a united front. If this was not the case, these protests would probably be less organised, with more small protests rather than singular large ones. The best publicised and attended in the past have been held in protest to increased fees and cuts in education grants. A collective union in the face of adversity can be more effective as it will be more visible, therefore taken more seriously. “Imagine an organisation that represents 250,000 students. Imagine having national campaigns that can attract media attention that no student or students’ union could do alone… If we want to make change, we need to be united, because truly ‘Together we are Stronger’!” said NUI Galway SU President, Sean Kearns in his testimonial for USI for the

DCU referendum on affiliation. A service the USI provides is training to SUs. This training includes helping the SU to provide helpful information to those in need of assistance. This is of benefit to the SU and students as it makes for an effective and efficient service to students. USI runs many campaigns throughout the year that would already be undertaken by many SUs already, but with the added emphasis of being done as a national organisation. These campaigns range from mental and sexual health awareness to the addressing of equality issues. The ‘More Talk, More Action’ Mental Health Campaign is an example of where a campaign by USI is undertaken by member SUs to tackle the issues surrounding mental health. A campaign of

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this type would generally be undertaken by the SU anyway but being a member of USI, they will provide material and information packs to their members to distribute. This is also the case with Shag week, where there is the week of sexual health promotion. The USI will gather information and necessary items, producing an information pack to be distributed to the student body by the individual SU. This streamlining of campaigns could be both financially and time effective. The USI is heavily involved in advocating for the rights of students in areas such as welfare and education. They also advocate on other issues in the wider public sphere with the focus on their impacts on students. One such area is in the equality of students. The USI has an advantage to SUs as it is regarded by government and other bodies as being the official voice and representation of students in Ireland. “USI is recognised by Government, industry and institutional representative groups as the voice of students on a national level. USI represents students on the board of Higher Education Authority – the state agency that funds the universities and advises the Government on higher education policy, the IUQB (Irish Universities Quality Board) and the NQAI (National Qualifications Authority of Ireland) – the agencies that ensure your degree is recognised internationally and that your own institutes quality assurance exceeds global quality assurance standards.” (USI, 2012) UCD is one college where a referendum took place on remaining affiliated with USI or not, and the outcome was to disaffiliate. This was an unexpected outcome. The disaffiliation of the SU there, however, has had little impact to the day to day running and services to the students. There is the same student welfare-driven mentality and service. There are many things that are the same, such as; working for equality, mental health awareness and student health issues in general.

The Importance of SU Elections By Mark Kelly It’s that time of the year. The time of the year when you can’t walk anywhere on campus without some person in a colourful t-shirt trying to hand you a leaflet and asking you to vote for some person whose name is on said t-shirt. I know it can be annoying but we are here to tell you why reading that leaflet and casting your vote is actually really important. The Students Union is made up of three full-time officers and 12 part-time officers. The full-time officers (or sabbatical officers) get paid for their work and do a 40-hour week (at least). These are the guys who will have people in t-shirts during the week. The full-time officers are very important. The Education Officer deals with any problems students may have with lecturers, staff, etc. They will also lobby the Government and College heavily to get more supports for students, keep fees down, ensure the grant is protected and paid on time, etc. The Welfare Officer is there for any students in distress. They are also there to run campaigns to tell students about healthy living, lobbying the college for better facilities to keep up students’ physical and mental health, as well the Government. The President sits on the SU Commercial Services board (which runs things like the College Bar, Smokeys etc.) and other boards, specifically ones in the University that make decisions that concern students. They run executive meetings of the SU and are in charge of finances. They are also the go-to person for media and journalists when a news story needs a student’s perspective. The part-timers also do stellar work from promoting Irish Language to representing their own college’s students and class reps. So do you see the point yet? Voting in SU elections is extremely important. You may not hear about all the work that the SU does for you throughout the year, but that just means that they are doing such a good job that you don’t see any problems, because the exec have already made sure that any potential problems for students are dealt with early. They are working their hardest to ensure that you have the best college experience (academically and socially). So it’s best to have your say. You should vote for the candidate you think will do the best job and seems most dedicated to the role. Those people annoying you in the t-shirts and giving you leaflets are doing so because they believe that the person they are helping is the best person for the job, which in itself should speak volumes about the candidate. There is no reason not to vote. It takes less than five minutes out of your day with polling stations open all around campus. Your vote can make all the difference and rest assured that every vote you give a person makes them feel honoured – even if they don’t win – so your vote will never be for nothing. Voting also allows your voice to be heard. Whether it be in the referendums or the elections, having your voice heard is a very important part of being a member of the students union! Also, by not voting the person you wanted to win may lose, the referendum goes the way you didn’t want it to, you don’t get a sticker etc. So when those people come up to you, hand you a leaflet and ask for you to vote for their candidate, don’t get annoyed. Take the leaflet, ask questions, smile at the people (it makes all the difference for them too) and make a proper, informed decision on the day.

6 Election SPecial Candidates for the position of Students' Union President Declan Higgins Interview by Marcus Mac Dhonnagáin What are your reasons for running for President? When I started off as Welfare Officer, I did not see myself running for the position of President. Then, as the year went by, and I began to see a common theme emerging through case work: students are hurting. It can be hard as Welfare Officer trying to effect change at this level, which got me thinking ‘You can continue fighting for students as president’. We had a lot of difficulties during the year in ensuring that general access to the Student Health Unit remains free, and this and others, are battles we can and will win. Experience is so important in terms of knowing the internal politics of this university and the battles ahead and I know, if I am elected, I will be able to provide leadership in a time of such uncertainty.

What are your main objectives if you're elected?

My main objectives are to engage with the University management to advance the Student Economic Impact Survey, to form a Students’ Union team and thus a university community based on mutual respect, courage and understanding, to foster a hope that the future indeed holds something for us all, to engage locally in our community to ensure mental health, something close to my own heart, is kept at the forefront so students know they are never alone. We have the fifth highest rate of youth suicide in the EU; we need to hold the powers that be to account to bring this down before we have any more needless tragedies. Many people are falling through the gaps in services and the Financial Aid Fund; I have seen this through my work on the FAF Committee – we need to create a fairer, more transparent system where those who are most in need to not fall between the two stools of the university and the student body. I will protect and develop Student Union Commercial Services so they exist for students, with input from the students. We have taken a hammering in recent years, and people are disheartened. We need to undertake big entertainment events, such as the one organised by this year’s Union, to ensure everyone remembers their time here in a positive light. If elected, these are my main objectives, among others, for the coming year.

With regard to your manifesto, you say you want to protect the Health Unit as

a front line service for those in need. How do you plan to do this?

Coming into our term in office, students had one seat on the Board of the Health Unit. Now we have two, one for the President and Welfare Officer. We have held firm in our belief that the Unit is an integral front line service. I have personally walked people in to the Health Unit, and seen the great work they do in very difficult circumstances. Free general access to our Health Unit was agreed as part of our RAG Week agreement with the University – we have and will hold them to account in their commitments to ensure this remains the case and we will engage at all levels to protect our most vulnerable students.

You also say you want to lobby for an undertaking of a Student Economic Impact Survey to measure the value students bring to the local community. Why do you want to lobby for this? So often we take a hammering in the media, and much of the good work and our massive contribution to the city and community get lost in the mix. A SEIS would establish clearly our contribution to the community and local economy and give us significant leverage in negotiating and help shed light on the very positive effect we have on this city.

You additionally want to foster a strategic alliance with GMIT's SU. What impact could a stronger alliance between the two SUs have on students in Galway? An alliance with GMIT SU would provide massive benefits in terms of presenting a united front for all our students on some issues. This would be discussed further with our executive to set out the nature of it, as we are two separate Unions with some different aims, yet I believe this could provide massive mutual benefits for all our members as many of our aims are shared aims that we can work together on. There would be absolutely no loss of independence and it would seek to work in much the same way as in previous years.

Is there anything else you'd like to add?

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the students of NUI Galway for their trust over the past year and I do hope that you will again trust me to be your President. I truly believe, with the experience of last year, and a passion to move forward, together, we can achieve great things next year.

Paul Jigs O’Donnell Interview by Leigh Ashmore What are your reasons for running for president? As a class rep, I saw that the Students’ Union was more proactive than it was previously, and I was inspired by how proactive the SU had become on social issues and taking position for social justice in society. I think that I could help that as that's something I'm passionate about, in that I work both outside of college and in college on these issues.

What are your main objectives if you're elected?

There are a number of objectives I would have. First of all, I would like to re-invent RAG Week. We agreed with the university that we would have a mini-festival in lieu of RAG Week. This is the first year that might actually happen because there was never any funding agreed to that. If I was elected as president next year, I would make that a festival of art, music and culture. I think that festivals can be really fantastic things; Body and Soul and Electric Picnic are fantastic examples of art, culture and music, and I think that it's something students would really enjoy, more than just going out for RAG Week and raising a small bit of money. The focus shouldn't be on alcohol, there should be a broad focus. It wouldn't take away from NUIG's many fantastic festivals but the idea would simply be that this mini-festival should also have the involvement of art and culture. Saving the health unit is a major priority. Hopefully that won't be an issue for me. Hopefully Sean and the executive manage to get somewhere with Jim Browne and the management. They have a very good proposal put together for a referendum decided by the students on whether or not they would increase the student levy by €10 which would then secure the health unit, and they would get to re-hire a doctor and a part-time nurse. It would bring back services we've already lost and secure the health unit into the future. Hopefully Jim Browne does agree to that, but if not, saving the health unit is something I would absolutely pursue. I would like to see a provision of emergency accommodation for students. For a number of reasons, students run into an emergency throughout the year, whether it be their parents are having financial difficulty, they lose a part time job, their grant is delayed, whatever. Some students have to drop out of university or sleep on the floors of friends' apartments, and I think the university could provide somewhere that would have short-term accommodation for students. It could be private flats; it could be up in Corrib Village. There are a number of options.

It wouldn't have to be a large amount of time; it would be an emergency provision. So it wouldn't be that the person would be there for an entire year. It would be that you're there for the end of semester when you run into trouble. One long term option that I would like to see is students having the option of spreading the stress and cost of their degree over a longer period. So instead of taking six modules every year, there would be the option to take four and the cost would be reduced if they took that option. Now that's something that would have to be negotiated, not just between NUIG and our management, but between the USI and the department of education. I wouldn't be able to get that done in a year but I would hope to see the start of a campaign. I think that would be particularly attractive for mature students, like myself, who have a lot of other obligations outside of university and I also think it would be attractive for students who have part-time jobs and find six modules a semester very stressful. Last year Sean had the idea of bringing in more free facilities for students; more microwaves and water-coolers. He started that process; it's a long process of getting the university's contracts amended and would like to continue that. I would also like to see much better cycling facilities on campus. One initiative that has worked fantastically in universities in England and the US is the idea of a SCOOP which stands for Student Co-Op. A student co-operative would sell local organic produce on campus. Students would be able to volunteer some time there and they would get produce at lower than commercial rates because the overheads for the SCOOP is reduced. It works very well in other universities and I think if it was given an opportunity here it would be a significant success.

Is there anything you'd like to add?

I always think that people can improve on the SU, because you'll have retrospect and prospective. I think the SU doesn't engage enough with regular students. That would be something I would try to do, to meet new students and to welcome other students back to the university, and to do lecture shout-outs in September and not just around the elections. I think more students would get involved with the union if they knew more about it, and I'll endeavour to do that. There's a project for a Galway botanical garden. This project has been planned for two years, hopefully built in five. While the union isn’t in the place to offer financial support, I believe the SU should support the building of a Galway botanical garden, I think it would be a fantastic thing for students to have.

Election Special 7 Candidates for the position of Students' Union President Stephen Duff Interview by Jenna Hodgins What are you reasons for running for Students’ Union President? I feel that there’s a lot of change that could be made in the union. I feel that if I was to get president that the first thing I’d enforce would be a four-year plan, for long-term goals as a union and hopefully maybe try succeed in these plans and breakdown some of the issues that students have in the long-term that maybe a one-year term mightn’t be able to fix. Also, I’d like to go for President because I worked my way up through college. I started in first year and was like any other first year who didn’t really do much in college and found myself in a bad old place. I’ve been involved in societies and I just feel it’s the next step. And I feel like so far representing business students in BizSoc, I want to be able to represent students as a whole. I’ve got a lot of ideas and I’ve got a lot of motivation and focus for the issues that students have. I feel like I’ve issues myself in college and I think I’ve had a lot of communication with other students in college to be in a position to help them.

What are you main objectives if you’re elected?

As I mentioned before: a four-year plan to focus on long term goals. For example, a basic example would be cut accommodation and landlord complaints by 50% in the four years. And this plan will be documented so the students can read it and see where we want to be in four years, and then after the four years have the revision of it that will also be documented so we can say “look, we’ve done this, this and this, but we haven’t done this and we need to put this into the next four-year plan” and ensure this is done. Another objective of mine is to do with sexual health and to build up awareness of sexual health and to talk about it, mainly STI checks. They’re readily available in the Student Health Unit. People are embarrassed to get checked so I want to break the taboo. We need to educate students about the service in order for them to use it! Something else I’d like to do is promote the counselling services and health services in college. They’ve done serious work over the past few years for myself, for a few of my friends, because we all know people who have had different problems in college and people don’t know that it’s there. They pass by it every day because it’s number 5 Distillery Road. Other things I’d like to do – Entertainment – I think NUIG is relying on the college bar a lot to provide it and relying foremost on societies to provide entertainment and a social side to

college. I propose a part time entertainments officer and promo team. We’re relying on societies such as the BizSoc, the LawSoc, such as the EngSoc who are voluntary students to put on massive shows. This year we’re gonna have the SU Ball, ‘Rock the Prom’ as we’re calling it. Not only should there be a big event each year but each week an event for students on campus. Facilities are there so why not use them!

You said about the Ents crew, are you planning on having the Ents crew as a voluntary position like societies?

I would look at the position as a part-time position in the union. I’d like to have a PromoEnts crew that will be voluntary but in the long run let’s look for a graphic designer, a head of promotions, but in the short-term let’s look for people who want to build up experience –Why not give them that experience? The people we have in the SocsBox who have endless amount of talent come production, come stage-management, come lighting, sound, booking agencies – let’s give them an opportunity. I’ve been working a lot with what I do myself, my booking agency, of bringing DJs to Galway. Why not also open up the college’s eyes to its own talent? NUIG is bursting with artists so why not give them an opportunity too?

In your manifesto you mention the student card replacement fee, how do you plan on decreasing the fee? I understand totally why they have a fee on the cards otherwise people would be just losing their cards. We need to have some sort of fee but I think €30 is a bit ridiculous. And it’s so easy to lose a card, we’ve all lost cards! If we could reduce it to €15 or €20 it’d be a starting point so this is something I would like to negotiate with the college.

You mention the raising prices of utility bills in your manifesto and the idea of saving money by offering more promotions with SU cards? You have your Student Union card, you top up the points for a general something. Why not let’s offer different promotions with your card? It’s starting to happen but why not – we have our own SU sandwiches, Galway water is on promotion anyway and a piece of fruit all for three euro. At the moment maybe you’re spending maybe €4.50 to 5 euro on something like that but now if you use your union card it’s only three euro. The SU card needs to be promoted in the same way as a value card in order for NUIG students to save money!

Jack McDonnell Interview by Helen Hughes What are your reasons for running for President? Running for President has been a long term ambition of mine and something I have always wanted to do. The main reason I want to and I know it’s a cliché, but I truly want to make a difference and leave a legacy. I feel the students of NUIG deserve to be well represented and I truly believe I am the President who can do this. What are your main aims and objectives if you're elected? There are several issues I feel truly passionate about – reducing student fees, establishing a Galway Student Day Event and improve entertainment on campus. Make grants information more readily available for those in need. Improve sport accessibility and make sporting amenities more readily available for students. Self-catering services around the college buildings. Bring back full GP service- Check Ups for students on a regular basis. How do you plan on getting students involved in the Union? Getting Students more involved in the Union is something I feel very passionate about and something I think we need to improve in our university. I plan on doing so by setting up various social and on campus events, making them accessible to all while also promoting all the hard work the Students’ Union does for the students. What do you see as being the key skills for this position and do you think you have them? I believe my leadership skills are one of my strongest points. This is thanks to my years of captaining underage football teams and leadership is truly a position I thrive in. I have also been a Student mentor while in NUIG and this is something I really enjoyed doing. Why should students elect you? I believe students should vote for me because I am hard-working, honest and dedicated to doing the best job I can. I will

strive to meet all the targets that I set and am fully committed to following through on all my promises. I think students should elect me because, given the opportunity, I will make a difference and represent each and every student to the best of my ability. Is there anything else that you'd like to add? I’d like to wish all the candidates the best of luck over the coming week. It’s very exciting for all of us and may the best man win. For those who know me, they know I love helping people and I am well capable of doing the job and implementing my policies. Everybody says they’ll fight to reduce fees. What’s your plan? I would like to build awareness by starting an informative campaign so as to give the students a greater scope of understanding on what their rights are and what they can do about the current situation. Students and parents deserve to know where their money is going. I want to take a different approach and move away from the bad image that the media has created out of the conflict seen in some of the student marches. We as the student body all want to achieve the same goal as regards reducing fees. We are the future of this country, and no one should be denied their right to education due to financial constraints. Tell me more about your plans for the Student Day event. As regards the Student Day that has Event, of course there will be a lot or organising in this; event so I cannot elaborate too much here. This could involve a number of charity-raising mini events throughout the day and then a concert in the evening with heavy security of course to monitor the event safely. How will you make grants information more readily available? I would run workshops for students on how to fill out forms correctly, different deadline dates etc. I would work with the Education officer to run troubleshooting clinics to resolve issues raised by SUSI quickly.

Up Next: Candidates for the position of Vice President for Welfare

8 Election SPecial Candidates for the position of Vice President for Welfare Aoife Ní Shúilleabháin

Paddy McDonald Tam students get taken for granted in the workplace but if students were to know of their rights and had a place to seek advice and support I believe it would really help combat that. Something else that I really want to introduce is a Meals for A Week Deal. Basically the idea is that you can buy all the ingredients for your dinners for a week for about €10. I think combining cooking workshops and a simple cookbook based entirely upon the ingredients available through this scheme would be very beneficial to our students.

In your manifesto you say you want to introduce 'Tóg go bog é' entertainment nights on campus promoting non-alcoholic activities. What sort of alternative entertainment do you have in mind?

Interview by Jenna Hodgins What are your reasons for running for Welfare?

I became interested in the role last semester just from seeing the work that Dec, our current Welfare Officer, did and the campaigns he ran. The funny thing about the SU is that the more you learn about it, the more likely you are to want to get involved. Just ask a few of the other candidates. I think sometimes in University all the focus is on exams and studying and results and we forget about the student as a person. I see the Welfare Officer as someone students can turn to in times of need; a person who is there to protect them and has only their best interest at heart. No other work is as valuable and rewarding as this. That's why I decided to run.

What are your main objectives if you're elected?

My main objective if elected is to have as many students as possible do the Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) course, especially Class Reps. If you look at the suicide rates amongst young people in Ireland they are shockingly high. 10 people a week die by suicide. Even when the road deaths' rates were at their highest, the suicide rates in this country are still higher than that. It infuriates me that our government does barely anything to combat this. But it is up to us to demand better support and resources. By setting out to have as many students as possible receive ASIST course we are making a start on this. I also want to introduce better Exam Stress Support. Exams can be a stressful time for students. I want to work with the university to try and get a better quality of study spaces, better deals on meals on campus and to try and have more counselling support available for students during exam time. I want to introduce the Safe Home Taxi Scheme this year. Where, if you find yourself with no money and needing to get home, you give a taxi driver your student card to arrange to pay for the fare at a later date during the week. This would help ensure the safety of our students and make sure they get home safe. I've also been speaking to We're Not Leaving, Galway about setting up a Student Workers' Forum. The idea is to create a forum where students can get information, advice and support regarding their jobs. I think sometimes

Well we all saw how successful the Comedy nights and the Hypnotist nights were on campus this year. These were non-alcoholic events that sold out. I think if we introduce more events of this nature it can be very successful. I also think that the opportunity is there to liaise with local businesses to get better deals for students on entertainment such as cinema nights or bowling etc.

Your idea to bring 'College Dinners' to NUI Galway is great. Have you ever experienced the scheme before and if so, how beneficial do you think it would be for students, monetary/time/skills wise? I've been speaking to a few other reps from different universities about this scheme. There is one college in Ireland that has had great success with it so far. I honestly think that food shopping is difficult enough to get right. We all try to be healthy but when it's 7pm and you've been in college all day that's not as easy. We also have quite an amount of food waste at the moment and I believe that this scheme could help students to organise their meals for the week with less waste whilst saving them money.

How do you plan on involving clubs and societies on mental health week? Are you planning on asking societies to host workshops, trial yoga classes, design posters or art therapy sessions, etc.? I think involving clubs and societies on mental health campaigns would be easy enough. There are some amazing clubs and societies in NUIG with some incredibly talented and creative members. But each club and society is different. I think the main aim would be to encourage our clubs and societies to promote mental health in their own unique way. It could be workshops or classes, trips or events, videos, photography, the list goes on! With clubs I believe that physical activity is hugely beneficial for a healthy mind. I'd work to introduce a scheme similar to the ''Off the Booze, On the Ball'' campaign where people sign up to involve themselves in a sport for a fortnight and stay sober throughout. If each club set certain challenges to each member that signs up it could make for a very entertaining time. The GAA currently sponsors this campaign in other colleges but only for Gaelic football. I want to aim for bigger sponsorship and for all the clubs to be included. The benefit to students from these events would be invaluable and I believe that something like this would draw the university together on such an important issue.

Interview by Helen Hughes Why are you running for the position of welfare officer? The main reason I’m running is because I want to promote more mental health awareness. It has been promoted over the last couple of years, especially with the Galway hurler that passed away last semester, and also, I was diagnosed with depression four years ago so I want to do a lot of work for that.

What would you see as being your main aims and objectives if elected?

I want to promote a taxi scheme in Galway. It was a part of someone else’s manifesto and I thought it was a brilliant idea so I want to try and bring that through again. The main reason will be like I’ll be working with GMIT’s Welfare Officer as well, so there’ll be two taxi companies between each college that manage each taxi company but all four taxi companies will accept NUIG and GMIT [student cards].

What do you see as being the key skills and personality traits needed to be welfare officer? And do you think you possess them? I do. A Welfare officer needs to be seen, outgoing, fun, but also needs to be serious at the same time.

Why do you think students should elect you as their welfare officer?

I feel that I have the determination to bring through whatever they want, and if they have any suggestions over the year, next year or even before I take office, I’ll take them on board and try and implement them. I’ll try and work with every society and make sure that the proper quality is brought all across the college.

As a person who doesn’t drive to college, what are the problems you see with parking?

Mainly NUIG’s like a building site, it’s been a building site for the last three years I’ve been in college, and there just putting in buildings for no apparent reason where they should actually put in maybe some parking, for students because normally you have to be in before half seven to get a car spot, and there’s only a limited amount of car spots.

Election Special 9 Candidates for the position of Vice President for Welfare Alan O’Dowd officer and do you think you have them?

Well firstly you have to be good at communications because if you can’t communicate with your students you’ve really no hope. Very approachable, you need to always have a smile on your face and be easy to talk to. I can honestly say I’ve never had anyone come up to me and not like me straight away. I like talking to people, I like helping people out. Everyone has their own way of approaching people, some directly and indirectly. I’m here to help and I’ll help anyone in any way I can.

You’ve got the cairns building; you’ve got outside Áras na Mac Léinn, Áras Uí Chathaill, and outside the quad. And then outside the Kingfisher, which is open to both students and Kingfisher members. It’s causing problems in crossing the housing estates across from Moyola as well, Áras Moyola, I’ve seen that over the last couple of years.

You mention problem-solving with landlords in your manifesto, do you think that’s a big problem at the moment?

Why do you think students should elect you as their welfare officer?

It is yeah, a few people that I’ve been talking to, or that I’ve been through myself, is that over the last couple of years, the banks take over from landlords, so that’s kind of out of their contract. So I want to try and solve that problem, why are you advertising a house if you’re not going to pay the mortgage, if you’re not going to pay the bills. So it should be on the landlords not the tenants.

Interview by Ciara Treacy

How are you going to try and make mental health bigger?

Why are you running for the position of welfare officer?

I’ll try and make that bigger. I feel that physical activity is the best way to let out aggression, if you have it. But even if you’re just feeling down and you just start punching a bag, aggression will just come out and you’ll just feel a lot better after yourself. Or go for a run or something. I’ll try and work with the Kingfisher to promote a free day for mental health week, to come and go swimming, to do a wee bit of kickboxing or something. Just to keep them going. If you feel tired after a day at least you know you’ve done something right. I’ve known that depression is not the nicest thing in the world – just days I couldn’t be bothered doing anything – so I was actually happy that I went out and started playing football and rugby again, got me out, got me to see my friends. And especially around exam time, it lets off a lot of stress. I’ll try and bring in some more fun activities as well, because as soon as you normally think of mental health you automatically think depression, or suicide; your mental health could be healthy as well. You could be happy but then there are other people who just put on a mask, pretending to be happy in front of friends, whenever they’re actually not. I’ve done that before, so I want to try and pull that across as well. Take off the mask, tell it like it is.

What are the problems with the Drop in service?

I actually worked with the welfare group this year, under Declan Higgins, and as part of SHAG week I only found out where the clinic was. I only found that out, not me personally going, but I just found out and they used to have that service two years ago – I remember when I was in first year – but I want to try and bring that back in, because even if it isn’t about STIs, or anything like that, if a student’s not healthy, how are they going to benefit from the education? So, they’ll have to go to the doctor, and some of these people are Erasmus students and they don’t know where doctors are. I want to bring back the drop-in service, and that’s it. Bring it back to a standard that should be expected.

I think students should elect me as their welfare officer because I do think I am the best for the job. As I’ve said through my own experiences I want to give back the things I’ve done wrong and show them the right way to do it. Just to give people advice, I want to be a mentor and an advisor or even just a friendly person to talk to.

Well, I think it’s the only job really you can really make a difference in people’s lives. Through my own experience - I’ve gone through problems and stuff in my own life as everyone does - but I don’t want anyone to do it on their own like I did.

I’m very approachable. A lot of people say that I’m easy to talk to too, with good communication skills and I want to make a difference in students’ lives. I do think everything on my manifesto is accomplishable within the year and I think it’ll make a big difference in students’ lives.

What would you see as being your main aims and objectives if elected?

Well first of all my main aim is to try to get a welfare fund organised because I’ve seen it, it’s in UCD, and it allows students to get a loan from the welfare for up to €100 interest-free to help students throughout the year. I don’t see why we can’t in NUIG have the same concept to help students in their day-to-day lives. Also my Post-Secret system for NUIG will let students who are afraid to talk to people about their problems. They can talk to me and still remain anonymous. Through that, if I get the permission from them, I can have a page where I show the problem and the solution and my details. They can see they’re not the only person with that problem. They can come and contact me directly or through the same system - put their own problem in and get their advice needed.

What do you see as being the key skills and personality traits needed to be welfare

How feasible is the student loan?

I have a meeting with the president on Thursday to see if it is viable. The fact that UCD have set it up and other colleges around Ireland have I can’t see why I can’t set it up in NUI. Yeah, Thursday I have a meeting to see how viable it is.

How does the Post-Secret system operate; how can people send their problems in?

People can send it in through many forms - you can do it through email, there will be a post box set up outside the office, you can put it in there or through the welfare email - letters, anything, anyway possible. Then it’ll be a link through the Students’ Union website so it’ll be through there and they can click there and see the problems and stuff. Everything will be named anonymously unless you want me to know who you are. No one else would ever know.

How will the Taxi Now Pay Later idea be executed?

The way it will work is at the end of the night instead of you decide to walk home in the pitch black where anything can happen, like we live in a world today where the streets aren’t as safe as they were twenty years ago. I think I’ll do it through the Halo App person because I have connections to get in through that. Instead of you giving your wallet or your passport that you’d show the taxi driver your student card and student number. That way they know your name, your student number and your mobile number so they can ring you the next day or they could ring me directly here and I’d get in contact with you then and then you’d just pay it off. It’s just another thing to make sure students get home safely.

Up Next: Candidates for the position of Vice President for Education

10 Election SPecial Candidates for the position of Vice President for Education Conor Fitzgibbon Interviewed by Ciara Treacy What are your reasons for running for Education Officer?

As a passionate and proud NUI Galway student for the past three years, I feel that my drive to help, listen and act on the issues that face our students every day in a quick and effective manner makes me the ideal candidate to make a real lasting difference.

What are you main objectives if you're elected?

To introduce integrated practical work placement programmes, particularly within Arts and Commerce degree courses, additional study space and power sources during exam times and a significant reduction in the €30 student card replacement fee.

What do you see being the key skills and personality traits needed to be Education Officer and do you think you possess them?

I feel the key skills and personality traits to being a competent education officer include, listening, communication, teamwork, confidence, leadership, approachability, positivity and the ability to act upon any issues effecting students.

Why do you think students should elect you as their Education Officer?

I have been in the college for three years and know and feel the issues facing our student body. I am a very approachable, honest and hard-working person who genuinely aims to improve the student experience for all current and future students. Through listening, acting

and always putting the needs of students first, I believe I can make a long lasting positive difference.

How do you plan on reducing the replacement fee for student cards?

By lobbying and working with the relevant authorities within the university. The cost price of each replacement card produced has been estimated to be in the €10 to €12 price range. The 30 euro charge was introduced in more plentiful times when disposable income levels were significantly higher, if elected I will endeavour to reduce this cost burden on cash-strapped students.

How can work placement for Arts and Commerce students be implemented?

I feel we are at somewhat of a competitive disadvantage when it comes to job applications and interviews compared to graduates from other Irish universities who currently incorporate practical work experience into their degree programmes. I aim to introduce practical work placement through liaising with the respective schools and university authorities and also initiating relationships with potential professional placement partners.

You want to increase library opening hours – how?

Through re-allocating library hours during the year I plan to increase library opening hours in the weeks preceding exams (particularly Sunday hours). Increasing the opening hours of class rooms to alleviate the current excessive demand on the reading room; to make this work, additional power sources will have to be installed in the allocated classrooms.

Phelim Kelly Interview by Marcus Mac Dhonnagáin What are your reasons for running for Vice President for Education?

I’ve been very active in the Students’ Union since first year, when I was a class rep. In first year, I did come across a few issues in my class. They were minor, mostly [about] notes going up on Blackboard. I resolved those issues and from that I went further into the SU and became the Science Convenor. I just now feel that being the Science Convenor has given me an insight into the educational role, and I think I am the one for the job because I’m hard-working and determined.

What are your main objectives if you're elected?

My main objective is to reform the exam repeat and deferral system. I don’t think it’s fair that students should be coming in September and not knowing whether or not they’re going on to second or third year. It’s extremely tolling on them for mental health reasons; they’re extremely anxious and they don’t know what the hell is happening. They’re struggling as it is to have to pay for repeats and then having to think they may have to repeat an entire year and pay for it – it’s just extremely daunting on them, and it’s something I think that should be cleared up before they return to college in September.

What do you see as being the key skills and personality traits needed to be Education Officer?

For an Education officer, obviously having a good strong front, being able to talk to people, being headstrong and determined to get things done. Also being able to understand students, who are apathetic in a way, so that they can come to you with their problems and that you will work your

The roles according to the Students’ Union Constitution Role of the President

1. S/He shall act as Chairperson and shall have responsibility to uphold this Constitution and the terms of reference of all Union companies. 2. S/He shall be responsible for liaising with the appropriate staff members of the Union, the Union's companies and with University management. 3. S/He shall have responsibility for the day to day finances of the Union in conjunction with the senior staff member and shall report to the Finance Committee on those issues. 4. S/He shall also be responsible for ultimate coordination of Students' Union campaigns. 5. S/He shall be required to act as a member of the Boards of Directors of companies owned by or related to the Union. 6. S/He will represent Union members on University committees. 7. S/He shall be the Chief Executive Officer and chief spokesperson of the Union.

8. S/He shall be the principal delegate to the National Council and Annual Congress of the Union of Students in Ireland. 9. S/He shall also be required to give a mandatory report on work carried out at each Executive meeting.

Role of the Vice-President, who shall act as Education Officer

1. S/He shall have ultimate responsibility for the co-ordination of the CRC in conjunction with the relevant staff members. 2. S/He shall provide a confidential listening and referral service for all Union members. 3. S/He shall represent members on various University committees. 4. S/He also has responsibility for keeping the Executive and general student body informed on relevant educational issues. 5. S/He shall be responsible for dealing with individual requests from students.

6. S/He shall also organise and chair the Education Forum. 7. S/He shall also be required to give a mandatory report on work carried out at each Executive meeting.

Role of the Vice-President, who shall act as Welfare Officer

1. 1. S/He shall have responsibility for providing information and educating the general student body on welfare issues and to this end shall initiate campaigns on relevant and pressing Welfare issues. 2. S/He shall also provide a confidential listening and referral service for members of the Union 3. S/He shall represent members on various University committees. 4. S/He shall also organise and chair the Welfare Forum. 5. S/He shall also be required to give a mandatory report on work carried out at each Executive meeting.

hardest things done.

Why do you think students should elect you as their Education Officer?

As I said before, I’ve been active in the SU since first year. I know how it runs; I am very passionate about the SU as well. I’ve been actively volunteering in educational matters since first year both here in NUIG and nationally with USI. I’m hard-working, determined, and I really want to get the role and get my ideas implemented to benefit students here in NUIG.

With regard to your manifesto, you say that you want students from all Irish secondary schools to be able to continue studying their chosen subjects in Irish when they move into second year and beyond. Why are you planning to campaign for this?

It’s a barrier to their education. I’m going to take science as an example. The terminology that you’d use for Physics, and likewise Chemistry, or any other subject is a language barrier and it affects them [students studying these courses through Irish]. You don’t use those terms in everyday conversations unless you’re talking about electric magnetic theories, propulsion, and all these crazy scientific terms. How are you meant to go from that, and what you’ve been learning in Irish over to English which you’ve never heard before? It’s a bilingual university as well, so if we don’t enforce the bilingual policies who will?

You say that it's important that students should get better feedback and that if you're elected you'll work on campaigning to bring this forth. How do you plan to do this? Already there has been a quality review on feedback mechanisms here in the university. Following from that review there will be a report and action plan which ties into the university’s strategic plan. As the education officer, I will be sitting on the academic council, the academic planning committee, which will allow me to ensure that these actions are being followed through. Of course, as education officer, I plan to better represent students in doing so.

You also say you want to fight additional course costs. How do you plan on achieving a real reduction in cost for students?

The first step would be to get Deans involved and let them know that students haven’t got money to be paying for these things. The problem with the additional course costs is that they’re hidden; you’re not told these costs exist until you land into the role. One of the major problems with them is that you have to pay for a printout of notes, when they could easily be emailed to you. As well as that, these things cost, let’s say a tenner for example, when realistically if you went to print them out yourself they’d be five or six euro. I plan on getting through to each and every individual department and find out, for transparency, where this money is being spent and following through with that, I will bring it to the academic councils and of course work extremely closely with all class reps to make sure that each department will be held accountable for what they’re charging.

Election Special 11 What’s it like in GMIT? By Valeri Tarassov It’s election time again so we decided to take a look at how our fellow students from GMIT are doing and went over for a little chat with some of the students and GMIT SU President Sam O’Neill. I arrived to GMIT and was pleased when I could get parking so fast, something that is not so simple here at NUI Galway even with a student parking pass. Immediately I saw two students having a chat at the front entrance, and I approached them and asked them what they think of us NUI Galway students. After overcoming their little shyness, they explained that the general consensus is that “we are not supposed to like them; they talk too much smack about us and think we are a lower class”. I was disappointed to hear similar answers from most of the students on GMIT campus. Everyone seemed to refer to our Facebook spotted page and one particularly disappointing blog entry on bebo with many cruel jokes posted about GMIT. That said, the students were very helpful on giving directions and instructions on their campus, which they are very proud off. Following cool yellow footsteps, I arrived at the office of the president of GMIT Students’ Union. We discussed the issue mentioned above, and he did not seem to understand where it comes from. NUI Galway and GMIT SU seem to get along great; they occupied a local TD’s office together last year, even though there is a little competition involved, it is friendly. For example if GMIT SU would want to bring 200 students on a protest, the NUI Galway SU would try and beat this number, but Mr O’Neill thinks that this kind of a competition is healthy and useful at the times when students must stand up for their rights for education, in this economic climate. Returning back to the campus itself, it was my first time there, having spent two years in Galway, and I was impressed. Everyone is busy; a lot of people wear white lab coats and life goes on. Prices at the shop on campus are nearly all the same. The campus is clean and even though student life is stressful, people are smiling.

Mr O’Neill was glad to discuss the GMIT festival, Moxegen 2014, which took place last Thursday. Moxegen is 100% organised by GMIT SU and they are very proud of it, as they should be, it takes a lot of work organise an event like that. GMIT Students Union is undergoing some changes; on 14 March they also have an election with an additional position of Education officer, a position that was passed on a referendum earlier. So to be honest, there is nothing to look down upon. Mr O’Neill described GMIT it as a big family and although nearly 5,500 students attend this college, a family atmosphere seems to dominate; nearly everyone knows everybody, and there is also something to talk about over tea or coffee. Returning to the issue addressed at the beginning of this article, most of us here at NUI Galway are far away from being snobs and we certainly don’t look down on any student from any institution; the challenges whether financial or academic that any other student would face, we face as well. We apologise for remarks made on our pages, and I am sure they do not speak for the entire NUI Galway community. During the times when third level education is getting ‘screwed’ with every budget our government passes, we have no choice but to stick together. Remember the old saying; divide and conquer. On our own were nothing, together we are a powerful voice that will be heard. The rivalry between our two institutions is far from extreme; I would encourage students from both NUI Galway and GMIT to think before posting a Facebook status or another blog entry. People do have feelings and when they count on their degree to help them succeed in the future, it is not nice to read someone talking down on their college. For example, how would we at NUI Galway feel if Trinity College posted a picture of two toddlers playing with blocks, and tag it ‘meanwhile in NUI Galway?’ I know that probably most of these things are intended as humour, but I’m pretty sure I would be offended. I would like to thank GMIT SU and their president Sam O’Neill for a warm welcome and a pleasant conversation, and hope to return in future to get to know GMIT better.

Reeling in the Years: The SU By Helen Hughes Election season sneaks up on you quicker than Christmas. You hear it around campus, God can you believe it’s that time of year again? You begin to hear the words ‘Students’ Union’ echoed from Bialinn to bus stop. Canvassers are trying to pocket your votes in exchange for lollipops and stickers, but do you appreciate what you are truly giving your vote for? For some of you, the SU is something you push into the background of the NUIG landscape; something stuck in the corner of that building over there, you know the one… no, the other one, beside the college bar. Now you got it. Some like to put it away in that office like storage, bringing it out at certain times of the year, like SHAG week and our current Election season. We let it become a term instead of an entity. But it is an entity; it’s a team of your peers who keep the college breathing. They’re a hardworking team of lungs and they get out your message with a shout not a whimper. The SU has a long and colourful history within NUI Galway, and students ought to acknowledge the contribution that has been made in their name since 1911. The Union boasts a list of former Presidents which include Eamon Gilmore, Pat Rabbitte, and our current Uachtarán na hÉireann, poet, scholar and former lecturer, Michael Daniel Higgins. So let’s sit back and enjoy a Reeling in the Years moment.

1911. Originally established as the Students’ Representative Council under Bryan Cusack, as an offshoot of the Literary & Debating Society. The council finds solid footing during the 1920s, and this formally develops into the Comhairle Teachta na Mac Léinn in Ireland’s moderately-swinging sixties. 1964. Michael D. Higgins leads 600 students to march for better relations between the University and local community. 1969. RAG week is run for the first time after being banned by the Bishop in the fifties. 1980. The Union supports calls for the political status of prisoners in the H-Block of Armagh Jail. The James Hardiman Library now houses an archive of Brendan Duddy’s hand-written records of negotiations between the British and the IRA over the Hunger Strike. 1987. The Union organises a boycott of tea and coffee due to an increase in price. Tea had risen to 33p and coffee to 35p. The Union serves approximately 2,000 cups of tea throughout the boycott for 25p a cup. 2008. The fees campaign sees thousands marching across the country, including the streets of Galway. So as you see, the SU has your back covered from the cost of tea, to fees and freedom. The best of luck to this coming year’s executive team, and may your time in the Students’ Union be spent continuing the long legacy of quality service to NUI Galway.

Cian Moran for President Interviewed by Leigh Ashmore What are your reasons for running for president? We have a huge problem in NUIG as democracy is weak and corrupt. At the moment we need a strong leader. We’re being laughed at by GMIT and they’re completely disrespecting our citizens, so I’m running for El Presidenté with the Galway Democratic Republic. I feel that there has to be a strong leader who will stand up for the rights of the ordinary citizen and crush the rebels before the start of the rainy season. What are your main objectives if you’re elected? My first objective is to crush the rebels. Secondly, I will bring in a shiny new donkey for every student; I will conscript the first born for the new revolutionary army; I will invade and annex GMIT. Also, free puppies. What do you see as being the key skills and personality traits needed to be a president? The most important thing is decisiveness. If elected, I will rule as an autocratic leader. I can’t have the SU vice president trying to weigh in, as that would be democracy which is weak and corrupt. My aim is to be a great leader who will inflict great pain and ruin on our enemies. Why do you think students should elect you as their president? I think students should elect me as their El Presidenté as I’m already their rightful leader. I will preside over a glorious revolution in NUIG and I will expel all foreign diplomats from the Galway Democratic Republic. I will differ remarkably from current president Sean Kearns. Sean Kearns stood for competency, transparency and accountability, therefore people should vote for me. Galway needs an eternal leader, not a weak corrupt democracy that will change every year. I will erect golden statues of myself around campus. The students who survive will be productive and happy and the others will disappear. I will also commemorate Galway’s liberation from the Indians on the 19th of July. Is there anything you’d like to add? In all seriousness, I just get sick of the endless Students’ Union elections. Every year people are promising things that are completely unrealistic with ridiculous policies, like they’ll bring in a 24-hour library or a free health unit. We’ve already seen how that happens. I think it’s important to show that anyone can run for these elections and that democracy is open to everyone and hopefully by running a ridiculous stunt there’ll be more honest and transparent campaigns. I think the full time positions seem very closed off to people. We do have some very good officers, especially this year, but ultimately it comes down to how many friends you have. Pretty much everyone who gets elected has one massive society backing them, or a sports club. The hope is to make the SU seem a bit more accessible and a bit less ivory tower, to show that anyone can make a piss-take campaign and it’s not as serious as people make it out to be.

TOGHCHAIN AGUS REIFRINN CHOMHALTAS NA MAC LEINN, 2014

CÉN CHAOI VÓTÁIL An Córas Déardaoin, an 6 Márta 2014

Cianvótála An Córas Cianvótála

Uachtaran Chomhaltas na Mac Leinn Leas-Uachtaran de chuid Chomhaltas na Mac Leinn / an tOifigeach Leasa Leas-Uachtaran de chuid Chomhaltas na Mac Leinn / an tOifigeach Oideachais An Reifreann ar Sheasamh Chomhaltas na Mac Leinn ar Cheist an Ghinmhillte An Reifreann ar Sheasamh Chomhaltas na Mac Leinn ar an bhFeachtas Baghcatala, Difheistithe agus Smachtbhannai i gcoinne Stat Iosrael

Ionaid Vótála ar an gCampas:

An Bhialann 10:00 r.n. – 7:00 i.n. Áras na Mac Léinn 11:00 r.n. – 8:00 i.n. An Foirgneamh Innealtóireachta 12:00 i.n. – 4:00 i.n.

Féadfaidh mic léinn nach mbeidh in ann rochtain ar aon cheann de na hionaid vótála ar an gcamFéadfaidh mic vótáil léinn nach pas Déardaoin ar línembeidh tríd an in anngCóras rochtain ar aon cheann Cianvótála. de na hionaid vótála ar an gcampasChun Déardaoin ar líne feidhmvótáil a bhaint astríd an an gCóras Cianvótála. gCóras Cianvótála, ní mór do mhic léinn clárú lena aghaidh Chun feidhm a bhaint as an roimh mheán oíche, Dé Céadaoin, gCóras Cianvótála, ní mór do an 5 Márta. Tar éis dóibh clárú, mhic aghaidh beidhléinn mic clárú léinn lena in ann vótáil roimh oíche, Dé Céadaoin, snamheán trí thoghchán agus sna an 5 Márta. Tar éis dóibh clárú, reifrinn Déardaoin idir 10:00 r.n. beidh mic léinn in i.n. ann vótáil agus 8:00 sna trí thoghchán agus sna reifrinn Déardaoin idir 10:00 r.n. Chun clárú le haghaidh an Chórais agus 8:00 i.n. Cianvótála, logáil isteach ar

www.su.nuigalway.ie Chun clárú le haghaidh an Chórais Cianvótála, logáil isteach ar www.su.nuigalway.ie twitter.com/NUIGSU

Ní mór duit do chárta aitheantais OÉ Gaillimh a bheith faoi láimh agat chun vótáil

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facebook.com/NUIGalwayStudentsUnion

STUDENTS’ UNION ELECTIONS & REFERENDA 2014

HOW TO VOTE

Thursday 6th March 2014

Remote Vote

Students’ Union President

Students who will not be able to access any of the on-campus polling stations on Thursday may cast their vote online using Remote Vote.

Students’ Union Vice President / Welfare Officer Students’ Union Vice President / Education Officer Referendum on Students’ Union Position on the Issue of Abortion Referendum on the Students’ Union Position on the campaign of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against the State of Israel

Campus Polling Stations: An Bhialann Áras na Mac Léinn Engineering Building

10:00am – 7:00pm 11:00am – 8:00pm 12:00pm – 4:00pm

To use Remote Vote, students must register before midnight on Wednesday 5th March. Once registered, students can then cast their vote in the three elections and the referenda on Thursday between 10:00am and 8:00pm. To Register for Remote Vote, simply logon to www.su.nuigalway.ie

NUI Galway ID required to vote

www.su.nuigalway.ie

facebook.com/NUIGalwayStudentsUnion

twitter.com/NUIGSU

Features 17

March 03 2014

h Robbie Walsh, Arts wit ts Ar g min or Perf I think the student levy t. goes to the governmen

Sarah Slevin, Arts with Performing Arts I agree.

Michael Cah alane, Biotechnolo gy The pockets of flamboya nt embezzlers, the government. Ronan Ward , Commerce TD’s back pocket. , Sean Hehir s ic Phys ’ The Students . be ay m Union, Kate O’Hara, Arts On these couches.

So where does the student levy go? aigh, Mike O’hEan al Diploma Profession n of some Administratio I never description; the f thought o cs specifi .

After Sin asked a number of students where they think the levy goes, it was quite clear that not many knew the answer. Other answers from students who were not pictured included: “I think a disproportionate amount of the student levy goes to alcohol-fuelled student events, for example the college bar.” “Nowhere; we pay ¤224 and it’s disproportionate to other colleges.” “Lecturers’ bonuses.” “Well, I know it goes to societies.” “The plasma-screen TVs.” “Hopefully to improve the place.” Following the mixed reactions we received from students, we decided to find out exactly where the student levy goes.

Nicole Shellenbarger, Biology I haven’t really learned a whole lot about it.

Student levy breakdown: The levy is ¤224. All students must pay this as the grant will not cover this levy. The levy is allocated to the following activities: • Sports Clubs ¤19.28 • Societies ¤19.28 • Students Union ¤25.14 • Student Health Unit ¤18.46 • Flirt FM ¤4.92 • Áras na Mac Léinn ¤17.23 • Student Projects Fund ¤19.69 • Sports Centre ¤100.00 Total ¤224

18 lifestyle The Health Hub: Energy boosting snacks By Rebecca Sweeney

New Year’s resolutions! Seem like a lifetime ago when you made them? For those that have still kept up going to the gym you may be feeling sluggish and not have the same energy as when you first started. Well the food you eat before you exercise will fuel your workout and maximize your efforts and results. To help keep you on track with those resolutions try these healthy snacks that will give you an instant boost before your gym session. Trail Mix: Goji berries, pistachios, pumpkin seeds, dried blueberries, flax seeds, dark chocolate chips. Pumpkin seeds are a good source of protein, healthy fats and fibre, keeping you feeling full and energized for longer. Goji increases the body’s ability to handle stress and gives you the get-up-and-go energy needed to get your workout to the next level. Goji is also beneficial for increasing blood flow, which helps to oxygenate all of the cells and tissues of the body. Oatcakes topped with almond butter and banana: Oats are full of fibre, which means they gradually release carbohydrates into your bloodstream keeping your energy levels consistent during your workout. Oats also contain B vitamins, which help convert carbohydrates into energy. You won’t be able to get enough of this snack, so yummy!

Banana Blueberry Bliss • Juice of 1/4 lemon • 1 banana • Handful blueberries • 1/4 tsp ginger • 1/4 tsp cinnamon • 1 tbsp Chia Seed • 500mL skim milk Fruit smoothies are high in carbohydrates and high-quality protein. Better yet they’re easy to consume and are rapidly digested. Bananas are loaded with digestible carbohydrates and are packed with potassium, which aids in maintaining nerve and muscle function.

Sin Vol. 15 Issue 10

Wise Words: Spanish Soup By Móna Wise It is not often that we take the whole family out for lunch or dinner. With four young children it can be a little tortuous trying to keep them all calm and mannerly, and it can also be quite a costly excursion. Although they each have developed a great sense and appreciation for good and wholesome food, we still expect they will turn their noses up at something new or different. A few weeks ago, burdened under grim grey Galway skies and longing for a glimpse of sunny spring, we took them to one of our favourite Galway haunts. A small family-run Tapas restaurant called Lunares, based in Woodquay, near McSwiggans. We had eaten there several times without them but felt it was the best place to introduce them to Spanish cuisine in Galway due to the affordability of their menu choices and the quality and selection of the food on their menu. Teaching children to share is no easy feat, and although we had explained the concept to them a few times, they were having none of it. They wanted to order several different items and share none. Their eyes were, thankfully, much bigger than their bellies and we all ended up sharing the delectable food this restaurant had to offer. While the kids were sharing their first Tapa, a large bowl of soup, one of the kids, try-

ing to not speak with food in his mouth, asked if we could make that soup at home. With a little bit of culinary investigative work and a brief interview with the chefs and co-owners, two sisters, Amaya and Virginia Fernandez, we left Lunares with a few recipes, and their blessing, to try our hand with at home. Soup is a favourite of ours and during the colder months we always have a pot ready to go on the stove. This recipe, for Sopa Castellana, is one of those ‘great for a quick lunch’ recipes as it takes no time at all to make, but it is also hearty enough to be a super satisfying supper. Although the recipe calls for beef stock it can also be made with chicken stock and the result is just as good. A typical way of serving this soup is to have a coddled egg yolk on a side plate to dip your bread into as you eat the soup. Think about this from a nutritious standpoint. It is chock full of vegetables and egg white, giving you a serious vitamin and protein boost for the day. Not to mention the fact that besides the smoked paprika (found easily at all grocery shops) you could very well have most of the ingredients in your cupboard waiting to be used. Since making this soup for the first time, a few months ago, we have made it again and again. Flavourful and fabulous, we hope you enjoy it as much as we do. If you are looking for something to do over the Easter Holidays keep the Galway Food Festival on your radar (April 17 - 21 2014), it is bound to be delicious!

Sopa Castellana What you will need

• 1 carrot, small dice • 1 stalk celery, small dice • 3 cloves garlic, roughly chopped • 1 tsp olive oil • 1 tsp smoked Spanish paprika • 960 ml beef stock • 1 tsp cider vinegar • 1 slice of stale (hard) bread • 1 egg (white only) • 4 thin slices of Serrano ham How to prepare it

Sauté the carrot, celery and garlic in olive oil and add in the paprika after a minute or two. Pour in the beef stock and vinegar once the carrots have softened and leave to simmer for ten minutes. Break up the bread into three or four larger pieces. Drop in the white of the egg in small amounts watching it cook in the soup. Add in the Serrano ham at the end, right before serving.

New Year New You Series Part 4: Negative Influences By John Mulry Following on from the last three issues where we discussed the short term mentality, goal hijacking and the self-image we’re going to tie everything together with last and arguably most damaging roadblock. This last roadblock (and one that can incorporate all of the other roadblocks) is the negative influences you allow into your life. These influences come in many forms and, if you have more negative influences than positive ones, then no matter what you try, you’ll ultimately fail. Sometimes our negative influences come from areas of life that may appear harmless. What are negative influences and how do we deal with them? This is best illustrated by the following process. I learned a variation of this from Bedros Keuilian, and if I remember correctly, he learned from the excellent and somewhat revered marketer, Frank Kern.

In order to change, you’ve got to do something; simple as that. To do something, you have to take action. To take action, you’ve got to make the decision to take action. And of course, any time we make decisions, these decisions are manifested from our thoughts. So here’s the Expect Success Cycle in its simplest form: your thoughts lead to your decisions, your decisions lead to your actions, the right actions lead you to doing something worthwhile, something worthwhile leads to success. It’s a simple cycle that works. There’s one fundamental problem. Our thoughts are managed by our input. When the wrong input influences your thoughts, the decision, action, do something cycle is completely ruined – absolutely ruined. Generally speaking, we get our input from news (online or offline), gossip, students, politics, friends, family, peers, staff, co-workers, partners, competitors, etc. Now, when it comes to news, gossip, and politics, that’s nearly always negative input. The messages we get from them are usually that the world is ruined, you can’t trust any-

one, and people are inherently bad. Our other sources of input like friends, family, partners, students, etc. can also provide negative input (some more than others), which drives home even more negative messages. Now, with that being the input, how do you think that’s going to influence your thoughts? If all the input you’re getting is danger, people are bad, etc., what decisions will you make in life? Think about it. Every minute you’re making a decision. Will I study today or not? Will I change? Will I exercise? Will I go to college? Millions of decisions are being made by your subconscious and conscious mind every day. Your subconscious is the majority part of your mind and thinking capability. So when you’ve got the news (with all that danger input) on in the background and you think you’re not listening, it’s entering your subconscious mind and your subconscious controls your thoughts and your decision-making, which leads to your actions, which leads you to making a half-hearted attempt at doing something.

What happens is your thought process will lead you to make the wrong decisions, you’ll take the wrong action and make a halfhearted attempt at something, you divert to not doing the right thing, which leads to no success, or failure. Why? To support the beliefs that are being instilled by all of your negative influences. Are you starting to see how all these roadblocks are connected to your ability to change? The actions we take have to be congruent with the input we get to support our beliefs. When your input is correctly aligned with your core values, your Expect Success Cycle is complete. You don’t pay attention to the noise, nonsense, and negative input variables, and you only listen to what’s going to bring you forward – that’s when you start to realise that the sky’s the limit. This will become a lot clearer in the next issue when we start going through the process of overcoming these roadblocks to achieve any and all of your goals. You’ll start to see more clearly how and why we need to keep tabs on these roadblocks.

Lifest yle 19

March 03 2014

Who run the world? Girls! By Helena Kilbane Forget silly boys, empowering women are the new crushes we just can’t get enough of. As explained by Urban Dictionary a girl crush is ‘an overwhelming sense of awe felt by a girl for another girl elicited by varying causes ranging from deep respect to unadulterated lust’. This sounds just about right as all we have to do is open a magazine or tune into E! to see a wide range of sisters doing it for themselves. Professional women such as Miranda Kerr or Nicole Scherzinger provide us with a source of girly eye candy with their flawless make-up and enviable wardrobes and their huge self-made success is inspirational. Here are some of the most popular girl crushes we can’t help but love:

Beyoncé Who saw that one coming? Beyoncé is the ultimate girl crush. Exuberating girl power and confidence she is an aspiration for all women to bring out their inner (Sasha) fierce. Unable to forget her steamy performance with Jay-Z at the Grammys, this woman is not only mesmerizingly beautiful but a musical icon we are all crazy in love with.

By Chelsea Tabert and Claire Stone

Lupita Nyongo

Lisa Sheridan, 1st year Psychology

Described as ‘Hollywood’s hottest new style icon’ and already an Oscar nominee for her debut in 12 Years A Slave, Lupita is fast becoming an IT girl. Lupita first became a girl crush phenomenon after her appearance at the Golden Globes wearing an amazing red Ralph Lauren caped gown. Our obsession can only grow for this stylish 31 year-old actress and filmmaker.

Skirt, top and boots: Penneys Jacket: Vero Moda Hat: New Look What is your favourite shop? Penneys. It’s great value. What celebrity influences your style? I’ve no real celebrity inspiration for my style, but I do love Olivia Palermo.

Jennifer Lawrence From photo-bombing Taylor Swift to falling up stairs, Jennifer is the girl next door who has stolen our hearts. Her captivating performances in blockbusters such as American Hustle and Silver Linings Playbook have left us with J-Law fever.

Margot Robbie Credited for her outstanding performance in The Wolf of Wall Street, the stunning 23-year-old Australian actress will soon be a household name. Rumoured to be dating the gorgeous Orlando Bloom, how can we not envy the blonde bombshell?

Lena Dunham The cool New Yorker is not only the star but the creative genius behind

the hit TV series Girls. Quirky Lena who recently appeared on the cover of US Vogue isn’t your typical celebrity which makes us love her even more. Lena is a global icon for real women, showcasing tattoos and a realistic body image, not forgetting a colossal amount of talent. Lena, who is the first woman to win a Directors Guild Award for Outstanding Director is an inspiration to all fellow Girls out there.

Master the Made in Chelsea look By Ciara Treacy Over the past three years, E4’s ‘scripted reality’ show Made in Chelsea has given us an insight into the day-to-day lives of Britain’s elite twenty-somethings and the drama and glamour attached to their postal code. And we are hooked. Every episode, we’re sat drooling at the luscious hair, the meticulously applied make-up, the glowing tan... and that’s just the guys alone. The girls have all of this in addition to wardrobes to die for and an endless calendar of functions and holidays to shop for. While you may be hesitant to change your name to something more outlandish (Binky and Proudlock are worth an honourable mention) or have more drama on your plate than you care for, you can achieve the look of an MiC star by taking the following pieces of advice. Make-up

No matter what the weather, the show’s cast are beautifully bronzed 365 days a year – while this may be the cause of sun beds and trips abroad, you can always invest in a light gradual tan which doubles as a moisturiser for quick application after a shower.

Once you have this down, it’s all about the dewy look. Louise and former star Millie Mackintosh in particular have skin so radiant you need shades just to look in their direction. Use moisturiser under a liquid foundation for a nice glow and finish with a dust of powder. Blush, if any, must be subtle and a nude shade. Nude lips are also a favourite among the girls, with MAC’s crème de nude their lippy of choice – however there are equally good ones from any drug store brand. Don’t forget lashings of mascara! Hair

The secret to fabulous Made in Chelsea hair is no secret, as every few scenes we see at least one of the characters in a high-end hairdresser getting touch-ups. The nice thing is most of the girls generally seem to avoid dead-straight or fancy styles during daytime and perfect the just-rolled-out-of-bed look while shopping or going on lunch dates, which is simple to copy. Invest in a set of rollers (heated ones preferably) and regularly use hair masks to keep your hair looking bouncy and most importantly, healthy. If you’re adventurous enough, get the ends of your hair ombréd to truly look ready for coffee with Fran and Lucy.

Style spotter

Clothes

Oh dear, oh Dior! Undoubtedly the stars of MiC are frequently shown shopping on the British equivalent of the Champs-Élysées and this is not exactly thrift shopping, yet more and more Topshop items are edging their way into episodes. Whether this is personal choice or the result of good public relations with the high-street store, we’re not complaining as this means we can now match the impeccable taste of the Chelsea girls by grabbing dresses and playsuits before they sell out. Generally for daytime you can’t go wrong with bold colours (burnt orange is a staple for Louise in particular), statement jewellery and faux fur. For special occasions (like the Sunday game of polo – no GAA matches for them darling), beautiful print dresses and fedora hats are a must and for night time, every Chelsea girl needs a killer black ball gown. Maybe just steer clear of the bin bag collar sported by Phoebe Lettice in a recent episode. And keep in mind the wise words of Chelsea’s most eccentric resident Mark-Francis Vandelli; “always carry a brooch, just in case the party ends up being a ball.”

What do you think of the style on campus? Fashion on campus is not like you would find in the bigger colleges, like UCD or Trinity. Some people here can be fashionable, but you don’t see it everywhere. Rory McNamara, 1st year Arts

Jacket: Topman Jumper & snood: Penneys Jeans: New Look Boots: River Island What is your favourite shop? I don’t really have a favourite shop right now. What celebrity influences your style? Kim K is definitely a huge inspiration… just kidding, you better not quote me on that! Actually go ahead and quote me. Kim if you’re reading this, Rory wants to let you know he would never photograph you either (like your recent Vogue photoshoot shut down by famed photographer Tyler Shields!). What do you think of the style on campus? It’s generally good. I feel like I kind of have to make an effort. Like, this one time I was queuing in the doctors in sweatpants and I felt like everyone was staring at me. It’s definitely judgemental and competitive. Karen Fox, 1st year PHD in Chemistry

“Oh god, literally everything I’m wearing is from Penneys.” What is your favourite shop? Today is a Penneys day so you could say my favourite shop is Penneys. But, I’d say River Island if I have the money. What celebrity influences your style? I don’t know, I don’t really have any celebrity inspirations. What do you think of the style on campus? It’s pretty good. Rainy days are harder to dress for so there is not always a lot of fashion around.

20 lifestyle

Sin Vol. 15 Issue 10

My androgynous style By Ivan Fahy

SALE

My style is androgynous. That means that the style I have incorporates both the feminine and masculine aspects of myself in it; I like to wear clothes that are unisex. I don’t like wearing anything that is too male, or too female. I have no interest in wearing dresses. The only female item of clothing I wear is high heels, though I do not consider high heels to belong exclusively to women. A shoe is a shoe, and a foot is a foot; if the shoe fits the foot, wear it. I like to wear fitted clothing, such as skinny jeans. There is nothing wrong with showing off the shape of your legs! I try to keep things simple. They do say that less is best, and the less, the more. I like to wear monochromatic t-shirts – t-shirts of only one colour. I avoid t-shirts with too many colours, pictures, logos and writings. As the weather is cold right now, I enjoy wearing warm winter jumpers. A bulky winter jumper contrasts nicely with a tight skinny jean. When I’m not wearing a winter jumper, I would wear a monochromatic hoodie, which helps to give off a casual, relaxed look. I have two styles - the style I have as myself and then the style I have as a model.

50% UP TO

OFF

Fashion dictionary

SELECTED FRAMES AND DESIGNER SUNGLASSES

By Amy McDonnell Braids: A hairstyle closely resembling the plait, the difference being that plaits tend to be larger than braids and braids are that bit more complicated. They are made up of many pieces of woven hair. Braids can be worn in many ways, but they are just the perfect and simple way to adorn your tresses. Simple and versatile, braids are suitable for a sophisticated updo or for adding some style to your day-to-day look.

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As a model, I would try anything. The modelling work that I do presents me as being in the middle of male and female. I am not exactly either in the visual; I am a combination of male and female, masculine and feminine. I like suits, but I don’t always feel comfortable in them. I would need to add my own personal touches to a suit. I did a photoshoot with a suit once and I moved the trousers from my hips to my waist, I opened the shirt, and I threw on a pair of black high heels, and in a few simple steps I had changed the suit from something very masculine to something quite feminine and ooh la la. That’s what I enjoy doing, switching things up, experimenting with clothing and gender. I wouldn’t wear dresses or anything too over the top. I like to dress simply, in clothes that do my height and shape justice. I am not a drag queen, so I avoid extreme make-up and clothing. I try to keep things as natural and as understated as possible, wearing only a few items of clothing with minimalist and natural make-up. I like jewellery and accessories, but I wouldn’t always wear them. I don’t wear watches or rings normally; in a photoshoot I could wear a necklace but usually nothing more. My style complements all that my body is, rather than hiding what it is not. I wear clothes that make me look my height; long and tall. I would wear a pair of jeans that accentuate my legs, their length and their shape. As regards shoes, I love high heels - they are just fabulous. They demand attention and change a person’s entire aesthetic. I don’t wear high heels walking around town, or even outside of photoshoots. I wear normal runners and hightops. I love hightops. They go so well with skinny jeans. Check out Ivan on Facebook here: http://facebook. com/IvanFahyOfficial

@CKOpt

Cat Eyes: A popular make up trend designed to give eyes that sexy feline look. It is created using eye liner on the upper lid right along the lash line and extending the line upwards and outwards to give that angular appearance! A secret to this look is to use cotton buds and baby oil to get the look just purrfect!

Pastel Colours: Pastel colours are soft delicate shades of a particular colour. They are sweet-like in appearance and just so girly! These are a popular fashion staple for the spring and summer months when the sun shines (hopefully). Well-known hues include baby blue, lilac and blush pink. So sweet! Reverse French Manicure: An elegant nail trend which is a contemporary twist on the classic French manicure. A tiny crescent of the nail directly above the cuticle is painted one shade. Following this, the rest of the nail is painted another colour all the way to the tip. Different effects such as glitter and crackle effects can also be incorporated into this look to keep it on trend each season.

Lifestyle 21

March 03 2014

Skincare 101 By Samantha Kelly

will open the pores and help get that oil and dirt right out of there. Tea Tree foaming face wash is recommended to aid in cleaning skin, and can be bought in Cara pharmacy for around only €1.20.

You are what you eat

Exfoliate

The first and most important thing you can do for your skin is to eat healthily. Did you know that every four weeks your skin is completely renewed? So you really are what you eat. Water is the not so secret weapon to healthy skin; although many of us know the benefits of water, are we really getting enough? Water makes up 70% of our cells which means that we should be drinking two litres of water a day to keep skin firm. Are you getting enough of your antioxidants? If not, try to eat more dark berries such as blackberries, blueberries and strawberries or even indulge yourself in dark chocolate. All these ingredients repair cells and their vitality to give you that glowing look. Anyone out there having acne problems? You’re probably not getting enough zinc which helps reduce those nasty spots, try eating more foods full of zinc such as nuts.

In order to have soft skin with no dry patches, you must exfoliate. It is recommended to exfoliate once a week to remove dead skin cells. For your face you should first dampen your skin with warm water and use a face scrub such as Clean & Clear oil-free exfoliating daily wash. Even though this particular product says it can be used daily, I recommend only using it once a week as you don't want to dry out your skin. Lastly just rinse with warm water and ta dah! Similarly for your body, start by dampening your skin with warm water and use a body scrub such as Sanctuary body scrub. Once your body has taken a good scrub rinse with warm water to reveal a new you.

Clean and Clear

If you want clean and clear skin you must wash your face twice a day; any more and you will just wash the natural oils that moisturise your skin. Using warm (not hot) water

Treatment

Now if you have trickier skin with spots, dry patches and or an oily T-zone (which is the area of your forehead, nose and chin, that shapes into a T), it is recommended to do extra treatments every now and again. As students were on a tight budget so why not plan a girls’ night in and have a DIY facial? To steam your skin, put boiling water

Nail tutorial: Post-Valentine's day roses By Jenna Hodgins

Start by painting your nails with any colour base, preferably not pink. You'll see why.

Repeat the previous step except with red or darker pink colour.

With a medium pink colour make messy blob. Go wild!

Add leaves to the edges of your now blobto-roses with a dark green nail varnish.

Using a cocktail stick (or if you have fancy nail art blotters and all that jazz) make little curves in your beautiful messy blobs with a lighter pink colour.

Et voila! Messy blob-turnedpretty-roses.

into a bowl and place a towel over your head and the bowl so that just you and your bowl of water is under the towel. The steam will open your pores so you can get at any blackheads. Next you should use a face mask, which can be bought in all Pharmacies and even Penneys for around €1. There is a variety of masks from pealing, heating, anti-stress and moisturising so there will be something to suit your own skin. Just leave on for 10-15 minutes before washing off. Moisturising

Last but not least, moisturising keeps your skin hydrated and smooth, it's a necessary tool before applying makeup and gives skin that boost it needs. Before using your moisturiser you should use a cleanser toner, which is also recommended to remove makeup. I vouch by Garnier's Simple Essentials Soothing Cleansing lotion that no dirt will be left behind and it leaves your skin smooth and soft. If your skin is desperately dry, try Nivea's Creme which is around €4 in most shops.

However if you prefer a lighter moisturiser try Nivea's Daily Essentials, there is a good variety from dry, oily, normal and combination (for those who have an oily T-zone but normal cheeks and neck).

22 Film From the Dublin Film Festival

Sin Vol. 15 Issue 10

New World (Sin-se-Gae) By Marcus Mac Dhonnagáinn The latest gangster flick from South Korea proves to be one rife with over-embellishment, traditional tropes and, for the most part, an annoying script. Attempting to combine The Godfather, Infernal Affairs and Election seems like a promising idea at first, but the writing of its cliché-ridden characters leaves New World feeling like nothing other than a homage that has misunderstood what made its inspirations so great in the first place. Directed and written by Hoon-jung Park, New World continues the recent trend of Asian crime-focused narratives. The chief executive of Goldmoon, a large corporate criminal syndicate, mysteriously dies, throwing his entire organization into crisis as it attempts to find a successor. Unbeknownst to them is that the police are constantly watching over the proceedings, slowly pulling the strings as they attempt to bring Goldmoon to heel. New World is far too long, spending nearly an hour and a half moving at a glacial place as it moves all of its pieces into place. The pacing is rubbish, as it not only remains listless and dull for the majority of its length, but when it does pick up it refuses to keep a proper sense of momentum.

This is confounded by some of the most poorly written characters whose despicableness would put Henry Hill and the rest of the cast of Goodfellas to shame – and by no means is that a good thing It’s a shame that Hoonjung Park seems to have shunned all of the brilliantly written crime dramas that have dominated Anglophone television screens for the last decade, ergo The Sopranos, The Wire and Breaking Bad, all of which also contain archetypes that are then brilliantly subverted. Nearly each and every character is a shallow walking, talking, breathing cliché; the ruthlessly honourable police operative, the brash but loyal crime lord, the conflicted double agent. We have seen all of these people before in better films. Also, it’s impossible to write about this film and not mention its ending, as it finishes on such a bizarre and unnecessary note that people in the theatre had gotten up, thinking it was all over and were then confronted with another three minutes of a pointless scene which served little in the way of purpose. The ending scene encapsulates New World problems to a tee; overlong, in need of a ruthless editor, and a beenthere-done-that sensation that makes you question its choice of title.

By Marcus Mac Dhonnagáinn

Miss Violence Within the first five minutes of Miss Violence, a young girl celebrating her 11th birthday jumps out the window, killing herself. It is a gut-wrenchingly horrible moment, and one that overwhelms you as you attempt to understand why she might have done it. But those thoughts are only lingered upon for a few brief moments, as you immediately become concerned with the wellbeing of her family, all of whom are grief stricken and try to cope with her loss. And it is this focus on the aftermath of what’s occurred where Miss Violence de-compacts itself, slowly revealing to you the answer you might not have been expecting. What works best in Miss Violence is how the audience empathises with the cast. It is empathy that is so crucial to Miss Violence and one that it toys so well with, that it leaves you slightly

Review: Out of the Furnace By Ken Glennon Rust and blood loom large in Crazy Heart helmer, Scott Cooper’s evocative ode to seventies American cinema built around an ailing steel mill town and a pair of suffering brothers played by Christian Bale and Casey Affleck. Well marshaled by a former actor, now respected filmmaker, Out of the Furnace brims with raw vitality in its depiction of a

fading Pennsylvanian rust belt and a superlative A-list cast. Opening with Woody Harrelson’s violent thug brutalizing his date at a drive-in cinema and her would-be defender and a rousing blast of Pearl Jam’s Release, Furnace is a muscular, manly affair that rides high on powerful performances from heavy hitters Bale, Harrelson and Casey Affleck. Primarily it’s the two brothers and their respective traumatic arcs that motor the opening hour. Russell (Bale) is a decent man who gets four years in prison for a tragic car accident. His brother Rodney (Affleck) is preparing for a fourth tour of Iraq circa 2008. Following their respective trials both have experienced lasting traumas, in Bale’s case movingly played out with his lost girlfriend played by Zoe Zaldana. Their simple and devastatingly effective first post-prison scene is a highlight. Neither

unsure-footed for nearly its entire length, and continually manages to keep you slightly dumbfounded to ascertain the reasoning that one so young could choose suicide. In addition to the sense of grief, Alexandro Avarnas also conveys growing acceptance and an eventual moving forward – one however that is always underlined with a question mark of sorts. Feeling happy for the family is difficult when there’s still a sense of constant dourness and frigidness about them hanging about them. Attempting to stay ambiguous about the denouement is rather difficult, as inflating the audience with any sense of expectation undercuts the film’s most powerful scenes. Thus, I will say little else other than it’s all bloody great and you should watch it while knowing as little about it as possible.

Mother of George Mother of George sees director Andrew Dosunmu’s follow up to his 2011 debut Restless City, with a similarly themed film of African immigrants living in New York. Mother of George moves away from the focus of those surviving on the periphery and instead focuses its attention upon the tension between maintaining traditional cultural practices while living in one of the most modern metropolises on Earth. We enter on the day that a young couple are married, all of which adheres to the traditional Nigerian customs. Dosunmu’s insight into these cultural practices, and how the community maintains these traditional rites as well as the values they adhere to in contemporary society, in a way provides a unique perspective on the pursuit of the American dream. Consequently, there’s nothing necessarily American about it, but are in fact rather universal. There’s very little about the pursuit of power and wealth, but rather a simple desire to be happy, bring a child into the world and be a good husband/wife. But a tension develops between the two when they are unable to conceive a baby – forcing them to not only confront their love for one another, but also to fulfil of the expectations that their

playing to histrionics, a quiet dignified resignation from Bale who in four years has seen his deceased father and one-time lover move on without him. It’s a terrific, measured central performance (watch Bale’s face all the way through his prison release) ably supported by the likes of Willem Dafoe (not playing the slime card in a nuanced turn as a local, crooked bookie), Forrest Whitaker and Sam Shepard in secondary roles. Casey Affleck provides a volatile and hugely sympathetic turn as a burnt out war veteran who arrives home disenchanted by the prospect of following in his father and brother’s steps in the mill. This leads him to gambling and a fixed bare-knuckle boxing ring Harlan DeGroat (Harrelson). At this point, well over an hour into proceedings, Rodney disappears and an already overly grieved Russel goes after him and DeGroat. This section of the film – specifically its final third – has been criticized for giving way to genre convention.

culture demands of them. The narrative is intentionally stripped to the bare essentials, often leaving a feeling that we the spectators are entering conversations whose true meaning is realized through everything that is left unsaid. The leads Danai Gurira, Isacch De Bankolé and the supporting cast for the most part manage to convey their characters’ intents through this restrained method, though aren’t always successful. Dosunmu is also somewhat responsible for this as well, as he either pulls back too much, or says everything too openly. Interestingly, while the story is told in a reserved manner, the cinematography by Bradford Young is nothing but flamboyant. Making up for the lack of attractive sets, Young instead conveys a very effective sense of claustrophobia – both from the physically cramped apartments and corridors, as well as the growing emotional anxiety that begins to gnaw at the characters. Close-ups, framing, lighting, colouring and the continual tampering with the lens’ focus culminates into a remarkable style that excellently shows an understanding of how cinema can still be beautiful and impressionable even if you’re working on a shoestring budget.

I don’t have the benefit of viewing a back catalouge of seventies American film, with which Furnace apparently owes an extensive debt, but the power of the cast and atmosphere generated behind the camera demand firm attention. Masanobu Takayanagi’s cinematography poignantly captures the diminishing rust belt and there has been richly deserved praise for Dickon Hinchliffe’s (Winter’s Bone) understated and terrific score emblematic of the performances and direction. A magnificently aggressive performance from Woody Harrelson adds to the rich texture of the final product. Riveting and unpredictable up to an including the penultimate shot the filmmakers have clearly strived and succeeded to imbue the central figure, his family and the world with sincerity and emotional wallop. If in the end the whole of Out of the Furnace is the sum of its cast and considered direction then there is more than enough quality to recommend here.

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Further information: www.ucd.ie/graduatestudies Questions? Contact pgstudies@maths.ucd.ie

24 Music

Sin Vol. 15 Issue 10

New website launched for festivel-lovers By Declan Ryan FestHive is a new online platform for festivalgoers to share their experiences through the account-orientated website. After the initial account-building and adding of relevant details, the service offers users the chance to explore festivals that they mightn’t have even heard of and to reunite

with people that they may have befriended at the events they’ve already attended. The community-based web design is all about expanding festive horizons and FestHive’s polished interface gives a sense of potential for gaining popularity in the coming festival season. FestHive purposely acts as an online travel buddy for festival-goers; enabling them to

Hall of Shame By Dean Buckley Shining in the Sin Hall of Shame this week is Beyoncé for writing a great feminist pop record, then turning around and supporting her husband's singing of lyrics glorifying the domestic abuse of Tina Turner.

connect, share and meet up in person with likeminded people at their preferred festival. Not exclusive to Ireland, the festivals cover anything from Castlepalooza in Tullamore to Burning Man in United States and their European equivalents. Be it progressive rock or psychedelic trance, if there’s a festival dedicated to it, more than likely you’ll find someone on FestHive who hass attended and written a blog-style account of their experiences. Profiles on the site range from festival-goers, organisers and artists so it’s nice to see everyone on the same page sharing their wisdom.

It seems a good idea to keep festival-related write ups and experience far away from the more mainstream social media sites... The site is currently developing its dedicated news section, so in the coming months, users can expect to see exclusive articles detailing line-ups, special features and inside recommendations from FestHive or the specific event organisers. I set up an account recently and during my stay, I’ve read a few articles and enjoyed the layout. Like any social orientated website it requires the people to make it into something more than just a website. So we’ll see how it takes off once the festivals begin to kick off. Although users can add info like their twitter account and website, it seems to me that it’s a good idea to keep festival-related write ups and experience as far away from the more mainstream social media sites (more likely you’ll come across those you want to spill the beans with here, rather than your colleagues or family connections on Facebook!). I think this site has potential and hope it takes off this year. Give it a go and see for yourself. It’s a small country; we might cross paths and have a laugh. If such is the case, I’ll add you on FestHive!

Katy B: Little Red By Niamh Towey Katy B has took the throne at the top of the UK Album Charts recently, beating the likes of Ellie Goulding and Beyonce – though I’m not sure why. Perhaps it says more about the Irish population that she has only made it to number 35 here on our charts; a fitting reward for an irritating, slow-paced and whingey dance album. In her second studio album she swaps dubstep for 90s House style, with the help of producer DJ Geeneus. She meshes this strobe-lighting, ecstasy-fuelled rave vibe with feeling-sorry-for-herself break-up lyrics which, as you can imagine, really don’t sit well together. She should have left her whining to fellow BRIT school classmate Adele, and kept her supposed house album minimalist in its lyrics, as it should be. She has released two singles off this album, ‘5am’ and ‘Crying for no reason’, nei-

Gig Review: Annie Clarke in the Olympia By Ross Gavin Fresh from her fantastic EP appearance with David Byrne, the sound of Annie Clarke's third LP was received by an awe struck crowd at Dublin’s Olympia Theatre, with support from Slow Skies. Ignoring the performance you would assume that this would be a very basic gig. There are only three in the band, no backdrops or fancy props, just a small podium at the back. But the mind-boggling performance led by Annie and co. was enough to captivate the audience. Beginning with a message deterring the crowd from recording the performance she kicks things off with "Rattlesnake" and shimmies on stage in her heels like an aggravated housewife. From the head banging, strobe lit ‘Marrow’ to the seductive ‘I prefer your love to Jesus’, she manoeuvred the stage with a barrage of choreography and fuzzy guitar riffs which she bashed out with ease from her liquid fingers. Considering her album was only released the previous day, you'd forgive the audience for not singing along and dancing hysterically, but that didn't stop Annie from lashing out new hits ‘Regret’ and ‘Bring Me Your Loves’ as if they were being received by a packed out stadium. When she stopped to chat, the crowd are just as intrigued by her hilariously random insights and attitude; "Did you ever look at someone on the street and imagine what they looked like as babies?" Closing the night with a creepy rendition of ‘The Bed’, featuring Clarke sitting and waving like a sad child to a background of strange bells, she had the crowd holding their breath before wandering off. This emotionally charged final piece summed up the gig as an extraordinarily vast scope of both sound and vision as the audience was lead through songs of abuse, love, hate and wandering naked through the dessert trying to avoid a snake. ther of which I would recommend forking out your €1.29 for. ‘5am’ is a slightly faster-paced, catchier dance track than the rest, though this wouldn’t be too hard. It keeps a quick, dance-floor inspired beat that doesn’t quite qualify as house music or pop, leaving us somewhat confused. She rambles on about the beat being “so ill” and the tune “so sick”, and although it does leave us with that sort of a feeling, I don’t think it’s in the same way she’s hoping for. ‘Crying for no reason’ is probably the most bearable of the whole album, coming in at number 29 on the Irish singles chart. Again though she tries to mesh the house style with Adele-type lyrics, the only difference here is that it seems it would be quite a nice song if it weren’t for the electro house beat underneath lyrics which are Emile Sande-inspired and have potential in a different setting. After this the album is a real write-off, which is a shame because Katy B has the vocal ability and talent to outshine this house music muck. Best of luck next time Katy!

March 03 2014

Arts & entertainment 25

Theatre Review: The Rising and by way of interludes World War 1 By Karen McDonnell At the recent Theatre of Memory symposium at the Abbey Theatre, a key concern was how the Irish might approach the commemoration of coming centenaries – not least the Rising and the Great War. On the final day, the Peacock Theatre was the venue for a read through of a play-in-progress based on the contents of letters from those who requested military pensions due to their part in the Rising and the War of Independence. The reading highlighted a problem: how is documentary evidence – how is history – turned into theatre, and made relevant to a twenty-first century audience? Importantly, how does theatre entertain and inform without becoming a boring set of historical sequences? Joe O’Bryne, as writer and director, attacks these questions in The Rising and by way of interludes World War 1. The play’s flier tells us it is presented by McKeague and O’Brien (Nick O’Connell and John Ruddy). In performance these two characters represent the duality of North and South, Prod and Taig, Loyalist and Republican, British Tommy and Insurgent. As equals, they face the barrages, gas and trenches of the Somme. The audience becomes complicit attendants as both men speak of their functions within the play and the duties they must perform. Belief is not to be suspended. The show opens in front of closed curtains. Like a comedian introducing an old vaudeville act, O’Brien addresses the house directly. There is talk between him and “the other fella” of the “so-called agreed script”. First things first: a quick run through of Irish history, from the Tudors to the Famine, where “What’s after happening to the praties?” elicits an urge to laugh rather than empathy. O’Brien’s dancing figure picks up mops, laying them in lines of ‘bodies’. At this point in the play the dancing seems redundant, something for effect. We get Parnell, Home Rule, and Billy McKeague revels in taking us through Carson and the establishment of the UVF. Both men use a selection of props, some to better effect than others. Mops are bodies and guns, as are hurleys. A trumpet and drum reinforce Unionist/British identity, Irish dancing and fiddle music that of the Southern Republican. Staccato slams of tap shoes are reactive full stops and emotional exclamations. A pram is used as a Red Cross wagon on the Somme. It’s also the totemic image associated with two aul’ wans Mary and Cepta – characters who serve as a chorus and reminder of the plight of the citizenry of Dublin during Easter week: “It’s worse off and worser off.” “Yous BOWSIES!” There is dark humour in Billy’s affront at having to play Padraig Pearse. But, it’s in the script: O’Brien is to play Connolly. If they are to have a conversation, Billy McKeague will have to play Pearse. Billy gets into his stride as the play turns towards the aftermath of the Rising. The IRB, he says repeatedly, are “Irish Republican Bastards!” Conversely, he reminds O’Brien that he must ‘go’ to the Somme as “it’s in our script”. Many [Irish] signed up we are told. “Patriots?” “No, just poverty stricken, most of them”, O’Brien replies. A bit simplistic this, surely?

The insurrection is set against a backdrop of slides and a model of the GPO, presented with a great deal of earnest historical accuracy and a modicum of humour. The ducks of St Stephen’s Green get a mention. Mary and ‘Cepta pop up with pithy comments on the action. Finally, the tribunals and executions. Billy stands with his hurley/gun, taking aim. O’Brien name each executed man as he holds photos in front of his face and a piece of white cloth over his heart – a target for the firing squad. The scene is strong and effective, as is the naming of those who visited the condemned men before they died. Martyrs become men with wives and families. For this reviewer, a wordless scene was the play’s strongest. In the background a black and white barrage of blasts was accompanied by Billy’s sound effects as he stood at audience level; bringing us into the trenches of the Somme. Above, on the stage, O’Brien performed a staccato dance of death, reacting to each blast and imaginary bullet. Gradually, he succumbed and lay with thrumming heels until the sound subsided and Billy helped him into a chair. The echoes of movement became the symptoms of shell shock. Theatre at its best: hitting the gut and provoking the mind.

… mops are bodies and guns, as are hurleys. Staccato slams of tap shoes are reactive full stops and emotional exclamations. A pram is used as a Red Cross

Con vers io Pro gram n me Ope n to grad of A uat LL d es isci plin es

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wagon on the Somme… For whom was this play written? On the night I saw the play, there were young Americans in the audience. I have no doubt that their experience was immensely different to mine. At times the choreography of Breandán de Gallaí was visually forced and awkward. There was no need to list all the buildings and areas occupied during the Rising, nor who commanded them. A Dublin audience, or those familiar with the Rising, will know Dublin’s geography and details of these positions. But not everyone will. There is a danger that such exposition becomes a list and the audience will disengage, seeing performance as lecture. The balancing act between historical accuracy and over-simplification is a difficult one. The Rising doesn’t manage it. By allowing McKeague and O’Brien their own commentaries on Irish history, however, O’Byrne is able to address the origins of our state without kowtowing to political correctness. Writing about history in the face of puffed-up offended sensibilities leads to stasis – benefiting neither historians, nor audiences. Mc Keague and O’Brien have already tackled the Battle of the Boyne. When they recover from The Rising they hope to come tramping further up our historical road. They’re brave boys. We can only wish them, and Joe O’Byrne, well.

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26 Arts & entertainment The ‘Electrafication’ of The Cube By Karen McDonnell The Frank McGuinness adaptation of Sophocles’ Electra is being performed by students from the Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance at the Cube Theatre from 9-11 March. The play is part of this year’s Theatre Week on the NUI Galway campus. It is the first time the McGuinness adaptation has been staged in Ireland since 2002. The director, Charlotte McIvor, who also lectures in Drama, stated: “This production brings together students from all different stages in our Drama programmes, from first year BA to MA to PhD level, as well as several alumni. And through this structure and partnering with Student Societies, we truly are able to bring together the full resources of the university and our student body.” Apart from acting and working backstage, students will work on set,

costume and poster design. The production has its own dramaturge, Dr. Anastasia Remoundou-Howley. Dr McIvor said: “I view this production process as a total immersion in the craft of theatre making. We are looking to empower students with a coherent set of skills that they can take beyond the university into the professional world.” Importantly, McIvor stresses that the Centre’s focus is not just on acting but on “theatre as a business.” Electra is one of the great plays of the classical canon, dealing with the final stages of the House of Atreus – specifically the branch of Agamemnon who, on his return from the Trojan War, is murdered by his wife Clytemnestra and her love Aegisthus. Revenge is left to his son Orestes and daughter Electra. After the death of Orestes, it appears that Electra must continue alone in revenging her father’s murder.

Commenting on his connection to the play Frank McGuinness has stated: “The part of Electra is the female Hamlet, calling a whole life into question, balancing pity and terror, a woman utterly exposed by her own terror.” After the morning performance on 10 March, McGuinness will take part in a post-show talk with Drs McIvor and Remoundou-Howley. Performances take place at 8pm from 9-11 March. There are two morning performances at 10am on 10 and 11 March. Tickets are available at the Socs Box or by calling 091-4925852, with a student price of €5, and €10 for the public. Dr. Remoundou-Howley’s essay about the reception of Sophocles’ Electra may be read on the production blog: http:// electraproduction2014.blogspot. ie/2014/02/mourning-becomesrevenge-electras_21.html?spref=fb

Theatre Review: Yerma by Federico Garcia Lorca. translated by Peter Luke directed by Max Hafler

oppression without neglecting to preserve the invariant Spanish core of Lorca’s original plot. By Dr. Anastasia Set and costumes evoked folklore Remoundou-Howley accents somewhere between Connemara and Andalucia. Superbly The central theme of Federico Garcia directed by Max Hafler, Yerma occuLorca’s play Yerma – childlessness – pied the dimly lit Druid stage, cutting is inherent in the etymology of the to the heart of female despair. titular heroine’s name. For Yerma in Played under an omniscient Spanish means “barren,” “infertile,” red moon, the pervading tragic “sterile,” and Yerma herself does not hopelessness of Yerma’s obsessive expect anything from her husband: maternal desire was poignantly no money, no love, no portrayed by Aoife Corry passion. What she wants in the leading role. Her is to become a mother, to psychological pathos bear children. managed to convincHer husband Juan, on ingly communicate the other hand, is unable Yerma’s suffering on the to fulfil her wish. Victor, intimate stage. Peter Kenny as Juan who could have potenwas a tour de force, and tially realised her desire because he is earthy just Jonathan Ryan as Victor like her, is not hers. Her successfully managed to suspicious husband brings impersonate unrequited his two sisters to live with love per se. Marie Hegarty them under the same roof stands out with her – to watch over Yerma’s superb acting anima as every move. Yerma’s life the old wise woman while becomes a burden, as she Claire Keating and Emily gradually obsesses about Flanagan’s performances motherhood, and ends up were memorable. in hysteria. The choral, Dionysian The play concludes aspect of the play that with the scene of Yerma mirrors the tragic psychic world of Yerma was and Juan’s confrontation outside a holy grotto, masterfully translated where Juan unstintingly into mournful Spanish guitar melodies by Sean reveals to Yerma that he shuns fatherhood. Yerma’s McLaughlin and lyrical Pictured at the announcement of the inaugural NUI desperation compels her singer Katerina Kavanova, Galway Theatre Season were Drama and Theatre to commit a crime: she harmoniously complestudents Aoife Corry, Co. Clare and Jonathan Ryan, menting a complete and strangles Juan with her Co. Kerry in rehearsal for the Theatre Season’s own hands, and with him well-mounted production production of Yerma. Photo: Aengus McMahon. she annihilates her only of a sublime play. hope to procreate. The tragic end seals Yerma’s own denouement. “I killed my child”, she cries in the finale. For Yerma has made a tragic choice. In this Lorca play, like in The Blood Wedding, the motif of betrayal is pivotal. What disrupts the natural order of things becomes hubris and demands punishment. Peter Luke’s sleek translation, which succeeded in localizing the play for an Irish audience, worked towards a critique of Irish Catholicism and female

Sin Vol. 15 Issue 10

Literary Festivals:

Dates for your diary By Hazel Elliffe For literary enthusiasts there are lots of interesting summer schools and literary festivals happening this year. From the internationally recognised to the locally organised there is something for everyone. Check out details below for a selection of what is coming up. The Ennis Book Club Festival runs from the 7 - 9 March 2014. This is a wonderful social and literary gathering, bringing together book club members and readers from all over Ireland and beyond. Supported by Clare County Library, the festival includes author readings, discussions, workshops and walking tours through the narrow streets and lanes of Ennis. Over the years the festival has attracted wonderful authors and speakers including Edna O'Brien, Nuala O'Faolain, Roddy Doyle, Anne Enright. For full details see: www.ennisbookclubfestival.com. The Friars Gate Literary Weekend runs from 24 - 27 April 2014. This is an intimate literary weekend in the heart of medieval Kilmallock featuring readings, workshops and an open mic night with some of Ireland's leading writers. Check out www.friarsgate.ie. In Galway, this year’s Cúirt festival will take place from 8 - 13 April. Cúirt International Festival of Literature features an eclectic and exciting range of Irish and international writers for which the festival is renowned. Full programme details available on www.cuirt.ie. Dublin Writers’ Festival runs from 17 - 25 May. Ireland's premier literary event gathers the finest writers in the world to debate, provoke, delight and enthral. With readings, discussions, debates, workshops, performances and screenings, the festival creates a hotbed of ideas. Whether it is the mix of poets, writers of fiction and non-fiction, lyricists, playwrights and screenwriters, Dublin Writers’ Festival brings new faces and household names together in ways that surprise and inspire. Check out www.dublinwritersfestival.com. The longest running literary festival in Ireland, Listowel Writers Week, will run from 28 May – 1 June. It will be celebrating its 43rd year in 2014. This internationally acclaimed literary festival is devoted to bringing

together writers and audiences at unique and innovative events in the historic and intimate surroundings of Listowel. They host competitions for all levels of writers and this year the festival has a competition prize fund of over ¤30,000. Check out www.writersweek.ie for more details The Dublin James Joyce Summer School is taking place from 6 - 13 July. It is a varied programme of lectures, seminars and workshops. It includes tours of Joycean Dublin with visits to the Abbey Theatre, Glasnevin cemetery and local pubs. Members of the public may attend the morning lectures by purchasing a day pass for ¤20. Applications are also open for a number of full and partial scholarships. To apply, students need to send their CV and a letter outlining their academic profile, research interests in Joyce and why the summer school would be of interest to them. Full details can be found at www.joycesummerschool.ie. The Yeats Society of Sligo is holding its 55th annual Yeats International Summer School from 27 July to 8 August. It is the longest running summer school in Ireland, celebrating the work of Ireland’s preeminent poet through its unique blend of learning, art and fun. There is a cost involved: the fee for 1 week is ¤400 and for 2 is ¤650. They do offer a number of scholarships each year, however. Applications can be made online with a closing date of 1 May 2014. All details can be found on www.yeatssociety.com. The Oscar Wilde Festival runs from 5 -7 September, 2014. A festival dedicated to Oscar Wilde will take place in Galway, to showcase Wilde in a west of Ireland setting. Not much is widely known of the huge influence the west of Ireland had on Wilde and his family. His father Sir William Wilde, in particular, had strong family connections with the west of Ireland and displayed a huge interest in the area. The festival aims to educate people about Wilde and to entertain. For more information check out www.oscarwildefestival.weebly.com Make sure to check out all the websites. Most festivals and summer school offer student discounts and early bird discounts. Also check out www.discoverireland.ie/literature which gives a guide to all the festivals happening in Ireland.

University Sports Clubs Schedule – Kingfisher Get off the couch this semester!

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Check www.clubs.nuigalway.ie for updates. CLUB

TIME

VENUE

Swim Club

7am - 8.30am

Aikido

1-2pm

Hall 3

Karate

6-8pm

Raquetball Court

Badminton

6-8pm

Hall 1 & 2

Archery Club

6-8pm

Hall 3

Futsal Soccer

8-10pm

Hall 1 & 2

Taekwondo & Judo

8-10pm

Hall 3

Swim Club

8.30pm - 11pm

Mountainbike - Spinning

6-7pm

Fencing Club

6-7.30pm

Hall 1

Ladies Basketball - Varsities

6-8pm

Hall 2

Karate Club

6-8pm

Hall 3

Aikido Club

7-9pm

Hall 3

Maui Thai

7.30-9.30pm

Hall 1

Cricket Club

9-10.30pm

Hall 3

Volleyball

8-10.30pm

Hall 2

Kayak Club

9-11pm

Full Pool

Swim Club

7-8.30am

2 Lanes

Archery

8-10am

Hall 3

Volleyball

1-2pm

Hall 2

Aikido

1-2pm

Hall 3

Archery

4-6pm

Hall 3

Mens Varsity Basketball

5-7pm

Hall 2

Cricket Club

7-9pm

Hall 1

Badminton

9-11pm

3 halls

Taekwondo

7-9pm

Hall 2

Karate & Judo sharing

6-8pm

Sub Aqua

9.30 -11pm

Full Pool

Swim Club

7 – 8.30am

2 Lanes

Frizbee

5 – 7pm

Hall 1

Muai Thai

7 – 9pm

Hall 1

Cricket

9. – 10.30pm

Hall 1

Ladies Basketball – Varsities

6 – 8pm

Hall 2

Ladies Basketball – Recreational

8 – 10pm

Hall 2

Table Tennis & Fencing

6 – 8pm

Hall 3

Taekwondo & Aikido

8 – 10pm

Hall 3

Fencing Advanced

5 – 6 & 8 – 10pm

Swim & Lifesaving Club

9 – 11pm

Mens Basketball - Varsity

11am - 12.30pm

Hall 2

Archery Club

11am - 1pm

Hall 3

Inline Hockey

7-9pm

Hall 1

Volleyball Club

6-10pm

Hall 2

Judo Club & Table Tennis Club

7-9pm

Hall 3

Swim Club - Varsities Team

9.30-11pm

Taekwondo

12 – 2PM

Swim Club

4 – 5.30pm

Fencing Club

2 – 4pm

2 Lanes

Full Pool Studio

Hall 3

Raquetball Court Full Pool

Full Pool Raquetball Court 2 Lanes Raquetball Court

28 Sports Huge success for Archery Club By NUI Galway Archery Club NUI Galway Archery Club returned from the Irish National Student Indoor Championships with a record haul of trophies. The club has gone from strength to strength in the past number of years, and this year’s championship was no different. The club won all male categories, and all team categories at the championships. It was the first time in the competitions history that a college has won such an extensive number of titles.

Individuals:

• Darren Wallace Male Recurve Champion • Carl Byrne Male Compound Champion • Sam Schultz Male Barebow Champion • Nada Khaled-Abdo Female Barebow Champion • Aisling Finn Female Recurve 2nd Place • Tom McGrath Male Barebow 2nd Place Teams:

In the individual categories Darren Wallace retained his Male Recurve title for a third successive year. Carl Byrne and Sam Schultz claimed the Male Compound, and Male Barebow title respectively. Nada Khaled-Abdo won the Female Barebow title adding to the clubs record haul of competition titles. Aisling Finn came second in a closely fought final in female recurve, and Tom McGrath came second in Male barebow, after coming against NUIG archery Sam Schultz in the final. In the team categories NUIG won all four categories on offer. Team recurve (Darren Wallace, Aisling Finn, Mohammed Asyraf ), team compound (Carl Byrne, Callum Conroy), team barebow (Tom McGrath, Sam Schultz) and mixed team (Darren Wallace, Carl Byrne, Tom McGrath).

• NUIG:Team Recurve Champions • NUIG:Team Compound Champions • NUIG:Team Barebow Champions • NUIG: Mixed Team Champions

Records:

• First college to win all individual male categories • First College to win all team categories • Most trophies brought home by a college at a single championship

Sin Vol. 15 Issue 10

Interview with a jockey: Leigh Roche By Kieran Kilkelly In a new three-part series, Kieran Kilkelly chats to various jockeys about their lifestyle. This week’s interviewee is Leigh Roche. So Leigh, you started off at local trainer David Ryan’s yard but was it curiosity that brought you there or was being a jockey something you always wanted to pursue? I don’t really know; I just got it into my head to be a jockey. I was there one summer working there, the summer before I started. So I wanted to be a jockey and I rang him [David Ryan] one day and said to him that “I wanted to be a jockey and go out and learn whatever I had to learn”. So I got the job after I rang and he said come out and see how I get on. Sure one thing lead to another and that was the start of it. After that you became the Midlands Pony Racing Champion, how much of that success do you attribute towards that? Ah well when I went to Dave [Ryan’s] I knew the bare basics of horse-riding but when I went there it’s an obvious difference to normal horse-riding to race riding and everything I learned there probably helped me towards being Champion Pony Racing Rider and basically how to ride a race horse. So, I learned all that in David’s. Then you were featured in the Setanta Sports documentary ‘Going the Distance’ while you were at RACE, the horse-racing academy in Kildare, you were talked about quite a bit at the time, how did you personally react to being in the spotlight like that? Ah well, it’s good. Any publicity is good publicity. But RACE is a different kettle of fish now to David Ryan’s: you get the academic side as well, where you do your class work and everything. It’s FETAC Level 5 or 6 that’s done there as well. So that kind of helped keep the mother happy cause I left school when I was fifteen after the Junior Cert. So it kept her happy to know that I was doing another level of education. They do a lot in RACE for you. After your successful time there, you rode your first winner for Joanna Morgan, ‘Fairy Flow’. What was the main feeling that you had when you crossed that winning post? Excitement is all really, you know I finally got the first winner. You’re waiting to ride and ride and ride to get the first one out of the way. Ah it was great and I was delighted to get that winner. And after you get the first one you’d be thinking when’s the next one going to come?

You’re now with Dermot Weld, but before going to his yard would he been one of your top choices? Yeah well he’s known around the world for the races he’s won and the achievements he has. I definitely wouldn’t change it now in a heartbeat if I had to go back. He’s great, I’ve gotten great opportunities here and he’s just a brilliant man to work for.

a new owner there in Aga Khan and this year is probably our biggest year in I don’t know how many years, with probably 200 horses in training. Hopefully, Smullen will be going away to England or France and hopefully I’ll get in there for a good ride and get more winners. It’d be one of the nicer jobs to have at the minute, with the way things are.

Tuam jockey Leigh Roche at the Galway Races in 2011. Photo: Ray Ryan He gave you your first winner at the Galway Festival of 2010. When ‘Easy Mate’ crossed that line a neck ahead, what did it mean to ride a winner at your local track? Ah it was unbelievable. Everyone goes to Galway, especially Race Week. I remember going to Galway when I was eight, nine, even younger – I’m not too sure but to have a winner there, even to ride there for Weld, he’s been Champion Trainer the last I don’t know how many years. It’s great to get a winner there at your home track with the family there and friends. The atmosphere is just brilliant. What’s it like to ride a winner there every year since your first one? Ah it’s great. I mean, you can ride winners anywhere; the Curragh on Derby day; Leopardstown on Champion Stakes day but it’s not really the same buzz or atmosphere. Galway is second to none. The crowds, the atmosphere. It’s just the buzz; there isn’t any other track like it in Ireland. In the dip, maybe three furlongs from home you can hear the crowd roar. Every jockey in Ireland wants to ride a winner at the Galway Festival. Seeing as you’re now making a name for yourself with the big success in the €100,000 handicap on the Saturday of the Galway Festival and Pat Shanahan, number two for Weld now retired; is it your goal to become top stable jockey for Dermot Weld in the next couple of years? You’d love to be that but [Pat] Smullen is only thirty-four or five you know. He’ll be there for, God knows how long he’ll be there for; five years? Ten years? Fifteen? You wouldn’t know. I’m second there at the minute and we’ve got

Do you think that the arrival of the Aga Khan at the yard might increase your profile and open you up to a move to England to following in successful Irish jockey’s footsteps such as Richard Hughes or Jamie Spencer? It helps a lot to have big owners and to be riding in big races. But I wouldn’t move to England, it wouldn’t really suit me as much. Just going back to before you were started, who was the biggest influence on you? I don’t really know. I never really looked into it; it was just something I wanted to do. There was never any racing in the family; I was the black sheep of the family. I don’t really know if I have influences to tell you the truth, it was just something I wanted to do. And finally, this horse was a big influence on your successes: Patrickswell. You’ve won on him every year since 2009, amassing seven victories on him. Do you think you could pick up another victory aboard him in 2014? Well hopefully, he’s getting on in his days now and I’m not too sure if he’s in training or not this year. I haven’t really heard anything from Marcus [Callaghan] about him. He’s a legend of a horse, to win seven races at the grade, the lower grade of the handicap, one every year, maybe two a year sometimes. Hopefully, he’s back again training this year and he’s as good as ever. I think he’ll win a race or two this year and hopefully I’ll be aboard him again. He’s a great horse to have and to win seven on him is great. You’d nearly buy him as a pet now when he retires!

Sports 29

March 03 2014

The Premier League By Kieran Kilkelly

slumped over an advertising hoarding after a Stan Collymore winner all showcase the drama that the Premier League had. But now it seems to have gotten too commercial; it is hyped up to be something unattainable. The 90’s and early 00’s is where you should go to see the real Premier League seasons. This is when men were men and passion was measured on how dirty your kit was when coming off the field. There were no foreign owners or players for that matter. But the players that didn’t come from the British Isles played like they did. David Ginola, Gianfranco Zola and Denis Bergkamp all legends of the

game both because of their skill and loyalty to their respective clubs. It is unfortunate today to see that lack of loyalty displayed by many players, latest of which Nemanja Vidic, who at 32, should be looking to settle down and not try and revive his career. But it is not only at the top clubs, it is often seen down towards the relegation zone that there is a lack of devotion. Players getting relegated with two or three different clubs in as many seasons is not an unusual happening. From this, the question arises of players actually fighting for the club or playing for the pay check at the

end of the week. There appears to be the lack of battles and ferocity that made the game enjoyable to watch. While the skill exhibited by many players this season has been nothing short of world-class, one would miss the midfield clashes such as Keane and Viera had many years ago. An aging Steven Gerard, an eccentric David Luiz and a mediocre Michael Carrick are just some of the more defensive midfielders that the Premier League has to offer this season unfortunately. This lack of steel has resulted in a diving culture among players in the league. Ashley Young and Luis Suarez are two high profile culprits. This

diving culture among players, albeit worldwide, is ruining the league. Despite all this, it is, however, the most competitive year of the Premier League since it was rebranded in 1992. Four teams are still in contention at this stage and it is difficult to separate them. Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester City all challenge for the 2013/14 Premier League title. It is this, and only this, that makes this year’s Premier League memorable. Although, there is a long way to go in the race and there will be many twist and turns, it will take a dramatic ending for this year to go down as one of the greatest Premier League seasons ever.

Premier League Managers

has seen a surge in performances. It looks as if the old Arsenal are back and if Wenger can continue this title challenge then critics might stop calling for his head. While most managers who have been underperforming already have been removed of their positions, Rene Meulensteen the most recent of which, one still remains: David Moyes. Under Moyes, Manchester Utd lie almost as close to the relegation zone as to the summit of the Premier League, thus degrading their status from potential title challengers to a harmless mid-table side. Moyes, who at Everton, never really set things too much ablaze has continued that trend at Utd. The expectations were high and Ferguson hand-picked him as his successor but he has failed so far. An award for ‘Worst Manager in the Premier League’ wouldn’t go undeserving to him.

It is also remarkable that he still has a job considering how much Man Utd are going to lose financial through failure to qualify for the Champion’s League. Two clubs that did take action and dismissed their managers when the romantic period ended and they weren’t seeing eye to eye were Crystal Palace and Tottenham. Tony Pulis, formerly of Stoke, replaced Ian Holloway at Palace and Andre Villas Boas was succeeded internally by Spurs coach Tim Sherwood. Sherwood has had and instant impact in his first managerial role. The decision to bring Emmanuel Adebayor in to bolster their unimpressive strike force is still working two months on. Averaging a goal every one and a half games, Adebayor is seen as the gamble that paid off for Sherwood and has since been praised extensively for.

Where credit is due to Spurs for not only noticing that Villas Boas was not the right man for the job but also seeing that the inexperienced Sherwood had potential, more plaudits should go to Palace for their selection of manager. Tony Pulis, a man criticised for his style of tactics, was chosen by the Palace board and it has paid dividends since. Boasting one of the best defensive records in the league since he took over, Pulis has rejuvenated the side that looked destined for relegation. Finally, Brendan Rodgers is the last of the managers who merits recognition. Having been able to seemingly control Suarez and also get the best out of players such as Jordan Henderson and Daniel Sturridge, his philosophy that he held so dear at Swansea is now coming to the forefront at Liverpool as he mounts a title challenge.

he received two yellow cards, one of which was extremely harsh, in his sides qualifier loss vs Cork at Semple Stadium. Horgan’s dismissal, however, was one that points to the eradication of the card system in hurling. On a warm July day in the middle of the cauldron that was the Gaelic Grounds on Munster final day, Horgan attempted to hit the ball mid-air only to miss it and strike an opponent’s helmet in the process. While the general consensus was that Horgan should have remained on the park, he still saw the line and Limerick went on to claim a comfortable win. In either case, the red cards were later rescinded on appeal. The decision to track back on both decisions points to another point of niggle for many – how a

referee interprets the tackle. For too long, huge games have hinged on the opinion and interpretation of a given referee. Would Cork have lost to Limerick had they not had to play the entire second half without Horgan at full-forward? Would Cork have progresed via the qualifiers route to an All-Ireland final had Henry Shefflin not left the fray early in their Semple Stadium clash? Therefore, eliminating cards from hurling would also eliminate the chance of a referee getting a decision wrong and influencing a match, even an entire season, on one wrong call. One could argue that all hell would break loose if cards were to be abolished from hurling, but that’s highly unlikely. As Eddie Keher points out in his document,

“99% of frees taken in hurling up to almost 100 yards are converted by scoring a point,” which is often a worse punishment for a team than having a player yellow carded. In addition, under Keher’s proposals, serious offences such as striking an opponent with the intention to injure would still warrant a sending-off. Nonetheless, whoever makes the suggestions or supports them, one thing is abundantly clear – football rules don’t and won’t work for hurling. If GAA chiefs are worried about the growing disparity between our two great games, they must remember just that – we have two different, but equally brilliant, national sports. Let’s give them both the chance to prosper.

In the past we’ve had rants from Kevin Keegan, an ‘Invincible’ Arsenal side not to mention a first Premier League title won by Manchester City in the dying seconds. Everyone remembers the elongated “Aguero” shout by the commentator, Martin Tyler. A lot of people are saying this is the best season in the history of the Premier League but when you look back over the years it seems somewhat boring in comparison. Steve Bruce’s double stoppage time headers against Sheffield Wednesday to help Fergie on his way to his first title or Kevin Keegan

By Kieran Kilkelly Over the past ten seasons in the Premier League there has been an average of nine managers leaving their respective clubs, including retirements, resignations and sackings. This proves that life at the top is tough and to be a Premier League manager is stressful; but who has been doing well this season and who has been well below par? Both Jose Mourinho and Manuel Pellegrini, of Chelsea and Manchester City respectively, came into the Premier League seasons with points to prove. The two, who had been the last two managers of Real Madrid had not lived up to expectations in the Spanish capital.

Pellegrini had a trophyless spell there and Mourinho’s was quoted as saying that his last season there was the “worst of his career”. With the nightmares of Madrid over them they seemed to be regained their statuses. So far, both are putting up a strong challenge for the league and are being recognised as top managers once again. Another manager whose reputation was failing was of course Arsene Wenger. An ongoing dry period of eight years and counting without a trophy the Arsenal faithful, (extremely faithful), are getting restless. But the arrival of Mesut Ozil from Real Madrid and more importantly the fact that Wenger actually put his hand in his pocket to spend,

Scope for change By Cathal Mullaney Just when one new card was introduced to the Gaelic Football, the other brother in the GAA family wants cards to be scrapped altogether. The somewhat intriguing proposals laid down by Kilkenny hurling legend Eddie Keher and the endorsement of them by another, Brian Cody, has brought a new debate to the GAA table – is there a need for cards in hurling at all? We all cherish and love our national sports that bring so much joy to thousands, even millions, all around the world, but the GAA must react here with a certain boldness and defiance as opposed to brushing this issue aside and trying to make hurling and football similar in almost every way.

While we play on the same pitches, often playing with the same people in the same colour jersey, hurling is not football, no matter how much the GAA want it to be. Therefore, it is up to the higher powers to sit down rationally and assess where we want our two great sports to go. One might argue that there is little need for change in hurling at the moment with the awe-inspiring 2013 championship still fresh in the memory, but there are incidents from that campaign that support what Eddie Keher has brought forward. Perhaps the two most high-profile red cards last year were that of Cork’s Pa Horgan and Kilkenny’s Henry Shefflin. Both were pretty innocuous incidents, with Shefflin’s early-shower coming after

30 Sports

Sin Vol. 15 Issue 10

RBS Six Nations 2014

Ireland outsmarted in Twickenham

By Pauric Ward

By Ciaran McGreal

As we enter the back straight in the race for the 2014 RBS Six Nations title, Ireland and France stride purposely onwards leading the way with two wins from two outings, whilst both Scotland and Italy are already feeling the pain; bringing up the rear with the lactic acid of two defeats flowing through their veins. Both England and Wales sit menacingly on the shoulders of the leaders, ready to pounce on any slip ups down the final straight. The Schmidt effect has swept Ireland along on a wave of optimism following impressive wins over Scotland and Wales. Ireland are playing with renewed belief, confidence seeping from every pore. You get the impression that the players really believe in what the management are trying to do with this team and the fruits of their labour on the training ground are coming to fruition come match time. Nowhere is this fact more evident than in the performances of the colossal Peter O’ Mahoney who seemed like a man possessed against the Welsh. Waiting in the long grass of Twickenham in the next round though are a young powerful English team, fresh from a convincing win over a hapless Scotland at Murrayfield. They possess the strongest pack in the Six Nations and with excellent lineout jumpers in Lawes and Launchbury, coupled with lightening quick and dynamic ball carrying back rows in Wood and Vunipola they provide Ireland with their sternest test to date this weekend. Add to the mix the duel between arguably the two best coaches in the tournament and the showdown at Twickenham has all the ingredients for a game that could go a long way to deciding the destination of the 2014 Championship. The Scots are in a shambolic state mirrored only by the Murrayfield sod – soft and unfit for international competition. In contrast to Schmidt and Ireland, the Scots, under Johnston appear to be devoid of purpose or creativity and remain the only team in the competition yet to score a try.

After dishing up two rudderless and callow performances in Dublin and at home last weekend, one wonders where they can go from here. Their only hope of a victory comes in the shape of an away trip to face the Italians in Rome. In their current state the Scots are destined for a spanking in the shape of a very large wooden spoon. The Italians, by contrast are making steady progress under Jacques Brunel and in centre Michele Campagnaro they have unearthed a real gem. Brunel has made steady progress with this Italian side since taking over from Nick Nallet in 2011 and will be hoping for his first victory of this year’s campaign this weekend at home to the aforementioned whipping boys Scotland. Reigning champions Wales are struggling to recapture the form that bought them a second successive Championship last season and with key players slow to regain full fitness after long-term injuries they were well and truly beaten by a more tactically astute and better prepared Irish side last time out. Next up for them are France who themselves have a 100% record thus far and Gatland and co. will be eager to get back on track against them in Cardiff this weekend. The Welsh will not give up their title without a fight. Churchill once remarked that Russia were a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. One could describe a French rugby team in similar terms. Despite a 100% record thus far in the competition coupled with the most talented squad they remain somewhat of a Jekyll and Hyde type team – moody and impetuous one minute, devastatingly brilliant the next. If they can muster up that flamboyant Gallic flare (evident in the first half against England) that exists deep within the ether of their being and express themselves in the way only the French can, then they have the potential to launch a serious assault on this year’s Championship. If both Ireland and France manage to dispose of England and Wales respectively this weekend, we can confidently look forward to a nail-biting two horse race to the line down the home straight in Paris on St. Patrick’s weekend. What a finish that promises to be.

Ireland's loss to England means that there will be no Triple Crown or Grand Slam for this Irish team. That said, the Six Nations Championship is still up for grabs. Four teams have two wins and a loss respectively. Ireland are top of the table going into the game against Italy, due to points difference. They will be expecting a win over Italy, leaving a decider against France the following week. Points difference will be on their minds against Italy but securing the win is paramount. Italy were denied a win against Scotland due to a last gasp drop goal from Duncan Weir. They will give a good account of themselves in the Aviva but Ireland will surely have too much class for them. Unfortunately Joe Schmidt can't afford to forget about the England game as there were elements of that game that will worry him. Ireland's flankers Peter O'Mahony and Chris Henry had little or no impact in the game as England outsmarted them up front. England rarely got isolated at the breakdown. Each ball-carrier was supported by another player. The second player protected the ballcarrier from the likes of O'Mahony and Henry, Ireland's chief poachers. Hooker Rory Best was arguably Ireland's best performer, winning a number of turnovers. Ireland's efforts at the breakdown were one of the key elements of the win against Wales. With this element nullified, Ireland couldn't rely on turnovers and were forced to provide some invention in their backline. Unfortunately, they met a strong English defence and found it hard to mount any attacks. Johnny Sexton was excellent against Wales. His kicking from hand and his game management were superb. Against England however, he wasn't on top form and Ireland suffered as a result. His miscued restart went into touch after Owen Farrell had scored a penalty for England. From the resulting scrum, Harlequins trio Chris Robshaw, Mike Brown and Danny Care combined to send Care under the posts for England's only try. Those three players, Brown in particular, were excellent. If England win the Championship, Brown looks a safe bet for Player of the Tournament.

Ireland's line-out and scrum were very effective once again. Credit must go to Rory Best who has been in great form. If they can continue their efforts in the set piece, get the breakdown back on track and if Sexton improves his kicking game, all may not be lost for Schmidt's side. Looking ahead, Schmidt, the players and all of Ireland will be banking on a win against Italy. That said, Schmidt has been in the game long enough to know that there are no easy games at this level. Simon Zebo showed Schmidt what he's been missing with a great individual try against Ospreys in Munster's victory in the RaboDirect PRO12. Whether or not Zebo should be included has been a big debate among Irish supporters over the last few weeks. But regardless of who isn't in the squad, Ireland should have enough class and experience to overcome Italy. France were poor against Wales and Ireland will surely fancy their chances of a victory in Paris on the last day of the tournament. Four wins and a loss would represent an acceptable return for Schmidt given that it is only his first year in charge. Many supporters over the last few days have mentioned that Brian O'Driscoll won't get a Grand Slam this year. I'm sure the man himself wouldn't mind a Six Nations Championship medal in his back pocket heading into his retirement regardless of whether or not it is a Grand Slam. Ultimately, it looks likely that the winner of the Championship will come down to points difference. Ireland are currently leading and with the Italian game coming up, they will surely add to that points difference. Heading into the French game in first place will give them great confidence. England have yet to play Wales, which will be pivotal. If England win, they will most likely end Wales' hope of winning the Championship. Ireland are sure to win against Italy while France should beat Scotland. That will leave a three horse race going into the last day. England play Italy and Ireland play France. Points difference will be paramount at that stage. We can't rule out Wales either. They won well against France and if they beat England, they will face Scotland in the last game. It promises to be an exciting few weeks for the neutral and for Irish fans. They are still in with a great chance of claiming the Championship and that would be an marvellous achievement as this year's competition is very even.

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March 03 2014

Final Word 31 diary of the Smokey’s Pigeon

What do they teach you in college? By Shannon McNamee • Bruce Almighty was originally written by a • Syphilis had been called the "French disease" community college English professor - titled in Italy, Poland and Germany, the "Italian disAlmighty Me, and he was never credited as ease" in France, the "Spanish disease" by the a writer for the movie. Dutch, the "Polish disease" by Russians, and the Turks called it the "Christian disease." • In his 1976 acceptance speech, Paul Simon thanked Stevie Wonder for not releasing an • When Star Trek ended in 1969 William Shatalbum, Wonder having won Album of the Year ner was homeless, living out of the back of a in '74 and '75—and again in '77. pickup truck with his dog. • Dogs and elephants are the only animals that • In 1980 Saddam Hussein received the key to seem to instinctively understand pointing. Detroit. • There are 9,823,546,661,905 ways to make • The royal family of the UK changed their last change for a $100 bill. name from the German "Saxe-Coburg and Gotha" to Windsor because of the anti-Ger• The true meaning of the lyrics to ‘Bohemian man sentiment in England after World War I. Rhapsody’ still remain a secret within Queen. • The first Native American who met the Pil- • The Creator of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, helped two falsely accused men grims at Plymouth Colony walked into their out of prison after solving the already closed encampment and greeted them in English and cases. asked if they had beer.

I’m heartbroken. I spent hours scratching our names together entwined in a heart-shape on a tree but she just laughed at it along with her friends. My foot is now more disfigured than ever. I even wrote her a romantic poem; ‘Roses are red, violets are blue, you are the only bird that makes my heart go coo’. I think I’m going to focus on my career from now on. I’ve overheard a lot of talk of nominations and presidents while hiding from the world under the bright orange chairs. I could do politics. After all it is only a popularity contest and people love me, sort of. When they get over my appearance and realise I can’t really hurt them, at least. I promise free muffins for everyone if I win! And if you don’t like muffins then Panini’s or ‘Taytos’. I have a good feeling about this…

Smokey’s Pigeon for SU President!

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