Student Independent News Issue 12 #Vol18

NUACHTÁN SAOR IN AISCE VOL.18 Issue 12. 28 MAR 2017

Student Independent News

RELAY FOR LIFE

Thousands raised in aid of Irish Cancer Society

By Sorcha O’Connor This year’s Relay for Life organised by NUI Galway’s Cancer Society raised €8048 for the Irish Cancer Society on 9 March. This was the third year of the event.

Speaking to SIN before the event, the Cancer Soc explained what the event is all about.

“Relay for Life is a global event that started in the States, aimed to Celebrate, Remember, and Fight Back for all those affected by cancer. It is a 12-hour non-competitive event, in which participants make teams of 5 to 20 people, and one member of the team is always on the track, symbolizing how we won’t give up against cancer,” explained AShita, auditor of the society.

“We have around 40 teams registered, so we are really buzzing for the event; throughout the night, there are spirit-raising activities, including yoga, interactive dancing, competitive games, choir and band performances. The Candle of Hope

ceremony takes place after the sun has set, during which we light the track with bags/ candles dedicated in memory or celebration of our loved ones. This is one of the more emotional parts of the night,” she said.

“Teams are encouraged to fundraise prior to the night, and also have fundrasing stalls/ activities on the night. We have raised over 21 000 euros for the Irish Cancer Society within the last two years, and are looking to add much more to the number this year.”

The society were expecting 500 participants and the event turned out very successfully for a third consecutive year in the Kingfisher gym.

“Relay for Life is quite a large scale event, as it unites all corners of the college in this cause; this year we are projecting an attendance of around 500 participants, hopefully even more!” explained Ashita.

“Having so many people that are passionate enough to join the event allows for an arena in

which we can highlight the importance of funds raised. I am always taken aback by how many people are touched by cancer either first hand or through loved ones. So many people remembering lost ones, but then conversely so many beautiful survivors celebrating their lives, all thanks to cancer research and advancements, early detection, and preventative methods. Thus, attending Relay really does make one aware of how every little bit makes a difference in the fight against cancer.”

The NUIG Cancer Society is celebrating its third year, with over 1300 members within the society that actively receive updates on upcoming events and opportunities for involvement through email and Facebook. It was set up by a group of students who wanted to unite the college in the fight against cancer. They aim to raise awareness of cancer related issues on campus, and raise funds for charities including the Irish Cancer Society, Cancer Care West, and Hand in Hand, and local hospices.

NUI Galway further commit to divestment of fossil fuels

By Cathy Lee NUI Galway has now committed to divesting in fossil fuels following the hard work and focus of some earthlyminded students.

Last year, the CCAFS (Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security) society submitted a petition of over 1000 signatures.

This followed a report undertaken that highlighted that to date the University has invested €3.4 million worth of shares that in fossil fuel companies such as Gazprom and Statoil.

Recently, this report, petition and finding was welcomed by University President, Dr Jim Browne.

The University has now agreed to withdraw these investments and adopt a sustainable investment policy with the support of the society and the Students Union.

Jimmy McGovern, NUI Galway SU President, who had been closely involved with the work of the society said: “We must empower students, the future of our society, by giving them a platform to have influence and input in our University’s developments. NUI Galway has given its students that platform in this instance and we applaud them for that.”

Last week, the society held a talk on the matter that was the third annual Climate Congress in partnership with Trócaire.

The conference sought to explore the topic of sustainable investment from political, social, and environmental standpoints.

It also had a constructive session to build ideas and get the audience talking about these challenging topics.

Speakers at the Congress included Thomas Pringle T.D., proposer of “the Fossil Fuel Divestment Bill” in Dáil Éireann, Ian Halstead of L&P Investment Services Ltd and Clíona Sharkey of Trócaire.

Auditor of the CCAFS society, Colm Duffy said: “We are extremely happy with the result and the support from Dr Browne. We are glad that this campaign has come to a conclusion, and we look forward to assisting NUI Galway in the formation of its Ethical Investment Policy”.

University President Dr Jim Browne echoed the delight to the society commending their actions saying they had “highlighted an important global issue that impacts on climate change, social equity and a range of important ethical issues today. Their actions and advocacy demonstrate their commitment as global citizens who will shape our planet’s future”.

The plan for divestment of fossil fuels initially came to light in late November 2016.

Nationally, it has also been announced that Trinity College Dublin have divested €6.1 million of their investment in fossil fuels.

To find about more about the action plan and the initiative undertaken by CCAFS visit ccafs.cgiar.org or visit the NUI Galway Facebook page by searching “CCAFS society NUIG”.

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SIN Vol. 18 Issue 12

Path-breaking women of NUI Galway exhibition

By Aoife O’Donoghue The University is currently hosting an exhibition in the Hardiman Building entitled Path-breaking women of NUI Galway.

It opened at the beginning of March and is a visual history project, part of work undertaken by principal investigator and curator of the exhibition Professor Niamh Reilly, Mary Clancy of the Centre for Global Women’s Studies, and Dr Muireann O’Cinneide.

The work has been carried out in partnership with the Centre for Global Women’s Studies, Gender ARC and University Women’s Network.

The exhibition is a part of the state’s Decade of Centenaries programme which seeks to commemorate and reflect on the critical times and events of the early 20th century, including those who made significant contributions to society at that period.

This exhibition features twelve women, all former students or faculty members of NUI Galway, who hail from diverse social, political and religious backgrounds and aims to make known their extraordinary contributions across the arts, sciences and society.

All the women featured had a significant impact on either the University, wider society or both in the period from 1912 to 1920 and in the years of Ireland’s infant independence.

Included in the exhibition are Alice Perry, the first female engineer in Ireland or Britain, whom the Engineering building was recently named after; Ada English,

one of the first female doctors in Ireland who strove for many innovations in mental health care; and Caitlín Maude, an Irish-language writer, singer and actor.

The Path Breaking Women exhibition particularly emphasises the campaigns for social reform that swept Ireland in the early 1900s.

These included the struggles for suffrage and access to education and professional employment for women, in addition to later efforts for progressive social change and the securing of women’s rights in an Ireland of the modern era.

For Professor Reilly, the aims of the exhibition are to “encourage dialogue and reflection on the roles of women in the university and Irish society more generally and on what can be learned from the past to assist in addressing the gender equality challenges of the present”.

The official launch of the exhibition was undertaken

by Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, former TD for Galway West and first female cabinet minister in the state, who has recently fulfilled the role of chairperson of a national review of gender equality in higher education institutions.

Speaking at the event, she said: “The exhibition focuses on the campaigns for social reform that animated Ireland in the early twentieth century – and how they led to women’s rights and a modern Ireland that would have been unimaginable when these women were starting out on their student days.”

The exhibition is currently on display in the Hardiman Building Foyer, adjacent to the Library entrance and is open free to the public.

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Editorial It’s hard to believe that this is the final issue of SIN for this semester. It doesn’t feel so long ago that I was nervously putting the first issue together, hoping I would somehow fill the shoes of my predecessor Jessica.

The time has flown since that first week and looking back now, this year of SIN has been a fantastic one – and I have a lot of people to thank for making it so!

To the brilliant sub-editorial team, I have to give a huge amount of credit to you all for the success of the paper this year. Every issue you came back with great ideas for stories and articles, and made SIN’s content as varied as it could be. We always strived to facilitate every opinion, to cover every story with an interesting student angle, and to always provide some quality content for our readers. It has been a pleasure to work with you all and I’m really proud of our efforts. I’m glad we got to put our own stamp on the paper with our new design this year and I’ll certainly miss those of you moving on next year – but also look forward to another brilliant year next semester with those of you still studying.

I also have to thank SIN’s extraordinary designer, Shannon Reeves. Shannon has been a

massive help to me this year, helping me learn the ropes and was the magician behind the SIN revamp in January. He always has a keen eye for detail and makes the newspaper look sophisticated and eye-catching without fail.

I must also give a massive thank you to the loyal contributors this year – sure, without them there’d be nothing for anyone to read. There has been some outstanding content this year – the journalism portfolios will be well stocked at this stage! I hope you’ve all benefitted from SIN and enjoyed it as much as I have, and I look forward to working with you all again next year.

Lastly, I must thank everyone in the Students’ Union who had the fate in me to do a good job. I was thrilled to take up the position in September and I am already full of ideas for next year – so here’s to another twelve issues!

We’ve pulled out all the stops for this last issue of the year. We have the final Confessions of a Provisional Driver, we have the last ever Eoin Drones and much more from our columnists – and we as always have a great mix of sport, news, celebrity gossip and interesting features.

Also be sure to check out our Style Spot to see who our fashion editor picked out as stars of the Concourse catwalk.

I’m going to leave it there. Thank you very much for reading SIN and I hope this last issue will leave you wanting more. Be sure to like our Facebook page and follow us on twitter @SIN_ NUIG so you can keep up with all our content over summer.

Until next September,

Sorcha.

Thank you for your support & Best of luck with exams!

NUACHT

March 28 2017 NEWS EDITORIAL: CATHY LEE AND CATHAL KELLY Cathy and Cathal here coming at you with the news section of SIN for the last time this semester (shocked, truly). We thoroughly hope that you enjoyed reading these last couple of issues of SIN. It has been a great year for news, “fake news” and everything

in between. So for the last time, sit back and relax with the latest campus and Galway news. This issue we see the success of CCAFS society, NUI Galway’s celebration of Muscailt and an exhibition of path breaking women. Happy reading!

FEATURES EDITORIAL: DEIRDRE LEONARD I can’t believe it’s the last issue of the year already, the last two semesters have absolutely flown by! We’ve got a brilliant edition to see you off into the summer months so hopefully you won’t miss us too much until September.

Aileen O’Leary is here with exam tips to get you through the next few weeks and we have our excel-

lent columnists back to keep you laughing well into April. We have an excellent interview with NUI Galway’s own Mike McCormack and a look into Ireland’s steroid culture so there’s plenty to keep you going. With that, it’s goodbye from Features for this year, so best of luck with exams everyone and happy summer!

OPINION EDITORIAL: EOIN MOLLOY Herein lies the final will and testament of Eoin Molloy, who shall now be laid to rest in his capacity as Opinion Editor of Student Independent News, never to be heard from again. As this is the last issue of SIN that I will ever be a part of, I would like to thank all of our readers for making this job worthwhile.

When belligerent quotes of mine

surface out of context, preventing me from ever getting a job with real responsibility I will surely rest easy in the knowledge that at least my articles brought joy and solace to those four people who read them all year. Please do enjoy our final offering where our writers have tackled safe space culture, Vault 7 and the infantilization of college students..

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INSIDE Muscailt 2017 4 The Theatre Room Galway win national award 5 THE HOLI FESTIVAL: Celebrating the colours of spring and life! 6 A look back on first year 7 EXAM SEASON: Tips and Tricks 8 Seen but not heard? Amal Clooney at the UN 9 Roid raid result: 2m worth of steroids found in Donegal 10 Are we feelin’ repealin’?

11 Head to Head: Should Ireland leave the EU? 12 How Erdogan got his groove back 13 University safe spaces are a dangerous concept 14 Jordan Dunn and Missguided collaboration 16 Festival Style Ideas 17 Me myself and I: Why being single isn’t such a bad thing!

19 Avoiding conflict-avoidance 20 What’s going on in Galway – the last hurrah 21 Creative Corner 22–23 Review: Atlanta 24 It’s Feminist, not Feminazi 25 NUI Galway Sports Awards 2017 Results Supplement 27-30 NUI Galway do Dublin double to win All Ireland Junior crown 31

LIFESTYLE EDITORIAL: KAYLEIGH MCCOY Can you believe we’re on our last issue of SIN already?! It feels like yesterday I was frantically scrambling to think of interesting and funny ideas for my first issue as Lifestyle editor… not much has changed, huh? But in all honestly, I had an amazing time work-

ing in SIN this year, and I’m super proud of all the amazing articles we saw go through the paper. I really hope you enjoyed all the incredible lifestyle pieces, and hopefully you’ll be back next year for more! All the best in your exams. – Kayleigh x

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITORIAL: AISLING BONNER *Sung to the tune of the 12 days of Christmas* It’s the twelfth issue of SIN, in my section you will see: two screen reviews, Kardashian abuse,

feminism truths, wh-a-a-a-t’s on in Galway? A summer reading list, three lovely pics, Ed’s Divide reviewed, and a short story for you to peruse.

SPORTS EDITORIAL: TREVOR MURRAY In this, the final sports section of the 2016/17 academic year, we have plenty of NUI Galway-related news and views with a handful of thrilling match reports to read, including fantastic All-Ireland success as well as a memorable silverware victory for the Ladies’ soccer team over the University of Limerick away from

home. Plus, we have a smashing report of the Gennady Golovkin vs. Daniel Jacobs boxing match.

Thanks for reading for the past few months and I’m sure you’ll join me in thanking our team of contributors and our editor-in-chief, Sorcha – they’ve been great to work with.

Cheerio, folks!

EDITOR: Sorcha O’Connor editor@sin.ie LAYOUT: Shannon Reeves An bhfuil rud éigin le rá agat?

Cur litir chuig an Eagarthóir chuig editor@sin.ie.

Find us online: www.sin.ie

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SIN Vol. 18 Issue 12

NUI Galway Biomedical Engineer selected as Commander of Mars Mission

By Georgia Feeney Ilaria Cinelli, a PhD student in the College of Engineering and Informatics at NUI Galway was selected for the international mission for the Mars Desert Research Station.

Cinelli, a student of Biomedical Engineering at NUI Galway, will work as Commander of crew 172.

MDRS officially began operations in 2001 as a fully volunteer enterprise, which is now in its 16th field season.

To date, over 1,000 people have participated as crew members at the habitat and many are now involved in other analog studies at different locations around the world.

Cinelli was chosen to be the next Emerging Space Leader of the Mars Mission thanks to her extracurricular activities in this field.

Cinelli’s experience in a leadership role allowed her to measure the impact of human behaviour among her crew, brought about by living in such a confined environment and the loss of personal contact with family and friends.

The PhD student collected data-based research on the crew’s changing behaviour patterns throughout the mission.

Due to monotony, loneliness, lack of social contacts, major responsibilities and stress, Ms Cinelli’s

research observed a marked improvement in the crew’s performance in the development of successful strategies; increased confidence in performance; the ability to independently deal with complex problems; higher levels of inner emotional energy, a resistance to stress, increased internal control and social growth.

The Mars Desert Research Station which is owned and run by the Mars society is a full scale analog facility in Utah in the United States.

The station supports Earth-based research in pursuit of the technology, operations and science required for human exploration on Mars.

The unique facility in Utah is surrounded by terrain that is a geologic Mars analog, which offered Commander Cinelli and her crew opportunities for rigorous field studies as they would be conducted during an actual space mission.

This study will lead to new insights into the nature and evolution of Mars, the Earth, and life on Mars.

Commenting on the Mars mission, Commander Cinelli said: “The purpose of this mission was to investigate the impact of isolation on human behaviour, performance and leadership. The Mars simulation experiment is aimed at increasing the physiological and technical autonomy of the crew in preparation for an actual long-term mission over a number of years”.

Cinelli went on to explain that: “The MDRS is in the middle of the Utah desert and three hours away from the nearest town. Extreme conditions were created due to the limited amount of resources available such as food, water, electricity and WiFi. The mission was the first for most of the crew who had never expe-

rienced living in such an extreme environment before.

They made great progress throughout the mission by stepping outside of their comfort zone, overcoming stress, increasing control and overall performance.”

For more information about The Mars Desert Research Station visit: http://mdrs.marssociety.org/

NUI Galway launches international online ‘Couples Coping’ study for parents of children with disabilities

By Georgia Feeney 200 hundred couples and 1,000 individual parents are sought to take part in online study to understand the effects on families caring for children with nonphysical disabilities.

NUI Galway has launched an international online ‘Couples Coping’ study for parents of children with non-physical disabilities.

The research will be carried out throughout Ireland, the UK and the US until April and the researchers are particularly keen for couples in Ireland to participate in the survey.

The questionnaire is available online and takes 30 minutes to complete independently.

Taking on the task of recruitment for the study is lecturers Dr Kristen Maglieri and Professor Brian Hughes from the School of Psychology at NUI Galway.

There are a group of particular disabilities this study focuses on: Intellectual Disability, Autism, Spectrum Disorder, or genetic disorders such as Fragile X, Down Syndrome or Angelman Syndrome.

Speaking to SIN, Dr Kristen Maglieri said: “We are looking for 200 couples and 1,000 individual parents to take part in our study in Ireland. Most of

Muscailt 2017

By Cathy Lee As Seachtain na Gaeilge was ongoing, NUI Galway held a celebratory festival of its own.

This came in the form of Muscailt that ran from March 6-10.

This annual arts festival invited all members of the student body, staff, alumni and the public to partake in various cultural events on campus.

These events highlighted the delights of visual art, music, talk and performance.

This year marked the 17th year of the festival and has earned its place as a key event on the calendar for tourists and the like in Galway.

According to the organisational team, the event aimed to get involved in “re-using, re-inventing and re-imagining the world around us through art and performance” and really “celebrate new and organic work”.

The week long campus event saw showings to meet all interests but the focus this year in particular was on that of the historic Anatomy and Physiology Departments with a lecture/performance, ‘Portrait of a Nation’.

This was held in the 100-year old Anatomy theatre in NUI Galway.

But this connection dated from the Victorian beginnings of NUI Galway, in the Quadrangle,

the previous research on these stresses on families has focused on how individual parents cope, and the vast majority of the respondents have been mums.”

“To us, it just seemed like there was a big piece of the puzzle missing. We need to understand how Dad’s cope and also how Mum’s and Dad’s cope together in a family system,” she added.

“By understanding how resilient families cope well with stress, we can hopefully learn how to help all other families to do so,” she concluded.

Professor Brian Hughes also expressed the need for such a study to be carried out: “Parenting a child with a disability can be rewarding, but also extremely stressful. We know that parent stress can often impact negatively on the entire family system, and so reducing parent stress will help produce better outcomes for everybody in the family.”

“To date, much of what we know about the impact on parents is anecdotal. We want this research to shine a light on the specific life experiences of parents.”

One parent can participate, even if their partner does not wish to do so.

This study is for parents who have children or adult children living at home with non-physical disabilities. circa 1847.

The festival was launched by comedian Aine Gallagher, who is well known for comedy gigs in the Roisin Dubh.

Each year the festival seeks to commission new work from artists and curators and also shines a spotlight on artists working and studying within the University.

Fionnuala Gallagher, NUI Galway Arts Officer, said: “Múscailt embraces all artforms and strands of creativity. It creates a safe and nurturing platform for new work and an opportunity for play, fun and improvisation”.

A short dance film, ‘Ciúnas’, directed by Bernadette Divilly, that explores the place, power and presence of women at NUI Galway was shown on screens throughout campus with a talk and screening of the film in the Bank of Ireland Theatre.

Artist-in-Residence Aideen Monaghan projected drawings onto the side of the Anatomy Building.

There was interactive and improvised outdoor entertainment by Madame Fou and the Funfair which included a gramophone, a fortune-teller, circus performers and troubadour and a travelling kiosk/time-machine.

With the Galway Arts Festival looking set to take the people of Galway and those coming from abroad by storm, the Muscailt festival was a fitting warm up celebrating the sheer love for arts and culture that is at the very root of activities in Galway and on campus.

NUACHT

March 28 2017

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The Theatre Room Galway win national award representing Ireland in Epic Awards

By Ita Reddington The Theatre Room Galway recently won the National Award representing Ireland in the Epic Awards which were set up by Voluntary Arts in 2010. An organisation that works across England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales which aims to promote and increase active participation in creative cultural events.

The Epic Awards 2017 winners were announced at Sage Gateshead, England on Sunday 19 March. The 2017 Winners received a range of prizes including mentoring, memberships, cash prizes and the Epic Award itself.

The Epic Awards, now in their seventh year, are the premier awards for voluntary arts groups based in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, shining a light on their acheivements and aiming to inspire others to get involved and participate in artistic and creative activities.

Heather Humphreys TD, Minister for Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs in the Republic of Ireland stated: “I would like to congratulate Theatre Room Galway on winning this year’s award, which recognises the efforts of the group in supporting and developing local creativity. These awards capture the wealth of creativity in all of our communities and the many benefits of living in a more creative Ireland. Enabling and enhancing culture and creativity

in communities nationwide is central to the Government’s Creative Ireland programme, which aims to put creativity at the heart of public policy, at local and national level, for the very first time.”

The Theatre Room Galway is a community collective who work collaboratively with local writers, directors and actors to perform monthly original one-act plays of 10-minute duration. This initiative, which started in a living room in January 2015 by Luke Morgan and Seosamh Duffy, aimed to challenge people’s perception of theatre by staging plays in non-conventional theatre spaces.

Since its inception, over 150 plays has been staged such as monologues, dramas, comedies, mime, Shakespeare adaptation, poetry as well as bilingual plays. This community collective has moved from strength to strength since it’s inception and have performed in the Town Hall Studio Galway, The Cornstore (in association with Galway 2020 bid) as well as taking part in Galway Fringe Festival, Westside Arts Festival, Galway Theatre Festival and Mick Lally Theatre (as part of Druid FUEL: Emerging Artists Residency) as well as hosting an annual Theatre Awards at end of year.

More recently, The Theatre Room Galway went global with their innovative idea of performing monologues to audiences across the globe. Although The Theatre Room Galway has grown exponentially,

it still retains the intimacy and energy that was created when they first thread the boards. According to Luke Morgan co-founder of The Theatre Room, the vision is simple: “to challenge convention”.

“We want to bring theatre to all shapes and sizes, from all walks

of life, before they have time to deflect their anti-theatre shields. I’m talking about theatre in rooms, theatre in hospitals, theatre in parks, theatre in community hubs,” he explained.

It’s clear to see this vision has already become a reality for these talented theatre makers in Galway, with each play being produced with little to no set, minimum costumes, props and natural lighting in various community hubs around the city and county. Each performance has been described by many cast, crew and audience members as “energetic, fresh, explosive and imaginative, with no two performances the same and it’s very welcoming and collaborative and seems to have an ever growing ensemble”.

Elizabeth Jacob and John Valters Paintner who serve on the committee along with Luke Morgan, Ita Reddington and Elizabeth Flaherty accepted the award said: “On behalf of all the writers, directors, and actors who have volunteered their time and talent over the last two plus years, I’d like to thank the Epic Awards for this honouring of our collective work. When Luke Morgan and Seosamh Duffy started The Theatre Room Galway in January of 2015, I don’t think they expected this.

“They just wanted to create art and challenge people’s perception about what theatre should be or can be. The first few months, plays were

performed literally in people’s living rooms, performers and audiences sometimes sharing the same sofa during the plays.

“We’ve gone on to produce over 150 original one-act plays in community centres, in pubs, in furniture stores, on the street, and online. But besides our non-traditional performance spaces, we pride ourselves on performing for non-traditional audiences: first time theatre goers, asylum seekers in Direct Provision Housing, and sick children and their families in hospital over the holidays. And so, again, on behalf of everyone involved in The Theatre Room Galway: thank you!”

If you want to get involved and watch your ideas come to life, all you have to do is turn up! Each month writers submit original one act plays to scripts@thetheatreroomgalway. com and from that eight plays can be staged each month. After each monthly performance, writers go up and pitch their script to prospecting directors and actors which go into production and the magic is kept going month after month. The next performance on the theme of ‘Gameshows’ takes place on 27 October at 7pm and as always the performance is absolutely free. For details on how to get involved, check out the website http://www.­thetheatreroomgalway. com and for updates follow us on facebook https://www.facebook.com/­ thetheatreroomgalway

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SIN Vol. 18 Issue 12

THE HOLI FESTIVAL:

Celebrating the colours of spring and life!

By Anuradha Kar The Holi festival is one of the oldest and most popular Indian festivals signifying the arrival of spring. Through generations, the meaning of the festival has translated to other allusions- such as the “celebrations of love” and “triumph of good over evil”. However, the basic elements of this festival, that is celebrated all over India and involves people from all religious and cultural backgrounds, has remained same. It comprises of men and women engaging for a whole day of merry making with food, colours, dance and music. It is majorly an outdoor event, where people of all ages play with bright colours, savour traditional

homemade treats while meeting friends and family.

This year, I could “play” or rather participate in the Holi festivals in two cities: one in Paris and secondly in Galway, organised by the NUI Galway India Society. My experience of attending both the occasions are vividly colourful!

Holi celebrations in Paris This year, Holi was celebrated in a grand way at one of the oldest amusement parks in Paris, the Jardin d’Acclimatation, with a cheering and colourful crowd of 25,000 people. On Sunday 19 March 2017, the park saw a record attendance of a massive international crowd and

the longest queue of people at the garden entrance in recent times, who arrived for the Holi festival or “Fete des Couleurs”.

There was live music, an open air dance floor and professional dance performances to popular Bollywood songs. A huge international crowd of men, women and children cheered and danced along.

Others visited the Indian food and craft stalls that were setup at the garden and named after the Indian cities of “Bombay”, “Bangalore” and “Madras”. Around 4 pm the garden saw a euphoria of colours with the “Grand Lacher de Couleurs” when more than 5000 sachets of coloured powder were thrown up in the air and people smeared each other with colours and smiles!

Holi celebrations in Galway The NUIG India Society organizes two major events during a year - the Holi in spring and Diwali-the festival of lights in autumn. The events welcome all international students and are mostly never complete without food, music and dance.

The Holi event this year was held in the afternoon 22 March where students were seen frolicking with colours on the green fields next to the NUIG Kingfisher gym. The event had free admission and stocked over 70 kilos of coloured powder along with desks filled with traditional Indian snacks. The celebrations went on with music for 3 hours, until the participants were drenched in colours and exhausted from the revelry!

Hurl of colours! (Photo by Anuradha Kar, NUI Galway)

Witnessing Holi in the two European cities of Paris and Galway in the same year was an awesome experience and as an Indian, I can affirm that both the events totally paralleled in scale, enjoyment and enthusiasm with the traditional Holi celebrations that happen in India!

Indian snacks and bags full of colours ready for the Holi! (Photos by Anuradha Kar, NUI Galway)

Holi celebrations in Paris (Photos by Anuradha Kar, NUI Galway)

It was raining colours and smiles in Galway on Holi! (Photo by Anuradha Kar, NUI Galway)

GNÉ -ALTANNA

March 28 2017

Confessions of a Provisional Driver

By Aisling Bonner I had hoped that by issue twelve that this column would have a new title: Confessions of a Novice Driver, From Ls to Ns, Aisling’s Declassified N Survival Guide. But alas, as this column has detailed, my progress has been slow and rather unsteady.

In what I pray is my final column of this type ever (but fear it most definitely is not), I have one last confession to make. It is a confession that no learner driver makes for fear that the patron saint of learner drivers will cast them down to perpetual L-dom for the sheer brazenness of it. But after several near-death experiences in the past nine months I am numb to the scandal of this confession. Ladies and gentlemen, I have a test date.

Gasp! Shock horror! ‘You’re not supposed to tell people that’ and all the rest.

The way I see it, I’m about as terrified as humanly possible, so telling the world is hardly going to make a difference. That and, I cannot keep it in. At this stage I’ve told my family, friends, colleagues, customers in work, the parish priest, the postman, the chefs in the Bialann, the Smokey’s pigeon and the Concourse cleaner. Either superstition doesn’t faze me or I’ve just got a big mouth.

I opened the email (which came three months after booking the test) with flashbacks of opening my Leaving Cert results - minus the blackout night that followed.

I instantly got the ball rolling on emergency measures and booked myself another cúpla lessons. Yesterday, I had my emergency tell-meI’ve-made-progress lesson with my instructor. On the way, to the lesson I actually ended up driving in front of him to where we were meeting at the test centre. The lesson hadn’t yet begun and the pressure was mounting. Stopped at a set of traffic lights I turned behind me to get the verdict. I threw an awkward thumbs-up with a question-mark face and I saw he was waving something.

Was it a white flag? Was it really that bad? And then it dawned on me with a laugh so big I hopped

off the clutch and cut out, but it was worth it. There he was with his happy head waving a packet of Fisherman’s Friends – an nod to when I, choked with a cough, was fed one of these fiery mints by my instructor before my mouth almost disintegrated with the strength of the mint. Ah, good times.

The beginning of the emergency lesson talked through the test – everything from walking in the door of the test centre to legging it straight back out again in terror. But seriously, it petrified me. Aside from finding out the way I brake and change gear is inherently wrong and could cost me several dreaded marks, the lesson went surprisingly well. If the braking thing sounds like a difficult habit to change in a week, it is. And there’s a good chance that it’s an impossible fix. But let’s look on the bright side.

My reverse around a corner is passable, my turnabout is a thing of beauty – but stick me under the microscope of a narky tester hungry for lunch and resenting working on a Saturday and I’d put my life savings on my crumbling.

It’s a fitting cliff hanger to my series of chronicles: will she/ won’t she/ who even cares? The answer is as of yet unclear. For now, I dream of road signs, mirrors and dipsticks and wait for fate to take its course. At the end of the day, I can always count on Bus Éireann to… actually, never mind.

7

A look back on first year

By Shauna McHugh It’s hard to believe that my first year of college has gone by already! Like most of my classmates, I can still remember stressing about that vomit-inducing Leaving Cert this time last year as if it were only yesterday. My first eight months at NUI Galway have certainly been a learning curve. We first years have come a long way since we first gingerly paced the massive NUI Galway campus during orientation week.

Here’s what first year has taught me:

1. You don’t need to write down every single word that a lecturer says. After coming home from those first few classes with an aching hand and pages full of notes that I would never look at again, it quickly became clear that my method of throwing every word I heard down on a page in no particular order was not going to work. I researched how the people who write up everything said in a court trial manage to keep up. Google tells me that they’re called stenographers and are so talented that apparently some of them can type up to 300 words a minute! After a few weeks of trying our absolute best, it seems that me and my fellow first years discovered that stenography was perhaps too ambitious.

Flash forward to semester two, and the lecture halls are only half as full as in those first few weeks. I think a few still type up their notes during class, but the last couple of laptop users I’ve sat behind have, on closer inspection, just been scrolling through Facebook. We’ll probably regret this laziness come revision time, but I believe the progression from uptight and furiously scribbling student to being a bit more chilled out is a milestone transformation for us first years!

2. You will probably never truly recover from unofficial RAG week anyway, so just enjoy it while you can!

3. One thing first years quickly realise is that going home for the weekend won’t remain a celebration forever. If you move away from home for the first time in first year, walking into your home for those first few weeks is something like the return of the prodigal

son. You will be met at the front door with wide smiles and open arms. Your favourite dinner will be on the table, your laundry will magically get washed and packed, and family members will line up to hear ‘how the study is going’. Word to the wise: this too will wear off. By the time you get to spend three

I think a few still type up their notes during class, but the last couple of laptop users I’ve sat behind have, on closer inspection, just been scrolling through Facebook. weeks home for Christmas, you and your family will be wondering why on earth you missed each other before. While it’s true that absence that makes the heart grow fonder, the fondness wears off by about the tenth time you come to mammy with a pile of dirty clothes or in need of extra money!

4. The library seemed like the largest building in Ireland during the induction tour, yet when you go looking for a seat you will find that the library has in fact very limited space.

Finding a seat and desk near a plug socket for your laptop is really hitting the jackpot at the best of times, and an impossible dream during study week. Also if you need a book during the first month or two, be prepared to set aside about a whole day to find it. You will get lost. Many, many times…. And they weren’t bluffing about those library fines.

You will have to pay them when you leave that one day loan book under you bed for a week!

5. The first year of college contains the smallest workload of the course. You’ll have more spare time than second year will grant you, so use it wisely. Join clubs and societies and make new friends. Go on the odd night out or two (or four) a week. You’re only in first year once, just be sure to enjoy it!

Diary of a Final Year: The best decision I made this academic year

By Caoimhe Tully I was lounging in my dressing gown last night, googling pictures of your man that played Nate in The Devil Wears Prada, when I started to think about decisions. You see, Nate was feckin’ gorgeous – with a more dangerous kind of look than the striking James Bond type, he was cute and ordinary looking enough to make you believe that maybe even you could find him at the bar in Electric some night. But Nate was also a big baby!

Remember he threw that strop in the movie when he thought his birthday was more important than his girlfriend’s writing career?! Ugh. So, as I sat there in my dressing gown, I stopped drooling, and came to a decision.

“If I ever happen to have a boyfriend with a mop of curls you’d love to bring home to Mammy, I won’t let him come between me and my writing… even if he does have ice cool blue eyes that would cure the worst of hangovers,” I decided.

This got me thinking about all the other decisions that I have made recently, and how they

have altered my life. For example, last week I decided to buy myself a stapler, and my life has never felt more together. Last month, I decided to replace binge watching Netflix with binge reading books. The month before that, when I was getting nostalgic for strong eight year old Tull-Meister who could take on her brothers in a wrestling match, I decided to exercise with a goal to become strong rather than to “stay in shape”. (Now, I’m not exactly a gym bunny. I’m more of a let’s sit in a café with scones and books kind of bunny, so this decision was never going to be an easy one. The majority of my workout attempts have involved me sweating and screaming in the style of a movie birth-scene, rather than a fun fitness video. But there is a lot of hope that I will be wresting my brothers like back in the 90’s very soon).

Now, before I go off on a tangent about how learning to wrestle your brothers is actually a lot healthier than exercising to become a certain size (the daft idea of constantly striving for weight loss is simply female oppression if you ask me!), there’s one particular decision I made this aca-

demic year that changed my life, and I think we need to talk it.

I moved out of my student accommodation, and into a palace.

(When I say palace, I mean my aunt’s beautiful home, with a dishwasher, heating, and lots of other complete novelties that do not exist in the realm of student accommodation). Since my aunt (who is beautiful, warm and tidy, just like her house) took me in, I don’t know myself! It was an adjustment at first, because I am essentially a house guest, and house guests are … weird. They are basically friendly spies – going around your home, collecting information about you, like if you shower daily or not, and taking note of that Wine for Dummies book you bought in the airport seven years ago. They are intrusions to a person’s primary territory - and I think that is why our natural instinct is not to allow them to stay any longer than a couple of nights. So, I tried my best to fit into my aunt’s primary territory, and not appear like a spy at all, by doing the things that she does, like talking about work and general adult life.

“Kev in my work office is really annoying me...”

I’d begin.

“Caoimhe, you work in a coffee shop, with all girls…”

“Oh yes, ammm sorry, the stock market has got me all frazzled. Would you like to go … lampshade shopping some day?”

When she looked at me like my head had turned into an actual lampshade, I realised I had to come up with a better way of convincing her that I could be an adult, that I could fit in. So, I did what all experts would advise in these scenarios, and wrote down a list of my strengths.

1. I make a great lemon sponge.

2. I don’t listen to reggae music (much).

3. I follow Home and Away religiously.

4. I’m a good sturdy build (I can’t borrow/steal slim aunt’s clothes).

5. I can write.

I have since learnt that lemon sponge loses its novelty quite quickly, and that sometimes a simple “thank you” can do the job. (If not, it might help to write about it).

8 FE AT UR E S

SIN Vol. 18 Issue 12

EXAM SEASON: Tips and Tricks

By Aileen O’Leary As this is the last issue of SIN for the year we couldn’t leave you guys without a few tips and tricks to ace those exams. Check out my top five tips for exam season:

Timetables With lectures finishing up, you now have more time than ever to get your head in the books. Make every day between now and your exams count by tackling at least two sets of lecture slides a day, or more if you’re feeling particularly motivated. Make a timetable for revision and try to stick to it as closely as possible every day. What I find works, is dividing your timetable into five days, Monday to Friday and give yourself a cut-off point at the end of each day. Don’t try to study late into the night because you won’t retain anything when you’re tired.

Note making Instead of taking down the notes from your laptop and duplicating them into a copybook, try creating your own custom notes with Microsoft word. Print That do great deals on printing out lecture notes, and realistically you won’t be lifting everything straight from the slides so your pile won’t cost a fortune. This is just what works for me, but it will save you time and energy and help ease you into those pesky exams. For some it’s easier to learn with colours, myself included but for others it can cause a headache so try and see what works for you.

Hydrate One of the most important tips for studying? Stay hydrated. Try to avoid sugary drinks like Redbull and Monster and opt for water and green tea or, if you need a sugar kick, iced tea. During exams the temptation

to run on sugar is at its highest but try to remember your body is a temple so treat it like one. Prevent the cravings by always keeping a bottle of water on hand, and if you want to help save the planet why not invest in a reusable water bottle that you can fill on campus instead of buying a bottle a day.

fuller faster. When it comes to cooking dinner, head to your local butchers, most of them have student deals and some even do ready meals that you only need to throw in the oven. If you’re craving sweets try having a few grapes or strawberries to beat it.

Eat Well

The most important piece of advice I can give you guys is not to dwell on these exams. You might have had a rough semester or a few modules or essays didn’t go your way but don’t give up or lose hope, you can always make up for it. The worst case scenario is repeating your exams, with a hefty fine, but like most things in life it is only an obstacle and you will get over it. Take it as a learning experience, in future you’ll try harder so you won’t have to go through that again.

Exam season is the most stressful time for any student in college - with so much to revise you hardly have any time for much else, let alone cooking and eating healthy. Try to avoid the Taytos and biscuits, sharing bars of chocolate, ice cream and pizza. You will end up in a food coma and you’ll feel bloated and sluggish. My advice? Stock up on fruit and veg, try swapping out crisps for almonds or eat dark chocolate instead, it’s bitter and makes you feel

Don’t dwell on your exams

An Interview with Mike McCormack

By Kate Robinson and Eoin Molloy Mike McCormack burst onto the Irish literary scene in 1995 with his debut collection of short stories, Getting it in The Head. Described by Olaf Tyarensen of Hotpress as ‘Ireland’s most criminally-overlooked writer’, McCormack has become a source of pride for NUI Galway.

McCormack informs me that he graduated from NUI Galway with a BA in Philosophy and English ‘over twenty years ago’ – an imprecise estimate that is irre-

flective of the meticulous and scientific attitude he takes to his writing. Exactitude aside, McCormack is a very experimental writer. Solar Bones received praise for being written entirely in the stream-of-consciousness format. Taking five to write, the book’s 223 pages adhere to no conventional literary style or punctuation guidelines known to man.

When McCormack began to write the book, he knew the narrator had to be a ghost. As he put it himself in a recent talk with final year English students here in

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NUI Galway, ‘a ghost would have no business with full stops’. Inspired by Northern Mayo traditions of a very real respect for the dead on All Soul’s Day, his writing is steeped in a primal sense of spirituality. It echoes a fascination with the dead and our landscape of religion that haunts many of Ireland’s greatest writers, but McCormack’s experimental narrative drives this tradition to new and beautiful places.

As the Guardian triumphantly declared when reviewing Mike McCormack’s latest offering, Solar Bones, ‘excellence is always rare and often unexpected’.

This could not be truer, even when applied to the greats of modern Irish writing.

McCormack, who is now the head of the Creative Writing undergraduate programme here at NUI Galway was feted in style in the Quadrangle on the 22 of February this year, where President James Brown thanked Mike for ‘both the pleasure he has given to readers over the past two decades as well as the insight he has shared with students’.

Solar Bones has amassed a wealth of plaudits, most notably: The University of London’s Goldsmiths prize, the Eason Book Club Irish Novel of the Year and the overall Irish Book of the Year at the Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards. When quizzed about these accolades, McCormack simply stated his surprise that ‘people put awards on it’. Such modesty is a mark of a great man and writer who should probably get used to his work receiving such wide acclaim.

To those who have followed McCormack’s career, such high praise comes as no surprise. Notes from a Coma remains in my locker to this very day, to be returned to in case of emergencies.

When asked about his preparations for the celebratory night back in February, McCormack replied in

typically humble fashion. He said he was ‘quite anxious and nervous that no-one would show up’ and that it would be just himself ‘and a handful of students’.

He also expressed his shock at the fact that Solar Bones has ‘taken on a life and been both a critical and commercial success’. This is most likely because of the experimental format of the book, which McCormack thought ‘wouldn’t be for everyone’.

The entire plot of the book takes place over an hour, where a man reflects on his life between noon and the one o’clock news. However, to refer to this book within such simple parameters is to do the genius of McCormack great injustice. In a recent talk to final year English students, McCormack describes it as positing ‘a really old message’ that in many small towns, ‘life is of a piece..a harmonic whole’ in which ‘good decent people are going about good decent lives’. The book invokes the themes of family, life, work and civic duty while also offering an ode to small-town life. It looks at the ‘rhythms and rituals...the solar bones’ of rural Ireland.

Simply put, it is an extraordinary look at the ordinary.

McCormack has been reluctant to allow himself onto the podium of great experimental Irish writers. He believes that ‘Ireland’s greatest writers are our experimental writers’, people who ‘gave something new to the tradition’ of writing through an ‘anxiety and willingness to push out the boundaries of the received form’. While he may not believe it, there’s no doubt that Solar Bones will go down as one of Ireland’s greatest contributions to the genre of experimental fiction and with that, McCormack himself has cemented a much deserved legacy in the annals of Irish writing.

Solar Bones by Mike McCormack is published by Tramp Press and can be bought in Dubrays, Charlie Byrne’s bookstore and is also for sale online.

GNÉ -ALTANNA

March 28 2017

9

Seen but not heard? Amal Clooney at the UN

By Aoife O Donoghue On 9 March, renowned human rights lawyer Amal Clooney delivered a powerful speech to the UN regarding the plight of the Yazidi people in the wake of Isis’ terrorist crimes. A highly successful, educated, intelligent and inspiring woman, speaking the day after International Women’s Day to one of the most

powerful platforms, in the world in defence of those more vulnerable than herself: naturally, Amal made headlines.

They were not, however the headlines either she nor the Yazidi community deserved.

“George Clooney’s wife Amal Clooney shows off her blossoming baby bump in a chic yellow dress as she heads out in New York” – so The Sun informs us.

“She’s starting to show! Pregnant Amal Clooney shows off twins baby bump as she heads to the UN” – an offering from The Daily Mail.

Even Time magazine got in on the act, making sure to inform us that; “Amal Clooney shows off her baby bump at the United Nations”.

See where I’m going with this?

Yes, Amal Clooney is pregnant with

Amal made headlines.

They were not, however the headlines either she nor the Yazidi community deserved.

“George Clooney’s wife Amal Clooney shows off her blossoming baby bump in a chic yellow dress as she heads out in New York”. For Amal Clooney to have studied and forged a successful career as a human rights lawyer and yet be referred to as ‘George Clooney’s wife’ is an insult to her capabilities and independence as a woman.

twins, which is undoubtedly fantastic news and the whole world should be delighted for her. But here’s the thing: lots of women become pregnant and acquire baby bumps. Some baby bumps are big, some small, some are round, some are pointy, high up, low down, all different kinds of baby bumps, all equally fascinating in their own way. However, not every woman is an internationally acclaimed human rights lawyer speaking at the UN. Such an accolade quite frankly deserves much more recognition and discussion than comparative bump size and whether or not Amal is ‘nailing her maternity wardrobe’.

Speaking of said maternity wardrobe, it’s not only the yellow dress that Amal wore to deliver her speech at the UN that appears to have piqued the attention of media the world over. A quick Google search of ‘Amal Clooney’ and the first three entries after her Wikipedia page are articles and blogs about her fashion, style and ‘best looks’. There is no denying that Amal is a beautiful woman with a timelessly elegant sense of style and it would be offensively narrow-minded to suggest that a woman cannot be successful and intelligent while also being beauty and fashion-conscious. However, when that aspect of her media coverage begins to overshadow her career in its most crucial moments, that is when it becomes a problem. Perhaps as a human rights student I am alone in this, but I would much rather Google ‘Amal Clooney’ and be greeted with results about her legal career than what shoes she wore.

Furthermore, for Amal Clooney to have studied and forged a successful career as a human rights lawyer and yet be referred to as ‘George Clooney’s wife’ is an insult to her capabilities and independence as a woman and is proof that misogynist mindsets are still alive and well. Of course, George Clooney is also to be respected, equally as successful in his career as Amal is in hers. However, the fact that Amal was making a speech on

human rights issues at the UN had absolutely nothing to do with George Clooney or with Amal being his wife. Could you imagine a headline saying ‘Amal Alamuddin’s husband George wears grey suits as he wins award’ if he won an Oscar?

It would never happen, but rightly so.

Everyone, man or woman, deserves recognition for their own individual achievements without having to stand in someone else’s completely irrelevant shadow.

There have been claims that the media coverage directed towards Amal’s wardrobe and appearance is a part of a game-plan of sorts, with Amal using her style to gain new audiences and raise awareness of human rights issues further afield. In fact, speaking to the BBC, Clooney said: “If there are more people who now understand what is happening with the Yazidis and ISIS and if there can be some action which results from that... then I think it’s a really good thing to give that case the extra publicity that it may get.”

There is, of course, logic to this statement. If Cosmopolitan choses to run a feature on Amal’s maternity outfits for her New York trip and educates some people on human rights issues in the meantime, that’s fantastic. However, we must not forget that journalists and the media have responsibility over what they choose to write and publish.

A fashion-focused Amal article in Cosmo is perfectly fine; in Time magazine or a national newspaper, it is inappropriate and irresponsible journalism that misses the most crucial elements of a politically and legally important news piece.

So, Amal Clooney delivered a speech to the UN about the Yazidi people of Iraq, detailing how mass murders, gang rapes and enslavement are constant threats that invade their lives while the leaders of the world do little or nothing to help them. She looked beautiful while doing so.

Which is more important?

things like mastering how to cook more than one meal, getting more organised, finally getting around to learning to

ries to tell your person further down the line about what younger you was like? Because I do.

Just one piece of the puzzle

By Micaela Depinna It’s so easy to fall into the trap of nostalgia with the end of both the year and my undergrad degree - especially when I’m a very sentimental person by default.

But with my last column, instead of regaling you all with tales of relationships past and hopes for relationships future, I’d like to remind you that finding your person is just one piece of the puzzle - because even I lose sight of this fact on occasion.

At ten I thought I’d have found my person and figured out my career by the time I was 18. At 18 I thought that perhaps I’d figure it all out during college. At 21 I can confirm that I still have absolutely no idea what I’m doing. I’m just shooting in the dark and hoping for the best.

But while I don’t have it all figured

out, I’m still young. Sometimes I forget that because it doesn’t always feel that way. And I think sometimes we all need a reminder that there’s still plenty of time to make questionable decisions, make mistakes, change our minds and then change them again.

So, with the summer coming around soon, I encourage you all to go and live life to the fullest. Go on random adventures with friends to play rounders in a forest by the ruins of a castle, find yourself by a campfire using burning wooden skewers to draw patterns in the night sky, drive with the windows down and the music up while the wind whips through your hair – just because you can. Revel in the freedom that summer brings, in the possibilities it promises.

Because no matter where your summer takes you, you’re bound to cross paths with new people, which is com-

forting. If you haven’t taken my advice from my last column about taking that leap of faith then you’ll be leaving behind your familiar strangers – Physics Guy and Blue Shirt I salute you – the people you always saw around campus but never got to know. And perhaps they’re missed opportunities, but you know what? There will be more. Many more.

And that’s the thing for those of us who haven’t found our person in college. Perhaps that’s because they’re not in our college. Perhaps our stories just aren’t meant to be that straightforward.

For us, it seems that we have other pieces of the puzzle that need to slide into place first before that one elusive piece has somewhere to fit in. Whether it be big things like travelling the world, learning to accept your flaws, figuring out what to do after college, or little

At ten I thought I’d have found my person and figured out my career by the time I was 18.

At 18 I thought that perhaps I’d figure it all out during college. At 21 I can confirm that I still have absolutely no idea what I’m doing. play the guitar – whatever those missing pieces are, summer is your chance to find them.

Because no matter how much you may want someone in your life to share your adventures with, you first have to learn to go on those adventures alone.

Besides, don’t you want crazy sto-

So there it is, the last column from yours truly. I hope you’ve been able to make use of my advice/experiences, and I wish you all the luck in the world for finding yourself and for finding your person, wherever they may be hiding.

You will find them eventually. Promise.

10 F EAT U R E S

SIN Vol. 18 Issue 12

Together at last?

By Briain Kelly It’s been nearly a hundred years since Ireland was divided by the Government of Ireland Act of 1920.

While the country may have been socially segregated long before that, this was the point where lines were drawn on maps.

Now there has been a resurgence of interest in unifying the whole island into one country in Ireland’s universities. NUI Galway went to the polls on 2 March to vote on what the SU’s stance should be. 72% of voters supported the prospect of a referendum. The next week 60% in UCD said the same thing. Trinity decided to stay above it all but let’s ignore that. They never want to associate with the National Universities anyways.

Students, present and future voters, are telling the Irish government that it’s time for a border poll on the future of the country. While the NUI Galway referendum did not specifically ask whether students supported a united Ireland, calling for a vote on the issue is still a big step.

Despite a brutal civil war, and a lot of enmity between Britain and the Republic over the six counties in the first half of the twentieth century; the idea

of reunification which once mattered so much, seemed to have long been forgotten here in the south until recently.

It’s understandable why it was such a dead topic to students. We’re many generations removed from the issue. The Republic and Northern Ireland have existed as is for a long time.

Most of us were probably teeny tiny toddlers when the Good Friday Agreement was signed, with its provision for a referendum if Nationalists achieved a majority in Northern Ireland.

That point hasn’t come yet, but in the recent elections for the Stormont assembly the DUP suffered a massive upset, finishing with just one seat more than Sinn Féin.

That means that they’ve lost the veto majority they had before. If a power sharing government does manage to be formed (not looking likely) then it will actually have to, you know, share power. Shocking I know.

That upset isn’t the only reason people are talking about reunification. Brexit is spreading its tendrils here as well. Northern Ireland has always been strongly dependant on Britain to support its economy

and provide benefits higher than anywhere else in the UK. If and when Brexit goes through, and everyone gasps in shock as the British economy sinks, then the North can expect can expect Westminster to be a lot tighter with the purse strings.

Hell, that’s even in the best case scenario where Britain negotiates a deal with Brussels and Scotland stays in the Union. If Nicola Sturgeon gets her way we may be faced with the United Kingdom of England and Wales.

Though I’m sure the Welsh at least will be happy to finally get mentioned by name. Did you know there’s a Welsh regional parliament? Me neither.

Sinn Féin has been doing a lot of work to try and revive Nationalist sentiment in the South. They’re in the unusual position of being a single entity that sits in the parliaments of two different governments.

Gerry Adams may have had to give up his seat in Stormont when he came south, but he is very much still in control.

Their message of Irish Nationalism comes well packaged with their socialist economic policies. At just the right time too.

After years where developers and bankers received a disproportionate benefit from the Celtic Tiger, and years more where everyone else had to pay up when it went to hell, people are more than willing to look for another way.

Sinn Féin’s growing stake in the Dáil, 23 seats as of the last election, is forcing the other parties to react.

Enda Kenny had previously stated that a border referendum wouldn’t solve any of the problems in the North.

But recently he insisted that any Brexit treaty must include a clause allowing Northern Ireland seamless access to the EU in the event of reunification.

Perhaps the most shocking thing to come out of this is Fianna Fáil creating a plan for how a united Ireland would function. Micheál Martin said that there was nothing sudden about this, that reunification had always been a part of Fianna Fáil’s agenda.

This is technically true, it’s why the party was founded. But really, De Valera is long dead, and when’s the last time anyone heard of Fianna Fáil having an ideology.

Obviously, this question can’t be answered in just the Republic, but students of today may be asked to decide where they stand sooner rather than later.

ROID RAID RESULT: 2m worth of steroids found in Donegal

By Ryan McGuinness Recently, steroids and medicines with an estimated street value of some two million euros were seized in Donegal. 60,000 vials containing anabolic steroids were seized and evidence of an illegal manufacturing operation was found. Such seizures bring drug abuse and illegal contraband back into the public sphere, a topic that has been synonymous with sport in recent memory. Sport and drug abuse have a long history together but they aren’t exclusive to each other. Usage of ster-

oids among young gym goers for example has been an ongoing narrative in Ireland for years; The Irish Times reported in June of last year that users of steroids trained frequently - up to four or five times a week. Where there’s money to be made supply will follow, but do users really know what they’re really injecting into their bodies, and do the benefits outweigh the numerous health risks caused as a result?

The sports world has been rampant with the use of banned or illegal substances and it is not just attached to one or two sports. Lance

Armstrong was banned for life from cycling in 2012 for “the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen.” Maria Sharapova held a press conference announcing she had failed a drug test at the Australian Open last year but was only briefly punished and has now returned to action. Major League Baseball is still recovering from the “Steroid Era” from the late eighties to mid-2000s, Athletics has been riddled with drug enhancers since its inception and the National Football League (NFL) continues to battle drug

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users among its ranks. It seems the benefits of the crime far outweigh the punishment.

Elite athletes can earn tens of millions of euro every year in earnings, with millions more coming in sponsorships and endorsements. For these people however drug use has a logical albeit immoral purpose; to gain an advantage over your competitor in the hope of securing financial security and perhaps some form of fame. Yet for the average gym-goer none of these benefits are available, but steroid use continues to be a growing concern.

According to the Irish Times, Merchants Quay Ireland (MQI), a homeless shelter which runs a needle-exchange operation in Dublin, says that over the past two years 50% more people, mainly young men between the ages of 18 and 35 have used the service to access needles and other equipment. A study in 2014 by MQI showed that people receiving treatment for steroid abuse has risen dramatically in recent years, and that users of them are at risk from physical, psychological and behavioural impacts. Conclusive research shows that in the long-term, effects of steroid abuse include harmful changes in cholesterol levels (increased LDL-cholesterol, or bad cholesterol, and decreased HDL-cholesterol), acne, high blood pressure, liver damage (mainly with oral steroids), conditions pertaining to hormonal imbalances such as gynaecomastia (i.e. man-boobs), testicular atrophy, reduced sexual function and temporary infertility. Many of these symptoms are applicable to both genders, but some exclusive to women also include excess body hair and a permanent deepening of the voice. The negative aspects seem to far outweigh the short term aesthetic gains.

The use and abuse of steroids is as prevalent as ever. People will always look for quicker and easier ways of achieving better bodies in the gym, or in the hope of gaining advantages in sport. AntiDoping agencies must adapt to such drugs and, when caught, athletes should be given stricter punishments than their predecessors received.

As for regular gym-goers, people will have to be educated at younger ages about the harmful effects steroid abuse can cause in the hope of preventing future health risks. The seizure in Donegal barely makes a dent in stopping the illegal distribution of the substance, but at least it’s a start.

TUAIRIM

March 28 2017

11

EOIN DRONES: The regression to infantilism

By Eoin Molloy The phrase ‘regression to infantilism’ was first coined by renowned intellectual-cum-charlatan Christopher Hitchens on an episode of topical debate show Charlie Rose in 1994.

The YouTube upload of this show is doubly important. Upon first viewing, it functions as a how-to on civil discourse that we could all benefit from watching in today’s climate of hypersensitive emotional screeching masquerading as debate. Secondly, it contains a prophetic assertion made

by Hitchens that University students at the time were treading a dangerous path by imposing ‘more authorities’ upon themselves in the name of correctitude. Hitchens warns that enabling Universities to act in loco parentis in this way by mediating complaints between students would have an infantilising effect on students at large.

This wide-scale infantilization is most visible on American college campuses, where the prevalence of safe space culture has drawn international criticism. A New York Times article from 2015 entitled In College and Hiding from Scary Ideas details

how Brown University created a ‘safe space’ replete with cookies, play-doh and puppy videos to help protect the sensibilities of vulnerable students while a debate on sexual assault was raging on campus.

This fixation with childish toys and behaviour amongst the college-aged is somewhat disquieting. The idea that a third-level student at an Ivy League school should opt for play-doh over stimulating academic debate for fear of hearing an opinion that contravenes their own is anathema to what university is all about: the broadening of horizons. Reverting to childhood memories as a means of blocking out unpleasant realities is symptomatic of this regression to infantilism Hitchens warned us about.

According to Sigmund Freud, regression is a type of defence mechanism leading to a temporary reversion to an earlier stage of development as a means of avoiding the unpleasant realities at hand. When presented with awkward and unfair situations, we have a tendency to revert to an earlier, formative stage of our life as a means of coping.

Are we falling into this trap here at NUI Galway? According to a survey conducted on SIN’s Facebook page, 37% of respondents believe that NUI Galway is in need of safe spaces similar to the one created at Brown at the time of writing. Moreover, the Students’ Union runs a pet farm around exam time to help students deal with the trauma of rigorous academic test-

ing. They also hold ‘petting sessions’ with a friendly dog on Wednesdays.

In-coming Welfare Officer Megan Reilly also plans to bring in ‘nap spaces’ for students on campus during her tenure next year. The imposition of nap spaces is in recognition of the fact that your average college day ranges far beyond the typical nine-to-five stereotype, which is completely true. Most students in my LLB class for example are subjected to a twelve-hour day, as many as four times a week! Megan told SIN that nap spaces proved extremely popular during the election campaign and will be brought in for mental health reasons and also to help students with disabilities.

“There are nap spaces in a lot of other colleges and the wheels have already been set in motion here, the idea being that college is not a 9-5 job,” she explained.

“It is a constant experience that can be extremely exhausting and I would like to bring them on campus for mental health reasons, as well as for students with disabilities. It’s an interesting argument that it might infantilise … but I don’t think this is the intention nor do I believe it will have this effect.”

All of these developments are indeed helpful and welcome, it would be pointless to claim otherwise. I had one of the best days of my life petting llamas at the SU-organised pet farm last term, and it would also be remiss of me to say that I wouldn’t get great

use out of a nap room having fallen asleep in the library more times than I care to remember.

While nap spaces and visits from friendly dogs are well-intentioned policies that certainly have the capacity to raise student morale, there is a broader question of policy to be considered here. College students are adults for the most part, and need to be treated as such. The world is a tough place, and so we must learn to be. Wouldn’t universities be far better served fostering responsibility and self-sufficiency amongst their student bodies as opposed to taking up a nannying role?

There is a serious lack of self-sufficiency amongst the student body here at NUI Galway, as anyone who was taken a seat at a recently-vacated table in the Bialann would surely attest. We are far too happy to wait around for someone else to clear up our mess instead of taking the extra thirty seconds to bring our trays to the refuse receptacles ourselves. The men’s toilets are also symptomatic of this refusal to take responsibility for one’s own actions. I often wonder, how can someone be intelligent enough to be accepted into university but not have the common sense to flush a toilet, or even aim properly?

There is a common perception that it is someone else’s job to clean up after messes we ourselves create.

There is evidence of widespread infantilization across wider society.

Superhero movies and reboots dom-

inate the box office, capitalising on our over-stated sense of nostalgia.

This is Freud’s idea of regression blown up on a societal scale. Does anyone remember when JK Rowling got 250,000 retweets for likening then-candidate Donald Trump to Draco Malfoy in a heated exchange with Piers Morgan? This is the kind of skewed infantile worldview that arises in an atmosphere of near-constant nostalgia.

We now live in an era whereby political developments are interpreted through the guiding lens of Harry Potter quotes, where Pepe the Frog memes have become a symbol for the dangerous alt-right movement, where Katy Perry commands more political clout than most actual commentators. To play fast-and-loose with a Stranger Things reference, we are living in the upside down.

The culture of bellicose political correctness is in my belief symptomatic of the infantilised attitudes universities have fostered amongst students. We must draw a halt to the heinous culture of dog-petting and incessant napping, lest all be lost.

In all seriousness, NUI Galway has managed to emerge from this era of hypersensitive polarity relatively unscathed. As a student body, we are largely open to new ideas and those who challenge our preconceived paradigms of how society functions.

However, in order to keep it that way we must learn how to clear up our own damn trays and coffee cups.

A very poor amount of coverage was broadcasted of the march on both the six one and nine o’clock news. This begs the question; are RTÉ unsupportive of the student movement?

And when did we give RTÉ the right to pick and choose what news we receive.

Should it not be the case that despite what they believe in, this national news broadcasting channel should cover all stories, allowing the Irish citizen to develop their own unbiased opinions by gathering the true facts from watching the news?

The great changes that the world of politics has seen across the globe suggests that the group which is overlooked can most likely come out on top in the end. While the marches by the pro-choice side have been plenty and their social media campaign is going strong, along with a clothing campaign flying off the rails, this does not mean it’ll be an easy win when/if the referendum comes about. Being that Ireland is still a Catholic state, with religious influence in our constitution, it is a strong possibility that the prolife side could see success.

The momentum of the pro-choice movement is something which has been building over the last forty years. It’s

not a fad that has just recently come about. Like a lot of things, yes there may be some who have found themselves involved in the campaign because they like the black and white edgy jumpers, but still it’s a campaign which has made a lot of people sit back and really think about abortion from both sides.

It’s not a hip movement all about wearing a “cool” jumper. The prolife project has changed the way of campaigning for reform. They’ve pushed past tradition and this is why so many are aware of their campaign and arguments. It starts with the jumper -a starting point of conversation and leads to endless chatter with others, and the sharing of points from both sides.

People need to be informed. They need the exact facts. This is what we should get from watching our news. It should not be up to the major broadcasting channels to decide which campaign is worth more attention than the next. We also can’t allow for it to be said that the pro-choice side is too vocal making it too difficult for a supporter of the pro-life side to express their views. That’s a lazy explanation, and one that is arguably a childish excuse also.

Are we feelin’ repealin’?

By Georgia Feeney 2016 was the year where the impossible became possible. Beloved celebrities believed to be around for years to come passed away. Brexit was passed in a referendum. And a public misogynists became President of arguably the most powerful country in the world.

These were results many did not expect. It seems that the quieter voter, the unexpected outcome, has won the last few major elections. An Irish Times opinion piece expressed speculation that the same may arise when/if there is a referendum on abortion rights in the Irish Constitution.

One of the most talked about political movements today is the Repeal the Eighth movement. Over the last couple of years a media campaign, countless marches and a clothing line have pushed the message of replacing the Eighth Amendment of the constitution. But with every opinion comes a counter one. Many will remember when the referendum for same sex marriage in Ireland came around that there was many protests to it. Well, the same is said for the Repeal the Eighth campaign, only it seems that

both sides are being louder this time.

Both sides are loud in their arguments; the pro-choice side emphasising a need for women to get to make their own decisions and prolifers expressing the need to protect the life of the unborn. Both campaigns are strong in their message. Yet, some will suggest that in pushing their side forward, pro-choice supporters are louder and leave those who are pro-life feeling intimidated, too shy to voice their opinions.

This is not a criticism of one side of the campaign but rather an issue of personal sensitivity. What usually occurs when there is a topic being widely discussed across the country is that people fall into one of three categories; strongly propose the motion, strongly oppose, or tick the ‘I don’t know/don’t care’ option.

Either way I don’t feel it’s fair to say one side has left the other feeling pushed to the side. It’s a political movement and we have the novelty of freedom of speech in this country; therefore everyone is entitled to have their arguments heard.

Who gets to decide though? Who is too loud? Who is too outspoken? Which is the weakling group, and should there

be more done to protect the voices of both sides? But if this were to ever happen it would take away from the value of democracy in this state. We let the public decide, not one body. If one group are getting their message across more so than the other, then this is not the fault of the stronger group, it’s a flaw of the other side.

We have to protect our basic human right to freedom of speech. The day bodies decide what we should and shouldn’t hear and the amount we hear on a subject, is the day we as citizens are oppressed.

The campaign for abortion rights in Ireland has also highlighted another fundamental issue of Irish society; our news. Following the Strike for Repeal march, UCD students backed by the Repeal project and the head of Amnesty International protested outside RTÉ studios in criticism of the poor coverage of the march on the evening news.

This has occurred once before, which many may not have even been noticed. The student movement has always been a busy and powerful one, evident in the great number of students who went up to Dublin back in October to March for Education.

12 OPI NI O N

SIN Vol. 18 Issue 12

HEAD to head

Should Ireland leave the EU?

Ireland without I think we better Europe would drown leave right now

By Aisling Bonner Éirexit: it just doesn’t have the same ring to it. For the press, the pundits and portmanteau lovers alike, Éirexit is not going to cut it. Unfortunately, it takes a very acute obsession with wordplay to disregard the possibility of Ireland leaving the EU based on the hashtag alone. For those less linguistically-allured, allow me to bring some more transferable arguments to the table.

Ireland joined the European Union in 1973 at the same time as the UK, but very much separate from the UK. This was a continued step forward in Ireland’s global recognition as an independent nation. Most of Ireland’s current population have no memory of Irish life without the EU, so for most of us, the progress it has brought on is inconceivable. In reality, acknowledging the influence the EU has had on Irish life takes little more than opening our eyes to what surrounds us. EU investment in Ireland is everywhere - we see it signposted on motorways, we see it on our own university’s campus, we see it as locally as Galway’s Ceannt station. In virtually every sector, segment and slice of Irish life lies an EU initiative, investment, agreement or rule.

In the past forty years, Ireland’s economy has been utterly transformed from agricultural dependency to one led by modern, hi-tech industry with a global reach. Access to the EU’s Single Market, which allows free movement of goods and services across the EU, has boosted Ireland’s export-heavy economy, while EU trade agreements with other large non-EU markets opened Ireland up to the rest of the world. Without the EU, it would be impossible for a small nation like Ireland to negotiate such deals against giants such as the US. On the ground, Irish workers are protected by EU worker’s rights

which encompass everything from contracts, wages and hours; to ensuring equal opportunities for men and women and preventing discrimination of all forms in the workplace. If Ireland were to leave the EU, it would likely retain this standard, but who’s to say it would evolve with it in time?

Since joining the EU, Ireland have received €6.5 billion in investment from the European Social Fund, the financial body associated with investment in people, predominately in the areas of education and training. The EU Erasmus programme has seen over 50,000 Irish partake in student exchanges with other EU universities, and is a common rite of passage for many Irish students today. An Irish exit from the EU would surely put student exchanges in jeopardy, and deliver a significant blow to Ireland’s advancement towards being a more multicultural and tolerant society.

In today’s ever-shrinking world of migration and travel, Ireland would be ill-advised to put their EU travel privileges in jeopardy. As it stands Irish citizens are free to work or travel in any EU country without seeking a visa. They are protected abroad by passenger rights and the European Health Insurance Card which entitles any EU citizen to the same healthcare as a local in any EU country. The perks are ever-increasing, and from June 2017 roaming charges within the EU will be removed, further increasing the ease of travel.

The Common Agricultural Policy which has invested billions in preserving, protecting and promoting Ireland’s agricultural sector; European Commission environmental directives which commit Ireland to reducing greenhouse emissions, waste, pollution and energy consumption; and EU consumer rights and quality control standards, are other slices of the workings

of our country which have been positively permeated by the EU. If Ireland seriously considers leaving, not only do we risk a reversal of these advancements, we risk losing the driving force pushing us towards further progress.

In Ireland’s current political climate, riddled with distrust towards our own politicians is it really wise to remove the overseer leaving them to their own devices? Would this really make for a happy electorate?

One of the driving forces behind Brexit was the argument that the UK was essentially investing in the EU than it received in return.

Ireland, who since joining has been one of the EU’s largest benefiters, has in recent years followed the UK to become a net contributor (albeit on a much smaller scale), with the rate of contribution set to rise when Brexit is in place. While this may signal alarm bells to some, it should be viewed as a means to afford Ireland greater leverage in EU negotiations. In this way, Ireland’s interests in Europe could be protected and highlighted more fervently.

It would be unrealistic to think that Ireland could float throughout its entire membership always reaping more financially than it contributes.

Ireland has much to lose and little to gain from exiting the EU. We are not the UK. We have far less bargaining power than our neighbours to form our own deals alone. In our small nation’s history we have struggled to maintain sovereignty and independence in times when borders were more fixed and economies individual. A small country like Ireland is about as independent as in can be to survive in today’s world.

In this new global economy, in this new wave of human migration, in this new world of cooperation, agreements and unions; Ireland is paddling in its inflatable EU ring.

If it lets go it will sink.

By Sorcha O’Connor Ireland has been an EU member state for the last four decades.

A lot has changed in that time – for one, we are now EU net contributors as opposed to solely recipients of EU money.

In 2014, we contributed €1.62 billion to the EU. Mentioning that figure alone indicates that our membership is becoming more disadvantageous by the day and hidden amidst the constant Brexit-bashing and Angela-appeasing are some reasons why we might actually consider waving ciao to Europe.

What began as an economic experiment designed to stave off pesky world wars has morphed into a veritable Frankenstein’s monster of over-regulation, undemocratic practices and inharmonious and unbalanced fiscal policy.

It is not easy to admit when Maggie Thatcher, hunger strikes and B-Specials are still in living memory but the UK is, economically speaking, our closest ally. With the advent of Brexit it makes sense for us to follow suit. According to a recent piece by Trinity’s Associate Professor Emeritus in Social Policy Anthony Coughlan, it should be obvious to any of us that when Brexit occurs Ireland will have to pay more towards the EU budget to make up for the loss of UK contributions.

Do we really want to be lumped with this burden? Have we not been saddled with enough debt already?

Remaining in the EU will certainly leave us vulnerable.

Coughlan also points out that without Britain as an ally in the EU it will become harder to protect our low rate of company profit tax which has been an undoubtable boost to our economy.

Additionally, Coughlan indicates that without Britain, it will be harder to protect our fisheries – European boats haul in great profit for the EU from Irish seas – and it will be harder

to protect our own ideals when it comes to trade, law and justice, and the military. Why should we leave ourselves open to such an attack on our own values? Setting up on our own with a close relationship with the UK is clearly more beneficial than remaining behind to be crucified by European policy.

In terms of trade, we currently export 16% of our goods to the UK - the most out of all the European countries. We also can thank America for a lot of our foreign industry in the country. With more ties soon to be outside of the EU, it is certainly high time we consider if it is where our closest loyalties should lie.

It is also high time we took a closer inspection of what it means to be a member of the EU. The EU is slowly becoming a working model for globalism - it aims to mould its members into one united nation. Should we willingly go along with this?

Firstly, our geographic location sets us apart from the continent - the closest I ever feel to being a citizen of Europe is when purchasing a croissant in the Bialann. Secondly, allowing this mass union to occur is detrimental to our own democracy. For example, we were the only country to ratify the Lisbon Treaty by referendum and we had to re-vote when we didn’t give the answer Europe wanted to hear. This hardly espouses fairness or the founding ideal upon which the EU was founded: united by diversity. Diversity of opinion was not appreciated on this day. We said no and the EU asked again, it was sure to pass. Think of your granny offering you cake, you’re bound to say yes after refusing the first time even if it’s just to appease her.

Britain are not alone in wanting distance from the EU. With radical politicians such as Marine Le Pen and Geert Wilders emerging from the fringes of domestic politics,

the trend at the moment does seem to involve ditching the EU, shutting up shop and keeping everyone out. I am not suggesting Ireland become entrenched in a policy of xenophobic isolationism but rather we should really look at the merits that come with not being part of one European mish-mash of nondescript countries and borders.

I hinted earlier that leaving could very well be an opportunity to reinvent ourselves – or at least rejuvenate our image.

Our current exemplary Irish education system could work towards providing Irish jobs for Irish citizens – rather than them having to leave behind their country that has been shackled with payments to Europe. Éirexit could also be our opportunity to assess the division between north and south, to assess whether one nation is a feasible option. We should remember that remaining in the EU without Britain would leave us in a precarious predicament.

Northern Ireland would be following UK guidelines while the South would still follow EU law and policy. Avoiding this could potentially prevent further differences between north and south and instead result in a giant leap of progress in achieving further unity and co-operation on our island.

For now Éirexit is little other than a thought to be mulled over by social commentators and columnists. Being a member of the EU does open doors to the continent particularly for students on Erasmus programmes, and realistically we do have a lot to consider if Éirexit is to become a reality.

But the fiscal possibilities are endless. What would you spend the 1.62 billion we pump into Europe on? Our ailing health service could surely do with an injection of capital. Outside from direct contributions, we would also gain financially from actually being allowed to fish our own waters.

TUAIRIM

March 28 2017

How Erdogan got his groove back

By Briain Kelly Recip Erdogan has accused the Netherlands of being a “Nazi remnant” after two Turkish Ministers were barred from attending political rallies in the Netherlands about the upcoming referendum in Turkey.

Aside from it being weird for political figures to campaign in a foreign country, and glossing over what this referendum is for (more on that later), I have to ask: Nazi Remnants, really?

Not just the ol Nazi tactics or “you’re literally Hitler!” that people like to bust out when they can’t think of a real argument; He really said that the Netherlands was some holdover from Nazi Germany. Oh yes, the Fourth Reich will rise from the damp soil of Holland, drenched in blood and tulips.

I’m at the point where I want to list some of the other crazy accusations and insults he’s thrown around lately, but it’s too much.

Even while I’m writing it just keeps coming. Blaming the Netherlands for the Srebrenica massacre, threatening holy wars across Europe, expelling Dutch cattle. I swear to god that last one is true.

EU spokesperson Magaritis Schinas actually said that things just need to calm down. Talk away the diplomatic speak and it’s basically saying: “Dude, chill. You’re scaring people.”

It’s not even worth pointing out how ironic these accusations from Erdogan are. Given the road he’s gone down the last year it wouldn’t be the least bit witty.

This referendum is going to completely overhaul Turkey’s entire system of government and give sweeping powers to the Presidency, to Erdogan himself.

This is the latest and greatest change to the powers of the Presidency that Erdogan has made in the years since he came to the office.

Is this not the 1933 Enabling Act reborn?

From 2003 to 2014 he was the Prime Minister, head of his Justice and Development Party, and head of the government from Parliament.

During this time the President had very little power in the Turkish system.

Erdogan did nothing to change that while he was the Prime Minister. Why would he want to give up any of his own power after all? As it is clear that his power means so very much to him.

As President, Erdogan now has closed his hand tighter around Turkey than ever before. He might not sit in the parliament anymore, but he still has absolute control over it.

From day one he was clear that he would not be neutral as President.

Look at the Prime Minister, Binali Yildirim, he is an enthusiastic supporter of the referendum proposals, one of which would be the elimination of his own office. You can see why he goes along so happily, his predecessor lost his post for disagreeing with Erdogan about simply reducing the power of the office.

So how the hell does a domestic Turkish issue get to attack European countries? Well, like all men who obsessively chase power, Erdogan is extremely insecure in his position.

Look at how he lost his mind when German satirists poked fun at him. When a music video in Germany titled “Erdowie, Erdowo, Erdogan” that pointed out the various ways he cracking down on the media, women, and Kurds, Turkey saw fit to summon the German ambassador.

Summoning an ambassador is usually reserved for grave diplomatic incidents. Government officials mak-

ing accusations, spies getting found out. Not this garbage about folks on the television saying mean things.

At a time when migrants are straining European unity, we need Turkey to help with the issue. But so much of what Erdogan believes is completely incompatible with European values. He thinks it’s okay for the government to suppress the media, even to the point of banning critical comedy.

He thinks that “you cannot put men and women on an equal footing.” This is a problem because he’s not speaking to us, sitting here with our fancy human rights guaranteed by law. He’s talking to the vast community of ethnic Turks living across Europe. And urging them to breed faster. That’s not ominous at all.

So a man calls you a Nazi. You look at his past, you find that he’s spent the last year purging every walk of life, police, academia, media, of people that he says belong to a shadowy parallel structure out to undermine the country. And now he’s setting up to put all the power ever in his own hands.

Unless you take orders from the ghosts of Hitler and Mussolini themselves, I think it’s safe to assume you’re in the clear.

The left-wing elephant in the room

By Jason McGoldrick Sanctimonious rhetoric is all too prevalent nowadays in a media completely dominated by image.

When sifting through a newspaper or online news articles, one does not have to search long before coming across some politically correct outrage over what the layperson may deem as overreacting (observe that someone may be overreacting, and indeed you too could also find yourself victim of the politically correct police). As I write, people are outraged that the first female super hero movie in years does not have arm pit hair; comprehend that.

Two recent and classic examples of this babyish conduct are the ‘protests’ that occurred at UC Berkley and Middlebury. Milo Yiannopolous (former Breitbart editor) and Charles Murray (author of The Bell Curve) were due to speak at these universities but, as a result of violent protests carried out by groups one could describe as lynch mobs, students destroyed university property and the subsequent talks were cancelled.

In the aftermath, what is being opined in defence of the protests is that they were shutting down fascist views, and that the violence that erupted from it was just an unfortunate, or to some a necessary consequence. People have

been arguing that they are worried about the reminiscence of the 1930s in these so called ‘fascist’ speakers. Whilst they postulate this viewpoint, they completely overlook the reminiscence of the 1930s in the Kristallnacht against speakers on college campuses.

What I am trying to illustrate is that matters of importance cannot be discussed constructively in the current climate due to the toxicity of political correctness swirling in the air. The following are examples that I am sure people can resonate with; a person who agrees with equality between the sexes, in every sense of the meaning, but may have some reservations about abortion; this person is labelled by the ‘left’ as ‘misogynist’, ‘sexist’ and ‘antiwoman’. A person who believes that refugees should be allowed the chance to be free from conflict and allowed the possibility of a chance in a better world, but has reservations about some undesirable persons also coming in; this person is labelled as ‘Islamaphobic’, ‘bigoted’ and ‘racist’.

The pseudo-progressives have hijacked the left, and dragged its name through the dirt. No longer is free speech part of the left. The above examples are virtue signalling at its utter worst. The people who appear most fascist these days disguise themselves under

a veil of ‘anti-fascism’.

Further, and what is more worrying, this sinister piffle and recreational outrage is slowly contaminating the political landscape of Ireland. Some politicians have gained fantastic popularity for banal and unoriginal polemics directed at Donald Trump. Any reasonable person can decipher that President Trump is by no means competent. We can all conjure criticisms in our sleep against the US president. And yet, if you cry wolf every day, and come out with statements implying that Trump is implementing genocide, or whatever ridiculous polemic is hurled at him, genuine critiques of real concern are whittled down and forgotten about.

Douglas Murray, a British commentator, recently stated that as people are gravitating more to the centre in their political outlook, the media and politicians are stampeding further to the left, thus increasing alienation between the sides. In their desperation, those people tend to gravitate towards politicians such as Trump and Nigel Farage, politicians with questionable agendas at the very least. The US election and Brexit referendums were not a direct vote for nationalism and bigotry; they were simply votes in negation of the left. It is these people who, justifiably disillusioned

with the far left, can create a new common sense left wing movement. This would have the knock on effect of people gravitating towards the centre, rather than let them be lured in by the false promises of jingoistic politicians on the far right.

A recent study conducted by The Gild on persons born from the year 2000 onwards showed them to be the most conservative generation since those born after World War II, which the astute observer may note that the Thatcherite and Reagan years followed thereafter.

With the study exemplifying the new generation’s current disdain towards the social justice warrior and virtue signalling movement, the need for a new centre left has become all the more apparent.

In conclusion, those who persist in a new left movement, which in today’s climate will probably be perceived as centre, that cherishes classic liberal values, and abandons the jargon of political correctness, virtue signalling, shutting down debates, and so on, should note that the move will not be easy, but those people can take heart from Confucius’ statement on clear sightedness; ‘He who is soaked in slander and deafened with denunciations, and still does not waver, may be called clear sighted. Actually he may also be called far-sighted.’

13

Is anyone even surprised the CIA can spy on you through your smart TV?

By Danny Keown The US intelligence agencies are facing fresh embarrassment after WikiLeaks published what it described as the biggest ever leak of confidential documents from the CIA which would have you grabbing your tinfoil hat and heading for the hills of Connemara. The leaks detail the tools the CIA uses to break into phones, communication apps and other electronic devices.

The thousands of leaked documents focus mainly on techniques for hacking and reveal how the CIA cooperated with British intelligence to engineer a way to compromise smart televisions and turn them into improvised surveillance devices.

The leak, named “Vault 7” by WikiLeaks, will once again raise questions about the inability of US spy agencies to protect secret documents in the digital age. It follows disclosures about Afghanistan and Iraq by army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning in 2010 and about the National Security Agency and Britain’s GCHQ by Edward Snowden in 2013.

The new documents appear to be from the CIA’s 200-strong Center for Cyber Intelligence and show in detail how the agency’s digital specialists engage in hacking. Monday 6 March’s leak of about 9,000 secret files, which WikiLeaks said was only the first tranche of documents it had obtained, were all relatively recent, running from 2013 to 2016.

The Center for Cyber Intelligence, based at the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, has a second covert base in the US consulate in Frankfurt which covers Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

A programme called Weeping Angel describes how to attack a Samsung F8000 TV set so that it appears to be off but can still be used for remote monitoring.

Another question which must be looked at amidst all these startling revelations is weather this comes as a surprise. To me it can come as no surprise given the history of the CIA and the American government with regards to the whole field of espionage, as well as the seamless way in which they have adapted to the unrelenting progression of technology throughout the years.

The CIA’s history for surveillance can be seen in the famed “ECHELON” project which began in the 80s. In 1988 an article titled “Somebody’s listening” by Duncan Campbell in the New Statesman described the signals intelligence gathering activities of a programme code-named “ECHELON”. The programme was engaged

by English-speaking World War II Allied countries - Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States (collectively known as AUSCANNZUKUS). It was created to monitor the military and diplomatic communications of the Soviet Union and of its Eastern Bloc allies during the Cold War in the early 1960s.

By the 1990s the ECHELON system could intercept satellite transmissions, public switched telephone network (PSTN) communications (including most Internet traffic), and transmissions carried by microwave. The New Zealand journalist Nicky Hager provided a detailed description of ECHELON in his 1996 book Secret Power. While some member governments denied the existence of ECHELON, a report by a committee of the European Parliament in 2001 confirmed the program’s use and warned Europeans about its reach and effects. The European Parliament stated in its report that the term “ECHELON” occurred in a number of contexts, but that the evidence presented indicated it was a signals-intelligence collection system capable of interception and content-inspection of telephone calls, fax, e-mail and other data-traffic globally.

The revelation that the smart TV can be used as a medium for surveillance is considerably less startling given the diversity of technology which the CIA and other American government agencies have been known to use to spy on the general population. The CIA and in particular the NSA have been known to tap into smartphones.

An internal NSA report from 2010 stated that the spread of the smartphone has been occurring “extremely rapidly”— developments that “certainly complicate traditional target analysis.” According to the document, the NSA has set up task forces assigned to several smartphone manufacturers and operating systems, including Apple Inc.’s iPhone and iOS operating system, as well as Google’s Android mobile operating system. Similarly, Britain’s GCHQ assigned a team to study and crack the BlackBerry.

It therefore can come as no surprise that the CIA have developed the technology to tap into the smart TV. This bodes badly for our own privacy and begs the question, should we be more worried about government surveillance? If Mark Zuckerberg thinks that putting tape over his webcams in the Facebook offices is a good idea, then maybe it’s something people should start taking seriously.

14 OPI NI O N

SIN Vol. 18 Issue 12

University safe spaces are a dangerous concept

By Aoife O Donoghue A poll conducted by SIN recently uncovered that around 37% of students who participated in the poll were in favour of creating safe spaces here at NUI Galway. Debate around the issue is tinged with irony, as open debate is the very thing ‘safe spaces’ destroy.

Originally, the idea of a safe space was an indication that anti-LGBT speech, behaviour or harassment was not tolerated by that person or in that area and so provided a safer place for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, away from frequent aggressions.

The idea was then extended to those marginalised on other grounds, such as race, religion or ethnicity.

On that basis, the idea seems like a perfectly plausible one that protects those who are marginalised and promotes others to adopt a more accepting viewpoint regarding people that are different from themselves. This, however, is not what safe spaces represent any longer.

In a present-day context, the concept of a safe space has become a threat to the environment of free speech, open debate and challenging ideas that is the defining characteristic of a university community.

Because now, university students are using the safe space concept to shy away from anything and everything they find offensive, controversial or different to their own opinions. It is one thing to be intolerant of speech that is racist, homophobic or overtly discriminatory, but to stifle any discussion around new, different ideas and dissenting opinions is quite

another. It goes against what the original safe spaces were intended for; spaces where people could engage in free and open speech about issues that were seen as sensitive or unorthodox.

Now, sensitivity is what defines the safe space. People have gone so far as to call the new generation of

something so simple and innocuous could cause such offense is political correctness in overdrive; are people to spend their lives paranoid that every sentence they utter could cause some untold offense?

Moreover, there have been numerous examples in recent times of

Force advertised the availability of a safe space during the debate.

The room provided was filled with Play-Doh, colouring books, cookies, pillows and blankets and pictures of fluffy animals, while calming music played in the background.

How anyone could not consider

One such example is a case in Brown University in 2014, where a debate about campus sexual assault was to take place. One of the speakers, Wendy McElroy, had been known to speak out against the term ‘rape culture’. Believing that this debate could be a source of trauma for certain students, members of the university Sexual Assault Task Force advertised the availability of a safe space during the debate. The room provided was filled with Play-Doh, colouring books, cookies, pillows and blankets and pictures of fluffy animals, while calming music played in the background. How anyone could not consider that condescending and infantilizing is beyond me. adults ‘generation snowflake’, such is the apparent level of fragility that surrounds them. And while such a derogatory label is an example of a sweeping generalisation that should not be made lightly, it would appear there is a solid basis for it. There is offense and insult to be found in everything, even when it is not intended.

In a presentation to students, a diversity officer at Clark University gave an example of how referring to people as ‘you guys’ could be seen to be excluding women and therefore an example of sexism in everyday speech. To think that

students protesting against debates and invited speakers in their universities, asking for them to be cancelled because the topics were controversial or uncomfortable for some members of the student body.

One such example is a case in Brown University in 2014, where a debate about campus sexual assault was to take place. One of the speakers, Wendy McElroy, had been known to speak out against the term ‘rape culture’. Believing that this debate could be a source of trauma for certain students, members of the university Sexual Assault Task

that condescending and infantilizing is beyond me. Of course, sexual assault is a difficult topic, and for people that have been victims of it, it is not something that they want to relive. However, that does not mean that it should not be discussed and debated. For the most difficult and controversial topics are often the most important ones, and only by having open discussion surrounding them will we learn to understand and deal with them as a society. For anyone that does not wish to take part in the discussion, it does not mean that they can prevent others

from doing so, and it certainly should not mean that they are treated as children insulated by bubble wrap.

A whole new vocabulary accompanies the safe space, such as ‘triggers’ and ‘microaggressions’.

Triggers are issues or topics that may cause someone undue stress to be exposed to them, such as bringing up memories of trauma, while microaggressions are verbal, behavioural, or environmental indignities in casual daily interactions, intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative slights and insults.

Triggers and microaggression are real issues that affect people every day, but the safe space concept is not the solution to them.

Designating a certain area as a safe space is counter-productive to making the entire world a more accepting, tolerant and ‘safer’ place. It allows those affected by marginalisation or those who find nonconformist viewpoints unsettling to hide behind a false sense of security, to retreat, when they should learn to fight back.

There are no safe spaces in the real world and if we allow them to become a feature of university campuses, we are setting people up for failure once they leave. The creation of a safe space also removes responsibility from the outside world for what is said and done.

Free speech is a crucial aspect of democratic life, but hate speech and bigotry are not. And while it is a fine line to tread up between the two, the answer is not to shy from life’s difficult topics and expect them to go away.

Should we separate art from the artist?

By Mícheál Óg Ó Fearraigh To begin with I would like to stress that I do not support the actions, or those alleged, of the people I discuss. With the past allegations of sexual harassment, which include sleeping in a bed with his director of photography, Magdalena Gorka, without her knowledge or permission, and attempting to manipulate one of his producers, Amanda White, coming into the public consciousness following Brie Larson’s actions at the Oscars, I thought that now would be a time to ponder how much should people separate the artist from the piece of art by using the example of Casey Affleck.

There are number of things to

wonder about this case. Firstly I don’t remember hearing anything about it until the run-up to the Oscars, it could be said that it was swept under the rug or that it was because the allegations were just that - allegations - and the case was settled out of court and Affleck is not on US sex offenders register.

Whether he committed the crime is not the question of this piece though, the question is whether Affleck should have won the Oscar?

The other thing that should be considered, of course, is the historical precedent for such things: the most severe of which was Roman Polanski who was not allowed to collect his Oscar in the United States as he drugged and raped a 13-year-old

girl in 1977 when he was 43.

Does the fact that the director is a terrible person mean that The Piano is not a great film? There are many actors working in the industry who have been arrested or alleged to have committed domestic abuse or assault including Russell Crowe, Nicolas Cage, Josh Brolin, Sean Penn, and, nominee for best director this year, Mel Gibson.

These are far from isolated incidents as well, Sean Connery, infamously, said that he believed that men should be allowed to strike women. In other areas of art, John Lennon has admitted to hitting women, was a terrible father to his son Julian, and hospitalised

a person, or in his own words: “He called me a queer so I battered his bloody ribs in”. Salvador Dalí did a combination of both: he broke two of wife’s ribs and by many accounts was a pervert.

Something else that should be considered is whether we believe in the reformation of Affleck’s character, which, once again, was allegedly out of line. Hollywood clearly does, and since the lawsuit, Affleck seems to be working just as steadily as before. Is this just because of his famous connections or just more white male privilege as some have claimed, because Nate Parker’s Oscar hopes seemed to end once the rape case he was acquitted of came back into light?

As well as this, if Affleck, indeed, did commit what was said, does that mean he was not the best actor for the role? And what does this mean about his previous oeuvre, should we not watch Manchester By The Sea, Gone Baby Gone, The Assasination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, and, one of my personal favourite films, Ocean’s Eleven?

In summation, Casey Affleck was accused of sexual harassment but the claims levelled at him pale in comparison to those of other artists. Should we, as a society, continue to condone the conduct of artists based of the merit of their work, or should we judge art and those involved strictly by qualitative standards?

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16 FA SH I ON

SIN Vol. 18 Issue 12

Jordan Dunn and Missguided collaboration

By Christina O’ Reilly Jordan Dunn has teamed up with the fashion retailer ‘Missguided’ to create a modern ath-leisure clothing brand, Londunn.

The collection is tailor-made to be comfortable enough to wear to the gym and includes both girly and daring pieces such as skirts and seethrough mesh. The collection includes an array of both edgy and laid-back styles, including tracksuits in velvet and satin, loose mesh tops, hooded body suits, cropped sweaters and skirts.

When Dunn began initial talks for the collaboration she made it clear that she wanted the aesthetic of the collection to be versatile enough to be worn as daytime casual yet also wearable dressed up with heels in the evening.

She stated, ‘I chose athleisure because

I wanted women to feel sexy and comfortable at the same time.’

The advertising campaign for ’Londunn’ includes a diverse range of women including model Georgia Palmer, singer Rina Sawayama, songwriter Rina Milo, photographer Braina Laviena and Leomie Anderson, founder of fashion brand LAPP. Dunn felt that showcasing a selection of unique women will make the collection more relatable and she wanted to ensure from the start that the personality of every girl from every town is illustrated in the collection.

She decided to collaborate with ‘Missguided’ for the collection so that the pieces would be both readily available and affordable. The British model also expressed that she really likes the informal way that Missguided communicates with its customers, especially

via social media. Dunn explains: ‘My audience is the same as their audience and I feel like social media has definitely played a role in this. Our customers are the young, social media girls shopping on their way to school’.

Missguided has partnered with many celebrities during the past few years including Pamela Anderson and Nicole Scherzinger. Founder and chief executive officer, Nitin Passi, indicated that he thought: ‘Jourdan will give us a lot of credibility because she is a supermodel.

She created a huge ath-leisure range, which we want to keep on doing for a few seasons. She’ll want to wear it out, and give it to her circle of friends, which includes a lot of influencers, so it will work well’.

The range launched 11 March and is currently available on the Missguided website and from the retail store at Westfield Stratford.

STYLE SPOT Ciarán MacChoncarraige — BA with Latin American Studies FAVOURITE PIECE IN WARDROBE: To be honest, my wax jacket. It was such a good find and I wear it all the time.

TIP FOR THRIFTING: Patience. Honestly, I could spend hours just browsing through rows and rows of clothes. Also, generally the charity shops up near the Róisín Dubh are incredible - especially Galway Simon.

Brandán Walsh — General Science FAVOURITE PIECE IN WARDROBE:

STYLE ICON:

My vintage Levi’s denim jacket. I stole it from my mam, she got it as a present the day I was born so I like to think it was always meant for me.

FAVE FASHION QUOTE:

STYLE ICON: I don’t

“Elegance is the only beauty that never fades.” - Audrey H

Audrey Hepburn

need one… I am one

OUTFIT DETAILS: OUTFIT DETAILS: Cardigans’ New-Look. Shirt is Penneys, hun!

Jeans are River Island and shoes are from Lifestyle Sports.

OUTFIT DETAILS: Jacket is Portwest est 104 Wax Jacket. T-shirt is Cedarwood state, with a pocket sewn on by my friend. Jeans are Burton and boots are from River Island.

Emily McNamara — BA with Creative Writing

TREND OF THE MOMENT: I’m loving aviator sunglasses right now. I’m trying to get in the mood for the summer.

Green jumper is New Look.

Tights are Penneys and the necklace is a one of kind that I got at the vintage market, Pandora’s Box.

Jourdan Dunn at the MissGuided Collection Launch in London

The Dolce Vita palette makeup look by Charlotte Tilbury

By Christina O’ Reilly The Dolce Vita includes the shades: • Prime (upper left): golden peach with a shimmer finish.

• Enhance (upper right): rusty brown with a satin finish • Smoke (lower right): warm chocolate with a satin finish.

• Pop (lower left): copper bronze with a metallic finish.

How to use: This luxury palette is colour coded in order to effortlessly take you from Desk to Dusk to Disco.

DESK: for an everyday simple look, simply sweep the prime shade along the entire eyelid, while maintaining a back and forth motion. Then bring the prime shade into the inner corners of the eye to give the look a brighten effect.

Bring the Enhance shade into the outer corner and blend it into the prime shade with Charlotte’s crease brush. Finally bring the Enhance shade along the upper and lower lash line to give the look depth.

DUSK/DISCO: in order to create a glamorous evening look follow the steps

indicated above for the Dusk look. Next, blend the smoke shade starting from the outer corner of the eye and blending it up into the socket.

Bring the smoke shade along the upper lash line and up into the socket line, while creating a half-moon shape.

Finish the look by bringing the smoke shade alone the lower lash line and add the pop shade to the middle of the lid to create a glowing spotlight effect.

Finish the look off with Charlotte Tilbury’s K.I.S.S.I.N.G Lipstick in Penelope Pink.

The Dolce Vita eyeshadow palette retails for 50 EURO and K.I.S.S.I.N.G Lipstick in Penelope Pink retails for 32 EURO, both are currently available from Brown Thomas and BT2 Stores.

FAISE AN

March 28 2017

Festival Style Ideas

By Amanda Leeson

The end of the college year also means the start of the summer months. Here at SIN Fashion, we have started to look forward to the festivals that will be

taking place and helping you answer that most important question – what will I wear? Let’s start by taking inspiration from some of the most amazing festivals such as Glastonbury and Coachella.

One of the most important things at a festival is

comfort. You don’t want to be worrying about your outfit and just enjoy yourself. We have chosen three outfit ideas that will have you looking and feeling like Beyoncé. Don’t forget to pack lots of glitter and the flower crowns (and maybe even some wellies)!

Shorts & a top

The dress

The print skirt

This is probably a staple that everyone will think of, but it doesn’t have to be just a plain old t-shirt.

Dress this simple outfit up by adding a slightly more interesting top. Super simple and of course still really comfy. The key to this look is the accessories, so you can go crazy.

Taking inspiration from the fabulous Kylie Jenner, this look is just so simple and laid back. Take a simple slip dress and layer it over a simple white top. So easy and you will still be looking stylish.

This look is very summery and will look so amazing in your Facebook pictures. Taking inspiration from Michelle Kegan we have chosen pieces to recreate this look. Top tip: if you’re going to wear a strong pattern on the bottom, keep the top simple otherwise it can look very busy.

17

FESTIVAL Essentials

By Aisling Bonner Half the battle and the fun of festivals is the prep beforehand. Whether you’ve to factor in an Irish drenching or a foreign scorching there are a few festival essentials that cannot be overlooked. They are the electric to your picnic and the sea to your sessions, so may you take note and take with.

THE BUM BAG Okay, hear me out - once you go bum bag you’ll never go back. Trust me. Clip this bad boy around your waist, and you may as well be a walking safe. Far more secure than a shoulder bag or backpack, the bum bag also leaves your hands free allowing for maximum fist pumping and arm-ography.

Get yourself a bum bag that does both and make a fashion statement with a colourful Aztec print or sequin number. You’ll never let it leave your side… literally.

A FUNKY RAINCOAT Here in Ireland, rain is almost a festival guarantee, but overseas thundery showers are also a threat! Thanks to the gods of fashion, those hard plastic raincoats we wore as junior infants are now as fabulous as fur was back in the day. Probably the most practical fashion trend to ever grace this emerald isle, you’ll be a waterproof mud-shield and good as new with a spray of Mr Sheen.

A PAIR OF SUNGLASSES FOR EACH DAY

Get the Look:

Get the Look:

• Light blue bow shoulder cami top – River Island €20.00 • Blue ripper fray hem denim hot pants – New Look €19.99

• Black botanical floral slip dress – New Look €24.99 • White cropped cotton t- shirt – New Look €6.99

Get the Look: • Arianna Bohemian print dipped hem maxi skirt – Boohoo.com €20.00 • Black cross strap black vest – New Look €12.99

If your festival is Irish – you’ll probably get all the elements thrown at you within the first hour. The most versatile object for this eventuality is a pair of sunnies. A shield against unexpected sun, a handy windscreen for intermittent showers, worn on the head they make the greatest headpiece known to man, and popped on at an indoor rave make you a hard core shape-thrower – you cannot go wrong! Why a pair for each day you say?

Whether you drop them, snap them, sell them, donate them, trade them or just throw them at the stage – I dare you to come home with the same pair.

TIE DYE Get the playlist on, the basin out and let the art attack begin – tie dye is the only way to complete your festival wardrobe. Buy your dyes, dissolve them in water, wrap a few elastics around your whites and dip and dunk. You’ll feel like Monet when you see the finished product and it’ll be straight up on Instagram faster than you can say Valencia.

GLITTER - LOTS AND LOTS OF GLITTER If you wear nothing else – wear glitter.

Every colour, everywhere. The glittery scalp trick is a personal favourite and leaves a fun glittery residue for weeks afterwards no matter how hard you scrub.

You’ll never rid it from your bags, shoes or bedroom either but it will all be worth it. It’s like playschool art without rules. I mean, who even needs the festival at all?

WHAT YOU SEE IS JUST THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG

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March 28 2017

19

We need to remove the stigma surrounding our sexual health

By Sequoia Hornsby It’s time to talk about STIs. Even if you’re well-aware of your sexual health (you had that SPHE sex-ed class in secondary school), even if you’re fully informed, your next sexual partner could very well not be.

Due to the stigma and lack of education about STIs, most people will never get tested and will not find out. Untreated STIs can lead to many problems, including fertility issues and pregnancy difficulties, yet many common STIs can be treated with a course of antibiotics

There is a stigma around discussing our sexual health, especially here in Ireland where our culture is steeped in shame and denial when it comes to anything related to sex. There is a tendency to view sex from a moralistic perspective, as if their level of sexual activity is an indicator of a person’s virtue and worth as a human being. And if sex is a sin, then an STI must be a fair punishment, and to admit that you have one would be like confessing that one is a sinner, somehow corrupt and damaged, tainted.

The number of STIs documented in Ireland has increased alarmingly in recent years, yet it is not something we talk about because there is still so much shame. This avoidance of acknowledging the issue is so entrenched that people avoid getting tested religiously and a huge proportion of cases are undocumented. However, STIs are a much larger and more common issue than we admit.

To be able to discuss STIs and our sexual health is tied up with our ability to discuss and accept sex as normal and natural. Unfortunately, being sexually active means there is a huge chance that you will contract an STI sometime in your life.

However, due to the stigma and lack of education about it, most people will never get tested and will not find out. Untreated STIs can lead to many problems, including fertility issues and pregnancy

difficulties, yet many common STIs can be treated with a course of antibiotics. Despite this, we’re not comfortable discussing our sexual health, or even admitting to ourselves that it is something to be concerned about, but this has got to change.

Now that’s all well and good and dandy, sure we need to promote discussion, but how do we talk about it? Healthy sexual attitudes, open discussion, normalisation and acceptance of the reality of sex and the related issues is key for our sexual health.

So, educate yourself, do some research, get down to the clinic to be tested (it might feel embarrassing to you, but you’re not that unique, they’ve seen everything already). Ask your friends about their experiences, and share yours if you can. You may be surprised with the conversations that occur.

We do need societal and educational reform to reduce the cultural stigmatisation of sex, but on a day-to-day, personal level, we can all help by letting the people in our life know that we are non-judgmental and open to discussion, we can encourage openness and honesty when it comes to sexual health. Ask your doctor if you have any concerns, get Googling and talk to your best friends about it, people you feel relaxed with, just open up the possibility for discussion.

ME MYSELF AND I: Why being single isn’t such a bad thing!

By Aileen O Leary Whether you’re just starting out in college, in your final year or somewhere in between it’s hard to escape talking about relationships, more specifically your own relationship status.

Whether it’s your friends asking how a date went or your mom asking if there’s any guy/girl on the scene or just your housemates curious about what you spend all your time at, it’s hard to avoid the discussion. However, if you’re feeling lonesome fear not because yours truly has compiled a list of five reasons why being single isn’t such a bad thing.

No Commitment required: While relationships can be great, they require a level of commitment to the other person. Being single doesn’t require any commitment. There are no ties, no obligations, you’re able to live your life as freely as possible with nothing or no one holding you back. While that might be frightening for some it’s empowering for others, having the ability to chase after your dreams wherever they take you.

Every day is Treat Yourself Thursday: One major pro of being single, you don’t have to shell out for anniversaries, birthdays, Christmas, date nights. Instead you can spend your hard earned cash on you. Treat yourself to a spa day, new clothes, maybe invest in a new hobby. You also avoid hallmark holidays like Valentine’s, which can be pretty expensive if you’re a student, between flowers, cards, chocolates, presents, going out for a meal and drinks in town afterwards.

Make sure that you don’t talk badly about people with STIs because we need to create an environment where we all feel comfortable discussing our sexual health, and that can’t happen if we overhear others speaking badly about people with STIs. Doing so supports the idea that STIs are something to be ashamed of, something to hide, and this contributes to the cultural reluctance to face this issue, and may make anyone who hears this type of rhetoric feel reluctant to get tested. It fosters the negative perception and treatment of people with STIs, and after all, you never know who might have one. It could even be you.

As students at NUI Galway, we’re lucky to have a free STI clinic on campus. This is available by appointment only in the Student Health Unit, Áras na Mac Léinn every Tuesday and Wednesday between 5pm - 7pm during term-time. Appointments can be booked in person at the Student Health Unit reception desk or by calling 091 492604.

You can find more information on sexual health and STIs at the following links:

ie.reachout.com/inform-yourself/ sex-and-relationships/sexual-health www.hse.ie/eng/services/list/5/sexhealth www.man2man.ie www.thinkcontraception.ie

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Time to focus on you: Being single allows you the time and energy to focus on you. It gives you space to figure out who you are, what you want out of life and where you want to go. Without a relationship there is obviously a lot more time readily available to you, it allows you to focus on your career, your health and wellbeing and getting to know yourself as well. Particularly in college, it’s a lot easier to give yourself that time for yourself, because as great as relationships can be, a fight or sleepless nights could distract you from the real reason you’re here.

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There is no limbo phase: When you’re in a relationship, you’ll reach a stage where you either leave an over-night bag or have a drawer at your significant others place. This leads to serious duplication, between clothes, makeup, shoes and more and don’t get me started when it comes to trying to find those favourite jeans, are they in the wash, did one of your sisters rob them or are they at your boyfriend’s place? Avoid the headache keep all your beloved clothes in one spot, don’t end up buying more foundation than you need or spend that cash on more shoes from Penneys.

Being alone doesn’t have to be lonely: Just because you don’t have a significant other in your life right now, doesn’t mean you have to be lonely. This doesn’t mean having one night stands every week but you can go out on a few dates every now and then. If you happen to meet the right person along the way then by all means go for it but just remember that being single isn’t such a bad thing, at the end of the day the longest relationship you’ll ever have is with yourself!

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20 LI F E ST Y L E

SIN Vol. 18 Issue 12

Avoiding conflict-avoidance

By Sequoia Hornsby Conflict in a relationship is an utter calamity to many people. Popular discourse propagates an ideal of sublime happiness and such perfect compatibility that you and your partner never disagree about anything, at all, ever, and you both understand each other without needing to explain yourselves. Apparently,

mind-reading is one of the basic skill requirements necessary in a successful relationship.

Or maybe you’re supposed to communicate through long-lashed, meaningful eye-contact?

We seem to have an expectation that our partner will be able to intuit our every need, want and vague desire, and furthermore, that they will never want anything at odds with us. But, as we should all realise, this is ridic-

ulous. Flawless harmony and agreement in a relationship is not realistic and, furthermore, is not something we should aim for. We are all so different, so strange and messed up in our unique, unexpected and perhaps-not-particularly-glamorous ways. I’m not going to spout those clichés about it being our differences that make us special, but the fact is, if our partners mirrored us in every opinion, craving or spu-

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rious whim, relationships would quite frankly be boring.

So, if your partner seems to agree with everything you want, if they give in easily whenever there might be an issue that would cause conflict between you, I’d advise you to be suspicious, to peer at them closely and wonder what’s going on inside their head, because most likely they’re not being completely honest with you.

It’s not strange or surprising that people try to avoid conflict by denying it exists. We’re raised to think of it as bad, a sign of a failure in the relationship, something that brings difficulties and distance and, basically, something to be avoided at all costs. Girls especially are taught to be quiet and submissive, to let things slide for the sake of keeping the peace. We’re told not to cause any trouble, not to act too aggressive or demanding, and are advised to keep our mouths shut up tight if we want to attract a dreamy-lemon-squeezy Prince Charming.

However, being a self-abnegating martyr to the cause of idealised romance is plain silly. If you don’t let your partner know that there is an issue, they will never appreciate the sacrifices you make to sustain the idea of the perfect relationship. Things unsaid fester in the mind, creating distance between people, and if you don’t admit what is wrong to your partner, they can’t resolve it.

You might dismiss it at first as a small thing, but unaddressed issues grow, and these feed into bigger issues and, ultimately, your conflict avoidance may contribute to the ending of a relationship more than conflict itself would.

If you don’t face up to and deal with the things that are distressing you, it can lead to buried resentment. Then, when you eventually end up fighting with your partner, all the things you’ve avoided saying out of fear of causing trouble or conflict erupt to the surface. This repressed rage can burst out of nowhere and seem irrational, because you never let your partner know there was an issue in the first place.

This isn’t news to us, we all wax lyrical about the importance of honesty in relationships, but it’s different when you’re quoting aphorisms at our friends and when you’re looking at your partner, afraid of bringing up what is troubling you. You don’t want to scare them away by revealing how your mind works.

But taking this step is vital, because it allows you to face an issue together, which helps to develop a sense of trust in each other. In doing so, you learn to understand your partner and you help them learn to understand you.

You may be in conflict over this issue, but you can both be confident that you are being honest with each other, and that you trust and respect the other person enough to face the issue together and work through the conflict to find a mutually satisfying super-fantastic solution.

Undoubtedly, conflict is not always simple to resolve, so it is also essential to build and work on your conflict resolution skills. Nonetheless, the first step is admitting that there are problems - and believing that you can work through them together. If you can’t trust your partner with your honest opinions, if you don’t believe in your ability to stick together despite difficulty and disagreement, then you can’t truly respect them, and if you don’t respect them, what are you doing with them at all at all?

C U LT Ú R

March 28 2017

7

SIAMSAÍO CHT

21

Are we finished Keeping Up with the Kardashians?

By Aileen O’Leary After a hiatus from our TV screens the reality royalty that is the Kardashian/Jenner clan is back.

After countless spin offs, specials and behind the scenes, the reality of living in the limelight caught up with the dynasty in the wake of star Kim Kardashian-West’s Paris attack. As a result, the family’s claim-to-fame, Kim ended up taking a break from social media and the show. However, this is the family that made a household name by airing their dirty laundry for all to see. Now

they’re back for Season 13 and we’re tackling the question of whether to leave or to keep on keeping up with the Kardashians.

For a show that was once binge-worthy goodness, I’m saddened to say it, is now becoming oh-so-predictable. While the turn-around of each season is remarkably quick, it is old news by the time a new season premieres due to the social media exposure of the Kardashian clan.

In 2007 this wasn’t a problem, social media was only really taking shape and apps like Instagram and Snapchat were unheard of. Yet today

The show follows the same pattern every season, Khloe has a new beau, Kim has a melodrama going on, Kanye is in the papers, Kendall distances herself from the family, Kylie has new merch, Kris is meddling in one of her kid’s lives, Kourtney and Scott keep teasing the audience with a will they or wont they get back together, and of course, there is some scandal surrounding Rob.

we already have the exclusive, take Kim’s Paris robbery for instance, we already know what happened, we’ve seen the pictures and read the stories. When the new season premiered it was a bit of an anti-climax.

The show follows the same pattern every season, Khloe has a new beau, Kim has a melodrama going on, Kanye is in the papers, Kendall distances herself from the family, Kylie has new merch, Kris is meddling in one of her kid’s lives, Kourtney and Scott keep teasing the audience with a will they or wont they get back together, and of course, there is some scandal surrounding Rob. The show feels dragged out. All the girls are at one of their mega-mansions eating salad, washed down with their latest endorsement, either a ‘teatox’ or protein shake. There is nothing new here. When the show first aired it was funny, scandalous, something you couldn’t wait to watch. Now the show is just on in the background on a Sunday night.

Is it possible that the Kardashians are too over exposed and now the thrill has worn off ?

How many times a day are they in the headlines?

How many products, games, shows, clothing lines until we finally say enough is enough. Once upon a time they had some sense of self but now they are just a group of privileged whingers.

Don’t get me wrong, they must work hard, but they live in a totally different world to the rest of us.

Perhaps the show is simply becoming too farfetched for people. Take the season premiere for example: Kourtney and Scott are at a point in their relationship where they can’t interact in ‘social situations’ but when they’re around the kids Scott and Kourtney seem to get along just fine. Is this all just a façade for the show? How long will we keep up with these Kardashians?

I’m calling time of death, 2017. Ladies, I’m sorry, but times up.

What’s going on in Galway – the last hurrah

By Aisling Bonner

April Fools Dirty Circus

If ever you needed this list it’s now! You may be finding yourself in a suffocating relationship with a certain James Hardiman, but to quote Grey’s Anatomy if I may, ‘he is not the sun – you are’.

Whether you’ve been a slow and steady study snake all year long or are rolling up your sleeves for some 1.1 cramming you’ll get nowhere without taking a study break or two, or nine. But seriously, planning to go to an event can be a great incentive to study and is far more stress-relieving than spending an evening watching Netflix on the laptop you’ve just spent 8 hours staring at. Choose something a little different for your study breaks: we have the suss.

Ah, the Róisín. Always tempting us. What better way to act the fool than at a night of shameless Burlesque and Cabaret? With the company of Ms Nuala Rude, Ms Bugsy Devine and Mr Turkish Delight it’s sure to be a night of spectacular sass with a sprinkling of music and laughs. If you’re looking for an escape, this will surely do the trick.

Tickets are €15 and are available online.

1 APRIL, THE RÓISÍN DUBH

Support the Five Benefit Concert 29 MARCH, BLACK BOX THEATRE Music, laughs and activism – what more could a student ask for? A host of acts will take to the Black Box Theatre in aid of the High Court cases of the five female NUI Galway lecturers fighting for promotion. With MC Tommy Tiernan and music from The Stunning and My Fellow Sponges among others, it’s sure to be a night of surprises! With a discounted student rate of €15 all going towards a great cause, you couldn’t go wrong.

Ability Awareness Day 29 MARCH, THE CUBE NUIG If you’re feeling the activism and want to make a stance without the expense why not get informed at Ability Awareness Day. Hosted by the SU Equaliteam in collaboration with Special Heroes Ireland, they have planned an evening of open talks from 4:30pm – 7pm hoping to raise awareness of disability rights. The talks will cover various topics including access to education for people with disabilities. A productive way to wind down!

Galway Food Fesitval 13 -17 APRIL The theme this year is ‘Food and Community’ and we can think of no better way to unite a community than food. Galway Food Festival began five years ago and aims to promote Galway as a diverse foodie scene – and if a Smacs garlic cheese chips are anything to go on who could disagree? From sushi masterclasses and cocktail tastings to a cruise down the Corrib scoffing some quality grub what a way to escape exam stress for a few delicious hours.

Galway Theatre Festival 18 – 23 APRIL With NUIG’s own Dramsoc and Musical Soc simmering down for the year theatre heads mustn’t fret yet as Galway Theatre Festival is just around the corner with six days of performances in various locations across the city. The festival showcases the talents of theatre-makers of all ages and all backgrounds.

If the festival programme description is anything to go on, you’d be mad not to spare a couple of hours to catch one of the fantastic productions lined up; ‘Our programme this year captures… something for all your theatrical tastebuds - comedies about rural undertakers, Menswear shop assistants, and Marilyn Monroe-loving air hostesses; meditations on families and relationships; rip-roaring tales of Irish rebels and heroes; atmospheric vampire horror stories; punchy new versions of classic literature; and, in the midst of this all, a good cup of Tea!’

Summer Reading Suggestions

By Grace O’Doherty • The Loney by Andrew Michael Hurley: An eerie gothic novel set in an English coastal town in the 1970s, in which a family embarks on a pilgrimage with the hope of curing the narrator’s younger brother.

• Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez: An ageing man tries to win back the heart of his first love when her husband passes away.

• New Yorker Fiction Podcast: Writers select and read out short stories that have been previously published in the magazine, followed by a discussion with fiction editor Deborah Treisman. Some recommendations- Kazuo Ishiguru’s A Village after Dark and Muriel Sparks’ The Ormaloo Clock.

• The Girls by Emma Cline: Set in California in the late 1960s and based loosely on the events surrounding the Manson Family killings, Evie Boyd, a shy 14 year old, falls under the spell of a group of older girls she meets in the park. Looking for adventure and an escape from her parents’ divorce, she follows them to their

commune where she meets their leader, the strange but charming Russell Hadrick.

• The Maid’s Version by Daniel Woodrell: From the author of Winter’s Bone, which was adapted into the 2010 film with Jennifer Lawrence, this book tells the story of a mystery surrounding an explosion at a dancehall in a small Missouri town in the 1920s. .

• Scoop by Evelyn Waugh: A satire on sensationalist journalism in London in the 1930s. Mistaken for his better-known cousin, a naïve reporter, William Boot, is sent to cover a war in East Africa.

• Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell: Winston Smith tries to rebel against the totalitarian system of a futuristic Britain, where surveillance is used to achieve total control over the population.

• The Wonder by Emma Donoghue: From the author of Room, this book is a psychological thriller in which an English nurse is sent to investigate a ‘miracle’ which has occurred in a small Irish town- a young girl who has not eaten for months is rumoured to be surviving with God’s help alone.

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SIN Vol. 18 Issue 12

A Laughter in the Dark

By Martina Baldissera Mr Toby Harrington gently lifted the curtain with dusty yellow daffodils on, ran his fingers to the mahogany bar and opened the window. A waft of frost-choked air stiffened his sunken cheeks, and he smelt a dull, lowered and flat sky. “It’ll snow soon”, he mumbled as he slipped off his dressing gown.

“The fire!” he croaked out while trampling his way down the stairs. “Is this the way you’re taking care of a poor old man? Better for you to keep me as alive as you can, a tea set is what you’ll get from me anyway, once I’ve kicked the bucket”.

Mrs Hughes hurried from the kitchen to help him climb off the last steps. “Mr Toby, you should have called, I had refilled your stove in the evening myself, I didn’t reckon you could be so cold”.

“Is this how you’re going to kill me? Frozen to death? Ah, don’t expect to get anything out of it but a tea set, after I’ve hopped the twig, not a penny ya’ll see”.

“No breakfast for you this morning, Mr Toby?” Mr Hughes was coming from the living room with a smoky silver tray, and had noticed that Mr Toby was already fingering about for his gloves.

“This smell of rotten fog in the air doesn’t get along with my stomach, leave that watery pap for lunch. Is it too much to ask for a steak that doesn’t squirt with blood, heh? Bring me the coat, the heavy one”.

Mrs Hughes helped Mr Toby into his long furry coat, buttoned its front and handed him his black chamois hat. She was about to reach out for the cane, but a shove from Mr Toby’s elbow pushed her aside. “I can take that for myself, I’m not a spastic”.

His gloved fist gripped the ivory top and clenched the smooth roundness. Mr Hughes opened the door for him: “Very well, Mr Toby, and don’t forget your scarf. We’ll wait for you by lunchtime, enjoy your walk!”

“Go to hell”, and then off on the empty-sounding pavement, still crackling with curled-up leaves from the ending autumn. Mr Toby loved walking over fallen leaves. It was like treading upon easily breakable tiny bones, or eyeballs. How he enjoyed his usual morning walks, especially when a little crowd strolled around him. Those moments were of such a sheer, undetectable pleasure, that his condition could even be thought of as a bliss. Coming towards him, he heard the large-mouthed, laughter-infested voice of a soft pink piece of two-legged flesh, holding a higher and more delicate hand, chomping what, by the oil-stained smell, must have been a bun.

“Ouch! Hey! Hey, mummy, mummy, the old man here’s just poked his cane in my foot!”

“Shhhht, darling, he hasn’t done it on purpose, can’t you see the old sir is blind? Excuse him, Sir, I’m desolate”.

And then he trotted away, a grin cracking across his face, a flame flickering behind dark rounded lenses across his blank eyes. He found joy in slowing down and even stopping the traffic too, crossing the road when he heard a large vehicle approaching, or a row of them roaring ahead when the crossroads policeman signalled Go, or pretending to trip over a horse’s leg when a coach was letting him pass first. Eventually, he’d get to Victoria Park, walk the whole circle of pelting gravel and sit at his usual ooze-smelling bench in front of the pond, listening and pondering and grunting. The newspaper he’d buy on the way back would be read by one of the Hughes at home.

Just right after Mr Toby had left, Mr Hughes had put his hand on his wife’s shoulder and squeezed it tenderly. They had tried, more than once, to fill their suitcases and step beyond the door, but then they’d thought of Mrs Harrington, of her still unblended perfume, of how she’d begged them not to leave once she’d been gone. And the old man was blind. He had no other relative of friend who may have looked after him, nor would have any new housekeeper been attracted to take their place. They had learned to feel guilty at the

mere thought of moving away, even if, they knew, anything more than a tea set would have made up for their devotion and care.

In the meanwhile, Mr Toby was ready to cross the road in front of the park. No traffic mess to stir up today; he had thrust the spike of his cane so deeply into that flabby pink flesh that he’d be done with humans for a while. His foot was about to stamp off the pavement, when Mr Toby felt five sudden fingers emerge from the blackness and firmly hold his left forearm. Before he could summon his strengths to react, the hand was dragging him across the street. “How dare you touch me? I didn’t ask for help, I can cross for myself!”

A laughter cooed below his ear, an amused and patronising laughter, the same of a mother telling off a child without really meaning it. His attempts to poke and hit clashed the air, and his struggle to wriggle himself out of those fingers resulted in that grip to clench even tighter into his coat sleeve, dragging him on, steadier and faster. Mr Toby was worried now. Could this be someone even nastier than him, someone who may have taken pleasure in shoving an old blind man on the cobblestone and letting him being run over by an automobile? His overly-tensed limbs and wet forehead cooled his resistance. When he was on the verge of crying out for help, his feet felt the leaves-crusted pavement in front of the park.

The same laughter trilled again. His breath was coarse and fast, but his nerve rekindled. “Here, take some for the bother and go to hell!” he spat out, after rummaging in his pocket and throwing a handful of coins on the ground.

No laughter chirped back this time; no thankful words, no greeting or pounding of feet either. Mr Toby trod off through the gate, with a playful skip in his step: what a joy, unexpected and illogical joy! He had just stopped someone’s cheerfulness by offering him money! By rewarding a gesture intended to be free and voluntary, out of good will and compassion! Compassion could thus be so easily bought off, with the offer of such a trifling amount of money! Open hearts so softly pierceable, that denying the nature from where their actions came vilified its meaning and its purpose completely. What an outstanding, profitable discovery!

His mood had grown so satisfied that he didn’t even say a word about how poorly toasted his potatoes were. He forgot to retort

that it hadn’t snowed at all, and even to remark that if his dinner was poisoned or cut up too roughly to have him choked on a morsel, they’d get anything but a tea set from him anyway. All this to the ever-mounting surprise of the Hughes, who received lesser and lesser scornful claims as the days passed. Every morning, in front of the park gate, Mr Toby met his shapeless five-fingered companion, whose bold grip guided him across the traffic and cheeky laughter responded to his usual protestations. “There, take these and go to hell” barked Mr Toby, throwing a few coins on the ground and sparkling with smug when no laughter warbled back.

The snow came one day at last, it cracked like broken nails under Mr Toby’s shoes. Just while he was basking in the grinding, mushing sensation, his heel pressed too much on a cobble, he felt his sole capsize and the grip on his cane vanishing in a breath.

His will, like he’d long promised, stated that Mr and Mrs Hughes would bequeath his chalk tea set; while the house and all the rest of his wealth, all to the laughing stranger, with the specific indication of discovering his identity. “If a few coins are enough to let him down”, Mr Toby had sneered “let alone an entire fortune!”

Mrs Hughes had tried to ask the children who always played near the park gate if they knew who the person who used to accompany Mr Toby there was. “You must be mistaken, Madam,” they had answered. “Our blind old man was always on his own”.

So, after a few weeks of investigations, Mr Toby’s inheritance was transferred to a distant nephew of his, who, coming into such an unexpected and plump fortune, deemed it right to leave a part of it to the two people who had taken care of a relative he’d never known anything about. The Hughes could remain in the house where they’d served for so many years, start a new life thanks to some of Mr Toby’s money, and prayed for the soul of that blind old man who, after all, they had cherished.

“Nonsense,” grumbled Mr Toby, gliding his way with his cane through the sooty smoke of the chimneys and past the clouded windowpanes. “Pure foolish nonsense! Where’s that damned devil?

Only a tea set, I’d promised them, once I’d snuffed in, not a single penny, I’d said!” He was floating towards his bench at Victoria Park. “Prayers, peaceful resting, salvation…utter idiocy!

March 28 2017 What good are their prayers doing to me, heh?” He slid on the frost-broidered planks of the bench, and had just stretched down on them to feel the half-melted flakes smash under his coat, when an itch, a tingle on the left side of his chest caught his attention.

His fingertips made out some petals, some stems, tied together by a string. “To the kind old blind man, who’d always throw coins at us to buy candies”. A little girl’s voice was reading out, snuffling a bit.

“We liked to draw you when you were sitting here because you looked like a raven, and played a game where we imagined what you were thinking about, or make up stories about who you could be”. A piece of light paper tickled beside the flowers, a pale little hand, a rush of corn-like gravel. Mr Toby slowly lifted his neck, his hat dropped on the bench, he was feeling like pieces of cotton thrusted into the dry sockets of his void eyes. “Have I thus come to this world,” he murmured, “Devoid progressively of sight, believing me purposeless to anything and insensible to anything but to hurting others, finding the satisfaction of being myself only through that, only to unconsciously bring about the opposite?”

“Well, of course,” cheered a voice below his ear, a laughter he was well acquainted with. “Why, is there in this world any better aim?”

And it was then that he felt his whole body puffing up as if a thousand of bubbles were being blown inside of him, swelling and bloating and inflating with warm breath, until all their round waters exploded and Mr Toby stretched out wide, his soul dancing in confetti to the ground along with the newborn snowflakes.

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Photos: 'Spring' by Ita Reddington

The rocky road to Galway

By Michael Burke Old Blue was within a hairline from touching the road. Dad knew it, I knew it, and my two friends in the backseat knew they weren’t helping as the car bounced us towards Galway. Worse again, Dad seemed to be the one carrying us, holding his face like the mountain overhead and a pair of eyes that resembled every fractured rock peeking out.

It appeared that just like the effects a million years of weathering has done to North East Clare, Dad too had finally cracked, and all it took was a carload to Galway in a vehicle long due its retirement.

He wasn’t giving in just yet though. I could picture another plan being devised, one involving us being dumped at a bus stop and him freewheeling Old Blue home, but that was about as likely as the exhaust losing its smoker’s cough. I was moving into a new house and had all of my things in the boot, adding the weight of my two friends in the back and the fact we’ve to cross an actual mountain to get to Galway; it wasn’t the greatest surprise that Old Blue was running out of breath. If there was one consolation to take, it was

that we wouldn’t suffer in silence. Dads one of us, and I’ve accepted his embarrassing features as much as his less embarrassing ones.

He’s just a young lad with an old face who’s gone with the flow of life, but the olden days would come crashing back in time, as we continued to bobble on.

‘How many are in the house?’, James asked.

‘Just me and two others man,’ I replied, turning down the radio.

‘Two women’ interjects Dad. ‘He’s living with two women’, he announces to their laughter. Rolling my eyes, I mentioned the big labrador in the house.

‘Awh he’s an absolute legend, jumps into bed with me an’ all’.

‘As long as that’s the only one jumping in with you’, nudges Dad, before proudly gazing into the front mirror to catch his audience in stitches. Yep, he was on a roll and this was taking an embarrassing turn; I even smiled, a smile if analysed by an expert lip reader definitely would have said ‘Galway hurry on’ but ‘twas useless.

Even the obvious stare I gave the man, begging an execution of his earlier plan went up in fumes. He was high from it, smiling like he was 21 again, might as well have been his friends jeering at me from the back.

Seeing as my Dad and friends were now on the borderline of bullying me I was forced into action. ‘What was that?’ I jumped.

‘What was what?’, ‘Thought I heard a bang below in the engine’.

‘Well eff that anyways’, he cursed as his face crumbled into little pieces. With my foot gently waiting to stamp them into further smithereens, Galway city motioned into view, and all our woes were temporarily forgotten as suburbia flew past the windows (us country folk are distracted easily). Navigating him to my new place, I hurried in with my stuff, and overhearing him telling a joke to our passengers, I quickly peered out to notice two lads inspired for the week ahead. He didn’t inspire the labrador though, he seemed to take a sudden dislike to my presence, forcing my would-be-stroll into a swift run towards the car, making my affectionate remark look as badly constructed as the ground we left home from.

After weaving our way through the city, thankfully we reached their estate safe and sound. ‘How do I get out of here again?’ Dad inquired.

‘Your second left’. He drove Old Blue down past the G-Hotel and right out of view. Stepping inside, and sitting down, and laughing to myself, I wondered what I’ll be like at Dad’s age, before my moment was interrupted by a distant clank that had to be Old Blue and ruined by the realisation that it couldn’t be pretty.

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Dear Netflix, We Need…

By Amy McMahon Dear Netflix, Truth be told, you’ve done well over the years. You have given us great entertainment and of course the iconic phase ‘Netflix and Chill’. From rom-coms to documentaries - you have it all, but there are some films and TV shows that have yet to surface on the site. Listen to the people, this is what we’ve been craving!

First on the list has to be the hit TV show Friends. It has gone on way too long, this timeless classic needs to be on Netflix as soon as possible! The show first aired in 1994, yet it still holds a place in our hearts. As many times as I’ve watched Friends I don’t think I have ever actually watched the episodes in order, so I think that would be fun to rewatch it all again (for the millionth time) and see the show from start to finish.

Another Netflix necessity is Geordie Shore. C’mon Netflix, don’t you think it’s about time we got to watch season upon season of our favourite Newcastle nutters? Surely if the Made In Chelsea posh totties are on Netflix, their less sophisticated but just as dramatic cousin Geordie Shore should be allowed on the site too. It would be mint.

As far as films go I think Netflix is in desperate need of a few more chick flicks. Really can you ever have enough?

We need Mean Girls, Easy A and Pitch Perfect just to name a few. Netflix is ideal for a girly night in with the gal pals. It’s about time these fantastic, funny films are up on Netflix.

To be honest I’m surprised Keeping Up With the Kardashians hasn’t appeared on Netflix yet. I figured momager Kris would have that all sorted by now.

Although we may not want to admit, we secretly all love to indulge on the rich and fabulous lives of this famous family, along with all of their hilarious moments, like Kim taking selfies while Khloe was arrested. Klassic.

Two words: Star Wars. How on earth have we allowed such a fatal fault to exist? These stellar films just need to be on Netflix. No ifs, buts or maybes. It is a crime against entertainment to leave these cinematic masterpieces out of the Netflix loop.

Last but not least we need the holy trilogy, High School Musical. I think it’s only fair that we get to watch HSM. After all, these films made our childhood.

What’s the point in having the DVDs when I could easily and effortlessly watch them on my laptop and phone?

It would be fabulous!

Lots of love from,

A Regular TV and Film Binge-Watcher

SIN Vol. 18 Issue 12

“IT IS HAPPENING AGAIN”

By Grace O’Doherty The revival of one of television’s most iconic cult shows has been shrouded in as much mystery as the events which took place in the fictional town of Twin Peaks back in the early nineties. David Lynch and Mark Frost are back, 25 years after the show was first aired - a show which shocked and enthralled viewers, which was both hated and loved, which was experimental and utterly novel in an era of generic, ‘easy-watching’ television.

One tantalisingly short trailer features water cascading through mist and brooding, pine-covered mountains; another shows the disturbing last scene cut with a clip of an aged Agent Cooper emerging from the darkness. The trailer explains that last week Missing Person posters went up around Sydney with a picture of Laura Palmer and a number underneath which, when called, reaches a creepy backwards voicemail recording.

There have been very few clues as to what to expect when the show airs on the 21 May (22 May for Sky Atlantic viewers). In a promotional video on Showtime’s website one of the cast members tells us that “[it’s] a big cast, a big story, big things happen”, keeping it as frustratingly vague as possible. Many of the old cast will be returning, including Kyle McLachlan as Agent Cooper, Sherilyn Fenn (Audrey Horne), Mädchen Amick (Shelley) and Dana Ashbrook (Bobby Briggs).

There are also plenty of new faces, such as Jim Belushi, Michael Cera, Jennifer Jason Leigh and young Dublin actress Amy Shiels. Whereas the first two seasons were directed by various people, with only six episodes directed by Lynch, he will be sole director for the latest instalment.

How the story will develop is anyone’s guess. All we know is that it will involve Dale Cooper’s journey back to Twin Peaks. The meandering plots, the use of symbols which either come to be significant or fade into the ether and the feeling of being led on multiple goose-chases that characterised the first two seasons contributed to its allure for some viewers but was also part of the reason why ABC cancelled the show so early. Viewers and network bosses alike felt cheated with the makers’ seeming reluctance to come to conclusions. Aside from the plot, one of the bigger challenges for the new season will be to bring back a sense of that unique and completely immersive world- the saccharine, all-American charm with horror peeking through the cracks that was so unnerving and effectivewhile still finding new ways to intrigue the viewer.

There was something inherently nostalgic about the original show and the way it used a

mash-up of eras to create a very definite aestheticthe fifties-style waitress uniforms in the Double R Diner, Donna Hayward’s 90’s blouses and baggy jumpers, James Hurley in James Dean garb. It’s hard to tell what an ‘updated’ Twin Peaks might look like, and how a changed Twin Peaks will compare to the old, familiar settings. Just like when you watch a movie now that you loved as a child, you’re always measuring it against how you felt the first time and more often than not, the magic is best preserved by just not disturbing those memories. For the very first generation of Twin Peaks fans this might be the case, but the new show will probably also provide an entry-point for a whole new generation of fans looking for something a little bit different. Given the reception of Stranger Things, it’s exactly the kind of thing people are looking for right now, whether it compares to the original or not.

REVIEW: Atlanta

By Mícheál Ó Fearraigh

CAST: Donald Glover, Brian Tyree Henry, Keith ­Stanfield, and, Zazie Beetz I may be late in my review of this show as it has already won several awards including two Golden Globes. I feel the need, however, to tell everyone possible about Donald Glover/Childish Gambino’s (Community) passion project, which he created and starred in, as it was for me the

best show of 2016, and not just because the creator shares a birthday with me.

The show, which I guess I would call a comedy-drama, follows Earn (Glover) as he struggles to make ends meet for his sometime lover Van (Beetz), and their child. Earn’s latest venture is to try and capitalise on his cousin Paper Boi’s (Henry) emerging career as a rapper. If this doesn’t sound funny it must be said that much of the show is incredibly bleak. The humour comes organically from this as well as surrealistic touches courtesy of Paper Boi’s eternal companion and amateur philosopher, Darius

(Stanfield). I thought that the show would be all about Glover, but an episode that just follows Van may be the best: she, along with Darius, threaten to steal every scene they are in.

The show is unlike anything I can think of that has been on television before. I would call it a mash-up of Seinfeld, Straight out of Compton, Flight of the Conchords, and, Louis CK’s recent Horace and Pete. Atlanta is a refreshing change as well from the constant cliff-hangers and emphasis on binge-watching. You can watch it at your leisure; the show is less a series than a collection of short films featuring the same characters.

The show is remarkable for promoting lesser known hip-hop and RnB songs and has a writing staff consisting solely of African-Americans who are all from Atlanta. As well as this, many of the cast are going on to make some interesting films such as Glover who will be in Spider-Man: Homecoming, as well as the Han Solo origin movie; Beetz who will play Domino in Deadpool 2; and Stanfield who will play L in the Netflix adaptation of Death Note. This show is on Sky Go and I urge everyone to see this unique show as we may never see the likes of it again for a very long time.

Conclusion: Atlanta is my new favourite show. I tuned in for Donald Glover but the rest of the cast and uniqueness of it made me stay.

10/10

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It’s Feminist, not Feminazi

By Orla Masterson

Watson has proved to be a great leader, a strong voice, a strong woman’s voice, and this has led to her being a target.

Emma Watson has been a household name since she first graced our screens as Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter series. And perhaps, part of her current public work as a feminist stems from these roots. As the brightest witch of her age, Hermione held her own alongside the chosen one Harry Potter and his right hand man Ron Weasley. However, from Hermione’s first scenes on screen, the character has been deemed everything from bossy to a know-it-all. And perhaps she is, but had Ron been the academic or had Harry the voice of reason, it is sure they would be described in kinder terms.

This is often the plight of little girls with strong voices who demand to be heard: they’re told to stop being bossy. For many of us without realising, this is an attempt to quieten their voice motivated by our preconcieved ideas that loud women are bossy. So perhaps, Emma Watson has had a lot of practice in the lead up to her role as UN Women Goodwill Ambassador.

Misogyny is defined as the dislike or contempt for, or ingrained prejudice against women and it is the back bone of patriarchal societies worldwide. Did Emma Watson initially set out to fight misogny? I don’t believe so, but in any attempt by women to speak about feminism or to fight on its behalf, misogny plays a key role in the backlash they face. And to those who say this is not the case, the events of recent times while Watson has held the role of Women’s Ambassador prove otherwise.

Initially, Watson became the face of the UN’s ‘He For She’ campaign, which she launched with a speech at the UN in 2014. The aim? To end gender inequality. An aim which would benefit both male and female, an aim which is the basis of what feminism stands for. And yet, feminism is seen as a dirty word and feminists are labelled many things, the most evocative being ‘FemiNazis’. But, the ‘He For She’ campaign aimed to recruit both men and boys into the fight for gender inequality and to eliminate the idea that feminism was solely a women’s issue.

Watson and the UN launched the campaign with the understanding that if change was to happen, both genders would have to seek it.

Since then, Watson has continued to speak on the issue, with many of her interviews touching on the topic. She has been unafraid to use her voice to ensure the fight for gender inequality is spoken about and to encourage more people to understand the cause. It is a gross misunderstanding of feminism that has led to further misogyny against the cause and the women who promote it. Tweets such as “Feminism makes women automatically ugly, Emma Watson went from a 10 to a 6 once I heard she was a man eating Feminazi” convey just how obsurd people’s views of feminists can be. They are labelled men-haters and radicals by those who refuse to understand that feminism is a movement on behalf of both genders but mainly, for those who do not want to see women as equal to men.

Misogyny goes hand in hand with feminism, and in taking such a public role, Emma Watson opened

herself up to the backlash that almost always follows.

Recent headlines slammed Watson for claiming to be a feminist and yet, posing in revealing outfits, an accusation that asked, ‘how could one be a feminist if one chooses to expose their body on any level?’ This caused Watson to have to retort, ‘Feminism is about giving women choice […]it’s about freedom, liberation, equality. I don’t know what my tits have to do with it’.

Watson has proved to be a great leader, a strong voice, a strong woman’s voice, and this has led to her being a target. She suffers misogny not because she is a great leader, but clearly because some do not believe she can be such and be a women as well. In recent weeks, she has even had to pursue legal action after facing the threat of private images of her being leaked online by hackers. She, along with countless other celebrity women, face the posibiltiy that personal images may be shared without their consent. While Watson may be labelled by misogynists as man-hating, unattractive and nothing short of a ‘Nazi’ because of her views, men and others who wish to see her silenced, will still seek to take pleasure from her misfortune that her privacy has been breached.

Until feminism is no longer misunderstood, misogyny will have an excuse on which to fester and grow, and even beyond that time there will be those who will refuse out of sheer stubborness to see women as equal. Watson’s public stance against it, a stance which is portrayed with class and self confidence, can only produce more women who no longer wish to be phased by it, and more men who no longer wish to stand for it.

Ed Sheeran Divide (Deluxe) Review

By Shelly Hannigan It feels like just yesterday that Ed Sheeran graced our ears with + and x but with three years in between each album, 2017 has brought us ÷ (Divide).

‘Eraser’ opens the album and it’s not what I was expecting. Ed raps about his hatred of fame and money (I’ll take some off your hands, Ed).

Next up is ‘Castle On The Hill’, a proper stadium sing-along anthem. It’s one of the two leading singles from Divide and is all about going back to your not-so-perfect hometown but still being excited to see those you grew up with. He sings of drinking at 15 and hiding in fields from the law, not that any of us can relate, of course…

Let’s Dive into the next song. Sorry that was terrible. But ‘Dive’ isn’t. This soulful song is about meeting a love interest for the first time. With an electric guitar solo and Jessie Ware providing backing vocals this is certainly one to listen to.

‘Shape of You’ has broken world streaming records and stayed at number one for weeks. This was the other leading single and while it is quite infectious it wouldn’t be one of my favourites from the album (maybe that’s from it being overplayed though, because it is a good song).

‘Perfect’ is a ballad dedicated to Sheeran’s girlfriend Cherry Seaborn.

It’s adorable, I have to say and Sheeran thinks it beats ‘Thinking Out Loud’ which is saying something.

‘Galway Girl’ is a change. It’s catchy, it has rapping, it has trad-folk band Beóga, which includes fiddle player Niamh

Dunne, inspiration for this song. It has definitely been one of my most-played songs in the last two weeks so I’ll probably be sick of it by April.

‘Happier’ is a ballad that’s not happy at all.

It’s a brilliant break-up song and will pull at the heartstrings. It’s not as memorable as ‘Perfect’ or ‘Supermarket Flowers’ but the ending is beyond amazing.

‘New Man’ is another post break-up song but it’s a lot different to ‘Happier’ and I was laughing through

it because Ed is pretty savage in this song: “Your new man rents a house in the ‘burb, And wears a man bag on his shoulder, but I call it a purse”.

‘Hearts Don’t Break Around Here’ is a soppy, acoustic love song.The slow music along with lyrics of feeling safe in a partner’s arms is comforting.

‘What Do I Know?’ breaks up the ballads with a funk guitar and harmonies, with lyrics about “exponential growth” upsetting his record label.

The song is all about speaking out on what you

think should be said despite warnings to be fair.

‘How Would You Feel?’ is apparently girlfriend Cherry’s favourite track and it’s easy to see why with lyrics like “In the summer, As the lilacs bloom, Love flows deeper than the river, Every moment that I spend with you”.

Then we have ‘Supermarket Flowers’ and it’s such a heartbreaker. It’s a tribute to his late grandmother, from the point of view of his mother, and is equally sad and beautiful. A piano is the only backing as he sings of pre-funeral rituals.

‘Barcelona’ is (unsurprisingly) an ode to the city of Barcelona. It’s a great song to bop to and really makes me want to go to back to that vibrant city and have some sangria. If you want to hear Ed sing in Spanish then this is the song for you.

‘Bibia Be Ye Ye’ is an uplifting Africaninspired song about hope which Ed wrote in Ghana with Fuse ODG. It’s another catchy song that’s worth listening to.

‘Nancy Mulligan’ is another Irishinspired song that pays tribute to Sheeran’s grandparents on his dad’s side, Nancy ‘Anne’ Mulligan and William ‘Bill’ Sheeran. Beóga feature here again for more Irish trad-folk.

‘Save Myself’ brings the album to an end and is a very poignant song to end on. It’s a slow and melodic piece with a message of the importance of self-care – a message we could all do with listening to.

Ed Sheeran never seems to disappoint and this album only reaffirms that. He can do anything, he makes you laugh, dance around your bedroom, and shed a few tears all in one album and that takes a special talent.

Ed Sheeran never seems to disappoint and this album only reaffirms that. He can do anything, he makes you laugh, dance around your bedroom, and shed a few tears all in one album and that takes a special talent.

Coiste Gnó Executive Committee

2016 - 2017 17

Vice President/Education Officer Leas Uachtarán/Oifigeach Oideachais

President Uachtarán

Vice President/Welfare Officer Leas Uachtarán/Oifigeach Leasa

su.education@nuigalway.ie 086 385 3658

su.president@nuigalway.ie 086 385 5502

su.welfare@nuigalway.ie 086 385 3659

Cathal Sherlock

Oifigeach na Gaeilge

Clíodhna Nic Giolla Chomháill

su.gaeilge@nuigalway.ie 0044 7534 459 894

Societies Chairperson Cathaoirleach na gCumann

Patrick O’Flaherty su.socs@nuigalway.ie 086 852 3417

Convenor of the College of Science Tionólaí Choláiste na hEolaíochta

Christopher Mc Brearty

su.science@nuigalway.ie 087 656 5387

660 Officer Poster.indd 1

Jimmy McGovern

Equality Officer Oifigeach Comhionnais

Daniel Khan

Mature Students’ Officer Oifigeach Mic Léinn Lánfhásta

Postgraduate Officer An tOifigeach Iarchéime

Megan Reilly

Damian Duddy

Colm Duffy

Clubs Captain Captaen na gClubanna

SU Council Chairperson | Cathaoirleach na Comhairle do Chomhaltas na Mac Léinn

Convenor of the College of Arts, Social Sciences & Celtic Studies | Tionólaí Choláiste na nDán, na nEolaíochtaí Sóisialta & an Léinn Cheiltigh

su.clubs@nuigalway.ie 089 975 4741

su.council@nuigalway.ie 087 269 7232

su.equality@nuigalway.ie 086 228 3856

Caitlin Jansen

su.maturestudents@nuigalway.ie 091 524 810

Aaron Reeves

su.postgrad@nuigalway.ie 086 275 8527

Ciarán MacChoncarraige su.arts@nuigalway.ie 087 054 4499

Convenor of the College of Medicine, Nursing & Health Sciences | Tionólaí Choláiste an Leighis, an Altranais & na nEolaíochtaí Sláinte

Convenor of the College of Business, Public Policy & Law | Tionólaí Choláiste an Ghnó, an Bhearais Phoiblí agus an Dlí

Convenor of the College of Engineering & Informatics | Tionólaí Choláiste na hInnealtóireachtaagus na Faisnéisíochta

su.medicine@nuigalway.ie 087 768 7892

su.business@nuigalway.ie 087 065 5357

su.engineering@nuigalway.ie 086 026 0500

Lorcán Ó Maoileannaigh

Diarmuid Ó Curraoin

Tim Murphy

02/06/2016 11:59

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March 28 2017

27

2017 NUI Galway Sports Awards Coach of the Year Award: 9 Nominations, 6 Awards

-

Paul O’Brien (Men’s Basketball) Simon Lawless (Women’s Rugby) David Joyce (Muay Thai) Maurice Sheridan (Men’s Gaelic) Damien Walker (Karate)

Most Improved Club Award: 12 Nominations, 1 Award

- Cricket Club

Tom Tuohy Award for Rowing: Individual - Jack Bennett Senior Four comprised of;

Liam Keane Mantas Pukelis Kevin Neville Richard Bennett

28 SP O RT

SIN Vol. 18 Issue 12

Club Captain’s Award: 9 Nominations, 1 Award

Syed Kumail Jaffry - Cricket Club

Unsung Hero Award: 20 Nominations, 7 Awards

Lily Blackadder (Surfing) – Ciarán Jordan (Sailing) – David Henry (Ladies Gaelic) – Cameron Keighron (Fencing) – Sean Lang (Tennis) – Jasmine Blenkins O’Callaghan (Sub Aqua) – Tiernan Dempsey (Men’s Basketball)

Club of the Year Award: 5 Nominations, 2 Awards

Mountaineering Club

Men’s Basketball

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March 28 2017

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Individual Performance of the Year Award: 16 Nominations, 9 Awards

Gráinne Walsh (Boxing) – Stephen Bradshaw (Judo) – Tara Buggie (Rugby) – Aoife Hughes (Karate) – Mitul Galav (Cricket) – Aisling Joyce (Athletics) – Damien Comer (Gaelic) – Conor Cleary (Hurling) – Damien Landers (Athletics)

University Honours Award: 6 Nominations, 1 Award

Eoin MacCrossain - Judo

Sports Person of the Year Award: 13 Nominations, 1 Award

Gráinne Walsh - Boxing

Team of the Year Award: 8 Nominations, 5 Awards

Soccer (Ladies) Soccer (Men’s) Gaelic Football (Men’s) Rugby (Women’s) Cricket

30 SP O RT

SIN Vol. 18 Issue 12

SPÓIRT

March 28 2017

NUI Galway Ladies crowned soccer champions

By Trevor Murray NUI Galway’s Ladies soccer team comprehensively overcame University of Limerick 4-1 – claiming the League Cup title off the back of an impressive final day performance, with a strong Galway WFC representation among the squad.

Twelve months prior to this triumph on the same turf, the ‘Galway Girls’ overcame IT Carlow in a dramatic penalty shootout to claim silverware, so there must be something in the air of UL’s sports grounds that sits well with them.

Inside the opening 10 minutes, the Galway outfit fell behind to an expertly dispatched Fiona Moloney goal, momentarily deflating the travelling contingent, but it wouldn’t be long until they got into

their stride, creating a number of good chances before they eventually started banging in the goals without reply.

Molly Farrell scored the away side’s first goal of the afternoon in the opening half before then striking the upright with a well-struck effort minutes later before Aoife Walsh finally put Galway in front on the half-hour mark. It was a lead they wouldn’t relinquish – indeed, they continued to build on it in spectacular fashion, proving very clinical in front of goal.

Later on, Shauna Fox scored a wonderful free kick from 35 yards out to extend the lead to 3-1 before Lisa Casserly put the icing on the cake with her team’s fourth goal of the match to send the away dugout into joyous celebrations. UL certainly created a number

of decent chances themselves and could have made it a closer-run contest that it turned out to be, but Johnny Hynes’ outfit were simply too good and the Galwegians deserved to emerge with another famous win.

UNIVERSITY OF LIMERICK: Laura Fitzgerald (Orla Dempsey 65); Bailey Perry (Caoimhe Hennigan 80), Aine Sheehy (Laura Mannion 75), Sophie Gleeson, Megan Carroll; Sarah Ryan, Keara Cormican; Katie Hurley, Fiona Moloney, Lauren Keane; Eleanor Stafford.

NUI GALWAY: Louise Creaven; Samantha Taillon, Shauna Fox, Sarah Peters, Laura Carroll; Ciaragh Lynagh (Shauna Gallagher 70); Aoife Walsh, Michelle Doherty, Alison McGonigle (Marley Duncan 67), Molly Farrell (Cheisi Curran 80); Lisa Casserly.

NUI Galway do Dublin double to win All Ireland Junior crown All Ireland Junior Championship – Final NUI GALWAY 0-8 UCD 0-3

By Darragh Berry in Dangan A quick 30-minute break was all the NUI Galway Junior side had between their close battle in the Semi Final with DCU and their Final showdown with another Dublin outfit, UCD. The away side took the lead in the first couple of minutes but NUI Galway equalised in quick fashion courtesy of Ronan O’ Toole and after that, they never looked back.

Ronan Geraghty was introduced from the bench early in the final and wasn’t long leaving a mark, scoring with his first touch of the ball. A goal chance came soon after for the home side, Sean McHugh fed Hugh Bourke who was bearing down on the UCD

goal. Just as he was about to pull the trigger, he was met with the mightiest of shoulders but despite the knock, still managed to fire the ball over the bar.

Just before half time, Geraghty looked to have fired a wild shot that was heading for a goal kick. However, Evan Cawley somehow managed to keep the ball alive and played it back to Geraghty who made it 0-4 to 0-1 going in at the interval.

They would match their score of four points in the first half, with the same amount in the second. Donal Shanley’s free-taking accuracy was incredible and he chalked up another two points after the restart to put four between the sides. Ronan O’ Toole kicked a monster point soon after to grow the gap to five but NUI Galway had to call on ‘keeper Jack Shortt to keep out a UCD attack on goal with a fine close range save.

The half ended just as it had begun,

with Shanley striking another sweet free kick from the floor over the black spot. The full-time whistle blew shortly after that and Club Treasurer Enda Fallon presented the cup to Aaron Clerkin who had hobbled off after injuring his hamstring a few minutes before time.

Sheer delight for him and his teammates as well as his two managers. The win sees manager Kevin McKittrick collect his second All Ireland medal in two years while his assistant, John Brennan collected his first in his debut year in management.

NUI GALWAY: Jack Shortt, Alan Dugera, Conor Burke (Ronan Geraghty 0-2), Martin Loftus, Eoin O’ Neill (Cian Gilmartin 22’), Noel Cotton, Paddy Fleming, Jamie Smith, Sean McHugh (Declan Giblin 23’), Conor Dolan, Ronan O’ Toole 0-2, Donal Shanley 0-3f, Evan Cawley, Hugh Bourke 0-1, Aaron Clerkin (c) (Jack Mulhern 35’)

NUI Galway overcome DCU in narrow semi-final win All Ireland Junior Championship NUIG 0-6 DCU 0-5

By Darragh Berry in Dangan A twenty-minute a half affair, NUI Galway found themselves three points to nothing within a couple of minutes.

Playing against a harsh breeze, the lads in maroon put their head down knowing they had a huge task in hand if they wanted to progress to the final which would be played directly after this game.

Sean McHugh was unlucky to see his pointed effort tail wide in the wind but it wasn’t long before the Galway side got off the mark. Evan Cawley pointed a free followed by a super score from Hugh Bourke to put the Connacht men

within a one-point touching distance going in at the break.

The dynamic managing duo of Kevin McKittrick and his assistant John Brennan gathered their players in a huddle at half time and whatever was said worked a treat. They equalised immediately after the throw-in for the second half. Hugh Bourke raced down the field and fed Donal Shanley who made it 0-3 each.

Evan Cawley grabbed his second soon after to put the home side in front for the first time all day but it wasn’t long being matched by DCU. With the game at 0-4 each, NUI Galway ‘keeper Jack Shortt kept his side in the tie with a magnificent close rang save. The home team needed a captain-driven performance to see them over the line and they got one.

Aaron Clerkin overturned the ball in the middle of the park and drove on before playing a one-two with Ronan O’ Toole and firing the ball over the bar.

Again, DCU equalised shortly after but it would be the home side who would have the last say.

Sean McHugh bombed down the right wing before laying the ball off to Eoin O’ Neill who let fly from range to kick over a score that would shoot NUI Galway into the All Ireland Junior Championship Final NUI GALWAY: Jack Shortt, Alan Dugera, Conor Burke, Martin Loftus, Eoin O’ Neill 0-1, Noel Cotton, Paddy Fleming, Jamie Smith, Sean McHugh, Conor Dolan, Ronan O’ Toole, Donal Shanley 0-1, Evan Cawley 0-2 (Ronan Geraghty 22’), Hugh Bourke 0-1, Aaron Clerkin 0-1 (c)

31

Triple G defeats Daniel Jacobs in Madison Square Garden

By Ryan McGuinness

Everything was set up perfectly for Gennady Golovkin. Main eventing Madison Square Garden and a formidable opponent in Daniel Jacobs was to be Triple G’s solidifying moment, the fight that would strengthen the arguments that he is indeed the pound for pound best in the world. Pundits expected a knockout and virtually nobody picked the bout to go the distance.

The penultimate fight had seen Roman Gonzalez lose his world title as well as his first professional fight ever, so there was a general air of excitement prior to the main event.

Both ‘GGG’ and Jacobs had a high-percentage knockout rate coming into the fight, and Jacobs had a slight reach advantage over his opponent. This seemed to weigh heavily on Golovkin who looked focused and stern on the task at hand as he was led out by his coach Abel Sanchez. The normally amiable Kazakh smiled once or twice and winked at someone off camera at one point, but it was clear he knew Jacobs wouldn’t be an easy bout, further proved by his hesitant approach in the opening round.

It was obvious from the get go that this wasn’t to be the prototypical demolish job by Golovkin. The crowd were brought to near silence inside a minute of the opening bell as both men sized each other up without pulling any punches.

This continued into the second, and both rounds could’ve gone to either man.

In the third, Jacobs, sensing the hesitancy of Golovkin, started to attack more and clearly own the third. The fight looked to be going the direction of the snore-fest that was MayweatherPacquiao until the fourth when ‘GGG’ connected with a big hit to score the only knockdown of the fight. Jacobs however was defiant and tried to coerce the Kazakh into making a mistake by boasting and shouting abuse. Golovkin however remained cerebral in round five and most of the sixth despite some combinations by Jacobs.

Throughout the fight. it seemed that Golovkin couldn’t figure out how to effectively land combinations against the bigger Jacobs. Jacobs boxed perfectly throughout most of the fight,

using his jab to keep ‘GGG’ at bay.

At the end of the seventh Andre Hozier, Jacobs’ coach, reaffirmed the game plan to Jacobs, stating “we fight fire with finesse.” Both men boxed their styles but it was Jacobs who had more success.

The golden gloves champion was constantly stalked but managed to win the eighth and was on course to win the ninth if it hadn’t been for a late flurry by ‘Triple G’. The Boxnation pundits had Jacobs ahead for most of the fight and the HBO commentators having it too close to call, which just went to show the closeness of the bout. Depending on how you scored the card going onto the 11th, a case could’ve been made for either man to be in the lead.

Hozier was one of those who thought his fighter was well in the lead, as he was heard saying at the end of the tenth that “You’ve got two round to change history.”

Golovkin, sensing a possible defeat, came into the 11th with a series of aggressive combinations but it soon became evident by his heavy breathing that he was running on near empty. In the final round, Jacobs seemed to believe that he had already won the fight and proceeded to box safely to see it out.

The fight ended with a few wild punches from both men which got the crowd excited for those last few moments. The final bell rang with both men claiming to have won the bout, even though Golovkin didn’t seem as enthused as Jacobs.

In a controversial decision, all three judges chose in favour of Golovkin much to the shock of Jacobs. In his post-fight interview with Max Kellerman, Jacobs claimed that he had been ‘x-ed out’ in order to keep the mystique and future financial prospects for Golovkin in play.

A potential super-fight for Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin may occur as early as the end of this year so these claims are not unfounded or illogical. Nevertheless, we saw an excellent performance by Daniel Jacobs and a cerebral, yet flawed performance by Golovkin, a performance that shows him to indeed be human and one which may actually encourage future fighters to come out of their hiding spots and challenge the still undefeated middleweight.