NUACHTÁN SAOR IN AISCE VOL. 21 Issue 07. 21 JAN 2020
Student Independent News
WINNER: BEST NEWSPAPER AT THE NATIONAL STUDENT MEDIA AWARDS 2019
SU REFERENDUM: All You Need to Know Students encouraged to vote to have their say on structure of Students’ Union Committee By Mark Lynch The Students’ Union will hold a referendum this coming Thursday, January 23rd, in which students will be asked to vote yes or no to the motion of restructuring the Students’ Union officer roles, after gathering the 500 votes needed to hold a referendum on the matter. The changes proposed to the structure of the SU Executive Committee, and the motion which students will vote for or against on Thursday, are three-fold. The first change is to reinstate the part-time position of Equality Officer on the Students’ Union Executive Committee. The second change is the abolition of the roles of Mature Student Officer, International Students Officer, Gender and LGBT+ Rights Officer, Disability Rights
Officer and Ethnic Minorities Officer, and the removal of the SU Council Chairperson as a part-time officer. The third change is simply renaming the Clubs’ Captain as the ‘Clubs Officer’. This role remains otherwise entirely unchanged. These three changes are all contained within the same motion, so students will be voting yes to all or no to all. The changes, if the referendum passes, will come into effect in the next election cycle, i.e. officers would stand for election under the new structure in Spring 2020. The part-time Equality Officer role previously existed up until the end of the academic year 2017/18. Its existence ended as a result of a referendum held in February 2018, whereby the Equality Officer role was abolished and the roles of International Students Officer, Gender
and LGBT+ Rights Officer, Disability Rights Officer were created in its place. Later that year, the student body voted to create the position of Ethnic Minorities Officer as a part-time role on the Executive Committee. This Thursday, the motion refers to the reinstating of that part-time Equality Officer role that existed until 2017/18, and the abolition of the 5 part-time officer roles that have been created in that time to work on the different aspects of equality in the student community. Equality is also within the jurisdiction of the full-time position of Vice President/Welfare and Equality Officer, currently held by Brandon Walsh. This position would not be impacted by the proposed referendum changes. The change regarding the removal of the SU Council Chairperson is not an abolition of the position entirely, but if the referendum passes, the SU Council
Chairperson will no longer be part of the Students’ Union Executive Committee. SU Council meetings would still be chaired by a Chairperson, but this would most likely be an external person, who is independent of the Executive Committee. SU President, Clare Austick, spoke to SIN to explain how this referendum came into being. She states that it is a result of a review of the SU Constitution. “The constitutional review process began during my predecessor’s year. This year, we continued on the work of the constitutional review, with a particular focus on the composition of the executive team and the effectiveness and efficiency of roles within the exec structure. What came out of the constitutional review would have been streamlining and enhancing the functionality of the Union”.
Students’ Union divided on referendum as both sides look for a strong voting turnout By Mark Lynch The process that led to Thursday’s referendum has been the point of much criticism, with a particular focus on transparency in the decision-making of the Students’ Union Executive Committee. Current Disability Rights Officer, Alex Coughlan, will see their role abolished, and its responsibilities come under the jurisdiction of the new Equality Officer, should the referendum pass. They are concerned about the consultation process that brought about this referendum. “I feel that far more consultation was needed before presenting the proposed changes to SU Council and going to referendum. Over the past two years, there was only one meeting open to all students to attend to discuss the executive structure, and this took place in week 11 of term, with only two days’ notice. I feel that simply does not allow for feed in from a body of almost 19,000 members, and the process should have taken place over a number of weeks, with students being given the chance to feed in and propose changes to draft versions of a document over a number of weeks”. Students’ Union President, Clare Austick, is aware of these concerns but feels some of the criticism is unfair. “Well, it started 2 years ago, so it would have started in my predecessor’s year, and ours was a follow on from that, so there would have been a
consultation process, it would have been brought up at Exec meetings numerous amounts of times, with SU Council, it would have been advertised in the weekly email and on our social media platforms”. On the motion itself, Ms Austick, who was the last Equality Officer in the year 2017/18, says it’s all about improving the way the Union is run. “It’s strengthening and streamlining the exec, increasing effectiveness and efficiency and having meaningful representation that translates into action, and to improve the functionality of the Union”. She added, “It’s about bringing back the 9 strands of equality under the one term. If there’s just representation for the sake of having a representative, it can become tokenistic and dilute the overall equality agenda. All Exec members are there to represent all students and not just necessarily their role remit”. The SU President also added that having so many members of the Executive Committee makes it difficult to run efficiently. “I do think having 19 officers isn’t always the most productive in terms of effectiveness, efficiency and functionality in working towards a shared vision. It doesn’t always work trying to get 19 people in the same room, making cohesive decisions together for the betterment of the whole student population, so sometimes that can be putting the amount of work and function at risk”. Alex Coughlan believes, however, that the current
proposal is not the answer. “I believe that a constitutional review is needed, as the current document is 10 years old, however the specifics of the referendum question I cannot support in good faith. I fully believe that combining the work of 5 part-time officers into one, part-time, unpaid role, is promoting poor work practices. As a part-time officer, I do between 15 and 25 hours work per week”. They continued, “Even if this were to be rounded down, combining 5 of these roles easily creates 40+ hours of work. I believe that as a Union, we should be promoting excellent work practices, and asking such of one unpaid volunteer is deeply unfair and shows a lack of concern for individual welfare”. Despite the motion largely based on reverting the structure of the SU Executive Committee back to the way it was in 2017/18, Ms. Austick doesn’t see the last 2 years of a split-up equality role as a failed experiment. “At the time, it was trialled and the great thing about the Union is it’s adaptive and reactive to the surroundings, of what students want.”. On the other hand, the current Disability Rights Officer claims two years isn’t long enough to revert to the previous structure. “I don’t believe that this is enough time for these roles to fully develop. Furthermore, I feel that these roles are extremely important representation for students, who very rarely see themselves represented within University structures,
and to remove that is removing seats at the table for marginalised students, who face particular issues when accessing third level education”. Alex Coughlan continued, “As an example of this, many times when I attend meetings within University structures, I am the only person there with experience of disability, and as such, have raised issues that would have otherwise gone unnoticed by management”. As a final call for a ‘yes’ vote in this referendum, the current SU President stated, “It’s not an equality referendum, it’s about the functionality, the effectiveness, the efficiency of the Union. It’s what students want and it’s to really carry out the mission of the Union and make sure that the team can work together on a shared vision and not against each other”. On the ‘no’ side, Alex Coughlan had this to say, “As someone who is marginalised, the creation of specific roles to represent these experiences felt like being invited to sit, and share my experience and expertise with my Union. I felt empowered to be a part of that body, and in trying to remove these voices, we are all the poorer for it. I hope that the larger student body not only agrees with this, but listens to those around them who are marginalised”. Both Officers encourage students to go out and have their say on Thursday, whichever way they vote.
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SIN Vol. 21 Issue 07
INSIDE
Business Class Flights, Cross Country Taxi Trips and 5 Star Hotels: NUI Galway under fire from charity watchdog over misspending concerns 4 NUI Galway outlines ambitious vision based on shared values 5 Two women-only professorial roles announced for NUI Galway 6 The Phenomenon of Rupi Kaur 7 Fáilte Refugee Society members volunteer in refugee camps 8 “One semester of college was all I could take” 10 NUIG Confessions: Meet the Mysterious Admins 11 Do younger people have healthier relationships? 12 Mature Student Column 13 2020s are starting off on the wrong foot for some 14 New Year, New Me(thods)! 15 Student Union politics – taking one step forward, to take two steps back? 16 The Spring/Summer 2020 Trend Forecast 18 Modern Minimalism: A Better Way of Life or a Millennial Fad? 19 A Sassy & Savage Fenty Collab Just in Time for Valentine’s Day 20 Fight those January Blues with these Health Cues 21 A Beginner’s Guide to Veganuary: The What’s, How’s and Why’s. 22 Roundup of The Best of 2019 24 What’s on in Galway January 21 - February 4 25 SERIES REVIEW: You Season 2 26 Andy Farrell takes the helm – what can he do with the boys in green? 28 Irish youngsters providing light at the end of the tunnel for the national team 29 The top 5 sporting moments of the 2010s – a decade that defied logic 30 Competition: WIN €25 SU CARD CREDIT* 31
Welcome to the latest edition of SIN! It’s a new issue, a new year, a new decade, with one of the best editions of the paper that I can remember. Our writers have done a marvellous job of grabbing the bull by the horns and contributing some outstanding pieces, so take a break, find somewhere comfortable and let us entertain you. It’s 2 months and a day since the last issue of SIN and in that time, it feels like about 2 years have passed. All the talk then was of upcoming exams, the return of the Christmas feel and how Liverpool were inevitably going to bottle it over the holiday period. Well, the exams are done and gone, the concept of Christmas has been tucked away back into the corner of the attic with Michael Búble until November, and Liverpool have gone from strength to strength. Worrying times indeed. Back to SIN, though, and in the intervening 2 months since Issue 6, the world on campus has been as crazy as the globe around it. There was the story just before Christmas about how the Galway University Foundation had been misspending money on luxury. The sheer disregard and arrogance shown by the misuse of those funds, and the response since the scandal emerged, is disheartening, as the money will
never be paid back to the areas and people that will need it. However, if you’re wondering what exactly that money could have been spent on, our News Editor, Paddy Henry, has a fascinating piece on Page 4. Truly shocking numbers involved. As well as the upcoming General Election, the University campus will also be voting this week, as our front page has gently alluded to. It is important to go and vote whenever you can, because when people complain they can’t make a difference and give up on democracy, they’ll never get what they want. Take an interest, spare those 5 minutes, and go exercise your democratic right and duty. Across the other sections this week, our writers are knocking it out of the park. Our Features Editor, Shauna McHugh, has some wonderful pieces across a range of topics. Have a nostalgic look back at the times that NUI Galway made the news headlines in the last decade on Page 7, while on Page 11, Shauna brings you an exclusive interview with the admins of the NUIG Confessions Twitter account, which has shot to fame recently. Jody Moylan supplements his mature column with words of advice from those who have left University, in a piece that’s well worth a read on Page 10.
Elsewhere, our Opinion section is filled with reflections on the new year, and what that means for people in their own lives and in the wider world, while Conor Brummell gives his two cents on why people aren’t as interested in student politics as they could be. Catherine Taylor’s Lifestyle and Fashion section is full to the brim with helpful tips on looking and feeling great, while you’ll need to check out the Arts and Entertainment section before you make any plans for the next 2 weeks. And with the return of the Fitzgibbon and Sigerson Cups, flick over to Sport to read how NUI Galway got on in the first round. As always, sit back, relax and keep reading.
Caife na Gaeilge reopens its doors By Amy Blaney
EDITOR: Mark Lynch editor.sin@gmail.com LAYOUT: Shannon Reeves An bhfuil rud éigin le rá agat? Cur litir chuig an Eagarthóir chuig editor.sin@gmail.com
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After a short closure, Caifé na Gaeilge is reopening in NUI Galway under new management. 2020 has gotten off to a welcome start for Irish speakers in NUI Galway, as Caifé na Gaeilge has once again opened its doors to the Gaeilgóirí on campus. The caifé will run under the new management of catering company Master Chefs. “We are delighted to be taking it over, it’s going to be completely Irish speaking again.” Said Connor Flemming, Master Chefs’ Operations Manager in NUI Galway. Master Chefs is an award-winning Irish catering company that already operates on the NUI Galway campus. Their campus operations include Moffett’s Restaurant, Cloud Café, CSI Café, Stem Café, and Staff Club. A contract to re-open the café was tendered by NUI Galway before Christmas after students voiced their anger at what protesters described as the University’s failure to support its Irish speaking students.
The Caifé will operate under its previous name, Caifé na Gaeilge, but this time, it will be fully independent from the University. The café was previously run by Student’s Union Commercial Services Ltd (SUCS Ltd) since 2008, up until its closure in September 2019. “We are happy to hear of the re-opening of the caifé. It’s unfortunate it took so long. We wish the new operators the very best of luck”, said Clare Austick, President of NUI Galway Students’ Union. According to a statement made by the Students’ Union in October 2019, “The Caifé had not been profitable and SUCS Ltd agreed to take over the Caifé on the basis that the University agreed to pay for any losses incurred, and also paid a management fee to SUCS Ltd for its services”. “In 2010, the University stopped paying invoices and failed to pay management fees or cover losses. Since 2010 Caifé na Gaeilge was running at a significant loss in the region of €197,000, while the license fee SUCS Ltd. pay to the University for their other operations increased to €230,000 per year”.
While NUI Galway prides itself on being a bilingual campus due to its proximity to the Connemara Gaeltacht, and its commitment to offering administrative and general services through Irish under the Official Languages Act 2003, the closing of Caifé na Gaeilge concerned many students about NUI Galway’s commitment to the Irish language. A petition made by students to reopen Caifé na Gaeilge reached 1,398 signatures back in October 2019. Students voiced their concerns that Caifé na Gaeilge is the “only place on NUI Galway’s bilingual campus where Irish can be spoken freely without English interference”. A protest for the re-opening of the Caifé was organised on the 9th of October 2019, and more than 120 Irish speakers turned up to voice their dissatisfaction with the University’s failure to live up to its bilingual status. “This is of great importance to the revival of our national language, not just a talking shop, but a safe place where we can speak our language”, said one student.
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NEWS EDITORIAL By Paddy Henry Welcome back, everybody, it’s good to be back! With Christmas over and the taste of turkey long gone out of our mouths, we’re back up and running ahead of a new decade, a new year, a new semester and most importantly, a new issue of your favourite newspaper and rest assured, SIN Issue 7 has its fair share of interesting stories for you to feast your eyes upon. Inside, Amy Blaney has the ground-breaking story of Caifé na Gaeilge’s reopening, which will come as welcome news for all those who campaigned against its closure last year. Amy also brings us the news that two new women-only professional roles have been announced for NUI Galway as part of a government Senior Academic Leadership Initiative. Rachel Garvey details Galway’s recent ranking as a top foodie destination as per the acclaimed BBC Good Food Guide, who definitely sampled a panini from Smokey’s before coming to their decision. They really are quite tasty! Mark Lynch gives us the lowdown on all there is to know about the upcoming Students’ Union referendum, speaking to SU President Clare Austick on the proposals being put forward to voters on January 23rd. Also inside, I discuss the Galway University Foundation expenses scandal, which caused outrage late last year. In addition to all of this, two new law programmes have been announced for NUIG starting next year, more on that in our news section A huge thank you to everybody who has contributed to the news section for this issue, your great work never goes unnoticed! As always, if you have a story that you think needs to be told on campus, we would be happy to hear from you. If you’re interested, feel free to drop me an email at deputy.sined@gmail.com. Meetings are also held every two weeks in AM127, (The Journalism Suite) at 6pm. Our next meeting is on Monday 3rd of February so come along if you’re interested.
FEATURES EDITORIAL By Shauna McHugh Hello to all our wonderful readers, Welcome to the first issue of SIN for the 2020s! Whether or not your new year’s resolutions have been abandoned by now, with this paper in your hands, you’re guaranteed to get the decade off to a great start. As we have goodbye to the 2010’s, SIN has compiled a top ten of the juiciest stories about NUI Galway from the past ten years. Lest we forget, everyone. Meanwhile, the 2010s “writer of the decade” Rupi Kaur is also featured in this issue, as Alice O’Donnell outlines how the Insta poet gained such a prolific title. Speaking of prolific writers, SIN would not be complete without our dedicated regular columnists. Jody Moylan is back with an enthralling Mature Student Diary about his less than traditional Christmas celebra-
tions, while resident comedienne Sadhbh Hendrick has returned to provide a much needed chuckle, as the panic of entering the last ever semester looms over us final year students. Aoife Burke smashed her first semester of college, and now she’s back and rearing to end her first year with similar success. As successes go, two Twitter users have been quite lucky with the response to their new account. Head to page 11 for SIN’s exclusive interview with the admins of the NUIG Confessions Twitter account, and hear how they’re using their platform for good. Jody Moylan also has a thought provoking piece ahead, all about what we actually learn in those crucial college years (not just the stuff from your readings). Now that cuffing season reaches an end, Saoirse Higgins examines whether our generation are any good at navigating healthy relationships, while one former student shares her story about making the difficult decision to drop out of NUI Galway. Happy reading! x
OPINION EDITORIAL By Anastasia Burton Welcome back fellow NUI Galway students and our gentle readers! It’s so nice to be back up and running. Although Christmas and New year is very exciting and fun, it is nice to go back to a simple routine of university. I hope you had a lovely break and are ready to get back to work on articles (if you are one of my writers of course!) and back to active reading and learning for those of you who prefer to read. This first issue of 2020 (how weird is it that we are in a new decade?) has a lot in store for you. Firstly, we obviously have new year resolution opinion pieces! How can we have our first issue of 2020 without a new year’s resolution opinions piece? Have you stayed true to your new year resolution? Do you feel like it is realistic to set such goals? 2020 has started off on a weird foot, don’t you think? Pop over to the opinion section and check out what our authors think about the threat of world war and the Australian bushfires. With the new year comes new depression. Be honest, you might have spent too much, or ate too much, or were just plain and simple disappointed in something. January tends to drag out and the feeling of post-festivities follow on until February. How does one cope with this feeling? Flip over and we would be more than happy to offer advice! Similarly, how should one get back to their studies once the long break is over and you are once again learning new material and new skills at a fast pace? We got some advice for you little butterflies too! As always, we have many diverse and interesting topics to share with you so please do check out the opinion section and make an old editor happy. If you’re interested in writing an opinion piece you can always look us up on Facebook and I will be more than happy to hear from you.
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LIFESTYLE AND FASHION EDITORIAL By Catherine Taylor Hello everyone and welcome back to a New Year and a brand-new issue of SIN! 2020 has arrived and like all fashion & lifestyle writers, we couldn’t be more excited at the prospect of a decade’s-worth of beauty, health and style goodness. With this in mind, we’re ringing in 2020 with a bang and a little something for everyone in SIN’s first issue of the new decade. The fashion and lifestyle section is always looking for fresh new writers, so as always, you can contact me at lifestyle.sined@gmail.com if you’re interested! What’s first on our agenda for 2020? One word: Veganuary. Alice O’Donnell investigates the growing trend of taking on veganism for the first month of the year, giving you all the tips and tricks you need to make the transition to a meat-free lifestyle as smooth as possible, all while saving the planet. Speaking of saving the planet, we also have a fab new feature about sustainable fashion goals for 2020. Tara Trevaskis Hoskin lays down her new year’s fashion resolution to buy smarter not harder, while I explore the lifestyle trend of minimalism. In a modern age, many millennials are living simpler lives, searching for meaning outside of material possessions. Read on to find out why. Want more wellness? NUI Galway’s Well Crew at the Student Hub have offered up their January Health Challenge to our lucky readers. Given that January is definitely the most dreadful month of the year, we could all use a pick-me-up, becoming more mindful of how we spend our downtime. From stretching your legs to switching off 30 minutes earlier, The Well Crew have got you covered with their suggestions for incremental changes you can sustain over time. Also featuring the latest in fashion, beauty and travel news, this issue is a good one. I hope you enjoy it as much as we loved writing it!
ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT EDITORIAL By Sarah Gill And we’re back like we’ve never been away! A new decade has dawned, Christmas festivities are over and done with and semester one exams are a distant memory. Post-Christmas feed, I believe that the student body are divided into two types of people. You’re either counting down the days until your return to normality, or you’ve been thoroughly enjoying having sweet fudge all to be
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doing while you’re embedded into the couch. Alas, we cannot mess with the hands of time and the existence of a new academic term. Nevertheless, this marks the return of SIN and this bright and shiny new issue is a perfect way to kick off 2020. While you leaf through the Arts and Entertainment section, you’ll be greeted by some very well-written retrospective pieces on years gone by. From the Best of 2019 to the Best of the 2010s, there’s plenty of reminiscing to be done. As always, there are reviews galore on just about everything you’ve been viewing over the break - You season 2, Little Women, Star Wars - they’re all there. As well as all that, there’s a great selection of poetry in our creative corner and a list of some of the top events in the pipeline for you to restart your social life with a bang. Without further ado, start turning these pages!
SPORTS EDITORIAL By Darren Casserly Hello again, everyone, and welcome to the first issue of SIN for 2020. I hope everyone had a nice break and like me was eagerly awaiting the return of SIN. As always, we have an interesting sports section for you to look through. I covered both the Sigerson and Fitzgibbon cup matches that NUI Galway played in, both narrow defeats that on any other day would have gone in our favour, but I must admit there was a bit of déjà vu in how both of these games played out. Looking back at what was a decade in sport that defied logic, Daniel Brennan brings you through his top 5 sporting moments of the decade, including Man City’s comeback to clinch their first premier league title, Lebron James winning his first NBA championship with the Cleveland Cavaliers and Leicester city’s miracle premier league win in the 2015/16 season that fittingly defied logic. If you look back, you must look forward and Shane Lynch is doing that this issue, as he gives us his predictions for this coming decade, including the introduction of the much discussed second tier Gaelic All-Ireland Football Championship, the immergence of Daniel Dubois in the boxing ring and the introduction of more weight classes in the UFC. Shane Lynch also previews Conor McGregor’s return to the octagon and if this fight will help get his MMA career back on track after so many set backs over these last few years. Finally, I take a look at the new generation of Irish strikers that are emerging at the minute and how they might fair in a national team managed by Stephen Kenny, that is if there is a national team to manage when UEFA are finished with us. As always, a big thanks to the writers for their contributions and if you want to get involved or have any questions you can email me at sport.sined@gmail.com.
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SIN Vol. 21 Issue 07
BUSINESS CLASS FLIGHTS, CROSS COUNTRY TAXI TRIPS AND 5 STAR HOTELS:
NUI Galway under fire from charity watchdog over misspending concerns By Paddy Henry NUI Galway’s official fundraising charity, the Galway University Foundation, has been criticised by the Charities Regulator after an investigation found that aspects of spending were ‘inconsistent’ with value for money policies. An investigation was launched by the regulator after concerns relating to travel expenses were raised. Former President of the NUI Galway Dr Jim Browne held the position of Charity director during the period of investigation. The conclusion of the investigation found that the Galway University Foundation, which operates independently of the University itself, spent €48,584 on business class flights, the majority of which were to New York over a three year period from 2015 to 2017, while a further sum of over €24,000 was spent on economy class flights. The watchdog deemed the spending on Business class flights as not in keeping with good practice. The report detailed that business-class flights accounted for between 30-40% of flights taken during the time by ‘certain individuals’ within the organisation.
Included in the total figure spent on flights was €10,884 for the spouses of the foundation’s directors, €7,965 of which had been incurred in the name of Jim Browne’s wife. Inspector Tom Murray’s report also revealed that the foundation had spent €30,398 on over 100 taxi trips, the majority of which were between Galway and Dublin. Dr Browne was the passenger for 77 of the 102 trips taken. The report also revealed that there was no substantial documentation on file detailing the purpose or necessity of taxi travel. Dr Browne argued that usage of private transport services was necessary in giving his best when acting on behalf of the foundation at meetings and other official engagements, telling the report, “We’re expected to be ready for meetings, being there is important and being tired is not giving our best”. The former president of the University also argued that private taxi services were safer than driving while fatigued and that use of taxis only occurred when public transport could not be availed of to fulfil all of his commitments. “It was more efficient and
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safer to avail of a driver than to risk driving when tired”, Dr Browne told the report. In addition to spending on flights and taxis throughout the period, the use of 4 and 5-star hotels, averaging a cost of around €385 a night, including the luxurious 5 star Shangri-La hotel in Singapore, were deemed to be “in excess of Revenue guidelines for overseas travel”. Mr Murray’s report was also critical of the Foundation’s spending on what it described as donor acknowledgements, which included spending of €61,000 on the Galway Races and a further €10,000 on tickets to Irish international rugby matches over the three-year timeframe. Despite criticisms in relation to spending, the report acknowledged that the Galway University Foundation was, for its part, a well-run charity, but noted more transparency and documentation was needed in the running of the foundation with regard to the use of taxis.
Students’ Union Outrage NUI Galway’s Students’ Union issued a statement on the controversy expressing their disgust at what they described as “wasteful and frivolous” spending by the University Foundation. The Union outlined their dissatisfaction with the findings of the report, arguing that money is donated towards the foundation with the assurance that donations are used for scholarships and to enable students who are facing crisis or financial hardship to remain at University. The Student representative body also claimed that the Foundation had not adhered to its mission statement, in which the foundation committed to transforming the lives of students and support research that enhances the lives of people across the globe. Students’ Union President Clare Austick was scathing in her criticism of the Foundation’s governance structures, noting that she expected better from NUI Galway in setting standards of “good corporate governance and efficient management of resources”. In a statement, she said: “We expect better from an institution like NUI Galway that should be setting an example of good corporate governance and efficient management of resources. Instead, we see money that
could have been used to support vulnerable students being spent on business class flights to five-star hotels. Students sitting exams have to pay for transport to offcampus exam centres, which should be provided by the university. For commuting students, and students not familiar with the city, this is an added source of stress, and they don’t have the luxury of personalised transport to ‘ensure they are not tired and can give their best’. The University needs to take action to reassure its many donors that their money is being used for the purposes it was donated. We are asking for a commitment from the university that this will not happen again by allowing a student representative to oversee the accounts of the board.”
How the money could have been spent: The €48,584 spent on Business-Class flights could have paid for • The student levy of 216 students. • University fees for 18 arts students • A twin-bedroom with a shared bathroom in Corrib Village for the 2020-21 Academic year for 13 students The money spent on ‘donor acknowledgements’ on the Galway Races and International Rugby matches amounting to €71,000 could have been spent on • A single bed with private en-suite bathroom in Goldcrest Village for the 2020/2021 academic year for 10 students, with money left over • A year-long membership of the Kingfisher for 284 students • One-year’s worth of SUSI grant payments at the highest rate for 12 students The €30,000 spent on taxis between 2015 and 2017 could have been spent on • 1,304 student return tickets by train from Galway to Heuston Station • The €2 exam bus fare for 15,000 students, almost the entire student population • The annual salary of 2 student nurses on 36 weeks of rostered placement
University to pay for exam buses to Leisureland By Mark Lynch The Students’ Union have announced that exam buses to Salthill will now be paid for by NUI Galway, removing the cost for students. Previously, students who had winter or summer exams in Leisureland or the Galway Bay Hotel were forced to either make their own way out to Salthill or pay €2 each way on a bus service provided by the NUI Galway Students’ Union. In what is undoubtedly a win for students of NUI Galway, they will now enjoy free transport to the exam centre in Leisureland in Salthill. Students’ Union President, Clare Austick, outlined how they negotiated with the University over the last month. “The Education Officer and I addressed the exam buses with the Deputy President and Registrar before the Christmas exams, lobbying to get the University to commit to funding the buses before the beginning of exams. We priced the cost of the buses and explained that it was unfair for some students having to pay additional costs whereas other didn’t have to”. However, the process wasn’t plain sailing, as outlined by Ms Austick. “As it was a very slow process in receiving confirmation and exams were approaching, I sent an email
to the University President and addressed the funding cost at two of our meetings that followed. Although we didn’t get it in time for the Christmas exams (which we wanted), I received the confirmation from the University President at the first meeting of the term. In the future, exam buses to Leisureland will be covered by the University”. The Students’ Union regards this as a big step towards breaking barriers to education, as Ms Austick continued, “The Students’ Union is against any barriers that exist in accessing education. The cost of exam buses out to the Leisureland was an additional financial burden placed on some students depending on the location of where their exams were held. Students messaged and emailed us and class reps were particularly vocal on this issue at our Students’ Union Council meetings. We listened, acted and achieved”. The SU President also stressed how essential it is that financial burdens never hamper anyone’s access to, or experience in, education. “It’s crucially important. We exist to represent, defend and vindicate the rights of our members at all levels of society. We strongly believe education is a right and not a privilege. We try to tackle the barriers one by one to ensure everyone has the same opportunities in higher education”.
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January 21 2020
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NUI Galway outlines ambitious vision based on shared values By Ellen O’Donoghue NUI Galway have outlined a new strategy which places the University at the centre of transformational change for Galway and the west of Ireland. The new strategy, ‘Shared Vision, Shaped by Values’, was developed following extensive dialogue with students, academics and the wider community at NUI Galway and beyond, and marks a new approach for the university, placing shared values of respect, excellence, openness and sustainability as the guide for the future direction of the college. The strategy will see NUI Galway focus on its continued contribution to enhancing policy and society, enriching creativity, improving health and wellbeing, realising potential though data and enabling technologies, data science and environmental sustainability. President of NUI Galway, Professor Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh, spoke of the significance of the University’s ambitious plans: “We are a university with no gates”, he said. “Galway is the most international city in Ireland. This places us in an international context and enhanced co-operation with other international institutions, from this place and for this purpose, will also therefore be a focus of our new strategy”, he continued. “NUI Galway is a public good, belonging to the people. In this strategy and in these times, we will
use our location for the benefit of Ireland as an institution formed by values. Our research, our teaching and our engagement - with our students and our staff - has purpose”. Professor Ó hÓgartaigh added, “For example, given our geography at the intersection of Europe with the North Atlantic, the climate information we can gather is unique. The University will deliver subsequent climate research for the benefit of humanity”. The President also reaffirmed the University’s commitment to the Irish language, pledging to put the language at the centre of future plans. “Beidh an Gaeilge freisin i croílár straitéis agus structúir na hollscoile, luachmhar agus aitheanta mar luach dár gcomhluadar.”, he said. The university has also committed to leading the transformational change of Galway and the west of Ireland, with major impact for future generations, as part of the strategy’s urban development programme, ‘Building for the Future’. As part of this strategy, a new innovation district incorporating a riverside campus on Nuns’ Island is planned. The new campus will act as the primary driver for the urban regeneration of Galway city and a landmark cultural and performance space, acknowledging the university’s role as a national cultural institution and its contribution to Galway as a city of culture; both of which will be open to communities. The University has also made further commit-
NUI Galway announce strategic partnership with Galway 2020 Paddy Henry NUI Galway have announced a strategic partnership with Galway 2020, European Capital of Culture. As an official legacy partner, the University will support the development of a cultural legacy programme which will have a lasting impact on Galway’s creative arts sector. The multi-strand partnership will aim to support Galway 2020’s legacy commitments in several areas, including the hosting of events, support for performing arts and the launching of projects within the University to coincide with the event. Events set to take place on campus as part of the partnership include three gala concerts, the final of Cellissimo, an international triennial cello festival, Project Baa Baa, a programme of events celebrating all things sheep, and a major international conference on cultural legacy organised by the University. Added to this, the college will play its part in the closing ceremony of Galway’s year as European Capital of Culture, with the quadrangle set to play host to a light installation in January 2021. The University will also monitor and evaluate the European capital of Culture programme over the course of the year in collaboration with the arts and culture charity, The Audience Agency. As part of the University’s monitoring of the event, NUI Galway will conduct an innovative European research project, gathering and analysing data to assess the impact of the European Capital of Culture designation on Galway City and County.
President of the University Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh welcomed the partnership, stating that the collaboration will “enhance and enrich” the University’s creative programmes. Speaking at the launch of the partnership, Ó hÓgartaigh said, “As a university for the public good, we are delighted to announce our strategic partnership with Galway 2020. As the official legacy partner to the European Capital of Culture project, NUI Galway is committed to respecting and supporting the development of a cultural legacy programme, which will leave a far-reaching impact on Galway City and its hinterland. We value our openness to our communities and are therefore also delighted to make available our campus to several events throughout 2020 as well as hosting our own dedicated projects. This partnership will enable the University to continue to enhance and enrich the excellence of our creative and cultural programmes for our students, ensuring that they enjoy a sustainable future contributing to this sector in Galway.” Chairman of 2020 Arthur Lappin also praised the partnership with the University, hailing it as “significant”, stating, “The legacy of Galway 2020 will be the ultimate measure of our success as European Capital of Culture. The announcement today that NUI Galway is our legacy partner is a hugely significant moment in the evolution of the project. The depth and breadth of our partnership is a huge tribute to NUI Galway and its President, of the vision and leadership in our common goals. Legacy will take many forms and it is so reassuring to know that when the work of Galway 2020 is done, this great institution will carry the torch of underpinning our legacy in so many ways”.
ments to the student body, pledging to provide additional affordable and sustainable on-campus student accommodation and a sports campus for the future, delivering a new Water Sports Centre and 3G astro pitch. Other commitments made by the University include the modernisation and redevelopment of the Hardiman Library, incorporating a Learning Commons that encourages and supports new forms of learning and engagements and applications of the University’s expertise through the creation of a new “City Lab”. This will be in partnership with regional and national stakeholders and will look to make Galway and the wider region a better place to live and work. A pledge to contribute towards the expansion of the Galway to Connemara Greenway, creating greater connections for cyclists and pedestrians between the campus and the city was also confirmed. The University has also made clear its devotion to creating a fairer, more inclusive campus, committing to the practice of maintaining and promoting decent, high standards of employment and fairness for all who work at the University. The critical role of the University in delivering sustainable development is central to the strategy. NUI Galway has signed the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Accord, moving further to develop research and teaching focus on the SDGs,
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The strategy will see NUI Galway focus on its continued contribution to enhancing policy and society, enriching creativity, improving health and wellbeing, realising potential though data and enabling technologies, data science and environmental sustainability. and together developing a roadmap to move ambitiously towards a carbon neutral campus by 2030. Professor Ó hÓgartaigh spoke about the importance sustainability had in shaping future planning, “We are here for our students and society, and now we must be here for our planet too. Our new strategy recognises how critical this moment is”, he commented. “We are distinctively shaped by our values, which emerged in consultation with our students, our staff and our other partners. These values shape the research which drives us, the teachings we share, the support we give and our engagement in the world and for the world”, added NUI Galway’s President.
Galway voted Top Foodie Destination for 2020 By Rachel Garvey Galway isn’t just welcoming in the New Year, but also the honour of being named as the Top Foodie Destination for 2020 by BBC’s Good Food Guide. In a recent article by Kathy Prendeville in RSVP Magazine, she shared renowned travel guide Lonely Planet’s praise of the city of the tribes. They described Galway as “arguably Ireland’s most engaging city”. BBC Good Food hailed the Irish city as a “shining star in the country’s everexpanding culinary firmament”. Their visit took them on a tour through Galway to The Quay House and Michelin-starred Aniar. Galway proved to be a true winner, as it battled with France, Mexico, The Netherlands, Spain and Scotland for the top spot. They went on to encourage people to “Save space for treats harvested from the epic landscapes surrounding Galway to the refined dishes of Michelin-starred Aniar, and hearty Irish breakfasts at the Quay House, Good Hotel Guide’s Irish B&B of the year 2019”. Galway didn’t just attract Lonely Planet’s attention for its food, but also for the brightly painted pubs and cafes, as the majority of venues offered front row seats to watch Galway’s buskers dotted through Shop Street and The Latin Quarter. Compliments were extended as far as the most Irish of traits – “the craic” as outlined in RSVP’s article. Not only are Galway’s pub and food scenes attracting Foodie officials, but the atmosphere is proving to be winning the hearts of people from all over too. In an interview with the Irish Times, Galway’s 2020 Chief Executive Patricia Philbin shared her excitement for what Galway has in store for 2020,
stating, “It’s official – Galway is the place to be in 2020!”, and that the travel accolade is “a fantastic endorsement of this incredible place on the western edge of Ireland and at the heart of Europe”. Philbin also revealed that they are inviting people from right around the world to come and experience Galway in 2020. The Lonely Planet guide lauded the city for its unique and homely approach to food and drink, heaping praise on established city pubs such as Tigh Cóilí and Tigh Neachtain. “Taking in live music at Tig Cóilí where the walls are decorated with photos of those who’ve played there, and two live traditional music sessions a day draw the crowds.” On Mainguard Street at the end of Shop Street, Tig Cóilí describes itself as “a country pub in the middle of the city”. “Feeling at home at the Tigh Neachtain pub, where timber walls frame a roaring fire and locals crack gentle jokes”. Local culinary hotspots didn’t go unnoticed by the guide either, with Michelin starred Loam coming in for praise by the widely read travel guide. “Enjoying the ground-breaking flavour combos at Loam, where Galway’s culinary heart beats strongest and home-grown, locally sourced and foraged ingredients rule.” Chef-proprietor Enda McEvoy’s restaurant on Fairgreen Road has had a Michelin star since 2016 and was voted best restaurant in Ireland at the 2019 Irish Restaurant Awards. Tom Hall, Lonely Planet’s vice-president of experience, said: “Exuberant, vibrant and full of imagination, Galway in 2020 will be home to a yearlong celebration and amplification of culture and creativity which travellers will love”.
6 NEWS & F E ATU R ES Two women-only professorial roles announced for NUI Galway By Amy Blaney The battle to address gender inequality in Irish universities has begun, as 20 women-only professorial roles have been announced for 2020. Minster of State for Higher Education, Mary Mitchell O’Connor, has announced two senior professor posts will be created for women in NUI Galway in 2020. The announcement forms part of the Senior Academic Leadership initiative, which was founded following the 2018 Gender Equality Taskforce plan, aimed at empowering a culture of gender equality in higher education institutions. The posts will be filled in the area of Engineering and Older Adult Health in the University. The Minister announced 20 senior professor posts for women across 12 higher level institutions. “NUI Galway is very behind on female professor roles. It is something that is widely acknowledged by the University and is being worked on, but not very well”, said Brandon Walsh, NUI Galway Students’ Union Vice President and Welfare and Equality Officer. “Professor Anne Scott is the first ever female Vice-President for Equality & Diversity in any Irish University and gender equality is something she is working hard on”, Walsh continued. Out of the 18 higher level institutions that applied to the initiative, 12 were successful, including eight Universities and 4 Institutes of Technology. University College Dublin, Dublin City University, Technological University Dublin, NUI Galway, University College Cork, Trinity College Dublin, University of Limerick and Maynooth University have all secured two posts under the initiative. Other third level institutes which secured one post include Cork Institute of Technology, Athlone Institute of Technology, IT Carlow and Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. According to data collected by the Higher Education Authority (HEA), women professors still remain un-represented at senior levels in Irish universities. NUI Galway was found to have one of the lowest allocations of female professors nationwide at 14%. To secure funding for additional posts, NUI Galway have developed a gender equality action plan and must show progression of the gender equality objectives set out in the plan. The University aims to have a gender balance of 40% female professors. The HEA commissioned a national review of gender equality in higher education in 2015. Research carried out has shown that over the period 20132017, there has been a slow rate of improvement in gender equality of only 1-2% each year. This period started with 18% female professors in 2013 and has risen to 24% female professors in 2017, in comparison to 51% female lecturers, the entry level for academic posts in the university sector. NUI Galway has been dogged with a reputation of gender discrimination for years. In 2014, a settlement, which ran into the hundreds of thousands, was paid by the University after the Equality Tribunal ruled that four female lecturers had been discriminated against on the basis of their gender. In response to the Equality Tribunal, NUI Galway established a Gender Equality Taskforce in 2015.
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New Law courses announced for NUI Galway By Paddy Henry Two new undergraduate Law courses have been announced for NUI Galway. The two new courses, Law, Criminology and Criminal Justice, and Law and Taxation will begin enrolling in September 2020. The new degree in Law, Criminology and Criminal Justice will aim to provide prospective students with the opportunity to combine their studies of a full undergraduate law degree with specifically developed modules including criminal law, criminology and criminal justice. Director of the new programme, Dr Diarmaid Griffin, highlighted the benefits of the new specialised courses in the field, stating, “Graduates of this programme will be well positioned to pursue careers as barristers or solicitors specialising in criminal law or working with the agencies and organisations of the criminal justice system”. Similar to the new degree in Criminology, the Law and Taxation course will allow new students to combine their studies of a full undergraduate law degree with taxation while exploring other related areas of law and commerce including business and commercial law, accountancy, economics, digital business and management. Senior Lecturer in Taxation and Finance at NUI Galway, Dr Emer Mulligan, spoke of the importance of the new degree in taxation for Irish students, with Ireland becoming a hub for business involved in the area in recent years. “Ireland is an increasingly important hub on the international taxation landscape”, she said. “Irish law and other professional services firms advise leading domestic and international corporations and financial institutions, who undertake their business in and from Ireland. This Law and Taxation degree will equip students with the graduate attributes, knowledge and practical work experience needed to pursue a range of careers in taxation across tax advisory roles and industry”, she continued.
The creation of the two new courses follows on from the creation of degrees in Law and Business and Law and Human Rights in 2019 and all new programmes have study abroad options included within them. NUI Galway’s School of Law has enjoyed much success recently, having been named Law School of the Year in 2019. Head of School of Law at NUI Galway, Dr Charles O’Mahony, spoke of his delight at the announcement of the two new courses, which he says will provide both the practical and academic skills necessary to thrive in the field. “It is a great time to consider studying
Law at NUI Galway, especially with the new and innovative changes around our undergraduate programmes”, he said. “We are very proud that the School of Law was named the ‘Law School of the Year 2019’ at the recent Irish Law Awards. NUI Galway Law students become highly skilled, employable graduates able to progress to professional qualification and to pursue a range of other careers locally, nationally and globally. Our new Law degrees allow students to specialise in areas of interest to them, equipping students with both the academic and practical skills required for successful careers”.
Launching the new Law, Criminology and Criminal Justice degree at NUI Galway were, from left: Professor Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh, NUI Galway President NUI Galway; Regina Doyle, Director of Strategic Development and Administration, School of Law; Tom O’Malley, Senior Lecturer School of Law; Deirdre Callanan, Lecturer School of Law; and Dr Charles O’Mahony, Head of School of Law
Flirt FM 101.3 celebrates 275th broadcast of Trivia Matters Trivia Matters is an entertaining live radio show on Flirt FM 101.3 featuring fun topics, witty chat and great music. Every Friday afternoon at 2:00pm presenter Brian Currie and his studio guests wrestle with quirky stories ranging from a nine-year-old boy
attending university to jellybean factory workers eating into the profits. Listeners are encouraged to text the studio with their Pet Peeves at 2:30pm. Brian said “Often it is the smallest things that really get on peoples’ nerves. Hopefully this segment brings our listen-
Trivia Matters broadcasting live from the Flirt FM studios at NUI Galway. Guests Stan Quarterman (left) & Jo Hatfield (centre). Far right: Presenter Brian Currie.
ers a little relief!” Recent Pet Peeves include poor internet coverage, dodgy roommates and queue jumping. The show also features regular segments such as Words of Wisdom and a Quick Quiz. Trivia Matters has aired every Friday afternoon on Flirt FM since 27 September 2011 and will be broadcasting its 275th show shortly. Trivia Matters is produced and presented by Brian Currie. Recent guests include Oxford native Stan Quarterman, mature student Jo Hatfield, published author Aoife Burke, night owl Dave Logue and happy hoarder Heather Hinchon-Quinn. Trivia Matters has been voted “Best Magazine Show on Flirt FM” and more recently received a Silver Achievement Award from CRAOL - The Community Radio Forum of Ireland. The CRAOL award winning clip featured Trivia Matters guests modestly offering tips and suggestions to NUI Galway President Professor Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh. You can listen to the clip on audiomack.com. Just enter Trivia Matters with Brian Currie into the search box. Be sure to tune in to Trivia Matters every Friday afternoon at 2pm on Flirt FM Radio 101.3 or listen live online at www.flirtfm.ie. You can text the studio with your Pet Peeve or any other comments on 083-433-1013 or email the show on studio@flirtfm.ie. You can also follow Trivia Matters on Facebook and Twitter. If a story sounds trivial to you then it matters to the Trivia Matters team!
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NUI GALWAY: The Phenomenon A decade in the headlines of Rupi Kaur By Shauna McHugh With the 2010s well and truly over, SIN takes a look back at the biggest news that rocked NUI Galway throughout the past decade. Here are the top ten stories that got the entire campus talking over the last ten years. RAG WEEK ABOLISHED: In October 2011, the infamous week-long celebration ceased to exist as everyone knew it. Raise and Give week was scrapped due to the huge disruption it caused annually across Galway, after a vote by the Students’ Union council on the subject. A motion to replace the event with extra funding towards a student hardship budget was voted through successfully, by an overwhelming 107 votes to 7 votes.
VIOLENCE ERUPTS AT LABOUR CONFERENCE: An RTÉ camera man was pepper sprayed and hordes of
By Alice O’Donnell
on the 12th March 2014, and called the guards when students tore his posters apart. No arrests were made. Instead, students held a peaceful sit-in, while Burke and his family stood before them praying. MATHS EXAMS LEAK: In 2014, NUI Galway’s maths students caused panic for lecturers across Ireland when they discovered a flaw in the university’s security system which allowed them to view their summer exam papers in March. As was reported in the Independent, a glitch in the IT security system used by many Irish colleges inadvertently allowed students to find their exam papers through a simple web search. The papers were redone for the summer exams at multiple universities, and the IT system was upgraded to prevent future incidents. GENDER DISCRIMINATION: Dr Micheline Sheehy Skeffington first
all since been promoted to senior lecturer positions after costly settlements. Mandatory staff gender quotas were introduced to the university in 2016.
PRESIDENT NO LONGER NEEDS FLUENT IRISH: In December 2016, the Irish language was scrapped as a necessary qualification for the role as University President at NUI Galway. The university claimed that the requirement had excessively limited the pool of candidates for the position. The decision caused contention for months to come, with student protests held across campus urging the board to reconsider. JOURNALISM FEES REFUNDED: In July 2018, the news broke that third and fourth year students of NUI Galway’s undergraduate journalism course had been granted refunds of their course fees. The University’s complaints board upheld complaints over issues such as lack of access to work placements and a “significant lack of leadership” that “negatively impacted on the educational experience of students”. These failures have since been acknowledged by staff within the journalism course, which is now under the direction of Tom Felle.
Rupi Kaur. A name seemingly unknown to those over forty and omnipresent to those under. For a period of time no Instagram feed was complete without an artfully taken photo of her poems (lark filter applied, naturally), with the aesthetic addition of a carefully placed flower or perhaps a mug of tea on the page. In fact, the tag of her very name reveals over half a million Instagram posts, with the poet herself boasting an impressive 3.9 million followers (my own account included). Rupi Kaur jumped to fame with the release of her book “Milk and Honey” in 2014. Two-hundred and eight pages fill
Although Kaur has not yet been recognised by any major awards such as the Booker Prize, Pulitzer Prize or even the Nobel Prize, her popularity seemingly far outreaches the typical demographic of the poetry reading public (normally left to English scholars and OAPs). Her simple, modern style of poetry has introduced whole new generations to the lyrical word. While it can be argued that her bitesize poems cater to the new social media zeitgeist - short but sweet another reason for her popularity could simply be the poet herself. Rupi Kaur is a breath of fresh air in the poetic world of a young person. To put this in context, of the eight poets
2018 UNIVERSITY OF THE YEAR:
Galway Labour Conference. Photo: Independent.ie
The University gained some good press in the latter half of the decade, when the Sunday Times awarded NUI Galway the ‘University of the Year’ title. It was NUI Galway’s third year to hold this title, having previously been crowned winners in 2002 and 2009. The University was praised for students’ high course completion rates and low graduate unemployment figures. CHARITY SCANDAL: NUI Galway finished the decade in the nation’s spot-
Gardaí were called to the scene after this April 2012 Labour Conference in NUI Galway rapidly escalated. Over 5,000 demonstrators stormed the university grounds, wielding placards reading: “Don’t Register Don’t Pay”, “Axe the Home Tax” and “Thug Hogan”. According to a report from the Independent, Labour Party staff eventually had to be evacuated from the university.
CENTRE FOR CELL MANUFACTURING IRELAND: In January 2014, this NUI Galway facility became the first of its kind in Ireland to manufacture human stem cells. The university’s scientists garnered much media attention due to the exciting potential of their breakthrough. The creation of these stem cells paved the way for repairing the damaged tissue of victims of heart attacks, stroke, arthritis and diabetes. GAY MARRIAGE PROTEST: A mock same-sex marriage was staged in the concourse, and students lined the halls, proudly displaying their ‘Love not Hate’ banners, all in response to the university’s Christian Union society. The society’s auditor, Enoch Burke, held a demonstration against gay marriage
Dr Skeffington. Photo: Joe O’Shaughnessy,The Irish Times brought the university’s gender discrimination issues to public attention in 2014, with her Equality Tribunal case. She was awarded €70,000 and the court ordered that she be promoted at NUI Galway. Over the years, she used her victory to help fellow female lecturers Dr Margaret Hodgins, Dr Sylvie Lannegrand, Dr Adrienne Gorman and Dr Róisín Healy in their own legal battles over their gender. They have
light once more, though this time for less positive reasons. In December 2019, an investigation into the Galway University Foundation found that charitable monies had been misspent under the direction of former University President James Browne. Revelations that charity funds had been spent on business class flights and extortionate private taxi fares caused widespread outrage amongst students.
Rupi Kaur. Photo:- Nabil Shash @ New York Times the small paperback, each page containing a simple, unorthodox poem, sometimes accompanied with a drawing by her also. Poems are categorised into four sections, each following a particular process of the state of healing. The poems are connected by themes such as pain, love, feminism and embracing one’s sexuality. Her style of poetry disregards all the usual poetry rules – no punctuation, no capitals, no rhyme, and the titles being revealed at the end of each poem. Barely any poems are more than a few lines long, and in place of the stark visualisation of formal stanzas are black, single-line sketches that compliment her poems. Poems such as “other women’s bodies / are not our battlegrounds” and “you look like you smell of / honey and no pain / let me have a taste of that” are examples of her style of poetry – a style which has been both embraced and shunned by critics. A 2017 article from The Guardian described Rupi Kaur’s poetry as having an “air of the slurred advice you might overhear at the back of a Wetherspoons”, while Buzzfeed dedicate a whole article to highlighting how her “use of unspecified collective trauma … to depict the quintessential South Asian female experience feels disingenuous”. However, with every harsh review, there is a positive one. Last month, The New Republic announced Rupi Kaur as the “writer of the decade”, and Rolling Stone have appointed her an “Instapoet”.
on the 2018 Leaving Cert English syllabus, (arguably the primary area where the average Irish student would first be exposed to poetry), only two were women, all were Caucasian, and none were under the age of 75. Rupi Kaur appeals to the young adult because she herself is young (Milk and Honey was published in 2014 when Kaur was 22 years old). She represents the rise of the intercultural lives we all live now, with her writing style of exclusive lowercase alphabet a nod to her birthplace, India, and the Sikh religion. Due to her rise of influence through social media, she does not have an agent or publishing house to please – and as a result, her writings do not have to adhere to a secondary influence. Rupi Kaur’s poetry has certainly divided critics and the question remains whether she deserves the title of “writer of the decade”. However, even her most ardent critics have to admit that her work has managed to connect poetry to the modern world of social medias, such as Instagram and Pinterest. While other Instapoets such as Lang Leav and Christopher Poindexter have also contributed to the acceptance of Instapoetry, none have managed to recreate the fame and following that Rupi Kaur has enjoyed. So, no matter if you love or hate her poetry, it seems the new style of writing that Rupi Kaur is pioneering is here to stay.
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Fáilte Refugee Society members volunteer in refugee camps “They were told that a man had been found dead, face down in Calais that day, so the spirits mightn’t be as good in the camp there” By Mark Lynch 14 NUI Galway students from Fáilte Refugees Society went to refugee camps in Calais and Dunkirk to volunteer over the Christmas break. They worked for 3 days with Refugee Community Kitchen, providing hot meals for the people who reside there. SIN spoke to 3 of that group, Christian Arra, Karen Fenton and Sarah Corsini, to find out what they saw, what they did and what they experienced.
SIN: What was your main role for those three days? CHRISTIAN: You work from the warehouse and distribute food once a day SARAH: Everybody prepares the food in the warehouse and then you’ve got team leads and professional chefs and everything, but then, once a day, you do bring it out to where the refugees are, where they’re staying and it’s one big meal a day. They have camps set up in Calais and Dunkirk. CHRISTIAN: It was more of a Kurdish community in Dunkirk and then more of
an African community in Calais. Basically, what we did most of the day was chopping veg, preparing veg, because you’re cooking enough for 2,000 people a day. SARAH: Literally, yeah, 2,000 meals a day. KAREN: There was between 1,500 and 2,000 people. They say it’s more like 2,000 meals because there might be the father coming up to get 5 meals for the family, or people come back for seconds. It’s not, like, take one and move on.
SIN: Talk me through a bit of the daily schedule, starting in the mornings… SARAH: We stayed in an AirBnB and there was free transport to Calais. We were there at 9 o’clock in the morning (at the warehouse). CHRISTIAN: There was a morning brief, so you’d try get there for 9. People come in around 9/10 o’clock. So, you’d do the morning brief and there was a wood yard at the back as well, so people can go back to the wood yard or into the kitchen. I think only a couple of people did the wood
yard. Most people were in the kitchen. SARAH: The wood yard then, people would make bundles of wood to give to the refugees for their camps, to keep warm at night and stuff. CHRISTIAN: In the kitchen, you’d be chopping veg, cleaning veg. You have to do it to an actual restaurant standard, because last year, they were saying that the police and the government don’t really like the charities being there, working and helping the refugees. So, they’d come in and basically shut it down if it’s not compliant to standard. SARAH: But they were very good, they told us exactly what we needed to be doing, gave instructions, showed us how to do things. You were never really left wondering what you’re supposed to be doing. CHRISTIAN: You cop on to it really quickly. KAREN: And the food is lovely. It’s all vegan and vegetarian, because you need to cater for a lot of different nationalities. As well, in the kitchen, it’s safer not to be cooking meat. CHRISTIAN: If you were prepping
meat the whole time, it’d be way too much to do and if one thing ended up being bad, you’d get a load of people sick. And for storage, you can store plants so easily. KAREN: It’s brilliant as well, because the kitchen is zero waste. So, even the leftovers from distribution are our lunch the next day. SARAH: And even the peels from the onions would be kept and put into stock, the bags are used to put wood into.
SIN: You mentioned they don’t like the charities being there, why is that? SARAH: They think the people won’t move on from there if they have hot meals provided for them. The French police would hesitate to arrest them as well, though, because, by human rights law, you have to seek asylum in the first European country you arrive in, so France doesn’t want to recognise that these people are there because then, they’d have to claim asylum there and stay there. So, they don’t want to arrest them either because then they couldn’t
move on to, say, the UK, and they do want to get rid of them. KAREN: And we have our meeting before we go on distribution, and you’re told you can’t take pictures, one; because it’s kind of voyeuristic to see people in these conditions, but then, as well, if these people were caught and there’s photo evidence of them being in France… CHRISTIAN: Their whole asylum claim would be in trouble. One big thing that happened almost every night, the CRS (French riot police) were raiding the place and ripping everyone’s tents apart. SARAH: The police presence there was unbelievable. The day I went on distribution, we were driving down and there were just vans of police around the place just watching. KAREN: And in Dunkirk, you drive down to this muddy car park and up on the hill, on the motorway, there were 2 police vans just flashing their lights as intimidation. CHRISTIAN: They do try and make sure that their presence is known.
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because they were told that a man had been found dead, face down in Calais that day, so the spirits mightn’t be as good in the camp there. I think they felt it a bit more than us the day they went.
SIN: Do you think that their spirits can be lifted by seeing you come? Seeing that despite all the hatred out there, there are people that care?
SIN: Did you feel more intimidated by the police than safe? SARAH: The long-term volunteers and the organisers there have you so well prepared that you’re not intimidated by the police. They have you warned before you go that there may be police there, and they’ll ask, “Are you still okay to go out on distribution? Are you comfortable with this? If you’re not comfortable, say so and you can go sit in the van”. There’s never a situation that you’ll be in that you’re not comfortable in, or that you can’t get out of straight away. KAREN: Before you go, you do a briefing, and they go through all of the potential risks, and they all probably won’t happen, but it’s good to know that it’s all planned out and there are code words and everything. CHRISTIAN: Even afterwards, you get back and have another briefing. There are lots of things available, like if you need to talk to a psychologist or something like that. SARAH: There are websites you can go onto to talk to a counsellor as well. CHRISTIAN: It’s amazing how well it’s run. KAREN: A specially trained psychologist comes to the warehouse 3 Fridays in the month and you can book an hour with them for free just to talk if you are upset by something or just need to chat to someone.
SIN: Did you have much contact with the refugees? Did you see how bad conditions were for them? CHRISTIAN: Yeah, when you’re on distribution.
SARAH: You can speak to them and everything.
CHRISTIAN: You might see tents and a few people gathered around a fire, and it does hit you when you see it, because you know it in your head, but when you actually see it, it’s actually right in front of me. We’re in France, in Europe, that’s meant to be this beautiful country and this is what’s here. And they wave at you as well.
SARAH: They’re waving at you, yeah, they’re so happy to see you. CHRISTIAN: Like, they’re very nice. It’s amazing how nice they are. SARAH: I was talking to one man and he said he had been walking for 4 months.
SIN: Across Europe? SARAH: Yeah, he came from Iraq. He was asking me, “Where would I get a sleeping bag?”, and I said, “I’ll put you in contact with this lady now, this is just my first day here”, and he was like “It’s my first day here, high five!”
SIN: Do they see any end to their time in Calais? SARAH: They’d be talking about “trying”, like they’re going to “try” tomorrow, and they’re talking about trying to get to the UK on a boat, or whatever. CHRISTIAN: The vast majority of them, 90% or higher, are there but planning to try and get to the UK. SARAH: It’s the last port of call before the UK.
SIN: Given your experiences and interactions, if these refugees were given the opportunity, what do you think their message would be to the wider world? KAREN: I was talking to a guy and he was saying how he was going to the UK the next day. He was 19, and I’m 19, so that hit me. I feel like that was when I got upset because there’s no difference. It was just a geographical lottery. These people happened to be born in this country. It could be any one of us. There’s no difference. CHRISTIAN: We’re all humans. That’d be one thing that, definitely, would stick out. I can imagine that they see us and it’s so easy for us. The next day, we got to just go across, take the Eurostar to England, go across to Ireland, just because we were born in a country where the passport can get you places. KAREN: I cried when we went through security coming home. I feel like
when you leave, that’s when it hits you. So, when we were flying back, and got through security, I just cried, because it was so easy for me to just go home. SARAH: What got me was one man came up to me and we were chatting away and he was like, “The world is such a terrible place”, and I agreed, thinking he was talking about his situation. And he was like, “It’s so terrible, all those poor animals dying in Australia”, and I was thinking, ‘oh my god, you’re in this situation and that’s why you’re saying the world is terrible’. CHRISTIAN: It does really hit you when they leave after giving them the food, and they have to line up just for a meal as well. SARAH: The power complex wasn’t nice, that you’re serving them. KAREN: It’s uncomfortable. CHRISTIAN: We were obviously able to just go back afterwards then, and get a bus into town, go to the AirBnB, put the heating on, whereas that’s them for the night. SARAH: The girls that went to Calais were especially taken aback by it,
CHRISTIAN: Definitely, like, that’s why there’s such a good relationship there between the volunteers that go on distribution and the people there. They’re usually very nice and they’ll chat away to you. SARAH: They’re so beyond grateful. I kept thinking that if I was in that situation, I don’t know if I’d be as nice. CHRISTIAN: Because you’re lining up to get food off someone, it’s humiliating. SARAH: They’d even come over and help us to unload the van and clean up. CHRISTIAN: I remember going around cleaning before and they’d be picking up the rubbish as well. KAREN: It’s hard seeing anyone in these conditions, but I had to take a minute when I saw families and really young kids and then when we’d leave, you could see them walking back on this dirt road and horrible, rainy weather. That was the most upsetting thing. Another thing, I remember we were talking to a long-term volunteer and I was just having a chat with him, saying how awful it is and he was saying these are people that are better off. It’s 10 grand to come across in a lorry. There are still people who couldn’t afford that. It gives you perspective, but the one thing that killed me was seeing kids there. CHRISTIAN: It is expensive for some people to get all the way to Calais, so they obviously had nice lives. Imagine having to make that jump, from being able to provide for your family and all that, to waiting for the van to come every day to get a meal. SARAH: These people weren’t coming from nothing, by any means. CHRISTIAN: And that’s what makes you realise that they wouldn’t leave
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unless they actually had to. They’re not just going to be like, “Let’s sleep in the rough for up to a year, hoping to get to the UK”. SARAH: Or, “Let’s walk for 4 months to get some food from a van”. KAREN: These people are smart, educated and have so much to offer whatever society they’re in. You can utilise that, it doesn’t matter that they’re from another country, or that they had to come here because of whatever circumstances. These people were just in an unfortunate situation, they have so much to offer. That’s what people need to realise, they just had to go, they couldn’t stay, I’m sure they’d love to. It’s not that they want to, they have no choice. CHRISTIAN: I’d recommend people look into things like Calais and Dunkirk and what goes on there, because you see comments on social media where people say, “These illegal immigrants coming here on a plane so they can get benefits”. If you actually see the way they have to try and get here. Just realise the steps they had to take to even get to the country. There are probably people in direct provision here in Galway who were in Calais.
SIN: How important is it for people to help out any time they can, even a couple of days? SARAH: They were saying they can only function if they have short-term volunteers. CHRISTIAN: Any time at all, even a couple of days. You don’t have to go there, even something in Ireland. People don’t realise how much of a difference just doing one little thing can do. SARAH: Once they reach the UK and Ireland, it doesn’t stop there. They’re put into direct provision. There’s so much more that can be done on this side as well, you don’t have to go to France to make a difference. CHRISTIAN: Even donations. Little things like that would work too. Literally anything you can do. KAREN: They have hoodies as well, which cost €50, but that’s 47 hot meals.
SIN: How can people get involved, either on the French side of things or here in Ireland? SARAH: Join Fáilte Refugees Soc CHRISTIAN: Or join your local antiracism or refugee groups SARAH: There are direct provision centres in almost every city and town now, like, reach out CHRISTIAN: Especially for students, join a society, get involved, because there are so many things that can be done. SARAH: Not to make it political, but there’s a general election next month. When the TDs come knocking on your door, tell them this is what you’re concerned about. CHRISTIAN: And email the, send letters SARAH: On your doorstep, they’re going to be asking you what you’re concerned about – they’re trying to get your vote. Tell them this is what’s going to get your vote. End direct provision, make Ireland a better place for asylum seekers.
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SIN Vol. 21 Issue 07
“One semester of college was all I could take” By Shauna McHugh Most of us are delighted to be back in Galway for semester two, reunited with our friends and enjoying the independence of being away from home once more after the long Christmas break. For some, however, coming back to college is a hugely daunting prospect. Amongst the vast student population here at NUI Galway, there’s bound to be many who had a less than stellar first semester, or who struggled with the Christmas exams. For many of these people, it takes just one semester to decide that their college course isn’t for them. According to a 2016 report by the Higher Education Authority, over 6,000 students nationwide will drop out of college during their first year. This translates to roughly one in six students in Ireland not progressing in their studies beyond first year. Dropouts were also found to be most common
in construction, computer science and engineering courses. One Arts student, however, says that the huge stigma surrounding her own course led to her decision to drop out in first year. Cavan native Ciana Kavanagh was studying French, Psychology and Sociology & Politics when she chose to leave the course after her first year Christmas exams in 2016; “From the start, the stigma of studying arts had an impact” she explains. “The amount of times I heard “Arts isn’t a real course” or “You’ll never get a job from it” made it more difficult to find a reason to put the work in”. Putting the work in became difficult for Ciana when she realised that the freedom and independence of college can cause problems; “University wasn’t anything like school. It was up to you to do the work and nobody was chasing you for assignments or attendance.” After this lack of accountability led to
Ciana falling behind in her course work and missing too many lectures, she felt ill-prepared once exam season came around. “Christmas exams were a massive deciding factor for me in dropping out, because I could not find any motivation at all to study for them. I didn’t care what the results were and I knew that if I didn’t care then, during exams, then how was I ever going to care about the degree?” she reflects. There were many incentives for Ciana to stay in college, but her course was never one of them. Nights out with new friends quickly became the only reason Ciana decided to return in semester two; “I enjoyed the social aspect of college more than I expected. Before I moved to Galway I hated making new friends or going out, but in NUI Galway, those were the things I loved the most.” Just weeks into second semester of first year, however, Ciana realised that the social life wasn’t enough reason to pursue a
degree she didn’t truly want. “For me, one semester was enough time. Deep down I always knew the course wasn’t for me and I was just doing it for the sake of it” she admits. “If I could re-do the CAO I would have waited a few years before doing it. Instead, I should have taken time out to work or do a PLC and figure out what I really wanted to do, because when I was filling it in I had no idea about what I would or wouldn’t like.” While she had her own reasons for dropping out of Arts, Ciana also recognises why other courses may have even fewer students finish the degree; “I often heard my friends say they struggled in Computer Science. It’s definitely a course that you have to have an interest in and be willing to work hard in from the start”. For anyone returning to college this January who is in a similar boat to Ciana, and knows they aren’t currently in the
right course for them, she has the following advice on how to navigate the process of leaving your course; “I didn’t go to any support services within the college and that’s probably my biggest regret. Maybe they would have been able to point me in a new direction or help with the aftermath of dropping out, because it was easy to drop out but the aftermath was definitely not easy.” Ciana’s story will strike a chord with many students who didn’t have an easy first semester. After all, dropping out is an unavoidable possibility within the university. She was one of a staggering 12% of all NUI Galway students who did not continue their course after the first year. Despite the difficulties of life postcollege, Ciana doesn’t regret leaving her course behind. “I think I made the right decision leaving because it wasn’t the course for me, even though I do miss my friends and the life in Galway all the time!”
TELL US WHAT YOU’VE LEARNED By Jody Moylan ‘It’s all ahead of you’ is one of the most common (and clichéd) phrases college students will hear. But what, exactly, is ahead of you? I spoke to seven college graduates and mature students about life in the outside world, what they’ve experienced, and most importantly; what they’ve learned.
woman. I feel like an old man recounting his life and past experiences, but I’m still fairly young and I still have a lot to experience and learn. As you get older, time seems to go faster like some sort of black magic, and as you only get one shot at life, I feel it’s important to savour every day. And be good to yourself, but don’t compromise it by not helping others. Good luck!
Kevin:
Christina:
I remember walking out of school after my last leaving-cert exam in 1998 relieved that secondary school was done forever. If you had told me then that I would end up being a secondary school teacher, I would have told you that help was needed! I hadn’t a clue what I wanted to do, but I enjoyed playing the role of the class clown in school, so I decided to pursue the performing arts. I still remember my first audition for Inchicore College and after two years, I’d achieved a Diploma in Drama, before gaining a degree at University of Ulster Coleraine. In between the diploma and degree, I travelled a bit. I would advise everyone to travel. I went to America on a J1 in the early 2000s and loved every second of it. I now teach drama in a secondary school in Aberdeen. I had not planned on staying in Scotland, but then I fell in love and married a Scottish
I can definitely say that I am now applying some of the life lessons I have learned from the past, which is helping me tremendously as a mature student here at NUI Galway. Some of my favourite sayings are ‘expect the unexpected’ and ‘go with the flow’. By doing this, you take on a much more relaxed approach
spent a lot of time doubting myself. I suppose it’s about the confidence that a bit of life experience brings. Really, you are every bit as good as the people around you.
Yolande: If I was to reflect on one learning from my time since college, it is that things aren’t always set in stone. I graduated from Galway in the early 90s with a B.Sc. in Chemistry, but over the years, I left chemistry behind and now work in I.T. could have been better but the love that surrounded me then is the love that surrounds me now. The world after college is a harder slog, as you try and find your feet in a competitive adult world. But my advice would be, and I learned this way back then: when you find the things you love, do not let them pass you by!
point, anyway! Also, don’t take yourself too seriously. Nobody actually cares.
Ronan:
Angela: A lot of life is about appearances: the appearance of success, wealth and confidence. In the past 10 years, I’d say I’ve become a bit more cynical than I was in college (early to mid-2000s). As time goes on, I’m less and less prepared to accept that other people know better than me, know more than me or are just more capable than I am. I wish I had felt like that in college, when I to things and you don’t get too disappointed if things don’t work out as planned. Not to forget; spending some time on your own for self-reflection is really a must and provides substantial opportunity for improvement and advancement!
Niall: I met my wife on my college course in the mid-2000s and we recently had our first child, who is essentially a product of that course! The course itself, I felt,
It’s a career very different to the one I envisaged when filling out the C.A.O. form! I’ve observed that no matter what degree you graduate with, some of the most crucial skills needed in the workplace, such as problem-solving, critical thinking and project management are learnings common to all degrees.
Cathy: I studied media in the mid-noughties, went into media, realised that it wasn’t for me, and promptly left the media world. What I’ve learned from this, and the changes in career which have followed, is that the illusion in your head doesn’t always match the reality. And you need to be honest with yourself and react accordingly. I learned this a long time ago and it has served me very well – up to this
When I left college — having graduated in 2001 — I really felt as if the future stretched out endlessly ahead of me. I was excited and also a bit apprehensive. I suppose the big thing I’m conscious of, now that I’m 41, is the decisions I make. It didn’t matter too much in my twenties if I made mistakes; there was always time to correct them! Now that I’m married and working full-time, I’m fully aware of the importance of using time well. I’m also at a stage in life where I don’t need big, spectacular things to happen to give me joy. The little things in life are more than sufficient – be that heading to a football match (of my beloved Rossies!), watching a film or kicking a ball around with my son.
N UAC HT
January 21 2020
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NUIG Confessions: Meet the Mysterious Admins By Shauna McHugh Despite being just over a month old, having posted its first confession on December 15th 2019, NUIG Confessions has already amassed a significant Twitter following, currently boasting almost 700 followers. At the time of print, the account has just two admins, with plans to bring more helpers on board. These two are known to followers as ‘NUIGossip Girl’, and ‘The Other Admin’. The account’s rapid surge in popularity has been a surprise for everyone, not least of all for its two creators. “Within 3 days it had 200 followers. I had barely used it when I first realised it was blowing up” shares The Other Admin. Meanwhile, NUIGossip Girl never expected this level of success; “I was actually kind of expecting it to flop and get 20 followers max, but I suppose people just like the idea of commenting anonymously or reading people’s confessions”. Indeed, it seems people love the idea of anonymously sharing their secrets, as there has been no shortage of confessions submitted to the page. These submissions have varied hugely in nature, from confessions of admiration for strangers in the library, to stark revelations about feelings of isolation from lonely students. Giving a voice to students who are silently suffering with mental health is very important to both admins. “Obviously we set the account up looking for tea about the goings on around college, but there have been so many posts regarding people’s feeling of loneliness around campus or other mental health issues. The anonymity of the submissions does make it harder to help students who are struggling, but we’ve made group chats of people who’ve wanted to connect with other students on campus. It’s great to see students who came to the account for the saucy bits really rally behind each other, and you even see that in the replies to some of the submissions from students and societies around NUIG”, The Other Admin shares. NUIGossip Girl is similarly passionate about such issues and explained to SIN that “There’s such a pressure for college to be the best days of your life that people forget how hard it can be. I think everyone struggles with it at some point but it’s a hard thing to own up to. It’s a lot easier to say these things anonymously, which is a shame, no one deserves to feel like that. We want the best for people and would encourage anyone who’s struggling to reach out to facilities in college, friends, or even us”. While both admins are delighted they have a platform to help others, it does not come without a degree of responsibility. In particular, the duo are highly wary about what they feel is appropriate to publish on their Twitter. “Sometimes it’s hard to strike a balance between giving people their say and not wanting to give a platform to hate. We do the best we can but it’s all learning on the job and taking on board what people think”, NUIGossip Girl explains, while The Other Admin agrees. “Having a larger platform definitely makes us more conscious of what’s being posted on the account and we’re not perfect at deciding. There is a lot of hate speech and accusatory posts coming in regarding staff and students alike, and for those things we’re certainly not going to post them”.
One benefit to keeping their own identities hidden is that the admins can’t face any personal backlash from angry trolls. NUIGossip Girl explains that there would be too much risk involved to reveal her identity; “I fear people won’t be as open if they know who the admins are. Personally, I’d like to remain anonymous, that kind of spotlight would make me uncomfortable”. Meanwhile, The Other Admin has endured some funny encounters due to his own hidden identity; “I was out one night in my hometown and someone from another college said they had seen the page and thought it was class. They had no suspicion it was me and honestly thought in my drunk state that being the admin was impressive but it’s really not”.
It seems people love the idea of anonymously sharing their secrets, as there has been no shortage of confessions submitted to the page. These submissions have varied hugely in nature, from confessions of admiration for strangers in the library, to stark revelations about feelings of isolation from lonely students. The mysterious pair now looks forward to becoming matchmakers, in response to the multiple romantic confessions they’ve received. “We’re waiting to hear about a hook up actually happening because of the page. We’re really just hoping to bring students together to enjoy something, if they want to enjoy a little more, then more power to them”. NUIGossip Girl also embraces the page’s potential to expand in the dating department “We’re more than happy to exchange details if people see confessions about themselves. I’d love to see a library romance manifest in real life.” An NUIG Confessions power couple could well become a reality someday, as both of the admins have long-term plans for the page. “The end is nowhere near in sight, both of us still have a number of years left in NUIG and we’ll probably end up finding people to take over down the line, and hopefully we’ll find some new admins fairly soon to help out a bit more”, predicts The Other Admin, while NUIGossip Girl is similarly optimistic; “I’d love to see it continue, as it’s a great outlet for students and staff to connect with each other more”.
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12 NEWS & F E AT U R ES
Do younger people have healthier relationships? By Saoirse Higgins Ideas on what constitutes a healthy relationship have evolved greatly over the past few centuries. During the middle ages in the Western world, arranged, loveless and abusive marriages were considered the norm. However, in the 21st century we have moved far from this concept. Today, according to the Hall Health Centre, a healthy relationship is made up of several factors. Mutual respect, trust, equality and support all play a key role in a healthy relationship. Yet, even though these components may seem obvious to most of us, many of us fall into unhealthy relationships all the time. All of us have that friend who breaks up with their boyfriend or girlfriend 3 times a month, they fight with them on every drunken night out and then turn to you for advice on what they should do, to only turn around the next day and say how in love they are. These ups and downs may just be young people navigating through the difficulties and emotions of relationships, but these signs can often turn much more sinister. Women’s Aid revealed that 1 in 5 women in Ireland have been abused by a current or former partner. This statistic does not inspire confidence that our ideas of healthy relationships have truly evolved. Despite this, there is still hope. When speaking with The Journal, Sean Cooke, CEO of Men Development Network Service ‘Mend’ said that more men are seeking help to stop and prevent their abusive behaviours – especially younger men. According to Cooke, men between the ages of 25 to 35 have been the most common users of the service. He believes that “there’s a ‘cultural swing’ around domestic abuse and younger generations are willing to confront it”. There is a lot of truth to this statement. With the rise of the internet there’s a huge surge in the amount of information our generation receives compared to the previous generations. We have an onslaught of news every day and our culture is changing because of it. Although unhealthy ideas can spread, healthy ideas can spread just as easily. The internet means that people everywhere have access to these ideas and the idea of a healthy relationship is more accessible to everyone. Even for this article, I was able to simply search ‘what is a healthy relationship’ and thousands of results popped up. The change in our education system may be another factor as to why the younger generation have better ideas on what makes a healthy relationship. As Ireland moves away from education run by the Church, there is more room in secondary and primary schools to have discussions about gender, sexuality and relationships. Sean Cooke says the Network are hoping to create a programme in the next year that runs in primary schools. He believes educating boys and girls as early as six years old is crucial. Our awareness of what constitutes a healthy relationship has grown due to the internet and better education. This does not mean that younger people have cracked the code to healthy relationships. The statistic from Women’s Aid shows there is still a lot of work to be done in spreading awareness. Men and women both still have a long way to go in recognising abusive behaviour in others and in themselves. Yet, with networks like ‘Mend’ developing programmes for kids as young as six, there’s a lot of hope for our younger generations.
SIN Vol. 21 Issue 07
Final Year Diary By Sadhbh Hendrick It’s the final countdown!! Welcome back one and all, the final semester of final year described in my final year diary. All just seems so… final. There is a somewhat intense pressure to simultaneously maximise enjoyment and memory making this semester but also maximise grades. The luxury of denial is slowly slipping away as I’ve started to recognise that the first Monday of Semester 1 is just getting the ball rolling on a whole lot of lasts. It’s a bittersweet time I suppose, no doubt that all good things come to an end. How and ever, that is absolutely enough sentimentality to last me the next 3 issues of SIN. There are much more important tasks at hand. I’m writing this in the midst of Storm Brendan (dedication to the pen, amiright?). The lack of red status warning was the shattering of many dreams on this wild morning. What’s a Final Year Diary entry without a mention of the quincentennial bridge? I can confirm that this morning was probably the closest I have ever brushed with involuntary entry of the Corrib river. The
graveyard of umbrellas (novices). The piercing whistling through the railings. Wobbly cyclists. Brave young souls almost pinned up against the protective railings. An iPhone with volume limits incapable of overpowering the symphony of cars, rain downpours and a wind that ‘would cut yeah’. Not the most pleasant start to the new academic year. An indication of what lies ahead for 2020? Nahhh. Love Island winter series launched last night. A second series is risky business in my opinion. Do I commit and consequently sign away all rights to conducting social engagement between the hours of 9-10 for the next two months? Do I not commit to the time constraints and avail of streaming on the player but then be forbidden from scrolling through Instagram for fear of spoiler by meme? Do I not engage in the series at all but then be forced to succumb to inability to engage in any discussion or Bialann analysis of the most recent recoupling? It is a dilemma indeed. Stay tuned to hear what decision I manage to reach in the next diary submission… In the world of political turmoil and general global conflict, this Christmas
I know we are students and hence aren’t entirely financially liberated, but if you could miss a cup of coffee or two and make a small donation, then you will be making a difference.
break was eventful to say the least. Admittedly, I am not here to serve as a news source or to offer opinion, but I simply must mention the situation in Australia and the devastation being endured by both the citizens and wildlife. We have all seen the cute Koala videos online or read the upsetting statistics about the loss of animal life, words don’t come close to encapsulating just how horrific this tragedy is. And, look, I know we are students and hence aren’t entirely financially liberated, but if you could miss a cup of coffee or two and make a small donation, then you will be making a difference. In the wise words of Tesco, ‘Every little helps’! So, let’s wrap this up. Once again, welcome back. Be it your second or your final semester, I hope it’s a great one that brings much success, a new Love Island power-couple and plenty of tales along the way. GRMA, Sadhbh
First Year Diary
By Aoife Burke Hi everybody! Hope you all had a great Christmas and a fab New Year! My Christmas was quiet. I was completely exhausted after all the weeks of study and assignments. The time crept up on me so fast! My two Christmas exams were on the same day, so when I got home, I had my favourite pear cider and a takeaway to celebrate! I haven’t got any more results back yet at the time of writing this. I wrote nearly 10 pages for my law exam and 6 pages for my English exam. I am so glad I memorised a poem, as there was a question comparing the unseen poem with a memorised poem. So far so good with my assignments. I need to pay a little more attention to presentation and take on board the constructive critical advice which is always given nicely. The month went by far too quickly! My cousin Lauren had a baby before
Christmas so congrats to her and her husband! Can I take the chance to say thank you to the SIN team for the fun Christmas Party. I had forgotten how nice baby Guinness was and I got to talk to loads of interesting people I had never met before. A very good night I remember stopping for coffee in Mc Donald’s on the way home. No matter what, I’m sensible after a night out. My favourite time of year for sure. I had gone a bit mad Christmas shopping though and bought my mum like 10 presents. She’s there for me all year round so I wanted to say thank you. This included a lovely Peter Mark voucher for hair and lots of other lovely things. My brothers and sisters did secret Santa as there is so many of us (I’m one of seven) and of course my nieces and nephews got some small gifts. I am a poor university student after all! I got some lovely gifts such as a bobble hat and hair curling tongs and jewellery box off my secret Santa. I was very happy to get pear cider and prosecco which I
drank on New Year’s Eve. Lots of little thinks like socks, pyjamas, chocolate, etc. just a fun relaxing festive season. I couldn’t help thinking about the rest of my exam results, though I know I must wait till February. I’m contemplating either joining a choir or joining a gym. I can’t make up my mind if I’m really interested or not. I had no luck finding seasonal work, though, so I mightn’t do it this year. Hard to believe we are headed to the second semester now. I hope you all did well in your exams. There were a few nervous people at the Chaplaincy during the exam week. I really appreciated the free breakfasts. Anywhere I can get free coffee is good for me! We have new modules this semester such as radio and Irish legal skills. I have started to prepare for my tort law quiz in February and I’m getting my notes together for the summer exam already. It will all be worth it! Happy New Year everybody! Aoife X
I hope you all did well in your exams. There were a few nervous people at the Chaplaincy during the exam week. I really appreciated the free breakfasts. Anywhere I can get free coffee is good for me!
N UAC HT
January 21 2020
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Mature Student Column By Jody Moylan (jodymoylan@gmail.com) During the holidays, I ended up in Kosovo by mistake. Having arrived in Sofia for a week-long tour of the south Balkans (to take in Bulgaria, Macedonia and Greece) my well laid plans were scuppered by day two. I discovered that though my bus timetable was correct, I hadn’t factored in Orthodox Christmas, for which I’d landed in Skopje in Macedonia smack-bang in the middle of. With no Macedonian buses running to Greece for three days I was, essentially, stranded in Skopje, which I’d only intended to pass through. After a bit of head scratching I decided to make the best of it; celebrate ‘Christmas’ Orthodox style while also getting in a trip to Pristina — Kosovo’s capital — which was just two hours north. After re-jigging my route forward I hopped into an old Kosovar minibus — the almost entirely Muslim country had no intention of slowing down for the Christian celebrations — and within a half-hour of departing Skopje a bus-full of locals, a Pole, an Irish, and two Israelis, were standing by the side of the road at the tight border control, in the freezing cold. The first thing you notice about Kosovo is the road you’re standing on. Because the road to Pristina, all the way from the border crossing, is magnificent. It’s a surprise to anyone who fully expects to be entering a country that can barely stand on its knees. What’s more, the impressive piece of infrastructure was completed under budget, and its opening last year was reportedly notable for its public ceremony; a physical symbol of a country constructing itself after its declaration of independence from Serbia in 2008. Symbols of the past are never far away, however, and it was in this landscape that we were driving through, that the whole modern catastrophe began; at the Field of Blackbirds, a few miles west of Pristina, in June 1989. From his podium Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic brought nationalist rhetoric back to Yugoslavia, and promised future battles to regain the territory lost to the (Muslim) Ottoman Turks at the same site in 1389. Though tensions and NATO troops remain, there is no trace of menace on the streets of Pristina when we arrived. Like most cities in the Balkans there were lots of banged up vehicles milling about, pavements were rough and broken up, and everything green was overgrown. When I spotted an early eighties Golf GTI sputtering smoke, with its weather-beaten driver sucking some kind of cigarette, the whole place began to remind me of Ireland thirty years ago. Likewise, like that place, unemployment and emigration are today an everyday epidemic in Kosovo. I got a tutorial on life as a Kosovar youth by third year computer engineering student, Begatim Lekaj,
WOMEN'S SELF DEFENCE & MINDFULNESS THROUGH TAI CHI! at the University of Pristina. His hopes, he told me, were the same as virtually all students in the country, in that he could only see a future abroad after graduating. All of his five siblings would do the same, leaving behind two parents in a rural village, and a country that has not, as yet, began to fully work. There could be some way to go, with Serbia leading a group of almost twenty nations in proclaiming Kosovo’s independence to be a reckless breach of international law. But they have many friends too, notably the EU and the USA, who are providing incentives for both Kosovo and Serbia to settle their differences. Ultimately, while the chatty and good-humoured nature of a café waiter epitomized a general friendliness, there was a distinct feeling that everything has not been resolved here, and no good road in, or out, could disguise that. Back in Skopje in Macedonia the next day I was invited to celebrate Orthodox Christmas with my host, and some friends, at his house in the middle of town. There was no turkey, but I did eat the traditional meal, called ‘posna’, and after had some Christmas ‘coin cake’. I found the coin, which means I should have good luck for the rest of the year (though I think it’s on the condition I convert!). I also learned to say ‘Hristos se rodi’ (Christ is born) in Macedonian, for which I got a congratulatory (sympathetic) cheer. The best part was at the end, though, when the new local radio station came on, banging out old English language pop classics, with cameos from our own Hothouse Flowers, and Chris de Burgh. With an internal chuckle I said that yes, we were very proud of ‘our boys’. It was a ‘Christmas’ to remember. Unexpected. And it taught me that whether your route through the region is planned out, or happens by mistake, you’ll always meet the people of the Balkans, and they’ll always make it a journey you won’t forget. *Thanks to Dragan, Stefan, Maia and Dubravka
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SIN Vol. 21 Issue 07
TRY BEING IN THEIR PAWS by Rachel Garvey
When we think of Australia, what do we think of? Some of us think of the scorching sun, or the incredible tourist attractions like the Sydney Opera House, while the rest of us think of the animals they have over there, animals we wouldn’t normally see in a temperate climate country like Ireland. The closest some of us come to see these beautiful creatures is online through YouTube videos or Google images, while the luckier part of us gets to venture to Australia and witness how captivating these unique animals are in person. However, what if one day we didn’t get to see these beautiful animals in person or that their pictures on Google are the only memories we have of them? That’s the sad reality in today’s world. We will never see some of those animals again because of the bushfires that are multiplying across the Australian continent, the blazes destroying anything and everything in its path with no mercy shown. A disturbing and heart-breaking video was shared on Twitter of people passing through Batlow in New South Wales. The landscape was covered with ash and a heavy blanket of smoke along with the charred remains of hundreds of animals. When we watch videos like that, it does take a few minutes to realise that this isn’t a fictional video. It’s real life and it’s happening right now. The wildlife park by the name of Kangaroo Island was evacuated due to the
threat of bushfires and 25,000 animals have been feared dead in the wildlife park blaze with many injured and burnt. Volunteers all over Australia are coming together to save these poor animals. A school hall in the north of Adelaide has set up a tent to accommodate over 100 koala bears who have been burnt, been displaced or are suffering from dehydration. It’s about the little things like that and how such a little thing can actually make a big difference to these animals. If they didn’t have us to take them in and care for them, then they would suffer alone, not knowing what to do to survive. There are over half a billion animals being impacted because of the deadly fires which are scorching national parks, bushland, and forest. Every single area is a place that these animals called home, but not now. Once a habitat is destroyed, then where are they to go? Especially since human interference has taken over a lot of lands that used to be grassland and forest, therefore making it difficult for the species to recolonise in a place that is fit for them to live and breed. An article on CNN shared that over a third of koalas in New South Wales have died and a third of their habitat has been destroyed and that other animals who live in niche environments and have smaller populations may have been wiped out entirely. These animal species include the eastern bristlebird, the mountain pygmy possum and the corroboree frog. Apparently, wombats have also been impacted because they don’t cope well with
I’ll start tomorrow by Rachel Garvey First of all, happy 2020, fellow readers! The start of a new decade comes with the motivation to change and better ourselves. Ha! If only any word in that sentence was even remotely true. This happens every single year, where we delude ourselves into thinking we will get into new and healthier habits that will better our lifestyle or how we say we will have a “Dry January”, but that statement is also false. Whoever established the concept of Dry January must be so proud of themselves, but not a single soul has managed to succeed in not drinking for the first month, at least among the people I know. I’m not sure about those who I don’t know, but if you have succeeded so far, then I’ll give you a thumbs up and a round of applause. Every single year, we are guilty of writing up a new plan for ourselves and we have this motivation in our heads that we will stick to it no matter what. If I was to be told I’d be the President of Ireland someday by a fortune teller, I would sooner believe that than the delusion clouding my mind with its lies and empty promises. I have no shame in sharing that I was persistent to get back into the gym again starting on January 1st, 2020. That day came and went in a flash and I hadn’t moved from my house. I kept telling myself “Ah sure, no harm done, I’ll start tomorrow”. I’ve been saying it to myself every single day and I still haven’t worked up the courage to go. I don’t know whether to feel disappointed in myself or to laugh at my stupidity at thinking I’d stick to something like that, especially with my full-time job which has me on my feet all day anyways.
However, there are some star citizens out there who have been good in terms of sticking to their New Year’s Resolutions in improving themselves and they deserve a pat on the back. If they could all share the motivation they possess with us, then that would be greatly appreciated. I shall set up a Facebook event straight away so we can all gather and gain some motivation to better ourselves. Unfortunately, that won’t happen either, no-one would turn up anyways. The worst part, though, is we delude ourselves into thinking that we will do better for ourselves, but in the end, we feel disappointed in ourselves for not going through with it. Trust me, I could be preparing to go to the gym now, but instead, I’m sat here writing this and eating a Cadburys chocolate bar. The Libra scales are definitely weighed down on one side and that’s not right for a Libra. I’m positive there is a lot of Facebook users reading this and they have seen the post on how February will be their New Year start, January is only a mere trial run. I like that because it is a true statement. January is a time of financial and mental recovery and then, after people have had their recovery period, they can begin afresh in February with a clear mindset, because let’s face it, no-one will put in the effort to improve themselves when they are in a negative state of mind. So, make February your month of redemption, but do not, and I repeat do not, keep telling yourself “I’ll start tomorrow”, because by then, it’ll be December again in no time and we will be welcoming in the New Year of 2021 and the whole process of procrastination begins again, because who wants to improve themselves in the Christmas season? Think of all the chocolate and goodies that would be missed out on.
stress or heat and they have little stubby legs, which make it hard for them to run fast. There has also been news of koalas and kangaroos being under the threat of extinction because of how their populations stretch all over the Australian continent. In this time of sadness, we pray for Australia, we pray for the people, the volunteers, and the wildlife. How would we feel if we suffered the fate that these poor creatures have to endure at this very moment? Yes, they are animals,
but they have similar feelings to humans, they have feelings of fear and happiness and they feel pain. I don’t know about you, but if I was a koala with a bad burn on my tiny paw, I’d love nothing more to be in a volunteer’s arms rather than being left out in the middle of nowhere, ashes, and smoke all around me. At the end of the day, the volunteers are heroes to the wildlife, but for now, all we can do is pray for Australia and hope that they will get through this terrible time.
Background: by Benjamin Lizardo on Unsplash. Inset: by Pixabay on Pexels.
2020s are starting off on the wrong foot for some By Rachel Garvey It’s the beginning of a new year, a new decade, but for some, 2020 isn’t the start to the new decade that they had imagined. There are people out there whose new year is filled with breaking bad habits and sticking to their New Year’s Resolutions, but there are others out there across the world who are filled with fear and it’s not even the end of January yet. 2020 has indeed started off on the wrong foot, with the bushfires in Australia in collaboration with the threat of World War III because of high tension between the US and Iran. In times like these, we pray for Australia and to the millions of wildlife species and dozens of individuals who were harmed in the fires or who have sadly lost their lives. Australia had the hottest day on record on December 18th, 2019, with temperatures reaching as high as 41°C. That may seem like the perfect sun holiday to us who live in temperate countries, but for Australia, it brings feelings of fear and anxiety. Over 15 million hectares have been burnt, lives have perished, and air pollution adds to the already growing list of difficulties that Australia is now facing. Volunteer firefighters were also flown in from America to help with the blazes and work alongside Australian firefighters, both sides working together to stop the fires from destroying their livelihoods and the country’s landscapes. Celebrities have also donated millions of their earnings towards helping Australia get through this time
of need, celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio donating $15.6 million to save endangered animals and Chris Hemsworth donating $1 million, as well as pages being established for online donations so any person in the world can donate to helping Australia through their time of need. However, there was a bit of silver lining when firefighters were jumping for joy when a downfall of rain put out a bushfire in New South Wales. For every cloud, there is a silver lining. We also cross our fingers for an end to the tension between the US and Iran, after World War III was threatened due to the US forces assassinating Iran’s second most powerful military commander, Qassem Soleimani, in anticipation of an upcoming attack on US targets and the response brought a lot of anxiety to American civilians along with the worldwide public, as Iran warned the US to prepare for a strong response, but President Trump is ready to respond if Iran retaliates. There is never a dull moment in this world no matter what time of the year it is. What we do need to realise is that for every cloud, there is a silver lining, with every difficulty there comes a spark of hope. Take for example the downpour of rain in New South Wales, it was as if a miracle had happened. 2020 may have started off on the wrong foot, but that doesn’t mean that it will stay like that. For every wrong step that we take is one step closer to stepping on the right foot again.
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January 21 2020
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Photo by Min An from Pexels
The New Decade v New Year Depression by Rachel Garvey Christmas is now over, done and dusted for another year and we have a feeling of sadness mixed with annoyance as the Christmas decorations are packed away, houses returning back to their normal state. It does feel depressing to come home and see the Christmas tree packed away, because there was nothing better than seeing those shining lights after a hard day at work or college. Now, we welcome in a new feeling; depression. December is the season to be jolly, January is the season to be broke and not know where your head is at. November and December are a time where people spend what they can on presents that they think will keep their loved ones happy, sometimes spending money they don’t even have for buying things they can’t afford. At the moment, they are excited and maybe a tad bit anxious hoping that it’s all worth it, but in the aftermath, it’s a completely different story. There comes a plot twist where they come to the realisation that money is tight and they are left feeling down and unsure what to do to make ends meet. Oth-
ers are dealing with mental recovery as New Year’s could be a possible trigger for them, for loved ones who didn’t make it to 2020 with them. To share my own personal anecdote, New Year’s for me was difficult to the extent I didn’t even want to celebrate it. As it was the 1st New Years without my Nan, it was hard to come home from work to an empty house without her and as a result, I was asleep by 11:30 pm while people were out celebrating in pubs and houses all over. That’s the harsh reality of it all, though, some people spend New Year’s like that – not because they want to, but because they feel they need to, they feel celebrating wouldn’t feel right without those that are missing from their lives. Fear not, though, here are some helpful pieces of advice to take in! For those in financial difficulty, they need not worry about presents for another year. It’s time now to get back on track by starting a budget plan for themselves. For those who are working, they can draw up a little budget plan and it will help them keep track of their income and expenses. Putting money away now and then to pay bills is a great plan, and an efficient one too! Keeping on top of bills
New Year, New Me(thods)! By Alanna Phelan So, the earth has completed another rotation around the sun, and once again the pressure of self-improvement is on, from the diet ads on TV to the ‘motivational’ Facebook posts. Except this time, we’re not just kicking off a new year, but a new decade- so there seems to be twice the pressure to start off on the right foot. Yikes. It seems that the goals many set for themselves coming into a new year are often rather ambitious (travel the world, get that 1.1, find accommodation in Galway that is not an extortionate price yet is also not infested...), but it is far more likely that if you start with small changes, the bigger steps will become easier over time. Here are a few suggestions on how to make your new year’s resolutions work for you, and most importantly how to stick to them! WRITE IT DOWN: Research shows that people are more likely to follow up on plans if they put them down on paper- and don’t let the fact that January is halfway over discourage you! Jot down what you would like to have achieved by this time next year, as well as some key actions you think will help you reach it and put your list somewhere visible in your day-to-day life – on the wall next to your mirror, or at the front of your binder. Remember, it doesn’t have to be a complete life overhaul! Even if you just start off with two, for example ‘1) Quit smoking- buy nicotine patches, and/or a vape for nights out 2) Get healthier- set up meal plan,
look into beginner classes at the gym’, and leave some space under each for when you’ve figured out the next step, i.e. ‘look into beginner classes ✅ CrossFit Training Mon and Thurs.’. One step at a time! KEEP MOTIVATED: It’s very common to reach the end of the depressing month of January and either treat oneself ‘just once’ and end up falling back into old habits, or brand the attempt a failure based on one or two mishaps and just giving in. If you feel this happening, just take a moment to think about why you wanted to change this aspect of your life in the first place – was it holding you back? Affecting your health or happiness? Remind yourself and others what and why you want to change, thereby your friends or family can encourage you too if they see you struggling to stick to it MIND YOURSELF NOW! Most importantly, do not forget that your ability to stick to an objective, especially a difficult one involving your current lifestyle or circumstances, does not define you as a person. As mentioned, don’t take on too much too fast and end up making yourself burn out. Should you lapse, miss that class you promised to work harder in, take a cigarette your friend offers you, whatever – do not beat yourself up. The only way to ever learn and adapt is through trial and error. Shrug it off, remind yourself of your end goal, and carry on. Taking care of yourself and your mental health going forward is the first and foremost resolution of 2020. Good luck!
means you have the basic important expenses out of the way and treating yourself to the typical luxuries now and then can be something you can work into your life. So, budget, you’ll find it’s well worth it. Mental recovery is a tough one though, but take it to step by step one day at a time. These things cannot be rushed. I have taken it in my stride to visit a family member’s grave every week, and even though it may be emotional it will give you a feeling a warmth. Even though they aren’t with you in person they are always with you in spirit. It’s okay not to be okay, but we need to remember what they would say if they were here. They
would want us to enjoy the New Year while still remembering them in some way and yes, it is very possible to do both, but your mind needs to be in a positive mindset to succeed. Even the small things like taking up a new hobby or interest, broadening your horizons by going out and travelling or even just taking a walk every day can clear your mind in a way you could never imagine. Even talking to someone helps a lot, you can’t imagine the weight it takes off your shoulders. I came across a quote recently on Facebook that really caught my eye and made me laugh and it read “February will be my month, January is only a trial run”.
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16 OPI NIO N
SIN Vol. 21 Issue 07
Student Union politics – taking one step forward, to take two steps back?
POSTGRADUATE
OPEN DAY Tuesday 4 February 12–3pm
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By Conor Brummell The Students’ Union has called a referendum for the 23rd of January to abolish five of the part-time SU Officer roles, among other changes to the Executive Committee. The referendum, if passed, would see the end of the Gender and LGBTQ+, Ethnic Minority, Mature Student, Disability Rights and SU Chairperson roles on the executive. These changes would appear strange to anyone following Student Union politics, as three of the roles up for dismissal were only introduced in the past two years. More recently, the Ethnic Minorities and Mature Student Officers were introduced, and the LGBTQ+ Officer was elected just before Christmas. With the recent establishment of these roles, one begs to question why the Students’ Union is actively getting rid of them? The answer may lie in the fact that when the Students’ Union takes one step forward, they take two steps back. They try to be as active as possible, and if that means holding a seemingly pointless referendum to restructure the executive, then this can be seen as said activism. The Students’ Union is supposed to be on the side of the students of NUI Galway, to fight for our rights within the University and to be the bridge between the University and the student body. This cannot be possible, however, when minorities around campus will no longer have direct representation on the Students’ Union Executive. The proposed abolishment of these roles will lead to the creation of a part-time Equality Officer who will have to do the work of four officers – to take complaints and support four different minorities around campus. This is a difficult task to do for a part-time college student who is not being paid for their role on the executive. The decision to abolish these roles has not been discussed enough publicly either – the Union released a notice of referendum on their Facebook page, with no further discussion as to why this is being done. They have since pushed to get information out to people, but more generally, transparency has become a great issue for the Executive in the past few years, and students have become disinterested in the politics of the Union as a result. You see, NUI Galway’s Students’ Union is apart of the Union of Students in Ireland (USI), which is
a national organisation that stands up for the rights of students on a national level. Campaigns and ideas that are being brought forward on a national level trickle down to all member unions across the country, and while this is great, NUI Galway seems to be suffering as a result of being caught up in national campaigns. There hasn’t been much change in NUI Galway in the three short years I have been there – despite promises being made every time a new executive is being elected. Lecture hall seats remain broken, seating around campus remains an incredible issue, and the James Hardiman Library hadn’t received funding in twenty years up until last year. These are problems on a local level that need addressed and the Students’ Union is the body who needs to address these with the University. It becomes clear that transparency and responsibility is limited when you look at the Dr Jim Browne charity scandal that happened before Christmas – up to an incredible €185,000 was misspent on various luxuries like taxi trips to and from Dublin, as well as Business class flights to America, among other things. The Students’ Union had a meeting with the current head of NUI Galway to ensure that this cannot happen again – they concluded that a student representative would sit on money spending committees so it could not be allowed in the future. Yet I believe the Union should have caused much more of a fuss about the situation. The money misspent should have given to things like the underfunded counselling services, or the refurbishment of the library – not week-long indulgent stays in five-star hotels in America. There should have been outrage, but it seemed to have been blown over because of Christmas. With everything that is currently happening in Ireland in terms of housing and the hospital crisis, it is easy to become disinterested and benign in the face of politics. This does not mean that we should stand by and watch the Students’ Union abolish four parttime officer roles that support minorities around our campus. A logical step for a referendum might have been to eliminate waste, to become a plastic free University- seeing as the Union spent hours during the Christmas exam period handing out free coffee cups. Instead, we were blindsided by a referendum that makes little to no sense in terms of student welfare. It’s one step forward, and two steps back.
Find out about postgrad funding at Postgraduate Open Day Funding postgraduate studies will be a focus of the upcoming Postgraduate Open Day. The event takes place on Tuesday 4 February from 12–3pm in the Bailey Allen Hall. Come along to find out about all the taught and research options on offer; information on funding, scholarships, and new courses will also be available. Our on-campus branch of Bank of Ireland will be exhibiting, and will provide information on their competitive Postgraduate Education Loans. There will also be a Postgraduate Panel at 12.30pm (The View, first floor) including representatives from fees, Bank of Ireland, and a grants expert as well, all of whom can provide postgrad funding information to you.
REGISTER NOW: www.nuigalway.ie/postgraduateopenday
Anna-Marie Leonard (Graduate Studies Office) will present on the Hardiman PhDs Scholarship Scheme, and our Career Development Centre will run a practical Personal Statements Workshop (most of our postgrad applications require a personal statement). You can pre-register for the Open Day now at www.nuigalway.ie/postgraduate-open-day
Apply Now
Become a 2020/21 CÉIM Leader Bí i do Cheannaire CÉIM don Bhliain 2020/21 CÉIM leaders support 1st year students to transition to university life, gain a greater understanding of coursework and meet new people.
Eligible students: 1st year Engineering • 1st and 2nd year Geography 1st and 2nd year Political Science & Sociology • 1st and 2nd year Denominated Psychology 1st and 2nd year Psychological Studies • 1st and 2nd year BA Law • 1st and 2nd year Law (BCL) 1st year Law and Business • 2nd year Corporate Law • 1st year Law and Human Rights
What’s in it for you? Cé na buntáistí a bhainfidh tú as?
• Intensive leadership training • Looks great on your CV • Develop key skills • Meet new people • Support 1st year students • Hoodie and parties for leaders • CÉIM leadership certificate and digital badge • Apply for NUI Galway President’s Award and Employability Award
Closing Date: Monday 10th February • Dáta Deiridh: Dé Luain 10 Feabhra
Find out more and apply Faigh tuilleadh eolais agus déan iarratas
WWW.SU.NUIGALWAY.IE/CEIM CÉIM is based on the proven Peer Assisted Learning model and is a joint initiative of various Schools/Colleges and the Students’ Union. CÉIM is funded by NUI Galway. Tá CÉIM bunaithe ar Shamhail na Foghlama Piarchuidithe, a bhfuil dea-theist uirthi, agus is comhthionscnamh é idir Scoileanna/Coláistí éagsúla agus Comhaltas na Mac Léinn. Tá CÉIM maoinithe ag OÉ Gaillimh. Recruitment Poster Nov 2019 (1).indd 1
19/12/2019 09:55
18 FA SH IO N & L I F EST Y L E
Polka Dot Top €24.00 Pretty Little Thing
ASOS Trench Coat, €76.04
SIN Vol. 21 Issue 07
Marigold dress River Island €18.00
Crochet Dress Nasty Gal €10.00
The Spring/Summer 2020 Trend Forecast By Catherine Taylor “Another year over, a new one just begun,” as the classic Christmas song goes. 2020 brings with it more than just a new decade; a host of classic fashion trends are scheduled to receive some serious time in the spotlight this new year. From polka
dots to crochet, to suiting and shirts, some sartorial choices just never die – even in a new decade. If there’s one thing we’re looking forward to seeing less of, however, it’s athleisure. Gym gear as everyday wear has had its heyday. Let’s put it to bed, and make more of an effort to dress like we’re going to meet our worst enemies, shall we?
What Will You Do in 2020? Learn Sign Language
SU Sign Language 10 Week course starts 28th January
✈ ✮
Have the Best Summer Ever SU Working & Travelling Abroad Fair Wednesday 29th January
Raise Money For Charity
SU Charity Collection Day Saturday 1st February
Run For Election
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Learn To Save Lives
So, what’s hot for Spring 2020? It appears that the Zara dress of 2019 has left a circle-shaped imprint on our wardrobes for the foreseeable future; their hit polka-dot dress has totally revived the spotty trend. If you’re not too hot for the spot, try incorporating the trend in small ways: perhaps with a dotty headband or handbag. Unsurprisingly, the power suit is here to stay as we welcome the new decade. Given a Spring update in pastel shades of pink, purple and blue; let your suit do the talking, no matter the occasion. If a twopiece isn’t to your taste, the classic trench coat has been revitalised with pleats, prints and interesting details. Pair your trench with casual jeans and your favourite trainers for a modern take. In terms of colour, it’s clear that in 2019, shades of pink reigned supreme. From the softer, millennial pink that dominated 2018 to the hot magenta shades of 2019; pink had its moment towards the end of the decade. Now, it’s time to move over for marigold! The sunny yellow shade is set to make an impression both on the catwalks and in our wardrobes. It’s not quite mustard and not quite gold; the easiest way to add some much-needed colour to a dull Winter wardrobe. We especially love marigold occasion wear, with yellow dresses expected to take over this Summer 2020. Speaking of colour, remember the neon craze of 2019? It’s back, but better. 2020 is set to be the year of fluorescents. Think neon, but even brighter.
Fluorescent shades are more intense than their neon counterparts – you know that your item is fluorescent if a mere glance in its direction causes physical pain to your retinas. Because any fluorescent piece counts a statement, we recommend pairing your highlighter-green/yellow/pink piece with neutrals: think cream, beige or pure white for a fresh look. Leaning into Summer 2020, crochet is set to become as ubiquitous as ever. A festival staple, this fabric just screams warm weather revival. Crochet dresses were promised across fashion week catwalks in anticipation of the new season. At Kate Spade, the dresses were colourful; adorned with adorable flower patterns, in shades of lilac, green and baby pink. We reckon you’ll be seeing budgetfriendly reiterations of the crochet dress in Penneys before long! Finally, coloured leather has returned as the chicest way to update a classic fabric. Bored of your old black leather jacket? Consider giving your January wardrobe a new lease of life with a leather jacket in pastel tones. We particularly love this icy mint version from ASOS. And don’t forget to take advantage of their year-round 10% discount for students! With these Spring/Summer 2020 trends, you’ll be guaranteed to start off the new decade in style. Now go forth, young fashionistas, and blind mere mortals with your fabulous fluorescence!
Fluorescent Bershka Top €12.99
ASOS Leather Jacket €55.30
SU Election Nominations open 19th February
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SU €5 Comedy with Neil Delamere 27th January
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FAIS EAN
January 21 2020
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MODERN MINIMALISM:
A Better Way of Life or a Millennial Fad? By Catherine Taylor “Simplicity, clarity, singleness: These are the attributes that give our lives power and vividness and joy as they are also the marks of great art.”- Richard Holloway. In a world saturated by social media influencers, marketing ploys and Instagram advertising, a select few have chosen to live their lives in a radically different manner to the rest of the general population. Minimalism, a rejection of materialism and unnecessary possessions, is the new millennial lifestyle fad. So, what exactly is modern minimalism, and how can its principles impact our everyday lives? Minimalism as a lifestyle is primarily concerned with possessions; or essentially, a lack thereof. According to Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus, whose blog, “The Minimalists” navigates the dos and don’ts of the practice: “Minimalists search for happiness not through things, but through life itself; thus, it’s up to you to determine what is necessary and what is superfluous in your life.” They say that money can’t buy happiness, and this much is true. Though great wealth and luxury possessions may lead to short-term happiness, in the long run, are we really better off when we define ourselves using the external, rather than focusing
on our internal world? Psychologists would answer that question with a resounding “no.” This is where minimalism becomes, for many, a route to a clutterfree existence. For modern minimalists, freeing one’s external space (be it a house, a bedroom or even a desk or workspace) from clutter ultimately leads to a healthier state of mind. But minimalism isn’t just good for your head; it also lightens the load on your purse strings. Naturally, practicing modern minimalism means that you shop smarter, not harder. Every purchase is carefully thought-out; the item bought by a minimalist is usually a living necessity. This means that as a minimalist, you save a lot of money. Cutting out unnecessary shopping means that modern minimalists have more money to spend on experiences rather than possessions, which can lead to a happier life. Minimalism relies on the theory that experiences, and memories, can satisfy us in the long-term, in ways that accumulating things in the short-term cannot. There are, undoubtedly, some pitfalls to minimalism that discourage others from joining the “less-is-more” movement. These are aggravated by millennial visions of minimalism, particularly on social media. When we think minimalism, often a vision of a clean, tidy, impossibly white and mod-
estly decorated home comes to mind. This vision of the perfect minimalistic house on Instagram is a lie; or at the very least, an exaggeration. For many modern minimalists living paycheque to paycheque, minimalism means a house that is sparsely decorated; spaces like these can look dull and uninviting. This may be problematic for those who take pride in a well-decorated living space, or those who enjoy the fusses, frills and finer things life has to offer. There are ways we can incorporate minimalistic practices, however, without becoming a full-blown minimalist, living with only the bare essentials. Here are a few tips for taking the best of the minimalist lifestyle and making it your own:
Clean out your closet. Clearing out unworn or threadbare clothing that has been accumulating in your wardrobe for months, even years, is the best way to incorporate minimalism into your daily life. If you stare at mountains of clothes every morning and still feel that you have nothing to wear, it’s time to pull a Marie Kondo and invoke the “spark joy” rule. Does this item of clothing make you feel good? Do you wear it often? If yes, keep. If no, dispose of it promptly.
Invoke the 90/90 Rule.
On their blog, The Minimalists advise that the 90/90 Rule can help people in attempting to declutter their living space. The 90/90 Rule is simple: when deciding whether to chuck out or keep a possession, ask yourself two questions. The first: Have you used this item in the last 90 days? The second: If you haven’t, will you use it in the next 90? If not, then it’s time to let it go.
Be mindful of your shopping habits. It can be easy to get carried away when money suddenly comes your way. Whether you’ve been waiting all month for a paycheque or for SUSI, many of us tend to go a little crazy as soon as we find ourselves with more cash than usual. You too can reap the benefits of minimalism if you resist the urge to spend all your money at once come payday. Keep track of your spending with a banking app, or alternatively, download a money manager from the app store to hold you accountable for all expenses. While modern minimalism may not be for everyone, the lifestyle certainly promotes many positive and efficient habits. Just how minimalistic you decide to become this new year is, however, entirely up to you.
COLLEGE SKINCARE GUIDE:
6 Tips & Tricks for Your Best Skin Ever By Vannessa Tamara Marovats
Keep it Simple. College is a time of greatly increased activity for most of us, and the last thing you need as you learn to adapt to an ever changing timetable - figuring out which societies to join and parties to attend - is a complicated skin care routine. These simple “me” moments, such as keeping to a skincare routine, will become increasingly precious as you grow older. So, use them to allow your mind to relax and your skin to be nourished - not worrying about which brand of slime or cream goes first, last or 11th.
Know Your Skin Type. An easy way to figure out your skin type was shown to me by my aunt. Simply pinch the skin for a few seconds and let go; if it springs back to shape easily, you most likely have normal to combination skin. Otherwise, your skin type is dry. Another thing to note is the importance of nourishing your neck: whatever you put on your face, you should probably repeat on your décolletage as well.
If Mum is Doctor and Food is Medicine... Be your own beauty supply store. Ads for skincare products these days would lead one to think that unless your face mask or cream was made by gluten-free vegan monks dancing through moonlight rain, the product simply isn’t worth it. Poppycock. Everything you need for flawless good skin can be found in your kitchen. Olive oil makes for an excellent moisturiser. Soaking oats for breakfast the next morning? Skim the water off and refrigerate for a cooling dry skin remedy. The possibilities are endless; it’s a matter of knowing your ingredients and allowing yourself to be playful. Also, sterilise all containers (plus your makeup brushes) as often as possible, to prevent the spread of bacteria.
Healthy Food, Healthy Skin. Other than this time of life being when your body decides to show you it’s ageing, the main reason so many of us suffer upsets with our skin upon entering college is diet. Your skin is your largest organ and the one most exposed to wear and tear - the importance of a healthy diet for its upkeep cannot be stressed enough. Some practical tips for healthy eating include eating your veggies, avoiding starchy or fatty foods and drinking plenty of water instead of fizzy, high-calorie drinks. Money can be tight as a student, but learning to be savvy in where and how you shop can rectify this. Fruits and veggies on sale in supermarkets tend to be in season and quite delicious. Buying those in bulk and freezing say, half, for later use can be an efficient way to spend less and eat more.
EXPRESS
Street Food
Know Thy Holy Trinity. Be it Sudocream, Bio Oil and sunscreen or your trusted Micellar water, the simplest approach to skin care is to find 3 good products that work for you, then build your routine from there. Any more than twelve products, without some sort of chronic skin condition, is overkill. Truthfully, the best thing you can do for your skin other than basic maintenance is leave it alone. No matter the type, all skin is very sensitive. It is, by necessity, the most sensitive part of our body and as we care for it , the keyword is care. Not warfare. Which leads me to my final tip…
Skincare is Self-Care. College life is hectic, y’all. It truly is. Yet ‘mist all this hustle and bustle, it’s important to find time to centre and collect yourself. Like many, I use what little free time I do have to take care of myself and my skin. Keep it simple but make it fun: you don’t have to handpick roses for your rosewater or have the latest in Skin Care Technology(™), all you need is some time to care for both yourself, and the skin, you’re in.
TACO BEEF (9) / BBQ PORK RIBS (10, 12) / SPICED CHICKEN WINGS (12) €3 per portion VEGETABLE STIR FRY (9, 11, V, GF) / CHICKPEA FALAFEL (6, 8, 11, V, GF) / VEGETABLE SPRING ROLL (1, 3) €2 per portion SAFFRON STEAMED RICE (V, GF) / SAUTÉED EGG NOODLES (6, V) €2 per portion PIE OF THE DAY (1, 3, 7, 8) / BEEF LASAGNE (1, 7, 8, 9) €3.50 per portion SPICED CHICKEN CURRY (9, 12, GF) / CHICKEN AND PEPPER STIR FRY €3.50 per portion
Mix it Up
1. Wheat 2. Crustaceans 3. Eggs 4. Fish 5. Peanuts 6. Soybeans 7. Milk 8. Nuts 9. Celery 10. Mustard 11. Sesame Seeds 12. Sulphites 13. Lupin 14. Molluscs V. Vegetarian VG. Vegan DF. Dairy Free GF. Gluten Free
(9, GF)
20 FA SH IO N & L I F EST Y L E
SIN Vol. 21 Issue 07
A Sassy & Savage Fenty Collab Just in Time for Valentine’s Day By Amanda Leeson Not content with taking over the beauty industry, since the launch of her hugely popular makeup brand Fenty Beauty, Rihanna has slowly been breaking into the fashion world by setting her sights on inclusive fashion. The singer-cum-businesswoman has recently released a saucy lingerie collection as part of her 2020 Valentine’s Day collaboration. Items in the collection are co-designed by Adam Selman, who is the brainchild behind one of the singer’s most iconic looks - the naked dress from the CFDA Awards. The collection features underwear items such as bras, pants and bodysuits. The 19 pieces in the newest drop are designed to make women feel fearless, confident and empowered. Rihanna’s commitment to creating items suitable for all women
shines through, as she caters for a variety of shapes and sizes. The collection ranges from size 32A to 42DD and XS to 3X. Selman spoke to Elle Magazine about the collection, saying, “Lingerie is something I’ve always wanted to design. Creating sexy pieces that empower and make you feel confident is at the core of everything I do, that is something Rihanna and I have always connected over”. The design process is said to have been heavily influenced by the 80s. It’s not a decade that’s remembered for its impeccable fashion sense, but it seems that Rihanna can do no wrong. The undergarments are detailed with lace, ruffles and oversized bows, making them a little fancier than your bog-standard undies. Debuting at New York Fashion Week, the collection was very well received.
but if you’re a big fan of the collection keep your eyes peeled, as more pieces will be added to the lineup throughout April. The Valentine’s Day collection is now available online from Savagex.com. Prices range from €17 to €73, depending on what style takes your preference.
Travel Junkie: Edinburgh
Working &
TRAVELLING Abroad
Rihanna’s Valentine’s Day edit will also feature two VIP boxes for those who choose to sign up to the membership program. The member-only boxes will feature the Locket Down set which sports a metallic red vibe, while the Down the Aisle set comes in a baby blue colour with stunning sheer material. The membership is priced at €50 per month with the option to pay once off or on a continuous monthly basis. The singer has previously released collections for Savage X that benefited charities such as the Cara Lionel Foundation. If you’re interested in getting your hands on some Savage x Fenty underwear, but don’t want to be charged shipping from the US, check out the items ASOS stock - plus next day delivery and 10% student discount from ASOS too. The collection launched on New Year’s Day with plenty of styles and colours to choose from. Many of the items are still available in the majority of sizes,
Fair
By Conor Brummell Edinburgh is the perfect city for any student break, before or after Christmas. It’s cheap, cheerful and packed to the brim with things to do. Here are the top five things to experience whilst you’re in Edinburgh.
The Edinburgh Dungeons:
Aonach Oibre agus Taistil Thar Lear Chomhaltas na Mac Léinn, OÉ Gaillimh
This is an interactive tour of the gruesome history of Edinburgh, giving an interesting account of the Witch Hunts, Cannibalistic Murderers and the Plague that once haunted the streets of Edinburgh. The tour takes around an hour and a half to do, and with student rates available, it is worth doing whilst in the city.
Edinburgh Castle: The Castle is one of the most wonderous things about Edinburgh. Located on the side of a hill edge, it is built out of the stone. You can see the castle from
Start planning your best summer ever!
Tosaigh ag pleanáil an tsamhraidh is fearr a bheidh agat go deo! 12pm-3pm Wednesday 29th January 2020 12i.n. - 3i.n. Dé Ceadaoin, an 29 Eanair 2020 Áras na Mac Léinn
almost anywhere in the city; it’s not hard to imagine how J.K Rowling was inspired to create Hogwarts whilst looking at this magical view every day.
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Camera Obscura and World of Illusions: This is an interesting attraction that is just a stone’s throw away from the gates of Edinburgh Castle. It’s full of optical illusions that will blow your mind, from mirror tunnels and photo opportunities to wacky facts and quirky brainteasers. Student
friendly prices mean this is one of the best attractions to visit whilst in the city.
The Nightlife: Edinburgh, being a student city, has something for everyone when it comes to nightlife. The Frankenstein bar is a horror fanatic’s dream, whilst bars such as Kitty O’Shea’s and The Three Sisters have great student deals and live music most nights of the week. Also, be sure to check out Bar Soba’s iconic cocktails.
The Royal Mile: This is the stretch of road that leads up to Edinburgh Castle and is quite a lovely walk. With beautiful architecture looming upwards on either side, it’s very easy to get lost in the shops and cafés along the way. Honourable mentions would be The Elephant House, the café where Harry Potter was first created and the B&B Grill House.
FAIS EAN
January 21 2020
7
NÓS MAIRE ACHTÁLA
SUSTAINABILITY IN FASHION: How to Help Save the Planet without Compromising on Style By Tara Trevaskis Hoskin
age. Globally, on average, garment workers earn much less than the national average. A study carried out by the University of Leicester found that between 75-90% of garment workers in the East Midlands region of the UK were only making £3 an hour, despite the hourly minimum wage rate being £6.50 at the time. The International Labour Organisation estimates that worldwide, 170 million children are forced to work, with many of them engaged in the textile industry. Cheap clothing is equal to cheap labour and while this quick-buy mentality may benefit us, the consumer, in the short term; it abuses vulnerable workers in the long term. It is easy to see a dress on sale for €5 and instantly think you’ve bagged a bargain, but we must ask ourselves how something that takes so many steps to be produced can be sold at such a low price? Giving up buying new garments does not mean you have to say goodbye to fashion and live the rest of your life in one pair of jeans and an old jumper. Sustainable fashion is not something that has to be ugly and sensible; in fact, it can make your style
The New Year is often celebrated as a time for change, with many people making resolutions and goals for the year ahead. This trend has not been wasted on marketing strategies worldwide, with consumerism now infiltrating many people’s personal goals in January. Getting more exercise is sold to you, with January sales gym memberships; and eating better is advertised with diet plans and expensive juices. So often, we are told that in order to start something new or to reach our goals, we must firstly buy into a product or idea. Well this year, I am hoping to move away from this approach; to start something new, by embracing the old. This year I am vowing not to buy any new clothes, in a bid to make my wardrobe more sustainable. Fast fashion by definition is “inexpensive clothing produced rapidly by mass-market retailers in response to the latest trends.” Making cheap clothes that are made to be worn once and then forgotten about has horrific environmental implications. According to Oxfam Ireland, half a tonne of clothing is disposed of in landfills in Ireland every minute. A report by Greenpeace found that globally, the textile industry produces 1.2 billion tonnes of Co2 annually. This is a higher figure than the carbon footprint of both international flights and shipping each year. However, it is not only the environment that the trend led fast fashion industry has a negative impact on. The people who make these garments are often mistreated, under paid Keelin Moncrieff and sometimes even under-
more creative as you are challenged to think before buying. Fashion is a creative outlet and something that we can still celebrate without buying into an industry that is destroying our environment and abusing human rights. Sustainable fashion is a growing movement, and with influencers such as Molly Parsons and Keelin Moncrieff making content focused on a more environmentally friendly way of enjoying fashion, educating yourself is more accessible than ever. Shopping in vintage shops such as Public Romance or Angelz vintage, (Keelin Moncrieff’s pop-up) both based in Galway, means you don’t contribute to the cycle of fast fashion, as well as recycling garments that may have otherwise been forgotten or ended up in landfill. On the other hand, there is no doubt that shopping vintage is more expensive than online shopping; and while living on a budget, this can sometimes make sustainable fashion feel inaccessible. Charity shops are basically vintage shops void of the cool Instagram pages and some good marketing. This is a much cheaper alternative to shopping exclusively in vintage shops and you also support a good cause. From the Cope shop to Galway Simon and The Irish Cancer Society’s Charity Shop, there is an array of options to support more sustainable fashion choices on a budget. Depop is a good app if you are looking for something specific, where people can sell and swap their preloved items. Even by swapping clothes with your friends, wearing an outfit more than once or simply by buying clothes to last, you are making a small impact to lessening the Molly Parsons negative effects of fast fashion.
Fight those January Blues with these Health Cues By the Well Crew Following a hectic and fun festive season, many people feel the need to commit to a series of new year’s resolutions regarding their lifestyle, as January signifies a new year and a new semester. Huge lifestyle overhauls in relation to diet and exercise in the first few weeks following Christmas may add to these aptly called ‘January blues.’ However, instead of completely changing your diet and paying a lot of money for various exercise classes, which realistically cannot be kept up with, why not challenge yourself to daily health and wellbeing goals to trial healthier behaviours? This is a more practical way to improve your health gradually and to sustain it overtime. The month and year are long enough without beating yourself up over keeping to unmanageable new year’s resolutions. This year, many people are trying to become more sustainable, wishing to make their diets more plant based. However, instead of removing meat completely from your diet this month, why not try a few meat free meals throughout the week or even meat free days to ease yourself into it? This makes the transition easier and allows you to face the challenges of this change, overcoming them at your own pace.
We (the Well Crew at the Student Hub) have designed a three-week January Challenge with simple daily goals for nutrition, physical activity and mental health to try to find out if they can be included into everyday life (see the table below).
Follow us on social media for daily updates on this January Challenge: @thehubNUIG on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
21
22 FA SH I O N & L I F EST Y L E
SIN Vol. 21 Issue 07
The 2020 Beauty Releases We’re Lusting After This January By Catherine Taylor Fancy treating yourself to some glamorous beauty bits this January? Look no further than these brand-new makeup buys from some of our industry favourites…
Anastasia Beverly Hills x Amrezy Eyeshadow Palette In many ways, Ananstasia Beverly Hills is the undisputed queen of beautiful palettes. From the classic pinks and reds of Modern Renaissance to last year’s shimmering and sultry Norvina, Anastasia keeps knocking it out of the park with her superbly pigmented, stunningly packaged eyeshadow palettes. Her latest release is a collaborative palette with beauty Youtuber and influencer Amrezy; it looks to
be the brand’s prettiest packaging yet, but the outside is nothing compared to the product inside… From the metallic lilac of Barb to the golden copper of Dragon, this 16-shade palette is our new obsession.
MAC Lunar Illusions MAC Cosmetics has long been a staple of our makeup bags – and with good reason. Known especially for their matte lipsticks, pro brushes and glimmering highlighters, the stellar brand is capitalising on millennials’ newfound astrology obsession with its stunning Lunar Illusions line. Including exclusive new shades of MAC’s Lipglass, eyeshadow and powder blush, the highlight (see what we did there?) is most definitely cult-favourite Extra Dimension Skinfinish in Double Gleam, embossed with a
dragon design. Available now at Brown Thomas and Arnott’s, from €19.50.
NARS Powder Blush Beauty enthusiasts know that NARS Powder Blush is one of the best in the game, and by far the brand’s most lauded product. Available in over 35 individual shades, NARS has decided to expand the line further, with 10 exclusive new shades dropping in January 2020. These include Savage, a shimmering red brown; Illicit, a satin peachy nude; and Tempted, a shimmering mid-tone beige. Given that NARS Powder Blush was the No.1 selling blush in the U.S. in 2019, we reckon this line will be as well-received as the original. Can’t get enough of NARS? Watch out for its brand-new Afterglow Spring 2020 collection, launching in March. Afterglow
features a warm-toned, 12-shade eyeshadow palette; a limited edition Overlust cheek palette, and many more fabulous goodies for the makeup junkie in all of us.
Fenty Beauty Snap Shadows Where would the world be without Fenty Beauty? Rihanna’s eponymous makeup brand has taken the beauty world by storm, praised for its inclusive shades and glamorous packaging worthy of a pop superstar. Rihanna is set to expand her beauty empire in 2020, with the release of exclusive Snap Shadows: including the self-explanatory True Neutrals, Peach Snap and Pastel Frost palettes. Why are they called “Snap Shadows”? Well, because any two of these mini palettes can be snapped together to combine into
one easy-to-use eyeshadow gamechanger. Available now from €25 at Boots.
Pat McGrath Mini MatteTrance Trios Last but not least, pro-makeup artist Pat McGrath has launched a new collection of mini matte lipsticks. Hailed by Anna Wintour as “the most influential makeup artist in the world,” the legendary beauty expert has received a British OBE from Queen Elizabeth II for her services to the fashion and beauty industries. Her January 2020 collection features a trio of Pat McGrath’s much-loved matte lipsticks, packaged in couture collectable neon bullets. The Color Blitz V2 set features graduating shades from peach to red, while Skin Show V2 displays flesh-tones from nude to deep pink. Available online at Pat McGrath Labs from €24.
A Beginner’s Guide to Veganuary: The What’s, How’s and Why’s. By Alice O’Donnell
Clubs’ Ball Bal na gClubanna -
2020
Tuesday 24th March ◆ The Galway Bay Hotel ◆
Early Bird Tickets €32.50 On Sale Now on Eventbrite ◆
Ticéid Luatha ar Lascaine €32.50 Ar Díol Anois ar Eventbrite
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The term vegan was first coined in 1944, and since then has grown hugely in popularity. From being seen as an extreme version of vegetarianism practised by hippies in the 1960s and 1970s, to the prestigious 2019 Global Globes award ceremony boasting a solely vegan menu, society’s perspective on veganism has been transformed in recent years. January, or Veganuary, has become the unofficial month of trying out a vegan diet, with hundreds of thousands taking the “Veganuary Pledge” each year. But what exactly is a vegan lifestyle? What benefits does it have, and how exactly do people go about becoming vegan? WHAT? Vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian. All words which float around in the same lexicon, and whose meanings are often confused with each other. The Cambridge Dictionary defines ‘vegan’ as “a person who does not eat or use any animal products, such as meat, fish, eggs, cheese, or leather.” Veganuary was begun as a non-profit program in the UK to try and encourage the spread of veganism. Since its origin in 2014, the number of participants has doubled each year, with the amount of people taking the pledge in 2020 expected to reach nearly half a million. WHY? There’s no point in denying it – the vegan lifestyle is hard work. It takes time, patience, research and discipline. Are the perks of a vegan lifestyle really worth all that work? The short answer is yes. A vegan diet benefits nearly every facet of life, from your own life to the health of the entire planet. In terms of personal health, a vegan diet is an all-round good idea; according to Healthline magazine, vegan diets lower the chances of developing high blood pressure by 75% and lessens the chances of developing Type 2 diabetes by 50 to 78%. On average, vegans have a lower BMI than non-vegans, and in a control study of an 18-week period, people who tried veganism during that period lost approximately 4.2kg more than meat-eaters who tried to lose weight.
It’s not just your own body which will feel the benefits of a vegan lifestyle. A vegan diet is hugely more benefitable to the environment in comparison to a carnivore diet – it takes up to 200 times more water to raise a pound of beef than it does to grow a pound of vegetables. Plants also clean air, in contrast to livestock which contribute more to air pollution than all modes of transport combined. With oceans risings and natural disasters such as the Australian bushfires becoming more frequent and devasting, the push for living a more carbon-neutral life has increased hugely. Veganism is also attractive to some for its ethics. Many feel that the meat and dairy industry’s reliance on the exploitation and killing of animals is not a morally acceptable way to live. HOW? Changing your lifestyle to a vegan one can be seen as a daunting prospect. However, it needn’t lead to a drain on your bank account or a bore on your taste buds. With veganism growing in popularity, most major grocery shops offer their own range of vegan foods as well as well-known brands such as Gosh, Alpro and Quorn. There are also thousands of vegan recipes available online and in cookbooks, with meat substitutes such as Quorn or tofu easily transforming a recipe to vegan. Bloggers such as Deliciously Ella and Thug Kitchen offer quick, cost-effective and, most importantly, tasty vegan recipes, while Instagram pages such as plantyou, elavegan, rhiansrecipes, and vanillacrunch provide not only yummy vegan recipes, but also tips and tricks to live a healthy vegan lifestyle. Overnight oats with almond milk for a filling breakfast, pita bread filled with greens, falafel and avocado for lunch, energy balls and popcorn as a snack and noodles and tofu stir-fry for dinner is just one very simple example of a cost effective, nutritious yet yummy meal plan for a day. No matter if you’re a hardcore vegan or someone who has eaten meat every day of their lives, Veganuary is a great opportunity to try new vegan recipes, expand your cooking knowledge, and live a healthier life.
NUI GALWAY
SPORT I WILL JOIN A CLUB
CLUBS’ DAY JANUARY 30TH 12 4PM KINGFISHER / SPORT ARENA
24 A RT S & E N T E RTAIN M EN T CREATIVE CORNER My love was a noble man
SIN Vol. 21 Issue 07
Roundup of The Best of 2019
Beating The January Blues
By Anastasia Burton
By Alanna Phelan
My love was a noble man, a stubborn man, A foolish man.
Best Song: ‘Old Town Road (Remix)’ By Lil Nas X ft. Billy Ray Cyrus
By Alanna Phelan
He wished to carry stars upon his shoulders, Which, I always thought, looked like boulders, He went to war with an airy pride, Only for them to die in a tide, I prayed and prayed, -Lord, I beg you, spare him a meaningless death, A stupid death, an empty death.
In he comes from his evening lesson, the December cold still shrouding him, shielding him from my pestering. His smile doesn’t reach his eyes, his words are flattened by fatigue, but he tries. One anxious arm locked around his leg, I wait for the verdict. A sharp word, a chore forgotten is all it will take for another night gone awry; for his mood to falter, flatline and tonight, all is as well as it can be “Grand job with the dinner, love”, the dogs are asleep. The fire flushes my face and tickles his feet. The radio chatters,
A man left my home, Only his clothes returned. He did receive those foolish stars, But they would never be worn upon those shoulders, Which, even in death, looked like boulders. I buried him as I saw fit, Our last argument, My last hissyfit.
Best Meme: Storm Area 51
Your family loves it, your friends know all the words thanks to countless memes, and don’t deny you sang along more than once or twice! Rapper Lil Nas X’s colossal hit with its genre-defying, cowboy-centric tune serves as something of a cultural marker, highlighting the stubbornness of a younger generation when faced with old prejudices. After the song’s removal from Billboard’s Hot Country Chart for ‘not [embracing] enough elements of today’s country music’ (Translation: How dare you desecrate country with your hedonistic, urban beats!), the big guns swooped in. Mr. Achy Breaky himself, Billy Ray Cyrus recorded a remix with the young artist, as though daring anyone to say that the song was not ‘country’ enough, and the rest is history. Aside from becoming the longest-running number one in US chart history and making Lil Nas the first openly gay black musician to receive a CMA Award... let’s just admit it, ‘Old Town Road’ is a bop. Think we can predict the horses in the back to be at the forefront of every wedding reception playlist alongside ‘Uptown Funk’ for many years to come. Honourable Mentions: ‘bad guy’, ‘Truth Hurts’
When Matty Roberts created the Facebook event titled ‘Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us’ last July in a joke bid to prove extra-terrestrial life was present at the secretive Nevada military base, it’s unlikely he imagined the enormous response that would follow. Months of in-jokes about Naruto running, copycat events in support of social causes and warnings from the US Air Force itself led to over 3 million people signing up to go see them aliens. While, sadly, what was starting to look like a plausible protest against government secrecy turned more into a festival in the desert attended by (a still impressive) 1,500 people, at least everyone had fun, and no one got shot. Who knows, perhaps this year the event could expand into a conspiracy theorist’s answer to Coachella? Let’s make it happen, internet. Honourable Mentions: ‘OK Boomer’, The Keanuaissance
Best Pop Culture Moment: Greta Thunberg’s Climate Action Summit Speech
So, what did you accomplish last year? It doesn’t matter, because 16-year-old Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg is putting us all to shame with her SU LOCKERS but the frost lingers, a silvery cape around him still Even as he lay in that big coffin, achievements in the past 12 months. With her ‘School “Cold hands, warm heart”, he squeezes mine as He looked like a noble man, Best Movie: Joker, Directed by Todd Philips Strike for The Climate’ movement and passionate camSU SEOMRA CÓTAÍ SU CLOAKROOM he replies A stubborn man, Who could have predicted that one of the most controver- paigning across the globe, Greta has reinvigorated her AN CHOMHALTAIS DIANCHEACHTANNA he’s had more famines than full bellies A foolish man, sial and divisive mainstream films in years would have generation and beyond to hold those responsible for REGISTER AN CHOMHALTAIS yet he survives. The love of my life. come from the same studio that gave us Suicide Squad? the destruction of our planet accountable, and to make SU This tenacious retelling thatClár gives Scileanna a name and harrowing changes in our own day to day lives. Saoil Life Skills Chomhaltas na Mac Léinn origins to the elusive clown prince of crime struck a chord Nowhere is this devotion to saving our planet in with audiences. Its harsh depictions of mental illness, the face of corporate greed more evident than at her NUI Galway Students’ Union Ents Presents/Cuireann Comhaltas na Mac Léinn a disillusioned public growing increasingly frustrated address to world leaders at the United Nations SumStudents’ Union with society’s elites, and a quest for one’s own identity mit last September. Her eyes brimming with tears of Siamsaíocht Second Hand in a world of conformity hit aanlittle too close to home SIOPA for LEABHAR frustration, Greta does not mince her words as she Chomhaltais BOOKSTORE ATHLÁIMHE an Chomhaltais some and is as discomforting as it is captivating. tells a room of powerful figures that that the time With its sympathetic protagonist finding meaning in for talking is over. Chin defiantly up, she announces his life by turning to murder, many critics feared Arthur ‘You are failing us. But the young people are starting Fleck’s story echoed the crimes of mass violence commit- to understand your betrayal’. These words and her ted by similarly struggling young men in recent years, relentless devotion to the cause has made her a role encouraging others to follow suit. But Joaquin Phoenix’s model worldwide, with many no longer waiting to see career-defining performance instead serves as a haunt- what she will do next to change things but joining her in making change happen. ing cautionary tale for the modern age. Honourable Mentions: ‘Once Upon A Time In Honourable Mentions: The End of the ‘Avengers’ Hollywood’, ‘Midsommar’ Saga, The First Black Hole Picture
grinds
TAISCEADÁIN AN CHOMHALTAIS
clár
ENTS
NEIL DELAMERE
End of Watch
A look back to the 2010s By Utku Muratoğlu
8pm Monday 27th of January 2020 in the O’Flaherty Theatre 8 i.n., Dé Luain, An 27 Eanáir 2020 i dtéatar Uí Fhlaithearta
Tick ets €5 avail able ONLINE at w w w.s u .n u igalway.ie
ALL PROCEEDS GO TO THE SU CHARITIES www.su.nuigalway.ie
facebook.com/NUIGalwayStudentsUnion
twitter.com/NUIGSU
www.su.nuigalway.ie
facebook.com/NUIGalwayStudentsUnion
twitter.com/NUIGSU
The 2010s may be considered as the decade of internet phenoms, memes and popular culture trends that changed every year. From MCU films to the controversial award ceremonies, the entertainment industry really entertained us, both on and off the screen. It is also the decade of the rise of the Millennials. From the movie industry to music, many talented artists who were born in 2000 and later showed their talent and have started to shape the new era of art and entertainment. Now let’s look at the defining moments of the past decade: SEPTEMBER 2010: Lady Gaga’s meat dress at the VMAs. APRIL 2011: George RR Martin’s book series A Song of Ice and Fire begin as a series on HBO as Game of Thrones and it has since become the most-watched TV series of the decade. JULY 2011: We said goodbye to Harry Potter. Movie versions of J.K. Rowling’s masterpiece have come to an end with a two-part final film. APRIL 2012: Grumpy Cat had its photo posted on Reddit one day. The next thing we knew, Grumpy Cat memes were born. Little Tardar looked like she was annoyed even though she wasn’t. It delighted people, and Grumpy Cat became a feline celebrity. There was even a Lifetime Christmas movie starring Grumpy Cat.
Sadly, Tardar Sauce is no longer with us, as the internet’s favourite kitty died in 2019. JULY 2012: ‘Gangnam Style’ became the mostwatched video ever. South Korean artist PSY rocked the world with his single ‘Gangnam Style’ as the video clip became the most-watched video ever on Youtube. FEBRUARY 2013: ‘Harlem Shake’ Videos of people dancing with the sing ‘Harlem Shake’ has become one of the top viral trends of 2013. SEPTEMBER 2013: ‘What Does the Fox Say’ became a YouTube sensation. JULY–AUGUST 2014: Everyone was doing the Ice Bucket Challenge. The ice bucket challenge started as a movement to raise awareness on ALS. FEBRUARY 2015: The internet had a heated debate over a dress. Black and blue OR white and gold? FEBRUARY 2016: Leonardo DiCaprio finally won an Oscar. OCTOBER 2016: The Vine app shut down. JANUARY 2017: Salt Bae. Turkish Chef Nusret Gökçe becomes an internet phenomenon as the Salt Bae with his unique way of sprinkling salt. AUGUST 2017: Billie Eilish takes over popular music. Releasing her first single, the 2001-born star has become one of the biggest names of the music industry with her unique style over the years. MAY 2018: Yanny or Laurel? What did you hear: yanny or laurel?
C U LT ÚR
January 21 2020
7
SIAMSAÍO CHT
25
What’s on in Galway Tik Tok? Is that not a song? January 21 - February 4 By Sarah Gill Whether you feel as though your Winter break was over in the blink of an eye or you’ve been craving a return to normality since you finished Christmas dinner, we’re back now and regular
programming may continue. With the first week back at the books comes equal opportunity to head out for some good old fashioned socialising and as always - SIN are here to help you track down the very best events. Without further ado, here’s what’s in the pipeline…
Blindboy. Image: thisisgalway.ie
Wednesday, 22 Jan: Blindboy Live Podcast Show at Town Hall Theatre We’re all well familiar with the Limerick drawl of Mr. Blindboy Boatclub, one half of the infamous Rubberbandits but now’s the time to get up close and personal with the mastermind behind the plastic bag. Known for speaking candidly about mental health, advocating for climate justice and being incredibly outspoken, witnessing the recording of this satirist’s podcast isn’t something you’ll want to pass up.
Thursday, 23 Jan: Hoolie w/ Big Miz at Electric A night spent tearing up the dancefloor of Electric Nightclub is always time well spent and the carefully crafted sounds of Big Miz make it all the more enjoyable. Having taken his sounds to new levels over the years, Miz has emerged as a prominent producer and DJ in Glasgow’s techno and house scene. Spinning everything from acidic tinges to disco, 808 rhythms and typical techno and house cool, it’s going to be an insane night.
Monday, 27 Jan: NUIG SU presents: Neil Delamere: End of Watch in the O’Flaherty Theatre The NUI Galway Students’ Union charity
Kiki. Image: thisisgalway.ie
comedy gig is back for semester 2 with a veteran of the game. Neil Delamere returns to campus with his show “End of Watch”. Tickets are just €5 and proceeds go to the SU charities. Not to be missed.
Wednesday, 29 Jan: It’s Always FUNNY in Philadelphia at the Skeff Fans of the gang will need to get on this as soon as possible. The Skeff are hosting an It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia table quiz, all in the name of charity. At a tenner a pop, it’ll only cost you the equivalent of two pints, and all the proceeds are going to JIGSAW Galway. Guest MC for the night is the brilliant Karl Spain. The perfect opportunity to prove that you are indeed a champion of the sun, a fighter of the nightman, a master of karate and friendship for everyone.
Thursdays at Róisín Dubh: Let’s have a Kiki If you haven’t already paid a visit to Miss Kiki St Clair’s legendary clubnight in the Róisin’s upstairs bar, what are you doing with your life? Let’s Have a Kiki is a night crammed full of pop, camp hits and disco floor fillers that is just what the doctor ordered. Get your glad rags on and head out for a night of drinking, dancing and diabolical craic.
By Rachel Garvey Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook and Twitter must now move over on the bench to make room for a new App gracing the public with its presence, an App by the name of Tik Tok. A platform that has been installed by millions of users according to the Play Store App and has now become an ongoing popular topic of conversation amongst a worldwide audience of all ages. For those who are still unsure about the platform, it is merely a video-making app enabling the person to be a creator with no restrictions to the imagination. Tik Tok encourages the user to express themselves no matter what they are feeling as part of a way to connect with people they may know, as well as connecting to a worldwide audience. Imaginations have a habit of running wild, which is why Tik Tok encourages its users to go wild and create videos that contain either one’s creativity, knowledge or just moments in life that can be general or precious. We all remember the days when Tik Tok was just a song by the artist Kesha, but the app itself is in the same category as it is powered by music from artists all over the world, like Billie Eilish and Lizzo. The aid of different types of music helps Tik Tok users to lip sync to any song of their choosing or create satirical comedy videos which are sure to become a trend if lucky. On a quick side note, Tik Tok wasn’t something that was part of my daily or weekly routine until my younger sister introduced me to it on my 21st birthday. A 14-year-old teenager instructing a 21-year-old how to perform
a dance and lip sync for a Tik Tok video is a memory that I will never forget, because it was quite hard to remember all the correct steps and as a result, I failed and gave up. I didn’t want to embarrass myself on an app I barely had any knowledge of, but embarrassment was what I felt after my mother succeeded in what I failed at. To those who have just installed Tik Tok and are somewhat unsure of what to do, a quick look at Trevor Nace’s article on How-To-Apps will give you the ingredients for a recipe that is sure to result in a delicious Tik Tok success:
1. Make use of popular songs, if you create a video to a popular song then it will most likely get a high number of views and likes 2. Take time to edit the video and make sure it fits in with the background music 3. Capture something romantic, funny, awe-inspiring or dare devilish 4. Be yourself, it’s all about how we connect with one another Those four simple ingredients will be a great combination to help you succeed at being a Tik Tok pro. Be yourself and express yourself in any way you want, but in terms of capturing dare devil moments, don’t treat the app as if it were the game Nerve - we don’t need people walking across ladders from one building to the next, a video of you trying to eat Spaghetti Bolognese carefully in a white t-shirt is good enough to any viewer.
26 A RT S & E N T E RTAIN M EN T SERIES REVIEW:
You Season 2 By Varun Dua
You returned to Netflix with its second season on 26 December, and Joe Goldberg is back with a new “You”; Love Quinn, played by Victoria Pedretti (of Haunting of the Hill House fame). Ironically, she has a co-dependent twin (Forty Quinn) in this series too. Joe, meanwhile, is learning from his past mistakes and trying to make amends in the way he goes about his business, though not too successfully. We also get to know more about Candace and what transpired between Joe and her. There is a range of new characters in this season, set in a new city and with their own idiosyncrasies, triggering Joe in different ways. Malcolm Gladwell in his book ‘Talking to Strangers’ talks about the difficulties we face in figuring out strangers. He elaborates that human beings “default to truth” in the absence of credible evidence, in short assuming the person is speaking the truth, even when they have their doubts. Gladwell also points out how people get misled by ‘transparency’ of non-verbal cues. They believe that the emotions projected on the outside can be used to gauge the character of a person. Everyone is misled by Joe’s unassuming personality and those who had their doubts (read Peach) defaulted to truth until it was too late. Karma seems to be catching up with Joe, though very slowly. It is unrealistic how nobody misses his victims. Technology and social media have become very pervasive, true, and Joe is a master at creating false tracks on his victims’ social media accounts, yet someone, somewhere ought to notice their absence. Benji (from Season 1) for instance must have some family or friends who won’t be just expecting updates from his Instagram account. Joe is not a typical psychopath or serial killer, like the ones we are introduced to in Mindhunter. All Mindhunter fans would surely find a few mistakes with Joe’s approach. Most psychopaths don’t get involved in the lives of their victims. Joe rather justifies himself as a good person, who must indulge in bad activities to keep his loved ones safe. His murders are, thus, sometimes not very well planned or thought out. Season 2 builds on Joe’s character and gives him more depth. Without revealing too much into the plot, we can safely say that Joe finds some characters in this season that relate more to him and are more understanding of his actions than the ones in the last. His interactions with these characters and his growth through the season make for an intriguing plot, one that is surely a notch above the last one.
SIN Vol. 21 Issue 07
Little Women review: Greta Gerwig’s adaptation provides fresh perspective while remaining faithful to its source material By Catherine Taylor When the latest screen adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women debuted on St. Stephen’s Day 2019, the film became an instant hit. Lauded by book fans and critics alike, Greta Gerwig’s highly anticipated adaptation of the eponymous novel has managed to do the impossible; seamlessly bridge the gap between its 19th century setting, and its 21st century audience. Having previously found unprecedented success with 2017’s Lady Bird, Ireland’s own Saoirse Ronan stars as the story’s protagonist, Jo March. In Little Women, Gerwig (who directed Lady Bird), Ronan and Hollywood’s “it” boy Timothee Chalamet, who also stars in both films, once again prove themselves to be the golden trio of cinema. Ronan effortlessly portrays stubborn Jo, while Chalamet again plays her love interest, Laurie. Gerwig’s characterisation is perhaps one of the most stellar achievements of this adaptation. Each character has been flawlessly fleshed out; whether their role is major or minor, you get the sense that everyone you see on screen is a real person, rather than a mere plot device (Chris Cooper’s turn as Laurie’s grieving uncle is especially poignant). The four March sisters, Jo (Saoirse Ronan), Meg (Emma Watson), Amy (Florence Pugh) and Beth (Eliza Scanlen) are perfectly cast,
with Ronan expertly stepping into the role she herself believed she was born to play. Jo’s characterisation is executed with precision: Gerwig’s deep understanding of Jo’s personality is evident, as she and Ronan work to showcase both Jo’s admirable traits, and her faults, in equal measure. But perhaps the film’s best work lies not in its protagonist, but in the characterisation of the youngest March sister, Amy. Prior to Gerwig’s adaptation, Amy was most definitely fans’ least favourite of the four sisters. As the youngest, her character has a tendency towards brattiness and can be spoiled. However, 2019’s remake gives a remarkably fresh perspective on an old literary villain. The film’s breakout star and the internet’s new darling, Florence Pugh, gives Amy a deepened maturity with her measured performance, whilst still maintaining the character’s signature humour. Whilst in previous adaptations, Amy’s eventual marriage to Laurie seemed unprecedented (as readers expected him to be paired with headstrong Jo), Gerwig’s film gives Chalamet and Pugh sufficient screentime to truly bring their blossoming romance to life. In terms of setting and cinematography, Little Women is a sprawling, exuberant spectacle of colour and beauty. In its 3-star review, the Irish Times writes that the film’s
Photo by Wilson Webb - © 2019 CTMG, Inc. “unremitting gorgeousness robs the material of all its grit, of its satire, of the sense of precariousness that one experiences on the characters’ behalf, of the fear of hunger, and of the dread that any chill or fever might be a death sentence”. This is a fair criticism; the March sisters of the books are infinitely worse off financially than Gerwig’s little women. The film certainly highlights the family’s grapples with financial difficulties; but only eldest sister Meg’s run-down family home, visited in one or two brief scenes,
breaks the barrage of beautiful scenery to show the stark reality of living with very little money. To say that Greta Gerwig’s Little Women has lived up to, if not surpassed, its predecessor would be entirely accurate. Only 1994’s version, starring Winona Ryder as Jo, could compete with Gerwig’s skilfully crafted interpretation for a modern audience. Through expert characterisation and Oscar-worthy performances, 2019’s Little Women introduces a classic story of the lives of four young women to the 21st century.
REVIEW: Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker By Fiach Mac Fhionnlaoich Bringing the Star Wars saga to a close is no enviable task. A massive cultural juggernaut that has permeated imaginations worldwide since the release of its first instalment, it has also already been given a conclusion twice. Firstly, with the release of Return of the Jedi in 1983 and then again following the end of the prequel trilogy in 2005. Following his role in kickstarting a third trilogy with 2015’s Episode VII: The Force Awakens, JJ Abrams returns as director and co-writer to bookend the final instalment. Whilst polarising among fans of the space epic, the previous instalment of the saga, Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi, tried to break away from old patterns, warning
against the idolisation of the past by characters on both sides of this new trilogy’s central conflict, and raising wider questions on the impact of the central battles between good and evil, Jedi and Sith, on the galaxy that surrounds them. It’s sad to think that fan reaction to that move may have led to the end result of Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker, which ends up feeling like a film made by a committee. The actors, for their part, do an admirable job with the material they’re given and seeing Rey (Daisy Ridley), Finn (John Boyega) and Poe (Oscar Isaac) finally share extended screen time together is a joy. Lucasfilm, Disney and Abrams were left in a tough position following the untimely passing of Carrie Fisher and do their
best to give Fisher’s General Leia Organa the send-off she deserves. Kelly Marie Tran’s Rose Tico suffers from a dearth of lines or significant role in the plot, while Adam Driver’s Kylo Ren remains a frustrating cipher, though Driver does his best to imbue with the character with a tortured humanity. The film relies heavily on collective nostalgia, rather than trusting the themes and characters that have breathed new life into this set of sequels, with a ridiculous amount of call-backs that seemingly attempt to weaponize the audience’s memories of previous and better instalments of the saga. Plotlines begun in Episodes VII and VIII are either dropped, retconned or quietly ignored and the final showdown descends into a CGI-
fest which fails to capture the pathos of previous outings. The closing minutes feel hollow, and the insertion of a split-second same-sex kiss between two background characters (enough for Disney to jockey for brownie points in advance of the film’s release but hardly the sign of a bastion of progressivism) only adds to the sense of a film that seems to have very little to show us that we haven’t seen before. I didn’t leave The Rise of Skywalker with much curiosity as to what comes next from the franchise, nor did I find it an entirely dismal effort, but for a fan of a galaxy far far away, that blasé reaction may be the most difficult feeling to reckon with of all.
2.5 stars out of 5
Notice of Referendum Thursday 23 January 2020 Fógra maidir le Reifrinn Déardaoin, an 23 Éanair 2020 Referendum on Restructuring Students’ Union Officer Roles
An Reifreann ar Athstruchtúrú Róil Oifigigh Chomhaltas na Mac Léinn
On Thursday 23rd January you will be asked to vote in a referendum on whether or not you support the restructuring of students’ union officer roles.
Déardaoin, an 23 Eanáir, iarrfar ort vótáil i reifreann ar cibé acu a thacaíonn nó nach dtacaíonn tú le róil oifigigh Chomhaltas na Mac Léinn a athstruchtúrú.
The wording which will appear on the ballot paper, requiring a Yes / No answer, will be: Do you agree with referendum motion (Executive Committee Composition) proposed by the SU Council on 25th November 2019? The proposed amendment to the NUI Galway Students’ Union constitution, if passed, will result in the following: 1.
The creation of a part-time Equality Officer position on the Students’ Union Executive Committee
2.
The abolition of the following students’ union part-time officer roles
• • • • • •
Mature Students Officer SU Council Chairperson International Students Officer Gender and LGBT+ Rights Officer Disability Rights Officer Ethnic Minorities Officer
Is mar seo a leanas a chuirfear an cheist ort ar an bpáipéar ballóide, agus beidh ortsa freagra Tá / Níl a thabhairt uirthi: An bhfuil tú ag toiliú leis an rún reifrinn (Comhdhéanamh an Choiste Feidhmiúcháin) a mhol Comhairle Chomhaltas na Mac Léinn an 25 Samhain 2019? Má éiríonn leis an leasú molta ar Bhunreacht Chomhaltas na Mac Léinn, OÉ Gaillimh: 1.
Cruthófar post páirtaimseartha mar Oifigeach Comhionannais ar Choiste Feidhmiúcháin Chomhaltas na Mac Léinn
2.
Cuirfear deireadh le ról na n-oifigeach páirtaimseartha seo a leanas i gComhaltas na Mac Léinn:
• •
An tOifigeach um Chúrsaí Mac Léinn Lánfhásta Cathaoirleach Chomhairle Chomhaltas na Mac Léinn Oifigeach na Mac Léinn Idirnáisiúnta An tOifigeach um Chearta Inscne agus LADT+ An tOifigeach um Chearta Daoine faoi Mhíchumas Oifigeach na Mionlach Eitneach
• • • •
This referendum has been requested by 500 members of the Students’ Union in accordance with the Students’ Union Constitution, Article 16.
Tá an reifreann seo iarrtha ag 500 ball de Chomhaltas na Mac Léinn de bhun Airteagal 16 de Bhunreacht Chomhaltas na Mac Léinn.
Full wording of the proposed amendment is availabe at www.su.nuigalway.ie
Tá foclaíocht iomlán an leasaithe mholta le fáil ar www.su.nuigalway.ie
How to Vote
Cén Chaoi Vótáil
Polling Station will be open on campus from 10:00am to 5:00pm. To vote at the polling station you must present your NUI Galway ID. No other form of ID will suffice.
Beidh Ionad Vótála ar an gcampas ar oscailt ó 10:00 r.n. go dtí 5:00 i.n. Le vótáil ag ionad vótála, beidh ort do chárta aitheantais OÉ Gaillimh a thaispeáint.
In Person at a Polling Station
Locations and opening hours of the Polling Station is available on the Students’ Union website.
Remote Vote
Ag Ionad Vótála
Ní ghlacfar le haon chineál comhartha aitheantais eile. Fógrófar suíomh agus uaireanta oscailte an Ionad Vótála ar shuíomh Idirlín Chomhaltas na Mac Léinn.
Students must register before midnight on Wednesday 22nd January. Once registered students can then cast their vote online during polling hours.
Tríd an gCóras Cianvótála
To register for Remote Vote, logon to the SU website www.su.nuigalway.ie
Le clárú le haghaidh an Chórais Cianvótála, téigh go dtí suíomh Idirlín Chomhaltas na Mac Léinn www.su.nuigalway.ie
SU Will ELECTIONS you run?
#NUIGSU20
www.su.nuigalway.ie
facebook.com/NUIGalwayStudentsUnion
twitter.com/NUIGSU
www.su.nuigalway.ie
facebook.com/NUIGalwayStudentsUnion
twitter.com/NUIGSU
Ní mór duit clárú lena aghaidh roimh mheán oíche, Dé Céadaoin, an 22 Éanair. Tar éis duit clárú, beidh tú in ann vótáil ar líne le linn na n-uaireanta vótála.
TOGHCHÁIN CML An rachaidh tú san iomaíocht?
#NUIGSU20
www.su.nuigalway.ie
facebook.com/NUIGalwayStudentsUnion
twitter.com/NUIGSU
www.su.nuigalway.ie
facebook.com/NUIGalwayStudentsUnion
twitter.com/NUIGSU
28 SPORT
SIN Vol. 21 Issue 07
Andy Farrell takes the helm – what can he do with the boys in green? By Owen Kennedy Upon reflection, it goes without saying that Joe Schmidt’s leadership over the Irish rugby team was a resounding success. Schmidt ended his era with Irish rugby with three Six Nations victories, including a Grand Slam and a Triple Crown in 2018, and a 73%-win record over 73 games. Schmidt’s departure from Irish rugby had been announced back in 2018, with Andy Farrell set to replace him as head coach. Farrell himself, father of England’s number 10 Owen Farrell, joined the Irish coaching set up in 2016 as an assistant coach. Farrell was assistant coach with England from 2011 to 2015 as well as defence coach for the 2013 series-winning British & Irish Lions tour to Australia. Previous to joining the England set-up, he coached Aviva Premiership side Saracens. As a dual code player, he played rugby league for Wigan, earning 370 caps, with England, he amassed 11 caps, including 3 World Cup appearances in 2007, and with Great Britain, he picked up 34 caps, before switching to union and joining Saracens. Farrell’s choices for the Irish squad have been hit hard already with injuries sustained by the Connacht squad, with Quinn Roux, Kieran Marmion, Tom Farrell, Conor Fitzgerald, Sean O’Brien and now Ultan Dillane all out, after Dillane suf-
fered a rib injury following the game against Toulouse. These injuries have dealt a huge blow to the hand Farrell can play in the Six Nations, but none of these injuries are set to hit Farrell and the Irish squad as hard as Joey Carberry, who is set to miss the entirety of the tournament after he damaged ligaments in his wrist. Farrell is most likely to start off his first few games, Scotland, Wales and England (in that order), following a similar strategy to what Schmidt had established. He may experiment against Scotland and Wales, but the team will need to work with the strategies that played to their strengths against England, so it’s highly likely Farrell will stick to a Schmidt-style strategy for that game. Against Italy, he’s bound to experiment a lot and shake the team up, seeing what he can play with. Depending on how our first three games go, he may play experimentally against France too, which will conclude our Six Nations campaign. In conclusion, Farrell has some very big shoes to fill. His previous experience with England and Saracens will come in handy as he steers his fledgling career as head coach, faced with scepticism from critics and fans alike. However, I’m confident he’ll start his Six Nations campaign well, despite the probability he may play safe by using previous Schmidt-style strategies.
Coiste Gnó
2019-2020
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Vice President / Education Officer Leas Uachtarán / Oifigeach Oideachais
Vice-President / Welfare and Equality Officer Leas-Uachtarán / Oifigeach Leasa agus Comhionannais
President / Uachtarán
Cameron Keighron
Clare Austick
su.education@nuigalway.ie 086 385 3658
su.president@nuigalway.ie 086 385 5502
Brandon Walsh
su.welfare@nuigalway.ie 086 385 3659
NUI Galway fall at first hurdle in pulsating Sigerson Cup showdown By Darren Casserly NUI Galway have been knocked out of the Sigerson Cup, following a 2-12 to 1-14 defeat to University Collage Cork in Dangan, despite a monstrous scoring tally of 1-9 for Robert Finnerty. A missed 66th minute free by Dessie Conneely sealed UCC’s progress to the next round and NUI Galway’s undeserving elimination from the Sigerson cup. As the old saying goes, goals win games and never was there a more apt example of that than this tie, which, for NUI Galway, started like a house on fire, as they went four points to no score up after five minutes. Then, what must have been déjà vu to many in the crowd who had witnessed the Fitzgibbon cup game earlier in the day, UCC came roaring back, first through a goal from Galwegian Rory Cunningham and then through a free from Kerry senior footballer Sean O’Shea and suddenly, in the space of a minute, the scores were tied. A goal from the half back James McEntee gave the Cork side the lead followed by five unanswered points and in the space of ten minutes, NUI Galway had gone from four points up to seven points down on what looked like it was going to be a bad day at the office for NUI Galway sports teams. However, a Robert Finnerty-led comeback meant that the Galway side went into the break three points down, but with momentum very much on their side. The second half was a relatively more cagey contest than the first half and it was a dream from a football purist point of view, but not either side’s defence. Robert Finnerty continued his hot streak
NUI Galway defeated in first game of Fitzgibbon Cup despite Niland’s free-scoring heroics By Darren Casserly
Oifigeach na Gaeilge Irish Language Officer
Mature Students’ Officer Oifigeach Mic Léinn Lánfhásta
Postgraduate Research Officer Oifigeach na nIarchéimithe i mbun Taighde
Postgraduate Taught Officer Oifigeach na nIarchéimithe Teagasctha
su.gaeilge@nuigalway.ie 091 493 570
su.maturestudents@nuigalway.ie 089 966 4053
su.pgresearch@nuigalway.ie 089 442 6068
su.pgtaught@nuigalway.ie 083 380 2180
Societies Chairperson Cathaoirleach na gCumann
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.socs@nuigalway.ie 083 141 9712
su.clubs@nuigalway.ie 087 094 5959
su.council@nuigalway.ie 085 204 8786
su.arts@nuigalway.ie 091 493 570
Convenor of the College of Science Tionólaí Choláiste na hEolaíochta
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into the second period, levelling the sides ten minutes after the restart. The lack of scoring options for the Galway side proved telling as UCC were able to find scorers all over the park. While the introduction of halfback Kieran Molloy at the break added to the short list of NUI Galway scorers, the clinical Robert Finnerty was able to keep NUI Galway in touching distance. The teams were still neck and neck going into the final minutes of the game, and it looked like it could go into extra time when UCC gave away a free in the dying seconds of the match, but a narrow miss from Dessie Conneely sealed NUI Galway’s fate in this thrilling showdown that really deserved no losers. NUI GALWAY: Ronan Ó Beolain, Kevin Carr, Eoin O’Donoghue, Stephen Brennan, Patrick O’Donnell Kevin McDonnell, Sean Mulkerrin, Aiden Claffey, Cein Darcy, Matthew Ruane, Finian Ó Laoi, Nathan Mullen, John Maher, Robert Finnerty, Dessie Conneely SUBS: Kieran Molloy for Carr (half-time), Padraig Costello for Maher (36), Gavin Burke for Claffey (40), Iarla O’Sullivan for O’Donnell (46) Conor Bohan for Brennan (57). UCC: Eoghan O’Brien, Liam O’Donovan, Daniel O’Brien, Michael Flood, Ross Dunphy, Brian Hartnett, James McEntee, Padraig Lucey, Padraig Feehan, Sean O’Shea, Killian Spillane, Colm O’Callaghan, Mark Cronin, Rory Cunningham, James Naughton SUBS: Diarmuid O’Connor for Feehan (46), Gary Murphy for Cunningham (51), Colm Barrett for Spillane (57)
NUI Galway’s Fitzgibbon Cup side fell to reigning champions University College Cork in their first game of the competition at a score of 0-19 to 0-17. Evan Niland’s 12 points from placed balls were not enough to overcome the physically superior UCC side. NUI Galway raced into an early three-point lead thanks points from Evan Niland, Paul Hoban and Kevin Hussey. The Cork side, however, replied with seven unanswered points of their own, turning what was a bright start into what looked like a long afternoon for NUI Galway. However, Evan Niland’s accuracy from placed balls, as well as UCCs ill-discipline, brought the Galway side back into the match, going into the break two points down. NUI Galway returned with a vengeance in the second half, scoring four unanswered points – mainly thanks to Evan Niland’s supreme accuracy from frees. Outside of the sharpshooting Niland, the Galway men had little to offer going forward other than a couple of impressive long-range shots from Michael Lynch and Sean Kennedy. This was also shown on the scoreboard, with UCC having ten different scorers in comparison to NUI Galway’s five. Saying this, discipline continued to trouble the Cork team. The lack of discipline resulted in
only a score separating the two sides heading into injury time and the momentum was fully behind Jeff Lynskey’s men. It looked as though NUI Galway could pull back level. This, unfortunately, was not the case, as a seventh point of the match for Shane Conway proved to be the final nail in the coffin for the Galway side. NUI Galway will now play Cork IT on either the 22nd or 23rd of January in hope to try and get their Fitzgibbon cup campaign back on the right track. NUI GALWAY: Sean Manogue, Caimin Killeen, Jack Fitzpatrick, Kevin Hussey, Sean Loftus, Andrew Greaney, Paul Hoban, Daniel Loftus, Ian Fox, Shane Fletcher, Cillian Lawless, John Fleming, Brian Concannon, Evan Niland, Conor Elwood SUBS: Michael Lynch for Lawless (half-time) Liam Forde for Elwood (38) Mark Gill for Greaney (42) Sean Kennedy for Fletcher (44) UCC: Shane Hurley, David Lowney, Eoghan Murphy, David Griffin, Mark Coleman, Paddy O’Loughlin, Niall O’Leary, Andrew Casey, Darragh Fitzgibbon, Billy Hennessy, Robbie O’Flynn, Shane Conway, Conor Boylan, Michael O’Halloran, Shane Kingston Subs: Mark Kehoe for O’Halloran (5-7 blood) Ronan Connolly for Griffin (28-30+4 blood) Kehoe for O’Flynn (41) Connolly for Hennessy (42), Paddy Cadell for Casey (53)
SPÓIRT
January 21 2020
29
Can Conor McGregor get his career in the octagon back on track against Donald Cerrone or is it just delaying the inevitable? By Shane Lynch Conor McGregor: the name itself brings a divided opinion amongst both mixed martial arts fans and the people of Ireland. A mixed martial arts fan reminiscing about McGregor would recall memories of a brash, cocky Irishman who changed the fortune of the Ultimate Fighting Championship and helped them break through on a global scale. Knocking out some of the greatest fighters who were the standard bearers of both the featherweight and lightweight divisions and becoming champions of both divisions simultaneously. However, mentioning his name amongst the average Irish person brings up hatred, and so a verbal portrait is painted of a man who is not an elite athlete, but rather a thug who has let money and power get the better of him. After an eighteen-month absence, he returns fighting for his reputation, honour and credibility as still being the same calibre fighter who sat on top of the octagon with two belts, and two divisions conquered. When analysing Conor McGregor’s chances in his majorly hyped return fight, one major indicator which can be easily overlooked is the motivation
behind “Mystic Mac”. Reflecting back at his last mixed martial art fight against Khabib Nurmagomedov, it came off the back of the biggest fight in combat sports history, a boxing match with the undefeated Floyd “Money” Mayweather. This laidback nature and complacency prevented him from performing as the best version of himself, which was a recipe for disaster for someone entering the octagon against a man who, before the McGregor fight, had never lost a round, never mind a fight. This loss against such a hated rival sent McGregor’s life into disarray, as assault charges and other misdeeds turned McGregor into a social pariah, with UFC distancing themselves from him so as not to reflect badly on the company as a whole. This fight, when broken down on the surface, weighs up multiple interesting outcomes for both men. Conor McGregor is a very quick starter out of the octagon and has tremendous speed and timing, which complements the power in his left hand and allows him to throw with as much talent and venom as a professional boxer. His improvement in his ground game, with the help of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt Dillon Danis, has helped him become
more rounded as a fighter. However, should the fight make it to the later rounds, specifically the fourth and fifth rounds, it’s a totally different ball game, as the one weakness that McGregor may have is his cardio, which was greatly tested and arguably exploited when his fights have gotten to the later stages, most notably the fourth and fifth rounds. Another major test for McGregor is that he is not a natural welterweight, and before his two infamous bouts with Nate Diaz had never fought in this weight class. Donald Cerrone is one of the most well rounded mixed martial artists in the UFC and combines his skill as a former professional kick boxer with a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under Eliot Marshall. Cerrone also has the honour of being the man who has the most finishes in UFC history, with fifteen, as well as having the most wins in UFC history with twenty-one. Cerrone is vulnerable when it comes to fighting someone who applies the pressure early and often, which was seen in his most recent fight against a staple of the lightweight division, Justin Gaethje. Cerrone fights with a rather composed, and some might
say a slow pace, but it is anything but that. Cerrone is methodical to the point where it would explain how his mixed martial arts career has had such longevity through the years. However, this approach didn’t serve him well, as he was stopped in the first round by Gaethje. The best analogy for this fight was that Cerrone was a sniper, dangerous from distance but also at the same time requiring the perfect set up to stop his opponent. Whereas Gaethje was a machine gun, constantly applying a wide variety of pressure whilst not letting up on a man who’s famous for starting fights slowly. By all accounts, McGregor has turned over a new leaf, in terms of both preparation and mindset for this return fight, possibly seeing this fight as a springboard to returning to title contention later in the year, and even perhaps a start on the road to setting up the much sought-after rematch with Khabib Nurmagomedov. However, McGregor must not overlook “The Cowboy”, who many have stated may possess the skills to win, as well as all the motivation to seriously derail the McGregor hype train.
Irish youngsters providing light at the end of the tunnel for the national team By Darren Casserly The recent emergence of exciting Irish prospects on the pitch has given the FAI and the Irish public much needed light at the end of the tunnel to start this new decade, after what has undoubtedly been the worst year in the history of the FAI. While much of the off the pitch issues remains very much up in the air, on the pitch, things at underage have started to change for the better, with many of the underage sides enjoying unprecedented success in European competitions. One of the most promising areas for this new generation is in the striking department. A statistic has recently made the rounds on social media, which says that four of the eight youngest strikers to play in the Premier League this season are Irish. For this current national side, this could be a godsend, when you consider that since the retirement of Robbie Keane, our highest goal scorer is Shane Long, who hasn’t played for Ireland since 2018 and hasn’t scored for Ireland since 2016. Other than Long, no other striker who has played in the last two years has got more than two goals. Frankly, these new players cannot come soon enough. It has not just been the squad that has been dismal over these last couple of years, as the managerial appointments have never been anything to shout about, but the imminent promotion of the most progressive manager to take the Irish job has added to the anticipation of a new look national team, if there still is one when UEFA has finished with the FAI. While it does seem premature to be placing this much hope on the shoulders of players who have
played very little senior football, it is, however, hard to blame the Irish supporters, most of whom have stopped watching a long time ago, from getting excited when a group of promising players come through. Along with this comes a manager who wants to play possession-based football, which he has succeeded with at underage level against the best teams in Europe. It is not very often that an Irish side at any level can match a team like Italy, get a draw and still feel like it’s 2 points dropped rather than a point gained. Somewhat unsurprisingly, some of these players from the underage sides, such as Aaron Connolly and Troy Parrott, have made their debuts for the senior team without doing much at club level. Yet, these selections were overwhelmingly welcomed by the supporters and are an indication of just how desperate this team are to have a goal scorer playing that isn’t a centre back. While some will claim that Ireland is doing as well as they could hope for on the international stage, all you need to do is look to countries like Wales, Iceland and Northern Ireland, who have achieved far beyond their means. This is thanks mainly to good management, underage structures and a competent football association, most of which has not been achieved with the FAI. We have, however, somehow accidentally stumbled upon what very well could be a golden generation – the likes of which this country has never seen before and all we can hope for is that the FAI stays in existence and people with basic competence are put in place. Saying this, it’s the FAI and basic competence is hard to come by in this association.
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30 SPORT
SIN Vol. 21 Issue 07
The top 5 sporting moments of the 2010s – a decade that defied logic By Daniel Brennan In a lot of ways, the decade of the 2010s defied all conventional logic – as the world, in many ways, crumbled around us in ways that we could barely believe, sports defied convention time and time again. I can’t think of a decade where so many championships were decided in the dying moments of a season, where movie scripts would not have done justice to the drama that happened in the arena of battle. As a result, getting this list down to only 5 was tough, but here are my personal favourites.
Intercepted at the goal-line by Malcom Butler – Patriots stop the Seahawks at the 1-yard line to win Superbowl 49 It was fitting that one of the most iconic NFL plays of all time capped off what, at the time, many saw as a clash of the NFL’s past and future dynasties – the Patriots’ time-tested combination of Brady and Belichick taking on Pete Carroll and the Legion of Boom - the loudmouth, in-yourface defensive core that the Seahawks had built off of to claim Superbowl 48 the year before. Down by 4 points with two minutes and change to go, the Seahawks had to score a touchdown to retain their title. A phenomenal drive deep into Patriots territory included another one of the craziest plays I have ever seen, as Rus-
sell Wilson slung a deep ball to wide receiver Jermaine Kearse, who despite having two Patriot defenders all over him and having the ball tipped somehow managed to haul it in to give the Seahawks 1st and goal. But instead of handing the ball to star running back Marshawn Lynch at the 1-yard line, the call to throw in an attempt to bluff the Patriots out didn’t work, as undrafted rookie Malcom Butler made a fantastic play to pick Wilson off and hand Tom Brady his millionth Superbowl ring.
I swear you’ll never see anything like this ever again – Manchester City’s added time comeback against QPR to seal the 2011-
12 Premier League title You all know the story – all Manchester City had to do was defeat relegation candidates QPR at home to secure their first Premier League title over their bullying bigger brother, Manchester United. But with 91 minutes gone, despite QPR being down to 10 men, City were 2-1 down, before Edin Dzeko’s oftforgotten equaliser and then Sergio Aguero bagging what I’d argue is the most iconic Premier League goal of all time – one that spawned Martin Tyler’s iconic commentary line, and a moment of ultimate glory for Manchester’s perennial whipping boys.
LeBron James’ clutch game 7 block against the
Leicester City went from 5000-1 odds and one of the relegation favourites in pre-season to putting together one of the most remarkable team efforts anyone has seen in any sport, as they won the title with games to spare, defeating England’s footballing superpowers through sheer grit and determination under Claudio Ranieri.
Warriors, ending Cleveland’s perpetual sporting misery Before 2016, the history of major sports in Cleveland was one of constant disappointment. Be it the Browns firstly being sold off to Baltimore before their reincarnated version becoming an NFL bottom-feeder for its entire existence, the Indians always falling just short in the MLB or the Cavaliers doing a mix of both in the NBA, the city of Cleveland was notorious as a city that had no teams that could ever get it done when it really mattered. Down 3-1 in the 2016 NBA finals to the Golden State Warriors, it looked like the Cavaliers would continue Cleveland’s most valued sporting tradition – until hometown superstar LeBron James inspired a Cavs fightback to draw the series to 3-all and force a game 7. I’m sure you’ve all seen the GIF even if you aren’t a basketball fan – with a minute to go and the lead bouncing back and forth between both teams, LeBron James springs into action to block a fast break layup from Andre Igoudala – a block that allowed the Cavs to go down the court and score – which would secure the first championship for any team in Cleveland in over half a century.
Leicester City overcome the odds to win the 201516 Premier League title It would be remiss of me not to include perhaps the greatest upset
in modern sporting history here – Leicester City went from 5000-1 odds and one of the relegation favourites in pre-season to putting together one of the most remarkable team efforts anyone has seen in any sport, as they lost only three games and won the title with games to spare as they defeated the billions held by England’s footballing superpowers through sheer grit and determination under Claudio Ranieri.
Liverpool’s Champions League miracle against Barcelona Liverpool welcomed Barcelona to Anfield just a few short weeks after taking a 3-0 drubbing at the Nou Camp at the hands of Messi and co, and while few expected Liverpool to simply lie down against their Catalan opposition in their home leg, it would have been understandable, considering the titanic title battle they were engaged in with Manchester City, and the fact that they were missing two of their biggest stars in Roberto Firmino and Mo Salah. As they always seem to have a habit of doing on European nights at Anfield, though, Liverpool came through with one of the greatest comebacks in footballing history to win 4-0, capped off by an ingenious quick corner from Trent Alexander-Arnold to Divock Origi that made one of the most famous teams in the world look like a Sunday League outfit for a brief moment in time.
Sporting predictions for 2020 and beyond By Shane Lynch The following predictions are for not only the year ahead, but rather the entire decade to come. I based my predictions on a combination of what I think should happen, as well as what I would like to happen in the next ten years. As well as this, I made my predictions on the four main sports that I follow, as to not make this article predominately based around one solitary sport. My first prediction is based around the GAA, most notably the men’s senior football championship. It is a common fact that Dublin have dominated, winning the five in a row this past September. However, there is a belief amongst the majority of footballing counties that it is a case of the weak getting weaker and the strong getting stronger, with arguably only three counties able to compete with Dublin, those being Kerry, Mayo and Tyrone. This leaves smaller counties having nothing to fight for and hence, cannot develop talent to such a level,
due to a lack of game time. So, my first prediction is that the GAA introduces a second tier for the football championship, similar to a group stage of eight groups of four teams which we see in soccer’s UEFA Champions League. This can guarantee at least four games for all counties, with the top two qualifying for the All-Ireland series, with the bottom two entering a secondary cup, which could possibly be named after a GAA legend. The reward for the winner is an automatic entry into the AllIreland series for the following year. With the provincial series becoming obsolete, now is the best time to introduce this system and breathe new life into the future of the senior football championship. Boxing is a sport which has gone through a major heavyweight revival over the decade gone by, with the emergence of three main pillars of heavyweight boxing, those being Olympic gold medallist Anthony Joshua, the undefeated Deontay Wilder, and, in my own view, the
best active heavyweight right now, the charismatic “Gypsy King” Tyson Fury. With these three men helping return heavyweight boxing back to the glory days of the eighties and nineties, it has allowed many new contenders to immerge and my prediction is that we will have a fourth standard bearer in boxing, and that will be Daniel Dubois. With a knockout-to-win percentage of 92.8%, Dubois possesses the power to knock anyone out, and he is not strictly reliant on his power like most heavyweights. His jab is likened to a former heavyweight champion in Larry Holmes. The twenty-two-yearold is 14-0. His future is very bright, and so it wouldn’t surprise any boxing fans if he was fighting for a world title in the next couple of years. One of the major problems when it comes to combat sports, most notably mixed martial arts, is that weight cutting can have serious effects on athletes, with the UFC adding a measure which ensures that fighters must be within eight per cent
above their target weight the week of the fight, ensuring that they safely cut weight and do it in the healthiest manner they can. However, one way in which they can add to this is by introducing more weight classes, specifically a 165-pound division and a 175-pound division, which would abolish the 170-pound weight category. The majority of weight-classes in the UFC has a 10-pound difference between them, and so by introducing these weight classes, fighters would be able to perform to the best of their abilities, and more title fights mean a more entertaining product for the fans and would encourage less extreme measures to be taken to obtain these weights. My final prediction for the new sporting decade is the abolition of the League Cup/Carabao Cup. In the current footballing climate, games are consistently piling onto teams, especially this time of the year, and because of this, teams are being hit with constant injury worries going into one of the most
important and critical stages of the footballing year. Should a team play European football, and also get far into the F.A. Cup, it hinders their chances of winning those prestigious and respected trophies, whilst at the same time, diluting down the value of both competitions. The competition’s name changing to the Carabao Cup, Carabao being a company who makes energy drinks, should say everything about what its main purpose is to the English footballing calendar, and that is a source of income for the Football Association. Bigger teams almost always field a second team, which reflects on the managers attitude towards the trophy. With the abolishing of this competition, it can help teams to prepare themselves for matters which really matter for clubs and that is domestic league success, as well as survival. Once both are achieved, they can then look at expanding their continental market through the varying European competitions.
CO MÓ RTAS
January 21 2020
31
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Crossword Clues ACROSS
1 – This village on campus is inhabited almost entirely by first years (6) 4 – Often, people must sit on the floor all around campus as there’s an awful lack of _____ (6) 9 – A very important factor for a student when deciding whether to buy something (5) 10 – Fourth largest city in the Netherlands, with a university ranked 49th in the world (7) 11 – Elation, joy (7) 12 – Areas with a specific characteristic or purpose (5) 13 – Verb to express or represent an idea or a quality (6) 15 – To move up, often with holy connotations (6) 19 – Stories with a bit of mystique to them (5) 21 – A necessary new year purchase to help organise your life (7) 23 – African country with a population of 200 million (7) 24 – Asian country that gained independence from Britain in 1947 (5) 25 – First name of the current University President (6) 26 – Small house, usually constructed with wooden logs, commonly found in the Alps (6)
DOWN 1 – A simple Italian salad, made of sliced fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, and sweet basil (7) 2 – “I bless the _____ down in Africa” (5) 3 – Mums are often seen in this Nordic country (7) 5 – Unit of frequency (5) 6 – This exudes an odour when burned but you don’t smoke it (7) 7 – A sure sign the property market is booming is when you see plenty of building _____ (5)
8 – This Latin Quarter pub has the same name as the street it’s on (5) 14 – City in Northern Italy that’s given the world its name for a pasta sauce (7) 16 – Nationality of Galway’s most famous arch (7) 17 – If a volcano has not been active for centuries, it is most likely _____ (7) 18 – Former American talk show host, whose show ran for 25 years until 2011 (5) 19 - A loose garment, typically sleeveless and reaching to the knees, as worn in ancient Greece and Rome (5) 20 – Middle Eastern country from which over 5 million of its own inhabitants have had to flee due to the ongoing civil war (5) 22 – One of the greatest male tennis players of all time, has the same nationality as the arch from 16 down (5)
ISSUE 6 SOLUTIONS A T H E N R Y S Y S O P
L U M N U L U O U N D R E O U S T E E M E N I A G E S S I O T N E E K E R R E O S E R
S G U A T E N R E N M O E O U E R M I N T I C S C H E A S N S C H G B A S O L I T R K Y O U T U
R D W R E L A L M E X I C R V E T B E
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