SIN Vol. 17 Issue 04

Autumn Conferrings

Halloween Special

Irish actor Stephen Rea receives Honorary Doctor of Arts Degree Page 4

The best movies, costumes and things to do on Halloween night.

Page 11 – 18

Upcoming Gig Popular rock band Otherkin talks to Sin ahead of their November gig.

Page 24

USI: Education is ‘not a priority of this Government’ after Budget 2016

By Jenna Hodgins

FREE STUDENT NEWSPAPER | VOL 17, ISSUE 04 | 27 OCT 2015

BE BRAVE, BE YOU! GigSoc reaches thousands with new Mental Health campaign

By Laura McGettigan In a society full of unrealistic expectations, social norms and goals, being yourself requires courage and bravery.

As part of mental Health Week earlier this month, Gay in Galway Society made the words ‘Be You’ come alive in their recent video campaign ‘Be Brave, Be You’.

The ‘Be Brave, Be You’ video worked to promote acceptance and equality as students came together in an act of solidarity to embrace all differences and encourage students to be themselves.

Numerous members of NUI Galway Students’ Union, the Socs Box, Flirt FM and society auditors from around the campus participated in the video as they reflected on how their involvement with extracurricular activities and societies has had a profoundly positive impact on their life.

Societies Chairperson Patrick O’Flaherty emphasised the involvement in societies as “an important part of building your mental health”, and the overall message of the video was to get involved in something that interests you and allows you to be you.

“On a personal level [societies] are probably what gave me the most meaning to my life, and where I’ve met most of my friends and developed real life skills,” said Áine Gallagher, a representative of ALIVE who, along with Student Volunteer Coordinator Lorraine Tansey, emphasised how involvement with extracurricular activities, including volunteering, can help boost your confidence and selfesteem.

Unfortunately, suicide rates have hit an all-time high in the country, with Ireland holding the fourth highest rate for suicides in young men aged 15 to 24.

While depression is a very common condition which affects more than 450,000 people in Ireland and one

in 10 people of all age groups, many people still feel alone when battling this condition.

GiGSoc’s ‘Be Brave, Be You’ campaign is aimed at giving strength to those people who feel marginalised or oppressed and to help people find, in the words of Societies Officer Riona Hughes, “the small changes you can make to raise your mood and make some days possible”.

Riona goes on to add that the message behind the campaign is “a message that is central to what society is all about – finding out who you are and who you want to be”.

The campaign promotes good well-being by encouraging acceptance of yourself and of others and also promotes involvement in societies and extracurricular activities as tools to combat mental health issues, to surround yourself with a network of positive, like-minded people in a situation where you are enjoying your hobbies and practising your skills.

GiGsoc, which is the LGBTQA society in NUI Galway drew its inspiration from the well-known ‘Before I Die’ wall on Dominick street where many have positively reflected on their wishes by ending the sentence ‘Before I Die I want to…’ with their hopes and dreams, including ‘Before I Die I want to be alive’, ‘I want to understand myself’ and ‘I want to make my dreams come true.’

As part of the ‘Be Brave, Be You’ campaign GigSoc held a blank whiteboard where students and staff alike around campus filled out the sentence ‘Be Brave, Be…’ with words of encouragement and positivity.

The whiteboards were filled with optimism and enthusiasm with responses such as ‘Be brave, be true to yourself’, ‘Be brave, be unique’ and ‘Be brave, be the person you want to be!’ “‘Be Brave, Be You’ endeavours to develop a safe and, most importantly, brave campus for the LGBTQA* com-

munity in NUI Galway which consists of both students and staff,” said auditor of GiGSoc Jessica Watts.

“We definitely achieved our aim of getting as many people involved as possible and in doing so, promoting acceptance to the best of our ability.

GiGSoc, as a society, is always trying to promote acceptance and strives to create a safe and brave space where people can feel free to be themselves, flaws and all.

“Hopefully we can continue to improve the campaign later in the year and we will see the introduction of the permanent ‘Be Brave, Be You’ wall on campus, so that students can help each other by anonymously helping to restore perspective and share intimately their own personal reflections or aspirations in a public space. If we accomplish this goal, then we would consider the campaign fulfilled.”

As GiGSoc has won the award for Best Society for the past two years, they hope to continue this achievement in the coming year. With over 112 societies on campus hopefully this campaign has let students know that there is a place for everyone to grow fully into the individuals that they deserve to be.

“Our campaign was warmly received by everyone that we approached to ask if they would like to be involved. The video has reached just shy of 4,500 people and we are so grateful for and humbled by everyone's kind words and involvement.

“The committee are extremely proud of the success of the campaign so far and are excited to see how much more it can and will grow over the next few months,” Miss Watts added.

In a world full of angst and uncertainty, GiGSoc’s campaign gives us all the courage to embrace our own differences and the differences of others, cherish the little things and the courage to, above all, be brave and be you!

Some of the participants in GiGSoc’s ‘Be Brave, Be You’ campaign video, which was launched earlier this month.

According to a survey conducted by the Union of Students Ireland (USI) 80 percent of students will vote for another party in the next General Election as a result of the 2016 Budget.

Further statistics report that 66.7 percent of students ‘feel let down’ by the current Fine Gael-Labour government, and that 93.3 percent of students think their current government fails to prioritise education.

Budget 2016 saw a five euro increase in Child Benefit, a three euro increase in State pensions, USC relief, 2,200 new teaching posts to be created, and a 50 cent increase per box of cigarettes.

Additionally the minimum wage was raised by 50 cent making it €9.15 per hour, a move which in turn could benefit working students.

It also managed to secure €3 million for the Student Assistance Fund, an aspect of the Budget which will help the most disadvantaged of students.

The Student Assistance Fund (SAF) provides financial support for students in full-time education who are experiencing temporary or ongoing financial difficulties during the academic year.

The scheme assesses a student’s financial situation and personal circumstances.

A standardised assessment system is used to determine the funds to be allocated to each specific circumstance, it also depends on the amount of funding available, and the volume of students applying for financial aid.

The 2011 Rag Week agreement between the NUI Galway and the Students’ Union negotiated terms that secured €60,000 towards the Student Assistance Fund and the Student Health Unit; although SAF remained under stress at NUI Galway, with a dramatic increase in the amount of students applying for financial aid in recent years.

A further €2 million will go towards to the creation of Technological Universities in Dublin, Munster, and the South-East only.

However the Budget neglected many other pressing issues regarding Higher Education such as reintroducing postgraduate grants nor addressing the €500 hike in Student Contribution fees since Budget 2013.

In response to Budget 2016, USI’s Vice President for the Border, Midlands, and Western Region, Feidhlim Seoighe said; “The education sector as a whole has been overlooked in favour of what the Government believes to be more vote-grabbing causes. The increase in the Student Assistance Fund of over €3 million is something that USI had called for during our pre-budget campaign, and the addition of over 2,200 additional teaching posts is welcomed.”

Continued on page 2

2 NEWS

Sin Vol. 17 Issue 04

Student Assistance Fund Applications now open

By Niamh Cullen Applications for the Student Assistance Fund (SAF) are now open to NUI Galway students.

The fund, which has an application deadline of 2 November at 12pm, is designed to provide financial support for disadvantaged students based on an assessment of personal and monetary circumstances. All registered, full-time students registered in a course of at

least one year are eligible to apply, excluding those undertaking an Erasmus year or foundation study.

Costs such as academic materials, rent, utility bills, food, travel and medical expenses are taken into account on assessment. A variety of circumstances such as bereavement or domestic issues are also considered. Debt, registration and tuition fees are not provided for. Provision of fund-

ing is also dependent on how much funding is available and the number of applications received.

Upon applying, students later meet with a member of the SAF committee, who then make recommendations to the board. The committee consists of Student Services Staff and the Students' Union Welfare Officer.

Students are emailed about the outcome of their application on 23 November after

which an SAF Form 1 is issued. The deadline for this form and supporting documentation is December 3 at 3pm and if an application is considered successful, payment is issued on 18 December.

For application forms, information or queries, students can drop into the Student Services Office in Áras Uí Chathail or the Vice-President / Welfare Officer in the Students' Union.

PhD Scholarship opportunities in NUI Galway: Applications now open

By Niamh Cullen Applications are now being accepted for four-year structured PhD Scholarships at NUI Galway. The Hardiman and Dr Tony Ryan Research Scholarships provides an annual of €16,000 for students engaging in full-time research.

The deadline for applications is 5pm on 20 November, and is open only to prospective PhD students, rather than those already registered.

Full funding is provided for students undertaking their PhD studies in five key areas: Applied Social Sciences and Public Policy, Biomedical Science and Engineer-

ing, Humanities in Context, Environment, Marine and Energy and Informatics, Data Analytics, Physical and Computational Sciences.

A 1:1 or 2:1 honours primary degree or equivalent is expected for students wishing to apply. In GPA or QCA form, this translates as a 3.6 or 3.2 and above.

All applications will be assessed by a panel of at least three assessors from different backgrounds. Each assessor takes into account a submitted personal research statement (50 points), academic qualifications (30 points), referees’ reports (10 points) and previous research experience (10 points).

Candidates will then be shortlisted and

interviewed between 17 December 2015 and 8 January 2016 inclusive.

Though the majority of the awarded schemes are intended for European Union (EU) citizen and resident students, a number of awards will be given to exceptional nonEU member state candidates.

NUI Galway Dean of Graduate Studies, Dr Lucy Byrnes, said: “These scholarships provide opportunities for excellent students

to complete a doctoral degree at NUI Galway in our priority research areas. Our structured PhD programmes support the development of innovative individuals who will advance our understanding through their research and make valuable contributions to society.”

Applications forms and further information are available at http://www.nuigalway. ie/hardiman-scholarships/, or in NUI Galway’s Career Development Centre.

21st Century Skills for the young people in Galway Young people at an early age are already digital natives, they have become users and consumers of technology in their daily lives.

The Foróige Techspace Programme is about combining the trusted principles and practice of youth work with the use of technology as a tool to engage young people in creative learning and encourage them to use their interests in technology in an active constructive way rather than just a passive user technology such as social media.

This programme offers young people aged 10 to 18 years the opportunity to explore various multi-media and smart technologies in a fun and creative environment while developing life skills such as communication, problem solving, teamwork skills and confidence.

Local Foróige Youth Development Projects in Galway are looking for the following volunteers for this programme;

• Volunteer Leaders interested in youth work and youth development • Media Mentors skilled and has an interest in digital media • Maker Mentor skilled in maker, tinkering or STEAM activities • Tech Mentor who will support the project in hardware support and maintenance Be part of Foróige’s vision of an Ireland that believes in every young person.

Volunteers will be receive Induction Training, role descriptions and other professional development training, valuable facilitation/ teaching / youth work experience and an opportunity to pass on skills and interests in technology to young people with similar interests.

If you would like to volunteer please contact Megan Depinna on 086 2566480 or by email at megan.depinna@foroige.ie for more information or a volunteer application form.

USI: Education is ‘not a priority of this Government’ after Budget 2016 Continued from page 1 Mr Seoighe continued; “Although it is merely the tip of the iceberg when compared to the vast amount of additional public expenditure announced on Budget day. Education, and in particular Higher Education is clearly not a priority of this Government, with absolutely no investment made in the sector in the five-year lifetime of the Fine Gael/Labour coalition.”

USI President, Kevin Donoghue had similar comments to make regarding the Budget; “Although the increase of €3 million for the SAF is a positive, not reintroducing the postgraduate grants is disappointing. Fine Gael hasn’t taken the opportunity to fully invest in young people.

Education is an investment, not expenditure.

“Young people and their families have suffered enormously because of the cost of college and not having an education will have a ripple effect on their futures – from training, refining current skills and employability, education is a major factor in the structure of economic recovery.”

The allocated €3 million to the Student Assistance Fund will be divided into two specific distributions: €1 million in accordance to the USI pre-budget call. The remaining €2 million towards students who are considered disadvantaged as a result of their backgrounds. Details concerning eligibility and requirements will be available in the coming spring.

For comment on Budget 2016, check out ‘Reading #Budget16 in student terms’ on page 8.

NEWS 3

October 27 2015

Humans of NUI Galway

The rock ‘n’ roll clown… from Hell (and other weird Halloween costumes)

By Jessica Thompson Ah Halloween! As a child, it was my one of my favourite times of year, and now as a young adult, it is once again one of my favourite times of year.

There’s something wonderful about dressing up in the weirdest costumes, wearing more makeup than your face can carry and walking to town, dodging Tellytubbies and superheroes and zombies and that one person who seems to be a mishmash of everything.

Galway is such a great place to be on Halloween night. With its large student population the city comes alive with all manner of creatures. In fact, it’s very strange to see someone who’s not in fancy dress on Halloween night.

It’s amazing how things change over the years. Remember the bin bag costumes so many of us wore as children? We were so damn cool, walking around with our plastic masks that our parents bought in a pound shop, carrying Tesco plastic bags, collecting sweets from neighbours and strangers alike.

I’ll never forget all those years I wandered around dressed as a witch or a vampire, crackling like a plastic bag as I snuck from one corner to another waiting for some poor, unsuspecting victim (who could probably hear me coming a mile away) to cross my path so I could scare the bejeezus out of them.

There were some years when my parents weren’t quite so busy and would take the time to kit me out in the coolest outfits of them all.

There was one year – when I was very young – when I was the coolest little witch in town.

I must have been six or seven at the time. My mother made me a little black dress using some old material. She used a rolled up cereal box – a Rice Krispies box to be precise – covered in the same black material to create a pointy witch’s hat.

She also went to the trouble of getting me a long nose (covered in warts of course), and some fingertips with long witchy nails that I could sit on top of my own fingertips. I was so damn cool.

But that’s not all – my dad got in on the fun too and made me the greatest, most perfect broom that any little witch could possibly want.

He used the handle of a sweeping brush, and affixed as many twigs as he could on the end of it.

I didn’t have a cat, and decided that one of my dog teddies would have to suffice – he was

promptly fixed to the end of my broom. And with a bit of Halloween makeup I was ready to go.

We went to a party that night and I remember very little about it, except that I was running around a pole, singing away to myself when a strange lady came over to me and asked me my name.

I told her and ten minutes later, she got up on stage and announced the winner of the children’s costume competition... me!

It was such a proud moment in my life and such a massive achievement. I can still taste the marshmallows I was given as a congratulations present.

One of my more interesting Halloween costumes was a giant dead caterpillar... from Hell.

Yes, you read that correctly.

It was one Halloween night when the family was simply staying in and watching scary movies. My siblings and I had no plans to dress up, but sometime in the middle of the evening, the urge to eat sweets came upon us.

So we got a giant skull decoration that was hanging in the window and we grabbed a darkcoloured duvet cover and we became a giant dead caterpillar... from Hell.

We crouched beneath the duvet, with my sister standing at the front holding the skull. My brother stood in the middle and I brought up the rear. We dipped up and down, alternating so that different parts of the caterpillar’s body were raised at various times – you’ve got to get that caterpillar motion right, you know?

We got some very funny looks for our lazy costume, but we probably enjoyed that costume more than any other costume because of how weird it was to others. We had a nice little collection of sweets by the end of our adventures though.

Another interesting outfit I had was a rock ‘n’ roll clown... from Hell (I know, you’re sensing a theme here…). There wasn’t much to that; just an orange wig, a clown nose and a lot of leather.

I was pretty cool that Halloween.

It’s funny how the urge to dress up is so prominent in our childhood, and again in our young adulthood, yet in our teenage years, we’re too embarrassed to dress up properly.

I remember going to a friend’s Halloween “dressup” when I was 16. My mother helped me with my costume and my makeup and my hair. My hair was all messed up and my makeup,

despite making me look dead, was beautiful.

I wore a long dress and a lace veil that looked like black spider webs. I was pretty proud of that costume. I was some sort of corpse bride – though not one of the Tim Burton variety.

After receiving several compliments on how great my costume was, I made my way to the party.

Well I felt like Cady from Mean Girls when I walked in there. I was the only one in a proper costume. I’m not saying all the girls were scantily-clad. But they were in jeans and t-shirts, with ordinary make-up and they were wearing small things – like devil horns or a witch’s hat.

There were no proper costumes and I was on the receiving end of plenty of condescending, judging looks.

I never fitted in with that crowd anyway.

This issue of Sin is always one of my favourites, because it’s full of Halloween-themed articles. So whatever your plans for Halloween, make sure you turn to pages 11 to 18 to get some amazing costume or party ideas.

Happy Halloween!

Jess @Jessicadotie

By Grace McKeever

Ricky Jinks, 2nd year Psychology and Soc and Pol student: "When I put on clothes I feel hot in, people ask 'who are you trying to impress?' Honestly, nobody. I have spent years hating everything about myself and not feeling like I could wear certain things because I thought people would laugh at me, but I realised that no one was putting me down more than myself.

“When I decided just be myself and be happy with it, I grabbed fashion with both hands.

Sometimes I dread to see my body in the mirror but then, I put nice clothes on and feel like I could run the world, even on an off day, and that may appear arrogant or cocky to some, but I'm really just happy I can walk around not carrying the weight of having to impress other people.”

This issue, Sin has teamed up with PhotoSoc to bring you some of the best photos taken by NUI Galway students. This issue’s theme was ‘Halloween’, and the winner was Janet O’Donnell who sent in this photo, aptly names ‘Halloween’.

Upcoming Sin Meetings Anyone and everyone is welcome to our Sin meetings. The next meeting is:

Editor in Chief: Jessica Thompson

editor@sin.ie Layout: Shannon Reeves | contact via Ed

Monday 10th November – AC203 Bring your ideas, or even just your enthusiasm, and we’ll give you the ideas!

4 NEWS

Sin Vol. 17 Issue 04

CÚRAM Artist in Residence: The Future is Here Actor Stephen Rea receives honorary degree

By Niamh Cullen The crossroads of art and science have been explored by an innovative exhibition, which will grace Galway for eight weeks. “The Future is Here” encompasses a collection of work resulting from the artists in residence programme at CÚRAM, the Centre for Research in Medical Devices at NUI Galway. The collections can be viewed for free from 30 October to 23 December at the Galway City Museum from 10am to 5pm Tuesday to Saturday.

The exhibition, which is presented by the Chimera Art and Science Programme reflects projects conducted by the Artists in Residence, Joanna Hopkins and Siobhan McGibbon. The programme has involved both artists and CÚRAM researchers working together for the past six months, to discover the meeting point between art and science.

Andrea Fitzpatrick, Director and Curator of the Programme said; “The focus of the Chimera Art and Science Programme is to

develop a visual arts research project within CÚRAM’s laboratories, exploring experimental practice and investigating the resulting composite space of enquiry.”

Joanna Hopkins’s series of multimedia works explores areas of the human brain believed to be responsible for empathy.

Hopkins’ installations are based on her investigation on neurons CÚRAM’s research labs.

She also assesses the evolving sphere of multiple 'touch-screen' video devices via a collection of drawings, video and interactive installations.

Siobhan McGibbon presents a hypothetical narrative centering the creation of a future human species that merges the superior biological elements of tadpoles and zebra fish. The works of both artists’ involve collaboration with CÚRAM’s scientists, utilising the centre’s processes and materials used in the development of medical devices.

Professor Abhay Pandit, Director of CÚRAM, said; “We are very excited about the

upcoming exhibitions and our scientists have been very engaged in the process. Residency programmes are a key part of our public engagement programme here at CÚRAM and we will be expanding these programmes in the future.”

The programme also includes a project led by 11 students from the Centre for Creative Arts and Media at Galway Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT). Work by Blaithin Hughes, Connor Robertson, Elizabeth Lartey, Ewa Zdybel, Helena Grady, Katie Higgins, Lisa Conroy, Mark White, Nicole Roan, Therese Murphy and Tom McLean will be exhibited at NUI Galway’s Gallery during Science Week in early November.

The Chimera Art and Science Programme is funded by the Science Foundation Ireland Discover Programme, which aims to support and develop Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) education and the public engagement sector in Ireland.

By Margaret Langevin Along with the 2,500 students who graduated in the Autumn Conferring Ceremonies at NUI Galway, the University also gave an Honorary Doctor of Arts Degree to Irish actor Stephen Rea. Rea was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland and studied English at Queen’s University. He later trained at the Abbey Theatre School in Dublin and acted with Focus Theatre Company in Dublin with other actors, such as Gabriel Byrne and Colm Meaney.

In 1980, Rea co-founded the Field Day theatre company with Irish playwright, Brian Friel.

Mr Rea is a highlyregarded stage actor, most recently for his role in Ballyturk, directed and written by Enda Walsh.

He became an international success for his performance in Neil Jordan’s 1992 film The Crying Game for which he was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor.

Other notable films he contributed to are Interview with the Vampire, Michael Collins, The Butcher Boy, This Is My Father and The End of the Affair.

This year, he was awarded a Bafta TV Award for The Honourable Woman and was the recipient of the Special Tribute Award at the Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards in recognition of his continued commitment to theatre, for his work with the Field

Day theatre company and for his recent stage roles.

“NUI Galway is fortunate to be associated with many outstanding honorary graduates throughout its history.

This week we are very proud to honour Stephen Rea for his outstanding and distinctive contribution to the world of culture, theatre and film in Ireland and far beyond.

NUI Galway is very pleased to be in a position to recognise his exceptional talent and achievement,” said President of NUI Galway Dr Jim Browne.

NUI Galway’s Huston School of Film and Digital Media hosted two events free to the public to celebrate Rea. The first event ‘Stephen Rea: Politics and the Artist’ discussed the role of political engagement in arts and culture in Ireland.

The second focused on his significant contribution to cinema and drama in Ireland and internationally. It included extract screenings from his film and television work.

NUI Galway staff and students to battle it out at THREESIS 2015 competition

By Neil Slevin

NUIG Students!

Don’t forget to use your free €15 travel vouchers in the coming weeks!

Make sure you travel with Bus Éireann this student year. With great value fares, Ireland’s most extensive travel network, comprehensive timetables and total convenience, no matter where you study this year, we’ll get you there.

Ever wondered how research at NUI Galway and St. Angela’s College in Sligo impacts upon our daily lives, on our family and broader community? Well, so that you can learn more about it, you are invited to a competition designed to answer that very question on Thursday 29 October at 6pm in An Taibhdhearc Theatre, Galway.

The THREESIS competition is an annual academic challenge that sees students and staff from NUI Galway and St. Angela’s College, Sligo present their research to their audience and a panel of judges in an accessible language that a non-expert can understand. This year, Jonathan McCrea, presenter of Newstalk’s Futureproof and award-winning broadcaster, will act as MC. Each of the 13 finalists, who have already come through a series of heats held at NUI Galway and St. Angela’s College, Sligo, will

present three slides in three minutes with the aim of communicating their research area and relevancy: competitors are judged on how well they convey their subject and their ability to communicate to a general audience.

NUI Galway’s five priority research areas: Biomedical Science and Engineering; Informatics, Physical and Computational Sciences; Environment, Marine and Energy; Applied Social Sciences and Public Policy; and Humanities in Context, will be represented. Topics for presentation range from breast cancer, English-Irish machine translation, Parkinson’s disease, blue ecosystem services, Galway energy-efficient cars, and colourful coral reefs in Ireland.

Those awarded first, second and third place will receive a prize based on the decision of the judges, who include Professor Lokesh Joshi, Vice-President for Research at NUI Galway and Mr Declan Courell, Registrar

of St. Angela's College, Sligo.

Speaking to promote the event, Professor Lokesh Joshi said; “This event will provide a snapshot of the diversity of research being carried out at NUI Galway. The talks will be sharp and to-the-point, with plenty of time while the judges deliberate for NUI Galway researchers and members of the community to share ideas over refreshments.

“The audience will also be treated to a short talk from last year’s THREESIS competition winner, Edel Browne, a second-year B.Sc. in Biotechnology student.

Her talk ‘Free Feet’ is based on her innovative use of laser technology that has revolutionised potential treatment methods for freezing of gait (FOG) in people with Parkinson’s disease (PD),” he added.

The event is free to attend and refreshments will be served on the night; to book your tickets, visit http://www. nuigalway.ie/threesis/.

NEWS 5

October 27 2015

Students encouraged to enter the Drugs.ie Media Awards

By Aisling Bonner The 2016 edition of The Drugs. ie ‘Let’s Talk About Drugs’ National Youth Media Awards was launched earlier this month by Miriam O’Callaghan.

The awards aim to promote awareness around drug and alcohol-related issues amongst the youth in Ireland. Young people up to the age of 25 are encouraged to create an original piece of content based on drug and alcohol use with a top prize of €2,000.

Drugs.ie is an independent website which aims to assist

individuals, families and communities in preventing and tackling drug and alcoholrelated problems. The website is managed by the Ana Liffey Drug Project which was established in 1982 in North Inner City Dublin and aids people suffering from substance abuse across the country.

Speaking at the 2016 launch of the National Youth Media Awards, Director of the Ana Liffey Drug Project, Mr Tony Duffin made an appeal to young people to enter the competition.

“Ana Liffey Drug Project

along with our supporters are calling out for young people to enter the 2016 awards. Their contributions will help in the challenge of communicating the risks associated with drugs and alcohol among young people,” he said.

Amongst the groups supporting the 2016 competition include The HSE National Social Inclusion Office, The Drug Policy Unit in the Department of Health, Healthy Ireland, and COSC (The National Office for the Prevention of Domestic, Sexual and Gender-based Violence in the Department of

Justice and Equality).

The competition’s importance is heightened by the growing problem of drug and alcohol use in the country.

Ireland currently has the fifth highest rate of drug-related deaths among youths under the age of 25 in the EU. In addition to this, a 2013 UN report revealed that the use of new synthetic drugs in Ireland was three times higher than the EU average.

Minister of State, Aodhán Ó Riordáin, spoke about the 2015 National Youth Media Awards; “My first official engagement as

Minister of State with Responsibility for the National Drugs Strategy was to attend the awards ceremony for the 2015 competition. The standard of the entries was outstanding and it was clear to see from the young people I met at the ceremony that it had got them talking about the misuse of drugs and alcohol and the effects that both can have, not only on young people but the family as a whole”.

Entrants to the competition are invited to submit a poster design, audio recording, video/ animation, or news article

based on one of two themes.

The themes for the 2016 competition are based on the hidden harms of alcohol abuse, and the effects of drug use.

The competition is open to people between the ages of 12 and 25, broken into four age categories. The winner of each age category will receive an iPad Mini, with the overall winner receiving €2,000. The deadline for the competition is Friday 21 January with the awards ceremony planned for April 2016.

For more information visit www.drugs.ie/awards.

NUI Galway Law Lecturer NUI Galway celebrates Italian culture publishes report on

By Siobhán Mulvey at NUI Galway. This will be fol- Department at NUI Galway, tion of two different genres, the lowed by two speakers, Mario Professor Paolo Bartoloni, classical opera and popular Clinical Legal Education NUI Galway is taking part Inglese, a research scholar at welcomes this year’s emphasis song will provide original perDr Bryan McMahon, retired Judge of the High Court and former part-time Professor of Law at NUI Galway, recently launched a new report, Clinical Legal Education in Ireland: Progress and Potential.

The report was written

by Larry Donnelly, Lecturer and Director of Clinical Legal Education in NUI Galway’s School of Law, and was commissioned by the Dublin-based Free Legal Advice Centres Ltd (FLAC) and Public Interest Law Alliance (PILA).

Clinical legal education, which has at its core “learning by doing” and the furtherance of the public interest, exposes law students to how the law works in practice.

In Irish clinical legal education programmes, law students work with law firms, barristers, non-governmental organisations, government bodies and in related fields.

They are awarded academic credit for and assessed upon their performance in these “real world” placements.

NUI Galway’s School of Law has been nationally and internationally recognised for its clinical legal education programme, which was founded by Mr Donnelly in academic year 2005-2006.

The report includes statistics on the existing clinical legal education programmes in Ireland; interviews with directors of clinical programmes, supervisors and law students; examinations

of two clinical programmes in the UK; and a series of reflections and recommendations for the future development of clinical legal education in Ireland.

Speaking at the launch, Larry Donnelly said; “This report is the first attempt to critically analyse recent advances in clinical legal education in Ireland and I hope that it will spur a discussion about the future among all of the relevant stakeholders.

“Clinical legal education has the unique capacity to create disorienting moments for students – in which law students are forced to confront circumstances that are directly at odds with their life and educational experiences to date. The disorienting moment should be at the heart of legal education.”

Professor Donncha O’Connell, Head of NUI Galway’s School of Law, congratulated Larry Donnelly on the publication of the report; “The report cements our already strong reputation as a national leader in providing an optimal legal education combining both theory and practice. This is the best means of preparing graduates for working in a rapidly changing, increasingly globalised environment.”

The report can be accessed online at http://bit. ly/1LRWnqz. A hard copy can be obtained by contacting Mr Donnelly at larry.donnelly@ nuigalway.ie.

in the upcoming annual worldwide celebration of the Italian language. NUI Galway is holding a range of events for Settimana della lingua italiana nel mondo (Week of the Italian Language in the World).

This year the theme of the event is to focus on the celebration of Italian music. NUI Galway will host a talk titled ‘The Culture of Italian Music: Opera and Colonialism’ on Thursday 29 October from 6 to 8pm in the James Hardiman Research Building.

The talk will be introduced

by Professor Paolo Bartoloni, the Head of Italian Department

the University, and Alessandro Luchetti, a NUI Galway PhD student.

Inglese’s talk is titled ‘The Italian Language and Opera: Verdi and Puccini’ which will focus on these two major composers of operatic music.

The talk by Luchetti is titled ‘The Music of Italian Colonization in Africa: Racism and Sexism.’ This talk will focus on Italian songs of the 1930s and examine how they promoted the racist and sexist stereotypes of a fascist society.

Colonial propaganda songs will be analysed in the talk.

The Head of the Italian

on Italian music.

“This year’s theme is particularly significant and engaging.

Italian music and the Italian operatic tradition is recognised throughout the world for its tremendous contribution to music, outstanding quality, and inclusion of universal themes.

By focusing on the language of music, and the ways in which the Italian language adapts to it, the uniqueness of Italian musical theatre is brought into relief,” he said.

Professor Bartolini explains that the talk will provide useful insight into two different genres of Italian music; “The combina-

spectives for the understanding and appreciation of contrasting styles, and the history of Italian music. Further, the focus on the music of colonisation provides innovative insights into one of the most tragic and damaging periods of Italian history, fascism, and its use of popular music for propaganda purposes.”

The Week of Italian language in the World is an annual week-long celebration of the Italian language.

It is promoted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The week aims to promote Italian as a language of both classical and contemporary culture.

Hardiman Research Scholarships (to commence 1st September 2016)

NUI Galway is now offering Hardiman Research Scholarships for structured PhD programmes. The Hardiman Research Scholarships are fully-funded four-year PhD scholarships. The scholarships support world-class research in our priority areas, in which the University offers leading expertise.

Find out more: www.nuigalway.ie/hardiman-scholarships/ Closing date is 20th November 2015

www.nuigalway.ie/hardiman-scholarships

6 NEWS

Sin Vol. 17 Issue 04

Students encouraged to set up their own business Students are in the best position to set up their own businesses and launch new products, according to the Union of Students in Ireland (USI), who are encouraging students to research the plethora of start-up support provided by Enterprise Ireland to anyone with a new business idea.

The wide range of support available to students includes the Student Entrepreneur Awards, Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur, Competitive Start-up Funds, Enterprise Start-up workshops and The Student Summit.

“Students and young people are at the forefront of turn-of-the-century new designs, creative innovations and new businesses,” said USI President Kevin Donoghue.

“Young people and student inventors have brought a lot of life-changing, commercial products to the international market in the past few years, such as the SecuRetract from UCC, a minimally invasive, disposal retractor for use in laproscopic surgery; the BLAZER team from Trinity, whose product idea will save honeybees by removing Varroa mite infestations; TippyTalk from LIT, which is a robust touch screen communication system which overcomes non-verbal disabilities.

“It’s extremely inspiring and encouraging for other students seeing their peers excel in their businesses and product designs.”

The Student Entrepreneur Awards is sponsored

by Enterprise Ireland, Cruickshank Intellectual Property (who legalise the patent and trade mark of the business), Grant Thornton and Intel.

To enter the Student Entrepreneur Awards, a video pitch should be send by 17 March 2016, through studententrepreneurawards.com. This will be narrowed down to 50 applicants and the top 10 will be invited to the awards where they will be offered mentoring from the sponsors and be in with a chance of winning a cash prize. The awards will be held in LIT in June 2016.

Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur is run by the local enterprise office and can be entered by anyone under the age of 30, with substantial cash prizes up for grabs – €20,000 per region, and €50,000 per county, with full details available at IBYE.ie.

Competitive Start-up funds can be applied for by anyone up to three years after graduating and can be up to €50,000. There are also 18 Enterprise

start-up workshops across the country which will help students to develop their ideas. Pre-registration with your local Enterprise Ireland Regional Office is required to attend this workshop.

Gillian Slattery, Enterprise Ireland’s Programme manager for the Student Entrepreneur Awards added; “Enterprise Ireland features a host of approaches to reach students and make sure they get every encouragement and support to develop viable business plans.

“We encourage them to team up with their colleagues and friends from other faculties to be innovative, collaborative and creative on coming up with products that will help them explore their ideas and own appetite for going into business for themselves for the purposes of the Student Entrepreneur Awards.

“Enterprise Ireland and the Local Enterprise Offices also offer a cadre of other offers to help students and graduates develop their ideas such as the Enterprise START Workshops, IBYE and the Graduate Competitive Start fund as well as sponsoring other worthy Student Start up events such as the Student Summit.”

Galway-based itness and motivation coach Pat Divilly said that in order to stay innovative and creative “we need to work around areas that are linked to our highest values”.

“In the same way each individual has a different fingerprint we've all got a different list of values.

I think as we get older many fall in to the trap of moving into areas that don't fulfil them in order to find 'security' in a job,” he said.

“When they neglect their highest values they become frustrated, unfulfilled and lacking purpose. Innovation comes down to pursuing those things that inspire you and responding to the challenges you meet from critics and the marketplace.”

The Student Summit will also be held by USI on 4 February in Dublin Castle with 600 students to launch 40+ start up jobs for students with the most cutting edge start-ups in Ireland today; 20+ development workshops for young entrepreneurs; along with the student summit start up pitch which is putting the finest student start-ups head-to-head for a cash prize of €1,500, working office space and mentoring with Enterprise Ireland.

The official hashtag for the Student Summit campaign is #StudentSummit16.

NUI Galway Awards Business Certificate to 300 Junior Certificate Students

By Padraic Ward The College of Business, Public Policy and Law at NUI Galway hosted its sixth annual Business Certificate Awards ceremony at the JE Cairnes School of Business and Economics recently.

The awards, in association with The Business Studies Teachers Association of Ireland (BSTAI), recognise Junior Certificate Business Studies students across the Connacht region for their outstanding academic achievement.

Students who received an “A” grade in Junior Certificate Honours Business Studies were presented with Certificates of Achievement by the Dean of the College Dr Kieran Conboy.

Speaking at the event Dr Conboy acknowledged the importance of the awards ceremony for students as well as for NUI Galway.

“NUI Galway believes these awards are important to recognise the achievements of our potential future business leaders. I congratulate all the students on their success and also the work of teachers in helping students achieve

their potential. I’m sure I will have the pleasure of meeting many of these students again in NUI Galway in the future on one of our business or commerce programmes,” he said.

The BSTAI were represented at the ceremony by their former President Mr. Seamus Robinson. He too, championed their support for the event; “The BSTAI are delighted to continue its partnership with NUI Galway in hosting this ceremony which celebrates and recognises academic excellence in Business Studies at a young age. I’m confident many of today’s award recipients will build successful careers in the business world.

A total of 300 students from over 65 individual schools throughout the counties of Galway, Mayo, Sligo, Leitrim and Roscommon who each received a certificate, were joined by their parents and teachers as well as by lecturers from the JE Cairnes School of Business and Economics at the ceremony to mark the occasion.

More information on the event can be found on the NUI Galway website www.nuigalway.ie.

Union of Students in Ireland criticises government for delaying Seanad Reform The Union of Students in Ireland (USI) said the Taoiseach’s delay on reforming the Seanad was frustrating and stripped people of their power to be fully represented at Leinster House.

The decision was announced after 40,000 new students were registered to vote by the USI and after 80% of surveyed students said they would vote for another party in the General Election after seeing the Budget priorities.

Currently, only graduates of Trinity College and the National Universities of Ireland are eligible to vote for six of the sixty seats in the Seanad.

Two years ago the Taoiseach proposed to expand the electorate for these six seats from the current 151,000 to as many as 800,000 people after the defeated referendum to abolish the Seanad in 2013, but on 15 October he said these changes will not be implemented before

the next election.

“The Government’s decision to postpone their commitment to reform the Seanad is frustrating. There has been a huge surge in students wanting their voices to be heard, which was clear between the 40,000 new students registering to vote this year and the success of the Rock the Register campaign,” said USI President Kevin Donoghue.

“The people made clear they wanted to see a reformed Seanad when they voted to keep it in 2013. That reform should happen sooner rather than later.”

If the proposed changes came into effect, all third level qualifications from Irish Universities, Institutes of Technology, private colleges and bodies such as the Royal College of Surgeons would be eligible to vote as opposed to only graduated of Trinity and the National Universities of Ireland.

FEATURES 7

October 27 2015

Not every disability is a visible disability

By Abi Lity As I was parking my car outside the Arts Millennium building last Wednesday, a student appeared in my rear view mirror and I had to slam on the brakes so I didn’t hit her. She was leaning over something and didn’t see me.

I got out of my car to see what the problem was only to find her securing her bike to the pole with the blue wheelchair sign attached to it. The bike that she’d dismounted from was slung into the parking space and was below my eye line.

“This is a disabled car parking space,” I said. “So?!” says she.

“So, you’re blocking the car park space, why don’t you put your bike in the bike rack?” There was an empty space waiting for her, within arm’s reach.

She told me her bike wasn’t in my way. Well yes, I have a small car and I could have squeezed into the remaining space, as long as her bike stayed upright, but as she had slung the bike below my eye level when I was already reversing into the space, there was a good chance I would squash it.

It was only because I saw her in the mirror that I hadn’t.

She stood up straight then, looked me up and down and told me “this is a disabled car parking

space, you shouldn’t be parking in it”. Well, the blue sign does have someone in a wheelchair, she was correct, and that I was able to get out of my car and challenge her about slinging her bike in the disabled car parking space before she could run off, suggests that my mobility isn’t that bad: wellobserved on her part.

Yet I do have a badge. I don’t use a wheelchair and I was using the space legitimately. Not every disability is a visible disability.

I pointed out my badge on the dashboard. She still wouldn’t budge, having secured her bike at this stage she was loathe to removing it.

I pointed out two other bikes that were also using the disabled parking sign-poles in front of the Arts Millennium building, both of which had slipped onto the tarmac inside the disabled parking bay, making them unusable unless the driver was able to get out of their car and lug the bike around the pole 180 degrees before parking. This was why I hadn’t parked in those spaces.

“There’s no need to make such a big deal out of it,” flounce, big sigh, stomp and she finally unlocked her bike and shifted it to the free space on the bike rack, immediately behind her. It took her less than five seconds to

unlock her bike and secure it on the bike rack.

“It’s not that important,” she snarled, as she walked away. She was wrong; it is important. If I couldn’t park there, I couldn’t get to my lecture and, more than that, I felt really bad about having to have the confrontation with her. I felt disrespected and judged; I felt grumpy, whereas a few seconds earlier I was happy.

It seemed as though she needed my medical history before she would agree that I did need to use the parking space and she might then move her bike, in a benevolent, patronising manner, as she had done her good dead for the day. A couple of years ago I would have given her the medical history and pleaded for mercy; as having a disability is new thing for me, it doesn’t sit easy with me.

A couple of years before that, I would have been the student cycling into NUI Galway on a sunny morning (but I’d have used the empty bike rack). Last Wednesday was the first time I ever had to ask someone to move so I could use a disabled parking space that they didn’t need. That is a big deal because I don’t want to need a disabled parking space.

There I was parking my car and wham! My disability is thrust upon me again. It’s exhausting. The fight

for my right to be an equal student me it’s the difference between of the university, to not be singled attending university and not out, to not be noticed, not to have attending university. Really, all I people judge my disability, not to need is for you to wake up, think have people knowing stuff about me that is She stood up straight none of their business, not to have to justify then, looked me up and myself. If I didn’t have a few accommodations on down and told me “this campus then I couldn’t be at University; it makes is a disabled car parking me equal, not privileged.

Sometimes I have to space, you shouldn’t be speak up and say what I need; sometimes I need parking in it”. Well, the blue to ask you to move your bike. Sometimes I’m late sign does have someone for a lecture because I have had to walk across in a wheelchair, yet I do campus from my previous lecture and I can’t do have a badge. I don’t use a that too fast; then you are sat in the space reserved wheelchair and I was using for me, ignoring the disthe space legitimately. ability sign.

Sometimes you apologise, sometimes you are Not every disability is angry that I’ve asked you to move, as I don’t a visible disability. look disabled. Sometimes I turn around and leave the of the students around you and be lecture, as it will mean moving a considerate. You already have so whole row of people if I ask you to much space on campus that I can’t leave my space and the lecture has use. Not everyone can cycle to started, and I get embarrassed as University; not all disabilities are this is all new to me. visible and no one has to explain It’s only a space to you, but for their disability to you, not ever.

Please Talk combats mental illness on campuses across the country

By Mark Laherty

Talk, a national mental health initiative. The official website says “Something had changed; it was that Please Talk’s purpose is to as if I had lost something pre- “[urge] students to understand cious that I could never get back.” that talking is a strength, not a When she was 15, Chloe Lap- weakness”. pin didn’t understand what was Launched in 2007, the group going on in her mind. Years later, was originally a response to the finally driven beyond exhaus- suicide of a number of UCD tion, she began to understand students. It promotes the use of her depression. student support such as counselling and chaplaincies.

“At Please Talk, we don’t Being open and honest about your mental want to dictate what kind health is difficult at first.

Speaking at a Please Talk of help you seek or who event, political consultant Johnny Fallon said you should talk to. We just that “it’s the hardest thing in the world to do”. want to encourage people To emphasise this, he explained the mechanto find a meaningful ics of a high jump; “It’s simple. It’s not hard. But means of expression we know that if you’re like me and you try to that works for them.” do it, you take a run at it and you face-plant yourCurrently a postgraduate self into the pole and you never student in NUI Galway, Chloe get off the ground – because the worked extensively with Please execution of it is hard.”

To this end, Please Talk have supplied a ‘How To Talk’ guide on their site, covering why you should talk, but also how to get started, what to say, and who to talk to.

M r Fa l l o n w a s speaking at the launch of a Please Talk exhibition here in NUI Galway, ‘Ar t Is A Wound Turned Into Light’.

“Now, if I wanted to betray my philistine roots,” Fallon continued, “I would quote two great philosophers of our time, Elton John and Bernie Taupin, and say, ‘When all hope is gone, sad songs say so much’.

“The greatest poems, the greatest art, the greatest songs all come usually from a place of hurt and pain where somebody has turned them into something beautiful that people relate to.

But in doing that, you need to be able to talk.”

The exhibition was organised by Chloe Lappin, who also spoke at the launch.

event about their experiences and understanding of emotional health issues.

In an article on the Please Talk website, Chloe reflected on her depression; “Human pain is human pain, whatever label you wish to put on it. My pain came in the form of depression; it was a part of my life, and remains a part of my story.

“I am in no doubt that it is a story that will be understood by many.”

Please Talk can be found at pleasetalk.ie.

If you experience any of the problems mentioned in this article, there is a free counselling service available at NUI Galway for students. To avail of this, you can email counselling@nuigalway.ie or call 091 492 484.

‘You don’t have to be an expert to talk about mental health.

Be there for somebody by simply listening.’

“At Please Talk, we don’t want to dictate what kind of help you seek or who you should talk to. We just want to encourage people to find a meaningful means of expression that works for them.”

Please Talk also held a candlelight vigil in the Chapel of St. Columbanus on campus.

Several volunteers spoke at the

8 FEATURES

Sin Vol. 17 Issue 04

Measuring #Budget16 in student terms

By Eoghan Holland Last Sin I was drawing lines between what the USI had been hoping for in 2014 and 2015.

As expected, an ‘election budget’ has been delivered.

What, you may ask, is an election budget?

Our past few budgets have been austeritybased – cutting, slashing, removing; protests in the street, accentuated poverty and the margins getting pushed a little more each time.

It’s clear that third level students in Ireland are not yet being deeply considered as a bankable vote for this election, or a ground worth fighting too hard.

In an election budget, the people holding the purse strings loosen them a little. Those receiving handouts are the same people who are most likely to vote whatever government is in power back into office for a few more years.

With this in mind, and looking at how the USI have reacted (see full statement on USI. ie), it seems the handout to students, if it exists, is to not have too much more cut away from them. So how did we fare? €25 million, previously removed in 2013/2014 has been added back in. As a gross statement, this reads as an improvement, but once more, the net hasn’t really balanced out for us this time round. An increase to the student contribution fee is far from welcome, and has been high on the agenda in the USI pre-budget statements for the past two years.

The budget fell short for students too on the accommodation front. While provisions to release more housing have been made, these stretch out to 2020. I’ve a deep suspicion that a lot of people reading this will have long graduated by the time those numbers become a reality, and with no defined allocation for Galway, pitching a tent seems to still be high on the list of secure options.

Our ballpark estimates for how many of these ‘housing units’ will actually be in Galway runs around 200 to 300 over the next five years. Believing that this will all be handed on a little purple cushion with golden tassels by an exceptionally well-mannered individual in a valet costume directly to the

student body for their exclusive usage may by somewhere on the optimistic side. A solid statement on addressing student housing in the west was not to be found.

Leaving the Student Maintenance grant untouched, along with the BTEA, in comparison to the past few budgets seems almost like we’ve gained something, but can it be considered a gain the when 250eu escalation has placed Ireland second highest in Europe on the scale of student fees?

The real cost here is not in how much we have gotten in the budget, but in how many people once more will see third level education as being something that is completely out of reach financially. People will emerge from third level in debt, and the banking system, rather than the community will benefit in the long term. Rent is rising in Galway, and the money on which students are

Education has lost out in the Government's “Giveaway Budget”

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expected to pay this rent has either stayed at the same level or marginally dropped.

On the whole, in what has been termed an election budget, compared to the breaks in lower and middle income areas, it’s clear that third level students in Ireland are not yet being deeply considered as a bankable vote for this election, or a ground worth fighting too hard.

The full expense of being a student has risen a little more. Don’t doubt it, Galway is a city that is improving, growing and attracting more employment, and NUI Galway has played a huge role in making it possible. For the kind of infrastructure that makes third level possible, namely available accommodation, to be side-lined in favour of bankable votes might not be a huge surprise, but it may be an unexpected oversight in the structure of recovery.

of students believe that the Government does not prioritise higher education, and 66.7 percent of students feel the Government have let them down.

Most workers will see an annual increase in their take-home pay of the equivalent of just under a week’s wages, and those on the minimum wage will see an additional 50 cent per hour. Although, this will see pay packets increase slightly, tax cuts in favour of actual investment would be seen by many as a move of gaining political leverage.

The Students Assistance Fund (SAF) has received an increase of €3 Million, which will see all of the colleges in Ireland getting the equivalent of €15 per student added to this fund. This is welcomed, and it will ensure that the most vulnerable students,

on the threshold of dropping out of college, an additional lifeline in times of need.

For the third year in a row, the Grant has not been affected at all, although the reform of the grant system had been, and continues to be a priority of USI. The Contribution Charge has not changed at all. The decision was made not to cut the student maintenance grant, which is relied upon by thousands of students who would otherwise be unable to afford third level.

For the past eight successive budgets, students have been directly affected, and targeted. Ireland now has the second highest Third Level fees in Europe. A refusal to bring back the Back to Education Allowance for mature students, to ignore the student housing crisis, and providing no supports for postgraduate students indicates a clear lack of support within Government for investment in the Education sector.

Dissatisfaction in the Government by students on the ground is palpable. In a recent survey, the USI found that 93.3 percent of students believe that the Government does not prioritise higher education, and 66.7 percent of students feel as the Government have let them down.

After this budget, 80 percent of students will vote for another party in the General Election. Taking into account the 38,000 students that have been registered to vote prior to the Marriage Equality Referendum, and as part of the USI’s Pre-Budget Campaign.

This was a missed opportunity for the Government to make a significant investment in the education sector. Universities in Ireland are dropping down in International Higher Education League tables, and retention rates of students are growing every year.

FEATURES 9

October 27 2015

Eva-Marie Costello YEAR OF GRADUATION: 2013 COURSE AT NUI GALWAY: Physics with Medi-

cal Physics CURRENT OCCUPATION: Trade Development

Executive, Enterprise Ireland Silicon Valley

What is your fondest memory of NUI Galway?

My fondest memory of NUI Galway is performing in Galway University Musical Society’s production of The Wiz during my first year. Friendships were forged then that will undoubtedly last a lifetime.

Has NUI Galway changed since you were here?

In May of this year I went back to visit the campus. I found the biggest change to be in the people I met, so many unfamiliar fresh-faced first years. Otherwise NUI Galway appears to have grown from strength to strength in terms of infrastructure, facilities and resources. It made me feel proud to be an Alumna.

How did attending NUI Galway develop you as a person?

NUI Galway definitely contributed hugely to my development as a well-rounded, confident and diverse graduate. Although the course I studied was technical and computer based, I made up for my time in the lab by being involved in numerous societies which challenged other aspects of my development. NUI Galway is great for meeting people from hugely divergent backgrounds and your college experience really isn't confined to just the course you study.

How did studying your course of study prepare you for your career?

As a Physics student I refined my technical, math-

ematical and problem-solving skills during the course of my degree at NUI Galway. In my current role as a Trade Development Executive with Enterprise Ireland ,Silicon Valley I assist Irish Tech Companies to realise their full potential in the San Francisco Bay Area. My job involves connecting them to the right people and helping them develop their business to fit the market. Although my role differs from my undergraduate degree I am putting my problem solving and analytical skills to good use by assisting these companies in various aspects of their journey to achieve growth in the US.

Did you partake in any societies, sports clubs or volunteering at NUI Galway?

Societies played a huge part in my time in NUI Galway. Thanks to Lorraine in ALIVE and Ríona in the Socs Box I was given the opportunity to set up a Society/Charity, Ashirbad in 2011. Ashirbad is a skills-based volunteer programme which matches students to schools, centres and homes in impoverished areas in North East India. It has run successfully out of NUI Galway since 2011 and I have learned so very much in my role as leader, co-ordinator and supporter for the groups of volunteers. Recently we partnered with another Irish/Indian charity called ‘Calcultta Connect’ and I am very excited about what the future has in store for the Ashirbad team.

Apart from Ashirbad I was heavily involved in GUMS (The Musical Society) and was elected Musical Director for their Production of The Wedding Singer in 2011 as well as playing roles in The Wiz and Spring Awakening.

lege and get to go back and visit whenever I get home from the U.S. I am involved with the NUI Galway Alumni Network here in the San Francisco Bay Area and although I am far from home it is really great to meet successful Alumni who have all carved out interesting careers here on the US West Coast all of whom are doing NUI Galway proud.

What advice would you give to current NUI Galway students?

My main piece of advice would be to get involved in every society or club you find interesting! Some evenings when it is lashing rain outside and you have to trek over “the bridge” and you don't really feel like venturing out to an event where there may be many awkward “hellos”, just do it! I can guarantee you that it will be worth the soggy shoes and frizzy hair. Never underestimate the possibilities that are open to you and the amazing support networks that NUI Galway has which you can use as a base to create and expand your own. I had the idea to set up a charity and NUI Galway supported me all the way. Without the great team in ALIVE/Socs Box this would never have been possible. Secondly spend your college summers wisely, you’ll never get them back.

Source out good internships, volunteering opportunities, get work experience and travel!

If you could go back and do it all again, what would you do differently?

I would probably have researched my course more. Although I enjoyed aspects of it, I think something more general would have suited me better, such as undenominated science.

It is a big decision at a young age so picking something more open initially is a smart idea, in my opinion. Apart from that I would encourage every Leaving Cert to pick NUI Galway as their college destination. It has such a great academic reputation as well as an extensive number of societies and clubs and of course the craic is only mighty!

Do you ever miss NUI Galway?

Yes definitely! However thanks to Ashirbad I am still involved with people in the col-

Cycling is great, but wear a helmet

By Eoghan Holland I've given a great deal of thought to the Student cycle challenge. Mostly in terms of trying to figure out if they are doing the numbers properly.

Maybe a college with a very small number of people who all happen to have an unreasonably long commute, or have actually consciously moved classes to a remote location, have a distinct advantage in drumming up distance?

Or maybe a college with a disproportionately large population can make actual credits available to all students so long as they are willing to cycle 9km each and every day. Cycling can get competitive.

I'm a very experienced cyclist. It took me years, but I finally figured out to go over the handlebars of a bike on a completely straight patch of road with no obstacles. I can't say that I've peaked, but I have felt a little bit spoilt with the three months of Physio and the fistfuls of painkillers. My cup overfloweth..

The USI cycle challenge is all about the awareness of cycling as an alternative to driving. While Galway at large has always been ahead of the curve in terms of bike promotion, we still lag awkwardly like a toddler on a tricycle who's somehow gotten onto one of those wooden Olympic cycle tracks mid race and just wheeled helplessly backwards toward the central reservation.

Adorational applause from the audience, but no chance of a bronze. Ireland needs to catch up on cycling. We still aren't taking it seriously enough.

In Denmark, people are cycling so much that someone made an infographic about it. I suspect weddings in Denmark involve processions of penny farthings and Raleigh choppers.

Here, we find a mountain bike out the back which may have originated from the last Tennant, a backpack that we had from school and instantly consider ourselves commuters.

I completed Physio this week. Though ‘completed’ may be too strong a word. My shoulder is permanently damaged and I still need to keep an exercise routine to keep the arm working.

What's great about that is that it wasn't my head. In the slow motion moment where my helmet was hitting the tarmac, I was really glad that I was wearing it. It's cracked in two places.

I was able to get my phone out of my bag with a fractured thumb and call a friend to pick me up.

I still think cycling is great, I just wince when I see someone without a helmet, lights, bell and all the regalia. It's a small amount of expense, and if you ever get as good as me, you'll be really glad you prepared for it.

The Student Cycle Challenge took place earlier this month and saw participating students clocking up as many cycle rides as possible over a ten-day period.

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connected With the Alumni Association and support NUI Galway’s vision for the future For more information on priority projects, events & activities contact Galway University Foundation.

Visit us @ www.guf.ie l www.nuigalway.ie/alumni l T: 091 493536 Find us on Facebook and join National University of Ireland Galway on LinkedIn

10 FEATURES

Sin Vol. 17 Issue 04

JANE’S WORDS: Stay calm with cabbage soup My flat mate Orla came into the kitchen on Thursday. I knew she was coming because I heard her feet thudding down the stairs, then heard her slippers sliding quickly along the floor. She opened the door with her left foot so that it banged against the wall, she had three books under her right arm and a mug that said ‘keep calm and drink tea’ in her left hand.

After exhaling loudly, she exclaimed; “Jesus Jane, the kitchen is a kip. Why do you always make your months’ supply of cabbage soup when I’m under pressure? It smells rank! Is it too much to ask? I told you I need to get at least 72% in this ‘economics impact’ assignment to make sure I get a first!”

I didn’t immediately make the connection of why the cabbage soup would affect Orla’s grade. I am generally a retrospective learner and on reflection, the connection remained unclear to me.

I’m learning that students have a tendency to become stressed about the topic of achieving a first. I am continuing to learn about the signs of stress and how it affects people’s behaviour and internal physiology.

Personally, I have never noticed an increase in heart rate, difficulty sleeping or concentrating, short temper or a suppressed appetite when writing an assignment. Perhaps it is because I’m comfortable; no matter what aca-

demic work I produce, I know I will continue to contribute effectively to the bell curve.

On a recent essay I had to complete entitled, ‘There is debate surrounding the behavioural characteristics of the mature adult. Discuss’, I discussed how any action with either mature and/or adult in the description was a significant indicator.

Behaviours or characteristics including being a mature student, paying adult fare on public transport, having adult molars or shopping in adult shops could indicate the attainment of adult maturity. We were given a 3000-word limit for this piece and I had only required 426 of these words. I contributed to the bottom 2% of the bell curve on this occasion.

The bell curve is a grading system, designed to ensure 2% of students receive an A, 14% a B, a majority of 34% receiving either a C+ or C- and, as it tailors off, another 14% and 2% get D/E’s and F’s respectively.

As this is a method employed by third level educators, students can reduce blood pressure levels and rest assured, just like custard creams, the Bell Curve has stood the test of time and must serve an essential purpose.

In an effort to understand the concept more fully, I now view aspects of my life through the lens of this curve.

Academic work is not in my personal top 2% of strengths. A select and valued cohort of items are represented in this segment, including; acquiring ribbons, making cabbage soup and my 100% success rate when crossing roads has never faltered to date.

With this lens, I have accepted there are aspects within my life I will perform adequately and relative to the majority of my peers, as well as the inevitable items which lie consistently

in the weakest bracket, which are; expressing myself effectively in the hairdresser and buffets.

Luckily, I overheard a student in Smokey’s saying that students are more employable if they get B’s and actually “it is the ‘C student’, who represents a more rounded person with the best social ability. ‘A’ students often lack this social awareness.”

Developing my social skills is the main reason I am in college and this acquired knowledge will help me to achieve this goal, along with my continued effort to model my behaviour off my peers, to understand ‘socially acceptable’ behaviour.

That’s why, on Monday, I pushed the kitchen door open with my foot, commented on the smell of Orla’s bolognaise, which smelled nice and announced; “I need to make sure I don’t get over 58% in all assignments, this will demonstrate the development in my social ability.”

This would be a significant outcome for my academic career and one I am now striving to achieve.

NUI Galway to host Festival of Light India Society to give Galway a taste of Diwali

By Ultan Sherry This year, the NUI Galway India Society will be hosting Diwali – The Festival of Lights, on 14 November in the Bailey Allen Hall.

The event promises to be an evening of colours and fun for people of all ages. During the week, I met with Rinku Phulphagar and Ashish Goswami from the society, and I asked them what this year’s festival was all about.

“The Bailey Allen Hall will be Some dancing from a previous Diwali festival. decorated with colourful lights for For more see IndiaSoc's Facebook page. the festival, and definitely would be the unique food for the occasion as well,” said Rinku Phulphagar. This includes traAnother story tells of the conquering of the ditional Indian curry, among other delicacies. Asura Naraka, a king of Assam who imprisThe main festival night coincides with the oned many people, before these people were darkest new moon light around the late Octo- set free. ber to early November period of the year, and There are hundreds of similar stories that cheerfully celebrates the victory of good over originate from various parts of India and are evil forces with “lights so bright and colourful passed from generation to generation. Yet, that the grim of that night of the winter month there is one common theme: that good always is gone”, said Ashish Goswami. triumphs over evil.

Along with this, there will lots of entertainFor some Indians, this will be their first ment on show, with many performances of Diwali festival away from home. But as the singing and dancing from the NUI Galway stu- guys explain, the festival and the India Socidents and Indian community (ICSC Galway). ety have already reached out to so many Diwali is celebrated by all faiths across backgrounds in Galway; “There are a large India, and people make a special effort to clean number of people in our society from all their homes before the festival commences ages,” they said. with the intention that the brightness of the These backgrounds have embraced this light be everywhere in every corner of every festival as their own. The festival boasts to add room, both inside and outside. to the vibrant culture that exists in Galway City There are many legends told that explain and NUI Galway and is an event that deserves the origins of this festival in India. One of them great support from the whole community. tells of Lord Rama and his return to the kingTickets for the festival will go on sale dom of Ayodhya after an exile of 14 years and shortly, and it promises to be an evening to remember. his victory over the Asura Ravana.

Halloween Parade Read all about the history of Macnas and the performances they’re famous for.

10 – 11

Age-old Traditions

Fright Night Films

Before the pumpkin came the turnip… and it’s way creepier.

Page 14

Read all about our top 10 horror movies to watch this Halloween.

Page 15

Hundreds of Zombies patrol the streets of Galway

By Eoghan Holland

SP O OKY ST UDEN T NEW SPAPER | HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

By Niamh Cullen Looking for an “exorcise” in fear this Halloween? Then look no further!

Carnevil is the Wild Atlantic Way’s premier scare attraction, which will run right up until midnight on Halloween. The fiendish await their victims in the haunted Printing Press of the Connacht Tribune on Market Street, where they have been supposedly looming since their escape from a carnival that visited the town over 150 years ago.

Rumour has it that the memories of such a frightening funfair were too much to bear, resulting in the boarding up of the vicinity… leaving it’s dwellers free reign to invade and haunt the press as they pleased…

Visitors are asked not to use their phone’s flashlights, as it supposedly attracts such demonic presences, while “chicken doors” and ambulances are on standby for those who find it too much to bear. It’s most certainly not for the faint hearted – the fear is so strong with this one that owners have deemed it appropriate for those aged 16 and over.

The interactive experience has been in a locally produced development since March, with Brendan McSavage being the brains behind the operation. Everything from set building to the script’s creation, and establishing what ticks fear in us all and how the most screams can be generated have been researched in preparation for providing Galway with the fright of it’s life.

Tickets are €22 per person, or €17 per student with times running from 4pm to 10pm, and a 10% discount on bookings of six or more. If it’s a fright to remember, Carnevil’s team also offer you the option of bringing home a “scare” photo should you wish to cherish that time you almost peed your pants.

Carnevil also advises that while the event is wheelchair accessible, certain areas like crawlspace and airbags will have to be circumnavigated- in exchange for more contact with the fiends that surround you, of course!

The team also advises that while the event normally takes around twenty minutes, they’re still waiting on some visitors to emerge from the vicinity… perhaps they’ve found some friends and a place to call home? Only one way to find out…

‘Mindless, unthinking henchmen’ – the written history of the Zombie dates back to Haitian folklore. The Bokor (let’s just say for argument's sake, the witch doctor) physically revives the dead to act under his will and carry out his orders. And as an interesting subtext, which may turn out to be world-saving information, a traditional, Haitian Zombie can be saved be simply feeding it salt.

I recommend stockpiling spoons, so an entire army of the living can be assembled to simultaneously confront the inevitable zombie army invasion with waves upon waves of “here comes the aeroplane” parent and infant-type moves. Epic.

How the domestic western world zombie came into existence is not entirely known, but the starting point seems to be somewhere very close to a 1968 documentary titled Night of the Living Dead.

What we do know is, as Zombies have evolved over the decades since this documentary was made, it seems they have evolved quickly and may not be susceptible to “here’s the aeroplane”. Zombies are here to stay, and we must learn to live with them, or perish.

If I was in charge, Halloween would be a full two weeks and Christmas would be a long weekend.

An emerging tradition that supports that wish in extending Halloween into a full blown multi-day festival is the Galway Zombie Walk.

The Galway Zombie walk has been enshrined in the Halloween calendar for six years now and always leads to some of the most amazing profile pictures you are going to get on the internet. Besides the absolute wonderful concept of hundreds of zombies staggering down Shop Street among the usual revellers, the underlying cause is great too.

Jigsaw Galway, a fantastic and valuable charity providing mental health support to young people age 18 to 25 have partnered with #GalwayZombieWalk.

Sadly at the time of print, the Zombie Walk was cancelled due to bad weather conditions, but feel free to donate to Jigsaw regardless.

And if you're planning on blending in with a potential zombie mob this Halloween, check out our tutorial on page 16.

12 HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Sin Vol. 17 Issue 04

Macnas/Galway Aboo

Staying safe at Halloween

With Halloween just around the corner, the people of Galway are preparing for the country’s largest Halloween Festival, Galway Aboo.

The Galway Aboo Halloween Festival, which takes place in the Latin Quarter during the last week of October, will see the medieval streets of Galway come alive with music, street theatre, dance and events held for all ages and interests alike.

One of the most highly anticipated events at the Galway Aboo Halloween Festival is the Macnas street theatre group who have already performed on 25 October, bringing chaos and excitement to the streets of Galway.

Macnas is an internationally renowned street theatre group who are based in our very own county Galway. Macnas, who have performed in the MTV music awards, toured the world and performed with U2, are leaders in the street art spectacle and bring magic to the streets they walk on.

The group, who do not stop at street theatre alone, have delved into other artistic forms and are involved with many other creative outlets such as script writing, dance, performance art, and film as well as theatre performance.

Under the direction of Noeline Kavanagh, Macnas also offer workshops, performance training and professional engagement to primary, second and third level education as well as providing a 12 week module for the BA in Drama Theatre and Performance Studies here in NUIGalway.

By Ultan Sherry

One of the group’s most famous works is ‘The Boy Explorer’, a 1-foott high, eight-year-old boy who travelled the country on the quest to find out if the children of Ireland had any brilliant ideas on how to make Ireland a better place to live .

“This is a journey to promote the vital role children’s ideas, art, and heart have as instruments of change in our lives and how crucial it is to value, encourage, and take these ideas on board,”said Noeline Kavanagh, artistic director, speaking previously about the journey of the Boy explorer.

“Imagination is the only bridge by which we can move through the enormous space that separates us, where we have the chance of making ourselves known to each other again. In this way, art is social change and the brilliant ideas put forward by children remind us of this.”

Macnas, who have been awarded Best Irish Production Award four times since they were founded have been described as ‘exhilerating, stylish,exciting’ as well as ‘wild and wicked’ by The Irish Times.

The group who were founded in 1986

by Páraic Breathnach, Tom Conroy, Ollie Jennings and Pete Sammon have established a reputation in Ireland and worldwide for its unique and enchanting performances.

Macnas performance this year was entitled ‘The Shadow Lighter’ as it celebrates transformation, life, death and rebirth.

COME CLOSER… A spooky image from last year's Macnas Parade. Photo by Patrizio Mancuso. www.facebook.com/ob.photograph

POSTGRADUATE

We all know that Halloween is fast approaching, and that it is a time where everyone can get up to all sorts of shenanigans, depending on what your age is.

However, we should all remember that it can also be a dangerous time of the year, with people mishandling fireworks, lighting bonfires where they shouldn’t be, and in general, taking risks that they have no need to take. Here are some tips that you should bear in mind this coming Halloween.

Keep pets indoors. There is going to be a lot of noise out there. There’ll be fireworks going off at the main Halloween parties in Galway and there’ll be people out drinking and shouting at the top of their voices. Pets don’t like any form of loud noise as it terrifies them, and their welfare should be respected.

Don’t play with fire. All too often, the emergency services across Ireland have been called out to deal with people who have gotten burns from jumping over parts of bonfires only to get badly caught by the flames and the soaring temperatures. If there’s a bonfire, stay a safe distance from it. This is especially important if you have children.

Beware of fireworks and bangers. If you happen to be in possession of fireworks and are intent on letting them off, then handle them with care.

To ignore this warning would potentially lead to you losing fingers or suffering severe burns as a result of fireworks. Never let any children handle fireworks, as it could have fatal consequences for them, depending on what type of firework it is.

Drink sensibly. Alcohol is a problem on every weekend in the year, but even more so at Halloween.

When under the influence of drink, people could end up doing at least one of the things I have outlined above. Please remember that there are elderly people, young children and other people who either want to get a good night’s sleep, or who want to have a quiet night in. This point should in particular apply to college students who live in houses next door or in the same neighbourhood as other people in the groups I have highlighted.

Stick together. If you’re with a group of friends, stay with them at all times. If you end up getting separated from friends during Hallowe’en, you could leave yourself vulnerable to the unknown.

So always remember: stay safe, show respect, and have fun.

A top university for graduate employability

OPEN DAY Wednesday 11th November 12 pm–4 pm

Bailey Allen Hall, NUI Galway

BOOK YOUR PLACE www.nuigalway.ie/postgraduate-open-day

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! 13

October 27 2015

HALLOWEEN

around the world

By Sorcha O'Connor The festival as we know it has a certain commercialisation to it that is unmistakably American but it can’t be forgotten that Halloween in fact originated from the traditions of our Celtic ancestors. Yes, that’s right – Ireland is the home of Halloween.

The tradition of dressing up and carving faces into round vegetables all came into being on these shores. Samhain was a time in the Celtic calendar when the veil between the living and the dead became passable – and so this called for some protection from the spooky spirits of the other world.

People wore masks to fool the ghosts and cut faces into turnips to ward off any unwanted visitors.

However, were the Celts really the only ones who had such customs and traditions?

Here in Sin we also wondered just how far this festival has spread in today’s world so we thought we’d do a little investigation.

MEXICO: One of the most popular costumes

seen at Halloween in recent years is the Candy Skull face. This in fact originates from the Day of the Dead celebrations in Mexico. Before the Spanish came along, the Day of the Dead was held at the start of summer, particularly in the South of the country. The festival was actually unknown to Mexicans in the North until the 20th century. The day brings people together to celebrate the lives of their loved ones and to help them move on into the next life. 1 November, Día de los Inocentes or Día de los Angelitos is traditionally in remembrance of children and then the following day remembers deceased adults.

CHINA: The holiday is known as Teng Chieh in

China. Food and water is placed in front of photos of the dead and fireworks and bonfires light up the path to the other world to guide the spirits there. The tradition is mainly to remember the dead but also to help trapped spirits who died through accidents to pass to the next life.

ENGLAND: Halloween is not the main event

around this time of year in England although it is acknowledged in Britain as a whole as much as it is here. However it is Guy Fawkes Night that takes the honours in England on 5 November, in remembrance of the man who tried to blow up the British parliament in 1605.

THE US AND CANADA: Halloween traditions

began with the arrival of Irish emigrants. Turnips were replaced by the now commonplace pumpkin and dressing up became ever more elaborate as time went by.

GERMANY: In Germany, people hide any

knives they own so as to avoid being stabbed by angry spirits on All Hallow’s Eve. JAPAN: The Western idea of Halloween is

not traditionally celebrated by the Japanese.

Instead, during the summer months, the festival of Obon takes place. We’ve included it in this list because even though it doesn’t take place at this time of year the concept is pretty much in correlation with the rest of the world, celebrating the dead and lighting bonfires.

I can’t feel my face when I’m with any of you

By Ruaidhrí O’Doherty The night is just around the corner. Yes the night of excess, the night of dancing with the devil (figuratively and literally) and make-up that surpasses even that of an Oompa Loompa. Yes, it’s Halloween night.

It’s almost here.

The night means the same thing to most of us: a night of socially-acceptable debauchery and mayhem; a night where a plethora of the be-masked and be-costumed assault Shop Street and beyond with their being; a night not to be forgotten but, due to ‘circumstances’, one that will not be remembered.

Ah yes Halloween.

You can almost smell the offensive amounts of monkey nuts that will undoubtedly pervade the air and litter the households of those that never really liked them to begin with. Halloween night: a magical night; a night to pretend.

Ever since we were children, we were taught what was normal. Dressing up on Halloween night was no exception to this rule. We transitioned unknowingly from a time when we dressed up as ketchup-covered vampires and toilet paper mummies to a time where many dress in the most enticingly- provocative of manners. As a man that appreciates the comedic genius of Mean Girls, I do not rebuke the manner in which these people dress-up, rather the actual dressing-up itself.

This is the one night a year where, by pretending, we don’t pretend. The masks are physical. Scruples, morals, principles, call them what you will. These concepts have become blurred by the fact that we all wear masks 365 days of the year (366 days if it’s a leap year), and merely pretend that we do it, solely for one night: Halloween night.

“Sincerity - if you can fake that, you’ve got it made” - George Burns.

Far be it for me to call one of the Sunshine Boys wrong. This quote amuses me so. It is a quote that will survive the ravages of time in that it will be everrelevant. In the tempestuous time of now, it is people like George Burns that make me feel not so alone. He is dead though, which does limit our dialogue somewhat.

Being self-involved is normal. You are the protagonist of your own life, but when did other people become so involved? When did all these politics and clauses and particulars become all too relevant in being us?

Nowadays socialising is a game of chess: a game where there are more than 64 squares and the disparity of colour is difficult to distinguish. All the squares are grey. We live in a time where you can be the king of your own game

and a pawn in someone else’s. The age of the shrewd operator with the silver tongue is now. Perhaps this age was already upon us, we just weren’t aware of it. I wasn’t aware of it anyway.

Growing up we were taught simple rules that we were to abide by, were we to survive and live happy lives. Never run with scissors.

Look both ways before crossing the street. Treat those as you would like to be treated. All of these, an afterthought of the greatest gambit parenthood had to offer; always tell the truth.

This law, a pillar upon which many institutions and mantras are built, this law is the biggest lie of all.

We all lie. We lie to each other. We lie to ourselves.

We veil ourselves in this mist, a rankly fetid impenetrable barrier between us and the rest of the world, and continue to believe we can be genuine. We are cans of Pepsi in a world that deserves Coke. There, I said it.

Coke is better than Pepsi.

Considering this idea, that no one is the real them when interacting with the rest of the world, had me stumble upon the thought of, when does life begin? ‘Life begins when we’re born’. A tad reductive in my opinion. Babies don’t know what they are, let alone who.

‘Life begins when you start secondary school’. This can’t be. We’re not us when we’re in secondary school.

We have to tread water, and if you don’t drown, then Darwinian evolution has prevailed and you are permitted to begin your life.

Starting college? Graduating? Married with children? We were duped; fooled by the ignorance we consigned our minds to that life starts in the future. Life begins when we become aware that we’re living it. Life is now, and I think that’s the very terrifying reality that we hide from. Maybe the masks we wear are for protection, not deception.

I think a very human fear is that of revealing all there is that make us who we are, and no one caring. An ‘I want to be wanted’ sort of thing. The second thought that arose was this; the underwater concept. We’ve all had this discussion-ofwhimsy, that is; if everything is underwater, is anything really wet?

If we all lie all the time, are any of us

HAPPY

HALLOWEEN

BOO!

really lying? If we all pretend and dance for the puppet master, are we any less real? Or are we merely performing in the theatre of life in roles yet to be determined?

Discussing the concept of monogamy recently with a man much older and much more betrothed than I, he said something that stunned and intrigued me: “It’s not about cheating, it’s about what you can get away with.” In any case, he made a controversially thought-invoking point. This is a man on the precipice of what many consider to be ‘It’. Not the Steven King ‘It’, but the less-lifealtering, ‘till-death-do-us-part’ ‘It’.

On the cusp of marrying the woman he supposedly loves and skipping hand-in-hand down the yellow brick road of matrimony, this man condones that which many consider to be unforgivable. And so, this man will begin a life with this woman – a woman that most probably knows not of his thoughts, beliefs or expectations of marriage. He will wear a mask morning, noon and night on days that are not Hallowe’en, and she will remain blissfully ignorant.

Unless she comes home and finds him intertwined with another morally-deficient soul, which is not beyond the realms of possibility I believe.

I wish them all the best.

All we can do in trying to move forward is to be honest with ourselves and those around us. Allow fleeting moments of truth to permeate our lives, lives that we live by rules we did not make. I don’t think I got the Blackboard notification about when the meeting for making the rules was being held.

Alas. Life is hard. ‘They’ say it gets easier but then again, ‘they’ say a lot of things. As individuals we can change the world we live in by moving away from the mendacious side of it all. By all means go out on All Hallows’ Eve. Immerse yourself in the ridiculousness and insanity of it all. Drinking, making mistakes, talking until 4am when you have a lecture at 9am, that’s where all the mirth and merriment comes from.

Cesare Pavese once said, “The closing years of life are like the end of a masquerade party, when the masks are dropped”.

Let’s drop them a bit earlier than the end.

We can’t all be that ugly underneath them, can we? I’m not anyway, but I moisturise.

14 HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Sin Vol. 17 Issue 04

The origins of the

Jack-o-Lantern

By Jessica Thompson For centuries, Halloween has always seen spooky, candlelit faces peering out from porch windows. Ghoulish faces, silly faces, angry faces – all are a sure sign that Fright Night is upon us.

For as long as we can remember, we’ve gone through the tradition of selecting a pumpkin (my dad always picked out the biggest one he could find), scooping out the seeds and fleshy insides, carving faces into whatever you have left over, popping a candle in and turning off the lights. But where did this tradition begin?

Believe it or not, the original Jack-o’-lantern was carved from a turnip (sometimes a potato or beet), rather than a pumpkin and some might agree that the turnip-headed ancestors of today’s traditional lantern were even scarier than the spooky smiles we see today.

The name ‘Jack-o’-Lantern’ comes from an Irish folktale about a man named Stingy Jack.

Legend dictates that Stingy Jack invited the Devil for a pint but was too stingy to pay for his own drink and convinced the Devil to turn himself into a coin, with which he could pay.

But once the Devil did so, Jack decided to keep the money and put it in his pocket next to a silver cross, which prevented the Devil from taking his original form. When Jack did eventually free the Devil, he did so on the condition that he would not bother Jack for another year, nor claim his soul should he die.

The following year, Jack tricked the Devil into climbing a tree to pick some fruit, but as he did so, Jack carved the sign of a cross into the bark, trapping the Devil up there until he promised Jack ten more years of peace.

But when Jack died soon after, God would not allow him into Heaven. The Devil, still wounded by the trick Jack had played on him, had to keep his word and did not claim his soul. But Jack got his come-uppance,

with the Devil sending him off into the dark night with only a burning coal to light his way.

Jack placed this coal into a carved-out turnip and he has been roaming the Earth with it ever since. The Irish began to refer to the ghostly, turnip-wielding figure as “Jack of the Lantern”, before shortening it to “Jack O’Lantern”.

The Irish and Scottish started to make their own versions of Jack’s lantern, carving scary faces into turnips or potatoes, and placing them in the windows or near doors in an attempt to frighten Stingy Jack and other wandering spirits away.

The English started to use large beets, and immigrants from these countries brought the tradition to the United States, where the pumpkin was found to create the perfect Jacko’-Lantern.

Our ancestors believed that Halloween – or Samhain as it was known – was a night when the veil separating the world of the living from the Otherworld (the world of the dead) became so thin that Otherworld spirits – good and evil – could mingle with the living.

Good spirits were welcomed into homes, where merriment and feasting took place – the origins of the modern-day Halloween party, with sweets, nuts and other tasty foods – while evil spirits were not.

It was believed that the evil spirits would roam the earth, searching for souls to take back to the Otherworld with them. So our ancestors developed a number of strategies to thwart them – anything to prevent a premature trip to the world of the dead.

One of the most common strategies was that of the Jack-o’-Lantern, which easily frightens the evil spirits away – much like the hideous gargoyles you might see on the outer structure of Notre Dame or various Cathedrals around the world.

So this Halloween, when you’re carving out your pumpkin, make it extra scary. You don’t want Stingy Jack and a plethora of other evil spirits to crash your party!

By Niamh Cullen Whether you’re a believer of the phantom spectre or a sceptic to illusion, it can’t be denied that some sites (and sights) are just plain… creepy.

There have been reports around the world of spirits looming mortal grounds, and Galway is no exception to those tales. With the coming eve of Samhain (or Halloween as it is more commonly known) celebrating the return of such ghosts and phantoms, what better time could there be to look at five of Galway’s most haunted spots!

DRUID LANE THEATRE, GALWAY CITY Founded by graduates of the National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland’s first professional theatre group outside Dublin moved into an abandoned building in 1979.

Druid Lane Theatre is located in the historical Quay Street, where the foundations of the city’s founder Richard de Burgo’s castle once stood.

Druid Lane is also known for its housing of many convents and nunneries in the 1970s. Often, there are reported sightings of a phantom, faceless nun wandering aimlessly through Druid Lane, and indeed the theatre’s building. Although no company member has seen her yet, theatre actor Sean McGinley heard very strange noises while working in the theatre in the 80s. Unfortunately he fled before investigating further!

AUGHRIM BATTLEFIELD, AUGHRIM The expansive cemetery battlefield is mentioned in Tarquin Blake’s Haunted Ireland, an extensive guide to Ireland’s eerie heritage.

In 1691, the Williamites’ massacred the Jacobean army resulting in blood run streaming down Aughrim’s hillside. Their blood pooled in an area known to this day as The Bloody Hollow. The soldiers’ bodies lay there for over a year, with skeletal remains scattered on the site. Blood curdling screams of the Jacobite army are known to haunt the cemetery to this day, dubbing it the most haunted field in Ireland.

RENVYLE HOUSE HOTEL, CONNEMARA

The original Jack-o-Lanterns were carved into turnips and looked far scarier than their pumpkin-faced descendants. Photo via Flickr: IrishFireside

An idyllic four star hotel located on the shores of Connemara’s Wild Atlantic Way, you’d mistake the Renvyle for heaven on earth. Well, it certainly has a tone of transcendence to it!

Established as a country house in 1883 by the Blake Family, is has holidayed Winston Churchill and catered to the honeymoon of WB Yeats.

In 1917, poet Oliver St. John Gogarty purchased the house, where he experienced trouble with his servants, who refused to reside in an upper floor room due a question-

able presence. Yeats’ visit seemed to cause a particular stir among the spirits when he held a séance, or summoning with his wife, medium Georgie Yeats. A successful contact was achieved with a spirit, who stated that its dismay at strangers staying in the house.

The spirit revealed itself in the form of a misty being standing beside the fireplace, which she described as a red-haired, pale, anguished young boy. WB also claimed to have witnessed doors opening on their own, groans and sheets being pulled from beds.

Many other guests have claimed similar experiences, despite their contentment in the midst of coastal paradise…

THE LONG WALK, SPANISH ARCH, GALWAY CITY Reported sightings of a 19th century Claddagh nun roaming The Long Walk is perhaps the most recent reporting of a haunting in the City of Tribes. Three years ago, the Galway Independent released pictures of the ghost that were taken by local photographer Jonathan Curran. From a stock of photos shot by Curran, the thirteenth contained the apparition. Spooky! The photo was printed across local papers and social media sites, causing a divide amongst many as to whether the appearance was indeed, a ghost nun. What do you think?

WOODLAWN HOUSE, KILCONNELL You can’t beat a haunted mansion for a day of exploring! The producers of footage horror film The Blair Witch Project toured Ireland to find the most haunted houses on the isle. Of all the spots they stayed in, Woodlawn House with its 115 acres of abandoned land creeped them out the most.

Much documentation has been covered on the estate, which was built upon by the prominent Trench family in the late 18th century. The house boasts a window for each day of the year – 365 in total, with 26 bedrooms, a gardener’s house, and even its own lake.

Rumours of ghouls and ghosts roaming the site derive from an apparent suicide on the premises. Unfortunately, the house is quite safeguarded with security cameras and Gardaí often redirecting trespassers. It hasn’t deterred the most intrigued from delving in to the supposedly tormented interior….

Feeling unnerved yet? Or perhaps you’re feeling intrigued enough to roam the otherworldliness lying in the depths of Galway?

Such mysterious spots give new meaning to the county’s motto: “His Praise Remains unto Ages of Ages”.

One thing’s for certain: the land of maroon and white has a common remaining factor throughout the ages: that of the spectral, the phantom, the… weird.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! 15

October 27 2015

Top 10 horror movies for Halloween 2015

By Kitty Ryan For us horror enthusiasts, Halloween is when we take off our masks and force our loved ones to watch the latest scary movies at 3am. But sometimes, the most anticipated horror release of the year turns out to just be a money-grabbing gore fest (which is not considered to be “true horror” by our high standards) and disappoints everyone involved, and now you have a mess to clean up from your friends with weaker stomachs.

So to avoid that sort of fiasco this Halloween, why not visit our tried and tested movies? You’d be surprised at how many people haven’t seen them. Here are our personal top ten horror movies for a spooky night!

10. SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (1991) Nothing can beat the world’s most famous cannibal and an FBI agent solving crimes together! Silence of the Lambs is critically acclaimed, with Anthony Hopkins (Hannibal Lecter) holding the record for the shortest performance to win an academy award. It even has a TV show spin off called Hannibal, if you prefer your horror to be year-round.

9. THE BABADOOK (2014) Named the third best film of 2014, The Babadook is a psychological supernatural horror. An evil entity stalks a mother and her child, making their lives a living hell.

It’s also based on a short film named Monster (2005).

If you need any justification as to how terrifying this film is, William Friedkin – the director of The Exorcist (1973) – has said “I’ve never seen a more terrifying film than The Babadook”, which is his seal of approval!

8. CONTAGION (2011) I know we’re sick to death (pun unintended) of zombie movies, but we all love to indulge in some

mindless dead-on-living action. Contagion is a more recent release about zombies controlled by a medical plague, terrorizing the life out of the living.

The plague itself is actually based off the Nipah pig virus from Malaysia, which makes the movie more realistic and gives it a scientific basis.

7. NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968) An oldie but a goldie! Night Of The Living Dead is available as the original 1968 version, a 1990 version and a more recent 2012 remake. One of the first films to popularise zombies as horror movie villains actually terrified people so much, Readers’ Digest actually urged people to abstain from watching as they believed it could cause cannibalism. We at Sin newspaper are, however, indifferent to your eating habits.

6. THE RING (2002) Based off a Japanese horror movie from 1998, The Ring has some truly disturbing imagery, especially when it comes to Samara’s character. This movie makes use of the supernatural and creepy children, which can be quite hard to get right as seen from many B-list horror movies (and trust me, I have seen a lot).Upon its release, many cinemas actually placed VHS copies of the cursed video in cinema seats as a freebie for viewers. Nowadays, they’d probably send it to your phone like what happened U2’s album.

5. CARRIE (1976) Stephen King’s first novel, and his first movie adaption still manage to shock and terrify. The movie has a realistic, high-school setting which dissolves into utter chaos. Despite numerous remakes, I think that the original version is more terrifying. Many actors at first, believed that the

What to do when you’re not feeling the club

By Sorcha O’Connor Not feeling a night on the tiles in your polyester finery from the euro shop’s costume aisle this Halloween? Never fear, there’s plenty more to get up to with your friends this scary season.

HORROR FILM MARATHON Gather round the telly box with your friends, with a big bowl of popcorn and a selection of the scariest films you can find. Netflix have loads to choose from and, as we all know, is ideal for binge watching.

A NON-HORROR FILM MARATHON If Halloween just really isn’t your thing, ditch the horror and throw a full-on anti-Halloween night.

Watch all your favourite comedy films, keep all lights on full blast and ignore any trick-or-treaters at the door. Fluffy pink pyjamas mandatory!

TRADITIONAL GAMES There’s nothing that beats good, old-fashioned fun. Try the old-school Halloween games such as Bobbing Apple (put apples in a bowl of water and bite into them without using your hands) and Snap Apple (tie an apple to a string and then

suspend from a nail to aim to get a bite.) The competition may become fierce.

LOCAL EVENTS In your area there could be plenty of events scheduled for Halloween. Plays and midnight showings of films in theatres are common around this time of year. Maybe there will even be a local firework display or bonfire. Here in Galway, you could take a trip to Carnevil.

BAKING The internet is teeming with How-To videos for making Halloween treats. You could spend your night icing pumpkin buns or even baking a traditional Bairín Breac. Visit sites such as Buzzfeed for more yummy ideas.

BRING YOUNGER SIBLINGS TRICK OR TREATING This is an ideal opportunity to re-experience the excitement of Halloween gone-by. You can bring your young brother or sister or cousins door to door and maybe even nick a few sweets for your troubles. You could also get them to watch your childhood favourite films like Halloweentown or Hocus Pocus and relive your youth once more.

script was for a satire horror film but soon realised how serious it was when the infamous prom scene took over two weeks to shoot.

4. ALIEN (1979) In space, no one can hear you scream. Or cry. Or laugh at another’s misfortune. This movie evokes all these emotions! Although it isn’t technically a pure horror film, it is a masterpiece of blending scifi and horror together. In the famous chest-bursting scene, none of the cast except for Sigourney Weaver were told what would happen – so their reactions during this scene are genuine.

3. FRIDAY THE 13TH (1980) Given that it has a boatload of sequels, the original starting point of the series still holds up as an original slasher in 2015! This movie made the fateful date and the recognisable hockey mask iconic horror memorabilia. The filming of this movie only took 28 days and editing took ten weeks, with a budget of $550,000… and it made 72 times its budget in the box office. No wonder they had money for so many sequels.

2. THE SHINING (1980) The Shining is a great example of a psychological horror – although maybe it’s best watched with small groups due to the length and lack of events in the first act. The film is often cited as being Stanley Kubrick’s best work, as well as Stephen King’s most famous book. Ever wonder why Jack looks so genuinely frustrated and angry in the film? It may be because he was forced to eat cheese sandwiches everyday on set, which are the actor, Jack Nicholson’s least favourite food. Talk about method acting!

1. SCREAM (1996) It’s the perfect college-aged horror movie – it’s self-aware, it references all the great horrors that came before it (watch out for the Nightmare on Elm Street reference!), the characters make rational decisions and the scary parts doesn’t rely on jump-scares. What else could you ask for? Fun fact: this movie made such good use of mobile phone technology as a horror device, that the use of caller ID tripled after its release. That doesn’t stop your caller from wearing a Ghostface mask on the other end though…

Halloween: Childhood vs Adulthood

By Rachel Brownlow As a child, the weeks coming up to Halloween were always filled with a buzz of excitement. The main question being, ‘what are you going to be?’ quickly followed by, ‘but how many sweets do you think you’ll get?’

Once you get past the socially acceptable age of trick-or-treating however (though I’m sure we’ve all tried to milk it for what it’s worth) Halloween just isn’t quite the same, even though the concerns we all have are still surprisingly similar.

and-grimaces shape. Cupcakes and biscuits are decorated and iced into Halloween-esque squiggles to be handed out to reluctant trick-or-treaters.

ADULTHOOD: Yet another trip to the two-euro shop where you spend a ridiculous amount of money on decorations. Sequins of bats and ghosts get spread along every kitchen surface and food colouring is ill-advisedly dripped down mirrors (surely it won’t be that hard to clean off?). The pumpkins are bought and carved into fancy Nightmare Before Christmas impressions before being forgotten about until you find them rotting behind the couch a few weeks later.

THE OUTFIT

THE NIGHT

CHILDHOOD: Weeks of planning went behind the outfit, with a consensus being taken during school lunch breaks on whether or not to dress in group costumes. This tended to involve everyone fighting over the characters of Harry Potter and culminated in the decision to go as separate characters when no agreement is reached. On Halloween night, everyone appeared in either expensive or home-sewn outfits (a wide range of witches and cats) which were bound to impress and bring in the most treats.

ADULTHOOD: Weeks of vaguely discussing the outfit during which everyone plans a group theme only to end up unable to settle on an acceptable decision, spending a fortune on over-priced, illfitting costumes which leave you eating beans and noodles for the next two weeks. Or you finally end up scrabbling around two-euro shops the night before Halloween on the hunt to recreate all those ‘easy, fool-proof’ outfits from Buzz-feed that turn out to be not so simple when it comes to the crunch.

CHILDHOOD: The preparations start in the early afternoon as the excitement builds. Parents dutifully layer you in face paint and off you go with a group of friends, so laden down in intricate costumes that the walk is more of a waddle. Each and every house on your road is harassed by constant doorbell-ringing until your bags of sweets are full.

Then you return home, on a sugar rush, to play Halloween games that mostly involve hitting your teeth repeatedly off an apple for the occasional bite. The night ends with a roomful of children experiencing the end of a sugar high, covered in smeared face paint, watching Hocus Pocus or some other PG ‘scary’ film.

ADULTHOOD: You plan to be dressed and ready to meet your friends at half nine by the latest but then you get distracted talking and suddenly it’s nearly eleven and you’re still trying to figure out the tutorial of the ‘simple, two-step face paint hack’. Eventually you admit defeat and head downstairs in a slightly more dishevelled state of dress than planned.

By the time everyone is ready to leave, the queues for clubs snake all the way down Shop Street so you head to Turkish Kebab for a doner burger instead. Finally, you return home, probably rain-soaked, to watch the token horror film while half of you fall asleep midway through.

THE PREP CHILDHOOD: You paint pictures in art class of witches and ghosts and banners of bats and fairy lights are strung around the house and garden. Evenings are spent carving pumpkins (while heavily supervised by parents) into the classic triangle-eyes-

16 HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Sin Vol. 17 Issue 04

Five costumes you cannot avoid Tutorial:

By Patrick Kirrane Finding the perfect Halloween costume can be a difficult task and putting together the ideal ensemble in itself can be a high-pressure situation.

What are you going to dress up as? Who are you going to dress up as? Which slutty animal? How much are you prepared to fork out? Did you get the face paint yet? Will your night’s look compliment your friend’s get-up? How much fake blood, is too much fake blood? The questions are seemingly endless.

Every year there are terrifically original costumes, cliché costumes, horrifying costumes, sexy and innuendo costumes, some that are hilarious, and some that are just ridiculous. Here is what I presume will be the most worn costumes that no one will be capable of avoiding this Halloween.

THE CAT: This is a given, based on

my extensive research and analysis of Facebook profile photos from October 2014. For the next week or so, there will be a destruction of feline animals frolicking around the night scene of Galway. They are likely to be found slurping supermarket branded vodka, purr-

ing excessively and demanding an abundance of group photographs. Approach with caution as these are extremely predictable, unimaginative, impressionable creatures and one disapproving photograph could prove costly.

THE RAG DOLL: We all live digi-

tal lives. With over one in three people on the planet already connected to the Internet and millions more becoming sucked in every month. Technology is continuously changing as are some aspects of social behaviour, notably in terms of creativity. Still undecided on a look? The Rag Doll will have done her homework.

She’ll have inspected Instagram for a solid week, perfected the YouTube makeup tutorial and invested in the best animated contact lenses EBay has to offer.

There’ll be more than one rag doll, and they’ll spend the entire night together as an insular clique, dancing in a tight circle and doing their best to ignore the outsiders.

They don’t need other people in order to have a good time, and they definitely don’t need to be told their costume isn’t scary enough for Halloween. Individualism is overrated, or so they have been told.

THE SEXY COSTUME: These boys

THE ZOMBIE: Putting together the

By Kitty Ryan

and girls live and die by the Mean Girls rule that Halloween is the one night of the year people can get loads of flesh on show and not be judged. This guy will transform into the Hulk or something similarly narcissist. In case his physique doesn’t give it away, he plays rugby but there’s a chance it could be another sport. Having chosen a costume that allows him to be topless, he will move around chanting and downing Heineken like it’s a normal Thursday night in Carbon. The girls I’m 90% sure will have selected one of the two options I’ve previously mentioned.

right outfit takes time, it takes dedication, and it definitely requires passion, unless you plan to go as a zombie. The Zombie has survived the test of time (sort of) and simply works, regardless of who wears it. But it still has been severely overplayed, and really, really needs to just stop. Forty seconds of mystery is the reward for about fifteen minutes of preparation and a night’s worth of severe sweatiness. But being memorable is not a priority, especially when you reek of desperation and that failing fear factor.

Perhaps I’ll be proved wrong; who knows, maybe you'll be the one to break out the trend and show them how it's really done. There’s still time to get plotting and planning for the perfect original look, that overdue assignment can definitely wait another week.

Dressing up as an undead creature is a rite of passage for all Halloween enthusiasts. Whether your costume is based upon The Walking Dead, or you’re a zombie version of a character, or you just want to look scary and scare trick-or-treaters, this budget tutorial is perfect for you.

For this tutorial, you will need: • Toilet/tissue paper (1 ply works best) • A small amount of water • A small sponge or a paint brush • Powder foundation/face paint in the colour you desire • Fake blood/red lip gloss • Purple, black, green and brown eye shadows (optional) • Liquid latex – but check for allergies first! (also optional) • Patience

THE SUPERHERO: On first assump-

tion, you’d gather that this is the sort of guy that ventured into town and picked up the first outfit that caught his attention, without much further thought. This is incorrect; this is a strategic move, and one that has required a lot of careful planning. He feels the majority of costumes on sale nowadays are either too extravagant or flamboyant and will jeopardise his dignity. He then insists on parading around town in an overly padded bodysuit, a pair of bright tights and visible red briefs. Logic at its finest.

Staying warm this Halloween…

…while still looking great!

By Aisling Bonner Trick or treat, trick or treat, let me inside to the heat – because it’s bleedin’ freezin’ out. It seems that no matter what kind of October we’ve had, Halloween is the night where things get real. As Ned Stark would say, ‘Winter Is Coming’.

Every year, an icy breeze whips through sexy nurse pinafores and caveman togas and everyone swears they’ll listen to their mammy next year and ‘wrap up’.

The time is now. Here’s how you can walk the walk without the shiver.

THE OCTOPUS: This look can be achieved from the complete destruction of an old hoodie. Hold your breath, and cut away 6 strips from the body of the hoodie (disclaimer: this may be emotional). Join the sides of each strip to make a tube shape to create the legs and fill with materials

that will insulate the wearer. This is where you can get strategic. Forget newspapers and old clothes, create an inventory within your octopus legs and fill with extra warm layers to wear later. A sneaky packet of crisps and some bread also wouldn't go a miss and would save the Supermac's rush at the end.

The octopus is all encompassing and a guaranteed roaster.

tion begins. Find yourself an open area which can attract a crowd and begin the transition. When the beat drops, slowly emerge from the cocoon and reveal your inner butterfly. When the night is over, return to your cocoon before embracing the cold without a flinch.

CATERPILLAR/BUTTERFLY

This costume is gender neutral and is based around three features. The first: fur. Penney’s is a fur haven at the moment so layer up with furry coats, scarves, hats and gloves.

Next ingredient: bling. Essentials include long chains with dollar signs, a large diamond watch and a sprinkling of knuckle-dusting rings. The icing on the hustlin’ cake? None other than a pair of killer shades. What better to keep those eye sockets warm whilst protecting the eyes from those harmful moon rays? You can thank me later.

This costume is as versatile as they come and perfect for that complete heat adjustment that nightclubs tend to provide. The night begins cosy and rosy in your cocoon, or as you’ll be using, a sleeping bag.

Be sure to cut arm holes and leg holes from the bag in order to achieve mobility, which tends to be important.

Retract your arms into the cocoon when they are not in use to achieve a more authentic cocoon look. At midnight, the transforma-

HUSTLER

STEP 1: APPLY YOUR TISSUE PAPER

This is easier said than done for beginners. You’ll want to make small tears where you want any wounds or gashes to paint, and lay the paper as flat as you can onto your desired canvas. I’m using my forehead to create a large fresh-looking wound.

STEP 2: GENTLY WET YOUR SPONGE/BRUSH AND DAB ONTO THE TISSUE PAPER

When I say gently, I mean gently. Too much water or pressure can cause the tissue to break apart, or fall off. You want to wet it just enough so that it will stick onto your skin. Remember to concentrate around the areas where the paper ends and where your own skin begins – you don’t want it peeling off in the middle of the night.

Tip: you can use a little bit of PVC glue or liquid latex here to ensure that it stays on all night.

STEP 3: APPLY YOUR FACE PAINT

If you’re using foundation/face paint on the rest of your face, then I would advise you to apply this all over before you start on the zombie skin. I would really recommend that you use powder face paint if you can, since the wetness of cream paint may tear or weaken the tissue.

When applying your face paint over the tissue, be gentle and try to get a full coverage along the borders so that it blends into your skin. Don’t worry if you can see the pores of the tissue – it’s special effects on a budget.

It probably won’t be noticed since you’ll look so scary!

Tip: If you want to go for the realistic look, contouring your face paint can work miracles. If you’re using green face paint, use a darker green (or mix with black/brown) under areas where you want shadows such as cheekbones, under your eyes and your temples. It stops the flat “blockcolour” look that the Wicked Witch of the West has.

STEP 4: CREATE BRUISED SKIN (OPTIONAL)

There’s far more colour in zombie skin than is traditionally thought about. Using eye shadow or face paint (you can use cream ones this time!), apply around the tears where you plan to put your blood

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! 17

October 27 2015

ZOMBIE SKIN with a small brush. Purples, greens, browns and blacks are great for bruises on regular skin tones. You can also use a little bit of pink or red to make the skin look irritated. For other colours of skin such as green, white or red, these colours also work but you may add other bruise-like colours such as mustard yellow if you wish. Zombies aren’t real, so how do we decide how they look?

STEP 6: PULL YOUR BEST ZOMBIE GRIMACE!

By Rebecca Mc Kinney

Now go and scare people asking you for candy, and keep it all for yourself!

With the Celtic spirits of Samhain fast approaching, we only have one question on our minds... ‘What am I going to wear?!’

These days it’s pretty simple to buy a costume; whether it’s a Wednesday Adams spin-off, or a Mario and Luigi duo that you bought with your housemate the evening before, the choices are limitless.

However, maybe you don’t need to spend the big bucks this year; what if you could create your own costume and feel good by donating to charity at the same time?

Galway is home to over 20 charity shops with lots of retro, vintage clothing and knick-knacks that can transform the ordinary costume to one people will be talking about at next year’s Hollow’s Eve. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

STEP 5: APPLY YOUR FAKE BLOOD

Using a cotton bud, or a paint brush, apply your fake blood between the gaps of the tissue. Try to cover up your own skin showing through. If your fake blood is too runny, try adding a little bit of flour to give it texture. You can also apply the blood onto any areas on the tissues such as splatters.

Tip: most shop-bought fake blood looks too fake sometimes, so if you want to make it more realistic, try adding a drop or two of blue food dye.

It really livens up the living dead look!

The best costume

By Eoghan Holland Lobotomised social liability monster is the only costume it’s more or less acceptable to wear any night of the year in Ireland, so when it comes to actual Halloween we really feel we should outdo ourselves.

I am Sin’s feeling of dystopian awareness. I’m in a queue, which If I am to believe the rumours, leads to another queue. The only difference between this and a pastoral queue is that this queue is more expensive.

The legends tell me that if I stay in this queue long enough I’ll be in a nightclub where I can queue for another queue. This is good news as: (a) I’ll be able to dispatch with my anorak. Up until now a full circle of costume admiration for my flawless creation hasn’t been able to gather the visual nutrients to become fully sentient. I survey my surroundings. Dystopia. Harry Potter, your glasses are wrong. The Irish rugby team don’t have that many working limbs. Micheal Jackson, your voice has broken.

Carbon based Lifeforms, Carbon dating. In this dystopia we reconstruct the past with whatever we can find.

On the other side of the planet massive Chinese labour cities churn out half-remembered cultural nodes, tropes, meme’s

Get Nifty, Get Thrifty!

trying to assemble a western culture representative of the one that existed just before some massive, pulsing, seismic event wiped out the collective historic awareness of Europe. Every year we get wiped again and piece together a sexier, plastic-infused Chinese whisper of what all these things once were. (b) I’m practicing my queuing game for Christmas. I’m getting it down. Maybe someone has come dressed as air, or light, or laughter. I’m breathing, seeing and hearing their costume. It's so good, nobody has recognized them and nobody will. Sexy lamppost never knew that sexy light bulb was emitting beams of light that took months of paper and yards of glue to breathe life into.

They are in every photo, every selfie and yet never tagged: eternal and supreme Halloween victory. Fourth dimensional Facebook likes owed in retrospect, only when we pass the next hurdle of evolution will we fully appreciate the genius of this costume. While we staggered and spilled and shed plastic and shivered across the streets of Galway, the all seeing all feeling costume had transcended our awareness.

The chink of light emerges, the door, the gateway, the end of the queue. Sorry sir, we’re full up.

THE WANNABE BRIDE A Victorian, gothic, widowed bridenot-to-be, dressed to depress in a simple white-collared blouse, a white laced skirt with a loose black cardigan, tied with a bow. For extra detail you can make a bustle using a pillow. Another tip is to check out white, laced curtains that can be used to make the deadliest bridal veil.

THE BAT Want to stick your fangs into some DIY? Then this quick and easy bat

costume is for you! Twist of the top of a second-hand umbrella, grab some pliers and snip off its short wires and then two ribs facing opposite each other (so they can be saved for later!)

Next, trim the umbrella in half down the seam and cut off the extra ribs.

What you want to do then is stitch the veins of the umbrella along the side of a black T-shirt (which can easily be found in any charity shop). Snippets of extra material can be used with the two ribs you isolated earlier to be made into crafty bat ears.

THE PIRATE Stumped for ideas for the kids this Halloween, or want to brave the pirate look yourself? Start with an ordinary white shirt, trim the neck into a v shape and create two small holes on either side. Find an old black shoelace and guide it through.

Next, get your hands on an old black scarf and tie it around the waist of the costume. Pick up some ordinary navy trousers and a waistcoat (any bright colour will work nicely). For the eye patch, you can save your pennies by carving a circle shape out of a piece of cardboard, glue on some black felt, prick two holes on either side of the patch and thread some black elastic through.

THE PRINCESS Would you rather sell your soul than blow the budget on a princess costume? You’re in for a treat! Get an old tartan kitchen apron (depend-

ing on size) and dazzle it up by picking up some lace or ribbon and tie it around the waist for the ultimate fairytale look, you can be as creative as you like with this one.

THE SUPERHEROES Want to go as a group with your mates this Halloween? Forget saving the world and save your budget by going as your favourite superheroes!

You will need some coloured tights, matching shirt, and black leather shorts with some comfortable black boots. For the mask, you can cut up a black velvet item of clothing into the desired shape, pierce two holes on either side and grab black elastic and guide it through so that it stays in place. TV show characters look great with a group too; all that’s required is some regular clothes – so no need to buy it online or in store!

Old suits can also be very creepy when worn right! Dust up your suit with some baby powder, paint your face white – and hey presto, you look sharp and spooky!

Don’t want to spend a lot of time or money? Keep it safe with an original look; some examples to get your blood pumping are a Zombie, a Cowboy/Cowgirl, a Witch/Wizard, a Vampire, or a Mummy.

All of these ideas can be recreated using some old unloved clothes that aren’t afraid to be cut up. And if you’re really stuck, there’s nothing wrong with using an old white blanket and rocking the ghost look! Enjoy!

Halloween dress-up hacks

By Sorcha O’Connor 1. Replace white face paint with talcum powder. Face paint can really irritate a sensitive face and cause you to be itching all night long. So when looking to achieve a deathly glow, use talcum powder instead. It’s itch free and looks way more realistic.

2. Forget those spray-in hair colours. Instead, use coloured chalk to create a ghostly coloured mane. If you’re like me (a worrier), you will be put at ease knowing that the chances of your hair falling out due to weird chemicals are considerably less. You could also use clip in hair extensions.

3. Replace black with brown. This is a great tip – if you’re trying to get a gaunt look, use a brown colour on the hollows of your

cheeks and around the eyes. It’s less drastic than using black and again looks more realistic.

4. Work with what you’ve got.

Don’t bother splashing out on a shop-bought costume. Even a simple black outfit, a few rips in your clothes and fake blood can look good when done right!

5. DIY gore. Fake blood and wounds add to any Halloween costume; you can be just about a ‘dead’ anything with them! It’s easy to make your own and this way you have as much or as little as you like. Simply mix water, golden syrup (or any gloopy sauce you have in your press) and a bit of red food dye. Then thicken with flour if needs be.

6. Make blood-drenched clothing.

Using just a mix of water and red food dye and splattering it onto a white piece of clothing can get

you well on your way to looking your scariest this Halloween.

7. Grab your jammies. Pyjamas are key to many a costume.

You can be a baby, a clown, a banana, an escaped hospital patient… The list goes on. Just thrown on a pair of Penney’s finest matching sets or indeed your onesie and then all that’s left to do is accessorise. It’s a really easy last minute costume and you’re guaranteed to be cosy all night long – a bit of a win-win for those of a lazier disposition.

8. Make like Macklemore: go thrift-shopping for a costume.

Ok so in Ireland-speak, that’s head down to a local charity shop and have a mosey around.

You’ll more than likely find some inspiration for a costume; it’ll be cheap as chips and be for a good cause too.

18 HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Sin Vol. 17 Issue 04

Halloween expectations vs reality

By Sinéad O’Callaghan It is that time of year again. The time when it’s time to put on (or take off ) your glad rags, practice your ghoul face and go about the town looking ridiculous as you scare the young kids on the streets. It’s Halloween; a time when it is perfectly acceptable to be whatever you want to be, even if this doesn’t always work out exactly to plan…

EXPECTATION:

Electric is going to be class tonight. Yyou're going to meet up with your friends early – because if you start early you’ll leave early and then sure there’ll be no problems getting in. Anyways you look hot so the bouncer will probably be like ‘sure go on in girls’ and there’s never any problem in the first place.

REALITY:

EXPECTATION:

You are going to look absolutely “unrail” on Halloween. You’ve been planning your outfit for weeks – it’s been a daily discussion during coffee breaks in Smokey’s. Your idea is totally original. Clearly no one has thought of it yet, so that’s why you’re going as it. You’d hate to be one to follow the crowd anyway… sure what’s the fun in that?

REALITY:

The night comes and in you get into the taxi, flicking your hair and bracing yourself for everyone’s reaction. You’re delighted with yourself – the flower headband is sitting on just right and your Bambi eyes are on point. You open the door into the house party, chuffed that you got past security and stare into the abyss of costumes before you. You might as well all join together and become Santa’s reindeer. There are about twenty or so other huns rocking the antlers tonight.

It’s half eleven and your friend is feeling sick.

You’ve called the taxis and none have arrived yet so the group of ye decide ye’re probably quicker than public transport. Out ye hop onto the street, and no surprise, it’s raining.

Sure we’ll chance it anyways. Fifteen minutes down the road and the Rubix Cube of your group has disintegrated, your mummy is now just a walking corpse and yer wan is crying again because her deer make up now looks like road kill. To top it off the queue for electric is around the corner so you lower your expectations and head to karma. You don’t get in there either. So you settle for a kebab in Turkish and then resign yourself to looking at the other dejected creatures walking up and down Shop Street.

EXPECTATION:

Face paint. Everyone is going to do face paint this year so you jump on board with the trend.

You’ve seen all the cool tutorials pop up on your Facebook feed and sure, the sugar skull

one looks easy.

You can so d o t hat.

No bother to you like.

Plus face paint is like the cheaper option too and it won’t fall apart like the other stupid costumes you see bopping around town.

Sure you’re as good as any MUA. REALITY:

Yo u w a l k t o the pound shop on the 29th.

That’s plenty of time, sure.

They’re sold out. You try Dealz. Same story. You end up having to make your way to the Art and Hobby s h o p w h e re you fork out the equivalent of three dinners and a night out on just white face paint.

You resign yourself to the fact that you’re going to have to use eye shadow for the

coloured bits and that liquid eyeliner from essence. Two hours into your creation, and you resemble a cross between Frankenstein’s better-looking sister and one of those swirly pictures you used to colour in on Windows 95’s paint. Not going exactly to plan. It’s like putting on eyeliner but worse.

You’ve already had a fight with your housemate because she tried to even up the eyes and now it is even worse than it was in the first place.

You eventually get over the tiff – one of the gals is coming over to fix it up anyway so you’re set. And it looks amazing: so worth eating baked beans for the next week.

Until an hour later when your eyes are sweating down to your chin and your face feels like you have leprosy.

The lad who was eying you up has swiftly moved away to the girl wearing semi normal makeup and you cry like the sad clown in Toy Story 3.

Too old for Trick-or-Treating? Halloween games… with a twist

By David Carmody It is now the middle of autumn and we can watch the leaves wither and die and, as any halfway competent first year English student can tell you, it is a nice obvious metaphor for our dwindling years and the slow inevitable march of time. You might find yourself contemplating life’s big questions like ‘do all dogs really go to heaven?’ or ‘am I too old for tricking-or-treating?’

Time is just a concept; should you really let the number of rotations of this planet around the sun dictate to you whether you get to go around and get free sweets?

If you do decide to laugh in the face of society’s conventions about age-appropriate behaviours and go trick-or-treating, think of the fun you would have. As most of you are college students you are well used to annoying your neighbours, but think now you get to go around and annoy them and they’d have to give you mini imitation mars bars from Aldi or a handful of nuts and an apple if they’re mean.

But perhaps such frivolity doesn’t appeal to you now that you’ve passed the age of trick or treating and you feel the icy claw of death gripping at your soul. Perhaps it’s time to put away such childish things. No more shall you know the simple pleasures of black plastic bin bags and imagination.

How will you fill your time now that

you’re too old for trick or treating? A vast expanse of middle age now spreads before you; a life of healthy diets, washing the car on a Sunday and planning for your retirement; a life of back pains and not getting the music kids are listening to.

So how does one contemplate their own mortality after such a life-shattering event?

What will be your dark night of the soul?

Maybe the route of moody jazz and endless cigarettes is for you. A night of fervent prayer where you call out in anguish to an uncaring god is surely a possibility.

The more modern route of ceaselessly checking your social media accounts as you wonder why everyone else seems to have their lives together shouldn’t be discounted.

If you’re really committed to the idea you could go down the hermit route and go back to nature and live in a cave but it is not for the faint-hearted and the wifi sucks.

Like all life’s big questions there is no simple answer. Maybe the best way to look at it is that being too old to go trick-or-treating doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the fun of trick-or-treating by making sure the kids who come to your door have an amazing time.

Do up your house like a haunted mansion; be the only house in your estate that gives out full size chocolate bars. Whatever happens though enjoy yourself and remember: you’re here for a good time not for a long time.

By Michael Glynn So it’s that time of year again, 31 October, the famed ‘All Hallows Eve’. It’s my favourite time of year, probably just due to the lavish outfits and the chance to properly mess around and not be recognised for it. But that’s not what we’re here for.

No, the one thing that people seem to forget about Halloween is that it’s Irish. If you want the whole story about the history of it all, look it up, I’m not the one to tell you, just trust me it’s Irish. And that’s why we’re going to go over all those old games you used to play when you were a little tot at the day-time Halloween parties, I’m also going to improve these games.

BOBBING FOR APPLES This is a classic, as they all are really. The concept is simple: get a basin, fill it water, get an assortment of apples and throw them in.

Now here’s where it gets tricky, the aim of the game is to get as many apples as you can out of the water with just your mouth, the winner is the one with the most. Sound simple? Try it, it’s like trying to keep hold of a greased up watermelon in a pool.

And there comes my improvement: different fruit. See how you fare with apples and then start adding to the mix, plums, bananas, and yeah maybe even watermelon (points-

based system; obviously the watermelon is the golden snitch, get it and you win).

SNAP APPLE (OR APPLE ON A STRING) This is certainly my favourite; tie a string around the stem of an apple and hang it over something tall (tree branch or washing line). Now someone has to get on their knees and try to take a bite out of the apple without using their hands. Again, a simple concept, but outright hilarious to watch. The more people gathered to laugh, the better the time everyone will have as they laugh at the poor fool trying to take just one little bite out of the apple.

My improvement? Blindfold. Try and even find the apple to take a bite out of it and find yourself getting hit in the face repeatedly by a swinging apple; ha, fool.

PASS THE APPLE This one I could never get. Get everyone to stand in a circle and then one person tucks an apple under their chin, the apple must go around the full circle using only chins, no hands, again. That’s it; pretty difficult but also pretty fun.

My improvement: pass the apple back and forth using only your mouths, if someone happens to take a bite of the apple, they shouldn’t be allowed at future parties.

20 LIFESTYLE

Sin Vol. 17 Issue 04

A college girl’s guide to keeping cosy this winter The beauty

By Jessica Hannon

of hats and

As winter steadily approaches and the days close in, revealing foggy nights and frosty mornings, I can’t help but pull out my hats and scarves in eager anticipation of the snow and bitter coldness that winter brings. Winter is my favourite season, there is something so charming and heart-warming about wrapping up warm and cosying up in front of the fire.

Enter the winter season as a college student however, and that’s another kettle of fish.

Many privately-owned houses don’t even have heating oil, never mind a warm fire. The solution? Wrap up warm – really warm.

scarves is that not only do they serve a practical function by keeping you toasty but they are also so versatile and literally make an outfit.

For girls this can be very easy and cheap as well. So don’t fear- here lies all you need to know about how to keep toasty this winter, while remaining stylish and sophisticated.

generally stock a wide range of styles. Another consideration to take into account is investing in a timeless black staple coat. Black goes with everything and is perfect for special occasions.

protect the colour; it also protects from rain damage and scuffing. These protectors can usually be bought in the shoe shop.

LAYERING IS KEY

JEANS OR TIGHTS?

You’ve probably heard it all before but layering up in winter is essential. I’m talking vests and tops, Penney’s have a huge range of stylish light tops which are ideal when you’re wearing a vest underneath, and they’re not expensive. Cardigans – especially wool – are a great alternative to wearing a heavy jumper while keeping your casual look. Pull on a cardigan with a scarf under your favourite coat and you’re ready to go. Thermal wear such as vests and socks can also be a really good purchase when it comes to layering.

Both. While I was never one for wearing dresses and tights during winter, I’ve recently come around. Not only is a skirt/pair of appropriate shorts really cute in winter with a pair of boots but it’s also incredibly warm!

Woolly tights are the best bet in the cold but opaque black tights are great too. Teamed with warm dresses and earthy colours, tights provide a wonderful alternative to jeans.

Obvious during winter, but essential. The beauty of hats and scarves is that not only do they serve a practical function by keeping you toasty but they are also so versatile and literally make an outfit. They can be picked up so easily and cheaply in stores such as River Island and Topshop and can make you stand out from the crowd depending on shape, fabric and colour. If you’re anything like me, gloves and woolly boot socks will be your best friend to fight off those numb fingers and toes in the cold.

INVEST IN A GOOD WINTER COAT Basic. A good, warm but waterproof coat is imperative for winter. Okay, so this may be more expensive than other winter pieces but, not only is it a staple buy, it will last you a few years if you invest wisely. Superdry are great but I find, although waterproof and a great windcheater, they lack insulation, which isn’t ideal. River Island has a lovely collection if you like fur and lots of it but they may be a bit above budget, averaging around €100. My best bet would be trying out TK Max as they

BOOTS, BOOTS, BOOTS Definitely a necessity. Not only are they very practical come the hail and snow, but boots are so stylish and generally go with everything, be that jeans or dresses. While Penney’s and Dunnes Stores stock a wide range of affordable pairs, personally I’d advise spending the money on a good strong comfortable pair. You will reap the benefits.

Generally sticking to the brands is wise, i.e.: Clarks, CAT, Docs and Rieker to name but a few. Leather is always good but buying a protective spray to use on the leather before the first use is important. Not only does this

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HATS, SCARVES AND GLOVES

WINTER KNITS Knitwear is my go to when the weather changes. For me a few woolly jumpers can do you no wrong. And while you’re in Galway why not pick up an Aran Sweater in the home of the trusty wool knit. When choosing wool types however it’s good to go for a Merino Wool (a little more pricy though) as it’s a softer wool and doesn’t scratch the skin if you’re not wearing a shirt underneath. If an Aran isn’t for you however, these days woolly jumpers can be picked up in almost every good woman’s clothing shop.

LIFESTYLE 21

October 27 2015

The Awkward Vegan I’ve been on and off the vegan wagon for nearly three years now and honestly, I’m not entirely delighted about my recent lifestyle change just yet. I mean I am, morally speaking. I’m thrilled with my resolve and adherence to my own beliefs and reducing animal suffering and exploitation in some small way, versus conforming to the majority and bowing to convenience.

It’s important to know that vegan food isn’t just salad and vegans aren’t all dreadlocked, drum-beating, tree-hugging hipsters. In each episode of The Awkward Vegan I hope to introduce you to a world of vegan-friendly food.

Delicious tomato soup to warm the soul during the colder evenings.

Photo via Flickr: stu_spivack

Tomato Soup to match the Sunday roast Wach column will come with a recipe, costing and nutritional information because, let’s face it, as college students we collectively neglect our health. We go home at weekends for an immunity vaccination in the form of Mammy’s roast dinner (some of us cheat on Mammy’s roast with the Bialann, but we could never admit it to our mothers obviously).

I will be providing cheap and cheerful recipes that you can, more often than not, make in bulk and eat all week or freeze. With a busy student lifestyle, cooking, I’m sure, is low on the agenda. So convenience, and moreover cost, will be kept in mind.

Starting with something simple and not outrageously ‘vegan’: tomato soup.This recipe could not be simpler. Here are a few good reasons to make it: 1. It’s fat free, so gym-goers and couch potatoes alike will benefit.

2. It’s gluten and dairy free, so coeliacs and lactose intolerant people can eat it too.

3. It’s full of antioxidants like vitamin C, which will help to protect you against colds and flu this winter.

4. Tomatoes have been known to combat the formation of cancer-causing cells. This is particularly true for men because tomatoes contain lycopene, which has been linked with lower incidence of prostate cancer in young men.

5. Tomatoes contain vitamin A, choline, potassium and fiber which all support heart health. They’re also good for improv-

Sink your teeth into Galway Restaurant Week

By Niamh Cullen Coming to Galway City and surrounding areas from 2 to 8 November is the culinary delight that is Galway Restaurant Week. Throughout the week, you can get your teeth into special offers, carefully crafted menus set specifically for the occasion and a showcase of the finest delicacies known to grace the kitchen.

Local produce and traditional Irish fine cuisine are at the heart of the initiative, with chefs, kitchens, and food and wine bars displaying their talents in the cultural sphere that is Galway City. The week was originally established by Galway Food Festival 2015 chairperson and head chef at McCambridges, Heather Flaherty.

“Last year I was in New York for Restaurant Week and I thought the concept was great. It's a nice way for restaurants to give something back to the community, in the form of a special week,” she told the Galway Advertiser at the festival last year.

The festival marks its fourth year, and showcases the artisanal expertise to be found in food and beverage alike in restaurants across the

city. A taster of events to come include Cava Bodega’s offering of an exclusive array of Galway’s finest tapas, while Brasserie on the Corner will be hosting a four-course menu dinner inspired by the Wild Atlantic Way. Participating restaurant owners will be utilising primarily locally-sourced ingredients from the heart of the city spanning out to the shores of Connemara.

Competitions, discounts and exclusive events will all feature in the week, in addition to complimentary tasters, discount promotions and much more.

JP McMahon is one such avid chef eager to showcase his gastronomic abilities. Proprietor of Eat Galway, Cava Bodega and Aniar Restaurant, and committee member of Galway Restaurant Week, he is committed to promoting the local landscape through ethical eating and culinary flair.

“Galway Restaurant Week is about celebrating local restaurants that care about the community of Galway, its people, its producers, and its suppliers,” he said.

“It's about celebrating the great food we produce on Galway and educating others about that.”

ing blood sugar and insulin levels in people with Type-2 diabetes.

6. Finally, they’re high in folic acid which is good for pregnancy, combatting depression and regulating mood, sleep and appetite.

INGREDIENTS

I’ve used all organic ingredients, so I’ve provided the costings for those, but you can easily just pick this stuff up non-organic and cheaper in any supermarket (organic does taste better though).

• 5 large vine-ripened tomatoes, coarsely chopped (they don’t have to be on the vine, loose is ok too): roughly €2 for organic, less for non-organic.

• 4 or 5 cloves of garlic finely chopped or crushed: 69c for a packet of 3 heads in Dunnes.

• 2 small red onions: less than €1 for both • 2 tbsp tomato paste/puree: €1.50 for organic Roma puree in Dunnes; again, less for nonorganic.

• 2 tbsp olive oil: a few cents relative to the bottle cost.

• 1 litre vegetable stock: I use Bouillon vegetable stock because it’s vegan friendly. It’s in excess of €5 but lasts ages. Alternatively, you can go for Kallo organic vegetable stock cubes €2.50 per packet or cheaper, non-

organic ones. All options will do at least three batches.

• ½ a red chilli (or more if you like it hot), finely chopped: less than €1; don’t rub your eyes while chopping it!

• Salt, pepper, basil, parsley (optional, to taste) METHOD

1. Heat olive oil and sauté (fry on a low heat) onions in a saucepan for 2 to 3 minutes.

2. Add the garlic, tomato puree and chillies and continue to sauté for 1 to 2 minutes.

3. Add the chopped tomatoes, season to taste (salt and pepper) and sauté for 2 to 3 minutes.

4. Add the stock, bring to the boil, turn down the heat and gently simmer for 10 to 15 minutes.

5. Blend (hand blender) and serve (with optional parsley and basil).

PREPARATION (CHOPPING) TIME: 5 minutes

max.

COOKING TIME: 15 to 20 minutes

One litre of soup makes five bowls: three full ladles per serving. That’s a substantial lunch or dinner for one college week for about a fiver and more nutrition than you get in your mother’s roast. Enjoy!

22 LIFESTYLE

Sin Vol. 17 Issue 04

Shoulders of Giants

7 traits of this highly successful ‘scary’ Irish giant…

By John Mulry

I’m often asked why I constantly look outside of Ireland for inspiration when it comes to business, learning and developing myself personally. I look to places like the US, Canada and the UK because there’s so much to learn from these countries; so much talent and some of the best minds in the world comes from these places.

People like Dan Kennedy, Jay Abraham, Peter Guber, Jeff Bezos, Howard Schultz, Steve Jobs and authors like Napoleon Hill, Bob Burg, Brian Tracy and more.

However, there are a number of Irish people who have influenced me; I study what they’re doing and one of them is the focus for this issue’s column. This person is someone who’s had his fair share of critics as well as followers and, in my opinion, is one of the finest business people to ever come out of Ireland.

This person is none other than Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary.

Mr O’Leary, to me, is a force of nature in business and anyone who is interested in succeeding (not just in business) can learn a thing or two from someone of his calibre.

He’s definitely a unique character and you either love him or hate him, but there are seven key things that make him a powerhouse business person and someone you can learn an awful lot:

1. HE’S THICK SKINNED AND TAKES NO CRAP Mr. O’Leary has his haters and both he and Ryanair get a bashing from left right and centre but he doesn’t let it affect him, his goals or Ryanair’s continued success. Having a thick skin is so important because no matter what you do or where you go, there’ll always be some troll, some envious person, some hater trying to drag you down to their level.

Being able to take heat and criticism on the chin is something I’m learning myself but I find myself getting better. There’s a quote I heard before – “Success has no place for softies” and it’s true.

2. HE’S NOT AFRAID TO FAIL Nothing everything goes exactly as planned and it can be hard to accept that. But you must make realisation that failing at one particular venture does not make you a failure; it simply means you failed at that particular thing. There’s a key difference there.

3. HE’S WILLING TO SPEAK HIS MIND If you look at all the successful people in every arena from sport to business to TV and movies, the most successful are willing to speak their mind, take a stance for something (and by default against something else) and by doing so they create a bond with their fans, followers and customers.

4. HE’S A TRUE BUSINESS MAESTRO There’s a quote from Mr O’Leary which I love and it sums up what I think is a big problem with the focus of business owners.

"MBA students come out with: 'My staff is my most important asset.' Bullshit. Staff is usually your biggest cost. We all employ some lazy b*stards who need a kick up the backside, but no one can bring themselves to admit it."

True business is not about job creation; yes it’s a factor but true business, true entrepreneurship is about profit maximisation. Yes, you should be in business to help people – I don’t do business with people who are not – but your #1 job in business isn’t to create jobs for the economy and make your staff happy. Your #1 job is to exchange maximum value for maximum profitability with each and every client/customer that comes your way.

5. HE KNOWS WHAT HE WANTS Just like you must be willing to speak your mind, you have to know exactly what you want and then take steps on how to get it. You wouldn’t believe how many people have no idea what they want or what they want to do. Get hyper specific on what you want, figure out what steps you need to take then start taking them.

6. HE HAS A FIERCE WORK ETHIC Hard work doesn’t sell; four-hour work weeks sell; easy push button sells, but the reality is all the people who peddle the push button easy road to success all work incredibly hard themselves. Mr O’Leary has an insatiable work ethic and I hazard a guess that he’s one of the hardest working people in Ryanair.

I’ve studied a lot of the ultra-successful and, like Mr O’Leary, they all have that hunger for hard work.

7. HE’S DOESN’T TAKE HIMSELF TOO SERIOUSLY I’m a big believer that business should be fun, life should be fun and that if you’re not enjoying what you’re doing, no matter what your situation, you should engineer something else to do. It’s clear that Mr O’Leary isn’t afraid to laugh at himself and he doesn’t take himself too seriously. There are other people in similar positions that are very plain, very vanilla and also very unmemorable.

As the saying goes, ‘enjoy life, no one gets out alive anyway…’

Like him or loathe him, you’ve got to respect what Michael O’Leary has accomplished and what he’s done for Ireland. Which of these seven traits do you think you have, or better, which of them do you think you need to work on?

Until next time, Happy Halloween.

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ENTERTAINMENT 23

October 27 2015

Resonate Edited by Neil Slevin Resonate is Sin's very own culture section seeking NUI Galway-based students' creative work to showcase and share with our readers in each edition.

Corner of Your Eye Welcome to the beautiful city of Thoris.

Nobody is a liar.

Nobody is damaged.

This is the jewel of our new civilisation. It is proof of the indomitable spirit of man, a product of creativity, joy, and life. We will endure until the terminus of existence, this time.

It doesn’t matter if the poor were sent back to their slums.

It doesn’t matter if we feel we deserve everything in the world.

It doesn’t matter if friends conspire against one another.

It doesn’t matter if one of us has had their entire well-being attacked So much That the only option Is to hit back ten times harder.

This is Thoris. Nobody is selfish. Nobody goes too far.

That’s all that matters. Everything beyond and behind that is waste, still-scorching ashes from a fire nobody need ever know about.

Esther Cotty, citizen of Thoris, 17 years old.

I always wear these sunglasses. I always wear people out.

Twists of meaning like that annoy me more often than not – wear sunglasses, wear people out. Still, they can be handy for a spot of good old-fashioned fibbing.

It’s true that I’ve been hurt by people.

Hurt. Crime causes pain, and punishment follows crime.

The first thing I remember is going into my bedroom. It must have been after the last lecture of the day. Obviously, nothing is certain.

The old memory’s been a bit touch-and-go since a few years ago. Something happened to make it that way, but my memory of the day is – yes – touch-and-go.

My email needed de-cluttering. My desk was in front of a mirror, oddly enough, which I didn’t use much.

It was uncomfortable to look out the window, but every few nights my fascination and fear would draw me in. All these advancements were difficult to keep up with. The passion for reconstruction in Thoris was so heated that changes from month to month were overwhelming. The pool of shimmering neon, spotlights, screens, and holograms shamed what pale sunbeams managed to filter down through the mortar and steel.

Below, huge chasms and craters had been sliced and blasted into the bedrock. Suspension bridges and motorways on scattershot slopes were flung across these dizzying falls while scaffolds and wires steadied the whole metropolis, like the web of a spider with more ambition than intelligence. From a dozen stories below, sirens wailed and blasts sounded.

We welcome submissions in all genres of writing and/or visual art, and each week select the work that we think will reach out to and resonate most with our student readership.

This week's featured student is short story-writer Mark Laherty.

Mark is a second year student of Arts with Creative Writing. He is 20 and lives in Kilkenny.

Burning metal choked the air. It might be another protest, or just the biker gangs. A thick fog expanded from below like an oppressive growth. The police had broken out the gas.

It was only after five or ten minutes that I looked up to see the fogged up mirror glass with the fingerprint-stained message.

Corner of your eye.

I stared. This must have been another message that I’d left for myself. Why not use one of the sticky notes?

Granted, it was possible that someone else had left the message. Someone, strictly speaking, may have broken into my bedroom just to leave a vague message on my mirror. But this happened all the time, and it was more likely I’d written it myself.

I might have checked the corner of my eye and seen something there. I can’t remember.

But I do remember Luke.

He was one-and-a-half heads taller than me, and he always wore that stupid flat cap, and he kept trying to grow a beard.

It’s possible, though not certain, that I loved him. There was definitely no love for him in my heart by now. It had been too long.

Most of the happy times had been shrouded.

There might not even have been happy times, or at least none to speak of.

A sensory memory drifted up a few months before of Luke in the harsh light of morning, holding me closely but carefully, almost fearfully, sobbing into my shoulder, saying he couldn’t do it, couldn’t keep on pretending to fit in with the gentlemen a dozen floors up in the towers, couldn’t bear the brunt of my anger any longer.

Had I been angry?

He couldn’t.

Couldn’t.

Wouldn’t.

We were at the bus station, where we were to part ways. We hugged one last time. He smiled. It might have been relief. It might have been self-satisfaction. He might have thought this meant everything was back to normal. So I smacked him.

People were staring at him as I walked away. He was pacing back and forth, not even trying to hide how embarrassed and upset he was.

He should have held himself together.

He should have been normal, same as myself.

Because I can be.

Because I am.

As the bus pulled away, I held my jaw high and didn’t look out the window despite the fear and fascination gnawing at what felt like a whole separate nervous system for emotions, an elastic band painfully strained and stretched and dragged and covered in pain receptors.

I didn’t dare to look. What was I afraid of?

What was it that I wanted to leave as somebody else’s problem?

He has previously been published in the Munster Express and you can read his blog at marklaherty.wordpress.com, where he posts self-penned articles, opinion pieces and reviews.

Mark is our featured artist for this issue as his chilling story compliments the Halloween-like feel we are going for; it's not explicitly Halloween-themed, but Corner of Your Eye certainly succeeds in buildWhat was in the corner of my eye?

There was a drawing taped to the wall. An A5 page covered in slightly clumsy scribbles which were familiar but not fully recognisable: a cute little cartoon of me in a check dress leaning out the window of a building, letting a scarf hang down below. At the other end, a little figure in a flat cap hung on. It was like a lifeline, but they both looked so happy just to be connected in some way.

A shadow crossed over my brain. Something had been done. Some grievous wrong had been committed. The shadow was more than knowledge, it was truth. A truth impaired of detail, but all the clearer for it.

I had done wrong. Some base, carnal attack had been made on the freedom of the poor boy who had trusted me to hang on to the scarf and not let him fall into the webs and craters. And this wasn’t an event, an unavoidable catastrophe like the one that laid the ground, if it even was ground, for Thoris

ing a tension-fuelled atmosphere, and in providing the reader with an inescapably memorable narrator.

I hope you enjoy reading it.

If you are interested in having your work featured in future issues of Resonate, or if you have requests for further work by any of our selected contributors – please contact Neil at N.SLEVIN1@nuigalway.ie.

We look forward to hearing from you. to grow. This was an active act of destruction.

It wasn’t the first time I had figured this out, and it wasn’t the last time I would forget it. The facts of the matter were so clear, so undeniable, that I was overcome with anger and regret.

The official story is that nine months ago, Esther Cotty was admiring the view from outside her apartment when the railing gave way.

She could have fallen into the chasm, but fortunately she was caught by a balcony on the eleventh floor. She suffered only moderate cognitive injuries.

The physical blow was the beginning. The illness was nurtured by guilt. Now, recovery can only come through acceptance of circumstances that I couldn’t remember once I looked away. It hurt too much.

Hurt. Crime causes pain, and punishment follows crime. marklaherty.wordpress.com.

24 ENTERTAINMENT

Sin Vol. 17 Issue 04

OTHERKIN: Setting the Room on Fire Frontman Luke Reilly talks rock ‘n’ roll, song-writing and gigging in Galway

By Gheorghe Rusu Back in the late 70s, Neil Young sang that “rock and roll is here to stay”. Far from accepting the great man’s word as the gospel it is, music journalists (mostly from The Guardian) never cease, ad nauseam, alternately proclaiming that guitar music is dead, or crowning some new band as its saviours (see: Arctic Monkeys, Kasabian, Royal Blood).

It might dip, but it can never die: it’ll rise again, to loftier, bolder heights. One band carrying the torch forward is young Dublin outfit Otherkin.

All torn jeans and leather jackets, big riffs and bigger choruses, they’re currently midconquest on a trajectory that has seen them, in three short years, go from their practice den in Clontarf, via support slots for such NMEapproved demi-demi-gods as Parquet Courts, Palma Violets and POND (for the record, they’ve also gigged with bands from other regions of the alphabet), to playing Electric Picnic, Longitude and Reading and Leeds. A straight road this was not.

Their debut, the Broken English EP and its lead single ‘Lockjaw’, showed a band overflowing with ideas, an assault with verbose hooks, airy vocals,

angular chirpy guitars, and driving bass. Now, having released ‘II’ (a double single indebted to 90s American indie rock) and As a High EP (a more atmospheric, slow-burning affair that showcased a grungier sound), they’re here with The 201 EP: a definite statement, by the band’s account.

“I think the releases beforehand are the sound of a band that’s still trying to work out how to write songs with each other,” says frontman Luke Reilly, ahead of their show at the Róisin Dubh on 7 November, following the launch of the EP in Dublin.

Each new release saw the band take down previous recording. I was picturing Winston from 1984 chucking no-longer-true newspaper clippings down the furnace hole, and I wasn’t too far off: “When we put out a new release, we want to direct you to that and solely that, because it’s the latest iteration of the band – especially a band that hasn’t put out an album yet. I think now we’ve found the sound that we’re really comfortable with and that we want to explore for a good while longer. So, this EP is the one that’s here to stay.”

Released on Rubyworks, home of fellow risers Hozier and The Minutes, it’s decidedly less

complicated: the focus here is on distorted riffs, singalong choruses, with just the right amount of dirt thrown in by way of trebly, metallic lead lines and Reilly’s throaty inflection and stuttering cadence. The crown jewel of a lead single, ‘Ay Ay’, encapsulates the mood well.

“I think when we got around to the point of writing that song, we were sick of playing the old songs. They were a bit, I wouldn’t say obtuse, because they’re not really difficult songs to listen to, but maybe they were trying to be a bit more clever than they were, or they weren’t fun immediately. And we looked at big bands, big pop bands, like the Strokes, or even something like Nirvana, who play these really good pop songs, covered in a little bit of grit. A little bit of brown sugar.”

But going big was also about cutting back; “[It’s] not the easiest thing to do. It’s not like you can create a formula and repeat it over and over. It took me a good few years of playing in bands and learning how to play the instrument, to learn how to play it less.”

And it’s borne fruit. Propelled by a brilliant, stylised, kaleidoscope of a video, it’s already gotten airplay both here and in the UK, and landed the lads the amazing anecdote of having it featured in a Rimmel ad featuring Georgia May Jagger. If that’s selling out, they’re doing it with a cheeky middle-finger to the industry.

The lyrics (“Turn in a hit or you’re down as a throwaway / Surrender art and play dumb”), written in the studio, are a pointed critique of the industry’s demand for immediate payoff at the expense of originality.

“I think it was around the time that Alt J had their new single out, called ‘Left Hand Free’, and one of them said the reason that song was so different from anything else on the album was because the label had confronted them and said ‘We need a single to take to America’ so they tailored a song for that request. I remember thinking at the time how that was bullshit, basically. That’s what I was trying to reflect in the lyrics. It’s sort of a tongue-in-cheek satire, but on the flipside, it is that song.”

Like the Dandy Warhols, the Strokes and other second-generation garage rock revivalists, Otherkin are bringing timeless sounds with

their own stamp on it for a fresh audience. Are they part of a bigger movement, a third-gen garage revival (#3GGR)?

“I have seen a lot of, say, up-and-coming bands going back to a guitar-based sound. I even remember we came across a band the other day, we’re supporting them in the UK, they’re called VANT. “We put on one of their songs, and it just sounded like a song that we’d write. It was like that scene in Peep Show, where there’s a kid who gives his demo to [musicians] Jez and Superhans, and they play it, and they say ‘Oh, this is really good, is this us?’ It was like that.”

However, Reilly is keen to have Otherkin judged on their own merits; “I’m always a bit wary … I can understand the comparisons that I’ve been hearing [Broken English was likened to Weezer and Editors, The 201 to The Hives] but I’d like to distance myself from any – well, not any, because it’s useful for people to have a reference point for music – but I’d like Otherkin to have their own stamp. I don’t want to be a carbon copy of a band.”

After a short discussion wherein Reilly praised Bierhaus and its sandwiches, Galway’s musicality and its “deadly buskers”, the Róisin and its audience’s “fantastic response, even if you’re an unknown band”, Reilly enthused about the opening acts for 7 November – locals The Clockworks and Dublin band SPINES; “really good, straight up rock n’ roll with that, fairground-y, circus-sideshow edge to it.”

Take it from someone who’s seen Otherkin play to packed out, pulsating, sweaty, beersoaked droves: nobody will be checking their phones while they’re on stage.

Otherkin will gig in the Róisin Dubh on 7 November. The show starts at 9pm. Admission is free.

ENTERTAINMENT 25

October 27 2015

Poetry and Ponderings: A literary event

By Rachel Brownlow On Thursday 15 October the Literary and Debating society held a literary event that began with an open mic and was followed by four literary guests.

The event started with an ironic summary of the last meeting minutes and an outline of the interesting collection of prizes for the best contribution to the open mic, which included glow in the dark moustaches and two pre-release copies of books.

There was a large turn-out of people and at least fifteen contributors to the open mic with an eclectic mix of poetry and short stories that kept the audience entertained for the bones of an hour.

The first of the guests to speak was Colin Fleming, a graduate of creative writing from NUI Galway who went on to do a Masters in Production and Direction. Since graduating he has set up three film companies; one for commercial films, a second for more creative, fictional projects and another with which they are currently involved in making a motor-neuron disease documentary.

He outlined his success in the film industry and showed a short film called ‘GAG’ which he had directed as part of his Masters programme. As backed up by the other writers, “The film industry is where the money is in writing!”

Lisa McInerney followed this with a humorous account of her trials and tribulations as an author and how she got to where

she is today – mostly a combination of luck and her blog ‘arseendofireland’ being spotted by the infamous Kevin Barry.

She is both a novelist and short story writer, though spoke of how she had only ever intended to be the former, but the short story is often the medium through which authors begin their publication life.

The talks were followed by a brief Q&A session from the audience involving the typical questions such as overcoming writers block and whether or not it is feasible to make a living from being a writer, to which the general consensus was a definitive ‘no’.

She enthusiastically talked about Ireland being a wonderful country in which to be a writer and encouraged people to read and submit to literary journals such as the

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at David O’Doherty

By Sinéad O’Callaghan If you are familiar with the comedic ramblings of David O’Doherty, you will know that his show is one that will never fail to surprise you. Here is this man, taking on the world one freestyle keyboard song at a time, with the type of cynical wit that you would only find in any Irish person’s architype.

His show in O’Flaherty theatre earlier this month was no exception to this. O’Doherty had the crowd from the get go, with his sharp musical introduction, soon followed by a slight strip tease on stage.

He is a comedian that is able to seamlessly balance the obvious wit of his routine with is ability to interact with the audience, as the front row of last night’s show will certainly testify to.

The crowd was treated to an age-old college comedian special known as ‘The Phone Check’, which still managed to be funny, even though the gag has been pulled a million and one times.

One could argue that an alternative title to the show could be David O’Doherty and his consistent search for happiness as he voiced, through song, his attempts to discover this ‘happy spectrum’ that we now experience so much in our daily scrolling of the internet.

He expressed the universal frustration we all feel when the lighting fails to hit the avocados just right and thus ruins any hopes of an Instagram post. It is this effortless irony that allows O’Doherty to translate so well to his audience, with his ability to self-deprecate gladly welcomed by the crowd of students.

He pitched his audience solid phone app ideas, helping all those struggling computer scientists in the crowd to find inspiration. Crème Brul-App was a personal favourite of mine.

O’Doherty claimed there was a clear gap in the market for this as who wouldn’t want a phone app that would make the satisfying crack the wellloved dessert makes when it is opened?

O’Doherty ended the show as he began it: with fantastically-sketched keyboard numbers.

A talented keyboard player, his carefully constructed tunes are what defined the pace of the evening and show the definite understanding that music can be used to manipulate emotion.

It is the seamless transition from these witty songs into his satirical outlook on the Irish people that makes O’Doherty such a success with his audience. Despite his own searches, O’Doherty’s show does have a message: happiness, on that night, was watching a fine comedian on the top of his game.

Stinging Fly and Gorse. She concluded by reading an excerpt from a short story and from her acclaimed novel ‘The Glorious Heiresses’, keeping the audience entertained with her acerbic views and snappy prose.

The next acclaimed writer to speak was Geraldine Mills, a Galway native short story writer and poet. She is a mentor in the Creative Writing BA connect programme and has had two collections of poetry published

by Bradshaw Books, Unearthing your Own (2001) and Toil the Dark Harvest (2004).

She started by outlining her beginnings, she did not study Creative Writing as a student but in fact science, giving hope to all the non-creative writing students out there!

She also has two short-story collections published through Arlen house and was the millennium winner of the Hennessy/ Tribune Emerging fiction award. After highly recommending using the Citylink bus service and other modes of transport as ideal distraction-less places in which to write. She concluded by reading a passage from one of her short stories.

The last speaker was none other than John Walsh, the Derry-born poet and fiction writer. His poetry collection includes Johnny Tell Them (Guildhall press, 2006), Love’s Enterprise Zone (Doire Press, 2007) and Chopping Wood with T.S.Elliot (Salmon poetry, 2010) and a short story collection entitled Border Lines (Doire Press, 2012).

He also founded Doire press in 2007 and

is currently its co-director and editor. He talked about writing from a young age and his first experiences with rejection in the publishing world ay the tender age of 13.

He then did a reading of a poem about a library in Derry which he frequented as a child that was blown up during the troubles.

His wild white hair added to his dramatic reading which drew all the audience in as he proclaimed that with writing “you have to love what you’re doing” and above all you “have to persevere”.

The talks were followed by a brief Q&A session from the audience involving the typical questions such as overcoming writers block – “push your way through it, no matter how badly, just put the words down however they come out” – and whether or not it is feasible to make a living from being a writer, to which the general consensus was a definitive ‘no’, though some explained how they make a living not from the sales of their own writing but from doing writerly things such as editing, mentoring and talks such as this one.

The night was brought to a close with the announcement of the winner of the open mic and everyone departed feeling encouraged by the writerly advice and creative atmosphere – left with the wise words of Mills: with writing the most important thing is that you “grab it with both hands and don’t let it go until you have what you want. It can be lonely and it can be hard but when it’s good, boy, it’s good”.

RAG Week brought to the stage

By Sinéad O’Callaghan DramSoc are currently staging a production called RAG, which tells the tale of five students and the five days and nights of RAG week in NUI Galway.

It is a production that allows students to reminisce to their Corrib village days, with weekly inspections and the abundance of craic that comes with it. Being a fourth year myself, it was an eerily accurate way of visiting memory lane without being subjected to the stink of half empty cans under the couches.

The transition of scenes was a humorous one, adding to the easy-going undertones of the performance as a whole. We followed the stories of Brian, Miles, Susan, Dec and Paul as they discover the so called exciting realm of RAG Week and who are searching for a perfect night out on the town, as well as dealing with their own personal problems.

The characters’ dialogue is lively and engaging and the audience could be heard laughing at many of the one-liners throughout the play, showcasing some of the great wit displayed by the writer, Kevin Murphy.

There was a definite shadowy undertone throughout the play, which was experienced through the characters’ individual monologues. However, some came across as convoluted as they were inserted in between shorter scenes with dialogue and seemed a big departure from the character’s

previous demeanour.

The characters shone on stage with their vibrant personalities. Brian’s inspirational speech about RAG Week was a personal favourite of mine, and allowed the many archetypes of student living to come alive onstage in a very humorous manner.

The more serious undertones of the performance allowed important student issues to be explored in an interactive manner by the audience. It did seem, however a bit jam-packed with different issues; maybe one too many so that the audience were unable to appreciate each one individually as a whole. The build-up in act one was one which greatly engaged the audience, but left little time in act two in order for each issue to be addressed and allow time for dramatic pause to build.

The story was an engaging one – one which most students of NUI Galway could relate to over the years, as well as allowing first years to see, albeit in a bit more comic way in act one, what befalls them come February of first year. It allowed me, along with many of the students present, to sit back and reflect on the impressions our friends may give to others and us and how this impression may not always appear as what it seems.

A great effort by Kevin Murphy in his playwriting debut, RAG is a welcome play that allows students to visit an area very much relevant to the NUI Galway experience.

GET OFF THE COUCH, GET ACTIVE THIS SEMESTER!!

JOIN A SPORTS CLUB. INDOOR CLUBS SCHEDULE HERE… ALL IN THE KINGFISHER

T u e s d a y

W e d n e s d a y

WHEN

WHERE

CLUB

WHEN

WHERE

Swim - Top Squad Karate Archery Futsal Soccer Badminton Basketball Taekwondo & Judo Swim

8am - 9.30am 6-8pm 6-8pm 8-10pm 5-8pm 4-6pm 8-10pm 8.30pm - 11pm

2 Lanes

5-7pm 7-9pm 9.-10.30pm 6-8pm 6-8pm 8-10pm 6-8pm 8-10pm 8-10pm 7-10pm 8.30-10.00pm 9.30 - 11pm

Hall 1

Racquetball Court

Frizbee Muay Thai Cricket Handball Basketball - Recreational Ladies Basketball - Varsities Table Tennis & Fencing Taekwondo & Aikido Fencing Advanced Mountaineering Swim - Top Squad 2nd Squad & Learn to Swim

CLUB

WHEN

Hall 1

CLUB

WHEN

WHERE

Swim - 1st Squad

2 lanes

Mens Basketball - Varsity Archery Lacrosse Table Tennis Volleyball Judo Club Waterpolo

8-9.30am 11am - 12.30pm 11am - 1pm 8-10pm 6-8pm 6-10pm 6-8pm 9.30-11pm

CLUB

WHEN

WHERE

Taekwondo

12-2PM

Racquetball Court

CLUB

WHEN

WHERE

Fencing

2-4pm

Racquetball court

Racquetball Court Hall 3 Hall 1 & 2 Hall 1 & 2(from 6pm) Hall 2 Hall 3 Full Pool WHERE

Swim - 2nd Squad/1st Squad8-9.30am/12-1.30pm Mountainbike - Spinning 6-7pm Handball 6-8pm Fencing 6-7.30pm Muay Thai 7.30-9.30pm Karate & Aikido 6-8pm Volleyball 8-10.30pm Kendo 6-7pm Ladies Basketball - Varsities7-8pm Cricket 9-10.30pm Mountaineering 7-10pm Kayak 9.30-11pm

3 lanes

CLUB

WHEN

WHERE

Swim - 1st Squad

2 Lanes/3 lanes

Badminton

7-8.30am 5-7pm 7-9pm 5-7pm 7-9pm 4-6pm 6-8pm 9-11pm

Sub Aqua

9.30 -11pm

Full Pool

Volleyball Cricket Mens Varsity Basketball

Taekwondo Archery Karate & Judo sharing

T h u r s d a y

Studio

Hall 1 Hall 2 Hall 2 Hall 3 Hall 3 Hall 3 Climbing Wall Full Pool

Hall 1 Hall 1 Hall 2 Hall 2 Hall 3 Hall 3 3 halls

F r i d a y

Sa Su tu nd rd ay ay

M o n d a y

CLUB

University Sports Clubs Get Active, Get Off The Couch this semester!

Check www.clubs.nuigalway.ie for updates Indoor Clubs Schedule – Kingfisher

Hall 1 Hall 1 Racquetball Court Hall 2 Hall 2 Hall 3 Hall 3 Racquetball Court Climbing Wall 2 lanes Full Pool

Hall 2 Hall 3 Hall 1 Hall 1 Hall 2 Hall 3 Full Pool

SPORT 27

October 27 2015

NUI GALWAY SURF CLUB: A trip to remember

By Orla Cullen

NUI Galway Ladies opening eight-goal thriller The NUIG Ladies Soccer team got their season off to a fantastic start on Thursday 15 October with a win in their opening game. Daingean was the venue for the first game of their 2015/16 season with IT Tralee this time having to make the long journey.

The game started at a leisurely pace with the home side taking a while to get into their stride.

This was no doubt due to the fact that this is a much changed team, with the more experienced Galway players lining out alongside some fresh faces for the first time this year. Indeed expectations are high for this young team in the season ahead with the addition of some very talented first year students to the side.

Lisa Casserly got NUIG off the mark 20 minutes into the game. Winger Rachel Keyes pulled the ball back across the box for Lisa, who finished it neatly to the bottom corner. This breakthrough was all that the home side needed to get some confidence flowing and indeed it wasn’t long before captain Jenny Byrne ended some great all-round team play with a thunderous strike.

Eimear Foley used her pace to beat the Tralee defence before setting up Byrne for her second goal of the game at the near post. With Maebh Coleman and

CLUB NEWS MOUNTAINEERING CLUB The mountaineering club have been very active over the last month, with outdoor climbing trips to the Burren and Dalkey, hikes every Sunday up the Maamturks and Bens to name a few.

There has also been regular climbing training every week with plenty of new beginners passing their climbing assessments and improving tenfold since the start of the year.

Last Friday (23 October), the club went to Malinbeg, Donegal for a combination of hiking and climbing along the beautiful Donegal coast over the bank holiday weekend.

Over the coming weeks we are looking to do some upgrades to the climbing wall with hopes of setting routes for anyone who seeks new challenges. There are also talks of sending a team of climbers to the G-Force Bouldering competition in Dublin early November so keep an eye on the Facebook page for results.

ARCHERY CLUB The past month has seen some good quality shooting from all the archers in the club. The beginners have finished their six-week introduction course and are shooting on their own accord (with slight help from the advanced members).

exchange student Meghan Dumser bossing the middle of the park, the team extended the lead before halftime. Jenny led by example, completing her hat trick and leaving the halftime score NUIG 4, IT Tralee 0.

Galway Women’s FC players Aoife Walsh and Shauna Fox looked solid in defence all through.

Along with Laura Carroll these three girls were making their college debuts and certainly showed great promise for the years ahead. Rosa Shine was commanding as always in the centre of defence.

With a panel in excess of 25 players, the home side used the second half as a chance to try out some of the newer additions to the squad. Roisin Jacob impressed, as did goalscorers Rebecca Rooney, Sally Kiernan and Michelle Doherty. A huge plus for the team was Louise Creavan with her first clean sheet in goals, with this position usually a struggle for the NUIG team. Byrne rounded off her man of the match performance with a curling shot to the top right corner, rounding her personal tally to 4 and the final team total to 8.

Managers John Hynes and Padraic De Burca were delighted with the performance, but more importantly the squad turnout and the 3 points. However tougher tests will lay ahead of the NUIG ladies.

October is generally a month of preparation for when the intervarsity season starts in November; however, we did have a few of our members compete around Ireland this month.

Captain and vice-captain, Eric Moore and Conor O'Beolain went to Killruddery House, Bray for World Field Champs test event where they came first in their respective categories.

Also Conor and our equipment officer went to Greenhills, Dublin where both performed excellent placing first and second in their respective categories.

Intervarsities have been announced: UL IV - 7 Nov DCU IV - 14 Nov DKIT IV - 21 Nov UCC Nationals - 7 Feb GMIT IV - 13 Feb NUIG IV - 12 March Also NUI Galway will be hosting the Barebow nationals on 14 Feb.

RUGBY CLUB 22 teams and 550 participating players took part in the Irish Universities Rugby Union (IURU) over the Bank Holiday weekend, during the IURU annual Festival of Rugby.

Terenure College and Terenure College RFC hosted the event. There were four competitions and 25 games played over the course of the day.

At the time of print, victorious teams were not yet known.

Earlier this month, the NUI Galway surf club payed a visit to Coláiste Uisce in Belmullet. Many a good time was had by all as the trip was full of surfing, banter and a surprisingly decent amount of sun.

With two surf sessions on the Saturday, one on Sunday and a decent amount of swell (waves), everyone from beginner to pro got a chance to catch a wave.

Although the weather wasn’t quite right for windsurfing (no wind) the gorgeous sunny weather made up for it.

The surf club members are, quite literally, cracked!

Their dedication to the sport knows no bounds, with some of the members getting up at 6am in the pitch black to surf and the surf captain, Liam, surfing with a broken foot (yes he has crutches and all); they will do anything to surf.

But the fun doesn’t stop on the ocean; it carried on to land where the club decided to have a pirate-themed night out in an old man’s pub. We looked absolutely mad as there were people in all sorts of costumes from a pirated DVD to a mermaid to Peter Pan to a pirate ship.

Let’s just say the locals got a bit of a shock when fifty of us walked into a bar dressed like we’d just walked out of pirates of the Caribbean!

The Uisce trip really was a great way to try out the sport and get to meet some amazing, insane and genuine people. If you have never been away with the surf club, I strongly

advise you think about it. Whether you’re new to the sport (and pretty useless) like me, have been surfing for years or you’re just looking for a fun weekend, this really was the best way to try something new and have a memorable experience.

When asking members of the club how they found the trip I got overall positive feedback. One of the members Anna Walsh said she thought “it was wonderful, so educationally fantabulous! The food and the night out were my favourite parts but there were so many favourite parts! Overall, fab!”

Another member, Aoife Polly, also commented on the amazing food as one of her favourite parts of the trip; “The curry was my favourite part, 100%,” but in all seriousness she commented on the surfing as her favourite part despite her sprained finger; “I loved Saturday afternoon; the waves were unreal and me and that board just worked you know!”

Another member Amy said; “It was hard to pick one favourite thing because it was a very good weekend; it was tiring though!”

Although we were all sad to go home, after an action packed weekend of surfing and late nights, the bus home was one filled with the sounds of snoring (until the rugby came on; then we were all wide awake again as we watched it on a tiny phone screen!).

One thing’s for sure, I will definitely go again!

Employers on Campus!

Take advantage of opportunities to practice your networking skills, learn about job and internship vacancies and get insights from those currently working in your desired field!

Employer in Residence Meet one-on-one with employers seeking to recruit graduates from all disciplines.

They will assist you in cv/cover letter reviews, interview techniques and advice on how to break into their industry.

Wed Oct 28

Accenture

1.30pm 5pm

Career Development Centre

Mon Nov 2

ESB

2pm – 5pm

Career Development Centre

Employer Presentations Hear what companies have to say about internship and graduate opportunities with their firm.

Wed Oct 28

Washington Ireland Programme

1pm – 2pm

Career Seminar Room

Mon Nov 2

Japan Exchange and Teaching

1pm – 2pm

Career Seminar Room

Tue Nov 3

Financial Services Expo

12.30pm – 2.30pm

Foyer of James Hardiman Library

Wed Nov 4

CMS Distribution

1pm—2pm

Career Seminar Room

Visit https://nuig.gradireland.com for further details on the above and information on current student and graduate opportunities.

28 SPORT

Sin Vol. 17 Issue 04

GARY ROGERS: Euro 2016 play off Retrospective

By Paul Corcoran

By Paul Corcoran Gary Rogers only fully cropped up on my radar in 2007 signing for Tony Cousins’ Galway United.

After being frozen out as first choice keeper at Drogheda United, Rogers went on to have one of the bleakest seasons of his career in 2006.

Rogers started 2006 with Dublin City; however, due to severe financial problems the club folded mid-season leaving Rogers without a club. He then finished the season by making a handful of appearances for Bray Wanderers.

In 2007, Galway United had just been promoted and the signing of a well experienced Premier Division keeper was incredibly promising. Throughout the season Rogers never appeared to be the competent keeper the management and fans had hoped for. Lacking in confidence and seemingly calamitous, Rogers became one of the most frustrating players to watch during this period for Galway United. This form rolled over into the 2008 season.

With a run of poor form early on in the season Tony Cousins was removed from his position and former Ireland international Jeff Kenna appointed in his place. To be fair to Rogers, while he was incredibly disappointing for much of this season the rest of the Galway United squad around him took a step backward too.

This only brought further ire and disappointment towards the Meath native, from the Galway United fans. Simple set pieces not being dealt with and unconvincing attempts on goal bafflingly conceded further beleaguered the keeper.

Goal kicks were left somewhat to the imagination as numerous attempts skyrocketed out of bounds and rarely, if ever, found a maroon shirt.

There came a stage midway through the season that Kenna, frustrated with Rogers’ performances between the posts, dropped him in favour of the Barbadian Alvin Rouse. Rouse tried to make the most of his opportunity and earned a man of the match award in a one nil win away to Bray Wanderers. This was only Galway United’s second win in the league in 2008.

However, this new found goalkeeping star was

Gary Rogers in action for Dundalk in the 2015 League of Ireland. Photo via Wikimedia Commons: Seaninryan.

short-lived as, in the following game against Derry City, United were thumped 4 nil ending Rouse’s run in goals. Rogers was reinstated as Galway United’s number one. The best, however, was yet to come from both Gary Rogers and Galway United.

Galway United’s form under the management of Jeff Kenna had been lacklustre. The team never showed any sign of cohesion or desire to put in a decent performance, never mind avoiding relegation. This changed in the latter part of the season with a win over the always impressive Cork City. Of the six games left after the Cork City game, Rogers kept a clean sheet in four of them. Any Galway United fan will recall the outstanding performances the goalkeeper put in in the final dash to avoid relegation. His clean sheet against St. Patrick’s Athletic is particularly memorable. This was a man possessed. Rogers put his body on the line on numerous occasions, refusing to concede even when he had no business stopping the ball from going into his net. Galway United managed to avoid relegation on the last day of the season by beating, already relegated, UCD. This change in form and the results Galway United achieved to avoid relegation started from Rogers newly discovered confidence and desire to give every striker he faced a hard time.

Kenna moved to take the vacant position at St. Pat’s. Rogers followed Kenna; his performances the previous season hadn’t gone unnoticed.

After Kenna was sacked following a poor run of results, Rogers stayed on until 2011. He became very popular at the Inchicore club. He began to build on his new found reverence in the League of Ireland. Rogers kept clean sheets in the opening five games of the season. The St. Pat’s fans voted him as their player of the year for the 2010 season. He went on to make numerous appearances for the club during their Europa League campaigns in 2009 and 2011 he kept clean sheets against Valetta FC, FC Krylia Sovetov Samara, Íþróttabandalag Vestmannaeyja and FC Shakhter Karagandy. Rogers had firmly established himself as one of the top keepers in the country and signed for Sligo Rovers for the 2012 season.

Rogers retained his dominance, earning his place as number one at the Showgrounds and aided Rovers in winning their first Premier Division title in thirty five years. This meant Champions League football for the first time for Rogers, which sadly ended in defeat against Norwegian club Molde. Rogers went on to win the FAI Cup in 2013 and then the Setanta Cup in 2014.

In 2015, with Peter Cherrie’s move to Northern Ireland, Rogers signed for Dundalk.

Rogers’ career has gone from strength to strength since that 2008 season with Galway United. Most commentators would never have predicted such a direction for the once much beleaguered goalkeeper.

He is now, deservedly, recognised as one of the very top goalkeepers in the division. A champion at Sligo Rovers and now on the verge of winning a domestic double with Dundalk, a feat that hasn’t been achieved since Bohemians did it in 2008.

The Republic of Ireland have been drawn against Bosnia and Herzegovina for their Euro 2016 play-off. The first leg will take place on Friday 13 November, in Sarajevo, with the second leg taking place in The Aviva Stadium three days later.

Martin O’ Neill’s men finished third in Group D behind Germany and Poland, meaning they qualified for the play-offs. Bosnia and Herzegovina finished third in Group B behind Belgium and Wales.

Bosnia recovered from defeats to Cyprus and Israel to win five of their group games and beat Wales on the way to qualification.

Irish fans are noticeably happy having drawn Bosnia as opposed to drawing the likes of Sweden, who would no doubt be a stronger outfit.

However, the Eastern European side are by no means pushovers. Pjanic and Lulic are highly experienced and talented midfielders on the squad.

Former Manchester City striker Edin Dzeko captains the side and has scored seven times during their qualifying campaign. Vicecaptain and first-choice goalkeeper is Asmir

Begovic, former Stoke and current Chelsea goalkeeper.

These are two talented and experienced players. Dzeko is in top form at the moment and should worry the Irish defence.

On the Irish defence, Martin O’Neill will be without experienced defender John O’ Shea for the away leg against Bosnia. O’Neill will also be without Stoke City striker John Walters.

Shane Long is currently a doubt after the Southampton striker suffered an ankle ligament injury during Ireland’s 2-1 defeat to Poland, their final qualifying match.

However, speaking to RTÉ, O’ Neill said, “We have a couple of weeks. I spoke to Shane a few days ago and he’s optimistic. Like anything else sometimes with these injuries you’re going well and four or five days when the injury doesn’t seem to be healing as quickly as you’d imagine.”

The Republic of Ireland have met Bosnia and Herzegovina just once. In May 2012 Ireland defeated the side one nil, a Shane Long goal separating the sides.

The other play-off ties are as follows: Ukraine take on Slovenia, Norway play Hungary and Sweden face off against Denmark in a Scandinavian derby.

PREVIEW: The FAI Cup Final 2015 Dundalk vs Cork

By Paul Corcoran On Sunday 8 November, Dundalk will take on Cork City in the Irish Daily Mail FAI Cup final in the Aviva Stadium.

The two best teams in the country are set to meet after Dundalk clinched the SSE Airtricity League title for the second time in a row on Friday 9 October.

That point, earned against Shamrock Rovers in Tallaght, meant Cork City were mathematically eliminated from the title race.

Should Dundalk win the cup, they would be the first team since Bohemians, in 2008, to complete a domestic double in the Republic of Ireland.

Both teams have been in excellent form throughout the league and cup campaigns.

Just one goal has been conceded by each side during their respective cup runs.

Dundalk will no doubt be relying on their talisman Richie Towell being in top form heading in to the clash. Towell has contributed twenty-five goals in all competitions this year, with two coming in the FAI Cup. Ronan Finn will also be an important player for The Lillywhites if they hope to capture the cup for the first time since 2002.

Finn has contributed nine goals this season, three of which coming in the FAI Cup. Dundalk have strength throughout their squad, however, imposing centre back Brian Gartland and left back Dane Massey are important players at the back. Gartland is also no stranger to scoring goals, contributing seven in all competitions, so far, this season.

Galway men, Daryl Horgan and Captain Stephen O’Donnell are hugely important to the side. Horgan has been impressive form on the wing all season. While O’Donnell is arguably the most influential player in the league right now.

Where Cork City differ from Dundalk is the amount of goals they score. Dundalk have outscored The Rebels by over twenty goals in all competitions this season.

Striker, Karl Sheppard, is one of the top goal scorers this season and will be very important for Cork as they attempt to win only their third FAI Cup, and first since 2007.

Gavan Holohan and the experienced Liam Miller will be imperative to keep the Cork City midfield working on the occasion.

The Dennehy brothers, Billy and Darren, as always, could make the difference for Cork.

Billy has contributed eleven goals from midfield for The Leesiders this season.

Darren, on the other hand, is one of the top centre backs in the country and has been an integral part of a Cork defence that has only conceded just over twenty goals this season.

A cup final between the two best teams will always be a tough one to call. However, I think this one will come down to the tactical philosophies of the managers, Stephen Kenny and John Caulfield.

The two sides have great defences. Going forward the sides are vastly different. Caulfield is far too conservative with Cork City and that has been their downfall in the league this year.

Kenny, on the other hand, has moulded Dundalk into one of the most successful attacking sides the country has ever seen.

This could make all the difference on the day.

SPORT 29

October 27 2015

The downfall of Rugby in the Northern Hemisphere

By Aonghus Ó Maicín The emphasis on club rugby in the northern hemisphere has led to the downfall of its international scene.

For years, the Southern Hemisphere sides consisting of South Africa, Australia and New Zealand have dominated the World Rugby stage. This is nothing new to the majority of rugby enthusiasts.

However, the gap was beginning to narrow as the game in the Northern Hemisphere developed.

The 2003 World Cup win for England was seen as a massive development in this regard. They backed it up again with another World Cup Final appearance in 2007. Unfortunately, we have failed in the last few years to finally close that gap and it appears that Europe has found itself in a “one step forward, two steps back” scenario.

A large proportion of this blame can be directed towards the LNR (Ligue Nationale de France) and PRL (Premier League Limited). The fiasco that brought the Heineken Cup to an end

illustrated the greed of the French and English clubs. However, it also displayed an element of ignorance and lack of insight on their behalf.

European Club Rugby, now acting as a retirement home for Southern Hemisphere players to come and play out the rest of their days with lucrative pay deals, has made the International game suffer. It has made it increasing more difficult for young players to emerge onto the club scene at present. Toulon has won the last three titles in the European Championship and it looks inevitable that they will win again next May. One only has to look at their team sheet to back up the above arguments.

There has been much talk lately about tier two European sides catching up to tier one sides. Georgia in particular has been shouting to be given a place on the Six Nations roster. Much praise has been given to the likes of this Georgia side but how fast are they progressing and is it, in fact, a case of Tier One teams deteriorating or development slowing down?

The Six Nations is highly competitive each

The development of Irish Rugby

By Tadhg Evans It’s difficult to pen a positive article on Irish rugby when you’re recuperating from the most humbling of losses.

The pretence that proceeds every Irish World Cup venture has become a staple of the competition’s build-up at this stage, and has almost become as overpowering as England’s false optimism ahead of soccer’s main event.

As a result of this, winning and losing tends to lure in only the most militant of opinions. Victory pushes all negativity through the mesh of the sieve, leaving us with a sickly sweet blend of haughtiness. Defeat simply offers a cup of what the George Foreman grill has judged to be surplus.

So in the aftermath of our World Cup departure, a healthy dose of realism from NUIG Rugby’s club captain Eoin Casserly might come as something of a refreshment. With 70 players aligned with the club between their men’s, women’s and under-20’s teams, the club can provide a reasonably decent picture of where rugby’s future generations could be harvested from.

The game has traditionally been penned inside the borders of our nation’s cities, but Casserly maintains that the success experienced by Irish teams in the Six Nations Championship over the last fifteen years or so is helping the game to annex these imaginary constraints.

“Within our own club, our players come from all corners of the country, some from places that you would never have associated with rugby before. It can be seen from underage club competitions and upwards,” he said.

“In Connacht, we now see a lot of players coming in from clubs outside of the cities who’ve played rugby at a high level. And while I think the strongholds of Irish rugby will always maintain their standing, there are many other places that are catching up quickly.”

It’s also arguable that Rugby’s hopes of expansion have been compromised by its close relationship with fee-paying schools, who have dominated the country’s schools’ cups. However much ‘Ireland’s Call’ likes to present a picture of unity, the game has struggled to shed its image as something of an elitist sport on Irish terrain.

Even recently, pundit George Hook maintained that this perception still exists and that the claim actu-

ally shoulders some merit. Casserly admitted that this is still something of an issue, but reiterated the game’s progress in annexing territories beyond its traditional enclaves.

“The game is still dominated by the traditional rugby-playing schools. It’s very difficult to match their level of resources, coaching and commitment, particularly in the younger age groups. But I believe underage club rugby has come on leaps and bounds over the past 15 years, and that’s heartening.”

But whatever about the game’s progression in terms of popularity, Ireland’s deflating defeat to Argentina contributed greatly towards a dispiriting weekend for European rugby. The consensus following a weekend of sporting study suggests that the nations north of the equator are trailing the likes of South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, and now Argentina in terms of excellence, and that Ireland are as guilty of miscalculation as the other tier one nations in Europe.

Casserly does not deviate from the mainstream appraisal of our shortcomings. He points to an overemphasis on weights session, to the detriment of skill. This is an error that is not being mirrored in the Southern Hemisphere.

“New Zealand and Argentina are playing a style that is ultimately the way forward for rugby. From schoolboy days in the Northern Hemisphere, everything is about how much weight you can lift. In New Zealand and Argentina, they’ve moved away from fielding 15 bulky players, favouring refined, slimmeddown troops.

“They also play what’s in front of them, as opposed to sticking rigidly to one-dimensional game plans.

There are other factors contributing to the Southern Hemisphere’s superiority, but these are certainly the main ones that need to be addressed.”

Change is necessary, but at least the foundation is there, and it’s a sound one. The game has found favour in less traditional surroundings, and that’s something patently positive. Casserly has italicised the presence of players from outside the game’s traditional powerbases to underline this point.

However doleful our exit from England 2015 and the failure to earn a semi-final slot may have been, the future for the game on this island is one gleaming with potential. Maybe Japan 2019 doesn’t seem so far away when you think positively.

year but has the standard been raised along with the competitive nature of the competition? The French team are a great example of the backward step European Rugby has taken.

The French, once oozing with flair all over the pitch, have now been transformed into a route one bulldozing machine with a severe lack of options.

The France that beat the All Blacks back in 2007 and indeed pushed them close in the 2011 World Cup Final have well and truly evaporated. Scotland came within a kick of reaching a World Cup SemiFinal and beating twice world champions Australia.

Even at that, Australia failed to fire on all cylinders and Scotland were at their very best.

Another interesting observation from this World Cup is the manner in which Northern Hemisphere sides have become riddled with injuries while Southern Hemisphere sides have been quite the opposite. Many say this is simply down to lack of luck when it matters but it could also be subject to the physicality of the teams and perhaps the Southern Hemisphere are just far superior in this regard.

While Rugby up this side of the world disintegrated into the gutter, Argentina joined the Rugby Championship, formerly the Tri-Nations back in 2012. As a result, they are successfully competing against South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

They beat South Africa on their own patch in Durban this year and dismantled Australia the year before. All of this happens as teams in the North of the Equator battle against each other each Spring

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without any significant improvement tediously picking off each other in the Six Nations.

Southern Hemisphere teams have faced stiff opposition in the November Internationals.

However, this comes at the end of their Rugby Championship Season when there are plenty of tired bodies trying to manoeuvre themselves around the pitch. Furthermore, all silverware has already been won and players are sure to have one eye on the well-deserved break until Super Rugby kicks off again in February. From our perspective, it would be difficult to see European sides put in formidable performances against their compatriots south of the Equator just after the 6 Nations.

When we look at the Super Rugby infrastructure in place which now has the addition of an Argentinian team and a Japanese team, it is no wonder this side of the globe is so significantly superior. Our players hardly get to opportunity to compete for their own trophy with the sheer influx of Southern Hemisphere players coming into the European game.

If the Webb Ellis is to come back to Europe again, changes need to be made and rapidly to reverse the catastrophic decisions that have already been made.

If changes are not made soon, it will not be a case of trying to keep up with Rugby Championship nations but rather staying ahead of the oncoming improving pack of Japan, Samoa and Fiji. England 2015 has left Europe with a lot to ponder but it remains to be seen if lessons have been truly learnt.

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30 SPORT

Sin Vol. 17 Issue 04

NUI Galway’s answer to Brian O’Driscoll Robbie Henshaw steps forward for Ireland on world rugby’s greatest stage

By Neil Slevin You’ll know him as Ireland’s answer to Brian O’Driscoll’s retirement, you’ll know him for that sweet offload to Keith Earls for Ireland’s crucial try against Italy, that searing break against France leading to Rob Kearney’s breakthrough touchdown; what you may not know about him is that Robbie Henshaw is NUI Galway’s very own team Ireland member – and that we couldn’t be prouder of him.

Assuming that you didn’t already know, or have the unexpected pleasure of running into him on one of his very rare nights out on the town, Henshaw is a 4th Year student, studying Arts with Economics and Geography in NUI Galway – a degree that he has somehow managed to dovetail with his meteoric rise in rugby.

Like many modern-day players, rugby all started for Henshaw in the genes: he is the nephew of former Connacht prop David Henshaw, who played on an All-Ireland League winning team alongside Irish rugby legend Keith Wood in the front row. His father Tony also played prop for Buccaneers and occasionally for Connacht, introducing his son to the game circa. age six in the club’s mini-rugby section, before coaching him all the way through to their under-19s, remaining a key confidant.

Meanwhile, Henshaw attributes his speed and athleticism to his mother’s side of the family, specifically Audrey’s father Joe Craven, “a really good Gaelic footballer” with Athlone GAA club and Westmeath, having grown up outside of Athlone, near the Shannon, in Coosan.

However, Henshaw wasn’t always certain that he would end up playing with the oval ball, and spent a fair part of his development chasing and blocking the round equivalent used in Gaelic football and soccer: “I wasn’t sure if I was always going to play rugby. I always drifted between Gaelic and soccer as well. I was the hammer head; I just headed the ball…”

Ultimately, Henshaw would give up soccer before Gaelic football – a decision that turned out to be to his advantage, both in terms of the

skillset he would need to succeed as a future Irish international under Joe Schmidt, and in providing him with an active off-season throughout which he could maintain his fitness for playing rugby.

Now Connacht’s established first-choice centre, Henshaw’s first Connacht game as a fan was the Challenge Cup semi-final against star-studded Toulon in 2010 and, like the majority of those present at The Sportsground, he watched star-struck as Connacht’s heroes battled bravely but in vain for 80 minutes against a team including Johnny Wilkinson and Sonny Bill Williams, one that would go on to win back-to-back European Cups in the near future.

in Henshaw, all-the-while believing in Henshaw’s ability despite his youth – a conviction and faith that would lead to Henshaw playing for the Irish Wolfhounds just four months after making his senior debut for Connacht. Henshaw then debuted for Ireland in June, 2013, receiving his second cap against Canada a week later. His third cap came initially as a blood replacement for the aforementioned Brian O’Driscoll, and then late on for Rob Kearney in the defeat to Australia in November 2013.

Like so much of Henshaw’s progress to date, things moved forward rapidly from there, and in March 2014, on the eve of Ireland’s Six Nations showdown with

last game, to being Ireland’s number one centre-choice in the 2015 title defence – another season culminating in Irish Six Nations glory, punctuated by Henshaw’s brilliant individual try against arch-rivals England.

Now 22, Henshaw has stepped onto the greatest stage of all, and has done so with a flourish through his stunning performance in Ireland’s win over France, delivering a consummate game of two halves against the French and confirming himself as a star of world rugby.

With S exton, O'Connell, O'Mahony and Earls all wounded by a fiercely physical confrontation, the youngest Irishman on the pitch was not found wanting. In the first

calling more ball on himself, gave glimpses of the outside centre that he may eventually be for Ireland.

Not only did he man-mark Mathieu Bastareaud and Wesley Fofana like the O’Driscoll of yesteryear, he also displayed BOD’s superb footwork and pace to break the line. His break on 48 minutes set a tone – Ireland sniffed blood and were going for the kill. Fancying himself versus Bastareaud, he jinked and stepped past him before leaving Scott Spedding and two others for dead and throwing an overhand pass that nearly saw Tommy Bowe over in the corner.

Later in the half, on a penalty advantage, Madigan chipped a ball over France’s defensive line

NUI Galway student Robbie Henshaw of Ireland and Connacht Rugby Teams pictured at an NUI Galway launch in 2014.

In the meantime, Henshaw’s own star grew as he won an All-Ireland under-19 title with Buccaneers RFC in Athlone, with rugby now consuming his each and every week as he combined playing for ‘Buccs’ with representing Marist College, Athlone. He would then captain his secondary school to their first Connacht Schools Senior Cup for 35 years in 2012 – a success that would lead almost directly to his time with the Connacht Academy and underage set-up, Nigel Carolan and Eric Elwood, before Henshaw made his debut for Connacht on 1 September, 2012 – just over two months after Henshaw had turned 19.

Then Connacht head coach Elwood, a former Connacht and Ireland fly-half, took particular interest

rivals France in Paris, and his final match for the Irish team, BOD himself declared Henshaw as his long-term successor for Ireland, outlining Henshaw’s potential for future success: "Robbie is a very, very talented young lad, who is a great listener, a really good young talent, and really good lad too; I think he has all the attributes to be a seasoned campaigner for Ireland for many, many years.”

Where so many would crumble, Henshaw has taken this compliment head-on; he rarely if ever looks back. He went from being the 24th man in four of Ireland’s Six Nations matches in the 2014 campaign, including their coronation as champions in Paris in O’Driscoll’s

half, Henshaw was every inch an inside centre; whether it was Sexton or Ian Madigan, Henshaw was always first receiver and he took the ball into contact as hard as he could each and every time.

As much as Les Bleus went after Sexton, Henshaw targeted Frederic Michalak and got up in his face a number of times, including on a couple of carries. His inside pass to Tommy Bowe set the Ulsterman free and there should have been a try, but for Keith Earls knocking on.

He took good lines to make space for Keith Earls, outside him, and pitched into defensive duty with the flankers. It was an extremely solid 40 minutes’ work.

Henshaw only got better after the break: he kicked it up a notch and,

and found a willing runner in Henshaw, who shrugged off Rob Kearney to grab the ball. Added to his carries, breakdown work and purposeful passes were the three kicks Henshaw put in behind the French defence.

The Connacht player and NUI Galway student is growing in his role and responsibilities, and his innate talent is shining through.

Much of the talk, in the build-up to the game, stemmed from the lack of a midfield leader now that the injured Jared Payne was flying home. Henshaw stepped up when his team and country needed him; he upped his work-rate to make up for the losses of key men around him.

That is the mark of a leader.

Back Page Banter YOUR HALLOWEEN HOROSCOPE As foretold by Mystic Mike

Aquarius 21 January – 19 February I’d recommend being careful around any ghouls, gremlins or you know, typical crawly halloweeny monsters, they’re not good for your luck.

Pisces 20 February – 20 March And on the fifth hour treachery shall befall thee! Na, just kidding, your day’s gonna be great kiddo. I think; I could be reading this upside down, oh….yeah, yeah I am. Sorry.

Aries 21 March – 20 April The only way to escape your unfortunate fate is to please the animal of Aries by dressing up as the noble ram! So your choice: horribly bad luck or looking silly.

Tuarua 21 April – 21 May I’m reading a decent amount of doom and gloom coming your way here, not really sure what advice to give… think positive? Dress like a sunflower or something happy for Halloween, that’ll help.

something. I don’t know. Why are you listening to me?

I love when there’s a bake sale at Smokey’s. There are always extra 23 July – 23 August goodies to be dropped on the floor You’ve got two choices to make here, and they’re often delicious, unusual either stand still and accept the horrible treats like Malteaser and Mars Bar fate that’s coming your way or charge brownies, or peanut butter and M&M forth and pave your own path. Like I said, balls, covered in chocolate and stuffed you’ve got two choices but they both lead to the same outcome: a bad day for you. with more chocolate, to be topped with another bit of chocolate.

Sorry pal.

I have a bit of a sweet beak when Virgo it comes to bake sales. So I was 24 August – 23 September delighted to welcome the Print ThatI’d recommend refraining from any interac- sponsored bake sale to Smokey’s last tion with any witchy types (Cancer up there), Thursday in support of the Make-Athey only bring hubble bubble toil and trou- Wish Foundation. ble. Stay classy.

It’s always my wish to have more Libra 24 September – 23 October So close to some good luck but no, we’re out of your period now; you’re gonna have a bad time!

Scorpio 24 October – 22 November Oh it’s your time buddy! You’re gonna have an awesome time; enjoy the festivities, go party, or relax, it’s up to you. I love you.

Sagittarius

22 May – 21 June

23 November – 21 December

Cancer 22 June – 22 July Near as I can guess you’re an honest to God witch, make your own luck, cast a spell or

Diary of the SMOKEY’S PIGEON

Leo

Gemini Oh Gemini, the twin. Double the trouble; that’s right you heard me, you’re getting twice as much bad luck as usual this day, maybe stay inside.

Your biweekly page of satire, humour and random entertainment.

Oh dear. This is bad. Really bad. I’m so so sorry…

Capricorn 22 December – 20 January Can’t really imagine anything bad happening to you with a reading like this, nothing good certainly but nothing bad either. Huh, that’s strange.

sweets, and if you students buying those sweets can help more people who have wishes, then I say buy all the cakes! And make sure you drop plenty of crumbs on the floor for me to gobble up on my hourly patrol of the perimeter.

As Halloween is coming up, I’m expecting plenty of pumpkin, skull and ghost-shaped treats. I do like monkey nuts and fruit, but you may keep that for yourself and throw me the marshmallows and jellybeans and chocolate and crisps.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

CAREER ADVICE: Should you have one?

By Mark Laherty Careers are a burning issue these days, with everyone from your parents to your tutors to the government wanting you to “be able to get a job someday”. But is getting a job right for you? Remember: working is hard and not fun.

On the upside, if you had a job, you’d be able to go to the fancy upmarket stores. You could even get

your parents to pay for some snazzy clothes if you say it’s “for an interview” and you’re “actually trying”.

On the other hand, you then have to actually go to an interview.

Oftentimes, you have to know things about the company. If it sounds boring, that’s because it is.

Remember, having a job isn’t for everyone. If all of this sounds like too much, you can always get a job-alternative, like dying.

THE PHANTOM POOPER Pointing you to the best facilities on campus…

This week’s defecation took place in the French Department on the third floor of the Arts Millennium Building. The floor, which is incredibly hard to locate, provides us with a tranquil simple lavatory to poop.

A hidden beauty well-maintained, obviously with lecturers’ unblemished backsides in mind, enables you to empty your rectal produce without insistent shuffling and fart echoing often

found in some of the college’s busier toilets.

As I sat on the pot, navigating my way through the sports pages of the Evening Herald, I bemoaned the fact that a lack of graffiti was evident which led to lack of connection with my fellow student.

However, it is nice to experience an aristocratic exit of excrement once in a while. This toilet earns a well-deserved 4 out of 5 stars.