COLLEGE TRIBUNE Volume XXVI
Issue 10
26th March 2013
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Independent Student Media Since 1989
INSIDE THE SIREN
Lost in the World: Heidegger’s search for Soul Page 10
Mounting cost of SUSI failure
ISDAnticipation
James Grannell Editor
I
t has come to light that the IT system responsible for the Student Universal Support Ireland (SUSI) fiasco cost the Department of Education almost €800,000. Information submitted to the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee from the Department of Education shows that €773,105 was spent on the IT system for SUSI, which was launched in June. It had been initially promised that the new system would make the application process quicker and easier. Students were left disenchanted when thousands were left without payment with complaints being made about lost documentation and problems getting through to the help desk. The €773,105 expenditure includes €400,000 spent on IT services including software development, €270,000 on equipment and infrastructure, which includes the server and storage and €30,000 on telephony. A major fault with SUSI was it’s labelling as an online system. This was despite the fact that students had to send in up to twelve supporting documents by post. These documents were then scanned into the system, however there were numerous complaints made that documents had been lost, which required students to resend them. The debacle saw many students having to wait until the last months of college before their grant applications were dealt with.
As the numbers applying through SUSI will be increasing next year – this year only first-time grant applicants applied through SUSI – concerns have been raised as to the ability of the system to cope with the increased numbers. Dundalk Institute of Technology president Denis Cummins, speaking on RTE News in January, questioned its ability to manage the expanded role. “If, in this first year when they are only dealing with one cohort of students, they had issues around capacity, how is that going to ramp up in future years? I think there’s a lot of work to be done to regain confidence in the system,” Mr Cummins told RTÉ News. In a further twist, a company involved with SUSI, which is run by the City of Dublin Vocational Education Committee (VEC), is now working on customer call services for the introduction of the property tax. The Cork based firm, Abtran, operates the SUSI help desk. Their website includes a quote from Jacinta Stewart, CEO of County Dublin VEC, stating; “Our principle purpose is to provide students with a better service and faster payments.” A review is to be launched into the failings of SUSI. Charlie McConalogue, Fianna Fáil’s education spokesman, has queried why Abtran is now working on property tax services.
UCD Dramsoc students preparing for the Irish Student Drama Association Festival
Photo: TF Verbruggen
Inside today
IN THE NEWS
Low Turnout Hits Beijing-Dublin International SU Elections College opened
USI's annual Congress takes place in Ballinasloe
Maverick academic to visit UCD
Many have blamed the low turnout on the USI referendum which was held just a week before the sabbatical elections.
Over 250 delegates from 24 Students' Unions are gathering this week to discuss the future of the Irish higher education sector
Chomsky set to give inaugral lecture on ‘Can civiliza-
Under the partnership agreement the international college will offer dual degrees across a range of subject areas.
tion survive really existing capitalism’ for Philsoc
Sport Wrestling Immortals
Business
Change in ECB
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COLLEGE TRIBUNE 26th March 2013
25thOctober 11th October2011 2011
INSIDE THE TRIBUNE
COLLEGE James Grannell
TRIBUNE
Time for Leisure, Time for Living Page 7
Editor
A
are constantly being undermined by the ever-increasing bureaucratization of the institution. As the ever-expanding layers of management decide how and what academics research and teach, their students are suffering. Restrictions on hiring new staff, lack of funding and the understaffing of many departments, a lack of adequate books in the library, along with the insane obsession with league tables and tightening control of academic freedom are transforming the university into little more than a glorified secondary school. As our lecturers are restricted from perusing research in a real and meaningful way, due to contract changes and time constraints, we as students suffer. Our education suffers every time an academic retires and isn’t replaced and every time an academic leaves Ireland to pursue a career abroad due to the insane restrictions they face at home. When you take a step back you cannot help but wonder what manner of education we are supposed to be acquiring here? Are we, the future generations, to be subject to the parochial sort of educa-
USI's annual Congress takes place in Ballinasloe Page 5
FEATURES
The price of education and the cost of freedom
s our university – and indeed our society as a whole - groans under the constraints of ever tightening budgets it seems that the most deprived in society are to pay the highest price. The increasing cost of education coupled with the insidious tax hikes that are forcing families into poverty inevitably have the most negative effect on those students from low and middle income families who are attempting to attain an education. Our government, through various measures, seems intent on creating a dumbed down population without the capacity for critical thought or questioning. They are making it almost impossible for those who come from poorer backgrounds to achieve their dreams and gain a university education. On top of this all-out assault on students, which is being spearheaded by the planned rise of the registration fee to €3,000, our university seems intent on degrading the level of education achieved by those fortunate enough to be able to afford to attend university. Academic staff within our university
NEWS
tion that teaches us to obey and to reiterate the views that we are presented with, or are we to be a generation who, through education, are encouraged to expand our ability for critical thinking and to question conventional wisdom, thus enriching our society as a whole. I fear it is the former that is now winning as an increasingly neo-liberal approach to education takes hold with its managerialist mania. Under this system it will not be until big business complains enough about the quality of our graduates that things will change. I am no conspiracy theorist, but when one takes into account the financial barriers being erected before potential students combined with the sinister approach to education within our institutions you cannot help but assume that the aim is to generate mindless drones, never questioning and never standing up to fight for a better future. If we do not wish to be reduced to this level then we – students and staff together – must stand in solidarity and fight this all-out assault on third level education. If we do not, then cultural disaster awaits us.
BUSINESS The Most Influential Rejected Vote Page 12
GNÉ - AILT Córas Oideachais, Córas Éadóchais L 14
SPORT Finn hoping to challenge for Basketball Intervarsities crown Page 19
REGULARS What is it that university education gives to people? Page 15
EDITORS' CHOICE The curious case of Bradley Manning Page 8
Cathal Says: By Robert Mulpeter
COLLEGE TRIBUNE STAFF Editors: Cathal O'Gara James Grannell editor@collegetribune.ie News Editor: James Grannell Deputy News Editor: Thomas Cullen News In Focus Editor: Dawn Lonergan
Features Editor: Michael Phoenix
Communities Editor:
Illustrator: Robert MulPeter
Music Editor: Ciaran Breslin
Eagarthóirí Gaeilge: Cormac Breathnach Daire Brennan
Fashion Editor: Róisín Sweeney
Sports Editors: Conall Devlin Amy Eustace
Peter Hamilton
Arts Editor: Conor Fox Art Director: Cheryl Flood
Contributors List: Ronan Coveney Stephen West Matthew H. Farrelly Anne Mulhall Sharae Deckard Thomas Cullen Laura Cullen Ruairi O’Callaghan Niall Conroy Ciarán Ó Braonáin
Eoin Ó Cróinín Elizabeth Coote Ceithrean Murray Harry Moylan Thomas Hobbs
As Bradley Manning’s Court Martial draws nearer, Thomas Cullen discusses some of his motives and the role of the media behind the case involving the largest leak of state secrets in U.S. history
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COLLEGE TRIBUNE 26th March 2013
NEWS
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Low Turnout Hits SU Elections Beijing-Dublin Ronan Coveney Writer
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ow voter turnout affected the Students’ Union elections that took place before mid term. The election saw current Welfare Officer Mícheál Gallagher elected President of the SU for the 2013/14 term along with Cian Dowling as Welfare Officer and Adam Carroll elected to the role of Education Officer. Mícheál Gallagher received a vote of 1,646, while his opponent in the race Aidan Kelly received 26% of the vote with a total poll of 636 votes. Overall there were 2,544 votes cast in the presidential race. Cian Dowling was elected Welfare officer for the coming aca-
demic year. In a close battle for the position, including a recount, Dowling had a vote of 1,234 with his opponent Ciara Johnson receiving 1,206 votes. In the unopposed Education race Adam Carroll received a final vote of 2,029. With the latest figures from the HEA showing that 23,499 students in full and part time education in UCD this gives a voter turnout of close to 11% for each of the sabbatical elections. This contrasts with the 2011/12 elections in which 5,077 were cast in presidential race that saw Pat de Brún elected President. This was a year in which every sabbati-
cal election was contested, unlike this year's elections in which there was only two contested elections, that of the Welfare race and the Presidential race, though Kelly openly ran as a joke candidate. Many have blamed the low turnout on the fact that the USI referendum was held just a week before the sabbatical elections, arguing that it took focus away from the elections. Others have put the low turnout down to the turbulent times the Union has faced in the past year in relation to its finances. Meanwhile, there still remains one sabbatical position that is unfilled, that of Postgraduate Officer.
International College officially opened
James Grannell Editor
R
uairi Quinn, Minister for Education and Skills, has officially opened the Beijing-Dublin International College (BDIC), a joint venture established by UCD and Beijing University of Technology (BJUT). Speaking at the opening ceremony, Quinn said “the establishment of Beijing-Dublin International College is a concrete example of UCD’s internationalisation agenda, and indeed of the wider interconnectedness between Ireland’s higher education system and leading education institutions globally” He went on to say that particularly strong links are being forged in China and that an important focus of his visit was to encourage those partnerships and identify new opportunities for collaboration. The President of UCD, Dr Hugh Brady joined the President of BJUT, Guo Guangsheng, at the official opening. He spoke of the rapidity at which the venture has progressed, saying that it reflected, “the enthusiastic support we received from both the Irish Government and the Chinese authorities.” “In 2011 Minister Quinn and the then Mayor of Beijing, Guo Jinlong, endorsed our plans for a joint international college. In February 2012, the then Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping and Taoiseach Enda Kenny witnessed the historic contract signing between UCD and BJUT and the Chinese Ministry of Education gave its approval in July 2012,” said Brady. Under the partnership agreement the international college will offer dual degrees across a range of subject areas. The longer-term plan is to develop a full international university, which will award its own degrees. As the Chinese economy powers ahead with the embrace of State Capitalism, the focus of academic activity at BDIC will be on enterprise development with degrees covering science, engineering and technology, business and management, and innovation and entrepreneurship. President Brady believes
that the venture will allow Irish institutions to “gain a deeper understanding of the region, which will inform our own curriculum, especially in emerging and developing economies, and business systems in Asia. Following China’s “opening up” numerous institutions and governments have attempted to build relations with the regime in order to benefit from the countries huge economic expansion. This has however lead to the Chinese Communist Party flexing it’s economic and diplomatic muscles to curtail criticism of the regime. Evidence of this was seen earlier in the year when Beijing complained to the Australian government about the contents and title of a university publication, Red Rising, Red Eclipse. Chinese diplomats complained to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Australian Centre on China in the World at the Australian National University about the alleged lack of balance in the centre's China Story Yearbook 2012. The Chinese government also blocked internet access to the report from mainland China. This is in line with the practice of the regime to keep a strong control on internet use and access to certain websites from within the country. The incident was another in a growing list of clashes over academic freedom and the right to free speech between the Peoples Republic of China and various “Western” institutions. At the end of last year a group of prominent Chinese academics wrote an open letter in which they stated that political reform had not matched the quick pace of economic expansion. About 65 Chinese academics, lawyers and human rights activists have signed a similar letter demanding top party members reveal their financial assets, saying it is the most fundamental way to end corruption. wAgain, references to the letter have been censored on the internet and in Chinese media.
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NEWS
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COLLEGE TRIBUNE
26th March 2013
New scholarships for Indian students
NEWS IN BRIEF Ronan Coveney
Ronan Coveney
CAO applications up for UCD There has been a 1.5% increase in the number of students choosing UCD as their first preference in the CAO applications. Over 8,500 students put UCD as their first choice in the application process. Arts still remains the biggest puller for Leaving Certificate students while students choosing science as their first preference increase by 23% to 631. Engineering has also had an increase of 14% from 2012 figures. Speaking about the increases Registrar and Deputy President, Professor Mark Rogers said, “Last year the university broke the 8,000 first preferences level so this year’s figure of 8,509 is a great reflection on the reputation of our degrees.” Agriculture increased its first preference choices by 10% meanwhile going against the national average Architecture in UCD has seen an small increase of 2%. Students have until the end of June to make their final decisions on their CAO first preferences after the Leaving Certificate examinations are complete. UCD physicists uncover swarm behaviour UCD physicists Maksym Romenskyy and Vladimir Lobaskin have uncovered new collective properties of swarm dynamics in a study just published in EPJ B. The findings could be used to control swarms of animals, robots, or human crowds by applying signals capable of emulating the underlying interaction of individuals within the swarm, which could lead to predicted motion patterns elucidated through modelling. The authors were inspired by condensed matter models, used for example in the study of magnetism, which were subsequently adapted to be biologically relevant to animal swarms. They found that when the swarm becomes overcrowded, the globally ordered motion breaks down. At high density and when the nearest neighbours are within one step of each other, each animal can no longer decide on the safe direction of motion. Instead, it is busy correcting its motion to avoid collisions.
News Writer
U
From left to right (organisers) Dave Mc Elligott, Evie Kaar, (head organiser)Morgan McDonagh, Trisha Fitzpatrick, Dominic Gallagher.
UCD plays host to European Youth Parliament James Grannell
CD has created a new scholarship for students from India who wish to study in the areas of science, technology and engineering. Some of the scholarships available to Indian students include 50% of full tuition paid for Undergraduates plus a stipend of €2500. For postgraduate students there are two full tuition scholarships available along with five 50% tuition scholarships for taught masters programmes. The plan also includes over 50 scholarships of €2000 each. Speaking about the plan, Gerald Byrne, Professor of Mechanical Engineering stated that “We want to create awareness about the possibilities for Indian students in Dublin in the areas of science, technology and engineering. Also, we are
developing a number of new projects with key universities in India. With the funding initiative we want to help more students to come and study here and have a new learning experience.” Meanwhile UCD failed to make a ranking in the Times Higher Education (THES) World Reputation Rankings, the ranking system, which is based on the largest worldwide survey of senior academic opinion. While UCD is well known in the UK and Ireland “in terms of global brand recognition, they seem to be struggling” that’s according to THES rankings editor Phil Baty. At the top of the list are the six global so called “superbrands”: Harvard, MIT, Berkeley, Stanford, Oxford and Cambridge.
Editor
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his weekend saw the Fitzgerald chamber play host to the European Youth Parliament. The event acts as a forum for discussion on European affairs and is open to fourth and fifth year secondary school students. The students come together for a weekend to discuss different issues that affect the EU. This includes topics ranging from trading competition with China to the aging population. The best delegates from each regional session go on to attend the nationals while the best national delegates will be chosen to go on to the international stage. The next internationals will be held in Munich
with the following one being held in Zurich. A number of UCD students were involved with organising the event. Head organiser and second year Architecture student, Morgan McDonagh, told the College Tribune that he “really wanted to use the new debating chamber for general assembly, because it’s nice and its proper parliamentary layout, so it made sense to plan everything else here as well.” The organisers of the event hope that UCD will play host to national level of the EYP again in future years.
La Semaine Francaise Stephen West News Writer
U
CD goes red, white and blue as French Soc and staff in the French department host a week packed with events to celebrate all things French. Un café à Paris takes place today, Tuesday, from 1pm to 3pm in the Blue Room in the Student Centre. At 5pm students can see a play based on the French TV show Kaamelott in G106. Michel Hazanavicius’ film OSS 117: Le caire, nid d'espions (OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies) will be shown in theatre 1 of the Newman Building at 6:30pm. The 2006 film, starring Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Béjo, It is a parody of the spy film genre and follows the exploits of a French secret agent OSS 117, in Cairo, in 1955. There will also be a debate between the French Societies of UCD and Trinity on the topic of vegetarianism, which will be held on Wednesday at 7pm. Also on Wednesday there will be a wine and cheese event fol-
lowed by an after party in the Palace Nightclub on Lower Camden St. Matthew Carroll, Auditor of UCD French Soc, said; "the majority of students finish languages at the time they finish the Leaving Cert, French Week will hopefully remind students of other aspects of a language, not just grammar and verbs. Aspects that were not taught in school… With the wide mixture of events hopefully it will attract a wide range of groups not just Language Students and members of French Soc.” "Combining ideas with the French Tutors was a tremendous help and was Great Fun and many of the Cultural Activities are fantastic ideas of theirs, for example the goûter which takes place in A105 and the scenes from Kaamelott.Without the help and fantastic ideas of Adeline, Baptiste, Hélene and Marion (the four French Tutors), this week would not have happened.”
Maverick academic to visit UCD Matthew H. Farrelly News Writer
U
CD Philosophy Society will be hosting its inaugural lecture for 2013 on the 2nd of April which will be given by noted Professor Noam Chomsky titled, ‘Can civilization survive really existing capitalism’. The event will be held at the O’Reilly Hall, in what is expected to be close to full capacity, roughly 1100 sitting. The event will be ticket only, with sales taking place this week. The move to charge for attendance, according to the Society in response to public queries on their Facebook page, was the result of the cost of both renting the O’Reilly Hall and Professor Chomsky’s travel costs, “Unfortunately the hall, along with the flights and his accommodation are costing us a rather large amount of money. Hence the entry charge, which we have kept at the low price of 2 Euro.” In order to avoid a rush upon the 2nd April, the Philosophy Society will be holding a membership recruitment stall in the Newman building between
Monday 25th March and Monday the 1st April, “We'll be running a stall for the Chomsky Talk from 10AM - 4PM all this coming week at the An Cuas section of the Newman Building - sign up there to avoid disappointment on the day.” The Society will be giving those who become society member, which involves a fee of €2, a ticket to the event. Professor Chomsky, who teaches at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is known for his contributions to Linguistics, most notably in the field of ‘Generative Grammar’, however the academic has also contributed to the studies of History, Philosophy and has acted as a Political Commentator and Activist. Professor Chomsky, has attended UCD in the past, in 2006 he gave a series of lectures ranging from Politics to Linguistics, all of which are available to listen to on the UCD website. The academic also visited in 2009 when he received an Honorary Life Membership from Lawsoc.
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COLLEGE TRIBUNE 26th March 2013
NEWS
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USI's annual Congress takes place in Ballinasloe James Grannell Editor
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ver 250 delegates from 24 Students' Unions are gathering this week at the Carlton Shearwater Hotel in Ballinasloe to discuss the future of the Irish higher education sector at the annual Congress of the Union of Students in Ireland (USI). Despite the recent vote to leave the USI, UCD SU have sent delegates to Congress as the process of disaffiliation will not come into full force for another twelve months. The Congress will see the election of a new President for 2013/2014 as current President John Logue prepares to finish his term. Current UCD SU Campaigns and Communications officer, Paddy Guiney, will also be seeking election as USI Vice-President for Campaigns during the Congress.
John Lonergan, former Governor of Mountjoy Prison, addressed Congress yesterday. He spoke about his 42 years of public service, including the 24 he spent as the most senior prison officer in the country. Lonergan explained how he thinks the education system is failing our young people by suppressing skills and talents that aren't seen as having much economic value. He also discussed the importance of access to education for students from lower socio-economic backgrounds. A panel discussion on the higher education sector will feature contributions from Charlie McConalogue, Fianna Fail TD for Donegal North East and spokesperson for Education and Skills, Senator Trevor Ó Clochartaigh of Sinn Fein and Brian Mulligan, Pro-
gramme Manager at the centre for Online Learning in IT Sligo. Delegates will also discuss the events of the past year, including the failure of SUSI and the rise in the registration fee introduced in Budget 2013. Delegates from the newly re-affiliated DCU Students' Union will also attend Congress for the first time in over a decade. GMIT Students' Union President Joe O'Connor is the sole candidate for USI President. Having served for two years as President of GMITSU, O'Connor is looking to become the first student from his college to be elected President of the national Union. Should he be elected he will also be the first President to come from an Institute of Technology since the election of WIT's Shane Kelly in 2008. Hustings for positions on USI's Officer Board, including Presi-
dent, took place on Monday night and delegates will be voting this afternoon, Tuesday March 26th. The results of the elections will be announced on Wednesday morning. The main business of Congress is the discussion of and voting on the 78 motions that have been proposed by attending Students' Unions. The results of these votes will dictate USI's policy on issues such as student representation on the board of SUSI, State funding of fee paying schools and the Government's austerity Budgets. John Logue, President of the Union of Students in Ireland commented that with the current challenges faced by students and their families, USI Annual Congress is an opportunity for student leaders from across the island of Ireland to come together to discuss issues
such as college fees, the grant system and the quality of teaching and learning in higher education. “Seldom in USI’s 54 year history has the need for unity been more important, as 250 student leaders gather to reaffirm their common bond and decide the future of the student movement,” remarked Logue. “It is also an opportunity for student leaders to discuss topical national issues such as the renegotiation of the Croke Park agreement, unemployment and austerity measures as well as tackling major social justice issues such as marriage equality and migrant rights. I am hopeful that student leaders will come away from Annual Congress reinvigorated, unified and with a clear vision to tackle the challenging times ahead.”
STUDENT CAPITAL FUND The Student Capital Fund is a sum of money arising from surplus funds generated in the operation of a number of student facilities and is administered by the Student Consultative Forum. Grants from the Fund are available strictly for capital projects and not for current funding. Applicants for grants are not confined to recognised clubs or societies. Last year grants were awarded for equipment for student media, for the new reception area in the Students’ Union and for fencing for the Hurling pitches. You are invited to apply for funding from the Student Capital Fund for this year. All applications or queries can be emailed to: Elizabeth.cronin@ucd.ie or sent by post to the Forum office, Student Centre, UCD, to arrive not later than Tuesday, 9 April 2013, 5pm.
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COLLEGE TRIBUNE 26th March 2013
OPINION
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Students and the Crisis in Education – A Staff Perspective Sharae Deckard and Anne Mulhall discuss student hardship and politics in light of recent events
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tudents barred from the library. Students unable to afford books. Students commuting long-distance because they can’t afford Dublin rents. Students threatened with eviction. Students with escalating levels of depression, anxiety, and physical illness, unable to access therapy or medical treatment. Students who feel lost, alienated, a number amongst numbers, detached from any sense of a departmental ‘home.’ Students working one, two, or three jobs. Students carrying forward three, four, five repeat modules a term, never managing to make them up. Students crying and panicked in our offices. But also students we never see, drifting like ghosts in the machine. Students who feel apathetic and powerless, trapped in a hostile system where education has become the casualty of the logic of the market. This university routinely claims to put the welfare of its students first. As UCD lecturers, we attempt just this, in ever-deteriorating working conditions that make this aspiration an impossibility. But there is a distinction between UCD as an institution and the daily realities of teaching and learning faced by staff and students on the ‘frontline’ of the university. UCD’s claim as an institution that it puts its students first is much like the claims of successive Irish governments that they have put the nation’s young people first—rhetoric too often contradicted by its actions. It is increasingly clear to academic staff that the extent of student hardship is becoming more widespread every semester. This is a direct result of austerity measures imposed since 2009 to service private European banking debts. Because of ‘austerity politics’, students and their families find themselves in desperate financial circumstances. Growing numbers of students struggle to find the bus fare to Belfield, much less pay the ever-rising ‘student contribution’. The dismantling of our university is not solely the institution’s fault. UCD is struggling with a large deficit. Every year since the bailout, higher education budgets have been cut. Public education is being bled dry to pay for private debt. These cuts have had immediate, painful impacts on Irish universities and ITs, although these have been unevenly distributed: arts and humanities have borne sharper cuts than sciences, despite having higher enrollments. Our own School, for instance, had its budget cut by over one-third in one year. Some consequences of this have been fewer SGTs, larger student numbers in classes, and deep cuts in pay to part-time staff for teach-
ing and marking. Retired academic staff have not been replaced, academic administrative support staff have been decreased, and teaching support has been cut. Many departments are struggling to handle ever-increasing numbers of students and administrative tasks with ever fewer staff, which degrades the quality of teaching, research and student experience. Student hardship and the logic of ‘shock doctrine’ However, the idea that UCD can offset budget problems through inhumane policies such as barring students in financial difficulty from crucial services is at best illogical. At worst, it underlines the extent of the disconnect between the institution and the harsh realities of many students’ daily lives. An institution that truly puts its students first would show some compassion toward those worst hit by ‘the crisis’. It would push back against the national and European policies that have brutalized students and their university. Instead, the institution extends the effects of neoliberal policy ever more violently into the lives of our students. By ‘neoliberal’ we refer to the processes that we see happening right now in Ireland and Europe, whereby the idea of the ‘public good’ is being displaced by ‘the market’. Neoliberalism views education as just another product for sale, rather than a right that should be protected by the state. The ‘neoliberalization’ of third level education is well under way, and its logic is toward the withdrawal of State support so that universities become ‘self-funding’ – which means in turn that students will have to pay more for their education. At the national level, the HEA, IUA (Irish University Association) and the second Croke Park Public Service Agreement are all part of this effort to 'rationalize' the university sector. This is what Naomi Klein has called ‘shock doctrine’: when a combination of state and corporate interests use the excuse of an economic crisis to push through austerity measures that are about far more than just ‘paying the money back’; in this case, forcing the violent restructuring, privatization and asset-stripping of higher education. UCD's own austerity policies include a draconian response to student debt and the SUSI grants administration failure; cutting evening degrees and degree pathways; the curtailment of library budgets and resources; and the outsourcing of service workers in catering, cleaning, portering, and security. Locking students out of library services for being too broke to pay some or all of their fees appears logical in a world being restructured
according to ‘shock doctrine’. It is not, however, the act of an institution that puts students first. Barring students from the library won’t magically endow them with money they don’t have. What it will do is push students who are already struggling to cope with the extreme stress of financial hardship ever closer to the edge of collapse. And when they collapse, they’ll have to wait four months to see a college counsellor. If they do require medical treatment from student health services, they may find themselves threatened with debt collectors should they not have the money to pay their medical bills. This has happened to at least one student that we know of, and if it’s happened to her, it must be happening to others. When these things happen to students, where can they turn to for support? Programme Office student advisors, the Student Engagement Officer, the Student Union Welfare Office, and the Vice President for Students have key roles in supporting students. But these positions are under-resourced and under-staffed, and fall drastically short of meeting need. For instance, there are only two academic advisers to support 3500 students in the College of Arts and Celtic Studies. There is a glaring contradiction at work here. On one hand, the institution’s heavy-handed debt-recovery tactics add significantly to student hardship. On the other, the institution under-resources the positions designed to help students in difficulty. Student hardship is thus exacerbated, rather than alleviated. If UCD is serious about its commitment to its students, it is time for the institution to rethink its punitive and contradictory policy on student debt. What Is To Be Done and Who’s Going to Do It? In the face of the larger onslaught on higher education, more than a ‘reactive’ protest is needed. Students are right to protest against fees and all that they imply: the threat of a higher education system fuelled by student debt, in which universities become elite institutions solely for the privileged. However, they also need to contest the larger forces restructuring higher education, and fight not to keep the university as it is but rather to create the university as it could be. The first step is self-education. Students need to figure out how their own institution works: its hierarchies, its bureaucratic structures, its inequalities. They need to start dialogues across the staff/student barrier with academics, support staff, library personnel, and service workers about the pressures they face and university structures they would
change. They should check out books like Academic Armageddon, in which UCD Professor of French Mary Gallagher explains the destruction of Irish universities. And they should read online about the recent wave of student protest movements across the globe: the Red Square movement in Montreal, which successively reversed fees in 2011; the massive students’ movement in Chile; UCD’s own FEE movement; or Occupy Sussex in the UK, where students have just started a campaign against outsourcing and privatization. The second step is to envision a better university. As one of Ireland’s largest universities, UCD badly needs more student provisions. Students should advocate for fairer policies on student debt, better staff-student ratios, smaller classes, and more proportionate numbers of student advisors and counselling staff. They should ask for increased disability services, healthcare, welfare provisions, hardship funds, student bursaries, and library funding, while setting up new supports such as co-ops for exchanging textbooks and buying food. If the university is a public good, then they should also advocate for more public discourse, fairer society recognition protocols, and more transparent, democratic structures, including better opportunities for student and academic participation in governance. Finally, students should organize and form coalitions. If students have voted against further membership of the USI, what kind of organization should fill the gap? How could the Student’s Union be reclaimed to change its orientation from entertainment host to an institution that fights to protect student rights and to uphold the ideal of the university as a public good? How could staff and students combine their efforts to fight for necessary changes? The future of students is being sacrificed to pay off the bank debts—their university experiences, access to public services, and chance of future jobs. But students and staff can work together towards the university we all want. A university that is not a factory, where knowledge is more than a commodity. Are you an undergrad or postgrad student who’s been shut out of the library or other services for non-payment of fees or due to delays in receipt/decisions on grants? Have UCD service providers contacted you in relation to debt collection? We are compiling data on the extent of student financial hardship in UCD. If you would like to contribute confidentially to this, please email studenthardship@hotmail.com
88
FEATURES
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COLLEGE TRIBUNE 26th March 2013
The curious case of Bradley Manning As Bradley Manning’s Court Martial draws nearer, Thomas Cullen examines some of his motives and the role of the media behind the case involving the largest leak of state secrets in U.S. history
O
n the morning of July 12th 2007, two Reuter’s journalists, Namir Noor-Eldeen and Saeed Chmagh, gathered on a street corner in Baghdad with a group of mostly unarmed Iraqi citizens in order to conduct interviews and take photos. Suddenly a United States Army Apache helicopter hovered over the scene and mercilessly opened fire on the group, leaving behind nothing more than a heap of bloodied corpses. Sometime later, two men driving a van with two young children inside, appeared and witnessed the wounded and the dying Chmagh, trying to crawl away to safety. The two men rushed out of their van to assist the wounded reporter. One of the gunmen in the Apache impatiently begged “C’mon, let us shoot”, as he asked for and gained permission to engage. The three innocent men were needlessly shot to pieces, and the two small children were left wounded inside the vehicle. The gunman offhandedly remarked “Well, it's their fault for bringing their kid's into a battle.” The pilot agreed. The above is a description of the horrifying airstrike shown in the now infamous Collateral Murder video, one of the hundreds of thousands of classified diplomatic cables, files and war reports that U.S. soldier Private Bradley Manning has been accused of leaking to the public through the Wikileaks website. Manning was arrested on the 26th of May 2010 and has since been held in confinement. His incarceration has lasted over 1000 days, an extended period of which was spent, under what could only be described as torturous conditions, in a Marine Corps Base in Quantico. He has been charged with numerous offences including communicating national defence information to an unauthorized source, and aiding the enemy. On February 28th of this year, Manning pleaded guilty to 10 of the 22 charges against him, and his court martial is expected to begin this summer. However, despite his arrest and imprisonment, Manning is known by many supporters worldwide as a heroic whistleblower that witnessed misconduct by the American government and decided to reveal it to the world. Manning was turned in to the authorities by Adrian Lamo, an ex-hacker with whom he spoke online several times. The chat logs between Manning and Lamo were released to the media and contained the first clear insights into what the ex-army intelligence analyst had been aiming to achieve when he released the documents. Manning told Lamo that he wanted to see worldwide discussion and reform based on the documents and that most importantly “I want people to see the truth… regardless of who they are… because without information, you cannot make informed decisions as a public”. In his pre-trial statement that was given this month, Manning spoke further about his motives, and how he was against what the US army where doing in Iraq. He gave the example of how he had witnessed innocent citizens being rounded up by the Iraqi Federal Police. When he told his superiors what had happened, he was simply told to “drop it”. Manning also gave his thoughts about when he first saw the Collateral Murder Video, by telling the court “The most alarming aspect of the video to me, however, was the seemingly delightful bloodlust the aerial weapons team seemed to have. They dehumanized the individuals they were engaging in and seemed to not value human life by referring to them as 'dead bastards' and congratulating themselves on their ability to kill in large numbers.” According to certain media sources, witnesses have stated in the pre-trial hearings that Manning should never have had access to such classified information in the first place, as
whilst in the army, he was unstable, depressed and prone to unpredictable behaviour. This could be a result of his difficult upbringing that he discussed in the chat logs with Lamo. When Manning was an early teenager, his parents divorced and he moved to Wales to live with his mother’s family. Around this time Manning began questioning his sexual orientation and experienced severe bullying at school for being
journalists and public figures from around the globe have shown their support for Manning as a Whistleblower. Journalists such as Glenn Greenwald and Kevin Gosztola have covered Bradley Manning’s case in detail from the beginning and have been voicing support for him through every means possible. Many similarities have been drawn in the media between Manning and Daniel Ellsberg, the famed whistleblower who released the Pentagon papers about the Vietnam War in 1971. Ellsberg has been strongly supportive of Manning and was even arrested for protesting outside the Quantico base in Virginia where Manning was being held and mistreated. However not all media has been kind or supportive. In an either entirely biased or entirely un-researched op-ed in the New York Times, columnist Bill Keller wrote that Manning was vague about his motives in the chat logs, and that his pretrial statement this month may have been “shaped afterwards by the expectations of the Free Bradley Manning enthusiasts”. When writing this, Keller ignores the fact that Manning was actually quite clear in his motives in the chat logs, and that they completely matched what he said in his statement 3 years later, regardless of what the expectations of his supporters where. This leads us to Manning’s biggest critic - the Obama administration. Obama has been accused by many people of waging a war on whistleblowers. Lawyer and former General Counsel and Vice Chairman of NYT said in a recent interview with the Guardian that President Obama's approach to classified information and press freedom was “Antediluvian, conservative, backwards. Worse than Nixon. He thinks that anyone who leaks is a spy! I mean, it's cuckoo". the only American and for being considered “effeminate”. The most serious charge that Manning faces from the When he turned 17, Manning once again returned to the U.S. is that of “aiding the enemy”, which, if pursued, could United States to live with his father. He enlisted in the US have meant the death penalty, however prosecutors are army where he was bullied for not being like the average only seeking life in prison. This is based on the fact that the soldier. One soldier stated in an interview with the Guardleaking of the state secrets may have been of comfort to the ian newspaper that “The kid was barely five foot ... He was a enemy, and that it put many lives in danger. So far, no-one runt, so pick on him. He's crazy, pick on him. He's a faggot, can quite tell who exactly was put in danger and how the pick on him. The guy took it from every side. He couldn't leaks aided the enemy in any way. It may have provided please anyone”. Manning also told Lamo in the chat logs that comfort to the enemy that their secrets were published, but he enjoyed cross-dressing and was not a fan of his masculine so may have any story published by any media outlet that features. “I don’t like the masculine features in my appearspeaks about U.S. Foreign Policy in any sort of critical way. ance. I went on leave in late January / early February… Finally, despite the Obama administration and certain and… I cross-dressed, full on… wig, breast forms, dress, the media outlets branding Pfc Bradley Manning as an Ameriworks… I had cross-dressed before… but I was public… for a can traitor who aided the enemy and turned on his own few days.” Manning also created an online alter ego named army, there is one thing they cannot deny: everything he “Breanna” on Twitter and YouTube accounts. released was the truth. He is being punished and made an These struggles that Manning went through in his life may example of for showing both honesty and bravery by blowhave been one of the reasons that he leaked the cables and ing the whistle on the war crimes committed in Iraq, whilst documents. Through his difficulties he had a gained a level of those who committed the crimes themselves are facing no compassion and sympathy for other human beings that sepa- punishment. As children we are taught the words of Jesus rated him from other soldiers. These struggles helped him of Nazareth “Tell the truth, and it shall set you free”, words gain the courage to stand up for what he thought was right. which sadly no longer apply in a war obsessed country that The media has also played a major role in the case. Many once called itself the land of the free and home of the brave.
“I want people to see the truth… regardless of who they are… because without information, you cannot make informed decisions as a public”
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COLLEGE TRIBUNE 26th March 2013
FEATURES
9
Time for Leisure, Time for Living With pension ages rising worldwide, Laura Cullen questions the reasoning behind such a move
I
n many countries throughout the world the pension-age is set to rise. Germany, the US and Australia all seem intent on raising their pension ages to 67 and it seems Ireland are on track to follow suit and could go even further. One of the reasons held by governments as justification for this decision is the fact that people now are living much longer lives. Life expectancy has drastically increased over the last few decades, and with this increase comes the expectation that this longer life span will consist of more years of economically fruitful labour. Of course the government desire such an outcome, but the more fundamental question to ask is, do we desire it? Why is there a belief that work must be the predominant facet of our lives? Why has labour become the measure by which a fulfilled life is judged? What has happened to leisure? What has happened to living? It may seem obvious, but it is important to state one thing clearly before we progress: there is more to life than just making money. The ancients seemed to understand this better than anyone. It was Plato who said we are never more human than when we are at leisure. In fact it was Plato who encouraged the people of Athens to sing and dance and enjoy festivities of all sorts. Today, however, working oneself to the bone is something to be admired, a ‘good days work’ is a ‘hard days work’ - something to marvel at and respect, and while no one can doubt the necessity of work, many doubt the necessity of leisure. Let us examine the nature of leisure more thoroughly. Leisure in Greek is skole, which we can translate in English to ‘school’. So it appears that at it’s origin, leisure was not to be associated with laziness or sloth. Yet, this is how leisure time has come to be seen. It has progressively come to be regarded as ‘down time’ as opposed to the real time and space for working. Today, work is for activity while leisure is for rest. It is not seen as something in itself; as something useful, beneficial or something that contains within it knowledge to be learned. Instead, it is down time aimed almost solely at preparing us mentally and physically for the next day of ‘real’ work. But what if it is during times of leisure that real value can be found? What if it is during times of leisure that we are elevated to greatness? If this leisure time is what the Ancients thought it should be, then it is a time for reflection and insight, a time to contemplate things of true value. It is during this time the realisation may dawn that life is more than work; that each day is more valuable than the work that defines it. A sense of the greater purpose of life may be discovered. The problem seems to be though, that
these thoughts cannot hatch because there is no leisure time in which they can grow. Our ‘free’ time has become alienated by the pressures and dominance of work, and so it is experienced in an alienated way. University education has also been infected by this denial of leisure. The usefulness of a degree stands in direct correlation to the job it can procure. In Newman’s time the aim of a university degree was to help young people become gentlemen and gentlewomen; people with the capacity to think in a liberated manner and to appreciate the potential that knowledge can yield. Today that concept would seem absurd and wholly out-dated. That kind of view would mean that education is more than just work. It would mean that education is a form of leisure. Students are cogs in the great wheel of economic production. We are the oil that keeps the machine going. We are the products of what Walter Benjamin called the ‘age of mechanical reproduction’. And we are being encouraged to think that this is precisely what will guarantee a successful, comfortable, profitable, lucrative and beneficial middle class life. Is that all we are happy believing is out there? There is no doubt that use-value is very important in society. If work is useful then it is worth doing. And although we may wonder here what it exactly is that correlates to ‘usefulness’, the general perspective in modern society appears as: if it generates money then it is ‘good’. Whether or not this work brings with it happiness or enjoyment is secondary at best. While this mantra may guarantee fiscal success, it does not make for the fruits of a healthy culture. Society deems leisure as entertainment and thus finds another way to commodify our lives. The projected image and ‘bought structure’ of leisure time is that we must pay to take part in it. But leisure is not entertainment. It is not something that can be consumed or purchased. It cannot be watched or heard. What it is does not require anything but a human heart and mind. True leisure is participation in the authenticity of life. It is about being fruitful rather than successful, receiving rather than achieving. By increasing the pension age the importance of leisure in a person’s life is being neglected. The German philosopher Josef Pieper said that leisure is the foundation of culture. If our culture chooses to ignore this then the future does not look all that ‘profitable’. Maybe what we do when the working day ends is just as important as the work. Maybe it is during this time that the importance of leisure can be apprehended. In order to apprehend this though, time for leisure must be found.
Why is there a belief that work must be the predominant facet of our lives? Why has labour
become the measure by which a fulfilled life is judged? What
has happened to leisure? What has happened to living?
10 ESSAY
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COLLEGE TRIBUNE 26th March 2013
Lost in the World: Heidegger’s search for Soul Leaving the Heidegger Controversy aside, Michael Phoenix continues our Philosophy Series, with an investigation of Being-in-the-world I saw myself a ring of bone in the clear stream of all of it and vowed always to be open to it that all of it might flow through and then heard "ring of bone" where ring is what a bell does Lew Welch
A
man with a large nose sat alone before a small wooden table in the Black Forest Mountains, Germany. It was snowing and cold. The deer of the woods lay against one another; the birds folded their wings around their young. The sound was alone the soft fall of the snow, and the mind of the man was lonely. “Martin”, he said to himself, “What are we doing out here?” Picking up his pen, he answered aloud in a slow voice, “We’re searching.” His mind pondered a moment, then replied, “Searching for what?” Through thick German accent the man answered once more, “Being.” And the reply came, “What does that mean?” After a pause, as he pulled paper towards him, Martin answered grimly, “Exactly” and the word echoed against the logs of the cabin walls and back towards their source, thus beginning the search of Martin Heidegger, the 20th Centuries most infamous philosopher, for the question of the meaning of Being. The forging of the question amongst the snows of the Black Forest signaled Heidegger’s descent. He sought to fall through space until he reached it’s very source, hoping that once it was found, he could then turn and in the sky see the gulls in it’s light. Heidegger glimpsed the world refracted in the glimmer of this ontological question, right there in the word meaning: authentic Being, for Heidegger, means Being-there or Dasein, which is authentic and undetached from the world, it does not stand behind it or hover above it: Being always is Being-in-the-world: Dasein is fascinated with the world. Dasein is our existence maintained identically in its essence (which we’ll call it’s
Soul) and yet can relate authentically in its experiences to the changing multiplicities surrounding it. It can do so because Being is, in a sense, world - meaning, it interacts with the entities of that world as potentialities inherent in its own Being-in-the-world. Interactions with the otherness of Being, i.e. are possibilities. Heidegger says, the utmost possibility within this endless horizonal spectrum, is the possibility of the non-Being of Dasein, i.e. death, which he understands as the utmost unsurpassable possibility of our Being, which can only be authentically experienced as a ‘yet-to-occur’ event, for once Dasein ceases to Be-there, it ceases existentially. Back in the hut, Heidegger looked out his window and there the conifer trees stood as the snow landed upon their leaves, turning them white whilst the animals here and there hid, but were there all the same, as were all the thoughts in the mind of the lonely man. All psychological experiences, emotional drives, instinctive desires, physical entrenchments were there together: the man would feel the cold and he would lift the ax that would bite into the wood as the sun came out and thawed the frost and left it’s bark ready to burn in the fire within the grate of the hut and sat before it the man would be warm and think: “It’s sad to cut the tree, and sadder still to be here alone while it burns.” Heidegger stepped back from the window, and picked up his pen. In spite of the apparent isolation resulting from our ontological utmost possibility (Being-towards-death) - and Heidegger’s concession that no one can die our own death for us - Being-there is always a Being-with (Dasein is always a Mitsein). The potentiality-towards-death of Dasein does not isolate, rather, it forces Dasein, faced with the prospect of it’s non-Being, to consider itself ontologically, and it is this that leads us to authentically encounter The Other. There is a space within Being that is filled with otherness, and as we too are part of and placed within Being, our relationship with this Other is immanent and crucial. If we understand Others authentically, which is only possible from an unalienated state of Being, we understand that they are there too, and that meaning, there with. They are as much a part of the world as my own Dasein is, they exist authentically, they are human, they have drives and desires, experiences and thoughts, they have Soul. As such, when
we are with Others authentically, in this very state of Being-there, meaning existing as and within a flowing of possibilities - our ownness does not stand out; we do not distinguish ourselves from The Other. Such is the blossoming, ungripping and understanding mode of Being-there as Being-with-onto-death (so to speak) - such is to exist authentically. And yet, Heidegger sat alone in his hut. The birds did not come to the window, no callers came to his door. What happened? Heidegger explains: “Being-alone is a deficient mode of Beingwith...” Heidegger was alone in the hut, but he was hopeful. He distinguished Dasein’s Being-alone from Being-there-without. For Heidegger, there is no solitary to fall into. If there is a well at all, we are all in it together - through the night and in the day. Yet, Heidegger goes on: “On the other hand, factical Being-alone is not obviated by the occurrence of a second example of a human being ‘beside’ me, or by ten such examples. Even if these and more are present-at-hand, Dasein can still be alone.” So we see that it is not in all cases that we interact authentically with Others, just as it is not in all cases we interact authentically with the world and do not experience our own Being authentically. In the hut Heidegger threw the last of his books to the ground. They lay upon the wooden planks, their spines split and pages ripped. Heidegger was hopeful, but he was also angry. In the books that lay on the floor, books detailing the history of western philosophy, he had found all the answers he had not wished to seek. Within that history, he saw a menacing trend: a subverted turn away from authentic Being, covered up, masked. With the question of the meaning of Being exiled, Being had not been pursued authentically, and the result was everywhere. Heidegger sat alone in the Black Forest. The poisoned turn away from Being in the history of metaphysics led, for Heidegger, to a dictatorship, under which Being has been enframed and cultivated. The Other cannot be experienced authentically when Dasein is isolated from it’s very self. In such a state, it is subsumed into the ghost army, under the rule of Das Man - the ‘they’. Under this dictatorship, nothing is definite - “everyone is other and no one is himself”, all possibilities are leveled down, even Dasein’s utmost possibility, death, which is constantly tran-
quilized - it is said that “one dies” but this “one” never in any case means ‘me’, rather, this ‘one’ is the ‘nobody’. Whereas in an authentic state of Being we interact towards death with anxiety, inauthentic Being cultivates an attitude of superior indifference to death, and so alienates Dasein from it’s ultimate potentiality. This triggers the decay of Dasein from the top down, for the it is Dasein’s understanding of itself as a Beingtowards-death that reveals to it the essence of it’s own space of possibility: Time. Heidegger leant back in his chair, and walked towards the fire grate. There would be no thawing of stricken branches. He picked up the books that lay on the floor, and began to stack them upon the metal rungs of the great. His anger grew. And so dwells man unpoetically, alone in our cabins, whether they be in the midst of the cities of the world, or in the heart of the Black Forest. And yet, Heidegger believed that all was not lost. Despite the domination of the ‘they’ and the primacy of alienated Being as Being, he was not done yet. All these unauthentic modes of Being: all the Beingthere-without’s and the Being-present-athand, are all, still, only modes of Dasein: they are different states of Being-there-inthe-world. Although it may appear that we are against one another, we are not, it is an illusion. Within this alienating grip we seem for or against one another, we do not ‘matter’ to one another, we are alone with one another. But if we realise our own essence as Beingthere: if we undertake a Heideggerian revolution we may rediscover our Soul and we see that the horizon of unnumbered possibilities remains there with us and for us, to explore with wonder with others freed in their own freedom for themselves as themselves, and so to become authentically bound together in an endless flowing through and with - to overcome distance, apathy, and lonely log cabins. Heidegger tossed a match into the grate and the first yellow pages caught fire. He stepped away and threw on his winter coat, then heaved open the cabin door, letting it smash against the log wall, and walked out as the whole cabin shook and smoke ran from it’s chimney. He walked out amongst the trees, with his Soul warm and intact, ready to become lost-with-the-world, and the snow fell from the leaves of the Black Forest’s trees.
11 Poetry
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COLLEGE TRIBUNE
Page Eleven Poetry
Head Lights
“no.”
A deathly world holds its breath at a station platform As darkness makes day soggy like mushy peas on paper. I buy my ticket to lie on the bench, With the choice to jump or continue.
A moment, the eternity of uncertainty, a hesitant look the magic is ruined.
Shadows give birth to my mind And sounds mark their territory. And I only want to leave.
The trick exposed, smiles fade, thoughts of
Carry me from uncertainty. Slap me across the face with wet mist. I look straight into the lense: Through the looming eyes of God, Or man. Thunder brews and the stones play hopscotch. Surgical ultraviolet throws me back, But the quiet rings in my head And pricks my stomach. I am a feet-on-seats oracle Divine in my knowledge of the night. Rich with personal triumph; I made it.
not now, not yet, too soon. So cozy they were, hot chocolate in a cold room, chicken-noodle soup on a sick day Without edges, without corners, nothing sharp no kick no excitement. The answer lay clear the immaculate shine of diamond-stone heavy as the rain that hadn’t fallen. - Karin Narita
26thMarch 2013
Page 11
Sonnet II Let’s not pretend that our eyes did not meet When our paths merged in some confusing dream; The stars collapsed and crumbled at our feet As I melted and married with the stream. In life I trudge over the bridge, in sleep I smash the banks confinement like a tide And sink like weights that descend to the deep; In wake or sleep – to sojourn on one side. Yet, can we say if what is real is real If our perceptions are heavily blurred; If all those strange emotions that we feel Were felt so strong when some vision occurred? If love has transcendental qualities Then bind me to its varying degrees. - Paul Curran
The Last Drag Every Night must come to an end, As a song and a cigarette, Each must have its final moment, After which one says “Ah. That was good.”
Draw the map on my back And double yellow lines across my chest Because I seem to be going nowhere, Yet. - Lucy Montague-Moffatt
- Oscar Nugent
Young Poet, Proletariat A dream of yesteryear slumbers in your breast in that sacred space in your chest, between your lungs. It exclaims with ecstatic excitement, "Do it! Live your dreams!" But the bank manager says "no", or society disagrees. You must learn your place, Young poet, proletariat, people like you can't do, won't do, ought not to do. Our academies breed your sort. Out of their minds, their passions fuelled by the opium called intellect. Now get back to your post, young poet, proletariat, Dream now no more, You'll change nothing. Everything will be as it was before - Andrew McKeown
Davy Light streams through the open curtains We forgot to close last night In the hot, balmy summer. You are still sleeping. I watch the rise and fall of your chest Your lips parted Your skin, dewy with perspiration And breathe in a mixture of stale cologne And the sweet musty smell of you. Your face in profile, shadowed. Your eyelids veiledA hushed serenity. Gingerly, I rest a hand on your heart Whisper in your ear to shake you from your slumber. You groan, a deep rumbling vibration And in one laboured movement Shift yourself to face me. One flit of an eyelid to break slumber’s spell, Another-and I look in to those eyes With all their trouble and hardships weighted in them
Broken Boats Little white broken boats Of promising pills Sail smoothly down my throat And crash to the pit of my stomach Like the silence of our last goodbye. My ribs are ready to erupt, Will my bones collapse and melt to dust Falling like semi-snowflakes On the tongues of my rotting flesh? I hold your every last word close As my heart beats for another lie, I’d keep every fuming ash of you with me. My skin will stop masking my scars, And the world will let go and slip Into the vicious abyss of my mind As I’m seduced into a deep sleep And dream of only you as I return to shore. - Bonny Tsang
And I wish I hadn’t woken you And had left you sleeping In a world free from torment. - Karen Ni Neill
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12
BUSINESS
editor@collegetribune.ie
COLLEGE TRIBUNE 26th March 2013
The most influential rejected vote Ruairi O’Callaghan
T
he collapse of Lehman Brothers brought the global economy very close to the brink. The decision that was taken to allow the bank to go under has reshaped the landscape of the post Lehman financial system. Focus now turns to a tiny island situated in the Mediterranean which accounts for only 0.2% of Eurozone GDP as the next pivot in the global financial saga. Cyprus’s story is by now a familiar tale of a rapid credit growth, a property bubble and a subsequent fall from grace when the global financial system collapsed in 2008. Cyprus needs a loan of around 17billion from the EU and IMF in order to preserve its banks. However, the country is tasked with raising 5.8billion on its own in order to ‘unlock’ the rest of the bailout package. The reason for this is simply that Cyprus would be unable to take on the level of debt necessary if a full bailout was provided and its needs and resources differ to those of Ireland, Greece, Portugal, and Spain. For this reason, the Cypriot government was forced to look for alternative options… Then came the Lehman moment. In an unprecedented move, it was proposed that the government should raise the necessary funds from the bank accounts of Cypriot depositors by imposing a depositor levy across all deposits regardless of Cypriot deposit insurance or
not; 6.75% on loans of under 100,000 Euro and 9.9% on loans above. The proposal was resoundingly rejected in parliament after a public outpouring. Even the ruling Democratic Rally Party who proposed the levy abstained from voting. The rejection came despite an alteration to protect savers with less than 20,000 in savings. However, the fallout from this rejected vote could be hugely significant to the Eurozone as a whole. Deposit insurance is a vitally important feature of modern banking. It serves investors by giving them the confidence that their money is safe and in a round-about way also protects governments by preventing bank runs from occurring. By undermining this principle, the Cypriots and Eurozone financiers have potentially opened a Pandora’s Box and shattered investor confidence in the entire Eurozone system. If it was proposed for Cyprus, it is now plausible that it could also be proposed and passed for a much larger economy; Italy, for example. Cyprus, on the sixteenth of March set a very dangerous precedent that could potentially undermine one of the key pillars of banking; that confidence is very much dependent on the belief that depositor money is safe. One can of course sympathise to a degree with Cyprus given that the biggest problem for the islands government at present is that
they don’t really have any other options. Russia seems unwilling to provide the necessary assistance and is very unlikely to provide the full 5.8billion. At time of writing, it is unclear whether Cyprus will be the first member state to be forced to leave the Monetary Union, which will carry enormous ramifications of its own, given that the European Monetary Union was designed as an entry only system. Nationalisation of pension funds, capital restrictions, a pooling of state assets and a restructuring of
the levy are the main methods of securing the 5.8billion that is needed currently. Regardless of the outcome of efforts by Cyprus to raise the necessary funding, the scale of the fallout from this rejected vote remains unseen. It could have a very significant impact on the future of the European and global financial system if investors sit up and take notice of it, even if Cyprus does manage to pull itself back from the brink over the coming days.
Cyprus shows how ECB has changed Niall Conroy
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s Ireland has already shown, you don’t need to have a big proportion of euro area GDP to destabilise the currency area. Cyprus is doing a stellar job of reinforcing that point. The Cypriot crisis has evolved as follows, a huge banking sector (over 800% of GDP) has been taking in deposits from Russia, China and others, mainly due to their dubious money laundering procedures. Like any bank that has plenty deposits it lends money out or buys financial assets. While the ordinary loan losses on mortgages and the like have not been extraordinarily high, Cypriot banks were holding Greek government bonds. When Greece defaulted (well restructured anyway) holders of their bonds got less than half of their money back. Bank of Cyprus alone lost €1.3bn on the bonds. This has left the banks unable to meet their obligations and require cash fast. To make a bad job worse the Cypriot Government is struggling to raise funds for its own ongoing deficits (mainly due to uncertainty about the costs of the banking collapse). So the Cypriot banks and Government both need to find funds quickly. Initially, the Cypriot Government went cap in hand to the troika seeking bailout funds which they could then use to recapitalise the banks and to fund ongoing deficits. Essentially this would be the Irish solution, the Government is given huge loans and uses the money to fix the banks. The problem was that to do so the sum of the bailout would be so large (circa €16bn) that the government would inevitably
have to default on its present bondholders (Cypriot GDP is only €19bn). The Troika wouldn’t tolerate another public default and hence said they would only lend a maximum of €10bn and that they would have to find the other €6bn themselves. The alternative would be for the Troika to lend Cyprus the €17bn on the understanding that they would not get fully paid back. This would be considered monetary financing (where a central bank prints/creates money to finance a state) and hence was not considered. So the Cypriots needed to come up with €6bn quickly. The Cypriot banks were unusual in that most of their funding was deposits rather than bonds unlike
the Irish banks, so there was no big pot of gold to be gained from burning bondholders and depositors would have to take a hit. Initially this was to be done by taxing/ levying/extorting bank deposits. 6.75% would be taken from accounts with less than €100,000 and 9.9% from those with over €100,000. This is despite the fact that there is a guarantee of all deposits up to €100,000. This proposal was rejected by the Cypriot parliament and now funds are to be raised through a new solidarity fund. It is important to note however that the ECB was fully supportive, in fact encouraging this action. It is still unclear if the necessary funds will be raised in time.
From an Irish perspective, this crisis reveals a change in stance from the ECB in particular, which it seems insisted that almost all bondholders be paid out in full despite the insolvency of the Irish banks. In the Irish case almost all bondholders and all depositors were paid in full pushing public debt levels to unsustainable levels. However, last week the EU/ ECB/IMF insisted that the state not take all the liabilities of the banks on, as it would lead to unsustainable government debt levels. This is a remarkable change in policy, which could give the Irish government good cause to seek retrospective compensation for the costs incurred ensuring all bondholders and depositors were paid in full.
14 GNÉ - AILT
gaelige@collegetribune.ie
COLLEGE TRIBUNE 26th March 2013
Céard is fiú saol mná? Ciarán Ó Braonáin Scríbhneoir
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háinig mé ar eachtra stairiúil le déanaí a thit amach i Meiriceá aimsir na sclábhaíochta. D'éirigh le lucht polaitíochta thall teacht ar chomhréiteach agus iad ag díospóireacht faoi líon na nionadaithe a bheadh ag na stáit éagsúla. Is éard a bhí i gceist le Comhréiteach na dTrí Chúigiú ná go mbeadh luach trí chúigiú de dhuine geal ar shaol duine ghoirm, agus daonraí na stát á gcomhaireamh acu. Aimsir agus saol eile ar ndóigh, ach chuir sé seo mé ag smaoineamh faoi luachanna na linne seo. Théis dom meon faoi leith a thabhairt faoi deara i gcéin is i gcóngar le míonna beaga anuas, bhí orm an cheist a chur: Céard is fiú saol mná sa domhan seo? Tá na scéalta uafáis cloiste againn go léir maidir le leanaí ban a dhúnmharaítear sa tSín toisc nach buachaillí iad. Is maith is cuimhin linn freisin an bhean óg a cailleadh i nDeilí anuraidh, théis di éigniú droinge foréigneach a fhulaingt. Thug mná na hIndia na sráideanna fúthu an uair sin, ag agóid faoi chontúirt laethúil na n-ionsaithe gnéis ansin. D'iarr siad ar an stát glacadh leis an éigniú mar choir thromchúiseach. D'iarr siad ar an stát go mbeadh luach níos airde curtha ar shaol na mban. Ní bhaineann an t-uafás seo le domhan na bochtaineachta amháin áfach. Tháinig an éagothroime luacha chéanna chun solais le déanaí sa tír is forbartha agus is sibhialta dá bhfuil ann, Stáit Aontaithe Mheiriceá. An mhí seo tháinig cás cúirte chun deiridh in Ohio agus ciontaíodh beirt bhuachaillí, sé agus seacht mbliana déag d'aois, as cailín sé bliana déag d'aois a éigniú. An rud is mó a bhainfí siar asat faoin gcás ná an meon a léiríodh go forleathan i measc na sochaí ansin. Rinne an bheirt fhear óg an cailín seo a thógáil ar cam-
chuairt ó chóisir go cóisir agus í neamhaireachtálach de thoradh óil. Baineadh a héadaí di agus rinneadh rudaí dochreidte gránna di, arís is arís eile, os comhair a comhscoláirí. Níor chuir duine ar bith stop leis, ach a mhalairt ar fad. Tiontaíodh ar Twitter agus ar Facebook agus rinneadh magadh gan trócaire fúithi, grianghraif is físeáin san áireamh. Ba chosúil nach raibh i gcorp na mná seo ach ábhar siamsaíochta. Nuair a scaipeadh sonraí an scéil go forleathan níor tháinig deireadh leis an mbeag is fiú a rinneadh d'fhulaingt an chailín óig, neamhurchóidigh. Rinne roinnt de phobal na háite, Cathair Steubenville, iarracht na buachaillí a chosaint. Peileadóirí maithe ba ea iad, in áit a bhfuil an-tábhacht ag baint le foireann na meánscoile. Ar lá an bhreithiúnais, lean ollstáisiún teilifíse CNN leis an mbeag is fiú. Craoladh caoineadh a d'fhágfadh Eibhlín Dhubh in áit na leathphingine agus na tuairisceoirí ag léiriú comhbhá as cuimse do na buachaillí bochta ag plé gach a bhfuil in ann dóibh. Ba bheag tagairt a rinneadh d'fhulaingt an chailín nó a bhfuil in ann di. Bheifeá ag cur dallamullóg ort féin dá gceapfá nár bhain an meon céanna linne in Éirinn chomh maith. An meon a dhéanann beag is fiú d'ionsaí gnéis is a áiríonn bean mar ábhar sásamh collaí do na fir seachas duine inti féin. Níl mórán idir an té a d'iompaigh ar Twitter le bheith ag spochadh as éigniú cailín in Ohio is an fear as COBÁC a chas ar leathanach 'spotted' Facebook le cur síos is magadh a dhéanamh faoi a ndearna sé ar chailín ón gcoláiste agus í sa leaba aige. Dá mbeadh ar fhir óga Deilí, Steubenville, nó Belfield luach a chur ar bheatha na mban i dtéarmaí bheatha na bhfear, n'fheadar an dtabharfaidís na trí chúigiú dóibh fiú.
Sheol an file Gabriel Rosenstock an iris 'Nua-Aois 2010-2012' le déanaí i UCD. Ag an seoladh, ón gclé, Aoife Uí Fhaoláin, Gabriel Rosenstock, Eagarthóir na hirise Emma Ní Nualláin, agus An tOll. Liam Mac Mathúna
Córas Oideachais, Córas Éadóchais Eoin Ó Cróinín Scríbhneoir
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a daoine atá ar son deireadh a chur leis an nGaeilge éigeantach don Ardteist tá an ceart acu go bhfuil teipthe ar an gcóras oideachais athbheochan a dhéanamh ar an nGaeilge, ach tá siad ag déanamh dearmaid go bhfuil teipthe ar an gcóras oideachais ábhar ar bith a mhúineadh i gceart do thromlach dhaltaí scoile na tíre seo i gcaitheamh na mblianta. Cloistear go minic daoine ag rá nach gcuimhníonn siad ar Ghaeilge ar bith ón scoil i ndiaidh dóibh na blianta fada a chaitheamh léi agus gur cur amú ama a bhí ann dá bharr. Ach ní dóigh liomsa go mbeadh cuimhneamh gléineach ag na daoine céanna ar ábhar ar bith eile a ndearna siad staidéar air ar scoil ach an oiread. Ar cheart deireadh a chur le héigeantas na scoile ar fad, mar sin? De réir loighic na ndaoine seo, ba cheart go mbeidís ag impí ar an rialtas é seo a dhéanamh. B’fhéidir i ngan fhios dóibh féin, dá bhrí sin, tá roinnt mhaith daoine ag baint úsáide as an nGaeilge mar cheap milleáin de bharr easpa éifeachta an chórais oideachais. Na hionsaithe míréasúnta a dhéantar ar an nGaeilge, tá gach cuma ar an scéal go síolraíonn siad ón náire atá ar
dhaoine nach bhfuil éirithe leo an teanga a thabhairt leo i ndiaidh an méid sin ama a chaitheamh i mbun a staidéir. Ach ní mór dóibh scrúdú a dhéanamh ar na fáthanna nár éirigh leo an Ghaeilge a shealbhú: droch-mhodhanna teagaisc, droch-mhúinteoireacht agus siollabais mhí-oiriúnacha mar shampla. Anuas air seo, tá rian den náire iarchoilíneach le brath orthu nuair atáthar ag ceistiú fiúntas na teanga agus ag labhairt go tarcaisniúil fúithi. Baineann an náire iarchoilíneach leis an tuairim gur fearr go mór cultúr agus teanga an choilínigh agus nach bhfuil inár dteanga féin ach teanga íseal gan mhaith a chuireann bac ar dhul chun cinn na tíre. Fiú don Ardteist, is gá do dhaltaí ceithre ábhar ‘roghnach’ a dhéanamh, ach go minic is gá dóibh rogha a dhéanamh idir ábhair nach bhfuil suim ar bith acu iontu in aon chor! Go minic ní roghnaítear ábhair toisc go bhfuil suim ag na daltaí iontu ach toisc go gceaptar gur ábhair éasca iad. In an-chuid scoileanna, níl mórán de rogha ag daltaí ar aon chaoi de cheal múinteoirí. Is institiúid í an scoil a mbaineann éigeantas léi, mar sin, agus níor cheart díriú isteach ar lochtanna
na Gaeilge éigeantaí gan aird a thabhairt ar na hábhair éigeantacha eile agus ar éigeantas na hinstitiúide féin. Sílim go mbraitheann todhchaí na teanga sa chóras oideachais ar an gcineál meoin atá againn maidir le luach an chultúir agus an cineáil sochaí ar mhaith linn a chruthú sa tír. Má tá meas againn orainn féin mar Éireannaigh agus ar an tseoid chultúrtha agus theangeolaíoch atá tagtha anuas chugainn, níl amhras ar bith ach gur cheart do dhaltaí scoile staidéar éigeantach a dhéanamh ar an nGaeilge. Léiríonn an teanga dúinn go bhfuil meon nach Briotánach ann, tugann sé tuiscint níos fearr dúinn ar ár dtír féin agus tugann sé saibhriú cultúrtha dúinn. Cé gurb í ár dteanga féin í, leathnaíonn sí ár naigne agus bíonn níos mó bá againn le mionteangacha agus grúpaí eitneacha eile trína foghlaim. Dá mbeadh samhlaíocht ar bith againn, bheadh sé mar fhís againn sochaí iomlán dhátheangach a chruthú, rud a ligfeadh dúinn teacht i dtír ar bhuntáistí an Bhéarla agus féiniúlacht shainiúil dár gcuid féin a chaomhnú ag an am céanna.
editor@collegetribune.ie
COLLEGE TRIBUNE 26th March 2013
REGULARS
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What is it that university education gives to people? Elizabeth Coote Writer
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he above question has been going around in my head. I made a decision to try to give my own assessment and show what I gained from my University education. The last nine articles which I have written in this paper have been a great honour for me, most of what I have written has been about students and staff past and present, and the memories of these people all of whom I hold close in my heart. What I learned from my own writing for the College Tribune is that writing is hard work; I have also discovered first hand how gifted writers are -that sounds so big-headed so let me be clear I am not including myself in that statement. This article is strictly for the current students studying at UCD who I hope will read this newspaper and be given the insight into the thoughts and experience of a woman who went very late in life to University; because she felt she was lacking the tools which she thought were needed to be seen as a well educated woman. The truth is that many people who do not have that piece of paper which is called a degree do feel that they have missed or lost out on life. I discovered that this is not true and I say to anyone who feels this way to take stock of all that they have achieved with little or no education. However that is not an endorsement from me that you should not get an education and achieve the highest qualifications that you can, rather the opposite: get your education while you are young and use it for your own good and the good of others in society. When I pondered the above question, I came to the conclusion that I had been given a great deal during the process of my studies and it was only when I completed these studies that the realisation came to me what that was. While I was studying it was all about lectures, assignments, exams, constant studying and many times the feeling that there was never enough time to really retain and even understand what this was all about. My constant feeling was of someone who was not good enough and everyone else around me was far cleverer than I was. I did not lack the commitment or the desire to work hard, however I did lack confidence, and for a woman of my age (72) this sounds shocking. The confidence that I lacked, only came when I finished my degree and I had time to look back and see what I had learned and
how hard I had worked and began to realise what University had given to me. It gave me a wonderful feeling of happiness and joy in that I had reached my goal. I had been unaware while studying the vast amount of knowledge I was soaking up. It was a long journey and, I repeat, a great deal of hard work, with some stress and strain, which I discovered is normal for all of us. It is this which spurs us on to do well and finish the course. What the University education gave to me was confidence and a deep respect for those who taught me, all of whom imparted their knowledge to me. The question now is how all of us use this education? I can speak for myself and say that I cannot use it as I would have liked, had I been a younger woman and going into the world seeking employment I would be reaching for the sky. However that does not mean I cannot use it for others in a voluntary way. I am hoping to work with school children, helping them with reading and writing. I cannot speak for my fellow student colleagues on how they will use their education, the majority of who are in the younger bracket. However, I can encourage them to use their education wisely, to get a good career and most important of all to have a good life, always remembering and thanking the people who helped them achieve their ambition of getting their degree. I found one of Abraham Lincoln’s quote’s which I feel is relevant to what I am writing about, “In the end, it is not the years in your life that count, it’s the life in your years” We can take from this quote. In the end it is not the years we studied that count, but what we use our studies for in the years ahead. I hope and pray that all of us will use our University education in a responsible and wise way. It will be a very small percent who may not. We are human and we all have faults, however in my experience, we must be vigilant and keep in mind how easy it is for us to allow position and power go to our heads. When we are given responsibility we must use it wisely and treat people with respect. What ever we achieve in life, we should always remember that many people have supported and helped us
on our journey, we owe them a great deal and one way to pay back is to never to let them down. When you reach the top of the ladder, remember those at the bottom -you may meet them on the way back down. Nothing in this world is guaranteed. Another very astute quote from Lincoln: “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power”. Most of us will meet with adversity at some time in our lives, however it will be when we acquire power that this will be the real test. When given the power of high office, it is how you apply and use that power which will count. Whether that is being appointed to a higher position in a Shop, Factory, University, Union, Government, President, Pope, it will be a testing time. With higher office comes huge responsibility for yourself and for those who are working for you and with you, it will be of the utmost importance for them to be given respect and the example of good leadership. You must show fairness, respect, justice and above all never be drawn into anything that will destroy the trust which has been given when appointed to high office. I found that by giving trust and fairness to my staff, the reward was a happy permanent staff and student staff; I was sur-
The truth is that many people who do not have that piece of paper which is called a degree do feel that they have missed or lost out on life.
rounded by good workers,( as in all walks of life there were a few exceptions) the majority did give 100%. Education is fantastic but it must be part of a bigger picture, which in my opinion, whether rich or poor, educated or not, we are all human, warts and all, we all need each other. Hold on to the thought, high office is wonderful but it carries great responsibility. It is when this is forgotten we see chaos, and the power given becomes corrupt. My father had a saying ‘an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay’ try to keep that in your thoughts, never let power go to your head. We are all workers, earning our daily bread, whether we are sweeping the streets or running the biggest business in the world, or dare I say it, President of our own University College Dublin. I wish each and every one of you great success and happiness, I will be thinking of you in the coming weeks and months as your exams come closer. During the time I was working for S.U. I had a Mass said for all students but my main prayers were always for 1st years, so be assured that I will do the same this year. My favourite church is in John’s Lane, Thomas Street, Dublin City, it will be in that special place that I will kneel and pray for all of you, no matter what faith you hold, you are all special to me. The students of U.C.D. have been part of my life over many years and the bond will never be broken. Have a good holiday, Happy Easter to one and all.
It’s Satire, STUPID!
INSIDE " Blind woman gets kidney from Dad she hasn't seen in years" " Iraqi head seeks arms" " Safety experts say school bus passengers should be belted" " Kids make nutritious snacks" " Piano falls down mineshaft leaving A flat minor"
" Man with open mind loses brain"
" Ryaniar impose new oxygen tax"
On the University: a modest proposal
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nce again, the UCD ruling regime under Chairman Brady has flown to meet their political counterparts in the “Peoples” Republic of China. This time however, their convoy of casual collaboration with authoritarian regimes that happen to have a tonne of cash was lead by none other than our very own lying Labour louse, Chairman Quinn, head of the not so Peoples Republic of Irelands Ministry of Education. In a show of outstanding sycophancy the two men of meagre repute attempted to outdo one another in speeches aimed at finding out who could produce the most stomach churning display of gratuitous adoration of the Asian economic powerhouse. We at the Turbine applaud their efforts, as did the carefully selected crowd we are sure. Both the government and university representative done well in their clever avoidance of the tricky issues of academic freedom and those pesky human rights violations that just don’t seem to be going away. Like the Brady-Quinn brothers, we too feel that this collaboration is a wonderful opportunity for both
the government and the university to learn from the Chinese regime. Take for instance the growing numbers of protests that have been taking place around the country of late. The lurid lot of Lefties behind them are giving the country a bad name. People looking at Ireland are beginning to think that the people actually care about political issues and that the rabble want their voices heard – God forbid they start coming out with crazy demands like real democracy and egalitarian economic policies. We need to crack down on these people. Lets take the Chinese model – one that has proven to work – send the troops in and arrest and imprison suspected leaders of the dissidents. Surely this is the direction that any self-respecting western government should move towards? If the State doesn’t crack down on the great unwashed who knows what they’ll get up to. Likewise in the university, we appeal to the strong-men of Tierney to stand up and learn from their new international partners. Admittedly, our dear leaders have been doing a good job so far – they’ve managed to tame the Students’ Union, keep-
ing it firmly in their pocket through financial bailouts and promises of a Ball. They’ve also shown themselves masters of preventing our libraries from being flooded with new books that might encourage dangerous ideas and dissident behaviour in students and staff, but they could be doing so much more. For instance, why don’t they take a tougher line with academics? Surely those with the audacity to question the dear leader and his glorious regime should be stripped of their positions and flung out onto the N11. Unless the treacherous academia are kept in check with a firm hand and an iron fist there’s no knowing what they might do. It might begin with a lecture, a paper in a peer review journal, and before
you know it there’s anarchy in the halls of Belfield. We say again, keep them in check. The last thing any self-respecting university wants is to give a free reign to its staff. If they demand their academic freedom or tenure be respected, hit them over the head with a stick. It’s as simple as that. If they don’t want to change their contracts, take away their contracts. See how they like working around the clock producing pamphlets on the greatness of the institution. With the implementation of these simple changes in the administration of the State and the university we could all live in a much happier society. Those who aren’t happy would simply be shot.
sport@collegetribune.ie
COLLEGE TRIBUNE 26th March 2013
SPORT
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UCD Coach pivotal to surprise green light for black card Conall Devlin Sports Editor
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CD Assistant Coach and Football Review Committee (FRC) member Tim Healy was a persuasive voice backing the black card proposals to confront cynical play in Gaelic Football in last week’s GAA Congress in Derry. It had been predicted that the proposals drawn up by the FRC would fail to win sufficient support, as they required a two-thirds majority. But a powerful final sales pitch from the floor, including the Bray Businessman and former player, Proved decisive and after a tense wait the electronic voting system showed 70.82% in favour. The black card sanction, which will come into effect from January 1, 2014, was the biggest sell from the FRC out of a series of other proposals which were put forward for review, including the mark, a 30 metre penalty for delaying frees and clean pick ups. It had faced increasing opposition in recent days, with most Munster and Ulster counties revealing they were going to oppose the reforms. FRC Chair-
man Eugene McGee spoke of his relief after the outcome. “It will be a landmark decision because it will show the world that the Association is concerned about the quality of football. It will show we mean business”. A new category of infractions will be added to the Official Guide to be classified as cynical behaviour and will be punished by a black card. Offences include deliberately tripping an opponent by hand, leg or foot, deliberately colliding with an opponent after he has played the ball away to take him out of the play, threatening abusive or provocative language or gestures to an opponent or a teammate, and remonstrating in an aggressive manner with a match official. The number of subs allowed will be increased to six to facilitate the rule change. The first three players sent off on a black card can be replaced. It was with vehement passion and multiple motive addresses that the momentum of this rule change swung from opposition to favour-
ing the proposal, with an estimated 100 voters undecided heading into the Congress’ final session. Only two speakers spoke out against the black card motions, one from Cork and one from Tyrone. A concern highlighted was that the proposals might encourage more cynicism with teams trying to manipulate the black card system and get players sent off. But the protests were lost in a sea of speeches led by Healy. He stressed that every motion had been discussed in detail with referees and they were assured that their introduction would make refereeing less taxing. “There is something for the skilful county player who deserves better than cynical treatment. They’re not earth-shattering or very radical; we believe they are a practical and logical response. We urge you to stand up for the future of Gaelic Football to make our great game even better”. The ruling is set to rectify an omnipresent trait of deliberate fouling at Inter-county level, in some cases it being the cornerstone to a team’s
combative defensive strategy. As Paul Earley argued, “Managers say the yellow card system is fine- does the current system which allows 30 different players to pick up a yellow card and stay on the pitch, does that help to reduce, or encourage and support, cynical play? The current sanctions are proving to be no deterrent. We will make it unprofitable and see these fouls greatly reduced and eventually eliminated”. And vociferous European delegate Tony Bass added, “The black card
will punish the thugs, the cheats, the hypocritical managers who stand on the sideline and say “take him out”.” On a good day for Gaelic Football, talent will now be freer to shine and flourish. Another agreement passed at Congress was the delegates voting for Croke Park and other GAA stadia to be made available for the IRFU bid to host the 2023 or 2027 Rugby World Cup, a decision welcomed by the Government.
Three out of four for UCD in Colours Boat Race UCD Sports Writers
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here was spectacle and even some controversy, but in the end UCD repeated last year’s fine result by taking three of the four titles on offer at the Colours Races in Dublin City Centre on Saturday March 16th . Only the first race of the day, the women’s novice crown, went to Trinity on a day of excellent conditions and colourful crowd support on the eight bridges of the course from O’Connell Bridge to St James’s Gate. UCD had a stunning start in the Gannon Cup for men’s senior eights. Their big crew, rowing on the generally less favoured south station, led by a canvas by the Ha’penny Bridge. By the time the crews passed the Four Courts, UCD had a clearwater advantage and the eventual verdict was “easily”. Offaly man Dave Neale beamed afterwards – he had become the record-breaker in this event, with six Gannon Cup titles. In the best battle of the day, the women’s senior eights race for the Corcoran Cup, UCD also got a great start off the south station, but each time they tried to extend their lead to a length or more Trinity bit back. One of Trinity’s big pushes came in front of the Four Courts as they clawed their way up the UCD boat about a quarter of a length, but the admirably composed UCD women
were rock solid in their execution and held on to win by half a length. The women’s novice eight was a straightforward win for Trinity, but the men’s equivalent was packed full of incident. Trinity had a spectacular crash into the wall after coming through Watling Street Bridge, the final one on the course, and UCD, who were already leading, crossed the line as winners. The Trinity cox, Ciara Sheehan, explained that the wire controlling her steering had snapped. UCD had earlier taken the unmarked south arch on Winetavern Street Bridge, prompting a Trinity complaint, but race umpire Leo Gibson said he had told UCD to take this line to avoid an underwater object. Crews: UCD Moorehead Crew (Novice Ladies): Stroke ;Rebecca Lait 7: Paula Campbell 6: Meadhbh Ní Chléirigh 5: Emma Ní Néill 4: Michelle McCourt 3: Breanna Larsen 2: Eva Nugent Bow: Laura Ryan Cox: Shauna Fitzsimons TCD Moorehead Crew:Cox Kirsty Patterson Stroke Claire buttanshaw 7 laura daly 6 Sarah Healy 5 dearbhla Moore 4 Eimear duff 3 Emily ranson 2 Emily Jordan Bow laura McKay UCD Corcoran Cup (Ladies Senior Race)Str: Bronwyn Lait (4th Colours)7: Aoife Gilligan (2nd Colours)6: Grace Collins (2nd Colours)5: Claire Ní Reachtagáin (3rd
Colours)4: Siofra Bennett (4th Colours)3: Orla Finnegan (1st Colours)2: Karen Joy (2nd Colours) Bow: Aoife O’Riordan (1st Colours) Cox: Ciara McGowan (2nd Colours) TCD LBC Corcoran Cup; Cox: Niamh Williams Stroke: Ruth Morris7: Georgia Richard6: Katie Phelan5: Susannah Cass4: Rebecca Deasy3: Keira Buttanshaw2: Sinead RodgerBow: Gill Crowe UCDBC Gannon Cup Crew (Senior Men):Cox: Kirsten Joyce (1st colours)S: Peter Grogan (3rd colours)7: Gearoid Duane(3rd colours)6: Joseph Nihotte (1st colours)5: David Neale (6th colours)4: Adrian Sheehan (1st colours)3: Liam McCarthy (1st colours)2: Michael Bailey (1st colours)B: Patrick Moore (1st colours) DUBC Gannon Cup Crew (Novice Men) Cox: Clementine YostS: Matt Brophy7: Will Hurley6: Paul Flaherty5: Dillon Rooney4: Eoin McCarthy3: Aidan Harwood2: Luke AchesonB: Patrick Jacques UCDBC Dan Quinn Shield Crew:Cox: Lucy-Anne O’SullivanS: James Ryan7: Robert Jones6: Cian Keogh5: Seamus Kennedy4: Eochy O’Connor3: Joseph Bollard2: Sam McDonaldB: Daniel Craven DUBC Dan Quinn Shield CrewCox: Ciara SheehanS: Michael Corcoran7: Alex Rumball6: Fiachra Maguire5: Louis Mahon4: Niall Twaddell3: Brian MacAnnraoi2: Patrick MoreauB: Alex Leslie
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COLLEGE TRIBUNE 26th March 2013
Stalemate in Stockholm Amy Eustace reviews Ireland’s scoreless World Cup qualifying draw with Sweden
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nother Ireland match, another circus surrounding Giovanni Trapattoni’s man management skills…is it just me, or has the international break become all too repetitive? One minute, the Italian is dropping Kevin Doyle by text message; the next, he’s suggesting that Robbie Brady might be psychologically unfit to play and branding James McCarthy ‘uncreative’; Ireland’s World Cup 2014 qualifying campaign has been to date more notable for Trap’s collection of controversies than any outstanding performances. Glenn Whelan and Paul Green were preferred to popular choices, Hoolahan and McCarthy, in the manager’s initial starting XI, but a hamstring injury to Whelan bumped the latter into contention. Brady, who had been named in Trap’s original plans, was demoted to the bench in favour of Stoke’s Jonathan Walters. The decision over Brady prompted media uproar, particularly with respect to Trapattoni’s earlier comments over his psychological condition. Later, the manager would clarify his remarks as being intended to ‘motivate’ the young winger and criticised the press for twisting his words.
Whatever Trap meant, his critics - whose ranks seem to swell with each passing gaffe – were quick to jump on the offensive in the build up to Friday’s qualifier. No doubt had his Irish outfit lost in Stockholm on Friday night, the pressure cooker would come to a boil and his head would be firmly on the chopping board. Luckily for the manager, however, a respectable Irish performance earned them a respectable point in the Swedish capital, keeping the naysayers at bay for the time being. Standout performances from David Forde and James McCarthy were the major talking points in what could very well have been an away win after a flurry of chances for Ireland in the first half went begging. Walters couldn’t find the target with a header in the opening few minutes, while Robbie Keane failed to connect a volley under no pressure in the Swedish box and Long fired over the bar from 16 yards out shortly after. McCarthy was calm and collected in midfield, undermining Trap’s assessment of his supposed lack of creativity with a number of visionary passes that his teammates simply failed to make count. Sweden grew into the game, al-
though not as much as one would expect a team on home soil to settle, and Ireland’s chances grew more infrequent. Generally speaking, the Swedes were shaky across the park. The famed Zlatan Ibrahimovic failed to make any real impact and their defence suffered a few scares, in stark contrast to an assured performance by an Irish back four of John O’Shea, Ciarán Clark, Marc Wilson and Séamus
Coleman. When Sweden did break the back line, David Forde was on hand to clear up, showing decisiveness and speed off his line. Hoolahan, Andy Keogh and Conor Sammon all made late cameos, but they couldn’t influence the scoreline and the game ended nil-all. Most Irish fans would have gladly accepted a draw going into Friday’s match. Sweden, seen as our main competitor for the second
place spot in the table with Germany running away with first, were expected to be tricky. On the day, however, the Swedes were listless and rather than one point won, it was more a case of two points lost. Nonetheless, the draw very much keeps Ireland in the running for qualification. The outlook will be clearer after Tuesday’s tie with Austria in Dublin. Kevin Doyle has already been recalled to the squad (the FAI press release insisted Trapattoni had ‘spoken’ to the player, so we can be sure he didn’t receive the news by carrier pigeon) after Robbie Keane was ruled out due to injury, while Glenn Whelan has yet to return to training, suggesting that once again Trapattoni will decide between Hoolahan, Green and McCarthy for the coveted central midfield spots. Having (comically) compared Green to Gennaro Gattuso this week, it’s likely that Trap sees him as one of the first names on the teamsheet. Indeed, he will almost certainly stick to the starting line-up that served him so well in Stockholm; the real question is whether out-of-favour Doyle will step straight into Keane’s shoes, or will former UCD AFC striker Conor Sammon get the nod? Kick-off at the Aviva Stadium is 19:45 on Tuesday, March 26th.
Finn hoping to challenge for Basketball Intervarsities crown Conall Devlin Sports Editor
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CD Intervarsities captain Cathal Finn feels his team are shaping up nicely ahead of next weekend’s Basketball Intervarsities in UCC. Beaten finalists to UUJ last year, UCD will hope to reclaim the trophy they won in 2011 when they hosted the tournament. The roster has changed sizeably since then, with only two of this year’s team having played UCD Marian Superleague Basketball experience, however Finn has faith in players coming in. “We have a lot of guys that have inter-varsities experience which is important but there are also a few new players that are strong. We should be competitive and hope to challenge for the title again.” Losing to underdogs UUJ at the final hurdle last year is an experience Finn wants his team to have in the back of their minds heading into the weekend. “We feel we let one slip away to UUJ last year; especially since we had beaten them in the group stages. That loss does
motivate us to try and win back the trophy that we won in 2011. A good portion of the team will not have won a varsity before and will be eager to get a gold medal when the tournament comes around.” UCC beat UUJ in the Colleges League final before Christmas, a competition UCD didn’t enter into. Finn isn’t concerned however that competing colleges are at an advantage with the added game time, and believes coach Kevin Foley’s experience will be imperative to their success. “Our guys will have all played with one another or against each other at some point in the last few years so we should be able to gel quickly enough. Our coach Kev will be aware of what players have played together a lot and will make sure to keep those combinations on the floor together. In the past we haven't had any trouble with unfamiliarity anyway.” UUJ, having retained most of their team from last year, and added two new American recruits
Matt Graves and Jim Mower, are considered contenders by the UCD guard again this year. However he also is wary of the threat NUIG possess. “They both have players who did well in the National League this season and I think UUJ will be hungry to retain the Cup.” UCD will fancy their chances of advancing to the knock out stages top of their group having been paired in Pool 2 against IT Blanchardstown, UL and IT Carlow, while Pool 1 pairs UUJ, Cork IT, Dublin Business School and NUIG. In the Women’s meanwhile, Basketball Ireland Competitions Officer Conor Lilly believes UCD would be considered outsiders to go the whole way this year, with UL and NUIG the teams to watch. UCD have been paired in Pool 2 with UL, NUIG and Waterford IT, while Pool 1 DCU, Trinity, UCC and Queens going head to head. The Intervarsities will be held on the 12th-14th April.
sport@collegetribune.ie
COLLEGE TRIBUNE 26th March 2013
Harte hails success
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UCD out in the cold Thomas Hobbs
UCD Sports Writers ohnny Harte hailed the strength in depth of his UCD panel as they confirmed backto-back Leinster women’s division one titles with a facile 4-0 win over Trinity at Belfield. The result put them out of range of Loreto and Railway Union – who tied 1-1 with Old Alex on the night – and repeat their success of 12 months ago to claim the title for just the second time. Katie Mullan and Nikki Evans both struck inside ten minutes before Jeamie Deacon swept in a simple switch right move for a comfortable 3-0 advantage, meaning Trinity would have to double their seasonal goal tally to deny their varsity rivals. It was never likely and though College’s accuracy was off course, spurning a glut of chances, they closed out the campaign with a classy fourth goal. Sarah Greene provided the right wing slap to Mullan who finished in style. Speaking afterwards, Harte told The Hook that the challenges the international calendar posed made for a tricky campaign, one in which he scarcely saw his star players until a month into the campaign. But during their second bout of absences for training camps and the World League in Spain, they truly came up trumps, especially
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Sports Writer
in the games against Hermes and Loreto. “Those games were massive. Before the games against North Kildare, we said we had used 31 different players throughout the season and they’ve all played their part. “We had to fight really hard to get our 1-0 win over Loreto which was magic. We were missing quite a few and it was a classic cup final style win; the opposition had way more chances and we really only had one or two. “The 1-1 against Hermes also felt like a win … a bit like how the 4-4 draw against Railway felt like a defeat.” And Harte will be hoping his side can now push for national honours, starting with next weekend’s Irish Senior Cup semi-final date with Ballymoney before the rapid-fire Irish Hockey League tips off. Trinity are set for a playoff date with Genesis, initially penciled in for the first weekend in April. At Milltown, Hannah McDermott’s early goal looked set to have given Old Alex hope of avoiding the wildcard playoff as they nudged ahead of Railway Union. Mick McKinnon’s side threw everything at them in the second half, Kate Lloyd and Jean McDonnell weaving paths into the circle on numerous occasions.
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But Sarah Canning put in a string of key interventions while Pam Smithwick denied a number of efforts and other balls flashed across the face of goal. That was until the last play of the game when Railway won a corner. The initial straight hit was miscued but it bounced kindly into the path of injector Alex Speers who cracked home from close range. It lifts Railway to second on their own but they await Loreto’s outcome against Hermes to see if that sticks while Alex are wildcard bound. Women’s Leinster Division One results: UCD 4 (Katie Mullan 2, Nikki Evans, Jeamie Deacon) Trinity 0; Old Alex 1 (Hannah McDermott) Railway Union 1 (Alex Speers)
McLaughlin needed not produce a single UCD yellow card was telling, although the hesitance could be down to two UCD players having already received sending-offs at this early stage in the season. The match continued after the break in much the same vein, with both sides seemingly content to maintain possession before attempting killer passes, testing the consistency of the respective defensive units. UCD forward David McMillan found himself increasingly isolated having threatened in the first half. With a half an hour to run, the introduction of Samir Belhout livened things up for UCD down the left flank but it would be the Lilywhites who came closest to going in front as Faherty nearly capitalised on Mark McGinley’s fumbling of a long-range attempt. Dundalk were looking increasingly dangerous with this writer’s man-ofthe-match, right-back Mark Rossiter, causing problems for the UCD defence. Five minutes later, Robbie Creevy beat Richie Towell to the ball to foil Dundalk once again but it was clear at this stage that the Students were the very much the object of domination. Stephen Kenny will thank substitute Tiarnan Mulvenna for making the
Dundalk boss look very wise indeed as he made the breakthrough in the 76th minute, 60 seconds after coming on to the pitch. Belfast-born Mulvenna turned the impressive David O’Connor inside before majestically lobbing the outcoming Mark McGinley from the edge of the box in a moment of extreme composure. The Students’ heads did not drop but they found their spirits winded five minutes later as the ball fell kindly for John Dillon in a packed UCD box. There was surprisingly ample time for the Englishman to smash the ball home from 10 yards for 0-2. A spectacular 30 yard free kick from Gareth Matthews proved merely a consolation for UCD as Dundalk claimed all three points. Peter Cherrie saw yellow for his time-wasting efforts after the concession of the goal and his team mates would slate Richie Towell after the last play of the game when Towell took on an ambitious attempt on the UCD goal rather than taking the ball to the corner. UCD did not roll over at any point in the game and this was a performance from which Martin Russell can draw some optimism. The result might have gone for the Students with some luck but with four defeats from four any upturn in fortunes will necessitate a sizable boost in the side’s willingness to scrap.
The showcase of the immortals Harry Moylan gives the lowdown of one of the highlights of the ‘sporting’ calendar, Wrestlemania
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n the 7th of April, the 29th annual Wrestlemania will take place in the MetLife Stadium, New Jersey. Most readers will remember the WWE for its ‘Attitude Era’ from 1997 to 2002, where superstars such as Stone Cold Steve Austin wowed us with their edgy and controversial character driven storylines. Looking at the stand out matches on the 2013 card, it’s becoming increasingly evident that WWE is somewhat reliant on a nostalgic appeal to increase its payper-view sales. In a repeat of last year’s main event, bonafide Hollywood movie star/WWE part timer, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson will go one on one with the divisive character of John Cena. The rematch has received criticism in some quarters due to last year’s version being (now comically) dubbed “Once in a Lifetime”. The WWE has come under further heat for installing The Rock as its current WWE champion. Due to his busy movie schedule, The Rock has only been appearing sporadically on WWE television. Fans argue that the Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (the worst in-
flight movie I have ever watched) star’s inability to show up regularly on WWE’s flagship show, Monday Night RAW, removes prestige from the championship belt itself. In an attempt to add an additional layer of drama to the already highly charged showdown, Cena’s real life divorce is being pushed in promotional videos as an example of how the leader of Cenation’s life went into a downward spiral after his defeat last year. Perhaps the most eagerly anticipated match on the card is the legendary Undertaker’s annual Wrestlemania match against indie circuit turned mainstream star, CM Punk. The Undertaker remains unbeaten in 20 Wrestlemania matches, and at age 47, one cannot help but feel this will be one of his last appearances. This match has coincided with the untimely passing of the Undertaker’s once manager/kayfabe (google it) stepfather, Paul Bearer – a small, rotund man who used to follow the Undertaker around with a golden urn screaming “Ooooh yeeeesss!!!”. The WWE, never likely to miss the opportunity to capitalize on
current events, has worked this into the storyline with CM Punk finding various ways to disrespect the memory of The Undertaker’s mentor. In another example of the WWE’s reliance on its past, an aging Triple H, who now has a buzz cut, will face off against wrestler-turned MMA fighter-turned wrestler-again Brock Lesnar, accompanied by his personal mouthpiece Paul Heyman of ECW fame. In recent months Lesnar has kayfabe (seriously, google it) broken the arms of both Triple H and Shawn Michaels, and the hip of Triple H’s fatherin-law and WWE chairman, Vince McMahon. Triple H will attempt to gain revenge for these actions but if he loses (pause for dramatic effect) he has agreed to retire from in ring competition…indefinitely (gasp). In the final match of note, World Heavyweight champion, Alberto Del Rio, takes on the newly repackaged Jack Swagger, accompanied by his xenophobic Vietnam veteran manager, Zeb Colter. Colter condemns immigrants like Del Rio and demands they leave America to ‘Real Americans’ like Jack
Swagger. Amusingly, conservative Fox news political commentator and general whack job, Glenn Beck, recently took this ridiculous character seriously and condemned the WWE on his radio show. The WWE responded by inviting him to RAW for a live 15-minute debate, which Beck declined, denying us of a potentially golden television moment. Wrestlemania is the epitome of human spirit and the embodiment
of the American dream. Some wrestlers have described a match at Wrestlemania as “free-falling from a plane for 20 minutes” and others have refused to rule out it one day being broadcast from the moon. This writer asks where will you be on April 7th? Roll on Wrestlemania, roll on “Once in a Lifetime…. again”. It was that or “Twice in a Lifetime”. I couldn’t pick.
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TRIBUNE
COLLEGE TRIBUNE
SPORT
26th March 2013
The showcase of the PAGE 19 immortals INSIDE TRIBUNE SPORT
Finn hoping to challenge for Basketball Intervarsities crown
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Amy Eustace reviews Ireland’s scoreless World Cup qualifying draw with Sweden
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PLUS Harte hails 31 heroines in UCD title success
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Above: Dundalk left it late to record victory over UCD as goals from Tiarnan Mulvenna and John Dillon extended the Students' losing streak
UCD out in the cold Thomas Hobbs Sports Writer
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he chilly reception received by former UCD stars Andy Boyle and Keith Ward failed to distract the Lilywhites from grabbing all three points at the Belfield Bowl on Saturday. Equally chilly but conducive playing conditions failed to inspire as this clash proved one of defensive resoluteness, largely uneventful for 70 minutes. Martin Russell’s UCD, coming into the game on the back of three defeats in their opening three
fixtures including a 0-6 drubbing at the hands of Derry City, were predictably tentative but keen to play football while the seemingly attacking 4-3-3 formation of Dundalk frequently reverted to a 4-5-1 making for a relatively cagey affair. With the highly reputed former Shamrock Rovers boss Stephen Kenny at the helm, Dundalk, through a fresh brand of passing football, have set about proving themselves a force with which to be reckoned in the early stages of the Airtricity League after narrowly avoiding relegation last term.
In a first half which saw the Students come out marginally on top, the match was starved of goalmouth action thanks to the failure of diagonal long ball tactics employed by both sides. Dundalk number ten, Keith Ward, threatened down the left flank on occasion but was dealt with competently by UCD full back Gareth Matthews. Ward and fellow front men Vinny Faherty and Kurtis Byrne were effectively bystanders as Dundalk tried to bypass the Students’ defensive line with an extended period of aerial bombardment; a threat confidently neutralised by centre halves
Hughie Douglas and captain David O’Connor. It was UCD who produced the most clear cut chance of the opening skirmishes. Dinny Corcoran completed the hard part, holding off Andy Boyle having been put through by Barry McCabe. Unfortunately, Corcoran scuffed his right footed effort which was saved by the foot of Dundalk goalkeeper Peter Cherrie, whose bravery throughout the game was admirable. A last ditch interception from O’Connor prevented Vinny Faherty from breaking the deadlock from a
John Dillon cross ten minutes later before Gareth Matthews’ perfectly timed sliding challenge on Kurtis Byrne in the dying embers of the half ensured that that teams went into the break at 0-0 after a dull opening half. The Students could not be faulted for lack of composure in buildup movements and defensive organisation but were not producing the fighting mentality demanded of a team without a point three games into the league season. Perhaps the fact that referee Paul Continued on Pg 19