The College View - Issue 7 -Vol XVIII by The College View

thecollegeview. Wednesday, 22 February, 2017

www.thecollegeview.com Vol. XVIII, Issue 7

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Bank of Ireland come in for criticism on new “FOMO” loan deal The deal was advertised as an instant method for students to obtain funds by simply sending a text message. “FOMO” (fear of missing out) received backlash from academics and lecturers within DCU for its irresponsible message.

Aaron Gallagher Editor-In-Chief @AaronGallagher8

A former Church of Ireland College

Hayley Halpin News Editor @HayleyHalpin1

THE DCU branch of Bank of Ire-

land have come in for criticism following the launch of their FOMO (fear of missing out) deal, which offers students a €100 interest free loan. The campaign, which was launched at the DCU branch on February 6th, was received with heavy criticism from DCU staff and has since been postponed. Bank of Ireland sent an email to the DCU undergraduate, postgraduate and staff mailing lists, outlining what the loan deal entailed, on February 3rd. The email read: “FOMO is the free €100 loan for students, which is exclusively on trial here in our DCU branch. This is an offer for students to sign up for free, simply text FOMO and get up to €100 free loan into their accounts so that they don’t miss out on some of the biggest events on campus. “The catch? There is none really. Students have up to 6 weeks to repay this loan interest fee. Miss the 6 week deadline and you will face a loan repayment charge of €12.” Students’ Union president Dylan Kehoe monitors the undergraduate mailing list and prevented this email from going forward to the list. However, he does not monitor the postgraduate list and said students received the email. A promotional team launched the deal outside the branch on Feb-

News

DCU student to run for USI Officer Board position

DCU President Professor Brian MacCraith alongside four time All-Ireland winner and Dublin Senior Football captain Stephen Cluxton at the inaugural Alumni Awards

ruary 3rd. Numerous DCU lecturers began to reply to the email with criticism of the deal, expressing concern over the ease of access to the loan. Professor Anthony Staines wrote: “My take is that this marketing campaign is specifically encouraging students to borrow money to fund their social lives. I can see the benefits for the bank, but I am at a loss to see the benefits for students.” Staines later reaffirmed his stance while speaking to The College View: “When I saw the letter that the bank sent out, I thought it was just sending completely the wrong message. Borrow money, that’s fine but you don’t borrow money to go to a party. That’s just stupid.”

Sport

Former CICE lecturer reveals mistreatment of staff following Incorporation

Sinead Kane: Seven continents and a journey across the globe 17

Another DCU lecturer who wishes to remain anonymous wrote about similar cases she saw in Spain. “There were a lot of TV advertisements done by moneylender or pawnbroker companies in a way that seemed a great deal in terms of lending you money in less that 24 hours … A lot of desperate people in Spain have lost everything (their homes, etc.) because of these moneylenders,” she said. Two further promotional launch dates which were due to take place on Tuesday, February 7th and Thursday, February 9th, were subsequently postponed. The DCU branch manager was “not in a position to comment on the matter”. When asked by The College

Opinion

Facing Ireland’s drug problem: injection facilities 9

View to provide a statement, Naomi Keating of Bank of Ireland Group Communications wrote: “A mobile technology trial run by Bank of Ireland with customers in DCU featured a non-interest bearing loan with a maximum draw-down limit of €100. There are no fees or charges for using the service and no late repayment charges, and the trial does not affect a customer’s credit rating.” “We are not currently processing registrations,” she said. They would not clarify why the bank is no longer processing registrations, stating that they “have nothing further to add to the statement.” It has not been announced whether the FOMO deal will be relaunched.

of Further Education (CICE) lecturer has spoken in detail to The College View about the difficult circumstances they and colleagues have endured over the last year, following the closure of the college’s premises in Rathmines and its subsequent amalgamation into DCU. Protests took place last month outside the college’s former premises over issues raised by the CICE Staff Support Group which include termination of programmes, lack of notice as to the college’s closure, uncertainty over contract hours and the elimination of autonomy and professional benefits for full and part-time academic staff. The lecturer, who maintained their right to anonymity over fears of being singled out for retribution, said the demonstrations could signal “just the beginning” if resolutions are not quickly identified, noting that the group’s anger lies with the idle mismanagement of the CICE Board of Governors, headed by Archbishop Michael Jackson. “We were protesting for a number of reasons”, the lecturer, who is now a DCU staff member, said. “We were protesting against the speedy closure of the college, which was humiliating. A lot of staff were discommoded and they were moved out of their office within 24 hours. Some didn’t even have codes to get back in. “I had to come back a week early from my holidays just to clear out my office because we were given such short notice. It was very humiliating for everyone concerned. We had a lot of issues with the college management, the chairperson of the Board of Governors and the governors themselves. Continued on page 3

Features

Gaeilge

Student nurses shoulder a great burden 13

Príomhchathracha – An-Athruithe agus a Stair 12

Editorial INSIDE

AARON GALLAGHER

Arts Sussed: Album of the year preview Read more on page 2

Lifestyle The Big Interview Read more on page 6

Editorial & Letters

Loser, winner: SU, where’s my chicken dinner? Read more on page 8

Editorial Team Editor-in-Chief: Aaron Gallagher Deputy Editor: Aidan Geraghty

Video Editor: Leanne Hanafin Deputy Video Editor: Ciara Moran

Production & Layout Editor: Scout Mitchell Deputy Production & Layout Editor: Hannah Kelly Production Assistant: Daniel Troy, Amy Lawlor & Barry O’Sullivan

Illustrators: Laura Duffy, Zoe Ryan

Opinion Editor: Shirley Donlon

Contacts

Lifestyle Editor: Amy Lawlor Deputy Lifestyle Editor: Michelle Martin

editor@thecollegeview.com

Features Editor:Shauna Bowers Deputy Features Editor:Orla O’Driscoll

features@thecollegeview.com

Irish Editor:Cal Ó Donnabháin Deputy Irish Editor: Áine Marie Monk

gaeilge@thecollegeview.com

Chief Sub-Editor: Bríon Hoban

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

ometimes something as insignificant as a chicken goujon can remind you how small DCU really is. The reduction in the coveted meal in NuBar from five pieces of chicken to four caused more national headlines than anything else that happened in the college over the last two weeks. In that time DCU athletes set five new indoor club records at the IUAA championships, a DCU researcher commenced a groundbreaking new study examining DNA changes in patients with pancreatic cancer cells, while the college also won the Top Performing Trader Trophy at the very first All Ireland Student Trader Challenge, as well as the Harding Cup in football. None of these achievements graced any major national headlines. But let’s not kid ourselves in pretending meaning and substance ever equated to online tracktion, hits, clicks and overall popularity. This is chicken we are talking about here. The goujon debacle was a curious case and a lesson in the art of public relations, spin, and traditional Irish political discourse. We all know the story of the local Irish politician who promises to fix the potholes on Main Street in exchange for your vote on election day — ignoring any issues of substance and concern such as the increase in crime rates and drug usage among teenagers. Well, in our case SU President Dylan Kehoe was the politician and the potholes are chicken goujons. Well Mr. Kehoe promised to #bringbackourgoujan, and he did — kind of. But while our SU leaders were putting more effort and publicity into campaigning for a chicken finger than anything else so far this academic year, were other issues not sidelined and ignored as a result? But what issues? DCU is grand sure. Afraid not. You see, the Incorporation Programme which promised to herald a new era of teacher training in Ireland has caused a few issues. The main one being that just 20% of DCU stu-

dents feel it has had a positive impact on their lives. For the rest, 29% said it had made no impact, while a whopping 51% said it had had a negative impact on them. Let’s delve deeper. For that 51%, the negatives have been: loss of identity, loss of clubs & societies, termination and restructuring of programmes which may affect their degree, multi-campus lectures, loss of college atmosphere and a general sense of confusion and panic. Now maybe we are being overly cynical here. Have you tasted the goujons in NuBar? They’re terrific. But are they more important than bringing the above issues to the attention of the university? Issues which could put someone’s actual degree and post-college career at risk. After all, it is the Students’ Union, right? And this of all years means the office bears a tremendous more amount of responsibility, because there are now 16,000 students in DCU. St. Pat’s students are DCU students, CICE students are DCU students, Mater Dei students are DCU students. Have they been properly represented? What are they to think of an SU which campaigns harder for chicken goujons than it does for the grievances which have been forced upon them as a result of an amalgamation they did not give consent to. But again, maybe we are being too cynical. The truly interesting part comes in a Students’ Union which does not only fail to represent its students, but one which purposefully chooses not to. In an interview with this paper, SU Vice President for Academic Affairs James Donoghue said the Incorporation “had been excellent for students”. The majority of DCU students have voiced a collective opinion which says otherwise. A Students’ Union which fails to listen to its students is incompetent. A Students’ Union which listens, but chooses to ignore them in order follow the party line through fear of personal retribution, is despicable.

Sub Editors: Enda Coll, Kyle Ewald Elsa McEvoy, Conor O’ Doherty, Gavin Quinn, Fionnuala Walsh, Lauren Ennis, Lucy Mangan, Katie News Editor: Hayley Halpin & Gallagher, Oisin McQueirns, Liam Rebecca Lumley Ashton, Diana Elena Oprea, Zainab Deputy News Editors: Paul Dwyer, Boladale, Sadhbh Kennedy & Aoife Brein McGinn & Kyle Ewald Marnell

news@thecollegeview.com opinion@thecollegeview.com sports@thecollegeview.com

Sports Editor: Aidan Geraghty Deputy Sports Editor: Patrick Lynch

Printed by Datascope, with the DCU Journalism Society

Arts Editor: Stephen Keegan Deputy Arts Editor: Emer Handly

Thanks to Sportsfile, SLC, Office of Student Life

Images Editor: Daragh Culhane Deputy Images Editor: Laura Horan

Logo design by Lauren McConway

Last week saw DCU host its first ever Alumni Awards, held at The Helix. Guests included Stephen Cluxton (above), Ireland and Leinster prop Tadhg Furlong, Yes-Equality director Gráinne Healy and journalist Dearbhail McDonald. In total 10 new faces were added to the university’s alumni wall, with five past students also recognised on the night

NEWS CICE lecturer reveals staff ’s grievances Aaron Gallagher Editor-In-Chief @AaronGallagher8

DCU had second highest number of new “Sugar Babies” in 2016 Rebecca Lumley News Editor @thecollegeview

Continued from page 1

“They just treated people very badly. Some of the staff members who had been living on the premises were very badly treated and a lot of the staff just felt very poorly represented in all of the discussions that went into the closure of the college and the movement of the students and staff into DCU. “A dimminution of status” “I would say no staff member to date has gained any advantage as a result of the move, and many have described feeling stress and anxiety. People feel a diminution of their status and a reduction in the responsibilities they had. They just feel that their careers are poorly prepared for the future as a result.” In response to the protest, a statement on behalf of the CICE Board of Governors said they had anticipated issues arising following the move, but that it had sought to keep staff reassured through updates and regular consultation during the transition into DCU. Poor communication “They have given us some information, but it is nothing you could possibly constitute as consultation”, the lecturer said. “I found the Archbishop’s statement wholly disingenuous, both in respect of the representation of the staff in the transfer process. “He made some remarks about the exemplary way in which students are currently being treated — the students are entirely unhappy with the way they have been treated. “The administrative and support they had in CICE have not transferred at all. There were a lot of aspects of the statement which didn’t surprise anybody because most of the statements have been of a similar, condescending vein. If they think this whole issue is going to go away, it’s not. Poor management “The protest the other day is just the first indication of the anger, the disappointment and the humiliation of staff and I think it is just the first of many protests which will be considered in the future to highlight the very poor performance of the management of the college.” Archbishop Jackson declined the opportunity to comment on the matter.

DCU had the second highest num-

ber of students signing up to become “Sugar Babies” of all Irish universities in 2016, according to figures supplied by the dating website Seeking Arrangement. The site saw 71 new DCU signups last year, bringing the total number of registered users to 568. University College Dublin has the highest number of Sugar Babies on their books, with 601 registered students. Seeking Arrangement claims to be the biggest website to facilitate finance focused relationships in the world. It states that “Sugar Babies enjoy a life of luxury by being pampered with fine dinners, exotic trips and allowances. In turn, Sugar Daddies or Mommas find beautiful members to accompany them at all times.”

Sugar Babies and their corresponding Sugar Daddies find common ground in their desire for a convenient relationship according to Brook Urick, the site’s spokesperson. “(Sugar Daddies) are businessmen, they’re wealthy, they’re travelling. They’re not able to devote the time and energy to a relationship,” she said. “On the converse, sugar babies are often times in university and they’re looking for the same thing. They don’t want to settle down but they need help with funds. They need help funding their lives. And sugar daddies like to do that. It’s a gift they’re offering because they’re not able to offer them a real relationship.” According to data compiled by Seeking Arrangement, the average American sugar baby earns around $2,400 per month, with their Irish counterparts earning around €2,150. Urick says this often comes in the form of tuition, rent or bill payments. DCU student Sophie said that financial benefit was her main reason for joining the site. “I heard about it

online and thought it would be interesting. College has been making it harder to save and I thought that maybe I could use it to maybe make a little bit of money,” she said. “I think most sugar babies are motivated by the money.” When initially registering with the site, new Sugar Babies detail what they are looking for in a Sugar Daddy relationship, as well as how much they envisage earning. The services they provide are then agreed upon between the two parties and can vary significantly from couple to couple, according to Urick. “What’s expected of a sugar baby depend on who she is, what she’s will-

ing to do, what kind of time she has,” she said. “Often times it’s a lot of companionship. It’s dates, it’s someone to talk to, it’s a friend, it’s someone that’s interested in you. And for some, it’s a relationship.” When asked whether she could envisage forming a genuine relationship with someone through the site, Sophie was sceptical. “Meeting someone might be nice, but at the end of the day you have to think about why these people have to pay people for a connection,” she said. Sophie is a pseudonym to retain this student’s anonymity

Students doing Global Business graduate with most firsts Clara Hickey News Reporter @thecollegeview

BDI

GLOBAL Business (USA) has the

highest percentage of students graduating with firsts, with 100% of students receiving 1.1’s in 2015. The four year course requires 590 points for entry, which keeps in line with the high standard coming out of the course. In 2013, 2014 and 2016 only one person in each year graduated with a 2.1 degree, while the other graduates all received a 1.1 degree. In comparison, Business Studies has one of the lowest rates of students graduating with 1.1 degrees despite being one of the largest courses in DCU. Last year, only 15 out of 148 students graduated with a first. This figure, however, has been steadily rising since 2014 in conjunction with the increasing number of students in the class, from 12 out of 130 student attaining a 1.1 degree in 2014. BSc in Education and Training students are also at the bottom of the scale. In 2016, none of the 56 stu-

dents graduating acquired a 1.1 degree, while 34 graduated with a 2.1 degree and 18 with a 2.2. This number has dropped significantly since 2014, which saw 21 out of 89 students graduating with a 1.1 degree. It is also common in Communications that more students graduate with a 2.1 degree rather than a 1.1. Despite the fact that the amount of students enrolled in Communications has been increasing steadily since 2012, less and less students have been graduat-

ing with 1.1 degrees. 2016 saw only 4 out of 101 students leaving with a 1.1, while 66 students graduated with a 2.1. There has been a positive increase in both Psychiatric Nursing and Computer Applications graduate degrees however. 13 Psychiatric Nursing undergrad students graduated with a 1.1 degree in 2016, in comparison to just one student the year before. The number of Computer Application students graduating with 1.1 degrees has been steadily increasing since 2014 with just

5 students graduating with this degree in comparison to 21 in 2016. However, there is still a higher number of students graduating with 2.1 and 2.2 degrees in Computer Applications, with 31 students graduating with a 2.1 degree and 16 graduating with a 2.2 degree in 2016. Out of the 1,800 students who graduated in 2016, 1062 graduated with a 2.1 degree, 406 with a 2.2 and 262 with a 1.1, with Computer Applications producing the highest number of students attaining this degree.

NEWS

4 Emer Handly

DCU students take back the fifth goujon Paul Dwyer Chief Satirist @thecollegeview

NUBAR has always been famous for its chicken goujons and chips deal for €5 since the dawn of time. It has been the staple dinner for many DCU students from homesick first years to exhausted final year students struggling to make it to the end. So it was no surprise that students have been up in arms since the management of Nubar announced that the number of goujons being served would be reduced from five to just four. One distraught final year student, Andrew Byrne, was horrified to learn of the absence of the fifth goujon from the meal deal. He said, “It’s a meal that covers all bases. Carbohydrates from

the chips. Protein from the chicken goujons; and vitamins A, B and K in the barbeque sauce. I didn’t pay €3,000 in registration fees for this.” He also added, “I’m afraid that the reduction in goujon numbers will continue to decline. I’m afraid that some sort of vegan agenda is being put in place without us even realising it.” However, Students’ Union President, Dylan Kehoe, quickly tried to negotiate with Nubar and their suppliers over the reduction in portion size. An agreement could not be reached between the parties. In response to this, Vice President for Academic Affairs, James Donoghue, chained himself to the front gates of Nubar in a hunger strike that was reminiscent of a young Bobby Sands. It lasted for about an hour or so. Kehoe also penned a piece about the goujon debacle which went viral on social media and gathered a lot of media attention and support

for the noble cause across Ireland. Turning Point After this Nubar promised that there was to be one last day where students could avail of the five chicken goujons and chips for the price of €5 which was supposed to offer people the chance to say their final goodbyes to the fallen goujon. However, after engaging in strenuous talks with Nubar, Kehoe completed a deal where every Wednesday five goujons will be sold instead of four for the same price of €5. Kehoe said via Facebook, “After tense negotiations over the last 8 days; an agreement has been formed with Nubar DCU… As of next week, every Wednesday… will be Goujon Appreciation Day.” This day will be henceforth called goujon appreciation day and the agreement between the SU and Nubar will be referred to only as the Goujon Peace Treaty.

FOI reveals DCU library owed thousands due to fines Conor O’ Doherty Sub Editor @thecollegeview

DCU library is owed €73,501.89 from students due to fines on late material, as revealed in information secured through a Freedom of Information Act request. This figure is the highest in all of Dublin’s three universities, with the total approximately €140,000. Trinity College students owe €58,503.05, while UCD students owe €11,363.29. DCU library however was owed the least amount in fines over the last three years, despite the high fines owed this year, with a total of €157,572 received since 2014. “We do feel that it is the responsibility of the borrower to be aware of the due dates for their material and to renew/return loans accordingly. Alternatively, they can contact library staff for assistance if they cannot return/renew an item on time,” Shauna McDermott, Public Ser-

vices Manager at DCU library said. It is DCU policy that a student will not be allowed to graduate while owing fines to the college, however, while McDermott did not confirm students will not be allowed to graduate, she urged students to pay them. “Bear in mind that fines are used to ensure as much as possible that books are returned promptly for the benefit of other library users. This is especially important at key times such as exams,” DcDermott said. A likely cause of this could be a lack of comprehensive understanding of the library rules and loaning system. Megan Clifford, a third year BSc. Chemical and Pharmaceutical Science, said she often ends up with fines from simple mistakes. Clifford said: “I’ve gotten a few fines from the library but that’s just been on account of forgetting I even had books taken out, or mistaking the day material is due back. I know you can’t graduate if you owe a fine which I think is a bit much but they don’t really have any other way of ensuring people pay up, do they?”

DCU student announces intention to run for USI Officer Board

Credit: Hayley Halpin

cil

Hayley Halpin News Editor @hayleyhalpin1

A DCU student is to run for a Union of Students in Ireland (USI) Officer Board position, marking the first year DCU has ran since its re-affiliation to the USI in 2014.

Undergraduate Economics, Politics & Law student Seán Cassidy, has sought nomination to the position of USI Vice-President for Campaigns. Cassidy is a former chair of class representative coun-

and student activist. Alongside six other USI Officer Board positions, the Vice-President for Campaign will be elected at the annual USI Congress in March. Throughout the four day Congress, delegates from all USI affiliates universities will decide on national policy, constitutional changes and the election of it officers for the forthcoming year. Congress takes place from March 27th - 30th in Treacy’s West County Hotel, Co. Clare. Throughout his years as a student in DCU, Cassidy has served as a Class Representative, Chair of Class Representative Council, Chair of the LGBTA Society and held positions on the Office of Student Life, Society Life Committee and Club Life Committee. He has been a feature of the debates, policies and referendums of the Students’ Union. He also was a campaign leader in the original USI re-affiliation referendum in 2014 and more recently led the successful Yes to USI campaign that re-affirmed our membership held in semester one of the academic year.

“I’m running because I think USI needs activists in office. Student officers that understand the impact the movement can have on every student and especially those that increasingly need our support and solidarity,” Cassidy said. To be approved to run for a position, candidates for USI Officer Board must receive at least two nominations from the Students’ Union Presidents of the 27 Member Organisations (MO’s) of USI, before Monday February 20th. Once two nominations have been received, confirmed candidates must attend a series of hustings, hosted by USI Member Organisation prior to the Congress. DCU Students’ Union has sent delegations to the USI Congress since 2014 and has been successful in getting policy motions passed on lgbt+ rights, education trade-union student campaigns, Irish language rights and financial support for student teachers. “This is a singular time for the movement in terms of the establishment push behind Income

Contingent loans, the slowing of Repealing the 8th and in general policies that ingrain or overlook impact the economic crises had on students and young people,” he said. At USI Congress, candidates will take part in official hustings on the first day, followed by a day of voting. The results are due to be announced on March 29th. In the coming weeks the DCU Students’ Union Class Rep-

resentative Council will select which students will form the delegation they send to the annual Congress. If elected Cassidy will be the first student from DCU to be elected since our reaffiliation. “I’ve a strong record of effective, dedicated activism and representation of a range of multiple student issues and I think I can progress that work ethic and per-

NEWS

Female-run news website HerCampus launches in DCU Rebecca Keane News Reporter

@thecollegeview

HERCAMPUS, a female-run news site aimed at college level students has been launched in DCU. The online content hub, which runs articles and stories in the areas of beauty, style, health, love, life, LGBTQ+ issues and education was launched by DCU students Megan Conway and Rachael Martin on February 14th. The online magazine, originally founded in America by Harvard students Stephanie Kaplan, Windsor Hanger Western and Annie Wang in 2009 is a global community and sharing platform for female students to learn not only

about college life but also issues that are affecting the world today. Kaplan spoke of her delight at the website being expanded to DCU: “We’re thrilled to open up Her Campus DCU and to work with people as talented as Megan and Rachael”. “As the new semester begins, having students at an academic institution like DCU contributing to Her Campus on a regular basis should be a tremendous resource for our growing audience,” Kaplan said. The content listed on site is different in comparison to many other sites as all stories and articles are written by students for students. Any content written by a DCU student can be read in any other college and shared anywhere across the world also. The arrival of HerCampus to DCU will prove to be a useful re-

source for any burgeoning journalists as the site’s former writers have landed jobs and interned in internationally recognised brands such as Glamour, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Seventeen, Marie Claire, Harper’s Bazaar, The Huffington Post, Teen Vogue and MTV. HerCampus as a company has many prestigious awards and accolades under its belt, winning the Harvard’s business plan award in 2009, and the award Best All-Around Team in MassChallenge in 2011, before being named the Top Small Business of the Year by the Boston Chamber of Commerce in 2013. The HerCampus Facebook page can be found under the name @HerCampusDCU or on the website hercampus.com/DCU.

Strike4Repeal protest to take place in DCU Credit: Strike4Appeal

Aoibhín Bryant News Reporter @thecollegeview

A Strike4Repeal campaign is to commence in DCU if the government fails to call for a referendum on the Eighth Amendment before the 8th of March. The Strike4Repeal campaign is a nationwide protest where students and workers alike are encouraged to take the day off work, withhold from household duties or wear black in order to pressure the government into triggering a referendum on the Eighth Amendment. The Eighth Amendment is an addition to the constitution that prohibits any cases of abortion within the island of Ireland, plac-

ing the same importance on the life of the unborn child and the mother. DCU law student Alannah Kearney, the organiser for the Strike4Repeal information night in DCU, outlines how the day or hour taken off work emphasises how the 12 women a day who travel to the United Kingdom for an abortion must take that day off too. “The campaign highlights how the majority of people are unhappy with the government’s inaction and the solidarity amongst both genders, not just women, who want a referendum announced by the 8th of March,” Kearney said. Due to the university’s referendum last year where over 50 per cent of students voted for the Students’ Union to adopt a pro-choice stance, the DCUSU are obligated to back this event.

Credit: Niamh McKeown

If there is no call for a referendum by the 8th of March, students may congregate on campus for a demonstration outside the Henry Grattan building at 1pm and attend a march in Dublin City Centre at 5.30pm. Kearney hopes for around 50 to 100 students to attend the demonstration outside the Henry Grattan. An information night will be held in the Henry Grattan building in C103 from 6pm to 8pm on the 21st of February where students may seek for more information surrounding the strike, learn about the events on campus and sign up for volunteering opportunities. A Citizens Assembly investigating into the Eighth Amendment is currently underway where the assembly will produce a report on its findings and submit its recommendations to the Oireachtas by the 23rd of April.

Body acceptance at forefront of latest SU campaign Laura Horan Deputy Images Editor @thecollegeview

DCU Students’ Union held events from Monday the 13th of February to Thursday the 16th of February will honour Body and Soul week. The Glasnevin and Drumcondra campuses had small mirrors around campus encouraging students to compliment themselves, a total of 4,000 condoms were handed out, 70 people were tested for diabetes, while 200 cups of hot chocolate were given out and over €400 was raised for Ballymun social projects and Epilepsy Ireland. When asked about the event, the Students’ Union Engagement and Development officer, Eimear Maguire, said; “The purpose of Body and Soul week was to promote acceptance of your physical body and to embrace imperfections as well as developing your self confidence.” “Body confidence is important because it has a huge influence on your own development and it sets the foundation for how you approach life. If you are feeling low in yourself you might not be able to motivate yourself to accomplish all you want. A lack of body confidence

may deprive yourself of opportunities to reach self-fulfilment. It’s all about your mentality,” she added. During the week events included a USI Shagpad Stand on campus, free condoms in the Henry Grattan, therapy dogs, arts and crafts and a Love Run in Albert College Park on Monday night. Love Run The Love Run was a 5km run decorated with colourful lights to guide students in the dark. Maguire said she was “excited to get people involved”. While running students carried balloons to tie to trees along the track. Other events included a Soul Space with Kingdom Café in the Interfaith Centre, a Body Whys information stand, a talk by sex therapist Siobhan O’Higgins, a Get It Off Your Chest therapy event with RAG. Meanwhile, a Compliment Shite Night was run with all proceeds going to Epilepsy Ireland. Get It Off Your Chest “is all about sharing and accepting all of our worries and doubts together” according to the RAG Society. On Wednesday all students were welcome to strip down to their underwear for a Naked Mile run around campus with DJ Society playing music to keep them entertained. Credit: Gavin Quinn

NEWS

6 Credit: DCU.ie

DCU students develop coding teaching robot Amy Lawlor Lifestyle Editor @thecollegeview

THREE DCU students have developed an innovative robot that teaches you how to code. Robotify, a company ran by three teenagers: Adam Dalton (18), Evan Darcy (18) and BT Young Scientist winner, Shane Curran (17) was just a concept two years ago. Following their attendance at an after-school coding program ran by their school guidance counsellor in St. Paul’s College Raheny, classmates Adam and Evan were inspired to establish Robotify. In fourth year, the pair ran a HTML and web design class as part of a mini enterprise initiative in their school. Through this experience an alternative teaching method of coding was formed. “We found that using robots really motivated kids to learn how to code, because if they are coding something

on a computer and seeing the result of that code in real life it’s something that you can’t really replace,” said Adam Dalton CEO of Robotify. Their invention Robotify Alpha can teach children from the age of eight upwards how to distance sensors, motors and microcontrollers work, the basics in programming and how to write their own code. Robotify is funded solely by the teenagers. “It’s an achievement that we are quite proud of to take it to this stage without any funding from family or friends … it’s a testament to the hard work myself and Evan have put in,” said Adam. Although having previously applied for a position on the investment show ‘Dragon’s Den’ and securing an opportunity to meet with the panel of investors, co-founders Adam and Evan decided to refrain from pursuing the venture any further. “We didn’t want to put the image of the company at risk by going on Dragon’s Den at an early stage of the business as the company image is everything,” said Adam.

Robotify co-founders are currently first year DCU students. Adam is studying Business Studies and Evan is studying Engineering. “I really love DCU! They’ve done so much for us and it’s such an amazing place to be in terms of student entrepreneurship,” said Adam. College wasn’t something Robotify CEO had initially pictured on his career path: “I didn’t think college would be something of value to me, I was just one of these people that wanted to get into the working world,” he said. However, after attending multiple open days and eventually sitting in on a Business Studies panel discussion at DCU he just felt that ‘it was the right fit for him.’ Adam’s coursework has impacted his working life, creating a link between his studies and his business. “A few weeks ago, I was doing annual returns and product pricing and I used techniques in the management accounting from semester one to price up our product,” he said.

UCD consent classes cancelled due to lack of interest Callum Lavery News Reporter @thecollegeview

UCD’S Student Union had to cancel

classes on sexual consent due to a lack of interest by the Student Body. Only twenty students attended the classes out of a student population of over 30,000. UCDSU said that “The Students’ Union have spent €1,800 on trialling consent workshops during the last 12 months. Over this period, attendance has been generally poor.” The classes were originally announced in February 2016 as part of the universities #NotAskingForIt campaign and ran in the second semester of last year and during the Autumn term. The classes were introduced following allegations that a group of 200 male students were sharing nude photographs of female students without their permission. These allegations were later found to be false. UCD SU Welfare Officer Róisín O’Mara explained that although the SU has cancelled the current classes the Union was currently looking at “different ways to introduce the topic of consent.” In comparison to DCU, Sarah Ka-

vanagh, chairperson of the Feminist society said that it is difficult to get people to willingly attend classes like these, as the people that are interested in the classes already know what consent means and people who need to learn are very difficult to convince. When asked if FemSoc had any plans themselves to start classes on consent, Kavanagh said that they are planning to have talks during Freshers week instead, saying that they want to “get the conversation going straight away, so that’s what we plan to do in future years, get it right in the first week at the refresher talk.” Kavanagh believes that generally, DCU’s students have quite a good understanding of consent and that “it is a conversation that is happening…” however we “still have a lot to go… we could widen the scope of the audience, get lads that wouldn’t usually talk about this type of thing, get them to talk about it.” While in Trinity College Dublin SU President Kieran McNulty said that nearly 400 students had attended consent workshops during fresher’s week. McNulty added that it was the intention of the SU to run similar workshops next September.

I Wish initiative encourages women in STEM Kyle Ewald Deputy News Editor @thecollegeview

MORE than 4,000 female transition year students attended the I WISH— Inspiring woman in Stem—initiative conferences in Dublin and Cork this month. The initiative was created three years ago with the core objectives of encouraging participation of young woman in STEM—Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths—jobs, building a sustainable talent pipeline in Ireland, and influencing the subject choices of those in transition year. DCU President Brian MacCraith spoke at the event, highlighting the importance of female role models in Stem industries. “There is no such thing as a male job and no such thing as a female job,” said MacCraith, who hopes to break such stereotypes by better educating parents on their children’s career options. From previous conferences, re-

sults found that 60% of girls changed their subject choices because of I WISH, according to Caroline O’Driscoll, one of the founders of the initiative and a tax partner with KPMG. These results will hopefully change the dramatically small numbers of females in the STEM workforce, and females currently pursuing STEM degrees in third-level education. Currently, only a quarter of people working in STEM fields are women in Ireland. As for third-level education, only 22 per cent of maths entrant students are female, 17 per cent for IT, and 24 per cent for engineering. According to a report by Accenture that surveyed 1,500 11-18 year old girls, 2,500 19-23 woman, and 500 parents all from Ireland and Britain, two reasons for such small numbers are negative stereotyping and lack of parental knowledge of career opportunities. The report found that almost half of those surveyed believe STEM subjects are for “male” careers,

and almost 30 per cent found that STEM subjects were suited more for boys’ personalities and activities. Fourth year DCU Genetics student Lucy Johnson said she receives surprised reactions when she tells someone she has recently met that she is studying to be a scientist: “I think people perceive science student as either male, or if female, as a sort of social recluse, of which I am neither, as is the same for the majority of girls in my class. I just sort of shrug it off.” As for parents, only one in every seven felt that they were sufficiently informed on different career opportunities available to their children, while over half the children and young women surveyed said that their parents were the biggest influence on the subjects they chose in school. MacCraith is hoping to change this statistic by releasing a pamphlet for parents in a major Irish newspaper which explains all their children’s career opportunities, highlighting the importance of females in STEM courses.

Credit: parentscountdowncollege

NEWS Minister Bruton announces reassessment of disadvantaged schools Andrew Byrne News Reporter @thecollegeview

SCHOOLS will find out next year if they still meet the criteria for disadvantaged supports funding due to major changes in the way schools are assessed. Minister for Education Richard Bruton launched a new programme last Monday which will result in supports for almost 80 additional disadvantaged schools. The new schools have been chosen using an affluence and deprivation model which identifies areas of deprivation more accurately. This new model is likely to reveal that some schools, who currently avail of disadvantaged supports funding, no longer meet the criteria for disadvantaged school status due to population changes and better outcomes for students. Mr Bruton told reporters last Monday that special transition arrangements will apply to those schools leaving the programme. The identification process will begin next year for these schools. At present, more than 800 schools which are included in the DEIS 2005 scheme, benefit from reduced class sizes, extra teachers and other supports to help manage the

effects of deprivation. The scheme has helped boost student performance academically and curb early dropout rates. The DEIS scheme has shown improvements in educational outcomes for these areas in recent years although there have been no new schools added to the scheme since 2009. The number of schools added to the DEIS scheme will expand by 80 in September along with a further 30 schools, who are already part of the scheme but in a worse situation now than when they originally joined the scheme. These schools are to receive a higher level of support than previously. The budget assigned an extra €15m annually to the DEIS programme in order to allow these changes to occur. Mr Bruton said there will also be a book rental scheme for all members of the new DEIS scheme as well as the introduction of projects aimed at innovation and creativity in schools. The plan will see supports targeted for school teachers and leaders through leadership training, preparation courses and coaching courses. “We have to support our teachers and schools leaders, through up-skilling, mentoring and coaching, so they can plan, deploy and to support,” Mr. Bruton told the media.

DCU students in receipt of more grants than other Dublin colleges Hannah Kelly Deputy Production Editor @thecollegeview Many variables including geographic location and minimum entry requirements play into why DCU has the highest number of grant recipients of Dublin universities, DCU Access said. According to a report on the Irish Times, over 50% of DCU students are in receipt of a grant. The Access Service work with students who used the Higher Education Access Route (HEAR) to go though third level education across Ireland. HEAR is a third level scheme offering places on reduced points to school leavers from socio-economically disadvantaged background. Susan Hawkins, DCU Access Outreach Officer believes there are a number of variables into why DCU has the highest number of grant recipients. One of which is the quality and size of their Outreach programme to their linked schools in the local area. “If you look at the 2011 census, in the north of Dublin, within a five mile radius of DCU you would have a number of areas that would be considered to be disadvantaged; based on social welfare, based on family income, based on level of education,” Hawkins said. “So, if a students is going to go to college obviously they’re going to

try to go to the college that’s closest to where they live because if money is an issue they can’t afford to go to college in a different county. DCU Access has the largest outreach programme in Ireland, focusing on bringing second level students on to DCU campuses. Hawkins explained they are unique as DCU Educational Trust do a lot of fundraising on the programme’s behalf as well as the university’s investment. Another factor is the minimum entry requirements and how high the CAO points are for the courses on offer are in a university or college. Certain universities will offer higher points courses, while colleges

Fellowship founded to help students from under privileged backgrounds to become barristers Shirley Donlon Opinion Editor @thecollegeview

A new fellowship offering two aspiring bar-

risters from disadvantaged socio-economically backgrounds a chance to study at the King’s Inns in Dublin was announced earlier this month. The chosen candidates will be given financial, professional and educational support through the fellowship. The ‘Denham Fellowship’, named after Chief Justice Mrs Susan Denham, offers the selected candidates waived library fees for the first four years of their studies at the Bar of Ireland. Chosen candidates will also be exempt from fees Barrister-at-Law degree programme at the Kings Inns and will

receive an annual allowance of €6,000 for at least five years which will be put towards living and accommodation expenses. The successors will also be assigned various mentors throughout their studies and given support when finding a Master for each year of devilling. In a statement about the introduction of the new fellowship, Chief Justice Mrs Susan Denham said “I am honoured to be associated with this new Fellowship and I commend The Bar of Ireland and the King’s Inns for providing this fantastic, life changing opportunity for students who want to pursue a career as a barrister but may not have the financial means to do so.” Referring to the equal opportunity offered by this new fellowship, Denham said “Everyone benefits when the makeup of the legal profession reflects the diversity of the society it serves.”

like DIT, NCI and DCU offer a wide range of courses lower in points then other places. “You aren’t necessarily going to get students who will qualify for a grant who’d be from a low income household getting into those universities because they, on research,will show students from low income don’t tend to go into courses at that level because of the high points requirement,” Hawkins said. “We’ve always said that you have to go out and actively seek the people that you want to bring in, if you’re looking for under-represented groups you have to go out and look for them.” Credit: Rebecca Lumley.

Barrister Sara Moorhead, who lead the initiative on behalf of the Bar of Ireland and the King’s Inns said “We want to encourage students from all backgrounds to consider a career at the Bar. “As with many professions, becoming a barrister can be a daunting prospect for students if they don’t have the necessary sup-

port and we hope that, through the financial, educational and professional supports offered in this fellowship, we will be opening a door that otherwise may have appeared closed.” Applications for the fellowships will begin in March and the two successful applicants will begin their studies in the barrister-at-law degree programme in October 2017.

Editorial & letters

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Loser, winner: SU, where’s my chicken dinner?

he curious case of the missing goujon spiralled out of control in recent weeks. So significant was the backlash against the reduction in the number of goujons sold in DCU’s NuBar that it was covered by national news outlets. A campaign was launched by SU President Dylan Kehoe to bring back the fifth goujon. It was decided that a ‘Goujon Appreciation Day’ would be held in NuBar where five goujons would once again be sold instead of four. Which means that despite NuBar being the entity that took away the fifth goujon in the first place, it was decided that the best course of action to take is one that directly profits NuBar. This is the opposite of what a protest is supposed to be. The ultimate resolution is that there will be one day a week where five goujons are served rather than four. The Goujon Appreciation Day will now be a weekly event. Yet once again this is a course of action that directly benefits NuBar. Every single action taken has only improved the situation for the entity that the students should have been protesting against. Kehoe was quick to declare this a victory, as originally NuBar had only wished to hold one of these Appreciation days every month. Kehoe says he negotiated until they agreed to a weekly arrangement. So not only has the campaign resulted in NuBar profiting at every turn, Kehoe even succeeded in negotiating a situation that is

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Not only has the campaign resulted in NuBar profiting at every turn, Kehoe even succeeded in negotiating a situation that is even more beneficial to NuBar. even more beneficial to NuBar than the one they were originally intending to implement. The stated goal of the campaign was to bring back five goujons permanently. As this has not been the result, it is unequivocal that this entire campaign has ultimately resulted in total failure. It is apparent that Kehoe undertook this endeavour in an attempt to create some good PR for himself and the Student’s Union. In this at least he was successful, despite his inability to achieve anything of merit. Do not be distracted or taken in by the weak acclamations of the SU President. Dylan Kehoe failed the students of DCU. Bríon Hoban, Chief Sub Editor

Palestinian terrorism & Israeli checkpoints

“Sugar babies” must be afforded rights and protections

Letter to the Editor, There was one huge unasked question in your interview with Dr. Paola Rivetti (“Palestine, Israel and the UCC conference”, 8 Feb 2017). Dr. Rivetti lists all the difficulties Palestinians endure because of Israeli checkpoints. But at no point in the article does anyone ask why these Israeli checkpoints exist. Does Israel just like wasting its soldiers’ time for no reason? The answer, of course, not mentioned in the article, is Palestinian terrorism. This is the reason why these checkpoints exist. Since the current wave of Palestinian terror began in Sept 2015, there have been (up to Jan 2017) 47 people killed and 659 people injured, in 169 stabbing attacks, 133 shootings, 55 vehicular attacks and one bus bombing. Just one day after your article, on 9

Feb, a Palestinian carried out a shooting attack on random Israelis at a shopping market in Petah Tikva. And of course there were decades of brutal Palestinian terrorism before 2015. I am old enough to recall Irish republicans complaining about British Army checkpoints in the North. Britain said the checkpoints only existed because of terrorism. This turned out to be true. When the terrorism ended, the checkpoints vanished. Young people today probably do not even remember them. If Dr. Rivetti does not want Palestinians to be forced to wait at Israeli checkpoints, she should call for them to do the only thing that will ever get rid of those checkpoints — stop terror attacks against Israelis. The violent Palestinian “struggle” has brought the Palestinians nothing but misery and poverty for decades. Any true friend of the Palestinians would tell them to stop it and try another path. Dr. Mark Humphrys, School of Computing

n an article published recently on Dublin Live, the founder of a website called Seeking Arrangements stated that almost 10,000 Irish students had signed up to be “sugar babies”. 568 students from DCU were members of the site, with 72 new sign ups in 2016. The website’s premise is that it matches “successful men and women” who “know what they want” with “attractive people looking for the finer things in life.” Wealthy professionals pay young people, many of whom are students, to adhere to a set of terms laid out in their profile. Some may want sugar babies to accompany them to parties, travel with them or just provide companionship. In return, the website states that sugar babies “get to experience a luxurious lifestyle and meet wealthy people on a regular basis.” It is stated that money is no object to the average sugar daddy (or mum), with site founder Brandon Wade estimating that the average sugar baby earns approximately €2,150 a month. Not your traditional idea of romance then. To many, arrangements like these might sound more unethical than untraditional.

While many sugar babies may not offer services which constitute prostitution, the thought of taking money in return for faking romance still leaves a tight, uncomfortable feeling in the chest. Growing up, I was told that if I couldn’t imagine telling my grandparents that I had done something, I probably shouldn’t do it. Liberal as my granny is, I don’t know what she would make of a scheme like this. Wade defends the operation by highlighting the financial merits afforded to struggling students. He claims that his site has aided hundreds of thousands of students, allowing them to graduate from college free of debt. According to him, “that’s more than anyone can say of any particular government party.” His point isn’t entirely unfounded. Motivated by money or not, it is not for anyone to judge the morality of a sugar baby. What is important is that students who choose to enter into such arrangements feel safe, unpressured and able to ask for help. Though it mightn’t be as traditional as part-time job in Penneys or McDonalds, sugar babies must still be afforded rights and protections, free from stigma. Rebecca Lumley, News Editor

OPINION

Injection facilities: a proactive measure for Ireland’s drug problem

With legislation recently approved to welcome the first supervised injection centre in Ireland this year, Opinion Editor Shirley Donlon discusses how the clinics will be of benefit to society.

SHIRLEY DONLON OPINION EDITOR

ew law allowing the establishment of medically supervised drug injection facilities was approved earlier this month. Health minister, Simon Harris, has since confirmed that the Government is planning to proceed with plans to open the first supervised injection centre in Dublin later this year. The injection centre will be designed to assist those with drug addictions and offer them a safe place to go rather than loitering on the streets of the city. Drug users will be provided with a safe place to inject with medical supervision at all times. The controversial movement leaves the public to make their decision of whether they think this is a good or bad idea. Is this drug promotion? Or is this a step in the right direction towards the safety of the public? According to TheJournal.ie, up to 6,000 needles are found in one park in Dublin City Centre every year. For a start, this establishment means that there could be a decrease in the number of syringes found on the streets of Dublin city every year in the early hours of the morning. The danger caused by abandoned syringes can be monumental. For example, if someone has injected themselves and left the needle behind at the location they used it, the risk of someone else accidentally piercing themselves with that same needle is possible whether the needle is left in a park, on a bus or in a public bin. If someone with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C or another infection or virus transmitted through blood or bodily fluids had injected themselves, the virus has potential to infect another person if they come in contact with blood on the syringe. In March 2015, a 5-year-old girl was the victim of a syringe left in a parking meter in Dublin City Centre. As she was walking to school with her mother, she put her hand

in the parking meter ticket dispenser and screamed as her hand was pricked with a needle. Immediately after the incident the child was taken to hospital and tested for various diseases and infections. Such a traumatic incident is something that the public should not have to deal with. Such terrifying and life threatening situations should not be a threat to Dublin City residents on a day-to-day basis and such risk can only be reduced by the ability for all harm to be contained in one space. For this sole reason, supervised injection centres provide a great benefit of safety. Instead of spreading harm all over the city, why not contain it in one place, where the rest of the public (non-drug users) will not be at risk of facing the consequences of someone else’s problems. We would never expect to be put at risk of contracting a life-threatening disease while walking to school, college or work in the early morning. So why not prevent things like this from happening before it is too late? From another angle, the introduction of injection centres will mean that it will be legal to be in possession of certain drugs on the premises. An understandably arguable point, the question of whether or not these clinics will simply assist those with their drug addictions is undeniably there. The new facility is said to cost between €1.5 and €1.8 million every year. Is Ireland’s drug problem deserving of such funds? Simply put, the answer is yes. Injection centres could be the person someone who survives a drug addiction thanks for the medical assistance that will be available. DCU Student Union president, Dylan Kehoe, said “I think they could really help those with drug problems in the long run and will provide a safe environment for those suffering.” Ireland’s drug problem is no secret. But until more permanent measures can be put in place, incentives such as the supervised injection centres will, at least, provide a place for which the use of drugs can be monitored. The idea of Injection centres may be news to Ireland, however, they have been established in many countries over the past few years. According to DrugInfo, there are now over 90 safe injecting facilities worldwide with the majority of these facilities available in European countries including Spain, Germany and Norway. Rather than viewing such incentives as drug promotion tools they should be seen and valued as a prevention of drug use in society and as a precaution used to improve

Irish Times

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Every year up to 6,000 needles are found in one park in Dublin City Centre

citizen safety. This implementation of safe injecting facilities will not promote the use of drugs themselves. Instead, they will encourage the safe use of drugs for those already regularly using them. Such an ongoing, large scale, national issue needs attention. Ireland’s drug problem cannot be ignored and neglected only for it to worsen over the coming years. Without a doubt, it would be easier to be reactive to such a dilemma rather than proactive. However, the approved legislation for the introduction of supervised injecting centres is a proactive measure towards addressing the drug problem and doing something to monitor and control it rather than letting it manifest into an even larger scale issue. The answer to Ireland’s ongoing issue with drugs will not be solved as soon as the doors of the first supervised injecting centre swing open, but it surely will provide more protection than harm to its users and the public.

OPINION

Nurses strike exposes HSE incompetence Minister Simon Harris needs to address the ongoing nursing crisis to avoid numerous health care professionals striking, writes Chief Sub-Editor, Bríon Hoban

BRÍON HOBAN CHIEF SUB EDITOR

urses and midwives of Ireland plan industrial action on March 7th after the HSE failed to agree terms with the INMO regarding a dispute over working conditions. Hospital support staff plan a simultaneous all-out strike, meaning in around 40,000 Irish workers will be involved in this action. Nurses will implement their strike by only working to contract. They will refuse to do the overtime in which they have been engaging in, in order to cover the lack of staff.

The fact that there is an insufficient number of nurses at a time when waiting lists are unworkably long is untenable, though it does offer one explanation for why the problem continues to exacerbate. Those wishing to assign blame over the strike should look in a single direction. Paul Bell, a Siptu health division organiser, pointed towards the true villains in his explanation of his union’s decision. “The size of the vote in favour of strike action undoubtedly demonstrates our members’ anger with the Health Service Executive and Department of Health due to their failure to give them the fair and equal treatment they demand,” said Bell. Minister of Health Simon Harris has reportedly said that he will do everything he can to reduce hospital waiting lists in the next year. A nursing strike can only exacerbate the situation. If Harris is truly committed to doing everything to mitigate the crisis, then avoiding a strike should be one of his top priorities. The nurses put forward a proposal to resolve the dispute between them and the HSE. It has been estimated that 180 million euro a year would have been the cost to implement this proposal. Yet these terms were rejected. Yes, this would have been an expensive fix, but finding money to improve the working conditions of nurses surely falls under the remit of ‘everything’ a Minister of Health could be expected to achieve.

Whether or not a strike is the best course of action for nurses is rather a moot question. Industrial action has been proven to secure better terms for bus drivers, LUAS drivers and Gardaí in the last twelve months. Some might question the ethics of health care professionals leaving their posts during a trolley crisis. Others might reply that the blame should be levelled at the people who have allowed nurses to feel as though their working environments are unsafe. Besides which, the nurses will still be fulfill-

ing the terms of their contracts on the day of the strike. They are merely refusing to do extra work. The proposal put forward by nurses included issues such as paid maternity leave and overtime. They only ask for the same terms that are guaranteed for many other state workers. It is time for Minister Harris to be a man of his word and act to avoid numerous healthcare professionals striking. Otherwise he will prove himself as ineffectual in solving the waiting list crisis as his department has been in treating its workers with respect.

Equality in education: breaking the glass ceiling Lifestyle Editor, Amy Lawlor discusses how far we have come with women in education and stresses the importance of appreciating our opportunities to learn in a safe environment.

AMY LAWLOR LIFESTYLE EDITOR

basic human right that some would risk their lives for, yet others take for granted. The process of learning promotes individual freedom and empowerment and yields important development benefits. Yet millions of children and adults remain deprived of educational opportunities, many as a result of poverty and violence. In developing countries, adolescent girls are more likely to drop out of primary school than boys, particularly in rural areas. The Full Participation Project ‘No Ceilings’ which is a combination of The Bill & Melinda

Gates Foundation and the ‘No Ceilings’ initiative of the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation found that only 15 per cent of girls in Pakistan, and six per cent of girls in Afghanistan from low income families completed primary school. Imagine presenting the question “what do you want to be when you grow up?” to a young girl in Ireland today. What would their answer be? A princess, a fairy or maybe even a unicorn. Now imagine asking that same question to someone who has never been asked that before simply because of their gender, what would their answer be? Speaking out on record for the first-time last week about women’s rights since the inauguration and the Women’s March in Washington, former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said, “We need strong women to step up and speak out. We need you to dare greatly and lead boldly.” Clinton’s statement is especially telling as she chose to address attendees of the 2017 MAKERS conference, since the event is set up as a time when leaders come together to “elevate the conversation and raise challenges and solutions through action-oriented sessions,” according to the conference website. It is unacceptable that in an age where there are worldwide legal cannabis stores and soon to be legalised injecting centres on Irish soil that education, a fundamental human right isn’t legal around certain parts of the world. “Unfortunately, for the most part in Europe, education is viewed as a monotonous task

where your parents wake you up early on weekdays and drag you to school. There is no value behind the art form that teaches children to read and write,” said Tim Meyer a former professor of philosophy and methodology at King’s College London. From his own experience as a lecturer Tim recalled that nearly all of his students welcomed the absence of teachers, and subsequent cancellation of classes. “I wish that students in countries like Ireland and England would appreciate their opportunity to learn in a safe and nurturing environment. Some take it for granted because they know no different; whereas a lot of children around the world, especially girls fear for their lives trekking to school day after day unsure of whether activist groups will cause them harm,” he said. In March 2015, President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama launched the ‘Let Girls Learn’ initiative which recognises that adolescent girls face multiple challenges in pursuing an education. It employs a holistic approach to change the perception of the value of girls at the individual, community and institutional levels; foster an enabling environment for adolescent girls’ education and engage and equip girls to make life decisions and important contributions to society. Although history is an important subject to teach the future makers of today, current affairs and the work of charities such as ‘Let Girls Learn’ is imperative to incorporate into our education system to keep children of a suitable age informed and appreciative of their environment.

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Only 15 per cent of girls in Pakistan, and 6 per cent of girls in Afghanistan from low income families completed primary school.

GAEILGE

Príomhchathracha – An-Athruithe agus a Stair

Le príomhchathracha an domhain ag athrú go minic toisc cúiseanna difriúla, breathnaíonn Cal Ó Donnabháin ar na fachtóirí bainteach leis na hathruithe.

CAL O DONNABHÁIN EAGARTHÓIR GAEILGE

S macasamhail tábhacht chathrach agus an chúis a cheaptar ina príomhchathair í, sa tslí a bhfuil réimse leathan d’fhachtóirí a dhéanann an chathair níos oiriúnaí mar chathair lárnach agus mar phointe nódach de chúrsaí i dtír. Thar na céadta, ceapadh agus athraíodh príomhchathracha cuid tíortha toisc thionchar na polaitíochta, toisc thionchar cogaidh agus toisc iarrachtaí rialtas déileáil le fadhb an ródhaonra. Ón India chun na Stáit Aontaithe, Ceanada chun na Brasaíle, athraíodh na príomhchathracha agus is ábhar spéisiúil é cúis a n-athruithe agus conas mar a bhí éifeacht acu ar an sochaí ina gcónaímid faoi láthair. Is féidir go roghnaítear cathair le bheith ina príomhchathair d’aon gnó, ach is féidir go raibh forbairt na cathrach chomh tapa agus chomh héifeachtúil sin i gcomparáid leis na cathracha eile sa tír gur tharla sé gur lonnaigh tromlach an daonra inti, cúrsaí riaracháin agus codanna tábhachtacha de bhonneagar na tíre ag lonnú inti chomh maith agus nár fágadh an rialtas leis an gcinneadh ach an chathair a cheapadh ina príomhchathair oifigiúil ar an tír. Is féidir Baile Átha Cliath a thógáil mar shampla de seo, toisc a shuíomh ar bhéal abhann na Life, é foirfe do thrádálaithe agus iad ag seoltóireacht, chomh maith le cosaint do mhuintir na cathrach agus iad bunaithe ar na bruacha. Toisc an margaíocht a bhí ar bhun ann agus toisc go raibh bonneagar ann ó theacht na Lochlannach agus na Normannach, phléasc daonra

Bhaile Átha Cliath agus níor thóg sé an iomarca ama air a bheith ceaptha ina phríomhchathair, Teach Laighin agus an Dáil bunaithe ann agus rogha d’fhoirgnimh agus cumainn eile socraithe ann. Le déanaí, go háirithe le teacht an fhichiú haois, tháinig fás ar líon na gcathracha nua-fhorbartha chun go ndéileáiltear le fadhb an ródhaonra agus chun go bhforbrófar ceantair nach raibh fás ag teacht orthu. I 1961, mar shampla, athraíodh príomhchathair na Brasaíle ó Rio de Janeiro go Brasília chun go mbeadh suíomh lárnach aige. Toisc go raibh Rio suite in oirdheisceart na tíre, mheas pleanálaithe go mbeadh sé níos oiriúnaí go mbeadh suíomh níos neodraí lárnach ag an bpríomhchathair fheidearálach. Inniu, meastar go bhfuil beagnach trí mhilliún duine ina gcónaí in Brasília agus í mar an ceathrú cathair is mó sa tír. Cosúil lenár dtír féin, d’fhás Lagos go nádúrtha toisc a shuíomh ar mhurascaill Guinea, í mar chuid den Aigéan Atlantach. Bhíodh tromlach de thrádáil na tíre bunaithe anseo agus le sin, cosúil le Baile Átha Cliath, tháinig daoine ina milliúin dá bharr. I 1991, athraíodh príomhchathair na tíre ó Lagos go Abuja, cathair phleanáilte a bhí bunaithe i lár na tíre nach raibh tógtha nach mór go dtí na hochtóidí. Is de bharr an ródhaonra arís a athraíodh an phríomhchathair, leis an iar-phríomhchathair ag fás ‘s ag fás gan stad gan sos. Léiríonn sé seo an tábhacht a bhaineann le dáileadh cothrom áiseanna agus comhlachtaí a scaipeadh amach le scéimeanna agus an phleanáil cuí a chur ann. Píosa comhairle a bhí ag mo mhúinteoir Ghaeilge sa mheánscoil domsa agus do mo rang ná gan seal a chaitheamh i dtír atá díreach tar éis a phríomhchathair a athrú. Is as taithí a dheartháir féin a thagann sé seo, toisc tréimhse caite aige sa Chasacstáin ag críoch na nóchaidí agus é ag obair mar phéintéir, nó sin a deir a dheartháir ar aon nós. I 1997 roghnaíodh Astana mar phríomhchathair nua na tíre, athruithe ó Almaty toisc go raibh bac ar fhorbairt na cathrach agus gan spás di fás. Is sa chathair nua seo a fuadaíodh deartháir mo mhúinteora agus cara leis, na póilíní éillitheach á gcoimeád ar son airgid toisc athlonnú an rialtais agus neamhaird an rialtais céanna i leith a ngníomhaíochtaí. Léiríonn sé seo chomh maith na haimhréidheanna bainteach le hathrú chomh mór.

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Is féidir Baile Átha Cliath a thógáil mar shampla de seo, toisc a shuíomh ar bhéal abhann na Life, é foirfe do thrádálaithe agus iad ag seoltóireacht, chomh maith le cosaint do mhuintir na cathrach agus iad bunaithe ar na bruacha

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Ní bhíonn in aon rud ach seal, a deirtear. Níl sé deimhnithe go mbeadh príomhchathair ar bith ina príomhchathair go buan agus braitheann sé go hiomlán ar chúrsaí reatha na tíre. Is féidir athrú a bheith ina ráiteas cumhachta le faicsean amháin ag maíomh faoina chumhacht chomh maith i dteannta réimse leathan de chúiseanna eile. Ní aon rúin é go dtugann príomhchathracha eolas dúinn i leith stair áite agus tugann eolas ó thaobh tábhacht chathair dúinn san am atá thart agus san am ina bhfuilimid.

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Seachtain Ghnóthach in DCU Clúdaíonn Cormac Sheehy eachtraí na seachtaine i saol an mhic léinn in DCU, chomh maith le conspóid na ‘goujons’ ar champas le déanaí. breathnaíonn sí ar a mamó agus í ag troid leis an ngalar. Cormac Sheehy Scríbhneoir @thecollegeview

úirt cara liom coicís ó shin go raibh an ‘Full Monty’ á dhéanamh aige.Thuig mé cad a bhí i gceist aige leis an Full Monty, ach níor chreid mé go mbeadh scoláirí DCU ag baint triail as dóibh féin. Gheall sé dom go raibh sé fíor agus go raibh sé dáiríre nuair a dúirt sé go mbeadh seisean agus a chomhimreoirí rugbaí chomh maith le baill de chlubanna DCU ag siúl amach os comhair slua mór sa Wright Venue gan aon rud á chaitheamh acu seachas an meangadh ar a n-aghaidheanna. D’fhiafraigh sé díom an raibh mé ag dul, ach bhí mé idir dhá chomhairle. Bhí fonn orm dul le féachaint “an raibh an ócáid seo ag tarlú gan cinsireacht?” agus le bheith ag gáire faoi mo chara ag baint a bhrístí ach ag an am céanna ní raibh mé ag iarraidh an oíche a chaitheamh ag féachaint ar fir gan éadaí. Bheartaigh mé gan dul, agus tá fós píosa ionam nach gcreideann go dtarlódh an ócáid seo. Conas ar aontaigh slua mór d’fhir óg paráid dóibh féin a chur ag máirseáil timpeall os comhair phobail DCU gan

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Dúirt cara liom coicís ó shin go raibh an ‘Full Monty’ á dhéanamh aige.Thuig mé cad a bhí i gceist, ach níor cheap mé go mbeadh scoláirí DCU ag baint triail as dóibh féin éadaí agus gan luach saothair airgeadais? Tuigim go raibh sé do charthanachtaí agus molaim iad as sin, ach caithfidh go bhfuil slí airgead a bhailiú nach bhfuil chomh náireach. An gcuireann na fir seo cuireadh dá dtuistí agus clanna teacht? Níl fonn orm smaoineamh ar na drochrudaí féideartha ar chor ar bith. An iomarca ceisteanna nach bhfuil freagra agam orthu. Chuala mé go raibh an lucht féachana déanta de chailíní don chuid is mó, ach táim cinnte go raibh roinnt fir ann chun freagraí a fháil ar na ceisteanna seo. Ag fágáil an ‘Full Monty’, fillim ar mhí Eanáir nuair a tháinig mé ar ais ón mbriseadh. Shiúil mé sa Nubar agus d’ordaigh mé pláta de goujons agus sceallóga. Bhí ionadh an domhain orm, áfach, nuair nár

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tugadh dom ach ceithre goujons. Ní raibh fearg mar sin orm ónar chuala mé go raibh mo chúrsa ag bogadh ó Ghlas Naoín go Campas na Naomh Uile. Cá raibh an goujon eile imithe? B’fhéidir go raibh botún déanta nó go raibh duine ag buailleadh bob gránna orm, ach tar éis labhairt le roinnt duine eile, thuig mé go raibh líon na goujons le gach béile laghdaithe go 4.

Bhí díomá orm, buille eile i gcoinne an mhic léinn, ach cuireadh gliondar ar mo chroí nuair a chonaic mé daltaí ag teacht le chéile chun an goujon a bhí in easnamh a thabhairt ar ais. Eagraíodh feachtas don phíosa sicín sa bhreis, ‘Goujon Appreciation Day’ mar cheann de na hiarrachtaí. D’éirigh go hiontach leis agus tá áthas orm a rá go bhfuil a bhfuil an goujon

CAILLTE AR AIS ARÍS. Níl easpa de scéalta craiceáilte in DCU, ach nílim cinnte an dtéann aon rud i gcomparáid le The Full Monty agus Goujon Appreciation Day sa tseachtain chéanna. Táim cinnte go mbeidh rud éigin as an ngnáth ag tarlú le linn na seachtaine seo freisin. Beidh mé ag faire amach go géar.

FEATURES

Student nurses shoulder a great burden Work placement is a great experience, but some student nurses feel they are given too much responsibility ELSA MCEVOY SUB EDITOR

hile walking around, checking on patients, first year nursing student at Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT), Rebecca , noticed that one of the louder patients on the ward was being oddly quiet. As any nurse would, Rebecca went in to make sure there was nothing wrong when she came across somebody who looked ‘pale and lifeless’. “I couldn’t feel a pulse so I started CPR and shouted for help but no one came to help me and I pressed the [nurse call] button but obviously it was not working. “I was trying to do compressions and trying to shout for someone to come in and help me at the same time. The ward manager came in and was annoyed at me for shouting.” Rebecca remembered telling the ward manager: “this patient is unresponsive and I’m trying to do CPR, I’ve been calling for help for a good 2 minutes and no one has come in.” More nurses came in after that and I felt like I was just pushed out of the way, “ Rebecca said.

Rebecca had been in college for a total of ten weeks before going on her first placement. There is a huge workload on nursing students and considering the understaffed conditions, there is more and more pressure on nursing students to be able to do the job of a fully qualified nurse. The process of supportive learning while on placement is for the student to be paired with a link nurse who is supposed to be with them at all times, supervising and teaching. However, this is largely not the case for many student nurses on placement. More often than not student nurses are expected to do as much as any other qualified nurse by filling out paperwork, feeding and washing patients as well as taking blood pressure. Rebecca, for example, was asked multiple times if she could remove IVs from different patients which she refused. “We are not allowed to touch drugs and we’re not allowed to touch IVs and it is very easy for the nurses to forget I’m a first year and ask me to just disconnect an IV, especially if they are busy.”

Rebecca said. The workload that is expected of these unpaid trainees is huge. “On the ward that I was on there was supposed to be two nurses in each bay. They realised that I was competent and able to do most of the work like changing, washing -the major work.” I was left in a bay, one nurse was told she could have a day off and no extra nurse was brought in so it was me, and one qualified nurse in a bay where there should have been two qualified nurses and me,” Rebecca said. This left Rebecca and her nurse with twelve patients along with the paperwork that comes with each of those patients. She explained that paperwork has to be filled out for absolutely everything. If a patient is fed, their paperwork has to then be filled saying they were fed. Another GMIT first year nurse, Lisa, told her story of an instance where her link nurse asked her to remove a cannula but Lisa couldn’t because she didn’t know how to but said she would be happy to learn if her mentor would show her.

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The workload that is expected of these unpaid trainees is huge

“She agreed and so I went to wash my hands and by the time I came back she had it done. She would pull stuff like that all the time,” Lisa said. Emma described a case where a patient who had been out of surgery 20 days when the staples

holding his stitches together were removed, which is twice as long as usual to ensure his stitches would hold when they came out. “I saw blood starting to stain his clothes and I knew the wound was opening up,” she said. “When I asked the nurse what to do she told me to stand there and apply pressure. I stood there for ages holding this man’s insides in until a doctor could come.” It is neither the fault of the student or the nurse, it is a simple result of the overcrowding of hospitals, especially in rural areas, and the understaffing of the healthcare system. If it had not been for some quick responses from student nurses to the distress of patients, many more might have died. In Rebecca’s case, her patient was admitted to ICU but quickly recovered from the cardiac arrest and was brought back down to the ward shortly after. *Please note that the student nurses interviewed for this piece requested anonymity and so all names have been changed to protect their identities.

Some student nurses feel they are not qualified enough for the tasks they undertake. Image Credit: Galway-Mayo Institute of technology

FEATURES

The Great Debate:

Should Irish be a compulsory subject? The relevance of our national language to Irish society is often hotly debated. We ask: should Irish be a compulsory subject in schools across the country? Darragh Culhane

FOR

AGAINST

BRONWYN O NEILL

ír gan teanga tír gan anam,” are famous words from Easter Rising leader Padraig Pearse. They mean “a country without language is a country without soul”. So how can we as proud Irish people not want to treasure and learn our national language? Our national language should of course remain compulsory in secondary schools as it is an important part of our culture and identity. It seems that Ireland is the only country to be embarrassed or annoyed about their national language. While other countries attempt to rebuild culture that was lost, Ireland seems to want to bury our history. Just last year we celebrated the centenary of the 1916 Rising, a celebration of Irish culture and history, something that in 1916 could not be praised. While pushing something down someone’s throat is unhelpful, the patriotism that we all felt last year is enough to swell an interest in the Irish language. Making Irish an option subject would led to a huge drop in participation in the subject, which may cause students to close career doors that they were unaware about whilst choosing subjects at the age of twelve. Many college applications require at least two languages (one being English), if you don’t choose

any languages then you won’t be allowed to apply for the college of your dreams. Some colleges still require Irish as an entry qualification, regardless of other language choices. Therefore stopping compulsory Irish would have a damaging effect on young people’s future. While it is no secret that the way Irish is taught in school is not ideal, it should still be a staple in our education. The Junior and Leaving Certification course work needs a drastic facelift to make it more applicable to our society. Whilst the oral is now worth 40 percent, a more hands on approach needs to be taken with speaking our language rather than just learning off essays. A rework of the course work may reinvigorate the love for the subject. To make it more social and realistic would be much more helpful in everyday life and may make it easier for people to remember Irish phrases. However, the prose, poetry and history of the Irish language are interesting and an important reminder of our culture. Perhaps we should take a note from the UK system by splitting Irish into the spoken language and then the prose and poetry in a separate possibly optional subject of Irish literature. If we were to make Irish optional, then we would have to make all subjects optional.

ÁINE MONK

believe that the Irish language should not be a compulsory subject taught in secondary schools. Take a moment to reflect on the way our native language was taught to you in secondary schools. Did you dread the words ‘léigh anois go curamach ar do scrúdpháipéar…” or did you happily stroll down the corridor to learn tales told through our native tongue? It is likely that you relate most to the first option. This, I believe, is because Irish can be perceived as a chore, something to be rote-learned with no other choice. The way in which we view the celtic language needs to change drastically in order to keep up the good preservation work done by organisations around the world. If students view something as compulsory, they can feel trapped. It may not be the actual content of the Irish language course that is off-putting for young people, but the fact that they must study a subject in order to pass it and therefore pass the State Examinations overall. As someone who has an undergraduate degree in Irish and Journalism, you may think that I should be on the other side of the argument, promoting ways in which we can aid the promotion of our treasured teanga, but this is not the case. Some students can find lan-

guages to be the most challenging subjects, struggling to grasp the frightening modh coinníollach and slipping off into daydreams the minute An Triail is mentioned. I understand that everyone is different and we all possess our strong and weak points, therefore making it extremely unfair to impose a second or third language on a students struggling to comprehend the ins and outs of the first. I myself had no other option but to take English, Irish, Maths and French at second-level, as was policy in my school and still is, to my knowledge. As someone who enjoys learning languages, I was lucky and actually wished to study a fourth language, which was against policy. That being said, I also began to notice a stark difference in the manner in which the Irish language is taught in comparison to an often optional French curriculum. There was no need to learn poetry terms, such as onomatopoeia, in French, but there was if I sought a high grade in Irish. There was no need to analyse films, read novels or discuss the education system and its flaws in detail. Maybe if Irish was optional, it would be seen in the same, less stressful, light.

FEATURES

The reality of clinical psychology doctorate programmes

It’s not as easy to enter psychology doctorate programmes as it is for other PhDs

Caitriona Phelan Contributor @thecollegeview

n the ninth of March 2016, an applied psychology master’s degree student called Elaine rang up Liveline to talk to Joe Duffy. During their conversation, the twentythree-year-old student informed Joe that she was nearing the end of her course and in the process of looking for work as an assistant psychologist (AP). In order to have a better chance of getting a place on a clinical psychology doctorate programme, it is necessary for potential candidates to work in a supervised role as an Advanced Placement or psychology project worker to gain relevant experience. All of the assistant psychologist jobs available, however, were listed as intern positions on jobsbridge.ie. A short time later, another master’s student called Caroline told Joe that, between university courses and internships, she had been working for nine years in psychology and was still not in a position to receive paid work as a psychologist. While jobsbridge.ie is now defunct, the issue of assistant psychologists working for little to no pay remains a source of considerable frustration among students and graduates of psychology. With waiting lists for people with mental health difficulties reaching, in some cases, between 12 and 18 months, there is a clear need for more clinical psychologists in Ireland. This lack of psychologists puts an extra burden on GPs. According to Eimear, a former AP, “people don’t see mental health as important as physical health. It’s unlikely that you would see other healthcare professionals working voluntarily. Eimear gave an account of her experience: “I worked for four days a week for nine months as a voluntary research assistant when I finished my masters, while working in a restaurant part-time. I then got a voluntary AP position at the same time as a relief Social Care worker job. So I worked four days as an AP and parttime as a paid social care worker. It’s tough because a lot of the jobs are in Dublin and, if you’re not from Dublin, it’s hard to fund yourself in an unpaid position and pay rent.’ She added that the nature of the day-to-day work as an assistant psychologist can be “very heavy and upsetting, and as an early career graduate psychologist, you’re only learning the skills to deal with it.” Another assistant psychologist, who wished to remain anonymous, said “the crude reality of the

situation is that Irish psychology has been haemorrhaging talent for many years. In the process of trying to gain training to improve the mental health of others, so many hard-working, ambitious and committed adults damage their own mental health by crawling through a demoralising system with limited tangible rewards.”When asked about his views on voluntary AP work, however, he was nuanced in his reply, “voluntary AP work, however, he was nuanced in his reply, “voluntary labour can be the life blood of organisations which may not have the resources to offer services otherwise.” Therefore, insisting that all AP posts are paid would be a mistake. On the other hand, one could argue that free labour has become so normalised within Irish psychology and Ireland in general, that the default position is for organisations to offer ‘voluntary’ posts or ‘internships’ rather than identify and secure funding where it may actually be available, such as in the HSE or

private organisations with stable revenues. While it is cheaper for the HSE to hire voluntary workers rather than fund more students to enter the clinical psychology doctorate programme, this can put undue strain on the worker. Efforts have been made to bring about change to the working conditions of early career psychologists. In 2014, the Psychology Society of Ireland (PSI) published their Guidelines on the Employment of Assistant Psychologists in Ireland. This outlined the view that while the PSI does not object to using voluntary positions for gaining experience, assistant psychologists should not be expected to work full-time hours. A petition created on Change. org by Mark O’Flaherty last year demanded that these PSI guidelines be amended to insist upon payment for APs. The petition included an open-letter to psychology students and early career psychologists, in which he wrote, ‘The Early Graduate Group survey of recent gradu-

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Zoe Ryan

As it stands, there is no recognised AP position within the HSE

ates, including early career psychologists (ECPs), reveals there are few paid positions open to psychology graduates. Hoping that eventually they will be rewarded with paid employment, many ECPs work for years without ever receiving a cent. This is wrong and must change.’ There are signs of improvement on the horizon for APs. A proposal for the role of assistant psychologist to be included within the HSE executive pay scale was supported by the PSI, IMPACT trade union and the Heads of Psychology Services Ireland (HPSI). This business proposal was last year approved by the HSE and the Department of Health. The president of the PSI, Anne Davis said that “some progress has been made with the HSE negotiations to set up such a grade at the Executive Officer level. No definite timeline has been confirmed, but our understanding is that this will be established in the near future.”

FEATURES

Living with a stammer Stammering can hugely affect someone’s confidence, but it does not need to hold you back Katie White Contributor @thecollegeview

or as long as I can remember, I have had trouble with words. I’m sure you’re thinking: “Then why are you writing an article?”, but it’s not that I don’t know what to say, I do, I just can’t get those words from my brain to the world. When people think of stuttering, they think of a child who is telling their parents a long-winded story about the time they saw a dog in the park, or when someone is afraid or nervous. They don’t think of little old me, nervous in the queue at DCU NuBar repeating in her head “goujons and chips please”, “goujons and chips please”, “goujons and chips please”. Over 1 percent of the population in Ireland have a stutter and there are many different reasons as to why it happens. For

some it’s due to medical injuries such as a stroke, trauma or brain injury. Others may be due to genetic abnormalities in the language area of the brain. No matter what the cause of it is, we still suffer with things that don’t even cross other people’s minds such as saying “Hello, my name is Katie”. Many stutterers have immense difficulty with their name, because it is the one thing they literally cannot change. You can say you “live on the Northside” if you can’t say the word Drumcondra, or you can tell the taxi driver “the Spire” if you can’t say “O’Connell’s street”, but you can’t really tell someone you have met, your name is ‘Sarah’ when it’s actually ‘Katie’. That could get a bit weird when they try to look you up on Facebook. Coming to college was soul-crushingly nerve wrecking for me. All I was thinking of was how many times I was going to have to say my name. I thought I was never going to make new friends and that I was going to end up being ‘that

lonely girl’ in the corner of the lecture theatre. Luckily my personality tends to override my stammer in many cases like this and I just get on with it. The most noticeable thing that I found coming to college, was that the majority of people had no idea what was going on when I

Laura Duffy

People who didn’t know would say things like “Did you forget the word there for a second?” and continue to laugh at my forgetful brain. I tend to not say anything to them because of the pain staking guilt they often feel when I say I have a stammer. Even though this is something that affects me every day, I refuse to let it hold me back from anything. My stammer does not define me, I define it. All jokes aside, this is an incurable condition. I either don’t speak at all or continue to live my life as a happy stammerer. to them because of the pain staking guilt they often feel when I say I have a stammer. Even though this is something that affects me every day, I refuse to let it hold me back from anything. This is an incurable condition. I either don’t speak at all or continue to live my life as a happy stammerer.

was flinching my face and jerking my head while trying to get a word out.

Splitting the movie myth of split personalites The use of mental health issues in movies often leads to misunderstandings about the disorders Image Credit: Getty Images

Orla O’Driscoll Deputy Features Editor @Dublin_Called

easing a fear from the depths of safety delivers a rush of adrenaline, increases our heart rates and is often referred to as the fight or flight response; the edge of the unknown. Little children who worry about the bogeyman under the bed can jump enormous distances in fear of a hand which could shoot out and grab a skinny ankle. Moviemakers thrive on this fear, and they will use any tactic imaginable to deliver this jolt which makes us want to hide with our eyes wide open. Yet, movies often offer as common place the instances in which mental illness is the protagonist, the reason the man is hiding in the back of the wardrobe, or why the knife wielding woman is laying, silently, just out of line of that rear-view mirror. Don’t pull back the shower curtain, don’t open basement door, don’t give the stranger a lift, they’re all crazy, all waiting on every dark stretch of road for you to run out of fuel. The impetuous acts of the central character(s) Kevin offered in ‘Split’ the movie, is a perfect exemplar of using mental health issues to deliver a fear of an unknown entity, that of Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). Kevin harbours more than one personality, so many differing personalities in fact that he can no longer comprehend them all himself, and he is no longer

ably to identify who is the self. The movie users a glorification technique to bring each personality to the fore and treats us to them, as a delicious canvas of how the humanity of one person can be so totally manipulated to the degree that each of these personas is horrendously flawed We are offered a clear construct. This man has severe Mental health issues including a disorder (DID) which tends towards what can only be described as schizophrenic

episodes. This point is laboriously punctuated to tell us Kevin cannot deal with stressors and ultimately his most deviant self, will win out, his persona called Beast, the strongest of him. The use of mental health issues to pad out character flaws for TV and movies deprives viewers an ability to understand the actuality of a lot of conditions. If not experienced first-hand, this becomes a real problem, and adds to the stigmatisation of mental health.

Studies and scientists remain at odds over the cause, existence, and the manifestation of (DID). However, a study by professor Paul F Dell published in ‘The psychiatric clinic of North America journal’ looked at 220 persons who have (DID) and offers three contrasting strands of the condition: ‘An alter disorder, a complex dissociative disorder, and the socio-cognitive model which argues that DID is a socially-constructed,

iatrogenic condition.” Science indicates this condition, regardless of its manifestations or construct, is a mental health issue, yet movie makers would rather we don’t walk into the woods, or let the car run out of fuel. Face it, a rush of adrenaline will not be achieved if a person with a mental illness offers us the use of a phone to make a call.

SPORT

Irish Pole Vaulting in need of more support Ireland has previously been represented only by dual-citizen pole vaulters at the Olympics. DCU student Brian Flynn speaks to The College View’s Deputy Sport Editor Patrick Lynch about how he aims to change that.

lack of support is stunting the development of pole vaulting as a sport in Ireland, claims DCU student and athlete Brian Flynn.

“Although the sport is growing in popularity the whole time, there’s simply not enough resources and equipment there,” alluded Flynn. “Younger kids are very interested in the sport and at competitions the fields are always stacked with participants. “However, the equipment is very expensive and you’re talking about young athletes having to travel to Dublin or Tipperary to compete. “If kids don’t have the opportunity to try the sport they’ll never know if they have a penchant for it. “I think that’s probably the main reason why we’re not really seeing Irish pole vaulters pushing boundaries.” Indeed, never has an Irish-born pole vaulter qualified for European or World Championships. However, Ireland have been represented at these major championships by athletes of dual citizenship. Tori Pena, a native of California, qualified to represent Ireland on the basis that her grandmother was born in Derry. She became the first ever pole vaulter to represent Ireland at the Olympics in London in 2012, followed by Rio in 2016. Flynn is not irked by non-Irish born athletes representing Ireland at the Olympics. “There’s no pole vaulters from Ireland on the brink of qualifying for any major championships so it doesn’t bother me at the moment. “Perhaps it would need to be looked at in the future if an Irish born athlete’s path was being blocked, but for now it’s insignificant.” A member of Lusk Athletic Club, Flynn is part of the younger generation of the club that represent a changing of the guard of sorts. “Traditionally, Lusk was all about distance running and is home to many distance runners. “Now though, the younger athletes tend to be opting for sports such as pole vaulting, instead of distance running. “My sister also competes in pole vaulting and one of my best memories in the sport coincided with one of hers. “During my Leaving Cert year, we were both competing on the same weekend. On the Saturday she won a national gold medal, and the following day I took a national gold medal too, so that has to go down as a very special moment.”

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However, the equipment is very expensive and you’re talking about young athletes having to travel to Dublin or Tipperary to compete

Flynn’s own involvement with the sport came rather out of the blue. “I used to do a lot of hurdling and was training one day in Lusk. “The door was open to the indoor training centre. I saw this athlete using a tick to fling himself into the air, so naturally I was curious. “When I asked the coach who was present about the sport, it emerged that there was a number of young athletes interested in the sport. Soon after, a pole vaulting workshop took place, and my interest just grew and grew from that point on.” The coach who Flynn spoke to on that day, Noelle Green, is his present coach, and has had a massive influence on his career. Flynn is aiming to branch out in his athletic career, targeting a career in Decathlon. He views 2017 very much as a year of transition. “I’m training six days per week and sometimes twice a day. I’m spending a lot of time working on the technical aspects of the various events, as well as putting a lot of effort into my strength and conditioning in the gym. “Obviously the pole vault is one of my major strengths and I’m quite confident in my sprinting ability too. “There’s a 100-metre dash, 110-metre hurdles and a 400-metre run and a 1500-metre run, so I feel those would be my strongest

events. “My body type is less suited to jumping and throwing, so events like shot put and the high jump wouldn’t come as naturally to me, but they’re definitely events in which I’ve massive potential to improve.” Much of the past year has been spent battling injuries and as such the North County Dublin man refuses to look too far into the future. “Lately I’ve been having problems with the patella tendon in my knee and my right hamstring has been quite tight and there’s been a few tweaks so my training pattern hasn’t been as smooth as I would have liked. “My goal for now is to be competitive and to qualify for a European Championship. Obviously every athlete aspires to be an Olympian but there’s little point even talking about that because there’s so much work to be done.” In order to get away from his rigorous training programme, Flynn recently joined the DCU canoe club and will compete at the upcoming Inter-varsities competition. He is a self-admitted addict of coffee and is passionate when speaking on the subject. Indeed, Flynn will need to call upon all of his energy reserves when he competes next week at the National Indoor Championships, and hopefully in the future on fields further

SPORT

UCD end DCU’s Ashbourne Cup hopes with stunning second half performance DCU’s Ashbourne Cup side lines up before the quarter-final against UCD.

Image credit: DCU Dóchas Éireann

Liam Ashton Sub Editor @CVSport

DCU Dóchas Éireann

1-10

UCD

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Ashbourne Cup quarter-final

niversity College Dublin overcame DCU Dóchas Éireann with a strong second half performance in the quarter-final of the Ashbourne Cup on Tuesday evening, February 7th. The tone for the match was set after the opening score UCD’s corner forward Úna Sinnott who slotted it over from the 21-yard line. The intensity of the Dublin rivalry was evident as Sinnott gave a fist pump and a shout of encouragement to her teammates. Sinnott put the visitors further ahead shortly after taking on two defenders to score from a tight angle near the corner. DCU responded positively with a long distance effort from close to the 45, matching the class of the UCD forward on the previous plays. The game’s first goal came as DCU half-forward Claire Sexton ran at the UCD defence opting for power rather than precision to smash the sliotar past Noelle Murphy. UCD looked as if they were going to respond with a goal of their own but goalkeeper Emma Loo was quick off the line to clear the incoming high ball. The visitors were awarded for their persistence and pressure of the DCU puck outs as UCD won the ball from midfield then provided a slip pass into full-forward Úna Leacy who found the net. Despite the bitter cold playing conditions players from both sides were diving at attacking players with hurls raised to block any long passes and break down the play. One such block came from Catherine Costelloe who charged down Eva Marie Elliot to stop a clearance. Costelloe proved to be an influential player in the first half defending from inside the DCU half and also scoring four frees. DCU’s Ciara Egan explained how their opponents responded so positively after conceding a goal early on to put them behind. “UCD got more focused then and they knew how to deal with going behind more than we did. We thought we were further ahead than we actually were.” After a late first half goal DCU’s Róisín Baker the score at half time was drawn at 2-4 to 1-7. Caoimhe McCrossan, DCU’s wing-forward made a big impact for her side at the start of the second half both chasing down players and putting in a crucial block yet again stopping a UCD attack build. UCD couldn’t be stopped for much longer as their touch and control of the sliotar under pressure allowed them string together a series of attacks with Sinnott and Denise McGrath getting clean looks to shoot. Costelloe continued to punish the home side for committing fouls within scoring range as the try to slow down the UCD attacks. After a period of scrappy play which saw neither team able to secure position and a series of kick passes in an attempt to get the sliotar to hand again, it was UCD who scored off that possession.

Image credit: ashbourne

DCU kept the pressure on however and tried to drop the high ball into the full-forward line whenever they had a clear chance. Centre-back Éilis Regan provided two successive significant blocks for UCD keeping DCU out who were now chasing goals. Being down by seven points, Mary O’Connell scored a close range free to put her side down by just two scores. UCD proved to be far too strong in the closing minutes with Costelloe and Denise McGrath both scoring frees, putting the game beyond DCU and ending their Ashbourne Cup hopes. Substitute Siobhán Curtis made a strong run at the UCD goal breaking the line of defence to go one-on-one with the keeper for a consolation goal. An impressive save from Loo finished the game off and summed up UCD’s string dominant second half performance. Egan described the difference in skill and pace that their opponents showed in the second half which led them to a comprehensive win. “Their touch was a much better they were ahead of the ball a lot more than we were and I think after the first half once they started getting a lot of scores our heads kind of dropped and that was it.” An ecstatic Costelloe felt it was the determination of the team that ultimately secured them the win and the historic significance it had for this. “I think we just wanted it more it means everything to the girls. There’s a few of them who have been here a few years and we haven’t made it to Ashbourne semi-finals for, I think, four years.” Egan also looked forward to the rest of the season and to the Ashbourne Cup next year with a growing young team. “We have the shield on Saturday but that doesn’t mean much. We’ll come back stronger next year almost fifty per cent of the team are Freshers so hopefully we’ll build on this and bring the Ashbourne back next year.”

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Sinéad Kane, seven continents and a journey across the globe DCU PhD student Sinéad Kane ran seven marathons on seven continents in seven days. Image credit: sineadkane.ie

Aaron Gallagher Editor-In-Chief @AaronGallagher8

t’s 6am on Monday, January 29th and the first rays of morning sunlight are peering over the Sydney horizon. All around the landscape the only sounds that can be heard are measured exhales of breath followed by two pairs of feet crunching against the hot Australian terrain. Over 150 miles have been clocked up by this stage. Sweat, blood and tears have come and gone and the finish line is finally in sight for Sinéad Kane. She has just five per cent vision, is registered as blind and and suffers from four different eye conditions: congenital aniridia, coloboma, nystagmus and glaucoma. She is led on a tether by her guide-runner John O’Regan, measuring her final paces carefully as the weight of seven marathons across seven continents in the space of seven days bears its brunt. This is the World Marathon Challenge and she has just become the first visually impaired person to complete it, as she crosses the finish line with blisters on her feet and a peculiar wave of sadness washing over her. “The problem with goal-setting is that you prepare so much in advance of the goal, you don’t prepare what to do after you have reached it,” she says. “I did feel a very real sense of sadness; I wasn’t expecting it to hit me as quickly as it did. We finished at 6am very early on the Monday morning and by that afternoon I realised I didn’t have to get ready for the next marathon.” “I started feeling sad, I thought I would be feeling joyful, but I started thinking ‘what am I going to do next? I have been planning this for a full year…’

All of my focus, everything I had ate, slept, and breathed was over. My guide runner said to me, ‘just enjoy this moment now, enjoy the achievement,’ but I suppose I couldn’t.” Kane has had to overcome obstacles at every stage in her life. From the bullies in school who hid her bag from her, to marathon promoters who wanted to charge extra for her guide runner, to sponsors who pulled out much-needed funding for her latest marathon challenge, only to try and claim credit afterwards. It has all built up to form a steely determination inside of her. She admits that all of the setbacks and moments of lonely isolation did play heavily on her mind during the challenge. But in using it as a motivational tool she would overcome the demons of her past to achieve something truly remarkable. “All of that was going through my head, but the best revenge in life is success. This was my revenge for the people who had hurt me, for the sponsors who had pulled out.” This is just a chapter in the 33-yearold’s life so far. A full-time PhD researcher with the National Anti-Bullying Centre in DCU, she became Ireland’s first registered blind solicitor in 2009, is a certified mediator, a writer for the Irish Criminal Law Journal, a motivational speaker and a director with Ablevision Ireland. Having earned her BCL law degree and an LLM Masters in law from UCC , she successfully lobbied for the introduction of a section of legislation in relation to assistance for blind solicitors in court in 2008. She thinks methodically about her condition, but maintains that the reason she undertook the challenge was to show others that disability cannot hold a per-

son back. She says that people suffering from visual impairment possess more emotional engagement due to a lack of judgement based on outward appearances. This is why, she says, Antarctica was her favourite location from her seven expeditions which included Chile, Miami,

Madrid, Marrakech, Dubai and Sydney in quick succession. A brutal wasteland of ice and snow, the absence of wi-fi meant competitors had to engage with one another through the dying art of conversation. With people constantly engrossed in the contents of their mobile phones, Kane says that people with visual impairment can often feel isolated. “We live in such a social media dominated world where people don’t have empathy and they don’t have human connection. I think that people with disability and visual impairment have empathy because they don’t judge people by their appearance because we can’t judge people by their appearances — we take the person for who they are.” “The whole point of doing this challenge is to show people that disability does not hold you back.” “If something doesn’t challenge you, it won’t change you. It changed me for the better because the confidence I get from running, that transfers over to other areas of my life.” “On my tough days with my PhD, when I can say that I’m tired or my eyes hurt, when I wonder what’s the point, I can say to myself you were able to achieve in the World Marathon Challenge. It was a character-building experience.”

DCU suffer unexpected Sigerson exit William Dunne Sub Editor @CVSport Continued from back page

score to put this extraordinary game into extra-time. In the first minute of extra time McShane worked patiently with lively substitute Corey Quinn who skipped past DCU’s defence to set up McGilligan to slot the game’s essentially winning score. DCU to their credit didn’t die and through substitute Tom Lahiffe they reduced the deficit to two but again it was that man McShane who added another for the visitors after taking a hit from Barry Kerr he switched onto his weaker foot to finish with composure. James Durcan scored for DCU in the second period of extra time to bring the game back to two before Diarmuid O’Connor hit wide from a very scorable position. St Mary’s understandably began to slow the game down to see out the remaining minutes but DCU’s pressure forced a turnover and when captain Steven O’Brien powerhouse his way through to score, the two sides were separated by just a point. The time-wasting by the Belfast side almost had serious consequences when goalkeeper Mark Reid was penalised by the referee resulting

in a hop ball however nothing transpired. Carthy left a free short in the late stages and Smith almost got a hattrick but was denied by Reid meaning that St Mary’s still have a chance of lifting the Sigerson Cup for the first time since 1989. DCU: 1. Shane Mannion; 2. Eoin Smith, 3. Sheroz Akram, 4. Séamus Lavin; 5. Barry Kerr, 6. Kevin Feely, 7. Patrick Durcan; 8. Caolan McGonagle, 9. Hugh McFadden; 10. Diarmuid O’Connor, 11. Mark Plunkett, 12. Enda Smith (2-01); 13. James Durcan (0-01), 14. Niall Murphy (0-07, 5f), 15. Ryan Burns. Subs: Steven O’Brien (0-01), Shane Carthy (2f), Ultan Harney, Tom Lahiffe (0-01), James Mealiff. St Mary’s: 1. Mark Reid; 2. Jack Hannigan, 3. Aaron McKay, 4. Kyle Mallon; 5. Colm Byrne (0-01), 6. Michael O’Hare, 7. Conor Meyler; 8. Diarmuid McConville, 9. Oisín O’Neill; 10. Ciarán Corrigian, 11. Joe Colton, 12. Stephen McConville (0-01); 13. Kevin McKernan (0-01), 14. Matthew Fitzpatrick (0-01), 15. Cathal McShane (002). Subs: Niall Toner (1-04, 4f), Conall McCann (0-02), Conor Convery (0-01), Brian Óg McGilligan (1-00).

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INSIDE

Irish Pole Vaulting in need of more support Page 17

DCU Freshers win Harding Cup as senior football team falls to UCC

AIDAN GERAGHTY DEPUTY EDITOR Dublin City University University College Cork AET Harding Cup final

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Dublin City University 0 University College Cork 1 CUFL Premier Division semi-final IT was a week of mixed fortunes for football

in DCU. The college’s freshers team defeated University College Cork in extra time to win the Harding Cup for the first time in the 37-year

history of the university. That was followed three days later by an agonising 1-0 defeat for the senior team against the same opposition in the semi-final of the Colleges and Universities Football League Premier Division. On Sunday, February 12th, the Harding Cup final needed an extra half-hour to separate the teams, as they were scoreless after 90 minutes of play. The treacherous conditions undoubtedly had an impact on the game and this was reflected by the normally free-scoring DCU’s inability to put the ball in the net. This changed in extra time however, thanks to Jack O’Connor. The young striker, who has been a talisman for the freshers and senior team this year, gave his side the lead early in extra time, only for it to be nullified moments later. The spoils belonged to the Dubliners nonetheless, and Conor McKenna’s late goal ensured the party continued in Glasnevin at least until the following Wednesday, when the senior team once again faced UCC for a spot in the CUFL Premier Division final. The result favoured the Leesiders, this time, as a Seán O’Callaghan goal soured what was otherwise a fine performance from DCU goalkeeper Lee Doyle. “It was a very hard game for us,” DCU manager Declan Roche claimed. “We had won the Harding Cup the previous Sunday and nine of those players had to be involved in the semi-final of the Premier

DCU claimed its first ever Harding Cup success on Sunday, February 12th Image credit: Third Level Football

League on Wednesday. “We faced a very good Cork side and it was unfortunate that we couldn’t progress to the final. “We’re very proud of the players, though. We’ve had a tremendous season so far and to make it to the semi-final was a magnificent achievement.” DCU Harding Cup team: Lee Doyle;

Stephen Lawlor, Conor McKenna, Jack Traynor, Karl Melling; Seán McCarthy, Jamie Lennon, Conor Sutton, Fergal O’Donohoe; Colman O’Neill, Jack O’Connor. DCU CUFL team: Lee Doyle; Karl Melling, Gavan Kearney, Jack Blake, Craig Dowling; Rory Feely, Luke Kelly, Jamie Lennon, Jack O’Connor; Ross Tannehy, Alan O’Sullivan.

DCU suffer unexpected Sigerson exit against St. Mary’s William Dunne Sub Editor @CVSport

DCU Dóchas Éireann St. Mary’s AET Sigerson Cup quarter-final

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DESPITE Enda Smith’s two second half goals for DCU, St. Mary’s fought back to force extra time, eventually winning by the narrowest of margins in an enthralling match to end DCU’s hopes of another Sigerson title. DCU trailed by five points during the second half but turned it around and lead by four with just three minutes to go before Tyrone’s Cathal McShane levelled with the last kick of the game, at a sunny St. Clare’s last Wednesday, February 8th. St. Mary’s Brian Óg McGilligan netted in the opening minutes of extra time and unfor-

tunately for the Glasnevin side they couldn’t bridge the gap meaning it will be the Belfast side that will partake in the final weekend of the Sigerson Cup. DCU started better getting men behind the ball and counter attacking fast when they retained the ball, and although they couldn’t conjure up any scores from play, they forced St Mary’s to foul. The travelling side did their best to distract free taker Niall Murphy by shouting and moving in front of him however the Sligo forward kicked three perfect frees in the opening 15 minutes. St Mary’s then went through a purple patch scoring six points without reply through frees from Niall Toner and magnificent points from Kevin McKernan and Conall McCann, taking full advantage of the wind. Toner missed a free to stretch the lead to four just as DCU team captain Steven O’Brien was introduced to the game. Murphy slotted another placed ball right before half-time to keep just two points between the team at the break.

DCU were out on the pitch first for the second half and were notably more pumped following manager Niall Moyna’s half-time team talk. However, their seemingly positive attitudes didn’t show on the scoreboard as Colm Byrne and McShane swept over two early second half points. Toner scored his fourth free of the afternoon to put Mary’s five point ahead before the first of two turning points in the second half. Murphy scored two more for DCU including his side’s first point from play and then with 42 minutes gone, Mayo’s Patrick Durcan floated a ball into the air which was brilliantly won by Smith who held off his marker well before finishing on the ground to put the sides level. St Mary’s didn’t wilt and through Matthew Fitzpatrick and through the engine that is Conor Meyler they went back in front by two. The defining moment of the second half came on 54 minutes when McKernan attempted to offload the ball to Fitzpatrick before DCU ‘keeper Shane Mannion intercepted what would have been a certain goal, to set up an

attack for his side. The resulting attack ended up with another high ball finding its way to Enda Smith who netted his second goal of the game in dramatic circumstances to put DCU in the lead for the first time since the 19th minute. A well worked team move involving Sheroz Akram and Kevin Feely set up Murphy for another point as well as two converted frees by substitute Shane Carthy put DCU four points up with just three minutes to go. The atmosphere lightened around DCU’s sportsgrounds as it looked like the 2015 champions were returning to another semi-final but with two minutes left there was a scramble on DCU’s 21-yard line with the ball falling kindly to Toner who slotted to give Mary’s hope. An extremely tense minute or so unfolded and although normal time was up St Mary’s fought hard to the death and with the last kick of the game 2015 Under 21 All-Ireland winner Cathal McShane popped up with the crucial Continued on page 19