The Gown: May 2015

20th May 2015

SU lobbying could see student payments paid monthly.

Ruth Maxwell Contributor

Northern Ireland’s Only Independent Student Newspaper, Established 1955 BELFAST FEST.

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How will it survive now that QUB have pulled their funding?

Looking for something completely different to do in Belfast?

Is the media putting too much pressure on women to conform?

QUB DOUBLES INCOME, POSTGRAD CENTRE OPENS YET BURSARIES CUT Niamh McGovern News Editor @mcgovern_niamh Cuts have dominated the Student Unions Council’s agenda for the past academic year and are likely to be severe across the University and SU, next year.

Yet in 2014 Queen’s University Belfast Foundation more than doubled its income from £6.5 million in 2013 to £14.3 million, £14.3 million against £6.5 million in 2013, according to a report by Howard Lake on www.fundraising.co.uk.

Lake reports that exceptionally large donations came from the Atlantic Philanthropies.

This contribution gave £8 million towards medicine, sharing education and improving children’s lives.

Donations to the annual alumni fund amounted to £328,000.

Queen’s has unveiled its new Postgraduate Centre this month, offering students a campus centred, state-of-the art study space. The aesthetically celebrated building was funded under capital expenditure, as part of the ongoing refurbishment programme this year. Queen’s state that expenditure for construction processes, which include the Bernard Crossland building and Biological Sciences school is estimated to be £299m.

Meanwhile, support funds for the most vulnerable students are being heavily cut. President Ciarán Gallagher announced at last month’s Council meeting, that the annual £100 bursary will be cut. Currently all students with family incomes not exceeding £34,203 receive this bursary. It provides a source of income for many services across the University campus, including Blackwell’s Bookshop in the SU, PEC membership, and printing services in the McClay Library are among services supported by the Student Experience Bursary, which is deposited onto the recipient’s student card.

The annual £500 Support Bursary will be cut to £380. This bursary had previously been £800 for entry in 2012 and prior to the academic year 20122013, £1100. It is given to all students with a family income up to £19,204.

The 2013/14 academic year was recorded as financially successful year for the University, it recorded a total income of £298.4(m?), with a surplus of £14.1m, according to Queen’s annual financial report for 2013/14. Highest income was calculated from government grants and student fee expenses.

Queen’s Cyber Security Centre also announced a £38m expansion investment this March, £9m from its own finance, which is expected to create another 25 jobs, while 1,010 student places will be

cut from student admissions, starting next September.

For staff, a voluntary retiring incentive will be set up, to allow a reduction of 236 academic and general staff over the coming years.

Both QUB and University of Ulster have announced their annual cuts in response to the Department of Education cuts across the UK. University of Ulster has cut over 50 degrees from its prospectus for the next academic year. QUB Vice-Chancellor Patrick Johnson said “These are really serious times, coming off the back of having already absorbed 16% cuts over the last four years”. The Department of Employment and Learning is set to cut £8m of Queen’s subsidy funding.

In a recent report to Council Gallagher stated that, “It was brought to my attention on 12th March that the Higher Education Funding and Student Finance Project Group were proposing to reduce the Student Cash bursary from £500 to £380 and to remove altogether the Student Experience bursary which is currently £100…thousands of students are granted the bursary which is means assessed and granted to student from families of incomes of £35k or less. The explanation by the university seems to be that DEL had advised cutting the bursary. The thorough reasoning behind this cut is being sought.”

The SU will take a significant hit from the funding cuts, including services which rely on the Experience Bursary for business, including Blackwell’s

bookshop, the SU shop and food services within the Union. Gallagher stated, “The removal of the bursary could lead to higher prices and/or the removal of some services on campus.”

First year Mathematics student Lauren Touhey said “The bursary scheme was a great help for textbooks, which tend to be far too expensive for students. A lot of courses, like maths, depend on students to fund their own printing, and most students couldn’t afford all the required printing in the McClay without it. The bursary quite literally allows us the means to study out degrees.”

A spokesperson for QUB commented on cuts to bursaries. “In the context of severe budget cuts to higher education in 2015-16, and to lessen the negative impact on student places, Minister for Employment and Learning, Stephen Farry, has reduced the current requirement for institutions to spend 20% of their additional fee income on Widening Participation to 10%. In line with this DEL policy decision, and to take account of the substantial cuts in DEL funding, the University will reduce the current bursary for eligible students, entering in 2015-16, from £500 to £380 and discontinue the Student Experience Bursary of £100. These actions will partly mitigate the full impact of the budget cuts on student intakes and, in steady state, protect approximately 380 undergraduate places.”

thegownatqub.wordpress.com

Waiting months for the next installment of the student loan to appear in one’s bank account could become a thing of the past, if QUBSU & NUS-USI have their way. The recent NUS-USI conference delegates unanimously passed a motion to campaign for monthly student finance payments rather than the tri-annual payment scheme that already exists.

On Monday 13th of April, DEL Minister Stephen Farry announced that a public consultation exercise would be held, looking into the feasibility of the scheme. He stated “Student finance has long been a crucial enable of higher education study, and I want to ensure accessibility into and through higher education for all learners”

Sarah Wright, the proposer of the motion and former NUS-USI Welfare officer said “I am delighted that Minister Farry has changed his position on considering the merits of monthly student finance payments by launching a public consultation. Ideally, there would be an option for monthly installments alongside the current scheme, with two payments in September to cover upfront costs and continue throughout the year and the summer months. I’m hopeful that this scheme could be rolled out to GB and International Students ”

Last year NUS-USI published a “Pound in your pocket” report, suggested that 37% of the students surveyed had taken on some form of debt since they began their studies, but more worryingly 5% of students were taking on payday loans to cover their basic needs. The rising costs of rent, food, childcare, course costs and transport have made it increasingly more difficult for students to budget, and have had a detrimental effect on the well-being of students.

Sarah added “This scheme would benefit all students who wish to use it. Students will not have to wait months for another payment and therefore be forced to approach payday lenders, go into their overdraft facilities, visit food banks or face homelessness”.

In September 2014, Wright tweeted regarding monthly installments during a funding debate in the NI Assembly, and this was read out by Sinn Fein’s Phil Flanagan. In November, Queen’s Student Union unanimously backed the proposal instructing sabbatical officers to lobby the Department for Education and Learning to look into the change to payment structure.

As part of the delegation from Queen’s at the NUS-USI Conference held in Templepatrick, Wright personally asked Minister Farry if he felt that it would be appropriate for his salary to be paid every 3-5 months. She added that in Scotland, students are able to avail of a monthly student financial payment throughout their academic year and summer and why could Northern Ireland students not avail of the same scheme. The Minister responded that he had not looked into this, but going by the level of support from fellow students in the room, perhaps they should.

In addition, Minister Farry further announced that a public consultation would be held looking into postgraduate and part-time support.

The UK Chancellor George Osbourne announced in his Autumn statement, that for the first time ever loans would be put in place for those wishing to enrol in Postgraduate courses. While the new loan scheme would provide loans up to £10,000 from 2016 onwards, they are currently only available for students studying in England. At present students who wish to study at Masters degree level and studying in Northern Ireland need to self-fund or receive a postgraduate loan from the bank, repayable upon graduating regardless of employment or not.

Both these announcements have been warmly welcomed by Student Council, which has long campaign for changes to Higher Education.

THE GOWN The Gown Team: 2014/15 Editor: Kylie Noble editor@thegown.net News editors: Liam Cassidy Pete Hodson Niamh Mc Govern gownnews@outlook.com Features editors: Amy Slack Niall Coleman gownfeatures@outlook.com Arts editor: Laura Shields gownarts@outlook.com Lifestyle editor: Chantelle Frampton gownlifestyle@outlook.com Opinions editor: Kaity Hall gownopinion@outlook.com Sports editor: Ryan McDowell gownsports@outlook.com Business manager: Philip Barr gownbusiness@outlook.com

Editorial Kylie Noble Editor @Noble_Kylie

I like to hope all students come to University with a head full of dreams. I certainly did; moving from a farm to Belfast and being the first Noble to attend University, it’s been quite an adventure. The past three years have exceeded all my hopes for what Queen’s could mean and be for me. Among all the ups and downs, there has been one constant fixture; this newspaper. I starting reading The Gown in my A level years and have given most of myself to it for three years. It’s hard to believe that my time with the paper is coming to an end.

I came into this year wanting to shake things up and I haven’t done this as much as I wanted to but there have been core moments I am particularly proud of. Holding our Vice Chancellor to account and reporting that he believed pay was not a high motivator for his staff (yet earning the tidy sum of £249 K), being kicked out of Elms during fresher’s sign in because we led with a story on students failing to get places in halls and in this issue, bringing to attention the cuts to bursaries and Queen’s priorities regards

funding.

Yet being a good editor is as much about reserve as it is bravery. It is as much about the stories you don’t publish, or can’t due to the likelihood of running into legal difficulties. There is nothing more frustrating than discovering wrongdoing but with a source that wishes to be anonymous and the editor being personally liable for any legal repercussions, tongues must be held.

There are stories I could have published this year that would have interested readers a lot but of which the ethics of doing so did not sit right with me.

When feeling unsure about the strength of a story it is important to ask, is this in the public interest? The public may well be interested but if it veneered more to the tabloid, gossipy side I believed it was not the direction this paper should take.

I want to thank my team, contributors, readers, The Gown Trust (with special thanks to chair Maeve Quigley) and Orry Robinson for whom 60th celebrations would have been impossible without. I send my warmest wishes to Niamh McGovern and Niall Coleman, next year’s editor and deputy editor respectively. I am very excited to see what they bring to the paper next year.

For, I and so many of my peers, a wonderful and challenging time in our lives is coming to an end.

I will miss this paper so much, miss the bubble of QUB and I am more than a little scared of what the world beyond Queen’s is like. Maria Keegan, writing for The Yale Daily News before her tragic, untimely

death, in an essay entitled “The Opposite of Loneliness” sums it up perfectly.

“It’s not quite love and it’s not quite community; it’s just this feeling that there are people, an abundance of people, who are in this together. Who are on your team. When the check is paid and you stay at the table. When it’s four a.m. and no one goes to bed. That night with the guitar. That night we can’t remember. That time we did, we went, we saw, we laughed, we felt…These tiny groups that make us feel loved and safe and part of something even on our loneliest nights when we stumble home to our computers -- partner-less, tired, awake. We won’t have those next year. We won’t live on the same block as all our friends. We won’t have a bunch of group-texts.

This scares me. More than finding the right job or city or spouse -- I’m scared of losing this web we’re in.

This elusive, indefinable, opposite of loneliness. This feeling I feel right now.”

Yet with an ending, there is also a beginning and this doesn’t just apply to those among us who are graduating. You may feel elated with how the last year has gone or you may have had a tough time and are weary. To those still at Queen’s next year I reiterate what I wrote in my first editorial; get stuck into life beyond your studies. I probably have done so too much but I don’t regret it as it through student activism and extra-curricular activities that I have learnt the most. Wherever you are next September, I wish you the very best.

Events Manager: Orry Robinson Design editor: Amy-Leigh Shaw Web Designer: Ronan Rogers Contributors: Niall McKenna Laura Fulton Ruth Maxwell Ethan McLaughlin Sophie Hogan Conor McFall Jordan White Sammy Wade With thanks to our printers, The County Down Spectator.

@TheGownQUB /TheGownQUB Letters@thegown.net The Gown Queen’s University Belfast Students’ Union University Road Belfast BT7 1NF 028 9097 1057 thegownatqub.wordpress.com

The Hood

The Hood is the Gown’s anonymous whistleblower cum satirist. Founded in 1976 by a generous donation from the Sir Humphrey Hood Foundation, the Hood has consistently broken news of wrongdoing in the elected officials of the Students’ Union, as well as the wider student movement and the university itself. Loved by people who care too much about SU politics and despised by officers who should care more, the Hood delivers the news and the schmooze on those who waste your union dues. @upthehood

most of them were of a strictly terminological bent, the major news which emerged was that the role of the VP Campaigns is to be engulfed by the presidency and the eclectically assembled VP Community role is With the last council meeting we reach the end of being merged with the VPCS to form the seemingly the academic year and we slump into the fly-blown euphemistically titled ‘Student Activities’ officer, who dog days of summer, when sabbatical officers and will presumably help me co-ordinate an egging attack officers-elect can rest safely in the knowledge that the on the University of Ulster. window of accountability will be closed, barred and

We’ve also got a jaunty flotilla of new unpaid nailed, and that nothing remains but to hand over to officers, who’ll operate on a part time, unpaid basis, their hand-picked descendants and sit and scratch presumably living on conference catering and burning their laurels. council agendas for warmth. Still, they outnumber the

Still, never let it be said that the council year full time officers and with the mechanism to regulate ended with a whimper. Although the year has been their power on EMC falling because a handful of predominated by sectarian brickbats and a particularly councillors visited the jacques, it could be jolly to see stubborn amendment, the last meeting had in excess how their liberation comes into effect. of seventy constitutional amendments, and although Each of these motions carried with it a

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number of very heated speeches, but oddly, all of the speeches were in favour of the amendments, with the opposition largely being the passive-aggressive ‘abstention’ flavour, rather than the hearty chocolate of objection. The only other relevant business was a smattering of NUS humbuggery, with a handful of councillors mandating that our delegates vote in favour of free education, and a smaller handful opposing on the grounds of ‘procedure’, or something equally impenetrable and irrelevant.

All that remains is for me to wish that you get what deserve in your exams, and reveal that I, mild-mannered VC Patrick Johnston have been writing this all along, you fools.

NEWS

Motion for Palestinian solidarity just passes with VP Education Hannah Niblock dissociating Liam Cassidy News Editor @casdee

At its penultimate meeting, Student Council passed a motion that mandates lobbying the University to establish a scholarship programme for Palestinian students and twin with a Palestinian higher education (HE) institution.

The motion was the subject of extended debate at Council on Monday 27th April, only passing by a slim margin and after an amendment was made to dissociate VP Education Hannah Niblock from the lobbying efforts.

The detailed copy of the motion called on the Council to recognise, “with concern [,] that the punitive Israel occupation of the Palestinian Territories […] is soon to enter its 48th year”. It focused on “the detrimental impact” that this has had on higher education in Palestine, and outlines a number of examples of the difficulties faced by Palestinian students.

The motion stated: “Council believes that the idea any student must obtain a permit from an occupying military force in order to study at home or abroad to be wrong in both practice and principle. The permit scheme imposed by Israel is deliberately inaccessible and made highly complex so as to ensure total exacerbation and bewilderment for Palestinians, in particular those who openly express their opposition to Israel’s policies”.

Two exemplary incidents are outlined by the motion; one in which a student traveling from Gaza to the West Bank in 2012 to study law was denied

on behalf of QUB Palestine Solidarity Society. Mr Loughran, next year’s incoming VP Community, explained, “the QUB Palestinian Solidarity Society approached me to submit a motion and after working together to come to a final draft of a motion, this was the end result.”

Before Council’s meeting on Monday 28th April, Mr. Loughran said, “The motion has received an overwhelming amount of positive support from people within and outside of the University, though some resistance come Monday is to be expected at Council. I think it’s incredibly important that this motion is looked at through a humanitarian lens by students, without any bias of Councillors’ party-political views.” Ellie Drake echoed this sentiment at Council on the night and said, “we have a duty to uphold fundamental solidarity to all students”.

As regards to the potential twin relationship with Bethlehem University and other Palestinian institutions, the conversation has already begun: “There has already been some initial contact with Bethlehem University through the QUBPSS” according to Mr. Loughran, “and Bethlehem University have showed their support for the motion and its contents.”

There was plenty of resistance to the motion and it Bethlehem University was subject to lengthy debate with multiple speakers exit permits, the second an Israeli raid and closure of aim: to twin Queen’s with a Palestinian HE instituin support of and opposing it. There was movement a Palestinian school in East Jerusalem in 2012. The tion and establish scholarship programs. It mandates to vote to suspend the motion indefinitely, as one motion called for Council to “express outrage” at these Council to “formally twin QUBSU with the Bethle- councillor deemed it “unnecessarily divisive”, but this human rights infringements as well as the “illegal hem Student Senate” and the elected student officers failed. […] wall and military bases that help to impose said to “inform, educate and raise the consciousness of our As a result of the prolonged debate, VP permit regime above and beyond any reasonable or students about the oppression faced by Palestinian Education Hannah Niblock, made a motion to amend legitimate security needs”. students” as well as “lobby other Students’ Unions to the bill to dissociate herself from lobbying obligations

The numerous resolutions of the motion take similar action”. as this would distract from her core work. outline a long-term campaign to display solidarity

Current QUBSU councillors Paul Loughran This amendment was approved, and the motion with Palestinian students and achieve the ultimate and Ellie Drake submitted the motion to Council passed with a slim margin.

NEWS

My Annual Report in Poem Form Ciaran Gallagher SU President

What a busy, exciting year it’s been And barely a minute wasted Many challenges this year has seen But victory’s yet been tasted You may view it whatever way you please But at all events it was no breeze The Strategic Plan, from research bred Was at the centre of much we’ve done To place our gaze five years ahead See what races must be run Now our Union has been found wanting In five years our merits shall warrant flaunting The DEL cuts reared its ugly head With grave threat to education And student activism naught being dead Took arms against the situation ‘Tween petitions, consults, protests and more We gave the bloody Exec ‘What’s For!’ Amidst these nasty cuts we faced The Union’s finances needed reviewed For the years of cuts have slowed our pace Thus fairer deal with our Uni, much less escued, Is needed so talks have all but produced Such ample funding to us loosed The Higher Education Review Is set to trial our Uni Which ensures the demands we make for you Should pass through a lot more smoothly Its progress slowed I blush to add But recomposed we’re back on track In years to come it’s more unbeknown Our Union may be blessed With a new building that we can call our own But autonomous issues needed addressed The Uni had to understand Our principles were in fact demands We need to hear every single voice From wherever its situated Part Time Officers is our best choice And this future we’ve initiated We’ve researched and prepped and all that remains Is that our successors take up the reigns I could go on but I sadly fear My vocabulary would run short Our team’s achievements ring loud and clear I couldn’t be prouder to report Your VPs deserve the highest praise And pride like fire in my heart’s ablaze Lastly I would thank you all with pride For your quality that you brought here And graced us with and toiled ‘longside Your Union for all we hold dear And in years from now we’ll all look back upon Those days when we stood and fought and won

Captain defends ‘cuddly’ relationship with Vice-Chancellor KN: Are you content with how your term has went and what do you hope your legacy will be?

CG: Am I content? No. There is much more I would have wanted to do but at the same time I realised between a mixture of personal reasons in life KN: Surely over a day that’s not very effective. and realising ambitions in life outside of the Union CG: No, but it was used in one of the pop-up desks and also recognising some of the potential talent that campaigns whilst we were waiting for...I’m trying to could take my place, I thought it was best to not run.

Editor Kylie Noble questions SU President remember now, we were waiting to launch the petition I think the Union is in good hands next year. I would Ciaran Gallagher on the year gone by.

I think. I guess one of the failures of the DEL cuts, like my legacy to be, the person who pushed for the The full transcript can be viewed on www. well...one of the ways in which the DEL cuts campaign reintroduction of part time officers and I suppose to thegownatqub.wordpress.com may have been better would be for a start, not using the have put up a suitably strong opposition to the cuts that word cut. The term cut has been used so often that it’s are starting to devastate the University at this time.

KN: When you were speaking to me in September, become almost white noise to the average person. you recognised that within the staff and students of KN: With the part time officers being brought the SU, there was feelings that the Union should have KN: Among the SU circles, I in, obviously that’s a positive in that there’s more more political bite. Do you feel that you brought this, have sensed disappointment in that you ran in a very representation, more democracy on Council, more more political awareness? ‘fight the system’, a very bold campaign as a Pirate issues being tackled. However, these are students CG: I’d say certainly so. Not to the extent I want yet seemed to quickly become very friendly with the working for free in the Union essentially and with to, there’s still a gap to be filled. It could have more University.

In a status on Facebook before second the motion passed about the living wage which if political bite yet I think we’ve increased in that respect semester you asked students what they wanted to implemented, would seem to jar with unpaid officers. since we last chatted. We’ve certainly been up and see you carry out and one student commented “stop CG: The part time officers won’t be suspected to do down to the DEL office more often than previous giving teddy bears to the Vice Chancellor and stand anymore work than someone not getting a wage; you years. We’ve met with the First Minister’s Special up to the University.”

Do you accept that you became could say someone not getting a wage shouldn’t be Advisors. We had a rally that made the news... somewhat institutionalised for a period? expected to do anymore work at all but it proves to CG: No I don’t.

I think the reality of the discussions function well in other Unions in the UK and Ireland, KN: Were you disappointed in the numbers for that and the negotiations...in my opinion it’s not about and we used to have them up until probably about rally? It was very small in numbers. shouting for the sake of it.

It’s not about soap boxing ten or so years ago. There are definitely still groups of CG: I was a bit but it was meaningful nonetheless. It or polishing halos. It’s about doing what you can in students on campus-student parents, student carers, did strike a message and it was a good thing that we a realistic fashion to get the best deal for those you international students-who are still difficult to engage represented at March 13th against Stormont House represent.

My reputation is not my primary concern. and I have no doubt have things to say, just we aren’t cuts. Before Rebecca Hall [NUS-USI President] was My primary concern is doing whatever possible, as hearing them. More our fault than theirs. asked to speak at that event, Queen’s was asked to effectively possible to achieve what we can for students. speak but we passed it on as she can represent further As for the teddy bear remark; yes, I gave the Vice KN: When you came into the role, you were pretty education as well.

Chancellor a teddy bear with a SU branded t-shirt on it disillusioned with the Union. Do you feel much more KN: Do you not feel if you had of been clearer in the which cost £5. Just I guess to remind him of the SU at confident about its capabilities? all times but in response to that particular remark; if CG: It’s got some leaps and bounds to make. That’s message, if you had of said your fees could increase, all we needed to do, to get a good deal out of the Vice what the Strategic Plan has been about and some of if you don’t oppose these cuts, that would have had Chancellor was to give him a teddy bear, surely the the ideas in the diagnostic finding. We acknowledge more impact than the vague message which was used? logical thing to do would be to send him crates of the our representation needs to be wider, democracy needs CG: Well we did use that message. I’m trying to think things. It’s not about making enemies and appearing to to be put back in the centre. how we portrayed it exactly, but we did say that for be a hero; it’s about getting shit done. example, that one thing was used for a day, to get a quick idea on the ground, what students knew about

Kylie Noble Editor @Noble_Kylie

the situation, a little survey was used for no more than a day to ask are you aware of the cuts, do you know it could mean this? One of the questions was, did you know it could affect fees...

‘Cab now pay later’ contract awarded to Value Cabs – but are students aware? should ever go without a safe ride home - and the scheme was a vital lifeline for many students”.

Details have emerged that QUBSU have quietly dropped Fonacab as the provider of the service in favour of rival company Value Cabs – with minimal notification of the change. Recently an advertising ban Established in 2011 by then VP Welfare Adam ner has appeared outside the Students’ Union. IncumMcGibbon, the Fonacab-QUBSU ‘cab now pay later’ bent VP Patrick Sally announced the extension of the scheme enabled Queen’s students to travel home by Fonacab scheme at Student Council on 18th Novemtaxi without payment. Student cards are taken by the ber last year, but has since confirmed that Value Cabs driver as a guarantor of payment, which are returned to now possess the contract. Mr Sally has been unable to the SU the following day and released to students on provide any details about the circumstances behind the receipt of the taxi fare incurred the previous night. Set- change in taxi provider or reasons for the limited comting up the scheme formed a key pledge in Mr McGib- munication with the student body, but has informed bon’s election manifesto in 2010, which he suggested the Gown of his intention to “update the [SU] website would improve student safety on nights out. Hundreds and other forms of social media” in the coming days. of Queen’s students have availed of the scheme over

The Gown has been approached by SU secuthe past 4 years, avoiding a nocturnal walk home owing rity staff alarmed at the lack of publicising the change to lack of cash. Mr McGibbon, who as Campaign in taxi provider – and the risks this poses for student Manger, oversaw the re-election of Green MP Caroline safety. It appears that transitional period between taxi Lucas, stated that he set up the scheme “because I was providers was not immediate, prompting concerns concerned about reports of students - particularly first from SU security that the scheme had been abandoned years - getting stranded in various parts of Belfast on altogether. A member of QUBSU’s security team, who nights out, with no idea where they were. No student wishes to remain anonymous, stated it “seems discour-

Pete Hodson News Editor @PeteHodson

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aging that the VP Welfare wouldn’t inform students of a safe way for students to make their way home and not have to worry about paying the bill ASAP.” The Gown has been asking members of the student body whether they were aware that Value Cabs now provide the service. Mark Mairs, a second year Land Use and Environmental Management student, told the Gown of his surprise that the switch has taken place with little in the way of notifying students, adding “surely such a move, regardless of intent, has the possibility of jeopardising student safety”. Fellow second year Jack Fitzsimmons revealed that he was unaware such a scheme was ever offered, suggesting that “the SU need to up their game in terms of getting the message out”. Third year student Katie Matthews stated “I think we should have been advised, had I not been made aware of the fact today I could well have found myself in a vulnerable position if refused a fare

by Fonacab when having no money”. Of the ten students interviewed, none were aware that the Fonacab contract had lapsed and been awarded to Value Cabs.

Four students – including one third year – had never heard of the ‘cab now pay later’ scheme.

FEATURES

The Gown meets CISTA NI (Cannabis Is Safer Than Alcohol) gent and disproportionate drug laws on his return to Northern Ireland. “If we are committing a crime, where’s the victim?”. Paul Birch, who made millions following the sale of social networking giant Bebo invested £100,000 in the party who are now contesting Gaibhin McGranaghan candidates across the UK with close cooperation with Contributor cannabis advocacy groups in the Republic of Ireland.

“We’ve been going since February of this year, so we’re pretty young. But we’ve got a solid As advocacy for decriminalisation of cannabis spreads number of candidates for Westminster,” said Donacross the globe, Cannabis is Safer Than Alcohol nelly. “Over here we’re standing in West Tyrone, East (CISTA) have made history by becoming the first Derry, North Down and Upper Bann. For now we’re single-issue party committed to drugs reform to mostly running on that singular issue, but I mean, screen a party-political broadcast on Northern Irish we’re all very keen to branch out into other policy television. The Gown met with Glenn Donnelly, areas. And that’s the beauty of it: prohibition has a CISTA’s candidate for North Down to learn of the profoundly negative impact on any society. Legalisaparty’s organisation, canvassing the doors of Northern tion would be hugely positive step forward, especially Ireland, and the party political broadcast which had in the midst of a recession. Unlike the other parties, Peter Robinson recoiling in disgust. we’re here to add to society. There’s an estimated

As our conversation began, we were in£900m worth of cannabis consumption in the UK. trigued by Mr. Donnelly’s own story with cannabis, Think how much we could save on police resources and the formation of CISTA. As a younger man, he through legalization. It doesn’t have to be the case of left Belfast behind in a bold decision to throw himself constant cuts”. into the cannabis reform movement in Vancouver, Mr. Donnelly puts the case across for decriminaliCanada. In seven years, he opened several dispensasation with eloquence great conviction. When asked ries and ‘vape’ stores, and became heavily involved about who is leading the way in drugs reform, he with the movement in Vancouver, inspired and inimmediately turns to Canada. “Medicinal usage is fluenced by Canadian advocacy figures such as Mark perfectly legal there, and it’s actually overseen by a Emery. After seven years in the ‘freedom’ of Vancou- federal government agency called Health Canada. ver, Donnelly was disappointed to return to strinThe interesting thing is that companies from abroad

Niall Coleman Features Editor

have actually come to invest a lot in this industry, which is a huge boost for the Canadian economy.

It’s called the ‘Green Dollar’, and in fact one of the main companies , Tweed Marijuana Inc., has a market worth of $101m. In the US, a few states like California and Colorado are on the right track too, but it’s too much of a legal headache for companies to go for, since that kind of legislation is done at state rather than federal level”.

He is of course aware of the bumpy ride ahead. “Because it’s in the interest of the major pharmaceutical companies, lobbying groups and cancer charities to keep it illegal,” he said. “I’m by no means criticising the aims and work people involved in those charities do now. However, the reality is that they’re essentially industries in themselves now. They function like businesses. If cannabis was legalised tomorrow, that’s most of their staff out of a job. And the pharmaceutical companies are basically government-endorsed drug dealers, worse than the cartels and dealers who sell the stuff on street corners. One example is GW Pharmaceuticals, who hold a monopoly on the industry. By stifling competition with prohibition, governments are prohibiting competitors from producing cannabis products which may in fact be better.”

When challenged with the criticism that legalisation would put strain on taxpayers by increasing pressure on the NHS with rising addiction rates, he is largely dismissive. “If you’re going to use the

addiction argument, you might as well criminalise the caffeine we’re drinking in our coffees right now, the nicotine in your cigarettes, the alcohol in your booze or the artificial sweeteners in Diet Coke. I’d like to ask those carrying out that particular study about how many of their subjects had a genetic predisposition to addiction. I don’t deny cannabis can be addictive. Any substance can. Though I dispute claims that it’s either the sole or main factor causing such cases. There’s very little scientific data actually corroborating with those findings.”

Northern Ireland is not Canada, or California, or Holland. As reasonable as Donnelly’s demands seem, the idea of such issues being discussed in Stormont seems inconceivable. “I’d like to think it’s around the corner. The socioeconomic benefits are there to see in places I just outlined; and if that’s not good enough, the Green Dollar should surely be a good financial incentive. But of course, everywhere has its own set of different customs and traditions.

Some are closer than others. I think education is the key to challenging the taboo surrounding cannabis”.

Donnelly’s positivity is refreshing, and perhaps at odds with most politicians. “I mean, the Greens, the Lib Dems, I think they’re on the right track. But at the end of the day, what tangible action has been taken? It’s all well and good for politicians to put on a progressive front that might elicit potential young voters, but its solid legislation that matters in the end”.

Make your coursework count Like and subscribe-the allure of with the Undergraduate Awards social media of Fire and Bugsy Malone, Ariane Koek, head of International Arts Development at CERN, and Ingrid Vanderveldt, Enterpreneur-in-Residence at Dell.

Being such a respected organisation, The Undergraduate Awards understandably receives Like it or not, the deadline for summer assignments submissions from across the globe; last year, entrants is looming. Whether you like to plan and draft over included students from Mexico, Nigeria, and a few weeks or just power through with a single draft Bangladesh. As the programme grows in popularity the night before submitting, a well-written essay (having received a whopping 4,792 submissions last inevitably takes a lot of time and effort. year), the competition is certainly fierce – but that’s no

And then it gets sent away to be assessed. reason not to apply.

All your hard work is reduced to a mark on your

After all, QUB students have done brilliantly transcript, while the essay itself just ends up in an in the Undergraduate Awards in recent years. Last ignored folder on your laptop, never to be read year, six Programme Winners came from Queen’s, again. The whole process can certainly feel a little in fields spanning from the arts and humanities to anticlimactic. science and medicine. These winners not only received But if you feel like your coursework deserve further a free ticket to the UA Global Summit in Dublin, but recognition beyond assessment, there is something also became members of the UA Alumni Network. you can do. You can sign up for The Undergraduate A further thirteen QUB students were Highly Awards, an all-subject awards programme which ‘aims Commended, meaning that they were recognised as to celebrate and support the world’s brightest and being in the top 10% of their field. most innovative undergraduate students.’

You can submit coursework that has already

Open to all penultimate and final year been graded, or work that is still being assessed. students, the Undergraduate Awards recognises There’s no reason not to apply – you can register for and rewards students whose coursework offers an free on the UA website. Students are encouraged ‘innovative approach’ to their subject. Students can to register now before places fill up, even if they do submit up to three essays, projects, or pieces of not plan to submit any work until closer to the UA’s research that they have written for their course. All deadline on the 16th June. subjects are catered for, with twenty-five categories

As The Undergraduate Awards put it, ‘you’ve from Nursing & Midwifery to Media & Journalism. already done the work – now get the recognition!’

If you win, your work is published in the For more information about the Undergraduate internationally-circulated Undergraduate Journal. In Awards, or if you want to register, go to http://www. addition, you will be invited to a three-day summit undergraduateawards.com/ held in Trinity University, Dublin, where you’ll hear talks from a variety of speakers who are experts in their respective fields. Last year, speakers included Lord David Puttnam, the filmmaker behind Chariots

Amy Slack Features Editor

have been rewired to expect instant gratification and cope with a constant stream of information from multiple sources, one study finding that as a result, young people active on social media had shorter attention spans than the elderly. Attention spans overall have dropped from 12 to 5 minutes in the last Social media has had and continues to have an ten years. Conversely however more activity could incredible impact on the modern world. It is possible be seen in the problem-solving and decision-making to create and view videos viewed by millions, swipe centres in the brains of those who do not use the through a dozen potential lovers and even organise internet. a political rally - with a smartphone, in minutes. It is

This is not to say that we should abandon a rampant cultural phenomenon that shows no signs the internet however. It is an incredible resource, one of slowing, placing a tremendous amount of power that has even produced means of combatting its own at our fingertips and bombarding our senses with distracting nature. StayFocused is a Google Chrome information. With immediate access to everything extension that limits time on sites such as Youtube, anywhere, it is obvious that the world will change. whereas the iPhone app Forest is more inventive, What might come as a surprise is that we are planting a virtual tree that will wither and die should changing too, and not necessarily for the better. you open Facebook or play a game. Even better is

The facts and figures surrounding social software that actually increases productivity. Google media are staggering; if Facebook were a country, it Docs for example allows multiple authors to edit an would be the sixth most populous on Earth with over individual document simultaneously. In a university 175 million citizens, with users spending over 700 context this is invaluable, as is the ability to instantly billion minutes on the site every month. Twitter users message friends and faculty in a way that strengthens produce 500 million tweets a day, each restricted to social and academic ties. This level of connectivity 140 characters. With so much information current simply was not possible before the advent of social online content is made to be short, sweet and quickly media. digested. This is synonymous with the rise of clickbait

Of course applications and features such as journalism and the use of sensationalist headlines, these can be a distraction in of themselves. Ultimately arousing readers curiosity but withholding enough social media is a double-edged sword that, while a information to compel the click. Social media users powerful tool, requires diligence and responsibility to are absorbing so much information that media outlets handle. are adapting to be heard. In turn our minds are adapting to listen.

Brains are not static but grow and change according to experience. A number of studies have been done on the effects of social media on the brain, with UCLA showing that just five hours of browsing the internet changes the way brains work. Our brains

Niall McKenna Contributor

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ARTS

Gown About Town

by Laura Shields

The Gown provides reviews of the must see theatre, cinema and music events for the coming weeks

Loud and Local - Steven VX Laura Shields Arts & Entertainment Editor @LauraShields86

Theatre The Shadow of a Gunman: 3rd May – 6th June at the Lyric Theatre.

Frank Pig Says Hello: 12th May -12th June at the Lyric Theatre.

My Fair Ladies: 15th - 20th June at the Lyric Theatre Yer Granny: 23rd - 27th June at the Lyric Theatre The Last Five Years: 24th June - 4th July at the Lyric Theatre The Holy Holy Bus: 30th June - 10th July at the Lyric Theatre Gulliver’s Travels: 30th July - 1st August at the Lyric Theatre

Films Tomorrowland: 22nd May at major cinemas.

Monster Trucks: 22nd May at major cinemas.

Poltergeist: 22nd May at major cinemas Moomins on the Riviera: 22nd May at major cinemas A Royal Night Out: 29th May at major cinemas.

Insidious: Chapter 3: 5th June at major cinemas

Steven VX released his energetic EP Rocket 21 in March and has big plans for a future album.

With his brand of punk infused rock he is proving that acoustic acts are worth paying attention to. I caught up with Steven Donnelly, otherwise known as Steven VX to talk about the Belfast music scene and his latest release. from?

So where does the VX in your name come

[It] comes from my previous band who were… called VX. We were together for just about a year and we were really hardcore punk influenced; the likes of Billy Talent to Glassjaw. We separated eventually then I went on to become Steven VX. It’s D.I.Y, do it on your own. Since then I’ve just been pushing myself out there.

So what influences your Steven VX sound?

My inspirations are quite eclectic. You have the modern punk bands - Anti – Flag, Against Me, and Rancid – underpinning an earlier punk influence from bands like Sex Pistols, The Ramones and The Clash.

I am a huge Johnny Thunders fan; my EP, The Boy Looked at Johnny was my tribute to him. It was three tracks from across his career…as well as my song, “Dirty Pretty Things” which is about his death and how he inspired other people. [Then] at a local level, there are bands like Rudi and Stiff Little Fingers.

People usually think I just…stick to punk music. It’s not the case. I’m a fan of everything; Gary Newman, BIG David Bowie fan. [Steven VX] is punk influenced rock and roll; it’s what I want to sound like.

You definitely give off that punk rock energy.

Where do you draw it from?

When I used to be in a band we…bounce[d]

over the top. All the instruments and vocals, the actual recording, mixing and mastering was completed by me. The cover concept was done by Punkyjoe D and myself. It was manufactured externally as opposed to the previous EP which was all done in house. This time we went externally because you can make it look really professional, really put it out there and show that this is serious.

You have been playing around Belfast for some time in one form or another. How do you find the music scene here?

It’s a scene that’s full of nepotism. Some promoters just want to stick to their 5 bands but don’t wanna reach out there…The punk scene [here] is dominated by older bands, there’s not many new bands coming out of the woodwork. Off the top of Steven VX my head, there are only about 5 young punk bands off each other. All this insane, jumping into the crowd I can think of - including me. And we can’t break into other scenes; bands just don’t seem to want to sort of thing, but what I’ve found out as a solo artist is that it wasn’t the same. At my first [solo] gig, I just intermix. There are a lot of scenes - a lot of really good bands - but no mixing. The scenes have their advoremember being so nervous…but then as the conficates and they tend to stick with their friends. There’s dence grew I was able to really get in people’s faces. no [attempt to] introduce new bands. The more When you are on that stage and you screw up, you young bands that come in and start filling gigs out don’t have a band to fall back on. To compensate for that I just had to make myself angry! I’ve had people the better. If there’s one thing I would like to say to people is support the local music scene. Go to a show, say to me, “Oh you play acoustic? We’re just gunna buy a record, buy a t-shirt, and help out whatever way go outside for a smoke”. Then they see me climbing up the speaker cabs and playing on top of them with possible. an acoustic guitar. I put across an aggressive stage deDo you have any upcoming plans? meanour but I don’t let that take away from the song There is a whole album coming out at the end writing and the performance. You gotta have that of the year. It’s currently in the writing stages. [It’s] passion. That makes it sound so energetic. is going to be a big landmark release for me. There’s quite a varied amount of songs and a lot of experiRocket 21 was released in line with 2015’s Record Store Day. How would you describe the EP? mentations with instruments but still keeping that punk edge to it. You stay true to your roots, but them Punchy, dynamic, varied, and awesome.

[Rocket 21 has] everything from modern punk rock, roots can be altered a bit to meet different sounds.

Then this summer once I finish my degree there to dub –reggae, to garage, to a John Lennon cover. might be a couple of surprises.

It’s all in there. [In new track “Memo”] I wanted big guitars; I wanted to sound like Steve Jones. I wanted a solo that sounded like Johnny Thunders. I wanted big Find Steven VX on Facebook, Twitter, Banddrums that sounded like Killing Joke and I wanted the bass just to cut through people with bratty vocals camp and Soundcloud for music and news.

Gig Review: Catfish and the Bottlemen, Limelight, Belfast

Irish band, The Academic, opened the stage for Catfish, exhibiting an Arctic Monkeys vibe and Laura Fulton considerable talent. Their track “Different” is a definite Contributor highlight, with a fun, stomping rhythm and rising chorus.

Catfish and the Bottlemen arrive on stage to Occupying a shady corner of the music induswild cheers, frantic strobe lights and the iconic theme try, Catfish and the Bottlemen are on the rise. of Pirates of the Caribbean. Why? The smiles of The Welsh indie rockers have been swiftrecognition and some bafflement in the crowd seemed ly gaining momentum, having played over thirty to be enough of a reason why. After what can be different festivals throughout the UK and Europe last universally agreed on as an unexpected entrance, the summer, including massive venues such as Reading band launch into their first track, “Rango”. From here & Leeds and T in the Park. The small-time band no they continue to play the rest of their debut album, longer seem to be so small, their influence stretching The Balcony. All the while the crowd bellow the lyrics to the US where they performed on the Late Show back to frontman, Van McCann. with David Letterman and reached the number 9 McCann is hugely talented, with vocals remspot in Billboard’s Top Alternative Albums with The iniscent of The Kook’s lead singer, Luke Pritchard, Balcony. though not once throughout the gig did he play the When they took to Limelight in early April, showman. In fact, McCann frequently looked almost it was obvious this minor band was not the anonybashful, sharing a small smile with himself as the mous, shadowy group that started 2014. The venue crowd’s singing took over in songs like “Homesick”, was crawling with people, many more than perhaps and insisted more than a few times how grateful they anyone really anticipated. Although Catfish have had were as a band for the support. their share of radio singles, they continue to slink past The set finishes not with “Cocoon”, which wider public acknowledgement, seeming to thrive in was a massive crowd-pleaser as fans screamed back their backstreet image.

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Catfish and the Bottlemen

the infectious chorus like an anthem, but instead, the moodier, more measured “Tyrants”. An odd choice perhaps, particularly as it followed the high of “Cocoon”.

Catfish and the Bottlemen have a lot to offer the indie scene, and have the potential to dominate the genre if they can keep up the momentum they have been building. They may lack a certain charisma with the audience, but the show feels authentic, the lyrics raw. Catfish and the Bottlemen are definitely an act worth seeing live.

ARTS

Film Review: John Wick – Summit Entertainment (2015)

Gown About Town

by Laura Shields

Wick; Economic with words, generous with bullets

Niall McKenna Contributor John Wick’s plot is a simple one; a retired hitman despondent with grief after the death of his wife receives a beagle puppy as a last gift from her, something to love as he mourns. After even this is taken from him by Russian gangsters, Wick sets out for revenge and enters a world he thought he’d left behind - before riddling it with bullets.

The film jumps quickly from its

premise and is a return to action for Keanu Reeves.

Wick’s mysteriously calm but purposeful demeanour, a man of few words and less mercy, is made for Reeve’s trademark economic style of acting. He is known as the Baba Yaga, the Boogeyman, and is characterised as much by the fear and reverence he inspires as by Reeve’s performance. Rage-fuelled and grief-stricken, his character and the linear narrative have just enough depth to support the action, and the action (although not revolutionary) is great. Directors Chad Stahelski and David Leitch previously worked

with Reeves as stunt doubles in The Matrix Trilogy and draw on fight choreography and gunplay from Hong Kong action cinema for kinetic and dizzying slick action sequences. Action hasn’t been so satisfying to watch since The Raid and its sequel. Longer shots give a satisfying clarity and show that the legendary John Wick is neither invincible nor quite done yet.

Direction is not as strong outside the arena and the interim between fights is not nearly as engaging as the fights themselves. They are redeemed however by solid cinematography, writing and production. John Wick’s world is a fascinating criminal mythology punctuated by strange details like gold coins and an assassin’s code of ethics, details that help build a larger richer world. Early scenes at his wife’s funeral and in Wick’s home are starkly desaturated but the underworld is colourful; at its vibrant height is the neon-soaked club shootout.

The cast includes some big names and is on point, Willem Dafoe coming as close to a friend of Wick’s as is possible in a world of villains in his role as fellow hitman Marcus. Alfie Allen is effective as the snivelling and callous Iosef but is dwarfed by his bigger, badder and somewhat quirky father Viggo (played by Michael Nyqvist). Their relationship and its inevitable culmination sets up a climax between two men with nothing to lose and removes any danger of anticlimax posed by the unstoppable John Wick.

John Wick does not challenge the genre but sets itself apart from grittier titles as a well-polished and surprisingly fun action film that does not take itself too seriously.

Finbar Furey: 10th May at the Lyric Theatre.

Duke Special: 15th May at Mandela Hall.

Rae Morris: 16th May at Limelight.

Kitty, Daisy and Lewis: 20th May at Limelight.

The Cribs: 21st May at Limelight.

Needtobreathe: 21st May at Mandela Hall.

Open House Presents: Steve Gunn: 22nd May at Black Box. Fingerstyle Collective: 23rd May at The Crescent Arts Centre.

Swans: 24th May at Mandela Hall.

Villagers: 25th May at Mandela Hall.

Torche: 27th May at Limelight.

Mr. Scruff: 29th May at Black Box.

Queen’s University withdraws support from Belfast Festival Laura Shields Arts & Entertainment Editor @LauraShields86

It was recently announced that Queen’s University would withdraw support to the Ulster Bank Belfast Festival. Following continued support over the last 52 years the university will be withdrawing their 13% support from 31st July 2015.

Queen’s University have supported the Festival which celebrates art and culture both locally and internationally since the 1960s. During these years, Queen’s venues have seen some big name acts play with the festival, including Jimi Hendrix’s performance in the Whitla Hall in 1967. Indeed only last year when The Gown spoke with Festival director Richard Wakely ahead of 2014’s programme he drew particular attention to a sound installation/performance which was led by Queen’s students entitled “Play”.

However despite the universities withdrawal, the Festival will continue. In a statement about Queen’s withdrawal, Wakely commented that, “Whilst this is disappointing news, it nevertheless represents a genuine opportunity to work constructively with our remaining public and private stakeholders to explore the redesign and re-launch of Festival as a city wide event of international stature and significance for 2015 and beyond”. He further remarked that those at the Festival, “appreciate the

Gigs

Tom Baxter: 31st May at Limelight.

Arts Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival: 30th April – 10th May (For full listings visit www.cqaf.com) The Picture of Dorian Grey: 6th -7th May at The Crescent Arts Centre.

Nature of Happiness with Kip Johnston: 8th May at The MAC. Anna Tuulia’s Happy Endings: 8th – 9th May at The MAC. Promises of Happiness: 8th – 9th May at The MAC.

difficult economic background against which this decision has been made.” Indeed on April 14th it was announced that Queen’s would be making cuts across the board. Following DEL funding loss, the University have been forced to reduce both student intake numbers and university jobs.

Good news for the Belfast Festival came in the announcement that whilst losing the support of Queen’s University, they would retain their funding levels of £189,150 from the arts council Northern Ireland for the year 2015/16. This news follows a lengthy campaign by a number of arts organisations which were opposed to the governments cuts to the funding which could be offered by the ACNI.

While the Belfast Festival may retain this support, other arts organisations have had their funding from this body reduced or indeed slashed. Blackstaff Press Limited are among those who have completely lost the council’s support. While they will continue to operate, the reduction in funding to the Nerve Centre threw the security of the popular arts website, Culture Northern Ireland into question. Following a #SaveCultureNI social media campaign which raised more than 1,350 signatures in support of the resource, the Nerve Centre has pledged, “to keep the Culture NI website going until every avenue of appeal with the ACNI is exhausted.”

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A Guide To Happiness with S. Moynihan: 9th May at The MAC. ViewMaster: 8th – 10th May at The MAC. I Will Go There, Take Me Home: Curated by Gregory McCatney: 8th May – 26th July at The MAC.

ARTS

Where We’re Going You Don’t Need Roads: DeLorean Print Project will then be printed onto aluminium plates before

Laura Shields they are brought together in a familiar shape.

Over 150 former employees of the DeLorean Arts & Entertainment Editor Motor Company in Dunmurry will come back @LauraShields86 “Where we’re going, you don’t need roads”; Doc Emmett Brown spoke these iconic words before bolting into the distant future in his time travelling DeLorean accompanied by Marty McFly. I guess in 1989, 2015 seemed pretty far off. While we have made it possible to make food appear without any human interaction, we haven’t yet found out how to make roads redundant.

To coincide with both Marty and the Doc’s cinematic adventure and the 35th anniversary of the DeLorean’s preproduction appearance, the Belfast Photo Festival have chosen 2015 to bring the car back to its Belfast roots, only not quite in the same way it would have originally left the Dunmurry production line.

The internationally recognised Festival in collaboration with French artist Cyril Hatt will merge sculpture and photography to build a full sized replica of the iconic gullwinged DMC-12. A DeLorean will be photographed in close up detail; these photographs

together for the first time in over thirty years to take part in this project. Former DeLorean Company executive Barrie Wills stated that, “despite it’s dreadful ending…the vast majority of those involved consider [the time at DeLorean] to be the best time of their working lives”.

In an intensely nostalgic move, these former workers will add unique messages to the individual photographic aluminium plates that will form the sculpture. This harks back to a tradition they engaged in back in the 1980’s; unknown to many, the workers would add their very own ‘cave paintings’ to unseen inner stainless steel body panels of the DMC-12’s which rolled off the production line.

DeLorean fans are being given the opportunity to claim their own individual piece of the “car” come sculpture. When the project ends, the aluminium plates will be sold from different sections of the project. These will be personalised and include the aforementioned ‘cave painting’ along with Hatt’s signature. As a not-for-profit organisation, the money the Belfast Photography Festival raise with this campaign will go back into funding future endeavours.

The Belfast Photo Festival will unveil their City Hall. The sculpture will remain on display here DeLorean at a launch party on 6th June at Belfast until 30th June.

Go Set A Watchman: The announcement of and controversy surrounding Harper Lee’s new novel Niall McKenna Contributor Since its original publication in 1960, To Kill a Mockingbird by American novelist Harper Lee has never been out of print. It has become one of the most popular books of the twentieth century as it combines warm and humorous characters like the protagonist Scout Finch, with an assault of the racial injustice which entrenched the landscape of 1930’s Alabama where Lee spent her childhood. The announcement that a sequel entitled Go Set a Watchman is to be released later this year has been largely a cause for jubilation throughout the literary and publishing world. However, it is fast becoming news marred by controversy.

Go Set a Watchman will see a now adult Scout return to Maycomb from New York in order to visit her father Atticus. In a synopsis for the yet unpublished novel we are told that during this time, Scout must confront issues both personal and political as she tries to understand both her father’s attitude toward society, and her own feelings about the place where she was born and spent her childhood. Despite picking up on the lives of many of the Mockingbird characters, Go Set a Watchman was reportedly written before Lee’s famous 60’s novel.

The discovery of the manuscript (allegedly clipped to the back of an early draft of Mockingbird) has been met by a buzzing readership with a mixture of eager anticipation and doubt over whether it can match its predecessor. Regardless, sellers are readying themselves; publisher HarperCollins has announced an initial print run of two million, and pre-orders have already claimed the novel to be ‘an instant classic’. writer Harper Lee for paradoxically not writing. After would never publish another novel. For her to reverse Much of the excitement surrounding Go Mockingbird, Lee shied away from the limelight her decision nearly 55 years later has been cause for Set a Watchman can be attributed to the reputation of stating several times throughout her life that she concern, and some have suggested that Lee, who is

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now 88, may not have full control over the decision.

That the announcement should come only three months after the death of sister and caretaker Alice Lee has only heightened suspicion.

Representative attorney Tonja Carter has stated that Lee is “a very strong, independent and wise woman” who has regrettably been forced to “defend her own credibility and decision making”. Lee has since released a statement (notably delivered by Carter) in which she attempts to quash such claims, affirming that she is “alive and kicking and happy as hell with the reactions to Watchman”.

That Lee and her representatives have always declined interview makes it difficult to understand the nature of her consent. If Lee truly is being exploited as has been suggested, it wouldn’t be the first time. In May 2013 she filed a lawsuit to regain the copyright to Mockingbird from Samuel Pinkus, the son-in-law of her former literary agent. Lee claims that the man “engaged in a scheme to dupe her” into signing over the copyright on the book in 2007 shortly after her stroke and move into assisted living. Lee’s current attorney, Carter was implicated in this scheme but has never explained her involvement.

Figures close to Lee have offer polarised accounts. Lifelong friend and historian Wayne Flynt has stated that this “narrative of senility... is just hogwash. It’s just complete bunk”. However, Reverend Dr Lane Thomas Butts has stated that “[Lee’s] confined to a wheelchair, essentially blind and profoundly deaf. You draw your own conclusions.’

Questions over whether the novel can hold a candle to Mockingbird will be answered come July. The question as to whether Go Set a Watchman is a gift given willingly is one that may never fully be understood.

LIFESTYLE

4 Unusual Things To Do In Belfast

By Chantelle Frampton, Lifestyle Editor

It is no surprise that a huge number of us love nothing more than a quick pint at the local or a cheeky cocktail at Madison’s to spend a free afternoon. However, Belfast has so much more to offer student’s that strays away from the drinking culture. Belfast is one of the up and coming cities in the UK. The Gown has compiled a short list of things to do that you may not have tried before.

1. Circus School

2. Game Trading Shops

How amazing does Circus School sound? For many the idea of joining the circus is a distant dream that was abandoned during childhood. Belfast does in fact have a very established circus school for people of all ages and with a multitude of experience. They offer a range of activities such as: acro, hula-hooping, trampette, juggling, unicycle and many more. Cheryl Richmond, a QUB student that attends hula-hoop classes, states that “there was a wide range of people there; from circus school enthusiasts to mums that enjoy hula-hooping with their children. The lady that took that class was so lovely and enthusiastic and I learnt so much.” It has been established for 30 years and is definitely a must for anyone that wants to try something new and quirky.

Belfast is not known for its huge retro gaming scene as it is more closely associated with bigger cities. However, a new shop has opened that could in fact help Belfast in being much more established in the gaming industry. The Game Trader is an independent shop owner sells and trades both retro and current gen games, consoles and merchandise (such as rare Nintendo Amiibos). From Nintendo to Sega to Playstation, there is something for everyone.

Whether you’re a collector, gamer or just looking for something new and a place to browse then The Game Trader is definitely the place to be.

Facebook – TGT Belfast Located – Smithfield Market (behind Castle Court)

Facebook – Belfast Community Circus School Location – Gordon Street

3. Comic Book Shops

4. Photography Exhibitions and Classes

Who doesn’t love the odd comic or graphic novel? It’s the perfect excuse to escape the mundane class routine and enter into a new and exciting world.

The majority of people have been to, or at the very least heard of Forbidden Planet. It is the usual ‘go to’ for comic books or unusual merchandise. Until now! A new independent comic book shop has opened in Belfast called Comic Book Guys. This new establishment stocks everything from graphic novels, toys, collectables and of course comic books.

The owners are extremely passionate about what they do and stated that “we wanted to create a destination where likeminded people could come and enjoy their passions and pick up comics, figures and memorabilia that can’t be found anywhere else […]

There’s a genuine buzz in the shop that’s infectious and it’s something very special that you just can’t get anywhere else. There’s never a dull moment in CBG for us or our customers.” Comic Book Guys is a shop that you will not regret visiting, plus it is always a positive supporting the local small businesses in our city.

With the ease of digital photography and the multitude of Instagram filters it is very easy to skip over the art of photography and disregard it as an everyday part of life. Belfast Exposed seeks to change this as they are “Northern Ireland’s only gallery specialising in contemporary photography.” The Gallery holds a multitude of photography exhibitions throughout the year and also have a bookshop filled with independently published books regarding photography. If you want to take it another step further, you can also take part in classes to improve your own theoretical and practical photography skills whether you are a beginner or intermediate, there is a class for you.

Facebook – Belfast Exposed Photography Gallery Located – Donegal Street

Facebook – Comic Book Guys Located - The Spires, Fisherwick Place

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LIFESTYLE

Hollywood’s controversial beauty standards challenged sweep over a female star’s dress at the Golden Globes.

Cate Blanchett called them out on one occasion as the Sophie Hogan camera panned up to show her Givenchy dress, asking Contributor the reporter: ‘Do you do that to the guys?’ Such instances are now beginning to occur throughout Hollywood, some being more aggressive than others.

The question still stands, however: can As Uma Thurman returned to the Hollywood women ever win with the media when it comes to their looks? A female on the red carpet slightly red carpet with what some are calling a ‘tauter’ look, she was bombarded with surgery rumours and blatant changes her makeup regime and suddenly she looks so different that the paparazzi cannot seem to cope. bullying of her new appearance. Can women ever win with their looks or are they always subject to the Such pressure pushed many female celebrities to their limit; Britney Spears is a classic case, as she shaved media’s expectations?

In February 2015, Uma Thurman went to the her head and told the paparazzi many times to ‘back off ’. When Kristen Stewart decided to cut her hair premiere of her brand-new mini-series ‘The Slap’ with what looked to us as simply a new look; others, short, headlines appeared along the lines of ‘Stewart forgets to brush hair’. Tabloids, of course, feed off namely the paparazzi, capitalised on the change and these stories. No decision that is made by females in brought out headlines like ‘Renee Zellweger has company’ and ‘what has [Uma Thurman] done to her the media seems to be good enough for the paparazzi to treat them as if they have done something normal, face?’ let alone applaud them. Mundane articles appear It was only on an interview about her new mini-series on NBC breakfast news that she was able on news websites, even just reporting that a female to defend herself. She said that the new look was not celebrity has left their house in sweatpants and a t-shirt. Such articles as this, occasionally, get more really new at all - in fact, it was simply just a change views than a major news story. The world forgets that in makeup. Thurman simply said: ‘I don’t know, I celebrities are, in reality, normal women just like us. guess nobody really liked it’. Her makeup artist, It is a timeless truth that many women, young Troy Surratt was said to have ‘experimented’ with her and old, will look up to female celebrities as icons. look for the night, therefore changing what her face would have looked like in the light. There you have it; If the degrading of women in the newspapers keeps occurring on the scale it does today, this could prove no botox, no plastic surgery; just a simple change in devastating to many young girls. We already hear makeup.

Scrutiny regarding a certain look is a problem about women starving themselves to look like the models on the runway or the recent case of a girl with that women have undoubtedly faced in the media Type 1 Diabetes not taking her insulin in order to lose for the last 20, even 30 years. Only in the last 10 weight. The articles on tabloid websites that discuss years have we seen some women actually question how a celebrity is looking somewhat ‘chubbier’ than interviewers who ask what they’re wearing, and not usual is even worse, as they are humiliating celebrities about their success. A prime example would be the and sending the message than it isn’t cool for anyone camera installed by E!, named the GlamCam to

to be any bigger than a size 6. However, when celebrities do have botox, they are making themselves look bad and cheating their age. There is no happy medium.

So it seems that women cannot really win regarding their appearance in the media, but the issue here is that it shouldn’t be the most important thing.

Their careers are something to be celebrated, and it’s a

miracle that Uma Thurman is finally back in business in Hollywood. We say about time - her series The Slap received mixed reviews, but the Kill Bill star’s return is long overdue, regardless of her makeup experimentation or not.

The Slap is showing in the U.S. on the NBC Network.

Hillary 2016, but what about the global state of feminism? other global champions are working on social media.

There are limitations of these campaigns but in 1995 the campaigns reaching such a global level would not have been possible as the Secretary of state Madaelin Albright stated in a recent BBC documentary on the impact of Hilary’s speech.

Two days after Hillary Clinton announced a According to Soroptimist, a global run which could possibly bring her to be the most organisation which work to help women, 800,000 powerful politician in the world, yet in China five women are trafficked across international borders activists are arrested for holding protests when yearly. Women are still seen as tradable objects. arguing against sexual harassment on public transport. Adults and children are trafficked, 6 in 10 of those Where exactly do women’s rights stand 20 years after people trafficked were for the sex trade; this is not what is seen by many as the water shed moment of acceptable plain and simple. There are now so many the Beijing proclamation? specific cases where the work on women’s issues needs Hillary Clinton in 1995 gave a speech in to continue. The recent documentary on the India’s Beijing at an international women conference with daughter demonstrates that there are groups of people 47,000 attendees from 189 countries. Her most who still see women as second class citizens. important proclamation was one looking back on it Another example of this objectification and is strangely simplistic “Women’s rights are human failure to take seriously feminism beyond white rights”. women’s is Boko Haram’s kidnap of over 2,000 Of the ten Millennium Development Goals women and girls. A year on from the ‘Bring Back Our two of them where specially recognising the need Girls’ campaign, the situation has worsened. to focus on women’s issues. One was focusing on Things are still so bad in regards to women’s gender equality; and one focusing on reducing, by physical rights, even before you start to look into the three quarters, the maternal mortality ratio. From a greater structural issues facing women today. The take political stand point in 1995, women parliamentarians back the night/reclaim the night movement, which were 11 percent on average globally. Now we’re at has continued in the UK and the United States and 22%; so at least it has doubled over 20 years. Rape 28 other countries, demonstrates that these are global has become recognised as a crime against humanity, issues. as recognised by the international criminal court in Then when you start taking into consideration 2001. the 10 to 30% that women earn on average less Unthinkable in 1995, now Mala Yousef and than men globally, it’s a pretty depressing outlook

Ethan McLaughlin Contributor

on women’s rights twenty years on from the Beijing proclamation.

No matter where you look there is still work to do and there are many great women who are doing it in every local community around the world,

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and we should be supporting them. As the novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie put it in a highly successful Ted Talk in 2013 ‘We Should All Be Feminists’.

OPINION

The Belfast Telegraph’s anti LGBT agenda?

Evangelical Alliance but no opposing view. The next few days of coverage involved sending Belfast Telegraph journalists to the bakery for lunch and a puff piece interview with the owners of the bakery.

Whether this deeply unbalanced coverage is a further sign of the Telegraph’s lurch to the right under new editor Gail Walker, or simply tabloid attentionOn 23rd March, the Belfast Telegraph’s front page was dedicated to a poll which gave many within seeking, is not 100% certain. Yet QUB students who recall, for example, last year’s council debate on the the LGBT community cause for consternation. The sale of poppies in the SU will know well that the poll claimed that 70% of the population supported Belfast Telegraph isn’t above sensationalism.

Ashers Bakery in the so called “gay cake row” in However the issue is wider still. The usual which they have been taken to court by the Equality reactionary elements have leapt on this case in Commission for refusing to bake a cake with the order to advance a worrying anti-equality agenda. slogan “Support Gay Marriage.” There are a few The DUP, with the support of the Catholic Church issues with the poll and with the Belfast Telegraph’s coverage of the story in general. For example, the poll, among others (it is good to see that these longstanding enemies can briefly put their differences which was commissioned by the Christian Institute, was unable to state the geographic distribution of the aside) proposed a “Conscience Clause Bill” that participants. Yet, even if we are to take the poll at face would allow businesses to discriminate against gay couples, arguing that business owners should not have value, there are bigger and more worrying issues at to “endorse, promote or facilitate a same-sex sexual hand. relationship in violation of his/her faith identity.”

The Belfast Telegraph accompanied the Does this mean that a bank could refuse to provide poll with comments from Peter Lynas from the a mortgage for a same-sex couple, or even that a

Conor McFall Contributor

café could refuse to serve coffee to two men on a date? It’s an ugly absurdity that recalls the racist Jim Crow laws in the United States in the previous century. Paul Givan has disingenuously claimed that the bill seeks to “rebalance” equality legislation, but considering his party’s record (they have opposed every single step towards LGBT equality, including the decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1983) I doubt he has our best interests at heart.

While a Sinn Fein Petition of Concern means that this nonsense will not see the light of day, it does point to a frightening agenda. Similar (and more extreme) bills have appeared across the United States in recent months, prompting similar debates and mass outcry. It seems too coincidental that these cases have emerged almost concurrently. One would believe that they are a concerted effort to roll back the tide of LGBT acceptance and portray Christians (mainly fundamentalists, it seems) as the primary victims in society under the heel of the sinister Gay Agenda. Any sensible observer can see that this is not the case. Christians in Northern Ireland still enjoy major privileges in our society with regards to schooling, taxation and legislation. Free Presbyterians

for example are vastly over-represented in Stormont in proportion to population. Meanwhile, the LGBT community are denied marriage equality despite it being available in the rest of the UK. Gay men are permanently banned from giving blood. That’s just legislatively, not addressing the myriad of social and health issues that are too numerous to detail. So forgive me for not crying myself to sleep over the hardship faced by the DUP and co.

This raises questions as to what this all means for the state of marriage equality in Northern Ireland.

To answer, I wish to return to our poll. While those asked backed Ashers, they also responded similarly to other hypothetical scenarios, including what should happen if an atheist printer was asked to publish creationist material. There is a sense that perhaps the Equality Commission is using a sledgehammer to crack nuts here. Perhaps what the poll really tells us is that the people of Northern Ireland generally want their fellow citizens to have the freedom to live their lives, regardless of sexual orientation or religion. We must fight so that our politicians do the same.

In defence of Ashers and the DUP There is thus a crucial distinction to be grasped between the unequal treatment of individuals, and the unwillingness to affirm two substantively different unions as sharing an equal moral status. Such is compliant with the broader socially conservative consensus visible within the DUP, which seeks to It has become something of ongoing cliche to uphold the fundamental (not distinctly Christian) ethical values conducive to the well functioning and perceive the DUP, along with all publicly outspoken moral health of human society. opponents of LGBT rights, as backward bigots Furthermore to that, it is true that the merely masquerading as moral crusaders. But can such DUP acknowledges that while marriage exists as a a perception be deemed consistent with reality? fundamental human right, it exists simultaneously as The DUP are unequivocal opponents of any a right which is subject to legitimate qualifications and all efforts to change the meaning of marriage consistent with its historic social function. The fact through widening the legal definition to include cannot be ignored that no Northern Irish citizen same-sex couples. While such an uncompromising possesses an unlimited right to marry whoever they stance indisputably clashes with general LGBT want, whenever they want. Seeking to confine exercise sentiment, does it automatically serve to render of such a right to the established parameters cannot Northern Ireland’s largest party guilty to denying therefore be deemed inherently bigoted or antithetical basic human rights to an oppressed minority? Truth is, the DUP exists as a party steadfastly committed to to formal equality. In the words of Alison Howard, Director of Relations for the US-based Alliance vindicating equal treatment under the law for every individual citizen; what it remains unwilling to accede Defending Freedom, “Marriage does not need to be redefined; it needs to be underlined... Marriage does to is the ongoing demands of a particular minority need to be reestablished; it needs to be reenforced”. group to change the long established, tried and At the heart of much of the thought tested meaning and function of a timeless institution. underpinning current DUP social conservatism is not

Sammy Wade Contributor

a callous attachment to discriminatory dogma, but a steadfast conviction affirming the intrinsic supremacy of the traditional married family. The DUP rightly affirms the preferability of children being raised by a mother and a father, in the knowledge that young people will otherwise be deprived of the natural, complementary parenting which such an arrangement exclusively confers. Such thought ought thus be respected and commended for its robust, principled character, not lambasted as analogous to racial bigotry.

Additionally, the accusation is commonly made among the more liberal sectors of NI political arena that Asher’s bakery, through their refusal to supply a requested cake featuring endorsement of homosexual marriage, unlawfully discrimination against the sexual orientation of the particular customer, contrary to Equality legislation.

Genuine equality mandates that every individual be freely entitled to live in accordance with their conscientious convictions, so long as in doing so does disproportionately impinge upon the democratic rights of other individuals. An unbiased assessment of the facts cannot propel a person to conclude anything other than in favour of the legality of Asher’s conduct, as the sexual identity of the customer was in no way a factor in determining the bakery’s unwillingness

to provide a product at odds with their lawful convictions.

The Equality Commission ought to realise that there nothing inherently discriminatory with refusing to compromise ones conscience-grounded convictions in the realm of employment. Indeed, freedom of conscience embodies one of the most fundamental rights endemic to a democratic society, and ought not be undermined in the interests of political correctness and artificial constructions of equality. As Martin Luther King Jr so eloquently put it, “there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but because conscience tells one it is right”.

The Asher’s case can indeed be deemed a further example of the surge of LGBT rights serving to erode the democratic freedoms historically enjoyed by people of faith. While the British government promised that opposition to same-sex marriage will not be denied democratic legitimacy, the ongoing reality appears to suggest otherwise. Thankfully, hope still remains in the little state of Northern Ireland.

The rest of UK don’t care for Northern Irish LGBT rights Jordan White Contributor

I am currently in my final year and struggling on trying to finish my dissertation, but I am your average person and I procrastinate by watching TV programmes online. In my most recent spell of putting off work I watched “Reggie Yates: Extreme Russia”.

The 2nd episode talks about the LGBT community. Most of us are aware of the harsh laws Russia has introduced recently around the promotion of the homosexual lifestyle. Being gay in Russia is dangerous. In one scene, Reggie attends an event

called “QueerFest” in Saint Petersburg, a kind of Pride event. In that a city hall politician stood outside the doors of an event and said “Homosexuality is disgusting, homophobia is beautiful and natural”. When asked, by Reggie “Do you think gay people are dangerous?” the politician replied, “a piece of shit is not dangerous, but it is unpleasant to see on the streets” where he then went on to call a woman a faggot to her face because she had the appearance of a man; his words not mine.

Yates, then went onto say, “I grew up in a country where it is illegal to discriminate against minorities... he called her a faggot face”. Did you Reggie?.. the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Because I live in this country too, where politicians can say, do say and get away with that behaviour.

Sodomy caused Hurricane Katrina. Gays are repulsive. Homosexuality is “viler” than child sex abuse. Children raised in same-sex relationships are far more likely to be abused. Where a politician standing in a constituency not too far from me wants to ban Pride, criminalise homosexuality but includes in her manifesto writing a Bill of Rights for animals, (because animals aren’t sinners, gay people are). Where politicians and parties want to permit LGBT discrimination And political party members have promised ‘get in contact with me and I can put you in touch with a therapist and they can cure you’. Where at every opportunity LGBT+ organisations have funding cut because it’s funding the ‘lifestyle’ and the ‘sodomy’.

Although, what more could I expect we are only Northern Ireland after all; the forgotten

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part of the United Kingdom. Where the SNP are ideologically incompatible with The Conservative Party, but the DUP seem to fit quite well.

I appreciate Reggie Yates’ attempt to highlight the inequalities which are disgusting in Russia, but remember it happens as much in the United Kingdom.

Let’s look to ourselves before we look to others when condemning actions.