Trinity News Volume 70 Issue 4 by Trinity News

TR INIT Y NEWS

Tuesday 7 November 2023

Vol. 70, Issue 4

Ireland’s Oldest Student Newspaper

“Two of our four windows were shattered”: Kavanagh Court Students residents criticise accommodation’s response to disturbances criticise lack of Residents called the accommodation’s response to fireworks and damage caused by non-residents “unreasonable” Maddy Pitman Deputy News Editor

TUDENTS LIVING IN KAVANAGH COURT HAVE CRITICISED THE ACCOMMODATION’S response to recent disturbances, including fireworks being “aimed” at flats and damage to property. They said disturbances from

support during the nearby Diamond Park, which any guests or residents, and the concerned about the state of the Erasmus was opened this summer and is resident also said the windows in apartment than with the state of not owned by Kavanagh Court that flat remained broken for over my safety and well being.” or its parent company Yugo, have 30 days. Students also criticised Students have also reported process Yugo’s focus on a drawing done on resulted in fireworks landing in the accommodation and damage to property, “It’s a constant thing,” said resident Adam McGrath. “At first… it was funny to me, just because it was ridiculous, [but] we’re at the point now where they keep going and going.” One resident said they reported “fireworks shot at [the residents], bamboo spears making their way into the apartment through an open window, and stones, rocks, and wood planks which were used to shatter two of our four kitchen windows” to Kavanagh Court in an email. In their email response seen by Trinity News, Kavanagh Court said that “[they were] made aware of some further breakage of the glass by an attender of a party [the residents] hosted”. Multiple eyewitnesses said the damage was not caused by

a cupboard in the flat rather than the damage to the windows. In the email seen by Trinity News, Yugo said that they had looked into getting new glass, then added: “In the meantime, I also need to talk to you guys about the graffiti on your cupboards… as you should already know, we will be inspecting kitchens over the coming weeks, and as it stands your kitchen will not pass inspection.” Another resident reported to Yugo in September that a firecracker was thrown through their window by “a bunch of boys”, which “exploded in [their living room]”. “I’m lucky there was no bodily harm done to myself or my apartment didn’t catch on fire,” they said. “When I brought my concern to Yugo and told them what happened, they were more

seeing fireworks landing in a small courtyard next to the park and exploding. This courtyard is located beside a popular study space. “It’s not just a disruption, it’s genuinely scary,” one resident told Trinity News. “Noise disturbance can be expected from a park,” another resident tells Trinity News. “But this is just too much.” In an email seen by Trinity News, Yugo contacted residents on September 21 advising students to contact Dublin City Council: “As I’m sure many of you on the south facing side of the building are aware, there has been an issue of noise late at night coming from the newly opened and rather lovely Diamond Park.” “Please report any and all instances where you are disturbed by activities in the park outside Continued on page 2>>

Aidan Cusack, Aoibhinn Clancy News Managing Editor, Deputy News Editor

TUDENTS CURRENTLY ON ERASMUS HAVE COMPLAINED ABOUT a lack of support during the summer, trouble registering for modules, and a need Continued on page 2>>

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Tuesday 7 November TRINITY NEWS

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>> Continued from front page

College agrees to rent freeze for 2024/25 Analysis: The past, present, and future of the former Berkeley Library

Features “I wanted to be an agitator.”: An interview with Senator David Norris

Comment Ireland’s social transformation on the pages of Trinity News

SciTech

Sport

Digital (de)vices: Changes in social media habits

70 years ago, rugby saw the light

TRINITY NEWS EDITORIAL STAFF Editor-in-Chief Deputy Editor Assistant Editor Managing Editor Online Editor Deputy Online Editor Life Editor Deputy Life Editor

Kate Henshaw Ellen Kenny Ella Sloane David Wolfe Eve Conway Kay Williams Abby Cleaver Lara Monahan

News Manager News Editors

Aidan Cusack Evan Skidmore O-Reilly Charlotte Kent Alan Nolan Wilson Ruby Topalian Nina Crofts Sebastien Laymond Séaghan Ó Domhnalláin Jane Prendergast Tara Ní Bhroin

News Analysis Editor Features Editor Comment Editor Scitech Editor Sport Co-Editors Eagrathóir Gaeilge Head Photographer Art Editor Head Videographer Head Copyeditors

Niko Evans Alice Gogarty Ruby Tyson Meave Hopkins Lindsey Brown

Get in touch at editor@trinitynews.ie This publication is funded by Trinity Publications, House 6, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2. This publication claims no special rights of privileges. Serious complaints can be directed to the Chair of Trinity Publications. Get involved with Trinity Publications through Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

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“Two of our four windows were shattered”: Kavanagh Court residents criticise accommodation’s response to disturbances of its designated opening hours. Hopefully a high volume of reports will spur some action! We are of course making our own efforts at management level, but it is always good to join our voices together!” The resident who complained to Yugo said this email felt “unreasonable” for many students. “The city does nothing about it, the Garda when you call them

do not show up and Yugo has not done anything that is of help to students.” A Kavanagh Court employee told Trinity News they make complaints to Gardaí and report to the “related government departments” “every week”. “From our side we do everything but we personally cannot go out and confront the kids,” they said.

“We do everything we can legally.” Resident Lindsey Brown said her and her flatmates “call the Gardaí almost every night” due to fireworks and other disruptions, and other residents have Gardaí typically have a response time of “up to half an hour”. Additional reporting by Ellen Kenny

>> Continued from front page

Students criticise lack of support during Erasmus process

for clarity on other universities’ form of assessment. One anonymous Joint Honours (JH) Italian and French student told Trinity News they chose to go on Erasmus because they would otherwise have to complete an eight-week residency. The student attended the Venetian University and thought that they would be able to study their course there: “Venice was offered to me by the Italian department in Trinity so I think it was safe to say, I assumed they would, in fact, teach my course”. “I was then sent an acceptance letter from the Venetian University stating that I could enrol there for my first semester and continue my studies of French and Italian.” However, the student started facing difficulties with module enrolment during the summer, struggling to apply for a sufficient number of modules to pass the semester: “After emailing the Venetian University throughout the summer and explaining that I have to take my classes in French and Italian, they continually only sent me modules that were taught in English. “At this stage in my application process, I was very sure I would be going on Erasmus and had received emails from Trinity that I did not have to apply for modules on myTCD.ie as I was going to be away for the year,” they said. “I kept emailing about modules but to no avail, as both universities were on summer leave so responses were slow. I was stressed but I assumed it would work itself out when I arrived as after speaking to previous Erasmus students, I had heard that the modules often change when you get there.” On arrival in Venice, the student was able to find three modules to fit their course: “I was frantically emailing Trinity to explain this situation and was basically referred

to a different person each time. It seemed no one wanted to take responsibility for this situation or to try and help me.” “The Erasmus coordinator changed 3 times from Summer to my arrival in September so I was receiving very little to no clarity. “I had quit my job in Dublin to be here, left my old housing, and moved all my belongings and my life here just to receive an email from the head of Erasmus three weeks into living here on a Friday evening saying that I would in fact fail my year at Trinity if I couldn’t find more classes.” After a lack of communication from their department, the student decided to move back to Dublin in fear of failing the academic year. “Trinity informed me this was a ‘very complex case’ and that they would hold a department meeting about it to help me. I never heard back about this from them again” they said. “I made the decision to return home within two days of receiving these emails as I knew if I waited any longer for help, I wouldn’t have the option of returning any more.” Other students have spoke to Trinity News of a similar lack of clarity from schools, such as one European Studies student who complained about a lack of information about teaching and learning styles at their exchange at the University of Strasbourg: “Since the classes are overwhelmingly French students, it is all assessed and taught rigidly in line with the French education system which is wildly different from the Irish education systems. “Had I known the assessment style, lack of international students and support for international students in place, I would have not chosen it.” The student said they are “well aware” of the difficulties in acclimating to a new country,

being an international student themselves. However, they said that “this transition from Trinity to Strasbourg has been so much more frustrating and difficult than my transition to Trinity, mostly due to the lack of information provided when I left Trinity and the lack of support and understanding on Strasbourg’s end”. “It very much feels like because I am not physically in Trinity at the moment that I’m not their problem anymore and I feel very much isolated and on my own when it comes to my education,” they said. Conall Ó Briain in JH History and Political Science said he was “pleasantly surprised” at the clarity of information and guidelines before attending the Autonomous University of Barcelona for a full academic year, but received no further support or information at the end of the last academic year. “The second the academic year ends, you are basically on your own,” he said. “There was zero communication or support until the very end of the summer. During the summer, you are essentially reliant on the material and info that was issued to you during the beginning of your process.” “I understand that people are not working or on holiday over the summer and that professors are busy etc. I also understand that this Erasmus was actively our own choice and the college did stress the degree of responsibility you yourself bear for organising and coordinating your year abroad. “But zero responses from the guys who have the definitive say on my study program for my year abroad, when I am in the midst of severe difficulty in coordinating it.” College have been contacted for comment.

TRINITY NEWS | Tuesday 7 November

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Motion to be brought to TCDSU Council on campaign to withdraw Biden’s honorary doctorate

Ellen Kenny Deputy Editor

NION FORUM OF TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN STUDENTS’ UNION (TCDSU) is bringing a motion to Council calling on College to withdraw its honorary doctorate for US President Joe Biden. If passed, the union will be mandated to campaign for College to withdraw Biden’s doctorate degree, awarded to him in 2016 when he was vice-president. The motion was proposed by Union Forum (UF), made up of the union’s sabbatical and part-

time officers (PTOs). It will be brought to this evening’s Council. The motion states that UF is “disgusted” that the US, “on the initiative of Biden”, has requested Congress approve war-time aid to countries including Israel. “This is not a once-off donation”, the motion said. “Israel is the largest cumulative recipient of US foreign aid.” It noted by February 2022, the US had sent $150 billion in bilateral assistance to Israel, figures based off a 2023 US Congressional Research Service report. “This money goes to fund Israel’s oppressive security forces, which brutalises Palestinian men, women and children every day,” the motion said. The motion further noted Israel has been recognized as an apartheid state by Amnesty International, based on a 2022 concluding the country’s segregation and control of Palestine “amounts to apartheid”. It noted the union’s long-term policy of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel, including writing a letter to College on October 20 demanding it “end all ties to the Israeli war industry as part of an ongoing campaign for the human rights of

the Palestinian people”. It said Biden’s honorary doctorate is an important part of cutting those ties: “The continued honorary doctorate degree of U.S President Joe Biden is in conflict with both the values of the university, the stance of the student body as well as that it is hypocrisy, and a dereliction of duty to the oppressed people of Palestine.” TCDSU President László Molnárfi said that “the United States is an imperialist power that has brought nothing but suffering and destruction to the world”. “The most egregious of the crimes of the United States and their Presidents is their constant support for the apartheid state of Israel,” he said.“Joe Biden, current U.S. President, exemplifies this, supporting Israel publicly and enthusiastically.” “Israel would not be able commit apartheid and war crimes and genocide without the support of the U.S. and Western powers, and massive military funding” he concluded. In 2018, students voted to mandate TCDSU’s support for BDS in a referendum that earned 64.5% of votes. The referendum saw the highest turnout in recent years, with 2,316 students voting.

PHOTO BY DAVID WOLFE FOR TRINITY NEWS

Union members said the US has funded “Israel’s oppressive security forces that brutalise Palestinians”

Over 70 Trinity academics join hundreds in call for Irish universities to sever ties with Israel The letter, signed by over 600 academics, argued “Anything less at this point amounts to tacit support for crimes against humanity” Kate Henshaw Editor-in-Chief

VER 70 TRINITY ACADEMICS HAVE SIGNED AN OPEN LETTER CALLING on Irish universities to cut ties with Israel. The letter, published by Academics for Palestine, was signed by over 600 academics across Ireland and published

online Saturday November 4 to Irish newspaper editors. The letter reads: “The scale and severity of Israel’s current war on the Gaza Strip has exceeded all previous levels of violence in the prolonged and brutal Israeli occupation of Palestine. It is a campaign of ethnic cleansing and, according to many experts, genocidal violence.” They label this “a campaign of ethnic cleansing and, according to many experts, genocidal violence”. “The incursion by Palestinian armed groups on October 7 included criminal attacks against civilians. But under no circumstances does international law permit the systematic bombardment and collective punishment of civilians in a besieged occupied territory.” They are heavily critical of “the dehumanising language and tropes widely used by Israeli leaders in reference to Palestinians” and highlight that “Israel’s military acts have matched those words, killing more than 9,000 Palestinians inside Gaza, including some 3,760

children (more than the annual number of children killed in the rest of the world’s armed conflicts combined)”. Many more Palestinians are dying from the lack of fuel, water, electricity and medical supplies due to the deliberate blockade. Gaza’s hospitals are barely able to function – no power for ventilators, using vinegar as antiseptic, performing surgeries without anaesthetic – and continue to be hit by Israeli airstrikes. The situation is beyond inhumane. They note that “many Irish universities and EU-funded research projects have active collaborations with Israeli universities” and “Israeli universities are, in the words of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, “major, willing and persistent accomplices in Israel’s regime of occupation” and its military infrastructures”. They also highlight that “several Palestinian universities in Gaza have been destroyed by the Israeli airstrikes, with some 70 academics

and 2,000 students among the civilians killed”. They are calling on Irish universities to “immediately sever any existing institutional partnerships or affiliations with Israeli institutions”. “Those ties should be suspended until the occupation of Palestinian territory is ended, the Palestinian rights to equality and selfdetermination are vindicated, and the right of Palestinian refugees to return is facilitated. Anything less at this point amounts to tacit support for crimes against humanity.” The letter also notes that “leading Jewish and Israeli scholars of Holocaust and genocide studies” have called the situation in Gaza “a textbook case of genocide”. The letter continued saying, “after the first week of Israel’s onslaught, a group of more than 800 international lawyers and genocide scholars were “compelled to sound the alarm about the possibility of genocide being perpetrated by Israeli forces”, while UN human rights special

rapporteurs warned of “the risk of genocide against the Palestinian people”, calling on all states and international organisations to fulfil their duties to prevent genocide.” The academics have said that “the killing and destruction has only escalated since then” and “more than 60 UN member states have now used the language of genocide to describe Israel’s attacks on Gaza’s population.” Over 70 prominent Trinity academics have signed the letter including: Professor Derek Doherty, Professor Pádraig Carmody, Professor Pablo Gracia, Dr Brian Hanley, Dr Bronagh Catibusic, Dr Charlie Kerrigan, Dr Cian O’Callaghan, Dr Clare Tebbutt, Dr Daniel Joseph Ringis, Dr David Landy, Dr David Mitchell, Dr Fintan Sheerin, Dr Fiona McDermott, Dr Giampiero Tarantino, Dr Gillian Moore, Dr Harun Šiljak, Dr Jack Sheehan, Dr Karen Slattery, Dr Kate AntosikParsons, Dr Meg Ryan, Dr Niall Kennedy, Dr Patrick Walsh, Dr Rebecca Usherwood, Dr Ronit Lentin, Dr Rory Rowan.

Tuesday 7 November TRINITY NEWS

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TCDSU calls on provost to cut ties with university rankings Molnárfi said university rankings “are infused with a corporate ethos that push the neoliberalisation of our institutions” Aidan Cusack News Managing Editor

RINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN STUDENTS’ UNION (TCDSU) HAS CALLED FOR A “FORMAL and insightful investigation” into College’s participation in

university rankings systems and a “withdrawal from data provision to ranking makers” if possible. The Union of Students in Ireland (USI) Council also passed a motion yesterday mandating the USI President and Vice-Presidents for Campaigns and Education to write to all third-level institution presidents asking them to reevaluate their participation in the university rankings system. In an email sent to Provost Linda Doyle, TCDSU President László Molnárfi said university rankings prompt unnecessary academic competition, misalignment of values and academic integrity and “may also cause social exclusion and exclusionary managerialism by numbers”. “UnIversity league rankings are infused with a corporate ethos that push the neoliberalisation of our institutions and seek to pit them against each other in cookiecutter, numerical categories that reflect little about real conditions on-the-ground,” he said.

“A world in which ranking structures influence alumni’s desirability within the job market, is not a world of fair chances.” TCDSU and USI’s calls were based on Utrecht University’s decision to opt out of the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Ranking 2024. Molnárfi said: “The students of Trinity College Dublin acknowledge and highly support the action taken by the Utrecht University governing body”. “We believe that the move to opt out of the university ranking is exemplary, and should incentivise action in other Higher Education Institutions, including Trinity College.” The email praised the steps College has taken in the “decolonisation of our universities”, noting that the renaming of the Berkeley Library, establishment of the Colonial Legacies Working Group, and “re-examining our past” has been “a crucial era in our university’s history”.

Molnárfi said the rankings system can “reinforce colonial legacies”, pointing to a bias in favour of English-speaking universities, and noted that 90% of the world’s universities are not included in the rankings. USI Council raised similar concerns about university rankings, stating that they “perpetuate social exclusion and promote a managerial approach that relies on numbers rather than holistic education”. “The corporate ethos present in these rankings pushes for the neoliberalisation of our institutions, fostering a world of unequal opportunities and elitism,” it said. “University rankings represent a form of intellectual imperialism, a “captive mind” in which universities outside of the Western world are forced to conform to Western corporatised ideas of what a university is and conform to the worldwide market of universities that is embodied by the idea of

competitive university rankings”. This comes as College was ranked 81st in the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World Rankings, a 17-place improvement on last year, and 161st in the THE World University rankings. Despite the significant boost to Trinity’s position in the QS rankings, the provost expressed some scepticism and called for further investment in higher education, saying: “Rankings don’t reflect the full breadth of all the important things we do, and we have lots more to be proud of in Trinity. Still, this outcome is good news for us”. Utrecht University said rankings put “too much stress on scoring and competition”, and that “it is almost impossible to capture the quality of an entire university with all the different courses and disciplines in one number”. The university also called into question the methodology used in these rankings.

Analysis: Trinity’s ever-shifting standing in the world rankings Evan Skidmore O’Reilly News Co-Editor

N JUNE, SENIOR MEMBERS OF THE COLLEGE PUBLICLY CELEBRATED THE NEWS of Trinity’s climb in the QS World University Rankings for 2024, in which it climbed seventeen places to 81st in the world. Citing an injection of funding in recent years, Provost Linda Doyle described the ranking as “good news” at the times of its publication, but was far from being overly spinful, acknowledging that things could be better. “Rankings don’t reflect the full breadth of all the important things we do, and we have lots more to be proud of in Trinity,” Doyle said. “But I’ll be clear - we need proper sustained long-term investment in people and infrastructure to ensure the conditions exist for our students and staff to excel.” Later in September, more good news for College emerged – it had climbed a whopping twentyseven places in the Times Higher Education (THE) rankings. To a passing eye, it might be strange to learn that this was barely

acknowledged in any public statement by College, unlike what with the QS rankings. This new ranking only brought Trinity to 134th place – a position still lower than in any THE ranking in the pre-pandemic era, barring 2015. It is an uncomfortable reality for College executives that, despite consistently ranking as the top Irish university year in, year out, its stature in both of the major world university ranking schemes falls well below its apex. In 2009, the last year in which QS and THE published a joint university ranking together, Trinity ranked 43rd in the world. It has not reached this high in either set of rankings ever since. The university rankings published by the two major outlets are compiled using various methodologies; with academic reputation, international faculty facilities, research capabilities, and student-to-staff ratio being key indicators of university success. Trinity’s overall decline in the world ranking after 2009 coincided with the ramifications of the economic crisis that ravaged Ireland, and from which the higher education sector certainly wasn’t spared. Pressure was placed on third-

level institutions across the country as government support dried up and internal finances became squeezed, all at a time when the number of students seeking third-level education continued to tick upwards, only further compounding issues of adequate funding and student-tostaff ratios. Looking at Trinity’s place in the rankings across the following

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Trinity’s decline in the world ranking after 2009 coincided with the ramifications of the economic crisis

decade, it is evident that these pressures continued to have a knock-on effect on the academic metrics used to compile the ranking lists. From 52nd in the 2010 QS ranking, College had fallen to 104th by 2019, entering the dreaded triple-digits for the first time. The drop in THE’s ranking was even more profound: Trinity fell by an accumulated seventy four places from 2009 to 2012. After fluctuating around the first half of the 100s for the remainder of the decade, the 2020 rankings, compiled just before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, saw another massive drop of forty four places to 164th from the previous 120th. University rankings are not the be-all and end-all of assessing College’s performance. For one, neither the QS nor THE lists examine elements of student nor staff welfare, though these factors almost certainly have an nonindirect effect on the quality of academic outcomes. This, among other reasons, has given rise to calls for College to reexamine its relationship with such ranking systems, with critics fearing that they may stifle the priorities of the university towards academic competition and away from academic welfare. Following the lead of Utrecht University, which ended its involvement with the THE ranking this year, Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) and the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) have formally called for a “reevaluation” and ultimate withdrawal of College

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Neither the QS nor THE lists examine elements of student nor staff welfare from university rankings, arguing that they push forward the “neoliberalisation of our institutions”. Nonetheless, Trinity’s trajectory in the world rankings offers an insight into the often-treacherous journey College has been on in recent decades as it fights to maintain its status as a local and world leader in education and research, and in the context of a string of stinging crises. Though recent rankings indicate improvement and the positive effects of increased investment, one would be hard-pressed to find anyone who would disagree to the view that more needs to be done in the longer-term to improve quality of education in Trinity’s research facilities and beyond – with some of the belief that this starts with binning the obsession with arbitrary, surface-level rankings.

TRINITY NEWS | Tuesday 7 November

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Explainer: The past, present, and future of the Library Stephen Conneely Deputy Analysis Editor

HE LIBRARY FORMERLY KNOWN AS THE BERKELEY LIBRARY WAS DENAMED THIS April after a vote taken by the College Board, in which they opined that the former name was “inconsistent with the University’s core values of human dignity, freedom, inclusivity and equality”. Opened in 1967, College’s principal law library was named after George Berkeley, a celebrated theologian and philosopher who spent close to his whole life studying and working in Trinity. Although not explicitly stated by the Board, the decision to cease the library’s association with Berkeley was most likely taken due to his now polemic owning of enslaved people and a plantation in Rhode Island. A 2001 investigation conducted by Yale University found that in 1730 Berkeley bought “a negro man named Phillip, aged 14 or thereabouts”, with other names of enslaved people who were forced to work on Berkeley’s plantation including, but is not limited to, Edward, Anthony, and Agnes. It is expected, or hoped, that the library will thus be renamed in a progressive manner this academic year, and these expectations have led to many individuals and oncampus organisations to publicise their preferred names. These range from the Wilde Library, to honour Oscar Wilde and/or his mother Jane Wilde, to the Thomas Sankara Library,in homage to the ‘African Che Guevara’ who revolutionised Burkina Faso. While the series of events that eventually culminated in the denaming of the library is long and arduous, there is, however, no doubt in the merit that analysing the most significant episodes holds. To understand the wave of controversy that swept up the library and wider college community in recent years, we must first familiarise ourselves with the Trinity Colonial Legacies project. Launched in 2021 by history lecturers Dr. Ciarán O’Neill and Dr. Patrick Walsh, the project principally aimed to “contextualise and historicise the university’s deep links to colonialism both in Ireland itself and in the wider world”, as well as “to raise awareness of College’s physical and intellectual colonial legacies, monuments, and endowments in the present.”

This research project did not have authority to alter College affairs, nor did it offer recommendations on either the Berkeley Library or the case of human remains stolen from Inisbofin, Co. Galway, and housed on Campus since circa 1890. Instead, it laid out its findings on these matters, and more, in successive publications. It was in part thanks to the Trinity Colonial Legacies project that the former Berkeley library was denamed in April 2023, however it cannot go amiss that the movement to amend College’s close association with Berkeley was above all else a grassroots effort, with students and activists at the helm. Of note was last year’s Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) President Gabi Fullam, who took the step not to acknowledge the library by its former name, but instead to recognise it as ‘the X library’ in all official student union communications. The movement further benefited from support led by activist groups and youth wings of political parties, such as Students4Change and Ógra Sinn Féin. These collective actions eventually resulted in a tentative win for the movement - the foundation of the Trinity Colonial Legacies Review Working Group, an obvious successor to the Trinity Colonial Legacies project. This group, however, composed of

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It cannot go amiss that the movement to amend College’s close association with Berkeley was above all else a grassroots effort “representatives of Trinity’s student body, professional and academic staff ”, tasked itself with considering “evidence based submissions from the university community” on the aforementioned topics pertaining to College’s involvement with colonialism at home and abroad. It was inclusive in its nature and maintained a broad mindset when considering feedback, and documents released under a Freedom of Information request support the stance that the working group wished to avoid

PHOTOS BY JIMENA ALVAREZ FOR TRINITY NEWS

“winner and losers” in this whole affair. The movement, of course, was not without its critics, and in particular the discussion was at times bombarded by columnists, guest writers and speakers who all cemented their stance against the apparent cancellation of Berkeley. While some of these people bordered on the benign - either having no connection to Trinity or simply having an inflated sense of prestige in the press -, others were perhaps more senior in the college community, and thus their words held more weight in public discourse. Professor David McConnell, a former proChancellor of the university and president of the College Historical Society, wrote to the Legacies Review Working group, pleading with them to not change the name of the library. He argued that this would diminish the debate about Trinity’s connection to colonialism and slavery, and that Berkeley was one of College’s most impressive academics. After months of work which consisted of public consultation, research, analysis and decision making, the Legacies Review Working group, however, eventually took the decision to dename - not yet to rename - the former Berkeley Library, on April 26, 2023. The Senior Dean, Professor Eoin O’Sullivan, wrote in the same email to the college community that a separate renaming process will thus commence, and that “the renaming does not deny Berkeley his importance as a writer, philosopher and intellectual figure”. This decision was welcomed by the TCDSU, and activist groups such as Students4Change. What now remains to be seen

is official word that submissions for the new name of the former Berkeley Library are open. What is to be expected in an onslaught of names of varying validity some being closely related to Trinity, Irish life, or academia, while others may verge on the obscure or comedic. The Legacies Review Working group, already having dealt with the Berkeley and Inisbofin questions, will now continue to “continue to engage with Trinity’s legacy issues on a case-by-case basis”. That is to say, they will react appropriately whenever a new issue of Trinity’s colonial, exclusionary, or racist past catches up with us. The question of the former Berkeley Library is one that seemingly has a simple answer: rename it. The student body, academic and professional staff, and on-campus activist groups alike have made it abundantly clear that they do not wish to be associated with a slave owning racist simply because he spent much of his life studying and working in Trinity. To justify this stance, and to calm the chorus of ‘cancel culture’ accusations, we have to look no further than Berkeley himself. Alciphron Berkeley’s 1732 publication in which he laments and criticises the pillars of Freethought, an epistemological stance decreeing that a belief should not be held on the basis on tradition or authority, but instead logic or reason, may cruelly now serve as the last nail in Berkeley’s coffin. He was, at the time, harshly criticised for his own stance, and his views proved unpopular in his own circles, as he was thought to be a progressive, boundary pushing, multidisciplinary philosopher. Nevertheless, it now proves illogical to maintain Berkeley’s connection to College’s principal law library. A library for a subject that he never studied, in a university that has evolved to the point it would be unrecognisable to him, for students who, it is more than safe to say, see his owning of enslaved peoples as abhorrent and inhumane. It is of course rather difficult to gauge whether or not the decision to remove Berkeley’s name from the library struck effectively the campus zeitgeist, and while it may be fair to say that most students hoped for, and agreed with, this decision, it might be a stretch to say that the majority of campus rejoiced at it. Whether due to actual opposition or pure indifference, there was little hullabaloo made. Many people may be more preoccupied with current injustice, and hope to correct these wrongs with tangible actions, instead of publicised press releases. The Berkeley Library is now no more, and is currently being recognised by College as ‘The Library’, serving as a namein-waiting.

Tuesday 7 November TRINITY NEWS

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Hist snatches second world record with 28-hour debate

Ella Sloane Assistant Editor

HE COLLEGE H I S T O R I C A L SOCIETY (THE HIST) HAS SECURED A GUINESS WORLD Record for the longest ever marathon debate. The Hist’s ambitious world record attempt began at 10.07am October 23, lasting until just after 2pm on October 24. “We are all absolutely thrilled and very, very tired” said Hist auditor, Áine Kennedy, when asked how everyone is feeling about the achievement. “We are all slightly delirious right now but running on the adrenaline and Red Bull.” Over the course of 28 hours, 26 motions spanning the society’s 253-year history were debated by a panel of eight hopeful volunteers. Motions included “Was the union of advantage to Scotland”,

first debated in 1786, “That this house has no faith in tradition”, from 1953, and “That recordbreaking competitions are absurd”, a motion from 1929. Finishing on an optimistic note, the final motion up for debate was “This house believes there is a future to look forward to”. The eight speakers to achieve the record were Ziyad Anwer, Sebastien Dunne Fulmer, Tom Francis, Caoimhín Hamill, Anna Sawicka, Daniela Williams, Mary Woods and Trinity News Editor Kate Henshaw, all current or former committee members of the Hist. All speakers were required to remain seated at the debate chamber table and engaged with each debate, save for a permissible five-minute break per hour. Speaker and former auditor of the society Dunne Fulmer described the once-in-a-lifetime experience as simultaneously “really really exciting” and “extremely draining”. Offering an insight into the preparation required to participate, Dunne Fulmer said that although they “wrote about 1,200 words on every single motion” they ended up scrapping most of this in favour of “freestyling the motions”. Speaking of the myriad of tactics he and his fellow speakers used to stay awake for the entire 28 hour period, Anwer said caffeine was key. Other methods included

PHOTO BY ELLEN KENNY FOR TRINITY NEWS

The society earned a Guinness World Record for the longest ever marathon debate

knitting, with Williams emerging from the marathon debate with an impressive red scarf. The record bid was overseen by Guinness World Record official Joanne Brent who completed a thorough evidence review, as well as a selection of volunteers, guest chairs and independent witnesses. Minutes before announcing the verdict, Brent told the speakers “I have a very detailed log of

everything you laughed at, every pen that you dropped, every cough.” At 2.17pm, exactly 28 hours and ten minutes after the marathon debate had begun, Brent announced the Hist’s success, an outcome that was instantly met with cheering, clapping and hugging from the crowd of onlookers. Kennedy expressed her thanks

to all those involved, saying: “I’m so proud of all the speakers, organisers, and volunteers — it was a full society effort and we are so grateful for all the support. It was really special to see everyone come together like that.” The achievement marks the Hist’s second Guinness World Record, as they recently announced their official recognition as the oldest student society in the world.

College agrees to rent freeze for 2024/25 The rent freeze comes following students blockade of the Book of Kells last month Emily Sheehan Deputy News Editor

MEETING OF THE TRINITY FINANCE COMMITTEE ON OCTOBER 26 HAS agreed to a rent freeze on all College owned accommodation for the 2024/25 academic year. In a document presented to the finance committee, Trinity College Dublin Students Union (TCDSU) argued in favour of the rent freeze, citing difficulties facing students subjected to higher rents: “The situation has also created a two-

tiered experience for students, with those who can find a place to live near their universities, and those who can’t.” “Rents have increased by 3035% since 2015, in some cases by 60%, and 93% of students find these rents unaffordable.” Quoting the TCDSU housing survey in their report, TCDSU outlined how students both from Trinity and elsewhere find 70% of all accommodation options, Trinity and non-Trinity owned, unaffordable: “For example, 92 out of the 300 deferrals at the University of Galway were due to the housing crisis in 2022/2023, and we know that one-thirds of students have considered dropping out.” In a statement to Trinity News, a spokesperson for College stated: “It was agreed to maintain student accommodation rates at their current level for the next academic year at a meeting today of the university’s finance committee.” It was also noted in the meeting that student accommodation in Trinity is running at a deficit – with a loss of €2.7 million recorded in 2022.

The meeting of the finance committee follows the blockade of the Book of Kells on September 13. Students stood at the doors of the attraction to protest the rise in the rent of college-owned accommodations by the maximum permitted rate of 2%. At the time, TCDSU who organised the protest, said in a statement: “Trinity make €10 million a year from their student accommodations, if they take money from the students, then the students will take money from college, by blockading one of Trinity’s most profitable attractions.” Speaking to Trinity News at the protest, Dean of Students Dr Richie Porter said the protest is “counterproductive”. “They’re biting the hand that feeds them,” he said. “If they want a freeze in the next few years, we have many forums to discuss that – I am Chair of the Student Life Committee. [But] they’re giving me nothing, so I’m going to do nothing until they give me something – then I will negotiate and I will bring the top delegates along with me.”

PHOTO BY NIKO EVANS FOR TRINTITY NEWS

TRINITY NEWS | Tuesday 7 November

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Varadkar received a generally warm response from the audience until he approached the topic of Israel and Gaza David Wolfe Managing Editor

AOISEACH LEO VARADKAR AND TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN STUDENTS’ UNION (TCDSU) President László Molnárfi traded verbal blows over government policy and track record at an event organised by the College Historical Society (the Hist) on October 20. Molnárfi was one of a number of invited speakers to the event at which Varadkar gave a keynote address on the importance of student debate. The pair remained diplomatic and engaged in good faith throughout their speeches as they debated housing, health, social issues and foreign policy. In his opening address, Varadkar, a Hist alumnus, highlighted the role of student-led debate in major political moments such as marriage equality and 8th amendment referenda. “Debates are important because we learn best from listening to others… We are stronger for having our ideas tested, challenged and interrogated.” In response to the Taoiseach’s speech, Molnárfi argued that “student debate is important

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We should embarrass them, challenge them and stand up to them at every opportunity, and hold them accountable for their actions

because it allows us to challenge those in power, and the prevailing ideas of the ruling elite” Wearing a t-shirt which read “Fine Gael Out, Fianna Fáil Out, Greens Out”, Molnárfi highlighted that it is not often that students get the opportunity to directly challenge government politicians in an open forum. “Sometimes, we have to stand up and disrupt,” he said, referring to an occasion in which Molnárfi and other student activists protested against an address by Minister Eamon Ryan on campus, at which students were given no “unfiltered” opportunity to respond. “In this case, there is no need for such action, I can simply lay out the facts plainly,” he added, taking the opportunity to criticise the track record of governments led by Varadkar and Fine Gael over the past 12 years. “Through facts and logic, we can expose the Fine Gael, Fianna Fail and Greens coalition for what they are – a government of the rich, of the vulture funds and the capitalists. This government deserves to be called out at every occasion.” Concluding his speech, Molnárfi charged that government policies “amount to social murder” “People are exposed to conditions because of state policies that damage their health, such as homelessness, such as inability to access healthcare, such as climate pollution, and so they die prematurely.” “This is why we should embarrass them, challenge them and stand up to them at every opportunity, and hold them accountable for their actions.” In response to Molnárfi’s claims that government acts only on behalf of vested interests, Varadkar said that he has met with trade unions and charity organisations “about 10 times more frequently” than anyone from a vulture fund. Varadkar acknowledged that while the influence of corporate donors can be significant in countries like the US and UK, it is not as true in Ireland since it “pretty much ban[s] corporate donations”. Under Irish legislation, political parties may only accept donations exceeding €200 from corporate bodies if the corporate donor is registered in the Register of Corporate Donors, which Varadkar called “wonderfully liberating” for politicians. Molnárfi condemned the failure of government housing policy, highlighting an all-time high of 13,000 homeless despite one in 25 houses in Ireland being vacant, including 12,000 in Dublin alone. He blamed this on the high number of TDs and senators who own second properties and receive rental incomes, who prefer to “treat housing as a commodity”. Varadkar admitted to being a landlord himself, but added that

PHOTO BY ELLEN KENNY FOR TRINITY NEWS

Varadkar and Molnárfi face off in GMB over government policy

most in Ireland, including him, own just one property. “The vast majority of landlords are not corporate entities. They’re just everyday people who own apartments.” In response to criticism for ending the eviction ban, Varadkar highlighted that the current coalition government introduced the first eviction bans in the history of the state, one during the first wave of the pandemic and another last winter. “It wasn’t something we got rid of, it was something we actually introduced.” Varadkar argued also that the solution to homelessness was not perpetual eviction bans, but rather the construction of “vast amounts” of new social housing, on which he claimed the government is “making up for a massive deficit” from a period of seven years in which no new housing was built. At the event, Varadkar also criticised a Trans Writers’ Union boycott of the Irish Times in which a number of student groups on campus took part, including this paper. “A newspaper should not be boycotted because it once published an article that some people disagree with,” he said. Both the Hist and its GMB counterpart the University Philosophical Society (the Phil) declined to participate in the Irish Times Debate competition in 2021 and 2022 due to an alleged pattern of transphobia in the Irish Times’ editorial decisions. “Even in the finest and oldest

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The vast majority of landlords are not corporate entities. They’re just everyday people who own apartments

debating societies mistakes can be made. A national debating competition should not be boycotted because it is sponsored by that same newspaper, in my opinion.” Maggie Larson, who was auditor of the Hist when it first boycotted the competition, defended the decision, acknowledging that “it was not an uncontroversial position at the time”. “Sometimes you do have to stand behind your convictions and stand with those who are marginalised and who are suffering.” In his response, Varadkar reaffirmed his “genuine respect” for the decision, and its motivation “to

stand beside our trans community who are very much under attack” at the moment. Both societies will participate in the Irish Times Debate this year. The Trans Writers’ Union did not respond to request for comment. Ireland’s response to recent intensification of violence in Israel and occupied Palestine was also discussed during the event. While Larson expressed admiration for the Irish government’s calls for Israel to exercise restraint and to abide by international law in reacting to Hamas. Molnárfi acknowledged that while the government’s response was “better than the rest of the EU, the bar is very low,” and criticised Fine Gael for blocking the Occupied Territories Bill which would economically sanction Israeli occupation of Palestine. Varadkar’s generally warm response from the audience turned to stony silence as he expressed his view that Israel is the “closest thing to a democracy in the middle east”. “If I went to Gaza as gay man, it would be a crime for me to live the life that I do – yet I could go to one of the best Prides in Tel Aviv.” He continued: “If I’m a woman living in Gaza, potentially under Islamic law I don’t have the freedoms that an Israeli woman has. Is Gaza not an apartheid state?” “Why apply one standard to Israel, and a different standard to Gaza? I don’t think that’s right. I think that view should be challenged.”

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Trinity pitch drop falls for first time in five years The funnel, dated October 1944, is the second oldest example of this experiment Emily Sheehan Deputy News Editor

N OCTOBER 24, THE PITCH-DROP EXPERIMENT SAW a drop fall for the first time since 2018. The apparatus was housed in the orientation area between the libraries, however has since been moved to the physics department, to facilitate easier viewing, and to allow continuous filming of the experiment. The experiment aims to demonstrate the extremely high viscosity of pitch, with the frequency of movement occurring every 5-10 years. Pitch, the material inside the apparatus, is a black polymeric

material with an incredibly high viscosity. Pitch is solid when held and will shatter when hit. If left for a long enough period of time under the force of gravity, pitch will flow, like liquid. The funnel containing the material was discovered in the 1980s, when the School of Physics found the apparatus gathering dust amongst their antique products in the department. The funnel, dated October 1944, is the second oldest example of this experiment. The origin of the experiment is not known, though some presume it to have been created by the physics Nobel laureate and Trinity professor Ernest Walton, famed for splitting the atom. In 2013, video footage of a drop in the Trinity pitch funnel was uploaded to YouTube, attracting over a million views. The event was listed in Discover magazine as one of the year’s top 100 science stories, and the following drop took place five years later in 2018, though was not caught on camera. It must be noted that the pitchdrop lacks many qualities required to define it as a true experiment, with nothing around the funnel controlled. As stated by physicist and University College Dublin

(UCD) assistant professor in science education Dr Shane Bergin: “It’s not an experiment. It was designed as a curiosity, and I guess it’s interesting because it is a curiosity, because for someone

who isn’t a scientist, they can be as enthralled by it as someone who is. Scientist or a mathematician.” The funnel and apparatus of the pitch-drop can now be viewed in the School of Physics.

I PHOTO VIA LARA NICOS

Trinity College Singers celebrate 75 years anniversary with anniversary concert The Concert will include performances from the society’s four choirs Faye Madden Staff Writer

OLLEGE’S LARGEST CHORAL SOCIETY, TRINITY COLLEGE SINGERS, IS SET to mark its 75th anniversary with a celebratory concert this coming week. Trinity College Singers, founded in 1948, is comprised of four choirs: Trinity Singers, Boydell Singers, Trinity Belles, and the Trinitones. Past members of Trinity College Singers Society include notable composers and musicians such as Michael McGlynn, Hozier and Roisin Blunnie. The anniversary concert hopes to showcase “the musical talents and success” of each of the society’s choirs.

IMAGE VIA TRINITY SINGERS The concert will take place on November 9 n St. Andrews Parish Church, Westland Row, at 7:30pm, featuring music from Billy Joel, MIKA, John Rutter and Tomas Luis de Victoria. The Trinity Singers, the first choir to be established within the society in 1948, is a mixed-voice choir. The choir regularly competes in choral competitions, having recently won the Derry National Mixed Voice Competition in October. Singers Chairperson Cian

Analysis: Envi report Ireland

Owens said he is “so excited for everyone to see the hard work that the rest of the committee and all the members have put in the leadup to this”. “We are celebrating 75 years of this amazing society with our upcoming concert, and we can’t wait for it,” he said. “Being involved on the committee this year as chairperson has been such an honour.” Conductor of Trinity Singers Callum Jeacle described conducting the choir during their

75th anniversary performance as “an honour”. “The choir is a testament to the talents of Trinity students who have been able to maintain excellent artistic standards as a student-run ensemble for all these years,” he said. “Our 75th anniversary concert will showcase the society, which has grown to comprise of four diverse ensembles.” The showcase will also see performances from Boydell Singers, an all-female choral group, and Trinity Belles, an allfemale acapella group, who are additionally celebrating their 20th and 10th anniversaries of their respective foundations. Belles Co-Director Mary-Kate Harten said: “Singing together is such a confidence boost and I am so pleased to be part of such a gorgeous group.” The Trinitones are also set to perform in the concert. The allmale group, established in 2012 by Patrick Barrett and Lynsey Callaghan, have amassed a large social media following, including 120,000 thousand followers on Instagram and over 600,000 streams on Spotify, after a number of their performances went viral across social media platforms.

SSUES DEALING WITH CLIMATE CHANGE AND SUSTAINABILITY have been at the forefront of political conversations for decades. The more humans produce, consume and discard without regard to the current waste management systems, the more irreversible environmental damage will be done. At the core of this issue are the difficulties in implementing and enforcing recycling and sustainable municipal waste mechanisms. EU Mandates In June 2023, the European Commission issued a report identifying Member States at high risk of failing to meet the 2025 EU recycling and packaging waste standard. Featured on that list is Ireland. The aim of the Commission is to eventually implement a circular economy model across all Member States. The 2025 target serves as a marker for achieving this goal within the decade. A circular economy refers to a production

Government a The Housing Financing Agency has secured the funding through a 40-year agreement with the European Investment Bank Conor Healy Deputy News Editor

INISTER FOR F U R T H E R AND HIGHER E D U C AT I O N Simon Harris and Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien today have announced a

TRINITY NEWS | Tuesday 7 November

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ironmental measures in College amid European Commission d at risk of missing 2025 EU waste target Gabriela Gazaniga Deputy Analysis Editor model whereby existing products and materials are continuously reused, therefore reducing waste significantly as no materials are ever discarded. For example, a plastic water bottle can be recycled and its materials reused in a variety of products rather than discarded to a landfill after only one use. A circular economy is based on three core principles: eliminating waste and pollution, circulating materials and regenerating nature. A society operating in a circular economy is founded upon strong recycling and municipal waste procedures. Waste management and recycling trends Ireland has historically been included in identifying reports issued by the European Commission for failing to meet environmental standards and initiatives. For example, in 2019 the European Parliament reported that Ireland failed to meet the EU energy target due to noted difficulties in separating its economic growth from the use of pollutants, like greenhouse gases in agriculture.

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A circular economy is based on three core principles: eliminating waste and pollution, circulating materials and regenerating nature

Identifying a nation’s annual municipal waste rate is crucial to bettering the environment. Municipal waste refers to the tonnes of garbage produced per household in a specified country. Garbage is what is sent to landfills whereby a process of chemical waste treatment occurs, emitting harsh pollutants into Earth by way of soil, water and even the air. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) releases annual statistics on Ireland’s waste production and recycling rate with a delay of two years. This means that the most recent data on municipal waste released in November 2022 reflects Ireland’s waste from 2020. Most notably, Ireland generated over 3.2 million tonnes of municipal waste in 2020. Rather than decreasing the rate of garbage as mandated by EU standards, municipal waste has increased from 2.7m tonnes in 2016 to 3.2m in 2020. In another report released by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in August 2023, Ireland’s recycling rates have fallen in recent years. From a 62% recycling rate in 2020 to 58% in 2021, the country appears to be receding in the success of its environmental initiatives. The EU 2025 target is 65%, a far reach from where Ireland currently stands. The EPA announced an urgent call to action in December 2022 due to the unfavourable data from these reports.

Environmentalism within College Although this is a nationwide issue, it may be beneficial to look at the environmental and sustainability initiatives in place within College as a guide for what students can do to assist in minimising waste and increasing recycling. In recent years, College has significantly upped its efforts towards encouraging climate literacy and participation in sustainable practices amongst students. The most notable of the initiatives is the Green Campus Programme headed by Professor Jane Stout, Vice-President for Biodiversity and Climate Action. The Green Campus Programme deals with a number of matters across the sustainability spectrum, including but not limited to resource consumption, waste management, water and energy. Students from any discipline and year, including post-graduate students, are welcome to take part in the programme where they can directly contribute to how College handles environmental concerns. In terms of waste management and recycling, the Green Campus Programme is central to College’s handling of waste. They have adopted five objectives: 1) Reduce waste generation by 10%; 2) Increase recycling and reuse to 50%; 3) Zero waste to landfill; 4) Zero litter on grounds; 5) Reduce hazardous waste by 10%. In order to achieve this,

College has developed resources for students detailing recycling guides, tips for reducing waste production, educational materials on sustainable living, and a map of all the recycling areas available on campus. In lieu of the nationwide waste management shortcomings, College continues to take environmental concerns seriously. Programs like the Green Campus Committee and societies targeted towards climate awareness (Environmental Society, Vegan Society, etc) all encourage student participation in bettering the environment. What more can be done at the State level In order to meet the 2025 EU target, Ireland must take immediate action via environmental policies and community initiatives. The handling of waste and recycling is a matter for the Government where their behaviour towards the environment directly impacts the manner in which citizens consume material goods. At this stage, the Government must make recycling more readily available across households and cities in Ireland in order to support efforts to meet the 2025 target. Unless awareness of these matters becomes more public knowledge, Ireland is likely to continue in the cycle of falling short of EU target goals. But even amidst all this, College is strong in pushing for climate literacy and sustainable action amongst students.

announces €434 million in funding for 2,700 new student beds €434 million investment in student accommodation The funding will enable higher education institutions (HEIs) to provide more than 2,700 student beds across Ireland. The Housing Financing Agency (HFA) and European Investment Bank (EIB) today agreed on a €434 million financing initiative that will fund higher education institutions in the development of new and affordable student accommodation. It will include the construction and refurbishment of accommodation at Irish universities. Speaking today, Harris said: “This is fantastic news for Irish universities and their students and I want to pay tribute to the EIB and HFA for delivering this important agreement.” “Every student bed we create has a double benefit. It helps the student and their family, but it also frees up private rental

accommodation in our cities and towns.”, Harris said. “This investment by the EIB and HFA will have significant benefits for access to education, and crucially to the wider housing market” he continued. “This announcement will assist institutions with the cost of building accommodation and help bridge the gap between viability and affordability for students. Applications will now open and I look forward to seeing the outcome of this important partnership” he concluded. The financing mechanism announced today is the first ever student accommodation funding arrangement made between the EIB and HFA. It involves a 40-year €200 million loan from the EIB, with the HFA more than matching the investment, bringing the total to €434 million. Today’s announcement from the EIB and HFA comes in addition to the recent government

announcement of €61 million towards the development of over 1,000 beds across 4 Irish universities. O’Brien said: “This government is focussed on scaling up the supply of all types of housing and accommodation, including student accommodation which we know is so badly needed.” “The HFA is already playing a significant role in facilitating the delivery of thousands of social and affordable homes throughout the country. So it is well placed to play a lead role in improving the supply of student accommodation.”, O’Brien added. “I want to commend everyone involved in this historic agreement.” To date, the HFA have financed the delivery of over 2,400 student beds across Ireland. Over the last decade, the EIB has provided €950 million for housing investment by the HFA. In 2021, the HFA was

empowered to provide financing to higher education institutions to support the delivery of student accommodation and has recently been granted approval for this empowerment to extend to technological universities. The development of long term policy for student accommodation is currently being worked on alongside the University and Technological University sector. Barry O’Leary, Chief Executive Officer of the Housing Finance Agency, said: “We had the pleasure of visiting new student accommodation delivered by the University of Galway and Trinity College Dublin in recent months and were impressed by the quality and innovation of the developments.” “We are proud to support these housing schemes with financing and we are eager to work with higher education institutions to facilitate the delivery of more high quality, affordable student

accommodation across the country”, O’Leary said. “This latest cooperation between the HFA and the EIB will ensure that long-term, competitive financing is available for new student housing projects over the next five years.” Werner Hoyer, President of the European Investment Bank, added: “The European Investment Bank is committed to backing visionary investment that strengthens access to education across Europe and over the last decade has supported transformational investment at hundreds of Irish schools and all Irish universities as well as construction of social housing across the country. “The €200 million 40-year EIB financing agreed with our longstanding partner HFA today will build new student accommodation across Ireland, providing students with better and more affordable places to live and reduce pressure on local housing.”

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Phil opts out of debate on Israel and Palestine Beyond Trinity in favour of panel discussion on the topic The Phil altered its schedule to be more “appropriate and constructive” Stephen Conneely Deputy Analysis Editor

HE UNIVERSITY PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY (ALSO KNOWN AS THE PHIL)

altered its scheduled weekly debate, under the motion “This house has no faith in the two-state solution”, a collaboration with the Society For International Affairs. They instead hosted a panel discussion on October 19 in lieu of the debate on the future of the Israeli-Palestinian situation. Phil President Jack Palmer credits this decision with being “the most appropriate and constructive form of discourse in this current moment”. This decision came days after a Hamas terror attack killed some 1,400 Israeli citizens, with a further 200 taken captive. Following this attack, the Israeli state began a

bombardment of Gaza, killing over 2,700 Palestinian civilians, and injuring close to 10,000. Palmer wrote in a statement: “Given the sheer volume of information and misinformation emerging online from a variety of sources, we feel that a panel discussion can help provide our members with a clearer and more informed understanding of the underlying historical context fuelling the conflict”. They further recognised that “the current moment is not the time to decide upon hypothetical solutions from the comfort of Trinity. Rather, it is a time for us to learn about what is happening to

civilians on the ground, and gain a greater awareness of how we as individuals and a student collective can contribute to aid efforts”. Speakers organised for the panel discussion included Richard Boyd Barrett TD, a vocal and notable supporter of the Palestinian cause. Those also to be invited include “several student activists who have direct experience with the conflict”, amongst others. The Phil hopes to “spread awareness about what exactly is happening right now, provide some context to the conflict and humanitarian abuses in the region, and perhaps [hold] some discussion about possible future solutions”.

Queen’s University Belfast:

IMAGE VIA FLICKR

Queen’s University Belfast has set itself a target of reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2040. That is 10 years ahead of Northern Ireland’s legally-binding national target of 2050. The Net Zero Plan is the successor to the Carbon Management Plan, published by the university in 2010. The university’s plan was launched on October 19 by renowned environmentalist Sir Jonathon Porritt, who said, “for a big institution like Queen’s University, 2040 is just around the corner.” He said he was concerned that some young people felt excluded from addressing climate change but that the target set by Queen’s was “very exciting”. University College Cork:

Simon Harris announces research project into the effects of vaping This is one of 43 projects being funded through a €24m investment in the SFI-IRC Pathway Aidan Cusack News Managing Editor

INISTER FOR F U R T H E R AND HIGHER E D U C AT I O N SIMON HARRIS has announced a research project into the effects of vaping. The €550,000 project will be

conducted by the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI), and is funded through the Science Foundation Ireland-Irish Research Council (SFI-IRC) Pathway Programme, which supports early-career research across all disciplines and encourages interdisciplinary approaches. Harris said: “I am particularly pleased to see we are researching the area of vaping and the impact it is having on the next generation of smokers. I believe the impact is significant and I am really looking forward to hearing the outcome of that work.” In a video posted to Twitter, the minister made the point that while many people use vaping to give up smoking, “we also know that a whole new generation are now using it, and we need to understand the impact on people’s health, on their wellbeing”. This is one of 43 projects being funded through a €24m investment in the SFI-IRC Pathway.

Other projects include using AI to predict unexpected chemistries occurring in vaping devices, student mental health and wellbeing on the island of Ireland, a study of hearing children of deaf adults, maximising power capture from wave energy converters, and exploring relationships between early life adversity and functional outcomes in adolescence through to early adulthood. Trinity College Dublin received funding for seven research projects, including improving paediatric vaccines, aligning artificial intelligence design with European Union policies, and Latin poetry. Commenting on the awards, Director General of Science Foundation Ireland, Prof. Philip Nolan, said: “The SFI-IRC Pathway programme supports researchers at a comparatively early stage in their career to pursue independent research and discovery.” “In partnership with the

Irish Research Council, we are nurturing and developing really promising talent across diverse research areas. Their work will give us new insights and knowledge, and drive innovation, across the full spectrum from humanities to science, engineering and technology.” Director of the Irish Research Council, Peter Brown, said: “Bridging the gap between postdoctoral stage and that of independent principal investigator is a key milestone in the development of a researcher, and the Pathway programme is making an important contribution in this regard in the Irish research ecosystem.” “It also supports the retention of excellent researchers with cuttingedge ideas within our research system, and I have no doubt that this will support further success and new opportunities in the years ahead.”

The archives of Adi Roche and Chernobyl Children International (CCI) have been donated to University College Cork. Spanning over five decades, the archives offer an extensive collection of materials on the activism of Roche, including her work with CCI. Among the archives are artefacts, photographs, film and correspondence from the innerworkings of CCI. The archives include Roche’s personal collection of records of her work with CCI and historic items from her time as an activist with Irish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). Artefacts include radiation maps showing the spread of radioactive materials following the Chernobyl disaster and pamphlets from the Irish Anti-Nuclear and Peace movements. Speaking on the donation, Roche said: “Our wish is that it acts not just as a source of information on how ‘mass movements’ and ordinary people can make a change in our society but also it will provide solid research material for future students.” University of Limerick: University of Limerick’s Governing Authority has unanimously approved the appointment of Professor Brigid Laffan as Chancellor and Chair of its Governing Authority. Laffan is widely acknowledged as one of the world’s leading experts on European Integration and is a major contributor to the conversation about how the European project affects Ireland’s foreign policy. She takes over from outgoing UL Chancellor Mary Harney, who has held the role since January 2018. Commenting on her appointment as Chancellor, Laffan said that “my decision to go to Limerick in 1972 proved to be the formative decision of my life.”

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Analysis: #UnmuteConsent, initiatives to combat sexual violence in College Gabriela Gazainga Deputy Analysis Editor

Understanding the prevalence and dangers of sexual violence, the #UnmuteConsent Campaign will encourage students to learn about consent (e.g. what it means, its limitations, and boundaries) in an effort to destigmatise conversations about sexual violence. The campaign

N 2 OCTOBER 2023, HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS ACROSS IRELAND including representative bodies like the Higher Education Authority (HEA), Irish Universities Association (IUA), and Union of Students in Ireland (USI), formally launched the #UnmuteConsent Campaign 2023. This launch aims to utilise the power of student mobilisation to “reverse the trend of sexual harassment and violence, to create a truly respectful environment for everyone — on and off our campuses.” The IUA denotes a culture of sexual violence and harassment throughout higher education institutions in Ireland, one that continues to be underreported. This reflects the campaign tagline, “‘YOU’RE ON MUTE’. When it comes to talking about consent, we are all on mute. It’s time to change that!” Just days before the campaign was announced, the 2022 survey

by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) was released. According to the report, four in ten adults report experiencing some form of sexual violence in their lifetime, although the actual number is likely much higher due to underreporting of these crimes. From the same report, almost one in five women experienced non-consensual sex, at a rate six times higher than men. The report continued where almost half of all 18-24 year olds surveyed disclosed they had experienced unwanted sexual

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advancements within the past year. It has become far too common to hear of students of any gender who are victims of sexual violence and harassment both on and off campus. Although violence of this nature is not exclusive to college communities, it is imperative to educate forthcoming generations in order to end the cycle of sexual violence. Raising awareness and promoting conversations of consent can shift the culture away from normalised unwanted sexual behaviours and instead towards a safer society for all.

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Half of all 18-24 year olds surveyed disclosed they had experienced unwanted sexual advancements within the past year aims to challenge the “perceived norms of unacceptable behaviour” and create an environment on higher education campuses where students who are victims of sexual violence feel empowered to report their experience. The campaign is active on various social media platforms: X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, and Tiktok. In doing so, the message of #UnmuteConsent is able to speak directly to students on platforms that are familiar and engaging to the target audience. The X page has amassed over 1,000 followers and the Tiktok account has reached almost 3,500 followers and 150,000 likes. #UnmuteConsent is comprised of four main target areas in order

to combat the sexual violence epidemic among collegeage students. The campaign is structured to encourage students to speak out or report unacceptable behaviour, access support, challenge the norms of intolerable behaviour, talk about consent positively and confidently, and actively practise consent. Minister for Further and Higher Education Simon Harris TD stated: “Sexual harassment or sexual violence doesn’t start or end in third level education, but education is the greatest tool to dismantling this culture that has crept into our society.” He continued: “There is a particular responsibility on those charged with educating the next generation in ensuring that students and learners are equipped to lead the change across society.” He ended by saying: “The #UnmuteConsent campaign 2023 recognises the power of the student voice to drive change. Be the generation that stands up and speaks out, to create a respectful environment for everyone — on and off our campuses.” All higher education institutions are charged with implementing a set of measures to facilitate the rollout of #UnmuteConsent as well as to ensure support services are accessible to victims of sexual violence and harassment. The campaign was first launched in 2021, finding initial success in its initiatives. Since then, the 2022 campaign broadened its scope, reaching wider audiences and encouraging conversations about safe sex and consent across universities. This newly introduced 2023 campaign has already proved to be an even greater success as a result of increased publicity and awareness of the campaign. The #UnmuteConsent website provides resources to universities, educators, and students about available supports (national, on-campus, and cross-sectoral) and consent training to be implemented. Although the campaign is still in its early stages with this only being its third year, it has the potential to make great strides in minimising the prevalence of sexual violence in Ireland. It is optimistic to view the campaign as the solution to the modern culture of “accepted” sexual violence; the reality is that the campaign is merely a step in the right direction. In raising our voices to fight against sexual violence continuously, the #UnmuteConsent Campaign has the potential to change the narrative regarding sexual violence in higher education institutions and university life.

Tuesday 7 November TRINITY NEWS

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Arts Council announces funding for 14 late-night arts centres The Arts Council and Department of Tourism will provide over €700,000 as part of the Late-Night Events scheme Kay Williams Deputy Online Editor

HE ARTS COUNCIL AND DEPARTMENT OF TOURISM, CULTURE, arts Gaeltacht, Sport and

Media have announced 14 arts centres will be awarded an amount totaling €723,407 in funding as part of the Arts Council’s LateNight Events scheme. According to the press release on the Arts Council’s website, this programme will “encourage new partnerships, support engaging night-time arts activities, advocate for a place-based approach, support additional Night-Time Economy interventions, promote cost-effective events, and ensure fair payment for artists and creative workers.” This programme is part of a larger ‘After-Hours’ initiative, announced by the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Catherine Martin, earlier this year in May ahead of International Museum Day, offering over €1,000,000

in funding to boost the nighttime economy sector within local communities and tourism industries. In a speech made on May 17 at the launch of the pilot scheme in the Little Museum of Dublin, Martin expressed that museums and cultural institutions are the “beating heart of culture in our communities” and encouraged them to “look at their spaces through a late night lens.” According to the Irish Government News Service, the After-Hours initiative funding targeted members of the Irish Museums Association and the Museum Standards Programme for Ireland, reaching over 80 museums and galleries across the country, and the announcement by the Arts Council this week serves an important role in the

furtherance of this programme. In a statement to the Arts CoDirector of the Arts Council, Maureen Kennelly, stated “the project’s core objective is to create a sustainable framework for cultural experiences beyond standard operating hours…[that] will provide tantalising experiences for audiences and artists alike,” she said. The arts centres awarded funding are: Triskel Arts Centre, RUA RED, Complex Productions Ltd, The Donegal Regional Cultural Centre, The Dock, Droichead Arts Centre and Backstage Theatre. Galway Arts Centre, The Lime Tree Belltable, The Model, An Táin Arts Centre, Everyman, Waterford Theatre Royal Society and Mermaid Arts Centre will also receive funding under the scheme.

Government commits €1 million in funding for LQBTQ+ projects Funds of up to €100,000 will be provided to support LGBTQ+ community organisations Alan Nolan Wilson News Analysis Editor

OVERNMENT IS TO PROVIDE €984,482 IN ORDER TO SUPPORT 25 LQBTQ+ community-based projects across Ireland.

The funding, which is hoped to address gaps in LGBTQ+ services, was announced by Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Roderic O’Gorman last Tuesday. Organisations that qualify for funding, which is being provided under the National LGBTI+ Inclusion Strategy 2019-2021, will be eligible for grants ranging from €5,000 up to €100,000. The National LGBTI+ Inclusion Strategy was launched in November 2019 and provides a framework for addressing key issues which hinder the inclusion of LGBTQI+ peoples from Irish society. This new addition to the strategy will primarily support the development of inclusive rural community infrastructure. Commenting

on the announcement Minister O’Gorman said: “I am delighted to announce a wide range of projects - local and regional – around the country to ensure that every LGBTI+ person in Ireland can avail of important supports and thrive in their community.” “This funding of nearly €1mn will enable 25 organisations to support LGBTI+ persons in a range of ways, including health, counselling services, and celebrating Pride” he continued. This follows calls for funding which ran from 23 June to 26 July 2023. Projects which have been deemed eligible for funding have been divided into two groups. Scheme A projects will be eligible for grants ranging from €25,000 to €100,000 while Scheme B projects will be eligible for grants ranging from €5,000 to €10,000.

Scheme A projects which have qualified for funding seek to improve the lives of LGBTQ+ people by developing the likes of legal advice centres, services for young LGBTQ+ people, and LGBTQ+ specialised healthcare. Scheme B projects which have received funding range from ones relating to the visibility of LGBTQ+ peoples in sport to one which promotes equality in sexual violence supports for LGBTQ+ peoples. Commenting on the projects which have received funding, Minster O’Gorman said: “The significant interest in the Community Services Fund 2023 demonstrates the willingness of communities around the country to support LGBTI+ persons and I wish them the best of luck in implementing their projects.”

TCDSU to maintain policy of support for PWO TCDSU remains obligated to support the PWO campaigns Ellen Kenny Deputy Editor

A motion to withdraw Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) mandated support of the Postgraduate Workers’ Organisation (PWO) has failed to pass at council following a heated debate.

TCDSU remains obligated to support the PWO campaigns and collaborate with it in campaigns relevant to both TCDSU and the PWO. The motion was proposed by the members of Union Forum, bar TCDSU President László Molnárfi and the gender equality officer. The motion said it was concerned about TCDSU’s mandated support of the PWO after “identifiable PWO members have allegedly harassed other union members during the vote of several postgraduate committees after issues arose regarding said election’s integrity caused by their own alleged breach of election regulations”. “This was escalated with several statements being released on the

PWO’s behalf to such an extent that the PWO has denied all claims of harassment,” the motion said. The union said these allegations of harassment by PWO members were “brought to the Junior Dean”. Several members of council and non-members spoke both in favour and against the motion. Speaking in favour of the motion, Arnold said the motion is “fundamentally motivated by allegations of harassment of volunteers at voting booths for postgraduate elections”. “We do not want to have volunteers, as everybody here is, being harassed, allegedly harassed, on the basis of just doing their job,” she said. Speaking against the motion, PWO President Conor Reddy said

the foundation of any union is “solidarity”. “We had a very good working relationship with the students union last year,” he said. Citizenship Officer Ella MacLennan said she is one of the alleged victims of harassment by the PWO and said the union does not have a problem with the PWO. “We shouldn’t be constitutionally obligated to work with an organisation that takes victim blaming publically,” she said. Molnárfi described the motion as “shameful”. “This motion, if passed, will reverberate throughout the entire country,” he said. “It flies in the face of everything we stand for.”

What they said “When it comes to the protection of children, no other issues should stand in the way for even a minute.” President Michael D Higgins on the current war in Israel and Palestine “Spurs top of the league… new Beatles song… we are truly bringing back the 60s” Online Editor Eve Conway on Twitter (@ eveconway30) “There are two ways to go when you hit that crossroads in your life: There is the bad way, when you sort of give up, and then there is the really hard way, when you fight back.” Actor Matthew Perry (1969 - 2023) “That double eviction on Big Brother was the first time in my adult life a political vote fell on the side of justice and progress. I don’t know this feeling!” J. William James on Twitter “The most I knew of Elvis was in Lilo & Stitch, which is a lot, by the way.” Actor Jacob Elordi on his upcoming role in Priscilla “It’s the kind of event we’re going to see more frequently and perhaps even to a greater severity in the years ahead as the air warms and as the waters around us warm.” Professor John Sweeney on recent flooding seen in several Irish counties “I am delighted to be here in Korea to witness the signing of these new partnership agreements between TU Dublin, Soongsil University and Hanyang University.” Higher Education Minister Simon Harris

TRINITY NEWS | Tuesday 7 November

Features

Trinity then and now Meabh Scahill

-page 16

How House Six made Ireland prochoice Ruby Topalian -page 18

An interview with Senator David Norris

Libby Marchant Contributing Writer

hen David Norris answered the door of his beautifully renovated Georgian Home on Parnell Street, he was impeccably dressed, and with a warm greeting, offered up a cigarette. His house was like a time capsule, bringing all those who visit back to a time when people wore three-piece suits and smoked indoors. Down a hallway, dotted with white marble statues and entire walls filled with books, Trinity News was brought into Senator Norris’s personal world, his haven away from the chaos of the Seanad, for an interview about his professional and personal past, his activism, and his future. Born in 1944 in what is now called Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (then known as Leopoldville in the Belgian Congo), the Senator moved to Ireland after his father’s death when he was a child. Norris went on to be a student of English Literature at Trinity where he was elected a foundation scholar in 1965. Speaking to Trinity News, he said that the reason he did so well in Trinity was not because of the amount of secondary sources he cited when writing essays, but because “I wrote about how the work made me feel, the emotions it invoked.” Norris explained that Trinity was a very different place in the mid-60’s to how it is now: “Trinity was much smaller then, only 2,000 people.” He spoke of how tutorials were held in professors’ offices, where there was always a roaring fire and glass

of sherry on offer. He recounted stories of the house parties of “the posh English people who didn’t get into Oxford and Cambridge so they came here instead”. At one such party, he admitted to stealing a bottle of champagne “because no one would notice it missing”. He turned the bottle into a lamp, which stands proudly in his study today. He was also kicked out of both the Hist and the Phil for “academic nudity”, i.e. not wearing the robes. When asked why he refused, Norris simply said: “I wanted to be an agitator.” This desire to shake things up and go against the grain has never faded from Norris’s life. When it comes to celebrity encounters, Norris always seems to be in the right place at the right time. Seán O’Fhaolain – a renowned Irish short story writer – gave Norris his first jazz record, which he then accidentally scratched. As a passionate Joyce scholar, Norris excitedly recalled meeting Syliva Beach, the first person who published Ulysses at the opening of the Martello tower. When asked what he loved so much about Joyce, he said: “His courage. He wanted to write and other people were going to pay for it. Mainly women.” Courage is an important trait for Norris and has informed all of his political decisions. He explained that “people should be true to themselves. A lot of people have parents who want them to study Science or Medicine so that they will make a lot of money but they really want to study the arts or theatre or something … I always say go for it!” He became a senator in 1987, but the journey there wasn’t easy. “My manifesto was the first one that included abortion as well as the [decriminalisation of] homosexuality. I eventually won people over. After 10 years and three elections, they came around.” By that point, Norris had taken the Attorney General to the High Court over the criminalisation of homosexual acts. When the High Court ruled against Norris, he appealed to the Supreme Court and when he lost that case, he took his case to the European Court of Human Rights. Here, the Court finally ruled that the criminalisation of homosexuality was at odds with the European Convention of Human Rights. The law in Ireland was consequently overturned in 1993. Trinity News asked Norris whether, throughout this process of constantly losing lengthy court cases, he ever lost hope: “Never. I always, always knew it would happen. I was told it would be a long and hard battle and it was but that suited me”.

PHOTO BY LIBBY MARCHANT FOR TRINITY NEWS

Senator David Norris speaks to Trinity News about his time in Trinity, the lessons he’s learned while fighting for the LGBTQ+ community, and what he plans to do after retiring

His favourite thing about the LGBTQ+ community is the “solidarity.’’ The pictures of Norris at various pride parades and protests that hang all over his house are proof that he has always found solidarity with this community. But that’s not the only place where Norris has found solidarity. When asked about the challenges he faced being the first openly gay person to be elected to Irish public office, he said: “my greatest challenge was getting people on my team to trust me. I think they thought they were going to get raped in the corridors. I don’t know what they thought. But then I told a few jokes and we all got on after that … Humour is a fantastic way to connect with people.” Norris was frank about the homophobia he has experienced, but was quick to add that things are much better these days, which he puts down to the fact that sexuality is talked about more openly. He continued, saying that “it wasn’t talked about at all … That’s why when I was doing my gay rights activism the first thing I did was go straight to the press, I wanted it to be on the front page.” In the last decade or so, Norris has expanded his activism to include all marginalised groups. In a 2011 interview with the Irish Independent, he said: “I did start out on that campaign [for the criminalisation of homosexuality law reform] but I found very quickly that the mechanism of discrimination was exactly the same against women, against ethnic minorities, against the handicapped, so I broadened out and this now is how I see things, very much so.” When asked if he has any advice

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Pick something you’re really really passionate about, don’t half do it

for young student activists today, Norris was direct and succinct: “pick something you’re really really passionate about, don’t half do it”; and when asked if there are any issues he thinks are important for young people to focus on specifically, he simply chuckled and said: “I don’t know, it’s not my world anymore. It’s time to pass on the baton.” In keeping with this sentiment, Morris will retire from the Seanad in January 2024 and move to Cyprus to enjoy some welldeserved relaxation and sunshine. Perhaps that is the true mark of a great politician: the ability to recognise that you have done all you possibly can and that the time has come to “pass the baton” to the next generation.

PHOTO BY LIBBY MARCHANT FOR TRINITY NEWS

Tuesday 7 November | TRINITY NEWS

Features

“Go home girls and shut up”: Articles from Trinity News on women through the decades An archival exploration of the attitudes towards women held by Trinity News’ student journalists throughout history

ounded in 1592, Trinity College Dublin’s status as Ireland’s oldest university undoubtedly makes it an object ripe for historical analysis. As we approach the seventieth anniversary of the founding of Trinity News (TN) – which also boasts the title of the nation’s oldest student newspaper – one’s interest is piqued by the shifting issues which the publication’s past staff chose for its pages of black and white print. While many issues covered in these archival volumes, such as complaints about poor conditions of student housing, have ironically stayed the same, the attitudes surrounding the position of women in College – as reported primarily by male contributors – is one topic that stands out to the modern eye. Rooted in the historical context of the midtwentieth century, and with an appreciation for journalistic flair, these writings are subjects of analysis in themselves. While starkly prejudiced against women, many of these pieces can be appreciated for their shocking absurdity. For example, in one 1954 article editorial column, the Editor points out that women are as “mentally and morally” different to men “as they are physically,” asserting that “women should stick to fencing and more elegant sports, leaving the tougher men to their hockey and cricket.” Other ‘mental’ limitations identified by this student journalist include women’s “assiduity”– or persistent attentiveness – which he states has “got them nowhere, except perhaps in the Mod. Lang School. We have only to look at Mod results to see their mediocrity in other faculties.” He re-affirmed that “if women remembered that they are potential mothers and that that instinct is very strong in nearly all of them, then perhaps they would choose a career such as infant teaching or nursing.” As a result, he concluded that women

PHOTO VIA THE TRINITY NEWS ARCHIVE

Rose Slocock Deputy Features Editor

are “less likely to benefit from a university education than a man” and therefore, college would be a “waste of time and money for any woman…The finest career for a woman is that of wife and mother. If women could understand this, then perhaps they would leave the academic field to men who can fill it much better.” While seeking a “career” as a “wife and mother” is completely valid for those who choose to do so, the dated idea that this is the only option for women due to their limited academic capabilities is farcical, condescending, and reflective of the dominant attitudes of the time. A similar view of fixed societal gender roles is echoed a year later, where a contributor laments that he “cannot believe women belong as much as men in the University world. Certainly, this is a view shared by many.” His opinion seems to have been prompted by debates concerning the admission of women as members of the University Philosophical Society (‘the Phil’) and the College Historical Society (‘the Hist’) – a topic that is discussed at length throughout these archival volumes. He argues: “it is my view that their presence either as spectators or members of the ‘Hist’ or ‘Phil’ would be inappropriate in the extreme and damaging both to the existing standard of oratory… and the whole atmosphere that exists at these meetings.” Formed in 1683, the Phil only allowed women to attend debates as spectators in 1953. Even then, however, women continued to be excluded from full membership. Resistance to their inclusion was only overcome in 1967, when a vote was passed (after several failed attempts) to admit women as members. It would take the Hist two more years to follow in the Phil’s footsteps in the face of mounting criticism; the motion only passed by a single vote. Support for the righting of such a profound wrong is voiced as far back as 1953 by a female writer. She argues: “The bar to admission of women to the major societies is not just another good sex joke; it is a deprivation to everyone… we suggest that it is time that the societies revive this most ancient of their traditions.” A primary reason for maintaining this “ancient” system was the view that debating was “primarily a male-occupation,” as the 1961 Hist Auditor put it to Trinity News: “women in debate would brittle the speaker’s tongue” he reasons, continuing that if women “are needed to improve the standard of debating, the standard must be pretty low.” The journalist then cites the opinion of Trinity’s teaching staff, noting that one Dr

Stanford asserted that women’s admission would “dilute the intellectual atmosphere to a more social and personal level.” The debate on female inclusion was the subject of another editorial in 1965. With a similarly patronising tone to that of his 1955 counterpart, the Editor labels the student activists seeking to enfranchise female students as “agitators… [who] need to be put in their places.” He marvels at the mere thought of women being allowed to debate in the Hist, rhetorically postulating “What next? Women in the Rugby Club? Can you really see a woman with a billiard cue? Why shouldn’t there be one place in Trinity that excludes women? Not every male conversation is enhanced by female intervention. Many are the times when men wish to relax after yet another conquest (or failure) alone, uninterrupted by feminine triteness.” His conclusion is that the Hist has “continued to provide a male sanctuary in a petticoatdominated world. Long may matters remain this way.” Yet, despite these disdainful rebukes, acts of female defiance persisted. In a comedic article published in 1966, a small band of women was reported to have invaded a Hist debate: “crouching behind the Hist members,” these eight gowned “conspirators” – recruited from a “group of sympathisers” at an Eliz tea party – were met with shouts of “Out!” on their discovery. Their leader, June Rodgers, stated that the act was not about “asking to be members.

It was just a plea to be allowed into important meetings.” The next weekly TN issue presents a Hist debater’s response to the invasion, which had interrupted him midspeech, stating that it “was great fun, I enjoyed it immensely, a splendid student prank. Now, stop it. This latter-day Suffragettism is a bore… Go home girls and shut up.” Speaking to Trinity News about this invasion, June Rodgers

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Such papers are invaluable artefacts of Trinity’s historic past, allowing us to reflect upon the obstacles women faced in their path to gender parity

emphasised that for her, it was only a bit of fun. “It started as a practical joke,” she stated, and that once they were found “absolute mayhem broke out.” She explained that at the time, “there were other, more pressing things that were engaging people, and these questions concerning women’s rights didn’t enter our minds.” Those students who did advocate for these issues were in the minority during the years that Rodgers attended Trinity, whose views “just irritated people and didn’t resonate.” Rodger emphasised the need to understand the historical context, and the different socioeconomic background of Ireland at the time. She pointed out that Trinity was arguably more of a liberal and intellectual hub than the rest of the country and other academic institutions; this social context placed women’s issues on the backburner. Deep diving into the archives of TN, the attitudes that surrounded female students are both fascinating and painfully backwards. While we women often take for granted our right to be fully integrated into college life, it is clear that these articles, and the attitudes of its male contributors mirror the dominant and dated prejudices of their time. Such papers are invaluable artefacts of Trinity’s historic past, allowing us to reflect upon the obstacles women faced in their path to gender parity, the advancements we have made in the span of seventy years, and the progress we have yet to embark upon.

TRINITY NEWS | Tuesday 7 November

Features

Exploring the mystery of Trinity tunnels Trinity News investigates the enduring legend of tunnels under campus Hazel Mulkeen and Inés Murray Contributing Writers

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The belief that there’s a tunnel under Front Square has endured for decades

PHOTO VIA FLICKER BY IQBAL AALAM

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egend has it”, a 2021 Trinity News article claimed: “there is a network of underground tunnels beneath Trinity.” In this anniversary issue, Trinity News decided to delve deeper into the reality behind this enduring myth. Generations of freshers have been told about these underground tunnels and cellars, where students would supposedly meet in secret, sneak into Trinity Ball, or even – according to a legend dating back to the 1980s – steal wine from the College stores. But where were these secret passageways? “We all thought there were [tunnels] under Front Square”, one alumnus who graduated in the 1980s shared with Trinity News, “but also one running from the Old Library to Berkeley”. The belief that there is an underground route under Front Square has endured for decades; a poster on boards.ie (an Irish chat forum) wrote in 2008 that “whenever the snow falls, you can see the route of one tunnel running… from the east side of the Chapel to the side of the Exam Hall”, because the snow above this track melts faster. However, this claim of an L-shaped tunnel has been debunked; rather, there’s an underground water pump that heats the pavement in this specific area.

What students call the “Front Square” actually encompasses two separate spaces: Parliament Square (the Front Gate to Campanile) and Library Square (the Campanile to Rubrics, the recently refurbished redbrick buildings). Such a distinction was made by Linzi Simpson, a prominent Dublin archaeologist, who wrote about the excavations of Trinity College Dublin in a Medieval Dublin Symposium in 2011. Simpson suggests that there may have been some underground activity as far back as the sixteenth century as Trinity College stands on the site of the medieval All Hallows Church. The outer walls of this church were repurposed as the original College Quadrangle in 1592 and this is why excavations in 1998 uncovered five skeletons in Library Square: the All Hallows Church’s graveyard site stretches across the lawn. Students might assume this means there are some underground structures here, but unfortunately major tunneling seems to have been beyond the means of these medieval monks. Even the monastery which became the Quadrangle was very small, its walls limited to the left-hand side of Parliament Square as you enter via the Front Gate. If there were ancient tunnels here, the 2011 excavations of Parliament Square – carried out in order to lay cables – would have exposed them. While there may be no tunnels in Front Square, there certainly are cellars. In correspondence with Professor Emeritus and author of “Early Residential Buildings of Trinity College Dublin” Andrew Somerville, Trinity News learned that a number of buildings in the area used to have cellars beneath them. Images of College in the 1600s and 1700s show that buildings were regularly pulled down and built over. In Somerville’s book, bills and receipts confirm the existence of these cellars. For instance, in 1721, tradesmens’ bills amounting to £829 were recorded for “new cellars and buildings over them.” A bill from 1754 for bricklayers working in Library Square references the construction of foundations for cellar steps, and the building of walls that would divide the “coal holes” used to supply the Rubrics with coal. These storage “holes” could have been large enough for students to use for more than storing coal, although there’s little evidence of this. Today, these underground spaces have probably been closed up following the recent refurbishment of the Rubrics. Palliser’s Building, which would have stuck out into the middle of Parliament Square from the left just before the dining hall, was known to have a cellar where undergraduates drank and were served by butlers. There is even an anonymous poem about the cellar dating back to 1737. However,

when this building was demolished in 1788, could this cellar have survived? The short answer is no. When the older buildings from the 1500s to the 1700s were demolished in Parliament Square, Somerville told Trinity News that these plots became open space. There would have been no need for any cellars or tunnels to remain there. In fact, College took all the bricks from these structures to reuse or sell. However, there are some remains of these old buildings under Parliament Square, left behind when the old “Great Court’’ of College was pulled down. For instance, there are cellars under the “north range of Parliament Square”, stretching from House 10 to just short of the door to House 8. Underneath the “Chapel and its flanking houses”, there’s a crypt, in which a statue of Luke Challoner – one of the three founding fellows of Trinity – can be found. Today, the door to the crypt can be found to the left of the Atrium. These sites, which Somerville visited and photographed for his book, could have been the basis of the rumours about the famous secret tunnels in Front Square. One final feature of “underground Trinity” is the huge water tanks under the South Lawn of Library Square, dating from the 1830s, and the pipes which brought this water to bathrooms and kitchens across campus. Yet it is doubtful these structures would ever have served any purpose other than that of transporting water. Moving on to the Library tunnels, Sub-Librarian Peter Dudley was able to confirm the existence of underground tunnels

connecting each Trinity Library and Reading Room. “Quite a lot of the Library infrastructure is underground,” Dudley told Trinity News. He explained that the Old Library and the BLU complex are joined by a tunnel that runs alongside the podium in front of what used to be the Berkeley Library; this is the largest tunnel, and was opened in 1967. The tunnel ends in a cylindrical structure and a spiral staircase which was inserted into the Old Library. Looking at the original ground floor plan of the Berkeley Library, the path to the Old Library is clearly visible, branching off to the right, underneath the podium. A tunnel used for transporting books connects the Old Library and the 1937 Postgraduate Reading Room: “A reader who wanted to consult something would put in a request,” Dudley explained, “and a (library) worker would bring the book.” As you might expect, this tunnel is open only to staff, with Estates and Facilities now using it for storage. There is also a tunnel connecting the 1937 Postgraduate Reading Room and the Long Room Hub – though it’s really more of a corridor, and also for staff use only – and a tunnel between the Long Room Hub and the Arts Building which can be accessed through the Edmund Burke theater. “It’s possible to walk all the way around Fellow’s Square without going outside,” Dudley said. While stories about tunnels under the libraries are true – they were built relatively recently – it seems the idea of an entire subterranean network underneath College can be thoroughly debunked. As Andrew Somerville

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It’s possible to walk all the way around Fellow’s Square without going outside explained to Trinity News, while researching for his book, he never found evidence of anything “old and long in Trinity”. Peter Dudley added that Trinity’s campus was built on what would have been at the time “very swampy ground”, which makes any largescale excavation or underground building nearly impossible. If a student wants to feel like they’re exploring the mythical Trinity tunnels, Dudley recommends going to the Early Printed Books section underneath the BLU complex. This section is in fact the tunnel that connects the new and old libraries. However, he warned that as renovations for the Old Library begin, the Early Printed Books section will likely be relocated to the basement of the Ussher - so students should go and visit now, before they lose their only chance to step inside a real Trinity tunnel.

Tuesday 7 November | TRINITY NEWS

Features

Trinity then and now: Challenges of continuity and change Trinity News “goes back in time” and explores photos old and new to find out how Trinity’s beautiful campus has physically changed over the decades Meabh Scahill Deputy Art Editor

s a historic campus at the centre of Dublin city, Trinity College Dublin has witnessed the changes of centuries. College itself has undergone much transformation, though some elements from the past are still recognisable today. Photographs of Trinity, both past and present, provide a glimpse into how campus has evolved over the decades.

making it Trinity’s true emblem and the official threshold between city and campus. Looking out onto College Green, the granite façade, with its neoclassical design, has remained unchanged as the city has evolved around it. Photographs from various points in Trinity’s history chart this relationship. An early photograph from 1871 shows the wide expanse of College Green between the Bank Of Ireland and Front Gate, occupied only by a few horse-drawn carriages. Taken just one year before Dublin’s tram system was introduced, the cobbled street is yet unmarked by tram lines. A subsequent photograph from the 1930s, more closely focused on the principal façade, speaks to the rapid changes that occurred in those 50 years, with the tram lines that came to service large areas of Dublin until the 1940s visible in the right-hand side of the frame. The College Green tramline was the first to be laid in 1872, but was removed in the 1940s to pave

the way for a more car-centric city centre. However, tracks along the same route were reinstated in 2004 to service Dublin’s Luas tram system, with Trinity gaining its own stop along the green line in 2017. A snapshot of Dublin’s mid-century revamp towards car-centric design can be seen in photographs of Dublin’s first major pride parade from 1983, where a Ford Fiesta and a Datsun Sunny can be spotted among the marching crowd.

movements, including Dublin’s first Pride parade. Amidst the small sea of people who attended

the 1983 Pride Parade, a Trinity Student Union banner can be seen, peeking out of the corner

Student activism Unsurprisingly, given its central location and ever-growing student body, Trinity College was a hotbed for Student activism throughout the twentieth century. Constructed opposite the former Irish Parliament, now the Bank of Ireland, Trinity’s western façade has been inextricably linked to the social and political development of the city since its erection. College’s pilastered facade became the backdrop for a number of social

PHOTOS COURTESY OF HEAD GARDENER, DAVID HACKETT

Front Square Since its construction in the 1750s, Trinity’s western façade known as Front Gate - has been the College’s recognisable ‘face.’ Though the Campanile can be seen as the more iconic symbol of College, plastered on countless pieces of merchandise, Front Gate is the standard backdrop of any visiting tourist’s selfie, arguably

PHOTO COURTESY OF TCD LIBRARY, TCD MS 4251, MUN/MC/157

PHOTO COURTESY OF TCD LIBRARY, TCD MUN/MC/159/1

PHOTO VIA THE DANIEL WOOD PHOTOGRAPHIC COLLECTION

PHOTO COURTESY OF TCD LIBRARY, TCD MS 4251, MUN/MC/157

TRINITY NEWS | Tuesday 7 November

Features of the photo; similarly Trinity students are photographed marching towards the Dáil along Molesworth Street as part of the 1992 anti-eighth amendment protests sparked by the ruling of the controversial ‘X’ case, which forbid a 14-year old rape victim from accessing abortion services in Britain. Though not taken on campus, it does reflect how issues on campus bled out onto the city streets, with change in the city influencing change on campus and vice versa.

Changes within campus While Front Gate has stood as a constant, recognisable structure amidst the ever-changing physical and social fabric of Dublin, campus itself has changed drastically, particularly in recent history. The introduction of free secondary school education in Ireland and the increase in third-level grants, as well as the official removal of the Catholic episcopal ban in 1970,

PHOTOS BY RORY CHINN FOR TRINITY NEWS

saw the demographics of College shift and the size of the student body increase. In 1983, Trinity’s total enrollment was around 6,000; today, it is approximately 20,000. This increased attendance, paired with the growing numbers of tourists visiting campus every year for their Book of Kells and Normal People fix, has necessitated change.

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In 1983, Trinity’s total enrollment was around 6,000...today it is around 20,000 From the construction of the Arts Block in 1978 to the acquisition of property along its borders with Pearse Street and Westland Row throughout the 1990s, Trinity’s campus has expanded. The construction of Printing House Square is the most recent in this long line of physical changes on campus. When one compares a photograph of today’s

PHOTO BY NICHOLAS EVANS FOR TRINITY NEWS

PHOTO BY RORY CHINN FOR TRINITY NEWS

Printing House to one of its 1871 counterpart, it becomes evident that little has changed about the original architecture. Only today, the moulded planes of the new complex’s granite roof loom over the original. The physical growth and expansion of College not only necessitated a rethinking of Trinity’s physical size and architecture, but it also meant changing the way people interact with nature on campus, sparked by the growing importance of sustainability. When comparing photos of campus today to those taken in 1983 by David Hackett, Trinity’s now Head Gardener, these changes become more evident. When Hackett took these photographs in 1983, he was a student of Horticulture at Trinity’s Botanic Gardens, with no idea that he would later work for the College. Since 1993, however, Hackett has been responsible for the maintenance of all 17 of Trinity’s sites, including the primary campus at College Green, Trinity East, Santry Ivy Grounds, and the grounds at Tallaght and St James’ Hospitals. Speaking with Trinity News, Hackett recalled the changes he has witnessed during his time working for Trinity: “there’s been an increase in students, yes [and] tourists, but also buildings and developments which have had an impact [on campus].” A

comparison between Hackett’s shot of the Old Library and Fellow’s Square and its contemporary counterpart clearly shows the rise in numbers on campus, both visiting and students. In 2017, the long-established ban on walking on the grass at Fellow’s Square was lifted, described as “impractical” and “impossible to enforce” by Estates and Facilities. This policy shift has seen tourists and students alike populating the green space, often to the detriment of the grass, as visible in the most recent photograph. Curating campus’s green spaces to handle human traffic requires care and attention. Hackett cites continual intervention as key to allowing both College and its trees to grow and flourish. Evidence of this success can be seen in Hackett’s photos too, in which the wild cherry trees, visible as saplings in protective wire mesh in 1983, are pictured in their maturation in the recent photograph of students walking along College Park. With the lifespan of certain trees on campus projecting hundreds of years into the future, Hackett reiterates the importance of longterm planning. According to Hackett, College’s physical maintenance has always and must continue to abide by two major rules: “it’s important to maintain its character, but also to ensure it is future ready.”

PHOTO VIA TRINITY NEWS

PHOTO BY NICHOLAS EVANS FOR TRINITY NEWS

Tuesday 7 November | TRINITY NEWS

Features

How House Six made Ireland pro-choice PHOTO BY ULTAN O BROIN

Trinity News sits down with the former SU officers who nearly faced prison time during their thirty year battle for the right to choose in Ireland Ruby Topalian Features Editor

n July 1, 1988, Anne Marie Keary arrived on University College Dublin’s (UCD) campus ready to take up her new role as the Student Union’s Welfare Officer. Amidst the piles of student and staff queries that she found on her first day was a court order from the Society of the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC). The order said that UCDSU’s decision to print abortion services information in its freshers’ pamphlets violated the 8th amendment of the Irish Constitution, and that if it chose to disseminate the pamphlets, the sabbatical officers were at risk of facing prison time. For 23-yearold Anne Marie, this news could not have been worse. “Suddenly, you were in this media storm and we were in our early twenties and had no experience with that... I was being interviewed by all these journalists, [being asked] these kind of sensational questions: ‘Are you prepared to go to jail?’ ‘Who do you think you are?’” Keary said in an interview with Trinity News. For the next thirty years, Ireland’s fight to keep abortion services information available to women would be spearheaded by college students. The fight would be an all-consuming one, but eventually the pro-choice movement would prevail. This is a brief history of how students across Ireland defended the right to choose and how without them, women seeking an abortion might still be living in fear, forced to travel outside of Ireland today. SPUC v Open Counselling Ltd

Door

With the 8th amendment enshrining the foetal right to life in the Irish Constitution and a complete prohibition of abortion in full force, approximately 5,000 Irish women had been travelling to the UK annually to seek abortion services since the legalisation of abortion there in 1967. The Irish government did not tell women

how to access these services, openly condemning women who did. The only way that women could access abortion services information for clinics in England was through two independent Irish women’s health agencies: Open Door/Line Counselling and Well Woman Centre. After they were taken to court and injuncted by SPUC in 1986, they chose to shut down their physical centres, ignoring the court’s order to seize the dissemination of abortions services information by moving their services to a secret phone line. In response, College Student Unions around the country stepped in and used their platforms to support the centres and disseminate abortion services information through phone lines and various pamphlets. SPUC grew increasingly angry. SPUC v Coogan The court order against UCD from SPUC on July 1 was uncharted territory for Irish Student Unions. While UCDSU leadership wanted to win their case, they decided to represent themselves in the High Court: “we wanted to make sure that we had the student support and we were kind of worried that all of these legal costs would make this something that students would not want to support,” Keary said. Fortunately, circumstances were on their side: “...we couldn’t have gotten a better judge … [she] was very respectful, … Judge Merit Carrol didn’t enact a provisional injunction against us ... [and] said that it was here-say what SPUC was saying about us giving out information. It was quite incredible really,” Keary continued. SPUC appealed, however, and the case was taken to the Supreme Court. None other than Mary Robinson stepped in to defend Keary and the other SU officers. Despite this, SPUC ultimately won the case. UCDSU was officially injuncted and, under court order, could no longer distribute the pamphlets.

They did anyway. While this was technically illegal and could have resulted in prison time, it didn’t. As explained by Ruth Riddick, a former counsellor at Open Door, in an interview with Trinity News: “Irish society in general was small “c” conservative and, on the whole, wished the public brouhaha would just go away. Nobody was interested in locking me up despite my invitation to do so as reported on the front page of the Irish Times and on RTE.” Keary, who comes from a conservative Catholic family and who went to a Catholic school during the passing of the 8th amendment, was quick to see the importance of UCD’s place in all of this: “I would be in my office and women from all over Ireland would be phoning me for this information. It was very real that these 5,000 going to get abortions each year in the UK did not have the information to do so … I kept bringing it back to the women.” SPUC v Grogan But SPUC wasn’t done yet. In 1989, Union of Students in Ireland (USI), UCDSU, and TCDSU, were issued court orders by SPUC’s solicitors for the same offence that UCDSU had been injuncted for a year prior. That summer, those 14 student officers targeted by SPUC quickly began meticulously planning. Stephen Grogan, USI President at the time, spoke with Trinity News and explained that the group met “every week over that late summer period as we got ready for presenting to USI’s monthly meeting called National Council, and for when college returned and SRCs or Student Unions started to convene.” He added: “Because we were a group, [there was] a sense of strength and security.” For TCDSU, however, the case was particularly difficult because of how life altering the verdict would be if things didn’t go to plan. TCDSU was the only SU that had actually released the pamphlets at the time of the court case because of its earlier freshers week. The

officers would face prison time if they lost: “[SPUC] sent people onto campus to … set us up … and they used to ring the office all the time, get people to ring to set up evidence. I mean, they had the guards come in to investigate us for corruption of morals. We had a notice served on us by Gardaí … it was very tense … very scary,” Senator Ivana Bacik said in an interview with Trinity News. Bacik explained that one day, TCDSU was even chased around House 6 by the Gardaí for operating a phone line which provided the “phone number of the clinics in England or the underground helpline then operating here in Dublin (01 6794700) which would help them to book an abortion/ termination of pregnancy in England.” Matters only got worse when the SU officers discovered who their judge would be: “We understood we were going to prison because the judge assigned to hear our case was quite well known for sending strikers to prison for contempt of court,” Bacik said. The message from Mary Robinson, who stepped in at the last moment to provide legal counsel, was clear: “‘pack your toothbrushes, you’re going to jail.’” Yet, by some miracle, they received news on the Monday morning before court: “we were told there had been a change of judge and the judge assigned to the case accepted Mary Robinson’s argument and referred the case to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg. So we didn’t get sent to prison happily,” Bacik recalled. The “case” that Mary Robinson made was one that centred around a similar argument made in Open Door at the Supreme Court a few years prior. The counselling centres argued that women, under European Community (EC) law, had the right to receive lawful medical services in another EC country and that information about said services was part of this protection. Though this argument failed in 1986, Robinson and the 1989 team had a judge in the High Court who believed that the European Court of Justice needed to decide whether women were entitled to information about services outside the state. Nevertheless, despite this relief, the personal costs of the long legal process which continued through to 1992, were life altering. For one, TCDSU was declared bankrupt due to the legal costs. But perhaps more significantly, these SU officers who had been ordinary college students just a few years prior, were now public figures, subject to the cruelty that comes with media attention: “I think we were all incredibly brave. I was 21, some of the others were 20, some were 22, some were only 19. I was lucky I had a supportive family, but my family were targeted and they got calls asking ‘is this the

baby murder clinic?’” She added: “Outside of the walls of campus we were spat at, we were threatened, I was hit.” Keary, named in both Coogan and Grogan, also battled against pro-life attitudes within UCDSU itself: “UCD had more students campaigning against the policy [than in other universities] ... there would be people [in the union] who would be less keen … I was quite on my own,” she explained. For Grogan, the court case was a contributing factor in his decision to leave Ireland: “I moved from Dublin to Prague to work for the International Union of Students. I had no resources or assets and at the time Czechoslovakia was a socialist country, so there wasn’t any way for SPUC to pursue me across that particular geographic legal line. But no, I didn’t flee either. I pursued my own interests, if that makes sense,” he said. Repeal the Eighth Following the 1992 ‘X’ case and the death of Savita Halappanavar, all those involved in the fight for abortion rights from the start of the 1980s joined with new generations of activists to fight for a referendum that would repeal the 8th amendment once and for all. On May 25, 2018, that very referendum was held. Speaking to Trinity News, TCDSU President at the time Kevin Keane, detailed the collective effort involved in fighting for “Repeal the Eighth” in the lead up to May 25: “We did a super canvas on two different days … over 300 [students] signed up … just under a quarter of a million leaflets were handed out around Dublin by Trinity students over the course of two days … just having “Repeal” messaging around the city was really important.” Decades worth of sacrifice, struggle and campaigning ultimately culminated in success as 66.4% of voters voted to Repeal the 8th. Today, abortion is legal in Ireland within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy and exceptions are made later on for women with health complications. Looking back, Keane is proud of what generations of college students were able to achieve: “When … the guards came up into House Six and chased [the TCDSU] through the building, that was the same building in which we, whatever it was 30 years later, had the opportunity to contribute … in some small way, to the culmination of this decadeslong struggle,” he concluded: “to have that template of ambition … and of uncompromising activism on an issue that matters laid down for you by predecessors who were willing to put their liberty on the line for the cause … That can’t help but be inspiring.”

TRINITY NEWS | Tuesday 7 November

Features

The historical legacy and lull of TCDSU’s student activism Has Trinity’s Students’ Union always been so willing to speak out on current events and mobilise the masses? Trinity News explored the Union’s history to find out Harper Alderson Contributing Writer

Marxist and highly ideological.” In contrast, Little characterised the TCDSU in his time as left-leaning but politically individualistic. Radicals had places within the SU but acted as individuals. However, issues have always

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Radicals had places within the SU but acted as individuals emerged that the Union has taken a stance on, including declaring Britain’s relationship

with Ireland as “neo-colonial,” standing in early solidarity with the Nicaraguan government, and opposing the 1986 bombings in Libya. In fact, violence perpetrated by the US government – in Libya and beyond – sparked “weekly occupations of the US embassy” by the SU throughout the 1980s. With that said, given the debilitating recession Ireland experienced in the 80s amidst conflict in Northern Ireland and all of the restrictions on women’s and minority rights, Little stressed that it was “unimaginable that we would have the social progress [that exists now] in Ireland … [I] cannot emphasise enough the journey Ireland has taken in the span of a lifetime. My lifetime.” He recalled a leftist chant from his days at the college: “Lose, lose, we always lose, what the fuck do we care.” The real difference throughout the history of the TCDSU is not its changing inclination to engage in activism but its ability to engage students in Union elections. Last year, just 10%

of the student body voted in class rep elections. Though it is difficult to track down how much this has changed from previous decades based on information in the Trinity archives, Little explained that election turnout had never been an issue before. One can point to a multitude of reasons for decreased voter turnout. Perhaps comfort with the Irish liberal consensus has meant “revolution” is not as pressing to the student body today. Maybe the internet and immediate access to information as opposed to reliance on friends are wearing down on willingness to physically participate, or maybe even leftover COVID fatigue is taking its toll. Regardless, the TCDSU has proven to be a vital outlet for change across generations. Despite the disinterested attitudes of students towards TCDSU elections today, the Union’s ability to mobilise the masses for change will likely remain a constant for as long as House Six is standing.

PHOTO BY ULTAN O BROIN

he Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) was founded in 1968 following a 1967 Hist debate on the motion “Trinity Needs a Union”. Trinity Law and Business Lecturer Kardar Asmal, who spoke at the debate, explained in a 1967 interview with Trinity News that it was necessary to “oppose the arbitrary power of academic staff ” and create a “liberated zone of critical knowledge in what is virtually a dead body of institutional learning”. Before the SU, there existed the Student’s Representative Council (SRC). The SRC was widely considered to be highly ineffective. It was composed of student-elected representatives in low-turnout elections, and most of their time was spent gathering student opinion polls to present to administrators. These polls also experienced low turnout, often finding results opposite to student consensus, which ultimately made them lack real authority. In 1963, the retiring president, David Butler, characterised it as “a nasty provincial institution run by agitators who should be doing some [academic] work instead of wasting their time, and who are probably just gluttons for publicity and importance”. A reporter for Trinity News called Hutchinson President concluded that “the students of this College have too many representatives and not enough representation.” It was clear that a more capable body representing student interests was necessary. Thus, the Trinity College Dublin Student Union (TCDSU) was born. Accommodation has, since before the inception of the Union, been a pillar issue for student activists

and representatives. In 1966, new flat regulations were announced requiring a resident landlord for flat dwellers and prohibiting men and women from living together. Trinity News reported that The University of Cork characterised the policy as “totally unreasonable, bigoted, foolish and short-sighted.” In 1969, Dennis Dennehy, secretary of the newly founded Dublin Housing Action Committee (DHAC), was arrested for squatting in a vacant flat set to be demolished and turned into an office building. Trinity students rallied around him. They held up traffic, engaged in sitdown demonstrations, and held a mock trial of the landlord, Mr. Underwood, condemning him to life in prison. When students protested Dennehy’s detention in Mountjoy prison, Gardaí officers arrived, pulling batons and attacking non-violent protesters. Eventually, thanks in part to the efforts of Trinity students, the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Frank Cluskey, made a special plea to Taoiseach Charles Haughey, requesting the release of Mr. Dennehy. Another student movement that saw success was the campaign to increase women’s rights within the college. In 1968, Provost Albert Joseph McConnell announced that students could finally sit in on board meetings and voice their opinions on school matters. That same year, the TCDSU was able to advocate for a policy that finally allowed women to live on campus, 46 years after they had gained the right to study in Trinity. Trinity News spoke to Mark Little, who served as TCDSU President from 1985-1989. Little has since served as RTÉ’s first Washington Correspondent, presented on RTÉ’s Prime Time, and started Kinzen, a company regulating harmful media, which has since been acquired by Spotify. He described the unique climate of Ireland during his time in college, characterised by the “tail end of the dominance of the Catholic Church”. Abortion was illegal and contraception was not widely accessible; Little made the spread of reproductive health information one of his key struggles. However, he described the Union during his time as President as a “very big full-time team”, for whom providing services like shops and cafes came before raising awareness about “issues that may be less connected to actual student life”. Little also explained how important it was that the SU be politically diverse, and never “stray far from the class consensus”. On the topic of the TCDSU being “politically diverse,” one BESS student who spoke with Trinity News expressed discomfort with the current state of the Union, describing it as “overtly

PHOTO BY NIKO EVANS FOR TRINITY NEWS

TRINITY NEWS | Tuesday 7 November

Reflections on Australia’s Voice referendum Eliza Fergusson page 24

Comment

Editorial: Reflecting on 70 years of Trinity News Editorial page 26

Nina Crofts

Comment Editor

reland, ten years ago, stood in a very different position regarding social progressiveness than it stands now. In recent years, though, Ireland has been seen as an emblem of a forward-thinking 21st century Europe, largely due to big steps taken on social issues. Let’s revisit two of the most controversial social issues of the past decade in Ireland. The mid-2010s saw a wave of countries pass bills legalising same sex marriage, with Ireland finally taking the leap in 2015. Two years prior, TCDSU (Trinity College Dublin Students Union) enacted a referendum to take a view of the student body on the topic. A Trinity News article, entitled The Marriage Equality Debate, saw the views of two students on the topic. The student arguing for marriage equality brings up several points, one I particularly resonate with is that marriage has been a transformative institution for as long as it has existed. As a sign of the times, they quoted John Green, who said “the truth is, marriages are intensely personal. They are defined not by courts or

by votes but by the people that live inside of them. That’s traditional marriage: people making a daily, lifelong commitment. We can’t make gay marriage illegal because gay marriage is already happening. It has been happening in fact for as long as human beings have been pledging themselves to each other.” The ‘against’ argument raises issues of the family once again, and an interesting point they raised was the United Nations’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, where it states in Article 16: “Men and women … have the right to marry and to found a family” and that “the family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society.” The student arguing against marriage equality is also a practising Catholic, which is important to acknowledge because his definition of family is largely based in Catholic belief. Nothing with Article 16 attempts to prescribe what a family is, because, as the other student concluded, it’s not really anyone else’s business. I think that this shift is one of the most notable turning points in recent Irish history. Many young people have turned from religion, or at least shied away from approving the intertwined nature of the Church and the State, which dominated Ireland for centuries.

The definition of marriage is ever-changing, and John Green’s quote rings true even more now. Birth rates are going down, and marriage isn’t simply seen as the first step in starting a family. Far more couples are also starting families without being married at all. In my eyes, marriage in 2023 has transformed from a standard religious nuclear family setup, to a simple declaration of love and commitment between two people. Divorce rates are also on the rise. So hey, maybe the commitment bit is even up in the air. Solidifying an equal right to marriage, in my view, was symbolic. A symbol that gay and straight people, and our marriages, would be seen as equal under the law. Another issue that hit the Irish stage in 2017 was the repeal of the 8th amendment, which granted access to abortion. Around the time of this debate numerous articles were written, from a heartbreaking anonymous recollection of one’s own abortion experience travelling to the UK, to the impeachment of a UCDSU President for removing information about accessing abortions from a fresher’s magazine. One I particularly resonated with was a student tasked to write in favour of repealing the 8th amendment, but

took a much gentler view on why. She stressed that repeal would not ‘mandate’ abortions, it would just remove the blanket ban placed under the constitution, which prohibited abortions even in cases of rape, or in the very early stages, affording no nuance to the issue. Furthermore, it acknowledged the necessity of many pregnant people to travel for abortions prior to repeal, to the UK or other places in Europe. That’s something that has become more accepted in recent years, that abortions do happen, and that is why it’s critical to ensure safe and legal access to them. Now, it’s quite scary that 10 years later, we’re looking at a world that appears to be twisting itself backwards on this. Last year, the US Supreme Court repealed Roe V. Wade, a court case that granted the right to access to abortions. And the same narrative is circling back, that people will just drive to other states or countries, that people will seek unsafe, illegal abortions, or that we will make a 12 year old carry her rapist’s baby. It’s a dangerous path to start travelling back down, and one that needs to be fought against. So where do we go from here? Ireland is still severely slacking on banning conversion therapy, implementing progressive

harm-reduction drug policies, and access to gender affirming healthcare. It’s unjust for Ireland to accept praise while still failing many of its people massively. Leo Varadkar, in a panel discussion with the Hist on October 18, boasted about socially forward policies in Ireland and how he was especially proud, as a gay man, to have been a part of social movements such as these. However, his statement was followed by sympathetic remarks with an Irish Times article that approached gender affirmation as a mental illness and promoted denying access to care to children deemed too young to “understand” they were transgender. We can’t claim to be proud of how much we’ve achieved in the past when we’re failing the future. It was only 10 years ago when we were out on the streets, begging for our voices to be heard, begging to be seen as one and the same with heterosexual couples, begging for the equal right to marry the person we loved. 40 years ago, the LGBTQ+ community was begging for the government to address the detrimental AIDS crisis, to stop needless deaths and relentless homophobia and misinformation. The transgender community is begging to be seen and fought for by the government in the same way groups did many years ago, that we look back now in shame for ignoring. If you’re a part of that, and you find the basic rights we had to fight for 10 years, or 40 years ago bizarre, do the work to ensure we won’t be in the exact same place years from now.

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Looking back, moving forward: Ireland’s social transformation on the pages of Trinity News

Tuesday 7 November TRINITY NEWS

Comment

Age of the influencer? Aoibhínn Clancy Deputy News Editor

PHOTO VIA NEASA NIC CORCRAIN FOR TRINITY NEWS

m i l l i o n Ti k To k s alongside 3.7 million Yo u Tu b e videos are uploaded daily. On top of this, 1,074 pictures are posted to Instagram per second, equating to 95 million a day. There is no doubt that the digital sphere plays a significant and indisputable role in the lives of many in today's society. Acclaim and recognition is also actively sought after by many who contribute to the colossal amount of media uploaded to online platforms. South East Technological University (SETU) in Carlow recently announced their new Bachelor of Arts in Content Creation and Social Media which will launch officially in Autumn of 2024. The course hopes to teach students how to "take on the digital world". However, many have coined it as a course on how to become an influencer. This notion struck me. Studying in order to become an online personality is never something I would have considered an option. First, before we delve further into the minefield of what being an influencer truly entails, I believe

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Cambridge Dictionary describes the term as "a person who is paid by a company to show and describe its products and services on social media it is important we are working off a common definition of the term.

more likely to purchase something they praise, promote or purchase themselves. These influencers usually have between 1,000 to 100,000 followers meaning the commission owed to them is lower as opposed to an account with 50 million plus followers. Micro influencers have unknowingly provided corporations with a newly found goldmine when it comes to advertisement.

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I do not believe it is moral in this age of climate catastrophe to encourage the constant purchasing of items we do not need. Modern day Urban Dictionary, the a definite and secure platform in enormous profits through its live dictionary of the people, defines the online area where millions of streaming platform and ‘see now, influencers an influencer as: “A makeup, others are competing and trying buy now’ ethos. It is a highly hairstyle, or fashion blogger who to carve out their own brand? competitive yet lucrative industry. are inherently is instafamous only on Instagram SETU Carlow’s Bachelor of Arts At its peak, KOL and influencer or buys ‘followers’ and ‘likes’ and in Content Creation and Social management company Ruhnn linked to overgets free products from companies Media has been both correctly and would scout 800 people a month who fall in their trap of fake fame.” incorrectly labelled as a course on only offering the top 10 a contract consumption Cambridge Dictionary describes how to be an influencer. The degree illustrating the highly competitive the term as “a person who is paid by a company to show and describe its products and services on social media, encouraging other people to buy them.” Is there any semblance of truth to these somewhat crude definitions? Zoella, Pointlessblog and danisnotonfire are just some of the influencers whose YouTube channels I watched religiously during my formative years. These faces morphed into those of Emma Chamberlain, Cody Ko and Noel Miller once I aged. Now, older still, when deciding to press play on my meal time entertainment I tend to gravitate towards channels who produce meticulously written video essays such as Jordan Theresa and Shanspeare or seek out the comfort of a Keelin Moncrieff vlog. The appeal of many influencers is that they are ‘just like you and me’ or in other words their relatability. Hailing from normal backgrounds, these individuals were sprung into a niche online spotlight due to their personalities or the nature of their content. Is the essence of an influencer something which can be bottled up and taught to others? Is there some magic elixir to take which guarantees you

is set to teach valuable business and PR skills on how to market oneself online while also focusing on celebrity studies, podcasting and creating videos. As the digital landscape becomes intrinsically intertwined with our daily lives, I believe that the learning outcomes of this degree are to be desired regardless of if one pursues influencer stardom or not. Perhaps we will even see Trinity institute a similar course in the future. There is however a darker truth to the influencer epidemic we are experiencing. Videos have gone viral from influencer or content farms in China. These clips show factories full of people arranged in lines with each individual situated in front of a camera, ring light and tripod. If you think this sounds like something from a 2010s dystopian novel, you would be correct. Companies hire these KOLs (key opinion leaders) or influencers in order to promote their products and thus boost the streaming e-commerce market in China which is estimated to exceed over 720 billion US dollars in 2023. Taobao, an online shopping platform based in Hangzhou China uses KOLs to churn in

and desirable nature of this career. Influencers for hire is not a new phenomenon. I'm sure we can all remember the Kardashians' endless marketing of appetite suppressant lollipops and diet tease along with the slew of low quality and overpriced merchandise YouTubers used to sell to us. These examples aside, the landscape for online content creators has in my opinion experienced a significant shift in the last few years as the premise of what an influencer can do has changed. Corporations and companies have only recently released the full lucrative potential of having a ‘normal’ person advertise their products. The rise of micro influencers only further facilities the onslaught of constant marketing one experiences upon opening any social media. Micro influencers operate in a sweet spot when it comes to attracting sponsorships from companies. Their smaller fan bases are often very loyal thus they achieve high levels of engagement with their content which appeals to brands. The perceived reliability of smaller content creators also means viewers often form deep bonds with the creators meaning they are

When it comes down to it, advertising either yourself or a product is the only way to ensure a sustainable and definite income due to the precarious nature of influencer as a career, a career which in my eyes is unethical and unsustainable to both promote and pursue. I do not believe it is moral in this age of climate catastrophe to encourage the constant purchasing of items we do not need. Modern day influencers are inherently linked to overconsumption. Paid partnerships content creators enter into with brands encourage and promote excessive spending. Unless they hail from an affluent enough background to not partake in sponsorships or work another job in conjunction with their online career, this is how your favourite influencer garners their income. If choosing this job as your primary source of income you must be prepared to denounce any values you hold in relation to issues of fast fashion or sustainability. There is little we can do to close the online floodgates as the age of the influencer is upon us, whether we like it or not.

TRINITY NEWS | Tuesday 7 November

Comment

The importance of student journalism Nina Crofts

Comment Editor

started participating in student journalism when I was in high school. 15 to be exact. And when I started, I really just saw my articles as more fun versions of the academic essays I was writing every day in class. It wasn’t really until an article I wrote in March 2020, about why I view marriage as an archaic and outdated institution, and not one I wish to participate in, that I really understood the power of expressing my voice through journalism, and the unique appeal and responsibility of being both a student and a journalist. Most of the things reported on in student publications directly or indirectly affect the journalists writing about them. This differs from mainstream publications, who often have the privilege to objectively cover things that they have no affiliation with. Student journalists, on the other hand, often find themselves trying to put on a different “hat” when it comes to reporting, but in my eyes part of the magic of being a student journalist is that despite putting on a different “hat,” it’s still the same you.

We know what is important to report on because we are constantly surrounded by the student voice. An Independent reporter would never know about the burden of exorbitant rents, or how so many campus spaces are not accessible, or feel the fears of examination changes in light of artificial intelligence. Students know what students care about, and what issues aren’t

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Opinion pieces are unique, in that they are the only article format that doesn't have to be entirely objective getting the attention they deserve. I’ve always been drawn to comment articles, particularly

because it’s a place I feel my voice holds a special significance, and one where my words and my articles come together to represent me. Opinion pieces are unique, in that they are the only article format that doesn’t have to be entirely objective. I, and many other comment writers I chat to, find this freeing. It’s a cathartic experience to tackle an important issue with your own nuance and even your own frustration or praise, and it feels especially personal. Comments and editorials are also some of the articles that welcome the most controversy. In high school, as the opinions editor of my student paper, I oversaw the publication of an article that explained her moral objection to being friends with someone who supported Trump. Despite living in a fairly liberal area, it was met with a flurry of hateful comments first from people in our school, then from people across the country. I look back on articles I wrote two or three years ago and note not just their lasting impact on my worldview, but how well some of them have stood up over time. In the leadup to the 2020 election, I penned a piece about how I didn’t feel we have a moral obligation to vote. I remember feeling incredibly hesitant at that time to make a case for which none of my friends or family agreed with me, but

with all my friends approaching voting age and my moral dilemma surrounding supporting the Biden campaign, I felt it necessary. I’m proud of 15-year-old me, and in the midst of Biden’s abysmal policy decisions on Israel-Palestine, I’m glad I had the space to freely argue those principles when I felt them. A large part of the power with student journalism is also the ability to call attention to injustices we see on our college campuses every day. In my research for this article, I came across the 20172018 media frenzy encountered by Trinity News. During that year many critical stories were reported on, including the impeachment of the President of UCDSU for restricting information to abortion access in a fresher’s magazine, to the Hist’s invitation of Nigel Farage to receive a medal, to a student accidentally being withdrawn from college due to errors with Academic Registry. These issues all matter to students, and are reported on students in a far more personal manner than someone completely outside of our bubble. Who better to explain the experience of accidental withdrawal than the student themself, or the discomfort of Nigel Farage’s presence to a student impacted by his racist remarks, or affected by Brexit? The student

PHOTO BY GORDII SPELLMAN FOR TRINITY NEWS

voice is powerful particularly for that personal appeal. Freedom of expression is protected in the Irish constitution, and much needed steps have been taken in recent years to avoid loopholes within this. Up until 2020, to publish “blasphemous, seditious, or indecent matter” was a criminal offence. However, it still restricts or bans any content deemed unacceptable, offensive, or obscene, or likely to incite hatred or violence. While it’s important to acknowledge the steps taken, having such subjective censorship manners is still a setback, and one that can be exploited far too easily in the wrong hands. Media ownership in Ireland

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Media ownership in Ireland is highly concentrated to a few select publications, which is another reason that journalism for-students, by-students is so critical is highly concentrated to a few select publications, which is another reason that journalism for-students, by-students is so critical. We need to encourage publications that foster a wide variety of views, not allow the media to be dominated by select echo chambers and industries. We need to protect student journalists, but we also need to expand the scope we can cover in student journalism. The student voice is powerful because it is diverse, and it’s critical to reflect that in publishing and work on outreach to communities we aren’t covering aptly. The press also has an important role in defending itself. We owe it to ourselves to cover issues of press freedom as far as the Middle East and as close to home as RTÉ funding. Freedom of information is one of the most sacred things we have, and one that we as students need to protect.

Tuesday 7 November TRINITY NEWS

Comment

Promoting Gaeilge means taking action Pádraig Mac Brádaigh Contributing Writer

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The fact is that people and institutions can talk about how beautiful and amazing Irish is until they are blue in the face, but lip service without action is how the Irish state itself has overseen the decline of Irish since its inception from past students, a place to call home on campus in Seomra na Gaeilge. That is all wonderful. It is not, however, nearly enough. The fact is that people and institutions can talk about how beautiful and amazing Irish is until they are blue in the face, but lip service without action is how the

Irish state itself has overseen the decline of Irish since its inception. The promotion of Irish, or any language, requires concrete steps. It requires education through said language to be available to all students from the naíonra right through the ollscoil. Here in Coláiste na Tríonóide, the only course one can take through the medium of Irish is Irish itself. That must change and it must change fast. The most recent amendment to Acht na dTeangacha Oifigiúla in 2021 set a target to make at least 20% of civil service workers Irish speakers by 2030. How, though, can anyone possibly expect that these Irish-speaking professionals will somehow materialise out of thin air? The appropriate steps must be taken to meet such targets by the entire educational sector, and Trinity, as Ireland’s premier university, must help lead the charge in doing so. In terms of the colonial mindset, the excuses used in bad faith against Gaeilge by anglophones who pretend to be in favour of promoting it are often lacking in substance. The worst is when a scapegoat is made of international students as an excuse not to use Irish. As an international student myself, I find this argument insulting to the intelligence of international students, many of whom are multilingual. According to College’s data, over 40% of students who take the free Irish language classes offered are international and I myself can attest to the international interest in Irish from the workshops I have done in Seomra na Gaeilge and the Pavillion Marquee over the years. International students are not the issue, but rather a tendency in some corners of anglophone Irish society to look for any possible excuse not to give equal status to Ireland’s indigenous language. The great irony of most Gaelophobic arguments I hear is that they often come from people who would claim to be staunchly Irish and against the imperialist and discriminatory practices of the past. I’m sure many of them would be startled to hear that the same arguments they use are espoused by the global right wing such as the Conservative Party in Wales and Scotland against Welsh and Scottish Gaelic, the New Zealand National Party against Māori, the Canadian Conservatives against indigenous languages and French, and Spanish Vox against Basque, Catalan, and Galician. These arguments come from a place of fear and hatred and, therefore, any effort to heal

PHOTO VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

or the last several hundred years in Ireland, being an Irish speaker has not been easy. Centuries of British imperialism attempted to eradicate the Irish language and Gaelic culture, going to extreme lengths to anglicise not only every square inch of the island, but also the very names of the people who lived on it. The deep psychological, sociological, and linguistic effects of colonialism still painfully reverberate across the world and the scars of indigenous communities from Alaska to New Zealand are trying desperately to heal what was lost while, at the same time, adapting to a rapidly changing world of technological innovation. Language, a fundamental part of the human experience, is at the heart of this healing, and strengthening indigenous languages through digital and institutional means gives speakers of minoritised languages their long overdue dignity and respect. After the foundation of the Irish State, Irish language provisions and policy were seen for the first time in the modern era. These original policies generally failed given their lack of direction and overall vagueness. Aside from Bunreacht na hÉireann (the Irish Constitution) which offered only nominal protection, the first major protection of Irish language rights and services was only introduced for the southern state in 2003 in Acht na dTeangacha Oifigiúla (Official Languages Act). Since then, the presence of Irish on the European and international stages has seen improvement in the social status of the language, which consistently receives high levels of public support in surveys. In fact, 1.9 million people, more than 40% of the population, claimed to be able to speak Irish on the last census in 2022. This is despite the number of people who claim to speak Irish on a daily basis outside the education system, which continues to decline, little by little, every census. Irish speakers who do consistently use the language are often met with rude or dismissive responses in public or when attempting to use services entitled to them by law. Irish speakers are often forced to speak English or face contempt for somehow being difficult or elitist. Many Irish speakers feel guilty even asking for services as

Gaeilge for not wanting to feel as if they are imposing on people. This bizarre inconsistency of Irish people on the topic of the national language is a symptom of deeply rooted colonial legacy. The Irish community often must strike a difficult balance between defending the dignity and rights of fluent speakers while also welcoming and accepting with open arms people with all different levels of Irish, some with only the cúpla focal. And here in Coláiste na Tríonóide, we are successful in doing so. After all, our Cumann Gaelach didn’t win Society of the Year at last year’s Student Achievement Awards Ireland for nothing. We have a successful Scéim Cónaithe and thanks to years of campaigning

through decolonisation in Ireland must reject this by centreing the promotion of Gaeilge. The good news, though, is that change is absolutely possible and that the Irish public continues to show more of the positive will toward Gaeilge needed to make it happen. Now it is time to put that good will to use and take action. It is crucial to remember also, that all of the above only refers to the 26 counties. The North has proven time and again to be a black hole of human rights when it comes to Gaeilge as the DUP and UUP stonewall all efforts to implement what has already been promised in legally binding commitments. Irish did not even become an official language in the North until 2022. One of the most vile accusations laid at the feet of our community in the North is that it is somehow sectarian

to speak our own language. It is a simply dumbfounding level of colonial gaslighting that somehow the indigenous language fighting for basic recognition is the problem rather than the imperial British state that tried to destroy it. The children who grow up in Béal Feirste as native Gaeilgeoirí are not political operatives. They are people who speak their native language and deserve a state that will finally allow them to do so in peace. Irish language rights are Irish human rights and here in Tríonóid, our institutions from an Chlárlann Acadúil/Academic Registry to AMLCT/TCDSU need to reflect this with a renewed focus on a real, full future for Gaeilge that lays down specific targets and plans to reach them rather than cheap sentiment. The will for this change is there. We can do it. Ar aghaidh linn.

TRINITY NEWS | Tuesday 7 November

Comment

Reflections on Australia’s Voice referendum: Where do we go from here? Eliza Fergusson Contributing Writer

ast week Australians were asked to vote Yes or No in a historic referendum proposing amendments which would have enshrined an Indigenous Voice to Parliament in the constitution. The Voice was to consist of a government advisory body of elected members from Indigenous communities across Australia. It was the product of years of thoughtful collaborative work by a group of 250 Indigenous leaders as articulated in the 2017 Uluru Statement from the Heart and, as legal experts agreed, was a constitutionally sound proposition for change. When the Australian Labor Party first came into power in May 2022 there had been broad support for the Voice, with around 60% of non-Indigenous Australians saying they were in favour of it. Yet, on the 14th of October, the Voice was rejected by the Australian people. The referendum’s failure to pass was a landslide ‘No’. More than 60% of Australians voted against the Voice. In the wake of this result, myself and many other Australians are shocked and utterly confused. I simply can’t fathom why an opportunity to recognise 65,000 years of Indigenous culture for the first time in our 122 yearold constitution could be rejected. How was an opportunity to listen, make culturally-informed decisions, and reduce the stark inequalities that exist for Indigenous Australians something our country could forgo? The Voice was a proposition for constitutional change taken right from the heart of Australia. It was a call of action for Indigenous people, by Indigenous people. It was a chance to address the many challenges that still plague Aboriginal communities, and to directly shape Government policy on Indigenous issues. Indigenous Australians still face shorter life expectancies, and higher rates of infant mortality, youth incarceration, and suicide. They face overwhelmingly poorer health and education outcomes, and social marginalisation. Shockingly, a young Indigenous man is statistically more likely to end up in jail than in university. The Voice was a sound proposition to begin to change all of this - to work towards closing the

gap in Indigenous inequality, and to change Australia for the better. But, it failed. What went wrong? First and foremost, constitutional amendments are very difficult to get through. Of 45 conducted since 1901, only eight have succeeded. They also commonly require bipartisan support which, despite initially looking like a given, was sadly lacking this time. In a reflection of the times, the situation was made worse by an increase in negativity, scare tactics, and disinformation. The ‘No’ campaign primarily claimed the proposal was “divisive”

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In the wake of the defeat, Indigenous leaders of the 'Yes' campaign announced a 'Week of Silence' to grieve the outcome of the Voice Referendum and gave certain Australians “benefits” on the basis of their race. So, where do we go from here? In the wake of the defeat, Indigenous leaders of the ‘Yes’ campaign announced a ‘Week of Silence’ to grieve the outcome of the Voice Referendum. I fully respect and acknowledge this silence. We grieve with you. I recently spoke to my 85 year old grandmother, a strong and passionate ‘Yes' supporter. Throughout this campaign, she walked through her neighbourhood of 60 years proudly wearing her ‘Yes’ badge, and offering her community smiles and words of hope. On Saturday, she voted, as she did in Australia’s

1967 referendum to include Indigenous Australians in the census, for an equal future. She, like many others, is deeply distressed that this referendum has failed. Due to Australia’s vote, many Indigenous Australians, who have spent their lifetime working towards constitutional recognition, are now unlikely to ever see it. Professor Marcia Langton AO, a key Indigenous leader who has worked closely with both sides of politics, has declared “reconciliation is dead”. Despite the deeply saddening path Australia has chosen, I remain in awe of the grace and optimism behind the ‘Yes’ campaign. I reflect on it as one that was led with positivity, compassion, and honour. The legacy of the ‘Yes’ campaign will not be forgotten, and its positive outlook for an equal and just Australia must be continued. We as Australians, and our government, must continue to honour our commitment to reconciliation. A defeated constitutional

referendum does not mean change is impossible or that we must

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A defeated constitutional referendum does not mean change is impossible or that we must concede defeat concede defeat. The battle for Indigenous equality, constitutional

recognition, land rights, and changing Australia Day to a date suitable for all Australians must and will continue. Reconciliation is a long road. It is a process that is unfortunately not linear, straightforward, or easy. It is a process however that will ultimately lead to positive change, if steered and propelled in the right direction, led by the inspirational Indigenous leaders we have today, and guided by the voices and perspectives of all Indigenous people. It has been touching to hear how many students, both Irish and international, at Trinity College Dublin care about the issues facing Indigenous Australians and the repercussions of this vote. I, and many other Aussies, deeply appreciate their desire to help, to engage, and to understand. Indigenous inequality is truly an issue of global significance. Saturday the 14th of October was a day of deep sadness for many Aussies, Indigenous and non-Indigenous alike. That same afternoon, I was sent a photograph by a friend from Trinity. A full rainbow over College Park - “to give Australia hope.” We must remember that despite the pain and disappointment, there is still hope. Hope for reconciliation. Hope for a more equal Australia. Hope for a brighter future.

PHOTO BY MAYA MANN FOR TRINITY NEWS

Tuesday 7 November TRINITY NEWS

Comment

Randal's reflections: Memories of my undergraduate years Randal Henly

Trinity News Alumnus

finished secondary school (The King’s Hospital, then in Blackhall Place, Dublin) in June 1958. I had already gained my Trinity entrance by sitting the Matriculation exam in January of that year. The Matriculation exams were an alternative to the Leaving Certificate, and were held in January, May, and October of each year. These exams were abolished when the Leaving Certificate ‘points’ system was introduced— sometime in the 1990s. So, I started in TCD in October of that year, 1958, along with several others from my secondary school. The student population at that time was about 2500, 70% male and the rest female. (Student numbers are now in the region of 19,000). Trinity at that time was very much a Protestant university, for the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin at the time, John Charles McQuaid, said in one of his pastoral letters: ‘We forbid, under pain of mortal sin, Catholic youths to frequent that College and to expose themselves to nonsectarian influences’. The real growth in student numbers began in the 1970s, when free secondlevel education and student grants were introduced, but very much responsible was the removal of the Catholic episcopal ban, which happened at the start of that decade. Although I finished in chemistry, I did physics and maths as well in the two Freshman years, and physics in the Junior Sophister year, but chemistry only in the final (Senior Sophister) year. In the Junior Freshman year, Professor Wesley Cocker lectured on organic chemistry at 9 a.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays in the large theatre in the Chemistry Department. Every topic on the course was demonstrated; the long lecture bench would be laid out beforehand and the Professor would start at one end and do the various demonstrations as appropriate, and at the end of the hour he would have reached the far end. Thank you, Professor Cocker, for those great teaching sessions. Sadly, this approach died out when the Professor retired in 1978, at the age of 70. However, he ‘came back’ six months later, to continue his research and he could be found in his laboratory most days. He

continued to publish the results of his research but had to finally give up at about the age of 95, when he had to move into a nursing home. He died in 2007, just short of his 99th birthday. His colleagues reckoned he must have been the oldest organic chemist in existence! I can recall an incident in one chemistry lecture (in our second year I think): a hen had been brought into the lecture, bagged up in a sack. At some stage during the lecture, the bird was released, and it strutted around the front of the theatre, clucking appropriately. I think the lecturer tried to ignore it, but the students couldn’t, and I imagine we didn’t learn much in that particular session. I cannot remember who the perpetrator of that prank was, but I do recall that we all gave 6 pence (or maybe it was a shilling) for the purchase of the bird. The physics lecturers were Professor Walton, and Drs Gregg, Delaney, and Elliott. We never knew what a famous man Ernest Walton was; he was just ‘Prof. Walton’ to us. At that time there was no modern physics component on the Leaving Certificate course, and we had no knowledge that he, as a student under Ernest Rutherford and along with John Cockcroft had, in 1932, ‘split the atom’. He was a really good lecturer and made everything crystal clear and his sketches on the blackboard were very explanatory. Prof. Walton’s son Philip was in my own year and his daughter Marion was, I think, two years ahead — both doing physics of course! Philip ended up as Professor of Physics in Galway University. Present-day physics students may sometimes wonder about the large numbers painted on the backs of the seats in the lecture theatre of the old physics building. At the time, all students were allotted a particular seat for the year. Near the start of each lecture, one of the technicians would make a note of which seat numbers were visible— which meant of course that their normal occupants were absent. I don’t know what action, if any, was taken about frequent absentees. I seldom missed any of my lectures. On display mounted at the front of that theatre was a very large induction coil; we presumed that it was the one that Walton had used to generate the very high voltages needed to split the atom. I don’t know when or why it was removed, but it’s not there now. My fundamental aim in going to TCD was to get a degree in science so that I could become a science teacher. I had had a wonderful science teacher called Paddy

Burrell, when I was in secondary school and it was he who inspired me for my career—which I never regretted. After graduation I had three interviews for teaching jobs, followed by three offers. I took the post in Mountjoy School, Dublin, a boys’ boarding school. I was paid £400 for that first year but it did include very good board and accommodation. I remember the headmaster at the time giving out cheques for 33 pounds, six shillings and eight pence to each of the staff, on the 25th day of every month. I stayed teaching (physics and chemistry) in that school for 36 years, although the school did change to Mount Temple Comprehensive ten years later. TCD didn’t, and doesn’t, confer BSc degrees. All science degrees come under the heading of BA (Bachelor of Arts). Because of that, all scientists had to take an exam (known as ‘Littlego’) in a couple of Arts subjects—sometime during their Senior Freshman year. There was a large choice of subjects, and we had to take two of them at the time. Most scientists chose logic, as it is essentially a science (i.e. that of reasoning). Another popular choice was geography, which was one I chose. Having got that hurdle out of the way, we could then concentrate on whichever science we would finish in—in my case, chemistry. Littlego was abolished sometime in the ‘sixties. There were two females in our final-year chemistry class (of about 20 or so), Susan Rawlings and Mary Carson. Mary always got a ‘one’ in the various exams. She ended up with a first-class degree, stayed on to do a PhD (which of course she gained), then became a member of staff for the rest of her academic career. (She lectured my daughter when she was an undergraduate.) I kept in contact with Mary over the years, and when she retired, she became very much involved in the Trinity second-hand book sales. Sadly, Mary passed away a few years ago. To be registered as a secondary teacher, you had to have a ‘H.Dip’ (Higher Diploma of Education). This involved another year,part time, in College. Three of us on the staff of Mountjoy School cycled into TCDC for our ‘Dip’ lectures, from 4 to 6 p.m. on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. When the ‘Dip’ was acquired, we could then be put on the secondary teachers’ payroll. The only library at the time was the ‘Old Library’. In it, of course, was the Book of Kells. If we wanted to have a look at it, we just went in the main door of the library, up the stairs, and there it was, on display in the

Long Room. The Reading Room (dating from 1937) was adjacent to the Library. To get a book, one had to go to the catalogues room, just inside the door of the Reading Room, consult whichever one of the fifty or so catalogues that was relevant, fill up an ‘accessions slip’, leave it at the library desk, and the book became available sometime later. That reading room was well used for it was the only one. Two of the societies that I joined were the Philosophical Society (in short, the ‘Phil’) — essentially to make use of the comfortable lounge on the ground floor of the GMB, and the Choral Society. The latter gave two or three concerts each year, at the end of each term. I got to know many of the major choral works such as Handel’s Messiah, Haydn’s Creation, and the Beethoven masses. The conductor during my time was Joe Groocock; he was a joy to work under and always made rehearsals enjoyable and well as being constructive. Then there was the DUESA (Dublin University Experimental Science Association) and the Werner Chemical Society. All chemistry undergraduates were sort of coerced into joining the latter, for it was said that you had a greater chance of a good degree if you were a member of it (!), but I now find that hard to believe. I recall the incident when one morning in Trinity term a bicycle had appeared on the pinnacle at the top of the Campanile. Hearsay had it that some members of the Mountaineering Club were responsible. It remained there for some time until the Fire Brigade was called to remove it. On another occasion a bra was found to be hanging from the finial at the top of the Campanile, but I have no memories of how it came there or what happened to it. I usually picked up a copy of Trinity News, for it was a great source of what was happening (as it still is). There was another free publication, I think it was called University Times? Stanley Birch was one of my school classmates who also started in TCD in October 1958. (He was the other one who did the Matriculation exam in January of that year and got TCD entrance at the time.) Stanley was always interested in explosives and during our second year, he decided to try (illegally of course) to synthesise picric acid (2,4,6-trinitrophenol), which is an explosive compound. At the time, one could go to the chemical stores and request any chemical you wanted — within reason I imagine. Picric acid is also a bright yellow dye. I

remember that he did produce the compound, but the yellow tell-tale signs left on the bench afterwards gave the game away. We did hear that Professor Cocker was looking for the miscreant, but I don’t think Stanley was ever identified. Stanley finished in physics and remained in College to do a master’s degree. Afterwards he went to the USA to work for NASA. When we met on several occasions afterwards, he would never say exactly what his job involved. All women had to be off campus by 7.00 p.m. (as far as I remember) and there were reports of the Junior Dean at the time (the late Dr R. B. McDowell, who was quite a ‘character’) patrolling the grounds in the evenings to make sure that there were no females lurking about. I am well retired by now, but I am still in and out of College every so often, particularly to use the libraries—to which the alumni have access for the rest of their time. It’s a great asset and I imagine that many retirees make use of it. The Buttery provides the occasional cup of coffee or snack and I still creep into the ‘Phil’ on occasions when the body demands a sit down for a while! I am very satisfied with my life’s work, but without that TCD degree, it couldn’t have happened.

CARICATURE OF JUNIOR DEAN R.B. MCDOWELL FROM A 1962 TRINITY NEWS

Randal Henly also currently contributes to Trinity News as the Crossword Editor

TRINITY NEWS | Tuesday 7 November

Comment

Editorial: Reflecting on 70 years of Trinity News and looking to the future Kate Henshaw Editor-in-Chief

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As the oldest student newspaper in Ireland we have a duty to examine our past with a critical eye is a place for students to express themselves with the hope that other students may see pieces of themselves in articles. Across 10 sections Trinity News explores a variety of student issues. We have a thriving news section that holds College and student leaders to account. Features that go in depth on these issues and wider ones. Comment pieces where students can unapologetically stand up for what they believe in. SciTech where student writers explain some of the most complex science and technology issues. Sport where the greatest of Trinity

PHOTO BY GORDII SPELLMAN FOR TRINITY NEWS

elcome to the 70th anniversary issue of Trinity News. As Ireland’s oldest student newspaper, we have been around for some seismic shifts in this country’s political and cultural landscape. From its inception this paper has provided a space for students to express themselves and learn the ropes of journalism. In short, Trinity News is a passion project for each and every student involved in running it. The newspaper is a large-scale operation and the number of staff we now have and how we’ve evolved over the last 70 years is a testament to students' passion. From media staff including photographers, artists, social media editors, and videographers to section editors, copyeditors, and contributors to our executive staff and Editor-inChief, everyone cares deeply about the paper. When I took on the Editor role in May this year, I did so because I really believe in what Trinity News brings to student life in College. That is the reason I and all the 70+ staff members are here. In this anniversary issue we have had the opportunity to look back at our history (both the good and the bad). The culture in Trinity has changed hugely over the past 70 years and we would like to believe that the paper has evolved with it. Looking back at previous editions, our paper is nearly unrecognisable. Every Editor has a different vision for what Trinity News should be and that is reflected in the diversity of styles we’ve had over the years. It is extremely difficult to try to summarise 70 years of history in one editorial, so instead I propose that we should use this 70th anniversary to look forward as well as backwards. It is a fantastic achievement that Trinity News has survived and thrived this long, if you’ve seen any marketing for the paper you’ll know that we use the slogan “Ireland’s oldest student newspaper” in almost everything. However, as the oldest student newspaper in Ireland we have a duty to examine our past with a critical eye. Though some of our first Editors were women, we

began publishing in a completely different Trinity to the Trinity we publish in now, a far less equal one. That is reflected in a few of our pieces over the years; some of them have simply not aged well. When we look at our archive some articles put forward some extremely misogynistic views of past Editors. For example an article examined by our Features section for this issue found an Editorial from 1954 where the Editor points out that women are as “mentally and morally” different to men “as they are physically”. This Editor also states that university education is a “waste of time and money for any woman”. Hence why it is important to look at our growth with this critical eye in order to make sure that the paper continues to push forward on issues of equality, both on campus and in wider Irish society. We have come far and we have further still to go both as a paper and as a College. Fundamentally, Trinity News

Sport is showcased and five Life sections where students discuss everything from sex and sexuality to arts, food, societies and student living. Some of these sections have been around since the paper’s foundation, whereas others have only been introduced in the last few years, but they all hold importance for students in finding themselves and informing other students about what is going on in their College. Our Life sections in particular allow students to learn about some of the topics that could have been considered taboo in the early years of the paper. That is something that we as a paper are extremely proud of. If these articles can help even one student to better understand themselves, their health, their sexuality, the politics of their country, then it's worth doing. These are not easy topics for students to grapple with but there is something very special about hearing this information from your peers. Older students in College sharing what they learnt in their first couple of years and especially LGBTQ+ students discussing their journeys can mean so much to students coming to College for the first time and beginning to discover who they

are. I think back to my first year and reading articles in the paper and how much articles on mental health in the Trinity News Life sections helped me to better

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We don't take the trust we've garnered for granted and we have a duty to maintain and grow that trust understand myself as a young adult. I hope that is something other students have gotten from the paper and something I hope they will continue to. That is why the student voice is central to Trinity News. We

encourage students to share their stories and knowledge with other students directly, while also fostering writing and editing skills. This paper should be a place that students feel comfortable approaching. We don't take the trust we've garnered for granted and we have a duty to maintain and grow that trust. We are in a privileged position and we would like to believe that we use that position for good. However, we are also aware that our position as a vehicle for student voice on campus is not a right. Our duty is to students first and foremost. Looking back on our past and looking forward to our future, this is something that has always remained true. We have had 70 years in this position and we as a paper are grateful, but we are also aware of the duty we have to learn from our past mistakes and grow from them. As we look to the next 70 I hope that the Editors of the 75th, the 100th and beyond can sit here and write a similar editorial about how far the paper has come. By the time the next big anniversary rolls around I hope the staff of that Trinity News can be as proud of their paper as we are of ours now.

Tuesday 7 November | TRINITY NEWS

Ireland’s history of innovation

SciTech

Divyum Singhal page 28

From print to pixels: The Irish press revolution PHOTO BY MAYA MANN FOR TRINITY NEWS

A look back at 70 years of publishing in Ireland Monalisha Jena Contributing Writer

s the Celtic Tiger roared into the new millennium, a quiet revolution was unfolding, one that would transform how the Emerald Isle devoured its daily news. Ink met pixels, headlines leaped from broadsheets to browsers, and the reader’s journey through history became a digital odyssey. The story of Ireland’s press post-1950 unfolds at the intersection of transformation and innovation, reflected in changing comparative reader statistics that tell a story of an industry forever altered. Newspaper production in the mid-twentieth century was highly reliant on linotype machines, a hot metal typesetting approach that cast blocks of metal type, for a variety of reasons. The new machine revolutionised typesetting, notably in newspaper printing, by reducing manpower and saving space. However, this was a lengthy and laborious

approach. The introduction of digital composition technologies occurred in the 1970s and 1980s, wherein the linotype machines were supplanted by computerised systems, streamlining the production process and allowing for greater layout and design flexibility. This transition ushered in a

ART BY ALANNAH HYLAND FOR TRINITY NEWS

digital revolution in newspaper manufacturing, allowing smaller newspapers to generate high-quality publications at less expense. Once desktop publishing software became widely available on personal computers, journalists, editors, and designers were able to manage the entire production

process, spanning content development to layout and printing. The democratisation of newspaper manufacturing and decreasing costs resulted in a renaissance of publications throughout Ireland. Following this digital shift, comparative statistics highlighted a generational gap in news consumption. Younger demographics were early adopters of online news, gravitating towards websites and mobile apps for their updates. Older generations, on the other hand, were more likely to stick with traditional print formats. Online news media provided readers with real-time access to breaking news, with customization options tailored to individual preferences. This feature appealed to a fast-paced society that craved instant information, making digital platforms more attractive. Newspapers that had thrived for decades were now confronted with declining readership figures and advertising revenue. The emergence of online classifieds and digital advertising marked a migration of revenue streams, further straining the financial health of print publications. The Irish Press, a historic newspaper with a legacy dating back to the early 20th century, stands as a poignant example. Despite its

rich history, the newspaper’s inability to adapt to the digital era proved fatal. Declining circulation figures and mounting operational costs forced its closure in 1995. On the other hand, The Irish Times embraced the digital wave. By launching its online platform in 1994, it successfully expanded its reach. The newspaper’s digital efforts included paywalls and innovative digital marketing strategies, ensuring its sustainability. While larger publications faced significant challenges, community newspapers exhibited resilience. Their localised focus, coupled with the enduring appeal of community news, allowed many to maintain their readership and continue to serve their respective regions. The Irish press has endured and thrived, from the golden days of print to the dynamism of the digital age. While the medium has evolved, the essence of providing accurate news and compelling stories has not, echoing the tenacity and adaptation that hallmark Irish journalism. In a world ever more connected by the digital thread, the Irish Press has embraced the future while honouring its heritage, serving as a vibrant symbol of a nation’s unflinching devotion to the pursuit of truth.

Tuesday 7 November | TRINITY NEWS

SciTech

Eureka in Éire: Ireland’s history of innovation

Divyum Singhal Contributing Writer

icture this: a land where the rivers flow with wit and the skies are painted with creativity. Ireland is well known for the best whiskey on the planet and the all-healing elixir – a microwaved 7UP! But amidst its rolling hills and lively pubs, Ireland is undeniably also home to some of the brightest minds of the century. Ireland’s contributions to science and innovation are indeed remarkable and diverse. From pioneering breakthroughs in nuclear physics to advancements in regenerative medicine and cutting-edge technologies, Irish scientists and researchers have left a lasting impact on various fields. Ireland can arguably be called the birthplace of modern chemistry. It is also home to

several scientific breakthroughs like Beaufort scale (used to measure and scale wind speed), seismology, Milk of Magnesia, the modern meat curing system, intravenous therapy (used to cure diseases like Malaria), the induction coil, Quaternion Theory (an extension of complex numbers), the proof of Greenhouse Gas Theory, and the Kelvin Scale itself. We shall now delve into the tapestry of Irish ingenuity, where tradition and innovation harmoniously coalesce to shape the future. Let us start with the 1930s when James Joseph Drumm, an Irish chemist, built the Drumm Battery, now, more widely known as the nickel-zinc battery; in effect the first electrolytic system any student of electrochemistry will come across. Though first invented and patented in the US, it was later developed by the Irish engineer and installed in a railcar (similar to the Dart), and was set for use on the Dublin–Bray line, consequently obviating the need for petrol-fuelled railcars. But Drumm didn’t stop there. He then started his research on alkaline cells, which then led to Thomas Edison building the first iron-nickel alkaline battery. These replaced the comparatively inefficient lead batteries at the time. At around the same time,

Irish physicist Ernest Walton (a Trinity Foundation Scholar), along with British physicist John Cockcroft, conducted pioneering experiments in nuclear physics. They designed and conducted experiments to study the nature and structure of matter on a

subatomic scale, which led them to experimentally verify atomic structure theories, like Rutherford’s model of the atom. They collaborated to build an apparatus (somewhat similar to the later Stanford Linear

Accelerator Centre or the CERN’s Hydron Collider) that shot a stream of protons – accelerated using a high-voltage tube – towards the nuclei of lithium atoms, resulting in their schism. Indeed, the splitting of the lithium nuclei subsequently led to the production of helium nuclei. This was a pivotal step in the development of nuclear energy. Not only did their discovery lead them to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1951, but it is also one which arguably still lies at the cornerstone of modern nuclear physics, 70 years on. As I mentioned at the start of the article, Ireland has made quite a lot of contributions to the field of medicine. BSE (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy), otherwise known as mad cow disease was notoriously perilous, killing thousands of cows and devastating many farming communities. In response, Irish scientists, including researchers at the Central Veterinary Research Laboratory (Kildare), were involved in studies related to BSE. Their research proved crucial to understanding the disease’s origin, transmission, prevention, and effect on humans, thus leading to improved safety measures in the cattle industry. Research continues even now into improved methods of identifying disease-causing

organisms, and identifying strains such as tuberculosis, BSE, and Porcine Reproductive respiratory Syndrome. Finally, multiple Irish ventures were essential to the development of 21st century scientific innovations. For example, SolarPrint – a Dublinbased renewable energy company – commercialised solar cells that could be integrated into windows and other surfaces, and which used an organic dye to absorb sunlight. OxyMem – an Athlone-based company – have used Membrane Aerated Biofilm Reactor (‘MABR’ – i.e., wastewater treatment processes that increase the energy efficiency and capacity of wastewater treatment plants) to reduce energy consumption in biological water treatment. Similar initiatives have been taken by Irish agencies by the likes of FutureNeuro SFI (studying epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, and motor neuron disease), the Marine Institute (marine research, exploration, and marine renewable energy), the Regenerative Medicine Institute (‘REMEDI’ regenerative medicine and stem cell research to find means to regenerate damaged tissues and develop novel therapies), and the INSIGHT SFI Centre (research in data science and artificial intelligence).

ART BY MERLE SCHRADER FOR TRINITY NEWS

A look at how instrumental Ireland was in scientific innovation

Student digital (de)vices: A new neurological addiction Investigating what has and hasn’t changed about our social media habits in the last decade Sadbh Boylan Deputy Scitech Editor

f you take a peek at the Trinity News archives all the way back in the days of November 2013, you might stumble across a feature piece entitled, ‘Is Facebook a false reality?’ Authored by then-staff writer Alice Kinsella, the article delves into the student Facebook habit (a common affliction at the time, if you’ll believe it) and ponders if the illusory, selective nature of the platform is preferred over the openness associated with living offline, reflecting on the addictive nature of social media. Such was Kinsella’s remarkable foresight, that if I

was to CNTRL+F all instances of Facebook in the piece, and sub in some other, more fashionable platform (Instagram, Snapchat, X, take your pick) for publication today, it wouldn’t feel entirely outdated. On the contrary, some of the points hit on in the article would be just as relevant today as they were in 2013, if not even more so. So, a decade since concepts like online profiles and “likes” first transformed how students engage with each other online, it is worth considering if we have truly gotten any better at managing our technology vices – or if, perhaps, this technology has simply gotten better at managing us. Are we more self-aware than our Facebook-addicted predecessors, or are we too living in a false reality? The draw to social media for students, whether they’re using Facebook or Tiktok, is purely neurological: sweet, sweet dopamine. Social media engagement releases dopamine, a neurotransmitter, which compels us to seek reward and pleasure in the activity. We get a kick of dopamine in anticipation of the activity and typically while doing it, followed by a dip once we’re finished as our brains

self-regulate to bring us back to equilibrium. We might feel a craving or an itch following this comedown, but provided there is no serious addiction, it will pass. However, the reality is that social media addiction is a very real behavioural problem, and one that we have a greater understanding of now than we did at the time Trinity News Vol 60 Issue 3 was published. Indeed, the “finger twitching” that Kinsella describes feeling after going cold turkey for two months today may sound more like a symptom of a social media addiction. However, just because we might be a little more selfaware when it comes to our social media habits, it doesn’t mean we’re faring any better. Certainly, we seem to know how to manage things; social media “cleanses” are common to break the addictive cycle, and screen time tracking features are built into our mobile phone operating systems and applications. However, we are also contending with even more platforms, even more content, and even more temptation. We have far easier access to neverending content than the Trinity students of ten years ago, so despite our greater awareness

of the dangers of the dopamine cycle, we find ourselves falling into the same traps. Perhaps the most significant change since the publication of the 2013 article is the total transformation of the social media landscape. For starters, the idea that someone could be an “influencer” as a bonafide, feasible career, was absurd. Corporations had yet to embrace fully the social media landscape, but in the proceeding years, our feeds became dominated less by our friends’ highlight reels, and more by blatant advertisements and #spon posts. Now it is not only our friends that are trying to present their best reality, but corporations too, available for us to buy so that we too can finally achieve social desirability. However, if anything, this shift did help to bring the deceptive nature of social media into focus, and perpetuate the idea that not everything is exactly as it seems. In addition, recent years have seen a conscious attempt to move away from the picture-perfect pages described in Kinsella’s article. The rise of finsta accounts, candid Tiktok vlogs, authenticity-inspired platforms like BeReal, and (thankfully) a

ditching of filters has all helped us to convey more authentic versions of ourselves online. So perhaps we’re becoming better at blending our online reality and real lives - or, at least, better at pretending we are. Nevertheless, despite the changes in how we interact with social media and the platforms we use, it’s sobering to reflect on just how little progress we’ve made in addressing the issues of a false online reality and social media spiral discussed in Kinsella’s article. While we may like to point and laugh at millennials and their Facebook obsession, we first have to stop scrolling on Tiktok, and examine our own digital vices. It’s critical that we reflect on the issues that are still prevalent in our social media use to move forward in an everchanging social media landscape, and face the compounding challenges of increased social pervasiveness, ceaseless content, and greater corporate influence. At least then, we can look forward to a favourable write up ten years from now in the 80th edition of Trinity News - after they finish cringing at our antiquated photo blogs and BeReals, of course.

Tuesday 7 November | TRINITY NEWS

Tennis travels to compete in Monte Carlo Jane Prendergast

page 32

PHOTO VIA TRINITY NEWS ARCHIVE

Sport

Trinity handball star claims intervarsity success Gina Bagnulo page 31

70 years ago: Rugby saw the light A look back at TN Sports’ first headline in 1953 Séaghan Ó Domhnalláin Sport Editor

October 28 marked the 70th anniversary of Trinity News and, along with it, Trinity News Sport. The first issue of Trinity News in 1973, subtitled ‘a Dublin University Weekly’, was a much smaller affair, only taking up six pages. However, as the subheading suggests, it came out every week for 3d, the same price the Irish Times retailed for in 1953. The front page headline of the day was a simple one, but one that today’s

readers are used to; ‘Fees Increase’. Along with articles bemoaning fee increases, another institution of TN that has stood the test of time is the sport section’s place at the back pages. Sporting adverts for Icarus and the now defunct Dublin Evening Mail, the headline of the back page was for a ‘Floodlit Game’ celebrating 100 years of DUFC. The match pitted the first XV against a XV selected by Harry Thrift. Born in 1882 and mentioned in James Joyce’s Ulysses, Harry Thrift was a sportsman, capped 18 times for the Irish rugby team between 1904 and 1909, before becoming a fellow at Trinity. Thrift founded DUCAC and would lead a central, if at times controversial, role in the organisation until 1952, when he was removed from his longstanding role as DUCAC Bursar. Unfortunately, the article wasn’t attributed to anyone in

particular, but if anyone knows who may have written it, feel free to get in touch. Floodlit Game, Highlight of Season to Date Trinity Rugby Club made British and Irish club rugby history last Wednesday night in College Park when it presented a flood-lit match between the first XV and Mr. Harry Thrift’s XV. This was the first of a number of outstanding events arranged by the Club to celebrate its 100th season. Mr Thrift’s team was such as to have all the senior teams in the city represented. The field of play in College Park was illuminated by fourteen 1,000 watt lamps suspended 20 feet above the pitch. A specially made fluorescent ball was used. The weather favoured the game. A mild, breezeless night attracted a record crowd to the Park to witness this unique venture. Generally

speaking, the spectators were delighted with what they saw. The game under lamps looked to be exceedingly fast, and even if it was difficult to spot individual players at the far end of the field, the ball, oddly enough, was always clearly visible (well nearly!). Speaking to some of the players afterwards the only criticism I heard put forward was that the intensity of the light tended to vary from spot to spot and though one soon became accustomed to that it made it difficult to judge with accuracy the speed at which a player or the ball moved. From start to finish the game was lively and full of interest, as someone remarked, “Brighter Rugby than usual.” There was an abundance of good clever backplay, handling was better than often seen in broad daylight; and we saw the wings used more often than on many a sunny

Saturday. Kicking was reduced to a welcome minimum, but when used the flight of the ball even above the lights was easy to follow. The fielding of high balls was frequently fumbled due, mainly, to the difficulty in gauging the rate of descent of the ball. Under such strange conditions both sides did extremely well to produce such fine rugby. To a point to faults in the play would be very unfair. Let it suffice to record that the game was drawn six points all. Before the match commenced the 30 players were presented to the President of the Leinster Branch of the Irish Rugby Football Union. The game was under the whistle of Rev. Austin Carry, a former Trinity star, whose intelligent interpretation and application of the laws of the game is earning for him as great a reputation as a referee as had as he had as an outhalf in his playing days.

Tuesday 7 November | TRINITY NEWS

Sport

Labhraíonn Abi ní Mhuircheartaigh linn faoin a taithí ag imirt spóirt agus í ar Erasmus sa Fhrainc Abi ní Mhuircheartaigh Scríbhneoir Ranníocach

á an Cumannn Lúthchleas Gael thar lear ag bailiú nirt le gach aon bhliain. Idir easaoránaigh, mic léinn, agus dúchasaigh, tá ár spórt náisiúnta ag éirí níos cáilúla ar fud an domhain. Ach conas a fheidhmíonn club peile Ghaelach thar sáille? San alt seo beidh mé ag déanamh iniúchadh ar an gceist shuimiúil seo ar son mo chlub sa Fhrainc, Strasbourg Gaels. Ghlac mé ballraíocht sa chlub ag tús mhí Mheáin Fomhair, nuair a bhog mé go dtí an Fhrainc. Bhí mé ag iarraidh pobal a aimsiú ionas go socróinn síos i gceart i mo shaol nua. B’shin go díreach céard a tharla. Idir traenail rialta agus neart gnéithe sóisialta taobh amuigh den bpáírc imeartha, cothaítear pobal fáilteach ag clubanna CLG thar lear. Óna tús i 2019, tá lucht Strasbourg Gaels ag méadú le gach aon bhliain. Bhunaigh Maël Dancette Strasbourg Gaels tar éis seal a

chaitheamh ag imirt caide le Paris Gaels. Chuaigh sé i dteagmháíl le Comhairle na hEorpa, a d’fhógair do na hÉireannaigh i Strasbourg go gcuirfeá tús le club peile Ghaelach. Uaidh sin, thosaigh an pobal peile ghaelach ag traenáil leis an bhfoireann Aussie Rules. Agus an club ag éirí níos láidre i gcaitheamh na mblianta, d’éirigh le Maël páirceanna imeartha a aimsiú ionas go mbeidh an fhoireann in ann traenáil níos dáiríre a bheith acu. Amach ó sin, thosaíodh ag imirt cluichí ar bhonn rialta. In ainneoin na paindéime, tháinigh borradh ar an gclub agus faoi láthair tá níos mó ná seasca daoine páirteach ann. Freastalaíonn an club ar mhianta difriúla na himreoirí - tá meascán ann idir imreoirí dáiríre agus imreoirí sóisialta. Taitníonn na scileanna nua leis na himreoirí Francacha, nach raibh teacht acu ar an saghas déine seo sular thosaigh siad ag imirt. Ar bharr an gné seo, tá an gné sóisialta thar a bheith lárnach i bpeil ghaelach thar lear. Cuidíonn an gné sóisilata, neamhfhoirmiúl seo le mná óg a athmhealladh i dtreo na spóirt, rud éigin a bhfuil go mór in easnamh in Éirinn. Tá atmaisféar ann i gclubanna peile Gaelacha thar lear a dtéann go mór i bhfeidhm ar na himreoirí. Cruthaíonn an t-atmaisféar seo pobal beomhar ina bhfuil meascán de dhaoine de ghach saghas ann. Tréith coitianta a bhaintear taitneamh as i gcónaí ná an fuinneamh agus an spiorád a mhuscalaíonn an cluiche seo i ndaoine agus san fhoireann. Glacann an club le mana Barcelona ‘Més que un club’ chun cur síos a dhéanamh ar phobal dlúth an chlub. Faoi láthair i Strasbourg, níl ann ach foirne do mhná agus do fhir.

PHOTO VIA STRASBOURG GAELS INSTAGRAM

An Cumann Lúthchleas Gael thar lear

Tá bainisteoireacht Strasbourg Gaels ag déanamh iarrachta tús a chur le foirne faoi aois, ach tá siad ag streachailt mar gheall ar easpa saorálaithe. É sin ráite, chuireadh feachtas ar siúl ina dtaispeánadh daltaí bunscoileanna an spórt, chun an t-aos óg Francach a spreagadh i dtreo na spóirte. Labhair mé féin agus Cúan Ó Colmáin leis na Francaigh óga agus bhí an-spéis acu sa spórt agus sa saol in Éirinn. Is dócha go mbeidh foireann faoi aois ann sa todhchaí. Ó thaobh na sinsearach de, tá cluichí gaelacha faoi bhláth sa Fhrainc. Chuir caoga duine isteach ar dhianchúrsa traenálaí ina raibh tríocha spás le fáil. Chomh maith leis sin, bunaíodh dhá chlub nua sa Fhrainc i mbliana. Sa lá atá inniú ann, tá 24 chlub CLG sa Fhrainc,

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agus meastar go bhfuil 90% de rannpháirtí Francach. Léiríonn na firicí seo go bhfuil todhchaí mhaith i ndán don pheil ghaelach sa Fhrainc. Cothaíonn an borradh seo le neart cluichí iomaíocha sa Fhrainc agus ar fud na hEorpa a chur ar siúl. Seoladh trí fhoireann ó Strasbourg Gaels chuig na cluichí Pan-Eorap san Ísiltír i mí Dheireadh Fómhair. D’éirigh leis an gcéad foireann ban an séú áit a fháil sa roinn idirmheánach. I bpáirt le CLG Nantes, d’éirigh leis an dara foireann ban an tríú áit a fháil sa roinn sóisir. Maidir leis an bhfoireann fear, tháinigh siad le chéile le himreoirí ó cheann ceann na hEorpa chun an fhoireann “Britalsace” a chruthú. Shroich siad an cluiche leathcheannais ach

faraor chaill siad tar éis cluiche crua. Thug na cluichí Pan-Eorap deis luachmhar dúinn chun díriú isteach ar scileanna tábhachtacha. Tá an spéis chómh láidir sin sna cluichí CLG go mbeidh comórtas peile eile ar siúl i Strasbourg i mí na Samhna - mí amháin tar éis an comórtas san Ísiltír. Léiríonn sé sin go bhfuil todhchaí láidir, beomhar le feiscint ag an gCLG thar lear. Tugann seo an deis dom ceangail a choimeád le mo thír dhúchais agus mé thar lear, agus mholfainn d’éinne a bhfuil spéis acu sa spórt triail a bhaint as a gclub CLG áitiúla. Ba mhaith liom buíochas a ghabháil as Maël Dancette agus Philippe Brach, a chuidigh go mór liom leis an alt seo a scríobh.

TRINITY NEWS | Tuesday 7 November

Sport

Trinity Women’s soccer triumph over RCSI in their first league match of the season DU Ladies AFC started off their season with a home match against the Royal College of Surgeons Gina Bagnulo Contributing Writer

he Trinity Women’s Soccer team (DU Ladies AFC) won 7-0 against RCSI on October 14th in what was their first league match of the 2023-2024 season. On home soil, Trinity’s offensive possession was exemplary as were their defence. DU Ladies AFC undoubtedly crushed their opponents establishing their dominance on College Green. Goals were scored by Charlotte Connolly, Lily Hayes Nally, Eva Verner, Jasmine Relf, and Alannah Maxwell. Of all the goals scored,

those by Maxwell stood out the most, as she managed to score a hatrick in the match, massively contributing to the game’s final result. The first goal came at exactly fifteen minutes into the first half as the ball was powerfully shot into the net. Connolly, in particular, was a prominent player in the first half as she scored aiding the home side, and made various assists. RCSI’s defence continued to wane in the second half as they tried to hold off Trinity’s mighty attackers and midfielders. Surgeons’ attack did their best to turn the game around with plenty of shots on goal, though most were intercepted, either by Trinity’s goalkeeper or its strong line of defenders. Jasmine Relf, captain DU Ladies AFC and a contributing goal scorer at the match told Trinity News about the overall result of the game. “I’m really happy with how the game went as our first league game, especially as most of the team is new. Hopefully we can continue this momentum throughout the season and be the champions.” In another positive turn of events, DU Ladies AFC emerged victorious in a following match against TUS Midlands in Athlone, a victory all the more impressive

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Hopefully we can continue this momentum throughout the season for the challenging weather conditions faced, including heavy rain. Concluding with a 6-0 win to Trinity, four goals were scored by Charlotte Connolly, one was scored by Simone Bendix and one by captain Jasmine Relf. As the season is set to continue, the DU Ladies AFC’s 2023-2024 run looks bright. This is, indeed, a continuation of their success last year. The team won the first ever edition of the Women European Football Tournament (WEFT) in Paris last April. This was a three day competition consisting of six European teams. Trinity Women’s Soccer’s success is even more impressive

considering the team’s lack of funding. Outlined in an article published in The University Times, it was revealed that, although the women’s and men’s team are allocated the same budget by Dublin University Central Athletic Club (the central governing body of the sports clubs of Trinity College), currently, the budget has not been agreed upon, which has left the Ladies’ AFC members obliged to personally cover a number of Club expenses. Most shocking of all, it was reported that DU Ladies AFC has no coaches while the men’s side has three. The Trinity Sports Union contacted Ireland’s governing football body the FAI to ask for a coach for DU Ladies AFC. Despite these adversities, the club has persevered through thick and thin. Its performance is a testament to its raw talent. An early win against RCSI shows the team has a positive season ahead. With five teams competing for the trophy each year the matches are not only fast and furious but also smooth and precise. Every set play is run and the ruck is attacked with craft and guile. It is a competition that breeds an air of brotherhood amongst the players. It is difficult to walk the long corridors of Tallaght Hospital without encountering a player

past or present, often with a long grilling of how the team is going that season and stories of days (or nights) gone by. It takes the precision of a doctor to execute the tight passes and loose nights out that typify the Feds. With four fixtures and a potential final to play, each team embraces both the professional and social sides of the competition. Players focus in during the week to maximise the on-field end product before winding down post-match, enjoying the camaraderie and togetherness that is found on a cold rainy night in the depths of November. The Fed’s last fixture against St. Vincent’s University Hospital was the total package. It was clear that silky passing and exciting styles of play were what the doctor ordered. A constant back and forth between both sides yielded a fantastic exposition of both The Hospital’s Cup and rugby as a whole. While the Feds took their defeat with grace, they are most certainly still in the running to push on to a final. With dynamic forward options and backs with a scintillating turn of pace, it is hard to write them off. Their next game against the Mater Hospital should tell a lot about how they will fare further on into the year against Beaumont and the UCD Veterinarians.

Trinity handball star claims intervarsity success Captain of Trinity Handball Cuileann Bourke recently defended her crown as the Irish Third Level Ladies’ Open Wallball Champion Jane Prendergast Sports Co-Editor

enior Sophister Deaf Studies student, Cuileann Bourke, recently competed at the Irish College Handball Association’s (ICHA) Intervarsity Wallball Championship. Hosted in Spa Killarney Handball Club, Bourke defended her Women’s Open title and took home the top women’s competition trophy for Trinity. Trinity Handball also saw solid

representation on the men’s side of the competition, with Eoghan Daly reaching the quarter-finals of the Men’s A category. Over the course of a lively day’s worth of competition, Bourke topped the group stages and proceeded directly to the Women’s Open semi-final. A dominant performance over the University of Limerick’s (UL) Siobhán Treacy, a Roscommon native of St. Coman’s Club, followed. Bourke claimed an impressive 21-11 win over the former U17 All-Ireland champion, with focus then turning to the final against UL’s Leah Minogue. A closer battle followed between Minogue and Bourke. Minogue, a member of Tuamgraney Handball Club in Co. Clare and a former All-Ireland doubles champion, proved a formidable opponent, but Bourke emerged triumphant after an attritional contest, with the scoreline reading 25-21 in favour of the Trinity athlete. Minogue later received compensation in the form of a 21-16 win in the Women’s Open Double alongside her partner Emer Barron, against their UL compatriots Alanna Coggeran and Siobhán Treacy. Hailing from Belcarra

Club in Co. Mayo, Bourke is unquestionably the current driving force behind handball’s presence in Trinity. Having overseen the establishment of DU Handball in 2022/23, Bourke has been Captain ever since, and generally takes absolute responsibility for all Club activities, from the training schedule to travel arrangements. This commitment certainly flows partially from her current position as one of handball’s most talented athletes, but it’s hard not to conclude that an overriding grá and passion for the sport also plays a part. Familial involvement in the sport at the alley in Belcarra stretches back generations, and Bourke herself has played since a family friend brought her to the club for the first time when she was eight years old. Life as a high-performing handball player attending Trinity College has recently become much more straightforward with the long-awaited opening of Printing House Square on October 9. Although the most visible element of Trinity’s newest Square is certainly the 249 brandnew student rooms, the project also contains Trinity Sport’s latest

facilities. There are 3 new 63 square metre, dynamic squash courts, an Olympic-standard target range, and most importantly for Bourke, a 40 x 20 feet (“small

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Bourke defended her Women’s Open title alley”) handball alley can be found underneath the accommodation. Bourke and Trinity Handball teammate Noelle Dowling gave an exhibition of a singles play on the day of the official opening. The provision of such facilities to College athletes is long overdue, so it is indisputable that their presence will make a massive difference for Trinity Handball going forwards.

As recently as last year, Cuileann faced a regular midweek trek to St. Brigid’s GAA Club in Castleknock for alley access. Bourke is also a Trinity Sports Scholar, an accolade granted to “gifted athletes” who have made Trinity their home. The programme grants its awardees benefits such as specialised strength and conditioning training, a dedicated medical care pathway, and lifestyle, nutritional, and financial support. In a previous interview with Trinity News, Bourke commented that the support she receives from the programme is “second to none”, having been a recipient of support from the scheme since she arrived at Trinity for her Junior Fresh year in 2020/21. An event to celebrate this year’s Scholars will be held on Monday November 13 at the Dining Hall of College, where a select number of studentathletes will also take part in a panel discussion titled Resilience in Sport and in Life. If interested in joining DU Handball, reach out on Instagram to @tcdhandball, or contact Cuileann Bourke directly via email or phone at handballtcd@gmail. com or 086 2244 186

Tuesday 7 November | TRINITY NEWS

Sport

Tennis travels to compete in Monte Carlo

Jane Prendergast Sport Co-Editor

owing to a tradition developed over the last number of years, Dublin University Lawn Tennis Club (DULTC) recently travelled to Monte Carlo, Monaco, to compete in the HEC Clay Court Challenge against some of Europe’s top universities. Held over the weekend of 6th-8th October, three days of competition against Oxford University, Bocconi University (Italy), Esade Business School (Spain), Cambridge University, and hosts HEC Paris was coupled with a lively socialising schedule, including a Gala Dinner hosted in Monte Carlo Country Club. The competition format of the Challenge is different to traditional tennis tournaments, with alterations made in the interest of expediting the typical slow pace of competition progress. Each “round” consisted of a ladies’ singles, men’s singles, and mixed doubles match. This format played quite a role in enhancing the teamdriven nature of the Challenge,

as progression through the tournament depended upon your university winning a majority of the matches within each “round”. DULTC was represented in the women’s competitions by Ellie O’Kane (Women’s Captain), Ali O’Dea and Eve Callaghan; and in the men’s competitions by Colm Kelly (Men’s Captain), Simon Hollingsworth and Gavin McDonnell. Unfortunately, this year’s team wasn’t capable of replicating last year’s impressive achievements, which saw them take third place in the tournament. The competition format meant that, despite many match wins, DULTC were unable to progress out of the group stages, after round losses against Cambridge and HEC Paris. The Trinity encampment are drawing comfort, however, from the reality that some of their best tennis of the season was drawn out of them against the stunning Monaco backdrop in scorching temperatures, as well as a confidence-boosting win over Esade Barcelona. The results of the competition fell as has grown to be the norm, with Oxford and Cambridge battling it out in the final. Oxford emerged triumphant after the mixed doubles was won in straight sets, while the men and women’s singles both required tiebreakers to separate the Dark and Light Blues. The experience of taking on competitors from some of Europe’s finest universities is of unquestionable advantage to DULTC athletes. Given the relative weakness of the Irish domestic scene, with approximately 180 clubs affiliated to Tennis Ireland (compared to the FAI’s roughly 2,500 and the GAA’s approx. 2,300; it even trails behind the

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PHOTO COURTESY OF DUBLIN UNIVERSITY LAWN TENNIS CLUB

Dublin University Lawn Tennis Club recently competed in the HEC Clay Court Challenge at Monte Carlo Country Club

The experience of taking on competitors from some of Europe’s finest universities is of undoubted advantage to DULTC IRFU’s (rugby) approx. 230), any opportunity to challenge fresh opposition is a valuable one. The particularly small scale of collegiate tennis competition, in particular, puts third-level attendees in particular at a disadvantage; many youth players will be living significant distances away from their home clubs, making their college team the only viable option for their continued participation in the sport. The aforementioned socialising schedule of the Challenge has also proven to be of notable benefit to DULTC. As a result of the connections formed over not only three days of lively competition, but also the “soft” influence of events such as the Gala, DULTC received an invitation from the Oxford team to travel to the UK in the coming

months for a friendly competition against the Dark Blues. DULTC received generous support from Fitzwilliam Lawn Tennis Club and rackets.ie Sporting Goods Store in their preChallenge preparations, something which the Club is quick to praise as “invaluable”, elaborating that

PHOTO COURTESY OF DUBLIN UNIVERSITY LAWN TENNIS CLUB

“...their support made so many elements…so much easier, from training to equipment. We really couldn’t thank them enough”. In terms of the season yet to come, DULTC’s second-semester ‘Winter’ League will begin in the middle of January. Participants will aim to build off their performance in the Dublin Tennis ‘Floodlight’ League, which ran for five weeks over the first half of Michaelmas term. DULTC athletes competed against some of the top Clubs in Dublin, with both the Mens’ and Ladies’ First and Second Teams competing in the top two divisions nationwide. All sides finished “comfortably” in their respective groups, with relegation avoided and maintaining their position in their Class for the next season. Additionally, DULTC will compete in their annual Colours clash against UCD on November 11th. The 2023 battle is a highly anticipated affair following a notably narrow triumph for UCD in 2022, given that UCD Tennis are reigning Men’s Cup, Ladies’ Cup and Men’s Bowl Intervarsity Champions. For those interested in joining DULTC or giving the sport a try, DULTC caters to individuals at all levels of sporting ability. Beginners training is held on Fridays, 6pm - 9pm; Intermediate training Wednesday 7pm-10pm; and Advanced training Mondays 6pm10pm.

TRINITY NEWS | Tuesday 7 November

Maisie Peters: “The Good Witch” page 4

What Makes Trinity Students Tick? page 8

The new vampires of Trinity page 15

LIFE

Pullout Pullout section Pullout section section

Tuesday 7 November | TRINITY NEWS

Table of contents Maisie Peters

- page 4 Reeling in the Years

- page 6 A sign of the times: An alumni interview -page 7 Winter warmers: The soup edition

- page 10 Making the case for the Blasket Islands

- page 14

The new vampires of Trinity

- page 15

Life staff Editor-in-Chief Life Editor Life Deputy Editor

Kate Henshaw Abby Cleaver Lara Monahan

Arts & Culture Editors Deputy Editors

Jayna Rohslau Ciara Chan Ciana Meyers

Sex & Relationships Editor Deputy Editors

Anna Lyons Catherine Grogan Alice Matty

Societies Editor Deputy Editor

Honey Morris Sofia Rooney Siobhán Walsh

Student Living Editors

Emma Rouine Elisa Eckstein Akshita Hunka

Deputy Editor Food & Drink Editor Deputy Editors

Eoghan Conway Lara Bhakdi Hannah Viljoen

The 8th Amendment repealed – Alice Matty and Donncha Murphy explore the history of abortion legislation in Ireland and its social impact over the last 70 years

ith the celebration of Trinity News’ 70th edition, we reflect on how the social context and political landscape of Ireland has changed over the last 70 years. Ireland, and how we construct our relationships today, looks almost unrecognisable to the 1950s, specifically with the repeal of the 8th amendment. Social context in Ireland prereferendum In the 1950s and 60s, Irish society was characterised by its conservatism and the dominance of the Catholic Church. Social morality fell exactly in line with Church teachings. Divorce, homosexuality and abortion were unlawful. Open discussion on the topic of abortion was essentially nonexistent in Irish society, and within Trinity, it was minimal. The 1960s offers the first glimpse of the question being raised, but the discussion was heavily sanitised, operating within the framework of Christian morality. A debate held by the TCD Law Society in 1965 declared that “Abortion is an evil necessity“ and Trinity News articles made ‘‘the Christian case’’ for family planning. During the 70s, the tides of

change seemed imminent. The 1973 Supreme Court case of ‘’McGee Vs. The Attorney General’’ allowed access to contraception for married couples. The Women’s Liberation Movement, amongst others, was set up to promote tolerance and discussion of controversial social issues. However, these changes caused paranoia amongst traditional Catholics across Ireland, and the roots of the 8th were a reactionary response against a changing world. The 1983 Referendum The Pro-life Amendment Campaign (PLAC), set up in 1981, aimed to enshrine the right to life of the unborn child in the Irish Constitution. It was a coalition of 13 conservative lobbying bodies, 8 of which were explicitly Catholic. The amendment was hastily drafted by the Oireachtas in 1982, and put to a referendum the following year. The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) and AntiAmendment Campaign (AAC) opposed the 8th Amendment to the constitution, contesting that the wording did not adequately consider the life of the mother. Additionally, it would not prevent women living in Ireland from needing and seeking abortions, driving the problem ‘’either abroad or underground’’. Time would tell that these insights proved correct. The campaign was bitterly divisive. One historical account by Tom Hesketh in 1990 compared it to ’’The Second Partitioning of Ireland’’. Many voters felt alienated by both campaigns. Nonetheless, the amendment was passed on 7 September 1983, with 67% voting in favour of the amendment and 33% voting against. Abortion then became constitutionally outlawed in Ireland. Developments in the interim When the question of abortion

re-entered national discourse, it was typically reactionary to tragic stories of the very human cost of the 8th Amendment. The ‘‘X Case’’ of 1992 involved a 14-year-old girl who was prevented from leaving Ireland due to her intention to terminate her pregnancy abroad. It caused significant outrage in Irish society and resulted in two constitutional amendments that allowed pregnant individuals to travel outside of the state as well as seek

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It would not prevent women living in Ireland from needing and seeking abortions, driving the problem “either abroad or underground’’ information on abortion services abroad. Such was the case with Savita Halappanavar, who died in Galway University Hospital in 2012 under preventable circumstances after doctors denied her request to terminate her pregnancy. The case invigorated a new wave of support

IMAGE VIA FLICKR

TRINITY NEWS | Tuesday 7 November

Soc Recommends: Autumn Edition – so, what’s changed? Lit Alice Matty asks towards the Abortion Rights Campaign (established in 2012), which lobbied for a referendum to repeal the 8th.

The 2018 Referendum A referendum was held on May 25 2018, motioning to repeal the 8th Amendment. Repeal was opposed by leaders of Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, the PLAC, and the Catholic hierarchy. The ‘‘AntiAmendment Campaign’’ which included feminist campaigners and trade unions campaigned to overrule and repeal the 8th Amendment. Social media played a key role in amplifying the voices of Irish women. The Twitter hashtag #RepealThe8th gained increasing cultural relevance throughout the 2010s, especially on university campuses. The 2018 Facebook initiative ‘‘In Her Shoes’’ provided an anonymous forum for confessional stories to be shared from Irish women who have had abortions. The 8th Amendment was repealed, with 67.4% voting in favour, and 33.6% voting against (with Donegal being the only constituency to vote no). This became the 36th amendment to the Irish Constitution, adding a new subsection to Article 40: ‘‘The State acknowledges the right to life of the unborn and, with due regard to the equal right to life of the mother, guarantees in its laws to respect, and, as far as practicable, by its laws to defend and vindicate that right.’’ This prodigious vote was a landmark moment for human rights and equality in Ireland, especially for women. Abortion procedure in Ireland today Abortion in Ireland is regulated by the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018. It is permitted during the first twelve weeks of pregnancy, and later in cases where the pregnant woman’s life or health is at risk, or in the result of a fatal foetal abnormality. Anyone can undergo an abortion in Ireland, but individuals have to pay if they do not live on the island. Abortion services may be obtained in some GP surgeries, family planning or women’s health clinics, and certain hospitals, with GP referrals also available. Any information given about an individual’s abortion (i.e. to the HSE for free funding, although it is kept anonymous) must be kept confidential. Information about an abortion does not go on medical records. Between the ages of 16 to 17, parents are not made aware, but TUSLA may be informed if there is a risk to safety or welfare. Every year, the government publishes the number of notifications received for terminations performed under legislation (those in 2014-2018 occurred under the Protection

of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013). About 90 notifications were received between 2014 and 2018, in stark contrast to almost 25,000 in Ireland in 2019-2022, under the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018. Changes in Ireland’s Social Context Former Supreme Court Judge,

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Not only are sex and relationships different in context today, but they are allowed to be different upon the decades of campaigning for the civil rights of women in Ireland Catherine McGuinness, stated that the 2018 campaign debate was far more civilised than in 1983, and that both sides behaved “properly and respectfully”. Doctor Mary Henry, one of the few doctors who publicly campaigned against the 8th in 1983, attributes the greater influence of women in Irish life as key to the success of its subsequent repeal. “There weren’t many women doctors back in 1983, especially women doctors with children. The last time the conversation was hugely male, the men were telling us what to do.” Ireland has changed a lot since 1983, let alone 1953, when Trinity News first started reporting from campus. The language of female autonomy and choice that permeates today’s discussion of reproductive rights was simply not in circulation at the time in Ireland. Not only are sex and relationships different in context today, but they are allowed to be different, upon the decades of campaigning for the civil rights of women in Ireland. The Catholic Church has lost much of its impact, and has kept out of the discussion to a greater extent. The influence of the Church has slightly gone into retreat, and alongside it, the misogynistic control of women at the hands of Irish legislation.

the Literary Society committee for a fall favourite to sum up the season

s autumn comes to its conclusion, a recap of sorts is in order. But what better way to wrap up a season than a definite list of its best reads? Naturally, I got in touch with Trinity’s finest knowledgeable minds: none other than the TCD Literary Society, of course. The committee’s quick-witted and shrewd members gave their recommendations for cosy autumnal reads. Harvest by Jim Crace Kicking off the list is Lit Soc’s very own Chairperson, Conor, who recommends Jim Crace’s novel, Harvest. Set during the harvest season of a farming village, the sense of idyllic peace is broken with the introduction of outsiders. While seemingly simple, there is an undercurrent of complex class interplay and alienation – a faultless novel to reminisce upon as the golden leaves begin to disintegrate. The Secret History by Donna Tartt Lit Soc’s Treasurer’s favourite autumn read will forever be The Secret History by Donna Tartt. A whodunnit written backwards, The Secret History is a dark academia novel that details the slow descent into madness of a group of friends following a life-changing event. Through the jaded, foggy perspective of narrator Richard Papen, the reader experiences the wild autumn and winter seasons, and the terrible happenings at Hampden College. A spooky classic, it hits all the right vibes of the season.. The Vegetarian by Han Kang The Events Officer claims that The Vegetarian by Han Kang is the most representative read of the autumn. The book is set in modern-day Seoul and focuses on the life of a devoted housewife, Yeong-hye, who lives a colourless life. Prompted by a dream, she decides to become a vegetarian, a choice that quickly turns into an obsession. Yeong-hye’s psyche is difficult to crystallise, as we never hear her own thoughts throughout the story. This is an uncanny novel, with a resounding protest of deafening silence – perhaps an atypical read, that exposes us to something unusual. All the Bad Apples by Moïra Fowley-Doyle LitSoc PRO Niamh suggests Fowley-Doyle’s novel, a pageturner all-year-round but particularly around Halloween. All the Bad Apples follows Deena as she learns about a family curse whilst trying to find her sister who has mysteriously disappeared. Echoing female voices, family

secrets and dangerous truths, it is a fabulous piece of Irish literature that combines history with magical realism – a worthy read for the season. Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders The Literary Society’s Secretary endorses the experimental novel, Lincoln in the Bardo, by American writer George Saunders. The protagonist, Willie Lincoln, finds himself in a strange purgatory where ghosts gripe, commiserate, and enact bizarre acts of penance. Within this transitional state a monumental struggle erupts over the young soul – encapsulating in a nutshell all the expected vibes of Halloween. Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey Next, the fantastic OCMs perfected the list with their most stellar seasonal must-reads! Maddie suggests Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey as an autumnal essential. McCaffrey is an Irish fantasy author and the first woman to win the Hugo Award for fiction. Maddie highly recommends this one if you have a soft spot for science fiction and fantasy, as it is an intersection between the two. Too much of a description would spoil it, but be prepared for dragons, a massive threat to existence, and an alien planet with many secrets! It is the first book in the lengthy Dragonriders of Pern series and is delightful to read wrapped up under many blankets on a rainy day with a cup of comforting tea. Stoner by John Edward Williams Lit Soc’s OCM Nicole believes that Stoner is the quintessential read for autumn. Set in the University of Missouri, the general atmosphere of the novel perfectly conveys the peacefulness and nostalgia of the season. Stoner is categorised under the genre of the academic novel, or the campus novel. The story follows the simple, small and quiet life of William Stoner: his undistinguished career and workplace politics, marriage, affair, and his love and pursuit of literature - but it does not fail to gently investigate more existential matters. A Month in the Country by

J.L. Carr A Month in the Country is OCM Virginia’s top pick for the season. Set in a remote English village, A Month in the Country focuses on the reflections of the past and the nature of life-changing experiences. It takes place during the summer, but its reflective nature arises from summer ending, seasons changing and the inability to extend something for longer than its set time. It is a wonderful exploration of the value of art, memories and relationships, and is written in a beautiful style – the ideal reflective read as autumn begrudgingly comes to an end. Lanny by Max Porter Last but not least, OCM Kaia delivers her must-read of the season, Max Porter’s Lanny. She affirms it is quite a strange and sad book, but also sweet at times – much like autumn. The novel follows a deranged village god, satiating his desire to manipulate those who live in his village; particularly a young, curious boy named Lanny, and all of the adults that care about him. It is quite a short read, at approximately 200 pages. Sometimes the pages are filled with just a few dozen words, and perhaps more often the words will curve around each other as they’re being spoken into the air and entering the ears of this aforementioned deranged god. Kaia remarks that this is a worthwhile and cold experience, reminding her of the bittersweetness of fallen autumn leaves on the brink of death. As November comes in full bloom, we enter the transitory period where the leaves are tawny and not viridescent – alive, yet barely holding on. We march towards a winter that appears isolating and cold on the horizon – but it doesn’t have to be! If you are anything like me, you will be racing to Hodges Figgis to get your hands on a copy of each of these brilliantly recommended fall reads by Trinity’s sensational Literary Society. With a resplendent variety of recommendations to keep you occupied, these fascinating reads consist of stupor, adversity and seclusion, yet also hope, new beginnings and delight; just like autumn.

ART BY EVELYN DOYLE FOR TRINITY NEWS

Tuesday 7 November | TRINITY NEWS

Maisie Peters: “The Good Witch” chats to Law Soc Emma Rouine covers Maise Peters receiving the first of the Allii Proelio Award this academic year

aisie Peters received Law Soc’s Allii Proelio award on the 26th of October. She is the first of the academic year to receive the award. The award was first introduced in 2021 celebrating “those who have broadened perspectives.” She follows in the footsteps of Laura Whitmore and Denise Chaila who are previous recipients. In case you haven’t heard of Peters before (where have you been, please reevaluate your music taste), she recently finished touring with Ed Sheeran on his Mathematics world tour. She signed to his music label Gingerbread Man Records in 2021 and her sophomore album The Good Witch was released last June which went straight to number 1 in the UK. Along with this, she is currently on a global tour, having played her first ever headline shows in Ireland with two dates in the 3Olympia. Secretary of Law Soc, Louise Cullen opened up the event, introducing Peters as an “Absolute inspiration and role model.” Peters was rocking a very on-themed

PHOTO BY RÓISÍN O’SULLIVAN

Guinness-branded turtleneck as she shared her delight in being on Trinity campus. Before the discussion began, she told the audience at the Hist Convo room “I’m a Sally Rooney girl… this is my kind of haunt.” The conversation began with a discussion of her love for music growing up and her influences, including her YouTube and TikTok successes that have bought her a global platform today. Auditor of Law Soc, Eoin Ryan, asked Peters about her view on social media, describing social media as “a PowerPoint tool for people” such as Peters who didn’t “have the connections”, trying to “break into the music industry.” Acknowledging this, she said “I don’t think I’d be where I am if not for social media and I’m really grateful to it for that”. When asked about the “trolling” and “toxicity” especially, for female artists on social media she said that now, rather than previously “I’ve had more recent experiences of it … it can be literally 5 tweets, it could be 5 people and when you think oh, it’s 5 people in the whole world, it’s ridiculous but I’ve definitely found that hard over the last year.” She added, “It does make you want to step away” but at the same time, there are “wonderful people that say lovely things about you.” She concluded on this point by saying there’s an importance to “weigh it up” and balance the two. Ryan tapped into an interesting discussion when he asked Peters about one of her recent hits “Body Better” and the meaning of this song. Peters noted “..that song

to me means something that maybe is different to whoever else is listening to it, I have my interpretation of what I meant by that song, and others have their own interpretations of what it means to them and I love that.” There’s beauty in finding your own hidden meaning within a song that thousands of others can connect to too. On a personal level, I feel like half of her discography could be dedicated to me (next time, dedicate the song to me in the credits, Maisie…). However, someone on the exact opposite side of the world could feel this

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There’s beauty in finding your own hidden meaning within a song that thousands of others can connect to too too. Peters discussed a similar point to this saying, “It is amazing to get to tour an album properly and know that in all these different parts of the world that they are

really reached and people are really taking it in.” This truly shows the magnitude of social media, and how music today can instantly impact listeners in every corner of the world. What does this mean though in Peters’ personal life to release such vulnerable songs and put them out into the world? She described the process, “you write the song and then you live with the song, and most often you end up giving the song to people….6 or 8 months later... and by that point, you’re in such a different place for whatever you’re writing about.” She sees it as “a healthy way to think about your own music”, and illustrated it as “covering past muse.” When asked about her album, The Good Witch, claiming the number 1 spot on the UK charts last June, she described it as a “whirlwind.” However, she did point out: “You think moments like that will be the defining moment of your life or the greatest feeling ever… But I think you realise when you do things like that that’s amazing but they’re not actually really the point..”. She compared her feelings from that moment to when she was on her UK tour last March and brought one of her “best friends” and “housemate” Cate Canning on tour with her as the support. She said “we were screaming and cackling and running around ... That’s the point… the number one was amazing but it’s not the point”. This can be reflected in a track from her latest album, “The Band and I” (which she mentioned later as her current favourite of

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You write the song and then you live with the song, and most often you end up giving the song to people... 6 or 8 months later... and by that point, you’re in such a different place for whatever you’re writing about the album). The song is an ode to her band, who she has travelled all over the world with. The song truly encapsulates the vital importance of human connection and community, over some career stepping stone. No matter how great a number 1 chart position may feel! A huge influence in her career recently is, of course, Ed Sheeran, whose music label Gingerbread Man Records she is signed to. Talking about her move from Atlantic Records to Ed’s label, she described the two labels as both being “under the same mothership.” She said, “That jump was really more than anything just to work with Ed on a closer level…we just wrote some songs together and just liked each other and he said do you want to work together and I was like yeah – that was literally the conversation.” She added, “he’s always there” and he’s “very generous with his time.” So, what’s next for Maisie? She jokingly said, “I need to actually go to sleep”, and have a “girl rest, girl recovery.” She also added that she hopes to take some time to “write some more… be creative… and work on some new projects maybe and try some different things”. Whatever it is we’ll all be eagerly awaiting it. In the meantime, we can listen to The Good Witch deluxe album, which came out on October 27. The deluxe version holds six more skillfully written songs showcasing her emotional honesty and storytelling that have become adorned all over the world.

TRINITY NEWS | Tuesday 7 November

The masculinisation and inferiorization of women of colour in relationships Sophia Barretto unveils the complex dynamics of gender roles and racial identity in diverse relationships

s there something in the chemical structure of “Your Best American Girl” that makes women of colour genetically predisposed to projectile sobbing following a post-night out listen? What is it that is so viscerally powerful about the song? It’s the idea of the “Best American Girl”, and the fact that we can never be her. When describing the white beauty standard, Frantz Fanon writes: “I am white: that is to say that I possess beauty and virtue, which have never been black. I am the colour of the daylight.” Mitski once said “I’m not the moon, I’m not even a star” and the collective hearts of women of colour broke into a billion fragments, now just motes of dust blowing in the wind. Quite literally, women who are not white are “not the moon”, “not even a star”, and something that is othered from the conventional idea of what is beautiful. In the case that we are considered alluring, it is still distinct from

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Mitski once said “I’m not the moon, I’m not even a star” and the collective hearts of women of colour broke into a billion fragments, now just motes of dust blowing in the wind

the way in which a white woman is observed as beautiful. We are exotic, something exciting and novel, enough to be desired and coveted – but never loved. It is difficult not to succumb to melancholy when your supposed subservience and inferiority are all that is fed to you. There is the subconscious knowledge that of course Jim Halpert won’t pick Karen Filippeli, when pretty, sweet Pam Beesley is right there. Wolverine only looked in Storm’s direction because Jean Grey wasn’t available to him. Knives Chau is going to have to be okay loving from afar when Ramona Flowers is “The Girl” for Scott Pilgrim. Poor, sweet Knives Chau, with so much love to give and nowhere to place it; how selfless, how sweet that she steps aside so Scott Pilgrim can get “The Girl”. Knives Chau is not “The Girl” – she’s an angel, but she’s no God. The story is not about her. This does not make these women “the other woman” – at least not in the sense that we expect. Despite the villainisation of these women in their respective narratives and the public culture, they are only “the other woman’’ in the sense that they are othered. Circling back to Fanon, he suggests: “A woman of colour is never altogether respectable in a white man’s eyes. Even when he loves her.” We can trace these ideas back to Edward Saïd, whose notions of Orientalism described the racialised “Other” as an imagined allegorical body. Thus the woman of colour does not possess their own autonomous body, but rather possesses a collective body that possesses the sole purpose of existing for somebody else. Under a white supremacist system, the woman of colour (WOC) is reduced to lesser than human. The idea that the WOC lover is simply a stepping-stone, plot development, or an exotic “Bond Girl” implies that the role of the WOC is merely an asset, or a supporting character to a white narrative. There is an inherent, almost physical aversion to seeing women of colour in feminine roles; when the original Hunger Games movie casting was announced, white fans cried out upon the news of Amandla Stenberg’s casting as “Rue”. A Twitter user wrote: “awkward moment when Rue is some black girl and not the little innocent blonde girl you picture…”, because, apparently, women of colour cannot be innocent or sweet. The idea of a black girl is one that is animalistic and aggressive, in the same way that the idea of the Asian girl is one of seduction, or that the Latina girl is dominating and wild. These girls are seemingly not actual people – they do not possess the capacity for genuine love and connection

ARTWORK BY JESSIE HUANG FOR TRINITY NEWS

– so the obvious conclusion is that these girls are merely placeholders until “the (white!) one” comes along. It is some feat to even begin to unravel the chicanery that is the comments section on TikTok that excludes black girls from traditionally feminine aesthetics like “cottagecore”or “coquette”, because “they don’t fit in within the narrative”. Let black girls wear pretty dresses and engage with “softness” and “feminine” activities without being politicised or accused of failing to become the model “strong black woman”! I am sick of patronising videos on the “dos and don’ts of elegance and class”, where the “do” examples show pretty, white women dressed in lace and tweed, and all of the “don’t” examples show women of colour dressed in the same outfit, implying that the body of an “other” inherently soils the integrity of elegance. How many girlhood or feminine rage edits have you seen that fail to include a woman of colour? If you’re incredibly lucky, there might be a clip of Jenna Ortega or Zendaya thrown in for good measure. Questions of femininity and gender roles still also persist for queer women of colour, where girls of colour can’t just be girls. I have seen so many femme women of colour (and have also myself been)

squeezed into the masculine role like a pair of suffocating skinny jeans. Of course, there are women of colour who don’t conform to, or identify with femininity – but butches deserve princess treatment too. What does it say about the

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It is disparaging that escaping from the shackles of repressive frameworks is still not guaranteed in queer relationships role of WOC having to carry most of the weight of romantic and sexual labour? It is disparaging that escaping from the shackles of repressive frameworks is still not

guaranteed in queer relationships (that are inherently outside the binary). Queer WOC will buy you flowers, open the door for you, and lend you their jackets: we are good girlfriends, and we like being good girlfriends – but we like flowers too. Women of colour are strong. We are tough, and we get things done because we have to. In a just world, we wouldn’t have to be any of these things – but where we can, we must try to embrace what we are, as we are. bell hooks has said that “the one person who will never leave us, whom we will never lose, is ourself. Learning to love our female selves is where our search for love must begin.” So while we must continue to “grab the world by the lapels” as Maya Angelou championed, we must also love as our authentic selves, and then be loved in return. I am proud of us for what we are, and what we have made of ourselves – but I propose that we can be just as we are, in all our femininity, our masculinity, our beauty, our ugliness, our strength, and especially, in all our messiness. It all circles back to Mitski: “Your mother wouldn’t approve of how my mother raised me, but I do, I finally do.” That is all we can “finally do’’, see ourselves for what we are: beautiful despite, and beautiful because.

Tuesday 7 November | TRINITY NEWS

Reeling in the Years: Trinity News edition Emma Rouine transports us back to an era when Trinity was exclusive to a select Irish population

rinity has evolved a lot over the years. At times, it’s hard to believe that it was only 1970 when the rule that previously banned Catholics from studying in College was lifted, which had omitted a huge cohort of the Irish population. With the rapid development of College over the years, the Irish perspective on attending has changed significantly over time. Anyone who grew up in a working-class Irish household will be familiar with the stereotypes that the public has held for Trinity College. From a personal perspective, being the first member of my family to attend College, my family have consistently reminded me of the prestige and honour it is to be a Trinity College student. However, what makes it different from the other colleges? This stigma around Trinity stems back to when they grew up in an era where college especially, Trinity College, wasn’t an option. Whenever I have conversations with my dad who finished up his second-level education in 1980 to become an apprentice in the bar trade, he says that there wasn’t even an option of going onto third-level education. He told me how “Trinity was seen as one of those places where the average person would never have been given access…it was only open to the wealthier class, the privileged class.”

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College had a certain reputation. Unless you were from a wealthy family, it just wasn’t a possibility, unlike today

In other words, College had a certain reputation. Unless you were from a wealthy family, it just wasn’t a possibility, unlike today. Growing up in today’s generation proves very different to the ones before. Now, Irish students have access to a wide range of opportunities to help them make the move to third-level education ranging from from the DARE and HEAR schemes, SUSI payments helping to cover tuition fees to of course, TAP, Trinity College’s access program. However, my question today is what about the student life in College all those years back when these opportunities weren’t available? While, today we know student life as largely, diverse and accessible to students with different interests and needs, previously, campus would not have been as encompassing due to its selectivity of students. Keeping this in mind, I have delved through the Trinity News’ archives to see what previous Trinity News writers have defined as impacting student life in years gone past. So what did I find? Well, if I take you back in time to the 1960s, think of obsessing over the Beatles and retro diners, except it would have been 1960s Ireland, so the romanticised Americanized version of the 60’s I have in my head wouldn’t live up to its expectations. I found the 1960s to have a huge theme on gender throughout the issues. In April 1968, there was a special feature under the sub-title “women’s section”, where the writer (not named) talks about perceived conceptions of women attending college at this time and says public view would have called her mother “foolish” enough to let me “waste” four years of my life at College instead of raking in the shekels with a good secretarial job till I got married, all the relatives were horrified”. It was also documented over “80% of the Senior Sophisters were either getting married as soon as they left or had already taken the almighty step.”And while women had access to College, there were huge integral parts of College life that they weren’t granted access to. For example, it was documented that women were only eligible to become fellows and scholars in 1968. In 1961 when there was a profile given on Prue Furney, the president of the Elizabethan society at the time, the profile made sure to include something on her relationship status. The concluding paragraph noted that “Prue has not found her man yet.” There was this automatic association that a woman’s “profile” wasn’t complete unless she had a man by her side. It disappointedly fed into all my stereotypical beliefs that I held towards this era, even a student newspaper, the ones that were supposed to be leading the change

PHOTO BY SHANNYN CORCORAN FOR TRINITY NEWS

in the 60’s couldn’t switch this up. In later editions in the 60’s another trend started to emerge regarding the housing crisis in the city. An issue released in January 1969 stated that the crisis has been a problem for the last ten years, noting that “Those who are hardest hit by the present situation are the young couples who have just married or are about to.” Interestingly, (given today’s current chaos with the student accommodation crisis), there was no note on how this crisis impacted students. Perhaps, this suggests that the majority of students were from Dublin or surrounding counties and able to live at home. Or simply, the students who studied at College were from a wealthy background and therefore, the limited accommodation wasn’t an issue for them. The Catholic ban was discussed regularly throughout the 60’s with a clear progression throughout these years. In 1961, Archbishop John Charles McQuaid was documented to have called it a “mortal sin” for a Catholic to attend the university. McQuaid noted The Lenten Regulations for the state, and concluded that it was a “grave error to think that a Catholic youth, at the conclusion of secondary studies, is so mature that he or she may, without serious risk, be exposed to the formation of a neutral or Protestant University.” Writer Michael Newcombe shared

a view on this in 1962, writing: “There is ill-concealed bitterness at mention of the ‘British regime’ and one cannot help feeling that

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A nother trend started to emerge regarding the housing crisis in the city. An issue released in January 1969 stated that the crisis has been a problem for the last ten years still, after so many years, Trinity stands for all that is British in this country.” These debates continued

throughout the issues in the 60’s but by 1969 it was established that the ban was expected to be lifted in the early 70’s. Through these articles, we can see the huge impact of the Catholic church on a largely protestant institution. There were few issues that didn’t mention the ban. It had an immense impact on student life, whether one was Catholic or not. The ban was a constant speculated debate in the student media. The state and church were extremely intertwined in their views, and this didn’t just stop at education, the gender divide was evident too. It was an expectation for women to marry and stay at home and even today, article 41.2 of the constitution is still yet to be removed, where it states; “By her life within the home, woman gives to the state a support without which the common good cannot be achieved” and that “mothers shall not be obliged by economic necessity to engage in labour to the neglect of their duties in the home.” Often we tend to romanticise the past (understandably, living in the same era as the Beatles?). Who wouldn’t…. But, these archives steeped in Irish history are vital in serving as a timely reminder. They are an important reality check that despite the problems facing today’s generation, there are still more opportunities given to Irish young people than ever before.

TRINITY NEWS | Tuesday 7 November

A sign of the times: A Players alumni interview Daisy Gambles conducts a 90th anniversary interview with a former Chairperson of DU Players Heather Walsh

U Players is the drama society for Trinity College, presenting over 300 plays a year and holding the title of the oldest drama society in Europe. Players is also a network of directors, actors, writers, producers, and creatives. With the society’s 90th birthday coming up, I was given the opportunity to interview Heather Walsh, Chair of the society from 2013-2014, who currently works in London as a talent agent for B-Side Management.

it just made sense to use both to host some truly insane Wednesday night events. Often security would come to shut them down, [which] was our cue to head on to Workman’s. On Rodeo Hick Night there was whiskey tasting in front of house and a mechanical bucking bronco in the theatre. Players Ball was always a huge event, it felt like every year each committee tried harder and harder to push the boat out. [When] we had ours in D-Lite Studios, the place was completely transformed: two dancefloors, food trucks, photo booth, I think there was live music at one point. We collaborated a lot with other societies [such as] the Phil, Law Soc, Fish Soc in particular. Not many fish were involved.

since your graduation? Has it changed? Walsh: When I was back in Dublin this summer, I wandered over to have a snoop – there is still some graffiti that I did in my first year in the downstairs bathroom. So in a very literal sense, it absolutely has not changed. Donal McKeating was Chair after me, and

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My crowning achievement Before becoming Chair of was possibly the society, what other positions did you hold on the Players Jurass-tastic! committee? I was a Walsh: Before I was Chair, I was the Festivals Officer on committee. producer and I think the position was only two or three years old at that point. actively told The festivals we had at the time were ISDA, Fringe Festival, and people not to How would you describe your the Shakespeare Festival. Looking time at Players? back, the Shakespeare Festival come Walsh: Players ten years ago was a lot of fun, but a lot of work. When I was Chair, it was one of the biggest societies on campus, rivalling the societies with fouryear memberships. We took the work involved in the stewardship of the theatre and the society incredibly seriously, and I think the quality of the productions spoke to that. For my final two years in college we

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Players ten years ago was a lot of fun, but a lot of work won nearly every award you could win at ISDA: A Woman of No Importance [and] The Woman Who Cooked Her Husband were real highlights. Making sure the productions that came through Players were at a certain standard artistically was the backbone of what we wanted to do as a committee. We also wanted Players to be the biggest and the best society, and knew we weren’t going to get people in the door by theatre alone. Players is unusual as a society because it has an incredible space and incredibly creative people, so

was an absolute crackpot scheme. I can’t believe we pulled it off for as long as we did. It was started by Marc Atkinson, and when Marc and Paul were chairs we had a huge custom-built open air theatre in Front Square. It was equal parts insane and amazing. I don’t think anyone could emotionally face doing that again by the time I was Chair, so we scaled it back [to] smaller-scale productions. How many productions were you involved in? Did you direct or star in any plays?

Walsh: I can’t go so far as to say I starred in many productions, but I definitely featured! Somehow I was nearly always a policeman. One of the high points was Clue, à la the film. It went up in the final term of my final year, and the cast was mostly fourth years: drama students, the odd English student. Anyone who needed to study wasn’t stupid enough to be in it. The show was hilarious, and the vibe for the audience was very much fourth year co-op. Lots of cans, lots of heckling, and lots of showboating. My crowning achievement was possibly Jurass-tastic!. I was a producer and actively told people not to come. How wrong I was. That show made so much money, I think it outsold Co-Op that year. [It was basically] Jurassic Park: the Musical. The T-Rex sung Speechless by Lady Gaga. Jeff Goldblum sang a song called That’s Chaos Theory to the tune of Suffragette City. I think it’s on the internet somewhere! Have you been back to Players

he’s one of my best friends, so I still felt very connected the year after I left. And then my sister Maeve was Treasurer, and my buddy Michael Stone was Chair, so the link was still there. After Maeve and her year graduated I had no sense of the people there anymore, so it all drift[ed] away a bit. Do you feel Players has impacted or influenced your current career? Again, if so, how? And if not, why? Walsh: Players definitely helped me decide that being an agent was

something I’d like to do. Over the course of four years in Players you can wear a lot of hats, and you come to realise which ones suit you best. I knew I didn’t want to be a creative [and] I sort of hated being a producer, but I used to always joke about being an agent. You always need to balance the creative opportunity with the business reality as an agent, and cutting my teeth somewhere like Players, where you learn very quickly about cooperation and communication, started me on that path. I predominantly represent actors and I’m fascinated by their process. It’s both a transformative and truthful art form. [T]here are actors who started at Players who are still some of the best in the game. What are three words you would use to describe your time at Players? Walsh: Ambition. Creativity. Naggins. Was Co-Op a “thing” when you were in the society? Did you enjoy it? Walsh: It certainly was! I actually was never in a co-op, but I loved going to it. There’s nothing quite like the energy of Friday nights: the drunken heckling, the night out after, the wrap parties! I hope the old traditions are still there as I think it really compliments the rest of the Fresher productions. I directed Co-Op in third year along with Neil Fitzpatrick, Oonagh O’Donovan, and Jack Gleeson. A few years ago Neil stumbled across the script and sent it to us, and I have to say it was hilarious. The Orb of Azazel: A Cattermonkey Uprising. The songs in that play were genius. I still remember all the words to Here’s to You, Orville Wright and Fuck

the Brits. The scale of something like Co-Op is insane, and the idea that it can all come together with creativity and wit from that many people in six weeks is remarkable. Finally, how do you feel about the society now? Do you keep in touch with previous members? Would you come back if you haven’t already? Walsh: I’m always going to love Players! I can’t overemphasise the intensity of the experience. Truly some of the funniest moments of my life that remain touchstones happened in the building. Also [there were] some stupidly and unnecessarily stressful ones. Getting accused as a committee by academic staff of encouraging campus-wide “behaviour” is something I’m angry about now in hindsight. Of course I’m still in touch with other members; my best friends are all previous members. There are people [from Players] in all walks of life now, but a lot of us work in entertainment and media. It’s always nice to have an official meeting in an office with someone you met when you were eighteen, and [also] to have really extended alumni connections. I know there are some 90th anniversary celebrations coming up and they’re looking for alumni contributions. There’s a huge network of ex-Players-heads knocking around – you’ll all be in our club soon so make the most of [being a member] while you can! After interviewing Walsh, I can see that the evolution and impact of Players is one to be admired. Its 90th birthday marks 90 years of connections, original works, and naggin-driven events. Throughout the next 90 years, I hope that stories like Walsh’s will continue to emerge from the (hopefully not haunted) basement of the society.

PHOTO VIA TRINITY NEWS

Tuesday 7 November| TRINITY NEWS

An immodest proposal Agne Kniuraite advocates for a return to the satirical past of Trinity News

e’ve all heard what they say about Trinity students; we are pretentious, full of ourselves. We dress nonsensically with the sole aim of making an appearance on Campus Couture. We are phonies. We think we are so much better than all those other Dublin students, just for being enrolled in the ‘best’ Irish college. According to stereotypes, the Arts Block students are all jobless, feckless nepotism babies, the Phil is a cult and the Hist is a try-hard (what even is the Theo?), and everyone is loaded. These statements are not likely to be found in Trinity News’ pages today, and yet, seventy years ago, such remarks could have made the front page. We are well aware of how we are perceived, and only one glance at the Trinity News archive will show that we have been so for a long time now. The Thursday 5

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According to stereotypes, Arts Block students are all jobless, feckless nepotism babies, the Phil is a cult and the Hist is a try-hard December 1963 issue opens with a piece called Outside TCD, which responds to what purportedly was a UCD student-published article about Trinity’s reluctance to “join the rest of the country”. The article states some still-quoted stereotypes about the university: “a relic of British rule in which Ireland and the Irish have little place” with a history “of isolation from the rest of the country ... living about fifty years out of date and still trading on its past reputation”, with students treating Ireland as “an offshoot of England,” and a life “typified by the Trinity Ball and the College Races”. While this specific article seeks to

defend Trinity and its students, some articles from our past took a far more unhinged approach to our campus culture. In the same edition as Outside TCD, the reader can find an article entitled Beards, written by “Elynour Rumming, the distinguished sociologist”. From its very first line, the article takes a strong stance against beards, which, in the author’s opinion, are “an ever-growing problem ... flaunted on once presentable chins”. Rumming’s article, styled like a research paper, satirises beards on campus, conducting interviews with bearded individuals as well as trying to define ‘beards’ to understand why they are making an appearance in the university. The author wonders if “sophisters felt a need to pose as sages to the freshers, or merely as Males,” or if “in their Freshman years, beards and confidence did not come easily to them.” Men on campus still sport questionable facial hair, yet, an updated “sociological exploration” of this psychologically damaging phenomenon has yet to emerge. Campus fashion has been gratuitously satirised throughout the decades. The Thursday January 29 1970 edition of Trinity News contains a helpful, if not slightly snarky piece titled For The Adaptable Female Chameleon. The article exposes the quick-changing fashion trends using language highly reminiscent of modern student articles. Trinity students have always been fashionable, so it would only make sense to write a fashion article about them; some things never change (but they do move to tN2). At some point, the author mentions that: “Clothes are aimed at the young go-ahead girl with more taste than money.” Where have we heard this characterisation before? Perhaps in the stereotype of the trendsetting Arts Block denizen? The articles were by students, for students, and the language they used – the language of campus humour – remains familiar to all. The fashion section was not the only residence of the News’ satirical tongue. In the June 23 1960 edition, a column discusses the Dublin Music Festival, a festival connected to Trinity through the Dublin University Opera Group’s participation. According to the author, the Opera Group’s involvement in the festival was a “slightly self-contained and isolated declaration of independence” from Dublin’s thenambivalence to the Edinburgh Festival, which was “on a higher artistic plane”. The February 18 1954 edition encourages Freshers to join societies “before [they] turn into mere lecture attenders and too degree conscious”, as “TCD is a Residential University not a Technical School,” and that those who do not participate in college life “may do down with a degree, but they will not have had a university education”. Yikes! And

yet this piece of advice remains true, as Trinity still markets its student life as one of its biggest strengths. The same edition also satirises “Painted Mancatchers”, or gold-diggers, a “Common Trinity Bird”: well-dressed and made-up female students who can be found “hopping at the Dixon, strutting in Front Square, meandering round the Reading Room [or] pecking at coffee in Switzer’s”, with the aim of “capturing” a male student. While many of the places mentioned in the article may be lost in time, the student stereotypes remain relevant. The articles mentioned only scratch the surface of campus humour (and its stereotypes) over the years, which, with its positives and negatives, has transcended generational boundaries and seems to prevail still, albeit nowadays, there is not much proof of it outside of oral transmission. Archival articles represent a writing trend that has been slightly lost in the modern Trinity News editions; students being unafraid to boldly joke about themselves and the culture they exist in and build together. Granted, not all humour has been lost in Trinity student journalism: after all, a reader can always trust the Piranha to deliver some delightful campus satire. Still, I would argue that humour remains slightly overlooked in most Trinity publications, and for what? Some satire would do well to humble pretentious arts students, or keep those monstrous Phil members’ egos in check, and, most importantly, would help students who feel less inclined towards factual reporting than more casual observations more engaged with the publications (as well as give future chroniclers and anniversary editions’ contributors a fun time reading them). Are we, Trinity students, afraid of selfsatirisation? What anxieties stop us from documenting our culture of campus jokes? With humour comes connection, and, while some students may feel slightly intimidated by the more ‘serious’ news or features’ articles found in Trinity News today, they may be encouraged to engage with humoristic cultural or social observations they may find more approachable and relatable. A healthy sense of humour has always been key to journalistic democratisation, so why avoid it? A smart-sounding, no-nonsense feature may place a writer on a wall of journalistic prowess, however, nothing is as rewarding as an article that truly connects with the reader, and humour works wonderfully for that. Maybe Trinity News and other student publications should take a page out of their past playbooks and incorporate more humour into their pages going forward. It is, after all, a Trinity Man’s “personality, tact and initiative” – and, very possibly, sense of humour – that makes him stand out (‘Outside TCD’).

The Trinity spirit: Has Jimena Alvarez ventures into Trinity News archives to unravel whether the essence of being a Trinity student has changed over time

he concept of student life transcends time. Conversations that are all too familiar to us include the next Student Union protest, the next Phil or Hist debate, as well as what to get from the Buttery. Who else were they discussed by? Trinity students of the past! Looking through the archives I found articles discussing the Junior Dean being replaced by the president of the Student Representative Council, compact utilitarian concrete and glass buildings around campus (Business building foreshadowing), and a free computer service to find one’s sexually compatible partner: “What more could a young lad like me want?” (Trinity News, May 7

1970). I had thought attempting to decipher present-day students was hard. Although, it turns out trying to guess the thoughts of students 53 years ago was even tougher. Pondering about past alumni like Bram Stoker or Oscar Wilde, their college experiences seem like a world away from mine. Even the illustrious Mary Robinson, who graduated as a scholar in 1967, couldn’t have had the same ideas,

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Trinity has always been Trinity at heart, and maybe it always will be worries, and experiences as us students today. Or could she? Diving into the Trinity News archives has been eye-opening. The archives have become a time machine that unveils what life looked like for the average Trinner (or the average Trinner who had enough time to write for the

Recipes from the 6 Thana Elshaafi looks at the most popular recipes shared in the paper during the 60s and whether they stood the test of time

he world of food is ever-evolving, with culinary trends and tastes changing from generation to generation. One way to understand the evolution of our culinary preferences is by taking a journey back in time to explore recipes from the past. To do this, I took a dive through the Trinity News archive to bring you some of the most iconic recipes that students of Trinity enjoyed during the 60s. These recipes offer a window into people’s daily lives, ingredients, and cooking techniques from the time. From the delicious and comforting to the bizarre and unappetizing, recipes from

bygone times tell stories of culture, necessity, and the ever-changing palate of humanity. Some recipes from the past have stood the test of time and remain beloved today. One of these recipes is the humble cauliflower cheese. A classic side dish published in Trinity News in 1966, it is simple to make and

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Recipes from bygone times tell stories of culture, necessity, and the everchanging palate of humanity

TRINITY NEWS | Tuesday 7 November

s time changed what makes Trinity students tick? paper). A major takeaway from the reading of old Trinity News papers revealed that Trinity has always been Trinity at heart, and maybe it always will be. While this might make us feel closer to our predecessors and warm our hearts, there’s no denying that student life has changed quite a bit over time. Truth be told, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s been a long time since the 1970s Trinity News article on Linda Best becoming the first woman to be elected to the Historical Society Committee to Áine Kennedy becoming the auditor of the 254th Session of the same society. It’s been even longer since a 1955 official statement, was published by the president of the Philosophical Society, banning women from joining as members entirely. A circumstance that, if had occurred now, would anger and disturb any modern student

with at least half a brain. Rightfully so. Although the college has made steps in the right direction, Trinity is far from becoming a fully inclusive and equal community. Just last March, the homophobic and misogynistic public speaker Mohammed Hijab was invited to talk at the university, and the event had to be cancelled due to backlash. It is glimpses of the past that allow us to see how things were like, how far we’ve come from that and how much more there is to do. We are still in the same institution that has been present since 1592, we are bound to share interests, but also troubles with those who once studied here. A comment in Trinity News on November 30 1961, went on about fearing UCD’s rugby team. Sports commentators noted how Trinity was in an undoubted disadvantage,

IMAGE VIA FLICKR

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I can’t go on about how special it is for past student narrations to feel relatable without saying this too: Not everything made it to the paper however powerful enough to win. There’s nothing like our hopeful outlook when it comes to the historical rivalry between both universities. It is an echo from the past that I can’t imagine ever fading away. There is no way, however, that this is all that students cared about in the past. Claiming so far that Trinity News focused only women and sports feels reductive. Believe

it or not, one of the big topics on Trinity News old archived volumes was mental health. An article written in 1964 dove into this topic bravely through the lens of students on campus. It formed part of a larger discussion about the challenges and mental health struggles of students on campus. Nothing feels more inspiring that knowing even then, conversation was starting to happen through, at the very least, this newspaper. The content, however, has most certainly evolved. The shift from believing mental illness was unimportant or negligible for highly intelligent students, as mentioned in the article, to openly discussing Trinity’s disability and mental health services, as recent writers have done, reflects significant progress. This is not the only instance in which students thought in a way current students unlikely would. On December 2 1965, undergraduates gathered in resistance to a new rule to bring their own trays to a clearing table. One was even quoted saying “it’s a diabolical liberty, next we’ll be washing up as well” with blissful unawareness of their privilege. But that wouldn’t happen now, right? Students remain timeless and ever-changing simultaneously, especially focusing on the latter. A timeless prevalent Trinity

essence is very much present and triggers a sense of comfort for me as a current student. It works as a timeless resonance that should not be taken as a set but a consistent reminder that students will be students. For almost every thought that angered a student in the past, there was a writer ready to talk about it. That is something that will forever, I hope, remain. Nonetheless, despite this comfort, I am glad things for the most part have changed. And it is hard not to contemplate just how much student life has indeed changed over the years. It is undeniable, it is evolution and growth. I am a Peruvian bisexual female student on campus. I can’t go on about how special it is for past student narrations to feel relatable without saying this too: not everything made it to the paper. It is essential to acknowledge the voices of students that weren’t allowed to express just how different their college life was. The diverse student population, their counterarguments and disapproval, if recorded, would’ve given us a better insight on what was on every Trinity student’s mind. Trinity wouldn’t be what it is today without students disagreeing with what was almost “written in stone” in past volumes of the paper.

60s: What Trinity students used to eat only requires a few ingredients. The original recipe calls for 1 head of cauliflower, white sauce and ¼ pound of cheddar cheese. The cauliflower is cut up and boiled for 15 mins. The cheddar cheese is grated and added into white sauce before being added into the cauliflower and stirred. The recipe for the white sauce is also included and mentioned as often being “the first mistake of the aspiring cook’’. The recipe itself calls for 1.5 oz of margarine or butter to be melted in a saucepan and to add an ounce of flour to that once it is melted. Once any lumps are squashed, you can slowly add ½ pint of milk and ¾ pint of water until the desired consistency is achieved. The sauce should then be brought to a boil and then simmered for 5 minutes while stirring constantly. Before the change to the metric system, ingredients were measured in pounds and ounces. This results in a somewhat tumultuous step of converting every ingredient into grams or millilitres, or if you are lucky enough, your kitchen scales include those measurements. The white sauce is also used in another recipe from the same paper known as prawn fricassee. The recipe takes half an hour and

starts with cooking the rice by boiling a pot of lightly salted water and adding in 1lb of long grain rice and letting it cook for 20 minutes. The rice is then drained and washed with hot water. In a separate pot, the white sauce is brought to a boil and 6 oz of peeled prawns, 4 oz mushrooms and 2 quartered hard boiled eggs are added to the sauce. It is then simmered for 20 mins and served with the rice. Although this version was published in 1966, prawn fricassee is still eaten today, but there have been changes to the original recipe including the removal of boiled eggs from the dish. To end a dinner on a sweet note, a dessert called Savarin au Cerises from the time. It is a superb ending for any dinner party. The recipe should be prepared the day before and it calls for a tin of cherries in syrup, ¼ ounce brewer’s yeast, 4 tablespoons of warm water and 4 tablespoons of milk, 8oz flour, 2 oz sugar, 2 eggs, and ½ teaspoon of vanilla extract. The yeast is mixed with the warm milk and water and left to rest for 5 minutes. The flour and sugar are sifted together and the eggs are beaten together with the vanilla. The yeast is added into the flour mixture, followed by the

beaten eggs. Spread some butter over the dough and leave to rest for an hour. After the dough is rested, knead until dough is stiff and place in a ring mould tin. Cover the dough and bake for 10 minutes at 200°C and then lower the temperature to 180°C and bake for another 30 minutes. After it has cooled down, prick all over with a fork. Separate the cherries from the syrup and reduce over low heat, adding sugar if necessary. Pour the syrup over the cake and top with cherries and whipped cream. There are many other recipes

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To end a dinner on a sweet note, a dessert called Savarin au Cerises

that can be found in Trinity News from the 1960s and 1970s, most which focused on offering an easy and affordable recipe for students, which continues to be a focus with the rising living costs for students. Other recipes included lamb’s handkerchief served with onion sauce and red currant sauce, lamb chops en cuirasse, spare ribs and carrib sauce and moules normande. Most of these recipes have evolved over the years, with a similar version existing today. However, attempting the original recipe is a fun way to explore the changes in food culture over the years and learn about the flavour preferences of people from decades ago. Exploring recipes from the past provides a valuable insight into the evolving nature of food and culinary preferences. While some recipes have stood the test of time, others have faded into obscurity, and a few have become infamous for their peculiar combinations or unappetizing results. These recipes not only offer a glimpse into the history of our kitchens but also reflect the changing tastes and lifestyles of the people who prepared and consumed them. As we continue to experiment

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Some recipes have stood the test of time, others have faded into obscurity, and a few have become infamous with new ingredients and cooking techniques, it’s worth acknowledging the charm and occasional quirks of our culinary heritage, both good and bad. A version of many of these recipes continues to exist today but preparing them using the original recipe adds a much needed fun element to cooking.

Tuesday 7 November| TRINITY NEWS

Winter warmers: The soup edition Abby Cleaver outlines some soup-er recipes to keep you warm and happy this Christmas assessment period

and fueled for study should be an absolute priority, but it does not need to take up your valuable time. Here are a few tried and tested soup recipes that won’t break the bank, and don’t even take as much effort as staying awake during a two hour zoom lecture.

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to your soup! As chicken is the star of this dish we want that flavour to shine, so I would advise against using any large amounts of potent flavoured vegetables. Stick to the simple stuff, the good stuff, the onions and carrots. Use a chicken stock instead of a vegetable one, and for texture you can add in some cream or greek yogurt before blending. Whether or not you blend the chicken itself is up to you. Blending the chicken itself can result in a grainy texture, but if that’s not something you mind then by all means, blend away. Otherwise, mix the chicken in without blending it too, and enjoy just the same.

the pasta of your choice. When you should blend the soup, you may be asking. Never. Do not worry about blending with minestrone. Simply add your cooked pasta and enjoy the hearty chunky soup.

One of the best All the extras ways to go Just because we’re on a budget The basics does not mean we cannot treat Every great soup starts with a about picking ourselves and pimp our soups. great base, and you can achieve A splash of cream on top never this with just a few simple your star hurt anyone, nor did a basil leaf ingredients. For an extremely vegetable is from your ALDI basil plant that simple and tasty stock, chop up you have been accidentally killing icture this. It’s been a an onion and some garlic and let to look at not and reviving since the summer. long day of lectures and it simmer in some water with a then library, and it’s cold generous amount of salt. You can only what you outside. Cold winds add to your broth whatever you blow onto your already like, some suggestions would be like, but what frozen nose as you wait for the chopped celery, carrots, and herbs Poor Man’s Minestrone bus.You aren’t wearing a proper like basil or thyme, or spices such is currently in For those who worry that a winter coat because it seemed as cinnamon or paprika. However, simple soup won’t fill them up, Because you’re sunny this morning and TCD as students we can often be short season I present to you the Poor Man’s FashionSoc has convinced you of time, and a stock from scratch Minestrone. Minestrone is a cold. Because that impractical skinny scarves are may not always be feasible. This classic Italian vegetable soup with the height of fashion this summer, is absolutely okay! Store bought tummy and ease your troubled a tomato base…and…pasta? You you’re stressed. something which you are now stocks work well too, and there mind. To make this soup is much heard right, pasta. Or rice as some deeply regretting. The bus home are a few options out there to try. the same, with just one extra step, adaptations of the recipe have it. Because you’re feels longer than ever in the home- Depending on what kind of soup add chicken. This can take as And as far as filling yourself up worth it time traffic. A man takes his call you are making and what kind of much or as little time and care as on a budget, use whatever is in

on speaker phone and a desperate mother lets her crying child watch cartoons out loud even though it doesn’t solve the problem. You stomp home in the rain from the bus stop to your place, finally change into your comfy clothes, throw on the kettle for a cuppa, and wonder what you could possibly force yourself to make for dinner. Then, you smile, near tears with relief, as you remember the meal-prepped soup you made yesterday, just dying to be heated up and eaten. You just beat the

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You smile, near tears with relief, as you remember the meal-prepped soup you made yesterday winter blues. Good for you. If this is not yet you, and there is no soup waiting patiently for you after a long day… please read on. Enough is enough, and it is time for change. Not only is soup a great way to warm up after a long winter’s day, but a cheap, easy, and quick way to do so. It is not only what you need when you’re working hard, but what you deserve. Keeping yourself warm

flavours you like, you can use a vegetable, chicken, or beef stock cube or stock pot to get your soup journey started.

The Classic Veg A dinner of only vegetables can sound kind of drab…until you add soup to the mix. A vegetable soup is a great way of packing in a bunch of veggies, and when you’re stuck for cash, vegetables are less expensive than proteins like chicken, beef, or fish. The most beautiful part of vegetable soup is in the neverending combination possibilities. Potato and leek soup is wildly different to tomato and basil, and comparing a sweet potato and carrot soup to a mushroom soup would result in a world of difference in flavour. One of the best ways to go about picking your star vegetable is to look at not only what you like, but what is currently in season. Pumpkin soup could be something to try out, along with vegetables such as kale, spinach, parsnips, peppers, and much more currently in season here in Ireland. To turn these vegetables into soup, chop them up and throw them in a pot along with your stock. Put them on to simmer, and allow them to cook away until they are nice, soft, and easy to blend. If you like a thick soup, consider adding in a starchy vegetable, such as potato, or a spoon of flour. When ready, blend the soup until smooth, and add in some heavy cream or even coconut water if you fancy. If you don’t own a blender, a potato masher will help mash the soft veg into a creamy consistency, and adding the cream or milk will help here too! Chicken, chicken… chicken Ah, lovely chicken soup, the ultimate comfort food to fill your

you are willing to give. You can easily fry up a chicken breast in a pan with a bit of olive oil and no other airs or graces bar a bit of salt (I would recommend investing in some chicken salt!) Or oven cook your chicken with a few ingredients to bring a lot more flavour. Try mixing together some paprika, brown sugar, thyme, onion powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Cook your chicken in the oven with your lovely mix and bring a whole new level of flavour

your cupboard! Again we go with our classic basic base, onions, carrots and celery if you have it, and vegetable stock, only this time we will be adding in some canned chopped tomatoes. A tablespoon or two of tomato puree would also do no harm, and if you feel like commiting to those fabulous Italian flavours, throw in some garlic or oregano, or both! Allow it to simmer away, throw in some chopped vegetables if you have them lying around, and then stir in

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Croutons can be a lovely way to add some crunch, and you do not need to be a chef to make them, as they are only €0.99 in Tesco. For an extra health kick, lentils are a worthy investment for an extra punch of protein, and they only take about 15-20 minutes to cook. Take the extra 30 seconds of time to make your soup as special as you are. Because you’re cold. Because you’re stressed. Because you’re worth it.

ARTWORK BY JESSIE HUANG FOR TRINITY NEWS

TRINITY NEWS | Tuesday 7 November

Stair agus Stádas na Gaeilge i gColáiste na Tríonóide Stephen Ó Conghaile: Tá an Ghaeilge beo ar champas na Tríonóide sa lá atá inniu ann, ach is fada é an stair atá le feiceail idir an teanga agus a stádas i gColaiste na Tríonóide

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Bhí caidreamh míshocair ann idir na muinteoirí Gaeilge agus na hoibrithe eile - ceapadh na Gaeilgeoirí mar coimhthíoch mí-acadúil

chathaoirleach, agus d’éirigh leis thar barr sa phost. Ach, ní raibh suim mhór ag daltaí na hollscoile sa Ghaeilge, agus bhí caidreamh míshocair ann idir na muinteoirí Gaeilge agus na hoibrithe eile - ceapadh na Gaeilgeoirí mar coimhthíoch mí-acadúil. Dhírigh na léinn Ghaeilge sa choláiste i rith an ama seo ar léamh an Bhíobla as Gaeilge- go háirithe an Tiomna Nua. Ní raibh aon staidéar déanta ar litríocht Ghaeilge na hÉireann, mar shampla An Táin, agus is fáth amháin é sin nach raibh an Ghaeilge mar chúrsa móréilimh i gColáiste na Tríonóide. Nuair a labhraíomar faoin nGaeilge sa Choláiste, caithfidh muid a onóir a thabhairt do Dhubhghlas de hÍde a. Sula raibh sémar Uachtarán na hÉireann, ba dhalta litríochta é. Chomh maith leis sin, rinne sé staidéar ar theangacha - an Ghaeilge, an Fhraincis, an Laidin agus an Eabhrais. Is léir go raibh rannphairtíocht beo ag Hyde sa choláiste agus feictear é sin trína nasc leis an gcumann mac léinn, Hist. In 1893, cúpla bliain tar éis a chéim a chríochnú, bhunaigh sé Conradh na Gaeilge. Is léir gur Gaeilgeoir iontach agus cáilúil é Hyde, ach níor toghadh mar Chathaoirleach na Gaeilge

i dTrionóid é mar gheall ar a ghníomhaíochas polaitíochta le hAthbheochan na Gaeilge. In ionad Hyde, toghadh Tomás Ó Raithile i 1919, agus feictear an dáta seo mar tús nua do Ghaeilge i gColáiste na Tríonóide. Leasaigh sé curaclam na Gaeilge- chuir sé níos mó béime ar litríocht na teanga agus faoi dheireadh bhí foghlaim na Gaeilge cosúil le foghlaim na dteangacha eile sa Choláiste. Chun tuiscint a fháil faoi stádas na Gaeilge i rith an fichiú haois, caithfidh muid súil a chur ar Chartlann Nuacht na Tríonóide. I Meitheamh 1956, scríobhadh alt dar teideal “Gaels Gulled” ag insint scéil faoi stádas na Gaeilge sa choláiste. Cuireadh dráma as Gaeilge ón gCumann Gaelach ar stáitse ar mhaithe le carthanachachtaí áitiúla, ach chuir grúpa de mhic léinn óga as Sásana (a thug “the Cromwellian Club” orthu féin) isteach ar an léiriú agus rinne siad slad. Scread siad rudaí cosúil le “Rule Britannia” agus “God save the Queen”. Dúirt siad nach raibh aon fáth náisiúnach acu leis an racht seo, agus ní raibh siad i mórán trioblóide. Cé go bhfuil stádas speisialta ag an nGaeilge ar an gcampas le beagnach céad bliain anuas, ní hionann sin agus meas a bheith ag pobal na

hollscoile uirthi. Sa lá atá inniu ann, tá stádas na Gaeilge i bhfad níos cosanta seasmhaí i gColáiste na Tríonóide. D’fhéadfá a rá gur tháinig an fhorbairt mar gheall ar an obair atá déanta ag an gCumman Gaelach agus Roinn na Gaeilge sa Choláiste. Anois, bíonn Gaeilge le cloisteáil i ngach cúinne den champas, agus tá suim mhór ag pobal an choláiste sa Ghaeilge. Bualann muintir na Gaeilge le chéile gach seachtain chun taitneamh a bhaint as Té agus Plé, Anraith agus Arán, Píotsa agus Pionta, srl. Ach fós tá easpa áiseanna agus seirbhísí ar fáil as Gaeilge, mar shampla comhairleoireacht an Choláiste, agus nach bhfuil Oifigeach Gaeilge lánaimseartha in Aontas na Mac Léinn. Deirtear nach bhfuil airgead nó éileamh chun na háiseanna sin a chur chun cinn, ach b’fhéidir go léiríonn sé seo go bhfuil Aontas na Mac Léinn nó Coláiste na Tríonóide mar institúid ag tarraingt ar a chosa maidir le haitheantas a thabhairt don Ghaeilge mar theanga dhúchais na tíre. Tá stair fhada ag an nGaeilge i gColáiste na Trionóide agus gan dabht beidh an chéad chúpla bliain eile an-suimiúil di. Céard atá chun athrú ó thaobh na Gaeilge de? Fanaimis go bhfeicfimid.

PHOTO BY NEASA NIC CORCRÁIN FOR TRINITY NEWS

í cheapfaí go mbeadh ‘The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin’ ina hollscoil fhabhrach don Ghaeilge i dtosach, ach is fíor é an ráiteas seo sa lá atá inniu ann. Lá i ndiaidh lae, cloisimid níos mó Gaeilge ar champas agus feicimid níos mó tacaíochta ag teacht ar son na Gaeilge. Ach níorbh é sin an cás i gcónaí. Conas a mhothaigh an pobal faoin nGaeilge sa stair? An labhraíodh Gaeilge ar an gcampas, fiú? D’fhéadfá a rá gur bunaíodh an Coláiste chun Galldú na hÉireann a chur chun cinn ag an am. Ó 1592, chonacthas Coláiste na Tríonóide mar shiombail den choilíneachas agus aichmeachas atá ann ar fud na tíre, agus deirtear go raibh an caidreamh a bhí ag an gColáiste leis an nGaeilge mar phríomhchúis taobh thiar den ráiteas nach mbeadh Coláíste na Trionóide mar ollscoil fhabhrach don Ghaeilge. Mar sin, ní hábhar mór iontais dúinn nach raibh gnáthról ag an nGaeilge i gcuraclam an choláiste go dtí le gairid. Tá an Coláiste in ann a phobal Gaeilge beomhar a cheiliúradh anois, ach ní raibh an t-atmaisféar seo thart i gcónaí. Tá stair an-suimiúil ann faoi na hiarrachtaí atá déanta ag daoine chun labhairt agus foghlaim na Gaeilge a spreagadh ar fud an choláiste. Chun stair na Gaeilge i gColáiste na Tríonóide a insint, caithfidh muid labhairt ar na cuigiú agus séú Propaist i dtosach - is iad William Bedell agus Robert Ussher na fir atá i gceist. Ba mhinistir Anglacánach é Bedell. Rinne sé staidéar in Ollscoil Cambridge agus b’in an áit a raibh sé ag obair sula raibh sé ina Phropast. Toghadh mar Phropast na Tríonóide é sa bhliain 1627. Le súile nua-aimseartha, chuir sé ina héadan mar gheall ar a chuid tuairimí - mar shampla, d’aontaigh sé leis an Reifirméisean in Éirinn (gluaiseacht a chabhraigh le Galldú na hÉireann), ach fós féin d’oibrigh sé i gColáiste na Tríonóide ar son na Gaeilge. Bhí sé ag iarraidh

níos mó Éireannaigh a tharraingt isteach san Eaglais Anglacánach agus de bharr na méine seo, is é a éacht is suntasaí mar Phropast ná cead Gaeilge a labhairt sa séipéal ar an gcampas. Chomh maith leis sin, choimisiúnaigh sé an príomhaistriúchán Gaeilge ar an mBíobla Naofa. Gan dabht, feictear William Bedell mar an chéad Phropast i gColáiste na Tríonóide a raibh suim agus meas aige don Ghaeilge. Leag sé bunchloch do Ghaeilgeoirí a d’fhreastal ar an gColáiste, duine acu siúd ab ea James Ussher (col ceathrair Robert Ussher a bhí mar shéú Propast na Tríonóide). Thosaigh James Ussher ag staidéar sa Choláiste nuair nach raibh sé ach trí bliana déag d’aois, agus bhain sé a chéim amach nuair a bhí sé seacht mbliana déag d’aois. Ag an am sin, níor as an ngnáth a bhí a chás- d’fhreastail a lán deagóirí óga ar Choláiste na Tríonóide. Fós, gairm iontach a bhí aige, agus dúradh gur ‘bunaitheoir staireagrafaíochta’ é mar gheall ar an obair a rinne sé ar stair na Críostaíochta in Éirinn. Ba í Gaeilge an teanga a bhí ar na seantéacsanna a ndearna sé staidéar orthu, agus mar sin is léir go raibh leibhéal ard don teanga aige. Ba iad clann Ussher teaghlach le meon polaitíochta éagsúla - d’aontaigh máthair James go huile is go hiomlán le Galldú na hEireann, ach ag an am céanna, bhí Gaeilgeoirí sa chlann a bhí náisiúnach. Inniu, feicimid blas de stair na Gaeilge ar champas na Tríonóide os ár gcomhair leis an leabharlann Ussher atá ainmnithe in ónóir na clainne. Bunaíodh Cathaoirleach na Gaeilge i gColáiste na Tríonóide sa bhliain 1840. Ach níorbh é sin an chéad fheachtas chun cathaoirleach a chruthú- céad bliain roimhe, rinne Henry Flood, polaiteoir as Cill Chainnigh, iarracht an ról a bhunú. Ba é Thomas de Verre Coneys an chéad

Tuesday 7 November | TRINITY NEWS

Erasmus 101: A step by step guide Lara Monahan provides a guide on all the things you need to know

ou’ve barely made a dent in the new pens and paper you bought at the beginning of the semester, but already Erasmus application deadlines are fast approaching. With all the excitement of the first semester back in college, it’s hard to think ahead to your Erasmus exchange next September. I remember this time well, and having just done my year abroad in Paris, I know it can feel incredibly overwhelming; here’s the seven things I wish I knew when I applied. Meet your deadlines God knows we have all sent that email at an ungodly hour begging a professor for an extension. It is practically a landmark college experience at this point. But with Erasmus applications – and ahem, with college work of course – submit the application, and any other admin, at least a few days early. Each Trinity department has its own internal Erasmus application process and deadline so make sure to find out when

this is, and make a schedule for when you intend to have your application done and dusted. Find your forebears When I spoke to other students who went on exchange last year, they unanimously agreed on one thing: how helpful it is to link up with someone who has done your Erasmus course the year before. As one of the students said, “a lot of the advice and paperwork will be quite niche” to the specific college and city you are wanting to go to; someone who has gone through it themselves last year will know how to navigate these niches. They might also have impressions of specific colleges, cities or even modules, helping you in the decision-making process. Seeking out these students might feel intimidating, but it will be worth it. Make a group chat When navigating the admin of applying for Erasmus, the secondbest thing to finding the students who have gone before you is finding the ones who will be going with you. Make a group chat and sort out your Learning Agreements (LA) together. It will feel a lot less demoralising knowing someone else is just as lost as you, and hey, they might just know their onions – or their zwiebeln, or cebollas. And of course, it’s great to know a friendly face when you reach your

host university. You will look back with nostalgia together at the trials and tribulations of the application process, and look forward to the life-changing cultural experience, whether you end up sipping Glühwein in Germany or Sangria in Spain. Choose carefully When choosing which colleges to list in the application, take a step back and first consider what you want your year to look like. Student Ella Burkett encouraged prospective Erasmus students to “think about what your priorities are for a year abroad. Learning the language? Academics? The cultural experience?” Be honest with yourself about this, and consider which city or university would best serve these priorities. Research the academic vigour of each of the colleges, or the cultural experiences available in the city you are looking at, and decide which colleges to list from there. Eoin Adamson, a Computer Science and Language student who attended Université Côte d’Azur explained that he “thought more about the location” and suggested that students should “find out, is it difficult” and base their decision from there. Our house. In the middle of which street?! While some countries have internal systems which help

students to find and pay for accommodation – for example, France has the CROUS residences and the CAF financial support system – don’t leave it too late to start researching your accommodation prospects. Once you have a place to live, the rest of the admin gets easier; something about knowing which size sheets to bring just makes things feel more real. I am a big supporter of the sentiment “well, I’ll only be sleeping here”, and your housing certainly doesn’t have to be perfect, but at the very least it should feel safe. Even if it doesn’t seem like it now, you will feel the benefit of sacrificing having a bigger space for being in a more safe and central location.Another thing to consider when finding your accommodation is that some universities have multiple campuses; find out where most of your classes will be taking place and factor that into your decision too. Vis-à-vis visas: start early Look into whether or not you need a visa early – and I mean pretty much as soon as you get your offer – and figure out how to get one. I spent a very unnecessarily stressful August going back and forth to the Wandsworth French visa centre ahead of my departure for my Erasmus course in France.

Learn from my mistakes; don’t assume that just because you are doing an exchange within the Erasmus programme that you don’t need a visa. This process can take months, so getting started on it as early as possible is crucial. Don’t fear applying A lot of people are put off applying because the allocation of places is based on previous academic performance. Let me reassure you: I personally know many students who were allocated places even though they didn’t fully meet the grade requirements. Plus – in the words of my mother – shy bairns get nowt! If you don’t ask, you don’t get. It could be you, and you will only find out if you apply. Don’t let fear hold you back from doing an Erasmus. The opportunity to live and study in another country, learn about another culture and gain invaluable independence doesn’t come around very often. I won’t lie to you – there will be a lot of administrative work, budgeting, and travel planning. But learning these life skills in the relatively sheltered environment of an Erasmus exchange will lend you a strength of character that supports you going forward, not only in college but in life. So grab this opportunity and don’t let go until your feet touch the Continent.

Debunking sex stereotypes among students Jimena Alvarez explores the common myths around sex in College and tells us about why abstinence may be the best option for some

will never forget my first ever college party at the mere age of 17. I was surrounded by four other people when they all suddenly decided to share the story of their first time. I am not religious but I remember clearly praying for every entity on earth for my turn to never come. I can’t say I know what my real reason was to not have sex immediately at the first chance I got. Although I am a true believer that all reasons concerning one’s body are valid, I just can’t get behind the narrative of losing one’s virginity. The common tale of the shameful

transactionary intercourse: I lose my v-card, purity and dignity, and I gain … what? Either giving away the prude label or gaining a new one as a whore. Sex can be great as an expression of love to your own body. But it can also be none of that at all. For me it was an event which I was looking forward to; something that could happen whenever I felt ready. I thought I was comfortable enough with the idea of it happening, and with knowing it hadn’t yet. However, whenever the s-word was tossed around, as it is in random college party conversations, my heart skipped a beat. It was a reminder that I was falling behind everyone else, and it created the gut wrenching fear that perhaps I would never catch up. I figured that surely everyone was having sex in college. How could they not be? It is in every movie involving college, every episode of Normal People and every Never Have I Ever game. Nonetheless, and although I hate to say these three words, I am pleased to admit I was wrong. I think it is fair to say that every college junior fresher finds themselves assuming everyone is having sex. But guess what, not everyone is! And that is perfectly

okay. Although every person is on their own journey, it would’ve been a game changer if I had known that I wasn’t alone during that first college party when I felt almost ashamed I had no first time

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Engaging in sexual intimacy should be an active choice

story to tell. This is not yet another shaming discourse against people having consensual sex or an argument that abstinence is the only right way. It is simply an attempt to understand why students choose not to have sex and how damaging it can be to constantly be exposed to sex-driven narratives. So much can go into the decision to not have intercourse before, during or

after college. For some, religious and cultural values guide them towards prioritising abstinence or waiting until marriage. Some students do not experience sexual attraction or drive significantly or at all, known as asexuality. Sex drive is something which fluctuates between people and throughout one’s lifetime. All are equally valid and common. Similarly, there are endless reasons why some students who do want to have sex don’t just yet and those who’ve had sex before choose to abstain. Whether it is fear or anxiety from past traumas, performance anxiety, peer pressure, fear of pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections, or if it is because it just hasn’t happened yet. Following up on the latter, I recall chatting with friends who live at home who just couldn’t manage to find the time or place. Sharing schedules with relatives, Covid quarantines, online work, et cetera, just makes it all the more complicated and tedious to plan. Especially for something that usually happens more sporadically rather than in a routine environment. Alternatively, for many students, their reason not to have sex will be rooted in the fact that they don’t feel

ready. In more hopeful scenarios, those students won’t put pressure on themselves to do something they don’t feel comfortable with. Engaging in sexual intimacy should be an active choice. From a student’s understanding of their personal meaning of sex, to feeling comfortable in their own bodies and the vulnerable act of showing it to someone else, alongside an abundance of other reasons, many students choose to abstain. There is no need to race or rush, or to feel like you are missing out. College is so much more than just an opportunity for sexual experiences. While it may feel sometimes like sex is prevalent in all media we consume and every conversation we have, you would be surprised with just how many students complete their college years without ever feeling entirely ready or willing to engage in sex. The unique and valid reasons behind this choice or occurrence are not owed to anyone but the person themselves. Sex can be such a beautiful and meaningful experience, if or when you decide to engage in it. It should never happen out of peer pressure or fear of missing out, but rather as an exploration of your own sexuality and vulnerability.

TRINITY NEWS | Tuesday 7 November

Eoghan Conway and Cathal Eustace go in search of the best Irish coffee in Dublin and find themselves in Bar 1661

n extract from a Trinity News article from February 1970 reads as follows: “Intelligent people skip dessert altogether and serve a glass of Irish coffee. To make Irish coffee you needn’t fuss with dessert plates… saving on time, money and dishwashing. Because it’s rich, one is enough. Your guests leave feeling pleasantly full and sleepy, leaving you to finish the remaining whiskey.” In the name of research to test this hypothesis (and in order to avoid hosting a dinner party), Cathal and I decided to skip straight to dessert. Both literally and metaphorically. Dessert, however, was to be defined by Mary Punch as per her 1970 article: an Irish coffee. With no dessert plates to clean up and with the taste of whiskey on our minds, we headed to Bar 1661. Fancying ourselves pseudo-intelligent people (as per the aforementioned quotation) we had to have an Irish coffee, and maybe a few more drinks along the way. If we couldn’t get a good Irish coffee here, then there was to be no hope for us. Bar 1661 was the winner of Ireland’s Bar of the Year in 2022. According to whom, exactly? We would be the ultimate judges of that. Any observant Trinity student familiar with Kennedy’s Pub will know that it claims to be the home of the Irish coffee. Yet who wants to go to the home of the Irish coffee? We wanted to head to the boujee, upmarket investment property that Irish coffee bought in 2006 under sound investment advice. That’s why we headed to Smithfield and that’s why we headed to Bar 1661. To preface this rambling review, it only feels apt to give a short history of Irish coffee. You see, we feel that an Irish coffee sits in this strange vacuum between a St Stephen’s Day hangover cure and your granny’s favourite treat after a carvery lunch on Sunday. The Irish coffee originated in Foynes, Limerick. Bartender Joe Sheridan was the mastermind behind this concoction. One night, having sympathy for weary Americans passengers whose flight was sent back to Foynes mid-journey, he fixed them up

something special – dare we say scintillating. Alcohol, caffeine, sugar and cream: the golden quadfecta. Joe’s original recipe is prefaced with the following note: “cream - rich as an Irish Brogue, coffee - strong as a friendly hand, sugar - sweet as the tongue of a rogue and whiskey - smooth as the wit of the land.”

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Bar 1661 might symbolically be staunchly Irish, and even more so in practice, but their desire to tell us this over and over again becomes a little bit tiring for the native History lesson over and a tall order of a recipe to follow. Into Bar 1661 we headed. Cathal: Once in the door we were immediately brought to our table and presented with menus. Their dark covers read “Staunchly Irish & Fiercely Independent” in bold. This mission statement was also emblazoned across every coaster on our table. The room possessed the deep murk of an Irish pub: leather stools, dark walls with vintage frames and posters. We had been transported to a new reality, a Dublin where cocktail culture and nationality were intrinsically linked. In this imagined world of Celtic cocktailmaking, Poitín was something in which to take pride, something that was as staunchly Irish and fiercely independent as we want to be. Bar 1661 imagines an Irish drinking culture where, rather than being banned in the year 1661, our native, pot still moonshine formed the foundations upon which a highly developed canon of cocktails was wrought. This might be a good time to talk about our first drinks? Eoghan: The time had arrived. I order a Belfast coffee. Well,

both Cathal and I did. The house specialty times two. It was what we had come here for. A hearty combination of Bán Poitín, cold brew, cream and demerara, capped off with a dusting of nutmeg. It was as if the Irish coffee had gone on a J1 and discovered cold brew. During the course of this discovery, in an attempt to seem current, it seemed to ditch the traditional ball of malt in exchange for a progressive pour of poitín: a contemporary take on the classic Irish coffee as described in the menu. I’m a certain believer in the term “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. The Irish coffee certainly was never broke, but this was its 21st-century facelift of sorts. In reference to Joe Sheridan’s recipe, it ticked all the boxes: smooth, sweet, rich. The Two Fifty Square coffee offers a strong and friendly hand, and maybe even a knuckle punch, to show off this recipe’s mid-Atlantic tendencies. Miss Punch was right: “Because it’s rich, one is enough”. Time to explore the rest of this menu. Cathal: I liked it too, a novelty but not a gimmick. After this I ordered the Vinegar Hill. My cocktail had nothing to do with vinegar, hills, nor an important battle fought during the Rebellion of 1798. Instead its theme centred around a cheese board, and the accompanying text discussed prohibition in the USA during the early 20th century. However, I feel like I’m getting hung up on minutiae. This was a delicious and weird cocktail. Made with vermouth, ice wine, oloroso (sherry for Spaniards) and garnished with a stain of black butter. Other ingredients such as fig, walnut and blue cheese were present, the first of which was strongly, deliciously present on the nose. I ordered the handsome, long and serious cocktail for connoisseurs of mixology. Eoghan ordered dessert. Eoghan: If Cathal was the connoisseur of the evening then I was the clown. When a cocktail has popping candy in it as well as champagne, it’s hard to resist not ordering it. The Golden Moment was a sorbet scoop swimming in a lazy river of champagne. This sorbet was one topped with popping candy. The inner fouryear-old in me was satisfied. The sorbet was a melody of Killahora Pom’O apple brandy, poitín, soda bread and grapefruit. The author Roman Payne said that “wine gives one ideas, whereas champagne gives one strategies”. I’m still unsure what this cocktail gave me. Notions, perhaps. Tart apple notes, pop rock crackle, champagne fizz and a punch of poitín. If the Belfast coffee was a novelty and not a gimmick, the Golden Moment may be creeping into that second category. Cathal:And finally, caught

IMAGE BY RORY CHINN FOR TRINITY NEWS

“Intelligent people skip dessert altogether and serve a glass of Irish coffee”

up in the pure romance of all the poitín swimming about the place, we ordered a glass each. Mine was the Mad March Hair, which the staff assured me was the “entry level” spirit… and here we discovered that Bar 1661 is controlled by a cabal of liars and tricksters. The fire and fury of a thousand suns ravaged my oesophagus with every sip. I tasted the very heat death of the known universe. When all things end and the world is dark and cold, all that will remain is that sturdy, undying, revenant spirit. It was also very delicious. Eoghan: I had opted for the Bán Poitín, distilled from potato, barley and sugar beet. Not as much fire and fury as the Mad March Hair, yet both Cathal and I preferred this one. A slight bitterness cut through the sweetness of the spuds. At a firm 48 percent alcohol, it certainly packs a punch. The rare old mountain dew slowly soothes and scorches the throat simultaneously. I will concur with

Cathal… also very delicious. So what started off as a research trip into the origins of the drink and a hunt for the best Irish coffee in Dublin slowly transformed into a review of Bar 1661. In all reviews, however, there must be judgement. So what is the verdict from these two barstool prophets? Bar 1661 might symbolically be staunchly Irish, and even more so in practice, but their desire to tell us this over and over again becomes a little bit tiring for the native. With our gripes out of the way, it should be noted that the staff ’s attention to detail and high regard for Irish produce is evident. Bar 1661 offers serious value as well. If you are looking for considered, well-crafted cocktails and an opportunity to venture away from rudimentary pornstar martinis, this place is for you. We certainly will be back with an eagerness for more, and even an acquired fondness for poitín. We might even have another Irish coffee as well.

Tuesday 7 November | TRINITY NEWS

Cramp Your Style podcast co-hosts talk to Fashion Society Ella Sloane covers the first instalment of Fashion Society’s speaker series featuring Lia Cowan and Adam Walsh

n the first instalment of their new speaker series, Fashion Society hosted two incredible Irish industry talents: fashion designer Lia Cowan and stylist Adam Walsh. Together this dynamic duo co-hosts the Cramp Your Style podcast where they invite fellow Irish creatives to share their stories in the hopes of inspiring the next generation of home-grown visionaries. Guests on their podcast so far have included famed broadcaster and writer Louise McSharry, Irish Country Magazine’s Klara Heron and sustainable fashion designer Laoise Carey — whether you’re an aspiring journalist, wannabe entrepreneur or a fashion guru, Cowan and Walsh have got you covered. The pair was interviewed by

Fashion Society’s Juno McCluskey and Kinda Otieno, who kept them on their toes. Both Cowan and Walsh started by tracing the trajectories of their successful careers for the captivated audience in Regent House. Cowan’s education began in The National College of Art and Design where she studied Fine Art Sculpture and Education, leading to a stint in secondary school teaching. Speaking of how she got hooked on fashion, the designer explained that she just “fell upon it” after experimenting with a new sewing machine and making her own clothes. After a three-week sewing course in the Grafton Academy, Cowan recalls being “obsessed straight away”, prompting her to complete two years of Fashion Design in Sallynoggin College of Further Education. One thing led to another and Cowan bit the bullet, leaving teaching behind to found her own eponymous luxury fashion brand, LIA. LIA already has a star-studded clientele: Cowan’s dreamy designs have been worn by none other than Nicola Coughlan, Aimee Connolly and Louise McSharry, just to name a few. The eye-catching, sculptural designs that dominate Cowan’s collections hark back to her years in NCAD and her characteristic “frothy tulle skirts” evoke a ballerina-esque style that embodies the movement of performance art.

Originally aiming towards a career in journalism, Walsh was encouraged by his school’s career guidance counsellor to pursue other avenues as journalism was a “dying trade”. His mother rightly predicted a job in fashion was on the horizon for Walsh, who after some consideration decided to do a Post Leaving Cert course (PLC) in fashion buying, styling and visual merchandising in Sallynoggin, where his and Cowan’s paths first crossed. Having since established himself as one to watch in the Irish fashion scene, Walsh has had the opportunity to work with comedian Joanne McNally, Normal People’s India Mullen, and country music star Nathan Carter. His work ranges from editorial and commercial to television and celebrity styling, and let’s just say Walsh makes it all look effortless! In response to a query from McCluskey about what has been the biggest challenge he’s faced working as a freelance stylist, Walsh honestly admits that it was the process of getting his name out and keeping it there as he started to build his portfolio. Everything starts to become a lot easier after that initial battle against the fear of rejection. Following on from this, Otieno asked Cowan what motivates her to keep going during the inevitable quiet periods every designer dreads. Cowan shared the value of the personal relationships she forges with her customers as

she works on their custom-made occasion wear and how she gains a sense of purpose from injecting some fun into the moments shared together during fittings: “It’s so heartwarming. The experience and the personal feeling that I get when I make these kinds of pieces just makes it all very easy in the end. It’s so nice seeing the customers super happy and I think those experiences really help when you have quiet periods.” Speaking of the insular nature of the Irish fashion industry, Cowan pointed to the lack of job opportunities for designers as one downside to being part of such a small community. On the other hand, however, the pair spoke positively of the “huge collaborative world in Ireland in fashion” and the “lovely sense of community that that brings.” Cowan described it as a “caring” environment to work in, compared to the “bitchiness” and “cut-throat” attitude one might unfortunately encounter in places like London or Paris. She added that entering the fashion industry as a newbie designer in Ireland “was like being swept up into this lovely kind of family.” Walsh echoed this sentiment, adding that you “make so many friends” working in fashion here, using his and Cowan’s close-knit friendship as a great example of this. Facing towards the future, Walsh and Cowan agreed that

they’re looking forward to Irish fashion moving past some of the “stale” designs and trends that have dominated the industry for a while and can see a shift into more modern and “cool” fashion starting to emerge already as a new generation of designers and stylists stay in the country. Cowan expressed her desire to lean more into creating designs with her signature tutu-like skirts for “the alternative bride” going forward with her brand. Having gotten engaged herself earlier this year, Otieno asked Cowan the question on everyone’s minds: “Should we expect to see you wearing one of your own dresses at your wedding?” Cowan explained that after firmly being set on making her own dress for years, she’s now “toying with the idea” of outsourcing a wedding gown due to the fear of her perfectionism “ruining the day.” She confirmed that despite this she would definitely still love to design the dress, simply leaving the making of it up to someone else. This first instalment of the Fashion Society’s highly anticipated speaker series has certainly gotten them off to a strong start, with the committee facilitating insightful discussion from Cowan and Walsh on what it’s like to pursue fashion-centric careers in Ireland. We look forward to seeing what’s to come!

Making the case for the Blasket Islands Ciana Meyers interviews Trinity alum Lorcán Ó Cinnéide on his time at Trinity and his crucial role in developing the Dingle Peninsula’s cultural resources

rowing up in Ireland’s West Kerry Gaeltacht, Lorcán Ó Cinnéide recalls fond memories of “a wonderful environment [with] music, songs, stories and people”. A visit to the Dingle Peninsula comes highly recommended. Beyond the island’s inherent natural beauty, it hosts many events dedicated to Irish cultural interests: The Dingle Food Festival, musical territories of Irish traditional Scoil Cheoil

an Earraigh and intercontinental Other Voices. Recalling his upbringing, Ó Cinnéide shared that “if you stick around long enough on the Dingle Peninsula, the world comes to you”. The wide range of people he met there complemented his parents’ encouragement of curiosity, broad-mindedness and self confidence.His father, Caoimhín, was a teacher who believed that the best way to emphasise an idea was to speak it rather than write it on paper. His personal motto “never look up or down at anyone” still resonates with Ó Cinnéide. He noted that being a member of a large family made him more considerate and aware of others. This upbringing led to full and exciting years at Trinity College. Ó Cinnéide entered Trinity as a mature student to study Economic and Social Studies, and graduated in 1989. During his time in Trinity, he enjoyed Hist debates and served as Auditor for the Politics Society. Thinking back, Ó Cinnéide remembers his love for the library, where he “devoured books, except the ones I should have been reading, I think”. He remembers sitting in on Brendan

Kennelly’s lectures and witnessing the contributions of Nobel Peace Laureate Seán McBride to Séamus Heaney. Although living in Front Square during his final year meant many meals at the Buttery, Ó Cinnéide thoroughly enjoyed not only Dublin’s galleries and musical venues but family time too. His sisters Leila and Neasa were in Dublin as well, with the latter’s husband being Trinity Provost John Hegarty. Ó Cinnéide’s high regard for The Great Blasket Island, located off the west coast of the Dingle Peninsula, informed his government job in the Office of Public Works. A place known to many thanks to the work of Peig Sayers and Tomás Ó Criomhthain, the island has even had its own cultural centre since 1993 in Duquin to celebrate and educate visitors on its culture. Ó Cinnéide’s work involved rejuvenating this space, which was a serious investment. Current work entails conserving the island and its accessibility, something the government has named a priority. In 2022, the Centre celebrated Beauty an Oileáin, an album dedicated to the musical heritage of the Blasket Islands, with former

Taoiseach Micheál Martin in attendance at the ceremony. Ó Cinnéide finds power in “the emotional gut feeling response to art, something we can’t always grasp and comprehend”. When paired with the unique tendencies of the mind, this emotional link develops further complexity.

He believes a personal experience with art, whether that be a book or music, becomes “woven into the story – one’s own story”. What is crucial for Ó Cinnéide is the individual’s encounter with art, painted by the unique interplay of thought and experience like brushstrokes.

IMAGE VIA FLICKR

TRINITY NEWS | Tuesday 7 November

Jayna Rohslau proposes equivalents to Trinity alum Bram Stoker’s Dracula encapsulating our current student anxieties

“I

’m in da trees/watchin’ you sleep” the picture of Edward from Twilight declared causing the entire English lecture theatre to burst into laughter. Yet lingering in the back, I was not quite so joyous but full of a heavy sense of foreboding. Alas, how the mighty have fallen! Once a universal symbol of dread, the vampire has been reduced to a mere sparkly ornament, a vegetarian. Bram Stoker would be rolling in his grave. For the Trinity alum, the vampire was not sparkly but instead a terrifying monstrosity: more inclined to steal your girl’s blood than her heart; someone you would much rather stake through the heart than plaster with heart eyes on your wall. That’s not all. In his 1897 novel, the author capitalises on Victorian anxieties about transgressive sexuality, racial “pollution” and disease. Foreign and weird Dracula encapsulated these themes, so when a Victorian guy read about the vampire, the chills down his spine were not solely because of the monster itself but because of its implicit associations. Oh no, he presumably lay awake at night thinking, the gays are coming to get me. Spend any time on campus, and you will discover that the same fears shockingly no longer apply to Trinity students. The same worries that kept the average Victorian man up shivering in the night encapsulate a day in the life of an average Trinity student. We embrace these previously taboo subjects, dressing to defy gender stereotypes, celebrating our international backgrounds and braving freshers’ flu, things that would have sent a Victorian man screaming away with his hands thrown up in the air. For the Victorians, Dracula was a societal menace, but modern teens can say Edward’s a vegetarian in high school; he’s just like me, for real. Our changed perception of the vampire reflects our cultural evolution; as we accept these topics, we have integrated the vampire into our midst, effectively making it more like us. That said, it doesn’t take a book to tell us we are also more anxious than ever. Most, if not all,

Trinity students would agree that we have several pressing issues on our minds, from the cost-ofliving crisis to generally fitting in. Literature offers a way to analyse our problems, not to mention it can be mentally productive to give a face to our enemy. We can find solace in reading: a faceless enemy can’t be defeated, but when faced with fictional antagonists, we can eliminate the threat in a non dissimilar way to the Victorians stabbing Dracula. Still, since the vampire has lost its capital as a horrifying monster, we are left with the challenge of defining the new monsters for our times. Who is this power-hungry predator for the 21st century? That is the question. One possible candidate is that white cloaked, beady-eyed menace, the seagull. While we do not fear the sparkles, the natural plumage of the frightfully trendy but otherwise predictable arts block inhabitant, the seagull is a name that evokes instant dread. Esteemed publication The Piranha advertised the founding of a seagull hunting society, a well-intentioned measure but ultimately ineffective when your enemy’s army continues to amass around you and your helpless sandwich. Whether you study the arts, STEM, or a weird acronym, we have all had near-death experiences or know someone who has. I lost half my sandwich once, so I can personally attest to the evil forces brewing in Merrion Square Park. Like the death of the beautiful Lucy Westerna in Dracula, the

“

Since the vampire has lost its capital as a horrifying monster, we are left with the challenge of defining the new monsters for our times death of my sandwich at the seagull’s hands symbolises our cultural anxieties. Due to rising costs, thousands struggle to find suitable accommodation and even afford drinks on a night out. It is difficult to determine a singular cause for the cost-of-living crisis, with The Economist proposing increasingly cautious banks after the 2008 crash, poor management of energy resources, and the pandemic’s aftermath as some of

ART BY ALICE GOGARTY FOR TRINITY NEWS

The new vampires of Trinity

the factors. It certainly doesn’t help that the government doesn’t want to take decisive action, seemingly content to nest on its laurels and squeeze out professions on how everything is good in Ireland, comparatively speaking, to other countries around the globe. The seagull, making off with your capital, seems like an exemplary site for these fears to roost. We may be unable to confront the complex issues fuelling the crisis directly, but we can have cathartic fantasies about wringing a seagull’s neck. That’s one sandwich they can’t take away from us yet. Perhaps another surrogate vampire is the American. As an American, I can personally attest to the biases associated with this label. Whether talking with my Irish and international friends or scrolling through the poetic contemplations of Trinder, I am continuously confronted with tirades against my species. “America is a scam, “ my friend said last month, sending the realities of further education tuition rates ringing through my skull (thanks – you know who you are). “Pls stfu”, “When r American students gonna learn that it’s rude to be so forward sometimes”, and “Girl from Ohio makes me so mad, can we make a PSA to all the alt Americans that it’s not attractive to be constantly depressed and ‘smarter than you’’’ are just some of the inspired compositions that other students have felt the need to transcribe in recent weeks. We are unnecessarily verbose, pretentious, and generally the worst. Although we don’t drink blood, we seem to be draining enjoyment from the lives of our peers, which essentially amounts to the same thing when you get down to the veins of it. Whether these complaints are justified or not, our peers certainly dread it when we open our mouths. Arguably, the American

epitomises Trinity student fears of socialisation. As young people, we all care an ungodly amount about being perceived as normal and without “notions”. We crave anonymity. It is far more acceptable to not speak about topics like mental health – or simply to not speak in general – then to speak up and have people realise you are different and accordingly worse. Therefore, Americans, who are not only the worst but vocal about our worst attributes, pose a clear threat to the status quo of not participating in tutorials and waiting for your name to fade away in the darkness. Why engage with these annoying foreigners when it is far easier to go write a Trinder about how much you hate this Other from a barbaric and strange land? A third beast, possibly the worst of the bunch, is the BNOC. Otherwise known as the Trinity hack, this being (it stands for Big Name on Campus) is terrifying precisely because of its perceived normalcy. Like the Count, it resembles a human in physical form. You might meet them on a night out and later, waking up in a tired haze, recall a vague impression of a person and think they seem nice enough only to scroll on Instagram and realise in the time you have taken to roll out of bed at 11am for your 9am lecture, they have somehow managed to set three world records, climb a mountain in Wicklow, and write a LinkedIn post worthy of the Icarus. How have they done all this? There’s no need to have an existential crisis when the only possible answer is obvious: they are an eldritch, superior being and possess inner machinery eliminating the need to sleep. Regardless, you may have been tired moments before but no longer: now you have been

horrified into awakeness and the decision to make it to your next class. The BNOC, like the vampire, encapsulates our fear of disease. The disease, perfectionism, is rampant on campus and especially festers in the gut of the BNOC. Still, many of us are afflicted. It is embarrassing to have this disease, to admit to yourself that your dissatisfaction is because you have in fact set unattainable goals. We can justify ourselves by pointing to one of these aspirational monsters and saying, they have done it so I too can haunt the library until closing, hit the club and make it to my 9am. Never mind that the shadow looming over you may be nothing more than a myth, and the accomplished person may have, you know, problems. Bram Stoker would probably be astonished to discover that his creation has been supplanted by a pigeon adjacent. Nevertheless, it’s true. If you are feeling spiteful, you might point out that despite being threats to the peace and quiet on campus, none of these beasts are fictional, in contrast to Dracula who never actually existed. Just as cultural norms have shifted, so have prevailing belief systems. In ye olden days it was at least somewhat conceivable that monsters existed, and in our modern era, we need scientifically verifiable monsters to fully encapsulate our fears made reality. If you have yet to encounter one of these monsters, I both envy you and fear you, because this lack of identification likely means you are the problem, it’s you. On that note, Halloween just passed and so this is my advice for next year. If you want to look hot, be a vampire and wear body glitter or whatever. On the contrary, if you are looking for a costume to truly terrify your peers, be the seagull.

Tuesday 7 November | TRINITY NEWS

Puzzles Across

6. A thought or suggestion from an aide (4) 9. He was the first president of the Irish republic and there is a gallery in TCD named after him (7,4) 10. One such as Achill, Tory or Cape Clear (6) 11. A train such as the Dublin to Belfast one, but not the Dublin to Howth (4,4) 12. The Greek philosopher from Athens who is credited as the founder of Western philosophy (8) 13. Phases or steps on platforms! (6) 14. A 3 prefix (3) 16. Just, fine or blonde (4) 18. Confer holy orders on (6) 19. 1 (3)

Down

20. The rugby stadium on Lansdowne Road (5) 22. Relating to kissing! (7) 25. The symbol of chemical element 13 (2) 26, Vicars or the family name of the earls of Rosse (7) 9. He was the first president of the Irish republic and there is a gallery in TCD named after him (7,4) 27, Dublin’s millennium project in O’Connell Street (5) 29. Punctuation mark in the intestine (5) 31. A foolish or contemptible person who lacks social skills and is boringly studious (4) 32. See this Italian city and die (6) 33. A kind of clay used as a building material or a computer software company (5)

1. A dismat allows in (6)

4. The long-time professor of this TCD department was Wesley Cocker (9)

Danish 19th century author of fairy tales (8)

22. English university on a par with TCD (6)

2. The formal name for the TCD examination hall (6,7)

5. This office is situated in West Chapel (10)

15. A publisher’s emblem, usually on the title page of a book (8)

23. In short, it’s given by adjacent/hypotenuse (3)

3. Northside Dublin suburb where there was a battle in 1014 (7)

7. It’s situated between the chapel and the GMB (6,4) 8. Hans Christian ........,

17. Proceeds or moves forward (8) 21. As well as (4)

28. Yearn for a tree (4) 30. Letters seen on a car from Buncrana or Bundoran (2)

24. The goddess of the dawn in Roman mythology (6)

Crossword solutions from Issue 3