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Trinity News J1 COMPETITION!

Inter national Student News Governer Schwarzenegger terminates college funding in US.......................................p.4

Forum Government education policies and class..........................p.6 TN Debate: is EU expansion detrimental to Ireland?...........p.7

Featur es

S PORT

Equestrian victories Rugby losses

PAGE 9

PAGES 19 & 20

Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern to visit the College Historical Society

Petition for coke referendum by Trinity students...............................p.2 Tim Walker Bank of Ireland scholarship schemes........... ........p.3

Always Free

Stars in our eyes: horoscopes special on sex and superstition

PAGE 3

College News

trinity.news@tcd.ie 20th January 2004 Vol 56; No.5

F EATURES

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D U B L I N

accession states preparing to join the Union in May, have been invited to the event in the Edmund Burke Theatre.

The Provost, Dr John Hegarty, will also be present. The College Historical Society has been addressed by every Taoiseach since the foundation of the Irish state.

As such, the society’s secretary, Carl Cullinane, has described Mr Ahern’s impending visit as the fulfilment of an "historical obligation."

Mr Ahern acknowledged the responsibility in a statement, saying: "I am delighted to be able finally to fulfil a promise

BERTIE AHERN has said he is "delighted" to be addressing Trinity’s Historical Society on Tuesday, January 27th, as part of a series of keynote speeches designed to tee off the Irish presidency of the European Union, which began on January 1st.

The Taoiseach’s halfhour speech is expected to concentrate, at least in part, on hopes for the EU constitution set to be thrashed out in Ireland over the next six months.

Ambassadors from each of the EU member states, and from those

I made to the Hist in 1996 that if ever I was to become Taoiseach I would return and address the society and in doing so do my part to maintain its proud history of being addressed by every sitting Taoiseach and President of Ireland.

I am happy now to have the opportunity to fulfil that promise, although it has taken me longer than I would have wished."

The Students’ Union are planning a protest to coincide with the Taoiseach’s visit, in order to voice their displeasure over his government’s recent cutbacks in education spending.

Cullinane, however, suggested that the Hist would be unconcerned by

the anticipated demonstration. "We don’t mind protests, as long as they don’t directly affect the actual meeting," he explained. SU President Annie Gatling confirmed that the USI have agreed to help organise the demonstration, but that it will focus on issues that directly affect Trinity students.

"We don’t know what form the protest will take yet," Gatling admitted, "but we don’t want to disrupt an event that has been organised by students. We think students should be allowed to ask those questions of the Taoiseach that they feel are important." Mr

Ahern effused: "As Ireland moves into the 21st Century, and a generation faces new and great challenges, the Hist and Societies like it are more valuable than ever as a window on Irish life and a forum for the views of our young people who are, after all, the leaders and decision makers of tomorrow. I am looking forward immensely to taking the opportunity to share my view of Ireland and Europe with them." The lecture is open to allcomers, but Mr Ahern will not be responding to unscripted questions.

On the night following the event, Wednesday,

January 28th, the Hist is hosting a debate on the merits of the proposed EU constitution. The list of guest speakers at the debate consists of David Byrne, the EU commissioner for health, Dick Roche, Minister for Europe, Ruairi Quinn, former leader of the Labour Party, and exTaoiseach John Bruton.

None of the Hist’s remaining Hilary Term guests are likely to incite Students’ Union demonstrations. They include David Shayler, lately of the British intelligence services, and Joshua Jackson, from the now defunct popular teen soap, ‘Dawsons Creek.’

Harcourt Street line: the new Luas.....................................p.8 Andrew Furlong is a modern day heretic............p.9

USI faces bankruptcy

Gaeilge

David Reubin Maistineacht ar an CLG ...........................................p.10 Symington

Science Stem Cells: the ethical conflict..............................p.11

Theatr e David Hare’s Skylight at the Project Arts Centre........p.12

Music Man and the Machine interview.......................................p.13

Film How do you like your popcorn?.........................p.15

Arts Nip/Tuck: plastic surgery fun.....................................................p.16

Sport Adventures in windsurfing......................p.19 Arctic marathon: Mark Pollock................................p.20

INDEX

CollegeNews.....................2,3 Student News.....................4 Forum.......................................7 Features..............................8,9 Gaeilge..................................10 Science.................................11 Theatre.................................12 Music.....................................13 Books.....................................14 Film.........................................15 Arts.........................................16 Fashion..................................17 Comment & Letters.......18 Sport...............................19,20

THE UNION of Students in Ireland (USI) will go bankrupt in March 2004 unless it receives emergency funding from its affiliated members.

Its financial problems started in September 2001 when shares in USIT (Union of Students in Ireland Travel) collapsed due to the effects of September 11th, in which USI had a substantial investment. It has been exclusively revealed to Trinity News that USI’s financial difficulties are so acute, that the hotel at which it will be staying at during next March’s USI Congress, asked USI to pay their bill in advance for fear that USI will have gone insolvent and be unable to pay. Its Irish Language Officer has resigned, but its financial difficulties have prevented the filling of the position.

Will Priestley, current President of USI, said "difficult decisions" would have to be made as

regards its future, and that it will need to look into "restructuring" so as to enable USI "to service its debt". Currently the USI has 14 officers, but he said that it will be up to Ireland’s SU Presidents to decide upon its future at the council in March 2004.

Student Unions across Ireland have been tightlipped, with many adopting a "no-comment" stance. Layne Aston, SU President at Tallagh IT, said she "could not comment on that" referring to USI’s financial situation.

Hugh O’Leary, SU President at DIT, Rathmines, went so far as to deny the bankruptcy claim, simply saying that there has been a "cashflow problem" for a number of years at the USI. He later commented that as regards its financial position, there was "nothing serious that can’t be handled".

Paul Dillon, UCD SU President, claimed he was unaware of USI’s impending bankruptcy, but that he knew that it was in a "difficult financial posi-

Trinity beat Cambridge in the annunal boxing tournament in the Exam Hall Photo: Matt Pitt last week fees. Mr Priestley explains that this was due to "financial difficulties" that UCD was facing last year. It has also been anonymously revealed that under the Presidency of Colm Jordan in 2001/2002, the USI was suspected of a large

USI charge rise poses ‘crisis’ David Reubin Symington

TNT trinity news two arts & culture suppliment out Issue 6, week 6

tion" and that the USI itself were "predicting not to last".

The emergency package proposed by USI is to increase the student contribution, currently standing at EUR 3,81 to EUR 5, to be implemented from October 2004. This will be included in the registration fees, which are expected to double to around EUR 1200.

According to Will Priestley, this move would increase the USI’s current revenue from around EUR 280,000 to between EUR 500,000 and EUR 550,000. Paul Dillon has said he agreed with the increase so long as the extra money did not go into a "black hole", and would return to the students.

However anger with the USI has mounted in the recent past.

Despite claims that its current President Will Priestley is doing a "fantastic job" with its financial matters, it has been revealed and confirmed by Will Priestley that UCD had not paid last year’s USI

Colm Jordan, former USI President

THE USI levy is expected to substantially increase in the next academic year from EUR 3.81, for Trinity students, to EUR 5. This is part of an emergency package proposed by the Union of Students in Ireland.

However, it has been anonymously revealed to Trinity News that for Trinity College alone, this poses a serious "constitutional conundrum".

Currently, a Trinity student pays the government student charge of EUR670, on top of which is added USI’s charge of EUR3,81. The EUR3,81 goes into a separate bank account held by the SU, to pay for Trinity’s costs towards the USI, which include membership and travel costs for instance. The current proposal put forward by the USI, which is to be

voted on at its next congress in March 2004 by its affiliated members, including Trinity College, will include the USI charge within the Student Charge. This means that Trinity College, which is unique in this position due to the constitution that was decided upon in March 2001, will not see the E5 go into a separate account held by the SU, but straight to the USI. Other Colleges and Universities do not have this problem since their Student Unions pay all USI affiliation costs out of their own SU budgets. The only way to solve this "constitutional conundrum", would be for Trinity College to hold a referendum in which all students of Trinity College would vote to change the wording of the constitution.

amount of "financial irregularities". When asked about this, Annie Gatling said that the Trinity SU was "unhappy about the USI’s financial mismanagement." She explained that Colm Jordan "showed the USI’s accounts to the finances committee but

hid the full accounts from the affiliated colleges, who were given only a watered-down version of them." When questioned over the matter, Will Priestley explained that at the time "a number of debts were not paid" and that "the issue was not

highlighted in a manner that would have been beneficial for the affiliated universities as a whole."

In addition it has been revealed that when the USI first proposed the "emergency package" to

continued on page 2

Student voice at risk Wendy Williams COLLEGE ARE attempting to cut student representation on the different financial boards. This comes at a particularly significant time in light of the recent cuts.

Currently there are seven student representatives on the financial boards, with five on the Residence Committee and a further two student representatives on the Trinity Hall Management Committee, consisting of Mike Miley (current SU Welfare Officer) and the president of the JCR. The new proposal suggests replacing these two current committees with a Residential Management Committee, consequently

reducing the number of student representatives. Mr Desmond O’Connell, Director of Accommodation and Catering Services, suggests that, "the reason for having one single Residential Management Committee for both campus and trinity Hall is that the scale of financial investment is now so huge.

Trinity Hall alone is costing over EUR 85M". He then went on to explain that "there will be at least one student (Board member) representative on the Committee".

In response to the proposal, Mr Michael Dowling, President of the Graduate Students Union, illustrated that there would be "at least one. Essentially only one, we’re only guaranteed

one, whereas, right now, we have seven". There seems very little benefit to the students from this new proposal.

Furthermore, this proposal, originally put forward by Mr O’Connell, was not passed through the Residence Committee, a manoeuvre described by Michael Dowling as "very sneaky’.

Some have suggested that it would seem that Mr O’Connell, sent this proposal to the Finance Committee on the 7th January 2004 simply with the aim of suppressing student representation.

However, he himself explained that "as to the abolition of the Residence and Accommodation

continued on page 2

Student News, Sport, Arts, Culture and Entertainment

2

COLLEGE NEWS

Trinity News 20th January 2004

News Editor Ian Carey

Students petition SU for Coke referendum Conall Bolger A STUDENT organised petition calling for a referendum on banning Coca-Cola products in SU outlets will be handed in to the Students’ Union early this week. Rory Hearne, a postgraduate student and member of the Socialist Workers’ party, organised the petition. This follows the banning of a Labour antiCoke campaign by the Senior Dean last term due to pressure exerted by the company. The SU Council also voted down a motion on the Coca-Cola issue when they met on November 11th 2003. 400 students have signed the petition with their names and student numbers, fifty more than the SU Constitution requires for a referendum to be called. This will force the SU to call a referendum on the issue. If passed by the student body, all SU outlets on campus will have to cease the sale of Coca-Cola products.

Mr. Hearne hopes "to impact on Coca-Cola and show that we students disagree with their practices in Colombia. We are showing solidarity with their

trade union of workers, SINALTRAIL, who have called for a worldwide boycott on CocaCola. Hopefully this will also raise awareness about their plight".

However, Annie Gatling- SU President- pointed out that "such a referendum, if passed, can only directly mandate the Student’s Union. The SU would immediately have to stop selling Coca-Cola but no one else would be obliged. This means that you couldn’t buy Coke in the SU Shop, for example, but areas like the Pav, the Buttery and the vending machines would be unaffected."

The Labour "Killer Coke" campaign was aborted last term after a meeting with CSC at which Labour were told they could not proceed. "We were alerted by the Senior Dean to the potentially libellous claims in their literature," said Roger Midleton, CSC Chair. "They were told to stop running the campaign. In these situations it would ultimately be the CSC and College that would get sued and if they were to sue us and win, we’d be financially insolvent". He further added "We

Photo: Graham Mooney don’t want to do anything that could jeopardise the multiplicity of societies on campus". Labour Chair, Patrick Nulty, said "we’d been advocating a boycott of Coke but we had difficulties and were banned by the Senior Dean. We obviously wish the ban to be lifted as soon as possible. We have provided CSC with legal opinion from Professor Ivana Bacik on our right to campaign and hope we will be free to resume soon". Mr. Midleton acknowledges receipt of such opinion via Mr. Nulty but he

Cuts in library hours SUBSTANTIAL CUTS are looming in the library opening times on campus, due to the governmental budget of this year.

The Berkeley/Lecky/ Ussher and Hamilton Libraries already only open from 9.30 a.m. until 5 p.m. on weekdays of term, leading many students, particularly those with heavier workloads, to ask how they can be expected to spend the necessary time in the library and find the books they need for researching course topics.

The John Stearne Medical Library and the Early Printed Books section both have far more extensive opening hours, with the Medical Library remaining open until 9.45 p.m. and the Early Printed Books section remaining open until 10 p.m.

However far less students use these more specialised libraries than would use the Berkeley/Lecky/Ussher, for example, which houses the entire Arts Humanities collection, along with the BESS collections.

Science and Engineering students too are affected by the less than adequate opening hours, with both of these collections being

housed in the Hamilton Library.

Part-time and evening students also have insufficient access to the library as the situation stands, and any kind of decrease in the opening hours would certainly worsen their situation. The S.U. points out that the quality of work produced by virtually all students would also undoubtedly suffer, and Robin Adams, the Head Librarian, is also opposed to cutbacks being imposed.

The reason for the imminent reductions in library opening times is the decrease in funding for universities from the Department of Education, for the second year in a row. Last year’s cutbacks were considerable in themselves, according to Dr. W. J. Smyth, chairman of the 2003 Conference of Heads of Irish Universities, who described them in a report as "severe", and pointed out that in 2002/2003 alone, state support for each individual student fell by 1 , 2 4 0 . He says that "The cracks are now beginning to show and quality is under threat". This comes at a time when the E.U. has stated its

added, "The problem with opinion from Ivana is that it makes it an internal College thing. We would want to make it a Labour thing and have the blame shifted to the Labour Party and their organisation. If they can show that we’re not liable, we will be more than happy for them to start a campaign. We have no interest in obstructing campaigns; we’re just thinking of the best interests of societies."

Mr Hearne said "we were quite disappointed at November’s Council meeting at the lack of

space and lack of debate allocated to this motion by the sabbatical officers. They should have no fear of the democratic process: they shouldn’t try and stop it". Denise O’Connell, a third year BESS student, proposed the motion at the Council meeting condemning CocaCola’s business practices and calling for a referendum on the further sale of their products on campus. She said, "We didn’t think we were going to get anywhere with the SU Council, we needed a three quarters majority." "The fact that the Council chose to reject the motion says one of two things," said Annie Gatling, "either the Council members don’t believe Coke should be banned or they believe the SU shouldn’t have a position on it".

The latter is possible, considering the difficulties faced by the 2001-2002 sabbatical officers by the SU’s stance on abortion.

However, Mr. Hearne is unlikely to be swayed by such considerations: "Them going off and shooting trade union workers in Colombia is an important issue!"

TRINITY HALL’S incoming Assistant Wardens who pplied for the job under the impression they would receive rent-free accommodation, now find themselves having to pay rent on the same property though at a 50% reduction in rent of EUR 330.

The Assistant Wardens have protested to Mr Des O’Connell, Director of Accommodation and Catering Services, and have so far refused to pay the rent. The Assistant Wardens have received full support from the Chaplaincy who, in a statement issued by Fr Dunne, said that they

"support the Assistant Wardens in their efforts to achieve full rent remission or other appropriate means of remuneration."

This is felt as crucial because, as Mike Miley, SU Welfare Officer, has highlighted, they "have done Trojan work this year. Every Hall Resident I have talked to has highly praised the assistant wardens and the incredible work they are undertaking. In essence, the assistant wardens are doing a full time job which is unpaid directly and, thus, a massive reduction in rent is the least they should be offered." The issue is all the more painful for Trinity Hall’s Assistant Wardens since the Assistant Deans, their

recognition of "the need for extensive increased investment in universities", and when Minister Noel Dempsey states that his agenda is "to ensure that the higher education sector can fulfill the transcending roles of developing students to their full potential". The Government also claims it recognises the fact that higher education is fundamental in many ways to Ireland’s "continued international competitiveness".

Students of Trinity and other universities around Ireland feel outraged at the apparent hypocrisy of the Minister and the Government, with many asking how students can possibly achieve their full potential without sufficient access to the already existing facilities of their own campuses, and also wondering what kind of threat this poses to any suggestion of further development of student services.

Recently, UCD library opening hours were substantially reduced, leading to a sit-in protest organised by the UCD Students’ Union.

The S.U. here in Trinity is "one hundred per cent opposed to any reductions in library opening hours", saying that there is absolutely no justification for such a plan.

Education Officer Heledd Fychan says "The current situation in itself is far from ideal, and we would like to see an increase rather than a decrease in the times students can access the library."

She also believes that a cut in the opening hours of the library is not a real necessity, but rather a political move to highlight the effect of the funding cuts, and as such completely unacceptable. The main purpose of university is study, she points out, and believes that the library is an essential service which needs to be protected.

counterparts on campus, benefit from free rent although they do not perform an equivalent amount of work. As Mike Miley has said, although the "Assistant Deans in college have a different role than the Assistant Wardens in Trinity Hall, the fact that one group gets free rent and the other doesn't needs to be looked at. It is wrong that the Assistant Wardens who fulfil a pastoral role must pay rent while the Assistant Deans, whose role is far less pastoral, get free rent."

When questioned over the matter, Mr O’Connell explained that the "background to this matter goes back to the detailed planning for the overall proj-

Cuairt UCD Thug mic léinn ó Choláiste Ollscoile Átha Cliath (UCD), atá ar scéim chónaithe Gaeilge na hollscoile sin, thug siad cuairt ar Choláiste na Tríonóide Déardaoin seo caite nuair a bhuail siad leis an deichniúr gaeilgeoir atá ina gcónaí ar champas anseo. Ba iad muintir Theach 17, árasáin na scéime i mBá Botany, a thug cuireadh dá gcomhghleacaithe ó UCD theacht chuig an choláiste agus bhí béile ag an dá dream ag Commons, mar a bhfuil Tábla na Gaeilge curtha ar bun ó bhí tús na bliana ann.Deis iontach a bhí ann do na cónaitheoirí aithne a chur ar mhic léinn ó thaobh amuigh dá scéim féin agus chuaigh siad uilig go Sult, cluboíche Gaeilge na príomhchathrach, ina dhiaidh.

Eagraíodh an ócáid le nasc níos dlúithe a chothú idir mic léinn ollscoile atá ar scéimeanna cónaithe Gaeilge ar fud na tíre agus tá sé i gceist tuilleadh imeachtaí den chineál a reáchtáil amach anseo.

USI bankruptcy continued from page 1 Trinity, it sent a letter seeking approval from the Provost, Dr John Hegarty, before consulting Trinity’s SU. This move caused some anger and there exist claims that the Student Union will vote against the proposal.

In a statement Annie Gatling said the next "Student council [February 3rd, Ussher Theatre at 6 :30pm] will take a vote on the plan and then it will be put before USI's national congress in March. I have a number of reservations with the plan. The major one being that I do not believe such cooperation with the Department of Education and Science is good for USI.’’ She also said that the ‘‘plan would also see affiliation fees almost double and I believe that students need to think carefully about whether they think the service they receive from USI merits such an increase.’’

Michael Dowling, President of the Graduate Student’s Union (GSU), has said that as regards the USI’s treatment of the post-graduates, the ‘‘USI do nothing’’ for them in Ireland, even though they ‘‘comprise about a third of their constituency.’’ He also said that ‘‘essentially the USI are looking for a dou-

bling of their charge and there might even be less accountability to students. We have to think very carefully about our decision whether or not to support the fee increase. If they want more money they will have to provide better specific services.’’ In justifiying the proposal, Will Priestley has that this policy was the ‘‘most practical’’, but that the USI was ‘‘still open to suggestions’’.

However it has been highlighted that if the USI fails to achieve approval for its proposal, it faces the real possibility of disappearing.

This is deeply worrying for students and academic staff alike, since the USI is the only substantial national body of student representation in Ireland that can represent and fight for the rights of Irish students with the Department of Education. As John Inderhaug, Health Sciences Convenor and a 5th Medical student, said: "The USI had lots of potential. I hope that it will resolve itself out of its financial difficulties. It is an imperfect organization, but it is the only organization that represents Irish students nationwide at a national level. If it does fold, who will represent us?"

Student representation continued from page 1 Committee I understand that they are to be replaced by two users committees and I would not see any reduction in student representatives in these groups. If anything there could well be more student representatives".

Recent College Board meetings held on 26th November 2003 and 17th December 2003 decided on drastic cut backs across all of the main student services provided by college. Those most affected by these decisions included the library, the Information Systems Services (ISS) and the Student Counselling Services. Furthermore, due to financial pressure, the position of Assistant Warden at Trinity Hall is under threat. Following these deci-

sions the GSU and SU protested, wanting to have student representation to examine how we could use the limited funds available and how we could get new sources of funding. This suggestion was approved but with the proposal for the new committee and the subsequent cut in student representation it could be argued that many are striving to make the student voice quieter.

The latest step in the protest against college cutbacks took place in the GMB on Thursday 15th January 2004 in a debate under the motion, "Education in our Universities is at Crisis Point". The title suggesting the seriousness of the current financial situation and illustrating that now more than ever, we need more student representation not less.

Bad deal for Trinity Hall wardens David Reubin Symington

In Brief

ect. Dr. Paddy Nixon, who was the Warden of Trinity Hall at the time brought forward proposals to the Trinity Hall Planning Committee, which outlined his plans for pastoral care. He proposed 6 Assistant Wardens and 3 Junior Assistant Wardens for a development, which at the time was for 1,200 rooms. The revised project will deliver 945 rooms."

He said the costs were estimated at 51K, which was approved. He then said that "the present Warden proposed 16 Assistant Wardens with rent free accommodation at an annual cost of 126K. Unfortunately before this increased cost could be addressed the posts were advertised

offering rent free accommodation. Because of the uncertain financial situation facing Trinity Hall in its first year of trading it was felt at the time that we could not take on this additional burden." He also said that "following complaints from the Assistant Wardens, the Vice Provost reviewed the arrangements, and in light of the wonderful work carried out by the Warden [Ms Carmel O’Sullivan] and her team in very difficult circumstances she has suggested that the rental discount be increased to 75%, retrospective to the beginning of the academic year without prejudice to any future arrangements. This is the equivalent of a tax-

free sum of almost 6,000 for Assistant Wardens, which is significantly higher than the allowances paid to Heads of Departments and Tutors, which are taxed.

In addition, the Vice Provost indicated that it would be her intention to review in 2004 the salaries of Assistant Wardens at Trinity Hall and the Assistant Junior Deans on campus."

Currently, the negotiations between the Assistant Wardens and College are continuing, and the matter has yet to be fully resolved. At the time of going to press, the Assistant Wardens were unavailable for comment.

1904 - 2004: 100 years of Trinity College women To mark the centenary of women’s first admission into Trinity, a number of events will take place around College to celebrate the event.

These include the publication of a book entitled A Danger to the Men?: A History of Women in Trinity College, Dublin 1904-2004, and honorary degrees will be awarded to a number of leading women from across the world at a special ceremony in July. In addition an outdoor drama production is to be staged on the College campus in the spring by the College's Drama Department.

In March the Dublin University Women Graduates Association will be organising a celebratory lunch in Trinity Hall. Across College, clubs, societies, departments and organisations will also be concurrently celebrating the centenary in a number of ways.

Former South African President visits the Phil On Monday 26th of January F.W. De Klerk, the former South African President who presided over the end of Apartheid and was one of the main architects of South Africa's constitutional democracy, retiring from from active politics in 1997. In the GMB he will be giving a lecture and be made Honorary Member of the Philosophical Society. He currently is head of the F W De Klerk Foundation, whose official objective is to work for peace in multi-cultural societies. In 1992, in Paris, France, he received the Prix du Courage Internationale (Prize for Political Courage) and, as co-recipient, the UNESCO Houphouet-Boigny Peace Prize. In 1993 he was awarded the Philadelphia Liberty Medal and on 10th December 1993 he was a co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Trinity Debating Intervarsity From the 22nd to the 24th of January Trinity will play host to the best debaters the British Isles has to offer. The Trinity IV is an annual competition that is run by the Philosophical and Historical Societies. The event includes two competitions; on Thursday the 16th there is the Invitational where 16 of the top teams of the UK and Ireland (including the Phil and Hist) battle it out. From Friday to Sunday there is a general IV which is open to debaters from all universities.

Last years winners from UCD will be keen to defend their title but they may find the competition tough, as this will be the biggest IV that Ireland has ever hosted. There are some 27 international teams coming to the event. Teams from France, Germany and two teams from as far away as America will be attending the competition. There is also an adjudicator coming from India to help out.

College News In Brief compiled by Ian Carey, Tommy Connolly and David ReubinSymington

CAMPUS NEWS

News Editor Ian Carey

Trinity News 20th January 2004

3

Bank of Ireland lend a helping hand to students Christine Bohan

Trinity Law student Sharon Billings with BOI MillenniumTrust fund representative

TN J1 competition with

FOR MANY students, coming to college isn’t just about finding ways to balance your hectic social life with the occasional venture into the library – it’s about trying to survive the ever increasing cost of life in college. The high cost of rent, books, travel and registration fees can mean serious financial obstacles to even coming to college in the first place.

The Bank of Ireland Millennium Scholars Trust offers assistance to students who face such financial difficulties. The Trust offers approximately 60 scholarships each year to college students. Since it was first established in 2000, the Trust has awarded 246 scholarships to a total value of EUR4.4 million to college students facing economic, social and other barriers, who would otherwise have been unable or at the very least, found it exceedingly difficult to progress to college. The value of each individual scholarship varies from a minimum of EUR3,200 to a maximum of EUR38,000 over the duration of the course of study.

As well as offering direct financial

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interview. While this is bad news for many students, even worse is that as a result of fears that people with no college course to go back to in October will succumb to the temptation to stay on illegally in the States after the summer, final year students can no longer go on a J1.

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New PACs open in St. James Anne-Marie Ryan A LONG campaign spear-headed by the Students Union of the Faculty of Health Sciences has finally resulted in two new computer rooms (PAC rooms) being set up at the Trinity Centre for Health Sciences, St. James’s Hospital Dublin. The new facilities, which consist of 57 computers, are a vast improvement on the 10 computers previously provided in the centre, which served the 1200 students who attend classes at St. James’s.

This increase means a drop in the student:computer ratio from 120:1 to 17:1 for all students and 9:1 overall. This compares more favourably to the estimated ratio of 20:1 that currently exists in the main campus of the university.

John Inderhaug, Health Sciences Convenor of TCDSU, has said that the success of the campaign "can be attributed to the efforts made by us to open-

minded members of the Faculty of Health Sciences" The facilities, which can also be used for teaching purposes, are located in Room 1.80 on the ground floor of the centre, on the Occupational Therapy (OT) corridor off the concourse to the right of the Reception Area, and Room 3.28/Biological Sciences (Nursing & Midwifery) located on the top floor of the Trinity Centre. Both of these facilities are accessible to all students from the Health Sciences faculty. As well as the public access computers available in St. James’s, there are a further 45 computers in existence which have restricted access. Second year physiotherapy student Catherine Shanahan has welcomed the new computer rooms, describing them as a "vast improvement on the previous facilities, which were very inadequate". She also noted that the new resources were "long overdue" and praised the fervent

campaign led by John Inderhaug and the Students Union to acquire these essential tools to modern day academic learning in the field of health science. Busy timetables for students of the health science faculty meant that much precious free time was being wasted queuing to access computer facilities. "Thankfully, this is no longer the case", said Shanahan.

In particular, the ground floor room was the result of what Inderhaug has described as a ‘focussed campaign’. These computers were supplied by the Faculty. The top floor room was opened to all students by the Nursing and Midwifery School while the Students Union were requesting the original room.

Dr. Nick Kennedy, Chairperson of the Resources Group, recently informed students of the Health Science faculty that teaching timetables for the computer rooms are soon to be posted.

extra-curricular work that you do in your community. I run a youth club here in Tallaght and I think that definitely helped with my application".

The application process is very thorough, to ensure that it is the students who most deserve the assistance that receive it. The first stage is an application form, which requires personal details on the applicant, including relevant financial and educational information and references. A personal statement must also be filled in by the applicant which should explain exactly why the scholarship is being sought and how the scholarship would be of particular benefit to them. All applicants must also be nominated by a designated nominating body, typically a school, youth/community group, arts and cultural organisations, local development companies and disability groups. Successful applicants are then called to interview before a decision is made on who the Scholars for the year will be.

Applications are now being sought for this year’s scholarships.

Trinity FM on for Rag Week Anne-Marie Ryan

Andrew Payne

assistance, the Trust also runs a mentoring programme for the students, with mentors selected from a panel of Bank of Ireland staff that volunteer to lend their time and expertise to help the scholars to recognise and develop their own strengths and skills during their college days.

First year Law student Sharon Billings is one of several Trinity students who have benefited from the fund since it was set up 5 years ago. As she explains, "It has helped enormously. Probably the main benefit for me has been that it’s meant that I haven’t had to work at a part-time job and so have been able to focus solely on my college work, which is very important to me – I now have the opportunity to use my knowledge to make a solid contribution to society in the pursuit of a career in law". When asked what advice she’d offer to applicants for this years scholarships, she emphasises the importance of the application process: "The main tip that I’d offer to people applying would be to take the time to fill in the application form properly; outline exactly why you want to do your college course, how it’s going to benefit you and if possible, any

TRINITY FM is gearing up for its next session of broadcasts, which will take place during Rag Week. The station has recently purchased all necessary broadcasting equipment required for transmission, including three computers, a mixing desk and a transmitter.

Mat Neuberger, PRO for Dublin University Radio Soc, has informed Trinity News of future plans to broadcast regularly online. The station continues to be affected by the scarcity of

broadcasting licenses and is limited to only 31 broadcast days per year (Fresher’s week, week 8 of Michaelmas term, Rag Week and week 3 of Trinity term). New developments also include the setting up of 600 access points in college accommodation in Trinity Hall, as well as in all modern campus accommodation.

"Regular broadcasts will enable TFM to create more expertise and experience in broadcasting as well as to provide an important service to students of Trinity College", says Neuberger.

Letters were sent out last week by Trinity FM to various student areas

which are able to tune into the radio station, including both student union shops, the Buttery, the sports centre and accommodation at Trinity Hall, detailing the activities of Trinity FM and giving a brief outline of the forthcoming broadcast week. Rumours circulating that Trinity FM was being prevented from broadcasting in the Buttery proved to be unfounded.

Eugene McGovern, Catering Manager, refuted this claim, saying that "if connections are available in the restaurant and the Buttery then I have no problem".

4

STUDENT NEWS

Trinity News 20th January 2004

Student News Editor Leah Finnegan

Blair defends top-up fees in Britain Leah Finnegan PRIME MINISTER Tony Blair has defended his stance on government proposals to introduce ‘top -up fees’ at universities in the UK. Blair, speaking at his monthly televised press conference, said that his plans for the funding of Third Level education were both ‘necessary’ and ‘fair’.

Blair’s outspoken defence of his education policy comes in the wake of mounting opposition to his government’s plans from both members of the opposition and those within his own party. The Prime Minister is facing a revolt of his backbenchers on the contentious issue of ‘top up fees’. 159 Labour backbenchers have signed a petition which outlines their opposition to the government’s plans for Third Level education funding.

Commentators have speculated that the revolt of the backbenchers may be part of a wider plan to undermine the position of the Prime Minister. There are question marks over whether or not Blair can maintain his position if his government fails to win the vote on their proposals for university funding.

Despite these rumours of impending political disaster Blair has expressed his certainty that ‘whatever the difficulties in the coming weeks’ he is certain that the government will win the argument. Blair went on to say that ‘as each day passes it is more obvious how important it is that we do win this argument for the future of this country’.

Blair urged critics of his plans to look at the example of other countries who have resorted to charging ‘top-up fees’ to rejuvenate their education sector. He

said that ‘those countries that are making the biggest improvements in their higher education systems are those with schemes similar to the one we are proposing here’.

The government’s decision to implement ‘top-up fees’ is an attempt to address the crisis in funding of universities across the country. The proposals being put forward would result in a ‘top up’ of the money which universities currently receive from the capped fee which amounts to £1,125. Research undertaken by the government has found that on average the cost of providing courses is approximately four times the amount of the capped fee. The government hopes that the ‘top up fees’ will bridge this gap.

Under the proposed system graduates would be expected to pay back their loans once their wage went

above £15,000. Those not earning above £15,000 would have their debts waived after a period of 25 years.

The universities would have the ultimate choice in deciding how much to charge for tuition.

However the government estimates' that approximately 75% of universities would charge the maximum fee of £3,000. The Prime Minister is pushing his proposals forward on the basis that they would greatly increase the number of students from poorer backgrounds enrolling in third level education.

Despite Blair’s commitment to the proposed introduction of ‘top-up fees’ many within the education sector have been quick to voice their reservations.

Those opposing the government have urged the backbenchers not to give way on the issue. Roger Kline, the Head of the

Protests in Haiti Jon Foster POLITICAL TENSIONS are continuing to mount in Haiti as thousands of students, joined in the protest movement against the government of President Jean – Betrand Aristide.

In the most recent demonstrations in the country’s capital students and opposition groups marched in protest against the destruction of several radio stations in the nations’s capital Port-auPrince.

Protestors claim that the government is complicit in the attacks and have accused Aristide of trying to break the back of the social protest movement by silencing the media.

The protests this week passed more peacefully than others in the past.

Two people were killed on the 8th January when supporters of the President threw rocks and fired guns at demonstrators.

University students were also pelted with rocks by government supporters in December.

The university students who marched in Port-auPrince are the inheritors of a legacy of political activism on the part of Haitian students. Student protests and strikes were pivotal in the ousting of the former President Lescot in 1946 and again in 1956 when President Magloire was forced to step down.

Haiti has one of the youngest populations in the Caribbean with over 40% of the 8 million inhabitants under the age of 18. The wishes and political views of the student population

Universities section of the body representing lecturers has said that ‘critics of the bill should hold their ground and the government should do some more listening- to concerned MPs, students and lecturers who say the creation of a market is not the answer to higher education’s needs. We know that when the lid comes off fees, all hell will break lose’.

Mandy Telford, the President of the NUS urged the government to think about the implications of ‘top-up fees’ for students. She said that Blair’s ‘recognition that the proposals are controversial is scant opposition for the thousands of students who will be unable to follow their dream because of the restrictions top- up fees will place on them’. The vote on the Higher Education Bill is scheduled to take place on the 27th January.

carry a great deal of political weight.

This is not the first occasion whereby President Aristide has felt the weight of student anger. In 2002 students were angered by the government’s decision to remove the head of the University of Haiti, Rector Paquiot.

The students accused Aristide and his government of violating the country’s constitution which guarantees the autonomy of universities.

Under the weight of this pressure Paquiot was reinstated and has become a popular figurehead of the student social protest movement.

President Aristide stands accused of election fraud and abuse of power.

Hailing from the slums the former priest was the first democratically elected leader in Haiti but was toppled in a violent 1991 coup.

The United States invaded in 1994 to aid his return to

“Under Aristide there will be no progress. I am the first student in my family to go to university and I want a better life” Leopold Willeens, Haitian student

Arnie cuts cash to colleges Leah Finnegan THE GOVERNOR of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has unveiled his proposals for the state’s budget for the coming fiscal year. The Governor is facing a budget deficit which amounts to $29 billion over the next two years.

Schwarzenegger’s budget proposals look set to hit the University of California hard and their budget is to be cut by over $372 million.

The Governor has proposed an increase of tuition fees for students at the University of California.

There are also plans to significantly reduce the financial aid package currently on offer. Schwarzenegger is also controversially suggesting a 10% cut in enrolment for the coming academic year. The number of freshmen students enrolling in the University of California will be cut by 3,200.

Response from the University has been cautious in light of the budget deficit facing the state.

Robert C. Dynes, the President of the University of California said that while he understood that the ‘gov

ernor is making difficult choices’, Schwarzenegger should be aware that the proposed cuts ‘coming on top of previous budget cuts, would have a very serious impact on the University of California and its tradition of providing a top quality, accessible, affordable education for Californians’.

The administration of the University of California has expressed concerns that the increase of tuition fees as a result of budget cuts could have a detrimental effect on the institution’s capacity to compete with other top level universities in the United States.

Students have also voiced criticism of Schwarzenegger’s budget.

One student expressed his anger and said that ‘tuition is already expensive enough and I don’t think that students should have to pay for the mistakes made in Sacramento. By sacrificing education, lawmakers are sacrificing the future of the state.’

office and he was re-elected to a second term in 2000.

Since that time the results of the parliamentary elections that year have been the subject of much contention. The oppostition claims that the outcome was unfair because electoral officials favoured Aristide and the campaign was marred by violence.

Opposition parties failed to recognise his leadership and The Organisation of American States (OAS) said that 10 Senate seats won by Aristide should have gone to a second round vote.

Haiti was ostracised as a result, placed in a state of international quarantine.

The European Union withdrew $49 million in aid and members of George W Bush’s Republican Party declared Aristide’s election undemocratic.

The legislature is presently paralysed as the mandate of all 87 members of

the lower Chamber of Deputies and nine of 27 senators in the upper chamber expired with no new legislative elections being held. No vote went ahead because the opposition argued that free elections could not occur under the present conditions.

This means that Aristide will now rule by decree.

International response to the events in Haiti have been swift.

The US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, is said to be ‘very disturbed’ at the turn which events in Port –au –Prince have taken. The EU has advised Haiti’s political leaders to resort to dialogue instead of force to quell the unrest which threatens to engulf one of the poorest countries in the West. The EU has suggested that local churches and social organisations could act as mediators between Aristide’s government and those who oppose him.

6

FORUM

Trinity News 20 January 2004 th

Forum Editor Rory Loughnane

Government policies enforce class strata Patrick Cosgrave

A

ccording to the IDA "a knowledge based economy" is an essential requirement for Ireland’s long term well being.

According to Mary Harney a "knowledge based economy" will lead to "fewer… jobs", but these will be "better jobs".

Accordingly, a third-level education is to be the overwhelming factor which will determine candidates for the "fewer but jobs".

However, access to third-level may be free, but Government policies price the less well-off out of that free opportunity. As a

have the opportunity, you can avail of the Back to Education Scheme.

However, the Government has recently introduced a filter based on economic circumstances; you now have to be out of work for 15 months before you are entitled to avail of the scheme. Essentially, this is an effective mechanism for restricting the potential of those without a third-level education of getting a "better job", based on "knowledge", in the new economy, and consequently creating wealth. Incidentally, participation in adult education in Ireland is already among the

looks after under-privileged children in education. According to an independent report, carried out for the Government, the NEWB needs a minimum staff of 363 to fulfil those legal obligations.

With the filter the Government is providing for less than a third of that number, and as a result the NEWB can only cater to 26% of schools. An indication of the Governments actual "commitment [to] social inclusion".

The Government has been giving EUR200 million a year for the School Building Programme which is EUR100 million short

The homeless situation in Dublin - are economic policies quashing hopes for the downtrodden? result, it would the "better jobs" are to be overwhelmingly reserved for the better off, which contributes to upward redistribution of wealth. Something compounded by the recent Budget.

For instance, if you would like the opportunity to upgrade your education, but did not previously

lowest in the OECD countries, about half the international average.

Then you have the National Education Welfare Board, which is legally bound by the Government’s Education Welfare Act, to carry out certain obligations. Essentially, this

of what is needed, according to the Department of Educations’ own minimum estimates.

Although, the Government has recently pledged EUR387 million for this year, which is an important increase. But what is more important, is that this is not a one off event, as it must

make up for deficits in previous years, and, most importantly, continue to increase in the

revealed that Ireland was actually ranked second lowest in the Western World, just ahead of the

“It is an effective mechanism for restricting the potential of those without a third-level education of getting a "better job", based on "knowledge", in the new economy, and consequently creating wealth.” future, if it is to have any hope of reaching the Departments own recommended minimum investment target of EUR1500 million over five years.

The School Building Programme is a "preferencebased list in order of those most in need". However an indication as just how much schools are in need, is the fact that schools like St Killians National School in Tallaght missed out on funding again, despite severe long-standing structural problems that resulted in a portion of the roof collapsing, and the presence of asbestos.

Other filters, based on economic circumstances, include the fact that it was "the 10th year in a row there [has] been no increase in Child Dependent Allowance", the Child Poverty Coalition reported.

Coupled with this filter, you have the discontinuation of emergency crèche payments, and severe restrictions on rent supplement.

From now on, anyone applying for rent supplement has to initially rent from their own resources for six months.

Presumably, the Government is ignoring the fact that the reason most people apply for a rent supplement, in the first place, is because they can’t afford their rent, in the first place, which isn’t exactly a rare occurrence.

For example, in 2001, a Dublin City Council report showed that 66.8 per cent of Council Tenants were in arrears, (just over 16,000 people). Incidentally, in 2003 homelessness is set to break 6,000. A new record, according, to the Government’s own figures.

In the 1930’s, in the midst of the Great Depression and the Economic War with Britain (1932-38), an average of 12,000 local authority houses were built every year. In 2003, 4,403 new units were completed, while 52,726 families were on waiting lists.

Meanwhile, the Government has decided to extend tax breaks for people building second homes, exactly EUR31,750 per scheme, but, hasn’t decided to extend anything substantial for those most in need of a home.

An indication of how "committed", and "serious", the Government is about "tackling the homeless issue" and the "housing shortage".

Incidentally, Ireland spends the least on social protection in the EU. In 2000, the EU average for the percentage of GDP spent on social protection stood at 27.3 per cent. No country spends less than 20 per cent. Except Ireland that is, which spends just 14.1 per cent, less than half of what Germany (29.5 per cent) and France (29.7 per cent) spend.

The proportion spent declined steadily through the boom years.

In 1991 it stood at 19.6 per cent, in 1998 15.5 per cent, and by 2000 just 14.1 per cent. Social welfare spending, as a percentage of GNP, declined from 12.3 per cent, in 1992, to 8.2 per cent, in 2001.

In July 2003, the annual United Nations Development Programme’s flagship Human Development Report 2003 was launched in Dublin. Taoiseach Ahern, and even Bono, turned up for the pompous affair.

Ireland had enjoyed a decade of unprecedented growth and prosperity.

However, the term "Ireland" was soon shown to be slightly narrow, as the report’s Human Development Index

United States, for poverty and inequality.

According to Charlie McCreevy Government policies have lead to "progress… [for] all our people". His use, however, of the term "all our people" is remarkably narrow. He consistently points out that "this Government has substantially reduced consistent poverty", but consistently fails to point out that the Government’s own Economic and Social Research Institute has also estimated that "relative poverty" has almost doubled since 1994. Moreover, he fails to point out that the Government has overseen countless social spending cutbacks.

Not to mention the EUR58 million cut in social welfare in the Budget. A Budget Mary Harney describes as "radical and reform-

vious five years. However, persons in the top 20 per cent of earners saw their incomes rise by over 61 per cent.

Moreover, given that social spending and social welfare is utilised more by the less well-off than anyone else, cutbacks in both are essentially highly regressive taxes levied on the less well-off.

Hidden taxes which, in many cases, mask real increases in their average incomes.

If you think the Government is consistently incompetent, think again. They have been consistently competent in serving one particular sector of society; about a third of society. If you happen to be in that third the Government’s being quite consciously looking after you. If you’re not, don’t worry, you might be "lucky", who knows.

"Today many tend to take these achievements for granted", noted Minister McCreevy, in his Budget speech. So, if you can’t afford to live in a house because the Government is too busy giving tax breaks to people who already have a house, remember this is an "achievement". Or, if access to third level has not significantly broadened since the introduction of free

Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy ing", which is "a pro-enterprise budget" through which we are "introducing new measures to support business", and little else.

Although this should not take away from the absolute gains of the past ten years, but instead only suggest how their relative distribution has disproportionately favoured the better off.

Furthermore, it shows how that disproportionate distribution is the result of conscious policy design.

This is the Government’s socalled commitment to "equal opportunity". If this is to apply to education, it is, the "opportunity" for the less well-off to get knocked over the head with filters, and eventually have the "opportunity" to get jobs that don’t fall into that "better" category, but are jobs nonetheless.

Although, as McCreevy puts it, they might get lucky. In economics this consciously designed discriminatory system is blurred by recourse to the term; "the knock-on effect". In reality, however, given that third-level graduates can be expected to earn more, and that third-level fees are paid for by taxpayers, rich and poor alike, directly and indirectly, this discriminatory system contributes further to upward redistribution of wealth.

In 2001, for instance, the Central Statistics Office documented, in the Household Budget Survey, that persons in the lowest 20 per cent of earners saw their disposable incomes rise by 37 per cent over the pre-

fees, remember this is an "achievement" of very deliberate Government policies, and little else. And, remember as far as this Government is concerned there is "a lot more to do".

So every time the Minister for Education, Noel Dempsey, concludes that free fees have not broadened access to third-level, give him a big pat on the back for being aware of the consequences of his own policies. But don’t forget to give him a wrap across the knuckles for failing to genuinely reduce the many filters to third-level, which inhibit a genuine broadening of access to third-level. And then another wrap for quiescently overseeing the introduction of still more filters, as outlined above – the big hypocrite. And, then finally give him a clip across the ear for trying to deflect attention away from these glaring problems by suggesting the more pressing problems are teachers skipping school, teachers coming to school and "teaching in the same traditional manner… as [they did in] the hedge schools", and Universities spending too much – the cheeky rapscallion.

Consequently, while the Government’s move of cutting funding to higher education may seem like the most economically moronic move of the century, it has no doubt, if we are to learn anything from what it has done in the past, been done with some intelligent intent. The question is; what exactly is the Governments intent?

FORUM

Forum Editor Rory Loughnane

Trinity News 20 January 2004 th

7

TN Debate: EU expansion will be detrimental to Ireland’s economic and political strategies The Opposition

The Proposition Luke Ryder

T

he imminent expansion of the European Union to a 25-nation entity will have several major effects on Irish policy, in a number of key areas.

The areas of principal importance are in the economic sphere, and primarily include Ireland’s industrial policy and the Common Agricultural Policy.

Ireland’s success in recent years has been due in large part to the work of the Industrial Development Authority. Companies were convinced to locate in Ireland by the low tax regime, cheap supply of labour and access to EU markets. But the expansion of the EU threatens our position. The minimum wage in Ireland has largely erased the benefit of cheap labour, and in any event, the new countries will be able to offer far cheaper labour to prospective companies. As well as this, the major sticking point for these economies, which has hindered them until now, was their lack of EU membership. Once they join, that disappears and they immediately become more desirable to companies planning to expand into Europe. Ireland’s success at attractng businesses is bound to suffer as a result.

In addition, the Common Agricultural Policy, which has subsidised Irish farming since we joined, will soon have to be renegotiated. The policies which have been in place until now will bankrupt the EU if they continue; the accession of so many largely agricultural countries means that levels of subsidy, quota systems and the like have to be reconsidered. The resulting change in CAP will almost certainly decrease the support Ireland has been getting up to now.

As well as these economic considerations, Ireland has a social consideration. A sudden influx of eco-

nomic migrants from these nations could have a huge effect on such things as unemployment levels, housing needs and the labour market. While it is a part of our duty as an EU nation to accept these people, the sudden change in the numbers of such

Carl Cullinane

I

t is Ireland’s honour to see the accession of 10 new countries into the European Union under our Presidency later this year. This expansion, the single biggest in the history of the EU, has been the source of major controversy over recent years. The structural reforms necessary to accommodate the increase in members from 15 to 25 caused havoc in the Nice Treaty negotiations and the governments were lucky to get agreement at all. And then came Ireland’s two referenda; while it was clear issues such as neutrality which formed the major obstacles to passing the treaty, Ireland’s proposed decreased representation in the European Parliament and the loss of a permanent Commissioner didn’t impress many. There was much talk of a two-tier Europe with qualified majority voting allowing the big countries to push their European Commission President, Romano Prodi and an agendas at the expense of Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern smaller states.

However, this turned out to be largely based on people which accession will produce means that scaremongering. At the end of the day, when the our traditional social policies are rendered irrelenumber of countries is doubling then the existing vant. Housing plans and employment iniatives member states are bound to have to accept a cut in designed for the current situation are unlikely to representation. And while the likes of France and be suitable for a large influx of immigrants.

Germany’s cut was slightly proportionately lower For these reasons, the expansion of the European than ours, we have to realise that smaller states Union does present a threat to Ireland’s economic are already massively over-represented. It is a and social policy.

brute fact of expansion that we must accept reduced numerical influence in the EU. But so it is with everyone, and our position as economic starlet and exemplar of the benefits of EU membership still gives us respect and a voice in Europe, beyond pure numbers.

So, I move on to the economic argument. Those damned Polish farmers are going to seriously damage our economy. Well, not exactly, but pretty soon we are going to end up as net donors to the EU. However, a position where our support for the EU is contingent on how much money is thrown at us is hardly a morally sustainable one. We are probably the country that has gained most from EU membership. Having a GDP much lower than the EU average has entitled us to huge amounts of development money over the last thirty years and the Celtic Tiger has much to owe the European Union. However, this money has to come from somewhere; the big states Germany, France, Britain. Now that we have caught up with (and in many ways outperforming) the rest of Europe, it will soon be our time to give something back, inevitably to the impoverished accession states in the East, many of whom are in similar states of development as we were before we joined. It is our responsibility, after gaining so much, to help others like we were helped. Obviously not to the extent that we bankrupt ourselves, but that isn’t going to happen, our donations will be based on the size of our economy and population. Free-riding on the beneficence of others and refusing to do similarly unto others is hardly what the Irish want to be remembered for. Throwing the toys out of the pram as the EU takes a major step forward, complaining of damage to our ‘economic and political strategies’ exhibits an extremely undesirable national myopia and selfishness.

Pre-war indiscretions I

f only Tony Blair and George Bush had listened to MI6, the CIA and the FBI. If they had, they would have learned, long before they had sent other people to Iraq, that as far as the intelligence agencies were concerned; there were never any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, there was no imminent threat, there was no evidence for a threat in the future, that Iraq had not attempted to buy 500 tons of uranium from Niger, that Iraq was not on the "brink" of developing nuclear weapons, that Blair’s "Iraq Dossier" was not "evidence" and was not written by MI6, that there was no plausible evidence for links between Saddam and Al Qaeda, and that the defector to whom both Bush and Blair constantly referred to, Hussein Kamel, who had been in charge of Saddam’s advanced weapons programs, also maintained that Iraq’s weapons had been destroyed immediately after the first Gulf War, and so on and so forth.

Take the idea that Iraq had been attempting to buy 500 tons of uranium from Niger.

In George Bush’s spring 2003 State of the Union speech he referred to documents which proved that Iraq had tried to buy 500 tons of uranium from Niger. This was to become one of centrepieces for the case for war. However, in 2001, the CIA had pointed out that these documents were in fact fakes.

The International Atomic Energy Agency also looked over the documents, and concluded likewise.

Then there was the Bush and Blair claims that Iraq was on the brink of developing nuclear weapons. On September 7, 2002, Bush cited a report, by the International Atomic Energy Agency, that he said proved Iraq was on the brink of developing nuclear weapons.

The only problem the

International Atomic Energy Agency had with Bush citing this report was the fact that it didn’t exist, at least to their knowledge.

Their chief spokesman, Mark Gwozdecky, noted "there’s never been a report like that issued from this agency".

Although, he admitted the agency had issued a report on the exact subject in 1998.

The report concluded, "Based on all credible information to date, the IAEA has found no indication of Iraq having achieved its program goal of producing nuclear weapons or of Iraq having retained a physical capability for the production of weapon-useable nuclear material or having clandestinely obtained such material".

Their conclusion: the likelihood that Sadaam possessed nuclear weapons was "low" for the "foreseeable future" On the so-called "imminent threat", Senator Bob Graham, who chaired the Senate Intelligence Committee, asked the CIA to assess the likelihood that Saddam Hussein would use weapons of mass destruction. Their conclusion: the likelihood that he possessed nuclear weapons was "low" for the "foreseeable future".

Then take Blair’s Iraq Dossier, titled "Iraq – Its Infrastructure of Concealment, Deception, and Intimidation". It was used as evidence by U.S. Secretary of State, Colin Powell, in his February 5 address to the U.N. Security Council. He described the Dossier as a "fine paper… which describes in exquisite detail Iraqi deception activities". However, the bulk of 19-page dossier (pages 6 through 16) had been simply copied and pasted from a paper, published in the

Middle East Review, titled "Iraq’s Security and Intelligence Network: A Guide and Analysis". It had been written by Dr. Ibrahim al-Marashi, a post-graduate student. His script had been copied right down to his own typological errors. The remainder of the Dossier was taken from Jane’s Intelligence Review. This comprised of three articles, one by Ken Gause, and two by Sean Boyne, an analyst who actually opposed the war. However, there was a slight problem with Blair’s new evidence; alMarashi’s research, the backbone of the Dossier, had been based on documents from 1991 and earlier. Furthermore, this "fine paper" was, it turned out, not assembled by MI6, but instead by a group of junior aides to Alastair Campbell, Blair’s former chief press secretary.

However there was an even bigger problem with the Dossier. Certain passages were rewritten or added by the junior aides to strengthen the allegation that Iraq had been actively supporting international terrorism. Essentially, material to strengthen the idea that Iraq had links to Al Qaeda.

However, the only problem being, that as far as MI6 were concerned, al-Marashi’s research may have been based on evidence, outdated as it was, but suggestions of links to Al Qaeda were not. Just in case their point wasn’t getting through they leaked an official British intelligence report on this point, and others, to the BBC on the day of Powell’s UN speech.

However, as far as the Bush Administration were concerned there were definite links. They pointed specifically to the meeting of 9/11 hijacker Mohammad Atta and Iraqi intelligence in Prague between April 8 and 11, 2001. In July 2002, Donald Rumsfeld stated that Iraq had "a

Is it Tony Blair and George Bush who represent the real "intelligence failure"? relationship" with Al Qaeda. Richard Perle explained, in September 2002, that "Mohammad Atta met Saddam Hussein in Baghdad prior to September 11th", adding that "we have proof of that". The FBI investigated the story. "We ran down literally hundreds of thousands of leads and checked every record we could get our hands on", explained FBI director Robert Mueller.

Their conclusion – the meeting never took place, for the simple reason that Atta was in Virginia Beach, Virginia, at the time of the supposed meeting. Vaclav Havel, Czech President, conducted his own investigation.

He concluded likewise.

And so the list goes on. In fact the above list is just a snippet from a brilliantly researched book on the subject by Sheldon

Rampton and John Stauber, titled Weapons of Mass Deception. It is a lucidly written book, jammed with eye-opening and footnoted evidence. It makes great reading on the public relations drive surrounding the war on Iraq, and the actual reasons for war.

So in short, for Tony Blair and George Bush to now claim, in the wake of the information provided by MI6, the CIA and FBI, that there was an "intelligence failure", can only really mean one thing; it is Tony Blair and George Bush who represent the real "intelligence failure". Perhaps, this is not the whole truth, but perhaps, a conclusion which is, in someway, more plausible, given the evidence, than blaming the intelligence agencies of the United States and Britain for all the lies Bush and Blair told us.

Opposites attract: Irish extremism Rory Loughnane

W

hat is it about this old world which makes everything have an opposite?

Those canny Limerick boys were absolutely right when they proclaimed in court, "For every action there is a reaction." This defiant statement reminded me of some long-forgotten scientific equation drummed into me back in first year of school. Similarly, the perfection of the rogue’s shout must have come from his own memory. In this, we have an interesting paradox. Those who oppose the social order, threaten through a language bestowed on them by the social order.

We have a British Christmas number one single with the cheery chorus line of "the dreams in which I’m dying, are the best I’ve ever had." In the Irish mass media, there are huge celebrations for the first-born child of the year. What’s the betting that post-Auld Lang Syne, the first

song which the baby heard, mumbled sadly that it was a "mad world"?

Half the buses in Dublin seem to be adorned with Diageo’s "drink sensibly" message. While I sat on one of those selfsame buses, coming into the city-centre, the drunks and homeless had already had a good night ruined before it even started. For all the jocks and pinkladies ready to blow a hundred euro on one another at Christmas time, few would spare one euro for the street-sleeper already hammered on booze just to fight off the cold.

Remember the celebrity homeless couple who wanted a "big day out" for their wedding? That was nice. We read about the public’s charity and felt all warm and "oirish" inside. It was real nice the way we were so inclusive. Regrettably, there are around six thousand homeless in Ireland. If only we could pair them all off and have three thousand "big days out."

So, now we hear the grumbles that the foreign nationals are taking all our jobs.

Let’s face it- during the Celtic Tiger we wouldn’t have taken the majority of these jobs. The Slate ran an article on "Blacks in the Jacks" last year, which was greeted with such public contempt, that it seemed that Irish moral righteousness had never been higher. As usual, am incisive satirical piece was wasted on the watchdogs. That one article brought the issue to the public eye, more than any politically correct article in the dailys. The Irish seem to take the high moral stance or the low one.

Students are willing to hold mass demonstrations over fee increases. They are also willing to fill huge nite-clubs charging exorbitant prices in the name of a "bit of craic".

They’ll find the pub which serves the cheapest pint of Guinness, walk half a mile to get there from their regular spot, spend thirty-three euro on ten pints and "save" fifty cent in the process. While in the pub, they’ll bemoan for the first few pints the rise in fees and the treatment of the foreign national in their watering-hole, while for the last few pints they’ll curse the etiquette which insists upon them tipping each time they must use the men’s room.

Ireland is rife with hypocrisies borne out of oppositions in thought and logic which

are too extreme to be practical. A nation of begrudgers, we consistently find a stance which opposes reality. Maybe it’s an inherent laziness. Our economy is built on foreign investment, whether from the EU or America. We’re used to taking, but we’re also notoriously bad with the money we receive. We’d bet on two flies going up a wall. We’d actively seek out pubs with lockins just so we can say we spent "so much money" on a night out. We have expensive pubs, shops and restaurants where we can spend money we don’t really have on stuff we don’t really want. Historically, we don’t want too much in this world. We survived on potatoes for years, before nature fecked us over for riding our luck a bit far.

So, we don’t want to work for the money, and essentially we don’t really want to have the money because we pretty much throw it away anyhow, but we do need the money so that we can feel smug about ourselves and reflect on how Ireland has got such a cushy existence.

The two referenda on the Nice Treaty was explained by our fear about a European army. It had nothing to do with the fact that our tenure as token "spoilt child" of the EU was over. How many times has it been

shoved in our faces by the Irish media that Bob Geldof is a native of this green land. Of course he is. Sure, he’s just one of the lads.

All Irish men are that charitable. Or to be mean, all of us Irish would take the opportunity to resurrect a flagging music career, by being in the media spot-light. Didn’t Sinead O’Connor become a priest?

There seems to be no middle ground in Irish thought processes. Let’s bring it back to grass-roots. In Trinity’s libraries no food or drink is allowed. Now, obviously I’m not taking the view that people should be allowed have little dinner parties and picnics inside the Ussher, but is a bottle of water going to break the system. However, those libro-guards aren’t to be messed with I fear.

So, let’s reflect on the Limerick boy’s words of angst and startling clarity in this mad world. The notion of action versus reaction is constructed from a polarised concept of relationships. In Ireland, although at times we deviate from this to get that feel-good factor, in reality we yin and yang our way through life aimlessly allowing dreams and scaremongering to add to the excitement.

8

FEATURES

Trinity News 20th January 2004

Neasa Cunniffe

T

he Luas will probably never bring morning commuters from Bray to the city centre in twenty minutes flat. It probably won’t have a station that is licensed to serve alcohol at any time day or night.

Samuel Beckett probably wouldn’t see fit to base a play set in any Luas station. In fact, the Luas has very large shoes to fill, as it attempts to regain the glorydays of it’s predecessor.

These were the days when Mount Anville was a farm,

“Samuel Beckett as a student and lecturer in Trinity, rode the Harcourt Street Line to the city centre and used the passangers ngers and staff as inspiration for his writing” Stillorgan was a remote rural village and Foxrock was, well, unsurprisingly still a haven for the affluent. The days when you could hop off at Woodbrook for a game of golf, or save up all year for your beach holiday in Shankill. These were the days of the Harcourt Street Line, the 1950’s rail line which is being resurrected to form the Luas route,Line B. The Luas line will follow the old tracks of the Harcourt Street line through the stations of Bray, Shankill, Carrickmines,

Dundrum Station Foxrock, Stillorgan, Dundrum, Milltown, Rathmines to arrive in Harcourt Street. The new line will visit all the old stations with the exception of Foxrock.

As Dublin moves forward into the future of public transport, it seems fitting to cast an eye back on the past. Brian Mac Aongusa has written a book "The Harcourt Street Line: Back on Track" detailing the grandeur and ruins of this retired train line and stations, recently on

Features Editor Neasa Cunniffe

Will the Luas live up to Harcourt History? the best-sellers lists and the subject of a Nationwide segment on RTE 1.

When Samuel Beckett was a student and later a lecturer at Trinity, he rode the Harcourt Street Line to and from the city centre. He was so interested in the railway, it’s passengers and staff, that he used them as inspiration for his writing. All That Fall was a radio-play set in Foxrock station where he "subtly" changed the station-masters name from Mr Farrell to "Mr Barrell". Other characters from his daily travelling were featured in one of his novels Watt.

Students in general were among the most regular travellers on the Harcourt Street line, no doubt to be repeated with the Luas. UCD was at that time a city centre college, based in Earlsford Terrace, now home of the National Concert Hall.

The final station on Harcourt Street was directly opposite "The High School" and nearby was a Christian Brothers’ School in Synge Street. Within walking distance were Loreto College Stephen’s Green, Wesley College and Alexandra College in Earlsford Terrace.

Parents however were reassured of their children’s safety, as the "Guardian of Morality" was aboard the line. The wild uproar of teenagers drinking Dutch Gold on the Dart will no

Photo by Brian Mac Aongusa doubt be continued on the late night Luas but in the honourable 1950’s the Ticket Checker would lock away drunk, disruptive passengers in the Guard’s van. It wasn’t all spoil-sport though.

The Harcourt station boasted a unique temptation for those fond of a tipple. Licensed premises in those times were obliged to close during the "holy hour" between 2pm and 3pm every day. However, the licensing laws

in the days of the Harcourt Street Line allowed for the sale of alcoholic drink to a bona fide traveller even during these hours. This convenient exception to the rule in Harcourt Street Station became renowned and attracted abun-

“An attempted murder in 1949 took place on the line as a frustrated and rejected suitor shot a young girl in the first class compartment and threw her out the doors onto the track” dant customers for the holy hour, who would buy a ticket for at least a twelve mile journey with no intention of travelling, just to claim their right to drink. Brendan Behan was seemingly fond of this facility himself, mentioning it in his column in The Irish Press.

Undoubtedly the Luas can’t but be beaten by the Harcourt Street Line for sheer customer attentiveness (on second thoughts maybe it can). On one occasion, Brian Mac Aongusa records that a lady passenger travelling to Dundrum, had left her had box behind on a platform seat in Wexford. Realising this when she arrived in Dundrum she was very distressed and relayed the tragedy to the Station Master. In an act of chivalry, he assured her that he would telephone a message to the Wexford Station to send that vital hat box urgently to Dundrum on the earliest available train. Somewhere along that line however, wires were crossed. The indignant lady did not receive her pretty hat box, but a massive horse box, meticulously labelled "Urgent – Dundrum".

There were also more serious scandals to shake the pleasant journey of the trains. An attempted murder in 1949 took place on the line as a frustrated and rejected suitor shot a young girl in the first class compartment and threw her out the doors onto the track. Luckily the girl was found and she survived to see her former consort be prosecuted. There were also some spectacular accidents. On Valentine’s Day in 1900, a cattle train crashed straight through the Harcourt Street Station Wall. Before the unfortunate driver could be extricated from the wreckage, his right arm had to be amputated below the shoulder.

Many of the older stops are

Valentine’s Day in 1900, a cattle train crashed through the Harcourt Street Station Wall Photo by Sean Kennedy unrecognisable in their current condition. The Stillorgan station in the 1950’s is the Sandyford stop for Luas. Unlike the rainy queues for the 46A in Stillorgan today, the station in the 1950’s wasn’t hugely busy. It was a mile from Stillorgan village and being a rural area didn’t offer many regular commuters other

Photo by Brian Mac Aongusa

patron complained; "Would CIE please say why they are trying to drive people from travelling regularly on their line. If they want to close down this particular line of suburban trains why have they not the moral courage to say so instead of inflicting every sort of discomfort on the unfortunate weekly and season ticket holders." This seemed a subtle recognition of CIE’s intentions to close down the rail line permanently.

The decision to close down the Harcourt Street Line was based mainly on the losses CIE were suffering. It was met with some public dissatisfaction and little

“It seemed ideal to align Line B with the previous Harcourt Street Line, a moral victory for those who had lamented it’s closure in 1958”

The Leopardstown Races than those going and coming from the Leopardstown Park Hospital for disabled soldiers and sailors from the World Wars. Foxrock on the other hand was treated with importance.

The Foxrock station was located beside the village and the Leopardstown Race Course, not too mention all the prosperous houses of "the stockbroker belt".

A special third platform was built in the Foxrock station for trains to the race meetings with special turnstiles that brought commuters directly into the Race Course.

The Race Course, particularly during the Christmas races would always attract a huge crowd, many of whom travelled

“Brendan Behan was fond of claiming the ‘bona fide’ right to drink in the Harcourt Station when all other licensed premises were obliged to shut for the holy hour”

The Luas carries out trial runs in Sandyford

through the extensive housing development by Ballyogan.

The Harcourt Street Line also brought Dublin dwellers on holiday. Bray was not only a seaside resort but was also conveniently over five miles outside the city boundary (which allowed punters to claim entry to a pub on a Sunday – that

on the Harcourt Street Line.

The trains were so busy transporting these affluent racegoers that CIE stuck sheets of the white bus ticket paper over the "3" on third class carriage doors to create extra "first class" travelling accommodation.

Considering it’s prominence in the 1950’s, it is interesting that Foxrock is the only former Harcourt Street Line station that will not be served by the Luas in the foreseeable future.

Line B will veer further west

Photo by Brian Mac Aongusa bona fide guise again). Other pleasant escapes of the 1950’s included the "Dance Excursion" to the Arcadia Ballroom.

Shankill and Carrickmines were popular destinations for swimming and walking. In the 1930s, day excursion trains to Avoca in Wicklow, had a "danc-

Foxrock Station ing car" where passengers could drink and dance on the way down. There was also a special railway stop built to facilitate golfers at Woodbrook Golf Club However all was not perfect on the merry Harcourt Street Line.

CIE’s slogan "Travel by Train for Speed and Comfort" was evidently not living up to reality.

The roof of coaches leaked rain onto travellers and commuters complained about the ancient wooden carriages having "square wheels". In a letter to the Evening Mail in 1954, one

publicised recognition in any of the newspapers. New bus routes were introduced but these took twice the time the train had taken to get into the city centre.

No time was lost in formally closing all the stations and removing the tracks, eradicating the possibility of reversing the decision. It wasn’t until 1994 with The Dublin Transportation Initiative Report that the prospect of reviving the Harcourt Street Line was revisited. A light rail transport scheme was devised

Photo by Brian Mac Aongusa and continually redesigned until finally work began on Line B: St.Stephen’s Green to Sandyford Industrial Estate. It seemed ideal to align Line B with the previous Harcourt Street Line, a moral victory for those who had lamented it’s closure in 1958. The Luas Line B is expected to reach the city from it’s former Stillorgan station at Sandyford in 22 minutes, lagging slightly behind the grandfather Harcourt Street Line, but nonetheless gaining speed.

FEATURES

Features Editor Neasa Cunniffe

Trinity News 20th January 2004

9

Stars in our eyes: sex, text and superstition

I

may not be leaving the house very this Fergusson much year.

And when I do I might well be wearing a chastity belt. Oh, and don’t be surprised if you see my boyfriend looking more than usually nervous. We had a slightly disturbing horoscope for 2004, and although we are both healthily cynical about these things, the fact that we are both Scorpio served to make the warning that we "look after our sexual organs", and the knowing assertion that "of course you won’t" a little unsettling. The article, part of a year-long prediction by the usually slightly more grounded Scotland on Sunday magazine, concluded that as Scorpios will all fail to observe the requisite vigilance where their sexual health is concerned, we will probably all be out of action for the forthcoming year.

When that cheerful proposition is applied to both halves of a couple 2004 begins to look like a depressingly passion-free zone, a reading which seems doubly unfair given that the combination of two Scorpios should, were astrology not so fickle, result in

Laura

little short of a brothel. Just as well I don’t believe in any of it, really…

There seems to have been an explosion in astrology, numerology, tarot reading, in short the supernatural in general and the areas into which it strays over

“There seems to have been an explosion in astrology, numerology, tarot reading, in short the supernatural” the two years during which I have lived in Ireland. Part of it is to do with the vastly increased methods through which information can be communicated and advertised. It is now possible to telephone a psychic 24 hours a day, as we are informed every time RTE 1 takes a commercial break. The internet enables the anxious, or the merely curious, to check the position of their stars at any time of the day or night, or to have their horoscope regularly emailed to them lest they should forget and accidentally go about their lives without having consulted the astrological desirability of their actions. There is now even the option of receiving daily text messages keeping you up to date on how your future is looking. For 60 cent a message, you too can be reassured that you are on the right track.

Sometimes the daily advice seems startlingly relevant, even to a sceptic like me, such as that received today by a friend of mine who has just made the decision to leave Ireland and return home to the States: "You should experience a sense of relief, as some of the more complicated situations in your life get closer to resolution", while

others seem to make little or no sense: "Two connect beautifully.

Many minds think as one. It’s a spiritual thrill ride." This particular brand of wisdom came courtesy of O2 as part of a month’s free trial, but it seems to be continuing past the agreed date and bringing charges with it, perhaps explaining why my friend is leaving the country in such a hurry.

Irish Psychics Live, the organisation who have so successfully ingratiated themselves into the RTE scheduling that no demographic, from watchers of Postman Pat to fans of Fair City seems to be exempt from the assumption that daily contact

“Daily text messages for 60 cents a message can keep you up to date on how your future is looking and be reassured that you are on the right track” with the paranormal can only be to their benefit, inhabit a website with the disingenuous name of weathertel.ie. Here they advertise themselves still further, with the reassuring information that they are "operated by genuine Celtic psychics, the most psychic race in the world".

While you may not regularly "commune with the spirit world" as the website also suggests you might enjoy, or follow your stars with quite the devotion implied by the availability of the daily text messages, interest in the realms of psychic ability and astrology is a well established feature of Irish life, as well as of most other nations with a strong religious tradition. Although it might seem counter-intuitive that a society with a strong reli-

gious faith should seek out seemingly pagan practices and beliefs, Catholicism appears to create in many of its most devout adherents the particular brand of superstition and interest in the occult which leads to a widespread taste for the psychic.

Although Catholicism officially denounces these practices, they

“Irish Psychics Live are ‘operated by genuine Celtic psychics, the most psychic race in the world’" seem to appeal to sensibilities already fine-tuned to see beyond the material world.

Of course, much of the Irish taste for superstition predates Christianity and is a result of ancient Pagan tradition.

Concepts such as the Banshee, Changelings and touching wood all date back to this past and

were incorporated into the national psyche even after Christianity became predominant. However, whether this loyalty to the beliefs of the past, forgotten elsewhere, was a result of the Celtic standing as "the most psychic race in the world" I don’t feel qualified to say. Ireland does seem to have an unusually generous endowment of these beliefs and traditions, and to have maintained their vibrancy through folk stories and poetry.

But the recent worldwide increase in the prevalence of astrology and psychic readings is not merely accounted for by the improved communications which make it more evident.

The general secularisation of Western Society over the past few decades has left a gap in people’s natural desire to feel themselves in touch with something greater than the everyday world. The ability to explore the paranormal without having to buy into the tenets of a for-

malised religion appeals to many, and perhaps the attraction of feeling that at least some of the mistakes we make can be blamed on something as distant and uncontrollable as the stars is not so difficult to comprehend.

Horoscopes are now an essential feature of publications from…well. Scotland on Sunday (my dad’s lingering patriotism dictating our newspaper choices in London) to Cosmopolitan, although the latter chooses to label them Cosmoscopes and would never dare to suggest that anyone, least of all a Scorpio, would be getting less than the requisite once a night.

Hmmm… maybe I’ll be taking my astrological business elsewhere in future…

Corrections In Issue 4, the charitable organisation was mistakenly named 1-1 instead of I-I.

Meet Andrew Furlong, modern day heretic Conor Maguire

Conor Maguire interviews the former Dean of Clonmacanoise on his controversial beliefs and disagreement with the Church of England

A

ndrew Furlong occupies a unique place in the recent history of the Church of Ireland. A former Dean of Clonmacnoise and Rector of Trim and Athboy, he resigned from the priesthood in May 2002 having been at the centre of the first heresy trial in the church for a hundred years.

He appeared before the trial for denying the divinity of Jesus Christ, a belief, he maintains, that is privately held by many clergymen today. His book, Tried for Heresy: A 21st Century Journey of Faith was recently published and in September 2003 he completed a postgraduate degree in International Peace Studies at Trinity College Dublin.

Indeed, Mr. Furlong has a strong connection with Trinity, where his father lectured in philosophy. He graduated with a B. A. Hons. in Philosophy here in 1969, before continuing his studies at Cambridge University, where he obtained a B. A. Hons. in Theology. An active student, he represented both Trinity and Cambridge in hockey, and was a member of the Leinster and Ireland U-23 hockey teams. As an undergraduate he was also Honorary Secretary of the Trinity Ball and Trinity Week. I recently interviewed him about his experiences.

Q: Tried for Heresy is an intensely personal book, where you open yourself up completely to the reader, was there a therapeutic aspect to writing it?

A: I did intend the book to be partly autobiographical, and so I wanted to disclose what it was like to be in the situation I found myself in, and so I was prepared to talk about fears and other aspects. But secondly, it ties in with my own understanding of theology, theology is at least in part drawn out of our

own experience, and so that’s partly why there is the autobiographical aspect to the book, because its related to my own sense of what theology is, a search for meaning in one’s life.

There was also in a sense, some therapeutic aspect in writing it, to some extent I relived the emotions and the intensity of the time.

book, and I’m not in touch with a great many of them, but I can say that quite a number of my former parishioners came to the book launch and I was very pleased to see them and they were pleased to see me. So a personal relationship has been retained, even though our views may differ.

Q: With the publication of the book was there for you a sense that the matter was finally over and you could move on with your life?

Q: You felt that your Bishop, Richard Clarke handled the situation badly, in that quite surreally, a heresy trial was being held in the 21st century. Do you think that any modernization of the church should involve the elimination of church hierarchy to keep the church close to issues?

A: Yes and no; It was such a big thing to have happened after thirty years of professional life I don’t think you can sure shrug it off in a matter of months, so I still live with this ambivalent feeling of am I a priest, or am I not a priest? So I’m looking for a new identity.

Q: Has the publication of the book helped to clarify your views to those in the Anglican Church that you felt misunderstood you?

A: I think some people are clearer as to what I really think, but going by some of the reviews of my book that have come out, I feel that some people perhaps haven’t got the right end of the stick, or have looked at secondary issues and not at what the heart of the issue is about.

Q: Has your book done anything to reconcile your relationship with your former colleagues in the church?

A: First of all, I don’t know how many of my former colleagues have read the

work again, at least in a parochial setting, so I think I came to accept that, but my hope is that someday the church will be someday more accepting of diversity and pluralism, I think that perhaps the only possible outcome did happen, and I must make the best of that whatever way my future will develop.

Q: In the book you said that during your leave of absence prior to the trial, you felt "like a bird that had flown away from its cage." Do you feel more liberated than ever now? And given the circumstances, do you think you resignation was the best outcome in retrospect?

A: Yes, in one sense I do feel a certain release to be out of the situation, I can be more my own person and speak my mind more transparently.

I felt it was unlikely that I would get

A: I think that the church of today and tomorrow needs to be a church where there is less emphasis on authoritarianism and orthodoxy, and a greater emphasis on religion being a human creation, human beings’ own response to the tradition that they belong to and their search of meaning in the world. So to my mind, we need to pay much more attention to individual people’s faith development and spiritual journeys and what they have to say. I think the church would be a better church the more each member is empowered to take responsibility for the building of a common but pluralistic vision. But the more hierarchical it is, the less it will reflect people’s real desire to share in helping the tradition develop.

Q: You state that the bible represents a world that we’ve now left behind, and that we can recognise both its achievements and its failures. What do you see as its main failures?

A: The Bible is a very human document that reflects the societies out of which it came. It comes out of an era where there was slavery and a very unequal balance of power between men and women and it doesn’t criticise these things. There is also the whole issue of homosexuality, where it doesn’t address the modern situation. I also think the whole idea of a god who punishes people for eternity has been very harmful.

Q: Do you ever see the church changing or modernizing in the ways you believe it should?

A: Well, I think that it may. If one takes a historical perspective, when Darwin talked about evolution, it caused a huge amount of trauma in the church because people still looked at the creation stories in the Book of Genesis as literal, but today most people, if they subscribe to Christianity are quite happy to take on board the ‘Big Bang’ Theory and look on the Genesis stories as mythological stories that have their own truth, but which are not scientific truths. So as more and more advances in theological research filter down to the ordinary person, there is a chance the church will survive and will grow in its understanding.

Q: What’s next for you, now that you have completed a post-graduate degree in International Peace Studies?

A: I’m not sure what the next chapter of my life is going to be, but it needs to be a working chapter, but I hope it will be an area in which I can continue to be an independent thinker, as Trinity helped to make me!

10

GAEILGE

Trinity News 20 January 2004 th

Eagarthóir na Gaeilge Tommy Connolly

Focal ar an taobh le R.G. Cuan: PraghasPrácás

Maistíneacht ar an CLG

F

Tugann Tony Quigg tuairim ón tuaisceart ar an bhrú atá á chur ar an CLG Páirc an Chrócaigh a oscailt do spóirt eile

áilte ar ais a léitheoirí lácha agus bliain úr fá mhaise daoibh go léir. I ndiaidh laetha saoire na Nollag is dóiche go mbeidh sos ón bhia de dhíth ag an chuid is ciallmhaire againn fiú agus go mbeidh an t-ól á sheachaint fosta, bhuel go ceann uair nó dhó eile ar a laghad ar scór ar bith.

Is cosúil, áfach, nach ar chúiseanna sláinte amháin a mbeidh ar mhic léinn an sos beag seo a ghlacadh. Agus é ag céiliúradh thart an tír i gcaitheamh na Nollag, chuaigh sé i bhfeidhm go mór ar R.G. a airde is atá praghsanna ghnáthearraí anseo sa stát, i gcompáraid leis an tuaisceart mar shampla, agus dar leis gur beag duine nach bhfuil pócaí measartha follamh aige an tráth seo den bhliain.

Bhí R.G. in amhras, mar a bheadh scoláire maith ar bith, fán bholscaireacht a rinneadh fá na hard-chostais a tháinig isteach leis an euro ach, ar ndóigh, ní raibh an chlabaireacht ar fad gan bhunús.

Le theacht an Tíogair Cheiltigh srl., tá Éire anois ar cheann de na tíortha is costasaí ar domhain agus tá pobal na tíre ag íoc go daor as dá bharr. Tá aird nach beag á tabhairt ar an cheist seo i láthair na huaire agus tá suíomh úr ar an idirlíon ag Fine Gael, www.ripoff.ie, a dhéanann cur síos ar cé chomh olc is atá cúrsaí (chan sa pháirtí ach i siopaí agus bialanna na tíre!). Tugann sé le fios, mar shampla, go bhfuil 4.70 ar uisce agus líoma i gcuid de thithe tabhairne Bhaile Átha Cliath!

Cibé ar bith, ó tharla praghsanna chomh daor sin sna 26 contae, tá na mílte siopadóir anois ag dul trasna na teorann le leas a bhaint as na costais níos ísle atá le fáil i siopaí an tuaiscirt.

Agus é ag spaisteoireacht fríd an Iúr thar an Nollaig, baile nach bhfuil ach thart ar chúig mhíle ón teorainn, shíl R.G. go raibh ionradh fá lán seoil mar ba as an phoblacht leath de na carranna a bhí gafa sa trácht. Tháinig cuid acu ó áiteanna chomh fada ar shúil le Loch Garman, Cill Dara agus fiú Gaillimh.

Is olc an cás é seo go gcaithfidh daoine a leithéid de thuras a dhéanamh le bia agus éadaí a cheannach. Is cinnte nach bhfuil siopaí an tuaiscirt ag gearán (ar lá áirithe in ollmhargadh Sainsburys ar an Iúr, glacadh isteach an méid céanna euro ná sterling) ach cá fhad eile a mbeidh ar an phobal na praghsanna arda a fhulaingt? Cá fhad eile a leanfaidh sé seo ar aghaidh?

C

é a shamhlódh in 1884 – nuair a bhí Mícheál Ciosog agus na náisiúntóirí eile a bhí ag cruinniú i nGaillimh ag cur tús le pleananna cumann a chruthú a mbeadh cluiche gaelacha a chur chun cinn sa 20ú aois mar aidhm aige – cé a shamhlódh go mbeadh an cumann céanna sa chruachás ina bhfuil sé na laetha seo.

Tá an IRFU agus an FAI ag iarraidh na deirce ó Chumann Luthchleas Gael. Bunaíodh an CLG, chan amháin le spórt na nGael a chothú agus a chaomhnú, ach ar mhaithe leis an chultúr agus an teanga fosta. Ach anois tá an tír ar fad den bhárúil nach mór don CLG tiontú i dtreo an ilchultúrthais, Riail 42 den bhunreacht a threigint agus Páirc an Chrocaigh (an staid is nua-aimseartha in Éirinn, incurtha le haon staid eile ón Spáin go dtí an tSeapainn, a thóg cumann amaitéarach!) a chur ar fáil don FAI agus don IRFU. Ní aontaím leo. Ní hionann an t-ilchultúrthas is a rá go gcaifear do chuid áiseanna a thabhairt d’eagraíochtaí eile – eagraíochtaí proifisiúnta nach raibh ábalta staid den sórt céanna a thógáil de thairbhe a ndrochbhainistíochta féin.

Mothaíodh brú seo an phobail roinnt blianta ó shin nuair a bhí ar an CLG Riail 21 a fhágáil sna leabhair staire agus ligeadh do phoilíní agus do shaighdiúirí briotanacha bheith ina mbaill den chumann, rud nach raibh ceart ná cóir ag an am sin agus na hathruithe bainte leis an fórsa póilíní ag cur isteach ar phoilitíocht an tuaiscirt.

Tá cearta daonna i gceist cinnte

Páirc an Chrócaigh

Ní hionann an tilchultúrthas is a rá go gcaithfear do chuid áiseanna a thabhairt d’eagraíochtaí eile

What are we made of?

agus luaítear an focal ‘seicteachas’ uaireanta ach cad faoi na cearta daonna atá ag gnáthdhaoine an tuaisceart: cónaí a bheith orthu go suaimhneach agus níos lú trealaimh mhíleata thart fúthu, níos lú héileacaptar, níos lú barraicí timpeall na tíre, rudaí a bhí geallta ag Tony Blair nuair a síníodh Comhaontú Aoine an Chéasta.

Tá stádas bainte amach ag an CLG dó féin anois i sochaí na hÉireann agus tá áit mhór aige i saol shaoránaigh na tíre seo.

Is rud é an CLG a dtiocfadh le Gaeil ar fud an domhain bheith mórtasach as. Agus ní iomaí rud

dá leithéid atá againn.

Tá an CLG ag fulaingt na maistíneachta seo ó dhaoine cumhachtacha nach bhfuil de chuspóir acu ach a gcuid pócaí féin a lánadh.

Ní stadfar an mhaistíneacht seo go dtí go bhfuil crois dhearg Naomh Seoirse ag eitilt sa spéir os cionn Pháirc an Chrocaigh, rud a tharlóidh má thugtar cead do spóirt eile an staid a úsáid agus rud a chuirfeadh díoma searbh i mo chroí. A Chumann Luthchleas Gael, ná géill dóibh.

The best way to find out is to attend the JPMorgan ‘Spring Week’.

For first-year students like you, it’s the ideal opportunity to see investment banking in action well before everybody else.

It will also give you an early taste of the 360˚ career. This is our all-round career opportunity for bright, ambitious graduates who want it all - intellectual challenge, professional achievement, excellent salary, everything.

You’ll experience a day with each of our five business areas, giving you a real insight into how the whole bank operates.

(We know there are a lot of preconceptions about this industry, so we want to separate the facts from the fiction.)

Wherever and whatever you’re studying, this could be the chance

The 360˚ career.

to show what you’re made of. Please take a look at 360career.com and apply online by February 6, 2004.

360career.com

JPMorgan is a marketing name of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and its subsidiaries worldwide. ©2004 J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. All rights reserved. JPMorgan is an equal opportunities employer.

SCIENCE

Science Editor Kirsten Bratke

Trinity News 20th January 2004

CV

An ethical conflict Tomás Ryan on the current situation regarding stem cell research in Ireland and why logic has failed in this debate Of late there has been a storm of conflicting opinions in Ireland, and in the European Parliament on the controversial subject of stem cell research.

Amendments have been proposed that could seriously inhibit the level of this research throughout Europe. The debate centres on the use and management of EU funding for embryonic stem cell research, and what restrictive measures should be put in place to control the utility of embryonic stem cells.

Several countries, including Ireland, were in favour of increased restriction of stem cell research guidelines in Europe. The disagree-

stem cells are derived.

Adult vs. embryo Stem cells are often classified into two groups: embryonic and adult.

Embryonic stem (ES) cells have the potential to develop into any of the cell types found in an adult human. ES cells carry this unique characteristic because they are undifferentiated cells that exist in an embryo after fertilisation has taken place. ES cells are responsible for multiplying and differentiating into every cell that eventually would make up a fully developed human being. In a laboratory setting, ES cells could be cultured to develop into

Human embryo, six weeks old ments in the EU could not be resolved. The deadlock situation that resulted restricts the use and could possibly ban the creation of embryos for medical research and therapeutic tissue transplantation.

The enormous medical and clinical potentials of stem cell research represent a revolution in the treatment of numerous debilitating and fatal diseases. Stem cell technology could be developed to treat and cure Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, leukaemia, and the list goes on. Stem cells could even be used to regenerate damaged tissue from spinal chord injury, heart disease, and skin burns.

However, recurring ethical issues of public concern are raised on the development of stem cells and the management of stem cell technology, with respect to the treatment of embryos from which

whatever specific cell type desired, such as skin cells, nerve cells, and heart muscle cells. The resulting specialised cells would then be transplanted into patients to treat relevant diseases and conditions. Adult stem cells remain in people throughout life and are able to develop into various types of cells in the living organism, but are already partially specialised and exist at progressively decreasing numbers in adults.

Now it is no secret that the most often read, and readable scientific journalism is that which plays on the hype and excitement of what discoveries and innovations are emerging upon the horizon. Ethical issues are brought to bear and magnified, sometimes out of proportion, in the light of publicity.

The primary ethical issues of stem cell research lie in the source of the cells. Adult stem cell research in general

More money for young researchers The Embark Initiative has announced new funding of up to EUR 3.2 million for talented researchers under its Postdoctoral Fellowship Scheme 2004. This scheme will offer funding over two years to researchers at an early stage of their career who plan to complete postdoctoral level research in the sciences, engineering or technology. Up to 40 awards will be offered in 2004 to the successful candidates.

The scheme is targeted at developing the country's international reputation as an important location for world-class research, so that Ireland retains and attracts the highest level R&D capabilities for the future. Estimates indicate that there will be a requirement for 7,000 more researchers with advanced degrees (Masters and PhDs) in the Science, Engineering and Technology disciplines than the State can produce. Operated by the Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering & Technology, the Embark Initiative this scheme will contribute to diminishing that shortfall.

According to Thomas Mitchell, Chairman of The Irish Research Council, there is a "wealth of research talent in Ireland and a strong desire by many researchers to enhance their career in research."

Applications from candidates with PhDs wishing to further their research work, under this unique Postdoctoral Fellowship Scheme, should be submitted by 27 February 2004. The highest rated applications will receive funding for two years of 33,000 Euro (+PRSI) available in the first and second year, plus expenses of 5,000 Euro each year. All submissions will be subject to equal assessment, strictly on merit, by an international assessment committee. The decision to grant funding will be based on research career to date, project description, proposed research environment and references from recognised research leaders.

does not entail the ethical controversy that ES cell does. Many argue that stem cell research should be limited to adult cells to avoid all moral dilemmas.

Yet this alternative presents more limited therapeutic possibilities due to the fact that they fail to replicate themselves as quickly or as diversely as ES cells, and it is the potential diversity of these cells that makes them such a powerful tool in research. Studies on both ES cells and adult stem cells need to go forward if the prospective breakthroughs are to be maximised, because each stem cell source carries with it its own advantages and disadvantages.

Additionally, it is likely that some therapies will require the direct employment of ES cells.

The controversy that looms over ES research is with regard to the status of the embryo and the treatment of it. It is an obvious concern that these cells must be extracted from living human embryos, leading ultimately to the destruction of the embryo. The most common way of obtaining ES cells is from embryos created for, and then left over from In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF).

Another viable method is to create embryos in a laboratory for the sole purpose of stem cell research. Both methods of acquirement are prohibited in Ireland, preventing any ES cell research in this country.

Those against such research would argue that an embryo is an innocent human being, or at least, a potential human being that should not be treated as an instrument or as a means to an end. Those on the opposite side of the debate might argue that embryos are simply clusters of identical cells, which deserve no moral status or interest.

Whichever side one takes, the fact is that the embryo cannot possibly be harmed by research if no implantation into the uterus is planned to occur. In the UK, where stem cell research is carefully licensed, embryos may only be experimented on for medical and scientific research purposes,

and not after 14 days from fertilisation. At this stage the embryo possesses no brain or nervous system or any kind of organ development. It is undisputedly not a conscious being of any manner. Furthermore there is no actual way for these embryos to develop into adults as they have never existed in or been implanted into a woman’s uterus.

No respect for embryos?

IVF is a technique used for infertility treatment.

Sperm is placed in a petri dish with a female oocyte in order to produce embryos, which can be artificially inserted into the uterus. IVF is a "shotgun" technique, meaning that numerous such embryos are created; a number of these are selected and inserted in the hope that at least one will implant into the womb. But many embryos are left over as surplus, and are simply frozen or discarded. IVF is presently both legal and accepted in Ireland, Europe, and the USA. It is estimated that over 100,000 unwanted embryos are currently decaying in IVF clinics in the USA, ultimately to be discarded.

These embryos do not have the means to develop into a person, and will degrade over time anyway. Is there really a lack of respect for such an embryo to be used to benefit healthcare?

It is simply incompatible that IVF is permitted in this country and stem cell research is not. IVF creates masses of embryos with the certain knowledge that they will be destroyed; its justification is fertility treatment.

Since the benefits of IVF have materialised, it has become ethically acceptable to the public at large.

There are no organised movements to stop IVF practice comparable to that of stem cell research.

If the creation and destruction of embryos is truly immoral, then it should have been halted during the development of IVF technology.

Furthermore, IVF is used to treat only 3% of infertile women, and even then, only those who have the luxury to afford the

expensive procedure. How many people suffer every day from heart disease, stroke, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s, etc? If stem cell research were to suddenly provide cures for all of these diseases, would it then not also become accepted?

The ethical problem deepens when we consider embryos created for the sole purpose of research.

ES cell acquisition of this nature is permitted in the UK, provided that there is a shortage of cells to be donated by IVF. Many argue that the creation of these embryos in a laboratory is unjustifiable and immoral given that they are intended for

system. But public opinion is ignored, or placated here by the fact that the research will not go in Ireland. The state will arise where stem cell research and therapy is developed and applied elsewhere in the EU, and beyond. What Irish citizen wouldn’t pay for the trip in order to remedy Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, etc? Of course one would have to be able to afford it first, meaning medical tourism for the rich. Such is the state of affairs.

It is ironic and unfortunate that in an age of scientific revolution and prosperity, the forces of public concern are irrationally swayed. Cross

Individual winner: Ronan Larkin, “Generalised continued fractions” Individual runner up: Patrick Collison, “Emulating human response” Group winner: Róisín McCloskey, Brendan Hill, “Self Organised Criticality” Group runner up: Raymond Galligan, Christina Hanniffy, Angela Mulligan, "Teenage Smokers can be Stopped".

The RDS last week was once again bustling with what seemed like a million school kids who had come to see and take part in the Young Scientist of the Year exhibition.

Almost 600 projects were entered into the competition, grouped into four areas: chemical, physical & mathematical sciences, technology, biological & ecological sciences and social & behavioural sciences. There was a prize to be won in each category and several others, awarded by sponsors like TG4, DIT and Met Eireann.

The projects were incredi-

bly diverse and of very different standards. Some really made you wonder: How many students, in secondary school know or care about the "effect of bead size on the rate of reaction of immobilised enzymes"? I still don’t.

But there were also really practical ideas: one group suggested a new spelling system for the English language, another a special teething ring for babies. Shampoo and conditioner was a favourite topic with a lot of groups.

I believe they all had beautiful hair.

The organisers had put together a Young Scientist

career vitals Haven’t got a clue what to do after college? These people might give you ideas..

Philip Cranley, 33 Field Biologist (Pest Control)

- B.Sc in Industrial Biology at Institute of Technology Carlow, Ireland (1994) -plenty of Foundation courses in Computers, Typing, Various Pest Control Subjects, Health and Safety.

Previous Jobs: Quality Assurance Technician, Quality Systems Coordinator ,Quality Assurance Manager, Service Technician in Pest Control

Patient with skin burn, one of the least severe diseases that could be cured with stem cell research. research only and do not directly benefit anyone.

Such a stance makes little sense when logically considered, the embryo is still being used as a means to an end it does not share; the final outcome is the same. In addition, preventing the creation of embryos for stem cell research seems absurd because there would be no embryos left over from IVF had embryos not been created for research into the development of IVF in the first place.

Unqualified opinions The Tánaiste went on record saying, "I do not want to see a free-for-all in this area like it exists in other parts of the world". IVF is not regulated in this country as strictly as in the UK, yet the proposals Ireland was supporting called for unsoundly strict parameters of tighter regulation of ES cell research without any regard as to how it manages its own IVF

talk with abortion debates cloud the arguments, and the logical legal systems for applying appropriate restrictions on stem cell research are vetoed through personal value judgments made by those in positions of power and influence.

Rather than having a referendum, the government officials responsible have dutifully taken this matter upon themselves, making their own judgements on Ireland’s stance on the subject.

Reassuring statements have been issued; Mr Noel O’ Flynn TD has stated "I have grave reservations about the use of it. I think there are moral issues here. I’d be guided by the church on it". Such is the state in which we live, where sensitive decisions affecting the quality and equity of people’s health are ruled by the irrational and imposing opinions of unqualified politicians and clergy.

Young Scientist of the Year 2004 Some of the winners

11

Hall of Fame, which featured pictures and short biographies of all previous winners since 1965.

Nearly all of them had gone on to become prestigious scientists or are on the way to get there. I met Adnan Osmani from Westmeath, the 2003 winner, who is now studying Computer Engineering in Sheffield. He remembers last year well, when he convinced the judges with his project "The graphical technological and userfriendly advancement of the internet browser: XWEBS". "It had a huge impact on my life" he said, and recalled how he was whipped off to the Late Late Show right away and has since given hundreds of interviews. He seems to have enjoyed it and is proud to say that his was

the only ever project to get a yes from all 65 judges. Osmani had no teacher with him for support and had worked on his project for two years before the competition.

His favourite to win the 3,000 Euro award was Vincent Grace, who had already received a lot of attention from press and scientists for his design of a robot that can detect landmines.

A few companies had stands set up in the back of the hall. They must have been out to prematurely recruit their future talents before those have even thought of finishing school. Ronan Larkin probably won’t ever have to worry about finding a job.

Kirsten Bratke

Bad Science Joke of the Month An electron and a neutron walk into a bar and order their drinks. The electron pays for his.

When the neutron takes out his wallet too, the barman winks and says: "For you – no charge!"

Current job: As a Field Biologist my duties are as follows: Identifying Pest species, providing training and assistance to service technicians, carrying out audits/inspections of clients’ premises as requested, compiling reports for cclients.

A field biologist is basically technical back-up to a Pest Control Exterminator. Many large clients (mainly in the food and pharmaceutical industries) require their pest control company to have a qualified biologist available to carry out inspections of their property or materials and identify potential pest hazards.

Loving it: My degree gave me the skills to work within the Food/Pharmaceutical industries in Quality Assurance/Laboratory. I started at the bottom as a service technician, servicing every pub/shop/hospital/restaurant/factory in the south Dublin/Wicklow area. I loved it. Why? On the road working, meeting people and discussing pest control daily, solving pest related problems, seeing and carrying out a diverse range of activities ie. Proofing, screening, fumigating, fogging, spraying, learning about pest species Cannon Pest Management also offered me a chance to develop the pest control business in the west of Ireland.

Getting there: Start Studying "Stored Product Insects" now, there are so many species that you will probably never get to know them all.

If you can pick up and examine a spider and don’t mind getting your hands dirty from time to time, then I would recommend anyone with an interest in zoology/entomology to give Pest Control a go.

Short Cuts Mars Mission fails The Mars lander Beagle 2 has been missing since Christmas Day when it arrived on the Red Planet. The orbiter Mars Express, sent by the European Space Agency (ESA) that had carried it has joined the search for any radio signals that the Beagle might send out – so far without success.

Beagle 2 was supposed to sample Martian soil for byproducts of life and was dropped by its mother ship on the 19th of December to make the final 3 million kilometres on its own. Whether the Beagle has survived its parachute jump onto the Martian surface or not, the Mars Express can still carry out its own task. It will orbit the planet and continue to map its surface, examine its mineralogy, search for underground water and study its atmosphere.

The leader of the Beagle 2 team, Colin Pillinger, has admitted that the failure was a disappointment. "But it’s not the end of the world", he says.

NASA, meanwhile, has been more successful in their quest to explore Mars; the exploration rover Spirit has been taking pictures of the Red Planet since the beginning of January. They can be seen at http://marsrovers.nasa.gov/home/.

12

THEATRE

Trinity News 20 January 2004 th

Theatre Editor Patrick Stewart

Illuminating the stage in Skylight at the Project Arts Centre Renata McDonnell meets Trinity graduate and actor Michael FitzGerald for a coffee chat in between rehearsals for the Irish Premiere of Skylight, leading British playwright David Hare’s smash hit, that opens in the Project on the 21st January.

The first time I saw Michael FitzGerald on-stage was in Players for a production of This Lime Tree Bower four years ago.

It was such a good production it went to the New Theatre for two weeks afterwards under the direction of Oisin Leech of The Fluid Druids fame. What had caught my attention at the time was the unexpected professionalism of the endeavour, fairly unusual in a student produc-

tion. It is not surprising to me that FitzGerald has been working steadily since then, acting in several high profile plays after graduating with B.A. Hons from the Drama and Theatre Studies course here two years ago.

These include the Abbey’s The Plough and the Stars and Garry Hynes’ acclaimed Sharon’s Grave last year in which he played Jack Conlee and says "it’s the best thing I have done so far".

It was, however, the venture into youth theatre that started his career when three months after joining he landed a part in Ben Barnes’ Arcadia at the Gate Theatre in 1999. But, instead of treading the boards straight off, he began Trinity’s

Cathy Belton and Owen Roe in Skylight

Drama and Theatre Studies degree so as, "not to put the eggs in one basket". It was in the Samuel Beckett Centre that FitzGerald also began his fertile working relationship under director Michael Caven, firstly in his 2nd year play Camino Real and subsequently in Richard III (2001). Skylight is their latest collaboration that also stars the well-known actors Cathy Belton and Owen Roe. "Skylight is a British Play.

David Hare’s work is rarely done in Ireland so this is a real opportunity to see his work in a quality production. He’s very of the moment and he has been called a political playwright, like in Skylight there’s this awful line that Owen has to deliver about Chelsea football team, ‘Yeah, they play my game; kick it up the middle and hope for the best’. He has certain archetypes, such as the businessman, the restaurateur, and the puritanical teacher who is trying to further the lives of inner city kids. Then you have me playing the student who is in his gap year and is just hanging about. My character, Edward, was a Public School boy and is masquerading as someone from the streets.

Without giving too much away, he has the same drive as his father, but they’re at a crucial stage in their relationship."

Skylight is the flagship play of Landmark Productions established by Anne Clarke, who was Deputy Director of the Gate for several years and is heavily involved with the Abbeyonehundred centenary

Cathy Belton as Kyra and Michael FitzGerald as Edward in Skylight. Writer David Hare inset. celebrations.

FitzGerald explains that, "Skylight shows London as it was ten years ago and I feel this is where Dublin is now". It would be ironic indeed if a nineties British play can say more about contemporary Dublin than recent attempts from Declan Hughes, shiver (2003), or from the ill-received Hinterland (2002) by Sebastian Barry.

David Hare (b.1947), a Cambridge graduate with an M.A. in English (1967), has a huge body of work behind him in theatre and film. He might be best known for writing the

screenplay for The Hours (2003) and at best count his plays number twenty-three. Hare wrote Skylight (1995) and also Amy's View (1997), which he refers to as his “Jim and Tim” plays, bourgeois dramas of the “two characters in a room” variety, in which the individuals seem to be caught in a moment in history that is slowly eviscerating their lives. His very latest play, The Perminant Way (2003) opened in the York Theatre Royal last November and is currently running in the National, London.

Although FitzGerald says he

Samuel Beckett Centre graduates take the town Recent Trinity Graduates are to be found all over the boards in Dublin this January. Rory Keenan, one

young actor with a lot of expectation on his shoulders, is starring as Hamlet in a Second Age production at the

SFX. He will be acting alongside Barry McGovern and another recent TCD graduate, Aonghus Óg McAnally.

With so little Irish Shakespeare around it will be interesting to see how Second Age match up to Calixto Beito’s ‘radical’, ‘innovative’ yet unfortunately shallow production of the same text that was flown in from Britain for the Theatre Festival. The biggest part in the English language will certainly prove a challenge for Rory, who has not had much chance to cut his Shakesperian teeth, but his fine performances in Tom Murphy’s ‘The Drunkard’ bode well for this young actor’s coming-of-age.

Runs from 21st Jan-13th Feb @ SFX City Theatre, Booking 01 855 4673 Natalie Radmall-Quirke is

getting in to period drama mode in The Gate’s ‘Jane Eyre’ in her first major production since leaving college last year. The role of Jane Eyre is performed by Dawn Bradfield, who stars alongside Susan Fitzgerald and Barbara Brennan. With Stephen Brennan’s ‘troubled and romantic’ Mr Rochester, it sounds like there will be plenty of Colin Firth-Pride and Prejudice style swooning going on so, if that is your cup of tea, then enjoy and tell me about it in the bar afterwards. This new adaptation

by Alan Stanford has been a strong alternative to the pantomime season and has extended its run well in to the new-year.

has nothing on the cards to follow the play run, it seems unlikely he will be resting on his laurels for very long considering his luck to date. If you don’t manage to see him onstage this time, just check out the glasses guy on the current Bank of Ireland student account ad airing on RTE. Seems he will be playing the student for some time yet after all.

Skylight runs from 21st January to the 6th February at the Project,, Temple Bar 01 8819613

Rory Keenan playsHamlet in Second Age’s production opening at the SFX on 21st January

Booking 01 874 4085

Players’ Plot: Hilary Term E

ven though many are still recovering from the glamourific, red-carpettastic ‘Night at the Movies’ Players Ball, the doors of Player’s Theatre are slowly creaking open to the public with one of the busiest terms in a Playershead’s goldfish like memory. Best Costumes went to Uma Thurman (Naomi) and The Joker (Shane Casey) in a night that saw stunning performances by David Kitt and The Camembert Quartet.

First in line is an expanded Trinity Festival of New Writing (26th – 30th January) that has a fresh and diverse line-up that will hopefully put Players back on the map as the theatre of quality new plays. Ben Schiffer’s play ‘Paper Tigers’ is expected to be a highlight with recently graduated actor/director Matt Torney directing a strong. In fact ‘Paper Tigers’, which only went in to rehearsal last week, are already booking their places at the Edinburgh and Dublin Fringe Festivals. Just watch out for flying kettles… The

festival will also include a visit from ‘Cambridge Footlights’ who promise a ‘melange’ of short pieces of new dramatic writing.

Professional speakers, plays, shorts, workshops and the involvement of Singers, Orchestral, The Phil and Food and Drink Societies will make Players the most exciting place to be in college that week and the best part is, it is all FREE. The madly successful ‘Stars in their Eyes’ competition will make a triumphant return under Jo Thurley’s iron grip. Last year’s show included memorable impressions of Kelly Osbourne, Judy Garland, and E17 (with T.N’s very own Tim Walker) but Aidan

O’Neill’s Morrissey won the day.

Hot tips for this year must include The Darkness, rumored to be played by a certain comedian in tight trousers with a very big guitar. Other Monday Nights will include new H-Bam material, music nights. and some stand-up comedy.

Seb Billings, building on his lifetime achievement award at ISDA 2003 for ‘Second Hand’, will be presenting Joke in Week 9 which promises to be an ambitious exploration of the writers theme of urbanity and relationships.

Committee Member Sophie Motley’s own new work promises to be one of the picks of the new directors at 1 o’clock. Also exciting in the show line up is ‘Made in China’ by Mark O’Rowe and two separate performances of ‘Electra’ one in English and one in Ancient Greek! Keep your eyes peeled for audition posters. With ISDA voting looming, the competition to get down to Galway at Easter will be fierce.

MUSIC

Music Editor Derek Owens

Trinity News 20 January 2004 th

Rage Against The Machine 2 - Vent Your Rage It’s that time of year again... when even a good contentious countdown of the ‘best reality TV shows ever’ seems like a good idea: List Season. Being the shameless bandwagon riders that we are, we at TN Music have decided to do a list of our own, casting our eyes back nostalgically to those good old days when rock n’ roll really meant something, when punk was punk, and the name ‘Good Charlotte’ was recognised as the ludicrous misnomer that it is (if only by us). Yes, it’s time to look back on those heady, carefree days of 2003. However, before disappearing up our own posteriors (which, according to recent medical and musical study, is a recipe for disaster) we’ve decided to ask for your help in compiling a list of the top ten musical highlights of the year 2003.

Whatever your highlight of 2003 was, no matter how quirky or mundane, kind or cruel, we want to know. Perhaps you appreciated Ryan Adams’ protracted demonstration in how to lose friends and alienate people, or maybe Michael Jackson’s clip - on nose provided you with hours of guilty amusement. Or did you

find sweet relief in the way Britney Spears’ career has finally faltered?

On the other hand, some of us delighted in the way Spears’ former beau, Justin Timberlake (overcoming the handicap of looking like the curly haired kid from the Little Rascals) apparently stole the Jacko’s old ‘King of Pop’ title from under his nose. Or, while we’re talking about rising stars, did the success of Irish contenders like The Thrills, Jerry Fish and Damien Rice delight you in ‘03. Of course, though they came late in the game, The unholy (their word, not ours) rise of The Darkness was nothing if not entertaining. Possibly you found their album, Permission to Land, your highlight of 2003. Speaking of albums...

Surely we can’t forget Elephant... or the White Stripes generally for that matter, despite their failure to show their faces at Witnness.... Which may, despite all the smelly dirty people, have been your event of 2003. Possibly the Chilis at Slane was more your cup of overpriced festival tea.... Or did you manage to make it to Glastonbury? Obviously, there were far more highlights in 2003, and that’s really the point of this list. You can tell us why this was your musical event of 2003

It’s often said that the best urban music comes "from the streets". Artists ranging from Dizee Rascal to 50 Cent have used their backgrounds as badges of authenticity & underground credibility, & translated them into commercial success. Though the streets of Dublin may be a long way from Brixton or Detroit, they still offer their fair share of grimness. Enter the human beat-box & rapping duo Man & the Machine.

Tommo, a formerly homeless recovering heroin addict from Ballymun, knows the alleys & thoroughfares of this city more intimately than most & uses many of his less pleasant experiences on the margins of our society to powerful effect in his raps.

Jack had been busking solo with his beat-box act for about a month before he first met Tommo begging by an ATM: We talked about the war, America, the usual stuff. The next occasion was when he heard me busking, started dancing to my music, emptied his McDonald’s cup into my busking bucket & started rapping to my beats.

A repeat performance at an open mic session in the Ha’penny Bridge Inn a week later was received enthusiastically, confirming their suspicions that they were onto something special. Over the ensuing eleven months they have been steadily building up a reputation, playing in various venues as well as on Dublin’s streets. So far most of the media attention they’ve received has focused on the unusual juxtaposition they make. Certainly their backgrounds couldn’t be more different.

Jack: I was born & grew up in Belgium & went to the European School in Brussels.

My Dad’s English & my Mum’s Scottish but we lived in Brussels where I got used to being surrounded by all sorts of different nationalities. I studied Philosophy at Cambridge then moved here.

Tommo has a very different story to tell: I went to Ballymun Comprehensive.

The teachers there were brilliant. They encouraged me in my poetry, my art, & in science as well. But I started hanging around in gangs & then taking drugs. It wasn’t lack of facilities or opportunities—I’d rather hang out on the streets, drink & smoke hash & rob cars than go to some ‘leisure

centre’. I ended up being sent to Mountjoy for two years.

That’s when I wrote my first rap, ‘Innocent Till Proven Guilty’. I performed it in Mountjoy, on stage. It went well & I knew then I could rap.

Eight years later, with Man & The Machine’s star rising & a baby on the way, Tommo’s mind is on possibilities for the future: I’ve got about fifty rap songs, so what we want to do is vary the music, maybe bring in extra beats from drum machines & add instrumentation. Maybe have a keyboard player or DJ. Jack is similarly keen to collaborate: I’m doing stuff outside Man & The Machine, taking the beat-box in lots of directions. I’m working with this north-Indian classical musician who plays tabla & sitar & also with a Lebanese jazz musician.

So how did he get into beat boxing? The Beatbox didn’t grow out of an interest in Hip Hop as people expect. Instead it was a Hip Hop piss take, a stoned party trick. I like Hip Hop but even to this day I’ve never listened to it or bought any albums. This creates a strange relationship with my fans, who start rapping at me and talking about the Hip Hop scene. All I can do is stare at them blankly. In 2002 I ended up in a Vodafone ad, and a friend insisted I take my talent to the streets. I did, and have a lot to thank him for now..

For now, at least, the pair will continue to focus on busking, though this is not without difficulty. Jack: Busking on Grafton St. can be a hassle.

The gardaí often stop buskers.

If people are buying a busker’s CD or throwing a bit of change, they’re not spending money in the big department stores. The shops don’t like that. The guards ask us if we have a licence to busk but I’ve spoken to the council about that—you cannot get a license for busking, or selling CDs. If we bring this up with the guards they threaten to arrest us. Dublin’s buskers are featured in in-flight magazines and travel guides as a tourist attraction. Meanwhile the guards are telling us it’s ‘paramount’ to begging and therefore prohibited by the 1847 Vagrancy Law! Their activism isn’t limited to buskers’ rights, as gigs for the Irish Anti-War Movement and Reclaim the Streets testify. Jack: We’re always interested in helping out a worthy cause.[*5] If we do make a lot of money we are going to give

Reviews Jay Z The Black Album Rock - A - Fella Records

“Are you not entertained?” asks the sampled Russell Crowe Gladiator voice at the beginning of “What More Can I Say?” the third track of Jay-Z’s retirement opus, The Black Album. After the four albums of moneygreedy schlock that the self-proclaimed “best rapper alive” released after 2001’s landmark Blueprint album, you’d hope that Jay-Z would aim for more than mere entertainment on what he says is his final LP. Fortunately, The Black Album delivers in ways other than vapid diversions. The production ranging from Roc-a-fella veterans Just Blaze and Kanye West, to pop princes The Neptunes and Timbaland, to even famed exBeastie Boys and Run-D.M.C. producer Rick Rubin is near flawless. Jay-Z’s lyrics, especially on the Eminemproduced banger “Moment of Clarity” offer introspection and diversity not seen since Blueprint, although pop songs “Change Clothes” and “Dirt off Your Shoulder” are more memorable for their beats than rhymes. The result is a solid album that ranks a clear third in the Jay-Z canon behind the raw fury of debut Reasonable Doubt and Blueprint’s lyrical eminence.

(3.5/5) Liam Dillon No Doubt The Singles (1992-2003) Universal (we might quote you on it - be warned), or you might just write ’White Stripes - generally’ on a scrap of paper. Either way, you can have your say by simply emailing

dowens@tcd.ie or, for all the luddites out there, you can write to: Music Editor, Trinity News, D.U. Publications, House 6, Trinity College Dublin.

From the streets An interview with Man & The Machine Joe Carroll

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some of it back. We’re keeping all the coppers from busking & they’re going to Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital in Crumlin.

Man & The Machine will be performing in The Olympia alongside The Frames and Damien Dempsey in March. If you’re interested in contacting Man & The Machine regarding gigs or collaborations, they can be contacted by email: jackmfleming@hotmail.com or phone their Manager on 087 225 4109.

With musical influences such as Madness, Prince, Guns n Roses and Led Zeppelin - No Doubt can be nothing but eclectic. The cynical may think it would never work but the release of their sixth album proves otherwise.

This is a singles collection, and from their very first, ‘Trapped in a Box’, to their latest offering ‘It’s My Life’, there is something here for everyone. The arrangement is good with different beats and styles cropping up over the 17 tracks. The remix of ‘Hey Baby’ isn’t very strong but the other bonus track, an acoustic ‘Underneath It All’ displays Gwen’s powerful voice. There is something to suit every mood, without too many of Stefani’s ‘soppy love songs’ or ‘angst-filled, repressed girl songs’.

The package, with lyrics, a story about each song, pictures from that time frame and a biography, will delight your average fan too. Even the most avid fan can learn something new. It is also a brilliant introduction to the band.

(4/5) Joanne Carr Ryan Adams Love is Hell pts 1 & 2 Universal/ Lost Highway

Starrs in their eyes

The shelf-life of many rappers and hip-hop producers is seemingly shorter than that iced Christmas fruitcake they keep marking down at Dunnes, writes Liam Dillon, but fortunately the ageless Gang Starr goes down easy even after 15 years.

Gang Starr is like hip-hop’s big brother. Dropping its first album in 1989—that’s one year before MC Hammer, kids—it still records and performs to critical acclaim 15 years later, scolding at the rampant glossiness of mainstream, modern rap. The New York-based duo, 35-year-old producer DJ Premier and 38-year-old lyricist Guru, appeared last month at Redbox and did not disappoint with a high-energy show belying their age and showing there’s still much they can teach their younger siblings.

While widespread notoriety has always escaped Gang Starr as a group, Premier’s solo efforts as a producer have not.

Generally recognized as one of the top-5 producers of the past 20 years, Premier has contributed landmark tracks to big name rappers, like Jay-Z, Nas, Notorious B.I.G., and Rakim; two mid-‘90s rap classics, JayZ’s Reasonable Doubt and Nas’s Illmatic bear Premier’s undeniable imprint. Although less well-known, Guru’s solo set of Jazzmatazz albums successfully explored an experimental assortment of jazzrap fusion.

That’s not to say that Gang Starr operates like a secondrate side project. Both Premier

and Guru save their best work for Gang Starr efforts, as anyone who has heard Premier’s hard-hitting, head-nodding effort on “You Know My Steez” and Guru’s smooth, monotone flow on “The ? Remainz” can attest. Despite the release of The Ownerz album this summer, Gang Starr’s first filled with new material in five years, Premier and Guru wisely stuck to their better-known and more groundbreaking back catalogue during the show, only playing one song from The Ownerz.

Guru, donning dark sunglasses and Gang Starr baseball cap pulled down low, hammed it up for the crowd spitting Gaeilge greetings and generating audience call-and-responses that actually engaged instead of degraded. His only mistake of the evening was saying that Dublin was the first stop on Gang Starr’s UK tour; the smattering of boos that followed were erased seconds later when he ripped into the K-ci and JoJo collaboration, “Royalty.”

Gang Starr is at its best when lyrically and instrumentally challenging other rappers to match its skills and Guru and Premier seemed most impassioned during songs like the near-flawless, “Mass Appeal” and golden oldie “Step in the Arena” that did just that.

Frequent Gang Starr partner, the appropriately named Big

Shug, also made an appearance, scoring on the excellent posse cut “The Militia.” The show’s primary detraction was the near impossibility of understanding Guru’s lyrics above the din of the turntables; granted, this complaint is frequent at hip-hop shows, but with 15 under its belt you’d hope Gang Starr could have found the solution by now. Also, while I pined futilely for a solo Premier scratch-session, after almost two hours of a high-energy, best-of-Gang Starr gig—astronomically long by rap standards—I couldn’t complain that I needed much more.

At the end of the show, Guru, now sans sunglasses, hat and shirt dived into the crowd. As he bobbed up and down supported by countless hands, I got a clear view at him for the first time. It hit me that despite the muscles and tattoos, this guy, with his assorted wrinkles and startled look in his eye, apparently due to inexperience with crowd surfing, was actually old enough to be my father. After getting over this initial shock, I became pleased that I had had the opportunity to observe a rare species: rappers aging gracefully. Guru and Premier not only have classic material, but also still own the swagger and style to back it up on stage.

We should hope that rap’s younger generation is paying attention.

Whatever Lost Highway’s feelings about the merits of ‘love is hell’, telling an artist with an obvious fetish for washing his dirty linen in public (see the Winona Ryder/ Gold debacle) that he couldn’t release this lump of distilled misery until he made a ‘proper’ album really wasn’t the brightest idea.For his part, Adam’s response of waging a one man hate campaign, (as you do!) was too Spinal Tap for words. So now that it’s all patched up, we finally have Love is Hell in all it’s sprawling moody glory. While promising sales and reviews appear to back up the claim that all industry hacks are fools, you can understand their concern: Ryan Adams here is as morbidly self obsessed, self loathing and self indulgent as ever. The thing is, that’s what makes this stunning. You don’t have to like his carefully polished asshole persona to appreciate the witty, evocative ‘Halloween’, and a personal dislike of Adams in fact adds the effect of ‘I see Monsters’, a heartbreaking song of (apparent) honesty and hope that’s guaranteed to make you go a big rubbery one. While some may find this release too heavy and joyless to appreciate, anybody with a passing regard for his early material really should investigate.

(4/5) Derek Owens Westwood Platinum Edition Def Jam, Records

There are few figures in music as instantly divisive as Tim Westwood, accorded both respect and derision in equal measure. The white son of an Anglican Arch-bishop, he speaks as though he was born in the ghettos of Brooklyn. Yethe is without doubt one of the most influential hip hop DJs in the world, universally respected by the biggest players in the rap industry. When Dr Dre, 50 Cent or the Neptunes come to London, their first stop is invariably to his Radio One Rap Show. He is, in his own words, a “footsodlier” of the industry, having been DJ’ing hip hop for the past 20 years, most of them spent in relative obscurity. His rise up to the public eye mirrors urban music’s own meteoric rise to the forefront of popular music. And so, finally, onto the music. The fact is, Westwood knows commercial rap music better than anyone else. Taking in the huge dancehall influence that’s been brought to American hip hop lately, this double album is filled with tracks to burn up a dancefloor or house party.If you’re looking for a hip hop party album, this is it, and If you can ignore the fact that Tim Westwood is a white, middle-class man who doesn’t talk like he’s “supposed to”, you’ll find the best selection of this year’s US club rap music here.

(4/5) Ben Schiffer

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BOOKS

Trinity News 20 January 2004 th

Johnston: Selected Plays he went to the cinema. He vividly depicts his excitement at repeatedly seeing the same old cowboy and Indian films, and youthful obsession with the film star Grace Kelly.

Despite the rose-tinted elements to this play, a more sinister, sobering side to his life story parallels the text. His sadness at his wife’s inability to have children still upsets him, particularly when contrasted to the comical scenes he tells us he shared with his own father. The play lays bare the signs of upheaval in the North, and the uneasy division between the Catholics and the Protestants. The author brings political elements into the play, yet in a subtle way, thereby refusing to make it overtly controversial.

always unhappy about his connections with the Regiment, which have ostracised her from her own family in the Republic. Like her husband Billy, she shows emotions over the absence of children in her life, and tells the reader how on the day she went to the Dublin hospital for tests, she was told that it was n this collection, Jennifer her husband that had fertility Johnston has composed four problems, not her.

However, short plays into one book, with one instead of telling him the truth she character dominating each play. tries to protect him, and tells him Each play is dominated by the that it is her that has the problems characters’ personal experiences, in conceiving. She explains that as we learn of their childhood mempride is a more important thing to ories, adulthood, and a whole range a man, and that she did not want of thoughts spanning this varied him to feel the shame he would spectrum of characters. A domiinevitably feel should she tell him nant sense of loss and melancholy the truth. We see her personal turpervades many of the plays, and moil in guarding this secret, the sadness seems to typify the collecstigma it creates, and witness tion. her intense sense of loss.

‘Moonlight and Music’, the Within the play, the author first play within this book, shows the damage done by tells the story of a secondary such lack of communication school teacher who is fired within marriage, seen as a from her position because of result of the social inequities of complaints made by parents of the time. her alleged drinking habits.

‘The Nightingale and Not the Due to this, we soon learn Lark’ differs from the other about the turbulent childhood plays, written as it is as a diaof the protagonist, Rose, as she logue between the leading transports the readers back in characters, Mamie and Owen. time to her earliest memories Only with the brief appearance of home life, to her abusive of Janet in the dialogue do we father and her negligent mothrealise that Owen is in fact a er, who failed to save her figment of Mamie’s imaginadaughter from the sexual tion. As the play progresses, abuse inflicted on Rose by her we see her bitterness and the father. We are brought down a severe depth of her sadness chronological memory lane, regarding the past. She is now until again we return to the surrounded by loneliness, havpresent and see a woman coning chosen her acting career sumed with loneliness and over love, thereby losing her sadness, a woman who was so husband, Owen, to her ambihurt that she was unable to tions. She finds no comfort in forgive her mother even as she her heavy drinking and smoklay on her deathbed. We learn ing, which seem only to add to however, that is was her mothher sadness and in the end, her er’s fear of her father that led bitterness drives even the to her refusal to help Rose.

‘O Ananias, Azarias and Miseal’ imagined figure of Owen away, mirThey were both victims of this man’s violence and aggression. appears to be a continuation of the roring his loss earlier in her life.

They both become victims of Irish play ‘Musn’t forget High Noon’, the Throughout this collection, the society of the time, a society in one difference being that Billy’s presence of a sense of loss and sadwhich a woman’s inferior role wife Christine takes the leading ness is felt, and happy moments enhances their fear, and therefore role. She too recounts many of the are clung onto as characters share Since ensures their silence, and an stories told by Billie, yet she also moments of sadness.

Jennifer Johnston predominantimplicit refusal to see the ly uses first-person narration in truth.

Billy Malstead, the principal “We are brought down a chronological the plays, the characters become character of ‘Musn’t Forget memory lane, until ...we see a woman less fictional and more real as the readers gain an insight in to High Noon’, is a man that has consumed with loneliness and sad- the mind frame of these characreached the autumn period of ness” ters. Not only do these plays his life. He begins to relay share the common theme of tales of his childhood, similar relating life experiences, they to Rose, yet his childhood reminiscences create an image of relays her own personal disap- also see through their sad tales, warmth and laughter, contrary to pointments and we see her inter- thereby giving us an insight into the coldness and loneliness of pretations of the incidents that the Ireland of their day. We see a Rose’s. His stories contain fond took place. Billy has been killed picture created of the suppression accounts of his relationship with when she begins her accounts. He of marriage, of the upheaval in his father, his childhood friend was shot driving the school bus, Northern Ireland, and the stigma Sammy, and vivid depictions of the probably due to his connections attached to people who did not fit excitement he felt as a child when with the regiment. Christine was in to prefixed stereotypes.

Jennifer Johnston: Selected Plays New Island Kathryn Dodd

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Stevenson Under the Palm Trees Alberto Manguel: Stephenson Under the Palm Trees Canongate Kate Gillen

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his slim volume is perfect for a spare hour or two- it has intrigue, burning island sun, history, and questions the power of dreams and our control over reality as our time draws to a close. Set in Samoa in the closing days of Robert Louis Stephenson’s life, this is more than just a fictional account of a famous novelist’s last days. It is a novel about control, control over ourselves, our desires, and how we control others.

As he sits on a hill over-looking the bay, Stephenson knows he is dying. He has come to Samoa to ease his last days- the heat is far better for victims of consumption than the smoggy streets of Glasgow. One night while watching the sun set, Stephenson meets

“There is only one Book, Mr. Stephenson” a man called Mr. Baker, a fellow Scotsman but rigid Presbyterian, desperate to bully the citizens of Samoa into piety and fear of God. He accuses Stephenson of distracting the people from their faith"There is only one Book, Mr. Stephenson".

Mr Baker seems typical of the often-vilified characters of the mis-

sionary church, characters who often deny the very lives they are seeking to save. Manguel gives Mr Baker an added dimension, as shortly after this meeting, a series of gruesome killings takes place on the Island Stephenson has come to love. Stephenson’s prior admiration of the dead girl means he is implicated by the family of the dead. However, these accusations are brushed aside, or undercover,

by Stephenson’s friends on the Island. However, suspicious events continue to plague the Island, and Stephenson’s role on the Island becomes increasingly alien.

Stephenson’s fear of Mr. Baker and his suspicions about him are linked to his illness and as his uncertainties about his countryman increase as his condition worsens. His fate seems to express that of many men

living in colonial state. Although Stephenson was initially well received on the Island, once the atmosphere on the Island has soured, he is no longer trusted nor respected. A visit from Mr. Baker during the night, an almost a dream-like sequence, further adds to the impression that the two men are somehow linked.

Alberto Manguel manages to capture the reality of colonial Samoa.

He uses Stephenson’s position as one of the few white people on the Island to heighten our sense of his alienation and guilt- at his secret desires but also his fear that he may have something to do with the deaths. Although at first it seems that Stephenson is at home in Samoa, it soon becomes apparent that he and the native people are all too aware of the inadequacies and injustices of the system. This novella takes on several large themes, and although it reads well and the character of Stephenson draws the reader in, it is slightly too short. Fans of Stephenson’s writing will probably enjoy this unique look at the author- prints of woodcuts that announce every chapter are actually Stephenson’s own work. “Stephenson Under the Palm Trees” captures the urgency of a man’s last days, the questioning of how he has lived his life and the state of the world he leaves behind him. The sense of unfinished business at the end of the tale is quite fitting- time has run out for Stephenson and the reader.

Books Editor Laura Dixon

I’m Not Scared...

Niccolo Ammaniti: I’m not Scared Canongate Jackie Ernst

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iccolo Ammaniti’s third novel “I’m Not Scared” is the perfect book to curl up with on a lonely night. Set in Italy during a sweltering summer in the 1970’s, the tale of nine year old Michele Amitrano and his astonishing discovery, is both haunting and poignant, a coming-of-age experience told through a chilling mystery story.

“I’m Not Scared” is a unique work on many levels. The plot offers a brilliant, original twist to the classic story line of the unexpected discovery of a dead body, a twist destined to startle any reader out of their seat. The narrative style of the novel is equally refreshing. The story is told through the perspective of the child Michele, but is augmented by a commentary voice over of an adult Michele, causing it to read like a movie at times. The adult interjections are subtle and stabilizing in this fast paced and colorful narrative, and do not disrupt the trance-like captivation that Michele’s childish perspective generates. And it is the complete immersion into this naïve, juvenile perspective that lends the story much of its intrigue. The reader is never aware of anything more than Michele is, and even by the end is never granted anymore insight into the situation than Michele is able to contrive himself.

No more

answers are revealed to the reader than are afforded to the nine year old child. And although this may cause a few moments of frustration once one reaches the last page, it also works as a reminder of how much more eerie a situation can be when left to the powers of the imagination. Michele comes to question everything he knows, from the narrow boundaries of the sleepy Italian village he has always lived in, his childhood friends, and even his family. The outside world’s interjection coincides with Michele’s horrifying discovery, and Michele’s greater consciousness of a world, and people, outside his own.

The strength of Michele’s unsophisticated, morally simplistic perspective contributes to the emotive power of the novel as well as to the intrigue of the mystery. The reader is forced to recall once again the painful confusion that accompanies the realization that someone you love is capable of committing a hateful, hideous act, and, perhaps just as painful and hard to accept, the fact that you are still capable of loving them anyway. All this the reader experiences along with Michele, and learns all over again that sometimes love and loyalty do not coexist in harmony with morality, that intention and action can be horribly at odds. And so in a sense,

the story becomes much more than a mystery, it becomes a tragedy. By the end, the answers lose their significance in the face of this innocence lost.

In the end, it is the wide range of emotions that Ammaniti is able to evoke that make “I’m Not Scared” such a wonderful book. The fresh and original plot serves as a bonus.

Ammaniti masterly contrasts dreamy, hazy and warm descriptions of ‘that summer’, where Michele and his friends play all day long, with the horror and realism of Michele’s discovery. Once lost in the story, the reader loses control of their reactions and feels deeply enough that they begin to believe.

The fear, pain, and real life laughter that this novel inspires are what make it a truly exhilarating read.

The Impressionist - Hari Kunzru Hari Kunzru: The Impressionist Penguin Ireland Laura Dixon

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sweeps between countries and societies, from Pran Nath’s protected, distinctly Indian childhood, to the oppressive nature of the British Raj in Bombay, to England and Africa, as Pran tries to eek out an identity for himself. His life moves in the spheres of the Maharajah’s and their eunuchs and mistresses, as Kunzru disturbingly relays the tale of Pran’s sexual introduction with a puffy, sweating and bloated Englishman, all seen as part of Pran’s journey for survival and acceptance. Pran is something of a chameleon, his mixed IndianEnglish heritage, and his skills of imitation and mimicry, both key post-colonial concerns, making him a figure neither accepted nor completely rejected by either society.

Turned away by his family, an arrogant, spoilt and almost ‘evil’ child, “The Impressionist”, as the title infers, is the story of this boys journey to try and find himself, and a place where he can belong. The

ari Kunzru’s first novel, “The Impressionis”t, has created controversy and dispute, not least amongst the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday. The books author, Hari Kunzru, refused to accept a prize, generally considered to be the second-most-prestigious of the literary world, the John Llewellyn Rhys award, since it is sponsored by these newspapers. He attacked the racism of the papers, saying to the B.B.C that he objected to the Photograph: Ben Murphy papers’ "hostility towards black and Asian people", with the paper being renowned in the U.K. for a someIndia”, with both using poor and what un-sympathetic view towards bustling cities as a backdrop to the immigration. Instead, Kunzru had wealth and arrogance of the British his prize money donated to the Raj, intentionally isolated in their Refugee Council, an act which perhotels, sipping gin and tonics. In haps further embarrassed both novels, the writers the newspapers’ sponsors. play on the Imperial perHe further commented to “the white women are finally becoming the ception of white, Imperial the sponsors that these womanhood, threatened as angels their husbands imagine them. papers "pursue an editoriit is by the Indian way of Sacred. Worth spilling blood for” al policy of vilifying and life, of religion, and appeardemonising refugees and ance.

In “The asylum-seekers…As the child of an novel brings up key issues of race, Impressionist”, during the scenes immigrant, I am only too aware of as Kunzru illustrates the difficulty after the Amritsar Massacre, as viothe poisonous effect of the Mail's a half-caste boy has in being accept- lence and tension explodes onto the editorial line. The atmosphere of ed, whilst ironically showing pre- streets, the white women are “finalprejudice it fosters translates into dominantly Western ideas of supe- ly becoming the angels their husviolence, and I have no wish to prof- riority. His Scottish missionary Mr bands imagine them.

Sacred. it from it" (B.B.C). His comments Macfarland, and his constant toils Worth spilling blood for". Kunzru’s struck deep, creating a controversy to demonstrate the white man’s ironic touch makes the apparent that merely furthered the stigma superiority through craniometry, tragedy of these women, suffering surrounding the book that appar- the study of the size of skulls, is under the ‘white mans burden’, ently received up to £1.25 million in perhaps the clearest example of seem ridiculous. Their ‘symbolic advances from the publishers. The Kunzru’s irony. Kunzru repeatedly destiny’ is nothing compared to the novel itself however, is deserving of undercuts such insidious claims to sacrifice of the massacre, which has all this press attention. superiority, with the later revela- turned the town into a ‘charred, “The Impressionist” is a novel that tions of Macfarland’s own illegiti- silent city’.

Pran’s self-discovery is then, one mate half-caste child, and through Pran set against the threat and disturhimself we witness bance of Imperialism, a world of the cruelty of the maps and territory and perhaps British, and the per- most importantly, ownership and Kunzru contrasts versions of their strict domination. moral code as Pran these universal themes with more leads them to the personal ones of his own. The realwhore-houses. Pran’s ism of the novel is enhanced confused identity through his use of imagery, and the allows him to enter sensuality of his descriptions. their world and Kunzru employs sensual, evocative expose the falseness descriptions, of the earth, the dust, therein. Kunzru can and the food, since for Pran even be seen as part of a smell seems a determiner of identitradition of ‘writing ty, with the British smelling of; back’ to the Empire, "Rancid butter. With perhaps a with writers like hint of raw beef. The underlying Ngugi wa’ Thiong’o, whiff of Empire."

For much of the novel, Pran’s idenillustrating the disturbing and trouble- tity is fluid, seeming like a ‘husk’, some effects empty and meaningless. Yet this is Imperialism had, largely a result of the Imperialist dominating as it did forces that surround him. As Hari maintains, The over entire races and Kunzru religions. The novel Impressionist is a novel about "the contains a number of absurdity of a world in which race similarities with is the main determinant of a perForster’s “A Passage to son's identity".

FILM

Film Editor Ruth Ní Eidhin

Trinity News 20th January 2004

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Pop Culture apart as a cinema is all too simple. They don’t serve popcorn.

If you’ve never been to the IFI, it can he IFI has always set itself apart in safely be assumed that you have an adeterms of the cinematic experience it quate supply of Russian porn at home to provides. The bar and café are popkeep you happy, but it can also be said ulated by what is best termed an eclectic that you’ve never experienced ‘cinema as group of people. They have a bookshop culture’ (and no, the Russian porn collecfeaturing tomes on what cinema is really about and back catalogues of the kinds of tion doesn’t count). The IFI sells its audifilms eclectic people can talk about ences a very specific form of entertaintogether. They charge membership and ment. Not so many summer blockbusters, for the most part offer the sense of excep- lots and lots of subtitles. The seating is tionality that a ‘club’ should. In spite of all almost too comfortable and it’s impossible this, the main thing that sets the IFI to ignore the architecture of the building.

This is classy cinema, and butter-covered fingers and the incessant munching of the person beside you just doesn’t fit in. It is, as they say, the price you pay – you’ll more than likely be intellectually stimuAfter two weeks vegging in front of the telly, lated by the feature but you’ll come out of it with a serious flicking between oft-repeated classics, the time case of the munchies. has come to flock to the cinema in droves. It’s As evidenced by the ridicunearly springtime and along with (marginally) lously extensive concessions brighter evenings, daffodils and baby ani- section at the newly refurmals(?) this means time for the film industry to bished UGC, cinema snacks reinvent itself in the wake of what can only be have become a crucial part of the whole movie- going experidescribed as the Christmas slump. ence. The vast majority of any The month of December, cinematically speak- given audience will have parting, has a tendency to be fairly pathetic – usu- ed with as much money to ally featuring one ‘big’ film that drags the well- feast their way through the fed masses out of their homes for an evening film as they will have for the but beyond that offering very little temptation ticket itself, and will have done so with little or no complaint. and even less variety. Suddenly in the first few It becomes the case that peoweeks of January a New Years Miracle occurs – ple arrive early at multiplexes you look at the cinema listing and can’t seem to to have time to choose their decide, because for once there are so many pick-n-mix without missing new films and every one of them seems to have the trailers. In what is quickly golden globe nominations in at least four cate- becoming the age of epic cinegories. It almost seems like cinema directors ma, a certain amount of sustenance is required to get you have made a new year’s resolution to stop through three or more hours of showing crap 24/7 until you realise that certain film. Besides which, the awards are just around the corner. snacks can be half the fun. If It’s almost heartbreaking having to acknowl- you’ve been looking forward to edge that ‘some’ filmmakers aren’t exactly a film for long enough (say the purist artistes and that to all too many of them last part of a certain trilogy), when you finally get within the aforementioned statuettes are all that mat- sight of the screening you can’t ters. Can the world we live in really be this cyn- help but go a bit mad. ical?? (…) It has all too often been observed Inevitably you buy so much that the members of the Academy are for the that you spend half the film in most part past a certain age and are thus the toilets, and are forced to unable to recall a year’s worth of viewing. This use half the popcorn as ammunition. Popcorn fights have leads to a situation whereby the market is floodbecome a social phenomenon ed with potential ‘Best Pictures’ in the month or of sorts and for sheer entertwo before the Oscars ceremony, when in fact tainment value they can often the category should be renamed “Last Picture I surpass what’s going on Remember Seeing (with that nice Tom Hanks in onscreen. Perhaps what it all

Ruth Ní Eidhin

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Reel Spiel

it...)”. The Oscars have become a farce to the point where many of the most talented and respected actors of the current generation have acknowledged them as being an embarrassment – a cheap and increasingly meaningless exercise in self-congratulation by an industry of lemmings. Having said that, the Academy Awards have managed to retain an air of elitism amongst the plethora of other awards on offer.

Despite having overlooked some of the greatest ever contributions to cinema (both individuals and their various works), there is a continuing prestige attached to those who do make the grade. This tends to be reflected at the box office, where winning films are re-released for a week or two on the grounds of their success. In theory Oscar success also does great things for your career, though the experience of the likes of Cuba Gooding Jnr would tend to suggest otherwise. The fact remains that the Academy has set a very definite standard for the cinematic world, and at least once a year the audiences of the world get to benefit somewhat from their particular brand of snobbery.

Is this really such a bad thing? Well, yes, probably. It’s all very well having lots of watchable films around but their being squished together is damned unhelpful when you want to see them all. The timing is also a bit off. January is when delusional types decide to get more exercise, spend more time outdoors, get active – not sit on their asses in the dark for a few more hours.

What kind of person resolves to watch more films (other than yours truly…)? That’s not a healthy new year in the making!

With European release dates increasingly catching up with those in the US, it’s time for the Oscars and all other self-gratifying pat-on-theback award shows to be moved to the autumn.

October is when we really need something to keep us out of the rain, distracting us from real work until Christmas arrives (in early November). Instead, spring-fever will once again be overtaken by Oscar-fever, and by the time the awards are being handed out even the winners will have stopped caring.

Paycheck Cast: Ben Affleck, Uma Thurman, Aaron Eckhart Director: John Woo Deirdre Breslin So Ben Affleck fears he’s jeopardised his movie career because of his high profile relationship with Ms Lopez. Probably. Gigli must be what amounts to the exact opposite of winning an Oscar. His latest film Paycheck, directed by the infamous John Woo, isn’t actually that bad, although this is a far cry from saying it’s great.

Based on a Philip K. Dick story, Paycheck is about a computer engineer prodigy, Michael Jennings (Ben Affleck), who is hired by high-tech corporations for specialized top-secret projects.

Once a job is complete, Jennings routinely has his short-term memory erased so as not to divulge any sensitive company information to future clients. A

comes down to is a return to better, simpler things – a reminder of a time when you could eat sweets until you felt physically sick and not worry too much about the consequences. The fact is that outside of the movie theatre it is increasingly difficult to get away with the consumption of junk food that doesn’t even pretend to have some purpose and/or nutritional value.

Popcorn is, of course, the iconic movie snack, but this has not always been the case. Popcorn began its life as an integral part of 16th Century Aztec society, where it was used as both nourishment and decoration. Early explorers documented the ceremonial Popcorn Dance of Mexico (I kid you not). Native Americans later brought offerings of popcorn to meetings with English colonists as a symbol of goodwill during peace negotiations. It has even been suggested that this occurred at the ‘very first Thanksgiving dinner’. This perhaps hints at the innate sense of Popcorn as being the great All-American snack. A brief look on any Internet search engine shows you how crazy these people are about the stuff. You can order Home Theatre Popcorn Machines online, or go on a virtual tour of Wyandot Popcorn Museum (the world’s Only popcorn museum, opened in 1982). What is most obvious, however, is the fundamental link between popcorn and the movies, and the related emergence of what have been

Too much to choose from at the UGC concessions stand “Personally I don’t see the point of being at the cinema if you don’t have popcorn”

called "popcorn movies" – films that focus on entertainment value rather than artistic merit. Popcorn has become a symbol for Pop culture, a fact emphasised by the MTV Movie Awards embracing the motif as their own. Perhaps it comes down to a distinction between ‘cinema’ and ‘movies’, popcorn being aligned with the latter and unnecessary to the former. Popcorn is an iconic part of the movie-going experience, but ultimately something that once had deep cultural significance has become even more trivial than a Big Mac. Personally I don’t see the point of being at the cinema if you don’t have popcorn and I’m perfectly stupid enough to pay the price for it. It’s all part of the ‘magic’ that Hollywood has sold us so effectively for a century or [so/more]. The smell of popcorn when you first walk into the cin-

bit of a health hazard I would imagine. Highly paid for his work, he expects to earn an 8 figure sum at the end of his latest 3-

year project for friend and evil mogul Rethrick (Aaron Eckhart).

But upon completion of this latest job, instead of the big paycheck he expected, Jennings is

Runaway Jury Cast: John Cusack, Rachel Weisz, Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman Director: Gary Fleder Conall Bolger Another year, another John Grisham adaptation and it’s as unique and special as all the rest of them. Once again there’s a wrongdoings occurring in them thar’ Southern (pronounced Su-than) courtrooms. This legal pot-boiler comes with a twist in the tail, but it’s as surprising as a philosophy student talking bull. Nick Easter (Cusack) is selected for jury duty on an important lawsuit against a gun company. Representing the widow of a man murdered by one of their products (Dylan McDermott- always

ema is what gets you hooked – it’s a well known fact that the sense of smell is what is most linked to your memory and the smell of freshly popped corn will do a lot to entice people in the door and past the ever-rising box office prices. A friend swears the butter on the popcorn at the Savoy is the best in Dublin – to the point that he won’t go to UGC. The trade off is being made between quality and quantity, with the Savoy’s superior butter up against the stiff competition of UGC’s slush puppies, nachos, and the aforementioned pick-n-mix. The real choice being made is one of what might be called a classic cinema experience and a modernised one that may already have gone too far. It might seem like a fairly good idea, but having a bar in the middle of a 17 screen multiplex seems a bit over-thetop to say the very least. For one thing if you’ve ever been to the cinema with a couple of drinks on you you’ll understand the logistical problems it could cause. Having said that the IFI have had a bar all along.

The difference may be something like that of your local vs. the nearest super-

handed an envelope filled with random objects and told that he has agreed to forfeit all payment.

With his memory erased as usual, Jennings has no way to prove them wrong until he discovers the objects are clues to the puzzle that once was his past. A sort of very complicated bread trail! With Federal agents hot on his heels, as well as his employers, Jennings quickly learns that more than just his paycheck is at stake. Jennings is helped along by the love he can’t even remember, Rachel (Uma Thurman), and an old pal, Shorty (Paul Giamatti) who, add some moments of light relief. This science fiction caper has received a lot of bad press in America, slated as a dumb film about smart people, but sometimes dumb popcorn fun is all you want from a film. The actors do a decent job, no matter how asinine the whole plot may seem.

wanted to see him take a bullet), an idealistic lawyer (Hoffmann) squares off against the evil corporate types in the courtroom, while behind the scenes Fitch (Hackman), a jury selection expert, manipulates proceedings for the gun company.

Meanwhile Easter and his girlfriend (Weisz) are offering the jury’s verdict to both sides for a hefty fee. Yee haw! It’s a pretty ordinary film gifted with an extraordinary cast. It’s a potential powder keg whose fuse just never burns. The idea of Hoffman and Hackman confronting each other and chewing the scenery is enough to get the juices flowing, but their encounter is muted and disappoints. It doesn’t feel like anyone is stretching themselves here.

Hoffman can do tortured integrity in his sleep and Cusack has already played a conman to much better effect in “The Grifters”. Hackman’s nasty guy, for all his bluster, isn’t all that threatening. On the plus side it does show that there is more to a lawyer’s work than courtroom histrionics. Apart from this though there is little that is novel in this offering.

It’s a solid evening’s entertainment but you’ll be hard pressed to recall it by the time you leave the multiplex.

pub, the simple contrast of class (or is that substance?) vs. style.

Popcorn has been a mainstream snackfood since the 1890s, and in recent times has come to symbolise another kind of mainstream. The fact that people now pay more for the snacks than for the screening may say a lot about the value of the films on offer. Try watching the ceremonial popcorn dance at cinemas everywhere this weekend and see if you can guess what films people are seeing by how much popcorn they’ve bought. Visitors to the IFI will avoid this particular tribal display, in favour of something that may still be possessed of some artistic value.

The question is the price each section of the cinema-going public is paying for their choices. Those who choose the path less travelled will most likely have a less expensive evening in more pleasant surroundings. The rest will spend more, eat more, and care less. Cinema snobbery is on the rise and it seems that popcorn or the lack thereof might just be the demarcation line between good films and good fun.

Big Fish Director: Tim Burton Cast: Ewan McGregor, Albert Finney, Billy Crudup, Jessica Lange Ruth Ní Eidhin Big Fish is the story of Edward Bloom , a man troubled from an early age by the feeling that his world wasn’t quite big enough to contain him. To satisfy his need for freedom, he embarks on ‘an improbable and mythic journey’, leading him to the inevitable deathbed on which he now tells his finally stories.

Edward’s adult son, Will (Billy Crudup) is faced with the death of a father he never knew and never believed. The very real death of his father is juxtaposed with the impossibly unreal tales he continues to tell. Bloom’s younger incarnation (McGregor) tells the story of his life in a series of flashbacks. Bloom befriends a giant, works at a circus run by a werewolf, rescues conjoined Korean lounge singers from the war, and buys the village of Spectre, a hidden utopia of rocking chairs and barefoot dancers.

There is no denying the complete surreality of what’s going on, or for that matter the blatantly mythical origins of Bloom’s journey, but none of that seems to matter and it certainly doesn’t offend.

Relationships between fathers and sons have been analysed to death, but here the rule book has been thrown out the window and as a result we’re faced with

a film that is not only original but enjoyable beyond all rights. The audience is sucked into Bloom’s own convictions as fact and fiction mingle easily and more importantly the distinction between the two is ignored.

Albert Finney, as the elder Edward, is reliably impressive, as is his onscreen wife Jessica Lange. The imaginative tapestry of characters is woven by an exceptional supporting cast featuring Danny DeVito, Helena Bonham Carter and Steve Buscemi. Big Fish ultimately could only be a Tim Burton film – no one else could have captured the absence of the ‘real’ and made an audience believe in it. This is a perfect piece of escapism – just as cinema should be.

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ARTS

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Arts Editor Barry White

Nip/Tuck: the plastic fantastic Barry White

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part from the dangers to a patient’s physical well being which are inherent in any cosmetic surgery procedure, other more subtle threats are posed to the individual who decides that cosmetic surgery is the only way forward. Botox, which is derived from the botulinum toxin, paralyses the muscles responsible for frowning and raising the eyebrows. There are many dangers involved, the most common being the possibility of developing facial asymmetry. However, even when the desired smoothing effect is achieved, the price the patient pays is an often significant reduction in the expressiveness of the face, a loss of the subtle non verbal ways in which we communicate using our faces. Is this something we really want to sacrifice in order to attain the plasticised ‘beauty’ offered by Botox and other such treatments? How would Rembrandt, Durer or Velazquez, whose portraits captured something of the essence of the individual through the subtle nuances of their facial expressions, respond to a nipped, tucked and botoxed face?

Asides from the phenomenon of plastic surgery addiction, it is easy to see how once someone has that first procedure, it isn’t easy to stop. Ageing of the face in the years following a plastic surgery procedure often necessitates further top up surgeries, as the natural ageing of the face as a unified whole has been disrupted. More surgery is needed to blend the artificial and natural elements of the face back together.

In extreme cases, this can become very messy indeed – case in point, Michael

Jackson.

The causes of our obsession with plastic surgery are obvious. The media constantly bombards us with images of young, beautiful bodies and tells us that this is the epitome of human perfection. There are two problems here.

Firstly, the images of ‘perfect’ bodies with which we are confronted in advertising and in the movies aren’t real.

Advertisements are airbrushed and digitally manipulated, and I’m quite sure Jennifer Lopez looks just as rough as the rest of us first thing in the morning . Secondly, ageing is a fundamental aspect of human existence, as is dying.

There’s no point hiding from those facts. Any efforts to turn back the clock can only have superficial results, and will inevitably be thwarted by good old nature. So why bother running from old age and hiding from death behind a mask of Botox, collagen and implants?

Surely the realisation that it’s all just a façade can only result in unhappiness and a deep set unease about our existence.

French body artist Orlan has sacrificed her own face in an effort to upset and challenge notions of culturally enforced standards of beauty and the idea of plastic surgery as the route to this culturally defined ‘ideal’ beauty.

She subverts notions of a standardising, normalising beauty, and has opted to use plastic surgery to turn her face into something quite different from what others would see as a desirable beauty. The irony is that most of the numerous plastic surgery procedures she has had performed have been geared towards transforming her face into a composite of the best features, as selected by the artist, from depictions of beautiful women from a selection of

canonical paintings, including Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa and Botticelli’s Birth of Venus. However, the resulting face is far from conventionally beautiful. The freakish results of this project show all too clearly the absurdity inherent in trying to reach for an elusive ‘ideal’ beauty.

While Orlan’s appearance is indeed bizarre, in the course of writing this article I came across someone whose project for self transformation through platic surgery has led her to an appearance far stranger than even Orlan.

Furthermore, Jocelyn Wildenstein doesn’t appear to be motivated by an engagement with body politics or a desire to make an artistic statement of any kind like Orlan, but has apparently transformed herself into what can only be described as a cat like creature of some kind, because, damn it, she just felt like looking like a lion. Formerly a pretty blonde Swiss girl, the wife of Alec Wildenstein (heir to a ten billion dollar art fortune) has had the pigmentation of her skin darkened, cheek implants, a rather large chin implant, some fairly extreme surgery around her eye area, a painfully tight face lift and what appears to be several gallons of collagen crammed into her lips.

Clearly, she didn’t have Britney Spears in mind when she told her plastic surgeon what kind of look she was going for. Wildenstein makes having Botox injections look like having a quick wash in the morning. What happens when the desired results of a cosmetic surgery procedure aren’t to look younger, or to look like an airbrushed Gucci model, or even to look like a cross between the Mona Lisa and Botticellis’ Venus, but are in fact to look like a

Cathy Wilkes @ DHg Claire Flannery

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athy Wilkes is an extremely soft spoken, gentle, modest person. She is full of childlike wonderment and is in awe, to the point of bewilderment, of the ‘weird’ reality of the world around her, the world of the everyday, what we may see as banal but what is for Wilkes ‘more difficult to think about than anything imaginary’.

‘Everything’ Cathy claims ‘hinges on my difficulties and my wonderment with physical reality’. This fascination is patent in her current work in the Douglas Hyde gallery. It is a very personal work in the sim-

ple sense that Wilkes is expressing or trying to express her process of ‘grasping’ basic human experience.

The exhibit is a combination of readymades (found or pre-made objects selected by the artist), sculpture – the wooden and metal stands, and canvasses – some of which are Bacon prints upon which the artist has scrawled words which have a very specific meaning to her.

The readymades are interpersed among the sculptures on the ground. Strategically?

Presumably, as isolation and disparateness are intended elements of the work. The arrangement of such bland objects may appear bleak and suspect in its being so bland yet

simultaneously quite bizarre.

This instinctive weariness of the viewer should fade when the significance of each object is opened up even slightly to the viewer. The Bacon prints are exemplary of this. Just as many people will be weary of Wilkes’ art and put off by its initial inaccessibility inherent in conceptual-minimalist-or whatever label convenes-type-art, the artist herself felt likewise about Bacon’s art. ‘There was nothing for [her] in his work’ until she stumbled upon the human side of the artist which she subsequently could either see manifest in his work or merely associate with his work. Bacon

denied ever using drawings, claiming his paintings to be spontaneous, instinctive and perhaps genius. But when he died a considerable amount of working drawings were found.

Upon this understanding Wilkes could not only connect with Bacon’s exploration of human isolation but also connect/engage with his human side – the vulnerability of vanity and pretension as exposed of him to her. This search for the humane is a fundamental positive in Wilkes’ work. Her fascination and preoccupation with process is part of this, in that the product (in this case the art object) alludes to the process which infers human existence and proof of human existence

stimulates Wilkes and this intense need to connect with other people, to feel or discern in any obscure way the mark of man/woman inspires her work.

Her insight as an artist is seeing the chain which links human to object, human to human and attempting to connect human to world. All this is extremely implicit in her work.

Wilkes sees the beauty in the most insignificant piece of metal. For her it is too easy to say ‘I don’t like that’.

‘Everything is redeemable’.

This is the idea of a beautiful, open, accepting mind. When exploring and walking around the work the viewer may be overcome by the urge to grab a hold of the individual pieces (a Father Dougal like lusting to press the ‘do not press’-button), to experience their tangibility, to interact with even the most mundane, previously insignificant metal bit on the floor. Is this the magic of the museum context, or has Wilkes imbued us in some way with her inquisitiveness, her ready curiosity?

Wilkes makes the analogy with her work to blues music and the sounds of human feeling, emotion. She uses what is available to her, objects and her intuitive selection and manipulation of these objects. How should we take her work?

"Have respect for the spontaneous expression of another human being, no matter what it looks like". In between these words is the time, thought and ideas of an artist in awe of the little things but also well versed in art theory, who creates (I doubt unwittingly but it may be so) obscure but fathomable connections between tangible everyday objects, what we take for granted, forget and bypass, and the invisible nuances of metaphysical existence which we also tend to forget or conveniently sidestep.

member of a different species?

Art in the suburbs Gwen Graham

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rt in the Burbs- ‘Looking at Me Looking at You’, a selection of work on loan from the National Portrait Collection, at Draiocht.

For some, the many "malls" that have sprung up on the outskirts of Dublin are the new great cathedrals- and people flock to them to worship at the feet of Mammon. Where is one to find respite from the rampant consumerism and the overpowering smells of burgers and synthetic "fries"? Well, if you do find yourself trapped one day in the Blanchardstown Centre there is a place were you can escape, and that is Draiochtthe centre for the arts, situated facing the main entrance to the Blanchardstown Centre.

Opened in May 2001, it offers the citizens of Dublin 15 and beyond a multi-purpose venue used for a wide range of activities, including drama, dance, classical and traditional music, contemporary visual culture and various community outreach programmes.

Currently, there are two exhibitions of visual art on show. In the ground floor gallery is work

by French artist Fabien Verschaere, whilst upstairs in the first floor foyer is a selection of work from the National Self Portrait Collection, and it is this that this review will concentrate on.

Based in the University of Limerick, the National Portrait Collection grew from the purchase in 1977 of 15 self portraits from the late John Kneafsey. Expanding from this, the University appointed a board of trustees in 1982, and every year since, that board has invited a small number of Ireland’s most important artists to add their portraits to the collection. Now comprising some 300 works, the collection is on permanent display in the University of Limerick. For this exhibition, the Collection has lent Draiocht 25 works, and they are on display until the 31st January.

Self portraiture has a long tradition in the canon of western art. Just think of Durer and Rembrandt, two men seemingly obsessed with their own images, compelled to continuously reevaluate themselves in their chosen media. Others were more subtle, such as Fra Filipo Lippi and Michaelangelo, who both placed images of themselves within their frescoes.

How do the artists from the National Self Portrait Collection present themselves to us? The works on display are mainly from the 1980’s and the 1990’s with the exception of Kenneth Hall, the White Stag artist, who is represented by a work painted in 1938. Should one expect new and innovative modes of self representation?

Well, don’t expect anything too revolutionary. Most of the works at Draiocht are in the traditional mode of self portaiture. The artist’s face and upper torso seen from head on; their handling of the paint may differ somewhat but it is this format that most of the artists use.

They include Brian Maguire, Andrew Folan, David Liburn, Kenneth Hall and James Hanley.

Only two artists could be said to radically change the traditional formula here at Draiocht, and they are Alice Maher and Oisin Kelly, whose paintings hang beside one another.

Alice Maher presents us with a deep box like frame, containing

4 heavily painted pieces of paper tacked to the back of the support. The four images are not of her face, but are of hair seen from the back of the head, in various styles, plaited, tied up, hanging loose and curled in a very formal way, hair being a key image in Maher’s body of work.

Oisin Kelly’s work is not on canvas, but on traditional Irish linen. He has had a cartoon like image of himself printed onto the fabric, and adorned it with celtic motifs.

Both artists are offering us something different in terms of self portraiture. Maher asks us to question traditional ways of portraying women, and offers us an insight into how she sees herself. Kelly plays with notions of what it is to be Irish, and strangely he is the only artist in the exhibition who directly deals with his nationality.

There are many other interesting self portraits to be seen at Draiocht, notably Cecil King’s small but fascinating work, or Helen Kerr’s beautiful embroidered piece. So now you know what to do in the Blanchardstown Centre when you’re sick of shopping or have run out of cash, go over to Draiocht and take in some art; it’s free!

Also, for those who live near the Square in Tallaght, check out the work of Sean Scully and Alice Maher at the Civic. Isn’t living in the burbs just great?!

Fashion Editor dave ring

FASHION

(W)Rack Rummaging T

Across the street in Vero Moda, one rail had trousers and skirts cut in price to just 3 Euro-that’s less than a Buttery student special. Admittedly, a lot of these items wouldn’t have universal appeal (any takers for beige plastic bellbottoms?), but some of the combats and vests were fine and, frankly, for three quid, who cares?

Urban Outfitters in Templebar can be quite expensive for students, but the sale has large reductions to make it much more affordable. Many items from Sonia Rykiel, Fake London and Diesel Style Lab are reduced by 50 per cent, and the Menswear section offers half price Duffer St George and 33 per cent off Carhartt amongst other labels.

Many bargain hunters are flocking to the sale in the recently opened Zara on Henry Street. If you can face the huge queues, there are good discounts on clas-

sic items like trousers, jackets and brightly coloured knitwear. I tried on a 60s sequinned mini-dress which had been well-reduced in price and subsequently in weight, as many of the sequins ended up on the floor of the fitting room. It is doubtful whether the garment could withstand a night on the tiles, given that half of the dress would end up on them.

Topshop, like Miss Selfridge, is offering the Buy One Get One Free offer, and despite the instruction to B.O.G.O.F, most of the sale stock is far from bog standard. I managed to find a dress, a top, a bracelet and a belt, all for a cheap-aschips 10 Euro. The reduced items are helpfully arranged by colour, and although there are some lycra catsuits and spandex leggings to rummage through, on the whole their sale range is fashionable with significant bargains.

Overall, then, the high street sales were quite impressive. Who knows?

Since this article was written, many items may have been further reduced (or only left in sizes six and forty-six). Time is of the essence, and as our friends in Power City say, ‘Hurry! This madness must end soon’. If you have any money left after the festive fork out, then the clearances are well worth a look. If not, there are always those 3 Euro cream synthetic bellbottoms calling your name.

Dress for Success Tana Kaplan

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ith winter comes the necessity for strategic dressing. This statement might make some of you think ‘yeah, like putting on a coat, idiot’, but it goes much beyond that. For instance, if you wear too warm a coat, you then can only wear something light underneath- rendering you freezing when you take off aforementioned coat in the library. So you opt for a layers, and things get complicated: now you need a coat (of a not-too-heavy weight), a jumper, and a light top for underneath.

You can simplify things by wearing the same jumper every day, as a sort of signature look. But not everyone has a favourite

20th January 2004

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Rant from the Ramp Terry E. M.

Jeananne Craig

he January Sales are a bittersweet experience. You can save a fortune on an item you’ve been lusting after for months, or find a diamond in the rough that no one else was prepared to rummage for. On the other hand, you bear witness to blood, sweat and tears as middle aged women claw each other for the last twin set, and you try and shoehorn yourself into trousers two sizes too small and two decades out of style, just because they’re half price. It is no mean feat trying to maintain your dignity while hunched over a final reductions bin, pillaging it for cut-price novelty thongs and shop-soiled T-shirts.

But, alas, it must be done.

Christmas over-indulgence has left me with no pennies and added pounds, and in serious need of new clothes to accommodate the swell. There is, therefore, no choice but to brave the sales and find that there are some great bargains to be found.

On entering Miss Selfridge on Grafton Street I was greeted by a cheery rail of string vests covered in zips, and some neon satin hot pants that wouldn’t look amiss in a Cheeky Girls video. While some of the items in this sale would prove good investments for next Halloween, there were some very pretty dresses from 22 Euro, and wellreduced jumpers. The Buy One Get One Free deal means you can get twice as much for your money, and this offer also extends to accessories and footwear, with some bright flats, heels and boots on sale.

Trinity News

jumper that is universally suitable. In this case, you have a battery of jumpers and to call upon, and each of these has only a certain number of tops that work well underneath. You see now where the strategy comes in.

Adding to the complications of winter dressing is the bottom half of your body.

There is, above all, the trousers issue. Many a day you look out the window and see rain, and if not rain, ominously wet streets. You know that if you wear trousers, you run the risk of getting the bottoms of them wet, making them stick to your legs in a cold, wet sheet. Not pleasant, and slightly contradicto-

ry of the point of wearing trousers in the first place- that is, to keep your legs warm. There is the alternative of a skirt and tights, something I myself opt for most days. With this you get the added complication of what shoes/boots to wear, an issue worthy of a more lengthy discussion than space here permits. Taking these issues into account with winter accessories (hat, scarf, gloves or mittens), one can see the potential to be overwhelmed. Take heart, though. Just think of dressing in winter like I do: full of a lot more possibilities than just a bikini worn on a beach.

H

ow not to make those excess all areas Christmas party faux-pas, keeping those determination-drive-anddesire New Year resolutions to become a Fully Flexible Impulsive Compulsive, bullish about the symbolic importance of the gym as the third place, while jumping on the Guru capitalising on Moral Vacuum bandwagon? There are any number of reasons why you might wish to make ambitious and interventionist corpse revival changes in your life, not least for the novelty singles and cheesy weepies torture in the December run-up, as rank as the last time you swigged a can of flat beer and fag butts topped off with first hand bouncerology experience. That said, as another year slithers in, top of your resolute list should be emphatically NOT to read any of those broadband silly season stories which are rehashed every year in order to stimulate our jaded consumer appetites. Just think Swarovski yoga mat, complete with sparkling logo for the ultimate in existential breakdown.

Not quite the vogueish ice sculpture centrepiece, it's an extension of the factory system and will only end in self-sabotage. Really, at a time of year when most other mammals are either hibernating or insulating, the answer is fairly prosaic. It's all about treading the line between your own script and the franchised series, not the ubiquitous plot of the Dairy Monster intent on sabotaging your chemical rebalancing act. While emphatically not attempting to condone that elitist old saying: you can take the horse out of the stable but not the stable out of the horse, January is the coolest month (that's literal) and while the killjoy child denying the existence of St. Nic will always tell you to leave the duck/swan metamorphosis to fiction, in your own sweet time, if you didn't do the secular evocation of the holy birth before, you're probably not going to start the massive attack of the Dead Ringer's rendition now, are you? But if you've got to be oppositional and decide to join the activity bus, largely degraded by the ubiquitous use of MTV-type noise, do check out Hill-Norton's Sweaty Betty sports line, and no, we're not making that up. On the plus side, this will have you well on your way to the glow express look without having to open the coffers for a facial, although this may be counteracted by that expensive annual membership unused for the following eleven months, like the unwanted Christmas gifts of irreverent young hoodlums, sorry discerning early consumers, aged five.

Next year, try goose instead of reconstituted turkey, and real chocolate. While we're all brain-washed into feeling duty bound and fuelling the machine of self-help detox commercialisation, the focus shifts from Dickens to Disney with Valentine over-indulgence just around the corner, conveniently coinciding with the floral peasant frouffiness, bouncing curls, and instant radiance rage in Spring/ Summer collections. Unfortunately, novelty singles and cheesy weepies make a comeback for this other seasonal date, but it will no longer be vile to eat cake and this is not an economic conspiracy theory. Just think happy pastel shades, although undoubtedly the weather will not be conducive to this, which is why the January sales are great. You'll still be wearing a Winter wardrobe in May, although the D&G tartan mini-skirt and ironed hair look is out, should it ever have been in? This is also the time to get au courant with current literary affairs and use up those good-enough-to-eat bath thingy gifts, the preserve of the desperate shopper. Endulge in a spot of steaming hot bath-book relaxation, although beware of the papier-mache attack . This off time will also provide much scope for the navel-gazing in which we are encouraged to participate every new year, like a manic cartoon character trapped in a looping storyboard. A Beckettian analogy would suit but I shall, I must, I will desist. It is not blasphemous to modify the script so show a humble ability to try something unconventional. Not so much puttingyourself-out-there as decision not to be attributed to direction. It's not your clothes, sport, laugh and certainly not your watch that says most about who you are. Try a spot of vjing.

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COMMENT & LETTERS

Trinity News 20th January 2004

Trinity News

Letters to the Editor

House 6 2nd Floor D.U. Publications Trinity College Dublin 2 Phone: +353 1 6082335 Fax: +353 1 6082656 E-mail: trinity.news@tcd.ie

Hare hunting ban in Northern Ireland Dear Editor A fatal stab wound has pierced the black heart of Irish bloodsports. In January 2004, a ban on all forms of hare hunting comes into effect in Northern Ireland.

The ban, to be introduced by a special protection order under the Game Preservation Act (Northern Ireland) 1928, will take effect from the 19th of January 2004 for a period of 12 months. This will serve as interim protection while permanent protection for the Irish hare which can be achieved by amending the Wildlife (Northern Ireland) Order 1985, is being considered. This means that all forms of hare hunting: beagling, harrying and hare coursing will be illegal in Northern Ireland.

This move has sent the Northern Ireland hunting community into spasms of contrived outrage as they predict the end of rural Ireland now that they no longer have wildlife to abuse and kill. With hare hunting outlawed what will these dedicated animal abusers do with their time and energy?

How will rural life be the same without the prospect of a day’s torture and killing.

Oh dear! One’s heart aches for those who need to kill something to prove their existence in society.

The Northern Ireland Environment Minister has taken a brave and far reaching move by banning hare hunting. It is now time for the relevant minister in the Republic to match this act and ban hare hunting in the South of Ireland. This would

be an indication that the Irish government is serious about the protection of our natural heritage.

The ban on hare hunting in Northern Ireland is a milestone in the campaign to ban all forms of bloodsports in the 32 counties. Now that the principle has been established, can it be only a matter of time before a total ban on all forms of hunting with dogs comes into place on this island.

Yours sincerely.

John Tierney Campaigns DirectorAssociation of Hunt Saboteurs PO Box 4734 Dublin 1 Rep of Ireland T: 051-352467 (not for publication)

UCD vs Trinity Dear Editor, It was very disappointing to return from Tenerife to find that Dublin University (Ireland's premier university, I have always supposed) had lost a seventh Colours match in succession against UCD. I have had the dubious pleasure of watching six of those defeats. Your account of the match shows it followed an all too familiar pattern. We seem to regard ourselves as a second division team up against a first division team.

I hope the students of DU expect something better of

the scholars who represent them in the world of international scholarship. If DUFC has the belief, self-confidence and sufficient pride in our unique tradition it will win Division II as a fitting tribute to that tradition. The first sight of a Trinity XV that I had was in October 1968 with Billy McCombe converting a try from the touchline.

He was the best kicker of a rugby ball I have ever seen (the superior of Richard Sharpe, and not excluding Jonny Wilkinson). You might ask him to come down and ask him how it is done. If you

Crossword

want to know how to play in the second row, you might ask my old friend Rob Davies. He will tell you what is to be expected of a Trinity pack of forwards and how to win. If you win promotion to Division I of the All-Ireland league (our rightful place in Irish rugby) then perhaps you will learn to face the might of UCD on equal terms.

Very best wishes, Gerald Morgan, FTCD (1993)

Response to Matteo article Dear Editor, I was appalled at the recent article I read in the Trinity News titled "Matt the Jap congratulates President." Perhaps you may not know this, but the term "Jap" is a very offensive ethnic slur to people of Japanese ancestry. A cursory examination into its historical use will reveal that the term is on the same level as slurs applied to people of African origin (such as the "n-word") and is as just as unacceptable a term to use in casual language, particularly when "affectionately" addressing someone.

Trinity is increasingly becoming an international university. I myself am here from the United States, and have noticed that there are students on this campus from a variety of different national and ethnic backgrounds. Your publication should adhere to responsible and respectful representation of the increasingly multi-cultural compo-

sition of your constituents. Using ethnic slurs so cheerfully and thoughtlessly is shameful.

Regards, Katherine Moriwaki Ph.D. Candidate Networks and Telecommunications Research Group Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering University of Dublin, Trinity College moriwaki@mee.tcd.ie

Trinity News unequivocally and sincerely apologises to anyone who was inadvertently offended by the article in question.

Letters can be e-mailed to trinity.news@tcd.ie or sent to The Editor, Trinity News, House 6, TCD, Dublin 2. Although there is no limit of length on letters, most letters range from 50 to 200 words. Brevity is encouraged. Please include the following contact information: name, mailing address, e-mail address and evening phone number (where applicable).

Under no circumstances can the publication of a letter be guaranteed. All submitted letters must bear the name of at least one named individual. ‘Petition’ signatures will not be published. To ensure accurate attribution, authors are encouraged to include their full name, class year (if graduate or undergraduate of TCD), or any relevant affiliations.

compiled by Kirsten Bratke. ‘The Lord of the Rings’. Answers in Issue 6 ACROSS 2 THE EVIL OVERLORD(6) 3 THE ELVES' WEAPON OF CHOICE(3) 4 THE MINES OF - (5) 5 THE ACTRESS WHO PLAYS EOWYN: FIRST NAME(7) 7 A SMALL RACE (5) 9 THEY WERE ELVES ONCE (SG)(3) 10 WHERE DOES THE LOTR TAKE PLACE?(11) 14 MR. BOMBADIL(3) 15 BILBO'S COUSIN(5) 16 GOLLUM'S ALTER EGO(7) 17 THE LADY OF THE EVENSTAR(5)

DOWN 1 2 4 6 8 11 12 13

A KINGDOM(6) MR. GAMGEE(7) MERRY'S REAL NAME(8) THE NOT VERY BRIGHT LORD(4) PIPPIN'S REAL NAME(8) MR. GREENLEAF(7) THE NAME OF THE DARK MOUNTAIN(4) ROHAN'S CAPITAL(6)

Solutions Cr 4 ACROSS 1 astute 7 ostriches 9 ominous 10 frantic 13 fantastic 16 odour 19 incongruous 20 inter 21 cunundrum 24 nascent 27 Belarus 30 nectarine 31 ocular DOWN 2 seem 3 ask 4 frere 5 icon 6 deli 8 cola 9 olfaction 11 Christmas 12 wing nut 14 tense 15 shot 17 druid 18 Zulu 22 nile 23 entry 25 ages 26 Cats 28 ulna 29 ant

Trinity News Editorial Staf f 2003/2004 Editor: Deputy Editor: TNT Editor: Campus News: Student News: Forum: Features: Science: Arts: Theatre: Music: Film: Books: Fashion: Gaeilge: Sport: Picture Editor: Sports Photos: Copy Editor:

Renata McDonnell Conall Bolger John Hollingworth Ian Carey Leah Finnegan Rory Loughnane Neasa Cunniffe Kirsten Bratke Barry White Patrick Stewart Derek Owens Ruth Ni Eidhin Laura Dixon Dave Ring Tommy Connolly Shaula ConnaughtonDeeny Graham Mooney Matt Pitt Mally Foster

WRITERS: Patrick Cosgrave, Tim Walker, Anne-Marie Ryan, Wendy Williams, David Reubin Symington, Jeannane Craig, Carl Cullinane, Laura Fergusson, Liam Dillon, Luke Ryder, Deirdre Breslin, Tana Kaplan, Christine Bohan, Andrew Payne, Conor Maguire, Jon Foster, Tomas Ryan, Joe Carroll, Ben Schiffer, Joanne Carr, Gwen Graham, Claire Flannery, Kathryn Dodd, Jackie Ernst, Kate Gillin, DUFC.

MANY THANKS TO: The University Record, Therese Mac An Airchinnigh, the Publications Committee, David of Grounds Staff, Catering, Pat Morey & the Security Staff, the Switchboard, the Mail Office, the Cleaning Staff and anyone else who assisted in the compilation of this mammoth production.

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SPORT

Sport Editor Shaula Connaughton-Deeny

Trinity News 20th January 2004

19

Trinity start the New Year with a big win UCC 9pts Trinity 20 pts January 10th 2004 Trinity travelled to Cork on Saturday to play the in-form UCC team who were celebrating their colours game for the season. A large crowd turned up to witness a dramatic start to the game as Trinity came out firing on all cylinders and were relentless in their play kicking for position and then keeping ball in hand and showing great continuity and variation. In the early stages UCC could not match the speed and power of the Trinity team, as they were dominated in all phases of the game. Simon Mitchell kicked a 42-metre penalty in the opening minute this was followed by some fine inter-passing from the visitors that led to a scrum

five metres out. The Trinity pack heaved the UCC eight back over their line and #8 Jamie Heaslip dived in to score from close in.

Trinity continued the fast pace and kept up the pressure on the home team. They scored again when they ran a set move in the backs from a scrum on the left hand side of the field on the half way line. A favoured move by the backs brought a well worked try by Full back Mitchell who cruised in unopposed to score near the corner flag. He duly converted his try.

Mitchell followed this up with another penalty to give the visitors a commanding 20-point lead after only 20 minutes, the best start by Trinity in years against top opposition.

Trinity struggled to keep up

the pressure on the home side, and the very talented UCC with their usual plethora of Munster and Ireland underage players inevitably came back into the game. After Mitchellís last penalty Trinity were penalised an incredible seventeen penalties to five and were punished or de-powered by the pedantic referee at scrum time on several occasions. This was particularly frustrating as the Trinity scrum was totally dominant. In the last twenty minutes the Trinity forwards seemed to just lean in and the scrum looked uncontested which was a farce, and a worrying recent trend with referees punishing the seemingly stronger scrum. The line out also went well for Trinity in the first half with 6í7 second row Marc Warburton

taking five steals against the UCC throw.

In the second half Trinity tried to defend their lead by gaining field position and continuing the pressure in UCC half by keeping the ball in hand. Out half Keelan McGowan, back after breaking his jaw in the second AIL game back on November 1st, clinically kept the visitors in good field position with some fine end over end kicks to the corners keeping the team going forward.

UCC chipped away at the Trinity lead with three penalties from Munster U21s outhalf Barry Keeshan. But they never really looked like penetrating the well organised and aggressive visiting defensive line. Due to some ëinterestingí refereeing calls UCC had the majority of

possession in the second half, and credit must go to the Trinity defence.

This was a welcome return to the win column for Trinity and keeps them in touch with the league leaders (see below) with seven games to play.

15 Simon Mitchell,14 Francis Keane,13 John Quigley,12 Brian Hastings, 11 Steve McGee 10 Keelan McGowan, 9 Conor McShane, 1 Niall Conlon, 2 Matt Crockett, 3 Forrest Gainer, 4 Martin Garvey, 5 Marc Warburton, 6 Eddie Molloy, 7 Hugh Hogan, 8 Jamie Heaslip.

Next week Trinity have another bye, followed by a trip to Limerick to play the legendary Young Munster on 24th January.

The ultimate hangover cure Matt Pitt Are we mad or just passionate about our sport? Who else would consider going out on new years day with gale winds blowing, frost on the ground, a chill in the bones and an alcohol-induced headache from the night before.

It was ten o’clock on New Years day when I got a phone call from Dave. He said, "wind is blowing let’s go, I’ll be around to pick you up in 15mins". I had no choice, tired from the night before, not much sleep but I had to go. We packed up the gear, left and arrived in Malahide at 11.30.

The moment I stepped from the car the wind caught the side of my face and I smiled.

Thinking things can only get better. We were the only enthusiastic dedicated windsurfers around. The wind was blowing a Force 4 to 5 from the South so we went around to the north shore to keep safe. We rigged up and went out. Dave went out on his custom built 125L Starboard with a 5.7 rig while I went out on my Yellow 150L

Tiga with a 5.4 rig. Everything was with us and the wind was picking up. The wind was perfect some will say it was gusting too much but it was grand. We blasted back and forth with great big cheesy grins on our faces. I felt like I was flying and I was. Many a time I was ejected out of my Harness and flung some 15 feet across the water. I was surprised that I wasn’t suffering from whiplash. I felt so at home just planeing from one side of the Estuary to the other I was in my element. Every so often I had to go back to the car to warm up the hands. Your hands freeze up in the icy cold water and there is nothing much to do to prevent it. Gloves won’t work because they cramp up your arms so were screwed both ways. By lunchtime more windsurfers had joined in our little world of paradise. It was perfect. Everyone was out speeding around on the water making the most of the strong winds and having loads of fun.

There is a certain buzz you get from zipping over waves at high speed powered only by the force of the wind one will only experi-

Dave Pomeroy and Matt Pitt windsurfing ence if you try it for your self.

You may be asking what drives someone to do this to them self.

I’m not too sure; it could be the shear relaxation of being alone

Trinity trounce UCD at Colours On Sunday, Trinity triumphantly annihilated UCD at the annual Equestrian colours. The day started with the Dressage heats with only one Trinity representative making it through to the second round - Gill Martin smith the Chestnut filly. Gilli then progressed to the final where she started to show her talents with the schnapps’ and snoggs.

This is exactly as it sounds. The winner of the dressage was gilli Martin Smith representing Trinity.

The Prix Caprilli kicked off at lunchtime with a strong Trinity team.

Viv William, Sophie Motley and Emily Edwards. This team trounced the efforts of a their poor UCD rivals. Viv Williams was the overall winner showing off the class of Trinity College in the field of Equestrian. Trinity fielded a strong team of 15 in the Show jumping Event, 8 of them proceeded to the 2nd round with

only one managing to scrape through on the UCD team. It was an all Trinity semi-final and was contested between john Myers, Emma Campbell, Aine Caffery and Elain Doyle. Emma and Aine were then left to battle it out in the final. It was Aine who emerged Triumphantly.

By winning all three competitions Trinity hammered a very poor UCD team to ensure that the colours cup was returned to its true home.

Trinity are now well prepared for the up coming intervarsiteis being held this ear in kill International, Kill, Co. Kildare by Maynooth and Carlow It. Trinity hope to do better this year after an excellent performance in the colours Cup. We would like to thank everyone involved especially Brennanstown Equestrian Centre.

Photo: Matt Pitt

Photo: Tom Murphy

with just the natural elements of wind and water or because it is an adrenaline pumping, fast action cool sport.

This year it is the 20th

Anniversary of the DUWC and will be celebrating this momentous occasion soon with a huge party so keep your eyes open for the posters.

A call to arms for rugby supporters Ulysses Callaghan Dempsey What has happened to rugby at Lansdowne Road? Gone are the days when a herd of your mates would pile into an already packed terrace to mosh, sing and hurl foul abuse at the visiting team. The south terrace is now awash with GHD fans who have come straight from chartbusters and look like they’ve had a lick of varnish applied to their bodies. Where have all the drunk, balding men in sheep skin jackets gone, no longer are our nostrils filled with the smell of pipes and cigar smoke but with dolce and gabanna and Marlboro lights. No longer do small children get mashed into a steel fence as they prepare to run onto a mucky Lansdowne pitch. Not that you can even get onto the pitch with those orange freaks ( and I’m not talking about the fake tanners ) guarding the field as if it was their private stash of heroine. If any young whipper snapper attempts to access the park they are soon bundled up and escorted from the ground.Trained in the Outback these hunter gathers, or stewards as they are widely referred to, are highly skilled in the age old catch and grab technique. Using weapons similar to those of the Roman Gladiators they quickly thwart the attempts of spectators who crave access to the grassy plains of Lansdowne Road.

That’s just the south terrace, the north terrace is equally as bad. I like to call this the sell out terrace, where corporate 20 somethings fester together in their wax jackets. These no-hoper, executive wannabe’s have as much interest in watching a game of rugby as they do in getting their own mothers pregnant.

To compensate for their boredom they make pathetic attempts at humour and wit. A common chant among these brain dead slobs is " Come on Arnold", it seems that these morons find the similarity in pronunciation between Arnold and Ireland to be quite amusing as they

erupt in a fit of vulgar laughing and pig like snorting. As true rugby fans we should be outraged by the behaviour of the IRFU. The sooner they stop selling tickets to these work monkeys and start selling them to the true supporters the better.

A sickening air of rules, regulation and responsibility has also entered the stadium. Fathers no longer get blind drunk while their youngsters run riot around the oldest stadium in Europe.

The days of driving home after 12 pints only to realise that you have to return to Lansdowne because you have the wrong children are gone. We must rekindle this lost spirit of drunken days gone by. It’s as if the very life and soul has been sucked out of Lansdowne Road. What is wrong with Leinster supporters, why are we so dry? Anyone who was at last weeks Heiniken Cup match against Sale is well aware of the dire atmosphere at the ground.

Compared to the dedicated supporters at Thomond Park we look like a bunch of mutes, the Munster crowd made this weeks pool stage match against Gloucester look like a world cup final.

So now it is up to us as Trinity Students and rugby supporters to bring the atmosphere back to Lansdowne Road.

Here’s the plan, get your hands on some terrace tickets before the corporate weasels do and proceed to the Dublin 4 area. Take a brief pit-stop at one of the many watering holes in the area to enhance the pre-match atmosphere.

Once satisfied with your consumption enter the stadium disguising your prepurchased Bavaria in jackets, socks, boxers anything as long as you get them in. Embrace the effects of alcohol, take a deep breath and sing out at the top of your tar stained lungs until every man, woman and child is singing along with you.

Lets turn Lansdowne from painfully quiet old folks home it currently resembles into a stadium worthy of this counrty.

Extra Time

Dance Soc: my two left feet Recently, while passing a typical Friday evening outside the pav, trying to compensate for the intense cold with luke warm Bavaria, I discovered a great new sport. Two of my friends arrived with rosy cheeks and smiles on their faces. Before anyone jumps to any sordid conclusions I will elaborate.

They had been slasa dancing in Regent house. They regaled us all with hilarious tales with tales of the silver stiletto wearing instructor and much falling over each other to cheesy sala music and I knew I had to give it a go.

I convinced a friend to join me and went along to Regent house the following Friday evening at half seven somewhat concious of my two left feet and complete lack of rythm. To our surprise the place was packed everyone clearly as unsure of their dancing prowess as myself. But there was nothing to worry about. We launched in to a series of complicated steps to various dances which were completely alien to me. I had no idea what was going on but had a brilliant time. We spent a very entertaining hour learning the samba, salsa, jive and waltz.

What we were doing looked nothing like the careful steps of our teacher but nor did most people’s and there was an understood comradery in that. That evening we really felt we had earned our Friday night beverages. We have been going ever since and are recruiting the masses to join us in our eccentric passtime. I would defionitely encourage anyone with a penchant for cheesy music and awkward dancing to come along. For the price of a can of Bavaria you can enjoy an hour of good clean fun and fell very smug and sporty afterward in the pub without having been near a gym..

Ladies Boat Club hold art exhibition In the week running up to Christmas the Ladies Boat Club held their most succesful fundraiser to date. They held an art exhibition in the Atrium in aid of the club. The exhibition showed both paintings and sculpture from a wide range of all female artists. The exhibition, held for one night only, was named ‘Blade on the feather’. It was described by Sile Connaughton, exhibition co-ordinator, as a celebration of the considerable achievements of women in both sport and art over the last twenty five years.

The evening went very well with seventeen paintings sold. The total raised has not yet been released but we are assured that DUCAC will be very pleased! Captain Dorthy White was delighted with the event and hopes to start a tradition of regular, large scale fundraising to cover the high capital expendioture rowing entails. The money rasied last term will help DULBC with their effrts for the forthcoming season. This season the girls are doing very well and look forward to regatta season which kicks off in spring.

Want to write for the SPORTS page?

Contact the Editor at

trinity.news@tcd.ie Extra Time compiled by Shaula Connaughton-Deeny

S PORT

Trinity News Vol 56 No. 5 20th January 2004 trinity.news@tcd.ie

20 Sport Editor Shaula Connaughton-Deeny

Trinity paste Cambridge in boxing bouts Ulysses Callaghan Dempsey Last Thursday night saw the exam hall turned into a sporting arena in which Trinity would dominate an exciting night of boxing. A large, bloodthirsty crowd gathered to see the first drops spilt. The night started off well with a win for Trinity’s Pat Donovan. The first round was a little shaky with both fighters showing their nerves, however the second round saw some big punches thrown and landed. Cambridgeís Jonathon Pope required some minor attention in the third before the fight was to continue. The fight went to Trinity and this should have been an sign for the Cambridge boys to take an early shower but God bless them, they battled on.

If the first fight wasn’t enough for those Cambridge troopers to throw in the towel and don their finest evening wear a few bavaria in the pav, then the second fight certainly was. Although Cambridge’s Alec Bird took the upper hand in the first, Trinity’s Dominic Farnan remained cooler than cool and his ice cold jab saw Bird hit the floor faster than some drunk fresher at

the Trinity Ball. Trinity 2, Cambridge 0.

Of Course no sporting event would be complete with out a visit from our good friends at U.C.D. Trinity’s Richie Morrin was by far the strongest in the first round, taking advantage of some sloppy blocking from UCD’s Kevin Bradley and nailing some excellent head shots. Both fighters came out all guns blazing in the second round wanting to end the fight there and then, it was a heavy hitting round with both fighters giving the crowd something to cheer about. The third was a more lethargic affair with the two fighters tired from the previous round. The fight went to Trinity keeping in motion a well trained Trinity winning machine. U.C.Dís other contestant Ray Lee beat Cambridge opponent Sholto Hanvey making it clear to our English guests that one must not simply study the art of boxing but actually go out and prac tice it.

All in all the night was a success for the Trinity boxing club, winning seven out of the nine fights. Trinity’s Eoin Sheridan lost narrowly to CIE’s Stephen Dillon who appeared to gain some sort of magical power

from his illumines yellow boots, highlighting the fact that fashion sense was not one of Cambridgeís strong points either. The only other blip on an enjoyable evening was the controversial decision of ringside referees to overturn a win by Trinityís Cameron Lynch. The victory was handed to Tallaght IT’s Derek Murtagh. Eye witnesses reported that they had seen Mr. Murtagh making it very clear to the ringside referees that he was aware of each of there residential addresses and that he was also familiar with the whereabouts of their automobiles. Needless to say the fight was overturned and the referees decision was final. The rest of the evening passed unsuccessful for the Cambridge lot with the Trinity Heavy weights showing them that it’s just not cricket. If anything was to be learnt by the visitors it was that boxing is not their forte and that they should stick to constructing witty remarks condemning their academic superiors Oxford in an attempt to salvage some lost pride after their disappointing performance in Dublin. If you cant take the heat, get back to the library.

Richie Morrin taking advice in his corner

UCD beat Trinity in Colours UCD 25pts Trinity 18pts, December 17th 2003 UCD won the colours for the seventh year running when they beat archrivals Trinity in a fast and open game at Donnybrook last night. UCDs 1st Division experience seemed to give them an edge in most departments particularly early on.

Trinity opened the game by attacking UCD off scrum ball, the backs carved their opponents up on four occasions in the opening minutes, only for the last pass to be forced or poorly maintained. Trinityís failure to keep the ball and play for position was the story of the game for the

men in white. UCD dominated territorially and they scored tries in the 12th and 27th minute. The second try was particularly cruel as it was a clear ëknock oní both teams virtually stopped playing (i.e waiting for the whistle) only for the obviously unsighted referee to award a try.

Trinityís defence was severely tested and for the most part was up to the challenge. The forwards battled manfully and matched their rivals in the set piece. The backs particularly centre John Quigley looked dangerous whenever they got the ball as both teams played at a very quick tempo. Out half Pierre Lazies kicked

a penalty on half time.

Down 15-3 at half time was always going to be ëbig askí for the second Division outfit. Full back Thomas Horner kicked a drop goal early in the second half after some heavy pressure from Trinity as they chased the game. UCD kicked a penalty of their own to keep their leading margin to 18-6.

In the 64th minute the game turned for good, and effectively put out of Trinityís reach. Trinity attacked relentlessly through several phases with ball in hand and attacked wide out on the right wing, only to turn the ball over in the tackle and UCD

Trinity and UCD packs face off for a scrum

Photo:Stephen Byrne

run the ball back 70 metres to score under the posts. 25-6 was an inflated score-line for the boys from Belfield.

Trinity showed huge character and somehow upped the tempo again in the last ten minutes or so and came away with two fine tries by centre Brian Hastings. The first after some continuity and a nice piece of work by wing Francis Keane, and the second sprinting from 30 metres out after some quick hands by the Trinity team. This certainly gave deserved respectability to the final score.

This was a great test for this very young but talented Trinity team against a top 1st Division team.

Their weaknesses were exposed on the night as they were forced to play at a level, they have never previously had to play this season. They certainly played their part in an entertaining game played in front of a large festive Donnybrook crowd (approx 3500). The experience can only stand to them.

After Christmas it will be back to the All Ireland league with a tough encounter in Cork against UCC on Saturday 10th January, 3pm.

Team;15 Thomas Horner,14 Francis Keane,13 John Quigley (George Byron 65), 12 Brian Hastings, 11 Steve McGee (Ruairi Kerr 60),10 Pierre Lazies,9 Conor McShane (David Sisam 73) 1 Niall Conlon, 2 Matt Crockett (Jamie Musgrave 73) 3 Forrest Gainer ( David Rowe 73) 4 Martin Garvey, 5 Marc Warburton (Conor Queenan 73), 6 Hugh Hogan, 7 Richard White (Eddie Molloy 50) Jamie Heaslip.

Photo: Matt Pitt

Blazing a trail for the blind "Nothing in life is about what it should be - it's the way it is.

What you make of it is what counts."

Mark Pollock (27) is an inspirational speaker, sportsman and entrepreneur who delivers highenergy, goal driven presentations to public and private sector organisations. His seminars enable teams and individuals to tap into their unused potential with incredible results.

Mark is blind but remarkably won silver and bronze medals at the 2002 Commonwealth Games for Northern Ireland. More recently, in September 2003, he completed the Gobi March, an arduous seven-day, six-marathon foot race through the heat of the Gobi Desert in China.

Now, he is lecturing in business studies, carrying out post-graduate research into leading high performance teams' and training for both 'The North Pole Arctic Marathon' and 'The Greatest Race' on Earth in the Canadian Rockies.

On April 10, 2004 , Mark and his team-mate John O'Regan, will race at the top of the world at the Geographic North Pole, one of the

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Miscellany 1894 ~ 2004

Ireland’s oldest student publication, celebrating 110 years of quality socio-political and philosophical commentary, is seeking an editor to further its journalistic legacy For further information contact the DU Publications Committee at dupublications@tcd.ie Experience desirable but not essential

Mark Pollock

remotest parts of the planet.

They will race an official marathon distance of 26.2 miles over hillocks of ice and energy sapping soft snow in the high Arctic Ocean .

There is no land at the North Pole and immediately below the icy course of between 6 and 12 feet lays 12,000 feet of Arctic Ocean . Temperatures are expected to plummet to between –25C and –50C with the wind chill.

This is Mark's first extreme sub-zero event however, Irishman John O'Regan is an Arctic survival specialist and vetran of the ultra-endurance event, Marathon des Sables.

Mark is planning to enter the greatest race on earth, Race the Rockies 30-day challenge. This ultra endurance event, challenges athletes to run, mountainbike and canoe over 3300 kilometers of mountainous terrain, from near the US/Canadian border to Dawson City, Yukon in Canada.

This epic race will push athletes to their physical and psychological limits and Mark will race as part of a team of two.

Together Mark and his teammate will race for up to 12 hours each day culminating with a non-stop 266 km canoe on day 29 and 30.

As the longest and one of the most spectacular adventure races on the planet, Race the Rockies will humble the toughest adventurer, and tap the greatest in human potential.

Mark hopes to raise funds for Sightsavers International and is also looking for sponsorship of his participation in the race. All enquiries can be made via polar marathoner and event organiser, Richard Donovan, at the official race website http:// www.npmarathon.com or through www.markpollock.com

Photo: Matt Pitt

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