2003 Trinity News 08

T H E

I N D E P E N D E N T

S T U D E N T

N E W S PA P E R

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T R I N I T Y

Trinity News S W1OMEN 904 -2004

CENTENARY PAGE 11 PULL-OUT CENTRE SPECIAL

College News Provost’s warning for departments....................p.2

Derek Owens

MONTHS AFTER the verdict, the fallout from the ‘Annabelle’s Case’ continues to affect the Irish media, with sections of the press now facing severe censure and even legal action for Protests in Beirut...............p.4 their handling of the affair.

Critics have claimed that coverage of the case was frequently sensationalistic, biased, and occasionally illeThe real Gambino and gal, with the private lives of Kieran.........................................p.6 the defendants being invaded and probed, and details of

International Student News Forum

Featur es Rwanda- trapped in a cage of silence after genocide.........p.8 The world of foreignn correspondent John Simpson.....p.9

Gaeilge Cosc agaus Cain.............p.10

Science Theatr e The International Dance Festival Ireland..................p.20

Music Sharing and Suing - music file sharing............................p.21

Books Noam Chomsky’s “Power and Terror”, post 9/11 essays.....................................p.22

Film The Stella Cinema a stellar experience.............................p.23

Ar ts European Disunion and the art of Verne Dawson.........p.24

Spor t Irish Student Trampolining Open................................p.27 Rugby Promotion Prospects........................p.28

talks to Ruth Patten Ni Eileen Chuilleanain ALSO: win God Fay in Colm Toib r Alan Warne

trinity.news@tcd.ie 13th April 2004 Vol 56; No.8 Est. 1953

Always Free

TNT

S PORT

Salman Rushdie DBC Pierre

DU Boat Club Win Colours

TABLOID SUPPLEMENT

PAGE 28

2004

T talks to TN C Pierre t me: DB All abou

the case itself being reported improperly, in such a way as to interfere with the course of the trial.

The intense interest surrounding the case resulted in pictures of the defendants’ houses being printed, the academic and sporting records of the defendants being scrutinized, and evidence that was not presented to the jury allegedly being made public in the national and local media. It is understood that unfair treatment in the media, which, it is

claimed, prevented a truly fair trial, will form part of the basis of an appeal launched by certain defendants against their conviction. For legal reasons, none of the participants in the case, or the appeal, would confirm or deny this, despite a senior source in Blackrock College admitting that "It’s obvious we got a bit of a hammering over the last year".

Whether or not the press treatment of the defendants leads to any overturned convictions, or even to an appeal,

proceedings have already begun against certain papers, with the College Tribune, a UCD student publication, among them. Editor Daniel McDonnell has appeared in court on charges of contempt, as the Tribune is accused of printing evidence introduced in court, though not in the presence of the jury, thus interfering in the trial and potentially influencing the jury. For legal reasons, mr. Mcdonnell was unavailable for comment on the matter.

Under the stringent laws designed to prevent press interference in the legal process, the Tribune faces a fine of up to 10,000 and the editor responsible for publicising information illegaly could potentially be sentenced to several days imprisonment. While in cases of this type custodial sentences are rare, a sizeable fine is a distinct possibility.

While a Contempt of Court charge could be weathered by most major newspapers, the consequences of this incident

for the Tribune could be fatal. As an independent, freely- distributed newspaper, the Tribune depends on advertising money to cover its operating costs. Being found guilty would have the dual effect of discouraging advertisers as well as placing the burden of a fine on the paper’s finances.

Thus, UCD’s only wholly independent student paper is confronted with the very realy threat of financial insolvency and closure.

going to be the best line-up ever but it always ends up like this. I’ll definitely be going’. This attitude seems to be prevalent among many students and the estimated 5, 500 people to be in attendance are unlikely to be complaining by the end of the

night. For most people the Ball doesn’t really seem to be about the line-up of artists performing. Posters around campus are describing the night as ‘campus in carnival atmosphere’ and there’s no doubt that this is what the night’s all about. Wandering

between stages and on the cobblestones in formal dress in the middle of the night is part of the experience of being a Trinity student. This was summed up by one student who said ‘It doesn’t matter to me who the bands are.

I can’t even remember who

played last year. It’s about getting dressed up and having fun on campus!’

College authorities will doubtless be anxious to avoid some of the negative publicity this year that was gener-

Charlatans to rock the Campanile Andrew Payne

Sexy Scientist - female clones..............................p.19

Sen talks Malcolm Rushdie to Salman

D U B L I N

UCD student paper Tribune face judge over Anabels coverage

Maynooth’s Galway cycle for charity........................p.3

Revolution in the teanga Gaeilge .......................................p.6

th April e 4 13 ent Issu Supplem & Culture s Two Arts Trinity New

C O L L E G E

AFTER A lot of speculation the line up for the 45th Trinity Ball has finally been announced. This year’s event will be headlined by UK act The Charlatans and will take place on campus on Friday 7th May. Tickets cost 67 euro and are available to all present Trinity staff, students, and graduates.

The Ball, often labelled as ‘Europe’s biggest private Party’, is the undoubted highlight of the college calendar and has been graced in previous years by the likes of The Clash, The Smiths, and The Cure. The Charlatans, best know for their 1997 album ‘Tellin Stories’, will be joined on this year’s four stages by The Rapture, Jerry Fish and the Mudbug Club, and 2 Many DJ’s (Soulwax) amongst others. This line-up has been met with a mixed reaction with some students questioning whether it can

be justified that tickets to the event now cost more than Slane or Witnness one day tickets.

One student questioned by TN commented, ‘I’m pretty disappointed to be honest.

Last year’s line-up was stronger with Mundy, Alabama 3, Damien Dempsey, and Death in Vegas. The only act I’d really want to see this year is Jerry Fish but I already saw him for free in the Buttery in Rag Week’. The Charlatans are arguably as big a name as recent headliners such as Supergrass or Aslan, but rumours abound that bigger names were nearly lured in.

Primarily these have centred around long time rumours that The Thrills were going to headline.

A more pragmatic view was taken by another student who said, ‘The line-up’s as good as any other year I’ve been in college. It’s always really hyped up that’s it’s

continued page 2

GSU and SU relations deteriorate Ian Carey

THE ALREADY frosty relationship between the Students Union and the Graduate’s Union turned positively artic this week INDEX College News....................2,3 with the SU officers being denied entry to the emerStudent News......................4 gency general meeting of the Forum................................6,7 GSU. Annie Gatling, Mike Features.............................8,9 Miley and Heledd Fychan Gaeilge...............................10 were denied access by memWomen’s Centenary bers of the GSU at the door, Special...........................11-18 only Deputy President Katie Science...............................19 Dickson was granted entry Theatre................................20 on the grounds that she was Music..................................21 reporting for the University Record. The reason why the Books..................................22 SU Officers were keen to Film....................................23 attend the EGM was the posArts.....................................24 sibility of major constitutionFashion...............................25 al changes being made by the Comment & Letters............26 graduates. Throughout the Sport..............................27,28 year, President of the GSU Mr Michael Dowling fought vigorously to get representa-

tion for the GSU on the SU Executive Council and the SU wanted the same rights given to them.

The lack of dialogue over the issue forced SU President Annie Gatling to write an e-mail to members of the GSU pleading with them to make the appropriate inclusions to the new constitution as a gesture of cooperation and fairness. The contents of the e-mail included a proposal to have the SU Sabbatical Officers as members of the GSU Council and the SU President as a member of the GSU Executive Council; this would bring the GSU in line with the changes made by the SU in their constitutional review. The e-mail also included a suggestion that Article 4 of the GSU Constitution be changed. The original article read:

The Union alone shall represent and defend the interests of graduate students on Department, School, Faculty, College, and University Committees and shall be empowered to negotiate with College on all matters concerning both the employment of graduate students and the renumeration for such employment with College.

This article seems to deny the role of the SU in the representation of all students and Annie Gatling suggested that they change the wording to state that the GSU is the "primary" representative body as opposed to the "sole" representative body.

These changes were not made and it leaves questions surrounding the commitment of the GSU to providing the best representation possible. The dedication to inclu-

sivity and openness displayed by GSU President Mr Dowling earlier in the year doesn’t see to extend both ways. There was an amendment made to the article in question. It stated "however where the interests of the graduate students and undergraduate student coincides, the Union (GSU) may decide to work in conjunction with the Student’s Union."

This addition is so weak as to be completely useless in advising the GSU on future policy.

Michael Dowling spoke to Trinity News about the allegations of double standards.

In his defence he said that the process of constitutional change that is underway at the moment is a two-stage process. The first stage, he explained, took place at the EGM on the 2nd of April.

Left to right GSU President Michael Dowling and SU President Annie Gatling That stage was focused on the internal workings of the GSU i.e. the remodelling of the council to make it similar to the SU and the setting up of an electoral commission.

He said that the second phase of the constitutional review would be worked upon over the summer and that would include the relationship between the GSU and the SU. The reason why the SU Officers were not admitted was mainly because they seemed determined to delay proceedings

and the meeting needed to be finished up ASAP. Annie Gatling also spoke to the Trinity News in relation to events surrounding the EGM. She felt that not changing the constitution was going against the spirit of the memorandum of agreement that stipulates good relations and working together for the most effective representation of the student. "The GSU might be a separate capatated body but it cannot live in a bubble."

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COLLEGE NEWS

Trinity News 13th April 2004

News Editor Ian Carey

An Information Technology revolution Wendy Williams ON THURSDAY 15th April at 7pm, Fabrizio Gagliardi, the Data grid Project Leader at CERN (the European Centre for Particle Physics) will be conducting a lecture in the Burke Theatre in Trinity College under the heading, "Information Technology Revolution! Enabling Grids for E-Science in Europe".

Technological developments in recent years have led to a vision of a virtual supercomputer centre, formed by integrating many computer cen-

tres across the globe that could prove to be a catalyst for an information technology revolution: the Grid.

The idea behind Enabling Grids is that of an infrastructure which will connect large, geographically distributed computer clusters and data storage facilities, to make available straightforward, dependable and continuous access to these resources.

As a result of this vision there may be benefits for several scientific applications, in the form of a significant increase in the computing power that is available and a rise in peak

capacity. Grid technology will also enable scientific communities to develop new ways to share and analyse sizeable data sets, which will prove advantageous to both the quality and quantity of scientific output.

In the past few years, several projects have displayed initial results for a range of aspects of Grid computing. At the moment there remains no real production-quality Grids that can provide continual and dependable Grid services to various scientific communities however, the new European project Enabling Grids for E-

Provost warns Departments of radical changes in the pipeline

In Brief CSC Awards The Best of the Best Fabrizio Gagliardi, Datagrid Project Leader at CERN

Trinity Ball 2004 line-up continued from page 1

Sinead Redmond THE PROVOST, John Hegarty, has recently warned TCD staff of potential massive changes in the allocations of funds and resources to various departments. This comes in a time of speculation on the future of academic financial support, and conjecture about the potential of venturing from the public sector into becoming a private institution, along the lines of the American university model, as recently recommended by the Higher Education Authority. The Provost points out that "the basis for the annual allocation of resources has been historical with little regard for activity or performance." However much sense this point makes in theory, in practice it may be very difficult to gauge the "performance" of individual departments.

Should College choose to go down the route of judging each department on academic results and exam scores, charges of weighting scores may be laid at the door of various faculties in the future, since departments would obviously require higher scores to obtain more funds.

Dr. Hegarty cites the "fallout from the cutbacks" in government funding in the last budget and the "downward trend in public funding" as reasons for the need to consider an alternative means of allocating resources in College. He clearly states that he is not "averse to considering change that is radical". He is currently involved in developing a long-term plan for the future changing needs, pointing out that this is a worldwide trend of change, prevailing right across the globe. It is the opinion of the Provost that the academic structures that Trinity is currently operating on, and has been for the past 40 years, "are no longer optimal for the future delivery of our core mission of teaching and research". He refers to Scottish universities, resembling Trinity in background and

Science in Europe (EGEE) aims to fulfil this need. The lecture given by Fabrizio Gagliardi will explain this vision of Grid computing in what, as the title implies, is a very radical time for Information Technology. The lecture is part of a series of lectures run by the Royal Irish Academy who have been promoting study in the sciences, humanities and social studies since they were founded in May 1785. Anyone interested in attending this lecture can register online for free tickets at www.ria.ie.

composition, which have revised their funding and resource allocation due to the changing international atmosphere he speaks of, and says that the Structures Working Group, set up to recommend specific changes and how to implement them, is currently examining the models implemented there, hoping to learn from both their "experience and mistakes".

While there is no doubt that "the situation we find ourselves in as a University requires a strong and effective response", the question remains: What exactly is this response to consist of, and where will it hit hardest? A timetable has been laid out by Dr. Hegarty, naming October 2005 as the final date of implementation of the restructuring he speaks of, and yet no clear statement of what measures are being considered has been given. To survive in the future of the world of academia, which is changing rapidly from the time-honoured models, Trinity too must change, that much is indisputable. However, the path to change must be well thought out, properly considered and transparent, and all involved must be informed of those implementations that will affect them.

ated last year following a Sunday Independent article on the Ball. Students planning on arriving drunk at the event have been warned that they will not be admitted. The gates will also be closed at half 12 again this year and no one else will be allowed to enter after this time. Students’ bags will also be checked for alcohol upon entering.

This has led to complaints that organisers are planning to rip students off with expensive drink prices inside the event as has been claimed in recent years.

Despite worries that people may have over the lineup and heavy drinking, for most students the Ball promises to be a great night. Tickets can only be booked online from www.trinity-ball.tcd.ie and are priced at 67 euro.

After months of speculation the line up for the 45th Trinity Ball has finally been announced. This year’s event will be headlined by UK act The Charlatans and will take place on campus on Friday 7th May. Tickets cost 67 euro and are available to all present Trinity staff, students, and graduates.

The Ball, often labelled as ‘Europe’s biggest private Party’, is the undoubted highlight of the college calendar and has been graced in previous years by the likes of The Clash, The Smiths, and The Cure. The Charlatans, best know for their 1997 album ‘Tellin Stories’, will be joined on this year’s four stages by The Rapture, Jerry Fish and the Mudbug Club, and 2 Many DJ’s (Soulwax) amongst others. This lineup has been met with a mixed reaction with some students questioning whether it can be justified that tickets to the event now cost more than Slane or Witnness one day tickets.

One student questioned by

On Wednesday 7th April at the Society of the Year Awards 2004, Trinity College’s societies were awarded with a motley of awards to celebrate a year of achievements. The Central Societies Committee, chaired by Roger Middleton, organised the event at the Hilton, sponsored by Ernst & Young and Allied Irish Bank. Competing against five other societies, including the Greens and Durns, Best Overall Society went to D.U. Filmmakers, who receive a plaque and EUR300.

Best Small Society: Maths; Best Medium Society: Greens; Best Large Society: University Philosophical Society; Best Event: Filmmakers – Projecting Sound; Best Individual: Nick Hodsman (Orchestral and Singers); Best Fresher: Kat Sheane (Trinity FM); Best Poster: Biological Med Ball; Best Website: D.U. Players

Today’s television is tommorrow’s theory

TN commented, ‘I’m pretty disappointed to be honest.

Last year’s line-up was stronger with Mundy, Alabama 3, Damien Dempsey, and Death in Vegas. The only act I’d really want to see this year is Jerry Fish but I already saw him for free in the Buttery in Rag Week’. The Charlatans are arguably as big a name as recent headliners such as Supergrass or Aslan, but rumours abound that bigger names were nearly lured in.

Primarily these have centred around long time rumours that The Thrills were going to headline.

A more pragmatic view was taken by another student who said, ‘The line-up’s as good as any other year I’ve been in college. It’s always really hyped up that’s it’s going to be the best line-up ever but it always ends up like this. I’ll definitely be going’. This attitude seems to be prevalent among many students and the estimated 5, 500 people to be in attendance are unlikely to be complaining by the end of the night. For most people the Ball doesn’t really seem to be about the line-up of artists performing. Posters around campus are describing the night as ‘campus in carnival atmosphere’ and there’s no doubt that this is what the night’s all about.

Wandering between stages and on the cobblestones in formal dress in the middle of the night is part of the experience of being a Trinity student. This was summed up by one student who said ‘It doesn’t matter to me who the bands are. I can’t even remember who played last year. It’s about getting dressed up and having fun on campus!’

College authorities will doubtless be anxious to avoid some of the negative publicity this year that was generated last year following a Sunday Independent article on the Ball.

Students planning on arriving drunk at the event have been warned that they will not be admitted. The gates will also be closed at half 12 again this year and no one else will be allowed to enter after this time. Students’ bags will also be checked for alcohol upon entering.

This has led to complaints that organisers are planning to rip students off with expensive drink prices inside the event as has been claimed in recent years.

Despite worries that people may have over the lineup and heavy drinking, for most students the Ball promises to be a great night. Tickets can only be booked online from www.trinity-ball.tcd.ie and are priced at 67 euro.

From April Fools to April 3rd Trinity College played host an international conference, ‘American Quality TV’ organised by Trinity’s own Dr. Janet McCabe, lecturer in Film Studies, and Kim Akass of the London Metropolitian. Attended by nearly 80 delegates from all corners of the world, many leading academics in the fields of culture, media, english, film and television studies, the conference focussed on defining Quality television in an American context.

The event was kicked off in the Samuel Beckett Cente by Dr David Lavery, Professor of English at Middle Tennessee Stage University and editor of recent books such as This Thing of Ours: Investigating The Sopranos’ (2002) and ‘Fighting the Forces: What’s at Stake in Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ (2002), followed by the book launch for ‘Reading Sex and the City’ (I.B.Tauris, 2004). Edited by Dr McCabe and Ms Akass, this excellent and highly readable collection of essays explores the series’ issues such as fashion, Mr Right, and of course, sex, employing diverse means to look at today’s television culture.

Both days saw speakers deliberate in depth the value of well known TV series such as 24, C.S.I, ER, Sex and the City, Twin Peaks, The Simpsons, The Sopranos, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Six Feet Under. Topics such like, ‘You Wake Up One Day and Your Baby’s Stolen a Foot: Dialogue and Female Discourse in Six Feet Under’, ‘High School Can Be Hell: De-mythifying the High School Experience on Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ and ‘Pleasures of the Flesh: Seeing and Knowing in ER’ are some examples of the detailed analysis undertaken by international panelists.

Day 3 wrapped up with ‘Debating Quality’ and a valuable inside view from RTE’s Director of Broadcast and Acquisitions, Dermot Horan, which balanced the conference’s academic bias. For Europeans some meaning might have been lost in translation, such as the debates surrounding the US channel HBO, but the conference firmly underlined the continuing need for serious television criticism and on its cultural effect, most especially in Ireland where imports constitute most of the available air time.

More information: available on www.janetandkim.com and www.readingsexandthecity.com

Applictions called for NDA Research Scholarships 2004 THE NATIONAL Disability Authority (NDA) is a statutory body with a key role in promoting and securing the rights of people with disabilities. It is seeking to promote research on disability and related issues by offering two postgraduate research scholarships in the 2004/2005 academic year.

The Scholarships are open to postgraduate students undertaking a PhD or Research Masters Degree, whose research is relevant to the current strategic priorities of the NDA. Applications from research students with a dis-

ability are particularly welcome and the closing date for receipt of completed application forms is Monday 31st May 2004.

In 2004 the NDA is inviting applications for disabilityrelated research which focus on one or more of the following areas: health, education, transport, poverty/income adequacy employment & training.

According to Ms Angela Kerins, Chair of the National Disability Authority: "The aims of the NDA Scholarships are to promote much needed postgraduate research in Ireland on matters relating to

disability which will make the difference to the lives of people with disabilities and furthermore to support postgraduate research undertaken by researchers who have a disability themselves.

"We need more research on disability issues at postgraduate and especially PhD level.

The NDA is proud to facilitate the high quality research projects about to be undertaken by our three award winners.

Their research will provide valuable insights into some of the challenges faced by people withdisabilities everyday" she added.

TN Editor 04/05 Trinity News is pleased to announce the Editor for 2004/2005 is current News Editor Ian Carey.

Clare O’Connor, director of the NDA The value of each Scholarship will be up to EUR10,000 per annum, for a maximum of three years full time study.

Further details & application forms are available on www.nda.ie

College News In Brief compiled by Ian Carey and Renata McDonnell

News Editor

Trinity News

CAMPUS NEWS

Ian Carey

14th April 2004

3

Maynooth students’ cycle to raise over EUR 25,000 for charity Anne-Marie Ryan THE GALWAY Cycle, an annual event undertaken by students of NUI Maynooth, has so far raised over EUR25,000 for the Irish Association for Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus (IASBAH).

Around 90 cyclists and 100 volunteers participated in the event, which took place between Friday 26th and Sunday 28th March 2004. The Maynooth Students for Charity Galway Cycle 2004 was officially launched outside Leinster House by the Minister for Education and Science, Mr. Noel Dempsey TD. The Galway Cycle has been running as a successful fundraising event for the past 17 years, and in that time has raised over EUR300,000 for various children’s charities.

Cyclists followed a route which took them from Maynooth to Galway and back again, travelling a distance of approximately

120 miles each way. The participants left the Students Union Bar on the NUI Maynooth north campus at 6am on Friday 26th March, cycling through Kinnegad, Moate, Athlone, Ballinasloe, Loughrea and Galway city. Once in Galway, the participants spent the whole of Saturday fundraising for IASBAH, where they raised 9,000Euro alone, in spite of Ireland playing Scotland that day in the Six Nations rugby tournament. Each year, a different charity is chosen as the beneficiary of funds raised during the cycle, with the Irish Association for Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus being this year’s choice. IASBAH is a national voluntary organisation representing around 1,400 members nationwide, from birth to adulthood.

The incidence of Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus in Ireland is the second highest in the world.

Launch of new poster campaign aimed at young Irish voters Cassidy Knowlton DUBLIN CITY Community Forum and Dublin City Development Board have launched a new poster campaign to encourage young people to vote. The campaign is aimed at people under 25 and first-time voters. They are linked to an on-line democracy forum, www.dublin.ie/democracy.

There are four posters, one of which is encouraging support for lowering the voting age to 16 from its present 18. The other three carry a similar message. Two picture defiant young people, with the

words: "You don’t let even them tell you how to dress.

Don’t them run your country without you." The fourth poster shows a young man giving the two fingers to the camera and the tagline "Use your vote, not your fingers."

Ireland has the lowest first-time voter turnout in the EU, a worrying fact that is behind the new poster campaign.

According to the Young Fine Gael website, only 41.5% of 18-19 year-olds and 53.4% of 20-24 yearolds voted in the general election in 2002. Having no interest in voting or politics and not being registered to vote are far and

away the most common reasons cited by non-voters for why they stayed away from the polls. The new poster campaign targets both of these problems, both encouraging young people to register to vote and portraying voting as an essential way to get their voices heard.

Peter Finnegan, Director of Dublin City Development Board believes the campaign is particularly relevant to young people right now.

"Recent events in the planning tribunal on the national stage, and in Iraq on the international stage have challenged many peoples’ belief in the value of

participating in our democracy. This project is designed to tackle that disillusionment. We are encouraging young people in particular to register and participate in the democratic system. The development of the www.dublin.ie democracy platform will also allow citizens to extend their participation beyond the simple casting of a vote at the time of elections."

The dublin.ie democracy page has links explaining what the Daíl, Seanad and President of Ireland do and how they are elected.

It also explains how to register to vote, and has a link to the electoral regis-

News Comment: Trinity Ball organised by charlatans?

Duncan Eoin Macrae One to another Peace to my brother Always giving me his thing for free Sad to knock ya – good to rock ya And I’m doing the best that I can Recognise the song?

Thought not. These lines are the chorus of The Charlatans’ 1997 hit "One to another." The announcement of The Charlatans as the headliners for the 2004 Trinity Ball disappointed me, and, judging from people I’ve spoken to, leaves a lot of Trinity students non-plussed. In the lead up to the announcement speculation had been rife about the Thrills and the Super Furry Animals, but in the event most people seemed to respond with a plaintive "Oh them!" or a "Who?" Instead of acts on the edge of superstardom, the Trinity Ball is being headlined by a group of over-the-hill rockers from the mid90s. The Charlatans, you see, can not even be called fallen stars – they are no Stone Roses or Morrissey - but were rather an act that was moderately popular for a short time and have since faded away.

Their last UK No.1 album was Tellin’ Stories

back in 1997 and, although they had three pretty successful singles off that album that was their last time on the big stage. Tickets for most gigs on The Charlatans’ latest UK tour (to commence after their appearance at the Trinity Ball) remain on sale at the time of writing despite being made available as long ago as the 25th February.

It would be easy to blame SU Ents Officer Kev Cahill or his team for this apparent failure to secure a big name band to headline the Ball but anyone who saw Turn in the Buttery, and I was lucky to, knows that Kev can book a band doing the right thing.

However, things just seem to have gone wrong when a big name band was required to headline Trinity’s biggest social event. The blame, I think, lies elsewhere: the perception of Trinity in wider society and the strange decline of the student radical.

Trinity has probably never been cool. The (unjust) image of a slightly archaic, exclusive, posh and snobbish institution is one the college struggles to shake.

It is no doubt partly the fault of history, Trinity’s place in the Protestant Ascendancy and the

beautiful period architecture of the campus.

The image is also of a firmly Dublin institution populated by well-heeled south-siders against UCD’s image as the college of the Republic.

Despite Tara Palmer Tomkinson’s best efforts, posh has never been cool and this image of Trinity is no doubt a discouragement to bands who pride themselves on their underground musical credibility.

The image of duffelcoat-wearing, CNDbadge-toting students of the 80s is long gone. The politicisation of students back then and their willingness to embrace the new and more diverse elements in the rock music scene was one of the great attractions for bands who wished to develop student followings. It marked them out as trend setters. No longer do we students propound the eventual socialist revolution one moment, and lap up the Smiths in the next. As a group we have moved much closer to the mainstream of society: we are mostly politically apathetic (the fact that a 25% turnout in the SU election was seen as a spectacularly high is sad testament to this) and perhaps less interested in musical credibility

than previous generations of students.

An example of this change is that three or four years before I came to college I read a newspaper article saying that a student should consider what their wall posters in halls of residence showed about their personalities (Pink Floyd’s iconic Dark Side of the Moon album cover image was recommended for those who wanted to display musical good taste). Now wall posters are banned in the brave new world of Trinity Hall. Given this change in the mores of the student populations, is it any wonder that bands are not queuing up to play to five-and-a-halfthousand future accountants, rather than the thousands of politically conscious, musically particular students in previous generations? There was once considerable cachet for bands who were adored amongst students – it signified a modish cult status; no band who plays the Trinity Ball now is going to receive the same boost.

Seeing that our college and we, the students are no longer cool, maybe the only charlatans are those telling us that great bands are willing to play the Trinity Ball.

ter so that users living in the Dublin City Council area can check whether or not they are registered to vote. The website also features messages from the President and Taoiseach of Ireland the Lord Mayor of Dublin. It is an excellent introduction into the workings of Irish politics for first-time voters and for those to whom politics is still something of a mystery.

Those who are not registered to vote have until 28 May to do so in order to vote in the next election.

Forms are available at Garda stations, libraries and post offices.

Spina Bifida is a type of birth defect, caused by failure of the neural tube to develop properly and is linked with Hydrocephalus, a condition where cerebrospinal fluid accumulates within the ventricles of the brain, causing raised pressure inside the head. An average of one baby in every 1000 is born in Ireland with Spina Bifida and at least 80% of people with Spina Bifida have some degree of Hydrocephalus.

Shani Williamson, Communications Officer of IASBAH, described the event as a great success and wished to thank sincerely all participants and volunteers on behalf of IASBAH. The funds raised will contribute greatly towards the treatment, education, advancement and rehabilitation of persons born with Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus in Ireland.

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Trinity News

Student News Editor

STUDENT NEWS

13th April 2004

Leah Finnegan

News Feature: Beruit protest over Yassin assassination Clíona Rattigan The assassination of Sheik Yassin, the spiritual leader of Hamas, by Israeli forces outside the Gaza City Mosque sparked the eruption of demonstrations across the Midde East. Over 7,000 students from the Al-Azhar University in C a i r o took t o the

Hamas leader Sheik Yassin

streets to protest. 3,000 students in Yemen also voiced their outrage at the assassination.

Cliona Rattigan, a postgraduate student at Trinity College, was visiting friends at the American University in Beirut, Lebanon.

The following article is an account of her experience in Beirut at a time of crisis in the Middle East.

When I landed at Frankfurt airport en route to Beirut on March 22nd news of the assassination of Hamas leader Sheikh Yassin had just broken. By the time my Lufthansa flight made it to the Lebanese capital darkness had engulfed the campus of the American University of Beirut (AUB), where I was staying. There were no students in sight; only the security guards patrolled the grounds.

The next morning I woke to the bright Mediterranean light and a flurry of oncampus activity. News of the assassination of

the spiritual leader of Hamas had spread amongst the student body and by the early hours of the morning angry students had begun to mobilise. Two girls wearing white headscarves handed me leaflets in Arabic as I entered the university grounds through the front gate on Bliss Street. Sitting on the sandstone steps facing the Jafet library, my friends translated the document for me: ‘The Palestinian Cultural Club invites you to participate in a popular demonstration to protest against the daily Israeli massacres of Palestinian people, the most recent being the massacre in Gaza that killed Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.’ Stands with photos of the Hamas leader had been set up in the early morning with information in English and Arabic. Students who had been sunbathing beneath palm trees on grassy verges overlooking the sea left AUB en masse to demonstrate.

The hastily arranged protest clashed with a film festival organised by the Palestinian Cultural Club for the students at AUB. Films were rescheduled to allow students to participate in

the demonstration and voice their frustration and outrage at the assasination of Sheikh Yassin.

Approximately 5,000 people participated in the march through the streets of Beirut and the vast majority of the protesting crowd was drawn from the student bodies of Lebanese universities.

Political organisations and clubs are banned by the administration of the AUB. In a country where the psychological wounds are still raw from a civil war that spanned two decades the university authorities deem it necessary to keep a lid on all things political.

There is however, no shortage of cultural clubs and the huge, diverse range of cultural societies reflects the level of engagement of students in cultural affairs.

The Palestinian Cultural Club is one of the most active societies at AUB. Its’ annual film festival entitled ‘Windows from Palestine’ ran for almost two weeks. Mai Masri’s ‘Children of Fire,’ which documents the lives of children in the occupied West Bank and Elia Suleiman’s ‘Divine Intervention,’ magically realistic in its portrayal of Palestinian life in Jerusalem, were among those screened. When I left Beirut members of the club were busy organising an exhibition of the work of the celebrated Palestinian artist Naji Al. Al Ali is was critical not only of The National Union of Students Western interference in the (NUS) in the UK has expressed a Middle East but also of Arab cautious welcome to the findings of politics and the Palestinian the report and has once again authorities. The club also urged universities to make admisorganised an impressive tribsions policy more transparent. The ute in memory of Edward NUS has urged the government Said. There are also Syrian, taskforce to work towards opening Jordanian and Egyptian culup the third level education system tural clubs at AUB. The club to as many students as possible.

‘No Frontiers’ represents stuChris Weaver, the Vice President of dents with views that veer to the NUS, said that students who the left of the political spechave availed of private education trum and they work towards often have the edge when it comes improving conditions for stuto winning a place at university. dents in Beirut. The Freedom He said that the NUS does ‘not Club is a front for the Free believe that A level results alone Patriotic Movement, which is can distinguish the better student against the Syrian presence in between a privately educated pupil Lebanon. The Nationalist with three As and a student from a tough inner city state school with two As and a B’ and has welcomed the taskforce’s recommendations to introduce aptitude tests to compliment the current system. John Dunford, the General Secretary of the Secondary Heads Association, backed the NUS’s demand for a more transparent admissions system – one which would be ‘open, consistent and objective’. This was the taskforce’s second report and students and universities have been encouraged to comment before the final proposals are submitted later in the year.

Reforms needed in UK third level policy Leah Finnegan STEVEN SCHWARTZ, the head of the UK government taskforce established to re-evaluate the admissions policies of third level institutions, has recommended that fundamental and far-reaching reforms need to be introduced to make the current system more transparent. Schwartz’s report has suggested that the current applications system needs to be modified in order to ensure that students who show potential are not disqualified from benefiting from third level education. At present, students apply to universities prior to receiving results and on the basis of predicted grades. The taskforce found evidence to suggest that ‘about half the predictions

Steven Schwartz

were wrong, tending to over-estimate how well people would do’ and the report has subsequently recommended that students should apply upon receipt of their final results.

Schwartz told the government that the A-level system is still the best way to determine the suitability of a candidate to undergraduate study but suggested that universities need to incorporate other tests in order to assess the future potential of students. The report found that ‘equal examination grades do not necessarily represent equal potential’. Schwartz congratulated the initiative which Law, Medicine and Veterinary schools have taken to ensure that the students with potential and natural aptitude are given the opportunity to enrol in undergraduate education.

Students who wish to study law, medicine or veterinary science are now required to sit common aptitude tests in addition to A-Level examinations in order to gain admission. The taskforce recommended that UK universities should look into the possibility of introducing American style SAT examinations as a further method of evaluating the suitability of candidates for undergraduate programmes.

US University faces grades for $ scandal Leah Finnegan OVER 500 students at a prestigious university in the United States face the prospect of having their degrees revoked and possible criminal charges. The chancellor of Southern University, Edward Jackson, recently disclosed that a member of staff in the registrar’s office took money in exchange for changing grades for 541 students.

The ‘grades for $’ scandal came to light in March 2003 when a graduate student enrolled at the university and presented documentation that she had received an undergraduate degree from the University. The university had no record of the student and alerted college authorities who began an investigation into the case. Further inquiry revealed that a number of changes had been made to official academic records.

The unauthorized

changes of official academic records were traced back to one entrepreneurial member of staff who had accepted money from struggling students who sought to literally ‘pay their way’ through college.

The revelations have aroused anger amongst the student body and many are upset that they had to slave for grades whilst some of their peers just handed over cold, hard cash. Leonard Pete, a senior student said that ‘to me it shouldn’t be going on. You’ve got to earn your grade’. Despite the palpable mood of anger and frustration few students were surprised and many said that they were aware that some students were exchanging money for improved

Right: Chancellor of US Southern University, Edward Jackson

grades. One senior, Eddie Green, said that the previous year it cost $75 for a grade but that the rate of inflation had driven the price up in recent t i m e s .

The university has handed over its’ internal report to the District

Attorney’s office in Louisiana. Doug Moreau, the District Attorney, has said that the state intends to prosecute those who were implicated in the affair and charges include falsifying public records, forgery and bribery.

American University, Beruit Club draws its membership from students who favour the establishment of a united bloc of countries in the Middle East, including Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Palestine. And then there are the kinds of clubs that you would expect to find in universities all over the world; sporting societies, a literary society and a Latino dance club. Tension between the different ‘cultural’ clubs reaches its’ peak during the weeks leading up to the elections for the Student Representative Council.

Despite the official ban on political organisations at AUB both the memory and legacy of the civil war are ever present. I spoke to Amir, a student in the business faculty at AUB, whose life is emblematic of the experience of many young Lebanese students.

Amir was born in France and, like many of his peers, his family left Lebanon at the beginning of the civil war. Amir’s father was outraged by the Israeli bombardment of West Beirut and he moved the family back to their homeland following a period of exile in France. I spoke to a

recent graduate of AUB, Hani, who had lived with his family in Egypt and Monaco until the war ended and he confided that ‘adjusting to life in a country you are from but have never lived in was difficult at first’. Reema, a student originally from Syria, explained how difficult it was for her to convince her family to give her permission to study at AUB. The disapproval of her parents was not the only obstacle she had to overcome - .her grandparents, uncles and aunts all have a say in her future. As the eldest in her extended family she has set an important precedent for her younger female relatives.

Since the end of the war Beirut has become a cultural and political melting pot in the region and student life reflects this. After my week long visit at AUB it became clear to me that the level of student interest in university politics and their engagement with cultural politics on campus stands in stark contrast to the general indifference of their Irish counterparts.

6

Trinity News

FORUM

13 April 2004 th

Forum Editor Rory Loughnane

‘Knowns & unknowns’ Bart Connolly

"O

peration freedom" the media friendly title for Invasion Iraq has just celebrated its birthday. The Bush brigade's entrenchment in the Whitehouse, was finally under siege. Some elements conducted sorties into the media. The first foray of the day was into friendly territory, Fox News Sunday.

On point, media war veteran Colin Powell: "I believe the possibility of a terrorist nexus between Saddam Hussein and the weapons that he had the capability of producing or might have had and terrorist organizations that might have gotten access to those weapons, that's been broken up."

"Nexus" from Latin nectere, to bind. It suggests connection.

Colin may have studied Latin since he has a penchant for the Subjunctive Mood. Maybe US attention span is akin to goldfish memory but I couldn't help notice "believe" "possibility" "might have had" "might have gotten". What's next? A Bear Tax?

Homer: Not a bear in sight. The Bear Patrol must be working like a charm.

Lisa: That's specious reasoning, Dad. Homer: Thank you, dear.

Lisa: By your logic I could claim that this rock keeps tigers away.

Homer: Oh, how does it work?

Lisa: It doesn't work.

Homer: Uh-huh.

Lisa: It's just a stupid rock.

Homer: Uh-huh.

Lisa: But I don't see any tigers around, do you?

Homer: Lisa, I want to buy your rock.

Sorry Colin I don't want your rock! A billion dollars seems a mite expensive to chase shadows? Try asking if the dark shadow on the ground is in a nexus with the dark liquid under it.

On Feb 5th 2003 Colin was not in subjunctive mood with the UN Security Council: "We know that Saddam Hussein is determined to keep his weapons of mass destruction, is determined to make more."

Nor on Nov 4th NBC's Meet The Press: "I'm absolutely sure that there are weapons of mass destruction there and the evidence will be forthcoming. We're just getting it just now."

Is this the same Colin "Subjunctive" Powell who stated "War should be the politics of last resort. And when we go to war, we should have a purpose that our people understand and support."?

Or does Mr Subjunctive believe that "might" was right?

Meanwhile, on Meet the Press, Condoleezza Rice, was "somewhat surprised" there were no WMD. She condoned the easy invasion "...for territory where we can take regimes that were once supporters of terrorism, regimes that were once problems with weapons of mass destruction" to pave "the road to democratic development".

Whose side is she on? Back on Fox, contrary Colin subjunctive was just about accepting NO WMD and NO support for terror with: "I don't think this takes away from the merit of the case." Was it not her who condoned invasion in CNN's Late Edition 8th Sept 2002 with "We don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud"?

But hark! In a verbal U-turn befitting her February "I think that what we have is evidence that there are differences between what we knew going in and what we found on the ground," Condone-Easy adds Iraq is not a "weapons-of-massdestruction concern." In the mad rush to figure out what they are really saying we might well forget that it is precisely the opposite of the main reason given for invasion!

Late Edition does bring them out. Cue Donald Rumsfeld, the veteran cum laude of "what we know" and "what we found". The creator in Feb 2002 of weapons of mass deception: "As we know, there are known knowns. There are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns. That is to say, we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns, the ones we don't know we don't know."Clearly Rumsfeld never to be tongue-tied understands "false negatives" and "false positives". Oddly, while he befuddled the press with unrelated statistical jargon he did not apply that knowledge to WMD a known unknown dressed up as a known known!

Back to Late Edition. Asked about 564 dead Americans he brought superior knowledge of known knowns to bear. Maybe the question mixed up "killed in action" and "killed in accidents".

The question didn't. Asked again Don, unfazedly retorted "Oh, more than that if you count Afghanistan." Admission of something worse usually ends any discussion about body counts and the morality of people dying.

When asked about WMD Don

The real Chris Gambino Phiip McKinley During the last SU Elections Christopher Gambino gained the reputation of being an "extreme right-winger" and a "notorious homophobe". He certainly led a colourful campaign and showed himself to be a charismatic, yet unorthodox Presidential candidate.

However as he approaches his final weeks in Trinity College, he feels he can now share on four lively years and reveal some memories of his time that he’s kept secret until now.

He arrives for the interview wearing an ‘Israeli Defence Force’ t-shirt. He’s proud of the fact that he’s "done more in twenty-two years than most people have done in two lifetimes". His father is Sicilian and his mother is an Irish American. He grew up most of his life in Texas. He assures me he is not related to the notorious Gambino Crime Family which is currently headed by John Gotti.

He refers to himself as a ‘militant Catholic’. He’s a member of the secretive Catholic order Opus Dei. On Sunday’s he used to attend the schismatic Pius X in Dun Laoghaire but now he attends the Tridentine mass in St. Audeon’s beside Christ Church Cathedral, because ‘it’s closer’. He opposes a lot of things that students generally seem to support like abortion, sex before marriage and socialism.

He jeers the Student’s Union accusing them of "masturbating in their own excrement".

His three election campaigns so far have been designed to make fun of "small people with allusions of power". One gets the sense however that he doesn’t really take himself too seriously either. Certainly he’s able to laugh at himself, although he does seem to have balls of steel.

He refers to his disciplinary meeting before the Election Council or "Inquisition" in the LGB room as "contrived and intentional".

Gambino was disqualified from putting up posters this year because he missed the deadline

for their submission. Instead he printed campaign flyers on paper from Youth Defence (a strong pro-life organisation).

The day of the hustings on Dining Hall steps, he predicted that he would be excluded from speaking so he went to the YD office and picked up a loudspeaker. He noticed however that it had ‘Youth Defence’ written on the side, so he took another one which was blank instead.

His membership of YD seems to have caused the greatest upset in this year’s election. He considers YD as the "best Irish ladies and gentlemen" he’s met.

He admits that despite his claims he never actually left YD during his election campaign. "I was angry at them because they were anti-war (in Iraq)".

He concedes that YD has a lot of eccentric members, but he thinks they play an important role in opposing "socialist extremists". He questions "how many of the Socialist Workers have actually done a days work in their lives? They’re going to be socialists until they’re wealthy and then they’re going to say: forget about this". Chris says that he supports traditional values but also capitalist values, suggesting that the two are compatible.

His disciplinary record is perhaps his most striking attribute. On top of his revelation at Election time that he had spent time in prison in Mexico, he has

also appeared on the top story on TV3 news for breaking into a Fine Gael meeting with some other YD colleagues.

Trinity FM introduced him on a show once as "The Boldest Boy in Trinity", a reference to his record-breaking twelve trips to see the Junior Dean and his 700-euro in fines. "I was sure I was going to be kicked out, I even packed my boxes", he says. While living in Goldsmith Hall he was caught playing baseball in the kitchen with a Guinness bottle and a Hurley, hanging a Confederate flag from his window, switching signs around in Goldsmith Hall and on the rugby pitch, hammering holes into walls and making noise.

He’s finally willing to reveal however the things that he didn’t get caught for. They include leaving heroin and syringes, that he had found in a park, on his kitchen counter during an inspection by the "Gestapo" security-men, letting pigeons into people’s rooms, throwing a dead ferret and calf livers marinated in orange sauce onto people walking below on Westland Row and subsequently having the Gardai come up to his room, throwing a bucket of his special concoction onto Socialists on Westland Row and letting homeless people sleep in his room in Goldsmith Hall.

While he feels that homeless people should be rounded up and put into work programmes, he says that he enjoys their company. "They helped me out when I was booted out of my flat because of my corrupt landlord. The homeless people let me crash in their abandoned movie theatre on Merrion Square. They gave me all the cigarettes I could smoke and all the cans I could drink".

He admits that he likes hunting as well. He says he once shot an endangered White

Donald Rumfeld, US Secretary of Defence dismissed them as "the assessments of the United Nations".

Oh so the UN insisted they were there? Don knew nothing? It was a known unknown? Donald by the way, was a member of the President Regan's General Advisory Committee on Arms Control in the 1980s, when biological materials were being exported to Iraq under licence from the US Department of Commerce. He actually oversaw the selling of anthrax to Iraq.

That in Donspeak is called a "known known".

Donald's presaged $1.5 billion of U.S. weapons exports including chemical/biological and nuclear weapons equipment and technology. Mind you, Saddam still used the stuff up, some on his own people.

Slipping unsupported allega-

tions in, Don diligently - and incorrectly - added UN inspectors left Iraq for reasons independent of an imminent bombing campaign. With in his parting salvo the disinformation Don insisted WMD have indeed been found! This must be an unknown known since nobody has ever seen these WMD Don knows about! Maybe Don should go on point next time. Rumsfeld could make a Legion of Mary meeting seem like an unholy alliance of the Hannibal Lecter, Darth Vader and Sauron.

His final fantasy was the fighting coalition of "34 or 35 countries." Back on 4 December 2002 he mentioned "a wonderful accomplishment to have 90 countries all co-operating." By August 21, 2003 he revised this to 27 nations which had sent

forces to Iraq.

Donald now says 35 countries.

This, in spite of the Spanish and Honduran withdrawal and pending Polish and Czech withdrawals. Public opinion in "willing" Italy, Portugal, Hungary, Denmark, Latvia, Romania, Macedonian, Estonia, and Slovakia has, like in Spain, been against the invasion. Australia and Britain are teetering on the brink.

Bush's Whitehouse bunker may have seemed a squeeze but it sure is getting less cramped by the day. Had they barricaded themselves in using the masses of evidence for terrorist links and WMD they might by now be feeling as exposed as a certain fairytale Emperor and his new clothes.

...and the real Kiernan?

Barn Owl and now uses its quill to write letters with. He says that he also has some crushed rhinoceros horn in his room which he uses for a hangover cure.

What’s next for Chris? Well he’s currently handing out free tickets to Mel Gibson’s ‘The Passion of the Christ’. He says he plans to "go up to the Front line shouting for George Bush", during the forthcoming planned anti-Bush protests.

"I’m going to show my support for my president". "God bless Ariel Sharon", he adds. For the future, Chris is thinking about joining the American army for one year, but hopes to study Law at some point, possibly in UCD. He says that he doesn’t intend to run for political office at any stage in his life.

There are a few people that seem to admire Chris’ opinions (including his good friend Justin Barrett of ‘No to Nice’ fame), but generally students seem to be either amused or else appalled by what he has to say. One definitely gets the sense that he relishes in the shock factor that his comments evoke. Chris says that his views haven’t mellowed at all since he’s been here, "the opposition have really shaped my opinions," he suggests. He strongly dismisses a claim that he is a Neo-Nazi suggesting that he is probably "the only Catholic Zionist for miles". Although he does condemn homosexuality, he is offended at comments that he is an "infamous homophobe", kissing me on the cheek to prove that he’s not. While many would perhaps like to demonise him, this only seems to make him worse. Some people seem to hate him for a multitude of reasons and others seem to like him for a multitude of reasons. As his four years in Trinity come to an end, we can be left in no doubt that a man like Chris Gambino is really quite like the White Barn Owl he once shot…he’s a very rare breed indeed.

Ed Reilly The end of the Hilary term saw the election of our new President for the academic year 2004-05. The election itself was a great success all round for our university - over 25% of the student body came out to vote, almost double that from last year.

Whether they interrupted the beginning of your lecture, bombarded you with you paraphernalia while you were trying to eat your lunch in peace and quiet or literally grabbed your arm and dragged you into the polling booth to get your votes.

Who is the real Francis Kieran?

As a candidate running against him I certainly learnt at first hand what he can bring to the union, and now as a friend since the election I hope I can give an honest insight into the challenges he faces.

In the early stages of the campaign I found it hard to warm to him. Polite and responsive, he was very guarded in what he said and has that politician’s air about him that can come across as disingenuous and off putting.

Over the course of the campaign and since elected this impression of him has worn and I have an altogether different view; that of a person who will serve the interests of the student body admirably to the best of his abilities. I’m not saying this to kiss his arse after he was elected, but I am reminded of a moment in his company that really struck chord. On the night of the election, when the votes were being counted, I could see Francis with his head bowed and his eyes shut. He was clutching rosary beads and in prayer. It’s hard to convey in words the effect that had on me, but I can honestly say that after that moment I haven’t begrudged him his suc-

cess one bit. Commitment alone is not enough of course, Francis comes into office with the knowledge that the majority of the student body did not vote him for their first choice – an unenviable position not suffered by Annie Gatling who received an overwhelming mandate. The reintroduction of fees and college cutbacks by a Fianna Fail government are going to make Francis’s job harder.

His previous position as Chair of Fianna Fail right up until the election and his new position as SU President where he now is expected to fight against fees and cutbacks are completely contradictory. Fianna Fail will relish that one of their boys has been elected President in Trinity when they know next year relations between students and the government could hit an all time low. Indeed Bertie Ahern personally phoned Francis to congratulate him on the night of his victory. Lets hope it wasn’t along the lines of, ‘Keep de students quiet next year Frankie and you might get a nice cushy job in de party when you re done’. I say this, not as a prediction, but as a warning to Francis that the student body will be carefully monitoring such an eventuality.

Francis, to his immense credit, has worked tirelessly for student interests – promoting the Irish language within the Union, chairing the Union council with humour and efficiency, helping me with the new TAP society. I even saw him at the rugby pitch the other day supporting our 1st XV. Clearly in a range of ways he has proved to me that he is more than a party puppet. Recent history, Averil Power’s Presidency a prime example, shows how the sabbatical office can be used for career advancement rather than student interests. Watch this space….

Trinity News

FORUM

Forum Editor Rory Loughnane

13 April 2004 th

7

An teanga Gaeilge - the impossible revolution Conor Waring

W

e have just celebrated yet another St Patrick's Day; a day on which we reflect upon what it means to be Irish. It's laughable that the Irish language always gets wheeled out especially for St Patrick's Day, except that nobody is laughing anymore. In recent months, there has been a lot of discussion about the status of the Irish language in the European Union, with many calls for its inclusion as an official EU language. Indeed, on a recent visit to Dublin, Ms Viviane Reding, the European Commissioner responsible for education and culture declared that we should "speak Irish, write Irish, be proud of Irish, use Irish in everyday language and show Irish culture to the 24 nations around [us]".

However, she is of the opinion that giving Irish official status would do nothing to help its cause. It is clear that she has not spent much time in Ireland, for her comments show little understanding of the cultural context of Irish.

It is not simply a case of waking up one morning and deciding to go around speaking Irish. If I was to walk into a shop in Dublin tomorrow and speak our so-called "first official language", I would be ridiculed, dismissed as an eccentric and would most likely not even be understood anyway. No matter how fluent and no matter how "proud" of Irish I might be, I still cannot use the Irish language in most situations. People are not given an excuse or even permission to speak Irish. Irish people stop fellow Irish people from speaking Irish. The will might be there, but Irish language activists are not very practical in their approaches for allowing people to speak Irish. What will become of all our learning and investment of time in Irish if we cannot use it and if we cannot expect Irish to be upheld for our future use at EU level?

There are many people who have long left school and have lost most of

their knowledge of Irish. This is more often than not no fault of their own.

After leaving school, they simply got on with their daily lives. The fact of the matter is that in Ireland, one has to go out of one's way to come into contact with any language other than English, be it Irish, French, Spanish or German. I remember discussing with a committee member of Trinity's own Cumann Gaelach that many middle-aged people have the desire to brush up on their knowledge but are scared. Many don't know where to go about it and are afraid that they might be scorned for presenting with such a low level of Irish. Of course, I was instantly shot down, saying that it is easy for such people to make excuses and that they are just being "lazy". As students in our Ivory Tower, it is easy for us to forget how the real world thinks and functions. If we get our heads out of the sand for a moment, it is a fact that many people are not very well educated or even academically minded and don't even know how to go about coming into contact with Irish. UCD and the other NUI colleges have very active Irish language officers, whereby students of any discipline can avail of free Irish classes. In Trinity, there are apparently also free Irish classes on Wednesdays. But what about all those that never attend University? Should they not be offered free Irish classes too?

The very conditions that originally brought about the demise of Irish in Ireland have been sadly retained to this day. Irish was condemned as being "useless" during the British colonisation of Ireland and the Irish people themselves have continued to this day to keep Irish as a "useless" language. Some Irish people love to blame Britain for the decline of Irish, but in reality it has been the Irish people themselves who have facilitated its near-death.

In fairness, it is, of course, an extremely difficult task to resuscitate a moribund language. We carry out every aspect of our daily lives through

Let the fur fly Sharon Waters

T

here is a relatively unknown, but thriving industry in abuse and terror in Ireland. This industry slaughters small furry animals by electrocution and gassing; imprisons them in small mesh cages and causes such distress that the animals begin to gnaw off their own limbs. This is of course the controversial and, once again fashionable, fur industry.

Fur has long been the ultimate status symbol; worn by royalty, gentry, film and fashion icons, even graduates don a velvety stole on ceremonial occasions.

In order to supply these little luxuries, a trade in cruelty has developed which is far from genteel.

There are currently 6 mink farms and at least 2 fox farms currently operating, largely unregulated in Ireland. On Irish fur farms, Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) has reported that minks are confined in rows of small barren wire cages, each 32" long by 10" wide by 16" high, each cage holding up to 3 animals. A single shed can hold hundreds of mink cages. Foxes were "housed" in cages with a floor area of just 4 foot by 4 foot and 28" high. Farmed mink and fox

language and it is only natural that people will prefer to use the language that comes quickest to them. In that sense, human communication is like a river; it takes the quickest route to its destination. That is why Irish should be given more support at every level, otherwise it will never get off the ground and will continue in its uncertain moribund future.

Sharon Ní Bheolán, RTE presenter The Irish language has had for too long a very conservative image. While this is perhaps not necessarily a bad thing in itself, it has just meant that there has been very little diversity and vibrancy in the language. Irishspeakers were perceived as all being reactionary, pioneer-badge-wearing Mass-goers. Thankfully this image is slowly changing thanks to the likes of Hector and Sharon Ní Bheolán. It is clear now that Irish needs to embrace a new sub-culture that flies in the face of the Establishment. Many people's only real experience of Irish is learning it as a school subject, which means their association with it is an authoritarian, oppressive one. Almost all of the responsibility of reviving Irish has unfairly been placed on the shoulders of teachers, especially those in our primary schools. If the state is not going to provide its citizens with any means of actually using Irish outside of school, it has a cheek to oblige them to learn it in the first place. Ok,

are caged throughout their lives; they are never allowed out to exercise. At about 6 months old, they are killed. Mink are suffocated in carbon monoxide gas, whilst many fox are killed by electrocution by placing one electrode in the rectum and another in the mouth.

Mink are naturally sensitive, timid creatures. They are semiaquatic and wholly undomesticated and unsuited to life in captivity. Silver foxes are also very volatile, nervous animals; even loud noise can be sufficient to distress them. On fur farms they reportedly display extremely disturbed and erratic behaviour, including gnawing their own fur and mutilating their own tails and limbs. They have also been known to kill their young and a shock can

in Dublin, there is Trí D, the bi-lingual café and Conradh na Gaeilge, a hidden-away Irish-speaking bar on Harcourt Street. But that's pretty much it.

If politicians were actually serious about the Irish language, they would use it more actively in the Dáil. They would also introduce bi-lingual packaging, and would provide more commercial use of Irish. In Canada and Belgium, for example, all packaging is in both of their national languages.

There is no reason why this can not be emulated in Ireland. There should also be a national Irish language radio station that is aimed at a young audience. TG4 is certainly a success story. Its flagship soap, Ros na Rún, is fairly good, except that its characters' permanent bad humour makes it sometimes unpleasant to watch. At least, though, TG4 is showing Irish being used in a living way.

The most recent census reveals that 1.5 million people can speak Irish in the Republic of Ireland. There must also be many thousands in Northern Ireland, not to mention the numerous and avid Irish-speakers who live all over the world. There is no reason why there should not be more services through the medium of Irish made available. The Government should encourage national use of Irish and not simply confine it to the Gaeltachtaí.

The mistake that people make is that they do not see that one thing helps another. If there were bilingual packaging and signage, people would be more exposed to Irish and would feel more confident about it. This, in turn, would lead to more people speaking it and the domino effect would continue.

The fact that Ireland's other language is also the world's current dominant language has certainly not helped the fate of the Irish language.

Some Irish language extremists have even gone so far as to say that English is not our language at all. The following point must be made clearly; English IS our language. However, we

cause them to miscarry. The European Commission’s Committee on Animal Health and Animal Welfare is responsible for some of these reports.

Fur farming has been banned in the UK and Northern Ireland since 2000.

140,000 mink and approximately 1,700 foxes are being held in Irish fur farms; yet the industry is virtually without regulation. Fox farms do not even require a licence; hence, the exact number of these farms is unknown. Mink farms are licensed by the Department of Agriculture and Food in the interests of protecting the environment and public from escaped mink. The fur industry is just another example of the complete apathy which this country, and in particular its

also have another language in addition to it and being a proponent of Irish does not mean you are against the English language being in Ireland! Ireland has contributed so much to the English language that it is erroneous and even disrespectful to state that English is not ours. James Joyce, to name but one, changed English forever. He took the language from our colonisers, as it were, and handed it back to them with a knot.

Hiberno-English is a distinct colourful variety of English that reflects and attends to the needs of our culture very well indeed. It is wonderful that English is one of our languages. It is a rich language and is an extremely useful one. However, Irish is also intrinsic to our culture and it is up to us to foster its growth in the 21st century.

People employed in the tourist industry seem to fail to realise that the Irish language is also a selling point. Americans, especially, see it as quaint and novel and it's something that hasn't got a 'home' anywhere else. The State should allow Galway City to evolve into a semi-Gaeltacht and thereby give Irish the urban setting it drastically needs. They should also develop Rathcairn in Co. Meath into a major Gaeltacht near Dublin, with its inhabitants able to commute to Dublin to go to work, while at the same time, living in an Irish-speaking community. It is high time Irish people started to take practical measures to promote the Irish language. Ms Reding, the European Commissioner referred to in the first paragraph, comes from Luxembourg, where people meet with and use French, German, Letzeburgesch and English on a daily basis. Many European countries have more than one language. It is about time in Ireland that the strange current climate of opposition to Irish changed. If Irish people do not act soon, Irish will not be awarded EU status and will become a legend like St Patrick himself. Teanga gan labharthoirí, teanga gan beo.

regulatory authorities, exhibits towards the issue of animal welfare. The UK ban provided that all farms should cease operations by 2003; therefore there are a number of homeless fur farmers and processors who might reasonably be in the market for a nice empty warehouse in a country where few questions are asked.

The absence of legislation in this area is not unprecedented, given our poor record in relation to bloodsports, dog breeding and kennelling – as exemplified by the recent puppy farm raids in the midlands. Our legislature seems uninterested in protecting animals for their own sake; this highlights the fact that the fur industry is of negligible value to the economy - pelts are processed abroad. We are also

supposedly a nation of animal lovers; therefore there is little justification for an Irish fur industry. On 26 February, the Green Party launched a Private Members Bill, with the support of CIWF and ISPCA, calling for a ban on fur farming. Green Party members will be campaigning for support in the next few weeks. CIWF claims that this Bill will send out a message that the Irish do care about animal welfare and it will bring us more in line with our European neighbours.

It is a small sacrifice to wear fake fur, or no fur at all, when it is born from such an inhumane and disgusting practice. So on graduation day wear your itchy, synthetic stole with pride.

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FEATURES

Trinity News 13th April 2004

Patrick Bresnihan

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Features Editor Neasa Cunniffe

Trapped in a cultural cage of silence A decade later, the people of Rwanda are struggling to reach the ideals of a tolerant democracy

pril 6th will be the anniversary of one of the worst manifestations of evil the world has ever seen; up to one million people massacred in the space of three months, a rate of killing five times that of the Nazi death camps at the height of the Holocaust. Such statistics are almost unfathomable when one thinks that the majority of killers were armed merely with machetes and clubs, not the systematic technology provided by the Nazi killing machine. Not only was this genocide one of great loss in numbers but perhaps more importantly a loss of some sort of faith and innocence: the killers, mostly ordinary peasants often took grotesque pleasure from seeing their victims suffer in the most unthinkable manner. Yes, it has been ten years.

A decade on it seems appropriate to take stock and reflect on how far this tiny elevated island in the heart of Africa has come.

In the aftermath of 1994 there was, predictably, a surge of guilt from the international community at its own failure to intervene in time. Since then Rwanda has seemingly made steady progress towards a consolidated democratic system: In 2003 Rwanda had its first ever multi- party elections.

However, what should have been a momentous day in its road to stability and tol-

erance was unfortunately blighted by intimidation, allegations of fraud, and smears of ‘divisionism’.

Although the Rwandan government on the surface seems to be fostering democratic processes, in reality power is being increasingly centralized in the capital, Kigali. Why is this? There is a two way dynamic which is currently conspiring to prevent open political dialogue in Rwandan society. On the one side there is the centralized government which has monopolized political space and discourse through constitutional mechanisms such as the Law on Discrimination and Sectarianism (‘divisionism’). This law prevents any incitement to ethnic division; once again a seemingly positive development but unfortunately this law of ‘divisionism’ is being used to silence any government opposition: the government embodies the spirit of reconciliation and cooperation and thus any criticism of it is implicitly inciting division.

With such an accusation at levelled at you, you can be left facing a five year prison sentence. On the other hand there is the tradition of political silence in Rwanda. Its history, both before, during and after colonial rule, has been dominated by strong, central government.

Rwanda’s political culture is adverse to the concept of

criticism of government. It is perhaps this recalcitrance on the part of the Rwandans which is proving the biggest obstacle to the fostering of a pluralist, democratic society.

How then to approach such a cultural barrier?

Rwanda receives funds from international donors but these funds are not giving due recognition to the importance of energizing a reluctant civil society.

Currently nearly all of the money which international donors give to Rwanda goes straight to the government. The result is that the crucially important civil society organizations (CSOs) which are such an important part of any functioning democratic system are chronically under funded and accordingly unable to make much of an

impact. For example in early 2003 the Department for International Development in the UK published a draft Country Assistance Plan. This was a proposed plan for the next three years which was looking to increase spending by 50%. Although only a draft it is still notable that local civil society did not feature in their plansa huge oversight.

Increasingly the issue is not one of the volume of funds but rather of its allocation and how it can be used to create a political space for independent voices. International donors should either ensure that some funds go directly to the local civil society organizations or place conditions on the funds which go to the government which guarantee that civil

society organizations are consulted in the policy making process.

Aside from funds, the CSOs need skills: this has been provided on a very small scale by NGOs such as Trocraire.

Workshops have been created to impart to the members of the local CSOs advocacy skills, campaign skills, popular education, public opinion mobilization, networking, media skills, research and policy analysis.

There are various different roles for different actors; foreign governments can use political leverage, human rights organisations to promote individual rights under the Geneva Convention and so on. Undeniably however the most important actor is the Rwandan people.

There is an overriding

need to stimulate both local CSOs and individuals into appreciating the role that they can play in decision making processes.

"The best defence of human rights is self defence which entails the empowerment of local people and solidarity with their action for change".

The foreign donors must remember that it is not just training and financial support but moral and cultural support that Rwanda needs. As one commentator remarked Rwandan civil society is like a chicken which has recently had its legs untied: to make it move it must be hit. The tradition of recalcitrance in the face of strong government must be broken but this is a sensitive cultural issue with no quick- fix solution.

Although the Rwandan people may currently be in a cultural cage, with time and patience they have the ability to escape it by themselves.

In Rwanda it seems that many of the problems which have plagued its history still persist. A Tutsi minority in control of power as before 1959; a centralisation of power in Kigali with little space for the articulation of the demands of groups critical of the government; and social and economic disparities based on ethnicity.

However, one must not dismiss the positive developments which have occurred in Rwanda.

The recent

awarding of licenses to private radio stations, the setting up of the office of the ombudsman and the forced resignation of the VicePresident of the Supreme Court after he had been found to have taken huge loans from the banks unlawfully.

If initiatives like these are to be built upon, and not just be token gestures by an increasingly authoritarian government then the international community needs to commit to a long term strategy which addresses the cultural barriers to a vibrant civil society; long term problems require long term solutions. The scars of the genocide run deep as does the reluctance of a Rwandan people, happy in their security, to criticise their government.

Creating awareness that criticism is acceptable in a democratic society, might be the crucial challenge in Rwanda in the prevention of new violent conflict. Ten years on from one of the worst single acts of evil ever perpetrated on this earth the international community, Rwandan government and Rwandan people all have a duty and a role to work towards a consolidated, tolerant democratic republic in which ethnicity is no longer a tool of political manipulation but a sign of a flourishing, pluralist society.

An ancient, current & seemingly endless conflict Conor Maguire

With the assassination of a leading Palestinian militant and the ongoing construction of a "security fence" around the West Bank, the tensions between Israel and Palestine have arguably never been higher.

The struggle between the Israelis and Palestinians is one of the longest running conflicts of modern times, having its roots in the historic claim to the land which lies between the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River.

For the Palestinians the last 100 years have brought colonisation, expulsion and military occupation, followed by a long and difficult search for self-determination and for coexistence with the nation they hold responsible for their suffering and loss.

For the Jewish people of Israel, the return to the land of their forefathers after centuries of persecution around the world has not brought peace or security. They have faced many crises as their neighbours have sought to wipe their country off the map.

Presently Israel is faced with the prospect of a horrific onslaught of suicide bombings from militant groups such as Hamas, for the assassination of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the so-

called "Spiritual Leader" of Hamas, and a symbol of Palestinian struggle against Israeli oppression. The assassination itself was publicly condemned by the international community, although the United States was notably ambiguous in its response, having not explicitly condemned it.

Furthermore, the nature of the attack, in which Yassin and several of his bodyguards were directly hit by a missile from an Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) helicopter-gunship, was for many observers emblematic of Israel’s "overkill" approach to dealing with suspected terrorist targets.

This seems all the more valid by the fact that Yassin was a quadriplegic, confined to a wheelchair, begging the question, was a missile-strike the most appropriate way of apprehending him?

There is no denying that Yassin was far from innocent, having repeatedly encouraged suicide bomb attacks on Israeli citizens and was thought to have ordered the carrying out of

numerous suicide bomb attacks that claimed the lives of hundreds of men, women and children. For Israel, he was a prime target. But one cannot help but feel that his assassination, outside a busy mosque, was no more than an act of ‘sanctioned terrorism’ itself. The image of an Israeli army helicopter launching a missile attack immediately outside a mosque during Morning Prayer suggests again an ostensible disregard for nonJewish holy sites, as one can recall the Israeli army storming the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem in 2002, in an attempt to apprehend 15 suspected Palestinian terrorists who hid inside it.

No one can deny that Israel must, and is entitled, to defend itself from the ever-present threat of attack, but it must be said that its methods thus far have been largely irresponsible and have only served to ignite the situation even further. One must question the strength of their ‘intelligence reports,’ which have led on numerous occasions to the bombing of civilian houses and the deaths of innocent Palestinian women and children. At times, strikes appear to have been carried out on the basis of mere suspicion.

Outright attacks on civilian sites only intensify hatred among an already battered Palestinian people towards the Israelis. And who can forget the images broadcast all over the world, of a four year old Palestinian boy being shot, along with his father, as IDF soldiers appeared to open fire indiscriminately at suspected militants in 2000. And what about the American peace campaigner Rachel Corrie, who died in 2003 after an Israeli soldier drove over her with a bulldozer

as she attempted to prevent them from bulldozing the houses of suspected Palestinian militants (in which there were women and children) in the Gaza Strip? The fact that such crimes were captured by television cameras and broadcast all over the world mean that the international community can no longer plead ignorance with regard to Israeli recklessness and irresponsibility in their dealing ‘terrorist targets.’

The construction of the West Bank barrier, a 700 km long structure that is part-wall, partfence is currently being challenged in court, both in Israel and at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. It has been one of the most controversial of Israel’s plans for defending itself against would-be suicide bombers. The Israeli government adopted the plan saying it was essential to prevent suicide bombers from entering Israel and attacking civilians.

However for Israel’s critics, the plan epitomises everything that is wrong with Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land and its approach to making peace with its Arab neighbours. Such a barrier will only increase the divide between the two peoples, and perpetuate the conflict.

In building of the barrier, Israel has confiscated Palestinian land, cutting off hundreds of Palestinian farmers and traders from their land and means of economic survival, which can only antagonize Palestinians further, and increase the risk of suicide bomb attacks from fundamentalist organizations such as Hamas. The barrier also snakes into the West Bank to include several Jewish settlements there. For the Palestinians, a fence around the entire West

Bank might have shown the Israeli government was serious about ending the occupation, but as it is, the barrier when completed, would essentially hem Palestinians into 42% of the West Bank, meaning Israel would appropriate a huge amount of Palestinian land.

Many Palestinians believe this has been Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s intention since the proposal of the barrier.

Israel’s main ally, the United States has exerted only mild pressure on Israel, seeing the barrier as problematic for the peace process in the region.

However Israel has agreed to make some concessions. There is now the possibility that the barrier may be shortened by up to 100 km and the plan to loop the barrier around Jewish settlements on Palestinian land may be dropped.

In contrast to the United States, the UN has taken a firm stance, condemning the barrier as illegal and tantamount to "an unlawful act of annexation."

Israel has paid little regard to this however, and when warned by a report to the UN Commission for Human Rights that about 210,000 Palestinians living in the area between the barrier and Israel would be cut off from social services, schools and places of work, they dismissed the report completely, viewing it as "one-sided, highly

politicised and biased."

On the Palestinian side, fundamentalist organisations such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade show no sign of ceasing the carrying out of suicide bombings. These groups are committed to the destruction of the Israeli state and the foundation of an Islamic state in Israel and the Palestinian territories. Many militants firmly believe that the conflict can only be resolved through armed confrontation and have carried out some of the most devastating bombings in the region. Their hard-line stance and apparent disinterest in any sort of negotiation make it all the more difficult to establish any sort of cessation of violence. They also display an appalling disregard for human life, targeting busy civilian sites in bomb attacks and even using women and teenage boys as suicide bombers. The Palestinian Authority has been accused by Israel of failing to control or deal with such terror groups adequately, which has led to further animosity between both sides.

The conflict looks set to continue, with neither side willing to make concessions until the other does so first, and this comes at a time when the situation has possibly never been so fragile. Time will only tell what further catastrophe lies ahead.

FEATURES

Features Editor Neasa Cunniffe

Trinity News 13th April 2004

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Simpson’s World Tim Walker

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BBC’s renowned television journalist, John Simpson on the Hutton report, Fox News and being in the right place at the right time.

t’s every young lad’s dream.

Or at least it’s one of mine, as I consider the looming prospect of graduation. One day, there’s a knock at my door and I open it to find a pair of men in black, offering me a job with a shadowy arm of British Intelligence. The following day I receive a phonecall from the BBC, who are also looking to recruit me. It sounds like a farfetched Boy’s Own fantasy, but this is almost exactly the position John Simpson found himself in as he graduated from Cambridge in 1966, and his luck has not deserted him since. It’s hard to think of another television reporter who has been in as many of the right places at the right times over the past 30 years, or perhaps I should say the wrong places - the Dublin bombings of the early ‘70s, the Islamic Revolution in Iran, Tianenmen Square, Belgrade, Kabul, Iraq. His infallible sense of timing could prompt the conspiracy theorists amongst us to wonder if, in fact, he ever did turn down that first offer. With the Hutton enquiry showing up both the BBC and the British intelligence services, I wonder if he’s happy with his original choice. "Oh, I’m so grateful now that I didn’t take a job in intelligence," he stresses, "I’d like to say it was an enormous sense of nobility that drove me against them, but actually it was at least partly that the BBC paid twice as well."

Amongst other accolades, Simpson’s career at the BBC has brought him 3 Baftas, a CBE, and now somewhere in the region of 350 million potential viewers for his BBC News 24 programme, ‘Simpson’s World’. As a result, he is fiercely loyal to the corporation, and angered by his masters’ kneejerk reaction to the Hutton report, which resulted in the immediate resignation of the immensely popular Director General, Greg Dyke, and a number of other senior figures. On the day I spoke to him, Simpson - currently the BBC’s World Affairs Editor - had drafted a letter to the organisation’s acting chairman with the support of other influential colleagues, including John Humphrys, Jeremy Paxman and Andrew Marr. "I wrote what John Humphrys described as a ‘suicide note’ to the chairman saying I didn’t like what was happening," he explains. "I think it’s quite important for someone to stand up within the outfit and say: ‘Look, this isn’t how we want it to go. We would like a

line to be drawn under the affair so we can get back to the business of reporting.’ I think we’ve been much too apologetic." Later, in his address to the Philosophical Society, Simpson praised the BBC as "an organisation where truth does seem to mean something."

He holds the journalism of his competitors, Sky News and ITV, in similarly high esteem, reserving his contempt for Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News, whom he describes unflinchingly as "an absurd outfit of ignoramuses shooting their mouths off. I regard Sky as colleagues and competitors rather than enemies." There’s a twinkle in his eyes now: "I regard Fox News as an enemy to be smashed into the ground." Thankfully, British and Irish television news are protected by statute from the kind of political influence that now afflicts American reportage. Sky may be a Murdoch subsidiary, but they are not a mouthpiece.

Sitting opposite John Simpson, it is hard to forget the names of other people who have done the same, as his interviewees.

Ayatollah Khomeini, Robert Mugabe, Colonel Gaddafi and Saddam Hussein are amongst those who spring immediately to mind. Once he had decided not to have the reporter assassinated, Osama bin Laden wrote a letter to Simpson expressing his deep respect for the BBC, and promising to give an interview when the opportunity arose. Now 59, Simpson has seen 34 conflicts in as many years, and borne witness to the terrible and the inspirational in equal measure. For whilst his recent close call in Iraq (a US friendly fire incident that killed his translator and seventeen others) and the bombing of Belgrade during the Kosovo crisis (when Simpson was the only British reporter in the Serbian capital) have given him "a particular dislike for people dropping high explosive on other people from the air," he has also seen at first hand the fall of the Taliban, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the end of apartheid in South Africa. So if he isn’t a spy on the side, how does Simpson manage to beat the pack to the stories so consistently? "Well, is it some wonderful instinct which one possesses?" he muses rhetorically. "Probably not. Probably it’s that if you race around enough with your ear to the ground then there’s a fairly good chance of being in the right place at the right time.

I’ve been in the wrong place so

many times, but they don’t say ‘when this happened, John Simpson was on the other side of the world,’ do they?"

Like all the best role models of the old school, Simpson has little time for what he calls the ‘touchy-feely pain management’ offered by modern news corporations to employees who have been placed in traumatic situations in the line of duty. He indulges in his own brand of therapy, he reveals, by putting his experiences in print. Which would explain the three volumes of autobiography he has produced since 1998, as well as his new book about Iraq, ‘The Wars Against Saddam’.

Simpson’s own involvement in Iraq has been considerable: he reported from the Kurdish town of Halabjah immediately following the infamous chemical attack of 1988, and was the BBC correspondent in Baghdad during the first Gulf War. His reporting earned him the ire of the Ba’ath administration, however, and he was banned from returning to the city during last year’s conflict. Instead, he was placed in Northern Iraq and, thanks to that friendly fire incident, now has a piece of shrapnel lodged in his hip as well as a missing eardrum. I ask if he feels personally responsible for our image of Iraq, having been so closely associated with its coverage. "There are some subjects that are so deep that they don’t bear the stamp of any individual reporter, and I think Iraq is one of them," he says. "When I went to Iraq, I was quite anxious to tell people that, in spite of all these dreadful things, it was a country with real people living in it, not an abstraction that could be dismissed and bombed with impunity. Even now, Iraq is not a country in flames, despite what you might read." Unlike many other reporters, Simpson chose not to be embedded with British or American troops for the duration of the war. "I didn’t like the idea of being dependent on the soldiers you have to report on objectively for everything - food, security, transport, power.

Supposing they start executing prisoners - how hard will it be to be absolutely honest about people that you’ve come to like?

Wouldn’t you go soft on them?"

His decision to report ‘unilaterally’ arguably placed Simpson in a far more dangerous position than his colleagues who were embedded with military units, a theory borne out by his experience. "As it turned out - surprise, surprise - good journalists

“If you race around enough with your ear to the ground then there’s a fairly good chance of being in the right place at the right time” who were embedded reported well, and bad journalists who were embedded reported badly, and the policy gave us some of the best coverage of conflict we’ve ever had. So perhaps I was wrong to be opposed to it, but I just don’t feel it’s for me."

Wars have a habit of making

celebrities of those who report on them. Simpson has had more than his share of the limelight, and during the Iraq War it was the turn of his BBC colleague, Rageh Omaar. Omaar has recently published his own book about the conflict, but presumably being nicknamed the ‘Scud Stud’ can be as much a curse as it is a blessing. "I’m sure I speak for Rageh too when I say that none of us like that sort of attention. It’s not what we’re in it for, and you have to stop yourself from getting caught up in it, which can be hard. But if you simply go on trying to be the best reporter you can, it fades very quickly. I’m fairly sure television journalists are forgotten even quicker than newspaper

journalists…"

Simpson’s injuries have left him a little the worse for wear, but his formidable physical stature is undiminished, and his formidable professional stature is, if anything, enhanced. Though he is happily based in Dalkey with his second wife and producer, Dee, he has no plans to settle down any time soon. "I stagger around like an increasingly elderly nutter and have a very nice time. I just came back from fourteen days in the Congo in the most disgusting conditions and at the moment I still enjoy it - and I’m looking forward to the next story."

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Trinity News

GAEILGE

13th April 2004

Focal ar an taobh le R.G. Cuan: Rud beag

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Eagarthóir na Gaeilge

á eagran deireanach na bliana sroichte againn cheana féin agus nach dochreidte ar fad a luaithe is a chuaigh an bhliain seo isteach? Agus R.G. ag smaointiú siar ar a chéad laetha mar cholúnaí ag an nuachtán seo, tchítear dó nár thosaigh sé ach an lá inné.

Ach anois tá am na hollscoile ag teacht chun deiridh arís agus na scrúdúithe ag teacht orainn gan mhoill. Ní fada go mbeidh siad sin críochnaithe fosta, ar ndóigh, agus beidh muid uilig ag dúil go mór leis an samhradh naofa.

Sula bhfágann R.G. slán deireanach na bliana ag a léitheoirí dílise, tá rud beag le déanamh aige. Ba mhaith leis pobal na Tríonóide a chur ar an eolas fán ainm breá sin atá aige. Is iomaí litir a fuair sé ó chuaigh sé i mbun pinn ag fiafraí dó caidé an bunús a bhí leis, ach go áirithe leis an R.G., agus sa deireadh chinn sé ar an rún a scaoileadh.

Beidh a fhios ag cuid agaibh cheana féin is dóiche nó má tá cur amach ag duine ar bith ar amhráin Gaeilge na tíre seo, tá gach seans ann gur ‘chuala’ siad cad as a dtáinig sé. Tá suim mhór ag R.G. sna hamhráin ar ndóigh agus ar cheann acu tá…. Airde Cuan. Is amhrán é seo ó Ghlinnte Aontroma, áit a raibh an Ghaeilge á labhairt go dtí tús an 20ú céad, agus tá pictiúr de na hairde thíos. De réir scéil amháin atá cluinte ag an R.G. seo, gur chum fear áitiúil é faoina shaol mar a bheadh sé dá rachadh sé ar imirce go hAlbain.

Chuaigh an t-amhrán go mór sin i gcion air áfach gur fhán sé sa bhaile agus nach ndeachaigh sé thar sáile ar chor ar bith! Is cumhachtach an t-amhrán é mar sin agus, ag trácht ar an ainm arís, tchífidh sibh go bhfuil fuaim cosúil le R.G. ag an fhocal ‘airde’ agus is é seo a thug inspioráid don Uasal Cuan. Sin agaibh é! Thig libh codhladh mar is ceart a fháil anois go bhfuil sé sin ar eolas agaibh.

So, ádh mór oraibh a léitheoirí, bainigí sult as an samhradh agus, go dtí an chéad eagran eile de Trinity News, slán go fóill.

Tommy Connolly

Cosc agus cáin Anois agus an cosc ar thobac i bhfeidhm, tá earra eile faoi ionsaí ag an rialtas - guma coganta Tomaí Ó Conghaile

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aobh amuigh de theach tabhairne cáiliúil i lár Bhaile Átha Cliath, tá baicle mhór cruinnithe ag an doras. Tá sé ag cur amuigh agus tá go leor spais istigh. An é gur maith leo an fhearthainn atá ag cur orthu? An bhfuil dúil sna dúile ag an dream seo? Ní hé. Seo iad ‘íobartaigh’ nua an choisc ar thobac.

Tá an radharc céanna le féicieáil ar fud na hÉireann ó tháinig an cosc isteach ag deireadh mhí Mhárta agus is mór an tionchar atá á imirt aige in áiteanna oibre ó shin.

Is sna tithe tabharine is mó a bhfuil eolas ag mic léinn ar an chosc, ar ndóigh, agus bíodh tú ina fhabhar nó ina choinne, caithfear a admháil go bhfuil difear mór le féiceáil sna pubanna ar fad. Thig leat pionta bheith agat in atmaisféar atá go hiomlán glan ó dheatach na dtoitíní agus an mhaidin (nó an trathnóna) ina dhiaidh nuair a thugann tú faoi obair an lae, ní bhíonn boladh an deataigh chéanna as do chuid éadaí nó do chuid gruaige.

Tá go maith agus ní go holc.

Is é ceann de na príomhghearáin a bhí in eadan an choisc, áfach, gur léiriú é ar sheasamh dian an rialtais maidir le saoirse an duine srl. agus tá gach seans ann go mbeidh daoine ar an phort céanna seo faoin rialtas ag cur isteach ar an phobal go ceann tamaill eile.

Ní fios go forleathan go

Beidh costas níos airde ar ghuma coganta as seo amach bhfuil an rialtas ag díriú isteach ar rudaí eile nach bhfuil ag teacht go hiomlám le leas an phobail. Anois agus an cosc ar thobac i bhfeidhm, tá earra eile faoi ionsaí ag an rialtas - guma coganta.

I rith an tsamhraidh seo caite, d’fhógair an rialtas go bhfuil sé i gceist acu cáin nua a ghearradh ar ghuma coganta. Is í seo an chéad uair don stát cáin sa bhreis a ghearradh ar bhia agus meastar go gcuirfear idir trí phingin agus seacht bpingin ar gach paicéad.

Tagann an cháin seo ar bharr na cánach ar mhálaí plaisteacha agus ta súil ag an rialtas go mbeidh an rath céanna

ar an cháin úr. Agus é ag fógairt an chinnidh i mí Iúil, dúirt an tAire Chomhshaol Martin Cullen, go gcuideodh an t-airgead breise le cothabháil meaisíní speisialta a ghlanfadh an guma coganta ó na sraideanna.

“Níl le déanamh ach amharc ar shráideanna na tíre seo”, ar sé, “agus is léir go bhfuil fadhb ann. Gach bliain, cosnaíonn sé na milliúin ar údaráis aitiúla an guma coganta a ghlanadh ó na cosáin agus creideann an rialtas gurb iad na daoine a thruaillíonn an comhshaol na daoine ar chóir dóibh íoc as.

“Leis an cháin nua seo, beidh muid in ann córas den chineál seo a chur i bhfeidhm agus is

dóigh linn go rachaidh sé chun tairbhe do ghlaineacht na tíre ar fad”, arsa an tUasal Cullen.

Tá sé dearbhaithe ag urlabhraí rialtais go mbeidh cánacha breise ar chumhdacha polaisteiréine agus ar adhmála ó mhaisíní bainc ach níl sonraí na gcanach seo ar fáil go fóill.

Agus an cháin úr á fógairt in Éirinn, tá sé suntasach a lua go bhfuil na húdaráis in Singeapór ag tabhairt ceada do shaoranaigh an stáit guma coganta a cheanach. Tá cosc ar ghuma coganta in Singeapór ó bhí 1992 ach anois beidh sé ar fáil i gcógaslanna áirithe sa chathair.

Scéal measartha greanmhár agus ceann eile Mar bhronntanas bheag roimh an samhradh, anseo thíos tá cúpla scéal a bailíodh ó sheanchainteoirí Gaeilge i gcontae Ard Mhacha ag tús an chéid seo caite. Foilsíodh ar dtús iad san iris ‘An tUltach’ agus is í seo an chéad uair a chuireadh sa chló úr iad. Bainigí sult astú.

Naomh Pádraig agus an Buachaill

U

air amháin, nuair a bhí Naomh Pádraig ag dul thríd Oméith, casadh buachaill air a bhí ag tabhairt aire do scabhta gabhar ar thaobh an tsléibhe.

Smaoinigh an Naomh ar na laethanta agus na h-oicheanna a chaith sé féin ag buachailleacht bó ar Shliabh Mis, fá bhrón agus fá ocras, agus ghabh truagh don bhuachaill é.

"Teagascfaidh mé an Creideamh duid," arsa Pádraig leis an bhuachaill, "an bhfuil Urnaí, an Tiarna agat?"

"Char chulaidh mé trácht air a léithid ariamh", arsa an buachaill.

"Abair mo dhiaidh í, agus is goirid go rabh sí

agat. ‘Ár n-Athair,’ ‘Atá air Neamh,’ Go Naomhthar d’Ainm,’…"

"Fóill! Fóill!" arsa an buachaill, agus cuirfidh muinn na h-ainmeacha ud thart air na gabhair. Sin an dóigh is fhéarr a mbéidh cuimhne agam ar an Phaidir."

Chuir sé ‘Ár n-Athair’ ar an chéad ghabhar, ‘Atá air Neamh’ ar an dara gabhar, agus mar sin de.

"Ca h-uair a bheas tú anseo arist?" arsa an buachaill.

"Chan fheil fhios agam," arsa Pádraig, "i gcoicis, b’fheadfhaidhe, nó i ráithche; ach tá dúil agam go mbéidh an Urnaí, agat nuair a thiocfas mé."

Tamall ina dhiaidh sin, tháinig Naomh Pádraig ar a thriall arist, agus casadh an buachaill air.

"Tosaigh anois agus abair d’urnaí," arsa Naomh Pádraig, "go gcluinfidh mé goidé mar éirigh leat."

"Tá go maith," arsa an buachaill, agus thosaigh sé ag cuimhreamh na ngabhar: "’Ár n-Athair,’ ‘Atá ar Neamh’, ‘Go Naomhthar d’ainm’…Óch! Mo sheacht míle mallacht air ‘Go Naomhthar d’Ainm’.

Chuaidh sé a troid inné le ‘Go dTigidh do Riocht’, agus thlig sé an dá adhairc de!"

Buachaill a chuaigh fá iníon a rí agus chas madadh ar a bhealach air

“C

á bhfuil tú ag dul?" arsan madadh. “Dhul fá iníon an Rí – an dtiocfaidh tú liom?" "Tiocfaidh agus fáilte."

D’imigh siad leo gur chas Tón Iarainn leo.

"Cá bhfuil sibh ag dul?"

"Fá iníon an Rí – an dtiocfaidh tú linn?"

"Tiocfaidh agus fáilte."

D’imigh siad leo gur chas Bás le hOcras leo.

"Cá bhfuil sibh ag dul?"

"Fá iníon an Rí – an dtiocfaidh tú linn?"

"Tiocfaidh agus fáilte."

D’imigh siad leo gur chas Bás le Tart leo.

"Cá bhfuil sibh ag dul?"

"Fá iníon an Rí – an dtiocfaidh tú linn?"

"Tiocfaidh agus fáilte."

D’imigh siad leo gur chas Cos Cheangailte leo.

"Cá bhfuil sibh ag dul?"

"Fá iníon an Rí – an dtiocfaidh tú linn?"

"Tiocfaidh agus fáilte."

D’imigh siad leo arís gur chas Gaoth Mhór leo.

"Cá bhfuil sibh ag dul?"

"Fá iníon an Rí – an dtiocfaidh tú linn?"

"Tiocfaidh agus fáilte."

Ansin, nuair a chuaigh siad chuig tigh an Rí, chí na cathaoireacha thart sa tigh agus bhí sleánna suas sa chathaoireacha.

"Suífidh mise thart ar na cathaoireacha," arsa Tón Iarainn, "agus brisfidh mé na sleánna." Agus rinne sé sin agus shuigh siad uilig ar na cathaoireacha ansin.

Ina dhiaidh sin bhí bolg mór agus b’éigean dóibh a ithe, cnámha agus craiceann. Chan fhuair Bás le hOcras leith a sháith.

Bhál, bhí trí bhairle uisce agus chaithfeadh siad a ól. Chan fhuair Bás le Tart leith a sháith.

Bhál, ansin, b’éigean dóibh a dhud leis an tsean-cháilligh, agus bhí sí fá gheasaibh, chuig an tobar, agus dá mbeadh sise sa bhaile a chéad uair, ní bhfaigheadh an buachaill iníon a rí.

"Bhál, scaoil mo chos," arsa Cos Cheangailte, "agus rachaidh mise léi." Ach bhí sí ag teacht i dtoiseach.

"Bhál," arsa Gaosannaí Mhóra, "rachaidh mise suas ar a’ chnoc agus séidfidh mé ar ais í," agus rinne sé sin agus fuair an buachaill iníon a’ rí agus cúig chéad punta léi. Agus buachaill bocht a bhí ann féin agus bhí sé saibhir ansin.

Eagarthóir na Gaeilge Trinity News - Tusa?

An post atá ar fáil: Eagarthóir an leathanaigh seo ar an bhliain seo chugainn An duine atá de dhíth: Duine lán croí agus aigne, éirimiúil, cumasach agus eagraithe (cosúil leis an eagathóir reatha!) a bhfuil speis aige/aici leathanach suimiúil Gaeilge a chur os comhair phobal na Tríonóide.

Níl táithí iriseoireachta riachtanach, tá an post oscailte do chách. Má tá suim agat ann, seol ríomhphost chuig connoltp@tcd.ie

TRINITY NEWS SPECIAL

Editor Renata McDonnell

Trinity News 13th April 2004

T RINITY C OLLEGE D UBLIN W OMEN ’ S C ENTENARY 1904

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11

04

2004

An Tanaiste Mary Harney

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President Mary McAleese with ViceProvost Dr. Jane Grimson at the launch of the Women’s Centenary on the 3rd March 2004 in the Dining Hall. Ms McAleese remarked in her speech that, “Half baked views still trap women in a multitude of cultures throughout the world and they are not entirely gone from our own culture...

Women have yet to take on the 50% role that nature gave them and culture denied them.”

here is an old adage that your school days are the best days of your life, but it was my college years in Trinity which proved the best years of my life. I lived at home in Newcastle, West Dublin for my first three years in Trinity but took rooms in my final year. I enjoyed every minute of college life. It was a much smaller university back then and I was an activist in every sense of the word, always going to events. I was involved with the St Vincent de Paul, the College Historical Society and several other societies. I frequently came in on the first bus from Newcastle and went home on the last.

In rooms, my address was 37 New Square.

It was my first time living away from home, apart from the summers when I travelled. I lived on my own, but shared a kitchen with others. I got my first experience of hosting and entertaining which I really enjoyed. In Trinity you asked people to supper – they weren’t very extravagant get-togethers, but were great fun. Spaghetti Bolognese featured large on the menu – and anything else that was cheap to cook. Wine would also be part of the evening, usually the cheapest bottle that could be bought, although I didn’t really drink until I was 23 or 24.

When I entered Trinity in 1972, it was just one year after the ban preventing Catholics

from entering the University, had been lifted. A large percentage of the student body came from across the border and I received a great grounding on the real issues contributing to the divide between the two communities in Northern Ireland. That early understanding of the Northern question stood me in great stead, as I embarked on a career in national politics.

I enjoyed great opportunities at that time of my life - the former Irish President, UN High Commissioner, but then-Trinity lecturer, Mary Robinson, took a group of us on a very interesting tour of the European Institutions – the Parliament, the Commission and the Court of Justice. I also was privileged to meet many very influential people through the Hist - luminaries like John Hume, Jack Lynch, Ted Heath and others. As a member of the debating team, we debated frequently in Trinity, in the North and also in the UK. I was always raising issues within the Hist and of course within Fianna Fail, of which I was a very active member at the time.

It was there I first came to the attention of the then-Taoiseach Jack Lynch, and I was surprised and honoured not long after leaving Trinity, to be nominated to the Seanad

Vice-Provost, Dr Jane Grimson

W

hen I entered the Engineering School as a first year undergraduate in October 1966 I was the only woman in a class of 30 students. Today there are 188 students in first year, of whom 40 are women. The engineering programme then as now had a common entry although we started specialising at the end of the first year rather than the second year. Although I was the first woman to graduate in engineering from Trinity, a woman had started the course in the 1930’s but left – rumour has it – to get married without completing. Even in the 1960’s it was not unusual for women students to leave College without completing their degree when they got married. It was, however, a period of change for women in College with the first women Fellows and Foundation Scholars (prior to that they were only eligible for NonFoundation scholarships) elected in 1968. Women were therefore at last allowed to live in

rooms on campus and most importantly, we no longer had to leave the College by midnight.

That I decided to study engineering is perhaps not all that surprising as my father, William Wright, was professor of Civil Engineering in Trinity at that time. I do remember some of the teachers at my allgirls school being somewhat dismayed, if not disapproving, at my choice of career.

I greatly enjoyed my time in Trinity; the breadth of the course and the combination of practical and theoretical work suited me well. Our timetables were pretty full and we even had classes on Saturday mornings in first and second year – generally Chemistry or Surveying practicals. I remember one of my fellow-students spending the first few Chemistry practicals tucked away in the corner of the Lab trying to figure out how to distil alcohol. While he displayed initiative and entrepreneurship

(he spotted the market opportunity), the experiment was soon stopped; the official grounds were that it was not part of the curriculum for Engineering.

Unlike engineering students today, we had to write and pass an English essay during the Michaelmas term of first year.

We also had to take an "arts" subject throughout our four years. The subject was chosen from amongst the General Studies curriculum – General Studies was a precursor of today’s Two Subject Moderatorship except that it was a pass degree and students took three subjects for all four years. Timetable constraints effectively restricted engineers to taking either Geography or Economics. I chose Geography and really enjoyed the course and particularly the field trip to Sligo.

It is perhaps interesting to reflect that today Trinity is trying to recapture even if only in a limited way through the

Chancellor Mary Robinson

C

hancellor Mary Robinson’s professional history reads like a Law students’ wish list. Doctorates, professorships, fellowships, directors, senior counsel, senator, President of Ireland, UN High Commissioner - her outstanding achievements are already enough for three lifetimes (and three pages), but she has not hung up the cap and gown quite yet. Born near the close of the second World War Ms Robinson has focussed her career on the fight for human rights and battles on determinedly, most recently and sig-

nificantly as founding Executive Director of the New York based ‘Realising Rights: Ethical Globalization Initative’ (EGI).

She had barely stepped off the plane from there and had generously allowing a window to talk before making her way to lecture.

Undoubtably the most famed Trinity woman graduate in global terms, Ms Robinson’s anecdotes reveal an unconventional student, unafraid to circumvent established paths to pursue her goals, and sometimes make a statement by novel approaches.

as his appointee. At 24 years of age, I was the youngest ever person to be granted that privilege. It was those formative years in Trinity which sparked my interest in current affairs and politics. I formed many friendships there with many brilliant people, and most of these have turned out to be lifelong friendships. I still have a great fondness and nostalgia for the College and can honestly say that my experience there, shaped the outcome of my later life in so many ways.

“In our Law class of about twenty-eight men, there were four of us women and we had decided that we would row in the annual regatta at the time.

Two of us were quite tall and the other two were much smaller. We really hadn’t much experience, but we did our best, calling ourselves ‘Four Just Women’. Unfortunately for us our crowd of supporters decided instead to call us ‘Just Four Women’! Although we women were in the minority I didn’t have a sense of real struggle. We were happy here and there was good camraderie. I tended to be very actively involved in college and became Secretary of the Student Representatives Council, then Auditor of the Law Society, but of course, in my day I couldn’t become a member of the Phil or the Hist. However I did had very good links with the student debating groups in UCD and I went along to a number of the L & H debates when

there weren’t many Trinity people doing that at that stage. I had been at a Catholic boarding school and a number of my friends had gone to UCD so I had a natural connection. It may sound surprising now, but at the time going up to Earlsfort Terrace was crossing quite a divide! But they were open to us and that’s where I got my experience.”

“Ireland has come a long way in that now it is not acceptable that aspects of society would not be opened to women, whereas when I was a young girl we didn’t think about it and my approach was to avail fully of the avenues that were open.

Now you see classes with a predominance of women students and there is no sense of any barrier that I can see, whereas we were continually pushing the frontiers out that little bit, which was the difference.”

A woman with a mission, Ms Robinson now works through

Broad Curriculum initiative the breadth of education that we experienced in the late 1960’s. Sharing courses as we did with students in General Studies, Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry was a great advantage in terms of the social experience of College.

From my point of view as the only woman in my class, it was particularly welcome although I can honestly say that I never felt isolated in engineering. The engineering students then as now were a sociable lot and everyone was welcome to join their parties. Occasionally though they would decide to have a "stag party" and the first time this happened I felt rather put out. When I expressed my dismay at being excluded, I was immediately informed that "I didn’t count and of course I could come!" I am still not quite sure how to interpret this. In any event, the year following graduation, I married one of my class-mates!

in conversation with Renata McDonnell

EGI to realise rights by a strong gender perspective, advocating women in leadership as one of its worthy objectives. “I am chair of the Council of Women World Leaders, which is women who currently are or have been elected President or Prime Minister and presently there are thirty of us. That is linked to a ministerial assembly, which includes Madeline Albright, who chairs it, where we encourage women ministers in their portfolio to network. So we have an active network of women Ministers of the Environment – they have just been looking at issues of sanitation, water and women - and we are encouraging next month a network of women Ministers of Health; there is already one assembled of Ministers of Trade and Finance.”

True to character as a bridgemaker, Ms Robinson has always maintained her bond with Trinity: “I remember as

President coming along to open the Quatracentenary in Front Square in 1992, so it is very nice now as Chancellor to also be participating in the Women’s Centenary twelve years on, conferring the honorary women graduates on the 9th July. What I’m very pleased about is that I have in a very strutured way an opportunity of being here four times a year, on two occasions it coincides with the honorary degrees which I conferr in July and December. I’m keen as Chancellor to keep in touch with the intellectual life of the university, and indeed the social life of the university now I’m in a position to be a more active presence.”

I think we students and graduates couldn’t ask for a better role model; a Trinity woman who took her education all the way to the UN and back, belying cynics by still making a real difference in the world. So here’s to you Ms Robinson.

12

Trinity News

TN EDITORS

13 April 2004 th

Editorial

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004 is certainly a year for celebration.

Anniversaries are everywhere; centenaries, fiftieths, hundred and fiftieths; from the National Gallery, James Joyce and the Abbey Theatre to Tayto Crisps and even Trinity News, it seems every other Irish institution is paying homage to its history. No greater of these than Trinity College Dublin which set a progressive precedent by taking a tentative step towards a modern world and finally admitting women students on its cobbled grounds in 1904. Trinity News is proud to celebrate our outstanding women graduates and staff in this very special edition devoted to reminding future generations of the achievements of these past 100 years through profiles, memoirs and accounts.

I thank all who generously took the time to contribute here.

It may have been nearly ten years since Barbara Collins, the last women Trinity News Editor held the helm in 1995, but this past year Dublin University Publications has had, bar one, a remarkable all-women editorial staff . Even thirty years ago this would have been unthinkable, signalling the extent to which Trinity women have perpetrated all aspects of college life and authority. Even that waning bastion of the old boys club, the GMB, can again boast a woman Auditor of the Hist Society, notorious as the last debating society to admit ‘birds’ as members (way to go guys).

While we women can glory in our 60% majority, or perhaps bemoan the scarcity of male undergrads, Trinity College

provides an undeniable haven for equal opportunities, at student level at least. Beyond the shadows of Front Arch a slightly different story begs telling. A political struggle is still being fought to redress the balance of women in leadership on a local and world scale; a battle Trinity women have not backed away from Chancellor Mary Robinson and An Tánaiste Mary Harney two of our most senior examples. Sheltered in these 17th century walls it is easy to assume apathy; a designation thrown at students but woefully accurate in general, and believe feminism is defunct, that of course equality has arrived as my Hamilton bound Junior Freshman flatmate blithely assured me.

Until the day arrives when An Taoiseach is quoted as ‘she’; when women candidates, TDs and MEPs are not restrained time and again from political advancement by their maternal roles; when a woman politician will be criticised solely on her policies and ability, and please someone, not by her fashion sense and attractiveness, will I accept that pronouncement.

Feminism, that misunderstood unfortunate, has been bandied about in dirty terms, sensationally simplified to the ‘bra-burning, man-hating, lesbian’ tag by the gutter press. Truly sensational is our well-educated students, attending the Number 1 University in Ireland according to The Sunday Times (2003), recoil with ignorance at the mere mention of feminism. Proclamations of the

Third Wave of Feminism fall on distracted ears on this island and at my worst I hysterically fear a future of Surrendered, Stepford Wives where women attend college to just get their MRS. Seriously however, this Women’s Centenary Special is to honour the work Trinity women carried out to carve a smoother path for our success, men as well as women. These pages are filled with role models to be celebrated.

In the 1990s my mother, though not university educated, rose to first Lady President of Limerick Chamber of Commerce, only the second woman in the Chambers in Ireland, and subsequently first Lady Chancellor of a college in Ireland. I recall the hard slog and tears as she valiantly fought for student rights and waged a one-woman war on a conservative, self-serving system against staunch opposition. She succeeded, but at a personal price. It is time we women and men properly acknowledged the sacrifice our matriarchs made to bridge divides and commemorate it appropriately.

Now what might have been comely maidens dancing at the crossroads are young women bopping at the Trinity Ball, loud and proud under the scornful face of Provost Salmon who infamously avowed, “Over my dead body will women enter this College¨, only to die within days of the Kings Letters Patent to permit the admission of women being issued in January 1904. Heaven hath no sweeter victory than a woman vindicated

T Renata McDonnell Trinity News Editor 2003/2004

Catherine Troy, Trinity News Editor 1979/1980

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he year (1979-1980) was a powerful year for women. Margaret Thatcher, became Prime Minister of Britain - and Trinity Undergraduate, Catherine Troy became editor of Trinity News.

Both women were spurred into trouble times: Margaret Thatcher occupied herself with International issues:- The election of the first members of the European Parliament The establishment of the EU Monetary system - The Hunger Strikes in the Maize prison - the murder of Earl Mountbatten ...

Ms Troy on the home front witnessed: The election of Taoiseach, Charles J Haughey - The legal sale of contraceptives - The visit of Pope John Paul 11 to Ireland - and the mass unemployment (over 6 per cent) of Trinity graduates.

Margaret or The Iron Lady as she became commonly know to Ms Troy was very busy. On a daily basis, she ruled the British Isles and the World.

Thereafter she: Wiped out the British manufacturing industry:- Established her own personal economic philosophy called Thatcherism :Started a war in South America: And, as is common amongst all super feminists, she administered much time and tender loving care to her husband, Denis and two children, Mark and Carol etc etc etc.

At the same time, Ms Troy, the enthusiastic but poor TCD student gave her services for free (day or night optional) in the Trinity News Offices, Room 200

Trinity women reading the first issue of Trinity News, 1953 Pearce Street, Dublin while managing an annual budget of £100 - and a staff of ten people, who wrote what they liked ...whenever they liked.

The leadership style of both these women differed greatly. Margaret Thatcher operated a policy of direct rule. In sharp contrast, the Editor of Trinity News, ran around front square, begging everyone to help her at the newspaper. The fact is, Ms Troy knew that without free labour... there would be no newspaper. Trinity News would fold under HER editorship. And, THAT, she knew in her feminist bones, would bring shame on her sisters at Trinity College Dublin.

Indeed, over time the differences between these two women became more evident. For instance, while Margaret was driven around in a big black German car, Ms Troy rode her bicycle to Terry McGee Printers in the North Wall, Dublin (newspaper packed into an art folder). Thereafter she returned by taxi on publication day to collect over 1,500 copies - and rose at seven in the

Barbara Collins, Trinity News Editor 1994/1995

I

was nothing more than a naïve ex-convent school girl when I walked up the stairs to the Trinity News office for the annual trawl for Freshers’ talent. It was October 1992

and the phrase Celtic Tiger was mercifully unknown.

Student apathy had yet to reach its zenith and spurred on by the scores of posters peppered round House 6 and the Arts Block and I’d decided to see if

First chairwoman of Trinity News Jill Sheppard (nee Robbins) 1956

morning to sell copies of Trinity News (5 pence a copy) to its loyal readers.

Finally, both women suffered the pangs of male betrayal. Margaret tolerated pain inflicted by Howe and Lawson while Ms Troy had to tolerate the insult of two former (male) editors sneaking into the office of Trinity News - And changing the front page of the newspaper to reflect their political preferences.

A battle in front square followed - and Ms Troy advised the two former (male) editors that they shouldn't work on Trinity News thereafter. With that the two (male) editors giggles and marched over to the opposing newspaper Piranaha and started making up fanciful stories about their former editor.

Alas, there were times when Ms Troy thought it was it was a funny old world... but unlike her sister Margaret, she was only too delight to get out of number 200, Trinity News Pearce Street, Dublin.

Catherine Troy is a writer with the Irish Independent.

student journalism was for me. I had only a very vague notion of getting into journalism as a career but the minute I turned the corner into the office of DU Publications, I knew I had found what I wanted to do. Hard to describe what was the clinching factor, I suppose you could say it was the feel of the place. A clique of uber-cool TN veterans were swanning around, trying to look superior (they succeeded) before the then Editor, Aidan Fitzmaurice called the meeting to order.

He was a down-to-earth Northsider; his sidekick Liam Reid (News Editor), an opininated Economics student from

he 60s had sex and drugs and rock and roll, but the 50s invented rock and roll and teenagers- a new breed who wore blue jeans, shrunk on their legs in a cold bath, spent their pocket money on 78s, screamed at rock stars, and jived.

I arrived at Trinity to do History, aged 17, in 1953. It was easy to get in then: British 0-Levels or Irish were enough. Mind you, if you failed your year, you were out or relegated to Pass Arts. And there were probably more female academics as role models than there are now, certainly in the U.K. College was notably multi-cultural, with about a quarter coming from places like Cyprus, the West Indies, Africa or the Far East, a half from Britain, and the rest from Northern and Southern Ireland. This made for a stimulating political mix. But Trinity offered, above all, a vibrant social life. While bars for girls alone were pretty much barred, college offered everything from sedate tea or sherry parties in Rooms ( girls out by 6 p.m.),to unsmart hops ,genteel coffee dates at Bewlays, endless dressy balls, and the hedonism of Trinity Week. Girls were not only vastly outnumbered by men, but it was inconceivable that they should pay for any of their entertainment themselves. They were still expected to be primarily decorative, preferably demure, and intellectually acquiescent. Much more than a kiss or bit of a snog at the end of a date and a girl got ‘talked about’. Disaster. The dating game was a serious mating game.

Marriage was still the No 1 career.

Medics., music and Mod. Lang. students might have vocational pathways, but for most girls a job as a secretary, teacher or civil servant was the height of aspiration, with Air Hostessing ( languages obligatory) as the glamour option. Even so, some jobs had to be resigned on marriage.

Some institutions were all male.

We ate, debated and worshipped separately from the men. But most societies and clubs, social if not sporting, welcomed women- and so did Trinity News, almost from the start. Unlike TCD, "The College Miscellany", its remit was reporting. I got in by reporting gossip. I was actually rather shy, but with a

Longford. The Features Editor was another Dubliner, Eoin Brannigan and finally, the Arts Editor, Siobhan Doyle, was the lone female voice in the senior editorial team.

I had already decided I wanted to be the Editor one day but I wondered if being a woman make that any harder.

I started off doing the usual news stories but my big break came in March of first year when I interviewed the comedian, Kevin McAleer for the Features Section. I blagged two free tickets to his show and took Aidan with me to the Olympia where I confessed I’d quite like to be Editor when I’d served my time. I’ll never forget his

drink in one hand and my lethally long cigarette–holder in the other I found I could listen with no need to talk. Come Trinity Term 1956, I was elected that term’s Chairman.

Permission had to be obtained from the powers that be for me to use Rooms in Botany Bay - a place of dubious repute - as an office and until late : between 6 and 10 p.m. women were otherwise only allowed to be in Players or the Reading Room. Permission granted, the hard work began.

Staffing was minimal: the Chairman, News, Features and Sports Editors, and crucially a Treasurer; a few regulars, and whoever else we could persuade to write, draw or take photos. Money was always tight. Some previous Chairmen had kept the News afloat out of their own pockets. We cajoled firms and shops into taking out ads. At the weekly planning meeting, depending on our finances, we gambled on producing 4 or 6 pages a week. We did our own lay-out and proof reading on hot metal type at the Brunswick Press. If we over-estimated the print run, we would shout ourselves hoarse trying to sell off our copies in Front Square. TCD criticised and satirised us, but when the Sunday Times publicised my "attacks on the helpless, hapless, hopeless college male", circulation went up. Getting Beckett to contribute was useful, too. I lost a stone that term, but gained wonderful experience.

When I graduated it seemed likely that my Trinity News training plus my years in Players would help me get into the B.B.C. Not according to the Careers Advisor.

He assured me that only English or Mod. Lang. degrees would do. I could not quite see why, but trusting the expert, I opted to take up the offer of a scholarship to do a Ph.D. (I have to admit, I was in no great hurry to leave the attractions of swinging Dublin).

But another degree later, I discovered this was just the sort of background wanted by B.B.C. T.V.’s Education Department - our dramas and documentaries were accompanied by a multiplicity of publications, and I spent a challenging quarter century plus in that department.

Thank you, Trinity News.

response, (although to this day, he denies ever saying it) "What, a bird?"

Well, that was it! Come hell or high water, I was going to do this. So, I spent the next very enjoyable 18 months working my way up to the dizzy heights of first female Editor in more than a decade. Was it tough? Yes, at times it was a nightmare, but the rush of adrenalin when I saw people parting with 10p for my first edition made it all worthwhile.

Barbara Collins is now a Radio Reporter and documentary maker with the BBC in Belfast

Trinity News

THE LEGACY

13 April 2004 th

"Hopeless, hapless, headless, and not even beautiful" Trinity Women – ‘A Danger to the Men?’ Karina Alves

T

ry and imagine a femalefree Trinity College. This is no easy task. We are in the majority; we are in lectures, libraries and exams; societies and sports clubs; the Phil and the Hist; the Buttery, the Pav, the press and literally anywhere else that tickles our fancy. Gender barriers being non-existent, young women study here assuming that they will be treated on a par with men and the possibility of sexual discrimination is not normally entertained. Clearly this has not always been the case, and even though Trinity was founded by a woman in 1592, only 312 years later in 1904, were women admitted. Given that today women play such a prominent role in College, Trinitites should really know something of how and why this came to be.

For sale in May of this year is a book that will set the record straight, a pet project of the Dublin University Women Graduates’ Association (DUWGA) entitled "A Danger to the Men? A History of Women in Trinity College, Dublin, 1904 – 2004".

Published by Lilliput Press in association with DUWGA and edited by Trinity academic and Emeritus Fellow, Susan M. Parkes, the book travels

ines seem frequently seduced more by apathy than action.

Rather than the gallant account of hordes of assertive women incensed by bigotry,

“Not until man walks on the moon will a woman set foot in here” - The Historical Society battering down the front gate and majestically male-bashing their way through college, our early history in Trinity features well-mannered, slightly timid ladies that spend years politely requesting admission.

When finally allowed in, they blend silently into the background and humbly accept a backseat for years.

Though easy and tempting to be critical of these early women, the book forbids it. Its account of Ireland’s intense conservatism demands we take a more sympathetic view because feminism as we know it today, was an impossibility.

Moreover, the decision to admit women in 1904 must be seen as a radical one, particularly when we consider that Oxford only admitted women in 1919 and Cambridge even later, in 1948. We do their memory an injustice if we venture to judge the achievements of the first Trinity women by today’s standards. With this in mind, the book is more fulfilling than frustrating as it demonstrates just how far women have come

‘there is a week in every month when a girl really should not do much; if she does she suffers’ through the hundred years of female existence in Trinity. It is a chronological memoir-based account that highlights the efforts made: first for admission, then for recognition and finally for equal rights.

Graduating in history from Trinity in 1958, Ms. Parkes worked as a schoolteacher in England and Northern Ireland before returning to Trinity’s School of Education in 1966.

She was Senior lecturer in

admittance to Trinity in pursuit of degrees. Despite this impressive accomplishment, ‘the Board were not prepared to effect’ the changes needed.

despite the hurdles.

A request made in 1873 for women to be admitted to degrees took thirty-one years to be put into practice. Opposition to admitting women was fortified by the existence of a large number of old conservative men on the college board, most perfectly embodied by the late Provost Salmon who affirmed, ‘Over my dead body will women enter this college.’ He died in January of 1904,

The question is why not?

Opposition to women’s education was justified by arguments that should be considered if not for their validity, then for both their historical and comic value. A personal favourite is the one which held that education would ‘un-sex’ women, making them unattractive, bad mothers. The College board also identified the clear and present danger that if let in, women might choose to run amuck. "If a female had once passed the gate, it would be practically impossible to watch what buildings or what chambers she might enter, or how long she might remain there…"

Other objections were; that a university education would be wasted on women, that certain texts were inappropriate and would destroy feminine purity, that men would be preyed upon by gold-diggers, that the college ‘conveniences’ were unsuitable and most significantly that the women would distract the men.

Even those men in favour of admitting women had arguments in opposition, for example a Professor W. Ramsey of University College London, believed that ‘it is not good for girls to strain themselves in competing with men’ and that ‘there is a week in every month when a girl really should not do much; if she does she suffers.’ These concerns over the negative effects of education on a woman’s health were negated by reports from Oxford and Cambridge. Thus it was acknowledged that our fragile constitutions were, in fact able to endure the horrors imposed upon them by reading, writing and sitting for prolonged periods of time.

Condescension aside, it is

posed to be more than ten minutes between the two sets of signatures." Women were also excluded from most major societies, the Hist notoriously remarking that, "Not until man walks on the moon will a woman set foot in here."

Ms. Parkes affirmed that socially, ‘women did not prove a danger to men’, they blended softly into the background and as such they posed no visible threat. Male attitudes towards them ranged from bewildered amusement to outright distaste. In the 1930s, for example, one lecturer is said to have remarked of two young women, ‘hopeless, hapless, headless, and not even beautiful.’ Despite these restrictions, and occasional negative attitudes, the first Trinity women proved themselves as academic acheivers, and their successes proved hugely important in fortifying their position in college.

Women’s integration into college life remained minimal for much of the twentieth century, Ms. Parkes writes that ‘they were accepted as equals in the University but not in College.’

Surprisingly this assertion may be loosely applied right up to 1990, when the last tangible restriction was withdrawn and Prof. Barbara Wright of the French Department was made Trinity’s first ever woman Senior Fellow.

Today, inequality has been chased out of the undergraduate realm but appears to have taken up residence further up the academic ladder. To cite Susan Parkes, ‘In the world of academia women are not in the top jobs, even after hundreds of years of our education’. A report produced in 2002 by Prof. Barbara Wright, upholds this contention by illustrating the gender inequalities in the composition of Trinity’s top

‘...education would ‘un-sex’ women, making them unattractive, bad mothers...’

Education and head of the Education Department from 1997 until she when she retired and agreed to edit and co-author ‘A Danger to the Men?’ Ms. Parkes is also a founder member of the Trinity Access Programme (TAP).

Interesting, entertaining, yet with the potential to frustrate female readers, the book unveils a history of women that despite energetic beginnings, appears increasingly characterised by sluggish progress in the face of bigoted opposition. A history where those who ought to have been archetypal hero-

upholding the dictum ‘be careful what you wish for’ as the first women were admitted later that year. A quick suggestion for female readers; the next time you pass his leering white statue in front square, smile sweetly and gloat.

Alice Oldman and the Central Association of Irish Schoolmistresses (CAISM) led the early struggle for higher education and lobbied unceasingly until 1895. In 1892 CAISM, led by Ms. Oldman, organised a petition and collected over 10,000 signatures of Irish women in favour of their

important to recognise that the battle for admission was not waged solely by women and although ultra-conservative men formed the opposition, ‘A Danger to the Men?’ emphasises the extent to which their liberal peers were the women’s indispensable allies. Rather than a gender war then, there existed a clash of attitudes amidst changing economic circumstances and 1904 was the beginning of the end of maledominated Trinity. The board’s decision to admit women appears to have been motivated more by their fear of being overshadowed by the new co-ed National University of Ireland than by the zealous efforts of Alice Oldman and CAISM. This is quite an anti-climax, given the years of campaigning that would have proved futile, had they not provided impetus.

Many far-reaching social restrictions were imposed on women; they were confined to house 6, they were not allowed enter commons, they could not become Fellows, could not live on campus and visits to college rooms were chaperoned. Most famously, women had to leave the college by six o’clock. Susan Parkes recalls that in the 1960s women were allowed back in to study after six but, "you had to sign in at the front gate, and if you went to the library you signed a book in the library. At ten to ten you got up and signed yourself out of the library, you walked across the front square and back to the gate and there was not sup-

academic posts. In 2000, for example, only 5% of Trinity Professors were female, with figures rising modestly to 14% for both Associate Professors and Fellows. Prof. Wright maintains that this is not due to prejudice, but social causes. Ms. Parkes elucidates this by maintaining at the age when men are furthering their careers, many women prioritise family life, ‘and when they want to come back, it is very difficult for them to catch up again’. In her report, Dr. Wright recom-

tifies the history of women in Trinity and despite the social obstacles the memoirs are reassuringly positive and upbeat. Following the admission of women to the Hist in 1968 the only remaining male student strongholds are the men’s toilets and given their nature, segregation in this case is, I believe, a good thing.

“If a female had once passed the gate, it would be practically impossible to watch what buildings or what chambers she might enter, or how long she might remain there…” - Trinity College Board mends that increased importance should be placed on assisting working mothers, so that talent is not wasted. There remains however, the nagging possibility that in the upper academic echelons discrimination still exists, largely concealed by the fact that women are so dominant at undergraduate level. Ms. Parkes for one, affirmed that, "I think there may well be still a certain amount of discrimination and some people I have talked to are quite sure of it."

So perhaps the quest for absolute equality has not yet been achieved, but as to its history, ‘A Danger to the Men?’ is an eye-opener. The book demys-

Susan Parkes, author of ‘A Danger to the Men? A History of women in Trinity College, Dublin: 1904 2004’ out in May. All proceeds to the Trinity Access Program

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Trinity News

THE GMB

13 April 2004 th

Editor Ruth NiEidhin

Tradition Broken Woman speaks at a Major Society Trinity News Staff December 2nd 1953 History was made at the Philosophical Society's interdebate. On Thursday, 26th November, 1953, a lady entered the hall and addressed the house for the first time.

Welcoming her, the President expressed the hope that it would be possible for ladies to be present at public business meetings in the future.

Thereupon Mr M Maconnaill from UCG proposed the motion 'That hypocrisy is one of our national characteristics'. Hypocrisy, he decided, was universal, but the Irish type of hypocrisy is of such a pleasant sort sprining from a sincere desire not to give offence, that it is a unique characteristic.

Mr G. Sheehy, Audtior of the Literary and Historical Society, UCD, was in his element opposing such a motion and he retold the magnificent sage of the Irish struggle for freedom. How, he asked, could the charge of false patriotism be levelled against such a people.

Mr R Seaman, Registrar, UPS spoke of hte hypocrisies that exist in the national and religious life of the Irish. Anti-partition was just an excuse to dominate the North. I nthe best Phil. tradition, he discussed college hypocrisy; here everyone agreed taht the major societies were worthy of support, but only few could join them. From Queen's University, Mr D Hawthorne dealt with the religious aspect of Irish life. He saw regular Sunday worship, isolated in a week fo sin, not as

Girls must be girls Trinity News Staff Trinity News, No.8, 1955 'A woman's firsty duty is to be a woman, otherwise she ought to be made a man' urged Miss Eve Ross at the Elizabethan Society inaugural.

In her paper on 'The Significant Middle Way', she intimated that women had progressed since 1904. In substantiation she cited the admission of women to College. Women knew what might or might not function and, therefore, they were essentially more practical than men. However, for the feminine mind there was an everlurking menace of exaggeration.

Nothing now seemed impossible, because modern science had also progressed since 1904. The possibility that it, with women, might advance further must not be overlooked. Everything appeared to be moving too fast.

In view of this, a middle course must always be steered by poise and personality.

Replying, Dr McDowell pointed to three stages of the female revolution. Firstly, the admission of women to Universities and professions; secondly, the typewriter, and, thirdly, the

scarcity of domestic servants.

He emphasized the terror with which some Victorians regarded the 'desexed woman' produced by the franchise. The emergence of women has led, not to a feminine tradition, but to the breakdown of male exclusiveness.

Thus, he had to contend with dirty dishes.

The vibrant Miss Temple-Lane - Chairman of the Irish PEN urged her audience to forget their femininity. Women must win respect as people, not as women. Educational freedom came before political freedom, and so emancipation was comparatively civil.

The Very Rev. R. Wyse Jackson regretted the lack of vocational training for the married home.

It was for a family that woman gave her finest qualities.

Reminiscing on the good old days was Professor OtwayRuthven. When she entered College in 1927 women were firmly disciplined. Now the shackles are gone and woman is free to enjoy the status which has so recently been achieved by her.

Women in the Hist, Trinity News, April 22nd, 1965 ‘Women in the Hist’. A subject discussed as often and as fruitlessly as lavatories in the S.R.C. How many more times do agitators like Martyn Lewis need to be put in their places? Less than three years since the last abortive attempt to inject un-wanted sex-equality into the Society comes another anti-traditionalistic move.

With about six hundred members, the Hist can claim to be the leading light of college societies. Around a hundred members attended debates and as such were allowed into Mr Lewis’ confidence when he drew up his interminable report on women. Feeling his own performances were unable to inspire his fellow debators, Mr Lewis now seeks to boost his crumbling image by enfranchising trinity females and allowing them into debates. Disraeli tried to the same trick in 1867 and lost the 1868 election. The masses were not deceived by his ‘gift’.

Neither is Trinity News by Mr. Lewis. If he is so keen to debate with women why

does he not leave the Hist, taking his fellow-travellers and join the Phil. Though the Phil narrowly rejected granting women full membership at the end of last term, it seems in the near future, full status will be granted. If women are allowed to debate in the Hist, it will merely be the thin end of the wedge. In time someone like Mr Lewis will be thumpiing his club to allow women to sit in the Conversation room- even to play billiards. What next? Women in the Rugby club? Can you really see a woman with a billiard cue? Not every male conversation is enhanced by female intervention. Many are the times when men wish to relax after yet another conquest (or failure) alone, uninterrupted by feminine triteness. If women become debating members of the Hist it is only a matter of time before they assume full membership. This year the Hist – all men – has won the Irish Times Debating Competition for the first time since 1958 and has had a lively and successful year in its ordinary debates. It has continued to prove a male sanctuary in a petticoatdominated world. Long may matters remain this way.

hypocrisy but as a desire for respectability at all costs.

It was at this stage of the procedure that history was made. Miss O'Regan from Galway joined the President in his wish to see ladies taking their proper place in the Society. This duty done, she pointed out that the greatest example of Irish Hypocrisy was the pretended hatred of the British monarchy. The Coronation film was banned but everyone went secretly to see it; the Royal family was condemned officially but everyone read about them in magazines.

The President's turn came, and with eloquent humour, and occasionally common sense, he arrived at the conclusion that the only solution to Ireland's problem would be to forcibly drive all young people form the country for a period of years.

When they returned the country's faults would be appreciated. Those various characteristics which had been attributed to hypocrisy were fundamentally due to paradox. Paradox, not hypocrisy, he claimed, is the natural characteristic.

The task of the Secretary, Mr D Hodgins, was a difficult one after such a spate of oratory, but he was not at a loss. After discussing the Begely case, he concluded saying that hypocrisy could be a virtue if it were used with discretion and not too openly.

After Mr J A McArdle from UCD had delivered a complex oration with self-confidence and wit, the President adjourned this highly successful debate.

Oxford Union won’t join debate at Hist – February 22nd, 1966 The woman question has again produced problems for the Hist and the pressure has increased for the admission of females.

The Oxford Union refused to accept an invitation fo the University debate run by the Historical Society last Wednesday. The Union said it could not participate in a debate which was run by an all-male society.

Miss Geraldine Jones, President of the Oxford Union pointed out that her refusal was not simply because she was a woman president, but becase the Hist had ruled out a number of first-class speakers by their regulations. Then

Oxford Union treasturer said it was an issue of principle and that they could not accept invitations from socities which did not allow women to speak.

Miss Jones said she would not invite anyone from the Hist to debate in the Union during the remaining term of her office.

The Hist will be debating further motions on the admission of women next term. The society is not perturbed by the Union’s refusal. said a Committee member ‘We think they are foolish. Our relations with them are probably a little bit strained at the moment, but we are not makin an issue out of it’. As the result of the last debate on women was so close, they will be in perhaps sooner than expected. Until then, however, relations between the Hist and the Oxford Union cannot be expected to improve substantially.

Women in College - Second Class Citizens D.R.D Hutchinson Trinity News, October 24th 1962 With the developments in the dining hall bringin the end of segregated lunches, and the consequent chnages in roomorganisation in Number Six, and with the ‘Hist’ about to debate the possibility of admitting women (not eht enegative and general way the motion is worded making the opposition’s task all the harder) and with women taking a more prominent part than ever before in college clubs and societies the election of the first Dames of the Campanile is keenly awaited.

The time would seem ripe for much rethinking about the position of women in College and the function of the Major novitiates. Certainly the editor of ‘T,C.D.’ seems to think so, but his misogyny sadly distracted him from saying anything constructive in last weeks editorial. it is reassuring to find few who attempted to take him seriously.

Initially one would like to see women admited to speak at Hist public business. This would not necessitate any radical changes in Hist membership rules, and the trivial humour of Private Business, perhaps the most noteworthy single aspect of the Hist masculine tradition, would remain untouched.

In some ways comparable to the Hist is the Speculative Society at Edinburgh, a small exclusive all-male group – but at Edinburgh there exists a

University Union as well which holds weekly debates open to all undergraduates. If the Hist was not the only regular and established student debating society, its responsibilities to the student body at large would be diminished.

Secondly, do the women in Trinity want to speak? The large number of weomen at last week’s Phil interdebate (a far higher percentage of the audience than the 27 percent of women in college) and at the Irish Times Debating final held on Hist territory, but not as a Hist meeting, last January, shows that at any rate they are keen to come and listen; it will be interesting to see, whether, given the oppotrunity, they will be as keen to speak. It could of course be argued that the Eliz has made very little attempt to organise debates for its members – certainly not as a regular part of its programme. Against this it must be questioned whether one could ever consider all-female debates as a serious proposition. This is the line the Eliz committee take. They want to debate, but not on their own.

They are therefore organising a petition that ‘women be admitted to and allowed to speak at Hist public business’. This seems sensible, a fair use of the democratic channels open to them and is an encouragement to those who are committed to their cause.

Rosamond Mitchell and Aoileann Ni Eigeartaigh (Eliz) with PadraighA. Breathnaigh and Dan McCarthy (Phil) at Irish Times Debating Competition, February 1968 At the same time however the Eliz committee are not content with the Eliz as a society for the propagation of strawberries and cream, and are trying to expand its activites, holding a weekly meeting of ‘feminine interest’ (but open to everybody) and developing the society’s library – hoping to build it up into the best fiction library in College.

With this in mind they are applying for a large grant from the Standing Committee.

But the Eliz’s primary problem is a spatial one – the rooms in Number six are absurdly crowded at peak hours. But in this matter too there is hope. For when the New Dining Hall becomes ready for use, the third

buffet counter will be opened.

This may mean the end of all lunches in Number six – women being allowed on buffet anytime between 12 and 2.30 – thereby leaving free the two lunchrooms and kitchens on the ground and first floors of Number Six. That the women’s cloakrom in Number Six is one of College’s black spots is almost undeniable. here the problem is only partly one of space. Much could be done by a little piecemeal reform (moving the pigeonholes away from one of the doors, altering the position of one or two of the mirrors, placing some of the washing stands in the room at the bottom of number seven and keeping the door

there permanently open). With a certain amount of imagination and a little money well spent the place need not resemble ‘a railway ladies waiting room packed with commuters’.

So much for Number Six. On a wider front much of the answers to the general problem of ‘lebensraum’ in College (‘where can we go and sit?’) will be found if the Agent’s most exciting scheme to date is successful. His plan, which he hopes to put before the board in the near future is to convert the present store rooms underneath the Dining Hall into a Buttery with a counter down one side serving beer for as much as twelve hours a day. The hypothetical Buttery being practically the

size of the Dining Hall, it would take a lot of the pressure off the G.M.B. conversation rooms, Number Six and the coffee bars.

But it must be emphasised that this plan is still provisional, the finance for it has yet to be found, and it must of course receive the Board’s blessing first.

This article has perhaps made its own prejudices clear. Quite simply, I don’t think that facilities for women in the University are all they could be. women have never, sicne the early days of the century when they had to be chaperoned, and were not allowed to talk to men inside the college, been really integrated into College life. This is party due to the rather unfortunate organisation of the major societies (the Phil and the Hist were established before women were allowed in the Universit) and while th elast thing one would like to see in Trinity is the equivalent to an Oxbrick ‘Union’ there is absolutely no reason why the Major Societies should not cooperate with one antoher without any ‘loss of character’. One would like to see them cooperating, for example, over the Irish Times Debating Competition, ensuring that the four best debaters in college go as Trinity’s representatives to the competition. Finally, one hopes that the Hist’s insult in letting women watch their inaugural on television will not have to be repeated.

Editor

Trinity News

THE GMB

Ruth NiEidhin

Melissa Stanford Eliz Society President 1965 The 1960s – Beatlemania, bubble cars, mini skirts and stiletto heels Trinity College had only 3,000 students, seventy per cent of whom were men. We signed in at lectures and wore gowns at all times (and never trousers!) Society Meetings, Debates, Balls, Inaugurals, Garden Parties, Races, Regattas and Strawberry Cream Teas (hats and gloves!!) had to be crammed in between lectures, tutorials and term essays, and exams in September.

The Dublin University Elizabethan Society, the sole women’s society in Trinity, was seen as a ‘haven from men’. We had extensive rooms in Number Six, comfy chairs, an iron, telephone, sewing machine, kitchen and super teas with Bewleys’ cakes – the only place in College where women (both students and staff) were permitted to eat! The sick room and bed in the Eliz. was vital for women in those pre-Student Health Service days.

In 1965 the Eliz Society celebrated its Diamond Jubilee with a Grand Masked Ball. The committee all wore Elizabethan dress, and paying two guineas a head we were treated to supper with a dramatic interlude

by D.U. Players. The Trinity News at the time reported that ‘the female of the species will be encouraged to invite her partner, but the mere male will not find Elizabethan noses turning up at his gold nobles’.

In fact, we ‘mere Elizabethan females’ wom the Irish Times Debating Competition and the ‘Naiads’ (water nymphs!) breached the Boat Club as the first female four in the Regatta Club Fours, hired our rooms to many socieites and organised parties like the

famous fundraising fashion ‘drink as much as you like in aid of Tibetan Refugees’. We ran a First Aid course, a cookery course billed as the ‘eligible female can learn to cook from a prominent male member of the choral society’. So, membership of the Eliz set us up for life as public speakers, caterers, public relations consultants, landlords, events organisers in the male oriented society that was Trinity, then.

Looking back on my time in Trinity I [find myself overcome with endless memories…??!]. Gentle grafitti in the Ladies’ loos: ‘Does May Risk? (Dr M. Risk – Social Sciences), ‘A Luce Connetion?’ (Dr A.A. Luce – Philosophy), ‘Suffering From Pyles’ (Dr. Pyle – English). To my query on Engineering, Medical and Divinity Students being ‘so wild’, the Senior Dean – Mr La Touche Godfrey – widely replied "Miss Stanford, Engineers were always wild… remember, Divinity and Medical Students, when they graduate, will be dealing with life and death". D.U. Sailing Club, crewing for Anne Brambell, Dean of Women Students, found themselves in a mermaid dinghy in Dun Laoghaire Harbour with a large ship looming. Frantically I asked if we should go about, to which Anne responded that "motor gives way to sail". "Please" I replied, "Can we make an exception for the mailboat?!"

Trinity published a Valentine’s card from the Gentlemen of the College Historical Society to the Ladies of the DU Elizabethan Society, "the female woman is one of the greatest Institoooshuns that this land can boast" (Artemus Ward – Women’s Rights) And so we were.

13 April 2004 th

Women in the Hist A year ago one of the most hotly debated questions in college was the admission of women to the Hist.

Early in the session, the society was going through a period of upheaval and in order to divert the attention of 'certain unruly elements' in the society the problem of women was pushed to maturity at a much earlier time than would have been the case if the members had been united.

Women were used as pawns in a savage game. The management of the actual voting was a useful lesson in politics to the incoming women. The present Treasurer, Nicholas Fitzgerald Browne, believes that 'It cannot be asserted that a clear majority of the Hist's 700 members were fully aware of the issues involved

Jeanne Marie Woulfe Trinity News, November 27th, 1969 in what was a very hurried and shifty vote'.

Perhaps he was referring to the fact that on the fatal night (from his point of view), a large number of the 'Anti-females-inth-Hist' Boat Club men were at the Colours Ball with their women. What was sad, if one was dancing the last refuge of male exclusiveness away, was not the fact that women were admitted, but that it was done so as to avert a much greater catastrophe in which one had taken little or no part.

Women have not yet been integrated into the Hist. The ideal situation will exist when they are accepted for their value as members, rather than for their curiosity value.

The tensions will exist

as long as women seek privileges on the grounds of their sex, as long as they fail to prove their ability as debaters to participate in Private Business, do not make full use of the facilities, and refuse to take on responsibilities as members of the General Committee, of subcommittees or as officers.

The Auditor, Ian Ashe, believes that the presence of women 'has undoubtedly sobered the proceedings' but the Treasurer is of the opinion that their participation 'has detracted considerably from the standard of male behaviour'.

Obviously, this seems to suggest that men's behaviour has now become less commendable because the proceedings have become

Committee of the Elizabethan Society 1954

Stand up and be counted girls One of the most potentially important developments of the college historical society in the past two hundred years has been the recent admittance of women. However, though this enlightened move could have had exciting results, women in general have made no positive contribution to the proceedings of the Hist. In public debate or private business, apart from the doubtful sterile and negative one of refining the bad language and unruly conduct of its male members. The sad truth of the situation is that women are not in the Society in the fullest sense of the word; they are merely camp followers, drones in a world of active bees.

Women were admitted after such opposition from the Brownite Boat Club faction, on the night of the Colours Ball while all antagonists were carousing their stag-status away. Some antagonists, unfeminine females, had fused lights and kicked doors in their enthusiasm, but quickly disappeared when the door was opened to them. Who are those

latterday Pankhurts now? Certainly not in the Hist., which is probably just as well.

Two weeks after this historic event, the elections were held, and Marion O'Leary ran for Correspondence Secretary against Johnathan Peel. This piece of blatant presumpmtion on the part of a very new, inexperienced Junior Freshman went unrewarded though she would have made an excellent officer. Though Marion spoke frequently and earned the marked thanks of the Society, she is the exception rather than the rule. She also considered running for Committee when a vacancy occurred just a month ago, but she did not do so. Unfortunately (for the Hist., that is), she became engaged to a former Auditor of the Society - Michael Cameron - and intends to leave College at the end of the year. The Hist. has lost its only promising lady member, one who could have contributed much to the proceedings.

There are two lady members on the Records and Library Commitee, Bairbre Deegan and Jeanne Marie Woulfe. Though this committee does

more sober.

Mr Browne also objects to knitting during debates.

Ian Ashe sensibly points out that every society has difficulty in persuading women to speak and he wonders if this is due to fear or sophistication on their part. I think it is fear of making fools of themselves.

At Private Business, often the most entertaining aspect of the Society's activities, women have a bad attendance record; though this may be due to the late hour at which most meetings open, usually after the last bus has gone, and the lack of private transport, it still shows how much more interested the men are. It is demonstrated frequently to the few women present, that it

is only because they themselves never speak that the men's follies appear greater.

They are missing the opportunity to participate in an important administrative exercise.

Women just do not seem to be willing to use the Hist rooms regularly.

Browne refers to displays of 'concupiscence on the sofas of the Phil' and who can blame him?

Yet the Hist means more to its active women members than this article seems to suggest. The new world opened to them is fresh and stimulating, competitive and alive, its attractions and revulsions indescribable.

I would recommend it to all women to plunge in for next term's Bicentenary.

Doreen Shivnen Hist Auditor 1986-7

Melissa Stanford President (above) with speakers at the 1965 Inaugural of the Elizabethan Society

Trinity News Staff February 27th, 1970

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some valuable work it is not very taxing and the general atmosphere of its proceedings are flippant - its members seem more concerned with the job of wittily wording the minutes than with keeping track of unreturned library books or stolen magazines.

These few semi-active members are difficult to find. The crux of the problem is that the girls have a misplaced concept of femininity. They believe that the feminine girl should develop the attributes of a redundant cabbage; indifferent concubine; mediocre cook and bottlewasher; apathetic listner; simperingly-stupid speaker; or dumb blonde. They fail to recognise that a truly feminine person is extremely active and alive; loyal; persisten; constant; a listener; a good speaker; well educated; and attractively intelligent without being too forceful or belligerent. There also exists a secondary stumbling block to the advancement of girls in general within society; they often attend meetings only because they like male company and are consequently reluctant to make fools of themselves by debating.

They should quickly realise that they must separate their public and private lives if they are to succeeed in a cut-throat masculine world where every little Fresher-playboy is and embryonic Powellite, O'Neillite or Haughey-ite. There should be no room in their birdbrains for romantic fantasies or boozy boyfriends; neither should they be found leering at the randy officers (mentioning no names!)

So shed our shabby shells, girls, let the students see you make foools of yourselves by debating and heckling; some of you may even achieve pre-eminence. You will achieve nothing without effort. The more you are prepared to put into the Hist, the more it will give you in return by way of fun, experience, future references, practice for politics and femininity. Forget your superiority, fear, timidity and inhibitions, live and grown in a new dimension and by doing so contribute in a positive way to the Society's international reputation in the next 200 years.

During two summer vacations while at Trinity I worked on campus as a tour guide. Depending on the nature of the assembled group I would try to give some theme to the tour, and the most popular topic was on the role or place of women in the college. Their slow advancement, from the initial admission to degrees, the 6pm curfew, the admission to Commons as late as 1968, always surprised visitors who, from outside the walls, thus gave a perspective to the concerns of those within. Weddings were a great boon to guides, and I noted some guides taking a short rest as the wedding party was photographed outside College chapel after my own wedding there in 1992.

I had a particular interest in the College Historical Society (the Hist), and was honoured to be elected in 1986 as its third woman auditor.

During Freshers Week 1984 I had liberally joined many clubs and societies offering such inducements as complimentary Irish coffee receptions and free films. I needed no such incentive to join the Hist since I had already formed an interest both in debating and politics, and came to enjoy the buzz of the Wednesday debates and the smart setting of the debating chamber and the committee rooms in the GMB. My involvement grew and at the end of my second year I stood for election for auditor.

Some recollections of my time in the Hist are affected by the proliferation in the mid-eighties of extraordinary sponsorship deals from banks and breweries resulting in alcohol fuelled receptions and parties, some of which became more notorious than the debates themselves. More clear is my recollection of the annual Hist elections for auditor or for positions on the committee. Strong friendships and loyalties were formed in the midst of some otherwise unedifying scenes. My candidacy immediately followed that of Sallyanne Godson who had been the second female auditor of the Hist, following the lead set

by Mary Harney in 1976. Persons who might have been characterised – perhaps even thought of themselves ? – as influential background figures in the Hist, or well-informed sources, or practitioners of the then novel art of "spin", murmured – occasionally directly to me – that it was inappropriate or unseemly or unlikely that another woman candidate would be elected in direct succession to the second female auditor. If I wished to run for auditor, it was hinted, would it not be much better to try my hand some other year ?

History records – although, as it happens, not the "official" history of the Hist published in 1997 – that this advice, well-meaning or not, was not followed, and after an exciting election, I was elected with a good majority.

With my committee I took great care to invite the best guest speakers for the 217th session of the Hist. Amidst the familiar eloquence of among others the late John Kelly T.D., John Hume, David Norris and Michael D. Higgins T.D., I particularly remember Donald Dewar M.P. A highlight was the hosting of the final of the Irish Times Debate in the Exam Hall, chaired by Jack Lynch which was televised by RTE, an already high level of excitement erupting into chaos when the Hist produced the winning team on the night.

Politics and debate in Trinity are well served by the sense in the Hist that for a few years its members are participating in, and hopefully adding to, its traditions of lively debate on the issues of the day. I was pleased to play my part in raising the profile of women in the Society and encouraging women to become more involved.

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Trinity News

Editor

LAW SCHOOL

13 April 2004 th

Kate McKenna

Celebrating 100 years of Trinity Women in Law O

ne hundred years since the inaugural admission of female students to proudly go where no woman had ever gone before, that is through the portals of front arch, all faculties of Trinity College have borne witness to some of Ireland’s most significant and influential women, but none more so than The Law Faculty.

Looking back over the last 100 years it is very evident that the admission of women into college in 1904 which not only marked a significant achievement of equality for women in Ireland at the time but which also signified the genesis of an overhaul of the entire legal profession in Ireland allowing women to read the archaically written law reports alongside their male counterparts and partake in critical discourses regarding the legal reasoning behind Lord so and so’s ratio and legal theories in tort and then proceed to devil at the Kings Inns and learn soliciting skills at Blackhall.

Degrees obtained by women from Trinity Law School became the catalysts for Ireland’s leading female pioneers who sought to break down the barriers and ostensible beliefs that the legal profession was more suitably a "job for the boys" where women did not feature despite the dress code requirement of barristers and judges which consists even today though at a more discretionary level of wigs and long black gowns!!

Among those leading pioneers were Miss. Averil Deverell and Miss Frances Kyle, who became Ireland’s first women to be admitted to the Bar on the 1st November 1921.

Frances Kyle was also a gold medalist during her time at Trinity college where she completed a BA and LLB. She then went on to win the John Brooke Scholarship, the top Irish students’ law prize, having come first in the class for the Bar

IVANA BACIK Reid Professor of Criminal Law I was an undergraduate in the Law School at Trinity between 1985-89 - a really exciting time to be based there. Among our lecturers were Mary Robinson (EC law) and Mary McAleese (criminal law), both of whom were to become Presidents of Ireland. Kader Asmal taught human rights law and labour law, subjects I loved - he was a leading light of the Irish Anti-Apartheid Movement and is now Minister for Education in the ANC government in South Africa. So we had a wide range of role models, both female and male, and a healthy diversity of political viewpoints represented among the staff. I became involved with both the Women's Group and the Labour Society during my time studying, and in my final year, was elected President of the Students' Union on a feminist and socialist platform. I was only the second woman ever elected to be President - the first had been Aine Lawlor, now working on Morning Ireland for RTE. The year I spent in the SU was highly charged politically; within a month of taking office, we were being threatened with prison simply for handing out SU guidebooks on campus.

The guidebooks contained information on abortion along with information on all sorts of other issues useful to students, and SPUC (the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children) wanted to stop that information being provided anywhere in Ireland. Mary Robinson defended us in court, and we avoided being sent to jail, but the rest of

examinations. The Irish Times on the 26th October 1921 commenting on the scholarship award, noted "the possibility which Miss Kyles’s victory suggests-namely a women’s invasion of the law. We are a liberal minded people, as our universities have shown, and a large accession of women to the law would be quite consistent with the adventurous spirit of the age."

Averil Deverell was the first woman to actually practice at the Bar in Ireland. She took up legal studies upon her return from the war where she worked in the ambulance corps in France. She then went on to study at the King’s Inns and was called to the Bar on the same day as Frances Kyle. She developed a reputation at the Bar as being a campaigner of gender equality and actively aided in the erosion of any intentional or unintentional prejudicial treatment in order to promote the ideal among their male colleagues that women were equally competent to carry out the same work and did not need to be treated differently, merely equally.

Dr. Frances Moran was born in 1893 and was the fourth woman to be called to the Irish Bar in 1924. She took silk in 1944.

She became the first female professor in Trinity in 1925 when she was appointed Reid Professor of Criminal Law. She then went on to become Professor of Laws in 1934 and was also made Professor at King’s Inns in 1938. She died in 1977 and her portrait hangs in the Law School at TCD. Despite the fact that the first female university law professor was appointed in 1925, there are today only 3 full-time female law school professors in Ireland today, Trinity College’s Honora Josephine Yvonne Scannell, M.A., L.L.M. (CANTAB.), Ph.D., F.T.C.D. the year was spent fighting court cases taken

by SPUC, as well as campaigning against increases in fees, and cuts in student services.

After a few years away studying and working in London, I came back to take up a lecturership in the Trinity Law School - a very strange feeling being back among my former lecturers! But I have received wonderful support from all my colleagues, and can honestly say that relations among staff in the Law School are very good. It's a great place to work!

Out of 15 full-time teaching staff, unfortunately only onethird (5) are women, but this is still a better ratio than many other college departments, and we currently have a woman head of department, Dr. Hilary Delany. The Trinity Law School was in fact the first in Ireland to have a woman head of department - Professor Frances Moran, in the 1940s.

Despite the huge progress that has been made for women academics since Professor Moran's time across most faculties in college, there are still many obvious problems. In promotions to professorship, and in appointments to Fellowship, in particular, men still dominate disproportionately. Positive steps should be taken to redress the gender imbalance in these and other areas. A system of mentoring, of encouraging women to seek promotion, should be instituted in Trinity as elsewhere. There is resistance to change in every institution; but I firmly believe that change is coming in Trinity, as it is in other universities, and I sincerely hope that when it does, it will be supported by all in the college community.

(1989), B.L. being one of them.

Susan Denham was the first woman appointed as Judge of the Supreme Court in January 1993, having been appointed as the second woman judge on the High Court in 1991. Born in 1945, Judge Denham studied law in TCD in the 1960s and went on to the Kings Inns where she qualified as a barrister. She has also maintained close links with Trinity where she is President of the University’s Law Society, a committee member of the DU Law Alumni Association and she was also the Pro-Chancellor of TCD in 1996. Judge Denham is also the Chairperson of the Courts Services which was set up in November 1999 to review the management of the courts in Ireland.

Catherine McGuinness was a TCD law undergraduate from 1974-1977 having also obtained a TSM degree in Modern Languages (French and Irish).

She then qualified as a barrister as a mature student and took silk in 1989 ad was appointed to the Circuit Court Bench in 1994, to the High Court in 1996 and to the Supreme Court in 2000. Women now make up 25% of the Supreme Court, 11% of the High Court, 29% of the 21% of the District Court. This hopefully will provide other young women to see that it is possible to progress to the echelons of the judiciary despite only 1% of female law students in a recent survey carried out for the "Gender in Justice" book written by Ivana Bacik, Cathryn Costello and Eileen Drew (TCD 2003) aspiring to become judges.

Ms. Ivana Bacik is Trinity’s current Reid Professor of Criminal Law, Criminology and Penology (previously held by Mary Robinson and President Mary

CATHERINE DUFFY Partner, A&L Goodbody I graduated from Trinity Law School 20 years ago. Hard to believe! Trinity was fun at that time and a lot less earnest than it seems to be now. The class was a relatively small one with 54 class members of which 25 were women. Those who survived partying in the Pav and O’Neills and coffee drinking in the Kilkenny Design Centre, went on to work in Ireland, UK, Europe and the US. The law school was run with a rod of iron by the wonderful Margot Aspel.

Professor RFV Heuston was the Regius Professor. He was the author of Salmond and Heuston on Torts; Essays in Constitutional Law; and a volume of the Lives of the Lord Chancellors. A fascinating individual and the person I remember most vividly from my time in TCD. He had a most distinctive lecturing style: idiosyncratic but effective. Other fascinating characters included Professor Niall Osborough whose penchant for psychedelic handknit tanktops with plunging necklines was always a source of intrigue. Eldon Y. Exshaw’s typed lecture notes (capable of being purchased in the Students Union) were legndry. I can speak with less authority on his lectures but understand that as he turned each page, a Mexican wave of page turning followed in the room!! Patrick Ussher always lifted the heart. The women lecturer’s at the time were Yvonne Scannell and, of course, our current President, Mary McAleese and our former President, Mary Robinson, neither of whom had yet ventured into the world of fashion à la Miriam Mone and Louise Kennedy for which they would be now known.

I graduated in 1984 and have been a partner in A&L Goodbody since 1997 and I currently head up the Banking and Financial Services Department there.

There are those who refer to "glass ceilings" and many who congratulate me on breaking it. Personally speaking, I have never felt there was anything to "break".

McAleese) She graduated from Trinity in 1989 and went on to become President of the SU (1989-1990). She is currently running as a Labour Party candidate for the European elections. Ms. Bacik is an active campaigner in the field of social and human rights with a European dimension, most recently the movement against the war in Iraq and the Irish Social Forum and is also a prominent spokesperson for the Alliance for a No Vote in the successful campaign to defeat the referendum on abortion in March 2002.

Liz O’Donnell is T.D. is also a graduate of TCD Law School and is currently the Chief Whip of t h e Progressive Democrats.

She was

LIZ O’DONNELL

elected to Frances Moran, first woman Trinity professor D a i l Left: Frances Kyle, first woman called to the Irish Bar Eireann for the the UN and focused on Progressive Democrats, repre- strengthening human rights in senting Dublin South and was countries such a China and opposition spokesperson on areas of conflict such as Kosovo Health and Social Welfare from in the Federal Republic of 1992 to 1993. She was appoint- Yugoslavia. She is now working ed Minister of State at the with the Ethical Globalization Department of Foreign Affairs Initiative in New York. with responsibility for Overseas Therefore, in conclusion to this Development Assistance and retrospective celebration of Human Rights in 1997 and rep- female TCD law graduates, it is resented the Government at the envisaged that women from multi-party talks at Stormont, Trinity College will continue to which culminated in the Good uphold and progress even furFriday Agreement in 1998. ther a field in the legal world She was promoted to Cabinet as encompassing legal academia Minister of State to the and practice in the future and Government in April 2002. with the help of our current Mary Robinson obtained a law mentors; Hilary Delany B.A. degree from Trinity and from (Mod.), M.Litt., PhD., B.A the Harvard University. In 1969 current Head of the Law School, she became the youngest Reid Ruth Cannon L.L.B (Dub), Professor of Constitutional Law B.C.L. (Oxon), B.L., Rosemary at Trinity. She was called to the Byrne B.A. (COL.), J.D. Irish Bar in 1967 and became a (HARV.), Honora Josephine Senior Counsel in 1980 and a Yvonne Scannell, M.A., LL.M. member of the English Bar in (CANTAB), Ph.D., F.T.C.D 1973. She also held the position (1989), B.A and Ivana Bacik of Senator for 20 years before L.L.B., LL.M. (Lond), B.L, B.A., she was elected President in the current women undergradu1990. She then became United ates will be inspired to uphold Nations High Commissioner the great reputation which has for Human Rights (1997- developed over the last 100 2002).

As High years and create an equally Commissioner, Mrs. forceful impact on the legal Robinson gave priority to world and continue to promote integrate human rights and inspire gender equality in concerns in all aspects of the future.

After a few gap TD, PDs Chief Whip years working between school and College, student life came as a shock. Eight hours per week of formal lectures set a leisurely, even, slothful pace. Of course, the idea was to allow students plenty of time for private research and study of law reports in the library. The reality was much different in my case; the Bailey and Bernie Inn being a more glamorous option.

Looking back, I was a reluctant lawyer, finding much of the reading material pompous and longwinded. Without a legal background, one felt excluded by the closed and privileged feel of the profession.

Happily in Trinity, the Law School then was not a factory producing solicitors and barristers, rather a base-camp for the study of law in the wider context of the humanities.

Crime was a favourite and my lecturer was none other than Mary McAleese, now our President. Public International Law was taught

by Kadar Asmal who was also my tutor. In this latter capacity he was perfect, always sympathetic and mercifully, so distracted by his various political endeavours that he was not fussy about essay deadlines or indeed essays! Twenty years later we would meet in very different capacities in South Africa. He as Minister in the new Republic and myself as Irish Minister for Overseas Development.

There was a wealth of talent in the Trinity Law School at that time. Yvonne Scannell, Patrick Ussher, Ciaran Corrigan to name but a few. At the cutting edge of family law juris prudence and in the formulation of pro divorce advocacy was Professor William Duncan. It was a time of rapid legal change in this area reflecting a society in a state of flux.

With the Superior Courts interpreting the Constitution in landmark decisions affecting social policy, it was a fascinating time to be studying it under the expert eye of guidance of Professor Robert Heuston. All my legal and constitutional basics come from his lectures and writings. His lectures on tort were as entertaining as any one-man show.

I remain close friends with many of my class in Trinity. Two went into politics, Brian Lenihan and myself. I consider my time there to have been life-altering. Against the odds the reluctant lawyer became an enthusiastic legislator and public servant.

After my parents, I would cite Trinity, its ethos and the people I met there as the key influence on the person I am and the values I hold.

SUSAN DENHAM Supreme Court Judge I was a student in Trinity in the 1960s. It was a time of hope.

College was alive with people who were planning to change the world. The Maoists, flower power, amongst others, sought our support.

Lively debates, commenced by mega phone on the steps in Front Square, continued in rooms and coffee shops. Kadar Asmal was bringing the issue of anti apartheid to the fore – in college and nationally. In many ways it was a more innocent time.

There was less money around than today. Long afternoons were spent in discussions, making toast on the fires in rooms, and solving the problems of the world. The same sense of hope for the future, of the potential to change and develop, the zeitgeist, was alive in Trinity as in other European universities. It was a wonderful time to be a student. There was a sense of expectation for the future as well as fun and enjoyment. I wonder do they give such good parties anymore?

The Law School was smaller in the 1960s than today. There were fewer staff and fewer students.

Each year had approximately twenty two students, on average, two were women. The subject choice was smaller. There was no European Law, Family Law, Environmental Law, for example. However, those of us who went on to do post graduate work abroad found ourselves well equipped to think and solve problems – the essence of good education.

In the 1960s the legal profession was nearly all male. While the first women had been called to the Bar in 1921 (Miss Frances Kyle and Miss Averil Deverell) by the 1960s only about 3% of the Irish Bar were female. A consequence was that, apart from Judge Eileen Kennedy of the District Court, there were no women judges. There have been great changes since then in the number of female law students, solicitors, barristers and judges.

In 1904 there were no women in law, either as students, solicitors, barristers or judges. Perhaps one of the greatest revolutions of the last 100 years has been the inclusion of women in law, in the legal profession, and in the judiciary which is the third branch of government. It is a time to celebrate the fruits of the work of many dedicated and brave women.

COLLEGE LIFE Keeping the ball rolling Kate McKenna

I

n celebrating 100 years of women in college, it is essential the work of the non-academic staff members be recognized, especially the work of the Cleaning staff, the majority of which are women. In particular Mrs. Mary Walsh who is retiring this year after serving 22 years on the cleaning staff in Trinity. The women cleaning staff are as follows: Linda Loughrey, Noeleen Crosbie, Annette Dowling, Pauline Lo, Bridget Bollard, Mary Murphy, Mary Walsh, Bernie Reid, Theresa Corrigan, Carol Heeney, Sophie Zhou, Christine Smithers.

Some of the women start their day as early as 5.30-6am and finish at 10am every morning. The women said that they have all enjoyed working in Trinity and there were no complaints save for the odd student who caused them a bit of hassle.

Secondly, I spoke to the infamous

Maureen Cootes – Security Attendant in the Arts Block. She started working there in 1984 and initially was part of the cleaning staff but chose take on a role in security, a position never previously held by a woman in Trinity. She was appointed by Mr. Terry McAuley, the Director of Sport Facilities at the time. He asked her "Do you intend to stay long Maureen?" She replied, "you’ll have to take me out in a box!"

She feels her appointment definitely broke the ice for females thinking of following in her footsteps. She recalls that it took her male colleagues a while to get used to her but Maureen’s no nonsense attitude and clear ability as well as her very warm and easygoing nature soon thawed them out. She believes in the ethos of teamwork and thoroughly enjoys her job. Maureen was the focus of an article in the glossy Irish fashion Image magazine some years back. Her work also encompasses patrolling the building, setting up

rooms for seminars a n d e x a m s, looking after fainting students, befriending others…and operating the slide machine during history of art and architecture lectures.

Next up are the cloakroom attendants. No other college apparently operates this service so we are particularly lucky in Trinity to have it. The women who work on the cloak-room are

June Murphy, Kay O’Keefe and Gay Lenehan.

There are 84 women librarians in Trinity College out of 140 members of staff. The Head Librarian is Robin Adams and the Administrative Officer is Sharon McIntyre. One might speculate that the issue of wage increases in the library sector tends to draw men into the higher positions whereas before they would not have shown as much of an interest in librarian roles.

Perhaps the cutbacks in college will lead to a retrograde in the current scheme of things.

Finally where would the college students, lecturers, fellows and American tourists be without the college catering staff?. Eugene McGovern is the current Catering Office Manager in Trinity. He informed me that Jean Montgomery was the first female Catering Office Manager followed by Betty Pickering and Ida Stephenson who held the position from 1949-1960. This was followed by three male Office Catering Managers. Dolores Flood is the current Deputy Catering Manager and Ciara Murphy is the Purchase Manager who

Trinity News 13 April 2004

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is charge of buying all the produce and handles a budget to the tune of EUR 1.8 million. Olive Keegan is the Chief Accountant to Catering. Clara Long is the Deputy Catering Officer in Accounts. Women play a significant role in the catering department in college.

There are 42 female staff employed out of 72 in the department.

Angela Georghiu is the Catering Supervisor in the Arts Block, Clara O’Gorman is Supervisor in Commons, Mary Leahy is a Charge Hand in the Arts Block and Mai Cullen holds this position in the Buttery. Theresa Scannell is supervisor of Catering in the Westland Café (Hamilton Building). Joanne Grant is one of the Head Chefs in college and together they make a turnover of roughly EUR 5 million per year. Out of all the Catering Managers in the colleges around the country, Mr. McGovern seems to be on his own, with female Catering Managers in UCD, UCC, DCU and Maynooth College. However, he believes that a catering department is only as good as the people around you.

Chariots of Fire: The Women’s Race Lesley O’Connor College Races, first held in 1857 and annually on Trinity Wednesday nearly every year since, is one of the many traditions in which our historic college is steeped. The Races were the first modern athletic competition to be held in Ireland. A social highlight "par excellence" the event was once attended by 37,000 people and was the original reason for the Trinity Ball, which took place in celebration afterwards.

The Chariots of Fire race – as per the film – is traditionally held the

Clarrissa Pilkington

S

ixty years ago Trinity was a vastly different place from today’s college. It had some 1200 students and only one third of these were female. The campus itself was different; dingy buildings, lecture rooms heated by smouldering fires of wet turf. The newest buildings were the G.M.B and the small reading room. Furthermore it was "dry": no Buttery, no Pav Bar, though students on Commons did get their glass of stout, courtesy of Guinness.

Women students felt little sense of discrimination.

Regulations mostly applied to both sexes. We were all used to rules from school and expected this. I lived in Trinity Hall and, compared with boarding school, this was freedom. Dinner was at 7pm giving time to get back from College after the despised "six o clock rule" came into force, and "lights out" was at 11p.m – literally, after that we had candles! Anyone out of Hall after dinner had to "sign out" – theatre, cinema, college meetings/library or whatever and "sign in" before eleven o’clock.

We regarded the "six o’clock rule" as silly, but it was just one of those things. Constant appeals to be admitted to the Reading Room after six eventually bore fruit but we had to sign in at the Front Gate and again in the Reading Room (two minutes to cross Front Square!). and more signings on leaving.

However, the men in College also had a variety of restrictions. They had to dine in Commons two or three nights a week, and there was Night Roll at 9.00 p.m. as well.

Attendance at College Chapel on Sunday was obligatory for Church of Ireland members – other denominations could please themselves; possibly being regarded as damned anyway. Incidentally, women were not allowed into College wearing trousers.

Funnily enough, it was all right to come in wearing jodhpurs and no one even

morning of the Races. Pairs of high-spirited competitors complete a time trail to qualify for the final. They race from Rubrics, along the path and underneath the Camponile. They then split to take opposite sides around Front Square, tackling the slippery cobblestones and sharp corners – occasionally colliding as momentum forces their paths to cross on the centre path as they sprint back to the Camponile to the finish.

As in the film, the final begins with the first strike of the 12

asked where your horse was - presumably tethered to the railings at Front Gate? We were compelled to wear stockings even in the height of summer, and this during the "Emergency" when clothes were rationed!

But you could easily camouflage legs with bottled sun tan.

There was a mild feeling of discrimination in the sports clubs. None of the female clubs could have their own representative on D.U.C.A.C., which was a definite slight, nor could their members aspire to "Pinks. The only hitch I encountered when setting up the women’s Cricket club was that was that neither D.U.C.A.C nor the Warden would agree or suggest the amount of the small fee to be paid by way of rent for the grounds.

Hockey and Tennis had for years being paying Hall a fairly nominal sum. So finally I went to D.U.C.A.C. and said that the Warden would accept £10 and went to the Warden and said that D.U.C.A.C offered £10 and fortunately both parties accepted.

In Hall there were several ways of circumventing the need to get "late leave".

Windows could be left discreetly open and climbed through, or friends might answer a signal to come down and open the main door in the small hours. I recall one girl going to bed with a thread tied to her toe, the free end hanging out the window so that a returning reveller might pull it and wake her up.

When I was Warden I went to see a student one afternoon and found a small party going on in her room; it included a couple of young men. I surveyed the scene and said "George, I don’t know where you came in, but you’d better go out the same way. I haven’t seen you". In fact, I knew most of the routes into Hall perfectly well, but George has his own version of this story – he still dines out on it.

This is mostly the lighter side of College life. We did do a bit of work too.

o’clock bells and the athletes try to complete the course before the last gong. This novel event has often been reported in the national and local press. It is noted as an attraction in travel books on Ireland and is often attended by groups of enthusiastic Americans.

Although both male and female races have taken place for many years, until very recently it was the Men’s final which took place at the stroke of noon – the girls having to make do with token bells at 11:45. As late as 2001, a motion to allow female members

the glory of running against the real bells at 12 noon on alternate years was shot down by male club members at the Dublin University Harriers and Athletics Club AGM. The suggestion was blatantly disregarded by the club president – a very authoritative college figure at the time! This 21st Centaury chauvinistic traditionalism both outraged and amused all the girls, who vowed to make the change, regardless.

A year of heated debate on the track, in the sports hall boardroom and via the club mailing list

followed. The argument highlighted old-fashioned attitudes that are still widely held in modernday Trinity and saw the men’s cross country captain – a bit of a young old man at 22 – storm out of a committee meeting in disgust!

This was a fight the girls were never going to loose however and Trinity Week of 2002 saw the first ladies Chariots final held against the 12 o’clock bells. The Centenary Year will mark the second that we race in glory.

...and rolling back the years Anne Denard

T

he first rules and regulations concerning women students were drawn up as a corpus for the protection of men - that they were largely unwritten made them no less rigorously enforced.

Happily for those early women the college appointed Miss Lucy Gwynn as the first Lady Registrar; she was charged with overseeing all the affairs of women undergraduates within the college. Miss Gwynn was a doughty champion of her flock and her sway ruled supreme in the house provided for their sole use; No.6. Women were not expected to move out of their building except for lectures or to the library.

In 1959 with the retirement of Miss Godfrey, the third Lady Registrar, College finally decided it was time to tidy up a lot of this nonsense and treat women more or less in the same way as they did male undergraduates.

I was already Warden of Trinity Hall and was invited to see this transition through, working in College part-time. To make it clear there was to be a break with the past the new title of ‘Dean of Women Students’ was manufactured and I was given a fairly free rein to plunge in.

Whatever the Board may have thought, there wasn’t much plunging to be done as the students had in almost every instance got there first.

It was more difficult to persuade the Board to give formal approval to actual situations.

The famous old six o’clock rule had long been subverted with the help of blind eyes on the part of porters and Junior Deans – and for years women had been visiting in men’s rooms on days other than College Races while increasingly college rooms were used as convenient places for mothers to leave their babies during lectures – in spite of the so called no prams rule. And whereas women were still not allowed into the Dining Hall men were welcomed into the No. 6 lunch room .

In some ways life in college was harder on the women staff than on the students as their common-room facilities were practically nil and included

nowhere where they could meet with male colleagues. At that at that time there were almost no departmental offices. Resident staff and tutors functioned from their rooms – other staff used the Senior Common Room.

1958 saw the first admission of women into the Senior Common Room and it marked the beginning of a real change.

In 1972 women students were admitted to residence in college in 1972. At first the women staff were restricted to using the Common Room in the lunch hour – later, after campaigning, they finally became full common room members. The opening to women of election to Foundation Scholarship and to Fellowship completed this phase of equalisation. All these ‘concessions’ were followed by similar relaxations for students.

As as the movement for equal treatment within College was gatherined pace, so to was the campaign for a Day Nursery developing; it was badly needed to make suitable caring arrangements for non-resident’s their children.

Babies were being left in College Rooms and the fire precautions were inadequate. The Board was asked to provide rooms. There was difficulty in even getting it considered. A nursery, it was suggested, would encourage un-married mothers; it; babies should be kept at home. Eventually however two ‘respectably married’ students converted Professor Basil Chubb and he agreed to see it through the Board with the help of some of the younger Fellows who by now were well represented there. In the summer of 1969 the Nursery finally opened in a small poky upstairs room in Pearse St – we had to pledge that the children would never be brought into College. The Nursery Supervisor faithfully kept to her side of the deal until one day the Fire Brigade told her of a bomb warning and the building had to be evacuated.

Single handedly she collected her charges, toddlers and babies in arms, and sensibly brought them straight into College across Front Square and into No.6. And that was the last we heard of another stupid rule.

ins’ were held, vast gatherings of students on the dining-hall steps where Maoists pointed out the error in our ways and the iniquities of management. You were expected to think about why you were learning, and to what use that learning would later be put.

Those were heady, fascinating, involving times.

When we gathered outside the exam-hall Aoileann nic Gearailt on Trinity Monday 1968 to be proclaimed Scholars, forewarned of success, I was surprised to be proclaimed 966, the year I entered a Foundation Scholar, a first for a Trinity, was the year Nelson’s woman. Along with the right to pillar was blown up. Women play marbles on the dining-hall had to be out of Trinity by midsteps and other obscure privileges night. The Hist and the Phil had came the right of residence in colthe best rooms in college and lege. I was very comfortable living allowed no female members. The at home in Dublin, but the rights Elizabethan society held poetry of women had to be defended so I readings and tea-parties, and they marched off with Ros Mitchell and had lockers and armchairs into Tamsin Braidwood to apply for which you could sink into oblivion rooms. We moved in the following so we joined. There were 4 October to the newly-painted top females among about 40 Junior floor of number 34, with a chaperFreshmen reading honours one living on the ground floor and Physics, and one lone female regulations which said no male among the 100 or so engineers guests after midnight, even for the who shared the lectures with us. married Tamsin. The move was My utter incompetence at not universally welcomed: boatChemistry Practicals was a turnclub types serenaded us on their on for my more competent male way back from their libations the fellow-students who were chivalfirst few nights. It was wonderful rous and eager to help, and I had not to have to leave meetings to a ball. A career wasn’t that imporrun for the last bus from the city tant: what mattered was educatcentre in the evenings, and to ing oneself, and meeting that sighave the pick of the seats in the nificant other who would be a library. good provider in later life.

When I look back on my time in The Hist accepted my application college, I think of excitement, of for membership, the gender of intellectual stimulation quite ‘Aoileann’ not being clear to them, unrelated to my course of study, of and issued a membership card, battles fought and rights won. I but when I turned up in person remember the pounds of coffee for the Freshers’ debate, I was and pints of Jersey milk bought in first politely requested to leave, Bewleys the days the Schol money then, when I declined, carried out. was paid, the friends attracted to It gave my debating partner Ros no. 34 by the smell of the coffee Mitchell and myself great satisfac- brewing and the long discussions tion to refuse an invitation to join that ensued. I remember smugtwo years later on when the rules gling male guests down the stairs were changed, no longer novice in the mornings, and trees in freshers but seasoned debaters on bloom in New Square. And I behalf of the Eliz who had reached remember with sorrow my father, the final of the Irish Times debathimself a Scholar, who would have ing competition, eliminating the rejoiced in my successes, sympaHist teams along the way. thised in my defeats, disapproved In 1968, the year I sat Schol, stongly of Maoist rhetoric but things were changing. In Paris savoured the coffee, had he not students took to the streets. In died suddenly one fine June Germany, they formed the Red evening in 1967.

Brigades. In Trinity, mass ‘teach-

1

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Trinity News 13 April 2004 th

The TCD: A College Miscellany as it was in 1903 debating the merits of the admittance to Trinity College of women students...

Science Editor

Trinity News

Kirsten Bratke

13th April 2004

SCIENCE Nuclear Energy: Is it worth the risk?

Helen Nic an Rí FOSSIL FUELS are by far the main source of energy at present, but the burning of these fuels causes the release of CO2 into the atmosphere.

This will inevitably lead to increased global temperatures, with potentially devastating effects for life on earth.

There has been increased scientific consensus about this phenomenon – the ‘greenhouse effect’ – and heightened concern has triggered an

assessment and scrutiny of energy production with a view to reducing carbon emissions.

Some see nuclear energy as the solution because it does not release greenhouse gases into the environment. Energy planning, however, must take account of all political, economic, social and environmental aspects.

Nuclear energy has many drawbacks and its widespread adoption could have serious consequences that might outweigh any perceived benefits.

There is vehement dis-

Nuclear Reactors - too dangerous?

Sexy Science TN’s Sexy Scientist Jane Ferguson on...

Death of men or: Do we need an army of female clones?

Any of you heard that men are dying out?

Yep. It’s true. The puny Y-chromosome that turns a perfectly good female foetus into a male is on the verge of extinction.

On the other hand, maybe not. Read on as I present the case for the possible death of mankind…

One of our 23 pairs of chromosomes consists of the sex chromosomes. In females, the pair is XX meaning that they have two copies of the X-chromosome. Males, however, only have one Xchromosome.The other one is a Y-chromosome, which is considerably shorter than the X, and only carries a few genes, mainly those responsible for "masculinising" the body.

The theory is that there used to be only one type of sex chromosome – the X. This mutated i.e. changed its DNA sequence at one stage in evolution, giving us the possibility to have two different sexes. The problem is that this chromosome is still mutating. As some mutations are bad, however, the chromosomes make up for it by pairing up every generation and exchanging information. If one of the chromosomes has a bad mutation, it can fix itself by checking what its partner’s DNA sequence is. As the Y-chromosome has no partner that is the same as itself, it can’t double-check its sequence. Every time an unfavourable mutation occurs, the original sequence is lost and can’t be fixed

by comparison with the unchanged sequence. If this keeps happening, eventually the Y-chromosome could drive itself into extinction and the Y is getting steadily shorter and has already lost all but the most crucial genes.

So how much would we really miss the Ychromosome?

It already causes a higher rate of mortality in men, resulting in a much higher proportion of women than men in old age. Men are more affected than women by genetic diseases resulting from damage to genes on their X-chromosome, as they have no back-up copy.

Testosterone might make men stronger and more aggressive, but it weakens the immune system and makes men more likely to kill each other.

Couldn’t we just cut our losses and concentrate on cloning a female army to take over the world? Then again, where’s the fun in that? Men might be doomed, but we have plenty of time left.

Nature is pretty good at finding solutions to the problems that crop up, so it’s a safe enough bet that we won’t be bidding farewell to men quite yet.

Well there you go then. Make of it what you will. I recommend remembering the argument and using it whenever misogynistic sexist types get drunk and start annoying you in the pub. That shuts them up!

agreement among scientists as to the extent and seriousness of these threats.

Many aspects of nuclear energy give rise to serious environmental concerns. Much of this is focused on the risk of a nuclear reactor accident or meltdown, and the effects that resulting exposure to radiation would have on humans and the environment.

The quantity of nuclear material within the core of a reactor is enormous compared to the amount permitted in a cubic metre of water and any escape would thus represent significant danger to the public. However, the calculated probability of such a meltdown is very low and recent technological developments have seen significant improvements in safety standards.

Another problematic issue is how to deal safely with nuclear waste. More than just physically hot, it is so intensely radioactive

that a few minutes exposure would be fatal. Moreover, longerlived fission products such as Cesium-137 can still be radioactive tens of thousands of years later.

The favoured option of disposal at the moment is to deposit the waste at modest depths underground but this is no perfect solution.

Earthquakes or geological shifts could simply carry the material to the surface again, or water could corrode the containers, dissolve the waste and transport it into the water supply or to the surface.

The biological effect of radiation exposure can be devastating. It causes ionisation of atoms within the body; loss of cell vitality, cancer and genetic changes are among the possible results. Although the effects of high levels of radioactivity are well known, more uncertain are the effects of low levels of exposure.

Possible links have been made between

radiation exposure in parents and the development of leukaemia in their children.

The expansion of nuclear energy, although reducing CO2 emissions, would also call for the discussion of other social and ethical implications. We have already witnessed significant increases in the contamination of the Earth. Are we prepared to risk further contamination, particularly when the longterm effects on mankind have yet to be established? We must also ask whether it is morally justifiable to subject further generations to the resultant risks of our nuclear activities? Perhaps it is more immoral not to expand nuclear energy, and to subject them instead to the consequences of global warming.

The danger of proliferation of nuclear weapons is also cause for concern. Theft of plutonium to make bombs is an undeniable possibil-

ity. The connection between nuclear energy and weaponry is considered by some to be a mystified one.

Nuclear energy had a military birth and because of the historical association, the public mind has been unable to separate the two, creating a disproportionate fear of this energy form.

Compounded by the unsatisfactory resolution of safety, waste and cost issues, the general public fear of nuclear energy is perhaps the greatest obstacle to its expansion, for government policy is swayed by public opinion. The issue has thus become a political one, as rival parties choose opposing sides in what becomes a war between people’s prejudices. The chances of nuclear expansion in the future, for better or worse, seem remote, for without public acceptance, the technology cannot make any advances.

The Return of the Big Bad Wolf Claire Hynes S C O T T I S H LANDOWNERS resist the proposed reintroduction of wolves in the highlands. Is this because of a mythical perception of the big bad wolf or based on real issues?

There has been no recorded case of humans ever being killed by wolves. The Scottish highlands cover 25,000 sq. km and are one of the least

populated areas outside Russia and Scandinavia. The last wolf in Scotland was exterminated in 1743.

Today, the uncontrollable population of red deer estimated at 300,000 in Scotland along with the regeneration of 1000 sq.km of the Caledonian Forest make the highlands ripe for wolf reintroduction.

A rough estimate of 200 wolves could survive successfully on these resources.

Wolves to be reintroduced in Scotland?

Britain is required to investigate the reintroduction of extinct species under the habitat directive in article 22 and the Bern convention in recommendation no. 17. The Bern convention states: "…where the wolf has disappeared to support actively the conservation of this species...".

Many enthusiasts see Scotland as missing out on ecotourism opportunities with a wolf centre in the US making £500,000 a year. They have proposed a highland wolf centre with activities such as wolf howling sessions, wolf tracking and a wolf hospital.

The wolf ’s presence would increase biodiversity due to the opportunity for scavengers to get access to their kills like rodents and foxes.

However, clashes with farmers are inevitable due to cattle loss even with the introduction of compensation for livestock losses.

There are 3 main controversial problems facing the reintroduction of wolves. The wolf can travel large distances and colonise new areas, which means it cannot be kept in an isolated area even with regular monitoring.

Cattle killing sprees seem likely, which can only be controlled by the removal of the offending wolf and as the wolf has no predator itself in Scotland the growth of an unchecked wolf population would have to be controlled by vasectomies. Also, if the wolves kill only 2.5% of the red deer population a year, will we end up with two populations of species spiralling out of control?

A reintroduction has also been discussed for Ireland and put on hold due to the density of people per sq.km but if the Scottish plan comes to fruition we could be next.

The Nano Mania Brian McGrath on the Big Future of Small Technology NANOTECHNOLOGY AND nanoscience seem to be the buzzwords doing the rounds in the scientific community in recent years. But what exactly is the buzz beyond the talk?

In the eighties and early nineties, any new technology had the word ‘Micro’ associated with it. Micro is 10-6 meters - a millionth of a meter. In others word: small! Now technology allows samples to be viewed down to the level of a nanometer. A nanometer is 109 meters or a billionth of a meter. In other words: even smaller.

So why is the scientific community investing so much expertise and money into nanoprojects and research?

At the nanolevel, brand new scientific phenomena are being observed. Areas of scientific and engineering research, once viewed

as exhausted, have now been given a new lease of life.

The scale of commercial and other interest in nanoscience is clearly visible; recently Trinity announced the addition of a major new science facility to campus – Centre for Research on Adaptive Nanostructures and Nanodevices. This new centre has to date received funding of 11m Euro from the government.

The research will relate to developing new tools and equipment to construct new devices, atom by atom on the nanolevel.

But what use is this nanotechnology to the general public?

Computer processors are at the moment reaching the limit in speed and volume at which they can process information.

Their development and evo-

lution is soon to reach its maximum. If single electrons or atoms can be manipulated into precise positions, circuits can be built from the bottom up and overcome their evolutionary barrier.

Intel have begun to use ‘buckyballs’ (football shaped arrangement of carbon atoms) as a thermal grease for cooling their processors. If the computer chips can be cooled without the use of an electric fan, the power savings on laptops in particular will be dramatically increased.

In Italy researchers have recently used nanoparticles of calcium hydroxide crystals to restore frescos, paintings that have deteriorated over time.

The nanoparticles, when in solution, act as a glue to stick back the flaking paint to its original surface.

Nanoparticles also have applications in medicine. The tiny particles flow freely between cells and particles and can be designed to attack or enter only certain regions of the body. By injecting magnetically charged particles into a body, scientists can determine exact areas of the body where a virus is located.

In the future will the word microchip be replaced by the nanochip?

Will a course in microelectronics be a historical overview of past inventions, with the nanoelectronics taking precedent?

The possibilities for nanotechnology seem endless, and with capital and financial investment coming into the area one can only expect the science of nanotechnology to grow in years to come.

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

Aoife McLysaght, 28, Lecturer

- B.A. Natural Science degree moderating in Genetics in TCD in 1998.

- Ph.D. in Genetics, TCD 2001 – My project was on the molecular evolution of vertebrate genomes.

-Postgraduate Diploma in Statistics, TCD 1999 (an evening course) Previous Jobs: -volunteer in the Irish National Centre for Medical Genetics in Crumlin Hospital -Irish National Centre for BioInformatics -research groups in Indianapolis, California as undergrad and PostDoc (a stress-free enjoyable job in research with short contracts and no teaching obligations) Current Job: Since October 2003. My official responsibilities with respect to the college are to do with teaching: designing and giving lectures; setting and marking exams; supervising research projects for students. In reality, my job is also an independent research position conducting research both as an individual, and as a supervisor of Ph.D. students and PostDocs.

Loving it: I enjoy lecturing, especially if I discover that a student in my class has become really interested in the topic - I like to think of students in my classes as potential future colleagues.

I find the research end of my work highly stimulating, and in this respect I don’t think there is a job I would rather do (my painting skills aren’t quite up to the level that would make a career).

Getting there: If you are interested in a research career the first step is to get a Ph.D. Don’t wait for ads to appear in journals or on website! I recommend going into research only if you are genuinely interested. At times good research is a labour of love and it is only your interest in the outcome of the research that keeps you going. If you are not sure whether or not you would like to pursue a Ph.D. it might be helpful to you to work as a research assistant for a year or so.

Short Cuts Our Tenth Planet?

Our solar system recently got a new addition when NASA-funded scientists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) discovered its most distant object to date. Sedna is a planetlike body orbiting the sun with a radius of 130 billion kilometres – 900 times further away from the sun than the Earth. Its highest temperature is near minus 240 degrees Celsius and its orbit takes an incredible 10,500 years; the last time Sedna was this close to the Earth was at the end of our last Ice Age. Sedna was named after the Inuit Goddess of the ocean and is the biggest discovery in our solar system since Pluto was located in 1930. Sedna is suspected to be the first concrete evidence of the hypothesised Oort cloud, a repository of small icy bodies that supplies the comets that streak by Earth.

Mark Brown, leader of the research team at Caltech, considers the possibility that Sedna could have dislodged comets farther out in the Oort cloud, leading to an intense comet shower that could have wiped out some or all forms of life that existed on Earth in the early days of the solar system.

There has been some uncertainty as to whether or not Sedna is a planet. Brown and his team define a planet as being any body in the solar system that is more massive than the total mass of all of the other bodies in a similar orbit. Sedna is the only object so far known in the inner Oort cloud, but the scientists suspect that there will be many more found and that Sedna will not dominate the mass and thus they do not consider Sedna to be a planet.

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Theatre Editor

THEATRE

Trinity News 13th April 2004

Patrick Stewart

International Dance Festival Ireland lifts off in May The second International Dance Festival Ireland will be taking place from 4th -23rd of May in venues all over Dublin. The exciting programme will include work from all over Europe and also features two companies from the New York cutting edge.

Companies to look out for include the renowned and entertaining The Mark Morris Dance Group’s on their first visit to Ireland. Thomas Lehmen’s solo piece ‘distanzlos’ should appeal to audiences who like their postmodernism thickly spreadhis piece is all about the piece that he was going to choreograph! He has been brought over in association with Irish Modern Dance Theatre who hosted a workshop by Lehman last summer. In brain-meltingly long improvisatory sessions with strange constructs and rules to abide by he pursued his intellectual goals with academic rigour. Somewhat baffled participants were left hanging as he had no forum to demonstrate his work in performance and I hope that his return visit will answer some of the questions that he provoked on his last Dublin visit. Also reviving memories of last summer are the hugely capable duo Ella Clarke and Julie Lockett who will present their Fringe Fest hit Beauty/The Other Side of O at project. Inspired in this venture by the choreography of Deborah Hay the piece was one of the highlights of last year’s festival dance season.

On top of the main programme there will also be a Children’s programme featuring work form The Netherlands and Spain, a Dance film festival in Meetinghouse Square/IFI, an Arts project in the ‘Joy. Full details of the events can be found in the programme which is available online at www.dancefestivalireland.ie. Tickets are available at the Box Office, 01 679 0524 and online.

Patrick Stewart

Stephen Petronio: Gotham Suite Interview Stephen Petronio has been directing his own dance company (above) in New York City for over twenty years. He has toured widely in the States, U.K and abroad but his visit to Ireland will be his first ever and he seems genuinely proud and excited by the prospect. He will be presenting three works, ‘The Gotham Suite’ in the O’Reilly Theatre, ‘City of Twist’, ‘Broken Man’ and ‘Island of Misfit Toys’ that feature the music of Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson, and the sculpture of Cindy Sherman. He took time out from preperations for a brief talk with Patrick Stewart.

Petronio emphasises childish imagery as a major touchstone in his discussion of his first two works that were choreographed for the programme. The Island of Misfit Toys works around a grotesque sculpture by Cindy Sherman of twin babies that appear as tightly bound together while at the same time melting away.

Petronio describes the dance as ‘an exploration of urban creatures as gothic nursery rhymes. Bringing in the buzzing heightened characters that he sees around him in New York his company explore this urban infant

world dance with an elastic athleticism. At the same time it is not a character study but a formal/abstract piece but he is keen to stress that ‘abstraction can be as dramatic as narrative’.

His solo piece contains many of the same themes.

Working with the a new German composition he describes it as a ‘portrait of a post-modern city dweller’.

The dance ‘contains a dark twist reminiscent of film clowns and the particular gothic energy that you can see in early silent films.

The final and most recent piece is ‘City of Twist’. I was working on an abstract that explored solo portraits and a lack of intimacy and trying in these individuals the archetypical. September 11th happened and though I was in London it was devastating. The whole New York Arts community live below 14th street, you can imagine.

After that the piece I was working on became in a way emotional than my other work. Isolation was less emphasised than vehement anger in the choreography.

In another way it’s about falling in love…it’s a love letter to New York and it has a melancholy, beautiful score

by Laurie Anderson to accompany that.

‘My choreography is about smashing different forms of popular culture together and also one thing I love about performance and touring is having all different kind of people coming together for the one thing. For me movement can express things far beyond the rational. I use the body for things my brain can’t express.’

Stephen Petronio has been directing his own dance company in New York City for over twenty years. He has toured widely in the States, U.K and abroad but his visit to Ireland will be his first ever and he seems genuinely proud and excited by the prospect. He will be presenting three works, ‘The Gotham Suite’ in the O’Reilly Theatre, ‘City of Twist’, ‘Broken Man’ and ‘Island of Misfit Toys’ and took time out for a brief talk with Patrick Stewart.

Petronio emphasises childish imagery as a major touchstone in his discussion of his first two works that were choreographed for the programme. The Island of Misfit Toys works around a grotesque sculpture by Cindy Sherman of twin babies that appear as tightly bound together while at the same time melting away. Petronio describes the dance as ‘an exploration of urban creatures as gothic nursery rhymes. Bringing in the buzzing heightened characters that he sees around him in New York he posits through movement the suggestion that these people are broken children, misfit toys, living out an infantilised existence and childish desire. At the same time it is not a character study but a formal/abstract piece but he is keen to stress that ‘abstraction can be as dramatic as narrative’.

His solo piece contains many of the same themes. He describes it as a ‘portrait of a post-modern city dweller’.

The dance ‘contains a dark twist reminiscent of silent film clowns and the particular gothic energy that you can see in early silent films.

The final and most recent piece is ‘City of Twist’. I was working on an abstract that explored solo portraits and a lack of intimacy and trying in these individuals the archetypical. September 11th happened and though I was in London it was devastating. The whole New York Arts community live below 14th street, you can imagine.

After that the piece I was working on became in a way emotional than my other work. Isolation was less emphasised than vehement anger in the choreography.

In another way it’s about falling in love…it’s a love letter to New York and it has a melancholy, beautiful score

by Laurie Anderson to accompany that.

‘My choreography is about smashing different forms of popular culture together and also one thing I love about performance and touring is having all different kind of people coming together for the one thing. For me movement can express things far beyond the rational. I use the body for things my brain can’t express.

Stray Reviewer - Wanders In and Out ‘Tadhg Stray Wandered In’ by Michael Collins.

Directed By Jim Culleton A thesp friend said to me as I tried to make up my mind whether to go to Tadhg Stray, ‘He’s a lovely actor but you know…It’s a monologue.’ The way the M word hung in the air he may as well have spat on the flyer and rubbed it in to the dirt with his shoe. Many feel that the monologue is becoming an overused form that cuts theatrical corners and can’t hope to achieve the drama (or employment levels) of a more ambitious, better populated work can generate. I generally agree but just when you have written them off you see a mono-production (John Hurt in Krapp’s Last Tape or Michael Harding in last year’s Swallow) that remind you of the intimacy and intensity that a

great actor can forge out of a solo indulgence.

The story starts in Navan as Tadhg (Eamonn Owens of Butcher Boy fame) falls helplessly in love with a French girl, Hélène, and jacks in his Leaving Cert. Exams and the watchful eye of his Headmaster Father. In a lovesick haze Tadhg jacks in his Leaving Cert.

Exams, the claustrophobic town and the watchful of his Father, the Headmaster in order to go to Paris and find his girl. In Paris he finds no Hélène but gets involved in drink, theft, human trafficking and the pursuit of the city’s illusory avant-garde.

The character of Tadhg embodies the mass of awkward contradictions of a male in the border country between boyhood and manhood. A powerful, sometimes violent body matched by the innocence and clumsiness of a child.

He possesses intelligence but never seems to use it at the right moments.

He has a precocious charm when in intimate discussion with the audience but which totally fails him amongst his peers. Something about this boy hurtling out Navan and in to the wide world makes me feel very aware of being an outsider as if the character has captured something very authentic and truthful about the Irish or is perpetuating a stereotype that I am

blind to.

The writing has some interesting sparks but also some killer flaws. Tadhg’s close encounter with Algerian child workers and their abusive masters forces the audience to rethink a contemporary issue without the racist comfort zone of a foreign protagonist. The critique of the ‘subversive’ nonsense of the modern day avant-garde seems like fertile ground for some rare insight but the play fails to really get to grips with the issue in order to hammer something home. Eamonn Owens as Tadhg Stray Occasionally, as if to Eamonn Owens is an intriguing, origexplain his frankly bizarre motivation, Tadhg mentions that the ‘Black Dog inal presence on stage as he is on film. was with him’ and that he was really, His powerful, country speech patterns genuinely, very depressed at the time. and his open face and wide mouth act But the odd cheap metaphor and insis- as a fluid and honest emotional canvas. tence don’t win me over to accepting I never once felt that he could have the character as depressed, most of the done more in terms of character develtime he is just far to active and chirpy opment than the script gave him. Yet for that and this inconsistency puts the he lacks confidence on stage (no doubt storyline and character seriously out of exacerbated by his inexperience away from a film set) and hasn’t the knack of kilter.

Photo: Colm Hogan the live comedian or the storyteller which is crucial for the success of a oneman show. He overworks the face, constantly fretting of the minutiae of expression at the expense of continuity as if someone was going to shout cut and give him another take. Held back by his confidence, he fails to really establish a relationship with the audience and though, you go along with the story, you never feel sucked in to it.

Heaney’s ‘Burial at Thebes’ is the full six feet

Ruth Negga as Antigone at The Abbey.

Photo: Tom Lawlor

Burial at Thebes by Seamus Heaney.

Directed by Lorraine Pintal The few plays I had seen at the Abbey had not convinced me aesthetically.

But the first scenes of The Burial at Thebes, Seamus Heaney’s translation of Sophocles’ Antigone, had me sighing in relief: here seemed to be a piece of true theatre with a unified and poetic overall design and fully committed execution.

The front of the stage was covered in sand, with small human figurines on both sides. The play started with a silent sequence of movement by Antigone and her groom-to-be Haemon, followed by a passionately acted scene between Antigone and her sister Ismene. This, too, was paced with dynamic heightened movement, the two sisters physically struggling in the sand, as they were in the playworld.

Ruth Negga, a recent Trinity Acting graduate, had a consistently tight grip

on the role of Antigone, delivering every single line and action with striking power, still never becoming monotonous. Kelly Campbell as Ismene was not far behind in her emotional conviction.

The arrival of the chorus, two men in modern beige suits, somewhat broke the stylised vision created by the first two scenes. Against the fairly abstract set, and coming after the bare white dresses of Antigone and Ismene, the detailed contemporary costumes of the rest of the characters took, in my mind, something away from the artistic purity of the piece. The costume designer Joan O’Clery must have had her reasons though, probably to underline the topical resonances of the conflict between king Creon, played by Lorcan Cranitch, and Antigone, his niece. A nice touch was to have Creon in white; Antigone in black, pointing to the way the established power colours matters to suit its own truth.

The premise of The Burial at Thebes is that Antigone tries to bury her brother who Creon considers a traitor and has forbidden anyone to bury on pain of death. So according to the law of the land, she must die for following the law of her conscience. To me this production made very clear one fundamental difference between Antigone and Creon, which links it especially strongly to current global politics.

Antigone carefully weighs the consequences of her actions and conducts her deed with full awareness, unafraid of death. She reasons it is more important to honour the dead than the living since it is the dead you will spend eternity with. Creon’s actions on the other hand are guided only by his self-made imperative, basically ‘you’re either with me or you’re the enemy’. Rather than think sensibly, he justifies his conduct by repetitious verbal displays of his power and rule, with catchwords such as ‘patriotic duty’, ‘the perpetra-

tors’, ‘the law’, and ‘the enemy’, in blatant resemblance of – as Heaney notes in the programme – the Bush administration. In the end it is Creon who suffers the most complete downfall of all.

Heaney’s masterful translation makes the story and its various resonances crystal-clear. Even just listening to the beautifully constructed text was a pleasure.

The intensity of the play waned slightly at times, since not all of the other actors could quite match the emotional power and precision of Negga. Nevertheless, the director Lorraine Pintal has succeeded in communicating the nearly 2500-year-old European drama of Antigone in its Ireland-born translation in clear and powerful theatrical terms, making it alive and present at this very moment in history.

The Burial at Thebes is running in the Abbey Theatre until 30th April.

Trinity News

MUSIC

Music Editor Derek Owens

13th April 2004

Sharing and Suing Nem K. Tries to make sense of the internet filesharing situation Since the dawn of the second day, humankind has indulged in blind nostalgia for times gone by: weaving tales of a long-lost Golden Era, an irretrievable Garden of Eden We take pleasure in wallowing in the ‘good old days’ (c’mon, admit it; how often have you harked back to the halcyon summer of ’95 to bemoan to your 13 year old skater cousin the decline of music and life in general ‘since you were their age’[shudder]) But for the first time a generation –our generation- has proof that life was indeed richer, fuller and a damn sight more pleasant in times past. And that proof is Napster.

Back in ‘the good old days’ BM (Before Metallica), the Internet was a glorious garden with musical fruits ripe for the picking from the many trees of Kazaa, Winmix and Napster. It was an innocent time, when we used our PCs for more than idle speculation on how exactly ‘38-ways’ Betsy the Sheep got her

Reviews Joy Zipper American Whip 13Amp

name. But luckily Hetfield and Ulrich were on hand to explain to us that all this sharing was wrong. We shouldn’t just let fans listen to music without paying through the nose for it; why should some 14 year old living in a council house get an album for free when Lars Ulrich still can’t afford to buy even a small country? RIAA agreed and got the people on their side with the P.R. coup of simultaneously suing a 71 year-old grandfather, and a 12 year-old fan of “If you’re happy and you know it”(maybe she was asking for that one).

As it stands, if found guilty of downloading music illegally you can be fined up to $150,000 per song. These cases are admittedly all in the U.S, and this is because, as yet, Ireland has no clear laws on the legal status of music downloads. The E.U. last week agreed with America’s interpretation of how strictly copyright laws apply to internet filesharing, however the decision of what constitutes an infringement of this copyright has

Above and Left: Lars Ulrich, Mettalica Drummer vs Brianna Lahera, 12 year old music pirate. been left to the discretion of the individual member states. But all is not as dark as it may seem: members of UCC’s Law department are currently working on a program of license tranformation introducting the system of creative common to Ireland.

Creative common is a non-profit body of creative works free for copying and sharing. As of february

2004, countries involved in creative common include the U.K., Japan, France, Italy and China (well, they do still have pretensions to communism). So, against all odds, it looks like internet filesharing, in some form or another, might just survive.

Go ahead, educate that 13 year old cousin on the joys of filesharing while you can.

Ballad of a travelling band David White talks to Ger O’Donohoe, lead singer with The Maladies Sunday night in a small Wexford pub and The Maladies are preparing to take to the stage. They have a tough crowd to entertain.

A band more accustomed to Dublin venues, their notoriety hasn’t filtered out to the rest of the country yet. As an added obstacle, the bar is full of rowdy Welsh rugby fans. As if that wasn’t bad enough, one of them just went up and brought the house down with a spirited rendition of ‘500 Miles’.

Things do not look good.

Ger, lead singer of the Maladies, takes up the story. “we had to cut about an hour

off the set because some of the songs are a little quiet. If we played them we would have been eaten alive. We won them over in the end though.” It’s all part of being an independent Irish band trying to make it in a select market. Part of the problem is their style, which is difficult to pigeonhole. Ger toys with 'prog folk rock' and 'rock band with a piano'.

“The thing is we’re not commercial enough for FM radio and we’re not alternative enough for the underground scene.” When they are played on the radio it’s usually late night “sympathy airplay”. Similarly, record companies don’t want to know about The Maladies because, in spite of their

tenacious following, they’re not commercial enough. Not that they’re in a hurry to get signed up, “record companies are accountants, glorified banks with a good PR outfit attached,” explains Ger, adding “it’s not fans who decide who gets signed,” before launching into an extended metaphor. “I’ve worked in a shop for years and you see how it works.

They say my marrowfat peas aren’t selling, I’ll get some Bachelors in ‘cos you know Bachelors are gonna sell. The charts are just filled up with Bachelors peas. Then you have the likes of Phantom selling marrowfat. There’s a lot of people who like marrowfat.”

Exactly.

The Maladies are not short of ambition, which is evident from their sweeping 27 date Irish tour. It’s a bold move, considering that most Dublin bands prefer to stay inside The Pale where they have an established fanbase.

Drunken Welshmen aside, it’s been a largely positive experience, helping to publicize their self-titled debut album. “There’s no big PR push behind this album, we’re promoting it off our own backs.” Hence the punishing schedule. One more dose of reality for an aspir-

ing band.

The album itself is impressive stuff, full of energetic rocks songs and lyrical ballads. ‘She Said’ is a savage rejection of love, pulsing with rattlesnake bass lines, snarling guitars and bitter lyrics. ‘Ocean Song’ is an elegant, soaring ballad that shows the flexibility and range of the band beautifully. Then there’s the low sleaze of ‘Bartender’ and the harmonica backing in ‘I Can’t Swim’, though Ger swears blind that they wrote it long before the Thrills came along. And the way ‘Closing Time’ starts with a tinkling piano intro and builds to a thunderous zenith before fading out.

Lyrically it’s thoughtful, bitter and introspective and overall, it’s an album bursting with energy, variety and potential.

It was recorded in just four days last July (after six weeks of rehearsal) and launched in Whelan’s in September, before appearing in all good Dublin record stores in February this year.

The response has been positive “On his radio show Pat Kenny described it as critically acclaimed – I nearly fell off my chair when I heard that.” Work is under way on their follow-up, “half

One for the grandkids Chasing down a hot tip, TN’s Derek Owens goes underground (literally) in search of a good alt. rock fix, finding Semona...

The first thing you notice about the Isaac Butt’s music venue/grotto is that it’s small and cramped. Then you notice the appalling sound problems, an inevitable consequence of putting a technician’s desk next to the bar. Then you wonder how you’ll make it through the packed crowd to the stage without spilling at least fourteen pints...and then the funny smell of stale sweat and beer hits you. Oh, and did I mention it was so small that would-be moshers think twice before jumping? I probably did, but hey, even the Beatles started somewhere.

It’s not quite Beatlemania here, but considering that this is actually the first headline gig for Semona, a Dublin six-piece not yet picked up by ‘nextbest thing’ peddlers, there’s an encouraging buzz, and the place is packed, even as the support act, Cadence take the stage. The buzz emanating from the sound desk, dogging Cadence throughout their average set (“well, they try”, Semona frontman Craig Cahill mused to TN earlier) is somewhat less promising however, and gets frustrating as Semona battle against it

21

for their first couple of songs. To their credit, they don’t play the tortured artistes, but it takes a few venomous looks and some disgruntled muttering on their part to get the mess sorted out. Then, though, we’re rolling.

Semona set about paying back the crowd’s money (and restoring my faith in the source of what looked at first like a decidedly lukewarm tip) with aplomb. Yes, they’re good. Very good.

They strike a balance between the conceited, poser ‘stars in their minds’ that infest Dublin venues, and the four chord chancers that are equally cancerous in their spread over this city, edging towards the former by dint of their sheer musical accomplishment.

They don’t come off as pretentious however, but simply back up their remarkable confidence with tunes that taste like a cocktail of The Smiths and Placebo, and lyrics that smack of a young Billy Corgan: altogether, it’s angsty Rock at it’s best.

But there’s also that vibe. People say of the La’s and the Stone Roses that even when they were playing in shitholes to fifty people or less, the band new that they were special, and everybody that heard them ended up agreeing.

Tonight, judging by the mood of everybody here, Semona do a good job convincing us all that they burst with sim-

ilar promise.

Any doubts though are blasted away when the band launch into ‘Song for Burning’. It’s simply stunning: passionate but unaffected, almost minimalist lyrics are sung with verve and belief, while musically this song exceeds my capacity for hyperbole. Its exciting, it’s infectious, it’s original while sounding familiar enough to grab your attention. ’Song for Burning’ might just be the best song I have heard performed live this year. Midway through, Craig Cahill places one hand on his hip, closes his eyes, and sings without a breath for what seems like aeons. As his face grows red, I realise that under normal circumstances this carry on is a mortal sin in the eyes of every would- be rock hack, enough to prompt a rant to anybody who’ll listen about the budding Prima Donna’s on stage. Very few people, only the genuinely extraordinary get away with such behaviour. Semona do, I realise, because they have the potential to defy hyperbole and justify cringingly worshipful reports like this. They also have the potential to make them well worth investigating now. You might just end up telling your grandkids about them.

For gig news and downloads, check out www.semona.com.

the next album is written.

Cormac and I are constantly writing.” Their songs are always a group effort. It’s a cliché, but the band is a genuine melting pot, with surprises constantly bubbling to the surface, “The best songs are the ones that come out of nowhere and take five minutes to write.” It’s a democratic process, “some songs come and go. If someone is tired of a song it’ll go.” Their philosophy is that “whatever the song needs goes in”.

Whether that magic ingredient is a piano solo or a pipe organ intro.

When quizzed about his own influences, Ger is succinct. “I like noise”. He’s already got his ticket for the Pixies reunion tour, which is no surprise, since he’s been going to gigs with his brothers since he was ten. Though that was a different time, before the club scene took off, when people went to see local bands on a regular basis. Which is not to say there isn’t a vibrant music scene out there, it just means you have to look harder. Ger’s enthusiasm for playing live hasn’t waned, “I just want to get up and plug in. In the back of my mind I’m still 16. I’m still plugging in for the first time.”

When I meet Ger, the band is getting ready for a gig in the Isaac Butt. “It’s like playing in a cave. It’s just a great little hole.” It’s also very dark - except for the occasional snap and flash of a cigarette lighter - and filled, except for the odd tinkle of pint glasses, with an expectant, appreciative silence. Picture a giant tube of smarties, cut it lengthwise, replace the cap with a stage, fill it with bubbly music fans instead of delicious sweets and you’re clearly as weird as me.

Anyway.

On record, The Maladies are a professional, flexible five piece. Onstage they’re swaggering, grinning madmen.

The audience is small but enthusiastic. The set is assured and varied. It’s a good night. I can’t help thinking that if they can do this on a nightly basis around the country, there’s no limit to what they can achieve.

The future. You see bands take off in foreign countries before the home market takes notice. Maybe you’re big in Japan? Ger smiles.

“Apparently if you have red hair over there, you’re instantly a hit,” he laughs and rubs his chestnut quiff, “so that’s good for me.”

From New York via everyone from the Beach Boys to Blur, come Joy Zipper with American Whip – the band named after frontman Vinny Carfiso’s mother, the album named after an ice cream.

Kinky. American Whip adds Californian harmonies to plodding drumbeats and art-school guitar to form something genuinely sweet – ‘Sunstroke’, and single ‘Out of the Sun’ charm their way along nicely. Meanwhile, wayward noisenik Kevin Shields pops up to mix ‘Christmas Song’, and the strings on ‘33x’ are lush without even hinting at any dreaded hi-fi direction.

Highlight of the album is ‘Ron’, with sweeping oohs and aaahs from Carfiso’s partner Tabitha Tindale – with sundrenched keyboards and clumsy but effective solos, early REM and a more concerted Pavement spring to mind. Despite their cheery sound, Joy Zipper sing about a sinister ‘Never Ending Search for a Suitable Enemy’ – listen closely and Cafiso is “getting tired of life” . You feel they want to let rip with My Bloody Valentine guitars once, just once. Next time they shouldn’t be afraid. Quirky yet focussed, this is how the last Grandaddy album should have sounded.

4/5.

Ruraidh Conlon O’Reilly The Rasmus Dead Letters Playground Music

The inlay of ‘Dead Letters’ informs us that “a dead letter is a letter that has never been delivered because the person to whom it was written cannot be found, and it also cannot be returned to the person who wrote it”. If only such a fate had befallen this CD. It seems an odd aspect of a CD to dwell on, but in its sheer pretensioousness the sentence is indicative of the album as a whole.

Admittedly, the band are guilty of no glaring musical errors, but there are no memorable, faintly original or even interesting moments on offer either. Meanwhile, the vocals rely on enthusiasm and emotion rather than talent, and the pompous, melodramatic lyrics are unintentionally hilarious. Perhaps I should let them speak for themselves: “I dumped you again/I don’t understand/It‘s happened before/Can‘t take it no more/These foolish games/Always end up in confusion”. Being sent musical offal like this almost makes me glad there’s a postal strike on.

(0.5/5) Derek Owens The Crystal Method Legions of Boom V2 records Inc

Break out your body paint, glow sticks, and glitter! The Crystal Method has released a new album called Legions of Boom. If you're looking for meaningful lyrical content, this album is not for you. Just like in previous albums, this one follows a caffeine injected, tripped out techno formula. It doesn't stand out from any of their previous work as something new and profound. Then again, why would you change a formula that has brought impressive album sales, and of course soundtrack songs. Fortunately, they have not reduced themselves to whoring their music out for commercials, á la Moby. I did find it to be a good album to study to since there is no lyrics worth hearing, and unlike classical music, it actually keeps me awake. If you like the more fast paced, break dancing, kung fu kicking style of the Crystal method's other albums, don't worry: they still have it.

(3/5) Emily Armstrong King Adora Who Do You Love?

Discovery Records

I found it difficult to define the feel of WDYL about half-way through, I realised I didn't care.

This is an album that swaggers, screams and seduces; glitterpunk sleaze corrupting pure pop thrills. Who Do You Love? kicks off with perhaps its weakest track, the single 'Drag'; an "..ode to glamour and androgeny"; but gains confidence as it whirls onwards in a giddy cocktail of sex, glamour and unashamed rock’n’roll. Stand out tracks include a revamped ‘Kamikaze’ and ‘Born To Lose’, the tender/disturbing ‘Love So Volatile’ and -if only for the sheer sultry bitchiness of Maxi’s vocals- ‘Maniac Love’; containing the immortal line “I don’t give a fuck for your love, love, love. I just wanna fuck, that’s my drug”. Classy. Who Do You Love? borrows all the best bits of everything from T-Rex to Blondie’s basslines, adds a dash of Placebo and ignores inevitable Manics comparisons –and yet somehow manage to create a sound uniquely distinct from both their influences and their contemporaries.

Nem K.

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BOOKS

Trinity News 13 April 2004 th

Books Editor Laura Dixon

“An Evening with Frank McGuinness” Fionnuala Finnerty.

Frank McGuiness has been described as one of Ireland’s most prolific playwrights, held in equal esteem with Brian Friel and Samuel Beckett. He is the author of over fifteen plays including "The Factory Girls", "Observe the sons of Ulster Marching towards the Somme" and "The Bird Sanctuary". He has translated numerous plays and is responsible for the screenplay version of Brian Friel’s "Dancing at Lughnasa".

His accomplishments also extend to the publication of three poetry collections. As I was largely ignorant of his work, not being much of a poetry or theatre buff, his recent appearance in The Irish Writers Centre as part of the new "Contemporary Writers Series" gave me a golden opportunity to check out one of Ireland’s literary elite. The reading was in conjunction with the release of his new anthology of poetry "The Stone Jug" and he would be reading passages from same as well as extracts from three previously published plays; "The Bird Sanctuary", "The Right Article" and "Hecuba".

The speaker was fashionably late, giving me a chance to survey my fellow audience members. I was the youngest person in the room by at least a decade and felt slightly conspicuous in my

scruffy regulation, student attire and unkempt hair. My incongruousness, however, soon dissipated with the arrival of Frank McGuiness. He was an avuncular looking gentleman with a well-lived in face, craggy as the eroded rocks of the cliffs of Mohair, resplendent in an "avant guarde" pink shirt slightly too tight to accommodate his well-cultivated stomach! He introduced the woman immediately to his right as old friend and accomplice Maria McDermott-Roe, who he described as having "a terrifying maternal instinct" and who was to join him in reading the female segments.

McGuinness opened the evening with the title poem of his anthology "The Stone Jug" describing Aunt Eileen "who could drive like a native" and nearly came to a sticky end when "a sheep crossed her road". "Jesus", she swore, "I’m going to kill it!" Thankfully she didn’t, but she vowed never to drive again – she would remain bipedal from now on! McGuinness possesses a great ear for colloquialisms and the banality of everyday speech, which he instils with his distinctive, subtle humour. He reads well with McDermott-Roe, the two play off each other in the comfortable, easy manner of long-time friends.

His capture of the minutiae of the

Irish manner of speech is mirrored by his attention to detail in the description of Irish landscape, which he treats with an admirable degree of reverence and fondness especially evident in the poems describing Donegal’s "Fawnhill" and the majestic Gyr falcon. He addresses the issue of national identity

McGuinness possesses a great ear for colloquialisms and the banality of everyday speech, which he instils with his distinctive, subtle humour. sagely and cynically, "The Shamrock is threefold: love, lies and hate", "The Shamrock is threefold: rock, famine and clay" but his poetry also resonates of more universal themes including sexuality, personal relationships and family.

As well as reading his poetry, we were introduced to passages from three of his plays, "The Bird Sanctuary", where we were voyeurs to the relationship between a reclusive painter and her nephew. The painter is awaiting confirmation that the family home in which

she resides is being sold from under her. She has been diligently and obsessively working on a painting for the past three years and fears she will not be able to paint anymore if she is evicted from the house. Tensions are frayed but levity is maintained by the acerbic and crackling dialogue between the two characters. The female leads speeches are littered with vulgarities "over my dead fanny", "have you even smelt an old woman’s fart" and she craves to "smother with a crucifix" her overbearing sister. There is an endearing affection between the middle aged hermetic painter and her effervescent nephew emulated to perfection by McGuiness and McDermott-Roe. "The Right Article" describes the dysfunctional familial dynamic of Helen, a cynical photographer, Paddy her exlover, an "ecological" architect who has made a fortune on the back of his principles by creating dwellings "for the rich and famous" and their daughter Sophia. He describes their vitriolic relationship perfectly. The thinly veiled bitterness is palpable. Descriptions of the subtle balance of power in all of life’s relationships are one of this author’s favourite topics.

A reading from the play "Hecuba" constituted the end of the evening, and in it the author addressed another of his favourite topics - the plight of women.

He habitually empathises with the

Photographer: Ian Oliver/ Letcombe.com female gender in his writings: "be killed unless I married", "tortuous bed", "my belly full of cock", "my husband, my overload". McGuinness's poetry has been often described as depressing, and it often is, but even at its most despairing, his poems and prose both have a definitive, bleak, realistic beauty – like a lone flower growing in the desert.

Mourid Barghouti’s I Saw Ramallah...

The Power and Terror of Words

Laura Dixon

Noam Chomsky, Power And Terror, Post9/11 Talks And Interviews.

Edited by John Junkerman and Takei Masakazu Seven Stories Press

Nick Doran

I Saw Ramallah Mourid Barghouti [Translated by Ahdef Souief] Bloomsbury.

Edward Said, in his foreword to Mourid Barghouti’s novel I Saw Ramallah calls it ‘one of the finest existential accounts of Palestinian displacement that we now have". The growing conflict and daily tragedies on the West Bank between the Palestinians and the State of Israel gives Mourid Barghouti’s moving and poetic novel an added poignancy. His insight into the mentality of the Palestinian people poses fundamental questions about displacement, exile and belonging, and is characterised by the tragedy and uncertainty he has lived in for the last thirty years. His novel, beautifully interspersed with lines and phrases from his own poetry, shows the intensely personal and private effects displacement, that key post-colonial term, can have.

Refreshingly, although politics is at the heart of this book and the struggle for land evidently the key issue, his is not a political treatise. He is more concerned with the people themselves, the effect thirty years of exile and apparent ‘homelessness’ can have. He asks "What is special about it [the land] except that we have lost it?"

Barghouti brings up the question of belonging and homelessness through the context of his own life, and the misplaced lives of his own family.

They have been dispersed, as he is even denied citizenship of the same country of his wife and son for seventeen years. His personal and questioning story explores the sense of being uprooted, his sense of powerlessness. He is unable to cross borders, ‘borders’ imposed by a government he does not respect, to bury a loved one or visit his family. His narrative is littered with references of martyrdom and death, as death seems to be a daily reality for his people.

They are literally oppressed, as their roads and towns are taken over and their people taken away. Barghouti inevitably sets up that ‘them-and-us’ binary, so common to the literature of an oppressed people. Indeed, Israel, ‘The Occupier, the Colonialist, the Imperialist’ never escapes these connotations. He sets up the division between them as that of a people against an army, of poetry against guns and a fight for the land. Perhaps he is right. Israel has denied four million Palestinian refugees a home, a place to belong. Throughout his story therefore, whilst always maintaining a personal touch, Barghouti raises questions of mastery and servitude, and the appropriateness of ‘naming’ itself. He admits, almost shamefully, of having comfortably used the terms ‘immigrant’ and ‘refugee’ as a child, when he was settled and comfortable, little realising the prejudicial effects this ‘naming’, and consequent rejection, can have. He asks "How is it we did not ask ourselves about their meaning?" Barghouti’s narrative is

Copyright Bloomsbury

‘What is special about the land except that we have lost it?’ not therefore, a simple political condemnation of the Israeli State and its actions. He says when something goes wrong we need to ask ourselves why, and refuses to leave the human question when debating the greed of political entities over that sacred piece of land.

Throughout his story, Barghouti juxtaposes his life and journey away from Palestine in 1967 with his present.

He left, as a young man, to finish his university degree in Cairo, crossing the bridge from Palestine, little realising the far-reaching implications this journey would have over his life. He was unable to return once the Israeli state had taken possession, unable to see the people and place of his childhood. It is this which gives his return such a sense of sadness. He seems to long for what could have been in his life, and despite his happiness at finally being allowed to return, his life is already scarred by the difficulties and losses these years apart have caused him. His fight to get back to ‘Palestine’ is visually represented by the bridge crossing, a simple crossing that denies thousands, including his brother, access for so many years.

Now, politics, though he tries to ignore it, is present in his every moment. He has to learn how to live there again, now he is no longer just waiting for that moment when he can return.

And he has to learn to live with all the emotional baggage that such trauma creates. Life will never be simple for him again. Every place he revisits is tainted with a sense of loss, a memory of people who have been lost through their struggle. His ‘whirlwind’ of sen-

sations, happiness, relief, sadness, anger, on his return, are symptomatic of the emotions of exile. After all that has happened, his life will never be simple, an element reflected by the fragmentary nature of the narrative.

Edward Said, in his enthusiastic foreword to the book, highlights the fact that being ‘displaced’, often means being ‘misplaced’. This sense of having been ‘lost’ for so many years will clearly haunt Barghouti, even if he moves his life back to Ramallah. Part of his life and his heritage has been irrevocably lost, as he sadly meditates that "our dead are still in the cemeteries of others".

Today, in our modern, fashion conscious and unstoppably critical world, it could almost be seen as fashionable to be antiAmerica. It seems everyone is itching to take a stab at the Yanks. If its not because they’re starting a war, then its because they’re all over weight and over here. The unbearably ‘hypocritical’ and ‘repressive’ actions of the US which we hear about daily in our chats with class mates, all add up to a level of irritability towards America which can only be likened with our irritability towards Americans. I’ll resist ranting on too much about this because to be honest I’m quite fond of the Yanks. However, the next time you fancy an argumentative babble over the Americans and all there wrong doings, I suggest you read Noam Chomsky’s, Power And Terror.

This book, which catalogues just some of Chomsky’s post-9/11 talks and interviews, is incredibly informative. As it is a catalogue of talks and interviews, transcribed and published, I see no point in looking too much into the form or presentation. This book is all about content, facts and ideas. And they’re here to burn.

As the title of the book suggests all the talks and interviews revolve around America and their response to ‘world terror’. Chomsky has delved incredibly deeply into this topic and emerged with some brilliantly reasoned and well researched facts and theories. Don’t expect a straight-forward America-bashing review of post 9/11 events. Chomsky has given his talks and interviews from the kind of stand point which could be written into the dictionary as epitomising objectivity.

He reasons from both sides of the ‘War on Terror’ even to the point where he is criticised for being apologetic towards acts of terror. In an interview by John Junkerman which took place in Chomsky’s office on May 21,2001 Chomsky said; "…almost any crime, a crime in the streets, a war, whatever it may be, there’s usually something behind it that has elements of legitimacy, and you have to consider those elements. That’s again true whether it’s a crime in the streets or the war crimes of an aggressive power."

Chomsky received criticism over his analysis of terrorism and was accused of being apologetic. However, in response to this he suggests that if you’re interested in stopping terrorism, of course you must pay attention to the reasons behind it. "It has nothing to do with apologetics".

The overarching theme of this book of talks and interviews is imperialism, and our perceived notions of terrorism relative to dominant ideologies and discourses. This theme is made clear from the introduction where it is emphasised that Chomsky must have argued a thousand times, that, "…we cannot address terrorism of the weak against the powerful without also confronting the unmentionable, but far more extreme terrorism of the powerful against the weak."

We are bombarded with astounding facts all through this book the research for which I can only imagine was incredibly laborious. For instance in the late eighties while the U.S. was attacking Nicaragua, Nicaragua went to The World Court which condemned the U.S. for international terrorism, for ‘unlawful use of force’ and for violation of treaties.

It ordered them to terminate crimes and to pay massive reparations. The U.S. responded by elevating their war efforts.

Then, when confronted by The Security Council and imminently about to be condemned for their actions, the U.S. vetoed the resolution which called on all states to observe international law.

The book is crammed with masses of ammo for any budding America basher out there. But Chomsky’s presentation of his talks and interviews is done in such a way as to inform from an incredible pool of research, soaked in truisms.

This is not the kind of book that will get you riled up into a fit of anti-American

“If its not because they’re starting a war, then its because they’re all over weight and over here” fury. Rather, it is the kind of book that will entice you to dig deeper and learn more. The interviews and talks transcribed cover most aspects of post-9/11 issues in which America are involved.

Chomsky’s application of his unbound intellect and knowledge to these issues makes for enjoyable and educational reading. He never once steps beyond the limits of his knowledge and is always impressive.

I’m sure the more cynical amongst us might say it is anti American propaganda. And it may well be. However, all a person can do in researching the question of terrorism, imperialism, propaganda and power, is look deeply into the countless arguments and decide. One way or the other this book of talks and interviews by Noam Chomsky is gourmet food for the brain. I recommend Power And Terror to everyone with an interest in Imperialism the U.S. and the ‘War on Terror’.

Film Editor

Trinity News

FILM

Ruth Ní Eidhin

13th April 2004

23

Stellar Experience Trinity News takes a trip back in time to the Stella Cinema in Rathmines Ailbhe O’Reilly

T

he old decrepit furniture, the unusual smell in the lobby, the disgustingly sticky floors and why oh why do they show some films for over a year!

These are some of the comments I encountered when I asked people what they taught of the Stella Cinema in Rathmines.

To those of you who have yet to experience the Stella Experience this is a true piece of Dublin subculture.

The Stella Cinema, for all the negative remarks, is one of the only (if not the only) cinemas in Dublin that has not changed for the last thirty years; it has two small screens, one taking 280 souls and the other 180.

The Lobby contains a small area for purchasing those essential cinema snacks, how long these assorted snacks have been waiting to be eaten is anyone’s guess and to be taken at your own risk. The cinema experience itself is not very like the usual modern cinema experience; there are no tedious advertisements, just trailers, which is a major plus for me and if you are an admirer of surround sound you’re in for a big disappointment.

Watching a film in the Stella is just like renting a video one customer told me and they have a point - the screen is very small and isn’t very loud so some might prefer to stay in the comfort of their own home to watch the latest blockbuster. Added to that complaints may include the extreme hardness of the seats that are really a challenge to the muscles of the posterior and the number one grievance is the bathroom. Going to the bathroom in this cinema can

be sure to stay in your mind much longer than the latest romantic comedy Hugh Grant has wooed you in. It’s dirty, cold, doesn’t seem to have been cleaned since Madonna was the next big thing and there are a curious number of tree branches creeping through the window, which reminds me of some bizarre horror, "The Attack of the Killer Trees" or the like.

Maybe this is a new interior design craze but I doubt it.

Ok, that’s enough Stella bashing, there are some pros to this ancient cinema. It is substantially cheaper than the bigger cinemas, usually at around the six euro mark, as opposed to the over eight euro you can pay in the U.G.C. or the like. It plays the recent releases like every other cinema, except Rathmines may be the place to go when those big releases come out and you have to book in advance for a seat as there is always room at the Stella. There are also those old fashioned matinees on a Saturday afternoon that do not have 100 screaming

these films; especially the teenage boys that wish to learn the words to these films off by heart! There are also rumours in this suburban village of "secret screenings" in the Stella, I can’t reveal my sources of course, but apparently there are secret screenings of yet to be released films a week or so before their official release. If true I think this gives the Stella an unknown, interesting and secretive quality that I find quite unique and endearing.

It is certain that a cinema like this cannot be found anywhere else in Dublin, it does feel like a throwback to the 1950’s and the only other place I can think of like it, are the small town cinemas in middle America. Whatever its faults it is one in a kind.

Speaking to one regular customer of the Stella, she says the images of the Stella as "manky" are unfair and an "exaggeration". She feels it is great if you live in Rathmines as it’s local and the food and ticket prices are cheaper, which is a bonus. She feels that there is nothing wrong “Those of the delicate disposition with the place should stay clear, but those who can and people are being precohandle a bit of danger should cious if they definitely try it out” refuse to go there. On the kids running around and in other hand another my opinion that is a major Rathmines resident never plus! The Stella has some- goes there unless she has no thing that is not a feature in alternative; she feels it is any other cinema in Dublin - "vile" and never goes into the they play certain films for bathrooms and would much over a year at a time. These rather watch a video at home are usual the cult classics instead of going there. People such as the Lord of the Ring like this feel going to the cineseries - they played the sec- ma is a trip out and want to ond one until the third one enjoy the cinematic expericame out. This would be a ence, so would prefer to go to definite pro to the admirers of the U.G.C. or the like. The

Cat in the Hat: Director: Bo Welch Cast: Mike Myers, Alec Baldwin, Kelly Preston & Dakota Fanning Ailbhe O’Reilly ‘Cat in the Hat’, well this title wouldn’t be something I’d usually jump at the chance to see, but hey why not think outside the box! As you’ve probably guessed this is a kids film, some of you may be familiar with the book as a child, and it has all the ingredients for one: brightly coloured sets, a mean stepfather figure, bored kids looking for some fun and a crazy cartoon-like character. The story revolves around a day where the troublesome kids are left alone in their house with only a sleeping babysitter to assume themselves, the Cat makes a surprise visit and the day of fun goes from there.

So the question is, is it a cut above the rest or does it make me pine for

The Butterfly Effect Directors: Eric Bresse & J Mackye Gruber Cast: Ashton Kutcher, Melora Waters, Amy Smart Ailbhe O’Reilly It would be natural to approach a film starring Ashton Kutcher in a "serious" role with a degree of caution.

This film is a notable departure from comedies for this actor, who is best

Straight out of the 1950s:The Stella Cinema, Rathmines U.G.C. in my opinion is a much duller, colder experience. It is big and unfriendly; sure it has a huge supply of popcorn and relaxing seats with surround sound, but where is the love!? I suppose it depends on your priorities, do you want the multiplex experience and to feel like a product on a conveyor belt with the big seats but no culture? Or do you feel that the Stella is a flea-invested pit and whose only resemblance with the 1950’s is that hasn’t been cleaned since then?

Personally I think the Stella has the feel of an older cinema and does make you feel like you have gone back fifty years and I like that it is different from any other cinema in Dublin, sure it isn’t exactly squeaky clean but its not disgusting and you can have an enjoyable cinematic evening there, if a little uncomfortable. Those of the delicate disposition should stay clear, but those who can handle a bit of danger should definitely

those wonderful Roald Dahl inspired films from my long gone youth? Overall, I think it is pretty good, its imaginative, colourful and charmingly told like a fairytale story. I think I’m too old to fully appreciate this unfortunately, but bring your eight-year-old

friend/sibling/cousin along and I’d say they’d be laughing out of their seats at all the gunge Alec Baldwin seems to get all over himself at the very least.

Baldwin, who plays the evil potential stepfather, is very good as the scheming neighbour who wants to sponge of these kids mother. This is a different type of role for him and he does it superbly. The children are adequately funny as well, however there is an element of stage school perfectness seen in their performances that I didn’t like. It is of course Mike Myers as the Cat in the aforementioned Hat that is the real star, to the youngsters seeing him for the first time he’ll be hilarious. To the older moviegoers there is the hint of Austin Powers and assorted characters that will make you smile and gave me my only real laughout-loud moment in the film.

This is well done, but keep it for the kids.

known for his roles in, "Dude Where’s my Car?" and, "That Seventies Show."

The film sees him cast as a bright but troubled college student, who has had a terrible childhood, much of which he has little or no memory of. The audience follows him as he uses his journals to recall events in his youth in a most dramatic and shocking manner.

As the story progresses, you build up a picture of Kutcher’s character Evan, as well as that of a number of his close friends. As children they are first encountered growing up in a suburban neighbourhood, but typically nothing about the lives they lead there are normal.

The story is fast-paced and hard-hitting and there is never an obvious lull in the powerful plot. Through the use of unnerving and unexpected scenes, the viewer is left on the edge of their seat, particularly in the first half of the movie. However, as it continues, the format becomes repetitive and you may start to feel that the story line could have been brought to a more effective ending sooner.

This is a science fiction thriller and

although it provides little in the way of light-hearted relief, it does come to a positive and thought provoking conclusion. The title of the film relates to the Chaos Theory and the film demonstrates how changing one small event in the past alters the lives of all those involved in a significant manner. The effects are felt most profoundly by Kutcher’s character, who is aware of what his previous existences have been. He realises he can alter his past repeatedly in order to create better lives for everyone he cares about, including that of his friend and love interest, played by Amy Smart.

The standard of acting is impressive and the characters are sometimes shocking, sometimes disturbing, but for the most part believable.

Particular credit is due to the engaging actor Logan Lerman who plays seven-year-old Evan. This film takes time to understand fully but it is clever and put together in such a way that it maintains your interest throughout. I would advise all those who enjoy an intellectual thriller to see it.

try it out.

There are only a few working at the Stella; there are now only two workers at a time.

Most of them work there for the perks: easy work and free trips to the cinema. It is fair to say working there must not be much of a challenge, and if you worked there with a few friends it may actually be a bit of fun. The reason it hasn’t been done up for so long is, according to a former employee, that the former owner Tony didn’t want to make it into a prosperous business but only wanted to break even, and still managed to make quite a bit out it all the same. Tony and another man Paul were the projectionists and there were four guys working at the till. There are in fact another two screens unused upstairs that Tony never bothered with. The company that own the Savoy, Anderson and Ward, have recently bought the Stella, and they now show four or five films a night as opposed

to two and three at the weekend as before. Their plans for the cinema are unclear at this stage. Some hope they will make it into an arty cinema similar to the I.F.I. while others say they want to make it into another multiplex.

However the Swan Centre also in Rathmines recently could not get planning permission for the parking needed for a multiplex so the Stella may encounter the same problem. I think an arty cinema could be a good idea, however what I think would be the best possible outcome is that Anderson and Ward keep the character of the Stella as an escapist’s dream; back to the days of cinema’s early life and try and maintain the character of the Stella, while maybe doing a bit of a clean up job on it that way everyone will be happy, because as one customer noted if the Stella changed into just another dreary multiplex "it wouldn’t be the same".

Fifty First Dates Director: Peter Segal Cast: Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore, Rob Schneider, Sean Astin Ruth Ní Eidhin It’s hard to motivate yourself to go see a film that’s so obviously basing its hopes of commercial success on the combined merits of the lead actors. 50 First Dates is just such a film. The plot is entirely ridiculous, not to mention tedious, and yet the combination of Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore, last seen together in the superb Wedding Singer, is expected to carry the film through such major flaws. It has to be handed to them, they nearly pulled it off.

Henry Roth (Sandler) is the local love god in Oahu. Adam Sandler.

Love God. Right. Terrified of commitment he limits his relationships to week-long flings with rich tourists before feeding them a ridiculous line to get them off the island. Following a minor boating accident, Roth finds himself stranded at the Hukilau Cafe, and spots the stunning Lucy Whitmore (Barrymore). Immediately drawn to the woman building a teepee out of breakfast waffles, Roth approaches Lucy and despite himself finds himself falling in love with a local. They agree to meet for breakfast again the next morning and it all seems to be going beautifully.

Cue the most ridiculous plot twist I've heard in a long time. Rare neurological disorder. I kid you not.

Lucy, it emerges, was in a terrible car accident a year earlier, and has lost her short-term memory. So every morning she wakes up thinking it's October 13th. Every morning she makes her waffles into a little house and reads the same book in the same seat. Then she goes home and paints the same picture in the garage her father has once again painted white overnight so that the grand illusion being created around Lucy can be maintained.

Henry, again despite himself, can't help returning the next morning.

And making her fall in love with him all over again. (And again, and again, and again...)

So the plot is a bit thin but there are some great characters thrown in for good measures. Henry's best friend, Ula (the usually insufferable Rob Schneider) is blatantly insane and convinced that sharks only bite when you touch their privates. Dan Ackroyd has a great cameo as Dr Keats, reminding Lucy's incredibly camp muscle-bound brother Doug to 'lay off the juice' at every possible opportunity. Sean Astin certainly does a lot to move away from Sam Gamgee, but the fishnet vest was going a bit far.

As romantic comedies go, 50 First Dates is certainly very watchable, but makes a few crucial mistakes.

Trying to deal with a serious issue with some level of compassion shortly before Sandler does his completely OTT stage crying and a walrus named Jocko projectile vomits all over 'Alexa' (best not to ask) just doesn't work. Some of the cheap gags are just a little too cheap and become more frustrating as the film goes on. The fine cast could well have saved this film from mediocrity. Could have.

Arts Editor

Trinity News

ARTS

Barry White

13th April 2004

15

A round of golf on the moon - The Art of Verne Dawson Barry White

I

n his essay "The Disney World Company", Jean Baudrillard discusses the idea of the fourth dimension, a state of existence in which time as we understand it has collapsed, in which past present and future no longer have meaning, and all periods exist together in one atemporal virtuality. A similar collapsing of time is at work in Verne Dawson’s work, however it does not have the negative implications/ character of baudrillards fourth dimension, in which crucial perspective and a sense of the depth of history are lost. In Dawson’s work, the distant past, the present and the future are brought together in a different way.

His work explores the continuity of the past in the present and future, an endeavour related to his interest in the cosmological connectedness of all life and all things in the universe. An interest in prehistoric society informs his work, particularly ancient man’s understanding of the cyclical nature of time, and the place of man in relation to the immensity of nature. Dawson believes that the modern view of time being a constantly forward moving thrust, to which we are inexorably tied, and through which we adopt the attitude that whatever happens, happens and so be it, is damaging, and that an appreciation of ancient understandings of cyclical time is something from which modern society would benefit greatly. An appreciation of the miniscule nature of mankind in relation to the vastness of the cosmos is also something that he believes we have lost along the way, and is brutally evident in the arrogance of mankind’s unbridled exploitation of the natural world.

His work hints at a grand unified theory of being, based on folklore, archae-

ology and astronomy. The recurrence of certain motifs and numbers based on astronomy are the basis for this theory.

For example, he points to the visual similarity between the image of the heel stone in standing stone formations (the stone over which the sun rises on the solstice) and the common architectural arrangement of a door surmounted by a semi circular window. A fascinating new publication, entitled "432" accompanies the Douglas Hyde gallery exhibition. The text of this book details recurrences of the number 432 in a range of contexts. For example, a healthy adult heart beats at a rate of 60 beats a minute, which corresponds to 86,400 beats every 24 hours, or 43,200 beats every day and every night. The diameter of the sun is 864,000 miles (2 x 432,000 miles) and the diameter of the moon is 2160 miles (4320 / 2). There are 432 dimples on a golf ball. All this, as well as the other examples of the number 432’s recurrence which Dawson points out, does seem to be a little too much to be coincidence.

In terms of the art of painting itself, Dawson believes that while many people no longer see painting as an area of artistic endeavour which is worth pursuing, it is avant gardist approaches to art which are in fact exhausted. He feels that the focus on the "Holy Trinity" of painting – the subject depicted, the surface upon whih it is depicted and the artist who depicts it is something which has been eroded during the 20th century, but is nevertheless still critical to his personal approach to art. His work is often lumbered with the label "faux naïf", a limiting label which the artist rejects, and which overlooks the complexity of his style and the range of his influences. A recurrent feature of his work is the use

Verne Dawson - Big Bear of very large expanses of sky, which critic Ken Johnson has aptly described as being rendered like "sumptuous colour field paintings." The sense of the pure joy of colour which is central

to colour field painting is not restricted to his rendering of skies, but informs all of his work. This is particularly evident in an early work, "Sunrise", which is on show at the Douglas Hyde, in

European Disunion Erik D. Salholm Clearly unhappy that ten new states will join the EU next month, the National Gallery of Ireland has produced the worst exhibition of the year, to commiserate. Despite its noble aim, to convey the essential European-ness of these countries, via their art, ‘New Frontiers’ paints a deadly dull picture.

The show has two big problems. The first is lack of information; the exhibition provides viewers with little or no context for its exhibits. What happened in Europe in the twentieth century? Wasn’t there a war or something? Perhaps it’s not important.

The second is the curation of the art itself. The exhibition’s premise is so vague as to be almost meaningless: ‘[to] demonstrate the creative forces from the Baltic to the Mediterranean which contributed manifoldly to European values, cultural, social and political’.

Organised by country, the exhibition goes north from Cyprus to the Czech Republic, Poland, the Baltic states and then west to Malta. But since we get neither the broad background to these artworks (their ‘European values’) nor

the specific traditions from which they emerged, browsing this collection is a bit like looking at a lot of strangers’ holiday snaps together in one album, for the sake of convenience. There is no continuity between sections and no governing direction to carry us through it. As it happens, each country curated its own area, under the gallery’s instruction. Why is this not mentioned anywhere in the exhibition?

There is only one piece of sculpture (and no other media), no living artists are represented and the exhibition stops abruptly in the late 1940s.

Why? Why ask? Bizarre curatorial decisions abound. For example, placards state if the works are signed, but not in what medium they are rendered. Guesswork is up to us.

Criticisms aside though, there are some wonderful pieces of art in ‘New Frontiers’. Czech painter Frantisek Kupka’s near-abstract ‘The Story of Pistils and Stamens’ - a meditation on time - is an hypnotic, organic explosion in slow-motion. Estonian Arnold Akberg’s ‘Lady with a child’, with its incredible balance of tone and colour, is as fine an example of Constructivist painting as any in Europe.

Harry Clarke - The Wild Swans

which a sun rises over a primordial sea, depicted as an amalgamation of rapidly swirling bands of blue and white.

The sky, which occupies the greater part of the picture plane, is a riotous, fluidic expanse of opalescent colour which exudes a sense of ecstasy.

In "Big Bear", we see an example of Dawson’s sense of the connectedness of things, the recurrence on earth of patterns derived from distant areas of the cosmos. A large brown bear looks up at the sky, a ladle lying on the ground beside his foot. In the sky, we see the constellations Ursa Major (The Great Bear) and Ursa Minor (The Little Dipper).So the big bear and the little dipper appear twice in the painting, in heaven and on earth. On the left hand side of the painting, we see an observatory, the pivot between heaven and earth.

In "Earthly Paradise (Community with utilities dome and examples of dematerialised human transport.)", an ancient looking ziggurat-like earthwork exists side by side with a futuristic spherical structure.

In the sky, glowing oval forms - people travelling via dematerialised transportation - cross paths with a flock of birds, both examples of cyclical states of existence – the birds engaged in their cycle of migration and return, and the humans dematerialised, presumably to be rematerialised at some point.

When asked whether he feels optimistic or pessimistic about the future of our society under capitalism and consumerism, Dawson’s response was that as an artist, he tries to produce work that will encourage an optimistic outcome to things. His work reminds us of our place in the universe, in a way that encourages a sense of oneness and connectedness, and makes it hard to feel anything but optimism, joy and gratitude for the vastness of existence.

Exhibition Details: New Frontiers is at the National Gallery until the end of May.

From the late Nineteenth Century to the Second World War, Paris was the centre of art in Europe. It was the crucible of avant-gardism, drawing together people and ideas from Europe’s peripheries, and recombining them in new and fantastical movements. The Second World War brought an end to this. From the 1940s on, the Baltic states and much of Eastern Europe was absorbed into the Soviet Empire. New York became the centre of modern art. Only in the last twenty years has European art regained some of its vitality.

If anything, ‘New Frontiers’ shows the dynamic influence of Parisian modernity on regional art.

All European countries have similar examples. (Ireland has its own.) It features examples which epitomise that influence. But in failing to connect the works to one another, what ‘New Frontiers’ does not (and cannot) do is show the force exerted on European culture by Eastern Europe.

So, aside from its shoddy execution, by its own standards it fails.

Considering the great potential of this exhibition, it is doubly disappointing.

Verne Dawson is at The Douglas Hyde Gallery until Harry Clarke’s “Winged Angels in Profile” is on permanent display in the Millenium Wing of The National Gallery.

Also worth seeing this month Vik Muniz at IMMA, until June 13th.

Arnold Akberg - Lady with a Child

I would like to thank all of the writers who have contributed to the arts page this year - Eilish Burke, Anna Drumm, Rebecca McKeown, Erik Salholm, Clare Flannery, Aisling Tierney and special thanks to Gwen Graham, contributor and sub editor.

Harry Clarke’s Angels Aisling Tierney

T

he majority of Harry Clarke’s work is in stained-glass, a medium that has art-historically eclipsed much of his other work. Apprenticed under his father, also a stained-glass decorator, he was introduced to the religious themes he later explored. His stunning and rarely discussed painting "Winged Angels in Profile" executed in 1924 in the collection of the National Gallery of Ireland is such a religious painting.

In December of 1968 the sexton, Christopher Clarke, of St Mary’s, Haddington Road, found the rolled up canvasses of a series of seven murals. They had been unceremoniously torn from the walls of the side chapels of the church and thrown in a tip. The sexton rescued them and brought them to the National Gallery where they were

bought for £100. Due to the unfavourable conditions in which they had been kept, the paintings were severely damaged. The corners and folds of the canvasses were ripped and the surface was covered in dirt, glue, paint and plaster pieces. The gallery began restoration work in 1975 and the paintings have been greatly enhanced as a result.

In all there are four panels on display in the National Gallery, containing six floating angels. Angels have been depicted in Christian painting throughout the ages, as annunciators, guardians of the weak and devout, punishers of the corrupt and as the conveyers of God’s will to mankind. They are usually depicted with human bodies as shown here. The angels seem to be young and, although sexless, are slightly feminine in appearance.

Their bodies are attenuated, adding to their elegance, and suggesting a other worldly

origin.

The heavenly spirits in the central panels all hold emblems of religious importance. From left: a star, a rose, a lily and fireballs or tongues of fire. Surrounding the head of each angel is a golden halo. This signifies the beings as divine or sanctified creatures, worthy of their place in heaven in the service of God. The haloes are left as plain surfaces with no etched detail or design work. They are not transparent and are seen to obscure the top of the angels’ wings.

The influence of the Art Nouveau movement is seen in the impish hair design, flowing organic robes and ribbons, and the asymmetrical patterns on the angels’ clothing. We see Clarke’s trademark dense design and texture work on the sweeping robes. Each is unique with a mix of geometric and sinuous decoration. The angels’ gowns are drawn in

at the neck and wrist creating ornate ruffles. The ribbons flow at angles from the body and, like the angels, seem to float on an unseen force.

The muted colours of the painting seem to enhance the gentle grace of the angels. They are painted on fine canvas in pastel shades of salmon pink, jade, ochre, blue and grey tempera. All these colours are set against a sombre, roughly finished, blue background that seems quite barren compared to the rich detailing on the clothing. The plain blue is advantageous, however, as it does not compete for attention with the other colours but makes them stand out more brilliantly.

In "Winged Angels in Profile" Clarke demonstrated his deftness at condensing Christianity’s complex iconography into an accessible form which can easily be relater to by viewers, as well as infusing these figures with a new life through his use of pattern and colour.

FASHION

Fashion Editor dave ring

Trinity News 13th April 2004

25

Customise This!

Marianne Craig

W

e’re nearing the end of the college year and chances are, much like an S&M prostitute, you're strapped for cash. Unlike those in the world of work however, you have plenty of time on your hands and what better way to spend it than a spot of customisation. No, I'm not suggesting you smuggle fags back from Lanzarote, customising is simply taking an item of clothing and redesigning it. The 'designer' being you.

Your starting point is the item itself, which will probably be a top. Bottoms are best left alone, and as for sewing triangles into the bottom of your jeans to make flares- just don't. You can pick up plain T-shirts and boob tubes at Penneys for next to nothing.

Raiding children's departments is also a good idea as items here are tax free. Age 9-10 roughly translat es as a size 8-10. You might even find some gems at home.

Your old Care Bears/Transformer's t-shirt is now a retro number, if your ma hasn't turned it into a duster that is. Sale rails are also worth a look, remember you must have vision.

Customising a top is as easy

as cutting a bit off it. If you're not lucky enough to have a sewing machine in the attic relax, rough seams are very now. With just a pair of scissors one t-shirt can make a sleeveless top, then a one-shouldered number, then a boob tube. That's four Saturday nights taken care of. It doesn't have to stop there. Try cutting the neck off a t-shirt, then slit the sleeves,&nb sp;loop the extra bit of material through the neckline, bring it out at the shoulder and tie. It's a good idea to practice on some old tops before you get too scissor happy. You have been warned.

Once you've got the hang of taking away it's time to add.

Aladdin had his cave, Pandora had her box, you have Hickeys.

First stop are buttons, which are perfect for adding detail to tops and handbags. The children's section has a great selection of kitsch cats and bows.

Alternatively you could go for a homage to Captain Birdseye with a nautical theme. Think anchors and brass. Go easy though you don't want to be mistaken for a Pearly Queen.

Ribbons are also the perfect way to dress something up. Try stitching them to either side of a

boob tube front and back to make cute straps that tie in a bow. This works with anything that comes by the metre e.g strips of sequins or strings of pearls. If you're feeling a little more a dventurous and are prepared to dispense with your bra (don't even think about a clear strap one) you can go for a racy backless number.

Simply slit a top from neck to hem, add ribbons at equal intervals down either side, then tie together. There'll be fellas dancing round you like you're a maypole!

Customising is a hobby and a money spinner rolled into one, and you'll never see anyone in the same top. Once you get started there'll be no stopping you.

Next thing you know you'll be Ireland's answer to Vicky Fowler, only instead of Walford Market you'll have trestle table at a car boot sale in Wexford.

DISCLAIMER: Handstitched items will eventually fall apart and ribbons wil l fray Avoid washing as much as possible, Febreze is your NBF. As the Bishop says to the priest" If you really must, do it by hand."

Photos from WAKE by Marcus, see www.keepingitfake.com for more

On Parade T

here’s been a recent spate of fashion shows cluttering Dublin venues of varying classiness. The UCD Fashion Show went off with a bang in early March, the best young designer laurels falling on Miss Olivia Hegart. Hegarty, a Trinity graduate from the faculties of Art History and Philosophy two years ago, has since returned to college in Bray to study design and from all accounts she’s making an impact.

Incidently, there was a fashion show as part of WAKE in the Shelter the same night, where Olivia and comrades were organising a showcase of “cutthroat designers parading their wares.” Among the designers represented were Hanin Taynitskay, Caoimhe O’Dwyer, Rosie, Maria of Se Si, Arran Murphy andJenny Roddy of Curiouser & Curiouser and Olivia’s own.

Bray College of Design has its annual fashion show in the RDS on April 22nd if you want to get a piece of the action.

Trinity Ballgowns Jeananne Craig

I

t’s out with the new and in with the old as those in the know Party Like It’s 1929. Vintage clothing is becoming increasingly popular with connoisseurs of chic. With the Trinity Ball rolling ever nearer, this look is a glamorous and distinctive alternative to the little black dress or a puffy old Debs frock that could hide the Charlatans, Jerry Fish and Dizzee Rascal under its meringue skirt. This year’s Oscars played host to a bevy of bygone gowns. Current Hollywood darling Scarlett Johansson donned an emerald green Monroe-esque number, and Best Actress winner Charlize Theron sparkled in a heavily beaded 1930s style Gucci dress. This year, avoid a Trinity Balls up, and cut a dash in Great Gatsby glamour.

Dublin has a great range of vintage shops just a stone’s throw from Trinity. Harlequin on Castle Market Street has some stunning jet-beaded dresses, fur stoles if you dare to bear (or are they mink?) and a good range of well-preserved silver and gold shoes to waltz the night away in. Round the corner in Jenny Vander you’ll find a treasure trove of antique gowns from the 1950s and earlier. These dresses have a real sense of history behind them, and you’re virtually guaranteed to avoid the frock horror of someone turning up in the same dress as you. Both shops are quite good value, but if you’re a skint starlet with a bit of time on your hands have a root round the charity shops

on George’s Street and you might get lucky.

Oxfam et al are also great for vintage accessories at a fraction of the cost you’ll pa y in specialised shops.

Can be bothered to join the rifle club?

There is plenty of convincing faux vintage eveningwear on the high street this season.

Oasis has an impressive range of antique style dresses and accessories. The coral empire-waisted tiered dress in chiffon (105 euros) would really stand out from the crowd and comes with a long chiffon necktie. Oasis also has lacy 1920s party dresses which look great teamed with the black feather headband at 27 euro. For those of us who last year made the mistake of trying to negotiate the cobbles in stiletto heels and still have the bruises to prove it, in the shoe section where you’ll find a range of pretty round toed flats with bow detail (37 euro). These shoes come in pink, black, white, baby blue and lemon so you’re bound to find a colour to complement your dress.

Topshop has brought out a 20s range with diaphanous fabrics, deco prints and T-bar shoes. Their black pleated cocktail dress with drop waist, and pink satin 1920s number would look perfect teamed with pearls and pin curls, and could be worn again for less formal occasions. Debenhams also stock a good range of classic shawls in various colours which will provide just enough coverage to keep you warm when queuing for the Portaloos, without looking like an extra from the Passion of the Christ.

Web whizzkids can log onto ebay and find unique vintage dresses, shoes and bags.

J u s t type ‘vintage’ in the s e a r c h engine and a host of choices will pop up. One s e a r c h found a 60s black lace c o c k t a i l dress going for under 20 euros, a gorgeous 50s pink crinoline prom dress for with bidding at around 40 euro, and a host of other a n t i q u e ballgowns, some admittedly too hideous to mention. It’s also worthwhile misspelling your search topic in the hope that bad spellers will be auctioning off their antique attire. I typed in ‘vintge’ and found a lonely cherry red swing dress with just one bid at $9.99.

Last year’s Trinity Ball dress can be given a vintage makeover by adding some

economical trimmings. Hickeys haberdashery department have 1920s style fringing and beading which will spruce up your tired dress and give it a new lease of life.

Miss Selfridge’s range of Diva jewellery is also worth a look, stocking pearl clustered necklaces, rings and earrings, and flapper girl hair bands.

The Evening Herald photographer will be begging for a picture, you’ll be escorted to the front of the hotdog queue, and men will be flocking to buy you a 5 euro pint in a plastic cup. Whether you decide to ransack your granny’s wardrobe, or just pop into Topshop and buy a string of plastic pearls, vintage va va voom can be achieved whatever the budget.

26

COMMENT & LETTERS

Trinity News 13th April 2004

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

First XV do Dublin University Proud Dear Madam, I am at a loss for words. What a magnificent performance to win under such pressure at Lakelands against Terenure (a club steeped in rugby history). The third, as you rightly say, magnificent performance in a row. I hope that we shall all celebrate at home on 17 April against Sunday´s Well (whatever the result).

Let us win the match by the methods that

have served us so well to date, and then (if the opportunity presents itself)let us show running rugby at its best in College Park. We ought not to be hampered by nerves now that we have come so far (as Ireland almost fatally were against Scotland). It is the forwards who win matches, and the backs who determine the margin of victory.

The weeks since Christmas have been among the best in the

Crossword

illustrious history of rugby in Trinity.

Gaudeamus, igitur. And let us show that we are the best on 17 April in front of our own supporters at home. And surely we ought to show our College team the kind of support that the Rock, Belvo, Clongowes, etc. etc. expect to get in the Leinster Senior Cup. Well done! Well done!!

Sincerely,

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Deputy Editor: Conall Bolger

compiled by Kirsten Bratke

ACROSS 4 SWEET-SMELLING HERB (4) 5 REDUCE IN THICKNESS (5) 7 POSSESS (3) 8 CITY IN SCOTLAND (9) 9 SPIRITUAL TEACHER (4) 10 OUTDOOR FIRE (7) 13 SLIGHT, WEAK (7) 14 CONFESS (4) 15 PREVENTS BODY ODOUR (9) 17 TYPE OF TREE (3) 18 NOT A WINNER (5) 19 OPENING (4)

TNT Editor: John Hollingworth Campus News: Ian Carey Student News: Leah Finnegan Forum: Rory Loughnane

DOWN 1 EUROPEAN CAPITAL CITY (5) 2 GRAMMATICAL CLASS OF WORDS (7) 3 HARMLESS, INOFFENSIVE (9) 4 HAWAIIAN ISLAND (4) 5 MAKE METAL LESS SHINY (7) 6 CONCEITED (11) 10 WOOLLEN FACE MASK (9) 11 OUTLINE (7) 12 APPROXIMATELY (7) 15 GREEK LETTER (5) 16 SENSITIVITY (4)

Features: Neasa Cunniffe

Science: Kirsten Bratke

Solutions Crossword 7 ACROSS 1 canvas 3 debutant 7 paramount 11 Waterloo 15 tonsil 16 Ankara 17 landau 18 autumn 19 epilogue 23 acquiesce 25 taciturn 26 snazzy DOWN 1 cant 2 stair 4 boot 5 ton 6 tautology 8 apocalypse 9 thesaurus 10 tarantula 12 Eskimo 13 Mondeo 14 broadcast 20 lacks 21 guru 22 ugly 24 chi

Arts: Barry White

Solutions Crossword 8 ACROSS 4 mint 5 taper 7 own 8 Inverness 9 guru 10 bonfire 13 tenuous 14 avow 15 deodorant 17 ash 18 loser 19 vent DOWN 1 Paris 2 pronoun 3 innocuous 4 Maui 5 tarnish 6 pretentious 10 balaclava 11 contour 12 roughly 15 delta 16 tact

Theatre: Patrick Stewart

Music: Derek Owens

Film: Ruth Ni Eidhin

Fashion: Dave Ring Books: Laura Dixon

Gaeilge: Tommy Connolly

Sports: Matt Pitt Picture Editor: Graham Mooney MANY THANKS TO: The Publications Committee, the University Record, David of Grounds Staff, Catering, Pat Morey & the Security Staff, the Switchboard, the Mail Office, the Cleaning Staff and everyone who assisted in the compilation of this mammoth production.

SPORT

Sport Editor Matt Pitt

Trinity News 13th April 2004

27

Waterpolo intervarsities Daniel Molinard The Irish University Water Polo Championships took place on the 12th of March 2004 in the National Aquatic Centre. The event was co-hosted by Trinity and DCU. Prohibited from touching the bottom or side of the pool through four seven-minute quarters, water polo players swim up to five kilometres in a game. They require the technique and endurance of a swimmer, plus a football player's finesse in passing, dribbling and shooting for goal and a rugby player's strength to battle for the ball.

The competition was run in a knock-out style, to facilitate time constraints on the day. In the event of a tie at the end of the full time, the fixture was to be decided in a sudden-death penalty shoot out. In total, 10 Mens teams and 8

Photo: Tom Murphy

Ladies teams from universities all over Ireland competed on the day. Everyone was rooting for the Trinity Men/Ladies, as much for their talent as the way they look in swimsuits Trinity Ladies coasted through to the final by beating NUIG and UL, 9-0 and 12-0 respectively, in quarter and semi-final stages. Facing a very strong UCD ladies team in the final, consisting of some members of one of the country’s top team Glenalbyn, Trinity matched the opposition’s standard and the fixture ended in a 2-2 draw. The Trinity ladies were very lucky not to prevail in the penalty shoot out, where UCD goalkeeper produced an amazing tournament winning save.

The Trinity Men’s high standard and consistent performances saw them ease throught the quarter finale against DIT by 8-1 and the semi-final against DCU by 7-5. This saw them trough to the final where they faced a strong NUIG team.

Trinity dominated the match and it was only NUIG’s Irish National goalkeeper that kept them in the game. The match ended in a 4-4 draw, and again was decided in a sudden death penalty shoot out which saw NUIG capture the title. Trinity day of hard work and impressive performances was not without reward however.

Tenesa Walsh, the ladies goalkeeper was voted as "player of the tournament" while Anthony Mulloy of the Mens team was "Top Goal scorer" for the tournament.

The CUSAI representatives who were present on the day, hailed the event as a total success.

Trinity Water Polo club look forward to continued success in Intervarsity events in the future. For more information about the club, visit the club’s website at: www.tcd.ie/clubs/swimming

Trinity Ladies rowing

Photo: Matt Pitt

Trinity Ladies take Sprint Season by storm With both Neptune and Commercial Regattas held over the same weekend, it was to be a busy two days for the Ladies’ Boat Club as the first week of Trinity Term came to a close. For most students the mid-term holiday presents a break in routine, but for Trinity’s rowers no such disruption could be afforded.

Kick-starting the sprint season, Neptune and Commercial Regattas are held over a 1200 metre course on the Upper Liffey at Islandbridge. After a tough winter’s training and only Head races, which are held over longer courses and ultimately test a crew’s endurance, it was time to face the competition in a one-on-one race to the finish and reap the rewards of determination and skill.

The Novice ladies cruised to victory in the Eight and Coxed Four categories on both days, which is undoubtedly a fantastic achievement for any crew, beginner or otherwise. Setting an impressive standard, they are now

determined to retain their title of ‘Fastest Novice Crew’ and earn themselves a few more medals along the way.

The Intermediate ladies fought hard in the race for Fastest Intermediate Eight, only to be denied in the final by hosts Neptune. However, in an admirable display of determination, Trinity were to win the same category the following day, themselves denying Commercial RC the title. An intermediate Four, comprised of half of the same crew, were disappointed by the Umpire’s decision to disqualify them from Sunday’s race for clipping a buoy, as they had high hopes of repeating their success, having won the Intermediate Fours the previous day.

All-in-all it has been a successful weekend for Trinity Ladies’ Rowing and their impressive victories remain only to be repeated in the upcoming races of the season, which next week includes both the University Championships and Queens’ Regatta held consecutively in Castlewellan, Co. Down.

Hosts UCD make home advantage count against Trinity Badminton Club Donal O’Brian It was the during the Easter break when Intervarsities had again risen from the grave.

Trinity arrived as one of the favourites to make it three wins in a row. They had previously won in Waterford in 2002 and retained that title in Cork last year. Dispite the recent success the team were missing some key players. Irish Nationals Keelan Fox and Aoife Aherne were both missing due to college commitments.

Dispite that setback Captain Ciaran Darcy remained confident.

New blood came out from the shadows as two bright stars of the future were found. Sharon Cobbe and Hazel Magee both Provincial players were selected as replacements.

Trinity were seeded in group 3

along with Queens, DIT and UCC. It was expected and turned out to be a close group. Irelands best D'arcy and Neil Lynch led the way in men doubles with impressive wins conceding just 5 points in 3 matches, including 4 sets without losing a point. Other impressive performances included first team members Paul Torsney and varsity debut Kevin Kerrigan. Both winning key matches to qualify TCD for the second round. In another game Matt Pitt and Martin Nolan played exceptionally well despite a splitting hangover to push DITs men’s doubles to the line and were unfortunate not to get a set.

In the ladies match Hazel and Sharon overcame early nerves to win impressively against stern opposition while relative veterans Eve McMorrow and Aisling Farrell both convinced. Rita Carey and Karen Moloney also played

against them. This group match turned out to be the closest of them all with the second place going down to the wire between DIT and Queens. With DIT just edging the Belfast students out on points.

In other groups, UCD and UL both won their groups convincingly while Group 1 seeds Waterford failed to reproduce the form of previous years and were send to fight it out for the plate.

As group winners Trinity came up against Sligo IT who finished behind UL in Group 2 and again D'arcy and Lynch were in unforgiving form not dropping a point in the men’s doubles. The rest of the team were also as rutless with the Sligo team and Trinity reached the semi finals with 3 games to spare.

The Semi Final turned out to be a preview of the Colours match with

Hosts UCD attempting to decrown Trinity and end their winning streak while Sunday morning, hangovers were kicking in. The grudge between the 2 colleges was heightened the night before following an "incident". The atmosphere was tense. Hangovers were ignored as Darcy & Lynch took the court against the UCD brothers of Tomas and Mark Ward. It was a tense game but the Trinity two were just to strong taking the game in straight sets. Again Kerrigan and Torsney came away with a vicotry but our Ladies were not as fortunate both lost to strong opposition. So the score was 2-2 with 4 games to play. The shuttle seemed to fall well for the hosts as they took the next three games on the trot and Trinity had lost their title.

Coleraine turned out to be the surprise package of the tourna-

Trinity badminton Dlub in action ment as they beat UL in the Semis to reach the final. However UCD justified their status as firm favourites as they won convincingly.

However Trinity did not have to

wait too long to get revenge on the students from Belfield. The colours match took place earlier this month and UCD were outclassed and outplayed as Trinity won 7 games to 2.

Diving - a week in howling gales John Kenny A week in howling gales, freezing seas, and if you’re lucky a few bits of seaweed was the synopsis of how the annual college diving trip to Galway would pan out. After looking incredulously at my hopelessly inadequate wetsuit, one of the instructors observed with obvious relish, " You know we’re diving in the Atlantic….in the middle of March". Things were looking grim.

Approximately 60 DUSAC divers, 4 boats, and a dangerously over laden van full of kit made there way to Letter more Island, via the ALDI in Ballinasloe in order to pick up large supplies of suspiciously cheap beer. The first night

quickly established the routine of boozing in the pub followed by bleary early morning breakfasts. With hangover’s aplenty the novice divers collected on the nearby pier. After interminable delays, as the new divers wreaked a trail of destruction across the pier in futile attempts to locate all their gear while desperately trying to find the instructor they had been assigned to.

However all the misgivings were dispelled when the first boats returned, not only with all the novice divers intact but incredibly, wreathed in smiles.

For the landlubbers amongst us, the enthusiasm of both novices and instructors was infectious.

The gloomy prospect of being entertained by seaweed for a week was quickly dispelled underwater. A mad vista of kelp forests, sea cliffs, anemones, starfish, fish and crazy races of dishevelled crabs was breathtaking, And it wasn’t even cold.

The diving bug had bitten.

The week quickly settled into an exhausting routine of early mornings (quickly abandoned in favour of sleep), days spent on the pier, followed by very tasty communal dinners, followed by pints in the local pub and further boozy debauchery in one of the 14 houses which had been rented. The only casualties were some rather fragile heads, made worse by choppy trips in the RIB’s to the

Irish Student Trampolining Open 2004 Jane Bryant It’s Friday the 2nd of April, and the main sports hall in UCD is empty except for eight Olympic Trampolines, four judging panels, and an anxious ten-strong committee. Suddenly group by group, the hall begins to fill with nearly 400 expectant trampolinists; the ISTO experience has begun.

In only its 3rd year, the annual Irish Student Trampolining Open has grown to capacity, with over 370 competitors in four levels from Ireland, Britain and Europe. With two days of competition, both serious and fun and four wild nights out, it has truly become the most popular competition on the trampolining circuit. In its three years, Trinity has had a large entry, numbering over

30 competitors this year. For many, it was their first ISTO, and for more established club members it provided an opportunity to move up a level of competition. With hot competition in all levels, placings were not going to be easy to achieve.

Nevertheless, ISTO first- timer Carl Mageean managed the highest Trinity placing, coming 5th in Novice Men with two very impressive routines.

Michael Connell, in his first competition came joint 3rd in his second routine but unfortunately failed to finish his first.

James Hargis achieved a personal best in the same competition. Michelle Ruddy, Suzanne Egan and Emma Cahill all braved their first competition and did Trinity proud in the Novice Women competition, as did Delphine Caroff, having

Photo: Matt Pitt

recovered from an injury.

In the Intermediate competitions, Keith Dalton executed two very good routines to achieve 9th place, followed closely by Alan Blighe and Ollie Tierney in 15th and 17th places. In the women’s competition, Regional Champion Linda Coote failed to complete one of her routines, coming behind Bernadette Brady, in 43rd place.

There were a few newcomers in the advanced competition, with the club’s Captain and Treasurer Niamh Appelby and Jane Bryant making their debut and successfully completing both routines. In 18th place, behind competitors who all completed voluntary routines with elite tariffs, came Adrienne Dacosta with a score of 51.2 out of 60. Top Trinity

dive sites. As the week progressed the novices became worryingly enthusiastic and pushed for diving on the one truly wretched day. Efforts to forment a mutiny by reference to the force 9 gale failed to put off the novice divers as reluctant, hungover instructors were left incredulous that anyone, least of all beginners would want to dive.

For all those who are curious about diving next year, who’ve either done courses abroad or are completely new to the sport the novice trip is a massive advertisement for DUSAC. Great diving, great people and a great way to get into a sport that prohibitively expensive if training is done commercially.

Chronic lack of sleep is a small price to pay for brilliant week of diving.

competitor in the men’s competition was Cathal Prendergast in 8th place, followed by National Champion, gold medal winner from last year, and ISTO Head Organiser Neil Moran, Kieran Hallahan, Jason Byrne and Fabien Armendirez all achieving scores in the 40’s.

Head Coach Louise McGuigan also did very well in the Elite competition executing two very neat routines.

The weekend was finished with the Synchronized competitions and Gladiators, a team competition with 6 rounds finishing with a tug of war which ended in DCU being crowned the winners for the 2nd year in a row. As the hall emptied, a tired but happy committee heaved a sigh of relief, cleaned up the hall, and decamped to Eddie Rockets for a well deserved meal. Roll on ISTO 2005!

Trinity News

28

S PORT

Vol 56 No. 8 13th April 2004 trinity.news@tcd.ie

Sport Editor Matt Pitt

DU Boat Club Win The 56th Annual University Colours Race in Style Eamon Meany Not having raced UCD this season, this year’s Boat Race was always going to be one of great drama and expectation from both sides. Trinity won the toss and opted for the North station, which arguably would give them an advantage during the first few hundred metres of the race, being on the inside line going under Capel Street Bridge. On a bright spring day, several thousand people lined the banks to enjoy the race from the Liffey Boardwalk and O’Connell Bridge attracting much publicity for both universities.

Trinity had an aggressive but controlled start which saw them take the lead in the first few strokes. By Millennium Bridge, the lead was almost a length and soon UCD were rowing in the wash of a far superior Trinity crew. DUBC

Old Boys and supporters who followed the entire race in two open top buses (complete with Garda escort) were thrilled to see their Senior Eight winning after taking such a convincing lead. The official race victory was ‘a distance’ – a margin that has not been matched since Nick Dunlop’s infamous crew of 1981.

DUBC Novices could have had better luck. They too took a worthy lead off the start but took the wrong arch under Capel Street Bridge. The umpire had no choice but to disqualify them despite finishing well ahead of their UCD Novice counterparts. The prizegiving for them was a somewhat sombre affair given the race circumstances – Despite their loss, the Novices will be looking forward to meeting this UCD crew again for Neptune and Commercial Regatta at Islandbridge.

Much credit is due to Michael Ryder and his organising com-

mittee, race officials and all those involved in running such a high profile event. This year saw ‘The Economist’ magazine come on board as official sponsors of the race and they have kindly agreed to sponsor the race for the next two years.

At London Head of the River, DUBC entered three eights which took place the week before the University Colours race. Unfortunately due to adverse weather conditions, the race was abandoned.

However, a ‘Real Men’s Head’ was organised amongst many of the top crews who were determined to put all their hard winter training to good use. DUBC and their alumni club (The Lady Elizabeth Boat Club) fielded a composite eight which finished in second place beating many top British crews including the University of London, Thames Rowing Club, Oxford Brookes University and Edinburgh University.

A second

DUBC/LEBC eight was also entered in this ‘rebel head’ and finished a very respectable 14th place. Tim Levy, the head coach, was delighted with the performance of his crews and remains determined to propel through the rest of the season with similar successes.

Last weekend, DUBC competed at both Neptune Regatta and Commercial Regattas. On Saturday, the Trinity alumni club (The Lady Elizabeth Club) won the Senior VIIIs category. DUBC won Senior IVs, Intermediate VIIIs and Novice VIIIs categories.

Sunday was Commercial Regatta – Both DUBC Novice eights made it through to the final where the DUBC Novice ‘B’ crew stole the show by beating their second year novice counterparts. The Novice Coach, Gerry Macken was delighted with his crew’s performance at such an early stage in the season. Head Coach Tim Levy was again

thrilled with the performance of the clubs and remains upbeat about prospects later on in the season. Also at Commercial - DUBC entered a Senior VIII and qualified for the final however they lost by one length to a stacked Commercial VIII which won the Senior National Championships last year.

So far the season has been going extremely well for DUBC having won Erne Head of the River beating The Lady Elizabeth Club by several seconds. This win coupled with victory in the University Boat Race has given the squad every confidence in the forthcoming regatta season.

Captain Richard Northridge now focuses his men on delivering the goods at University Championships this coming weekend. The Wiley Cup is up for grabs and DUBC are keen to win it for Trinity - a feat that has not been achieved for several years now.

DUBC’s eight

photo: Matt Pitt

Trinity have chance for promotion Trinity thrill in Terenure College 11pts But it was in the second half that Trinity 16pts they played good possession rugby Trinity have put themselves in with keeping the ball for several phases a good chance for promotion when and building good pressure in the they gained a hard fought victory Terenure 22 metre area. The stuover a very tough and abrasive dents worked hard both on attack Terenure College XV on Saturday at and defence and were clearly domia wet and windy Lakelands. This nant in the second period. Terenure was only the home team’s second of course had the wind in their home defeat of the season. favour and used it well; kicking to Trinity played the first half with a the corners when they had possesstrong wind behind them, but strug- sion. The teams exchanged penalties gled early on to get the expected ter- as Trinity maintained their lead. ritorial advantage. Terenure did The home team scored their try well keeping the ball, and denying halfway through the second half the visitors possession. another driving effort off a line out Trinity did come more into the which was forced after a penalty. game as their forwards began Trinity attacked hard and to drive forward at scrum twice were denied tries when and line out. Out half wing Francis Keane saw the Keelan McGowan ball roll over the dead ball line kicked two just as he was to pounce and penalties as Keelan McGowan was judged to the forwards have not grounded properly on a got the kick and chase effort. u p p e r Terenure closed the gap with hand. Good another penalty, and the sturunning dents braced themselves for a rugby was difdifficult last five minutes. They ficult, as occadid this with great composure sional heavy under heavy home pressure. The showers made defence, as always, stood firm as it difficult they defended the notorious under foot and "corner" at Lakelands. with ball in This was not a vintage hand. performance by the stuThe only try of dents as they moved into the first half came second place in the from a line out thirleague for the first time, ty metres from the but in their last Terenure line. The forthree games wards caught and drove against the ball showing impressive D L S P , power against the quickly Barnhall and retreating home forwards, Terenure they Hooker Matt Crockett came up have showed remarkwith the try. able resilience for a 13-0 up at half time Trinity team whose Keelan McGowan kicks did not look safe with the average blustery elements to face.

Photo: Matt Pitt age is well

under 21.

Incredibly the results elsewhere went the way of the students, with Bective and Bohemians losing. This now sets up an interesting finale on Saturday April 17th.

Four teams still have a chance to win the league and gain promotion to the first Division. Only one team is promoted this season.

Old Belvedere are favourites, but have to travel to Limerick to face a formidable UL Bohemians, who still have promotion hopes of their own.

A loss by less than seven points (bonus point) could still see them through if Trinity do not gain a bonus point (for four tries).

Trinity are second favourites, but they face a difficult home tie against bottom team Sundays Well who are scrambling to avoid relegation and must win to keep their second Division status. If Trinity win (with a bonus point) and Belvedere lose, or Trinity just win and Belvedere lose (by more than seven) Trinity will win the league.

Bohemians are still in the hunt (even if Trinity win – with out a bonus point) they need to beat Belvedere with a bonus point (four tries), they have a superior points difference if the teams (themselves and Trinity) finish on equal points.

UCC are a long shot but travel to Old Crescent. UCC must win and gain a bonus point. They must hope that Trinity lose, and Bohemians win without a bonus point for four tries but denying Old Belvedere one also for a less than seven points loss.

Trinity U20s B lost narrowly 5-0 in the semi final against St Mary’s at Templeville road. This performance showed huge improvement as they lost by over 50 pts to the same opposition earlier in the season. St Marys scored their winning try with only eight minutes remaining.

Formula One - the season so far Tom Murphy We stand 3 races into another formula one season and it is all looking like 2002 when the man in the red Ferrari has topped the podium three times in the first three races stretching his lead to 9 points.Schumacher was accompanied by his teammate Rubens twice in the number 2 position, and even more surprisingly by Jensen Button twice in 3rd place.

It cannot be ignored that if current form prevails it will be a Schumacher whitewash and make for a tedious season. However, I don’t think his early points margin can be attributed simply to him.

The other teams have not been competitive enough to go the full distance on his tail. Williams and McLaren Mercedes cannot afford to not have their drivers out there!

They are all capable of finishing races in the points but the teams are not giving themselves the chance.

Kimi has not finished a race as yet, engine trouble being the culprit twice and transmission the other. Juan Pablo at least has 12 points on the board but they are only from two races as in Bahrain he lost most of his gears going from 3rd to 13th in a matter of laps and being overtaken by his teammate.

I like Juan Pablo’s all or nothing attitude towards racing. People say he is not hungry enough but I disagree, don’t be fooled by the carefree exterior. Ralph Schumacher is too hit and miss. He clearly has the ability to be quick but still along way off the reliability of his brother and asking for a pay rise from $14m-$19m I think is frankly cheeky.

Renault have two very quick drivers but Alonso is moving in the wrong direction 3rd, 6th, 7th is not what he needs if he wants to be challenging for the championship .

He needs to be making more of the opportunity he has been given.

Trulli spends too long dreaming

about a Ferrari drive and is taking his eye off the ball.

The most impressive performance came from the BAR team of Button and Sato. Sato, usually renowned for his kamikaze tactics, took on Alonso and won at lap 41 where he continued to fend him off and lap quicker. Jensen looked very impressive in qualifying and lead the race all be it for one lap. It seems the team is working well together and it their synergy is certainly showing. I particularly liked Jensen’s "I could have done better" attitude in the press conference where you saw his perfectionist quality. One to watch I think you will agree.

On the other hand I am becoming a little disillusioned with David Couthards performance. I have always felt that I could identify with DC and I like him because he clearly has the ability to be on the top of the podium but it annoys me that he does not convert his talent into race wins. I sometimes feel he

Colours match The Fencing Club kicked off Week two of Trinity term with its Annual Colours match. After several triumphs for individual fencers during the break, the team was ready to regain the cup.

Members of the ladies’ and mens’ squads achieved outstanding results in several competitions that were held since the end of Hilary Term. Among these were the South of Ireland Opens held on the 13 and 14th of March. David Cahill of Trinity and Salle Duffy came second in all weapons and Suzanne Clayton won Ladies Foil. Both of them were chosen as members of the Irish Five Nations Team. The Five Nations was held in Belfast this year on the 3rd and 4th of April and unfortunately despite a terrific performance Ireland came in last. Other Trinity fencers in the South of Ireland Opens put in an incredible performance with Melanie Bouroche, Kate Harvey and Maria Clair coming within the top ten in Ladies foil and Maria and Melanie in the top ten in Ladies epee. At the Irish National Championships, the most competitive fencing event of theYear, on the 28th and 29th of March, Colm Flynn came in the top 16 in Epee and Nat O' Connor came second in Sabre.

Suzanne Clayton came second in foil.

The novices of the club won a victory over the Salle Duffy in early March in both ladies and mens foil. The return match shall be fenced later this term and promises to be exciting. They also took part in the DIT Novice cup where Grant Couper was ranked in the top fifteen and Maria Clair was ranked within the top ten. With these successes behind them the team was looking forward to a challenging competition with UCD. This year the addition of Ladies Sabre to the line up of Men’s Epee Ladies Epee Ladies Foil Men’s Foil and Men’s Sabre heightened the tension because of the narrow defeat Trinity’s Ladies’ Sabre team suffered at the hands of UCD at the Intervarsities in February. The Ladies’ Foil Team of Vanessa Cazzato (Ladies Captain) Suzanne Clayton and Maria Clair set the ball rolling in the right direction as they proved to be the more superior foilists overcoming the UCD’s ladies five matches to four. Next up was men’s Epee. Though the Trinity Epeeist, David Cahill, James Stratford (Captain) and Colm Flynn, fought fiercely and fenced admirably they were defeated. This left the

is the antithesis of Mr Button and now lacks the drive and determination to win. He comes across as ambivalent when he crosses the line out of the points and not surprised when his car fails. I can forgive him for the latter. Kimi in my view is pure class. He is cool, young and wants to take on the big guns.

He wants to win and there is nothing worse to him than not being able to race. He demonstrated this in his frustration when his car failed in Malaysia and he nearly punched the lights out of one of the marshalling staff. Everyone is saying watch him and they are right in my opinion but he has to be quicker and qualifying and put himself in a position where he can pressure Schumi from the start.

I sympathise with Jordan and if I had 3 wishes one of them would be for some luck for Eddie. I would love to see a private team like Jordan win and I get the impression that the team are so committed to him that they would work for free. Everyone loves an underdog and with all due respect to Jordan they are currently the

Colm Flynn attacks

photo: Matt Pitt

score at one weapon a piece as Ladies’ Epee and Men’s Sabre began.

The Ladies Epee Team of Kate Harvey, Melanie Bouroche and Maria Clair got off to a exceptional start but lost out on victory by six matches to three. The Men’s sabre team fared much better but lost the last match to UCD giving them victory. It came down to Ladies Sabre and Men’s Foil to decide who would take the Cup and neither team was willing to give up without a fight. The matches between UCD’s Ladies Sabre team and Trinity’s Sabre Team of Aine Whelan, Leonie van Hausen and Kate Harvey, proved as nail biting as expected but UCD pulled ahead enough to battle their way through to take the victory. Mens’ foil proved the most tightly fought of all weapons.

Trinity’s Team of David Cahill, Nat O’ Connor, Paul Tibbits and Gavin Maloney held out impressively against a strong UCD side who seemed somewhat taken back by the stiff competition presented by them but they managed to pull themselves together enough to gain victory by one point. With victories in five weapons UCD took the cup but the Trinity Fencing Team is confident of Victory the next time they meet and is looking forward to a busy term of competitions. The AGM of the Fencing Club will be taking place on April 14th in Room 3106 at 7pm. If you’re interested in fencing, check out the DUFC website at ww.tcd.ie/Clubs/Fencing, for up to date info on the Club. New members are always welcome to training, now on Mondays from 5-6.30pm and Thursdays from 5-7pm in the Luce Hall.

underdog. Expensive legal battles with Vodafone and changing of engines half way through seasons has not helped their pursuit.

Winning championships is some time away for them but I think he has to start laying the foundations for a slow but steady rise to glory.

The kingdom of Bahrain has provided the most impressive bit of racing so far I think. A course praised by all the drivers for it technicality with enough opportunities for overtaking. A few prangs here and there but all good clean

fun as long as I’m not picking up the tab. Australia was a very bland race and came down to what tyres were on the car. It was a testing race in the heat but no real good racing. I was enjoying Sepang until Montoya stopped gaining on Schumi but after that it was damage limitation for Williams. I would like Kimi or Jensen to be up there at the top of the championship but I think realistically it will still be between Montoya, Barrichello and Schumacher.