Trinity News Vol. 62, Issue 2

Trinity News | Tuesday 20 October

Volume 62, Issue 2

trinitynews.ie

NEWSPAPER OF THE YEAR 2015 PHOTO: EOIN CAMBAY

Trinity to review its links with Israeli and Palestinian third-level institutions • Move comes after numerous student initiatives campaigning for College to cut its academic links with Israeli institutions over the past three years • Israeli Embassy: Israel is a country that Irish academia should see as a model, not a country to boycott Niamh Lynch Staff writer Trinity has commenced a review of its relations with third-level institutions in both Israel and Palestine, Trinity News has learned.

Academic secretary, Patricia Callaghan, is currently conducting the audit, which concerns the “formal and informal relationships currently in place between the university and institutions in Israel and Palestine” across all schools. Vice provost and chief academic officer, professor Linda Hogan, informed the college board of this update at a meeting on September 16.

Ronit Lentin, a retired associate professor in Trinity’s department of sociology, spoke to Trinity News on behalf of Academics for Palestine (AfP), an Irish group committed to the academic boycott of Israel and the support of Palestinian universities. She welcomed the audit, stating that the group hopes that Trinity’s review of its involvement with Palestinian universities will result in greater collaboration between Ireland and Palestine in higher education. Howev-

er, she said that AfP are “not really interested in a balance” in Trinity’s relationship with Israeli and Palestinian third-level institutions and that ideally the audit will result in Trinity severing its ties with Israeli universities. “We don’t think that it is enough for Trinity to say that it will support both… because Israel is engaged in an illegal occupation of Palestinian lands and discriminates against Palestinians. It would be to balance something that is essentially unbalanced,” she said.

In a statement to Trinity News, a representative from the Israeli embassy in Ireland said that they “hope that Trinity maintains academic relations with Israel,” as it would be “a moral travesty to boycott such a country, whilst saying nothing about other countries in the region who oppress or murder their own people.” They said also that students should remember that “a huge amount of mobile phone technology and pharmaceutical drugs,” which they “take for granted every day, were invented in Israel, and also that Israel has the highest number of people with PhDs per head of population in the world and the highest number of published scientific papers

Why people are moving heaven and earth to cross Europe: Refugee’s stories, in their own words

Features p.7

per head of population in the world.” Israel, they continued, “is a country that Irish academia should see as a model, not a country to boycott.”

The move to carry out the review comes after numerous student initiatives campaigning for College to cut its academic links with Israeli institutions over the past three years. These campaigns gathered considerable momentum following the emergence of claims that Trinity academics had partaken in EU financed aerospace and security projects with Israeli manufacturers of drones and weapons.

In an investigation conducted by AfP in February 2014, it was found that Irish universities had collaborated with Israeli institutions on 257 academic projects, including seven listed as “security” and a further 13 categorized as “aerospace.” AfP’s examination of EU documents found that Trinity academics had participated in an airport security project with Israeli drone manufacturers, Elbit Security Systems, alongside a separate project with Israel’s International Security and Counter-Terrorism Academy.

Furthermore, Trinity’s Bio-

medical Sciences Institute continues to maintain a partnership with the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel, which is known to have furthered the country’s nuclear weapons programme.

One of the campaigns established in Trinity was the Apartheid-Free Campus Campaign. Led last year by former PhD student Ciaran O’Rourke, the initiative paid tribute to the on-campus activism against apartheid of Mary Robinson and Kader Asmal, among others, in the 1980s. The campaign sought to highlight what it perceived as a discrepancy in Trinity’s sense of pride in those activists’ achievements and the university’s simultaneous links with academic institutions with military contracts in Israel.

The Apartheid-Free Campus Campaign received the support of Trinity’s Graduate Students’ Union (GSU) last November in a motion passed by 33 of 56 votes at the union’s council meeting.

At the end of the 2014/2015 academic year, members of the campaign delivered a petition to the college board calling for board members to end College’s research affiliations with firms that op-

erate in or provide security services for Israeli occupation zones in Palestine, and to cut ties with Israeli institutions that deny equal right to Palestinian academics and have not condemned Israel’s “illegal policy of occupation and settlement in Palestine.”

According to O’Rourke, the campaigners received no acknowledgement of the petition from the board.

Speaking to Trinity News, O’Rourke said: “If Trinity is serious in its commitment to even minimum standards of respect for human rights in its educational programme for the future, then it cannot continue to sustain a culture of academic complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity, especially for the sake of a nebulous ‘academic freedom’ that denies the basic entitlements of the Palestinian community, academics and civilians alike.”

Leaders of pro-Palestinian campaigns within Trinity welcomed the audit but stressed the need for continued action.

At time of print, College was not available for comment

Inside

Audio-visual music act CLU, women in the film industry speak out, remembering the life of Brian Friel, investigating the pop-up food phenomenon.

Additional reporting by Lia Flattery and Oisin Coulter

>> >> >>

Sitting down with outgoing IUAA Chairman and DUCAC legend, Cyril Smyth

Head to head: Should free speech ever Disecting the plans behind the first be limited? human head transplant

Comment p.17

SciTech p.20

Sport p. 24

Trinity News | Tuesday 20 October

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What They Said

“ “ “ “ Hard to believe Black Monday 1987 was 28y ago.

Same day I joined @centralbank_ie ... #noconnection #itwasntme -Brian Lucey @brianmlucey

Struck by this view coming out of my office @tcddublin -never the same view my 8 years as Curator, always beautiful

-TCD Art Collections @TCDArtCurator

All my support goes to doctors in England today, because where else am I going to emigrate to as soon as I can? #juniorprotest

“A salad lunch. It’s more casual than dinner but more formal than coffee” - Peter @Pobherty

-Neasa Conneally @neasaconneally

Trinity professor criticises College for not rewarding merit among academic staff Professor Malcolm MacLachlan also spoke of a need for Trinity to abandon “arrogant and defensive rhetoric about being Ireland’s leading university” Conall Monaghan Senior reporter A professor in Trinity’s school of psychology, professor Malcolm MacLachlan, has spoken out about internal issues in the College surrounding the promotion of staff, claiming that this has contributed to the College’s decline in international university rankings.

Writing in the Irish Times on October 8, MacLachlan said: “Nowhere are concerns with governance more apparent than in the university’s human resources function,” specifically its deliberate complication of the process of academic promotions, which results in a decline in “spirit, motivation and productivity of many talented staff.”

As an example of this, he cited a case that he took to Trinity’s internal court concerning an application in 2012 for promotion to personal chair, the most senior

rank of professor, where, he believed, the highest-ranking professors were unfairly passed over. According to MacLachlan, the judges, consisting of the pro-chancellor and a high court judge, “could discern no relationship between independent ratings of applicants’ merit and whether they were promoted or not.” He also said that although the judges acknowledged a lack of transparency in the promotion procedure at the time, “15 months after the findings of the aforementioned appeal, no action has been taken to address such problems.” This, he argued, “is not an isolated incident” and is at the root of a larger credibility problem within the college. “We cannot expect others to take us seriously, if we don’t take ourselves seriously,” he said.

MacLachlan also spoke of a need for Trinity to abandon “arrogant and defensive rhetoric about being Ireland’s leading university” and to embrace the merit of the competition it faces both internationally and in Ireland.

“

“Nowhere are concerns with governance more apparent than in the university’s human resources function”

Darryl Jones, dean of the faculty of arts, humanities and social sciences, dismissed MacLachlan’s claims in a letter to the Irish Times several days later.

According to Jones, “the promotion procedure resembles most of the public and indeed the private sector, where people have often found themselves over recent years having to work harder, for less, and frequently without any prospect of promotion.” Trinity is “no exception,” he said.

Furthermore, Jones said that his “concern in these difficult times is with protecting the younger and more vulnerable members of staff, those who do not have professorial status and salaries” and said that he could not see “how Prof MacLachlan’s intervention helps this in any way.”

MacLachlan responded in a second piece in the Irish Times on October 13, in which he claimed that Jones had misrepresented his cen-

tral point. The problem is not that there have not been enough promotions, he said, but “that the university’s own oversight system has found the promotion process to be unfair, and nothing has been done to change it.”

“Prof Jones’s letter gives no comfort that there is a willingness to instil fairness and transparency in the governance of our university,” he claimed, adding that if the system is not willing to change, “our staff, particularly junior staff, will seek more equitable employment elsewhere and our standing will continue to decline.”

TOP: DARRYL JONES WITH CHRISTOPHER LEE BOTTOM FROM LEFT: MAC MACLACHLAN, LORNA CARSON AND ROGER WEST

Words in air Colm Tóibín in discussion with Pádraic Whyte on Emily Bishop

PHOTO: KEVIN O’ROURKE FOR TRINITY NEWS

Trinity News | Tuesday 20 October

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SU and Q Soc hold new training day to raise awareness of LGBTQ issues The event is a condensed version of USI’s annual weekend workshop, Pink Training, and consisted of 6 hour-long workshops Conall Monaghan Senior reporter Pink Day, a day of workshops introducing students to LGBTQ issues, jointly organised

by Trinity Students’ Union (SU) and Q Soc, took place for the first time in college on Saturday.

The event is a condensed version of the Union of Students in Ireland’s (USI) annual weekend workshop, Pink Training, and consisted of six hour-long workshops dealing with LGBTQ issues.

PHOTO: OISIN COULTER FOR TRINITY NEWS

Large turn out for Academics for Palestine panel on education The panel focused on the issues facing the educational system in Palestine, and saw contributions from retired Trinity sociology professor Dr Ronit Lentin

Oisin Coulter Deputy news editor Academics for Palestine, a voluntary organization of Irish academics set up to “help create awareness about the issue and to build the academic boycott of Israel” held a panel discussion of academics from Gaza in Trinity on

Wednesday 14th of October.

Chaired by Ronit Lentin, former Head of Sociology in Trinity, the event featured a range of Palestinian academics such as Dr. Ayman Shaheen, Dr. Yaser Al Ashqar and Suha Shaheen as well as Malaka Mohammed who is a member of the Executive of the National Union of Students, UK. Malaka was present using Skype due to visa issues. Lentin explained that this was “the first in a series of events to showcase Palestinian academic voices”.

The primary question dealt with by the panel was the impact of the occupation of Palestine upon education in the occupied territories. Dr. Shaheen told the audience that “Palestine is witnessing conflict on a daily basis,” and that while “Palestinians in general place great importance on education” the violence they face makes the

pursuit of that education difficult.

Dr. Al Ashqar spoke about this violence, saying that the Israeli military “harasses students, boys and girls, on their way to school at checkpoints through military searches and having to face settler violence near Israeli settlements. This is another fundamental violation of the right to education in Palestine.”

Suha Shaheen talked about her personal experience of trying to teach information technology in Gaza with a chronic lack of computers and periodic power outages.

She was eventually able to leave the Gaza Strip due her child having Irish citizenship, and was hopeful of improvement in the situation going into the future.

All on the panel discussed the problem of resources,

with Dr. Shaheen explaining that “in 2014 and 2015, the average class in the West Bank is 30 students or more, and in Gaza is 40 students.

Classes are very packed.” Dr. Al Ashqar claimed, “Denial of access to education affects thousands of students in Palestine.”

Dr. Al Ashqar made it clear that he wished to be positive and discussed at length the future of education in Palestine. He pointed out that Palestine has the highest rate of literacy in the Arab world, and that more girls than boys are graduating and becoming educated. He predicted that these trends would mean a more equal society in Palestine.

her scholarship there due to strict border controls – many people she knew weren’t able to leave and continue their education. She went on to explain that even more difficult was living in England during Israel’s Operation Protective Edge in 2014 when she didn’t know if members of her family or friends had been killed when houses on her street were leveled by Israeli bombs.

During discussions of resistance to the occupation, Malaka explicitly supported the right of the Palestinian people to armed resistance in the face of Israeli violence.

She drew a link to the conflict in Northern Ireland, claiming that few would question the actions of Bobby Sands now.

Malaka Mohammed spoke about her personal struggles, the huge difficulties she encountered in leaving Gaza to travel to Sheffield to take up

Chair of Trinity Labour Youth says they’re “devastated not to see a much needed increase in Jobseeker’s Allowance for under 26s”

The chair of Trinity Labour Youth has said she is “devastated” that the campaign to reverse controversial cuts to jobseekers allowance for those aged under 26, did not result in the government doing so in last week’s budget.

Currently, if someone applies for jobseekers allowance then the rate they receive until aged 25 is 100 euro a week. Recipients that are 25 years of age receive 144 euro a week and those aged 26 over receive the full payment of 188 euro a week. Labour Youth said in campaign material that this translates to 53% of the standard rate.

This tiered system of payment based on age was introduced in 2013 and have been a point of contention among many youth organisations since.

Speaking to Trinity News Eileen Smith says that she

“Labour Youth ran an amazing campaign and galvanised

Matthew Mulligan Editor

support amongst the parliamentary Labour Party for our motion” said Smith. “To not get the result we wanted is a blow”.

We had a constructive meeting with the Minister and Labour Youth are hoping for progress on this vital issue in Budget 2016.”

Labour Youth had created a video in order to gather support for their proposal referring to it as “welfare equality”.

In the video, a voice-over asserts that “just because you’re under 26, doesn’t mean you don’t have bills to pay. Just because you’re under 26 doesn’t mean that you can’t have a family to support. And just because you’re under 26 doesn’t mean you’re worth any less”.

Many elected representatives publicly supported Labour Youth’s campaign to have the government reverse the cuts.

TDs Anne Ferris and Ciara Conway along with senator Aideen Hayden were supporters in Leinster House, but a whole range of councillors supported the measure including Dermot Lacey, Jane Horgan-Jones and Martina Genockey.

On October 7 Labour Youth presented their budget proposals to Labour minister for public expenditure Brendan Howlin, posting a photo of the meeting on their Facebook page. The organisation wrote that their “main focus was on our ongoing campaign to raise Jobseeker’s Allowance for people under 26.

Councillor Lacey had said in support of the campaign that “young people are not apprentice citizens, they are citizens and should be treated equally, and now because of economic progress we can afford it too”.

In a statement to Trinity News this evening Cllr. Lacey said that he wants to see

This was followed by two talks by Leslie Sherlock, a former PhD student in Trinity who wrote her thesis on educating people about LGBTQ issues and sex education. Sherlock spoke about heteronormativity, which is how societal norms cause the oppression of those who do not adhere to them, and sexual empowerment.

Speaking to Trinity News, Sherlock explained that events like Pink Day help those who identify as LGBTQ to “meet other people like themselves and form communities” and give people the opportunity to explore their gender and their sexual identities in a welcoming environment. They also help to maintain the fight for LGBTQ rights, she argued, as “oppression runs deeper and can be more subtle and complex” than marriage equality.

The final discussion of the day was led by Ivan Fahy and addressed the issue of sexual consent. “Consent is a continuous process,” according to Fahy, and is a much more complex concept than often portrayed. “Just because you agree to something at 9pm doesn’t mean you still want to be doing it two hours later,” he said.

The event received a positive reaction from those present. Jason Leonard told Trinity News that: “As someone who has been to a lot of similar events before, I found that there was still a lot for me to learn and a lot of interesting discussions came up on things I hadn’t discussed before.”

McKeon, one of the event’s organisers, said that: “There were a few hiccups with some last minute cancellations and with the room booking, but we overcame them and the day was a success.” Samuel Riggs, also an organiser, spoke about where the event could go from here. “On the basis of today, we have a really solid ground to expand on,” he said, and mentioned plans to “make it into a larger, more encompassing training event” in the future.

Afterwards, participants were given the option of attending a talk on either asexuality or alternative relation-

Labour Youth campaign on jobseekers allowance didn’t convince the government can’t speak for all members but that she “cannot underestimate [her] own personal disappointment”. The Trinity branch was just one of many Labour Youth organisations around the country working to convince those in the government that the cuts should have been reversed.

Q Soc auditor, Jessica McKeon, began the event with a workshop titled Queer 101.

Attendees were given a crash course on gender theory, gender identity, sexual identity and what is considered offensive to various members of the LGBTQ community.

ships. Lily Kelly, who led the workshop on alternative relationships, told Trinity News that “a lot of people coming into college haven’t had an adequate sex education” and that Pink Day helps to provide this.

the cut reversed but he is “a realist and know everything cannot be done at once. This budget overall is a step in the right direction and I look forward to Labour being in a position to influence the next five budgets”.

Trinity named top producer of entrepreuneurs in Europe Success stories include companies Foodcloud and Artomatix Lia Flattery

impact.”

Separately, president of the National Youth Council of Ireland Ian Power said that the organisation “had proposed the restoration of the full adult rate of 188 euro for young jobseekers under 26 who participate in initiatives such as the Back to Education Scheme, SOLAS funded training and JobBridge”.

News editor

Among Trinity’s success stories are the companies Artomatix, which creates software for game development, and Foodcloud, which connects businesses with excess food to charities in need of donations, both of which were assisted by Launchbox, Trinity’s student startup accelerator programme.

The NYCI “expressed disappointment that the Government has failed to reverse the deep cuts to jobseekers allowance for those under 26s.

According to the report, Trinity has generated 106 companies, produced 114 entrepreneurs and raised $655 million (575.7 million euro) since 2010.

Trinity has been named the leading college in Europe for producing entrepreneurs, based on the findings of a new report, called The Universities Report, carried out by private equity and venture capital research company, Pitchbook.

The Universities Report assesses colleges based on the number of undergraduate alumni who have gone on to found companies that receive a first round of venture capitalist backing.

University College Dublin (UCD) also featured in the top ten, coming in fourth place and having produced 70 entrepreneurs, 62 companies and raised $275 million (241 million euro).

In a statement released by the college, director of Trinity research and innovation, Diarmuid O’Brien, said: “This is a fantastic achievement and underlines the impact our graduates are making as innovators and entrepreneurs whose companies are changing Ireland and the world for the better. Trinity is committed to supporting our students to develop into entrepreneurs who can create real social and economic

Director of Launchbox, Dr John Whelan, said: “Current and future Trinity students will be encouraged and inspired by the success of their predecessors. It needs to be shouted from the rooftops that the achievements of our graduates have placed an Irish university number one in all of Europe in generating economic impact through starting their own business.”

In addition to Launchbox, the college recently teamed up with the Blackstone Charitable Foundation to establish the Blackstone Launchpad programme, which will provide a greater number of students with access to venture coaches and an entrepreneurial support system.

Trinity News | Tuesday 20 October

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News in brief

Trinity panel calls for better response from politicians to the refugee crisis.

Patrick Higgins Online news editor

At a recent panel discussion on the Syrian refugee crisis, organised by Trinity Free Legal Advice Centre (FLAC) in association with Trinity European Law Students Association (ELSA) and Dublin University Amnesty International, speakers called for a greater appreciation of the scale of the current refugee crisis.

Guests at last Thursday’s event included Ghandhi Mallak, a Syrian lawyer and former refugee who has lived in Ireland since 2002 but was only granted citizenship after a protracted legal battle in 2012, Susan McMonagle of the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Ireland, and Maria Hennessy of the Irish Refugee Council Law Centre.

Mallak referred to the 160,000 refugees that Europe has pledged to relocate as a “drop in the ocean.” Comparing this number with the two million refugees Syria took in as a result of displacement caused by the Iraq War, Mallak suggested that European citizens need to “raise expectations of their politicians.”

Hennessy pointed out that the 4,000 refugees Ireland has agreed to take in is small

compared with the 2,000 refugees arriving on one of the Greek islands per day.

McMonagle noted that while there are 59.2 million people displaced around the world, there are only approximately 429,000 seeking asylum in Europe.

McMonagle also stressed the need for an EU-wide policy approach to the situation, while Hennessy alluded to a lack of solidarity between European nations in dealing with the crisis, specifically in relation to the possible use of the Dublin III regulation to relocate asylum seekers back to Greece after they had already arrived in Ireland.

The Dublin III regulation allows for EU member states to request that applications for asylum be taken charge of by other member states or that applications made in other member states be enforced and the asylum seeker be relocated to the country where the application was made.

All three speakers pressed for more legal avenues to facilitate the travel of asylum seekers and avoid smuggling and other dangerous modes of travel to Europe. Suggestions included greater ease of access to student and work visas alongside wider use of the family reunification programme.

International campaign to fill 40 new academic posts begins amid union criticism

Mallak spoke of his own attempt at using the family reunification process to secure a visa for his father. The process took 23 months and his father passed away in Syria while the process was underway. Mallak called for the introduction of a special office in the Department of Justice and Equality responsible for dealing with visa applications in order to streamline the process.

Speakers also placed emphasis on the need for rights to be respected irrespective of legal status. Hennessy expressed concern over the risk of creating a “hierarchy of refugees,” where those fleeing the Syrian conflict who have applied for asylum are flagged for relocation, while methods for dealing with other refugees focus on return to home countries, regardless of circumstance.

McMonagle also highlighted the importance of this issue as refugees arriving in Italy alone are coming from 65 different countries. Many have been displaced multiple times as a result of worsening circumstances for refugees in host countries outside of Europe, such as limited access to the labour market and education, and high costs of living, compounded by aid shortfalls.

Russian ambassador speaks to SOFIA, touches on IrishRussian friendship and links

Lia Flattery News editor Trinity will launch a new international recruitment campaign next month, which will see it recruit 40 new academic posts across a range of subject areas from children’s literature to pharmaceutical chemistry as part of the College’s current strategic plan.

A total of 16 million euro, taken from non-exchequer sources, has been allocated for the recruitment of the new Ussher assistant professors, who will be appointed in the spring and take up their positions in September 2016.

According to a statement from the College, this is the second time that Trinity has “created a distinct set of professorships with the Ussher name to foster young academics” and the new posts reflect “the success of the first programme.” The first set of such professorships were established in 2005

Chair of the recruitment process, vice-provost and chief academic officer, Professor Linda Hogan, said: “The recruitment of these new posts across the university will build academic capacity to develop new educational programmes. We have identified the posts most crucial to executing our mission, and attracting talented people from around the world who will foster global engagement in education and research… and further Trinity College Dublin’s position of excellence.”

Mike Jennings, general secretary of the Irish Federation of University teachers (IFUT), the trade union representing university lecturers, has criticised the new recruitment campaign.

Speaking to the Irish Times, he said that IFUT has “very serious concerns” about the fact that these assistant professors will be appointed under a tenure-track programme, which will result

in the appointees becoming “mainstreamed after a fiveyear period, subject to performance.”

Jennings commented: “This is all track and no tenure. It’s Orwellian - because it means the opposite of what it says. You are less likely to be tenured under this arrangement than under the current regime.”

He claimed the announcement of these plans has come as a surprise to staff and that the process was being commenced “without having any meaningful negotiations.”

As is the case with many universities, he said: “TCD has been looking for ways to make appointments outside the employment control framework, and I might have some sympathy for that on the basis of the chronic underfunding of higher education, but it seems to me that the dangers far outweigh the benefits of getting additional staff. I doubt they will have the same academic freedom.”

Law Soc and Q Soc hold discussion on trans issues in Ireland Bronach Rafferty Staff writer

Gillian Healy Contributing writer Maxim Peshkov, Russian ambassador to Ireland, addressed a packed lecture hall in Trinity on Wednesday night in an event organised by the Society for International Affairs (SOFIA).

Peshkov, who was once translator for Mikhail Gorbachev, the last president of the Soviet Union, gave a brief lecture on relations between Ireland and Russia. This was followed by a Q&A with topics ranging from the marriage equality referendum in Ireland to the conflict in Syria and relations with the US. Commenting on connections between Ireland and Russia, Peshkov said that the two have a similar “understanding of the essence of life,” as well as similarities in culture, art, economics and trade.

He spoke about celebrations of Irish culture in Russia, citing Riverdance and St Patrick’s Day, when a parade and dancing are held in the streets of St Petersburg, as examples. Peshkov drew comparisons between famous Irish writers, such as James Joyce, Oscar Wilde and William Butler Yeats, and notable Russian writers like Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky and Maxim Gorky. He also noted the strong links between Russian and Irish ballet.

According to Peshkov, Rus-

sia and Ireland have similar economies despite their size difference and have always enjoyed good relations with each other. He spoke about the trade relationship between the two nations, which at their most prosperous saw Irish investments in the Russian economy to the value of around $22 billion.

Referring to recent trade sanctions that have seen Irish exports to Russia fall significantly, he laughed and said “life is life… Sorry about this, these sanctions bring happiness to nobody,” setting off laughter among the audience as well.

Asked about his opinion on the passing of the marriage equality referendum in Ireland, he said: “It’s your choice, not ours. We have our laws and our structure and you have yours. We don’t teach you and we don’t want anyone to teach us.”

There were many questions from students focused on Russia’s relationships with a number of other countries.

In response to a question about the country’s relationship with North Korea, he replied that it is “nothing special. We are neighbours.”

Various questions were asked in relation to accusations that Russia bombed peaceful terrorists in Syria, to which he replied: “These accusations are only rumours made by haters. I don’t understand the difference between good terrorists and bad terrorists or moderate terrorists. Terrorists are terrorists.”

On the matter of Russian relations with the United States, Peshkov said that Russia takes a pragmatic approach and that the two countries have not left the table since the fall of the Berlin Wall. “I wouldn’t say we are good friends or enemies,” he said, stating that they are trying to find common ground at the moment. If a war broke out between the US and Russia, “it would be the end of the world,” he claimed. He also criticised the US for not helping Russia enough in dealing with the conflict in Syria. Peshkov declared that Russia has repeatedly asked the US “where to bomb.” He said, however, that the US has been unresponsive.

On a lighter note, Peshkov told students that the best place to have Russian food in Dublin is at Admiral on Marlborough Street: “It’s Ukrainian, Russian, very good. Bon Appetit.”

On Monday last, TCD Law Society, in association with Trinity Q Soc, hosted a panel discussion entitled “Ireland in Transition,” which explored trans issues in modern Ireland.

Speaking at the event were Broden Giambrone, chief executive of the Transgender Equality Network Ireland, Mara Keisling, an American transgender rights activist and founding executive director of the National Centre for Transgender Equality based in Washington DC, and Dr Lydia Foy, an Irish trans woman whose struggle for legal recognition of her gender acted as a catalyst for the Gender Recognition Act 2015.

According to Giambrone, from a historical perspective, the trans community has long been marginalised by society. However, he believes that we are entering a

new era insofar as people are finally starting to take notice of the struggle faced by members of the community and to talk about it. Despite this, he pointed out that there remains much to be done and that legislation to protect all people is still needed. Members of the panel were asked what the recent gender recognition act has meant for them.

In 1992, Foy had sex reassignment surgery, which resulted in a 24-year battle to have her gender identity reflected in her birth certificate. For her, the act has meant having her gender legally recognised and her birth certificate changed.

From Giambrone’s perspective, the act has meant trans people being able to “engage with their bodies as they truly are, being recognised by the state for who they truly are, [and] being a truly integrated, involved part of Irish society.”

Keisling also spoke of her experiences and the work

that she carries out for the trans community. She said that she “grew up closeted” and that there was no obvious pathway for her to think about gender. She emphasised how valuable it has been to have US president Barack Obama open to the cause. As an example of the impact that this has had, she mentioned the fact that by the time his term ends, it will be illegal to discriminate against the transgender community in relation to housing, employment, healthcare and education in the US. All three speakers stressed the importance of visibility for the cause and the need for people to openly discuss it. Keisling noted that: “Caitlyn Jenner wouldn’t have been possible had it not been for the work of the first few trans activists.” Giambrone concluded by saying that: “Transition is portrayed as complex, but it’s not really.

It’s an intricate, innate part of identity, and that deserves respect.”

Pavilion Bar integral to DUCAC Finances Aaron Matheson Reen Contributing writer The Edmund Burke theatre served as the venue for the Dublin University Central Athletic Club (DUCAC) AGM last Thursday. This meeting provided a platform for DUCAC to inform college clubs of improvements to facilities for 2015/16, including the continuation of phase two development to the Santry Sports Grounds. The university’s department of sport and recreation hopes to add a full-size floodlit GAA pitch and artificial training pitch to this 34 acre site. The grounds already include two water based floodlit hockey pitches, two five-a-side futsal pitches and a rugby and soccer pitch.

The AGM also featured the election of new members to the DUCAC executive committee. The positions of chairmen, senior honorary treasurer, pavilion bar chairmen, executive official, captain’s secretary and pavil-

ion members were not open.

Uncontested were the roles of vice chairmen, honorary secretary, honorary treasurer and pavilion member chairmen. There was a contest to become a club representative. Ten candidates were forwarded for the eight positions. The current chairman of the executive committee, Professor Cyril Smyth, will retire from the committee in 2016 subsequent to the completion of his second term.

In addition, financial issues were discussed at length at the meeting. It was noted that DUCAC received a reduced capitated budget for 2014/15.

DUCAC outlined that its allocation from the capitation committee was €335,970. This was a decrease on the figure of €353,307 assigned the year previous. DUCAC stressed that the loss of €17,337 was equivalent to the annual financial requirements of five to six medium-sized college clubs. It was revealed that the budgetary allocation for the university’s capitated bodies will receive a slight increase and thereafter be fixed for the period 2015 to 2018. This

increment is not expected to offset DUCAC’s reduction in funding for 2014/15.

2014/15 also witnessed DUCAC incurring a net loss of €38,935. DUCAC argued that this trend can only be maintained for a maximum of two years before its monetary reserves would be expended.

DUCAC regard driving costs in the Pavilion Bar as a means of improving this financial situation. Trading in the bar was up €15,000 during 2014/15.

Trinity News | Tuesday 20 October

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Trinity News | Tuesday 20 October

In depth Budget2016 shows little government initiative for tackling the growing student accommodation crisis One of the most obvious issues ignored was the student accommodation crisis.

Patrick Higgins Online news editor Little evidence of government initiative in tackling the growing student accommodation crisis in Budget 2016 While there were some small overtures to student issues in new funding announced for the Student Assistance Fund, the government failed to tackle one of the biggest growing concerns for students The so-called “giveaway budget” announced by the government this week gave away little to third-level students. Aside from the three million euro announced for the Student Assistance Fund, a pittance when compared to the 50 million allocated for 1916 commemorations, student issues were not dealt with by this government.

One of the most obvious issues ignored was the student accommodation crisis.

As early as July of this year the government was in possession of a Higher Education Authority (HEA) report which included grave warnings about future accommodation provisions for third-level stu-

dents. The report warned that over the next ten years there will be a consistent shortage of 25,000 places as student numbers continue to increase.

It is notable that this is the best case scenario, as the report reached this estimate by including planned accommodation developments over the next ten years, which are liable to be delayed or cancelled altogether between now and 2024.

Since this report, the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) has been lobbying the government to take action in dealing with the problem and individual student unions have been forced to look for unconventional solutions to their college’s deficiencies in accommodation facilities.

Our own Student Union welfare officer, Conor Clancy, spoke to Trinity News in September and called for the government to “start taking action” to address the problems in student accommodation. Currently, he said, “the majority of the legwork is being done by student unions around the country.”

DCU students were hard pressed to find accommodation to such an extent that the DCU students union en-

couraged incoming students in September to take up residence on the grounds of Gormanstown School in County Meath, some 30km away from DCU. Student leaders at University College Cork (UCC) issued their first appeal for student accommodation since the mid-1980s this year. Katie Quinlan, UCC SU welfare officer, criticised some landlords for “refusing point-blank” to take students as tenants.

Minister for education, Jan O’Sullivan, did express a willingness to deal with the issue and held discussions with USI president, Kevin Donoghue, which he described as being “productive” and in which he saw “an attitude to do something about it.” The minister herself alluded to possible “bigger proposals” when advocating the use of the USI rent a room programme.

However, proposals such as the zero rate of VAT for student housing advocated by the president of UCC, Dr Michael Murphy, were omitted from the HEA report and all but ruled out by the Minister for Education.

In this budget the govern-

ment could have freed up National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) controlled properties for rent as a short term measure. Instead it was decided that NAMA should go ahead with their planned construction 2020 plan, which will see a delayed introduction of housing over the next five years, completely ignoring the very real crisis which we are facing right now in accommodation.

Then there is the political quagmire that is rent controls.

According to figures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) in August, rents for apartments in Dublin have already soared above and beyond the Celtic Tiger highs of early 2008.

However, the government has kept proposals of “rent certainty” made by minister for the environment and deputy leader of the labour party, Alan Kelly, at arm’s length.

This is despite the fact that one coalition senator, Aideen Hayden, declared in August that the proposal “has full labour party support” and “will be on the legislative books by October.”

Despite the proposal being a watered down version of rent

controls and being designed only to keep up with inflation, therefore only tackling the excesses of the market, Taoiseach Enda Kenny has flatly refused to consider such proposals as they “interfere with the market.” The only thing that rent certainty could interfere with is the incomes of the one in 10 landlords who are TDs and largely members of Fine Gael and Fianna Fail.

The only semi-action taken by the government in relation to rent controls is the proposal

by Tanaiste Joan Burton for a body to regulate the housing sector. However, the proposed body will only have authority to report conditions to the government and will have no independent powers of its own, such as introducing rent certainty or rent controls.

In a thoroughly ironic email to TDs and senators, the Irish Property Owners Association (IPOA) warned against “any short-term moves (which may appear to be politically popular) in the long-term interest of society. We cannot be left with a situation of a mass exodus from the sector.” However, what neither the government nor the IPOA seem to realise is that a far more detrimental blow to the Irish economy

would be dealt by a mass exodus of students from third-level institutions who can’t afford to pay for accommodation.

Student accommodation is not only a student issue, it is an economic issue. If students cannot afford to pay for accommodation in order to attend third-level institutions there is a real danger that they will simply decide not to attend. There is also the fact that providing accommodation is recognised by the HEA report on education as “a prerequisite for attracting new overseas students.” With cuts in third-level funding being kept in place and a fall in overseas students paying full fees, it is likely that our third-level institutions will drop further in international rankings if there continues to be neither capital investment in student accommodation nor a reintroduction of pre-austerity funding.

As Kevin Donoghue pointed out in a recent USI press release: “Education is an investment, not expenditure. Young people and their families have suffered enormously because of the cost of college and not having an education will have a ripple effect on their futures – from training, refining current skills and employability, education is a major factor in

the structure of economic recovery.”

Instead of planning for the future this government has played easy politics. It is no wonder that a new USI survey found that 80% of students will not vote to re-elect the current government when one considers that almost 30% of students believe that the USI’s flagship campaign for lobbying the government for extra funding, EducationIs, should concentrate on accommodation issues. Instead of standing firm and doing what is “necessary,” which successive ministers in this government have congratulated themselves on doing during years of austerity, this government has balked at the prospect of coming into conflict with the IPOA and concentrated on the easy job of giving greater tax breaks to multinationals.

Students need to become on of the key constituencies any party would need to win over to secure election With historically low voter turnout among under 25s during elections, there simply wasn't much incentive to tackle the current issues facing students

Oisin Coulter Deputy news editor The fifth budget of the 31st Dail was clearly designed with an eye to the upcoming general election: while trumpeting headline changes like cuts to the rates of Universal Social Charge (USC), free preschool childcare and some minor increases in social welfare, there was no mention in Michael Noonan’s speech of the continuing funding crisis for third-level.

It would be too easy to label this budget another traditional pre-election giveaway.

Rather, it clearly reflects the

vested interests and political priorities of this government: low taxation, with targeted government support and inaction on the major crises facing the most vulnerable.

It is a budget focused upon key constituencies the government hopes will support them come the election: middle income families, pensioners and those in high-income brackets. There is no other way to explain new measures, like a sizeable reduction in Capital Gains Tax from 33% to 20% and a significant reduction in commercial vehicle motor tax.

These tax breaks seem more incongruous when the government ignores the cuts inflicted on students, the poor and unemployed over the past four years. We can tell as much from what isn’t in the budget as what is, with Jobseekers Allowance for those under 25 remaining at 100 euro a week, rising to 144 euro at 25 and the full rate of 188 euro only at 26. This is despite heavy lobbying from youth organisations, such as Labour Youth, who unsuccessfully pushed for a reversal of this policy.

The government contin-

ues to ignore the decline of third-level education as student numbers rise in tandem with stagnant funding. The Irish Federation of University Teachers remarked that “The very fabric of third-level education and our third-level institutions” is at risk, and have condemned the government over their failure to tackle “the funding and staffing crisis.”

Even if funding for higher education institutions manages to rise above 1 billion euro again, the crisis will continue to worsen without more radical action. The only good news for students is the 3 million euro announced for the student assistant fund, which should be welcomed – but coming in the wake of four years of cuts, it is questionable how much of an impact this increase will have. As explained by the president of USI, Kevin Donoghue: “Education is an investment, not expenditure.”

Students continue to struggle with the crippling accommodation crisis, particularly in Dublin. Emerging from a lack of planning and development, coupled with a huge rise in rents over the past four

years, thousands of students have been left unable to find affordable accommodation.

Trinity has been particularly affected with city centre accommodation becoming ruinously expensive.

It is estimated that at least 15,000 to 30,000 new apartments are needed immediately to tackle the housing crisis and make accommodation affordable for all income brackets. There are short-term alternatives: rent controls, moving to immediately free up NAMA controlled housing or emergency government subsidies for those unable to afford current costs.

None of these have been pursued, with the government instead opting for the delayed introduction of NAMA housing between now and 2020, capital expenditure and new public-private partnerships to resolve the problem. These measures will not produce new housing for years, leaving students and low-income families to fend for themselves. Beyond that they are exactly what previous governments, with disastrous results, pursued. Developers pulled out of social housing public-private part-

nerships during the crash, leaving hundreds of families in the lurch.

The government has increased funding to tackle homelessness by 17 million, to 70 million euro, around the same amount the horse and greyhound industry get, while ignoring the root causes of this homelessness. When considering the failure to introduce rent controls, it is impossible to ignore the one in ten TDs that are landlords, a high proportion of whom belong to Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil.

Having been elected on a mandate of political reform, the infamous ‘Democratic Revolution,’ Irish politics once again seems beholden to vested interests. There is nothing more emblematic of these vested interests than the new 6.25% corporation tax for eligible ‘Knowledge Development Box’ companies, a cut from the already extremely low 12.5% corporation tax. Considering how little tax multinationals already pay due to creative accounting and outright tax avoidance this policy seems primarily aimed at maintaining the presence of these multi-

nationals. Although a handful of the large companies, such as Google and Microsoft, employ sizeable numbers, many have tiny staffs and ‘base’ themselves in Ireland only to avail of reduced tax.

Their presence alone is desirable for the government when it comes to economic figures, which in the case of Ireland are often severely divorced from the real economy. This has been a continuous pattern during this government: the usage of economic tools to massage GDP and unemployment figures. While the government promotes the country to international tech and finance companies, those under 25 are left with few options.

These are a reduced JobSeekers Allowance – reduced further if one lives at home (a common result of the housing crisis) – with the prospect of JobBridge, a government project whose entire purpose seems geared to reducing the live register through sandwich-making ‘internships’.

If one is lucky enough to be in employment, the budget has increased the minimum wage by 50 cent, but that still

leaves it well short of the living wage of 11 euro fifty and just about in line with inflation. The final and ever present option is emigration.

The budget will not surprise anyone. The government is making its last attempt to secure support prior to the general election and, with huge and continuing youth emigration coupled with historically low voter turnout among under 25s, there simply was not much incentive to tackle the issues facing students.

However, given the record voter registration in the run up to the marriage equality referendum over the summer, perhaps other political parties will attempt to tackle the issues the government has ignored in the coming months, hoping to secure their own support as the general election looms.

Trinity News | Tuesday 20 October

Features

7

The journey made by refugees travelling through Europe, in their own words In Greece Tomas Lynch met people from Syria, Afghanistan and Iran, with stories of war, terror and hope.

Tomas Lynch

Mohammed

Liliane

Abuza

Contributing writer

“I am an IT engineer”, Mohammed says. He is 20 years old. He was studying in Syria when war broke out, but now it is too dangerous to stay - the government is conscripting all men aged between 18 and 25. The military is a dangerous prospect for these young men. If Da'esh (the local term for ISIS) catch them, they will kill them, Mohammed says, maybe cut off their heads.

Liliane is travelling with her family - her mother, her brothers and sisters and nephews, all the women wearing a headscarf. She wants to study in Europe - “maybe computers, IT.”

Abuza recognizes my accent.

He lives in Galway, in Ireland, and has a Spanish passport. His life now, working in a restaurant on Ireland’s West Coast is far from that of refugees sleeping in parks, of Civil War in his homeland. But here he is, because his family mother, sisters, brothers - are among these refugees making the long and dangerous journey to a Europe that he has already become a citizen of. And he has chosen to walk the way with them.

I was in Athens in August, talking to ordinary people in the streets and documenting their hopes and fears in the midst of the unending economic crisis that has hit that country. But on the streets of Athens I could feel another crisis swelling, a crisis that in the following weeks would become bigger than any economic negotiations by Greece in Brussels boardrooms.

Everywhere there were refugees, sleeping on benches, in parks. Mostly they were young men, just out of their teens, but with them also there were many children, and older women, heads wrapped in headscarves. They came, I learnt, mostly from Syria and Afghanistan, where long-running wars and the emergence of a new terror in the form of Da'esh (the local name for ISIS) had driven many to flee, searching for peace and hope in Europe. When I asked them where they were going they told me Germany, Sweden, Finland.

In Pedion Tou Areos in Central Athens, a sprawling park of dry and thirsty grass, there are now tents under the trees, lines of clothes between the branches, blankets strewn on the ground. The park has become a makeshift refugee camp in the heart of Athens people sit in the shade under the thin trees, stand and talk in huddled clumps, queue for the food and clothes doled out by various organizations and activists. I talked to some of the refugees there, to learn about their journeys and why they had fled.

Ali and Abdullah Ali is 24 years old. He is from Parwan Province in Afghanistan. “It is dangerous there, he tells us, the Taliban are there, and Da'esh.”

His friend, Abdullah, is standing with him among a group of others. He is sixteen. He tells us he is Afghani. “I was born in Iran, and I live in Iran, but my parents are from Afghanistan.”

It is too expensive to study in Iran. He wants to go to England, to study Business Management.

“We paid $1,500 dollars each to the” - Ali searches for the word - “smugglers, to go on a small boat that took us from Turkey to Greece, with forty people in each boat. The same two or three nights that we were getting ready to go across, two boats sank, and they could only rescue twenty people. Lots of people died.

The smugglers don’t care if it’s dangerous or not. They just steal our money.”

And do you talk to your parents? “Yes”, he says, “I call them, use viber, whatsapp.

Every day.”

Were they not worried about you?

“Of course they were worried.

When we were going in the boat, they called me and said - ‘Don’t go. Come back. It’s too dangerous.’ They were afraid.”

Did you experience racism, here, or in Turkey?

“No”, Abdullah says, “no, Turkey is good, is not racist. Iran is racist against Afghanis. I had to pay money to go to school in Iran because my parents are Afghani, because I am Afghani. School is free for an Iranian citizen. In Iran the police shot at the refugees with their guns.”

He and the friends he now travels with came from Turkey to the Greek island of Kos on a ferry. An illegal human trafficking service, it advertises openly online and on facebook. The crossing costs each migrant $1000. “People sell their cars, their homes, to afford it.”

Mohammed’s family is still in Damascus. “It is safer there than in the countryside”, he tells us. The heaviest fighting is in the countryside. “The danger is not so great for older people. The army don’t take them to make them be soldiers.”

“Before”, he says, “it was very nice living in Syria. I had a respectable life, my family had a respectable life. Now it is all changed.”

They are not from the areas controlled by Da'esh but they know friends from Raqqa.

“They ran away when ISIS was coming.” Raqqa is now capital of Da'esh’s territories.

How does the government there function - are there schools? hospitals? “Yes”, he says, “Da'esh built hospitals.”

He pauses, corrects himself.

“Not built, stole.”

“The society there is working, like this one”, he gestures at the Athens’ streets. “But there there is no playing around. No kidding.” People are killed for minor transgressions.

“We are Muslims”, he says, speaking up again. “Look at us. We are normal. Da'esh has made a bad reputation for Islam in the West. But we are Muslim too, and Da'esh don’t care. If we are in the army and Da'esh catch us, they will kill us anyway.”

And then she tells us that her husband was killed by Da'esh.

He was one of the protestors in the early days of the Syrian revolt against the regime of Bashar al-Assad. “He and the other revolutionaries were looking for a better life, they wanted to replace the dictatorship with a democracy.”

They are going to Germany.

“Asylum in Ireland is very difficult, the regulations are very restrictive.”

They believed that their revolution, like the budding rebellions in Tunisia and Libya and Egypt, would be successful.

“Back then, the revolution was peaceful, before it became a civil war.” An endless and violent civil war, the same war that has birthed Da'esh.

I ask him what he thinks of the people here in Greece.

“Listen”, he says. “We are going on from here today. We just want to forget about it.”

He pauses. “Really it wasn’t the Greek people, it was the police. The people here are good.” He points at a shop behind him. “Two times the people in that shop brought us water. They just came out, said nothing, and gave us water and went away.”

Like many of the protestors and revolutionaries arrested by the regime, she says, he was handed over by the government to Da'esh. It was a way for the government to get rid of the rebels without getting their hands dirty, to let ISIS kill them and feign innocence.

“But the police are racist, and it’s because the press are racist. I’m sorry to say it, but that's how it is.”

America gave those early revolutionaries money, and then Russia sold them guns for that money, and that peaceful revolt became a violent and interminable war. “Like the Taliban in Afghanistan, Da'esh is the product of Western money and guns.”

A woman speaks to him in her own language. She is sitting on a blanket on the pavement and her face is pale. Her name is Sama. Three days ago she landed in Greece with her husband and her children.

The police came and arrested all the people coming off the boat. “But her children were frightened, Abuza translates for her, and they ran away.”

So now Liliane and her family are going to Europe. In Syria it is the government against the revolutionaries. “The government killed our family, killed my husband, so I cannot be with the government.”

MOHAMMED

“She was shouting for them, begging to the police, but she was taken away, sent back to Turkey.” She is pregnant, hasn’t seen her children since that day. She has gotten a visa back into Greece for a medical appointment, but no authorization to travel to find her children. But now they have heard news from a refugee camp north of Thessaloniki, where the refugees stop on their way North headed for Macedonia and Europe beyond it. Her children are there, with other refugees. But she has no authorization to go to them. And the refugees with them are going on, moving North. “The situation in Hungary is getting worse every day.” There is no time to spend waiting.

So every day the children and the contact number for their mother are passed from one group of migrants to the next, as each group hurries onto the next step of their journey.

Does he fear violence from the authorities in Hungary?

“When we get to the border we hope to get a quick taxi and get away from there straightaway.” The police are fingerprinting people and detaining them, stopping them from continuing their journey into Europe. He says they do this to get money from the EU - which grants member states money for each migrant they take in - money that never reaches the migrants. And then, after six months, he has heard, they dump the migrants back over the border in Serbia. “But look. Maybe the police will beat us. But they will not kill us. It is safer than Syria.”

Photography Credit is to Georgia Lalor for all photos Names have been pseudonymised Follow @Blackfish_media on twitter

Ali speaks then, clearly moved.

- “Look around you” - he gestures with his hand and the makeshift camp, at the women cradling young children in their arms - “You can see our situation. They will have to walk across the borders with their children. We have passed three borders already to come here. The Europeans know our situation. So I hope they will not reject us. If our situation was good we would not come.”

“We hope when we go to Europe that they will accept us.”

ABUZA AND FAMILY

Trinity News | Tuesday 20 October

Features

8

How to deal with dyspraxia

In the wake of Dyspraxia Awareness Week, Doireann Dhufaigh writes about the challenges of living with this relatively unknown condition siness off as a form of inter- requirements, as learning dis- ferently, creativity is heightDoireann pretive dance any longer. abilities can impact negatively ened. Some notably creative Growing up with dysp- on a student’s academic per- celebrities with the disabilDhufaigh Contributing writer Try to imagine that a young adult in a prominent university but you struggle to carry a tray without dropping all its contents, direct someone across a building, or remember information you’ve been told five minutes before.

This is a typical description of someone with dyspraxia, a condition which remains a confusing enigma for many today, despite its prevalence.

Dyspraxia is a Developmental Coordination Disorder which affects the motor skills and speech of those with it. It falls under the umbrella term of SpLD (Special Learning Difficulties) which are defined as exceptional variations in a person’s ability, as well as difficulty with memory and processing information.

Hidden disability October 12 marked the beginning of Dyspraxia Awareness Week. The condition is complex and remains relatively unheard of, in spite of the fact that it can affect as many as 1 in 30 people, meaning there’s likely to be at least one person with dyspraxia in a classroom or workplace. The Dyspraxia Foundation reports that it affects between 2% and 6% of people in the UK and Ireland. Regrettably, there is little common understanding of this particular neurological disorder and it is often confused with its SpLD cousins autism and dyslexia. It is spoken of by paediatricians and educational psychologists as a “hidden disability,” meaning there is no way of telling if someone has dyspraxia upon first meeting them, but it may become apparent when they can’t pass their chronic clum-

raxia proved both practically and emotionally challenging. Thankfully, I received an early diagnosis when my parents became concerned with my poor coordination. I tired easily, was always bumping into things and couldn’t cycle a bicycle or catch a ball.

Later, in primary school, my teachers noticed the discrepancy between my verbal vocabulary and my ability to put words down onto paper. My handwriting was a cramped, unintelligible scrawl, I consistently confused d with b, and learning my seven times table was an ordeal. For many people, dyspraxia can work in conjunction with dyscalculia, an inability to process mathematics, to create a particularly nasty cognitive cocktail. I can remember my best friend in third year, aghast and concerned that I didn’t know how to read the time, and teaching me during a particularly dull CSPE class.

Comparing myself to others was an unhelpful habit of mine, and the more I did so, the more inadequate I felt. At 17, I could write A grade essays on Emily Dickinson’s subversion of the traditional poetic form, but I couldn’t master the tills for my part-time job at a local supermarket.

Therapy There is no “cure” for dyspraxia, and the condition continues to affect people throughout their adulthood.

There are however many forms of therapy available which can help alleviate the problems faced by those diagnosed with it, including occupational, physical and speech therapy. There are pathways for entering third level such as the DARE scheme, which offers places on reduced point

formance.

In Trinity, there is a free Occupational Therapy Service set up called Unilink, and regular appointments can be arranged with them to help manage workloads and stress. The Disability Service bi-annual report of 2014-2015 revealed that 74 students diagnosed with dyspraxia were registered in Trinity last year, that’s 5.9% of the overall intake of students with some kind of disability. I’m glad to say that I never felt in the least way discriminated against in Trinity, and that the Disability Service do all in their power to make things easier for those registered with them.

Challenging “normal” Support for dyspraxic adults who do not go on to third level is severely limited. For them there is no diagnostic pathway and private assessments can cost hundreds of euro.

According to a survey by the Dyspraxia Foundation, an undiagnosed dyspraxic child is five times more likely to suffer from mental health issues once they reach adolescence.

There are those who debate that rushing to “label” your child can do more harm than good, that it creates a division between “normal” and “abnormal” children; but these labels are not meant to undermine a child, they exist to make sense of how their brain works. The diagnostic terms just make things easier to explain.

I do believe, though, that it can be said for many dyspraxics and people with other learning difficulties, that it forces them to be inventive.

It gives one a different view of the world than those who are labelled “normal”. Because one's basic faculties are impaired, because one thinks dif-

ity include Daniel Radcliffe, Cara Delevingne and Florence Welch. All three have spoken openly about being diagnosed as children and how it caused them anxiety in school. But that now, working in creative fields, dyspraxia isn’t that big of an issue for them. When I first found out that Radcliffe had dyspraxia, I was heartened and reassured. Here was someone with immense success and talent having experienced the same setbacks as me.

Luckily, I discovered at an early age that I could compensate for my weaknesses by playing to my strengths. I slowly began to understand that I could use my creativity to make sense of the information I couldn’t absorb by wading through textbooks. My history notes were peopled with cartoonified Stalins and de Valeras. I wanted to learn.

I loved to learn. But there was more. I sought acceptance beyond what my eccentricities told people about me.

Talking about dyspraxia and other SpLDs opens up another more complex debate: how does a disability become an identity? Many of those affected by disabilities find profound meaning in their differences. The word difference has become a euphemism used by polite people when speaking of someone else’s “otherness” or misfortune. Are dyslexia, blindness, depression or autism “illnesses” that render those with them useless, or are they just another way of moving through life?

In this time of continual social change and acceptance, we can come to understand that difference is important, even essential to improving our approach in the academic and creative worlds.

ILLUSTRATION: SARAH MOREL

What explains the Rise of Jeremy Corbyn?

A Socialist Worker perspective on what the success of this veteran MP means for the future of European politics of the right-wing Blairite MPs which he brushed aside the space in which socialists can in government is largely conRory O'Neill who now dominate the La- centrist candidates, but the organise – including those of tingent on the willingness of Contributing writer When Jeremy Corbyn, among the most left-wing MPs in the British Labour Party, announced his candidacy to succeed Ed Miliband in June, it was universally assumed that this would be another effort in the honourable tradition of token leadership bids from the ever-dwindling Labour Left. It was to be, at best, an attempt to promote some level of debate and internal criticism within the Blairite leadership. Indeed, few thought that Corbyn had any chance of even making the ballot paper, much less posing a credible threat to any of the ‘serious’ leadership contenders.

Over the summer, however, he gathered an extraordinary surge in support, and eventually won the contest outright with 59.5% of the vote.

Shifting centre For many who identify as being on the left, the Corbyn moment has been seen as something of a turning point. We have endured seven years of financial crisis and economic ruin, for which working people have been forced to bear the cost. Yet, despite what many reasonably expected at the outset of the crisis, there has been no major step forwards for the anti-capitalist movement, or even any political success for those arguing for an alternative strategy for dealing with the crisis to the austerity policies implemented throughout the continent. 2015, first with the election of Syriza in Greece and now the rise of Jeremy Corbyn in the UK, has renewed hope for many that the left has a fighting chance of victory.

The Socialist Worker Student Society (SWSS) is a political society on campus which places itself in the tradition of the revolutionary anti-capitalist left. We argue that the socialist transformation of society is achievable not through the existing institutions of parliament and so on, but only by a revolution of working class people themselves. We believe anyone looking for an alternative to the political and economic establishment should take heart from the rise of Corbyn, but be aware of the limitations of such a project. Corbyn’s victory opens up opportunities for the left, as well as posing difficult strategic problems.

Corbyn shatters the mould

bour Party. His candidacy and the massive popular support he has received stands in defiance to the legacy of Tony Blair and his efforts to modernise the Labour Party. This was in fact a campaign to extinguish any remaining flicker of credible left wing opposition within Labour to the neoliberal agenda enshrined

by Margaret Thatcher and the Conservative Party.

“

The most striking aspect of Corbyn’s rise was, perhaps, how utterly powerless the ruling class was to prevent it.

The leadership campaign demonstrated the extent to which the Labour elite wears Thatcher’s legacy on their sleeve. A recurring trope recycled time and time again

by Corbyn’s opponents and their backers in the media is that Corbyn’s policies are a product of a bygone age, and would make the party thoroughly unelectable. This is, of course, an ideological claim.

It presupposes the existence of a political centre ground which politicians must seek to capture, lest they alienate an essentially centre-right thinking public. It assumes that the electorate will inevitably be horrified by outdated promises of re-nationalisation of key public services and an end to state-sponsored misery in the form of austerity budgets.

This is classic neoliberal ideology. It seeks to manufacture consent for the privatisation and deregulation of the capitalist economy.

Corbyn’s overwhelming victory in the leadership election refutes this theory.

It was not just the scale by

manner in which he won – drawing hundreds of supporters, sometimes thousands, to his campaign rallies – which highlights the appetite for an alternative to austerity. As columnist Laurie Penny pointed out during the campaign: “The argument that Jeremy Corbyn is unelectable is being made by three candidates who can’t even win an election against Jeremy Corbyn.”

Alternative to austerity The media and the party’s right-wing were reduced to total desperation. New Labour luminaries such as Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and David Miliband were wheeled out to warn against the dangers of electing Corbyn. This stunning lack of self-awareness only served to shine a spotlight on what Labour has been missing, in sharp contrast to Corbyn’s campaign. The most striking aspect of Corbyn’s rise was, perhaps, how utterly powerless the ruling class was to prevent it. The media machine went into overdrive, culminating in a headline which must surely be considered peak Telegraph: “Jeremy Corbyn must be stopped”. Beneath was an article which compared Corbyn to Zimbabwean autocrat Robert Mugabe and attempted to shackle him with links to Hamas, the IRA and antiSemitism - all this because he advocates relatively moderate centre-left economic policies which have received backing from a wide range of mainstream (pro-capitalist) economists.

What is at stake for the ruling class, however, is not a life and death battle between socialism and capitalism, for Corbyn is demanding much less. Rather it is a threat to the ideological myth that there is no alternative to neoliberalism. Thatcher and her Blairite heirs had a long march over the carcass of the trade union movement and Labour left to achieve this consensus. Now it is in peril. The spectacular impotence of the right-wing anti-Corbyn propaganda and the way in which it only seemed to inject his campaign with further momentum, represents a significant breakdown in the ideological authority of the ruling class.

This, in itself, marks an opportunity for anyone on the left looking to organise against the capitalist system. Corbyn’s victory, the language that he uses, the policies he advocates and his principled rejection of Tory policies all open up a

us who consider ourselves far to the left of Corbyn and any movement attempting to reform the Labour Party. One of Corbyn’s strengths is his ability to pose the questions of austerity and challenging the political establishment in class terms. He has awakened and helped create a movement which aligns itself with working people, against the rule of the rich in the form of the Tory government. He cuts through ideological myths such as “We’re all in this together” and “We need to cut the deficit in the national interest”. Austerity is a political and economic strategy designed, not necessarily to restore the health of the economy as a whole, but to secure the interests of the rich. It is a transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich. It is a capitalist crisis paid for by working people.

This is the reality of Conservative Britain (and Fine Gael/Labour’s Ireland) that Corbyn is helping to expose.

This is a very useful point of departure. If austerity is a class war waged by the elites against the working class, then we must consider our options for counter attack. How can we secure our own interests and re-organise society on the basis of democracy and solidarity? Is the answer to elect a left-wing Corbyn-led government to challenge the rich and shake up British capitalism? The recent experience in Greece (and numerous examples throughout history) suggests that this is not the case.

SYRIZA A similar sense of optimism and hope for a breakthrough in the battle against austerity was felt earlier this year with the election of radical left party SYRIZA in Greece. SYRIZA promised to take on the EU elites and bondholders sucking the lifeblood out of the Greek working class. Yet within months of that election victory, the slippery path towards compromise and ‘pragmatic government’ was followed.

SYRIZA was forced into successive climb-downs on its anti-Memorandum (the austerity programme signed up to by previous governments) position and ultimately forced to agree to as harsh an austerity package as has been implemented in Greece since the crisis began. These defeats, unfortunately, follow a clear pattern throughout history and lessons must be drawn to prevent their repetition.

The success of trying to implement left-wing reforms

our ruling class to allow them, or often, their stubbornness in obstructing them. Corbyn and his supporters often hark back to past Labour governments such as that of Clement Attlee, Britain’s first post-war Prime Minister. This was the government responsible for the establishment of the NHS and a welfare state charged with protecting its citizens “from the cradle to the grave”.

Of course, this was during the post-war boom, one of the longest and most sustained periods of growth and profitability in the history of the capitalist system. The health of the capitalist system, and the determination of working people to fight for those reforms, meant it make strategic sense for British capitalism to implement them.

Compare this to the current situation – global capitalism is emerging from a major crisis and is already tipped to slide back into deep trouble in the next few years.

SYRIZA’s efforts to implement an anti-austerity strategy in government run contrary to the interests of capitalism, and unlike in 1945, they cannot afford to allow us to win.

The ritual humiliation of the SYRIZA government and the aggressiveness of such concessions tells us all we need to know about the willingness of the capitalist system to engage with the concerns of ordinary people. SYRIZA had no Plan B to their goal of pressuring capital to give in – does Corbyn?

What would a Corbyn government do differently when confronted with the same economic terrorism that SYRIZA were?

The problem with trying to pursue left-wing policies in government is that we are fighting the battle on their terrain. While economic power remains in the hands of a tiny elite, the election of a left government may amount to a tactical retreat by the ruling class, but it does not represent the conquest of democratic power by working people. The working class gave SYRIZA a mandate to fight for their interests – but the system cares only for its profits. Any left government in Britain, here in Ireland or anywhere, will run up against this fundamental problem.

If we are serious about changing the world and achieving some kind of real, democratic alternative to capitalism, then these are the strategic questions that we

“

He cuts through ideological myths such as “We’re all in this together” and “We need to cut the deficit in the national interest”

must consider. The rich are organised, centralised and have a clear strategy to make us pay for their crisis. We too must be organised and astute. We have seen how aggressively they respond to defeat, whether it be the election of SYRIZA or Jeremy Corbyn. These events represented an encroachment of explicitly working class movements into the political sphere. If the rich are not willing to allow this, then we have to go beyond their terrain and shape our own. Electing a new government to manage capitalism is not enough – working people have to organise and carve out a new system based on democratic control of society’s wealth. Our word for this is socialism, and for this, we need a working class revolution.

Trinity News | Tuesday 20 October

Features

9

Exploring the appeals process that the Leaving Certificate offers Niamh Lynch examines the prolonged influence of the Leaving Certificate appeals system on students.

Niamh Lynch Staff writer Every August, the delighted faces of many Leaving Certificate students are published online and in newspapers the length and breadth of the country. However, less noticeably, there are a sizeable proportion of students who are disappointed with results that are perhaps unexpected, or that don’t reflect their abilities or expectations. For these students, appealing their grades can be an option. It’s a prolonged process with little guarantee of success, however this did not discourage 5,000 students appealing over 9,000 grades this year.

Collaborating on ideas The participants and organisers behind the Suas Ideas Collective speak about their projects, and hopes for social justice and environmental change.

Eva O’Brien Staff writer “We found ourselves doing a lot of things outside our comfort zone – in fact the whole thing was entirely out of our comfort zone!” Eoghan Martin grins, slightly sheepishly, across the table. He is speaking about his experience this summer with the Suas Ideas Collective, during which he and a fellow computer engineering student, Alan Donoghue, developed and brought to fruition one of several innovative new projects aiming to address global issues to generate social and environmental change.

Their project is called Dev, Meet Tech, and is one of three projects linked by their emphasis on the promotion of social engagement and the creation of platforms for further ideas. K.E.Y., involving four students at NUI Galway, is a project which aims to use social media as a way to get young people more active in making change in Ireland, while Vocalism uses voice workshops to spread confidence in different groups, and, in the words of its founder Donal Kearney: “to provide a platform for ideas to be shared – whether radical or conservative.”

Deirdre Kelly, who, with Grainne Carley piloted the Ideas Collective from its inception, tells me that she has noticed throughout her work with Suas the difficulty people often have in taking action for change – it is not a lack of interest, she says, but rather “not having the support necessary to take the first steps.”

This observation led to herself and Carley starting the programme because it “seemed like a natural next step.”

Last month the members of the first ever Ideas Collective presented their ideas at the 2015 Showcase – an event which, according to Martin, was an opportunity for them not only to present their projects to a more general audience, but to each see how far they had come in the process.

“On the first day,” he recollects, “I remember all the ideas were just concepts in our head – and blurry ideas at that. Some of us didn’t even have a really clear idea of what we wanted to do, but at the showcase we could see how they had all developed into absolutely fully-fledged, working things.”

Promising beginnings The programme as a whole appears to be an overwhelmingly positive experience for those who have gone through it. “The best thing was that it created a space in which we were free to carry out our project,” says Kearney of Vocalism. You don’t have to be an experienced entrepreneur to get something out of it, he maintains: “I’d recommend the process for anyone with even an inkling of an idea

for social or environmental change.”

Martin appears amazed even now by his own enjoyment of the programme: “I’d do it again in a second,” he says. “In a lot of ways it was the best thing I’ve ever done.

I learnt more from this than from anything else – the difference is that you’re doing something yourself, so you’re fully immersed in the whole process.”

Ideas for projects have stemmed from a range of different places. Chris Noone, Owen Harney, Gary O’ Donoghue and Laura Finnegan were all struck by the level of engagement young people had with the marriage equality referendum. “The catalyst was the Yes Equality Campaign,” Chris Noone tells me.

“It showed that when presented with an issue that means a lot to them most young people are motivated to make their voices heard and to act.” This led to them looking for a way to harness this level of interest and energy and to carry it forward.

“It was striking,” notes Noone, “that in the media and political world there was a lot of talk about young people and not much by young people. So, it occurred to me that we need ways of bringing young people to collectively decide the issues that are important to them away from party politics.”

Both Noone and Harney are working in the area of psychology, O’Donoghue in software engineering and Finnegan in medicine and youth work, so together they aimed to bring these disparate approaches together into a collective project. It involves, in Noone’s words, “an online education and discussion platform and offline workshops aimed at facilitating action planning.”

Martin and Donoghue’s project, Dev, Meet Tech, is also based around the idea of bringing different approaches together to create interesting ideas and projects. It is the pair’s first real foray into the area of social change. Martin describes how they began to lean towards the idea of using technology to make real impacts: “We were tech students, wanting to learn, testing things out, we’d gone through Trinity’s Launchbox programme, tried to build the next-big-app, you know, the next game or the next little trick that’s going to make our lives five seconds easier. We started to think that there’s a lot more that technology can do – for example, it has huge potential in the developing world – mobiles in Africa are huge now, and that’s something that can be used to do amazing things, literally saving lives.”

Innovation through diversity Their thinking, Martin explains to me, is that to get technology to fulfill its real potential, it’s better to bring in people whose interest lies elsewhere than in technology:

“If you get a bunch of computer scientists together, and ask them to come up with an idea to use technology to solve a global issue, they might come up with an idea, but it probably won’t be such an innovative, a creative, an interesting idea as one that you’d get if you bring, say, people from politics, law, business, arts, people from a range of different backgrounds. With different ways of thinking, different approaches, you’re much more likely to get something really interesting.”

This is precisely what they did. On 22 August, Martin and Donoghue ran their first Dev, Meet Tech, pilot event (hosted at the offices of Zentech, of whose generosity Martin waxes lyrical). They brought together eighteen students from a range of disciplines, including one third technology students. “It went even better than we expected,” says Martin. “We hadn’t planned, for example, on the teams making pitches, because we both really don’t like pitches ourselves. And it was slow to start, people found it hard to get a focus, but as the day went on we could see people getting so passionate about their ideas, so we asked them if they wanted to pitch their idea to the rest of us and they were all up for it. The pitches when they came then were amazing, because it had all happened completely organically, and everyone was so passionate.”

Passion is something that informs Vocalism, Donal Kearney’s project, which grew out of his own experience as a musician and a teacher. “Right now,” he tells me, “it basically entails me giving workshops on the use of the voice.” Although he stresses that his idea has continued to grow.

It’s more than just straightforward speaking training: “The idea behind the project is that participants get an opportunity to use their voices in front of a group, by incorporating vocal techniques, singing exercises and performance skills. Understanding breath control can release the power of the voice – whether speaking, acting or singing.”

Kearney has already worked a great deal with activists and human rights groups, and plans to work with others in the future, including the staff of Front Line Defenders. Vocalism is not just for professionals, however, he stresses: “It provides personal benefits too. The workshops can work for schoolchildren, teachers, civil society professionals, students, human rights defenders and activists, community groups.”

Some of Kearney’s first workshops were held among the members of the Ideas Collective itself, including Eoghan Martin. Indeed, Martin is keen to emphasise the collaborative nature of the programme: “We all participated in each other’s projects, gave each other ideas, all tried to help out with one another’s projects. The ideas would pivot at least ninety-degrees

every time we went into the workshops. You have to be very open, because everyone works on everyone else’s ideas. I would have to, for example, tell a couple of other people my idea, and then I’d have to sit down and listen to them discuss it and I wasn’t allowed to say anything – it was really interesting to see where it went when you did that.” Kearney is similarly complementary when speaking of the organization of the programme, calling the facilitators and mentors “inspirational.”

“

“I would have to, for example, tell a couple of other people my idea, and then I’d have to sit down and listen to them discuss it and I wasn’t allowed to say anything – it was really interesting to see where it went when you did that.”

This appreciation is reciprocated by the organisers; Kelly informs me that she was “really impressed with the quality of both the participants and their project ideas.” This year’s summer programme has, for her, set a standard for future Collectives: “The bar has been set pretty high on this pilot programme, we hope future programmes can keep it at that level. We’d like to see more projects being developed that will bring about real change for disadvantaged communities in Ireland and internationally.”

The Future Vocalism, Dev, Meet Tech, and K.E.Y are all projects whose success has spurred their founders to keep them moving, further into the future. Noone and his colleagues are currently building their new website and are planning future workshops where young people can come together and plan their activism. “Our hope is that we can facilitate informed and constructive discussion and action by young people on issues of social importance to them.”

Vocalism is in particular a project that seems to be growing legs at a great rate. “Since the summer programme I’ve continued to develop my project further,” Kearney tells me, describing his work with

a great variety of groups, including the High Hopes Choir. “My research over the summer led me to get in touch with them, a Dublin-based group made up of singers affected by homelessness. I’m now assisting at rehearsals and thoroughly enjoy working with these exceptional people.”

In the future, Kearney imagines a range of directions for his project, including a songbook based around his hometown in south County Down.

He also plans on developing the workshop idea: “My vision is to increase the number of workshop participants by working with as many new groups as possible. I also hope to set the ball rolling on events like film-screenings, concerts and more informal music sessions. The emphasis is on everyone becoming a more vocal member of their community.”

A similar ambition is shared

by Donoghue and Martin.

Their first pilot project succeeded in generating ideas including an app to redistribute used computers to people in need, and a website to facilitate interaction between community members and those new to the community such as refugees. They now plan on creating a new website which will allow people from anywhere to set up similar events and thus keep sprouting new ideas. “The idea is that people should be able to duplicate it.

Whether they have tech experience or not, anyone in UCC, say, or further afield, could set up their own event and find ways of using technology to make change.”

They are also teaming up with Trinity’s entrepreneurship event Launchbox, and will be holding a new Dev, Meet Tech event as part of the Launchbox programme.

Whatever the successes of Dev, Meet Tech, however, Martin insists that his main gains with the Ideas Collective have been personal ones.

“Out of the ideas collective we have Dev, Meet Tech, but we have all these friends who all think the same way – everybody is a change-maker, so in a way it was the conversation that was the most fantastic!”

Kearney agrees, adding: “I’ve a feeling it’s going to turn into something quite special before long.”

This may have something to do with the fact that according to those who participate, the programme is person-focused, rather than idea-focused, making it more engaging and in the end more impactful.

“It’s about becoming global citizens,” Martin sums it up.

“Seeing ourselves as global citizens. What do we have to do to be global citizens?”

Statistics Two weeks after the release of Leaving Cert results in mid August, candidates can view their exam scripts in their school or examination centre in the company of their subject teacher. If the student feels it is the case that they were marked unfairly and not in keeping with the marking scheme, they may appeal their grade, at a cost of 40 per subject. This fee is refundable in the case of an upgrade, which is completed by mid-October.

This year, 9,809 grades were appealed by 5,660 candidates in an array of subjects. Consequently, 1,822 grades were increased following appeals, which amounts to a success rate of 18.6%. A further five results were downgraded. The State Examinations Commission (SEC) noted that the 1,822 upgrades accounted for only 0.47% of all grades awarded in the 2015 Leaving Cert.

Due to this subsequent increase in CAO points, in 2014, 380 college applicants were offered a place in the second week of October. In this case, you may accept the new offer or remain in your original course. However, in many cases, colleges request that the student defer until the following year due to limits on places or the amount of work missed, which could be up to six weeks in some colleges.

Candidates can view their remarked scripts in late October at the SEC offices in Athlone and apply for a further recheck.

As with any large scale operation, errors occur. However, possibly the biggest flaw of the appeals process is the short timeframe between receiving results, appealing results and commencing college. This year the Leaving Certificate took place between June 3 and June 19. 2,000 examiners, selected from a pool of serving, retired and unemployed teachers, have 26 days to correct between 150 and 300 papers each, depending on experience. Marked scripts are then returned to the SEC by courier in mid-July, yet Leaving Cert results are released over three weeks later. This year, results day was August 12, while script viewing took place on the 28 and 29 of the same month.

Different approaches Even in my own school, this timeframe was so tight that some students were moving to college straight after viewing their scripts. There is simply no need for this additional pressure and panic. In the UK and France, college offers are distributed during the previous academic year, which eliminates a proportion of the unknowing confusion about where your future lies if results don’t go your way.

The French Baccalaureate took place this year from June 17-24 and yet students received their results on July 7, less than two weeks later.

170,000 teachers correct between 70 to 150 papers in 10-15 days. There are options for student to repeat failed exams later in the summer, with French universities commencing in early September.

In the UK, A Level results are released a day after Leaving Cert results, with universities starting in mid-September at the earliest.

The effects of entering the appeals process are some-

what undermined and forgotten. Emerging from the stress and difficulty of Leaving Cert results day, to be directly submerged again into the world of marking schemes, teachers and grades is overwhelming. This coupled with the intense uncertainty of your immediate future, whether you should start packing for college or finding your exam papers, is exasperating. For some those five extra points is the difference between careers, the difference between college or a Post-Leaving Certificate (PLC) course.

Personal Experience I am a first year student fresh from the Leaving Cert appeals process. On Leaving Cert results day, I found myself disappointed with certain results in subjects that I had previously excelled at. In hindsight, I was probably unnecessarily upset over the debacle but I felt I had failed myself in what is billed as the most important exam of your life, the pinnacle of your secondary school career. I decided to recheck my French and music results and in the meantime commence my third choice course of History and Political science at Trinity. Six weeks passed and I received a phone call from my secondary school informing me that my results had increased by one grade in each subject, affording me 15 extra points. My initial feeling, surprisingly, was not delight but annoyance.

I was aggrieved by the incompetency of the SEC not just once, but twice. All the disappointment of results day could have been avoided and I should have been offered my first choice. The power and influence the SEC wielded over my future was very unsettling. Eventually, I decided not to take up the offer of my first choice due to numerous factors. However, if I had, because my first choice was also at Trinity, I would not have been anywhere near as inconvenienced as those who may have to change college, cities or even countries due to their upgrades. This causes completely unnecessary upheaval at such an unsettling period of our lives.

For Julie Farrell, a master’s student in Interactive Digital Media at Trinity, the process was considerably longer. A student of the 2011 Leaving Cert class, she viewed her biology script with her teacher, who felt there were grounds for a grade increase, and followed the appeals procedure. In the meantime, she commenced her fifth choice course, French and classics at Trinity. When appeals results were delivered, Julie found that she had not received the expected increase. She reviewed her script in Athlone and applied for a second recheck: “When it came back that I didn’t get the upgrade, I was really annoyed.

It was just really intimidating for an 18-year-old to do.”

The upgraded result was returned to Julie via her school in January, over six months after sitting the Leaving Cert. “I was just really delighted that I had stuck to my guns. I think people can be really upset and vulnerable in that kind of situation. They think that they’re just grasping at straws but if you really think you should’ve gone up, I’d really recommend it to people, even just for your own piece of mind.” The increased points gave Julie the option of her fourth choice course, which she subsequently turned down. “For me, it was the difference between 495 and 500, which is nothing.

For me, it was just in my head, to get the 500 and that was it.”

In the same way that there has been calls to reform the points system, the appeals process requires huge change also. The expansion of the time frame is key to allow student to make informed decisions about their futures. In the long run, reform of the points system to something resembling the UCAS or French processes would also simultaneously benefit students who are left to appeal grades. However, as is the case presently, it is simply unfair to add to the confusion and vulnerability of students at such a transformative period in their lives.

Trinity News | Tuesday 20 October

Features

10

The inside story behind the new College TCard and app Computer science students Conor Brennan and Peter Meehan speak about their involvement with developing Trinity’s new digital ID app Caoimhe Gordon Online features editor Trinity is the first institution in the country to provide students with a digital ID which can be downloaded for free on mobile devices. This now provides students with the possibility to use many college services without producing their physical student card.

PHOTO: PAUL REYNOLDS

Unlikely actors in the eighth amendment campaign

Sarah Taaffe-Maguire considers the difficulties professional and student midwives face when negotiating the eighth amendment Sarah TaaffeMaguire Staff writer

The eighth amendment places equal value on the life of an unborn child as on the life of the pregnant person. It goes beyond a ban on abortion.

It is a divisive issue. Lesser reported on is the literal division made between people. When a person becomes pregnant they no longer have the same rights as another human.

Pregnant people are not permitted to make all the choices about their care, nor their body; consent becomes optional. The Association for Improvements in Maternity Services Ireland reveals that between 2010 and 2014 only 52.8% of the 2,836 pregnant people surveyed were “fully informed of benefits, risks, and potential outcomes of tests, procedures, and treatment” and only 50.2% were given the opportunity to make an informed refusal.

In practice this has meant forced medical procedures, or “torture” as the United Nations has termed it. It is only through court cases that these stories come to light. The 2010 case of Mother A tells of one such coerced caesarean section. You would expect there to be a real, substantial risk to the existence of the foetus for an intervention, but the case tells a different story. Here, the risk was that Mother A may experience a uterine rupture. In such a circumstance there is little risk of death to the baby.

In 2011 Ciara Hamilton had her waters broken at Kerry General Hospital with neither her consent nor her knowledge. A side effect of waters being broken is umbilical cord prolapse. She was not informed of this, had an emergency caesarean section, and has suffered the psychological effects since. Hers is a case which highlights the positions of the doctor as having greater access to truth and knowledge than the pregnant person.

Today, Ms Hamilton argues, the HSE can “merely use a set of tables to impose a medical treatment of their choosing upon a pregnant or labouring woman.” In challenging the intervention she asked that “each woman would have input into a decision process that considered their individual medical history. This was a minimal request. It relied upon the right of every Irish citizen to have input into deci-

sions that affect their private life, as defined in the Constitution. Yet, somehow, the courts found that this minimal level of participation in medical decisions while birthing was not to be awarded to the women of this State”.

Ms Hamilton has had to pay for her own legal costs for bringing this case. Faced with legal bills, it is doubtful that the ruling will be challenged in the future. Ms Hamilton feels that the eighth amendment “is the trump card that allows these injustices to be perpetrated on women and their children. It is this that allows clinicians to perform medical procedures without the consent of women.”

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In a situation where the eighth amendment no longer exists it is conceivable that the same coercive systems may still exist.

It is common for the threat of a court order to be used if a pregnant person’s consent is not readily given. Women fearing their baby being taken into state custody generally do not sustain the pressure and yield to the procedure.

The eighth amendment has been given a wide berth. No cases have emerged where a pregnant person has been taken to court because they were arguably putting the life of the foetus in danger. No one has argued that a pregnant person has created a situation where the amendment may be broken. No court has specifically ruled that an action ought to have been done against the pregnant person because otherwise the foetus would be at risk of death. The court has ceded to a medical profession acting in fear but crucially has not held their actions are necessary. A literal interpretation of the amendment would not

mean such steps and harms against pregnant people are necessary. It is the fear of doctors and not the decisions of court that deem the violence against pregnant people necessary.

The chilling effect of the amendment is undeniable.

Hospitals fear a situation which may be in breach of the amendment so they take precautionary measures, which sounds cautious and appropriate until you know what it means. We can see the amendment is not the only cause of the coercion. Let’s not forget the wording: the unborn has only the right to be born.

There is no right to be born safely according to the Supreme Court. In a situation where the eighth amendment no longer exists it is conceivable that the same coercive systems may still exist.

Might teaching have play a role in the creation of a culture of indifference to the choice of pregnant people?

Midwifery is taught in all the major Irish universities, and certainly Trinity midwifery students know, learn and talk about the eighth amendment.

It is a regular topic in their sociology class says one, “with regard to scope of practise, autonomy of the woman and midwifery practise, choice and conscious objection/ providing care in emergency circumstances.”

However, speaking to Trinity News, one Trinity midwifery student said that it does come “under scrutiny lately as women in maternity in Ireland are totally not given choice (it's just medical lead birth).” Students witness harms to women first hand: “We have all seen, been part of a situation and heard of women doing things they don't want. We do things we don't want. I don't know if it's specifically eighth amendment related so in that I can't judge or comment.”

Seemingly there is a cognisance of the harms. Why then have the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation not been at the heart of the campaign to repeal the eighth amendment? In November 2014, the INMO and other trade unions met to discuss the eighth amendment as part of a union wide campaign aimed at a repeal. They were calling on their fellow trade unionists to come together. Yet the INMO have been silent on the issue since. Certainly there was no official presence at the recent March for Choice. The INMO neglected to comment on the issue when contacted by Trinity News. From this, it can only be concluded that they are not

taking a stance. Arguably, this is the worse than being in favour of the amendment; they have acknowledged its harms by being part of the original trade union meeting, but have not taken any action. Are midwives institutionalised into thinking this behaviour is required in a busy modern Irish hospital? Or do they fear their job if they speak out?

Midwives play a specific role in the care of pregnant people.

Speaking to Trinity News, independent midwife and cam-

“

“We have all seen, been part of a situation and heard of women doing things they don't want. We do things we don't want.”

paigner Philomena Canning commented: “the freedom of midwifery relies on the freedom of women. With women in chains, midwifery practice is correspondingly restricted… the fundamental role of the midwife is to share the journey through childbirth in partnership with the woman, so taking the freedom from one takes it from both.” She believes the amendment “is the greatest insult of all to motherhood, implying the State cares more about the welfare of the baby in the womb, and that a woman's capacity and decision-making is rendered wayward, unsound, or not to be trusted. Getting the Eighth repealed is the essential first step in the long journey back to women and midwives reclaiming their equal power.”

Of course nurses and midwives are not the only ones towing the oppression of the amendment. Doctors, obstetricians and gynaecologists too have their involvement, but The Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Ireland has not taken a stance in favour of women. The Insti-

tute have in the past dictated that women’s medical records and unpublished research could form part of the Walsh Report into symphysiotomy.

In a letter to the Irish Times in May of this year regarding the composition of the Strategy Review Steering Group, Professor Robert Harrison, said members of the Institute were "dismayed about the make-up of the group." He believes three obstetricians, no anaesthetists or critical care specialists, but nine people from a midwifery background and three lay people, “does not reflect a fair balance of those who work in maternity services today.” The Institute seeks to maintain the status quo of consultant dominated care and the view of doctors knowing best.

Do patients know that the coercion is because of the eighth amendment? If it were more widely known, the voices of these people could be useful in making the campaign against the amendment more directly applicable to not only people in childbirth but to partners and family, people who potentially do not directly relate to stories of abortion. That’s not to advocate for a sanitising of the core message, but to illustrate all the suffering caused by the amendment. An INMO stance on the amendment could be a galvanising force and point of unity for these left out voices.

Difficult moral decisions are invoked: in a situation where a patient is refusing a procedure, does the doctor know best? This is not just an issue on the treatment of women.

To answer we must engage with the notion that the medical profession sees itself as possessing the monopoly on truth; what is the correct moral decision? To practitioners it seems the correct medical decision is the only decision.

Ultimately, no one but the informed individual must control the direction of the medical care concerning their own body. The eighth amendment has made that complicated moral decision for us. It is a core part of the state apparatus of subjugation. While only intended to prohibit abortion, it is applied broadly and used as a method to reify the societal feeling that women cannot be trusted, and are not best placed, to make decisions about their bodies and their care.

The idea of providing a digital ID came to fruition last year during Finn Murphy’s tenure as Entertainment Officer of the SU. During his research into the possible interest into the production of such an app for students, an email survey was forwarded to students in which they were questioned about Murphy’s proposal. The respondents of the online survey proved to be extremely positive towards the idea with over 91.6% agreeing that it would be of value to their college experience. The overwhelmingly encouraging response prompted a collaboration between the Trinity College Dublin Students Union, the School of Computer Science and Statistics, and IT Services. At the centre of this project were two third year Computer Science students, Conor Brennan and Peter Meehan, who developed the app over the summer.

The pair first became acquainted with project when they were referred to Computer Science lecturer Stephen Weber. This selection process began in early May and the students began initial work on the app by the end of the month. For the first month or two, the instructions given to Brennan and Meehan were simply “go off and do it.”

They explain: “We were given an office in the Lloyd from SCSS but for the first month or two there was very little direction, so we went off and made the thing with a sort of stubbed out version of the college infrastructure.” However, as the calendar changed, so too did the involvement of the college staff as they endeavoured to finish the project: “The last month and a half of it was more tightly regulated where we were actually trying to get it to work with IT Services systems. There was a lot of management, jumping through sort of bureaucratic hoops and trying to make the thing official.”

As well as working on the app itself, it became the job of Brennan and Meehan to secure funding from College.

Brennan mentions that the pair gleaned a clear insight into the strange situation, in relation to gathering support for such projects: “After working on it for a month and a half we were then being asked to go off and get the funding for the thing we were already working on.” Targeted sources included the library, the sports centre, security, academic registry, careers advisory service and the counselling service.

“Seemingly it’s not enough for the Provost to just say “this is a thing”, you have to go and ask each of the stakeholders individually whether they

want to use the thing. We had to go and meet them individually and say “this is a thing now, is it okay with you that it’s a thing?”, as opposed to “the Provost has said this is a thing, you’re going to have to use it.” It was weird; I thought that dynamic was really odd.”

During the three months allocated to complete the project, they focused on providing several key features to students: “We started with the ‘if you lose or forget your student card, it lets you say who you are,’ so within that it really just generates an image and shows who you are.” The students also added a Dublin map and a Twitter feed. However, they also experienced restrictions.

One of these was in relation to the NFC (near field communication), a process in which technology would be used to open doors using student cards. “That was taken off the table really early on, because you can’t develop it for iOS. It would have been possible for a lot of Android phones, but we were told not to do that because we can’t have a different version for iOS and a different version for Android.”

Brennan and Meehan’s time at the helm of the digital ID app has almost reached its conclusion. After some uncertainty, the pair are currently in the process of passing the torch onto IT Services: “I think IT Services are the people who are going to own the code base and it’ll be people there who’ll maintain it.” The pair also have a lot of thoughts on what new features could be added to the app in the future, including the hopeful inclusion of NFC: “If Apple release NFC to developers, then definitely building access is the first thing they want to go into it.” Other stakeholders around the college also provided the students with other possibilities of what they would like to see included within the app, for example to see if the student identifiable from the app was an international student or a resident of Trinity accommodation.

However, Brennan and Meehan have some qualms with the college infrastructure services, in relation to implementing these minor changes to the app. Brennan clarifies: “The way college has all of their infrastructure set up, the way the data lies and who owns the data, it makes it all a big spaghetti mess in terms of trying to collate everything together, stuff you’d think would be really simple.” Yet the pair are confident that the app’s success could guarantee the college’s future investment into the project: “If people go and download and use it and it’s seen to be used, the college will probably put money towards it, so you could make it as big or as full-featured as you liked, and I suppose they like the idea of people having a Trinity-branded thing on their phones.”

Trinity News | Tuesday 20 October

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PHOTO: EOIN CAMBAY FOR TRINITY NEWS

Five things you might not know exist on campus With a centuries old history and a place in the middle of the capital, it's no surpise that College is more thsan just lecture theatres and the Campanile Jake Trant Staff writer Hidden Cemetery Trinity surprisingly - or unsurprisingly - has its own cemetery. Located just to the left of the ATM machine behind the chapel by the Dining Hall is Challoners Corner.

This cemetery is home to nine tombstones all marking Trinity academics ranging from 1613 to 2010. The oldest is of Luke Challoner. One of the original fellows of Trinity in 1592 he was also the first Vice Chancellor of Trinity as well as one of the creators of the Trinity Library. He was the son of the first Secretary of State for Ireland under Queen Elizabeth and father in law to James Ussher Archbishop of Armagh after whom the library is named.

Also present are Provosts William Temple (d. 1627) and F.S.L. Lyons, the well-known historian (d. 1983). However, this cemetery is not in fact a true cemetery as only two people are actually buried there. The ashes of F.S.L. Lyons, David Webb (d. 1994) and Arthur Watts (d. 2010) are contained in Challoners Corner, however the others were merely put there out of convenience during refurbishments or rebuilding of the chapel over the years. An example of this is Challoner himself whose monument was moved to its present location during a rebuilding of the Chapel in 1798. Their bodies most likely remain where they were originally buried: under the present day chapel or

Weingreen Museum

Museums

Hidden away in a corner of the Arts Block on the fifth floor lies the Weingreen Museum of Biblical Antiquities.

The name comes from the fact that the museum has objects from biblical cities such as Jericho and Jerusalem, and from places and cultures that date from the time the Old Testament was written including the ancient Egyptians and the Assyrians.

It’s well known that Trinity is home to the Book of Kells which as we know from the crowds is visited by over 500,000 each year. Unbeknownst to many however is the fact that there are two other museums on campus as well, the Zoological Museum and the Weingreen Museum of Biblical Antiquities.

The museum contains over 2000 objects from Palestine, Mesopotamia and Egypt which range from the ninth century BC to the seventeenth century and is the only one of its kind in Ireland. The museum is open to the general public but by appointment only for conservation reasons and is also used as a teaching museum. It is currently curated by Dr Zuleika Rogers. The museum is named after Prof Jacob Weingreen (1907-95).

Born the son of Jewish immigrants in Manchester he attended Trinity despite little formal education. At 29 he became the Erasmus Smith Professor of Hebrew - the first Jew to do so. In 1939, he published a Hebrew grammar book which has been translated into several languages and is still the standard text today.

After World War II he and his wife worked in a Displaced Persons Camp near BergenBelsen.

He was involved in setting up the museum which opened in 1957 and donated his personal collection. It later moved to its current location and was named in Weingreen’s honour on his retirement in 1977. The museum contains many objects ranging from pieces of pottery to mummified hawks and seahorses. It contains many of historic importance such as one of four original casts of the Rosetta Stone from 1802 (the stone used to crack hieroglyphics), the others being in the universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Edinburgh. It also contains one of only two sarcophagus ever recovered from Lachish.

The Zoological Museum is located in the Zoology building and is open to the public between June and August (it operates as a teaching museum the rest of the year). The museum is in fact over 250 years old, and was founded as the Dublin University Museum in 1777. It was formed to hold a collection of Polynesian objects from Captain Cook’s expedition and was originally housed in Regent House.

In 1876 it moved to its current location but occupied the whole building not just the room it has now. However, in the 1950s a large part of the collection was disposed of or donated to the Natural History Museum when they refurbished the building. Since the 1990s under the curatorship of Dr Martyn Linnie the museum has been revived, reopening after refurbishment in 2004.

There are over 25,000 objects in the collection and it is the only natural history museum in the country accredited by the Heritage Council.

(Not even the Natural History Museum on Merrion Square has that.) It has many rare objects such as the last Great Auk (now extinct) ever to live in Ireland. It was killed in 1844.

It is the only example of this species in Ireland and one of only 20 in the world.

The museum also houses many examples of non-extinct species, including a stuffed Hippo and the skeleton of an elephant called Prince Tom which belonged to Queen Victoria’s son Prince Alfred.

Prince Tom incidentally travelled with Alfred to New Zealand. It also contains one of the most important insect collection in Ireland as well as a rare collection of Blaschka Glass Models of animals which help make its collection second only to the Natural History Museum

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The museum also houses many examples of nonextinct species, including a stuffed Hippo and the skeleton of an elephant called Prince Tom which belonged to Queen Victoria’s son Prince Alfred.

Lesser known libraries The BLU and Hamilton libraries are well known. Lesser known, however, is the fact that there are two more parts to the library which are open to students: the Department of Early Printed Books and Special Collections and the Department of Manuscripts and Archives. The Department of Early Printed Books (EPB) is located in the Old Library and is reached via a tunnel from the Berkeley more reminiscent of a Cold War nuclear bunker then a library.

EPB has over 250,000 books most of which are in the Long Room dating from the earliest printed books in the 1500s to modern ones. It is a phenomenally valuable collection in terms of both content and research and has some items that are unique in Europe if not the world.

It contains many rare books such as a leaf from the Gutenberg Bible (the first book ever printed in Europe). It also has a first edition of the Book of Mormon, a first folio of Shakespeare and the the Erfurt Enchiridion hymn book printed in 1524 in Germany, which is the only surviving copy. Its rediscovery in 2013 was reported internationally.

The Department of Manuscripts and Archives is accessed through the Long Room and down a beautiful Georgian staircase. This department dates back to the college’s foundation and holds all the manuscripts and archives of the college, including famous ones such as the Book of Kells. They are also partly responsible along with EPB for organising exhibitions in the Long Room.

The Manuscripts department contains hundreds of thousands of items ranging from ancient Egyptian papyrus from 2000 BC to medieval manuscripts to papers of historical figures. The collection contains the best collection in the world of Irish manuscripts from the 7th to 9th centuries.

It also contains the papers of individuals such as John Banville, Erskine Childers and J. M Synge. Furthermore, there are items of huge historical importance including the 1641 Depositions (which can now be viewed online). As the library looks to embrace the digital age, many of their collections can now be viewed online through blogs, featuring the diaries of Irish soldiers in WWI and diaries from the 1916 Rising.

St Patrick’s Well St Patrick’s Well is reached by a gate located on the left to the Nassau Street entrance to the Arts Block. The passage then leads underneath Nassau Street itself. The well was one of the most important holy wells in Dublin from the twelfth to the early eighteenth century. It was a sight of pilgrimage every St. Patrick’s Day and was also associated with drunkenness on the day.

Although the exact location on Nassau Street is unknown (it was most likely originally on South Leinster Street near Lincoln Place) the current well is part of the same spring.

As one of the few landmarks (along with Dublin Castle and St Stephen’s Green) marked on seventeenth century maps, the well was one of the most important landmarks in Dublin in its time.

In fact, Nassau Street was originally known as St Patrick’s Well Lane. However, in the late eighteenth century the well began to decline in popularity and appears to have been covered over. Yet by the next century it was used in advertisements by the drinks company Cantrell & Cochrane (current makers of Bulmer’s) who proudly claimed to use water from St Patrick’s Well in their drinks.

Trinity News | Tuesday 20 October

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The Special Olympics: progressive or regressive?

The Special Olympics has grown immeasurably to occupy a prominent position within global sport, welcoming some 6,500 athletes, representing 165 countries, to compete in Los Angeles, California during this year's competition

Aaron Matheson Reen

not possess an intellectual disability, participating in a competition with somebody in their teens. Does this, however, represent a cultural issue which is in need of remedying?

Contributing writer “The world will never be the same again.” This remark was made by the Chicago politician, Richard Daley, at the opening of the first Special Olympics World Summer Games in 1968. Few could claim that Daley’s prediction has not at least partially come to fruition. In the 47 years since its foundation, the Special Olympics has grown immeasurably to occupy a prominent position within global sport; the 2015 instalment of the World Summer Games welcomed some 6,500 athletes, representing 165 countries, to compete in Los Angeles, California.

The manner of this all-encompassing transformation preoccupies modern observers. Certain commentators consider the Special Olympics to be a progressive influence on both participants and non-participants. Others, nonetheless, regard it as a regressive force. What are the topics which fuel this debate?

Inclusion The “Special Olympics strives,” according to its mission statement, “to create a better world by fostering the acceptance and inclusion of all people.” Nevertheless, a criticism which has been consistently levied against the organisation is that it enshrines segregation. Acting as a barrier to its participants engaging in external sporting events, the Special Olympics purportedly institutionalises a separation between athletes with and without an intellectual disability. The Special Olympics’ Official General Rules state that every individual with an intellectual disability may partake in its activities. Persons not meeting this criterion, therefore, are unable to participate.

Issues of exclusion, nonetheless, pivot around perspective. Aligning focus towards the Olympics illustrates this point. Given its etymology and structures, the Special Olympics naturally draws comparison with its older cousin. Some commentators find an absence of references to intellectual disability in the Olympic Charter noteworthy. Effective as of 2 August 2015, this document defines participation as open to those who comply with the charter and World Anti-Doping Code, who uphold the conditions outlined by the International Olympic Committee and rules of the International Federation, and who were entered to the Olympics by their National Olympic Committee.

Disability is only mentioned twice in the Olympic Charter.

Furthermore, the employment of this term is used in relation to the executive organs of the organisation rather than prospective athletes.

Specifically, they refer to the capacity of the President of the International Olympic Committee to execute the duties of their office and the National Olympic Committee’s contractual obligations in relation to an athlete suffering a serious injury. In short, there are no ostensible prohibitions to an individual

with a n intellect u a l disability competing in the Olympics. silence Despite pics’ ofin the Olymficial litera- ture, it may be contended that the very existence of the Special Olympics discourages persons with an intellectual disability from engaging with other sporting platforms. Felt to be the most appropriate sporting option, such people are channelled into the organisation’s activities. The psychological impact, as it were, of the Special Olympics represents the real blocking mechanism.

Subscription to this view is made difficult for a number of reasons. William E. MacLean Jr’s stance against notions of segregation provides an example. This former volunteer coach demonstrates that a Special Olympics initiative known as United Sports was incepted in 1989. United Sports provides a platform for athletes with and without an intellectual disability to compete alongside one another.

Taking exception to certain commentators glossing over this programme, MacLean Jr points to its success in attracting some 150,000 members worldwide.

Statistical information provides another point of contention. C. N. Harada and G. N. Siperstein conducted a survey of American Special Olympic participants and their families in 2009. This research revealed that 48% of these athletes engaged in three hours or more of sporting activities outside the confines of Special Olympic structures.

The above evidence seems to imply that a significant proportion of Special Olympic athletes have access to an independent sporting setting.

This number grows when one considers the presumably numerous cases of individuals training or practicing for less than the three hour threshold. Thus, it has been contended that the factors preventing an individual with an intellectual disability competing in sporting occasions divorced from the Special Olympics are not institutionalised. Bodies like the Olympics do not place restrictions on participation and the Special Olympics does not command a monopoly over sporting activities. The latter, by means of the United Sports initiative, encourages the joint participation of athletes possessive and not possessive of an intellectual disability.

Stereo types Academics E. A. Polloway and J. D. Smith argue that press coverage of the games serves to reinforce negative stereotypes surrounding intellectual disability. Wrapped up in the “selfrighteousness” of its cause, the Special Olympics evokes emotions of sympathy and pity through its depiction in the media. This in turn affects public perception of the organisation and its athletes.

Such stereotypes often inform the treatment of individuals with intellectual disabilities. The terms sympathy and pity are sometimes associated with an excessive emphasis on care. While persons with an intellectual disability may require support from members of the public, extending this obligation too forcefully can be debilitating. These individuals become the focus of care in their community and by default, an inequality arises.

They are divorced from the typical social structures of their locality. This denies, as Article 3 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and Optional Protocol defines: “full and effective participation … in society.”

The specific vantage point of Polloway and Smith’s argument, buoyed by the concurrent views of other scholars, is, however, contested. It places paramount importance on the imprint the Special Olympics makes on the public domain. The impact on its athletes, though a concern, is presented as neglected by their opponents. In this regard, the psychological impression left on an individual who participates in the games has been emphasised. The findings of Clare Crawford, Jana Burns and Bruce Ferni, for instance, were published in Research in Developmental Disabilities this year. Driven by the interrelation between intellectual disability and low self-esteem, the group compared the emotional well-being of 101 persons who were members of the Special Olympics, of Mencap Sport and who were subscribed to neither.

Self-Determination The ability to exercise control over life choices is often emphasised in supports provided for persons with intellectual disabilities. Such inputs seek to extend this principle broadly and, as such, encompass sporting activities. When contemplating this point, David DiLeo labels the

Crawford, Burns and Ferni observed that “self-esteemwas found to be a significant predictor of group membership, those in the [Special Olympics] having the highest selfesteem.” Not only evidence for the corroboration between participation in sport and positive mental health, this would seem to reinforce the psychological benefits of engagement in the Special Olympics.

Having established positive by-products, the belief that the negative characterisation of the Special Olympics is a result of outside agents becomes partially validated.

It may be asserted that these stereotypes are transmitted mostly by media outlets. Accepting this theory as accurate, a cultural reorientation in the press could provide the breathing space for more positive associations to grow.

This may eliminate the damaging impressions that many people unintentionally adopt on matters relating to the Special Olympics.

Functionality Certain quarters maintain that the worth of the Special Olympics is dubious. This is in light of its athletes failing to acquire sufficient functional skills. Touro University academic, Keith Storey, queries: “How functional are some events, for example, the softball throw where the participant throws to a spot on the ground, rather than to a person?” The lack of practical

ap plications for this and similar exercises appears to be Storey’s concern.

Outlining his stance in a 2008 publication, Storey’s conjecturing doubtless revolves around what the purpose of the Special Olympics ought to be. Seemingly, he places significance on the cultivation of relevant motor skills. The organisation should supplement the development of its athletes in this field. On this issue, the Special Olympics is apparently failing.

Arguments on the practical achievements of the organisation are varied.

Many take issue with Storey’s criticisms. It can be difficult to think, they assert, of a sport whose mechanical requirements translate directly in daily life. The throwing of a ball, whether to a delineated target or an awaiting individual, does not necessarily enhance one's physical capacity in any outside contexts. In addition, functionality is not something which is stressed in the Olympics so why then should it be made an issue solely when considering the Special Olympics?

Regardless, membership of a squad or panel – on a local, regional or indeed national scale – ferments the growth of abstract qualities such as teamwork and sportsmanship. Some observers contend these values should be foremost in debates surrounding developmental outcomes for Special Olympic athletes.

Age M . L. and L. G. Calhoun have argued that the grouping of individuals with intellectual disabilities by age bracket for sporting events positively affects their perception among members of the public. In this respect, they highlight the Special Olympics’ practice of mixing young and old athletes as having a damaging effect.

The Special Olympics’ position on this topic is clear.

“With our 30-plus Olympicstyle sports,” its mission statement outlines, “we offer adults and children with intellectual disabilities many ways to be involved in their communities, many ways to show who they really are.”

Here is a strong declaration to accommodate all age groups under its umbrella of activities. The practicalities of carrying out this promise are, nevertheless, challenging to meet. Those who possess an intellectual disability sometimes exhibit a disparity between their age and intellectual capacity.

Consequently, the strict grouping of athletes by age, which is standard practice in most sporting movements, is not wholly applicable to the Special Olympics.

Acknowledging the problems delineating between Special Olympics athletes, there is some justification in Calhoun and Calhoun’s supposition.

Witnessing a child compete alongside an adult may lead to the latter’s abilities and strengths being unfairly dismissed. And if this impression is transferred beyond sporting circles, adults with intellectual disabilities could be treated as children in exchanges with members of their communities. In such instances, being a meaningful member of one’s society, which is bound up in the expectations placed upon people appropriate to age, is made very difficult.

Commentators who are possessive of such a conclusion are implored by some to temper their thinking with corresponding examples. In the ephemeral world of professional gymnastics, the average age of competitors is a mere 16. Therefore, the mixing of adults with children in elite sporting situations is not unheard of. Granted, the same perceptions would not necessarily be equated with, for example, a gymnast in their twenties, who does

Special Olympics a “Disability Industrial Complex”.

This term is used to describe an organisation which, under the veil of promoting freedom of choice, serves only the needs of the professionals it employs and deprives the people it interacts with rights of abstention. If this definition is to be believed, participants of the Special Olympics are, at times, coerced into partaking in its activities and are ill-informed with respect to alternate sporting opportunities.

DiLeo’s interpretation of the Special Olympics’ function diverges with the objectives of programmes it has launched. The Athlete Leadership and Global Messenger initiatives hope to witness Special Olympians fulfill roles “as leaders and spokespeople respected in their communities.” In such positions, “athletes are trained to engage in policy discussions and to articulate their opinions to community and government leaders.” These programmes are operational in 67 countries and are developed “at a grass-roots level”.

Furthermore, some of those availing of these schemes become Sargent Shriver International Global Messengers whereby representing the Special Olympics and their countries in a public relations capacity.

There is, resultantly, a division of opinion between official Special Olympics outlets and critics of the organisation on the subject of self-determination. One side asserts that the views of the athletes are given a platform for expression. Another suggests that, although a culture of athlete independence is forwarded, the Special Olympics denies its participants meaningful choice on sporting matters. Proponents of this view maintain that many athletes with an intellectual disability do not have exposure to sporting settings divorced from the Special Olympics.

They cannot, therefore, make truly informed decisions in relation to such issues.

It is difficult to completely style the Special Olympics as either progressive or regressive. There is evidence substantiating and refuting both of these characterisations.

Perhaps a more prosaic labelling is appropriate. The significant issue is whether the shortcomings of the Special Olympics are resultant of its associated ideologies, structures and practices. Deciding on if these areas require attention is paramount to the future development of the organisation and its 4.4 million athletes.

ILLUSTRATION: SARAH MOREL

Trinity News | Tuesday 20 October

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Comment My experience on mental health medication Prozac wasn’t a fix-all solution, but it did mark the beginning of the end of my depression

ILLUSTRATION: MUBASHIR SULTAN

Courtney Byrne Staff writer This brief chapter of my life – which didn’t feel brief at the time – is hazy in my memory. I was in Junior Certificate year, fourteen years old, when I began to spiral destructively into what I later realised was depression. It was the self-harm that did it, that pushed me, and my family and friends to consider the daunting option of outside help.

At first I went to a holistic healer who tried to explain how I ought to channel negative energy from my toes out through the top of my head, and at the end of the session gave me a massage that made my arms develop pins and needles. As a very sceptical non-spiritual teenager, I went away confused and emotional, adamant never to return.

Next came the school counsellor, who made a desperate attempt to determine the cause of what I was feeling.

From daddy issues to not being challenged enough in school: you name it, she tried to use it to explain away what I was stubbornly convinced was unprecedented, sporadic, clinical depression.

Eventually I was referred on to my GP when Miss Guidance

Counsellor realised she was in over her head and that I had no intention to cooperate. I was having none of it when the doctor suggested to try meditation, deep breathing, exercise, or what have you. I had done my research and I was there for one thing, and one thing only: medication.

Here's where the doped up story begins. I started my Prozac course in February, not long after turning fifteen, under the close, watchful (and to me, prying) eye of a psychologist who had an accent that I could not understand whatsoever. I was a good girl, and did what I was told, taking it regularly every morning, despite how repulsive the taste was, which I still remember to this day.

Medication made me numb I watched out for any side effects. Depression had been causing physical exhaustion in me for quite some time, but as soon as I took the medication, I was an even more real feeling of drowsiness and lethargy that became a daily battle in school. The main thing I noticed, emotion-wise, was that I couldn't cry. It was like the medication numbed my numbness and dulled any strong emotion I would have felt. This way, I was “under control”.

I couldn't experience se-

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I began to grow restless on the medication and wanted out. I didn't want it to get all the credit for my recovery when I felt I was doing the vast majority of the work on my own. vere sadness or severe joy. It was as if I would notice something that should upset me and recognise that I should feel upset, but I just wasn't.

I'd lost touch with stimuli, and was desensitised from their effects and the impulses I would normally have had in reaction to them. Likewise, I would hear or see something wonderful that should make me euphoric, but I just wasn't. I couldn't manage

much more than a shadow of the emotion itself.

My mind was so quiet, my thoughts so slow and infrequent, that it was practically zombie-like inside my head.

I also couldn't cry, which I, as a very sensitive person, found truly terrifying and frustrating. I was very aware of the feeling that my emotions were being monitored.

Our emotions are one of the few things in life that we ourselves solely own. To have medication influence and warp them is disturbing and disconcerting.

If I were to forget to take my medication for any reason, a surge of emotion and feeling would consume me and I would cry inconsolably for hours. It was as if a floodgate had opened, and all of this natural feeling (albeit caused by a chemical imbalance) was being suppressed.

Less suppressed – more like suspended. It was as if I were a passerby on a park bench, watching my emotions float by like clouds, feeling disconnected from them entirely.

Prozac induced not a state of contentment, nor happiness, but one of “okayness”.

This okayness was only a slight improvement from the nothingness I'd been experiencing up to this, though.

My overall perception of the world didn't change; I still saw little or no brightness or hope in that which surrounded me. My coping methods didn't improve. I still felt the itch to cut and self-harm just as strongly.

In the end, my relationship with self-harm was ended purely because I could see the toll it was taking on those around me. It hurt me to see those I loved cry – much more than self-harm hurt me physically. The Prozac had very little to do with my quitting, I do believe, and I had several relapses with selfharm long after my depression had passed.

A little extra push I started to recover a few months into my medication course, and it's debatable, I suppose, whether it was due to the medication itself taking its toll, or to my attitude changing independently. I think it was a combination of the two. The Prozac alone didn't help me to realise that I actually wanted to recover, but once I realised that, I believe the Prozac gave me that little extra push to achieve it.

That push was all I wanted, and as soon as I felt it, I improved quite rapidly. But with that rapid improvement, I was starting to notice the inconveniences of being on medication more and more as the days passed. I couldn't

stay over in a friend's or family member's house without bringing this obvious, suspicious bottle with me. I would try to disguise it for fear of being questioned. I hated the feeling of reliance and dependence, especially when I felt I was finally “coping” and recovering.

I began to grow restless on the medication and wanted out. I didn't want it to get all the credit for my recovery when I felt I was doing the vast majority of the work on my own. So I did something very ill-advised: I stopped my course short. I was told I was to stay on the medication for between six to nine months, and if I remember correctly I stopped taking my medication at around the five month mark.

I felt fine once I got used to being independent of it, but hated having to lie to everyone that I was taking it. When six months finally came around, I told the doctor that I felt ready to stop.

He wanted to lower my prescription and wait another few months. I was upset that the doctors were undermining me and not taking on board how I knew I felt, all while I had already stopped taking my medication and had suffered no bad experiences. So my lie continued, and eventually, before the year was out, I was officially

free from Prozac.

I don't remember my exact dosage. Nor do I even remember whether it was a particularly strong one or not. What I remember is a blurring of the days into a soft-spoken, muted mental state. I remember the aftertaste. I remember people watching me warily as soon as I went on the medication for any side-effects, and then watching me even more closely when I came off it, checking that I wasn't going to snap or relapse. I remember being ashamed to admit to anyone that I was on medication, and how people would look at me differently if they found out.

Looks of curiosity, pity and suspicion that became so familiar to me in that period.

However, I also remember the relief and pride on my friends' and family members' faces when I had finished my course and they saw I really was feeling better. I remember having my first guilt-free sip of wine after I'd come off the medication, not having to fear side-effects any longer. I remember throwing my last bottle of Prozac into the bin with a feeling of pride: it was all over. Of course it wasn't “all over”, but it was the beginning of the end of my depression. For that, to some extent, I have anti-depressants to thank.

Trinity News | Tuesday 20 October

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The experience of being religious in college Jason Michael McCann writes about his experience balancing his college and person beliefs Jason Michael McCann Contributing writer Perhaps one of the most wonderful experiences of being liberated into the college environment is the exposure to such an eclectic mix of interesting people, whether that is in lectures, the numerous student societies, or the endless mill of invitations to get-togethers. Fraternisation happens in the no-man’s-land between the various schools and disciplines; friendships are made, and some of the most memorable and extraordinary nights are had.

First impressions count, and meeting new people comes with its own set of problems, but imagine for a moment being in a crowded room filled with strangers enjoying some beers and listening to music and being introduced as one of the trainee vicars.

Yes, that trooper was me. No doubt few others who were at that particular session remember the moment, but I do. As I remember it the music suddenly screeched and then scratched to silence, all conversation stopped, others held their glasses and tins from their mouths, and all eyes fell on me like ravenous

wolves. There was even some tumbleweed rolling outside.

For much of the rest of the evening I listened as dapper looking science students and an array of other enlightened souls told me all about my faith, and people like me, they were eager to say why they couldn’t share my beliefs or be like me. Yet some were kind enough to say how much they admired me for being able to hold onto all that stuff.

These new faces – many of whom are now dear friends – told me all about my thoughts on Creation, Adam and Eve, and Noah’s Ark. I learned all about my attitudes to homosexuality, contraception, divorce, and abortion.

As I continued to smile and nod, the more philosophical rveasoned with me about the absurdity of the existence of God, and the problem of this loving God letting so much badness happen in the world.

As I was obviously ‘one of the good ones,’ and as more social lubricant was imbibed into the night, a few felt comfortable enough to confide in me their frustration and anger at the other ones who were all about abusing children and extorting money from vulnerable old ladies. I was glad at least they were getting it off their chests.

Now, writing this reflection on being religious in college, a few years later, I could go into my trust in a God who does not exist; a God who is prior to and apart from existence, a God who is. I can explain my thoroughly modern acceptance of the biological evolutionary processes that brought us here, and discuss the mythological narrative of Eve and Adam as a means of understanding human nature, and set out my thesis that Noah’s Ark is an allegory of an ancient kingdom surviving an invasion and the exile of its people. I could even explain my religious reasons for voting Yes in the marriage equality referendum, my advocacy for greater use of contraception, and my thoughts on divorce.

It might too be useful to describe how St. Thomas Aquinas held that life began not at conception but at the ‘quickening,’ but this isn’t the place for any of that.

It may even make sense for me to write about what it is like to be religious, but I am afraid that I can’t. I am not the sum of all religious people in Trinity. I’m not a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Jew, a Hindu, or even a practitioner of Wiccan religion. I am me.

It is only my experience I can speak of, and my religious life lived in this university.

Credo in unum Deum… That I am a Christian who believes and trusts in God is not an escape from the crises of the world we share. Like so many other religious people I say my prayers and stop to wonder, often with a deep sense of dread, if I am talking to myself. Time and again I am assailed by doubt and anxiety. I worry that I am a fraud in the academy; that I am not smart enough to be here. In darker moments I question if there is some truth to the assertion that religious people are less intelligent, and that I myself am my own personal proof of this. It is at these moments that I begin to agree that my religion is a crutch.

Yesterday I discovered that a friend had been diagnosed with cancer. I called him immediately and heard this giant of a man’s voice break.

Not much more than a year ago an uncle to whom I was particularly close passed away in his fifties, and still I feel bitter. I have witnessed too many deaths, too many tragedies, but what is this to the suffering of the world – all the misery of all people and animals?

What seems too much for me is but a drop in the ocean.

People we know and love get sick and die, people die in accidents, others are callously murdered. All about us there

are people living in poverty; women, men, and children forced into the most desperate conditions. Then there is war and genocide, drought and famine. When faced with these realities I tend to despair. Imagining that there is no God drives me to hopelessness.

“

It may even make sense for me to write about what it is like to be religious, but I am afraid that I can’t. I am not the sum of all religious Hopelessness is death. We can live moments without air, but not a single second without hope. So to describe

my crutch more accurately I would say that it is hope as an act of resistance. This is to say that it is because of the realities of real life that I choose to hope; not that everything will be alright, but that love and justice will ultimately triumph – in this life or the next.

Much like the languages that we use to communicate and understand the world, hope has a grammar that permits us some access to an awareness of the final guarantor of our hope – be that God, an ultimate reality, or truth. Our trust in this transcendence is how I would begin to articulate my faith, and the religious path I follow becomes one of the many languages which give expression to this ultimate reality in the ordinary and everyday realities of my own life, and my life among others.

Appreciating religious faith as the grammar of hope renders absurd the notion that my particular religious tradition is the only way of accessing and communicating the truth. This would be every bit as absurd as claiming that only Irish or English was capable of transmitting ideas and of providing us with a vehicle by which to make sense of our thoughts.

How then does my own reli-

giousness fit into life on campus?

On the personal level my faith provides another dimension to the moral and social norms we all try to live; respecting others is transformed into an encounter with truly meaningful and unique others who are worthy of love and compassion for their own sake and because in them is the impress of God’s own image and the radiance of her love. It opens, for me at least, the way to welcoming others into my life as sisters and brothers rather than mere friends and strangers.

This welcoming of the other as divinity and humanity – and divinity in and for humanity – imbues every encounter and experience with joy, and reminds us to savour each moment with a thankfulness which elevates the humdrum to the exceptional.

On the social level my thankfulness helps me to see past all the assumptions people make of me and so see them as the other worth knowing, and reminds me daily to assume nothing of others.

Western hypocrisy is at the root of the refugee crisis When Cold War politics plunged many Middle Eastern and African countries into conflict and poverty, the West has a duty to take in the people who flee.

Imaan Bari Contributing writer A couple of weeks ago, I went to a talk on the refugee crisis hosted by Trinity’s Society for International Affairs (SOFIA) where one of the speakers was a young man who happened to be a Syrian refugee.

Although I had already been quite aware of the crisis going on and was very frustrated by it all, I had never really felt so deeply about it as I did after hearing him tell his story. I think it was the fact that he was standing right in front of us and telling us about incredibly shocking events that he had been through which made the problem very intense and real to me. I came away from the evening feeling slightly emotional but mainly just very angry at the world.

Yes, this is another article on that refugee crisis that has been going on since 2012, because you know what, it’s still going on and I don’t think we should stop rattling on about it until it is solved. This is not a matter of moving on as soon as the story gets old; this

is a humanitarian crisis that should stay at the forefront of the world news until we actually do something about it.

Can we just take a moment to acknowledge the fact that Turkey has taken in as many Syrian refugees in three days as Europe has in three years?

That is incredibly embarrassing. It baffles me that those who claim to be the “Liberal West” and place so much value on the rights and freedoms of individuals can still be so hypocritical in violating the rights of the ones who need it most right now.

Why is it that countries like Lebanon, Iran and Jordan have been the ones to accept most of the refugee population, when the Middle East is generally known in Western media for its corrupt governments, lack of human rights and generally appalling behaviour? It seems very odd that the West, who see themselves as so much more civilised and hold themselves in a much higher regard, would be lacking so much compassion and decency.

It seems that anyone outside the Northern hemi-

sphere is completely disregarded, always deemed as less of a priority. It seems that when the going gets tough, the West will be the first to criticise and condemn but always the last to actually get their hands dirty. Why is that? Are we so stuck up our own asses and so academically advanced and superior that we can’t actually engage in any sort of action that may mean our pretty cities might be shaken up a little?

It is not very often that the West have to feel the heat of global problems like mass poverty or war. We have become quite desensitised to things like cities being torn apart through violence, or thousands of kids wandering around streets, starving, on the verge of death. Sure, it’s bad and all, and sure, you’ll feel a little sad once in a while, but all those problems are so far away from us that it becomes way too easy to forget that it is a reality for millions of people. And it really irks me that when those who need help the most are literally at our doors, pleading for assistance, we have the audacity to turn them away.

If you are unsure as to what

I am getting at, I mean the thousands of refugees trying to get to Europe but being drowned in the process.

Cold War hangovers So, where are all these refugees coming from? Afghanistan, Syria and Somalia are the top three countries where the majority of refugees have fled from, each having around a million displaced people or more. This raises an interesting point: why are these countries such a mess in the first place?

Through my reading of Cold War foreign policy, there seems to be a strikingly clear correlation that each of these three countries, and probably a lot of others where refugees are coming from, have a history of US-USSR intervention. Essentially, these countries have been the unfortunate victims of rivalries of great powers. Historically, most Middle-Eastern or African countries have at some point been used as tools to further the means of the US or USSR. Let us take Afghanistan.

During the 1970s it was basically an “ideological battle-

ground” for the USSR. The US saw this as a Cold War power struggle issue and used it as a chance to get back at the USSR in retaliation for Vietnam. The result was devastating violence, war and the rise of the Taliban.

In Syria, Russia was backing the Assad regime for geostrategic reasons, to secure a foothold in the Middle-East.

The US disproved of this and did not want Russia to succeed for their own strategic purposes. The result was violence, war and the rise of ISIS. You can see a pattern here.

Why is it that before the rise of a terrorist group, the US or Russia always seem to have been there first? Furthermore, the reason these countries are in turmoil now is as a direct result of terrorist groups seizing way too much power. Call me a crazy conspiracist, but I don’t think it’s a complete coincidence.

Fast forward to the present, the country is in shambles.

The civilians are sick of it and decide to leave and come seek refuge in the prosperous West. The West feels no re-

sponsibility to these foreigners and tell them to go away.

This has happened repeatedly in numerous countries in the Middle East and Africa.

I would not say that this is the only reason that these countries are in chaos, but it has a pretty damn big impact. It is a very unsettling observation that should not be ignored.

Essentially, I believe these countries are owed some sort of compensation for their destruction. Allowing them to seek refuge in the West seems like a small and minor price to pay.

The least we owe I would agree that a considerable amount of progress has been made, eg provisions being made to help refugees in countries like Germany and Italy and others. There is also a large social movement of people, the “Refugees Welcome” campaign, which is proving to be effective. I still would say a lot more can be done, and should have been done sooner. The fact that there are still people or countries that will not accept refugees is an abhorrent problem that needs to be rectified.

Historically, we owe these people. The actions Western nations took in the past toward these countries have played a crucial role in the vastness of the crisis. I think the least we can do is provide them with safety and an equal quality of life until their countries have recovered.

We sometimes forget that it is hurting refugees’ lives more than ours when they have to flee their countries.

These people did not choose to be uprooted and to put their lives on hold because of something completely outside their control. Nor is it our choice to deny these people their right to survive and prosper. Any sane or halfdecent human can see that.

Trinity News | Tuesday 20 October

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PHOTO: EOIN CAMBAY

College should let us see more of the world outside the classroom Rigid attendance requirements make it too difficult for many students to get involved in the kind of extracurricular experiences that change lives.

Clare Ní Cheallaigh Contributing writer Search “extra credit” on Google and there are great stories to be found.

There’s the one of students in Northern Michigan University who were given 20 extra credit points for attending an “Occupy the Upper Peninsula” rally. Protest signs were compulsory and students had to sign attendance sheets before and after the rally, in case they thought they could pull the sign-in-but-leaveearly trick.

A more recent scenario in the University of Wisconsin saw students in a freshman English literature class being offered extra credit for attending a rally against Governor Scott Walker, who had proposed budget cuts to the university. Then there’s Boston College, where an adjunct professor of philosophy tried to teach her students how to have meaningful relationships by giving them extra credit for asking someone on a date.

Perhaps the most ingenious of all is the gender studies professor in Arizona State who offered female students extra credit if they stopped shaving their underarms and legs, with an equivalent male assignment to shave from the neck down.

These sensationalised stories and clickbait headlines are indicative of a broader phenomenon: for many US students, it is normal to get some form of academic compensation for attending noncompulsory events that a lecturer deems beneficial.

In the depths of my Google search, I left the wacky examples behind me and began to find the boring but ubiquitous ones. Students were getting extra credit for attending departmental seminars, guest speakers, debates and gallery or museum exhibitions. They were getting extra credit for being on Model United Nations, book clubs, speech and debate teams.

Just imagine. Pop along to the Douglas Hyde and get an extra 2%. Oh, I see SOPHIA have the Russian ambassador coming – maybe I could get

some credits for showing up and writing a short report.

For someone who has spent the majority of her university career attempting to justify missing this or that tutorial for a guest talk or an intervarsity debating competition, the prospect of being able to improve my grade simply by attending a debate is salivating.

Feeling like a liar I don’t know how many times I’ve held my breathe while sending an email to a member of academic staff, hoping that they buy my excuse and don’t dock me attendance marks or think I’m lying or dossing. At this stage, I know the tricks of the trade.

You have to try to make it sound impressive. I always write “I’m representing Trinity at…”, or better yet, “I’ve been selecting to represent Trinity at…”, whereas in reality, I just signed up and got a spot to go to the UCC Debating Intervarsity, along with about sixty other people.

Emphasising international involvement is good, too. It’s just more impressive if you are picking up a guest arriv-

ing from Canada or judging a team from Australia. After all, they’ve travelled from thousands of miles away, so surely you can miss class?

I always feel guilty and nervous sending those emails. Even though I’m not lying, I feel like I am, like I’m breaking the rules – because I’m just not sure what those rules are. What’s a legitimate excuse? What do you need to prove? Will they let it slide if I can make it seem prestigious?

I’ve had wonderful experiences of professors wishing me well and best of luck and isn’t it great that I’m broadening my mind and so forth, but equally, I know that some lecturers can even be reluctant to allow students to miss class for obvious worthwhile activities like community engagement projects or leading a debating competition for schools.

You don’t know what the reaction will be until you send the first email, and then the damage is already done. I can’t even begin to imagine what it’s like for students of science or medicine, whose hours are longer and labs much more difficult to miss

or reschedule. So why do I care? I guess it’s because like anyone who is heavily involved in a society, a sport team, a student publication, the SU or any other extracurricular, I have had to make academic sacrifices. A certain amount of that is inevitable; there are only so many hours in the day. But I think Trinity could be doing a lot more to make involvement in college life a bit easier or at least less scary or at least have any system at all.

Missed opportunities It’s clichéd (I know and apologise), but events that I’ve missed classes for have shaped my college education more than any class. I’ve been inspired over and over, grown confident and articulate, seen my ideas come to fruition and listened to words and arguments that I still dwell on years later. Other students missed those events, those moments that could have shaped them, because they didn’t have the courage to email a lecturer and ask to be excused, or didn’t even know they were allowed to do that. I’m still not really sure if we are.

One of the most exciting experiences of my first term in college was participating in the UCD Novice Intervarsity Debating Competition – which I recognise is probably a bit pathetic, but it’s the truth. My partner and I were much more successful than we expected, and I was telling everyone who would listen about it for weeks to come. In fact, I still talk about it. In fact, I think I’ll probably be telling my grandchildren about it. But I had friends who didn’t go that day because they’d be missing tutorials, and I still find it sad that they missed out on that.

To be clear, I’m not advocating a policy of total leniency with regard to class attendance – but it would nice, for example, to have some sort of system where you can apply for exemption from a class for extra-curricular purposes and for students to be informed of the process involved at the beginning of a module. Then when that thing you really want to go to comes up, you know that the option exists. Maybe then my friends would have come with me to UCD. This sort of

system would probably also lead to better advance preparation and less pretending to be sick or attending a funeral, or the more classic method of just not turning up and crossing your fingers and hoping for the best.

While a part of me will always pine for the “extra credit” of my US peers, there is nevertheless something uncomfortably patronising in the idea that third-level students need to be coaxed into visiting an art gallery. I think ultimately, a culture of attending events because of your own independent desire to learn and broaden your mind is a healthier one, one that I’m glad to be involved in.

But while Trinity prides itself on the diversity of activities available, it could definitely be doing more to ensure that everyone has equal opportunity to participate in these activities. It shouldn’t be a struggle to miss class for something really important to you. I’ve never regretted a decision to do so.

Student drug culture isn’t the end of the world Common student drug use is not about the minority of students for whom drugs become an issue.

Saoirse Ní Scanláin Contributing writer One of my residing memories from last year posed quite a juxtaposition, and stuck with me. I pushed open a bathroom stall in a club to find a girl licking the back of her student card.

Nice one. Little over half an hour later, I overheard another girl answer the wideeyed question, “You looking for anything?”, with, “Yeah, my friends!”

I have yet to read or hear how “student drug culture” is to be formally classified.

Which drugs does it include? What does it really mean? We hear about it so often, but we may all have a different idea about what the term encompasses. I have developed a feeling of indifference to the former of the two events from that evening. That night didn’t faze me. By the beginning of my first Hilary term, I was numb to the recreational drug use I witnessed on nights out. It had become a norm.

I’m going to talk only from personal experience, and about how I see things. For me, common “student drug culture” is mostly about an “alternative” nightlife culture – “common” being the operative word. It’s about party drugs: pills, MDMA,

ketamine, cocaine. It reminds me of the story of the Pied Piper. This alternative nightlife acts as such, willing more to conscription by the week.

By the end of a fresher’s second semester, there’s a good chance they’ll have heard the Pied Piper’s tune at least once.

A large part of the culture is the indifference I witness many others having towards drug use among themselves and their peers. I have yet to decide how I feel about that. Common student drug culture is not about the minority of students for whom drugs become an issue. It is not about the unfortunate happenings caused by drugs.

Those cases are rarities, and are not what I, nor my

peers witness most frequently. In fact, I would worry much more about a friend who drank extremely heavily more than twice a week, than a friend who dropped a pill once a fortnight. I think that’s fair.

For most, drugs don’t characterise every night out. As said, it’s an alternative. After a while, getting locked in Dicey’s every Monday gets a bit boring. Alternative nightlife is the pool they can stick their feet in, to cool down before returning to the sweaty, dizzy smoking areas of mainstream clubs. They “dabble” in it. It is largely confined to certain nightlife and music scenes, and particular nights

out.

I would argue that the majority of those who use recreational drugs don’t even do it once a week, once a fortnight, or once a month. It is occasional, but

because every night there will be students whose occasional night it is, drug use appears regular. One could say it is regular on a collective level, yet irregular on a personal level.

Mainstream media seems to believe that once a young person gives drugs a go, that that’s it. From then forward, they’ll be out of pocket and dependant on more every

time they go out, or even every day. It believes that no one has a clue what they’re taking, and none of them have any idea about the implications it may have. This is evident in their coverage of t h e few cases when

at a standstill with many for a while. That said, by the end of the summer they were back at it in a field in Stradbally. Student drug culture will be almost impossible to eradicate. It is enjoyed by too many. It came, settled, and propagated.

For this reason, how many view student drug culture needs to change. It needs to move away from it being viewed as a terrifying entity out to get us all. People need to accept that it is alive and somewhat rampant, but that it needs to be controlled, not destroyed.

the recreational drug use of students leads to extraordinarily unfortunate circumstances.

Those stories have become the face of this culture.

I understand this to be the use of scare tactics to discourage drug users, or drug “dabblers”. I frown when I see people trying to combat drugs on these grounds, because I feel they have no chance. The local scare in The Twisted Pepper before the summer put pill-popping

This change has begun, but it has yet to be completed. The emergence of “safe drug use” workshops is possibly one of the most radical and intelligent movements in student life in a while.

Testing kits sold at festivals were indicative of how prolific drug use has become, but exemplified a change in attitude and an increase in safety awareness. For most students, it is not a matter of addiction, but choice. They like the buzz it gives them, and has become an alternative to alcohol. They like to know what they’re taking and understand when it is appropriate.

For me, student drug culture is only an issue when those involved in it are careless and uneducated. I don’t

believe that student drug culture is due to move away from nightlife and begin negatively impinging on the daily lives of most students. That fear is not there. I would consider students for whom drugs are frequent and central in their lives, to be part of a different culture. I might call it the uncommon student drug culture.

As long as the people who take part in drug culture are not abusing drugs, I don’t really think it’s the end of the world. I know students who use recreational drugs, yet managed to achieve top marks in their exams last year.

I know students who, after an “alternative” night out, can get up and go to the 9am lecture. I respect equally those who do and don’t try drugs.

I don’t fear that the lives of those who do will change for the worse.

I think that night out I mentioned at the beginning describes the common student drug culture quite perfectly.

Yeah, it’s here, but it’s not inescapable. I don’t think drugs are good idea, but I don’t view the way they are commonly being used by those around me as particularly bad, either.

ILLUSTRATION: EVIE CLARKE

Trinity News | Tuesday 20 October

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What can you gain from an Arts degree?

Arts students shouldn’t live in a bubble, but their choices are as valid as anyone else’s.

Julie Farrell Contribting writer “That all sounds very interesting, but what kind of job can she expect to get with this course?” This question came from a concerned mother, flanking her eager but shy daughter in front of the Classics Department’s table at Trinity Open Day 2015. My smile froze, and I stammered something about being able to do anything, really, before swiftly deferring to one of my lecturers.

That’s a bloody good question – would you let me know when you’ve figured out the answer?

I was pretty delighted this girl had approached me and asked for every little detail of what my studies entailed, and even more delighted that what she heard seemed to interest her (she even feigned an interest in my dissertation, bless her). In spite of this, I did worry that I was somehow giving her a false promise of a glamorous lifestyle when I myself had no

job offers for after my impending graduation.

Her mother’s question is one that is extremely pertinent when choosing a course of study, but it is frequently shoved to the back of the Humanities and Literature students’ minds over the course of their time at university.

Sure, there are self-deprecating jokes about the lack of prospects, but the reality behind that kind of humour tends to be ignored. The primary reason for this mental block is the need to stay sane.

If you were to pause and examine just how your employability was improving while trying to get to grips with Beckett, you would have a pretty big existential crisis.

In order to focus on the material at hand and get good grades, Arts students have to enter an academic bubble where they don’t question the real-world implications of their study. This is not an attractive trait to prospective employers, who have repeatedly commented that today’s graduates lack an understanding of how the profes-

sional world works. Another unattractive trait, however, is not possessing a degree with a good grade – a grade which reflects academic achievement.

So it comes back to the punchline of most Arts jokes: if you want a job, study something else. But despite this assertion, Trinity’s Careers Advisory Service and Alumni Relations Office have managed to find dozens of actual Arts graduates with actual jobs to take part in its GradLink Mentoring programmes for the last few years.

They do not appear to have hired any desperate Drama graduates to pose as successful people. That means that at some point in each alumnus’s life, someone decided that their qualifications, skills, and experience made them a good candidate for the job and gave them that first break which is so vital in building a career – a path that most of them assure us has been far from linear. It stands to reason, then, that Arts stu-

dents gain some employable skills during their time spent at university, right?

“Spoiled Millennials” In the last number of weeks, there has been some coverage by Irish news outlets of the graduate jobs market.

The Irish Times, in a special pull-out ahead of the Gradireland careers fair, featured an article speculating on the apparent increase in opportunities for graduates in some areas. A couple of days before that, they had run the personal account of a Communications graduate who was facing the dole for the first time.

Journal.ie also ran a story after that, featuring three unemployed graduates discussing their situation; those featured had studied Communications, Ancient and Medieval History, and Journalism. This small sampling is clearly skewed towards Arts students, so it isn’t representative of graduates on the whole, and my suspicion is that those involved are all

seeking careers in the competitive field of journalism.

However, what grabbed my interest was not their accounts – pretty much all of my peers are in the same situation – but the reaction of the readers. A quick scroll through the comment section of both articles seems to confirm the deepest, most self-doubting fears of every Arts graduate. A chorus of internet trolls crowing that they had picked sensible STEM subjects belittled those involved in the Journal. ie article, particularly directing their ire at the Ancient and Medieval History graduate. The area was likened to a hobby that shouldn’t be studied by anyone who wants to improve their chances of landing a job. In both articles, there was a strong reaction against what was seen as a whingey tone, and lack of realism by “young people”.

It’s interesting to note that in the previously mentioned Irish Times section on graduate jobs also featured an article exploring the idea that the current wave of youths fresh out of college, as part of the Millennial generation, are entitled and have unrealistic expectations in life. It appears from the most-liked comments on both of the graduate accounts that Arts students need to be prepared for the fact that a lot of people in the real world see them that way.

But do their STEM and Business counterparts not also have to contend with the same issue of managing their own sense of entitlement and other behaviours that present them as stereotypical Millennials? Of course, but they do so armed with the knowledge that their course of study is more attractive to employers, and rightly so in many cases. For the Irish Arts students currently trying to cinch that first paid position, the perceived skill-set gained from their degree no longer carries any kind of cachet.

PHOTO: EOIN CAMBAY

Where previously, employers advertised training programmes for graduates of all disciplines, many schemes now specify that they are looking for candidates with a degree in a specific discipline but they that they would also be open to more general STEM or Business graduates.

Arts students need not apply.

The skills acquired in their fields of study are also implicitly devalued in many job specs and discussions on the workforce.

The principle strings to an

Arts graduate’s bow tend to be critical thinking, literary research, communication, and time management, all of which are considered soft skills. They’re the kind of attributes employers want their new hires to have, but they’re not generally what will get you past the first massive stack of CVs to the interview.

Even the more creative areas of business, like marketing and communications, increasingly seek those who can already analyse numbers and metadata ahead of more literary-minded types.

The other obstacle that Arts graduates face is that areas of employment which have traditionally been open to them are currently in crisis, or changing in a way that even professionals at the top of their game are having a hard time grasping. Even the old reliable, teaching, has been a path rife with joblessness in the last few years. Talented múinteoirí have opted for working abroad, where their most employable attribute is essentially their anglophone origins. Hopefully the recent budget’s plans to hire 2,200 more teachers will provide some benefits to both staff and pupils, but current class sizes and underemployment are still far from desirable by the standards of an OECD country.

The price of culture On the other hand, the lack of work for Arts graduates in cultural areas is symptomatic of a wider societal issue. For media, museums, music, theatre, and other creative centres, the budget has shrunk.

Many organisations don’t have the money to retain their current staff and maintain a decent output, let alone hire new people. The endless unpaid internship cycle associated with people trying to prove themselves in these areas is well-documented. The main reason for this is obvious: people just don’t want to pay for culture.

Aside from rife outright piracy, the evolution of social media, and online publishing and streaming platforms means that everyone can access free art, literature and news. I myself am guilty of reading as many free articles as various paywalls allow me, and simply waiting impatiently until I can view more. Our standards for the free content we consume at increasing speeds are also climbing ever higher. This attitude towards culture is akin to walking into Penneys and hoping for a bespoke, intricate item of clothing for un-

der a fiver. Even if that is possible, it’s because someone in the world was unfairly compensated to make it so.

However, it wouldn’t be accurate to suggest that cultural activities don’t generate revenue in any capacity. Ireland’s rich heritage is repeatedly exploited as a marketing tool for both tourism and Irish exports more generally – the main beneficiaries of this being the hospitality, food and drink industries. Is it right that we continue to trade off of our traditions when we don’t pay our pipers, playwrights and poets; while we continue to cultivate a land of software saints and jobless scholars?

I do not make these points out of bitterness towards the worlds and people of STEM and Business. They are absolutely vital ingredients of a functioning society. Nevertheless, we cannot ignore that the artsy types among us also have a role to play. I also do not believe that unemployed nurses, engineers, accountants, or even construction workers would be blamed for their situation and have their life choices criticised if they were to publicly discuss their lack of success when applying for work, as those presented in the Irish Times and the Journal were.

Of course Arts students need to ensure they are fully aware of the rocky road to employment they are going down when they choose their course of study, but they shouldn’t be entirely discouraged from doing so or ridiculed afterwards. There are plenty of graduates out there who are thriving in not only the creative sector, but also as CEOs, educators, community workers, and all sorts of other impressive positions.

If you were to ask most of these successful people about their journeys, they would describe crisis points in their lives when they weren’t sure what they would end up doing or whether they would make anything of themselves. Many have gone in different directions after their Bachelor’s degree, but I haven’t heard them say that those three or four years were a total waste of time. I myself have returned to fulltime education to gain some computer science skills that I think will help me, but I haven’t turned my back on my B.A. so far. You can take the girl out of the Orts Block, but you can’t take the Orts Block out of the girl.

We need to ensure adaquate class representation The class rep system is dysfunctional, undemocratic, and too easily marginalised by College bodies.

Sophie Donnelly Contributing writer The Students’ Union Class Representative election season came and went without much fuss two weeks ago. You may have noticed the rather haphazard polling station in the Arts Building, laden with multi-coloured ballots manned by friendly SU-types beckoning people over to cast their vote. You may have lingered at the table, eyeing up the lists of names, observing the popular shoe-ins and surprise “dark horses”.

You likely took note of burgeoning course rivalries that would provide ample gossipfodder amongst friends later on. You may have even voted, but only if you were lucky enough to be in a course whose Class Rep position was contested in the first place.

In all likelihood, though, you probably didn’t pay any attention at all to the elections. And, to be fair, why would you? Class Rep elections lack both the relatively high-stakes, personal drama and sophisticated campaigns that make the Sabbatical Officer elections such an integral part of the Trinity experience.

Elections or popularity contests?

Moreover, a deep-rooted cynicism towards the Class Rep system pervades the student body, and not without reason. Widely viewed as “glorified popularity contests” (the words of a former Junior Freshman Rep) the elections are seen to hold little sway over the running of college, or over student life as a whole.

In the majority of races, it is perceived that the candidate with the highest profile, the biggest social media presence, and the perfect balance of nonchalance and eagerness in their hilarious Facebook candidacy-announcement post tends to cruise to victory. Indeed, in many cases, rumour and speculation often lead to a particularly popular student virtually assuming the title of “Repelect” weeks before polling takes place. It’s hardly surprising that many potential candidates are discouraged from running when their defeat is touted as a foregone conclusion.

A broken relationship with the SU and College Then there is the question of the Reps’ actual engagement with the SU. Trumpeted as a pillar of Trinity’s policy of student governance and engagement and hailed on the SU website as “the voice and body of the Union”, Class Reps are allegedly in the position to “direct the SU’s activities” at Council meetings, acting as a “spokesperson for their class to College”. Yet several current and former Reps claim that the systemic failings of SU Council preclude any form of serious engagement from the student representatives.

One former Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (AHSS) Class Rep cites serious failings of Council as a forum for open debate and discussion.

“At Council, Sabbatical Officers basically tell the average Class Rep what to do and how to vote. Very few people dissent from [the Sabbats’] party line”. Even something as innocuous as where Sabbats

sit during Council has a major impact on voting behaviours. According to the same source, Reps are expected to act as mute assenters in often stagnant and circular debates. “The Sabbatical Team sit together in a row up at the front and raise their voting placards in unison. So everyone in the lecture hall sees how they’re voting and by proxy, how they expect us to vote. If anyone’s on the fence about an issue, they will obviously follow the lead of the SU Executive”.

Can we truly extoll the virtues of a democratic Students’ Union, then, when one of the principal means of affecting change available to the student body can be boiled down to vote-by-rote decision-making?

Numerous Class Reps, former and current, label Council meetings as “inefficient”, “tedious”, “painfully slow”, and “dragged out”.

One former psychology Class Rep claimed that, despite multiple objections made to the SU Sabbats regarding funding cuts to college mental health services, the views of the course she represented went unheeded. Similarly, in the Music School, Class Reps have been struggling with departmental authorities for an expansion in their Study-Abroad programme: an essential element of college life for so many, but strictly curtailed for music students hoping to broaden their horizons. A former AHSS Rep spoke of a fundamental communications breakdown between modern languages departments and their respective Class Reps,

branding it “by all accounts… a complete disaster”.

Despite the lofty claims of the SU, it seems that Class Reps often have more meaningful interactions with club promoters and hoodie salesmen than with actual college decision-makers. Of course, there are countless examples of dedicated Reps going above and beyond in the interests of their classmates, but when the bureaucratic mess of college governance hinders their best efforts, it is easy to see how the average Class Rep fights an uphill battle for change.

“

Despite the lofty claims of the SU, it seems that Class Reps often have more meaningful interactions with club promoters and hoodie salesmen than with actual college decision-makers.

Who runs for Class Rep? So, if the system is so dysfunctional, what motivates people to run in the first place? Cynics among us would waste no time in answering: “The social status. Plus the free weekend away.” Indeed for the many Reps who go no further in their line of duty than co-ordinating a WhatsApp group, a questionably good night out and the ubiquitous class hoodie, status and a weekend junket may indeed be their only motivation.

Undoubtedly, there are the hack-ish types that see Class Rep as the first steppingstone towards the ultimate goal of a place in the Executive, or a Sabbatical officership. These are the types that furtively whisper among themselves how it is likely that a future SU President will have started off as a lowly Rep, and are eager to impress upon their friends that they have the current Sabbats’ contact numbers saved on their phones under their first names only.

Then there are the Class Reps who are really eager to affect change, to have the voices of their classmates heard, to advocate for their interests. Unfortunately, all-toooften these are the students discouraged from running not only by the ambitions of more “popular” candidates on their course, but also by backward mechanisms of SU and College bureaucracy.

Unsurprisingly, the narrative of self-advancement surrounding the position of Class Rep causes a massive drop-off in candidate re-

cruitment during sophister years. In their final years of study, without any future prospects of a CV-boosting Executive position to lure them in, there is very little to incentivise students in higher years to commit to the Rep position, or even to consider running. According to a former School Convener: “The level of interest in those years is very low, with most races not even being contested by more than the required amount of candidates.” Surely this gives rise to a significant democratic deficit in the SU, whereby freshman students are represented by someone who at least wants the position, while sophisters are lucky to have much of a choice as to who represents them at all.

Accountability Regardless of whether a Class Rep won a hard-fought victory in a competitive election, or were simply the only person who applied, the position can really be a sweet deal. An all-expenses paid weekend away, drinks receptions after Council, not forgetting the all-important hoodie, plus a foot in the door of the SU. One would expect that Reps are under some obligation to their classmates in exchange for these benefits, but in reality, the SU has no mechanism keeping tabs on the effectiveness of individual Reps in their roles. In the words of one former Rep: “The SU has no way of making sure Reps work in return for these rewards, so why bother?” The Class Reps who, having sat through the seemingly endless Tuesday night meetings, then go on to relay the information and decisions back to

their courses seem to be the exception rather than the rule.

All things considered, there can be no doubt that the system of Rep elections fails Reps, the SU, and the student body as a whole. In terms of adequate representation, democratic decision-making and effective communication and interaction between students and college authorities, the Class Rep mechanism is scarcely fit for purpose.

Yet to all new Reps I offer my congratulations. May your interactions with Fruit of the Loom wholesalers be fruitful, may your course night-out in The Palace pass without hospitalisations, may your weekend junket be fulfilling and hypnotist-free. Hopefully at least some of you will be able to wade through the quagmire of Council politics and college intransigence, and bring about the reform and progress this office so desperately needs.

Trinity News | Tuesday 20 October

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Head to Head: Free speech should never be limited Guillermo Dillon Contributing writer

Yes

Last week I attended the Phil’s debate on the motion, “This House Believes in the Right to Offend”. The debate was truly depressing. This was not only because those opposing the motion won, but because they saw themselves as heroes leading other students towards a more liberal society, despite the fact that they were going against the core principle of what makes us democratic and liberal: freedom of speech.

But what is freedom of speech in the first place?

Should it be regulated? Could the government or the Students’ Union dictate what is right and wrong to say without threatening the core post-enlightenment ideas about individual thinking?

Last week a student wrote an article in the University Times saying, “If the freedom to say and do stupid things that make people uncomfortable is the sacrifice we must make for this, then it’s a freedom we don’t need.” Is that really what we want? To stop listening to uncomfortable ideas? And if it is, how could we make everyone feel comfortable? It is only a matter of reading a bit of history in order to realise that great ideas were originally uncomfortable, even insulting, to many.

Political correctness Political correctness is becoming the biggest enemy of free speech by encouraging this “comfortable” mentality.

Rather than causing minorities to speak, it promotes a culture in which we constantly find ourselves unable to think independently and say what we truly believe because of fear of what other people might feel or say.

With political correctness, people start transforming ordinary words into insults, thus creating a divided society without trust, one in which you can no longer say things as you think they are without people feeling you are insulting them.

Those of us who defend freedom of speech are not encouraging a hostile environment in which we celebrate hate speech or racism. Gratuitous insults won’t take us anywhere as a society. If you think about it, true freedom of speech will inevitably challenge some people’s ideas, and some others might feel insulted, but the outcome is always worth it and history proves it. For example, free-

dom of speech allowed homosexuals to speak for their rights, despite the discomfort of many homophobes and extremists. Freedom of speech helped to abolish slavery, even though many slave owners felt uncomfortable when the issue was being discussed.

Freedom of speech helped Martin Luther King to fight racism in America during the civil rights movement. It has always been about encouraging individual thinking, discovering the truth and aiming towards a better and more democratic society. That is what we are fighting for.

But what is it, then, that makes people nowadays unable to listen to different ideas other than their own?

Is it because they are afraid to be challenged? If they are so convinced that they are right, then what is the problem? But if they are not sure about their own convictions, would it not be better to listen to ideas that could help you reach better and more truthful answers? As Brendan O’Neill said it in the debate last week, “It is good to be offended ... It allows you to work out whether what you believe is right or wrong. It invites you to change your mind where necessary, or to get sharper at articulating your worldview.”

Listen to challenging ideas It is important to realise that the right “to not feel offended” does not exist. Neither does the right “to not feel uncomfortable”. I don’t care how stupid or insulting your idea may be to me, I would never prohibit you from saying it and nobody should ever deprive you from that right.

The Hist invited Peter Singer a couple of days ago to speak to their members.

You have no idea how insulting and stupid his ideas seem to me and to many people around campus. But it would have been far more insulting to me if they had cancelled the event. They would have insulted my freedom, because I could simply decide not to attend the event. And worst of all, they would have insulted me by thinking I could not have been able to handle such ideas. Peter Singer, you are welcome to come to Trinity anytime!

Perhaps it would be worth considering these words from Michael Oakeshott: “Politics, that is, citizens speaking and listening to the utterances of other citizens, is impossible without freedom of speech.”

Without the disposition to listen to challenging ideas and without the right to say them, we are saying farewell to politics and we are saying

Matthew Collins Deputy comment editor

When someone says: “Free speech should never be limited”, we should be sensitive to the fact that this is a loaded and misleading statement, with the precise aim of illegitimately claiming ground in an overexposed, tedious debate that many of us had hoped would come to a long overdue end.

Put simply, we have no reason to believe that speech is free, because to do so assumes the existence of a world in which all people have equal means to express their opinion. The unreality of such a world suggests that when we defend free speech, we are in reality protecting the right of a small and privileged minority to occupy a finite amount of space with often abhorrent views, at everyone else’s expense.

No

Harmful consequences I believe that universities, magazines and other institutions are legitimate in denying a platform to people whose views we have reason to believe are harmful to others. The counterfactual is allowing any view to be expressed in any space at any time. This seems an unappealing prospect, particularly given strong evidence that the expression of offensive views causes psychological damage to vulnerable people.

Many such views encourage hatred of historically marginalised people, which at best results in further animosity towards them, and at worst is directly responsible for increased violence and oppression. It seems prudent, and logical for institutions and publications to not allow unrestricted access to their pulpits. For me, and many others, this is an uncontroversial opinion, consistent with multiple other legitimate restrictions on human action where we have evidence that such action causes harms which outweigh any utility of said action.

Proponents of an unrestricted right to free speech have questioned whether the consequences of facilitat-

ing offensive views are really that bad. I would posit that in the vast majority of cases, those who question the damage caused by offensive, discriminatory speech for marginalised groups, are in fact not part of those marginalised groups. When you haven’t experienced bullying, harassment, abuse and violence on the basis of an offensive belief, you are not the person who is best placed to adjudicate whether such ideas should be communicated on a university campus. The people who are in the best position to make that decision are those whose lived experiences have been akin to abject misery because of regressive views. When universities, newspapers and television channels decide to not allow space for these views, they are not coddling us. They aren’t stifling debate. They are responding to the requests of marginalised groups to prevent further hatred being channelled into violence against them.

the Travelling Community “Neanderthal[s]”, it is a fallacy that Irish Travellers have an equal opportunity to respond to such blatant racism.

Moreover, every time we allow a rape apologist to speak, it makes it harder for victims of sexual assault to talk about their experience, because the hostility they face for doing so is heightened. It would therefore seem axiomatic that newspapers, television channels and universities should not facilitate such speech when publicly critiquing it is an impossibility.

All we get is an increase in bigotry, rather than reasoned discussion.

Unlike noted free speech advocate Brendan O’Neill, I am not worried about people not hearing challenging ideas. The existence of the internet in the postmodern era means that if you want to hear contrarian, reactionary views on misogyny, racism, homophobia or poverty, you can read Fox News and listen to Rush Limbaugh.

Freedom of speech is not universal The free speech champion will reply that unrestricted free speech allows for a marketplace of ideas, whereby the aggrieved minority can use the right of reply to defeat the backwards logic of discrimination employed by their interlocutor and convince the public at large that such views have no merit.

However, the reason we don’t live in a system of unfettered, Ayn Rand-esque, free markets is because unrestricted capitalism, much like unrestricted free speech creates an asymmetry which privileges certain people and suppresses others. Islamophobes such as Richard Dawkins are more able to spout their horrific sectarianism than Muslims are able to defend their religion. History has seen wealth and cultural status accumulated by white men, while it is seized from all other groups. The net result of this non-consensual exchange is that society will always listen more to Dawkins than it will to Muslim scholars like Reza Aslan, meaning that Muslims are less able to defend themselves in the arena of unrestricted free speech.

The problem is that when those views are publicly expressed on university campuses, the people who they affect cannot abstract themselves from that circumstance. A woman cannot abstract herself from a university where Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” is played, and is therefore forcibly exposed to the rape culture promoted by that song. Muslim students cannot remove themselves from a campus where antiMuslim sentiment increases after an Islamophobic discussion is facilitated. If you want to hear offensive views to challenge yourself, please do so in a space where other people aren’t harmed by your desire for self-discovery.

Relatedly, minorities receive less space to express their opposition to discriminatory views than elites, so meaningful debate is rarely a reality. When District Court Judge Mr. Justice Seamus Hughes, calls

So, to those who bemoan the infringement on their freedom of speech, the message is clear. If we decide that we no longer wish to hear your views, that is a direct result of your qualified right to freedom of expression. Your views have been considered, and deemed oppressive and meritless. The right to say what you think cannot be divorced from the consequence that not all people will agree with you, and therefore not all people will want to spend their limited time listening to your views. This isn’t an infringement on your freedom of expression, but a direct result of how you chose to use that freedom. Deal with it.

Trinity News | Tuesday 20 October

Comment

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Life as a politically conservative person in Trinity Forget the stereotypes: right-wingers are normal people who sometimes receive animosity and hostility because we disagree with the majority opinion in College.

Róisín Bradley Contributing writer I am Róisín Bradley, I am 19 years old and I am a third year Law student at Trinity College, Dublin. I come from a town called Buncrana in Inishowen in County Donegal.

I can imagine that immediately alarm bells are ringing in your ears (*rolls eyes*): “Donegal...She’s definitely conservative.”

I’d like to begin by exploring what exactly it means to say that one is “conservative”.

This is a complex issue, and a fluctuating one at that. It’s not like I woke up one morning and said, “Do you know what would be great craic?

Being conservative, I’ll try that for the banter.” I’m not entirely sure how I landed on this side of the political spectrum. I guess when I considered each issue that arose I used my own initiative and sense of self-direction and morality, backed by evidence and extensive research, to come to the conclusions that I have.

But, I’m really not all that different to those of you who brand yourselves “liberal”. To be honest, part of me rejects labels, I think it’s a bad idea for anyone to pigeon-hole themselves in that way. We all agree on certain things, such

as ensuring that we are not unfairly taxed, striving to reduce homelessness, promoting charity, the protection of children and other vulnerable persons in our society, the importance of education.

We all want a trustworthy government who we can put our faith in to govern our country in a progressive and democratic manner, etc. So why, then, do we have these categories – liberal and conservative – that we box ourselves into?

In the context of this article, I am speaking on behalf of myself, as a student of this college. It’s interesting to note that, even amongst the more right-leaning students I’ve come across in Trinity, there are a wide range of views and opinions, just as there are between those of you who are more left-leaning. I am not conservative in every sense of that word. I am not totally and utterly averse to change, as some would have you believe.

In fact, I find myself in favour of making changes – legal, social, political – whenever that change may be needed, whatever that change may be, so long as that change is for the better. I am not in favour of the death penalty, which is commonly known as a proposition supported by those who are “conservative”. Does that make me half-liberal, half-conservative?

“

We are not aliens, we are not fire breathing dragons, we are not mutant six-headed talking spiders. Okay, I’ll say it: we are conservative

We’re just like you I am writing this article to let you know what it is like to be me, holding the political views that I do, in Trinity College today. I am a twenty-first-century woman, I have an iPhone (that you can practically see the inside of ), I go clubbing (too much some might say), I sit at the Arts Block and smoke my (very badly rolled) rollies and I view the world with optimism and excitement, and a little nervousness, just as you do. The only difference is that I think about society and how it should be run in a manner that’s a little different to most people at Trinity.

But there are loads of students here I know who agree with me. We are not aliens, we are not fire-breathing dragons, we are not mutant six-headed talking spiders.

Okay, I’ll say it: we are conservative. “DUN DUN DUN, and she bursts the idea of not boxing herself in.”

Okay, I know, that’s a bit dramatic. But I’m trying to make a point: we are normal people who sometimes receive animosity and hostility because we have a differing opinion to the majority. Most people who know me would think that I’m quite confident. I’m open about my opinions and I’m honest when asked about them. But sometimes, I do

get nervous. Sometimes, I’m afraid that people will look at me differently or think that I’m insane. I’ve had conversations with people I’ve met for the first time who disagree with me, and not to my surprise, they’ve said at the end: “You’re actually not crazy and your views make sense. You’re actually sound.” Eh... Why would I not be? I always find that hilarious, people coming up to me to specifically find out if I’m totally nuts or not.

Guys, let’s get real. We aren’t always going to agree with each other on everything, but that’s just life. Sure, it would be boring if we didn’t have debate and discourse, wouldn’t it? So why, then, are students like me who are socially conservative subjected to tutting, the shaking of heads and the presumption that we hate fun and progression, and that we all sit around huddled up in a corner in fear of our own shadows? For those of you who know me well, you know that certainly isn’t the case.

We are not weird or backward or stuck in the eighteenth century – “SURPRISE!” Compared to some friends of mine, I haven’t received that much unfriendliness. Trinity students in general, with the exception of an extremist minority, are accepting and tolerant of those who are “conservative”. I don’t think that’s something I should be

thankful for. I will not apologise for holding the beliefs or opinions that I do. They are well-founded, and outside of Trinity, there is a mass body of people, students especially included, who hold the same views as mine. That’s something that needs to be recognised. I am not the only conservative in the entire island of Ireland. “WOAH! Is she really not? Flip me, who knew!”

are old and not conservative, then you have no brain.” This quote is attributed, some say falsely, to Winston Churchill, but that’s a debate for another day. Basically what I’m saying is, you’re all airy-fairy with your hipster jackets and your ripped jeans shouting “FREEDOM!”, and I’m an old head on young shoulders and eventually you’ll mature and see the light.

The one with the opinions I don’t go around with my opinions tattooed to my forehead nor do I stand on top of the Campanile exclaiming them for all of the college to hear – I genuinely don’t know how so many people (that I’ve never met) know what my political beliefs are. But that’s my point. It shouldn’t be such a shock to hear that someone may be a little more rightleaning than the typical Trinity student. I’ve heard people describe me as “the one with the opinions”. Thank you for your deep consideration of my thoughts, but what on earth does that even mean?

Sorry to tell you, guys, but I’m the only one with opinions around here – you can’t have any. “I am THE ONE with THE OPINIONS.” Now... that’s insane.

I’m joking. I wear hipster jackets and ripped jeans and I shout “FREEDOM!”, too. See what I mean? We really aren’t that different.

To finish up, I will leave you with this quote: “If you are young and not liberal, then you have no heart; but if you

The real message behind this Nobel in literature win Svetlana Alexievich’s win isn’t just a win for women, but for an entire underappreciated literary genre Kelly Konya

Contributing writer When Belarusian writer Svetlana Alexievich won the Nobel Prize in Literature last week, I immediately received word of the achievement from a friend on Twitter. She tweeted to me, “LIT JOURNO NOBEL!!!” to which I replied, “AND A WOMAN!!!” To say the least, we were excited.

Historically, only 11.6 percent of Nobel Literature winners are female. But it wasn’t that statistic alone that caused us to be so stunned by this news.

Alexievich is the first woman to win the Nobel in Literature for non-fiction writing, ever.

Before this year, only three men have won for non-fiction writing: Bertrand Russell in 1950 for philosophy, Winston Churchill in 1953 for history, and Jean-Paul Satre in 1964 for philosophy, though he declined it. With Alexievich now part of this list, winning for what the Swedish Academy has defined as “polyphonic writings” that are “a monument to suffering and courage in our time”, it is a win for women, surely, but also for a particular lesserknown genre within non-fiction writing.

According to Sara Danius, the Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy, Alexievich has “devised a new genre” that extends beyond the material at hand and emphasizes the importance of form.

However, Alexievich’s genre is not “new”, and can be defined by much simpler terms: literary journalism.

Have you heard of it?

When I first learned of the term “literary journalism”, I was skeptical. I had grown comfortable with calling the style of writing “creative nonfiction” or “longform”.

I wasn’t looking to fall even deeper into the rabbit hole of all the subcategories within nonfiction that continued to confuse my understanding of truth versus accuracy.

But as I’ve come to discover, literary journalism is neither a new version of a catchall term nor a new genre, and it’s important that we acknowledge this. Though Alexievich is the first writer recognised for writing in this nonfiction style by the Nobel Foundation, writers like Norman Mailer, Hunter S. Thompson, Joan Didion, Lillian Ross, Gay Talese, John Jeremiah Sullivan and Adrian Nicole LeBlanc are just a few of the already-established masters of the form. Pick up any magazine with long features, like The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, or Harper’s, and the genre will stare you right in the face. It is not, as I said, anything “new”.

By definition, literary journalism is “a genre of nonfiction writing that adheres to all of the reportorial and truth-telling covenants of traditional journalism while employing rhetorical and storytelling techniques more commonly associate with fiction”.

In other words, literary journalism is literature as journalism.

The form includes literary techniques typical in fiction like character development, voice, and symbolism to create a consciousness and meaning on the page that build upon the reader’s ensuing reactions. The main challenge of the form is to portray real events with true passion and emotion, helping the reader to feel the fact.

In the style’s condensing of reality, the writer is able to editorialise through literary techniques like imagery and metaphor, which are not typically found in traditional journalism.

“

“This is the writing that breaks barriers and now, apparently, that wins Nobels.”

This is the genre of writing that Alexievich should be recognized for mastering — a genre that embraces a long tradition of first-rate storytellers. Her style cannot be belittled to a “blending of journalism and literary flourish,” as the New York Times described it. In literary journalism, these two genres do not need to be blended because they could never be separate.

According to Alexievich’s website, she had searched for a genre that “would be most adequate to my vision of the world to convey how my ear hears and my eyes see life”.

In literary journalism, she found it.

Reading one of her famous pieces, “Zinky Boys”, which is about the Soviet war in Afghanistan, I can appreciate the brilliance of Alexievich’s literary journalism style through the disparate voices

and the construction of the interviews in varying scenes and summaries. Alexievich carefully presents readers with brutally vivid information that evokes in us a sense of hopelessness, immediacy, and unbearable grief. No other style could achieve such heartbreak while examining the internal life of humanity.

Many of the articles I have read about Alexievich’s win claim that she is “unpopular” with her compatriots and is even considered by some to be an “unpatriotic traitor”.

Isn’t that always the story?

People who seek the rawest and the most shockingly faithful portrayals of reality are scorned for frightening us. But it’s undeniable that this is the writing that breaks barriers and now, apparently, that wins Nobels. Perhaps literary journalism and nonfiction in general have not been widely recognised before, but it’s never too late to start. I’m ecstatic to be alive for this amazing achievement and win for literature.

At last, non-fiction isn’t seen as second-rate to fiction and poetry.

Much in the way Fintan O’Toole recently noted in the Irish Times that the Dublin Theatre Festival has shown that the trajectory of theatre is in the midst of a great transition to a documentary style, so too is writing bending its established boundaries. In our world of ambivalent social opinion and disparate beliefs, perhaps this is the best way for our artists to understand truth. And it’s this literary journalism style of writing — allowing readers to see and feel humanity in its purest, truest form — that is the style worth praising on any scale, from classroom to Nobel.

Trinity News | Tuesday 20 October

Op-ed

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Notes from the Council of Europe Free Speech Conference Offence fuels debate, but hate speech stifles it. Where should we draw the line?

Bláithín Sheil Staff writer

“Freedom of expression: still a precondition for democracy?” – this is the title of the Conference hosted by the Council of Europe from the 13-14 October 2015.

We can all agree that freedom of expression is a necessary pillar of democracy. This right is enshrined in Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, to which Ireland is a party. But the conference raised some very valid issues related to the exercise of this right.

Dr. Zuhtu Arslan, President of the Constitutional Court of Turkey, noted in his opening speech that free expression not only maintains diversity and pluralism in a society, but is also an end in itself. The saying “I think, therefore I am” implies that we, as moral individuals, need to express ourselves. Expression, the sole instrument with which to communicate our thoughts and fulfil ourselves, warrants a high degree of protection at international level.

The challenge of striking an adequate balance between protecting and limiting free speech is of utmost relevance in Europe at the moment. On one hand, we have an abuse of the right in the form of hate speech such as homophobia or incitement of hatred and violence against religions, ethnic minorities, and racial groups. On the other hand, we have breeches of free speech seen in the perils faced by journalists in countries where extremist and terrorist groups reside.

In a pluralistic society, we must prudently assure that the line is accurately and fairly drawn between offence and hate speech. It would be oppressive to exercise censorship over all minority or outrageous views, but it would also be an injustice to fail to put in place any mechanisms to censor speech that goes beyond mere insult, shock or offence, because with rights come responsibilities.

The question of defining the difference between offence and hate speech is particularly relevant in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo killings.

Not only does the act of mur-

der breach the right to life, but in this context the massacre amounts to a breach of the freedom of expression.

The people who were killed because they exercised that right; they are no longer able to exercise it.

The cartoons were offensive – but that is their purpose. They are not published for the sake of looking pretty; they are published to provoke debate. Although the general reaction of the public was outrage at these killings, coupled with the view that they do not amount to hate speech, the line is extremely thin in terms of what counts as incitement. The result is a variety of different opinions about Charlie Hebdo, including some who think such extreme satire should be censored as it does amount to incitement.

We can learn from offence While hate speech is expression used to incite hatred and violence, usually characterised by an intolerance towards the people to whom the hate is directed at, an insult is the act of speaking rudely or with offence. Hate speech is commonly seen in the form of racism, Islamophobia and homophobia, to name but a few. The key difference, and the reason why one is protected and the other is not, is that hate speech aims to provoke violence, while an insult aims to provoke argument.

Argument is a crucial element of any democracy. It allows us to question and criticise current affairs, to demand higher standards. Hate speech, on the other hand is the first step on the path to criminal activity. It encourages violence and intolerance of views that are not our own.

Article 10 includes in its scope of protection the right to offend, shock, or insult, including provocation. This means that, as unpleasant as it can be to experience online trolling, it is and should be protected – so long as you remain within the boundaries of insult, offence and shock.

To cause offence is to cause displeasure. However, offence can often be an expression of the truth, despite a resistance to accept it. For example, if somebody tells you that they don’t like the way you compose yourself in certain

situations, your immediate reaction is to take offence because they have insulted your personality and characteristics. You are displeased by the statement. But, the statement may be founded upon a truth, and perhaps you do need to assess the issue that has been raised. If we reflect upon the initial offence, we can learn ways to better ourselves.

This scenario can be applied on a broader level by listening to the criticisms and offences directed mainly towards governments, most often by journalists. These watchdogs criticise every move made by our governments and spark public debate about the state of current affairs. The things they say may be offensive to the people they are directed at, but they essentially call out these representatives on their shortcomings, holding them to account where governments fail to do so themselves.

These benefits of offence highlight the need to accept it. Learning tolerance will better us as a whole, and will contribute to the creation of a more equal society where we can learn to see past our differences.

It is an awful experience to have something you wrote, something that you firmly believe in and justify respectfully, torn apart and insulted by online readers. Their anger at your opinion screams at you from the screen as you read their comments. But in the same way the commentator insults the writer, the writer has probably insulted the commentator. This type of dialogue, although on the nasty end of debate, must be and is protected by our right to free expression. It is better to have the discussion, however unpleasant it may be, than to not have it. Fair and assertive debate is definitely preferable to no debate.

Speaking truth to power To live in a true democracy, we must be able to freely criticise things we disagree with.

Fair debate is achieved by the exercise of free speech, so by inhibiting the right to free speech we are denying a platform for fair debate. This is, unfortunately, the reality of the situation in many countries. The population is silenced by the fear of offend-

ing those in power, which would lead to persecution.

This is the very reason that we must continue to shock, insult and offend. It opens up the debating field; it forces us to question everything. This is why the right to freedom of expression is so important.

In war-torn countries and places ruled by oppressive dictators, free speech is neither respected nor valued by those in power. It is through this disrespect that they have come to power. Free speech is one way we begin to combat these rulers, and the measure of respect for free speech can be used to gauge how close a country is to democracy and stability.

An insult by one person to an oppressive leader, if voiced clearly, can lead to public dissatisfaction, which can result in the unification of the people against their oppressor to establish a democratic society. Obviously, the situation is more complex than that, and it will not be as easily resolved as I have suggested.

But that is the basic idea.

We must accept offence and engage with it. Offence is an opportunity to inspire dialogue between different opinions. Rather than responding to offence with hate speech, respond with a reasoned argument as to why you think the offender is wrong. Use your freedom of expression to deal with a conflict of opinions. Hopefully we will be better for it.

Committing murder because you disagree with an offence is not an acceptable or progressive means by which to deal with conflict. Passion and conviction cannot turn into violence.

Finally, with rights come responsibilities. We have the duty to use our rights wisely for the benefit of the public, to encourage proper debate in the interest of improving our society, and to show due respect for the differing views of others by not engaging in hate speech.

banned because the Union feared she would incite hatred against Muslim students.

As pointed out by a fellow writer for this paper, based on her track record, this was not likely to happen.

It must be noted that not everybody will agree that the Charlie Hebdo cartoons and the views of Namazie do not amount to incitement, particularly as they relate to religion. Much debate has been given to disagreements about whether particular expressions are or are not hate speech, a debate which is very much alive. This draws attention to the nuance that it is sometimes difficult to differentiate between offence and incitement, highlighting the tenderness of this issue.

The general atmosphere at the conference was that free speech is one of the most important aspects of modern society. The discussions were held to examine the issues faced in protecting the right.

An entire delegation of European representatives debated for two days about this right; their primary aim was to ensure its security, to ensure that we can all freely exercise it without fear of persecution, while not abusing it.

So use it. Encourage speech, start debating. We should be inviting controversial speakers to College events. But objections to speakers who are outright racist are valid, because there lies a real potential for hate speech and incitement to hatred and violence. Where the speaker poses a real threat to the safety of the people, and has been known to invoke hatred on previous occasions, it is legitimate to refuse to allow them to attend. This would be a fair restriction on the right to free expression as outlined in paragraph 2 of Article 10. The purpose of insult and controversy is to spark debate and protect free speech, the core elements of democracy.

The invitation of Maryam Namazie to speak by the Warwick Atheist, Secularist, and Humanist Society was opposed by the Warwick Students’ Union because of her offensive views, not because she had racist and extremist views. She was initially

It’s nice to be able to step out of the closet, but visibility isn’t the be-all and endall of LGBT+ politics.

Naoise Dolan

Comment editor In the run-up to the samesex marriage referendum last May, my grimmest conversational output belonged a very niche genre: “talking to straight people about The Queers without revealing that you yourself are A Queer.”

It wasn’t that anything they said was overtly homophobic (for the most part). More often, when The Queers came up, they’d go on a self-righteous little rant about how awful it must be for anyone to have to come out – can you imagine, Naoise? Either that, or they’d air their selfcongratulations for doing the right and decent thing at the ballot box – sure they’re just trying to live their lives like the rest of us, aren’t they, Naoise? The opening credits would roll and I’d brace myself for the story of how straight people are saving us from the institutions straight people made to oppress us.

Coming out was more important to me back when it was terrifying. There was adrenaline before I did it, suspense during, relief after. It was the hardest thing I’d ever done, but at least it felt like an event. Nowadays, when I fail to give a co-conversationalist proper warning that there is a Lesbian In The Building, it’s

It’s a relative luxury to be able to come out, let alone to find it boring. Homophobia has done a lot of long-term damage to my mental health, but in terms of staying alive, I’m grand. As long as I’m not holding hands with anyone, I can walk down the street without being queer-bashed.

I’ve never had to work for anyone who would fire me if they found out about my sexuality. My parents have never threatened to throw me out of the house, and if they did, there are people who’d take me in.

We should reject a politics that says I’m more “authentically” queer than someone who doesn’t share my privilege. My safety isn’t something I’ve earned, and isn’t something anyone else should ever have to earn; since that safety is a prerequisite for “visibility”, we should be very careful about valuing “visibility” as a headline LGBT+ priority. I obviously believe that LGBT+ people should negotiate their individual identities in whatever way works for them, but let’s recognise that you doing you is different to the question of how LGBT+ organisations should allocate time and resources when trying to help an incredibly diverse class of people.

DarkMatter, a trans South Asian performance art duo, marked this year’s Coming Out Day with a Facebook status posing six questions.

Among other things, they asked what it means to “prioritise queer visibility in a political climate where visibility for most queer and trans peo-

ple of colour = surveillance, homelessness, violence, criminalisation, and incarceration”, to “compel people to come out when we do not have the infrastructure to support them (homeless shelters, radical foster care, finances, emotional support, jobs, etc.)”, to let the state use queer visibility to “pinkwash itself and justify its war and imperialist policies”, and to associate “not being ‘out’ … with being repressed/selfhating rather than being strategic and discerning.”

You might remember that a rainbow appeared over Dublin the day the marriage referendum passed. My chest tightened every time I saw that rainbow flying over an international news headline.

In giving me a right I have no intention of exercising, the government had increased its credibility – and therefore its ability to pursue policies that ruin lives.

The sun beams and news media are blinded to the horrors of direct provision. A simple trick of light refraction, child’s play, and it’s not such a big deal that my country can force me to give birth. In being visibly gay, I’m weighed up, quantified, accounted for, squashed into a statistical mass used to show that Ireland Isn’t So Bad After All. I’m holding the rainbow up; the rainbow is holding them up.

There’s nothing I can do about it. Hiding my identity was horrible. I’m not going to go back to it just to have a microscopically small impact on the government’s ability to deflect criticism. But I never signed up to be in their photo-op. None of them had any right to make press releases presuming to speak for me, to tell me what I should find liberating, to tell me that I should thank the Good People of Ireland. Integration

into contractual monogamy?

Thanks, The State! Awful men from awful political parties telling Ireland not to worry, because hey, people like me are Just Like Them?

Lovely, totes appresh! By the way, could I have autonomy over my womb in the next decade or so, or is that too much to ask when you’re just after doing one of those bloody Rights Things?

We call it “pinkwashing” because things need words.

If a state wants to pinkwash, it needs a ready supply of cardcarrying queers. When not enough queers carry cards, it can do one of two things.

It can ask what its structures are doing that would make someone want to hide – or it can ask queer people to bend a little and twist a bit until we fit into the current model of things.

When LGBT+ people come out, it’s often not because the world outside the closet is perfectly welcoming, but rather because inside is worse. They make that calculation and come out, and then the state counts them, too, and weighs them, too, and chalks it up as progress. Coming out gets marked down as a societal achievement and an individual responsibility.

If queer people don’t follow the self-announcement programme to the letter, it must be that they’re scared or selfloathing and cannot be that declaring their identity is enough to get them killed.

We call it “visibility” because things need words.

Things need words, but people don’t. At least, words aren’t always what they need the most. One common misunderstanding about queerphobia is that it’s some phantom menace that exists only in your head: love yourself, be your you-est you, and the

College needs to provide equal access to all, and we can’t be complacent With the recently announced news that Trinity College Dublin turns out more entrepreneurs than any other institution in Europe, the visualisation of one of the administration’s goals has been achieved. The teaching of entrepreneurship and business minded skills has been a cornerstone of recent College decision making, in an effort to boost our profile in light of sadly still diminishing government funding.

One of the most visible efforts to promote this culture of entreprenship is the Launchbox programme, where students are holed up in a Regeant House kitted out like one of those trendy hip start-ups taking over Dubliner land down at the docks. The programme has seen success stories not purely driven by profit making intent, such as the foodwaste reduction business of Foodcloud.

There’s only one problem with this set up. Regeant House is out of bounds for anyone who uses a wheelchair.

That the College would decide to use such a room is understandable; the moulding on the heigh ceiling along with the room’s views onto College Green and Front Square surely make it an inspiring place for any young dreamer. So long as they don’t need to use a wheelchair.

We can’t, for once though, point at College and say that we ourselves all have a clear conscience in this regard.

The offices of the students’ union are located on the upper floors of House Six, also inaccessible, along with the CSC, the Trinity Publications office, society rooms, the Elitz Rooms which hold many events and the GSU offices.

We’re all aware of this, but we pretend that it’s ok. We know that though we have an SU president who is a parent, we’re a long way off from having one who uses a wheelchair. We know that we’d prefer to have the luxury of having offices that are unable to be made accessible but are close to Front Square, rather than be relocated all the way down to Goldsmith’s. We like the prestige of having rooms in a building with stained glass and a debating chamber, even though we know the spaces we make our deepest connections in are out of reach to many.

Do we continue to pretend and ignore, or do we try and change things for the better? Somehow, it feels like this is an uncomfortable truth that might never speak its name.

What World Coming Out Day means to me more often out of boredom than fear. Straight people don’t have anything interesting to say about my sexuality, which is fine – but they often seem to think they have to say something anyway, which is tiresome for both of us.

NEWSPAPER OF THE YEAR 2015

world will embrace you at your you-est. It’s this season’s fresh take on Lean In. From the people who brought you victim-blaming for women, check out victim-blaming for queers whose lives would be perfect if they could just squash their own internalised queerphobia.

As an English student, I love a good narrative discourse as much as the next person (and probably way more than the person after that). Still, it’s disingenuous to pretend that changing how someone feels about themselves will necessarily change how the rest of the world treats them.

Sexuality and gender identity are material practices with real-life consequences. A well-phrased status on social media can’t make someone safer if they live under the concrete threat of violence.

Coming Out Day has helped a lot of people, but the people it can’t help are often the ones in the most danger.

The DarkMatter status says explicitly that there’s nothing wrong with individuals coming out, and I agree. Many queer people have dedicated their lives to making my visibility possible, and I don’t mean to spit on their graves.

Plenty of queer people totally disagree with me on this, and that’s fine, too. But I still think it’s gross to labour under the impression that I’m worth more to the movement because I happen to be in a situation where my insideof-closet is worse for me than my outside-of-closet.

The coming-out calculation is different for everyone; we should respect everyone’s decision. That respect becomes a bit more tenuous every time we celebrate people “coming out” and don’t make equal space to celebrate people who have their reasons for staying in.

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Trinity News | Tuesday 20 October

SciTech

Heading to the future

Italian surgeon Dr. Sergio Canavero intends to complete the first ever human head transplant by 2018. Conor O’Mara discusses the plans and controversy behind the procedure.

Conor O’Mara Deputy scitech editor Head transplantation involves decapitating the patient and then grafting the patient’s head onto a donor body. Although it has been performed using dogs, monkeys and rats, results have not been universally successful and no human is yet to undergo the procedure. Back in 1970, American Neurosurgeon Dr. Robert White gained notoriety for carrying out the first headbody transplantation on monkeys.

Despite being paralysed from the neck down, the monkey was able to hear, smell, taste and move its eyes. However, the animal died nine days after surgery because its immune system rejected the foreign head. Dr. Canavero attributes that failure to the technological inability of the time to rejoin the severed spinal cord. However, in a paper he published in the journal Surgical Neurological International entitled “HEAVEN: The HEad Anastomosis VENture project” he claims it is now possible.

Spinal cord reattachment When a spinal cord injury occurs it releases twenty-six thousand Newtons of force, it is incurable. What Canavero’s theory entails is the use of a “specially fashioned diamond microtomic snare blade” which will sever the cord between the C5 and C6 vertebrae and release less than ten Newtons of force in the process. The idea of cutting the spinal cord sharply as opposed to bluntly does have a little medical support as the only example of successful spinal cord surgery comes from a case of where a man had a stab injury rather than a blunt injury to the cord. Canavero compares the spinal system and brain to an orchestra. The spinal system (responsible for making us move) playing the part of the orchestra and the brain the part of the conductor, directing the system. This accessible way to think about the relationship lets us know that the spinal cord is ‘no slave’ to the brain, according to Canavero the orchestra can still play without the conductor, albeit not as flawlessly.

The procedure The surgery is estimated to cost over 10 million euro and will be a marathon procedure up to 72 hours long requiring 150 medics. First both the bodies of the patient and donor will be cooled down to a temperature of around ten degrees Celsius to extend the period in which the cells can

survive without oxygen. The patient’s neck will then be partially cut and the blood vessels will be connected to the neck of the other. Then the spinal cord is cut, head moved onto the donor’s body and the spinal cord is fused together using a substance called Polyethylene glycol (PEG), which works like a glue, growing the spinal cord between the head and the body.

The next step is the putting together of muscles and blood vessels. The patient will then be put in a coma for four weeks while the head and body heal together. In a TED talk in Limassol, Canavero outlined his vision of the patient reawakening from the coma.

Speaking with supreme confidence that he expects patients will report full near-death experiences, “after waking the patient will require extensive psychological counselling to deal with identity issues that will result from having a new body.” But he claims he will enable “quadriplegic patients to recover movements in full within one year.” On waking they should be able to move, feel their face and even speak with the same voice.

The head donor Dr. Canavero has found a patient who volunteered for the surgery. Russian computer scientist Valery Spiridinov who suffers from Werdnig Hoffman’s disease (a genetic muscle wasting) has proposed himself as a volunteer despite knowing the enormous risks involved. He says he “can hardly control his body now”, and that he hopes “in the future this surgery will help thousands of people who are in an even more deplorable state” than him. While many observers have expressed concern for Valery’s well being, others are happy to see that he is a willing subject.

Canavero has attracted a lot of attention, with public and professional opinion over his plans mainly being negative due to ethical and scientific reasons. Experts in the field state that the technology and time-frame in which he grounds his belief are unrealistic. Even if the patient did survive doctors argue there is little chance they would be able to move.

Medical and ethical issues Richard Bodgers, Director of the Centre for Paralysis research at Purdue University believes, “There is no evidence that the connectivity of cord and brain would lead to useful sentient or motor function following head transplantation.” Other members of the scientific community have reacted to his plans with a mixture of scepticism and horror.

Arthur Calpan, director of Medical Ethics at New York University’s Langone Medical Centre, has described Dr Canavero as “nuts”, and believes the transplant is scientifically impossible and that Canavero has simplified the difficulties involved in reattaching the spinal cord. From moral and ethical stance, public opinion would also seem to be against him. He has been publicly criticised by at least one international church and the Italian medical establishment, his home country has turned against him. An ethical predicament is that doctors may be motivated to perform head switching operations for all the wrong reasons. Dr. Christopher Scott, a bioethicist and regenerative medicine expert at Stanford, worries “You’d have to make sure the motivations are around a true medical need, and not some desire to be famous.” He adds “These questions have been raised before, in procedures like face transplants.” But in fact Canavero assures us this is not the case and that this surgery could benefit those whose bodies have multiple cancers such as ALS. He justifies his ethical reasoning by saying that, “it is equally clear that horrible conditions without a hint of hope of improvement cannot be relegated to the dark corner of medicine.”

Outcomes of the surgery The ultimate goal for the controversial neurosurgeon is immortality. He is convinced that his surgery will perfect and accelerate cloning with patients receiving a new young body to which their ageing head will be attached. According to Canavero “personality is in your old head and patients will get a boost of another 40 years” after completing surgery. As he delivers his futuristic message to “imagine a world where life extension becomes the norm”, one is reminded of the neonoir film “Blade Runner”, incidentally set in 2019, where advertisements offer “custom tailored, genetically engineered humanoid replicants, designed especially for your needs.” Perhaps Canavero is making a claim straight out of science of fiction, or just running two years ahead of Ridley Scott’s schedule.

ILLUSTRATION: NATALIE DUDA

The Trinity graduate who won a Nobel Prize Before this month, Trinity and Ireland had only one Nobel Laureate in science. Now we are proud to say that we have a second.

Turlough Heffernan Staff writer A graduate of Trinity College, Professor William Campbell, jointly received this year’s 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Professor Campbell shared half of the prestigious award with Professor Satoshi Omura, in recognition of their contributions to the discovery of a drug for treating infections caused by roundworm parasites. The other half of the award went to the Chinese scientist Tu Youyou who discovered a novel treatment for malaria after being inspired by traditional Chinese medicine. Professor Campbell is originally from Ramelton in Co. Donegal. He completed his undergraduate degree in Zoology in Trinity College and was awarded an honorary degree here in June 2012.

ILLUSTRATION: NOBEL PRIZE YOUTUBE

It is no exaggeration to say that the drug that Professor Campbell helped to discover, Ivermectin, has improved the lives of millions of people. It has dramatically reduced the prevalence of river blindness and lymphatic filariasis, two diseases caused by parasitic worms. These conditions affect the world’s poorest people, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Central and South America.

River blindness begins with

persistent inflammation of the eyes and skin but becomes progressively worse. It is the second most common cause of blindness with over 20 million people currently infected.

Aside from the toll it takes on people’s health and quality of life, it also places an economic burden on communities in Africa where people have had to migrate away from rivers to less fertile lands in order to escape the parasites. Lymphatic filariasis causes chronic swelling of the limbs and genitals.

Those affected often have to deal with discrimination and the associated social and economic problems, similar to people who suffer from leprosy. 40 million people are currently incapacitated with the infection and we know that humanity has had to contend with the disease for thousands of years as it is referenced in ancient Greek literature and in artifacts from ancient Egypt.

Satoshi Omura is a Japanese microbiologist who the Nobel committee recognised as the person responsible for kickstarting the development of Avermectin, the active ingredient in Ivermectin. Professor Omura isolated new strains of a bacteria, Streptomyces, from samples of soil and then cultivated them in his lab. He grew thousands of different cultures but shortlisted fifty sam-

ples that he believed would be most likely to contain effective compounds. Professor Campbell, who was working in the USA at the time, got his hands on the bacterial cultures from Omura’s lab and tested their efficacy at killing common parasites in animals. To his delight, he discovered that one of the cultures contained a substance that was exceptionally effective at eradicating these parasitic worms.

Avermectin, was isolated from the bacteria and underwent chemical modifications to make it even more potent.

The resulting drug was named Ivermectin and was useful not just in animals but in humans too. It was both more efficient than previous treatments and had fewer side effects. As it happens, the soil sample that contained the successful substance was one that Satoshi Omura had isolated from his local golf course.

Tropical diseases such as river blindness and lymphatic filariasis are often neglected by drug developers because while they are commonplace in the developing world, there is no market in developed nations. For every drug that a company successfully brings to market, there are thousands that fail. That means that they have to charge enough not just to cover the cost of developing the successful drug but also to make back the money that

they sunk into the failures.

The unfortunate consequence of this is that conditions that are only prevalent in poorer nations, where patients can’t afford to pay for treatments themselves, are not prioritised.

Taking that into account, perhaps the most extraordinary aspect of the story is that the drug has been provided free of charge by Merck since the late 1980s. This is a welcome contrast to the story that was recently in the news of a pharmaceutical executive who decided to raise the price of a drug for AIDS by 5000% from $13.50 to $750. The provost of Trinity College, Patrick Prendergast recognised the role that Campbell played in persuading Merck: “In 1987 he spearheaded the decision by Merck to distribute that cure free to millions of people in what became one of the first and foremost examples of a public/private partnership in international health.

Annually 25 million people are treated under this scheme preventing new cases of river blindness”. Merck were able to afford to do this because ivermectin had originally been sold as a veterinary medicine and had been extremely profitable in this area. The company was originally worried that patients might not trust or value a drug that they were being provided with for free

but they managed to alleviate any worries patients may have had by working closely with community groups.

Ivermectin has been so successful that river blindness has now been completely eradicated in some regions including Columbia, Ecuador and Mexico. Furthermore, people in these countries have been able to repopulate the parasite-infested areas that they previously had been forced to abandon.

The hope is that lymphatic filariasis will be eliminated by 2020. Almost 7 million children have already been prevented from being infected.

The Nobel committee stated that the work of Campbell and Omura has meant that “these diseases are on the verge of eradication, which would be a major feat in the medical history of humankind”.

Speaking after learning of the award, Professor Campbell described how he still retains a connection with Ireland. His brother lives here and knew of the award before Professor Campbell himself did. Professor Campbell also emphasised his view that scientists should be encouraged to draw inspiration from nature: “One of the big mistakes we’ve made all along is that there is a certain hubris in humans thinking that they can create molecules as well as nature can create”.

Trinity News | Tuesday 20 October

SciTech

21

The waters of Mars Una Harty reports on the recent announcement by NASA about the discovery of liquid water on the planet Mars.

Una Harty Staff writer If you type ‘mars’ into google, the first suggestion that Google presents you with is ‘mars water’. The idea was put forward initially in 2010 when undergraduate student, Lujendra Ojha from the University of Arizona, found transitory streaks on the side of a slope on the fourth planet from the Sun. As inquisitive beings, we’ve always been a little fascinated with the notion of the existence of ‘Martians’ (the term was first coined in 1883 by WS Lach-Szyrma, Wars of the Worlds (1898), the Mars Bar (1932) and of course David Bowie’s ‘Life on Mars?’ from 1971). From 1970 onwards, NASA have been sending missions into space designed to investigate the Red Planet.

Since September 28th of this year, the world has been captivated by NASA’s discovery that liquid water exists on our nearest planetary neighbour. The ‘Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’ or MRO managed to capture stunning images of streaks on one of the many Martian mountains. This means that water must have flowed down these slopes due to the formation of the indentation. The MRO conducted further tests using a spectrometer (a device used to analyse the chemical elements present in a sample) to confirm that hydrated minerals had been pre-

sent on these slopes. It has been deduced that the water appears intermittently. Deep, darker lines are seen where the water flowed during the hotter periods on Mars; whereas the lighter coloured lines show a lesser flow during the cooler times.

Many confuse Mars for a hot planet when in fact it is the opposite.

The nickname ‘The Red Planet’ (due to the high concentration of iron oxide) is rather contradictory as the temperatures on Mars fluctuate between -125 and 20 degrees Celsius. If you know anything about science at all, you’d question the existence of liquid “H two O” at such variations of temperature. So how can it be? The reason for this is the water on Mars does not exist as pools of water, but more as “thin layers of wet soil”, states Alfred McEwen of the University of Arizona.

In addition to this, the water is said to exist in brine form. Salt reduces the freezing point of water and hence this would support further evidence as to how liquid water could exist in such a cold environment.

But Mars isn’t our first discovery of exoplanetary water. Europa, one of Jupiter’s sixty two moons, is covered in ice. Underneath the ice, there is believed to be a deep reservoir of liquid water. This abundance of water holds tantalising prospects for our extraterrestrial search, with NASA are launching mis-

sions specially designed to explore Europa and other moons, Ganymede and Callisto around the 2020 mark. ‘European Juice’ or Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer will answer some of the most topical questions astronomy has ever asked when they scan for complex, organic material on these moons. Titan, one of the more well-known of Saturn’s copious moons, is also known for its sub-surface ocean. In the case of Mars, there most definitely could be the remnants of once great oceans buried deep below the surface. These vast expansions of mineral-rich waters would have covered the planet.

This also poses a potential challenge, as it may be necessary to tunnel into Mars’ crust in order to search for life.

The next obvious question to arise is: can life exist on Mars, now that water does? The answer is yes. However there is one condition we must consider if it is briny water that was found. NASA stated via Twitter that life is not guaranteed on Mars as of yet as “life as we know it couldn’t survive if too salty”.However controversy surrounds this discovery as, on the 4th of October, NASA have issued a statement saying they cannot collect the water on Mars due to international law regulations. The ‘Outer Space Treaty’, established in 1967, states that “no nation can send a mission of human or robotic form close to an extra-

terrestrial water source due to fears of contamination of it and the life we have on earth”.

Currently their ‘curiosity rover’ is a mere thirty miles from a location where NASA believe water to be flowing.

This law means that they aren’t permitted to collect the water even for forensic testing, putting the chance of a revolutionary discovery on hold for now. There is irony to this situation.

NASA’s equipment could easily have carried harmful bacteria from earth or indeed collected during its 140-million-mile journey through space from its Californian base.

NASA do put every piece of their equipment destined for space through rigorous processes involving ultraviolet light but there is no way they can prevent microbes attaching themselves to their crafts post decontamination.

Nov. 2-3, 2-3, 2015 2015 University Dublin,Ireland Ireland University College College Dublin, Dublin, Dublin, #FungForum #FungForum Register: http://fungforum.princeton.edu Register: General: $100 Students: $25 25% Off Groups of 10 or More Press Contact: Press Contact: fungforum@princeton.edu

fungforum@princeton.edu Speakers come from a wide array of disciplines and sectors: Speakers come from a wide array of disciplines and sectors: those working working on on the the front front lines those lines of of the the West West Africa Africa Ebola Ebolacrisis, crisis, faculty who who study study global faculty global health healthcrises, crises, members of ofthe the media media and and philanthropic philanthropic organizations. members organizations.

There is another obstacle in our way of investigating the H2O on Mars; the terrain. The ‘Curiosity Rover’ would find it virtually impossible to navigate itself across the region which boasts the indentation and streaks. Even then, the next destined Mars exploration voyage in 2020 isn’t suitable either and nor do they have the time to adjust the rover.

It seems that the analysation of Mars’ water is a long time away even if they can guarantee 100% sterilisation of the equipment and robotics.

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS Margaret Chan Director-general of the World Health Organisation Jeremy Farrar Director, Welcome Trust Raj Panjabi Co-Founder and CEO of Last Mile Health Peter Piot Director, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Mary Robinson Former President of Ireland, U.N. Special Envoy on Climate Change FEATURING PANELLISTS FROM Princeton University Centers for Disease Control and Prevention International Rescue Committee Médecins Sans Frontières Ireland U.K. Department for International Development World Health Organization Concern Worldwide GOAL Ireland Harvard Medical School John Snow, Inc. The New York Times

The Lancet NPR Oxford University UNICEF Innovations USAID U.S. Navy University College Dublin University of Ghana The Washington Post Wellbody Alliance World Health Organisation

“But where do you get your protein?”

Thinking of going vegan? Aaron Downey explains the things you need to prepare yourself for before you make your decision.

Aaron Downey Contributing writer There is no one reason that a person may move towards a vegan diet. Many factors influence an individual’s decision; be it animal rights issues, environmental concerns or even health benefits. But one thing I’m sure everyone who has taken such a decision in their life has heard is the inevitable “but where do you get your protein?” It’s an understandable question given the prevalence that animal protein has in our nutritional education from food pyramid diagrams in primary school to the masculine gym culture which fetishizes meat. But this is all based on a fundamental misconception of what constitutes a healthy diet and particularly what constitutes a vegan diet.

What does science know?

It’s impossible to pin down an average vegan diet given the wide range of people who follow one, however it will often consist of a mixture of grains, legumes, vegetables, fruits, milk substitutes, and so on. One of the things people tend to find most surprising about the diet when investigating it for the first time is just how much academic research supports the healthiness of such a diet. The ChinaCornell-Oxford Project, which was the largest study of nutrition conducted at the time, as summarised in The China Study by T. Colin Campbell, PhD and his son Thomas M. Campbell II, M.D., in fact explicitly promotes a plant based diet.

As an observational study of nutrition in rural China in the 1980s it examined the correlation between the consumption of animal products and illnesses such as coronary heart disease and various types of cancer. Upon evaluation of the evidence the authors conclude that those areas with a higher consumption of animal prod-

ucts were more likely to suffer from the sort of diseases listed above whereas the opposite was true as the consumption of animal products decreased.

The authors recommend a diet that avoids all meat, dairy and eggs as well as processed foods and refined carbohydrates in order to reduce the consumption of cholesterol.

Plant sources of protein And so in terms of protein there are misconceptions to be corrected here too. For instance, an amount of broccoli as measured in calories has more protein than an equivalent amount of steak, whilst also avoiding the problems of cholesterol mentioned above.

Beans and nuts are full of protein as are various meat substitutes like tofu, seitan and tempeh. It is also worth mentioning the soya protein found in tofu can also lower levels of cholesterol and can imitate the action of oestrogen released by the body to potentially reduce the risk of breast cancer. On the whole, most adults in the developed world in fact also obtain too much protein in their diet and so the seemingly innocent inquiry into vegan protein intake betrays more subtle biases about nutrition as a whole.

What’s missing?

Of course that is not to say that switching to a vegan diet in and of itself is some sort of panacea to any and all ills.

Rather, that a well-planned vegan diet can make a positive impact on one’s health. There are a number of vitamins that are harder to obtain on a vegan diet. These include vitamin B12, vitamin D, calcium and Omega-3. Vitamin B12 is found in bacteria in soil which is obtained by animals from ingestion of foods, primarily unwashed vegetables, which have soil containing the bacteria on them. Because of this, ingesting animal products is by far the most likely way humans are going to obtain such a vitamin.

Thankfully for vegans a number of alternatives exist.

B12 supplements which usually extract the vitamin from seaweed and other sources exist and are relatively inexpensive. Many plant based milks such as soya or almond ones are fortified with the vitamin as well as most breakfast cereals. A vitamin D deficiency can be a leading contributor to various problems such as rickets and osteoporosis. One of the best sources for vitamin D is sunlight. In response to a growing number of cases of vitamin D deficiencies in recent decades, vitamin D has been voluntarily added to milk by milk producers.

So if one is a vegan in sunless, cloudy Ireland it can be hard to obtain your daily dose of vitamin D. Again plant based alternatives and breakfast cereals often come fortified with it but even here vegans may need to be careful. Vitamin D3, also called cholecalciferol, is derived using materials which come from sheep’s wool, whilst vitamin D2 is vegan. Calcium can be found in as varied places as kale, fortified non-dairy milk and broccoli. Omega-3 fatty acids are mostly found in certain fish and thus are a cause for concern for vegans.

A number of sources exist such as flax seeds, linseeds, hemp seeds and milk and walnuts. So there are pitfalls that one can fall into if they plan a vegan diet poorly and are afraid to scurry into the darkest depths of their local health food store but rest assured, non-animal products exist as an alternative for any scenario.

Those who menstruate should also pay special attention to iron given that it is required to recuperate blood loss. Vegetarians and vegans do not in fact have a higher rate of iron deficiency than meat eaters however whilst planning a vegan diet care should be taken to obtain the necessary amount of iron from dark green leafy vegetables as well as the vitamin C which can aid

iron absorption if taken at the same time (and avoiding tea and tannin containing drinks which can hinder absorption if taken concurrently).

Veganism and ethics Given all that which is said above it is important to realise that for many the vegan diet is an aspect of a decision based on ethical considerations, which shuns animal usage not only for food, but also for entertainment and clothing. One question that is often asked is if it is ethical to “force” veganism on children of vegan parents. Again this betrays a fundamental assumption that eating meat is the default status in society and ignores that regardless of whether their diet is vegan or not, a child cannot consent to what they are fed in the first few years of their life.

One can only be said to be forcing veganism on their children inasmuch as most children have meat eating thrust upon them. That is not to brush over the very real careful planning and consideration that must be taken to raise vegan kids. Those possible pitfalls mentioned above are obviously much more critical to avoid in the formative years of a child’s life. Protein, calcium, and vitamin D are crucial nutrients that are essential to growth. The American Dietetic Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics both state that a well-planned vegan diet can provide adequate nutrition in a growing child.

In summary, it cannot be denied that a vegan diet can be hard to follow for some however, all things considered, if planned properly to account for some key nutrients which it may be more likely to be lacking it can accommodate for most lifestyles for those wishing to follow a diet free from animal products for whatever reason – health, environmental, ethical or otherwise.

ILLUSTRATION: EMER O’CEARBHAILL

Trinity News | Tuesday 20 October

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Trinity News | Tuesday 20 October

23

Sport

PHOTOGRAPH: PAUL REYNOLDS

Don’t look across the water, sport at home is as strong as ever A compelling, competitive domestic football league with widespread national attention is not outside our nation’s grasp Michael Foley Deputy sport editor This September, I moved into a flat beside Dalymount Park, former home of the Irish national football team and current home of Bohemians football club. Never having watched League of Ireland (LOI) , I was intrigued by the prospect of living beside a football grounds. So, two weeks ago, my flatmates and I attended Bohemians’ local derby with Shamrock Rovers. Not sure what to expect, we entered the grounds with low expectations but emerged with positive reviews of the experience.

The match itself was a scrappy affair. It finished 0-0 and with the deadlock remaining unbroken after extra time, Rovers came out on top on penalties. Not the most thrilling encounter but the sight of 36 year old Irish footballing legend Damien Duff and the eternally compelling prospect of penalties made it well worth the €10 student admission. While I was eminently aware that none of the players on the pitch approached the skill levels of Messi or Ronaldo, I found myself wrapped up in the occasion and we decided that we would definitely attend more games in future.

Of course, the LOI isn’t massively well attended. The financial state of the League is often highlighted with ten teams closing down in the same number of years. The fortunes of Premier League teams are of far more importance to most Irish people than that of the team in the domestic national league. Not that people should attend local matches out of some weird sense of nationalistic duty.

Rather, the prospect of live, entertaining and communitybased football should attract far more people than it currently does. However, it is undeniable that the standard of the LOI is undeniably considerably inferior to that of the Premier League.

National heroes Which isn’t to say that the quality of football in the LOI is poor. National hero Shane Long who scored the winning goal in Ireland’s miracle victory over Germany began his career in the LOI, as did Robbie Keane. And players such as Bobby Charlton and George Best graced the league’s’ pitches towards the end of their respective careers.

While players of this stature don’t typically spend a great amount of time in the league, it indicates that the ability of the players should be a pulling factor rather than a deterrent.

Regardless, the technical standard of the football on display isn’t everything. The football played in the LOI is entertaining, if inferior in quality to that of the Premier League. The argument against the LOI, which promotes pure physical ability as the most important factor, is often voiced and frequently used to disparage women’s football; it is suggested that men are faster and stronger, which means that men’s football is more entertaining.

This argument is problematic however as in sports such as tennis, male and female athletes are equally popular.

Furthermore, heavyweight boxing matches are not seen as more entertaining than lightweight ones. The pure physical ability displayed in a sporting contest is not, it would appear, the deciding factor in regards to the popularity of the sport.

A few weeks ago the Conroy Report was published. This report sought to identify issues with the LOI and, consequently, propose viable solutions. One of the reasons cited by those questioned who no longer attended matches was that there was a “ Rowdy atmosphere” with “abusive language”. However, the number one reason cited which would encourage fans to attend a LOI match was the improve-

ment of facilities. Nobody wants to watch matches in a dingy stadium, with a poorly kept field.

This coupled with accusations of a hostile atmosphere, do not make the LOI an attractive option for a Friday night out. This severely diminishes the status of the league and consequently, what is known as its cultural capital.

Cultural capital Pierre Bourdieu, a french sociologist, identified sport as a major component of what he termed cultural capital.

This cultural capital can be described as certain tastes, habits and skills which are possessed by those who together form a sort of collective identity. Having or indeed more importantly, not having certain types of cultural capital can be a source of social inequality. For example, speaking with a particular accent or dialect could improve your career prospects more than it should. It follows that different sports are perceived differently. Some have certain cultural capital attached to them while others don’t.

This may seem obvious.

Sports like Croquet or Polo have glaring connections with a particular social class. Marx described cricket as having “bourgeois Englishness dripping from every rule and ex-

pression”. With sports such as such as soccer, the reality is a bit more murky and harder to delineate. Is it that the LOI lacks desirable cultural capital? The symbolic value of being a rugby fan perhaps indicates that you belong to a certain socio-economic group which is attractive. This might explain why the FAI seemingly don’t care about the LOI. A cursory glance at the FAI’s twitter page reveals very little promotion of their domestic league, perhaps because they don’t think it has much chance of improving.

With the Rugby world cup in full swing and the nation captivated, it is perhaps useful to analyse the difference in how the public views both sports.

The far too often repeated nauseating cliché that rugby is a “hooligan’s game played by gentlemen while football is a gentlemen’s game played by hooligans” is constantly rolled out as a sweeping generalisation that is bought into by far too many people. But does this viewpoint really permeate our thinking to such an extent that our analysis of individual sports are dictated by a latent understanding that some sports are for different types of people?

Recently, in the Ireland’s crucial group match against France, Sean O’Brien was suspended for punching france

lock Pascal Pape in the stomach. Most of the analysis of this incident has focused on how Pape had provoked O’Brien, with no claims brought against O’Brien’s moral character.

The claims by France’s head coach, Philippe Saint- André, that O’Brien had assaulted Pape were widely derided and dismissed as french “sour grapes”. I wonder, had Robbie Keane punched a Polish player in the stomach during a scuffle before a corner kick last Sunday, would the media have concerned itself with the same level of moral rationalisation?

Would they have focused on the provocative actions of the Polish player? Perhaps, but I think it is rather unlikely.

Rugby or football Rugby is seen as an almost morally superior sport. Many will recall rugby referee Nigel Owens scalding a player for talking back that “This is not soccer”. Indeed, after rugby matches, players lineup before the entrance and clap the opposing team off the field. Only the captains are allowed to speak to the referee and on the whole, rugby union certainly appears to be slightly more civilised than soccer. These are of course, nice gestures, and they set a fine example for kids watching at home. But they’re also just that, gestures. Ultimate-

ly quite superficial actions which probably don’t instill a deep sense of honour in those engage in them. It’s quite difficult to imagine that a child who plays rugby exclusively will have a greater sense of sportsmanship than one who plays soccer merely because of these features of the game.

That is not to say that they are of no importance however.

Superficial elements like displays of sportsmanship or in the case of the LOI, improved facilities and atmospheres are supremely important as they influence public perception and entice people to certain sports.

Perhaps the FAI can learn from rugby union. An increase in funding and the creation of a more attractive environment would attract greater levels of interest to what is a stagnant sector in Irish sport. Such an environment would surely draw much needed media attention. The league should not abandon its roots however and in its search for a broader audience it should be ensured that it does not alienate its current fanbase. A compelling, competitive domestic football league with widespread national attention is not outside the nation’s grasp.

The gender dimension when it comes to in Trinity sports Why are female athletes being so disproportionately overlooked when it comes to these scholarships? The answers might be found in the wider context of women’s sport.

Clare McCarthy Sport editor Last year in Trinity College Dublin, over sixty sports scholarships were awarded to athletes who had achieved outstanding ability in various sports. Out of these sixty, as few as one in four sports scholarships were awarded to women. Rugby being the worst offending sport, not a single female rugby player received a scholarship and yet thirty rugby scholarships were awarded to men’s rugby.

These findings, published recently in the Sunday Independent on October 4th, beg the question as to why female athletes are being so disproportionately overlooked.

While these statistics may be recent, the imbalance is altogether unsurprising and perhaps reflective of the relatively recent inclusion of women in the sporting world – DULFC (Trinity’s ladies rugby team) was not established until 1996, the men’s counterpart having been established 142 years previously, in 1854. However, the truth these figures present has raised concerns among women’s sports advo-

cates and student sport representatives. Male students are dominating sports scholarship programmes throughout the country, including at Trinity College Dublin, suggesting a systematic funding imbalance for sporting women in college and a concern for women’s sport at large.

As I have put men’s rugby on the chopping block, it is only fair to allude to the Irish rugby team’s recent victories at the Rugby World Cup. Their current success at top level would suggest that the funding, scholarships and careful attention given to men’s rugby has, indeed, paid off. No doubt, this success is of great importance for the morale of our small nation and for Irish sport itself. But what expense does women’s sport pay to build the road to men’s victory?

Equal funding across the Atlantic In 1972, the American government passed the Educational Amendments, signed

by President Nixon. One section of this law, Title IX, prohibits state funding of any educational institution if they do not fund male and female sports equally. It states, “No

“

Girls and women who play sports have higher levels of confidence, selfesteem and lower levels of depression, a more positive self-image and experience higher states of psychological well-being than girls and women who do not.

person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal assistance.”

This radical measure ensured American women and girls more access to facilities and funding than ever before and as a result female sport benefited hugely from higher sports participation rates. In Ireland, no such amendment to prohibit discrimination exists and many women’s sports advocates believe that similar legislation to Title IX would be the key to creating opportunity. It is clear, we have much to do to create the superstructure where men’s and women’s sports can exist on a more equal footing in terms of funding, participation and media exposure.

The governing body of third level sport, Student Sport Ireland, said that the number of sports scholarships awarded seemed to reflect the gap in participation levels of females compared to males. Given the high drop-out rate of teenage girls in sports, potentially a symptom of gender expectations, the disparity between

genders in university sports scholarship programmes is possibly an equal representation of the demands of the students themselves - the demand amongst male applicants being considerably higher.

The disproportion in numbers of male to female college athletes reflected in the statistics above is not dissimilar to that which prevailed in the US, prior to Title IX. This goes to show that change is possible and the resulting benefit to female sport, immeasurable.

When university sporting bodies are considering the apportionment of sports scholarships it seems unlikely that gender, rather than merit, is a factor of influence and therefore, instead of tackling university sports programmes we should address the social policy issue and promotion, or lack thereof, of women’s sport.

Lack of media coverage The lack of promotion that women’s sport receives, despite substantial success, is usually due to the biased concept among major media broadcasters that the women’s game will not be of the same standard or interest to the viewers as the men’s. A

study conducted by the University of Birmingham discovered that in England, 97% of sport coverage in 2013 was of men’s sport. Birmingham’s researchers believe that this extraordinary underreporting of women’s sports has perhaps marred, or at least not encouraged, the interest of women to participate in competitive sports.

A website dedicated to the coverage of women’s sport, sportswomen.ie, aims to turn the tide against gender bias in media coverage. Sport affords women the opportunity to exhibit strength and dedication, an empowering image seldom attributed enough to women by the media.

Sportswomen.ie believes that, by showing that women are capable of mental, physical and emotional strength in the sports arena, it will testify that they are also well capable in other arenas such as business, politics, etc. Research conducted by the Women’s Sport Foundation, founded by Billie Jean King - former world no.1 tennis player, revealed that girls who play sports are more likely to get better grades and to graduate than girls who do not play sports.

Girls and women who play

sports have higher levels of confidence, self-esteem and lower levels of depression, a more positive self-image and experience higher states of psychological well-being than girls and women who do not.

It is imperative to the cause of real social change that we do not view women’s sport as victimised, but as empowered.

Women who play sport should not be expected to masculate themselves in order to be considered on an equal playing field to men.

Rather, we must alter the perception attributed to women’s sports in the media and beyond, and with equal funding supported by legislation, mobilize more women to fulfil their potential. We must recognise that the continual overlooking of women in sport excludes them from the capacity to develop their potential, in every area of sport.

Trinity News | Tuesday 20 October

Sport

24

League of Ireland clubs serve their communities and nourish culture more than they’re given credit for page .23

The very real world of fantasy football leagues William Foley gives us a rookie guide to the digital game pable of lifting my team to victory. Unfortunately Beckham is injured, and his status for the New York Giants Monday night matchup with the Philadelphia Eagles is questionable, which means that he may or may not play.

William Foley Deputy editor I estimate that I spend approximately three to four hours a week on my fantasy football team. At the start of the week I scour the major internet sites, skimming articles to pick up tips on who to start, who to sit, who to drop, and who to pick up. Then I put in claims on the waiver wire for players whom I want to add.

By Wednesday the composition of my team will be pretty much set. Barring further tinkering, or new injury outlooks, I know who I have to choose from. As the matches unfold over the weekend, my and my opponent’s scores will tick up in spurts and dribbles.

Usually it’s pretty clear well before the end who is going to win, but sometimes it goes down to the wire.

PHOTOGRAPH: MATTHEW MULLIGAN FOR TRINITY NEWS

Sitting down with DUCAC honourary chairman and sports enthusiast Cyril Smyth

Smyth is also serving his twentieth year on the Irish University Athletics Association, and his final year as its head Aisling Ahern Contributing writer The day Cyril first arrived at Trinity, he walked straight into the midst of an old athletics tradition. The sun gleamed down on the manicured lawns of College Park. Throngs of students milled around the edge of the cricket pitch or the Pav steps, surrounded by an excited buzz. At centre of it all, College Races were underway. Athletes thundered around the grass track, racing each other for the honour of being declared Trinity’s finest runner. This competition has seen Trinity’s fastest and fittest battle it out on the grass track since 1857 - even Bram Stoker once tried his luck.

“Everyone was going around in morning coats and top hats, the President was there, and I thought, this is a wonderful place.”

It was this event that would sway his decision towards working and teaching for the next 28 years in Trinity.

Cyril’s involvement in athletics began rather accidentally. Educated in the University of Glasgow, and working in Ireland for the first time, he considered himself more of a recreational runner. A colleague convinced him to train for the Dublin Marathon, and on this whim he started to take his casual runs a bit more seriously. Trotting along a rocky cliff trail between Bray and Greystones, a chance encounter with another runner led to Cyril joining his first club.

“I was running along the cliff walk... this guy came up behind me and we struck up a conversation. He invited me along to Bray Runners training group. I went along one day, and I found that I rather enjoyed it, so I stuck with it.”

Training with Bray, Cyril completed his ambitious debut race in less than 3 hours.

After that, Cyril was hooked, and one marathon turned into 23.

Cyril’s involvement has not been limited to competing.

He has served as Treasurer for a number of clubs and associations, has been involved with the IUAA since 1992 in a variety of roles – Committee Member, Hon. Secretary, Vice

President, Hon President, P.R.O, Chairman – and has led Trinity’s sports clubs governing body DUCAC since 2009.

He has been involved in Bray Runners committee since joining. He received outstanding contribution awards from the IUAA in 2011, and from Leinster Athletics in 2013. You would be forgiven for wondering whether Cyril really is retired. So why does he give so much to Irish sport? It is certainly not for the accolades.

“You’re a volunteer. You do these things because you love doing them. Though it is nice to be recognised.”

Cyril also earned a lifetime achievement award for his dedication to teaching, and gave it back to the college to continue to inspire young scientists even after his retirement.

“I wasn’t interested in the money. I gave it back to the department to set up a prize for the best Senior Sophister project each year. I am happy to say that it is still running.”

Experience and trust More well-known among athletics circles as a race starter, Cyril is rarely seen at a race meet without a pistol in his hand. His voice evokes the nervous, excited flutter as you crouch down at the starting line; you listen closely, tensed as you wait for the gun to explode, wait for your reflexes to jolt into action.

“A lot of athletes get used to you and get used to trusting you. They trust you not to make a mistake, and you trust them not to false start.”

The importance of an experienced official cannot be overstated. The no false-start rule means that jumping the gun a moment too soon can get you disqualified. You must trust their dedication to the fairness and quality of athletics.

Over the years, Cyril has amassed an encyclopaedic knowledge of Irish athletics history, and has done vast research into the rich background of college ath-

letics. His DUCAC office in the Sports Centre certainly reflects this. A hefty row of books lines the windowsill.

“Running: A Global History” by Thor Gotaas. Trinity graduate records, historical sports results. There is a cabinet bursting with trophies and awards.

He tells me about one distinguished College athlete from the 1880s. Alfred Vigne qualified as a doctor in Trinity in 1890, and during his studies competed for the college.

Vigne was a sprinter, excelling in 220 yard and 440 yard events. He also played rugby and won a gold medal with DUFC in the Leinster Senior Challenge Cup. He set several Irish records and collected a multitude of athletics medals.

Earlier this year, the family of Alfred Vigne donated twelve 18-carat gold medals to Trinity College, some of them of unique value. This generous gesture almost floored the history enthusiast Cyril.

“It’s an incredible gift. An incredible thing to believe that these medals won in the 1880s still exist and that the family is prepared to part with them...

They will soon be on display to students.”

Cyril is full of recollections of a time when the sport was quite different. My favourite more recent anecdote is from the 1990s, the time when female athletes in Ireland started to wear crop tops to races.

The leading group of women were dashing around the course of the university road relays at NUI Maynooth. Unbeknownst to them, the women had quite scandalised an elderly man in the nearby priests’ training college.

“An old priest came out and saw these women running around in these scanty new things and almost got knocked down trying to stop the race.”

Needless to say, a group of athletes with a finish line on the horizon may as well be a herd of charging rhinos.

“They were NOT going to stop.”

Proudest moments Thomas Barr, just named Irish Universities Athlete of the Year, wowed Cyril with his gold medal for 400m hurdles at the World University Games earlier this year. He also gave ferocious performances at the intervarsity Indoor Track and Field Championships.

“Last year, the two relays where Thomas Barr ran the last leg for the University of Limerick in the 4X200m and the 4X400m, it was incredible to watch. He made up so much ground to win both for UL. Not just for himself, but for the team.”

Cyril, however, has a long memory and he fondly recalls moments where athletes demonstrated their determination and tenacity. There was a memorable incident at the Track and Field Championships of 1993, where Padraig Farrell was looking to medal in the 3000m men’s steeplechase.

“The weather was beautiful. It was the steeplechase.

This lad was from NUIG, and the [steeplechase] barrier was quite rotten and his spikes were just a tad too long. So when he stepped up on the barrier to leap off it the first time over the water jump, his foot stuck on the barrier and he nosedived into the water jump... He got out drenched, with the rest 30 or 40 metres ahead of him, and he went after them. He got within 10 yards of winning. He was determined to get a medal... he got bronze in the end.”

One equally tenacious student who also stood out to Cyril was Iain Morrison, a Trinity student and club captain from 1995 to 1997. One competition in particular, where Iain ran 1500m, was very memorable. It was a nail-bitingly close race until the final 10 metres.

“On the line he was so determined to win that he literally threw himself horizontally over it and won in a photo finish. He crashed into the ground and grazed his

shoulders.”

He looks fondly at the computer screen where he has pulled up the race results.

“Iain was one of those athletes you had to admire. He always gave 100 percent.”

Importance of Community Cyril believes that athletes who have been coached and mentored from a young age have a duty to give back to the community. One of the biggest challenges facing sports in Ireland, according to Cyril, is the difficulty in finding sufficient number of volunteers.

Officials, coaches, committee members, drivers, fundraisers – all of these roles make amateur sport possible. However, the vast majority of athletes who stop competing also end their involvement in the world of sport.

“All athletes get mentored and coached from an early age.

Once their athletic careers are over, they step down and most don’t give anything back.”

Iain Morrison once again gets mentioned as an example of a conscientious athlete. He looks back on his days in DUHAC (Trinity Athletics) with nostalgia, and has even taken up the coaching of Trinity’s long distance team after his own coach Mick Farrell retired earlier this year. Cyril is hopeful that this will inspire other athletes to do the same.

“People who have enjoyed a sport should continue to be involved in it if they possibly can...It’s community service – you are thinking about the upcoming generation and the future of sport.”

Cyril Smyth himself demonstrates the value of lifelong involvement in sport, and what it means to aspiring young athletes. Even as he prepares to step down as chair of the IUAA, he will not be hanging up the starter’s pistol any time soon.

“I will be called on to start races, and I have no intention of retiring from Irish University Athletics. I’ve been involved for a very long time, since the 1980s when I used to run myself... I have no intention of disappearing.”

If the above paragraph read like total gibberish to you, then let me explain myself.

Fantasy football is basically a sort of metagame based on the real-life performance of athletes in the American National Football League. There are also fantasy baseball, basketball, soccer etc leagues, but American football is the most popular. At the start of every league year fantasy players will participate in a draft where they take it in turns to pick players for their team.

This team isn’t set in stone as you can always add unattached players, or trade your own player(s) for those on a rival team. The number of points that you score depends on the real-life statistics of the players on your team. For example, if my running back Le’Veon Bell runs for 100 yards then my team (The Indianapolis Vonneguts) will get 10 points.

Owing to the randomness and parity of the league, there are few surefire studs who will be starting on your team every week. Instead you’ll pick players based not only on their past performance, but also on what teams and opposing players they’ll be matching up against in the next game, and whether or not there are injuries to teammates which might lead to the player playing a greater role for his team with higher scoring potential.

As in chess, the permutations are a source of both fascination and infuriation. Unlike chess though, there is an element of chance that creates an added tactical dimension.

For example, this weekend (at the time of writing) I face a choice of playing three different players in my second wide receiver slot. My default starter would be Odell Beckham Jr, a fantasy star well ca-

As a result I have picked up his teammate Randle, who has had a mixed year so far. If it looks like Beckham won’t play then I can start Randle who, in the absence of his teammate will like receive more targets and thus has the potential to put up some big numbers like he did in week 4 against Washington. Or he might not.

Of course I could start Randle, and then Beckham might still play, hoovering up all the receptions. Or I might start Beckham and he might not play at all, or be limited due to his tweaked hamstring. The third option is to simply forgo this dilemma and start Allen Hurns, a solid player who has performed well recently and is more consistent than Randle, though has far less upside than Beckham. Do I go with the safe option? Do I wait and see, and play the guessing game? Do I try the high riskhigh reward approach? Such are the weekly headaches of fantasy football, the sinks into which managers will pour far too much of their time.

The variability in performance and the wide range of options are what serve to make the pastime so engrossing, enervating, frustrating, addictive, and - occasionally triumphant. People like making predictions about how players or teams can do, and having successfully prophesied the breakout of a previously undistinguished rookie will make you feel especially savvy when it’s the difference between winning and losing your week 5 match.

But, like most sports, the joy and satisfaction of victory are much less frequently experienced than exasperation and disappointment. More often than not you will end up watching your normally dominant wide receiver limp home with a paltry 0.5 points, as some one-week wonder lights up the board for your opponent. Of course, the elusiveness of winning makes it all the more compulsive a pursuit, especially if there is money on the line, as there is in many leagues.

Because of this potent range of factors, fantasy football has skyrocketed in popularity across the Atlantic. The Fantasy Sports Trade Association (FTSA) estimates that annual domestic expenditure is about 15bn dollars. Brian Goff, a contributor at “capitalist tool” Forbes, points out that this is greater than the circa 10bn dollars that the NFL ammases in revenue annualy. More interestingly, Goff, using the FTSA estimate of 1.2bn hours spent by fantasy players, calculates that, at a US average wage of 24 dollars per hour, the monetary value of the time spent managing fantasy teams is around 29bn dollars per year. And, with the increasing popularity of the big money fantasy leagues like FanDuel and DraftKings, as well as the rise and rise of the NFL domestically and internationally, it seems like there will be more billions of hours spent on fantasy football eve-