Issue 7

vote for me: the election special

Trinity News

Jessie J to play at Trinity Ball Karl McDonald TN2 Editor

The first acts for this year’s Trinity Ball have been announced, with Jessie J and Glasser lined up to perform.

The Ball will take place on the 8 April, and tickets are set to go on sale on 23 February. Jessie J is the most prominent of the two acts, with her new single “Price Tag” featuring B.o.B. entering the UK chart at number one this weekend.

Her first single “Do It Like A Dude” remains in the chart at seventh position, eleven weeks after its release, having peaked at number two. She was named at first place in the BBC’s influential Sound of 2011 poll. The poll is voted on by music critics and industry insiders in the United Kingdom, and a mention on its final list tends to foreshadow commercial success.

Previous winners have included 50 Cent and Mika, and acts such as Lady Gaga, Florence and the Machine and last year’s Ball headliner Dizzee Rascal have also featured. At twenty-two, she has also starred on in a West End production and received plaudits from a wide range of people including Justin Timberlake who called her “the best singer in the world right now.”

Glasser, though less familiar, promises to be worth seeing. It is the

Est 1953

Trinity nurses protest against salary cuts

An mothaíonn tú an ghrá? Éigse celebrations kick off.

Freya Findlay Staff Reporter

Trinity Nursing students voiced their concerns over pay cuts at an open meeting held in the College last Thursday. Fourth year student nurses and midwives are facing pay cuts to their mandatory ninemonth internship. Currently, fourth year students earn 80 percent of the minimum of qualified nurses. This number is set to drop every year until 2015 when payment will be completely abolished.

All nurses and midwives must do this internship as part of their curriculum in order to qualify. The students carry out almost the same role as fully rostered nurses. Steph Fleming,

project of Los Angeles native Cameron Messirow, consisting of icy, ethereal electronica that recalls Bjork and Fever Ray. She has toured with The XX and Jonsí of Sigur Rós. Fabric Magazine said, “Check it out, and when your “There’s lots more to come!”

Darragh Genockey, Entertainments Officer friends find out about her six months from now you can say, ‘I told you so.’”

Ents Office Darragh Genockey commented that “it’s brilliant that we’ve managed to get an act who’s set to become one of the biggest chart artists of 2011. She’s already had two songs in the top ten within a week.” He added that “there’s lots more to come.”

The remainder of the line-up will be announced on Monday 21st February, two days before tickets go on sale.

The Trinity Ball, which was until recently Europe’s largest private party, is organised by MCD in co-operation with the SU Ents Officer.

As with recent years, the Trinity News team will be producing a Ball Guide complete with interviews and profiles on the whole line-up as well as features on the Ball experience as a whole.

“This is not a case of a group of students losing their bonuses” Steph Fleming, Welfare Officer

SS The annual Irish language week began last Monday with members of An Cumann Gaelach creating a heart, or chroí, in Front Square. Photo courtesy of The Irish Language Office.

Redmond inspires faith in “woeful” USI Aine Pennello Staff Reporter

Education Officer Jen Fox has accused the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) of spending “so much of its time on staying strong, that it has no time to actually use its strength”.

She was speaking at an anti-fees talk with Trinity Youth Labour and UCD Professor of Equality Kathleen Lynch last Thursday 3 February.

Fox went on to say that in the past, the USI “have been an awful organisation, absolutely woeful”. The comment was made in response to a question from the audience asking why

the USI has not put more pressure on the political parties and TD’s to stop the increase in third-level fees.

“Their priorities have been put on, oh God, the most incredibly silly “It’s very easy to be a big fish in Ireland.”

– Jen Fox, TCDSU Education Officer things,” Fox continued.

However under the direction of current USI President Gary Redmond, Fox said she had more “faith” in the organisation “than I ever did when I was a student, because of the different

change-over of people”. Still Fox insisted that she was not defending the USI in “any way, shape or form”.

Speaking about Trinity College’s own influence in the matter, Fox lamented the College’s lack of crossover between SU offices compared to other third-level institutions. “In UCD and on other student unions, you see officers going from Welfare Officer to President of Education to President so there’s a consistency, over at least even a couple of years.

“But in Trinity, because there’s so many bright, opinionated and great candidates, that the idea of staying on for more than one year is almost a

negative. So we don’t actually use our consistency to our advantage”.

Fox encouraged the Trinity Youth Labour society to pressure the Labour Party on the issue. “It’s very easy to be a big fish in Ireland,” Fox said. “The influence that you have, even in terms of proximity, is incredible for such a small population. It’s very easy to influence people if you are proactive about it”.

Speaking on the policies of the Labour Party, Fox said she would like to see the it become “more vocal” on their plans for educational funding, “to get up and say something and come out with their radical change.”

SU Welfare Officer, stressed that “this is not a case of a group of students losing their bonuses.” Many student nurses and midwives are afraid that they will find themselves in financial difficulty because of these planned cuts. Tara Deane, a Nursing student in her second year at Trinity, commented: “It’s something you look forward to for the whole course and it lets you plan things with the thought of that money in the future.”

Students voiced concerns at the meeting that patient care could suffer as a result of tired and stressed student nurses and midwives. There were also worries that nursing could become elitist, since prospective students may be deterred by the cuts. According to students, the Health Service Executive spends more money on teabags a year.

Fleming and the SU are in support of the student campaign against the cut. On Wednesday 9 February there will be a lunchtime protest in all major hospitals where rostered placements take place. Trinity students will be campaigning at St James’ Hospital. This will be followed by a protest march on Wednesday 16 February, which will begin from Parnell Square at 12:00.

Vol 57

Full background to the story – National News p. 6

Issue 6

8 February, 2011

2 News this fortnight they said

We were just exposing people who were doing wrong.”

Giles Muhame, the managing editor of Rolling Stone Uganda

numerology

“Women should vajazzle their vajayjay” Jennifer Love Hewitt on the trend of bejewelling the ladies’ private parts

compiled by Caitriona Murphy

“The only complaints we get are from colleges.”

“An awful organisation, absolutely woeful.”

Co-Founder of the LikeALittle website Evan Reas on their success

SU Education Officer Jen Fox on past USI officer boards

Rupert Everett launches a Wildely successful festival

25th

Kate Walsh and Hetty Hughes Contributing Reporters

The Oscar Wilde festival kicked off last week with a talk given by Rupert Everett, hosted by DU Players and the Phil. Everett was an appropriate guest, having played some of Wilde’s most famous characters both on stage and on screen. He is – as he often alluded to – a homosexual man facing adversity in pursuit of his art.

Though announcing on arrival that he had no speech prepared, Everett seemed to respond meticulously to every question as if by rote. He had a a romantic story to tell about his first encounter with Wilde, when as a five-year-old boy he was read “The Happy Prince” by his conservative but loving mother. He went on to reminisce about his love of musical cinema and his childhood fantasy of being Julie Andrews’ daughter and spoke fondly of the working-class Glaswegians who would come to

February, the date of the general election

13

The number of nominees for the SU elections

95% The percentage of Ugandans who are opposed to same sex relationships

17th

Photo: Aoife Nic Chraith birthday Niteline celebrated this month

2015 The year that student nurses’ placement pay will be abolished

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Aoife Crowley Kate Palmer Cillian Murphy Caitriona Murphy Meadhbh McHugh Evan Musgrave Ralph Marnham Ines Novacic James Coghill Manus Lenihan Josh Roberts David Barrett Jonathan Creasy Iseult McLister Alice Stevens Jimmy Lee Varun Khanna Owen Bennett John Engle Anthea Lacchia Christine Shields Daniel O’Callaghan Kate Rowan Eleni Megoran Michael Gaskin Conor O’Toole

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“The region spends more money feeding dogs than it does feeding its pensioners.”

Andrei Alshevskikh, Regional assembly member, Sverdlovsk province

see his “high-brow plays” with the Glasgow Citizen’s Theatre.

Myles Dungan, a confident and comfortable interviewer, tried to reach the man behind the façade but rarely steered the conversation away from the chronology of Everett’s life.

In answer to Dungan’s question on whether coming out as gay actor had damaged his career, Everett spoke about the trials and tribulations of being gay in the “conservative, capitalistic and military-like world of acting”. At the end of his talk, Everett received the Inaugural Oscar Wilde Gold Medal. The opening ceremony was then followed by the infamous “Trials of Oscar Wilde”.

Players also performed Everett’s favourite childhood story, “The Happy Prince”, during the festival.

Spectators were treated to a journey through the streets of a nameless city, watching the Swallow (Cameron Macaulay) carry out the wishes of the Happy Prince (Paul Testar).

Civil marriage debate success Meadhbh McHugh Deputy College News Editor

As part of Trinity Rainbow Week, an open discussion on civil partnership took place om Thursday 27 January when Katherine Zappone and Ann Louise Gilligan visited Trinity in a collaboration between Ents, LGBT and LawSoc. Gilligan and Zappone are applicants in the KAL case which is currently under appeal in the Supreme Court, to seek legal recognition of their life partnership from the Irish state.

The two women married in Canada in 2003, where their marriage is legally valid for all purposes. The Irish state will not recognise their marriage in legal and economic terms, although they have been offered civil partnership.

The two highlyqualified women answered questions about their background, their case and their hopes for the future. Their responses centred on the theme of freedom and dignity for all citizens to have the right to choose their life partner and be legally recognised in this act, with all the legal and economic benefits of civil marriage.

Gilligan expressed her annoyance at the concept of “incremental change” saying it makes her “blood boil”. She asked why she should wait for someone in “Timbuktu” to catch up with modernity, before she can be allowed to marry “the woman she loves”. The women said that they are fighting a case against prejudice and Zappone spoke about the reassurance from a member of their legal team that “only good can come of this.” When asked about the future of the case if the Supreme Court rules against them, the women said they would consider taking the case to Europe.

The women were greeted with rapturous applause from the audience of students and academics. They agreed with audience suggestion that those who feel passionately about progressive change in Ireland should make civil marriage an election issue with their politicians.

Ents Officer Darragh Genockey commented on the positive reaction on the night: “Katherine and Ann-Louise are very inspirational women and I’m delighted at how successful the event was.”

James Hagan, a member of Trinity LGBT who was involved in the organisation of Rainbow Week added, “the event was entertaining, inspiring and informative on points of law regarding gay issues, it perfectly fulfilled the ethos of Rainbow Week and what we hope to achieve with it.”

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TRINITY NEWS Aironi - Trinity.indd 1

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Haskins to run for election in Dublin S-E Meadhbh McHugh Deputy College News Editor

Dylan Haskins, 23, a third-year Classics and History of Art student in Trinity, has revealed he is running in the Irish general election this February 25, as an independent candidate for Dublin South East.

If Haskins is elected at the end of the month, he will be the youngest ever independent candidate to win a seat in Dáil Éireann.

He does not align himself with any party, seeing party politics as an “ineffectual way of doing things” and “a whip controlling what you’re allowed to say.”

Speaking to Trinity News Haskins said, although not from a political family background, he decided to run for election because he felt he “had to.” He said he didn’t want to “face a situation where I arrive at the polling

station, look at the ballot paper and realise there was nobody I wanted to give my vote to. The same faces are up for re-election, nothing can change if we do the same again.”

When asked if he was worried about getting caught up in the bureaucratic nature of Irish politics, he replied, “Well what are the other options?

50,000 students marched against fees and nothing happened, fees were increased by €500. Clearly it didn’t work. Commentary from the media is useful but at the end of the day, if you want to tackle something you have to go in there and shake things up.”

“As an independent voice I will be able to hold the political parties accountable for the promises they are now making.”

Haskins says he is also disillusioned by the lack of young people in the current government model: “Our generation needs representation in

the Dáil. The Dáil is full of old men, something like 70 percent are over 50.”

However he said his campaign is not an “age thing.” It is, rather, about “an alternative attitude, language, ideas, a different way to communicate by saying what you mean and not trying to fluff it up.” He added: “There is a thirst out there for a new attitude.”

This “new attitude” is founded on his belief in political transparency and honesty. His manifesto is centred on four main areas: political reform, equality, the city and the economy but the “thread going through them all is transparency. I want to get rid of suspicion. At the moment people don’t have faith in politics.”

Haskins says he is committed to conducting his political affairs “out in the open. I publish my campaign accounts every week on the website. I want to set an example for a different type of politician.”

With an impressive background in the Dublin arts scene, Haskins sees an important role for the arts in the rebuilding of the country: “The Irish Times said 2010 was the year of DIY in the arts.”

“This idea of DIY is an idea of empowerment. If people have something to say and do, give them the tools to do that.”

He is also aware of the “obamafication of politics” and is wary of “talking shop” politics: “change, what does that mean?” Dylan says what differentiates him as a candidate is that “I give ideas that are innovative. In my policy documents I offer initiatives and concrete ideas.”

Haskins says he will postpone his studies if elected: “I love Trinity and my course but the point we’re at is so crucial, it is a test on our state. It won’t wait around for me to finish my degree.”

Family law courts exposed in report  Maintenance rarely awarded to former spouses Divorced mothers and children increased risk of poverty Rights of fathers are upheld by courts

Áine Pennello Staff Reporter

DU Snow Sports Club Captain Rory Farrell has dispelled rumours that Club Secretary Daniel Cafferky was suspended for involvement in the destructive behaviour during the Club’s trip to Wasteland Ski Resort in Les Deux Alpes, France over the Michaelmas break. In an email to Trinity News, Farrell said, “No Daniel Cafferky hasn’t been suspended, why would he be?”

Speaking on behalf of the DUSSC Committee, Farrell expressed his desire that the controversy surrounding the trip would come to an end, “Honestly, I and everyone involved feel that this story has run its course and there are no more questions to be answered or things to be written about. I would appreciate if this matter was put to bed and let everyone involved get on with their lives”.

Una Kelly Staff Reporter

The first sociological study of Irish Family Law Courts has been conducted

by Dr Evelyn Mahon and Elena Moore of Trinity’s School of Social Work and Social Policy.

The aim of the study was to investigate post-separation and divorce agreements made in court and their implications for parent-child contact and family lives.

The court proceedings and judgements of 87 separation and divorce cases were audited over a 15week period in 2007.

Irish court proceedings are usually public for reasons of transparency, however many family courts have traditionally been held in private to protect the confidentiality of parties involved.

The researchers of this study applied to the Minister for Justice in order to gain permission to attend and audit family court proceedings.

Confidentiality has been maintained by the omission of names of parties, judges’ names, place names or identification of specific courts.

The study found that maintenance payments to a former spouse are rarely awarded in Irish courts. Currently,

SS The study examined 87 post-seperation and divorce cases and highlighted several trends that occur in the rulings Photo: Flickr

there is no standard recommended rate of child maintenance payments.

In the cases analysed the payments varied from €140 to €3000 per month.

In some cases, child maintenance payments were in arrears and wives had to take their husbands to court to ensure payment.

Without maintenance, low-income mothers and their children were exposed to high risks of poverty, undermining the ability of the mother to care for the children.

Irish family courts operate in the context of a no-fault divorce system, which when combined with the long separation period required before a divorce tends to reduce acrimony in court.

The study found that judges actively discouraged discussion of past misdemeanours, and the behaviour of parents usually had little impact on child custody or access arrangements.

To many parents this seems unfair and results in antagonism relating to

child access.

It was also found that children’s voices played an important role.

The courts recognised the right of teenagers to decide with which parent to reside. and in one case the views of young children were listened to in the chamber.

The research also concluded that Irish courts uphold a child’s right to contact with both parents and promote the rights of fathers to have contact with their children.

TCD student asks politicians to “Tell us why” Leah Tierney Contributing Reporter

“TellUsWhy” is a new website aimed at providing the public with information on political candidates in the upcoming general election. Set up by fourth year BESS student, Daniel Philbin Bowman, the website is a collection of candidates’ responses to a series of set questions that have been put to them. Candidates are invited to “tell us why we should elect you”, in a not-for-profit, non-partisan context.

Philbin Bowman believes that Ireland needs not only a change of Government, but a change in the way we select our Government.

This website aims to do just that.

It is based on the premise that “we need to start treating the candidates like the prospective employees that they are”. The website will provide an easily accessible means of assessing

8 February, 2011

Ski Trip scandal “put to bed”

and comparing the experience, achievements and views of the candidates. “It’s about people taking charge. They are the bosses. They are employing the “If the site works it’s because people want it to” Daniel Philbin Bowman candidates and are using this site to do this”. It is hoped that the website will be a significant support to the electorate over the coming weeks as they decide who takes on the most challenging and important jobs in the country.

Prior to the launch of the site on January 31, every declared and publicly contactable candidate across the country was emailed with a set of questions and were requested to

submit their answers to the website.

Four days after the official launch, the site had received over 4000 hits.

The number of followers on the “telluswhy” twitter account has doubled every day since the launch.

The site has also been receiving numerous emails of thanks and support from the public. This has exceeded expectations, which Philbin Bowman believes “shows that there’s an appetite for this”, before adding that “if the site works it’s because people want it to”.

Not surprisingly, responses from the candidates themselves have varied so far, with some such as Brain Hayes and Martin Mansergh submitting considered and comprehensive responses, while others such as Dominic Hannigan answering questions by submitting his web address.

Others have yet to submit any

information and claim that they are too busy, which Philbin Bowman believes is simply not good enough.

Members of the public seem to agree and are increasingly leaving comments under unsatisfactory submissions, or directly emailing candidates who have yet to respond at all. The site has made this as easy as possible by providing an email template that the public can simply copy and paste.

So what are Philbin Bowman’s current hopes for this website? “I hope that by the week before election day we have a full list of declared candidates so that people can really compare them in a qualitative and objective way, and choose the best candidates for the job.”

If you agree, visit telluswhy.ie, find your constituency and compare candidates. Contact information is also available for any candidates who have not answered questions or do not have a profile on the site.

“Let everyone get on with their lives” Rory Farrell, Captain DUSSC

Farrell’s comment comes in response to the flurry of attention and press coverage that the damages to the resort have attracted in College and across the Internet. In a post on a GAA discussion board the matter was discussed under the heading, “Ross O’Carroll Kelly’s caricatures are spot on”. Photos of the trip were also published online by British tabloid The Daily Mail, however it was later discovered these photos were from last year’s trip.

The Junior Dean and Trinity Communications Office were unavailable for comment as investigations are ongoing.

NITELINE 17 YEARS ON Niteline celebrated its 17th birthday on Tuesday, February 1, by giving out freebies including pens and logobugs.

For 17 years, Niteline has provided a listening service for all Irish students.

Completely anonymous and confidential, Niteline is there to provide an ear if something is wrong.

“There’s no problem too big or too small” is the Niteline mantra. The number for Niteline is 1800 793 793.

Eleni Megoran

4 Election Special President

vs

vs

Aaron Heffernan

Ryan bartlett

Sebastian lecoq

Aaron Heffernan is running a diverse campaign for President this year, focusing on transparency, children and animals. As a graduate of Harvard law, Heffernan has previously occupied a position of significant power in the United States but is now running for Trinity SU . He identifies his main skills as badminton: “I’m very good at badminton which I’ve been doing a lot with the children and the animals” and organisation: he has a leather-bound, made-inChina Filofax. Heffernan highlights his public speaking abilities: “I’m good at the old speeches.”

Heffernan’s campaign will address some of the serious issues here in Trinity, one of which is the controversial “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy with Trinity’s security. Heffernan hopes to remedy this with a “Do ask, I’ll tell” policy: “I’ll probably know the answer. If I don’t, I’ll have my people find out in six to eight working weeks.”

He also seeks to improve student services: “There are a lot of tables in Trinity that are a little bit wobbly.” Not forgetting the children, Heffernan highlights the Trinity Creche as an area for improvement: “I want to release those babies. It’s Guantánamo babies out there.”

Heffernan’s campaign will feature a daily address in venues such as the Student Support Centre: “Just me lifting some weights. I do a lot of weights.” He hopes to attract students to vote who would normally remain on the fringes, with a refreshing take on Students’ Union politics. So why should students vote for Heffernan? “I’ve got it all. I think, anyway.”

Ryan Bartlett represents the sporting end of Trinity as an active member of the Swimming Club, Gaelic Football, and Captain of the Water Polo team.

Bartlett’s career in the Students’ Union began as a Class Representative, competing against his classmates as “everybody seemed to be doing it.”

Bartlett believes his extensive experience in the Students’ Union ensures that “past mistakes won’t be repeated”, but despite his involvement he has tried to keep an outsider’s perspective on the Union. He believes that the key to a successful Union is getting it “back to basics” and examining “how students’ lives are affected.”

His Presidential campaign will focus on communicating with students on the ground and adopting an attitude of “There’s a problem here, lets go fix it.” Though happy with the way the Union is currently run, he believes that there needs to be a new “vibe”, where students want to get involved in the Union and come to their representatives with issues they feel are important.

He hopes that under his leadership, students will feel that: “I had something to say and I was listened to.” He envisions greater publication of the actions of the Union, advertising issues that will be discussed at Council meetings in advance and sending out frequent questionnaires to discover what students want changed.

Bartlett remains coy on the fees issue, stating: “I’m not going to take anything off the table at this point.”

Third year History and Philosophy student Sebastian Le Coq hopes to bring something new to the position of Students’ Union President. Le Coq is involved with the Union as a class representative, but his focus for the last three years has been primarily academic.

Le Coq feels that his position as a “typical student” allows him to see what issues students face in College. Le Coq is involved in climbing and has travelled extensively, which he feels has opened his mind to others’ experiences.

He decided to run for President as an alternative to “constantly negative campaigning.” The key issue which Le Coq’s campaign focusses on is funding. He hopes to bring in economists to discuss the university budget and make cuts in areas that will not affect education. Le Coq says this is “the primary thing I want to defend with my life.” Le Coq also believes that the Stacks issue in the Library is a serious problem, as students can only order books for Tuesdays and Thursdays. He hopes to find areas to cut money in the Union so that students can be given more loans, highlighting areas such as Ents: “If they make a profit they might be willing to cut back on their losses.” Another area that may face cuts under his Presidency is the Sports Centre. Le Coq believes students should not have to pay for a facility that many of them never use. He also stresses that he will not allow political party affiliation in the Union: ”I will not tell anyone that, ‘you should vote for this party.’”

Opinion

Why bother voting?

The farce! The pageantry! It’s that time of year when people wearing brightly coloured t-shirts come up to you asking you to vote someone you’ve never met and every lecture is started with 20 minutes of people giving speeches about these impossible, things they will do if elected while the lecturer sits playing with their mobile phone. Yes – it’s SU campaigning season again.

Everyone complains about how the SU “does nothing” and many students associate it with the yearly ritual of spending obscene amounts of money on “class-rep training”, which just looks like a massive drinking trip. On the other hand if the SU didn’t exist there would be constant calls for the creation of one, with students arguing that it is fundamentally wrong to not have an organisation which represents students to the college authorities.

Sure, the SU has problems. For the budget that it has it is not always clear where that money is spent, and like all large societies in College it suffers from accusations that it is a clique, closed to anyone not “in the know”. But unlike those large societies the SU has a higher purpose.

Ideally no one should need the Welfare Officer, or the Education Officer. But we don’t live in an ideal world. When paying for SU membership what each student is essentially paying for is peace of mind.

They are paying for the knowledge that if, God forbid, something really did go badly wrong there is a body in College whose purpose is to make sure they get back on their feet again.

That is why, despite all of the cynicism and eye-rolling, we should pay attention to the SU elections.

Without doubt some of them are in it for a line on the CV or to see how popular they are. But some SU candidates are running because they believe they can make a contribution to the lives of students in college.

Don’t let someone think for you when casting your ballot but instead make sure the person you feel is qualified gets your vote David Barrett

How you doing?

How do you feel your time as Students’ Union President has been going with just over one half of your term over?

“I feel it has been going well. We have worked at trying to make the Students’ Union more transparent and we are trying to keep in touch with students and address their needs.”

What was the high point so far?

“The two weeks leading up to the protest were fantastic. Everyone got involved in it and worked seamlessly together.”

manifesto promises was that the paper would become increasingly webbased. We have completely overhauled the website over Christmas and it has got an amazing response.”

Do you think that you’ll win another award at the Student Media Awards this year?

“I wouldn’t like to speculate. I hope to see somebody from Trinity pick up an award, whether it’s Trinity News or The University Times. We do have some of the best student media in the country here and that’s because of the support we get from College and the Students’ Union.”

Communications Officer Tom Lowe:

Ents Officer Darragh Genocky:

So far how has your time been as a sabbatical officer?: “It’s been good so far and people are generally very happy with the work of the Students’ Union. It does take time to achieve all the campaign promises but right now I’m focusing on developing the newspaper as that was one of my main promises.”

How has The University Times fared in its second year?

“I’m very happy with it. We’ve set up a tabloid supplement which is fantastic.

Next year it can only get better. We’re putting in place the structures so that next year whoever is in the job will have a running start. One of my

You’ve made huge use of Facebook as a promotional tool for Ents this year. Have you noticed an increase in the attendance at events because of this?

“Yeah, it has certainly helped. Any promotional tool you can get is great.

It’s great to get feedback from an event by people commenting and it definitely helps with publicity. Social networking is definitely the most valuable advertising tool.”

Is there anything you learned from last term that you feel you can bring into this term?

“As with everything in life, foresight and organisation are very important

President Nikolai Trigoub-Rotnem:

Mairead Cremins interviews the Students’ Union sabbats about their year in office to date and it helps a lot in the Union that we have a lot of support structures in place, including the full-time staff and the class reps.”

“The two weeks campaigning are brilliant but at the end of it you are just exhausted. Just make sure that you have the support of your friends.”

Welfare Officer Steph Fleming:

Education Officer Jen Fox:

What has been a highlight for you so far?

“We have to review our manifesto shortly but so far I’m happy with the way things have been going. We got the Student Support Bill passed.

Deirdre Clune told me to stop calling!

Eventually, Labour and Fine Gael turned around to the USI and said ‘we get it’. I also moved SHAG week earlier in the year. I thought it should be something people are told about straight away as sexual health has pretty immediate consequences.”

Do you think that in 2011, given the state of the country and the direction we are headed that it will be harder for families to cope?

“Yeah, it definitely will be. It is more third and fourth years at the moment, who went into first year in a different country. They started in Trinity in 2008 just when things were starting to look a bit grim and now they have to tighten their belts considerably. They’ve gone from what is a very tight student budget to something that is near impossible to live on.”

Any advice to this year’s candidates?

Last year when you were campaigning, you said that you were considering replacing webCT with Moodle, what stage is that at?

“We just put a contract out to tender for a new student information system and the project is called Genesis. It is a multi-million euro deal. It includes a VLE. which is a virtual learning environment which will include Moodle. It was just confirmed at Undergrad Studies yesterday that the introduction of Moodle will be as soon as Genesis has been introduced.

Student Information System should be ready to go for next year in October.”

What was your high point so far?

“I have loads. I think it was just the collective year. There is no other job that I can think of that would allow me to sit across a board table with someone at least twice my age, with at least five times my salary, and argue a point and know that it is being heard and listened to and that my view is respected.

Personally, for me and I’m sure for Steph as well, our biggest successes are when we help people who have just been screwed over.”

TRINITY NEWS

The Candidates 5 news@trinitynews.ie

welfare

Darren O’Gorman

vs

Russell Bryce

vs

vs

Caroline Keating

Louisa Miller First up is Louisa Miller, a Senior Sophister Social Work student, who has gained her qualifications for the position of Welfare Officer through her course and her work with St Vincent de Paul. Joining up in fourth year of secondary school, Miller is now VP of the Trinity branch of the organisation and is involved in all of its activities.

Miller believes the benefit of the Welfare service in College is that students feel it’s approchable. If elected, she hopes to promote accessibility and

awareness of the services offered, by setting up after-hours clinics in offcampus locations and advertising the facilities for students: “A lot of people don’t know about them.”

Next is Darren O’Gorman, a Senior Freshman Science student, who is hoping to bring his experiences with the LGBT community to the position of Welfare. Auditor of the LGBT society, O’Gorman also runs a sex talk-show on Trinity FM. His main campaign points focus around the accessibility of

welfare services to those in off-campus areas such as St. James’ Hospital: “They really suffer from being out there through no fault of their own.”

He believes that many students on campus remain unaware of the services available to them, identifying a friend who did not know that the College doctor was a free service. On why student’s should vote for him, O’Gorman says: “I really, really, really want to do the job!”

Caroline Keating is hoping her

experience with the Students’ Union and her Occupational Therapy placements will win her the position.

Keating has been involved with the Students’ Union since being a class representative as a Junior Freshman.

She is now Health Science School Convener and a “welfairy”.

Keating wants to spread awareness of eating disorders and set up workshops similar to those in the UK: “I want to try and have more support there for people with problems in that area and also to increase people’s awareness of what to do if they suspect that a friend may have it.”

On what gives her an edge, Keating says: “I feel I bring something a bit new, a bit fresh to the position.”

Finally, Russell Bryce, a Junior Sophister BESS student, is the only Welfare candidate studying Arts to run this year.

Bryce says that his experience from his course will give him the skills to motivate the “stagnant” committees through which the Welfare office must work.

“A lot of these committees, they do nothing and what they need is a kick up the arse.” Bryce hopes to expand the position of Welfare Officer beyond mental health, by setting up financial planning, CV guidance and interview skills workshops. “The Careers Service do a good job but most people don’t read the careers email.”

He emphasises that the Welfare office should not be a replacement for professional counselling: “ I don’t think it should be the role of the student to discuss these types of issues.”

voxpop

What are the issues?

Jack Marshall asks students what changes they want to see the election candidates discussing

Grace, TSM, JS “Maybe they could make the Library open later on Saturdays and possibly Sundays.”

Oisin, Pharmacy, JS “Tri-colour flag at the entrance, convert cricket pitch to GAA.”

Communications

Eleni megoran

vs

Ronan Costello

Running for the role of Communications Officer are final-year students Ronan Costello and Eleni Megoran. Megoran says she wants to restore trust in The University Times and improve its quality: “I’m different, and I like it. I can make a change to the role of Communications Officer, without any cliques or censorship.” Megoran is currently College Sport Editor for Trinity News.

Costello is News Editor for The University Times and has contributed to the Law Society’s Law Shock and former Union tabloid The Record. “This has given me the skills in newspaper editing to take on Communications.”

Megoran says the role of Communications Officer has a “lot more potential.”

The Politics student plans to create

a “digital media hub” associated with UT. “Uploading videos, updating the web, Facebook and Twitter, can make it easier for students to know what’s going on in College”.

“Before the campaign, a friend said: ‘You have two ears, and one mouth.’ I want to focus my campaign on listening to students to find out what they want.”

Costello says he has already chosen his potential Deputy Editor, current Deputy News Editor Ronan Burtenshaw. Costello assures other positions on UT staff will be open to new students.

Costello proposes holding “town hall meetings” as a forum for students.

“This means students can have a real impact on SU policy.”

Both candidates want to ensure UT is editorially independent.

Katherine, TSM, JF “Having events to promote college cohesiveness and getting people to go out to the games.”

Education JOHN COONEY and Rachel Barry are going head to head for the position of Education Officer. Both are involved in the SU: Cooney as a class representative and Barry as Assistant Campaigns Officer.

Cooney says he is a “genuine guy who just wants to make a difference.”

He wants to improve transparency in the Union: “We can do this through the website, and the Communications Officer.”

Barry has made a name for herself campaigning for the Student Support Bill, which was passed last month. “I’ve been calling up politicians, making sure the Bill gets passed. They’re probably sick of me by now!” Cooney expressed his support for the Bill, describing the current grant system as “awful”.

Barry has been encouraging Trinity students to register to vote, and has

accumulated 2000 new registrants from Trinity Hall.

Cooney points out the “ridiculous” sum allocated to class rep training. “At the moment, we’re putting the reps up in a hotel for two days, and they are there to have a good time. I don’t want the training to be directed at a lot of people with a hangover!”

As for tuition fees, Cooney says, “My view is irrelevant on the matter: it’s the opinion of the student body that I want to represent. That’s why I want to hold a referendum on the issue.”

Both Barry and Cooney support longer Library opening hours. Barry says, “If the staff unions in College are made unhappy by an unpopular decision regarding Library hours, they might be less willing to compromise in other areas of student services.” Both are against student nursing pay cuts.

Rachel Barry

vs

John Cooney

Entertainments

Elaine McDAid

vs Chris O’Connor 8 February, 2011

Ben, TSM, JF “Make sure that there are no fees. Third-level education should be free.”

It isn’t just studying Law that Elaine McDaid and Chris O’Connor have in common: they both have a background of events and club promoting that they want to take to the role of Entertainments Officer.

McDaid is currently in her fourth year of being an Ents Crew member.

“I know the formula for running ents.

I’ve already got good feedback from organizing €6 entry at Mezze. I run Andrew’s Lane as well where Trinity students get concessions. I want to use this experience to make Ents affordable to everyone.”

O’Connor also wants to create cheaper student nights: “Ents shouldn’t just be for those who have the money.”

O’Connor has organised club nights at Dandelion, D2, Reynard’s and Pygmalion. “I want to keep entry to

€5 or below, and I want that to be for decent clubs as well.”

McDaid wants to create an Ents Executive, with more specialised roles: “Music students can get involved with gigs, and arts students getting involved in photography and design.”

McDaid says she will take a professional approach to the position: “People underestimate the role of Ents.

It’s not just a party role. It’s a business, and a profitable business as well.”

O’Connor wants to expand the Deal of the Week: “I’m talking about exclusive Trinity deals in clothes shops and paying as little as €4 for naggin in an off-licence.” O’Connor plans to organise a European mystery tour: “I have been talking to some ferry companies to see the most cost effective way to go somewhere more exciting.”

Aislinn, HisPol, SS “The most important issues are services.”

Paddy, Economics, JF “Deals on food and drink.”

6 National news nationalnews@trinitynews.ie

USI tours for student voters Dearbhla Gavin Staff Writer

Student nurses threaten strike Michael Gilligan Staff Writer

Nursing and midwifery students across the country are planning a lunchtime protest today in opposition to pay cuts proposed by the Government last December. This will be followed by a rally in Dublin on February 16 and possible industrial action in March if the conflict remains unresolved.

The protest, which will include over 6000 trainee nurses and midwives, will take place in 13 different hospitals nationwide.

Interns are demonstrating against the plans to phase out wages gradually over the next four years for their mandatory 36-week placement in hospitals. Nursing and midwifery students, who work a full 37.5 hour week as part of their internship programmes, are currently paid 80 percent of a staff nurse’s salary. The Department of Health have announced their intention to decrease this by 60 percent in 2012, 50 percent in 2013 and a further 40 percent in 2014, saving an estimated €32.5 million by 2015.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) recently launched a campaign to reverse the cuts which they say “devalue, to the

level of slave labour, the nature of the essential direct care given during this 36-week roster placement.”

Other unions who represent nurses, such as SIPTU and the Psychiatric Nurses Association, have sided with INMO and warned that, in the absence of a suitable resolution, they would proceed with “very disruptive” industrial action. This could include the withdrawal of labour by fourthyear trainees in early March. With a general election campaign in process, INMO have also indicated that these cuts will become an important election issue and that any political party in support of the proposal will be unlikely to receive votes from nurses or midwives.

Nursing and midwifery students nationwide are heavily critical of the proposal and are committed to resisting the reform, even to the point of a strike. Elaine Flannery, a third-year midwifery student of in Trinity, remarked that a reduction in internship wages “will definitely affect us students because we all went into this course thinking we were going to be earning 80 percent of the normal salary in fourth year so obviously a lot of us have financial commitments to meet. We still count as staff when we’re

on placement so there is no chance that I will work for less money. I mean, this is the only payment we get in four years and now they’re going to get rid of it.”

Audrey O’Gorman, another Trinity midwifery student, said at the launch of the campaign that the cuts could force her to leave college and added that “receiving less than the minimum wage was a slap in the face.”

The Department of Health showed no intention of compromising on the proposed cuts which it believes are necessary to get the public finances in order as part of the National Recovery Plan. A Government official stated that “this decision was also made in the context of the relatively favourable manner, compared with other countries, in which Ireland has treated student nurses as paid employees for part of their education programme.”

It was also claimed that the “current level of payments for students working on placement in hospitals was unique in European countries.” However a lecturer in the Trinity School of Nursing and Midwifery, Dr Jo MurphyLawless, has argued that such a claim is “deeply misleading” and points to the fact that nursing students in England and Scotland have their fees paid for them and are eligible for a

Uncertain future lingering in Ireland’s new “red belt” Evan Musgrave National News Editor

A quick glance at the map provided by www.ghostestates.com presents a startling view of the lost developments in the financial crash. Red markers indicating vacant or unfinished housing estates cover Dublin and its hinterland, encompassing the various commuter towns and stretching all the way to the Ireland’s extremities.

The most recent report by the National Housing Development Survey shows 2800 “ghost” estates in the country. Counties which had grown large commuter populations for Dublin city had some of the highest numbers of ghost estates, with 180 in Wexford, 152 in Fingal and 147 in Cavan.

Since the last report, many of the 23,000 completed but unoccupied houses and apartments have remained vacant. A further 20,000 remain at various stages of completion.

It has not yet been decided what to do with these estates.

The end of 2010 saw the release of a “ghost estates” film project called Wallets Full of Blood,

by Eamonn Crudden. Additionally, a project called Shadowland, which presents a forum for proposals, has been set up. Architectural firms have submitted alternative plans to create selfsufficient communities and green spaces out of these unfinished developments.

Labour TD Michael D. Higgins has suggested the houses could be provided at a discount for the Irish diaspora, for those who are living abroad and wish to return home.

Higgins highlighted the growing supply of

houses as recent graduates leave the country at a rate of about a thousand each week. He said that providing affordable accommodation for students and recent graduates will be a major issue for the next Dáil.

Concubhar Ó Liatháin, Irish Times columnist, has suggested turning some ghost estates into Irish-speaking Gaelteacht areas. As he points out, there has not been a new Gaelteacht community since 1958. Ó Liatháin’s ideas have struck a chord with Irish communities overseas, with The Irish Voice supporting the idea of “designating some estates as such language zones, and with the correct incentives in place, [to] create a vibrant community spirit in what is currently a wasteland.”

Further online proposals have called for the nearly-completed housing estates in the midlands to be finished, supported by Government investment, in order to provide accommodation for the capital’s rapidly expanding homeless community.

Speaking last week, John Whelan, Labour Party candidate for Laois–Offaly, an area particularly plagued by partly developed estates, said that “walking away from this issue is not an option and therefore any further delay in getting stuck in and fixing it is futile.”

With many commuter towns along the Laois-Offaly-Kildare belt, there have been calls for the Department of Education to look into using vacant housing as cheap lodging for students due to its proximity to Dublin. NUI Maynooth, a university of over 7500 full-time students is also near to many of the worstaffected towns.

£5000 bursary each year.

In the light of both these cuts and the recruitment freeze in the public sector, many nursing and midwifery students have expressed disillusionment with the health service in Ireland and are looking abroad for work. Elaine Flannery said “I don’t think there’s much hope for us here. I can see myself heading to England at some stage because a lot of graduates are getting hired there.”

FULL LIST OF HOSPITALS AFFECTED: Tralee General Mayo General St Vincent’s Dublin Beaumont, Dublin Cork University Hospital Sligo General Letterkenny General Mid West Regional Hosp, Limerick University Hospital Galway Louth County, Dundalk Tullamore General St James’s Dublin Waterford Regional

Students’ unions from colleges across the country have this month launched a campaign to register students to vote and to encourage them to get involved in the political process.

The campaign was prompted by the possible reintroduction of fees for students in third-level education.

The first event of this campaign took place on Friday 28 January when the “Your Future, Your Vote” tour bus pulled up outside Leinster House.

On the 1 February, the next leg of this campaign toured all of the institutes of technology and universities around the country.

The support for this campaign has been said to stem from the march against fees which took place on 3 November. In that protest, more than 15,000 students took to the streets in demonstration against the proposed scrapping of free third-level education.

Representatives from the Students’ Union in NUI Galway have been lobbying candidates across the political spectrum in Galway city and county constituencies to encourage them to take the views of students into account.

Gary Redmond, the President of the Union of Students in Ireland, said: “We are facing one of the most important elections in our history and students need to have their voices heard when the future of this country hangs in the balance.”

Ireland now has 250,000 students at third-level institutions, and out of this number 60 percent are not currently registered to vote.

Several public figures have expressed their support for the campaign. Speaking on Ireland AM, Senator David Norris said that students “are no longer visceral, they are fluid in their cause and the tribal connection their parents had to various parties is thankfully gone”.

Dublin Institute of Technology SET YOURSELF APART. INVEST IN YOUR FUTURE WITH A POSTGRADUATE QUALIFICATION IN LAW POSTGRADUATE DIPLOMA/MA IN LAW (NQAI LEVEL 9, FULL OR PART-TIME) Law is important to a career in business, finance, human resources, insurance, and in the public service or voluntary sector. The Postgraduate Diploma/MA in Law is ideal for graduates in any discipline who wish to set themselves apart with a legal qualification. The Postgraduate Diploma in Law is a one-year intensive programme. Students can pick from the ‘core’ modules (e.g., Contract, Tort, Property, Equity, Constitutional, Company, EU, Criminal Law) or a range of interesting optional subjects (Human Rights, International Trade, Criminology, Media, Intellectual Property law).

Graduates of the PGDip are eligible to complete the Master of Arts in Law. MA students receive individual supervision on a sustained research project, which will enhance their marketability by deepening legal research, reasoning and writing skills.

Also offered in the School of Social Sciences and Law: MA Criminology MA Child, Family and Community Studies Deadline for applications: April 22, 2011, though offers will be made on a rolling basis. Apply now to secure your place for next year!

To discuss the programme in more detail, call Bruce Carolan, Head of Department of Law at (01) 402-3016.

DIT – It’s a step closer to the real world

Visit: www.dit.ie

For further information or an application form, please contact Ms. Emma Linnane at E: emma.linnane@dit.ie or T: (01) 4027181 W: www.dit.ie/socialscienceslaw

TRINITY NEWS

international news 7 internationalnews@trinitynews.ie

Graduate jobs reach decade low ffUK unemployment is up from 10.6 to 18.5 percent ff11.6 percent of graduates unemployed ffOverall national unemployment at 7.9 percent Colm Quinn Contributing Writer

Unemployment rates for new graduates in the UK are more than twice the UK average, leading to questions about the value of university education in general. Related figures, released by the Office for National Statistics, show that graduate unemployment has almost doubled since the start of the recession, rising from 10.6 percent to 18.5 percent.

These statistics, taken from the Labour Force Survey, are intended for graduates who are economically active and looking for employment, but are unable to find work. They reveal that recent graduates were faring worse than “We live in the age of money, and money is what the modern university is all about” – Stephen Schwartz other sections of the labour market.

By September 2009, unemployment for new graduates had risen to 18.5 percent, in comparison to the overall national figure of 7.9 percent. The sta-

tistics also show that unemployment rates for graduates aged 21 to 24 are increasing by a higher rate than those without a university education. Graduate rates rose by 6.3 percentage points over the course of the recession, while rates for non-graduates of the same age rose by 5.3 percentage points.

However the figures do show that 21- to 24-year-olds with degrees are still less likely to be unemployed than those in the same age group without a university education, with 11.6 percent of this age group with degrees unemployed, compared to 14.6 percent without degrees.

A recent survey by recruitment website totaljobs.com created a worrying picture of the state of British education today, and confirmed to many the apparent decline in education standards at third-level institutions. 44 percent of recent graduates said that they did not think university had prepared them for the working world. 43 percent said that they would not have chosen to pursue the same courses had they known what situation they would find themselves in. Overall, one in four respondents to the survey said that they would not recommend further education to those currently studying for A-levels.

This level of unrest by students has

caused differing reactions across Britain’s academic sphere, with some students searching for more workplacespecific courses on offer by universities, in order to better equip themselves for the increasingly hostile job market.

National Union of Students President Aaron Porter has recently called for the reinstatement of the £1bn Future Jobs Fund, which was conceived in November 2010 to create jobs for 18to -24 year olds who have been unemployed for a year or more. This fund is due to close in March and be replaced by a new initiative in June.

With the prospect of triple fees looming, prospective graduates are beginning to question what, if anything, a university education actually provides for them. Professor Steven Schwartz, vice-chancellor of Sydney’s Macquarie University, bemoaned the predicament of recent graduates, stating “Once [universities] were about character building but now we are about money.”

He added that “we live in the age of money, and money is what the modern university is all about”. Unfortunately, for the debt-laden, unemployed fifth of UK graduates, those words ring all too

Russian student starves for hunger Leonard Cripps Contributing Reporter

A Russian student from the Urals city of Ekaterinburg in the Sverdlovsk province has gone on a hunger strike.

Vitaly Nikishin, 17, began his selfstarvation project in response to the Russian government’s decision not to significantly revise its estimated price for the minimum food basket.

Official calculations found that the minimum an individual must spend on food to sustain himself is 2,626 rubles ($87) per month. The Russian government releases these figures on a yearly basis, and the latest calculations mark a far less pronounced yearly increase than inflation, currently running at an alarming 22.7 percent rise in the Sverdlovsk province.

The federal state statistics service uses this indicator as an abstract figure to deduce where the poverty line begins. Nikishin’s project aims to highlight the ridiculousness of the official

figure, arguing that the real poverty line is much higher. Approximately 13 percent of the Russian population live under the state-defined poverty line and Nikishin’s argues that the true figure is much higher.

Around 19.7 percent of Russian peo-

ple live under the EU-defined poverty line in Ireland, which corresponds to approximately 21 percent in the United Kingdom. Comparison with these figures calls the credibility of Russia’s definition of poverty into question.

A relatively comprehensive socialbenefits system exists in the Russian Federation, yet Russia’s increasingly aged population are proving more and more difficult to sustain. Raising the minimum food price basket would push more people below the statedefined poverty line and they would therefore be subject to additional social-benefit payments. Officials admit that they are unable to find a sustainable solution in the immediate future.

Nikishin’s initiative has attracted vast regional and national attention, drawing praise from regional assembly member Andrei Alshevskikh.

Alshevskikh told Vesti TV channel that the estimate is unreasonable. “The minimum cost of living for a pensioner is calculated to be 4813 rubles [$160] per

month. This amounts to the same food budget as is required to feed a dog.”

She added: “The region spends more money feeding dogs than it does feeding its pensioners.”

In addition to frequent interviews, Nikishin has created a blog that he updates on a daily basis. The blog details the meals his budget allows, with photographs and vivid descriptions of how each meal tastes. He regularly records his weight, which has now dropped by 3kg since the experiment began.

Food prices in Russia, in line with world trends, have risen sharply since President Medvedev, in response to summer droughts and associated wildfires, placed a ban on grain exports.

Food prices rose 12.9 percent in 2010, according to the Federal Statistics Service.

The Russian harvest has yearly declined by 30 percent and increased demand from China and other developing countries have strained global food supplies.

David Gilmour’s son on protest charges Andrea Marrinan

and admitted that he did not realise that the monument in Whitehall commemorated Britain’s war dead. He expressed his “deepest apologies for the terrible insult to the thousands of people who died bravely for our country”.

Gilmour will appear, along with seven other students, at the City of Westminster Magistrates Court on 10 February. He is charged with a number of public order offences arising out of the student-led disturbance.

Staff Reporter

Charlie Gilmour, the son of Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour has been charged with violent disorder for his actions during the wave of student protests in London late last year.

The 21-year-old was among the thousands who protested in Trafalgar Square and Parliament Square, amid widespread anger and condemnation.

Gilmour became the face of a group of youths venting their fury over the decision by MPs to treble university fees to a maximum of £9000 a year.

Now in his second year at Cambridge University, where he is reading History at Girton College, Gilmour was identified climbing the Cenotaph, a 35-foot monolith built by Sir Edwin Lutyens.

The Cenotaph is a monument to the nation’s war dead and the site of the annual National Service of Remembrance. Prime Minister David Cameron has described the violence and vandalism as “completely unacceptable” and assured the general public that those involved will “feel the full force of the law”.

As the son of writer and journalist Polly Samson and David Gilmour,

8 February, 2011

UK fees: the facts

SS Last year’s student protests in London were the subject of widespread controversy

who was awarded full custodial rights following the break-up of the couple’s marriage in 1994, Charlie Gilmour might appear to be an unlikely candidate for tuition fee concerns. However, television footage and photographs clearly show Gilmour hanging from the Union Jack at the Cenotaph and taking part in the protest. Images of him urging fellow students to charge

forward at a police cordon and chant “Forward, break the lines, forward, unto death” were broadcast last week.

The day after the demonstrations Gilmour issued an apology, describing himself as “mortified” by his actions.

He explained that he was caught up in the spirit of the moment and did not intend to attack or defile the Cenotaph.

He described it as a “moment of idiocy”

From September, British universities will be allowed to charge up to £9,000 per year, up from the current cap of £3,290. The government will continue to loan students the money for fees.

Graduates will start paying back their loans once they reach £21,000, up from the current threshold of £15,000. This will rise annually with inflation.

The lowest-earning quarter of graduates will pay less than they do now. But the highest earners will be liable for almost double what they currently pay.

Trinity Abroad AnnE-Marie flynn writes back to us from the romantic little German University of Freiburg

Packing my bags for a year-long Erasmus to Freiburg, a small city in the south of Germany, it’s fair to say that, though excited, I was more than a little apprehensive at the start of the year. While the official purpose of my trip was to improve my German, I was more intent on making up for lost time spent under the roof of my parent’s house, having lived there until I was 20. I had arranged to stay in a “Studenten Wohnheim”, the German equivalent of Trinity Halls, or so I’d imagined anyway. I figured that though the rooms might be filled with super-enthusiastic German freshers, there’d never be a shortage of people to party with.

And I was more than ready to join in. I couldn’t have been more wrong about it all.

Imagine my surprise, when after conducting more than my fair share of those awkward “getting-to-knowyou” conversations (and through a serious language barrier at that), it emerged that my most exciting housemate was in fact nine years my senior. At 29, Matthias was just embarking on a PhD, having spent nine full years completing his degree.

And he lived the life. Perpetually clad in a dashing pair of red shorts and a grubby yellow t-shirt, he reminded me of a Baywatch lifeguard.

That is, if a Baywatch lifeguard were to spend his days in a dingy German flat, drinking wine mid-afternoon, growing his own drugs and watching endless poorly dubbed reruns of How I Met Your Mother.

Much as he seemed to enjoy this “intellectual” existence, ranting about politics and the joys of literature, the fact that it was sponsored entirely by his mother was a little disconcerting. Much as I love the student life, the prospect of spending the next ten years living in a rented box room and begging my parents for an extra tenner, is not a tempting one. If I’m honest, in comparison to Matthias, I felt just a little smug knowing that all going well I’d be out of the door of Trinity, degree in hand, in just under two years, like every normal student.

However, the beginning of term revealed that in fact, Matthias was a normal student, if only in Germany.

Erasmus friends reported equally ageing housemates in their halls of residence. Every class I attended was teeming with fully grown men and women, sporting sensible shoes and the odd grey hair. Terrifyingly, the functional fleece is la mode du jour in Freiburg. Enough said, I think.

While to us Irish students, Matthias and his almost middle-aged friends may seem alien and somewhat laughable, they in fact represent the reality of an increasing demographic trend currently wreaking havoc in the Bundesrepublik. Statistically speaking, German students complete third-level education at a markedly advanced age in comparison to their European counterparts.

As a result of 13 years of school education and degrees punctuated by numerous work placements and semesters abroad, the average German student leaves university at an age of 28.8 years.

Though this statistic may seem inconsequent to life outside of university, it is in fact responsible for some worrying realities in German society. For a start, not every family can afford to support their children through such a lengthy college career. This, coupled with the absence of a sufficient student loan system makes it almost impossible to independently finance a German university education.

That said, the students in Freiburg don’t seem too concerned. Chances are, Matthias and his mates will still be in college when the economy comes crashing down. But sure, once the wine is flowing and the TV’s running, it will all be fine.

8 News features newsfeatures@trinitynews.ie

Tír gan teanga, tír gan stró?

Maya Zakrzewska-pim

pulsory Irish would lead to a decline in thousands of students studying Irish, and to the language becoming “elitist”. This theory may be supported by the drop in Britain of 30 percent in the number of students taking modern languages at GCSE level in the last nine years.

The Conradh na Gaeilge General Secretary, Julian de Spáinn has pre-

Staff Writer

Fine Gael, the party that looks likely to lead the next Government, intends to get rid of compulsory Irish in the Leaving Certificate. The party leader, Enda Kenny, a fluent Irish speaker, is convinced that compulsion, or a “blind tool”, as he calls it, has failed to revive the language. Despite approximately 1500 hours of tuition, most students leave second-level without a proper command of Irish.

Kenny believes that the language classes would be more beneficial for students if they were comprised of people who actually wanted to learn Irish rather than being forced to do so. This view is supported by senior lecturer at the Mater Dei Institute of Education, a linguist and Irish speaker Dr. Kevin Williams. He claims that “By all means, we should insist that young people have some experience of learning Irish.

But it is misguided to insist that after the Junior Cert all young people spend a further two years studying a subject in which some have no interest or for which they show no aptitude.”

Williams also observes how he “comes across young people who, after 11 or 12 years of being forced to learn the language, know hardly a single word of it. Once I addressed a senior pupil by the Irish version of his name and he informed me that he had no idea of what I was talking about.” He illustrates his argument by the example of “Irish fans in the USA in 1994 during the World Cup assuming that the broadcast in Irish of the match between Ireland and Norway was in Norwegian.”

Whether or not Irish schools will see

“Abolishing compulsory Irish would lead to a massive decline in student numbers, and to the language becoming elitist.”

SS The former Minister for Community, Equality and Gaeltacht Affairs Pat Carey, TD launching a new multmedia course for Irish language studies last month.

these changes brought about depends heavily on the stance of Fine Gael’s most likely coalition partner, Labour.

The education spokesman of the Labour Party, Ruairi Quinn, announced that Labour has “no specific proposals on the issue”.

Although Fine Gael believes mandatory Irish has failed, the party supports

the Government’s 20-year plan which proposes subjects other than Irish, such as art, be taught in the language in primary school.

There have already been attempts to emphasise spoken Irish more strongly in schools. From 2012, 40 percent of the Leaving Cert mark will depend on how well students do in the oral part of their

exams.

However, this plan creates the need for more training for teachers if they are to teach other subjects in Irish in primary schools. The Irish language movement, Conradh na Gaeilge, has also noticed the potential danger of “dumbing down” the syllabus.

There is a fear that abolishing com-

dicted that, “Pupils will give up Irish at the Leaving Cert, because they will feel that they will be able to pick up more points in the Leaving Cert by doing an easier subject.” He also claims that making Irish optional could lead to “parents telling their children in second class in primary school not to worry about the subject, because they do not have to study it at the Leaving Cert.

That attitude could spread through an entire class.”

Making Irish optional would almost certainly lead to a decline in the number of students studying it. However, given that even when the language is compulsory at Leaving Cert level, more students than not do not have a reasonable command of Irish, can Fine Gael intentions, considering their involvement in the Government 20-year plan, really be considered unreasonable?

Aer Lingus goes into fourth week of disruption Rachel Murphy Contributing Writer

The dispute between the trade union IMPACT which represents Aer Lingus cabin crew and the airline’s management has entered its fourth week.

IMPACT and Aer Lingus management have been at loggerheads over the “green field” cost-cutting plan for some months now. The plan, which was implemented by German Chief Executive Christoph Mueller as a mechanism to turn the airline into a profitable enterprise after its previous loss-making performance, sees actual flying hours of cabin crew increased from 800 hours annually to 850 along with other

terms and conditions.

The current dispute focuses upon the scheduling of these new rosters and the changes made rather than the increase in travel time itself.

The airline has taken disciplinary action against workers who refuse to cooperate with the changes and over 300 members of the cabin crew have been removed from the payroll. Negotiation talks meditated by the Labour Relations Commission between the airline’s management and IMPACT broke down on Friday 25 January and are said to continue this week.

On January 20 alone, 34 flights were cancelled affecting over 2,600 passengers. In order to prevent further dis-

ruption management have devised a strategy which includes hiring planes from other airlines including rival competitor Ryanair, to see passengers to their destinations. IMPACT have criticised this plan, claiming it is cost“We’ll do whatever we need to do to minimise disruption to our customers” – Michael Grealy ing the airline approximately €400,000 per day, a large sum of money for a company which is on a strict cost-saving regime.

However, Aer Lingus Human Resource director Michael Grealy defended the choice. In an effort to prevent further loss of bookings, he explained to RTÉ’s Morning Ireland “We’ll do whatever we need to do to minimise disruption to our customers and hiring in aircraft is part of that, it’s a normal part of doing business in the airline industry.”

IMPACT claims the new schedules are disruptive to family life and some of the new terms and conditions that the union is fighting include: the abolition of the right to request one weekend off duty every eight weeks; the reduction of a the minimum of eight rostered days off a month to seven; and the new

maximum of 26 days that cabin crew can be sent to work away from base.

While IMPACT disputes these new policies, Aer Lingus maintains that the new rosters are in line with those in operation throughout the aviation industry. The airline has managed to minimise the disruption since January 20 and is informing passengers of any rare cancellations via text message and email. The company has also opened its flight change facility online for affected passenger who can re-book cancelled flights without charge.

Check aerlingus.com for the most up to date information.

COMMENT

Capitalist St. Valentine’s false promises of fantasy Molly Rowan-Hamilton Staff Writer

I found it somewhat confusing when the Editor emailed me asking if I’d write about the 14 February, where we annually “celebrate love and affection between intimate companions”.

I’m openly emotionally numb, which is why I’ve jumped at the chance to satirise what I deem to be frankly agonising moments of mass-popularised sentiment.

I hate Valentine’s Day. And this year I feel I have a particular right. We are incessantly told that due to the economic climate we must crack down on insignificant luxuries, unnecessary leisure and petty amusements and thus my frugality alarms are all go when I see central Dublin turn into some sickly lovenest.

I’m not suggesting you should attempt an economically beneficial celebration of the day: my ex-boyfriend boasted that to save money this year he was going to toss old leaves he’d raked up in Autumn (to think he’d just thrown them away before…) rather than rose petals onto his girlfriend’s bed. Not only that, but he’d also tell her she was fat so she wouldn’t want him to fork out for expensive chocolates. Instead, I’m advocating not supporting it economically

like we so desperately do.

Capitalism and Valentine’s Day are actually strangely similar. Both offer false promises of fantasy. Americans spent nearly $13 billion in 2004 on Valentine’s Day merchandise. It has become so ridiculous that companies even tackle singletons who might find the festivities depressing and aren’t targeted by Valentine’s Day merchandise and events. One service hospitality company advises businesses wishing to increase their income in and around the 14 February to “advertise family activities and encourage the idea of self love” to the “segment of the market that is typically ignored during the holiday”.

It also puts psychological pressures on relationships, especially young people. Where it used to be Chaucer’s tales of chivalry and courtship, now it’s the romantic pressures from Hollywood that we feel we must conform to. One study even suggests that the suicide rate among teenagers on Valentine’s Day has significantly increased. Certainly the feeling of solitude and isolation is at its apex when everyone else seems to be celebrating union.

To me, there’s also something sordid about buying romance. We buy a

card that’s most like how we feel, not actually what you want to say. Can you really connect with genuine emotion if it’s displayed with a stereotypical card that thousands of others have received? The truly romantic thing would be to express uniquely what

“Where it used to be Chaucer’s tales of chivalry and courtship that influenced us, now it’s romantic pressures from Hollywood.” you actually think about someone and have the courage to do what you feel passionately about, because, after all, according to legend, that’s why one of the “Valentine” saints was martyred; for uniting young couples when it was against the law. Those daring days seem to be over.

If not for anything else, in the words of a notorious fourth-year Geography student: “It’s also annoying be-

cause some of us get too many cards.

It blocks up my mailbox and honestly, I’ve had enough.”

The case speaks for itself, but the question’s up to you: by celebrating Valentine’s Day, are we conforming and endorsing capitalism in what has become another celebration of capriciousness and superficiality, or can Valentine’s Day redeem itself and demonstrate the power of love to triumph over the gloomy warnings of dreary economists?

Perhaps don’t follow the advice of my ex-boyfriend, but not for my reasons. Why not knock yourself out this Valentine’s Day, for no one really thinks it’s the thought that counts. Go completely over the top in a lavish yet unique gesture of adoration and see where it gets you.

For thanks to this cruel and vindictive capitalist society in which we all fell for the fantasy that the bill would never have to be collected, we’ve landed in a situation where we need things like this to cheer us up.

Finally, it is thanks to the martyrdom of that one saint, that we can hope that next Monday, love (cringe) really can conquer all.

But I highly doubt it.

TRINITY NEWS

society 9 society@trinitynews.ie

Gold at the end of the Rainbow Week David Doyle Contributing Writer

Rainbow Week is all about celebrating diversity and Rainbow Week 2011 offered diversity through both the people involved and the events on offer. The week provides a safe and friendly environment for members of the LGBT community to express themselves on campus and the involvement of the Trinity LGBT Society and the Students’ Union means that the week reaches as many people as possible. This year once again proved highly successful for all those involved.

This year saw a number of events to raise awareness of the differences between civil partnership and civil marriage with talks from Trinity lecturer, Senator and Labour candidate in the upcoming general election, Ivana Bacik and also a talk on the KAL case organised by Ents and Law Soc. Both Ann

Louise Gilligan and Katherine Zappone (KAL) spoke passionately and engagingly on the issues involved in their case to have their marriage recognised in what proved to be one

“The highlight of these was undoubtedly James Hagan’s discussion on reasons to be glad to be gay.” of the most emotional and informative events of the week. The involvement of Ents and LawSoc ensured a large turnout and brought the issue, which is central to the LGBT community, to a wide audience. Ents must be commended for getting involved in the event, which lies outside the parameters in which they normally operate, and for making it such

a successful part of Rainbow Week 2011.

DU Players also became involved in Rainbow Week with “The Laramie Project” running in the theatre during the week. I was involved with the production for several weeks, and it was wonderful to see all facets of the college community and beyond engaging in LGBT issues in a new way as part of the week.

However the week wasn’t all about engaging with people outside the LGBT community. Several workshops during the week allowed for members of the community to reflect and talk about issues which affect them. The highlight of these was undoubtedly James Hagan’s discussion on reasons to be glad to be gay which offered a positive approach to being a member of the LGBT community and rounded off what was undoubtedly a hugely successful Rainbow Week 2011.

The worth of water Jolyon Lloyd-Davies DU Amnesty International

“When the well is dry, we learn the worth of water.” Ben Franklin wrote that in the eighteenth century, but it’s never been truer than it is today. Here in the West, unlimited access to clean water is taken for granted, and occasional shortages are swiftly forgotten. Globally, however, water lies at the heart of many conflicts.

Resource wars are nothing new. We live in a world with finite resources, and much blood has been spilled to control them. The Spanish conquistadores fought for gold, Saddam invaded Kuwait for oil, and diamonds motivated Charles Taylor’s brutal campaign in Sierra Leone.

Today, however, the world’s greatest resource, water, is moving to the fore thanks to increased demand from population and industry, and supply held back by lack of infrastructure, combined with the first mur-

“In an area prone to drought, water sources bring power to those who control them.” murings of climate change. Amnesty International advocates for human rights worldwide, and access to clean water underpins many of these rights – including, of course, the right to life. In order to help resolve many of the conflicts that lead to human rights violations, we first need to understand the crucial role water plays.

Consider, for example, the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Territories. At first glance, it might appear to be a purely racial

or religious struggle. This ignores the importance of resources like land, infrastructure and water. In an area prone to drought, water sources bring power to those who control them – in this case, Israel.

After the Six Day War of 1967, Israel took control of the west bank of the Jordan River, and has cut off access for the Arab locals who depended upon it. The West Bank does, however, have another major water source: the Mountain Aquifer. This lies mainly within the Palestinian-administered West Bank, and was shared between Israel and the Palestinians in the 1993 Oslo Accord.

Today Israel uses 80 percent of the water from the aquifer, leaving the West Bank’s Palestinian population facing shortages. Additionally, the Israel Defence Forces have previously targeted Palestinian rainwater cisterns and water tankers. In the Gaza Strip, meanwhile, water is in even shorter supply. All this means that while the average Israeli uses

SS Buns and drinks were dyed unusual colours to test participants’ sensory perception.

DU Food and Drink Society

On Thursday 27 January Food and Drink and The Metafizz hosted an evening of gustatory discovery. The evening began with some philosophical musings on the topic given by Andrew Curtin, the Metafizz Librarian, followed by some tasty treats.

Andrew spoke about the interest of philosophers in how the colour of food affects our perception of what it tastes like, within a wider discussion about the interplay of our sensory experiences. He also discussed the interesting way in which we categorise and

8 February, 2011

Mark Walsh’s achievement on the football field was ignored, but even more irritatingly, “Take Me Out” was ruined by hecklers in the audience. “The Trials of Oscar Wilde” cheered him up a bit though.

I will begin this week’s column by complaining about The University Times. During RAG Week, there was a charity football match between this fine newspaper, and our bitter rivals, UT. We won the match 3–2. I scored a goal. An alright goal it was, too. In the University Times’s match report, they credited my goal to someone else. This upset me.

See, I don’t get enough moments of glory in my life.

This was supposed to be one of them. I was supposed to read that match report and see my name and bring it home and show my Ma. But no. My only other achievement since I’ve started college was being part of a marketing project group that got the highest result in the whole class. We got 90 percent. I got texts from the other lads in the group informing me. Just to feel smug, I checked the results online and saw that everyone in my group had indeed gotten 90 percent. Except me. I got 20 percent.

It was all sorted in the end, and there’d just been a simple mix-up, but it just proved to me that things will never go completely right for me. So thanks a lot, University Times. I told people that I scored that goal, I even said it on Twitter, and now it’s being reported differently in your paper – making me look like, and excuse my language, a complete dorkus malorkus. I request that this be remedied immediately with a front-page story about my goal, for which the headline can read, “Mark Walsh scores

“‘He’ was talking sort of sexy, but it was really a girl, so it was a girl who was talking sexy, which is sexy, obviously, but her sexy talk was referencing her penis, which I do not find sexy” more than 300 litres of water a day, the average Palestinian has access to less than a quarter of that, and many survive on as little as 20 litres per day – the minimum amount recommended by the World Health Organisation for emergency situations, and far less than is needed for the agriculture on which many Palestinians rely. Amnesty International has called on Israel to “end its discriminatory policies, immediately lift all the restrictions it imposes on Palestinians’ access to water, and take responsibility for addressing the problems it created by allowing Palestinians a fair share of the shared water resources”.

Sadly, this is not the only case of water shortages fuelling conflicts today. In Darfur, drought is encouraging discord between Arab Nomads (backed by the Sudanese government), and non-Arab farmers. Famine, genocide and civil war have been the result. With desertification increasing, water scarcity is set to become an even greater problem.

Colour me happy at foodie event

Harriet Atkinson

This Charmless Man

describe tastes. Tea-tasters often refer to teas as “woody”, but who has actually tasted wood or can define what it is about that taste that associates it with wood? The food that followed provided an opportunity to experiment with our own perceptions of taste and colour.

There were flavoured waters that were counterintuitively coloured – blackcurrant that was green, for example. This experiment worked so well that even the people who had coloured the water in the first place couldn’t work out which flavours were which. There were cupcakes flavoured with jasmine, orange blossom, rum, banana and pineapple which had been iced at random with bright

blue, green, yellow and red icing, so it wasn’t a case of asking which colour corresponded to which taste as nobody knew. A sheet was handed around for people to write down what flavours they could taste; a lot of people identified that some of the flavours were floral, writing down “lavender”, “rose”, “cardamom”. Somebody did identify orange blossom but there was no mention of jasmine, apart from a couple of guesses at “green tea” which is often flavoured with jasmine – an interesting example of sensory association.

Banana appears to have been widely identified, but pineapple and rum are not present on the list at all and the closest to these are perhaps “(sweet) milk,” “fruit loops” and most equivocal of all “pina colada”. The perception of the more gustatory flavours appears to have become more muddied by the lack of textural or visual indicators than the predominantly olfactory ones.

All in all, the event was a great success, but if you didn’t manage to make it and want to experience something similar yourself just get yourself some food flavourings and colourings (from the home-baking aisle or from your local purveyor of Asian food) and add a couple of teaspoons of each flavour to any basic cupcake batter, colour up some bowls of buttercream and invite some friends over.

Happy tasting!

goal, looks handsome, is great”. Thanks.

Anyway. I attended DU Players’ “Take Me Out” a while ago. It was their version of the dating show on TV3 and UTV. There was a huge queue for tickets so it’s safe to say this was a highly anticipated event. The highlight of the show was definitely the host, Aaron Heffernan. He had a few very funny moments and generally handled an unenviable task pretty well. Now for the rest of it. While I’m sure everyone in Players is pleasant, and means well, and is very talented, I couldn’t help at times feeling like they were an irritating bunch. There were a few in-jokes at which only certain sections of the audience would laugh. That’s annoying. These same sections would be where all the shouting came from, too. That’s even more annoying. It’s really irritating having some goon behind you shout something up at the stage because he thinks it’s too funny and important to go unsaid. Shut up and fuck off.

You wouldn’t do that at the cinema. The first time a couple was paired up, the audience started chanting at them “SHIFT! SHIFT! SHIFT!” The couple got visibly uncomfortable, and it was really funny.

However, a few people decided to do this for every single couple that followed. Oh wow, they’re chanting that same thing again, how fun!

I also attended “The Trials of Oscar Wilde” in the GMB, hosted by the Phil and DU Players. This event was a dramatic re-enactment of, well, the trials of Oscar Wilde. I really enjoyed this. Mainly because it was a good length. It didn’t drag on. That’s always a huge bonus. The guy playing Oscar Wilde was excellent. Again, I’ve audience complaints, in that one corner of the audience kept laughing at moments that nobody else found funny. At one point I glanced over with a bit of pity to see if they looked mentally ill. I’m not joking. But they didn’t.

A few of Oscar Wilde’s “boys” were actually played by girls. They tried to disguise themselves with cleverly drawn fake moustaches, but I, as an astute observer, could tell that they were women.

This got a bit weird when one of these “boys” was being questioned about what could only be described as shenanigans with Oscar Wilde. “He” was talking sort of sexy, but it was really a girl, so it was a girl who was talking sexy, which is sexy, obviously, but her sexy talk was referencing her penis, which I do not find sexy, so I just didn’t know what to feel anymore. I decided that it was a matter for another day.

As great as Oscar Wilde was, I reckon he was a pain in the arse to be around sometimes. For example, what if you had him over for lunch some day?

He’d be there reeling out all these brilliant lines, and eventually it’d just get annoying and you’d snap and say, “Just shut the fuck up and eat your toasted sandwich, Oscar. And put that fucking flower down. Jesus Christ.”

Read more from Mark at www.walsho.net

10 features

Do you Like A Little quite a lot?

With LikeALittle quickly becoming the new way to procrastinate and flirt, Paul Orr speaks with its creators

A

nother Thursday afternoon on the second floor of the Ussher library and I’m trying to finish off a fairly unimportant sociology project. My work rate was, not unusually, poor – I’d managed 100 words in an hour with the remainder of the time spent checking emails, catching up on my Facebook stalking and gazing out of those huge, glass windows. One of those tedious Facebook chat messages pops up and the friend in question says “oi, check out this likealittle.com thing it’s brilliant.” And so I did.

I’d been cruising (in a non-George Michael way) for about five minutes before I spotted, “at Ussher second floor”. My pulse began to rise as I read on. “Male, blonde hair,” it said.

I’m male and I have blonde hair, could it be? Is there actually someone that finds glasses and The Guardian sexy?

“Piercing hazel eyes” – I have hazel eyes! Who is this mystery woman, I found myself thinking. Let’s make like Kevin Spacey and have it off in the bogs! “SF science.” Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god! I do science! “Smokes roll-ups.” Right this is it, the drought is over. I’m going to be getting more sex than… Well, someone that has lots of sex. I’d better get some condoms. In fact I’ll run to Boots right now. Then came the crushing final words: “sexy German accent, I’d love to munch your frankfurter.”

Just as soon as it had begun, the

dream was over – I’m from Cork. I was no longer a science sex-symbol and neither was I going to spend the week bedding hundreds of beautiful women.

Heartbroken as I was, I had learnt two vital lessons. Firstly, I had learnt that, as I’d previously thought, my quest for love would be less a bedazzling Blitzkrieg and more a Stalingrad-esque war of attrition. But I had also learnt the immense power of social networking to excite, amuse and gratify its users.

Likealittle.com is, for those who have yet to experience it, a new and different type of social networking which combines the short and personalised messages of Twitter with the flirty tone of a personal ad in a newspaper (For example: “Male, Black hair. hot guy in front of me wearing red t shirt and awesome white shoes. his friend with the chinos isnt so bad either”). Or to put in the site creator’s words it’s a “flirting-facilitator platform”. Anyone can post a flirt, but you must be a registered user in order to comment on flirts. All of this takes place with complete user anonymity which is one reason the site has been such a hit. “Anonymity and positivity are our top priorities,” says site cofounder Evan Reas. “We make sure that we use the right technology so these are never compromised.”

Created in October last year, the site (the brainchild of three students at Stanford University in California) now covers over 450 campuses across the world. “Myself and my two

My pulse began to rise as I read on.

“Male, blonde hair” it said. I’m male and I have blonde hair, could it be?

At Swimming pool: Male, Blonde hair. English but not part of team england.

Unreal hot! Sexy bod due to his unreal swimming!!!

12 hours ago · 1 like.

Share · Like · Comment · Msg · Remove

At Hamilton: Female, Black hair. Green fringe. Always in the Hamilton looking like you’re waiting for somebody..Well, I’ve arrived.

12 hours ago

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At arts block: Male, Blonde hair. JS Law. glasses. kinda looks like a buff milky bar kid. you could grate cheese on those abs. i saw you getting frisky in coppers once. wished it was with me.

12 hours ago

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At Arts block: Male, Black hair. Super cute JF, mac book always with him, seems super intelligent but socially inept or just shy, extremely mysterious conservative/odd way of dressing. Has a nomnomnom quality and doesn't realise it, would so do him.

12 hours ago · 3 likes.

friends noticed that it was difficult to communicate with people around them,” says Reas. “It is difficult and awkward to make that first move and we knew that first-hand from seeing girls and our neighbours just being too shy to say hello.” The solution to this, in their minds, was a website where people could flirt and communicate without fear of reprisal. Did the three creators have a Zuckerberg-esque flair for writing code? “Yes, we are pretty good coders. The initial site was coded up in a sleepless 24 hours.”

From Ottowa to Belfast hundreds of couples have started dating as a result of users placing harmless flirts on likealittle.com. One user at University College San Diego, for example, exclaims: “We had lunch in the cafeteria and immediately I locked eyes with a really cute guy but neither of us made a move. I posted on LAL and in a few hours I got a private message from the mystery boy! He ended up adding

me on Facebook and after a week of talking he drove to my school, and surprised me one evening in my dorm!

We’ve been dating ever since.”

“My quest for love would be less a bedazzling Blitzkrieg and more a Stalingradesque war of attrition.”

“The response has been incredible”, says Reas. “We get thank you emails all the time!”

This sounds all well and good but just as the site facilitates harmless

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flirting, is there not the potential for it to become a hub for negativity and online bullying? Apparently not.

Indeed, the fact that anyone with an email address associated with a given campus can delete any post they want seems to remove the possibility for things to turn sour. Moreover, the fun and friendly tone of other users’ posts tends to make new users want to contribute in a positive way. Perhaps this explains why likealittle.com has received worldwide such rave reviews from college authorities: “The only complaints we get are from colleges concerned that it is a distraction but no more so than Facebook or Twitter.”

Aside from uniting couples and providing cafe conversation, the success of likealittle.com disproves the view that social networking has reached its zenith in Facebook. “There’s still a ton of innovation to be had within social networking,” according to Reas.

What will they think of next?

All that glitters is not good First it was the Brazilian, then it was the Hollywood, now it’s the vajazzle.

Sue Collini investigates whether or not to get sparkling

W

e rarely discuss it with our friends.

It’s something that tends to divide men and women and it’s one of our most intimate secrets. Can you guess what it is? Yes, that’s right – it’s hair removal and waxing.

Why we do it and how much we do it varies from person to person, but in a modern Ireland research shows that for many waxing has become as routine as brushing their teeth or combing their hair. Indeed,

according to new findings nearly 70 percent of women under the age of 30

According to Jennifer Love Hewitt, “women should vajazzle their vajayjay” have at some time parted with hard cash in order to keep their nether regions “in order”.

The history of body-waxing begins with ancient Egyptians who saw a smooth, hairless body as the standard of beauty, youth and innocence. Just as today celebrities mould people’s perceptions of how their body should look, so too in ancient times were the views of prominent women taken as gospel. In Ancient Egypt it was the divine Pharoah’s wife, a firm proponent of the Hollywood wax, that set the pubic agenda of the day.

This trend carried through to the Greek and Roman eras when women used tweezers (“volsella”) and cream (“philotrum” or “dropax”) to trim.

The Turks also saw virtue in hairlessness with Bassano de Zra writing in 1520, “When a woman feels hair growing, she hurries to the public bath to have it removed.” In fact it was only after Catherine de Medici, Queen of France, forbade her ladies-inwaiting removing their pubic hair that going au naturel caught on.

Fast-forward through the sixties (bikinis meant more waxing), seventies (hippies let it go), eighties, nineties and noughties (lots of waxing) and to today where we find ourselves in the grip of what many, like feminist Cathleen Boyle, are calling a “wax addiction”.

Fuelling these claims is the latest beauty craze – the vajazzle. Vajazzling is defined by The Urban Dictionary (I can’t imagine why it’s not in the OED!) as “giving the female genitals a sparkly makeover with crystals”.

It all started in January 2010 when Hollywood star Jennifer Love Hewitt confessed to chat-show host George

“Vajazzling could be seriously detrimental to the feminist cause.”

Lopex that gluing Swarovski crystals around what she calls her “precious lady” helped her get over a recent break-up, declaring “women should vajazzle their vajayjay”. The tabloids went crazy and just weeks later the craze had gone global.

“The vajazzle has become huge,” exclaims Cindy Barshop of the Completely Bare Salon, “it started with simple stuff but now more and more women are coming in asking for more complex designs.”

The process is fairly simple and takes roughly twenty minutes in a salon and costs under €50. Essentially,

after a full wax the area to be vajazzled is washed using alcohol and then the crystals are applied via a plastic transfer sheet.

Eager beavers can also vajazzle at home with kits costing less than €10.

To many guys and some girls this might seem like purely harmless fun – it’s my body and I’ll do what I like with it! But for others it is just another sign of how materially obsessed and sexualised we as a society have become.

At Christmas, Tesco caused a scandal with its pole-dancing kit for youngsters. Last week there was outrage from the Daily Mail at the 15-year-old girl having regular waxes. This week glamour

“Women should love their bodies in their natural state.” model Katie Price got into hot water for straightening her toddler’s hair and applying fake eyelashes. What does the practice of vajazzling and its

celebrity endorsement say to teenagers?

According to Cathleen Boyle practices such as vajazzling are seriously detrimental to the feminist cause.

“Women should love their bodies in their natural state,” she says. “They should be empowered by their sexuality not enslaved by it.”

Others, like avid vajazzler Carrie Seim of Betty Confidential magazine, disagree. “They cover up those unsightly skin reactions that appear after a wax,” she says, “and also masks all evidence of childbirth.”

It seems that the jury really is out on this one. Surely, in a modern and liberal Ireland people above the age of consent who want to make their nether regions look like, as Love Hewitt says, “a disco ball” should be allowed to do so. What is less clear is how much men or women actually like their girlfriends’ vaginas to look like a chandelier from The Titanic. Either way, the vajazzle is here to stay.

TRINITY NEWS

11 features@trinitynews.ie

The yuppies are all dead The eighties were defined by synthesised music and lycra. But, as Evan Musgrave discovers, it was also the era of the yuppie and greed

“I

f you need a friend, get a dog. It’s trench warfare out there pal.”

Gordon Gekko, Michael Douglas’s Oscar winning role in Oliver Stone’s Wall Street, launches into yet another self-inspired, aphorism-laden speech directed at his protégé-cum-fall boy Buddy Fox (Charlie Sheen). No other character sums up the Reagan-era winner-takes-

“It was a time when Concorde ruled the skies and mobile phones resembled cereal boxes.” all mentality as this amoral corporate raider.

The 1980s saw government policies become a vindication of the free spirit, embodied in free-enterprise economics. It was a time when the Concorde ruled the skies and mobile phones resembled cereal boxes. A time when Capitalism meant reclining in an office chair overlooking lower Manhattan, puffing on an imported cigar, clothed in two-tone blue shirts with white collars, red braces, dark Ray-Bans, and Italian leather shoes. It was the age of the yuppie.

Since the film’s release Gekko’s “greed is good” mantra had been earnestly relayed by ambitious brokers, eager for their shot at the big money, and willing to sell any relevant family member to get there. Today it is used as to denigrate criticism of the unregulated free market. As well as film directors who sought to create didactic

fictions, the literary scene exploded with a new breed of transgressive satirists, Patrick Bateman and Sherman McCoy became spellbinding figures among this grouping. Defining pictures of the 1980s presented a new aesthetic. Where the viewer was once confronted with sordid, lazy street scenes, bathed in crimson neon light, opening scenes were now filled with bustling, chrome-lined, glass-filled, multi-million-dollar skyscrapers. The progression was magnetic. The 1970s world of Mean Streets, Taxi Driver and The Warriors had given way to a new obsession.

The yuppie became a byword for Reagan’s America, and the new demographic revelled in the excess it was allowed. Yuppie culture arose in a time where London and New York were the centres of a period of profound economic growth, propped up by neoliberal policies. For those living in these urban centres, life was no longer simply a matter of survival.

Life became a matter of emotional and financial well-being. Life became getting an 8:30 res at Dorsia. The ideal life was a situation in which you were, as Gekko put it, “rich enough not to waste time.”

While the crash of 1987 was seen to have heralded the demise of the yuppie, many incumbent leaders have expressed antipathy towards the habitual greed of the predatory financier that defined the era. As the extent of the current financial crisis deepens, numerous voices have ramped up criticism of the greed culture that caused the collapse. Detractors have varied from prime ministers and presidents to spokespersons for major religions. In 2009, the Vatican Secretary of State

Tarcisco Bertone outlined the Church’s view of figures like Gekko, citing Wall Street’s protagonist specifically as the epitome of the continuing greed which had been legitimised by free-market economics for years.

In his speech entitled “The Children of Gordon Gekko” concerning the 2008 financial crash, the former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd assured the audience that Gekko “wasn’t tamed in 1987; he was simply ignored”. Rudd sought to dispel the notion that there is a social merit in supporting those who believe any regulation of business or entrepreneurial desire is morally

wrong. Indeed, the vast majority of booms experienced by nations from

“The yuppie became a byword for Reagan’s America.” the time of Reagan’s introduction to the late 2000s crash have been shortlived, where a brief moment of success outshone the will to create lasting value in long-term assets. Perhaps nowhere

else on the globe has experienced the totality of this like Ireland. The only contingent that emerged from corporate wrecks has been the executives who left with bonuses.

The ethos of Wall Street in the 1980s reappeared in rapidly-modernising Ireland’s speculative market.

Although “greed is good” may have left for the moment, Michael Douglas’s character is just an embodiment of a great internalised argument – whether to live successfully is to create, or to profit from the buying and selling of others. Only time will tell onto which side of the debate Ireland will take.

Time to yoga hard or yoga home Josh Roberts investigates the healing powers of Bikram yoga for himself, and finds it’s a lot harder than it looks

J

anuary is now long gone and with it so too are my New Year’s resolutions. I had resolved to stop smoking, lose weight and attend more lectures, but now just 39 days later I still smoke around ten a day, have maintained my portly silhouette and only narrowly avoided a “black week” last week. Sounds pretty gloomy, and gloomy it is. That said, I have managed to uphold my other, more covert resolution (and please promise to keep this between us): to attend a session of yoga. Yoga, like quiche and convertible Renaults, had always been something that our ubermiddle-class neighbours did but that (for no reason in particular) I could never picture myself doing.

It was a bit of a mystery – is it not just a group of 20 MILFs, in a room, doing stretches called things like “downward facing dog”, “upward leaning dragon” and ‘one-legged flamingo”? Is it not the exclusive preserve of the sort of people who employ a “lifestyle guru” and insist on only eating organic, line-caught, dolphin-safe chicken?

Essentially, is it not just a thinly-veiled excuse for exercise for people who genuinely assume that their poo don’t pong?

So it was with heart heavy and eyebrows firmly raised that I donned my wife beater and swim trunks and

“Yoga was always something uber middle class neighours did.”

8 February, 2011

headed onto a session of Bikram yoga at the Bikram centre in Harold’s Cross.

Bikram yoga, a friend had told me, was the way to go. “It combines all the benefits of traditional yoga,” she said in between gulps of Vitamin Water, “but the heat and humidity enhance gains.” Bikram yoga, unlike most other forms, takes place in a room heated to 40 degrees with humidity of 40 percent. This type of yoga was created in the late 1970s by the self-professed yoga guru and notorious playboy Bikram Choudary (referred to by teachers and pupils as

“It takes place in a room heated to 40 degrees.”

Mr. Bikram in near cultic tones). Each class, which lasts exactly 90 minutes, consists of a set of 26 stretches and two breathing exercises and, as I quickly found out, is extremely hard work.

I had been advised to swot up on yoga etiquette before attending my class so as not to embarrass myself or my friends who have now become regulars. After a quick visit to the centre’s website (which told me to “arrive hydrated and on an empty stomach”, along with, “beginners should stick to the second row” and “dress

as though you are going to the beach, less is more”) I thought that I was fairly well prepared. However, two minutes in, panting desperately to draw oxygen into the cobwebbed caverns of my lungs and sweating furiously I realised that no amount of website reading could have prepared me. In isolation carrying out each of the stretches is not impossible; but put together and with only two water breaks in the entire class, you quickly find your body’s (and mind’s) limits.

So why bother? Firstly, there are the supposed health benefits of regular Bikram sessions. Indeed, aside from increasing sexual performance (Bikram once claimed to have maintained an erection for 72 hours following a yoga session), proponents of the exercise claim that stretching in this way can regulate cholesterol in the blood, increase the body’s oxygen levels and eliminate toxins.

One staunch Bikramer, Kinran, even claims that this type of yoga helped rid her of the after-effects of brain surgery.

“I survived brain surgery at the age of 14 but it left me with a numbness in the head and at the age of 27, I thought my life was about to come to an end,” she says. “Over the last three to four days, I recovered considerable strength in my right leg and arm. Bikram yoga simply gave me back my life.” Moreover, a n o t h e r beneficiary of the

Bikram miracle, Jeannanne Cox, claims that the yoga cured her of rheumatoid arthritis. “I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis five years ago,” Cox stated. “I started Bikram yoga and nothing has helped me as much.

When I went to see my rheumatologist

“Panting desparately to draw oxygen into the cobwebbed caverns of my lungs.” two weeks ago she said my joints were excellent.”

Whilst I can’t say that my session of Bikram cured me of my allergy to cats or suddenly meant that I could run a five-minute mile, it certainly did give me 72-hour erections.

Only joking. On a serious note, around two hours after I’d finished my sweaty encounter with this latest yoga craze I can say that I felt lighter and more limber. Even the following day, when I was expecting the same creaky joints and tight muscles as you get after football, I felt much more fluid and had higher energy levels throughout the day.

Whether or not all this was the result of my 90 minutes of yoga remains to be seen but one thing’s is for sure: yoga, and particularly Bikram yoga, is not for the faint-hearted.

12 World Review

Gay rights threatened in Uganda Alice Stevens looks the recent death of David Kato, the rise of institutionalised homophobia and its violent reprecussions in Uganda

D “If the bill is passed, “aggravated homosexuality”, a charge that includes everything from statutory rape to repeated offences of gay acts, can result in the death penalty.”

avid Kato, a prominent gay rights activist in Uganda, was beaten to death in his home two weeks ago.

His murder came three weeks after he won a court case against a newspaper that had identified him and a number of other Ugandans as homosexual under the caption “hang them.”

Rolling Stone, a Ugandan tabloid unrelated to the US magazine, published an article in October of last year entitled, “100 Pictures of Uganda’s Top Homos Leak”. It listed the names, addresses and photographs of 100 alleged homosexuals. David Kato’s photograph was on the front page.

A few weeks later, Rolling Stone carried another front-page story with the headline “More homos’ faces exposed”, and the identities of 17 people inside.

Kato, the advocacy officer for Sexual Minorities Uganda, achieved a victory for the gay community last month when a high-court judge granted a permanent injunction against Rolling Stone preventing it from identifying homosexuals in its articles.

However, Kato reported increased harassment following the court decision. Kato’s friends said that he received a number of death threats.

Both Rolling Stone and the Ugandan government have denied any homophobic motivation behind Kato’s murder. The police claimed the motive was robbery. In a statement, the Ugandan Media Centre said that “investigations point to aggravated robbery as the reason for murder”.

Giles Muhame, the managing editor of Rolling Stone, condemned the murder but stands by his decision to publish the articles. “This looks like

Africa’s last colony Neil Warner explores Morocco’s occcupation of Western Sahara, and the exploitation of the Sahrawis’ natural resources

L

ast year 12,000 displaced Sahrawi residents of the Moroccan-occupied capital of Western Sahara, Laayoune, walked out of the city and set up the Gadaym Izikin camp in the desert They were protesting their living conditions in the largest civilian demonstration against Moroccan rule in the course of the 35-year occupation.

On Tuesday 8 November, the Moroccan military moved in with full force to shut down the protest camp using, among other things, live ammunition.

According to Western Sahara’s proindependence movement, the Polisario Front, at least 11 people were killed in the process of breaking up this peaceful group.

The origins of the conflict go back to the early 1970s, when the clock began to tick on the Spanish possession of “Spanish Sahara”, as the territory had previously been called.

Following the outbreak of a proindependence insurgency in the

territory in the form of the Polisario Front in 1973, Spain ended its rule in what was then one of the few remaining colonies in Africa in 1975.

The Europeans had left, but Western Sahara remained a colony. In fact, today it holds the title of the “last colony in Africa”. Even before the Spanish had fully departed, Moroccan troops and settlers were pouring across the border of their southern neighbour, which is rich in resources such as potassium, oil and fish that the Moroccan government claims are historically Moroccan.

The Moroccans and Mauritanians, situated to the south and west of Western Sahara, agreed to divide the territory of the country between them and moved in to claim the spoils.

However, they did not consult the Sahrawi people themselves. The Polisario and, very likely, a majority of actual inhabitants of Western Sahara preferred independence to the partition and annexation of the country.

Proclaiming the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic in February

SS Anglican bishop Christopher Senyonjo of Uganda has spoken out against anti-gay legislation in his country and advocated for LGBT rights.

any other crime,” he told The Guardian.

“I have no regrets about the story. We were just exposing people who were doing wrong.” In defence of his caption “hang them”, Muhame said he was referring to capital punishment, not vigilantism. “We want the government to hang people who promote homosexuality, not for the public to attack them.”

Rolling Stone is a relatively obscure newspaper in Uganda with a circulation of only 3000. However, the ongoing anti-gay campaign that has taken off in Uganda in recent years has ensured the list received wide publicity.

Homophobic sentiment has become increasingly more violent and organised in the last few years and has become a focus for both the media and the government.

In 2009, Ugandan MP David Bahati introduced a highly controversial antihomosexuality bill which seeks to create new criminal offences and to introduce stricter punishments for existing ones.

If the bill is passed, “aggravated homosexuality”, a charge that includes

everything from statutory rape to repeated offences of gay acts, can result in the death penalty. The bill remains under discussion in parliament and is due to come up for consideration this

“They held rallies and workshops discussing how to turn gay people straight, describing how gay men sodomised teenage boys” spring.

Homosexuality has always been illegal in Uganda. Until recently, the issue was not a matter of priority for the government or the police; arrests were uncommon and prosecutions almost nonexistent.

However, deeply-embedded homophobic sentiment has been stoked in recent years by politicians, religious leaders and, most disturbingly, by a

group of US evangelicals who have brought the issue to the attention of the government and the media in Uganda.

As a result, anti-homosexuality legislation, organised anti-gay groups and tabloid exposés have made life in Uganda difficult for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community.

This new development of organised homophobia has roots in the US evangelical movement. Christian missionaries who have moved to east Africa have brought with them strong views on homosexuality and have tapped into the nation’s deep-rooted homophobia.

In fact, the bill’s sponsor is a member of “The Family,” a Christian fundamentalist organisation with close ties to the American evangelical movement.

American evangelicals who visited Uganda in 2009 denied responsibility for violence towards the gay community. They claim they had no intention of inciting violence against homosexuals, but they held rallies and workshops discussing how to turn gay people straight, describing how gay men sodomised teenage boys and arguing that

1976, they turned their focus of armed resistance immediately from the Spanish to their invading neighbours.

As war broke out and as hundreds of thousands of Moroccan settlers and soldiers were moved into the territory by their government, a mass displacement of the indigenous population of Western Sahara began.

Most of them, probably over 100,000, eventually settled in the Tindouf refugee camps in Algeria, an utterly desolate and hostile environment.

There, the Sahrawi government

“The Europeans had left, but Western Sahara remained a colony.” has made progress in areas such as education and women’s emancipation.

However, the harsh climate and lack of vegetation, arable land, drinking water or any real resources for a sustainable economy mean that health and nutrition are poor and quality of life of the Sahrawi is extremely low.

In the meantime, following the quick defeat of Mauritania by the Polisario, the Moroccans have been able to secure control over most of the territory of Western Sahara, building a continuous sand wall through Western Sahara that cuts its area of control off from the rest.

Living conditions within this

SS Refugees in southern Algeria from Western Sahara.

area are poor and Moroccan military control over the resident population is substantial. There are also reports of human rights abuses, including the use of torture.

A peace agreement was reached in 1991. It agreed that a referendum would be held allowing for the selfdetermination of the population of Western Sahara, but its implemenation has since faltered in the face of Moroccan stalling tactics.

As time drags on and the situation continues, frustration among the

Sahrawi with the peace process is growing. International involvement in the issue has not been productive, most notably the continual vetoing by France at the UN Security Council of any attempts to contrain Morocco, but also the fundamentally pro-Moroccan position of the United States.

The situation is coming quickly to a boiling point and there are fears that without increased action and awareness on an international level, there may be an increase in violence in the near future.

TRINITY NEWS

13 worldreview@trinitynews.ie

the gay movement was an evil attempt to “defeat the marriage-based society”.

Don Schmierer, one of those evangelicals, said about Kato’s murder: “Natu-

“A poll in 2007 found that 95 percent of those surveyed strongly opposed same-sex relations.” rally, I don’t want anyone killed, but I don’t feel I had anything to do with that.”

He also claimed that in Uganda he had focused on teaching parenting skills.

Val Kalende, the chairwoman of one of Uganda’s gay rights groups, does not share this view. “The Ugandan government and the so-called U.S. evangelicals must take responsibility for David’s blood,” she said in a statement.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of Ugandans agree with the anti-homosexuality bill and a poll in 2007 found that 95 percent of those surveyed strongly opposed same-sex relations.

Religion and tradition are hugely important in Ugandan society and religious leaders exert a strong influence over the lives of its population. The pastor presiding over David Kato’s funeral called on homosexuals to repent or “be punished by God”. Anglican pastor, Thomas Musoke, was quickly shouted down by Kato’s former colleagues the dozens of gay men and women at the funeral.

Many believe that Musoke’s behaviour is evidence of the deep-rooted, institutional homophobia that permeates all levels of society in Uganda and advocates hate and punishment even towards victims of homophobic violence.

SS The late David Kato

The Politics of Happiness New ideas for measuring successful societies are no longer based on economic terms, but on the happiness of the citizens. Fay Niker reports

G

iven the current global economic crisis, it seems a strange time for any government to deviate from its long-held focus on economic growth, as measured by the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). It appears, however, that David Cameron’s government does not agree.

Cameron controversially announced last November that his coalition government is to ask the Office of National Statistics (ONS) to develop new measures of subjective well-being for the UK. Cameron initially proposed this idea of a national “happiness index” five years ago during his campaign for the leadership of the Conservative Party, arguing: “It’s time we admitted that there’s more to life than money and it’s time we focused not just on GDP but on GWB – general well-being”.

This is not a new idea. The thinking behind Cameron’s declaration that improving society’s sense of wellbeing is “the central political challenge of our times” can be traced back to the third century BC when Aristotle wrote: “Happiness (eudaimonia) is

“Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.” the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.” In modern times, it was Richard Easterlin’s research in the 1970s that called into question the relationship between economic growth and well-being. The so-called “Easterlin paradox”, the key concept of happiness economics, posits that above a certain point rises in national wealth are not matched by increases in subjective well-being.

The UK government is not the first to seek alternative ways to measure progress. The World Bank, European Commission, United Nations and Organisation for Economic Co-

operation and Development (OECD) have all committed to the same goal.

Leading the way in national terms is French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who last year announced that he intended to include happiness in France’s measurement of progress and commissioned Nobel Prize-winning academics Joseph Stiglitz and Amartya Sen to investigate the impact that constant striving for GDP increases can have on social factors affecting our well-being, like work-life balance and sustainability.

This move by Sarkozy, and Britain’s recent decision to follow suit, was prompted by recent figures from the National Economics Foundation.

According to the NEF (2009), Britain’s per-capita GDP is calculated at just above £21,000 (€24,700) and the country is ranked twentyfourth in the world in terms of life-satisfaction.

Scandinavian countries such as Sweden, Finland and Denmark all have very similar per-capita incomes, but are calculated as being significantly more satisfied with their lives than British people.

The most surprising result is that the country in the world with the highest life-satisfaction rating is Costa Rica, where the GDP is roughly £6,000 (€7,050) per capita – this is £20,000 (€23,500) less than the United States, which ranks ninth in terms of lifesatisfaction.

The problem, however, is how effectively we are able to measure subjective well-being, if at all. The BBC’s Michael Blastland says that introducing feelings to the national accounts and thinking of them as a legitimate objective of policy is “horribly difficult”.

So how does Cameron think that Britain is going to be able to quantify the parts of national progress that GDP

cannot reach? The Prime Minister has charged the ONS with the research, and it has been agreed that they will send out household surveys up to four times a year starting from April 2011.

Before this, the ONS will lead a debate called the National Wellbeing Project, with the aim of establishing the key areas of well-being. Independent national statistician, Jil Matheson, said that she wanted the public to help come up with the sorts of questions that should be asked on the surveys.

Examples of likely questions are: (a) How satisfied are you with your life these days, on a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 is “not at all” and 10 is “completely satisfied”? (b) Overall, how happy did you feel yesterday? (c) How much purpose does your life have?

The New Economics

Foundation “warmly welcomes” this move, but also warns that it is “just

“It’s time we admitted that there’s more to life than money and it’s time we focused not just on GDP but on GWB – general well-being”. the first step”. To be effective, the “happiness index” needs to be designed with mechanisms to ensure that it is able to have a tangible impact on future public policy decisions. If this is the case, the UK would have two imperfect measures of society’s success, namely economic g r o w t h measured

by GDP and human wellbeing measured by survey questions.

It is hoped that the conjunction of these two i m p e r f e c t measures would produce a fuller understanding of Britain’s overall progress than either one of these imperfect measures could produce on their own.

Following David Laibson, an professor of economics at Harvard University, the key point is to “avoid a false dichotomy”: both economic growth and well-being should influence policy-making.

This move by Cameron’s coalition government therefore could signify a step in the right direction.

The Black Curse Siri Bjorntvedt analyses how the international oil industry has ruined sub-Saharan Africa through corruption and greed

R

oyal Dutch Shell started Africa’s relationship with the modern oil industry in 1958, when it found oil in the Niger Delta in Nigeria.

Yet despite the billions of dollars worth of oil pumped up since then, the country has virtually collapsed.

Nigeria became the first proof of the “resource curse”. Rather than liberating millions from starvation and poverty, oil wealth maintains kleptocratic and corrupt leaders in power while destroying the economy and hollowing out the state apparatus.

Africa now produces almost a quarter of America’s and China’s crude oil imports, and still the billions of dollars which these sub-Saharan countries receive in national oil revenues find their

“Despite the fact that GDP has grown more than tenfold since 1990, infant mortality is increasing in the country.” way into the private accounts of ruling families or are wasted on civil wars.

Thus it is unlikely that newcomers to the oil boom, Angola and Equatorial

8 February, 2011

Guinea, can expect to fare any better than Nigeria.

In the Republic of the Congo, oil exports amounted to over seven billion dollars in 2008, yet the country remains one of the most corrupt and indebted countries in the world.

The inner circle of President Christel Sassou Nguesso’s family is lining its pockets with oil wealth, while the country has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world.

Similarly, Equatorial Guinea has become one of the biggest producers of oil in Africa, but despite having a higher GDP per capita than the United Kingdom, France and Germany its life expectancy is 51 years.

Despite the fact that its GDP has grown more than tenfold since 1990, infant mortality is still increasing. Oil has thus proven to be a blessing for the very few, and a curse for the masses.

Forbes magazine estimates that Equatorial Guinea’s President Teodoro Obiang has amassed a personal fortune of close to €500 million, and in 2003 the non-governmental organisation Global Witness discovered that the Obiang regime had secretly transferred millions of dollars into America in order to buy three mansions outside of DC. Most of the oil rich sub-Saharan countries have been ranked low by Transparency International, with rampant corruption and government inef-

covered that numerous former executives in Elf, a French state oil company, had paid off the Congolese political elite in return for access to oil, along with supplying weapons to the state during its civil war.

In 2005 the British High Court found BP, Britain’s biggest oil firm, guilty of

“Western companies have pushed countries to the brink of destruction.” buying oil worth several hundred million dollars which had been corruptly bought and secretly shipped from the Republic of the Congo.

Western concern over civil wars and corruption and the companies fuelled them has not been mirrored in China.

SS The oil industry canhave a devestating environmental impact, as seen here in Nigeria. African trade with China has almost tripled in five years, and President Hu ficiency and incapability which has en- lomats that the oil company had exten- Jintao has sent diplomats to provide sured that oil companies like Shell have sive knowledge of all political decisions large, low-interest loans to impoverished African states in exchange for oil been able to infiltrate the governments. made in the entire Niger Delta.

While corrupt and despotic leaders contracts.

According to documents released Carson noted in the leaked docuby WikiLeaks, Johnnie Carson, US have denied the great majority of their Assistant Secretary for African Af- citizens a share of the enormous oil ments that “China is a very aggressive fairs, noted that Shell had infiltrated revenues, Western oil companies and and pernicious economic competitor nearly all Nigerian governmental de- banks have played significant roles as with no morals. China is not in Africa for altruistic reasons. China is in Africa partments. Shell’s regional head at the enablers and exploiters.

A 2003 corruption trial in France un- for China primarily.” time, Ann Pickard, told American dip-

14 Business business@trinitynews.ie

Comment

Out of Touch Sinn Féin’s radical economic proposals can only bring more misery, writes Owen Bennett

T

he Red C opinion poll, conducted in early January, ranked Sinn Féin as the third most popular political party in the state, eclipsing Fianna Fáil for the first time in history. The party’s meteoric rise can be attributed to a number of factors.

Disillusionment with the political class, an idealistic stance with regard to practically every policy issue, and an energetic campaign have all aided the stature of the party. Worryingly

however, party officials have shown an alarming ignorance of economic realities. And, with a general election looming, one in which Sinn Féin is expected to make significant gains, this is serious cause for concern, given the inexorable link between economics and governance.

The most glaring flaw in the party’s economic proposals is its refusal to accept the severe cuts necessary in the 2011 budget. Moreover, the party election manifesto claims that if elected to govern, the party would reverse the cuts to public services and social welfare.

Party leader Gerry Adams has repeatedly maintained that the now infamous bankers and developers “caused” the recession and as such, should solely bear the brunt of the fiscal adjustment.

Adams deserves respect for his idealism in this regard but it must be remembered that his views are

exceptionally naïve.

Reckless lending and p r o p e r t y speculation may indeed have contributed significantly to the current fiscal crisis but, to employ a severely overused cliché, we are where we are and it is unrealistic to believe that the ballooning budget deficit can be brought under control without affecting all classes of society.

Sadhbh Byrne reflects on the important role psychology plays in advertising

A

ccording to Madonna’s dulcet tones circa 1985, we were living in a material world – and it appears that 26 years later that song is just as applicable.

Rampant consumerism is all very well and good, but the question remains: why, or perhaps more succinctly, how?

How are we coerced into buying?

The study of evolutionary psychology proposes that our behaviour, including consumer behaviour, is moderated by internal mechanisms which are products of natural selection. For example, past research traced the changes in the facial features of stuffed animals and found that these features have become increasingly similar to those of neonatal human infants, linked to the evolved positive and endearing feelings generated by these features. You’re looking at your beloved Cabbage Patch Doll in a whole new light now, aren’t you?

According to evolutionary psychology theory, every facet of our lives is dictated by our ancestral needs, nicely illustrated by paradigms which suggest the purchase of certain items that affect a woman’s inclusive fitness, a psychological term for the fitness of an individual as measured in terms of the

survival and reproductive success of its kin. For example purchase of lingerie is related to a woman’s menstrual cycle, as is engaging in certain consumption related activities (like going to a bar and accepting a blind date).

The impulsive buying, or planned buying, of certain items such as lingerie or provocative dresses may also be directly related to an evolutionary need to increase the probability of inclusive fitness, especially at specific stages of the menstrual cycle. Women are also likely to have a heightened attention to advertising and promotional clues related to such items at these times.

This is an example of our inherent psychologies making marketing easy, by promoting need arousal stimuli before any advertising material has even been seen.

A concept familiar to psychology students may be that of the “Duchenne smile”. It is believed that the Duchenne smile is only produced as an involuntary response to genuine emotion, and is therefore what one could call an "authentic" smile, highly difficult to accurately fake.

Complementary to the evolutionary mechanism of expressing emotions through the face is the mechanism for decoding these emotions from the facial expressions. It would be expected, then, that consumers are innately equipped to detect fake from genuine smiles from service providers.

Thus the policy of greeting a customer with a smile, as adopted by various service providers such as McDonald’s and Starbucks, may not be effective at all then, if the smiles are seen as

“Men often misinterpret a smile or friendliness from a woman as an indicator of sexual interest.”

The party has proposed dealing with the sovereign debt crisis unilaterally. In essence, this means an effective default on the repayment of governmentissued bonds. Although it might be very stimulating to metaphorically give our EU neighbours the finger, the consequences of such a default would be catastrophic. Simply put, the international bond markets are underpinned by confidence.

When that confidence falters, the markets panic and act irrationally.

Were a Sinn Féin government to enact such an audacious default, our creditors would simply pull the plug on our borrowings. Imagine the chaos when people cannot take their

“The party’s manifesto is loaded with populist rhetoric” money out of the bank, civil servants cannot be paid and essential services cannot be delivered. Ultimately, social order would collapse and chaos would ensue. Historical evidence has illustrated the utter turmoil that grips in the aftermath of a default. One only has to look to Argentina in 2000 and Russia in the late 1990s for some uncomfortable lessons.

Sinn Féin’s internal economic policies could be considered just as flawed as their external ones. The party’s manifesto is loaded with populist rhetoric and a determination to “tax the super rich” and “burn the bondholders” directs party policy.

Party finance spokesperson Pearse Doherty has persistently advocated an effective tax rate of over 60 percent and has called for penal marginal tax rates for high earners. Intuitively, this is a fundamentally flawed position to hold. High tax rates diminish the incentive to work and encourage tax evasion. Moreover, reducing citizens’ disposable income in such a profound manner can only deflate the prospects of economic recovery in the coming years.

In essence, a government that is ignorant of economic realities is a government unfit to govern. Although the party’s ideology is admirable in the ends it strives to achieve, the means it proposes to achieve those ends are acutely unsound.

Leave it to the markets Lorcan Clarke critiques the case for salary caps in business Salary caps are pretty much the worst type of caps. Unlike other head attire, they pose a vicious threat to the economy. Unfortunately, fashion is tasteless, so ever since the financial crisis, the idea has been rather in vogue. There is currently discussion in France of a nationwide salary cap. The state intervening in the economy is often a good idea, but is it in this case?

Such caps are proposed for a number of reasons. Firstly, they give a greater share of profits to shareholders by keeping management’s salaries down. Secondly, greater wage equality may be beneficial for company dynamics and indeed for society as a whole. Thirdly, there is the perception that CEOs earning tens of millions just don’t deserve it. Finally, caps have been suggested as a means of correcting the problems which caused the financial crisis.

It is not hard to see why the idea of greater returns to shareholders is popular, as the vast majority of shares are owned by pension companies on behalf of low and middle income earners. Imposing these caps would seem to benefit everybody except the high-earning employees in question.

When the shareholders are the state, as is the case with nationalised banks, this point becomes particularly important. Imposing such a cap would severely compromise the company’s ability to attract talented management.

High quality management is particularly important to performance in knowledge industries such as banking. Trying to turn nationalised banks around with subpar leaders would be counterproductive, inevitably resulting in poor performance.

But what if we could impose an industry-wide salary cap? Then we would not have the problem of competitors stealing managers by paying salaries above the cap level.

However, many top-level managers’ chief talents are qualities such as strategic vision, people skills and organisation abilities. Such qualities are not industry-specific, so managers may be attracted to other industries where there is no cap.

Then we have the second argument, that wage equality is beneficial.

Most of the time, inequality is more beneficial. In “Tournament Theory”, lower paid employees are motivated by the prospect of being promoted to a high-paid position. If the CEO earns millions, everyone will be motivated to work hard in the hope of “winning the tournament”. Using steep inequality in salaries is a cost-effective way of improving the performance of all employees.

The third reason argues that these top earners just don’t deserve it. Yet whether a CEO contributes enough to justify his salary is not something to be subjectively judged by society. We do not decide which jobs receive what salary by way of national discussion, markets do this for us.

“In ‘Tournament Theory’, lower paid employees are motivated by the prospect of being promoted to a high-paid position.”

Presuming such judgement is possible, if a CEO is being paid €5 million but does not add at least five million in value to the company, then they will be fired. Firms are profit-maximisers and employees are only paid what they are worth.

If internal structures prevent this rational process, such as managers influencing their salary levels, then it is the structure of the firm that must be reformed.

The last argument is probably the weakest. The reasoning that the high salaries of bankers are to blame for the financial crisis is simplistic to say the least. While there is a case for restructuring bonuses, salary caps cannot be justified. The financial crisis argument is often reinforced by the unconstructive notion of punishing these people for “causing this mess”. If individuals need to be punished, let it be done in the courts of law.

In need of retail therapy?

fake. In fact, they might even have a detrimental effect on the customer’s perceived satisfaction with the service provider.

An interesting point to note is gender differences in customer-perceived satisfaction with the provider.

Specifically, males have been shown to react more favourably than females to smiles displayed by a female service provider, directly following from research that shows that men often misinterpret a smile or friendliness from a woman as an indicator of sexual

“Every facet of our lives is dictated by our ancestral needs” interest. Implications of this kind of psychological research are reflected in employee training programmes where workers are trained in the perfect execution of a “fake genuine” smile.

French poet Paul Valery once described the purpose of psychology as to “give us a completely different idea of the things we know best”. Psychology and it’s applications to marketing and advertising certainly support this notion.

Indeed, taking advantage of our inherent psychological traits shows remarkable potential in terms of marketing policy, and this everevolving field is likely to reveal even more exciting discoveries in the future – perhaps an explanation for the JLS condom range?

TRINITY NEWS

15 advertising@trinitynews.ie

ON CA MPUS

ON CA

8 February, 2011

16 Travel

Of mountains and men

Hindsight is meant to be crystal clear, but Travel editor Jimmy Lee doesn’t find it quite as easy, as he takes a retrospective look on the epics of summers past

T

he line that separates the adventurer from the daft, and the brave from the wholly vacuous, is a difficult one to draw.

You see, at this very point of my internal monologue, I had legitimate concern that I would be attacked by a lion. My eyes scoured the high grass of the Rift Valley, Tanzania; my muscles begged mercy, screaming with revolt at each push of my pedals. We were without food or water, and there was not a weapon on any of us. Our only means of defence was my dependable machete, and despite its reliability in tight spots, it was not going to do much against the predatory prowess of a lion.

My associates and I had just finished college, and were eager to get our “real lives” started in east Africa.

Some of us were actually there to work, with our jobs awaiting us in Kenya, but before this, we had a plan, and that was to climb the six major peaks of east Africa: Mount Kenya, Mount Elgon, Mount Meru, Mount Kilimanjaro, the Rwenzori mountain range, and Oldoinyo Lengai. However, a combination of a lack of funds, lack of time and guerilla movements into several of the mountain bases left us accomplishing only four between us.

Of these mountains, Oldoinyo Lengai (known colloquially in Kimaasai as the “Mountain of God”) sticks out from the rest. Unlike the other mountains, which range from 4300m to 5895m above sea level, Oldoinyo Lengai stands tall, at a mere 2960m.

An active volcano, Oldoinyo Lengai has had a number of eruptions in the twentieth century, and had been due a big one for some time. Therefore, if we were going to climb the mountain, it would have to be soon. But how to get there?

The Rift Valley, massive as it is, is teeming with Landcruiser tours, their air-conditioned leather interiors occupied by every Western national from Alaska to

Austria. The proposition of such an endeavour was appalling to our very cores. It was therefore decided we would cycle to the volcano.

We had stuck to the minimalist mantra as much as we could, cooking for ourselves, with only the tools necessary for the most basic levels of Maslow’s hierarchy. But we were only prepared to supply our physiological needs. What we needed was the rung above: safety. What we needed was a guide who knew the language, the land and the people.

Enter the Maasai. The Maasai are semi-nomads, traditionally inhabiting the Rift Valley region of Kenya and Tanzania. They are notoriously exceptional lion hunters. This point that has caused serious strife with the local wildlife authorities, as culture has begun to clash with sustainability, and more “importantly”, with the tourism industry.

And so, reluctantly, through a tour company, our safety net was arranged.

This was to include our Maasai guide, as well as truck support. It was arranged to have the truck go ahead every morning, leaving us arrows to act as checkpoints along the way.

After organizing our own transports, we were set to go. We were to bicycle across the Rift Valley to Oldoinyo Lengai.

Before my concerns were drawn to the appetites of large cats, our troubles began with the unforgiving rays of a red, African sun. Our bicycles were simply not made for the terrain of the Rift Valley. The combination of desert and rocky canals, carved out by rivers of lava from past eruptions, left our bikes bent and broken. Acacia trees and I, with their endless thorns, have since developed a love/hate relationship that could only be

described on Facebook as “it’s complicated”.

After only a few hours in, our reserve tire tubes were depleted. As I mentioned earlier, we had run out of water, food rations, and we had now lost our mode of transportation. The sun was relentless, but we knew that it would be only a few hours before the temperature dropped. Our truck support was nowhere to be seen.

After hours of waiting under one of my beloved Acacia trees, it was apparent that we would have to retrace our steps if we were to have any chance at making it before sundown, when a whole new host of predators would come out to play.

It was day one and it had seemed our safety net had failed us. The relationship with our attendants was tumultuous from the outset, and their value was already being called into question.

Which brings me to the lions. My concern was warranted, as despite the reduction in numbers due to hunting, many lions still inhabit the area.

Years later, we came to know the true dimensions of our surroundings when we stumbled upon an internet clip of David Attenborough, the erudite voice of BBC’s nature documentaries, filming about a pride of lions that inhabited the base area of Oldoinyo Lengai at the time of our traverse.

My concerns were doubled by the fact that I, despite having just climbed Kilimanjaro, was the baby gazelle of our group. You see, as far as fitness goes, I was in distinguished company.

The climb up Kilimanjaro, despite

“Before my concerns were drawn to the appetites of large cats, our issues began with the unforgiving rays of a red African sun.” its greater altitude, has nothing on the gusto required for the technical ascent of Mount Kenya’s peak, where my brethren had just finished an unimaginable 19-pitch (one pitch equaling 30m) attack on the 5199m summit.

Everyone has seen the wildlife documentaries, and mourned the poor baby gazelle, picked off by its predator to its inescapable doom. I was a consistent 75 metres back of our group, and I couldn’t help but notice the similarities of my setting to that Disney’s The Lion King.

I was dehydrated, exhausted, and running purely on the adrenaline that surges through one’s body when they believe themselves to be at the disagreeable end of the food chain. I used what was left of my survivalist hormones to catch up to the rest of the group. It was decided that we would cycle together to form a four-man caravan, hopefully giving the appearance of a larger, more impressive creature. The false sense of security that came with this strategy eased my tension to some degree, and I never really had the same

travel@trinitynews.ie

nerves from there onward.

Finally, days later, we reached Oldoinyo Lengai, and in order to catch the sunrise from the crater, we decided to start our ascent at midnight. Realising the incompetence of our support team, we arranged for a 14-year-old local boy to take us up into the crater.

Our pace up the mountain was heroic, and led us to the crater hours early, well before dawn. While the others drifted off for a cozy nap in the fumes of the sulphurous crater, I remained the vigilant insomniac.

This was not due to excitement for the sunrise, but to bad prioritisation.

I had opted not to bring many warm clothes, instead going for the extra two litres of water that would occupy the majority of my bagspace. This mistake led me to one of the longest nights of my life, and to this day, the very thought of the chill I experienced on that mountain can still take the very heat from my core. But eventually, the sun did rise, and revealed a view from the crater that was something to marvel.

Unlike with the lions, we did not have to wait long to realise just how far we had pushed our luck. The Mountain of God sent earth tremors, just weeks after our descent, all the way across the border into Kenya, with its eventual eruption a few months later.

It’s now been four years since our sojourn through the Rift Valley, and knowing all that I know now, I still cannot decide whether or not we were foolish to do it the way we did. Perhaps we could have been more fastidious in our logistics; maybe we should have provided a safety net for our safety net. However, for people like us, there will always be some element of risk involved in what we do.

Borrowing from Tolkien, “it’s a dangerous business … walking out your front door.” There’s a serendipitous nature to every excursion, and once embraced, there’s only so much you can prepare.

Regardless of where our journey fits on the spectrum between boldness and senselessness, I know that I would do it all over again, and I wouldn’t change a single thing.

TRINITY NEWS

science 17 science@trinitynews.ie

Keep Ireland’s lab coats at home Alannah NicPhaidin Staff Writer

Ireland is in a key position – even in the economic downturn – to wrestle with the larger economies in the areas of scientific and technological research and development. Ireland, being a small nation with an open economy, has certain advantages over the larger nations. Furthermore, Ireland’s expertise and knowledge-based economy is peopled with well-trained and welleducated people who have a strong background in science and technology.

We simply need to stop exporting that knowledge and expertise.

Ireland’s exporting capacity, especially in the areas of science and technology, is increasing at an unprecedented rate over and above all other areas, with the exception of agriculture. However, most of the technology and science-based exports are by the larger international companies such as Intel, Microsoft and Apple.

“Ireland’s export capacity is increasing at an unprecedented rate.”

We need look no further than the 47th annual BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition, which was won by Alexander Amini, a 15-yearold science student for his research entitled, “Tennis sensor data analysis”.

Although, the student focused on tennis-related science, his project holds the possibility of more far-reaching scientific application.

According to the organisers of the event, “There was a 35 percent surge in entries to the Technology category in 2011, with students such as Alex-

ander [Amini] increasingly deploying technology to invent practical solutions to improve everyday situations and issues.” This statement is emblematic of where Ireland is headed into the future.

Science Ireland, the over-arching body for all things scientific and technological in Ireland, has many links for pursuing these fields of education and research in Ireland. Also, My Science, Ireland’s national science promotion program, has a website from which we can all glean ideas to innovate and create scientific and technological processes that are original, meaningful and marketable.

Thus, employment can be created and our indigenous exportable products and services can flourish, which in turn will, hopefully, create a climate of positive creativity.

Dr. Martin McAleese’s recent “Your Country, Your Call” project to encourage the Irish to creatively innovate a way forward to help our country out of the economic mire was brilliant. We need such a project annually. There were literally hundreds of ideas,

a

most of them highly creative and innovative – as well as substantially honing in on high-tech and scientific areas – that were, and are, highly sustainable given the right environment, encouragement, capital investment and educational know-how to sustain them.

There is a great need in Ireland for education to start research at national school level. This is just beginning. A small, but highly successful, venture in Ireland was the setting up of The Ark Project in 1995 in the Temple Bar area of Dublin which primarily explores innovations in the arts for young people. We need Ark projects in every county in Ireland with an emphasis on original thinking in the fields of the arts, science and technology to encourage creativity and vision in all our people from a very young age. Nothing less is acceptable if we are to succeed again and be nation of “dreamers and doers”. The Science Gallery hosted an Exhibition and Symposium on at the end of January entitled, “Visceral Symposium”. The

organisers stated on their website that “The symposium will cover cultural strategies that engage and scrutinise with development in the life sciences, with a particular emphasis on handson artistic research embedded within a biological laboratory.”

Getting back to Ireland verus our competitors in the areas of scientific and technological discoveries, our eco-

“If only the will to succeed and the energy could be mustered.” nomic positioning is of key relevence.

Take the U.S. as an example. Many of the scientific innovations there are seriously hampered from the exporting arena by their highly centralised and strict export control regulations.

Many of the scientific and technological innovations in the U.S., including companies such as Intel, Microsoft, and Apple, cannot be exported outside the U.S. without the sanction of the federal government in the form of export control regulations.

The two main departments of the federal government that regulate such items are the Departments of State and Commerce. Obtaining export licenses is often a long, arduous process and the fines can often reach into the tens of millions of dollars.

Many other countries have similar, although not as rigorous, export control regulations. Ireland, on the other hand, has quite a lax export control regime. Thus, our innovators operate at a distinct advantage over many of our competitors.

So people of Ireland: get innovating, get producing, and get exporting. And, financial institutions: get back into the business of lending – fast.

Shaking hands with claytronics Claytronics may allow you to shake hands with a distant friend using 3-D technology.

Alexander Hess reports A new age of exceptionally small technology has arrived. This is not some new addition to nanotechnology, but something entirely new. Claytronics is a burgeoning science of manipulating matter on a minute scale, and is not too different in concept from molding a lump of clay into form and function. Using incredibly small computers as building blocks, one day we could be making a 3-D Skype call in which we can actually shake hands with the caller. Claytronics offers the ability to create functional devices and tools from a canister of machines that could, with some simple instructions, build a car to exact specifications nearly instantly.

The evolution of this field is leading to the fusion of the established fields of physics, computation and engineering in a new way. At the heart of this is a synergy between two institutions in particular: the Claytronics Project at Carnegie-Mellon University and the Center for Bits and Atoms (CBA) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The concept that unites the institutions’ efforts is the “Catom”, an abridged version of “Claytronic Atom” the the fundamental unit that constitutes the whole. This concept has already been achieved in the field of modular robotics, but the catom has the potential to be greater than anything before it.

Neil Gershenfeld, director of the CBA and a well-known authority in computational physics, wishes to take the “bit” of computational information and turn it into an “it”: something that is more than just a zero or a one but a

8 February, 2011

IN BRIEF Neuroscience

Magnets are better than caffeine Researchers from the Department of Neurophysiology at Ruhr UniversityBochum have found in a recent study that the activity of brain cells can be enhanced through magnetic stimulation. Through a process called Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), a process that has been in use since the 1980s but has never been analysed with relation to its actual effects on the brain. The study, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, represents the first concrete data on the effects of this process.

The discovery offers many avenues of practical application, particularly for the treatment of brain disorders, especially those involving diminished functionality in inhibitory brain cells.

Palaeontology

Welcoming the New Age of the Dinosaurs

A new discovery by researchers from the University of Alberta has thrown the long-established timeline of the “Age of the Dinosaurs” out the window. According to a new radiometric dating method, a dinosaur fossil found in New Mexico is only 64.8 million years old, meaning the specimen was alive nearly one million years after its supposed extinction event. The new dating method, called uranium-lead dating, makes use of lasers to extract dateable particles from specimens and can serve also to help determine the type of food the species ate. The find represents a serious shock for the palaeontology community, which must now make a major reassessment of the dating methods they have heretofore used, and to reconsider the new discovery of dinosaurs’ unprecedented

Medicine

Ultimate Painkillers

SS Once claytronics becomes a conventional tool, people will be able to sculpt virtually any material into any shape or form by means of tiny computer.

small computer in itself which would communicate and connect with its neighbours and pool their powers to achieve greater things. These catoms are what they compute. The concept is not too dissimilar to the way individuals in a company synchronise to achieve meet targets which would be impossible to reach for an individual.

The newly developed prototypes at Carnegie-Mellon possess a CPU of their own, an energy source derived from a magnetic field, a network device to communicate with its fellow catoms and a method of getting themselves from place to place, all housed in a small sphere. Most importantly of all, they have a means of connecting with other catoms to generate a 3-D shape crucial to the generation of the “matter” they are programmed to create. A

simple cylindrical prototype only three centimetres across has been created by the Claytronics Project, but is ten times bigger than the end product is hoped to be. Eventually, explains Gershenfeld, anyone will be able to make anything, provided he has access to a standardised “fabrication lab” full of catoms.

The field has ambitiously set itself the target of creating individual catoms of less than a millimetre across and to possess the amazing capability of “Fungibility” (more or less the ability for something twice as big to be twice as “useful” or half as big half as “useful”). The hope is that catoms would have the great advantage of the whole possessing the same overall computing power even if divided The implications of this has been discussed but the fact that any indi-

vidual can not only create fanciful 3-D mock-ups of real things like people or chairs but usable tools is a stand-alone idea. In the future there could be local problems that would require tools to be made from catoms: individuals could craft tools to solve these problems using their own local solutions and ingenuity. One day the dependence of someone on a specific manufacturer’s wheel catalogue in order to fix the wheel of his car would be eliminated, because they could make their own identical replacement, or even a better one suited to the unique terrain in their area. Or an entirely new car altogether.

New knowledge and invention may one day become no longer the province of giant research institutions and governments, but that of one or several people in a small community.

Researchers at Stony Brook University have developed a new painkiller that may be the best of its kind in more ways than one.

Clinical trials have shown the drug to be extremely powerful in alleviating pain, targeting a sodium ion channel in nerves that functions in the transmission of pain from the nerve receptors to the brain. The new method effectively stops the transmission of pain to the central nervous system. The drug has the major benefits of being nonaddictive and not impairing judgement as do opiate-based painkillers. This change is due to the lack of transmission of pain the nervous system. There are innumerable potential uses for the new drug, in all areas of pain treatment. The researchers hope to have their invention on the market within two years, an invention that may prove to revolutionise entirely the field of palliative medicine.

John Engle

18 opinion profile: Ivana Bacik

Bacik to basics David Barrett talks to Trinity Senator Ivana Bacik, and learns that beneath the exterior of this formidable lawyer and academic is a deep commitment to fairness and social justice

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s a politician, Ivana Bacik is the sort of figure that people have one of only two opinions on. To many of her supporters she is a fearless advocate for radically liberal causes such as gay marriage, abortion and feminism, to her detractors she is fearsome gargoyle who is the personification of all that is wrong with the modern world – eating small children for breakfast before spreading more general fire and brimstone across the public at large afterwards. As it turns out, neither personification is very accurate.

In person Bacik is an awful lot nicer than many caricatures of her would suggest. Her office has pictures of her children and is filled with neatly arrayed books. Not noticing any charred wreckage or blackened skulls this writer decided it was safe to begin the interview.

Bacik studied law in Trinity, where she joined Labour and was elected President of the Students’ Union in 1989. There she attracted quite a lot of notoriety for following SU policy by giving out information about abortion, something that landed her in front of the courts, where she was defended by none other than Mary Robinson.

Bacik’s Career path 1989 – President of TCDSU 1996 – Appointed Reid Professor of Criminal Law in Trinity 1997 – First Senate Run 2002 – Second Senate Run 2004 – European Parliament candidate for Labour 2006 – Junior Counsel in the Zappone-Gilligan case

2007 – Elected to the Senate for Trinity 2009 – Candidate in the Dublin Central By-Election for Labour 2010 – Selected to contest Dun Laoighaire in the next General Election for Labour 2011 - ???

Illustration by Aoife Crowley

Two Senate runs followed her becoming Reid Professor of Criminal Law, where she acquired steadily increasing numbers of votes before the big breakthrough came: a Labour nomination to contest the European elections in 2004. A second Labour seat was always a long-shot, but Bacik’s performance was impressive – winning 40,707 votes (more than the sitting Green MEP), a sixth-place finish on transfers and an assured future in the party. She followed up on this by taking the final Trinity Senate seat in 2007, even winning the endorsement of the retiring Senator Mary Henry who Bacik came close to defeating previously.

Following on from a solid performance in the Dublin Central by-election Bacik is contesting the Dun Laoighaire constituency in the upcoming general election, the first Senator for the College to contest a general election since 1992. Bacik admits it will be a battle: “Pat Kenny called Dun Laoighaire the ‘Group of Death’ and it will be an uphill battle but I would really like to be part of the next Government to bring about change’.

This piqued my interest. What kind of change? What specific thing would

Bacik like and have the expertise to change in the next government? I was perhaps expecting a social agenda that the Dutchman with a joint in one hand and a whip in the other would consider a tad permissive. But I did not expect a remarkably thoughtful answer about the penal system, in which she explained how she recently introduced a paper on Irish penal policies that would increase spending on probation as an alternative to prisons, as well as closing detention centres for minors like St. Patrick which in Bacik’s experience in the judicial system is worse than Mountjoy for the inmates – which is shocking considering it’s for minors!

Bacik has however been very actively involved in various social causes. She was junior counsel in the Zappone-Gilligan case which was fighting for recognition for civil partnerships. She is also an outspoken in her belief that there should be more women in politics, something that she believes gender quotas could achieve: “The evidence is clear. Countries that

introduce gender quotas have more women [politicians] than those that do not.

When the logic is explained people see the point. Labour had this system in the local elections and it elected more female councillors.” Her plan would see parties select more female candidates and let the voters decide whether to elect them or not, which seems more than reasonable.

Before our talk came to an end I asked Bacik about the future of the Senate: “There is a lot wrong with it.

The case for the status quo was lost long ago. It’s a case of either reform or abolition and both Labour and Fine Gael have come down in favour of the latter.” As a fan of archaic institutions and old traditions (being a Trinity student after all) I was disappointed but could see the realism there. Bacik acknowledged though the pioneering work of many of Trinity’s Senators, particularly that of Mary Robinson, who held her professorship before her.

Like her or loathe her, there should be a place in Irish politics for those not afraid of speaking out – and that is something Bacik does in spades.

God save the Commonwealth Evan Musgrave arues that, far from hindering Ireland’s freedom, Commonwealth membership would enhance it.

As current and prospective TDs freely engage with the opportune buzzword “reform”, the pressing need to overhaul and amend Ireland’s malfunctioning political system is increasingly accepted. In exchanges, via the press, potential leaders have outlined what it is they believe must be done to achieve a restructuring of Ireland’s governmental structure.

With so much focus on the internal problems of the country, it is tempting to ignore Ireland’s reliance on foreign input. Worse still is the temptation to discard any external influence as a malicious, oppressive force. A vibrant, entrepreneurial public supported by a “buy Irish” mindset is vital to rebuilding confidence in the local economy, but Ireland cannot hope to fully progress without exploring new avenues in International trade.

Public dissatisfaction and scepticism of the EU has reached its

highest point. At the same time, we remain arguably more reliant than ever before on the institutions of this body. Irish trading organisations must explore means to pursue relationships with regions that hold a higher level of respect for what we have to offer. It is in light of these observations that I would suggest that the Republic of Ireland seek to join the Commonwealth of Nations.

All in all, the Commonwealth constitutes just under a third of the world’s population, and a quarter of the global trade. In addition to this, a fifth of investment is in the world is intra-Commonwealth. Central also to the Commonwealth is the eponymous sporting games, which run every four years, participated in by all members, and something which could hardly damage the development of ambitious Irish athletes.

Commonwealth membership would certainly provide

“The Commonwealth was lauded for its role in toppling apartheid in South Africa and welcoming the reformed republic back into the organisation.”

Ireland with a new, extensive and vibrant economic and cultural forum – a space in which Ireland would naturally sit near the top of in terms of economic development and diplomatic responsibility.

Of course, beyond the enchanting networking potential of the Commonwealth lies the complex and intermingling issues of history, faith, culture and geography surrounding such a move. For many,

“The Queen as ‘Head of Commonwealth’ is not its ruler.” the Commonwealth is still conceived of as a British Empire in drag, an Empire whose historical subjugation of Ireland denies any form of rapprochement.

In seeking to understand the Commonwealth, it important to root out what it is not. The Queen as “Head of Commonwealth” is not its ruler.

This role, as outlined in the charter, is purely a titular position. The executive position since 1965 is that of the Secretary General, a position held by Kamalesh Sharma, a former diplomat for the Indian government. As mentioned earlier, the Commonwealth does not exist to serve one nation’s needs, but rather it functions as a body to promote economic, social,

and judicial development alongside racial awareness and equality in all states. This has worked in practice: the Commonwealth was lauded for its role in toppling apartheid in South Africa and welcoming the reformed republic back into the organisation. At present, the Commonwealth is committed to tackling alleged human rights abuse in Zimbabwe and Fiji (with Fiji’s membership suspended at present in the process of reform).

The Commonwealth can play an important role in ameliorating the somewhat delicate peace which exists in Northern Ireland. Pursuing membership in the Commonwealth could be orchestrated as a gesture of inclusivity to the Unionist community at a time when Catholic communities are growing fastest, advancing on precarious political space in the region.

Indeed, with over 15 years of progress since the Anglo-Irish Agreement, a time which has seen the cooperative reintroduction of the Assembly, membership in the Commonwealth could be offered as a resolute confirmation of both parties’ desire for true political reconciliation.

I do not expect such a reunion to be achieved overnight. It is not something which is perhaps even possible to accomplish during the tenure of the next Government. However the time is right to analyse this field. With a growing

figure of 20 million constituting the Irish diaspora living in other member states, the Commonwealth supplies a unique platform of shared nationality, copper-fastening historical ties in a period of renewed migration. Citizens

“For many, the Commonwealth is still conceived of as a British Empire in drag.” who want Ireland to participate in this world forum committed to economic and social benefits for its members must request the creation of a dialogue in the new Dáil, where an informed decision on the matter can be reached. Achieving membership is not an improbable concept. Influential figures in the organisation have called for an Irish input in recent years.

Addressing Westminster in 2007, MP Andrew MacKinlay delivered a speech calling for the Prime Minister to engage Ireland in talks concerning membership. In addition to this, former Secretary-General Sir Shirdath Ramphal and current leader Sharma both entreated Ireland to engage itself with the group in 2009. In exploring membership with the Commonwealth, Ireland has very little to lose, and untold gains to be made.

TRINITY NEWS

19 opinion@trinitynews.ie

“Irish has been enshrined too much as a national symbol” Irishness is about so much more than the Irish language, writes Michael Gilligan The recent publication of a 20year plan for the Irish language, which seeks to increase the number of daily speakers to 250,000 by 2030, is the final attempt to tackle a crisis which has left Gaeltacht regions fighting for survival.

In 2007, a report published by Comisiún na Gaeilge starkly concluded that Irish, if not addressed immediately, has a maximum lifespan of 15-20 years remaining as “the predominant community language” of our last few Gaeltacht areas.

The looming question is how posterity will view us: will we be portrayed as the generation who betrayed the founding fathers of our nation or rather, a people who managed to come to terms with reality and see culture for what it is and not what it was?

The Irish language has been enshrined too much as a national symbol, and is all too frequently touted as a prerequisite of Irish identity. This could not be further from the truth. In the Gaeltacht regions, it is a language which has been choked of the oxygen with which it could have flourished.

This could have been achieved by adopting policies akin to Tanzania’s nationwide attempt to establish Swahili as the official language: All primary school education taught exclusively

through the medium of Irish, not just the occasional Gaelscoil. However, this no longer seems logistically feasible, economically desirable or even culturally necessary.

Try saying “Go raibh maith agat” instead of “thank you” the next time you feel the need to express gratitude.

The absurdity of doing so should confirm the existence, or creation, of a powerful taboo.

But Irish culture has and will continue to thrive without the Irish language. Those who see Irish as definitive of this culture often live under the dangerous assumption that the English language belongs inherently to the English, whereas the reality is that English has become a modernday lingua franca, appropriated by many cultures and perfectly capable

as a medium for each of their unique cultural expressions.

By no means should we remove Irish from our education system, because it is still our heritage, but we should relegate its importance as a national symbol. Irish culture is much more than the ability to speak an esoteric language, it’s everything from the GAA and Irish dance to the inordinate usage of the word “grand”. Irishness is a culture that is thriving throughout this entire country, not something decaying in a few scattered regions.

Yeats believed that at the end of every 2000-year historical cycle “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold” but maybe it’s time to accept the reality: culture doesn’t disintegrate, it merely changes and there is not much point swimming against the tide.

Ave duci novo, similis duci seneci Eoin O’Driscoll analyses what Micheál Martin’s leadership means for Fianna Fáil, and concludes that it’s just more of the same

M

icheál Martin cuts an impressive political figure. He is articulate, intelligent and comes across with a degree of sincerity lacking in Fianna Fáil’s leadership for some time. This strong media persona likely lies behind the recent Sunday Business Post’s Red C poll that showed an estimated 31 percent of the electorate prefer Martin as the next Taoiseach, making him the public’s favoured choice.

However, on analysing the contents of Martin’s policy stall, I can’t help but feel that if he wishes to maintain support at this level, currently twice that of the party he now leads, he might be better off staying quiet.

Fianna Fáil has always proudly proclaimed itself to be the Republican Party. Since its founding, Fianna Fáil has always propounded Republican ideals and commitment to the eventual reunification of the Irish island into a 32 County Republic has always been a core value of the party.

Those who hold such a value dear will not be encouraged by Martin’s leadership if his pronouncements on Newstalk are anything to go by. When asked by Ivan Yates whether or not he supported a unified, unitary Irish state, he responded no. Commitment to Irish Unification seems to have been, unceremoniously, thrown out the window.

As harmful as this, likely shedding of a once core Fianna Fáil value may prove to be for the party, it is Martin’s resurrecting of a few old Fianna Fáil values,

“When asked directly about abortion and gay marriage, he waltzed around the issues”

I had hoped long dead and buried, that are more worrying for the country.

In this same interview, Martin stated his opposition both to our current multi-seat constituencies and to the adoption of a list-based electoral system.

He advocates an electoral system based on single seat constituencies.

Single-seat electoral systems are inherently unfair. They are not proportional and are therefore less representative of the electorate. They are simply not as democratic as the PRSTV system we currently have in place.

To illustrate this we need only take a glance across the Irish Sea to our neighbours in Britain, where one of the more well-known single-seat constituency electoral systems operates.

In 2005, Michael Howard’s Conservatives lost by less than 3 percent to Tony Blair’s New Labour. Blair’s party, however, won a substantial majority in the House of Commons. They needed just 35.2 percent of the vote to return over 55 percent of seats. On the other end of the spectrum, the Liberal Democrats received 22 percent of the vote but ended up with less than 10 percent of the seats.

That is hardly a fair representation of the will of the electorate.

Single-seat-constituency-based systems are heavily biased towards large parties and those with strong geographical vote concentrations. If Fianna Fáil had been able to push such a system through, they would have enjoyed perpetual single party governance ever since as they have yet to receive less than 39.1 percent in a General Election, decidedly more than the British Labour Party won n 2005.

Such a system would squeeze out the smaller parties, they would be virtually nonexistent, and would severely limit the representation in the Dáil of minority interest groups.

It is, however, not the only archaic Fianna Fáil ideal that Martin desires to resurrect. At pains to insist that he is “not a raging liberal now, at all” Martin lost his usual coherence when dealing with social issues. When asked directly

8 February, 2011

and rejoice in the excellence of others.

We have to resist the temptation of envy and detraction, but above all we must not seek to pretend that these gradations of excellence do not exist.

Such a lack of generosity is (paradoxically) one of the factors behind grade inflation together with

a view from new square

gerald morgan

the reassuring belief that academic achievement is the product of teaching rather than innate ability.

In 1923 C.S. Lewis received a first in English at Oxford. He was a brilliant scholar by any standard, but the fact of his receiving an Oxford first told us most of what we needed to know. In 1926 there were two firsts in English at Oxford out of 137 candidates, 51 seconds, 57 thirds, 20 fourths and 3 fails. In 2006 there were 71 firsts out of 258 candidates, 183 II/1s and 4 II/2s.

The third class (with some 30 percent of candidates so classified when I took finals in 1964) and the fourth class had entirely disappeared and no one failed.

What can we deduce from this alarming refusal to make significant distinctions? Obviously that an Oxford first is not what it was when C.S. Lewis took his first in 1923. And secondly, that these results are evidently designed for the world outside universities but are of little or no benefit to students

Egypt in Crisis As protesters continue to clash in the streets of Cairo, foreign journalists are being detained and media outlets tightly controlled. In the past few days, reporters from the Washington Post and the New York Times have been released from detention. The government’s explanation: it was for the journalists’ own good and safety.

But there are increasing indications that the government of president Hosni Mubarak has been cracking down on the protests, including attempts to control broadcasts around the world, in an effort to maintain power in the Middle East’s most populous country.

Mubarak has claimed that he will not seek reelection and nor will his son, whom many believed was being groomed for leadership. Antigovernment demonstrators have violently clashed with pro-Mubarak supporters, leaving almost a dozen people dead and nearly 1000 injured.

However the turmoil in Egypt is resolved, the region will grapple with the lasting effects of a destabilised government in a country that is indispensable to Middle East peace efforts. At the very least, groups supporting the antigovernment movement, including the Muslim Brotherhood, will seek a change of leadership and a significant about-face in the way the Egyptian Interior Ministry operates. The protesters’ most grievous claims involve well-founded allegations of the institutionally supported torture of dissidents.

Silencing the world’s media is a shortsighted plan to maintain control over a highly combustible situation, and attempts to shepherd public opinion will only make matters worse if and when more government corruption comes to light.

Oscar Season Looms about abortion and gay marriage, he waltzed around the issues. Martin seems more than content with how they are legislated for at present.

However, rulings from the European Courts and conversation with any of those affected by such legislation make it clear that current legislation is not adequate. These are issues that must be tackled by the next government, yet Martin seems unwilling to take them on.

Michál Martin is, undeniably, a man of charisma and sizeable intellect, yet the policies that he espouses are far from progressive or encouraging and are not what we need to move Ireland successfully into the future. I am forced to agree with Leo Varadkar’s characterisation of the new Fianna Fáil leader as simply “old wine in a new bottle”. He is just more of the same.

Grade inflation is a disaster for universities We all love to have a great opinion of ourselves, whether as individuals or as institutions. We congratulate ourselves when Trinity College is listed among the world’s top fifty universities in 2009 (although we used to think of ourselves as the equals of Oxford and Cambridge, universities still ranked in the top ten) and lament when we sink in 2010 to 52 (QS) or 76 (THES) or disappear out of sight (Shanghai). And we are often uncomfortably aware that different systems of analysis produce different rankings among the lesser fry, even though they seldom affect the preeminence of Harvard. Let us be grateful that Trinity College is Ireland’s best university and seek to build on that.

The experience of university is that we are always liable to encounter people who are more learned than we are or (perhaps more disconcertingly) more brilliant. We need to embrace this as a wholesome fact of university life

Roundup

themselves. We are obliged to withhold admiration for these seventy-one firsts until we learn who is first and who is seventy-first and where the rest stand in between. Assuredly, they are not a collection of 71 C.S. Lewises.

Everyone suffers from this hypocritical pretence to examine students on merit. We are naturally inclined to think the seventy-second in the Oxford list a complete ignoramus (and the II/2s no doubt have by now acquired the cachet of the old fourth).

Inflation is disastrous for economies, reducing the value of everything by greater or lesser degrees. And it is disastrous for universities. Better the injustices (for a few) in the old days when outstanding students were denied a first to which they were probably entitled than injustice to everyone as in the present system of grade inflation. gmorgan1066@gmail.com

It is now February, and just a few short weeks away from the casting of ballots by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. That’s right, the Oscars!

That splendid orgy of Hollywood self-gratification, a night, for all its lack of relevance and integrity, to ogle over beautiful dresses and expensive grooming.

Of course, many will scoff at the idea of tuning in to such vapid proceedings. But if we accept that the Oscars are a certain kind of award show for a certain kind of movie, we may see that certain pieces of work in the running deserve our consideration. Despite the everperfunctory Best Foreign Language category, we have a fair number of solid Hollywood films by talented (be they all white and all male) filmmakers.

Though an Oscar nod (or eleven) might not influence your decision to drop a tenner and hit the cinema, how can you resist a oneeyed Jeff Bridges gallivanting on horseback under the direction of Joel and Ethan Cohen? Or a stammering Colin Firth looking down his nose at a jocular Geoffrey Rush, only to form an unlikely friendship and have you leaving the dark cathedral of the cinema with the fuzzy warmth of formula in your tummy?

I suppose the point, if I have one, is try to disregard that faint, creeping nausea that overcomes you when you think of daft “journalists” asking silly questions to over-coiffed celebrities, and get to the cinema, butter up the popcorn, and enjoy.

Jonathan Creasy

20 Editorial

Head to Head: Valentine’s Day

Trinity News Est 1953 towards some revival of the collegiate spirit, which modern conditions tend to discourage

t

the egyptian protests empower the powerless We are living in times that we should feel privileged to experience. It seems that the regimes of the Middle East, one of the last great regional bastions of autocracy in the world, are disintegrating in the face of a ferocious popular democratic revolution that is, what is more, uncoordinated and socio-economically indefinable.

We have grown used to mass democratic protests somewhere in the world that challenge the ruling elite on a regular basis. Indeed, this is one of the lasting global legacies of the third wave of democratisation that kicked off in the 1980s. But the events in the Middle East are something much more extraordinary than this.

The overthrow of the Tunisian dictator Ben Ali in the first half of January produced a form of cognitive revolution among the Arab people. It was a match to a fuse that most commentators hadn’t even noticed.

No sooner had the western media begun to discern that something very peculiar was going on in a country that they had grown used to dismissing as a convenient holiday destination and film set, than Ben Ali was running for fear of his life, with as much portable assets as he could find, to get a plane out of the country he had ruled for 23 years.

And all of this was being covered incessantly by Al Jazeera and watched with growing amazement by people across the Arab world. Things like this are not supposed to happen in the Middle East. It was, remarkable as this may seem, the first time ever that a popular revolution had directly led to the overthrow of an Arab dictator.

So they took to the streets in Egypt, and again all the old regularities of Middle Eastern politics were thrown out. The Egyptian people have broken the fear barrier.

They confronted the thuggish police of the Mubarak regime and their “Made in USA” teargas canisters on Friday 29 January , and they won. They literally chased the police out of their cities. The Egyptian regime is made of stern stuff, but a great part of their authority is broken.

In the meantime, the pathetic actions of the western establishment in the face of these developments have demonstrated once and for all that the post-Cold War concept of a “New World Order” that universally espoused democracy was nothing but a total and utter lie.

The dictators of Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen were “our” dictators, and we were perfectly comfortable with that.

The Obama administration has been forced into a highly embarrassing series of self-contradictory statements as their friend Mubarak’s position became increasingly precarious. Others have been more forthright. Right-wing TV personality Bill O’Reilly has pronounced explicitly that the US should side with Mubarak. John McCain spoke, with evident dismay, of the “dangerous” nature of the “virus” that has been spreading across the Middle East.

Just as the US used to use “communism” as a synonym for undesirable foreign democracy, so now Fox News commentators strain to use the utterly inaccurate term “Islamic Radicalism” and “Arab anger” in place of something more truthful and positive.

But as people we should show a more principled stance than our governments and elites. We should follow an instinctive tendency to side with a frustrated and powerless group of people as they fight for their rights.

We should take inspiration from the passionately spoken words of one Egyptian protester: “You will not be silenced whether you are a Christian, whether you are Muslim, whether you are an Atheist. You will demand you goddamn rights! And we will have our rights one way or the other. We will never be silenced!”

The Arab people have broken their silence, and the western establishment is deluding itself if it thinks they are going to shut up any time soon.

‘‘No true feeling was ever expressed through the phrase ‘roses are red...’’’

Roisin Costello

It’s hard to be a girl and voice opposition to Valentine’s Day without sounding like an embittered shrew or a deranged feminist.

Having said that, it’s hard to suffer through Valentine’s Day and not think the whole thing is contrived and more than a little shallow. And I can buy my own chocolates, thank you very much.

The rather mundane and unromantic truth is that Saint Valentine was just a Catholic priest who got martyred the same as all the others and whose miracle was, apparently, healing the blind daughter of his jailor. Why and how exactly we ended up with a day celebrating romance named in his honour is a little confusing, so in name the day was off to a bumpy start to begin with.

Of course from a pragmatic point of view Valentine’s day is admirable in that it is probably one of the greatest marketing success stories. It’s the kind of manufactured, synthetic product which was cleverly slipped into mainstream society under the guise of tradition and became so accepted that no one ever thought to question its legitimacy or authenticity – like Coca Cola managing to rebrand Santa as a chuckling old man in a scarlet sheepskin boiler suit rather than a grouchy homeless man who lived in his sleigh and wore a blue cloak. Valentine’s Day has become an event which we accept unquestioningly.

Valentine’s Day is today a sugar-coated, glitter-encrusted, rose petal-strewn celebration of the power of marketing and the insatiable appetite for a socially acceptable means of expressing sentiment. It is an appetite which Western capitalism has hijacked to create one of the most profitable holidays of the year.

It is a day when we are not just allowed but expected to assail each other with bouquets of flowers, boxes of chocolates and folded pieces

of paper bearing platitudinous expressions of affection. These kinds of superficial and trite declarations are not only tiresome in their own right but more to the point they serve only to undermine the whole idea that Valentine’s Day claims to promulgate the expression of true “feelings”. This is a day when true affections are meant to be expressed and yet which simultaneously dictates that any such expression should be done in congruence with the homogenous flowers/sweets/card model.

No true feeling or heartfelt admiration was ever expressed through the phrase “roses are red, violets are blue, etc .” and if it did then its meaning was long ago diluted to the point of extinction by its now widespread use.

Valentine’s Day tortures the poetic sensibilities of the most pragmatic and coldly logical of engineers and tries the patience of almost anyone who values reality more than appearance. And, if the day is indeed a celebration of love, it is ironic that in becoming such it has devalued the expression of affection and created a market where love can be expressed only through the most vulgar and tasteless of means. If the beauty of love is that two people will never express it the same way, that it is inherently personal, subjective and individual and if love is indeed beautiful, and if beauty is truth, then Hallmark have sadly undermined the concept on which they have successfully capitalised so profitably.

And of course if there is a confused boy reading this wondering what on earth women want if they don’t want tokens which are no more than a tacit endorsement of the capitalist system and an admission of an increasing inability among the male populace to write in suitably eloquent sonnets then I can only tell you that, if it was me, what I’d want for Valentine’s Day is a ten-page summary of the law of equity and trusts. And a unicorn.

“Valentine’s Day is soppy, but for at least one day, soppy is allowed” Sarah Clarkin

For the love-struck besotted pairing of the modern-day Eros and Psyche, the dawning of St. Valentine’s Day is one of the most important events of the year. All the envious gripers grousing about a Hallmark usurpation and lamenting the gross materialism embody the role of the jealous deity Aphrodite as fittingly as in the old myth.

Valentine’s Day is like Christmas, Easter, or any other commercialised holiday, highly publicised and potentially costly, yet the commercialisation of this celebration does not diminish its value in any way. February is a bleak, dreary month at the best of times. The hours of sunshine have started to stretch, but not enough to lift the collective mood of the nation, and summer seems little more than a pipe dream. Valentine’s Day falls spectacularly well in the midst of the most desolate of seasons, and serves as the perfect antidote to the winter blues.

For the weeks leading up to the “lover’s holiday”, shops are filled with sparkling glitter, bouncing balloons and vivacious splashes of the boldest reds and flirtiest pinks. Each years as the heart-shaped cards increase in size and the teddy bears get fluffier and cuddlier, the excitement that accompanies Valentine’s Day increases dramatically.

In schools across the Western world, children exchange cards with sweet messages, teens wait anxiously to see if they will receive a card from the The One, married couples are given a chance to remember why they fell in love, old couples can reminisce over happy Valentine’s Days of yore, and the singletons can dance the night away at any number of Valentine’s themed nights-out in the hope of finding their Mr or Ms Right on this day of the year dedicated solely to love.

Recent times have seen the influx of severe austerity measures and universally, people are struggling. Yet despite the Hallmark hype and the argument which espouses the view

that Valentine’s Day involves the purchasing of overpriced presents and subsequently leads to the manufacturing of false affection, the fact remains that Valentine’s Day for all those in relationships signifies something far greater than the commercialism. It isn’t about what you buy your someone special, but what you do on the day to showcase how you truly feel and how in turn you make them feel.

Far too often, we fill our lives with sarcastic comments and witty, hurtful remarks, yet fail to ever elaborate on how we truly feel.

Valentine’s Day is soppy, but for at least one day, soppy is allowed. Positive, loving comments are a welcome departure from the grim economic babble that the media and, indeed, the whole of Ireland seems to have become preoccupied with.

The legend of St. Valentine is tragic, that of a Christian priest of the Roman Empire persecuted for conducting marriage ceremonies against the will of a wicked king who believed unmarried men made better soldiers. Valentine is said to have cured his jailer’s daughter of blindness on the eve of his execution, before scribing her a love letter, signed devotedly “from your Valentine.” There is nothing wrong with a holiday designed to remind you to make your special someone aware of how exactly you feel about them, and what makes you love them so much. Valentine’s Day serves as an uplifting, confidence building and inspirational break from a world filled with cynicism and knockbacks. To diminish the joy of Valentine’s Day is to lessen the soaring effect that the one day of the year, bestowed exclusively with the honour of adoration and devotion for the one you love, has on people.

Valentine’s Day is not compulsory. If it offends all you envious Aphrodite’s out there, do not partake in it, but please desist from ruining it for the rest of us with your bahhumbug babble.

TRINITY NEWS

21 opinion@trinitynews.ie

Letters

Letters should be sent to letters@trinitynews.ie or to Trinity News, 6 Trinity College, Dublin 2. We reserve the right to edit submissions for style and length. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of Trinity News.

letters@trinitynews.ie

centenary should be celebrated

democracy. We in Trinity, as a major centre of learning in Europe, should take the initiative on this count.

Madam – People love their anniversaries, personal and historical.

Some anniversaries, by historical chance and ideological design, get excluded in terms of our remembrance of their historical importance.

We are already thinking ahead as a country towards the 100th anniversary in 2016 of the 1916 rising. Yet there has been little mention, indeed hardly even any awareness, of a highly symbolic centenary that covers this year. The year 1911 was the most volatile and prominent year of what is known in Britain the “Great Unrest”.

Although a traditionally solely British term to describe a wave of strikes and working class militancy form 1910 to 1914, it is actually relevant to Europe as a whole. Here in Ireland we had the lockout, in Germany and all across Europe there was a massive spike in strikes that led governments and bosses to fear that they were on the brink of a revolution. What is more, and related to this, there was a wave of socialist electoral victories and achievement of universal male suffrage across Europe, from Sweden to Italy and in between. It only ended with the outbreak of World War I and it marked a landmark in relationship between the powerful and the powerless, and consequently could even be called the birth of modern democracy. 1911 was the seminal year in this upsurge in unrest, and we should take 2011 to commemorate the brave people across Europe who help bring about modern

Yours, etc.

Neil Warner SS History and Politics

College committed to Student centre Madam – Further to an article in the most recent issue of the Trinity News of January 25 last, entitled, “Student Centre loses funding,” as chairperson of the Luce Hall Planning Committee I would like to clarify the following points: First, with regard to the role of Trinity Foundation, it is important to note that Trinity Foundation is the fundraising arm of the College and not a grant-making body. The role of the Foundation is to work closely with College to develop a fundraising strategy and a donor base for key strategic projects – such as the Student Centre – but it is not possible to guarantee that such funding will be secured with certainty. In relation to the funding of the Student Centre, the Foundation advised the Luce Hall Planning Committee that, in the worsening economic situation, the original assumption that philanthropic funding would generate €7m for the centre no longer held true and that a figure of €3.5m was more realistic.

While the Luce Hall Working Group prepared figures for the levy based on a worst-case scenario in which no money might be raised through philanthropy,

it was always understood that the philanthropic route would be pursued and that money would be generated from that source that would go to reduce the amount of the student levy.

Second, our calculations are that a student levy would generate €8.5m over twenty years and not €500m as stated in the article.

Finally, College’s commitment to the project is evidenced in the facts that the provision of a Student Centre is one of the objectives stated in the current College Strategic Plan and that College has already committed €10m.

Yours, etc.

Professor Michael Marsh Pro Vice-Provost/ Chief Academic Officer

The question of studentship Madam – I write in response to Josh Robert’s article “Let me entertain you” (25 January, 2011), in which he asks whether the current SU President Nikolai Trigoub-Rotnem is ineligible to hold that position. As former chair of the SU “Constitution Project” in 2009, a body that was tasked with designing a new constitution for the SU to replace the previous, outdated constitution, and Education Officer at the time of Trigoub-Rotnem’s election, I might try to help answer this question.

At the time of the SU Sabbatical elections in 2010 when Trigoub-Rotnem put his name forward as a candidate for the SU Presidency he was a fully

registered student of the College and met the requirements for candidacy as set out in the SU constitution (i.e. being a “capitated student”). When he won that race he became “President-elect” and then became President in July of 2010 when he took over from Cónán Ó Broin.

The SU Constitution explicitly states that the Sabbatical Officers are members of the SU. This means that regardless of his status as a student, including any exam results or anything else that would impinge on his student status from a College perspective, from July 2010, Trigoub-Rotnem was a member of the SU. As he is a member of the SU and had won the race for President in 2010 it would seem clear that the SU hasn’t “bent any rules”. Mr. Roberts would only have had to read to page 2 of the document to discover this.

From a College perspective, it is also my understanding that if student fails their examinations, they do not automatically cease to be students at that time. Students may have repeat examinations or may be entitled to an ordinary degree, for example. For a significant amount of time after what a student would normally consider themselves to be “finished” in Trinity, they are still recognised as students

by College, and by the SU. In the case of a Sabbatical Officer the student is deemed to have a “quasi-off books” status until their time as an officer expired, when any outstanding academic issues would be dealt with.

Yours, etc.

Ashley Cooke SU Education Officer 2009/10 Theoretical Physics 2009

The Boat Club’s big night in

Old Trinity Peter henry IT MUST be one of the oldest annual events in the college year. The Boat Club’s Trial Eights supper has been an institution since the early 20th century, and continues to be a focal point in the Trinity oarsman’s year. Held in the Islandbridge clubhouse, the muchanticipated meal is often the manin-training’s last big night before the racing season gets into full swing.

Trial races were, of course, held long before Trial Eights became a highlight of the social year. I have a fine silver cup from the trial fours day in 1877. It was a presentation prize for the winners of fours races held by the old DU Rowing Club. A video of trial fours races held at Islandbridge in 1921 can also be seen at British Pathé’s website.

The Trial Eights supper was the occasion on which the crews for the upcoming season were announced, hence its being held in spring, before the beginning of the year’s regattas.

With crews so changeable in the modern form of the sport, the names of those expected to row at different levels are now called out – to great cheers.

These are always in the traditional maiden, junior and senior colours categories.

A piece in Trinity News in 1955 describes several of the Trial Eights traditions – and shows how little has changed since then.

Dr RB McDowell was at the 1955 dinner. The former Junior Dean, a regular at Trial Eights, attended as recently as 2006 – a true sign of

8 February, 2011

SS The Trial Eights photograph in 1994, with that year’s Boat Club captain Brendan Smyth sitting in the middle of the front row.

continuity. In 1955, “he announced that he could go on drinking spirits for ever and ever”, and said that his afterdinner remarks must be brief “as he was far more interested in sampling the excellent Pembroke Punch”.

When Pembroke Rowing Club closed in 1909, it handed over its bank balance of £20 to the Dublin University club. This was used to purchase a silver cup, now used ever year at Trial Eights to hold the Pembroke Punch. Glasses of this concoction are held aloft for the toasts at Trial Eights, which are made to the old Pembroke RC, the men who have been nominated for club colours, and Ireland.

The toast to Ireland was introduced in 1953. Prior to that year’s dinner, the king or queen had always been toasted. Drinking to the monarch was abandoned the following year.

The Choral Society has reason to be envious of the Boat Club. At Trial Eights, a hundred years of songs are brought to life by the club’s choir.

The 1955 supper was no different to any other year: “After dinner the Islandbridge choir, conducted by John Gibson, sang the usual ancient old Irish ditties and other folk songs. The conductor, Mr Gibson, terminated the proceedings with a little discourse on ballistics, in which he noted that in the final reckoning it was the velocity and not the volume that counted.”

The club’s greatest voices will recognise this as a reference to the Dublin version of the Eton Boating Song, which is given on page 18 of the club’s (top secret) bible of songs.

While high-spirited banter is essential to a good Trial Eights evening, members have got out of control in the past. In 1956, several old members walked out in disgust, with one complaining that the students “were not even decently drunk”. It was poor conduct in that decade which led to the dress code being changed from the relaxed blazer and tie to the more formal black tie. This was implemented

in 1961, “in order that the greater part of the meal might be consumed”.

One essential part of Trial Eights is the club photograph. Traditionally, the new members sit on the windowsill above the door to the clubhouse, with the students standing below, and the captain, older members and guests on the bench. Three photos are taken in quick succession, always followed by some hearty cheering.

Apart from Pembroke Punch, Guinness is the traditional drink at Trial Eights, and club members young and old can often be seen holding their pints aloft in the traditional photo.

As long ago as 1896, Hinkson tells us that a glass of stout is “the staple refreshment of the ’Varsity Boat Club”.

This year’s supper is scheduled for February 26. I hope that traditions are upheld and that the Boat Club men have a memorable night – ahead of a great season on the water. pehenry@tcd.ie

The Public Editor It’s official: with the approach of the general election and its college equivalent, the Students’ Union elections, the political season has well and truly arrived.

This period provides a newspaper with strong material – headlines, drama, intrigue – which make for excellent news articles, and give rise to passionate opinion pieces. However, it also presents certain challenges, one of which includes figuring out how best to convey the complexity of the political process itself.

It must be interesting for a reporter to watch the candidate transition from playing, in the case of the college elections, the role of student to that of political figure. And this is an aspect which I think is often disregarded in political coverage in general. A campaign is a performance, with press conferences, canvassing, stunts and speeches, and should be appraised as such.

I would like to hear more from reporters on the making of the news, including anecdotes and concise reports, providing a glimpse behind the scenes of the political process. Such coverage would supplement standard news reporting, providing depth and texture to the reader’s understanding.

Importantly, this is not opinion writing. The reporter should not use it to put forward his/her political views, but rather to share personal observations. By taking a measure of the mood at an event during the campaign, or by documenting the behaviour of the candidate when not under the spotlight, a more complete picture can be created.

Such coverage would have to be carefully branded to separate it from news reporting, as it would appear in the news pages. I suggest labelling this form, if it is to be adopted, a “Reporter’s Notebook.”

A newspaper’s objectivity is most under siege at a time such as this, when political loyalties and undisclosed friendships threaten to shape our coverage. I think that Trinity News has been exceptionally strong in staving off bias in the last few months, and I have every hope that this is to continue.

However, it is worth reminding ourselves of a few of the basics of news reportage: • Everyone we write about should be given an opportunity to comment before the piece is published. It can be very tempting during the fast-paced fervour of campaign coverage to skip this step, and we must endeavour to ensure that this does not happen.

Should a major source be unwilling to comment or unavailable for comment, the story should include that information.

• We should be extremely reluctant to print information given to us by a source who wishes to claim anonymity.

Such material should be treated as highly suspect, and be carefully factchecked in advance of publication.

The story must include the reason for protecting the source’s identity and we should avoid reporting personal attacks by unnamed sources at all costs.

• Relationships with sources require the utmost in sound judgement and self-discipline to prevent the fact or appearance of partiality. Staff members must be sensitive to the fact that personal relationships with news sources can erode into favouritism.

For this reason, if a writer or editor is a close friend or relative of a candidate in the college or general elections, they should recuse themselves from working on stories about them.

If a reader sees any examples of bias in these pages, I would ask them to write to me by email (see below for details), and I will look into the matter. Also, please bear in mind that our full Journalistic Handbook, which includes these and many more ethical provisions, is available on the web for newspaper staff and readers alike: http://bit.ly/eWSmEb. Cillian Murphy, Public Editor public@trinitynews.ie

22 sport features sportfeatures@trinitynews.ie

Occupational hazards Conor Bates discusses the growing concerns for player safety on the rugby pitch

M

edia coverage has been growing over rugby player safety and in particular around the issue of concussion injuries. This is a serious issue because of its frequency in the game. A report on New Year’s Eve by RTÉ cited the case of Irish hooker Bernard Jackman.

To fans, Jackman is recognisable as he had a significant playing term with Leinster and Ireland.

Jackman joined Leinster in 2005. He also represented Ireland nine times.

He played until 2010, but was stymied by many injuries. Jackman was plagued by head injuries, as a result of aggressive scrummaging and tackling.

He kept a diary, which recorded his concussions and this revealed a staggering 20 concussions in the last three years. As a result, aged 34, Bernard Jackman has prematurely retired from rugby.

Jackman has now undertaken a programme to educate people on the dangers of rugby and has also detailed these issues in his recently published autobiography “Blue Blood”. It’s claimed that most rugby players suffer concussions while playing, and is believed that three in a career can lead to cognitive faculty failure in later life, due to the resulting brain damage.

Jackman claims to be lucky as he only suffers migraines.

The problem stems from an issue

which has been raised in recent years: rugby is becoming too aggressive, players are too hyped up, and worst of all they are using supplements to aid their physical superiority.

The psychology of rugby is intensifying. The All-Blacks, arguably the best team in rugby, are giants and their talent and skill is boundless, but their mentality is frightening.

Psychologists have taught these men

“The results showed that O’Driscoll received three car-crashes worth of physical contact.” that making hits is as important as gaining points. These men will sacrifice anyone in their way to win games.

Take for example the tackle by Tana Umaga on Brian O’Driscoll during the 2005 Lions test. This tackle was not about scoring tries. The purpose of this tackle was to injure the Lions’ best player. This attitude displays lack of respect for other players, and the game. This trait isn’t individual to New Zealand but is typified by their rabid

behaviour: this aggression does the game no favours.

None of this is helped by the increasing presence of protein supplements in the game. It is now a prerequisite to be physically developed to play in any position on a rugby field.

This means that no matter how much natural talent a player has he is forced into taking supplements if he wants to make the big time.

These supplements, which are poorly regulated and readily available, have created a barrier which can be morally or physically insurmountable for athletes who refuse them.

There are dangerous effects of supplements on the players, both long and short term. In the short term, these supplements are responsible for the gigantism of the modern player and, thus, the greater potential for injury.

The increase in concussion injuries has risen with the presence of protein supplements and the fact is that the bigger the players become, the more damage they can potentially do.

Recently, Brian O’Driscoll played a game wearing impact sensors. The results showed that O’Driscoll received three car-crashes worth of physical contact on his person. The long term effects include loss of cognitive faculties due to brain damage, resulting from concussions, and other medical problems as a result of intense battering.

There is also the fact that protein supplements are not actually that good for us. We need protein in moderation but not in extra supplements. Our kidneys work to remove excess protein

from our body, so to fill them with more protein is reckless. Many people spend their days on dialysis machines having protein removed from their bodies,

“Three concussions in a career can lead to cognitive faculty failure in later life.” because of renal failure. How can we, therefore, in good conscience, abuse our bodies with protein, for a game, when the consequences can be severe?

Over the years, the governing bodies of rugby have been very innovative, and I admire their developments within the game. They were among the first

to employ video technology, they have turned player-referee relationships into an art, and have made it possible for medics to access players during a game, as quickly as possible. But this is an issue that they have yet to face up to, and one that I believe needs resolving.

While the psychology of the game won’t change, they must combat the effects, i.e. the increased potential for physical damage. A rule forcing all players to wear scrum-caps could help in preventing concussions, and would be a similar step to that taken by the GAA in hurling.

However, the powers-that-be must really tackle the issues at the heart of the growing injury problem; the growing consumption of supplements, by players of all ages. Until these are banned, or stringently regulated, the game will continue to lose players prematurely, along with its credibility.

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College sport 23 collegesport@trinitynews.ie

The world spins for Ed Joyce Kate Rowan talks to Irish cricketer Ed Joyce ahead of the Cricket World Cup about the future of Irish cricket, his decision to play for England and his time spent studying at Trinity A lot of things can change in four years. In 2007, the Celtic Tiger was still roaring and after the general election Bertie Ahern led Fianna Fáil to into a collation with the Green Party. However, it is not just the Irish economic and political landscapes that have transformed so drastically. Irish sport has seen big changes too.

Many of these changes seem more positive than in other spheres of Irish life. Of course there are the blindingly obvious moments such as the rugby team’s Six Nations Grand Slam victory, the opening up of Croke Park to soccer and rugby and these two sports finally taking up residency in their new home, the Aviva Stadium.

Back in the spring of 2007, the same spring that brought grown men to tears with the English rugby team’s first visit to GAA headquarters, there was another tale that gripped Irish sports’ fans and found a place in their hearts. That was the exploits of the Irish cricket team at the World Cup in the West Indies.

The high point of the tournament was a win against Pakistan on Saint Patrick’s Day, which, led to the Irish team progressing to the Super Eight phase of the competition. This was a fantastic achievement considering at the time Cricket Ireland was an amateur organisation.

Since then Cricket Ireland has gone from strength to strength and now the men’s senior team is comprised mainly of professional players, many of which are graduates of the 2007 tournament.

The team’s world ranking has climbed from thirteenth to tenth since then.

In the months prior to Ireland’s Caribbean adventure, another Irishman was making the back pages for his exploits on the cricket field.

Trinity graduate Ed Joyce was playing

SS Ed Joyce, Irish Cricket Captain William Porterfield and coach Phil Simmons at RSA World Cup farewell event

for England after qualifying to play through residency.

The batsman had scored an impressive 107 in a man of the match performance against Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground which earned him a place in England’s World Cup squad.

His time in the West Indies was much less auspicious, scoring half centuries against Kenya and Canada, a duck against New Zealand and just one against his native country.

Fast-forward four years and Ireland’s cricketers are preparing for what they hope will be another successful World Cup performance this time in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

Also, Joyce will be back in the crease for Ireland after gaining special dispensation from the International Cricket Council (ICC).

Having fallen down the pecking order in England and never reaching the holy grail of playing Test cricket he decided to pull back on a green jersey.

At a special “Bon Voyage” event organised by team sponsors Royal Sun Alliance I caught up with Joyce who

described his Irish comeback as “a really great feeling.”

The left-handed batsman explained his decision to play for England: “I had a few years away trying to play at the pinnacle of the game which is test cricket for England, since obviously Ireland don’t play it but hopefully in a few years time we will do. When I was growing up, Test cricket was the top of the game and that was where I always wanted to play at and I had to make the decision to try and give it a go.”

Comparing the experience of playing in a World Cup for England and the forthcoming tournament with Ireland, Joyce says, “it feels easier, I am an Irishman, it is nice to be playing again for my own country.

That decision was not necessarily to play ODI’s (one day internationals) for England, it was to play Test cricket and obviously that never happened.”

In order to recreate the magic of reaching the Super Eight phase in 2007, Ireland need to finish in the top four from a tough seven team group.

The pool boasts stiff opposition in England, South Africa, the West Indies and host nations India and Bangladesh,

as well as the Netherlands.

However, the Sussex star is positive about Ireland’s hopes at progressing despite increased pressure and media attention: “There is slightly more expectation on the lads because of how they have preformed over the last few years. I think we have a good chance of getting to the quarter-finals if we win maybe three or four games. We are targeting that. It would be really nice to emulate what the boys did four years ago.”

At the moment Ireland is an associate member of the ICC, which means the international team can only play ODI’s and is not eligible to play Test matches. Only, the ten full ICC members are permitted to play these.

Ireland gaining Test cricket status is something Joyce is passionate about: “Now is the time to try and push cricket forward in Ireland and try and gain Test status.”

“I think the advances that have been made in the past five years have been huge and if the same thing happens over the next five or ten years with the of support RSA and the support from the sports councils and hopefully with

the increased exposure from the lads doing well, you never know what could happen.”

He is also realistic about this: “It is a long road ahead but it is definitely something we should aspire to.”

Joyce graduated from Trinity in 2001 and speaks of his alma mater with great affection. “Four years in Trinity is a great time in life.”

“I absolutely loved it there. It is an amazing place to play cricket, it has one of the most beautiful grounds in the country because it is right in the middle of the city, so it is really unique. Playing sport or not I don’t know anyone who went to Trinity and did not love it!”

When asked about the academic side he said: “I studied Geography and Economics and I got a II:2 (laughs). I suppose you could say I never really covered myself with glory and didn’t put everything into my studies because Cricket was always calling!”

Ireland’s first game will take place in two weeks time against Bangladesh .

Coach Phil Simmons believes having Joyce “brings calm to the team”.

Here’s hoping this will help give Irish cricket fans reasons to rejoice.

DUFC narrowly escape relegation in sixth loss college park 29.01.2011 DUblin university 16 bective rangers 23 Michael Gaskin Deputy College Sport Editor

Trinity slipped to their sixth loss of the season on Saturday last, although it is the fifth game of the campaign in which they have picked up a losing bonus point to keep them out of relegation trouble so far.

In what turned out to be an exciting and evenly matched contest throughout on a bitterly cold Saturday

“O’Donoghue brought the score back when he slotted a penalty of his own” afternoon in College Park, Bective kept up their good run of form to seal victory over a misfiring Trinity team, whose kicking and ball handling on

8 February, 2011

the day proved to be their downfall.

Bective began the brighter of the two sides and set a high tempo pace from the off. With Trinity struggling to get out of their own half with the ball and five minutes on the clock the visitors had the first scoring opportunity of the game when they were awarded a penalty for Trinity holding on to the ball in the ruck.

It was calmly slotted over the bar from 40 metres out by Bective’s OutHalf to give them a deserved early lead.

Shortly after Bective were reduced to 14 men when their Lock was sinbinned thus giving Trinity the chance to draw level. The opportunity was missed however by James O’Donoughe with the cross-field wind holding the ball up in the air for the Bective defence to clear to the half way line.

With 11 minutes gone Trinity took advantage of the numerical superiority when they scored the first try of the game, after a missed tackle on Captain Scott LaValla he off loaded for Conor Colclough to touch down in the corner to give the home side a 5–3 lead. The conversion from an identical position to the earlier penalty was once again missed to the right of the uprights.

Over the course of the next twenty minutes and with a full complement of players back on the pitch Bective regained the lead with two penalties against the home side who had committed technical fouls.

James O’Donoughe brought the score back to 9-8 to Bective when he slotted a penalty of his own over from

“Trinity upped the tempo of the game and it immediately paid dividends” the Bective 22 metre line.

Immediately after the restart Trinity had a great chance to score their second try of the game when Johnny Iliff broke through the cover only to be judged to have passed the ball forward to scrum half Sam Bell when two on two. A drop goal for the visitors soon after stretched their lead to 12–8.

With the clocking ticking towards half time, Shane Hanratty showed great speed and vision when he received the ball on the wing to power his way past two Bective players and give Trinity a 13–12 lead at the break.

The second half began the same way as the first with Bective setting the pace and Trinity’s poor handling skills turning the ball over to the visitors whenever they had control of the ball for any period of time.

Bective punished Trinity’s high turnover rate with their first try of the match, when after stretching the

Trinity defence across the pitch they ran the ball in from close to go 17–13 up.

Over the course of the next 20 minutes Bective threw everything they had at Trinity’s defence, but with management keeping the team fresh by emptying the bench the best Bective could do was to convert another penalty to lead 20–13 going into the final fifteen minutes.

With the visitors looking tired and Trinity having the much younger legs the game was still up in air going into the closing stages.

Trinity upped the tempo of the game

“Hanratty showed great speed and vision” and it immediately paid dividends as James O’Donoughe struck over his second penalty of the game to move within four points of Bective. With the game now in its closing stages, Bective took advantage of some poor decision

by Trinity in front of their own posts when they held onto the ball in the ruck.

With the ensuing penalty converted, Trinity now needed a converted try to draw level and salvage something from a game they had put so much into.

Trinity’s day was summed up when

Alan Matthews burst through the Bective defence only for the pass out wide to Shane Hanratty to end up in touch and kill off all chances of taking home the spoils.

At the midway stage of the season and Trinity winless since midNovember they face a tough task to bridge the 11-point gap to fifthplaced Belfast Harlequins and the last promotion place, with their task set to get all the more difficult when the face table=toppers Ballynahinch in their next outing.

DUFC James O’Donoghue Shande Hanratty Conor Colcloough Tim McCoy Neil Hanratty Ciaran Wade (Joyce 68) Sam Bell (McLoughlin 55) Ian Hirst (McCabe 60) Mark Murdoch (Telford 60) James Gethings Scott LaValla Pierce Byrne Johnny Iliff Dominic Gallagher (O’Riordan 45) Alan Matthews

collegesport@trinitynews.ie

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Trinity powers into Kehoe Cup final Conor Bates Staff Writer

RESULTS: 0–25 2–16 Trinity’s hurling team braved the bitter conditions on Sunday afternoon in their Kehoe Shield semi-final game, played in Ringsend. The damp and heavy pitch would make a tough setting for a match against equally tough opponents: Carlow IT. Having lost to Fingal in the opening round of the Kehoe Cup, the hurling panel progressed through the ancillary shield competition and find themselves only two wins away from trophy glory.

The game threw-in a few minutes late and Trinity began their assault, making the better of the early exchanges, but only coming away with two wides to show for it. Trinity didn’t have to wait long though, as cornerforward Aidan Quilligan scored the first point in the third minute. A minute later, Quilligan was again involved, as he played Eamon O’Gorman through on goal with a fine pass. O’Gorman saw his effort thwarted by Carlow’s keeper.

Disaster struck moments later as poor defence gave Carlow a free-puc on the 21-metre line. Despite a number of Trinity men stationed on the goalline the ball found its way into the top corner to give Carlow an unlikely lead.

Trinity rallied following their setback and registered a number of points in the following ten minutes, most of which were contributed by the stand-out half-forward line. The

line, comprised of Colm Gleeson, O’Gorman and the energetic Danny Sutcliffe, many of Trinity’s scores in what was becoming an increasingly end-to-end game. In one of the best moves of the first moves of the first half, O’Gorman disposed of an opponent before handing possession to Quilligan who shot narrowly wide. Trinity were beginning to dominate.

In the 18th minute, Trinity half-back John Kelly, originally from Limerick, opened his account for the day with a well taken free-puc from around the half way line. Kelly’s combination of accuracy and distance proved vital throughout the game, as the large number 5 notched up nine points in total.

In the 22nd minute Danny Sutcliffe made a great catch and a clever offload to Quilligan who slotted over effectively.

For the remainder of the half, Carlow registered a few more points, which were combatted by John Kelly’s freetaking exploits. Kelly struck from within his own half on many occasions, his range seemingly endless, and when the half arrived, Trinity led 0–13 to 1–5.

Trinity began the second half in much the same way as they finished the first. Their probing attacks bore fruit, as Sutcliffe linked up with Quilligan again for a score in the 36th minute.

Kelly resumed his set-piece scoring and Colm Gleeson chipped in with a point from a tough angle. Carlow too claimed a few points and began to reduce the difference marginally.

With points flying in from both sides another uncharacteristic lapse in defence gave Carlow a lifeline in the form of a goal in the 53rd minute, narrowing the margin to just two

SS Trinity’s probing attacks bore fruit in the second half. Photo by Martin Connolly

points, before levelling up the score with only ten minutes to play.

In the face of good opposition, Trinity refused to be fazed. Colm Gleeson and Kevin Fitzgerald recorded points in the 61st and 63rd minutes, respectively. Following these scores, a piece of exhibition hurling from O’Gorman saw him beat three players before passing to Gleeson who slotted over easily. Trinity got another score from a free, as Kelly hammered over a point. O’Gorman again made a

bursting run before striking another score. Despite a few last-minute scores from Carlow, Trinity’s Sutcliffe had the final say in the match, capping the game off with a point and a shot on goal which was saved by the Carlow keeper.

The referee ended proceedings seconds later with the final score reading 0–25 to 2–16 in favour of Trinity.

Despite the early goal setback, and the second goal as a result of rare sloppy play, Trinity coped with this challenge very well. In a very open

and creative encounter, Trinity showed great power, finesse, skill and desire.

The half forwards were energetic and provided the bulk of the scoring, with solid reinforcement from John Kelly, a monster of dead-ball play.

With Trinity having entered the Shield on the back of a loss to Fingal in the Kehoe Cup, they now find themselves in the final of the shield and in good shape to win the whole competition. To do this, they will have to beat Louth on 30 January.

Rain dampens Trinity GAA squad’s celebrations Conor Bates Staff Writer

It was the match that never was.

Trinity’s GAA squad were set to play their UCD counterparts on Friday in College Park. The game, which was scheduled for 2pm, was called off by the TCD GAA Executive Committee due to the abysmal weather which had persisted through Thursday night.

Torrents of rain meant that the pitch was too dangerous to hold a game, and the match was abandoned early on Friday morning in the interest of player safety, and unfortunately no alternative arrangements could be made to play the game.

The game was being played for Éigse Week, and was a revival of the Colours match tradition, with the prize being the Patrick Brennan Trophy. Éigse Week is Trinity’s Irish cultural celebration and it coincided this year with the 60th anniversary of Trinity’s first major Gaelic Football success in the 1951 Duke Cup, the first tournament the team entered.

The game could have proven to be a memorable affair, as Trinity’s football team have been developing successfully over the last few years, and are currently led by former Galway star and Dublin selector, Brian Talty. The game was also set to be commentated on by legendary Irish broadcaster Michéal O’Muircheartaigh, who would offer his opinions and insights in his unique blend of Irish and English via a PA system.

Despite the encounter being cancelled, the festivities were still set to go on, with both colleges’ Traditional Societies performing in the Pav and the 60th Anniversary Gala Dinner taking place later in the evening.

The Gala, a celebration of the 60 years of GAA success in College featured a talk from current Dublin senior manager and Trinity alumnus, Pat Gilroy, and a presentation to the surviving members of Trinity’s 1951 Duke Cup panel. This panel included Gaelic Football legend and most successful Dublin manager in history, Kevin Heffernan. Heffernan

“Not even the presence of broadcasting hero Michéal O’Muircheartaigh could hold back the weather” was also presented with the inaugural Trinity GAA Hall of Fame award for his outstanding service to the club.

Heffernan was a member of the squad which won the Duke Cup in Croke Park and was in the squad which provided Trinity with its second Duke Cup in 1957. The final, played against Albert College, became known as “Heffo’s Match”, as Heffernan led Trinity back from the death in the second half to win their second trophy in their embryonic years. Having been awarded a pink in 1954, Heffernan is now rightly

honoured as one of the men who existed at the inception of Trinity GAA and set it on the path to greatness from its early stages.

Another giant of the GAA who was present in Trinity’s first great side was Tipperary native Patrick “Packie” Brennan. Brennan is revered as Tipperary’s most decorated footballer of all time, and the Patrick Brennan Trophy was named after the great alumnus of the college. Brennan is lauded as one of the great founders and early pace-setters of the Trinity GAA club. Should the match have gone ahead as planned, Packie’s widow Peggy would have presented the trophy to the winner, as Packie passed away in 2008. The evening also featured an auction of GAA items, with the proceeds going to the Trinity GAA Club and The Alan Kerin’s Project: the club’s official charity.

Despite the disappointment of the match being cancelled, the celebrations that capped a successful Eigse Week were only mildly dampened.

From the humble beginnings and

the early Duke Cup success, Trinity have experienced many golden eras in its illustrious history. Trinity won the Sigerson Shield in ’77, ’78 and ’79. In 1990 and 1991 they won the Division 1 title. The squad included current Dublin boss Pat Gilroy and was a team the proved Trinity’s mettle as a GAA college. In recent times, Trinity won the Trench Cup in 2006, once again showing the college’s prominence within the game. Éigse Week is a celebration of Irish traditions and culture. As a nation of former warriors and fierce competitors, sport is at the heart of the Irish tradition. There is no better celebration of our culture and history than a competitive football match between two great rivals. Unfortunately, not even the presence of broadcasting hero Michéal O’Muircheartaigh could hold back the weather, and the dream intervarsity clash could not take place.

With this inconvenience, we can only be left to reflect on the great moments that the GAA club has produced in the 60 years since its foundation.

TRINITY NEWS