Issue 3 Trinity News 11-12

OWEN BENNETT THE CATCH-22 OF SOVEREIGN DEBT BUSINESS 9

A NIGHT TO REMEMBER

KATE ROWAN IN NEW ZEALAND SPORTS FEATURES 22

JOHN RYAN KING OF THE RED TOPS GOES BROADSHEET OPINION 18

JESSIE THE DEVIL HUGHES

Two

TRINITY NEWS Est 1953

GSU opposes Provost’s plan to axe facility

Set the night alight: Fire show heats up Front Square

TRINITY NEWS INVESTIGATES

College defends leases College News Editor Manus Lenihan makes an enquiry into exam extension fees charged for campus residents

Provost to replace graduate study space Up to 40 desks and seminar rooms at risk Careers Advisory Service to be put in place GSU says there is no dialogue over the plan Kate Palmer Editor

THE Graduate Students’ Union (GSU) is embroiled in a row with Provost Patrick Prendergast over plans to replace 40 postgraduate study desks with office space for the Careers Advisory Service (CAS). The proposal has been opposed unanimously by Arts faculty members.

Trinity News understands the CAS is being moved from its current location in East Chapel to make way for an office for the Vice Provost for Global Relations, Jane Ohlmeyer.

Prendergast proposes axing 30% to 40% of research space in Phoenix House, which houses a recently renovated facility for postgraduate research students and postdoctoral fellows. Phoenix House been in development throughout this year to accommodate postgraduates in the faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (AHSS). Facilities include study desks, lockers, network access points and meeting rooms.

It was at a meeting of the Executive Committee for AHSS on 27 September that the faculty was first informed of Prendergast’s proposal. The executive voted unanimously to protest the

Manus Lenihan

proposal to the provost. Dean of AHSS, Michael Marsh, was mandated to bring this protest to the attention of the Provost and subsequently wrote to him protesting the plan.

The meeting heard: “Just as the as the access arrangements are improving the Dean [Michael Marsh] has been informed that the Provost has identified the second floor of the building as a new location for the Careers Advisory Service.

“If this plan proceeds the [AHSS] Faculty will lose between 30% to 40% of the 90 existing spaces available for postgraduate research students and postdoctoral fellows.”

College News Editor

According to College the “matter is under consideration” by Provost Patrick Prendergast In reaction to the opposition, a university spokesperson said: “The matter is under consideration and the College has no further comment to make.” When asked about the timescale for the renovation, College was unable to provide a date, although the GSU speculates the desks could be Continued on page 2

Trinity’s Juggling and Circus Trick society hold a fire show as part of CSC 4th Week

THE Accommodation Office has responded to a Trinity News investigation regarding campus leases and rental costs.

Students living on campus after 12 May or before 21 September, which excludes exam season, Freshers’ Week and parts of certain courses, are pay an extra charge of €18 to €22 per night.

The accommodation office advertises these same rooms to tourists at prices between €57 and €120 per night.

A spokesperson from the Accommodation Office said: “This core residential year best suits the academic requirement of the majority of residents.

“There are of course residents particularly postgraduates, medical and dental students, who need to either arrive earlier or stay later than these dates.”

According to the Office, the cost of €18 to €22 represents the breakdown of the total rental period to a nightby-night figure. “This is reasonable because some students are occupying rooms for a longer period.

“It would be inequitable if the same total charge applied for persons staying for different lengths of time.”

#occupydamestreet reaches 18th night 50+ protestors continue to camp outside Dublin’s Central Bank Extra demands now include non-payment of the bank guarantees David Barrett Deputy Editor

TRINITY COLLEGE continues to be the backdrop of the Occupy Dame Street protest, which has now reached day 18 of its occupation outside Dublin’s Central Bank.

The movement, which identifies itself to be a sister protest to the Occupy Wall Street movement in New York, claims it will be making its stand outside the Central Bank for ‘as long as it takes’.

The movement has a usual protest population of between 40 to 50 people sleeping in tents outside the Central Bank, however this population has

been known to swell to 80 and during a protest march on October 15th over 2,000 individuals expressed their solidarity with the Occupy movement.

This support has come as no surprise to Sharon, a researcher who acts as one of the movement’s co-ordinators, arranging matters such as food for the protesters. She explains that the reaction has been ‘over 90% positive’ to the movement and that even employees in the Central Bank do not seem to overly perturbed, with very little interaction between the protesters and those on their way to work in the building aside from idle curiosity. They may soon have plenty of time to satisfy that curiosity – Gardai have told the

Occupy movement that they can stay where they are indefinitely provided that they do not block the entrances to the Central Bank.

With a motto of ‘We are the 99%’ Sharon explained that this referred to the proportion of the population who had suffered with the current economic system. Demands have started to crystallize. Paying for the bank recapitalization in particular appears to be an important source of grievance, while demands for the nationalization of key natural resources and restoration of democracy from the EU-IMF were also cited by protestors Continued on page 2

Protestors outside Central Bank in Dame Street, around 50 people will camp tonight

Vol 58 Issue 3

25 October, 2011

2 NEWS COMPILED BY DAVID BARRETT

WHAT THEY SAID

“Everyone was so well behaved this year”

“Facilities have been earmarked as low-hanging fruit”

“I think the anthem needs to be modernised”

“It’s regular, updated humerous slash serious stuff”

“From what we can gather, a far-left mob had intimidated students ”

Education officer Rachel Barry comments on the success of this year’s class rep training in Dundalk

GSU Representative Conor O’Kelly comments on the proposed elimination of 40 postgrad study desks

Presidential candidate Sean Gallagher calls for changes to be made to the national anthem

Irish media mogul John Ryan describes his latest enterprise, Broadsheet.ie

BNP Press Officer Simon Derby outlines why he feels the Phil invitation to Nick Griffin was revoked

NUMEROLOGY

7-10% The latest polling numbers for the presidential bid of Trinity senator David Norris

2,000 The number of protestors at the October 15th march for Occupy Dame Street

40

Desks at Phoenix House for postgraduates that will be removed for CAS

€9,200 The cost of this years class rep training at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Dundalk

Graduates oppose replacement of desks Continued from front page

replaced in January 2012.

AHSS representatives argue that replacing the desks would worsen the shortfall in the provision of spaces to students, and that the inclusion of CAS offices in Phoenix House would be an ongoing disturbance to the remaining study area.

“The loss would be a major blow to the provision of adequate space for postgraduate research students,” said AHSS Dean Michael Marsh.

According to the Dean of Students Dr Amanda Piesse, a compromise was reached on the issue: “It is my understanding that there is an ongoing discussion among the Bursar, the GSU and the CAS about this and on 20 October the GSU was reasonably content with a compromise that had been reached late on 19 October.”

However, the GSU claims they are still unhappy with the decision to replace study desks. According to

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Head of the School of Social Work and Social Policy Eoin O’Sullivan, along with graduate representative Conor O’Kelly and undergraduate representative Sinéad Leydon.

Prendergast’s plan was further opposed at a GSU AGM on 6 October, at which over 200 postgraduates passed “If this plan proceeds the AHSS will lose between 30% and 40% of the existing 90 spaces” a motion to oppose the proposal.

O’Connor commented: “The GSU was mandated to protest this plan to the highest levels within college.

O’Connor said the Provost has been uncooperative with students on the matter: “I brought the matter up at Board and was interrupted by Dr Prendergast. As a fellow Board member, I did not think it appropriate that I was not able express my concerns at the meeting.”

GSU AHSS Faculty Representative Conor O’Kelly supported this view: “No dialogue has been forthcoming regarding the rationale behind removing these student facilities, beyond the ever present ‘space’ pressures.

“Whatever the facts, the perception is that these students study facilities have been earmarked as low-hangingfruit, ripe for the expansion of staff administration facilities.”

The GSU President expressed concern at the response to the proposals among postgraduates: “The questions asked at the GSU AGM, especially by international students, signalled an incredulity that the college would support a proposal which would so negatively affect student facilities.

“We are aware that the Provost is under pressure to facilitate myriad demands. This proposal recreates the problem as it originally stood – a long term shortage of postgraduate facilities in AHSS.”

Protestors persist Central Bank occupation Continued from front page

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Graduate Students Union President Mary O’Connor: “Not only would renovating the space be a disturbance to students, but creating an office area where students will be waiting outside and people are constantly coming and going would impact negatively on the study desks that do remain in Phoenix House.

“We are asking for a serious reconsideration of this proposal.

Having talked to students utilising the space, this proposal is already having a negative impact.”

Dr Piesse said: “Space is always a contested issue in College – space, the final frontier – and once space allocation is being made strategically, openly and in discussion with all interested parties each having equal access to a say in the matter, then I, as Dean of Students, don’t have a problem, with the decisions being made.”

Among those who voted against the proposal was the Acting Head of the School of Business, David Coghlan,

as reasons for the occupation.

The diversity of the protesters is striking. Sharon noted that while many protesters were unemployed and students there were also employees who come in after work, small business

owners, pensioners in their sixties and seventies and that people have even brought their children. This has been cited by protesters as the reason for the positive reception for the Occupy movement by members of the public – the appearance of being a cross-section of the population.

While the Irish Occupy movement appears to be genuinely committed to non-violent protest and is insistent that it is not affiliated with any political party the same is not necessarily true of other Occupy movements, with the US Democrats speaking favorably of the demands of the Wall Street protesters.

In Rome, an Occupy march turned into a riot on October 15th, with protesters setting cars alight, breaking bank and shop windows and destroying traffic lights and forcing many peaceful marchers and tourists into nearby churches and hotels for safety.

COURTNEY LOVE RETURNS TO TRINITY

Kate Palmer

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Courtney Love receiving her Honorary Patronage at the Philosophical Society on Tuesday 18 October, presented by President Eoin Ó Liatháin. Photos: Phil/SOCIALITE

Courtney Love ditched the rockstar image in favour of the more traditional setting of the University Philosophical Society’s Debating Chamber last Tuesday, in order to receive her Honorary Patronage.

Love gave a speech during the ceremony and talked with students about her colourful past – which included two semesters at Trinity College – before receiving the award for services to music.

Love (47) was kitted out in a mini-dress and black stilettos, along

with a fur-trimmed jacket with the price tag still hanging off the back.

She now returns to New York in the midst of a court case over missing jewellery worth an estimated €80,000. The case will be heard in December. According to the claimant, jeweller Jacob & Co, she borrowed the items wear to a benefit in Manhattan last September.

Love joins holders of the coveted title Sir Bob Geldof, Al Pacino, Sir Salman Rushdie and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

TRINITY NEWS

3 news@trinitynews.ie

Support slips for Senator Norris Norris polls at 7% Higgins is tipped as a favourite to win race McGuinnes facing further IRA criticism John Porter & Manus Lenihan Staff Reporter & College News Editor

TRINITY College Senator David Norris has plummeted in opinion polls since Trinity News last reported on his presidential campaign.

While a Sunday Business Post poll on 25 September found that Norris enjoyed 21% support, more recent polls have reflected a campaign that has become increasingly polarized between Labour’s Michael D Higgins and Independent former Fianna Fáil executive member Seán Gallagher.

6 October found Norris on between 11% and 14% while polls published on October 16th placed him at between 7% and 10%.

Norris for a time faced increasing competition from a relatively recent influx of candidates, from former Eurovision winners to former IRA

The candidates line up for a radio debate in DCU on Saturday. Photo courtesy of Matt Kavanagh/Irish Times

commanders, but with a recent surge for long-time candidates Higgins (at between 27% and 36%) and Gallagher (at between 29% and 39%) has pushed Norris’ vote further to the margins.

Media coverage of the presidential campaign has focused quite heavily on the candidates’ pasts. Sean Gallagher’s

Salman struck by “suicide disease”

membership of Fianna Fáil, Dana Rosemary Scallon’s citizenship and family, Mary Davis’ finances and Martin McGuiness’ involvement with the IRA have all provoked criticism.

Senator Norris’ 1997 letter in support of his former lover Ezra Nawi during the latter’s trial for statutory rape “If you must execute me, why don’t you telephone and make an appointment? I’m just around the corner” (Cities of David) briefly de-railed the Norris campaign during the summer and led to the often-repeated questions about the Trinity senator’s judgement and even his morality.

Claims by former Trinity colleague Victoria Freedman recently re-emerged to lend colour to the campaign.

Freedman claims in her 1995 biography of Norris, Cities of David,

that Norris’s secretary at one stage received a letter from the IRA warning him he would be executed if he did not leave the country.

Freedman claims the Senator then marched down to Sinn Féin offices and said the following to a well known republican: “Would you mind not sending me any more of this material because my secretary finds it deeply disturbing. If you must execute me, why don't you telephone and make an appointment? I'm just around the corner in North Great George's Street."

Despite the sudden drop in support Norris has remained characteristically upbeat about his chances. Campaigning in Dundalk Norris claimed that “the campaign is going very well indeed” and reiterated what he sees as his primary attraction as a candidate: “'I have always stuck my head above the parapet. I have always been colourful and I have always told the truth and been clear in my views and have always done so uncompromisingly.”

A fusion of Irish and Indian dancing sent off Ek Tha Tiger. Photo courtesy of TCD

Irish-Indian dance sends of Bollywood film Lead actor reveals he has nerve condition Khan to undergo treatment while filming EXCLUSIVE REPORT Manus Lenihan & Kate Palmer College News Editor & Editor

IT WAS a bittersweet send-off for Bollywood’s Ek Tha Tiger in Trinity.

A spectacular dance scene in Front Square took place amid revelations that its lead actor, Salman Khan, is suffering from Trigeminal Neuralgia.

Also known as the “suicide disease”, it is characterised by intense pain in face.

The 45-year-old actor went public about his condition while filming in Trinity. Khan said that he has been quietly suffering it for the past seven years, but now the pain’s become unbearable. “I am going through the worst pain on the planet,” commented Khan in an interview with the Hindustan Times.

Khan, who has lived “on the edge” according to media reports, with a string of criminal convictions to his name, has in recent years enjoyed a run of three successful films.

On 10 and 14 October the projected blockbuster bade farewell to Trinity in spectacular fashion with the filming of mass dance scenes to one of the film’s flagship songs, Banjana. The characteristic Bollywood scene was populated by hurlers in Kilkenny garb, a marching band complete with uileann pipes and a crowd of dancers in stylish, casual dress typical of Trinity and its environs.

But it’s not all song and dance for

25 October, 2011

the film’s lead actor, Salman Khan, who had to undergo an angiography last month. Khan said: “There is a hoarseness in my voice, it’s not because I am drunk. It’s because of this ailment.” The actor has relocated to Istanbul to film the rest of Ek Tha Tiger.

How the conventions of another cinematic culture will represent Trinity College and Dublin in general to 100 million people in India and around the world promises a similarly interesting fusion.

An Indian news network reported in July that “Trinity College is not a star struck educational institution and have put forth certain conditions” “I am going through the worst plain on the planet because of my condition” Salman Khan

regarding filming.

Trinity News understands College administration required lead actors Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif to enrol temporarily as students of Trinity College and to attend some token classes, “so that they feel a sense of belonging.”

It seems Trinity has added to its long list of prestigious alumni two superstars who are household names in India and throughout the Indian diaspora.

RESEARCH

Patent pending for Trinity discovery TRINITY has filed a patent application for a new material which could potentially revolutionize flat screen technology, lighting and solar cells.

Funded by Science Foundation Ireland, researchers in Professor Igor Shvets’ Cleaner Energy Lab, School of Physics and CRANN have created a new material based on chromium oxide, but modified through substituting some of the chromium and oxygen with magnesium and nitrogen.

What this achieves is a common aim of most high-tech industry: to find a good compromise between optical transparency and ability to conduct electricity.

Professor Shvets, who was assisted by his colleague Dr Karsten Fleischer and PhD student Elisabetta Arca, says that while “the discovery opens up a new avenue”, warns that it is nonetheless “too early to say for certain that the material will be of industrial use.”

Manus Lenihan

INNOVATION

Graduate credited for ‘virtual economy’ NOT EVERY day do you get attributed with masterminding the creation of a new virtual economy, but when New Yorker magazine earlier this month said Michael Clear, a Trinity College student, created Bitcoin, it became one of those days.

At the centre of all this is “Satoshi Nakamoto”, the shrouded figure who revolutionised virtual currency when he announced Bitcoin in 2009.

What makes Bitcoin interesting is the accepted belief that Satoshi Nakamoto does not exist. The US technology writer Joshua Davis combed through the world’s best programmers until he had who he thought was a plausible suspect: 23-year-old Michael Clear, a Trinity College computerscience postgraduate.

When confronted by Davis in a conference in California in August, Clear replied “I’m not Satoshi. But even if I was, I wouldn’t tell you.” This sparked an explosion of interest from conspiracy theorists who all asked the question: Who is Michael Clear?

Kalle Michael Korpela

CULTURE

Long Room hosts Louis XIV exhibition

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AN exhibition entitled ‘Troubled Magnificence: France Under Louis XIV’ will be on display in the Long Room of Trinity College Library from 12th October 2011 until 1st April 2012.

The exhibition looks at various aspects of French life in the seventeenth century including taxation, warfare, trade and religion. The exhibition is entirely drawn from the textual and visual resources of Trinity library, which boasts the finest collection of seventeenth-century French books in Ireland.

Under Louis XIV France became the most powerful land power in Western Europe. Considerable territorial expansion was achieved through a series of wars which were hugely expensive in lives and money. By the end of the reign in 1715 the state was almost bankrupt.

Despite the warfare, there were immense cultural achievements: in drama the works of Corneille, Molière and Racine; in architecture the building of the palace of Versailles; in music, the operas of Lully. The exhibition reflects some of the aspects of French culture which continue to have influence on European thought and values.

Una Kelly

4 COLLEGE NEWS INTERNATIONAL

Trinity engineers Stanford partnership

Behind the face of Trinity’s façade Fiona Ridgway Deputy College News Editor

A collaboration between The Stanford Center for Design Research and Trinity Engineering School has commenced. The founding Director, Professor Larry Leifer, of the Center for Design Research (CDR), at Stanford University visited the School of Engineering earlier this month.

Professor Leifer brings significant experience to the collaboration. He currently teaches the industry sponsored master’s course ME310, ‘Global Project-Based Engineering Design, Innovation, and Development’ at Stanford University. His creative design research team at Stanford work on understanding and improving current engineering design innovation practice and education. This entails using the concept of current products and redesigning them to increase efficiency and performance.

This endeavour will involve Trinity and Stanford students working together on such projects.

Una Kelly

APPRECIATION

Celebration for Irish writer Flann O’Brien JOURNALISTS, academics, critics and fans gathered in Trinity’s Long Room Hub last weekend to appreciate the work of acclaimed Irish writer Brian O’Nolan, better known as Flann O’Brien.

The author passed away in 1966, leaving unpublished what is now his most acclaimed work: The Third Policeman, with his extravagant protopost-modern satire At Swim-Two-Birds still largely unappreciated.

The success of his regular satirical Irish Times column, ‘Cruiskeen Lawn’ secured fame in his own lifetime.

Speakers included Dr. Keith Hopper of Oxford University and Fintan O’Toole of The Irish Times.

Fintan O’Toole gave the opening lecture of the event, praising O’Brien’s stoicism in the face of the strict government censorship which forced him to work under extravagant pseudonyms. “He is the most cunning of writers because he has to make works of genius out of the very circumstances that other artistic geniuses get away from,” said O’Toole.

Manus Lenihan

THE LARGE picture currently on display at the front of College is the work of celebrated contemporary artist Braco Dimitrijevic entitled ‘Casual Passer-By I Met at 3.46 PM, Dublin, 2011.’

Trinity will play host to this work of art until the end of October as part of Dublin Contemporary 2011, an international contemporary art exhibition.

The Yugoslavian-born artist, currently based in Paris, is an innovator in conceptual art and enjoys worldwide renown. Dimitrijevic gained an international reputation in the 70s with “For me [the portrait is a] metaphor for unknown creativity or undiscovered creative potentials” his ‘Casual Passer-By’ series, in which gigantic photo portraits of anonymous people were displayed on prominent facades and billboards in major cities.

These portraits seek to highlight the fickle nature of a society which glorifies famous and important people.

This is the first time in Trinity’s history that the main entrance has formed the backdrop to a work of art.

Dimitrijevic said to Trinity News:

The work by Braco Dimitrijevic on display at the front entrance to College

“I started the Casual Passer-by work in 1969 in order to question the haphazardness of historical processes.

“For instance, why we happened to know about El Greco only five hundred

years after he painted his paintings or to read Kafka only after his death.

“Also I noticed that some great names of art of the past, or of the early 20th century, have been replaced by

their contemporaries who had little importance during their lifetime.

“So this relativity of history gave me an impulse to promote people that I would meet by chance. For me they are metaphor for unknown creativity or undiscovered creative potentials.”

There are no criteria for the subject’s of Dimitrijevic’s art: “It is random selection and I usually stop first person I meet on the street after the decision to make the work is taken.”

Dimitrijevic chose Trinity College’s facade “because of its monumentality” and because of the strong collaboration that was taking place between Trinity and Dublin Contemporary 2011.

With Dublin Contemporary, Ireland is currently staging the first international contemporary art exhibition, featuring over 114 Irish and international artists. The campus is also playing host to a series of talks, tours, discussions and performances organised by the College Art Collections and the Department of the History of Art and Architecture.

Included in the programme is an installation/performance that runs every Thursday and Saturday at 3pm in the National Gallery of Ireland, called ‘Hello Sam,’ which is based on the work and persona of Samuel Beckett.

An exhibition on the life of American artist Alice Neel is also taking place in the Douglas Hyde Gallery.

€9,200 Union training saves on last year Event cost 55 cents per Trinity student Sponsorship saved Union €4,000 in costs Security hired “because of size of event”

Kate Palmer Editor

IT’S A big budget for a big event, but the €9,200 price tag on this year’s class representative training still saved thousands on last year’s weekend.

A record 264 Students’ Union class representatives turned up for the twoday event, which took place at the four star Crowne Plaza Hotel in Dundalk.

The Union pulled off the event at €34.38 a head, giving a total cost of 55c per Trinity student. This is down from last year’s €58 cost per attendant, which totaled a budget of over €16,000.

Two security guards were employed to supervise the event at the insistence of the hotel. Students’ Union Education Officer Rachel Barry commented

that this was “standard procedure for any large party, whether it’s a student training weekend or a medical conference.”

“We got security purely because of the size of the event. There is no way the four of us could be giving presentations and looking at the “It is standard procedure to employ security staff, whether it is a student event or a medical conference” security side of things at the same time,” commented Barry, in reference to the four sabbatical officers that were present at the training weekend.

Last year, the Students’ Union booked out the four star Carlton Hotel to the tune of over €16,000 for its class representative training. During the event, students caused damage including broken furniture, broken lampshades and stained carpets, and blood stains were reported to be in the walls of a room belonging to a member of the Oversight Committee.

“Everyone was so well behaved this year,” said the Education Officer.

Barry commented: “There were no incidents, in fact the hotel staff rang me last Wednesday to say that they were extremely happy with how the event went and would welcome us back next year. The hotel asks any big group to employ extra security.”

Union officers Ryan Bartlett, Louisa Miller, Rachel Barry and Chris O’Connor gave instructive talks during the weekend on topics including an introduction to Students’ Union Council, tips on organizing events, negotiation skills and how to address

student concerns.

The weekend also included talks by its sponsors, Tifco Hotel Group and Marathon Travel. By getting in sponsorship money and “It is very easy to show the class rep training event is value for money”

deals, the Union was able to save around €4,000 in costs.

Students’ Union President Ryan Bartlett said: “I think it is very easy to show that the training event is great value for money, a well trained class rep who communicates effectively with college immeasurably improves the college experience for their class.”

“In 2007 there were 3 SU councils that were cancelled due to low turnout, this has not happened since the event moved off campus and the average attendance has risen ever since,” Bartlett said.

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TRINITY NEWS

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Griffin invitation withdrawn for ‘safety reasons’ Fiona Ridgway Deputy College News Editor

THE Philosophical society was on October 14th forced to cancel the controversial debate on immigration at which BNP leader Nick Griffin was due to speak.

After a number of meetings, disputes and protests the Phil has reluctantly called off the debate claiming that safety on campus could not be guaranteed.

In a statement released last week, the Phil stated, "The Phil feels it is unfortunate that circumstances have arisen under which the planned debate can no longer go ahead without compromising the safety of staff and students."

A spokeswoman for the University said: “Following careful review of operational and safety issues, the Philosophical Society and the college are now not satisfied that the general

An alternative debate was held on Thursday on who has the right to speak freely

safety and well being of staff and students can be guaranteed. Access to the college will not be given to Mr Griffin or members of the BNP.”

The Phil has expressed that they cancelled the debate purely for health and safety reasons and said that "the spirit of free speech and oratory is

AS IT HAPPENED: REACTIONS TO THE BNP CONTROVERSY

BNP Leader Nick Griffin

BNP Press Officer Simon Darby

Phil President Eoin Ó Liatháin

best protected by those who would allow their moral nemesis to present a case – even if only to test our personal consideration of what is right and wrong."

Nick Griffin has argued that "This matter has moved beyond the realm of party politics to become a matter of fundamental principles of free speech, democracy and self-determination."

The Phil last week accused Trinity Against Fascism, a group which came together to demand the withdrawal of the invitation, of attempting to sabotage the society’s finances and guest appearances. After TAF contacted many of the Phil's sponsors and honorary patrons, whole foods shop and restaurant KC Peaches threatened to withdraw its funding from any Phil event concerning Griffin.

TAF members had informed KC Peaches that its brand name might be associated with the event.

In place of the 20 October debate,

which was on the motion “This House Believes that Immigration has gone too far,” the Phil organised a debate around the issue of free speech.

Griffin said: “I am disappointed. I was looking forward to giving reasoned argument to show that immigration has not been to the benefit of the Irish (and indeed British) people. I wanted to convince people, through debate, that economically and culturally any benefit from immigration was far outweighed by negative impacts. I will not now have that opportunity. More importantly, those attending will no longer have the opportunity of considering the other side of the argument to that presented in the establishment media.”

Former Guardian correspondent John Palmer has refused to speak at the event unless the invitation extended to Mr Griffin is revoked, saying it is “totally irresponsible” that the British North West MEP will be present at the debate.

Trinity sees second slip in world ranks Trinity drops out of top 100 in the world Highest asset is international reputation In 2008 Trinity was ranked among top 50 Fiona Ridgway Deputy College News Editor

“I am disappointed. I was looking forward to giving a reasoned argument to show that immigration has not been to the benefit of the Irish (and indeed British) people.

I wanted to convince people, through debate, that economically and culturally any benefit from immigration was far outweighed by negative imapcts.

I will now not have that opportunity. More importantly, those attending will no longer have the opportunity of considering the other side of the argument to that presented in the establishment media.”

Trinity Q-Soc Committee

“From what we can gather, a far-left mob had intimidated students last night, threatening to bring in reinforcements from over the border in order to stifle any form of debate about immigration.

“In effect the Irish people, already sold out to banks and big business and ruled by the EU, are now forbidden to fully debate the subject of mass immigration into their country.

It is ironic indeed that those at the forefront of enforcing the destruction of the Irish without a democratic mandate are citing a ‘fight against fascism’ in order to justify gagging dissident opinions they do not agree with.

They are the Fascists.”

“The Phil feels it is unfortunate that circumstances have arisen under which the planned debate can no longer go ahead without compromising the safety of staff and students.

The spirit of free speech and oratory is best protected by those who would allow their moral nemesis to present a case – even if only to test our personal consideration of what is right and wrong. The Phil is a neutral forum for discussion. We do not endorse the views of any of our speakers.

Nick Griffin has been invited to speak solely on immigration. He is a prominent speaker on this issue.

The debate will be balanced with two guest speakers on each side of the motion.”

Graduate Students Union

Socialist Worker Student Society

TRINITY College has once again slid down the world university rankings and been ousted from the top 100 universities worldwide. Taking its place at 117th, according to the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, Trinity’s rating now stands at 51.1.

UCD has also seen a dramatic fall, moving down to 159 with a 45.9 rating.

UCC has moved down to between 301-350 while NUI Maynooth and NUI Galway stand between 351-400.

The steady decline for all of Ireland’s Universities is a cause of great concern as fears rise that Ireland will soon not be able to compete on the global market.

Overall Trinity College lost points because of a weakness in research and industry income. Calls for more funding for Universities are increasing

Prize prof honoured Alan Martin Rice & Una Kelly Contributing Reporter & Staff Reporter

“The 2011/2012 committee of the Trinity LGBT Society wishes to express its disquiet at the invitation extended by the University Philosophical Society to Nick Griffin to speak at an upcoming debate on immigration. The views espoused by Nick Griffin are worrying and dangerous due to their inflammatory language surrounding LGBT people as well as other minorities.

The platform granted to Nick Griffin presents the opportunity for him to propagate his archaic views and potentially influence others. The invitation extended to Griffin was and remains wholly inappropriate and incendiary due to the fact that it may be used by supporters of Griffin to suggest his views are legitimate and mainstream.”

25 October, 2011

“The BNP are reminded that over 150 TCD postgraduates passed antifascist motion at Graduate Students’ Union AGM. BNP Simon Darby’s assertion that just 30 people were responsible for the Philosophical Society’s disinvitation of Nick Griffin is outrageous.

The entire community of Trinity College Dublin united in opposition to the possibility of Ireland’s most prestigious university lending a platform to Neo-Nazi ideologists.

A motion urging the Philosophical Society to reconsider their invitation to the BNP was carried unopposed in an AGM attended by over 150 Trinity Postgraduate students.

The BNP must learn that there is no place for facist ideology in 21st century Ireland and that Neo-Nazis will never be welcome here.”

“The Socialist Worker Student Society welcomes the news that the Philosophical Society in Trinity College has withdrawn the invitation to fascist BNP leader Nick Griffin.

The withdrawal comes after much campaigning by students, staff, lecturers and anti racism campaigners, who have collectivelly and individually attempted to highlight the danger his visit would pose for many people on campus and in the wider society.

A large number of student societies and anti racism groups took part in an e-mail campaign, and over 40 students participated in a public meeting with the aim of organising a protest against fascism on the night of the debate.

The withdrawal of the invitation is a victory for the united efforts of campaigners and for the large majority of people in Ireland.”

as the decline is seen as a further consequence of the college's budget cuts and increased staff to student ratios. Provost Patrick Prendergast has made no secret his belief that the reintroduction of college fees is the only thing that will restore Trinity to its once stellar position of 43 in 2009.

He has expressed his belief that more private funding is needed.

As it stands, a major factor keeping the college from tumbling further down the list is its reputation abroad, with Trinity scoring a rating of 89.4 for its international outlook.

Meanwhile Minister for Education and Skills Ruairí Quinn remains publicly uncommitted on the issue of fees. Rumours of an increase to €5,000 in the registration fee have sparked a USI campaign entitled “Freeze the fees, save the grant” which is to take place based around this figure. This will involve a “sleep-out” on the central strip of O’Connell Street on November 16th along with further activity.

THE director of the CRANN institute has been awarded an international prize for his work in the field of nanoscience.

Trinity Professor of Chemistry, John Boland, was presented with the Nanoscience Prize at a conference in St. Petersburg, Russia.

The prize was awarded for Boland’s “outstanding contribution to nanoscience and nanotechnology using scanning probe microscopy and spectroscopy.”

On winning the award, professor Boland states that he was “truly surprised and humbled. Past recipients include Nobel Prize winners. Boland said: “I realise this award was not mine alone. Research is not a solitary pursuit, students and collaborators play a huge role in the success of any individual.”

Linking his work to wider economic issues, Professor Boland said: “Ten per cent of all our exports are enabled by some form of nanotechnology.”

He further stresses the role Trinity plays in the field: “In areas of research closely related to my own area, Ireland is ranked 6th in nanoscience and 8th in material science.

“This ranking is in very large part due to CRANN and its affiliated

Schools at Trinity College.”

Boland continued: “My research involves using microscopes to look at how atoms and molecules behave and in particular how they arrange themselves to make certain materials that are important for computer chips and for developing new types of medical devices.”

“This award is not mine alone. Research is not a solitary pursuit.

Students and collaborators play a huge role” The prestigious prize is awarded every two years to recognise achievements and visionary work in the field of nanoscience.

Boland currently researches electrical and mechanical properties of nanoscale materials, molecular recognition and assembly and nanoscale contact formation.

Having received his BSc in Chemistry from UCD, Professor Boland completed a PhD in Physical Chemistry at California Institute of Technology.

In 2003, he became the director of the internationally recognised Centre for Research on Adaptive Nanostructures and Nanodevices (CRANN) located on Trinity campus.

6 NATIONAL NEWS

nationalnews@trinitynews.ie

Brainy USI prepares for grant battle find by NUIG USI to challenge proposed changes Solicitors highlight

Claire Acton National News Editor

RESEARCHERS AT NUI Galway have uncovered new findings regarding how the brain functions to suppress pain. Published in leading journal, Pain, researchers at the Pharmacology and Therapeutics, and the Centre for Pain Research at NUI Galway have found that the hippocampus of the brain, which is usually associated with memory, has an active role to play in suppressing pain during times of stress.

Dr. David Finn, Co-Director of the Centre for Pain Research, claims that the body can suppress pain through the action of marijuana-like substances, called endocannabinoids, during the potent suppression of pain by fear.

The findings may pave the way to finding new treatments for anxiety and pain disorders.

Nursing PhD now in WIT Ann Mulvin Contributing Writer

Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) has announced that its Department of Nursing has been granted the power to deliver doctoral research programmes in nursing. The decision was granted by the Higher Education and Training Awards Council (HETAC).

WIT is the first Institute of Technology to offer a Level 10 research programme in nursing and underwent a rigorous validation process conducted by a panel of national and international assessors.

Professor John Wells, head of the Department of Nursing at WIT said, “This is a major achievement for WIT and recognises the quality and innovative nature of our nursing and health related research.”

Dr. Donal Ormonde, Chairman of WIT’s Governing Body, added that the research will “identify improvements that can be made in nursing and broader health delivery practice.”

He went on to highlight the benefit the research will bring the South East, claiming: “A strong knowledge base in the region would provide a meaningful boost for the economic, social and cultural life of the area.”

The course is open to nurses and other healthcare professionals who have already completed a masters programme or equivalent.

problem by test cases Quinn invited to restate his policy Alexander O’Neill Contributing Writer

THE UNION of Students in Ireland (USI) are continuing to pursue their High Court battle over student grant reforms.

USI will challenge the proposals by supporting a number of test cases.

One of these cases is a student who has effectively been forced out of college entirely.

The cut in her grant means she cannot afford to live where she studies in Galway, but public transport from her hometown in Clare means she cannot make it to college until after 11am each morning. The new proposals will also mean that students in NUI Galway who live on the Aran Islands would be expected to commute.

The High Court granted the USI (USI) to challenge proposed changes in September 2011. The key proposed change is a dramatic increase in the distance a student must live from their university in order to benefit from the non-adjacent grant payment.

The budget review increased the distance required to avail of these grants from the initial 25km to 45km.

The budget claims the change is justified by the improvements in the public transport network which

Minister for Education and Skills Ruairí Quinn signs a pledge with the USI promising Labour would not increase student fees

facilitate greater commuting distances.

The USI believes the cuts, of up to 60% for some students, will encourage more young people to emigrate, or drop out of third-level education.

Those worst affected can expect to see their grants decrease from €6,100 to €2,445. Mature students are no longer automatically entitled to the nonadjacent grant.

USI President, Gary Redmond, said that a cut of 60% was “unprecedented, savage and unjust”. It follows a 5% cut

in 2010 and a further 4% cut in 2011.

Redmond also ruled out the possibility of an increase in student fees with the Ruairí Quinn signed a pledge with the USI promising not to increase fees or cut grants

cuts coming at a time when students’ average disposable income is down almost 41% since 2009.

Ruairí Quinn, who was the Labour Party Spokesperson for Education when the proposed changes were introduced under the previous government, signed a USI pledge promising that the Labour Party, if elected, would not increase student fees or cut student grants. The High Court granted Quinn, now Minister for Education, a three-week reprieve to file a motion in opposition to the USI which will be reached at the end of this week.

NUIG votes to abolish RAG Week Claire Acton National News Editor

CLASS representatives of NUI Galway have voted, 107 - 7, for a proposal which sees the abolition of their infamous RAG week. The university had been under immense pressure to act on criticism raised regarding the event.

RAG week was a week-long event aimed at “raising and giving” money to charities. Over the past years, however, NUI Galway RAG week has been blighted by excessive drinking and anti-social behaviour. SU President, Emmet Connolly, claims that the week has “descended into a week-long embarrassment”.

“The fundraising element has been overshadowed

by SU-sanctioned binge drinking” Emmet Connolly, NUIGSU Connolly expressed his dismay at the week in question during his statement to the SU council claiming that the fundraising element has been “overshadowed” by what he calls “SUsanctioned binge drinking”. Connolly went on to describe the amount raised

Carnage from NUIG’s Rag Week last year, which has now been scrapped

last year as “pathetically small” with an estimate of only €1.29 per student generated over the week.

The proposal plans to replace the infamous week with a series of largescale, endurance-based fundraising events in which individual students and groups can participate.

In putting together the proposal, the SU sought, and received in full, a number of concessions from the University President. One of the main concessions is a one day concert to replace RAG week.

At the Students’ Union Council it was revealed that something similar

to the UCD and Trinity College Balls may be introduced, and SU Education Officer, Conor Healy, has set up a “Rag Week Alternative Committee” to look at this option.

A further concession is that an extra €60,000 a year contribution to the Student Assistance Fund, which is used to help students who are at risk of dropping out due to financial hardship, will also be introduced.

Other concessions include a guarantee not to introduce charges at the Student Health Unit for visiting a doctor or nurse and the abolition of the current €2 extra gym charge to sports clubs.

Mr Connolly described the abolition of RAG week as an “emotional issue”.

NUI Galway final-year Commerce and French student, Michael Slevin, echoes this view. While Slevin supports the decision made, he highlights, however, that the proposal itself may not represent the desires of many of the student population. Connolly confirmed that anyone who attempts to restore RAG week will be subject to the university’s Discipline Code.

Slevin went on to note that the previous RAG week antics had damaged the reputation of the college which, for the credibility of his degree, he wishes to retain.

Cork university addressed by co-discoverer of AIDS Awareness raised by Dr Robert Gallo Gallo said he was committed to finding cure Mairead Cremins Deputy National News Editor

UCC WELCOMED the visit of worldfamous scientist Dr. Robert Gallo to their campus on 4 October.

Gallo, who co-discovered the HIV/ AIDS virus, gave a public lecture entitled: “HIV/AIDS: from finding the cause to cure and prevention: The science that got us where we are today

and the science that needs to be done.”

Following his discovery, Dr. Gallo has also developed the test that is now used in everyday blood testing for HIV. It was this discovery that now ensures the safety of blood transfusions. Dr. Gallo has won many awards for his work and holds 29 honorary degrees.

Gallo is also the director of the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in

Baltimore, Maryland.

A diagnosis of HIV is no longer the death sentence it once was, but nonetheless means embarking on antiretroviral therapy.

However, HIV is a mutating virus.

Thus, it often seems that the vaccine which is administered may have a limited lifespan, resulting in necessary boosters every five to six months.

Dr. Gallo spoke extensively on the importance of finding a cure and expressed his absolute commitment to the cause, which is being sponsored by the Gates Foundation.

Dr. Gallo also spoke of the newly

Gallo discovered the AIDS virus in 1984

formed Global Virus Network (GVN), which he co-founded. The primary aim of GVN is to solve the problem of the insufficient number of trained medical virologists and act quickly on emerging viral epidemics.

HIV is as relevant today as it was when it was discovered in 1984. There are currently 33.3 million people living with HIV and AIDS around the world. 5,753 people die from AIDS and its complications every single day. Interestingly, 10% of the Irish population has a mutation in their genes meaning their likelihood of developing HIV is greatly reduced.

TRINITY NEWS

INTERNATIONAL NEWS 7 internationalnews@trinitynews.ie

Battle against Old Guard goes on Student protests going on througout Cairo Government officials hold university positions Fred Rasmussen Staff Reporter

THE REVOLUTIONARY movement in Egypt may have been successful in removing its authoritarian and corrupt ruler, Hosni Mubarak, but the battle to free Egypt of his legacy continues. The battle has shifted from the streets of Cairo and the various state institutions, to the campuses and corridors of Egyptian universities.

Universities are seen as central to an educated and informed society. For decades these institutions were under constant scrutiny by the the Mubarak “There will be two categories of leaders - those appointed by the former regime and those by the newly elected one” Abdel Rahman, Media lecturer

regime.

State-security police and intelligence agents infiltrated every department.

Senior university positions were held by governmentappointed officials - rope dancers for the regime. The fact that Egyptian universities weren’t merely educational

Egyptian students protest at the University of Cairo, which is a centre of resistance

focal points but state instruments used to keep the population in the grip of an iron fist, emphasizes the importance of these latest developments on Egypt’s campuses.

In the wake Mubarak’s fall, the Egyptian Ministry of Higher Education had promised to dismiss all former members of the regime from their positions in university administrations, part of a seismic reshuffling of Egypt’s civil service. However, this legislation has yet to be ratified by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which appears to be stalling on its promised support for reform.

Over the past few months Egyptian universities have been afflicted by a series of heated demonstrations.

Protestors have been demanding the immediate resignation of leading university officials accused of loyalty to Mubarak.

Students and academics have long maintained that all senior university officials should be removed from their positions and subsequently all posts should be up for election. Yet as of now, four university presidents in Egypt have refused to vacate their seats despite a majority vote demanding they step down.

Even some presidents and deans, who have resigned under pressure from demonstrators, have subsequently been allowed to compete in elections.

The Union of Independent Intellectuals has responded to this by stating: “Although we support democracy and free elections, we still hope that there should be a genuine mechanism to get rid of all faces of the former regime.”

The fear among students, academics and others is that the military government is not being genuine in its push for reforms.

The overriding concern is that Egypt will never be free from the long shadow cast by Mubarak unless every last trace has been purged.

The failure of the military rulers to fulfil their promise of removing these most obvious beneficiaries of the Mubarak regime is alarming. The paradoxical nature of this situation was publicly articulated by Awatef Abdel Rahman, a professor of Media Studies at Cairo University: “There will be two categories of university leaders - those who were appointed by the former regime and those by the newly elected one.”

As a standout example of MiddleEastern peoples’ power to bring to an end the rule of despots and dictators, the crisis of Egypt’s universities is particularly troubling. Libya and Syria take note: even if the smoke has cleared, the battle has only just begun.

Students play part in Occupy movement Occupy movements sweep campuses across the globe Facebook acting as connective force for movements Most protesters don’t understand their demands Nilgiri Pearson Deputy International News Editor

THE OCCUPY movement – Occupy Wall Street, Bay Street, Occupy This, Occupy That – may soon be coming to a campus common near you.

In the last week, students at over 150 universities have been holding protests in a show of solidarity with the wider Occupy movement currently sweeping the globe.

The Occupy phenomena was inspired by the Arab Spring, staff of the anti-corporate magazine Adbusters, based in Vancouver, conceived a similar march on Wall Street; organizers sought both to highlight growing economic iniquities in the Western world, protest outright corporate greed as well as hold to account all those responsible for the ongoing fiscal catastrophe.

On 17 September protesters marched on Wall Street, then decamped to New York’s Zucotti Park, where they remain to this day. The marchers have evidently struck a chord. Searching the term “occupy” on facebook churns up hundreds of geographically disparate, like-minded groups with a strong

student arm.

Students have taken up both the causes célèbres of the original protesters as well as local issues and those particular to the students themselves. Students at New Mexico State University protested the lack of economic opportunity for middle- and low-income Americans.

Students at UCLA staged a sit-in to protest funding cuts which, they say, have resulted in 150,000 fewer places in Californian universities this year. This grievance would likely resonate with English students holding their own sit-in before St. Paul’s Cathedral. They claim that a stratospheric rise in tuition fees has denied a generation of young people a university education, while student-debt and government austerity have torpedoed any hope of financial stability for those lucky few who’ve got one.

With only slight variations, the same wave which broke on Manhattan in September has done so again in Moscow, Mumbai and Manila thanks to a common zeitgeist and organiser’s savvy use of social networking.

As can be expected, the movement has drawn its fair share of criticism.

Protestors at University of California, Berkeley last week

“The occupy movement? It’s a fad for ageing hippies and radicals wannabes.” Others cite a purported lack of economic sense, arguing that the protesters would dismantle the very capitalist system responsible for so much good and glory in the world. Regardless of one’s personal

view, the breadth (if not the depth) of what has become in a matter of weeks a worldwide network of activists, is impressive. If the example of the Tea Party, another grassroots phenomenon, is any indication, the last word on the Occupy movement, off and on campus, has yet to be written.

Universities in NI predominantly Catholic Patrick Skinner Staff Reporter

TWO-THIRDS of the 35,000 students in Northern Ireland are Catholic, despite there being approximately 85,000 more non-Catholic Christians than Roman Catholics in the province.

Northern Ireland’s two top ranking universities, Queen’s Belfast and the University of Ulster, have significantly more Catholic students than Protestant.

The findings were released this week by the Northern Ireland Minister for Learning and Employment, Stephen Farry.

Response to these figures has been heated, with suggestions that universities in Northern Ireland have an environment that does not appeal to the country’s perspective Protestant

25 October, 2011

students. However, the University of Ulster has refuted such claims, showing regret at how the figures have been interpreted. They released a statement saying: “The University of Ulster is open to everyone and provides a first-class educational experience for its students.”

Despite this assurance there has been concern expressed in the Stormont Assembly, particularly by Antrim North MLA Jim Allister, who described the figures as “alarming”.

The Univeristy of Ulster’s Jordanstown campus shows the most imbalance, with 6,600 Catholic students compared to 3,800 Protestant students, a ratio of nearly two to one.

Allister, leader of the Traditional Unionist Voice, who insisted on the release of these figures, points the finger largely at the University of

Ulster: “For some strange reason, Ulster University is more successful in recruiting students from the Republic of Ireland than it is in recruiting local Protestant students from the controlled sector.”

“For some strange reason, Ulster University is more successful in recruiting students from the Republic than local Protestant ones”

The main issue that has arisen from these findings is the fear that Protestant schoolchildren are underperforming and failing to reach the required academic standards to enter higher education. This view is certainly held by Allister who points to the “neglected” Protestant low-income communities, which are in particular

need of attention. Minister Farry has refuted this suggestion, arguing that: “Universities are open and accessible to all within our society.”

However, these figures arguably exaggerate disparity as they consider only students from Northern Ireland schools in the region.

Although it is true that there are less Protestant school leavers going to university, 4% more of Northern Ireland’s Protestant students head to universities in other areas of the UK as compared to their Catholic counterparts.

Nonetheless, the controversial debate will no doubt continue as to whether the Protestant community in Northern Ireland is falling behind educationally or if the region’s universities are failing to promote equal opportunities.

IN BRIEF CHILE

60 arrested as the protests turn violent CHILE REMAINS divided as protests turned violent last week in the wake of a studentadvocated two day education strike.

Negotiations between the students and government broke down earlier this month resulting in a continuation of the five months of protests. The clashes erupted in the capital Santiago between students and the police on 18 October, with the protesters setting up barricades blocking off certain sections of the city and throwing petrol bombs at police forces. Police responded with the use of tear gas and water cannons as they sought to disperse the crowd that had gathered in the Plaza Italia (main square) of the capital. Student leaders have attempted to distance themselves from those involved in the violent clashes, which are a result of the lack of state funding for higher education. Despite promises from the government to increase funding, the student movement want more concrete proposals before ending the protests.

Jack Farrell

UK BUDGET

English universities divided over fee hike TWENTY EIGHT univesities in England are debating whether or not to lower tuition fees from the standard £9,000 that is being introduced next September.

The move was announced by independent public watchdog, the Office for Fair Access (OFFA). With most universities still planning to implement the full amount, the government has provided incentives for universities to decrease their tuition fees below £7,500. The move comes just weeks after the university application system, UCAS, opened for students wishing to start universities in 2012.

As a result the universities involved will still have to resubmit their plans to OFFA before 4 November and have to contact all students that applied to their institutions prior to this deadline informing them of the impact that it will have. It is expected that applications to UCAS will decline as a result of the hike in tuition fees and this move by the universities signals their intention to attract as many students as possible.

Jack Farrell

NORTHAMPTON

Nightclub crush leads to student death NORTHAMPTON UNIVERSITY student Nabila Nanfuka (22) died following “crush” injuries received during a stampede for the exit prompted by a fire alarm. The club, Lava and Ignite, attracts people from across the country for club nights and when it was announced that the buses outside were leaving, people headed for the exits. As people were leaving the fire alarm went off, prompting a panicked exodus from all of the clubgoers, resulting in the death of one student and injuries to eight others. The police are investigating the incident and are treating the fire alarm as suspicious.

The nightclub’s license has been suspended whilst the investigation is ongoing.

Jack Farrell

8 BUSINESS

Aftermath of the CEO watershed Changes at the helm are always traumatic for big business. Paul Cassidy analyses the outcomes from recent leadership overhauls at some of the world’s biggest firms

A

s we saw the release of Apple’s latest iPhone 4S fail to impress critics at the product launch last week, their stock took a fall. We are reminded of the immediate drop in Apple’s share price due to the announcement of their talisman and CEO stepping down on 25 August.

This wasn’t nearly as notable as the actions of investors on the tragic news of Jobs’s death on Wednesday 5 October. With Apple shares only slipping slightly on Thursday it showed a clear sign that investors had accounted for the tragedy and had reacted well to Jobs’s final touch to the company, an essential stepping away from Apple at the right moment and reducing the negative impact on the company’s prospects.

Jobs could not have left Apple

“The importance of handling CEO exits is most definitely on the agenda” in better condition. With Apple surpassing Exxon in August as the world’s most valuable public company (albeit only for a brief period), Apple’s star has never shone so bright and the strong fundamentals of the company suggest the tech giant will remain at the top for years to come.

The attention of investors will now

turn to Tim Cook, Apple’s new CEO, as he attempts to impress upon them his capabilities as the new face of Apple.

His first media appearance as CEO of the company came with the release of the iPhone 4S and customers have reacted positively to its release.

First order demand for this model of iPhone is set to exceed that of its previous model. This is very good news for Apple and Cook as he will be under immense scrutiny for the foreseeable future, trying to answer the question: “How do I persuade investors that Apple’s core values are unchanged and that I will continue to steer this company to great successes like my predecessor?”

This question is hugely important for companies in a time of immense volatility in markets. Cook will have to find an answer to market speculation about his ability to control this company like Jobs. Yet Apple is not the only company grappling with these issues.

Three large American firms will face these same questions in the coming months, with announcements made recently that Wendy’s, CostCo and the Bank of New York Mellon will all be losing their CEOs. The importance of handling CEO exits in a timely fashion is most definitely on the agenda.

Of these three companies, Costco’s loss seems the most significant, with their co-founder Jim Sinegal stepping down in January. Investors will be watching closely to see how the current COO Craig Jelinek fares as Sinegal’s

replacement. In an effort to calm shareholder jitters, Jelinek has pledged to retain the status quo and focus on maintaining the strategy which has served Costco so well in the past.

Alternatively, if we look at Yahoo’s prospects, the markets feel the company is in a better state after ousting their CEO Carol Bartz on 6 September.

Yahoo’s board finally lost patience with its much-maligned chief after a turbulent six months at the helm. Yahoo’s shares rose 10% in the week following her ousting, making it fairly clear what the market thought of Bartz’s value to the company. Markets try to account for the future earnings of a company; they believe Yahoo will be more successful without her. That must have left a bitter taste in Bartz’s

“Markets try to account for the future earnings of a company; they believe Yahoo will be more successful without Bartz” mouth.

There is no surprise that in a time of immense market volatility, investors are looking for companies showing a sure-footed, stable mentality. At present, markets are spooked and are looking more closely at the talent on offer to calm their nerves. With significant upheaval taking place in the highest echelons of

Firms must ensure their choice of CEO assuages the fears of investors and markets

global industry, investors are calling for strong leadership and progressive

talent. We’ll have to wait and see if this new wave of CEOs can answer the call.

Will Goldman Sachs rule all?

Neil Warner investigates the sinister truth behind economic governance which the financial crisis has exposed

O

n Monday 26 September a regular BBC News 24 interview with a London trader took an unusual turn when the man in question, a City of London trader by the name of Alessio Rastani, started saying some rather unusual things. “I have a confession,” he said. “I go to bed every night and dream of another recession, I dream of another moment like this.”

Rastani explained that a recession suited him and many other people financially, because he could adopt strategies such as hedging strategies and investing in treasury bonds that would allow him to profit from an economic contraction. He dismissed questions about what could be done to give investors, saying it didn’t matter, and that traders didn’t care about the real economy.

“Governments don’t rule the world, Goldman Sachs rules the world” The BBC presenter, Martine Croxall, showed evident shock, and admitted that “jaws had dropped” around the BBC studio upon hearing him say this.

He also gave dire forecasts for the future of the global economy, announcing that the “market is toast” and that many traders and big banking institutions were aware of this and preparing for

it. Then again this prediction is not perhaps that surprising given that, by his own very frank admission, Rastani stands to benefit from encouraging such an outcome.

But Rastani’s subsequent observations were perhaps even more significant. He shrugged off questions about possibilities for government action. “Governments don’t rule the world, Goldman Sachs rules the world.

Goldman Sachs does not care about this rescue package.” He proceeded to essentially advise people to fend for themselves, as the overall global economy was beyond salvaging.

Rastani conveys an attitude and philosophy that is extremely revelatory. Morality - and the ideological structures people transpose on the world as a consequence - is a very useful and important thing, but it also has a very dangerous ability to obscure reality and the real personal interests which have as much an influence on people’s actions and upon which apposite values are hoisted as an afterthought.

Regardless of his skills as a trader, Rastani clearly has a great talent for cutting through the hypocritical opacities that arise when values come into the picture, and instead gets to the heart of the rational, egotistical functioning of the markets. The political economy of the real world does not, in Rastani’s vision of things, have a major influence upon markets and traders. Markets and traders, on the other hand, heavily dictate the

Outside Goldman Sachs HQ in New York. Banker greed at Goldman has led to ongoing mass demonstations on Wall Street, NYC

actions of government.

The first part of this assertion has an element of truth to it, though it is also too simplistic. Individual traders, in particular, have little interest (in both meanings of the word) in the economic fate of ordinary people.

The markets more widely, also, do not respond particularly accurately to the fundamentals of the economy.

After all Goldman Sachs, the hero of Rastani’s broadcast, famously made US$1 billion in profits by betting against the very subprime loans which it was selling.

The second part of his assertion is indeed true, and becoming more accurate as time goes on. Governments do not rule the world, Goldman Sachs does. On the most basic level, there is the grotesque personal and financial intermingling that takes place between financial institutions and governing elites. Hank Paulson, the US Treasury Secretary who oversaw the collapse of the financial system in autumn 2009, had previously been the CEO of the

very same Goldman Sachs. Politicians and political aides in Washington often go on to become lobbyists once they have stepped down, and vice versa.

Our own European Central Bank is closely linked with the culture of German bankers, and consequently has pursued their interests during its role in the Irish bailout, rather than the

“It is the markets which are steering governments across the world, not us” interests of the Irish or German people.

But this is not quite what I think Rastani is getting at. There is a more complex structural phenomenon at work in the global economy as well. This has been noticed by many people for a long time. International political scientist Susan Strange wrote extensively on it in the 1990s, noting

the utter incapacity of governments to control markets during events such as the Asian financial crisis, and the growing ability of the unchecked dominance of markets to determine the policies of supposedly autonomous states.

If we consider the process of the last few years, we can also identify this same imbalance in power relations between financial markets and the democratically elected governments which are actually meant to make decisions on our behalf.

It is clear that it is markets who are steering governments, and not the other way around. Major economic and political consequences continue to flow not from government or even intergovernmental action but merely from the errors, actions and intentions of bond market speculators or “too-bigto-fail” banks.

We are essentially in a hostage situation, in which banks and financial markets consistently hold the global economy to ransom.

TRINITY NEWS

9

business@trinitynews.ie

The great Catch-22 As the sovereign debt crisis reaches its end game, Business Editor Owen Bennett comments on the policy headache that is facing leaders of the Eurozone amlet, Shakespeare’s protagonist in the famous tragedy of the same name, must have anticipated the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis. For his quip “to be or not to be, that is the question”, has never been so appropriate in capturing the nature of dilemma and trade-off. Indeed Eurozone policymakers face perhaps the most momentous economic choice in living memory. Either they act on the seemingly empty rhetoric which has filled airwaves and column inches in recent times regarding the need to save the darling euro, and embrace all the consequences europhiles consider so abhorrent, or they allow the single currency to fail and open a Pandora’s box of financial calamity. Clearly Merkel, Trichet, et al. would do well to reflect on the lessons from Hamlet as they search for a solution to the euro’s existential crisis.

One cannot deny that the status quo is untenable. The Eurozone crisis which erupted in May 2010 when the extent of Greek corruption and profligacy became apparent has slowly dragged on. Summits, crisis talks and bailouts have so far failed to address the issue and the botched and wholly inadequate attempts by EU leaders to achieve anything meaningful in this regard have seen Ireland and Portugal dragged into the mess. Moreover, the crisis now threatens to engulf Italy, one of the EU’s core members.

The medicine is clearly not working.

Radical measures are required, measures which the EU elite have so far refused to countenance. However, market patience is finally running out.

Either a definitive solution to the crisis is found, which surely must involve a Greek default, or the euro collapses.

Greece is, and has been for quite some time, a basket case. The country is rife with corruption of every nature.

H “Voters in many European states are expressing notable resentment at having to bail out the profligate Greeks at a time of such austerity”

At the highest level, officials have been shown to have manipulated national accounts to mask a huge fiscal blackhole; while in the real economy, more than 50% of Greek citizens engage in tax evasion. In addition, the Mediterranean state seems unwilling to face up to its responsibilities, with the government regularly failing to meet budget targets and mass demonstrations taking place on a daily basis as citizens refuse to accept the need for a trimming of the state’s unsustainable largesse. Also, the fundamentals of the Greek economy are woeful. State investment in education and infrastructure is utterly inadequate.

All this contributes to the regrettable reality that with a debtto-GDP ratio of over 140%, Greece is destined to default on its debt.

Simply put, no amount of meaningless platitudes or empty pledges from Eurozone leaders can avert a state of affairs which not so long ago seemed categorically impossible. As such, policy makers must show character and facilitate an orderly Greek default in order to safeguard the existence of the euro. Should they not, the world will be ejected into a financial abyss which will make the 2008 banking crisis appear trivial.

Obviously a Greek sovereign default would be wrought with difficulties. French and German banks have huge exposure to Greek debt and, as such, stand to lose heavily from a Greek collapse. Moreover, Greece has received two huge emergency bailouts from the EU/ECB/IMF troika in the past two years. The huge sums of money Greece owes to these economic players would surely be written off in a credit event, a reality which is difficult to face. In addition, voters in many European states are expressing notable resentment at having to bail out the profligate Greeks at a time of such austerity. Greece would require another huge injection of cash from the other Eurozone economies as it would be barred from money markets in the years following its default. It

The Eurozone’s botched handling of the Greek question has exacerbated the crisis

seems unlikely that either Sarkozy or Merkel have the political capital to persuade voters to back another multibillion handout to the Greeks.

However, while a Greek default may seem undesirable, the inverse is far worse. Should policymakers fail to address the Greek question sufficiently, the country would almost certainly be forced to leave the euro and adopt its own independent currency. Its GDP would drop by almost 50% in the first year as it experiences massive outflows of capital and a huge depreciation in the real value of its currency. Essential imports would become extortionately expensive and public sector wage and pension promises would go

unfulfilled. The shockwaves for the Eurozone as a whole would be just as seismic. Market volatility would reach all-time highs, with investors fleeing other peripheral nations such as Ireland and Portugal in the fear of more defaults. French and German exposure to Greek losses would be realized and these countries would, for the first time, face an actual banking crisis.

As such, the stakes are high and the trade-offs very real. Both options are problematic and riddled with difficulties. Yet while acting positively may require huge courage from policy makers, a failure to act would send the Eurozone and perhaps even the global economy into the abyss.

Italy is nothing but a burst tire on the third wheel Matthew Taylor cites the mutual benefits for Italy and the Eurozone of the deposition of Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi

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f there is a familiar sight nowadays, it is the grimacing faces of Nicholas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel staring critically back at us from the front page of the Irish Times. A sight not often seen is the smiling face of Europe’s prizewinning buffoon Silvio Berlusconi standing, as rightfully he should, beside his international colleagues. France and Germany are the self-appointed directors of EU economic policy, but one must say that Italy should by right, as a member of the G8 and Eurozone, take its place on the stage. One must suppose that the reason Italy never gets an invitation to these summits and press conferences is that Berlusconi is a personally objectionable individual, who would tarnish whatever he put his signature to (and probably say something unfortunate about Merkel’s physical appearance in the process).

To put a little perspective on Italy, let’s examine some of the economic

“France and Germany often take upon themselves the role of the scolding parent” facts. Italy is the eighth largest economy in the world in terms of GDP, and fourth in Europe. It might be fair to say that Italy doesn’t deserve equal

25 OCTOBER, 2011

standing with the Franco-Germans due to its part in the debt crisis. Its public debt is 116% of GDP, second only to Greece, yet it still sits squarely in the “A” category debt rating. The majority of Italy’s debt belongs to its citizens, who also have large savings reserves, making it, perhaps unusually, one of the more stable of Europe’s struggling nations.

We often make the mistake of forgetting about Italy when it comes to economics and geopolitics. There is an assumption that Italy is all about cruising from café to café on a moped without a care in the world. But Italy is a major global player, a member of the G8, G20, NATO, EU and WTO. It is one of only three Eurozone members to enjoy this privilege. It has more millionaires than France, despite having a smaller population. The problem is that this is, as one of my lecturers once put it, a semi-feudalistic, inherently corrupt country being run by a man of questionable ethics.

The argument, therefore, is that Italy cannot be trusted to be responsible for other EU members.

This argument seems a little unfair in disqualifying Italy, as corruption scandals have also rocked France and Germany. In France, former president Jacques Chirac is on trial for accepting bribes while Mayor of Paris, and in Germany in the early 2000s allegations emerged that the ruling Christian Democratic Union had been using low-level state operations for money

laundering. Of course this is nothing in the face of the charges levelled against Berlusconi, but it shows that political corruption is not unique to Italy.

I cannot speak for everyone else, but it seems to me that France and Germany often take upon themselves the role of the scolding parent (with “Old Man” Trichet stepping in for the occasional avuncular spanking), but we must not forget that French and German property investments in Greece and Portugal, as well as heavy investments in Irish banks, are among the contributing factors to the boom and bust. While we can only thank them for assisting in the bailout of our economies, for them to constantly lay blame solely on debt-laden peripheral

“Italy is a semi feudalistic, inherently corrupt country being run by a man of questionable ethics” states is preposterous.

This is why a place for Italy at a trilateral meeting of the Eurozone’s indisputably largest economies would be beneficial. To have someone on the receiving end of the bollockings at the decision making table might help those in charge to make more considerate decisions in regard to the indebted countries. We may see a test of this hypothesis when Italy’s Mario Draghi succeeds Trichet as head of the ECB on 1 November.

One thing is certain: for the stability and future success of his country,

Italy must ditch its beleaugured leader Berlusconi to restore credibility

Berlusconi must go and must go now.

He has succeeded in making himself a political leper, and media leaks from other heads of state and governments show that he is doing unspeakable damage to his country’s international

reputation.

There is no climb back to the top with Berlusconi sitting on your shoulders, and Italy must take its place alongside its G8 and Eurozone partners for the sake of us all.

10 WORLD REVIEW

No justice for Sri Lanka’s Tamils As Sri Lanka moves further away from democracy, Neil Warner discusses the government’s unforgiving treatment of the country’s native peoples

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n May 2009 the 26 year long Sri Lankan civil war - waged between the Sinhalese majority government and the LTTE (Tamil Tigers) from the Tamil minority in the north and east of the country - came to a close in the form of a final, punitive, government assault on LTTE heartlands.

According to a report recently submitted to the UN, the Sri Lankan army corralled hundreds of thousands of civilian refugees into “No-Fire Zones”, which were used to engage in prolonged shelling against civilians.

Up to 40,000 may have been killed in this final phase of fighting. Aside from possible atrocities in the even more neglected Kivu conflict in eastern Congo, the massacre of the Tamils was probably the greatest crime against humanity committed anywhere on the planet since the genocide in Darfur.

What scrutiny there was failed to measure up to the scale of atrocities being committed.

For example, a New York Times report on 20 May, the day after the government announced the end of the war, merely described Tamil “misgivings” about their future and briefly mentioned the

“Unlike Palestine, the Tamils have few friends to stick up for them on an international level” displacement and shelling of civilians mid-article.

Astonishingly, Lord MallochBrown was happy to inform the House

of Lords that the UK government had congratulated the Sri Lankan government on its success.

The Sri Lankan government and army engaged in an extensive form of tight information management, including the intimidation of local press and telling lies to foreign leaders. Unlike Muammar Gaddafi, the Sri Lankan government and armed forces were approved members of the international community - notably receiving large amounts of military aid from countries such as China, Russia, India and Israel in the course of its brutal campaign. Its relations with Western powers were also amicable and have remained so.

Though it usually matters little to the international community, Sri Lanka’s government also had some democratic legitimacy: its president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, was elected in a largely free and fair election in the government-controlled areas of the country in 2005.

Unlike Palestine, the Tamils have few friends to stick up for them on an international level. India, despite being a democracy with a significant ethnic Tamil community and having previously intervened in the conflict on behalf of the Tamils, sided with the Sri Lankan government.

Rajapaksa is, after Omar al-Bashir in Sudan, probably the greatest war criminal currently presiding over a sovereign state. Unlike Bashir, he has as yet faced no international consequences for his actions. A recent Guardian headline, “ICC warns Sri Lanka”, unfortunately referred to the International Cricket Council, rather than the International Criminal Court, and was about a poor pitch in a test match with Australia.

The Tamil Tigers’ protest has spread across the globe. Here Sri Lankans living in the UK protest outside the Houses of Parliament

Comprehensive information about his crimes and those of his army has finally started to come out in the last six months. The UN report, actually completed in April but submitted to the UNHCR in September, was swiftly corroborated by a Channel 4 documentary about the events of May 2009 and the publication of The Cage

by Gordon Weiss, the United Nations spokesman in Colombo at the end of the war.

For the Tamils, finding democratic recognition could take even longer.

Discrimination against the Tamil minority in Sri Lanka was the primary cause for the beginning of the civil war in 1983, yet in the aftermath of the war some 300,000 Tamil refugees were forcibly interned in concentration camps. These camps have since largely

been emptied, but numerous internally displaced people remain unable to return to their homes due to minefields or land the military wants to keep, and have been resettled in undeveloped or war-ravaged areas. In spite of the

“Sri Lanka’s rulers had some democratic legitimacy. Its president was elected” official ending of the state of emergency, “enforced disappearances” continue to occur and thousands of people remain in custody without trial.

The government’s own “Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation

Commission” (LLRC) has been criticized by Amnesty International as “flawed at every level”. The UN investigation panel that made the report in April was not allowed into Sri Lanka during its compilation. In addition, Sri Lanka as a whole is moving away from democracy. In January 2010 the country had to vote between Rajapaksa and General Fonseka, the commander of the Sri Lankan army at the end of the war, for president.

For the ethnic Sinhalese, it was an enviable contest between two war heroes who had brought peace to the island after nearly three decades of war.

In reality, it was a choice between the country’s two greatest war criminals.

Rajapaksa won convincingly, and Fonseka has since been arrested, courtmartialled and imprisoned.

Tea Party’s presidential scramble goes on As the race for the next US presidency narrows, Niall O’Brien discusses the potential of the Republican candidates in a game that is still anyone’s to win

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n 4 October, Governor of New Jersey Chris Christie, announced he would not be contesting the Republican nomination for the presidency of the United States. The following day Sarah Palin, Tea Party favourite and John McCain’s running mate in the presidential election of 2008, also ruled herself out of the running after months of speculation.

It speaks volumes for the bizarre and volatile nature of the Republican campaign that, despite not being a candidate, the latest Economist/YouGov poll placed Christie at 15% Republican voter support. Republicans seem to have been holding out for a dream

“Republicans have been holding out for a candidate to rally Tea Party extremists and centrists” candidate with the magical ability to rally both Tea Party extremists and the more traditional Republican centrists in an effort to feasibly unite and take down President Obama.

Unfortunately for the Republicans, no such candidate exists. It appears that the surge of initial popularity is of paramount significance in securing the

frontrunner - and barely at that. Yet Romney is far and away the most promising candidate to beat Obama.

He has vast political experience as a well-regarded former Governor of Massachusetts, is a successful businessman and is the only candidate to have outlined a serious budget plan.

Romney’s major drawback, apart from reservations over his Mormonism and his introduction of the hated “Obamacare” in Massachusetts, is that he is clearly a Republican centrist doing a bad job of masquerading as a conservative. And in a party where the unequivocally conservative Rick Perry lost support for daring to express concern over the children of illegal immigrants, any slight hint of liberalism is going to cost votes. The other forerunner, for the moment at least, is Herman Cain, a Baptist p r e a c h e r a n d former CEO o f

Godfather’s Pizza. Taking into account Cain’s lack of political experience of any kind and his sudden surge at the expense of Perry for no easily discernible reason at all other than his consistent, conservative populism, his

“Sarah Palin would almost certainly have been a no-hoper going to the race as a third candidate”

crucial upper hand in the Republican race. But it is when Republican candidates come to address contentious and potentially divisive matters, such as policy for instance, that substantial support seems to ebb away.

Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, who declared her candidacy on 13 June, rose so high as to win the puffed up rise seems largely due to anti-Romney Ames Straw Poll hosted by the Iowa Republicans. This substantial block GOP on 13 August, before she became of support has and may continue to eclipsed by other candidates after two travel around the other candidates, lacklustre televised debates. Likewise, but it is doubtful that it will eventually Governor of Texas, Rick Perry, became go to Romney. Hence the Republican a frontrunner in the campaign almost Party itself remains deeply split as soon as he entered the race in and candidates must maintain the August. Yet he too has fallen back, impossible charade of balancing both whether because of his conservative, extremes of the spectrum unorthodox views on the social while also remainig electable security system on which to the American people at millions of poor Americans large. depend, calling it a “Ponzi” For a party with scheme, or because of such a long and grand his more nuanced stance history, the theatrics, on issues such as gunvolatility and standard control, climate-change and of debate that have thus immigration. Either way, he has far been associated certainly alienated potential with the appointment of votes. Both may go up in the highest honour it can the polls again, but it seems bestow is bringing the party unlikely that either will into disrepute. Former ever recover the Republican President momentum they Richard M. Nixon carried when observed that the key they first burst on to US politics was to the scene. appeal to the base Once again, in the primaries Mitt Romney has become the reluctant Tea Party favourite Sarah Palin ruled herself out of the running. Who will win? and move to the

centre in the general elections. Yet the radicalism and intransigence of the Tea Party wing of the Republicans has infiltrated the party to such a degree that no-one quite knows if there is a such a thing as the Republican base anymore. American politics has become so partisan that it is starting to undermine the unity of the Republican Party as a whole, not to mention its relationship with the Democratic Party. While it is common knowledge that the most left-leaning Republican is vastly more right-wing than the most conservative Democrat, what is not so well known is that a similar chasm has been developing rapidly within the Republican Party itself. It is difficult to see how Republican candidates can spread themselves widely enough to appeal to an increasingly radical and disparate base while being realistic about their ability to govern the United States.

Before Sarah Palin categorically ruled herself out of the race, it was rumoured that she was considering entering as an independent candidate instead of a Republican. If true, the rumour is very telling of the state of the Republican Party.

While she would almost certainly have been a no-hoper going into the race as a third candidate – not even former President Theodore Roosevelt managed to get himself elected to the office that way – it does show some cunning on Palin’s part.

While she could have counted on substantial support within the Republican Party, she could never hope to bring it on side in its entirety. At least she could have avoided the baggage the Republican Party brings with it as an independent. Mitt Romney is learning this fast and having to work all the harder for it.

TRINITY NEWS

11 worldreview@trinitynews.ie

The citizens abandoned In a round up of protests happening across Europe, the US and Middle East, Eleanor Friel looks at the issues of democracy and disillusion that tie them all together

I “The demands being made are vague but there is no questioning the determination of the crowds to achieve change”

srael is facing the largest demonstrations in its history. A rural activist on hunger strike is being backed by disenchanted Indians in their tens of thousands.

Mediterranean plazas are being occupied by angry youths. Even Wall Street is being rocked by mass protest movements as we speak.

Complaints stem from economic inequality, corruption and unemployment - grievances shared worldwide. It seems that from the turbulent Middle East to the capitalist heartland of Manhattan, the masses have something else in common disdain for established politics. Taking to the streets is a simple way to show their wariness of the ballot box.

Nation states that fought so hard for democratic systems are now coming to terms with citizens that have become disillusioned with electoral politics.

In Greece and the UK, this malaise has manifested itself in violent protests that would have been unthinkable a decade ago. But fiscal matters can’t explain events in Israel and India, countries with high economic growth. Protesters

Above: The Occupy Wall Street protest in New York is just one example of civil unrest. Below: One of the occupy posters

have grown weary of pandering to what they see as insular agendas and corporate interests. Crowds of Israeli youth groups bemoaned the deaf ears of their leaders, who they see as being captured solely by security concerns and other special interests, with no regard for the citizenry who landed them in power. In Ramlila Maidan, India, crowds turned out in monsoon conditions, singing patriotic songs and waving flags in solidarity with hunger striker Anna Hazare and his demand for deeper anti-corruption reforms.

There is a growing trend for citizens of all nationalities and ages to reject established systems of party politics, trade unions and other established outlets. The would-be electorate are in favour of more participatory, less hierarchical structures. The world wide web is instrumental, as access to information and new ideas means that deference towards conventional authority is fading rapidly.

The public outrage in democratic nations isn’t too dissimilar from that which shook the authoritarian regimes in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.

Dissenters have taken advantage of the web’s egalitarian nature to form their own spaces; communities of like-minded thinkers are rendered immediately viable by a combination of social networking sites, accurate mapping tools, rapid video sharing and instantaneous fund transfers.

Our generation is much more capable of self-organisation than our predecessors. The hierarchical bureaucracies of the past have been flattened; participation, independence and decentralisation are the new norms for modern, educated and engaged citizens.

This tide of disillusionment comes two decades after what was heralded as the decisive triumph of liberal democratic capitalism over all

other systems, with the collapse of the Berlin Wall and then the Soviet Union. Proclaimed by figures such as Francis Fukuyama in his now infamous The End of History and the Last Man, it would seem that this consensus has been deeply rattled, if not altogether shattered, by a series of crises, each worse than its precursor.

From the 1990s Asian financial crash and dotcom bubble, through to last decade’s continuing debt crises, there is a worrying sentiment among voters that policymakers are ill-equipped and under-motivated to get to grips with these problems. While it’s unlikely that fed-up electorates are hoping for a dictatorial take-over, the case is clear that people feel they have nowhere to turn. The problem is not democratic ideals but rather a failure of reality to match expectations.

In August, for instance, demonstrations in Britain exploded into anarchical lawlessness. The use of communications devices such as BlackBerry Messenger gave the youth an upper hand over the police, reflecting the level at which authority is viewed by much of working-class, suburban Britain. Lacking a belief in any system representing their values and interests, rampaging crowds felt they had no future to risk anyway. Meanwhile in Spain, where the rate of unemployment is at its highest in the developed world, the “indignados” or “outraged” mobilise via Twitter, congregate together for “teach-ins”, halt traffic and occupy streets. The demands being made are vague but there is no questioning the determination of the crowds to achieve change.

In spite of the non-violent nature of the Spanish and Israeli protests, there are concerns over the trend toward bypassing representative channels.

Hazare’s threat to strike until starvation, seen by some as heroic

self-sacrifice, has been viewed by others as anti-democratic blackmail.

Yet his campaign to have his own version of anti-corruption legislation considered over the government’s weaker alternative resonated so strongly with supporters because Hazare has no background in politics.

For an electorate who feel that the established parties have become captive to special interest groups, the fact that parliament passed a resolution endorsing central tenets of his proposal was a momentous victory.

A strength of democracy supposedly lies in its ability to respond to shifts in voter values and needs. An interesting feature of these alternative movements is the potential for them to become absorbed into traditional politics, as was illustrated in the US by the Republican Party capitalising on the anti-establishment feeling of the Tea Party movement.

But purists driving many of these waves worldwide maintain that they will doggedly avoid traditional participation.

Across Europe, the sense of being let down is two-fold. Firstly, governments in debt are cutting back on social spending – one of the few ways that many individuals across the continent feel any tangible benefit from their elected government.

Secondly, there is the impression that harsh decisions are being dictated by distant leaders in far-off offices in Brussels and Frankfurt, and the voter is being cut off from having any meaningful say in their own destiny.

The crisis is one of legitimacy.

The protests being witnessed in the Western world are not ones of empty angst, but rather of reclaiming the rights of societies that view themselves as hijacked by market forces. There is a stubborn sentiment that citizens want more than a token trip to the ballot box every few years.

The Arab Spring has yet to reach women Jean Carrere points out the continuing absence of gender equality despite Saudi Arabia’s decision to grant women the vote

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he expression “Arab Spring” has appeared in an astonishing number of headlines over the past eight months to describe the turmoil that characterized the Middle East and the broader Arab world since the uprising in Tunisia last December. But this expression, so popular among Western observers, can easily be regarded as flawed. Foreign analysts seem to enjoy the lyrical undertone it implies, and its images of a newer, brighter Arab world rising from the ashes of authoritarianism.

When King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia announced on 25 September that the right to vote was to be granted to women of the Kingdom, the decision was met with universal acclaim and

25 October, 2011

attributed to the Arab Spring. Women will be able to vote in the next municipal elections in 2015. He also announced that women would have the right to be appointed to the Majlis-ash-Shura, the formal advisory body of Saudi Arabia.

“Shaimaa Ghassaneya was sentenced to ten lashes for violating the driving ban” But this decision is simply another political stunt from the monarch.

Consider his speech, given at the opening of a new term for the Shura: “Because we refuse to marginalize

women in society in all roles that comply with sharia, we have decided, after deliberation with our senior ulama [clerics] and others ... to involve women in the Shura Concil as members, starting from the next term”.

The use of the first-person, the emphatic tone, the apparent unity with religious authorities point to the demagogic aspects of a decision that is nothing more than another blow at the conservatives. This is not a great victory for women’s rights brought about by the Arab Spring.

In this permanent struggle between the modernist King and the radical forces deeply rooted in the country, all means are welcome to weaken the credibility of the other side, including media stunts. Members of the Shura

are all nominated directly by the King, and its function is purely consultative.

Women taking seats in the Shura will ultimately have only two consequences: the weakening of radical positions, and less attention to the feminist movement in Saudi Arabia, which has to be the first country in the world where women gain political rights before being allowed to drive a car, travel, or choose their own clothes.

Only two days after this announcement, Shaimaa Ghassaneya was sentenced to ten lashes for violating the driving ban. Given the current international climate and the media attention following his statement, the King commuted the sentence.

While the West sits around thinking of new poetic metaphors to associate with the Arab revolutions, the local populations fear a silent takeover by the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, the start of a new civil war in Libya, and the

prevalence of the oppressive regime in Syria. Each country has to face its own internal issues and challenges.

“The local populations fear a silent takeover by the Muslim Brotherhood” The regional context is favourable to an emancipation of individual liberties and to gender equality. In a context of political tensions, women are instrumentalized, whether it is to weaken political opposition or to highlight the egalitarian features of a system.

Arab feminism should gain from this situation by careful negotiation with all sides, rather than celebrating factitious victories.

12 FEATURES

Fear factor David Babby discusses scaremongering contraception ads frequently seen around university bathrooms and their distinctly crass means of approaching the subject

T “It’s blatant scaremongering, which isn’t cool but is probably pardonable if it works.

Does it? How did we even get sexually educated?”

he toilets of the upper floors of the college Arts Block may be the most serene toilets in the world. No one pees on the seat. It’s quiet. The clientele is such an illustrious bunch no one bothered putting in UV lighting to hinder students from sticking needles in their arms. In a long, tiring, busy day, a trip to the Arts Block lav is frankly something of a repose.

This day was particularly hard going. I actually sighed while peeing, like men do in movies, such was my instantly tranquil state of mind.

Then something caught my eye – an advertisement above the urinal which read as follows: “Be prepared ... Some people find dodgy dancing sexy.”

Black text on yellow background, the palette of danger in the animal kingdom. Below it was the distinctive road sign logo “think contraception”.

A lot must be said for the powers of ads above urinals. It strikes you when you’re a wee bit vulnerable – but most of all, you’re bored. It’s as mindless and natural to read and retain the ad’s information as it is to read the back of a cereal box at breakfast. You remember the sentiment – shit, these Chocopops make me fat – even if you don’t hold on to the figures. And then, of course, ads are made all bright and poppy to get themselves into our heads.

There is another motivational “don’t-get-someone-pregnant-ordiseased” ad, this one from the big wigs at the HSE that has also grabbed my attention, because it looks a bit silly: a boy’s hand and a girl’s hand with a condom in between and the girl has the most horrible shade of pink nail varnish on.

I remember this image – and its message, I suppose, too: always wear condoms with trashy girls with vile nail varnish – but I half-recall, at the same time, that below these two distracting hands and condom there

was a list of diseases. I don’t remember which diseases they were.

But, of course, to Contraception ads through the ages briefly channel the It’s blatant scaremongering, spirit of an impassioned Peggy Olsen, which isn’t cool – but is probably no one knows when the best ads work pardonable if it works. Does it? How on them. Perhaps the gratuitous nail did we even get sexually educated? varnish makes the ad memorable – The English girl I lived with last who knows? I mention this second year who went to a posh school told ad, though, simply as a comparison. me that at eleven, they’d all been To return to our earlier example, the assembled, given all the gory details reason it caught my attention was on the birds and the bees, and been because it was the first “don’t-getSTIs” ad that I had seen that just about instructed to go home and touch themselves. It wasn’t until sixth-year restrained itself from saying “don’t in Donegal that a teacher summoned have sex”, indeed, explicitly putting it the courage to read through a out there: “sex is danger”. catalogue of STIs. The tone is jovial, the language that But we’ll take it for argument’s lame “yoof speak” marketers try to sake, that we are here at a point of churn out to be relatable (it’s no less knowledge about sex and STIs and if embarrassing from youths themselves we don’t conduct our relations with – haven’t we all cringed flicking others cautiously it is not because we through the Student Union year journal?). “Be prepared ... some people don’t know. These ads, therefore, are simply reminders to behave well. find dodgy dancing sexy.”

Do they do that? Both the waspy It is evocative and the message Think Contraception and the HSE’s is clear: be afraid, even you could yoursexualhealth.ie, with its fun get lucky tonight, even you could faux-Lichtenstein design, are useful find yourself in this life-threatening sources of information that need to situation.

be there (though a whole other article could be written on Think Contraception’s embarrassing online games, the main criticism being that you need to be eighteen to play but obviously this is easy to cheat), but are these regular ads that remind us to not to get diseased effective?

They nearly all seem so embarrassing in their patronising efforts to be “down with the kids”, a complaint we could also direct towards those irksome Drink Aware campaigns: that it’s hard to believe it, although anything that encourages the discourse – any shite appropriate ad – has to be a good thing. But why do they have to be so awful?

Probably the best ads would be HD snaps of big, rotting penises and vaginas falling apart at the seams – but then the idyllic Arts Block toilet would be ruined once and for all, and we certainly couldn’t have that.

The surveillance state isn’t watching Ciarán Mangan reflects on our love affair with our own surveillance society and the delights, fears and obsessions that it breeds

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Maltesers the day after she picked up a new treadmill.

In 2008 in Suffolk, attempts to bring in CCTV cameras to trace stolen or criminal vehicles were met with fierce and self-righteous outcries against police surveillance from village folk.

It truly begs the question: why would any Orwellian eyes waste their time watching your average, lawabiding 30kmh motorist as they extract wax from their dull ears?

Seemingly, Mr. and Mrs. Jones felt the route they took to their ginger

rom time to time we all like to fear of “the powers that be” compiling indulge the misconception data on her.

Correct me if I am wrong, but that our daily lives are special and fascinating and I would be inclined to reckon that wholly worthy of extended the AIB, struggling against global viewing. Channel 4’s Big Brother recession, has better things to be doing pandered to this growing modern than sending petty hate mail berating conceit, allowing the chronically idiotic my aunt for grabbing that multipack of and the terminally inane to flaunt their soul-destroying selves on national television for all to see.

Facebook and Twitter have continued this trend with people validating themselves by how many “followers” they have or how many “like” that photo of them impishly pouting in a glitter encrusted mirror.

Since God got “found out”, the absence of a voyeuristic audience to watch us shower, shop and shite has seemingly left us feeling pretty useless.

The greedy vacuum has been neatly filled by the most postmodern of sicknesses - what could be called, “Big Brother Syndrome”.

This strange affliction leads us to conjure omnipresent watchers to make us feel oh-so-special. Subsequently, hide and go seek becomes a popular pastime for fully grown adults seeking to shield their intriguing and endlessly exciting lives from starving eyes.

My aunt has recently refused to shop with bank cards, only cash, for Who could be watching? Jim Carey in The Truman Show

beer soaked family picnic was a detail that should only be released following the gradual removal of all their finger nails.

I t ’ s

depressing but many people now appear to feel entitled to the spotlight, every single minute of their stinking lives. Society’s wildest fantasies are now epitomised in The Truman Show, veritable masturbation material for the masses. People can’t even step out their front door without alerting their gran, girlfriend and Gary the goldfish via Facebook that they are “@ the pub”.

Jim Corr, possibly irked about looking like a two-year-old’s Magna Doodle scribble, has cried of omniscient dark forces carefully tracking his every move. His attention seeking antics are a classic case of BB syndrome - a lunatic who spent most of his career invisible in the shadows cast by his sisters’ breasts and could have walked into any pub in Ireland with “I am Jim Corr from The Corrs” perfectly scrawled across his chest in his own excrement and barely provoked a glance.

It is, of course, smugly satisfying to imagine now and then that you’re worthy of such “Big Brother” attention.

In all-too-frequent moments of narcissism, my own watcher fantasies are fuelled by the sight of the Russian embassy standing imperiously on the other side of my street.

On overcast

Monday mornings, I like to imagine two exKGB hitmen perfectly camouflaged in garden shrubbery, meticulously counting each and every sultana in my soggy bowl of cereal and recording the details in a mink-lined notepad with a pen that doubles as a lethal radium dart.

Or, when I pass the embassy gates on windy nights, I revel in vain delight imagining the grainy black-and-white shots of Yours Truly stashed so very carefully in a wax-sealed envelope marked “Counter-Intelligence: Highly Confidential”.

These notions are as deluded as they are fanciful, however. In reality, we’re mostly cringingly painful to watch, like a nudist octogenarian with a penchant for jumping jacks and baby oil rubs.

TRINITY NEWS

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features@trinitynews.ie

Norway’s lost souls Dominique Mich English assesses society in Norway today, and its response to the terrorist attacks which shook the region 3 months ago

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ver the summer while I was in Sweden, Anders Behring Breivik targeted many of neighbouring Norway’s teenagers on the small Island of Utoya and tore both downtown Oslo and Norwegian society apart with his atrocities. While the events were covered internationally they continued to be revisited for weeks and even months afterwards on Scandinavian media networks. It led to a great deal of soul searching and questions over the direction of these countries, in particular in Norway, which prides itself on its anti-Nazi history and annually hosting the Nobel Peace Prize.

“The reaction was not of fear, but of coming to terms with the darker elements within an otherwise tolerant society” Put in context, the bombings and shootings on 22 July were the latest in a line of terror attacks in Scandinavia in recent years, including the infamous attacks on the Danish cartoonists who depicted Mohammed and the lesser known “Christmas bomber” who blew himself up in downtown Stockholm

last December.

The obvious difference between Breivik and these is that the other two were notably Islamic extremists, while Breivik was anti-Islamic and largely motivated by this sentiment. The target, however, was more or less the same - Scandinavian society and values.

What the various attackers might have defined as being their targets would probably be very different and the reactions that have come out of it are equally varied. However, Breivik comes as a reminder that these traditionally tolerant societies are having to redefine their identities or else are having them forcibly challenged.

The concept assumed in this part of the world of an “open society” in which politicians walk around without protection and where government headquarters are not made to be bombproof does not seem able to last.

Rather, as Kurt Westergaard, one of the Danish cartoonists, told an interviewer about his reaction to hearing that Danish embassies had been set on fire: “At that point I realised that Denmark had lost its innocence.”

Breivik however poses a challenge to the typical reactions we might have after a terrorist attack of such a large scale, as he was neither an Islamic extremist nor was he acting as part of an organisation or political party. It is tempting to dismiss him as a lone madman who poses no more threat, and so to place him alongside the school

The memorial at Utoya Island is a staunch reminder of the events that took place this summer. Breivik is now behind bars.

shooting in Finland, but the difference here is his politically motivated use of violence in a society used to resolution through peaceful means.

It is impossible to overlook the right-wing element of society that he represents. This extremism was not an entire surprise either, as the Europol 2010 “Terrorism Situation and Trend Report” warned against “individuals motivated by extreme right-wing views who act alone”, suggesting that Breivik is one of many potentials.

The reaction across Scandinavia was not of fear however as much as of coming to terms with the darker elements within an otherwise tolerant society. In Sweden people started talking about the neo-Nazi underbelly lurking across their own population and conversations turned to the shockingly high rate of right-wing beliefs.

It seems that Scandinavia can no longer support its reputation for broad liberal tolerance as many would like. The extent to which the rightwing extremists resent the socially lenient members of their own society

became clear for the first time for many people. Had Breivik been Muslim, or even foreign, the reaction would have undoubtedly been an angrier one as opposed to the stoic mourning the world witnessed. Many Norwegians

“Scandinavians are more aware that they can no longer stand in isolation from global issues such as terrorism” even expressed a sort of relief that the attacker was Norwegian, as they then escaped the backlash of right-wing aggression that would have been the case had it been perpetrated by Islamic terrorists.

Instead, the country came together in a show of defiant support for its liberal values. The specific response by the Norwegian politicians and population was almost refreshing in

a world becoming increasingly used to the hyperbole surrounding such atrocities. There was no “war on terror” being declared but rather a quiet and internal response. One week after the attack an official mourning took place; however, the Prime Minister requested that no foreign dignitaries - not even the Swedish royals - be present.

It was to be an internal affair, not something to be taken over by shows of sympathy from external politicians. Several months on and the international news networks have long since moved away from Breivik.

In Scandinavia, however, people are increasingly aware that they can no longer stand in isolation from global issues such as terrorism and right-wing backlashes against multiculturalism.

Nor can they ignore the threat from within their own communities and the increasing number of neo-Nazis, who are in many ways more insidious and destructive socially than Islamic extremists.

In Norway, they have vowed that next year they will return to Utoya and make it bigger and better than before.

The cure for paedophilia? It’s about society In light of tabloid hysteria over the threat of paedophiles in Ireland, Orla McGintey looks at the portrayal of paedophilia in society and asks if it can be justified as a ‘curable disease’

S

arah Goode, senior lecturer in health and community studies at the University of Winchester, reported in The Times Higher Education Supplement the obstacles she encountered in her research before the eventual publication of her book Understanding and Addressing Adult Sexual Attraction to Children in 2009. Goode explained that her research was seriously impeded by the unwillingness on the part of academics and organisations to contribute, as a result of their fear of being associated with an attempt to explore and understand the controversial subject.

The apprehension of the possible reaction of the tabloid press was cited as a principle reason for a refusal to co-operate with her project, and Goode was forced to turn to radical academics whose interest was more in the paedophilic perpetrator than child protection.

In light of the recent tabloid hysteria incited by comments referring to pederasty by Senator David Norris, perhaps those who impeded Goode’s research in their refusal to participate showed prudence.

Speculative remarks inspired by his personal response to the depiction of the nature of love depicted in Plato’s Symposium

turned into a full-scale controversy, with the Daily Mail reporting in June of this year that Norris didn’t believe in an age of consent. The incident demonstrates the sensitivity of modern society towards any whisper of the word “paedophilia”, and although later revelations pertaining to a letter of clemency written under inappropriate circumstances would complicate the issue, it is interesting to examine contemporary attitudes to paedophilia.

It is, after all, one of modern society’s greatest concerns. It has been noted by academics that literary criticism of Henry James’s ghost story The Turn of the Screw has broadly reflected the fears of the period in which it has been read, and so modern criticism has projected a paedophilic context onto the tale. One need only watch an episode of one of the currently highly popular forensic crime television programmes, or any popular show for that matter, to see that depictions of the paedophile are rife in the cultural consciousness.

Are these omnipresent portrayals of paedophilia as the epitome of evil justified? Time and again we see the manipulative psychopath lure the child into a false sense of security, and once the warning signs are there, there is no question of innocence. Of course, paedophilia is unquestionably

“Explanations include a cycle of abuse, lack of peers, countless theories have been proposed” 25 OCTOBER, 2011

inherently harmful to society, whether we consider it as a sexual deviance or a mental illness, there can be no reconciliation of this behaviour with our modern values and judicial systems.

There is no possible positive outcome in citing different historical or cultural examples; at the risk of conforming to the stereotype of arrogant Westerners, we should be glad that our society has evolved in such a way as to render such behaviour abnormal and unacceptable, and prioritise the safety of the child.

But can we call it unnatural?

Medical research has suggested that paedophiles have significantly lower levels of white matter in their brains than non-paedophiles. Could this be a simple medical solution to the enigma? Other explanations include the perpetration of a cycle of abuse, with the abused becoming the abuser when they reach adulthood to escape from the identity of victim; relatively lower IQ levels among paedophiles; and social alienation, a lack of ability to communicate with one’s peers. Countless theories, medical, sociological and psychological, have been proposed to try to pin down the reason for paedophilia.

But are we really interested in discovering a reason for it? We seem to prefer to distance ourselves from it as much as possible; a “normal” person couldn’t be a paedophile. It becomes synonymous with evil, with an impulse to inflict pain on the other, on the innocent child.

However, as pointed out in a medical journal attempting to come to grips with this behaviour and its treatment, recent developments such as the reality television show To Catch A Predator

have drawn our attention to the uncomfortable reality – paedophilia is not simply confined to the disturbed, to the mentally unstable, to the spinechillingly creepy neighbour in The Lovely Bones with the dark-tinted glasses who just screams “paedophile” (how could they have missed it?).

It is a more widespread and undiscriminating phenomenon, it continues to surprise and unsettle us.

This draws our attention to the fact that the research that has been conducted, whatever has been concluded, cannot be trusted in that the participants have been limited to convicted sex offenders. What about those who have not been convicted, who have not been imprisoned, who cannot be surveyed? How can it be posited that paedophiles “tend to have a lower IQ level”, when the sample studied has been far from random?

In a society where the dialogue surrounding paedophilia is far from open, there is no way of coming to any concrete conclusions, much less finding a suitable “treatment”, or finding out if it is the type of thing that can be treated at all. The concentrated amount of cases of

paedophilia within the priesthood can provide us an insight – it seems to equate to the individual’s denial of sexuality, an attempt at psychological castration that failed miserably due to the position of unquestioned, almost divine power enjoyed by the clergy in our society.

In order to come to terms with and deal with paedophilia, we need to abandon the witch hunt, release it from the realms of the tabloid and television dramas, dispense with the caricatures, and talk to each other. We cannot understand what we cannot even openly discuss.

To Catch A Predator: Paedophiles are ousted on TV

14 OPINION PROFILE JOHN RYAN Illustration by Sinéad Mercier mercier-long. blogspot.com

From red tops to Broadsheet We talk to tabloid media mogul and Editor of Broadsheet.ie John Ryan about running a non profit, humorous slash serious news website

J “Broasheet.ie doesn’t make any money. It’s been going for about 12 months and everybody works on it voluntarily, earning no income whatsoever. It’s most certainly not a one-man job”

ohn Ryan is not a man who gives up easily. Behind a string of failed publications in Ireland and abroad, including Star on Sunday, The New York Dog, GI and website Blogorrah, he speaks candidly in relation to the past.

Celebrity tabloid Star on Sunday was, “a bad idea poorly executed by myself - it was completely just to make money.” Whereas the satirical Blogorrah “went out of business the same time as the dog magazine (The New York Dog)” and GI (Gay Ireland) “lost huge amounts of money.”

Also to his name is the RTÉ comedy “This is Nightlive” which received much criticism and never made it beyond one season.

In spite of this, his latest endeavour, Broadsheet.ie has attracted a growing, if not muted, following here in Ireland.

Online since July 2010, Broadsheet. ie takes a satirical perspective on Irish current affairs, posting snappy, often quirky, news stubs and images every 15 minutes. When asked how he would define Broadsheet, Ryan is hasty to qualify it as “nothing pretentious anyways”. Rather, he says, “it’s just regular, updated humorous slash serious stuff, I guess”.

This blend of humour and seriousness is perhaps the key to Broadsheet’s growing popularity. With an air of tragicomedy surrounding Irish economic and political life since summer 2008, it is unsurprising to find a craving for parody among those in search of a lighter take on current affairs.

This, Ryan states, is one of the ways it differs from Blogorrah which, formerly based in New York and founded with fellow publisher Derek

O’Connor, enjoyed a short-lived but cult following at home in Ireland.

“Broadsheet is definitely more engaged politically, whereas Blogorrah was around during a different economic climate.” While the humour of Blogorrah was widely criticised for being too harsh, Broadsheet, it seems, strikes the right chord. “Funny without being cruel is the tone we’re trying to get,” states Ryan.

Considering the nature of satire, is there not still a risk of causing offence?

“Possibly” Ryan admits, before adding “but it all depends on whether you want to go for a drink with these people ever again!”

In the context of the Rubberbandits, Hardy Bucks and The Savage Eye, Broadsheet seems to benefit from the typically Irish taste for self-deprecating comedy, especially in relation to our own political and economic misfortunes. “It’s a good release; it’s the best release isn’t it? Our ability to find the humour in it. It’s just so horrific, that maybe it appeals to that bleak Irish sense of humour. We may not like to suffer but we certainly know how to make a joke about the suffering.”

It is easy to see, with the doomand-gloom coverage offered by conventional media outlets, how Ryan’s approach appeals to a younger demographic, one that increasingly relies on the internet for news updates.

But how do sites such as Broadsheet make money, if at all?

“Broadsheet is not funded by anybody.

It doesn’t make any money,” Ryan says

flatly.

“It’s been going for about 12 months and everybody works on it voluntarily, earning no income whatsoever. It’s most certainly not a one-man job. A core of nine or ten extremely talented people keep it going. Most of them are in full-time jobs and others are on the dole.

I mean, we get a few ads but it’s certainly a labour of love so far.”

However, there are benefits to not making money, Ryan argues. “Maybe because we don’t have commercial considerations, we don’t owe anything to anyone. We don’t mind what, for example, Tesco thinks of us. So with the JobBridge thing, we can have a go at it with impunity.”

In this Ryan is referring to a position offered by Tesco through the government JobBridge scheme, whereby employees were to be paid just 50 euro for a 35-hour week “internship” in shelf-stacking over the Christmas period.

“A company that makes about €4 billion a year, they were advertising for interns. Which basically means that they don’t have to pay full wages. It’s so they will get the cheap labour. I‘m

not banging our drum but we did a story on it that may have been difficult for other papers to have broken because of the massive commercial interests in Tesco advertising.

But I’m not having any attack on the regular press. All I’m saying is that there is an advantage to not having ads.”

In many ways, Broadsheet.ie is also part of a modern school of internet journalism in which articles from many sources are compiled and posted on central “aggregate” sites. Sites such as Broadsheet are often accused of being unoriginal but Ryan maintains that there is almost always a mutual exchange involved.

“We get criticism about using articles from Reddit, but we always credit Reddit. They would have stuff taken from our site too. We’ll always credit them, and they’ll credit us ... As long as you don’t just take it wholesale.

I would hope that we would always do a bit of work on the stories that we take. Maybe a different headline, maybe a funnier angle. I’ve no problem with intellectual copyright anyways.

“I’m sorry,” he adds, “I’m probably a bit hippy about the whole internet anyways.”

With such a prolific history in publishing and media, Ryan must have plans for the future. “With Broadsheet I’ve genuinely no idea what’s going to happen. We’d just like to keep it going for as long as we can – without all of us dying of starvation! We’d love to update it regularly for a full 24 hours, every hour throughout the night. So people who are expats could log on whenever and it would be there.”

Rethinking primary music education in Ireland Eamonn Bell asks why children’s music education in Ireland is still seen as an elitist model, and argues it should be a more mainstream subject

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tymied by political and pedagogical myopia, the Irish primary music education system is in need of serious reconsideration.

Children – are you young enough to remember? – typically leave school with a handful of monodic tin-whistle tunes and an amhrán or two, if they were lucky enough to have a teacher that overcame the fear of performing for their students.

They leave with little or no experience of, for example, polyphony or ensemble listening; both are construed either as godless skills or as telltale elements of a refined, classical style that is somehow inimical to equality in its intricacy and its perceived exclusivity.

Perhaps it’s worth reminding policymakers who decry classical musical education as the pursuit of an elite that a new kind of music education is not intended to produce talented professional recital musicians or concerto soloists, the likes of whom go on to provide services to a market of music-lovers for remuneration of varying levels of lucre.

The state (and the taxpayer) should not expect the return on this kind of

investment to manifest itself in the form of ticket sales in the concert halls of the nation, say, but in the evidence of a more subtle enrichment of every single child that passes through the compulsory education system.

Increased creativity in all means of expression, improved attentiveness and concentration, and an understanding of the immense powers of an art that surrounds us at almost every waking moment all follow from a comprehensive and successful music education regimen.

There is so much more to music education than the bored soccer (violin?) mom supervising the earsplitting scratching of her daughter or than the soul-crushing intensity of the European music conservatory production line.

Let us leave, then, the production of concert pianists and so on to the almost Darwinian mechanisms of selfselection and intensely specialised training that the economies of scale

dictate must be funded by a wealthier demographic, one more well connected in the world of music impresarios and “conservators” than most of us could ever afford to be.

Let us instead turn to universal music education of the kind envisaged

by Carl Orff in the 1920s, where group participation is central to the principles of his pedagogy; where, like it or not, music education is a socialist, internationalist policy: a policy that embraces both the musical developments of continental theoreticians and, most importantly, a fundamental equality of children before the musical instruments with which they are encouraged to experiment.

I think the lack of engagement with a policy that would implement a syllabus such as this is due to a broader refusal to internationalise (in the sense of socialism) on the part of a nation that has seen right-leaning governments since the foundation of the state.

“There is so much more to music education than the bored Violin Mom supervising the ear-splitting scratching of her daughter”

“Let us turn to a universal music education where group participation is central” It’s about time that educators identify with successful models in other states, Europe and abroad, and implement models that have already been shown to improve the quality of the children that learn under that pedagogy.

At the very least, they have an incumbent duty to understand fully what elements of foreign educational models are worth subsuming into an overhauled Irish system and what elements (if any) of the present Irish disaster are worth preserving.

Above all, they have the special responsibility to our youth to discard any political unease associated with the nations and the periods in history in which these pedagogies arose.

The hypocrisy of a system that embraces the results of B. F. Skinner’s brutal experiments in behavioural psychology, while it simultaneously feels uneasy adopting musical pedagogies developed in the unsavoury political climate of inter-war Europe,

is self-abnegating, especially when it comes to music.

Despite attempts all throughout history to commandeer music as a political force, either to benignly boost military morale or to embellish already insidious state propaganda, absolute music remains absolutely politically neutral. There are no left- or right-wing keys, or timbres that hate – just music.

When our policymakers realise this, and begin to embrace the pedagogical developments of the first half of the twentieth century, and ditch their notions of music education as the pursuit of an élite, then our children

“Embrace the pedagogical developments and ditch music education as the pursuit of an élite” will be all the richer for it.

Until that time, the introverted and conservative syllabuses of the present will continue to stagnate until the point where young people will refuse to engage with a patently outdated model – and will be lost to music.

TRINITY NEWS

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opinion@trinitynews.ie

The American Dream’s gone north According to Hugo O’Doherty, it’s not the US that Irish emigrants are heading for to find their fortunes, but Canada. Why does it promise more prosperity than its southern neighbour?

There are two prerequisites that must be met in order to have some success in American political life.

Firstly, you must profess, over and over, that the United States is the greatest and most exceptional country ever; secondly, you must regularly express your faith in a higher, celestial power.

What is remarkable is that the absolute, unquestioned loyalty to the American Dream is far more faith-based than the public expression of religiosity, often for political gain. The nominally secular notion of the American Dream has millions of devotees, all trying to find heaven on Earth. To knock it is to sign your own political death warrant.

The American Dream is a religion for theists and atheists alike.

Where is the new wave of Irish emigrants heading? Most of the usual suspects (Australia, Britain, Canada) have lined up at their airports to stamp Irish passports and working visas, but in this recession the US has been more reluctant. More Irish graduates and unemployed people are moving to Canada; they are the ones who will get a real chance of enjoying the American

Dream.

Compared to the US, Canadians work less, live longer and enjoy better health. With a lower unemployment rate, a stronger dollar (from a position in the 1980s when CAD$1 was worth

“Compared to the US, Canadians work less, live longer and enjoy better health” US$0.69c) and less sovereign and individual debt, Canada is now a better place to make money. Traditionally seen as deferential to their southern neighbours sloshing around in pools of capital in an entrepreneurial paradise, they now view the US, with its tattered economy, bloated debt and paralysed political system, more with pity than awe; in a recent Nanos Research poll, 86% said that their country holds more promise for prosperity.

The Canadian magazine Macleans has found that Canadians, with shorter

working hours and more time off, play more golf than any other nationality in the world and have more sex, with fewer teenage pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases and divorces than their American counterparts. They drink more but have fewer illnesses and live longer. Median income for Americans and Canadians is almost exactly the same, but in 2005 the average amount of personal debt was US$23,460 in Canada, as opposed to a whopping US$40,250 in the US. Although they may have slightly smaller homes, Canadians have a lot more real wealth. Those figures are from before America’s housing market crashed, suggesting even greater disparity in per capita debt just half a decade later. Canadians have a different definition of freedom.

Meanwhile in the US, debate within the Republican Party has focused on immigration, as potential presidential candidates fall over one another in a race to see who can build the biggest wall in the shortest amount of time across one of its two land borders. Green cards, once handed out like confetti to immigrants, many Irish among them, are now far harder to obtain. The post9/11 decade has seen politicians tending to view immigration through the lens of terrorism or national sovereignty rather than as an opportunity to add dynamism to the labour market. On the other hand, Canada now accepts more

The deprived society Sam Mealy discusses the food poverty situation in Ireland, which has reached emergency levels. How do we tackle starvation at home?

Food poverty is the inability to access a nutritionally adequate diet and the related adverse effects on health, culture and social participation. 15% of the Irish population experience some kind of food deprivation; this share rises to 35% for low-income groups.

63% of Irish lone parent households are food insecure, in that they are forced to make trade-offs between necessities such as food and medicine.

Many of these are concentrated in “food deserts” within urban areas, where fresh, nutritious food is limited by a lack of purchasing power and/or transportation. According to the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) it is up to ten times cheaper to provide calories in the form of unhealthy foods than it is in protective foods such as fruit, vegetables and fish. Healthy eating is simply not financially feasible for certain low-income groups in Ireland.

And as such, food poverty significantly contributes to rising obesity levels, which in turn constitutes a major contributory factor to healthcare inflation. Moreover, the lack of nutritious food causes children to regress physically, cognitively, academically and socially. This poses

serious repercussions for Ireland’s economic competitiveness down the line.

Such food poverty is generally a function of one’s command of economic resources as it disproportionately affects the most vulnerable segments of society: children, the elderly and unemployed, and those with disabilities. Food poverty is in this light

“We should conduct an inventory of publicly owned land within the city limits of Dublin” a social justice issue as well as one of economic welfare. Ireland is bound along with the other signatories of the 1966 UN Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to undertake all necessary measures to “ensure an equitable distribution of world food supplies in relation to need”.

Ireland is, furthermore, party to the 1992 Food and Agriculture Organisation’s World Declaration on

Nutrition which acknowledges “that access to nutritionally adequate and safe food is a right of each individual”.

These obligations of international law are currently unmet to the detriment of a significant portion of our citizenry and our collective economic wellbeing.

Taking international treaty obligations and a more prosaic national self-interest “properly understood” into account, I propose a modest policy that seeks to tackle this system of interconnected problems at the local level.

We should conduct an inventory of publicly owned land within the city limits of Dublin to assess its suitability for urban agriculture use.

Urban agriculture encompasses a broad remit: community gardens, market gardens, urban farms, farmers’ markets, and so on. Such an inventory could be conducted by the appropriate stakeholders and those with necessary expertise, such as Dublin City Council planning officials, urban agriculture groups (Healthy Food For All, Grow It Your Own, etc), residents’ associations, and graduate students.

As the amount of actual vacant public land is limited, such an inventory would include any land that could

86% of Canadians say their country promises more prosperity than the US

immigrants per capita than any other developed country.

During one of those aforementioned debates in Florida, fanatics in the audience shouted “let him die” as Congressman Ron Paul attempted to justify his belief that a hypothetical 30-year-old patient in a life-threatening situation should not receive care unless he was wealthy enough to pay hundreds of dollars per month for private insurance. This is the not-sosmall print of the modern American Dream. Note the capital “D” in

“American Dream.” Why is it so? More than anything, it is now a brand – an idea that can be sold and something into which they can invest their money and emotions, even if the winners are almost always those already at the top. Canada, meanwhile, is no longer a watered-down version of the US, though that reputation will take longer to change than the reality. While Americans have been busy pursuing happiness, Canadians have been living it. It is the true land of opportunity in North America.

potentially be used for agricultural production. The inventory would identify and categorise land owned by public agencies, map the size and distribution of such sites, and analyse city zoning codes to determine the permitted agriculture use of the sites.

The political feasibility of conducting such an inventory is high.

All stakeholders have an interest in this proposal, particularly during the currently inhospitable economic climate. Most of the data is readily available, it has just to be collated and analysed. Actual fieldwork and assessment of sites could be undertaken by students.

Admittedly, the obstacles to actually converting public land into suitable spaces for agriculture use are much higher – altering zonal statuses, sourcing funding, maintaining sites, etc. – than carrying out the inventory itself. However, the success of The Diggable City: Making Urban Agriculture a Planning Priority (an inventory conducted in Portland in 2005) suggests that an inventory in Dublin could have similar success.

Accepting the potential problems then, the potential benefits are manifest. The inventory would inform future policy by Dublin City Council and community-based organisations in their efforts to address the issues of food poverty, public health, and educational systems.

Urban agricultural programmes have positive multifunctional effects: they contribute to sustainable food production, provide green jobs, environmental services, and

educational opportunities, and bolster civic engagement. The direct benefits to food insecure children are obvious: access to fresh, nutritious food enhances health, and the provision of skills through gardening programmes reduces criminality rates and grants long-term skills.

Obviously a few community gardens and environmental programmes

“63% of Irish lone parent households are forced to make trade-offs between necessities such as food and medicine” won’t “solve” the problem of national food poverty, but urban agriculture represents a direct, multifaceted strategy of alleviation that engages the local community.

More broadly, enacting urban agriculture initiatives represents a means of reconnecting Dubliners with Dublin. As an ever-expanding array of labour-saving technologies disconnects us from our surrounding environment, the instinct to critically consider our impact on the physicalecological infrastructure that sustains human communities lessens. This gives rise to a thoughtless and often inefficient consumption of resources.

And it more degradingly gives rise to an apathy for our fellow citizens’ social and economic welfare.

On discussing the merits of Plato’s Symposium

N

o one, so far as I am aware, has as yet challenged the intellectual brilliance of Senator David Norris and for that reason he was appointed to a Junior Lectureship in English in 1968. But brilliance is as often envied as it is admired and in many respects David Norris has been the victim rather than the beneficiary of his own brilliance.

The ending of his academic career in 1994 (for anyone who knows something of the turmoils in the School of English) ought to be seen as a personal tragedy rather than a public scandal.

His loss to the world of scholarship has undoubtedly led to a gain in public debate in a political world that nowadays is not overburdened with eloquence.

25 OCTOBER, 2011

Of course Senator Norris’s high public profile and especially his willingness to engage in frank

A VIEW FROM NEW SQUARE

GERALD MORGAN

discussion on subjects that many wish only to avoid was bound to create difficulties in the conduct of a presidential campaign. After all, what political figure has discussed more candidly than he such issues as abortion, drugs and the age of consent?

But how many young Irish Catholic girls and women make the lonely journey to England each year to have abortions? They are our responsibility.

As for the war against drugs, it has been a conspicuous failure in Ireland as in the rest of Europe. And is there not something to be said in favour of a principle of consent backed by judicial review when the mere determination of age cannot resolve all sexual and emotional problems? These are matters in which moral posturing has been preferred to wrestling with moral dilemmas. All of us can make

high-sounding statements of moral principle or political aspiration. They cost nothing to those who make them and are often made at the expense of the poor and underprivileged. No doubt it has been his public stand on the issue of homosexuality that makes Senator Norris the peculiar recipient of hard questions on these matters in respect of public policy. But they are hard questions that we all need urgently to address and I applaud the worthy senator for addressing them.

Fittingly it was Senator Norris’s willingness to discuss the merits of Plato’s Symposium that marked the emergence of public disapproval on the part of an establishment that has made of public taxation a reward for irresponsible bankers and reckless developers. I am alarmed to think that there may still be some copies of

this noxious work (some perhaps in the original Greek) in our famous old library. Senator Norris’s reference to Plato as the greatest of philosophers ought not to go unchallenged and some of his presidential competitors will no doubt wish to challenge it in their closing perorations. Aquinas and Dante may agree with him on the greatness of Plato but both are quite clear (as is the medieval world in general) about the superiority of Aristotle, “Il maestro di color che sanno / the master of them that know.”

But I can only congratulate Senator Norris on raising the educational tenor of public debate in this fashion. His alma mater will be proud of him as no doubt he is proud of us (Ireland’s premier university). gmorgan1066@gmail.com

16 EDITORIAL HEAD TO HEAD: THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

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

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SEARCHING FOR STATEHOOD AS THE presidential election approaches, it is not just the Irish premiership that deserves our attention. It is the Middle East, which remains in the midst of a milestone in statehood.

The ‘progress’ made so far in the Arabic word is evident: Osama Bin Laden and Muammar Gaddafi dead, Hosni Mubarak imprisoned, Ben Ali of Tunisia sentenced to 35 years and Ratko Mladic awaiting trial.

It seems that the West are onlookers to a movement that has overthrown its tyrants with cataclysmic contagion.

Yet it would be wrong to assume that western nations should act as bystanders to the next stage of events – ensuring the Arab Spring will bloom into democracy.

The aftermath of revolution should not be characterised by celebration in the West, but with caution. This is because the Arab Spring was at heart a movement of liberation, not of liberalism. The revolutions of Tunisia and Egypt were not about women’s rights. The Muslim Brotherhood is not concerned about constitutional democracy. Facets of democracy which we take for granted: tolerance, freedom of speech, welfare and – to an extent – secularism, are not at the forefront of these freedom fighters’ minds.

This presents a paradox for democratic nations.

While many may be willing to shoulder responsibility for ensuring peaceful transition in the Arabic world, the notion of western influence is highly controversial in societies founded on traditionalist values. The wounds of intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan – and most recently, Libya –are still tangible.

However, we are not powerless to prevent authoritarianism emerging once more from the ashes of revolution.

The seeds of democracy can be sewn by ensuring a viable economic framework is in place to create an effective framework for democracy. Influence, in its most palpable form, is not military. It is economic.

Semantics aside, democracy is a highly contingent concept. It needs stability, both political and economic, in order to function effectively. We need to look beyond the rhetoric of liberation and realise that without international aid, these nations will never realise their democratic potential.

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IT IS THEY WHO ARE THE ONE PER CENT FIRST THEY came to Wall Street in their masses to express their outrage at corporate greed and social inequality. Then they filtered from the US to reach the North West corner of Europe. They are the self-styled 99 per cent.

The Irish outpost of the Occupy Movement, however, fails to live up to this epithet. From the outset, Trinity’s new neighbours on Dame Street were bound to represent a minority of the population.

Admittedly, the diversity among the protestors outside Central Bank is striking: young professionals, students, the unemployed and city workers have formed an alliance overnight as part of the movement.

However, the anti-capitalist banner of the protest is one that will inevitably alienate the moderate majority of Irish people. While most are quick to berate the greed of the banking sector – such as the perverted logic that a €20m pension constitutes ‘belt-tightening’ – to dismiss the banking sector as a whole is a step too far for many.

The movement needs to address the banking crisis in a way which avoids extremities. Calls to withdraw from the European Central Bank, or even the European Union, are hyperbolic and prevent the Government from taking public discontent seriously.

If this protest plans on remaining put until its demands are met, this newspaper can only hope the snow holds off this winter.

“I want a transformative President who will fully utilise the office” EOIN O’DRISCOLL

IN RECENT times, the question “Does Ireland need a President?” has often been asked. Many have come to see the office as serving little to no purpose and being naught but a waste of taxpayers’ money.

In some ways, it is hard to argue against such claims. The President of the Republic of Ireland wields little constitutional power. In fact, in direct terms, the President is virtually powerless.

However, that does not mean that the President cannot have an important role to play in Irish Governance.

As head of our state, the President can wield enormous, symbolic power. They can wield huge influence in directing the national narrative during their tenure of office.

Though many Uachtaráin have been fairly anonymous and treated the Áras as little more than a particularly luxurious retirement home, Mary Robinson’s Presidency showed us the potential that the office holds. She was able to lead the charge in instituting numerous liberalising reforms and transforming the nation.

I am voting for Gay Mitchell because I want a transformative President who will utilise the office to its full potential. I don’t want another retiree or another President happy just to sit, smile and look pretty at photo shoots with other heads of state. I want a President who I can be proud of, who will utilise the office to its full potential and help move Irish society forward.

Gay Mitchell understands the role of the Presidency and the true potential of the office. In his first statement of the campaign, where he confirmed his intention to seek the office of President, he said that “making legislation is not the role of the President but he or she... can make a visual statement about the type of inclusive and forward looking society we can be.”

With the Celtic Tiger, we lost something es-

sential to the Irish character. We became obsessed with the accumulation of wealth. We lost our sense of community. We became self obsessed and individualistic. Our once tightknit community based social structure became unravelled.

We became obsessed with our rights, what people owed us and we forgot about our responsibilities, what we owed to each other.

Gay Mitchell wants to change this. Gay Mitchell wants to change this. He articulates a vision of an Irish society removed from the rampant individualism that swept the nation during the Celtic Tiger and making local communities the focus our society.

He sees problems like depression and suicide, inextricably linked to isolation and the lack of a sense of community and has dedicated himself to tackling them. He has seen the sad interlinking of our growth in wealth (experienced over the Celtic Tiger) and a decrease in mental health across the country.

The vision the Gay Mitchell articulates for the Irish Presidency is one that will work to fix Irish society’s current ills.

However, another reason that I will be voting for Gay Mitchell is that I can be proud of how he will represent us as a nation abroad.

Gay Mitchell is proud to represent Irish ideals abroad.

Gay Mitchell is not ashamed of his ideals but proud of them. He believes wholeheartedly in the sanctity of human life and therefore the abhorrence of the death penalty and has campaigned tirelessly over the years for its abolition internationally. I am confident that he will display the same tenacity and fervour in expressing Irish ideals abroad when he is elected to the Áras.

“Higgins recognises the base and shallow manner of the Celtic Tiger” NEIL WARNER

AN IRISH presidential election is a strange thing, both in terms of the rarity with which one takes place and the issues which it brings to the fore. Even in international terms it is unusual; there are hardly any other countries that directly elect an almost purely ceremonial head of state through the general populace.

Yet this strangeness also presents us with an opportunity, for it provides an election in which the important but mundane details of budget strategies and growth forecasts are cast aside and in which we can instead engage in a wider discussion about the values which we would like our society to embody.

This, after all, should be the primary function of the presidency. A president, at his or her best, should set the pace for the self-development and self-identity of the nation which they represent and start a discourse about the next steps in the evolution of the Irish state and society.

Mary Robinson was able to use her presidency to build a dialogue that reached out to previously marginalised groups such as minorities and the Irish diaspora, while Mary McAleese did something similar, particularly with Northern Ireland.

Given our current situation, Ireland needs a president who will initiate a new discourse about the meaning of Irish culture and society and our place in the world.

In the wake of a massive economic contraction brought about by the period of collective national lunacy that was the property bubble, the massive injustice of the redistribution of billions of euro in public money to wasteful and wealthy bankers and the loss of much of our economic sovereignty to the IMF, ECB and European Commission, we need to engage in a national conversation about where we go from here.

This is why Michael D Higgins stands head and shoulders above the other candidates for the Áras. Higgins unlike all of the others, holds an ambitious vision for a new Ireland, for start-

ing a new discourse about where we are going as a people, built on an awareness of the fundamental errors in the social, cultural and economic identity which we developed during the Celtic Tiger and which inexorably led us to where we are now.

Perhaps more importantly, Higgins recognises the base and shallow manner by which we came, during the Celtic Tiger, to define ourselves, both internationally in terms of Ireland’s place in the world, and as individually as citizens of this republic.

On a global level, superior self-satisfaction mixed with a sordid form of paddywhackery to supplant any sense of wider dignity that we might have once had.

Domestically, we were reduced to a grotesque individualism and a society built on the glorification of greed at the expense of wider concepts such as social solidarity and wider self-development.

The candidacy of the other leading candidate in this race, that of Seán Gallagher, perhaps embodies a very different, and less perceptive, conception of what it should means to be Irish and what the future of Irish society should looks like.

Let us leave aside his long-time membership of Fianna Fáil, the party which caused the economic crash and subscribed more than any other to the type of short-termist gombeen selfishness which caused it.

More significantly, Gallagher’s focus on the role of jobs, largely irrelevant to the presidency, suggests a perception of our place in history that simply wants to get back to the way things were in 2007, without looking in any way at the underlying causes behind what has happened subsequently.

His glorification of fundamentally self-serving ‘entrepreneurship’ over values such as public service and creativity, also highlights Gallagher’s lack of insight in this area.

TRINITY NEWS

17

letters@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

PEARSE STREET GATE OPENING TIMES CLARIFIED IN RESPONSE to a letter in the last issue: Access times for all entrances are available on tcd.ie/maps/access-times. php.

The gate in question is open between 8am and 10am and between 4pm and 6.30pm, but only on weekdays.

The only deviations from these times would be if there was a special event taking place in College, i.e. some events in the Science Gallery when the

Pearse St. Gate (East) closure time may be extended to facilitate exit from the gallery.

Other events when the opening/ closing times change such as Trinity Ball, Christmas/New Year closure are flagged well in advance to staff and students.

Pat Morey Chief Steward

DEMOCRACIES MUST GET RID OF DEATH PENALTY

Madam -

THIS FORNIGHT IN HISTORY

I WOULD like to express my support for Eoin O’Driscoll’s article ‘Death penalty, in a democracy?’ of 08 October 2011.

As a US citizen, I still find it shocking that this practice is still in place and have been campaigning as part of a pressure group to try and get it abolished in every American state.

I hope that the incoming Irish President will have some sway in the matter to abolish this archaic practice.

Yours, etc.

Lucy Donnell Science Graduand

Right: Issue 1, Volume 1 of Trinity News published on Wednesday 28 October 1953 Below: The issue also covered a 6-3 win by Dublin University Football Club over London Irish

Words we don’t use much any more

OLD TRINITY PETER HENRY

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iarmaid Ó Muirithe’s Irish Times column has led to another book. Words We Don’t Use (Much Anymore) is a curious list of obsolete vocabulary, ancient words driven to extinction by TV, modern media and, as the author says, “education, if that’s what it is”. Ó Muirithe - an MA and MLitt of this university - covers Ireland and further afield in his new book. But Trinity College has many of its own peculiar words, forgotten or scorned by recent generations.

Some words have survived thanks to their official use – but only just.

You might be a “Junior Freshman” or “Senior Sophister”, but in speech many go with “first year” and “fourth year.”

“Michaelmas”, “Hilary” and “Trinity” terms survive, but Americanisms like “second semester” threaten those names in daily conversation.

Other words are barely remembered. In the 18th century, “buck” had a well-known meaning around Dublin. The buck was a rowdy, troublemaking Trinity student. The word survives at Buck’s Townhouse on Leeson Street – Buck Whaley was a part of the Trinity students’s boisterous

25 October, 2011

group, although not a Trinity man himself.

One completely forgotten word, “colfabias”, I have only encountered in a couple of old slang dictionaries.

“Colfabias”, or “colfabis”, was the student’s word for a toilet around 1820.

This is apparently a Latinised Irish word, though a Latinisation of what word I cannot tell.

Already this term I mentioned the “college skip”. This was Trinity’s own word for a student’s servant, possibly a combination of Oxford and Cambridge’s words for their servants, “scout” and “gyp”. Our skips kept the tools of the job in ground-floor skipperies. Trinity News reported the last of the skips on a front page in November 1962.

Here we once - and still do, if you prefer - lived in “rooms” in college.

A student would have responded blankly to any use of “on-campus accommodation” before 1970. And the undergraduate’s roommate was called

College, Dublin, has become Trinity College Dublin everywhere now even in the new Statutes. This ugly construction follows the use of UCD and some of the London universities, abandoning our ancient name and using something like a corporate brand.

That this idiocy is admitted in the college’s own branding, “Trinity College Dublin” says the logo, but underneath it: “Coláiste na Tríonóide, Baile Átha Cliath.” If they can’t stomach it in Irish, why allow it in English? pehenry@tcd.ie

Above: “Trinity College Porters” in distinctive uniform and cap

Above: Cover of Words We Don’t Use...

his “wife”, a word which may have died when sets began to be shared by three or more people.

The “jib” is explained by a TCD: A College Miscellany editorial of November 1953: “Jib is a traditional Trinity word meaning first-year student. It used to be in general use, rather like skip and wife today, but in recent years the Calendar word freshman seems to have driven it out. TCD is an old and backward publication, and persists in calling freshmen jibs.” Sadly, that editorial turned out to be jib’s obituary: it was never used in Trinity News, which began publication that term.

Parties in college were called “sprees” in the late 19th century. One piece in Trinity Tales says that around 1970 a party in the Hist was a “blind” and in the Boat Club a “thrash.” “Hop” was also a popular term for a college bash in the 1950s and 1960s.

Trinity’s “porters” were once a part of life here. The word is not special to Trinity - Oxford and Cambridge retain theirs - but it is sad that it has been abandoned in favour of “security guards”, Our porters once had a distinctive uniform and cap, also ditched during less conservative years.

The Boat Club has a couple of its own words. Trinity oarswomen are affectionately called “mares” by the men. And the cricket sweater for senior eight also has its own word: the “magpie”. I am told that the “magpie” may reappear this year after a long absence.

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ords fall out of use. But commas are removed from use by unthinking minimalists. Trinity

Above: The “college skip” and pail

18 COMMENTARY

newsfeatures@trinitynews.ie

Is féider linn attract tourism As visitors to Ireland increase, Katie Fanagan decides that tourism is what we need to get the country back on track

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ith over 1.95 million people frequenting our friendly shores from May to July this year, it signals a significant increase from recent years.

It seems that, finally, there is light at the end of the tunnel for our dreary looking economy. The opinions on the international stage concerning Ireland do seem surprising to us. Yet the homework from the Central Statistics Office certainly give the country’s morale a boost. The number of tourists had been down significantly due to the disaster that was the “volcanic ash debacle”, not to mention a financial crash which put the country in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. Despite these “minor” setbacks, tourism numbers have increased and are due to rocket if the newly stimulated Tourism Board have anything to do with it.

“It seems that, finally, there is light at the end of the tunnel for our dreary looking economy” The doom and gloom terrorising the country in recent months has led us to ignore the developments regarding tourism in Ireland.

Numbers of tourists visiting here rose more than 15% in the second quarter from a year ago, as high-profile visits by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and US President Barack Obama helped paint the country in a positive light. The excitment these two world-

famous figures brought also triggered a wave of overseas interest. The Queen’s visit has broken the mould in terms of our relationship with the United Kingdom, especially the English whose visits to Ireland have increased by 8.8% since her arrival.

Who knew our tolerance level in allowing a rendition of “God save the Queen” to be sung back-to-back with our own anthem could in reality contribute to saving this nation?

Little needs to be said on why Obama, the people’s president, has contributed.

However, I’d like to pass the gratitude over to Trinity’s very own Barack (Aaron Heffernan); sorry America, we won’t be needing your help any longer!

Aside from the contribution of others, Ireland now takes the reigns in a bid to bring in over €12-16 million into the country. So begins a new initiative from the Irish government which targets 2013 as the year when we make our great comeback.

Leo Varadkar wishes to welcome back all of our fellow peers who have set up camp in unfamiliar shores.

The minister has coloquially termed 2013 “The Gathering”, whereby over 325,000 people are expected to frequent our cities once more.

The programme of events will provide local tourism enterprises with a dynamic platform to showcase the range of unique cultural activities we have to offer. If the Father Ted Festival (“tedfest”) in recent years is anything to go by, “we ain’t seen nothing yet”.

Raise your glasses folks, as our economy is saved by “drink, feck and arse!”.

With this amusing yet popular event as the backdrop to the project, honing in on festivals such as Paddy’s Day, Arthur’s Day and Oxygen will allow for a

Lousie Harvey Contributing Writer

Obama’s trip to Ireland and the Queen’s visit could bring €298m to Irish tourism

unique and more personal approach in recovering the nationalistic element of our country.

Minister Varadkar wants to invite the world to Ireland as a means of reinstalling the pride of a nation: “It’s about getting communities, local authorities and sports clubs and families behind the whole concept, and getting actively involved and inviting people to come.”

I suppose if this fails to take off, there is always Bollywood. With its catchy music and peculiar costumes sparking interest amongst the Arts Block and the Hamilton, this film will also be viewed by approximately 1 million people all over the world.

This is in the hope that the rich Indian middle-classes will decide to visit our country, not to mention all other nations who are impressed! Ireland will thus be placed on a global platform of international interest as a visitor destination, as well as a potential location for investment. Jai ho anyone?

So there it is, Irish tourism has a new

face, with a focus on uniting us together to show the world what we have to offer. Building and expanding on events and attractions in Ireland is certainly a starting point. If famous personalities continue to visit in the future, maybe tourism may save us after all. This pro-

“Irish tourism has a new face, with a focus on uniting us together to show the world what we have to offer”

The Downton Abbey cast

The fog of war clouds over Mexico William Scott

he is the largest exporter of weapons in the world. It’s very difficult to live with such a neighbour.”

Calderón’s newfound willingness to call for US accountability is a refreshing change from years of tepid diplomatic co-operation. The policies of the US have largely been to pump money

Contributing Writer

“Juarez was labeled as the most violent area of the world outside of declared war zones”

A Mexican drug cartel in Honduras has been found out by investigative police

set fire to a casino in the northern industrial capital of Monterrey. It was a drug-cartel extortion operation and is the result of a turf war between the Gulf Cartel and Zetas, a criminal mili-

“America’s unrelenting desire for drugs is driving the cartels to new heights of violence” tia lead by former special forces commandoes. This comes after several gruesome months in Monterrey, where beheaded corpses are routinely hung from overpasses to serve as a warning to those who might dare go against the wishes of los narcos.

The casino attack marked a change

in philosophy of Mexico’s long serving President Felipe Calderón. Until now he has pursued an aggressive military solution to the crisis. This has yielded mixed results. Calderón will point towards the many successful operations taking out major kingpins and druglords as key victories. Yet deaths related to the violence caused by the resulting fragmentation of the cartels have soared. The attack in Monterrey seemed to be the last straw for Calderón. He has now pointed the finger squarely at the United States. This is both for its role as insatiable consumer of drugs and as willing supplier of weapons. When asked about Mexico’s relationship with her northern neighbour in an interview with Time magazine, Calderón observed: “We live in a building in which my neighbour is the largest consumer of drugs in the world and everybody wants to sell him drugs through my window. At the same time,

EVERY SUNDAY night at nine o’clock I feel a hush come over the city. The normal honking of horns, chattering of teeth and whirl of sirens is replaced by the serene sound of cellos, signifying the beginning of the current TV phenomenon Downton Abbey.

I don’t know many students or adults who don’t tune in on Sundays to find out what’s going on in Yorkshire.

How has just a simple period drama (of which there are many) managed to captivate the nation to the point where we’re all agreeing with Lord Grantham when he says “Downton is my third parent and my fourth child.”

The series follows an imaginary upper-class family and their servants living in a society on the verge of change and addresses how each of them accommodate this.

Downton has managed to do something no Austen or Dickens TV adaptation could; it has enchanted a younger audience and introduced them to the “lovely” world of period drama. It takes people away from the mind-numbing TV entertainment of Big Brother or celebrities munching on bugs in a jungle and gets them interested in some semi-

posed scheme could very well be the glimmer of hope needed to reinvigorate Ireland and give us that familiar spark we have been missing for some time.

Let us turn our historic past into a tourism future and wake up to the possibilities around us! Leo take it away, we are all behind you.

WORLD FOCUS: MEXICO

I’M SURE to most of you the violence that has raged in Mexico over the past five or so years has become a blur of statistics and seemingly fictional stories of scenes you’d associate more with films like The Godfather rather than world news. Indeed much of the reason why news of the atrocities has been less reported is the normalization of this violence. Take for example the city of Juarez on the US border. Following over 2,000 murders in 2009, Juarez was labeled “the most violent zone in the world outside of declared war zones”. In 2010 the number of murders climbed to 3,075. Facts like these have almost become ordinary for Mexicans who encounter serious violence on a daily basis.

When trying to understand why a country with a strong industrial economy and distinct geographical advantages has slipped into such a state of civil chaos, sadly, we are forced to look to the US. While it may be easy for Mexico’s northern neighbours to distance themselves from the violence by telling themselves that corruption and bad policing is the main cause, Americans should really acknowledge that they are in fact indirectly responsible for the digging of the mass graves by los narcos. It is America’s unrelenting desire for the drugs available south of the border that is driving the cartels to new heights of violence and boldness, desperately in pursuit of the dollars from the American consumers of recreational drugs.

17 June marked the 40th anniversary of President Richard Nixon’s call to arms for the “war on drugs”. Since 1971 over $1 trillion has been poured into this “war”, with little conceivable return. In fact the situation in Mexico is at its worst. In August 52 innocent civilians were killed when traffickers

More than just drama

into border control and, more recently, the arming and training of Mexico’s anti-narcotics forces. They have failed to address the real issue - the American appetite for drugs. President Obama has talked recently of a “shared responsibility” in the war against drugs but the line of policy remains unchanged.

He talked of putting “unprecedented pressure” on the cartels but failed to mention the real question: when will America clean up its act?

The United States is the top consumer of Mexican heroin, methamphetamines and marijuana, and as much as 90% of all cocaine sold in the United States enters the country through Mexico. In many ways these are the most important figures in the war on drugs.

They say that the only time when the murders and violence stop in Mexico is when the national football team is playing a game, with little or no reported murders occurring during the 90 minutes that everyone, druglord or policeman, are glued to the screen.

It is going to be a long journey back to peace and quiet on the streets of Juarez and Monterrey. We can only hope that Calderón’s new direction for Mexico is matched by a similar energy from his northern neighbours, without whom nothing will change.

nal moments in history: the suffragette movement, the conflict within class hierarchy, Irish republicanism and of course WWI to name but a few.

The programme has not only managed to cross generations but also the channel. It has been extremely well received here in Ireland, perhaps due to the strong Irish presence in the cast and especially the increasing profile of the chauffeur, Branson, who represents the Irish struggles of the early twentieth century.

It is elements like this which help evoke old feelings which can still have resonance today. Moreover, the programme recently set the Guinness World Record for “The Highest Critical Review Ratings for a TV Show”; consequently making it the most critically well-received programme in the world, no doubt contributing to its win of no less than seven awards at the Emmys earlier this year.

The beauty of Downton not being an adaptation, especially for its creator Julian Fellowes, is that it can go in whatever direction it wants, being that there are no audience expectations.

This is perhaps where other programmes have suffered. Furthermore it is this element that helps contribute to the fact that Downton Abbey is pure escapism in the most pleasant form.

It is beautifully made, carefully acted and, according to the Guardian newspaper, “has all the ingredients for heaven”. This multi-generational costume drama has really managed to get the younger generation to engage with real issues.

After watching it last weekend in a house full of boys and being “shushed” all the way through due to my comments on “pretty dresses”, I realized it is in fact the perfect programme which can enthrall anyone and everyone. No one can keep their mind off whether Matthew and Mary will ever get it together. Will Edith always be a bitter spinster? And what outrageously brilliant comment will Maggie Smith come out with next?

I suppose we will all have to wait until next Sunday.

TRINITY NEWS

SCIENCE 19

science@trinitynews.ie

Science shows its creative side Anthea Lacchia talks to Dr. Michael John Gorman, founding director of the Science Gallery, about the crossover between art and science

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ake a dash of art, add a pinch of science and shake vigorously: innovative ideas are brewing! During a talk held recently in connection with the Dublin Contemporary 2011 art exhibition, Dr. Michael John Gorman, director of the Science Gallery, explored the relationship between art and science and how it relates to the works at the exhibition.

Dublin Contemporary showcases the work of over 114 Irish and international artists. The main exhibition space is Earlsfort Terrace, with several other Dublin galleries also taking part.

Science and art have long been bedfellows. In fact, the historical times during which they have been most closely associated tend to be characterized by cultural flourish.

One needs only to think of Leonardo da Vinci and the spirit of renaissance Italy, but one could also look back to Pythagoras, who first applied mathematics to music in the fifth century BC. Art and science can inform each other and, as Gorman explained, new science can sometimes come from art: “Artists have freedom to explore and are not tied down by publication and grant requirements. For example, Donald Ingber, who was trying to understand how cells support themselves, was inspired by Kenneth Snelson’s tensegrity sculptures to develop the tensegrity model of the cell.”

With some artworks, it is not clear where art ends and science begins. Some of the works in Dublin Contemporary, such as blow up 91 – subatomic decay patterns after possible histories by Kysa Johnson, are related to this crossover: “The Kysa Johnson work is a portrait of particle collisions.

When you see it, you feel as if you were inside a particle accelerator. This is an artist who is playing with how particle collisions are represented and using that as a graphic language.”

Another work that relates to science is Untitled (Architeuthis), the sculpture of a squid by David Zink Yi. This lifesize ceramic creation conveys a sense of the mystery associated with the elusive deep-sea creature. Gorman comments: “It’s marvellous. When I see it, it throws me back to the ceramic work of Bernard Palissy, the French 16th century potter.”

Left: Kysa Johnson’s ‘Blow up 91 - Subatomic Decay Patterns after Possible Histories’ Right: David Zink Yi, Untitled (Architeuthis)

But how do these works compare to the Science Gallery’s exhibits? “It’s a really worthwhile exhibition and it includes a few works that touch on this area of where art meets science, but most of the work in the show doesn’t.

One difference is that if you go around the Science Gallery you’ll actually get to meet the creators and have opportunities to do workshops and activities with them. The Kysa Johnson piece about particle physics could conceivably have been in the Science Gallery, but the difference would be that there would be a physicist in the room who could actually tell you what it’s all about. Now you can experience it as a kind of aesthetic confusion, but you’re not going to have a clue about what the difference between a muon and a tauon is!”

So innovative ideas often stem from interdisciplinary approaches, but ridding oneself of disciplinary shackles can be tricky. For more on these ideas, read Artscience by David Edwards.

“The historical times during which science and art have been associated are characterised by cutural flourish” Gorman’s educational background is an inspiring tale of interdisciplinary hop skipping: “I originally wanted to be a musician, but then I actually met a physicist and ended up studying physics and philosophy at Oxford. I found physics absolutely fascinating.

Then I did a PhD in history in Italy. I was looking at 17th century history and the history of science, the world of

Galileo. I find that was a rich moment of art and science coming together. That ignited my interest in the crossover area between art and science because I also worked at exhibitions in Italy.

That was really exiting. Today I derive a great satisfaction from engaging with a really broad group of people. I find that these kinds of projects, whether they’re exhibitions, performances or workshops, engage people in a different kind of a way and generate unexpected connections.”

The title and theme of the Dublin Contemporary exhibition is “Terrible Beauty: Art, Crisis, Change & The Office of Non-Compliance” and Gorman picked up on this during his talk: “I believe there is a crisis in the traditional model of education. I think our education systems are designed around specialisation and compliance.

“It’s funny that the theme of this exhibition is the office of noncompliance. Our educational system was effectively based on the model of the factory and the assembly line, where you bolt on pieces of knowledge at different levels and then you do a final examination where you check that all the pieces of knowledge have been appropriately bolted on.

“That’s simply not really developing the skills that people need. The world has changed in a very fundamental way since the advent of the internet and mobile technologies and we need people who are adaptable, flexible.

I think there is a revolution that is about to happen and we’re in that kind of crisis mode where we have a lot of anomalies associated with the system.

We can feel it creaking, but we haven’t yet made the leap into something new.”

Gorman’s long-term plans are connected to education: “At a really fundamental level, I’m interested in new approaches to learning. I think what I would really like is to see a

model of learning and education based on creativity emerge. It’s a big project and it will require a lot of people, but I would love to be a part of engineering that change in our educational structures and a catalyst for that. I think the Science Gallery is a beacon for a new approach to learning: it’s interdisciplinary, collaborative, socially connected and based on

“Our educational system was based on the model of the factory and assembly line. That’s not developing the skills people need” creative projects. To rethink education around creativity I think is a very exciting project.” Why not galvanize your creative-thinking powers at the Science Gallery’s latest exhibition, “Surface Tension: the Future of Water”? It runs until 20 January 2012 and includes events, artworks and a lab in the gallery. Visitors are invited to bring water samples from their locality to be analyzed at a water lab. “The future of water is such an important theme. We’re facing all sorts of issues around scarcity, even in Ireland, which is bizarre. We had a water shortage last January; who would have thought? The world now has seven billion people and the 1% available freshwater in the world hasn’t changed. Are we going to have enough freshwater to go around?”

TO READ MORE GO TO DUBLINCONTEMPORARY.IE

Facebook should see the Plus side Jawad A. Anjum Contributing Writer

RIGHT OFF the bat, it’s impossible to discuss Google Plus without bringing up its big, blue, dominating brotherin-law, Facebook, the Coca Cola of social networking. In every aspect it is painstakingly compared to the market leader. Google’s “Circles” are the equivalent of Facebook’s “lists”, the “stream” equates to Facebook’s “news feed” and they both have a chat feature.

Google has shown initiative in a number of areas. Their “photos” section also has editing features for a quick-fix to your dark or unbalanced pictures.

Being a Google project, its “search” feature is currently unsurpassable.

Also noteworthy is how changing the

privacy settings are a breeze when you consider the same for Facebook is no easier than solving a Rubik’s cube.

The aesthetic design is classic Google: clean and minimalistic. This means less rubbish occupying valuable screen space, resulting in a platform that is easy to pick up and get to grips with. Of course, the mobile platform has developed alongside its desktop counterpart. As well as the free iPhone app, its integration with Google’s own Android system has huge potential.

The answer to the famous “like” button is the “+1” button, which also appears next to every search item, taking advantage of their dominance as the world’s premier search engine.

There is a dedicated “games” tab with all the available games neatly

“It’s difficult to see Google Plus overtake the socal networking giant any time soon; there are over 700 million Facebook users” 25 OCTOBER, 2011

displayed, easy to browse and with the social aspect of sharing scores with your friends.

Amidst all this, the most ingenious new addition to the realm of social networking is “Hangouts”. It is essentially a group video chat feature but so much more. It’s able to detect who is talking and stream just their video to avoid congesting your bandwidth.

You can share your computer screen with others, draw together, create and edit documents together and hold “hangouts” based on specific topics.

Finally, you can broadcast your live videos and group chat to the world.

As for being a “Facebook killer”, it’s difficult to see Google Plus overtaking the social networking giant any time soon; they are 700 million users behind the competition. Remember Orkut, Google’s first attempt at social networking? Me neither.

That being said, Google’s track record shows they are quick to learn and are taking a more “Gmail”

ASTRONOMY

Trinity spots brightest supernova in 20 years

THE POWER of Trinity College’s Monk telescope on top of the Fitzgerald building has been proven once again. At the end of August Senior Sophister astrophysics student James McNamara observed the SN2011FE supernova taking place in the M101 galaxy, roughly 21 million light years away. Mr. McNamara is working on testing and calibrating the telescope to demonstrate its capabilities despite the disadvantage of being located in a brightly lit city. This is the brightest supernova observed in twenty years, lasting over a month, and can be used to accurately measure the distance to the surrounding stars.

TECHNOLOGY

Electronics innovation A GROUP working in the Clean Energy lab in CRANN have created a new transparent semiconductor.

The group, led Dr. Igor Schvets, published a paper detailing a new p-type semiconductor based on chromium oxide. This was made by simultaneously doping chromium oxide with magnesium and nitrogen to increase conductivity and transparency in the material. The initial discovery was made using an unrefined spraying technique so it will be up to a year before an improved sample is developed. The new material could eventually be applied in solar panels and other flat panel displays.

ENVIRONMENT

Huge ozone loss

A STUDY recently published in Nature has reported an unprecedented loss of ozone last year. The ozone layer is an area of the atmosphere that keeps out harmful ultraviolet rays. Since the 1980s, it has been documented that a hole above the polar ice caps forms each winter when the cooler temperatures allow the ozone to bond with man-made chlorine products in the air. This year marked an unusually long cold spell above the Arctic despite increased human activities which usually warm the region. Scientists have since warned against the dangers of such cold temperatures in the future; however it is still unclear what caused them.

RECOGNITION

Nobel prizes awarded

Google+ is A+ by some accounts

approach to this: starting with limited invites and slowly and steadily adding new features while tweaking the old ones. They call it a “project”, not a “product”. This is not even remotely finished and is bound to take some interesting leaps in the future. Mark Zuckerberg shouldn’t sit easy just yet.

Watch this space.

THE NOBEL prize in Physiology or Medicine went to Ralph Steinman, Bruce Beutler and Jules Hoffmann for their discoveries in Immunology.

Steinman’s was the third ever posthumous Nobel prize, announced just days following his death after a long battle against pancreatic cancer. The prize committee were unaware of the death at the time of the announcement, although they knew of his ill health. The Chemistry prize was awarded to Dan Shechtman for the discovery of quasicrystals, and Physics went to Saul Perlmutter, Brian P. Schmidt and Adam G. Riess for discovering the accelerating expansion of the universe.

Stephen Keane, Deputy Science Editor

20 TRAVEL

Pedal power’s gone positively global Wherever you are on holiday, do something that’s green, economical and good for your health, says Maud Sampson

W GET ON YOUR BIKE! CYCLING TIPS Free ride: All bike sharing schemes do not charge for the first 30 minutes. Make use of this: watch your minutes and return your bike to any station within half an hour, then rent a different bike to avoid any charge.

Secure: Avoid a hefty fine by ensuring when you return your bike the machine acknowledges you have returned it. Push the front wheel fully into the dock.

Helpfully, many docks have a light or sound indicator when the bike is secured.

Safety: Many stations offer helmets for rent. Take advantage of this - staying safe is cool - especially if you’re exploring a new area!

hat’s the best way to orientate yourself in a new city, save money and look cool at the same time? Simple answer: get on a bike. Places that are expensive, difficult or inconvenient to get to on public transport are at your mercy.

Whether you want to race around the sights, or amble along, the beauty of biking is that you set the pace.

Bike sharing is simple and logical.

24 hours a day, 7 days a week, you can rent a bike from a bike station around a city and explore the place on wheels. Bike share schemes allow tourists the convience of having a bike in a city, without the hassle of storing, maintaining or transporting it.

Cycling is a fun, thigh-toning and easy way to explore a place. Crucially, you save money on public transport.

As well as those endorphins all that exercise releases into your body during your holiday, your conscience can rest easy as bike sharing is as close to environmentally friendly as it gets.

No petrol, no fumes, no carbon dioxide emissions - it’s pedal power all the way.

In most cities, to get started simply find a bike station, choose the duration you want the bike for (one day/one week etc.) and pay with your credit card. An unlocking code is given to you, punch it in at the docking station to release a bike, and off you go.

Simple, easy, fast, and the first halfhour is free. You can return your bike at any station in the city.

Bike sharing has spread like wildfire across the major American cities, from Washington DC to San Francisco. In March 2011, Playboy playmate Francesca Frigo launched the “sexiest bike-sharing scheme yet”, according to The Independent newspaper, in Miami Beach. However sex comes at a price, and this is one scheme that seems to be unashamedly

You’re not the only one, Boris: Cycle hire schemes can be found in cities across the world for less than a euro per day of cycling

biased towards residents, as a one day initial rental costs $14, whilst a month is only $15! Fortunately this is an anomaly, and other cities have much more tourist-friendly prices, like London, where rental costs start from £1 per day.

Mayor of London Boris Johnson strongly backed the Barclays Cycle Hire scheme which has seen over one million unique rides by casual users (i.e. tourists) since it was launched in 2010. The interactive maps are particularly useful as they show the number of available bikes and parking spaces at each docking station. Developing countries are getting in on the action too. In India, the Ministry of Urban Development is preparing to launch a ten city public bike scheme, with Mumbai

leading the way with two bike sharing schemes already in place. Mexico City, a notoriously congested urban centre, launched EcoBici last year.

An unlimited number of 45-minute rides are allowed, but watch out for the 5,000 peso charge if a bike is not returned within 24 hours. China boasts the world’s largest bike sharing programme in Hangzhou, and it has been cleverly integrated into other forms of transport so stations are found every 100 yards.

You don’t have to travel abroad to take advantage of bike-sharing.

This year Dublin was ranked 9th in the Top 10 cycling cities in the world by Copenhagenize Consulting, above London and New York. The dublinbikes scheme was launched in 2009 and there are 44 stations

throughout the city centre with 550 bikes available. It costs just €2 for 3 days, and €10 for a Long Term Hire Card. Trinity even has its own bike station on campus next to the gym.

In April 2011, the “Your Dublin, Your Voice” survey revealed 95% of Dubliners think dublinbikes is the best thing that has happened to the city in recent years.

There are close to 300 bike share schemes worldwide. Since the Paris Vélib’ was launched in 2007, the number of cities adopting the bike sharing scheme has grown as people look for greener, cheaper and more effective ways to travel around a city.

Whatever part of the world you go to, bike sharing saves you money, stress and environmental guilt. You look good, you feel good.

Let’s go (couch) surfing Sophie Fitzgerald Deputy Travel Editor

NEVER HEARD of CouchSurfing before? You’re not alone. But tentatively type the term onto Youtube, as I did, and prepare to be bombarded with enthusiastic exclamations such as the above, from people all over the world who are eager to share their experiences of this wonderfully inexpensive form of travelling. So what, in the name of God, is this phenomenon we apparently have to try?

Quite simply, couchsurfing is the act of moving from one person’s house to another (often someone you haven’t previously met in person), sleeping in whatever spare space is available, i.e. a couch (but hopefully a bed!), and generally staying for a few days before moving on to the next city, the next couch and the next adventure.

It was an idea originally conceived in 1999 by Casey Fenton who, after booking a flight from Boston to Iceland, emailed

1,500 students from the University of Iceland asking if he could stay with one of them, which resulted in more than 50 offers of accomodation. The idea was finally launched in 2004,

“I’ve gotten to train with UFC fighters, stay at an all girls’ college, jump out of planes, snowboard, make amazing friends” and as it stands there are currently 3 million CouchSurfing profiles online, in 246 countries. Although initially the notion of staying in a total stranger’s house may seem = let’s be honest - a bit dodgy, the management company CouchSurfing International Inc. runs a well-organised operation.

People create online profiles of themselves for fellow

CouchSurfing might seem risky, but the website has safety measures in place

CouchSurfers to investigate carefully, before sending them a “CouchRequest” asking to stay in their house, with safety measures such as personal references and a credit card verification procedure regarded as being of the utmost importance.

As their website www.couchsurfing. com claims: “There are millions of people who want to freely welcome you into their home and show you what it’s really like where they live.” Indeed, it only takes a quick skim through some of the online blogs of previous surfers to have you itching to give it a go.

One such blogger is CouchSurfing Ori, a self-confessed “addict” to this cheap form of travel. Talking of his experiences, he says: “I’ve gotten to train with UFC fighters, stay at an all-girls’ college, jump out of planes, snowboard, make amazing friends.”

The list goes on for quite some time.

All of this, on top of hugely reduced accommodation costs and exotic new friends? Ah, g’wan.

So now that we’ve established your plans for next summer, how should you properly go about organising this?

Firstly, as in any of life’s situations, to get involved you have to get in with “The Crew”. This means joining the CouchSurfing website and creating a profile of yourself, which includes headings such as “Personal Description”, “CouchSurfing Experience”, “Philosophy”, “Movies, Musics, Books” and “Amazing Things I’ve Seen or Done”.

An excuse to give an overly detailed account of your life story, basically.

Have fun with it. From here, you can join online discussion groups where you can connect with people and

learn more about the places you’d like to visit. This is also a great way to find out about the frequent CouchSurfing events that are organised, such as camping trips, pub crawls and the New Year’s Eve party held in a different European city each year.

However, at a certain point you have to get serious (ha!). Now you have to find people to take you in, which means carefully going through the profiles of other CouchSurfers living in the appropriate city, and sending out some “Couchrequests” asking if you can stay with them. Once you’ve found someone, the fun really begins.

That is assuming, however, that you and your host don’t end up killing each other. One of the most exciting aspects of couchsurfing is striking up friendships with the weird and wonderful beings who agree to let you stay, so try to be a well-behaved guest.

If they’re anal about tidiness, don’t use the bannisters as a washing line. If the computer is off-limits, maybe don’t blast YouTube videos of Chris Crocker at 2am. It’s the little things. You have to remember that this is an experience for the host too, not just the surfer.

Says New Yorker Jared, a frequent host of CouchSurfers: “If you’re as fascinated with personal narrative as I am, then meeting people from a vast

array o f geographies a n d backgrounds can be incredibly enriching. House guests not only share stories and regional cuisine, but they also help clean, buy groceries and generally promote a harmonious atmosphere.” He then goes on to describe how many surfers return time and again, so that eventually it’s no different from an old friend coming to stay.

At the end of the day, there is a reason why CouchSurfing has become such a phenomenon of late. It provides an opportunity for you to see the world even when your bank balance leaves a little to be desired.

You could spend this summer scuba diving, bungee jumping; heck, you could even try actual surfing, all at hugely reduced costs and with the possibility of making lifelong friends along the way. Quite simply, stop reading the paper (after you’ve covered the Travel section, obviously) and go create a CouchSurfing profile today.

What have you got to lose?

TRINITY NEWS

21

travel@trinitynews.ie

A free holiday, or free labour?

Maud Sampson tells us about the holiday trend that is WWOOFing, working on an organic farm in return for bed and board. With WWOOFing farms all over the world, what is the appeal?

E

xchanges.

The classic awkward French exchange.

The foreign cousin who comes to stay for the summer. The ERASMUS year, the term abroad, WWOOFing.

They’re hit-and-miss. Sometimes they go horrendously wrong, but other times can be useful life changing experiences.

Stop. What on earth is WWOOFing?

Isn’t that something to do with dogs?

For those who may not have heard of the organisation WWOOF before, the idea behind it is pretty simple.

It stands for “World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms.”

This non-monetary global exchange network connects volunteers and host farmers with a view of spreading the organic “word” and way of life.

In return for a few hours work everyday on a host farm, WWOOFers (volunteers) are provided with food and accomodation.

According to its website, www. wwoof.org, the WWOOF experience promises to show you an alternative way of life, teach you organic growing techniques at first hand, whilst spreading the organic word and enabling you to meet interesting people from across the globe.

The first WWOOF group was set up in 1971 by Sue Coppard, a secretary in London who yearned for a taste of the countryside in contrast to her city life, and initially WWOOF stood for “Working Weekends on Organic Farms.” The idea gained momentum and WWOOFing spread.

Now pretty much whichever country you want to go to, you can experience it the WWOOFing way.

Presently, there are WWOOF hosts in 99 countries around the world from Taiwan and Israel to India and our own Ireland. Each country has an independent organisation and works

to similar guidelines, but there is no head office. 50 of these countries have a national WWOOF organisation, and the remaining 49 have WWOOF independent list hosts.

Whilst researching WWOOFing, I found endless gushing accounts of how WWOOFing had “organically changed my life for the better forever” etc. I was skeptical. We all know the internet can be a bit dodge, so I talked to people I knew with first-hand experience of

WWOOFing. My cousin, who spent this summer on a farm in northern Spain with 30 wild Austrian horses living the idyllic WWOOFing dream, told me, “I honestly liked each part of the day and did not ever feel like I was working.”

So far so good. Another friend enthusiastically emailed me to say she too loved her experience: “you really experience the GOOD LIFE!” She was more critical though, adding: “I suppose there is a fine line between slave labour and not being paid for your labour, but earning it in other ways (food and accommodation).”

It is for precisely this reason that in 2000 what WWOOF stood for changed officially to “World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms” to avoid confusion between WWOOFers and migrant workers! So is it basically voluntary slave labour, I asked this friend? Wrong. I was assured that she never felt exploited, only it was an observation she made that there was potential to feel exploited if you did not embrace the experience.

The overriding message from both was overwhelmingly enthusiastic. They kept reiterating how refreshing it was to have no

material worries, no money to bother with and to meet interesting and diverse people whilst completely living off the land. They were (and still are) endlessly telling me to become a WWOOFer. So maybe your tail’s beginning to wag and you feel the urge to WWOOF. How do you start?

Pick a country, sign up online to the organisation in that country and pay a small fee for an annual membership.

The fees differ marginally depending on the country, but are reasonable.

This gives you access to a list of host farms and their contact numbers.

Read through the weird and wonderful descriptions of the work offered on some of these farms, such as coffee harvesting in Costa Rica, or beekeeping in Hawaii.

Choose a farm, get in contact with the host and arrange your stay. The duration of your stay is entirely up to you, unless a farm is asking for labour for a particular time period, but usually is a minimum of five days. It’s simple, like the way of life it promises you’ll experience whilst WWOOFing.

Still not convinced you’re a WWOOFer? Read below and see if your fellow Trinity students can tempt you.

THE HOST: HOLLY GREENE

“I’ve had WWOOFers staying in my house for two years”

I

have had WWOOFers staying in my house in Kildare for two years now over the summer period. They stay for various amounts of time - at most a couple of months. We have had WWOOFers from a wide range of countries: from Japan, America, Israel and Spain, to name but a few.

I suppose when deciding on whether to have WWOOFers, you must consider what kind of a family you are. If you are a very open family and don’t mind new people sharing your home for some time, then it is definitely a fantastic thing to do.

The WWOOFers are expected to work five hours a day unpaid on our farm and in return they get free bed and board. They become an integral part of the family during their stay. We do a lot of activities together throughout the day and they are always present for meal times. As a general rule my mum chooses couples or people travelling together - who are invariably university

students. This means that they do not have to be constantly entertained and don’t get too lonely or feel isolated during their stay.

In our situation, living in the countryside, the WWOOFers’ jobs include gardening, painting, strimming and small scale building. Despite the requirement to work just five hours a day, all the WWOOFers we have had have naturally tended to work for quite a lot longer. They get up early in the morning and work through until about 6pm. My siblings and I always get involved with them and such is the enthusiasm, that the work is actually quite good fun and you get to know the WWOOFers quickly because of it.

Normally finishing work in the early evening, they go upstairs, shower and change. When they come back down for a well-deserved pre-supper drink, they invariably get involved in the cooking and anything else that might be going on that night. As all of the WWOOFers have come from

different countries, they never finish their stay with us without producing a popular dish from their home country.

As a result my family has tried paellas, Italian pizza, coq au vin, homemade sushi and Mexican-style tortilla! The inclusion of the WWOOFers in our family’s lives cannot be undervalued.

For example, whenever there has been a party in our local area, they have helped out and have been great fun, getting along with all of our friends and adding an extra (exotic) dimension to things.

We have been lucky with all our visitors apart from one young couple.

This couple were somewhat tedious when they refused to cut down plants and trees that had to be cleared in our forest. Luckily they did not resort to chaining themselves to the trees as they had apparently been known to do in Canada! If that was not enough, they were also insomniacs who shared a bottle of gin every night before bed (which came at 6am!) and so were

Giula, a WWOOFer from Italy, pruning tomato bushes on the Greene farm

awful at getting up before noon. They didn’t last more than one week and were not asked to stay longer as was the case with all our other WWOOFers.

But despite this one rare unfortunate pair, we are most certainly going to be having more back this summer and I personally look forward to it.

THE VOLUNTEER: JULIANNE ROBERTS

“Two months of WWOOFing in Tuscany seemed perfect”

M

y experience of WWOOFing started with a charming email to a farmer looking for some extra help on his farm. As a college runaway in search of a romantic adventure, two months in Tuscany seemed to be the perfect way to start my gap year.

Two days and a Ryanair flight later, I was steaming through the beautiful Tuscan countryside, squashed into a tiny carriage and surrounded by the sing-song voices of Italian women discussing the day’s events. Nevio, the farmer with whom I was staying, collected me from the train station in an old Fiat Panda Sisley 4x4, his hulking frame taking up the entire front seat and his laughter shaking the whole car as I reached for my seat belt.

“No stupido”.

Life as a WWOOFer is challenging.

It is a completely different “holiday” experience. Not only are you in a foreign country and living with complete strangers, but you are thrown right in at the deep end. My days at Monticino were never the same. There was no sense of routine or time management.

Breakfast would be a solitary affair, usually a lonely shot of espresso or a

25 OCTOBER, 2011

The farm in Monticino, Tuscany at which Julianne worked in return for bed and board

leftover slice of cake. For a girl used to big Irish breakfasts, this was a terrible way to start the day. To follow such an insufficient meal there would be a morning full of physical work. This work would vary on a daily basis from fence building, training horses and mucking out stables, to dismantling shipping containers and harvesting vegetables. Sometimes I would be

woken at half-five and led out into the cold morning dampness to drive 100 miles into the surrounding mountains in order to check on a herd of horses. It was certainly no Club Med. The highlight of my WWOOFing experience was most definitely the food. Lunch was a very traditional affair. The women would spend all morning preparing the meal and at

some point during the day the men and I would stumble in the door and wait to be served. An endless supply of bread still warm from the oven, cured meats, vegetables, fresh pasta and cheeses would all be brought ceremoniously out of the kitchen - a parade of sight and smells to whet even the driest appetite.

On occasion we were treated to the delights of tiramisu, and since tasting something so indescribably delicious, I have found new meaning to life.

For students, WWOOFing is a wonderful way to immerse oneself in the language and customs of a country as well as learning about the ways in which they grow their organic produce. It has inspired me to question the source of my food and to appreciate the hard work and passion that goes into sustainable cultivation. In my experience, the most interesting part of WWOOFing was the actual farming itself. Collecting the fresh, organic peppers, aubergines, tomatoes and courgetttes every day, treading grapes as part of the wine-making process and eating beautifully-ripe figs straight from the tree all filled me with a sense of inner satisfaction.

One of the greatest things about WWOOFing is that it gives you the

opportunity to see what life in other countries is really like. It is a very authentic way of experiencing foreign cultures. While WWOOFing, I was exposed to both the local, rural way of life and the customs and traditions of the other WWOOFers I met.

My prejudices and misconceptions about other nationalities were all disproved, and I made some wonderful friends from all over the world. WWOOFing also gave me the opportunity to see what Italy is like from the inside. With the advantage of local knowledge and a thirst for adventure I managed to see the sinking city of Venice, the world’s oldest university in Bologna and the beautiful mosaics of Ravenna.

It has opened my eyes to the challenges of independent travel, and instilled in me a sense of longing to see as much of the world as possible.

Not only is it a great way of learning about organic growing methods, but for those of us who aren’t blossoming botanists or horticulturists, WWOOFing is a fantastic way to travel the world on a shoestring while immersing competely in the local culture!

Next stop, Argentina!

22 SPORTS FEATURES

sportsfeatures@trinitynews.ie

A night to remember Ireland may have been absent from the final two Rugby World Cup weekends, but the team and fans still have much to be proud of, says Sports Features Editor Kate Rowan

W

hen you see three burly Maori men in All Blacks shirts sporting lime green wigs and feather boas giving an impromptu performance of riverdance just around the corner from Eden Park about an hour and a half before kick-off against Australia you cannot help but think the night is going to be just a little bit special.

However, these thoughts were kicked quickly into touch when I contemplated the reality of what lay ahead. Could Ireland, after such a torturous run of warm-up results and a lukewarm pool-opener, really do any damage to the Tri-Nations champions?

Mind you, I thought the team had looked pretty “amped” (as the Kiwi photographer next to me put it) as we watched the captain’s run in Eden Park on Friday.

The consensus phrase amongst the Irish fans I spoke to all week

“Declan Kidney was statue-like; only his flushed cheeks betrayed his emotions” was: “head says Australia, heart says Ireland”. There was some amount of heart in Eden Park that Saturday night.

The players had heart. The Irish fans had heart. And lets not forget the many New Zealanders who leant us their hearts in order to get one over their nearest neighbour and biggest foe.

It could be considered clichéd to expound on the wonders of the crowd and the electric atmosphere. But there was a spark. I was fortunate enough to be sitting in a rather wonderful position to watch it ignite.

I was sitting in Press Box B which was a glass-enclosed capsule with a

sea of fans sprawling out in front, and just across the aisle was another glass box containing Declan Kidney and members of the Irish management and coaching staff. Within metres and all within view of each other, there were three very different reactions to the unfolding drama on the pitch.

The crowd of fans immediately in front of us were an assortment of Australians and Irish. Before kick-off and in the early stages there was more gold visible in that section. From the momement when Jonathan Sexton had scored his drop goal, more and more green started to bloom. By the time Ronan O’Gara had kicked the score to 15-6, one fan was acting as conductor for the cheers of those around him, wildly waving a flag as a baton.

The situation with the coaches and management could not be any more different. Declan Kidney was statuelike; only his flushed cheeks betrayed his emotions. Amongst the journalists, there was a frisson of nervous energy.

Groans and collective intakes of breath were much louder than usual.

Those who were typing seemed to be hammering on the keys ten times harder than necessary in an attempt to expel the mounting tension and, of course, to record the momentous events that would transpire.

Then, it happened. It was over.

Ireland had won. There was an explosion of euphoria in the crowd.

Australians drifted towards the exits.

Kidney and co crumpled with joy into the corner of their box. The hacks stayed relatively quiet but I had never seen so many smiles in a press box before.

As they left the field, a few players pumped their fists towards the crowds.

It summed up exactly how all the Irish in Auckland felt on that magical night, whether you were a player, a coach, a fan or a journalist.

Although the history books will rightfully hail forwards such as Cian Healy, Mike Ross, Sean O’Brien and Stephen Ferris as the stars of the

Ireland’s Rob Kearney and Cian Healy celebrate after the Ireland v Italy game. Photo: Brendan Moran/SPORTSFILE

show in Eden Park, one player who was amongst the last fist-pumpers as the team straggled off the field - who epitomised the journey this Irish team had taken - was fullback Rob Kearney.

Less than year a before, the Louth man had suffered a season-ending knee injury against the All Blacks in Dublin.

Since then, much had been written about his race to be fit for New Zealand.

Although he had played through two of the warm-up matches in August,

“More and more green started to bloom on the rugby pitch” he had sat out the remainder and the first pool fixture against the USA. It was doubted whether he would be battle-ready for the pace of that spritely Wallaby backline but Kearney did his job more than admirably that night, as did all of his teammates. That fist pump to the fans was a wonderful moment to see: a player who had endured a difficult year announced that he was back and, in a wonderful twist of faith,

it was in the spiritual home of the side who he sustained his injury against.

It was just one of many subplots of triumph over adversity amongst the wonderful drama as Ireland beat their first tri-nations side in a World Cup fixture.

While Kearney had made his way back from injury, some of the most touching moments in the post-match press conferences and mixed-zone interviews concerned the injured Flannery, who had spent the night watching from the stands. Captain Brian O’Driscoll explained how the Munster man had handed out jerseys to the match-day 22. Rory Best, with a lump in his throat, who had filled Flannery’s boots that night, told media that the injured hooker “has made me a better player and I would not be where I am now without him”.

Changing track, if you wish to draw inspiration from that night’s “man of the match” Healy, you could follow his lead when it comes to musical matters. The prop in his spare time can often be found at the decks under his alias DJ Church and has played Oxegen’s Electric Ballroom for the past

two years. After being asked many questions on how he and the Irish

“Eden Park served Irish fans a slice of rugby heaven” pack had outscrummaged their Aussie counterparts, a broad grin spread across his face when asked if he had turned to music in the build-up to the match. “Of course, it was a lot of really, really old school hip hop and obviously The Marshall Mathers LP,” he replied in his Clontarf drawl. So, there you have it, the next time you have a big obstacle to overcome, Eminem is your only man.

It seemed he aided Healy in hitting the right note in the City of Sails.

The subsequent victories in Rotorua and Dunedin with rollicking Irish support were also nights to savour.

And of course, Ireland did once again fall at the quarter-finals. However, that night in Eden Park served Irish fans a slice of rugby heaven that will hopefully be the perfect platform for future sides to build on.

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Sarah Burns takes a look at who may step into the Rugby World Cup boots of the Golden Generation in England in 2015 Brian O’Driscoll (32) & Keith Earls (24) AS A tearful Brian O’Driscoll spoke following Ireland’s harrowing defeat to Wales in the quarter-final of the World Cup, one could sense that this was the end of an era. Along with the heartbroken Irish fans, he knew this was the last time he would captain Ireland in a World Cup. As “Drico” turns 33 next January, we must begin the search for a replacement, as it can no longer be the case that “In BOD we trust”. After impressing in New Zealand, Keith Earls has put himself in pole position.

The Limerick native is used to playing in a number of positions, including outside centre, full back or wing. He scored five tries in this year’s World Cup, making him Ireland’s top try-scorer at the competition. How much more effective could he be at number 13? Moving him inside makes room for Andrew Trimble on the wing.

Ronan O’Gara (34) & Jonathan Sexton (26)

Paul O’Connell (32) & Sean O’Brien (24)

THE OBVIOUS replacement for O’Gara is Sexton, despite his rather disappointing World Cup. We shouldn’t forget, though, he has given extraordinary performances for Leinster, such as this year’s Heineken Cup final in which he scored 28 points in a “man of the match” performance.

He showed leadership with his half-time talk in which he encouraged his teammates to remember Liverpool’s famous Champions League final comeback against AC Milan in 2005.

However, Sexton only managed to start two of Ireland’s five World Cup matches. Is it really a matter of when, rather than who, though?

Even with comments made by O’Gara after beating Australia - stating “I’m done with Ireland in a few weeks” - it looks as if he will be around for a while longer, meaning he will be sure to add to his international tally of 1,075 points and leaving a legacy that Sexton will want to live up to.

ALTHOUGH THESE players take up different positions on the field, it’s clear that O’Connell and O’Brien share some similar traits. Both players are used to giving big performances.

The Tullow man stormed onto the international stage during the 2011 Six Nations and has grown in stature since, giving impressive performances against Australia and Italy and being named “Player of Pool C” by the IRB. He transformed into an overnight Twitter sensation with tweets such as: “When Bruce Banner turns angry he becomes The Hulk. When the Hulk gets angry, he becomes Sean O’Brien.” Even more fitting was a tweet reporting: “Paul O’Connell wears Sean O’Brien pyjamas.” O’Connell’s place in the secondrow may be taken by Stephen Ferris in order to free up a position in the backrow for the young incoming talent, but his role as leader of the forwards may well be taken by the barnstorming O’Brien.

Could the Cup be Ireland’s in 2015?

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A bowled interview

acquire valuable coaching experience while hoping to improve the fortunes of DUCC.

“You are a long time retired so I don’t want to be sitting out on that veranda just yet”

Irish international cricket captain Trent Johnston gives his debut interview as Dublin University’s Cricket Club Coach.

James Hussey and Shane Curtis talk to Trent about his ambitions for Trinity cricket

T “It was a big gamble moving over to Dublin, we had sold everything in Sydney and moved before we qualified for the 2007 World Cup”

rinity College is one of the city’s great paradoxes. An oasis of calm amidst the hustle and bustle of the capital, Dublin University is home to the perennial runners’ favourite, College Park. This year, the aforementioned green space welcomes its newest resident, Irish international cricket captain, Trent Johnston.

Trinity News met up with the New South Wales native during his second week at the helm of Dublin University Cricket Club (DUCC), asking him about his history in cricket, aims for the club, and his own future in the cricketing world.

“I originally came to Ireland in 1995.

There was a club by the name of Carlisle Cricket Club that played in Kimmage.

They put an advertisement in Sydney Grade Cricket and I applied for it.

One of the members had emigrated to Australia, so he was like the eyes and ears of the club. He came and watched me play a couple of games in Sydney and offered me the role. I came to play for Carlisle and returned to Australia after my initial time here.”

The transition was a tough one for the Sydney man, accommodating to both the more temperate climate and the easier standard of cricket. His tenure in Ireland has corresponded with the upward trajectory of what is still a minority sport here.

“Back when I came over there were two people that were employed

by Cricket Ireland, the CEO and the coach, and now there are about fifteen

Trent Johnston bowls in the Ireland Jersey this summer. Photo by ESPN Cricket

– a massive change. There are now thirteen players alone on full-time contracts either here or in the UK. In that regard, the game has become more professional and the development of Irish cricket is testament to the hard work that has gone in over the past decade.”

Johnston’s international career with Ireland was highlighted by the success of the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies, notable for the defeat of Pakistan in the group stages. This event marked a watershed moment for Irish cricket and a personal high note for Trent.

“It was a big gamble moving over to Dublin, we had sold everything in Sydney and moved before we had even qualified for the 2007 Cricket World Cup. To be awarded the captaincy and lead my adopted country out at the World Cup was the biggest highlight of my sporting career. To be able to help change cricket going forward in Ireland was massive for me and those

fourteen other guys on the team, it is something we are very proud of.”

If the 2007 World Cup was a success for Trent and Ireland, then the 2011 competition was one that left mixed emotions on both a personal and professional level.

“When I look at the way we performed, it was certainly not where we wanted to be. We wanted to reach the quarter final but that wasn’t achieved. We really haven’t played enough cricket against those bigger teams to be able to get into positions to win those games. We possibly should have beaten the West Indies and Bangladesh, so if we win those two, then we beat England and Holland we could be top of the group and through to the quarter-final”.

Putting this disappointment to one side, Trent is turning his attention to the present, which involves taking a step towards the next stage in his cricket career. He views his role coaching Trinity as an ideal opportunity to

“I am looking forward to it very much, it is a great challenge. I have just finished my level three coaching course so it will be a good experience for me and I hope I can pass on something to these guys. Last week we started out with twelve and this week we had eighteen so that is good. It is not just me helping Trinity but getting those kind of numbers is also helping Irish cricket. I know a lot of people who have been through here, played cricket here and if I can help Trinity cricket in any way then that is what I want to do”.

Acknowledging his past experience with Cricket Ireland and the upcoming challenge of coaching Trinity, Trent turned his eye to the future and gave Trinity News a brief glimpse into his plans.

“I just had a knee operation so I am hoping to get another year out of playing. You are a long time retired so I don’t want to be sitting out on that veranda just yet. Long term I would love to get involved with coaching and Cricket Ireland knows that so that will be the next stage of my career. That could be coaching, maybe something specific like a bowling coach or something along those lines but short term I am hoping to get another 12 to 18 months out of playing. After that I can sit down and map the next stage of my career, but coaching is certainly on the radar.”

Cricket Ireland and Trent Johnston have been mutually beneficial since their paths first crossed back in 1995. The sport in this country has gone through a radical but positive change over the past decade due to the professionlism of men like Johnston.

The involvement of Trent with DUCC can only be a positive thing.

Trent Johnston and director Paul Davey will be discussing the film Breaking Boundaries in the Printing House in Trinity on Monday, 7 November at 6:45pm. Entrance €10, including entry to prize raffle: details from Nick on roylena@hotmail.com

Marathon effort by DUHAC athletes Join the conversation James Hussey has with DUHAC hopefuls Paul Ervine, Eamonn O’Connor and Peter Linney on the 42.2km marathon

T

rinity News meets with members of Dublin University Harriers and Athletics Club (DUHAC) Harriers’ Captain Paul Ervine, long-distance veteran Eamonn O’Connor and marathon debutant Peter Linney - to discuss the inspiration behind marathon running, the importance of a club work ethic and the sociable side of the sport.

What are the advantages of running with a club such as DUHAC? Paul Ervine: “I have always felt that running with a group is better, it’s a better training atmosphere and allows you to compare and contrast with your fellow athletes. There is less mental effort when running as part of a group and the sessions that DUHAC provide, core and specific distance training for example, are excellent for the development of technique and fitness.

Currently, we have a sprint coach and a distance running coach so all distances are covered.”

Where does the inspiration to run a marathon come from?

Peter Linney: “I suppose when I decided that I wanted to run this

25 October, 2011

The marathon runners line up in preparation for the 42.2km. Photo courtesy of Dublin University Harriers and Athletics Club

year’s Dublin Marathon I was feeling particularly unfit and just threw myself in at the deep end. It’s a target to aim for and despite the task ahead, I’m feeling pretty confident about the race.”

Ervine: “It’s one of those ‘bucket list’ things to do I suppose. When you actually get down to doing one, you want to do it to the best of your ability.

My personal best is 3 hours and 8 minutes in the Belfast marathon.”

Eamonn O’Connor: “My ultimate goal for a marathon would be 2 hours and 35 minutes. The race is the biggest goal for a distance runner. It is hugely punishing physically but the sense of achievement that comes with it is

incredible. My inspiration mainly came from the fact that my dad had done marathons, it was in the family so to speak!”

One of your fellow DUHAC members said that “it is impossible to fully enjoy running.” Where does the urge to run come from?

O’Connor: “For me, it’s true that it is very difficult to enjoy running but there are days when it just clicks for you. Those are the days you run for, that effortless feeling is definitely worth it.”

Linney: “I agree, on the days that Eamonn is talking about, there’s a lightness that you feel when you

run. It’s a real endorphin rush and it becomes a fantastic experience.”

O’Connor: “It also makes the days when you aren’t running feel that little bit better. You become physically fitter and can enjoy the off days more.”

Ervine: “It does get easier as you get used to running. It’s not just a question of fitness but the mentality to deal with pain.”

Is the physical aspect of resilience tougher than the mental?

Ervine: “You have to be naturally competitive to compete in a marathon.

They are a very personal thing, you aren’t racing against anyone around you, unlike other race distances, so

you are constantly pushing yourself to endure the pain and complete the course.”

O’Connor: “In training, the physically punishing sessions occur only twice a week, the rest are taken at an aerobic pace so that you feel sore but, importantly, not fatigued. It’s all about staying in control on a personal level and not competing with the athletes around you.”

Peter, as a rookie, what are your feelings in the lead-up to your first marathon?

Linney: “I’m excited about it, I feel like I haven’t done enough but I’m more excited than nervous about it.

It will be a challenge but I’m looking forward to it.”

Ervine: “Training is the hardest part but once you get to the race itself, it’s grand. The time flies when you’re out pounding the roads!”

Finally, on a wider scale, where do you see the marathon (and running) on a global scale?

Ervine: “The resurgence of the marathon in America will be huge for the sport I feel. The appeal of the marathon is so wide-ranging: for instance, I ran with the record holder in Berlin. I was literally running in the footsteps of the world’s best; there are very few sports, if any, for which the same can be said.”

O’Connor: “The recession means that people will start running. It’s cheap and accessible, all you need is a pair of runners and the rest is up to you.

In terms of the marathon, it can be difficult to identify with an event that needs such mental resilience but running itself remains accessible.

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Marian makes its mark in basketball David Murphy

RESULTS:

Trinity Basketball

AFTER A mixed start to the 2011/12 season, Trinity faced UCD Marian in the first league game of the year. Trinity had impressed, with a depleted squad, in a pre-season friendly tournament in Donegal and were looking to capitalise on this early form.

After a hard-fought series of games in the North West, tiredness told in the final when a well-drilled North Star team opened up a 20 point lead in the first quarter. Trinity slowly closed the deficit over the remaining three quarters, only to lose by three points in the end.

Seven days later the team were faced with a Polish Medicus outfit in the first round of the Dublin Senior Cup. This game was the first instance where Trinity had played a game with three officials and the students took some time to acclimatise to the new system. DMBB were trialling such a system to look for improved efficiency in call-making and overall

TRINITY Colin O’Rourke (C) David Murphy Alan O’Brien Shane O’Flaherty Baptiste Rimbourg Aron Coyle Daniel Darby Barry Ryan Drew Wilkinson Eoin Gubbins Luca Longo Peter Wu Coach: Wesley Cooper

Friday 14 October Trinity Basketball - 46 UCD Marian - 71

fairness for the benefit of hardworking players and coaches. Dublin University Basketball Club (DUBC), despite some questionable refereeing calls and the physical advantage of the Polish Medicus team, were largely the masters of their own downfall.

Trinity maintained a small lead throughout the game, utilising the apparent mismatch in height to their advantage, but in the last minute a three point lead was converted into a three point deficit.

Wild turnovers and failure to silence the incredible three-point shooting of the Polish point guard proved insurmountable for the Dublin University side.

UCD Marian next visited the Sport Centre and Dublin University were looking for a much improved performance. A slow start saw DUBC trading baskets with David Gilmartin, who racked up 10 points in the first five minutes.

The teams were level pegging until Marian introduced their “50/50” full court press. Poor composure on the ball and a less than organised press breaker resulted in several turnovers leading to fast break lay-ups as Marian stretched out an ultimately unassailable 28-14 lead by the end of the first quarter.

Increased intensity at the beginning of the second quarter saw a narrowing of the gap. An alley-oop assist from Alan O’Brien, finished by Daniel

Trinity battles it out on the basketball court. UCD Marian took victory at the end of the match. Photo by Nilgiri Pearson

Darby and a three-pointer from Colin O’Rourke brought the score to 31-26 in favour of Marian. However, a lack of options and ideas on offence combined with uncharacteristically low defensive intensity saw the gap begin to stretch again. By the end of the third quarter UCD Marian led 57-36.

Intensity improved in the fourth quarter but was nowhere near the levels seen against UCC and NUIG in

the intervarsity tournament in April.

As the minutes wound down, UCD calmly closed out a 25 point victory, foiling any Trinity attempts at a comeback. David Murphy, post player for the Trinity team, spoke to Trinity News about the match: “We know that it will take time for this team to gel as we come to terms with departures and the arrival of new blood. If we step up our defensive

intensity and begin to find good looks on offence, we’ll compete well in this division and will hope for success in the college league and intervarsity tournament.”

The Dublin University players, disappointed by the lopsided nature of the final scoreline to UCD Marian, will look to improve their fortunes in upcoming games and make a mark on Dublin’s Division 1.

Solid soccer season opener with mixed results Comprehensive 5-1 win against CYM Terenure in College Park Better of 0-0 draw against league leaders Sacred Heart College Conor Bates and Cathal Groome Correspondent and Contributing Writer

A MILD October afternoon in College Park heralded the first home game of the season for Dublin University Association Football Club (DUAFC). In a match that pitted two seemingly even teams against each other, Trinity ran out deserving winners.

Trinity’s early supremacy was rewarded with a goal from a set-piece.

James Connolly curled in a corner which was met by a glancing header from Gus Shaw-Stewart that arrowed into the top of the net. Trinity captain Conall O’Shaughnessy troubled Terenure in the air, heading wide from a free-kick for the students.

Against the run of play, CYM equalised with a cross into the box that managed to find its way into the Trinity net. A golden opportunity to score DUAFC’s second followed almost immediately when Dónal O’Chofaigh was taken down in the penalty area.

Frank Wilson’s resultant spot kick was foiled by a brilliant save from the CYM goalkeeper.

Trinity seemed a different team after the break and this was reflected in their second goal, scored in the 46th minute. Frank Wilson had a shot saved well by the CYM goalkeeper but he was unable to keep out the follow-up from Lee Moran, the striker smashing home the rebound.

Five minutes later a moment of genius led to another goal for DUAFC. Graham Connolly took hold of possession and drove at the CYM defence before chipping from the edge of the box into the top corner with the CYM goalkeeper unable to make telling contact with the ball. This was followed three minutes later by an own-goal for Trinity. A mix-up in defence between the CYM goalkeeper and centre-half, due to a through ball from Trinity, let

In defensive terms, Trinity were only rocked once, when a 30-yard strike hit the crossbar, and O’Shaughnessy rose highest in the backline to head clear on a number of occasions.

Half-time arrived at 0-0 with neither team looking like they were going to score. Trinity came out of the blocks fastest in the second half looking much sharper and probing in attack. They delivered decent crosses from the right hand side and forced the opposition’s goalkeeper to make some saves. Their fitness levels looked good after the resumption of the match and they began to really mount pressure on the visitors. Again, Wilson and Shaw-Stewart looked promising at the fulcrum of the attack, and some passages of play through the middle

“Trinity will be happy with a point from a tough game against Sacred Heart” DUAFC Players match up to Sacred Heart. Photo by Conor Bates

the ball roll into an empty net.

The last goal of the game was scored in the 72nd minute when Frank Wilson swept home a corner from Michael Clancy for the goal his play deserved.

From there Trinity were assured of victory and the game petered out toward the end without much play of note.

DUAFC took to College Park again to test their mettle against considerably stronger opponents in the form of Sacred Heart.

The game began with both teams trying to find their range going forward.

Trinity linked well on the left flank, and captain Conall O’Shaughnessy glanced a header into the goalkeeper’s hands from a corner, as Trinity marked their intentions from the off. Gus Shaw-Stewart showed some great flair in the centre of midfield and

striker Frank Wilson had a chance as Trinity sustained their early pressure.

Some resolute defending denied the opposition any chance at goal as the game stagnated in the midfield.

Slowly, Sacred Heart began to make some headway and create chances.

Their opportunities were easily snuffed out by some solid defending and any shots were easily collected by goalkeeper Matthias Lahninger. The teams looked evenly matched with neither claiming a foothold in attack.

Trinity had a number of chances, including Eoin O’Driscoll breaking on the left only to be caught offside, and a long ball from Lahninger to Wilson, which Wilson won a corner from. The ensuing corner was cleared, although Trinity had a chance to convert, after the goalkeeper flapped at the cross in from Lee Moran.

unfortunately came to nothing.

Wilson was the star of the game in terms of attacking play, and in the 66th minute he delivered a fine cross into the box, which was met by winger James Connolly. The resultant shot cannoned into the side netting, showing a real sign of Trinity’s intent.

Once again, however, the game petered out, as both defences were equal to the pressing attacks, and the contest became focused in midfield. In the last few minutes Trinity assaulted the goal, with Wilson, Moran, O’Shaughnessy and substitute Shane Daly all having unsuccessful attempts at the goal.

Trinity will be happy with a point from a tough game against Sacred Heart, who currently top the league.

DUAFC’s solid start to the season has shown good promise for a side that are beginning to find form and gel together after the summer break.

SPORT IN BRIEF Equestrian Three members of Dublin University Equestrian Club are representing Ireland at international level: Amy McFarland, Nicola Fitzgibbon and Zoe McElligott. The Irish team are currently leading the Showjumping Cup ahead of 13 other countries.

Individually, Nicola Fitzgibbon represented Ireland throughout the summer at an international level, including an appearance at the Dublin Horse Show in the Aga Khan.

Tal Coyle qualified for the World Cup Final which was held in Greenwich Park as the Olympic test event and placed 20th.

Camogie Trinity Camogie will be travelling to Edinburgh in November to play an exhibition match of Shinty. Also to look forward to for club members, TCD Camogie will host Mary Moran to speak about her book: “A Game Of Our Own: Camogie’s Story”.

Football The Men’s Senior Team lost to Blanchardstown Institute of Technology, 1-11 to 0-11 on Tuesday 18 October.

The Men’s Intermediate Team lost to Dublin Institute of Technology Inters 0-14 to 2-5.

The Freshers team defeated Dublin Institute of Technology on the comprehensive score line of 4-5 to 0-9 on Monday 10 October.

The Freshers lost to St. Patrick’s College of Education, Drumcondra, on Wednesday 19 October, 1-12 to 2-5.

Round-up by James Hussey

TRINITY NEWS