Trinity News Issue 1

Irish Student Newspaper of the Year 2008

JAMES WATSON

WAR IN OSSETIA Andrew Mulvihill makes an in-depth examination of this summer’s conflict

Father of modern genetics talks to Luke Maishman at Genetics@50

WORLD REVIEW 16 Tuesday 30 September 2008

SCIENCE 19 www.trinitynews.ie

Issue 1, Volume 55

Compulsory screening for Freshers’ publications

By Deirdre Robertson College News Editor THE STUDENT Records Office have asked all societies to submit publications before they are sent out to incoming Freshers students.

The College Communications Office originally denied that this is a form of “vetting” but subsequently stated that material must be checked to ensure that the publication is used for the “intended purpose.”

In a recent e-mail to societies who are sending out society magazines for Freshers’ Week, the Student Records Office asked that all publications be given to them in advance for vetting before going to print. Simultaneously, the Central Societies Committee issued a list of regulations highlighting “several College policies and sets of regulations” on poster and printed materials content.

When asked to comment on these policies, the Communications Office stated “there is no ‘vetting’” and that “there is no new policy.” They told Trinity News that magazines have to be submitted to the Student Records Office for posting in order to comply with obligations under the Data Protection Acts. They cannot release the names and addresses of incoming students.

Despite the CSC e-mail outlining “college policies” on the content of printed materials, the Communications Office stated: “Guidelines on the content of magazines have not been issued and there is no intention to do so.”

CSC sent a “quick check” in their e-mail to societies, prohibiting the promotion of free alcohol at society events, and the use of derogatory photographs or insulting language.

They did not state that it would be compulsory for societies to submit material for a general vetting process before going to print.

When Trinity News noted that the Communications Office’s response contrasted to the e-mail that the Student Records Office had sent, the Communications Office replied that the material had to be checked to ensure that it was used

for its “intended purpose.” They did not clarify what they meant by “intended purpose” and what purpose publications would be used for other than to inform incoming students about a society’s activities.

Although the Communications Office say that there is no new policy in place, the former Secretary of Publications, David Molloy, told Trinity News, “I edited the Trinity Publications Freshers’ magazine last year, and I was never asked to submit a copy for review. I delivered this year’s magazine to the Student Records Office recently and I was told that they have always asked for material to be submitted before going to print. This was never the case in my memory.”

When asked whether the regulations sent out this year are in place as a result of events last year which led to two society publications being withdrawn or redacted, the Communications Office stated “the matter is unrelated to any article written last year.”

During last year’s Freshers’ Week, two Freshers’ magazines had to be censored due to inappropriate material. The Trinity Law School advised the Law Society to pull their Freshers’ Week magazine, The Law Shock, when a photograph of an underage committee member holding a bottle of alcohol was published. Similarly, The Philander – the University Philosophical Society’s publication – was subject to an investigation by the Senior Dean when it quoted xenophobic Austrian Freedom Party leader Joerg Haider.

The comment – “Jews are always welcome in the chamber” – was included in an article that was sent out to the homes of all incoming students. The comment was later blacked out on all copies that were handed out during the week.

CSC conducted an investigation into how the comment was published, while College authorities released a statement saying, “The comments in the University Philosophical magazine in no way reflect any attitude, position or policy of Trinity College Dublin.”

Special rules for food at Freshers’ Week

By Brian Barry

New residents at Trinity Hall are welcomed by the JCR last weekend with a range of events. Sumo wrestlers in padded suits took to the lawns as part of the programme on Sunday. Photo: Dominique English

COLLEGE SOCIETIES are left confused this week as the Senior Dean has imposed a complete ban on the distribution of food during Freshers’ Week – other than by approved providers – while the Central Societies Committee say the rules can be ‘flexible’. The issue is of particular concern to the Philosophical Society who have aquired 72,000 self-bake bread rolls.

College food and drink regulations, which were updated earlier this year, allow for the preparation and distribution of cold foods such as sandwiches, dry snacks and cakes at College events if certain criteria are met. Hot foods may not be served unless College catering or an external caterer with a HSE Food Hygiene Certificate is employed.

However, stricter regulations specific to this Freshers’ Week state that societies are not permitted to distribute any food - unless from approved providers. The measures have been implemented partly in response to concerns which arose from last year’s Freshers’ Week when food was cooked in campus residences and served at society stands.

Confusion has arisen however over how seriously these additional regulations will apply. Joe O’Gorman, Honorary Treasurer of the CSC admitted that the rule was a “blunt instrument”, and that societies should seek exceptions to this if they wish to serve food. Mr. O’Gorman told Trinity News that every rule cannot be reduced to unworkable specifics, and that it is more appropriate to place a blanket ban on serving food.

He said that societies should realize that the CSC are willing to allow exceptions where the reasons are justified. Mr. O’Gorman also noted that the rule affected only a handful of societies, and that a society could seek permission to use the CSC kitchen.

Despite this, societies still feel that the regulations are overly harsh and difficult to work with. Paul Gallagher, chairman of the DU Food and Drink Society said, “Although the purpose of the rules is to protect students, the regulations are restrictive. They are driving our society events to locations off campus.” Mr. Gallagher emphasised that the society would comply fully with college regulations for Freshers’ Week.

Incoming Science Freshmen first to be semesterised

By Conor Sullivan COURSES IN Junior Freshman Science have been semesterised in preparation for the college-wide move to semesters next year.

Science courses have split in two halves, giving students “much greater choice than before”, according to the Science Faculty Office. Students can now take one subject in the first half of a year, and a different subject in the second half.

The change in Science has been in progress for nearly three years now, and was originally motivated by a

high failure rate in Chemistry as the faculty felt that it was too challenging for a JF course.

This comes ahead of the new year structure which is proposed to be introduced next year. The start of Michaelmas term will be moved back two weeks, and the Michaelmas term will last 12 weeks instead of nine at present. There would be a four week break for Christmas, a 12 week Hilary term, and then a two week break before the Annual Examinations.

Examinations would finish in the third week of May. The University Council has approved this proposal “in principle” and it appears to be

on track to be introduced next year.

The Council meeting on May 7, 2008 decided that “College should identify and provide the neccessary resources to allow the implementation of the proposed academic year structure in 2009/10”.

Speaking at the Council meeting which approved this, the thenStudents’ Union Education Officer, Rob Kearns, expressed “broad support among the student body” for the changes, according to the minutes of June 2007.

Speaking to Trinity News, the incoming SU Education Officer, Hugh Sullivan also expressed support

saying that “as long as college respects the difficulties of change (learning from UCD’s mistakes) and the input of students there’s no reason why it can’t be a positive thing for all 15,000 Trinity students”. He continued to say that the SU would be concerned about the possible loss of “Trinity’s traditional and unique experience in favour of a more generic University outlook”.

The new proposals will not mean the introduction of end-of-semester exams – currently in place in other colleges such as UCD – as both academics and students opposed it. As for the Scholarship exams, a review of

the institution proposed in February that they be moved to the Chirstmas break in the new year structure. It was also mooted that they be shortened to 3-4 papers, and, crucially for many, the system of exemptions from end-of year exams would be abolished.

The proposal to introduce semesterisation was brought forward in tandem with a proposal to change the undergraduate curriculum. At present, one year’s courseload is 60 credits, and a degree is worth 240 credits.

One credit is supposed to equal 20-25 hours of work by students. It has been decided that all courses in

College should be changed so that at least 10 credits are from outside a student’s field of study, and that at least 10 credits are for “personal or professional skills development” (eg clinical placements, dissertations, research training etc..). This means that almost one tenth of the courseload for a degree would be based outside the particular field of study.

A date has not yet been set for this as it will depend on the introduction of a more sophisticated timetabling system for College, but all courses in College will eventually be changed to the system.

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COLLEGE NEWS

‘With a face like this, it’s hard to get cast in the first place, let alone typecast’ John C. Reilly on his very personal difficulty securing a film role.

‘…the considerable workload and systems involved in the application process’ Accommodation Officer Anthony Dempsey’s justification for the estimated €51,000 annually spent by Trinity students on application fees for accommodation.

TRINITY NEWS Tuesday, September 30 2008

THIS FORTNIGHT THEY SAID...

Compiled by Deirdre Robertson E: quotes@trinitynews.ie

James Watson, the ‘Father of Modern Genetics’ on his mercurial academic rise. He enrolled in the University of Chicago at the age of 15 and achieved his PhD at 22.

Compiled by Brian Barry

72,000 The number of bread rolls the University Philosophical Society have for distribution this Freshers’ Week. The self-bake rolls must be cooked before consumption. New rules for this year’s Freshers’ Week prohibit societies from serving prepared food.

€600,000 The cost of fire alarms, emergency lighting, and other “risk reduction activities” this year.

€51,000 The estimated total figure spent by Trinity students on applications for college accommodation. Each student whether successful or not must pay a €15 application fee to apply. No other major Irish 3rd level institution charges such a fee for this service.

10

The number of consecutive Trinity Balls previous to this year’s at which revellers required hospitalisation. This year the College Safety Officer was happy to report that no one required a hospital visit.

4

The number of days after the agreed deadline that MCD cleared Front Square after this year’s Trinity Ball. The promotions company MCD who hold the contract to run the Trinity Ball until 2012 failed to clear debris following last May’s ball by Trinity Monday, the date designated by their contract for returning campus to its pre-gig condition. The last of the tent equipment, staging and barriers were cleared the following Friday.

By Thomas Raftery A TRINITY maths student has developed a system to clean up Ireland’s casinos.

Wesley Cooper, a PhD student at Trinity’s Graphics, Vision and Visualisation Centre, has developed a system to clean up one of casino’s oldest traditions. “Blackjack is 3,000 years old and people have been counting cards as long as it has been around,” said Cooper. He hopes his automated surveillance system, ‘Clear Deal’, will finally put a stop to card counters.

Cooper used funding from the ‘Irish research council for Science, Engineering and Technology’ to create ‘Clear Deal’. The system uses ‘smart’ video cameras, statistical analysis, and detailed player profiles to beat card counters. It measures each decision made at the table against a simulation of the ‘perfect player’, analysing patterns and assessing anomalies in behaviour.

Although ‘Card Counting’ is not illegal, casinos reserve the right to

Muireann McDonnell is a student in Geology, not Geography as we incorrectly reported in the last issue of Volume 54.

TRINITY COLLEGE is reviewing the prospect of introducing an ethical investments policy. Such a policy would factor in social, ethical and environmental issues into decisions relating to where college invests its money.

The College Finance Committee has been presented with a review considering “the issues associated with Ethical Investments” by the relevant investment managers according to the Finance Committee minutes.

Numerous institutions and

EDITORIAL STAFF Martin McKenna Anna Stein Lia Prendergast Tom Lowe Nick Beard Kara Furr Kiera Healy Ruth Mahony Rachel Kennedy Deirdre Robertson Una Geary Kasia Mychajlowycz Deirdre Lennon Emily Monk Aoife Crowley Aaron Mulvihill Derek Larney Grace Walsh Luke Maishman Conor McKinney Hugh McCafferty Michael Armstrong Steven Lydon Patrice Murphy Jean Morley Kathy Clarke Caroline O’Leary Melanie O’Reilly Stuart Martin

Thanks to: Ailbhe McNeela, Gearoid O’Rourke, Dave Molloy, Peter Henry, Joey Facer, Brian Barry.

This publication is funded by a grant from DU Publications Committee.

Serious complaints should be addressed to: The Editor, Trinity News, 6 Trinity College, Dublin 2.

– Joe O’Gorman’s description of seemingly black and white college

‘Nothing looks quite as bad as the upcoming Mark Wahlberg vehicle Max Payne. If ever there was a review contained within the film’s title, this could be it.’

Michael Armstrong gives his opinion on the upcoming effort from Mark Wahlberg

remove, and ban, anyone they suspect.

Teddy Hickson, of ‘Fitzwilliam Card Club’ Dublin, admits that counting cards only gives players a very tiny advantage, typically between 0.5 – 2%, but “it can be significant”. He continued, “If we catch someone, we would ask them to leave and make it known to them that they weren’t welcome back”.

Hollywood films such as Rain Man and the recent 21 have portrayed characters cheating the casino system through card counting.

Actors Dustin Hoffman, Kevin Spacey and Kate Bosworth have all played card counters in the past decade.

Cooper commented “I saw 21 and the automated system we’ve developed would have identified what was going on and alerted the casino that it was being targeted.” Luckily for Bosworth and Spacey’s characters, Coopers ‘Clear Deal’ is still undergoing testing and has not yet been installed in many casinos.

‘Card Counting’ is just one of a number of methods that enable players to work the system to their favour. As Cooper himself

THE LINGO •

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‘Card Counting’ – players count the cards that have been played in order to know what cards are left.

‘Card Marking’ – certain cards are scratched or tinted so as to be easily identifiable.

‘Bottom Dealing’ – the dealer sneaks a peak at the bottom card and deals it to his/her advantage ‘Second Dealers’ – the dealer catches a glimpse of the top card and waits for an oportune moment to deal it ‘Stack the Deck’ swapping the deck for another one which has been pre-packed ‘Cold Deck’ – a deck of cards stacked in a certain order

acknowledges, “Blackjack is beatable if you have a good maths brain”.

Cooper says of the current system used to detect the various methods of cheating, “At the moment, casino surveillance staff have to watch the tables and try to identify suspicious play using their experience and instincts. The current system to detect cheating involves the dealer watching players and an inspector watching the dealer. It is a hugely labour intensive system, that relies on imperfect human intuition, and costs casinos across the world millions of dollars a year. According to Cooper “(‘Clear Deal’) does the same job automatically using computer-vision techniques and algorithms.”

Hickson agrees, “If a system could be found to streamline the monitoring, it would be hugely popular with casinos”. Nevertheless, he says, “my instinct is that it would be difficult to replace human intuition.” ‘Clear Deal’ is being tested by an casino operator and according to Cooper, “The feedback has been good and I’m hoping other casinos will adopt the technology once the trial is over”.

Trinity considers ethical investments

By Deirdre Robertson College News Editor

This publication claims no special rights or privileges.

‘Spiritbased’

regulations sent out to college societies for Freshers’ Week

Numbers up for Blackjack cheats thanks to postgrad

CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS

Photographs: College News: National News: International News: News Features: Features: Opinion: World Review: Travel: Business: Science: College Sport: TN2 Editor: Film: Music: Fashion: Books: Theatre: Art: Food and Drink: Website:

British Sea Power on the creative process

‘I never felt I was a freak’

NUMEROLOGY...

Editor: Deputy Editor: Business Manager: Copy Editors:

“It’s sort of about translating those intense experiences to a group setting, without it all ending up sounding like you’re just dicking around with your mates.”Martin Noble of

companies in Ireland subscribe to socially responsible investments.

One of these is Bank of Ireland, which adopted such a policy, after it became known that they had previously agreed to a multi-million pound investment in Remnant Media to sell pornographic magazines such as ‘Horny Housewives’, ‘Mega Boobs’ and ‘Asian Babes’.

They subsequently withdrew from this ‘vice investment’. Other ‘vice investments’ include investments in the defence industry, contraceptives, abortifacients, stem cell research, nuclear power, tobacco, gambling, and animal testing.

Implementing a policy of ethical

VICE INVESTMENTS Some investment funds only include ‘vice’ industries: • • • • • • • • •

Defence Industry Human rights abuses Tobacco industry Contraceptives/ abortifacients Stem cell research Animal testing Nuclear Power Gambling Pornography

investment involves three processes: negative screening, positive screening and active engagement. Negative screening involves excluding companies that do not meet the ethical criteria while positive screening entails companies to seek out companies with positive social and environmental characteristics.

Engagement requires lobbying companies on social issues.

At the time of going to print, the College Treasurer was unable to comment on the current status of Trinity’s investments, and the potential for introducing an ethical investment policy.

University fees considered

By Deirdre Robertson College News Editor THE UNION of Students of Ireland (USI) have launched a constant campaign against the proposal to reintroduce third level fees into Irish Universitites.

University heads across Ireland have advocated charging fees to students whose family income is over €120,000. This could be implemented through a student loan system similar to the current Australian structure.

USI have opposed the suggestion saying the Australian sysem is ‘broken and flawed’.

Since the start of September, USI have staged three protests against third level fees. On September 1 they organised a “sit in” at the Department of Education calling for “a free and fair education system, where everyone can reach their potential regardless of

how wealthy they are.”

This was followed by an overnight “Camp Out” outside Leinster House at which USI President Shane Kelly aimed to “highlight the shameful waste of tax payers’ money, by the goverment, over the past decade.”

He contined, “The Minister seems to think that after a decade of waste and underinvestment, the way to improve our Higher Education system is to penalise those already struggling to deal with the financial burden of going to college.”

The third protest took place in Galway on 14th and 15th September where USI gathered at the Fianna Fail ‘Think – In’. The object was to “make their presence felt...in order to highlight the negative effects that any reintroduction of fees would bring” The issue was first highlighted in July when Minister for Education Batt O’Keefe announced at least a

3% cut in payroll costs in third level institutions and vocational education.

The debate sparked the following month when Mr. O’Keefe suggested that third level fees were still on the agenda. USI immediately announced that there would be ongoing protests if this was pushed through.

In a meeting on Wednesday September 24th, the Irish university heads met with Minister O’Keefe to discuss cutbacks and educational funding. No concrete agreement was reached but some heads emerged fearing a new round of cutbacks within the next few months. Trinity’s Provost John Hegarty has announced that the college faces a €7million funding deficit this year.

USI says their latest concern is that third level fees will push more Irish graduates overseas.

TIMELINE Friday 25 July – Minister Batt O’Keefe announces 3% funding cutbacks.

Monday 11 August – Government annouces that student fees are back on the agenda Monday 1 September – USI ‘sit in’ inside the gates of the Department of Education Tuesday 2 September – USI ‘camp out’in front of Leinster House Monday 15 September- Fianna Fail ‘think-in’ Wednesday 24 September University heads propose Australian syle student loan system

COLLEGE NEWS

TRINITY NEWS Tuesday, September 30 2008

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College celebrates 50 years of Genetics

By Ailbhe Goodbody THIS YEAR marks 50 years of genetics at Trinity College Dublin, and to celebrate the occasion an international conference took place from the 17th-20th September in the Smurfit Institute of Genetics.

The conference featured various internationally renowned geneticists speaking on topics such as neurogenetics, medical genetics and evolutionary genetics, and concluded with a public symposium in the D4 Hotels Ballsbridge.

Genetics is a discipline of biology that deals with the science of heredity and variation in living organisms. The modern science of genetics began

with the work of Gregor Mendel in the mid-nineteenth century, and the field expanded rapidly with the groundbreaking discovery of the structure of DNA by James Watson and Francis Crick in 1953.

Molecular genetics then led to genetic engineering, which is used in every branch of biological research today, revolutionising society by its impact on agriculture, medicine and forensics.

The story of Trinity’s Department of Genetics begins with Professor George Dawson, a Cambridge graduate and research fellow who had taken a post in the Botany Department in 1950, but also pursued his own research in the area of bacterial genetics. He was a

specialist in the field, meaning that Trinity had an early entry into this new groundbreaking science.

He persuaded the Irish Sugar Company to donate £15,000 in 1957 to support teaching and research in fundamental genetics, to help improve the crop of sugar beet that was then one of Ireland’s most important agricultural products.

This contribution allowed to establishment of the Department of Genetics in Trinity College in 1958, an important step in helping Ireland to emerge as a knowledge-based economy.

Other generous benefactors during the department’s 50 years include Chuck Feeney, the founder of American Philanthropies, and

Michael Smurfit, after whom the Smurfit Institute of Genetics is named.

The Smurfit Institute of Genetics has been recognised as one of the top science research institutes in the country and ranks among the world leaders in genetics thanks to its role in research and teaching – Trinity Interview with Dr. James Watson on page 19 College’s genetics and molecular biology researchers have been ranked seventh worldwide in terms of citations in other publications. Scientists from

Trinity have played key roles in the analysis and sequencing of genomes (an organism’s genetic material) of bacteria, yeasts and plants, as well as participating in the Human Genome Project, an international scientific research project that identified the approximately 25,000 genes in the human genome.

Other research carried out in Trinity includes the evolution of DNA since it first emerged several billion years ago, studies of mutant genes that lead to human blindness, and the gene changes behind psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia.

Genetics is a discipline that moves extremely fast, and Trinity continues to be at the forefront of new fields.

Neurogenetics, the study the role of

Science Gallery bailed out by sponsor

By Brian Barry THE SCIENCE Gallery has secured short-term funding to significantly curb deficits that have existed since the project opened on February 1 2008. The Trinity Foundation on behalf of ‘Science Gallery’ has agreed a sponsorship deal with Wellcome Trust that will generate €880,000 for the project.

Science Gallery relies primarily on corporate donation, philanthropic funding and on government funding from the Department of Arts, Sports and Tourism. Further income is generated from corporate hire, the internal café and any paid events.

Initially, a deficit of €1.2million had been predicted for 2009, a cause for concern for the College Finance Committee. A final figure could not be confirmd at the time of going to print. However the financial injection from Wellcome Trust looks to have relieved the initially difficult financial start for the project.

Michael John Gorman, Director of Science Gallery, told Trinity News that the intention is to keep Science Gallery exhibitions free to the public and that the high numbers who have attended exhibitions thus far have justified this move. “After only seven months of being open to the public we have exceeded our projected first year visitor numbers. To date over 65,000 visitors have come to the gallery - including a staggering 6,000 visitors for the recent three day Artbots festival.”

The scale of the project and advertising campaign has drawn a lot of attention, and cutbacks will be

DNA in the wiring and function of our brains, is currently one of the most exciting areas of development within genetics, and researchers in Trinity are at the forefront of these developments.

Without a doubt, the pioneering efforts of the researchers combined with the new biosciences building, due for 2010, will preserve the reputation of Trinity College’s Department of Genetics as one of the top centres for research and education.

Trinity News interviews Dr. James Watson, one of the scientists who discovered the double helix structure of DNA, in our science section, page 19.

College spend €219,000 extra on risk reduction

By Dave Molloy THE COST of the college’s risk reduction activites has risen by €219,000 for this year, bringing the total cost to €600,000- an increase of 57%.

The dramatic rise in cost is attributed to investment in fire safety and alarm systems required by the college for insurance reasons.

The previous cost per year of €381,000 has remined the same for the past few years. According to the college communications office, a “substantial saving” was made by the college on their insurance premiums last year by switching to a new insurance provider. The decision to increase funding for risk reduction activities was made on the basis that it was expected the new insurers would require certain measures and upgrades following their inspections of the college.

A college spokesperson told Trinity News “the recommendations of our insurers include, among others, the improvement of fire protection in buildings to prevent the spread of fire between buildings, the testing and upgrading if necessary of electrical systems and the protection of edges to prevent falls.” Regarding the magnitude of the increase, the college stated that “the additional €219,000 is not a significant amount in the context of the large number of buildings occupied by College.”

Specific examples of where this type of funding is spent include fire alarms, emergency lighting in the Arts Building, traffic safety, and safety training. Precisely where the money is spent and in what amount is decided by the College Safety Committee.

Resposnibility for health and safety in the college rests ultimately with the Board. A College Safety Officer (currently Mr. Tom Merriman) is appointed to monitor and improve heath and safety measures. He is also repsonsible for risk assessments and safety audits of college buildngs.

Within each department, a designated individual (most often the deprtment head) is responsible for drawing up and implementing a departmentalspecific safety statement.

necessary if more windfalls, such as this latest investment from Wellcome Trust, do not become available. “As predicted we will have a deficit for our first year, which is pretty normal with a start-up… if fundraising targets are not met, the Science Gallery programme will be scaled down accordingly” Mr Gorman said.

He also said that although it is easier to attract financial backing since Science Gallery has opened, “sponsorship budgets and government funds are becoming tighter” in the current economic climate. He emphasised that Science Gallery is not drawing funding from any student services.

The next exhibition to be held at Science Gallery is Lab in the Gallery: PAY ATTENTION! which will host an open laboratory providing participants from the public with the opportunity to take part in a series of neuroscience experiments.

WELLCOME TRUST The Wellcome Trust is an independent charity funding research to improve human and animal health.

Established in 1936 and with an endowment of around £15 billion, it is the UK’s largest non-governmental source of funds for biomedical research. week.

Science Gallery is the first Irish project to receive funding from the Wellcome Trust.

Visitor to Science Gallery Artbots exhibition. Photo: Martin McKenna

Library information system upgraded

By Deirdre Robertson College News Editor TRINITY LIBRARY’S 11 year old management system is to be updated over the following year in a project that will cost over €800,000.

The new Library Management System will update the computers that manage student loans, stack requests, the catalogue, online journals and the system that orders and processes new books and journals that come into the library.

According to Librarian Robin Adams, the current system ‘ has become dated and lacks refinements

The Berkeley library. Photo: Martin McKenna

now available.’

Following the introduction of the Stella Catalogue last year, the library wants to continue updating the system in a bid to move towards “Discovery tools” and social tagging. This would mean that a system of tag words similar to that used by Amazon would link many more materials than a traditional library catalogue would be able to.

According to Mr Adams ‘the aim is to guide our readers to resource discovery that might not have occurred to them’.

In addition to this, the library will become more digitally aware as the new search engines will incorporate

e-resources and other such electronic information into search results.

In order to continually update its process, the new system will monitor library use over a period of time and respond to changing patterns.

The new project will cost over €800,000 partly funded by a grant from the HEA’s Research Equipment Renewal Grant Scheme 2007.

However, this will not incorporate money for the cost to install and maintain the system. The project will be installed over the next 5 years and for the last two of these will incur running costs of 6% over budget. The library plans to pay for this through

library income generated in 2013 and 2014.

Mr Adams outlined plans to launch a new library website in tandem to the new LMS system thereby creating ‘a whole new library world’. He continued to note that as the systems will be run parallel to the current system, there should be no danger that student library use will be disrupted.

The library plans to launch the new catalogue by August 2009 in time for the academic year. It hopes to complete the project by December 2009.

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COLLEGE NEWS

TRINITY NEWS Tuesday, September 30 2008

Two new senior College posts appointed In brief Suas hold Global Issues series on Trinity Campus SUAS ARE hosting a series of seminars on Trinity campus over Michaelmas term.

The Global Issues Seminar Series aims to encourage groups of students to talk about global issueswith leading experts in the development field. Topics covered include education, health, debt, trade, equality, the environment, gender, human rights, HIV, conflict, human trafficking, media, HIV/AIDS in Africa and Trade.

The course will be held on Trinity campus over the course of 6-7weeks. Students can pay €20 to partake in a weekly 2hour seminar starting on 15 October.

For more details visit www.suas. ie/global-issues-evenings.

(Deirdre Robertson)

Trinity tunes in to iTunes ON 3 June 2008, Trinity College became the first Irish University to launch its own iTunes U site.

The technology allows TCD students and members of the public to access audio and videos files relating to course material, lectures and presentations delivered on campus in locations worldwide. The files are available to be downloaded for free from the site.

Speaking at the launch of the TCD iTunes U site, Provost John Hegarty stated: “Through pioneering the use of this new technology, Trinity College is reaching out to a variety of audiences – potential and current students, staff, alumni and the general public, in fact anyone with a love of learning which demonstrates our social and educational outreach mission”.

TCD U site has a familiar iTunes layout containing an ever-growing body of podcasts.

Downloads available range from a virtual tour of the College, to presentations given by academics such as scientist and broadcaster Prof. Robert Winston. Of particular interest are profile podcasts of TCD students detailing their “Trinity Experience”.

More information is available at www.itunes.tcd.ie.

(Tara O’Connor)

Suicide prevention group launches students writing competition SUICIDE PREVENTION group, Headsup, has launched a nationwide writing competition for young people.

Headsup is an initiative targeted at improving mental well-being among young people.

The writing competition encourages young people to write on any topic that affects them personally be it relationships, suicide, drugs, sexuality or any area of mental health. The winner’s article will be published in the Irish Independent. Students entering the competition can write 1,000 words under the title “Head-wrecked – what’s going on in my head?” The closing date is Tuesday 28th October at 5pm.

(Deirdre Robertson)

By David Molloy TWO NEW and one already existing highprofile positions in the college have been filled over the summer months.

The two new positions were created as a result of the ongoing restructuring project within college. Mr Christopher Lyons was appointed Chief Operating Officer and has overall responsibility for the administration of the university, with a long-term goal of eliminating unnecessary adminstrative structures and committees. The advertisment for the position sought an individual who would “be responsible for overseeing all the College’s administrative and support functions.”

The office of Vice-Provost/Chief Academic Officer is repsonsible for coordination of academic work within the college, both in education and research. Professor Patrick Prendergast was appointed the new CAO – a role which has been combined with the preexisting position of Vice Provost as the term ‘Chief Academic Officer’ is not recognised by the statutes.

The two new positions are designed to work in tandem with one another, being collectively responsible for “the delivery of college’s plans”, according to the minutes of the College Board.

The college was unwiling to comment on the specific activities of either officer since their appointment over the summer.

The third position was that of Senior Lecturer which was filled by Dr Aileen Douglas of the school of English. The Senior Lecturer’s role has been somewhat changed by the appointment of a Chief Academic Officer.

Previously, the Senior Lecturer chaired the Heads of Schools, Deans, Library, Research

and Student Services committees among others as well as being involved in chair appointments.

The role involved strategic leadership of university academic policy and initiating new policies wihthin the college such as the proposed semesterisation of all courses. Now, some of the responsibilities of the Senior Lecturer have been given over to the CAO. According to one member of the university, this is in order ‘to make clearer lines of operations and reporting’ as leading officers in college will now have just one head officer to report to.

The creation of the position of COO was objected to by Dr Vij, fellow of the college, last year, on numerous grounds, including that it would eliminate the “academic overview” of the college’s finances, and that it would make the position of Bursar “untenable” due to crossover of repsonsibilties between the positions.

Dr Vij also believed the proposals to be “overly bureaucratic” and that the post of COO “was inappropriate for an academic institution.” Dr Vij sought to bring the matter to the College Visitors, the highest authority in the university, who have the power to nullify or amend the decisions of Board.

His appeal was heard by the Visitors in January, who determined that “The Board decision to approve the proposals was a policy decision which was clearly within its power to make and does not imply a decision to implement the proposals unless and until it is lawful to do so, other than by the appontment of a COO.” Considering the objections made specifically against the creation of the office of COO, the Visitors decided that “so far as that appointment is concerned, it is authorised... It does not appear to contain any provision which affects the statutory powers of any Officers of College or in any way offend the Statutes.”

BIOGRAPHIES

The personalities

Aileen Douglas

Patrick Prendergast

A graduate and Fellow of Trinity College, Dr. Douglas holds a Masters Degree from the University of Delaware and a Doctorate from Princeton University. For several years, she worked as a lecturer at the Faculty of English in Washington University, St. Louis. Her research and teaching interests include eighteenthcentury writing and contemporary Scottish fiction. She was appointed to the position of Senior Lecturer by Provost John Hegarty. Generally, the Senior Lecturer continues any research projects while holding the three year long position. (Tara O’Connor)

The new Vice-Provost/Chief Academic Officer position was filled by Professor Patrick Prendergast, a professor of bioengineering in the college for a number of years. Professor Prendergast was appointed for a five-year term following a presentation to the college Board on May 21, outlining his plans for the development of the new office. He was nominated for the post by Provost John Hegarty.

Professor Prendergast is a Professor of Bioengineering and Director of the Trinity Centre for Bioengineering.

(David Molloy)

Christopher Lyons Mr Christopher Lyons became the first Chief Operating Officer on June 30, despite opposition over the creation of the position. He was approved for the position by the college board on May 21 last.

Mr. Lyons previously worked for the HSE in the Northeast. He held the position of Director of Services for Donegal County Council. He has worked in the health industry in both Ireland and the UK for 15 years. He has also held a HSE position in

Experience something new in the Old Library

Dublin North. He was the Hostpital and Network manager of the North Eastern Hostpitals Group.

During his time in these positions, Mr. Lyons was a vocal advocate in national media circles for better financial support for the Irish health sector.

Mr. Lyons is a graduate of the London School of Economics, the University of York and of the University of Ulster.

(David Molloy)

New climate change initiatives on campus

By Brian Barry

The Trinity Library Shop The Library Shop opening hours are: 9.30 - 5.00 Monday to Saturday 12.00 - 4.30 Sundays Email: library.shop@tcd.ie http://www.tcd.ie/Library/Shop

TRINITY COLLEGE is ‘leading the way’ in urging the Irish government to remodel its policy on Climate Change.

During the recent International Conference of Climate Change and Systematics, the School of Natural Sciences challenged the government to take note of the serious problems facing Ireland. The school is also currently working on two initiatives to increase student awareness and to improve Trinity College’s credentials on climate change.

Professor Mike Jones, head of Trinity’s Department of Botany, urged Minister of State for Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Michael Kitt to draw upon the 6th Scientific Statement of the Royal Irish Academy’s Irish Committee on Climate Change - a pamphlet which presents statistics on the vulnerability of Irish species and habitats. Professor Jones also suggested that not enough has been done in the past around the Trinity campus to draw the student body’s attention to the issue.

During the three day conference, leading experts in the fields of climate, botany and systematics lectured on the issues of Climate Change.

The centre-piece of the conference was the presentation of the 6 th Scientific Statement to Minister Kitt.

Introducing the conference, Provost John Hegarty praised the School of Natural Sciences for focussing the college community. He noted that people can become “overawed by the scale of the issue.”

Professor Jones told Trinity News that the pamphlet’s purpose is “to inform the Minister about some of the most important issues in relation to the threats posed by

climate change”. He hoped that the pamphlet would “aid the Minister in making important decisions on the government responses”.

Despite previous initiatives around college, Professor Jones suggested that “more needs to be done” to make students aware and active on the issue of climate change, and that his department has “a crucial role in educating staff and students alike “.

‘Green Week’ has been running on campus for six years but has not been suffieiently prominent.

The head of Trinity’s School of Natural Sciences, Professor John Parnell, told Trinity News that two initiatives will be running this year.

“As an institution largely financed by Government, Trinity will be required to take action. A small group has been set-up to try to assess our current positions on Energy usage and Carbon neutrality, and, through cooperative working with the Director of Buildings Office, put together an overall plan for the School to improve both.” The School will also unveil a student-focussed initiative next month.

The first day of the conference focussed on statistics that portrayed a bleak picture of Ireland. They demonstrated that climate change is already having a significant impact on Irish species and habitats. Experts expressed that future damage is inevitable, predicting that by 2075 approximately 40% of the suitable climatic area of Irish peatlands will be lost. Meanwhile, new diseases such as bluetongue virus - which affects cattle and sheep - are likely to reach Irish shores in the near future.

The 6th Scientific Statement of the Royal Irish Academy’s Irish Committee on Climate Change is available from www.ria.ie

COLLEGE NEWS

TRINITY NEWS

Tuesday, September 30 2008

A cog and ball story

Trinity’s Pomodoro Sphere which has been recently restored to its former brilliance Photo: Dave Molloy

By Deirdre Robertson College News Editor TRINITY’S GOLDEN ball, situated outside the Berkeley Library, underwent a huge cleaning and restoration project over the summer.

Meanwhile work on the Rubrics is “drawing to a conclusion” but will not be entirely finished by the time students move in on Wednesday 1st October.

The ‘Pomodoro Sphere within a Sphere’ is one of Trinity’s most infamous pieces of artwork. Created by sculptor Arnaldo Pomodoro, it is one of a large collection of similar spheres that are hosted in political, religious and educational centres around the world.

Trinity’s Pomodoro Sphere was a present to the college in 1982 from Mr Pomodoro himself. This summer, the ball was part of a full restoration project as both the internal and external parts were repaired. The first section of the project involved ‘engineering restructuring to repair the bearing in order to restore the movement function’ of the ball which spins when pushed. The second element restored the finish of the

previously grimy globe.

While it is a familiar aspect of Trinity, there seem to be no definitive explanations as to what the ball means. Some explanations across the world include the idea that the internal ball represents earth while the larger ball denotes Christianity thus envoking the thought that religion is larger than the world.

Others say the fractured sphere ‘reveals a complex inner sphere that represents the harsh difficulties of the modern world at the end of the second millenium’.

Still more say the internal machinery of cogs and gears are ‘akin to the complex interlocking systems of language or of organic bodies’. Similar balls are found in the Vatican Museums, the United Nations Headquarters, the University of California and the Guggenheim museum.

The restoration project saw the ball barricaded off and enclosed in a small hut for a number of months.

Hall Conservation of England carried out the project while Mr. Agostino Ragusa - who was specially recommended to the college by Mr. Pomodoro himself - oversaw the

restoration. The College could not reveal how much the project cost.

Simultaneously, the Rubrics building, situated in New Square, has undergone a major renovations project. Damaged brickwork, windows, roof tiles and reveals were repaired while the exterior was cleaned and repainted. The Accommodation Office is carrying out a concurrent project redecorating student rooms on the top floor.

This renovations project cost an estimated total of €750,000 €800,000 and has been carried out over 3-4 months. Staff residents were not relocated and according to the Communications Office students do not normally occupy rooms during the long vacation.

Although the project is close to completion, the scaffolding will not begin to be removed until 2 days after students have moved into the residences. Work will then continue for a further two weeks after this date.

At the time of going to print, college commented ‘it is hoped that the rooms will be available for student occupancy by student residents from 1 October.’

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Front Square lit up during Trinity Ball 2008. Photo: Martin McKenna

MCD apologises over Ball

By Deirdre Robertson College News Editor CONCERNS OVER ‘safety and parking’ issues that arose during the build up to the Trinity Ball 2008 have led MCD Promotions to formally apologise to the college.

In a report to the Sites and Facilities committee, the College Safety Officer outlined concerns over safety issues during the set up and take down of the Trinity Ball. The main anxiety related to MCD’s failure to clear Front Square of the Ball debris before Trinity Monday.

MCD Promotions run the Trinity Ball alongside the Trinity Student’s Union every May. Last year, there was some controversy when the MCD contract was renewed for 5 years with little consultation to members of the

5

TRINITY NEWS

Tuesday, September 30 2008

Capitations Committee. They are now scheduled to run the ball alongside the SU until 2012. The decision – though only briefly discussed at the Capitations meeting – was welcomed by the Students’ Union Entertainments Officer, Ed O’Riordan last year and by the Dublin University Cenral Soceities Committee.

The College Safety Officer reported that the Ball 2008 was very successful particularly as it was the first time in 10 years that there were no hospitalisations during the event.

However he expressed concern that MCD had been unable to clear the front area of college subsequent to the event.

In response to concerns over how Ball equipment was taken down this year, the Director of Buildings, Paul Mangan, has proposed a stricter

timetable be drawn up prior to the event each year. There will be a precise programme relating to the set up and removal time as well as the provision of extra car parking to avoid disruption. The Ball Committee has agreed to set aside 50 private car parking spaces for the duration of future Balls in order to ease interference to staff.

The Ball Committee acknowledged the problems and formally apologised.

They agreed that all future Ball applications to the Board would be subject to review by the Director of Buildings. MCD have also apologised to the college for their ‘lack of satisfactory management of the contractors’ and failing to complete the removal in time. MCD were unwilling to speak about the hitch to Trinity News.

GRIFFITH COLLEGE | Halls of Residence

NATIONAL NEWS 66 NATIONAL

TRINITY NEWS

Tuesday, September 30 2008

Freshers benefit as rents down by up to 15% in Dublin Una Geary National News Editor IT’S THAT time of year again, and students from first to final year are on the hunt for a comfortable, and above all, affordable place to drop anchor for the year.

A lucky 8% of students will take up residence in campus-managed accommodation. However, no need for jealousy because there is good news this year for the remaining 92% of students who will be renting private accommodation.

According to letting agent Igor Fleming, “the supply of

Second chance at university for students with poor maths results Una Geary National News Editor SPECIAL MATHEMATICS examinations have been introduced in several colleges to give students who achieved CAO points requirements for certain courses, but not the necessary grade in Mathematics, a second opportunity. Bernie Quilligan, science and engineering faculty manager at the University of Limerick, stated “This gives them a second opportunity if they’ve fallen down.” As well as the University of Limerick, NUI Galway, NUI Maynooth, and Sligo Institute of Technology have also taken the measure.

Prospective students of GalwayMayo Institute of Technology are also being given a second chance with a three-week intensive maths course.

Upon successful completion, students will be granted entry to all courses except engineering, medical science and nursing.

Professor Pádraic O’Donoghue, dean of engineering and informatics at NUIG, said the exam “may be particularly relevant this year with the difficulties in Leaving Certificate Mathematics experienced by many students.”

Athlone IT provide transport following “serious” attacks on females Una Geary National News Editor IN THE face of ongoing attacks on females, Athlone IT has provided a bus service to transport students between campus and town in an effort to prevent people walking home alone at night.

The latest attack occurred on Saturday, Sept. 20th in the Hallbridge area of town. The attacker attempted to rape a 28-year old mother of four.

Four days previously, at 2.30 am on Sept. 16th, a 19-year old woman was assaulted at the Bonavalley Bridge.

Detectives are investigating whether the attacks, all described as “serious,” are linked. The man believed to be responsible for the attacks has been described as in his late 20s, 5’8” – 5’11”, with blue eyes and dark hair.

A €10,000 award has been offered

by Crimestoppers for information leading to his arrest.

accommodation in Dublin has doubled in the past year and rents have dropped 10 to 15 percent.” He anticipates rents in Dublin to stay static, or perhaps fall again after the September student rush is over.

Nonetheless, students in the capital can expect to pay considerably more than their colleagues around the country. “The average student will pay almost €3,500 a year for accommodation, and that figure rises quite considerably for a student studying in Dublin,” said Shane Kelly, president of the Union of Students in Ireland.

A single room in Dublin’s city

RENT COSTS AND FACTS A lucky 8% of students will take up residence in campusmanaged accommodation.

The average student will pay almost €3,500 a year on accommodation.

A single room in Dublin city centre costs an average of €504 to rent per month. This figure decreases to €303 for Cork and Galway, and is halved in Limerick to €245.

“...the supply of accommodation in Dublin has doubled in the past year and rents have dropped 10 to 15 percent.”

“The average student will pay almost 3,500 a year on accommodation” Additional charges for utilities vary greatly for campus accomodation, though on average are noticeably higher in Trinity.

centre costs an average of €504 per month to rent. This figure decreases to €303 for Cork and Galway, and is halved in Limerick, at €245.

Despite the fact that this year’s rental market is friendlier than most, students remain a vulnerable group when it comes to landlords. This situation may worsen as Section 50 tax incentives on purpose-built student accommodation are abolished.

“When the tax breaks end, what you’ll see is young professionals moving in and students being forced out because rent controls won’t be there and rents will go up,” said Kelly. He added, “There will be a

re-emergence of really shabby onebedroom apartments or sharing a bathroom with 11 other people if we don’t do something about it.”

Twelve-month leases constitute an additional worry for students. “This means after the academic year has ended, students who have gone back home to earn money for the coming year end up continuing to pay rent on a place they’re not living in,” Kelly said.

Kelly’s advice is, “Be as proactive as possible, get out and view places, and talk to your students’ union accommodation office before you agree to anything.”

SPECIAL REPORT

The Bologna Process: High hopes, frustrated students Monika Urbanski, Staff Reporter Reporting from University of Munster, Germany

A

NOTHER ACADEMIC year begins. Once again hundreds of first year students start Bachelors’ degrees in Trinity College, many of whom might be considering studying abroad for a year in future. Meanwhile, international students are arriving in Trinity as well, but many questions have been raised about this educational cross-pollination.

More than ten years ago the Lisbon Recognition Convention’s noble ideas led to the Bologna Process and many changes throughout the European educational system.

The Bologna Declaration was originally signed in 1999 at the University of Bologna by Ministers of Education from 29 European countries. The number of participating countries has since jumped to 46. Its purpose, according to the European Commission’s website, is to “create a European Higher Education Area by 2010, in which students can choose from a wide and transparent range of high quality courses and benefit from smooth recognition procedures.”

The basic framework adopted is made up of three cycles of higher education qualification, similar to the UK and Ireland’s model, now common in Continental Europe.

Today, the most common undergraduate degrees given are the Bachelor of Arts (Artium Baccalaureus) and the Bachelor of Science (Scientiae Baccalaureus). Originally, in the universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Trinity College Dublin, all undergraduate degrees were in the Faculty of Arts, hence the degree of Bachelor of Arts. The education systems in Asian countries are largely patterned after the Western models and Bachelor’s degrees exist in almost every country in Europe. However, these degrees were only recently introduced in some Continental European countries, where Bachelor’s degrees were unknown before the Bologna Process.

The main advantage of this harmonisation of higher education at the European level is to promote the recognition of studies from different countries, as well as mobility, both to students and teachers. The Erasmus programme is an excellent example of how this standardization can enrich a student’s life both academically and culturally. According to the online magazine CafeBabel.com the latest figures indicate that the number of Erasmus students has increased, but not everything is running smoothly. For example, a University of Munster (Germany) student gains 5 ECTS (European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System) credits for a course taught at Trinity. Unfortunately, the minimum in Munster to pass a course is 7 ECTS credits. Students planning a year abroad should be aware of all those difficulties that might arise, since implementation of the Bologna Process is by no means across all European universities, and that could mean frustrating problems for students hoping to take a year abroad.

In many countries, however, standardisation was not implemented without criticism. Contrary to popular belief,

the Bologna Process is not based on a European Union initiative. Priorities vary from country to country and from institution to institution – and according to the Economist, not all countries are up to speed on the Bologna Process.

Despite idiosyncratic national systems being scheduled for replacement with a standard Anglo-Saxon progression of Bachelor’s degree to Master’s degree to Ph.D. by 2010, some of Europe’s biggest education markets, such as Spain, for example, are as much as 5 years away from implementation. Fears of a two-tier European education system arise.

According to Australia’s national newspaper The Australian, compliance is an enormous task made all the more difficult by the number of countries and universities involved, the barriers of language and limited financial resources. The challenges that lie ahead seem to have been underestimated and the Process has not gained full acceptance among students. In March 2008, thousands of students in Barcelona staged an anti-Bologna demonstration following the example of French students in 2002-2003 and 2007. Student leaders protest that the post-Bologna university would be designed to turn out employees suitable for business rather than citizens with a critical spirit.

The European Education Forum (EEF) criticises the Bologna process in many ways: what is the future of the right to learn in a system following in the footsteps of the Bologna Process’ economic model – concerned mostly

with profitability, performance and efficiency? In the beginning, EEF’s challenge was simply to create a platform for alternative debate on higher education. Today, the EEF brings together 30 radical European education organisations, including Sud from France, Altrascuola Unicobas from Italy and Scuday from Germany.

Mary-Anne Karlsen, a 25 year-old Norwegian student and member of EEF states: “Students today are seen as consumers, not participants”. Since the Bologna Process was introduced in her country she says she deplores “the obvious commercialisation of education.

Through the creation of compartmentalised disciplines, the ECTS (European Credit Transfer System) has led to fragmentation of knowledge and thus, weakening of critical thought.” Similarly, EEF is concerned the Bologna Process could be co-opted by governments seeking to push through their own national reforms under its auspices.

Less than two years away from the scheduled end date of the process, the implementation of extensive university reform has turned out to be an extremely complex and controversial subject. For instance, in England and Ireland, no big changes are forecast, given that their system is considered to be the foundation for the reform.

In Germany, the reform is at a very advanced stage and the former diplomas, Magister and Staatsexamen, are disappearing in favour of the new Bachelor and Masters degrees. It seems that there is still a long way to go to deliver the noble ideas and high aspirations of 1997.

Students stranded as college recognition withdrawn Una Geary

National News Editor THE DEPARTMENT of Education withdrew recognition of Medway College, a private college, in February of this year. The move left over 300 non-E.U. students in a financial quandary, as their work visas could not be renewed.

Medway College, situated on North Cumberland Street, with offices on Lower Abbey Street, opened in 2006, under the directorship of Peter Offwood, from Buckinghamshire, and Sukhvinder Singh Bansal, from Middlesex.

Business and other courses are offered at the college, whose awards come from such bodies as City and Guilds, ECDL and the Association of Business Executives.

Some of the courses received official recognition from the Department of Education and Science, allowing them to be listed on the internationalisation register of approved programmes. Non-E.U students on these courses qualify for visas permitting them to work parttime for 20 hours a week during term time.

However, the college was removed from the register in February

MEDWAY COLLEGE Peter Offwood, from Buckinghamshire, and Sukhvinder Singh Bansal, from Middlesex, are the directors of this private college.

Non-E.U students on these courses qualify for visas permitting them to work part-time for 20 hours a week during term time.

The college claims to have refunded EUR 130,000 in fees.

following inspectors’ reports of non-compliance with the criteria for inclusion on the register. Mr. Offwood stated that concerns were raised about the attendance of classes and the relatively low number of awards made.

The college has appealed the decision. Mr. Offwood declared, “The college is being penalised instead of the students who did not attend their lectures.”

He maintained that everything had been done to encourage students to attend classes, “Letters were sent and students were warned they would be expelled if they didn’t attend.”

The withdrawal of recognition by the Department has left more than 300 overseas students stranded.

“Some of us barely have enough for food and we don’t know who to go to,” one student said.

The largest group of students are from Mauritius and had been encouraged to enrol in Medway by a college representative who had visited the island. Their spokesperson claimed that many had borrowed heavily to come here and study.

Students are demanding a refund of fees. The college says that it has already returned up to EUR 130,000 to students. Despite making a pre-tax

profit of nearly EUR 300,000 in the year up to March 2007, it claims that it ran out of money in February and has been relying on financial support from the directors to keep it going since.

The Department has insisted that the removal from the register did not affect the status of existing students, but would mean that new students, or students seeking a renewal of their visas, would not be given access to employment, unless they were on a programme on the register.

Information on student and work Visas is available from www. citizensinformation.ie

Tuesday, September 30 2008

Varsity club punished for racist video

By Kasia Mychajlowycz International News Editor THE CHINESE Varsity Club (CVC) video made to entice firstyear students to join up at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Canada caused outrage and complaints last week, both on-campus and in Vancouver’s large Chinese community.

Featuring a well-spoken Asian woman representing the CVC, and a supposedly recent immigrant Asian male representing the “Typical Honger Club”, the video aims at recreating the popular Mac vs. PC television ads to promote the CVC, and separate from the other Asian clubs at UBC. UBC’s student newspaper, the Ubyssey, reported that the man in the video put on a thick Chinese accent, stumbling over

words and confusing the word “variety” with “Viagra” while constantly flashing the peace sign with both hands. “Honger” is a slang word meaning someone who is a recent immigrant from Hong Kong.

The Alma Mater Society, which is the governing body of the student population, was made aware of the video by four complaints from other clubs and organizations. They ruled that the video was offensive, and that some members of the club involved in its creation would have to go through equity training. The CVC was also banned from their table on the first day of club recruitment in the student building and must write letters of apology to all four complainants. And, of course, they were required to remove the video from their

website, although at the time of this article’s writing, the Ubyssey had posted a video report on the incident on their website, including an excerpt of the banned video.

“Not everyone is as lucky as they are to be born here and be taught in English,” Coleman Lu, Secretary Treasurer of the

Chinese Collegiate Societyone of the clubs that brought forth a complaint- told the Ubyssey. “They label us as a ‘Typical Honger Club’ which is discriminating towards all of our members.”

On its website, the CVC describes itself as a “social club” established by a few Asian

students 78 years ago, making it by far the oldest Chinese community-based club.

In the Frequently Asked Question section, under the heading “What separates CVC from other Asian clubs?” it reads: “With 76 years to evolve, CVC prides itself as a multicultural club, with a multi-ethnic member base, and a multi-ethnic exec team. Do not feel pushed away simply by the name of the club!” The “About CVC” section features a photograph of a large group of CVC members, all of whom are Asian.

UBC is located in Vancouver, on the west coast of Canada.

The Chinese community is Vancouver’s largest minority group, and 30% of Vancouver homes speak either Mandarin or Cantonese as their first language.

Rhodes Uni apologizes for apartheid Rhodes University in South Africa has acknowledged its history of racial segregation and has just renamed a building in honour of a student antiapartheid hero, Stephen Bantu Biko.

By Kasia Mychajlowycz International News Editor EIGHTEEN YEARS after the end of apartheid, South Africa’s Rhodes University has formally apologized for its implementation of racial segregation. The apology was made during a renaming ceremony at the Grahamstown campus, where the student union building was renamed the Stephen Bantu Biko Building, after the renowned anti-apartheid student leader who died under suspicious circumstances in police custody in 1977.

The South African newspaper The Mercury quoted vice-chancellor Saleem Badat delivering a full apology for the exclusion of blacks at the university, both during and prior to apartheid: “While we take pride in our university, these are aspects of our past which are inexcusable and shameful and in which we can take no pride. Before 1959, nothing in law precluded Rhodes from admitting black students or employing black academics and administrators.

Instead, Rhodes practised racial segregation of its own volition.

Preparing to become a fully fledged university, in 1949 Rhodes voiced its opposition to any legal prohibition on the admission of black students.

In practice, however, Rhodes did

Stephen Bantu Biko, anti-apartheid campaigner.

not admit black undergraduate students.”

Earlier this year, the international community was shocked by a YouTube video in which white students from the University of the Free State tricked black women from the housekeeping staff into drinking urine. At the end of the video, a message in Afrikaans reads “That, at the end of the day, is what we think of integration”, sparking a worldwide debate about how far South Africa really has come since the end of apartheid.

The Rhodes University Student’s Union Building, which has been renamed in honour of Stephen Bantu Biko.

Photo:Pierre Nel

According to CNN’s report on the incident, opposition party Democratic Alliance’s spokesperson for Free State province posted a statement on the party’s website stating that “this incident is symptomatic of racial tensions that have been simmering at the campus for some time over the issue of hostel [residence] integration”.

In 1967, Stephen Biko was banned from on-campus accommodation while attending the National Union

of South African Students’ annual conference at Rhodes University. Biko was then moved to begin what would be known as the black consciousness movement.

After his death, he was termed a ‘martyr’ to the movement by many, and was immortalised in the hit song “Biko” by Peter Gabriel.

Biko is credited with inventing the now-famous slogan, “Black is Beautiful”.

Times experiments shows up large disparities in marking

By Kasia Mychajlowycz International News Editor WHEN TEN professors were asked

by Times Higher Education to mark one first-year philosophy essay, one professor gave the paper a zero, another 66 out of one hundred, the magazine reported.

In the worlds of graduate student and job applicants, there is an everincreasing pressure for the highest marks possible, and, some say, the disparity in marking practices between different universities, faculties, and even professors place too much emphasis on an unreliable indicator of success.

The ten academics participated in the experiment on the condition of total anonymity, and therefore the

test offers no insight into the marking practices of specific universities. It is easy to imagine why they insisted on anonymity – with marks deciding so much of the graduating students’ access to job opportunities, the university of Marker 4, who gave the paper a zero on the grounds of plagiarism, could well expect a legal battle from one or more disgruntled students.

Although the range of marks was very wide, the majority of markers gave the essay between a high 2:2 and a low 2:1, perhaps suggesting a consistency among the majority of professors.

One marker was quick to point out that students hand in many assignments to different professors throughout the year, thereby limiting

the influence of any one mark on their overall achievement.

However, “students would struggle to know what the best way forward might be if all these markers were operating in the same programme,” remarked Jude Carroll, deputy director of the Assessment Standards Knowledge Exchange (ASKe) Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at Oxford Brookes University.

The professors were also asked to provide comments on the essay, which was given to THE for the purpose of the experiment by a person who had already graduated from university.

“A good essay”, says Marker 10, the only one in the experiment to use a rubric that was out of 20, another inconsistency in the various marking

0-66% The range of marks given to the same essay by ten examiners in the Times Higher Education study.

systems of universities. The harshest marker said there was “evidence of paraphrase, if not outright plagiarism,” Another who gave a middle-ofthe-road mark of 56/100 said it was a “reasonable answer to the essay question” although parts are “not properly thought through”. One marker explained their method of marking as involving a kind of “feeling” they get while reading an essay.

Barry O’ Donovan, also of ASKe, said this THE experiment was precisely the kind of exercise that would help colleagues communicate expectations for marking, saying that “sharing understandings of a ‘good piece of work’ is pivotal” to achieve consistency in marking.

7

Global Campus

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

TRINITY NEWS

My start to a year in the (Gre)noble south of France THE SUMMER months in Dublin can be a pretty depressing place. Everything is different. All the boggers have gone home for the holidays to cut peat on the family farm, the stressed-out suits who are usually seen rushing around college green have been replaced by angry-looking and purposeless emo kids, and even the skinny-jeaned arts student (who most of us wouldn’t usually admit to missing) has made way for a swarm of Japanese and Spanish tourists. There are no twisted Tuesdays in Citibar or Wankered Wednesdays in somebody’s dingy apartment to take the edge off working the nine to five in your local Tesco either.

So although I was looking towards my departure on Erasmus to the Mainland with a mixture of fear (what would the girlfriend say?) and cautious curiosity (what would the girlfriend say?) it could only be a good thing to leave Dublin behind me for foreign parts.

Couldn’t it?

Touching down in Lyon airport I could have been forgiven for thinking not. The disappointingly tearless goodbyes (she took it well) had taken place in a chilly and very autumnal Dublin airport, and I was sure that the south-eastern corner of France where Grenoble is located would have more to offer.

However, the tropical thunderstorm that greeted me was so intense that sitting in an airport cafe, every time the automatic exit doors twenty metres from me opened I was sprayed with rain. Dublin one, Grenoble nil. Who would have thought that anywhere could be wetter than Ireland, the cloud congregation capital of the world?

I decided to give it a chance anyway. So after a night spent in a Grenoblois (the adjective of the noun Grenoble don’t ya know) youth hostel, the first day was to be spent hunting for accommodation. A mixture of laziness, complacency and naïvety meant that my mate and I hadn’t sorted out an apartment before arriving- boy, would this turn out to be a mistake.

France has a reputation for being bureaucratic, and evidently it’s well deserved. Although there were more estate agents in the town than there are sheep in Wicklow, regulations meant that to lease an apartment collateral is needed in the form of a guarantor, in case you decide to run off to Mexico without paying your rent. Oh, and the guarantor has to be French. With a salary three times greater than the monthly rent. Suffice to say this was only the tip of the bureaucratic iceberg, so we returned to our hostel for another night to work out plan B. For my mate this consisted of a teary phone call to the apparently well-connected mammy back home, who could pull a few strings to bypass much of the red tape. For me, things were looking bleak until I stumbled upon a dodgy Spanish landlord with a distaste for form filling and a preference for cash – success!

So after settling into my impressively cheap and well-facilitated suburban gaf, thoughts turned towards college, my ability to speak en français, and when we were going to have a night out.

The first was starting a lot sooner than expected, the second posed less of a problem than feared, and the third posed more of a problem than anticipated.

University seemed to just involve more forms and endless regulations (no wonder the students over here went on strike back in 1968), though the prospect of a four-day weekend – my timetable entails only twelve hours per week with no classes Friday or Monday – cheered me up immensely. The other Erasmus students (over 200 come to Grenoble every year) seemed fairly friendly also, and virtually all had a conversational level of English – problem number two solved!

As for nights out, clubs didn’t exactly seem to exist over here, and despite the fact that apparently one in every seven of Grenoble’s 400,000 residents is a student, the consumption of unhealthy amounts of Dutch Gold followed by wheelie bin robbery and other drunken shenanigans didn’t appear to be commonplace.

Café bars seemed to be almost as numerous as the ubiquitous estate agents however, and although they close at about half one (we give out about the new opening hours in Ireland?) they can be lively enough spots.

So I’m now a week into my Erasmus Adventure (corny eh?) and I have to say it’s relatively ok so far.

C’est la vie en France for the moment!

Domhnall O Sullivan

8

NEWS FEATURES

TRINITY NEWS Tuesday, September 30 2008

Clockwise, from top: the Museum Building, the Proposed Biosciences Development, the Chief Steward’s Lodge, and Chaloner’s Corner. Photos: David Molloy

Trinity’s architectural grandeur: Past, present and future In Trinity’s four hundred years, the college has grown from a single square to fill the area it occupies today- and has thrown up some architectural jems in the process.

Deirdre Lennon Lorraine Wemyss

T

HE OFFICIAL opening of the newly renovated of the Provost’s House Stables on 12 June 2008 prompts the question - how much do we really know about the architectural gems that surround us on campus?

In addition, how many secrets do the walls, buildings and historic cobbles hold? Do you ever stop and wonder what exactly the building that you just passed is? Probably not that often. Most of us are unaware of the abundance of these sites, as they do not lie in our paths as we trek to the Arts Block, the Science buildings or indeed, the Pav. The stables, visible from Nassau Street, just opposite the glorious franchise that is Subway, now houses the Trinity Irish Art Research Centre.

This project brings about a revival of one of the buildings of Trinity that had been out of use for horses since the 1930s, and was used instead for storage.

In establishing the TRIARC as a centre of advancement in Irish visual arts, it aspires to bring together various kinds of Irish art from the previous eras and is working as a component of the History of Art Department in TCD, which it is owned by.

The stables were originally designed by the architect Frederick Darley Junior in 1841 and refurbished by the architects O’Donnell and Tuomey, who have won awards for their work. The stables themselves, despite their disuse, had remained largely intact internally before work on the project began. The site was occupied formerly by Georgian

houses and outbuildings before the stables themselves were built. Several original features of the stables were kept, such as the granite floor, the hay loft and the carriage house - all of which have been put to practical use without forsaking the buildings’ integrity.

A secret site that numerous students wouldn’t be aware of is St Patrick’s Well, a site that used to be famous for St Patrick’s Day celebrations in ancient times which lies adjacent to the Provost’s House.

It was thought to be situated in a vault situated under the Nassau Street entrance. A connection between these “celebrations” and certain drunken revelries around our national holiday show that times may not have changed as much as we thought.

Those associated with celebrating at the well are said to have enjoyed a drink from it. Take what you will from this notion. It was also reputed to have had healing powers before the source dried up in 1729.

As well as housing historic buildings, Trinity also possess a wine cellar, with vast quantities of rare wine, including some extortionately expensive bottles. It is a goldmine for wine lovers and potentially for eager students wishing to gain access to this resource. According to a source, it is possible for lecturers to be paid in wine rather than money, a fact which may propel many readers into academia in the future. Charles Durrain, former sommelier to Patrick Guilbaud’s restaurant in Dublin spoke to Trinity News about his time testing wines in one of the two cellars on campus for his wine company, beside the Dining Hall. He stated that: “the cellar is amazing, nobody has that kind of collection, and it has a very

good selection of Ports.” Durrain commented on how impressive it was to see this collection, as well as mentioning the names of wines including Guigal, Châteauneufdu-Pape, from the well acclaimed vineyard of Jean-Louis Chave and some from the Rhone Valley. The second wine cellar on campus is only accessible to the wine cellarer himself.

The well-famed tunnels are a constant source of interest to those of us who have not been lucky enough to gain access. One well-used tunnel extends from the Berkeley Library to the valuable collection of books housed in Early Printed Books and is virtually unknown to those who study in the Hamilton end of college.

It is worth the visit merely to feel like the average student is reading in close proximity to the Long Room. Similarly, the ornate Museum Building remains somewhat of a mystery to those who inhabit the Arts Block, but deserves to be wandered into by undergraduates and post grads alike. A similar point of interest is the Chief Steward’s House, again, off the beaten track behind the launderette but nevertheless, worth a look.

A further little known fact that may surprise some students is that there is a graveyard in the midst of all the hustle and bustle of daily campus life. Located between the Dining

Hall and the Chapel, thousands are unaware that it is the smallest cemetery in Dublin and is actually called Chaloner’s Corner, named after Dr. Luke Chaloner, the first Provost of Trinity. Several illustrious scholars are said to be buried there, including the teacher of Oscar Wilde and Oliver St. John Gogarty, John Pentland Mahaffy. It is also the sites of memorial plaques to former academics. If a Provost dies within his term of office, it is his right to be buried there. It would be difficult to stumble across it unless looking for it, rather than going directly for the ATM to see if there are sufficient funds for the current transaction.

T

rinity is famed for its architectural grandeur but one thing all new students to the Trinity campus will soon notice is the ever changing nature of the University grounds. There are a number of initiatives currently

...the [wine] cellar is amazing, nobody has that kind of collection, and it has a very good selection of Ports.

ARCHITECTURAL FACTS ABOUT THE COLLEGE The Provost’s House Stables were designed by the architect Fredrick Darley Junior in 1841 and had been out of use since the 1930s.

St Patrick’s Well used to be a site for St. Patrick’s Day revelries in the city but its source dried up in 1729.

There are two wine cellars on campus, only one is accessible to visitors and staff.

Chaloner’s Corner, located just beside the entrance to the Atrium, is the smallest cemetery in Dublin.

The old Bord Gais building on D’Olier Street was transformed into a state of the art Nursing Building in the last few years.

The Pearse Street Corridor development plan aims to increase the number of social spaces on the campus itself.

being undertaken in an effort to blend Trinity’s famed scholarship with modern and innovative research.

Trinity is the sole Irish entrant in the top 200 universities worldwide, and it is the ambition of the college community to further improve on this position, and truly mark out her place on the international scene.

The University aims to mix the traditional academia for which it is renowned with modern research methods through a programme of ‘phased growth’. This scheme has already seen the site emerge from beyond its traditional boundaries to embrace the city at large. Recent years have witnessed the transformation of the former Bord Gais building situated on D’Olier Street - into a state of the art facility housing the school of Nursing. There has also been a continued priority placed upon the University’s academic and research facilities in Tallaght and St James’s Teaching Hospitals.

Trinity Colleges’ commitment to this programme of phased growth can clearly be seen with the ‘Pearse Corridor Development Plan’. ‘With the Pearse Corridor Development Plan, Trinity College is crafting a new paradigm for academic and social community, combining innovation and regeneration.’ The project is aimed at providing an infrastructural change for the Trinity campus which will see a number of new social spaces, shops and significantly improved access to public transport for the college community at large.

The first phase of the programme can already be seen with the Naughton Institute, housing CRANN and also the new Sports Centre.

Phase two will see the establishment of a major Bioscience Institute aimed at improving the University’s health and research facilities. Phase two will also see the introduction of a new entrance to Pearse Railway station in a continuing effort to improve campus accessibility. Phase three incorporates the regeneration of the Georgian Terrace on Pearse

Street, creating a walkway that links Pearse Street to Naussau Street. The ‘Campus Gateway Phase’ will also witness the development of a new Student Centre and a new centre for the performing arts. The final phase will see a focus on the delivery of ‘an entrepreneurial hub at Grand Canal Quay’ in conjunction with a newly invigorated Trinity Technology and Enterprise Campus.

Another project which the University is actively involved in is that of the Long Room Hub Development, which accommodates the Research Institute for the Arts and Humanities at Trinity College Dublin.

‘The hub fosters the work both of individual scholars and of networks of scholarship, within Trinity College and internationally, networks which increasingly bring together arts and humanities scholars with those in the social and natural sciences.’In October 2007, the Hub was awarded 11 million euro by the PRTLI, in addition Trinity was ranked 37 in the world for Arts and Humanities research. The Hub is due to be extended and it will see The Hub act as an effective “book-end” to the Edmund Burke section of the Arts Building.

It is clear from the Pearse Corridor Development as well as the Long Room Hub that Trinity is focused on moving forward. Another initiative currently being worked on is that of a cobble reduction programme in an effort to make the campus more accessible to all. This will see certain areas of the University’s famed cobbles reduced to make access to the college’s facilities more user friendly.

It is evident that the college campus for all its mystery is perpetually moving forwards development wise, providing students with an even greater opportunity to utilise the space that is to be modernized. As well as marvelling at the new, students should open their eyes and realise the beauty of the buildings and sites that have gone before, chiefly to avoid being tourists on our own campus.

SOCIETIES

TRINITY NEWS Tuesday, September 30 2008

9

The real guide to society life event and genuinely fun for audience and participants alike. Members get excellent discounts on all shows and events, so worth joining if that’s what you’re into. As an actor or director it will be hard to break into the circle without early involvement.

It can be tough as a First Year during Freshers’ week. Before you know it you’ve spent €50 and joined a whole load of societies without knowing what they actually do.

In this article, a weary and anonymous cynic offers a somewhat alternative opinion on some of College’s leading societies that will try to woo you this week.

Biological

Food and drink

Biological basically holds one event a year, but since this event is one of the most important in Trinity we can forgive them this. The Biological Association is in charge of Med Day, the one day a year where the medics of Trinity go out into the streets of Dublin, organise loads of events around campus and raise ludicrous sums of money. To give you an idea, in 2006 they raised over €90,000.

If you are studying Medicine then it’s obligatory to join, but being part of the overwhelming 500+ team that takes to the streets from 6.30am on the first Friday in November must feel great.

We think they might organise the Med Ball, but really anything else they do is over shadowed by this mammoth day. Don’t bother joining unless you’re a medic, but do give generously and join in the fun on Friday 7th November 2008.

In many respects this is a great society – they’ve come leaps and bounds in recent years. Once a society which claimed to get you discounts at certain eateries in Dublin but really did nothing at all; now they are a society that offers far more. However, they may be facing a difficult financial year because putting on such food (and drink) based nights like pizza making, whiskey tasting and the giving away of high-quality cheese (members only) is expensive, particularly in these tough times.

If you really need a reason to dislike the society, you could perhaps hate them for causing the ban on cake sales (the Freshers’ Co-Op committee in Players are surely plotting some revenge now) last year when they arrived in the Arts Building armed with lots of messy food for a “Brunch give-away” (members only of course).

This outburst of “fun” scared the powers that be in College and the sale/give-away of home-baked food products was banned.

Last year’s committee realised the benefits of having a good website and won Best Website at the Society Awards in 2008. If you’re looking for a society where your commitment is left to your own leisure then this is definitely a society to join.

Choral People with little classical music training lament the fact the Trinity has four choirs: “four choirs? But they’re all just singing aren’t they?”

The answer for the Choral Society is, probably not. And yet this bunch sells out the National Concert Hall, year after year. Conducted by a professional music instructor (the other, smaller and more talented, choirs in Trinity are led by fellow students) this choir seems to let anybody in Dublin join, Trinity ID or not, and it shows. But you’ve got to give them a hand for their ‘if you enjoy it, give it a go’ attitude, Although this becomes frustrating if you have experience in choral singing, the society is excellent if you enjoy singing major choral works. It’s crap if you are actually able to sing.

Enigeering A type of society under debate, since the majority of these “subject societies” only organise nights out for their members, most of whom study the society’s subject. One wonders why these societies aren’t scrapped and taken over fully by the SU and Class Representatives.

Engineering Society falls into this category. No one knows what they do other than organise class parties and a trip away (which everyone admits

Science Fiction

is just a weekend away drinking).

However this year sees a woman at the helm, so who knows what could happen. Maybe the Engineering Society could actually engage in activities relevant to Engineering?

There is a first for everything.

Hist/Phil These are the big wigs, the big boys, the main players. They claim highest membership numbers and can boast the biggest guests. One could argue that these societies break out of the bubble surrounding Trinity with their famous and sometimes controversial guests, who often attract attention from the outside media. If a celebrity is in town, the Phil or the Hist will bring them in for no real reason other than the fact that they can.

These societies have a long and important history, which they like to bore most people with, even if they didn’t ask. One of them likes to argue it’s the oldest undergraduate society in the world, the other claims to be the oldest paper-reading society in the world. But nobody really cares.

In fact, not many people care about either of these societies, or their activities; except when there’s a famous celeb around.

And don’t be fooled by the minions working for the Phil and the Hist when they lie to you as you enter the Freshers’ fare – not everybody joins, it is not a rite of passage, and you will not be banned from their events because you are not a member.

These two societies are linked

together because they’re basically the same society, and staggeringly unaware of how lucky they are. There are some societies as large as theirs, and just as active, who share rooms with two other societies, where there is no access during evenings and weekends. The Phil and the Hist, on the other hand, have a whole (rather large) building to themselves. This fact, along with both being particularly arrogant, narcissistic, and low-scoring on the “team player” front, means the other societies tend to look upon them with distaste, jealousy, and maybe, dare we suggest, loathing. They also think they are far more important than they are; relatively few in college care about the activities of societies in general, and there are even fewer who care about the activities of these “paper reading” societies.

However, the new committees are in for the 2008/9 session, and with them their comes the hope of change: a hope of more communication, that they are doing things for the students and their members instead of just themselves, and of fewer petty squabbles between the two of them.

With a string of great guests already planned, it’s looking like an exciting year from the Phil and the Hist.

International Students The surprise winners of Best Large Society at the Society Awards in 2008, this relatively unknown society has come from a long list of problems,

mainly within its committee, who discovered, seeing the problems that come with assigning important committee positions to students who are only around for a semester but who decided nevertheless to change the whole way the society was run.

DUISS, as they are known, do exactly what they should: they take their members on trips to see Ireland and county Dublin, show people the city, and give international students advice for everyday life in a foreign country. They really work hard for their members, and it’s worth joining even if you’re not an international student as you will no doubt learn and see more of your home country than if you hadn’t joined.

Players Players have for a long time held a reputation for not letting outsiders in to their inner gang, and if you don’t spend your freshman years sucking up to the revered committee members you are unlikely to get any action from the plays. However, over the last year or two, Players have been trying to change this image and get the youngsters involved, and to get rid of this inner-clique idea.

However, if rumours of pre-casting, and vitriol-filled AGMs (read: openabuse-sessions) are to be believed then perhaps it is a little premature of us to suppose they have come this far.

Still, if you’re outlandish and fun you’ll probably score a part in the Freshers’ Co-Op, by far their biggest

Science Fiction Society has lost its way over the years: no one is really sure what it is supposed to do, but we are all pretty sure that they do lots of things, not all of it with much of a point, or related to Science Fiction in any way. It is run by a bunch of nerds who spend much of their time in their society room in House Six playing computer games and eating pizza. But don’t let this put you off – these guys are genuinely nice people and incredibly welcoming to new members. They can boast one of the largest book libraries of any society, and certainly the largest DVD and games libraries.

They had a spot of bother a few years ago projecting illegal films in college to their members, but they’re back on the straight and narrow, and now it’s more about the Iron Stomach and their annual week long competition: Assassin. Through these events the society has also taken on the task of running RAG week (in no official capacity of course; that task is left to our able Student’s Union). They are the only society to run events and raise money: they alone raised over €2000, which is not to be scoffed at. But a lot of their events, such as an inter society football tournament, whilst fun and for-a-good-cause, really have nothing to do with Science Fiction. It’s one thing to be busy and active, but why call yourself “SciFi” if your most important events have nothing to do with that?

Conclusion: give it a go if you’re a movie fan, but other than that they have little else of substance to offer.

Yoga This society does exactly what it says on the tin, but unfortunately due to a scheduling crisis the size and regularity of the classes has changed. This is bad because lots of students want to learn yoga and the society want to give as many classes as possible, but due to Trinity running out of space they are just unable to.

The society offers sessions of varying standards and tries to go on a yoga trip away – sounds peaceful.

Definitely give this society a go, but be warned you will have to turn up to classes at least half an hour before the session to get in, but on the plus side: after the stress of getting a spot you’ll have an hour to relax your mind and body.

Freshers’ week events guide Tuesday 30th September Trinity FM: Broadcasting LIVE, from 9.00. See freshers’ stand for information on shows!

Trinity Greens: “Get On Ya Bike”, see Monday 29th for details.

Ents and Volley Ball: Volley Ball Competition, The Pav 11.00 till 16.00.

Ents: Gigs in GMB, 14.00-15.00: States Between States, Goodtime Maritime.

Trinity Greens: Luas Green Line Pub Crawl: A reception followed by hybrid public transport pub crawl. Cost is the price of a Luas ticket. Starting 19.00, Eliz Rooms, House 6.

DU Food and Drink: Murdery Mystery Soiree, in association with DU Players. Players Theatre, 19.30 – 22.00.

Engineering (EngSoc.): First Night Out of 2008/9, Citi Bar, 22.00.

Ents: Traffic Light Ball, with an attempt to break the world record for ‘most people in body paint’. Tripod, 22.00, tickets €7/10 on door.

Wednesday 1st October Trinity FM: Broadcasting LIVE, from 9.00. See freshers’ stand for information on shows!

ENTS and DU Food and Drink: Is Maith Liom Cáca Milis (Cake-Eating Contest) - Front Square, 10.00.

Trinity Greens: “Get On Ya Bike”, see Monday 29th for details.

Gamers: All day gaming, including: role playing, board games, war games and card games. Regent House, 12.00.

Ents: Gigs in GMB, 14.00-15.00: Dirty Epics, Rob Kearns.

SciFi Soc: Quazar, see stand for details, 14.00-17.00.

Dublin University Business + Economics Society: Freshers' Welcoming Reception: A great opportunity to meet the committee and other society members over refreshments. The Atrium, 18.00-20.00.

DU Comedy: David O'Doherty Live: the If.Comedy award winner plays a very special show for Trinity students, price €10/€7. The Dining Hall, 19.30.

ENTS + DUBES: Foam Party with special promotions on the night. Tickets are €7 at the DUBES stand Monday to Wednesday, €10 at the door. 22.00 till Late, CitiBar, Dame Street.

Thursday 2nd October Trinity FM: Broadcasting LIVE, from 9.00. See freshers’ stand for information on shows!

Trinity Greens: “Get On Ya Bike”, see Monday 29th for details.

Trinity Greens: Bike Repair Workshop – all you need to know about repairing your own bike. 13.00 – 15.00, The Atrium.

Ents: Gigs in GMB, 14.00-15.00: The Shoes, Mongo Horn.

DU Food and Drink: The Pubs of Dublin, with The Hist, 19.30, see freshers’ stand for details.

Ents: The Saw Doctors, Live at the Ambassador with support from Paperhouse and Leonhards Corner. Rom 21.30, tickets €15/18 on the door.

DU Comedy and SciFi Soc: O2 Headphone Disco: a silent disco-style club night. Price €8. The Button Factory, 22.00.

Friday 3rd October Trinity FM: Broadcasting LIVE, from 9.00. See freshers’ stand for information on shows!

Trinity Greens: “Get On Ya Bike”, see Monday 29th for details.

Entz: Pary in the Pav, all day.

DU Dance: Weekly class for Latin and Ballroom Dancing. A great chance to make friends, keep fit, and have a fun at €2.50 per lesson. 19.30, Regent House.

Wednesday 8th October Dublin University Photographic Association (DUPA): Introduction to DUPA: Discover our darkrooms, the equipment you can borrow, our forthcoming trips abroad and our weekly lecture series.19:30–20:30 Jonathan Swift Theatre (A2041A), Arts Building.

EngSoc: Engineers' and Nurses Night Out, Purty Kitchen, 22.00

Thursday 9th October Europa: Welcome reception, with EGM for election of the new committee. 19.00, Eliz Room, House 6.

DUPA: Exhibition and Reception: Superb photography accompanied by wine and cheese. If you wish to submit some photos for the exhibition (perhaps some holiday photos?), just come to our desk in Front Square during Freshers' Week or place them in Postbox 1 in the Atrium.

(Exhibition continues until Thursday 16 October 2008.)

20:00–22:00, 2nd Floor, Atrium.

Dublin University Rock Nostalgia Soc (DURNS): Gig featuring Jonny Fun and the... Hesitations, Bored With Cereal and The Marriage of a Dead Dog SING! Entry €5/3, see freshers’ stand for more detail. The Boom Boom Room, O’Connell St, 20.30.

Friday 10th October DU Dance: Weekly class for Latin and Ballroom Dancing. A great chance to make friends, keep fit, and have a fun at €2.50 per lesson. 19.30, Regent House.

Remember to check with all clubs, societies and the SU stands in front square for information and even more events in freshers’ week.

10

FEATURES

TRINITY NEWS Tuesday, September 30 2008

Bold girls don’t get men – do they?

Izabella Scott wonders why her assertive behaviour is less favoured than her sisters’ demureness

I

THINK of myself as bold. (In the original sense, that is, brave). It’s not necessarily a good thing. Bold girls jump in very cold sea water. Bold girls eat caterpillar ridden apples. Bold girls don’t get men.

The highland island of Harris can be the most beautiful place in the world, if only the sun can pierce through the cloak of cumulonimbus clouds which almost always refuse to reveal the blue sky above. I’ve visited it with the many members of my family for almost as long as I can remember. I’ve been to crofter’s cottages on a far north point, a 40-minute drive from even a tiny local post office, which sells Caramac bars and milk. This year my elder sister bravely invited a collection of friends. Harris caters to very specific tastes – I honestly don’t mind midges and rain, I definitely love to swim in salty seas – the colder the better. You’ve got to take everything with you – a whole trailer of food (Gold bars disappeared first. I only got 3,) 16 packs of cards, Avon ‘skin so soft’ midge repellent-moisturiser, matches, thermal underwear, sun cream, dog, CD player and batteries (for starters).

Her friends were amazing. I tell you, they were very bold. Our Harris holiday was given new life. We ate in mum’s Yurt, a canvas imitation of the Mongolian masterpiece, dragged splintered planks, hauled off old gates, onto a glowing fire and fried kippers. Not a word of a lie: we had Caribbean sunshine for three whole days. The sky was one hundred per cent washed blue.

And there was Jamie. A gardener from Croyden, a run down bit of South London. He had this little gypsy curl, knotted with faded string, which hung down a little at the back.

Brown from days of planting poppies and pruning blackberries. He knew all the names of Scottish heathers and carried a book of wild mushrooms in his pocket. He had travelled through China, Nepal, India and more. Yes, I thought he was pretty good.

I felt the velcro hooks of early friendship. We jumped in the sea first. I admit, I was definitely showing off, I was more animated when he was watching. I wanted to be the most bold. Boldest. I hadn’t really thought it through, but, I tell you - my pride was pricked when I was told, weeks later, that he had fancied my younger sister, Amelia.

I’ve got to tell you about Amelia. She is incredibly beautiful. I don’t say this lightly. She is long and angular. Her eyes are really like those grey marbles, like the swirls of St. Basil’s.

It sounds like crap romantic poetry doesn’t it?

But I tell you, she’s a bit of a siren. Point made.

In Harris, however, she was withdrawn. She has eczema which gets irritated by avocadoes and milk (according to a dietician) which obstinately distracted Amelia from her usual activities.

She’ll kill me for saying it, but she wasn’t very bold. She crept off to read this crap book called ‘The Princess Bride’ – I quote the synopsis, “this story has everything: Fencing. Fighting.

Torture. Poison. True love. Hate. Revenge.

Giants. Hunters. Bad men. Good men. Beautiful ladies. Snakes. Spiders. Chases. Escapes. Lies.

Truths. Passion. Miracles.” Come on! But my point: even Jamie - bold, travelled, intelligent, brave – is attracted to the passive female, the shy beauty reading her book in the corner.

I interviewed Amelia at breakfast this morning: Izabella: “Hey, listen, I want to write down what you said about Harris, tell me again” Amelia: “I was really quiet, I’d just got back from Ibiza and I didn’t feel like talking to anyone.

I wanted to go to bed early and sit by myself on the beach with a book.”

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not really jealous.

But the principle of it pissed me off. I thought, naïvely perhaps, that to be bold is to be impressive; clearly, I was presumptuous. I don’t believe that our actions should pivot on

their possible effects on the opposite sex, but it maddens me that bold girls don’t get men.

Beyond this petty example with my sister, who was shy only in circumstance, it seems a recurring trend - in the West at least - a weird regression to traditional roles. Why are men attracted to passive women, who are less willing to share opinions, less daring in dress, unwilling to jump in the sea in case they mess up their hair? Or, to turn it around, why do bold girls scare off men?

Personally, two experiences stick out in my mind. The first is a train journey in India a few years ago. I’d always had an idea of traditional patriarchal roles in India; the usual jargon of “firmly established spheres,” the male world of “work and action,” against the female sphere

The young men in Kitezh epitomized, for me, the well-rounded, real men, which our society doesn’t seem to produce any more of family, home and kitchen. These seemed embodied in Indian culture.

You’ve heard the stereotypes before. It might not sound particularly profound, but this bossy, bold lady, laughing at her husband, confiscated his chapatti and offered it to me. She had pushed before him up the rusted train-step, noisily parking her family upon the contested wooden benches of the 3rd class train carriage.

It was in Rajasthan of all places – notorious for the exceptionally complicated system of identification, in which one’s caste can be classified by as little as the curl of a turban, the dye of a shirt, the colour of a bangle.

But this lady, I tell you, she was bold and charming, strong and feminine. Her simple action of passing a luke-warm disk of salty

flour cast my ideas of Indian gender roles in a new light. I read her as a rebellious female, a fearsome wife, existing within a more volatile society, in which the bold and the feared and those in between mesh together – men who fear their wives, girls who fear men, boys who fear mothers. Her gesture re-established for me the complexity of the interaction between men and women, where our part to play is uncertain, shifting, variable.

The second experience was in Russia this summer, backpacking with a friend across a small portion of the vast country, which, incredibly, stretches across 11 time zones. We visited a community living 400 miles south of Moscow – called Kitezh – where a collection of adults have adopted 20 or so children. I’ve always been mildly suspicious of the authenticity of such communities, but I was taken aback by Kitezh. The people who lived there were so Good (capital G).

It’s humbling to meet such honest, kind people, living off the land, raising abandoned children in houses they have constructed together. To earn our keep we were asked only to prune blackcurrant bushes under August sun and cut onions in the communal kitchen.

I must tell you, these children were talented in a very raw way. The kind of kids who are good at everything. Two older boys stood out; fine carpenters, fine sportsmen - kind, quick, handsome, patient. Real boys who will, in time, become real men.

My three little tales must seem unconnected.

But let me explain. Jamie’s attraction to my sister seemed to suggest bold girls don’t get men, or even, very good guys don’t pick bold girls. The lady handing me chapatti on a Rajasthani train usurped my common misconceptions of the passive, shy female. In fact, her action implied that bold girls get men, but they only confiscate their bread, asserting their dominance, post– marriage. The young men in Kitezh epitomized, for me, the well-rounded, real men, which our society doesn’t seem to produce any more, a Jamie-style all-rounder, in search of an equal, not just a sheep who will just follow. I don’t claim to have an answer to the mysteries of gender interaction, but it’s a fascinating subject.

Trinity volunteers spent summer working with Romanian orphans

By Sarah-Kate Caughey Deputy Features Editor WHILST SOME were in Thailand, the States, Russia or wherever, I went to Romania with the popular "Suas volunteer programme". This is an Irish charity which offers anyone willing, and who is a college student, the opportunity to work as a volunteer in various parts of India and Africa as a teacher in a well deserving school where summer classes are taught

by Irish volunteers, coinciding with a summer camp for the children involved. For anyone who has experienced this life changing trip or even has thought about doing it themselves knows that it comes highly recommended for all the reasons one can think of.

This year there has been a cocktail of students from varying college and academic backgrounds undertaking the Suas volunteer programme which in one way or another, all of us students here in Trinity College Dublin will come to hear about and perhaps one day experience.

Charitable, caring, compassionate and courageous are some of the words that I have heard in response to hearing of a student taking part in a Volunteer programme like this. But these words are only part of the story.

One has to acknowledge that although time is given up and money spent, the rewards you reap are endless.

Every person you encounter on your travels in whatever country, charity or even county will change your outlook on life forever. These words will become a distant memory.

August 15th 2008 marked my most recent trip to Romania as a volunteer with the Irish organization "Aurelia Trust". The aim of this charity is to be the voice of the countless children and young adults within the Romanian welfare system and other eastern European countries.

My personal experience has been connected with Romania over the past three years. Constanta is the area in which I have been involved with and working with the residents of the Navodari and Techrigol orphanages and the numerous community care

Beach party for Romanian orphans centres, including The Pilot centre in Negru Voda. The work is based with the young adults whose basic human needs have failed to be met. They have suffered as a result of a corrupt communist government up until the late 1980's and even early 90's.

As a result of poverty, pure neglect and abandonment, one has come to hear of hundreds of orphanages around Romania which house some of the most courageous people in the world; heard of but never spoken about or even listened to, until charities such as The Aurelia Trust and "Focus on Romania" began their work.

Each year, money raised goes directly towards the welfare of these young adults in making each of their lives happier, healthier, and

more fulfilled by whatever means possible. This is achieved in many forms. Orphanages involved with The Aurelia trust over the years have been shut down and replaced with state of the art community care centres and Centres of Excellence which can provide these inspiring young adults the care and attention they deserve.

Another way in which the charity funds are used is for a "Tabera" or holiday camp; these have become so much part of the lives of the residents from the various orphanages and care centres I have mentioned above.

The "Tabera" is a time for all to look forward to, Residents and Volunteers alike. No longer abandoned children, but inspiring young adults ranging from the ages of 16 to 46, can escape from their surroundings and experience a week of fun and games at the seaside like most of us. These few short days are the only ones out of 365 that the residents experience, for the most part, life outside the four walls of their care centres and institutions.

Mount Sackville Secondary school is where the foundations were laid for my involvement in this wonderful charity. "Focus on Romania" is a branch of "The Aurelia Trust" in which students are encouraged to participate in their fifth year in Mount Sackville secondary. I am extremely grateful for this fantastic opportunity that has continued well into my College life. Three years later I have continued to strengthen my commitment to this very worthwhile cause.

Trinity College students are given the opportunity to make the most of their long summer holidays. However you have chosen to spend those magnificent summer months, I hope it was memorable.

For more information on the Suas Volunteer programme please contact me or visit www.suas.ie

FEATURES 11

TRINITY NEWS Tuesday, September 30 2008

The “submarine” in the Northern Ireland peace process

Former Chief of Staff to Tony Blair, Jonathan Powell, talks to Emily Monk about the peace process, the role of biscuits in negiotiation, and “the greatest tragedy of my life” — the final mark of his Oxford history degree.

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eace is not an event but a process”, writes Jonathan Powell in his new book, ‘Great Hatred, Little Room’.

Fascinating, informative and easy to read, the book illustrates the 12year struggle to end violent political conflict in Northern Ireland from a very interesting vantage point.

Though not a household name in the Republic, Jonathan Powell was Tony Blair’s Chief of Staff and principal negotiator. When things went wrong, he was there to patch it up; the ultimate calm to follow the multiple storms. Whereas the Alistair Campbells of the British government let down their leader, Powell’s diplomacy, discretion and dogged endurance ensured he was the most senior figure to both enter and leave 10 Downing Street with Blair. He kept going against all myriad difficulties and he was the survivor. But most importantly, he was quietly integral to the cessation of violent political conflict in Northern Ireland.

For decades Northern Ireland has been suffocated by communal violence stemming from a legacy of mistrust and conflicting ideologies.

In May 2007, Ian Paisley took the oath of office as First Minister of Northern Ireland. Ten years ago one could never have even imagined that Martin McGuinness (the new Deputy First Minister) would be signing the same one. A decade of brutal negotiations, secret meetings and countless telephone calls had finally paid off. They had succeeded where their predecessors had failed and nothing in Powell’s thirty years in the public service had “been harder to achieve or given (him) so much satisfaction”.

More than a year on, I asked Powell what he would have done differently, now that he has the valuable benefit of hindsight? “Well if I had read the history of Ireland properly, I would never have attempted to do it” he replied candidly, without missing a

beat. “But actually,” he said, “having looked through the papers from my time at no. 10 (official ones held by the Cabinet Office) certain patterns emerged”. He suggests that if they had recognised these patterns at the time, “the negotiations might have lasted four weeks not ten years”. He also

“Even if they didn’t trust me, they trusted him,” Blair says.

“Sometimes McGuinness would take things from him that they wouldn’t take from me.” considers that the British Government could have “forced out ambiguity earlier”. Though obviously too early may have resulted in a violent reaction from the IRA. He speaks with such nonchalance that it is hard to gage the immensity of the achievement, or the dire consequences should it have gone wrong. Repeatedly he felt it was particularly important to emphasise that the British and Irish were in this together – it was a united effort of equal success.

Gaining the trust of the key players was paramount to achieving peace, “as that’s the only way it works” said Powell. He “already had the trust of the Union” party from his previous roles in the US. (He was in the Foreign Office and then political secretary in Washington). He explained that Bertie Ahern and Blair shared the view to “put history behind them” and

already trusted one another.

Such a job undoubtedly puts pressure on family life. “Every Christmas was spoiled” Powell said.

He comments that “negotiations did not respect weekends, holidays or even Christmas” and when I asked him about the sacrifice he unequivocally recalled a particular incident on Christmas Eve 2006.

Endless deal-clinching phone calls coincided with a last minute shopping trip with his wife, international affairs journalist Sarah Helm. Powell was trying on trousers in a busy London shop whilst simultaneously thrusting his mobile phone to “poor old Sarah” with Ian Paisley or Gerry Adams on the end of the line. here most of us enquired about spot the dog or postman pat, Powell’s youngest two children grew up asking “who are Martin and Ian”? He is smiling when he describes a time on a family holiday, biking through the marshes of southern England – such were his multiple demands that he would bike along ‘en famille’ whilst listening to a conversation between Blair and Ahern on loudspeaker on his mobile phone. Obviously enormously grateful for their tolerance (he also has two elder children from a previous marriage) he writes that he “hopes the book will show them what it was all for”. Increasingly in his account, it becomes obvious quite how much was at stake.

‘Did you ever want to give up?’ I asked naively. “Repeatedly.

Frequently. Again and Again” he replied. And then he paused for almost the first time since the start of the interview. I should mention that since leaving the British government Powell has become a managing director of American investment bank Morgan Stanley, thus time is still scarce. He talks very quickly and his breathlessness and gusto, also depicted in his writing, sweeps

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you through the book and every conversation without stammer. A second later he remembers the worst moment. He arrived in Northern Ireland to be greeted with the news of that now infamous IRA bank robbery in 2004. “That’s when I really thought bugger it” he said. But it was Tony Blair who always made him persist.

“He just kept telling me to go in again.

And again. If I came back to London with nothing achieved he’d send me back.” Powell explains how he was told to “make the water flow up hill” and attributes a lot of the success in his part of the proceedings to Blair’s doggedness.

And Blair attributes a lot to him; “Jonathan has this amazing ability to stay calm while all around is chaos… he was utterly without panic”. He kept his head whilst all around were losing theirs. “Even if they didn’t trust me, they trusted him,” Blair says. “Sometimes Adams and McGuinness would take things from him that they wouldn’t take from me”.

I wanted to know how he did it. How did he get these three men to talk and agree, who previously wouldn’t share a building? There are stories of moving the coffee to a different room, in the hope that the ‘negotiators’ will at least offer one another a biscuit.

Powell describes a time in the first stages of the negotiations where all of Paisley, McGuinness and Adams were at number ten. “Obviously they wouldn’t be in the same room” and once, whilst Blair was talking to Paisley in the Cabinet Office, Powell looked out of the window to see McGuinness and Adams “trying to master the art of skateboarding on Euan or Nicky Blair’s board in the garden”. He remembers having to shuffle them back inside through a window so Paisley wouldn’t see. It’s easy to laugh now, now that we know the ending. But for more than ten years, Powell reckons he devoted at least some time to Northern Ireland “on average every other day” and flew in and out “at least once a month”. e would agree to meet the party leaders in rooms and locations of their choice. “Old houses on the border… that sort of thing”. For years Powell went in and out of Northern Ireland completely unnoticed. He was the self-proclaimed “submarine”

H

orchestrating proceedings beneath the surface. Adams supposes that Powell was effective because he had Blair’s authority but was constantly engaged with the problems in Ireland. “He was in and out of here secretly on numerous occasions… He was someone you could pick up the phone to and he was always available and there were times when I rang when I knew it wasn’t opportune because I could hear the children in the background or whatever, but he would always take the call.”

In fact it seems that the only losers of the whole peace process are the mobile phone companies. Powell’s

He admits “it would’ve been a complete disaster if I’d have talked to the papers… sometimes I say things extremely plonkerish at just the wrong moment” book offers a clear idea of the vast number of calls between all parties and the importance of this contact.

He reflects on his experiences in Northern Ireland and decides the clearest lesson is that we should always find ways to talk to our enemies. “The conclusion I came to, particularly looking back over my papers, over my diaries, was that one of the crucial things in this work was having a link to the IRA right from the 70s onwards. Although it wasn’t used much for large periods, there was always a way they could communicate.”

Somehow, after every gruelling 14-hour-day, Powell summoned enough energy to keep a diary. “A publisher’s fantasy – a cerebral version of the Campbell diaries, you imagine, that run right through the darkest days of the third term” writes

Ian Katz of the Guardian. But those waiting to read an entry in one of the 17 bound volumes will be waiting a long time. Powell is adamant he will never publish his diaries. It is Powell the diarist however, who remembers the little anecdotes and intricate observations that create the effortless readability of ‘Great Hatred, Little Room’.

Powell the politician however, was for ten years Tony Blair’s echo; concurrently standing in the background as a modest servant and seemingly director of the scene.

A careful observer, he could hardly have kept a lower profile – not least because he admits “it would’ve been a complete disaster if I’d have talked to the papers… sometimes I say things extremely plonkerish at just the wrong moment”.

But a plonker Powell is not. The youngest of four children, he may have learned some of his savvy and proven negotiating skills from any of his three very successful older brothers.

He is regularly described as an antiestablishment figure though enjoyed a safely establishment upbringing.

Despite modelling himself on his left-ish brother Chris (who founded and ran a lucrative advertising agency), he followed his eldest, more establishment brother Charles to Oxford to gain a 2:1 in history. “It was one of the greatest tragedies of my life,” says Powell, “I remember finding out and being devastated”.

It is perhaps by no coincidence that Powell’s role for Blair was almost identical to that which Charles had performed at Margaret Thatcher’s number ten. Remarkably he never sought his brother’s advice before starting as Chief of Staff, to which he comments was “probably part of my resistance to taking lessons from my older brother”.

There is no doubt that there are many stars of the Irish peace process, from all parties, and Powell would never want to suggest otherwise. But there is also no doubt that he was one of the shiniest. Tall and gangly with a distinctive mop of greying tight curls, there is no question that ten years of being at the epicentre of power and responsibility has taken its toll. But somehow he’s still going. I’m not sure we’ve seen the end of Powell and his diplomatic skills.

12 OPINION OPINION 12

TRINITY NEWS

Tuesday, September 30 2008

‘Fees debate distracting from chronic underfunding’ MIKE JENNINGS OUR UNIVERSITIES are suffering massive and chronic underfunding.

This problem is not new, it has been building up and getting worse for years now. The latest round of financial cutbacks could not have come at a worse time. The system is already at breaking point.

As someone who cares passionately for the health of our national system of higher education I have admired the relentless campaign by the heads of our universities to raise awareness of the extent of Government underfunding of this sector so vital for our economic, social and cultural wellbeing.

But I have been dismayed to note that increasingly of late the campaign for more funding has been coupled with strident calls for the return of fees. I believe this has been a tactical mistake. In fact, I would go so far as to say that in this regard the university presidents have shot themselves in

the foot.

Consider the following: The demand for the return of fees has split the very constituency which should have been united in the demand for more funding. The Union of Students in Ireland (USI) is opposed, the trade unions are opposed, parents are opposed. Our cause has been weakened.

Those demanding the return of fees seem to have believed (despite clear indications from the former minister Ms Hanafin amongst others) that any income so received would be in on top of the State funds. In good times this was naive, in the present

economic climate it is just foolish. It is a “no-brainer” that any alternative source of funding will now be seized upon by the Department of Finance as a means of saving them an equivalent amount.

Those calling for fees said that they hope the Government would be “courageous” in this regard.

But did they really believe that any set of politicians was going to be “courageous” as to impose fees on everyone? Surely a moment’s reflection would have led to the conclusion that fees were only going to be imposed on “those who can afford it”, however defined. The

higher the income threshold for fees, the less the political risk. However, the higher the threshold the less the yield. We are likely to spend almost as much in administering the means test as will be brought in by fees. The game will not be worth the candle.

Finally, everyone accepts that fees are a big deal politically. It is your ultimate “hot potato”. Though no one is surprised that the minister needs “to take his time before deciding”.

The only problem is while he is ruminating, we are starving. How could we have allowed our simple, clear, focused demand for more funds to be diffused and blunted in

this manner?

Earlier this year the Irish Federation of University Teachers (IFUT) made a call for all those who care about our higher education system to forget their differences and come together to demand the funding that we so urgently need.

Is it not time to leave the ideological debate about fees to one side and concentrate simply on getting the State to help us pay our bills?

Mike Jennings is General Secretary of the Irish Federation of University Teachers. This article first appeared in the Irish Independent.

IN PROFILE

A big figure in Irish politics Mary Harney, Minister for Health, Trinity graduate and former Auditor of the College Historical Society, has been a major figure in Irish politics for her entire life.

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S THE PDs wind down their party once and for all, it seems fitting to cast an eye on Mary Harney, Health Minister, former Tánaiste and alumnus of this college.

Although she is the longestserving female member of the Dáil ever, and also the first female auditor of the College Historical Society, the Minister does not like talk of breaking glass ceilings. She once said that it wasn’t the fact that she was born a woman that was the problem, but that she wasn’t born a man. The focus is to be always on what she has and has not achieved as a TD, not the fact that she happens to be a woman.

Although she had Galway roots, she was brought up and educated in Dublin. She recalled: “I used to canvass the nuns in primary school, so I think I was (always) heading for some sort of political life.” She graduated with a BA in Modern Studies in 1976. Shortly after leaving college, she was appointed to Seanad Éireann, becoming the youngest ever Senator. From there, she was elected to Dublin County Council, and then to the Dáil in the 1981 general election.

When asked if she had any regrets about diving into politics directly after college, Harney said, “I have known no life other than politics. I went from being a student at Trinity to being a member of the Seanad. Hopefully one day I will have the experience of doing something else before it is too late.”

Harney was expelled from Fianna Fáil in 1985, after voting in favour of the Anglo-Irish Agreement.

She went on to become one of the

founding members of the Progressive Democrats, who launched on a platform of tax cuts and social liberalism.

One of her finest achievements in government was the elimination of the notorious Dublin smog, with the banning of bituminous coal. She also set up the Personal Injuries Assessment Board, with a view to crack down on false or exaggerated personal injury claims.

In 2001, Mary Harney was embroiled in a controversy over her use of a Government plane. The European Commission half-funded the plane, but she used it to fly to the opening of a friend’s off-licence in Manorhamilton. She apologised for using the plane for private purposes and admitted that it was the wrong thing to have done.

Harney has been a controversial Minster for Health since her appointment in 2004. Just a few months after her appointment, it came to light that charges imposed on holders of medical cards in Staterun homes were illegal. The illegal charges amounted to over €1 billion.

Unfortunately for her, this was only the beginning of her troubles. In May 2006, the Irish Nurses Organisation passed a motion of no confidence in Harney, accusing her of being both negative and antagonistic towards nurses. In June 2006, the Health Consumer Powerhouse ranked the Irish health service as the second least “consumer-friendly” in the European Union, second only to Lithuania.

Of the problems, Harney said, “Sorting out problems is something

“Sorting out problems is something I’m always keen to do. You don’t like to invent problems or discover them for the sake of it, but when they arise they have to be dealt with”

I’m always keen to do. You don’t like to invent problems or discover them for the sake of it, but when they arise they have to be dealt with. One thing that we must all recognise is that if you delay resolving a difficulty or you ignore it — which was the case with the [nursing home] charges issue — and if you take an illegal chance, you pay a very heavy price for it.”

As the Progressive Democrats close down shop, the question of Mary Harney’s position as Minister for Health will have to be addressed.

It is thought that she may continue in government as an independent, or possibly rejoin Fianna Fáil, but she has yet to comment on her position.

BIOGRAPHY Born 11 March 1953 in Ballinasloe, Galway.

Fist ever female auditor of the College Historical Society. Graduated from Trinity College in 1976 with a BA in Modern Studies.

First elected as TD in the 1981 general election, and at every general election since.

Has held the office of Minister for Trade, Enterprise and Employment.;Tánaiste; and Minister for Health in addition to her role as party leader of the PDs.

Irish universities impossible to assess Oisin Hanrahan Paddy Cosgrave HAVE YOU ever wondered whether you’ve chosen the right University?

The reality is you have no reliable way of determining at which Irish university and in which course you will learn the most. In a hypercompetitive world where brainpower is now, more than ever, the most valued commodity, you can no longer afford to graduate without the best possible education.

However, because undergraduate teaching is neither easy to measure within Irish universities, nor readily comparable between those

universities, prospective students cannot hope to make anything resembling an enlightened decision in this regard. Hearsay rules the day.

In fact, it’s plausible to conclude that as universities publicly compete using global rankings as a measures of success, many students mistake these as a barometer for quality in teaching. While a high level of research output may elevate a university on any globally compiled ranking table, it does not follow that undergraduate teaching will naturally benefit. Indeed, because quality in undergraduate teaching is not measured meaningfully by tables, rankings tell us little, if anything,

about the likely learning outcomes for undergraduates.

Taking a step back from individual teaching outcomes to the overall teaching methods, Harvard’s former President, Derek Bok, explains: “there are hundreds of studies on what effects different methods of teaching have on improving critical thinking, moral reasoning, quantitative literacy and other skills vital to undergraduate education.”

These findings have been reshaping teaching at leading universities around the world over recent decades. Yet if you ask an Irish university graduate from the 1950’s about teaching methods in Irish

universities, in some cases, the only discernible difference today is the use of a visual presentation.

Most disappointing is the fact that innumerable practices have been conclusively demonstrated to impede effective learning. Too many courses, particularly in science, are found to be lacking in an adequate method of testing student understanding, rather than short-term memory.

Fortunately, changes are taking place. Those behind these changes in each of our seven universities should be commended. However, where old practices remain, some might ask: are students and parents being duped with regards to teaching

standards and learning outcomes?

Well, for example, when a university or course’s reputation fails to reflect reality at the time when graduates enter the workforce, employers are forced to pay to remedy deficiencies in the graduates they hire. If those deficiencies persist with each new intake of graduates then employers will eventually learn to look beyond those erstwhile supposedly reputable sources for new hires. Recent reports in both The Irish Times and Irish Independent paint a worrying picture in certain cases. Leading employers have begun to question the level and depth of talent of recent graduates across certain areas.

So, does this mean that high scoring leaving certificate students are unknowingly choosing courses and universities that may disadvantage them as they enter the workforce, compared to students who choose courses elsewhere? You would certainly hope not.

It’s our universities, with their intellectual and human output, which will play a disproportionate role in determining whether or not we lose our position as a leading Western economy and society.

If we do lose that position, then Ireland’s future will neither be as prosperous nor as secure as our recent past.

OPINION 13

TRINITY NEWS Tuesday, September 30 2008

JASON SOMERVILLE

It’s the economy, stupid ... again The celeb-style race for the White House might be fun to watch but we’ll feel the effect of the economic policies here

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HE UPCOMING US presidential elections have fascinated the Irish population. Debates about Obama, McCain and Sarah Palin dominate the airwaves. However, from an Irish perspective, it is the effect the candidates’ economic policies could have on our own slumping economy that is most relevant. Historically, Ireland has performed better when the Republicans hold the reigns, but now it seems that either way, Ireland is looking at a serious fall in foreign investment for the coming years.

Over the past decade, the Irish economy has enjoyed the longest and most radical economic expansion in its history. However, the collapse of the construction sector amid a global slump has left our economy one of the most vulnerable in Europe.

As graduates know, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find a job in some sectors, such a civil engineering. With domestic affairs in such poor shape, people are now turning to the upcoming US elections for a solution. The hope is that within either John McCain or Barack Obama’s rescue plan there is a formula that will restore the struggling US economy, which will have a knock-on effect closer to home.

Americans have now come to believe “it’s the economy, stupid” all over again. Despite the ongoing war in Iraq, the Iranian conflict and America’s fading influence on the world stage, it has become common wisdom that the battle for the US Presidency is all about the economy. In a recent survey, 52% of respondents cited the economy as the single greatest issue in the upcoming election, compared with the 16% who cited the Iraq war.

Of course, democracy is not a finely tuned mechanism of control that can be used to direct economic policy. Due to a political system of checks and balances any reforms sought by presidential candidates tend to be far less radical and less ambitious than originally promised. That said, even small differences on economic issues can affect millions of people and with those people now turning to the Presidential hopefuls for a solution, the debate is certainly heating up.

Obama promotes a more ambitious version of former President Bill Clinton’s 1992 version of activist government, with a dose of belligerent trade talk added on. He wants to spend money on public investment (primarily on infrastructure and alternative fuels); he has an ambitious and expensive plan for near-universal health care coverage; he promises tax cuts for working Americans and sharply higher taxes for the rich. In contrast, Republican candidate John McCain is a staunch free trader arguing that America should be pushing for more trade deals, not shrinking away from existing ones. He offers a traditional Republican recipe for growth: tax cuts, freer markets and minimal government intervention.

From an Irish perspective, it is difficult to know which candidate’s policies would help boost our economy.

Despite the general sentiment in Ireland being viewed as being hugely pro-Democratic, historically the Irish economy has performed better under the Republican administration polices that promoted free trade and open markets. As a small open economy that relies heavily on exports and foreign investment from American multinationals, it could be disastrous if Obama adopts more protectionist policies.

However, McCain’s tax cuts add to the dilemma.

Ireland’s low corporation tax rate of 12.5% has been a key factor in attracting US investment during the ‘Celtic Tiger’ era. When you consider that the current US rate is 35% it’s not surprising that Ireland has held such appeal.

But, McCain now wants to cut the US corporation tax rate to 25%. While this is still double the Irish rate, the reality of the situation is that Ireland is already losing its appeal to investors. We have one of the highest minimum wages in Europe, high transport costs and social partnership agreements look increasingly under threat.

If McCain lowers the corporation tax rate, the current recession could be amplified by a more pronounced fall in investment.

So where does that leave those of us in third level education? Well for those lawyers, doctors and psychologists in training among us, it’s probably a safe bet that you will find a job. Regardless of a recession people commit crimes, get sick and develop psychological disorders; if anything, business in these fields will probably pick up over the coming years.

However across the board job opportunities will be more difficult to come by. Unemployment has been soaring in recent months and in sectors such as construction, where labour is mostly unskilled, falling immigration has already started to cushion the fall.

Most of these industries have seen a huge inflow of workers from the EU in recent years and so will adjust accordingly once demand subsides.

Worryingly, this doesn’t appear to be the case for the more specialised sectors of the economy. With the financial markets in such turmoil a major structural downturn is possible. That could change the very nature of the Irish economy. Our much-specialised workforce has developed in response to the demand for it, but when we emerge from the current recession we will find that that demand no longer exists.

Time to examine societal divisions It’s easy to ignore those living on the poverty line. We tend to assume that everyone who sat the Leaving Certificate had the same chance to come to college, get a good job and better themselves. However, not everyone has the same chances in life. Jobs, food and housing aren’t fundamental rights distributed equally among the population.

There are areas in Ireland where people live in abject poverty. Those who live in these areas don’t need handouts; they need investment writes Daniel Costigan

D

uring his years as a senator, Robert F. Kennedy helped to start a successful redevelopment project in povertystricken Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.

He did not want handouts for this area.

He wanted investment. He wanted jobs. He badgered corporations not simply to give money, but to open offices and create jobs in the area.

He wanted to give the residents of Bedford-Stuyvesant a fighting chance. He wanted there to be a little go-gettery. He wanted these people to be approached as people, not as problems. His crusade against poverty in the area dealt with the human side of the problem in a holistic manner. It appealed to the drives, passions and ambitions of the people in a successful effort to reinvigorate the community.

As a student of Constitutional Law, I find it interesting that a Constitutional Scholar in the United States, John Hart Ely, would say the following on the thought process surrounding a constitution: “Watch when most fundamentalrights theorists start edging towards the door when someone mentions jobs, food or housing: those are important, sure, but they aren’t fundamental.”

A constitution is supposed to safeguard the rights of the excluded and the marginalised. It is supposed to guarantee protection for the rights of minority groups, the disaffected and the downtrodden. Sometimes it’s easy to forget those in need.

It seems that for many years society has been willing to protect civil and political freedoms, but never a social or an economic guarantee. Try asking for a job or something equally fundamental. Nobody is obliged to help. If we look at the initial treatment

of segregation in America, it’s clear that it wasn’t viewed as a social guarantee. You can have a vote but we won’t have you in a class with our children or allow you in our waiting rooms – separate but equal and all that. These rights and opportunities and things as basic as jobs and a basic standard of living are fine ideas as long as they remain on paper and apart from reality.

In Ireland, the spectre of poverty is a grim one. Perhaps it is time that a more proactive approach to deal with this problem is considered. A scheme such as the one Bobby Kennedy helped establish in New York, which seeks to actualise people rather than maintaining the status quo could make a real difference. There is a need for, at least, a more robust vindication of our common humanity – a defence of the basic dignity that inheres in all of us; as people.

When I was in first year speaking about the state of our society, I was more than insensitive to the plight of the marginalised and the excluded.

After reading about the altruistic work of Robert F. Kennedy, decades ago, as a Senator in America, things started to change for me. Rather than ignoring the problem I started to tentatively broach the subject in my mind. After giving a homeless person my lunch one day I felt I needed to get more involved in the struggle against this problem.

Over the summer I became involved with the Trinity Chapter of the St. Vincent de Paul Society. This chapter deals with the Liberties area in the inner city.

To say these communities have problems would be a massive understatement. There are people living in one room accommodation with only one or two pieces of

furniture. There are people massively in arrears, those with court summonses, those with eviction notices, those with addictions, those with diseases and those who suffer bereavements with alarming regularity. The area is rife with unemployment; there is criminality and the scourge of drugs is ever-present.

The priorities in the affected areas of the Liberties are entirely different.

Here, people live from day to day. They live in fear of a domestic appliance light going out, because they can’t afford to replace it.

The kind of lofty ambitions or educational pursuits that you or I revere are denied to these people.

Society behaves differently there.

Children are born into absolute desolation and abject poverty. In my ignorance, I used to see fit to blame these people for their situation or to ignore their situation completely. I did not acknowledge the power that our

circumstances have in our formative years. Where’s the equal opportunity?

I cannot deceive myself by suggesting that we have a fair and equal merit based society.

We need to examine the unsavoury nature of societal divisions as they are recognised today. I used to be prejudiced against the less fortunate.

I unashamedly tried to sanitise my surroundings. I couldn’t look a beggar in the eye. I avoided particular estates.

I tried to construct a worldview that suited what I was feeling and my own ambitions. People with problems just did not fit into that matrix.

We must stop blaming disadvantaged people for all their misfortunes. It’s time to recognise that our conception of human rights solely in terms of academic and civil freedoms is not enough. What we need now is a societal challenge that may actually entail some positive obligations.

It’s free to have your say on trinitynews.ie

Áine Ní Choisdealbha

I

N THE time it took a dial-up modem to connect to the internet, plenty of things became superfluous. Going to the shops became unnecessary; everything from groceries to clothing to military tanks showed up for sale somewhere online. Instant messaging and Skype made leaving the house on social calls a waste of energy.

We needn’t even be here at university, there are plenty of degree courses there for the taking online. One thing that went straight from convenient to kitsch and functional to frivolous as the awful dial tone clicked and grunted its way to the web was letter-writing. Unlike going to the supermarket instead of ordering in, it cost more instead of less money and unlike visiting someone instead of leaving them a Bebo comment, it didn’t have the gratification of real conversation and physical presence.

For decades the letter was becoming less and less relevant, mildly so at first with the invention of the telegraph, then the telephone and losing functionality quickly in the latter half of the twentieth century with the major efficiency and economic improvements made in communications technology following

The art of letterwriting has fallen out of favour with today’s high-speed society. Emails, skype, Bebo, Facebook and MSN now reign supreme. But in gaining access to each other’s lives 24/7, we have lost the personal connection that a letter creates. A letter from a friend has permanence and a tangibility that email lacks. A letter says, ‘I have sat down and thought about what interests you and what you want to read. I care.’

World War II. The decline of the personal letter isn’t a fundamentally negative thing because it had a replacement in the form of the e-mail. E-mailing was a vast improvement on letter-writing as it didn’t require trekking to the post office to buy stamps, roaming the streets in search of a post-box or, on the receiving end, hiring a team of expert semiologists to interpret the latest loveletter because your secret admirer writes like an arthritis sufferer with a broken arm. E-mails don’t get lost in the post, affected by strikes or opened and searched each time a highly contagious anthrax scare infects the nation with paranoia.

Even e-mails are being usurped by even more convenient methods of communication. Checking your e-mail inbox will probably reveal very few personal e-mails, just like opening the post-box reveals little but advertising and bills. There may be a paragraph or so from a friend on holidays, news from college societies, deadline reminders from the school secretaries and a thick chunk of automated messages from Bebo and Facebook tracking each little change to your profile page.

The personal letter as it was for centuries – a method of spreading news – is now irrelevant. Any scandal shows up on Bebo before the hickeys have healed and all embarrassing photos get uploaded to Facebook before the hangover has even kicked in. There’s no need to wait two days to find out if your friend in another county finally dumped that idiot of a girlfriend, or if they won their match. Social networking sites even facilitate tracking the dramatic lives of people who would have avoided at all costs letting you know that their gorgeous other half is now no longer surgically attached to them and in need of a little, ahem, comforting.

Modern communication’s flaw is that it is transient. Unlike letters, texts can be deleted, message logs forgotten on the hard drive of a computer in the attic and e-mails lost in the moment a server crashes. Nobody keeps a box of Facebook comments under the bed to ward off loneliness. They are not physical, tangible things and although a printer could make them such, the piece of paper would lack the touch of the writer. The ethos behind owning CDs instead of mp3s applies to keeping old letters – they are physical and weighty

and instil a sense of ownership and connection. Times New Roman just doesn’t measure up to someone’s own handwriting, and touching a computer screen with a longing look in your eyes will just make the other people in the lab think you’re one full stop short of a sentence.

E-mails and instant messages also fail in comparison to handwritten letters in their intrinsic connection to the information age. Very few people would think to write someone a short story in an e-mail or text someone a haiku.

It simply isn’t the done thing; instant messaging and e-mail are for hard, direct news, whether it’s written in official or colloquial language. Literary language counteracts convenience. There was a certain skill required to write personal letters in the past. No-one is going to get bored by your three-sentence recap of the day left on their Facebook wall, but someone might find an account of your past fortnight horribly dull.

Letters required a connection, a thought for the other person and questions about their life, and invitation for them to tell you about themselves and not just a self-centred inwardlooking spiel. There wasn’t a copy of a personal letter in an outbox, an inbox and on a server, simply one copy with the sender, recipient or making its way between the two.

It was private and singular and in a revived form, where written news is no longer necessary content, could foster a connection between people. A modern letter could be two pages of chat-up lines, or an exaggerated account of some insignificant event, or a paragraph or two copied from Wikipedia that the other person might enjoy. Or, it could simply be a recap of the past fortnight, because someone thought you might like to hear about it and might like to have it sent to you, handwritten, in an addressed envelope and not just left for

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ROUND-UP

‘Any Garda coming across a drunk has only one option’ Demise of the PDs The end of the road has come for the Progressive Democrats. Mary Harney admitted this month that although she would love to think that the PDs had a future, she had to be realistic. Now Harney, fellow TD Mr Grealish, Ciaran Cannon and Fiona O’Malley have recommended that a formula of words to wind up the party be drafted and put to the party’s national executive next month.

Noel Whelan advises them to ‘stop being self-indulgent and pack up without delay.’ Mark Hennessy writes in the Irish Times, ‘the party did not need a new leader last April when it appointed Senator Ciarán Cannon. It needed an undertaker.’

He believes that the handling of things since the general election has been bizarre, and that as a leader,

“

Cannon proved ineffectual and forgettable: ‘[Cannon] adopted few public positions, and when he did he failed to capitalise on them. And he made zero impact with the public.’

Sarah Palin Opinion has been dismissive of Sarah Palin. In the Irish Examiner, Dr. Florence Craven compares Palin to Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, an eighteenth century socialite and beauty. She campaigned for votes for Charles James Fox, who later became Prime Minister, reputedly trading kisses for votes in favour of Fox. Dr. Craven writes, “more than 200 years later, Sarah Palin is proving to be similarly useful to the Republicans in the US, only this time women’s votes are the target.”

This summary of Palin’s

usefulness could be considered almost complimentary in comparison to Steven Harrington’s opinion in the Irish Examiner.

He writes, ‘you can dress up hypocritical, cynical and destructive right-wing nonsense in drag to your heart’s content. It’s like putting lipstick on a pig... US Republicans have a nearly perfect record of domestic and international mismanagement. Let’s throw in corruption for good measure.’ Ouch.

Public Drunkenness The Irish Times’ Newton Emerson pokes fun at Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern’s plans to introduce €100 on-the-spot fines for public drunkenness. He maintains that it is not an offence to drink, therefore cannot be an offence to get drunk, as the Human Rights Act 2003 forbids

punishment for actions that were not an offence at the time of their commission. He points out that as alcoholism is a recognised medical condition, on-the-spot fines would discriminate against the mentally ill.

Under the Equal Status Act 2000, it is illegal to discriminate against anyone on the grounds of age. He concludes therefore that targeted use of fines against underage drinkers would be discriminatory.

After examining all the flaws on-thespot fines present, he realises that any Garda coming across a drunk has only one option. ‘Taser them.’

Meanwhile, Quentin Fottrell writes in the same paper of the Straight Edge phenomenon. This punk movement that has been knocking around since the 1980s, but is only recently coming to the fore in Ireland. Its members don’t drink,

do drugs, or engage in music piracy.

Some also abstain from sex. He writes, ‘Our drinking culture allows us to remain the clever outsiders, one shot glass away from needing to conform. The Straight Edge movement found a more imaginative way to connect and rebel.’

Lack of Participation in Cern There was controversy over the fact that Ireland is not a member of Cern (The European Organisation for Nuclear Research). Jason Fitzharris writes in the Examiner that he finds it difficult to understand how we can promote ourselves as a knowledge economy if we are not members of one of the world’s most important scientific organisations. David Sowby believes that the reason we are not members of Cern is ‘the presence of the dreaded word

“nuclear” in the organisation’s title.’

WJ Murphy, on the other hand, believes that ‘the immediate results of the Cern project would not justify the pouring of millions of hardearned Irish taxpayers money into it.’

Dismal Irish Television It seems that the Autumn/Winter TV schedule of the Irish stations is causing those without sky or ntl some distress. The Independent bemoans the fact that RTE1 has scheduled not one, not two, but thirteen reality TV shows, ranging from the dull (‘Showhouse’) to the inane (‘Fáilte Towers’). The Indo believes that the BBC’s format of original dramas, documentaries and news coverage far surpasses ‘superficial reproduction of press releases and tabloid-style reporting.’

HEAD TO HEAD: FEES DEBATE

Can you afford an extra €8,000 a year?

SHANE KELLY

T

he Minister’s recent announcement that the reintroduction of tuition fees would raise €530m sounded very impressive indeed. The minister was forced into an embarrassing u-turn the next day, admitting that far from raising €530m, his new model would raise only around €35m, this would then be subject to 40% tax relief, so in the end, would be much closer to €20m.

This put an end to the Minister’s plans to charge just the “super-rich”. The only way he can raise enough money through fees is to charge each and every student up to €8,000 per year, a move supported by the university presidents. Can you afford €8,000 per year on top of the current costs?

So let’s examine the facts. Since the abolition of tuition fees, we have seen the greatest expansion of higher education in Irish history, as seen in the latest HEA access study, we now have a participation rate over 50% in higher education, something unthinkable before the abolition of tuition fees in the mid 1990s.

The goal is to see all parts of society represented in third-level in proportion to their presence in the general population.

More than 10% of all first-time entrants are now classed as mature, for example. Though only a start, it is a promising trend, and similar trends have been noted for people from low-income backgrounds, people with disabilities and people from minority backgrounds.

All independent studies have shown fees to have a negative effect on those underrepresented groups. By deterring entrance to college in respect of people from middle and low income families, the progress that has been made over the last decade would be lost, our commitment to social justice would be in tatters and our economy may be

damaged beyond repair.

Proponents of a fee-paying system argue that the public funding of tuition represents a transfer of wealth or a subsidy from the less well off to everyone else, because the financial returns of higher education accrue mainly to the individual.

This, however, is a fundamentally flawed argument, as it does not take into account Ireland’s progressive taxation system. Those who earn more pay more tax. Third level graduates pay up to 70% more in taxation over the course of their lifetime, and as such contribute significantly to the exchequer. Is it really the graduates’ fault if the government does not spend this money wisely?

The Australian model of student loans and increased taxation seems to be the model preferred by Minister O’Keeffe.

However, what the minister will not tell us is the Australian model is under review by the Australian government because it currently does not work. The unpaid accumulated student debt in Australia stands at over 15 billion dollars. What the minister will also not tell us is that about 30 percent of all student loans remain unpaid in Australia, and so the state will have to pick up the tab.

Wouldn’t it be better to just invest in higher education in the first instance?

A system that increased the overall cost of college would encourage higher take-up of bank loans and credit cards. We know that as the costs of college increase, student debt and levels of hardship rise concomitantly.

The reintroduction of tuition fees would have the following consequences: higher drop-out rates, a dramatic decrease in the number of people from middle and lower income families going to college, a lifetime of debt for those already struggling to survive in such a high cost economy, an increase in the number of students having to work while at college as well as falling participation rates in clubs and societies at college.

If students are forced to work more hours while at college, all of the evidence shows that test scores will drop. Is that the way to increase our knowledge economy?

Shane Kelly is President of the Union of Students of Ireland.

Free fees support the wealthy FERDINAND VON PRONDZYNSKI

I

t is now well over ten years ago since tuition fees for third level were abolished and replaced by what has been called the ‘free fees’ scheme.

The underlying intention was that higher education should be seen as a basic entitlement and made available free at the point of use to all citizens. This would be funded by the state, with the taxpayer directly paying the fees for each student.

And it was envisaged that participation in third level would increase significantly, and in particular amongst disadvantaged sections of society.

Perhaps the choice of the term ‘free fees’ for this was unfortunate, since nothing is ever free. What was in fact done was that the burden of paying the fees was transferred from the student to the taxpayer. As those people who were below a specific income threshold didn’t pay fees anyway prior to the free fees scheme, the net result was that the taxpayer took over responsibility for paying the fees of wealthier citizens. To underscore this point, no additional resources were allocated to the disadvantaged, and moreover part-time students (who disproportionately come from poorer backgrounds) got no support at all, not even free fees. In the meantime, the middle classes enjoyed their windfall by sending their children to private secondary schools, so that one of the main effects of free fees was to benefit private secondary education and asset strip good state-funded schools.

Whatever the motivation was of those who abolished fees, the reality was that it turned out to be a programme for supporting wealthier people at the expense of the disadvantaged: it was, in short, a redistribution of money from the poor to the rich.

But that was not the only problem. In the

mid-1990s, when free fees were introduced, universities were told that public funds would support them by maintaining the fees at appropriate levels. This has not happened.

Since the introduction of the scheme, the total taxpayer support per student at third level has, in real terms, almost halved. The reality is, therefore, that it is the universities and not the taxpayer that have had to carry the burden of free fees; money has been siphoned from the universities and handed to the country’s wealthier citizens.

The reality is that in a developed country that aims to be knowledge intensive, universities are very costly to run, because they need state-of-the-art buildings and infrastructure and world class staff. That is always going to be expensive, and probably beyond the capacity of the taxpayer to handle without significant tax increases. What we have now is a system that under-funds the universities, while disproportionately giving financial support to better-off people.

That is quite simply unsustainable, and not even very laudable on ethical grounds.

Universities have themselves had to raise private money to support disadvantaged students. But this needs to be properly funded by the state, which in turn cannot afford to do so because, under this scheme, it has to make large payments to the middle classes. The priorities are all wrong.

I am therefore in favour of the reintroduction of tuition fees. Indeed, I regard their reintroduction as inevitable.

However, I am also of the view that we need to put in place a proper system to ensure that nobody, whatever their means, is prevented or discouraged from pursuing third level studies; in other words, we need to have an effective system in place that provides grants, scholarships and loans, so that there is nobody who cannot afford to go to university. This is not hard to achieve.

Harvard University is probably, in terms of fees, the most expensive university in the world. But it has a higher proportion of disadvantaged students than any Irish university.

It is time for change.

Ferdinand von Prondzynski is President of DCU.

OLD TRINITY

Rusticated jibs and disapproving skips PETER HENRY DOES YOUR skip disapprove of sprees? Has your wife been pestering you to clean your rooms? Has your new jib friend been rusticated?

Trinity College has many peculiar words, turns of phrase and acronyms which are its own. The words used in the above sentences would be more familiar to a student here in the 1960s, but they remain part of our cultural patrimony.

Much of the language used by our predecessors has been obliterated by time and taste. Older ways of talking about things – reading for a

degree, or going up to College – have, sadly, become considered slightly embarrassing and have fallen out of use.

Long forgotten is the “skip”. No, not one of the oversized bins which deface our quadrangles, but a college servant who tended to the needs of the student in rooms. Oxford and Cambridge students still have their “scouts” and “gyps” respectively, and skip is likely a combination of these two words.

“Spree” was once – in the late 19th century at least – a term for an alcohol and banter session in rooms.

It hardly needs to be said that it is an Anglicisation of the Irish word for fun, spraoi.

The undergraduate in rooms lived with his “wife”. Not the result of marriage, and certainly not a woman, Wife simply referred to what we now call a roommate. The word became

a little ridiculous when New Square sets were converted for the use of three people each – no one wanted to be accused of polygamy!

Innocent junior freshman students were once condescendingly called “jibs”. The word is over 200 years old: it appears in the irreverent late18th-century Advice to the University of Dublin with the spelling “gib”.

Thankfully, we do retain some of our vocabulary. We attend commencements rather than graduation. We live in rooms in College, even if we only have one room, and even if the office of the Registrar of Chambers insists on “campus accommodation”.

An angry-looking man dressed in a military-style uniform once spoke to me about the dark old days when, he said, “you called us ‘porters’ and we called you ‘sir’.” With all respect to him, porters they were and porters

they remain, despite the current fad for “security guards”.

“Trinity College” is a far more dignified title for our establishment than “TCD”, but the three-letter acronym was in use by the mid-18th century, and probably earlier. “UCD”, on the other hand, was not always the common term for University College, Dublin- “National” was the Dublin student’s colloquialism for that NUI college until the 1960s.

Trinity’s other special abbreviations are its unique and sought-after postnominals. The illustrious fellows are entitled to write “FTCD” – Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin – after their names. Scholars traditionally write “Sch” after theirs.

The frequent use of that abbreviation seems to have fallen victim to the bland spirit of egalitarianism, and even the names of the members of the Scholars’ Committee are not suffixed

by “Sch” in the Calendar.

Trinity Hall in Cambridge is colloquially referred to as “Tit Hall”.

Not here, where we currently call our own Trinity Hall “Halls”. This plural version is not an old usage, but one which has been in vogue long enough for it to earn a place in the Trinity lexicon.

Your bachelor’s degree will be, all going well, an “honors” degree. For some reason the correct spelling is not used in reference to Dublin University degrees. Both of these oddities are preserved in the Calendar.

The word buttery is one of several words which are also used at other universities. It is not related to butter, as one might assume, but is a word for a liquor store room. It comes from the Latin butta – a cask – via the AngloFrench boterie.

We share the name of Michaelmas term with many other universities

”

– Hilary and Trinity terms we share with Oxford. They are named after the feast days of St Michael the Archangel, St Hilary of Poitiers and the Most Holy Trinity, the last being our titular feast.

Also in common with other universities are the terms for expulsion and suspension. As one goes up to a city and down to the country, so one is “rusticated” rather than suspended and “sent down” rather than expelled.

There are undoubtedly many more examples of words special to our university. Words must have come and gone over the years which were never recorded, or which I have not encountered.

The eager jib shouldn’t be afraid to use these terms – or bring them back into use. At the very least their use will serve to irritate jealous acquaintances from National.

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Tuesday, September 30 2008

of truth. Not so McCain’s ads. Instead they are used merely to get an antiObama message out and dominate news coverage, forcing Obama’s team into constantly denying false statements rather than set their own news agenda. Yet these ad campaigns have worked so far, helping McCain to the position Obama had enjoyed as the presidential front runner till a week ago.

However, it seems unlikely that a culture war will benefit the McCain campaign in the long run. The fundamentals of the Presidential race, the financial hardship in America and a general unhappiness with the past 8 years of Republican rule still favour Obama. For many voters uneasy about their financial security those issues will eclipse the trivial issues put forward by McCain, while increased media coverage of the flaws in the McCain ads is likely to cause a backlash. Even Karl Rove, George Bush’s former media spin doctor, has said that John McCain’s recent ads have gone “too far” in terms of stretching the truth. Recently, in addition, Fox News anchors questioned McCain’s spokesman on the benefits of claiming Obama plans to raise taxes on the middle class when he has expressed no plan to do so.

The debates will also provide an opportunity for Barack Obama to cement his lead and prevent McCain

RACE FOR THE WHITE HOUSE ’08

Is Obama about to do the unthinkable... and lose?

With Palin mania and the Bradley effect – voters say they will vote for a black candidate, but don’t – could the darling of the international scene be experiencing a tailspin back home?

Andrew James McKenzie Deputy World Review Editor BARACK OBAMA is a historic candidate, son of a white American woman from Kansas and a black man from Kenya. He is the first AfricanAmerican to run for the White House and provides America with the opportunity to leave behind the depravity of a history filled with racial injustice. He has reached out and touched people, not only in America, but throughout the world, inspiring in young and old a new-found interest in politics that transcends the cynicism and disenchantment that has come to represent global politics. Yet is he about to lose, despite all expectations, the presidential election?

In an election that was essentially seen as a walk in the park for the Democratic Party after the catastrophic rule of the BushCheney years, the tightening of the presidential polls has caused nervous jitters to run through blue America. Recent opinion polls had put John McCain just ahead of, or in a dead heat with, Obama before the financial markets went into a tailspin.

While Obama has soared since then with the opinion that he is a stronger candidate on the economy prevailing, McCain is not out of touch. Given a well-documented tendency for African-American voters to do far worse in elections than their polls, due to voters who say they will vote for a black candidate but don’t (the Bradley effect), this would suggest Obama and McCain are much closer than anticipated.

More worrying for the Obama camp should be the sudden

McCain’s lead may be even greater than pollsters think

movement of female voters to the Republican side. A recent ABCWashington Post survey put McCain 12 percentage points ahead of Obama amongst white woman, while less than a month ago Obama had a 15% lead among woman in general. The

The Bradley effect suggests Obama trails, perhaps significantly only reasonable explanation for this sudden turnaround is Palin mania.

The majority of the American press condemned McCain for a lack for judgement after his appointment of an inexperienced Governor of Alaska as his vice presidential nominee after meeting only her once for 15 minutes.

But Sarah Palin is pulling more and more voters towards the McCain campaign, drawn by her conservative values and perceived down-to-earth hockey-mom image. While Obama’s choice of Joe Biden as his running mate, a choice made to fill the gap in Obama’s foreign policy inexperience, has largely left voters indifferent.

Palin is invigorating the religious right in a way McCain had failed to do throughout his campaign.

Democrats are now playing in the dark, uncertain how to take on Sarah Palin. Fight too hard, and the Republican machine will brand Democrats sexist, elitist snobs, patronising a small-town woman, an opinion which will be echoed by the conservative commentary on talk radio and cable TV. Do nothing, and Palin’s rise will continue unchecked, her novelty making even Obama look stale, her star power energising and motivating the Republican base.

The tightening of the presidential polls has caused nervous jitters to run through blue America.

Recent opinion polls had put John McCain just ahead of or in a dead heat with Obama before the financial markets went into a tailspin.

Indeed, Palin is presently outperforming McCain. Campaigns are opportunities to field-test proposals and themes for the coming four years and build public support for action. This is what Obama is doing. But McCain isn’t making much of a positive argument for himself, beyond a few buzzwords like

“maverick.” Especially on domestic issues, he has given virtually no clue as to what his priorities are, and what he wants to do in office. McCain’s ad campaigns have strayed from any sort of serious policy statements, focusing instead on the trivial and false. He has attacked Obama for acting like a celebrity, for wanting to teach sex

education to kindergartners (false), and for calling Sarah Palin a “pig” (also false). Past Republican culturewar campaigns were negative, divisive and personal. But they made coherent arguments. In 2004 George W Bush’s denunciation of John Kerry as a liberal Washington insider who had trouble articulating clear positions had a ring

from making a comeback. Through the debates’ focus on the candidates’ policies and positions Obama can concentrate public attention on his plans for America rather than a character battle between himself and John McCain. This is exactly what the McCain camp has tried to avoid.

At the Republican convention in St Paul, McCain’s campaign manager Rick Davis declared that “this election is not about issues”, but about a “composite view” of the candidates – in other words, character. Obama is the significantly favoured candidate amongst young voters when it comes to the defining issues of the election including the economy, global warming and health care. He leads substantially with voters aged between 18 and 29, a full 60% of which support the Democrat compared to only 32% who support McCain.

Key will be Obama’s use of Hilary Clinton. If he can get her to support him more vocally and more consistently he may be able to retain more of the female voters that were disaffected by her defeat in Democratic primaries and are now moving to the Republican party rather than support the person that defeated their candidate. She has shown signs that she is willing to do this, but it is up to Obama to deploy her more effectively.

Presidential campaigns are notoriously volatile, and polls now are unlikely to represent the final outcome of the election. Yet Obama would do wisely to put a stop to the rise of Sarah Palin and Republican momentum lest he blow his, and black America’s, greatest chance at making history.

Serbia’s European road to not-quite-nowhere Serbia has come a long way in recent years, and while the situation with Kosovo may still be of concern, membership of the EU may not be that far away.

By Sinead Walsh EUROPEAN Commission President José Manuel Barroso has said that Serbia, erstwhile political pariah from the notorious Balkan backwaters, could be upgraded from potential EU candidate status to full candidate status in 2009.

This news hasn’t made much of an impact on most of Europe, but it has delighted a handful of people, mostly those who have been working the hardest to stabilise Serbia after the Western world’s pitiful failure to find a decent solution to the Balkan Wars of the 1990s. The solution then was a bombing campaign which intensified the ethnic cleansing they’d wanted to avoid, led to the independence of the region whose separatist aspirations

they’d attempted to cull, and gave rise to a second round of ethnic cleansing, this time of the original oppressors.

I’d be embarrassed too.

Serbia’s pro-European government, as well as the EU integrationist camp, at last have reason to be optimistic - not to mention a little self-congratulatory about the stabilisation process. With encouragement from Brussels, they’ve been extraditing war criminals like Radovan Karadzic, hitting economic targets and pushing pro-Europe legislation through parliament. The only thing Serbia is refusing to do is give up on Kosovo. But as long as six EU member states still haven’t recognised the breakaway republic, which is still on the potential candidate list as a province of the (now former) Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and

while Serbian president Boris Tadic is determined to pursue the issue through diplomatic channels only (like asking the International Court of Justice for its opinion on the matter, if the UN Assembly General allows him), then what’s the problem?

Serbia’s politicians have not been making a secret out of the fact that, if it comes down to it, they’ll choose Kosovo over the EU. Meanwhile, in September alone, major trade deals with Russia over gas, oil and the automobile industry, as well as a visit from Chinese Army Chief of Staff Gen. Chen Bingde in which the General expressed his confidence in the “great possibilities for an

excellent inter-army cooperation” between the two countries, show that Serbia is still playing the balancing game. Neither Russia nor China have recognised Kosovo’s independence, Politicians aren’t making a secret out of the fact that they’ll chose Kosovo over EU nor has either country any intention of doing so. While ties between the two countries are strong, Serbia can’t bank on Russia always being at hand to bail it out.

Then there are the latest polls,

EU SPLITS NATIONALISTS IN SEPTEMBER the Serbian Radical Party (SRS) underwent a sizeable split, with exPresidential candidate Tomislav Nikolic setting out to form a new ‘Forward Serbia’ party with 18 deputies. Despite being in opposition against a coalition government, SRS was, until the split, the largest party

in parliament. Now Tadic’s Democratic Party has the most deputies. Nikolic, who said he was prepared to vote for a critical EU treaty, was roundly criticised by party leader Vojislav Seselj for betraying the party’s interests.

Seselj is currently at the Hague facing war crimes charges.

which show that only 61% of Serbia’s population are in favour of EU accession anyway. Alright, so the Serbs wouldn’t be the first population to be partially dragged into the Union by an enthusiastic ruling elite, but in a country which still enjoys the odd violent protest (for example, the one organised by the SRS against Karadzic’s extradition on July 29, in which a demonstrator called Ranko Panic lost his life), caution should be exercised.

At this point, a cynic would point to the neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), a de facto partitioned state which is still under the ultimate command of the UN

High Representative for BiH thirteen years after the Dayton Accords ended the violence, but apparently not the war. Many on the Republika Srpska (i.e. ethnically Serbian) side favour separation, and the possibility of an eventual reunion with Serbia to remaining within the current federation. Compared to BiH, Serbia (with or without Kosovo) seems to be doing quite well, but the spectre of the Greater Serb Movement hasn’t yet been quite exorcised.

A realist, however, would simply point out that further speculation on the subject is moot until such time as Ireland ratifies (or ultimately rejects) the Lisbon Treaty, allowing the Europhiles to try to press ahead with further integration.

There’s a terrible irony in the fact that a country whose political problems faced a financial solution and suffered for it, is now the nation with the power to determine the future of Euro-Balkan peace and stability. In a funny way, the Irish and the Serbian governments are facing the same problem – the political elite has trouble conveying their forwardlooking ideals to a people whose archaic views on sovereignty poorly inform a very modern question.

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SOUTH OSSETIA: THE FIRST THEATRE OF WAR

GEORGIA: THE DISPUTED TERRITORIES

SOUTH OSSETIA was one of Georgia’s two unrecognised de facto independent states, or “breakaway republics”.

The other was the much more strategically important and prosperous Abkhazia which lies to its West on the Black Sea coast. Neither region has much ethnically, linguistically or historically in common with Georgia. In the Soviet Union they enjoyed considerable autonomy.

A common theme in conflicts in South Ossetia has been a desire to unite with the more densely populated North Ossetia, a part of Russia. The Ossetian people are split between the two republics, and the North is also home to a smattering of Ingush Muslims. North and South Tipperary are about as ethnically divided. This essentially administrative division became politically charged after the Soviet Union’s collapse, when newly independent Georgia claimed the southern republic.

After it secured independence South Ossetia’s president Eduard Kokoity and top officials proudly declared that the next logical step was joining Russia. The Russian Foreign Minister, in deep enough water already, had to say flat out that the state will never be a part of Russia, and Kokoity was forced to withdraw his statements like a jilted lover and be content with independence.

Russia recognised the independence of both Abkhazia and South Ossetia on August 26.

ABKHAZIA: THE SECOND THEATRE OF WAR

War in Ossetia: The Russian view Young Russians love to tell the story of an perplexed American from the U.S. state, Georgia, who phoned her local radio station, saying “I don’t see any planes from where I’m standing!” The urban legend pokes fun at a simple American housewife, but behind the joke lies a real critique of Western politicians and media.

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HE INCOMING president of the UN General Assembly, Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann, thought it worth clarifying at the opening of the organisation’s 63rd session that “Georgia was the one who invaded Ossetia”. He delivered the words with passion, and his speech was widely broadcast in Russia. From the Russians’ view, the statement was long overdue. The United States and its North Atlantic allies have consistently labelled Russia as the aggressor in the conflict. A recent U.S. Senate debate on the issue was titled “Russian aggression against Georgia”. Curiously, Mr. Brockmann’s native country is Nicaragua – the only country besides Russia to currently recognise the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. That’s just one of those coincidences a rotating presidency occasionally throws up.

There’s no need to fear a MoscowManagua axis just yet.

The recent conflict is only the latest in a string of violent clashes over the past two decades. During the Soviet Union’s messy break-up, both South Ossetia and Abkhazia, facing a resurgence of Georgian nationalism, defended their independence in separate year-long wars. Accusations of war crimes and ethnic cleansing abounded in both. Abkhazia’s ended with a ceasefire, only to have fighting erupt again in 1998 when Georgian rebels attempted to take control of what was now a de facto independent Abkhazian republic.

Land-locked South Ossetia enjoyed 16 years of peace under the 1992 Sochi Agreement, a cease-fire brokered by Russia. The peacekeeping contingent was made up of Georgians, Russians and citizens of both North (Russian) and South (Georgian) Ossetia.

a “frozen conflict”, Russia felt no compulsion to tie up loose ends. Two things caused the ice to melt. The first was Kosovo’s independence from Serbia being recognised by a host of European countries and NATO members. Russia in February had warned it would open up old wounds. The second was the acceleration of Georgia’s accession to NATO. Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili came to power in the bloodless Rose Revolution in 2003, ousting a liberal reformer who had failed to control rampant corruption.

He pledged to bring the two republics

crossed into the breakaway republic of South Ossetia, in violation of the Sochi Agreement. Ten Russian peacekeepers were killed in the operation – by their Georgian colleagues, according to Russia. The deaths of Russian peacekeepers, and South Ossetia’s claims that Georgia had launched a “genocide” on the Ossetian people, were the reasons the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev gave for the Russian response.

To Western viewers, the story that Russia had invaded Georgia and not the other way around seemed more logical. Georgia, a “fledgling democracy”, was fighting “expansionist Russia” to regain control of its renegade province.

Wilder analysts suggested “energyhungry” Russia was trying to disrupt a strategic European oil corridor: running through Central Georgia, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline pumps a million barrels of oil daily through the politically troubled strip of land between the Caspian and Black Seas. Russia’s bullish tactics during recent diplomatic spats, and its widely assumed involvement in shooting down Georgian spy planes over Abkhazia, didn’t win any friends.

With this in mind, the West decided that Russia began the conflict.

Officially calling South Ossetia a “frozen conflict”, Russia was perfectly happy with the situation, and felt no compulsion to tie up loose ends.” back in from the cold. He might have simply reneged on his promise were it not for NATO members’ reluctance to admit a country with unresolved territorial disputes.

In the early morning of the 8th of August, while the world’s attention was fixed on the opening of the Beijing Games, Georgian troops

The Georgian president, soon after Russia sent its support to the breakaway republic, told the world that Russia was invading Georgia.

Technically he was correct. On most maps South Ossetia is the same colour as Georgia. But the realities on the ground are quite different. Saakashvili considers South Ossetia a part of

Georgia. But South Ossetians don’t.

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GNORANCE MAY explain the actions of a spooked American housewife, but to suppose that Western leaders and media simply mixed up their facts is hardly plausible. Relations between London and Moscow hadn’t improved since Russia was accused of poisoning a former KGB agent with radioactive Polonium-210 in the British capital.

The United States continued

THE CONFLICT may have initially centred on South Ossetia, but Russians knew from the first moments that it would spill into nearby Abkhazia - a larger, richer, and more strategically important territory. To Western observers unfamiliar with the area is may not have been so obvious. But the fear that Abkhazia would be Georgia’s next target was doubtless a key factor in Russia’s forceful response.

Abkhazia, on the Black Sea coast, is Russia’s equivalent of the Costa del Sol. Though formally disputed territory, Russians are no more afraid to holiday there than Europeans are to visit Northern Cypus (also a de-facto independent republic). South Ossetia, by the way, is a landlocked, dusty, charmless strip of mountainous shrub where sustenance farming is the most popular source of food and the only natural resource, I’m told, is stubbornness.

When the conflict began, during the peak holiday season, thousands of Russians were working on their tans in one of the only corners of the country where that’s possible. Abkhazian authorities immediately increased defences on the border with Georgia and asked Russia for help to protect its ”vulnerable civilians”. In the event, naval clashes on the Abkhazian coast resulted in the sinking of a Georgian missile boat. Russia claimed four Georgian boats had violated Abkhazia’s coastal buffer zone.

The Russian information system is clunky, its structure little changed from Gorbachev’s days, and so it is illsuited to a modern media war. Russia only allowed journalists to “embed” in peacekeeping units after dragging its heels for days. Liberal magazines

Although Russia was never formally at war with Georgia, this fact was dismissed as immaterial as the chance to headline with the words “war” and “Russia” beckoned. championing Georgia’s cause in NATO negotiations and arming its military.

The BBC’s website eagerly provided a fact-box comparing the relative strengths of the Georgian and Russian armies. Although Russia was never formally at war with Georgia, this fact was dismissed as immaterial, as the chance to headline with the words “war” and “Russia” beckoned.

CNN has begun to change its tune, but still its official “explainer” on the conflict, though factually accurate, has an obviously anti-Russian slant.

Consider the word order in this sentence: “Tensions came to a head after Russia responded militarily to a Georgian offensive”.

Georgia skilfully turned the South Ossetian conflict into an information war. Georgia’s choice of date for the invasion (they don’t come easier to remember than 8/8/08) and heavy use of highly marketable aerial attacks set the terms of engagement in stone from the outset. Western bias notwithstanding, Georgia’s terms put Russia at a disadvantage.

in the past have taken advantage of quality-time with soldiers to expose corruption in the army.

Putting Russia’s outdated propaganda machine to shame, Georgia prepared for the conflict by hiring foreign public relations consultants who fanned the flames as the conflict progressed. Saakashvili himself gave numerous interviews to foreign television networks. He tried to take the spotlight off of South Ossetia where he knew he was fighting a losing battle and focus the world’s attention on a larger, fuzzier, conflict. “First, it was never about some region in Georgia. Russia made it very clear, they wanted regime change in Georgia,” he told CNN’s Larry King in a live interview.

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N A PRACTICAL level there were natural obstacles to Russia’s side of the story getting airtime. Getting a Russian visa is a battle in itself. The conflict began on a Friday, consulates don’t issue visas on weekends, and a processing period of several weeks

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HE SOCHI Agreement had no withdrawal clause – peacekeepers were to stay in South Ossetia indefinitely, and the republic would never be recognised as independent. Officially calling it

normally applies. Getting to the scene of a 5-day conflict was a practical impossibility for any reporters without Kremlin connections. To that, add travel time from Moscow to the South Ossetian capital. A Canadian freelance journalist told me that when his colleagues heard a “Georgian breakaway republic” was under attack, they immediately booked the next flight to Tbilisi without thinking.

Georgia has no visa requirements, and press attaches there were more than happy to receive them. But it’s not possible to access South Ossetia from the heavily militarised Georgian side. As a result most reporters ended up with literally one-sided coverage.

Eschewing media co-operation, or perhaps considering it a hopeless endeavour, Russia took a measured, diplomatic approach, and limited its statements to UN council meetings and daily press briefings. Russia’s finest asset was its talented UN Ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, who regularly came out with gems such as, “The United States invented the term ‘regime change’, not Russia,” which he said in response to a question from the U.S. ambassador, looking him straight in the eye and insisting on speaking his own language through a translator though he has an impressive command of English.

The Russian viewpoint is now gaining acceptance, but the world has split into two camps over the recognition of this year’s three new independent states. Forty-seven countries have so far recognised Kosovo, which declared its independence in February. Few of the forty-seven are likely to follow Nicaragua’s ambitious lead and recognise the Caucasian republics.

In turn, whatever divers countries recognise their independence, they are unlikely to recognise Kosovo simultaneously.

One thing everyone is agreed on – from Russian diplomats to the residents of Atlanta, Georgia – is that no further “frozen conflicts” should be thawed out. An acquaintance in Moscow’s British Embassy has told me this is an eventuality they are anxiously preparing for. The stability of places like Crimea, NagornoKarabakh and Transnistria – regions less likely to be mistaken for Bible Belt states – is on thin ice.

Aaron Mulvihill spent the past 13 months living in Moscow, working for a Russian news channel.

A convoy of Russian troops makes its way toward the conflict in the South Ossetian village of Dzhaba on August 9, 2008. Photos: Dmitry Kostyukov

EDITORIAL 17

TRINITY NEWS Tuesday, September 30 2008

TRINITY NEWS Issue 1, Volume 55 Tuesday, 30 September 2008 6 Trinity College, Dublin 2 www.trinitynews.ie

B

Watching the watchers

alancing opposing sets of needs sounds like an impossible proposition. Nonetheless, achieving a balance that is acceptable to all parties on a topic that concerns them all is crucial. The media is no exception. To have an effective and worthwhile media requires the co-existence of three distinct groups. These are: the press, who must have freedom to report without bias or fear in order for a functional democracy to exist; the public, who have a right to be informed about people and acts which affect them; and the subjects of articles, who have rights to privacy and to not be harrassed, which are specially limited by the public interest in their positions or acts.

These three groups must be satisfied by one set of rules of engagement, so that each group can agree to hold themselves to it.

Only then can the complex interaction between the media, the public, and the subjects of articles happen effectively and to the service of the public.

The National Press Council of Ireland and the Office of the Press Ombudsman has created a code of practice that represents an extraordinarily successful balance of the needs of all those concerned. Each group can justifiably welcome and applaud the code’s consideration of their individual needs.

The scale of this achievement cannot be overestimated. By setting out on such an endeavour, one risks jeopardising the very democracy of the country, as to fail to defend the press’s freedoms, or to otherwise unfairly shackle or inhibit them, is indefensible. The Press Council has not failed in this regard – on the contrary, they realise that by providing access to an independent press complaints mechanism, they can maintain the highest standards of Irish journalism and journalistic ethics.

For these reasons, Trinity News has become a member of the National Press Council of Ireland, unique among student publications.

Incoming Freshers were told in the Publications Committee’s magazine that Trinity News was “amateur only in name” and with this announcement, Trinity News accordingly lists itself with 204 other Irish publications.

Trinity News is tasked by its readership with oversight of the College bodies and personas that affect the lives and work of those readers.

In order to enjoy the privilege and responsibility of such scrutiny and vigilance, Trinity News must be ready to hold itself accountable. With its new membership of the Press Council, the newspaper promises its readers that it can and will “publish what it considers to be news, without fear or favour, and to comment upon it”.

Readers are encouraged to view the Code of Practice on the National Press Council’s website.

The USI’s simplistic view of fees

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hen Minister of Education Batt O’Keefe put fees on the agenda for discussion at the start of the summer, as always, a variety of responses came out. Some were measured, considered, and flexible; others were simplistic, unbending, and unhelpful. Tragically, the USI’s response is of the second sort. They have maintained their stringently anti-fees line since the beginning of the debate, right up to this month’s intention to “highlight the negative effects that any reintroduction of fees would bring” (our emphasis) to delegates at Fianna Fáil’s meeting in Galway on the weekend of the 14th.

Utterly rejecting the idea of any change is an extraordinarily simplistic and saddening view for a student union that should be nimble, sharp and revolutionary. Already, before the academic year has even properly begun, the USI are being left behind in this debate.

Last Thursday’s meeting between the Minister and the heads of the Universities to discuss, among other things, the suggestion of an Australian-style loans system did not benefit from the USI’s input because their puerile sulking over the very fact that the debate is taking place at all means stakeholders have no incentive or desire to listen to them.

The USI have further made the mistake of conflating “free fees” with “access to education”. Universal access to education, ostensibily the USI’s desire, is something that this newspaper and every rightthinking person believes is a worthwhile cause. But the USI has lost sight of this goal with its focus on fees. Universal access to education is a complex social issue that doesn’t merely have cash at its roots, and by combing the two issues, the USI have employed a strawman that undermines their position.

The USI are failing us all – their members – by pursuing this line so doggedly. If they continue, their stewardship of our best forum for discussion will squander our chance to contribute our concerns and interests and will drown out our potentially loudest voice.

READER LETTERS Letters to the Editor should be sent to letters@trinitynews.ie. The Editor reserves the right to edit submissions for style and length. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of Trinity News, its staff or its Editor.

Smedias 2008 Congratulations on sweeping the boards at the 3 Smedias this year. Best editor, journalist and newspaper- it's an extremely impressive haul and one you should be very proud of. Trinity News has always been one of the college's shining lights and you have done wonders to keep up its high standards.

Shane Ross Seanad Éireann Delighted to see in the Irish Times that Trinity News got the top three prizes at last night’s awards. This is a tremendous result and makes us all very proud. Congratulations to you and the staff and all those involved.

David Norris Seanad Éireann

Shell to Sea As a just turned alumni of Trinity College I do not feel that I could be the right person to embark upon the suggestion that I am about to make hence why I forward it on to you.

I believe that there is not enough information going around in the media about the shell to sea campaign, especially as Shell have started to explore the possibility of other gas resources of the coast of Dunmore East in Waterford and also Killybegs in Donegal.

This cause does not only affect the small rural community in Mayo, but also the whole of Ireland as the exploitation of these resources shall not be used for the benefit of the Irish people, but will instead go into the pocket of a large multinational

to the benefit of it’s shareholders. It is a great example of how our fine nation’s politicians always do good by our own people.

I ask the Trinity News to try and create a greater awareness of this problem within the college and deliver proper information to the students. This may be from a small article to a large spread, anything helps.

As I say before this is a problem which is about to become larger, and with the current fasting of Maura Harrington it is definitely a story worth pursuing.

Oonagh O Connor

OBITUARY

Former Editor was a ‘wise old owl’ PAUL TANSEY, a former editor of Trinity News, passed away on September 21 at the age of 59.

The Blackrock College student came to Trinity to study economics and politics in the late 1960s. He succeeded Ted Oliver to become editor of this newspaper in Trinity term of 1970.

He was involved with the Students’ Representative Council, the forerunner to today’s Students’ Union. He started the Students’ Union’s tradition of publishing as founder and first editor, in 1970, of Liaison, which was succeeded by Union, Aontas and the University Record.

He was elected president of the Students’ Representative Council, also in 1970, and deputy president of the Union of Students in Ireland the following year. During his time in student politics he also spent a year in Prague with the International Union of Students.

John Spain, writing in the Irish Independent last Saturday, recalled Paul’s student days. The 1960s were a time of student rebellion, said Spain, but “Tansey saw through the revolutionary nonsense quicker than most. Unlike the rebels propping up the Buttery bar, he had a maturity about him that the rest of us lacked.”

Tansey took the BA and MA degrees. He returned to Trinity in the 1980s to study for the master in business administration

degree, which he took in 1987. He also studied at the London School of Economics in the 1970s.

Soon after leaving Trinity he took up a position with The Irish Times, becoming economics correspondent two years later, in 1975. Apart from his year at LSE, he stayed with The Irish Times until 1983, when he became deputy editor of the Sunday Tribune.

He became an economic consultant, setting up Tansey Webster Steward Group,

and published many papers on economics and finance.

His knowledge of economics was lauded in the newspapers last week. Joan Burton, deputy leader of the Labour Party, said he was “first among equals in the ranks of economic commentators”. John McManus, business editor of The Irish Times, said: “Without a doubt, his work both as a journalist and an independent consultant had an influence on the development of Irish economic policy over the last 30 years.”

He returned to The Irish Times last year, becoming economics editor.

Tansey died on the morning of Sunday, September 21, while playing tennis at the Enniskerry home of Dublin University senator Shane Ross, a long-time friend of his.

His wife, Olivia O’Leary, paid tribute to him at his funeral at St Patrick’s Church, Monkstown, last Thursday. She thanked him for 25 years of “fun, laughter and love”. He was remembered as a “wise old owl” with a “Rolls Royce mind”.

Among the mourners at Tansey’s funeral were Professor Antoin Murphy, Senator Shane Ross and provost Dr John Hegarty.

Paul Joseph Anthony Tansey, MA, MBA. Born August 17, 1949.

Died September 21, 2008, aged 59.

(Peter Henry)

18

BUSINESS & CAREERS

TRINITY NEWS Tuesday, September 30 2008

Employment rights: How much do you know?

Grace Walsh Business & Careers Editor EMPLOYMENT LAW in Ireland provides strong protection for any type of worker whose rights have been breached.

These rights are set out in several employment acts dating from 1993 to 2007. The most relevant acts to students still at college are the Protection of Employees (PartTime) Work Act, 2001 and Terms of Employment (Information Act,) 1994.

For those in the workforce a considerable bank of legislation covering a diverse range of issues provides weighty protection of their rights.

Every worker is entitled to a written statement or contract which contains the terms and conditions of their employment. This should be given to you within two months of starting employment. The contract should contain the hourly wage, hours per week, how your salary is calculated, when and how it will be paid, and holiday and sick day entitlements. It should also include the company policy in case of dismissal or redundancy. You should be informed of the notice you are required to give when leaving.

A payslip includes your PPS Number, bank details, tax credits, contract hours, overtime hours and corresponding rates of pay. If you are being taxed or have any voluntary deductions from your salary these will also be displayed. Every worker is entitled to receive payslips.

The minimum wage of €8.65 per hour applies to all workers apart from those in their first year of employment since turning eighteen. In this case they are entitled to €6.92 per hour.

Employees aged under eighteen may receive in excess of €6.06 per hour.

There must be no more than 48 hours worked per week. For those under eighteen no more than 37.5 hours may be worked. A break of 15 minutes is mandatory for any shift of 4.5 hours. This break increases to

Your guide to a successful CV

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30 minutes for 6 hours of work. For 8 hours of work you are entitled to a minimum of an hour lunch. Some employers may also give an additional 30 minute break when working 8 hours or more. You are entitled to premium payment for Sundays and public holidays or paid time off in lieu.

Sick pay is not a statutory entitlement. The employer is not legally bound to pay the employee on a sick day. Some employers only introduce sick pay after a certain

period of uninterrupted employment while other may give you a certain number of sick days for which you will be paid. It is not unusual for employers to outright refuse sick pay. You must present a doctor’s sick note if you are out for more than three days.

Holiday entitlements vary by industry. Part-time workers have the right to a proportional amount of annual leave based on the amount of time they work per week. Standard practice generally allows for employees to have four paid working

THE LABOUR COURT The Labour Court is not a court of law. It is an industrial relations tribunal. It hears both sides of the argument and issues a recommendation. The Labour Court is a court of last resort The Labour Court holds hearings in 22 different locations around the country.

In 2007 the Labour Court received 924 referrals, held 819 hearings and issued 549 Recommendations, Determinations and Orders.

For more information see www.citizensinformation.ie www.employmentrights.ie www.labourcourts.ie

weeks of holiday time per year.

Irish employment legislation provides harsh punishment for unfair dismissal. If an employee is fired because of their gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs or any other personal issue, the employee has the right to legal recourse. This can be done through a number of different channels such as the Employment Appeals Tribunal, the Labour Court, the Civil Courts and the Rights Commissioner Service.

Several cases of unfair dismissal, harassment and breach of employment rights have recently been taken against employers to great success.

One strange case involved a building worker who was fired after being convicted of stealing petrol from a filling station that his company had built. He was later awarded €6000 compensation for unfair dismissal.

Are your employment rights being upheld?

If not then get in touch at businesscareers@tcd.ie

our Curriculum Vitae is the most important document in obtaining any job. It is a personal record of your academic and professional experiences. Its aim should be to represent you in the best light possible. It should express the firm belief that you are the best candidate.

There are a number of common mistakes that prevent qualified candidates from netting their ideal position. Amongst the most heinous crimes are: spelling errors, failing to tailor the CV to the job, and poor layout.

The ideal CV will allow your information to be easily absorbed.

Language should be concise and clear. The layout should be attractive, neat and organized.

The information contained in your CV should be truthful and succinct. The use of headings allows for a direct, accessible layout. Allow lots of space between headings.

Heading titles should include personal details, career objective, education, employment history, interests, achievements, personal statement and referees.

Ensure that headings are underlined and/or in bold.

Use the same font size and type throughout your CV. Size 12 in Arial Black or a similar plain font is preferable.

If you are listing exam results, a table looks better. Leave out your Junior Certificate (or equivalent) results.

E

is for Editor.

Be one. www.trinitynews.ie

Start with your most recent educational experience (your degree) and work backwards.

Referees should include previous employers and an academic referee such as your tutor. Remember to ask their permission first and include their contact details.

Your personal profile should very briefly outline how best you fit the role: as a team player, having relevant skills or reliability.

It should not be more than five lines and should act as a complement to your qualifications, employment history and hobbies.

Ask your careers advisor to read over your CV when you are done to make sure that your personal profile reads well, that there are no spelling errors and that it looks professional.

It is important to include a cover letter if you are serious about a certain post. This should convey your enthusiasm for the position, a brief synopsis of your capabilities and a positive, confident close.

The final and most important point is relevance. Your skill set, experience and personal traits need to focus on the job at hand.

If you want a job in the bank don’t harp on about your ten years cockle picking in Madagascar!

For further information and personal advice contact the Careers Advisory Service online at tcd.ie/Careers

SCIENCE

TRINITY NEWS Tuesday, September 30 2008

In brief

Bright-eyed, 55 years after cracking the code of life

Controversial US research implies sexist men earn more

• Dr. James Watson, Nobel laureate in 1962 • 50 years of genetics department marked • Specially commissioned portrait donated • Career notable for some controversies

By Luke Maishman Science Editor ON THURSDAY the 18th September James Watson, the ‘Father of Modern Genetics’ arrived in Dublin to celebrate the 50th anniversary of TCD Genetics Department. In an exclusive Trinity News interview he praised Trinity as a ‘Lovely location’ with ‘a reputation as a place where you get a very good education’. He regards the Department of Genetics as ‘unique’ in that it was set up in the early years of modern genetics, compared to similar departments in other universities. He donated a painting to the Genetics Department and spoke at the Symposium Dinner that Thursday evening.

“James Watson” is a name learnt by all budding biologists as one of the co-discoverers of the structure of DNA, the molecule responsible for heredity in almost all living things.

The discovery, published in 1953, won Watson and his co-researchers Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins the Nobel prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962. Famously, a fourth contributor, Rosalind Franklin, did not live to share in the Nobel Prize (which is not awarded posthumously).

Watson’s name hit the headlines in 2007 for comments made to the Sunday Times Magazine suggesting that black people may be genetically less intelligent than white people.

When talking to me he insists that he never intended to talk about this, noting that ‘depending on how you judge somebody you get very different answers’.

It is certainly true that in 2007, five days after these comments were published, Watson issued an apology stating he was ‘mortified’ and

saying that he could ony ‘apologise unreservedly’.

When I mention James Flynn, a researcher into changing IQ scores over time, who recently argued for a confrontation of issues surrounding race and IQ Watson exclaims ‘Oh I was just with James Flynn – He came to our laboratory!’ he goes on to claim Flynn is ‘not a psychologist he’s a moral philosopher!’ but also notes ‘he’s an extremely nice person’.

On Flynn’s work he comments ‘for some reason people when they’re eighteen now know more than they did fifty years ago’ but thinks ‘there’s no evidence that people when they’re thirty are any brighter than they were’.

Genetics is always a controversial issue, it certainly seems Watson has run into more than his fair share of dispute, the most famous being lack of credit given to Franklin for the discovery of the DNA structure.

Watson and Crick used Frankilin’s unpublished data in the lead up to their big discovery and Watson has since made damning remarks about her role in his books such as his comment “The thought could not be avoided that the best home for a feminist was in another person’s lab” in his The Double Helix. However in an epilogue to the same book he describes these ‘initial impressions’ as ‘often wrong’ and said that later he and Crick came to ‘appreciate greatly her personal honesty and generosity.’

Indeed the gentle, wizened but enthusiastic man sitting opposite me in the Shelbourne Hotel does not seem malicious. He describes Cambridge as the most interesting university that he worked at, noting that it was different than anything he’d ever seen, having

A US study, published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, suggests that men who grow up thinking women should stay at home will consistently out-earn more “modern-thinking” men. On average, this meant an extra $8,500 (£4,722) a year! “It could be that more traditionally-minded men are interested in power, both in terms of access to resources - money in this case - and also in terms of a woman who is submissive,” said Dr Magdalena Zawisza, Winchester University in the UK.

Catholic Church condemns creationism, refuses apology to Darwin Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, the Vatican’s culture minister, distanced the Catholic Church from creationism noting it belongs to the “strictly theological sphere” and could not be used “ideologically in science”. Also after the official apology to Darwin by the Church of England this September Ravasi said the Vatican had no intention of issuing a similar apology. “Maybe we should abandon the idea of issuing apologies as if history was a court eternally in session,” he mused.

Relief from tired muscles?

“Depending on how you judge somebody, you get very different answers,” said James Watson during his interview in Dublin last Friday.

Photo: Martin McKenna

come straight from the Midwestern United States.

Playing down his incredibly young student achievements, enrolling at the University of Chicago when only 15 and achieving his Ph.D at 22 Watson tells me that ‘I never felt I was a freak’ as Chicago university had a programme for about thirty 15 year olds so ‘there were others’. Having said that he adds ‘The human brain at 15 . . . learns fast’ and commends the fact that he was ‘forced to think’.

As the discussion turns to recent politics and America Watson affirms his disapproval of the Iraq war; ‘Just totally indefensible’ and when asked about the situation regarding the

USA, Russia and Georgia states with a chuckle that ‘I don’t think we should have too many allies’. In his time as a professor at Harvard Watson was politically active both in favour of withdrawing forces from Vietnam and against nuclear proliferation in 1975 to the Ford Presidency.

As we approach the end of our interview he offers this advice : ‘I guess my rule is “Do something as soon as you can” . . . if you realise you’ve got to take a course in some subject you take it as soon as you can – don’t put it off!’ and with a grin ‘[we] will soon be able to read the messages in human DNA and, err: read them first!’

Holiday souvenirs of the wrong sort

By Ronan Lyne Deputy Science Editor MANY OF you may have returned from a summer of travelling to exotic destinations. You’ll spend the next few Pav Fridays boring your friends with tales of how you held the heads of sick orphans in Africa, and showing off all the booze you smuggled through customs. But, aside from a life-changing experience, what else have you brought back with you?

Lurking in the seams of your suitcase could be a nasty little bloodsucker. The bedbug (Cimex lectularius) is most commonly found in hostels and hotels, and sucks your blood at night-time. They bite into your skin, injecting saliva [containing anticoagulants and anaesthetic], which later causes an extremely itchy

red lump due to an immune reaction to the proteins therein. They spread by laying eggs in your suitcase and clothes which later hatch in your home. They are notoriously difficult to eradicate, requiring a visit by pestcontrol experts, who will spray your house with chemicals so noxious that you have to leave for the duration of the treatment.

Another, more disturbing prospect is intestinal worms. Noticed any changes in your appetite, or [ahem] digestive functioning? Starting to regret that kebab you bought from that dodgy street vendor in Bangkok?

Parasitic helminths are found all over the world, even in Western countries.

And you may be carrying one right now. Beef tapeworm (Taenia saginata) infection usually has very vague symptoms, ranging from mild

fatigue to increased hunger, as well as diarrhoea and nausea. It can be contracted by eating undercooked beef containing tapeworm cysts, which develop into adult worms in the intestine. Beef tapeworm can grow up to 25 feet in length inside the human intestine. There are many other species of tapeworms, which are usually found in other animals but can find their way into humans who make bad dietary choices.

Another particularly interesting parasite is the hookworm (Ancylostoma duodenale). Found in tropical countries, it is contracted by walking barefoot in soil infested with hookworm eggs. The larvae burrow through the skin of the foot, travel via the bloodstream to the lungs, whereupon they are coughed up and swallowed, and make their way into

AVOID !

- Beef Tapeworm is common in Africa, some parts of Eastern Europe, the Philippines and Mexico.

- Hookworm predominates in the Middle East, North Africa, India and (formerly) in southern Europe.

the digestive tract. There, they attach via vicious-looking teeth to the lining of the intestine, and feast on the blood of the host, causing anaemia, and in extreme cases, intestinal blockage.

Not a nice thought.

Those of you who remained in Europe may be glad that you’re safe from all these disturbing things that live inside people. But don’t forget scabies (Sarcoptes scabiei), the itch mite that burrows into your skin and lays eggs. It takes 4-6 weeks after infection for symptoms to appear.

So if you start itching between your fingers, and notice small s-shaped tracks, you’d better see your doctor.

And don’t think you can keep it private, either. You’ll have to tell your family, housemates and sexual partners. Ireland doesn’t sound so bad anymore, does it?

Bringing the internet to Africa

By Luke Maishman INTERNET ACCESS: an amazingly empowering resource but one which all too many of us have come to take for granted. Not so for Dr Nii Quaynor, the ‘father of the internet in Africa’.

Dr Nii Quaynor set up the first company in West Africa to operate internet services. His efforts championing African involvement in international internet policies won him the prestegious Postel Award from the Internet Society in 2007.

The Jonathan B Postel Services Award is presented to ‘a person who has made outstanding contributions in service to the data communications community.’ Lynn St. Amour, the Internet Society President noted “Dr Quaynor has selflessly pioneered Internet development and expansion throughout Africa for nearly two decades, enabling profound advances in information access, education, healthcare and commerce for African countries and their citizens.”

As a developing continent Africa lags behind Europe in the provision of many services – food, clean water

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and basic healthcare normally being the focus. But Dr Quaynor believes that by embracing the digital age Africa could better deal with these problems. In an interview reported in NewScientist magazine he enthuses “Africa is about to miss out on a great development opportunity . . . unless serious and committed efforts are made by Africa to address the rapid expansion of the digital divide.”

In response to critics he told BBC World Service’s Digital Planet programme. “If the critics did not have any Internet, I am sure they would talk differently”.

Born in Ghana in West Africa, about 3150 miles (5050km) south of Dublin, Dr Quaynor studied Engineering Science and Computer Science in the USA. He returned to Africa, and in 1988 he set up a company which in 1994 became the first in West Africa to provide internet services.

Internet access is still at less than 5% in Sub-Saharan Africa – Dr Quaynor looks to the convergence of mobile phones and internet as a promising technology and describes the one laptop per child project as “a welcome development”.

A drug developed by Andrew Marks in Columbia University, patented in the US on 22 May this year, may make it possible for anyone doing strenuous physical exercise to stave off exhaustion for longer. The invention, based on research over the last decade, uses new evidence that muscle fatigue is caused by build up of calcium ions (not lactic acid) in the muscles. The drug stabilises ion channels that control cells using calcium ion concentration, which begin to behave erratically after excessive exercise or due to disease.

America’s most ancient ice discovered, melts The ice, which had been exposed by mining activities, was discovered seven years ago by a Canadian research group. It was dated using the layer of volcanic ash deposited a few centimetres above it. The ash was 740,000 years old, meaning the ice is the oldest known in North America and had already survived two interglacial ages.

SURPRISING SPECIES Found in the rainforests of America, leafcutter ants actively cultivate underground farms of a particular fungus, which they eat. They strip the forest surrounding the colony of leaf matter for compost to feed their farm. The ants even carry a type of bacteria on their cuticle for the antibiotic it produces, which they use like a pesticide against the invading fungi “weeds”.

EGGHEAD OF THE ISSUE Austrian physicist Schrödinger is most famous for the equation that takes his name, for which he shared the Nobel Prize. He argued against observation-dependent interpretations of Quantum Chemistry, and first proposed “Schrödinger’s Cat”, an imaginary cat in a box that is both dead and alive, to ridicule this viewpoint.

ON THIS DAY... . . . In 1861, American salesman and manufacturer William Wrigley Jr. was born, whose Wrigley’s chewing gum company became the largest producer and distributor of chewing gum in the world. . . . In 1982, H. Ross Perot and Jay Colburn completed the first circumnavigation of the world in a helicopter, the Spirit of Texas. . . . In 1890, Thomas A. Edison was granted a number of U.S. patents including for telegraphy.

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TRAVEL

TRINITY NEWS Tuesday, September 30 2008

Syria: An excursion to the axis of evil

International Festivals

Bathtub battles Can there be anything more strange than racing a bunch of Belgians down a river in a bathtub?

Although not on everyone’s list of places to go, Syria can throw up some surprises for those who are prepared to go with an open mind, writes Travel Editor Derek Larney

I

F ONE SEEKS to escape the hoards of tourists that swarm every summer then there is always a simple solution- go somewhere the Department of Foreign Affairs advises you not to. Diplomats are hardly known for their sense of adventure in any case, much preferring the babble of cautious conversation interspersed with Ferrero Rocher. In discovering Syria one must leave all preconceived ideas at the border and come prepared to find a few surprises in a country commonly called the ‘Cradle of Civilisation’ – not surprising considering Syria can trace its history all the way back to 10,000 B.C. But firstly the question any parent will ask, is it safe? Syria is perhaps one of the safest countries in the Middle East in which to travel. Crime is virtually non-existent as it is considered shameful and is severely punished, as Syria’s human rights record clearly testifies. Political demonstrations do take place, typically after Friday prayers and they can occasionally turn violent but this violence is never directed at tourists. Visitors are made feel extremely welcome in Syria, strangers constantly call out in the street “Welcome to Syria!”, and they mean it. It is not unusual to be invited into a local household for an evenings or even a full weekends hospitality. Syrians take pride in their guests and will go out of their way to accommodate them. Women in Syria need not wear a headscarf though to avoid unwanted attention from local men it is advised to do so.

Damascus is a city of over 6 million souls and the bustling inner city reflects this. It is a city where some travelers come to stay a few days and end up spending a couple of weeks, such is the thriving local café scene where people drift away many

SYRIA: HOW MUCH IT COSTS Syria is, along with Iran, Bolivia and Laos, one of the cheapest countries in the world in which to travel.

Spending more than €100 there for 3 meals a day and a bed for an entire week can prove quite difficult.

1.5l Mineral Water €0.30 500ml Beer €1.30 20 Cigarettes €1 Mattress in a rooftop dormitory: €2 Double/Twin bedroom €7 Falafel Sandwich with hummus & pita bread €1 Shish Kebab, side salad & hummus €1.20 Entrance to Palmyra & Crac du Chevaliers 20c hours playing backgammon whilst drinking shay (tea) and puffing on a hookah pipe: a type of water pipe which is served up with flavoured tobacco ranging from peach to apple to cappuccino. The Souq in Damascus is one of the world’s oldest and is the center of a hive of activity. It throbs with locals throughout the day and one can get lost in its many alleys of hundreds of stalls selling anything from cumin and spices to leather and herbal medicines. Inside the souq is the Umayyad Mosque which has a chequered history to say the least. Beginning its life as a Greek temple it then became a Roman temple and later a Christian church.

After the Crusades it was a church and a mosque at the same time and nowadays it is solely a mosque

though Christian drawings are still in evidence on the walls inside. It also contains the grave of John the Baptist and is one of the few major mosques in the Islamic world where nonMuslims are allowed to enter. Also to see in Syria is Crac du Chevaliers, described by T.E. Laurence ( of Arabia ) as “perhaps the best preserved and wholly admirable castle in the world”. The castle was built by the Order of the Knights of St. John between 1142 to 1271 and it stands on a mountain with commanding views of the surrounding tundra. During the Crusades Crac du Chevalier held a garrison of over 4,000 troops and it still stands today in an untarnished manner. A torch is a particularly useful tool for exploring the many darkened rooms and tunnels that run

throughout the castle.

Perhaps the highlight of a visit to Syria is the Roman ruins of the ancient city of Palmyra. Dating from the mid-1st century Palmyra was used by the Romans to link Persian and Mediterranean caravan routes. A main feature of the site today is the Temple Of Bel, a Hellenistic temple from which a long colonnaded street extends. The temple itself is preserved magnificently as are the nearby Roman amphitheatre and senate which the political masters of the day used to collect taxes from passing caravans. Palmyra is overlooked by a citadel located high on a nearby hill from which the views of the ancient city are best appreciated at sunset when the Roman columns and buildings glow in yellow and orange

hues.

A trip to Syria certainly is off the beaten track but the country and the people there are well worth at least a week as part of an extended Middle East tour. For those with more time on their hands Damascus is an established place for students to live for the summer whilst learning Arabic or just lazing around making new friends and living to a slower pace of life.

Finally it is worth noting that as there is no Syrian embassy in Ireland Irish citizens do not need to obtain a visa in advance. However, if you wanted to combine a visit there with a trip to Lebanon you will need a multiple entry visa for Syria as the Lebanese-Israeli border is firmly shut.

IF EVER you want evidence that drinking 9% beer on a regular basis thwarts the brain then look no further than Belgium. Home to an array of strange and wonderful festivals Belgium boasts such gatherings as a slaying of a Dragon in the reenactment of the legend of St.George. In the town of Meyboom they annually chop down an ash tree and parade it around the town in commemoration of successfully preventing a duty tax being applied to their aforementioned 9% beer back in 1213. But for the truly weird and wonderful one must head to the small town of Dinant, home of La Regate de Baignoires or Bathtub Regatta.

Situated just 90kms from Brussels the sleepy town of Dinant is quite attractive and picturesque. Steep limestone cliffs rise up from the banks of the Meuse river whilst an 11th century citadel is perched high over the town. It is here every year that over 200 competitors hold a regatta in their bathtubs in an effort to showcase their homemade vessels and allude to the bizarre and zany. There are only three rules to the regatta: a bathtub must be part of the creation; motors are not permitted and sinking a competitor’s bathtub is out of the question.

Previous entries have included a team which was sponsored by the local butcher attempting to paddle the river using meat cleavers. Houseboat contraptions with a bath inside have also featured, as well as an ingenious design of a tandem bike placed inside a bathtub and moved slowly upstream using pedal power. Prizes are awarded for beauty, originality and speed, not that there’s a lot of it on display. The race frequently descends into a water fight between competitors and often spectators too. Certainly the sight of over fifty teams bobbing along on these homemade craft trying not to sink must help rank the Bathtub Regatta as one of Europe’s most bizarre festivals.

— Derek Larney The Bathtub Regatta is now in its 26th year and takes place in midAugust. International entries are welcome; contact the local tourist board on +32 82-22-2870.

Footage of various Bathtub Regattas can be seen on YouTube.

Florentine renaissance wonderland Rome may be Italy’s most famous city, but the natural beauty of Florence can exceed that of the nation’s capital.

By Paul McDonnell Deputy Travel Editor

S

MACK BANG in the knee of Italy’s boot lies the worldrenowned yet perfectly preserved historical city of Florence.

Established by Julius Caesar two millennia prior to my visit Florence remains one of the world’s oldest cities, and with such history comes copious traditional assets. In 1339 Florence became the premier European city with entirely paved streets – an interesting fact not lost on those who decide to bring luggage on wheels; after a valiant trek from the local train station to my nearby hotel, on cobbles laid by Renaissance workers, my case was two wheels lighter. Florence is the single most significant link to the Renaissance period, a time when mankind transcended the boundaries of the middle ages and became infatuated with luxury and free to follow bold artistic and engineering endeavors.

Walking down the confined streets of Florence one is taken aback by the awe-inspiring surroundings seeping in history.

The central landmark of Florence is the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, known locally as the Duomo, or affectionately renamed Big Bad Dome by a small troop of philistinic Paddies we encountered. Completed in 1436 by Brunelleschi, the Duomo is the star of this beautiful city.

Colourful weathered slabs of marble adorn its entire facade and the connecting Giotto bell tower affords breathtaking views over the rustic rooftops and of the structural odyssey that is the Brunelleschi’s dome. Inside a starkly contrasting and dramatic cathedral houses the tomb of its creator.

A stones throw away from the Plaza del Duomo stands the Palazzo Vechhio, a Medici Family fortress located in the corner of Palazzo Della Signoria. The Medici footprint that remains in Florence cannot

be underestimated. Having build up a vast wealth in banking and cozied up to Popes Leo and Clement the Medici’s became sole patrons to the likes of da Vinci, Raphael and Michelangelo. Iconic relics to the Medici hegemony include Michelangelo’s David, located in the Accademia Gallery, the Fountain of Neptune, found in an open-air

gallery encompassing the Palazzo della Signoria and essentially the entire contents of the Uffizi Gallery, the oldest and probably most important gallery in the world.

Aside from the art history lover’s nirvana aspect of Florence there isn’t a myriad of alternative attractions.

Food is as good as anywhere in Italy, the gelato being a particular forte.

One tip to factor into your budget however is the local prices. Florence is not a cheap city, especially for non-locally produced goods. Unless you’re willing to cough up €5 for a Coke stick to the superb local coffee.

Also if your stay exceeds 2 or 3 days a trip to neighboring Pisa is essential.

As regards festivals ‘Pitti Immagine’ is the prime annual fashion show

and in a city where Gucci and Prada are centered it always attracts the crowds. The ‘Festival Dei Popoli’ is Florence’s annual film festival which invariably goes down a treat in such lavish surroundings.

Rome is undeniably the eternal attraction for those seeking a glimpse into the ancient world, yet Florence has an unbridled advantage over the capital. Whilst still boasting numerous astonishing attractions dating back to the same era as ancient Rome, Florence has successfully preserved the true ambiance of its artistic past. Without a doubt the beauty and historical significance of Rome’s attractions may be unparalleled. However, the juxtaposition of western society and ancient artifacts is almost entirely absent in Florence where everything remains aptly natural and its pleasant cohabitation with its stunning surroundings. Forget munching cucumber sandwiches in pompous museums of modern art and turn your attention to the unbridled, unadulterated fierce tenacity of Florentine culture. This is the essence and birthplace of all art and engineering that followed the Roman Empire and Renaissance period and only in Florence can it be appreciated in such a raw state.

SPORT

TRINITY NEWS Tuesday, September 30 2008

SPECIAL REPORT

Thunderbolts are go: American football at Trinity

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Ultimate Frisbee travels and travails

By Conor James McKinney Sport Editor AS IF three forms of football weren’t enough, it seems that all those American tourists and exchange students have rubbed off on us. Dublin University American Football Club (DUAFC), set up in 2007, is all set to bring the good news of gridiron to College Park – or at least, Santry. Like other cultural imports such as Texas Hold ‘Em poker, George Foreman grills and most of our TV, American football has a decent following here in Ireland, even if it doesn’t look likely to rival soccer, rugby or Gaelic games any time soon.

The Trinity College Thunderbolts have been unobtrusively playing an eight-a-side format since last year, and are due to begin playing the full version of the game this season.

Interest in American football here began during the 1980’s, when NFL and college football games began to be broadcast on Irish television. The Irish American Football League has been in existence since 1986.

Last year nine teams competed in the league, which culminates in the Shamrock Bowl (sure, what else would you call it?), held every August. A further six, including the Thunderbolts, contested the DV 8’s Development League, designed to ease new clubs and players into the game.

It would be surprising, then, if nobody at Trinity had made the attempt to set up a team before now, and indeed DUAFC isn’t a new idea. There was a previous attempt made during the 1990’s to set up a Trinity team, also known as the Thunderbolts, which withered away due to lack of interest. The name remains the same, says club captain Conor O’Shea, but a lot else has changed over the past ten years or so.

“There was no money for it back then, and no support from the league.” This time around, the team has secured financial support from both the IAFL, now well established and far better organised, and the Irish Sports Council, as well agreeing a sponsorship deal with Q-Bar. Financial resources are all-important in the gridiron game – all that armour doesn’t come cheap, and O’Shea admits that when it comes to new recruits, “the only real issue is kitting players up”.

There does appear to be enough interest out there amongst those prepared to make the investment in equipment to sustain a new team. Four Dublin-based sides already compete in the IAFL, including the delightfully named Tallaght Outlaws. Trinity is not even the first university to enter the league – the DCU Saints and UL Vikings are already competitive, and the Belfield rabble are taking steps toward setting up a team as well.

O’Shea feels that the Thunderbolts have picked up on a previously unfulfilled

By Cian Quinn & Kevin Timoney

demand for an American football team on campus, particularly from overseas students.

However, there continues to be “plenty of interest” from Irish people eager to try it out, with about two-thirds of the current roster being natives.

The Development League may have provided the team with some much-needed experience, but given that the Thunderbolts won only one out of their six games, and finished second from bottom, the learning curve in their first season in the full IAFL league may prove too steep.

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he Dublin Rebels, one of Ireland’s top club sides, have won five out of eight Shamrock Bowls since 2000. TCD science student Sam Hodgins was at running back during the latest two of those victorious campaigns, scoring touchdowns in both finals. He says that the step up from the 8-a-side format will be a big challenge for the Thunderbolts, and expects them to struggle in their first couple of seasons. They have the potential though, to “upset a few people” and surprise some of the established teams.

O’Shea agrees, arguing that the team showed consistent improvement over the course of 2008, and the results appear to bear this out. Players are expected to follow a pretty rigorous gym programme, with protein supplements actively encouraged, so the Thunderbolts may have no problem with the big collisions by the time the 2009 season begins next March. The “abundant supply” of American and Canadian exchange students, with experience of high school football under their belts, should provide the team with a relatively seasoned backbone. O’Shea aims to get up to 60 people on the roster during the Freshers’ Week recruiting drive, doubling the 2008 crop of 30 (a figure not borne out,

incidentally, by the club’s website, which lists about 20 current players).

Unlike the major sports, American football teams here cannot draw on domestic players with previous experience of the game, and must rely on imports and converts. Foreigners aside, the club’s natural hunting ground will probably be amongst rugby players, who share the build and set of skills needed in American football. Even the kicking is familiar, as witnessed by the semiplausible rumours circulating a few years ago that Munster’s Ronan O’Gara was heading for a lucrative spell in the NFL. Many of the top players in the IAFL were also at one stage rugby players. O’Shea himself is from a rugby background, and reckons there are plenty more out there willing to make the switch from Gilbert to the pigskin. DUFC won’t exactly be seeing the Thunderbolts as competition just yet, but it would be a shame if the new club were to eat into the already small pool of talent available to its coaches.

New recruits may not, however, be particularly enamoured of all those training and tactical sessions with no league games to come for five or six months. O’Shea claims that there will be plenty of friendly matches arranged in the meantime, including some against touring US colleges, and wants to travel to face some other European sides in the Netherlands or UK. Whether this ambitious goal is realised remains to be seen, but the commitment and energy appear to be there; now all the team needs is some new players.

While the Thunderbolts will face an uphill struggle to make an impact on the league this time around, true enthusiasts will not be put off by a challenge. Anyone wishing to throw their lot in with the helmet-and-cup brigade can do so from this Sunday, when DUAFC hold their first training session.

W is for Writer.

Be one.

www.trinitynews.ie

FRESH OFF their third consecutive intervarsity triumph in April, Dublin University Ultimate Frisbee Club has been as active as ever over the summer months, with members travelling as far afield as Canada, France and Italy in search of their Ultimate fix.

First up was a trip somewhat closer to home, however, to the ever-popular Jestival in sunny Leicester. Despite poor weather over the tournament weekend of June 21st/22nd, it was as enjoyable a tournament as in previous years, with DUUFC coming in 17th overall and making the Bowl final.

Although the team failed to hang onto the Spirit award – which passed instead to another Irish side – Sam Mehigan capped a great weekend’s play by being named joint MVP, while Clive Curley, playing in his last ever tournament for Trinity, was Person of the Tournament.

International duty beckoned in early August: Heather Barry, Sparky Booker and Finola Shannon were selected for the Ireland woman’s team travelling to the World Ultimate Championships, which was co-captained by former DUUFC player Linda Barry. Joining them in

Vancouver were David Misstear, Ian French and recent graduate Tommy O’Connell, who came in 14th overall with the Ireland Open team. Cian Ó Móráin, DUUFC captain in 2005/6, put heart and soul into the defensive effort and came away Most Valuable Player.

Needless to say, the action doesn’t stop with the college year: a DUUFC Graduates team played Open Des Monkey Foo in Bourg-d’Oisans on the 5th/6th September.

With a few current players in tow, the side proceeded to take on all comers on the Saturday, winning every game, with the run of good form only coming to an end when torrential rain forced the abandonment of the tournament.

The novelty of playing beach ultimate lured the regular side to Italy for the Burla Beach Cup from the 19th – 21st. Not being the most experienced on sand, the team was happy with a respectable 12th place finish, and one last moment in the sun – literally – before the gloomy reality of Irish weather closes in once more over the winter months.

To find out more about Ultimate Frisbee in Trinity, visit our stall during Freshers’ Week or visit our website: www.ultimate.tcdlife.ie.

20,000 leagues under with DU Sub-Aqua John Kenny WHILE PORPOISES, minke whales and bottle-nose dolphins are regularly seen in Dublin Bay and beyond, Dublin University Sub-Aqua Club were greeted by more unusual visitors on a summer trip to Skellig Michael. During a dive over the June bank holiday weekend, the club’s two boats were surrounded by a large herd of basking sharks.

Although these sharks regularly pass by on their way up and down the Atlantic sea-board, it is very unusual for a herd to loiter inshore. The lucky divers counted seven individual sharks swimming around the boats at any one time.

Unlike the reclusive minke and fin whales, these gentle giants (up to 12 metres long and weighing in excess of seven tons) approached to within feet of divers in the water.

Diving Officer Pádraig O’Flynn said that “The sharks dwarfed the six metre speed-boats, and appeared to be curious as to what they were. They definitely were not disturbed by us and came up on to the boats on six or seven separate occasions”.

These close encounters capped a superb weekend of diving on the Skelligs, which also included rare sightings of a giant sun-fish and a trigger fish more generally seen in much warmer waters.

O’Flynn observed that while the Shark encounter was the most spectacular trip, the club has also visited Inisboffin, Donegal, Youghal, Kilmore Quay, Fethard-on-Sea, Malin Head and other locations.

Like all water-sports clubs, DU Sub-Aqua cuts quite a low profile in College, with many students unaware that Trinity’s diving club is among the biggest and most active in the country. O’Flynn, however, is hopeful that the relocation of training sessions to the college pool will tempt students who have learned to dive abroad to continue their interest at home.

The club has also revived its

traditional association with zoology, with several members taking part in marine-life identification courses over the summer break.

The club trains people who have never dived before, leading up to the annual March ‘Novice-Trip’ in Kilkieran Bay, Co. Galway. This event is the biggest diving festival in Ireland, with 70 participants, five boats and hundreds of dives taking place over the course of the week.

O’Flynn also boasts that the club has recently purchased a very fast new compressor, a new boat trailer, new wet-suits and replacements for

of some of the 25 sets of scuba gear available for members’ use, “in order to be ready for the new divers joining in October”. Plans are well advanced for a black-tie celebration of the club’s 40th anniversary in November.

He notes that people are often under the impression that diving in Ireland is “expensive, miserable and murky”. In order to correct this misapprehension, the Sub-Aqua club is running an informal evening with a slide-show of photos from around Ireland, followed by drinks and a chance for students to ask questions.

The event takes place on the 2nd of October at 7pm, in the Swift Theatre.

Or, as O’Flynn says, just “look out for the orange boat in Freshers’ Week”.

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TRINITY NEWS Tuesday, September 30 2008

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27-year drought ended by triumph The Commentary Boxx Conor James McKinney

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By Brendan Guildea & Robert Swift ON SATURDAY 12th July 2008 Dublin University Boat Club’s senior eight won the Senior National Championship and were crowned outright rowing champions of Ireland for the first time since 1981.

The circumstances leading up to the race could have hardly been more dramatic. In fact, they were unprecedented.

In March, DUBC’s eight lost the annual Gannon Cup race, from O’Connell Street Bridge to the Guinness Brewery, to UCD. While this defeat did not call the talent of Trinity’s finest oarsmen into question, some asked whether this was a crew that could perform under pressure.

A subsequent loss to Commercial Rowing Club at Trinity Regatta led coach Mark Pattison and his oarsmen to reassess the crew’s potential, and reinforce the necessity to work

exceptionally hard together to ensure a faster boat for the final weeks of the season. The hard work had only just begun.

Training went well and it was with high hopes that our oarsmen travelled across the Irish Sea to compete at Henley Royal Regatta. Unfortunately, as they had no significant overseas wins from this season to declare, our eight was unseeded and drew Harvard University in the first round of the Temple Challenge Cup. Henley’s ruthless knock-out format was enough to ensure that both crews approached the race with an attitude of “do or die”, and the race was one of the fastest recorded in the preliminary rounds of the famous international regatta this year. One radio commentator noted it to be a shame that the two crews should have had face each other so early in the competition. Trinity lost by two lengths.

For some members of DUBC’s senior eight, the National

Championship final was to be the last time they would don the black and white zephyr of Trinity. For all of them, it would be a last chance to gain any reward for ten months intensive training. So, while a first round loss at Henley traditionally results in broken oarsmen littering the many bars along the Thames, our rowers immediately returned home to prepare for the final race of the season.

It is worth recalling why DUBC had not won this competition in over 25 years. For a start, while it is hard to state exactly how long it takes for a rower to mature, most will have to row for five or six years at minimum before they are competitive at a senior standard in Ireland. In a club where the average turnaround of an oarsman is four years, it is a serious challenge to produce a crew of nine men capable of winning the Senior Championship. Public clubs can rely on junior members rising through the ranks, whilst UCD are no longer a student-only outfit, with a

Jubilation on the water at the victory in the Senior National Championship

membership that spreads far outside the walls of Belfield. The nail in the Trinity coffin in recent years has been the appearance of “composite” crews, composed of oarsmen from a number of different clubs, and even oarsmen from clubs outside Ireland. This year, one such crew contained men racing under four separate sets of colours.

But when the hour finally came and Ireland’s strongest oarsmen lined up to sprint two thousand meters on Inniscarra reservoir outside Cork, it was the Trinity men who made history. As the first DUBC crew ever to go from a first round defeat in Henley to winning the Senior Championship of Ireland, they displayed the most immense fortitude, self-belief and determination.

This millennium is still young, but it is unlikely that Trinity will ever see another crew achieve a similar feat.

In crossing the line first those nine men elevated, to heights formerly undreamt of, what it means to wear black and white.

Fencing finds its feet

By Louis Arron

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uring the 1982 Fencing World Championships held in Rome, the reigning Olympic champion and foilist Vladimir Smirnov of Russia was drawn against the West German, Matthias Behr. The fencers were called to the piste, and the fight soon began. As Behr launched one of his attacks, however, his blade immediately broke. Unable to stop his advance, Behr’s broken blade

Behr’s broken blade went through the mesh of Simonov’s mask, through his eye socket, and into his brain went through the mesh of Smirnov’s mask, through his eye socket, and into his brain. Vladimir Smirnov died nine days later. His death prompted an overhaul of the safety regulations of the modern Olympic sport of fencing.

Today, blades are made from the iron-alloy Maraging Steel, and all Federation International d’Escrime (FIE) standard protective clothing is manufactured from Kevlar, a fiber known primarily for its use in bulletproof vests.

However captivating this story may be, it will never change the problem that has plagued fencing since the modern game’s conception.

While this problem does not concern performance-enhancing drugs, endemic in many other Olympic sports, it should still be noted that the

pre-Beijing 2008 Olympics sample of world number one foilist, Andrea Baldini, revealed the banned substance diuretic furosemide in his system and resulted in a lengthy ban. As the world of fencing recovers from this rare and appalling development, however, the FIE has been preoccupied with what it deems to be a far greater issue: turning modern fencing into a mass, popular spectator sport.

With the introduction of transparent visors and Light Emitting Diodes (LED) in the fencer’s mask, the eradication of the ‘flick hit’, and the planned measure to extend the target area in modern foil to include the fencer’s bib, the FIE has tried desperately to achieve this goal. While new technology on the piste of play and the improvement of the sport’s safety will always be welcomed, restrictions to the sport itself have proven both unpopular and unsuccessful in drawing a larger audience.

The purpose of this article is not to profess some kind of conservative resentment of the evolutionary aspects of fencing, but rather to alert the readership to one important belief: fencing will never attract large amounts of spectators who do not fence themselves. The only way to increase the number of viewers is to increase the number of people who actually fence. Fencing time, fencer priority, the three disciplines of foil, epee and sabre, and the incredibly complex rules of the game should not be simplified and sacrificed for a broader audience. They should be embraced and passed on to a new generation of fencers, so that those watching the sport in years to come will understand and appreciate how beautiful the spectacle really is. This is an important part of the philosophy of Dublin University Fencing Club; a philosophy that has brought much success.

With the Intervarsity Trophy and the Colours titles versus University

College Dublin (UCD) and Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT) in the medal cabinet, and with the men’s and women’s national student foilist champions in Louis Arron and Kate Harvey respectively, as well as a total of seven fencers who earned international call-ups for the senior and student Irish teams last season (Louis Arron, Lachlan Sykes, Kate Harvey, Maria Treacy, Colm Flynn, Declan Gibbons, and Hannah Lowry O’Reilly), the fencing club of Trinity College is currently the most successful salle d’armes in Ireland.

It is from this position that a modest statement can be made against the misdirected ambitions of the FIE. Federation International d’Escrime clothing is manufactured from Kevlar, used in bulletproof vests.

Every year, Dublin University Fencing Club looks to attract new members and reveal the intricacies of a sport synonymous with finesse, tacticalthinking and raw emotion. Only this sort of mentality will increase the popularity of modern fencing, and help turn the sport into a mass spectacle for its followers.

As Trinity College’s esteemed fencing club looks to improve at all levels of the spectrum this season – retaining its titles as well as increasing both its membership and international prestige - the Federation International d’Escrime should take note. Concentrate on keeping the sport clean, increase the numbers of those fencing, and, most importantly, ensure that the beauty and complexity of the modern game is maintained.

For more information on Dublin University Fencing Club, visit www. fencing.tcdlife.ie.

he sporting year at Trinity has already begun, doubtless another year full of highs, lows, and not being all that good.

We are not at quite the top level in any of the major sports. We boast a rugby team in the AIL Division 2, a hockey team in the Leinster division 2, and a soccer team in Major 1D of the Leinster Senior league - whatever that means. Some of this may be down to the simple fact that, as noted in the account of our boat club’s recent success elsewhere in this issue, we play only students, so turnover is high and teams will never be 100% settled.

Fair enough. But other universities deal with this, and do pretty well for themselves. Besides, the honour rolls of our major clubs date back well into the last century, so we evidently haven’t always been in the doldrums. It is a pity that nowadays we seem to have an expectation of mediocrity.

There are a few issues that stop Trinity’s clubs from hitting the big time. One is that any university looking to do well in sports probably wouldn’t choose to be founded in 1592, in an area that would become decidedly less of a green-field site over the centuries. As anyone who has used the facilities at UCD, DCU or UL will tell you, modern facilities and good oldfashioned room to run around gives their sportsmen and women a certain edge.

While our shiny new sports centre has all mod cons, it still won’t win any prizes for capacity.

The Santry ground is a nightmare to get out to - clubs who train there suffer from severe geography-related attrition, as the journey takes the gloss off their eager new recruits each year. The location wouldn’t be the be-all and end-all, mind you, if the complex itself didn’t verge on the dingy.

It could also be argued that sport is not particularly important to the college as a whole. It is rare that any college sports fixture attracts much in the way of supporters – cricket matches in front of a crowded Pav notwithstanding. There’s probably nothing much that can be done about this, as it’s symptomatic of a lack of unified college spirit outside of the cliquey allegiance claimed by one’s chosen club or society. Besides, people have lives.

Even so, we could try a bit harder than DUCAC’s latest website update, stating simply: “Ladies Gaelic Football Final”, and a date. No mention of where, what time, or what it was that the ladies had gotten to the final of. Surely the College, or the Student’s Union, could forward e-mails among the student body whenever a big game rolls around. God knows we’d rather read about that than about yet another stress management workshop or gate closing times. Nobody would turn up, granted, but at least they’d have the option.

Maybe our priorities are all wrong – all this academic excellence nonsense is getting in the way of kicking ass. Perhaps, as the major sports become increasingly professionalised, Trinity’s tradition of amateur eminence is no longer sustainable. It is probably no longer possible, with a few overachieving exceptions, for individuals to be superb at, say, particle physics and hurling.

Perhaps, then, if the college authorities are not willing to fund sport here in a big way, so that we can be major players, we would be better off dropping the existing grants, scholarships, DUCACs and the like, and embracing the amateur, underdog side of ourselves. Just play for fun, as nature intended, and as so many of the minority sports in our ranks are played. Sure, we’d do a lot worse in all those leagues, but better that than trying hard and losing anyway.

Still, there is much to celebrate about Trinity sport. If we are no longer giants, we can at least rouse ourselves to an occasional spot of giant-killing, as when the rugby team defeated UCD in the 2006 colours match. We even had representation at the Olympics last month – postgraduate student Philip Lawton flying the flag for Trinity in the sailing.

And of course, in sport as in car insurance, it pays to shop around. One of the great glories of Trinity is its diversity – as with its hundred plus societies, a startling breadth of sporting interests is catered for.

Anyone seeking to take up something a bit different would be well advised to take a look at what’s on offer around Front Square this week – from traditional garrison pursuits like fencing, croquet and rowing to new recreations such as climbing, sub-aqua diving and Ultimate Frisbee. Here, amongst these small bands of enthusiasts, some remnant of the old amateur spirit still prevails.

“Maybe our priorities are all wrong – all this academic excellence nonsense is getting in the way of kicking ass.”

“In sport as in car insurance, it pays to shop around.”

24

SPORT

TRINITY NEWS Tuesday, September 30 2008

RUGBY

THE TEAM

Carlow’s raw power puts early end to cup campaign

15. Tim McCoy 14. Neil Hanratty 13: Peter Finnegan 12: Charles Coyle 11: Simon Courtney 10. Harry Murphy 9. Mark Reidy 1. Ian Marshall 2. Cillian Suiter 3. Craig Telford

Trinity team nonetheless standing after enthusiastic performance while Carlow’s experience ultimately sees them through DUFC CO. CARLOW

10 29

By Conor James McKinney College Sport Editor THE LEAGUE may not yet be underway, but DUFC are already gearing up to the AIL campaign.

College Park, awash with sunshine and American tourists, was the venue for the first round of the AIB Leinster Senior Cup against Co. Carlow. Coach Tony Smeeth, looking ahead to the tour to the United States, chose to pack the First XV off to St. Mary’s for a sterner challenge than Division 3 Carlow could provide. It was, therefore, an untried blend of second string and Under 20 players that was ultimately overwhelmed by their more physical opponents.

Trinity had the best of the opening period, and their opponents seemed bent on making their lives easier by conceding a string of penalties. Harry Murphy at out-half was establishing himself as the brains of the operation, and after good work from the forwards to crack open the Carlow 22, he went wide to the left. His pass was none the worse for kicking up a little dust; flanker Conor McGinn scooped up the ball and outpaced the cover to score an unconverted try.

Carlow struck back soon after when, after conceding a questionable penalty for hands on the deck, Trinity were marched ten metres further back for dissent. Greg Jacob bounced the kick off House 40 to make it 5-3.

4. Pierce Byrne 5. Peter Marshall 6. Dermot O’Riordan 7. Conor McGinn

Carlow were not adverse to a little indiscipline of their own: after conceding a penalty at the scrum, they too lost ground due to backchat.

From the resulting lineout, the Trinity jumper’s legs were taken from under him. A few minutes later, openside Tommy Ratahi saw an instant yellow for his contribution – a dangerous tackle after Trinity went for the quick tap ball.

Trinity couldn’t take their chances, however; a forward rumble was held up over the line, and the resulting scrum went nowhere. Another golden opportunity, this time from a lineout, went a-begging soon after when Murphy ran into traffic. Carlow’s grizzled pack was starting to take a grip on the game, but in truth they were bigger all around the park – first Marshall, then Matthews were turned in the tackle by opposition backs, and the breakdown was becoming a lottery on Trinity ball.

This shift in momentum took on tangible form immediately after halftime, when a forward rumble gave Carlow their first try and an 8-5 lead.

From the restart, a huge gap opened up for Ratahi, who used up some of his surplus energy from his stint on the bench to gallop into the Trinity half. The supporting runner knocked on, but from the resulting scrum Murphy was robbed by his opposite number and after a couple of phases Carlow mustered another try, this time converted.

The scrummage continues to have a touch of the “Here Be Dragons” about it, even in the modern era, and this worked to Trinity’s advantage,

8. Alan Matthews

MAN OF THE MATCH: Trinity introduced a rake of fresh legs, but coming into a pack on the back foot, and with many playing out of position, the substitutes were, if anything, a liability. Photo: Martin McKenna as the opposition’s utter dominance in the front row conceded as many penalties as it yielded. Nonetheless, the lack of good ball from the setpiece was a hindrance, and the backs had to live off scraps for most of the match. They made the best of it, though: from one strategic retreat by the pack, the ball was flung out to wing Neil Hanratty, who glided past one would-be tackler, stepped inside past a couple more, and tossed a nonchalant ball inside to Murphy

in support, who finished off a great move.

15-10 was as close as it came, however: Carlow’s pack were finished the stronger. Trinity introduced a rake of fresh legs, but coming into a pack on the back foot, and with many playing out of position, the substitutes were, if anything, a liability. The crucial score came after Trinity were pushed off their own ball one time too many: two or three collisions later, the Carlow No. 8 was at the

crest of a massive overlap and ran over untouched for the killer score.

The final score was a combination of good luck and good hands, as the Carlow backs managed to cling onto a couple of wild passes to work a deserved fourth try. A triumph, then, for experience over youthful endeavour. At least, after the final whistle, the Trinity team were able to stand in their huddle: the grey and bald heads of Carlow had to go for a nice sit down.

NEIL HANRATTY WHILE THE all three back row forwards caught the eye at various stages, it was only in the backline that Trinity consistently held their own. Incoming fresher Hanratty, on the right wing, impressed with his incisive running, provided the one clear moment of real attacking quality in the game, and did everything that was asked of him in defence.

One to watch.

HOCKEY

Promising start for new coach Pelow DUHC CORINTHIANS

2 2

By Johnny Orr DUBLIN UNIVERSITY Hockey Club’s first pre-season test of 2008 was to face a young but talented Corinthian’s 2nd XI. It was the University’s first game under new coach, Ronan Pelow, and it was fitting to see his son, Chris, lining out against the students. It was agreed upon by both teams that the match would take on a slightly unusual structure consisting of three periods, each lasting 25 minutes.

The students’ less than stellar commitment to pre-season training was evident in the first period, as

Corinthians dominated possession and were visibly more organised. The students battled hard and enjoyed occasional spells of pressure on the opposition’s defence.

However, on more than one occasion Trinity lost possession with too many players committed forward and Corinthians looked dangerous on the counter-attack. Eventually the hosts found one of their forwards racing through on the Trinity goal.

With two defenders giving chase, the Corinthians forward attempted to round stand-in goalie, Jack Hegarty, who slid low in an attempt to block the forward’s route to goal. With luck certainly against the debutant goalie, the ball ricocheted off a number of sticks and over him towards the right hand post. Characteristically, the students were slow to react and

THE TEAM DUHC: J. Hegarty, N. Odlum, A. Stanley, D. Coady, B. Cleere, B. Hewitt, B. Glavey, A. Gray, S. Cinnamond, C. O’Reilly, W. Wiltshire, S. McKechnie, A. Beverland.

Glenn Holmes was gifted a tap-in at the back post.

It was not long until the disappointment of conceding the first goal was compounded by surrendering a second. A slick Corinthians passing move down the right hand side finished with a strong diagonal strike towards the flick spot.

Ghosting in front of his marker, the Corinthians forward neatly deflected the ball over the on-rushing goalie and the ball found the far corner of the net.

After thoughtful words from Ronan and Terry at half-time, and after just 25 minutes experience playing together, Trinity began to show some of the potential they hope will gain them promotion to Division 1. Freshman Andrew Gray showed off his talents on the right-hand side while a fitter-looking Barry Glavey took control of the midfield area, transferring play intelligently. Brian Cleere continued to be a rock at left back and his encouragement and optimism began to transmit itself to the rest of the defence. Craig Moore enjoyed some joy on the left hand side, and it was his his forceful charge

American football comes to Trinity

THUNDERBOLTS ARE GO

at the Corinthians backline that led to a breakdown in communication.

Eventually the ball found its way to Cian O’Reilly, who calmly slid it past the Corinthians shot stopper.

With both sides tiring in the final period, chances on goal were few and far between, but a vital breakthrough came when Scott McKechnie was released down the right sideline.

After a neat interplay amongst the Trinity forwards, the Corinthians goalie failed to deal with the strong final ball in, and when it bounced up in front of O’Reilly, he needed just one touch to claim his second goal and put Trinity level.

Corinthians responded well and, thanks to dubious umpiring from Mr. Orr, forced two short corners late in the game. Chris Pelow stepped up and drag-flicked high to Jack Hegarty’s

UNDER THE SEA WITH SUB-AQUA

right. Against all odds, the out of practice goalkeeper kept Trinity level with an instinctive save glancing the ball on to the crossbar. Minutes later Corinthians had another penaltycorner. Once again they put their faith in Pelow but the immense Hegarty was not to be beaten for a third time in his first game for DUHC’s 1st XI. This time he got down low to his right and deflected the ball wide of the goal, securing a 2-2 draw in DUHC’s opening game of the preseason period.

All in all, it was an encouraging start to what will be a long and gruelling season. With players yet to return from the summer break, and available players still recovering from their commitment to ‘the gravy train’, the prospects for DUHC’s season appear promising.