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J1 SPECIAL BIG BROTHER The highs and lows of heading stateside explored TRAVEL P16 & 17

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CCTV coverage to be extended on campus COLLEGE NEWS P3

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VOLCANOLOGY Volcanologists descend on Trinity SCIENCE P19

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Hilary term, Week 4

Heroin junkies replace cruisers in Trinity toilets

Issue 7, Volume 54

Model behaviour: Trinity’s Next Top Model

Trinity’s Lightwave festival will no longer feature a “Flaming Simon”

• Heroin paraphernalia repeatedly found in toilets • Gardai say there is little Trinity can do in this situation DEIRDRE ROBERTSON STAFF WRITER Heroin paraphernalia including tinfoil, which appears to have been used to heat heroin powder, has been repeatedly found in the male Arts Building basement toilets over the last six months. This follows last year’s sex scandal where an American website advertised Trinity as Dublin’s top location for cruising.

A male mature student made the heroin discoveries but wishes to remain nameless for fear of retribution. The student has worked in security for many years and thus “knew the signs to look out for”. He reports that he recognises some of the people “hanging around” the Arts Building and is worried that the toilets will become a regular fixture for addicts.

Speaking to Trinity News, a member of the Trinity security staff says he is unable to confirm this particular incident but says it is not unheard of to find syringes or other paraphernalia in the Arts Building toilets. Bars of chocolate found on the floor are another indicator of heroin abuse, as the users throw the bar on the floor in order to use the tinfoil.

Meanwhile, according to Gardaí in

“I knew the signs to look out for and recognised the guys hanging around”

Heroin facts

NIAMH NÍMHAOILEOIN STAFF WRITER

In 2005 the government spent 194.93 on tackling the durgs issue in Ireland.

In 2006 Heroin addicts accounted for 65% of all those in drug treatment 42% of heroin addicts suffer from depression 56% suffer from alcoholism.

Pearse St Garda station, the streets around Trinity have the highest concentration of drug dealing in Dublin.

Of the 250 drug dealers they arrest in this area every year, 80% are involved with heroin.

“Chasing the dragon” is the term used to describe heating heroin powder on a piece of tinfoil and then using a tube to inhale the vapours. The tinfoil found in the Arts Building toilets is believed to have been used for this purpose. Many heroin users begin this way before moving on to injecting themselves.

There were 46,539 overdose cases in the period 1996 to 2004 (including non-fatal overdoses).

Sergeant Seamus Boland of Pearse Garda station explained that drug addicts use almost every public toilet in the area. The toilets on Burgh Quay had to be permanently closed and most of the restaurants and pubs in the area have installed neon lighting to deter • Continued page 2

Ents officer Ed O’Riordan (left of catwalk) admires part of the casual wear collection modelled at Trinity’s Next Top Model last week. Photo: Caroline O’Leary

Allegations: Junior Dean attempts to extend power beyond Trinity JOHN CALLAGHAN STAFF WRITER Sources within Irish Rail have revealed that incidents involving Trinity students “urinating on, vomiting on, and smoking in trains” have risen sharply in recent times, becoming a major issue for Irish Rail staff responsible for maintaining security on their services.

These sources go on to say beyond the standard actions taken by the company, staff are also being actively encouraged to note student ID numbers, listed on College ID cards.

This information is now to be passed on to the Office of the Junior Dean, where it is hoped the matter will be dealt with for a second time, within college.

When contacted directly by Trinity

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Pearse Street Station where the majority of incidents have occurred.

Photo: Martin Mckenna

News, the Junior Dean, Dr Emma Stokes, refused to comment on the matter but subsequently issued the following one line response throught the College Communications Office: “The Office of the Junior Dean has not put such an arrangement or anything similar in place with Irish Rail or any of its subsidiaries.”

Before going to print, Irish Rail Press Officer Barry Kenny was unable to confirm or deny whther Irish Rail had issued instructions to its staff to record student ID numbers or whther it was to be a policy to pass these on to the Office of the Junior Dean.

One suggestion, in light of the denial issued by the Junior Dean, is that this arrangemnet could be an unofficial one where “trouble makers are brought to the attention of the Dean but not

Flame throwers axed from festival for safety

actually disciplined” according to sources within Irish Rail. However even such an unofficial arrangement would raise serious concerns over “big brother” style policing on the part of the College.

Questions could also be asked in regard to Irish Rail’s involvement such an agreement. The Data Protection Act 1988 states that data “shall not be used or disclosed in any manner incompatible with one or more specified and lawful purposes”. The Act continues, “appropriate security measures shall be taken against unauthorised access to, or alteration, disclosure or destruction of, the data and against their accidental loss or destruction.”

Andrew Byrne, Students’ Union President, told Trinity News that he would oppose any moves by the Office

of the Junior Dean to extend its inflence in this matter and urged any students who felt they had been targeted under any such arrangement to contact him directly.

Large numbers of students regularly use the evening rail system from Pearse and Tara Street stations travelling to venues outside the city centre, particularly since the introduction of the Student Travelcard which offers student discounts. Under the Criminal Justice Act of 2003, intoxication in a public place, which includes methods of public transport, is an offence commanding a fine of up to €127; however, this figure can rise to €635 following “offensive conduct” and up to €1500 if a person gives incorrect

Plans to hold an attraction in Trinity known as Flaming Simon, which involves players standing in the middle of four flamethrowers, have been axed due to health and safety concerns. The attraction was to be part of the a festival of light, to be known as “ The Lightwave Festival”, held to mark the opening of the new Science Gallery.

The “Flaming Simon” is based on a 1970’s game called “Simon”. This game involves memorising a pattern of four coloured buttons and tones and repeating the pattern the computer plays. The flaming version replaces the coloured buttons with four flamethrowers.

The aim of Lightwave is to “explore light in science, technology and art, offering a fascinating glimpse into the world of light.” It will focus on the role of light in science, technology, medicine, fashion and other aspects of modern day life.

Entrance to the gallery and Lightwave events is free. Science Gallery membership is also being offered for free during the opening period.

Highlights will include an installation and discussion by Willie Williams, who has worked lighting shows for U2, David Bowie and The Rolling Stones, as well as LED graffiti and Lightwear, exploring the role of light in fashion. Guests will also be able to create their own luminescent hand-cranked jewellery, to experiment with the light equivalent of a swarm of bees and to relax in the Daylight Lounge while discussing the causes, symptoms and remedies for Seasonal Affective Disorder. As part of the Gallery’s education and development goals, there will be a presentation by students from inner city schools, which they have developed with the help of a team of engineers, technologists and designers.

The festival will take place from 2-9 February to mark the opening of Trinity’s newest innovation, The Science Gallery. The festival will feature a range of dramatic light displays, installations, events and interactive work by engineers, scientists, lighting designers and artists from around the world. These experts will also be making presentations and speaking about their work.

• Continued page 2

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Trinity Arts Festival: feature and timetable • Vicki Notaro: the morning after The Dublin Film Festival • Los Campesinos! • Fashion for the mature student 4

Shedding ligh arts in Tr t on the inity ARTP16

THAT FAC

Love, life, EBOOK FEELIN and relat G through ionships the new all s feed

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The TV ALLEN chef tips for stud reveals her top ent cook ing

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Hilary term, Week 4

CollegeNews The Numbers Game

4 The amount of flamethrowers involved in each Flaming Simon. It was proposed that Flaming Simons be included in the Lightwave festival to mark the opening of the Scince Gallery

57 The amount of seconds consideration given to teh abover proposal before it was ruled out on safety grounds

€850,000 €9million Estimated profit generated by the College from the lease of Foster Place. This money will be used to rennovate office space in the same complex

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Embarrassment for LGBT organisers CAOIMHE HANLEY

The estimated value the contract signed by the College with gas company VAYU

He said, she said

Trinity’s Next Top Model: not a Trinner

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“I can’t tell you anything. The Communications Office want to make sure that the right version of stories goes out, especially after that Herald article.

The response given to a Trinity News reporter bu a senior member of College staff when asked for a comment on an ongoing Trinity News investigation.

“I’v been through about 200 condoms in teh past week.

Una Faulkner describes how her “Know Your Union Week” went.

“The serious problems are invariably associated with people who are not members of the College community.”

Facilities Officer Noel McCann outlines the threats facing Trinity students. These threats have prompted the expansion of the CCTV network.

“O you Co(u)ntry Spalpeen, Bad Luck to you, Ruth G.” Mysterious engraving on the window of the College Chapel thought to date from the 1800’s. “it is doubtful whether Swedish will be offered next year due to funding problems” Dr Gilbert Carr confirms for Trinity News the axing of the Germanic Languages course

Editorial Staff Editor: Gearoid O’Rourke editor@trinitynews.ie Deputy Editor: David Molloy deped@trinitynews.ie Business Manager: Conor Sullivan buisness.manager@trinitynews.ie Copy Editor: Nick Beard copyeditor@trinitynews.ie Photographs: Martin McKenna photos@trinitynews.ie Deputy Photographer: Emer Groarke emer.groarke@trinitynews.ie College News: Caoimhe Hanley collegenews@trinitynews.ie National News: Lauren Norton nationalnews@trinitynews.ie International News: Kasia Mychajlowycz internationalnews@trinitynews.ie News Features: Eimear Crowe newsfeatures@trinitynews.ie Society News: Sophie Davies socities@trinitynews.ie Features: Sam Hannaford features@trinitynews.ie Opinion: John Lavelle & Kevin Lynch opinionanddebate@trinitynews.ie World Review: Peter Doherty worldreview@trinitynews.ie Travel: Andrea Mulligan travel@trinitynews.ie Business: Danielle Ryan businessandcareers@trinitynews.ie Science: Sebastian Wiesmair science@trinitynews.ie College Sport: Jonathan Drennan collegesport@trinitynews.ie Sport Features: Connel McKenna sportfeatures@trinitynews.ie TN2 Editor: Catriona Gray Photographs: Rachel Kennedy Film: Conor O’Kelly Music: Carolyn Power Fashion: Ciaran Durkin Books: Paul Earlie Theatre: Polly Graham Art: Caroline O’Leary Edibles: Beth Armstrong Endnotes: Ailbhe Ni Mhaoileoin

tn2@trinitynews.ie tn2photos@trinitynews.ie film@trinitynews.ie music@trinitynews.ie fashion@trinitynews.ie books@trinitynews.ie theatre@trinitynews.ie art@trinitynews.ie edibles@trinitynews.ie endnotes@trinitynews.ie

Website: Brian Henry

webdesign@trinitynews.ie

Thanks to: Joey Facer; Pat Morey and College Security; Prof. Mike Jones; Peter Henry; Ed O’Riordan; Daithí Ó Malley; Nicholas Moustache; Orla Gordon; Daire Hickey; Daithi MacSithigh; Niall Morris and everyone in MCD; David Adamson; Rosscrea Express; and everyone in Midland Web Printing.

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

Serious complaints about the content of this publication should be addressed to: The Editor, Trinity News, 6 Trinity College, Dublin 2.

This publication claims no special rights or privileges.

Adrenaline-fuelled panic Quarking is the only way to go.

COLLEGE NEWS EDITOR The organisers of Trinity’s Next Top Model, which took place on Tuesday 22 January, have come under scrutiny as it was revealed that male winner, Morgan Murray, was not a student in Trinity.

The competition was organised to celebrate Rainbow Week, and was organised by the Dublin University Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Society in conjunction with the Students’ Union LGBT Rights Officer Jason Devoy Keegan. This was the second year in which the competition had taken place. The prizes to be awarded to the male and female winners were two modelling contracts with the agency First Options, who also provided judges for the competition.

However, as the competition is used as a fundraiser for the Open Heart House charity, organiser Keegan freely admits that little thought was put into the actual rules of the competition. The competition was advertised solely in Trinity and Keegan says that “the competition was intended to cater only for Trinity models”. However, once the models got on stage, it was up to the judges to decide who were the best models. These judges included

photographers and model agents, who were interested in all potential models, whether from Trinity or not. As Keegan noted, “I can’t stop First Options from signing whomever they want to sign…

We are just grateful to have them on board”. This slip-up led to some confusion on the night, as winner Murray was allowed to compete yet two other non-Trinity models were not permitted to be considered in the competition.

Despite this mistake, Keegan believes the evening “went really well, and was a great success”. Over 2000 euros were raised for Open Heart House and in the end, four of the 23 models who took part, including female winner Rose Higgins, were offered contracts by First Options. All models trained with runway coach Sebastion Castrillon, who has previously worked with celebrities such as Gisele Bündchen and singer Shakira, providing the students with valuable experience.

Model Eoghan Hanley commented on this, saying “it was a tremendous honour to work with someone who has such an understanding of the industry”.

Clothes were provided by Lara, Adhoc, Black Tie and GStar. Models’ hair was done by Zandiga stylists and make-up was provided by L.A. MakeUp Academy.

Rose Higgins, winner of Trinity’s Next Top Model, on the catwalk in the Dining Hall last Wednesday. Photo: Caroline O’Leary

The end of staff “Nixers”?

THOMAS RAFTERY STAFF WRITER The College Audit Committee are investigating the College’s regulations on outside earnings in a move to tighten up what have been criticised as “inadequate” policies governing nixers undertaken by staff outside of their regular College work.

These regulations govern procedures for academic staff that are paid for activities undertaken outside of College work. The potential legal issues arising from such activities have prompted a reevaluation of the College’s present relaxed policies.

At present, the College’s regulations fall very much in line with

other Irish universities like University College Cork or University College Dublin. That is, with permission from Heads of Departments, there is nothing to prevent academic staff from being involved in work that is deemed “relevant, and appropriate” to their role in College.

However, concerns have been raised over the College’s ability to police such matters. In many cases the current procedures do not provide satisfactory evidence that the College receives any academic benefits from external work undertaken by its staff.

One senior staff member, who asked to remain anonymous, commented “it can be very difficult to objectively evaluate whether benefits accrue to the College from

extracurricular employment. Not only can such work be non-beneficial and thus of neutral value, it is highly possible that it could be detrimental to the prized academic standards of Trinity.

Academic staff may quickly find themselves distracted, overworked and ultimately unable to contribute their full potential to their student’s academic progress, which should be their primary (and some would say, only) concern.”

However, these claims are hotly contested by those engaged in such outside work. They believe that in many cases lecturers and researchers alike can often gain valuable and applicable experience outside their academic roles, a relevant example being law lecturers practising law independently outside of Trinity and as such, these practices are

Heroin use rife in Arts Building toilets • Continued page 1 users. However, this only prevents users from injecting, it does not stop those who are smoking heroin.

It is the problems resulting from heroin abuse that cause concern about drug use in the Arts Building toilets.

Heroin is so addictive that users can become violent when they are “strung out” and craving a fix. At that point they would do anything to get the drug. Theft and associated violence is not uncommon. Unfortunately statistics also show that almost every user is involved in criminal activity to feed the habit. A pea-sized packet of heroin costs twenty euros from a street dealer and an addict can need anything from one to ten of these every day, depending on the strength of their addiction. Most people eventually have to turn to crime to

acquire the money. As users move from smoking to injecting, leftover needles and their associated health risks cause more problems in public toilets.

The same student who reported the drugs was unhappy with College Security’s response. He suggests improved security on the gates of College, as he feels there is easy access to the toilets when the back gate is left open for deliveries to the Buttery. He also recommends hiring more female security staff so the female toilets can be checked. However, Gardaí in Pearse Station realise there is a limit to what security can do as the problem is so widespread that it is near impossible to monitor every area.

There is a limit to what can be done to deter addicts from using the toilets in Trinity. Neon lights do not prevent people smoking and although

smoke detectors are installed in the bathrooms, the area is probably too airy to catch the heroin smoke. CCTV surveillance is being extended over campus, but obviously cameras cannot be installed in the bathrooms for privacy reasons. High risk places such as clubs employ toilet attendants for the entire night or take the locks off doors so security can immediately access the cubicles.

According to a recent National Advisory Committee on Drugs report, 26% of 15-34 year olds have used illegal drugs at some point in their life and 5.2% within the last month. The figures are generally associated with cannabis and cocaine use, but new numbers say 0.4% of students have used heroin.

According to Sergeant Boland, it is most likely that people are coming into Trinity to use heroin.

actively encouraged by some departments.

In an effort to address the current shortcomings in policy, there has been a proposed review of the College’s policies regarding the external work of staff members, with a recommendation that more “appropriate” procedures be developed. Currently the procedures are being used mostly to “enable the provision of professional indemnity insurance cover”, rather than to effectively control out-of-College employment. The Audit Committee has recognised the importance of academic freedom in its recommendation for a reevaluation. But the implications rising from the potential misuse of the regulations necessitate a modernising of the College’s policies.

Irish Rail and Junior Dean • Continued page 1 personal details to Gardaí. On top of that, Trinity students now face further Junior Dean attempts sanctions within college.

The Junior Dean, who, according to College Statutes, is responsible for “maintaining discipline and good order among the students” within College, may also “interview a student suspected of having committed a disciplinary offence”. The Statutes continue on this point, saying, “If it relates to a minor offence, the Junior Dean can deal with the matter quickly… otherwise the matter is heard by the Disciplinary Committee.”

Normal judgements include monetary fines; however the Disciplinary Committee has the power to suspend students from College.

It is currently unclear, but thought unlikely, that Irish Rail have similar agreements with any other third-level institutions.

collegenews@trinitynews.ie

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CollegeNews Course axed following funding cut by Swedish government CAOIMHE HANLEY COLLEGE NEWS EDITOR The Germanic Languages course, provided by the Department of Germanic Studies, is due to be “phased out” due to lack of funding while Department Head Dr Gilbert Carr told Trinity News “it is doubtful whether Swedish will be offered next year due to funding problems”.The final decisoin on the Germanic Languages course is due to be taken by University Council.

Essential external funding from the Swedish government and the Nederlands Taalunie (a state Dutch language union) has been pulled as a result of historically low take-up

numbers and the recent retirement without replacement of three lecturers.

In order to currently fill in the gaps left by these retirements the department has been using the services of a “Lekturin” who is a research student. However, the employment of the “Lekturin” does not qualify for external funding.

In addition, in order to secure one more year of external funding, the Department have been asked to guarantee provision of the course until 2014 at a cost of €360000. However, the Department is unwilling to do this, as it would affect the funding for its other courses.

The course has a quota of eight students and this year was the first time in at least seven years that the course

met quota. There is one Senior Freshman student, two in Junior Sophister year and four in Senior Sophister year and an overall student cohort across the four years of fifteen.

At a Quality Committee meeting in Michaelmas term, it was shown that the course has a transfer/drop out rate of 57%, meaning that of seven students who start, approximately three will finish in that course.

Due to the funding crisis, when asked whether the course could continue in its present form, teaching German, Dutch and Swedish, with students able to pick a variety of courses in all three languages, the Department Head Dr. Gilbert Carr was unable to confirm whether this would be the case.

Dr. Carr could also not confirm what courses could be available for next year’s Junior Freshmen.

This is despite previous assurances made to the Students’ Union that “there should be virtually no impact on current students.” Education Officer Bartley Rock has stated that “I’m going to make damned sure that there won’t be a lesser quality degree for these students. We’re working very closely with the School on this issue”. Despite this uncertainty, the course will still be offered in the 2008 CAO options.

When asked by Trinity News for a statement on the phasing out, College stated that “while the Department has worked long and hard to keep the degree going, unfortunately, due to this

low uptake of student choice and retention issues, it has been proposed by the executive of the Germanic Studies Departments that the course be closed.

The teaching of German will obviously continue in the Department’s other five degree courses and the teaching of Dutch will be also amalgamated in other courses.” Both the Department and the College point out that the decision should enable the strengthening of other areas of the Germanic Studies Department.

Following the discontinuation of the Acting Studies course last year and a vigorous campaign by the Students’ Union, a new policy was instituted. Any School wishing to “phase out” a course must submit a request to University

Council, following clearance from the School Executive and the Senior Lecturer’s Office. At the most recent School Executive meeting, the Department of Germanic Studies very reluctantly requested permission to withdraw Germanic Languages from the CAO for 2009 with the last students to graduate in the degree in 2012.

Germanic Languages is the only course that the Department provides entirely by itself with only linguistics and cultural teaching brought in.

Students on the course study German, Dutch and Swedish.

If the proposed phasing out of the course takes place, Germanic Languages will cease in 2012.

A social reception: Students hob-nob with the Provost and staff

There are already many CCTV Cameras around campus including this one (above) in House 6. Photo: Martin McKenna

Big brother is watching College announces plans to extend CCTV across campus DEIRDRE ROBERTSON STAFF WRITER College plans to increase CCTV coverage around campus will go ahead this year, with new cameras being installed beside the new Sports Hall and the Nassau Street entrance.

Facilities Officer Noel McCann says the cameras are being installed because of “increased pedestrian traffic generated by the new facilities” in the Sports Hall and not due to increased crime rates in College. According to Officers in Pearse Street Garda station, there are unusually low rates of reported crime for the Trinity campus area. However, it is believed that most incidents are dealt with internally by College Security and not reported to the Gardai.

CCTV cameras have become a contentious issue in recent years as many worry about a “surveillance society” and their intrusion of privacy rights- for example, the average citizen in the UK is captured on CCTV camera 300 times a day.

Others have questioned the cameras’ effectiveness in stopping crime. A report in 2005 found CCTV cameras influenced car theft and property crimes, but have no effect on crimes of violence and personal assault.

A second study found that security cameras in London boroughs did not affect levels of crime. One essay argued that CCTV cameras focus all resources on one area and therefore exclude others.

McCann does not support these theories saying “CCTV cameras act as a

collegenews@trinitynews.ie

deterrent on Campus and also assist the security staff in…responding promptly to situations before they ‘get out of hand’’’.

When asked whether the bulk of problems arose from Trinity students or non-students entering campus, Mr McCann replied “the serious problems are invariably associated with people who are not members of the College community.”

Another member of College Security supports this saying one of the major problems comes from pickpockets entering college. However, it is difficult to identify them through the crowds of students. He believes that the only solution is to personally identify troublemakers and eject them, but says while “cameras are all very well…you won’t spot someone on them”.

In his estimation there are currently 40 security personnel to watch over 15000 students and 2600 staff.

In previous years, College Security proposed a system of identification whereby all students and staff would have to display a visible ID card.

However, staff and the Students’ Union rejected this.

The new CCTV cameras will be installed beside the Sports Hall, the CRANN building and the Nassau Street entrance. The cameras will use digital recorders that store footage for a maximum of 28 days. Only those who “are duly authorised to see the footage” will have access to images and permission must be sought from the Chief Steward. Besides an increase of CCTV footage, College Security has hired three additional security staff to monitor the east end of campus.

Organisers and competitors from the SER debate exchange less eated words at a reception in the Provost’s house. Photo: Martin Mc Kenna

College sign three year contract with Gazprom take-over target CONAL CAMPBELL NEWS REPORTER

Gas giant Gazprom headquarters in Russia.

Photo courtesy of Gazprom.

The Sites and Facilities Committee has approved a three year contract with VAYU for the supply of natural gas to College. VAYU is widely believed by energy analysists to be the prime target for a take-over bid by gas giant Gazprom. Gazprom recently gained a license to operate in the Irish market.

VAYU is currently independently owned by two Irish businessmen, although Glencore, a large Swiss energy conglomerate whose corporate history has been described as “reading like a spy novel”, have a 27% stake in the company.

VAYU estimate they have a twenty percent share of the Irish commercial and industrial gas market, yet they do not have a license to operate in the residential market. The firm suggest they are three to ten percent cheaper than Bord Gais due to “an innovative pricing structure that provides customers a fixed rate for the duration of their contract.”

However, one industry source suggested that VAYU had a sometimes tempestuos relationship with clients.

This was attestified to when a disgruntled employee on leaving eth

company sent an “explosive” email to the company’s entire client list and also several prominant business journalists.

The College’s agreemnet with VAYU may also prove to be short sighted. Speaking to Trinity News, Sandra Quinn, an industry analyst with McKinnon-Clarke, siad “I am surprised Trinity has agreed to a three year contract, as new firms will be entering this market in the short-term which may drive down prices”.

College Communications’ Officer Caoimhe Ní Lochlainn.

Trinity News’s attempts to contact VAYU have been unsuccessful, as have efforts to uncover the precise value of the contract from the College Engineering Services Manager.

However, the estimated cost of gas within this framework for the first year is €850,000.

The contract for gas was awarded to VAYU following a tendering process coordinated by an external energy consultant for the consortium of universities made up of Trinity College, University College Dublin and Dublin City University.

The contract creates a framework for buying gas for a contract period of 4 years with a possible extension of 1 year.

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CollegeNews News College Panel to decide on Briefing student sabbatical positions Trinity Rainbow Week A spark of old-fashioned student activism and a day of much-needed controversy framed the most prominent Rainbow Week ever to have been held in Trinity last week. A spirited demonstration on Monday 21 January, complete with slogan chanting and a minor confrontation with security staff, kicked off the five days of gay-related events: a campaign designed to challenge attitudes towards gay visibility (Blue Jeans Friday) brought it neatly, if uncomfortably, to a close. In the interim, Trinity’s Next Top Model (Cycle 2) and a scintillating lecture on homosexuality and transgenderism in animals by zoology lecturer Dr Mark Brown, proved in their success and popularity that Rainbow Week is no longer just a week of self-congratulation for the LGBT community in Trinity.

SER debate On 23 January, Trinity defeated Harvard in the Student Economic Review debate in the GMB. Trinity was proposing the motion “that this house believes that mass migration is beneficial for labour markets”. The chair was Thomas C. Foley, United States ambassador to Ireland and alumnus of economics at Harvard, while business journalist and Trinity Senator Shane Ross acted as chief adjudicator.

The Trinity team focused on the argument that migration is crucial for a diverse society, allowing people to leave behind “war, famine and poverty”.

The Harvard team by contrast held a far less witty argument, but by no means less effective.

Their arguments centered on the suggestions that mass migration results in a “brain drain” from the underdeveloped countries that need these workers the most. Harvard argued that it is totally “unsustainable”, draining the importing countries of social welfare benefits and school places.

The two judges applauded all of the speakers, resulting in a split decision, forcing Ross to make the final call in favour of Trinity.

The heads of the Hist, Phil, Trinity News and other societies will be submitted to a review panel before being allowed to take year off college to manage their societies DAVID MOLLOY DEPUTY EDITOR The College has approved a new policy for students wishing to take a year out from their studies in order to run clubs, societies or publications. However, this policy could see individuals such as the President of the University Philosophical Society being required to quantify their successes to the College at the end of each year.

In a change to previous years, students wishing to run a society, club or publication will now apply to “intermit” their studies. Previously these students had been granted permission to go “Off books” yet still remain active in the College. According to one memeber of the Central Societies Committee Executive, this

raised numerous legal issues which were not foreseen by the College originally.

Applications will be made to a three person College panel comprised of the Dean of Students, the Junior Dean, and a “former College Officer”.

This third member of the panel has yet to be appointed but is seen as potentially influential in contenous applications. Previously, applications to go off books were made directly to the Senior Lecturer.

The most crucial change is that “intermitting” a student’s studies allows that student to retain their student card and college e-mail account for the year in question. In some years, there have been problems with students taking a year out securing these. Last year Trinity News reported that the heads of both the Phil and the

College Historical Society were being denied student cards and accomodation on campus. This situation was eventually resolved but lead to the establishment of the working group that recommended the new policy.

The new policy has not been universally welcomed however as applicants will be required to submit a work plan for their respective position as part of the application. However the new policy states that “it would not be th eintention of a panel assessing applications to inteefere in the operation of a club or society”.

The change is due to the fact that the working group felt “the primary purpose of the off books procedure is to help students who need to take time out from their studies for significant personal or medical reasons” and that

increasing numbers of student requesting a year off for other purposes had risen dramatically. The working group sought advice from all the Irish universities, a number of foreign institutions and a number of College representatives from administrative staff and student organisations.

They discovered that in the United States, the general policy was that students were never permitted to suspend their studies because of extracurricular activities. However, only two universities were contacted (in Florida and Kentucky).

The UK universities contacted had, in general, some examples of the heads of large debating societies taking a year out from their studies, though this was dealt with at the discretion of the college, school, or department. Irish universities, in general, had a program

in place for students’ union sabbatical officers and University College Dublin has a system in place for heads of major societies.

The working group encountered several different opinions on the matter. Some felt that extracurricular activities were entirely secondary to academic work, while others considered it an essential part of the “Trinity Experience” and something which College should support.

There was further disagreement whether larger bodies should have an automatic entitlement or if each case should be assessed on its own merit.

Accommodation on campus was also put forth as an important necessity in connection with running a society.

This issue remains at the discretion of the Registrar of Chambers, Dr. Emma Stokes.

Billionaire funds Neural Engineering Professorship The Atlantic Philantropies foot the bill for new Trinity professorship.

DAVID MOLLOY DEPUTY EDITOR A new professorship in Neural Engineering has been founded with the assistance of The Atlantic Philanthropies charity. Professor Richard Reilly was appointed to the position.

The professorship is a joint venture between the Schools of Engineering and Medicine, and will focus primarily on ageing. Neural Engineering is a diverse field of study which combines the study of the nervous system with electrical and mechanical systems and often the interaction between them.

The professorship was founded with the assistance of The Atlantic Philanthropies, a humanitarian group established by Irish-American billionaire Chuck Feeney. The group donates funds to bodies in the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Bermuda and the United States. The group also defines ageing as one of its key concerns.

The group have made numerous large donations to Trinity over the years, often in the area of social research and policy. In 2004, the Trinity Foundation

received €2.7 million for “Creating an Expert Model of Geriatric Care” and over €1.3 million for “Developing Social Policy Resources in Ageing.”

Professor Reilly studied at the National University of Ireland, after which he spent a decade as a staff member at University College Dublin before accepting a position at Trinity. His achievements include 148 peerreviewed publications, a United States Fulbright award, and the establishment of two companies.

“Professor Richard Reilly is an outstanding neural engineer with a strong track record in engineering research highly relevant to neurological and cardiovascular disorders in ageing,” said Director of the Trinity Centre for Bioengineering, Professor Patrick Prendergast. “With his appointment Trinity reinforces its position as the leading biomedical engineering research centre in Ireland …we are excited about his joining the cross-disciplinary team”.

Trinity has pursued many projects concerning aging which in the last number of years. The Trinity Consortium on Ageing oversees a number of projects such as the Social Policy and Ageing Research Centre and contributes to the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing.

The engraving reads “painter and glazier” Pat Killium “from Galway town.” “O you Co(u)ntry Spalpeen, Bad Luck to you, Ruth G.” Photo: Architecture.ie

Ancient engravings found in Chapel Dr. Eddie McParland of the History of Art Department recently discovered engravings on the outside of the College Chapel windows, dating from 1822 and 1889 respectively.

These engravings are thought to have been made by the original window fitters, with the 1822 engraving recording the name of “painter and glazier” Pat Killium “from Galway town.” The circumstances surrounding the 1889 engraving are less clear, as the text is somewhat ambiguous, reading “O

you Co(u)ntry Spalpeen, Bad Luck to you, Ruth G.” Dr. McParland discovered the engravings, which are approximately two storeys high, on a pane of glass by walking in such a manner as for the glass to stand out against the dark buildings outside.

These engravings are similar to those recently found in the windows of the Dublin City Hall rotunda during the restoration of the building.

Caoimhe Hanley

Your View Do you think expanding CCTV is a good idea?

Compiled by Conor Sullivan (at the Trinity IV in the GMB on Saturday January 26th)

Andrea Mulligan

Victoria Wallace

Neil Cagney

Sebastian Osborn

Dave Maguire

JS Law

UCC, 2nd year Law

JS Engineering

2nd year Philosophy, Edinburgh

SF Theoretical Physics

I wouldn’t say so really, I think this will be a good move for College in general but a bad one for student privacy. They will know more of what we get up to, though they would also make campus more secure.

I would think so, yes. There have been attacks on female students, so this would make us feel safer on campus. It also acts as a deterrent – there will be less attacks on students if there is more visible CCTV.

I think it’s probably a good idea, Security have been preety decent to me any time ive had dealings with them. I think we have maintained a nice balance between Security and Privacy at the moment..

Depends whether you put them in a public or private space. It’s not ok to put them in bathrooms, but public spaces are ok. Someone would have to be messed up to get their jollies off on a public CCTV video.

No, students will rise to defend this invasion of privacy. Students built this campus with their bare hands and we will fight them on the cobblestones and on the wheelchair access ramps, and in the plazas and workspaces; we will never surrender.

collegenews@trinitynews.ie

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CollegeNews Two-storey bar and restraunt in store for Foster Place Leasing of two lower floors will provide funds for €9million rennovation of College office space CAOIMHE HANLEY COLLEGE NEWS EDITOR Trinity News has received leaked documents that reveal the updated plans for the development of the College-owned buildings at numbers Two to Four Foster Place on College Green.

A commercial restaurant and bar will take up the majority of both the ground floor and basement, with the rest of the building dedicated to academic lecture rooms and offices. The new tenants will be a private company, The Wright Group, who are also responsible for the successful seafood restaurant and bar The Bloody Stream in Howth, Wright’s Angler’s Rest restaurant in the Strawberry Beds near Lucan, and Wright’s Café Bar in Swords.

The Wright Group have been given a 35-year commercial lease by the College, which will provide the projected €9.5 million needed in funding for the College to redevelop the rest of the building.

The bar and restaurant will be in the Banking Hall, with the old banking counter preserved as the front bar. Similarly the large bank vault in the basement is to be used as a basement

collegenews@trinitynews.ie

dining area. This preservation of the original features of the building is one of the terms of the lease and will be necessary for any planning application, as Foster Place is a listed structure.

Hence, the façade of the building will be preserved, with a new extension built behind, adding a fourth floor.

The School of Linguistics, which is comprised of the Centre for Language and Communication Studies, the Department of Clinical Speech and Language Studies and the Centre for Deaf Studies, will be entirely moved to the redeveloped Foster Place, occupying the majority of the academic space. The School will have vastly improved facilities in the redeveloped building, with three phonetics laboratories and four clinical rooms the most notable additions to the School. This movement of the School of Linguistics to Foster Place will free up 500m2 of space in the Arts Building and create more space in five of Trinity’s houses on Pearse Street.

While the refurbishments are taking place, the academic activities currently accommodated in Foster Place will be relocated to Dunlop Oriel House on Westland Row. The present Trinity access to the building is through the main doors into the Banking Hall. This entrance is

t o be demolished and the access is to be widened to create a porter area to the corridor behind. However, this entrance will be solely for the use of the commercial tenants, with students having to access the building from a small side door directly to the left of the main entrance in future. The building will be made wheelchair-accessible accessible, as both an entrance ramp and lift are due to be installed. Lifts will also be available throughout the building.

The new plans were presented

by Moloney O’Beirne Architects to a meeting of the Sites and Facilities Committee on 17 January. The plans have been in development since January 2007 and are now to be presented in a planning application to the City Council.

Leaked plans for the redevelopment of Foster Place.

Areas marked red will be bar service areas.

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CollegeNews Confrontation: LGB rights campaingers clash with the Trinity establishment

LGBT members launching Rainbow week got more than they bargained for last Monday when the photocall turned to confrontation in a matter of minutes. The dispute arose when mem-

bers of College Security claimed that prior permission had not been sought to hold the event in Front Square. The LGBT responded with chanting and singing and a standoff ensued. Luckily

Rumour mill in full swing, SU elections loom closer DEIRDRE LENNON ELECTION COVERAGE EDITOR With nominations for the Students’ Union sabbatical elections closing on 8 February, speculation is rife around campus as one wonders who will declare their candidacy for the positions of President, Deputy President, Education Officer, Welfare Officer and Entertainment Officer.

The Presidential race, always hotly contested, features two potential heavyweight candidates: Cathal Reilly and Darragh Higgins. Reilly is well known within the Union for having quite a lot of experience due to his role as Convenor for the Faculty for Engineering, Maths and Science. He has confirmed his candidacy to Trinity News, saying, “I believe that the Students’ Union is a fantastic organisation and from being involved for the past three years, I see how important it is and the great work it does for students. I would love to get the opportunity to lead it towards doing as much as we can for and on behalf of every student in College.”

Higgins, a Union outsider and a candidate from An Cumann Gaelach, will no doubt have a strong support base if he is to run. However, he has not fully committed himself to running, stating: ““I would obviously love to play a large part in representing the student body in as influential a way as possible. However, my academic considerations are and always have been my first priority, especially at this time, since I am now in my final year.”

Conán O’ Broin, Captain of the Gaelic Football Club and former Oifigeach Na Gaeilge, is also a rumoured candidate, drawing the support of this large group in College.

Thought to be in the running for Deputy President are Séamus Conboy, James Kelly, Jessie Gurr, Conor Smith and Chris Hallworth, with the role also involving assuming editorship of The Record. Conboy, the President of An Cumann Gaelach, would again benefit from a sizeable support base if he were to run. A source close to Conboy has claimed that if elected, Conboy desires to work as an actual deputy to the President, rather than focusing primarily on the editorship of The Record.

James “Seamus” Kelly, another Cumann committee member, is thought to be contemplating his candidacy for Deputy President.

Jessie Gurr, a class representative and employee of the Students’ Union Shop, has confirmed that she will be running and says “my decision is based on my interest in the publicity and communications aspect of the Union. It’s an area I feel I’d be best able to contribute to...we all know of the Union, but we need to know the Union.…” Smith is most

prominently known as the Webmaster of the Dublin University Science Fiction Society and a source states that Smith would focus on improving the Union website and publicity materials, lesser known parts of the Deputy President’s job.

Hallworth, the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Convenor on the Students’ Union Executive, is the potential Deputy Presidential candidate with the most Union experience, with heavy involvement as the Arts Editor of the Record.

Two likely contenders for the position of Education Officer are Hugh Sullivan and Eoin Moore. Sullivan is well known within the Union, with a background with Union finances and is best known for his vigorous protection of the Hamilton Library. He also ran John Tracey’s campaign for Students’ Union Presidency last year. Eoin Moore is more controversial society-based figure as Chair of Trinity College Labour Party Branch.

Hilary Allen, a former Faculty Convenor for Social Sciences, is also rumoured to be running despite disappointing losses in several Union Council elections this year.

Welfare features a diverse range of candidates, again from Union insiders to those with more experience on the society side of college. Orlaith Foly, another Cumman member, has held the position of Welfare Officer in Halls and so has some experience in this area. Chloe KassisCrowe, a Dentistry student, has been involved in the Union as an assistant faculty convenor. Nick Beard, a Union insider, has an in depth experience of many of the committees and has been responsible for the welfare of Trinity’s international students this year as Union International Students’ Officer, as well as broad society involvement, including sitting on the CSC Executive. Other names that may emerge as candidates are Gary Honer and Eoin Plunkett.

Potentially in the running for Entertainment Officer are Mark Hughes and David Byrne. Mark Hughes has gained society experience in Dublin University Player, Dublin University Radio Society and Sfsoc, as well as DJing regularly, most recently planning Sfsoc’s successful “Father Ted” night. David Byrne, well known for his organisational role in Radio City (this year’s “place to be”), has experience in his favour as the organiser of numerous nights out for different venues and an active member of the Ents crew.

This year is shaping up to be a case of Union insiders versus those involved in major societies around campus, in particular An Cumann Gaelach, which will offer unyielding support to their members, should they decide to run. It remains to be seen if the elections will be similar to last year campaign wise and whose manifesto and presence will impress the students.

Assistant Junior Dean, Mr Joseph O’Gorman (pictured) was on had to bring his sobering influence to bear before events escalated too far. Both parties dispersed and it is not thought that

there will be any disciplinary action pursued. The irony was not lost on bystanders that the demonstration to mark the long struggle for LGBT was halted by “the establishment”.

Science Gallery opens amid funding concerns NIAMH NÍMHAOILEOIN STAFF WRITER A new Science Gallery will open in Trinity’s Naughton Institute in February. However there are concerns around the funding of the project.

The Gallery consists of a multimedia PACCAR theatre, studios, a café and an open gallery space.

The development of the Science Gallery comes as a response to falling levels of science students at third level and a perceived general disinterest in science among young people.

According to Founding Director, Dr. Michael John Gorman it will be “a place where ideas meet and opinions on white-hot scientific issues collide through a changing programme of festivals, events, debates and exhibitions.”

The Gallery primarily hopes to attract 15-25 year olds; “to fire them up with the incredible potential that science and technology has to offer.” It differs from Science Museums and other science-related venues in that it does not only focus on the past and on other people’s work. This College initiative is claimed to be the first of its kind in the world, with members and guests invited to actively engage in ongoing scientific discourse through participative events and workshops.

However, despite this enthusiasm the issue of funding is thought to be a concern for many senior officials in College. While the start-up costs have been met, there is concern within College that the running costs, of more than €1m a year, cannot be supported by the Gallery. Given the high profile nature of the project and its perception as a “legacy project for some staff” it is feared that funds will have to be transferred from other areas of the College to support it. Sources within the Students’ Union have also voiced concern that student services may suffer in order to meet the Gallery’s funding needs.

Entrance to the Gallery will be free and expected revenue is therefore low. When asked about these concerns Dr. Gorman maintained that “We have significant support in place but fundraising is ongoing.” Founding partner Ulster Bank will provide €250,000 per year and other partners, including Dell, Google, ICON and Wyeth will provide further funding, as will the Department of Arts, Sports and Tourism and the Science Foundation Ireland. Ulster Bank are thought to have been seeking a prestigious project within the College for some time. The Gallery is currently trying to attract sponsorship from a further five companies and hopes to generate income from corporate hire of the facilities.

The concept of the Science Gallery was pioneered by Professor Michael Coey of the Physics department, in conjunction with other CRANN researchers. Provost John Hegarty commented that “The Science Gallery is Trinity’s flagship project – a new manifestation of the role of the university in the twenty-first century”, Becoming a member of the Science Gallery is free during its opening period.

Benefits of membership include invitations to special events, discounted tickets; free WiFi and the opportunity to “connect with other creative thinkers and thought leaders.” When asked how the initiative will specifically benefit Trinity students Dr. Gorman replied that “there are opportunities for students to do both paid and volunteer work in Science Gallery, and also to develop their communications skills and portfolios through working on major projects to engage the public with science and technology.”

To mark the opening the Gallery is hosting ‘Lightwave’, a show exploring light in the contexts of science, technology and art.

Other exhibits, events and workshops are planned around such topics as global warming, bridge technology and the effect science will have on fashion in the 21st century.

Early Alzheimer’s test developed in Trinity DAVID MOLLOY DEPUTY EDITOR

Professor Harald Hampel, Chair of Psychiatry, led the study, which searched for biological “markers” that would indicate development of the disease.

A Trinity College staff member has produced a new early test for the detection of Alzheimer’s disease.

Professor Harald Hampel, Chair of Psychiatry, led the study, which searched for biological “markers” that would indicate development of the disease.

The research led to the discovery that p-tau 231, a protein “marker” often found in the brain, is indicative of a transition from Mild Cognitive Impairment to Alzheimer’s disease. It is often difficult to differentiate between the two conditions in the early stages of the development of Alzheimer’s.

The international study followed 145 test subjects for one and a half years.

By taking samples of cerebrospinal fluid, the connection between the development of Alzheimer’s and p-tau 231 was made. The test was found to be effective in approximately 80% of cases.

It is predicted that cases of Alzheimer’s will rise enormously

worldwide in the near future. Estimates for Ireland point to a rise of 43% within the next twenty years. The National Council on Ageing and Older People in 2000 estimated the annual costs of treating the 30000 or so patients with dementia in Ireland at about €474 million.

“To date the challenge for GPs and consultants in Ireland to accurately diagnose Alzheimer’s disease in earlier predementia stages is still enormous”, Professor Hampel said.

“Alzheimer’s disease in Ireland is still generally detected at a very late clinical endstage, most likely after decades of presymptomatic disease progression in the patient’s brain and after the development of severe behavioural and psychological symptoms and loss of functional independence and quality of life as a reflection of severe widespread cell death in the brain.”

The findings were published in Neurology, the official journal of the American Academy of Neurology, last December.

CollegeNews@trinitynews.ie

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SocietyNews Society Diary diary@trinitynews.ie Tuesday 29 January Food and Drink: Dinner at the Winding Stair, 6.20pm, tickets (limited) €15.

Falun Dafa: Exercise classes, 7-9pm, the Atrium.

Law: The Law Ball, 7pm until late, tickets €75, Conrad Hotel.

Politics: US Presidential Election Talk, 7.30pm Robert Emmet Theatre, Arts Building.

Wednesday 30 January

UCD Law claims victory at Trinity Debating IV KEVIN LYNCH AND NI HAI STAFF WRITERS The annual Clare Stewart Trinity Intervarsity was held last weekend in the GMB. The competition consisted of 60 teams made up of some of the best debating talent from the British Isles, Europe, Australia and North America.

The competition is supported by the Stewart family in memory of their daughter Clare, who was a student at Trinity. The competition is co-hosted by the University Philosophical Society and the College Historical Society and consists of two competitions. On Thursday there is an invitational competition for 16 teams, culminating in a final that was hosted this year by Eamonn Gilmore, leader of the Labour Party. Then on Friday and Saturday there is a full intervarsity culminating in a grand final on Saturday evening.

The competition was jointly organised

by Orla Gordon and Christopher Kissane.

Ross Maguire and Marguerite Carter, from the UCD Law Society, won the Final on the Saturday evening, with the motion “This house

would permit duelling to the death”.

While sounding farcical, this is a motion that allows for a full discussion on the role of the state and when it has a right to encroach on individual liberty.

The Honourable Society of the King’s Inns, of Luke Ryder and Brendan Bruen, both alumni Dublin University, had opened the debate arguing against “the encroaching fingers of the nanny state”. Duelling, they said, has a legitimate activity to consent to, whether for sport, to gain satisfaction or simply to vent mutual dislike. Derek Doyle and Ross Frennet, from University College Cork, opposed, reminding the house that unfortunately, many present day duellers were not Gentlemen and likely to misuse rights afforded to them under the code. Mr Doyle, prefaced his speech by announcing his retirement from University debating after an illustrious career.

The second half of the debate saw a clash of wildly different styles.

Cambridge, used to a more technical style of policy debating, struggled to match the crowd rousing oratory of the Irish teams. Ross Maguire, speaking sixth in the debate, and first for the final team from University College,

Dublin, denied the existence of an objective reality. “Freedom”, he said “is a lie”, our lives were manifestly better when the state intervenes to regulate for what is best. He directly clashed with Sam Block, the previous speaker from Cambridge.

The final was chaired by Philip Boucher Hayes in front of a packed chamber in the GMB. Some of the other motions that were debated throughout the competition included “This house regrets the formation of the state of Israel”, “This house would vote Republican” and “This house would force everyone to pass a civics test before being allowed to vote” The Kingsmill-Moore invitational attracted a similarly high standard on Thursday. This year saw competitors from the main Irish universities but also two teams from Loyola, America and Macquarie, Australia. The chief adjudicator for the competition was Will Jones, a former finalist of the World debating championships. The finalists were Niall Kennedy and Chris Hawkins, a composite Scottish team, Diarmuid Early and Cormac Early competing under the team name, ‘He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother’, Art Ward

Michael Clarke (above), a finalist of last year’s IV and a veteran debator announces the winner of this year’s IV. Photo: David Adamson

and Tony Murphy competing for the UCC Philosoph and Stephen Nolan and Nuala Kane, representing NUI Galway. In a final hosted by Eamonn Gilmore, Leader of the Labour Party, the motion was “This house would ban private property”. Eventually after an adjudication that lasted over an hour Niall Kennedy and Chris Hawkins were declared winners.

Trinity’s IV hosted annually on the last weekend in January has earned a reputation has one of the most hospitable tournaments on the British and Irish calendar. Each year over 300 participants from Ireland, the UK and Europe eat, sleep, socialise and debate in Trinity. The 2007 final went down in the history books, in a charged and rousing atmosphere the finalists debated the existence of God. Michael Clark’s proletising atheism that night earned him the Best Speaker award and an invitation to co-Chief Adjudicate this year’s competition. The other Chief Adjudicator was Ciaran Denny, an alumnus of Dublin University and former convenor of the competition.

Messers Denny and Clark both achieved enormous success while debating during their university years.

Botany Membership: 105

Facts and Figures: Botany Society was initially granted provisional recognition on 13 December 1999, but this lapsed at the CSC AGM in 2002. However, they were reestablished in September 2007.

would also be nice to liaise with other societies with related interests (Dublin University Greens, Trinity Suas, Dublin University Zoological Society and Dublin University Geographical Society, etc) for some joint events.

Regular Events: Being a fledgling society, Botany is really just getting started, but so far they have had a guest speaker and social event each term.

Greatest Moment in Society History: As the history hasn’t been a very long one, the masquerade ball with ZooSoc last Michaelmas term was a great event, as was our talk by Ed Barrow from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources linking sustainable development and climate change, followed by our first wine reception!

societynews@trinitynews.ie

Plan for 2008: As a small and developing society, they hope to continue to grow over the next few years and be able to organise more events and do bigger things!

In 2008, they have already had a guest speaker on the “Mythology and Folklore of Irish Plants” and a table quiz; they have plans for a field trip to Killarney National Park, another speaker and are hopefully cohosting the tree walk for Green Week. In the future, it

Players: Evening play An Irish Engagement, Players’ Theatre, 6pm.

Japanese: Japanese beginner classes, 6.30pm, room 5052, Arts Building.

Falun Dafa: Exercise classes, 7-9pm, the Atrium.

Philosophical: Debate “This house believes that the European social model is failing us”, GMB 7.30pm.

Friday 1 February Players: Lunchtime play Diurnum, Players’ Theatre, 1pm.

Afro Caribbean: Djembe Drumming classes 6pm, Regent House.

Dance: Weekly dance classes, 7pm Regent House.

Monday 4 February Players: Lunchtime play Fish Sandy with Lunchtime Interludes, Players’ Theatre 1pm.

Players: Evening play The Three Birds, Players’ Theatre 6pm.

Comedy: Improvisation Workshop, 7pm Room 50, Atrium. Contact comedy@csc.tcd.ie for more details.

Players: “Millahunty Express Comedy Night”, contact info@duplayers.com .

Tuesday 5 February DUPSA: Pharmaceutical Ball, 7pm Stillorgan Park Hotel.

Falun Dafa: Exercise classes, 7-9pm, the Atrium.

Chess: Night of friendly games 7pm, Seminar Room 2.6, School of Maths, Hamilton Building.

Food and Drink: Charcuterie tasting night, 7pm, The Atrium Wednesday 6 February

Thursday 7 February

Established: Originally 1999 Aims of the Society: To further interest in botany and the environment and provide an outlet for all interested in the wider context; this leads on to things such as sustainable development, conservation and climate change.

They also wish to have fun in the process! Traditionally Botany has been though of as a weird scientific discipline, but in fact, it has implications in almost everything, from the air we breathe, to what we eat, to medicine, to things like development, conservation and climate change.

Thursday 31 January

Historical: Debate “This house believes that genetically modified foods should be eaten and produced”, GMB 7.30pm.

Comedy: Andrew Maxwell in the Ed Burke Theatre, Arts Building. 8pm, tickets €10/€12 Traditional Irish Music: Trad. music session, Cassidy’s on Westmoreland St, 9pm

SOCIETY IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Auditor: Dara Stanley, Senior Sophister Botany

Comedy: I Dare Ya! 8pm, Ed Burke Theatre, Arts Building, tickets €6/€8 DUPA: Composition 3 Lecture, 7.30pm, Ui Chaidain Theatre, Arts Building.

Players: Evening play An Irish Engagement, Players’ Theatre 6pm.

Dance Soc: Strauss Ball, Dining Hall, 7pm, tickets €15.

Website: They have no official website, but search on Facebook and you’ll find a group called “Trinity BotSoc”, which seems to be kept up to date with information on any events.

Players: Lunchtime play Fish Sandy with Lunchtime Interludes, Players’ Theatre 1pm.

Players: Evening play The Three Birds, Players’ Theatre 6pm.

Philosophical: Debate “This house would take immediate action in Iran”, GMB 7.30pm.

Friday 8 February Afro Caribbean: Djembe Drumming classes 6pm, Regent House.

Dance: Weekly dance classes, 7pm Regent House.

Monday 11 February Comedy: Improvisation Workshop, 7pm Players’ Theatre. Contact comedy@csc.tcd.ie for more details.

Traditional Irish Music: Bodhran lesson, 6-7pm, room 2B Goldsmith Hall.

Traditional Irish Music: Guitar lesson, 8-9pm, room 2B Goldsmith Hall.

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NationalNews UCD Law Society Cross touts Le Pen for Campus Lisbon debate NUIG

Students share their health expertise in the community Over 150 students volunteered their time this week to an initiative aimed at dispelling young children’s fears of a hospital environment. The event “Teddy Bear Hospital” brought together 400 children aged three to seven and students of National University of Ireland Galway studying health related disciplines.

NUI Galway’s Juggling Society was also on hand to provide entertainment.

At the “Teddy Bear Hospital”, children and their teddies visited the team of “Teddy Doctors” and “Teddy Nurses” who examined the patients and took a full medical history. Appropriate medical action was taken, whether it was applying bandages or taking a trip to the Teddy X-ray machine or the Teddy MRI machine. There was also a Teddy Pharmacy fully stocked with nourishing vitamin juices and other healthy treats to promote healthy eating and dietary well being.

According to Riona Hughes, NUI Galway Societies Officer, “The Teddy Bear Hospital is just one example of the enthusiasm and creativity of our students. This event has gone from strength to strength each year and is of huge benefit to the local schools and children.

This is just one small example of the community engagement that happens here on campus.”

The University has 89 active societies through which students make friends, pursue their interests, learn new skills and organise events such as the Teddy Bear Hospital. NUI Galway also runs the ALIVE programme to assist students who wish to volunteer with community organisations.

ITT Major building projects for Tallaght IT Local Fianna Fáil TD Charlie O'Connor says the building projects planned for Institute of Technology Tallaght this year will include a new, state-of-the art catering and tourism building, a multi-purpose centre and an engineering building.

These new building projects will play a huge part in encouraging future students to choose IT Tallaght as their preferred thirdlevel college with the delivery of enhanced facilities in the key areas such as engineering, information technology, science and technology, catering, tourism and the arts.

The funding comes under the Government's €270 million Third Level Institutions Public Private Partnership Programme.

"I am pleased that the Government is investing heavily in developing the capacity of Ireland's higher education to meet the social and economic challenges of the knowledge age”, said Deputy O Connor.

"I understand that work on the pre-procurement of this project will commence within six months. I will monitor this process closely to ensure it is on schedule”, the Deputy added.

LAUREN NORTON NATIONAL NEWS EDITOR University College Dublin has strongly criticized its own Law Society for inviting the far-right politician and Holocaust denier Jean Marie Le Pen to a debate on the Lisbon Treaty.

"This is an ill-judged flight of fancy by a student society and we don't expect that the talk will take place", a UCD spokesman said yesterday. He did not rule out college authorities moving to prohibit the attendance of Mr. Le Pen at the UCD campus in Belfield.

The UCD Law Society, which is run by students at the college, has asked Mr. Le Pen and his National Front colleague French MEP Bruno Gollnisch to speak at the college in late March or early April, ahead of a referendum.

Both men are avid opponents of the EU, which they argue undermines national sovereignty and boosts immigration.

Mr. Le Pen is a controversial figure in France, where he founded the vociferously anti-immigration Front National Party in 1972. He has been successfully convicted in both France and Germany for making comments that "minimized the Holocaust."

Ciarán Ahern, Auditor of the UCD Law Society, defended the invitation on the basis that both are prominent opponents of the Lisbon Treaty.

"We are charged with promoting free speech within UCD. We certainly don't want to give a platform to xenophobes, but it should be up to their op-

ponents to defeat their arguments in debate”, said Mr. Ahern. Their attendance was not yet "set in stone", as neither had yet accepted the society's invitation.

A spokesman for Mr. Le Pen said that neither he nor Mr. Gollnisch had yet made a final decision on whether to attend. He said they were both eager to come to Ireland to take part in the debate, but they wanted to consider how it would affect the “No” campaign.

There was a generally negative reaction yesterday to the decision to invite Mr. Le Pen. Minister of State for European Affairs Dick Roche said: "He belongs to another age, as do his Euro-sceptic opinions. Sadly Le Pen is not the only person on the ‘No’ side that is intent on misrepresenting what the EU Reform Treaty is about."

Sinn Féin MEP Mary Lou McDonald said Mr. Le Pen's attendance would damage the “No” campaign. "If Mr. Le Pen really wants a ‘No’ vote in this referendum, then the best thing he can do is to stay away," she said.

Libertas, a think tank opposed to the Lisbon Treaty, also criticized the invitation to Mr. Le Pen as "a fairly pathetic attempt by a student society to get publicity for itself on the back of the forthcoming referendum campaign."

The UK Independence Party has also decided to campaign against the Lisbon Treaty in the upcoming Irish referendum. The party's national executive council decided last Friday that it would "actively assist the Irish campaign for a ‘No’ vote”, according to a note published

on the far-right wing party's website.

Ukip leader Nigel Farage said that some people in Ireland may take umbrage at English people telling them what to do, but he said some members of Ukip would go to Ireland during the campaign.

Le Pen (above) is set to visit UCD (inset) however the visit may be blocked by the University

HEA launches StudentFinance.ie With the cost of living for students soaring, the Higher Educataion Authority launches site to provide easier access to information regarding financial entitlements and planning LAUREN NORTON NATIONAL NEWS EDITOR The Union of Students in Ireland has hailed the launch of www.studentfinance.ie by the Higher Education Authority, the first official website uniting information about the grant with details of the other support schemes, all in a single portal.

USI President Hamid Khodabakhshi stressed that the website is “essential viewing for every student, school-leaver and final year student” and that students are often eligible for more financial supports than they re-

alise.

The website aims to make the subject of funding less daunting. It contains information on the maintenance grant and serveral other schemes that provide extra assistance to people who are eligible.

USI Education Officer Peter Mannion said: “on studentfinance.ie you’ll find out more about your entitlements and step-by-step instructions for applying for the grant and other support schemes.”

“The site has finance information for people with family commitments who are returning to education, people with disabilities and people from lower

income backgrounds”.

The website will be a welcome resource to students struggling to make ends meet as the cost of living in Ireland hits a six-year high.

Inflation averaged 4.9% in 2007, new figures from the Central Statistics Office reveal, more than twice the rate recorded just two years ago. Rents, which include local authority housing, were up 12.3%.

The USI has warned college students that they could be forced to make decisions about which college to attend based on soaring rent costs and a shortage of affordable accommodation.

The Students’ Union Welfare Officer at

Letterkenny Institute of Technology says that rising prices puts LYIT, and others like it outside the capital, at an advantage.

Patrick Brides of LYIT says Letterkenny is one of the cheapest towns in the country in which students can live.

According to the USI, students are struggling to cope with rents of up to 500 euros per month in cities like Dublin with the standard grant worth 380 euros.

The plight of students has not failed to make ripples in the Dáil. Sinn Féin Education Spokesperson Senator Pearse Doherty has supported calls from the USI for a task force on stu-

dent accommodation to be established.

“There's a critical housing shortage in Ireland in general which is having a very obvious negative affect on students. While the student grant has increased in recent years, rent has increased at a much higher level, leading to further difficulties for students whose biggest worries should be their studies.

“I want to support the students’ call for a task force on student accommodation to be established. At the very least, the grant for students must increase at a rate equal to the increase in rents.”

“Students should not be forced to decide solely on the basis of the price”

Ireland set to miss Kyoto Protocol targets Despite a reduction in overall emissions, Ireland still faces a major effort to reach the targets agreed under the Kyoto agreement JESSICA YOUNGSMITH STAFF WRITER Ireland appears to be on course to fail its greenhouse gas obligations under the Kyoto Protocol, according to emissions figures released last week. Though greenhouse gas emissions fell by 0.8% in Ireland in 2006, the country is still producing almost seven millions tonnes more than its Kyoto Treaty limit.

Last week, the Environmental Protection Agency released data that showed

greenhouse gas emissions in Ireland were 570,000 tonnes lower in 2006 than 2005, as gas released by agriculture and energy generation decreased.

However, total emissions throughout Ireland have reached 69.77 million tonnes, 25.5% above 1990 levels. Under the Kyoto Protocol, Ireland is only allowed a thirteen percent increase.

EPA Director-General Dr. Mary Kelly said in a statement made last week: "While the figures are encouraging and the reduction of 0.8% is most welcome, the remaining distance to our Kyoto tar-

get is substantial and shows that we continue to face a major challenge. Reducing emissions in a growing economy will require a major effort on all our parts."

Emissions from transport are 165% higher than in 1990 and make up almost 20% of Irish greenhouse gas emissions.

97% of this figure is due to road transport, stemming from such developments as the recent increase in purchase of large vehicles and increased reliance on private cars.

Though emissions from power generation were down by 4.6% in 2006, a part

of this decrease can be attributed to a plant shut-down at Moneypoint in Co.Clare while improvements were under way.

“Today's figures show that the Government's target of three percent annual reductions in emissions over the next five years will be extremely challenging and further emphasises that actions to reduce domestic emissions must be intensified and strengthened”, said Dr. Kelly.

“Greenhouse gases emitted now will remain in the atmosphere for many decades and affect the climate for cen-

turies to come. Policymakers must use the detailed breakdown of figures in each sector, provided today, to focus on all areas where reductions are possible and need to be achieved.”

Dr. Kelly believes that Ireland can reach its Kyoto target by 2012 by "a combination of domestic actions with some purchase of carbon credits”, as allowed under the Kyoto Protocol.

Reductions of 20-30% from the 1990 emissions level by 2020 are proposed to avoid “irreversible and damaging climate change.”

nationalnews@trinitynews.ie

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InternationalNews German students protest against fee hikes MONIKA URBANSKI STAFF WRITER As a reaction to a new law increasing tuition fees, tens of thousands of students in Berlin, Essen, Hamburg and other cities have staged huge demonstrations, protesting against the raised fees.

Attendance at universities in Germany was never totally free of charge. Each term students had to pay for administrative costs. During the last years, however, crowding in German universities has become a dire problem.

Classes were hugely overcrowded because of the lack of lecturers.

According to Die Zeit, twice as many students are attending universities nowadays than in 1970, but the universities’ budget is still the same. In 2007, seven federal states that are ruled by the Christian Democratic Party announced the introduction of tuition fees up to 500 euros, a sizeable increase, with exceptions for students that are already dependent on student credits that are higher than 10000 euros.

At the protests in reaction to these hikes, crosses were put up as symbols of the death of “social justice” or “free education.” Speakers at demonstrations clearly stated their demands: “We will not allow our education system to become more exclusive. Education is a right that everybody should have.

Education is a not a product!” Student activists claimed that tuition fees would be a burden for the social weak. Though universities are in need of money, many don’t believe that the money raised by

tuition fees will be spent where it should.

On the other side, supporters of tuition fees include Professor Frank Ziegele, lecturer at the FH Osnabrück, who argues: “You will get more for your money. If the fees are organised properly and will be transferred directly to the universities, the quality and competition will increase. Universities will be under pressure to give good examples of the usage of the money.”

Before the national increase, the University of Münster decided on 275 euros tuition fees per term in March 2007. Earlier meetings of the University Board halted because of angry protests.

In January 2007, a meeting was interrupted when 1500 protesting students broke through the security barricade and stormed the meeting. A second meeting, which was held on a Saturday morning at 8 am to prevent the student demonstrating, was stopped in a similar fashion.

The decisive meeting had to be held through video conference and in case of further disruption, a written vote was planned.

But even after the final decision, the protests went on. Under the slogan “Imagine there were tuition fees and nobody would pay them” the website www.boykottinfo.de, calls on students to refuse to pay up in a national boycott campaign.

The universities cannot afford to kick out thousands of students at once.

Trust accounts were established with lawyers for the boycotting students to pay the tuition fees into. In the event that there aren’t enough students

The Global Campus TBLISI STATE UNIVERSITY, GEORGIA

Students divided by President’s crackdown

Students try and storm a meeting of the University of Münster in Germany following a decision to try and raise tuition fees to €500 per academic year. Photo: www.wdr.de joining the protest, the money is transferred to the university. This idea is not a new one. Earlier payment strikes in Germany have been successful, for example one in 1976 in BadenWürttemberg.

Nevertheless students in Münster and in a lot of other cities in Germany have to pay tuition fees for now, and all attempts to change that so far have failed. According to the Frankfurter Allgemeine, nearly a billion euros have been raised through tuition fees since the hike. Change is already in progress.

New lecture halls are being built, more child-care provided, libraries are open longer, new lecturers are employed and new courses have opened.

A University of Münster student summarises: “I have joined a few demonstrations, but not the boycott. At some point the new situation just has to be accepted. With 275 euros instead of

500 euros, we can be very satisfied.

Apparently the situation is not getting better without the fees. So why not give it a chance? When a student is more treated as client and gets better ‘service’, the tuition fees could be advantageous.”

However, there are still a lot of active fighters against the tuition fees.

Their last recourse is through the law; according to many opponents of tuition fees, those payments are against the German Constitution.

If those accusations prove to be true, or the universities don’t improve their standards, hope remains for those fighting the new law; the CDU’s main opposition, the Social Democratic Party, have promised that if it wins the next German regional election in those federal states where tuition fees have been introduced, all paid increased tuitions will be transferred back to the students immediately.

One month after an internationally condemned violent crackdown on political protestors, and only weeks prior to a presidential election day that had been unexpectedly moved up, an odd sort of calm pervaded at Tbilisi State University this December, the oft-seen centre of student political activity.

Approximately the size of Ireland—both in geography and population—Georgia is a relatively small country compared with its bigger and more powerful neighbour to the north: Russia. In 2003, current President Mikheil Saakashvili came to strength in the bloodless Rose Revoltion.

However, poverty is still an ever-present aspect of Georgian life and some suggest that it has even worsened since Saakashvili came to power.

When you walk down the streets of the capital, poor children hang off your clothes, begging for money.

This past November, desperate Georgians took to the streets of Tbilisi in what became the biggest political protest since the Rose Revolution. This led to a violent police crackdown, the suppression of the major opposition news network Imedi TV and the implementation of a nation-wide state of emergency.

A university law student in Tbilisi told this reporter that there was strong suspicion among many Georgians that the military was involved in the violence.

Vice President of the student government at TSU Irakli Megrelishvili insisted that most students at the university were indifferent and that, “politics has changed nothing in university but maybe emotionally…only twenty to thirty students left (classes) to protest”.

Megrelishvili himself was one of the leaders of the famed 2003 Rose Revolution, and a steadfast supporter of Saakashvili; he highlighted his position that the government and police were correct in their actions against the protestors, citing that the protestors who were arrested, “were only those who beat police and wanted to kill police.”

He stated that while he did not believe that the status of his country had changed the climate of the university, he did note that the student selfgovernment was for the first time involved in politics and the election. He went on to assert that if the opposition were to try to “make revolution” following the 5 January elections, they too should be arrested.

Many opposition members of the student self-government had recently left their positions; Saakashvili and other high ranking members of the government had come to speak and answer questions at the university regarding policy issues and the crackdown .

On 5 January 2008, Saakashvili won the presidential elections, with numerous international monitors throughout the country deeming them fair.

William Sadd

OXFORD UNIVERSITY Union forced to lower standards for Presidential Election

Competition Trinity News has 5 copies of the actionpacked blockbuster

Transformers to give away on DVD. To be in with a chance of winning, just answer this simple question:

Which Autobot is destroyed in the climactic battle in the movie?

Is it: a) Bumblebee b) Jazz c) Ironhide Just e-mail deped@trinitynews.ie with your name, phone number and answer.

Entries close Friday the 8th of February.

“The world’s most famous debating society”, the Oxford Union, is now facing its third attempt to elect a president for the Trinity term. The Returning Officer has confirmed that no valid nominations for the position were received in time for a re-poll which was due to occur next week.

The original ballot in Novermber found Krishna Omkar to have won the position of President-elect by a margin of 300 out of 2000 votes.

However, less than 48 hours after the results were announced, a complaint of electoral malpractice was placed by another contender. Charlotte Fischer claimed that Mr. Omkar had flouted a number of society rules by holding a private meeting attended by other candidates and their allies.

In the resulting electoral tribunal, evidence was given orally by some attendees of the meeting, which the defence argued was a strictly private party. The tribunal heard that Mr. Omkar had told the group that “of course, there are no slates officially, but we all know we are working together.” The practice of slating, which involves mutual cooperation of candidates competing for different roles in order to win votes, is not officially outlawed by the society. Soliciting votes, however, is prohibited, unless done in private with close friends. Mr Omkar was found guilty of soliciting votes, and disqualified from this and all future elections held at the Union. The tribunal report noted a “disturbing arrogance… that it is acceptable to lie to members of the tribunal if it suits your purpose” shown by the defendant.

The Tribunal ordered a re-poll for the office of President-elect, restricting those qualified to stand to those who could stand at the close of nominations for the last election. This left only two people; Charlotte Fischer and Clare Hennessy, former Secretary of the Society. Ms Fischer resigned her position on all Union committees before the close of nominations. In her letter of resignation she wrote “This decision has been made in some ways with a heavy heart, but I believe that it would be best for the Society and also underline my commitment to the principles I have campaigned for so tirelessly”. She also cited incidences of sexual harassment, intimidation and character defamation, which contributed to her decision. Hennessy has so far refused to comment on her reasons for not running. Following the dearth of willing and qualified candidates, the Returning Officer announced a relaxation of eligibility criteria to promote a “little healthy competition”.

“I have exposed systematic corruption. My actions have constituted a final attempt to throw the spotlight on a practise that has undermined democracy and fair access in the Oxford Union Society”. It is popular opinion that, with these words, Ms Fischer has started the ball rolling in promoting a Union which aims to represent the whole student body rather than an elite clique.

Kerensa Slade

internationalnews@trinitynews.ie

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NewsFeature

Photo: Madeleine Carrouee

Beyond the gay-friendly walls of Trinity College

A long road travelled 1886: The Criminal Law Amendment Act, outlawing sexual relations between men, is passed in Great Britain. However, this act does not extend to homosexual acts between women, as Queen Victoria does not believe that such acts are possible.

1895: The Wilde Trial: Oscar Wilde is sentenced to two years imprisonment for “gross indecency”.

On the back of Rainbow Week, Ciara Finlay compares the attitudes regarding LGBT issues beyond the walls of Trinity with the gay-friendly attitudes which prevail inside those walls.

CIARA FINLAY CONTRIBUTING WRITER

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reland is a country that has, in the past two decades, witnessed such a dramatic metamorphosis as to render it almost unrecognisable. However, as its economy developed to resemble those of other Western European countries, Irish society chose to adopt the shopping habits of its neighbours rather than develop their understanding of moral issues. Gay rights have evolved in Ireland at a stumbling pace, leaving homosexuals with the sense of being little more than second-class citizens.

However, if one person alone were to be singled out as a champion for gay rights in Ireland, it would doubtlessly be Senator David Norris. This year is, in fact, of significant importance in that regard, as it marks the twentieth anniversary of the Norris judgement in the European Court of Human Rights, which was pivotal in the decriminalising of homosexual acts between men in Ireland in 1993. Senator David Norris first went to the European Court of Human Rights in 1984 to argue that the existence of the law against homosexuality was a breach of his right to privacy under Article 8 of European Convention on Human Rights, in the case of Norris v Attorney General [1984].

This law against homosexuality originated during the reign of Queen Victoria of Great Britain. Upon it being put before her for approval, it was decided that it should refer exclusively to men as Queen Victoria felt that “women would not be that disgusting”.

Throughout history and to this very day, the attitude of people towards female homosexuality has been to deny its very existence, as it is seen to be inconceivable that women should not at all times prefer men. After all, it is a man’s world that we are living in. Indeed it seems that at present the only way in which lesbianism appears to be able to

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At present the only way in which lesbianism appears to be able to obtain universal acceptance is within pornography.

obtain universal acceptance is within pornography. Even in those modern societies which find themselves steadily acquiring a high degree of acceptance towards homosexuals,,,, it is generally found that male homosexuality is more acceptable than female homosexuality.

Subsequently lesbians bear the dualburden of being marginalised by society on the basis of both their sex and sexuality.

Ireland is not a place that one may describe as promoting equal rights for homosexuals. Ms. Justice Dunne found that “in this jurisdiction, as recently as 2004, s.2(2)(e) of the Civil Registration Act was enacted. That Act set out… the common law exclusion of same sex couples from the institution of marriage”. Ms. Justice Dunne further asked “is that not an indication of the

prevailing idea and the concept in relation to what marriage is and how it should be defined?” and then concluded unequivocally that “I think it is.” In her judgement Ms Justice Dunne persistently holds to the 1937 Constitution understanding of marriage as “something confined to persons of the opposite sex.” It was on this basis that the case was lost.

Brian Lenihan, the current Minister for Justice, has since the beginning of this year begun to speak of a Bill for Civil Unions being published by the summer. The Bill is to be drawn up in a manner that would permit gay couples to obtain something akin to the rights granted onto couples through the institution of marriage. In the UK, this sort of legislation has been in place since the Civil Partnership Act 2004 was enacted. The rights which it sets out to provide are of a most vital importance, as they include the right to be considered as the next of kin and rights of inheritance, as well as tax benefits.

However, sceptics have been quick to voice their doubts, as this is not the first time that there has been talk of introducing a Civil Union Bill in Ireland. Last year in both February and November, the Labour Party attempted to introduce a Civil Union Bill. but this was deferred by the government as it was interpreted as being unconstitutional under Article 41.3.1° of Bunreacht na hEireann where “the State Pledges itself to guard with special care the institution of Marriage, on which the Family is founded, and to protect it against attack.” However, the family in recent years has emerged as possessing a variety of identities able to adapt to the demands of modern society and, as such, the enacting of a Civil Union Bill would merely serve to create yet another identity for the family unit to manifest maintaining a stable society wherein its citizens are treated as equals.

The 21 January saw the commencement of this year’s “Rainbow Week”; an event that could have gone

relatively unnoticed by the average Trinity student, who may think that every week in Trinity College is Rainbow Week. Though the week was highly successful in highlighting LGBT issues through events such as Monday’s “Open your eyes, Love is Blind” demonstration in support of full civil marriage for LGBT people, Thursday’s lecture by Dr. Mark Brown from the School of Zoology on the existence of

Rainbow Week could have gone unnoticed by the average Trinity student, who may think that every week in Trinity College is Rainbow Week.

homosexuality in the animal kingdom and, perhaps most successfully, Tuesday Night’s ‘Trinity’s Next Top Model’, the small scatterings of posters that are to be seen on the notice boards have offended many students that Trinity News spoke to on the matter, regardless of their sexual orientation. According to the posters, Friday was designated “If

1937: The first use of the “pink triangle” to identify gay men in Nazi concentration camps.

You Are Gay Wear Blue Jeans Friday”.

The posters for this “event” come in two different styles, one features the behind of a woman’s blue jeans and another features a man’s; a sort of his ‘n’ hers if you like. One witty man of the homosexual persuasion with whom I discussed this matter suggested that it would be deliciously ironic if he was to wear track-suit bottoms in an attempt to defy the polarized stereotype that we found ourselves subjected to by “Blue Jeans Friday.”

The range of almost degrading posters did not stop there. For example, one poster featured the words “I don’t mind straight people as long as they act gay in public”. This statement baffled me as by that same rationale one might easily conclude that they don’t mind gay people as long as they act straight in public.

If those of us who are gay, bisexual or transgendered are to live without fear of discrimination we need to cease drawing and redrawing the divide between “us” and “them”, as is often the temptation during events such as “Rainbow Week”. Trinity College, like many other colleges, is a place where a general acceptance of homosexuality is widespread in contrast with what might be felt in society and the big bad world.

Trinity College’s LGBT Society this year marks its 25th birthday, a remarkable feat not to be overlooked.

As for the Trinity’s oldest student society, the University Philosophical Society, one need only take a glance at its council to realise that your sexuality or sex for that matter are utterly irrelevant as success within it is achieved through merit alone.

Since the world is engulfed by the phenomenon of globalisation, collective identity often appears to be of greater significance than the identity of the individual. But a person’s sexual orientation should not be the basis on which a person defines herself. This, however, will continue to be the case as long as homosexuals remain systematically discriminated against by

1957: The word “Transsexual” is coined by United States physician Harry Benjamin.

1969: The Stonewall riots occur in New York 1972: Sweden becomes first country in the world to allow transsexuals to legally change their sex.

1973: The American Psychiatric Association removes homosexuality from its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-II), 1993: Norris vs. Ireland case: Ireland decriminalises homosexuality.

2000: The United Kingdom’s ban on homosexuals serving in the armed forces is abolished.

Germany officially apologises to gays and lesbians persecuted under the Nazi regime.

2001: Same-sex marriage is legalized in the Netherlands, the first country to do so.

2005: The United Kingdom introduces civil partnerships.

2006: Katherine Zappone and Ann Louise Gilligan fail in their high court bid to have their 2003 Canadian marriage recognized for the filing of joint tax returns in Ireland (The “KAL” Case).

2007: Bertie Ahern commits to “legislate for Civil Partnerships at the earliest possible date in the lifetime of this Government.”

March 2008: Irish civil partnership legislation expected to be introduced by the end of this month. The bill is expected to pass within a year. However, Brian Lenihan, Minister for Justice Equality and Law Reform, has ruled out gay marriage as being in conflict with the Constitution.

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TechnologicalRevolution

Plug pulled On Burma 3000 students were shot dead in 1988. Last year, Bhuddist monks took to the streets. Hotels are now charged $1000 per day for each television, and internet connections have been slowed to prevent the uploading of images and video footage; the Burmese governement are taking every step to keep the world, and democracy, out. Neil Monohan looks at how mobile phones and YouTube made a crucial difference to the 2007 protest but that little has changed. n September of last year the world’s media turned its attention, to the isolated nation of Myanmar, more familiarly known as Burma. Televisions around the globe were filled with arresting images of thousands of saffron-clad Buddhist monks marching in protest against the oppressive rule of the military junta. Inspired by their spiritual leaders’ brave example, great numbers of Burmese joined the strikingly colourful protests that called for democratic elections and an end to government corruption. These public demonstrations were, accordingly, christened the “saffron revolution”.

If the cause of this revolution was economic mismanagement and corruption amongst officials, then the tipping was an overnight rise on fuel prices by 66%. In a country where most of the population earn less than a dollar a day and suffer food shortages, despite the fact that the land is rich in natural resources, this was their breaking point.

The monks took to the streets of the main city, Rangoon, in a peaceful protest march to state their opposition to the increasingly difficult living conditions. In the face of these circumstances, the military elite of the junta lived lives of luxury and relative opulence, reaping the profits of the state-run businesses, bureaucratic corruption and the export of heroin. In their secluded residences they were oblivious to the poverty outside where most people spent 70% of their income on food.

The official title of the regime is “State Peace and Development Council” (SPDC). Senior General Than Shwe heads the SPDC, the body of 12 senior generals who run the country and make the key decisions. A military junta

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has been in power since 1962 following a coup which overthrew the democratic government. Burma had been a British colony until the Second World War, before gaining independence and a short-lived popular government. Ever since this point the country has been governed by these military leaders; they have commited gross human rights violations, imposed strict media censorship, and wasted natural resources.

In 1988 pro-democracy rallies and marches were held in the streets by students who were brave enough to show their dissent, much like the monks did last september. That year, however, the military junta led a vicious repression of the protests. The army shot dead 3000 student protesters and quelled the demonstrations with violent swiftness. There was no respect for the people’s wishes or desire for democracy.

This was further demonstrated in 1990 when, after allowing democratic elections, they lost heavily to the recently formed opposition, the National League for Democracy (NLD). The SPDC, surprised at the people’s choice, ignored the result and imprisoned the opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. She should have been the new Prime Minister of Burma but has, instead, spent most of the last 18 years under house-arrest.

The confusion caused by the twin use of the names Burma and Myanmar originated in 1989 when the SPDC renamed the country Myanmar, a traditional and ancient word for the land. The United States and Britain do not favour the SPDC’s rule and so do not respect the name change, unlike Russia, China or the United Nations.

China and Russia have ignored the junta’s civil rights abuses in order to

In their secluded residences they were oblivious to the poverty outside where most people spent 70% of their income on food

benefit from its natural resources and other exports. They have supported the SPDC politicall, using their security council vetoes to protect the junta’s regime.

In the autumn of last year the demonstations greatly increased, reaching 150,000 protesters in Rangoon on 24th September. The army’s rough treatment of the monks in previous days caused much anger in a largely Buddhist populace. This swelled the ranks of the marchers. It was at this point that the

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world media took interest in the events occurring in Burma. Footage of the marches in Rangoon appeared on CNN, Al Jazeera, and Sky News. This popular movement for better living standards and democratic rule struck a chord with people around the world jaded by the failing democratising project in Iraq. A more peaceful process seemed to be unfolding here, the people en masse challenging their oppressors without violence or foreign military support.

The optimism soon disppeared however when the SPDC led a crackdown on the monks and their protests. First, monasteries were raided on the night of the 25th during which monks were beaten, derobed, their leaders arrested and many sent home to their rural villages. In the following days the army shot into the crowds wounding many and killing others. Wounded and dead protesters were seen in the bloodstained streets as crowds were dispersed and panic set in. The streets of Rangoon descended into pandemonium. The army arrested 1400 hundred people and killed up to 200 more over the course of the few days. Very quickly the marches were over and the saffron robes were nowhere to be seen.

But all this occurred before the eyes of the world and led to public outcry in many nations. World leaders were called on to act and help the Burmese people. This lies in stark contrast to the similar protests of 1988 when far more than 200 were killed by the army. At that time the violent crackdown was over and done before word of it reached the outside world. As a result the massacre reached major news media only once the dust had already settled. The story of the event made little or no impact. In 1988 the protesters had no means by which to record and transmit quickly the violent suppression they experienced.

Even in today’s Burma, where the national television and radio are owned and controlled by the government, where censorship is strictly imposed by the Ministry of Information and where every computer must be registered with the authorities, the protesters had the means to broadcast their plight. Most of the images played on international news channels were provided by protesters themselves rather than professional journalists and cameramen. Thus, a ‘citizen media’ was in place to report on the SPDC’s crackdown and record the crushing of the pro-democracy demonstrations. YouTube also brimmed with video-clips of the turmoil on the streets.

The communications

Monasteries were raided on the night of the 25th during which monks were beaten and derobed

technologies in the hands of the recent demonstrators enabled the world to see the brutality and murderous intent of the authoritarian SPDC as though they were there themselves.

To counteract these citizen journalists and the destructive information they were transmitting, the government took the unprecedented step of shutting down the internet and mobile phone networks for the whole of Burma. They also closed all the internet cafes, prevetning access to most people in a country where few own a computer.

The reports and pictures from Rangoon slowed to a trickle, preventing the outside world from gaining a better understanding of the situation. By blocking the flow of information and images, the SPDC hoped to get themselves off of newspaper frontpages across the world. They achieved relative success; quickly the media moved onto other stories and Burma slipped to the inside pages or disappeared entirely.

The military junta had fought an information war with the protesters and accomplished its aims efficiently.

In the aftermath of this episode America and Britain have imposed economic sanctions and sought progress on democracy through diplomatic channels. However, as their best interests lie with the status quo, Russia and China have impeded any major sanctions. They continue to be the

principle importers of Burmese produce. An envoy has been sent by the United Nation to discuss matters with the SPDC; to assess the possibility of future democratic elections and an end to human rights abuses. The envoy has reported only frustration in his dialogue with the military leaders and their inaction. They are merely paying lipservice to furthering their efforts to bring about democracy. To appease the UN the SPDC has nominated an official to liaise between them and the opposition, the NLD, but this too has come to nothing after meetings have resulted in no change in the government’s stance.

800 people remain in prison since the september protests. Reports of prisoners dying and being tortured continue to surface. It appears that very little progress has been made since the initial outcry by the global public. The bravery of many Burmese people has thus far gone unrewarded.

A Burmese blogger named Dathana, writing in the opening days of 2008, summed up the current climate there: ‘I don’t want to write any more sad news about Burma. But all news about Burma is sad’. He published these words in frustration at seeing the chances of democracy quickly fizzle out.

The government is showing no signs of giving in to international pressure which is itself on the wane. It is not helped by the continued censorship being imposed on local media. The internet is back up but has been slowed to prevent video or photos being uploaded. A huge increase on licenses for satellite TV has been introduced that will restrict such television to only a handful of people.

For example, hotels are to be charged $1000 dollars for every television they own. Hence, not many will offer satellite TV from now on, further stemming the information flow. An informed citizenry is essential to any democracy but the SPDC do not want either an aware public or democracy.

Amazingly, during the saffron revolution Rambo IV was being filmed in the country. Its star, Sylvester Stallone, was interviewed at the time and described Burma in sensational terms: ‘This is a hellhole beyond your wildest dreams’.

Forgiving the Hollywood exaggeration, the Burmese people have indeed been living in harsh conditions under a brutal authoritarian government. But in September they sent a message to the world that they want change. We watched people risk their lives in doing this. The very least we can do is not forget them.

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WorldReview Political leaders fight personal feud as hundreds die on Kenyan streets In the last month, Kenya has seen an eruption in violence and political unrest in the aftermath of the December elections. This article looks at the colourful history of the country’s new leader, Mwai Kibaki.

ROBERT BRESLIN STAFF WRITER Following hotly contested elections in December, Kenya has been plunged into a period of unrest marred by corruption, violence and tribal conflict. Over 700 are confirmed dead, with the real figure probably much higher. Perhaps the most pertinent question now is simply why? How can an election result spark such instantaneous unrest? The answer, as is more often than not the case in African politics, is a complicated one that doesn’t lend itself to easy deciphering.

The incumbent, Mwai Kibaki, had in the build up to December’s election been accused of, at best, tacitly ignoring corruption and, at worst, actively participating in the culture of lawlessness that pervades Kenya’s infant democracy.

Opposition leader Raila Odinga, a self-styled social idealist turned democratic activist, had pushed the contest to the limit; launching his presidential campaign in Uhuru Pk in Nairobi on 6 October 2007 to an estimated crowd of some 450,000.

These were two men with a history

of opposing each other and though it would seem Odinga, as the underdog supposedly fighting against a corrupt system, had justice on his side, the reality may be that his sheer hunger for personal power has led to many unnecessary deaths. Odinga had initiated himself into Kenyan politics with involvement in failed coups and revolutionary movements and has only been an MP since 1992. He pressed for multi-party politics when Kenya was a one party state, yet some say his continued calls for mass rallies inevitably puts more innocent bodies in the line of fire, literally and that a boycott of businesses that support Kibaki (Equity Bank and bus companies CityHoppa and Kenya Bus) is a blatant attempt to polarise the country in a time of weakness. Such economic tactics will only hurt the small traders and never the truly corrupt elite that sit atop the country’s power structures.

Kibaki has a long political history dating back to Kenya’s first post-colonial days in 1957. He helped to draft the initial constitution, which was completed in 1963, and has been an MP ever since. In 2002, Kibaki finally won

the coveted presidential seat and immediately introduced a bill for free primary education. This bill helped nearly 1.7 million extra people enroll in school by the end of that year. But his government was wrought with problems from the start, his first cabinet was a careful balancing act with one Minister or Assistant Minister coming from each of Kenya’s forty-two areas.

Kibaki sought to centralise power more strictly under the presidency, in the hopes of running the country more efficiently.

However, opposition to the proposed changes ran such a strong campaign before the 2005 referendum, thanks largely to Raila Odinga, that 58% of Kenyans voted against them. Kibaki then made the unique decision to dissolve his whole cabinet. Odinga, who had

U.S. Marine Corps Cpl. Dustin Crouthamel, right, familiarizes a member of the Kenyan army with his rifle as part of bilateral exercise Edged Mallet '07 in Manda Bay, Kenya, on March 4, 2007 (above). Kenyan Premier Mwai Kibaki (inset) Photos: DEMOSH and British Ministry of Defense

been promised the vicepresidency in the 2002 elections on a pre-arranged agreement, now found himself and his entire liberal rainbow coalition completely out of government and this led to the formation of the Orange Democratic Movement. Their problem since seem to be their lack of ability to form a coherent opposition.

Upon arrival in Nairobi last week, Kofi Annan seemed to

suggest to the opposition that their only hope is to try and compromise with Kibaki’s government. This seems like a weak response from the former UN chief; how can a victimized opposition respect the rule of law when their oppressors do not, or speak in reasonable respected tones when they have no real outlet to voice their discontent?

Doubtless many Kenyans feel they would be better served by

Raila Odinga; however, such assumptions demand a lot of faith in a man yet to prove himself behind the reins of power and away from the shadows of vociferous opposition. Kenyans may have had enough of Kibaki. He has undoubtedly done a service to the country over his 50-year career, but relinquishing power can be difficult and he may not have his nation’s best interests at heart in this latest battle.

Turmoil in Pakistan: Time up for Musharraf?

With the increasing amount of protests in Pakistan, it looks like Musharraf’s time as head of state might be running out.

ARRAN SADLIER CONTRIBUTING WRITER That Pakistan is fast becoming a “failed nuclear state” is a phrase that’s been batted out throughout the country’s tumultuous past year. Towards the end of January, President Pervez Musharraf has been in meetings with governments and business leaders in Europe. He has given reassurances that “the elections in February will be free and fair.”

Opposition parties have counterclaimed that his promises ring false and they have a valid point. As Musharraf has stated that the elections will be held under the 2007 Pakistani state of emergency, at least three parties have stated they will boycott the elections scheduled for 18 February. The opposition parties have jointly stated that the elections could not be fair, as most opposition candidates were in jail under the state of emergency and thus unable to file nomination papers for the election.

Nonetheless, the party led by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has stated that his party will take part in the elections now that the assassinated Bhutto’s PPP party will also contest the elections. The PPP came up trumps in political polls released on 22 December registering 30% of the vote. Sharif’s party came in second with 28% followed closely by Musharraf’s party at

25%, which is increasingly losing popular support. The PPP named Bhutto’s son, 19-year old Bilawal Bhutto, the new party leader with his father Asif Ali Zardari as co-leader, as asked for in Benazir Bhutto’s testament.

The PPP leader was assassinated on December following the polls.

Reports indicate that the perpetrator was an Islamic fundamentalist, although many claims have been heavily rumoured that there was a more obvious perpetrator orchestrating the event, given that the person to benefit most from her death was President Musharraf himself.

It is never good for a foreign leader to be perceived as the darling of the American government, which Bhutto had come to be perceived as. Of course perception does not necessarily translate as reality. The United States administration has grown progressively frustrated with Musharraf in the last year, with the U.S. wanting to see more action done on stamping down on Islamic fundamentalism and increasing troops along the Afghan border.

Musharraf granted the U.S. access to three airbases back in 2001, but the U.S. has demanded more. America vocally supported Bhutto in pressuring to get Musharraf to relinquish his duel role as military and political head of state. This support did little to help Bhutto gain support, fuelling distrust and giving her opposition an easy weakness to pry at.

The scale of corruption under the Bhutto and Sharif governments of the 1990’s meant that there was little outrage over the military coup that brought Musharraf to power in 1999.

Being head of the military in Pakistan is a powerful position, given the influx of arms over its history, much of it coming (and still coming from) the United States, first in the fight against communism and now with the expectation of support in Afghanistan against Taliban militants.

On 29 November of last year, Musharraf was sworn in for a new five year term as the President of Pakistan.

The day before, the general tearfully handed over command of the army to his handpicked successor, General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani.

So the Supreme Court has been stripped of all independence by Musharraf. What does that leave? The army. And with his pal Kayani heading the army, it would appear that Musharraf still has an all too firm grip on the country, albeit one that is gradually slipping from his grasp with popular unrest. Across universities, student have been massing in the thousands, mobilising in demonstrations and protests, As protests run rampant, Musharraf continues his tour of Europe.

The crucial February elections will show us if it is to be the last time he will visit the continent as head of state.

worldreview@trinitynews.ie

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Opinion&Analysis

Remebering College in times gone by Megan Brown talks to John Ryan, former Phil Secretary and President, about his time in college, trying to cajole big-names to the GMB in between occasional lectures in Maths and Philosophy have fond memories of my time in Trinity and my days as President of the University Philosophical Society. I not attended a meeting of either of the debating societies before Peter Whyte, a friend and fellow philosophy student, asked me to become Secretary of the Phil. It was the least enviable position in College. The job entailed organising a weekly meeting: this meant using an old-fashioned typewriter and pleading with notables to come to Trinity. Student attendance was entirely dependant on how big the name was. You could have 400 people hanging from the rafters if the guest was famous. Of course we had the usual politicians at the time, such as former Taoisigh, Jack Lynch and Garret FitzGerald. I think we even had a Russian prime minister at one stage!

I read Maths and Philosophy, in the early days Joint Honours courses.

From a slacker’s point of view it was the ideal course. The philosophy department thought I was doing a lot of work for Maths and vice versa. In reality, I was doing very little in either.

My average attendance rate to lectures between October and the end of April was probably averaging around 20%.

Today’s students, as far as I see it, have it much different. However, those students who don’t have continual assessment have no excuse for not living it up!

The rivalry between the Hist and Phil was going strong in my student days. We did our best to outdo and sabotage each other – always in harmless jest, of course. The Hist is where aspiring politicians practised their trade; the Phil was more about paper-reading. Mary Harney was Auditor of the Hist the year I was President of the Phil. We still remain quite good friends. (Despite the fact she introduced me to my wife!)

Our goal was always to get someone to read an outrageous paper, one which managed to insult everyone.

I was able to wrangle up a few notable guests — most colourful characters — as shock and excitement were the responses we hoped to evoke.

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As Secretary, the most controversial meeting I organised was probably with Martin Smyth, then Grand Master of the Orange Order, and a Unionist politician. At the time there was a strong Republican sentiment around the College. Needless to say the meeting was marked by high tempers and colourful words!

Student life in the seventies was noticeably different from today. In particular, we were much more politically active. Every shade of political opinion was vehemently represented. In my first or second year we even had a Maoist leader of the Student’s Union! Around ’76 or ’77 we led a boycott of all catering facilities in College. We felt we were being overcharged for the Buttery grub. The boycott went on for months. At one point I remember trying to cross the picket line by the Buttery and being treated like a pariah! Every student in College was passionate about some issue.

The privilege we had as Auditor of the Hist and President of the Phil was membership of the University Club on St. Stephen’s Green. Mary Harney was the first female Auditor of the Hist and it was an all-male club. She tells the story of when she inquired about membership: she was told that it wasn’t because she was a woman that she didn’t get membership, but rather because she wasn’t a man!

I can only remember being there once. (I was boycotting in solidarity of Mary’s non-membership.) We had the Indian Ambassador to Ireland to a meeting at a time when Indira Gandhi or her son Sanjay Gandhi was pursuing a policy of forced sterilisation.

Needless to say, it was another very controversial meeting. We invited the Ambassador to dinner at the Club. He was wearing a Mao- style jacket, which you would normally not wear a tie with. As we were sitting there waiting for our dinner to come, a note was passed over to our table. It read: “Your guest is not wearing a tie.” I took the note and wrote on the back, “My guest

E Evelyn Tent Send all your gossip to evelyn.tent@trinitynews.ie opinionandanalysis@trinitynews.ie

is the representative in Ireland of the world’s largest democracy”, and sent it back.

There is one evening which I remember clearly. However, it was the year after I left.

In the old nepotistic way, I organised for one of my mates, Garry to succeed me as President. I spent a lot of time around Trinity the year after I left and I was still involved in the Phil despite not being a student anymore.

Oliver Reed, the English actor infamous for his excessive drinking and a notorious womanizing, was invited.

Garry and I decided, in order to keep Reed out of trouble, to shepherd him around Dublin instead of letting him

velyn just loves a good party, and who better to throw one than Ruth Faller, President of the Phil, and her roomie Elizabeth “phonebook” O’Brien. Titled “Fuck the Recession”, the party included a bathtub of alcohol, a chocolate fountain and margaritas on tap. The guest list was the crème de la crème of students, prominent journalists and members of the legal profession. The Gardaí even dropped by before midnight but soon left. Despite the exclusive grouping, poor Elizabeth had her phone stolen - bye bye phonebook!

Speaking of phones and parties, supermodel Naomi Campbell must have thrown her phone at another assistant, as she failed to keep a date with the Phil last week. All is not lost though; Campbell’s got herself a new assistant and should grace the GMB soon.

Speaking of hissy fits, Tim “formally a gentleman” Smyth has been spluttering quite a bit recently. He is having tiffs with selected women all over College, including one with his “little conquest” (his words not mine) Janet Coen. Not even able for a good old GMB argument he decided to get all misogynistic with Ruth Faller -

find his way to Trinity.

Reed was a huge man, and a really outrageous type. He would drink anyone under the table. In fact, it was even reported that he was heavily intoxicated when he died on the set of Gladiator in 1999. So, aware of his fondness for alcohol, we sent a big stocky bloke called Des, who looked like he could hold his drink, as chaperon.

It became apparent that looks weren’t everything. Reed was due back for Commons at six o’ clock. Of course, Reed didn’t make dinner and by a quarter past seven, there was still no sign of him or Des. Search parties were sent out canvassing all local pubs. I

apparently he doesn’t think her much of a lady. Well, it’s good to see he’s invited another fan of segregation – FW De Klerk -to the Hist. It is good company Mr. Smyth keeps.

Smyth has his fingers in a lot of pies. The CSC Exec is another one. And it seems all is not well in that fine dining committee. Perhaps Old Uncle Joe is unaware, but a slighted member of his exec is busying himself attempting to find opposition to Uncle Joe’s candidature for Hon. Tres. One exec member tole Evelyn “on a bad day, Joe could stand to lose 12-15 votes and on a good day, he could lose his five figure compensation”. What was that? Compensation? Dahling… did the CSC not tell this fine publication that there was “no remuneration for holding a position on CSC”? (Answers on a postcard please.)

Speaking of matriarchs, one prominent College authority told friends of Evelyn that “the noose needed to be tightened around Trinity News”. Evelyn is delighted to see the aggrieved parties believe I knows a bit too much. Good to know you’re a fan, dahlings. Kisses!

One person who may not have too many fans is Headmistress Stokes.

I’m sure she’s not too found of those

remember discovering my friend Des face down on top of a car on Grafton Street, unconscious. (He was brought to the old Jervis Street Hospital where he had to have his stomach pumped.)

This is how we learned that a glass and a half was enough to put Des on his ear.

Although we found Des, there was still no sign of Reed. We were really sweating bullets looking for this guy. Miraculously, Reed bounced in to the meeting about three minutes after it started and proceeded to do a handstand on the table. It was a lively debate as the meeting was provocatively titled, “Why I am a male chauvinistic pig”.

Halls boys whose legendary party made the pages of the Evening Herald.

Neither were the ladies of the Communications Office who busied themselves this week by getting bigger desks and escorting renowned scientist Chris De Burgh to the opening of the Naughton Institute. So busy they were they missed a call from a certain tabloid journalist. The following day the Herald featured a double page spread complete with pictures of the Halls boys and their “allegedly transexual” stripper. Oops!

Poor Emma couldn’t even give those naughty boys a good spanking: after all, her powers don’t extent as far as Dartry. And the Dean has another problem, as her powers won’t allow her to discipline the recently divorced member of the College community who’s been looking for a good lady to escort him in the evenings. Dahling, I’m free, cheap and easy, send your requests to House 6 and I’ll be sure to deal with them personally.

There weren’t many fond words for Dean Stokes at the retirement party of a senior member of the College community who worked under Stokes. One partygoer said of the retiree: “She worked for several other Deans and never had a problem. I

wonder why she retired soon after Emma became Dean”. Dean Stokes – difficult? Who said that? Staff?

Students? Oh, well, at least she didn’t face the possibility of legal action like her colleague Mr. O’Gorman after the departure of one of his staff. I wonder if this will be a topic of conversation when the gruesome twosome celebrate Chinese New Year with some of the students who reside on campus. Oh, to be a fly on the wall...

Evelyn is a big fan of college bureaucracy and just can’t wait to read the findings of the working group responsible for looking into the health and safety implications of new couches being placed in the Arts Block.

Important work, no doubt. Or how about the bored security staff who removed chanting queens from Front Square during an unauthorised photo call? Or the member of staff who gave Muireann McDonnell’s (Colin Farrell’s girlfriend) college timetable to a tabloid journalist. Evelyn just loves the way this College operates.

Until next time dahlings,

E.T.

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Hilary term, Week 4

Opinion&Analysis Face Off with Joey Facer For the third year in a row, it can be revealed that The Killers are not playing the Trinity Ball. Hallelujah! Yet another reason to get so locked you cannot stand. No good bands to miss! Hurrah.

Trinity Ball has been undergoing some sort of identity crisis in recent years. With the tickets still bearing the immortal “Formal Dress Required”, many Junior Freshmen (Brits in particular, with the legend of Oxbridge still ringing in their ears) may be foolishly expecting something of a classy ilk. Take, for example, the Christchurch (Oxford) Ball, where a £70stg ticket will buy you a punt-ridden entry and complimentary canopes and champagne in a classy marquee with a jazz accompaniment.

Alas, although the Trinity Ball is the most hyped event of the College year, this is one night that will fail to deliver if you have not already adjusted your rose-tinted glasses very slightly.

The fact that for four years straight the weather has been a) cold or b) wet or c) all of the above should signal to many that “Formal Dress Required” really ought to be replaced with the warning “Formal Dress Ruined – Ensure Deposit Paid on Tux Hire”. The ball’s several tents have generally played host to innumerable “up and coming” bands and the festival atmosphere is often accompanied by suitable amounts of mud and vomit.

The pain of attending such an event would be considerably decreased with the dispensing of formal attire. Not only are ball-gowns and dinner jackets a hefty expense for many paltry student pay-packets, but the ball is cold. The doors open around 11pm, and within two hours if you have not taken advantage of the very pricy insulation offered (read: alcohol), your lovely strappy sandals are soon playing host to some very blue feet.

Indoor venues with canopes and a string quartet are the appropriate receivers of formally-attired students. Grassy, muddy, cobble-stoned campuses are not. Bands are good, but I’ll hazard few of you would have thought of wearing a tux to the last gig you attended.

Last year, old Ents Officer Barry Murphy was coaxed by Trinners hack Niall Morris into signing a lucrative deal for MCD, thus strapping new kid on the block O’Riordan with the old Ball format of too many bands, not enough DJs. Whilst if one of your favourite acts happens to be gracing a stage, the ticket price can look very reasonable, for those other punters, upwards of €70 is quite a lot for a night of shivering and bad overpriced drink.

Nevertheless, there are positives to the Ball.

The night can be amazing if planned correctly. One friend relates to me his former adventures taxi-ing around four different house parties, each more fabulous than the last, before finally entering the Trinity gates (he presumes) to spend his night… (Sadly, the rest is a blank.

He remembers the morning after, however.) Likewise, I am told of the Senior Freshman who was, and I quote, “too drunk to go to the Ball”. She assures me a good night was had by all in her pad, however.

For pre-Ball entertaintment, nothing can be more swish than the “Chairman’s Dinner”, an invitationonly buffet event held for those in College who may otherwise cause a bit of a stir at their inaccessible offices come Ball-time.

Indeed, entering the Ball following your preparty can often be sopmething of a disappointment. A former hack retired early in her first year, having lost both shoes and dignity. On being informed by the surly Front Gate bouncer she would not be permitted to reenter after leaving the property, she replied “thank God!” There is no doubt that the Ball is a great tradition in Trinity; great applying to the length of tradition and rarely to the event itself. It is one night of the year the entire student body seems determined to get hammered, whether or not the ball is attended. “Ball Alternative” parties for those out of pocket, or simply too slow off the mark to acquire a ticket, abound on the night. There is also a certain esteemed academic’s annual “we should ban the Ball to save the gardens” email to get excited about before the event.

The Trinity Ball is loud and dirty and a night of sheer hedonism for most. In what other university would a dress costing your monthly allowance/pay packet even dream of being taken to a dodgy portaloo?

There is a sense of drunken fellowship, of charged excitement; and even if the bow-ties are often discarded before the stroke of midnight, it is still nice to see your friends looking their sharpest.

This year, some Ball resolutions: do not allow your outfit to cost more than your ticket. It will probably become ruined, or else you will miss out on being happy to have some fun ruining it without lamenting its loss.

Do not eat any meat served on the premise. If you think a hangover is bad, it can become so very much worse.

Do not give away your hired jacket to a lurching-Bambi of a Junior Freshman BESS girl; you will never see it again. And most of all, however great your cynicism, do not, under any circumstances, stay at home.

One of Trinity's many special trees just in front of the Rubrics. Green Week, all next week, includes a guided tour of Trinity's trees from 1-2 p.m. on Thursday February 7th with Dr. Paul Dowding, Botany Dept. and Mr David Hackett, Head Groundsman. The tour will start at the Campanile. Trinity's unusual collection of trees was described in a book published in 1993 titled 'Trees of Trinity College Dublin' which is available from the Botany Department. The tree tour is just one of the events planned for Green Week. At 2 p.m. in College Park there will be a frisbee competition.

f I had to give one piece of advice to people considering running for Students’ Union sabbatical officers, it would be to put your Bebo page on “private” and not to ask your friends who are not involved in student politics to wear tshirts or generally help you out too much. If you don’t keep your private life private, the election will subconsciously feel like a referendum on “Is Joe Bloggs a nice person?” meaning if you lose, you’ll be emotionally battered.

I can’t wait to have a son and roar abuse at under-14s rugby referees.

The ability to use a person’s first name in conversation is an asset I wish I possessed. The former chaplain in my old school would deftly slip “Conal”, seemingly randomly, into conversations; it’s a great way of establishing undivided attention and trust.

I don’t particularly like watching football on television, but I can see the attraction of the Premiership. The structure of the economy means that most men work in “customer service”

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with Conal Campbell

type jobs where breaking political correctness is a mortal sin. But once a week these men get to be in a stadium full of other men and shout and roar and call the referee a cunt. It’s a one afternoon a week substitute for working in the type of industrial job the economy used to have where a man could act-the-goat with his friends and not have to moderate his urges.

The Washington Ireland Program (www.wiprogram.org) has advertisements up around college. A fantastic program if you want to intern for the summer. I unsuccessfully interviewed. I suspect the reason was that when asked why I joined the Progressive Democrats, I gave a straight answer. The Irish national mindset is to reject anyone who is going to rock the boat. Keep your head down, spout something vacuous like “I got involved because I don’t feel enough young people get involved in politics” and you’ll go far. Apparently the state should look after bastard children.

Why do they just open the door in the gate at Front Arch? If someone is

trying to get a bicycle through at lunchtime, it’s a gridlock.

After two driving test failures, my biggest dream in life is to stop the car after doing something stupid (for which you know you have failed the test) and say “well, this is the road to my house, I’ll let you out here” and make him walk back to the test centre.

I’ve developed strange semirelationships with several people in the Arts Block. The pattern of the relationship is: common Junior Freshman tutorial, you say “hi” in the corridor one day and you’re forced to keep it up for the next four years. I particularly resent it with attractive girls. It’s emasculating to not have been able to summon the courage to say “Hi, would you like to go for a cup of coffee and several minutes heavy breathing?” most days since 2004.

I suspect I’m alone here, but I’m opposed to people being allowed to rest their heads on library desks and go sleep. It’s not a hippy commune, go for a coffee and a walk around College Park if you’re fading.

Maybe new Library opening hours aren’t such a good idea KEVIN LYNCH OPINION EDITOR No student, when asked, will refuse the offer or extended opening hours, just like no taxpayer would turn down a tax cut. It seems a great idea - students campaigning on a practical change that directly benefits their welfare, an educational, actionable and possible solution. However, we must ask what the problem we are trying to solve is.

What does the library provide for readers? They are already open all day during the week, on Saturdays and Sundays during Trinity term. For most of the year, they are underutilised, followed by a mad rush in week nine of Michaelmas and Hilary terms. Secondly the library already provides extensive electronic services that are accessible all the time. Of course the library should continuously improve, but exaggerated claims that college fails to provide add nothing to the debate.

The library question is really part of two larger debates, how students manage their time in the “consumer society” and how to facilitate those from non-traditional backgrounds or facing financial hardship.

The modern student has, or should have, a wide range of activities: sports, voluntary work, society involvement, parttime work etc. but the reason we come to university is to read for our degrees. These are all worthy activities and are an essential part of attending a “school of universal learning”. In a

fast changing economy, with specialised, on-the-job skills required, a graduate‘s worth is defined by the initiative they showed in using their spare time and opportunities afforded to them, rather the subject their degree is awarded in.

An essential part of this training is making the switch from the regimented environment of family and school to the freedom of university. Rather than apportioning blame to the College, students should manage their time better within the constraints they face. If a student can’t find time to study between in the eleven opening hours on weekdays or Saturday mornings, they should put it at the heart of their schedules rather than obtuse hours of the night or weekend. A student in College on Sundays should be attending the Chapel or representing Dublin University on College Park A more important change is the forced introduction of modularisation, which will kill the traditional three term structure. Academic and other commitments can no longer be balanced throughout the year. Studies will be guided by the tyranny of the exam rather than intellectual exploration and research in the first two terms followed by a consolidation of learning in Trinity term.

A subset of arguments is the pressures felt by poor or mature students given their family or work commitments. All students renounce four years of earnings to study, knowing that their future income will be higher. It is difficult to believe that students yearn to study every afternoon, but are saved by their toil in the workplace. Most student work, casual and part-time, is available during holidays, Christmas and summer

and at weekends, when pubs, shops and restaurants are busier.

Of course some students struggle through their studies, but wider socio-economic issues can’t be addressed by a marginal increase in opening hours. Perhaps the cost of opening the reading rooms would be spent more wisely on bursaries and prizes for underprivileged students. Trinity faces a serious lack of rooms for students, which are essential to orientating students toward the college as a locus of their life and providing suitable term-time accommodation.

Those behind the library campaign are undoubtedly well-intentioned, but misguided. The call to arms of “Library Action”, is essentially a populist one. Sadly this is part of a larger trend of the increasing trivialisation of Students’ Union politics. Flags, condoms, couches and fair trade interest the student activist. While the Union didn’t initiate this campaign, they happily jumped on the bandwagon. They above all should be aware of the complex nature of educational policy and university governance. It signals to College authorities that students are not concerned about falling rates of participation among their peers, Trinity’s lost prowess on the playing field or the ghost of our collegiate spirit.

In an increasingly erratic world, where technology has brought fast changes in lifestyles, library opening hours ground students to a reasonable timetable. If you can’t find time to study within the present hours, then maybe you need to avail of the Student Counselling Service rather than the library.

opinionandanalysis@trinitynews.ie

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Issue 6, Volume 54 Tuesday, January 15th, 2008 6 Trinity College, Dublin 2 www.trinitynews.ie

CCTV is little comfort Enter Front Arch, walk across Front Square, go past the Dining Hall, along the front of the GMB and onwards towards New Square. It is likely that at any busy time of the day, few students could walk this route without meeting a familiar face or two. If you walked that route today those familiar faces as well as your own would be captured at least five times on CCTV. College has announced that it is to extend its network of CCTV cameras around our campus. New cameras will be installed at the Nassau Street entrance and the Sports Hall as part of a plan to provide campus-wide coverage. This is being done at great expense at a time when there is talk of tihtening of belts and reducing of budgets. Given this one must assume that CCTV is a high priority for the College but assuming this one must wonder why does the College fear so much for its security?

Reason to fear can often be found in the pages of this newspaper. Twelve months ago Trinity learned that it was being touted as the prime location for casual sex in public toilets while in this issue of the paper you will see that these toilets are now most frequented by heroin addicts. In this past week there was a break-in in Goldsmith Hall while any member of College Security staff can tell of trouble with vagrants and beggars alike.

In response to all this College has given us CCTV. We are not reassured.

CCTV is a passive security measure, useful as evidence in a prosecution after someone has been mugged but unlikely to stop the mugging itself. CCTV cannot protect the students and staff of this College but will merely keep a record of abuses suffered. If the College authorities truly want to protect us from the dangers of the outside world they must keep this dangers just so - outside. If the aim is complete protection what is needed is a return to a closed campus with ID checks at the gates. Once Trinity stops being used as a thoroughfare we would see a dramatic drop in risk to students and staff.

CCTV can only be effective if somebody is watching the monitors all day every day. If you make that journey across Front Square, past the Dining Hall, along the front of the GMB and onwards towards New Square every day, or many other routes around College for that matter...

A historic image: hypocrisy?

The plan to redesign portions of Foster Place into a multimillion euro bar is far from an ideal situation, but an apparently necessary one if we are to protect the historic buildings Trinity has acquired over the years.

The college purchased Foster place from Allied Irish Bank many years ago, and promptly let the building fall into disrepair. For those of you unfamiliar with the structure, it is a fine building with chandelier-crowned boardrooms, impressive wooden decor, and one of the finest banking halls in the country. Now, however, these features and fine rooms are dusty, damaged, or used for storage and small tutorial groups.

The college has a responsibility to maintain its historic assets at a high level. Almost every other university in the country has a modern campus with clean, bright, expertly managed buildings. Trinity, on the other hand, has some far more attractive architecture, but is allowing the interiors to degrade to such an extent that one wonders why it pursues the historic image.

If Trinity is proud of its traditions, then a proper commitment to providing modern standards in ageing buildings is necessary. Foster place is a fine example, as it served as a centre for a modrn financial organisation for years. Within the time that Trinity has possessed the site, it has fallen into such a poor state that multi-million euro of private investment is required to bring it up to standard.

letters@trinitynews.ie

Letters

All letters to The Editor, Trinity News, 6 Trinity College, Dublin 2 or letters@trinitynews.ie

A correction of your English knowledge Sir,- Thanks to your ever-informative newspaper, I was intrigued to discover that England now has its own government independent of the rest of the United Kingdom.

The revolutionary revelation revealed its revelatory head in a recent article written by your esteemed contributor, Joey Facer. I'm not sure why I've opted for so much alliteration, but please bear with me.

Discussing the Irish International University scandal (Hilary term – Week 2), Facer claimed that "the English government, for its part, has promised that by 2009, all colleges who wish to bring overseas students into the country must be accredited by an independent organisation.

While I very much enjoy Facer's fortnightly “Face Off” feature, I am astounded

Obituary

that she could make such an awfully appalling, atrocious error. Were I as gifted as she in the realms of word play, then I would make a pun regarding her “face”, some egg, and the meeting of these two entities.

England does not, contrary to the wishes of its many inhabitants and Dr Gerald Morgan (see letters to the Telegraph, 24 October, 2006) have its own government. Whether England should have one is a debate for another day, but for now, your staff should be given a quick lesson in the politics of the United Kingdom.

Or if there's no time for that, they should at least be advised to do a little more research before locking themselves in the Publications Office to write things that just aren't true.

Some research of my own* (*Facebook-ed.) has revealed that Facer is herself from England,

so it seems strange that she would be ignorant of the fact that the "English government" to which she refers, is led by a man from Scotland and serves Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and England.

I sincerely hope it was just an honest mistake, but to ensure that nothing of this nature is repeated again, I suggest that Facer should step away from the books she has so eagerly defended in the past, and turn on the television now and again. Because a little bit of current affairs doesn't hurt anyone. Of course, she could instead a pick up a newspaper, but then again, they'll print anything these days…

Yours etc Thomas Morris JS English & Philosophy

obituaries@trinitynews.ie

An excellent Editor and pastor Members of Trinity News received before Christmas the sad news that another of the newspaper’s early editors had passed away.

Desmond Harman, chairman of Trinity News in Hilary term, 1963, died age 66 on 18 December.

Originally from Carrick on Shannon in Co Limerick, he read Hebrew and Oriental Languages at Trinity. He took his BA in 1965.

He was ordained in the Church of Ireland in 1967. He served as curate-assistant of Taney, Dundrum, for six years, followed by thirteen years as rector of Santry and Glasnevin. In 1986 he was appointed rector of Sandford and Milltown and to several chaplaincies. In 1991 he was appointed a canon of Christ Church Cathedral.

In 2004 he was appointed Dean of Christ Church Cathedral by the Archbishop of Dublin Dr John Neill, where he served until his death.

The Archdeacon of Glendalough, Edgar Swann, at the funeral Eucharist for Dean Harman, mentioned his skills, his editorial talents in particular: “Even in College, certain skills were obvious in Desmond’s character. He became engrossed in the editorship of Trinity News, a task in which he showed great talent. It was a talent which was to come to the surface again when he became editor of the diocesan review.”

From 1981–2000 he was editor of the

From the archive

Church Review, undoubtedly drawing on his earlier experience as chairman of Trinity News.

Church Review became established as one of the leading diocesan magazines in the Anglican Communion during his editorship.

He was in touch with Trinity News until recently. “I am so glad to see the present production,” he wrote last May. “It is a long way from what we did, but I suppose you have massive resources showered on you!”

Archbishop Neill paid tribute to him: “Dean Harman’s death is a huge loss to the dioceses and the Church as a whole. He served in ministry for over 40 years and he will be remembered in every parish he served in as a gentle and caring pastor.

“For his wife Sue and their children, the loss of a loving husband and father will be profound, all the more so so close to Christmas.

I have already offered my deepest sympathies and condolences both on my own behalf and on behalf of the clergy and people of the Dioceses of Dublin and Glendalough. Our love, thoughts and prayers are with them.”

The high esteem in which Dean Harman was held in Dublin was evident at his funeral Eucharist, which was attended by the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin, the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Cllr Paddy Burke, representatives of the Taoiseach and the President and many bishops of the Church of Ireland.

The Very Revd Robert Desmond Harman, MA. Born 1941. Died December 2007, age 66.

(Peter Henry)

Compiled by Peter Henry

Academic nudity at the College Historical Society Gentlemen, – We, your sub-committee appointed to inquire into academic nudity, beg to report as follows.

Being deeply sensible of the gravity of the trust committed to us and its importance in as much as has devolved upon us the duty of deciding the exact custom and tradition of the Society and, in addition, we had the benefit of the vast and well-nigh mythical learning of Mr JS Alcorn, who acquaintance with the subject of nudity is almost unparalleled and who punctilious respect for decorum has established him as par excellence the academic Mrs Grundy.

Law 4 of the fundamental rules prescribes that annual members shall wear academic dress at meetings of the Society. By the statutes of the University and College, academic dress is defined as a proper gown and cap and hood according to the degree. The meaning, then of the words ‘academic dress’ is clear and indubitable, but the problem arises, what constitutes academic nudity. Recourse to dictionaries is of little avail. Nudity, it was suggested, may be defined as the entire absence of costume and hence, a fortiori, academic nudity is the entire absence of academic costume. That this explanation is unsatisfactory may be demonstrated by a simple example.

A plain, billy-cock hat is without a doubt an article of dress, but, if any man were to appear clad in a billy-cock hat and nought else besides, the law would certainly step in and such a person would be considered to be in a state of nudity for all practical purposes. We may conclude that academic nudity is such

absence of academic costume as a reasonable man would consider indecorous or unseemly.

And therefore it is requisite, in our opinion as reasonable men, that as a bare minimum every annual member being either bachelor, or scholar of the house, should wear a full, seemly gown, and every annual member being a pensioner or sizar, should wear the customary, lesser gown, commonly called the jib’s gown.

Tradition and the plain meaning of the law demand that the gown should be worn visibly and above all other garments. Indeed, that academic dress should be worn visibly beneath other dress by way of lingerie or underwear, is a subversion of the purpose for which such costume was ordained, to wit, the identification of the wearer as a member of the University.

Furthermore, a gown must be a gown. A collection of black rags held together by pins, or a concentration of dark coloured ribbons assembled by cords is not a gown, and any member who attempts to appear in such a costume merits rebuke and punishment.

It is difficult and, indeed, almost impossible to prescribe within exact limits the exact length and breadth that a gown should possess. But we recommend the Auditor should permit no annual member to be present at the meetings of the Society whose gown does not reach to within at least a hand’s breadth from his knee.

Before concluding this report, we desire to express our sorrow that one ancient custom of the Society has been allowed to fall into desuetude. Formerly, all members came to the

meetings attired in the square cap that the collegiate statues prescribe; and during the meeting they had their caps in close proximity to their persons. This is no longer done. We suggest that the officers, at least, revive this venerable and worthy custom.

We will end by briefly summarising our findings, recommendations, and suggestions: 1. That a gown is the very minimum of academic dress.

2. That the gown must be worn visibly above all other clothing.

3. That the gown must be of the usual pattern, proper, decent, and seemly, and must cover at least three-fourths of the area of the back and reach to at least within a hand’s breadth of the knee.

4. That it is desirable that officers should bring with them to meetings their caps.

Such, gentlemen, is the conclusion and result of our labours which we commit to you in sure and certain hope that they will not have been in vain, but will bring forth fruit abundantly, some thirty-fold, some forty-fold, and some a hundred-fold.

(Signed) HE Woulfe Flanagan, RP McDermott and MT Porteus.

From the College Historical Society sub-committee’s report on academic nudity, c1933, quoted in Budd and Hinds (eds), The Hist and Edmund Burke’s Club (Dublin: Lilliput Press, 1997)

TRINITY NEWS

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Hilary Term, Week 4

WorldTravel J1 SPECIAL

Living the American Dream in Berkeley A summer abroad is an ever-popular staple of student life. But a different country, even a different continent, means a different way of doing things. Rachel Fahy shares her experiences of a summer in Berkeley with Trinity News readers for their enlightenment.

RACHEL FAHY CONTRIBUTING WRITER

“

“To the Irish kids who fucked up the house before you left, That was low. I don’t know if you didn’t clean your shit because you are mad about deposits or what, but I had to clean all of it. That was a real smack in the face. I gave you guys serious rent discounts, a cheap deposit and let you guys slide on a lot of shit, like smoking in the house (got yelled at for that), not fining for late rent in July (EVERYONE was at least a day late), using the kitchen, partying nightly, etc. I didn’t have to do any of that. Not to mention all of the extra shit I had to do, like cleaning up puke and cigarette butts. So thanks for making my already ultra-stressful month even more so.

Thanks to the people who took care of their shit like responsible human-beings.

The rest of you are scumbags.

PS - Tommy and Orla - you guys never paid those checks that bounced.

Not that I’ll ever see it, but I hope you appreciate the extra work and time I have to spend dealing with the owners verbally undressing me for letting Irish people move in in the first place. You proved everyone right who said you were a waste of time and generally bad people. Good work. Not that you care.”

And that was the email we got from the house manager of Alpha Sigma Phi last August.

Last June, seventeen friends and I went to Berkeley on a J1 and it was amazing. Berkeley is hands-down the best place to do a J1. When we arrived in San Francisco, we headed straight there.

We literally spent two days trekking around Berkeley looking for accommodation. The only way to do it out there is to go really early -the start of June, if possible, and knock on the doors of the frat house. Ask for the house manager and hopefully they will have rooms available. We ended up getting split up into three frat houses.

Myself and four of the girls ended up staying in Alpha Sigma Phi. The best place to look for frat houses is Piedmont Avenue and all the streets perpendicular to it. The best frat houses to stay in, according to other Berkeley dwellers are: Alpha Sigma Phi- the house I was in (however, given that the house manager is currently drinking the hater-ade when it comes na hEireannaigh, perhaps you’d be better off somewhere else), Another good place to stay is Alpha Epsilon Pi (that house is a Jewish fraternity and they are absolute legends- US$300 rent for the whole summer), Chi Phi, Delta Upsilon Pi on Warring, Delta Nu on Bancroft-they have a roof top bar and a snake pit! And Phi Kappa Epsilon, generally known as PIKE. The alcohol is ridiculously cheap compared to here - land of Ceól agus Ól

worldtravel@trinitynews.ie

You really do get what you pay for. Five of us were sleeping in the same room and we even had a “pet” mouse called Fiefal.

”

my eye! They all drink this “beer” called natural ice- it’s 50c a can and beggars can’t be choosers. Our rent cost US$700 for the summer, mainly because we got screwed out of our deposit - most house managers do that because they can get away with it. To recoup our losses a few of us “forgot” to pay the last month’s rent. Not that I encourage it or condone it, but certain people moved out in the middle of August into friend’s houses conveniently missing rent day or wrote cheques that accidentally bouncedthrough no fault of their own …

From June to August, Berkeley turns into a compound lived in exclusively by Irish people. As Tommy Tiernan said ‘”The Irish don’t invade, they infest”. You go away for the summer to get away from Ireland and yet in Berkeley, all you do is hang around with them. We’re fairly easy to spot – pale and usually drunk or lost or both. There were 21 Irish people living in my frat house and a few Americans from the fraternity.

It’s really handy if you live with an American who has a car - no long grueling walks back from the off-license.

If you forget to bring your passport with you to the offo, you can usually get away with a photocopy, or so I’ve heard. In general a provisional driver’s license will get you into any club in San Francisco/Berkeley. The one thing to be REALLY careful about, however, is not to walk around with an open container of alcohol. There are always undercover cops lurking around the place and if they catch you, you win a US$500 fine

and a trip to court- not so happy days.

I don’t want to glamorize the accommodation; however, you really do get what you pay for. Five of us were sleeping in the same room and we even had a “pet” mouse called Fiefal. But aside from that and “Pat the rat” in the basement things were pretty ok. The house was really big with a balcony and games room, so you didn’t spend much time in your room anyway.

I should probably mention jobs at this stage. Most of the people I went with brought a lot of money with them and because rent was so cheap they didn’t have to work much. I slaved away in Gap for a total of six days in ten weeks and then borrowed money from my parents. September was a lean month! There aren’t many jobs going in Berkeley because they keep on their students over the summer, so your best bet is San Francisco city. It’s easy to get to by train (the BART) and most people I know worked in clothes shops.

Abercrombie is a good place to get a job if you want a lot of hours. Gap is good if you want an excuse not to work because they really don’t care whether you come in or not. I didn’t show up for two weeks and I still had a job! Other people I know worked in Nike town and other shops near Union Square. Pier 39 is also a good place to get work. Again you have to get there early to get a job.

Anyway, I hope that the above information will help you somewhat, Berkeley ’08 – have a good one!

Some Californian facts of life Los Angeles law forbids you from licking a toad.

at 282 feet below sea level.

You cannot bathe two babies in the same tub at the same time in Los Angeles.

If your dogs are found mating within 500 years of a church in Los Angeles, you could be punished by a fine of $500 and/or six months in prison.

Approximately 8% of Californians are vegetarians.

It is illegal to pile horse manure more than six feet high on a San Francisco street corner In Santa Monica, it is against the law to play percussion instruments on the beach.

In the late 1850s, Kennedy Mine, located in Jackson, served as one of the richest gold mines in the world and the deepest mine in North America.

Death Valley in southern California is the lowest point in the United States

In Shasta Lake, you may not raffle off a dog as a gift in any public place.

Ducks have the right of way to cross Rancho California Street in Temecula.

In Walnut, California, if you fly a kite more than 10 feet above the ground you are in violation of the law.

An ordinance in Carmel, California, makes it unlawful for a lady to take a bath in a business office.

Castroville, California is

known as the Artichoke Capital of the World. In 1947, Norma Jean, who would later be known as Marilyn Monroe, was crowned Artichoke Queen.

It is illegal to drive more than two thousand sheep down Hollywood Boulevard at one time.

California grows over 300,000 tons of grapes each year.

It is illegal to walk a camel down Palm Canyon Drive between the hours of four and six p.m. in Palm Springs.

San Francisco Bay is considered the world's largest landlocked harbor.

Courtesy of www.legendsofamerica.com

TRINITY NEWS

Hilary Term, Week 4

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WorldTravel J1 SPECIAL

Under-whelmed by smalltown New Hampshire JANE MADDEN CONTRIBUTING WRITER Dawson’s Creek and Desperate Housewives have instilled this weird notion in us that, in smalltown America, beneath the surface, something more interesting is lurking. It’s not. If it is, it’s probably just a broken shopping trolley.

I don’t want to sound like I just overdosed on gin and bitter lemon. I’m sure that the staff of Abercrombie and Fitch are lovely. Really. And I am sure that the West Coast is just so amazing. I would hazard a guess that all the guys/girls are dirty big rides. Probably something to do with their tans. I don’t doubt for a moment that drinking on the beach in Santa Barbara with the aforementioned rides is the best thing ever. I stand absolutely convinced that J-1ing it to the max can be fantastic.

Problems arise however, when you go to Portsmouth, New Hampshire (I’d never heard of it, either), a town which makes the prospect of watching paint dry appealing. My first inclination that this was not exactly going to be the summer when I grew from a girl into a young woman was when a Portsmouth resident informed me that there was always something to do there. Forget New York, this was truly the town that never slept. In fact, just last Saturday she saw young people in town at midnight.

Midnight. Can you imagine? Crazy. She then went on to tell me that she tries not to drink tea after 3pm because of the caffeine, but last night she had a cup at 5pm and you know what? She felt okay.

I, meanwhile, began to develop mixed feelings as to whether the grand I had spent on tickets and visas was that sound an investment.

You read that right by the way. A grand. People always conveniently leave out the bit about the cost when they’re telling you that getting a J-1 is something you just have to do. What they also tend to leave out is how bloody weird Americans can be.

First of all, I don’t trust anyone who gives their children surnames for

worldtravel@trinitynews.ie

first names. As far as I am concerned, if it begins with “Mac”, it’s a surname and goes after a first name. McKenna, for example. Definitely a surname. You cannot call your child “son of Kenna” and expect me to talk to you like you are a normal person. The same goes for naming your children with verbs and nouns instead of plumping for a more sensible option. “Mary”, for instance, is a charming name. “Grant”, on the other hand, is a monetary donation awarded to students, artists and entrepreneurs who don’t have enough money to study, paint or whatever the hell entrepreneurs do. Sell things. Whatever. “Grant” is not a name. Neither, for that matter is “Chase”.

Speaking of getting nouns, verbs and adjectives mixed up, their slang is bizarre.

In New Hampshire, the word “wicked” is used to add emphasis to something. As in “that guy left me a wicked small tip.” Or, “I’m gonna wicked deep-fry this thing”. Or, “I can’t believe I’m using a word that used to mean cool at about the same time Billie Piper was starting out. How wicked crap am I?” In truth, this was the least of my worries.

The biggest problem I had was with swearing. Namely, dropping the F-bomb.

Yes. They have a phrase to warn people that they are about to swear. Just in case expletives offend anyone. In the same vein of thought, they use abbreviations like SFA for “sweet fuck all”. Now, I understand that in certain circumstances, swearing is not the best course of action. Sunday lunch, for example. Job interviews. Confession.

Court hearings. All situations where liberally peppering your speech with obscenities will at the very least raise a few eyebrows. But sitting around after work? If you need to warn a normal- I use the term loosely -21-year old that

“ ”

you are about to swear during the course of a casual interaction then something is wrong.

It’s only fuck, for fuck’s sake.

And this bloody notion of tipping.

America is the only country in the civilised world where employers do not pay their employees. Do you know what your paycheck comes to after tax if you are a waiter in the States? Zero. That’s right. Less than one, more than minus one. Nothing. SF-bombA. So how do you make your money? You impress upon your customer exactly how good you are at your job and try and convince them that you enhanced their experience of the restaurant so much (Americans never just go anywhere, they experience places) that what they got was worth more than the price on the menu.

So they pay a little extra than it says on the bill- a tip as the man says -and you get to keep it.

That’s your pay. Five ketchup-smeared dollars left on a dirty tabletop. Land of the free, my butt.

And because you are dependant on the generosity of the customers for your rent, the notion of “customer service” takes over your very being almost to the point that you are willing to lick the soles of their big white Reebok sneakers if it means an extra couple of dollars. Waitstaff training takes an only marginally shorter amount of time that it would have to become a druid in medieval times. They have people in the crappiest of burger joints who have no duties other than topping the glasses of tap water. There’s all sorts of important things you have to learn like how to put the flowery side, not the stripy side, of the five cent napkins facing up. Because as soon as any customer walks in and sees stripes, they

Do you know what your paycheck in America comes to after tax if you are a waiter? Zero.

Absolutely nothing

probably will the throw the napkin down in disgust and walk out, threatening some sort of legal action.

Probably.

Speaking of restaturants, I now have severe difficulty eating in them and not worrying about food poisoning following my stint as a waitress in the States. What usually resulted on the plate was enough to make you turn into the sort of weird food phobic they always do documentaries about on Channel 4. You cannot eat in this godforsaken place unless it’s precooked in batter. The food is practically prechewed. If you are planning to go, I would strongly advise you invest in several pairs of loose trousers.

Over a year later and I am still upset at the thought of one of New Hampshire’s most famed delicacies. I am, of course, referring to the

gastronomic monstrosity known as “the lobster roll”. Picture the scene. You live in a sun-kissed fishing town. You can’t walk out of your house for fear of falling over a lobster pot. All the restaurants have names like “The Esctatic Mollusk.”

The fish are so fresh, you have to check they’re not alive. You know all the fisherman by name. You probably know all the fish by name.

This is some of the most beautiful, purest, tastiest seafood you will ever come across. You walk down to the fish market and see them all slithering around, glistening silver in the baskets and you know they were caught just a few hours ago. There’s Taylor, the fishmonger. He says, “Hey, Joel, what’s up? Just wait ‘til you see this absolute beauty I caught not three minutes ago.”

And he shows you this lobster. It’s this big, blue beauty, gleaming in the midmorning sun, roughly the size of a small dog, with pinchers like fire-hydrants.

Any normal person would think, “I’m going to take that maritime miracle home and I’m going to eat it served with nothing but some melted, golden butter, indulging my tastebuds in the pure and true way nature meant it to be. This is truly the best kind of life a man could want.” But because that is what any normal person would think, you don’t think that. You think, “I’m going to take that weird blue thing home, boil it to nothing, scrape out the flesh, deep fry it and put it in a sandwich. Served with fries. More than likely with some cheese whose goopiness is directly proportional to its tastelessness. Whatever, I don’t care. I’ll probably drown the flavour a little more with some root beer.” What kind of a monster are you?! You’re a bloody New Hampshirite, that’s what.

Ladies and gentlemen, the lobster roll.

The list is endless. I haven’t even started on television. The point is, don’t expect a summer in the US and A to change your life. To end on an appalling metaphor, just be warned that if you do decide that you’re the man to show the Yankees a time and a half, you’ll need a cultural (not to mention gastronomical), as well as an electrical, adaptor.

TRINITY NEWS

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Hilary Term, Week 4

Business&Careers Nokia shifts plant from Germany to Romania Nokia closes landmark factory in Germany and relocates 2500 jobs to Cluj-Napoca, Romania in a move aimed at cutting labour costs.

SARAH CASEY CONTRIBUTING WRITER Nokia announced recently that it will close its plant in Bochum, Germany by the middle of 2008 and relocate in Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

Costs in Romania are a fraction of what they are in Germany where the Nokia plant closure will mean the loss of nearly 2500 jobs.

Hundreds of Nokia employees protested against the closure outside the Bochum plant after the announcement was made.

Cluj-Napoca was chosen because of its ready supply of engineering graduates who will work for less than a quarter of what a western European would. Nokia have said that keeping their Bochum plant open has become too expensive, yet many German politicians and critics have pointed

out that the Bochum plant never operated at any loss. Despite the criticism, Nokia says it will not reconsider its decision. John Guerry, a 36-year old Texan, is in charge of the new Romanian plant and finding workers for the new plant won’t be among his challenges. At a Nokia-sponsored job fair last June, people from across Romania began queuing at 6am and 8000 people had shown up by the end. Nokia plans on hiring only 500 people initially and gradually adding to this until they reach about 3500 at the start of 2010.

Nokia must not take advantage of the low wage situation they’re luckily enough to have found themselves in at the Romanian plant. Holding on to educated and skilled workers isn’t easy if there are higher bidders. Because of this, John Guerry has made it his goal to make the Romanian Nokia plant a place

where employees will enjoy working and so the site will include a cafeteria with free food, a gym and playing fields. Guerry also plans on being able to hand the site over to local managers within four to five years.

One of Guerry’s worries is getting supplies to Cluj smoothly, as Romania’s infrastructure is primitive by general EU standards.

But Cluj is planning on an infrastructure upgrade to go with Nokia’s arrival. The upgrade will include the lengthening of a runway at Cluj’s tiny airport and Bechtel, a United States construction company, is building a new $3.2 billion four-lane motorway.

If things work out well for Nokia, they may well extend their dominance in the global handset market beyond the 38% share they already own.

We R leavin.

C U L8R. Nokia xx

Nokia: A History Nokia started as a wood-pulp mill in Finland in 1865.

The company then moved on to “Finnish Rubber Works” for a period.

After World War 1, the company acquired telephone and telegraph assets.

It became the Nokia Corporation in 1967 by combining the rubber works, wood mill and cable works.

The company developed car phones in the 1980s before entering the mobile phone market.

McDonalds, Starbucks coffee war heats up DANIELLE RYAN BUSINESS & CAREERS EDITOR McDonalds has set its sights on a massive expansion into the world of coffee for 2008. Their goal is to move from offering coffee as an “accompaniment” to actually having McDonalds as a “beverage destination” where lattes, mochas, cappuccinos and espressos with a choice of flavours will all be on offer. Sound familiar? Yes, that’s what we go to Star-

bucks for. And Starbucks has made great efforts to be the coffee-drinking destination of the world.

Their brand is built on the “Starbucks experience”: the feeling of having your coffee in a calm and relaxing place while you tap away on your laptop or read a book with other sophisticated people doing the same around you. McDonald’s brand has been built on fast,

cheap food in environments that I don’t think anyone would describe as relaxing and calm, but now they’re looking to make a dent in Starbuck’s profits.

If people are willing to pay $4 for a cup of coffee in Starbucks, you can see why McDonalds are willing to try to capitalize on that. The plan is to drop espresso machines and hire baristas in

14000 of their outlets.

Starbucks, sensing trouble, are now planning on offering heated breakfast sandwiches in more of their outlets and even adding drive-thru windows at some of their locations. If you can get your grande non-fat latte (or whatever you get) and your breakfast at McDonalds and the convenience beats the experience, then Starbucks could be in trouble. But are

the kinds of people that get their coffee in Starbucks ever really going to go to McDonalds to get it 50 cents cheaper?

It’s unlikely that Starbucks will lose out big time, but it’s inevitable that some form of dent will be made in the Starbucks market, depending on how serious an effort is made by McDonalds.

McDonalds is entering its sixth

year of successful innovation and reinvention while Starbucks have begun to struggle slightly. Still the whole thing just doesn’t really make much sense to me. It seems like both companies would be better off sticking to what they’re good at. We want cheap burgers in McDonalds and good coffee from Starbucks and even if they offer it, I’ll never want my breakfast handed to me through a Starbucks window or my frappuccino handed to me over a McDonalds counter, but that’s just me.

Has the Irish gender gap closed?

The pay gap between the sexes is often downplayed by many, whether they hold sexist views or not. But the facts and statistics on the matter tell an entirely different story.

DANIELLE RYAN BUSINESS & CAREERS EDITOR Last week I had a heated discussion in College with two people who seemed to believe that after staying at home to raise a family, lack of abilities and skill are the only reasons some women are paid less than men in the same jobs. Whether or not they really believed that or they were joking with me, I wish that that were the case. I wish that in every case where a woman is paid less than a man in the same position that it was because of something other than her being a woman. But still, after thirty years of equality legislation, it is so often not the reason.

Since the beginning of the millennium, the amount of women at work in Ireland has risen by a huge 33% and a European Commission study last year showed that Ireland compares favourably

with other EU countries where the gender pay gap is concerned. The number of women employees has risen to sit above the European average in the last seven years, but the disparities in wages and promotion opportunities still remain, even though women are outperforming men in education.

Women’s hourly earnings are around 86% of men’s, though a report by Fas does show that the pay gap is narrowing. But despite the rising number of working women and the slowly closing pay gap, Ireland still ranks around the mid-point in the table of the 27 EU states. The Equality Authority reports that gender discrimination accounts for eighteen percent of its cases and are calling for tougher punishments to help eliminate this kind of discrimination in the workplace.

According to the America Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, the

average woman working full time until the age of 65 in America will earn more than half a million less than the average man during her lifetime. Yes, there are many different reasons for this; many women choose to stay at home raising families, many women work part time most of their lives and those are factors which contribute to a pay gap which will likely never fully close, and to a certain extent, they do explain why there are less women in higher positions in the business world, in politics and many other areas. Yet still, in the United States, for example, outright discrimination accounts for about ten percentage points of the pay gap for women who are working. It’s low and it’s progress, but it’s still too much. Women in America earn 79 cents to every man’s dollar. I don’t think I missed the sign in the shop that said women’s milk is 21 cents cheaper than men’s, did I? We can’t lump all women into the same part

time working mother category and accept that it’s okay because “in general” women work less throughout their lives.

What about women who never want to raise a family?

Women who want to work full time until retirement age?

Even women who want to come and go from work between raising a family shouldn’t have to accept lower pay when they return to work to do the exact same job as a man, should they?

There are those women who downplay the gender problem for fear that it will disadvantage them in mostly male environments and there are those that speak out and say that yes, gender is still a barrier to success to a certain extent and the evidence exists to suggest that the latter of the two types of women are right.

Until women speak up against unequal treatment, their companies

won’t feel the pressure to fix the problems that do exist. And until those companies pay and promote solely on the basis of ability and merit, gender can’t be ignored in the workplace.

Even in Germany, a country led by a woman, women take home far smaller pay packets than men and rank near the bottom of the European league table of equal pay.

Again, factors such as leaving the workforce to have a family or part time working only account for a part of the surprising statistics. The rest is just pure discrimination. For example a female shop assistant in Germany can earn up to €378 less than a male shop assistant makes.

So, if someone asks you “Where’s the evidence of unequal pay in the world?” as I was last week, just tell them to ask the Irish Equality Authority, EQUINET, the AFL-CIO and United States Department of Labor, to name but a few organizations who will back businessandcareers@trinitynews.ie

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Hilary term, Week 4

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Science&Technology Volcanologists flock to Trinity to debate redhot issues SEBASTIAN WEISMAIER SCIENCE EDITOR The annual meeting of the Volcanic and Magmatic Studies Group was held at Trinity College in early January this year. In the time from 3 to 5 January, around 160 scientists from twelve countries and three continents gathered in the Arts Building to discuss latest developments in the world of volcano research with topics as diverse as the interior of the Earth to hazard mitigation to the effects of volcanic eruptions and emissions on the climate of our planet. This large number of scientists – and most of them contributing actively - has never been reached before at a VMSG meeting and makes Dublin the most successful host city so far.

Prof Val Troll from the Geology Department was Head of the Organising Committee and was applauded afterwards for a nearly flawless conference.. Another reason for the importance of this conference is the high percentage of students that are attending and presenting. Prof Troll on this: “I’m very happy that the meeting was so well attended by everyone and that the good spirit of VMSG could be maintained. Without a doubt, this is one of the most important meetings of the year in terms of student attendance. Here postgraduates find an ideal forum to test themselves in front of a wider audience and get good constructive feedback. We’re proud to continue in this tradition.”

The ever-growing meeting is considered the main forum of so-called igneous petrologists that traditionally work in the UK and Ireland. But also mathematicians and physicists that deal with geologic problems are welcome and make for an interdisciplinary envi-

Tech Specs John O’Reilly

MACBOOK AIR

The Lap in Laptop

Explosive facts How many types of volcano are there?

According to their geological setting, the most common types are mid-ocean ridge volcanoes, subduction zone volcanoes, hot spot volcanoes and rift zone volcanoes.

What’s the world’s biggest volcano?

The world’s biggest volcano is Mauna Loa on Hawaii with a volume of ~75,000 km3. Together with its neighbor Mauna Kea, these two also form the highest volcanic edifice on Earth, with a total height of XXXX from seafloor to peak, thereby dwarfing even Mount Everest.

Why are some volcanoes dangerous and some not?

It depends on the chemical composition of lava that each individual volcano erupts. High silica content means a very sticky and viscous magma. When the magma rises, the containing pressure gets less and less. Gas dissolved within

ronment that encourages the sharing of ideas. Over the recent years, the VMSG meeting experienced a widening in audience which means that for this year scientists from places as far away as New Mexico or Australia, along with a plethora of people from European countries, were attending.

An igneous petrologist can hereby be considered researchers that deal with rocks of magmatic origin. This can be your well known cone-shaped volcano, as well as subterranean volcanoes that

the magma tries to expand when the pressure drops, comparable to the opening of a shaken water bottle.

However, due to the viscosity of high silica magma, the gas cannot escape which leads to most violent eruptions that result from this internal pressure.

In contrast, a low silica and therefore very fluid lava, like on Hawaii, lets the gas escape very easily, an internal pressure can hardly build up.While the lava is still hot on eruption, it progresses in a rather foreseeable way, which makes for a low-risk volcano.

What is the deadliest volcano?

An estimated 92000 people perished from the 1815 eruption of the volcano Tambora in Indonesia. About 10000 were direct victims of the eruption itself and another 82000 followed due to the combined effects of tsunamis and subsequent starvation and outbreak of diseases.

never make it to the surface (so-called intrusions) or research on the regions in the Earth’s interior where magma is generated or, the other way round, magmatic rocks are consumed in subduction regions. Volcanologists like to argue that the whole planet is based on active volcanism and the world that we know today would not be the same if it were not for volcanoes to constantly emit gas for about 4.5 billion years (yes, that’s how old that thing we live on is!) that created our atmosphere. So quite im-

Mount Etna bursts into life in Sciliy in 2002.

Photo: T. Graham

portant stuff is being dealt with here and we have not even mentioned today’s programmes that mitigate potential hazards to prevent people from losing their lives. If you ever make it to a volcanic island like Tenerife, the local government has plans how to act in the best possible way during a volcanic hazard in terms of risk assessment and evacuation plans and the people who had just visited Trinity College are behind all this.

Apple has recently unveiled the newest and most portable member of their laptop range, the MacBook Air. At only .16 of an inch at its thinnest point, the MacBook Air does away with the deliberation of whether or not to take your laptop with you. Weighing in at 3 pounds and although it is the least powerful of the entire Mac range, the laptop is no welterweight in terms of performance, with a 13 inch screen, decent processor, 2 gigs of ram and an 80 gig hard drive as standard.

Apple has pushed the envelope with the design, omitting many standard laptop features to achieve the slimline case, most notably a CD/DVD drive. To install programs etc. from discs Apple has come up with a way to wirelessly ‘borrow’ the CD drives of nearby computers, and an external drive is also available.

The team in California did find space to cram a few luxuries in the svelte package, with a backlit keyboard and iPhone like multi-touch trackpad squeezed in. This new trackpad brings the pinch-tozoom and other multi-touch gestures first introduced on the iPhone and iPod Touch, and can be expected to make its way to other Mac portables in the not too distant future.

All this engineering comes at a price, a lofty €1799 for the base model configurable all the way up to €3000. Apple went through over 100 prototypes before arriving at what we now see, and the cost of all those engineering hours is definitely reflected in the price. It seems like the MacBook Air is ahead of it’s time, with options such as a flash based hard drive being far too expensive (at €899 for 64 gigs) for the overwhelming majority of users, but is an insight into how Apple CEO Steve Jobs sees computers going in the future.

For cutting edge portable computing, the MacBook Air is setting the standard for everyone else, but for those of us yet to make our money it’s sky high price puts it’s necessity up in the air.

TUNECORE

A look inside the much talked about Science Gallery Navigate through a forest of light sculptures, experience light therapy in the Daylight Lounge or “feel” a solar flare with an interactive tunic.”

OMAR MOTHERHILL STAFF WRITER For anyone interested in playing a giant game of Pong on a building, or making LED graffiti, the time has arrived.

Opening this month, the Science Gallery is a new enterprise from Trinity which hopes to throw science, technology and lots of ideas together in a new social setting.

“The key point is where ideas meet”, explains Dr. Michael John Gorman, Director of the Science Gallery. Built to be a bridge between the worlds of science, art and business, the Gallery is housed in the knifeshaped Naughton Institute, the new building beside the Sports Hall at the east end of College.

Gorman stresses that the Gallery is not a museum with specimens hiding behind glass but a constantly changing place. It will cover different themes throughout the year, bringing together a number of different fields. The first themed event taking place at the Gallery is a showcase for that strange energy that lets us see.

At “Light Wave” visitors can control light in different ways. They will

science@trinitynews.ie

also learn about how light can influence them. Navigate through a forest of light sculptures, experience light therapy in the Daylight Lounge or “feel” a solar flare with an interactive tunic. Then maybe jump into the mind of a bee?

Visitors can experiment with the vision of a swarm of bees at the event in an effort to understand how the creatures learn from light. The bees’ flights to and from different colour stimuli are recorded in three dimensions and etched into resin blocks. “These blocks provide a physical document of the bees’ learning history”, explains Gorman.

Do you remember the film Chain Reaction with Keanu Reeves and the big explosions? Ok, maybe not, but the story was based on a rare phenomenon called sonoluminescence. In the real world, sonoluminescence is a type of light emission that occurs when sound waves move through a liquid and cause small bubbles of gas to implode at very high temperatures. The Camera Lucida chamber at “Light Wave” is the first time non-scientists will be able to experience it.

“Light Wave” has enlisted the talents of a broad range of artists and inventors. Willie Williams, director of a

number of U2 and David Bowie concerts, will hold a talk and demonstration at the event and Steven Collins, co-founder of Havok, will be discussing the role of light in computer game production. Other talks will be given by eminent scientists from Trinity and around the world.

Visitors will also be able to create their own luminescent jewelry, and the event will be closed with fashion show, showing off combinations of light technology with clothing.

According to Gorman, the Gallery was originally suggested by Professor Mike Coey during building of the CRANN Nanoscience Institute (with which it shares the Naughton Building), as a way of connecting science with the public.

Organisers want to rescue science from the dreary lecture theatre and make it more relevant to people. “It’s blowing apart the ivory tower idea”, says Gorman, who sees a perception gap between issues in the arts and culture and issues in science, which are often thought of as only for the scholarly few.

Gorman and colleagues also want the gallery community to spread through the arteries of Dublin city and into the wider world. A number of events at

New Science Gallery Debates look for host The new gallery will be hosting a series of debates on important Scientific issues, called RAW. The gallery will be holding auditions to find a host for the debates on February 20.

Applicants are asked to prepare a 2 minute introduction to “The Biofuel Dream is Dead.” Interest must be confirmed by the 14th February.

For more information, contact Elizabeth.allen @sciencegallery.com

“Light Wave” will take place on the streets of the city (including De Pong Game III and the LED graffiti mentioned above) and an active online community is encouraged.

Keep an eye out for the light bike cycling through a twilight city centre street. It is built for four riders, with each one wearing a sphere on their heads covered with 200 computerised lights (don’t ask).

In the long run, the Science Gallery is envisioned not just as a creative atmosphere. “Where’s the place where the innovators are discovered?” asks Gorman. While the budding musician or sportsperson knows where to go to try and make it big, the Science Gallery will hopefully provide such an environment for innovators and scientists. Whether an engineer or a biochemist, Gorman sees the Science Gallery as “less about what you might see and more about who you might meet.”

The world’s first Science Gallery opens this month. The “Light Wave” festival runs from 2 to 9 February and is open to the public. Admission is free.

For more information, visit www.sciencegallery.com.

Music Sales for the Masses Budding musicians looking to take their relationship with music to the next level and actually start earning from it should check out Tunecore, a company set up to enable unsigned artists get listed on iTunes and other online music vendors, without being signed to a label. Setting up a revenue stream is a landmark in a bands development, and Tunecore provides an easy means to do this.

Set up in 2005 with the mission ‘to open the channels of music distribution to all’, the service has gained a following from more than mere amateurs, with bands such as The Cure and The Pixies taking part. Tunecore bypasses the immediate need for musicians to get signed in order to make money, and is a part of the general shift away from the music industry as we see it today.

Unlike the voracious corporate monstrosities that are the music labels, Tunecore takes once off payments for submissions to stores, with artists then getting 100% of the royalties (roughly 70c. a song) from there on in. Other companies offering a similar service such as CD Baby and AWAL operate a percentage based system (as much as 15% of royalties), giving these companies a constant revenue from all music sales submitted through them.

Uploading with Tunecore costs roughly €30 for an album, with all proceeds from the music then going to the artists. So let’s say after you’ve sourced the necessary €30 and submitted your album to iTunes you sell a million songs; when all charges are taken care of (credit card charges, iTunes etc.) €699970 will go straight into your pocket. Easy money, music to anyone’s ears. www.tunecore.com

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Hilary Term, Week 4

SportFeatures

Fifty years on, Babes legend remains as potent as ever NEIL FRANKLIN STAFF WRITER

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The story of the Busby Babes is one that anybody who follows football, no matter how young, knows something about. It is not just an essential part of the history of Manchester United, it occupies an indelible but tragic place in popular culture. 6 February will mark exactly 50 years since the air disaster at Munich in which 23 people, including eight members of the United first team, died.

The Busby Babes tag came about as a result of a radical youth policy adopted by manager Matt Busby in the late 1940’s. With the club in debt and unable to buy players, Busby decided to concentrate on producing home-grown young players in order to compete for trophies. It was a policy that was to produce handsome dividends. After a League Championship win in 1952, a group of richly talented youngsters emerged to create an even better team, a team that many believe could have gone on to become the greatest ever had it not been ripped apart in its prime.

United stormed to First Division titles in 1956 and 1957, and in their first campaign in the newly-created European Cup, lost only in the semifinal to the all-conquering Real Madrid team which would go on to win that competition five times in a row. The following February, they once again qualified for the semi-finals of the European Cup after a 3-3 draw away to Red Star Belgrade, winning 5-4 on aggregate. That night in Belgrade was to be the last time these players would take to the field together.

Returning the following day, the team’s plane stopped at Munich to refuel. When it came to take off, conditions were very difficult. Germany was still in the depths of a cold winter.

The British European Airways flight had already aborted two take-off attempts, when at 4.04pm, the third and fateful attempt was made. Slush lay on the end of the runway preventing the plane from gaining sufficient speed to get airborne. Having gone too far to abort to abort take-off, it crashed through the perimeter fence at the end of the runway and into a nearby field. A wing smashed into a house and the tail was torn off. The spinning fuselage was cut in half before hitting both a tree and a petrol lorry which exploded, scattering burning debris all around the crash site.

Of the United team, Captain Roger

After a League Championship win in 1952, a group of richly talented youths emerged to create an even better team, a team that many believe could have gone on to become the greatest ever had it not been ripped apart in its prime.

remained in a Munich hospital for eleven weeks, but was to make a remarkable recovery. Players Bobby Charlton, Dennis Viollet, Bill Foulkes, Kenny Morgans, Ray Wood and Albert Scanlon all escaped with lesser injuries.

United goalkeeper Harry Gregg, a County Derry native and a Northern Ireland international, risked fire and the explosion of the plane to stay at the scene. He pulled out Bobby Charlton, Dennis Viollet and a baby girl and her mother from the wreckage. Peter Howard, a Daily Mail photographer, also repeatedly returned to pull out survivors.

Gregg was able to resume his football career. A few months later, he would go on to be voted the best goalkeeper at the World Cup in Sweden as Northern Ireland performed superbly to reach the quarter-finals. But some of the other survivors were not as lucky. Both Jackie Blanchflower, brother of Spurs’ Danny, also a Northern Ireland international, and winger Johnny Berry had their careers ended by the crash.

The grief was amplified by the relationship the team had with the city.

The players lived amongst those who watched them. It was an age of hardship but also of true community. Many of the Babes had grown up together in Manchester digs as apprentices, often supplementing their modest earnings with second jobs or learning a trade.

Bobby Charlton worked at an engineering firm, David Pegg was a draughtsman and Geoff Bent was a joiner. For three seasons, full-back Bill Foulkes juggled life down a St Helens, Lancashire pit with a part time United career. He made £15 a week as a miner but only £11 playing football.

Bobby Charlton said that “we didn’t think of ourselves as Busby’s Babes but as young people growing up together. A team of lads, a team of pals.” They cycled, caught the bus or walked to training. Roger Byrne was the only player who owned a car, a Morris Minor. The only whiff of scandal to come from the Busby Babes was when Duncan Edwards was fined a pound for cycling his bike on a pavement! It was far cry from behaviour of many of today’s players.

In Dublin, 20000 people attended

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Byrne, Eddie Colman, Geoff Bent (all Manchester born) David Pegg, Mark Jones, Tommy Taylor (one of the great centre-forwards) and Dublin’s Liam Whelan died immediately in the crash.

Three United officials also perished, along with eight journalists (including Frank Swift, who was also a former Manchester City and England goalkeeper), as well the co-pilot, a steward and two other passengers.

As the news of the crash and the lives lost in it began to filter through, Manchester became a city consumed by grief. In a tough working-class city not disposed to public displays of emotion, people wept openly in the street.

For fifteen days, Duncan Edwards, only 21 and United and England’s star player, clung to life. But on 21 February, Edwards too succumbed to his injuries.

Matt Busby himself hovered between life and death for several days and was twice given the last rites by a priest. He

That fatal day The plane’s pilot, Captain Thain, was sued by the German government who attributed sole blame for the crash to him.

After ten years, he was cleared of all resposnibility.

The build-up of slush on the runway would only have affected planes with a certain centre of gravity: like the English Ambassador. The German authorities weren’t aware of this.

Eight journalists died in the crash alongside the players and team staff.

Liam Whelan’s funeral at Glasnevin Cemetery, only a mile away from where he had grown up on St.Attracta Road in Cabra. Whelan was signed as an 18-year old from Home Farm in 1953. After a couple of seasons, Billy, as he was called at Old Trafford, began to command a regular place in the first team. Playing at inside-right (an attacking position behind the centreforwards), Whelan was a key man as United won back to back League Championships in 1955/56 and 1956/57.

In 1956/57, he scored 33 times in 53 games. His only weakness was a lack of pace. Although at the time of the crash he was being kept out of the team by Bobby Charlton, Matt Busby claimed that Whelan would have gone on to become “one of the greatest players of all time.”

Whelan only got to play for Ireland four times. One of those games was the 1-1 draw against England at Dalymount Park in May 1957, the most famous game ever played at the Phibsborough venue.

Within a year, six of the players that day would be dead - Whelan, Roger Byrne, Duncan Edwards, Tommy Taylor and David Pegg of the Munich victims and England full back Jeff Hall, who died from polio.

As the plane roared down the runway for the third time, it is said that Johnny Berry turned to Liam Whelan and told him: “We’re all going to die”. Devoutly religious, Whelan’s response was immediate. “Well, if that happens, I’m ready”.

In total, twenty-three of the forty-four passengers died in the crash or soon after from ibjuries sustained on the day.

Of those who died, the legend of Duncan Edwards remains the greatest.

Edwards made his United debut at 16 and became the youngest England debutant ever at 18, a record he was to hold until Michael Owen broke it in 1998. Edwards earned a meager £15 a week during the season, reducing to £12 a week during the summer. Bobby Charlton claimed that “He was incomparable. I always felt inferior to him. He didn’t have a fault with his game.”

Matt Busby said that “We looked at Duncan, right at the start, and gave up trying to spot flaws in his game. But Duncan did not want to know about the high life. He just wanted to play and go to his digs or go home”.

Sadly most of the survivors were to become largely forgotten men. There was bitterness amongst both players and their families about the way they were treated by the club in the aftermath of the disaster. No compensation culture existed back in 1958. Insurance coverage for the players involved in the crash was woefully inadequate. The lot of footballers in the late 50’s was a very poor one. The maximum wage players could receive was an absurdly low £20

(little above skilled manual earnings) and the players had their contract terms dictated by the clubs. Most of the team received far less than £20 a week.

Jackie Blanchflower, severely injured in the crash, was evicted from a house owned by the club when it became clear that he would not play again, with virtually no compensation. This was despite the fact that his wife was heavily pregnant at the time. Blanchflower lived for many years, enduring both physical and mental trauma until his death in 1998.

Winger Johnny Berry suffered a fractured skull, a broken jaw, a shattered elbow, a broken pelvis and mouth injuries that led to all his teeth being removed. He lay in a coma for two months and when he woke up, his memory had been blanked. He had to be told of what had happened and was never the same afterwards. Within a year of the crash, United had evicted Berry, his wife and eight-year old son from the house they rented from the club.

It wasn’t until 1998 that, after much haggling, a benefit match was arranged for the families of the victims of Munich, after which sum of £47,000 was paid out to each of the survivors and dependents. Eric Cantona was paid £90,000 to appear in the match.

Would the legend of the Busby Babes have been as great had they not been struck by tragedy? It certainly would have been a different kind of legend.

Maybe they were protected from the harsh realities of football by the fact that they never reached the point of being replaced or sold. The likelihood is that not all of them would have gone on to greatness. But when one thinks of what Bobby Charlton went on to achieve, the temptation will always be there to imagine what the likes of Edwards, Taylor, Colman and Whelan would have done and what the team as a whole would have achieved.

For all its horror, it is arguable that in the long run, Munich was the making of Manchester United. Although always a big club, it was the story of the Babes and how the club regrouped under Busby in the years after Munich that gave United the massive fanbase it enjoys today. The club became the sentimental choice of people all over England and in this country. Busby, of course, built a second great team through the 60’s and Bobby Charlton and Bill Foulkes were still there when the European Cup was finally won at Wembley in 1968.

sportfeatures@trinitynews.ie

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Hilary Term, Week 4

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SportFeatures

Keegan dares to defy the doom merchants Connel McKenna looks at the career of Kevin Keegan, the newly-appointed manager of Newcastle United ook who’s back – back again. If ever proof were needed that Newcastle United is the footballing equivalent of Wonderland, powered by sentiment alone, it arrived with an enthusiastic wave and an effervescent grin. King Keegan has returned and the fans are now able to ease their furrowed brows, put on their fold-out cardboard hats and sit back and enjoy his second reign. Of course that reign was bound to begin with a depressingly drab 0 – 0 draw against Bolton Wanderers, wasn’t it? Really, Newcastle United beggar belief sometimes; even their owner bears a remarkable resemblance to one of their more rotund fans who, just for a change, has managed to keep his black and white shirt on this time.

Commonly-held wisdom states that in football, you should never go back to an old club, but Keegan is nothing if not daring and he dares to defy here. Romantic to a fault, he has been tempted out of managerial retirement by surely the only club that could, a club that he will not have enjoyed watching suffer over the last few years. Unless he wins a trophy during his second spell, there is surely no way in which Keegan’s stratospheric reputation on Tyneside could be enhanced in returning – indeed it is more likely that it will lose some of its glean.

Either it is bravery or it is naivety that has brought him back and that is not only true of Keegan but also of Mike Ashley, Newcastle’s owner. It is easy to accuse him of making a populist choice here, of reasoning with his heart rather than his head in restoring to the St. James’ Park faithful their messiah,

L

but it is highly unlikely, is it not, that Ashley would have made billions of pounds in the business world if this is how he tends to make decisions. Having taken a huge gamble in sacking the reputable Sam Allardyce, Ashley had to get this appointment right and it is possible, if one avoids the temptation to pour scorn, to consider that he has done just that.

Keegan is of the opinion that “there is no-one better qualified” to manage Newcastle United at the present time. Newcastle sit twelfth in the Premiership table and have recently been playing some woeful football, scoring just 27 goals in 23 league games this season. This is the sort of situation they have generally found themselves in since Bobby Bobson departed in 2004.

European qualification through league position can already be discounted, but they are highly unlikely to be dragged towards the relegation zone either. So what are the objectives then for this season and the one beyond? Simple – to improve the league position and the aesthetic standard of football the team are producing.

Kevin Keegan, of course, has achieved these things at every club he has been at and without a moment to spare in each case. Promotion ensued at the end of his first full season with each of is three previous clubs - Newcastle, Fulham (from the third tier) and Manchester City. With Fulham and City, the seasons produced were of the record-breaking variety, while Newcastle’s promotion as champions in 1993 came just fifteen months after Keegan had inherited the side when they were stationed in the relegation zone of the same division.

His first spell at Newcastle is, and

always will be, inexorably linked to that infamous title collapse in 1996, but the fact that Newcastle were even in position to challenge for that title impresses more with every passing year of mediocrity. Keegan also lead Newcastle to a third-place finish in their first season back in the top flight in 1994 and achieved similiarly with Manchester City, who as Premier League new-boys, finished ninth in 2003.

Keegan has proven himself to be a master of steering stricken ships to shore, but he is more than simply a go-to guy for clubs in need of a short-term shove in the right direction, as his development of both of these clubs indicates. Indeed, had it not been for the seductive opportunity of the English national team job, Keegan, rather than Jean Tigana, may well have been the man to take Fulham even further, into the top flight. As the Newcastle fans and board know only too well, any improvement Keegan oversees with this current crop of players will surely be one laden with goals.

Keegan’s cavalier tendencies will buy him time with the fans to produce the results that will eventually have to follow. This is something that Allardyce’s more pragmatic approach could not buy him. Ashley will not come under the same pressure to oust Keegan if things don’t immediately change for the better. The new manager is also likely to enjoy a significant extension of his boss’s financial reach, simply because of who he is. Infectiously enthusiastic and deceptively persuasive, Keegan has long turned the money men above his head toward his visions, long teased their purses open to strongly fund them. Before Stuart Pearce was starved of transfer funds at Manchester City, Keegan had been able to spend exuberantely. Ditto Chris Coleman at Fulham.

Equally as exciting if you are of Geordie persuasion is that Keegan’s silver tongue has shown itself to be just as effective with footballers as with businessmen. On gaining promotion with Manchester City, he was able to persuade Nicolas Anelka, Robbie Fowler and Peter Schmiechel to join the

“

King Keegan has returned and the fans are now able to ease their furrowed brows, put on their fold-out cardboard hats and sit back and enjoy his second reign.

a single top-level game since he resigned his post at Manchester City that March. Put simply, this has led to a fear that he could be out of touch with the game, both in terms of his tactical aptitude and his knowledge of the transfer market. His preference to attack with an almost wreckless abandon was not always successful in the past, and if Keegan is to re-deploy it now, he will do so against a more tactically sophisticated Premier League than he experienced previously.

In addition, he will have to adapt to a game in which proficiency at setpieces is becoming ever more decisive.

Keegan has never been considered one of football’s finer training ground technicians.

Keegan also returns to Newcastle at a time of high stakes in the Premier League. Whereas he walked into a division in 1993 when only Manchester United, Liverpool and Blackburn Rovers could match or outstrip his spending power, the landscape is much altered now with the “Big Four” now long established and lightyears ahead of even a club the size of Newcastle. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that Tottenham, Manchester City, Aston Villa, Everton, Portsmouth, West Ham and even Sunderland all now pack quite a punch financially. This clutch of clubs, along with Blackburn, represent Keegan’s competition and he has some

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club. Paul Bosvelt, Michael Tarnat and David Seaman followed and all this after he had succeeded in enlisting players such as Ali Benarbia, Eyal Berkovic and Stuart Pearce to play in the English game’s second tier. At Newcastle he signed the mercurial Davd Ginola from PSG, then one of Europe’s premier sides, defeated Manchester United to the signature of Alan Shearer and (God only knows how) enticed Fautino Asprilla to sign on the dotted line amidst a north-eastern blizzard.

Before this giddiness continues unabated, though, and we join the Geordies in donning our cardboard hats, let us not be blind to the possibility that this bold move on the part of all parties involved could prove ultimately to be a little too good to be true. Keegan has been out of football since 2005 and has openly admitted to having not attended

way to go in overcoming them before he can even threaten to take Newcastle back to the heights they once scaled under his tutelage.

The fact remains, though, that this is not Keegan’s charge this time. Geordie imaginations may be off the leash and running wild just now, but even they will know that second and third-place finishes belong, for now, in a realm of fantasy that even King Kev cannot penetrate. The reality is that Newcastle have reached such a trough that all that is required is for an excitement to be returned to the club, and competitiveness for a European spot to be restored. Keegan has gone some way to meeting that first requirement by simply walking through the doors and it is difficult, given his track record, to forsee that he will not meet the second also.

With Keegan restored to his throne, his subjects can harbour genuine optimism that the club both he and they love will be in much ruder health when he again departs, probably in a flurry of drama for as qualified as he is in correcting the paths of ailing vessels, he has been equally adept at jumping from them when the going gets tough. The return of the Geordie Messiah will surely provide a fun ride and Newcastle United can look forward to ruffling some Premier League feathers once more. After all, it’s been a while.

F1: not a sport, it’s a superhuman event Once we look beyond the obscenely expensive crashes, Formula1 is about a better class of man who drink champagne, socialise with beautiful women, and race in $50 million turbo-charged cars at 200 mph.

J.P. REID CONTRIBUTING WRITER ’ve decided that Formula One is not a sport, at least not in the strictest sense. Sport’s a big word; a wacking great big umbrella adjective covering tennis and triathlon to tobogganing and Turkish wrestling. Think ‘sport’ think mud, sweat bands, nets, astroturf and hiney-slapping in the showers. Sport is about technique, teamwork and, unsurprisingly, “sportsmanship”. Sport should not be, though to its detriment often is, about personality. I won’t however bemoan the cult of celebrity sports figures; I’m no real purist, I’m fine with Roger Federer selling Mach 3s and Mark Ramprakash, tangoing to the death-throes of an ailing career on ‘Strictly come Dancing.’ These are the by-products of the industry – you get famous and get invited to do lovely things like interviews and adverts only as a result of your sporting proficiency. Take the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year; an assembly of the most talented and high profile sporting individuals in the UK; the sum of which are barely capable of mustering a spoonful of charisma between them.

Sportsmen are boring and, despite the odd narcotics misdemeanour and glitzy rape allegation, are pretty much normal folk.

I

sportfeatures@trinitynews.ie

Formula 1 drivers, however, are a species apart; a breed of superhuman beings inhabiting a gold-trim world of scantily clad pit-girls and champagne soaked carbon-fibre. It is an elemental arena; man and machine bound in a swirling ballet of g-force. And when that ballet falters the results are spectacular. Yes, I admit it. I watch Formula One because I love a good crash; because the vague prospect of seeing $50 million worth of equipment disintegrate at 200mph is enough to hold my meagre attention for 70 odd laps. That and the travelling soap opera which is Grand Prix politics; in this epic arena where super-egos dual and conflict, personality counts for everything. This is Hollyoaks at 190mph with a cast to match.

Lets start from the top – here we have a sport run by the grandson of a British Fascist and a maniacal billionaire dwarf (Mosley and Ecclestone respectively), whose teams spend a total of $2.9 billion a year and has a global viewing audience of 850 million. Like any quality drama it features a bevy of stars; the protagonist – Lewis Hamilton, a kind of latter day Luke Skywalker, well-intentioned, virtuous and mindnumbingly dull; Felipe Massa, the happy-go-lucky Latino who doesn’t let consistent failure let him down, Kimi Raikkonen; callsign ‘Iceman’, and finally the bad guy; the sinister and scheming (Count) Fernando Alonso. Perhaps the beauty of Formula One drivers is their willingness to conform to stock characters and stereotypes – think of Schumacher… now

think of Terminator. You see?

The rise and fall of Fernando Alonso is a fable as old and vital as Faust and Paradise Lost. At the close of 2006, the darling of the paddock, Schumacher’s heir and the sport’s youngest world champion strolled into the sunset with two titles and a fist-full of euros. He had a new team with a damn fast car and a rookie team mate – what could possibly go wrong? One year down the line and everyone’s favourite Iberian has become, via spats of bitching, whining and very dangerous driving, the supreme antagonist.

It doesn’t take a wildly fervent mind to imagine Alonso stalking a darkened paddock like a latter-day Bela Lugosi or cackling maniacally at press conferences before disappearing in a puff of purple smoke. Endowed with a suitably outrageous accent and Bluto-esque eyebrows, there was more than a hint of Wacky Racers in his attempts to nestle Hamilton into the wall during the opening lap of the Belgian Grand Prix or similarly block the Englishman’s pit exit in Hungary.

Not that Formula One isn’t used to rivalry, Senna and Prost spent 10 years trying to send each other to Valhalla in a Wagnerian cloud of fire and twisted metal.

But that was on-track. Alonso and Hamilton’s rivalry (at least on the former’s part) seems more deep-seated; well, that’s what we like to think. As for Hamilton himself, I suppose he ticks the right boxes being young and black and

handsome and all but I can’t help but feel he’s missing something – perhaps he needs a gimmick; Nigel Mansell had a tache.

Well however Hamilton’s PR manager deals with his chronic dullness, 2008 is squaring up to be yet another thrilling episode in Formula One. Fresh on the menu are two new street circuits in Valencia and Singapore (the latter race held at night), a new team (Force India) and the customary rule changes (no more traction control). ‘Iceman’ Raikkonen will undoubtedly mount a strong defence of his title with the ever-grinning Felipe Massa riding shotgun in the sister Ferrari, Kovaleinen joins the mercurial Hamilton at Mclaren and Fernando Alonso hopes to wreak his revenge on a doubting pit-lane on the way, of course, to world domination. Last season’s spy subplot should crop up again during the mid-season lull and we can’t discount the hope that Raikkonen will at some point, crack a smile.

Odds on to win? Well Hamilton’s sure to be a favourite and Raikkonen will, with a good Ferrari, be chasing that back-to-back title. Massa’s a bit of a wildcard but when he’s not sticking it into the wall he tends to do himself proud.

But if your on for a side bet, have a little look at that shadowy figure in the Renault garage; he’s certainly plotting something; a comeback perhaps? And who says the bad guys never wins?

TRINITY NEWS

P22

Hilary term, Week 4

SportingLegends

A road less travelled Having played for Ireland and the British Lions, John Robbie emigrated to South Africa in 1981, making the Springbok squad before becoming a successful journalist, Jonathan Drennan talks to one of Trinity’s most famous exports.

hirty two years have passed since a diminutive scrumhalf named John Robbie captained a previously written-off Trinity rugby team to a Leinster Senior Cup win that remains one of the club’s proudest moments. A Natural Sciences student, Robbie used Dublin University Football Club as an incredible springboard that helped him to pull on some of the most iconic jerseys in rugby, the green and gold of the Springboks and the red of the Lions. Today, he is one of South Africa’s most successful journalists, hosting an extremely popular breakfast radio show; Robbie interviews the country’s highest profile politicians daily. He describes himself as “an Irish South African”, he has made his home in Johannesburg and a hybrid accent that betrays only a slight Dublin lilt is a testament to his assimilation into African life. However, his Trinity experience was unique and is forever etched in his memory.

Walking through Front Arch for the first time, Robbie quickly became a permanent fixture in the DUFC line-up, having previously won a Leinster Schools Cup medal with High School. “I was always going to go to Trinity”, he says. “I was incredibly lucky when I went in at seventeen; straight away I was drafted into the Colours team for that year and I immediately enjoyed my rugby.” Today, DUFC has evolved into a highly organised set-up, employing a variety of coaches who oversee training sessions most nights of the week at College Park. In the strictly amateur ethos of the 1970’s, training sessions were scheduled at lunchtime by a single irrepressible coach called Roly Meates who combined his rugby duties with his job as a dentist. Yet Robbie believes his group of players would have been able to compete in the professional era if they had been given the chance. “It was totally a different era, we really thought we were fit, but you couldn’t compare us with today’s players, for instance, we never did weights and we had to fit everything into two lunchtime training sessions a week, however, I’m not sure being professional would have been anywhere near as enjoyable, but given the chances you have now, I’m positive we would have thrived.”

Despite playing rugby for all four years at College, the 1976 season undoubtedly remains his fondest memory.

Emerging from the vicious hangover of the previous season, where Trinity had received a record Colours defeat and had been unceremoniously been dumped out of the Leinster Cup by junior side Skerries, morale was predictably low; students were accused of not having the necessary size and desire to compete against their more illustrious neighbours. In previous years exam pressure and fatigue had combined to leave DUFC badly flagging by the time

T

“

“I was always going to go to Trinity”, he says.

“I was incredibly lucky when I went in at seventeen; straight away I was drafted into the Colours team for that year and I immediately enjoyed my rugby.”

hindsight, Robbie admits he would liked to have made a more politically informed decision about touring in South Africa, but like many young talented sportsmen, all he wanted to do was represent his country at the highest level.

“Of course, looking back, I would love to have said I thought about the implications of the tour, but it was a totally different era, I was there to simply play for Ireland, yet as a result of going to South Africa, I lost my job with Guinness in Dublin, all because I just wanted to play rugby.”

Unemployed on his return to Ireland in 1981, Robbie was offered a job in South Africa and with few jobs available in Dublin, he quickly accepted. “I came over in 1981, really only with the intention of staying for one year and got a typical rugby player’s job with a trading company, then later I started to get involved with radio, first as a sports broadcaster and as I started to develop more and more political opinions, my work broadened into what it is today.”

Arriving as a foreigner in Johannesburg, he quickly resumed his rugby career with the Province of Transvaal.

Due to a ban on touring South African rugby teams, the Provincial championship became a cauldron for a young man who only a few years previously had been happily trotting out at College Park in front of a few hundred students.

“It was an incredible experience, playing for Transvaal in front of 50,000 spectators, the rugby was incredibly fast and physical, much tougher than I was used to, they were certainly hard men, but the fact that I had played for the Lions and was willing to do my best every game helped me to gain respect quickly.”

Today, Robbie’s life has changed irrevocably, going to bed early and waking up in the small hours to give South Africa its daily dose of news. Understandably he is proud of a journalistic career that has earned him the acclaim of thousands of enthusiastic listeners.

He still enjoys returning to Ireland occasionally, but remains extremely happy in a new South Africa that is filled with hope. He was invited on to the Springbok bus that paraded the World Cup to the nation and he feels it symbolised the country’s potential to the world. Everybody celebrated, regardless of colour.

He feels the country’s future remains bright, with the upcoming football World Cup constantly in the thoughts of every South African. “The crime levels are coming down, I have no doubt the World Cup will be a massive success, it will bring much needed foreign investment when people see what you can buy here, I can’t even compare it to Ireland, you could buy a beautiful beach house here for the price of a toilet back home!” In many ways, Robbie epitomizes the new South Africa, forward thinking and optimistic, he has embraced the rainbow nation and it has been only too happy to respond.

”

the Cup started. However, Robbie decided as captain of a beleaguered team that the Leinster Cup represented their best chance of silverware. “Winning the Leinster Cup against Blackrock remains one of my greatest memories, we won after a dramatic period of extra-time, helping us to contribute to what was a golden year of Trinity sport with so many clubs having exceptional years.”

Shortly after graduating with a 2.1 from Trinity, Robbie’s rugby career fully took off. Winning his first cap for Ireland in 1976, Robbie began to gain recognition as one of the best scrumhalves in the British Isles, being rewarded with a berth on the Lion’s tour to South Africa in 1980. A year later, Robbie would again return to Durban and Cape Town as a rugby player, this time in the green of Ireland in 1981, however, this tour left an indelible mark on his life. At this juncture in Robbie’s life, South Africa was immersed in the horrors of apartheid under the despot rule of Prime Minister P.W Botha. The Springboks, perhaps unfairly, were used a political pawns, a completely white group of predominantly Afrikaners, to protesting bodies across the world, they symbolised the worst of South Africa. In

Biography A key member of High School ’s victorious te the school’s so am that won litary Leinster SCT win in 1973 one of his prou , counting it as dest achievemen ts.

Entering Trinity as a seventeen year old studen Sciences, Robb t of Natural ie played four ye ars of senior ru captaining the gby for DUFC, team for two years, culminat Leinster Cup w ing in the first in for the club in 1976, their century. first for half a Robbie spent tw o years after Tr inity studying at University, win Cambridge ning the annual varsity match ag ainst Oxford.

Robbie won nine caps for Ireland as a scrum half, match. His first losing every cap came agains t Australia in 19 with his final ca 76 in Dublin, p coming agains t Scotland in th at Murrayfield. e Five Nations Selected to pl ay for the Briti sh Lions in the tour of 1980, de South African spite the British government’s op the team travel position to ling.

Living in Sout h Africa perm anently since represented Tr 1981, Robbie ansvaal in the C urrie Cup and African squad made the South four times.

Today, he wor ks as a succes sful breakfast Johannesburg fo radio host in r Talk 702.

collegesport@trinitynews.ie

TRINITY NEWS

Hilary term, Week 4

P23

CollegeSport TAEKWONDO

WITH

Water Polo players capture Intervarsity title at home JONATHAN DRENNAN COLLEGE SPORT EDITOR After years as Trinity’s sporting nomads, Dublin University Swimming and Water Polo Club officially opened their new pool with an overall Intervarsity title, with the women’s team winning individual honours. Over two frantic days of activity, the Sports Hall hosted universities from across Ireland. A hectic schedule of games started promptly in the morning and finished by early evening. Trinity News took its seat on the pool deck to witness the men’s club take on the Queen’s University of Belfast.

Water Polo is arguably the toughest sport in the world. Physically exhausting, players swim vast distances of the pool while trying to avoid the attentions of a marker who is often trying to assault them. Often derided as a minority sport that suffers from a lack of exposure, Trinity’s male and female teams excelled throughout the

tournament.

Many years ago, this reporter was a painfully average water-polo player in Belfast and managed to recognise most of the Queen’s starting team as former opponents. I was palpably relieved that my Speedos had been forced into retirement long ago; this game was a physical battle throughout that frequently teetered on the brink of foul play, with Queen’s remaining the guilty party.

Queen’s won the ball in the middle of the pool at the opening whistle, symptomatic of their superior swimming throughout much of the match. Despite good defending from the excellent Hugh Varley, Queen’s won a five metre free and immediately scored to lead the game early. However, almost instantaneously Trinity equalised through a counter attack with returning exile Anthony Molloy scoring clinically.

The early part of the game was dominated by roughhouse tactics from the Northern opponents. Trinity’s Christoff Lincheneau was the victim of

a cheap shot to the face in front of an American referee who appeared reluctant to take any action at Queen’s physical intimidation.

However, eventually a punch was seen and Queen’s had a man sent out and Trinity took the lead. Soon after, the diminutive Barry Keane hit an inch perfect lob that created a score of 3-1. Trinity enjoyed a golden period that included two more goals as Queens became frustrated at their limited possession.

The third quarter turned the game on its head; frequently in calm control of the game, Trinity loosened their defence and paid dearly. Queen’s scored two cheap goals, sending their bench into raptures. Despite it not being his natural position, Mike Gallagher bravely defended his goal, but was often helplessly isolated by Queen’s attacks.

Molloy remained Trinity’s main attacking inspiration, yet he was shackled by tight marking and often was helpless to inspire his team. It was left to others to provide scoring opportunities; Rob Kelly was quick to

Trinity squad member Hugh Varley in action (above) against Queen’s during what was one of the toughest matches held at the Water Polo Intervarsity in Trinity’s new Sports Hall.

Photo: Martin McKenna.

respond in the fourth quarter with a beautifully executed backhand shot past a stranded Queen’s goalkeeper.

Lincheneau, quiet for much of the game, provided isolated moments of brilliances. Utilising a superior skill level to most of his opponents, he cleverly won frees. However, after getting frustrated from the intimidation of his opponent, Lincheneau found himself in penalty trouble. This premature exit from play symbolised Trinity’s downfall.

Demoralised by referee decisions and their failure to execute scoring opportunities, Trinity shipped several late goals to leave the score at 12-6 to Queen’s. A difficult game that didn’t show off Trinity’s evidently high skill levels, they regrouped to lose valiantly in the semi-finals. Sincere apologies are given to women’s time for a lack of coverage due to time constraints. Over two days, they played brilliantly and were rewarded with a deserved intervarsity title that highlights the strength in depth the club enjoys.

Trinity squash players travel to take on the Varsity Blues ROBBIE WOODS STAFF WRITER On Friday 18 January, fifteen intrepid members of Dublin University Squash Rackets Club managed to find their way to Cambridge for a weekend of squash and real tennis. After suffering flight delays, baggage losses and one member having to fork out almost half his life savings for a flight, due to booking troubles, the whole party arrived with their game faces on, ready to give Cambridge a battle.

That evening, six men took on the Cambridge 3rds in a type of warm-up to the next day’s play. All players put up a significant fight, with notable performances from Shane Doyle, Ruiari Brown and David Lowry. Despite the good showing, only Sean Reilly was able to come out with a win (31) against their number 2, Jim Shoe, while Neil McWilliams had a great game at number 5. Meanwhile the girls took on the Cambridge numbers 5 and 6 with Catherine Graham just losing out in a tight match 3-2 and Patricia Burns managing a set in another close game losing 3-1.

The close matches that evening lead to a hunger amongst the group to hit the town that night, with Karlis Zauers, Roland Budd and Danny McInerney leading the bunch out on the town. A rather salty meal in a fish restaurant was followed by drinks in Cambridge’s largest late-drinking es-

collegesport@trinitynews.ie

tablishment on the recommendation of our taxi driver. Before bed, some of us decided to boost our energy stores for the upcoming squash by sampling some of the local kebabs.

That evening we also even got a short walking tour of Cambridge from a kind local Irish resident!

Saturday morning saw some early-risers head off to the real tennis courts for a quick lesson and a chance to play a strange and rather quirky game. Real tennis is the predecessor to all other racket sports. It is played indoors on a specially designed court and although the scoring system is similar to tennis, the way points are scored is very different.

The popular Irish Real Tennis Association plays regularly in England and there are plans afoot to renovate one of the existing real tennis courts up by the National Concert Hall in Dublin.

After our attempts at real tennis, six men left to take on the Cambridge 2nds, which was looking like it might pose a tough challenge after the previous night’s matches. Nevertheless, DUSRC put on a great show with James Westwood very nearly taking down their number 2. Robbie Woods improved on his previous night’s result, but Cambridge proved to strong for our second team, taking the win overall.

It was then left up to the top six men of the touring party to try and pull out an overall win from the weekend. However, it was Trinity sports scholar Patricia Burns of the ladies who set things alight with a fantastic 3-0 demolition of the

Cambridge number 3 with some excellent shots and a really polished display of ability. The men gave their all on court and Roland Budd looked good against the number 2, former England Junior player Jamie Douglas. Henry Prideaux started off well against the Cambridge number 1, narrowly losing 10-8 in the first. Karlis Zauers played some blinding rallies but was unable to keep up a confidant start to the game at number 4.

Unfortunately the match was lost, but Dave Lowry salvaged some pride with a performance that nearly left him crawling off court. It was always going to be difficult to pull out a victory with some of our top players not travelling, but those who played showed they can challenge some of the very best at squash, mainly thanks to all the hard work at training with our coach, Elvy Da Costa.

More real tennis was played in the evening before we were hosted by the Cambridge team for a dinner, during the course of which Roland Budd started us off on a traditional Cambridge game of “pennying” by catching Suresh Kumar off guard. We were then brought to the exclusive Hawks’ Club for drinks, where Karlis Zauers particularly enjoyed his TomaHawk drink, despite it only lasting a short time. A rather interesting wake-up call on the Sunday led to James Westwood seeking words with the staff, but after a tour of some of the Cambridge colleges, the group set off after a pleasing weekend at one of England’s top universities.

KEVIN LYNCH

Most people know that Martial Arts usually involve black belts and fighting, but little else. The usual questions are about your rank and ability to fight on the street. Training sessions, however, devote comparably little time to them. They favour aerobic fitness, focused on intense, short burst of exercise, techniques, kicking and punching pads, sparring, preforming technical parts called patterns and stretching and strengthening exercises. Repeated low intensity movements build strong, lithe muscles with a high degree of flexibility, this means injuries are rare enough and confined to elite, international competitions. People train for fitness, competition, self defense and love of the art, the same as for any other sport. Martial Arts is an exciting alternative to training for fitness’ sake itself in a gym. The individual nature of the challenge means that classes can cater to a mix of sexes, abilities and fitness levels.

Martial Arts are studied for far more than defending oneself on the street, which is only one part of the motivation. You’re not that likely to encounter martial arts from an attacker, because martial arts take years of study, and commitment and discipline normally aren’t values shared by assailants. They may simply be aggressive or physically strong or have years of experience using more brutal street techniques. It’s much more likely is that the confidence and self esteem earned will stand in better stead for confront any situation than the chance your fighting skill is called on. As training progresses, the controlled aggression and precise violence that kicking, punching and dodging require develops confidence in the fighters. Testing for higher belts and competing against similar ranks from different clubs gives a focus to the general sporting nature of Taekwondo.

Taekwondo was synthesised from ancient karate and recent sports science during the Korean War, all techniques were tested in combat. Since then, Taekwondo continues to emphasise applicability, simplicity and natural movements, rather than adherence to abstract forms or animals. As a sport, Taekwondo training places emphasis on preforming patterns, sparring, fitness, breaking boards and basic movements.

Patterns are set sequences of attacks and defences preformed against imaginary opponents. They gradually get more difficult introducing new blocks, kicks, holds and strikes as they progress. They teach accuracy, demand practise and stylise each technique into a perfect movement. On the street you’re not going to preform something that looks like a dance, but by repeating strikes and block, the student internalise the principles of it, how to distribute your weight, how to play the angles of attack and defence and soft spots to hit.

More practically, sparring training pits you against a real opponent. Not the same as College St at night, but safety concerns prevent some of the violence you’d expect on the street. Here though, speed, spotting an opening and agility beat opponents. Good fighters develop calm under fire, you fight a lot differently when people are kicking at your head, flashy moves only work when they’re really fast. In the Last issue of Trinity News, Prof. David Scott spoke about emotional and mental development in the boxing ring. Kick boxing, similarly demands courage, calm under pressure, physical fitness and mental quickness.

In the 21st century many people don’t experience physical challenges like those that they did, and a controlled sporting environment offers a great opportunity for it. It can be a great way to face your fears and expose vulnerabilities.

The flashiest martial arts demonstration disingenuously display breaking wood and swinging ancient weapons around far overstating their importance. Given the probability attack using samurai swords, lances, staffs or nun-chucks, and the lesser chance of you having yours to hand, mean they sometimes enter to world of fantasy or historical anachronism than modern fighting art. In Dublin you’re much more likely to be attacked with a club, knife or bottle so these far less glamorous defences actually yield a greater dividend. Breaking, or power events, are included however. It demands speed, power and technical excellence, but also sharp mental focus and concentration. It competition, testing and general training it gives a chance of demonstrate the power that anyone can generate given the right training.

Most people work-out or train for the physical benefits, for health, but also the feeling of satisfaction from exercise, taekwondo offers these, but also the rewards of competition and promotion andpersonal development. You never know, someday it might even save your life.

Email taekwondo@tcd.ie for more information.

TRINITY NEWS

P24

Hilary term, Week 4

CollegeSport The Team DUBC Rob O’Kirwan

67kg

Keith Florea

63kg

Sean Mulvaney

71kg

Oisin Hannigan

63kg

Ross Cunningham

71kg

Yvette Friel

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Paddy McCullough

67kg

Adam Sabbagh

91+kg

James Annett

67kg

MAN OF THE MATCH Paddy McCullough

A packed Exam Hall looks on as two combatants put themselves to the test at the Brawl in the Hall. The event attracts full houses every year and is unique in its setting in the Exam Hall. Photo: Martin McKenna

Trinity boxers pass physical exam at “Brawl in the Hall” OLIVER NORTH STAFF WRITER I arrived at Trinity half-cut, almost an hour late and lacking salient information concerning the nature, whereabouts, price and duration of the event. Upon extensive investigation the “Hall” in question turned out to be the Examination Hall, where registration takes place. Salubrious housing indeed for the baying hoards to observe over two hours of young men and women smacking each other in the face. The walls were flanked with great portraits of Trinity’s boxing heroes throughout the ages. Johnny “Boom Boom” Swift, the scourge of the English establishment in the 1720’s, looked down approvingly.

Even as I first entered the Hall, the

evening seemed saturated with the omnipresent sickly sweet smell of Bavaria, as though we were here to toast that great utopian dream and failed social experiment- a unified Czechoslovakia. It seemed to seep up through the floor and get into the crowd’s nostrils, many of whom had removed their shirts and were howling like the damned. Your reporter, however, being a man of good taste and sound morals, was drinking Carlsberg.

The boxing had not started, but the drinking clearly had, and as the evening went on, it became evident that my own intoxication was positive boon. Raging insobriety is the sine qua non of a night of fights. Even the MC seemed to have been at the source. He was absurdly dressed in a top hat, tails and bow-tie, as though presenting a louche burlesque.

To add insult to injury, he appeared to

be blind-drunk as he entered the ring.

The first fight of the evening, at 67kg, went well for Trinity. Rob O’Kirwan seeing away the threat of UCD’s Tommy Fhan. Fhan was beaten easily but not badly and left the ring still sporting the vacant grin of the happy moron.

With the second fight came further evidence that the supposed Master of Ceremonies had become a shambling embarrassment. Just seconds after being informed by the judges that Con Cashin of IT Carlow had won the fight and faced with a daunting choice of two, he managed to announce the UCD’s Matt O’Rourke as victor The fourth fight of the evening saw home favourite Sean Mulvaney face UCD man Mark Nolan. As the fight approached, it was clear that Mulvaney possessed some kind of strange

preternatural supremacy over the crowd. The mere mention of his name whipped them into a frenzy of orgiastic savagery. Had Mulvaney lost, things would have got ugly. Thankfully for the partisan support, his superior reach allowed him to control the fight, winning by unanimous decision.

By the interval after the fifth match, Trinity had won two of the three fights that they had contested. But little did the elated crowd know that these ecstatic highs were not to be repeated in the second half of the evening. The first match after the break portended of doom to come. UCD’s Barra O’Fianail was half a second quicker to every punch in a slugfest that he handsomely won. These two fighters had met last year in a far tighter match than this. But this time Hannigan looked spent by the end of the third and a technical knock-

out might have been called by the referee if the fight had gone on any longer, although some questionable judging meant O’Fianail only got it by split decision.

The night’s penultimate fight was in the top weight category, 91 kilos and over. UCD’s Mark Clarke looked like a mean bastard in comparison to Trinity’s Adam Sabbagh. The two boxers appeared badly mismatched and wiser men than me confidently predicted that the Trinity man was in for a beating.

Sabbagh’s performance though was a combination of thick-skinned resilience and canny boxing. He got in close to his man, threw some body punches and defended well throughout. However, in the end, Sabbagh lost by a split decision.

Things had not been going well for Trinity’s fighters in the last few matches.

McCullough came into the ring for the evening’s ninth fight: a diminutive looking young man with sharp features- not a typical boxer at all.

How well he would stand up to the vicious scrappy style exhibited by the other Carlow fighters earlier in the evening was anybody’s guess.

However, what followed what a fine example of how quick hands are among the most important weapon in a boxer’s armoury. The bell had barely sounded by the time McCullough had already landed two fierce jabs to the unguarded face of his opponent. This visibly unsettled the Carlow man and McCullough’s superior reflexes allowed him to land a great number of punches. Even at this early stage, the Carlow corner knew the game was up and threw in the towel after the first round.

Only Paddy McCullough had displayed the bloodthirsty viciousness required to win matches at this level. The final fight saw the captain of Dublin University’s boxing club, James Annett, in the ring against Eoin Gibbons of IT Carlow.

There was a noticeable gap in class between these two fighters and the rest of the evening’s participants. Both had good defences, pretty footwork and lightning hands, though Annett seemed quicker and more clinical. It is testament to the tenacity of the Carlow man that he managed to stay in contention to the end of the third round. Although the judge’s final decision gave it to Gibbons, this was demonstrably unpopular with the crowd and where it came from is anybody’s guess. Perhaps, like the rest of us, they found it at the bottom of a glass.

Basketball players incur the Lion’s Roar LISA O’CONNOR STAFF WRITER The Dublin University Basketball Club was recently invited to compete in a non-competitive basketball tournament in Cambridge. Three Trinity teams were involved in the tournament, the Men’s A and B teams and the Ladies A team.

First up at 10am was the Men’s B match. After a ten hour delay in Dublin Airport the previous day, the players were tired and this often showed on the court. Trinity, having suffered recent defeats in the domestic league, hoped to revitalize their attacking flair; Cambridge, with the highs and lows of their season so far, wished to play hard following the Christmas break. An animated start gave Trinity an early lead. Cambridge responded well, however, pressurising Trinity’s attack and forcing the turnover ball, resulting in several easy baskets.

As the game progressed, Trinity all too often surrendered possession of the ball during their offensive plays, giving Cambridge opportunities to score that they exploited.

Nevertheless, the boys in red refused to forfeit and adapted well by deftly passing the ball to their sharpshooters on the wings of the court who duly converted their shots. It was clear to see that both teams were evenly matched, in attack and in defence; but it was Trinity who succumbed to the forces of fatigue and lack of concentration. At times, it was difficult for the Reds to find a way to score; Trinity defended well but could not find the preciseness to gain quick points over their opponents. The game finished 60-32 to the home side. Despite the loss, Trinity had numerous memorable plays: Zach Philips’ dive ‘n’ pass to keep the ball inbounds, the blocking and rebounding efforts by Anthony Johnston, the sniping shots by veterans Tomo Hayakawa and Rob Hughes and the more than impressive run made by new players, to name but a few.

A TRINNER AND SPRINGBOK LEGEND JOHN ROBBIE PROFILED SPORTING LEGENDS, P22

The Trinity Ladies team, coached by Ruth O’Donoghue and captained by Lisa O’Connor, next took on the ladies of Cambridge in a closely contested match. Lisa O’Connor opened the scoring for Trinity, but it was Elaine Stone who set the pace in the first quarter, scoring eight quick points. The score at the end of the first quarter was Trinity 10: Cambridge 9. Junior Freshman Sorcha Browne had a very strong game for Trinity, while Beth Kelly further showcased her potential with some cutting moves. Louise Gray put in some crucial baskets for Trinity while Siobhan Harty rebounded well.

The Cambridge team were quick around the court and causing Trinity some trouble, coming back into the game strongly at the start of the fourth quarter. A huge team effort pulled out a momentous win for Trinity in the end, with a final score in the ladies match of Trinity 57: Cambridge 48. The Trinity ladies are steadily improving and team confidence is high. They are looking forward to the upcoming intervarsity

competition in March and are a team to be reckoned with.

The final game of the tournament was played by the Men’s A team. The game started close with Captain Ciaran O’Donoghue running the game for Trinity. Fraser Bebbington was pushing matters hard, but Cambridge was too strong on the offence, cutting Trinity apart on more than one occasion.

The Trinity men made a huge comeback at the beginning of the fourth quarter, pulling together strongly and picking up some quick baskets and hard fought turnovers. The only Fresher on the team, Andy Grant, added to the scoring, while the standout performer for Trinity was American James Cappabianca, whose work rate and defensive efforts were excellent.

The Cambridge men proved too strong in the end, however, and were deserved winners in a highly entertaining match, with a final score of Trinity 64: Cambridge 79.

WATER POLO

SEIZE INTERVARSITY TITLE COLLEGE SPORT, P23 collegesport@trinitynews.ie