Trinity News Issue 3

Irish Student Newspaper of the Year 2008

BANKERS’ HIGHSTAKES GAME Global financial crisis explained

LARGE BOLLYWOOD VIVISECTION DEBATE HADRON DREAMS COLLIDER Backpack your way Is there really a threat?

WORLD REVIEW 12 BUSINESS 18 Tuesday 28 October 2008

SCIENCE 19

straight onto the stage

TRAVEL 20

www.trinitynews.ie

Issue 3, Volume 55

The day the student voice was heard “A callous and cynical attempt

by Government” SHANE KELLY PRESIDENT OF USI

Trinity students marched to O’Connell Street where they met other students from around the country before descending on Leinster House. Photo: Cian Clarke

By Rory O’Connor STUDENTS FROM Dublin colleges took to the streets against the proposed reintroduction of college fees last Wednesday. Gardaí estimated an attendance of 15,000 protestors at the rally.

The protest passed off peacefully and with general high spirits. Serious chants of “more fees means less degrees” were combined with humorous chants of “Down with this sort of thing... careful now”. Official TCD Student Union placards said “Education is a right, not a privilege”. One unofficial placard read

“Fees r bad lol”.

Trinity students congregated in Front Square before setting off up to O’Connell Street to meet hundreds of other students O’Keefe’s inability to meet student leaders was cited by the USI as a reason for the march from Dublin universities at Parnell Square.

The large crowd then turned back on itself to pass Trinity once more and continued along Nassau Street. When the protest reached Leinster House, politicians and Students’ Union representatives from

participating universities gave speeches on a large stage at the top of the street.

The demonstration comes as part of a wave of student protest against fees.

5,000 protested in Cork on 10 October with others doing likewise in Galway and Limerick. Last week, UCD students attempted to block the Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan’s entry into the Clinton Institute on the Belfield Campus where he was due to chair a function.

Three UCD students were arrested during the protest for breaches of the peace when they attempted to break through a metal fence that surrounded the building.

During Wednesday’s protest, the

speeches at Leinster House were made

by Union of Students in Ireland President Shane Kelly and the Labour Party education spokesman Ruairi Quinn.

Mr Kelly said part of the reason for the rally was that the Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe would not discuss the matter with student representatives. College heads also have found the Minister slow to commit to meetings, despite a request from the UCD president Dr Hugh Brady.

“He is very happy asking for our money but he doesn’t want to listen to what we have to say on the subject. We are here as the second biggest union in

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22nd 2008, will forever stand out in the history of the student movement in Ireland. 0ver 15,000 students took to the streets of Dublin, to protest at what we believe is the callous and cynical attempt by the government to plug the hole in public funding of our universities.

Over 5,000 Trinity students turned out in a show of support for their national union. Such large numbers have pricked the attention of the government parties, and the Minister for Education in particular. Students have spoken, and with one voice have declared, we will not be made scapegoats by this government for a decade of waste and under-investment in our higher education system.

This coming Wednesday, teachers unions and parents will gather outside the Dáil, to highlight their anger at the series of cuts planned for our primary and secondary schools. We as students will stand with our parents and our younger brothers and sisters and demand an education system that works at all levels, from primary right through to third level.

If the politicians continue to ignore us, we will wait in the long grass of the local and European elections and we will take them down. We as students must now build on the success of our show of strength. A long and sustained campaign is now planned. Your support and involvement will be vital if we are to succeed.

CONOR JAMES MCKINNEY CLEARLY, WE students are starved of creative outlets. If one were to heed these Students’ Union types, we’d be starved in a more literal sense should the Government have its wicked way with fees, which is why some of that surplus energy has of late been channelled into placard manufacture.

After all, if you’re going to protest, you wouldn’t want to be shown up by the old folks. Indeed, the pensioners that thronged the streets may have felt a few pangs of nostalgia for the Sixties,

as a psychadelic “Make Love Not Fees” banner made its appearance; and while punning on the word “fee” is quite a feat,“Not Feesible” was another strong showing. “Stop Robbin’ Us, Battman” was a clever one – in stark contrast to those louts urging the Minister to shove his reform up unprintable places. For all the quality on display, it was the plainitive “But I Already Spent All My Money On This Sign” that won the affections of this jaded hack – but could yer man see it from China?

Continued on page 2

No extended opening Slip-ups at Comedy Soc roller disco for Library this term

By Deirdre Robertson College News Editor

By Dave Molloy MANY STUDENTS have been left confused on finding the library closed on Sundays. Despite a very public Students’ Union campaign last year which resulted in Sunday opening times, the decision appears to have been retracted this year.

A final decision on the future of library opening hours is due at the end of the month, the college has confirmed.

The libraries have reduced their hours since last year, with no Sunday opening hours scheduled for Michaelmas term. The library’s website subtitles the opening hours for the remainder of the year as “subject to revision.”

Last year, a pilot scheme was put in place to open the BLU library complex on Sundays, the cost of which was borne by the library budget. The numbers of students using the facilities was monitored throughout Michelmas term, with the result that Sunday opening was extended to the Hamilton library by the end of the year.

However, the Library is still awaiting a decision from the college’s executive officers to approve continued funding for this and future years, according to Deputy

Librarian Jessie Kurtz.

“The Library Committee reviewed the position at its May meeting and agreed that the additional opening be retained for the BLU Libraries, and extended to the Hamilton Library in Michaelmas term, on the basis that the Senior Lecturer take the issue of ongoing costs for consideration

by Executive Officers,” Ms Kurtz told Trinity News. “As the Library Committee clearly expressed its concern at the effect of a continuing commitment on the Book Budget, therefore at this time the Library is not in a position to undertake the extended opening in Michaelmas term.”

The idea of last year’s opening hours being a “trial run” is something that is contested by the Student’s Union. “There was a trial run last year that was very successful and as a result, it was agreed that the libraries would be open on Sundays on a regular basis,” said Student’s Union President Cathal Reilly. “Now the library is saying that it is still waiting on the executive officers to propose a longer-term funding scheme. Why the same system as last year cannot be used and why the executive officers haven’t already done this is beyond me. I have put pressure on authorities to go through the process as early as possible.”

SOME STUDENTS were left diappointed last week when the DU Comedy Society Roller Disco ran out of the mildly essential roller skates early on in the night. Chair of Comedy Society Robert Kearns acknowledged there were some problems but disagrees with those who say the night was a disaster.

The Roller Disco was hosted by SU Ents and the Comedy Soc on Tuesday 14th October in the Dandelion Club.

The club was booked to hold 900 people and tickets sold out on the day with students paying €8 each to attend the night. However, according to some students who attended, the night was overcrowded and at 10:30 the queues outside the door were so long that anyone without a ticket was told to come back at midnight. One student commented that the club was so crowded she couldn’t move and the line for roller skates was so long that she didn’t bother to attempt it. Another student, Sarah-Louise Hassett, described the night as “dire, really appalling” as she arrived at 11:15 and by 12:30 the Roller Disco part of the night was over.

Another student agreed with this opinion saying she left early because there were not enough skates for everybody and at the start of the night she wasn’t allowed on the dancefloor

The scene in Dandelion nightclub during the Roller Disco. without a pair of skates. Ms Hassett said that at 12:30 the music was turned down so low she could barely hear it and the DJ kept repeating that everyone had to give back the skates before they could continue to party. Mr. Kearns said he did not hear or notice that the music was turned off.

Mr. Kearns said “it wasn’t a perfect night” but he disagreed that large crowds of students were left disappointed. He explained that the Dandelion Club booked an event management company called “Roller Disco” and then approached the Comedy

Soc and SU Ents asking them to host the night. According to Mr. Kearns the venue was large enough for 1,000 people and the club wanted that many guests but the Comedy Society decided to sell only 900 tickets so people would have room to move. Things got “a little messy’ at 12:30 when it emerged that “Roller Disco” couldn’t cater to 900 people as the Comedy Soc had been told and queues for skates became dangerous as they snaked across the dancefloor.

One student speculated that the skates had been recalled because “a girl skulled herself” but Mr. Kearns

said that the problems were nothing to do with health and safety. When asked whether alcohol and skating is a good idea Mr Kearns said the Comedy Society had enquired into the risks and found that “Roller Disco” had a very low track record of injuries at their events.

Railings in The Dandelion were even bubble wrapped.

Although the skates were recalled at 12:30am, Mr Kearns said that the club was full until 2:30am and that the roller disco aspect of the night did not seem to affect most students. He noted that around 500 people were able to skate and there were only 50-60 students who wanted to skate but couldn’t.

A complaints forum has been set up in House 6 but so far Mr Kearns has only received 7 complaints asking for a refund. One student disputes this saying she made a complaint but was not refunded. She also believed that “most people won’t bother complaining”.

Mr Kearns commented that Comedy Soc are currently in discussion with “Roller Disco” as they are unwilling to pay the management company “due to their inability to provide the promised level of service”. Mr. Kearns hopes that the fee which would have paid the company will instead be used to subsidise ticket prices for later events this term. He says due to this students will be able to see comedian Ardal O’Hanlon for a reduced price of €8.

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TRINITY NEWS TRINITY NEWS

NEWS

Tuesday, October 14, 2008 October 28, 2008

“Why the same system as last year cannot be used is beyond me” »Students’ Union President Cathal Reilly on the current negotiations with College over Sunday library opening times.

“A car is an inanimate object, it doesn’t harm anyone if it’s bombed” »National Animal Rights.

Association spokeswoman Laura Broxson defending the association’s tactics.

“Typically, when you saw someone in half, you would have a box, but we have no box. We saw from his crotch right up to his neck. After we saw him in half, we split him in half” » Joe Daly, creator and star of Magick Macabre on his act.

THIS FORTNIGHT THEY SAID...

Compiled by Victor Jones “Scrubs has been a hit over here, but not so much back home. I mean, a lot of people aren’t even aware it exists” »John C. McGinley, who plays Dr. Perry Cox in TV’s Scrubs.

NUMEROLOGY

“At least the Scholars were safe” » One Scholar who attended the fire safety talks for residents this week. The talk for non-Scholars presented a fire hazard with students crowding the emergency exits.

“If you inherit your political leanings from what some rock band says, you’ve got some problems” »Buzz Osborne of grunge godfathers ‘The Melvins’.

“I’ve done this twice before; for Rosin Ingle, for Ross O’Carroll Kelly and [now] for Bertie Ahern.

A friend of mine suggested I play ‘shag, shoot or marry’. My instant response was I’d shoot Roisn Ingle which left me in an awkward position for the other two names” » History lecturer Patrick Geoghegan on being called on to replace Hist speakers.

“None whatsoever” » Labour education spokesman Ruairi Quinn describes the chances of the Governement repealing the decision on the increase in the registration fee.

“Bective had everything going for them” » Provost of Trinity College and keen rugby fan Dr. John Hegarty proffers his expert assessment of the damp match played in College Park last Saturday.

“Stop robin us Battman” » One of the many signs and placards seen at last Wednesday’s march to Leinster House on the issue of fees. Students took some creative license with their placards, deviating from USI’s “education is a right, not a privilege” slogan.

15,000 march on Leinster House continued from page 1

Compiled by Victor Jones

15,000 »The estimated number of students who attended the protest against thirdlevel fees on Wednesday 22nd October.

15 » The number of rooms that the Accommodation Office say have been left vacant during the recent Rubrics renovations

600 » The amount that the 2008 Budget has increased the university registration fee for 2009/10.

10 » The percentage that food prices have gone up in venues run by College Catering.

the country demanding to meet with the Minister and his Department,” Mr Kelly said after the rally.

The demonstration “just shows how many students value free access to education and how wrong the Government would be to reverse the decision to bring in free fees,” Mr Quinn said.

The speakers were difficult to hear even from quite close to their position at the Leinster House end of Molesworth Street. The tannoy system was simply a loud-hailer. However, as a show of numbers, the demonstration was effective. City-centre traffic came to a halt, with buses on College Green and Burgh Quay simply abandoned.

Wednesday was a day of numerous large-scale demonstrations as 15,000 pensioners also came out in force in protest at the removal of automatic entitlement to medical cards for over70s. The two groups of protestors were largely supportive of each other.

Trinity College Provost Dr John Hegarty surveyed the demonstration on Nassau Street. He called it “fantastic,” and said “students have every right to protest”.

However he said the protests had not changed his views. Dr Hegarty and other college heads favour a student loan scheme with the introduction of third level fees. The Provost recently told Trinity College staff that the College has a

Students assembled in Front Square before the march. Photo: Brian Martin €7 million funding deficit this year.

Mr Hegarty stated that it was important to ensure those unable to afford fees did not have to pay upfront.

The college heads also believe heavy fees on the highly wealthy could result in a brain drain to colleges overseas.

College leaders believe that those who benefit from college education should pay for it once they reach an income threshold. “Deferred fees are still preferable to immediate payment,” Dr Hegarty told Trinity News.

The system of loans the college heads have proposed has been compared to the

Australian system which USI recently described as “illogical and short sighted”.

Dr Hegarty merely stated, “I have not proposed the Australian system.”

Students were opposed to all forms of fees, with many pointing to the registration fee as a de facto college fee.

The Minister for Education, Batt O’Keeffe has increased the registration fee, as an interim measure, by roughly €600 to nearly €1600.

Many students also raised the other expenses of college life, such as the costs of accommodation for those living away from home. Local authority grants for

those qualifying are often late in coming, and there are borderline cases where families might be slightly too well-off to obtain a grant.

“I’m protesting for my little sister,” said Aedin Clynes, a fourth-year student.

Many lecturers were supportive of the students. Countering concerns about lack of funds for university research, Paul Horan, a Lecturer in the School of Nursing, said “If fees go through, you can say goodbye to the knowledge economy.”

He pointed to his own experience of being financially unable to train as a nurse in Ireland and having to move to England.

He had been lucky, he said. With fees, the Government “would be abandoning the jewels of this country.”

All the Trinity College branches of the political parties were very visibly represented in Front Square before the march began, with the exception of Fianna Fáil.

A Green Party member said the party as a whole was opposed to college fees. Green Party students’ protests were no embarrassment to the Greens in government, he said. “Greens are fighting from the inside: you don’t do it by screaming and shouting,” he added.

A Young Fine Gael member rejected the suggestion by former EU commissioner Peter Sutherland that the party adopt a “Tallaght strategy,” whereby it would support the Government to remove partypolitical rivalry, as “absurd.”

CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS While recognising that College societies may sometimes stray beyond their official raisons d’etre to pursue a wider range of interests, we were incorrect to report in our last issue that the Literary Society was hosting a “Boob Club” (What’s on this coming fortnight, page 9, October 14). They had, of course, settled for a Book Club.

Dr Gerald Morgan has not been suspended from teaching, as we incorrectly reported in the article titled “No classes during Morgan hearing” published on October 14. At the request of Dr Morgan he has been granted study leave for Michaelmas Term 2008 and alternative arrangements for teaching have been put in place for the term. Also, the College never brought Dr Gerald Morgan to either the High Court or Supreme Court. In December 2002, disciplinary proceedings under the College statutes were invoked against Dr Morgan. Dr Morgan issued High Court proceedings seeking to injunct a disciplinary hearing in respect of those charges. He was unsuccessful in this regard in the High Court and Supreme Court.

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Rubrics renovations keep residents out

By Niall O’Brien STUDENT RESIDENTS of the Rubrics building, having been told that they would be able to move into their accommodation by the 1st of October, are still waiting to be admitted. This follows extensive renovations which have taken place on the Rubrics over the past few months.

The renovation works were originally supposed to be purely external, involving repairs to damaged brickwork, windows and roof tops as well as the building being painted and cleaned. However, the Accommodation Office (AO) then decided that the student rooms would be kept empty in order to “lay new flooring in rooms, kitchens, showers, and toilets and to provide new desks, chairs and some other furnishing”. This decision, which residents of the Rubrics contacted

by Trinity News claim not to have been informed of, has apparently delayed them from availing of their pre-agreed accommodation for over three weeks.

When student residents of the Rubrics entered the office on October 1st, expecting to pick up their keys for their Rubrics rooms, they were presented

Scaffolding envelops the Rubrics as they get a face-lift. Photo: Rachel Kennedy with keys to alternative on-campus accommodation. “I was never actually told that the rooms wouldn't be ready for the start of term”, one student resident of the Rubrics said. When the student asked when she would be able to move into the Rubrics building, the AO representative replied that she would be “e-mailed when they know” and that it would “probably be within two weeks”. The student was obliged to accept alternative accommodation in New Square until her Rubrics room was available. Three weeks have past by and the student has still not been contacted.

The AO claims that “15 student places have been left vacant'” throughout the course of the project. When asked why this alternative student accommodation was left vacant in the first place, the AO replied that “these alternative rooms became available when rooms were declined or returned by those who were allocated rooms” and insisted that the return of rooms around September is a “normal phenomenon”. The AO maintains that “after the situation normalises”, any vacant rooms will be offered “to students who have previously applied” for them.

This does, however, call into question

how many more on-campus student rooms have been left uninhabited since the start of the academic year.

The students will receive no compensation for being deprived of their Rubrics accommodation. The AO states that the offer of alternative accommodation due to the Rubrics project “is within the terms of the Conditions of Occupancy which the residents accept” and, therefore, there has been “no breach of the Conditions”. Students who are currently occupying inferior rooms will not however be charged the higher rent of their Rubrics rooms in the interim.

Trinity News has been assured that the student rooms in the Rubrics will be available from next week.

While student residents have been vacated from their rooms in Rubrics, most, if not all, staff residents have continued to occupy their rooms. Some temporary relocations of staff did take place during August and September, but they have since returned. The AO emphasised that “staff residents have shown considerable goodwill and forbearance during the project”. No similar reference was made to the goodwill and forbearance of the students.

Ten students filming reality show

By Deirdre Robertson College News Editor TRINITY COLLEGE’S first reality television show will hit the screen in January but “it’s not as trashy as it sounds” according to creater/producer/ director Ian Kinane. The show is a DU Filmmakers project. It is an 8 part series which is being filmed this term and will be shown week by week starting in January.

‘The Hunt’ shows “10 contestants battling it out to solve cryptic clues to take them all over Dublin in search of a prize.”

Each week the winning team will select a member from the losing team to leave the competition, until there are just three contestants, who will battle it out to solve a final clue. Ian Kinane was the founder of the project which he runs alongside Eoin Maher, head of Filmmakers, and Lisa MacNamee who Mr. Kinane describes as “the real force behind it.”

The Central Societies Committee have also been involved helping to facilitate

filming which occasionally takes place on campus.

Mr. Kinane came up with the idea of a reality show that is a mix of ‘The Apprentice’ and ‘Survior’ but in order to provide extra entertainment he picked contestants “on the basis of their college profile.”

He cast the show in May “with the idea of generating controversy in mind.” Out of 50-60 responses he chose 10 contestants considered most likely to draw in a large audience and provide dramatic entertainment to those watching.

Two weeks of the programme have already been filmed and according to Mr. Kinane “already there have been sparks flying, a lot of personal attacks on people and some have brought the game to a spiteful level.” He is hoping the programme will generate enough interest to put on a weekly screening in the Arts Building but Filmmakers have not yet sought permission from the College to do so.

The 10 contestants are battling each other for a large cash prize but Mr. Kinane was reluctant to reveal any details about how much they could expect. He would only say that the prize “is enough 10 contestants, 8 clues, 1 winner: Trinity’s upcoming reality show “The Hunt” as described by the organisers to keep 10 students running around in the rain”. Likewise, he refused to hint at who the contestants are. When casting, he informed participants that they could not tell anybody they were involved or they would be taken out of the show.

While Mr Kinane sees the show as primarily a fun contest and entertainment for students, he also sees it as a psychological game. He believes that Filmmakers are setting up an interesting social experiment and points out that the

participants “are obviously competing, but we’re looking on to see exactly how lowly students actually get along when there’s a prize like this involved! What would they or wouldn’t they do for such a thing?” He continued, “as they get used to the cameras around them, the layers of their personalities are stripped back to reveal what they’re like at the core. How they play this game is a good reflection of themselves. Also, knowing that their peers will eventually watch the footage, does this effect how they interact with strangers?”

Mindgames, rumours and rifts have already made an impact on participants, particularly as these are all students who will have to return to the same college reality together. A potential love interest between two cast members has added a further layer of interest to the show.

A teaser trailer of “The Hunt” has already been released and will be shown on the DU Filmmakers YouTube page within the next few days.

TRINITY NEWS

NEWS

TRINITY NEWS

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Tuesday, October 14, 2008

October 28, 2008

Anti-vivisection protesters solicit evidence

By Naomi O’Leary PETROL-BOMBING OXFORD University and targeting of student residences?

“The end justifies the means” in the fight for animal liberty, says Laura Broxson, spokesperson for the National Animal Rights Association. NARA has stepped up its campaign against Trinity College in the past week, offering students a “reward” for any photographs of animal experimentation. So far, NARA has had no luck.

The association’s website champions twelve sentence-serving “Vegan Animal Rights Prisoners”, each imprisoned for their part in the extremist Animal Liberation Front’s ‘New Wave’ of violent

activity. The ALF has been named the “most serious domestic terrorist threat within the United Kingdom” by the former director of the University of St Andrews’ Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence.

During the 80’s they sent a string of letterbombs to high-profile targets such as then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Of ALF convicts, NARA says that “the only thing these people are guilty of is having the courage to speak up for animals, and for being brave enough to stand up against the cruelty that is inflicted upon them. They are not criminals, they are freedom fighters.”

Amongst NARA’s listed heroes is the “Animal Liberation Front’s top bomber” Donald Currie. Currie was arrested after

he rigged a car to explode, throwing another bomb into a nearby family garden during his flight from the police. NARA encourages visitors to their website to “A car is an inanimate object, it doesn’t harm anyone if it’s bombed” send Currie cheques, postal orders and messages of support.

Another prisoner being supplied with cash by NARA is Mel Broughton, arrested for the 2007 planting of petrol bombs in Oxford University. Broughton was the spokesperson for the SPEAK campaign, which had been leading an

animal rights campaign in protest against the university’s lab testing. Oxford had won an injunction against the protesters a year before attacks became violent, claiming that vandalism had increased and that the entire town of Oxford was “living under constant threat”. ALF head Robin Webb told the media that student accommodation was a legitimate target.

Yet another of NARA’s heroes is Johnny Ablewhite, currently serving 15 years for blackmailing the Hall family, then owners of a guinea pig farm in Staffordshire. He offered the return of their deceased mother-in-law’s remains, which recently had been exhumed.

It’s not just the website that has links to the ALF. So too does Laura Broxson, NARA’s spokesperson, a Trinity News

investigation has revealed. Broxson has been behind the release of communiqués she claims were passed on to NARA from the Animal Liberation Front. One such press release claimed responsibility for the attempted release of 200 mink from a farm in Laois. The farm had been picketed for a number of months by the Coalition Against the Fur Trade Ireland, whose spokesperson is also Laura Broxson. The message is typical of the tone of the ALF, stating “Una and Michael Heffernan are responsible for murdering over 45,000 Mink on this death camp every year. It’s time to make them pay for this. The ALF will be back, Una and Michael”.

While picketing outside the Arts Building, NARA handed out leaflets headlined “Wanted: verifiable, usabel,

Prices up as Buttery costs rise

Battered Bertie gets Hist medal

By Lisa Byrne EVEN WEDNESDAY’S protest couldn’t keep the crowds of students away from the DU Historical Society debate on the motion “this house would re-unite Ireland.” Former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern was due to chair the event but he was replaced by Dr Patrick Geoghegan of the History Department at the last minute.

Mr Ahern was presented with a gold award for “outstanding contribution to public discourse.” Record Secretary Barry Cahill jokingly suggested that it was Ahern’s acceptance of the award that had caused his injury, referring to the misfortunes suffered by many recipients of the award. Exiled Burmese “The British Army in Northern Ireland only killed 200 people” said Dr Steven King activist Aung San Suu Kyi became housebound and Garrett Fitzgerald fell ill shortly after receiving his award. One person suggested the medal should be presented to the entire Italian football team shouting, “May they all break their legs.”

Mr Ahern was introduced by replacement Chair for the night Dr Patrick Geoghegan of the History Deparment and Fellow of the Historical Society. Dr Geoghegan introduced Mr Ahern as the man whom he would always regard as the “real Taoiseach.”

Mr Ahern was recognised for his energy and commitment to establishing peace in Northern Ireland, most notably the signing of the Good Friday agreement.

Mr Ahern warned the audience never to be “constrained by the straight jackets of society,” and said looking into the future and not the past was crucial to the continuing success of peace in the North. Mr Ahern then left the debate, as his attendance was required in Leinster House for the day’s crucial vote on the 2008 Budget which he jokingly complained he “wasn’t consulted” on.

Student Shane Farragher began the debate by opposing the motion referring to an ideology of nationalism and suggesting that people in the North were chasing a “mythical Ireland”. The opposing side retorted that while they couldn’t ignore the giant “sash and bowler

hat-wearing elephant in the room” that was Unionism, Northern Ireland had to recognise that the UK regarded Northern Ireland as a “defunct ideology” and need to look to Germany as a great example of unification.

Dr Steven King was the guest speaker for the opposition. A former Senior Advisor to David Trimble, and now a journalist with the Irish Examiner, it was Dr King who caused the first controversy of the night by challenging Hist Committee member James Walsh’s view on the issue of the virtue of the British Army in Northern Ireland. Dr King described the actions of the Army deployed in the North claiming they “only killed 200 people whereas the IRA killed over 2000.” Mr Walsh responded that the IRA were an illegal terrorist organisation who did not receive their orders from a legitimate government.

Ken Maginnis of the Ulster Unionist Party, now Lord Maginnis of Drumglass, a former UUP MP, followed Dr King.

Lord Maginnis approached the debate from an different angle, referring mostly to the decision to place a national autism centre in Middleton.

Lord Maginnis discussed the rise of autism, the health care system in the North, ABA training and finally gave a lesson on the geography of Newcastle before agreeing that Ireland should be reunited, if only to ensure the “historical disposition to care for the elderly and children” was ensured.

The youngest debater, Political Science student Barry Cahill, referred to the social problems that the focus on nationalism is impeding. Another student, Stephen Buggy, proposed the motion referring to his own background as a nationalist living in an area with a statue dedicated to a Unionist. Josephine Curry argued for the opposition saying unification is not required for economic well-being.

Former Lord Mayor of Belfast, Alban Maginness MLA of the SDLP believed that unification would “bring unity among the people, something we should all be aiming for.”

Finally Colm Denny brought the debate to a close, commenting that while the North has often been let down by the UK, they should look for inspiration to the people of Northumberland, who while they were let down by ex-Prime Minster Margaret Thatcher, never relinquished their citizenship. The debate ended with the Proposition clinching victory.

releveant photos/footage of animal experimentation at Trinity College. Let’s expose Trinity College’s hidden shame”.

When asked whether any volunteers have come forward with videos, NARA replied that so far they have not received any replies despite offering a reward.

“NARA will not stop its campaign against Trinity until animal testing is abandoned”, Broxson told Trinity News.

Confronted about the violent methods condoned on the NARA website, she responded “We‘re not going to distance ourselves from those methods. I would say the end justifies the means. A car is an inanimate object, it doesn’t harm anyone if it’s bombed.” When asked whether Trinity College should step up its security, Broxson laughed.

By Seamus Donnelly

Bertie Ahern, conscious of the honour bestowed upon him, shortly before before leaving the debate early

INCREASED ELECTRICITY and heating costs are one of the central reasons students are now paying more for food in the Buttery and other facilities run

by College’s Catering Department. With increasing uncertainty surrounding the supply of natural resources and fluctuating oil prices in the international markets, energy costs have risen by 21 per cent in college run facilities.

Returning students will have noticed a ten percent hike in prices as of October 2008, with those dining in the Buttery, East Dining Hall and Banqueting Hall subject to increased charges. Simple costs such as a bottle of water have risen from €1.30 last year to €1.55 this year.

However prices at the three Java City Coffee outlets and the Juice bar in the food court have not been subject to any rise in price.

Figures provided by Catering Manager Eugene McGovern noted a 6.8 percent increase in food costs, payroll increases of 6.5 percent and inflation of 5.4 percent.

Although these were contributing factors to the rise in prices, he said that it was increased energy costs — up some 21 percent on last year — that had made the increases in food prices inevitable.

Mr McGovern stated that “after careful budgeting and scrutinising all costs”, College Catering reached the decision that raising food prices was necessary.

Nevertheless he noted that any cost increases came only after a “competitive tendering process” aimed at addressing the increased cost of wholesale food.

Mr McGovern pointed out that the Buttery is operating in a competitive environment with 211 eating options within 6 minutes walk of the College.

He stated that “Trinity Catering is not a subsidised service and must pay all its own costs.” Mr McGovern also pointed out that refurbishment to the Buttery last year was carried out to allow for “increased business levels”, and that it demonstrated the determination of the Buttery management to remain competitive in what is clearly a saturated market. Last year’s Buttery renovation cost €1.5million and was part of an attempt to update the Buttery to compete with outside food venues. In a frank quote, Mr McGovern said one of the main reasons was to rid the venue of the “greasy spoon of slopped up food on a plate” image. This year, he paid a warm tribute to the current staff for the “efficient” manner in which they carried out their jobs.

Despite increases this year, students won’t have to worry, as future price increases — with the exception of “unforseen major costs” outside of the control of the catering staff — have been ruled out until October 2009 at the earliest.

College in breach of its own rules on fire safety

By Conor Sullivan AN IRONIC twist saw a campus resident Fire Safety talk become a fire safety hazard when too many students arrived at the lecture.

Each year all student residents on campus accomodation have to attend a compulsory fire safety lecture. Students who do not attend are faced with a €100 fine. This year however, one lecture hall was overcrowded by almost 50 students.

The large group of extra students resulted in people standing in the stairs, walkways and most importantly, in front of emergency exits.

Campus residents are divided into three groups for fire safety talks.

The postgraduate, international and

EU students attended a talk on the Monday night while the Scholars were due to attend on the Wednesday. The overcrowded lecture was commended to “all other students” in an email from the Accommodation Office. It took place on Tuesday 14th October in the Thomas Davis Theatre in the Arts Building.

According to the website of the Registrar of Chambers, who allocates rooms on campus, 265 places are set aside for Senior Sophister students in addition to 85 rooms for those who qualifiied through various schemes for involvement in Societies or Sports Clubs. This adds up to a total of 350 students who could be expected to attend the fire safety talk on the Monday evening. However, the Thomas Davis lecture theatre where the talk was held only holds 200 people.

According to the Accomodation Officer, Mr Anthony Dempsey, the overcrowding occurred because people who were meant to attend a lecture earlier in the week attended a different Safety Officer Tom Merriman performed a dynamic risk assessment one instead. However he stated that “Prior to commencing the meeting, the emergency exits from the theatre were pointed out.” One student who attended this lecture was Jonathan Wyse, a Junior Sophister Economics and Maths student who said “It was only by being educated about Fire Safety at the lecture that I

realised the conditions were so unsafe.”

The College safety website outlines Trinity’s obligation to ensure there are appropriate fire safety regulations in place. It states, “The General Application Regulations 2007 implement the relevant fire safety and emergency provisions of the 1989 Workplace Directive. The HSA intend to challenge employers, managers and directors (under the SHWW Act 2005) to demonstrate active safety management.”

The safety lecture the following evening was addressed to Scholars and described to fellow residents as a talk “to be attended by Scholars only”.

Students attending had no problem with overfilling. One Scholar told Trinity News “at least the Scholars were safe.”

The College Safety Officer, Mr Tom

Merriman, told Trinity News that the main problems associated with overfilling a lecture theatre are that the “exit capacity might be exceeded” or that “persons on the aisles might not react quickly enough and the aisles/escape routes might be obstructed resulting in delayed evacuation or persons being trampled on.”

He noted that the lecture hall was indeed filled beyond capacity, but that “The College Fire/Safety Officer, The Facilities Officer, the Accommodation Officer, an assistant Junior Dean and a number of other staff from the Accommodation Office were present and in control of the situation. These are trained experienced persons well accustomed to handling large crowds and dealing with emergencies.”

He continued to state that “on the basis of a dynamic risk assessment it was decided that, in these circumstances, the benefit to those present outweighed the small risk posed by the additional numbers in the theatre. Instructions were given at the beginning of the meeting to inform those on the aisles as to what to do in the event of an emergency. The situation was continually assessed by the Fire/Safety Officer.” He added, however, that “in general, such additional occupancy of a lecture theatre would not be permitted or acceptable without the additional controls that were in place on that evening”. Anecdotal evidence from Student Societies on campus would suggest that College does indeed take a strict line on fire safety. Any overfilling of rooms is banned.

4

TRINITY NEWS TRINITY NEWS

NEWS

SHORT CUTS DEAF EDUCATION

WEBSITE AIMED AT DEAF STUDENTS TRINITY COLLEGE has launched a website geared towards deaf students in third level education.

The website, DS3, is part of a national project aimed at increasing “the number and retention of deaf and hard of hearing students in third level education in Ireland”.

The initiative was founded in 2005 and was originally funded by HEA initiative funds.

It continues to be paid for by College funds.

DS3 was originally named DNA but due to confusion, it was changed to DS3.

Simultaneously, they have launched their new website with sections for students, teachers and access officers. It includes links to many other websites relevant to deaf students and also post blogs of the activities of relevant societies on campus such as the Sign Society.

TAP STUDENTS

CAREER SUPPORT FOR TAP STUDENTS TRINITY ACCESS Programme students will have the opportunity to attend career development programmes in a new partnership between TAP and Grant Thornton accountancy firm.

The 4 year partnership gives TAP students the opportunity to benefit from modules on career development, transferable skills and exam preparation.

Speaking at the launch, Managing Partner Paul Raleigh said, “Grant Thornton is delighted to help young people from our local community in accessing a potentially life transforming educational experience.”

DIVERSITY WEEK

ANTI RACISM WEEK LAUNCHED USI HAVE announced the launch of a new week to promote acceptance among students.

In conjunction with the European Commission, USI are launching ‘Diversity Week’ in 19 Irish Institutes of Technology and Universities around Ireland including Trinity.

The week will run from 3rd-6th November and will encourage students consider discrimination and learn about Irish Equality Law. SU Education Officer Orlaith Foley said, “Many students are unaware of their rights and responsibilities in relation to anti-discrimination issues so we have teamed up with the European Commission to address this issue.”

Tuesday, October 14, 2008 October 28, 2008

Registration fee hiked by 67% in budget

By Brian Barry STUDENTS AT Trinity College and other universities throughout the country face a 67% hike in their annual ‘student services’ registration fee, following Brian Lenihan’s publication of the State Budget earlier this month. The fee, which stood at €900 for this academic year, will increase to €1500 for the academic year 2009/2010. Trinity College Student Union, the Union of Students in Ireland and opposition government parties have all heavily criticised as “unjustified” and “cynical”.

Between 2002 and 2007 the increase in the fee largely reflected the national rate of inflation. However, a 9% increase in 2007 from €825 to €900, and the imminent 67% hike introduced by the Budget has completely bucked this trend.

By next year the student services charge will therefore have increased by 124% since 2002.

The president of the Union of Students in Ireland, Shane Kelly, commented: “Last week’s Budget which saw third level registration fees being increased by 67% to €1,500 represents a crude and cynical attempt by Minister O’ Keefe to raise revenue for the State coffers at the expense of students and their families.”

Student Union President Cathal Reilly told Trinity News “the increase was in no way justified. At a time where the economic outlook is bleak, the government must invest in the economy’s future by means of, among other things, education.” At last Wednesday’s student fees protest, Labour education spokesman Ruairi Quinn said the Government had “buckled” on the issues of medical cards and income levies following the budget.

He anticipated “they would do so again”

The increase in the registration fee was one of the grievances of last week’s march. Photo: Cian Clarke on the issue of education if they were pressured. However, when Trinity News asked Mr. Quinn if there was any real prospect of the increase in the registration fee being repealed by the government, he replied “none whatsoever”. He added that government policy on the matter was aimless - “The government is in a deep financial crisis, and as a result they’re

hitting out at anyone and everyone”, he said.

The increase in the registration fee comes in the wake of recent statements made by Minister O’Keefe that the government is considering reintroducing college tuition fees - a matter which has been the subject of much protest and controversy. Many student bodies

and media outlets have suggested that the increase in registration fees introduced in the Budget is an attempt by the government to move towards the eventual reintroduction of tuition fees.

Cathal Reilly told Trinity News: “This is a step by the government towards trying to reintroduce fees. What they are doing is upping the registration

fee and cutting the block grant to Universities by the same (or a very similar) amount per student.” However, Head of Communications at the Higher Education Authority Malcolm Byrne refuted this claim – “our understanding is that the additional funding will be to the institution concerned. In other words, if a TCD student pays €1500 next year, the money will go to TCD.” Mr. Reilly pointed out that the student body must be vigilant in ensuring that the student services fee is used for its stated purpose. “Under the Education Authority Report 1995 these monies were designated to paying for registration, examinations and student services. What we must look out for is if the minister tries to change that, so that these monies could be used anywhere. Then this would be the reintroduction of fees.”

Mr. Reilly denied that the issue of the increased registration fee was lost at last Wednesday’s protest to the central matter – the reintroduction of tuition fees. “The protest was against fees in any guise. The registration fee is a “fee” and we were also protesting against its increase (as was heard in the speeches made that day).”

This year, the total cost for a first time undergraduate signing to a course at Trinity was €983, the additional €83 comprising of the compulsory €75 Sports Centre Levy and an €8 USI levy.

This total charge is low when compared alongside other universities in Ireland, despite last year’s debate over the merits of a compulsory Sports Centre Levy.

Students at UCD paid €150 for a “student centre levy” on top of the standard €900 this year. A €145 “capitation fee” is charged by UCC, and NUI Galway charges an additional €222 for “student levies”.

College cuts cobbles in drive for universal access

By Aislinn Lucheroni FRONT SQUARE is about to undergo a facelift, improving accessibility for wheelchair users and those with reduced mobility. Smooth stone paths will be set into the existing cobbles, subject to planning permission from Dublin City Council.

The cobbles of Front Square are an iconic part of College. Somewhat surprisingly, however, they only date back to the mid-20th Century. The planning application for Trinity’s Cobble Reduction Programme says, “While it is acknowledged that the existing cobble finish adds a particular character to Front Square, it is noted that they are not of a truly historic character, in that according to current research they were only laid in the past 50 to 60 years.”

Much of the accommodation around Front Square was constructed in the 18th century, as part of the reconstruction of the Great West Front of the College in the 1750s. In 2005 access was improved, with wheelchair ramps added to houses 2, 7 and 9.

Front Square has been singled out by College’s Cobble Reduction Programme’s project manager, Patrick McDonnell, as having “probably the worst cobbles on the whole campus. College is obliged to provide universal access under Disability Legislation.” Dublin City Council objected to the proposed layout as being too disruptive to the character of Front Square. College has been granted conditional planning permission. The layout of the paths was arrived at after four years of consultation with grounds committees and disability access

committees. The most recent proposal sees layout remaining largely the same except for the diagonal paths stretching from the GMB to the 1937 Reading Room and meeting at a central point. The new paths will follow the circumference of Front Square, with an additional straight pathway from the campanile to Front Arch, and one along one side of Fellows’ Square.

At the next Sites and Facilities Committee meeting on 4th November, new drawings will be submitted by the architects Michael Collins and Associates.

Dublin Council’s Conservation Architect must also approve any plans, under the conditions of permission.

The type of stone to be used has not yet been proposed, but Mr McDonnell said it would be a “granite-type cobble, similar to what is currently in place, square in shape but with a smoother surface.”

The catalyst for this project was Part 3 of the Disability Act 2005 which ensures “that an integrated access to public buildings and services is available to people with and without disabilities.”

The question of funding has not yet been resolved, and the project has not gone to tender. The Buildings Office would not give an estimate as the final plans have yet to be approved, and samples must still be agreed.

Sections of the proposed paths are to be laid in the near future, to show how the pathways would interact with the current cobbles’ inset, and to show both the College community and Dublin City Council what the new pathways will look like. One day wheelchair users and high heel wearers alike will successfuly navigate College’s most beautiful square - well, the edges of it, anyway.

The Disability Act 2005 requires the change to Front Square’s ground covering.

YOUR VIEW DID YOU GO TO THE FEES PROTEST ON WEDNESDAY?

CIARAN O’MELIA

DAVID KEOGH

SHANE JACKSON

DECLAN BURROWES

SARAH WERNER

SS DRAMA AND THEATRE

SF PHILOSOPHY&POLITICS

SF BESS

JF HISTORY

SF EUROPEAN STUDIES

No I didn’t go to it. I agree with the protest in essence but I just couldn’t make it.

I did. I can understand why in the current climate they need to introduce fees but I disagree with a blanket fee. I wouldn’t be against a high threshold graded system.

We’ve been blessed to have free fees the past 10 years.

I did go to the protest. Bottom line is I don’t want to pay to go to college.

I went to the protest, it was good.

I went because I can’t afford fees.

I went to the protest. I think one protest is not enough at all, we need many more. I think we should all be on strike. All education should be free.

TRINITY NEWS

NEWS

TRINITY NEWS

5

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

October 28, 2008

SHORT CUTS NURSING CUTS

NURSING DEGREE PLACES SLASHED

Attendants at the Dublin University Boat Club dinner in the Dining Hall last Friday. Photo: David Adamson

THE NUMBER of places in nursing degrees in Ireland is to be cut by 310 according to a recent report by the Irish Examiner.

An internal report by the Health Service Executive outlined cuts in Irish Institutes of Technology and Universities beginning in September 2009.

The University sector will lose 15% of its places while the Institutes of Technology will be cut by 22%.

Trinity College will lose a total of 19 places, 10 of which are in the area of intellectual disablility nursing.

General secretary of the Irish nurses organisation Liam Doran has said “These reductions are shortsighted and while they might save pennies in the short term they will cost pounds in the long term.”

RESEARCH

MORTUARY STOPS TAKING CORPSES

Diary mess-up forces SU to get creative

By Lisa Byrne A DIRTY Sanchez ticket for your student diary? Having run out of student diaries halfway through Registration, the SU are trying to cope with unprecedented demand by asking students who don’t want their diaries to give them up for the chance to win concert tickets.

For many students the diary is considered a necessity to act as a reminder of lecture attendance. For others, its use is still being determined. Regardless of your own view, the absence of the College diary from some students’ bags is being felt. For those poor students with nothing

to glance through during dull lectures, they have been left wondering why they’ve been deprived of the somewhat interesting reading material.

Ordering more of the popular diaries would be a “huge financial burden for the SU” said SU President Cathal Reilly This year, the regular College diary was merged with the SU guidebook which gives detailed accounts of different aspects of College and includes

welcome introductions from each of the SU sabbatical officers. According to Student Union President Cathal Reilly, this amalgamation was a triumph as it “reduced the amount of paper printed, and the cost was much lower than printing the two”. However, the new diaries were either so limited in number or so popular that they ran out halfway into Registration week.

Cathal Reilly said this was due to the “unprecedented demand” of diaries during registration. “Every year, not every student takes a copy of the diary, knowing that they won’t use it and as such, college generally doesn’t print one for every student as this would leave a

lot as waste. This process was employed again this year; however there were very few students this year who decided not to take the diaries.”

Having completed a short survey among students ranging from the Arts Block to the Nurses’ Building asking whether they had been given the option of taking a diary all said that they had just been given them. One students said “I was just handed mine at registration, if I’d known that there was a chance that another student wouldn’t get one because I’d taken it, I wouldn’t have taken it.”

The excessive demand may be accounted for by the increase of registering students this year. As of

October 22 2008, 14,145 students have registered. These figures are up from 13,625 in the same peroid last year.

Cathal Reilly has said that the SU are looking into ways of providing the students with the missing diaries, without having to order more copies in which he believes would “be a huge financial burden for either college or the SU”. The proposed remedy is to give all those who return their unused diaries the chance to be entered into a draw to win tickets for the upcoming Dirty Sanchez show. Having spoken to many students, it appears it may take a lot more than a Dirty Sanchez ticket to take their diaries off them.

TRINITY COLLEGE’S overcrowded mortuary may have more to do with economics than scientific research.

Trinity has put a temporary halt to accepting corpses for research due to overfilling.

The surge in donations was “unprecendented” according to Trinity’s human donations office.

An article in the Irish Independent, however, seemed to suggest that economic conditions have a lot to do with the rise. “The number of people opting to donate their bodies to medical research has grown massively as people who are prepared to help out medical science can also avoid the high costs of funerals and get buried for free.” Trinity have suspended donations for 12 months.

Experience something new in the Old Library

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

Q&A Thinking of furthering your studies in business? UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School awaits you.

Come to our Open Evening on November 12th from 4pm at our Blackrock Campus.

For further information and to register your attendance visit smurfitschool.ie

6

TRINITY NEWS TRINITY NEWS

NATIONAL NEWS

SHORT CUTS ARTS

FESTIVAL MARKS QUB CENTENARY QUEEN’S, FOUNDED as Queen’s College Belfast in 1845, became an independent university in 1908. The annual Ulster Bank Belfast Festival at Queen’s will be a double celebration this year, marking both the university’s centenary and the 60th anniversary of the U.N Declaration of Human Rights.

The Festival, which has been described by Graeme Farrow, festival director, as “an annual arts and entertainment Olympics”, is due to run from the 17th of October to the 1st of November. The festival was launched with an opening concert by Ennio Moricone, the Italian Oscar-winner who has composed some of the best-known film music over the last forty years. Past accomplishments include scores for The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, Once Upon a Time In America, The Untouchables and The Mission starring Robert de Niro and Jeremy Irons. Other highlights of the festival include the events “Human Rights, Poetic Redress” and “Stand Up for Justice”, which have been organised by Amnesty International to mark the 60th year of the Declaration of Human Rights.

“Human Rights, Poetic Redress” took place on the 23rd of October and involved a debate by top Irish writers Carlo Gebler, Eilis Ni Dhuibhne, Glenn Patterson and Kevin Barry on the role of the writer in upholding human rights. “Stand Up for Justice” is a comedy show currently in its sixth year at the festival. This year it showcased top international talent including John Bishop, Katherine Ryan and Damian Clark.

(Una Geary)

ANTI-SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR

BUS SERVICE TO UCD SUSPENDED DUBLIN BUS have temporarily withdrawn services from the 10 and 46A bus stops on Belfield campus and on the N11 after 8.30 p.m. following what it described as a series of incidents of anti-social behaviour in the past weeks.

Bus drivers complained of students drinking on board and being verbally abusive. On one occasion, it was claimed that an inspector was physically assaulted. Aodhan O’Dea, UCD SU President, said, “The alleged incident happened off campus and there has been no proof that the attack came from a UCD Student at all.”

The suspension was implemented after a meeting with trade unions, UCD representatives and the relevant authorities. Mr. O’Dea expressed his sentiment that, “The move is disappointing as they are painting all 23,000 students here in UCD with the same brush and judging us all by the actions of a few.”

No actions have been taken as yet against students involved in the incidents, as no specific claims have been made. Mr. O’Dea said that, “Anyone caught drinking on campus or getting on buses with drink are dealt with under the Dignity and Respect policy in the University.”

The withdrawal of evening bus services is a serious blow to students, in terms of safety and finances. Mr. O’Dea complained that “Students are being forced to walk late at night alone, to use basic bus services or to get a taxi - adding to problems of student debt.”

In a statement, Dublin Bus said that “The safety of our staff and passengers is of utmost importance to Dublin Bus and the temporary withdrawal of services is common practice in areas where the company experiences incidents of antisocial behaviour.”

Dublin Bus has said that it hopes to re-instate evening bus services to UCD campus as soon as possible.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008 October 28, 2008

Students struggling as budget freezes grant rates

By Una Geary National News Editor DESPITE THE considerable cutbacks imposed on the education sector by the recent Budget, the Government’s spending estimate for grants is up by 6% to 277.9 million EUR. This is in response to a surge in demand for grant aid due to the current economic downturn.

Nearly 3,000 more students applied for maintenance grants this year, increasing the number of applications by at least 5% in the past few months. However, rates are due to remain frozen until at least January 2010. Orlaith Foley, TCD SU Welfare Officer, said that “The government did not increase the grant in any way, making life much tougher for families already struggling. While

inflation is running at 4%, this effectively amounts to a decrease in the financial supports being offered to students.”

The standard full rate is currently at EUR 3,420. According to Shane Kelly, USI president, only a minority of 10% of the 57,000 students who received grant aid last year received this sum. The remainder received the 50% assistance rate of EUR 1,710 or less. For students who come from within 24 km of their college, this figure is more than halved to EUR 685. The maximum possible rate of EUR 6,690 is allocated only to the 10% of students in the lowest family income band of EUR 20,000.

These rates are grossly inadequate, leaving a considerable gap between the estimated cost of attending college and the grant aid available. Dublin Institute

FAMILY INCOME THRESHOLDS FOR GRANTS Dependents

Full Maintenance 75%

50%

Reg. fee exempt

Less than 4

€39,760

€42,235

€44,720

€49,690

4 to 7

€43,680

€46,415

€49,145

€54,605

8 or more

€47,430

€50,400

€53,360

€59,280

of Technology has judged that students living away from home will be set back by approximately EUR 8,403 per year. Even those living at home are expected to face an outlay of EUR 3,861.

However, despite the glaring discrepancy between grant rates and the cost of third level education, even worse off are the middle income families who are just above the cut-off point, some by

as little as €100. According to Ms. Foley, “The direct result of this has been the increase in applications to the Student Assistance Fund, which is administered through the Senior Tutors office. We have seen record numbers of students applying for this funding, both from students who will get a maintenance grant and those who are falling short of the maintenance grant thresholds.”

She added, “The grant cut off points were released very late this summer.

The fact that the grant announcement came so late this year has resulted in a huge delay in the administration surrounding the applications and means that to date few grants have actually been distributed. This means that the majority of Trinity students had to pay their registration fee.”

Batt O’Keeffe, Minister of Education and Science, will heap further hardship on students next year by increasing this fee by 67% to €1,500. Shane Kelly, USI President, denounced the 2009 Budget measures as “an underhanded way of generating revenue to facilitate Government cutbacks and are essentially, the first step towards the re-introduction of full tuition fees.”

SPECIAL REPORT

Cork student’s fight to free mother UCC student calls on the Government to intervene on behalf of mother currently imprisoned in China for her links with Falun Gong

By Kate O’Regan A UCC student, whose mother has been detained by the Chinese authorities due to her connections with the banned Falun Gong movement, has called on Taoiseach Brian Cowen to raise the issue with the Chinese government during his visit to the country this week.

Tang Liang is a food science student at University College Cork.

Both his parents were arrested in June due to their activity with the Falun Gong movement. His father Yu Lin Tang was later released.

However Liang’s mother, Aiqin Wang, remains in detention in China.

This week, Brian Cowen is attending trade talks in Shanghai and Beijing. Tang Liang has seized this opportunity, launching a plea to the Irish leader to raise the issue of the continued detention of Falun Gong supporters, and wider claims of human rights abuses in China. Mr. Liang was accompanied by Ming Zhao, a former student of Trinity, who spent two years in prison because of his Falun Gong beliefs. Mr. Zhao was released in 2002 after the intervention of several high-profile political figures in Ireland, including Senator David Norris.

Mr. Zhao was a computer science student at Trinity in 2000.

Senator David Norris was among the high-profile figures who intervened in the case of Ming Zhao, former Trinity student, was was detained for two years in China When he returned to his home in Beijing for the Christmas holidays he was immediately taken into custody by the authorities.

Addressing a sub-committee on Human Rights at Leinster House in 2004, he claimed that on his return to China he was arrested without warrant for his association with the Falun Gong movement, and detained in a labour camp without trial. He was imprisoned for two years, enduring torture and brainwashing. He was released in 2002 after a successful campaign for his release and an intervention by former Taoiseach Bertie Ahearn.

During his detention, Ming Zhao claims that the Chinese authorities used electric shocks and physical violence to torture him. He is adamant that there is no rational explanation for the detention of Falun Gong practitioners, and that the Chinese government is simply seeking to monopolise people’s lives.

Falun Gong is a traditional Chinese spiritual discipline that is similar to Buddhism. It is a modern variant of the ancient Chinese practices of exercise, deep breathing, and meditation, that enthusiasts claim promotes physical, mental, and spiritual well-being by enhancing the flow of vital energy through a person’s body. While Falun Gong is practiced in over 70 countries worldwide, there has been a major crackdown on the association in China in recent years.

The Chinese government has been accused of human rights abuses towards those imprisoned. The supporters of Falun Gong describe the detention and persecution of its followers as religious persecution. However the Chinese government insist that they are

Above: Tang Liang seeks the release of his mother with former Trinity student Ming Zhao who was imprisoned for two years for his association with the movement, left. acting in the best interest of Chinese society. They have labelled the Falun Gong organisation a cult.

Chinese authorities began clamping down on Falun Gong practices in 1999. Those found guilty of association with the Falun Gong movement are often handed lengthy prison sentences. They are reported to be treated in a manner counter to the charter of Human Rights. Organisations such as Amnesty International are concerned that the treatment of those imprisoned may have a broader impact on freedom of expression, association and belief in China.

For hundreds of years, China’s rulers have viewed as politically threatening those groups that combine elements of charismatic leadership, a high degree of organization, and popular appeal.

They have labelled such organizations “heretical cults” or “sects” and have moved forcefully to eradicate them. Although Falun Gong practitioners claim they practice and promote truthfulness, compassion and tolerance, the Chinese government has deemed it a threat to society and branded it a cult.

In the online edition of the People’s daily newspaper, members of Falun Gong are accused of “organizing and using the cult organization to undermine the implementation of law, causing deaths by organizing and using the cult organization, and illegally obtaining state secrets.” In an article posted on the website of the Chinese embassy in the United States, the Chinese authorities brand Falun Gong practices as “cult heresies” which threaten to disrupt the normal order of religion. They go on to claim that their actions against the organization are in the best interest of the Chinese people: “To protect the human rights and freedom of religious belief of the Chinese people, the Chinese Government outlawed the “Falun Gong” cult in accordance with the law.”

Amnesty International has been quick to condemn the detention of Falun Gong practitioners by the Chinese government. In a report describing their concerns about the human rights violations resulting from the crackdown on Falun Gong, the association calls on the Chinese government to reform their policy against the movement. In the report, they call on the Chinese government “to stop the mass arbitrary detentions, unfair trials and other human rights violations resulting from the crackdown on the Falun Gong group”. Other associations, such as the Human Rights Website, have called for the immediate release of all Falun Gong prisoners and for permission to resume public and private Falun Gong practice.

According to the Amnesty International report, detainees are subjected to “re-education” processes. On 20 January, 2000, Yang Yong, a spokesman for the Changguang police station in Fangshan

district in Beijing, confirmed to a foreign journalist that around 50 “extremist’’ followers of the banned Falun Gong movement had been locked away in a psychiatric hospital near Beijing. Yang Yong reportedly said that his police force was responsible for Falun Gong practitioners, the majority of them women, held at the Zhoukoudian psychiatric hospital. He told the journalist that the practitioners “are not patients, they are there to be re-educated”.

Since returning to Dublin and being granted refugee status here, Ming Zhao has been involved in many campaigns to highlight awareness of those persecuted for their beliefs. Former detainee Zhao has publicly criticised the Irish authorities’ cordial relations with the Communist state. In May 2005 he condemned the twinning of Cork City with Shanghai, criticising the lack of concern for Human Rights abuses in China.

In August 2008 Falun Gong practitioners held a protest at The Irish Times building on Tara Street Dublin, to protest over an article that quoted a Chinese official making disparaging remarks about the practice. The protesters said the comments made by the Chinese official demonised those who engage in the spiritual practice, which involves exercise and meditation. This followed a march in July 2007, coinciding with the eighth anniversary of the suppression of Falun Gong practitioners, where Mr. Zhao and others called on Chinese people living in Ireland to quit the Communist Party. Mr. Zhao claimed at the time that up to 23 million people had already publicly quit the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Irish relations with China have been strengthened in recent years, with many reciprocal business deals being brokered between the two countries. Taoiseach Brian Cowen is in China this week to discuss trade and commercial relations between China and Ireland.

Cork based student Tang Liang is hoping that Mr. Cowen will highlight the issue of Falun Gong prisoners and the suggested violation of their human rights. More crucially, he hopes that the Irish leader will raise the issue of his mother’s detention with Chinese officials.

UCD fees protest sees three students arrested

By Una Geary National News Editor AS THE anti-fees offensive heats up, a recently formed student campaign group in UCD, Free Education for Everybody (FEE), staged a protest on Monday the 20th of October against the arrival of Minister for Finance, Brian Lenihan, on campus. Mr. Lenihan was chairing a function at the Clinton Institute in Belfield. President of the UCD SU, Aodhan O’Dea, said that “UCD Students’ Union supported the protest.”

Students obstructed the entrance and the minister was forced to enter the building via a side door amidst chants of “No cutbacks, no fees, no Fianna Fail TDs” and “This government has disgraced themselves”. The protest turned violent when students attempted to break through a metal fence surrounding the building. Scuffles broke out and three

people were arrested for breaches of the peace. Dan O’Neill, Deputy President and Campaigns Officer of UCD SU, was one of the three targeted by the Gardai. His version of events was, “We sat down on the road to block the Minister’s car as had been planned and then the Gardai dragged me and two others out of the line and threw us into a patrol car.” However, they were released immediately with only a caution. No charges were made.

Government ministers and TDs had previously been warned by students to expect protests if they decide to visit UCD while the debate on third-level fees continues. Speaking to the University Observer in UCD, Paul Murphy, a student campaigner said, “If these ministers are going to try to block students’ access to college, then we’re going to send them a message when they come out to colleges.”

He added that, “political guests shouldn’t be able to just waltz into colleges, speak

Students arrested by Gardai

at meetings and not hear the response of students which is opposition to fees.”

Prior to Monday evening’s events, a protest had been planned against a proposed visit by Minister of State, Martin Mansergh, on the 7th of October.

Mr. Mansergh had been due to speak at a Law Soc debate. The campaigners had envisaged a “peaceful protest of students angrily giving a message to Minister Mansergh.” However, half an hour before the debate, word reached Belfield that the Minister had pulled out. Deciding to persevere with the protest nonetheless, over 50 people marched from outside the Library, up through the concourse and into the Arts Block where they rallied outside Theatre M. A meeting was held afterwards to organise an official student campaign group, which was christened Free Education for Everybody (FEE). A member of the new group, Julian

Brophy commented - “Martin Mansergh withdrew from the debate at the last minute upon hearing of the student mobilisation against fees. This is a clear indication that the government and its representatives are unable to provide adequate answers for the students whose education is going to be compromised if fees are reintroduced.”

In 2002-2003, the then Minister of Education Noel Dempsey had to withdraw his proposal to bring back college fees after a wave of student unrest.

Julian Brophy added, “For too long we have had our backs against the wall fighting against the step-by-step increase in the privatisation of education. We need to start forcing the government to respond to our agenda rather than responding to theirs. It is up to the students to send out a strong message that they are not prepared to have their education right based on their financial circumstance.”

TRINITY NEWS

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

TRINITY NEWS

7

October 28, 2008

Italian students protest Uni reforms

By Kasia Mychajlowycz ITALIAN PRIME Minister Silvio Berlusconi threatened to call in the police to break up the week-long student demonstrations and protests that have been taking place across Italy in opposition to his conservative government’s planned reforms of primary and university-level education in the country.

According to the Associated Press, “thousands” of students - up to thirty thousand, by one estimate - conducted sit-ins, demonstrations and marches throughout last week. Since the beginning of term, political unrest amongst university students has disrupted classes, with some students skipping class for

weeks in protest. Even some teachers have joined the students and begun conducting lectures in the streets and squares, reported AP. Primary school staff plan a general strike next Thursday, while higher education faculty are to strike on November 14.

The main march on Thursday saw secondary school and university students marching from Sapienza University in Rome to the Senate, where members of the government were voting on the reforms.

If passed, universities and secondary schools will see drastic budget and job cuts to conform to the national budget set in August, which called for a €7.8 billion cut in state-run schools over the next four years. In the lower schools, elementary

students will have the same teacher over five years, and could fail a grade for poor conduct.

Both the Italian Carabinieri and Rome’s police force had a heavy presence during the demonstration. On Friday morning, PM Berlusconi threatened to order police to break up the sit-ins and demonstrations, stating that he “will not tolerate schools and universities being occupied”.

Organizers of the protests, in particular Italy’s student union (Unione degli Universitari), said that they have no plans to cease the demonstrations until the reforms are voted down by the Senate, stating defiantly in one press release “The mobilisation not only continues, it is growing”.

Students at the recent protests in Italy.

Shooting panic in Bowling Green A false alarm at Western Kentucky University illustrates the deep scars left by past shooting massacres on American universities, where the merest shadow of a gunman can force a shutdown across an entire campus.

BY Monika Urbanski REPORTS OF gunmen on campus at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, KY, led to a lockdown for several hours on Wednesday afternoon the 23rd of October 2008.

It was reported to the police that people with weapons were seen in a building on a satellite campus and that shots had been fired on the main campus. The campus emergency warning system was activated and students and employees were told to remain indoors. An “all clear” was issued about two hours later after police searched buildings and didn’t find any gunmen. Classes were cancelled for the rest of the day.

According to the New York Times, officials later said there were at least two fights on the campus about an hour from Nashville, Tennessee, but no indication that shots had been fired. Five men were held for questioning, but officials said that they were released after no guns were found. The men denied being involved in the fight and no charges were filled.

Although police were unable to confirm that any shooting had occurred, Howard Bailey, vice president for student affairs, said that campus officials didn’t regret activating the campus emergency warning system.

In light of the shooting rampages that have taken place in recent years at Virginia Tech, where in April 2007, 33 people died, and other American college campuses, any report of weapons on campus is generally taken very seriously.

In the post-Virginia Tech society colleges and universities have been grappling with how to calibrate their response to incidents like this, and how to keep people

on campus informed about potential dangers without either touching off panic or unnecessarily disrupting the life of the school. At the Western Kentucky University administrators used a rolling series of text messages, e-mail messages and loudspeaker broadcast alerts to warn students and staff. The developments on that day in Bowling Green will add new data points to the discussion.

Not only school officials and media, but also the members of the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance National Response Team kept a close eye on events at Western Kentucky University. PDA has a long history responding to school shootings and other public violence, offering support to chaplains and community leaders.

Although the incident in Bowling Green passed without a need for response, PDA’s National Response Team was on the scene at Virginia Tech in April 2007 and in Illinois in February 2008, when a former graduate student walked onto the stage of a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University (NIU) and opened fire on a class, killing five people and wounding 16 others before committing suicide. Some of the incidents to which they respond are widely reported in the national press, while others are hardly noticed outside a local community. But in each incident, there are commonalities. Laurie Kraus, a member of the PDA, stated that unlike a natural disaster, the signs of recovery and deep anguish may not be as evident immediately following a gunman’s rampage. “It’s not as visible,” she said.

“There is nothing to rebuild. Instead it depends on a community’s resilience to surface after a time to help it restore itself”.

On Thursday the 24th of October

Western Kentucky University. Photo:Michael Miller

TIMELINE » 12:30 pm EDT A text message goes out stating that armed men had been seen on the south campus, which is also known as Bowling Green Community College and is separated from the university’s main campus. That area is soon surrounded by police, according to Jan Diehm, the editor-in-chief of the student newspaper, the College Heights Herald. » 12:44 pm The campus emergency management system announces to all students on both the south and main campus that there is “an immediate danger” throughout both campuses and they “should seek shelter.” » 12:47 pm Students receive an e-mail mes-

sage saying that an “incident involving guns” had been reported. » 12:52 pm University officials send another broadcast e-mail message saying that shots were reportedly fired at the Pearce-Ford Tower. The building is the largest dorm on campus, with 24 floors of student housing and a food court.After that, periodic announcements urged students to stay inside until an all-clear signal is sounded. » 4:45 pm Central time: Police give the all-clear signal to the campus and say they have taken four people into custody for questioning. Reports of shooting remain unconfirmed.

2008, one day after the shooting warnings at Western Kentucky University President Gary Ransdell said in a news conference that he was very pleased that the emergency communication system worked and that officials responded quickly: “The situation provided a real test of Western’s crisis communication system, and it prevailed.”

At the same conference, a woman who identified herself as Kim Carter, a parent of two students who were confronted by the police, said she was concerned how aggressively the officers responded to the threats. The campus newspaper, the College Heights Herald, ran a photograph showing a police officer pointing a gun at a female student lying on the ground, with the caption saying that the student had not cooperated with the police. As a respond to those accusations Mr.

Ransdell sent an e-mail message to parents praising the campuses response: “The message that I am conveying to all of our students, and it is a message that has become commonplace in our society, is that aggressive behaviour has consequences which often go beyond the individual parties involved.”

On the college newspaper’s homepage, student responses on the incident vary from Andrea Daniels, an Elizabethtown freshman, saying: “I think the situation was slightly blown out of proportions,” to Alex Weires, from Buckner, arguing: “I think the school did the right thing.

It’s better to be safe than sorry. It’s not something you used to worry about. These days, you realize it can happen any time.”

All this raises the question of whether the potential for violence was worth the cost, and the panic.

Global Campus

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

CANADIAN PRESS RANKS TOP UNIVERSITIES IN THE COUNTRY MORE THAN 43,000 students took part in the seventh annual online survey allowing Canadian students to grade the performance of no less than 55 universities. Its goal is to provide university applicants and their parents a unique view into what it’s truly like to study on any one of these campuses.

Students were able to fill in the questionnaire online and the majority of universities sent out an email to undergraduates suggesting that they take part.

The survey suggests that Canada’s smallest universities score top marks when it comes to overall satisfaction and quality of education. But no matter what the size of university, students all want to be thought of as more than a number, said Simon Beck, editor of the Canadian University Report, but he also noted that although small universities scored well, bigger universities tend to have better reputations and professors who are better known and well regarded.

According to the Canadian Press, Maclean’s magazine also produces an annual report that provides profiles of universities and rankings and will be published on the 13th November 2008. However, Canadian families should consider using the university reports as one but not the only resource to select which institutions they might want to attend.

Ian Boyko, campaigns co-ordinator for the Canadian Federation of Students, states: “There’s nothing that can replace talking to an administrator, talking to other students, visiting the campus yourself.”

Beck argues that on the whole the survey suggests that Canadian students are “a fairly happy bunch and conscious of the excellent education most of them get”. Only 7% of Canadian undergraduates are dissatisfied, and more than 83% would recommend their own university to a friend or family member.

Mirek Mychajlowycz, a Business and Science Student at the University of Western Ontario, which was rated top in categories like “most satisfied student”, “quality of education”, and “student-faculty interaction”, explains the high rating as such: “I guess the difference between us and all the other guys is the community feeling. We have a huge beautiful campus, winning teams, great programs and a student ‘ghetto’ which doesn’t feel so ghetto... it’s a small school feeling with all the advantages of a big university.”

Monika Urbanski

OXFORD DONS GET SCHOOLED TUTORS AT Oxford University will be receiving training in interview techniques and strategies, reports one of the university’s student newspapers, Cherwell. The training was largely set up in an attempt to demystify Oxford interviews and interviewers, who have become legendary for their alleged tricks and the humiliating stunts some use on prospective students.

The Times Online reported that the courses for dons will be taught online and will include videotaped interviews. Of most importance to candidates, those same videos will be available to them and the general public on the Oxford website.

“Hopefully, this will take away the smoke and mirrors and show kids that there are no tricks involved,” said Mike Nicholson, Oxford admissions’ spokesperson. Still, legends abound concerning the content of Oxford’s hour-long interviews; questions such as “If ancient history was a shape, what shape might it be?” are supposedly part of the interview repertoire and terrify students.

One Oxford professor, Mark Wormald of Corpus Christi College, claims that though some questions can be tricky or sound quirky, in context they are designed to push a candidate to show their critical and conceptual thinking skills. And, he claims, the interviewers “are just as scared as the candidates,” because they understand the weight of their decision and don’t want to make a mistake.

Kasia Mychajlowycz

DEATH OF A BUNSMAN

Columbia students rally to Obama

By Kim Kirschenbaum WITH THE election of America’s next president less than two weeks away, the Columbia University College Democrats are preparing to endorse the Democratic ticket in a particularly active manner.

The Dems will be spending their fall break, which lasts from November 1st-4th, campaigning in the 10th congressional district of Virginia—largely agreed by experts to be a battleground state—in an effort to encourage residents to cast their votes.

Though the group travels annually to a state where they perceive they could have sway on Election Day,

the stakes are unusually high this year because though Virginia has long been considered a Republicanleaning state, many analysts believe it may be in play this year. Members will be canvassing and phone banking on behalf of presidential candidate Barack Obama (D-Ill.), Mark Warner, who is running as a candidate for U.S. senator from Virginia, and the district’s congressional candidate Judy Feder.

They also plan on meeting with local campaign representatives.

“Virginia has not gone blue for many years, and this campaign trip could be symbolic of the significant changes that are taking place across the electoral map,” said College Democrat member Rowland Yang,

CC ’11. “The fact that a group of young people are demonstrating so much national enthusiasm will certainly resonate.”

The number of students heading to Virginia may also be indicative of what many have called a national enthusiasm. A record-breaking 132 members will make the trip, more than double the number in previous years.

“We never anticipated such interest,” said College Democrat media director Avi Edelman.

“Being active on this election is very important—it is a historical election.

By campaigning, we are giving Columbia students an opportunity to participate in grassroots campaigning.”

Yet the Dems’ trip to Virginia is not their only course of action over the break. Because of limited space and resources, students not lifted from the Virginia trip wait-list will campaign in Queens for State Senate candidate Joseph Addabbo while covering several other select regions.

“We are not just convincing people to vote Democratic, but also convincing them just to come out and vote,” said lead activist Jenna Hovel.

“Many people are not a part of the political community in general, but when a person takes a personal stake in the process, it turns into a lifelong commitment to politics.”

Hovel added that in the course of working for campaigns in past years,

she has spoken with people who were not previously interested in politics.

Others closely involved in the organization express surprise at the support it is amassing.

“Even during midterms and all else, I find it amazing that 132 students are willing to drop everything in order to make this trip,” said Director of Social and Alumni Affairs Greer Feick. “This is the one opportunity where I will be surrounded by 132 students who have the same political views that I have, and ready to get out there and stand up for what they believe in.”

First published October 22, 2008 in the Columbia Spectator, Columbia University, NYCt

A 23-YEAR-OLD student died after participating in a steamed bun-eating contest at a university in Taiwan last Wednesday. Identified only by his surname Chen in the Taipei Times, the student was attending the Graduate Institute of Bio-Industry Technology at Dayeh University.

The eating contest is a yearly event, and in the fatal round, the challenge was to eat two buns stuffed with egg and cheese in the least amount of time. The apparent cause of death was choking; Chen began vomiting and lost consciousness during the contest. Though pronounced dead at his arrival in the hospital, doctors tried resuscitating Mr. Chen for 90 minutes.

According to Chien Ting-kuo, emergency medicine physician at Mackay Memorial Hospital in Taiwan, in an interview with Taiwan News, a healthy person can lose consciousness in one minute if they have an obstruction in their airways. He believes that eating contests should be banned, and Dayeh University has stated that all eating contests on its campus will be banned effective immediately.

60 students competed in teams of two for their half of the prize, which was 2,000 New Taiwan dollars - equivalent to just under €47.

Kasia Mychajlowycz

8

TRINITY NEWS TRINITY NEWS

NEWS FEATURES

Tuesday, October 14, 2008 October 28, 2008

Clockwise, from top: Dr. Martin Curley of Intel, Paddy Cosgrave, Prof. Ferdinand von Prondzynski, President of DCU and Prof. Peter Kennedy of UCC; Jim Barry, Chairman of the Irish Undergraduates Awards, talks with Tim O’Connor, Secrerary General to President Mary McAleese; Jim Barry, Oisin Hanrahan and Paddy Cosgrave; Kingsley Aikins, CEO of the Ireland Funds, chats with fellow Trinity graduate Hugo MacNeill, MD of Investment Banking at Goldman Sachs; Pauric Dempsey, Communicaitons Director of the Royal Irish Academy, with Tim O’Connor.

Trinity graduates spearhead new awards for academic excellence Traditionally, the Irish third level education system has focused on exam results rather than coursework as an indicator of excellence. The Irish Undergraduate Awards aim to correct this imbalance, writes Kiera Healy

T

he Irish Undergraduate Awards were launched on the 20th of October in the Royal Irish Academy. The new initiative, founded by Trinity alumni Paddy Cosgrave and Oisin

WILLIAM HAMILTON MEDAL AMONG THE many prizes offered to winners of the Awards, the William Rowan Hamilton Medal will be presented to the outstanding essayist in the field of arts. It is named for one of Trinity’s most successful students: Hamilton (1805 – 1865) was an astronomer, physicist, mathematician and linguist. He was particularly skilled in the field of geometry, and is known to have mastered at least twelve languages, including Hebrew, Persian, Arabic and Sanskrit.

Hamilton, for whom the Hamilton building is named, was arguably the most outstanding student in Trinity’s history, achieving a first in every subject and at every examination. He obtained the rare distinction of an optime for both Greek and physics, and was appointed to the Andrews Professorship of Astronomy in the University of Dublin at the age of 22.

Hanrahan, is open to students at all seven of Ireland’s universities, and will focus on the papers, essays and projects submitted by students in all years of their degrees.

The Awards aim to celebrate Irish excellence at an undergraduate level, and the programme has created a unique opportunity for achievement. The awards panel is currently accepting submissions over the coming weeks and months in six academic fields, and all third level disciplines are expected to be opened for entrants. In October 2009, the first issue of the Undergraduate Journal of Ireland will publish the papers, projects, essays and dissertations considered most outstanding by the judging panel.

In addition to the national recognition that publication in the Journal would bring, and the possibility winning a spot prizes, the Awards give students the chance to have their unique voices heard by experts in their chosen field.

Judges for the Awards include leaders in the fields of academia, journalism and the corporate sector. Maeve Donovan, Managing Director of the Irish Times, Peter Sutherland, Chairman of BP and Goldman Sachs, and Danuta Gray, CEO of O2 are among the members of the panel, while the board of the awards includes the Presidents of UL, DCU and NUIG, along with Trinity’s Vice-Provost, Professor Paddy Prendergast.

Sub-panels to peer review each specific field will be formed and announced as the competition progresses. Essays that are to appear in the Journal, along with

those that make the shortlist, may appear in abridged form in the Irish Times later in the year, and shortlisted authors may be invited to present thezir works at conferences organised by the Awards and its partners.

In addition to putting together the Journal, the panel will award a number of medals to outstanding students. The best essayist from each university will receive a medal, along with the best in each discipline. There are also to be a number of spot prizes presented throughout the year, allowing students who may not have won the top awards to be recognised.

As Paddy Cosgrave puts it, “the Awards and Journal don’t just focus on the guys and girls at the very top of the class, they focus on everyone in the class…

So, you might not write an essay that gets top marks, but you may happen to be asking questions or investigating issues that Forfás, the government’s policy development unit, recognise. So what happens? Well, you’ll get a phone call from us saying that you’ve won a scholarship to attend a think-in with Forfas. Everything is paid for. All you have to do is bring your brain. We will be repeating that with all sorts of organisations.”

The newly-launched website for the

scheme, www.iuawards.ie, presents the Awards as “career-changing opportunities for undergraduates capable of producing interesting and insightful work outside of the exam hall. That work will now be read by many of Ireland’s leading minds

“For Ireland to survive internationally we need to create a generation of knowledge creators and innovators” across academia and the public, private and citizen sectors.”

The Awards launch took place in the Royal Irish Academy. An assembly of academics, politicians and corporate partners were addressed by both the founders of the scheme and several members of the board, including Professor Ferdinand von Prondzinsky, President of DCU, and Martin Curley, Global Research Director for Intel.

Von Prondzinsky spoke about what he considered to be the failings of the current academic climate, sharing an anecdote

THE FOUNDERS THE DRIVING force behind the awards is a pair of Trinity graduates, Paddy Cosgrave and Oisin Hanrahan.

Paddy was President of the Phil during its 320th session, from 2004 to 2005. While head of the society, he brought guests including Bertie Ahern, John McCain, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Salman Rushdie to Trinity. In 2006, he was elected chairman of the UN ITU Global Youth Forum for a three year term

by 300 young leaders drawn from 150 UN member states. In 2007, he founded Rock the Vote Ireland and Mycandidate.ie.

Oisin is a business and economics graduate and scholar of Trinity. During his college years he became involved in real estate development in Budapest and subsequently founded Clearwater Developments Hungary. He is involved in a number of start-up businesses in Dublin.

about John McGahern’s receipt of his honorary doctorate from DCU. McGahern had lamented a system where “it took 80% of effort to get in, and only 40% to get out.” The Awards were highlighted as a programme where students would have more reason to strive for excellence.

Later, Paddy Cosgrave agreed with Prondzinsky’s assessment, and said that the Awards are “all about supercharging the minds of our students.”

Cosgrave was inspired to work on this new project by the realisation that “millions and millions of pages of pages filled with the ideas of our young people” were left to sit “on a shelf gathering dust” each year. It is estimated that, in the field of economics alone, Irish students write around 25,000 essays each year, and Cosgrave believes that the launch of the awards will not only help to unearth the most brilliant ideas contained therein, but also create a system whereby students will “be encouraged to create even better ideas”.

In addition to helping to inspire students, Cosgrave believes that the launch of the Awards will be good for the country as a whole. “You’ve got to remember that for Ireland to survive internationally we need to create a generation of knowledge creators and innovators,” he said. “It’s no longer about a handful of super-bright students; it’s now about creating an entire generation of world class knowledge creators and innovators.”

The enthusiasm with which he and his board and panels have approached the project is undeniable, and although it is recognised that it will probably take at least three years for the Awards and Journal to fully develop, the atmosphere surrounding the scheme in its infancy is one of wholehearted enthusiasm.

Particularly in the current uncertain economic climate, with many undergraduates facing worrying employment prospects, the project will

give students who participate a new weapon in their job-seeking arsenal.

The founders say that they are “enabling undergraduates and future employers at fourth level and beyond to find each other in an entirely new and efficient way, while also giving undergraduates the recognition and reward they deserve.”

The Irish Undergraduate Awards may be just getting started, but for their founders, and for the packed crowd of academics and corporate leaders who attended the launch, it is hoped that they will be here to stay.

APPLICATION PROCESS » The Awards are currently open to undergraduates at all of Ireland’s universities, as well as graduates of the class of 2007/2008. At present, submissions are accepted in six disciplines: business, law, economics, engineering and politics. More categories will be opening over the coming weeks and months. » The work submitted can be from any year of your degree, and can include essays, papers and group projects.

You may submit as many essays, projects or papers as you want, but only pre-corrected coursework will be accepted.

The mark received for the essay, along with the name and email of the lecturer, must be included in your submission.

Although works of any length may be submitted, items that are less than 4,000 words are preferred, and the style of formatting and citation must adhere to the standards used in your field.

TRINITY NEWS

NEWS FEATURES

TRINITY NEWS

9

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

October 28, 2008

Memories of McDowell: a Trinity legend departs A fixture on campus for decades, RB McDowell helped shape the college experience of generations of students. Anne Leonard looks back at the career of the Junior Dean to end them all.

F

or the first time in decades, the iconic figure of Dr RB McDowell is missing from Front Square.

Seventy-five years after first entering Trinity, he has left his rooms in the Rubrics and retired to Celbridge where he is continuing to see friends and give interviews, and has started work yet another book.

Earlier this year, he published his autobiography, McDowell on McDowell, hard on the heels of not one, but two, books of stories all about him: The Junior Dean: Encounters with a Legend (2003) and The Magnificent McDowell: Trinity in the Golden Era (2006). Written by graduates, colleagues and fans from all over the world, these books, are, as far as anybody knows, unique, for no other don

A verbal lashing from the JD was something you wouldn’t inflict on your worst enemy. in academia anywhere has ever received such an accolade. Another ‘first’ for Trinity!

Dr McDowell’s distinguished academic career, his many publications, his multitudinous achievements are all well documented. You can look him up on Wikipedia and you can see him on YouTube. But to have any inkling as to what inspired 300 people or more to reach for pen and paper and write down their memories of him – not to mention the thousands of others who reached for their wallets and actually bought the books – then you need to delve deeper for this man is in a class of his own.

Trinity News recognised his uniqueness back in 1958: “But Dr McDowell the man, the character, that superb artistic creation, where may his equal be found?

Not in Oxford or Cambridge, certainly; only, perhaps, in the pages of Lewis Carroll, could he find a worthy peer.”

And, as far as undergraduates were concerned, he was the only man who mattered in Ireland because he was the Junior Dean and thus in sole charge of life in college. I soon found out that this

extravagant premise was true. Not only was he in sole charge of accommodation and discipline, he was everywhere. No party was complete without his presence – and none could take place without his sanction. He famously coxed a four for the Boat Club, and won the race. He appeared regularly on television and starred in the programmes. And he spent his weekends socialising in the greatest houses of the land.

RB McDowell was the most successful, and most unforgettable, holder of the office of Junior Dean in the entire history of Trinity. Much of his job entailed controlling people’s sex lives, i.e. keeping them, if they existed in those days, outside the precincts. A hopeless enterprise.

Students today would be amazed by the efforts involved: porters entering rooms at 7am to look under the beds, for example. One feature of these efforts involved the ceremony known as Night Roll when, at 10pm, winter or summer, the Junior Dean, preceded by a porter of the night watch bearing a lighted lantern, conducted roll call in the Dining Hall.

Its purpose was to check that everyone who should be ‘in’ was in and not out.

(Most people exited over a wall shortly afterwards.)

To be fair, none of this reflected Dr McDowell’s views. He was merely following the rules of the day, observing the strictures laid down by the Board some hundred years previously when, to quote Trinity News again, “like the monastic settlement on Mount Athos, the male citadel of Trinity was kept pure from six o’clock in the evening, when the last woman was ushered through Front Gate.”

In 1962, when I learned that “RB” was “the greatest talker in Ireland”, Trinity News put a spin on it: “It is rumored that he exists on dinners, that is dinners to which he is invited as a speaker, and I have no reason to doubt this rumour. For he is a brilliant after-dinner orator, and is constantly in demand in Dublin for postprandial entertainment. Sometimes his train of thought is difficult to follow; that’s an understatement, it’s often impossible.

Nevertheless, once accustomed to his various idiosyncrasies of speech one is entranced by the fluent wit and wealth of knowledge. His presence is demanded by

Dr McDowell in Library Square returning to his rooms in Rubrics after commons one evening in May 2004. Photo: Peter Henry

Dr McDowell by West Chapel in September 2006 after leaving a champagne lunch in the Atrium, held to celebrate the life of Cecil Erskine, Professor of Anatomy 1947--1984, who passed away that year. Photo: Dr Lawrence Erskine. smart society hostesses, and although his dress is not always to match he occasion, his verbosity is.”

Forty years on, Dr McDowell is still dazzling audiences. In 2003 he spoke at a dinner in London – a sell-out, with many on a waiting list. The vote of thanks was proposed by Terence Brady, who reported: “Finally he was introduced and he was up on his feet. He was up on his feet, not like any other 90-year-old, but like a greyhound slipped from the traps… the sound was wonderfully lucid, poetic, even, and it floated over the packed dining room the way a flute played exquisitely can be heard for miles even when played

In such circumstances one immediately looks for the edge of a grey scarf, a scattered trilby hat, a fragment of elderly gown, crumpled lecture notes, or an old shoe protruding from the circumference of the calamity. Then I looked up, in time to see McDowell slowly, bravely, but with awesome determination, climbing the stairs to interview someone at the top.”

Only recently, a famous tycoon, employing several thousand people in the North of Ireland, told how he, and a nowvery-distinguished academic, spent the rest of the night hiding on the scaffolding in the freezing cold to avoid getting caught and having to face McDowell. A verbal

HOW TRINITY NEWS REPORTED MCDOWELL’S APPOINTMENT On October 1st a new Junior Dean was appointed. Dr. W. F. Pyle, F.T.C.D., has been promoted to Junior Proctor, and Dr. R. B. MacDowell fills his place as Junior Dean.

Dr. MacDowell, a very familiar figure in Trinity, is a lecturer in History.

He already has shown proof of his abilities as Junior Dean in several spectacular arrests. Notably, he apprehended several gentlemen the other night who felt it right and proper to set fire to the cellar in No.

pianissimo. He spoke ex tempore and he spoke with such brilliance, wit and understanding that it was, well… simply breathtaking. It was a performance – and, believe you me, performance is absolutely the right word – of such a staggering

“...where may his equal be found? Not in Oxford or Cambridge, certainly; only, perhaps, in the pages of Lewis Carroll” intellectual and humorous virtuosity, that he more than fully deserved (if that’s possible) the standing ovation that he received, just as he deserved the spontaneous rendition of ‘For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow’ that followed instantly.”

After 13 years in office, when it was time to appoint successors, it was realised that no single person could ever undertake all those tasks again.

Professor Brendan Kennelly, one of the new appointees, expressed his fear that he couldn’t remember all the rules and regulations. But he was reassured.

“After all, Kennelly,” said McDowell, “you’ve broken more or less all of them yourself!”

Another successor, Professor John Gaskin, remembers getting a sharp foretaste of what the job entailed: “I was appointed as one of the first ‘assistants’ to the JD in the last months of his office.

It must have been at the end of his last Trinity term as JD. I was reading in my rooms at the top of House 24 in the Rubrics, dimly and reluctantly aware of party noise that was becoming excessive from somewhere within number 38. My sitting room overlooked New Square.

I could see McDowell heading for the trouble. The matter was in safer hands than mine. He disappeared from view.

A brief pause ensued, then a prolonged crashing, breaking roar of noise; then silence. I ran down the many steps and across to number 38. At the foot of the stone stairwell – still emitting pings, twangs and groans, like a newly commissioned concerto for percussion and random silences – lay the crushed and disintegrating remains of a full-size piano.

7. Known by the natives of Trinity as the Man-who-never-sleeps, it is likely that many of the night activities which so enlivened last term will be curtailed. Already one enterprising undergraduate has been caught entering the GMB at 3 o’clock in the morning to have a game with the ghosts. The prospect of finding that the helping hand which guides you to the last foot-hold is that of the Junior Dean must daunt any would-be Campanile climber.

lashing from the JD was something you wouldn’t inflict on your worst enemy.

I had coffee with him in the Arts Building not long ago. The coffee bar was packed and I thought how strange it was for him to be there, incognito – he who had been the centrepiece of college life for so many decades. But suddenly, all changed for he dropped his purse, scattering coins all over the floor. In a flash, every student had jumped up and was rushing around to pick up the coins and – this was the extraordinary thing – then they queued up to hand the coins back to him, personally. It was their way of getting introduced. So they did know who he was! Not so incognito, I realised, after all!

Now that he is no longer resident in Trinity, returning alumni will be disappointed not to see the familiar figure proceeding across the cobbles. “It’s a comfort to see him – time has stood still,’ said one. The writer JX Brennan returned to Trinity after a gap of 30 years. Here he recalls their reunion: “I was privileged to dine with Brendan McDowell at the Quo Vadis and I was delighted to see that he had not changed in essentials. He had aged, of course, but nowhere near as much as we had. His conversation was as lively and as captivating as ever. It was the highlight of my week in Dublin, after several decades’ absence. Now that he is entering his 95th year, I am convinced that he is a permanent landmark, certainly so in all our affections.”

The Lewis Carroll figure identified

by Trinity News all those years ago has stamped an everlasting hold on the memories – and the emotions – of Trinity people past and present. I feel confident that there will be no shortage of people making the trek out to Celbridge.

Anne Leonard’s books of anecdotes about RB McDowell, The Junior Dean: Encounters with a Legend and The Magnificent McDowell: Trinity in the Golden Era are available in the Library Shop and at www.themagnificentmcdowell.com.

Dr McDowell’s memoir, McDowell on McDowell, published this year, is also available in the Library Shop.

Painting ‘RB McDowell leaving the Rubrics’ by Derek Hill, auctioned in 2001 at Christie’s, South Kensington, for 23,500 pounds.

10

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Tuesday, October 14, 2008 October 28, 2008

SPECIAL FEATURE

SHOPPING WITH A CONSCIENCE

Despite allowing terrible conditions and minescule wages, sweatshops remain prevalent all over the world. Charlotte Collins examines the business realities, how retail moguls avoid responsibility and what we can do to help.

THE THIRST for fashion, with its unfaltering flux and change is at the forefront of high street shopping, so it is no wonder that today’s sought after ‘It’ bag will, in the blink of an eye, become yesterdays news. Last year the British and Irish spent over 700m euros on cosmetics alone.

It seems we are hell bent on having it all. But in this mad rush of seemingly insatiable desire we, as consumers, might want to take a moment to think about how these sought after products are manufactured and at what cost?

Behind the glossy windows of upmarket department stores and beyond their rails of alluring prints and fancy fabrics is an undesirable reality: the sweatshop.

The name can be understood quite literally in the sense of productivity and output being “sweated” out of those who work inside a factory’s four walls. Considered in the context of the garment industry’s hierarchy, these workers are at the bottom, seated in the shadows.

“Fierce competition for jobs puts most contractors in a position to dictate terms to their employees. Workers accept whatever low wage is offered.”

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detrimental to the environment; by reusing other people’s unwanted clothes we are undoubtedly lessening (albeit perhaps not to stratospheric measures) our personal contribution to universal meltdown.

What’s more, we can avoid any responsibility for the horrendous working conditions and miserable wages of the sweatshops. Green and Al Fayed can never feel this guilt-free.

Finally — though benefits are quite possibly limitless — every girl worries about turning up to a party in the same dress / top / earrings as someone else.

Heaven forbid the rival should be taller, thinner, browner and blonder than she.

With second-hand clothes one can

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In actual fact, many second hand shops contain never-worn high-street garments anyway. Why not look there first?

Unfortunately it is sometimes obvious why they have never been worn.

Dublin hosts a plethora of charity shops, all too happy for custom and just to make things even better, money spent goes to a good cause. (Though I did notice Oxfam closed for a couple of weeks in June for ‘refurbishment’; debateable whether the wall’s need for paint is greater than the African’s need for food.)

Similarly conscious-salvaging is the idea of minimising global warming.

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KATE MOSS wants to get married in a vintage dress, Agyness Deyn buys most of her clothes from markets and Alexa Chung is a self-proclaimed raider of children’s rails in Oxfam.

Second-hand clothes are not only environmentally friendly, but they’re cheap, unsupportive of sweatshops and seemingly fashionable as well. Even Lily Allen has a mock-vintage line in New Look; therefore it must be cool.

As penniless students on the brink of a recession, there is no better way to save a couple of quid than to cut back on buying unnecessary things. Nowadays, one can get a whole outfit for a fiver by only buying “previously-owned” clothes and accessories.

Arguably, in a time where Penneys, H & M and Dunnes can kit you out for only a little more, it may not seem worth the hassle of rummaging through second hand shops. But it is this type of attitude, dubbed “disposable shopping”, that can be the most socially and environmentally harmful.

We buy a top for two euros, which we may or may not wear, simply because it is only two euros. It only costs us two euros because the Indian child who made the top was paid two euros for the fortnight it took her to make five hundred of the same top.

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1. Harlequin 2. Oxfam 3. Barnardos 4. Oxfam 5. Cancer Research 6. Charity Shop 7. St Vincent

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By Emily Monk

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particular workroom, these people might be considerably worse off. I asked our guide to this shadowy home to ask one of the little boys how they found working here.

The response was not that of a distressed individual but of a child who knew of nothing else and was indeed happy, or at the very least okay with what they had.

Later we were taken to the store room where piles and piles of the most wildly beautiful silks I have ever seen were stacked like books in some untamed library. All these wondrous cloths were made by the hand of such infancy, with such care and dedication. I thought of those oblivious shoppers tottering around the squeaky-clean marbled floors of Harrods, picking out one of these treasures without the slightest realisation of the modest little workshop and equally little hands they were born from. It is amazing when realisation sets in.

What one thought one knew is violently shaken.

How ignorant we all are, how lucky, how spoilt.

The dilemma posed by these sweatshops is something of a Catch-22 scenario. By closing down a particular workroom, what could be gained? A room full of children would be without their jobs, dismal as they were.

They would be forced to find a new source of income. This new source of income might very well be another seedy sweatshop, where demand for workers is unfaltering.

For the first time since considering this huge problem, I saw the situation from another perspective than that of a bog-standard westerner. I realised that, although in an ideal world we would move these people, these children, from a sweatshop environment into schooling, and would try and erase sweatshops from the consciousness of society, life is not that simple. Without a job life becomes even more bleak for these people.

I felt for the first time that those children might be better off in the room than out of it.

purchasing index. Consumption of Fairtrade food has doubled in the past three years, and the British now drink 1.7 million cups of Fairtrade coffee, tea and cocoa every day. More than 130 brands now carry the Fairtrade mark, indicating that manufacturers recognise the kudos of having an ethical stamp on their products.”

According to Kelly, the conscious decisions we make to shop ethically and fairly, however small and seemingly insignificant, have wider repercussions within the industry.

After all, the market is dictated by consumers.

Surely then, with statistics backing this very view, one can make an informed decision that their dismissal of unethical goods, whether they be food, coffee, clothes, or shoes will add weight to the growing wave of consumer morality.

Whilst we may not be able, single handedly, to eradicate the sweatshops still teeming with workers who have no choice but to slave away in terrible conditions, we can make a conscious decision to take small steps towards a fairer future. So when we see those glorious-looking black snakeskin sandals calling out to us from behind frosted glass, we should wonder from whose hands they were born.

conditions in which they carry out their arduous twelve-hour days.

There seems to be no corporate responsibility. Instead there is what could charitably be described as a complete ignorance of sweatshop conditions, but, more plausibly, the “big dogs” are turning a blind eye to the problem.

The hierarchy is vast and unforgiving and relations very quickly grow cold between the differing levels of manufacturing.

What then, if anything, can we do to change the lives of these garment workers? Surely it is impossible to claim that one individual taking a stand against unethical consumerism can change anything at all? It would seem likely that one Fairtrade purchase made in Topshop does little to alter the daily realities of life as a sweatshop labourer.

Annie Kelly however, author of an article entitled “The Rise of the Ethical Woman”, would ardently argue to the contrary. She emphasises the positive influence a woman can have on financial turnaround of the clothing industry. She remarks that, “ethical purchasing, it seems, does make a difference. Boycotts cost big brands £2.6bn a year, according to the Co-operative Bank’s ethical

A sweatshop in Bangkok. Photo: Ronn D’aldamass

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Photo: Ronn D’aldamass

At the top, in the bright light of day, the major retailers convene, making vast profits. Life at the top is played out amongst the hustle and bustle of a prosperous working environment.

Topshop boss Sir Philip Green and entrepreneur Mohammed Al Fayed, owner of upmarket brands Harrods and House of Fraser, epitomise this enormous success and reap the financial rewards that can be made in this industry.

Below these impresarios are the manufacturers who sell and

distribute finished product to the likes of Green and Al Fayed. It is down to them to hire the sewing contractors and sub-contractors.

These contactors are responsible for overseeing the garment workers who sew together parts of garment cut from textiles. The uncensored reality of these workhouses, which are located literally all over the globe, is shocking, to say the least.

Despite the prevailing ideological trends of the last few years, which consistently emphasise the moral values of “Fair Trade” and “Green living”, sweatshops still continue.

They underpin the profits of huge brands such as Nike, Gap and Primark, all of whom have faced high profile court cases over the last few years.

In order to understand the continued prevalence of sweatshops, and the role they play both in our lives and in our economies we must examine the process by which clothes are made and then sold on to us as consumers. We must examine how responsibility is dodged at every level.

As justification, the retailers at Gap would perhaps claim that, whilst they are responsible for finding worthy manufacturers, beyond that point, their remit ends, as the manufacturers are responsible for finding their own contractors.

It is at the level of the contractor that we see the worst abuses of workers. It is the contractors who recruit, hire, and pay the garment workers. Fierce competition for jobs puts most contractors, or factories, in a position to dictate terms to their employees. This “take it or leave it” attitude means that workers must accept whatever low price the manager is offering, or see the work contract awarded to another factory.

Contract prices are often driven down to a level that makes it impossible for factories to pay legal wages or comply with safety laws, and it is in this context that those at the top deny responsibility for those workers at the bottom and for the

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hilst travelling around India the great truths of the sweatshops were laid plain for me to see. One had only to look down any number of the little cobbled streets of Varanasi or peer into an old stone building in the heart of Jaipur in order to catch a glimpse of this relentless productivity.

I saw children as young as five or six peddling away on intricate looking machines, producing silk at a rate that was quite unimaginable. In Jaipur I was shown around workrooms that produced the fine silks and elaborate pashminas that would soon grace those handsomely decorated walls of Harrods.

I wondered at that time whether Mr Al Fayed, whose own charitable inclinations are made known through extensive work with Francis House, The Al Fayed Foundation and Al Fayed School, might feel slightly uneasy knowing that his sought after product was created by a child.

When confronted with a workroom such as those I encountered in Jaipur one is confronted with a kind of cloudy confusion. On the one hand, it seems appalling that anyone, but in particular, a child should have to work so many hours in such a dark condition for so little gain.

However, the element of confusion derives more so from the idea that without this

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CHARLOTTE COLLINS

The brutal business of sweatshops

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“I saw children as young as five or six peddling away”

be almost assured your pieces will reign unchallenged. (Though be careful not to stumble past a Ballsbridge W.I. meeting in a vintage floral number as you may have to compete with an array of original versions).

All in all, second-hand clothes are practically faultless. I should note that it can take a bit of practise and often lots of time to find the real gems.

I’ve known kitchen tables adorned with mermaid shorts and brown suede shirts lying nervously in the shadows of new owners’ proud, peering faces.

But this is surely a risk we should be willing to take, especially if it helps us on our route to St. Peter and his pearly gates.

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Tuesday, October 14, 2008

October 28, 2008

Choosing your faith in a world of choice With so much choice and constant change how are we supposed to chose our beliefs? Nina Brown discusses the power of imagination in personalising our religion.

I

WAS watching an ant the other day that was on its way somewhere.

It stopped when it reached my toast crumbs. For fifteen minutes it circled the crumbs; it seemed agitated, uncertain. It tried and tested, stopped and started. I don’t know what it was looking for but its seeming dilemma over which crumb to hulk back home made me empathise with it. What was it testing for? The ultimate crumb? It was so absorbed in crumb testing that it didn’t seem to notice when the deathly shadow of my teaspoon loomed over it.

Enough with the ant story, I want to talk about something that has been playing on my mind. Where to put my faith? Which trusty crumb would I have picked up?

These days it seems that things, people, countries, gadgets, icebergs are in such a fluid state of change that trusting in something is like hazarding a bet on the roulette board. The world is restless and so are its people. I don’t know whether to put my trust in an American or a Japanese phone, a pizza or a steak and ale pie, pump and tone or tai-chi, Italy or England…there’s just so much choice!

As humans we function better when we have fundamental, apparently concrete certainties upon which we can build our lives. The certainty of night and day, of next month’s pay-check, of the arrival of Summer, and, most importantly in the case of this article, the established certainty of the existence of any particular god, spirit or divine power in general. We learn History to give us a certainty of our heritage and perhaps some hint as to how we ought to lead our lives. Or in my Granny’s case, we embroider intricate family trees detailing the lives of relations we never knew but to whom we owe our existence. Our endless quest for certainty through knowledge, whether we hunt it down for its own sake or as a means to achieve another far-flung target, seems to prove this.

With so many millions of people journeying around the globe hunting down their perfect crumb of toast, leaving their established ways of life to discover new lands of personal freedom, equality and endless possibility, the temptation to try new things out becomes irresistible. With so many new ideas we start questioning our supposed certainties. So I might opt for tai-chi and the spirituality it brings with it, whilst at the same time saying my prayers and going to confession. In the same way as a born and bred Jew

might one day decide to learn more about Christianity, Kabbalah, Buddhism, Islam or any one of the weird and wonderful ‘religions’ that pervade societies.

‘The supermarket of the faiths’, I once read it described as; the modern phenomenon of taking various strands of different religions to correspond to the needs of each individual. A kind of ‘Supermarket Sweep’ if you like, with Dale Winton as charming as ever but with whiter teeth, more echoing, ethereal vocals and some kind of staff or poker to nudge us towards our chosen aisle.

Some of these newfound faiths gain a following and mark their territory with red strings, rituals, chanting, clothes, or crosses. But at the end of the day, aren’t all these ‘religions’ just new and ever more overlapping and intertwining paths leading to the same ultimate goal of spiritual enlightenment? Or, perhaps more simply, some kind of pure happiness? A Theology teacher once told me that an English Sikh priest had once told her that in Sikhism they realise that ‘all motorways lead to London’. They as Sikhs have chosen one such road to drive down and navigate, come traffic jams, incidents, breakdowns or blockages.

So Sikhs acknowledge that there are fundamental differences in thought, character and outlook that exist between people of different faiths but that they are all heading in the same direction towards the same goal. These are differences that inspire thought, promote change and respect, and should teach us of the potential wonders of expanding thought existing in our world. They are differences that can’t and shouldn’t be overlooked or swept under the carpet. How much can we learn from each and every individual?

With religion and instilled ways of living broken down or disappeared, we are left with no set rules by which to live our lives. There is no framework that serves as part of the concrete certainty on which we can build happy lives. But without religion what is there? With no great powerful gods, whom do we turn to when we are unhappy or when floods kill, volcanoes explode and winds whip up entire cities? Justin Jennings writes in his article entitled ‘Catastrophe, Revitalization and Religious Change on the prehispanic North Coast of Peru’ that “there has been insufficient attention paid to the social and psychological impact of disasters. Disasters can stimulate farreaching religious changes.”

‘It seems established that as humans we function better when we have fundamental, apparently concrete certainties upon which we can build our lives. ‘

Liberated or let down from religious tradition that has kept our ancestors hopeful of redemption and mindful of virtue, it seems that we must take our models of good and bad increasingly from the world around us. Not just the people we grow up with and those we meet along the way, but also our family, friends and idols. But is our supposed freedom from the restraints of religion actually selfdestructive, forcing us to either abandon the idea of virtue and right or wrong ways of behaving, or to turn inwards to evaluate our actions and decide for ourselves what is right and wrong. Are we ready to do this? Do we now keep the faith by letting Super Nanny tell us how to look after our own children, or the incredible Hulk Hogan tell us he knows best by divorcing his wife, or by watching My Super Sweet Sixteen and seeing how the other half live and realising that they are such a pretentious bunch of idiots that we wouldn’t want their money anyway. Or is it by watching a bunch of freaks in a house and feeling satisfied and relieved that we are ‘normal’ and not a trans-gendered lesbian with fake tits who fancies little boys and screams out swear

words over supper.

Maybe the massive rise in the popularity of reality TV illustrates not only our desire to feel normal but also our need to have something to follow, to direct and to teach us. In that sense these shows ought to realise the effect they have on people and direct them in positive ways.

The new show The Family has moved back to the original model of simple but effective reality TV showing a normal family go about its normal day-to-day business; maybe this family will become the model for millions. The incredible number of people willing to do just about anything if a camera is stuck in front of them perhaps reflects how far we have moved from any sense of what is decent, funny, worthy of praise, or interesting to watch. Or am I just being stuck-up, boring and not rolling with it? Maybe if the BBC showed the Iraqi reality TV show Labor and Materials set in Baghdad where they rebuild houses bombed by US and British forces, people might finally turn over from watching Kerry Katona’s bouncing bosoms on MTV. Moving quickly on before I start ranting, at least the obsession with reality

TV shows that we are obviously still wondering what it means to be human.

Recent revelations in our understanding of fundamental differences between brain structures of men and women — previously thought to be largely similar in their basic layouts — highlights, in my eyes, how much about us remains unknown to us. There is so much yet to explore inside ourselves and our fellow humans; maybe the answer to my search for faith is within the person sitting on the next computer. The significance of the subconscious world is another vast plateau open to interpretation, as is the beginning of the world, the end of the universe, love; all fundamental questions that have spawned some of the most awesome art, thought, literature known to man. It is in our hands to carry on imagining, and to let our imagination take us over the Leopardian hedge which blocks our view of the infinite horizon beyond. Until we stop being able to imagine, surely we can never lose faith, but can only revel in the fact that we don’t yet fully understand and so we can only continue to probe and suppose?

Romance is dead; no sex in this city Could there possibly be a single worthwhile man left in Dublin for our dissapointed and lonely correspondant? Answers on a postcard to Trinity News...

I

DON’T really know how I got to this point. I mean I have always considered myself to be a reasonably normal, well balanced person with no major vices or lunatic ways to speak of (one can hope at least), but it has come to the stage where I have realised, no matter how hard I try, I cannot seem to snare a man. While the word snare may seem a little bit strong, even crossing into the desperate spinster territory, it is ultimately called for.

Recently I have been having visions of myself in my latter years as the crazy old women who now sits on the porch of her house hurling cats at innocent passers by and regaling children with the horrors of being alone. Trying to find a semi decent man in Dublin is harder than trying to find water in Death Valley. I have reached my saturation point with regards to men who are, quite frankly, more useless than a torch at high noon, and whilst I don’t want to sound bitter, (one should always remain positive in such situations) it is becoming increasingly difficult not to.

The problem with men nowadays is that they seem to have more issues than women, especially when it comes to dating. The forerunner in this category is what I like to call ex-girlfriend syndrome.

Men cannot seem to make the final cut when it comes to their exes. Instead they become preoccupied with the thought that maybe if they hold out long enough she will realise her stupidity and return, ready to make the relationship work.

This is a mistake and men please take note, you broke up for a reason; move on. There is nothing less attractive for a woman than feeling she is second to

someone else, especially someone who you only went out with for a month but is without a doubt the unrequited love of your life. Yawn; every woman has heard that line before.

Another thing that I’ve noticed is that chivalry in Dublin is dead. Gone are the days when a door would be held open for you or a man would help you put on your coat. I noticed this anomaly on a recent night out whereby I was walking into a bar and assumed that the man striding in front of me would hold the door open. (I realise now that this assumption was my ultinmate downfall). Instead, he let it go and to save myself from a broken nose and a very embarrassing trip to E.R., I had to bear the weight of the entire door with my shoulder. I woke up the next morning feeling as though I’d been in a scrum with the All Blacks, and had what I can only describe as a contusion on my arm. Someone, obviously a guy, later in the week enquired if I had been bitten. I was not impressed. While I am a fiercely independent person, sometimes to the point where it is a hindrance rather than a help, it is still nice to be treated like a lady. However, in the current dating climate this phenomena has most definitely dissipated.

Finally, the ultimate annoyance in the dating world of today is men’s inability to text or call back. Why this poses such a major problem I will never know. Men, if you are not going to call a girl back do not, I repeat do not, ask them for their number. You are wasting time and effort on everyone’s part and there is nothing more deeply frustrating to a girl than when a guy who has said he will call,

doesn’t. To put this in perspective for the men who may be reading, imagine your favourite sporting team/player reaching the final in their relative discipline. They are one penalty, try, hole, length, shot or step away from winning and instead of the going the distance and pulling it off, they fail, miserably. All men are familiar with this emotion, and it is similar (to put it lightly) to the level of frustration we feel when you don’t call us back.

While I might sound like a broken record, this is the ultimate reality of dating in Dublin, or anywhere else as a matter of fact. However, I did quite recently believe that my status as the eternal singleton was about to change.

I was introduced by a friend of a friend to a highly suitable prospect on a recent

Is it too much to ask to be texted back for that one coffee, asks our correspondant

night out. My immediate thoughts were that there is possibly a very decent guy here. Do not scare him off and more importantly do not under any circumstances act desperate, sad, lonely or possessive; generally avoid the maniac territory altogether. He was well spoken, had fantastic dress sense and could make me laugh. We got on swimmingly and phone numbers were exchanged; a very profitable night so to speak. Later that week we went for drinks; another successful night whereby the notion of dinner next week was suggested. Finally I had found a worthy guy who knew how to treat a woman. This fantasy was soon to turn to an absolute nightmare because surprise; he was just like every other guy out there. I texted him to suggest

organising dinner as he was about go away on a weekend break with friends Upon receiving no reply I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and wait it out until Monday. I never heard from him again. Great. I am utterly forgettable and yet again shut down by a guy who I thought was the best thing since the second coming of Wispas.

This incident was the low point (I lie, a taxi driver calling me desperate was the low point, but whatever psychological effect that might have on me is too great to deal with here). After that night I came to the conclusion that perhaps I need to stop looking for a man. Rather I should sit back and let them come to me. If a guy can’t see what a wonderful person I am then he is obviously not worth my time. I

have resigned myself to this strategy for going out from here on in. Or at least as long as I can hold out before the feelings of utter terror of living a life of solitude rise again, which in my world translates into five days. Not exactly a colossal amount of time but after three years of being single I think its equivalent to reaching the summit of Mount Everest.

The current dating climate in Dublin has caused me to consider having myself committed due to sheer frustration. So if you ever see a girl being carted out of a bar by some men in white coats take solace in the fact that you are not alone and remember there are plenty more fish in the sea. What a cliché and the saying of people who are truly grasping at straws, mainly me.

12

TRINITY NEWS TRINITY NEWS

WORLD REVIEW

Tuesday, October 14, 2008 October 28, 2008

Bankers’ highstakes game of musical chairs

EXPLAINED: SHORT SELLING Another facet of share volatility is the phenomenon of short selling, or shorting. Shorting allows traders to bet on the share price of a company falling. It is a controversial practice aimed at making short-term gains that some believe muddies the waters of share trading.

In October a citizen journalist on CNN’s website reported that Apple CEO Steve Jobs had suffered a massive heart attack.

Apple’s share price immediately dropped by nearly 10% before Apple could deny the rumour.

The user, known only by his username Johntw, is now under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission, and is suspected of having made a killing (no pun intended) by shorting the stock.

The global downturn has sapped investors and consumers of confidence, and with no rebound in sight, David Slattery takes the global banking crisis apart to find out has brought the giants of finance to their knees (and what the ninjas had to do with it).

T

he financial turmoil of the past year or so has been a learning experience at least, the world’s last optimist might say. Terms like default, bailout and sub-prime have crept out of economics lectures and entered common usage. A sushi restaurant on Dublin’s quays now sells a ‘Credit Crunch Lunch’, for €17 with a glass of champagne, as if to flaunt the decadence of a dying empire.

But to your average Joe the plumber (see facing page) these are little more than buzzwords: foreign and mystifying concepts to pin on the wall and petulantly throw darts at.

Meanwhile the blame game continues.

In the previous issue of World Review one writer argued that we shouldn’t be so quick to blame the bankers for the recent market mayhem. The great economist John Maynard Keynes, writing during the Great Depression, cynically lamented that having a backbone seems to be incompatible with being a banker.

“A sound banker is not one who foresees danger and avoids it, but one who, when he is ruined, is ruined in a conventional

Subprime loans are a relatively new and risky phenomenon. One might question why a reputable bank would be give out a loan when there was a real chance it might lose its money.

So what changed? Why the move toward giving such risky loans? and orthodox way along with his fellows, so that no one can really blame him,” he wrote. In other words, bankers go with the flow and stand or fall together. So what kept them on their feet until now, and how did they lose their balance?

In the beginning of 2007 the odd expression ‘subprime’ began to feature with increasing regularity in business headlines, before newspapers turned inside out and began to put their business section on the front. The Oxford English Dictionary rushed to include it in its June 2008 update and found it has only existed in its current usage for fifteen years. A subprime loan is one offered to a customer

Such massive abuses are rare though, and influential investors such as Warren Buffet actually argue that shorting helps to counter the sort of rampant bullish enthusiasm that leads to financial bubbles. In an effort to smooth out choppy markets, several countries, including the U.S., Britain and Ireland, have limited or outlawed the practice.

with a poor or nonexistent credit history who doesn’t qualify for a normal loan. The higher interest rate attached to subprime borrowing is intended to account for the increased riskiness of the individual.

Subprime customers could range from those with a poor credit rating because they missed a few credit card payments to the extreme scenario of what bankers disparagingly call NINJAS: no income, no job, no assets.

Such loans are a relatively new and risky phenomenon. The typical Victorian Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac dominated the mortgage-backed securities market banker was one whose only interest was in making profitable and necessarily secure loans. One might question why a reputable bank would be interested in giving out a loan when there was a real chance it might not get its money back.

Indeed, until recently banks wouldn’t touch NINJAS. So what changed? Why the move toward giving such risky loans?

Essentially we assume that all bankers are rational profit maximisers, who, when presented with an opportunity to make a quick profit will immediately take it. If a banker can issue a mortgage, receive the payments for it and simultaneously abdicate responsibility for it, then this is an opportunity not to be missed. The innovation which allowed them to do this was a financial instrument called a mortgage-backed security. A mortgagebacked security works by bundling up thousands of similar mortgages into a package which can then be sold off to another financial institution. The bank which sells the mortgages benefits from an instant cash injection, and the buyer gains a constant stream of mortgage repayments for the lifetime of the loans.

Since the mortgages are traded in bulk, if a few customers end up defaulting on their payments the effect is less crippling to investors. Essentially such packaging allowed banks to diversify all non-systematic risk, which is the risk associated with the possibility of a particular individual defaulting on their repayments. Mortgage-backed securities effectively allowed banks to sell off their risk, and dicey subprime loans were traded with increasing frequency. A mortgage taken out on a home in Wicklow through an Irish bank could be sold to a Belgian bank, which in turn sold it in to a U.S. hedge fund, which passed it on to a Japanese consortium.

Harry S. Truman, the U.S. president who presided over a fraught upheaval of the U.S. economy after the Second World War, kept a sign on his desk that read, “The Buck Stops Here”. Global trading of mortgages on a massive scale muddied the waters of responsibility. It became less and less clear where the buck stopped and where responsibility really lay. This in turn led to what became known as predatory lending: what economists call the deceitful practice of seeking out borrowers who have little chance of comfortably making repayments.

According to the ‘blame the bankers’ view of the crisis, banks unscrupulously signed up clients to loans they couldn’t afford and then casually sold these toxic loans in bulk to investment companies, hedge funds and other banks. By the time the customer found himself deep in debt and unable to keep up with his mortgage repayments, it was already another bank’s

ISEQ INDEX Oct 07-08 8000 17 September 2008 – US Federal reserve loans $85 billion to AIG to avoid bankruptcy.

Oct. 24: Merrill Lynch announces losses to be over $8 billion.

Jan. 15: Citigroup reports $18.1 billion loss in fourth quarter.

May 12: HSBC writes off $3.2 billion linked to the U.S. subprime market.

4000

2000

0 Oct 07

Oct 07

Date

R

isk assessment companies have shouldered their share of the blame for the crisis. They are accused of making overly-optimistic predictions, founded on enthusiasm for the ability of mortgage-backed securities to diversify risk. In an atmosphere of unbridled confidence, some companies

Global trading of mortgages on a massive scale muddied the waters of responsibility. It became less and less clear where the buck stopped.

IRISH STOCK MARKET SHAKEN BY U.S. TURBULENCE

6000

problem.

The dizzying game of musical chairs was best described by Charles Prince, the former CEO of Citigroup. “When the music stops, in terms of liquidity, things will be complicated. But as long as the music is playing, you’ve got to get up and dance. We’re still dancing,” Mr Prince said in July 2007. Four months later he resigned as Citigroup CEO when the company’s catastrophic third quarter losses demonstrated beyond doubt that the music had long stopped playing.

Oct 08

Oct 08

paid scant heed to the apparently unlikely risk of a general economic slump.

Certain agencies were more at fault in this respect than others. So called cycleneutral rating, practised in particular by Moody’s, meant giving little emphasis to the cyclic ups and downs of the business cycle. Unfortunately, the housing market is particularly vulnerable to this type of risk.

When the American housing bubble finally burst, property values dropped, interest rates rose, and suddenly the NINAS couldn’t meet their mortgage repayments. A wave of foreclosures swept the States, and within a matter of months ‘For Sale’ signs became as ubiquitous on American front porches as Obama and McCain lawn signs. The downturn in the housing market triggered a precipitous fall in the value of these securitised assets held by various banks and financial institutions, and as such these losses soon made their way on to banks’ balance sheets. Those engaging in a high-class game of pass the parcel began to be found out.

The crisis gained momentum at the beginning of this year as the major global financial groups grimly informed their shareholders of the massive losses they had sustained. The collapse of investment bank Lehmann Brothers marked the biggest bankruptcy in US history, while a wave of forced mergers saw Merrill Lynch acquired by Bank of America and

Bears Stearns acquired by J. P. Morgan Chase. Meanwhile Swiss bank UBS had written down the value of its assets by almost $40 billion dollars by April, in the process acquiring the moniker UBS (Used to Be Smart). Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two institutions at the centre of the subprime market, were effectively nationalised by the United States in September.

Banks, by virtue of their sheer size, often underpin national share indices, and the likes of the NASDAQ and the FTSE tumbled in the wake of bank losses.

The Irish ISEQ index is a prime example: it stood at over 9000 at the beginning of 2007, and by October 17 had plunged to “We’re still dancing” - Citigroup CEO Charles Prince four months before his resignation an 11-year low of 2643. When banks go down, they tend to bring much of the country’s stock exchange with them.

The free market economy recoils at uncertainty. Mortgage backed securities are still threaded through the complex distribution chains of the global financial network and nestled at the core of vast investment packages. It is near impossible to tell exactly which assets are sound and which are toxic. Who knows which firm will announce the next series of writedowns, who will be nationalised, or who will file for bankruptcy? In the atmosphere of doubt and insecurity that currently pervades the market it is no wonder that banks are uneasy about lending to one another. This has led to what is called the credit crunch. Unfortunately inter-bank lending is the industry’s main source of liquidity. The knock-on effect is that banks are reluctant to lend to lend to customers, stifling access to credit in the wider economy and turning what began as a financial crisis into a full-on economic downturn.

Keynes’ view was that either a weakening of the state of credit or a general lack of confidence can upset an economy. And investor confidence these days is thin on the ground while the credit situation is bleak. LIBOR rates (the rate at which banks lend to each other) have dropped in the past week following huge government liquidity injections, but they remain excessively high, reflecting an unwillingness on the part of banks to lend to one another. Retailers, too, are feeling the squeeze: October saw the biggest drop in US consumer confidence since records began in 1978. We will need to see a recovery in both of these indices before the good times return. Unfortunately at present judging when that might be seems no more than speculation.

TRINITY NEWS

WORLD REVIEW

TRINITY NEWS

13

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

October 28, 2008

RACE FOR THE WHITE HOUSE ’08

US elections: hope for Palestine?

While Iraq and Afghanistan have dominated discussions on the Middle East during the campaign, Laura Wilkinson looks at what the presidential election means for Palestine.

T

he past several weeks have seen several interesting developments in U.S. foreign policy. George Bush announced that North Korea is to be struck off the list of countries sponsoring terrorism, the notorious “Axis of Evil”. The Iraqi government made the unprecedented gesture of setting its own calendar for the withdrawal of U.S. forces. Meanwhile in an increasingly deteriorating Afghanistan, U.S. generals are contemplating negotiations with the Taliban. And presidential hopeful Senator Barack Obama has expressed a willingness to hold “high-level” talks with long-standing foe Iran.

On 17 October, the Mayor of Tehran,

Israel enjoys $3 billion annually in U.S. foreign aid excluding loans and various military packages. Some of this money allegedly goes into illegal settlement building in the Occupied West Bank.

Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf welcomed Obama’s suggestion for dialogue but also spoke of a country encompassing both Israel and the Palestinian territories to replace the Jewish state. “Muslims, Christians, and Jews,” Qalibaf said, “must be allowed to return to their own land and, through a democratic and free election, choose the type of government they would like to have.” If a change in U.S. policy towards Palestine is a going to be a prerequisite for diplomatic ties with Iran, then Obama’s intentions will bear little fruit.

For many people worldwide, 2008 has been a year of optimism as both presidential candidates promised a sea-change in U.S. foreign policy. This year also marks the 60th anniversary of the Naqba - Arabic for ‘catastrophe’ - a reference to what Israelis simultaneously celebrate as independence. If 60 years have so far seen Israel ignore numerous U.N. resolutions, whether in relation to illegal settlement expansion or the building of the infamous “security fence”, then it is fair to assume that the next four years are unlikely to reconcile any “finalstatus” issues of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Issues such as the status of Palestinian refugees, the future of Jerusalem, the control of the region’s water supply and the building of settlements on disputed territory remain fraught. All the more so since both presidential candidates have reaffirmed the unconditional support of the U.S. for the Israeli state.

On 23 July this year Palestinians suffered disappointment following Obama’s 24-hour trip to Israel. He spent only 45 minutes in the Occupied Palestinian Territories where he visited Ramallah. His wearing of a yarmulke (Jewish skull cap) during his visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial - somewhat indicative of the ChristianZionist alliance, one might say - incised Palestinians, and the whole itinerary was met by both Arab and Israeli media with scorn.

The Israeli daily newspaper Ha’aretz carried the headline “Obama visiting Israel to impress Jewish voters, not Israelis” even though Obama declared he would continue to “regard Israel as a valued ally”. Despite claiming that the U.S. needs to “recognise the legitimate difficulties that the Palestinian people are experiencing right now,” the Middle East Times reported that “his brief stop [in Ramallah] was privately criticized by Palestinian diplomats as insignificant and a mere attempt to show that he could be more impartial in the peace process than his Republican opponent.” The Democratic senator opened a Pandora’s box this summer when he told the powerful pro-Israel lobby, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), that Jerusalem should remain the undivided capital of Israel. The remarks drew fire from Palestinian, Arab and Muslim leaders.

Reiterating his wish to play an active role in the Middle East peace-process, Obama visited the Israeli town of S’derot which is frequently a target of Qassam rocket fire from Gaza. The presidential candidate did not visit the impoverished Strip, which presently continues to suffer as a result of the economic blockade imposed by Israel.

In an article published by Ha’aretz during Obama’s whirlwind tour, Aluf Benn wrote, “Israelis don’t interest McCain and Obama. Rather, it is their Jewish voters and contributors at home.

Barack Hussein Obama - with his Muslim stepfather and his childhood in Indonesia, his suggestion to meet with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the leftist image that adheres to his advisors - has raised deep anxieties among the Jewish establishment.”

A Palestininan soldier watches children playing. Photo: Robert Croma

The Democratic senator’s comments at a pro-Israel lobby that Jerusalem should remain the undivided capital of Israel drew fire from Palsetinian, Arab and Muslim leaders

With only days to go before the US election itself a New York University poll has found that American Jews favor Obama over Republican candidate John McCain 67-33 percent. Yet only 42% of Jews surveyed who believed Israel held a “very high” importance said they would vote for Obama. In another survey of American Jewish voters, carried out in July by the American Jewish Committee, only three percent said Israel was their main priority.

Despite such apparent courting of the Jewish vote, the reality on the ground for Palestinians living under occupation is unlikely to change for the better in any given U.S. administration. In an article published just after Obama’s Middle Eastern visit, Palestine Think Tank wrote “There is no reason for optimism. Obama is following the well-worn path of 100 per cent, unwavering support for Israel and the Zionist project.”

The article documents the experience of Palestinian activist and author Ali Abunimah who met Obama in Chicago in the 1990s. The Princeton graduate who occasionally contributes to the Guardian newspaper felt that Obama grasped the oppression faced by Palestinians under Israeli occupation. “He understood that

an honest broker cannot simultaneously be the main cheerleader, financier and arms supplier for one side in a conflict.

He often attended Palestinian-American community events and heard about the Palestinian experience from perspectives stifled in mainstream discussion,” wrote Abunimah.

Humanist sympathies aside, the structures of political and economic influence within the US Senate remain the underlying factors of America’s relationship with Israel. On 18 October, the news agency Inter Press Service ran an article suggesting that key organisations in the Israel lobby, such as AIPAC and the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, are “run by hard-liners who generally support the expansionist policies of Israel’s right-wing Likud Party, including its hostility to the Oslo peace process”.

Israel enjoys $3 billion annually in U.S. foreign aid excluding loan agreements and various military packages. The Jewish state is an exception among U.S. aid recipients in that it is not required to account for how the money is spent.

According to IPS, some of the money goes into settlement building in the Occupied West Bank, construction of which is

illegal under international law.

Unless the incoming U.S. administration - Democratic or Republican - decides to take Israel to task on these issues, from a Palestinian perspective it will be a far cry from “change we can believe in”.

COURTING THE JEWISH VOTE A survey commissioned by a Jewish lobby group found that only three percent of American Jews said Israel was their main priority when making their choice for president. Both candidates have tended to approach the issue indirectly. The McCain camp has accused Barack Obama of being “soft” on foreign policy issues and say he would embolden Iran by negotiating with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on his own terms. The Democratic candate shot back that McCain’s aggressive stance towards Iran and his continuation of George Bush’s Middle Eastern policy would endanger Israel.

The curtains close on a classic American comedy Andrew McKenzie Deputy World Review Editor IN THIS year’s U.S presidential election, the line between reality, parody and satire seemed to zigzag more often than a usedcar salesman turned politician’s promises.

Take for example Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin. She went from Republican president ticket saviour to national joke as fast as you can say Tina Fey. Fey’s devastatingly funny portrayal of Palin on “Saturday Night Live” this season broke from traditional caricature.

The mastery of Fey as Palin on SNL lay in her nonsense answers to mock-interview questions which were actually taken linefor-line from actual interviews.

“As Putin rears his head and comes into the airspace of the United States of America, where – where do they go? It’s Alaska. It’s just right over the border,” said Palin/Fay when quizzed on her extensive foreign policy experience.

Describing her impression to David Letterman, Fey said, “She has a really crazy voice. It’s a little bit Fargo, a little bit Reese Witherspoon in Election. I also try and base it on my friend Paula’s grandma.”

Palin’s Democratic counterpart Joe Biden, when discussing the stock market crash of 1929 said that Roosevelt had gone on TV and reassured the nation, which sounds fair enough, except Roosevelt wasn’t president at the time. And there was no TV. Then there was the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner, a New York charity event where McCain and Barack Obama roasted each other and treated the audience to some rare selfdepreciating gags.

“Who is Barack Obama?” asked the Democratic nominee, who has been plagued by smears about his roots during the campaign. “Contrary to the rumours you have heard, I was not born in a manger. I was actually born on Krypton and sent here by my father Jor-El to save the Planet Earth. Many of you know that I got my name, Barack, from my father.

What you may not know is Barack is actually Swahili for ‘That One’. And I got my middle name from somebody who obviously didn’t think I’d ever run for president. If I had to name my greatest strength, I guess it would be my humility.

Greatest weakness, it’s possible that I’m a little too awesome.

“I do love the Waldorf-Astoria, though.

You know, I hear that from the doorstep you can see all the way to the Russian tea room.

“But I have to say tonight’s venue isn’t really what I’m used to. I was originally told we’d be able to move this outdoors to the Yankee Stadium, and can somebody tell me what happened to the Greek columns that I requested?”

McCain informed the audience that he had dismissed his entire team of senior advisers. “All their positions will now be held by a man named Joe the Plumber.”

“Even in this room full of proud Manhattan Democrats. I can’t shake that feeling that some people here are pulling for me ... I’m delighted to see you here tonight, Hillary!”

Then there were the debates. Obama’s voice made you think he was about to start advertising coffee, or something altogether stronger: “I want to say to the American people: this is the finest, mellowest blend your money can buy.”

McCain, meanwhile, brought it down to the lowest common denominator and swung topic after topic back to his friend Joe the Plumber.

Joe instantly became a national celebrity, and the inevitable target of the blogovultures. A day after the speech, it seemed, his name wasn’t Joe, he didn’t have a plumbing licence, and he owed over a thousand dollars in back taxes.

Apparently McCain had put as much effort into researching his everyman as he did vetting his running mate. Maybe it’s a back-up plan: if he doesn’t win the presidency, he’s going to launch a stopmotion animation series on Nickelodeon.

There’s probably a warehouse full of Joe the Plumber action figures out there somewhere in the Arizona desert just waiting for the say-so.

You’d expect Obama to counter

McCain’s talk of Joe the Plumber by bringing up Boris the Spider or Dennis the Menace or something, but no. He started addressing Joe too. Before long they were both at it, appealing to Joe straight down the lens, which meant I had to keep looking behind me in case he was standing there, fixing a pipe.

Also revealed was the fact that Palin has spent a staggering $150,000 dollars since her VP nomination. I’m not sure Joe six-pack and the boys from Wasilla are spending that kind of money at Saks Fifth Avenue.

The self-styled hockey mom got herself into more hot water with her comments about “real America”. “We believe that the best of America is in these small towns that we get to visit, and in these wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America, being here with all of you

Above: Tina Fey’s portrayal of Sarah Palin. Her most devasting impression featured Palin’s real answers to interview questions.

hard-working, very patriotic, very proAmerica areas of this great nation,” she enthused. Democrats pounced on the remarks. Jon Stewart, host of the Daily Show, pointed out that that would mean the rest of America was a fake America, and since this fake America included New York City, Bin Laden must be hiding in shame at attacking the wrong country.

If it the media seemed a little onesided, keep in mind that Obama actually didn’t make very many gaffes. His most memorable came when he welcomed his surprise running mate on stage for the first time, “Let me introduce to you the next President - the next Vice President!

- of the United States of America, Joe Biden.” Not exactly up there with Palin’s antics.

He also had a slightly odd moment when referring to “the lipstick on a pig”.

Republicans immediately announced that Obama was referring to Palin, although he denied this entirely.

McCain’s had a few odd moments himself. During the second town hall debate, rather than just stand still listening to Obama speak he wandered aimlessly around the stage and pulling faces post-debate pundits described as “angry and troll-like”.

One of McCain’s biggest gaffes has to have been when he stressed that “the fundamentals of our economy are strong” only days before the financial crisis really came to the fore. Earlier he was stumped when asked how many houses he owns, very encouraging for a candidate reaching out to the working class.

All in all, an entertaining campaign.

With Obama seemingly set, it’s back to plain old scripted comedy until 2012.

14

TRINITY NEWS TRINITY NEWS

OPINION

Tuesday, October 14, 2008 October 28, 2008

Giving money to charity is good, but giving time is better

By Aoife Crowley Opinion Editor THE SHAKE of the collection box has long been a familiar sound to Irish ears.

From the poor black babies’ collections of the sixties, through the Hurricane Katrina appeal, right up to today’s charity street fundraisers, it seems the appeal for money is incessant. But where does all this money go? Is it worth giving at all?

I think that it is, but choose carefully what you give and whom you give to.

Non-voluntary charity workers can be quite misleading. For the most part, these fundraisers are working for an

agency and are paid on a commission basis. The charity pays this agency for its services and the agency fee. These plus the fundraiser’s commission will eat up most of your monthly donation for the first year. Unless you plan on keeping a standing order going for longer than that, or are willing to donate more than the €15 a month usually asked for, charities can actually stand to lose money.

Generally, those who sign up do give a return higher than the agency’s fees, or charities would not hire them. But would it not be better to cut out the middleman, and give directly to the charity, thus saving them the commission?

Charity fundraisers also put people off donating to the traditional tin-rattling volunteers we see shivering on our streets. These volunteers often represent smaller local charities who cannot afford to hire agencies to compete with the larger national charities. People who already have a direct debit each month feel that they’ve done their bit, and are less inclined to reach into their pockets for the smaller charities.

Once the charities have collected your money, do you ever wonder where they keep it? Unfortunately, being a charity is no protection from the economic doom.

Although Irish investments in Irish

banks are protected up to €100,000, the government offers no such cover for investments held in Icelandic banks.

In the UK, many charities had invested their money in Icelandic banks who offered seemingly wonderful interest rates for savings and investments. These banks have now collapsed. The National Council for Voluntary Organisations has estimated that these charities may stand to lose £120 million between them. The Cats Protection League alone could lose £11.2 million. That’s an awful lot of catnip.

How do you know that the charity you’ve donated to is legitimate? There

was huge scandal over leaflets posted through letterboxes last year, purporting to be from charitable companies looking for clothes donations. They were bogus.

The clothes they gathered were actually sold on to East Europe and Africa with none of the proceeds going to charity.

This sort of fraud deeply impacts both the legitimate charities and potential donators. The director of the Association of Charity Shops estimated that their members were losing between €2.5m to €4m a year through scams such as this which makes people wary of giving to legitimate charities.

It seems that the world of benevolence

is fraught with problems. For us poor college students, I think the best thing to give is your time and energy. Donations of money are wonderful, and it is true that they do a lot of good, but by volunteering you can see first hand the difference you are making. It isn’t hard to give up an hour or two of your time, you can see the good you’re doing and you will probably enjoying doing it. There are plenty of worthy causes in college all begging for your time, including St. Vincent de Paul, the Voluntary Tuition Programme and SUAS. Volunteers are the backbone of any charitable organisation, and they are the one thing that money can’t buy.

IN PROFILE

The economy: safe as houses?

With stormy economic waters ahead, Ireland’s economy is being overseen by an intelligent man with a fierce political mind, combined with a very bad sense of timing, says Aoife Crowley of Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan BRIAN LENIHAN must have pure politics pumping in his veins. A member of one of the most powerful political dynasties in Ireland, he seemed destined to become a key player in the political scene. His namesake, Brian Lenihan Sr, was a mighty figure in Fianna Fáil, serving as Táiniste in the 1980s. He remembers the political clinics his father held during his childhood: “It wasn’t even called a clinic. You just visited Mr Lenihan at his house. There’d be traffic jams at our house on a Saturday morning as people thronged in from Roscommon where my father was a TD. A lot of them would sit around the house, so the whole house would fill up with people. They would wait in the bedrooms, on the landing, in the sitting room. There’d be lines of cars outside the house.” His grandfather also was a TD, and both his aunt, Mary O’Rourke, and his brother, Conor, hold cabinet positions.

Lenihan first entered the political scene in 1996, when he was asked to stand in the Dublin West by-election after the death of his father. He was elected on the eleventh count, and went on to become chairman of the All-Party Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution, and in 2002, was appointed Minister of State.

There is little doubt that Brian Lenihan is an intelligent man. A Foundation Scholar of Trinity, who achieved a first class honours BA and subsequently a first class Bachelor of Law degree from Cambridge, he boasts an exceptional academic career.

But all those brains couldn’t save him from unfortunate timing. Almost as soon as he took his place in the new cabinet as Minister of Finance, the world markets and banks began to freefall. A few days into his new job, he told a conference

of builders that he had the misfortune of becoming Minister for Finance just as the building boom was coming to an end. He meant it to be a joke, but the builders weren’t laughing. It was seen as a major gaffe. Ireland faced its first major downturn in over a decade. As Finance Minister, he faced the difficult task of steadying the ship. As the public lost faith in the major banks, it was clear that something needed to be done.

Lenihan’s first crisis had begun.

Lenihan signed the ministerial order offering a government guarantee to the major Irish banks. The Minister was pleased with his decision, insisting that it was “the cheapest bailout” possible compared with bank rescues in other countries such as the US and UK, where “billions of taxpayers’ money are being poured into financial institutions”, although he did admit that it had attracted criticism from Europe.

This move placated the public, although critics felt that it smacked of desperation and was so lacking in detail that it appeared to have been put together on the back of an envelope. When asked whether he felt that the Irish economy could come through this crisis unscathed, Lenihan was equivocal, saying, “we’re in the eye of the storm, and who can predict the destination of the ship in the eye of the storm?”

He had barely time to catch his breath before his next big challenge the budget.

His responsibility was to draw up a budget that would stabilise the economy and promote future growth, while at the same time looking out for those most vulnerable in the society. His budget, which included increases in excise duties, class sizes in schools and VAT, a 1-2% income levy on all and the withdrawal of

“We’re in the eye of the storm, and who can predict the destination of a ship in the eye of the storm?”

medical cards, was not seen to meet his brief. Rather than helping to alleviate the economic downturn, it was seen to rub salt into the wounds.

In the now infamous budget which he presented last fortnight, Brian Lenihan underlined his belief that these dark days called for collective action, and that his budget provided an opportunity for us all to pull together, calling it “no less than a call to patriotic action.”

The public has not responded to this call as the Minister might have liked them to. Last week the Dáil was subjected to massive protests by both the over-seventies and the students, the like of which had not been seen since the PAYE demonstrations twenty years ago.

This was not the pulling together that the Minister had in mind.

After polls suggested that 60 percent

of people believe that this budget will worsen the economic crisis, Lenihan is being forced to backtrack on some of the more unpopular aspects. The medical cards were always going to be a contentious issue, but the government’s handling of the backlash turned it into a fiasco. Lenihan has received criticism for the government’s furious back-peddling on this issue. Pensioners feel that he betrayed them in his budget, and even though it has now been changed so that 95% of people will retain their cards, the fact remains that the original budget pushed vulnerable elderly people to one side.

Eamon Gilmore has described the Budget as a political humiliation for the Government, but Lenihan insists that the Government has not been damaged by the controversial budget measures.

BIOGRAPHY » Lenihan is married to Patricia Ryan and they have two children, one girl and one boy. » He was educated at Belvedere College Dublin, Trinity College Dublin, where he was a scholar in Legal Science, Cambridge University, and Kings Inns. » He lectured in Law at Trinity College from 1984 until 1996, when he began his political career. » He was appointed Minister of State in 2002, and Minister for Children in December 2005. » After the 2007 general election, Lenihan was the only Fianna Fáil TD to be promoted to the cabinet, as Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform. » He was appointed Minister for Finance in May 2008.

Cutting education funding could exacerbate recession In this budget, students are being asked to bear the cost of the reckless policies of the government, writes Jason Somerville

A

S THE dust begins to settle after one of the most aggressive cost-cutting budgets since 1987, third level students have been left with some tough realities. Perhaps most disheartening is that, despite a wave of public anger regarding the new income levy, the withdrawal of the automatic right to a medical card and the cut backs in primary education, the general public have remained silent over the unexpected hike in student registration fees by almost 67%. How has a measure that threatens to exclude so many from third level education not caused outrage? The truth of the matter is people just don’t care.

Too engulfed in how the budget will affect

them, students have been sidelined by the public and the minister’s attack has gone unpunished.

Students have been blitzed from all angles. Those working a part time job will be slapped with a 1% income levy, those in receipt of a grant will find that any increases have been frozen and for anyone not in receipt of a grant, regardless of what you or parents earn, you will have to come up with an extra €600. If that’s not enough, the cutting of child benefit payments to those over the age of 18 could exclude children from lower-income families from third level.

In short, this budget threatens the weak and vulnerable in our society, despite Government’s claim of equitability.

More worryingly, this is only the start.

The Minister for Education has now been mandated by the Cabinet to bring forward proposals on tuition fees. He also signalled that the hike in registration fees is only an interim measure, pending the likely return of some form of college fees. The bottom line is that if fees are reintroduced as the Minister intends, then some people will be denied access to third level education. Talk of “sliding scale systems” and the minority of students who go to college to party and drink won’t change this reality. While there is certainly a select minority who could comfortably afford to pay fees, the Minister’s target seems to be more focused on those in the middle-income bracket, many of whom struggle to support their children through college as it stands. Considering the cost of living and accommodation alone, it can cost up to €10,000 a year for parents to support their child through college. The reintroduction of college fees would tip many of those at the margin over the edge.

Not only that, but you would expect that an increase in registration fees would lead to an increase in funding for college services. The reality of the situation is that this money is not going toward colleges. Education has only been allocated a 2.7% increase for 2009, which will just about account for inflation, assuming that it falls back considerably next year. It is a cost-cutting measure, and any extra revenue generated will go toward stabilising public finances. While public finances certainly need to be reined in, the question remains as to why education, so vital to the future success of this country, is facing cutbacks while the public sector, riddled with inefficiencies and overpaid bureaucrats, has escaped from this budget unscathed.

The Minister for Finance continues to echo the words “we’re in this together”, but when the economy was booming and so many were making millions, where were the necessary investments in college services? Education, particularly

at third level, remained grossly underfunded throughout the boom years of the Celtic Tiger. It is funny that now as the economy faces tough times we are “all in this together”, whereas before we had to make do alone.

Equality concerns aside, will cutting back on education services and reintroducing fees help restore our economy? It’s unlikely. A diverse and highly specialised workforce has driven the Irish economy during past decade.

By reducing funding the government is now threatening the foundation of our knowledge-based economy. What the economy needed from this budget was for the government to lay out a pathway for recovery. That path needed to focus on developing Ireland as a knowledge economy by putting resources into education. Instead, they did the opposite and have shown a lack of understanding of the fundamentals of the Irish economy.

This may plunge us deeper into recession and exacerbate falling growth.

TRINITY NEWS

OPINION

TRINITY NEWS October 28, 2008

Got the itch to hitch?

Hitch-hiking should be revived before it becomes a lost art, writes Iain Mac Eochagáin

“America must change, and this is the first measure” CAITLIN DOLAN-LEACH

‘SO WHY do you do it?’ It is partly to answer this question that I am writing. But rarely does my admission to hitch-hiking get such a calm reaction. The usual responses are, in order of frequency, incredulity, shock, and fear. To members of my own generation, I am “not serious,” “crazy,” and taking stupid risks.

The concept of willingly getting into strangers’ cars to get to the next village, or across the country, in exchange for nothing apart from your company, is apparently too much for a lot of people. Especially given “today’s climate” or “the amount of weirdos on the road today.”

Hitch-hiking, hitching, thumbing, or autostop means standing on the side of the road, sticking out your thumb, and waiting for a car to stop. When a car/van/lorry/off-duty private bus stops, you establish the destination with the driver. If they’re going your way, and you like the look of them, you get in. Sometimes you’ll be lucky and get a lift all the way to your destination, though this rarely happens in Ireland, as people drive short distances. You arrive at your destination in exchange for nothing more than the company you’ve given. Sometimes, the first car you see will stop. Other times, you could wait two hours for a lift to the next village. Once I got from Galway to Dingle in two lifts. On the way back, it took seven. The only rule is to allow for anything.

So if it’s always so unpredictable, sometimes slow and even frustrating when things don’t work out – why bother? Personally, my motivation has two strands: the adventure and the human contact. I love few things more than setting off on the road and not knowing how long it will take, what sort of vehicle will take me there, or who I’ll meet. This randomness and unpredictability can be surprisingly addictive. This is linked to the second strand: the human contact. I recently wondered whether to give up telling people that I study Russian, to just keep it simple and say I do French. But the reactions are priceless. ‘Who’d want Russian?’ said one woman last weekend. More people than you might think have been to Russia, or have an insight on its history that they are willing to share.

It’s not just my own speciality that can become a discussion – I’ve learnt more in strangers’ cars about construction, farming and economics than anywhere else. Less abstract topics can also be eye opening. I’ve exchanged views on deeply personal and family matters with some drivers more frankly than I’d sometimes be prepared to with close friends. Not that all conversations reach such a deep level. Sometimes the mere fact of just chatting with someone outside our own, rather closed, university environment can be a breath of fresh air. How else, if not by hitching, would I have been advised to get a job with an Italian warplanes manufacturer?

So those are the basics, the how and the why. In modern Ireland, though, the subject has made me think about our generation differences, and how liberal we, born in the late eighties and after, really are. For the most part, people my own age are shocked and frightened by the idea of hitching.

Furthermore, many don’t even know how to hitch. They ask, wide-eyed, ‘Can you hitch in pairs? Do the drivers expect any money?’ This, from the generation that considers itself freer than its parents, unshackled from old social and cultural restraints.

My parents’ generation, in contrast, generally doesn’t raise an eyebrow, except when long distances are involved (‘you’re tough to be thumbing that far’). Is our generation over-obsessed with private property and space, brainwashed by horror films that exaggerate the dangers of everyday life, or just more cautious?

Of course, there are different strains of ‘liberalism’. There are radical liberals who make conscious decisions to flout convention. There are old liberals who have learnt from life’s experiences. Being liberal or conservative about giving lifts to, or taking lifts from, strangers doesn’t decide the cast of your whole generation. And of course, there are people of my parents’ age who don’t give lifts on principle.

Still, the point remains that a generation has, on one topic, become more conservative than its predecessors. This is not because there are ‘more weirdoes on the road’, or because the world has become more dangerous – it is as dangerous now as it ever has been. It is because that is the way it seems, and this is what we need to start discussing – to what extent outside factors influence the way we perceive other members of society and how we interact with them. Not only that, but we need to talk about fear, and how and why we allow our collective imagination to be dominated by it.

Far away from such heavy musings, however, I will, in the meantime, continue to hitch, and not just for the reasons I’ve already mentioned. I will continue to thumb to prove that it can still be done, that people are still kind to strangers, and that not all transactions involve money. I wouldn’t, given the necessary time, travel any other way. With an average speed of 50 kph, and at no cost, I see no reason not to, provided one uses some common sense. As one driver from Belmullet said: ‘It’s probably just as efficient as Irish public transport.’

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Tuesday, October 14, 2008

IN A little more than two weeks, the world will be a different place. After eight years of misguided Republican rulership, the United States of America will have the opportunity to begin rectifying the serious mistakes of the past. Whichever candidate is chosen by the American public this November, the elections will mark a turning point in how America is seen by the world. America will either embrace its gradual metamorphosis into a fundamentalist, conservative, war-mongering state or it will reject these principles and begin to rehabilitate its damaged image and crippled identity under the leadership of Barack Obama.

Recent weeks have witnessed a panic raised by both American and international news sources claiming that the next Great Depression is nigh.

While this may be alarmist and possibly a ploy for selling more papers, it is clear that economically all is not well. President Bush’s enthusiastic plans to stimulate the economy using famed Republican trickle-down logic have not met with overwhelming success. A Republican presided over the start of the Depression of the Thirties with similar reasoning, and it didn’t work then either. It was a Democrat who lifted it, and Roosevelt’s primary concerns were not tax cuts and moralising. Without informed and intelligent government intervention, the United States (and with it, the rest of the world) faces the rather alarming prospect of a global recession.

The actions of the next executive branch will change the economic situation. Federal government exists for this reason, and America can’t afford to elect someone who places the ideal of self-reliance and rugged individualism over the basic fact that executive action and legislation, not cowboys on the ranch, keep the global economy stable. We can’t confuse questions of identity with government policy. McCain seems to think that being a “maverick” is a political qualification, and not simply a descriptive term for an American archetype. Obama doesn’t try to adhere to a personality model. He recognises the need for policy that addresses a crisis.

What America doesn’t need is a president who will shy away from the federal responsibility of

maintaining a secure and balanced economy, in favour of an idealistic notion of identity.

Aside from the urgent and concrete issue of fiscal stability, there are more ideological subjects at risk in this election. One subject which was addressed at the end of the final Presidential debate was that the next President will almost definitely appoint at least one new member to the Supreme Court. Currently, the court operates through a tenuous and delicate balance; though it is technically considered apolitical, there are four “conservative” judges, four “liberal” and one swing voter. John Paul Stevens, a “liberal” judge, is eighty-eight years old.

Of course, with the balance of the judges at stake, the historic decision of Roe v.Wade in 1973 stands to be revoked. In this historic case, the Supreme Court overturned all state and federal laws outlawing or restricting abortion, as it ruled that most laws against abortion in the United States violated a constitutional right to privacy under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. During the debate, both candidates claimed that no litmus test should ever be imposed on potential judicial appointees. However, McCain rather cryptically concluded that no justice capable of voting to preserve the controversial 1973 case could ever be deemed competent to rule on the Supreme Court. Obama, on the other hand, tended to view the decision as the exertion of individual rights and clearly stated that while he supported the decision, there were other qualifications for an acceptable Supreme Court Justice.

To ignore the ruling that was made would alter a principle of American society. It would be a symbol of conservative regeneration, an acceptance of the moral value judgements of the Christian right, and a clear indication that judicial restraint is defunct, to be replaced by judicial activism where judges rule according to their moral beliefs and not their interpretation of the law. With this precedent established, the Supreme Court could become what its founders feared most, an instrument of legislation, rather than judicial review.

In the civil rights arena, it would be a glaring indication of the prejudices which still exist in our society if were we to fail in electing Obama.

McCain declared during the debates that the race issue had been resolved, and that we’d achieved racial equality, but will that statement hold up on November 4? We’ve relegated “race issues” to secondary status since accomplishing this putative complete equality, but this election is necessary proof that we do live in a multi-ethnic,

integrated society. If we once again fall short of demonstrating that our country is not run by white, upper-middle class men, this statement will be exposed as the ludicrous exaggeration it is. We have not achieved equality – racism is alive and well in the USA – but we can change that by continuing to work for a truly colourblind nation.

This is America’s opportunity to express to the world its contrition for the events of the past eight years, and the repeated, unmitigated error of electing George W. Bush as our Commanderin-Chief. To elect McCain would be to accept the reigning paradigm, to once more align ourselves with evangelical values and combative foreign policies. In electing Obama, we would acknowledge our double blunder, reject war as an acceptable means of diplomacy and give legitimacy to a new voice in the international arena, a voice which doesn’t deny the need for communication and multi-lateral decision making and doesn’t embrace violence as the best solution to effect regime change. This opportunity is as inspiring as it is terrifying; could it be possible to once more admit to my nationality with something other than reluctance and chagrin? Will I someday stop feeling tempted to respond “I’m from Toronto” when asked about my citizenship?

Perhaps that sounds flippant; the reality is that I am anything other than dismissive at the thought of reclaiming a sense of self-respect for my nation. It is a tragedy that there has been such a departure from the basic tenets of American democracy. We have a chance to repossess this project, and salvage it from a deplorable misuse of its principles. We have a responsibility, to our fellow citizens and the international community, to do our best to repair the wrongdoings of the past. We can’t retract our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, we can’t brush over the myriad muddles, misunderestimations, oversights and lapses in judgement of the past two terms, but we are obligated to make the initial, symbolic and incredibly basic gesture of electing new leadership. We have to change. Obama is the only candidate to have the courage to say that our way of life is untenable, that every American will need to make a change. This is a daring thing to say to a culture saturated with its attachment to excess and self-indulgence. The fact that he recognises the fundamental importance of adjusting our lifestyles and ideas about consumption to creating a sustainable future reveals his essential responsibility and clear-sightedness. America must change, and this is the first measure.

Smart kids need funding too Neglect of education under recent budget goes farther than registration fee hike, writes Áine Ní Choisdealbha OF ALL of the areas suffering cutbacks in the most recent budget, education seems to be taking one of the most significant batterings. The changes which have drawn the most ire are the increase in the amount of pupils per teacher in primary schools and the €600 hike in registration fees that we at third level can look forward to paying.

One of the budget outlines which has been overlooked in comparison to the above bombshells is that “a number of grants, mainly school related” are being abolished or scaled back.” The funding of smaller projects may seem less important than upholding the ideal of equal opportunity, regardless of financial status, in entering third level education. However, on an ideological level, these cutbacks serve to highlight the same neglect not only of a high quality, well-funded education system

in a society, but also of equality within such a system.

One of the institutions to lose out on funding is the Irish Centre for Talented Youth (CTYI). The centre, which provides summer camps and weekend classes for children and teenagers who are classed as intellectually “gifted,” will no longer receive any of its annual grant of €97,000.

At a time when 100,000 primary school students are going to end up in classes of at least 30 pupils and hence lose out on the individual attention considered essential for early learning, a summer camp may not seem like such a high priority. Most of CTYI’s clientèle have a reputation for being middle class and well able to afford any rise in fees that may occur as a result of the cutback. However, that €97,000, coming to about one-tenth of the centre’s

overall funding, was used in the past to cover the fees of talented students from less advantaged backgrounds and to provide additional support to students with disabilities and special needs.

Irish schools do not have a reputation for providing support to children who learn at a faster rate than their peers or who are considered gifted. In a class of thirty-plus students, chances are that neither an intellectually advanced nor an intellectually challenged pupil will receive enough attention for their skills and competencies to be attended to.

If the former goes to a school with a less financially advantaged background, they will probably not have stimulating and challenging activities like debating clubs available to them, let alone additional learning supports geared to their abilities Participants such as these in CTYI’s programme will be hit by the withdrawal of CTYI’s €97,000 grant.

which even fee-paying schools generally do not provide. If their skills are noticed by a teacher, parent or by themselves, the existence of an organisation like CTYI, and the ability of said organisation to fund the student’s attendance is key.

It gives a talented and interested pupil the opportunity to study more advanced material than they would at school and to work with and compete against intellectual peers, opportunities which would otherwise be presented only to those better off.

At CTYI, the opportunity is given to intelligent children and teenagers to experience classes in similar subjects to university courses, such as engineering, international relations and computer applications.For students from poorer backgrounds, for whom college would become a formidable expense, this can assure the student of the enjoyment they could gain from higher education as well as its eventual benefits. In other words, it would be a kind of tangible proof that college is worth substantial loans and a few years’ deferral of a full-time job.

However, without State funding, fewer socio-economically disadvantaged pupils would get this hands-on opportunity.

CTYI and other organisations’ loss of funding may not seem particularly critical to those of us worried about the potential re-introduction of university fees, or children’s overcrowded classes.

Some of us may even be glad that our taxes are no longer going to a summer camp famed for churning out groups of sixteenyear-olds with a communal delusion of misunderstood genius. Nonetheless, we should be outraged at yet another indication that equal opportunities in education are being neglected by the government of a nation often praised for its highly educated workforce and its past refusal to reserve debt-free higher education for a wealthy élite.

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TRINITY NEWS TRINITY NEWS

OPINION

Tuesday, October 14, 2008 October 28, 2008

It is time to become passionate about learning again DAN COSTIGAN SANDERSON OF Oundle is the embodiment of all my romantic notions of what education should be. A famous schoolmaster of Oundle school, in Northamptonshire in England, from 1892 until the time of his death in 1922, he wanted his students to reach their potential by themselves. To this end, he directed that laboratories and workshops be left unlocked so that the boys could go in and work on their own research, even if unsupervised. Sanderson did not obsess over examination league tables. Rather, he tried to get his students genuinely passionate and excited about subjects. He did well in the league tables in spite of, or more likely, as a result of, this policy.

“

He tirelessly sought out talent even on behalf of the so-called ‘average’ boys.

If someone showed obvious talent in a certain area, Sanderson made sure to give that boy abundant time and material to revel in his special subject.

Sanderson had the right idea. Many of the Arts courses in Trinity also have the right idea. His philosophy, however, is not widely practised. This is especially true of some of the more lecture-heavy courses. It seems that some courses are not concerned with the individual, but with the collective, the homogenous and unthinking mass. They appear to be more concerned with the regurgitation of someone else’s ideas than with original thought or creativity. There is far too much concern with getting students to jump through the hoops of continuous assessment and getting them to attend an unending expanse of tiresome and often unhelpful lectures.

Fortnightly essays and weekly exams tend to sterilise and extract the colour from a course or subject. No allowance for

freedom within the educational process causes people to treat education as more of a chore than an opportunity.

Courses of this structure deal in homogeneity. They tell you what you what you are capable of based on your past.

They are not interested in the individual but rather the trends and the statistically likely outcome. Their education is blind to the person — interested in material, mass, continuous assessment and selected mandatory paths.

Education is not just about coming in for all of your lectures or classes. It is not just about doing well in tests or essays.

It is about nurturing the person who thinks for himself/herself and challenges the conventions. Education belongs to the John Nash figure, skipping lectures and drawing his boundary pushing ideas on the windows of the library, as per the movie A Beautiful Mind. Education belongs to the young Swiss patent clerk, Einstein, who created a revolution in Physics by daydreaming when he should have been doing his job in 1905.

F. W. SANDERSON » Fredrick William Sanderson, has been described by turns as jolly, plump, energetic and roguish. He was said to possess a "mind like at octopus", constantly questioning and learning. » Sanderson was not born into the world of public schools, unlike other famous schoolmasters of his time. » He began working at Oundle in 1892, transforming it into a prosperous and prestigious institution with a five-year waiting list. » Sanderson prepared his students for adulthood with projects which would be relevant in real-life – an experimental farm or actual engineering work in outside businesses.

To create something new you need an Emersonian-like faith in yourself. You need to be challenging and creative. In creating something new or to truly learn you must be willing to risk failure or embarrassment in support of your ideas.

You must be willing to diverge from the well-trodden track to go your own route.

College should not be about trying to assimilate other people’s skill sets.

Instead, it should be about tapping into and fostering the talents already within your possession. College is about refining your own pre-existing skill sets. College involves being all that you can be. To this end, people should experiment and try different things to get their results. The words of dead men in books are not to be assimilated but rather to be challenged and above all engaged with. Richard Dawkins had it right when he said of Sanderson’s philosophy: “What matters is not the facts, but how you discover and think about them: education in the true sense, very different from today’s assessment-mad exam culture.”

My college is one full of fiery, scarftoting, moleskin-carrying undergraduates who are able to connect all of their passion, potential, sense of well being and talents into some sort of wild synergy. It is a college full of the leaders of tomorrow, a college full of confident arbiters of their own destiny. It is a world of drama and of action. A world of courage.

True education is when answers lead new questions being raised. The more the island of knowledge expands, the greater the shores of uncertainty expand alongside. It is not about knowing all, it is about always wanting to know more; piquing the interest. Education is about setting a fire in someone, awakening a passion and being a catalyst to the talents and the desire to learn lying within the student. As Dawkins said, “Now let us whip up a gale of reform through the country, blow away the assessment-freaks with their never-ending cycle of demoralising, childhood-destroying examinations and get to the true education”. The time has come.

HEAD TO HEAD: ABORTION

THE EMBRYO IS A BEING THAT IS HUMAN SEAMUS CONNOR ABORTION SHOULD not be made legal in Ireland. We need to learn from the mistakes made by many other countries across the globe, including our closest neighbours, Britain. The three basic arguments against abortion are that it is not good for the child, it is not good for women and it is not necessary for women.

We can often be told mistruths about the unborn child, such as “the foetus is not a human” or “it’s not a person”. It is important that we stop and think about these statements.

The foetus most certainly is human. The science of embryology indicates that individual human life begins at the moment of conception.

At conception the embryo has 46 human chromosomes. Nothing new will be added from the time of union of sperm and egg until the death of the old man or woman except for the growth and development of what is already there at the beginning. The embryo is a being that is human. If someone does not acknowledge science on this issue it can only be down to his or her privately held beliefs.

All human beings deserve legal protection.

In the first three months, when most abortions occur, the baby’s heart is already beating, his or her unique fingerprints have formed, which will remain the same throughout life. The unborn child is sensitive to touch.

Those who claim that the foetus is not a person should be very careful. The US Supreme Court ruled in 1857 that the black population were not “persons”. Women were not considered persons under Canadian law until the early 20th century.

The term “person” is a philosophical one, and the most widely accepted definition of personhood is “an individual substance of a rational nature”, in which case the foetus is a person because his or her nature is to be rational. If this claim is rejected on the grounds that the foetus is not actually rational now, it may be pointed out that it is in my nature to die, yet as far as I am aware of I am not actually dead now.

Abortion not only results in the death of an

innocent human being, it has also been shown through various studies to impact negatively on the psychological well-being of the woman.

Groups like Silent No More are starting to shed light on the experiences of the many women who regret their abortions. Dr. Alveda King, the niece of Martin Luther King Jr, said of abortion: “We mothers suffer tremendously, and our families suffer”.

Long-term studies of women who have had abortions give a clearer picture of the effects of abortion on women. One such study was published in 2006 in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. This was a twentyfive year longitudinal study. It concluded that “young women reporting abortions had elevated rates of mental health problems when compared with those becoming pregnant without abortion and those not becoming pregnant”.

The main author of the study, Fergusson, stated, “I remain pro-choice... The findings did surprise me, but the results appear to be very robust because they persist across a series of disorders and a series of ages. . . . Abortion is a traumatic life event; that is, it involves loss, it involves grief, it involves difficulties. And the trauma may, in fact, predispose people to having mental illness.”

This study and more caused the Royal College of Psychiatrists to state that “women may be at risk of mental health breakdowns if they have abortions”.

Lastly, it is extremely important to stress that Ireland ranks among the safest countries in the world in which to be pregnant, and as the latest global Maternal Mortality figures show, Ireland’s maternal mortality rate is number one in the world. It is true to say that abortion is not needed to save the life of a woman.

Also concerning abortions needed in the case of suicidal women, it is important for us to look at the recently much publicised Gissler study from Finland, which shows that women are much more likely to commit suicide following abortion.

The study examined data from 1987-2000 and highlighted the fact that the suicide rate was almost seven times higher in women who had abortions compared to those who gave birth.

Seamus Connor is the spokesperson for the proposed TCD Pro-Life Society

A CULTURE OF SILENCE AND HYPOCRISY IVANA BACIK ABORTION WAS legalised in Britain in 1967.

Every year since then, thousands of Irish women have travelled to clinics in Liverpool and London to obtain abortions denied to them here. We have the most restrictive law in Europe. Abortion is a criminal offence in Ireland under 1861 legislation, carrying a penalty of life imprisonment. In 1983, the Constitution was amended to make the right to life of “the unborn” equal to that of “the mother”. A pregnancy may only be terminated legally in order to save the life of the pregnant woman. There is no right to abortion in any other circumstance, not even where a woman or girl has been raped or abused.

Despite this extreme law, abortion is a reality in Ireland. Around 6,000 women make the journey to Britain for abortion each year. More than 100,000 Irish women have had abortions over the last thirty years. This number might include you, your sister, or your mother.

Yet these women’s stories are never told. We never hear publicly about the trauma of trying to get through a family Christmas without revealing a crisis pregnancy, or about the difficulty in trying to arrange a secret journey to London.

In contrast to Britain, where amendments to the 1967 Act were being debated just this month in the House of Commons, a culture of silence about abortion prevails here. This is not surprising, since our rigid brand of indigenous Catholicism has led to a peculiarly repressive attitude to women’s sexuality.

Cultural sex taboos and patriarchal attitudes have been strengthened by the intimidatory tactics of the anti-choice activists. Abortion represents their last line of defence, since contraception and divorce were legalised in the 1990s. These conservative lobbyists have brought disproportionate influence to bear on fearful politicians. We have had five constitutional referendums on the subject of abortion since 1983 because TDs are afraid to confront their responsibility as legislators.

But the tide is turning. At least now it is legal

to provide women with information on how to obtain abortions in Britain. This was not always so. In 1989, I was President of Trinity’s Students’ Union, which had voted in favour of freedom of information. In carrying out Union policy by helping women with crisis pregnancies, we were threatened with prison in a marathon court case.

We eventually won many years later, after a change was made in the law to allow information on abortion.

This change resulted from the 1992 X case, when a 14 year-old pregnant rape victim wanted to travel to England with her parents to terminate her pregnancy. The State tried to prevent her travelling abroad in order to stop her having the abortion. People were understandably horrified at this inhumane attitude to the girl’s crisis. In the public outcry that followed, the Supreme Court ruled that because X was suicidal, the pregnancy posed a real and substantial risk to her life, so her pregnancy could lawfully be terminated.

Two referendums were passed later in 1992.

The first allowed freedom of information and enabled us, finally, to win our case. The second allowed the right to travel for women seeking abortions. A referendum seeking to overturn the X case by ruling out suicide risk was defeated.

In 2002, following more pressure from antiabortion groups, yet another referendum was held to try and rule out suicide risk as a ground for abortion – but again this was, thankfully, defeated.

Since then, the law has remained stagnant, and women have continued to travel to Britain in their thousands. To try and bring about change, we have recently established in Ireland the Safe and Legal Abortion Rights Campaign (SLI), with the aim of legalising abortion. As Irish society has changed and liberalised, most people have become more compassionate towards women with crisis pregnancies. The only thing that has not changed is the lack of courage and leadership demonstrated by successive Governments in failing to deal with abortion in a realistic and rational way. It is now time for us to challenge the culture of silence and hypocrisy. We must press legislators to confront the reality of crisis pregnancy, and to meet the real health needs of Irish women by legalising abortion in Ireland.

Ivana Bacik is a Senator in the Trinity constituency and a pro-choice campaigner

ROUND-UP

”

“I will use my hulking great backside to shatter glass ceiling...”

Student and Over-Seventies Protest Last week’s protests have been welcomed from many quarters as a reawakening of the people’s spirit. The Irish Times reports, “There is a new engagement with the political system, a sense that politics and what happens in Dáil Éireann does matter and have an effect on people’s real lives.” In the Examiner, Paul Egan commends the government on its budget, for the sole reason that it infuriated people. By doing this, he believes they have given power back to the people.

“Even the normally complacent students and party faithful are protesting and the pensioners are harassing TDs. We are back to public meetings, protest marches and unavailable government spokespeople. It is marvellous that we have our pride back; we can only go forward as a nation. Forget the recession - they have achieved more in this for the

people than bailing out the banks.”

According to Quentin Fottrell, “Charlie Haughey must be smiling down from above that his free travel pass came back to bite his political successors so spectacularly. Iarnród Éireann said about 1,000 pensioners travelled to Dublin yesterday on early morning buses and trains to protest.”

Medical cards The government must be ruing the day they ever mentioned these contentious cards.

In the Irish Examiner, Kathy Sinnott wonders if it was the progress of the patients’ rights/cross-border directive that terrified the government. Under this directive, Irish citizens will have the right to seek treatment in another EU country, at the expense of the Irish government, if none was forthcoming here in Ireland.

As Ms. Sinnott says, with Irish hospitals in the state they are in, it is not hard to predict a mass exodus. In this context the government may well consider automatic medical cards for the over 70s a huge liability.

Playing the Race Card The Irish Times’ Charles Krauthammer is fuming as “scrupulous McCain is vilified over racism, while the Democrats happily play race card”. Obama’s supporters have been tireless in their search for racial undertones in McCain’s campaign, Krauthammer argues. A McCain campaign video, which compared Obama’s celebrity-like status to Paris Hilton’s, was decried by the New York Times as “an appalling attempt to exploit white hostility at the idea of black men becoming sexually involved with white women”.

Krauthammer is deeply disappointed

by Obama’s warning at Missouri that “George Bush and John McCain were going to try to frighten you by saying that Obama has “a funny name” and “doesn’t look like all those other presidents on those dollar bills.””

This is a pre-emptive charge against an innocent McCain, who had never said anything like that. “An extraordinary rhetorical feat, and a dishonourable one.”

Meanwhile in the same paper, Bryan Mukandi discusses the mistaken belief held in some Republican areas that Obama is a Muslim. When a woman at a Republican rally called Obama an “Arab”, McCain retorted that he was not, but that he was a decent family man.

“Why is it that the description “decent family man” can be thrown out as a counter to the suggestion that one is an

Arab?” asks Mukandi. “Are there no Arabs who are decent men with families they love? Would a “no Ma’am, he is an American citizen” not have sufficed?”

for a TD because “he or she helped to get planning permission for your daughter’s house or fix a pothole outside your door.”

“We elected them so it’s our own fault” Jim Mullins of the Irish Examiner reminds us that “every country gets the government it deserves”. He bemoans the fact that “the dogs in the street knew for years we had an incompetent, wasteful Government as well as an inept opposition. Yet we did nothing to change that.”

An apathetic public who cannot stir themselves to the ballot boxes, and even if they do, vote according to family’s civil war affiliations, do our nation a disservice.

He writes, “in a true democracy we would have an obligation … to elect only those who are capable of governing our nation for the common good.” Instead, we vote

Body Image and Ritual Humiliation Hannah Betts writes in the Belfast Telegraph of the phenomenon that is self-help tv shows, and the presenters’ propensity to force their subjects to get naked.

Rather than being genuinely concerned with negative body images, these shows exploit exhibitionists “to create some sort of rolling freak show.”

Betts believes these shows reinforce, rather than reduce, low self-esteem, especially in women. She urges to fight back with feminism, saying “Think not: ‘Does my bum look big in this?’ but: ‘Fabulous, I will use my hulking great backside to shatter the glass ceiling.’”

TRINITY NEWS

EDITORIAL

TRINITY NEWS

17

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

October 28, 2008

TRINITY NEWS Issue 3, Volume 55 Tuesday, 28 October 2008 6 Trinity College, Dublin 2 www.trinitynews.ie

THE WORD “FREE” HAS BECOME A JOKE The means of introduction of the 66% increase in the registration fee from around €900 to €1500 was an abomination.

The debate this summer regarding tuition fees has proved to be a smokescreen for this hike. If the Minister had at least been honest enough to provide some advance warning of an increase of this scale then perhaps students would at least have been receptive to arguments in its favour or for its necessity.

Instead, he has rightly enraged his charges.

In 1995, the then Minister for Education Niamh Breathnach announced that tuition fees would be halved that autumn and abolished the following autumn. She set a provision for a new fee, the registration fee, at £150 (€192). This fee was intended to cover the cost of student services like clubs, societies and students’ unions, registration and examinations. There was justified scepticism from students at the time that this fee would grow. Accordingly, the fee was frozen for two years.

Predictably, as soon as those two years had elapsed, then Minister for Education Micheál Martin hiked the fee by the very same percentage as Minister O’Keeffe has now — 66%, from £150 to £250.Government Ministers for Education have operated on a fine pedigree of this registration fee skyrocketing since its inception. The suddenness of this latest increase is nothing new either; the 1997 increase was equally unexpected.

It is clear that our current fee at €1500 has little to do with student services: in fact, it is a stealth fee. This is evidenced by the fact that students around the country have voted over the years to provide themselves with services like student centres and bars by way of adding an extra levy to the registration fee.

It was only one year after the introduction of the registration fee in Trinity that a five-year £50 levy was added to build the Sports Centre on Pearse Street — the very fee that was supposed to pay for student services.

The Students’ Union realise that they should not bite the hand that feeds them. By agitating against the fundamental failure of the registration fee to do what it was supposed to do, they reduce their own ability to convince the student body to tack “once-off” levies onto the fee. These levies (which are anything but “once-off”) can then partly realise vital but expensive projects like student centres and sport centres. Indeed, they can hardly be blamed for this sort of pragmatism. The blame lies squarely with the Government, which is responsible for ten years of dishonesty regarding the true nature of this fee.

We are at a point now where the fee is approaching by degree the level of tuition fees. The word “free” in terms of third-level education has become a tragic joke.

ONE VOICE WITH ONE MESSAGE Last Wednesday saw a “return to street politics” as the Irish Times put it. The scene on the streets of Dublin was truly extraordinary and was probably only the first or second occasion that people of our generation had the experience of being part of an enormous crowd of people with one single, simple message: we are angry.

The power of that message’s delivery is absolutely undeniable and this sort of engagement with the political process on the part of not just students but the entire electorate must be commended from the highest level. It is worth remembering, however, the nature of a protest’s message. It is a strong, effective tool but a blunt one. It cannot convey much information to stakeholders other than the anger of the participants.

Marching is a fundamental right of citizens in a democracy and students were right to use it. Now that students have used this right to the degree that they did however, the rest of the campaign must follow. The impetus on the USI and on ordinary students has grown enormously overnight. The significance of the march will be squandered if students do not continue to engage with the debate on the funding of third-level education.

This required engagement must be specific, targeted, and realistic.

With the march, every student who participated took on an obligation to be informed and to be opinionated. Each student’s time will have been wasted if the one voice that was heard on the day of the march isn’t turned into 10,000 voices, all clearly making their disparate, individual thoughts felt on the matter.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR letters@trinitynews.ie

Accommodation Office must be held accountable by students I read with great interest, but very little surprise, the story in the last issue of Trinity News entitled “Accommodation application fee unique to Trinity”.

The apparent lack of an explanation for this fee is just another example of the continuing failure that is the Accommodation Office. On a yearly basis we hear student complaints about the lack of transparency in the application process for College accommodation — yet the situation seems to be deteriorating rather than improving.

Now we have a blatant lack of transparency in how the fees collected from students are being used. None of this is to the benefits of students.

When thinking about the way in which the Accommodation Office and certain other organs of this university operate, I am reminded of an episode of the series Yes Minister. In this episode a visit is arranged for the Minister to “Britain's

best-run hospital”, which has attained this position by the virtue of having no patients. One wonders if the Accommodation Office aspires to this kind of efficiency — if whether things would just work if there were no students getting in the way?

Unfortunately for this line of thinking, the Accommodation Office exists to provide a service to the students of this university. If it is not doing this adequately then it is failing to justify its existence.

I would encourage Trinity News to investigate the operations of the Accommodation Office fully, in the hopes that an explanation can be found for their apparent continuing failure to serve the students of this university.

Gearoid O'Rourke SS BESS

Letters to the Editor should be sent to letters@trinitynews.ie or to Trinity News, 6 Trinity College, Dublin 2. The Editor reserves the right to edit submissions for style and length. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of Trinity News, its staff or its Editor.

Fanning the flame of winter romance While I am really delighted to have been given a room on campus for my final year as a Trinity student, I was really disappointed to learn it is forbidden for students to light candles in their rooms. This was brought to my attention at the Fire Safety meeting on Tuesday 7th October. Perhaps the scholars, who attended a separate meeting (in keeping with Tommy Tiernan’s welldocumented “Thickness is Contagious” theory), were told otherwise because they are sufficiently smart to be trusted to light candles without burning a whole building down. Perhaps not. In any event, and aside from indicating the level of esteem to which college holds its “chosen” students, this prohibition does not sit well with one’s romantic inclinations. Can anyone imagine wooing in the absence of at least one flickering candlelight? I certainly can’t. It’s going to be a long and lonely winter.

Brendan Guildea House 34

The night climbers of Trinity College THIS TIME last year The Night Climbers of Cambridge was reprinted, bringing to a large audience the original guide to scaling the walls of Cambridge’s colleges, which was first published in 1937. It is a fascinating and entertaining description of the many forbidden routes which courageous nocturnal climbers have tackled in the University of Cambridge. While the hobby was never so popular in this university, we did have our own “night climbers” in the past.

Here in Dublin, as in Cambridge, the career of the night climber often began with an attempt to scale the walls to gain entry to college after the curfew. Students living in rooms were once required to be back in college by a certain time, and night roll, where the Junior Dean presided, was obligatory for those living in. These days, climbers are likely to be undergraduates intending to get back to a friend’s rooms after a night on the tear, or hoping to save on a taxi fare by sleeping in a society room.

When I was a student, not very long ago, one spot for late-night entry was opposite the train station on Westland Row – there were some excellent footholds in the wall. Cameras were installed on this area, unfortunately, and I know several graduates who earned their Junior Dean colours after being caught hopping over at this spot.

Not as easy, but away from the porters’ cameras, were the railings across from the Garda station on Pearse Street. The bus shelter gets a climber half of the way up, and it just requires a bit of effort to get over the spikes.

Only once did I go in over the railings behind the Luce Hall, with two others. The railings are precipitously high, and I was lucky not to be impaled, but the three of us were determined to get into Trinity Ball that night after being caught without tickets at a party in Botany Bay. But these small climbs, undertaken in a slightly sozzled state, are insignificant compared to the ascents of The Night Climbers of Cambridge, which depicts fearless students scaling frighteningly high old buildings. The book cover shows a daredevil climbing the facade of our sister college, St John’s – and some amazing shots show figures perched on the pinnacles of King’s College Chapel.

Back in Dublin, our own holy grail is the Campanile. An issue of TCD: A College Miscellany in 1953 claimed that some students, along with a locksmith, had climbed to the top of the

OLD TRINITY

by PETER HENRY

Campanile, entered through the small arches, and descended via ladders to the door, where the locksmith made a key.

The article seems hardly credible. It does carry a picture of Parliament Square taken through the grille of the Campanile, but I have taken a similar picture myself: if the door in one of the pillars is left open then entry is straightforward, and one can even engage in some campanology by pulling on the ropes.

The archive of the DU Climbing Club says that the craze of “buildering” – as they called it – became popular here in 1961, and the club even kept a guidebook for the college. Routes on the walls of the Graduates’ Memorial Building, New Square and the 1937 Reading Room are given, along with detailed instructions for climbing to the top of the Campanile.

According to an older issue of Trinity News, the first ascent was in Trinity week of 1962, when a red top hat was left to decorate the cross. It remained there until the following week when steeple jacks were called in and removed the hat at a cost to the college of £12. Offers by several climbers to remove the hat were rejected.

A TCD reporter of the time could not find any information on the climb. He mused in that paper on the possible origin of the red hat. He suggested, sarcastically, that it was a publicity stunt carried out by the socialist DU Fabian Society. Or perhaps, he wrote, the Climbing Club was expressing its exasperation at the poor quality of climbing routes in Ireland. Or maybe an American tourist had thrown his hat away and it had been blown onto the cross of the Campanile?

1965 saw another conquest, when the Climbing Club members – no other suspects this time – left a stuffed crocodile on top of the cross.

It was “affixed to the summit with a spike through its belly” said the Climbing Club’s newsletter, which gave a romantic description of the climb.

It mentions some close calls: the narrator says his friend helped him up at one stage by grabbing his ears!

The fire brigade were called in that year to remove the crocodile, says an old Trinity News.

The same issue says that, since then, “there have been a few ascents, numerous attempts, and several unfortunate misunderstandings with porters as to the desirability of working off excess energy and intoxication in such a fashion.”

The lack of photographs and small contradictions in the accounts make one wonder how much of these stories are fantasy. CCTV, lighting and the diligence of the porters may have made Campanile-climbing extremely difficult, but if anyone does take on the challenge again, please take a camera with you!

IT IS WELL-KNOWN that the four figures on the Campanile represent divinity, science, medicine and law. The heads of Homer, Socrates, Plato and Demosthenes can also be seen on the structure.

But what of the four coats of arms? One is that of the college. Another is the arms of either the Archdiocese of Dublin or the Archdiocese of Armagh (a count of the number of crosses formée fitchée on the pallium would distinguish) impaled with another’s arms. These are likely the arms of then Archbishop of Armagh, Lord John George Beresford, whose gift the Campanile was back in 1852. Can anyone confirm this and identify the other two?

I MENTIONED our so-called “sister college” above. People are fond of pointing out our association with St John’s College, Cambridge, and Oriel College, Oxford, with that fiendishly unreliable website as their source. It is true that an association was made with these colleges and KC Bailey records it in his History of Trinity College. In 1933, he says, “a ‘friendly association’ was established by mutual consent with Oriel College, Oxford, and, a few months later, an ‘alliance’ made with St. John’s College, Cambridge.” TCD: A College Miscellany says at the time that our scholars were involved in the arrangement. Honorary fellowships continue to be exchanged between our provost and the heads of Oriel and St John’s, but that seems to be the current extent of the relationship. pehenry@tcd.ie

EMPLOYERS WISHING to recruit the ideal employee look for three things: a good degree, a relevant skills set and an understanding of the business world.

Work experience can provide you with the skills, understanding and knowledge that are essential to any job. Engaging in the workforce as a student allows you to practice the theory you have already learnt. This is particularly relevant for engineering, business and healthcare students.

Although you may think it is too early to start thinking about your career, graduates are continuously entering a more competitive job market. Students keen to reach their full potential should seriously consider work placements as a means of distinguishing themselves from others.

Employers tend to look favorably on students who have demonstrated commitment and an interest in the industry they are entering.

The term ‘work experience’ covers a wide range of opportunities.

It can include open days with organizations, work shadowing, insight courses, internships, sandwich placements, clinical/professional practice, co-operative education programmes, summer placements, voluntary work, international programmes and part-time work.

Here in Trinity there is a specially designed programme, VACWORK, to organize work experience for students during the summer months.

The Careers Advisory Service identifies companies offering summer employment and internship possibilities and lists them on their database (www.tcd.ie/careers/vacancies). The CAS website is updated weekly and is a good place to start researching your work experience possibilities.

An international experience offers students all the advantages of regular work experience and also gives you the opportunity to travel the world.

As well as being a great way of learning another language, working abroad shows your ability to be independent. These placements are voluntary and ideal for students who wish to make a difference in the lives of others. Internships in this sector include teaching positions and clerical work for charity agencies.

According to many national employer surveys employers seek graduates with the following skills: self-reliance, people, general and specialist. Selfreliance skills are determined by how well you work independently, specialist skills are based on the technical and theoretical aspects of both your course and work experience. General skills are those that are applicable in all sectors and in all situations while people skills relate to how well you can communicate with others and work in a team.

It is essential to extract the maximum learning value from whatever placement you are on and present your newfound abilities in a relevant manner later. A good presentation of your skills and experiences could land you a job offer with the same firm later on.

It is imperative that you start thinking about work experience, especially internships, now. Many of the closing dates for internships range from October to May. Many firms will offer up to 50 placements however as there is a lot of competition for these positions you must start preparing your CV and application form now.

Summer Internship, Co-op.

01.02.2009 Deloitte and Touche

Ireland

Internship and placement n/a

Summer Placement 23.12.2008

Ireland Summer Ernst and Young

Atkins Global

Ireland

Volunteer Internship 23.03.2009

Summer Vacation Scheme 31.01.2009

Abroad UN Watch

SJ Berwin LLP

United Kingdom

Summer 2009 Internship 05.12.2008

Internship 07.11.2008

United Kingdom Macquarie Group

Procter and Gamble

Ireland

Internship 04.01.2009 United Kingdom

Internship 07.12.2008 Ireland

JP Morgan

Goldman Sachs International

Closing Date Company

Location

Position

✃

CUT OUT and keep this handy guide to the closing dates for applications to some of the biggest internships with graduatte recruitment firms.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008 October 28, 2008

Was Gordon Gekko right all along?

WORK EXPERIENCE WORKS

POCKET GUIDE TO INTERNSHIPS

TRINITY NEWS TRINITY NEWS

BUSINESS & CAREERS

Future Calling

18

Though stories of financial chaos dominate the media, many people remain clueless. Newspapers may have turned it into an elitist disaster, but Grace Walsh disagrees.

W

aves of hysteria have forced the global financial system into meltdown.

Banks and mortgage lenders have collapsed, governments have pulled bailout bonanzas out of the tax payer’s pocket, share prices have plummeted, commodity prices are close to rock bottom, Iceland’s in ruins and the mythical bubble of hedge funds is about to burst.

This is a global crisis. Its numerous causes are not country specific and are the faults of a series of identifiable mistakes.

In order to gain any comprehension of the current events we must look at a number of countries, at a number of actions and slowly piece them all together.

Over the past two decades rapid economic growth has taken place in nearly all developed countries. Housing bubbles, increased production, increased wages and cheap credit all helped to dramatically increase the wealth of thousands, if not millions of people. This was especially the case in Ireland, Spain and Iceland, where such rapid growth was unprecedented in recent times. The Asian

This is the type of wrenching financial crisis that comes along only once in a century, says Alan Greenspan factor also had a significant effect on the world economy, the industrialisation of China and the increased levels of economic growth throughout the region, especially in the financial haven that is Hong Kong created a “global savings glut”. This enormous growth in wealth had to be moved into investments to fund further developments in commerce and increase personal wealth. During this period many countries modernised their financial systems to link savings and pensions with investment schemes.

This initially seemed a profitable and reasonably safe move given the economic prosperity of the time. However as profits became larger and as the notion of risk became null and void, traders, investors and banks became more daring in their behavior.

Financial institutions as well as investors engaged in several risky trends.

The most lethal of all, according to

Warren Buffet, was that of derivatives.

Derivatives are contracts, intended to protect investors from losses. Their name “derives” from underlying assets like stocks, bonds and commodities. These contracts allowed financial institutions to take on more risk that otherwise they would have avoided such as issuing questionable mortgages or excessive corporate debt.

The fact that the contracts can be traded in one sense limits risk but also increases the number of parties exposed to loss when problems emerge.

Throughout the 1990s, some argued that derivatives were a danger to the financial system and demanded some form of federal oversight to protect the markets. But the industry lobbied heavily against such measures, and won backing from many important figures, such as Alan Greenspan, former Chairman of the US Federal Reserve.

Greenspan keenly supports the use of derivatives as a market institution.

“What we have found over the years in the marketplace is that derivatives have been an extraordinarily useful vehicle to transfer risk from those who shouldn’t be taking it to those who are willing to and are capable of doing so,” he announced at the Senate Banking Committee in 2003. Greenspan’s unshakeable belief in derivatives leads him perhaps unsurprisingly to blame greedy and irresponsible Wall Street traders Governments also played a role in the financial crisis. In America, loose monetary policy allowed for hubris and proliferated the idea of sustainability in the guise of money being the solution to all problems. The American government was heavily involved in the engineering of this crisis forcing insurance companies such as Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to take on billions of dollars of sub-prime mortgages which were sold onto Wall St. If these lenders defaulted Freddie and Fannie would have been forced to guarantee billions to the investors that had bought the loan. Which is exactly what happened. The US were then forced to part nationalise these insurance giants that formed the backbone of the financial system.

In Europe giddiness from the benefits of economic integration prevented governements and financial regulatory bodies from keeping a watchful eye over financial institutions. Ireland and other European countries became so self absorbed that they forgot about prudence and risk management.

Finally the irresponsible behavior of

The stock markets are still in decline, but are showing signs of evening out.

Illustration: Mark Stay

banks is also to blame. The activities of Bear Sterns, AIG and Morgan Stanley, amongst others, were ignored by global financial authorities. Given free reign they acquired huge amounts of debt with ratios as significant as $33 debt to every $1 deposit. The power that debt strapped banks potentially have to bring down an economy was never taken into account.

The worldwide credit crisis has also contributed to recent financial turmoil.

Unlike a dramatic crash in the stock market, a credit crisis happens almost invisibly in stalemated transactions between the banks. It is banks refusing to lend to other banks — even though that is one of the most essential functions of the banking system. It’s a loss of confidence in seemingly healthy institutions like Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. It is panicked hedge funds pulling cash out of banks. It is buying credit-default swaps, a financial insurance policy against potential bankruptcy, at prices 30 times what they normally would pay. A credit crisis fuelled by the collapse of sub-prime mortgage lenders can pull down a global economy almost immediately.

The credit crisis began some months ago — remember Northern Rock?

However matters have only deteriorated since then. Bear Sterns, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were offered financial guarantees by the US government, the Federal Reserve backed AIG with an $85 billion loan, Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy, whilst Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are no longer investment banks. The American financial system has

changed forever.

Many European banks have also suffered. Halifax Bank of Scotland was close to ruin until it was bought out by Lloyds TSB, the Swiss government’s plan to invest 6 billion Swiss francs into UBS in return for a 9.3% stake in the bank, Credit Suisse have organized funding of SF10 billion from three investors, Iceland’s entire banking system collapsed and was rapidly nationalised, the EU are now planning a bailout plan of €3 trillion whilst many EU countries including Ireland have promised to guarantee bank deposits.

Worryingly the stock markets are still in decline but are showing signs of evening out. The Dow Jones and FTSE 100 have fluctuated wildly, Irish stock markets plummeted and even commodity prices, such as oil and gold, are falling. Now even the seemingly invincible hedge funds are about to collapse. The investment glut is over.

For the investment savvy now is the ideal time to hunt for bargains through the wreckage that is Wall Street.

Governments and investors alike must pull together and effectively plough enough cash into a flagging global financial system to rejuvinate it. We have already seen a positive reaction in the markets to promises of cash injections and guarantees.

It is vital for major economic powers stop dithering and reach a viable solution sooner rather than later. We are not immune to bad luck but we can certainly act to deter it.

“Education cuts are an abomination”

By Shane Ross WHILST IRELAND lurches from one financial disaster to another three of our most important politicians are nowhere to be found.

Brian Cowen has departed for China taking Batt O’Keeffe with him.

Whilst the Taoiseach and Minister for Education are off gallivanting around the Orient, the Tainiste has escaped to Donegal.

On balance Batt and Brian can do less harm in China than Mary can do by staying at home. Perhaps they should have taken her with them as a damage limitation exercise?

The economy is in a state of emergency. Recession has taken hold.

The Budget has been a disaster. And two of those responsible have fled the country, leaving the nation in the hands of a novice. “That’s confidence for you!” as Frank Cluskey used to say.

Batt will be roasted alive when he arrives home. Once the medical card crisis is resolved the education furnace will take off.

Cuts were needed. We know that.

Yet how in the name of God did the two travelling ministers decide that education was a soft target?

Before the Budget, some of us specifically pleaded with the

government not to make any cuts in education.

They ignored us .So they are about to see the mother of all protests erupt.

Why spare education? I say that with deep conviction, not just because as a TCD senator, I represent an educational constituency but rather for solid, long-term commercial reasons.

Education is an investment, not just a fictional current spending item to be tinkered with.

Back in 1968 Minister for Education, Donogh O’Malley, announced free secondary education for everyone in Ireland. The number crunchers went ape. They insisted that the nation could not afford it.

Of course the nation could not afford NOT to do it. Certainly, that is true in retrospect.

No single political initiative provided the foundation for our faded economic boom more than O’Malley’s.

Free education offered young people the opportunity to change their lives forever. O’Malley’s revolutionary policy change gave birth to the knowledge economy.

The result was the arrival in Ireland — in the eighties and nineties — of multinationals galore. Of course, they loved the 12.5% corporate tax

on offer here, but a competitive tax alone would not have enticed direct investment from overseas.

The tax would have been useless without the educated young workforce ready to make Ireland a showpiece of the modern software industry, of cutting edge technology.

Ireland’s generous supply of sophisticated young graduates perfectly matched the demands of modern global companies.

The major investment in education had paid off. Today the multinationals, the second leg of the Irish economic boom, are propping up the same economy in freefall.

Now that the first leg — construction — has collapsed we need the second

NUMBER CRUNCHING 1968 saw free secondary education while third level fees were scrapped in 1995.

The 2009 Budget allocated 12,000 euro per student in higher education.

Ireland spends the least amount of money on Education in Europe: just 4% of Gross National Income.

leg more than ever. The loss of more multinationals would mean the return of emigration, rising unemployment and a waste of O’Malley’s legacy.

As a result of the cuts in education the pupil-teacher ratio will rise. The present government had come to power promising that it would fall. But teachers will be laid off regardless. Estimates of redundancies vary between four hundred and fourteen hundred.

Fewer teachers means less individual attention, less learning and less competition with rival nations.

If our education fails to match our European competitors, not only will fewer overseas companies locate here whilst those already embedded will ponder a withdrawal.

That is why spending on education should be regarded as capital, not current spending. Every penny spent on improving human capital is an investment in the future prosperity of Ireland.

It is extraordinary to think that the government has taken a bookkeeper’s axe to the economy. It has butchered schools and imperilled the future of Ireland.

Simultaneously it has failed to give the impetus necessary to one of the great tools of Irish education — broadband. Both are vital ingredients of a country that hopes to

emerge from this recession lean and energetic. We should not be afraid of borrowing to fund education or telecommunications. No modern nation can afford to fall behind in these vital areas. It is madness to even consider axing their budgets.

The dividends of investing in these crucial sectors will be paid to future generations.

It is beyond comprehension that primary schools, secondary pupils and universities should be suffocated whilst semi-state bodies are allowed to sprout up with extravagant ease at the stroke of a political pen. How can FAS, with its absurd €1 billion budget, be left untouched? How can Enterprise Ireland be allowed to run its own independent show while the schools of Ireland are forced to curtail their activities? Don’t even mention CIE. We were all happy to play a part in salvaging the economy from the wreckage, but an attack on education is going to make the long-term deficit worse.

The deficit can be reigned in through careful management, but Ireland will take years to overcome this savagery to its youth.

Shane Ross is a Senator in the Trinity consitituency and Business Editor of the Sunday Independent

TRINITY NEWS

SCIENCE

TRINITY NEWS October 28, 2008

Who’s afraid of the LHC?

IN BRIEF LUKE MAISHMAN SCANDAL

WOULD YOU REVEAL ALL IN THE NAME OF SECURITY? A NEW EU proposal aims to bring ‘x-ray specs’ to airports so that security staff can see flyers in all their glory! The sci-fi like concept is made possible by existing technology: An x-ray scanner creates a picture of the naked body, plus any concealed objects such as guns, from three pictures at different angles.

Images would not be of photo quality, but airport staff might get to know passengers rather better than they’d like!

The Large Hadron Collider was the focus of a media frenzy this summer, but was the press playing on our fears or does the particle accelerator pose a valid threat?

By Ronan Lyne Deputy Science editor THE LARGE Hadron Collider (LHC) began operations on the 10th September amidst media frenzy. It grabbed the public imagination, as fears were raised that the experiments being carried out were so dangerous that they could bring about the end of the world. Obviously, the world has not ended yet, so what was all the fuss about?

The LHC is the product of an international project based at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN), in which 111 countries (excluding Ireland) are participating.

The LHC itself is the world’s largest and highest-energy particle accelerator complex, running for 27km in a circular tunnel under the Jura Mountains at the Swiss/French border. It is designed to collide opposing beams of protons to

The LHC Safety Assessment Group, a group of independent scientists, reported in 2003 that “there is no basis for any concievable threat.” probe the very nature of matter itself, recreating the conditions that existed mere billionths of a second after the birth of the universe. This is done by firing two separate particle beams around the tunnel and colliding them, then using detectors to record the particles that are scattered in all directions.

The Higgs boson (an elusive particle also sometimes referred to as the “God particle”,) which gives everything in the cosmos its mass, is one of the particles that scientists are hoping to detect and record using the LHC. It is currently

hypothetical, but it is predicted to exist by the Standard Model of particle physics. In theory, every other particle in the universe gets its mass from interacting with an allpervading field caused by Higgs bosons.

Experimental observation of this particle will hopefully explain how massless elementary particles can cause matter to have mass – if it exists, it is an essential component of the material world. If the LHC confirms the existence of the Higgs boson, the Standard Model theory could unify everything in the physical world except gravity.

However, most of the attention surrounding the LHC has focused on the safety concerns of several scientists, which were eagerly picked up by the media worldwide. More than one newspaper carried a sensationalist headline along the lines of “If you’re reading this, then the world hasn’t ended!” Otto E. Rössler, a German biochemist, has been one of the experiment’s strongest critics, drawing attention to the possibility of creating micro black holes with assumed exponential growth. He calculated that nothing will happen for at least four years, when two light rays will come out of opposite sides of the Earth due to the formation of a quasar. He said this quasar will destroy the Earth from the inside, causing disasters such as tsunamis and earthquakes, changing the climate completely and eventually wiping out life.

The creation of hypothetical particles called strangelets has been another concern. The contact of a strangelet with a lump of ordinary matter such as the Earth would convert the ordinary matter to ‘strange matter’ - hypothetically, this could convert the Earth into a hot, inert lump of strange matter.

Despite these concerns, the overwhelming response by scientists has been that there is no danger to the Earth by the LHC experiments; rather, it will enhance our understanding of the universe and its components. The LHC Safety Assessment Group (LSAG), a

RESEARCH

NORTH AMERICAN SCIENTISTS INVESTIGATE GAY BEETLES THIS SUMMER scientists in Massachusetts, USA, published findings after scrutinising homosexual activity in beetles. Sarah Lewis and her team were trying to find out if the copulations between male beetles served any evolutionary function. Their finding – that the recipient may accidentally pass on some of his partner’s sperm to a female in a later copulation offers a possible cause for this trait.

SPACE LAUNCH

INDIA SET TO LAND FLAG ON MOON BEFORE EUROPEANS

The Large Hadron Collider at CERN on the France/Switzerland border.

Photo: Basilio Noris

group of independent scientists, reported in 2003 that “there is no basis for any conceivable threat.” One of the most regularly repeated arguments against the

The media portrayal of the LHC experiments has been branded as irresponsible and sensationalist by psychologists doomsday predictions was that collisions of energies higher than those of the LHC have been happening naturally for billions of years – ultra-high-energy cosmic rays impact the Earth’s atmosphere all the time with no apparent hazardous effects.

It has also been noted that even if micro black holes were created they would not be able to accumulate matter in a manner that would pose a threat to the Earth, and they would quickly decay due to Hawking radiation. The creation of strangelets has been dismissed as far-fetched by most scientists - the LHC is less likely to produce these than other ion colliders already in operation with no ill effects.

The media portrayal of the LHC experiments has been branded as irresponsible and sensationalist by psychologists - especially since the death of a 16-year-old Indian girl, who killed herself after being distressed by the coverage on an Indian news channel.

It is a minority of scientists who see the LHC as a danger; most scientists see this as an opportunity to tackle some of the most exciting and fundamental questions about our universe.

What do you get up to at night?

By Luke Maishman Science Editor AS COLLEGE students, we typically suffer a conflict of interests when it comes to sleep. Between puberty and the late twenties, we have a higher sleep requirement than adults or children, and yet we also have more active social lives, which keep us out late before our early morning classes. Sleep is a necessary evil, and something many of us stave off with near-LD50-quantities of caffeine and other stimulants.

But sleep isn’t nearly as boring as we might think. In fact, our minds conduct vital housekeeping while we sleep, such as memory processing. Sleep deprivation has been linked to the onset of obesity, diabetes and reduced immune function.

Thankfully, most of us remain paralysed whilst asleep – our brain’s way of keeping us safe from acting out our dreams. Some

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Tuesday, October 14, 2008

SLEEP TYPES REM MEANS Rapid Eye Movement.

This stage of sleep is when the most memorable dreams happen, but is associated with low muscle activity.

Non-REM sleep (75-80% of sleep time) is when limb movements and other activity occur.

A HORRIFYING industrial accident in 1990 cost Ken Woodward, left, his eyesight, his sense of smell and his taste.

The experience devastated his family, traumatised his colleagues and changed his life forever.

His dedication since then to raising awareness of safety issues and promoting a positive safety culture in industry have won him iternational repute and, in 2006, the OBE for his contribution to workplace safety.

Ken was working at a Coca-Cola Schweppes factory in Kent, England when the accident occurred in November 1990. He was asked at the end of his shift to do the clean ready for the next shift, a

of us, however, are a bit more animated in our sleep. Parasomnias are disruptive sleep-related disorders that can occur during arousals from both REM and nonREM sleep.

Ambien, used to treat insomnia, has been implicated in causing sleep-eating, resulting in one case of a woman gaining 45kg Sleepwalking (somnabulism) is the one with which we’re most familiar.

From Shakespeare to Stephen King, sleepwalking has long been associated with stress and troubled minds. It occurs when individuals exhibit otherwise normal

?

SCIENCE WITH A CONSCIENCE

Compiled by Luke Maishman

process he had never carried out before.

The correct pre-mixed chemicals had run out so he would have to mix them himself. But Ken was prepared to help his boss and make sure the next shift weren’t starting off with a mess.

On mixing the two chemicals an instantanious, violent reaction occurred

physiological activity at an inappropriate time - during sleep. People can perform a variety of activities whilst asleep, from sitting up in bed to more complex behaviours such as cleaning, painting or driving a car. If awoken they are often disoriented and confused by their actions; however, there is no evidence to suggest that waking a sleepwalker is dangerous.

Sleep-eating is another unusual parasomnia. The prescription drug zolpidem [also known as Ambien], used to treat insomnia, has been implicated in causing sleep-eating, resulting in one case of a woman gaining 45kg due to her nightly binges!

Somniloquy refers to talking aloud in one’s sleep, as a result of a motor breakthrough of dream speech. Sleep talking is commonly reported in children and as a side-effect of fever.

There are many websites dedicated to recordings of sleep speech, as it can be

just 18 or so inches from Ken’s face. The blast was so intense that it hit the 70 foot high factory ceiling. Ken’s life was saved by his colleagues who dragged him into a safety shower and held him under the water while he struggled to get out.

The last person Ken ever saw was his friend and manager Grahame Norris.

Coca Cola Schweppes were fined and are estimated to have lost £2.6 million (about 3.3 million euro) in total, resulting from lost production time, compensations and fines. They changed their safety system and introduced their “Zero Accident Behaviour” programme, with Ken as a consultant.

Since then Ken has worked tirelessly to promote positive safety cultures in the workplace across the globe. According to his website even while dealing with the consequences of his own accident and resulting blindness Ken made, in one year alone, “112 flights, 19 overseas trips

comically incoherent and nonsensical.

Somniloquists can also reveal information that they wouldn’t in their waking hours – the Lady Macbeth effect.

But not all the parasomnias are so benign. Consider sexsomnia – the sleep sex disorder. Sufferers engage in a range of sexual activities whilst they sleep, and have no memory on waking. The statistics are patchy, as the condition is understandably under-reported, but it affects far fewer people than sleepwalking itself does. Sexsomniacs can be extremely aggressive and violent in their pursuit of sex, it can destroy relationships, and frequently results in prosecution.

Though usually conducted on partners, sexsomniacs have been known to molest strangers and members of their own family. It is a medical condition – sleep research has shown the same unusual brainwave activity characteristic of other parasomnias, such as sleepwalking.

and 285 presentations to stop others being hurt.” He gives charismatic, moving and inspirational safety presentations to organisations, workplaces and individuals as well as having a DVD presentation pack which is used by many more organisations to promote safety at work.

He has also, while completely blind; learned to fly a plane and a helicopter, learned how to play guitar, flown a plane around the British Isles to raise money for the RNIB, landed a helicopter on Blackpool beach, driven at over 90 mph (145 km/h) round a race-track and presented to over 1400 people in a single training session in Ireland.

I attended one of his safety presentations in Dublin in 2007 and can attest to the excellence of his speeches.

He is a likeable, charismatic and genuine person with a great sense of humour and I will not forget his safety message for some time yet.

LAST WEDNESDAY, 22 October, India successfully launched its first mission to the Moon. The robotic Chandrayaan 1 embarks on a two-year mission. It will orbit the moon while compiling a 3D atlas of its surface, and release the “Moon Impact Probe” (MIP) to descend to the ground. The MIP will plant a flag on the surface, making India the fourth nation to do so.

SURPRISING SPECIES

NEPENTHES RAJAH A CARNIVOROUS plant which supplements its protein intake by trapping and digesting insects and other prey. It produces giant urn-shaped traps, which can hold up to 6 litres of liquid. The plant occasionally catches mammals such as rats and other small vertebrates like frogs.

EGGHEAD OF THE ISSUE

MICHAEL FARADAY BRITISH PHYSICIST Michael Faraday founded the Christmas Lectures at the Royal Institution in London. He discovered electromagnetic induction, invented the electric motor and an early form of the Bunsen burner. He was offered the presidency of the Royal Society, which he turned down twice.

ON THIS DAY (28 OCTOBER) … » IN 1912 Sir Richard Doll was born, who in 1950 became one of the first researchers to link cigarette smoking to lung cancer. In 2004 he published the first research that quantified the damage over a generation, based on a 50-year study of doctors who smoked. » IN 1992 scientists who were sonar mapping Loch Ness discovered a mysterious object. They declined to speculate as to the implications for the fabled “Nessie”.

COMPETITION

WIN A YEAR’S SUBSCRIPTION TO NEW SCIENTIST MAGAZINE TO WIN this great prize, submit around 300 words of your own writing for the Science with a Conscience panel. Articles should describe a person or group in the scientific community who displays an inspiring consideration for ethics or moral concerns.

Rules: Email entries as an attachment to sciencenews@trinitynews.ie. Entries will be judged both on content and journalistic quality.

Applicants must be registered students of Trinity and must not be part of Trinity News’ editorial staff. Entries from students who have not written for Trinity News before will be viewed favourably. Closing date: 12 December, 2008.

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TRINITY NEWS TRINITY NEWS

TRAVEL

Tuesday, October 14, 2008 October 28, 2008

COMPETITION

Backpack to stardom in Bollywood

Surfing barrels in Bundoran Read on for a chance to win a surfing weekend for two SURF’S UP, dude! And our friends at Donegal Adventure Centre in Bundoran are inviting classes, clubs & societies & groups of friends to arrange a beginner surf weekend during the year. The Donegal Adventure Centre is Ireland’s biggest surf school, and they also have very cool hostel accommodation right in the centre of town.

The Adventure Center arranges a bus from Trinity taking you directly to the hostel. You can bring supplies for the weekend, and there’s a Lidl close by! The centre instructors will tell you what pubs and clubs are good for your first night.

On Saturday, you go surfing! The Donegal Adventure Centre provides all the gear you need. Having previously held rounds of the World & European Surfing Championships, Bundoran is undoubtedly Ireland’s best surf spot, boasting large waves and sandy breaks for novices. Expert tuition is on hand too to help perfect your skills.

You don’t have to be super-fit or a super swimmer – beginner lessons take place in white (shallow) water, and there are plenty of lifeguards & coaches around to keep you safe.

If you don’t want to surf, the Adventure Centre has a fantastic ‘Adventure Challenge’. It’s a team event, and includes a crocodile pit, entrapment & zipline.

You can try climbing & abseiling, high ropes, Jacob’s ladder or you can skate the bone yard, with their very own half-pipe.

Alternatively just veg; there nice coffee shops and pubs to relax in.

In the evenings The Chasin’ Bull pub has upcoming gigs including Fred, The Flaws, The Guggenheim Grotto, Red Kid & Dirty Epics.

The sights and smells of India give even hardened backpackers sensory overload. But for something a little different why not try to tread the path to stardom by landing yourself a part in an all-singing, all-dancing Bollywood

By Derek Larney Travel Editor BOLLYWOOD MOVIES conjure up images of exotically dressed Hindi dancers who mime to songs that lament their desire for love and fortune and such images are never too far from the truth. Bollywood, which is a hybrid name coming from Bombay, the former name of the coastal Indian city of Mumbai, is big business. Over 1,200 movies are shot here annually and it has many of the trappings of its Los Angeles cousin, including actresses that wait your table and directors who chat up their waitresses. Last year Bollywood box offices sold over 3.2 billion cinema tickets which marks it on the map as the largest film industry in the world. In comparison Hollywood managed 2.5 billion viewers of its weekend releases.

Back in the founding days of Bollywood most motion pictures were strictly low budget affairs which contained heavy doses of action and gangsters interspersed with some song and dance. The song and dance has remained and nowadays lavish musicals with a romantic storyline are the order of the day. Some films mix this with an action hero who may also cite a few cringing comedy lines on his way to saving the day and bagging the heroine, a bit like an Indian Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Increasingly over the last decade Bollywood has gone global. With an Asian diaspora all over the world and a huge following in neighbouring countries such as Pakistan and Bangladesh the demand for Bollywood films has exploded.

Actresses such as Aishwarya Rai and Preity Zinta are now household names for well over a billion people, whilst another, Shilpa Shetty, is probably best known on these shores for being the target of racial abuse from Jade Goody during Celebrity Big Brother.

Since the global rise of Bollywood there has been more pressure on directors to produce increasingly professional films and this, coupled with unprecedented budgets has led to the film industry going on location to places such as the UK, Canada and Australia. The outdoor

scenes are typically filmed in instantly recognizable locations such as the Sydney Opera House or Westminster Abbey but the indoor scenes are all shot in studios in Mumbai. As a lot of the scripts have some scenes set overseas, the industry has a burgeoning demand for foreign extras, the majority of whom come from India’s backpacker circuit in search of a day of glitz and glamour.

One such traveler, Julie from Shropshire, explains “Within an hour of arriving at the Mumbai train station I was approached on the street by a casting agent who told me there was a shoot the next day and he was on the lookout for twenty girls with blonde hair to dance in a nightclub scene. I jumped at the chance,

BECOME A BOLLYWOOD EXTRA Many hostels in Colaba, the tourist district of Mumbai, have contacts with the local film industry.

Just ask the receptionist, more than likely they can put you in touch with a casting agent.

The Salvation Army hostel on Mereweather Road is especially known as a recruiting ground for film extras. Also try the notice board in Leopold’s Café; it is often full with casting agency advertisements. If you are limited for time try to arrange it before arriving in Mumbai. Email Khan Shaban of Casting Planet on polo_k83@yahoo.com

mainly because it was something different to the bog-standard trip around the local museums”. During the low tourist season casting agents have even been known to travel over ten hours away to the beach resort of Goa in an effort to recruit some westerners to fill in the gaps in large productions.

However it is not necessarily all glitz and glamour, working days are typically eight to ten hours and there can be a lot of sitting around whilst the director decides on the sequence of scenes and how many

The Donegal Adventure Centre offer special discounted rates to Trinity students between November 08 and March 09. Class organisers & clubs and societies should contact Niamh at info@donegaladventurecentre.net.

They can take groups from 8 - 100 people. Visit their website at www. donegaladventurecentre.net

A scene from Bollywood hit Bombay Dreams. people are needed in them, as well as the filming of other scenes. “On the set I played twenty questions with some Dutch guys and a Norwegian girl. After four hours we finally got called for our dance scene. The funny thing was there was no music; it was due to be dubbed in later.

We were all up on stage busting a few moves with not a tune to be heard, it was very surreal and reminded me of a silent disco I was once at in uni. At the end of the scene the director shouted cut and after a bite to eat we were being ferried back to Mumbai city centre in minivans with a promise of an email to let us know when the film would be released”.

To help extras through a long day there are runners on set who bring copious amounts of tea and coffee and a full working day will involve at least one, but generally two meals during which all present can enjoy curries, dhal, naan bread and rice from the buffet. Actors are paid at the end of each days work. The wages won’t make you rich but they are quite good by Indian standards, typically ranging from 400 to 1000 rupees per day, approximately €6 to €15, depending on the production. Movies themselves are made at a startling rate, typically they will be in the cinemas two months after filming which means some lucky travelers

can go along to enjoy their fifteen seconds of fame on the big screen. For those who appear in smaller budget films, it’s straight to the video shop.

Acting in a Bollywood film won’t be your big break, but for those with time on their hands it can give a unique insight into how a motion picture is made and will also serve as a great way of meeting other travelers. Hanging around a film set for hours on end can often get tedious so make sure to bring a good sense of humour and your travel scrabble. In any case, posing as an extra in an exotic scene, surrounded by a backdrop of false ocean and beach is a story for the grandkids.

WIN A SURF TRIP FOR TWO Trinity News has teamed up with the Donegal Adventure Center to offer one lucky reader a prize of a surf weekend for two to Bundoran including two nights accommodation and lessons. To enter just answer this simple question: What is the phone number of the Donegal Adventure Center? Email your answer to travel@trinitynews.ie by 3 November. The winner will be announced in the next edition.

Discovering the delights of Turkey’s largest city Istanbul separates the East from the West, both geographically, religiously and culturally, making this booming city a melting pot to savour

By Derek Larney Travel Editor ISTANBUL IS a city of some 16 million souls, making it one of the largest cities in the world. It is a city that is divided in three by the Bosphorous Strait, which connects the Black Sea with the Mamara Sea in the Mediterranean. Straddling two continents, Istanbul is blessed with miles of beautiful coastline upon which lie thousands of stunning waterfront homes and beaches whilst it also has a convoluted history to match its coastline.

Formerly known as Byzantium and later Constantinople the city was home to the Greek, Roman and Ottoman Empires, all of whom left their mark. Nowadays there are many sides to Istanbul. It is both a modern thriving metropolis which exudes a new confidence and also an ancient backwater that clings to conservative ways. The beauty is in the discovery.

The Sultanahmet area is host to a number of Istanbul’s shining gems. The Hagia Sophia is perhaps one of the greatest examples of Byzantine architecture to be found anywhere on earth. Built in 526AD it is a feat of engineering that stood as the world’s largest building for well over 1,000 years. Underneath its giant dome are dozens of intricate mosaics depicting everything from Alexander the Great to Jesus and Mary, although many were destroyed in the Sack of Constantinople in 1204 AD. Just across from the Hagia Sophia is

the instantly recognisable Sultan Ahmed Mosque, commonly known as the Blue Mosque.

This is undoubtedly one of Islam’s greatest buildings and has a major advantage over others in that non-Muslims are allowed inside, provided long trousers are worn and shoulders are covered. The outside is decorated with six minarets and domes that appear to cascade from one another. Inside there is space for well over 3,000 pilgrims. Adjacent to the Blue Mosque is the Hippodrome where the Romans held chariot races. The obelisks and sculptures of Roman gods from the 4th century still remain.

Another unmissable sight in Istanbul is that of Topkaki Palace which was the seat of Ottoman Sultans for over four hundred years. The palace itself is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site and it is not hard to see why as you stroll through the Imperial Gates. Inside, dozens of buildings make up this regal complex; everything from the stunning collection of war bounty in the Imperial Treasury to the soothing mosaics of the Circumcision room (where young princes went for a snip) is on display. The Imperial Harem is perhaps the highlight of any visit; these were the Sultan’s personal apartments where he and his several wives and concubines were housed. The Harem contains well over one hundred apartments which all face onto their own courtyards.

A delight of Istanbul is its waterways.

TURKEY: GETTING THERE

The Blue Mosque in Istanbul is one of the world’s finest examples of Byzantian architecture. Photo: Derek Larney Getting around the city is quite easy with a choice of metered taxis, trams, buses and a metro but perhaps the most enjoyable way is to take one of the dozens of ferries that ply the Bosphorous every day. A trip up the Bosphorous to the mouth of the Black Sea is well worth the journey, even if only to relax and view the waterside mosques and mansions.

Istanbul comes alive at nighttime.

In the modern Taksim Square area the streets that radiate from the square are full of lively bars, cafes and nightclubs.

Food in the city is far more than doner kebabs; do not leave without trying

Mahmudiye, a chicken dish that is infused with almonds, apricots and honey. The well-known Turkish dessert of baklava, which is made with pistachio nuts, is both delicious and ubiquitous. Fans of seafood will not be disappointed in Istanbul either; swordfish, sea bass and turbot are regularly featured on menus.

For nightly entertainment that is slightly different try to track down a show with some whirling dervishes.

Enquire at the tourist office if there are any on at Monastir Mevlevi. Although there are many whirling dervish shows in Istanbul few are authentic dervishes

that are dancing in a trance, so many can’t whirl for longer than a few minutes before dizziness takes over. The Mevlevi dervishes are from the Sufi religious sect and can whirl for hours on end.

For those who like to shop till they drop there is no better place than the Grand Bazaar.

Hosting over 4,500 shops the this gigantic shopping centre has become a tourist attraction in itself but for those who duck down the less frequented alleyways a small piece of old Istanbul remains.

Traders sell everything from camel skin to beach balls, gold jewellery to replica

TURKISH AIRLINES are the only airline that fly Dublin to Istanbul direct, from €250 return. Another option is to transit Gatwick and go onwards with Easyjet. We found return flights in January for less than €120 by this route. Log onto skyscanner.net Most travelers tend to stay in Sultanahmet district which has many tourist attractions on its doorstep. Dorm beds go from €9 upwards, a double ensuite is from €25. Most hostels have free WiFi and a rooftop restaurant with a view of the Blue Mosque. Be wary though- you may have an excellent view of the Blue Mosque from your bedroom window but that’s not so good when the minarets crank up for the 5.30am call to prayers.

A 30-day tourist visa costs €15.

You do not need a visa in advance; simply purchase it on arrival in the airport before you come to customs. mosque alarm clocks. Just down the road from the Grand Bazaar one can find the Egyptian Bazaar, otherwise known as the Spice Market. Here traders do their best to entice you in with promises of natural Turkish viagra and aphrodisiacs.

Istanbul is a vibrant, up-and-coming city which more and more inter-railers are discovering.

With more than enough to see on a long weekend and a plethora of entertainment, expect to see this city gain in popularity over the coming years.

TRINITY NEWS

SPORT

TRINITY NEWS

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Tuesday, October 14, 2008

October 28, 2008

Giving it a lash: an interview with Big Jack

A BRIEF BIOGRAPHY

After a glittering playing career, Jack Charlton took Ireland to two World Cups, earning himself honourary citizenship and the eternal affections of a nation in the process. Here, he talks to Conor James McKinney about Italia ‘90, that audience with the Pope and a certain Carlsberg ad...

Likes: Football, fishing, Bill Bryson books, Guinness

J

ack Charlton, English and Irish footballing legend. My own memories of Ireland’s World Cup triumphs are a little hazy, but out of curiousity I dug through my childhood relics and unearthed a sort of scrapbook from the time of USA ‘94, filled with photos culled from the Irish Times with little captions scrawled underneath, most of them an enduring testament to the fact that seven year olds say some weird things. While the interviewer was compiling this monument to a misspent youth, the interviewee was establishing himself as the darling of a nation. It’s hard not to feel a little intimidated.

The opulent surroundings of the Westbury don’t exactly settle the nerves.

It’s filled with well-dressed people who have a lot more money and class than your average student journalist, and that’s just the staff. Jack Charlton though, grew up in the North of England, and is wearing a lovely jumper. It’s a pretention-free zone.

“It was great entertainment for an hour and a half… and then the Pope came in”

As I mumble something about Trinity, he politely shows me where I should be putting the dictaphone.

“I got invited to Trinity College last year to receive an honorary thing — I’d already received one from somewhere in Dublin — and I never got back to them”. Ah, Jack. He’s not short of awards and decorations, to be fair: “I’ve got seven or eight doctorates from different universities all over England and Ireland”. He counts them off on his fingers, “Limerick… Dublin… two in Leeds, Newcastle”. It’s gratifying that although the Dublin one was almost certainly UCD, he doesn’t remember the name of the place.

He’s here to promote a DVD, Italia ’90 Revisited, which could be ideal for those of us that weren’t really tuned in at the time. Charlton is most enthuasiastic and at ease when talking football. His passion and pride in what the side achieved in Italy, and again in the United States four years later, is still very much in evidence. “We were actually 8th, or 7th,

in the world, which is incredible.” Clearly, though, he still regards getting there as the major achievement: “For Ireland to qualify, it’s an exceptional thing. Mick did it, I did it, and it’s hopeful that the new manger will do it.”

Postgrads and mature students aside, few of us would have any concrete memories of the heady days of Ireland’s World Cup adventures under Charlton.

As a nation, we’ve gotten a lot richer and a lot more cynical since the early ‘90’s, when the country was still, to put it mildly, a bit crap. It’s hard now to picture the sheer mass euphoria that took hold — hundreds of thousands lined the streets of Dublin to welcome the team home — still less harbour any expectation that it will ever be repeated in this day and age.

For Charlton, however, the memories of Irish pride in their team’s achievements are still fresh: “When we came back from Italy, the pilot took us up O’Connell Street, and he tipped the aeroplane up sideways so that we could see all the crowd waiting below.

We landed at the airport and it took us hours to get into town.”

That must have been amazing, Trinty News ventures, especially for an Englishman with no previous connections to the country now hailing him as a national saviour...?

“It was good, but I went away fishing then.”

Certainly no chance of getting carried away so. It makes sense: he’s an oldfashioned northener, born in a little mining village to the north of Newcastle, where he now lives with his wife of fifty years. A man who, despite having strong family connections with football, could well have seen out his days down in the coal mines, and almost went to a job interview instead of playing the trial match that ultimately gave him his break in soccer, Charlton is about as far removed from our modern-day conceptions of the professional footballer as the old leather balls are from the lightweight, engineered wonders that the Premiership uses nowadays.

“Playing was a job,” he says, and so was management, although you sense he’s alright for a few bob these days, despite seeing out his career in the days before stars started getting weekly salaries that could bail out Fannie Mae. The Ireland job was probably the closest to being a labour of love: after watching a side packed with quality players lose 3-1 to Denmark, Charlton “looked at the team,

Name: John “Jack” Charlton Born: Ashington, Northumberland, May 8, 1935 Playing Career: Leeds United, 1952 - 1974, 773 appearances England, 1965 - 1970, 35 caps Honours: League Cup 1968; FA Cup 1972; Fairs Cup 1968 & 1971; First Division Championship 1969; World Cup 1966 Managment career: Middlesbrough 1973 - 77; Sheffield Wednesday 1977 - 83; Newcastle Utd 1984 - 85; Republic of Ireland 1986 - 1995

Dislikes: Roy Keane

Now 73, Charlton retains his passion for football. Photo: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile and thought ‘they’ve gotta be better than that’...that’s why I applied for the job”.

The vexed question of the tactics he subsequently employed has generated more newsprint than it perhaps deserves, given the relative success of the Charlton era, but it has been pointed out that some extremely talented players were made to play a very basic game plan that didn’t put their abilities to full use. Jack, for the record, says that “the game we played had to be simple”. With international matches occuring quite infrequently, players had to be able to come back from their clubs and “slot back into the groove”. There was no point, he says, in playing a system that players would be unable to remember and adapt to when they were summoned for international duty.

Wherever you stand on that particular controversy, it’s generally accepted that the current crop of Irish players aren’t a patch on the Bradys, McGraths and Townsends that Jack had at his disposal.

While full of praise for the new man at the helm, Charlton agrees: “I don’t think

we’ve got enough high quality players, like Mick [McCarthy] had and I had… that’s why it’s important that they follow Mr. Trappatoni’s system.” He’s met the new fella, but although the conversation was naturally heavy on footballing topics, they didn’t discuss the Irish setup – “that’s not my business, it’s his business.”

Many of the high quality players of the Charlton era were, famously, British players with a few Irish skeletons in the family closet. “I got John Aldridge and Ray Houghton on the same day. I went to see John Aldridge play and he said ‘what about him over there?’… I called Ray over and I said, ‘Ray, you got any Irish connections?’ He said, ‘Yeah, my father’s from Donegal’. It was easier to get him qualified than it was John Aldridge!” He and his assistant, Maurice Setters, spent half their time scouting for potential talent, although not all them made an instant impact: “I went and saw Andy Townsend about three times before I made my mind up.”

“Me and our Robert were the only ones that had a football because our uncles played professional football… that was how we got a game”

Jack Charlton sunning himself during one of Ireland’s training sessions at USA ‘94. Photo: David Maher/Sportsfile

H

e’s reluctant to be drawn on the propects for young people in the game nowadays, with big clubs head-hunting foreign players barely into their teens, but it’s clear he’s not overly impressed with the brave new world. He dislikes the academy system, saying that the elite training they provide is no substitute for learning at the coalface. “You’ve gotta get stuck in,” he says bluntly. He’s not alone in voicing concern at the number of overseas players in the English game: “sometimes you go to a match, you can’t pronounce one fucking name… they don’t put in any of the kids that are coming through.”

He also sees a decline in kids kicking a ball about of a Saturday. During his own childhood in the aftermath of World War II he would partake in marathon, 15 and 20 a side games of football with the local kids: “Me and our Robert [Jack’s brother, Sir Bobby Charlton] were the only ones that had a football because our uncles played professional football… that was how we got a game.” There was admittedly little in the way of alternative pursuits: “We had nothing else. Now we’ve got television, we’ve got computers, we’ve got everything in the world.”

After leaving the Ireland job in 1995, surely he was tempted to take on another post in the game? “I do regret it sometimes when I’m at a football game, I think ‘I should have been involved’.” He had offers, but claims to have had so much on his plate, he “never got any opportunity

“I don’t think we’ve got enough high quality players, like Mick had and I had… that’s why it’s important that they follow Mr. Trappatoni’s system” to take a job.” This has continued since: in high demand as a speaker, much of his time is now spent travelling around the British Isles attending various events. He loves it.

What does he do with himself these days when he’s not on the after-dinner circuit? Gardening, apparently: if tomatoes are your thing (there must be someone out there), note that “the little yellow ones” have the Jack Charlton seal of approval. “I’ve got three or four houses, you see, and every time I go I’ve got to cut the grass, tidy the place up, chop off branches and things.” Ah. A sort of enforced hobby, then, although you suspect that John Terry or Rio Ferdinand probably pay someone to cut the grass in front of their various mansions.

He also endorses Carlsberg; if you haven’t seen the ad, go and YouTube it now. Unless you’re a rampaging feminist, that is. Filmed in Barcelona, Charlton says that while the filming was a bit of fun, “I kept falling out with people… there were so many little things to do, myself and Gilesy had to keep reminding them that we’re not fucking actors.”

He must have told the story about falling asleep during the team’s audience with the Pope hundreds of times, but still chuckles heartily at the end after relating it to Trinity News. Being received into the Vatican, seeing the Sistine Chapel and the rest of it was incredible, but: “it was great entertainment for an hour and a half… and then the Pope came in.” Not in the same league as Jack as entertaining company, old JP, but then few people are.

READER COMPETITION Trinity News, in its boundless generosity, has two copies of Italia ‘90 Revisited to give away to TCD students or staff. We want to hear your funniest, most entertaining or most touching memory of Italia ’90 or USA ’94. Whether you were over at one of the games, watching on TV, or pretending your dolls were the Irish soccer team, write no more than 150 words on your experience during Ireland’s World Cup under Jack, and email them to collegesport@trinitynews. ie. The deadline for entries is Friday 31st October at 5pm.

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TRINITY NEWS TRINITY NEWS

SPORT

Tuesday, October 14, 2008 October 28, 2008

Sailors party up a storm at varsity event

By Lisa Tait TRINITY STUDENTS attended the first intervarsity sailing event of the year over the weekend of 18th/19th October. The event, which was organised by Trinity Sailing Club, was held in Terryglass, Lough Derg. Sailors arrived on Friday in a frenzy to get the event started with a bang. That they did: the night began with the highly anticipated fresher initiations which included beer bongs, drinking games and freshers taped to one another (which proved extremely tricky come toilet time!).

The older team members were very impressed with the level of determination of our young comrades. Some pairs even took this camaraderie to a new and, dare I say, more intimate level.

On Saturday morning, we awoke to perfect sailing conditions. With Trinity graduate John Downey as Race Officer, racing began quickly and efficiently. The First team got off to a great start with three back to back wins. This was enough to ensure their place in the quarter final the following day. The fourth race against DIT , who are shaping up to be our biggest rivals this year, proved the most tricky.

Despite a good start, we were narrowly

defeated.

The seconds, thirds and fourths all sailed extremely well, with the fifths leading their division and the fourths coming a close second.

After racing and many much-needed power naps, people began to assemble their costumes for the Bad Taste party.

The controversial costumes, though unrepeatable in print, were as varied and imaginative as the debauchery that ensued.

Unfortunately, due to gale force winds, Sunday’s racing had to be cancelled and so we all packed up our boats and bid Terryglass adieu for what is likely to be

Rough seas at Terryglass brought proceedings to a premature end

Still no joy for hockey ladies SCORE

DULHC BRAY

1 2

By Conor James McKinney College Sport Editor EXACT STATISTICS for Leinster hockey fixtures are hard to come by, so we can only speculate as to how many frees were given against Trinity’s First XI in Santry last week. An informed guess would be something in the region of 17,000. Luck just wasn’t on their side, as the ladies now find themselves adrift at the bottom of the league.

If any side was likely to give Trinity a break following three straight defeats, it was Bray, still on the hunt for their first ever win in Division 1 hockey. To their credit, they didn’t look it. Early pressure down the right had Trinity on the back foot, and when the home side were in possession, the gravitational pull of their own goal seemed to overpower their attacking instincts. When they did manage to earn a short corner, it went a-begging – Maebh Horan’s shot blocked by the first defender – and it was too much to hope that Bray would return the favour when an identical opportunity presented itself to the Wicklow side. A powerful effort gave Jess Elliot in goal no chance, and left Trinity with an uphill struggle.

Bray’s passing was much slicker, and time and again they were able to storm through the midfield with ease. Trinity’s best options looked to be in the forwards, where Ireland U18 international Irene Gorman was looking lively alongside Danielle Costigan, who took more than her fair share of knocks in trying to discomfit a robust Bray defence. In midfield, where Trinity struggled throughout, Rachel Scott nonetheless put in an eye-catching display, with the Junior Freshman playing some of the best hockey on the park.

The ladies just couldn’t cope with Bray in midfield. Photo: Steven Findlater Despite their tireless running, Trinity looked unsettled at the back – another short corner went against them, this time with no result, and Bray were generally able to counter-attack with ease. Gorman, however, was a woman on a mission as she went looking for the equaliser; one exploratory dart down the left to take a Costigan pass won a corner, and a subsequent lung-busting run in search of Horan’s through ball forced the Bray goalie into her first intervention of the afternoon.

After a prolonged period mired in the left-hand corner – much to the frustration of the bench – Horan got free again with a superbly timed run and fired in a cross.

Experience won out in the ensuing melee, as Costigan managed to squeeze through an equaliser on the stroke of half-time.

Coach Mandy Holloway had plenty to say during the break, mostly to do with the merits of moving the ball quicker.

Her charges seemed to take this on board during a bright opening period of the second half. Managing to retain possession for longer despite the best efforts of the umpires, chances came thick and fast; after being denied once in a one-on-one with the Bray right back, Gorman came back for more, sweeping through the Bray ranks like a particularly destructive Caribbean hurricane, only to be cut off by another superb tackle within spitting distance of the goal. Costigan also went close, but as she wound up the ball was robbed from under her nose at the last possible moment.

It was their failure to convert any of these opportunites that ultimately cost the home side, as the umpire was by now living out a Santa Claus fantasy in the amount of frees he gave. Frustration told, and the cooler heads of Bray were able to take advantage: where the occasional Trinity free strokes were hovered up by

MEN’S HOCKEY

AIL DIVISION 2

LEINSTER DIVISION 2

Team Ballynahinch Bruff Malone Belfast Harlequins Lansdowne UCC Bective Rangers Dublin University Greystones Old Crescent Highfield Clonakilty DLSP Wanderers Thomond Instonians

18/10/08 25/10/08

Greystones DUFC

P 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4

W 4 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 0 0

23 13

27 13

D 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

L 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 3 3 3 4 4

F 113 68 52 50 93 89 79 66 64 51 39 44 64 36 40 45

A 33 38 38 47 56 62 66 58 59 53 64 46 72 89 87 125

TB 2 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0

LB 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 0 1 1 1 2 0

Pts 18 14 13 13 12 12 12 11 10 9 8 6 6 5 2 0

Pos 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

Team Skerries Suttonians Clontarf Bray Dublin University Avoca Weston Naas Navan

THE TEAM J. Elliot, C. Costigan, C. Murphy, V. Buckley, M. Horan, N.Douglas, R. Scott, C. Heardon (c), K. O’Byrne, I. Gorman, D. Costigan, L. Small, C. Coakley, A. Coyle, C. Boyle.

P 3 3 2 2 2 3 2 2 3

W 3 2 2 2 1 1 0 0 0

L 0 1 0 0 1 2 2 2 2

F 17 12 10 8 12 6 0 1 1

A 5 4 2 3 7 7 9 13 17

Pts 9 6 6 6 3 3 0 0 0

Skerries now top the division, and the First XI face a tough away fixture at Clontarf next week as they bid to stay in touch.

18/10/08 25/10/08

DUHC Clontarf

4

v

7

Skerries DUHC

DUFC Bective Rangers

LADIES’ RUGBY

LEINSTER WOMEN’S LEAGUE v v

St. Mary’s Trinity

LADIES’ SQUASH

MEN’S SQUASH

1ST DIVISION

PREMIER DIVISION

Pos 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

Team Aer Lingus A Trinity A Fitzwilliam B Total Fitness MH Mt. Pleasant B Westwood B

P 2 2 2 2 2 2

Pts 21 20 17 14 12 9

05/11/08 Mt. Pleasant A v Trinity A

Pos 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

Team Westwood A Sutton A Fitzwilliam B Fitzwilliam A Mt. Pleasant A Curragh A Old Belvedere A Trinity A

05/11/08 Trinity A v

IT’S RARE to see hundreds of people thrown into a gigantic sports hall to compete in a tournament in a sport they’ve never seen before. But this is what happened on the 18th of October in DCU’s annual beginner’s tournament, Whacking Day. Designed to introduce people to the sport of Ultimate Frisbee, the tournament’s structure is simple: 5-aside with each team playing several short matches throughout the day, the tournament eventually ending in a party.

Eager to maintain the club’s success, DUUFC were looking for a strong showing from their beginner players, and they were not disappointed. The new players on both the men’s and women’s teams showed a quick grasp of the game and managed some impressive results.

The men’s team started out against the University of Limerick. UL began as the more structured and purposeful team and scored an initial flurry of points but as the game wore on the tide began to turn in favour of Trinity, who ended up claiming the victory.

The women’s team, coached by Ireland internationals Heather Barry and Finola Shannon, also started slow but picked up the intensity as the games wore on. The big game to watch was the UCD game where they put in a terrific performance.

Caitlin Reily showed an early ability to beat her marker, and Tara Monaghan fell easily into place at the back of the pitch as a handler (the equivalent of a quarterback) and started to direct the flow of events.

The atmosphere began to change as the day wore on. The games everyone wanted to see were those played between the big three - Trinity, UCD and DCU. Each college wanted their new players to perform well and stake an early claim to

Team Swords Celtic Templeogue United DUAFC Brendanville FC Dunboyne AFC Garda FC Clonee United Confey FC Greenhills AFC Boyne Rovers Loughshinny United Rush Athletic Verona FC Rathcoole Boys DUAFC

P 7 7 5 5 8 6 3 8 9 6 6 7 8 7

W 6 4 4 4 3 3 3 2 1 1 1 1 1 0

5

1

D 6 4 4 4 3 3 3 2 1 1 1 1 1 2

L 0 1 0 0 4 2 0 3 4 2 3 4 6 5

F 22 22 22 12 22 13 10 8 17 8 10 17 12 8

A 10 7 5 6 20 15 4 9 26 7 17 25 30 22

Pts 19 14 13 13 10 10 9 9 7 6 5 5 4 2

Rush Athletic

TENNIS

FLOODLIGHT LEAGUE

LEINSTER DIVISION 1

Trinity Old Belvedere

Pos 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

18/10/08

LADIES’ HOCKEY

02/11/08 09/11/08

By Daragh Gleeson

SAT MAJOR 1D D 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

P 3 3 3 2 3 3 3 2

Pts 46 41 41 26 24 20 17 3

Curragh A

Pos 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Team Railway Union Loreto Pembroke Hermes UCD Glenanne Old Alexandra Bray Trinity College Corinthian

P 3 4 4 4 3 4 4 4 4 4

W 3 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 0 0

D 0 2 2 1 1 2 1 1 0 0

L 0 0 0 1 0 1 2 2 4 4

F 9 12 8 13 6 4 5 4 4 1

A 0 2 5 6 2 6 8 8 14 15

Pts 9 8 8 7 7 5 4 4 0 0

Following consecutive 1-2 reverses to UCD and Bray, Trinity still have no league points to report, although they move off the bottom of the table by dint of superior goal difference to Corinthians, who lost 0-8 to Loreto on Saturday.

16/10/08 18/10/08 01/11/08 08/11/08

UCD Trinity College Old Alexandra Glennane

2 1

v v

1 2

Trinity College Bray Trinity College Trinity College

28/10/08 29/10/08 03/11/08 04/11/08

Templeogue 1 Malahide 2 Trinity 1 Trinity 1

v v v v

Trinity 1 (ladies) Trinity 1 (men) Templeogue 2 (men) Sutton 1 (ladies)

ULTIMATE FRISBEE

CORK OPEN Takes place over the first weekend in November GAELIC FOOTBALL

INTERVARSITY LEAGUE 29/10/08

St. Pat’s

For more information, please check out www.sailing.tcdlife.ie

Beginners get to grips with Whacking Day

MEN’S SOCCER

MEN’S RUGBY

Pos 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

the nearest opposition player, Bray were consistently able to find players in space.

They set about getting a winner, and only Christine Boyle’s brave block prevented them from converting a short corner around 55 minutes in. While she shook off the blow to play on, teammate Katie O’Byrne compounded a poor afternoon by picking up a yellow card for consistently failing to retreat from Bray free strokes. With her out of the picture, Bray ran riot. Elliot kept out one short corner, but shoddy passing in defence led to another, which was deflected in to give Bray a lead which, in truth, they deserved.

With ten minutes remaining, Bray continued to dominate possession and territory. Scott alone seemed able to hold her own in midfield, and it was her break that won a series of short corners near the end to howls of approval from the crowd. Trinity failed to show sufficient nous to put them away, however, and Caroline Murphy’s horrible miscue was sadly typical of the skills’ deficit.

There was only time for Gorman to take another tilt at the windmill and Holloway to start arguing with the umpire before the whistle signalled the end of another disappointing afternoon for the ladies.

This performance, only occasionally played with sufficient pace and urgency, will need to be improved upon if Trinity are to avoid the drop this year. Although captain and coach were keen to point out the marked improvement in performances and results since the 2-8 loss to Hermes, it remains to be seen whether they can improve fast enough.

a long time!

Despite the poor weather conditions, the event shows a promising future for Trinity Sailing. We have very strong teams from firsts to fifths, and this year we are sure to benefit greatly from the teaching of our newly appointed coach Emma Lovegrove.

On behalf of the club, I would like to take this opportunity to thank DUCAC and Trinity Association and Trust for all their support in helping us to secure a brand new set of fireflies this year.

v

Trinity

HURLING

INTERVARSITY LEAGUE ROUND 3 04/11/08: Trinity v Carlow IT

the Intervarsity title.

DCU’s team seemed a tournament favourite. Both highly athletic and welltrained, they seemed unstoppable - until they met Trinity. The team put in a huge performance, Andrew Hogg catching countless scores and leaving his marker for dead, Paul Myler using his height to good advantage on defence and Ciaran Parkin chasing down every loose pass.

In the end Trinity eked out a win, a promising sign in the campaign to retain their varsity title.

The women’s team in the meantime were putting in solid performances against UL and NUIG. They began to develop a highly fluid level of play towards the end of both games, stringing together lots of passes to cut up the opponent’s defence and using their speed to good effect.

The final game of the day for the men was against UCD, the team that over the past few years have come to be almost their nemesis. Their beginner team looked strong this year, boasting impressive height and speed, but in the end they were overcome by the performances of the Trinity players, aided as the team were by the late arrival of Derek Dunne.

Hogg again embarrassed the opposition all over the pitch, while Declan Johnston chipped in with some solid defensive play, and the game ended in success.

All in all, it seems to be a promising year for Ultimate Frisbee in Trinity, and for the sport in general. Some predict that the sport will be bigger than football and rugby in ten years, although these people are widely discredited, and often laughed at. As tournaments in Cork and Edinburgh loom on the horizon, and the club struggles to deal with the injury to one of its best players - Keith Coleman the 6’ 5’’ French international, out with a shattered pelvis - such strength in depth as these new players are providing is welcome, and will stand Trinity in good strength for years to come.

DUCAC holds AGM THE ANNUAL general meeting of Dublin University Central Athletics Club (DUCAC) took place last Wednesday in the Edmund Burke Theatre.

The following students were elected unopposed as student representatives: Rob O’Kirwan (boxing), John Lavelle (soccer), Tom Heavy (cycling), Niamh Murphy (ladies boat), Rob Swift (boat), Claire McGlynn (harriers and athletics, reelected), Karl McGuickan (GAA), Robbie Woods (squash).

While the officers of the DUCAC executive were all elected or re-elected unopposed – although such was the speed of their nomination and confirmation, the students attending had little opportunity to influence the process had they wished to - a vote was taken for the studentheld position of Honorary Secretary.

Brendan Guildea of the Boat Club was elected ahead of Karl McGuickan, who did not attend the meeting. Dr. Trevor West was confirmed as Chairman, as was Dr. Cyril Smyth as Honorary Treasurer and Mr. John Terry as Senior Honorary Treasurer. Dr. Roger West was deemed elected as vice-chairman. DUCAC is the only capitated body in College that is not run mainly by students.

Also in attendance was Mr. Terry McAuley, Director of Sport, who reported that over 300,000 visits had been made to the new sports centre over the past year. Around two-thirds of the student body made use of the facility, which Mr. McAuley said compared very favourably to usage rates in other universities, although it may be that this was due to once-off visits to see the new facilities. He also noted that Dublin University sports facilities were made available to over 100 external community groups last year, and said that the Department would like to see this increase next year.

TRINITY NEWS

SPORT

TRINITY NEWS

23

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

October 28, 2008

The Commentary Boxx Conor James McKinney

GOING PLACES? BRING YOUR BOOTS, YOU JUST NEVER KNOW

Brian Coyle prepares to make his move, shortly before being held up over the Bective line. Photo: Jessica Pakenham-Money

Bective held to lucky 13 SCORE

DUFC BECTIVE RANGERS

13 13

By James O’Donnell Rugby Correspondant DR. JOHN Hegarty has been to his fair share of games in College Park, but “never on a day as bad as this one”. The Provost was among the spectators clinging grimly to their umbrellas on Saturday as DUFC shared the spoils of a hard-fought contest with Bective Rangers.

The high winds, interpersed every now and then with some rain to break the monotony, were blowing crossfield from the direction of the Ussher, and favoured Trinity in the first half as they played towards the Science end. Richard Brady, slotting in at out-half, made good use of the advantage, pinning Bective back in their own half time and again.

Right wing Chris Jebb had taken over deadball duties, and it was he who opened the scoring with a penalty after strong carries from James Gethings and Andy Wallace forced Bective into the mistake just outside the 22.

Bective struck back within a few

minutes, though; after three sloppy offsides in a row from Trinity, Cathal Connolly levelled matters with a wellstruck effort from a similar range.

Wallace, lively throughout from full back, was at the centre of things for DUFC as they created a series of chances in the opening half hour. First he played a clever kick through on the right for Scott LaValla to chase, obliging to Bective to run the ball out. From the resulting lineout, the Trinity pack worked the maul with Munster-like efficiency, resisting all attempts to pull it down, but Brian Coyle was held up at the finish.

Backchat from Bective gave Trinity another go; Wallace sailed through the line but his attempted off-load from the deck was too hasty and the chance was lost.

It took another individual’s genius to force the score. Eddie Hamilton’s tussle for the number 9 shirt with Bryan Johnston got even more interesting as the former Methody man, fresh from scoring the winning try at Dr. Hickey Park, sniped through the centre and emerged unscathed. A simple pass to Wallace in support gave Trinity a deserved 8-3 lead, though Jebb couldn’t convert.

Bective’s win over Lansdowne last week showed them to be no slouches,

and they rallied to put Trinity under considerable pressure, particularly in the scrum. The students’ initial dominance was forgotten, and they spent far too much time in their own half, only to be let off the hook on a couple of occasions, as Bective missed one penalty, conceded another for a rouge elbow, and were turned over in the Trinity 22 by Coyle.

Inspired, Trinity broke out: a planned backine move off the lineout tore the Bective line to shreds. They scrambled, but Coyle was there in support to dive over and give Trinity a commanding 13-3 lead.

The two-score margain didn’t survive yet another offside decision against Trinity, but seven points was a reasonable cushion as the teams switched sides after the briefest of rainsoaked huddles.

The kicking battles, a depressing feature of life under the ELVs, raged on inconclusively in the second half. Pat Danahy may not be a winger, as indicated in our last edition, but the American certainly showed good pace in chasing down one seemingly fruitless effort and winning a penalty five metres out.

Incredibly, though, Jebb was confounded by the wind and couldn’t extend the lead.

It was a crucial miss, as the opposition unleased the simple but effective tactic

THE TEAM A. Wallace C. Jebb C. Colclough P. Gillespie C. Murphy R. Brady E. Hamilton T. Goodbody M. Murdoch J. Gethings P. Danahy S. LaValla M. Cantrell S. Young (c) B. Coyle.

Subs: P. McCabe J. Byrne C. McDonnell B. Johnson A. Mathews

of horsing the ball into the air and letting the wind do its worst. Wallace carried one such effort over his own line, and Trinity’s scrum, creaking like the floorboards of a haunted house, leaked what could have been a penalty try, but in Dermot Moloney’s view was only a penalty offence. Val Baynes lost no time in erasing the distinction, however; the big No. 8 muscled his way over, and the conversion made it 13 all.

Solid defensive work from Trinity kept them in the game. Their captain led by example; Young’s typically energetic performance was marred only by the occasional handling error going forward, though he was also rather lucky to escape sanction for a hit on Connolly performed with the ball out of sight and mind.

His pack, now mud-coloured, pushed themselves hard, but they needed luck to see the game out: three penalties came and went with no result for Bective, and Connolly was desperately unlucky to see a drop-goal come off the upright late on. As Dr. Hegarty, rugby pundit extraordinaire, put it, “Bective had everything going for them” towards the end – DUFC will be satisfied with their point, and be downright contented to see themselves bang in the middle of Division 2 as the AIL goes into recess for the next month.

Rifle club find their range

By Eleanor Mollett

Eleanor Mollett shooting smallbore at Bisley.

Photo: DURC

DUBLIN UNIVERSITY Rifle Club (DURC) is open again for shooting after the summer. So far we have seen some very promising first-time shooters, and we would like to encourage anyone interested, especially those who have never shot before, to come down and give it a go. Our noticeboard in front arch provides information on how to find us.

We offer both smallbore and air rifle at our range on campus every week night.

The first match of this year’s air rifle season was held on Sunday 12th October at Wilkinstown Target Shooting Club.

We did well considering many of our shooters were unable to practice over the summer holidays, with Mike Dunne coming second overall and first in class B in the men’s match, Lorcan O’Carroll coming second in class C in the men’s match and Eleanor Mollett coming third in class B in the women’s match.

Despite not managing to get in much training over the summer, club members attended several matches, including two trips to Britain. The first was to the British 50m championships at the Lord Roberts Centre in Bisley. This was the first match of this scale for the shooters who travelled over, and it suitably awed them. Unfortunately no prizes were won, but the team gained valuable knowledge as to the level required for international competition.

The second trip was again to Bisley, this time for their annual meeting. This is a week long series of competitions, mainly held on the 200 yard section of the century range which has over 200 firing points. The number of competitors to this meeting usually numbers around 900.

In comparison, this year’s Irish 25yard championships had its highest turnout in recent years, of 27 competitors. As an added attraction, the accommodation is in tents within the Bisley complex itself, so the ranges are a few minutes walk away, rather than the usual hours drive.

Unfortunately due to time constraints DURC could not make it to the full meeting, so only competed during the weekend, in the weekend aggregate, and the 3 positions championships.

The weekend aggregate comprises of 3 matches over both 50 and 100 yards.

There were somewhat varying conditions, ranging from windless and perfect cloud cover on the first day, to incredibly windy with intermittent rain on the second day. The wind was bad enough to rip one of our targets from its holder, forcing the shooter to abandon the detail and finish the match later. Despite the sometimes difficult conditions, our shooters came away happy with their performance, having won several patches and a small collection of medals. Plans are already underway to bring a larger contingent to the competition next year, and to attempt the entire week’s events.

A small contingent also managed to make it down to Fermoy to shoot in their 50m open. Conor McDermott took 3rd place with 570, and David Franklin took 8th place and first in class D with 552.

With this promising summer season behind us, hopes for the year ahead are very high. Our next major match will see the senior squad heading over to Cardiff for the Welsh nationals. There are plenty of smaller matches closer to home in the next few months however, in which we hope to see some of our newer shooters taking part, and bringing back more trophies for the club.

THE SOCIAL aspect of belonging to a sports club is all-important.

With most, it is at least as vital an element as running oneself into the ground, hitting balls or almost drowning, or what it is your chosen discipline requires. There may be some club lurking in the ether whose members are expected to show up for training, play a weekly fixture, and go home again for a shower and a nice lie down. If there is, most of us don’t want to know about it; the vast majority of Trinity’s clubs are dedicated to carrying on the ceaseless struggle between athleticism and the effects of alcohol. This rather quixotic approach to sporting endeavour is expicable on the basis that in intervarsity sport, most of your opponents are going to be in a similar state, and there is a case to be made that since your college career is probably going to contain a large amount of drinking anyway, you may as well do your best to balance it out with a bit of exercise.

But the benefit to your social life doesn’t stop after you trudge off these cobbles into what passes for the real world.

Being able to play a sport opens doors for you in just the same way as an academic or vocational skill. In all cases, the ability is universal. This takes on special relevance for students, or those just graduated, for whom travel is a deeply alluring prospect.

Who’d want to be stuck in Ireland for another 60 years, after all?

Last summer, a friend of the Commentary Box No matter where you – let’s call him Tyrone – managed want to go in the world, to avoid Thailand it’s handy to have some AND San Diego, and took himself off kind of talent in the back to South America.

Near the end of his pocket, so as to make travels, as he was life in foreign fields that due to fly home from Buenos Aires bit easier on a certain date, he had to strike out alone across the country for a few days to make it there.

Cut to a village in the middle of Argentina, to the nearest approximation of the Middle of Nowhere. Tyrone has had to get a taxi to take him back to Somewhere. He doesn’t have much Espanyol, and the driver doesn’t have much English. Eventually, they manage to communicate a shard interest: they both love rugby (Ulster and Argentina have that much, if nothing else, in common). And, it slowly emerges, the local team are short a player for their grudge match against the neighbouring village…

It should be said at this juncture that Tyrone’s some player, and it must have been quite a sight to see a single white guy tearing through the luckless opposition on some field in the middle of the South American equivilant of Ballydehob. You’d wonder what the other team were thinking: the only gringo to pass through these parts in years, and he can play outhalf. Just our luck.

It’s a lovely little anecdote, and the point is not that if you’re decent at rugby in Argentina your teammates will do their best to get you laid after the game (although that happened as Sport breaks down well). It’s that sport breaks down barriers barriers of culture, of culture, language language and ethnicity. and ethnicity.

Granted, it’s not a perfect aspect of human affairs; few things can survive our species’ remarkable capacity for importing our prejudices into our pleasures. Even today, certain sports are used to bolster class divisions and divide people, rather than unite them. The religious and social implications of playing certain British sports (which are still disproportionately strong in this university), although nowhere near as big an issue as in the past, are still recognisable. The GAA is still secondarily a political organisation, particularly in Northern Ireland. Going beyond these shores, the Olympic games have always and no doubt will be always used as another battleground in the exulted squabblings of nations.

However, it is readily apparent that even the most noble institutions can be corrupted by prolonged contact with humanity; any of the myriad of unspeakable things done in the name of organised religion would suffice to prove that point.

The misuse of a sport is not, as it were, its own fault. It is people that infect sport, not the other way around.

So when done properly, sport is one of the great levellers.

No matter where you want to go in the world, it’s handy to have some kind of talent in the back pocket, so as to make life in foreign fields that bit easier. That’s probably a good incentive to finish your degree and all that jazz, but going beyond the little detail of how to earn your living, having some ability in what one might call the extracurriculars is almost as important if you are to survive abroad. Musical talent, serious gambling or establishing oneself as a reliable source for popular drugs are all tried and tested ways of integrating, but sport is probably the one social pasttime that transcends all boundaries.

And that, perhaps, will provide some incentive to stick with it, as autumn fades into the benign but unrelenting ordeal that is the Irish winter. While this column has previously argued that anyone can and should play sport, no matter what their ability or fitness level, it certainly helps to be able to stroll along to the local club and mesmerise everyone with your ability. If in doubt, stick to those countries that are the geopolitical equivilant of the fat kid with asthma that always gets picked last. India, say, or Mexico, where the locals all tend to be pretty small and just a little bit crap.

At this point, with the column descending into crude and unrepentant racial stereotyping, it may be worth reiterating that submissions to the Commentary Box are welcome from anyone with an interest in sport in Trinity, or college sport in general.

THE RIFLE CLUB SET THEIR SIGHTS ON GLORY

THE BIG INTERVIEW WITH BIG JACK

SPORT

The former Ireland manager talks football, gardening and the Pope

TRINITY NEWS Tuesday, October 28, 2008

MATCH STATS SCORE

DUAFC DCU

4 0

DATE

15 OCTOBER VENUE

COLLEGE PARK REFEREE

GREGORY MCGIBNEY TEAM

Trinity captain Evin O’Reilly rises highest to head home a Chris Allen cross. Photo: Ger Dunne

DUAFC blitz northside rivals Soccer boys come out with all guns blazing at College Park as dominant performance is too much for hapless DCU side

By Niall Walsh DUAFC BEGAN their Colleges and Universities League campaign with a game against DCU in College Park last Wednesday afternoon. This season Trinity have been placed in the Premier Division East A, in a group consisting of DCU, DIT and Colaiste Ide. The two top placed teams in this group will then playoff against the top two from the Premier Division East B for the chance to play in the quarter finals. Judging on their performance in their opening game, Trinity’s footballers will be confident they can progress to the business end of the competition.

Trinity signaled their intent from the outset with midfielder Chris Allen picking

up the ball from the tip off and running straight at the DCU defence. This set the tone for a first half that would see DCU pinned back in their own half for large periods.

It wasn’t long until Trinity found the breakthrough they were looking for. Chris Allen, on ten minutes, won a free kick on the left side of the box. As the DCU defence attempted to organize themselves Allen himself curled in a pinpoint cross which Evin O’Reilly headed superbly into the top right hand corner of the net.

Trinity then had to reshuffle their back line midway into the half as centre back John Lavelle went down with a hamstring strain. He was replaced by Colin Hyland, himself just back from injury.

Hyland had to get up to the quick tempo of the game straight away as DCU focused

their search for an equalizer through their pacy striker, Oliver Zamardi. However it wasn’t too long before DU doubled their advantage. DCU scrambled clear a corner and the ball broke to Trinity’s full back Michael Storan, 35 yards out from goal.

He quickly steadied himself and fired a speculative cross cum shot back into the area.

To his delight the ball curled over stranded goalkeeper Ronan McGann and into the top left hand corner for his first goal of the season. The DCU midfield were finding it difficult to contain their Trinity counterparts, with the midfield diamond of O’Reilly, Allen, Guerin and Ryan bossing the centre of the park.

On the half hour mark the home side were three to the good. Another slick passing move ended in Evin O’Reilly playing in Niall Walsh with a clever through ball. The Trinity striker beat his man with a quick turn of pace before coolly slotting the ball under the legs of the onrushing goalkeeper. Walsh should have put the game to bed moments later, missing a gilt edged chance from five

yards after a sublime piece of skill and cross by Lawlor on the right wing.

Trinity were almost made to pay for their profligacy in front of goal just before the half time whistle as DCU swept up the pitch and a perfectly weighted cross was delivered into the Trinity box. The crowd breathed a sigh of relief when Zamardi completely scuffed his header when he should have at the very least hit the target.

After the break DCU came out with all guns blazing, intent to show that Trinity weren’t the only team in this game.

Trinity weathered this early onslaught however, with centrebacks Conor Molloy and Hyland determined to keep a clean sheet. Goalkeeper Niall O’Carroll was rarely tested but routinely managed to give his team breathing space with some massive clearances.

Manager Jimmy Cumiskey soon introduced some fresh legs in the form of striker Vinny O’Mahoney and midfielder Joe Kennedy and it was not too long before Trinity put together the move of the game to kill the tie off.

Left full Johnny Cummins picked the ball up in his own half, delivered a ball up the wing and after a Cormac Ryan dummy Allen found himself one on one with the keeper. The diminutive midfielder kept his head and selflessly centered the ball for Ryan to slot home into an empty net.

Trinity could have gone on to score two or three more, with substitute O’Mahony in particular terrifying the tired DCU defence with his electric pace.

In the end, though, the college can be delighted with their start to this year’s campaign. Manager Cumiskey called it the best performance he had seen from a Dublin University team for “years” and long may their current vein of good form continue.

DUAFC followed this win with a 1-1 draw away to Colaiste Ide. The final game of the group will take place on November 5th, with Trinity facing off against DIT. They will need to maintain their unbeaten record in the competition to be sure of qualification - kick-off in College Park is at 2pm.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

NIALL O’CARROLL MICHAEL STORAN JOHNNY CUMMINS CONOR MOLLOY JOHN LAVELLE LUKE GUERIN NIALL WALSH EVIN O’REILLY (C) CHRIS ALLEN CIARAN LAWLOR CORMAC RYAN

SUBSTITUTES

V. O’MAHONEY J. KENNEDY C. HYLAND F. MULLINS M .SPELTZ MAN OF THE MATCH

CHRIS ALLEN The Trinity midfielder reveled in the free role given him to him today and the DCU defenders will be having nightmares about him for weeks to come. Playing at the top of a midfield diamond it seemed that Allen was involved in almost every Trinity attack. His close control and vision split the DCU defence open time and time again and the only negative was that he couldn’t cap his performance off with a goal. A class act though and a key player for Trinity this season.

HOCKEY

Men’s team at the wrong end of thrilling contest SCORE

DUHC SKERRIES

4 7

By Conor James McKinney College Sport Editor THE MEN’S First XI at least went out with a bang against Skerries, with one of the most spectacular implosions ever seen at Santry. Despite the scoreline, this was a match that DUHC really, really should have won.

Captain Jonny Orr, speaking before the game, had no doubts that Skerries would be a tougher sell than Navan the week before, and this prediction was borne out in an evenly balanced opening period. Stuart Cinnamond’s pace up front was the main source of joy for

Trinity, complimented by another lively display by Andy Gray in midfield. The two combined to win an early short corner — Pelow’s howls of rage at the umpire’s initial hesitation possibly a factor — but Glavey failed to find the target, leaving rumours of a spectacular celebratory routine unconfirmed. Skerries, for their part, had a couple of chances down Ian Gorman’s wing, and another from a series of free strokes through the middle, but the centre backs were, for the time being, solid.

It was left to Trinity to start the goalfest, then: Gray mugged his opponent and passed forward for Cinnamond, who played for the short corner again, and got it. Glavey passed the conch this time around: a neat lay-off to Daire Coady allowed the defender to make it 1-0.

With Trinity starting to take a stranglehold on the game, it all seemed

to be going to plan. Another passing move saw Cinnamond set up Gray for a chance he was unlucky to miss, and while Skerries had admirable individual skills they were unable to replicate Trinity’s team passing tactics.

They could, however, shut them down: the paradigm began to shift around the twenty minute mark. Aengus Stanley was caught in possession and allowed Skerries a toehold in the Trinity half. Jolley saved the resulting chance, and got down twice to block a short corner effort, but conceded a penalty stoke while using the back of his stick in the midst of another set of heroics. Remarkably, he kept out the penalty as well, so it was something of a sucker punch when Stanley again coughed up possession and Skerries kept their composure to equalise.

It was a mark of what an end-to-end game it had become that, while Jolley’s

hand was still stinging from gloving away another Skerries chance, Trinity had taken the lead: Glavey’s long free in was improbably deflected into the net by Orr. No sooner had the cheers died down than Skerries had equalised, Ali McMahon pulling off a sublime reverse stick finish despite the attentions of Coady. A short corner for wayward Trinity feet followed, and this went straight in to make it 2-3.

Slightly shell-shocked, Trinity stumbled towards halftime and had the good fortune to see one of the northsiders sent to the bin for a nasty trip.

Trinity took advantage in the early stages of the second half, creating a couple of opportunities which they were unable to convert; Hewitt took the ball away from Gray’s open side in the circle to miss one clear chance, and Coady could not find the net after a Glavey short corner had rebounded off a luckless defender’s

hand. It was left to substitute Andrew Beverland to level matters, turning in a direct ball in from the ever-reliable Brian Cleere.

Once again the celebrations were cut short; Glavey uncharacteristically lost possession in midfield, and a chronically undermanned defence was breached with criminal ease. “Remember we’re f**king defenders” was the cry from a chastened back four.

Trinity pushed, and despite Glavey looking tired enjoyed most of the possession and territory for a time.

Skerries continued to look dangerous on the break, but conceded yet again as a longrange Gorman effort came off Beverland and trickled in. At 4-4, it looked all to play for, but the defensive frailties hadn’t been resolved. Skerries came straight back and pulled ahead once more, McMahon’s shot looping over Jolley. Orr and Glavey lost

their cool, and when Coady joined the back-chat brigade the umpire awarded a short corner, which was duly tucked away by Alan Early for 4-6. Their rhythm and composure completely shot, Trinity crumbled: Hewitt was the culprit this time as McMahon grabbed his fourth of the day. There’s a lot for Pelow & co. to work on, then, ahead of intervarsities in Kilkenny this week.

THE TEAM A. Jolley, B. Cleere, D. Coady, A. Stanley, I. Gorman, B. Hewitt, B. Glavey, A. Gray , J. Orr (c), S. Cinnamond, C. Tyrrell.

Subs: N. Odlum, H. Butler, A. Beverland, T. Humphries, S. McKechnie.