Trinity News

TRINITY REMEMBERS THE FALLEN POPPY DAY MEMORIAL NEWS 5

AN UNBIASED EYE TRINITY’S ART COLLECTION GETS LOANED OUT

EYES ON THE PRIZE

RUDDY HELL, IT’S ARMANDO IANNUCCI FEATURES 10

CRASH BANG WALLOP

Two

PATRICK PRENDERGAST OPINION 16

TRINITY NEWS Est 1953

Funding cuts cause widespread distress  Difficulty financing Masters programmes  Number of students too high in sectors  Morale has plummetted, say staff Caitriona Murphy College News Editor

HEADS OF Schools and Departments have labelled funding cuts “crippling”, “dire”, “woeful” and “inadequate” in a survey carried out by Trinity News last week. The survey aimed to assess the current funding situation in Schools and Departments, and to identify the

Lock-out in Halls

effects of funding cuts. Trinity News agreed to respect the anonymity of respondents where requested.

The survey identified several key issues in funding. Respondents highlighted widespread difficulty in developing Masters and postgraduate programmes due to lack of funding, inabilities to invest or upgrade equipment, module cuts and “taking

on more students than is compatible with good pedagogy”.

The moratorium on hiring has prevented the replacement of staff who have left or retired. Staff that remain have been assigned additional teaching hours as a result, whilst in other departments, modules have been cancelled, resulting in fewer choices for Junior and Senior Sophister students.

The lack of choice also means that tutorial groups have now become much bigger. The survey found that several departments feel that there are now too many students to support in courses, and a lack of administration

and secretarial staff has left a huge burden on lecturers.

Many administration staff have been working evenings and weekends “We are treading water and hoping we do not sink.” – Prof Peter Simons to meet the demand. Peter Simons of the Philosophy Department said: “We are unable to plan decently for the future excellence. We are treading water and hoping we do not sink”.

Continued on page 2 

The aftermath of the march: USI claims victory as the Government states that registration fee will not double

Reg. fee will not rise to €3000 USI President now under fire TCD SU back USI

Caitriona Murphy College News Editor

A GATE from Trinity Hall to Temple Road has been closed by College between the hours of 9:30pm and 6:00am, following a complaint made by a resident of the area.

The resident wrote a letter at the end of September to Gardaí and sent a copy to the Provost, complaining of excessive noise and disruption between 10pm and midnight. College responded last week by closing the gate for the entire night, cutting off access to the Luas from that area of Halls.

Commenting on the issue, the Communications Office stated that College “takes its responsibility to its neighbours very seriously” and “took

Caitriona Murphy, Aine Pennello College News Editor and Staff Reporter

THE THREAT to double the registration fee has subsided, following protests led by students this month.In an article published in the Irish Times following the student marches, a rise to €3000 was ruled “off the agenda”.

Paul Gogarty, Green Party education spokesman, stated that “An increase to €3000, or even €2500, is untenable” – Paul Gogarty

“In quite a few cases residents have risked injury while trying to climb over the gate.”

– Plunkett McCullagh the initiative to discuss the issues raised by the Temple Road resident with the Gardaí as part of its ongoing relationship with the Community Gardaí in the area.” The gate is now closed on a “pilot” basis until it can be assessed whether this lowers the noise.

Trinity News did not receive a response from the Communications Office to its question about whether any student representatives had been consulted before this decision was made.

Students were informed of the situation through an email sent out by Warden Brendan Tangney.

Plunkett McCullagh, President of the Halls JCR, stated that “it is a poor solution to the problem”. He said that while the JCR is aware that there is noise, it is caused by “a small number of individuals”.

He said that the closure of the gate has proven to be a huge inconvenience and may be dangerous. “In quite a few cases residents have risked injury while trying to climb over the gate. We have advised residents against trying to climb over the gate, but the danger remains there while the gate is locked”.

He stressed that College should find an alternative solution to the issue.

The moratorium also prevents promotions, meaning junior staff and part-time staff have no prospect of advancement. This has left a feeling of “low morale”. Departments also claim they are relying too heavily on adjunct professors. Simons said that “we are unduly relying on adjunct teaching.

This cannot be good for the students or the department in the long term”.

Funding cuts have also prevented the replacement of outdated equipment and the purchase of new materials, an issue that has seriously affected the

“This year, in the light of the huge economic pressures we face, a rise is unavoidable. But talk of an increase to €3000, or even €2500, is untenable and would have an immediate negative Continued on page 3 

SS Students protest outside the Dáil on 3 November. Photo by Aoife Crowley

Female staff face “glass ceiling” for promotions Kate Palmer Deputy Editor

THE GENDER and Promotions Report reveals that women continue to be underrepresented in College and struggle to be promoted.

Published by the Equality Office, the report surveyed female staff members, who comprise 53 percent of all Trinity’s employees.

From 2006 to 2007, 18 percent of female staff occupied a Head of School position, compared to 82 percent of men. Only 20 percent of Fellows of the College are women. None of the College Deans are female.

The Equality Office concluded, “The survey indicates women are significantly underrepresented in College senior positions and decisionmaking positions, with the consequent

loss of women’s input into the future development of the College”.

The Equality Office claim there is a “marked labour segregation in the distribution of staff by gender in different areas and types of employment in College, in particular “It’s clear from the report that positive efforts will need to be made” – Sen. Ivana Bacik in administrative and other support grades”.

Despite this, the general profile of staff and students in College has been steadily evolving. Half the College staff is currently female, as is almost two thirds of the student population.

Speaking to Trinity News, Senator

Ivana Bacik agreed that there is a “glass ceiling” which female academics face during their career. Bacik commented, “I would agree with the report’s findings on barriers and obstacles facing women. It’s clear from the report that positive efforts will need to be made.”

The report also issued a number of recommendations for implementation

by College. These were taken from a study by Professor Barbara Wright, Women Academics and Promotion (2002).

Out of a total of 12 recommendations, seven have been either fully or partially implemented.

In response to the recommendations, Bacik says: “I do welcome them, especially the concept of setting targets. But I think more follow-up work will need to be done to specify what those targets will be, and to

ensure the allocation of responsibility to individual College officers and committees.”

Among the recommendations that have been carried out is an extension of the College crèche opening hours from 8:00 to 18:00 during the academic year.

A recruitment monitoring program has also been set in place, along with a revision of maternity procedures by which staff now keep State maternity benefit in addition to a “top-up” by the College.

Two pilot mentoring schemes are currently being rolled out as part of the recommendations. The Early Career Mentoring Initiative is a new support service aimed at new and recently appointed academics in their first three years of service. A Momentum

Vol 57

Continued on page 2 

Issue 4

23 November, 2010

2 NEWS THIS FORTNIGHT THEY SAID “I will hold public fora at the beginning of December to further discuss the situation” Provost John Hegarty in an email to staff and students on how to address the financial situation.

NUMEROLOGY

89.7% Percentage of students opposed to fees, according to a TN poll

€202,118 Salary of the Provost John Hegarty

111

Number of Trinity graduates who died in WWII

3-1

The score of the DCUFC v DUAFC match, in favour of DCU

10c

The amount per purchase of a bottle of Aquaid that is donated to charity

“Today’s students will become the taxpayers of tomorrow, and ultimately the saviours of Ireland’s crumbling economy.”

USI promoting the Tell your TD campaign

COMPILED BY CAITRIONA MURPHY

“Everyone was afraid another bomb was going to explode.”

Akin, a hotel valet caught up in the terrorist attacks in Taksim Square, Turkey

“[He is a] disgrace to the office of President of the USI and its members”

A Facebook Group set up against President of the USI, Gary Redmond

“I was very close to tears, it’s terrible, it’s really terrible”.

Kevin Myers, journalist, on researching the Irish dead of World War Two

“It is inevitable that cuts will have an impact on morale” Continued from front page 

Science departments. One department reported that staff now have to buy professional equipment out of their own payslip. One Science department stressed that fees in some form would have to return, as it is the only immediate solution to the funding problem. One of the Engineering departments responded that they had a deficit last year equivalent to 60 percent of their total budget.

The cuts have also seriously affected the development of Masters and postgraduate programmes. This has particularly affected the Engineering School and its the development of the five-year Masters degree programme.

This programme will become an essential requirement for all students graduating from 2013 onwards, but lack of funding has seriously hampered the course. In the Department of Medicine there is no funding for postgraduates as “neither the HSE or HEA will accept

them as part of their responsibility”.

Staff have also been discouraged from academic research through a decrease in sabbatical years, research awards and the amount of international guest lectures coming to the College. A diminution in scholarly contact owning to lack of funds for supporting visits and public lectures by international researchers was also raised as a cause for concern.

Dr Martin J. Burke, Head of the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering commented that cuts “cannot be allowed to continue if it is truly the intention of the Government that the graduates of the next four to five years are to be highly trained individuals who are going to renew economic growth in the country.”

The as yet unpublished Hunt Report seems to agree that current funding for universities is entirely inadequate. In the Times Higher Education Magazine, Hannah Fearne writes that a draft form of the Hunt Report calls the

universities’ funding model “unfit for purpose”.

She states that in the draft Hunt recommends the reintroduction of tuition fees. “It is recommended that arrangements for widening the resource base of higher education institutions over the term of this strategy will include a new form of direct student cost contribution. This could be based on an upfront fee and deferred payment system” the draft states.

“I am extremely appreciative of the efforts being made by staff in all areas.” – Provost John Hegarty Following queries by Trinity News to the Provost, an email was sent to staff and students last week, commenting on the financial situation that Trinity currently faces.

The Provost announced that he had

presented several plans to the Board at its monthly meeting on 10 November, predicting a worse-case and best-case scenario ranging from 20 percent to 10 percent cuts in the core grant.

The Provost wrote: “The impact of the financial situation on the quality of teaching and the overall student experience is a cause of grave concern and I am extremely appreciative of the efforts being made by staff in all areas of the College to cope with the reduced staff numbers already taking place over the last two years.” He stressed that as the College does not have a deficit, it is in a “relatively strong position to address the current funding crisis”.

In his comments he acknowledged concerns about morale, saying: “It is inevitable that personal cuts in pay, the current lack of promotional opportunities, the prospect of increased student charges as well as the adverse nature of much public commentary will have an impact on the morale of our College community.”

40,000

Trinity undergraduates take the prize

The number of students who attended the Dublin protest, according to USI

Mairead Cremins

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CLARIFICATION In our previous issue, the article “Communication is key to the future” by Mark Davidson omitted the fact that the event was held by the Philosophical Society.

freedoms and workers in libertarian and authoritarian states. “I primarily used Ireland as a model of a libertarian state, and China as a model of an authoritarian state,” he said.

Staff Reporter

AT A recent ceremony in the Royal Irish Academy, guest of honour, Mary Robinson, presented eight Trinity students with gold medals.

The Undergraduate Awards, open to undergraduate students from Irish universities, are designed to reward students for new and inspiring ideas.

The winners were selected through an academic review process where their work was rated by external and international judging panels.

Speaking at the event Mary Robinson said: “The Undergraduate awards aim to identify and reward innovators at a crucial stage of their development, encouraging them to become pioneers in their chosen path.” 50 students from TCD were highly commended and shortlisted, making up 29 percent of the shortlisted candidates. One winner, Donncha Conway wrote an essay in which he compared and analysed the

Submissions for the 2011 Undergraduate Awards are now open and corrected coursework of 2.1 standard or higher can be entered on the website: www.undergraduateawards.com.

WW Trinity’s winners Aidan O’Flannagain – Astronomy and Astrophysics; Donncha Conway – Law; Fionnuala Barrett – English Language & Literature; Daniel Philbin Bowman – Business; John Murtagh – Environmental & Geosciences; Chris Blair – Mathematical Studies; Siobhan Moriarty – Philosophical Studies; Barry O’Donovan – Economics

Union praise students for protest Mark Davidson Staff Reporter

THE PROTEST against the Government’s proposals to increase the registration charge was the dominant topic at the second SU Council.

The sabbatical officers congratulated the entire Council in helping to make it possible, highlighting the key role that the USI played in coordinating the march.

The SU President, Nikolai TrigoubRotnem, hailed the demonstration as “the biggest, most vocal display in the SU campaign to get Government to backtrack on education cuts,” and President Gary Redmond of USI numbered the protesters at over 40,000.

However, Council member Max Sullivan suggested that the SU were dismissive of alternative opinions regarding fees, and claimed that the attitude towards reasoned debate on this issue needed to change. Sullivan further charged USI with having

an insular, unreasonable attitude to economics and politics, and questioned whether third-level education should be considered a “right”, maintained at “The biggest, most vocal display in the SU campaign to get Government to backtrack” Nikolai Trigoub-Rotnem the expense of primary and secondary education, public healthcare and pensions.

He went on to suggest that the SU were conforming to the USI line, and challenged them to suggest alternative solutions to the economic crisis.

Sullivan’s proposed motion to hold a referendum on Trinity’s USI affiliation was summarily rejected by the Council, expressing a vote of confidence for the position of the SU officers and the USI. In his council report, TrigoubRotnem stated the Student Support Bill should be passed in the Dáil by Christmas, and that plans to provide

toilets for the 24-hour reading room are in place.

Both of these topics were also mentioned by Jen Fox, the Education Officer, who confirmed that the Library service would be provided on Sunday during Hilary and Trinity terms.

Tom Lowe, the SU Communications Officer, announced that the funding model for the University Times had been restructured in a bid to save fund, and Steph Fleming, the Welfare Officer, noted that work on the access pathway across Front Square was set to begin.

The upcoming RAG and Mental Health weeks were flagged and Darragh Genockey, Ents Officer, urged students to start brainstorming to come up with novel fundraising ideas for the post-Christmas charity drive.

Olwen Reine also spoke to the Council. Reine spoke about the Student2Student mentoring program and in advance of Mental Health week, encouraged students to familiarise themselves with the many support services offered within College.

Gender bias in College staff Continued from front page 

Programme was also set up, which the College Communications Office say is, “designed to support academics, more established in their careers, who wish to enhance their academic potential through mentoring.”

A number of recommendations have yet to be implemented. It was stated in the 2009 report that the day nursery should include school vacations and after-school care in its remit, although the Equality Office were awaiting response from the day nursery. In addition, a recommendation for the Research Committee to finalise its policy on sabbaticals has not yet resulted in a formalised policy.

In response College commented that “All recommendations contained in earlier reports are to be considered in the context of the current employment framework which imposes limitations on promotions and recruitment.”

TRINITY NEWS

3 news@trinitynews.ie

PUZZLES COMPILED BY CONOR O’TOOLE THIS WEEK we’ve got the world’s oldest rivalry portrayed through the world’s oldest game. For a cut out and keep pdf of the chess pieces, go to our website www.trinitynews.ie

TRINITY’S SIDE

DAVID O’DOHERTY Award-winning comedian SAMUEL BECKETT Nobel Prize winning writer JONATHAN SWIFT Cleric and author of Gulliver’s Travels JOHN HEGARTY Current Provost, enjoys toast

Aftermath of the USI march Continued from front page 

impact on student participation and on struggling families already hit in other ways.We believe that €2000 is a more realistic figure. And even that will hurt.”

The change followed a protest held by students in Dublin on November 3.

USI claimed that up to 40,000 students attended the march, whilst other sources including Gardaí quoted a more conservative figure of 25,000.

Trinity students gathered in Front Square wearing face paint, USI t-shirts and carrying posters and banners.

Students followed SU President Nikolai Trigoub-Rotnem out the Front Gate and up Parnell Street where they met with thousands more students from across the country. The march then proceded to the Dáil, escorted

by Garda on horseback. At the Dáil students listened to speakers from the USI and songs were played.

A splinter group from the march proceded to the Department of Finance where scenes of violence between students and Gardai took place.

USI President Gary Redmond later stressed that “this anti-social behaviour was completely separate from USI’s protest.” His comments led several college SUs to debate their affiliation to the USI. One Facebook group stated that Redmond was “a disgrace to the office of President of the USI and its members”. At the TCDSU Council meeting last week, TrigoubRotnem defended the USI, saying that “if you see Gary Redmond or Cónán Ó Broin walking across campus wearing suits, it’s because they’re walking to the Dáil to defend students’ interests.”

Trigoub-Rotnem confirmed that no Trinity students had been injured during the march.

THE QUEEN The Queen JAMES USSHER Predicted creation occured on 23 October 4004 BC OSCAR WILDE Writer and statue JOE DUFFY Broad broadcaster

UCD’S SIDE

DARA O BRIAIN Comedian & television presenter JAMES JOYCE Novelist and poet, best known for

Ulysses DESMOND CONNELL Primate of Ireland HUGH R. BRADY President of UCD, has no sense of smell MAEVE BINCHY Novelist best known for Circle ofFriends DIARMUID MARTIN Primate of Ireland JAMES JOYCE Novelist and poet, best known for Ulysses RYAN TUBRIDY Slim Broadcaster

Any takers? Students auctioned off to raise money for Vincent de Paul Society Kalle Korpela & Meadhbh McHugh Contributing Reporter & Deputy College News Editor

VINCENT DE Paul’s infamous slave auction kicked things off for the Society’s annual awareness-raising week. The event featured many naked bodies, and the audience were sprayed liberally with cola by members of the Ski Club.

One minor incident occured at the event when Trinity American footballer Rob McDowell slipped on a wet surface whilst attempting to perform a backflip at the auction.

He suffered a minor concussion and was out of training for a week. The incident shouldn’t affect his chances of selection for the World team, for which he is shortlisted.

VDP raised ¤400 over the course of the week, and the society’s main fundraising event, the “Big Chrimbo Panto” started its run last night.

President Stephen Denham said that they hope to entice an audience of 900 to 1200 to the panto, Beauty and the Beast, over its two-day run.

There are 50 children involved, as well as 20 adults with learning disabilites, 20 actors and 20 students backstage.

The charity organises more than 20 different activities weekly aimed at helping impoverished children and adults in many different ways, including homework clubs in primary schools, redecorating dilapidated flats, and soup runs to help the homeless.

Trinity News spoke with VDP veteran and activities coordinator Louisa Miller to find out about student involvement in the society.

“Everyone is busy, but we all have an hour to give”. The society has over 500 active volunteers.

SS Clockwise from above: VDP activity leader Jonathan Moran struts his stuff; Food and Drink’s girls get messy; the Ski Society bare all. Photos by Nicola O Dwyer

When asked about the fundraising targets set for this week, Miller stated that the services are expensive to run and need funds to be maintained, but the real target is raising people’s awareness, which

has been met “thanks to the efforts to all those involved”.

VDP also held a flashdance at the Pav last Friday to promote the panto, which is on tonight at 7:30pm in the O’Reilly Theatre, Belvedere.

Students remain opposed to fees Trinity academic wins the Medal of Puskin in the face of IMF bailout Caitriona Murphy College News Editor

A POLL conducted by Trinity News has shown that Trinity students are still heavily opposed to fees, as the IMF prepares to intervene in Ireland.

The poll of 200 students showed that 89.7 percent of students remain opposed to the introduction of full fees up to €10,000. 65 percent of these remained in opposition even if it meant their course resources and materials were drastically reduced, with many commenting that this has already occurred.

Students stressed that for many, the introduction of full fees would force them to drop out of College, or prevent their siblings from ever attending.

Whilst many claimed that they would support fees if a proper means test and grant system came into play, in the present economic situation grants could only be minimal with existing systems already being cut. Anne-Maria McCarthy, an SS English Literature student said: “If they bring in fees, the infrastructure to enable it to be means tested will inevitably be a long process, brought in too late. What will happen to that generation of students? Caught

23 November, 2010

in the midst of bureaucracy – will their futures be the price to pay for red tape?”

Prof Frank Barry, Chair of International Business and Economic Development in College, said that while he welcomed the possibility of means testing, he warned that it may be manipulated. “I’d have little problem “Means testing used to be roundly abused when it operated e.g. in the 1970s” – Prof Frank Barry with introducing means- t e s t e d full fees in the current crisis, but means testing used to be roundly abused when it operated e.g. in the 1970s’.

Notably, large number of students, 62 percent, said they would welcome the introduction of a loan system, similar to that in the UK, in order to pay fees. Michelle Hanley, JS Art History and Sociology, commented: ‘‘I think they should be introduced to those not already in college as long as the grant system and student loans were still available for those who need it so it doesn’t become a class situtation’.

Barry said that a system similar

to the Australian model, which has already been looked into by the Irish Government, works quite well. The Australian and UK systems ensure that students only start repaying their loans when they have an income that can support repayments.

When questioned on whether Trinity would welcome a loan system and the introduction of fees, College stated, “Due to the financial challenges faced by the university in the current economic circumstances all options of sources of funding are being considered.

“As you are aware the Provost along with the heads of university through the IUA have called for the re-introduction of fees to meet the shortfall in funding of the core grant provided by the Government to the university sector. To date, however, a formal position, has not been taken by the College through the Board in relation to the re-introduction of fees.”

With the IMF currently inspecting the Irish accounts, education stands at a very real risk of suffering major cuts. After this months’ protest the registration is still set to rise, a fact that 63.4 percent of students are strongly opposed to.

Conor Dempsey Staff Reporter

PROFESSOR SARAH Smyth, Head of the School of Languages, Literatures and Cultural Studies, was awarded a Medal of Pushkin by Presidential Decree from Russian President Dmitri Medvedev on 4 November.

The Medals are awarded annually to no more than ten individuals for promotion of the Russian language and culture. They are generally awarded to writers, academics and others directly involved in Russian language and culture abroad.

This year the medals were presented at a ceremony in the old throne hall at the Kremlin along with the Award of Friendship.

The Medal is often used, according to Smyth, as a diplomatic gesture.

This year the three other recipients were from Transcaucasian regions previously part of the Soviet Union, including South Ossetia.

The inclusion of an Irish academic in such a group may seem unusual, but Professor Smyth notes that there has been a shift in Irish-Russian relations recently.

Irish business people have been

showing an interest in tapping the potential market that Russia represents. Both President McAleese and Bono have recently visited Medvedev. Smyth has heard that Brian Cowen may be planning a visit in the near future.

The award ceremony took place in the old throne hall, which Smyth described as “just gold”, adding the experience was like “being on a set”.

The award ceremony was rehearsed to perfection and the guests all felt at ease according to Smyth. The atmosphere she described as relaxed, the hosts “welcoming, friendly and attentive”.

Smyth acknowledged the lack of media attention on Russian affairs apart from at the highest political level, noting that Russia tends to receive either “bad press or no press”. She attributed this common perception in the West to obvious historical factors, pointing out that few Irish or British newspapers have permanent correspondents in Russia. Speaking of the strong divide between literary Russian and “common” Russian she looked forward to the emergence of a Hiberno-Russian and the publication of the first Russian book in Ireland.

4 NEWS SOCIETY NEWS

A GOOD RUN SO FAR AT PLAYERS TGM PLAYERS HELD its TGM last week.

The Chair, Matthew Smyth, stated that the decision to move showings from Monday to Wednesday had been hugely successful, allowing the society to “break even, as opposed to making a crushing, crushing loss.”

It was agreed that six plays of Freshers’ Festival had gone incredibly well, although Smyth apologised for the overbookings which had caused space issues for directors.

Smyth also spoke of his excitement about the “swish” new show relay system that was being installed.

Treasurer Sean Gill then spoke about the decision to record shows for the ongoing digital archive project, stating that it “will be nice to have something to hold on to.”

Festival Co-ordinator Ian Mullins reported that Shakespeare Festival is to go ahead again this year. Last year, it made a profit of €2641.46.

He also said that Players will hold a New Writers Week after Christmas, and later in the year will hold the first Oscar Wilde Festival, in conjunction with the Phil.

A motion for “No Trousers Thursday” was repeatedly shot down by the committee.

Aoife Crowley

€10,000 to commemorate Provost in paint Meadhbh McHugh Deputy College News Editor

COLLEGE HAS commissioned a portrait in oils of the current Provost, Dr John Hegarty, which is expected to be completed to coincide with the departure of the Provost from Office.

Wicklow-based artist Conor Walton has been commissioned to paint the portrait, which will involve five sittings of three hours duration each.

College said, “Commissioning a portrait of every Provost to hang in perpetuity in the College is an important element in maintaining a historical College record through the medium of art. Trinity College Dublin represents a tradition of commissioning and collecting art that is at least 300 years old, with the

earliest known record of the existence of paintings dating to 1710.”

The art collections include representations in painting, print, sculpture, and statuary, with a significant historical focus on portraiture.

The portraits depict figures that were active in, or inspirational to, the University’s development and, according to College, are “important as a commemoration of these people and their achievements. They also form a record of Irish and international painting.”

Walton and the Provost have had three sittings so far and Walton said Hegarty was “a very nice man, generous with his time and committed to getting the job done.” Walton says the plans for the portrait are now in

HUMAN RIGHTS VS BUSINESS RIGHTS AT SYMPOSIUM

Staff Reporter

UCC Cork plays host to Pink Training

POLITICAL SCIENCE

TCD contributes to Peace Research AN INNOVATIVE research project directed by Dr Clionadh Raleigh, lecturer in the Department of Political Science, has been published in the prestigious international Journal of Peace Research.

Dr Raleigh, a political geographer, directed the Armed Conflict Location and Event Dataset (ACLED) project, which tracks local conflict events in 50 countries. The database codes the actions of rebels, militias and governments, specifying the exact location and date of battle events, transfers of military control, headquarter establishment, civilian violence and rioting.

Raleigh started the project in 2005 for her PhD dissertation. “It took quite a while, since it was such an innovative project,” she notes.

30 coders were hired and the current dataset now covers recorded violence in Africa from 1997 to 2010.

The researchers examined incidents of violence on a local level and discovered many new types of conflict.

The findings were then submitted to the Journal of Peace Research . The report can be found online and in the September 2010 issue of the journal.

Una Kelly

Prestigious Alumni honoured with awards Aine Pennello

LGBT

PINK TRAINING took place in Cork last weekend, an event that gives support and advice to members of the LGBT student community. Trinity’s LGBT society sent a delegation of over 30 students along with members of the SU Welfare committee, including the Welfare Officer, Steph Fleming.

The two-day event, held in UCC, featured workshops and talks on coming out and sexual empowerment.

Other workshops for LGBT committee members were held on issues like conflict management and resolution and how to effectively manage an LBGT society.

The students also attended a night out in Cork itself on the Saturday evening. Stephen Keane, Librarian of the LGBT, said the event is primarily about fun and feeling good about being LGBT. “It pumps you up about being comfortable about yourself.”

The event is funded by the USI, the SU and the CSC. Caitriona Murphy

SS Portrait of Adam Loftus (c. 1533-1605), Trinity’s first Provost. His office was a nominal one and he resigned before the first student was admitted in 1594.

Loftus was also the Archbishop of Armagh and in 1581 became the Lord Chancellor of Ireland.

place although not yet executed.

Conor Walton has also painted portraits of Professor Diarmuid Shanley, Dean of the Dental Hospital in 2000, Cardinal Desmond Connell and Lt General James Sreenan, former Chief of staff of the Irish Defence Forces.

The portrait of the current Provost is expected to be hung alongside the other portraits of former Provosts in the ante-room leading to the Board Room of the College.

For security reasons the College’s Provost’s portraits are not on view in public areas but the art tours of the College which the Curator occasionally conducts give staff and students access to them.

The cost of the portrait in oils will be €10,000.

SS Senator Maurice Manning, Dr Patricia Gatling and Prof Colm Kearney who spoke at the inaugral Business School symposium. Photo: Ciaran Gallagher

Ciaran Gallagher Staff Reporter

ON THE day the Chilean miners were winched to safety, the Business School held its inaugural symposium focused on an issue that the miners’ plight had highlighted – the intersection of human rights and business rights. The keynote speaker was Patricia Gatling, Chair of the New York City Commission on Human Rights.

Gatling started off by sharing her personal experiences of what it was like growing up as a black woman during the civil rights movement in America. The “particularly harsh” segregation in her home state of Mississippi has given her

a perspective that “certainly a lot of my contemporaries don’t have, and certainly most New Yorkers do not have.” From her experience both growing up and in New York, enforcing human rights is a gain all round. “Segregation is expensive” she notes. “You have less than 100% percent of the population in the country working towards the goal of sustaining the country in the future economically”.

Gatling finished her talk by giving a few words of wisdom to students. “Take the hard road” is her advice to today’s graduates.

“It’s not easy riding with packs of tigers, but I think ultimately it’s a lot more interesting, and a lot more rewarding.”

NOW IN its fourth year, Trinity College’s annual Alumni Awards were bestowed upon four Trinity alumni at a ceremony and gala dinner held in the Old Dining Hall on November 5.

This years honorees were Dr Patrick Brennan, Viscountess Bridgeman, Dr Martin McAleese and Dr Michael Peirce.

They join the ranks of previous recipients such as RTÉ presenter Aine Lawlor, musician Chris de Burgh and writer William Trevor.

Honoured in the Sciences, Brennan has a Doctorate from Trinity College and holds the title of Distinguished Professor at Colorado State University.

He served as Chairman of the World Health Organisation Programme for Tropical Disease Research and was elected to the American Academy of Microbiology.

Bridgeman established the Bridgeman Art Library in 1972. With branches in New York, Paris and Berlin the Library now represents over 2000 artists, private collections, and galleries. In 1997 she received the European Women of Achievement Award in arts for the Bridgeman Library’s promotion of European culture. She was also named International Business Woman of the Year in 2005.

McAleese, a dentistry graduate, is recognised for his work in politics.

Working alongside his wife, President

McAleese, he has sought to develop greater trust and reconciliation among communities in Northern Ireland.

The Trinity Foundation also recognised McAleese’s involvement in the national competition “Your Country, Your Call”. This competition was established to ask the public to submit proposals to transform the economy through job creation.

Lastly, entrepreneur Peirce studied and taught at the Trinity Engineering School before establishing one of the first campus companies at Trinity College as Senior Lecturer in 1978.

Pierce resigned to become Managing Director of Mentec Limited, an Irish information technology company.

Over the past three decades Peirce has become involved in other Irish technology start-ups such as Parthus, Mentor Capital, Iontas and Vedia.

Each recipient was awarded with a scroll and a personally engraved medal before sitting down to a formal dinner attended by the Provost, other noteworthy alumni and the recipients’ relations, former lecturers and fellow classmates.

Connecting past to present with launch of new Front Gate website Caitriona Murphy College News Editor

THE ALUMNI Office has launched a networking site that allows graduates and former students of to connect with each other. The site, called Front Gate Online, went live this month, and aims to reconnect past students and encourage them to give support to recent graduates and current students.

Alumni are able to create a personal profile on the site, featuring details such as their course, student number, class year and photo. They can also add information such as which societies they were a member of by joining groups, and can communicate with their fellow classmates by posting “class notes”. Former classmates can also communicate via a “blind” email, which allows them to send an email whilst keeping their address private.

Alumni can also register for all Alumni events from their profle, and make an online donation to the Alumni office if they wish to do so.

The site also features an enhanced element which current students can benefit from, called the Career Network. Alumni creating a profile can opt to share their career and business details. Current and past students will then be able to search the online database based on career and area of speciality, and then contact corresponding alumni for information.

The feature will allow students to make contact with people in the business world, for example, who have the common connection of having attended Trinity. John Dillon, Director of the Alumni Office, commented that in the current employment market, connections are everything.

“It’s not all about a boys’ club but connecting with people.” he said.

Access to the Career Network will start in January after a launch event which Dillon hopes will be open to current students as well as alumni.

The idea for the site began two and a half years ago, when all alumni records and documents were still on paper.

The office decided to take a “modern approach to dealing with alumni”, and the idea of the site began to form.

Every service is now available online, making it far easier for ‘It’s not all about a boys’ club but connecting with people” – John Dillon, Director of Alumni Office alumni to remain in contact with the University. The site is not intended to replace Facebook or LinkedIn, but to act as a forum for students and alumni to interact. Dillon commented that alumni have a strong affinity to the college and want to support it, both financially and in an advisory role.

As a result, interest in the site has already been large, with 2500 alumni already creating a profile since the site’s launch and 80,000 page views accumulated so far. One in six of the newly registered users have opted into the Careers Network service. Dillion

points out that this is without any marketing of the Careers Network, and he sees these figures as a good sign for when promotion of the feature begins.

Though designed by the Alumni Office, the site was created in a collaborative effort between the Alumni Office and College services, including the Registrar, IS Services, the Vice-Provost’s office and the Secretary’s Office. A third party, Harris Connect, were brought in to host the website.

The site was funded by the Alumni Office, who receive money from the Trinity Foundation annual administration support fee. Dillon stated that the cost of the site was minimal and it was “justified based on the service”.

Provost John Hegarty welcomed the launch, saying that “We’re delighted to be able to offer this online service.

With over 90,000 alumni worldwide, it’s important they have viable means of keeping connected with the College and each other.”

TRINITY NEWS

5 news@trinitynews.ie

Titanic explorer shares research with DUSAC Laura Nolan Contributing Reporter

THE SECOND of a series of talks run by the DU Sub-Aqua Club was given this week by Rory Golden. Golden’s talk on Wednesday 17 was entitled “The Search for Titanic” and focused on how the wreck was originally located and the early trips to it.

Golden is well-known on the Dublin diving scene and owns Flagship Scuba, one of Dublin’s largest diving shops.

During the late 1980s he befriended researcher Ralph White, who had recently located the wreck of the Titanic. Golden has since dived to the

wreck of the Titanic twice.

Golden spoke of the difficult process by which the wreck was found. The Titanic lies in over three kilometres of water, making conventional depthsounding techniques useless in locating her.

As she sank before the introduction of GPS positioning and because of the time it takes for an object to sink in such deep water her precise location was unknown until 1985.

Golden explained the technique used to locate it, which involved using a sidescan sonar device to detect magnetic anomalies at the seabed. An assembly consisting of a very powerful

flash and a camera was then dropped at each likely location which would take a photo when it reached the bottom.

The device would then be recovered to the surface and the photo inspected.

It took months to eventually find the wreck.

Golden also talked about the equipment required to dive to the Titanic wreck. The wreck lies at such a depth that it is not possible to reach with conventional scuba gear.

Small submersibles, which are essentially two-man submarines, are used. Each trip takes 15 hours, with seven to eight hours on the wreck and the rest devoted to descent and ascent.

The submersibles are fitted with lights, cameras and claws for picking up items. There are only a handful of submersibles in the world capable of diving to the Titanic, one is French and two belong to a Russian research vessel.

Golden showed photos of many artefacts retrieved from the wreck and told a number of anecdotes about his experiences on the research vessels and in the submersibles.

He mentioned a potentially dangerous moment when the sub lost power while at the wreck. Luckily this was because the Russian driver of the submersible had knocked a plug out

Trinity remembers the fallen Aine Pennello Staff Reporter

TURN ON any British network channel last fortnight and you would have seen red poppies pinned to the lapels of nearly every news anchor and reporter, politician and passer-by. Channel 4 news presenter Jon Snow, however, has expressed his preference to wear the poppy in private in retaliation against what he terms “poppy fascism”.

“They died that we might be free to wear a poppy whenever we wish,” Snow blogged.

In an effort to bring the issue of the poppy emblem in Ireland to light, the French Department held their third annual Remembrance Day conference on Friday, November 18.

Discussing this year’s theme of “resistance and memorialisation in relation to Ireland, France, Holland, Great Britain and the Channel Islands”, were organisers Dr Sarah Alyn Stacey and Dr Gerald Morgan, former member of the French Resistance Pierre-Yves Canu, Irish Times journalist Kevin Myers, historian George Busby, Dr Gavin Hughes and Professors Jonathan Trigg, Gilly Carr and Yvonne McEwen.

“Southern Ireland and the Liberation of France”, a book edited by Morgan and Hughes, lists 111 Trinity graduates currently known to have died fighting in World War Two. “Here at Trinity people have been “Loss has to be acknowledged socially, traditionally, economically, politically” – Prof. McEwen unable to stand up and talk about our Second World War dead for over sixty years,” said Morgan who also expressed shame that College had not already erected a memorial in their honour.

In response to her efforts to organise an official commemoration, Alyn Stacey said she received a letter from the Provost advising her to “leave it for academic study”. The letter has since

with his foot.

The talk was well-attended, by a mixture of both DUSAC members and interested people from outside College.

A collection was held for the RNLI charity, which runs the Irish lifeboat service, and ¤140 was raised for the cause.

The final talk in the series is scheduled for December 1 in the Science Gallery.

Dr Tom Doyle of UCC will give a talk entitled “Beauty and the Beast: Understanding Jellyfish in the Irish Sea”. The talk is free and all are welcome, but booking is essential through the Science Gallery’s website.

Inauguration for Professor Florides Conor Demspey Staff Reporter

SS Remembrance Poppies represent the flowers which grew in Flanders fields during World War One

been reprinted in “Southern Ireland and the Liberation of France”.

“What a roll call of forgetfulness and neglect,” said Morgan, who also said he was dismayed that “not a word” had been uttered of “the Trinity dead of 1939 to 1945”.

Irish journalist Kevin Myers recogised the Irish World War Two dead by giving an obituary list of the 200-plus Irish RAF bomber command soldiers killed, “George Atkinson of Blackrock was co-pilot of a bomber that collided with another bomber on take-off. Though his family could have repatriated his body to Ireland, he is buried in England. Charles Webster from Monaghan was rear gunner in June 1940 in an early bombing raid on Germany in which he was killed.

Sergeant Donald Morrissey from Clontarf – his plane was simply lost without trace during the Battle of Britain…”

Commended by McEwen for his speech, Myers commented on the

emotional difficulties of carrying out his research. “I was very close to tears,” he said. “It’s terrible, it’s really terrible”.

McEwen, also an in-depth researcher of Ireland’s war victims, presented College last year with a leather-bound roll of honour of the then 7500 Irish-born men and women known to have died in the armed forces during World War Two. Following the media coverage of the event, McEwen received over 200 emails that night from Irish citizens asking if a relative’s name was on the list or if it could be added.

“I could not believe what was in front of my eyes,” recalled McEwen who continued to be inundated with emails for months following. “In fact, I still get them,” she said. With further collaboration and research, McEwen’s roll of honour now records up to 9100 names.

McEwen, the only conference attendee to wear a poppy, insisted there was much more to be done to

memorialise the 9100 men and women.

“My mother died last week,” she revealed. “I buried her on Monday and we had a body to grieve over. But of the 9100 here, there were very few bodies to grieve over,” she said. “In the absence of a body you would expect a memorial, but we still don’t have that.

Loss has to have a meaning. Loss has to be acknowledged socially, traditionally, economically, politically”.

While the installment of headstones on the unmarked war graves at Glasnevin cemetery and Margaret Ritchie’s move to become the first SDLP leader to wear the poppy on Remembrance Day illustrate a change in how we commemorate the Irish World War dead, Morgan agreed with McEwen’s judgement. “I think in this book,” he said, “we have our first memorial of the Trinity dead”.

“Southern Ireland and the French Liberation” is scheduled to be published in 2011.

PROFESSOR PETROS Florides was inaugurated as a Pro-Chancellor of the University at the Provost’s House on November 4. He joins five other distinguished members of the College community in the role.

As Pro-Chancellor Professor Florides may deputise for Chancellor Mary Robinson but the most important and frequent role of a Pro-Chancellor is to officiate at Commencements, the degreeconferring ceremonies of the College.

Professor Florides noted at his inauguration that these ceremonies are amongst “the most solemn public functions of the University” and that “the strong bond that always existed between me and my students, and my sincere and deep empathy with them, will enable me to enhance this experience and make it a memorable one”.

Professor Florides gained his BSc in Mathematics from the University of London in 1958 and his PhD in General Relativity and Cosmology from the same university two years late. He completed his PhD under the supervision of the renowned astronomer and mathematician Sir W. H. McCrea. In 1960 Professor Florides carried out research in relativity at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies where he worked with Professor J. L. Synge, nephew of the playwright J. M. Synge. Professor Florides cites Synge as the figure who drew him to Dublin in the first place. He worked closely with Synge as a lecturer and Professor in Trinity’s School of Mathematics.

In 1992 , he established the J. L. Synge Public Lectures and the J. L. Synge Prize in Mathematics in honour of Professor Synge.

Professor Florides was also Warden of Trinity Hall from 1989 to 1996 during which time he helped to stop moves to sell Halls. He was invited in 2005 by the Royal Society of London to write a biography of Professor Synge. This was published in 2008.

Students look to Europe for intern opportunities Mairead Cremins Staff Reporter

ANDREA PAPPIN, Executive Director of European Movement Ireland, was in College on Tuesday 16 and Wednesday 17 November to talk to undergraduates and graduates about the career and internship opportunities available to them in Europe.

Part of European Movement’s “Grad Jobs in Europe” campaign, the career talk focused on informing students about the internships and graduate positions available both within and outside of the European Institutions.

“When Irish people go to Brussels we do extraordinarily well” she said.

23 November, 2010

When applying for a “stage” in Europe, Pappin hoped the second language requirement would not put people off.

She urged people not to “underestimate the value of your Leaving Certificate French.”

The Secretary General of the European Commission is the most senior civil servant in the Commission and two out of five Secretary Generals have been Irish, including the current holder of the position, Catherine Day. According to Pappin, this is testament to how much Irish people are respected in Europe.

She said that “Ireland is seen as a broker, it comes from the work we did on the Northern Ireland agreement and the constitutional negotiation that

SS Irish and Eu flags fly together.

Photo: Reuters

was involved.” She added: “It is not underestimated and Irish people are well regarded as a result.”

More than anything else, European

Movement Ireland is working hard to help graduates overcome the biggest barrier to succeeding in Europe – confidence.

There are four avenues in which one can obtain a stage: the academic route, the non-institutional route, applying to one of the institutions or applying to one of the many agencies in the EU that are sometimes overlooked.

She also discussed the steps undergraduates can take while still studying to maximise their chances of obtaining a stage when the time comes to apply. As a former stagiaire herself, Andrea is well-placed to advise students on the ins and outs of the stage system. She said going on an Erasmus year was an invaluable experience that

everyone should avail of.

She also emphasised the point that a phone call is a lot harder to ignore than an e-mail and she said not to be afraid to “ring people and make yourself stand out”.

“Your CV makes you competent but your cover letter makes you human” said Pappin.

She stressed the importance of putting time into your cover letter and making it no longer than one page.

“You don‘t have to be studying law or politics to get a stage,” Pappin said, “there really is a place for everyone”.

For more information on the “Grad Jobs in Europe” campaign, log onto the European Movement Ireland website www.europeanmovement.ie.

6 NATIONAL NEWS nationalnews@trinitynews.ie

Tell Your TD campaign picks up speed Evan Musgrave National News Editor

THE PAST fortnight has seen the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) receive over 25,000 letters through the TellYourTD Campaign.

The nationwide drive urges students and the public to lobby their local TDs to cap the college registration fee at its current level of €1500 and protect the student maintenance grant from cuts.

The campaign, which was developed by the USI and NUI Galway SU, has seen a coordinated effort by the USI and students’ unions following a protest march in Dublin city centre at the beginning of is month.

The march, in which approximately 40,000 students took to the streets, was to demonstrate against the planned cuts to the existing student grant scheme and the Government’s proposal to raise the registration fee for students.

The website, www.tellyourtd.com, allows members of the public to send a letter to their local TDs in order to lobby the Government to prioritise education in the upcoming Budget on December 7. The letters, which can also

be sent to Táinaiste Mary Coughlan, the Minister of Education and Skills, are currently being processed and sent.

The letter contains a brief introduction and a plea to place an immediate cap on the registration fee, to continue the existing grant and income levels until 2011, to continue the current funding levels in the Student Assistance Fund and to develop a National Graduate “We have ramped up our campaign to protect Higher Education and Ireland’s future” Internship Programme in the country.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen had previously said that all areas were being considered for reductions and that no area would be ring-fenced or immune to cuts. Before the student march, the registation fee was expected to double, but the Government has confirmed that this proposal is “off the agenda”. The registration fee is now anticipated to rise by €500-€800.

The USI president Gary Redmond

has applauded the work of all those involved with the campaign so far, stating, “the USI is delighted at the exceptional turn-out of over 40,000 people in its national march last week, and now we have ramped up our campaign to protect higher education and Ireland’s future”.

Redmond said that the USI is “fighting tirelessly to ensure that Higher Education is not seen as an easy target for the Budget 2011.” He stressed the Government’s planned budgetary adjustments “will mean the end of a fair and accessible Higher Education system in Ireland.

It will also serve to stunt the growth and recovery of the Irish economy”.

Peter Mannion, President of NUI Galway Students’ Union reiterated

these concerns, warning that the cuts would “condemn thousands of potential students to look towards emigration or the social

welfare offices rather than third-level education”.

Mannion promoted the use of the TellYourTD campaign as a straightforward vehicle for engaging politically in an effective manner.

He has urged all “students, families and anyone interested to send a personal letter to their TDs stating that education policy will influence how they vote in the next election”, adding “the Tell Your TD campaign allows anyone who believes that education needs to be protected, to have their voices heard in the lead up to the Budget”.

The protest and subsequent police clashes have made Ireland’s student fees a matter of discussion both in Ireland and in the wider European context.

The USI continues to urge students to “highlight the fact that the today’s students will become the taxpayers of tomorrow, and ultimately the saviours of Ireland’s crumbling economy”.

The Union of Students in Ireland can be reached by phone (017099300) in its offices on 3-4 Agnes Road, Crumlin, Dublin 12 or at Facebook and Twitter.

Huge growth in young people seeking debt, employment advice Evan Musgrave National News Editor

THE CONCERNS of Ireland’s recent graduates have mirrored those of their UK counterparts, with Irish citizen’s information sites registering record users.

The Irish site citizensinformation.ie had 3.46 million users last year and more than 30 million page downloads. In the first half of 2010 2.3 million users have visited the site with 14.9 million page downloads.

“If you’ve a problem, the sooner you tackle it, the easier it is to put right.”

In recognition of this, citizensinformation.ie has been named the Most Useful Website in Ireland at the Realex Irish Web Awards 2010. The site won out against 700 nominees at the annual event, for the provision of “comprehensive information on every aspect of living in Ireland, presented clearly, simply and effectively”.

The website covers a wide range of subjects, including employment rights, family and health issues, moving abroad and education.

In the UK, figures from last year revealed that the number of young people under the age of 25 seeking help from the Citizens Advice charity service reached nearly three quarters of a million (729,825), an increase of 21 percent compared to the year before.

Eighty percent of their problems related to just four issues: debt, benefits, housing and employment.

Debt problems made up a third of all

enquiries from under-25s in 2009/10, with benefits problems closely behind, making up a quarter. 12 percent of queries were on the issue of unemployment and ten percent related to housing.

The biggest single issue that under25s sought advice on was personal loans and one of the biggest increases was in advice sought on Jobseekers Allowance (JSA), up 40 percent compared to 2008/09. The numbers of young people having problems with housing benefit and private rented property were also notably high.

In response to this the service has launched a microsite aimed specifically at young people on November 12, www.advice4me.org.uk. The site is directed at young people requiring quick and easy advice and information about pressing problems. The site collates information on debt, benefits, employment and housing from the charity’s existing self-help website.

Gillian Guy, chief executive of the Citizens Advice charity admitted “it can be scary and daunting to seek advice” but highlighted the new service’s ease of use and commented, “if you have a problem, more often than not, the sooner you tackle it, the easier it is to put right”. Guy also added, “Under25s often have specific issues, so we’ve now pulled together lots of information you might find useful in one place”.

The UK site has also pioneered the compatibility of mobile phones with this advice service.

In Ireland, the economic downturn has seen an increased demand for Citizens Information Services (CISs), Citizens Information Phone Service (CIPS) and the Money Advice and Bugeting Service (MABS) which are funded and supported by the Citizens

Information Board.

Over half a million queries were received from members of the public to CISs in the first half of 2010, an increase of 8 percent on 2009. The majority of these queries relate to the economic downturn, job loss and the concomitant increase in demand for information in relation to social welfare entitlements and State supports.

MABS has also seen an increased demand for its services. By the end of June 2010 the service had approximately 24,000 active cases and the MABS helpline had dealt with over 14,000 callers. In 2009 CIPS dealt with 154,823 queries, as the challenges faced by newly welfare dependent and lowincome households continued to rise.

The Citizens Information Board have produced a number of Entitlements publications available at citizensinformationboard.ie. The publications and online resources are targeted at those who are experiencing particular difficulties.

Several auxiliary sites have been launched: losingyourjob.ie gives information on rights and entitlements for the unemployed or those on reduced working hours. Since its launch in 2009 the website has attracted 92,000 users and more than half a million pages have been downloaded. The site keepingyourhome.ie is aimed at people with rent or mortgage arrears, and over 21,000 people have visited the site since January, with more than a 100,000 page downloads.

As the Government prepares to unveil possibly its most controversial Budget next week, use of these sites is set to increase. Charity information sites now play an important role in addressing the concerns of those affected by the economic crisis.

Academics’ salaries revealed Kate Palmer Deputy Editor

A RECENT Irish Times report has revealed Ireland’s 100 top-earning educators.

With salaries ranging from €112,610 to €263,602, there seems to be no recession felt among these highflying university educators.

The top earner, Professor Des Fitzgerald, is the Vice President for research at UCD. Despite a recent salary cut, his pay reaches the equivalent of 175 students’ registration fees. The original figure exceeded €409,000, but was reduced after UCD came under pressure to justify his extraordinary pay packet.

UCD professors dominate the list, with five educators receiving over €200,000 per annum, and eleven staff members being featured overall. UCD students are currently facing severe education cuts. The university itself is also over €12m in debt, but in spite of this staff feature strongly on the list.

Nine of Trinity College Dublin’s staff are featured in the top 100 survey, which is compiled by Peter McGuire. Just falling short of the top ten is number 11 earner, Provost John Hegarty, who recently received a pay rise to the tune of €202,118. Vice Provost and Chief Academic Officer Patrick Prendergast, is featured at number 21 with a salary of €156,249. A

number of staff from Trinity College did not disclose their exact salary to the survey, including the Dean of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, Michael Marsh. College provided a salary scale of between €108,048 and €138,665 for Marsh, who is also a Fellow of the College.

It is therefore not surprising that over two-thirds of the €8.95bn national education budget is absorbed by pay and pensions. This leaves a remaining €2.24bn to cover all other education expenses. According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Ireland has one of the lowest levels of education spending out of 33 participating countries.

Overall, 479 academics on the professional salary scale were included in the survey, all of whom are earning at least €100,000 per annum.

The survey takes place in the midst of increasing controversy over publicsector pay levels. Opposition parties have called for a cap on a public service salary at €100,000.

UCD have justified their payouts by pointing to the role of their senior staff in elevating the university to a top 100 world institution. It seems that Ireland’s universities are caught between attracting the best and defending their high payouts.

It remains to be seen whether the country’s financial state will affect future educational salary surveys.

W is for Writer.

Be one.

www.trinitynews.ie

TRINITY NEWS

INTERNATIONAL NEWS 7 internationalnews@trinitynews.ie

Panic on the streets of London ff An estimated 50,000 protesters took to the streets ff The peaceful protest turned sour, with activists attacking the Headquarters of the Conservative party ff At least eight people were injured Andrea Marrinan Contributing Writer

LAST WEEK, students and lecturers united on the streets of London to voice their rage at UK government plans to raise tuition fees.

In a full response to Lord Browne’s review of higher education and finance last month, the government announced that from 2012, British education institutions will be able to charge almost three times the current fees level of £3290.

David Willetts, the universities minister, proclaimed proposals to raise the tuition fee cap to £6000, with the possibility of raising it to £9000 in exceptional circumstances.

Such cuts in the undergraduateteaching budget were described by Gareth Thomas, the Labour shadow universities minister, as a “tragedy for a whole generation of young people”.

He raised concern that students would be forced to choose the cheapest course available rather than their desired one.

Willetts fought back, arguing that the government’s proposal was a “coherent and progressive” policy. He further stated that it was realistic to expect those benefiting from higher education to contribute to its cost and that graduates must pay more to guarantee Britain’s campuses remained the second best in the world.

Many fear that increasing fees may lead to the the privatisation of higher education. However, Michael

SS Protesters and police outside Millbank. The Met Commissioner stated that the violence was “an embarrassment for London”.

Gove, secretary of state for education, has denied such a risk. He told the BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that there was “no evidence” that the introduction of tuition fees in 2006 had put off underprivileged students and that no matter the cost, students would base their decision on the benefits of furthering their education.

Gove highlighted the fact that some of the UK’s best universities were not inventive in attracting students from all social backgrounds and guaranteed that the government would fund a £150m bursary system to encourage the most disadvantaged students to apply.

The claimed purposes of the government’s proposal is to ensure that the university sector will be properly funded, to improve the quality of teaching, to increase social mobility and to attract a higher proportion of students from disadvantaged backgrounds. With regard to the possibility of student debt, Willetts

University ranking system under scrutiny Ralph Marnham International News Editor

THE UNIVERSITY rankings that are announced each autumn have been met with increasing levels of attention from academic institutions around the world. When Cambridge beat Harvard for the number one spot in the QS World University Ranking System this September, they put out a press release.

Alexandria’s promenience was due to “the high output of one scholar in one journal.” – Phil Baty Likewise, when Harvard topped the Times Education Supplement two weeks later, it was their turn to boast.

However, the news that Alexandria was placed 147th on the list was cause for both celebration and puzzlement. The university website was quick to point out that it was the only Arab university in the world’s top 200. Researchers who looked behind the headlines noticed that the list also ranked Alexandria fourth in the world in a subcategory that weighed the impact of a university’s research – behind only Caltech, MIT and Princeton, and ahead of both Harvard and Stanford. Richard Holmes, who teaches at the Universiti Teknologi MARA in Malaysia, wrote on his University Ranking Watch blog that the overall result had been skewed by “one indicator, citations, which accounted for 32.5 percent of the total weighting.”

23 November, 2010

Phil Baty, deputy editor of the Times Higher Education supplement, acknowledged that Alexandria’s surprising prominence was actually due to “the high output from one scholar in one journal”. The academic was soon identified as Mohamed El Naschie, an Egyptian who published over 320 of his own articles in a scientific journal of which he was also the editor.

“The problem is we don’t know what we’re trying to measure,” said Ellen Hazelkorn, Dean of the Graduate Research School at the Dublin Institute of Technology and author of Rankings and the Reshaping of Higher Education, which is to be released this March. “We need cross-national comparative data that is meaningful. But we also need to know whether the way the data are collected makes it more useful or easier to game the system.”

Although this does demonstrate that rankings cannot be relied on, it does not seem to have diminished their popularity. It is undeniable that they have now become a permanent fixture in he educational landscape.

stressed that only successful graduates would pay charges.

Presenting a “progressive” repayment system Willetts explained that university graduates would not make contributions until they were earning at least £21,000. Students would start repaying their loans at 9 percent of their income at a real rate of interest. Any unpaid loans would be written off after 30 years.

The plans were met with fury and disbelief, and a protest was immediately arranged by the NUS and lecturers’ union, the UCU. The scale of the protest exceeded expectations, with an estimated 50,000 protesters waving banners and chanting as they marched past the government’s offices in the Whitehall district. However, the early peaceful scene was soon interrupted by a group of activists who broke off from the main route and attacked the headquarters of the Conservative Party in central

London. Windows were broken, placard sticks, eggs and bottles were hurled at police officers attending the scene and a fire extinguisher was even thrown from the roof.

A police report stated that at least eight people – “a mixture of police and protesters” – had been injured, and a number of arrests had been made.

These proposals were made by the UK government in a crossdepartmental attempt to whittle down a record debt.

David Cameron condemned the protesters who tried to ransack Conservative headquarters, he vowed that he would not back down on commitments to treble tuition fees.

Many believe that last week’s violence was not an isolated incident, but rather the start of a new era of social unrest in the UK due to the government’s aggressive approach in tackling its budget deficit through spending cuts.

COMMENT

From one cash cow to the herd

A

s an American, I am familiar with cringeinducing pricetags on higher education.

A common assumption is that that international students are getting tremendous value for money by coming to Ireland. At €12,000 per year for tuition alone, my doctoral programme is marginally less expensive than my undergraduate tuition. In reality the three-year PhD has cost me five times the cost of my four-year undergraduate degree, in part because of international travel and the high cost of living, but also because I did not enjoy the wide variety of grants and scholarships that made my alma mater affordable.

That being said, I made a conscious decision to come to Ireland for my PhD, and rejected two successful offers in the UK. International students, particularly non-EEA students, are of tremendous monetary value when we have made the choice to come to Trinity and to Ireland. As consumers investing in a very costly product, we should clearly see the benefit of our choice in terms of the quality of teaching, services provided, and social life. For me, most of those boxes have been ticked, but this is not the case for all students. Trinity can positively affect the relationship between the university and incoming international students through three goals.

First, College should provide a thorough pre- and post-arrival orientation for students. Coming from abroad, the experience of navigating one’s way around a new university is confusing enough before considering accommodation

options,the madness of registration (at College and the Garda National Immigration Bureau, or GNIB), and the initial isolation upon arrival.

My suggestions include a meetand-greet option at the airport, pre-term orientation for students, student mentors, and streamlined registration. Much of this duty has fallen on the GSU and SU, and College needs to take greater responsibility.

Second, College needs to provide significant immigration support.

The GNIB is an exhausting, daunting and frustrating experience.

Further support is needed in assisting students with acquiring documentation for the GNIB and in coordinating efforts to escort students. The International Office has started to provide escorted trips to the GNIB, but these were late in term and low in available spaces.

Third, College needs to focus on the benefit received by cross-cultural exchange. Too often, the focus is on the cost-benefit of international students without regard to their cultural benefit to the university.

College should support efforts by students and societies to celebrate the uniqueness of international students, in tandem with clubs, societies, the Chaplaincy and departments.

Trinity cannot compete with the facilities and services available when all students pay hefty tuition, and clearly not in this hard economic climate. But to ensure that international students feel as if they get what they paid for, College needs to do its part to support and welcome international students as more than simply than cash cows.

Erin Dyer

Trinity Abroad PETER SCHWARTZSTEIN writes back to us from the prestigious school of Sciences Po in Paris TWO MONTHS into my Parisian adventure and my French has shown markedly little improvement.

This is a cause for some concern.

Dissertations are fast approaching, while exams are no longer just a distant, horrible footnote in the calendar. I have only myself to blame, I guess. I had been warned that Sciences Po is notorious for its bloated workloads, but I had thought it wise to do all my courses in French regardless. As I’ve discovered all too painfully, however, conversational French is one thing, examining the inner workings of the French social justice system at 8am with only my school-boy language skills to help me is quite another. Indeed the French university body as a whole seems to take a very un-Trinity-like approach to academics. As no doubt previous years of Erasmus students can attest, continental Europe’s penchant for 8 o’clock lectures has come as something of a shock (a misunderstanding with the course selection process has ensured that I have an unfortunate four per week), while shortage of space means lectures often only finish at an equally anti-social 9:15 in the evening.

Situated slap-bang in the centre of Paris like the city’s other celebrated universities, spatial constraints ensure that Sciences Po like many French colleges offers

little in the way of facilities. No gym, no college bar, no playing fields, nothing beyond the lecture theatres themselves really. The Institut d’Etudes Politiques (Sciences Po) is exceptional in a number of ways though. As the traditional breeding ground of France’s administrators and political elites it has formulated its own particular academic approach, its own “méthodologie”.

This too has required a good deal of getting used to: every essay paragraph is meant to be of equal length, and every dissertation and exposé must conform to the standard structure. I’d thought the days of jumping through formulaic hoops were over. But regrettably many of those horror stories of French officiousness hold true. Even the seemingly simple task of setting up a bank account was grossly over-complicated by the minefield that is French bureaucracy. Trinity in comparison seems positively Teutonic in its efficiency.

All the same, in spite of of the academic hang-ups of a French University and the murder-inducing tedium of petty officialdom, one is left with the more than ample compensation of living in Paris.

The seventh arrondissement alone boasts an embarrassment of cultural riches, while Paris’ most celebrated food market, the Grand Epicerie de Paris, practically serves as Sciences Po’s Buttery. Hard as I might try, there is no resisting its horrendously overpriced sandwiches and cakes.

Indeed only the daily threat of strikes shatters the beauty of the Left Bank, and even they have become a somewhat charming reminder of French intransigence.

As a Philosophy and Politics student I was under no compulsion to spend a year abroad. Only when I am truly swamped with dissertations do I regret it. Paris might not have a Pav, but it has sufficient cheap wine and late-night drinking sessions under the shadow of the Eiffel Tower to more than make up for it.

8 NEWS FEATURES newsfeatures@trinitynews.ie

PwC shamed by “FYI: New Clunge” viral email Manus Lenihan Deputy News Features Editor

ON 27 October at around 11:30, Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC) Dublin branch Senior Associate David McDonough sent an email to six colleagues and acquaintances in four major property, finance and accountancy companies.

It read: “FYI. New Clunge.” The emails sent around by PwC senior male staff in response discussed a “shortlist for the top ten” most attractive new female interns. Other comments were added to the forwarded email, including: “Great work .... have reservations about the last one getting in”.

The correspondence circulated far beyond their intended readers, going viral and making headlines across the

“The PwC female interns were forced to exit secretly through the car park when finishing work, in order to escape media attention.” world. This message became a source of great confusion to many readers in America who were not familiar with

the term. An ABC news reporter had to clarify for her readers that “‘clunge’ is a British slang word for female genitalia.”

PwC attempted to keep the women, who were part of a graduate programme with PwC, away from the media. They were allowed to leave the office through an underground car park, but several Irish newspapers published the names and photographs of the 13 women on their front pages.

While PwC has strict policies against bullying and harassment, and swiftly suspended the 17 men involved in order to head off criticism, the email has brought back to public attention an incident at their Australian branch in

March 2008.

Christina Rich, a financial adviser, won the equivalent of €2.4 million from the company for over a decade of sexual harassment and misogynistic behaviour in the company.

Rich was the highest-paid PwC partner in Australia, earning €470,000 a year. She was a rarity, as 80 percent of PwC’s management is male.

It is possible that, apart from incidents like this latest scandal, there is sexism in the company that goes unreported, as women not as highly-placed in the company may be less confident in bringing it to court.

One of the women “rated” was discovered to be the sister of a man who

was sacked from Merrill Lynch in a similarly sleazy and email-related scandal four years ago. Many have said that this conveys an idea of the level of sexist culture in such male-dominated companies.

Ireland’s Equality Authority dealt with only three cases of sexual harassment in 2009, despite a much higher anecdotal level of sexism in workplaces.

It argues that women who are new in jobs or in a minority in their workplace tend to “be good sports” and to laugh along with sexist remarks and jokes.

To complain or to defy the prevailing culture is to risk losing a job or making working relationships unbearable.

Pedal power: cycle trend grips Dublin Bicycle sales are at record highs in Dublin as cash-strapped commuters are getting on their bikes. Why is it that they are choosing to battle the elements in their thousands?

SS Get on your bike: after years of unpopularity, cycling is back in vogue. Photo: Pieter Musterd

James Coghill News Features Editor

PEDAL POWER is back in. As the cyclists among you will know, Dublin’s streets are busier than ever. Bicycles bustle in and out of traffic, rush-hour queues trail back for metres in the cycle lanes – Dublin is in the grip of twowheel fever.

Cycling is, in many ways, the perfect form of commuting. Fast, cheap, healthy, exhilarating and very, very convenient, as long as you live within ten kilometres of College – any further and you need iron-like determination

and even stronger thighs. The number of cyclists in Dublin is small but rising fast. It increased by eight percent last year. Around four percent of the commuters that cross the city’s two canals into the centre every day do so on a bike and Dublin City Council has a target that would see that rise to 15 percent by 2012.

After years of unpopularity, cycling is back in fashion. Labelled “the austerity commute” many believe cycle sales are booming as commuters try to save money in the current economic climate. There are other reasons for this renaissance though, namely the Bike to

“Labelled the ‘austerity commute’ many people believe cycle sales are booming as commuters try to save money on the way to work.”

Work tax incentive scheme that was introduced at the beginning of 2009. The scheme covers bicycles and accessories up to a maximum cost of €1000. Your employer buys the bike and you pay for it, tax-free, over 12 months, which effectively knocks around 40 percent off the price.

For students, this is of little use and many have resorted to using Dublin’s Bike Hire Scheme which Dublin City Council’s cycling officer, Kieran Fallon aptly describes as “the most successful in the world by any measure.”

His words may have some truth. In August the scheme saw its millionth journey completed, and although official figures have never been released, there are thought to be over 37,000 individual subscribers.

Widespread speculation that most of the bicycles would end up in the city’s rivers and canals has proven to be wrong. So far just one of the bikes has been stolen (and was subsequently recovered) while vandalism has been little to none. The scheme is so popular in fact, that is expanding. Dublin City Council is hoping to increase the number of stands to over 1000 by the end of next year.

For the casual cyclist, the options are plentiful. But strike up a conversation with any bus-goer or Luas commuter and they come back with the same counter argument every time: the weather.

These anti-cyclists, however, tend to exaggerate. According to Met Éireann, someone from Dublin who cycles 15 minutes to College, five days a week, will get wet on only four days out of every 100. Those are favourable commuting statistics.

There are of course, other downsides – angry drivers, fumes and potholes, not to mention the slowcoach cyclists that block the lanes. But the real downside to cycling in Dublin is theft, which has risen significantly together with

the increase in popularity of cycling.

According to the Central Statistics Office, there were 2233 bicycles reported stolen in the first nine months of 2008.

In the same period last year, immediately after the tax incentive scheme started, 3136 bikes were reported stolen, although numbers are thought to be significantly higher as bicycle theft is one of the most under-reported of crimes.

Often it is not the locks that are the problem, but what you lock your bike to. “Quite often the weakest point is what the bike is locked to and that is where people need to take the most care,” says David Cassidy, of Dublin’s Cyclogical bicycle shop. “A lot of poles in the city just lift right out of the ground so, while you think the bike is perfectly secure, it can be stolen in a heartbeat.” He recommends that people should pay in the region of ten percent of the cost of the bike on their lock.

“The cheapest locks on the market might look the same as the better options but there is a world of difference in terms of security. We get a lot of people coming in here who have had their bikes stolen and they are giving out about their locks but by then it is too late.”

Many people don’t bother reporting bike thefts to the Garda, thinking that it’s not likely ever to be recovered. Fallon says this misses the point. “People should always report the theft of a bike to the Garda. It doesn’t matter if there is no chance of getting it back. If you don’t report it then it becomes an accepted norm and bike theft should never be the accepted norm.”

Things are looking down for the thieves however. In February, the Council opened its first off-street CCTV-monitored bike park in Drury Street and while it is not being used as often as the Council would like, it is still early days. The future is looking

£53m Chinese vase reaches the record books Andrea Marrinan Staff Writer

A CHINESE vase was sold two weeks ago for a world record-breaking price of £53.1 million.

“Western collections are feeding the Chinese art market – its on fire.” – Phillip Sheppard The auction of the eighteenth century Qianlong dynasty porcelain vase defied auctioneer’s expectations, who had estimated its worth between £800,000 and £1.2 million. No one expected the reaction from Chinese buyers, who sparked a bidding war that lasted over

30 minutes, resulting in a new record.

The sale took place in the west London area of Ruislip, not famously known for its art treasures. The local auctioneers have left auction houses like Christie’s and Sotheby’s in the dark after achieving the premier price for any Chinese artwork to date.

The vase is believed to have been in the possession of an English family since the 1930s and was described at the auction as “a piece of exquisite beauty”. The vase, made during the reign of eighteenth century Emperor Qianlong is 40cm high, ornamented with four circular cartouches and an enamelled fish motif. The primroseyellow painted trumpet neck is an unusual double-walled construction, meaning an internal vase can be seen

through the perforations of the outer body.

Found during a house clearance in the suburb of Pinner, the vase belonged to the late parents of a brother and sister, whose identities are unknown.

The two, who were unaware of the vase’s historical significance and value, are believed to be in complete shock and have gone into hiding while they learn to come to terms with their new found wealth.

Auctioneer Bainbridge’s stated on their website that the vase “would have resided, no doubt, in the Chinese royal

palace and was most certainly fired in the imperial kilns”, encouraging international interest in the one-off piece.

The auction room was filled with bidders from as far afield as Hong Kong and mainland China as well as those closer to home, such as London. The vase is understood to have been sold to a confidential buyer from China, who was keen to repatriate the piece of imperial heritage.

In recent years, an interest for Chinese works of art has increased dramatically. However, with the crown of the market nowhere in sight, the supply of elite pieces is becoming increasingly rare.

It appears old European and American collections are feeding the Chinese market, which is described by auctioneer Philip Sheppard as “on fire”.

Perhaps not as remarkable as the Qianlong vase, a smaller, more modest Chinese vase was discovered in County Carlow earlier this year. It was valued at approximately €100 but was recently sold at auction in London for an astonishing £240,000.

While still a remarkable price, it is the £53 million sale that will make waves in the world art market.

The Chester Beatty Library houses a world-class collection of oriental manuscripts, paintings and books. It also holds a small collection of imperial Chinese porcelain available for public viewing .

TRINITY NEWS

SOCIETY 9 society@trinitynews.ie

The oldest singers in town Holly Furlong Contributing Writer

TONIGHT WE sing. Our programmes are printed, our posters are hung around campus, Christmas is coming and the choral gowns are ready to be donned. The Michaelmas Concert has arrived. Presenting “Hodie”, “Serenade to Music”, “Fantasia on Christmas Carols” and “Willow Wood” by the British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, the University of Dublin Choral Society are excited to be taking to the stage again at 8pm in the Exam Hall November 24 and November 25.

The weekday, and occasional weekend, rehearsals, though sometimes tiring, have always been enjoyable. Similarly, the practical organisation of the concert, was often a rather time-consuming challenge, but thankfully the society’s committee are committed still.

As the oldest choir in Trinity, having been founded in 1837, the society itself is hardly new to the challenges and pleasures of performance. The society in fact has had the honour of being the first to perform many major Choral pieces in Ireland including

Bach’s B Minor Mass in 1908 and Verdi’s Requiem in 1876. This term brings us right up to the twentieth century. The performance of “Willow Wood” will mark the 36th Irish premiere for Choral, and the concert will also see only the third ever performance of “Hodie” in the country.

The society maintains a tradition of wearing academic gowns for concerts, and performs in the Public Theatre in College.

The choir rehearses for nine weeks prior to the concert each Wednesday evening under the baton of our conductor, David Leigh.

Astonishingly, the society has only had eleven conductors throughout the entirety of its 173year history. Among these are Sir Robert Prescott Stewart, Dr George Hewson, and Dr Joseph Groocock.

This term to we will be working with the Campanile Consort, a choir organised by the School of Music, and the St Patrick’s Cathedral Girls Choir. The soloists for the concert are Aoife O’Connell, Eugene Ginty, and Eoghan Desmond. Aoife and Eoghan are both students of the College. Although it’s now too late for new members to join and sing

Students asked to bare with Society

This Charmless Man MARK WALSH talks about jazz, pays a visit to David O’Doherty and shares his secret shame: not being able to ride a bike

SS The UDCS performing Magnificat by Bach and Rutter in the Public Theatre, Trinity College, during March 2010.

in our upcoming concert, we do invite anyone interested to sign up in January for our Hilary Term performance of Verdi’s Requiem, in the Grand Canal Theatre. How many people can say they’ve performed on the same stage as such greats as Christy Moore and Maroon 5?

But for the moment, the choir has been put to the test, but with a helpful hand from our conductor David Leigh, that pesky lydian mode has been brought to the heel. Nine weeks of song behind us, two nights of song ahead, we’re about to lift the roof again. ors this calendar has something for everyone.

Trinity College Cancer Society is one of the largest societies on campus and the only college cancer society in Ireland. Since its foundation the Cancer Society has raised over €150,000 through a number of major annual events each year, perhaps the most wellknown being the Naked Calendar.

In previous years the Trinity College Cancer Society Naked Calendar has been featured in numerous national papers and on the Podge and Rodge show. Photos of BESS girls on pool tables, steamy locker room shots of sports teams, models in New Square and twins in the GMB have received rave reviews.

This year’s calendar looks set to continue this trend with Miss Trinity revealing all in

“Miss Trinity revealing all in the Rose Garden, the President up a tree, the Rugby captain with girls and a puppy, and our sexy orchestra all featuring.”

SS Orchestral Society’s Hannah Nolan, Hannah Connell Moylan and Sophie Higgs just before the robes come off. Photo by David O’Dwyer.

Lucy Whiston Contributing Writer

THAT TIME of year has finally arrived. The models have been picked, locations decided, photo shoots finished, calendar designed and sent to the printers and from Wednesday 24 November

the Naked Calendar 2011 will be on sale!

It arrives just in time to make a stocking filler, Kris Kringle present or a treat for yourself so you have something to look at while studying. For the third year Trinity Cancer Society are launching the hottest calendar around full off Trinity’s finest. From sporting studs to stunning students, presidents and naked sail-

the Rose Garden, the President up a tree, the Rugby captain with girls and a puppy, and our sexy orchestra all featuring In previous years the Naked Calendar has raised nearly €10,000 for the Irish Cancer Society and this year promises to be just as profitable. For only €6.99 you can purchase your very own Naked Calendar in the Arts Building, Hamilton, SU shops or for the first time online at www.nakedcalendar.ie, accepting Laser and all major credit cards. Prebooking is open now to avoid disappointment!

Special thanks to our generous sponsors without whom the calendar wouldn’t be possible, designer Brendan O’Rourke, photographers and the models who gave up their time and bodies for a good cause.

Many, many thanks also to everyone who buys the calendar.

“It doesn’t take a bleeding heart to be a volunteer” Carlos Quinn Chairperson, Suas

READERS WHO have been brave enough to venture into the library in the past few weeks have likely encountered a variety of colourful photographs in the BerkleyLecky-Ussher Library Complex. For many students, these photographs resemble imagery from countless charity appeals, but for some students who walk by them, they contain recognisable faces and unforgettable memories. The photography exhibition is set to coincide with the “Suas Volunteer Programme” recruitment process.

Since 2002, over 300 students from Trinity College have volunteered as teaching assistants in Suas’s partner schools in disadvantaged communities in India and Kenya. I have been involved with Suas Trinity for the past three years and I spent two summers working in these overseas placements. My life has been tremendously enhanced since I first took part in the volunteer programme, the society activities and volunteering opportunities that followed.

Returning from Kenya this summer felt like I was waking up from a dream. I missed the classroom with 90 children,

23 November, 2010

SS Barry Keane and Roisin Fitzpatrick volunteered in India through Suas last year. Photos with permission of Barry Keane

my teaching partner, my teammates and to my horror, even the food. No matter how long I spent boring friends to tears with stories, I could never quite get across the experience. I would say this is a sentiment that is widely felt by past volunteers. In a way, the volunteer programme launch for 2011 felt like a handover – I couldn’t help but eye the room suspiciously thinking that one of the people might be teaching my class next year. The society followed up the launch with a fundraising gig, the first of a series – blending together the Dublin mentors, the fundraising team, past-volunteers and thumping music for a great night.

I’m not entirely sure I remember what my motivation was for getting involved with Suas three years ago, I believe I just decided to “take the plunge” and experience something new. It certainly doesn’t take a bleeding heart to be a willing or successful volunteer, just a curiosity about the world around you.

Personally, I have never viewed volunteering as a selfless chore. It’s mutually beneficial – the chance to learn and form valuable bonds works both ways. Whether the volunteering is for an hour a week near College, or overseas, the opportunity is there for those who seek it.

WHEN I’M choosing stuff to go to for this column, I usually pick out something that I think will be “good”. This is actually quite a flawed plan, as I found out this week.

I first attended a Jazz Soc showcase at Sweeney’s on Dame Lane. It was a nice little place that I hadn’t been to before. The gig itself was, well, very good.

My only complaint is that in typically cool, jazz style, it starts, and thus finishes, pretty late. The more experienced acts go on towards the end, so by the time the “best” act came on, I had to go and get my bus.

It’s all well and good being very talented at jazz and generally being cool and wearing cool clothes like a cool person with cool friends, but once it gets to half eleven on a Tuesday night, there’s only one place I’m going to be, and it’s not at a jazz gig surrounded by people wearing blazers. I’ll be on my bus home, content and with no regrets, sitting at the front at the top deck, because that’s the best place to sit if you want to avoid seeing people and having an awkward bus chat.

That’s actually a great tip by the way. Bus chats are rubbish, so sit at the front upstairs from now on and you won’t be spotted. Yep, I’m a social diarist giving tips on how to be utterly anti-social. What a world.

Two days later I went to see David O’Doherty, a gig organised by DU Comedy. I admit that I haven’t always been the biggest fan of DU Comedy. I think

“I went home early because I needed to do a shit and didn’t fancy doing it in college. Even the bestmade plans can go down the toilet.” it’s because often during Freshers’ Week they’ve had people on their stand who thought they were funny simply because they were involved with DU Comedy. The kind of person who’ll wheel out a Family Guy quote and think they’re a barrel of laughs. But this has changed. Firstly, they gave me a free ticket to the gig. Secondly, the people I encountered during the night were all very sound. They also saved two seats for me near the front. So because they were nice to me, I’ve decided that DU Comedy are a great bunch of lads.

I was genuinely surprised by how funny David O’Doherty was. I went with a girl (a girl who had breasts and a vagina – that’s three attractive things!) who loved him and had seen him loads of times before, so I was expecting her to be laughing the whole time and looking at me angrily for not finding him funny. But then I did find him funny, so everything was fine.

However, at one point, he was talking about how much he loves cycling a bike. Then he started asking people about their own bikes. One guy didn’t own a bike. David O’Doherty shouted at him and said “I hope you’re not one of those PRICKS who never learned to ride a bike”.

I cannot ride a bike. I used to go on my bike when I was young, with stabilisers. Then I got to the age where people take off their stabilisers, and I just didn’t go on my bike anymore. I am ashamed of this. I was getting very tense and hoping that DOD wouldn’t see the shame written all over my face and ask me about my bike-riding skills. Thankfully he didn’t.

Later he was talking about dreams, and criticised those who talk about how crazy their dreams are.

“Of course they’re crazy, do you expect your dreams to be boring and normal?”

It was unfortunate that he said that. Right before we went into the gig, I told the girl I was with about how earlier that day I was in the shop, about to buy phone credit. But then I actually checked my credit, and I had loads left.

Turns out I’d just had a dream where my credit ran out, and it was so mundane that I’d confused it with my real life.

But aside from the inadvertently personal attacks, it was a very good gig.

Last week was reading week, and as is always the case, I didn’t manage to start actually studying until the Thursday. I went in in the afternoon and was going to stay until late. All was going to plan and I was actually getting through a lot of work. Then at around 8pm, I went home, a few hours earlier than planned, because I needed to do a shit and didn’t fancy doing it in College. Just goes to show, even the best-made plans can go down the toilet.

Anyway, anyone involved in any society, let me know about any events you’re organising that I can attend and review. I’m sick of looking for things myself. My email is mark.walsh@trinitynews.ie.

See more from Mark at www.walsho.net

10 FEATURES

Crash! Bang! Wallop!

What an interview TV funny man and multi-award winning creator of I’m Alan Partridge and the Oscar nominated In The loop, Armando Iannucci, takes time out to talk with Features Editor Josh Roberts

Y

ou might not know the name Armando Iannucci, but the chances are you will have seen at least one of the hit TV shows (such as I’m Alan Partridge and The Thick Of It) or his Oscar nominated film In The Loop. He’s won three BAFTAs, two Sony Radio Awards, three British Comedy Awards as well as a host of other awards, and last week I got to meet the man The Telegraph recently named “the undisputed King of British comedy”.

We start by talking about his childhood. Born in Glasgow to a Scottish mother and an Italian father, Iannucci’s childhood was spent “learning my favourite comedians’ material, people like Billy Connolly, and regurgitating it at school”. Aged seventeen he headed south to study English at Oxford and it was here that he begun to cut his comedy teeth – “I

“The idea of edgy comedy is a bit of an illusion.” still worked hard, but comedy became an increasingly important thing in my life”.

With his degree in the bag and three years research (“a blessing in itself”) into a PhD completed, Iannucci needed to sort out a career. He flirted with lots of jobs: there was the one at the treasury which he quit “because I think they realised that I couldn’t and wouldn’t and couldn’t take it seriously”, not to mention his nearly joining the Catholic Priesthood. But ultimately he knew he had to take “a giant leap of faith into the unsecure and untested”, and venture into the world of professional comedy.

After several months grafting away in stand-up and various other slots, he got his ‘big break. “Someone told me that Radio Scotland were recruiting young presenters in an attempt to get rid of their old, fuddy-duddy image so I sent them some tapes of my material and got a job on a music show”. Far from the stand-up and satirical path that he was aiming for, his time at the BBC had two great advantages. “Firstly, my mother was made-up because she could tell her friends that I worked for the respectable BBC”, he says, “more importantly I got to see the production process in its entirety”.

Now he had a foot in the proverbial door, and when a job in BBC London’s light entertainment department cameup he was first in line. Things began to snowball. He first hit it big with On the Hour which, presented by Chris Morris (recent writer and director of jihadsatire Four Lions), was a satirical take on the emerging 24 hour news culture with faux-headlines like “More oxygen needed, says France” and “Anorak Tuesday under threat according to Prime Minister”. On the Hour was quickly transferred into a television

1963 ARMANDO GIOVANNI Iannucci is born in Glasgow and quickly finds his comedy feet. “I was always doing impressions and stupid stuff to make the others laugh”

format, The Day Today, which in-turn gave rise to the whugely successful and multi-award winning I’m Alan Partridge starring Steve Coogan.

Now widely lauded as the creator of the docu-soap-satire format (think The Office and Peep Show) Iannucci set-about creating his next big hit: a political-satire based on Tony Blair’s government called The Thick of It, in which a very sweary Head of Communications (somewhat reminiscent of Alastair Cambell) played by Peter Capaldi tries to whip a failing government department into shape. The success of The Thick of It meant that Iannucci was able to create a big screen version, In the Loop, which starred among others Steve Coogan and James Gandolfini (Tony Soprano) and for which he received an Oscar nomination.

“I was very lucky”, he remarks when I ask if breaking through is harder today, “people take less risk now, it’s like there is a much greater emphasis on what you’ve already done”. That said, the current comedy environment does have its advantages. “It is much easier to get things made. When I started-out you had to move to London; now with the internet and blogs it’s much easier to get stuff out there. No one hands me a paper script these days, it’s always USB pens, dongles or links”.

Perhaps more subtly, he feels that the current climate improves the quality of people’s writing – “it’s so easy to get things read these days that there’s no excuse for not writing lots, and when you write lots you improve”.

Iannucci’s own writing style and process is “mostly collaborative”, and indeed almost all of TV’s big comedies seem to be written in groups with the Damon Beesely/Iain Morris (The Inbetweeners) and Jesse Armstrong/Sam Bain (The Peep Show) partnerships currently leading the way.

A typical writing session begins with making tea (“which can take up to an hour”) and then moves on to a kind of comedic brainstorm with whoever else is working on the show.

“I see awards as of fairly short term importance.”

“Writing with other people is better for many reasons”, he says, “but above all the ideas arrive quicker and you get something that neither of you would have got individually”. That said, writing collaboratively does have its downsides, most notably that “if you’re not disciplined, you can end up with thirty minutes of garbage. You have to be ruthless”.

His literary economy is probably the most defining feature of his writing, a hangover from his time on radio. It wastes no time getting to the point.

FINDS FAME as the writer behind On the Hour and The Day Today which also launches the careers of Steve Coogan and Chris Morris.

1991

“On radio every word is important and you can tell if something is too long.

You need to hit the gag. I can look at a script now and say ‘that will take three minutes to say, it should take one’. In fact the easiest way to tell if someone is new to writing is to look at how many words they use”.

If Iannucci’s writing process is broadly similar to others, the filming process is extremely different. He tends to shoot things very quickly and is careful to allow the actors enough space to “do their own thing”. This is particularly true of In the Loop and The

“Improvisation dirties the script and makes it feel real.”

Thick of It which is first filmed with the script and then re-shot allowing the actors to improvise if and when they see fit. Putting it all together in the editing suite leads to a finished piece of which “85 percent is as it is in the script and the rest is improvised”.

This improvisational aspect of filming is of paramount importantance for Iannucci, because “it dirties the script and makes it feel real, it makes it feel like conversation”, he says adding, “it’s funny really, because a huge amount of effort goes into making the script perfect, and then even more effort goes into making it look unscripted” The huge success of In the Loop (both at the Sundance Film Festival and the Oscars) has meant that Iannucci can pick freely between television work and film work. The obvious choice would seem to be more films. Not so.

“I’m really only interested in making things that I’m glad to have made.

I enjoy the project”. That said, film does have its advantages, perhaps most importantly the character and narrative liberty that comes with writing a longer feature. “With TV you have to leave the characters at the end of an episode where they were at the start”, he says, “in film you can bringin and dispose of characters whenever you want to”.

Given that a show can take over two years to bring to fruition, I’m interested to know what he hopes to achieve after it aires. One thing is for sure – it’s not fame. Indeed, aside from his quietly received The Armando Iannucci Shows, Iannucci has yet to put himself in front of the camera, and as a result has so far largely avoided boarding the fame train.

This seems to be partly a conscious decision to avoid the trappings of being famous, and partly a desire to remain in control of his shows. “I know that my shows and films will be remembered for the people that are in them, but I can’t be objective about something if I’m in it”, he says. And what of the fame? “Of course it’s nice when someone comes up to and shakes your hand, but I can’t see the fun in not being able to take the tube or getting stared at the whole time”. Not wanting the fame that comes with actually being on TV is quite understandable, but Iannucci’s reaction to receiving recognition from the industry itself (in the form of BAFTAs, Sony Awards, Comedy Awards and Oscars) is surprisingly

1998 WRITES AND directs I’m Alan Partridge cementing his position at the forefront of British comedy. The show receives unprecidented critical and public acclaim and wins Best Comedy Programme Award at the BAFTAs.

IANNUCCI’S TIPS ON HOW TO MAKE IT IN COMEDY WRITING

1

Write what you think is funny and not what you think others will find funny. “If you don’t laugh at a joke you’ve written,” remarks Iannucci, “how can you expect others to?”

3

“Make every word count”.

Long, flowery dialogues without any gags will have producers dropping-off at their desks. So keep it punchy and aim for a joke every minute and a half.

2

Don’t wait to be asked to write something, just get on and do it – “nobody is going to walk-up to you in the street and say ‘you seem funny, can you write me a sitcom?’ You have to be proactive.”

blasé. “I see awards as being of fairly short-term importance”, he ponders, “they’re great in the sense that they tend to shunt you up the queue and you get more meetings. But a crap project won’t get made, Oscar nomination or no Oscar nomination”.

For a man who has made his career in satirising quite high-brown subject like politics and the media, his own tastes in TV are slightly perplexing.

“There are so many great things on TV at the moment”, he says excitedly, “I’m a big fan of The Inbetweeners which, despite the crudeness of the topics, is extremely well structured and written.

In terms of American stuff, Eastbound & Down (on HBO) is probably my favourite because Will Ferrell is so brilliant”.

Taking The Inbetweeners as an example I’m keen to know whether Iannucci agrees with those people who say that modern comedy, operating under the guise of being “edgy”, has simply become about trying to be as rude as possible. Surprisingly enough, he disagrees. “The word edgy implies that a joke is on the edge, I honestly don’t see there being any edges, so the idea of edgy comedy is a bit of an illusion”. Surely though, particularly with his aforementioned character Malcolm Tucker (who opens meetings by saying “What’s the story in Ballyfucking-mory”), he must occasionally worry about offending people? “No, I really don’t. Of course we don’t set out

THE THICK of It, his political docu-soap wins a multitude of awards including three BAFTAs, two British Comedy Awards, a Royal Television Soceity Award and two Press Guild Awards.

2008

to offend people, but if something is funny then it is funny”.

With this in mind, I ask what the future holds for Iannucci, what he plans to laugh at next. “We start filming a new pilot for HBO in February which is set in the Vice President office of the White House and then there’s another more slap-stick film which we’ve finished the script for”. This is exciting stuff, but not as exciting about the much-rumoured prospect of a fulllength Alan Partridge feature. “Ah, yes”, he says, “we’ve got the skeleton of a script and that will hopefully happen”.

And it is on this wonderful news that our interview comes to an end.

Iannucci is one of the most interesting and exciting people I have ever met

“Of course we don’t set-out to offend people, but if something is funny, it’s funny.” and I urge those of you who’ve yet to experience the spine-tingling, pantwetting hilarity of I’m Alan Partridge or The Thick of It to do so as soon as possible.

2010

ATTENDS THE Academy Awards with In the Loop weeks after the film won Best Comedy Film at the British Comedy Awards. In his acceptance speech he quips, “My dinner place card says Armando Lannucci and with that in mind I’d like

TRINITY NEWS

11 features@trinitynews.ie

Taking the stress out of the pill Safetext.ie, a new reminder service for women on the contraceptive pill, won “One to Watch” at last weekend’s Eircom Spider Awards. Patrick O’Malley met the brains behind the idea

S

ix o’clock in the evening on one of those arctic Dublin nights where you can feel the wind piercing through your jacket and the icy rain cascading down the back of your neck.

I was off to meet two blokes who told me they’d created a website that meant that girls would never forget to take their oral contraceptive pill.

I’d been reluctant to make the meeting because it was about a subject that didn’t really affect me and, to be honest, I didn’t understand that much.

Oral contraception or “the Pill” is one of those things like tampons and Beiber that girls do and I don’t. But less than two minutes after meeting the creators of safetext.ie, Liam Ryan and Chris Rooney (students from TCD and UCD respectively) I realised not only how simple the whole thing could be, but also how big a part of women’s lives this was.

Over 250,000 Irish women currently use oral contraception and of these around two thirds forget to take their pill at least once a month. So what?

Well, based on recent statistics, taking the pill just thirty minutes late reduces effectiveness by 7.7 percent. Taking this into account, women who take their pill late, or forget it all together, spend nervous hours and days plagued by what the consequences might be – something which blokes are oblivious to, and something which safetext.ie promises never need happen again.

Signing-up to the service takes about five minutes and is totally free.

You click on to the website, type in the standard internet registering info (name, email address, mobile number) after which you receive a verification code sent to you in a text. You type this number in, input some information (what medication you take, when you

Innovative Website” at the Irish Web Awards and the “One To Watch” at the much coveted Eircom Spider Awards.

But the future hasn’t always seemed so bright for the two cheery students who say the experience has taught them more than anything they’ve done before. The website began as the brainchild of Ryan, whose discussions with his sister made him realise how big an issue oral contraception is for women and how big the gap in the market was (a survey of 500 women carried out by Byrne and Rooney showed that 80 percent of women thought it was a good idea).

With the idea firmly in place, the duo entered and won the TCD Dragons’ Den competition, earning themselves a €1375 grant which, when supplemented with a bank loan, allowed them to setabout creating the site itself.

What advice would the duo impart to other young entrepreneurs? “If you want people to take you seriously, you have to get serious yourself. Write a detailed business plan explaining your strategy, costs and projections”, says Ryan. “People will always tell you that

usually start) and then a “personal calendar” pops-up telling you when you should be taking your pill. In the following days you then receive a free text at the time you decided reminding you to take your pill.

This sounds all well and good, but surely there are some problems.

Perhaps most obviously, couldn’t women just set an alarm on their phone?

“Missing the pill by just thirty minutes reduces effectiveness by 7.7 percent.”

“There are several problems with this approach”, responds Ryan, “We surveyed over 500 women of which most said a text message would be a better reminder. The physical act and almost excitement of opening a text makes it more effective and each text includes a joke, quote or fact which makes girls want to open their texts and engage with the service”.

Another benefit, co-founder Rooney suggests, is that text messages negate any embarrassment that women might suffer if their alarm goes off. “When a girl’s phone alarm goes off at eleven in the morning in a cafe, everyone’s thinking only one thing and it’s awkward”, he says. “Receiving a text normalises the whole thing, and with Safetext you can chose to receive your texts from anyone in your contact list meaning that even if a friend or parent is going through your phone they wouldn’t know”.

Ryan is keen to impress another

“If you want people to take you seriously, you have to get serious yourself.”

selling point of the service which reminds women to pick-up their prescriptions a few days before beginning to take their pills, saying “We spoke to a nurse who said that all too often women come in at very late notice meaning they might not get their

medication on time”.

The service has proved a hit with the 500 plus women who have already registered since the site went live in September, and also drawn praise from several industry pundits culminating in safetext.ie being voted “Most

you’re mad, or that it can’t be done, so perseverance is key. Above all, believe in your idea.”

The outlook for Ryan, Rooney and safetext.ie looks bright. Next year they will roll-out the service internationally, and as a result the website has huge earning potential if they start charging for, or advertising, on the site.

For the foreseeable future, however, the service will remain absolutely free.

With this in mind, there’s no reason why women shouldn’t check-out safetext.ie. You never know, it might change your life.

ensued. Couple these issues with the multiple drug and driving related arrests, eating disorders, self-harm, public lesbian flings, trips to rehab and almost constant media attention and you have full-scale career Armageddon – in 2008 Lohan’s wealth was estimated at $35 million, now she is widely rumoured to be in debt.

What is it then that makes some child idols flop and burnout? While others soar and soar afgain? And, more importantly, which way will the Potter gang go?

Early signs and industry predictions (as well as the vast multitude of recent interviews mentioned earlier) suggest that the leading threesome of Hogwarts will probably be alright.

Emma Watson has buried her head in books studying in the US and, if her impressive school records are anything to go by, shouldn’t struggle either to cope with adjusting to adult life or, with

a career hotly anticipated to rival Carey Mulligan and Keira Knightley, to add to her burgeoning coffers valued at £22 million. Rupert Grint, whose future is probably most unsure, is promising to take some time out of the acting world to enjoy the extreme sports he has missed due to filming obligations and is close to signing-on to play Eddie “the eagle” in a remake of the skiers life.

Daniel Radcliffe, worth £36 million, is booked-up well into 2013 with films including The Woman in Black but, if rumours are to be believed, has the biggest potential to crash – people often draw on his excitable temperament as a sign of possible instability.

Either way, with a combined wealth of nearly £100 million it’s safe to say that whatever happens they are unlikely to suffer the humiliation of their laser card getting rejected when trying to buy a roll in Spar (which definitely did not happen to me yesterday).

Could Potter go pothead?

As the curtains begin to close on the most succesful film franchise of all time Lulu Dillon looks back at child stars of the past after they were famous and asks if the cast of Harry Potter might turn to the Dark Arts UNLESS YOU have spent the last few weeks with your eyes closed and your fingers in your ears, you will know that last week saw the release of the first of the final two Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows films. As someone who’s about as “muggle” as you can get (witchcraft and wizardry ain’t my bag), I have found the fact that you can barely visit the toilet without seeing an interview with one of the film’s actors irritating and, now I’ve reached saturation, pretty dull. What I do find interesting is trying to predict the future of the child actors who have spent the childhood as part of history’s biggest film franchise. Will Radcliffe, Watson and Grint manage carve stable showbiz careers? Or will they do a

“Despite a penchant for narcotics, Culkin is still worth $35m.”

Maculay Culkin or a LiLo and windup as drug-addled brats spending their twenties going into and out of rehab?

Before looking into the the future, it is worth quickly exploring past and particularly the tale of Macaulay Culkin, star of films including Home Alone and Richie Rich, who is widely lauded as the most successful child star ever.

In 1980 Culkin was born in New

23 November, 2010

York and by the age of four was already acting. Prior to his landing the infamous role of Kevin McCallister in the first two Home Alone movies, he enjoyed various film and broadway performances. It was, however, in Home Alone (directed by Chris Columbus of Harry Potter) when Culkin found international fame (not least because of his close friendship with Michael Jackson) as well as unrivalled fortune – Culkin’s fee for the New York based Home Alone sequel, which he played aged eleven, is reported to have been a jaw-dropping $5 million. This huge earning capacity left Culkin with a fortune reputed to be worth $30 million aged 15.

Wow. But, just as his Home Alone character had to fight-off house burglars using clever contraptions and cunning trickery; in real life Culkin found himself battling the demons arising from his parents’ divorce (caused as his mother and father fought for control of his fortune). The only difference being that in real life Culkin chose to battle these demons with several controlled substances such as marijuana, Xanax and Clonazepam for which he was arrested and fined in 2004.

Following this, apart various other

cameos, he pretty much drew a line under his acting career. However, to say that Culkin is complete car crash of a child actor isn’t quite fair because, unlike Lindsay Lohan, and despite his penchant for narcotics, Culkin is still estimated to be worth $35 million and with that kind of money could you really be bothered to get-out of bed?

On one hand Culkin and Lohan’s downfall is quite similar in that it is supposedly rooted in their parents shenanigans, however, the sheer scale of Lohan’s demise makes it quite different. Her career started at the tender age of three when she appeared in television adverts and was first noticed following a stint on David Letterman’s show. In 1998 she rose to fame with the film Parent Trap for which she won MTV’s Breakthrough Act Award. Now followed the golden years which included films such as Mean Girls and Freaky Friday (still her most lucrative film with worldwide earning of $160 million), as well as her highly successful singing career (her first album, Speak, is certified double platinum). But then, just like Culkin, it all started to unravel – her investment banker father was jailed for misdealing, her parents separated and a long and bitter feud between mother and father over their shares in Lindsay’s success

12 WORLD REVIEW COMMENT

Don’t cry for me Argentina Evan Musgrave looks at how the nation of Argentina has mourned the unexpected passing of its former president, Néstor Carlos Kirchner

A “His power rested on a paradox. He was both a strong leader prone to controversial political showdowns, and an amiable, charismatic character who managed to weather criticism through self-inspired courage.”

n enchanting, enigmatic force in Argentinian political and cultural life since his election in 2003, former president Néstor Carlos Kirchner’s death has come as a devastating blow to hopes of a different future for the country under the Kirchnerist banner.

Life in Argentina ground to a halt in the days after his passing, and citizens filled the streets in a massive galvanised sentiment unseen since the financial crisis of the early 2000s, which Kirchner is credited with solving.

Born in the southernmost province of Santa Cruz, Kirchner attended his local public school, and went on to study law at the University of La Plata where he met his wife, current President Cristina de Fernández de Kirchner. In 1986, Kirchner became mayor of Río Gallegos, and following his political success in this area, he was elected governor of Santa Cruz in 1991. His policies reflected his left-wing ideology and he gained notoriety in openly criticising the performance of then-president Carlos Menem.

In 1999 Argentina entered a crippling economic crisis. After years of sky-rocketing inflation and allegations of corruption, investors quickly pulled out of the country. As a result, many began withdrawing large sums from their bank accounts and exchanging the Argentinian peso for the US dollar.

The Government reacted by essentially freezing all bank accounts for 12 months, allowing only minor sums to be withdrawn. Protesting and rioting became a daily occurrence with banks and foreign businesses being targeted by mobs. In late 2001, amidst deaths from clashes between rioters and police, president Fernando De La Rua absconded via helicopter from Buenos

GOODBYE TO ARGENTINA’S PREMIER POWER COUPLE CRISTINA FERNANDEZ Kirchner was the first woman to be elected Argentina’s leader in its 191-year history, and its second female president (elected or otherwise). The widow of Néstor Carlos Kirchner, no modern-day couple in a democracy has carried out a comparable Aires. With no vice-president in place, a leadership crisis ensued, exacerbating the country’s many problems.

After a series of stand-in presidents attempted to contain the financial mess, an election was called in which the Santa Cruz governor emerged as an unlikely contender for the seat with the Centrist Peronist Justicialist Party. In a runoff with Menem, the pre-crisis president decided to stand down amidst polls indicating a 30 to 40

transfer of power. The couple was affectionately known as “the penguins”, which was a reference to Nestor’s Patagonian home state of Santa Cruz. They evolved into Latin America’s Dynamic Duo, power brokers who held sway over a country of 40 million people. percent preference for Kirchner.

The newly-elected president inherited a country with a $178bn debt, and an impoverished society which had, at the turn of the previous century, been one of the wealthiest in the entire world.

To reformat the nation, Kirchner sought to return to a somewhat agrarian focus. He exploited the high price of soy, personally promoting it to the emerging Chinese market, and

took advantage of the competitive export rates for Argentine beef, while discouraging imports, in an endeavour to rebuild the country from the ground up. Throughout his presidency he maintained an emphasis on remodelling at a grassroots level, pleasing those from the provinces while deftly managing urgent macroeconomic issues, handling foreign relations, while assuaging concerns of those in the capital.

COMMENT

Make the Banks Pay: Time for a Second Bretton Woods Neil Warner analyses the global financial system, the moves that are taking place at the moment and the need for a financial transactions tax

T

he recent meeting of G20 world leaders has gained a large amount of attention.

The focus of the meeting was apparently “currency wars”, the competitive devaluation of currencies that is being pushed by countries such as China. There is a general agreement that the recent rise in protectionism when it comes to global capital flows and cash transactions is a very dangerous development. To an extent this is very much true.

But this general preoccupation misses out on the overall picture. The competitive devaluations are merely a symptom of a different disease stemming from the manner in which global finances are conducted: as a game with high stakes and practically no policing. The French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, asserted last year, and has since repeated, that “we must rethink the financial system from scratch, as at Bretton Woods.” That assertion deserves consideration.

We have frequently heard over

the last couple of years that we are experiencing the worst global crisis since the Second World War, something arising from the fact that 2009 was the world’s first global economic contraction for 60 years.

Surely a crisis that draws such parallels should call for a concomitant

”We cannot regulate the global economy of 2010 with tools largely concocted in the 1940s.” reaction? The world in 1944 in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, responded with an unprecedented proposal of institutions for global economic regulation and came up with the IMF and the organisations we now know as the World Bank and WTO. Its purpose was essentially to facilitate the regulation of an economy which,

if unregulated and unprotected by any centralised guidance, had the potential to send the world into catastrophe as it did in the 1930s.

What was dreamt up then now no longer works for our global economy today. Our current crisis should provoke a similar response to that in 1944, driven by the knowledge that we cannot regulate the world of 2010 with tools largely concocted in the 1940s.

The term “a Second Bretton Woods” has been interpreted in a number of different ways. However in general it involves a recognition that we have, for a long time now, been working with antiquated machinery. The old Bretton Woods system has not really been working since the United States went off the gold standard in 1971, a circumstance described by Noam Chomsky as the most important world event since World War II. Since this has happened, cross-border capital flows have been given a devastating liberty and operate at a rate which old institutions cannot keep up with. Since

currencies have no intrinsic value, countries can engage in devaluations and beggar-thy-neighbour policies at will.

It is generally accepted that the atrociously liberal financial system that instigated the current crisis needs regulation. The main point, however, is that reforms cannot be limited to

“Cross-border capital flows have been given a devastating liberty and operate at a rate with which old institutions cannot keep up.” provisional, national stopgaps that are entirely focused on the specific causes of the 2008 crisis. Traders operate at supranational levels and can consequently avoid taxation and regulation that governments whose power is restricted to the parochial cannot deal with. Just as the anarchic international system of the interwar period limited governments to myopic self-interest, so the contemporary

world is driven to a similar myopic deregulation and currency wars by the lack of an international mechanism to enforce our common interest. This helped precipitate the global financial crisis, but it also makes recovery from and repayment for the damage more difficult.

Because of the quick and easy supranational mobility of the current financial system, nationallyimplemented policies cannot work in the long term. This applies to every government, whether it is the American government’s attempt to limit the size of financial institutions or the EU’s regulation of hedge funds and private equity. Additionally, unregulated capital flows will continue to bring the havoc they have already brought to Latin American and East Asia in the last few decades.

The IMF-centred system of regulating global finance is rotten on a countless number of levels and cannot work in a modern system which is so completely globalised. There needs to be an entirely new institution for regulating global financial transactions if we are to get a sane global economic system or any level of justice for what has already happened.

TRINITY NEWS

13 worldreview@trinitynews.ie

His presidency successfully rallied for import substitution, provided accessible credit for small business, set aside new funds for social welfare and mounted an aggressive attack on tax evasion.

Most remarkable was his knowledge of the complacency which had so often plagued the region in the past. As Argentina’s economy bounced back, powered by its rich exports, its new-found foreign investment and imports flooded the market with US dollars which began to show signs of strangling the competitiveness of the peso. At this point, Kirchner’s cabinet enacted a series of reforms, aimed at limiting speculative foreign investment from destabilising the market.

During his presidency real GDP grew between 8.5 and 9.2 percent each year, and unemployment was contained to around 8.5 percent for most of his tenure, an impressive figure, owing to the poor flow of capital arising as a hangover from businesses reinvesting funds abroad during the crisis.

In addition to these feats, Kirchner’s cabinet firmly negotiated a deal

restructuring 76 percent of Argentina’s external debt at a much lower nominal value of 25 to 30 percent and at longer terms.

Kirchner additionally went before the UN Assembly in 2004, denouncing the IMF as an organisation and implicitly accusing it of departing from its original goal of encouraging economic development in its creditors.

The structural adjustment programmes put in place by the IMF had led him to believe that a more independent route was needed to rebuild the critically balanced nation.

His social welfare reforms paid dividends later on in his presidency with the numnber of those living below the poverty line dropping around 37 percent overall during his tenure.

He was universally lauded for making significant changes to the justice system by overturning amnesty laws and encouraging the courts to go ahead with the trials of hundreds involved in the corrupt dictatorship.

In 2007 he surprisingly did not run for re-election amidst favourable public opinion, but rather promoted his wife, Cristina, as his successor in a successful campaign. Néstor had been expected by many to return in the 2011 to a likely landslide win.

Among Peronists and opposition voices, Kirchner will be remembered as a man who filled a perilous political vacuum. Through him Argentina was placed on a strongly independent path with stable regional cooperation.

His power rested on a paradox: He was at once a strong leader prone to controversial political showdowns yet he remained an amiable, charismatic character who managed to weather criticism.

Among Argentinians and foreign commentators alike Néstor was seen as the power behind the throne of the nation. His death is likely to force his widow to build new alliances and could spark challenges within her own party, even though at present her approval rating stands at 70 percent.

The future of Kirchnerism will depend on how she can weather this truly devastating loss. For the moment opposition leaders will need to endure a wave of public sympathy as their ratings plummet.

Argentina today sits in a comfortable position as the wealthiest nation per capita in South America with a liberal and progressive society and a much stronger regional trade system. The country is additionally set to benefit from the upcoming Olympic Games and FIFA World Cup in Brazil as well as the Copa América tournament in the summer of 2011.

While the legacy of the last decade in Latin America’s politics remains uncertain, Kirchner’s standalone role as a strong reformer and innovative centrist leader will be remembered in this region for decades to come.

Terror attacks in Turkey As the threat of terrorism looms over Europe, Jean-Baptiste Carerre looks to the East where a recent suicide bomb attack in Istanbul took place, possibly carried out by the disgruntled Kurdistan Workers’ party

A

suicide bomber injured 32 people and created panic in Taksim Square, the busiest area of Istanbul on 31 October. The bombing took place at the Ataturk memorial monument at 10 a.m., targeting a police vehicle stationed on the square. Of the 32 injured, only 15 were policemen, while the 17 remaining victims were civilians passing by.

Akin, who works as a valet at the Marmara Hotel, a palace located on Taksim Square, witnessed the bombing: “I just heard a massive noise and saw smoke coming from the Attaturk monument. People were screaming and running. I ran to see what had happened, and saw people injured. There was a lot of blood and even severed members on the ground.

“I wanted to help, but was stopped immediately by policemen. They said we shouldn’t do anything, and wait for the medics. They arrived very soon and started evacuating the injured. It was all chaotic, and very scary. Everyone was afraid another bomb was going to explode.”

“Interpol officials declared that France and Great Britain are regarded as potential targets for serious terrorist attacks.”

A second bomb could have gone off, since the bomber had been carrying several explosive devices in his backpack but they were successfully diffused by the police.

The entire area was immediately sealed by the police, disturbing traffic in the city.

“As I was heading towards Taksim, I noticed it was even busier than usual,” said Ares Shporta, a student from Kosovo who arrived at Taksim shortly after the bombing.

“When I got nearer, I heard people screaming, and saw a lot of smoke and dust coming from the square. I got alarmed, since I was supposed to meet my mother there but I couldn’t get any

The Generals’ Election Elections in Burma took place on 7 November with unsurprising results.

Siri Bjørntvetd analyses the rule of the military junta and what it has meant for the Burmese people over the last two decades

B

urma’s military junta held its first elections in over two decades on Sunday 7 of November, and, by its count, won about 80 percent of the vote. The main opposition party in Burma boycotted the election.

The poll was fraught by accusations of fraud and irregularities, but the junta claims the election represents Burma’s first step away from military rule.

Western governments have condemned the election as neither free nor fair, and the junta used new electoral laws, intimidation and imprisonment to ensure that they remain in control of the country.

The junta has been in control of the country since Aung San Suu Kyi’s party the National League for Democracy (NLD) won 80 percent of the parliamentary seats in Burma’s last free election in 1990.

The NLD’s landslide victory took the military junta by surprise and they

23 November, 2010

nullified the results and reasserted their tyrannical rule, which ensured that Burma, once one of the wealthiest countries in southeast Asia, eventually became one of the most impoverished

“The junta claims the election represents Burma’s first step away from military rule.” in the region. Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner was released a week after the election, having been detained for fifteen years.

In this election the junta used new electoral laws which guaranteed them a quarter of the seats in the parliament even before the election, and the new constitution banned Suu Kyi, along with many other key pro-democracy figures from participating in the elec-

tion. The NLD is faced with an uncertain future as they decided to boycott the election and the new election laws stipulate that parties that do not take part in the elections have to be disbanded.

The two main parties that contested the election are both closely linked to the military junta. The Union Solidarity and Development Party is led by former junta members who have recently retired, and the National Unity Party is led by an ex-deputy leader of the military. In addition the structural design of the government ensured that the interior minister, the defence minister and the minister responsible for border affairs must be held by serving generals.

The junta has also detained and imprisoned opponents, closed their of-

closer as the police blocked the whole area around Taksim with barriers. It turned out all alright, with nobody dying, but it still is scary to imagine that one person can block the whole center of Istanbul for hours,” The attack was partcularly alarming considering the threat of international terrorism currently looming over Western Europe, as Interpol officials declared that France and Great Britain are regarded as potential targets for serious terrorist attacks. The level of security in the two countries, and throughout the continent in general, has been raised.

Several terrorist plots were uncovered in recent weeks, like the plane rigged with explosive from Yemen intercepted in England, or the explosive packages destined for Germany.

Chancellor Angela Merkel and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi have pronounced the seriousness of these threats.

Even though involvement of AlQuaeda was at first considered to be behind the Istanbul bombing, since the terrorist organisation had already attacked Turkey in 2003 (targeting two synagogues, and killing 62 people), this theory was soon discarded in favour of

the Kurdistan workers’ party (PKK).

The attack took place at the end of the ceasefire between the PKK and the Turkish government.

A PKK spokesperson strongly denied any involvement in the attack, stating that they did not want to target civilians, and that they advocated pacifist resolution, even agreeing to a new

“There was a lot of blood and even severed members on the ground ... everyone was afraid another bomb was going to explode.”” eight-month ceasefire.

However, further investigations revealed that the bomber, Vedat Acar, was indeed linked to the PKK, having recently travelled through the Turkish-Iraqi border, where a PKK base is known to be located.

Even if the attack is the result of internal Turkish issues, it is still alarming considering the current international climate.

SS Taksim Square, Istanbul where the recent suicide bomb attack took place.

fices and harassed members’ relatives.

According to a Human Rights Watch report from 2009 there are over 2100 political prisoners in Burma, and over the years millions of Burmese people have fled the country.

The regime continues to use forced labour, and the junta has been accused of committing serious human rights abuses. Most notably, 3000 people were killed when the military suppressed the student-led protest in 1988.

More recently the regime suppressed demonstrations led by students and monks in the autumn of 2007, in an operation which killed at least 31 unarmed civilians.

The junta also actively sought to prevent both international and domestic relief efforts when cyclone Nargis ravaged the country two years ago, killing 150,000.

The regime arrested volunteers try-

General Than Shwe, who was retired from the junta for being “too moderate”. General Than Shwe favoured crushing the protests with even more violence

ing to deliver aid to victims of the cyclone.

Despite the magnitude and the devastation of the cyclone the junta pushed through with a referendum on the constitution the very same month, in which according to the junta 99 percent of the eligible voters turned out, and 92.4 percent voted in favour of the new constitution.

The military junta will remain in power in Burma using retired generals or civilians closely linked to the junta to give the regime a more civilian look.

Many saw the election as Burma’s most significant day in two decades.

When Suu Kyi was released from house arrest, thousands of people greeted her outside her home in Rangoon. It is unclear, h o w e v e r, whether her release signals any real change in Burma.

14 BUSINESS business@trinitynews.ie

COMMENT

Are tuition fees a necessary evil?

Is it time for a change? With the rumblings of a bailout getting ever louder, Caitriona Gallagher questions the current system of funding our universities, and takes an in-depth look at the alternative funding methods we may need to pursue

S

tanford’s students pay $47,000 in tuition fees.

In Cambridge, they pay £3290, a figure which is set to rise in the near future. In Trinity, students pay just €1500 a year. In order to compete with the leading universities of the world, Trinity and the other Irish universities may have no choice but to reintroduce tuition fees. The Taoiseach announced last week that the Government’s yearly budget must be cut by at least six billion euro, meaning serious cutbacks in the education department.

With the combined lack of money coming in from students and cuts from the Government, Trinity is no longer able to keep up with its competitors and uphold the level of academia it has had for the past few centuries. In the latest ranking of universities around the world by Times Higher Education, Trinity dropped out of the top 50.

Evidently, every aspect of college life is being affected. There is no question that more funding is needed.

The challenge is finding the right

“Trinity is no longer able to keep up with its competitors and uphold the level of academia it has had for the past few centuries”. balance between having fees and not denying third-level education to students. Countries such as the United

motions passed by the UK government to help poorer students avoid dropping out.

All students, regardless of household income, are entitled to at least 75 percent of the maintenance

“The US department of education awards around $100 billion a year in grants, workstudy assistance and low interest loans”

SS Students protesting against reintroducing fees earlier in the month. Photo by Cian Ginty

States and the United Kingdom have had university fees for a considerable period of time and on a much greater scale than what Ireland faces.

However, they have maintained a balance whereby a lack of money does not hinder one’s ability to pursue their studies past second level.

Many students across the world simply do not have the means to pay tuition fees unassisted. Tuition fees allied with high living expenses have meant that university has become a very expensive chapter in students’ lives. So how do countries like the US or England deal with this challenge?

In the United States, 70.1 percent

of all high school graduates in 2009 went on to attend university after high school. This number is extremely high for a country where students often face fees in excess of $40,000 a year. Crucial to this success is a system whereby financial aid is accessible to all.

The US department of education awards around $100 billion a year in grants, work-study assistance and low-interest loans. As well as this, the schools, non-profit organisations and churches all actively contribute towards paying for students’ education.

Moreover, the universities themselves are committed to assisting those who cannot pay. Stanford, for

instance, awarded just under $128 million in scholarships and grants to its students in the academic year 2009/2010. The greater part of this money went to those in financial need.

There are also student loans available, both federal and private, to help meet the tuition costs. It is clear that there is an adequate system in place to help accommodate students who struggle to pay the fees.

In terms of the English system, their situation is much more comparable with what Ireland could face in the coming years. Average registration fees in universities are £3255 per year.

However, there have been several

loan, which can be up to £6298 to help them cover living expenses. After that, a student can apply for the remaining 25 percent based on financial need.

There is also a tuition fee loan, which covers one’s fees in full up to £3290 for the academic year 2010/11. It is then not required that these loans be paid back these until earning at least £15,000 a year.

Furthermore, there are also special support grants worth up to £2906.

These are allocated based on financial need and family income. On top of all this, each university or college offers a variety of bursaries.

So, taking all this into consideration, what does Ireland need to do? Follow the example of the UK and US. Fees have not stopped students abroad from continuing their education so the same should happen here, as long as there is a system of financial aid set in place. Investing in one’s education is investing in the future of the nation.

A refreshing business idea Aquaid is a bottled water brand with a difference. This week, Hannah McCarthy spoke to its founder, Eoin Dunlevy, to find out more AQUAID IS one of the growing number of Irish businesses to ride the fresh wave of social entrepreneurship.

The water bottle brand, which allows consumers to choose the cause their purchase supports, was founded by 19-year-old UCD student Eoin Dunlevy with the aim of turning customers into philanthropists without making drastic changes to their daily lives.

A proportion of all the sales revenue goes to good causes. In the case of Aquaid it’s 10c out of every €1.15 bottle. The innovation that Aquaid has taken is that it allows the consumer to specify what type of cause is supported by their purchase. This is done by differentiating the bottles by colour: pink, blue, green and orange. Each of these colours denotes different causes: breast cancer, children, environmental

protection and muscular disorder respectively. Every six months, the designated charity for the cause receives a cheque from Aquaid towards its cause.

Initially Aquaid had used national charities in its business endeavors but Dunlevy’s aim is to bring locally based charities on board so that consumers can pick charities from their local area to support. The Aquaid website (Aquaid.ie) allows the public to nominate the charity that they would most like to see supported by Aquaid.

Dunlevy has initially aimed Aquaid at students and the business model has emphasised students’ unions as the primary distributors of the water bottles. The fact that Aquaid is bottled by a top Irish firm and in compliance with global manufacturing standards

has meant that it has recently been able to attract high-calibre distributors like SuperValu and Spar, although this expansion has been limited to stores in the South Donegal region.

At €1.15 it’s competitively priced and it’s well-designed with a special sports cap for drinking on the move.

Dunlevy believes that both consumers and retailers benefit from the product: consumers are offered a hassle-free means of supporting a charitable cause while retailers benefit from a boosted public perception.

He believes that in terms of starting businesses “the easiest time is in College”. Students don’t have the pressures of a full-time job and are invariably familiar with tight budgets.

He used family members and friends to test bottle designs and prototypes and it was their input that helped him to come up with the “splat” Aquaid logo for the bottle.

As of yet, Dunlevy has not sought external investment. His personal savings provided the start-up capital that he needed and he says the company operates on an extremely tight budget.

He has approached Donegal Enterprise Board and Dublin Enterprise Board for talks on funding in the future.

In terms of future plans for the business, Dunlevy has had interest from a number of other high street retailers and chain stores. He is now in talks with well-known coffee chain Insomnia to introduce Aquaid into Insomnia’s branches in UCD, as a trial run for national distribution.

Dunlevy has said that one of the big problems he faced was his age. As a young-looking 19-year-old he was aware that many suppliers might be dismissive of him. In general he tried to build up business relationships first through email, fax and telephone before face-to-face meetings.

WWEoin Dunlevy’s colour-coded bottles allow customers to make a donatation to the charity of their choice

Finding common ground Vanessa Chanliau examines the G20 summit, and the efforts being made to curb in-house fighting THE G20 had a two-day meeting in Seoul on Thursday 11 November, and released the next day what is said to be the longest communiqué produced by a G20 meeting. The G20 is a group of international finance ministers and central bank governors whose goal since its creation in 1997 has been to promote global financial stability.

At the top of the agenda was the “damaged dynamic” of international trade, with some countries supporting massive trade surpluses, others equally high deficits. US President Barack Obama declared that “exchange rates must reflect economic realities,” referring largely to China, whose devalued currency has left the country with a trade imbalance.

This has slowed domestic demand and distorted international demand, which, in a time of slowed consumption, is a problem for recovering economies, as well as developing ones. Brazil, whose currency is overvalued by about 40 percent, has taken special measures to ensure that their exchange rate will not appreciate any more than it has.

Since the crisis of 2008, the United States has grown more intolerant of China’s trade surplus. Before Thursday’s summit, the US had made efforts to allow firms to seek tariff protection against countries whose

currencies were undervalued, which would keep producers competitive.

While the US proposed that China aim for a certain (lower) level of trade surplus, German Chancellor Angela Merkel argued that this would be useless, as more than just the exchange rate affects global imbalances. Germany is an example of this. Germany also benefits from a high trade surplus, but as part of the Eurozone, it cannot manipulate its currency to rectify the problem.

While a number of representatives criticised China, another issue that affects the trade dynamic is inflation.

Quantitative easing has been a policy in many developed economies in order to avoid deflation. In the US and the UK, money has been printed in order to buy government bonds, and the ECB has also taken extended measures to boost banks’ liquidity. In Japan, most notably, banks were assured that cheap loans would still be available, a policy implemented in an effort to bring down the value of the yen.

Both Barack Obama and David Cameron declared that the summit had led to “real progress,” on the issue currency manipulation. However, this optimism was not shared by all, with German officials holding that the most important issues remain largely unresolved.

TRINITY NEWS

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23 November, 2010

16 TRAVEL travel@trinitynews.ie

A case of curiosity killing the cat?

Sinead Gillett examines whether the expanding wildlife tourism sector reflects a positive shift in the eco-tourism movement, or signals a developing case of curiosity killing the cat

T

he desire to get as close as possible to animals in the wild is born of an innate human sense of curiosity.

Many find it both thrilling and fascinating to seek out and observe exotic creatures in their natural habitat.

Consequently, speciality tour operators that focus on wildlife adventures, or safaris, have emerged. From local businesses to large international operations, these companies recognise the pulling power that wildlife holds when it comes to attracting tourist traffic.

The most popular wildlife experience is the African safari.

Around one half of the estimated 12 million trips per annum that make up the global wildlife tourism market are to African safari locations, with South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania and Botswana being the top destinations. The lion, leopard, African elephant, rhino, and Cape buffalo – collectively known as “the big five game” – are a huge draw for tourists, although there are many other animals of interest.

Other destinations boast their

own array of exotic species, and popular locals include; the Galapagos islands, Indonesia and Patagonia.

Australia has a diverse offering that includes marsupials, marine life, as well as poisonous snakes and spiders.

Malaysia is home to the critically

“The demand for wildlife packages has created a boom in hotel and resort construction, particularly on sensitive forest lands.” endangered Orangutan, Canada is famous for bears, India for tigers, and China for pandas. The list is endless.

Where you find wildlife, you find tourists.

As well as providing enjoyment for millions of people, wildlife-watching tourism has an important educational function. It informs tourists about the

indigenous animals of a particular region, and their place within that eco-system. Crucially, wildlife tourism helps to raises awareness of the many pressing social and environmental issues that threaten the world's wildlife population, for example, climate change, pollution, poaching, land conversion, and deforestation.

Increased awareness helps to generate financial support for conservation and protection schemes, many of which also receive contributory funding from the tour operators themselves. Due to this positive focus on conservation, wildlife tourism is often considered a form of eco-tourism.

The industry provides a significant source of income and employment for a growing number of local communities, particularly those in developing countries, such as the African nations, that struggle to generate economic growth.

Wildlife tours stimulate secondary commercial activity for local economies by bringing tourists into the region and bestowing a new demographic to be utilised by local businesses.

Often, infrastructure is developed solely to accommodate tourist traffic but in many cases its implementation is as beneficial to residents as it is to visitors. All of this helps to improve the standard of living, and quality of life, experienced by local people.

As interest in wildlife continues to grow, particularly due to its exposure in international media, so too does the demand for wildlife excursion packages. In order to meet this demand, more and more suppliers are entering the market, and as a result, the wildlife tourism industry continues to expand. But just how sustainable is this growth? And is wildlife tourism as eco- and animal-friendly as it appears at first glance?

As the industry grows, large-scale international companies threaten the presence of local tour suppliers in the market. The freezing out, or suppression, of these businesses is likely to result in a Western-owned industry for Westerners, a situation that, as is the case with other similarly structured industries, can be conducive

to the exploitation of workers and local resources.

Already the environment is suffering because of wildlife tourism.

The demand for wildlife packages has created a boom in hotel and resort construction, particularly on sensitive forest lands. This development contributes to deforestation and serves to narrow the expanse of natural habitat available to animals.

Directly affecting animals and their habitat is the issue of disturbance.

Wildlife viewing can disrupt feeding or

“Consumer power dictates the tourist industry; if tourists want real conservation then that is what they will get. But it is up to the individual to insist on this.” nesting sites, disturb breeding patterns or scare away animals. In Kenya, for example, tourist presence drives cheetahs off their reserves, increasing the risk of inbreeding and thus further endangering the species.

For other animals disturbance can have the opposite, but equally damaging, effect: they acclimate to the presence of humans, making them more vulnerable to poachers and more likely to enter human settlements.

Animals that are distracted by the presence of tourists are made more vulnerable to their predators. For some animals, like Canada's harp seals, disturbance has also been found to cause a decline in the attendance of adults to their young.

According to a 2006 report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) / Convention on Migratory Species (CMS), such adverse effects can be avoided or minimised, providing that sufficient resources and funds are available for effective management, and that

tourism development is subject to proper planning controls and limits.

For example “limiting visitor numbers and accompanying visitor groups with trained guides helps to minimise the direct disturbance of wildlife; and walkways can be installed to reduce habitat damage from trampling by visitors in heavily visited areas.

Tourism facilities can be planned so that they are situated well away from sensitive areas for wildlife, and overall development kept within clear limits that are established to prevent unacceptable impacts.”

Polices, such as these, need to be sought after by tourists. Consumer power dictates the tourist industry. If tourists want real conservation then that is what they will get – but it is up to the individual to insist on this.

When planning your wildlifewatching trip it is important to thoroughly research the tour company you intend to use. If their operation is motivated by conservation and managed in a way that acts in the best interest of the animals, and indeed of the local community, then you – and atrisk animal populations – are in good hands.

Wildlife tourism certainly has its negatives. However, if wildlifewatching is managed in a way that is compatible to the conservation of wild animals, then sustainable growth of the industry is viable. While curiosity continues to drive demand, it does not altogether threaten to kill the cat.

Sharks, dolphins, and whales, oh my!

Australia boasts some of the richest undersea wildlife, and whether it’s swimming with the sharks, the dolphins, or around the Great Barrier Reef, there’s something for everyone, Travel Editor Jimmy Lee reports

G

iven the choice of the ability to fly or to breathe underwater, which one would you choose?

Almost everyone says fly, because, well, at least we can swim in water, and scuba’s not that far off.

But for the most part, we can actually see everything there is to see in the sky. Sure, it’s a different vantage point looking up from looking down, but if you’ve seen one cloud, you’ve seen ‘em all. That’s why there’s no question, being able to breathe underwater would be the only choice.

There’s a whole world under there with way more going on than we’ve got up here. Like a certain Jamaican crab once said, “Darling it’s better, down where it’s wetter, take it from me”.

Enter Australia. Here you can do things you’d never have dreamed you could. I’m not talking about learning to surf, or hike through an ancient rainforest (although both are admittedly very cool), I’m talking about entering that deep blue mystery that David Attenborough keeps

talking about. Australians have a reputation for being crazy adrenaline junkies, but where they really make their mark is how much they want you to experience what they do, and how easily they can make that happen.

With companies like Rockingham Wild Encounters, you can swim with dolphins. And not in a giant tank with the tagged and trained type. These are wild dolphins out off the coast near Perth, Western Australia. Dolphins

“How, you say, do you thump the ancient hunting wisdom of the Great White? A little metal cage. Take that, evolution.” are apparently the second smartest species next to yours truly, and you

WILDLIFE SAFARI FROM HOME • Dolphins and Penguins: • Sharks: • Whale Sharks:

http://bit.ly/9Jze21 http://bit.ly/bgabmf www.sharkcagediving.com.au/ www.whalesharkdive.com/

can see why. Their willingness to encounter with humans is incredible, and the Rockingham guides are their best friends.

If dolphins remind you too much of the aquarium, you can make a trip up the coast to Ningaloo Reef where you can swim with whale sharks.

Could there be any cooler realistic combination of animals? Discounting prizzly Bears and ligers, whale sharks are second-to-none.Not technically whales, yes, but at 17 meters, whale sharks are the largest, and arguably most magnificent looking fish in the sea.

If Shark Bay doesn’t do it for you, you can try the perennial favourite out east in the Great Barrier Reef. One of the most popular diving sites in the world, you might think that you’d be crossing flippers with a fellow tourista at every turn. But with 2600km of the world’s largest coral reef, there’s plenty of space to move around.

Companies like Quicksilver tours don’t require you to have prior experience scuba diving, and offer an introductory diving session that allows you to get more than just your feet wet.

Sharks (of the non-human eating type) are abound, and you are given a considerable amount of freedom to explore your new coral playground, especially taking into account you have had only a half-hour’s training.

It might all sound a bit dodgy, but the professionalism and track record of the staff is more than enough to know you’re in good hands.

Now, back to the initial question: to fly or to swim? One of the first responses to said question is “Am I impervious to dangerous sea creatures, namely sharks?” Well, that can be taken care of in Australia as well. In Port Lincoln, South Australia, you can go face-to-face with a Great White Shark as it tries to work through its aeons of evolutionary

knowledge on how best to eat you.

How, you say, do you thump the ancient hunting wisdom of the Great White? A little metal cage. Take that, evolution.

So now that you know just how friendly the dolphins are, the grandeur of the whale sharks, and that you can point and laugh at a creature that used to eat dinosaurs, the decision is pretty easy. Now combine that with a window-seat flight to Australia, and you’re pretty much getting the best of both worlds.

TRINITY NEWS

SCIENCE 17 science@trinitynews.ie

Cure not to be sneezed at Alexander Hess OFTEN CALLED the “Nobel Prize Factory,” the internationally renowned Molecular Biology Laboratory at the University of Cambridge, has made another potentially groundbreaking discovery.

Just last year the laboratory celebrated bringing home its fourteenth Nobel Prize since its foundation in 1947.

Among its accolades are the discovery of the structure of DNA in 1953 by the famous duo Crick and Watson, and most recently in 2009 the elucidation of the structure of the ribosome, the primary protein “factory” in the cell.

The latest “eureka moment” to ring out from the fumehoods of this laboratory may just be a bona-fide treatment for the menace that is the common cold. This treatment, developed by Dr Leo James and his team, can also tackle many other viral ailments currently afflicting the world.

The winter vomiting virus (noravirus) and even rotavirus (which inflicts severe diarrhoea and kills thousands of children in developing countries) can literally be picked to pieces by the protein TRIM21.

Why has this protein, already well known to science, become the source of all this excitement? The answer is the discovery of how it operates inside the cell in conjunction with antibodies.

We have been led to believe until now that the action of antibodies were restricted to outside the cells, in the bloodstream, extra-cellular fluids, etc., seeking out foreign bodies and sticking to them, preparing them for attack and destruction by an army of white blood cells.

It has now been revealed that these

SS The new treatment hopes to save millions of people each year the seasonal annoyance of the common cold.

antibodies can act inside the cell, contrary to what many of College’s firstyear Science students learn in the prescribed biology textbooks.

It was previously thought that the immune system had no choice but to kill the wayward cell before the virus could replicate, become too ambitious and infect the other cells of the body.

It was revealed by James and his team that, “the antibody is attached to the virus and when the virus gets sucked inside the cell, the antibody stays attached, there is nothing in that process to make the antibody fall off.”

These still-attached antibodies attract the attention of TRIM21, which naturally occurs within the cell.

It in turn attracts cylindrical proteins that inhabit the inside of the cell and attach themselves to the virus particle and proceed to rip the virus into tiny virus components.

“The beauty of it is that for every

infection event, for every time a virus enters a cell, it is also an opportunity for the antibody in the cells to take the virus out,” James said.

One distinct possibility is that this TRIM21 protein could be delivered in a nasal spray, to attack the viruses directly and bring this piece of biological

“Antibodies are formidable molecular war machines; it now appears that they can continue to attack viruses within cells.” war-machinery to where it hurts.

“This is a way of boosting all the antibodies you’d be naturally making against the virus. The advantage is that

Celestial show returns to Earth for a few nights only Alannah NicPhaidin Contributing Writer

ON NOVEMBER 12, 1833 some people in the western hemisphere thought that the world was coming to an end.

It appeared that the sky was raining stars, and the brightness caused by the occurrence awoke many a sleepers.

What people did not understand was it was a phenomenon that we refer to today as the Leonid Meteor Shower. This celestial light show made its return to Earth between November 10 and 21, 2010. During the peak hours of the cosmic event, a shooting star was visible every few minutes.

We do not expect the same show of light and shooting stars as in 1833 but people were able to notice some of these bits of comet debris crashing into the Earth’s upper atmosphere.

These particles have an average estimated speed of 160,000 miles per hour, or 72 kilometres per second. The fastest bullets on the market today can reach speeds of only 1.22 kilometres per second, a mere crawl compared to Leonid.

One of the reasons these bits of comet debris hit at such speed is that the Earth is orbiting the Sun in the opposite direction to the particles in the Leonid shower. This means that the combined speed of the Earth going in one direction, and the speed of Leonid going in the other, increases the intensity of the collision between Leonid and the

23 November, 2010

Trinity leads the way toward new vaccines SCIENTISTS FROM Trinity College and the University of Leicester have made an exciting breakthrough in understanding the body’s immune response to pneumonia, meningitis and septicaemia. The researchers sought to understand what happens when the pathogen Streptococcus pneumoniae infects a cell. The research showed that immune response is triggered by the bacterial toxin pneumolysin, which activates a group of proteins called NLRP3 inflammasome.

It was also discovered that this mechanism operates independently of other immune response proteins.

These results have the potential to play a significant role in the development of vaccines against pneumococcal disease, which is responsible for over one million infant deaths annually and also affects the elderly by infecting the respiratory tract. Results were published in the journal PLoS Pathogens.

Contributing Writer

“Even rotavirus, which kills thousands of children in developing countries, can be literally picked to pieces by the protein TRIM21.”

HEALTH

SS The dazzling Leonid Meteor Shower was visible from Earth between November 10 and 21.

Earth’s upper atmosphere, creating the effect that we see in the night sky.

The history of this phenomenon has been exceptionally well-recorded.

Some of the most impressive years for Leonid’s activity were in the years 1533, 1366, 1037, and 934. The year 902 was

referred to as the “Year of the Stars” in Arab calendars.

Unfortunately this year was not to be one of the more spectacular years for the average “sightseer” but it was still worth braving the cold to see the spectacle.

While the show can be dazzling, the particles that make up Leonid are not just pleasant to look at, they also hold a few important key pieces of information that may help us to understand our solar system, and the universe.

These particles are thought to be small pieces of material created in the upheaval that was the birth of our solar system.

These bits of comet debris are thought to have formed along with our Sun an estimated 4.6 billion years ago.

This means that at the centre of each of these pieces of comet are the unspoiled particles that were the same as some of the main pieces of matter that created our solar system all those billions of years ago.

Yet each time particles from Leonid pass the Sun and are exposed to its intense amount of solar radiation, some of the particles are boiled away.

Eventually it will be completely broken apart by the Sun, or have crashed into something else, like Earth’s upper atmosphere.

All things, including the stars, eventually end. So it is well worth taking the time to watch the show.

you can use that one drug against potentially lots of viral infections,” states James.

In short, TRIM21 gives the infected cell a chance to fend off the virus by itself with its own biological machinery instead of the use of conventional drugs.

Sir Greg Winter, deputy director of the Laboratory of Molecular Biology, sums it up: “Antibodies are formidable molecular war machines; it now appears that they can continue to attack viruses within cells.

“This research is not only a leap in our understanding of how and where antibodies work, but more generally in our understanding of immunity and infection.”

Scientists believe the first clinical trials of new drugs based on the findings could begin within two to five years. It appears this celebrated laboratory has done it again.

BOOK REVIEW

Darwin today IT IS hard to talk about Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species without seeming overstated. But to his credit, it remains one of the most influential books ever written.

This Wednesday witnesses the 151st anniversary of Darwin’s seminal classic, whose impact has been felt by scientists worldwide, by Nazi eugenicists, and even by Irish writers. To this day there is only one other book that is so widely known, discussed and debated, yet so rarely read: the Bible.

The Origin of Species sold out on the first day of its publication in 1859. A century and a half later, his influence is felt by natural scientists, theologians, sociologists, political scientists and more. It has inspired a revolution in understanding human nature, but has also been severely misinterpreted.

The Origin of Species has even helped to shape Irish writing. The famous playwright and Trinity College graduate J. M. Synge wrote in 1892, “When I was fourteen I obtained a book of Darwin’s. My studies showed me the force of what I read, and the more I put it from me the more it rushed back with new instances and power.” Born Protestant, Synge later renounced Christianity. “Soon after relinquishing the Kingdom of God”, Synge recalled, “I began to take a real interest in the Kingdom of Ireland.”

It is a lengthy book; at times it is tedious, at times politically incorrect. In spite of its shortcomings, The Origin of Species continues to amaze its readers with 600 pages of pure human observation. J. M. Synge proves it: you certainly don’t need to be a scientist to read the book that changed biology forever.

Kate Palmer

MOLECULAR MEDICINE

Trinity researchers take home award RESEARCHERS FROM the Institute of Molecular Medicine and the Centre for High-Content Analysis in Trinity College were the recipients of GE Healthcare’s High-Content Analysis (HCA) Award.

The lead authors of the awardwinning study, Dr Michael Freeley and Dr Dara Dunican, investigated how white blood cells (T lymphocytes) move in the body during immune response. In fact, not only is their movement crucial to an effective immune response, but irregular movement of T lymphocytes into tissues is a major contributing factor in the development of diseases such as multiple sclerosis.

Researchers involved used the IN Cell Analyser 1000 to measure a range of parameters related to cell shape and took steps in defining the proteins involved in T lymphocyte migration.

ASTRONOMY

A glimpse at ancient atmospheres SCIENTISTS AT University College San Diego have discovered a new chemical reaction that may help uncover new information on the ancient atmospheres of Earth and Mars. This chemical reaction takes place on the surface of aerosols in the atmosphere. The researchers also discovered that atmosphere can be trapped in carbonate rock. This provides insight into how carbonates form on Earth and Mars, as well as advancing understanding of climate change on Earth.

In particular, a higher than expected proportion of oxygen-17 isotopes was found in the carbonates.

Interestingly, this discovery also provides a simple chemical explanation for the carbonate inclusions found in a meteorite from Mars that was once thought to be evidence of ancient Martian life.

Anthea Lacchia

18 OPINION PROFILE PATRICK PRENDERGAST

Waiting in the wings Laura Twomey looks at the career and plans of former Vice Provost Patrick Prendergast, and is struck by his burning ambition for Trinity

E

lections are a contentious business, but one election that will certainly be going ahead next year will be that of Provost to our very own college.

Professor Patrick Prendergast has emerged as an early favourite for the job. Since publicly declaring his candidacy back in October, he has returned to his office in the Parsons Building, where he is Professor of Bioengineering, having spent two years in the role of Vice Provost.

I wanted to find out his motivations for declaring his candidacy.

Did Prendergast possess the experience, academic standing and drive to undertake the role, in an environment of economic hardship and the everpresent danger of slipping academic standards?

What was left in no doubt was Prendergast’s loyalty and commitment to Trinity, and what could be better for a potential Provost to possess than these attributes? He said one of the highlights of his undergrad experience was when he moved into Botany Bay. “It gave me a real sense of community to live there,” he recalled. “It was the real campus

YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW...

Favourite music: Professor Prendergast’s dream Trinity Ball acts would be Josh Ritter, Florence and the Machine or Van Morrision A fan of: The black and white Trinity Cat. Prendergast says he will always be welcome in the Provost’s house, should Prendergast be elected

experience, to live and learn together with others.” A mechanical engineering undergrad, he went on to complete his PhD here.

No doubt one of the most fascinating and aspects of Prendergast’s background is his extensive and illustrious academic experience abroad. His first experience abroad, having won a Council of Europe scholarship, was the university of Bologna. No doubt it was a formative experience, being his first taste of continental academia and Italian cuisine at one of the oldest universities in the world.

Sabbatical opportunities then followed in Poland, Rotterdam, Warsaw, Barcelona, and Rotterdam. Yet it was his experience at the University of Nijmegen in the Netherlands that shaped much of his views on the delivery of graduate education. “There, I encountered research of the highest international standard.”

Not one to shy away from a challenge, Prendergast brought home to Trinity his experience of the Dutch model of conducting intense four year postgraduate programmes. “It was pushing open a door, and all staff were very positive – it was a revolution in Irish graduate education.” His appointment as Dean of Graduate Studies in 2004 was the perfect role for Prendergast to continue changing the face of postgraduate studies. This culminated in a great success for Prendergast in the opening of the Innovation Academy, along with UCD. When asked about the subject of

SS Illustration by Malwina Ostrowska

becoming Provost, he was quietly confident in his abilities. “I’m enthused by the challenge of leading the University, ensuring it maintains and improves standing in the global arena.” He claims he will continue to emphasise research-led teaching if he gets the position. Prendergast also did not shy away from inheriting the problem of restructuring. He admits problems so far have been to do with indecision, “Trinity needs to focus back on what matters – education and research. Staff are enthusiastic and will find a way to work within a new structure, but consistency is needed.”

I broached the contentious subject of fees, and thankfully was met with a refreshingly honest answer. “The payment of a tuition fee, so long as it is not so high that it causes difficulties for students, I think it’s reasonable, but it needs to be introduced at the same time as a loan scheme, or some other grant system for students that don’t have the means to pay themselves.”

He added that, “We must keep the ability to offer high quality education.

Low quality education doesn’t benefit anyone.”

A supporter of student activism, he welcomed the USI student march, stating the Government should not be let off the hook, and that “the march was the right thing to do”. If he were to become Provost, he says that he would welcome a frank discussion with students on the subject of fees.

Prendergast clearly has a vision for Trinity, one of achieving academic excellence across all faculties, climbing the world rankings and keeping the aspects that make it special. He boasts the CV, ability and enthusiasm to be a real contender in the race for 1 Grafton Street.

Such a positive attitude and belief in the massive potential Trinity has boiling under it’s palladian façade is much needed in any potential Provost.

What’s needed now is a visionary with a wealth of experience, and it seems we may not need to look much further than the bioengineering building.

PRENDERGAST’S TRINITY CV 1983-1987 Undergraduate in Mechanical Engineering 1987-1991 PhD Candidate in Bioengineering 1995-2007 Lecturer and Associate Professor 2004-2007 Dean of Graduate Studies 2002-2008 Director of Bioengineering 2009 ScD, Bioengineering (Higher Doctorate for published work) 2008-Present Vice Provost Chief Academic Officer Professor of Bioengineering

Remind me again what we’re in college for?

Michael Gilligan argues that making us pay more for our education may make us realise why we are in Trinity at all

L

AST WEEK’S rather discreet announcement by the Government that college fees will be increased next year by between five and eight hundred euro seems to have gone largely unnoticed by the student community.

This rise in the registration fee, which will be the second in two years, will put the cost of going to college somewhere in the region of €2000 per annum. And, if we spot the pattern, this probably means that the coming years will see further increases in fees as the Government frantically attempts to reduce the country’s colossal budget deficit.

So what does this backdoor introduction of tuition fees mean for students and for third-level education in general?

It means, plain and simple, that the increased monetary worth of university education requires a corresponding increase in the value which we attribute to that education.

We all know of that “ledgendary” (spelling mistake intended) student who parades around College – usually residing, admittedly, in the Arts Building – and boasts about having attended only

seven lectures this semester.

We all know the students for whom the enjoyment of a social event is directly proportional to the amount of alcohol consumed. We all saw the large cohort of intoxicated students in last week’s protest who destroyed its credibility by binge-drinking (at three in the afternoon) and throwing their empty beer cans at the Gardaí. And worryingly, some of us see an ironic truth in the Facebook group “College, it’s like being on the dole but your parents are proud of you. lol” No longer can certain Irish students afford, financially or morally, to indulge in such a lifestyle.

The problem with higher education in Ireland (and elsewhere) is that it has been taken for granted. What used to be a prestigious route of self-betterment and a guarantee of employment has become almost a rite of passage. The results are obvious: a decrease in the appreciation of higher education and a subsequent rise in academic inflation.

Master’s and PhDs have become what Bachelor’s degrees used to be. And as we all know, further study is anything but cheap.

In last Saturday’s Irish Independent, the eternal last-page aggravator “Mick the Maverick” turned his eye on the student protest. In his tongue-in-cheek article, he complains about the tax-payer having to “cough up” for “facebook-fid-

dling fatheads up in toffee-nosed Trinity college... who sleep ‘til noon and write essays on Existentialism”!

Although the article was not meant to be taken seriously, it certainly captures the reputation that we students have built for ourselves over the years.

While it may not be possible for us to ever live down this stereotype and while many students do, in fairness, take their education seriously, there is an unmistakable atmosphere of entitlement that pervades our institutes of higher learning. At the expense of sounding clichéd, it is very easy nowadays to take these opportunities for granted. It is very easy to overlook how, in our grandparent’s time, the prospect of a third-level education was exclusive even where it was a possibility and unheard of in the majority of social spheres.

What then, in the current economic climate, should be re-configured about how we view education?

It’s surely time, for example, to reject the college values which we have imported from the US with such zeal. Most of American popular culture would have us believe (as would, closer to home, half of the most recent UT “culture” supplement) that college simply revolves around, or gravitates towards, students’ sexual gratification, or that ritual alcohol abuse and living a life of excess are norms for your average student. Most of our wallets, however, ar-

gue quite convincingly that this is not, or cannot be, the case.

I will not venture to say that it is inherently beneficial for students that the cost of education should go up, but it may be beneficial for our education.

As long as the grant scheme is not reformed and remains in place for those who otherwise wouldn’t be here, an increase (within reason of course) of fees may have the effect of making us think twice about what we are in college for.

It is universally acknowledged that we value something more if we pay more for it. And if fees (for those who can afford them) are a means of achieving this, so be it.

But for that minority out there who still don’t know that Ireland is on the verge of economic ruin and needs to make across-the-board cuts, and for those who still don’t know what a Government bond is or what a bank bailout entails – for those who, in short, are livin’ the dream, it’s time to wake up.

“The backdoor introduction of fees means, plain and simple, that the increased monetary worth of university education requires a corresponding increase in the value we attribute to that education” TRINITY NEWS

19 opinion@trinitynews.ie

Please walk Please Talk

Paul Evans examines the Please Talk mental health service, and finds it severely lacking

SINCE THE Road Safety Authority announced on June 22 the 41 percent decrease in road fatalities since 2001, Ireland has been hit with a number of road tragedies, culminating in two separate collisions in Donegal and Kerry where a combined 11 people lost their lives. Ten of them were young males.

And yet road collisions remain only the second biggest killer of males in this age category. Suicide remains the more deadly issue.

Paul Kelly, founder of the suicide bereavement support network Console, recently bemoaned the cuts in the mental health services in Ireland. Kelly said that at least 527 people had died by suicide in 2009 (the actual figure is believed to be anywhere between 5-25 percent higher than this due to a large number of undetermined deaths) compared to 239 people who died on the roads.

He also pointed out that road safety has eight times the budget mental

for every member college. Clicking on these links will lead you to a page copied and pasted from each of the respective college websites providing whatever information on counsellors, chaplains, etc. that was posted on that college's webpage.

That in itself is not so much an issue as the lack of information presented on the main part of the site: There are no data on mental health issues in Ireland, no advice on what to do if you are struggling with a problem, nor a list of services available to people.

Major mental health institutions, such as AA, Aware and Console, are not listed anywhere on the website.

The useful links page largely contains a list of much better versions of what we can only presume PleaseTalk was meant to be. It has been an inert, lazy campaign thus far.

Questions should be asked not so much about the reasons for this campaign but why it isn’t doing a lot more

health currently receives. Why is this?

Suicide is the great taboo subject. We are a nation that doesn’t know how to deal with the matter. Our youth record in the EU is among the worst. Our reaction, too, to this plague has often been rather lagging. It took until October 2009 for the first suicide intervention helpline, 1Life, to be set up. Many of the problems that arise with mental health may stem from at the general lack of presentation to the public.

Perhaps this is best illustrated with the PleaseTalk campaign. Launched in 2007 the campaign has sought to promote “talking as a sign of strength, not weakness” throughout colleges nationwide.

Let’s go beyond the staid and unconvincing picture of the kid, and the motto which is hardly going to affect the state of mind of someone in distress. Since its inception the campaign has focused largely on the three websites it had developed, each with a link

for the money it has received. Trinity’s SU basement is awash with unused publicity material worth thousands of euros.

With HeadsUp, YSPI, SpunOut.ie, Turn2Me.ie and the state-backed ReachOut.com we already have five websites that do a much better job than PleaseTalk (and, in most cases, for less money) in presenting information to young people. None of these, however, present a complete list of nationwide helpline and counselling services and information on prevalent mental health issues. Maybe over the course of its second three-year plan PleaseTalk will provide this. But PleaseTalk, ultimately, remains just one portion of a much suicide crisis in Ireland.

1Life 24-hour Intervention Helpline: 1800 24 7 100 Niteline Listening Service: 1800 793 793 Samaritans: 1850 60 90 90

X Factor too sadistic for comfort Niamh Ni Mhaoileoin on the reality of reality TV for its contestants

S

od it. There’s something sinister about this year’s X Factor. Mary Byrne’s slow, ongoing collapse, the scandal over Gamu-gate and the horrific hatred that has been levelled at Katie Waissel have all left a feeling that we’re no longer talking about Saturday night entertainment, but rather a modernday Stanford Prison Experiment in which we are all test subjects.

Of course, reality TV always has its controversies, and its victims.

However, shows like Big Brother and I’m A Celebrity shamelessly present themselves as televised social experimentation, and those who opt-in ultimately know what they’re accepting. In contrast, X Factor lures people in with a promise of realising dreams, proving to a hostile world that they’re good enough to make it. Most will suffer some disappointment and go back home to sing in the mirror, no harm done. A selection of the very worst (often also among the most hopeful) will have their auditions and the judges’ taunting responses played to an audience of millions for the sake of cheap, sneering comedy.

At the top of the pile, the X Factor finalists will get a few weeks or months of their dream lifestyle, with the tradeoff of being subjected to tabloid slurs and public opprobrium. Mary has faced widespread discussion about her weight and her “working class hero” background, Matt, the favourite to win, is dealing with an ex-girlfriend’s

“The very worst have their auditions played to millions for the sake of cheap, sneering comedy.”

claim that he is a sex addict, Wagner has been routinely portrayed as the “dirty old man” of X-Factor, who can’t be trusted with backing dancers or female contestants and 24-year-old Katie Waissel has been routinely flayed from all sides based on vague claims that she is annoying and fame-hungry – which surely is an expected attribute in finalists?

This year’s most visible casualties are Mary and Katie. Mary, who has the added stress of a visibly drastic diet, has admitted to being on a range of anti-depressant and blood-pressure medications and Katie, who has four times been in the bottom two, has apparently suffered panic attacks and collapses, which unsurprisingly was painted as another example of her melodrama.

We all play along by watching, by voting and by posting Facebook updates and joining groups (my current favourite being “it’s easier to get rid of chlamydia than Katie Waissel”), distancing ourselves from remembering the reality part of reality TV. X Factor is less fun when you think about the fact, for example, that Wagner has a son, who watches his father getting mocked and humiliated.

Or that after they have spent their five minutes of fame most of the acts will fade back into obscurity. Only a few, most obviously Leona Lewis, JLS and Shayne Ward, have transformed X Factor success into real-world success.

Basically, those who take part in X Factor are gambling. The stakes are high and the prize of massive success, wealth and fame is overwhelmingly tempting. Like any good casino, the X Factor producers focus all the attention on the tiny possibility a person will win, deflecting from the massive probability that they won’t. Furthermore, as with the very best of casinos, on X Factor the house always wins.

Without fail, Louis Walsh will lash out at Simon Cowell in defence of his acts and Cheryl Cole will get tearyeyed during performances and tell acts that she loves them. When scandals break out judges and producers will insist that the happiness and well being of acts is their first priority.

However, the more that’s written about Mary Byrne’s rags to riches struggle, the more people will want to see what the fuss is about, and vote to keep her in.

Last year, an anti-X-Factor campaign ensured that Rage Against The Machine went to number one at Christmas rather than X Factor winner Joe McElderry. A similar campaign is now apparently ensuring a cult vote for Wagner Carhillo, so that the largely talentless Brazilian has remained in the show long after better singers have been eliminated. An ingenious plot, except that X Factor is gaining massive profit from the votes and even more publicity, at the expense of Carhillo’s dignity.

X Factor is gripping, entertaining television and has earned its success.

For me though, Saturday night has gotten a bit too sadistic for comfort.

On the ordination of women in the Church “HERKNE EEK, lo, which a sharp word for the nones.”

Readers of Chaucer’s Wife of Bath’s Prologue (c. 1395) will recall the contempt with which the Wife of Bath dismisses the arguments of St Jerome, that archpriest of medieval anti-feminism, on the question of second and subsequent marriages. And rightly so.

Jerome’s harsh and inhumane polemic is empty of intellectual substance. One might have thought that the cause of women in the Christian churches would have advanced somewhat since the end of the fourteenth century.

Those who were present at the launch in the Synge Theatre on 29 October of Dr Florence Craven’s pioneering study on the attitudes of Roman Catholic and Protestant Irish women might have some grounds for optimism. To the proposition “It would only be fair to let women become priests/ministers on an

23 November, 2010

equal footing with men”, 95.3 percent of the Protestant women respondents and 83.6 percent of the Roman Catholic women respondents agreed. And to the related statement, “I’m not too keen on the idea of women clergy”, 95.5 percent

A VIEW FROM NEW SQUARE

GERALD MORGAN

of Protestant women respondents and 75.3 percent of Roman Catholic women respondents disagreed. The Mná na hÉireann are virtually of one voice.

The issue of the ordination of women would seem to be a settled issue.

As chance would have it, Dr Craven’s rational presentation of women’s views in the Irish Churches was followed (even to my astonishment) by the hysteria in the headline of the London Times on the following Wednesday (3 November), namely, “Campaign for women bishops ‘is like 1939’”.

It seems that we are to view AngloCatholic zealots in the Church of England opposed to the ordination of women at all costs as now in the position of Jews in Hitler’s Germany. This must be as offensive to Jews as it is to Anglicans. Proponents of this preposterous and indeed sinister statement are plainly people with whom rational ar-

gument is no longer possible. Appeals to tradition by opponents of the ordination of women are merely attempts to distract attention from the real issues at stake. There can be no theological or doctrinal objection to the ordination of women. What we have here (as in the good old days of St Jerome) are antifeminist attitudes dressed up as religious principle.

The proper response to them, now, as in 1395, is surely that of the Wife of Bath. There is something particularly odious in the spectacle of English priests deserting to Rome in order to promote the continued subjection of women.

And there is something singularly ungracious about the Church of Rome in its attempts to encourage them to do so. gmorgan1066@gmail.com

ROUNDUP

Rockstar Smith defends the book ON WEDNESDAY night, legendary rocker Patti Smith won the prestigious National Book Award for her memoir “Just Kids”. The book chronicles her decades-long friendship with artist Robert Mapplethorpe, who died of AIDS-related complications in 1989. Other recipients of awards included Jaimy Gordon for his novel “Lord of Misrule” and Kathryn Erskine for a children’s book “Mockingbird”. Notably absent was bestseller Jonathan Franzen and his novel “Freedom”.

Smith used her stage time as an opportunity to defend the book, that beautiful artefact seemingly on its way out with the advent of ebooks and kids’ preference for video games. “Please, no matter how we advance technologically, please don’t abandon the book,” pleaded Smith. “There is nothing in our material world more beautiful than the book.” Rock on, Patti.

Sarah Palin seeks to show gravitas IN AN interview with the New York Times this week, Sarah Palin announced that she might run for President, depending, of course, on her consultations with her family (and whether or not the Republican powerbrokers decide they can stomach her much longer.) “I know that a hurdle I would have to cross, that some other potential candidates wouldn’t have to cross right out of the chute, is proving my record,” Palin said in the interview.

“That’s the most frustrating thing for me‚ the warped and perverted description of my record and what I’ve accomplished over the last two decades.”

Her frustration is understandable. I mean, don’t people realise the experience she gained by resigning during her first and only term as governor of Alaska to launch a book tour across the country?

What could better prepare one for the Oval Office then a $2 million talking-head contract with Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News?

Palin’s latest attempt to give the American people a taste of her gravitas and political wherewithal is, of course, a reality show: Sarah Palin’s Alaska, which premiered last week. Whether she’s shooting a moose, chatting to Fox News in her newly built home TV studio, or failing to keep boys out of her daughter’s bedroom, I’d say viewers get a pretty good idea of how qualified Palin is.

Central Bank expects Bailout PATRICK HONOHAN, Ireland’s central bank governor, stated on RTÉ that he expects Ireland to take loans from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund worth “tens of billions.” This announcement hardly comes as a surprise, and in its wake the stock market spiked as interest rates in Ireland fell. And indeed by the time of going to print Ireland was expected to take the IMF bailout.

Of course, what the people of Ireland must demand of their government and their bailed out banking system is that they learn from their mistakes and move forward in a responsible manner. If that sounds like a bit of a joke, perhaps it is.

Jonathan Creasy

20 EDITORIAL

HEAD TO HEAD: EMIGRATION

TRINITY NEWS Est 1953

“The idea that every Irish person will get work in Ireland is deluded.”

towards some revival of the collegiate spirit, which modern conditions tend to discourage

t

FREYA FOSTER

TIME TO ROLL OVER, OR TIME TO ROLL UP OUR SLEEVES? WE ARE the most privileged generation Ireland has ever produced. And as Trinity has the highest proportion of top Leaving Certificate students, we are also among the brightest of this generation. Growing up during the boom years, we witnessed fortunes being made through speculation, and the national excitement as multinational corporations located to Ireland, bringing with them a plethora of jobs and opportunities. Now as we come of age, we find the country in crisis.

Austerity measures alone will not be enough to pull our country out of the mire. Nor was Minister Cowen’s supposed plan to sit tight until the money runs out mid-2011 ever a viable option. As each statement released by the Powers That Be sends tremors through the markets, whether or not we should take the IMF bailout is now purely an academic debate.

But what will this mean for third-level funding, and the university sector in particular? Provost John Hegarty’s letter on the opposite page makes for depressing reading. That a scenario where the university loses €20 million a year in funding could be described as the “best case” is of massive concern.

A university cannot run on brainpower alone. This month in the UK, Lord Browne’s report on higher education funding found that a tuition fee of £7000 per annum would be necessary just to keep their universities’ funding at the current level. Leaks from the unforthcoming Hunt Report also point in this direction. Despite USI’s insistence that they “won the war on fees”, it is clear that fees for domestic and EU students will have to be reintroduced over the next number of years, in addition to even more stringent cutbacks. While Government may block their reintroduction for political reasons, an external eye will not dismiss this course of action.

Universities are not corporations. They cannot be downsized and expect to trundle on as normal, if a little slower. It is vitally important to remember that we are students of the university. We are not customers of the university. Getting more of us through the door will only exacerbate existing problems. Stretching a reduced staff over an ever-increasing student body will have obvious detrimental effects on student experience, staff morale, and the standard of education that can be provided.

A return to fees may save our universities from fiscal meltdown. As it stands, the current registration fee serves no one’s best interests. For students and their families, the registration fee is not classed as a tuition fee by Revenue, and therefore is not tax-deductable, despite being now higher than tuition in some countries which have fees. Universities in turn are restricted in that the money from the registration fee is earmarked solely for student services, and should not be used to supplement academic and teaching costs.

The dishonest registration fee must be scrapped, and a clear and honest system of fees backed up by a deferred payment and student loans scheme needs to be implemented.

We are Ireland’s future. Do we roll over, muttering darkly of the men and women of 1916, or do we grimace and roll up our sleeves? We must learn from the previous generation of Mé Féiners, and see that we must all bear the burden of cleaning up the mess we find ourselves in. We know where the blame lies, but the time for pointing fingers has passed.

We need to survey what is left of our economy and begin, not to repair the broken structures, but to replace what is rotten.

This is not the end for Ireland. While there may be a loss of sovereignty for a time, there is no reason why this should be permanent. We are not the first country to ever receive help from the IMF. Lest we forget, Britain asked for their help in the 1970s, and managed to maintain its sovereignty. In fact, for the long-term future of the country it may be a blessing in disguise.

Access to an education is a right, access to third-level education is a privilege. We have all of us worked hard to secure our place in Trinity. Over the next number of years, we will have to work even harder to keep our places. The funding system of universities desperately needs to be re-examined from the ground up. We echo the Provost’s hope that Government will not fatally damage the system, but worry that if Government does nothing, this may well be enough.

WHEN THE word “emigration” is used in this country, it conjures up bad memories for the Irish people: memories of the Great Famine and of the mass exodus of young people in the 70s and 80s. One has only to look at the SU’s recent use of the slogan “education not emigration” to see how politics uses emigration to portray something in a negative light. Emigration is seen as a problem as bad as unemployment, and the thought of all the “poor young wans” having to leave the Green Isle and go off to strange and foreign lands is the stuff of nightmares. Obviously.

Once it is examined though, it becomes all too clear that, in today’s world, emigration is no longer the foreboding, one-way street that it used to be. With cheap flights available at the click of a button or the swipe of a credit card, people hoping for better prospects in the “New World” no longer have to board a coffin ship and never see their loved ones again. Even since the 1980s, technology has advanced so that we can see and talk to people across the world over the internet. With e-mail, news takes seconds rather than weeks to reach its recipient. So all this begs the question, why are we still so afraid of emigration?

The idea that every Irish person will be able to live and work in the 26 counties that make up the Republic of Ireland is, quite frankly, deluded. The reality is that we are a small island nation, with a small, struggling economy. It is simply not feasible for the entire of our rapidly increasing population (our economic boom is over, but the baby boom has just begun) to remain here living and working, or not working as the case may be.

A common argument thrown out against emigration is the loss of tax revenue to the Government, but this loss is small when compared to the costs of keeping an unemployed person on benefits.

The likelihood is that the vast majority of young people, including university graduates,

will simply have to emigrate in the next five to ten years in order to find work, with the US, Canada, Britain and Australia being the most likely destinations. Being the young, internationally minded, adventurous generation that we are, we should be looking to grasp the opportunity with both hands. It should be seen as a chance to learn new skills and open our minds to new possibilities. And when I say new possibilities, I am not talking cultural or spiritual, I’m talking business.

The Celtic Tiger was, in essence, fuelled by the return of those people who had left Ireland to seek work in the 1980s. These ambitious young Irish people went abroad and worked, and they worked hard. They gained experience, developed new ideas and, most importantly, they earned money.

Clearly, emigration is not something to be afraid of, yet it is still flaunted by politicians as something bad, something to be avoided and something that no young person wants to do, and, judging from the “education not emigration” slogan chanted at the protest two weeks ago, it seems that a lot of young people agree.

Why is this? It’s simple – we are the Celtic Tiger generation. We were never told that we might actually have to work for a good career, let alone leave the country. Many young people have been brought up to believe that they would go to third level education, waltz straight out of their graduation ceremony and into a cushy job without ever having to set foot in the departure lounge, except for regular holidays to Marbella or Thailand paid for out of a big fat corporate salary.

The belief that a generation of young people can be employed in our ever-shrinking economy is completely unrealistic. Emigration should not be seen as a last resort. Rather, we should view it as an opportunity to go and earn a wealth of knowledge and expertise which can eventually be brought back to Ireland to spark off a new boom for the next generation.

“Emigration is a difficult and lonely process. It is not a cakewalk.”

ALANNAH NIC PHAIDIN

IRELAND HAS a reputation abroad for many things, including literature, music, good times, and emigration.

One of Ireland’s greatest exports over the centuries has been its people. We send them all over the world. Many of these emigrants have been highly successful in their adopted countries, to include writers, academicians, musicians, athletes, inventors. One glance at US history will showcase the success of the Irish, most notably the Kennedy family, who reached the zenith of power in the US. Recently Ireland went through a time of unprecedented prosperity, so much so that previous emigrants came back to Ireland, because they felt that there were opportunities and it was a chance to be reunited with their families.

Yet here we are again, with our people leaving our shores because there is a lack of opportunity to succeed here.

This new decade has, once again, become a time of heart-wrenching instability in Ireland, both as a nation and amongst families. Emigration has crippled the Irish in the past, divided families, and hurt the country as a whole. Many of our best and brightest are emigrating because their prospects for entering their areas of expertise are extremely limited in the ongoing economic recession.

Our greatest asset, our people, is once again our greatest export. Although emigration is taking place from every segment of Irish life, our most highly educated are also emigrating by the thousand, which will inevitably have longterm ramifications for our country. Ireland is unable to take advantage of its vast expenditure in educating these highly motivated people.

On an individual level, emigration can be even more heart-breaking. Emigration is rarely temporary. It is not about “going away for a year or two” to get experience. That in many instances is an extended holiday. Emigration is substantially a permanent phenomenon for the Irish. Its social repercussions for families, and society in general, are difficult and destructive.

Emigration is a difficult and lonely process. I know, I emigrated to the US when I was aged nine. Even though there is the perception

of moving to an English-speaking country, the language is quite different, as are the cultural and social mores. It was not a cakewalk.

Most countries have a command of the English language. In that the Irish have an advantage. They are also advantaged, particularly in the US, by a huge Diaspora and, generally speaking, of being well-liked. The open racism of the 1800s is gone. However, there is still a certain amount of resentment against immigrants who are seen as taking the “natives” jobs. Those who emigrate, especially during economically difficult times, will face at least some of these accusations. Unfortunately, the Irish have been accused of making similar finger-pointing against its recent immigrants.

The level of isolation and homesickness suffered by emigrants has been well documented.

There are however, other alienating factors which effect today’s emigrants. Never having faced the crushing poverty of previous generations, today’s Irish emigrants are perceived as “wealthy”. This lack of understanding has an even more isolating effect on the new Irish emigrant, as this perception of being wealthy, well-educated and capable of finding work easily is not necessarily reflective of the facts. The economic climate world-wide is not as helpful to the Irish as it had been formerly. Whilst it is possible to love your adopted country, it is always difficult and complex to leave family, friends and culture behind. Adapting to a new environment is always difficult; but it is compounded for the new Irish emigrants by the perceptions of the “Celtic Tiger” era.

It is possible to succeed when someone emigrates, but generally it is a long, slow, somewhat painful, and often lonely process. Although forced emigration is always a hardship, and many original emigrants live difficult and stressful lives, it is often the second generation of immigrant families who succeed.

The great legacy of emigration from Ireland is the strong bonds that exist between the Irish Diaspora and the “homeland”, which is a powerful tool that can and should be used to enhance Ireland’s economic and political leverage into the future.

TRINITY NEWS

21 opinion@trinitynews.ie

LETTERS

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

LETTERS@TRINITYNEWS.IE

A LETTER FROM THE PROVOST: THE FINANCIAL SITUATION Dear Staff and Students – You are all aware from the media reports that the country is facing challenges which require drastic action on every front and we as a university will have our part to play.

Given the crucial role which highquality university education will play in bringing the country out of recession, I am hopeful that the case I and the other University Presidents have been making for the past number of years at Government level will be reflected in the best-case budget for the sector. In my view it would be fatal to cut-back to a point where we cannot even deliver our core mission. Other countries have invested in education and research in their worst moments.

I presented a paper to the Board of the College at its meeting on 10 November in which several scenarios for the College’s finances for the next five years were presented. A worst-case and best-case scenario were outlined which ranged from a 20 percent to 10 percent cut in the Government allocation (core grant plus free fees allocation) resulting in a cut in money terms ranging from €20m (worst case) to €10m (best case) by 2013 over the 2010 level. If allowance is made for an expected downturn in research income and its contribution to overhead costs, and the additional costs that must be factored in for new space are taken

into account, the funding available to the College will decrease by a further €10m. Either scenario represents an enormous problem and one that cannot be managed without drastic and farreaching action.

There is one very positive point in our favour. We are in the fortunate position that, due to prudent management under our new central structures, the College has no budgetary deficit thereby positioning it in a relatively strong position to address the current funding crisis.

In considering the financial projections as presented, the Board agreed that we must take every step within our control to secure the College’s future financial viability. We must consider all actions that can be embedded into the system with a longterm impact without undermining the core mission. Once-off funding may be used in the initial period to off-set the expected decrease in government funding of our activities. The College’s actions will focus on: (a) increasing revenue from non-Exchequer sources: a number of sources are being considered, including increased recruitment of fee-paying students, and enhanced philanthropy and commercialisation activities; (b) cutting costs by ceasing activities and/ or by introducing greater efficiencies in the use of staff resources, supported in large measure by the completion of the College’s strategy programme.

The Board agreed that my management team, including the Executive Officer Group and its Planning Group, will look at all options to secure the College’s financial future.

This work has now started and a

process of consultation with Heads of School, Heads of administrative and support areas, and student representatives is underway to seek solutions and mechanisms to address the financial crisis. I would also like to engage the whole community. To this end I will hold a number of public fora at the beginning of December to further discuss the situation and to solicit your suggestions.

The impact of the financial situation on the quality of teaching and the overall student experience is a cause of grave concern and I am extremely appreciative of the efforts being made by staff in all areas of the College to cope with the reduced staff numbers already taking place over the last two years. My colleagues in the IUA and I have been working actively with the HEA and the Department of Education and Skills to find solutions and to secure the best possible arrangements for the College within the context of the Employment Control Framework.

It is inevitable that personal cuts in pay, the current lack of promotional opportunities, the prospect of increased student charges as well as the adverse nature of much public commentary will have an impact on the morale of our College community, but there is also a resilience and a determination to succeed that is helping us to achieve our goals and to meet our obligations, notwithstanding the unprecedented extent of the current national crisis. By creative planning and looking at all options – short and long term – I am optimistic that we can seize the opportunities offered by the current crisis and emerge stronger and very well placed to contribute to the

country’s inevitable recovery.

I hope that the Government in whatever form will not take such steps as to fatally damage the system.

John Hegarty Provost

TREAT WOMEN WITH RESPECT Madam – I found the articles on Debutante Balls in your previous issue to be very sad, and a very poor reflection on human relations in Ireland. In my opinion and from my own experience, Irish men should try to become much more romantic and passionate as far as ladies are concerned. This of course is a matter of upbringing, and in my opinion can be due to a general lack of good role models on whom men can base their behaviour and attitudes.

I personally went to Trinity, and due to my weakness and to peer pressure yielded to the practice of drinking and thus behaving very badly towards the very nice ladies we knew and associated with when I was a student.

I thus strongly suggest to young Irish men to look to how Latin (say French and Italian) men relate to and treat their ladies. It is infinitely better to conduct oneself properly in the company of ladies and to enjoy their excellent company in a civilised and sophisticated way.

Yours, etc, Tom Molyneux TCD Graduate, 1958

Good-humoured rioting on degree day

A

ny sensible person ought to be irritated by the perpetuation of fabricated stories of university traditions. I have met a graduate who claims to know the student who invented the “you can shoot Catholics from that window” story. And walking under the Campanile will cause you to fail your examinations? They have that one in Cork.

Perhaps people aren’t to be blamed for peddling these lies. After all, since the 1960s this university has divested itself of most of the things that made it unique. Falsities rush in to fill the vacuum left by the eradication of our true traditions.

Commencements is one of the survivals. The human condition seems to demand solemnity, ritual and formality for great occasions, and so we are lucky that no know-all administrator or left-leaning academic attempted to interfere with the ceremony in the wake of the Sixties.

We could have been saddled with a vernacular smile-fest in the Arts Building. With everyone wearing his best hoody.

This etching must be one of the oldest depictions of Commencements – perhaps the oldest. Printed in the Daily Graphic newspaper on May 14, 1890, it shows how few people took their degrees at each session in the 19th century. Just a few candidates are lined up, with some young females eyeing up the group. In the picture, several men can be identified. The provost, George Salmon, is seated to the left.

Then there’s the Rev Dr Haughton, professor of Geology, who is famous for perfecting the hanging of criminals, ensuring their necks broke at the time of the drop. The man in the large chair wearing glasses is the Rt Hon John Thomas Ball, then Vice-Chancellor of the university. A Trinity graduate himself, Ball was Attorney General for Ireland and an MP for Dublin University. Mr Cathcart, a Fellow, is in the chair to his left.

The accompanying text lets us know that professors Dowden, Mahaffy and Tyrell were also there, and explains that, in 1890, the event had become relatively tame: “These so- called ‘commencements’ used to be

23 November, 2010

OLD TRINITY PETER HENRY the occasion for a great deal of goodhumoured rioting and horse-play on the part of the students. The Trinity boys are now far quieter than they used to be.”

An account of the proceedings at Commencements earlier in the 19th century is preserved in a letter of William Smyth Guinness. He wrote about his 1816 BA Commencements to his brother. (He later took the MA, in 1826.) Mr Guinness’s letter was

reprinted in the late provost William Watts’s 2008 A Memoir.

The young Guinness recounts how, at the time, graduands knelt to receive their degrees: “We the candidate bachelors knelt at the table and repeated, after one of the Senior Fellows, who read them out of the Statutes, certain oaths in the Latin language… Then we individually knelt upon a cushion at the Vice Chancellor’s feet, and having laid our hands upon another velvet cushion upon the table before him, he covered them with his and pronounced in Latin the form of conferring the degree.”

The hand-touching is also no more, but a similar ritual is preserved in Cambridge, where five graduates will hold the five fingers of the chancellor when receiving their degrees. The Latin survives, and, mercifully, invocations of God. The Chancellor opens the ceremony, even today, by saying “Comitia fiant in nomine Dei” – Let Commencements begin in the name of God. The conclusion is appropriately Trinitarian: “Comitia solvantur in nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti” – Let Commencements be adjourned in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

out that both MBs and BAs – that is, all medicine graduates and most other bachelors – are supplied with hoods of incorrect shapes when receiving their degrees. This has not yet been remedied. I also noticed at Summer Commencements this year that no master received a Dublin masters’ gown – everyone was supplied with an Oxford MA gown. The difference is slight, the shape of the end of the sleeve being distinctive – but when handing over money, one does expect the correct gown. One MA was even given a Queen’s Belfast bachelors’ gown – nothing at all like a Dublin masters’ gown. The staff members’ enthusiasm for pinning the hood to the gown is contemptible. A hood will sit perfectly well without safety pins.

THIS COLUMN has already pointed

pehenry@tcd.ie

ON THE subject of degrees, a nice Limerick stands out among the unfunny rubbish in the Trinity Rag Mag of 1980. Unlikely to have originated here, it is nevertheless witty: “A maiden at college named Breeze/Weighed down by BAs and LittDs/Collapsed from the strain/Alas it was plain/She was killing herself by degrees.”

A timeless warning to perpetual students, I suppose.

THE PUBLIC EDITOR AN EDITORIAL entitled “Endorsement for Election Candidate” in the third issue of Trinity News informed the reader that the paper does not intend to endorse a candidate for the election of a new Provost in April on the grounds that “ such a practice is now anachronistic, and in conflict with our aim of impartiality.”

I agree with the decision not to endorse a candidate, but not the reasoning behind it. The worthy goal of impartiality should not prevent the paper from making a judgement in the editorial form. And, in practice, it does not: the Editor, or a proxy appointed by her, routinely appraises current events and arrives at a conclusion.

Indeed, the other editorial in that issue criticised the ability of the Students’ Union to communicate their message, and concluded, “at this current time, we cannot afford to be represented by an organisation that allows us to be ignored.”

Once sound reasoning is given, the ethical standing of this paper’s future reportage on that issue is not in any way imperiled. I have no doubt that the paper will continue to cover the Students’ Union without bias. Likewise, an endorsement of a candidate for Provost would not indicate that they would be treated any more favorably in our pages than a competitor, should they win the election.

In my opinion, the only reason not to endorse is that a recommendation from Trinity News would have little impact on the election results. The Provost is not elected by our primary audience, the student body, but by fulltime academic staff that meet certain criteria and those who attend Board and Council meetings. And yet, both current and future students will be greatly affected by the outcome. The Provost’s term of office is ten years, and in that time they will exert great influence over major decisions, from how College is funded to where that budget is spent.

I believe that as students do not have a voice in this election, this paper has a special role in letting them know how each candidate would make key decisions. Profiles, even excellent ones like that of Professor Jane Ohlmeyer in the last issue, are of limited value because this is a case where personality matters less than policy.

I propose a short survey, to be sent to each candidate as they declare, which would enable readers to learn what we can expect from any new Provost. As to its content, I suspect there are a few questions we all want answers to (in one hundred words or less per response): 1. Do you see free education, supported by the registration fee, as a sustainable method of funding undergraduate study at Trinity? If not, what do you propose?

2. Do you agree that the current library opening hours are unsatisfactory?

3. Do you foresee partnerships with other universities inside or outside Ireland as an important part of the future of this university? What experience do you have that would enable you to bring about such an alliance?

4. Name one decision made by the current Provost that you would have made differently.

Perhaps readers might suggest a few additional questions they would like to see added to the questionnaire via email.

By publishing this simple piece of research, Trinity News would be providing a valuable service to the students of this institution. Possibly, the responses could also be given a page on the website, where readers could compare the various submissions.

Far more than an endorsement, this would fulfill the paper’s stated purpose of informing the student body about matters which concern it.

Cillian Murphy, Public Editor To contact the Public Editor, email public@trinitynews.ie

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SPORT FEATURES 23 sportfeatures@trinitynews.ie

It gave me goosebumps KILLIAN MCCARTHY relives the 2001 Munster Hurling Championship Quarter-Final between Limerick and Cork.

SS Jamie Heaslip tearing through the Springboks. Photo courtesy of www.inpho.ie

Answering Ireland’s call Kate Rowan reflects on the current state of Irish rugby, and meets some of its stars at the Aviva Stadium during the Autumn International Series

A

ny rugby fan will be used to the procedure as two packs get ready to scrumage of the referee’s call “crouch, touch, pause, engage”.

This got me thinking about four matches over the past month; Leinster’s win against Edinburgh and Ireland’s first three Autumn internationals. It was as if each game was represented by one of the stages in forming a scrum.

Crouch Leinster versus Edinburgh The first game; the crouch or the preparation was a gutsy Leinster narrowly defeating their bogey team Edinburgh. This did not just get me in the mood for the Autumn series to come but it allowed spectators to see some of the stars of future international games.

There may have been an absence of big name players called up on international duty but that by no means dampened the spirits of the D4fortress faithful on the eve of Halloween and the crowd created a great atmosphere that helped up and coming stars such as winger Andrew Conway and out half Ian Madigan shine alongside Leinster stalwarts such as Shane Horgan .

Leinster’s sole try scorer of the night 19 year old Conway had the look of a star in the making, coltishly running, his socks pulled

“Journalists are just as keen to get involved in a scrum as any prop, lock or hooker.” down around electric blue boots.

After the match coach Joe Schmidt reminded us that it is still early days in the youngster’s career explaining, “he is an exciting raw talent but has some edges that need moulding.”

Laughter filled the room when Schmidt told the press the winger is “still 20” and then one journo chipped in “Conway is 19!” Schmidt chuckled “He is only 19, it is me that is getting older then!”

He is proud of the team mentality “we had some of the internationals involved tonight, Sexton was running water making sure his knowledge and experience was getting to Madigan, our squad ethos is all about helping each other out.”

Touch Ireland versus South Africa It was hoped that the Aviva’s first touch with international rugby would be a repeat of last year’s defeat of South Africa. Despite the anticipation this was not to be with the home side just falling two points short.

Both the conditions and the intensity were given as factors in the defeat. Brian O’Driscoll described the ball as being like “a bar of soap”.

I could not help but notice how the atmosphere shifted from relatively sombre to electric towards the end of the game. O’Driscoll explained this “the first 60 minutes were difficult for fans to watch but once we started playing a bit the crowd got behind us. It is our responsibility to get the crowd going.”

Journalists are just as keen to get involved in a scrum as any prop, lock, hooker, flanker or number eight. My first mixed zone experience was quite surreal, I suddenly found myself cast beneath the shadow of Munster lock Donnacha O’Callaghan and I had my chance to reach up a considerable distance with my dictaphone.

He had few airs and graces about him visibly disheartened by the loss “It is disappointing anytime you lose but we didn’t make them hurt enough.”

O’Callaghan was also the perfect man to comment on one of Ireland’s greatest difficulties against the Springboks; weak line outs “Rory (Best) said it was like he was looking at three or four Victor Matfields .”

The lock played tribute to fellow Munster man O’Gara on receiving his 100th cap. “ I have two Heineken Cup medals and a Grand Slam and that is on the hard work Rog.” There were some giggles when O’Callaghan was asked on what he thought of the game over all “I’ll have to watch a video because I spent half of the game with my head between asses pushing and dragging!”

Towards the end of the interview his frustration at the loss was apparent again “it was our first game in the Aviva you want to make it a fortress and you feel embarrassed that you loose.”

Pause Ireland versus Samoa After a disappointing first outing in the Aviva would Ireland’s hope collapse like a dodgy scrum? With no disrespect to Samoa, Kidney and company would have time to regroup, take time to pause and use the game as a chance to change Ireland’s ways back to

Prints available to purchase online as the perfect gift or souvenir from any sports event.

www.inpho.ie 23 November, 2010

winning.

One of the hot topics was the inclusion in the starting team of six foot ten Devin Toner.

The Leinster lock who plays his club rugby for Lansdowne was seen to many as being partly responsible in restoring strength to the Irish line outs and when was hoisted into the air by John Hayes was described as “being like the Eiffel Tower” by the ebullient George Hook.

He seemed rather relieved but was delighted with his first cap saying “It was just an amazing feeling to be coming out of the team hotel and see all the crowds and it was unbelievable singing the anthems.”

The atmosphere after a victory really contrasted with that of the week before.

Trinity graduate Jamie Heaslip was in flying form bantering with the reporters over the

“The first 60 minutes were difficult for fans to watch.” moustache he had grown for the Movember charity campaign. He said he had been getting fashion “inspiration from Mad Men.” It was interesting to compare the Kildare man’s delight and his attitude that he wouldn’t yet start to think about the clash with the All Blacks with Luke Fitzgerald. He was also bubbling with energy but was thinking more ahead about the All Blacks “you always have to take your game up a notch when you play against quality like them. New Zealand have been the best in the world, for I don’t know how long, everyone is really excited about the game next week.”

Engage Ireland versus New Zealand Fitzgerald was right, there was a fantastic excitement building-up to the game. This would the height of the engagement of the series.

There was something spiritual about the Haka, it seemed to be more than just a war dance and had the feel of a prayer.

The atmosphere improved as the Irish started to show the spark that had been eluding them. In the press box, the journalists tend to stay neutral and don’t show their emotions too often but I was not the only one who lost their composure when O’Driscoll scored the first try.

Things were looking good, however, it proved too much and the opposition showed their class winning by a flattering 20 points considering.

The buzz extended into the press conference with coach Graham Henry and captain Richie McCaw. The flanker looked relaxed as he ambled barefoot into the room. He had an aura of charisma that marked him out as a worldbeater but neither came across as smug in their victory.

Henry remarked “about a year ago we were worried about the Irish but they have fallen into a bit of a gully but they gave us a tough game and they should take a lot from it.”

Ireland may not be have gotten the results they desire but hopefully they can build on a valiant effort against New Zealand. The players may now have the fireto pull out a special performance against Argentina in the final test.

WHEN THE Championship rolls around and the quality of your summer is reliant on the Limerick hurlers, you’re faced with a stark choice: optimism or suicide.

The fact that the former prevails could be mistaken for a triumph of the human spirit.

Really, it’s just belligerence. It’s the stubborn pursuit not of silverware nor of history but of those days when form, skill and quality of touch count for less than heart, commitment and the same belligerence that filters down from the terraces. Memories, goosebumps, glory days treasured – that hope springs eternal.

Bereft of optimism, we set out for the Páirc in May 2001. A summer’s day, an Irish summer’s day: overcast. But it promised to clear (the sun always shines in Cork, boy) and so it did, slowly, as we turned onto the long straight road that leads to the Ground.

Monotonous though it is for the hordes of supporters, the colour, the banter and inveterate slagging somehow shorten the trip.

The journey led us to the cauldron that is Cois Laoi where 40,000 spectators were packed inside. The terraces rumbled and shook through the Soldier’s Song, apt for the warfare that was about to unfold.

Limerick wanted this and the sliotar was an afterthought, at least until it was thrown in.

Once that formality had been dispensed with, the visitors set about erasing the memory of every defeat, cruel or otherwise, back to 1997. First to the ball or first to the shoulder, success was measured as much in broken hurleys as it was on the scoreboard, reading 0-4 to 0-2. Limerick leading.

Limerick on top. Limerick surely going to blow it.

But no. With 11 minutes gone James Butler gets away from John Browne, solos, bears down on goal and rifles one across Dónal Óg. I’m told he never saw it until it hit the net. Neither did I. Frank Hogan (better known as John 3:7)

had taken up residence in front of me and raised his ubiquitous sign just as Butler pulled the trigger and even now, nine years on, I’ve never thanked him for the gesture.

Granted he didn’t mean it but in robbing me of my view he lent me a vision (granted, an imagined vision) of a goal the power, accuracy and majesty of which I have yet to see matched. It stands as the greatest goal I never saw.

My father (a less magnanimous soul) reacted to the obstruction by seizing it, throwing it to the ground, making some very graphic threats about where he’d be inclined to insert it should there be a repeat of Hogan’s antics, and for that reason it’s hardly surprising that our view of the remaining hour’s action went unobstructed.

We saw points and wides exchanged in equal measure. We saw the inevitable Rebel comeback. We saw character tested beyond conventional limits. We saw everything that makes the Munster Championship stand unrivalled in sport.

Step forward Barry Foley. A sideline cut from under the stand on any other day would have been aimed infield. On any other day. That day history beckoned. That day was special. That day Foley rifled it over when nobody thought that he would.

Cue green-clad raptures on the terraces, cue the final whistle and cue joy and confusion distilled into the realisation that we’d come to Cork and won. 1-16 to 1-15 in their backyard and as Seán South rang out on the long walk into town I could feel the excitement crawling up my spine like never before or since.

Halfway home, I asked the seasoned campaigner what made us stand through the dark days for moments like that. Half a century of championship Sundays smiled again and said as though reciting a mantra: “Optimism”.

SPORT

collegesport@trinitynews.ie

Boat Club make a splash at Neptune Head Fionn Mc Caffrey Contributing Writer

DUBC REAFFIRMED their promising form this season with a series of victories at Neptune Head of the River Race (HORR).

Neptune HORR, the National 1x Sculling Head, is held annually on Blessington Lake in County Wicklow.

Despite last-minute fears that gusting winds would make the lake unrowable, the organisers were rewarded with wet, but perfectly rowable conditions.

Having spent every weekend in Blessington since College commenced, DUBC’s squad exercised the advantages of home ground. A significant amount of pressure lay with the Single Scullers,

who would have to deliver a repeat performance of their Ladder win. The squad was bolstered by the return of Patrick Jacques and Fionn Mc Caffrey.

The scullers headed off into a moderate headwind, with Lorcain Cameron leading the charge to finish fourth in what proved to be a highly competitive event. The rest of the Boat Clubs’ scullers followed in close succession to take all the consecutive places until 15th.

The second Head of the day was to see the greatest successes, with three out of the six boats taking the top spots.

The promising Junior Mens Double of Ian Kelly and Patrick Hughes stormed to victory, finishing nearly a minute ahead of their nearest rivals. The Novice

eight also put in a solid performance, with Adam O’Brien leading the crew to a comfortable victory of 1min 34secs over their nearest rivals.

The Mens Inter Quad saw an exciting contest, with two scratch

quads from DUBC vying for a first place finish. Some canny steering from Bowman Ian O’Loinsigh and a steady rhythm from Strokeman Luke Acheson allowed their quad to eat into the other quad’s headstart. The Patrick Jacquesled quad held them at bay for roughly 2 kilometres, but once the chasing quad got a view of their opponents’ stern canvas the push was called and they were overtaken with only 25 metres to go. The rivalry also saw the eventual winners post a faster time than their University of Limerick counterparts in the Senior event. Prominent DUBC alumnus and Ladt Elizabeth Boat club sculler put in a strong row to post the two fastest times in the Senior Mens 1x (in the first and second head).

TRINITY TRIUMPHANT IN OVERTIME THRILLER Conor Bates Staff Reporter

SS A stellar performance from all involved led to victory for DU American Football. Photo by Martin Connolly

THE DUBLIN University American Football Team secured its first ever championship on Saturday when they beat UL Vikings in Limerick.

Trinity started brightly after kickoff and forced early fumbles on the Limerick offence. Defensive lineman Ziad Foty recovered one such fumble and almost returned it, being stopped just short. This was converted for six points by running back Rob McDowell.

Trinity missed a two-point conversion.

Immediately after half time UL scored a passing touchdown, against the run of play. They too missed a two-point conversion, leaving the game at 6-6.

The overtime that followed saw many contentious official decisions Stephen Carton intercepted a pass to leave the offence in great scoring position. Again the ball was offloaded to McDowell who cruised into the endzone for a Trinity win in the third quarter of overtime.

Carton was awarded man of the match.

Women head home with bronze Erin Larkin Contributing Writer

THE DUBLIN University Harriers and Athletics Club (DUHAC) ran through cold weather and rain to a strong finish at the Maynooth Road Relays on Saturday, November 13. The Trinity women’s A team took bronze at Maynooth, and, despite a fall at the beginning of the race and the absence of two prominent teammates, the men’s A team finished eighth.

For the relays, the women formed five teams of four athletes and ran a six-mile race in one-mile, two-mile, two-mile, and one-mile legs. The men organized three teams of five athletes and raced for nine miles in one-mile, two-mile, three-mile, two-mile, and one-mile legs.

The course was a one-mile loop on asphalt-paved trails “Whoever loses at colours, wins here.” – Mairead McMorrow that took the runners around college greens, under trees, and through the campus.

At 12:45pm, the women’s race, with the runners racing in a close pack.

Claire McGlynn kept her team in fifth position during the race, and finished her lap with a strong sprint to hand off to Becky Woods. In the second leg, the front pack spread out during the two miles, but Woods, in an impressive display of competitive focus, brought her team to second position. She handed off to Bryony Treston, put in a well-paced two-mile leg, and handed off to teammate Ciara Mc Callion in third position. Mc Callion anchored the team, and finished the race in third place for an overall team time of 33 minutes and 45 seconds, 70 seconds

SS Becky Woods at the Maynooth Road Relays. Photo by Erin Larkin

behind the winning team from DCU, and 35 seconds ahead of UCD A.

Two weeks ago, on Saturday, November 6, Trinity hosted rivals

UCD in a friendly pre-season Colours Road Relay meet. The women’s team carried on their tradition of friendly rivalry with UCD, losing at Colours, but beating UCD A at Intervarsities.

Former women’s team captain Mairead McMorrow said that, “whoever loses Colours, wins here.”

The men’s race had a wobbly start at 1:45pm. Two minutes before the gun went off, the rain began, leaving racers in the final legs of the relay struggling to stay warm as they waited for their turn. In the first one mile leg, A team’s runner, Risteard O’Hannrachain became tangled with some of his opponents and fell. He managed to pull his team from last position to nineteenth by running at a harder pace for the rest of his one-mile leg. He handed off to Liam Tremble, who ran a furious two-mile leg, and secured a ninth place position for Trinity.

Donal Foley was next, and he moved Trinity up to eighth position. In the second-to-last leg, Carl O’Sullivan out-paced a member of the UCD B team allowing Trinity to come in at seventh place. He handed off to Kevin Kerrigan, who raced the final one-mile leg against a particularly speedy member of the UCD B team, and finished the race for Trinity A in eighth place. The men completed the course in 46 minutes, 6 seconds, and showed improvement over last year’s tenth place finish.

Both DCU A Women’s and Men’s team took home first place trophy for winning the relays.

The competitive performances from Becky Woods and Liam Tremble bode well for their aspirations to represent Ireland in the European Cross Country Championships later this year. “Becky had a deadly run,” said Bryony Treston, who hopes to join her teammates at the European Championships. All three teammates were awarded sporting scholarships earlier this year.

Soccer hopes thwarted by DCU display Micheal Gaskin Deputy College News Editor

IN THEIR last game in the group stage of the Combined Universities Football League, Trinity sat bottom of their group with only one point from their previous four games, while DCU went into the game knowing that a win would do to secure passage to the knockout stages.

With both sides easing themselves into the game that was played on a very heavy College Park pitch, it was DCU who had the better opportunities in the early stages, when two free headers nodded harmlessly wide of the goal.

With twenty minutes gone in the game it was apparent that this DCU side had come to win. They began to completely overrun the Trinity midfield by winning the RESULTS: DCU FC: 3 DUAFC: 1 majority fifty-fifty balls and by stretching the p l ay down both wings with a regular supply of crosses going into their centre forward David Lodola.

With the game moving on towards half time and Trinity looking settled game, DCU’s Shane Keely opened the scoring with a simple tap in at the back post after the ball was drilled hard and fast across the box from a free. It was a lead that did not last for long, however, as Trinity restored parity with 44 minutes gone on the clock. After a hugely deflected shot that ricocheted off the DCU crossbar and out for a corner, Fergal Mullins levelled up the game with a very fortuitous goal.

With the heavens threatening to open, Trinity started the second half in a very positive manner with much

SS Photo by Caitriona Gallagher

of the opening play happening in and around the DCU box. Their hard work was ultimately in vain, as with fresh legs coming off the DCU bench they once again took control of the game.

DCU went back into the lead midway through the second half, when on the counter attack the ball was flicked back across the box and a diving header by Oisin Doyle hit the underside of the crossbar and bounced over the line and then out.

During the next twenty minutes, Niall O’Carroll made a string of fine saves to keep a tiring Trinity side in touch with the visitors and in a position where they could still get a result.

DCU’s final match-winning goal was a carbon copy of a number of attempts they had earlier in the game.

A ball whipped in fast from the wing and heading toward the near post was well-saved by Niall O’Carroll at his near post and knocked away for a corner.

From the ensuing corner DCU’s Stephen Traynor knocked the ball in at the near post to close out the game and keep their hopes of qualifying for the knock-out stages alive.

With a full-time result of 3-1 in favour of the visitors it was a disappointing ending to what has been a poor group stage for this Trinity team.

TRINITY NEWS