Trinity News Vol. 68, Issue 3 by Trinity News

Squid Game: Decoding mollusc taxonomy

The Colonial Legacies Project

Life pullout

The haunting reality of house hunting in Dublin

TRINITY NEWS ESTABLISHED 1953

Tuesday 12 October 2021

Ireland’s Oldest Student Newspaper

Vol. 68, Issue. 3

PHOTO BY ELIZA MELLER FOR TRINITY NEWS

Over 78,000 visited Book of Kells since reopening in May Sarah Emerson Deputy News Editor

HE BOOK OF KELLS HAD 78,827 VISITORS between its reopening on May 10 and October 5, according to official

“Dublin is dying”

Hundreds marched across Dublin city centre on Saturday, October 9, to protest plans to build hotels at Merchant’s Arch in Temple Bar and on the site of the Cobblestone pub in Smithfield. A petition opposing the Smithfield plan has over 30,000 signatures

College working with schools to ensure move to face-to-face teaching is “as sizeable as possible” Bella Salerno Deputy News Editor

OLLEGE IS WORKING WITH INDIVIDUAL SCHOOLS to “make sure the step change” towards face-to-face teaching is “as sizeable as possible”. Trinity News spoke to the heads of the School of Histories and Humanities and School of Language, Literature and Cultural Studies, who hinted at issues that may prevent a full return to inperson teaching after Reading Week. Speaking to Trinity News, a

spokesperson for College said that “these matters are a work in progress, and we are trying to maximise face to face teaching after reading week.” “Timetabling is a very complex, logistically challenging endeavour”: they continued. “College authorities are currently working extremely hard, in cooperation with individual Schools, to identify additional large lecture spaces, to make sure the step change across all faculties toward face-to-face teaching and learning is as sizeable as possible.” “College would like to stress there is a distinction between emergency online teaching and online learning” the statement continued.

“Before the pandemic we had been working hard to develop optimal pedagogical course design which included a blended approach where appropriate.” Speaking to Trinity News, the Head of the School of Language, Literature and Cultural Studies, Prof Omar Garcia, said: “We currently have around 85% [face to face] teaching.” “If the Central Timetabling Unit (CTU) in College makes more rooms available after Reading Week, our permanent teaching staff will offer more [face to face] teaching, always observing public health guidance at the time, and in line with College policy.” Garcia continued: “Including

in terms of room ventilation and capacity, while also maintaining a duty of care concerning colleagues who have received Occupational Health exemptions from teaching [face to face] for a 3-month period in the first instance and have been granted permission to teach online in [Michaelmas term], while we are still in the middle of a global pandemic, affecting members at [Trinity].” Speaking to Trinity News, the Head of the School of Histories and Humanities, Dr Christine Morris, said: “We are fully committed, as a School, to maximise in person teaching after reading week, taking advantage of the removal of distancing requirements to make more use of the space we have Continued on page 2>>

figures. Trinity’s Old Library, which houses the Long Room and Book of Kells, closed for the third time on 23 December 2020, as Ireland entered level five restrictions during the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic Under the government’s phased plan to lift restrictions, cultural attractions were permitted to reopen from May 10 of this year. After 138 days of closure, the Book of Kells reopened to visitors, amid calls by Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) to halt the reopening until after students’ assessment period, which also commenced on May 10. At the time TCDSU stated on social media that “after the year we’ve had, it’s disappointing that Continued on page 2>>

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Tuesday 12 October | TRINITY NEWS

News

Table of contents News Features - page 15 Trinity’s colonial ties

Trinity not planning to offer refunds should teaching remain online Analysis: What is behind Trinity’s latest wave of student protests?

Comment - page 21

Covid didn’t kill our nightlife - the government did

SciTech - page 27 The neurochemistry of fast food; why you’re lovin’ it

Sport

- page 31

Matthew Simons elected chair of DUCAC Trinity Meteors win first game of Super League

TRINITY NEWS EDITORIAL STAFF Editor Deputy Editor Assistant Editor Online Editor Life Editor Editor-at-Large

Jack Kennedy Shannon Connolly Grace Gageby Shannon McGreevy Heather Bruton Finn Purdy

News Editor Features Editor Comment Editor Scitech Editors Eagarthóir Gaeilge

Kate Henshaw Ellen Kenny Sophie Furlong Tighe Lucy Fitzsimmons Nina Chen Niamh Ní Dhubhaigh

Head Photographer Head Videographer Head Copyeditor

Eliza Meller Kallum Linnie Sarah Moran

Get in touch at editor@trinitynews.ie

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>> Continued from front page

College working with schools to ensure move to face-to-face teaching is “as sizeable as possible” been allocated.” “In other words, the reworking of the timetabling currently being undertaken in the School is to move the physical locations of classes” she continued. She noted that this would enable “to use some smaller rooms that were not usable with social distancing, and thus freeing up space to make more classes in person”. According to Morris, the school’s “first key focus” is to ensure that “all tutorials and smaller seminar style classes are in person”. Concerning larger lectures, Morris states that the school has been assigned “only one lecture theatre [that can accommodate over 100 students]”. She said that if “College can make additional space available to us, then we will be able to get closer to a full in person return”. Last month, Provost Linda Doyle and Director of Student Health, Dr David McGrath announced that College will scrap social distancing after reading week. In a video posted on College’s online media platforms, Doyle confirmed that College will not enforce any social distancing oncampus after reading week, from November 1. During the first half of Michaelmas term, lectures, laboratories and tutorials have operated with one metre social distancing and mandatory mask wearing. However, one week prior to the announcement, students in

a second-year biology class were told that they, and potentially all science students, will not see an increase in in-person classes after reading week. The announcement was made in the introductory lecture for module BYU22201: From Molecules to Cells II, which is taken by all senior fresh biology and biomedical sciences students. “In-person lectures commencing after reading week, for this class group at the moment, that isn’t planned,” said module coordinator Dr Emma Creagh in a recording of the lecture seen by Trinity News. Freshman Biology Teaching Coordinator Dr Glynis Robinson said:“It’s just not feasible to start making a second timetable for all of the sciences. We’re talking about a thousand students to be re-timetabled. It isn’t possible, unfortunately.” On October 2, Trinity College Students’ Union (TCDSU) published an open letter calling on the heads of schools to maximise the amount of in-person teaching available to students after reading week. TCDSU claims they have been made aware that although post reading week, room capacity increases will allow for more in-person teaching, student timetabling will effectively remain unchanged. TCDSU explained to schools that should Trinity fail to facilitate face-to-face teaching post reading week, they anticipate extreme backlash across the student body, as well as from government, and

across the media. The union has told schools that they will be joining students should this backlash occur, as “College has had months to plan for this”. On October 6, TCDSU president Leah Keogh announced progress on the open letter. At the time Keogh said: “I brought the issue to College Board this morning as a matter of Urgent Business.” According to Keogh, Vice Provost Orla Shieils “has sent a form to all heads of schools, asking them to flag any obstacles getting in the way of a full return to campus”. “Additional spaces and funding for TAs is being sourced where necessary”, she continued. “School commitment is trickling in”, Keogh said, explaining that TCDSU has “had contact from seven heads of Schools, committing to maximise inperson teaching for their students”. TCDSU has also asked for “sight of what teaching will look like” for each student by November 1, and have been “assured” that they will receive information soon. Keogh added: “We have scheduled subsequent meetings with the provost and vice-provost before timetables are released next Thursday. Country-wide restrictions are due to ease on October 22. Reading week for second, third and fourth years is due to begin on October 25 with a full return proposed for November 1.

>> Continued from front page

Over 78,000 visited Book of Kells since reopening in May @tcddublin would even consider re-opening the Book of Kells in the middle of a pandemic and during the most stressful time for students”. Speaking to Trinity News at the time, former TCDSU president Eoin Hand said he asked that the reopening “be postponed until after exams”. “I have since brought it up two more times asking for a postponement of the opening of the Book of Kells until after the exams,” Hand said. He said that students “haven’t had access to campus for many different reasons due to restrictions”. “I’m really disappointed to see that the Book of Kells will be reopened again and tourists will be allowed back on campus when so many students still can’t access campus,” he said. The Old Library was first closed to the public on 11 March 2020, reopening on 10 August 2020. A second closure took place

from September 19 to 1 December 2020. From the initial closure in March 2020 to the most recent reopening in May 2021, the Old Library was closed for a total of 363 days, approximately 85% of the fourteen month period. Visitor Centre Administration Officer Noel Phelan told Trinity News that 78,827 people have toured the Book of Kells since it reopened to visitors on May 10. This translates to an average of 533 visitors per day, or 3,728 per week. According to the Book of Kells website, visitor capacity “has been greatly reduced”, and “social distancing is carefully monitored” in the Old Library, as part of the Covid-19 safety measures. Before the pandemic, a record one million people visited the exhibition in 2018. Standard entry costs €18 per adult, with lower ticket prices for concessions, families and groups. Based on these prices the Book of Kells could have generated a

maximum of €1.4m in the five months it has been open this year. The Library gift shop generates further revenue, while Trinity students, staff and alumni have free admission to the Old Library. The Irish Examiner reported that Trinity’s Old Library sustained a total loss of €14m in revenue in 2020, including a €4m revenue loss from the gift shop. €12.7m was generated in revenues by the Book of Kells exhibition in 2019. In 2020, revenue fell by 77% to €2.9m. An additional €5.2m was generated by the Library shop in 2019, falling to €1.2m in 2020. Entrance tickets for the Book of Kells exhibition have increased since the beginning of the pandemic and the Old Library closures. In March 2020, adult tickets ranged from €11 to €14, with family tickets priced at €28. Currently, tickets are priced between €14 at €18, with family tickets costing €34.

TRINITY NEWS | Tuesday 12 October

News

Students send open letter and launch petition calling for Schols to take place online 59 students have signed the open letter to the Senior Lecturer asking for clarity on the format of Schols this year Kate Henshaw News Editor

GROUP OF STUDENTS HAVE PUBLISHED AN OPEN LETTER calling for the Scholarship exams (Schols) to take place online next January. 59 students in total have signed the open letter addressed to the Senior Lecturer and Dean of Undergraduate Studies, Professor David Shepherd. They are seeking clarity on the format Schols will take this year and calling for the exams to be held online. Along with the open letter, the students have launched a petition gathering testimonies from others as to why they believe Schols should take place online. Trinity News spoke to the creator of the petition Frank Wolfe, who is a second-year PPES student. He believes that it is “very unreasonable to expect students who are sitting Schols this year to take in-person exams,” because “their education in Trinity has in no way prepared them to perform in in-person exams”. He notes that although previous exams taking place online “had to happen because of the pandemic” he “personally would be terrified at the prospect of sitting an inperson exam” and thinks that he “speaks for a lot of people in saying that”. “There are also some serious inclusivity issues, where for example if somebody got Covid, they would have a social and ethical responsibility to not come in and sit their exams.” He believes that this “puts students in a really really difficult position and could be very very stressful”. “There isn’t any evidence that written exams are a better way of assessing social sciences than typed exams or even that exams should be a way of assessing social sciences or arts and humanities subjects in general at all, but that’s a conversation for another time.” Wolfe added that he believes there is a “unanimous feeling” among students that Schols should have an online option, and “even students who would prefer to do the exam in-person said there should be hybrid provisions for

students who feel they need to do the exam online”. Wolfe said that the group has gotten “some support from [Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union]” on the issue but is “waiting to hear more from them”. He said he’s “feeling very optimistic that the Senior Lecturer and the Schols Executive Board are going to listen”. “If that is not the case then we are also optimistic that we can get student union support and they can help us fight this fight.” The letter explains that “at the time of writing, we do not know whether the Scholarship exams are to take place online/digitally or in person this year”. They want to “convey [their] sincere hope firstly that this will be finalised and communicated to [them] as soon as possible”. However they are also asking that “the exams will take place online/digitally - at least for AHSS students”. They believe that they “likely represent a large majority of the student body with this view”. They have outlined several reasons for this in the letter. Firstly “there is a broad consensus among students and various lecturers that take-home exams represent a no worse means [sic] of assessing

those subjects compared to inperson, handwritten exams, and that there is no pedagogical advantage associated with them”. “Many in fact believe that take-home exams may indeed be

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Their education in Trinity has in no way prepared them to perform in in-person exams

better, as they do not also place a huge and unnecessary premium on endurance, handwriting speed, memorisation etc.” Secondly “there is no indication from the Scholarship exams last year that their being online did any damage to their integrity, or to the rigour and meritocratic competition associated with them”. They also explain that “for most students (in particular [arts, humanities and social science] students]), the Scholarship Exams, if they were in-person and handwritten, will be the first exams of that nature that they will have done since their Leaving Certificate mock exams”. The group believes that the “nature of their education in Trinity up to this point (although necessary due to Covid-19) has in no way prepared them” for in person Schols exams. “This places an unfair burden on these students who are facing unquestionably the most important exams of their lives to date.” They believe that “due to the ever-changing and unpredictable nature of the Covid crisis, ensuing lockdowns, and subsequent logistical challenges the possibility that in-person events would have

to be changed to being online at short notice is a constant shadow on the horizon” “Committing soon to having the Scholarship exams online offers a stronger guarantee that there would be no last-minute changes to the arrangements in place for Schols”. Speaking to Trinity News, second-year student and supporter of the petition Jay Perdue said he believes “Schols should be online or open-book, especially for social sciences and humanities, because if you are just learning off essays, it’s not really testing your knowledge of the concepts”. Schols being online would “allow people’s work to be as good as it can possibly be, irrespective of how good their memory is”. The signatories of the letter conclude by saying that holding Schols in online would “take an enormous, anxiety-inducing burden off the shoulders of the dedicated students who are committed to attempting the exams”. Trinity News has reached out to the Senior Lecturer asking for clarification on the plans for Schols this year.

Tuesday 12 October | TRINITY NEWS

News

IUA and IFUT say planned third level funding substantially less than is needed The new National Development Plan allocated €2.9bn to the sector over the next five years Jamie Cox, Jack Kennedy News Analysis Editor, Editor

HE IRISH UNIVERSITIES ASSOCIATION (IUA) and Irish Federation of University Teachers (IFUT) have criticised the allocation of higher education funding under the new National Development Plan (NDP). The revised NDP, which was announced on October 4, includes an investment of almost €2.9 billion in further and higher education infrastructure and research, spread out between 2021 and 2025. Commenting on the funding, the IUA—which represents eight of Ireland’s 10 accredited universities—said that while the

funding is certainly a “step in the right direction”, more will be needed to adequately provide for the sector. The organisation continued: “The announcement of some additional funding for capital infrastructure in higher education in the revised NDP is welcomed.” “However, the overall envelope of funding of €500m, rising to €652m in 2025, is considerably less than what is required by a sector that has been under-funded for many years.” “The IUA and its member universities look forward to engaging further with Minister Harris and his Department to get clarification on the NDP funding plans for the sector and to continue to push for additional funding for both capital and current spending needs” the statement continued. IUA Chairperson and President of National University of Ireland Galway, Professor Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh said: “The escalating investment needs of our sector, given the background of underfunding and the continued expansion of numbers, are well recognised in the NDP.” He said that higher education institutions “eagerly await the

funding proposals for the sector in Budget 2022,” which is due to be published today (October 12). Ó hÓgartaigh added: “This is now accepted as a critical need

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This is a walking away by the state from its obligation to fund higher education which is placing huge pressures on academic staff

for society and our economy, investing in future generations of students through flourishing, well-supported higher education institutions.” The IFUT echoed the IUA’s sentiment, calling upon the government to deliver “emergency funding to universities in crisis”. Frank Jones, the union’s general secretary, said that universities “will soon be unable to guarantee sustainable teaching”. “We are at risk of trying to stage ‘Hamlet without the Prince’ if stagnant numbers and precarious staffing issues continue to be ignored in higher education policy” he explained. “The current spend of 3.3% of GDP in Ireland on education is the lowest across the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development [OECD].” “Our universities are increasingly forced to literally fund themselves,” he continued. “For example, recent figures from Trinity show the proportion of its income from the exchequer collapsed from 70% in 2008 to just 39% in 2020.” Jones said that the additional public funding was “welcome” but called attention to the NDP’s

reference to “non-exchequer finance” as having an ongoing “important role” in funding higher education. The government’s plan says that “borrowing..including from the European Investment Bank (EIB) and philanthropy” should continue to be a key source of capital for third-level institutions. Jones described this as a “walking away by the state from its obligation to fund higher education”, which is “placing huge pressures on academic staff to double as fundraisers in seeking investment”. The IFUT says that investment from any source in expanding universities, without also addressing staffing issues, will lead to “overcrowded classrooms, a threatened tutoring system and increased impersonalisation of [students’] education”. It noted that Ireland’s third-level teacher-student ratio is already the second lowest among OECD countries, at 23.4. The average is 15.1. “Budget 2022 is an opportunity to begin to tackle this crisis across higher education in Ireland,” Jones concluded.

PHOTO BY JULIEN BEHAL PHOTOGRAPHY

TRINITY NEWS | Tuesday 21 September

Students 4 Change confirm further direct action on campus before November 1

Bella Salerno Deputy News Editor

PEAKING TO TRINITY NEWS, STUDENTS 4 CHANGE (S4C) chair Laszlo Molnárfi has confirmed the groups plans for further direct action on campus before Novermber 1. He said College is “refusing to engage” with them which is why they are planning an escalation of direct action by November 1, “for sure”. He continued: “We want to work together with College, but if they do not engage with us, we turn to direct action.” Molnarfi said he “proposed solutions” to the Provost such as “compensation” for students

following restrictions on in-person teaching and use of facilities since the beginning of the pandemic. The group has begun describing itself as an organisation of Marxist and anarchist students, but says “we operate on the principles of the united front, which means that a wide variety of left-leaning students and organisations take part in our actions”. Some of their other demands include asking College to “consider the possibility of openbook exams”, with the exception of “medicine and other courses which require otherwise as per common-sense”. The group notes it is “absolutely against the use of Proctorio” to administer exams. Students 4 Change (S4C) held a town hall meeting in the Pav marquee last week following their in-person protest two weeks ago in response to College’s handling of the return to campus. This was the first protest to take place in Trinity since the beginning of the pandemic, with many students disgruntled by College’s handling of the return to campus. While several hundred students attended the protest, just a dozen people, including the organisers and media, attended the town hall meeting. The group is campaigning

against College’s handling of reopening on-campus activity and in-person teaching, as well as advocating for College to expand access to the library and place increased focus on student mental health. At the town hall meeting, S4C said they plan to “force [College’s] hands through direct action to make change”, in order to achieve these demands. In relation to College’s response,

Molnárfi said: “We have gotten absolutely no reply”. He continued: “They want to delay us and hope that our demands will fizzle out. We need to force their hand.” Molnárfi believes that College are “not taking us seriously, they’re not taking students’ demands seriously”. “We should be proactive not reactive” in response to College dismissing their demands,

Molnarfi said. On the subject of direct action, Molnárfi cited a need to “collectively organise” with other groups and disgruntled students in general. “We need to remind [College] that we exist,” he said. “They will take us seriously when we are protesting in front of their windows, when we are occupying their dining halls, when we are marching into their offices.” PHOTO BY JACK KENNEDY FOR TRINITY NEWS

The group’s chair said while he wants “to work together with College”, S4C “will turn to direct action if they do not engage with us”

Trinity not planning to offer refunds should teaching remain online after reading week

Kate Henshaw News Editor

RINITY IS NOT PLANNING TO OFFER REFUNDS to students should some teaching remain online after Reading Week. It is still unclear if a full return to in person classes will happen after country-wide restrictions are eased on October 22. When asked if Trinity would entertain a refund for students should some teaching remain online, a spokesperson for College

said “no, this is not planned”. Last week, Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) President Leah Keogh has announced an update on the Open Letter sent by the sabbatical officers last week. She explained that schools are being asked to “flag obstacles getting in the way of a full return to campus”. On October 1, TCDSU called on the heads of schools to maximise in-person teaching available to students after reading week, and to re-timetable to that end. In the open letter, the union expressed “deep concern” regarding timetables for the second half of the semester, saying: “there is no plan to re-timetable… and little will change in the way of students’ current experience.” “We strongly believe that by November 1, only classes over 500 and those that have always been taught online for pedagogical reasons should be online”, the letter continued. This evening, Keogh said: “I brought the issue to College Board

this morning as a matter of Urgent Business.” According to Keogh, Vice Provost Orla Shieils “has sent a form to all heads of schools, asking them to flag any obstacles getting in the way of a full return to campus”. “Additional spaces and funding for TAs is being sourced where necessary”, she continued. “School commitment is trickling in”, Keogh said, explaining that TCDSU has “had contact from seven heads of Schools, committing to maximise inperson teaching for their students”. TCDSU has also asked for “sight of what teaching will look like” for each student by November 1, and have been “assured” that they will receive information soon. Keogh added: “We have scheduled subsequent meetings with the provost and vice-provost before timetables are released next Thursday. ” Speaking to Trinity News this week, a spokesperson for College said: “Trinity will definitely be using all teaching and learning

spaces at full capacity with no social distancing after reading week”. “This will also apply to the library”, the spokesperson added. Country-wide restrictions are

due to ease on October 22. Reading week for second, third and fourth years is due to begin on October 25, with a full return proposed for November 1.

PHOTO BY SABA MALIK FOR TRINITY NEWS

It is still unclear if a full return to campus will happen after restrictions are eased on October 22

Tuesday 12 October | TRINITY NEWS

News

Analysis: What is behind Trinity’s latest wave of student protests? PHOTO BY JACK KENNEDY FOR TRINITY NEWS

The context and the implications of the recent student activism boom Andreína Hernández Contributing Writer

HIS SEPTEMBER, A YEAR AND HALF AFTER TRINITY CLOSED ITS DOORS due to the Covid-19 pandemic, College witnessed four major protests. On September 15, the National Housing & Homeless Coalition organised a demonstration outside Leinster House to express their frustration at the ongoing housing crisis. The Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland has recently disclosed the cost of delivering two-bed flats in Dublin. This cost ranges from €493,000 to €619,000, depending on the property. It is no surprise, then, that most properties are built to lease. However, in many cases, these rents are still too expensive. Students, who often rely on shorter rental contracts, are among those most affected. Government’s inability to address the affordability issue at the centre of the housing crisis is having a major impact on higher education. On September 22, hundreds of students gathered in Front Square to protest College’s handling of the return to campus. The demonstration was organised by the student campaign groups Trinity College Dublin Campaign for Face to Face Teaching, Students4Change, and Trinity College Dublin Renters’ Union. At the protest students articulated several demands and conveyed the widespread dissatisfaction among students. Attendees called for the complete reinstatement of face-to-face teaching or a refund of student fees. Other demands included additional funding for College’s mental health services, and an apology from Trinity in relation to the handling of the return to campus thus far. On September 24, Fossil Free TCD and the Systemic Environmental Correct Initiative coordinated a demonstration in response to Trinity’s investment in fossil fuel enterprises. which is still ongoing. This is despite College pledging in 2016 to cut companies whose core business is fossil extraction from its portfolio. However, according to those present, this protest had a more symbolic purpose. As one of the

participants put it, the rally was aimed at “an institution that claims to care about creating a better future” but which some people feel is failing to commit fully to climate action. And finally, the end of last month saw the March for Choice, an annual protest calling for comprehensive reproductive rights. On its tenth anniversary, the Abortion Rights Campaign planned a socially distanced rally to advocate for free, safe, and legal abortion access. Trinity College Dublin

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This progression debunks the assumption that the youth of today are ignorant or politically apathetic

Students’ Union and DU Gender Equality Society gathered outside Trinity’s Exam Hall to attend the event in solidarity with the cause. There are plenty of reasons why students interrupt their routines to plan rallies, and protest under common cause. Disaffection with established political institutions and an ever-increasing level of concern about and political issues are just a few. However, of greater weight are matters of economic prospects, inequality, and justice, which are often the underlying motives behind social movements. There are many problems that directly and disproportionately affect students in Ireland. For example, students have struggled with tuition and record-high debt for some time. As the recent demonstrations underlined, they also face long-term challenges, such as unemployment and lack of access to affordable housing. The last month has reaffirmed that protesting is an important medium for students to express their dissatisfaction and demand alternatives. It is a means by which they can express their discontent in an age of increasing polarisation and uncertainty. However, youth-led social movements are not an unusual phenomenon by any means. History provides numerous examples of young people being at the forefront of political change. Examples

include the counter-cultural and revolutionary movements that swept the world in the 1960s and 70s and the more recent wave of anti-austerity and pro-democracy movements across Europe. Yet campus activism, at Trinity in particular, is a phenomenon that has continued to grow and thrive over the last ten years. This progression debunks the assumption, present in some quarters, that the youth of today are ignorant or politically apathetic; the latest wave demonstrations confirms this, especially considering the variety of issues covered. The recent outcries reflect students’ awareness and desire to affect change on their campus and in politics more widely. This past month at Trinity is a testament to Irish students’ high degrees of political participation. The upsurge in protest is less a spontaneous eruption of political sentiment and more a continuation of historical, ongoing student engagement with politics. It can be argued that current student protests are a subset of a more extensive trend of political activity worldwide.They are not isolated events; they are part of what some news outlets have called “a renaissance of political activism”. In fact, according to Dr. Jacqueline Hayden, an assistant professor of political science at Trinity, one reason for this rise is the growing

diversity on campuses. This diversity helps introduce students to varying points of view. College students and graduates are more exposed to energising ideas and international affairs. This newly-acquired familiarity with global causes undoubtedly inspires students to work together and mobilize around shared ideals and purposes. Student activism goes beyond traditional political identity. Instead, their political activity is issue-based, and their concerns are transnational and existential. Climate change, for example, is so fundamental that no constraint or restriction would divert many young people from expressing their displeasure with institutions’ inaction on it. Finally, student activism at Trinity offers a glimpse at the state and changing landscape of this form of political engagement. This kind of civic participation helps students develop an enhanced understanding of the way historical and current events shape and inform both the way we see ourselves and the way we see others. Through these practices, students are not only seeking immediate change. They are also recognising that what is political is also social and cultural, and vice versa. They are contributing to a climate in which change seems possible and more people can be, and are, inspired to act.

TRINITY NEWS | Tuesday 12 October

News

Goldsmith residents criticise ongoing issues, “don’t believe Accommodations are taking this matter seriously” According to students, there are currently issues with the electricity in the building Kate Henshaw News Editor

oldsmith residents have criticised ongoing issues in the building saying they “don’t believe Accommodations are taking this matter seriously enough”. According to students, there are currently issues with the electricity in the building. One student told Trinity News that she had “been travelling back to Dublin on the Sunday and a friend had texted [her] saying his electricity had stopped working in his apartments in Goldsmith”. She said she was “hoping [hers] would be okay”. However, when she “got back to [her] apartment the plugs were fine but the light in the kitchen wouldn't turn on”. Another student spoke to Trinity News to highlight her disappointment with how the Accommodations Office has handled the issues thus far. She noted that “as far as we’re

aware, the €200 T-Card top-up or SITS account credit is a thank you to residents for our patience with the construction work, and is unrelated to workers being sent into our kitchen to paint without our permission or our knowledge”. She does not “believe that €200 is adequate compensation for that”. “When a landlord wishes to carry out works, they must notify their tenants and get permission to do so at a specified time and date” she continued. “By not informing us, they breached our rights. “I don’t believe Accommodations are taking this matter seriously enough, since they will not address it directly.” She said that she “sought advice from Alex at the Accommodation Advisory Service, who has helped us in contacting Neal Murphy, Head of Accommodations, and in recommending tenants rights organisations that we can seek assistance from”. “I’m currently in talks with Threshold to take the matter further, and have communicated my intent to Neal, who once again did not address the breach of rights and suggested I apply the €200 to my SITS account rather than my T-Card.” The student also highlighted “the stress of dealing with all of this” as a final year student. “We pay enough money to live in Goldsmith and the least we expect is accommodation in which the water, electricity and appliances work, and in which we are asked

permission before strangers enter our apartments to make our kitchen inoperable.” She does “not want nor need the extra work of fighting for [their] rights as tenants”. “After putting up with all of this, I wouldn’t advise students to move into Trinity accommodation.” On September 30, Trinity News reported that several Goldsmith residents were to receive €200

worth of T-Card credit as a result of the disruption caused by construction works on the building throughout September. In an email seen by Trinity News, the accommodation office said: “We would like to thank you again for your patience while the new windows were installed in your kitchens.” “It was intended to have the work completed well in advance of

your arrival but COVID-19 delays in the supply chain meant their delivery was severely impacted”, the email continued. “To thank you for your patience we will be applying a €200 credit to your T-Card over the next few days which you can use through the year wherever T-card is accepted.”

Library to scrap social distancing, booking system on October 22 Jack Kennedy Editor

LL TRINITY LIBRARIES WILL RETURN TO FULL CAPACITY and no longer require students to make bookings starting on Friday October 22, just before the beginning of Reading Week. All 3,000 library seats can be used from October 22. Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union President Leah Keogh made the announcement in a tweet last week, and a spokesperson for Trinity has confirmed the decision. Keogh said that “mask wearing will continue” and that students are “encouraged” to use Ireland’s contact tracing app. A College spokesperson said that Library users “may be asked” to use the app “depending on the details of guidance received from Government”. There will be two exceptions to the lifting of restrictions. The 1937

Postgraduate Reading Room will retain a booking system “at the request of the Graduate Students’ Union”. Additionally, the Joint Research Collections Reading Room will also require users to book ahead their visit, “due to preparatory works for the Old Library Redevelopment Project”. “Enabling works” to bring the Library back to full capacity will begin on Monday October 18. During this time, reduced seating capacity, physical distancing and booking requirements will remain in place. Throughout the pandemic, the library has been operating at severely reduced capacity to maintain distance between active workspaces, with about 700 seats available compared to total usual 3,000. Students have also been required to book time in the library online, in advance, with evolving restrictions on how much can be booked in a given session. PHOTO BY SABA MALIK FOR TRINITY NEWS

Tuesday 12 October | TRINITY NEWS

News

Over 200 staff and students vaccinated at pop up centre in Trinity The HSE pop up vaccination clinic operated for two days on campus Sarah Emerson Deputy News Editor

N MONDAY 27 AND WEDNESDAY 29 SEPTEMBER, a HSE pop up vaccination centre operated on a walk-in basis for all students and staff on Trinity’s main campus. Over 200 staff and students were vaccinated. Offering first or second doses, students and staff wishing to avail of the clinic did not require appointments. The vaccination clinic took place in the New Square Marquee, and was open from 8:30am to 8pm on both days. The vaccination clinic at Trinity was one of 11 pop up centres established in colleges across Ireland as part of “Vaccination Week”. In Dublin, temporary clinics also operated at Dublin City University (DCU), Royal College of Surgeons Ireland (RCSI) and National College of Art and Design (NCAD). Speaking to Trinity News, a spokesperson for College said that “more than 200 were vaccinated” through the centre at Trinity across the two days. Director of College Health Service, Dr David McGrath encouraged students and staff to participate in the vaccination pro-

gramme “to make our campus as safe as possible”, adding: “It will be especially beneficial to our international students who may not have had a recognised vaccination in Ireland.” Last week Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Simon Harris, revealed that 3,335 students have availed of vaccinations at over 30 HSE clinics across the country. In a video posted on his personal Twitter account, Harris said that he is “delighted” with the number of students who availed of the vaccinations during ‘College Vaccination Week’. “There was clearly a real benefit in having this vaccination week and also such great uptakes, which is a very encouraging sign” he continued. According to Harris, there will be another ‘Vaccination Week’ on college campuses for students who require a second dose. Current figures show over 89% of people in Ireland above the age of 12 have been fully vaccinated. Free face masks have also been provided in colleges and other locations across Ireland. Minister for Further and Higher Education ,Innovation and Research Simon Harris announced the free masks scheme, along with plans for the pop up campus vaccination centres at the beginning of September. Boxes of single-use masks were made available in Trinity at Front Gate, the Nassau Street and Science Gallery entrances from September 27.

Yvonne Buckley named Vice President for Biodiversity and Climate Action

The professor of zoology will take up her new role in January Inès Messaï Contributing Writer

ROFESSOR OF ZOOLOGY YVONNE BUCKLEY is to take up the role of Vice President for Biodiversity and Climate Action at the beginning of next year. Trinity is the first university in Ireland to appoint a senior official to promote action on climate change issues. During the first six months of her term, which begins in January 2022, Prof Buckley will focus on putting in place organisational structures to coordinate climate action. College will establish a “sustainability office” composed of academic and professional staff to “build on work already in progress in Trinity’s Climate Action Plan” and work on a Biodiversity Action Plan. Provost Linda Doyle sees this new role as “part of her vision for Trinity’s future”, and a “key priority for the years ahead”. According to her, many staff and students are

already making “important contributions to Trinity’s sustainability” and this initiative will “support and amplify their activities”. The sustainability office will subsume the Healthy Trinity initiative, a project which has been ongoing for several years and is composed of nine working groups of staff and students from around College. The reasoning for this is that there are “important parallels and intersections between human and planetary health”. College sees these efforts as necessary for it to achieve the 7% annual reduction in carbon dioxide emissions set out in the government’s Climate Action Plan, but says there are “opportunities here to deliver important additional benefits to the way we live and work.” According to Prof Buckley, action on climate issues cannot wait: “We are in a decade of action right now and need to urgently make progress on the climate and biodiversity commitments which have already been made. The debate on whether we need to act or not is closed.” “This new position raises the profile of biodiversity and climate action within Trinity, across the university sector and – more broadly – represents an important step in the vision of a climate-first Trinity.” Buckley continued: “There has been great progress in the last few

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We are in a decade of action right now and need to urgently make progress on climate and biodiversity years in making Trinity more sustainable and in harnessing the ingenuity and passion that so many of our researchers, students and staff have for creating a greener future. “We recognise the importance and value of involving as many people as possible from the Trinity community to tackle the challenges ahead and are excited to expand our contribution to the climate and biodiversity solutions we need if all sectors of society are to thrive in the decades ahead.”

TRINITY NEWS | Tuesday 12 October

News

Ents Officer announces “big plans” for after reading week According to TCDSU Ents Officer Greg Arrowsmith, Ents ran “65 events in September with more 15,920 tickets sold and €7882 raised for charity” Sarah Emerson Deputy News Editor

RINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN STUDENTS’ UNION ENTERTAINMENTS (Ents) Officer Greg Arrowsmith has announced his plans for the remainder of term. No events are to take place in weeks five and six, but are being planned from late October. The temporary Pav marquee, used by TCDSU for outdoor events, was dismantled on October 4, due to planning regulations. Asked by Trinity News about Ents plans for October, between the dismantling of the Pav marquee and the reopening of nightclubs, Arrowsmith said: “Myself and the Ents committee are hard at work organising plans for after reading week, as well as some other projects and taking a bit of a break.” “We are all pretty tired having

run 65 events in September with more 15,920 tickets sold and €7882 raised for charity”, he explained. “We have big plans for after reading week, where we are planning five nights out in five different clubs” from November 1 to 5, Arrowsmith announced. He said that the five nights out were intended “to build on the progress we’ve made engaging the sophister years more with ents, through novel and engaging themes and venues”. Arrowsmith also pointed to a “student race day” at the Curragh race track on October 26. Ents have planned buses and “a nightclub for after”. Tickets include “a full race card with eight races, finishing with an intervarsity race with riders from 16 colleges racing in their college liveries”. He also shared plans for Halloween and Christmas events, saying: “We’re also trying to organise a haunted house style Halloween event, which would function like a scare house.” “Onwards into November then we want to run a mystery tour, as well as a whole-campus Christmas day on the day we finish up term.” “We’re going to organise a wide variety of events, not just nights out, as we have done so far”, he added. Arrowsmith noted: “In the meantime I’ve been busy developing a welfare policy for Ents, so that our students are safer and our committee members have the tools to deal with situations that commonly occur.” “I’ve also been preparing for the Ents EGM [on October 20], at which we’ll be electing 3 first year

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We’re going to organise a wide variety of events, not just nights out, as we have done so far reps, 2 SF reps, 2 sophister reps, a deputy live music officer and a photography officer”, he added. While nationally, organised in-

door events have been permitted at reduced capacity for fully vaccinated or immune attendees since September 6, indoor social events on campus have not been forthcoming. College’s return to campus plan, published by Provost Linda Doyle in late August, stated that “currently indoor events are not allowed”. “Any changes in Government guidelines that have an impact on these activities can be put into action immediately”, it continued. Trinity’s current regulations are due to be relaxed after reading week “to allow for many more in-person campus experiences”, as part of College’s “two-phased approach” to reopening. Trinity has not yet confirmed concrete plans for the second half of term, beginning November 1, including any permissions for indoor social activities in College spaces.

Under government’s reopening roadmap, almost all Covid-19 restrictions are to be lifted by the end of October. From October 22, proof of vaccination or immunity will no longer be required to access activities or events, and restrictions on numbers at indoor or outdoor events will be lifted. Nightclubs will also reopen for the first time since March 2020. During this years sabbatical race, Arrowsmith made “Ents for Everyone” a central point in his manifesto, promising to “organise more Ents events in venues accessible for students with different disabilities” and to “work closely with the Welfare Officer and venue security to make events safe and welcoming for transgender and LGBTQ+ students”.

TCDSU votes to boycott gambling companies NUI Galway’s IT systems Jack Kennedy Editor

OTERS IN A TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN STUDENTS’ UNION (TCDSU) referendum last week approved a proposal to bar the organisation from partnering with gambling companies. 72.5% of participants voted in favour of the motion, which says the union “shall not accept advertisements or sponsorship money from any company that promotes betting or gambling” going forward. 27.5% of the 843 valid votes were against. A further 12 ballots were spoiled. The motion also states that “the president, welfare and equality officer and ents officer shall lobby for the banning of gambling advertising and sponsorship in Ireland, in particular advertising that is targeted specifically at young people”. The proposal was brought forward by last year’s Ents Officer

Hugh McInerney and Communications & Marketing Officer Philly Holmes. TCDSU Council approved putting it to referendum in April. Speaking to Trinity News at the time, McInerney said that the motion was not “against gambling itself; what students do with their money is completely their business.” “This is to ensure we do not support the parasitic gambling advertising business”. He went on to emphasise the efficacy of targeted gambling advertisements and in-game mechanisms in maintaining loss-making players as customers, saying “gambling companies know exactly who to target and how to do it”. “In a recent Premier League match, from 15 mins before kickoff to the end of the game, gambling was mentioned, shown on screen, or advertised over 200 times,” McInerney continued. He said he believed that “mandating TCDSU not to take their advertising would be a step towards ensuring we do not support an industry whose one goal is to

make losing money as attractive as possible”. Voting took place online last week, from Wednesday morning (October 6) until Friday evening (October 8), alongside class representative elections.

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This is to ensure we do not support the parasitic gambling advertising business

hit by cyberattack The university disabled access to its campus network as a precautionary measure following the attack Grace Gageby Assistant Editor

ATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND GALWAY (NUIG) was targeted by a cyberattack at the beginning of this month, causing disruptions to the university’s computer networks. A statement from the university posted on October 1 read: “Our IT, cyber security and data protection specialists are monitoring and in-

vestigating the incident closely. At this point, there is no evidence of any data being compromised.” The statement continued: “We are working to restore normal access as soon as possible.” The university disabled student and staff access to the campus internal network and the internet as a precautionary measure following the attack. An email sent to students, seen by Trinity News, read: “Access to University cloud-based platforms including email, Microsoft Teams and Zoom remains possible from off-campus locations.” “If you are on campus, you can access these services from a mobile phone if you turn on WiFi connection.” “There is no access to on-campus systems from off-campus locations’’: the email continued. Trinity News reached out to NUIG for comment, but the university said it was not in a position to provide any further commentary.

Tuesday 12 October | TRINITY NEWS

News

Analysis: UniCov failing to recruit enough students to participate in pilot screening study Bonnie Gill

News Analysis Editor

INCE JUNE 14, FOUR IRISH UNIVERSITIES have been taking part in a national-scale Covid-19 pilot study which involved regular screen tests amongst staff and students. The programme, named ‘UniCov’, is led by the National University of Ireland Galway (NUI Galway) and has been operating in partnership with Trinity, University College Dublin (UCD) and University College Cork (UCC). Back in April, Minister for Further and Higher Education, Innovation and Research Simon Harris expressed ambitions to introduce this kind of pilot screening across a number of Irish institutions, saying that this kind of screening could provide insight into the role rapid testing could play in re-introducing on-campus activities. Trinity was among the first universities to conduct rapid testing under the pilot study ‘Triniscreen’. The study relied on voluntary student participation and looked to minimise outbreaks on campus, especially in on-campus accommodation. Rapid testing in Trinity has since been participating in the UniCov study alongside the three other universities involved. On its website, UniCov states that it’s project will “explore effective rapid testing and surveillance systems within third-level institutes to assist with the early identification of asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2”. It also states that the study’s findings will aid in the development of early warning systems and the prevention and control of future outbreaks. Participation in the study is voluntary, and consists of biweekly self administered testing in the form of both rapid antigen and saliva sample tests. In an interview with RTE Radio 1 on September 28, one of the researchers behind UniCov, UCD Professor Paddy Mallon, stated that the study would be looking to investigate not only which test performs best, but also which kind of test participants prefer to take. The study also set out to examine the frequency of testing. In other words, how often were students and staff participating in the testing and returning of samples. If the results of the pilot study

are deemed useful, it is hoped that this kind of regular testing could be introduced in other sectors. The study aimed to recruit 8,000 participants in total, with 2,000 from each of the four universities. The uptake however, has been significantly lower. In their latest report, published on October 1, the results show that although the total number of UniCov tests taken is at 8,967, the number of students and staff registered in the programme remains at 1,788 in total. The results show that approximately 50% of participants across the four institutions are both taking tests and providing their samples to the study. This would indicate that while many people are availing of the rapid antigen tests, not many are returning with their results. The study’s findings revealed that 55% of participants preferred taking rapid antigen tests, while 45% preferred providing saliva samples. The report a l s o

showed that of the four institutions, Trinity has had the lowest number of participants in the study. In total, 379 staff and students have registered through the UniCov website. 120 of these registrations were made by staff, while 259 were made by students. In comparison, UCC has had a total of 557 registrations, with 386 of those being made by students. Speaking on the programme, Vice Provost Orla Shiels reiterated that they are failing to recruit enough students into the study. She stated: “It appears from the rate that packs are being

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Of the four institutions, Trinity has had the lowest number of participants in the study

taken that people may want to access the lateral flow tests.” “But if they don’t register with the study and return their results we can’t get the data we need to inform best practice as we all try to get out of the current crisis” she explained. The most recent results of the study show that the overall positivity rate is <1%, and while this is to be expected with the number of students and staff vaccinated, the upcoming winter months will act as a trial run for the efficiency of the vaccine amidst colder conditions and the possibility of a subsequent higher rate of transmission. The feasibility of this study is being examined now in order to determine whether similar rapid testing can be used to monitor and minimise cases on campus in the months to come. Therefore, participation in the study is more important now than ever, to investigate whether or not this kind of screening can be used to ensure that in-person and on-campus activities are able to continue.

TRINITY NEWS | Tuesday 12 October

News AntiApartheid Week Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union and Trinity BDS held a demonstration last Thursday (October 7) outside the dining hall, calling on Trinity to join the academic boycott of Israel. The protest was part of the union’s AntiApartheid week, which included a number of other events held in solidarity with Palestine.

PHOTOS BY ELIZA MELLER AND ISOBEL DUFFY FOR TRINITY NEWS.

Tuesday 12 October | TRINITY NEWS

News

Graduations in November and December to operate at 100% capacity Commencements will also be held in 2022 for “many if not all students who graduated online but are due an in-person celebration of this with family and friends” Kate Henshaw News Editor

RINITY COMMENCEMENTS IN NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER are to operate at 100% capacity. Commencements will also be held in 2022 for students who “will be able to cover many if not all students who graduated online but are due an in-person

celebration of this with family and friends”. Also, in October commencements will be held with social distancing subject to public health guidelines. These commencements will facilitate both students who have just completed their studies in 2021 and those whose graduations were not marked during the pandemic. They are to take place in the public theatre, also known as the Exam Hall. College have said that the commencements in November and December will operate at 100% capacity for both “students who completed in the last academic year and who would be due to graduate during this session as well as all students who had deferred their graduations”. Registrar Professor Neville Cox said that ”the holding of additional ceremonies generates a significant amount of work for many people”. He also wants to “thank the staff in Academic Registry, as well as those working for College Security, Estates and Facilities,

Trinity Communications, Trinity Development and Alumni and so on, for being so generous with their time and efforts in making these events a possibility”. “Commencements are such joyful occasions – and hopefully all the events that we hold in these sessions can be beacons of hope and joy for the whole college community.” In August, Trinity became the first Higher Education Institution (HEI) to resume in person graduations. Over several days, groups of 60 students attended their graduation ceremonies in a marquee outdoors to keep within public health guidelines. Each event was permitted a total of 120 guests, with every guest required to provide proof of vaccination or a negative PCR test. A total of almost 1,000 students, who would normally have graduated in 2020, were due to attend these small-scale ceremonies between August 11 and August 20.

PBP launch alternative budget calling for the abolition of third level fees The proposal places emphasis on ‘free and quality education for all’ Kate Henshaw News Editor

EOPLE BEFORE PROFIT (PBP) HAVE LAUNCHED AN ALTERNATIVE BUDGET calling for the abolition of third-level fees. Budget 2022 is due to be published by government today, October 12. In their alternative budget, PBP have placed emphasis on “free and quality education for all”. They are campaigning for the abolition of all third level fees “both tuition and registration” for all undergraduates and postgraduates, including mature students. They also want to “abolish voluntary contribution and other primary and post-primary charges” and “reduce pupil-teacher ratio to 15:1” across both primary and secondary schools. As of this year, the pupil-teach-

er ratio in Ireland is 26:1. In Budget 2021, the government pledged to reduce this ratio to 1:25, however as of July 2021, that goal had not been achieved. The European average for pupil-teacher ratio in 2018 was 13.6. The party believes primary and secondary education should be “genuinely free” and they would achieve this by abolishing “all charges” “including voluntary contributions” and providing “free school books and uniforms etc”. The proposal also places emphasis on increased funding for special education provision, which they would increase by 15% from 2018 levels. In their budget, PBP specify that they would “abolish the student contribution charge for EU undergraduates”. They would also “abolish fees for EU postgrads and mature or repeating students and match funding from non-EU students to reduce reliance on income from international students”. They also want to “increase student grants to their highest historical levels including Student Universal Support Ireland, grant adjacency rates and postgraduate student grants”. Finally they would “expand ac-

cess to third level by increasing the number of places” across further and higher education institutions. The party has costed all of these measures at €2.8 billion. Also, in their proposal, PBP have published plans for “quality

affordable housing” and an increase of the minimum was from €10.20 per hour to €15 per hour as a “lasting post-pandemic dividend for workers”. Other highlights of the plan include investment in a “permanent

increase in capacity all across the health service with free GP and primary care”. Finally, PBP want to introduce free public transport across the country.

TRINITY NEWS | Tuesday 12 October

News

Analysis: How the HEAR scheme works in different HEIs around the country Bella Salerno

Deputy News Editor

HE HIGHER EDUCATION ACCESS ROUTE (HEAR) is a college and university scheme developed by the Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in partnership with the Central Applications Office (CAO). The scheme offers courses on reduced points and extra college support to school leavers from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds who are residents in the Republic of Ireland. HEIs that participate in HEAR include; Dublin City University (DCU), Technological University Dublin ((TUD), National University of Ireland Maynooth (NUIM), University College Dublin (UCD), National University of Ireland Galway (NUI Galway), University College Cork (UCC), University of Limerick (UL), Royal College of Surgeons Ireland (RCSI), Munster Technological University (MTU), Technological University of the Shannon (TUS) Midlands Midwest, and Trinity. HEAR is for eligible students under the age of 23 as of 1 January 2021 who are resident in the Republic of Ireland. To be eligible, students must meet the HEAR income limit (on or below €45,790 in 2020) plus the right combination of 2 other indicators to be eligible such as; personal or familial possession of a Medical Card/GP Visit Card, a

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UCC reserves approximately 5% of first year places for students applying under the HEAR scheme

parent or guardian who received means-tested social welfare payment for at least 26 weeks in 2020, a parent’s or guardian’s employment status under-represented in Higher Education, attendance at a Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools (DEIS) second level school for five years, or living in an area of concentrated disadvantage. Each HEI reserves a minimum of 5% of its places for reduced points offers for HEAR. According to the ‘DARE HEAR Summary Report 2020’ by the Irish Universities Association (IUA), In 2020, 61% of HEAR applicants met the eligibility criteria. In 2020, 3548 individual applicants to HEAR received an offer of a place in higher education. 1579 reduced points offers were made to HEAR eligible applicants who had not met the normal points requirements for their preferred course, while 3865 additional offers were made to those HEAR eligible applicants who achieved on or above the points required). Notable figures from the report include a 14% increase in the number of offers to applicants who were eligible for HEAR, compared to 2019, a 15% increase in the number of HEAR eligible applicants accepting offers, compared to 2019, 8.2% of all offers to CAO applicants (under 23 with a current Leaving Certificate) were HEAR eligible applicants (compared to 7.8% in 2019), and 8.4% of all CAO offers accepted (under 23 with a current Leaving Certificate) were HEAR eligible applicants (compared to 7.9% in 2019). Difference in intake DCU has the largest intake of HEAR students for level 8 courses, as it allocates 10% of first year places on all full time level 8 undergraduate courses at reduced points entry to students entering through the HEAR scheme. Students who achieve on or above 300 points automatically receive a DCU HEAR offer. TU Dublin (TUD) reserves a minimum of 5% up to 10% of places on a reduced-points basis to HEAR-eligible students on all full time level 8, level 7 and level 6 courses. TUD offers an approximate points reduction up to 12.5% on the required points for each

programme. NUIM reserves a minimum of 5.5% of first year intake for students entering through HEAR on reduced points. UCC reserves approximately 5% of first year places for students applying under the HEAR scheme. Eligible students must also achieve a minimum of 300 points and at least 85% of the Leaving Certificate points required for the course, UCD reserves approximately 5% of places for HEAR eligible applicants. Similarly to UCC, eligible students must also have a minimum of 300 points and be within 20% of the points required. NUI Galway reserves 5% of places for HEAR applicants. Those eligible also need to achieve approximately 80 – 90% of the Leaving Certificate points required for the course. Trinity reserves less than 10% of places on all full time undergraduate courses for HEAR applicants. Speaking to Trinity News, Dr Rónán Smith, HEAR Representative at Trinity Access Programmes (TAP) said: “ [Trinity] has a 25% admissions quota for non-traditional students. This is split evenly

between HEAR, DARE (disability access route) and mature students, each with just above 8%”. He noted that “this quota is applied to all courses so every course in [Trinity] has at least 8% of its places ringfenced for HEAR students”. He continued: “Since 2014 around 5 to 6% of all HEAR eligible candidates in the country were offered a level 8 course in [Trinity]. This has increased to 7.7% in 2021.” Supports post-entry Speaking to Trinity News, Head of the Access Service at DCU, Cathy McLoughlin, stated that HEAR students receive unlimited support during their time at the university. She said: “Students are supported for the full four years at DCU”, in comparison to the support for students at other HEIs being limited to first year. “Students receive financial, mental health and academic support as well as receiving a nominated support worker who can help with any concerns they may have during their studies,” McLoughlin continued. According to McLoughlin, 10% of DCU’s total student population are access students. Speaking to Trinity News, Trinity’s HEAR Representative, Dr Rónán Smith, stated that there is “a range of academic, social and financial supports provided for students who enter through the HEAR scheme”. However, Smith noted that while there has been “a huge amount of successful work done in this area (…) it is by no means finished”.

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Students receive financial, mental health and academic support as well as receiving a nominated support worker “The financial supports available are not sufficient to bridge the gap for all students and many HEAR students will report lower engagement in extracurricular activities due to work or caring commitments,” he continued. Financial supports for said students at Trinity include two that are limited to Junior Fresh students and the TAP Student Assistance Fund for all full time undergraduate students. This particular fund helps students cover costs of books, rent, and food etc., but not with tuition fees, registration fees or student loans. According to Smith, 90% of HEAR students from Trinity complete their degree and are marked the same as that of traditional entrants.

Tuesday 12 October | TRINITY NEWS

News

Analysis: Could a new provost herald a change in Trinity’s climate policy? PHOTO BY LAUREN BOLAND FOR TRINITY NEWS

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Projects pursued before Doyle took office such as the planting of a wildflower garden look good in a symbolic sense

Jamie Cox

News Analysis Editor

HE INTERGOVERNMENTAL PANEL ON CLIMATE CHANGE’S REPORT on the rapid progression of human-caused climate change marked a turning point in political discourse around the issue and its potential fallout. Given the far-reaching consequences of the climate crisis, it is important to consider what College has committed to doing to address this issue and whether the complicated structure of Trinity has played a role in the achievability of these goals. College has been quite public about its intentions to contribute to the fight against climate change. Earlier this year, the provost announced a Climate Action Fund, to give money to the best student or staff project on climate issues. In late 2016, Trinity took the step of pledging to pull all investment from the fossil fuel industry. Provostial candidates earlier

this year were quizzed specifically on the vision each of them had for what College’s role in the climate crisis should be. Trinity has also touted its research achievements in a range of climate-related fields as a key part of its contributions on this issue. However, despite these efforts and despite the rhetoric, College often seems unwilling to commit itself completely to climate justice. This August it was discovered that, despite its divestment pledge in 2016, College continues to hold investments worth €8 million in companies involved in the fossil fuel industry. And it’s important to remember that this pledge only came after 15 months of campaigning by activist group Fossil Free TCD. Protesting at the end of last month, Fossil Free Trinity TCD and the Systemic Environmental Correct Initiative pointed out the contradiction of what College had pledged to do, in contrast to what they were cur-

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This is hopefully a sign that Doyle means for her tenure at the head of College to be meaningfully different

rently doing. The co-founder of the SEC Initiative, Jeffrey Sardina pointed out that “By investing in this industry, [College] are actively placing personal profit over the lives, health, and futures of our and all future generations. To be specific, they are investing in a system of relentless climate-destruction”. He continued, saying ‘‘This is grossly unacceptable, especially by an institution that claims to care about creating a better future for our planet’’ So while College is theoretically committed to the climate fight, it remains constrained by an innate inertia. It takes occasional, individual actions to become more sustainable but has yet to show interest in top-to-bottom, systemic change, despite mounting pressure from students. However, College’s split attitude towards climate change, on the one hand showing making progress in divestment and its commitment to research, on the other struggling to overcome its internal conservatism, is something that could perhaps be rectified by the arrival of a new provostial administration. One of Linda Doyle’s climate commitments made on the campaign trail, one which has only come to fruition this week, was the election of a Vice-President for Biodiversity and Climate Change. In a press statement made on the appointment of Prof Yvonne Buckley to this role, Doyle said:

“I’d like to warmly welcome Yvonne to her new role as we look forward to working together with the whole College community to enact real change.” In an interview, Doyle went on to say the establishment of the role “is not just going to be about the symbolism.” Buckley herself has said “Trinity has been acting on sustainability for many years now, but it has been an ‘add-on’ rather than a key focus. “This new position raises the profile of biodiversity and climate action within Trinity, across the university sector and – more broadly – represents an important step in the vision of a Climate First Trinity.” This, combined with the institution of the Climate Action Fund, is hopefully a sign that Doyle means for her tenure at the head of College to be meaningfully different. Provost sustainability funds are not a new phenomenon either. Previously-funded projects have included the planting of a new vegetable garden and a loan scheme for crockery. Projects pursued before Doyle took office, such as the planting of a wildflower garden and a vegetable patch look good in a symbolic sense. College certainly wants to appear as an institution that cares for the environment. But this needs to be backed by meaningful action before it can be taken seriously. Doyle’s actions in office up to now hint that she may be a provost who appreciates this, as do Buckley’s comments. Hopefully this indicates that Trinity is heading in a new direction.

TRINITY NEWS | Tuesday 12 October

Features

Reckoning with Trinity’s colonial past

For You: the life of a TikTok creator

-page 16

-page 20

David Wolfe

Leanne Healy

Explaining the exodus of international students to Trinity

Why are more people choosing to come here from all over the world? Julia Bochenek Deputy Features Editor

henever you start a conversation, and the topic moves to schooling and “where do you go to university,” this is almost always followed by “why did you choose this university” or “is there a reason for why you went to another country for university?.” Every student has a story to tell for why they went to their specific university. This could be that they visited and it just felt right to be there, leading to their application and admittance. Maybe they know a student at the university, and in casual conversation heard some cool stories that made them research the school, leading to them discovering their dream course of study. It could even be word of mouth, or going to a school based on its reputation. Whatever the reason may be, Trinity College Dublin clearly has a large influx of international students flying from across the globe to study. Based on a TCD Global Relations overview, Trinity welcomed over 4,600 international students from around the world in 2019. This number rose steadily, as in 2020 out of 18,407 registered students, a total of 26% were international students. As of this year, the number has risen by 2%. Based on the Times Higher Education 2021 ranking, Trinity College Dublin is currently ranked as the 8th most international university in the world, as well as the most international university in the European Union based on student body, staff and international reputation. Considering international students now make up around 28% of the student population, this statistic makes sense. With international travel opening up slowly again, and restrictions lifting, there has been the promise of more in-person activities and learning, as well as a return to a more normal university experience than there was

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In the past few years, Trinity has been put in a more public eye internationally due to Sally Rooney’s critically acclaimed novel, Normal People in the year prior. The number of international students has gradually increased, even during the COVID-19 pandemic, and there has been some reasoning behind this that is clear. Everything went online, and suddenly many students were stuck inside for a year and a half, learning on zoom and missing the classroom experience vital to many courses. Along with this, the social element, that arguably is one of the most important parts of the university experience, has been absent for virtually every student. Now that universities are opening up, including Trinity, and students can sit around on campus, talking to friends or waiting for a class to start, or go to club or society events. All of this has been an integral part of the return to campus, and this is great for international students as they moved from around the world into their student accommodation and apartments around Dublin. The question is, what made them make this huge step and come to Trinity College Dublin in the first place? In the past few years, Trinity has been put in a more public eye internationally due to Sally Rooney’s critically acclaimed novel, Normal People, which was turned into the series that was predominantly filmed at Trinity College. The

representation of student’s lives at Trinity, or the lives of Connell and Marianne, were beloved by many people around the world and the series gained extreme popularity when it was released. This kind of exposure gave many prospective university students a peek into Trinity, showing shots around campus and a portrayal of Dublin’s student life, possibly attracting students to apply to the university in search for parts of the experience and Dublin city life. Even before Normal People, Trinity has always had fascination surrounding it due to it being a central tourist attraction in the city of Dublin, with many people looking to visit the Book of Kells and the Long Room. There are fascinating tales around Trinity College Dublin, as any university founded as long ago as 1592 would have a rich history. Due to the university’s fame, more students around the world may be inclined to apply and attend for its undergraduate or postgraduate courses. First year student Eric Zaksauskas, coming to Trinity College Dublin from the United States, said that he “heard about Trinity firstly from friends and then per-

sonally researched the college.” He continued: “I was certainly interested by the societies and by the independence that you need to have to go to college in Ireland.” When asked about why he chose to come to Trinity, said: “I chose Trinity because of its history, its very specific courses, and because I’ve always desired to live abroad at some point in my education career.” Trinity gave him options that he may not have been able to find in the US, and a different kind of historical significance that would be a new experience. He chose to study in another country as he “didn’t fully agree with American universities’ general education approach, and because I thought studying abroad would give me a new perspective and further strengthen my communication abilities.” Many first years, including international students, are coming to university for the first time, excited to experience college life, or student dorm life. Eric is excited “to live in a new country, get involved in societies and to study something that I love.” Jess Daniel, an American student who is studying abroad at

Trinity for the semester, says “I decided to study abroad and come to Ireland because I visited a few years ago and fell in love with the Irish culture and people, and knew I wanted to come back and study an at institution as well-renowned as Trinity if I ever got the chance.” She continues: “I really loved the fact that many international students come to Trinity, and I chose it because I wanted to meet people from all over the world with different backgrounds and different stories, and learn more about their experiences in order to broaden my perspective. Jess has loved being at Trinity so far, finding it “a very welcoming and intellectually curious environment,” and she looks forward to the rest of the semester and getting more involved in the Trinity community. Many students choose to study abroad, for a short or longer time, to gain different perspectives or to experience different cultures, and whether they go for a certain course or because of stories passed around about campus traditions, the experience is something that shapes each international student in one way or another.

PHOTO BY BEATRICE PISTOLA FOR TRINITY NEWS

Tuesday 12 October | TRINITY NEWS

Features

Reckoning with Trinity’s colonial past As the Trinity Colonial Legacies project gets underway, Trinity News examines the College’s many links to empire David Wolfe Copyeditor

t the beginning of September, work began on the Trinity Colonial Legacies project, first announced in February of this year, when Dr Mobeen Hussain was appointed postdoctoral research fellow to the project. Led by Dr Ciaran O’Neill and Dr Patrick Walsh of College’s history department, the two-year research project will examine how the college has variously facilitated and benefitted from the exploitative and often brutal imperialism of the global British Empire. Speaking to Trinity News,

Dr Walsh outlined that with the project in its most preliminary stages, it is important to take a broad, unprejudiced approach to the research: “We are currently keeping our focus quite broad with an intention to consider Trinity’s colonial legacies in the round ranging from financial legacies to collections, to the memorialisation of individuals, to College’s connections to different societies across the globe as well as its historic connections to communities in Ireland.” Ireland’s place in the history of colonialism is unique and multifaceted. Ireland was the first colony of the British empire, and was exploited for its land and resources for centuries. However, it has also played its part in the colonization of the rest of the world, and many Irishmen upheld colonial interests overseas. Acknowledging the very broad scope of the subject, Dr Walsh said: “There is much to investigate and it is hard to prejudge what we will find, and you must remember this is primarily a research project.” As is important in academia, the primary goal of the project is to research and document, before making unfounded assumptions or inadequate conclusions about the past.

Colonisation of Ireland There is much that we already know about this aspect of the College’s past, however. The college’s very origins are rooted in the plantations of Ireland and the expropriation of land. The site of the college had formerly housed the Augustinian Priory of All Hallows until its suspension in 1538 under Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries during the Reformation. Half a century later, the college was founded bearing the name of his daughter, Queen Elizabeth I, which it still bears today. This reappropriation of land was typical of English colonial practices across Ireland. The college’s foundation at the end of the sixteenth century was no coincidence. The college was founded to provide university education, rivalling that of Oxford and Cambridge, to young men of the Protestant Ascendancy, Ireland’s political elite following the plantations of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Between the 1550s and 1620s, Catholic land ownership fell from 60% of land in Ireland, to less than 10%, transferred into the hands of British settlers. The foundation of Trinity College in 1592, right in the middle of this process, was due to the rapidly increasing number of settlers arriving in Ireland creating Trinity alumnus General Sir Eyre Coote served as Governor of Jamaica between 1806 and 1808. In 1816, he was ejected from the British Army and the Order of the Bath for “conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman” ARTWORK: BRITISH LIBRARY / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

demand for an academic institution in Ireland. Trinity therefore owes its very existence to an unjust and violent regime of settler colonialism. The College itself benefited greatly from the confiscation of land in Ireland. A Royal Commission of 1905 found that Trinity’s estates totalled around 200,000 acres across sixteen counties in Ireland, much of this dating back to the time of the plantations. The bulk of this lay in Kerry and Donegal, with significant holdings also in Armagh, Fermanagh and Longford. The complex system of letting and subletting in place at the time exploited the poorest inhabitants of the country in order to benefit landlords, Trinity itself among them, collecting revenue for land that was taken by force in the first place. This exploitative legacy is one of many the College must reckon with.

PHOTO BY ISOBEL DUFFY FOR TRINITY NEWS

Global British empire It is not just Trinity’s place in the history of Ireland that has been questionable. Recent discussions have highlighted prominent individuals in the college’s history with alarming links to colonialism; one such figure is philosopher and fellow of the college George Berkeley, after whom a college library is named, who himself owned a

number of slaves. John Mitchel, an Irish Nationalist figure who supported and defended the practice of slavery as late as the latter half of the nineteenth century was also a graduate of the college. Beyond just its links to problematic

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Beyond simply its links to problematic individuals, however, the college as an institution had ties to the transatlantic slave trade

TRINITY NEWS | Tuesday 12 October

Features individuals, however, the college as an institution had ties to the transatlantic slave trade; both the Irish Times and the Guardian have reported on the fact that Trinity’s main entrance on College Green was financed by a duty on tobacco, a crop primarily cultivated and harvested by slaves. The stolen labour of unpaid workers on the North American continent indirectly built the gates through which students, staff and visitors continue to pass today. This aspect of the college’s past is something that is under-emphasised in the study of its history up to now, and there is much we still do not know, something which the Colonial Legacies project aims to rectify. Trinity also played an important part in the machinery of the British empire long after slavery was abolished, facilitating the expansion and maintenance of imperial institutions in Britain’s colonies all the way into the twentieth century. As Dr Tomás Irish notes in his study of Trinity during the First World War and Irish revolutionary period, the British empire offered wide opportunities for employment to Trinity graduates at the turn of the century, particularly from its professional schools. A professional qualification was “a license to travel”, an opportunity which was eagerly taken up by alumni who took up their profession across Britain’s many colonies. In Dr Irish’s words, “the college was proud to play its part in the imperial project.” The College also trained students for the Indian Civil Service examinations, exporting its graduates as servants of British rule in India. At this time, the British empire was actively suppressing independence movements in India, often with violent force. The most brutal example occurred in the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre, in which British Army soldiers opened fire on peaceful protestors, killing at least 379 people. This is just a single example of how the British empire was maintained through physical force. Trinity College was complicit in a system upheld by violence and resistant to the will of the people it ruled, India being just one example of Britain’s imperial presence around the globe. Contemporary colonialism Importantly, Dr Walsh highlighted that it is too early to say yet what implications the project’s findings might have in terms of College policies going forward. Indeed it is likely that uncovering the truth of the past may raise many questions about the present and the future. Imperialism and colonialism are themselves certainly not phenomena of the past. American imperialism is a regular object of criticism by academics such as Noam Chomsky, while its close ally Israel is the most prominent example of settler colonialism in the world today. In August of this year, it was revealed that College has €2.5 m invested in the armaments industry. The portfolio included investments of hundreds of thousands in companies Lockheed Martin,

British forces who burned Washinton DC during the War of 1812 were led by former treasurer of the Hist Major-General Robert Ross. He joined the British Army straight out of Trinity ARTWORK: US LIBRARY OF CONGRESS / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS, STEPHEN CAMPBELL

Honeywell International and Raytheon Technologies, among others. Trinity News subsequently reported that these companies have been connected to airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition, with which the US is intimately involved, in the ongoing war in Yemen according to research by Bellingcat, the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights, Yemeni Archive and Forensic Architecture. More troubling still, each of these companies is openly involved in contracts with Israel’s Ministry of Defense. F-35 warplanes, manufactured by Lockheed Martin, were used in the bombardment of Gaza in May this year; in 2012, Honeywell International signed a $735 million deal to supply jet engines to Israel’s Ministry of De-

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Trinity also played a part in the machinery of the British empire long after slavery was abolished

fense; Raytheon partly designed the Iron Drome Weapon System which allows Israel to attack populated Palestinian areas without restraint while it heavily defends its own cities. Israel’s confiscation of Palestinian land and settlement of its own people directly mirrors the history of the plantations in Ireland. Investment directly supplied by College’s endowment fund allows the development and manufacturing of these deadly weapons which are used by Israel in the illegal occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. Seemingly, College’s complicity in imperialism and colonialism is not a thing of the past, but continues very much to this day. As Dr Walsh put it, it is important to complete the research

before drawing conclusions about the past. The project is a vitally important step in understanding and acknowledging Trinity’s complicity in colonialism and how it benefited from the injustices of the past. The findings of the project will likely spark entirely new debates and prompt questions about the future; college will inevitably have to reckon with the injustices of the present day if the project is to be presented with integrity. The important and admirable work of academics in investigating Trinity’s history must not be undermined by the College itself profiting from unethical investment and continuing to be complicit in the present day with what it condemns in the past.

PHOTO BY SABA MALIK FOR TRINITY NEWS

Tuesday 12 October | TRINITY NEWS

Features

Stories that matter: Student media in Trinity Whether you have a pen or a camera in your hands, there is something for all artists in student journalism Ellen Kenny Features Editor

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Because your stories matter” was the tagline of last year’s National Student Media Awards, affectionately known as “the Oscars” of student journalism. Every year, the best and brightest writers and editors are recognised for their talent, passion and dedication and are nominated by the SMEDIA Awards. In 2021, Trinity College Dublin’s publications earned several nominations and took home six awards, including Magazine of the Year for TN2 and Short Film Script of the year for The Offer Signe Lury. Beyond awards and nominations, Trinity College Dublin boasts a broad and rich history of student media production. From current affairs in Trinity News and The University Times, to irreverent, “ankle-biting” satire in The Piranha, there are dozens of opportunities for students to consume stories made for them, and to get involved in creating stories themselves. One such opportunity is found in MISC. magazine, formerly known as TCD Miscellany. Founded in 1895, MISC. is Ireland’s oldest student publication; the history of Irish culture, literature and politics can be traced right back to its pages. Former contributors to the magazine include writer Samuel Beckett and Senator David Norris. Sean Gordon Dalton, Senior Sophister student and current editor of MISC., explained his vision for the magazine: “As a student publication, the goal is to help bring less salient issues into the mainstream for students, or to provide more detail and new perspectives on existing issues.” MISC. offers fresh perspectives on the political, cultural and social zeitgeist around the world; the last issue featured views on sex work, universal basic income, and the role of punk music in the Troubles. Gordon Dalton highlighted the balance MISC. strikes between academia and accessibility, “MISC. is

more research based than the student newspapers, while also being more readable and approachable to students of every academic discipline compared to the academic journals.” Gordon Dalton also noted MISC.’s role in allowing students to have their voices heard on matters important to them and other students: “I have found that MISC. also attracts many students who are passionate about particular issues that they want to see in print.” For those not suited to the written word, there remain many media groups in College beyond its traditional publications. One such group is TrinityTV, who assure that what they lack in size, they make up for in passion. “TrinityTV is a relatively small society compared to other media in Trinity, and I think that’s what gives it its charm,” chairperson

Like MISC., TrinityTV strives for accessibility and inclusion. Last year, when restrictions meant that most students did not have access to sophisticated cameras and equipment, TrinityTV organised the Phebruary Phone Philm Phestival. Members were challenged to create videos using only their phones. Post-Covid, Duggan is excited to once again facilitate students’ talent and hobbies in person. And if television isn’t your style, and you have more of a face for radio, look no further than the top

floor of House Six for Ireland’s only fully student-run radio station, TrinityFM (TFM). Every weekday from three to twelve, students can tune in to their peers covering a range of shows, from discussions of current affairs to music hours. “We are looking for absolutely anything and everything on TFM, we’ve gotten such a diverse range of shows in our last cycle and we thrive on that variety,” Hannah Quearney, the station manager said, explaining the diversity of content TFM aims to foster. “From hyper-specific music shows to

podcasts to travel shows to radio plays, we want it all.” TFM emphasises communication and support both on and off the air, “The committee is very strong, as we are all friends before being committee members. We all want what’s best for the society, as well as being able to provide a good experience to all of our broadcasters and members.” This is certainly the experience felt by members. Eva O’Beirne, cohost of one of TFM’s longest-running shows, “Are You Two in Love Or?” corroborates Quearney’s

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For those not suited to the written word, there remain many media groups in College beyond its traditional publications Ingrid Duggan told Trinity News, “It’s really easy to make your video project ideas come to life, just message us or chat to us in person and we’ll help you get up and running in no time.” Established in 2009, TrinityTV focuses on “TV appreciation and production”, offering students a glimpse into the world of television production and helping them create their own projects through workshops and discussions. Last year, for example, TrinityTV spoke with actor Colm Meaney, and hosted an array of screening events. “The social aspect is a huge part of TrinityTV, which is why we hold a range of social events, like coffee hours and our upcoming pub event, in addition to our video production and screening events,” Duggan explained.

PHOTO BY ELIZA MELLER FOR TRINITY NEWS

TRINITY NEWS | Tuesday 12 October

Features

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Despite a lack of journalism courses in Trinity, its extensive media outlets exceed that of most colleges around the country sentiments: “I got to know some of the senior members of TFM when I was in first year…They’ve always been great — TFM truly helps people to get comfortable with both the technology behind broadcasting and sitting in front of the microphone. The studio is a pocket of peace on a very busy campus.” “A good creative environment” Despite a lack of journalism courses in Trinity, its extensive media outlets exceed that of most colleges around the country. Between publications and other forms of media, the college offers over twenty student-run groups focused on writing, broadcasting and filming. Alumni of these groups range from the familiar names in your Leaving Cert English poetry, Eavan Boland and Brendan Kennelly, to powerful figures such as former president Mary McAleese. The students behind these groups are not surprised by the demand for student media outlets. Arianna Owens, chairperson of TFM, said: “There is a good creative environment within Trinity, and students want to express themselves creatively through their media as much as they can.” “It is one of the things I like most about Trinity, the students’ willingness to put themselves out there and create art or media that reflects who they are.” TrinityTV’s Ingrid Duggan noted that the accessibility of opportunities in Trinity plays a factor in a “myriad of media-focused groups” on campus: “Student media is more accessible and a lot easier to get involved with than traditional media. Where else could you easily write for a newspaper or host your own radio show with no experience? Because of this, there’s a much wider and diverse range of people getting involved with student media than mainstream media.” Opportunities in student media The students behind MISC., TrinityFM and TrinityTV all agreed on the importance of such media outlets in third-level insti-

tutions. MISC.’s Gordon Dalton emphasised the necessity of publications made for students, by students, “Much of student media focuses on student concerns, and students are the best people to articulate those concerns.” “Publications like MISC. or Icarus give students a platform to express their own creativity or relate wider issues to the student experience. Without student media, we would not have those opportunities.” He encouraged all students to “jump in” and explore the possibilities and opportunities available to them in student journalism. O’Beirne praised student-run media, not just for the bespoke content it offers consumers, but for the self-developmental and fulfilling experience it offers potential creators. On getting involved with groups like TrinityFM, O’Beirne advised, “Make the mistakes, learn from them, expand your skills and your knowledge. Test yourself, research more. There’s nothing wrong with trying something new.” “It’s important for us all to get experience as well as learn how to express ourselves creatively. To become confident with your voice, your opinions — it’s something that will stay with you forever.” Owens highlighted that getting involved in groups like TrinityFM can enrich a student’s experience beyond their course, “It gives students an opportunity to break out of the confines of their course, and perhaps see a future career avenue they may not have been aware was a possibility for them. We have had STEM students do postgraduates in journalism, and students whose disciplines do not lend themselves to broadcasting careers work for some of the top radio stations and television networks in the country.” “Student media’s power lies in its ability to show students what else is out there, and how they can find a job through their passions and society involvement.”

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“No keys, no degrees” and Ireland’s student housing crisis The USI’s campaign has made headlines recently, but what effects is it having on policy? Lara Mellett Deputy Features Editor

s universities have returned to in-person teaching, students have flocked back to campus, and with that, the search for student accommodation is well underway. In many instances, this search is a race to secure a room in student accommodation, or a reasonably priced flat or house within a reasonable distance from college. For many, this is a near impossible task. As with every year, the accommodation race leaves many students without any housing and under pressure to avoid homelessness and couch-surfing at the beginning of the academic year. With this in mind, the Union of Students in Ireland (USI), representing over 374,000 students across the country, launched the “No Keys, No Degrees” campaign, to eliminate the need for cutthroat competition for rooms at the beginning of each semester . With this campaign, the USI aims to spread awareness and apply pressure to the government to ensure that all students are accommodated at the beginning of each semester. The demand for student housing has been at crisis level for quite some time, but as more and more students opt for third level education, the strain is increasing exponentially, with no sign of ceasing. Projections from the Higher Edu-

cation Authority state that the demand for student accommodation will increase from 168,000 students in 2014 to 193,000 students in 2024. They also estimate that the available beds for students in 2024 will rise to 43,500, while the demand will increase to 68,670. Research shows that such a massive inadequacy leaves students that require student housing neglected each year. According to a statement released by the USI, “Many SU Presidents are reporting to USI that they are each working with hundreds of students who feel they have nowhere left to go in their search for accommodation this year.” USI President Clare Austick, said: “There are thousands of students across the Island who cannot find accommodation. With waiting lists of up to 200 plus people, students are exploring the option of staying in B&Bs, hostels and hotels. There just isn’t enough purpose-built student accommodation to meet the needs of students wanting to attend third level education in Ireland today. And a lot of the accommodation that was built as student accommodation is now being used for professionals and short-term holiday lets and students have been pushed out. Some students are even considering deferring the year or dropping out because of the situation.” She stresses that a lack of student accommodation may be one of the biggest barriers for students entering third level education, “We talk about the barriers blocking access to education, but many students now physically cannot access education because they don’t have a place to stay.” In order to express their frustration at the accommodation crisis in Ireland, members of the USI and many student representatives from various colleges and universities staged a Sleep Out protest in front of Dail Eireann on the 21st of September. They all had the com-

mon aims of spreading awareness of the “No Keys, No Degrees” campaign, and urging the government to be more proactive in tackling the crisis at hand. In their release prior to the Sleep Out, the USI listed their demands from the protest to be “funding and a plan to develop more affordable Purpose-Built Student Accommodation, no new course places without living spaces being provided, legislation and other necessary action to retain student beds, and rent controls”. Meanwhile, Taoiseach Michael Martin has highlighted the limits of what the government can do in the face of the crisis, saying “We have brought in measures to try and protect students in terms of the amount of money that can be asked upfront from students in respect of deposits but again it’s in terms of the supply issue, in terms of what we can do with university or third level institutions, particularly in the Institutes of Technology, in terms of their capacity to build student-based accommodation, but that will take time”. Student representatives believe these responses are nowhere near sufficient in solving the student accommodation crisis. While student populations rise, accommodation options are slow, in some cases even stagnant, in growth. The shortage of student housing and accommodation options is projected to continue to rise, almost at an increasing rate. While the “No Keys, No Degrees” campaign has been and continues to be successful in raising awareness of the issue, it is up to both the government and universities around the country to hold themselves accountable for this issue, and provide sufficient resources and housing options for students, to prevent potential homelessness at the beginning of the college year, and to alleviate the stress of those students who struggle to find housing each year.

MISC. is Ireland’s oldest student publication; the history of Irish culture, literature and politics can be traced right back to its pages PHOTO BY ELIZA MELLER FOR TRINITY NEWS

Tuesday 12 October | TRINITY NEWS

Features

For You: the life of a TikTok creator Lily Rafferty, aka MyCollegeLife, on what it takes to go viral Leanne Healy Contributing Writer

ver since lockdown 2020, TikTok has changed the way we use social media. Becoming an overnight internet sensation is now easier than it has ever been before. Under the username “MyCollegeLife”, third year NCAD student, Lily Rafferty, is one of Ireland’s most popular TikTokers amassing a following of over 25,000. Speaking to Trinity News, Rafferty explains the ins and outs of the popular social media app. Rafferty set up her TikTok account in the height of lockdown 2020. She has always been interested in creating content and “used to make Vines and have Musical.ly”, both precursors to TikTok, so uploading videos on TikTok seemed like the natural progression. Rafferty’s success grew quickly despite only “posting for fun at the start”. Rafferty began to create skit videos that “did really well and got a few hundred thousand views and [she] began to get a bit of a following”. A key part of her TikTok success is consistency: “I would post maybe three times a week, sometimes almost every day.” Rafferty explains that there is a “very small creator community on [Irish] TikTok, so [she] very quickly became friends with other Irish TikTokers because [they] were the only ones consistently posting”. Raffertys video content is inspired by a’ large variety of sources, but specifically by “looking at the ‘For You’ page on TikTok”:

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You could even have 100,000 followers and could be making money, but because you live in Ireland, you’re not

“Every day there is a new trend or a new trending sound or style of video.” Her content is “inspired by the audio, trends, comments and [her] own sense of humour”. The ever-changing trends on TikTok are a starting point to which she asks herself: “What can I do with this?” She also takes inspiration from trending TikToks in different countries, for example, if she sees a video created in the USA about going back to school, she would create her own version crafted for an Irish audience. Rafferty knows her audience and caters her content to “an Irish following”. Rafferty’s friends and family find her success on TikTok “hilarious”. “I’ve always been quite a humorous person and I’ve always made videos – Youtube videos, Instagram, Snapchat vlogs or sending annoying videos to my friends,” she explains. Rafferty jokes about how even her granddad knows what TikTok is: “He sometimes calls me ‘TikTok’ like it’s a nickname.” Although she has gathered a substantial following online, Rafferty describes how “crazy” it is to be recognised on the street by followers and fans, and how she “didnt ever think [she] would be recognised”. Rafferty explains how she has had a “handful” of experiences where “people have come up to [her] and said, ‘Oh my god, you’re the girl from TikTok’”. When asked if this bothers her, she replies: “No, I think it’s really cool.” Rafferty explains how she “would rather someone came up to [her] and said ‘hi’ than comment on [her] videos saying that they saw [her] in town today”. Some experiences with followers result in Rafferty and her friends being “shocked” as a lot of the time these interactions are “completely unexpected”. When discussing the opportunities for TikTokers in Ireland, Rafferty explains how she does not think that there are enough. She points out: “There is an area for Irish TikTokers to make money from TikTok. There is a thing called the Creator Fund on TikTok which means that once you have over 10,000 followers you can start to make money off the views you receive, but this has not been introduced into Ireland, which isn’t great.” She further emphasises the point: “You could even have 100,000 followers and could be making money, but because you live in Ireland, you’re not.” However, on the upside, “companies are realising the power of TikTok, especially when selling products – they will look for influencers and people on TikTok to promote their products to their following”. She further explains: “Many Irish TikTokers are very close with their following and interact with them, so companies reach out to people like that.” However, “Irish TikTok is a small community with a small

PHOTO VIA LILY RAFFERTY

pool for opportunities”. Rafferty hopes that “in the coming years there will be a lot more events and opportunities, and TikTok will become more normalised”, and she expresses that there is definitely “room for improvement” in this area. The TikTok algorithm is very specific and precise and is biased towards a certain type of content – in particular, favouring typical “Irish Mammy” humour. Rafferty often feels pressured to create a certain style of content as the algorithm “prefers” it, and this results in your content being shown to more users. Rafferty explains: “From the very first video you post, it pigeonholes you into a certain category.” She feels that “once you start getting into a niche area, it’s very hard to get out of it”. She began creating videos based on Irish stereotypes, specifically centring her content around Dublin. However, “whenever [she] would post anything outside of that area, the numbers would just never do as well – there is no comparison”. Rafferty has an interest in photography and videography and would post content involving this, however, “the only [videos] that would do well were the ones based in Dublin”. Rafferty says that people “immediately label [her] as the girl who makes the Dublin videos”. She explains how she could “post videos every day about illustration or photography, but people will still always know [her] as the girl who makes the Dublin videos or the Irish skit videos”. She confesses: “It’s hard to branch out, especially when the algorithm will only push

out videos within the niche which you’re posting to.” That feeling is “annoying” but, unfortunately, “there is nothing you can do about it”. Although the majority of comments Rafferty receives are positive and her content is well-received among viewers, there are people who leave hateful, nasty comments on her videos. She describes it as “inevitable when posting on TikTok”. Her advice is to “grow a thick skin” as “people, specifically Generation Z, are ruthless on TikTok”. She discusses how “cancel culture is a really big thing” online at the moment: “You could say one wrong thing and you would be cancelled. Your whole

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Rafferty has already begun to ‘branch away from humour’, making more aestheticallypleasing and travel videos

life could come crumbling down because of one thing.” Rafferty explains how she would get “hate comments, hate direct messages (DMs) and people would message [her] hate on Instagram and comment on [her] posts”. People “comment for the craic” and have “nothing better to do”, so she reminds herself: “These people don’t know me, they have no idea who I am, so they can’t comment on who I am as a person or my life because they have never met me.” It “took [her] a while” to grow this thick skin and to “not take what they say to heart”. Luckily, Rafferty still manages to find the humour in their comments and “has to laugh at what they’re saying”. On her account, Rafferty has already begun to “branch away from humour”, making more aesthetically-pleasing and travel videos. She expresses how it is hard to “branch away from the content that TikTok likes”, which would be Irish stereotype skit videos. Ultimately, she wants to “keep making videos that [she] loves”. Rafferty says: “I wouldn’t want to force anything, because people can tell if you force humour or are trying to force what you think people will want. The audience will know if you are not being true to yourself.” She enjoys “keeping a mix” of different videos on her account – from videos of her and her friends going on a trip to skit videos. Rafferty has a positive attitude towards her recent shift in the type of content she is posting, explaining: “If something does well, great, and if it doesn’t, oh well – there’s nothing I can do about it.”

TRINITY NEWS | Tuesday 12 October

Comment

The government killed our clubs, not Covid

The struggle of having OCD in a pandemic

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Fionnán Uíbh Eachach

Shannon Connolly

PHOTO BY BEATRICE PISTOLA FOR TRINITY NEWS

The focus today needs to shift from self-care to collective care

Matilda Cox

Contributing Writer

e are used to being selfish. In general, a lot of what we do is motivated by our own narrow self-interest: we vote for policies and governments who favour our own vested interests, as opposed to what may be more helpful for the many, we keep our revision notes to ourselves in case the person next to us ends up scoring better on the test, and we panic buy loo roll during pandemics so there’s none left for anyone else. At risk of reducing it to crude terms, capitalism is built upon self-interest and personal pursuit of profit. A level of self-interest is inevitable and of course essential — it is only natural to want to protect and financially support ourselves. However, a capitalist society can often reveal, in

extremes, humanity’s propensity for greed and selfishness. The focus easily becomes a question of what is it that I want and who do I need to step on to get there? Today, healthy self-interest and self-protection can easily degenerate into something predatory, whereby the powerful few take advantage of the poorly paid at the bottom for the sake of extraordinary individual profit. We need only look at some of the world’s most successful companies. For instance, in the final quarter of 2019, Amazon boasted revenues of $87 billion, $12 billion of which went straight into founder Jeff Bezos’ already astounding $128.9 billion fortune. At the same time, countless Amazon factory workers, earning around $17 an hour, worked dangerous jobs in poor conditions while relying on food stamps and subsidised housing to

get by. This is certainly not rare. In 2020, CEOs of America’s top 350 firms made, on average, 351 times more than a typical worker of their respective companies. The personal greed of the few at the top completely outweighs the needs of those at the bottom. Hyper-competitiveness at the expense of others is not limited to business, this tendency towards individualism permeates all areas of society. Individualism places complete focus on your own goals and personal needs, and this kind of thinking can easily be identified in the world of education. Even in primary school, we cover our answers during tests, in case someone else copies them and piggy-backs off our hard work. As we get older, individualism and competitiveness become more ingrained at school; grading on a scale means that the better other

people do, the harder it is for us to do well comparatively. If everyone else is scoring better, the grade boundaries go up. Titles like valedictorian and salutatorian in the United States highlight personal academic merit. The need is not simply to score as well as everyone else, but to score better. In the lockdown of March 2020, we all had to turn inward. Stripped of things which ordinarily foster a sense of community like schools, universities, shops, pubs, and restaurants — our worlds became a lot smaller. The pandemic revealed the best and worst of humanity. We reached out and built connections with lonely neighbours, did food shopping so the vulnerable could stay inside, and saw countless doctors and nurses work tirelessly across the globe. But simultaneously, we bulk-bought and hoarded food supplies so there was none left for anyone else, and refused to wear masks in the name of defending personal liberty. Meaningful human connection became more important than ever; the more we were pushed into isolation, the more we realised we needed to reach back out to those we were missing. As schools and universities adapted to new online learning, the pressure upon students to perform under strange circumstances in new exam formats mounted. As much as professors could try to offer remote support, it was impossible not to feel alone and overwhelmed — particularly for first-year students, who hadn’t yet had the chance to meet anyone on their course, it was up to you to get by on your own. Unsurprisingly, this kind of individualistic approach is detrimental to our mental health. The more pressure we place upon ourselves to figure things out alone, the more stress builds. Without being able to rely on others at college, we can feel increasingly isolated and overwhelmed, undeniably contributing to the ever-increasing mental health issues among young people, like anxiety and depression. A shift needs to take place in our mindsets; we need to look after ourselves, but we also need to look after each other. Prioritising more compassion and collaboration among students will certainly lessen the stress placed upon each individual. As American psychologist Louis Cozolino puts it: "We

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We don’t need to be wholly responsible for our own success or happiness; it is possible, and likely preferable, to rely more on the support of others are not the survival of the fittest, we are the survival of the nurtured." The more we nurture each other at college — whether that be through the sharing of lecture notes and revision resources or the organisation of study groups that foster discussions of trickier course content — the better off we all are. Not only does collaboration promote greater creativity and innovation, allowing us to enrich and develop our own ideas between classes, but knowing that we can support and be supported more by one another would definitely ease stress come exam time, and reduce the risk of burning out on your own. This notion of collectivism places a much greater emphasis on the goals of the many, or the collective group, and recognises the significance of interpersonal relationships. An approach that prioritises collective care over selfcare removes such a concentrated, and often overwhelming, pressure on the individual. We don’t need to be wholly responsible for our own success or happiness; it is possible, and likely preferable, to rely more on the support of others. Of course, there are systems in place across universities that continue to promote individualism and prioritise personal achievement, and the importance of academic integrity often discourages collaboration between peers. But the more we realise that our peers have never been the enemy of our own academic success, the more successful and happy we’ll be long term. We are not each other’s competition, we’re here to build each other up.

Tuesday 12 October | TRINITY NEWS

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PHOTO BY JOE MCCALLION FOR TRINITY NEWS

Parties’ sidelining of their youth wings stems from a broader contempt for young people

Jack Kennedy Editor Political party youth wings can be hard to appraise. In Ireland, they’re usually characterised by a unique zeal and loyalty to their parent movements, even when they frequently find themselves at odds with the mothership on a range of policy issues. The prime examples of this phenomenon may be the youth wings of Labour and the Green Party, who seem to find themselves most frequently ignored. As with all political groupings, the precise character of Labour Youth and the Young Greens is variable, but they consistently fall to the left of their parent parties. Members of these groups have often found themselves disappointed and disillusioned by their colleagues in the Dáil, especially during each party’s tenure in coalition with Fianna Fáil and/or Fine Gael. Labour Youth contains many self-identifying socialists, but often finds that difficult to reconcile with being attached to a party whose most recent stint in government was characterised by austerity and deep cuts to social services, and which voted

against the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador during a period of protracted Israeli state violence in Palestine this summer. The latter event prompted Labour Youth to tweet that it was “wholly disappointed” in its party. This week, Labour leader Alan Kelly said in an interview on Newstalk that he is “not going to lead a party that’s...left wing”, and said that he opposed regulation on short-term rentals in rural areas, where he himself leases a property on a short-term basis. This is in stark contrast with Labour Youth’s vision for the party of James Connolly. Similarly, the Young Greens was in the past the home of many zealous young environmentalists and left-wing activists, but has seen the exodus of many such members during its current term in government. For many, the disconnect between their personal progressivism and environmentalism could not be reconciled with a party helping to block the introduction of rent controls and an environment minister advocating the building of new fossil fuel plants.

Young Fine Gael (YFG), while it arguably enjoys more influence and is less frequently disillusioned than the youth wings of the centre left, is also ideologically distinct from its parent organisation. Fine Gael as a whole is a broad church, but tends to average out somewhere on the centre-right. However, YFG has frequently displayed a more firmly rightwing character. Former YFG President Killian Foley-Walsh was and is known for his social conservatism and for having attended the conference of the Young Americas Foundation in 2019, an organisation known for its frequent endorsement of far-right figures such as Ben Shapiro, Nigel Farage, and Jeff Sessions. Current YFG President Art O’Mahony opposed the repeal of the eighth amendment, despite his parent party’s regular assertion that it is one of their “key achievements”. At an organisational level, YFG opposed entering the current coalition because it believed the Programme for Government was too economically left wing. Posts on internal YFG social media are,

in the words of Elaine Loughlin, often “ultra-conservative and anti-immigrant in tone”. At the start of pride month this year, the YFG social media page initially branded itself with the “progress flag” (a version of the pride flag modified to include specific recognition of people of colour and trans people within the LGBTQ+ community) but then removed this flag (eventually replacing it with a standard pride flag) and deleted all evidence that it had been present. All of this is indicative of an economic and social conservatism that, while certainly present within Fine Gael as a whole, is much less influential there than it is in YFG. Ógra Fianna Fáil, like its parent party, is often difficult to conclusively label ideologically. But some differences with that party are still identifiable. The youth group called on Tánaiste Leo Varadkar to resign in August over the Merrion Hotel scandal, while the parliamentary party remained steadfast in its support for Fine Gael TDs Varadkar and Simon Coveney. So, we can see that this dismissal of youth wing concerns is a common trend across most parties. It occurs even when those concerns represent good political advice, such as the Young Greens and Ógra Fianna Fáil observing the damage this coalition would do and is doing to their respective parties. Perhaps the reason parties ignore their youth wings (even when those youth wings are displaying better instincts than

party leadership) is down to a general contempt for young people among the Irish political class. From the widespread vilification of young people during the pandemic to the consistent adoption of policies that hurt young people in terms of housing and funding for education, one could be forgiven for thinking that Irish politics is just hostile to anyone under the age of 30 as a rule. So why do parties have youth wings if they don’t particularly respect them? Because they serve three vital purposes which are hard to replicate elsewhere. The first is as a source of campaigning and organising capacity, particularly around elections. The zeal and energy which is partially to blame for youth sections’ divergence from their more moderate parties is also indispensable to those parties; youth wings drum up general support by constantly campaigning and organising events with a frequency that parties in general often don’t, and have presence in spaces frequented by teenagers and young adults — whom political parties often struggle to reach. When elections roll around, members of youth wings are disproportionately represented among campaign volunteers. Many TDs in marginal seats would not have been elected if younger members of their parties hadn’t spent weeks knocking on doors and handing out leaflets for them. Secondly, they serve as a controlled, limited outlet for

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Young adults are still adults, and members of youth wings bear responsibility for continuing to support politicians who take advantage of them

TRINITY NEWS | Tuesday 12 October

Comment young people’s political energy. Teenagers, students and other young adults naturally want influence over how their country is run, but by encouraging them to join organisations tied to existing party political structures, establishment politicians gain some measure of control over the expression of that energy. Young people are urged to think of these structures as the best outlet for change and spend their time lobbying parties to adopt their policies, which suits the political class better than them instead engaging in direct action or becoming involved in student radicalism. In the best-case scenario — for politicians — they’ll be able to actually control and direct how these young people influence politics. But even if they can’t do that, setting up these organisations as the official, supposedly-most-legitimate way for our generation to engage in politics at least serves as a moderated release valve for youthful zeal and frustration. Finally, youth wings are where the next generation of parties’ leadership is often found and trained. Those who stick around, and are willing to compromise and see their input ignored or watered down, often find themselves on a fast-track to high office within their party. That willingness to sacrifice principle for perceived or actual political expediency is valuable in any future TD, especially in a country where party whips are wielded as aggressively as they are in Ireland. Alan Kelly, Micheál Martin and Leo Varadkar all had their start in their parties’ youth sections, and this pattern is repeated throughout much of the rest of their parliamentary parties and others. This co-option and sanitisation of youth activism by professional politicians is contemptible, without a doubt, especially as part of a broader condescending attitude towards young people. It’s bad enough that political parties generally scoff at our generation’s desire for change and to inherit a better country, but to profit from that idealism while never taking it seriously is downright abhorrent. But that’s why parties set up these organisations in the first place. Part of the point of them is to prevent real change. At the same time, young adults are still adults, and sooner or later members of youth wings begin to bear responsibility for continuing to support politicians who take advantage of them and don’t respect them. Choosing to take part in these organisations often comes from a laudable desire to have a say in their country’s future and try to achieve positive change. But the behaviour of political parties — both towards their youth wings and in general — indicates that they do not exist to listen to the voices of young people or to implement positive change. Young members of such parties would be better off directing their energy elsewhere.

The Students’ Union should be working for students, not for College Sophie Furlong Tighe Comment Editor

nce again, students have found themselves in the familiar space of giving out about College’s opening. Trinity’s inadequacy and lack of communication seems to come like clockwork every August, with Covid only exacerbating this problem. The return to campus was haphazard and difficult. Many students found themselves without timetables a week before college began, some even reaching Monday of Week 1 with no idea where to go. Every year we have the same troubles with this. That’s never acceptable, but the addition of an on-campus return only complicated the problem. Usually, timetabling issues are quite irritating and sometimes disrupt plans. Now, it can be the difference between a student making the financial commitment to move up to Dublin or not — a decision College should not be expecting students to make on such short notice. This links to the second problem many students have been having with College’s reopening plans. Many students have found themselves dissatisfied with the amount of in-person teaching they are timetabled to receive. While College promised that all lectures of under 50 people would be in-person, many students’ timetables revealed this not to be the case. College, presumably realising that they can not wish a problem into being solved, discovered that many schools simply do not have the capacity to host a socially-distanced inperson lecture of 50 people. The big question, though, is where have the Students’ Union been? It can be difficult to distinguish between the union and the college at times, especially given that they spent most of August acting as a mouthpiece for College communications. The most we’ve heard from them on the problems with timetabling and face-to-face teaching has been a town hall meeting, where they politely asked College to fulfill their promise on in-person teaching. Time and time again we see the union falling back on their tried and tested method of identifying problems and

proposing absolutely no solutions, not to mention any specific measures to lobby College for change. Presumably due to the union’s cosy and markedly nonadversarial relationship with College, a new group has been set up — Students4Change. It is unclear how many people comprise this group, or what kind of longevity it will hold. However, in the month they have been active on campus, they have already shown significantly more desire to hold College to account than the SU. With over a hundred present at their protest at the Dining Hall, there is a clear student interest in the movement for more inperson teaching. However, with significantly smaller manpower than the union, and an organising structure that remains nontransparent, it seems ridiculous that Students4Change exists at all. Why should a student-run, decentralised activist group have to fill a void the union is designed — as well as mandated — to fill? Students4Change are not accountable to their membership in the way that the union are, and they do not have the power of the union’s name. It’s unclear how their specific demands were formed, or how students can get directly involved in organisation.

This is not a criticism of the group, but something inherent to a group like theirs. While union sabbatical officers were present at the protest, it’s unclear why this was the extent of the SU’s involvement. On October 1st, the sabbatical officers circulated an open letter on Twitter and in their weekly email which students could sign to express their discontent with levels of inperson teaching. “If teaching does not look significantly different by November 1st”, it reads, “we anticipate extreme backlash from students, parents, government and media & we will be joining them.” What does “extreme backlash” mean? Looking at the union’s record, it’s not ridiculous to anticipate such action being little more than another polite request for change. Why would College bother taking this threat of response seriously when substantial action has been so hard to see in the past? A weak union is a self-reproducing problem; every failure to hold Trinity to account is just more reason for College administration not to take the union seriously. Ultimately, the Student’s Union should be at least tacitly adversarial toward College. The goal is not a close working relationship between the two,

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A weak union is a selfreproducing problem; every failure to hold Trinity to account is just more reason for College not to take the union seriously but rather the former holding the latter accountable. Trinity has shown time and time again that they simply do not prioritise students; we clearly exist as little more than numbers at the foot of a bill to them. Why is the union so keen on having a close working relationship with this institution? Perhaps this will look like 2018’s Take Back Trinity, and the union will get on board eventually — albeit late, albeit halfheartedly, albeit an ultimate co-option of student work. However, that simply will not be enough. A new provost is an opportunity for our student representatives to unveil a new image; one that means business, and represents a serious force in negotiations. We deserve a union that truly represents us, and takes the power we have given to them seriously.

PHOTO BY JACK KENNEDY FOR TRINITY NEWS

Tuesday 12 October | TRINITY NEWS

PHOTO BY WILLIAM MURPHY/FLICKR

Comment

The government killed our clubs, not Covid Fionnán Uíbh Eachach Deputy Comment Editor

ightclubs, pubs, bars and other latenight businesses were rightly among the first places to be closed at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and there is no doubt that they have suffered financially from a particularly extended period of lockdown. Yet, with Irish nightlife now gradually reopening, it is important to recognise that the greatest threat faced by the industry is not public health measures, but outdated and overly moralistic government regulations that both make operating late-night venues far too costly and dissuade patrons. It is no secret the Irish nightlife industry has been struggling for years. Long before the arrival of the word ‘Covid’ into Irish discourse, the closure of beloved locations such as Richmond Street’s The Bernard Shaw, Andrew Lane’s Hangar, the Liberties’ Tivoli Theatre or Cork’s Boardwalk Bar had already greatly harmed the country’s nightlife, deeply frustrating thousands. Worse still, many of these oncelively cultural spots have since

been replaced with lifeless hotels or office blocks that add nothing to the area’s cultural life. While the closure of such beloved venues is often accompanied by huge public outcry, this pattern of corporate gentrification of cultural areas will continue unperturbed without a revamped approach to how the Irish night-time industry is regulated. What exactly is wrong with the government’s current approach to nightlife in Ireland? While a multitude of bad policies (from restrictions on opening hours to lack of night-time transport provision) have contributed to the present sorry state of Irish nightlife, the most damaging is perhaps that venues wishing to operate as nightclubs or late-night bars must first acquire a licence known as a Special Exemption Order (SEO) which costs €410 per late-night opening. This is clearly a huge cost for any venue intending to open late more than a handful of times a month and since its increase in 2008 from €220 to the current price, the number of SEOs granted in Ireland has more

than halved. While it is true that this system brings in large amounts of income for the state (with €2.2m in revenue expected from it prior to the reopening of nightclubs alone), it has played a central role in crippling our night-time economy and greatly limits both the opening of new venues and the success of smaller ones – thereby favouring larger, established businesses. How can anyone seriously be expected to set up a new late-night venue in Ireland when the cost of simply being open could be as much as €128,000 a year? Given the exorbitant cost of these SEOs, one might expect them at the very least to allow venues some control over their opening hours so as to maximise nightly revenue and take in large numbers of patrons. Yet instead of this, all late-night venues are required to stop serving customers by 02:30 – one of the earliest mandated closing times in Europe. The government’s attitude toward nightclubs and bars is clearly characterised by distrust — itself likely grounded in distrust of the mostly young

people attending them. Instead of seeing these venues as vital cultural institutions that not only employ people but also regularly provide entertainment and leisure to thousands, the government (spurred on by some residents’ groups) has traditionally regarded them in a far more negative light as sources of nuisance and anti-social behaviour. Ironically, by mandating a single closing time, these moralistic regulations achieve what they set out to prevent, as such ‘anti-social’ behaviour and loud noise will naturally be worse if multitudes of (oftentimes drunk) patrons are forced outside onto the same streets at the exact same time. Indeed, the approach of the

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The government’s attitude toward nightclubs and bars is clearly characterised by distrust

government and other figures of authority towards Ireland’s nightlife has always been tainted by this essentially conservative, moralistic distrust of younger people and any other group deemed different. Strict licensing laws on night-time venues in Ireland have their origins in the Public Dance Hall Act of 1935, which consistently ruled more harshly against “alternative” forms of entertainment such as jazz or even set dancing, while favouring traditional dances. This moralism can still be seen today in the exclamations of anger at the ‘anti-social’ behaviour that surrounds night-time venues and yet always ignores the role of government policy in exacerbating it. One need only look to concerns over noise and misbehaviour that preceded the closing of the Bernard Shaw or to the hysteria surrounding young people drinking outside during the summer for proof of this. How then can an enjoyable and sustainable night-time economy be salvaged in Ireland? While damaging government policies such as those outlined above have certainly done serious harm, it is not too late to change course. For solutions one need only look to the manifesto of the campaign group Give Us The Night, who suggest an operating period of between 18:00 to 06:00 with gradual closing times to limit noise and the potential for misbehaviour, the scrapping of the SEO system and devolution of licencing decisions to local authorities, the introduction of a ‘night mayor’ with responsibility for the night-time economy and the requiring of developers to consider the presence of late-night venues when building. These simple recommendations would go a long way towards improving the standard of Irish nightlife and reducing costs both for venues and local communities. We also have much to learn from how late-night venues are treated abroad, where, in cities such as Berlin, they have been explicitly designated as cultural institutions and host various events during the daytime such as art and music classes or theatre productions. Given their specifically social purpose, there is no doubt that their closure for much of the pandemic has seriously hurt Irish nightclubs and bars. However, many of these venues were struggling long before the pandemic because of poor (and at times actively hostile) government policies. There is admittedly some room for hope with the recent publication of the government’s night-time economy task force's report suggesting real progress on issues such as the extension of opening hours and appointment of night mayors. Yet the momentum generated by groups such as Give Us The Night must be maintained until significant changes are followed through on. The future of Ireland’s nightlife depends on it.

TRINITY NEWS | Tuesday 12 October

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The struggles of people with OCD during the pandemic deserve attention Shannon Connolly Deputy Editor

hroughout the pandemic, there has been a mirror crisis for people who struggle with their mental

health. After the most recent lockdown, when the government announced their reopening plan, my first thought was “I’m not ready to see anyone or be in crowds” — and I think many people had this reaction. Many people who have never suffered with OCD tendencies will have picked it up during the global pandemic, and it seems to be a largely forgotten narrative when it comes to COVID-19. Slowly, we can all see our lives returning to normal. Colleges and schools are back open, shops are filled to the brim with customers, people are sitting in coffee shops again. It’s something of a wondrous sight; I think many of us thought we would never even get here. But here we are. However, there seems to be a big chunk of the narrative of “returning to normal” that is barely getting a look-in. While it is absolutely fantastic to see everything opening up and everyone slowly getting back to their lives, this isn’t the case for everybody. Throughout the pandemic, there has been a mirror crisis for people who struggle with their mental health. Many people, who may have never even suffered before with their mental health, had found lockdown upon lockdown extraordinarily difficult. But the talk always centered around “covid anxiety” or depression with being stuck in one room, and rarely have I heard anyone mention the effects the pandemic has had on people who suffer with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). OCD is when an individual has obsessions or compulsions, or both. It can take the form of recurrent and persistent thoughts or thought patterns, which may be intrusive or unwanted. It can also take the form of repetitive behaviors or actions, such as repeated hand washing or mental acts like counting, that an individual feels they must repeat a certain amount of times. There

is a general conception that OCD centers around someone being a “germaphobe” or being obsessed with cleaning, and while this can be attributed to OCD sometimes, the generality of OCD does not take this form, and that is why so many people attribute these symptoms to anxiety. I have had OCD tendencies for the majority of my life. Mine have always centered around things that I would have found “dirty” or “messy”, such as sauces or physical contact with people I don’t know, or even touching door handles. Before the pandemic, all my friends thought it was hilarious I carried around a bottle of hand sanitizer everywhere I went and used it after touching any public surface, like a bus rail. It was “quirky” to myself and many other people; that was until COVID-19 hit, and it became a much bigger problem. I stopped going anywhere two days before Leo Varadkar announced schools and colleges were to shut. I was sitting in the Arts Building, and College had just announced that all large scale lectures would be moved online until the end of the year. I started to panic. I emailed my TA I had later in the day, and told them I couldn’t make it for some reason. I started my journey home. On the Luas, someone sitting beside me started to cough. I couldn’t think about anything else but that cough for two weeks; I came home and washed my hands four times, washed the clothes I had on that day three times, and stood in the shower for 45 minutes. I remember everything that happened that day, as I’m sure many people do when they first realized the severity of COVID-19. The situation only worsened from there. Every time I left my house, even to just go for a walk outside, I’d come home and wash everything I was wearing. I’d wipe down my jacket with disinfectant wipes. I’d stand in the shower for probably longer than is considered healthy. At the beginning of the pandemic, many people felt this way. We didn’t know how contagious COVID-19 was, or even how dangerous it was. But for people

with OCD or OCD tendencies, this didn’t miraculously disappear when the government announced reopening plans and things were beginning to become safer. After the most recent lockdown, when the government announced their reopening plan, my first thought was “I’m not ready to see anyone or be in crowds”; and I think many people had this reaction. I knew my life needed to get back to normal, so I began to work on it. It wasn’t really until I was fully vaccinated in July that I felt somewhat okay with seeing my friends regularly, or getting public transport. It wasn’t until I was vaccinated that I stepped foot on the Luas again in fear of someone coughing beside me. I’m thankful that I worked on it, because now it is less of a deal for me, and I don’t obsess about it as much. My life is returning to normal(ish) and I’m not freaking out over coming into contact with people anymore.

However, with everything reopening, I can’t help but think about someone who would have been in the position I was in this time last year. There is absolutely no way that in October of last year, in the height of the pandemic, that I would have stepped foot on campus, nevermind sit in class or use public transportation. There has been little to no discussion of how a return to normal life or a return to full-scale classes will affect students who are not necessarily in the right position mentally for it. On a wider scale, there’s been no widespread media coverage of how people with OCD have done during the pandemic. It seems to be an outlier to most people. Some might think that there are bigger problems, but this needs to be addressed. Many people who have never suffered with OCD tendencies will have picked it up during the global pandemic, and it seems to be a largely forgotten narrative when it comes to COVID-19. I agree that we all have to get back to normal. I’m delighted to see groups of students on campus. I love that people are out drinking in bars again, and that life is slowly returning to normalcy. But there needs to be discussion around how this return to normal may not be the same for everyone. Some people will be struggling more than others, and people

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Not having the capacity for normality yet is okay; forcing students, or any individual, back to ‘normal’ is certainly not need to be able to reach out and help if they can. College needs to put provisions in place by making the option for a lot of lectures to be recorded and uploaded. We shouldn’t leave people behind in our reopening plans, and this includes setting up some kind of support for people who may not be ready to return to normal. Not having the capacity for normality yet is okay; forcing students, or any individual, back to “normal” is certainly not.

Tuesday 12 October | TRINITY NEWS

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Editorial: Violence against women is omniprescent, and entrenched in state institutions This article contains discussion of violence, including sexual violence.

n September 30, Wayne Couzens became the first police officer in the UK to be sentenced to a whole-life order, for the murder of Sarah Everard. This differs from a life sentence, in that the convicted is ineligible for parole. Everard was kidnapped when Couzens used Covid-19 laws to arrest her under false pretenses, before raping her, and strangling her to death and burning her remains. Everard was a 33 year-old marketing executive, who, on the night of her death, was walking home from a friend’s house in south London. Couzens was arrested six days later before being charged with her kidnap and murder. In March of this year, following Couzens’ arrest, vigils were held across England in memory of Everard. The largest, in Clapham Common, near where Everard disappeared, attracted international media attention following heavy-handed crackdowns from the Metropolitan Police, the force that Couzens was a member of. Pictures circulated online of young female protestors being tackled and restrained by police, merely for publicly mourning and holding signs with messages like “she was walking home”. The scenes sparked rightful outrage, and when combined with the circumstances of Everard’s murder, prompted many to question whether police really do protect women from violence. Indeed, revelations about Couzens’ past make the outrageous response from police all the more repulsive. We know now that Couzens had previously been accused of public exposure, and was nicknamed “the Rapist” while serving in the Civil Nuclear Constabulary. The response of British police forces to these revelations only added more fuel to the fire. North Yorkshire Police Commissioner Phillip Allot claimed women need to be more “streetwise” about what constitutes a legal arrest, to pick just one stomach churning example. The Metropolitan Police suggested those fearful of a police officer should run away or “wave down a bus”. The reality is that it is not women who need to change their behaviour, but the perpetrators of violence. Every woman knows what it is like to walk home with their keys in between their knuckles; what it's like to wait for the “I’m home safe” text from a friend; what it's like to be followed, stalked, groped, catcalled and harassed for the crime of existing in public as a woman. The problem is not, as Allott claimed, that women are ignorant

of the law, or are not “streetwise” enough, or that they don't take enough precautions. The problem is the existence of men who feel entitled to women’s time, attention, affection, bodies and, in the most extreme cases, their lives. The problem is a widespread and deeply-rooted culture of male violence against women, which much of society condones, accepts and encourages. Male entitlement which escalates into violence is a direct product of a culture in which women and women’s bodies are objectified and commodified, and in which men not taking no for an answer is glamorised and glorified. Male violence cannot be separated from paternalistic laws which deprive women of the right to control their own bodies. The new blanket abortion ban in Texas, under which a rape victim could face a longer prison sentence for accessing an abortion than their attacker would for rape, is just one example of this. The same could have been said of Ireland before the repeal of the eighth amendment in 2018. Indeed, accessing abortion in this country outside strictly-defined parameters remains a criminal

offence. Several high-profile sexual assault cases in Ireland in recent years also serve as a grave reminder of how deeply-entrenched victim blaming and misogyny are in our society. What became known as the Belfast rape trial involving rugby player Paddy Jackson, saw Stuart Olding’s barrister ask “why didn’t she scream?” because there were “a lot of middle-class girls downstairs - they weren't going to tolerate a rape or anything like that." When referring to oral rape, the same barrister asked: “Why didn’t she keep her mouth closed?” In 2018, a case which saw a 27 year-old-man acquitted for the rape of a 17 year old in Cork saw the style of the victim’s underwear used as evidence in court that the girl was “open to meeting someone” by the defence barrister. Vuctims of sexual assault and male violence more generally are blamed for not reporting at the same time that Gardai are under fire for failing to respond to domestic violence calls. The circumstances of Everard’s murder, the fact that Couzens lasted in the force given previous allegations of misconduct, and

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The problem is a widespread culture of male violence against women, which much of society condones, accepts and encourages

the reaction of the Met and other police forces raise serious questions about the role of police (or lack thereof) in tackling violence against women. Just days after Couzens’ sentencing, a UK court

ruled that undercover police grossly violated the human rights of a woman by deceiving her into a long-term sexual relationship, and a Garda was arrested after allegations of severe sexual abuse by his daughters. Couzens used his police powers to abduct and murder Everard, and then his former colleagues used those same powers to attack and arrest women who were mourning her. Who, if anyone, do police protect? As a newspaper, our thoughts are with the family and loved ones of Sarah Everard. We stand in solidarity with all victims of male violence against women, and we stand against a culture of victim-blaming. We recognise that the answer to male entitlement and abuse is not more police or more women’s self-defence classes. The answer is not to demand women be more “streetwise”, scream louder, walk home in runners, avoid ponytails because they’re easy for assailants to grab onto, not drink, or not wear a certain style of underwear. The answer is to stop the violence at its source. She was walking home.

PHOTO BY TIM DENNELL/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

TRINITY NEWS | Tuesday 12 October

The grim reality of soft plastic waste

page 28

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Sophie Maguire

Faye Murphy

PHOTO BY MICHAELA ABBEY - @MICHAELA.ABEYPHOTOGRAPHY

Scitech

Fast food addiction: it’s not you, it’s your brain

Basking sharks not basking in the limelight The Irish government must pass environmental legislation to protect these vulnerable creatures Nina Chen

Scitech Co-Editor

n Ireland, we have many graceful creatures; however none have proven to be quite as mysterious as the basking shark. Basking sharks are the second-largest living shark at nearly 12 metres long, sporting large gaping mouths. Despite their fearsome exterior, they are filter feeders, meaning that they feed through a mechanism similar to a sieve. Basking sharks strain particles in the ocean and can often be seen swimming slowly on the water’s surface in order to filter plankton and small fish through its gills, cleaning the water as it moves. Acting as nature’s “vacuum cleaners”, they remove excess

nutrients, preventing damaging environmental consequences like eutrophication, in which excess nutrients in bodies of water result in the overgrowth of dangerous algae. Basking sharks clean everywhere, and are often seen both inshore and offshore in Ireland and throughout the world. When these mysterious creatures are seen, they tend to shy away from boats and human contact. While these sharks are found on all coasts, they have a great historical relevance to coastal communities in Ireland including Donegal, Galway and Mayo. Basking sharks were often seen in Irish coastal waters, gathering in large numbers to feed on plankton. However this makes them vulnerable to human activity, and they were hunted for their livers, which contain high amounts of oil. Historical records show that many shark fisheries were built across the west coast of Ireland, with the basking sharks undergoing intense periods of target fishing. At its peak in the 1950s, one fishery caught 9,000 basking sharks in a decade. This intense target fishing resulted in a massive population decline between the years 1946–2017. Sadly, the population has never quite recovered from this tragedy. Today, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)

lists the basking shark as an endangered species, noting that the population trend is still negative despite the numerous protective measures put in place to prevent the exploitation of these sharks. There are currently no population estimates for basking sharks in Ireland, though some research suggests that the country hosts 1020% of the global population. Despite the high risk of extinction in the wild, it was legal to fish for basking sharks in Irish waters until 2001, and only in 2006 was it

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At its peak in the 1950s, one fishery caught 9,000 basking sharks in a decade

prohibited in all EU waters. Many governments across the world have implemented various environmental and fishing policies to protect these sharks from harm, including the UK, Canada and the United States. With the historical relevance and habitat that Ireland shares with basking sharks, it is all the more surprising that Ireland is one of the few remaining nations in the northeast Atlantic that has never provided domestic legal protection for this species. According to the Irish Basking Shark Group (ISBG) — a collection of research studies and research groups based in Ireland — the basking shark is currently not listed as a protected or restricted fish species under national marine or conservation legislation. While there are policies in place to prevent the active hunting and landing of basking sharks, the main threats to these animals, like countless other marine creatures, are ship collisions, harassment, and entanglement from abandoned or untagged fishing gear. With increasing amounts of foreign fishing gear left in the ocean, these filter feeders are not only at risk for getting entangled in these pieces of equipment, but they are also vulnerable to consuming microplastics in the ocean which could have a severe biolog-

ical impact. In May 2021, social democrat TD and former marine biologist Jennifer Whitmore proposed a bill to the Dáil asking to amend the 1974 Wildlife Act to include basking sharks. As of today, in Irish waters anyone can disturb, approach and harm these sharks without consequences. This proposed bill was followed by an open letter written by scientists and conservation organisations, calling for action from the Irish government to enact legal protection of basking sharks. “This letter is written on the basis of emerging scientific evidence that indicates Irish territorial waters host a large proportion of the global population and are among some of the most important waters internationally for the species.” The letter states, “We ask that Ireland as a modern and responsible society champion the plight of endangered migratory marine species and provide a legal code of conduct to manage human interaction with these magnificent creatures when they are in our waters and on our watch.” The petition passed to Minister of State Malcolm Noonan, who reacted positively and in turn stated that he “looks forward to collaborating with Jennifer and the campaign groups on this really important measure to afford protection to basking sharks.” Should the bill to amend the Wildlife Act be passed, basking sharks would be protected against harassment. However, this would not and should not be the end of advocating for these sharks. There remains a critical need to protect the habitat of the basking shark. The threats which endanger the basking shark, such as ship strikes and abandoned fishing gear, can be fought against by implementing new policies such as limiting boat speeds in the area and requiring all fishing gear to be tagged. The ISBG states that while protecting basking sharks is an important goal, they “firmly believe that adequate protection for the marine environment can only be achieved through a transparent process of stakeholder involvement.” The basking shark is a wonderful creature that should be protected, and to do so includes protecting the marine environment they inhabit. The basking shark, while being a global citizen, has made its home in Ireland. It is the job of those in government to protect these creatures, not just because they have an important role in our ecosystems, but because of their unique and wonderful ties to Irish culture and heritage.

Tuesday 12 October | TRINITY NEWS

SciTech

Society’s fast food addiction: it’s not you, it’s your brain The neurochemistry of why you’re lovin’ it Sophie Maguire

Contributing Writer

he saying goes: “We all want what we can’t have”. Unfortunately, food is not an exception to this idea. Humanity as a whole has become addicted to the very thing capable of nourishing us, yet killing us: food. This is especially prevalent with those tasty and greasy fatty fast foods. What follows is not a scolding from a health professional to “resist all temptation”, but rather an explanation as to how your brain is subconsciously prompting – and, subsequently, giving into – these cravings. The “food reward system” is a key tool for survival, and its role is obviously very clear: to keep us alive. Overall, this regulation of food intake is a complex process with the brain playing a central role. However, how does this explain our addiction to fast food? Historically, in hunter-gatherer societies, higher energy macromolecules such as fats and sugars were scarcely encountered and, therefore, it was an evolutionary advantage to eat these foods and get a reward sensation in the brain. The role of endocrine or hormonal factors on the medial hypothalamus (a region in the brain responsible for the regulation of food intake and metabolism) has been well researched. This research has

Hello Mercury BepiColombo, a joint mission of the European Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency to Mercury, took its first pictures of the planet on October 2. The mission is completing one of nine gravity assist manoeuvers and will finally enter Mercury’s orbit in December 2025. PHOTO VIA JAXA/ESA

highlighted three main starring hormones: insulin, leptin and ghrelin. Insulin controls glucose levels by signalling to the brain via the hypothalamus to reduce food intake when glucose levels are high. Leptin, which is released from adipose or fat tissue, helps the body maintain its weight by regulating the metabolism of lipids, independently of food intake. Finally, ghrelin is known as the “hunger hormone” due to its ability to stimulate appetite. It is mainly secreted by the stomach when it is empty. So how do these three hormones play into this food reward circuitry? The most important reward pathway in the brain is the mesolimbic dopamine pathway, which has long been a focus of research into food reward systems. Dopamine, the so-called “happy hormone”, is involved in many neu-

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Studies often compare the brain pathways involved in food intake to those involved in drug addiction

PHOTO BY ISOBEL DUFFY FOR TRINITY NEWS

rological reward circuits and plays numerous roles within the brain. One of the main stimuli that can cause dopamine release is the intake of highly palatable food. This occurs as receptors of the three endocrine hormones, leptin, ghrelin and insulin, are all located on dopaminergic neurons, which can synthesise dopamine. Therefore, the binding of such hormones to their respective receptors leads to dopamine release. In the case of insulin, the hormone concentration peaks when blood glucose is high, likely after consumption of a sugary meal. Leptin works in a similar manner. Higher leptin concentrations and subsequent dopa-

mine release occurs when there is enough stored fat in the body, signalling to the brain to stop food intake. On the other hand, ghrelin differs in how it triggers dopamine release. Since you are hungry when ghrelin is released, rather than rewarding food already consumed, it heightens the prospective reward, motivating you to eat. Studies often compare the brain pathways involved in food intake to those involved in drug addiction due to the neurochemical overlap. It has been noted in animal studies that dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) brain region of rats who repetitively binged high sugar foods resem-

bled the same dopamine release seen in drug addiction studies. Furthermore, these sugar-bingeing rats actually showed symptoms of withdrawal when the food was removed. It is speculated that the continuous consumption of hyper-palatable food may possibly lead to food addiction. The authors of these studies stated that, while the concept of food addiction remains controversial, further studies are needed to investigate whether symptoms of substance withdrawal can be measured in humans abstaining from particular food groups. Restaurants and fast food outlets certainly take advantage of our weakness for such hyper-palatable, sugar and fat-rich dishes to attract us to their businesses. The controversial food additives MSG (monosodium glutamate) and aspartame do not induce the same reward responses in the brain as seen from sugars and fats. However, they are widely used to make food more palatable; both across the restaurant industry, in snack foods, and in supermarket pre-made meals, creating the ultimate test of our willpower. Acute, rather than chronic, stress also increases our reward sensitivity, meaning that ordering a spice bag is far more tempting after a long day working to meet a deadline or during exam time, especially when takeaway is so convenient. These innate mechanisms, which were initially an evolutionary advantage, have now become a health hazard in a world of easily accessible energy-dense foods. Whilst we may not have the time nor interest in checking the nutritional value of our meals, it is worth knowing that in terms of following a healthy diet, our brain may be our Achilles’ heel. At least you are now conscious of that fact.

TRINITY NEWS | Tuesday 12 October

SciTech PHOTO BY ISOBEL DUFFY FOR TRINITY NEWS

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This is all somewhat speculative, and I worry that plastic quantities to be recycled may increase

The grim reality of soft plastic waste Is recycling this material the solution we think it is? Faye Murphy

Contributing Writer

n September 6, it was announced that soft plastics could be accepted into household recycling bins. This announcement came three days before the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released an analysis of Ireland’s recycling failures. This news seems to be happily accepted by the people of Ireland, but what exactly does this news mean in terms of change? It should first be noted that Ireland’s waste system does not recycle any materials, it simply collects materials. These materials are then either shipped abroad to be recycled, sent to landfills, burned in incinerators, or sent to cement factories to be burned and provide energy. In Ireland, when waste arrives at sorting centres, it is first magnetically separated. This magnetism extracts any iron from the refuse. Next, the waste goes through an inductor that removes any aluminium and tin. Following this,

infra-red detectors sort out any polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and polyolefin. These plastics are what will be exported to be recycled. Finally, paper is separated from the waste. Any remaining waste, usually soft plastics, is then sent to incinerators or landfills. Although soft plastics are now welcomed into our mixed recycling bin, this does not mean that they are going to be recycled. According to Michael Morris, a Trinity Professor in the School of Chemistry, “soft plastics are generally polyvinyl chloride (PVC) or laminates”, which can be “very challenging to recycle”. A small amount of PVC in a PET or polyethylene plant can “spoil the product by making it cloudy”, which means that the only way that these soft plastics may be recycled is via mixed recycling. This grinds the plastics, forming “low-grade products like plant pots or more likely as an addition to road tar”. Due to the difficulty in recycling these plastics, they will not be recycled in Ireland. According to MyWaste, these soft plastics will be “converted to a Solid Recovered Fuel (SRF) which is used in cement kilns”. While this new Solid Recovered Fuel will replace fossil fuels as a source of energy for cement kilns, it raises many questions as to whether this will cause much change. Morris states that he is “not sure this is really any different from incineration” and contin-

ues mentioning that “incinerators are carefully designed to minimise toxic emissions, cement plants aren’t”. According to the EPA’s news releases on September 9, Ireland produced 319,082 tonnes of plastic packaging waste in 2019, with only 28% of this sent off to be recycled. While this 28% is currently within the EU’s current target of 22.5%, it is far off the 2025 target of 50%. The lack of control of waste once abroad should also be addressed. Becca Payling, a final year Geoscience student and Chairperson of Trinity’s Environmental Society, states that “just below 90% of

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Ireland’s waste system does not recycle any materials, it simply collects them

all Irish waste, plastic especially, is exported, essentially moving the problem so it’s ‘out of sight, out of mind’”. The EPA also stated that the percentage of waste being recycled had been gradually declining, down to 62% in 2019 from 64% in 2018. While recycling rates are falling, the waste production rate is increasing; as stated by the EPA, it was up 11% from approximately 1 m kg in 2018 to 1.1 m kg in 2019. In addition, the amount of plastic waste incinerated for energy recovery has increased year on year from 44% in 2017 to 69% in 2019. Payling, who was involved in Trinity Green Campus’ Recycling Awareness Scheme in 2020, also mentions the theory of “wishcycling”, which she describes as “people recycling non-recyclable or dirty materials they don’t know can’t be recycled”. She states the need to emphasise the “clean, dry, loose” motto, or it’s “going to lead to a lot of 'wishcycling’ and subsequent contamination of recycling batches”. This policy change has its benefits, as putting all clean, dry and loose plastics into your recycling bin will ensure that no recyclable plastic will end up in a landfill or incinerated. This means that Ireland’s rates of recycling will increase and likely meet the EU targets in the years to come. Currently, it is unknown whether the level of plastic waste incinerated for energy recovery will increase

or decrease, as more plastic waste as a whole will be entering the recycling process. The EPA states that “the increase in plastic packaging recycled is offset by an even greater increase in the amounts of packaging waste being generated and incinerated and, as a result, Ireland’s recycling rates have shown a generally declining trend since 2013”. Payling hopes that this change in policy will be “a head-turner for stakeholders in domestic recycling plants and incinerators that use domestic waste to fuel Irish cement production”. Payling also notes that she hopes this new policy will “potentially improve on the number of domestic recycling plants [that] can facilitate transfer [of un-recyclable materials] to cement manufacturers, rather than being sent across the sea out of reach.” When discussing the long-term effects of this policy change, Payling mentioned that it “may help Ireland embrace a circular economy by increasing the lifespan of virgin materials”. She adds that it may also “help induce new technologies to repurpose and redesign typically considered end-oflife materials, boosting the Irish economy”. This could “potentially reduce the dependence on other countries to take Irish trash”. She stated: “This is all somewhat speculative, and I worry that plastic quantities to be recycled may increase because businesses and even people will not worry as much about the waste”. Although recycling rates will increase, one should not forget the science behind recycling. While some plastics will be replacing fossil fuels as an energy source for cement kilns, Morris reminds us that “in reality, since plastic is made from [the] same materials, it will have negligible benefit”. Soft plastics being accepted into household recycling bins is not necessarily the solution we think it is. As Payling puts it, this policy is “a plaster solution over a bigger systematic wound caused by excessive waste.”

Tuesday 12 October | TRINITY NEWS

SciTech

Squid Game: NUIG researchers solve puzzle of cephalopod taxonomy A new Irish study proposes a reordering of our conceptual framework for oceanic squid evolution Jack Kennedy Editor

esearchers at the National University of Ireland Galway (NUIG) have identified new relationships between different species of oceanic squids, solving a longstanding mystery. A multinational study from 2018 described relationships between different cephalopods as “difficult to resolve” and said that “consensus remain[ed] elusive” for phylogenetic (i.e. concerning the evolutionary relationships of species) classification of molluscs, the 85,000-species phylum of which squids are a part. The new Irish study, published

in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, used a DNA analysis method called genome skimming to assess hypothesised groupings of oceanic squids. This technique involves shallow sequencing of the genetic information about an organism, allowing for quicker, cheaper, and larger-scale analysis at the cost of detail. Dr Fernando Angel Fernández-Álvarez, a researcher in the NUIG school of natural sciences, was the lead author on the study. He said the aim of the project was “to solve the relationships among this amazing group of animals.” The research looked at the genes of 35 selected species of oceanic squids. It found that several taxonomic families used to classify the creatures, some proposed by zoologists more than a century ago, are not sufficiently genetically distinct from each other and should be merged. On the other hand, the team found what they believe are evidence of several new “superfamily”-level groupings, as well as cause to resurrect previously proposed ideas for other superfamilies, and to elevate some “subfamilies” to the classification of family. All in all, the research makes a case for a fairly significant re-ordering of the evolutionary tree of

PHOTO VIA THE NOAA

oceanic squids. “I believe this study is an important milestone for the field and a good starting point for performing in-depth studies on the evolutionary trends that shape the huge diversity of oceanic squids,” Fernández-Álvarez continued. Professor Louise Allcock, also of the NUIG school of natural sciences, echoed this sentiment: “Oceanic squids are an amazingly diverse group of cephalopods – molluscs with arms and tentacles

like squid, octopus and cuttlefish – with fascinating adaptations to their watery environment. “For example, glass squids use their body cavity as a fluid filled buoyancy chamber, while chiroteuthids develop fishing lures at the end of their tentacles.” “This study also highlights the importance of public scientific collections in addressing long-standing scientific issues,” Allcock continued. “We supplemented the material we collected ourselves

with samples from various museums including the Smithsonian Institution in the US, the Biological Reference Collection of the Marine Science Institute in Spain and the Australian Museum, allowing us to have a truly comprehensive oversight of oceanic squids globally.” The study received funding from the Irish Research Council.

Nobelles of the ball The 2021 Nobel laureates were announced last week. Those recognised in the sciences were, clockwise from right: Physics Syukuro Manabe and Klaus Hasselmann for their work on global climate modelling, and Giorgio Parisi for his discovery of “the interplay of disorder and fluctuations in physical systems from atomic to planetary scales” Chemistry David MacMillan and Benjamin List for developing new tools for environmentally sustinable drug production Medicine/Physiology Ardem Patapoutian and David Julius for revealing the molecular basis of our sense of temperature and touch Some praised the Nobel committee for the climate-related theme present throughout the awardees’ research, while others lamented the complete lack of women recognised this year in the three science categories.

ARTWORK BY NIKLAS ELMEHED © NOBEL PRIZE OUTREACH

TRINITY NEWS | Tuesday 12 October

Student Sport Ireland launches three-year strategic plan

Sport

Alan Smithee

page 32

Matthew Simons elected chairperson of DUCAC Simons was uncontested for the position and nominated by current chairperson Jemil Saidi Jack Kennedy Editor

atthew Simons has been elected chairperson of the Dublin University Central Athletic Club (DUCAC). DUCAC, which oversees sports clubs in Trinity, held its annual general meeting on Thursday (October 7) in the Edmund Burke theatre. Simons, a member of DU Hockey, was deemed elected as chairperson, as he was the only candidate. He was nominated by incumbent chairperson Jemil Saidi and seconded by Greg Arrowsmith, Ents Officer of Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union. Commenting on his election, Simons said: “I’m obviously delighted, it’s a massive honour and I think it’s a really important role, even more so than people realise, which is something I want to focus on. DUCAC is a massive part of college life that I feel a lot of students know very little about and hence don’t get involved enough.”

“A large focus of mine for the year is to increase the student voice and representation within DUCAC, and DUCAC’s voice in the rest of the college, in areas like the SU.” Aoife Simm of the Archery Club was deemed elected as vice-chairperson. Aidan Kavanagh was re-elected as senior treasurer and Gwen McArdle elected as junior treasurer. All three were unopposed. Six nominations were received for the eight positions of club representatives. The six candidates were therefore deemed elected. They were Siddhant Seth of the Squash Club, Kenji Miyauchi of the Harriers and Athletics Club, Arrowsmith, Jody Booth of the Fencing Club, Harry Kelly of the Hockey Club, and Julie Redoubtey Moran of the Ladies’ Boat Club. Two candidates were put forward for the position of secretary. Ella May of the Ladies Hockey Club was proposed as a candidate by Simons, and Anna Grace Ulses of the Athletics Club was seconded by Saidi. An amendment to the DUCAC constitution was also proposed to change how candidates for elections are nominated. Before, nominees needed the support of two thirds of the existing executive committee. Under the new measure, the executive committee only has the power to ensure that nominees are members in good standing of the organisation, rather than being able to vote with discretion, but must do this unanimously. Voting on the secretary position and the constitutional amendment took place online for 24 hours after the meeting. The amendment was

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A large focus of mine for the year is to increase the student voice and representation within DUCAC passed, and Anna Grace Ulses was elected as DUCAC’s new secretary. At the conclusion of the meeting, during the “any other business” portion, Arrowsmith gave a speech in which he said he believed it was important to have student control of DUCAC and use its position within College to lobby for funding and support for sport. He said that he didn’t think most students are aware of how DUCAC works, and articulated a need for the organisation to communicate its role better and to differentiate itself from Trinity Sport, even as the two bodies work together on many issues. Finally, Arrowsmith said he would be introducing a motion to mandate all sports clubs to bring in welfare policies to make sport “safer and more inviting for students” in Trinity. He said that the

sailing club had already done this, and said other clubs could use their policy as a template. Saidi concluded the meeting by announcing that DUCAC would be holding inclusion training for sports clubs throughout October around mental health, disability, and LGBTQ+ issues. When Saidi was elected as chairperson in 2019, he was the first student to hold the position in DUCAC history. He previously served as vice-chairperson. Simons praised the work Saidi had done over his two years at the head of the organisation: “The legacy he’s left in DUCAC and the college is incredible and he made massive progress so students like me and many more after me will have their voice heard. The work he’s done can’t be overstated and I’ve got massive boots to fill.” At an EGM held in April of this year, the organisation’s rules were amended to make the positions of chairperson, vice-chair, secretary

and treasurer only available to students, alongside a number of other constitutional amendments. Alumni members of DUCAC opposed both Saidi’s election and the changes to eligibility rules. Other amendments passed in April included the limiting of officers’ terms. Student officers may only hold their roles for two oneyear terms and other officers for four. DUCAC also then voted to hold its elections online going forward. Voting is done by individuals rather than by clubs. Any Trinity student who is a member of a sports club is eligible to vote, as well as alumni who pay an annual fee to maintain their membership of DUCAC (known as “Pavilion members”). Last year’s AGM was marked by a delay in the presentation of the organisation’s annual accounts. The records were not completed until early 2021, several months after the October AGM.

PHOTO BY ZAHRA TOURABPOURAN FOR TRINITY NEWS

Trinity Meteors make explosive Super League debut Club basketball is back after a 19-month hiatus Jack Kennedy Editor Trinity Meteors - 67 Fr Matthews - 64 Trinity Meteors triumphed over Fr Matthews Basketball Club on Saturday (October 9) in the first round of the Missquote.ie Women’s Super League. The 67-64 result was an impressive comeback win for the

Trinity team, who were seven points down at half time. The game, which the Meteors played away at Fr Matthews’ base in Cork, was the first national-level club basketball match in more than a year and a half. The pandemic forced the cancellation of the 2020/21 season in its entirety. The Meteors were promoted to the Super League at the end of the 2019/20 season after winning the First Division. Katie Kilbride, who captained the team to that win, has since retired from competition. The Meteors and their coach, Vinny O’Keefe, will doubtless be pleased with such a strong start to the season in their new, tougher league. The team occupies an unusual

position within Trinity sport; it has been affiliated with College for less than four years, having been established independently as part of the Meteors Ladies Basketball Club, with which it remains connected. Founded in 1965, the club describes itself as “Dublin’s oldest women’s basketball club”, and the team is officially a joint endeavour of it and Trinity. The partnership was announced in time for the 2018/19 season. The Meteors have three more fixtures in 2021. They’re due to face DCU Mercy this coming Saturday, October 16. They’ll then play the Waterford Institute of Technology Wildcats on October 23 and Brunell on November 6.

Tuesday 12 October | TRINITY NEWS

Matthew Simons elected chairperson of DUCAC

Sport

Jack Kennedy

page 31

The third-level sports body is also running a campaign to get more students involved in clubs Alan Smithee Contributing Writer Student Sport Ireland (SSI), which represents and coordinates third level sporting activities in Ireland, has published a new threeyear strategic plan. The document was launched at an event in Trinity on September 23, with SSI President Matthew Dossett and Minister of State for Sport Jack Chambers (pictured centre, right and left respectively) in attendance, alongside student athletes from a number of institutions. The plan identifies a number of “key strategic objectives” for the organisation going forward. These include “more regular activity and competitions for students” and promoting “the benefits of physi-

cal activity” among students. SSI also wants to “provide learning and developmental opportunities for student sports leaders” as well as “networking, information and knowledge sharing opportunities for affiliated colleges’ staff ”. Commenting on the launch, Dossett said: “Despite the obvious challenges facing us all as we emerge from the global pandemic, student sport is in a strong position to continue supporting the university and college experience to grow, as well as play a key role in enabling the success of the national sports policy and connected goals. “We are focused on expanding the organisation in order to drive growth in student opportunities and activity, and creating new programmes that develop and support our student athletes, leaders, and member institutions.” Chambers congratulated SSI on the release of the strategy, praising “the excellent work undertaken in recent months to progress the plan.” As well as setting out SSI’s goals, the document also provided a number of statistics about student sport in Ireland. The organisation’s 26 affiliated third-level institutions across Ireland and Northern Ireland, including Trinity, boast 840 different clubs across 54 sports.

Student Sport Ireland launches three-year strategic plan

The sector employs 827 staff in total, whose efforts are complemented by 1,940 volunteers. Since 2015, sports scholarships and bursaries distributed in Ireland have totalled €9.6m. The report notes, however, that only one in seven students in its member institutions belong to a sports club. It also says that universities on average offer twice as many distinct sports as colleges or institutes of technology; 46 versus 23. With these figures in mind, SSI launched a marketing campaign

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Write for us Trinity News, Ireland’s oldest student newspaper, has a long history of high-quality journalism. Many of our alumni are currently working in media, having spring-boarded their careers with the newspaper, and we are always welcoming new contributors to our written and multimedia sections. Opportunities to get involved include: • Contributing an article to one of our many written sections • Taking photos or creating art to feature in the newspaper and/or online • Working with our video team to produce documentary content around student issues All Trinity students are welcome, regardless of experience. Our editorial staff regularly issue prompts for contributors to work on and we also accept cold pitches for articles. For more information, see trinitynews.ie/write-for-us.

titled “Find Your Team” alongside the new strategic plan, with the aim of encouraging more participation in third level sport. The organisation says that it has conducted research revealing that the “key factors” in encouraging people to join clubs are “the opportunity to make new friends, socialise, and boost fitness levels”. The campaign is being funded by contributions from SSI member institutions as well as a grant from Sport Ireland, the statutory body that oversees sport nationally. SSI’s student vice-president

Catherine Mahony, who helped to develop the campaign, said that sport at third level “has enriched my life in ways that I could never have anticipated.” “Finding a welcoming club in a new sport, a new university, and a new country has supported me physically, mentally, and socially.” She continued: “Through the campaign, I hope that other students find the encouragement they need to get involved in a sporting experience that is as meaningful to them as mine has been to me.”

TRINITY NEWS | Tuesday 12 October

Haunting realities of Lugh stands proud as house hunting in Dublin Ireland’s tallest mural page 4 page 7

The importance of platonic intimacy page 13

LIFE

TRINITY NEWS

Could Trinity soon have a Skate Soc?

Pullout section

PHOTO BY ELIZA MELLER FOR TRINITY NEWS

Tuesday 12 October | TRINITY NEWS

In this issue

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE TATE MODERN

Restorative justice and sexual violence at the Dublin Theatre Festival

- page 7

Haunting realities of house hunting in Dublin

- page 4

Artists in conversation:

Conor Nolan and Róisín Nolan

From scream queen to survivor

- page 11

- page 8 The proposed DU Skate Soc - page 14

A look into Yayoi Kusama’s world

On platonic intimacy

Emma Lueders

travels to London to view the Yayoi Kusama 2020 exhibition: Infinity Mirror Rooms at the Tate Modern

- page 14

Life staff Editor-in-Chief Life Editor Life Deputy Editor

Jack Kennedy Heather Bruton Eva O’Beirne

Arts & Culture Editor Arts & Culture Deputies

Elena McCrory Oona Kauppi Maisie McGregor

Sex & Relationships Editor Sex & Relationships Deputy

Maya Kulukundis

Societies Editor Societies Deputy

Ella-Bleu Kiely Ruth McGann

Student Living Editor Student Living Deputies

Ella Sloane Seán Holland Ria Walls

Lila Funge

he name Yayoi Kusama should be familiar to anyone who has an interest in art, feminism or polka dots. The Japanese artist has been infusing the art world with conceptualism, focusing on sexual and autobiographical themes. After my initial introduction to the artist, who painted yellow Polka dots on naked protesters in 1970s New York, I knew I would sell my soul to get tickets to her latest exhibition, Infinity Mirror Rooms, at the Tate Modern in London. €70 is essentially the value of a student’s soul; nevertheless, I bought a ticket. To contextualize exactly why this artist made me risk international flights and the tube during the COVID-19 pandemic, it might be best to explain who Kusama is. Yayoi Kusama is a Japanese artist born on 22 March 1929. She was born into the village of Matsumoto, Nagano, to a family of seed farmers. Her early home life

was less than ideal, as her mother was physically and emotionally abusive. Using Wonton soup as a reward, her mother would often get the children to trail their father on his many affairs. Having seen her father with his lovers, Kusama reflects that this would contribute to her lifelong contempt for sex – both her fear and obsession with it. Kusama’s mother was also very critical of her artistic pursuits. She often told her daughter that she would bring shame on the family and live the life of a beggar. They would fight often, and Kusama would be locked in the storehouse without food for hours. She began experiencing hallucinations from the age of 10, along with asthma and a hearing defect. A combination of these experiences left her feeling a sense of separation from the outside world, a theme which would emerge in her art. History buffs might note that Kusama reached adolescence when Japan entered World War Two. Kusama spent this time working in parachute-making factories with a constant noise of air-raid sirens and B-29s flying overhead. She began to form her ideals of creative and personal freedom, and would develop them further at Kyoto Municipal School of Arts and Crafts in 1948. Kusama quickly became frustrated with the distinctive Japanese style of Nihonga, which

the Kyoto Municipal School taught, and began pursuing Western avant-garde styles. By the 1950s, Kusama was depicting abstract forms and covering a variety of surfaces - walls, floors and naked assistants - with what would become her trademark polka dots. These dots, or ‘infinity nets’ as she calls them, were taken directly from her hallucinations. Kusama left Japan at the age of 27, feeling that contemporary Japanese society was “too small” and “too scornful of women”, stated in Lives of the Artists by Robert Shore. She moved around to different parts of the U.S.A, seeking advice from artists like Georgia O’Keeffe, and established a reputation as a leader of the avant-garde movement. In the early 1960s, Kusama shifted towards sculpture and installation art by covering surfaces with white, phallic protrusions. She also began organizing happenings in conspicuous spots like Central Park in Manhattan that often involved nudity as a way of protesting against the Vietnam War. Kusama’s passion towards these protests can be seen in her letter to Richard Nixon offering to have sex with him if he would end the Vietnam war. She opened naked painting studios and a gay social club. Although she took the feminist and avant-garde movements by storm, her actions were still shameful in the eyes of her

TRINITY NEWS | Tuesday 12 October

d of mirrors family, which in turn made her feel isolated and suicidal. In 1973, Kusama returned to Japan and checked herself into a mental hospital, where she currently resides by choice. She has rented an art

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Kusama left Japan at the age of 27, feeling that contemporary Japanese society was ‘too small’ and ‘too scornful of women’ for her

studio which is a short distance from the hospital in Tokyo. Within the Tate Modern, Kusama has assembled two of her Mirror Rooms: Infinity Mirrored Room – Filled with the Brilliance of Life, and Chandelier of Grief. After arriving at the gallery, which should be on every art enthusiast’s to-visit list, I went up to the fourth floor and entered the exhibition. The two installation rooms are covered by white panelling, which Kusama claims makes them blend in with the gallery walls. The exterior of the pods make the structures look small. Both occupy the diagonal corners of the room, with Chandelier stationed in front of the entrance and Brilliance of Life in the bottom right. Both are lined with a velvet rope, and a part-time Tate employee is tasked with timing everyone’s visit into the rooms. Stepping into the Chandelier room, spectators are warned of the flashing lights and the disorientating nature of the exhibition. The hexagonal space is covered with mirrored paneling that seems to continuously extend, returning reflections of you from each angle as you move throughout the space. In the center is a solemn chandelier that flickers every few seconds. I began to feel as if I were in a Stanley Kubrick film – my spatial awareness slipped further the longer I stood there. Although I was in an enclosed space, I felt an overwhelming sense of isolation and loneliness as I watched the continuous reflective corridors stretch out from all angles, with me as its midpoint. The line for Brilliance of Life was slightly longer, with many guests eager to capture an artsy picture for their Instagram. The room, similarly enclosed in a white pod, is a rectangular structure with mirrors coating its walls. A path of mirrored tiles makes its way through the room, with shallow water filling the gaps it leaves. From the roof, tiny LED lights are suspended, which change every few seconds to a different colour. By placing these tiny lights in front of the mirrored walls, Kusama creates an expansive galaxy in the enclosed space that presents the infinite space in different hues. The installation is, above all, beautiful, and left me in awe. If I were to sit and marvel at the space around me for hours, I still feel it wouldn’t have been enough time to take it all in. Although I snuck into the exhibitions thrice, I would have spent even longer in the Mirror Rooms if security hadn’t kicked me out. The emotions that Kusama cultivates within these rooms are remarkable. Both rooms trigger very different intense feelings. The next round of tickets for the Mirror Rooms are due to go on sale in December. Tickets cost £10, however if you become a member, your tickets are free. Regardless of your level of modern art expertise, being able to interact with the work of this groundbreaking contemporary artist is an experience I would recommend to everyone.

Society spotlight

Psych Soc Ella-Bleu Kiely speaks to Psych Soc President Charlie Conner about the society that cares for the mind

Believe it or not, not all psychologists just sit analysing people’s personal issues, and neither do members of Trinity’s Psych Soc. The term “psychology” refers to the scientific study of the human mind and its functions, but Psych Soc strives to broaden this in what they do. Speaking with the society’s president, Charlie Conner, we discussed his Psych Soc journey, the society’s themed events and the goal in which they always strive towards. Now a third year psychology student, Conner originally joined Psych Soc to get to know people as a newcomer to Dublin. “I really came into Trinity not knowing anyone, and as a Psychology student, I thought it would just make sense for me to join. I ran for first year rep so I could get to know people better — I think it’s definitely worked out for me being president and all, but I’ve made so many great friends along the way.” Conner also expressed that this is what Psych Soc is really about: “common interest and getting people together to have a real good time.” Naturally, a lot of the society’s body is made up of psychology students, but they are “obviously so open to everyone”, Conner stated. He explained that this year there is a shockingly large number of Erasmus and exchange students, from all courses of study. “There definitely is a variety this year [...] the society is so much broader than just psychology.” The Psych Soc president expressed that he believes a lot of people have an interest in psychology, whether they know it or not. During the recent Freshers Fair the society really wanted to reveal to students how enlightening hearing others’ insights into psychological matters can be and what psychology, itself, can be. “It may come across very mathematical sometimes, but there’s so much you can do with it,” Conner said. “I think opening up people’s minds to topics that they know and are interested in can be great. I think Psych Soc is definitely a launch-pack for getting interested in the field.” When asked if the society’s events are always psychology themed, Conner laughed: “Well,

yes we always try to make them so! I think this past year we’ve been so starved for social interaction and it’s been so great starting to actually meet people. We’re going to start some educational events in the coming weeks, but they will be psych themed.” Every week, the society holds Psych Answer, where a chosen psychological topic is chosen and discussed over tea and coffee in the morning — an intellectual start to your day. Conner explained that despite the chat being educational it’s rather laid back: “At no point would anyone feel like they’re in a lecture or feel completely lost.” Described as being “pretty chill”, it is a nice way to learn more about psychology and human behaviour through social interaction. Psych Soc also offers academic and career driven guidance to its members all year long. The society invites speakers from across the field to bestow insights into the many paths that can be taken with an interest and/or degree in psychology. “Psychology careers can definitely be hazy,” Conner admitted. “We always like to remind everyone that there are so many options.” The society has previously invited local Irish influencers to speak with members about mindfulness, and more recently reached out to YouTube personalities Ella Ringrose (a thought leader who has devoted her life to help ambitious women rise to their truest potential) and Sinead O’Hegarty (motivational speaker and meditation guide). “Of course we try to reach out to people relevant in the field, but also people who are less educationally driven. I think the influencers can be much more appealing to some of the society’s members. They are still speaking about things relevant to the field, just with a less scientific approach. It’s important to keep your eyes

open,” Conner said. Psych Soc takes pride in the work they do alongside LGBTQ+ charities and those that focus on psychological issues. “We also aim to work alongside charities that deal with homelessness in Ireland and mental health. I think it’s just so important to get them in and speak.” Last week the society held an event in conjunction with LGBTQ+ Ireland, an organisation Conner revealed the society loves to work with. The ultimate goal of Psych Soc this year is to inform members of the importance of mental health and how to better understand it. “Especially this year, coming out of a pandemic, you hear ‘mental health matters’ being kind of thrown around a lot, and it isn’t really given an explanation to what mental health looks like. I think Psych Soc is really trying to educate people in a fun and social way about what mental health is and what psychology is and can be,” Conner added. The society wants to show students exactly how psychology ties to mental health and to be graciously aware of it. “If you don’t know what symptoms of poor mental health look like and what to look out for then how can you help yourself and others? We encourage getting to know yourself better and as a result of that having a good time as you’re more comfortable in your skin,” Conner said. He also admitted that this may sound like a lot for a society to achieve, “but through events we’ve had with discussing how the brain works we’ve found it surprisingly doable.” Psych Soc is open to everyone, and despite many of the society’s members hailing from a psychological course of study, other students should never feel unwelcome. There is always room for new members. “All you need is an interest and open mind,” Conner remarked. To finish, when asked what he enjoys most about the society, Conner laughed and said: “Personally, I think one of the greatest things about Psych Soc is that we get to be so vague with it.”

Tuesday 12 October | TRINITY NEWS

Creating an online community Ria Walls talks to fellow Trinity students about their virtual endeavours

Sakshi Arya provides an insight into her unsettling first encounters with the city

e all know how daunting it can be when moving to a new city; we have many questions and queries that sometimes Google just doesn’t have the answer for. Through talking to Trinity students who are part of a variety of online communities, the importance of creating local networks to answer these questions is evident. From “back to college” vlogs to “a day in the life” blog posts, engaging with this online content can help current as well as future students to delve deeper into college life and gain answers for their questions. I spoke to several Trinity students, each of whom are involved in creating their own online community, in order to gain insight into what they do and why they do it. Queen of Quirk Jane Loughman, who is in her final year of English, is currently studying in Columbia, New York, as part of the Dual BA between Trinity and Columbia University. On YouTube and Instagram she is known as the Queen of Quirk. Loughman began making videos when she was 15, finding that she enjoyed documenting her life, which led to her continuing her passion for vlogging as she went to college. When speaking to Loughman, she detailed how several of her YouTube videos during her first two years of college became instant hits, with a clip entitled “A week in my life” gaining more than 30,000 views. Looking back at these videos, Loughman observes that “People want to see more of Trinity”. Through her footage, viewers are able to gain an authentic look at the inside of campus and what being a student at Trinity is truly like. After receiving a gush of positive feedback and questions, she created a vlog focusing on international students in order to answer some of the queries and comments from people interested in applying to Trinity. Loughman’s videos have been able to provide helpful advice on accommodation, studying abroad and general student life in Dublin. Having this advice come from a current student is helpful and relatable for those reaching out. By watching the videos created on Trinity, potential students worldwide could observe what university life is really like and make an informed decision without having to travel to see the university. This was especially useful as restrictions limited travel the previous few years.

Haunting

PHOTO COURTESY OF LINDE VERGEYLEN Loughman tells of how she was able to help students who are doing the same Dual BA programme as herself by giving them advice on writing their application essays and posting footage of what life is like in an American university in comparison to Ireland. Speaking about the motivation behind her videos, Loughman believes that “students want an authentic, honest opinion from other students — it’s important to share these experiences online.” The accessibility

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Vergeylen says that she posts these virtual reviews with the hope that her viewers will be inspired and gain some book ideas to add to their reading lists

of online videos helps to promote what college is really like. It is also useful to have this information, as “many people go into a college course they think they like but then they don’t, as they don’t have any information on it beforehand.” Seeing footage of student life pre-pandemic has helped boost morale for new students, as they watch with eager anticipation and hope at what’s to come in the future. Loughman posted videos of Trinity before COVID-19 hit and we all dispersed home, which she describes as bizarre, as she has “content that represents a different era” of college. You can find Jane on Instagram as @queen.of.quirk and on YouTube as Queen of Quirk. Fugitive Words Linde Vergeylen, who is in her fourth year of English Studies, has created an online community through reviewing books on her Instagram account. Here, she posts book hauls, monthly reads and books to do with relevant, specific themes. When talking about her passion, Vergeylen said that she posts these virtual reviews with the hope that her viewers will be inspired and gain some book ideas to add to their reading lists. In order to help grow her platform, Vergeylen told us that she had recently “started participating in tags such as #Booklympics and #monthlyroundup to gain more organic traffic”.

A recurring theme when it comes to the online communities we have access to at college is the recent effects of the pandemic. When we were all stuck inside for all those months we were left with no other choice but to take up an activity to pass through the days, and many of us picked reading. Vergeylen puts the feeling we all experienced all too well into words: “During the pandemic it became an excuse to read the books I tell myself I don’t have time for during the academic year. As an English student, I spend most of my time reading already, so in a way this allows me to give some love to the books that are not required reading”. Reading has been and continues to be a healthy form of escape; Vergeylen believes that “when the world around you is scary, it makes sense to find solace in these places”. Creating an online community brings about many benefits for those involved, and this can especially be said for the close-knit peers within Trinity. As Vergeylen says, “the internet widens your reach and gives you accessible insight into books, genres, even languages in translation, which you might otherwise not have considered picking up”. “Bookstagram”, as Vergeylen refers to it as, shows that “book culture as we know it now and the internet are compatible and mutually enriching”. For all things books and literature, you can find Linde on Instagram @fugitive_words.

he beginning of every new term brings not just the excitement of meeting new people and taking courses one is passionate about, but also a bevy of international students. Several of these, like me, are South Asians. Once we’re abroad, the peculiarities of racial encounters reminding us that we are people of colour ties us together more than our ethnicities. Seeing each other peppered throughout campus, and sometimes exchanging greetings in soft nods feels reassuring. However, the safety net provided by such reassurances received on campus doesn’t always work, especially when one ventures beyond its boundaries. And after all, even as a student one cannot always be on campus. The world outside the centuries-old, sturdy walls of Trinity is a living creature ready to swallow you whole if you are not careful. It is this real Dublin that you encounter before settling into life at Trinity. Hundreds of students readily move to Dublin annually, often at their own expense, attracted by the standard of education, pride, and prestige that Trinity offers. But, if you’re like me and enjoy solo explorations or find it difficult to make connections, an encounter with Dublin immediately leaves you questioning if this city is really able to foster meaningful

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The landlord suggested I change my name to an ‘English’ one because that would be easy to remember

TRINITY NEWS | Tuesday 12 October

g realities of house hunting in Dublin relationships with immigrants unless one moves in groups with their college folks. As first timers abroad we are so cautious of amplifying our voices in rebellion that our appalling experiences remain overshadowed by the veils of friendliness and inclusivity that Dublin wears to hide its haunting realities. It’s been just a month since I moved here and, from Pearse Street to The Liberties, getting to know Dublin has already exhausted me. For me, the multifaceted trajectory involving the major leap of settling into another country began long before I even moved to Dublin. As a postgraduate student, I was aware that the hassle of finding economical accommodation was solely mine. With this in mind, I had already familiarised myself with and become a proactive daft.ie user. In the midst of a global pandemic, it is easy to say that finding homes on Daft gives a tough competition to acquiring a vaccination slot in India. (If you’re from India, the horrifying comparison I am making between our CoWin website and Daft will make absolute sense!). But all that appears so smooth on the surface is not so in hindsight. Preparing yourself to use Daft and applying through the ads doesn’t really help. You need to be present in Dublin, and be able to view the apartments for yourself — the early bird catches the worm! Without a given choice, my first week in Dublin (which now seems aeons ago even if it was just a few weeks prior) was spent, like many other students, at an overpriced purpose-built student living in Dublin 8. This had to be pre-booked for a stipulated period of ten days, extending which meant having to sign a contract for a minimum of 41 weeks. Some of the most bizarre nightmares I had at the time, which now seem funny in retrospect, involved all the houses running from me, causing me to often awaken soaked in cold sweat. Now that I’ve settled into a flat owned by kind people, with amazing flatmates, I still sometimes shudder recalling my apartment hunting days when I perpetually wondered if all this effort was worth it or if there was the right house for me in a place like Dublin where one is expected to make several compromises. 113 email applications, and five restless days later, I had about eight responses from Daft’s devilish housing platform. Three of those eight actually scheduled an immediate viewing, which suited best for my desperate situation. The two days when I viewed those three houses — one of them I now fortunately live in — taught me that being ready to pay the rent wasn’t sufficient. Quoting the exact words of one of the co-tenants of an apartment I saw first and didn’t end up living in: “You must

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Surely over time Dublin will become my family, even if it’s a dysfunctional one

be ready to keep your head low in case of public humiliation or violence, as a small price one must pay to live in Dublin City Centre.” Not only had this statement taken me aback, I was appalled at the nonchalance with which it was spoken. On the one hand, one of the greatest educational institutes in Europe has admitted me with promises of a better and high-held future. On the other hand, should I now expect to be constantly living in fear of my life and learning to walk with my head low at the behest of racial practices? Does the slogan of inclusivity carry any weight or is it simply a brand endorsement for allegedly progressive countries? This experience gave me the courage to be less dispirited after viewing the next house. Here the landlord suggested I change my name to an ‘English’ one because that would be easy to remember or even speak. Because my options at the time were limited, I couldn’t even decide if I should turn these places down. I quickly realised that this decision in fact lay with my potential co-tenants or landlords who eventually rejected me. Imagine being ready to spend your money and being sent away because the shopkeeper sees you as a bedlamite with intrepid enquiries. Keeping in line with that thought, store managers have sent me away, even if indirectly, because they felt and were dauntless enough to remark that my “colouring” did not align with the items of clothing I stood admiring. And I have left such outlets willingly because my colour is not my fault. I feel beautiful as a person of colour. Unfortunately, racial encounters like this have a tendency to induce doubts. More recently, merely 200 metres from my home in Dublin, I was

hounded by a bunch of teens who as a manner of “offering” brought burning cigarette butts near my face and, seeing me horrified, left laughing. What I felt in that moment was a mixed sensation of anger, shame, ugliness, and fear, burning with a redness equally as bright as the tips of those cigarettes. But a greater shock was to be told, by two grown men who were watching: “You cannot expect it to be any better, they’re just children.” It’s jittering to think that those men expected me to neglect the violence projected at me, and allowed that bunch of reckless teens to become part of a sea of faces that I will likely never see again. Calling a bunch

of harassers children equates to calling racism innocent. And that I cannot accept. Before moving to Dublin, I was told that “racism may exist outside campus, but it is a crime inside Trinity.” Now I’m compelled to ask: how does it matter? There should be no candy for keeping racism at bay on campus — even if that really is true. The fact that racist practices exist around Dublin is reason enough to make me or any other victim of this subtle brutality feel uneasy at the slightest hint of being scrutinised by a white person regardless of their intentions, on campus or off. On video calls, my mum often says to be kind, positive, and

don’t think they’re being racially prejudiced; everything will come along. I don’t like to speculate whether she says this to make me feel better or because she is afraid that something bad will happen if I end up making enemies in a country where I am an outsider. Surely over time Dublin will become my family, even if it’s a dysfunctional one. But until it does, I will continue to question this layer of visible invisibility that overpowers a person’s identity and leaves them haunted by these strange and extremely problematic realities.

Tuesday 12 October | TRINITY NEWS

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To expand awareness that sexual violence is a current, global issue, and to make evident ‘how restorative justice can respond to needs often unmet in traditional justice’

Looking at restorative justice and sexual violence at the Dublin Theatre Festival Elena McCrory and Kate Henshaw sit down with Geoff Power, playwright of STRONGER, included in this year’s Dublin Theatre Festival This article contains discussion and brief descriptions of sexual violence.

ike always, this year’s Dublin Theatre Festival is host to outstanding theatrical experiences. The annual event, funded by The Arts Council, runs from the 30th of September to the 17th of October. The core of this festival is the Dublin city centre, it’s people, stories and past, and this year includes the play STRONGER written by Geoff Power, an Irish film writer. Produced by Gúna Nua, a registered charity, the play is an emotive story that follows teacher Jan, played by Mary Murray, who is sexually assaulted by her student. STRONGER, based

on true events, aims to shed light on the restorative justice system in Ireland and the harrowing events that follow a sexual assault. The play runs from the 1st to the 9th of October in the Smock Alley Theatre. As part of Dublin Theatre Festival, Trinity News sat down with Geoff Power, the writer of STRONGER, to discuss the play. When asked what inspired him when writing, Power said he first became aware of the woman whom the play is based upon when she attended a conference in Ireland covered by the Irish Times. He began thinking about “that moment where a person offended and a perpetrator met”. He believed that “if well developed” and if the “characters were fleshed out in that moment where they met”, it could make for a powerful theatrical experience. In general, he is “really happy with the way it’s turned out” and thinks “it will move people”. When asked about the research process for the play, Power said it went through “various different drafts” and he focused on a conversational approach. He noted that he met the woman who’s story the play is based on in April 2014 and went back to meet her again about a year later. That’s when the play began to take shape then. She divulged the details of

her story to him which he notes were “more extreme” than the details featured in STRONGER. “When I went back in 2015, I realised how much it had affected not just her, but other people around her”. When writing, Power wanted to be “faithful to the essence of what she’s been through” but also “ensure that it takes its own form”. He continued: “The challenges that certain research may present, is that you might think specific bits of information are essential, but if badly handled will feel too

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Power wanted to ‘be faithful to the essence of what she’s been through’ but ‘also ensure that it takes its own form

expository in nature, too preachy. She’s an amazing woman”. Also as part of the research process, Power consulted with various bodies. One such body was the Irish Probation Service who he credits advised him on “how restorative justice operates”. He also mentioned a friend who is a detective, who was “familiar with the procedural elements” of cases such as the one that the play is based on. Power said that she was “really helpful” and “she factchecked certain things for [him]”. He highlighted his experience working with prisoners as important to the research gathering. He teaches creative writing in the Midlands Prison one day a week and cited his interactions with the prisoners as crucial. “The Midlands Prison has quite a sizable sex offender population so quite a few of the people that I would teach would have been convicted of some kind of sexual offence,” Power said. “Like anything, you hope that you can reflect on issues or relationships, from things you’ve experienced yourself with people you’ve either lived with or grew up with, but with this particular story, there was more research that was needed,” he continued. He noted that the play deals with “a sensitive subject” and emphasised the importance of

understanding the viewpoint of “somebody who’s been through that”. Another important aspect that Power highlighted was “understanding the female point of view”. For this, he sought the help of his partner, who is a writer and former barrister. “If I’m writing something she writes more than I do.” She helped him to “get that accuracy in terms of the female perspective on such a case.” When he first began writing this play, Power had intended the story to be based in the UK. “When I began this, there hadn’t really been any cases where somebody had been through what the character Jan goes through [in Ireland]”. But he noted that has since changed. “There have been one or two people who have been through a sexually violent ordeal and have engaged with restorative justice, that has happened now”. He said this allowed the story to “find its own way, yet still be loyal and faithful to [the victim upon whom the story is based] and what she had gone through”. Restorative justice is a relatively new practice in Ireland, having only been around since 2009. When asked about how the play portrays restorative justice in Ireland, Power said that the Probation Service were concerned with “the way in which they prepare people for [a restorative justice meeting], that there was some resemblance of that in the narrative” of the play. “It’s done through certain scenes that show how difficult it is to negotiate such a meeting and certainly one where the crime is so violent.” Speaking in more detail about how he crafted the meeting on stage, Power highlighted the “particular sensitivities” associated with the “slow process to get that moment, where perpetrator and person offended will meet in a room.” Power said that the play looks at why and how that can be so difficult to achieve, and the difficulty associated with attaining a

TRINITY NEWS | Tuesday 12 October

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For them to meet and to be confronted by the other, to hear what was going on in their minds at the time and afterwards, it can only be a good thing mind but also how it affected, in her case, her own marriage”. He noted that the character’s husband is “really important” to the story. He hopes that the play provokes thought for the theatre-goers. He predicts that “the male perspective and the female perspective of this will differ”. He said that this was something he discussed with his own partner. “The way [Jan] behaves may surprise some, the way [her husband] behaves may surprise others, but I think there’s a truth to that, which may lead to further discussions after people leave the venue.” Sponsored also by The Department of Justice, Dublin City Council, and The Probation services, the production team have organised a webinar (7th of October at 4pm) on the restorative justice system to accompany the play, which includes a senior district court judge. A communal aim of STRONGER is to expand awareness that sexual violence is a current, global issue, and to make evident “how restorative justice can respond to needs often unmet in traditional justice procedure.” The Irish restorative justice system is a newly surfaced component of our legal system, and is a keystone in the Probation Services. It focuses on reducing harm caused by criminal activity, addressing the aftermath of criminal offences by giving a voice to those still suffering.

Warrior god Lugh stands proud as Ireland’s tallest mural Hilary Mullen discusses Ireland’s tallest mural in Dundalk, newly erected and fascinating the town

n my commute to Trinity, I pass the same buildings leaving Dundalk, heading onward towards the motorway. Red brick terraced houses, the local hospital, the Dundalk Institute of Technology campus and lastly, at the edge of Dundalk’s exit, the Crowne Plaza hotel. These buildings — ordinary as small-town constructions tend to be — have remained unchanged for many years, until now. In the last few weeks, the once-beige wall of the Crowne Plaza hotel has come to life with a magnificent mural. The project was organised by Seek Dundalk, whose mission is to refocus “the perception of Dundalk” and to “promote contemporary art” in the town, funded by Creative Spark. The mural is now officially the tallest in Ireland and is of Lugh/ Lú, the warrior God of light and the namesake of Co. Louth. According to ancient myth, Lugh arose from the dead, fell in love with a mortal being and had their son Cú Chulainn. He is known for wielding a huge spear and sword when fighting in his many battles. He famously arrived at Cú Chulainn's side whilst injured during the combat of the Cattle Raid of Cooley (Táin Bó Cuailagne). The mural on the Crowne Plaza portrays Lugh perfectly. He was known for being incredibly big, bold, and strong; it is fitting, then, that he is conveyed on Ireland’s tenth tallest building. He gazes out at the horizon with his glowing spear in hand and his trusty hound, Failinis, on the end of the mural. I spoke to Martin McElligott, the Town Centre Commercial Manager about the mural and Seek Dundalk’s involvement. He said that the reaction of the town in response to the artwork went beyond expectations. The people of the area have completely fallen in love with the mural, taking different pictures with their families and researching the myth surrounding Lugh on the wall, once a blank canvas. This has not just been a local reaction. The organisation has received praise for the mural nationally and internationally with people’s curiosity being captured globally by the Irish warrior god painted on the side of a hotel

building. It was felt by the organisation that many people from Dundalk were not aware of the rich history the region possesses. After all, Louth is known as the “Land of Legends” for a reason, being highly associated with mythology and folklore. The artist behind the project was Australian-born Sam Bates, also known as “Smug” or “Smug One”. It took two years for the organisation to get hold of him for the project. The theme of the region's folklore encouraged Smug to take on the project, according to McElligott. Artists like Smug love working with concepts or themes instead of a literal blank slate with no direction. The project was in development for an incredibly long time and despite COVID-19 restrictions, Seek Dundalk managed to make it work. The planning and organisation made this project a “once in a lifetime opportunity”, as timing was of the essence, to include it in the organisation’s Seek festival. Many approvals had to be made before Smug could lay a drop of paint on the building. For example, the owners of the hotel in the United States had to grant permission. In particular, consideration was given on whether it would affect the market value of the property in the future. Those who observed the mural being developed over the twelve day period last September might assume that that was all the time

required to get the project over the line. They could not be more wrong. The mural is without a doubt, something to admire on my usual commute up and down to Dublin. As I return home from a long day in college, people on my bus are looking out the window as we enter the town again and become completely mesmerised with the magic that Lugh has brought to the entrance of this town. He stands proud of his people, proud of his county, and proud of the land he represents. He guards the entrance of Dundalk for miles ahead, as if symbolically he has once again become our land’s protector as in legend. The mural itself is a symbol of the region’s culture in recent times. Many people in Ireland do not know Dundalk’s mythological history the way they know Tír na nÓg’s or Saint Patrick’s. This area of Irish culture has been neglected and somewhat forgotten. With the rise of COVID-19 infections last year, and people heading into isolation and lockdown, the hospitality industry became abandoned while restrictions remained. The hotel has been reignited with the colour and beauty that Smug brought in his design of Lugh, and now, because of the public’s fascination with the mural, they are becoming more interested in the heritage of the area and this part of Irish culture. PHOTO VIA CROWNE PLAZA DUNDALK

meaningful outcome. He believes the play demonstrates “how carefully you’d need to prepare” for such a meeting, and the necessary extremity of that preparation. He highlighted the importance of ensuring both parties are “of a mind to engage fully and with empathy”. He wanted to make it clear that “it is not a prerequisite that an apology happens” because “apologies can take any form, people say sorry all the time and don’t mean it … It can still be a successful meeting if they’re both willing to discuss and talk openly to one another.” When asked if he hopes to see the practice of restorative justice grow in Ireland, Power said “absolutely.” “I think it is beginning to happen,” he continued. “We obviously have community service but whether it could be an alternative to that, it still hasn’t found a place yet.” Power drew on his own experience working in prisons, saying the vast majority of prisoners “haven’t heard of it”, even though it can be instigated by them. He noted that “face to face, with the right frame of mind, two people who for whatever reason were at the center of crime … For them to meet and to be confronted by the other, to hear what was going on in their minds at the time and afterwards, it can only be a good thing.” He believes these kinds of meetings can have a “lasting impact”. In discussing the potential flaws in the restorative justice system, Power noted the need for both people involved to “be in the right frame of mind” so that neither is being “vindictive”. He highlighted the rigorous nature of the process that takes place before the meeting to “ensure that it’s conducted well and civilly, and that no one comes to further harm”. “Whether there is a flaw in the system, people are people.” He noted that they do look at moments in the play where it seems as though the meeting may not happen, but that “there isn’t one single weakness in the process because of the duty of care [he] thinks the practitioners have for what they do”. Finally, Power spoke about the difficult nature of the topics that are dealt with in the play and how these topics are a commentary on human relationships. “Over time it became more about the impact of trauma on Jan’s state of

Tuesday 12 October | TRINITY NEWS

Artists in conversation

Conor Nolan and Róisín Nolan Maisie McGregor sits down with the Dublin-based illustrator and collage artist

Despite their shared name, Conor and Róisín have never met before. However, bonded by a shared approach to art, this conversation reads like one between old friends. Both based in Dublin, Conor works as an illustrator and printmaker whilst Róisín crafts intricate collage works. They relate their experiences with pandemic creativity, commercialism and the difference between analogue and digital art, whilst discussing the role played by the political in one’s work. Conor: First of all, before we get started, I just wanted to say that I was looking at your work and I really like it; it’s really great. Róisín: Thank you! Conor: I absolutely love collage stuff, I have always loved it and wanted to do it, but it’s something that, like, once I sat down and started to do it I’ve never been able to. So I’m amazed by it, you know. Róisín: Oh my god, I’m really trying to bully loads of people into collaging with me because it’s all I do. So if you ever want to do a collage day, absolutely hit me up because I’ve got so much material.

Conor: Yeah that’d be class, I could do that for sure. I do this drawing group called Good Times with a couple of illustrators and we brought somebody in to do a collage once and it was so much craic. I do digital collage stuff, with textures and stuff, but yeah it’s obviously so much nicer to do it on paper. Róisín: I think it’s the physical texture of things as well, because I go image-hunting, so I get a lot of them from books, and then my cheat is if you find nice photography, it’s a nice photo anyway. So it’s easier to make it look nice and it doesn’t look as cheap. Especially with the glossier magazines, it’s a cheaper image. But yeah, I love your work too! I was looking at it the other day, you can really hear yourself in it. And congrats on the book! That’s amazing! I was like, ‘Jesus, you’ve done so much.’ Conor: Thanks yeah, I’m trying to keep busy. The book is an interesting one, like, I did the cover for that and I did a section of it; there’s ten artists in it in total. But yeah, someone sent me a picture of it in the window of Eason’s and I totally shit myself; I was just like ‘Huhhh!’ I think, uh, Maisie might have to edit out me saying I shit myself for the interview, but that’s fine. I was going to ask you, how did you get into collage specifically? Róisín: Um, I guess I always kind of did it. So like, my teenage bedroom was very much, you know those real old wooden

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If I have an idea and I have the time for it, generally that’s enough for me to follow it through panellings? Like real 80s buzz? And like during the Celtic Tiger I didn’t get my bedroom done up at all [laughing], everyone seemed to get their bedrooms done up and mine stayed the same. So, I just used to grab all of the Sunday Supplements when I was a kid and play around. I used to call it my “art wall” because I never thought of it as an art form, it was just something that I did, like put on my CDs and chop around and play with it. But then it kind of moved into me being like ‘Well fuck, I’m poor and I haven’t bought anybody a birthday present so I guess I’m gonna make them a birthday card?’ And then I’d do them all collage birthday cards. And then it was just something that I did a lot because I moved to Vancouver in 2018 and I was really lonely; I had no friends. And then I’d think, ‘What did I used to do when I was sad and alone as a teenager? I guess I used to collage?’ And I guess being in North America I was just quite irked by the politics there, so I put it into a visual form. And I had really bad writer's block too so I just thought I’d move it into the visual. And now I just can’t stop doing it. Conor: That’s really interesting about moving to Vancouver. I would imagine that the reading material that you get over there is culturally really quite different to what you’d get over here, so, did you find any of that changed what prompted what you did? Does that make sense?

Róisín: Yeah, absolutely. I don’t print from the internet, it’s all like analogue and found imagery. So when I was over there, it was definitely more North American centric imagery. But then when I moved home in April 2020, I would just be flipping through books and there were just so many pretty beautiful images of Ireland, so I was like ‘Ohhh okay, this is what it was meant to be for.’ If that makes sense? Conor: Yeah! So, had you moved away with the idea of staying there for an indefinite period of time and then had to come home because of Covid? [Róisín nods] So, I would imagine that the way you think about Ireland starts to change when you come home after that sort of situation? Róisín: Yeah, 100%. Definitely being stuck indoors for like three months with no job, and one of the reasons I’d left in the first place was because it’s really hard to gain employment in something that really goes against the grain of traditional work. So I was just like, ‘Right, they don’t want me? That’s fine, I’ll just go and make a fucking collage about it!’ [Both laugh] Conor: When you say work, do you mean in a creative sense or just like work in general? Róisín: Um, I think both but like, I don’t have a degree, I dropped out of college, and I feel that that is such a huge impediment to getting a role that goes beyond minimum wage.

[In regards to creative work] And especially with analogue stuff, you can’t really get commercial work because it needs to be bumped out a lot quicker. Conor: Yeah it’s tricky. I studied VisCom (Visual Communication) in NCAD, and they kind of instilled in me from the get-go to be very good at working quickly. And for that reason actually I’ve kind of used analogue stuff less and less, which is a big shame because I absolutely love it. But yeah, it’s very interesting how it can kind of affect your process. Even when I first started off I used to draw everything on paper, but now I’ve just started drawing on an iPad. It’s really weird, it’s really good and really quick, and it makes loads of things much easier, but I really wish I was making things more with my hands. At the start of the pandemic I was actually in Canada as well, but only briefly. I was in Saskatchewan. I was doing a residency over there, I was supposed to do it for about a month and I’d been there for two weeks when I had to come home.

TRINITY NEWS | Tuesday 12 October

So yeah, I had this period of a couple of months where there’s nothing really on and so I just got out a brush and a pot of ink and started drawing that way. Róisín: Amazing! Conor: Yeah, and I think I had kind of lost touch with that a little bit you know? From learning to work commercially and digitally, and I wish it was something I could do more. Róisín: Do you find that when you use the iPad or make work digitally that it creates a disconnect between you and your work? Conor: Specifically drawing with the iPad, because it’s new, it feels very much like that, and I’ve only used it for commercial stuff so far. For my own stuff, yeah, I really wanna get back to that idea of “it comes from your head and it goes down your arm onto the page”. So yeah I really wanna close that gap as much as I can. Róisín: It’s difficult though, when there’s that expectation to make a living. It’s that catch twenty-two of getting to do what you love as your job, but then also having to pump it out. Conor: I was talking today about the idea of kind of like selling yourself as a creative, like, I really really don’t like it. And don’t get me wrong, I’m really happy about all the work that comes

along, but at the same time it’s like you get pulled into these really commercial situations and I’m just so over wanting to do that. For a while, when I first came out of college, I was really excited about the idea of doing commercial work and I think that’s really valid, it’s cool to work with clients in big companies and I guess test yourself in that way. But now it’s similar to when I came back from Canada, I just had this switch to being like, “I really just wanna make the stuff that I wanna make.” And if anything comes in the way of that it can be really frustrating. Róisín: I definitely understand that. And so, do you get loads of different ideas and you just have to sort of park it and come back to it later? How do you kind of work through that? Conor: I’ve been trying to work like that for a long time, but I find that I’m really bad at going back to things, for whatever reason I just never do. If I have an idea and I have the time for it, generally that’s enough for me to follow it through. Róisín: It’s funny like, I’ve been thinking about Christmas so much now, just trying to plan and get work done and hope that I have enough to go for Christmas. Conor: I find it funny because I’m trying to resist being too kind of commercially-minded about it, but it’s really hard not to think like that. Róisín: 100%. I think last Christmas, because obviously there was a huge focus on ‘shop local’, I had a lot of people

reaching out and asking what I had for sale, and I just don’t think I have enough work to go for the crisis shoppers at Christmas yet. But I also hate it! [Laughing] It’s awful, I’m just like “Don’t buy anything!” Conor: So then do you sell lots of your collages? Róisín: Yeah, I sell I’d say like every second one I make and put on my Instagram. Which is a pretty good strike rate! I don’t really do commissions because I find that they stress me out a lot for the most part, because people are like, “Oh I really like that flowery thing that you did in the last one!” And I’m like, “Well that’s an original, and I don’t want to recreate what I’ve already made.” So I just sort of think, “If you like the piece when it’s done, then it’s yours!” And also, I’m very politically driven with my work. So I like to have that message in each piece, you know, try and trick people into being socialists! Conor: It’s funny, sometimes you can make something that you think is really well thought out, like in my experience I’ll spend ages on something and absolutely love it, and people will just be like “Huh”. And then you’ll make “the nice thing” and they’ll be like “Ah, that’s deadly!” Róisín: I know, I know. It’s very difficult, I think, having to rely on socials to showcase your work and, like, have a reach, because you’re human and you don’t necessarily want to be online all the time! Conor: So you mentioned that you like to make your work political, was that something that kind of emerged alongside you making things, or did it come from somewhere outside of that? Róisín: I think sometimes when you put words to something, like in an article, they stick in a different way and lack that space for interpretation, you know? Whereas visually, I find that I feel more comfortable expressing those things because it gives me more space to explore them and not feel afraid. I feel that it gives people space to kind of ingest the ideas, they can think about it for themselves, I'm just directing it. Conor: Yeah I guess it’s less confrontational. Róisín: Yeah, exactly, exactly! So, who are your top inspos? Conor: I

find that I can get a lot more out of stuff that is very different to my own. Some of my favourite artists are sculptors, there’s this great American sculptor called Tom Sachs; he makes a lot of weird sculptures out of, like, plywood and really heavy duty work that’s really physical, really tactile. And illustration work from people like Nathanial Russell, who makes these really amazing woodcut prints. What about you? Róisín: I really like Cindy Sherman, I’m a big Cindy Sherman fan. Conor: Class. Róisín: I just think that the way she’s able to manipulate her sense of self, and explore it in her relation to being a woman. And then, I love this German artist, Hannah Höch. She’s the one that kind of inspired me to look at collage from a political perspective. Also, Wangechi Mutu. Her work kind of explores colonialism and womanhood, so I guess those themes sort of resonate with me too. Conor: Do you have a favourite piece that you’ve made? Róisín: Yeah, I do. It is actually

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I like to have that message in each piece, you know, try and trick people into being socialists!

one that I recently made, and it didn’t sell! So I was really happy because I got to keep it! But I was playing around with stained glass imagery, so I used a lot of bright colours and took out the template of stained glass and made my own kind of stained glass-ish image. It’s actually of Saint Brigid, but it’s called Mary Immaculate because I made it after I watched Promising Young Woman, have you seen it? Conor: No! Róisín: Oh it’s amazing! Watch it! Anyway, I used visual imagery from the main character in that, so it’s kind of a commentary on the Madonna and the whore. What about yourself? Conor: There’s probably a few that I could pick, but I made a print there recently, it’s called East and it’s just a big image of a bird, a big square screenprint. It’s the first screenprint that I’ve done in like two years. So yeah right now that’s one of my favourite things and one that connects a lot with what I’m trying to do moving forward. Do you find it difficult to say that you like your own stuff? Róisín: Um, no! Because I have to be my number one supporter, I have to believe in myself. You have to be proud of what you do, otherwise what’s the point? Conor: Yeah I dunno, it’s really weird, I have found that over the years I’ve started really liking the stuff that I’m doing, and I try to be really quiet about it. Róisín: Oh shout about it! Let everyone know! Conor: I guess it’s one of those things, you don’t wanna be so loud about it and then someone says it’s not good. Róisín: Ah but it doesn’t matter what they think! Fundamentally, fuck everyone else. Conor: Yep! Well it was great chatting to you anyway. Róisín: Yeah absolutely, and if you want to come over for a snip snip time [mimes scissors] I’ll try and see if I can find some birds! Conor: Ooo yeah very good! We should do that, for sure.

Tuesday 12 October | TRINITY NEWS

The po Fern Kelly-Landry speaks with DU Gender Equality Society on raising awareness of matters of feminism and gender-related issues on campus

From scream queen to survivor Lila Funge discusses violence against women in horror films

he babysitter, the camp counselor, the sorority girl. What do these three have in common? They all die extreme and oftentimes oversexualized deaths. The horror genre has always been known for its focus on taboo and oftentimes disturbing topics - with violence against women being at the forefront of this. Since Alfred Hitchcock’s groundbreaking 1960 film Psycho, horror has sought every opportunity to enforce the gendered divides within society. But due to the genre’s desire to step out of societal boundaries, what does the future of feminist horror look like? Since the majority of early horror films, and particularly slashers, were directed by men it is unsurprising that these films were created with a male audience in mind. The male gaze permeates into every genre, but horror is the worst victim of all. Films like Psycho and Texas Chainsaw Massacre solidified that the genre was caught right at the intersection of pleasure and pain. However, this raises the question: whose pleasure and whose pain? The victims of these films, and plenty of others like them, are always the feminine, helpless, and half-naked women who fall prey to a highly masculine killer. While some could look at the infamous shower scene in Psycho as being artistic and experimental, it is undeni-

ably sexualised. Marion’s death sequence is conveyed through her naked body, with racy shots of her wet torso piercing across the screen. Although the killer is not highly masculine (spoilers, sorry I know) he is still at an advantage, and as we have learned, in horror there is no one more vulnerable than a naked woman. It is not until John Carpenter’s 1978 Halloween that the trope of the “final girl” makes its debut. While it must have been refreshing for audiences to see a woman outwit a maniacal killer, it actually does little to shift viewers from the idea that in order to survive, one must defeminize themselves. In Halloween, the main character of Laurie is nerdy and desexualised unlike the victims of the film, most of whom are killed directly before or after having sex. This set the tone for the “final girl” trope with the rules to survival being clearly laid out as follows: 1. Be nerdy 2. Don’t be a slut 3. Have masculine traits Even in the case of Halloween, it is clear that Laurie survives because she follows the rules above, however she doesn’t even defeat Michael herself. She needs an older man to step in and save the day. Although Jamie Lee Curtis’s portrayal of Laurie was, at the time, groundbreaking, it doesn’t quite hold up today in the feminist canon. For the next decade slashers remained in this state. Friday the 13th, Slumber Party Massacre, Evil Dead and more, all fell into the trap that is the male gaze. In each, women are killed at their most vulnerable, typically by strong aggressive men. For

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Women have been fighting back against men in slashers since their inception as much as we can look at these movies and shame them through a modern lens, it is undeniable that sex, violence, and the intersection between the two, sells. This will never truly change, it is what the genre is all about. However modern feminist directors have taken this intersection to places it has never been before. What was once a genre overflowing with female suffering at the expense of male pleasure, films of the past decade have flipped this on its head. With films like the Soska sister’s American Mary and Karyn Kusama’s Jennifer’s Body, the slasher subgenre has been able to move away from scream queens and towards something more fitting for the modern era: survivors. Both films center around women who have been victims of violent sexual assaults, however both of them are given the skills necessary to take power back into their own hands. American Mary follows a surgical student who drops out after her assault, only to use her skills to perform underground black market procedures,

including some pretty grotesque modifications to her assaulter. In Jennifer’s Body, Jennifer becomes a man-eating creature that kills boys in her high school. Women have been fighting back against men in slashers since their inception, so what’s so special about these two films? In both cases the women are sexual beings, a character trait typically reserved for the first to die. By flipping the genre on its head these directors proved that horror was entering a new age. The ripple effect of these films can be clearly seen today in films such as Midsommar and Ready or Not in which women who don’t follow the rules of the final girl manage to survive under unbearable conditions. These films, and others like them, are building the foundations for the future of the genre. Women can finally step outside of the role of helpless babysitter, the shirtless victim, and step into the shoes of both the survivor and the killer themselves. The pain of women cannot continue being the backbone of the genre in the 21st century. Women are tired of seeing it, and frankly, it’s getting a little boring. The next time you watch a horror movie, like Halloween Kills coming this October, take a second to remember the rules of the final girl, the stereotyped victims, and question the content you’re viewing. Most feminist slashers have a cult following, but as the remergence of Jennifer’s Body has shown, people are ready for a change of pace. If you’re looking for some spooky movies to watch this holiday season, consider something made by a woman. It might surprise you.

he main objectives of DU Gender Equality Society (DUGES) are centred in furthering the conversation of feminist issues on campus. The society feels that their purpose is to continue the on-campus conversation on feminism and gender issues. DUGES strives to create a safe and open space for students to talk about their own lived experiences, and it is this that cements intersectionality at the core of the society. In light of the recent pandemic, the society’s aim for the coming academic year is to use in-person events and conversations to their advantage. Theoretical Physics student and chairperson of DUGES, Ana Sainzdm, spoke to Trinity News about the society’s plans for the upcoming academic year, and the ways in which they hope to continue raising awareness on fundamental feminist issues on campus and beyond. It’s clear that openness is at the heart of DUGES. They constantly encourage students to participate in society events, or more simply, any of the feminist conversations that they facilitate. There is space for everyone to contribute. “Intersectionality is at the core of the society. We want everyone to know that everyone is welcome,’’ Sainzdm says. DUGES understands that members have a unique and personal perspective to offer, which Sainzdm believes enriches the culture and fabric of the society. Already, the society has offered film nights for students; showing movies directed by and centring on empowered women, people of colour and LGBTQ+ individuals. Movies that deviate from the mainstream heterosexual and white perspective are powerful tools used by DUGES. These casual film nights enable all members of the society to feel represented, and Sainzdm says: “I think it’s a conversation that is missing in mainstream white feminism … Opening the society up to be a safe space that can reflect the lived experiences of students at Trinity.” Last year, the Students’ Union (TCDSU) began providing free period products in bathrooms all

TRINITY NEWS | Tuesday 12 October

ower of DUGES over campus. DUGES hopes to add to this initiative combatting period-poverty on campus by working closely alongside the SU President and Welfare Officer. In addition to this, they have begun discussions of charitable events to raise awareness of the period-poverty that exists at a more national level in Ireland. These events are intended to raise much needed funds for organisations, such as Homeless Period Ireland, that provide sanitary products to those who need them. This initiative acts as an incredible way of reducing period stigma more generally among the student population, while also providing practical solutions that will benefit all those who menstruate. DUGES not only enables academic and thought-provoking conversations on feminism, but they also actively support their members’ emotional wellbeing by way of subcommittees and support groups. These subcommittees strive to create safe spaces for those who have experienced abuse or have struggled with their body image. It is increasingly important to provide these services for students, especially at a time when government funding in this area is constantly lacking and problematic. Nourishes (aiding with issues related to body image) and Nurtures (helping those affected by sexual or domestic abuse) enable discussions among students while simultaneously offering much needed support, and is a huge responsibility for DUGES to undertake. It is an incredibly important focus for the society

that, no doubt, has been beneficial to many students. “We have a subgroup that works on body image, and we also talk about eating disorders. Getting to college and cooking for yourself, for example, is difficult,” Sainzdm mentions. In more recent times, DUGES has turned their attention to providing the relevant support to student sex workers who are connected with online sites, such as OnlyFans. Appealing to incoming first years, the cis-male student population and female students in STEM have found it difficult in past years, Sainzdm explains. She also says: “In particular, male students are less inclined to seek out the Gender Equality Society on campus, even though core feminist issues continue to have a massive impact on their lives.” “During my first year in Halls, we had consent workshops. The guys didn’t take it seriously,” Sainzdm says. It appears that women and gender non-conforming people are more eager to be educated on issues of consent. To rectify this absence of representation, DUGES aims to collaborate with the Junior Common Room (JCR) committee in Trinity Hall this year to continue providing comprehensive consent and educational workshops. The society wishes to inform students that the conversations on feminist issues include and affect everyone, regardless of gender: “We want to show that there are feminist issues that also affect men.” DUGES joins Trinity’s sports clubs during Movember, and pro-

vides information on male mental health issues and the services that are available to students college wide. This is an incredibly important collaboration that not only intends to raise much-needed awareness on male mental health but hopes to garner a wider male membership for DUGES itself. The society aims to offer effective peer support to its male members and to break down the harmful stereotypes that still exist to the detriment of men. Again, in the case of female STEM students, Sainzdm hopes to use her links with other societies to continue to empower her peers. Throughout the interview, Sainzdm stressed how DUGES is always open to suggestions and criticism. Rather uniquely, the society moulds itself to really fit their members. As a result, many of DUGES’ major events for the coming academic year remain a work-in-progress for now. Their main goals remain educating Trinity’s student body on feminist issues and ensuring information on given resources and helplines are readily available. The ways in which they offer support for and actively listen to their members makes the society a force to be reckoned with on campus. It is one of the few that strive for practical and substantial change among the lives of its members and the student population. DUGES’ continued enabling of open conversations and the providing of safe spaces for students helps to create a campus where feminist issues are rightly always open for discussion.

PHOTO BY GRACE GAGEBY FOR TRINITY NEWS

The Royal Hibernian Academy Gallery is really helping artists Caroline Costello breaks down the RHA’s new campaign to financially support Irish artists after the worst of the pandemic

he Royal Hibernian Academy Gallery (RHA) has set up a new programme called The Really Helping Artists campaign, aiming to support Irish artists during the pandemic. The rise of Covid-19 has caused issues for almost all types of professions, but those in the creative industry have had a particularly hard time finding ways to fund their careers during lockdowns. Lockdowns have made it even more difficult for artists to earn money from sales, exhibitions, collaborations or symposiums. This is why the RHA decided in May of last year to create small, but accessible, grants with the goal of lifting some financial burdens encouraged by the global pandemic. The RHA sought permission to apply funds from the Hennessey-Craig bequest to offer micro-grants for artists in need across the country. The grants, between €100 and €1,000, are not supposed to replace an income, but rather alleviate some of the financial stresses artists may have been experiencing such as paying rent or utility bills. The gallery was able to acquire one third of the funds needed, €10,000 approximately, before calling on the people of Ireland to raise a further €20,000. The GoFundMe page opened for just one month from 15 May to 15 June 2020. This allowed the RHA to raise over €43,000 which was double their

target. This was distributed to artists throughout July and August of last year through means testing. The gallery opened the applications for artists on June 16. People were required to provide proof that they were a professional artist, as well as 150 words on why they needed a grant before the closing date. A committee of artists and staff members, led by the RHA President, Abigail O’Brien, was set up in order to assess the level of urgency of each application. Altogether, around 90 artists received grants across every region of the country and even one ninth of successful applicants were from Northern Ireland. However, the RHA received around 351 applications, totaling €254,000 worth of fund requests altogether. Clearly these grants were essential at this time, and despite the gallery doubling their target, the RHA only had around a quarter of what was asked for to support Irish artists in need. Particularly for emerging artists just starting their journeys into the art world, these grants made a huge impact. Artists often go forgotten about as legitimate professions, yet if the pandemic has taught us anything, it is the power of arts and culture in times of global despair. Art, alongside other creative fields like music, theatre or writing, has the strength to bring people together. We saw first-year student nurse Chloe Slevin putting a contemporary twist on classical paintings last summer, such as Johannes Vermeer’s 1665 Girl With A Pearl Earring turned Girl With A Surgical Mask, to fundraise for Feed the Heroes charity while isolating. Not only was she showing how we can spend our time creating art to console in isolation, but how art can be something to reflect and express emotions felt during times of nationwide crisis. This shows how art can offer many different forms of relief. Let’s hope that campaigns such as that of the RHA’s, will continue to provide that same relief back to the artists of our country.

Tuesday 12 October | TRINITY NEWS

Púca Magazine is representing all voices Oona Kauppi interviews Trinity postgraduate Christopher Joyce on his literary journal Púca Magazine, in time for their second issue’s submissions call

hristopher Joyce, the 23-year-old Trinity postgraduate student behind Púca Magazine, joins the call. Púca’s first issue came out just last month – their second issue is due to come out in December 2021. “I always had a fierce admiration for people setting projects up on their own,” Joyce tells me. “I thought I wouldn’t be able to do that, because it requires a lot of different skills […] But then I thought, maybe you can”. Since the publishing of their first issue, Púca has amassed a considerable social media following, and has gained attention in Dublin’s literature circles. The idea for Púca came to Joyce during one of Ireland’s many lockdowns. An ardent writer and poet, Joyce’s work has been published in the likes of Sonder, This Is Not Where I Belong and the now defunct Nemesis. While he had experience guest editing at other literary journals, and taking part in publishing panels, founding a literary journal seemed a little out of reach. But the yearning that Joyce felt for a literary community encouraged him to begin his project. “I found the pandemic incredibly stunting, as a writer,“ Joyce explains. The isolation of working a full-time job, freshly graduated from college, alongside a separation from Trinity’s creative outlets, proved challenging. The term ‘púca’ comes from the Irish. In folklore, the púca is a mischievous creature that is sometimes referred to as a ghost or goblin, or as Joyce says, a “shapeshifting entity”. Púca Magazine’s story begins with this word. “The word ‘púca’ just kept sticking with me,” says Joyce, and references its vagueness as one of its appeals. “For a literary journal, ambiguity was quite an attractive concept,” he tells me. The range of works featured in Púca play into its name. As Joyce says, “Each journal issue will be quite different,” a goal that he hopes to achieve by having guest editors. The multitude of forms that Púca’s works take also relate to the variety of perspectives that Joyce aims to bring into every issue. On

their website, Púca states their mission is to “create a community of writing which reflects multiple versions of the self ”. Previously focused solely on Irish writing, and the diversity that it contains, the magazine now extends to all nationalities. The choice to make Púca a journal focused on Irish writing, by Irish writers and writers based in Ireland, was a practical one, but also related to the upsurge in support for national output during the pandemic. Although its mission has been broadened to include all manner of human experience, Púca’s name still holds its Irish roots. On the theme of the self in writing, Joyce is more than happy to expand: “I’ve always found identity to be such an interesting topic. There’s an inherent ambiguity and multiplicity to it, and art is so attached to it. Even if you’re not writing about yourself, you’re engaging with the self.” Joyce goes to praise writing that is unabashedly individual. “It’s quite enjoyable to ask people to submit something so personal. I mean, it’s personal but also detached, because you’re creating something of yourself. Trying to bind all of these identities into a journal is quite invigorating,” Joyce admits. He describes the submissions as “snapshots” of different peoples’ lives. The magic comes in when the issue is completed, and, as Joyce explains, “it’s multiple snapshots in conversation with each other”. The merits of literary journals are manifold, according to Joyce. “Literary journals really do provide a space for writers to not only get their bearings, but also develop their craft,” he affirms. “They’re ideal for LGBTQ+ writers, POC writers, people from different communities who might not find their voices represented in mainstream media.” Historically, journals, magazines and zines have been associated with literary countermovements. Successful literary journals can, Joyce says, give writers the opportunity to “gain

“

That is not to say that writers whose submissions are rejected are lesser than writers whose submissions are published

renown and get traction” on their work. That is not to say that writers whose submissions are rejected are lesser than writers whose submissions are published. Joyce is very keen to note that rejected submissions do not reflect on the writing skill of the submitter, and states that selections to the magazine have much to do with personal preference. “Just by creating a piece of writing, you’re doing something meaningful and worthwhile,” he reminds writers. Joyce relies mainly on the emotional experience of reading a piece in order to decide whether or not it will be “a contender”. In planning Púca’s first issue, he was surprised at the number of fiction pieces that were selected, given that he typically gravitates towards poetry. Of the 14 contributing writers, two are based in the UK and one in

Iceland. While Dublin’s creative community is a tight-knit one, Trinity’s is even tighter. The cover art for Púca’s inaugural issue is by Trinity graduate and photographer, Aime Hogan. For the cover of Púca’s second issue, Joyce will be turning to another friend and artist from Trinity, Sophie McGurk. Joyce also knows Sinéad Creedon, one of the co-founders of Sonder Magazine, from his time as an undergraduate at Trinity. “Trinity fosters a really solid writing community,” Joyce says of the college. He references publications Icarus and JoLT (The Trinity Journal of Literary Translation) as key components of the college’s literary sphere. “There’s something for everyone,” he concludes. Founding a publication takes lots of time and energy, as Joyce knew from the outset. “It was a

steep learning curve,” he says with a laugh. Joyce found the process of starting a social media account for Púca to be particularly intriguing. “How to write Púca’s tweets was a very novel experience,” Joyce remarks, bemused. “I was trying to be a publication”. How to represent the many voices that the magazine contained? Ironically, Púca’s selfhood relied on finding a voice, just as those within it had done. Púca aims to publish two issues a year: Spring/Summer, and Autumn/Winter. Submissions for Púca Magazine’s second issue (Autumn/Winter) open on October 1st and close on November 1st. Their submission guidelines can be viewed at https://pucalit.com/ submissions/. Púca’s Spring/Summer issue is available for purchase through their website. Twitter: @ MagazinePuca.

TRINITY NEWS | Tuesday 12 October

Therapy: We’re thinking about it all wrong Ella McGill provides an insight into the positive experience of counselling from the perspective of a student

picture came up on my newsfeed recently: two people were sitting opposite each other and each had a speech bubble above them. One bubble contained a tangle of different coloured threads. The threads reached across into the other bubble, where they were separated, and each rolled neatly into their origin spool. This is the most accurate depiction of therapy I have come across – and one that is far different from most stereotypes. I first went to therapy in Transition Year. I was sad most of the time, and crying a lot. I remember sitting down with my mam one night on the couch in our sitting room. She had noticed I’d developed a low mood (something I hadn’t yet identified myself) and suggested I start seeing a therapist she had found.

After a few sessions, I already felt better. She helped me see that my sadness was a symptom of anxiety — something I didn’t know I had because I lacked symptoms associated with it, like panic attacks and nervousness. She taught me language to use to better understand it, and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy to fight it. These are tools I still use, almost every day. Two things in particular stayed with me from that conversation with my mam. The first was that, if this were my physical health, I would have seen someone already. We rush to doctors to remedy minor colds and infections, but let niggling mental states fester, warp and take over our lives. Just like our physical health, our mental health touches everything we do. It deserves as much — if not more — due diligence. The second thing was that seeing a therapist can be preventive as well as a cure. One of the worst and most dangerous misconceptions about therapy is that people who attend it have something extremely wrong with them; they are damaged, weird or dysfunctional. This stems directly from the taboo around therapy. The truth is that therapy is for anyone at any stage of their life. Although attending therapy is regularly associated with hitting rock-bottom (a protagonist’s last-ditch effort to

get better after their whole life has fallen apart around them, Connell Waldron-style), in reality, why would we wait for things to get that bad? Like the picture with the threads, therapy does nothing more unusual than unravel our multitude of thoughts. Put like that, it’s hard to understand why more people don’t go, especially considering we’re said to have about 6,000 thoughts a day. Our brains are (to put it lightly) very, very messy. Therapy can serve us, no matter what state we are in, by untangling some of those threads. Therapy should be normalised as a built-in part of our self-care, like going to the gym, or at the very least, the dentist. I waited until things were very bad before I reached out, but I don’t intend to get to that point again. I aim to attend therapy on and off for as much of my life as possible, through both the ups and the downs. It is important to address the elephant in the room. My view is an immensely privileged outlook on therapy. There are a number of factors required for therapy to work for you – clicking with your therapist, or logistical concerns like time, travel and connectivity. That’s not to mention factors determining whether you can access therapy in the first place. Private

sessions cost upwards of €60 and public ones have long waiting lists. Things like familial openness might also affect whether you attend, especially if you are not financing your own sessions. However, there are often ways around things. Freephone confidential listening services are available day and night. Waiting lists to see talk therapists are long, but the important thing is to get yourself on them. Contacting the Student Counselling Services (who offer 8 free sessions per student per year, group sessions, and a range of self-help programmes), getting a referral from your GP to go public (students can also do this for free via the college health service), or self-referring to go privately are all ways to sign up for therapy sessions. If you think you can afford to go privately, but aren’t sure if it’s worth it, think about what you would be willing to pay if this was a physical health problem. Consider also that you could go monthly, or bi-monthly, instead of week to week, which would reduce the cost. Working on yourself, even at a slow pace, is better than doing nothing at all. Another rose tint for me was that I clicked instantly with my therapist. If you don’t feel like you’re connecting with your therapist, it can be really frustrating. Opening up is daunting anyway,

and it should be to someone that you trust, especially because you’re paying so much, or eating into your prized free sessions. It is worth researching around to get this right. You deserve the utmost care and best treatment possible. It is your mental health after all, and you should be as comfortable as possible in your sessions. The sad reality is not everyone can access the care they require. However, if you are lucky enough to be able to access therapy, you should. Whether you’re at your wits end, or just feel a bit lost, there is everything to be gained from a helping hand unravelling your own tangled threads. My life could have been very different if I hadn’t had that conversation with my mam. I really didn’t realise that what I was feeling was unusual and not something everyone experienced. What’s more, it never occurred to me that I could feel another way, or that there was something practical I could do about it. Lots of you will read this and think your problems aren’t big enough. You are probably right – other people have it a lot worse than you – but that does not mean you should not access therapy. You don’t just deserve to be happy, you deserve to be as happy as you possibly can be. All it might take is uncrossing those threads.

PHOTO BY ELIZA MELLER FOR TRINITY NEWS

Tuesday 12 October | TRINITY NEWS

On platonic intimacy Ella Walsh discusses the subtle but burning importance of platonic intimacy in our everyday and romantic relationship

ast winter in Dublin, my housemates and I got the bright idea to save on our electricity bill by periodically shutting off our old, inefficient heaters. In the end, it made the house so cold that one of my friends got chilblains on her toes (Google it if you like). In the meantime, we would clump together on the couch under fuzzy blankets, doing coursework or watching Below Deck Mediterranean. This probably reduced my risk of frostbite, but I would also go off to bed wrapped in a kind of warm glow. There were six of us in the house, including two couples if you count my friend’s live-in boyfriend, and these moments made me feel less of a fifth wheel and more like I was participating in a shared intimacy. The OED lists one of the definitions of intimacy as “the state of having a close personal relationship with someone”. The beauty of this phrasing is that it encompasses the myriad forms of connection I have felt throughout my life,

with elementary school teachers, family members, children I babysat, camp counselors, friends of friends, friends’ older siblings, my next-door neighbours, and so on. I was not necessarily physically affectionate with these people, but rather at some point we shared a mutual appreciation. This could be as deep as the bond I have with my older sister, or mere passing moments that affected me strongly. I vividly recall being in class at the age of six and my teacher pulling us aside one by one to check up on the picture books we were making. For a few minutes it would be just the two of us at her desk while she asked in hushed tones about how the work was going. I would feel like the only person in the room, and when it was over, I would float back to my seat. As the aforementioned fifth wheel in a city under lockdown, I cherished my built-in platonic partners. On my cycles home from friends’ houses, I would feel after-effects of those little moments imprinted on my body: being pushed aside to make room on the sunken couch, feeling the vibrations of a loud cackle beside me, crowding around a single stove while trying to cook several meals at once. These were not flirtatious connections, but they seemed to transcend friendship nonetheless. A better way to describe them would be a bond distinct from friendship or romance. In romantic encounters, one feels too keenly the vulnerability of not being good-looking

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As the fifth wheel in a city under lockdown, I cherished my builtin platonic partners enough, or ruining the chances, or finding out that the physical chemistry they hoped for was all in their head. Platonic partners are a more meaningful version of the crush on the girl in the library in that you never reach a disappointing end. Even in romantic relationships, non-sexual intimacy can express one’s tenderness more profoundly than anything else. This goes without saying if you have ever had a sexual encounter with someone you are not overly familiar with. There is a cognitive dissonance between the act of doing something so vulnerable and yet

feeling intensely judged and alone. Even worse is the withdrawal of intimacy in a relationship at its end, the decline of small gestures and strokes, which silently spell out the final days of your involvement. The small demonstrations of fondness, when given, can feel as intimate as sex itself, like whispering their name to wake them or buttoning up their coat. Though many have experienced the cold side of casual sex, it is still seen as the pinnacle of physical interaction. It also tends to be couched in heteronormative terms. Affection among young girls is normalized from childhood, but frowned upon with boys for fear of introducing sexual thoughts too early. Nevermind the fact that children can be attracted to members of the same gender or that they may not identify with either side of the binary. Boys typically are told not to be affectionate whatsoever. These codes follow us into adulthood, but friends have a funny way of showing affection in spite of them. I work at a cafe with two guy best friends who possess an extraordinary capacity to make fun of everything about each other. They joke provocatively about how they sleep together as a way of painting the very notion as ridiculous. Still, there is an intimacy in the way they avoid their usual tasks to chat and mess up the latte art because they can’t stop laughing, and they will sincerely say ‘bye, love you’ to the chef when he leaves for the day. Perhaps if I came from another culture or another country, I would not be so obsessed with these interactions, cataloguing them and observing them in perfect strangers. But I grew up among standoffish New Yorkers and left for Ireland, where people are warm but not kisson-the-cheek affectionate per se. I appreciate the small instances of endearment, physical or otherwise, that I do receive from friends and acquaintances. There are many people for whom these gestures are rare or entirely inaccessible, like those who are incarcerated, children who are neglected, even people who live alone. I read in the therapist Lori Gottlieb’s memoir Maybe You Should Talk to Someone that one of her clients, a retired woman in her mid-sixties who was estranged from her children, began to keep up a weekly pedicure appointment because the technician’s hands were one of her few chances at human contact. The story pained me and I grew a strong gratitude that I do have those kinds of relationships. I have grown to understand that, with or without a romantic partner, I can rely on them to feel loved.

The propos Ruth McGann speaks to Skate Soc Provisional Chairperson Luke Byrne and Chief Media Officer John Monaghan on why Trinity needs a skateboarding society

rinity is renowned for its prestigious societies, founded a hundred years ago with famous alumni and honoured guest speakers. Unlike other universities, including University College Dublin (UCD), Trinity seems to be noticeably lacking in smaller, more alternative societies and sports clubs. With skateboarding rising in popularity in recent years, the proposed DU Skate Soc (@duskatesoc on Instagram) hopes to be one of the first to alter this limited demographic. I sat down with Skate Soc Provisional Chairperson Luke Byrne and Chief Media Officer John Monaghan to unpack why Trinity is reluctant to authorise less mainstream societies. Ruth: So how did you both first get into skateboarding? Luke: I went into first year and

TRINITY NEWS | Tuesday 12 October

sed DU Skate Society became mates with John. John was into skateboarding and he was like: “Luke, you should get a skateboard!” We went down to the local skate shop in Dublin, High Rollers, and I bought my first skateboard. That was probably about a month before quarantine. I basically had seven months where I couldn’t leave my house other than to go skateboarding. John: I’ve been into it for a little bit longer than Luke. I started when I was in fourth year in secondary school. My school was near Bushy Park and there’s a skate park there that I used to cycle past to get to school. I remember thinking “that looks really fun!” I saved up my Christmas and birthday money and bought my first deck. Ruth: How do you think Trinity would benefit from having a skateboarding society?

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It’s incredibly important to get representation for these alternative sports

John: The college itself probably wouldn’t benefit, but the people would. It’s incredibly important to get representation for these alternative sports. It’s not like skateboarding is even that alternative anymore, it’s in the Olympics. When I talk to my friends in UCD, they have a skateboarding society, albeit a small one. I think it’s important for people who have never really skated before, who might be intimidated to go to the skate park, to come along and have a shot. Luke: If you grow up in Ireland, your sporting options are Gaelic or soccer. If you don’t fit into that, you don’t have a good outlet. I think it’s good to get sports out there that you can work on yourself and aren’t so goal-oriented. It’s not like hurling where at the end of the day you have a match that has a certain amount of points, it’s all artistry. John: It’s not winning or losing, it’s the amount of people who I’ve met and become friends with through skateboarding. I’m not the best at skating, I’m more into the filming side, but you just meet a lot of cool people. You can choose your own pace and take away what you want from it. Ruth: Do you think Trinity should be open to smaller, more alternative societies? John: It is definitely noticeable that, compared to other universities, we don’t have a lot. Luke: We started a petition on Monday of Freshers Week. We were just walking up to people and being like “Hey, do you want to sign this to start a skateboarding society?”

John: Lo and behold, now we are the proposed Skate Society! Luke: There wasn’t a single person we walked up to that wasn’t like “That sounds awesome!” or “I can’t believe we don’t already have that.” John: The amount of support we got between the Monday and Wednesday of Freshers Week was immense. We had people coming up to us like “You guys are from the Skate Society!” Skateboarding is kind of in the world’s eye at the moment so we’ve had people come up to us and be like “How can I help you guys out?” Ruth: How can students who don’t skateboard support Skate Soc’s campaign to the Central Societies Committee (CSC)? John: Follow our Instagram and get in touch with us! Luke: We’re going to have a Google Docs petition that people can sign through the Instagram page. If people aren’t interested in getting involved directly, sign the petition, please! Ruth: Can beginners get involved? John: We want to emphasise that even if you can’t skateboard, you can get involved. A lot of people have a weird perception of what skateboarding is, but a huge part is the photography and filmmaking aspect. My passion is real-

ly filming and editing skateboarding videos, it’s where my heart lies. If someone is a photographer and they want to get into taking action shots of skateboarders, we can help out. If someone has never stepped foot on a skateboard but wants to give it a go or come to one of the events and watch a skate video with us, they’re fully welcome to. We’ll be throwing beginner events where we show you how to roll on a skateboard. On Instagram, we’ll do a series of videos explaining how to set up a skateboard, maybe a funny one where we talk about skateboarder lingo. We want to be inclusive to new people because when you go to the skate park for the first time, it can be super intimidating. Anybody can come to our events and just have fun! Ruth: What events would you run if you got funding from the CSC? John: We’re doing one soon, regardless of whether we become a society or not. It just means that we might have to shell out our own money, but that’s okay, I don’t mind that. We’re going to run a pub night! We’ll rent a room in a pub, put up a projector and play a skate video. People can meet each other and maybe go and skate afterwards. Then we’ll have beginner’s day at a skatepark. If we

get funding, hopefully we’ll have extra boards. Ruth: How economically accessible is skateboarding compared to other sports? John: Skateboards can be expensive. My current skateboard cost about €200. Luke: I always compare it to getting a bike, it’s about the same investment. John: You pay a big upfront cost, but most skaters are broke, so it’s not that bad! Ruth: What advice would you give to anyone who wants to learn to skateboard? John: For falling at least, my advice is it’s not as bad as you think. One of the best ways to learn how to skate is to just fall. You just have to get back up, dust yourself off and keep going. You will learn to enjoy falling over, weirdly. Or come and talk to me and Luke, we’re happy to go skating with new people. With its organised, enthusiastic committee members and the overwhelming support from students, Skate Soc is building a strong case to bring to the CSC. Only time will tell if its campaign will be successful, but the positive reaction from students speaks to a need for more wide ranging activities across campus.

PHOTOS BY ELIZA MELLER FOR TRINITY NEWS

Tuesday 12 October | TRINITY NEWS

Crossword PUZZLE BY JACK KENNEDY FOR TRINITY NEWS

Across

6. Prepared (5) 7. Muster, gather, arrange (7) 10. Lacking in respect (10) 12. Second longest river in Europe (6) 13. Shortened long firearm (7) 15. Nearness in space or time (9) 17. Look for (4) 18. Not analogue (7) 20. Avoid (4) 22. Severity, amount of a property (9) 24. Détente (13) 25. Killer allegedly named Gary (6)

Shouts and murmurs So good to be back in college (meeting people to posh i cant tell if they’re english or irish) -@banrionbaby

microdosing being in a Sally Rooney novel by emailing my friends today -@evaobeirne Tcd seems to be solving their capacity issues by making 50% of the students drop out it seems -@notjmartyn the absolute fucking carnage of a buttery queue where 75% of the people actually have never been to the buttery before -@furtiso

Living in Dublin right now is like being a character in one of the Saw movies, you wake up every morning and they’ve cut a bit more off you, while daring you to escape as if you could -@paulduancefilm

INSANE to think that people currently in 4th year of college are the only cohort currently in college to have had a full year of college without COVID -@phillyholmes_

Solution to Issue 2:

Down

1. Fury (5) 2. Collapse inwards (7) 3. Small Himalayan country (6) 4 .Morsel (5) 5. Marked by offhand dismissal of important matters (8) 8. British queen before George I (4) 9. Skilled (5) 11. Rigid airship (8) 14. Tell, inform (6) 16. Rising in revolt, literally or metaphorically (9) 17. Answer (8) 19. Conical tent (6) 21. Hate, have distaste for (5) 23. Run, especially in fear (4)