Trinity News, volume 61, issue 6

TRINITY NEWS

Tuesday 10th February 2015

#LeadTCD Students head to polling stations across campus

Polling opened in Trinity Hall yesterday and will close at 4pm in the Hamilton and Arts Block on Thursday. Photo: Kevin O’Rourke

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SU-hired entertainer ‘hypnotised’ female students into lap dancing - claims • Sabbatical officer among several male audience members to participate in performance at class rep training • First-year student allegedly received mock award for ‘best lap dance’ Conall Monaghan Staff Writer Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) president, Domhnall McGlacken-Byrne, received a lap dance from one of several allegedly hypnotised female students at a class rep training weekend at the beginning of this academic year, Trinity News has learned. The incident occurred during a hypnosis show performed by entertainer James McCoy - who SU Ents officer, Finn Murphy, says was hired on the recommendation of sabbatical officers in other universities - on October 18th.

Trinity News understands that the student in question, a 19-year-old class rep in her first year of college, brought McGlacken-Byrne to a chair in front of the function room stage in Crowne Plaza, Dundalk, where the training weekend was held, after she and other “hypnotised” female students were asked by the entertainer to pick a male observer out of the audience, sit on their knees and dance provocatively.

The student told Trinity News that she was awarded the prize of “best lap dance” by SU education officer, Katie Byrne, during a mock award ceremony the

next morning, though this has been denied by both McGlacken-Byrne and Murphy, who say that the award was in fact for “Domhnall’s biggest fan”.

The student also told Trinity News that she did not feel fully lucid during the incident, which she said lasted for “about a minute”. Unlike other hypnotised students, though, she said she clearly remembers her actions.

“I knew that I was there, but I felt like I had to do what I was being asked to do [by the hypnotist],” she said. “I knew what I was doing, but I felt like I had to do these things.” However, she said that she found the episode “quite funny” and added that the SU sabbatical officers have always been “really nice” to her.

McGlacken-Byrne, who some sources have said looked uncomfortable during the incident, this weekend confirmed that he took part in the performance. “People were laughing,” he said. “Your one and I laughed about it afterwards. I didn’t really care.” He told Trinity News that he made sure to check up on the student after, but added that he felt she had enjoyed it and that the incident was one of several uncomfortable portions of the show.

One segment that had particularly worried him, he said, involved the hypnotist asking

people to imagine that they were watching a film that he eventually tried to convince them was a pornographic video. Participants were then asked to convey their thoughts on the imagined film to the crowd. McGlacken-Byrne feared that someone was “going to reveal that they were gay, who hadn’t perhaps done that [before].” He said he watched the event “with a ‘worst case scenario’ hat on from beginning to end” because he understood that “it’s the sort of thing where everything is your fault if it goes wrong.”

The hypnotist was also booked to perform at an event during TCDSU Mental Health Week the following week. He was asked to “tone down” this routine after his performance at the class rep training weekend, however, according to McGlacken-Byrne, who claims to have told him: “You didn’t go there last week and it went well, but I felt like at times last week it could have gone wrong, so could you temper it a bit?”

In a statement to Trinity News, Finn Murphy added: “The problem at the end of the day was that the hypnosis seemed ‘too real’ and I think in general people are uncomfortable with the idea of another person having control over their actions, which is to-

ence members’ physical appearances, which included inappropriate remarks about one class rep’s weight.

The hypnotist had allegedly said at the beginning of the show that audience members would still be in control of their actions when hypnotised. However, this has been disputed by several of the female students who participated in the set. One participant said: “The only thing I can compare it to is sleep paralysis, where you’re aware of what’s going on but you have no control over your body.”

Two other sources have reported suffering memory loss immediately after allegedly being hypnotised. One class rep, who said she had “barely touched a drop” before the event, claimed to not remember “a single moment of [the show]”. The participant added: “My initial feelings [after the event] were ones of anxiousness, then embarrassment as details of what ‘I’ had done emerged.”

Another participant claiming to have suffered memory loss commented: “I do remember about 60% of things but I couldn’t remember what order they came in. I could remember dancing on more than four or five boys during one song anyway, but I could only point out two at most.”

Deconstructing the Trinity hack: Has the word ‘hack’ been reclaimed or is it pejorative? If so, who can use it?

“

Matthew Mulligan: My bare ass was suddenly splashed across the news feeds of 546 Facebook users.

Features p. 7

tally fair. To be honest, before it started I didn’t think it was going to work at all. Then when people started doing things it shocked us and we then had to tell the hypnotist to calm it down.”

When contacted, James McCoy claimed that he has “no recollection” of many of the sections of that night’s show that have come under criticism. He said that he had only asked female students to “sit on [male audience members’] knees” and that this segment was for “comic value”. He denied that asking someone, allegedly under hypnosis, to dance provocatively on someone’s knee amounted to inappropriate conduct. “Santa Claus asked people to sit on his knees - it doesn’t get more family orientated than that,” he said.

However, other attendees at the training weekend have since described being disturbed by the hypnotist’s set. “I think it was horrifically inappropriate,” one audience member told Trinity News. “He didn’t consider that there might be people of sexual orientations that weren’t heterosexual among the crowd or that some of us may be in relationships. He also didn’t make the male ‘volunteers’ display any such openly sexual behaviour.”

Others were more unsettled by the hypnotists’ jokes about audi-

Election headto-head: Should the SU be seeking more commercial sponsorship?

Comment p. 14

Inside

IBEYI DISCUSS YORUBA CULTURE AND THEIR UPCOMING DEBUT, IRA SACHS TALKS ABOUT THE POWER OF MULTIGENERATIONAL STORYTELLING, AND WE EXPLORE THE FUTURE OF ENTERTAINMENT THROUGH THE OCULUS RIFT.

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Finding solace in sport

Moral dilemma of animal testing in Trinity

SciTech p. 20

Sport p. 24

TRINITY NEWS

Tuesday 10th February 2015

News

2

Gabriel Adewusi 9.03 Undecided 26.64

RON 1.58

Nessan Harper 6.77

Undecided 24.82 Undecided 34.09

%

Conor O'Meara 23.93

% Lynn Ruane 32.05

Molly Kenny 59.37

RON 0.68 Louise O'Toole 4.97

RON 6.55

Aoife O'Brien 8.35

Conor Clancy 23.93

Undecided 27.31

%

Aifric Ní Chríodáin 42.89

%

RON 0.9

Muireann Montague 23.93

Jemma O'Leary 28.89

Liam Mulligan 13.32

President Education Welfare

Election poll predicts clear victories in presidential and communications races • Predicted wins for Lynn Ruane, Muireann Montague, Katie Cogan and Aifric Ní Chríodáin in

contested races

James Wilson News Editor The Trinity News election poll conducted on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of last week has predicted wins for Lynn Ruane, Muireann Montague, Katie Cogan and Aifric Ní Chríodáin in this year’s contested races. Uncontested candidates Molly Kenny and Edmund Heaphy also look certain to be elected on Thursday. The poll of 429 students was carried out on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of last week in the Arts Block, the Hamilton, D’Olier Street, St. James’s Hospital, the JCR Café and the GMB.

President

Lynn Ruane looks set to be elected the next president of the SU, with our poll placing her well ahead of her closest opponent, with 44.6% of respondents indicating they would give the PPES student their first preference vote. Her nearest opponent, Conor O’Meara, the former JCR president, placed second, with 31.5% of respondents saying they would vote for the Galway native. Gabriel Adewusi is set to take third position with 12.5% of the vote, according to our figures, followed by Nessan Harper who’s set to garner 9.4% of the vote. 2% of respondents indicat-

ed that they will vote to re-open nominations (RON).

Our poll also indicated that a large number of students had yet to make their minds up on who the next president should be, with 26.6% unsure who to vote for. With undecideds included, the so-called “core figures” reveal that 32.1% of Trinity undergraduates were set to vote for Ruane, 23.9% for O’Meara, 9.0% for Adewusi, 6.8% for Harper and 1.6% to re-open the race.

When broken down by faculty, our poll reveals that Ruane polls particularly strongly among students from the arts, humanities and social science departments, where she takes 41.5% of the vote against 23.3% for O’Meara.

O’Meara by contrast performs best amongst health science students, where he takes 42.9% of the vote against Ruane’s 14.3%.

He also outpolls her among students studying in the engineering, mathematics and science (EMS) faculty, garnering 20.2% of support against 14.3% for Ruane. The Hamilton seems to be a particular stronghold for Adewusi, who came in second in our poll there with 16%.

Responses also varied sharply according to the age of the student, with younger years favouring O’Meara and Ruane polling stronger among sophister students. Ruane took 40.3% of the senior sophister vote, 36.% for junior sophisters, 31.7% for senior freshmen and 23.9% of junior freshmen. By contrast, O’Meara receives the first preference of 20% of final year students, 24% of third years.

25.8% of second years and 24.6% of first years.

Education

Unsurprisingly, the uncontested candidate for education, Molly Kenny is set to win by a landslide.

Although 34.1% of students have yet make their mind up, of the remaining 65.9% who have, a clear 90% intend to cast a ballot in fa-

vour of the junior sophister engineering student. She has picked up particularly strong support amongst her fellow third year students, winning the support of just over seven in 10, 72.1%, of third year undergraduates. Her support is weakest among first years, of whom only 46.3% have committed to voting for her, while 51.5% remain undecided.

Welfare and Equality

The fiercely contested fight to be Trinity’s next welfare officer looks set to go down to the wire.

Chemistry student Muireann Montague remains marginally ahead amongst committed voters with 32% of recorded first preferences. Her closest opponent, history student Conor Clancy is polling only slightly behind her with 31%. In third place, Liam Mulligan is set to gain 18%, followed by Aoife O’Brien on 11% and Louise O’Toole on 6% with only 1% opting for RON. Nearly a quarter of students, 24.2% remain undecided with the core vote figures for each candidate as follows: Montague at 23.9%, Clancy at 23.9, Mulligan at 13.3% O’Brien at 8.4% and O’Toole at 5.0%.Montague leads Clancy by 31.6% to 29.6% among committed Hamilton students and the two candidates are tied at 37% amongst arts block students.

Clancy, however, maintains an edge over Montague among health science students, 44% of whom intended to opt for the Limerick native against 27% who intend to opt for Montague.Clancy also polls ahead of his rival among final year students: 21% of committed senior sophisters intend to vote for him, against 15% for Montague. Montague edges him out amongst third years, however, garnering 27% of their support, against 21% for Clancy. Clancy supporters slightly outnumber Muireann supporters in second year, by 36% to 34%. However, Montague enjoys substantial from first year voters, 45% back her campaign , against 26% who opted for Clancy.

University Times

The sole candidate to be next year’s editor of the University Times, Edmund Heaphy, seems certain to be elected on Thursday. Although 34% of students

have yet to make a final decision, our poll predicts that only 10.8% will opt to re-open nominations and 55% will vote to elect the current deputy editor of the UT to be the paper’s editor. Heaphy received majority support from respondents in each year group: 56% of first years, 54% of second years, 58% of third years and 55% of fourth years intend to vote for him.

Across the various faculties, his support is strongest among arts block students, where 58% of students have committed to voting for him. 50% of Hamilton students also intend to give him their first preference. By contrast, only 43% of health science students said they would vote for him.

Communications Marketing

and

Aifric Ní Chríodáin looks set to win the race to be the SU’s first communications and marketing officer, taking 42.9% of the vote in our poll, against 28.9% for her opponent, Jemma O’Leary.

Slightly less than 1% of students indicated they would vote to reopen nominations and 27% said they were yet to make up their minds. When undecideds are excluded, Ní Chríodáin emerges with a near three to two margin over O’Leary, taking 59% of the vote against O’Leary’s 40%, with 1% for RON. Ní Chríodáin tops the poll in each faculty: garnering the support of 55.7% of committed arts block voters, against 41.6% for O’Leary. Among health science students, Ní Chríodáin obtains the support of 70.5% those who’ve made up their minds, against 28.5% for O’Leary. Among EMS students she furthermore leads by 62.9% to 36.1%.

Ní Chríodáin also takes a clear lead in each year: winning 54.5% of fresher support against 45.5% for O’Leary, in second year she takes 67.9% against O’Leary’s 32%, among third years she takes 56.6% against O’Leary’s 43.4% and among final year students she takes 60.7% against 39.3% for opponent.

Ents

Katie Cogan currently leads the three-way race for Ents officer, taking 36.6% of the vote, after

Speakers call for end to capitalism at Hist inaugural Dee Courtney Deputy Comment Editor Speaker after speaker lined up to condemn the capitalist system at the College Historical Society (Hist)’s inaugural on Friday. The event began with the auditor of the Hist, Michael Coleman, delivering a paper on the need for radical responses to oppression.

He spoke about how oppression is built into the system of capitalism; how capitalism depends on racism and sexism to keep capital in the hands of private interests.

The event’s headline guest, philosopher and gender theorist Judith Butler, responded with a discussion of non-violence as radical action. “We must accept as a basic premise of any nonviolent politics that all lives are equally valuable,” she said. She spoke about student protesters linking their arms to form a barrier, removing them as potential weapons and showing solidarity.

She said non-violence used to be recognised by authorities as a legitimate form of protest. However, since the police have been trained by armies, it is difficult to convey non-violence in the face of aggression. The response to peaceful protest is increasingly warlike, she said.

Discussing self-defence, she

Auditor Michael Coleman and Judith Butler.

Photo: Campbell Higle said the line we draw around our sense of self is problematic.

Should we be able to use force only to defend ourselves, or our families as well? Extending the idea of the self to those who are related to us means all of us have a circle of people for whom we can commit violence, meaning it could lead to war between those groups.

Butler also used the opportunity to congratulate Syriza on its recent electoral victory in

Greece. “One of the very first acts of Syriza was to tell policemen to take off their riot gear when they are attending demonstrations,” she noted. “One of its other initial acts was to permit student demonstrations with no police presence at all.”

The address of Richard Boyd Barrett, the second respondent, focused on inequality in Ireland, with the People Before Profit TD pointing out that, as our net wealth increases, there are chil-

dren still suffering here from the effects of malnutrition, even though there is “more food than we could possibly need.” The wealthiest 5% in Irish society own 48% of the country’s wealth, while 28% of our children are living on the poverty line, he noted.

He said that change should come from the bottom up, not the top down, pointing to the movement against water charges as grassroots activism in action. Boyd Barrett finished by citing James Connolly’s view that we should praise the rule of the mob, not the authorities.

Ntina Tzouvala from Syriza, the Greek party of government, was the next to respond. She said that there were two moments which for her defined the situation in Greece. The first was in 2011, during the protests.

She said that when protesters were tear-gassed, they would go to get some fresh air and then come back to protest and be tear-gassed again. The second moment was when Syriza were elected and the divisions between the government buildings and protesters came down.

Dr Sinéad Kennedy from NUI Maynooth, the next respondent, said that the European Central Bank is afraid that Syriza have put democracy on the agenda.

Rita Harrold from ROSA concluded the event by pointing out the link between capitalism and sexism in that gender roles encourage women to work raising

Comms Undecided 25.96

%

RON 1.35

undecideds are excluded, with her nearest challenger, Conor Parle, taking 31.4% of students’ declared support. Not far behind him, with 30.2% of the vote, is David Gray. Behind him polls RON, with 1.89% support. Over a quarter of students, 26%, remain undecided and the core voting figures for each candidate are as follows: Cogan at 27.1%, Parle at 23.3% and Gray at 22.3%.

Cogan tops the poll among both arts and EMS students, taking 35.3% of arts block voters’ first preferences against 31.8% of students who opted for Gray and 30% who indicated they would support Parle. In the Hamilton, Cogan was the choice of 38% of voters, with Parle close behind her 35.8% and Gray trailing on 17.3%. By contrast, among health science students Gray takes 57.2%, with Cogan in second place on 28.5% and Parle trailing on 14.3%.

Among first year students, Gray polls as the clear favourite, with 44.4% support. By contrast, overall favourite Cogan takes only 22.2% with Parle on 32.4%.

Among second years each candidate polls a third of the vote each and among third years Cogan leads the race, with 57.7% of the vote. In second place is Parle with 29.%, with Gray in third place on 20.5%. For final year students, 39.4% intend to support Cogan, 30% Parle and 24% Gray..

Student referendums

There is clear opposition among students to the referendum on whether the SU should adopt an anti-water charges stance.

Undecideds stand at 16.3%, with 33% planning on supporting the ballot measure and 50.8% opposing it. Excluding the undecideds, 60.6% of those polled suggested they would vote ‘no’ in the referendum on the issue, with 39.8% indicating they would support the measure.

There is also strong opposition to the sports charges referendum, which, if passed, would result in a rise in the annual sports centre charge from ¤90 to ¤120 a year. Undecideds stand at 14.4%, with 31.2% planning on supporting the ballot measure and 54.4% opposing it. Following the exclusion of those who remained uncommitted, only 36% support the proposal, against 64% who intended to vote against the proposition.

A substantial majority of students also oppose the imposition of new student charges and levies: 84% intend against the SU supporting their imposition, against 15% who support their introduction. Including undecideds, the figures were as follows: yes at 72.9%, no at 12% and undecideds at 15.1%.

Pollsters: Catherine Healy, James Wilson, D. Joyce Ahearne, Andrew O’Donovan, Dee Courtney, Clare Droney, Robyn Page-Cowman, Matthew Nuding, Claire O’Nuallain, Conor O’Donovan.

Do you oppose the introduCtion of the new and increased levies currently being proposed?

Katie Cogan 27.09

David Gray 22.35

Conor Parle 23.25

Ents Undecided 34.09

Edmund Heaphy 55.08

% RON 10.84

University Times Undecided 16.25

Yes 32.96

% No 50.79

Should TCDSU adopt a long term policy to campaign for the abolition of the current formation of water charges?

Undecided 15.12 No 11.96

% Yes 72.91

TRINITY NEWS

Tuesday 10th February 2015

News

3

Dean’s roll of honour to be replaced • Award has become ‘victims of its own success’ Andrew O’Donovan Deputy News Editor The dean of students’ role of honour, an award recognising volunteering in College and further afield, will be replaced by three distinct categories of recognition for the coming year, Trinity News has learned. Dean of students, Kevin O’Kelly, told Trinity News that the roll had become a “victim of its own success” having had a “much higher level of participation than we expected.”

A working group was formed in October of last year to “review all aspects” of the roll.As well as O’Kelly, membership of the group included a representative

from each of the students’ union, the graduate students’ union, the central societies committee and the central athletic club. The working group presented its report to the student life committee earlier this week where it was approved.

The report cited the positives of the award, which was introduced in 2011, as being, “the very high level of interest (over 800 applicants last year),” that it encourages participation and may lead some to more substantial volunteering and that it “provides a formal recognition by Trinity that can be used for career development.” However, the report also noted “a perception that the [application process] is not discriminating enough,”

given a ninety ninety percent success rate, the “perceived low threshold for eligibility (e.g. attendance at meetings can fulfill criteria)” and there being “no distinction between low and high level volunteers.”

With “unanimous agreement that the awards should recognise different levels of engagement and that each level should have different eligibility and evaluation criteria,” the group proposed that the roll be replaced by three categories of recognition: dean’s list for volunteering, dean’s leadership award for volunteering and Trinity legacy award for volunteering. The first category is explicitly to “encourage” while the second and third are to “recognise”.

The dean’s list is to be the least exclusive category and will, according to O’Kelly, be “inclusive of everyone volunteering” with there being no limit on

the number included. Students will self-apply and be required to present “evidence of reflection on how they are different from before they volunteered.”

There will be a requirement of a minimum of 60 hours of activity, three times that for the award.

The report emphasises that it should be seen as “recognition rather than an award.” Those successful will receive a certificate by post.

The dean’s leadership award for volunteering will “acknowledge students who have contributed significantly to an organisation/ individual.” They will have had a “clearly defined leadership role within the organisation that involves managing other people, being accountable for projects/ initiatives, and motivating other students to volunteer.” Evaluation will be based on a self-assessment form submitted by the applicant and testimonials from

people in the organisation above and below the person.”

With the Trinity legacy award for volunteering, College intends to “acknowledge exceptional students or graduates who, during their time in Trinity, have left a legacy based on their contribution.” A maximum of three such awards will be presented in any year and it is “not expected that it will be given every year.” Candidates must be nominated by a third party with evaluation based on a portfolio and interview.

Recipients of the leadership and legacy awards will be invited to “a formal awards reception” attended by the provost and other College officers. The ceremony is intended for Trinity Week, when a number of traditional events take place in College, including election of foundation scholars.

Trinity academics call for European debt conference • Senator Sean Barrett to raise issue during Order of Business in the Seanad

“ Professor Brian Lucey from the School of Business said he would be approaching his colleagues about supporting the call. and several other “peripheral states” should exit the Eurozone.

“It is ironic that a country may legally exit the EU, a successful free trade area, but cannot leave the euro, an unsuccessful, badlydesigned currency area.”

Dr Constantin Gurdgiev, adjunct lecturer in finance at TCD, also voiced his support for a debt conference but warned that, without the “direct democratic participation of the people of

Europe,” there was a danger that a debt conference would only “replicate the status quo”.

Professor Philip Lane, head of the Department of Economics, had not responded to requests for comment at the time of writing.

Syriza, the anti-austerity alliance that now leads a coalition government in Greece after recent elections, had called for a debt conference in their election

manifesto. Before those elections, the minister for finance, Michael Noonan, had said he would be broadly in support of a debt conference. However, speaking in the Dail last week, he said the Greek government had yet to propose such a conference. Taoiseach Enda Kenny said Greece should follow Ireland’s lead and not seek a write-down of its debts.

Limerick debating competition cancelled amid allegations of sexism • Judging team withdraws from event following ‘slut-shaming’ accusations James Cotter Staff Writer The University of Limerick’s Debating Union (DebU) has cancelled its annual debating competition amid accusations that society and committee members were engaging in “slut-shaming” and other misogynistic acts. The Limerick Open, as the Union’s annual debating competition is officially known, was due to begin on March 6th but was cancelled last Monday following the resignation of the event’s chief adjudication team, convenor and tabmaster.

Concerns in relation to sexism and harassment towards young female debaters within DebU and the debating circuit began late last year when a screenshot of a college debater’s Facebook status was posted in the ‘Irish Debating’ Facebook group detailing her experience on the circuit. In the post, the student, who asked not to be named, described “slut-shaming” as “an act carried out by individuals in an attempt to undermine and devalue a woman based solely on her sexual activity.” Two male debaters on the circuit “decided I

am someone they’d rather like to slut shame based on some dislike they seem to both share of me,” she explained.

The chief adjudication (CA) team of the Open subsequently announced their decision to withdraw from the event on February 1st due to “sexist abuse and equity violations committed by a DebU committee member”. In a statement posted to the ‘Irish Debating’ Facebook group, the CA team explain that “DebU in its current form is something which we can’t tacitly support through continued involvement with the IV”.

The statement posted by the CA Team Michelle Coyle, Ruth Lawlor and Hugh Guidera, the current registrar of Trinity’s University Philosophical Society, notes that “there are still a lot of good members of DebU who don’t deserve to be tarnished by this and they shouldn’t be blamed for the actions of a small number of individuals.” Trinity News contacted one of the known individuals in question and was informed that they did not wish to publicly comment on the matter. We were unable to uncover the identity of the second individual and as such were unable to contact him

Phil registrar Hugh Guidera was one of three chief judges to pull out of the event in protest. for comment.

A statement subsequently posted to the UL Debating Union Facebook page announced the cancellation of this year’s intervarsity “due to the CA team and convenors pulling out”. It continued that, “an issue regarding sexism in the society was mishandled” and that, “while we regret what was an error in communication, we would like to assure you that we are taking all appropriate measures to ensure this issue is dealt with.”

Speaking to Trinity News, Clodagh Callanan, a former DebU committee members who last week resigned as sponsorship officer due to the contro-

versy, explains that “because of ULSU policy, we as a committee were not allowed to comment on this” when the issue first came to light. Amid fears that posting a statement on the issue could make it more difficult to justify any disciplinary action against the male society member in question, the committee did not respond until they had returned to university at the end of January.

“By the time we were told we could comment, people had, understandably, reached the end of their patience with us and decided to take action themselves,” she said. “Because of the outgoing committee’s perceived apa-

thy towards sexism issues in the society, and the resignation of a number of committee members over the handling of this case, it was decided it was best to elect a new committee, so there could be fresh attitudes and ideas representing the society.” She added: “As for sexism in UL Debating Union in general, I agree that this has been a problem in the society in recent years, having both witnessed it and been victim to it. However, I think this has been the unfortunate influence of a minority of members.”

Referring to the society’s future, she said that, with “the planned implementation of a new equity policy, a renewed awareness among members of the problems faced within our society and the hopeful election of a fresh committee who are enthusiastic and prepared to deal with these issues, we hope to soon reach this goal.”

Trinity News contacted the former auditor of DebU, Darragh Roche, for comment, but at the time of print he had not responded and had deactivated his Facebook account due to an alleged “trolling campaign” conducted by certain members of the Irish debating circuit. The UL Debating Union will elect a new committee at an EGM to be held later this month.

Staff Writer A group of pro-choice Trinity activists are to launch a video campaign to better inform Trinity students of the difference between being “pro-choice” and “pro-abortion”. The decision was made at a meeting last Thursday organised by the SU, in accordance with the union’s prochoice mandate.

SU president Domhnall McGlacken Byrne, who led discussions along with welfare offic-

er Ian Mooney, began by asking attendees to offer any suggestion that came to mind, telling those assembled there was no upfront agenda and that the meeting was to begin with a blank slate.

A general consensus soon emerged, with many claiming that one of their biggest concerns was the confusion that seemed to surround the definition of pro-choice.

All wanted to emphasise the difference between the prochoice and pro-abortion positions. Pro-choice, the attendees said, was the belief that people

should be allowed make the decision of getting an abortion privately without state intervention. For most pro-choice activists, “it’s not just a medical procedure,” said McGlacken Byrne. He conceded, however, that the argument was “complicated.

People have their own opinions - no-one has come up with the perfect policy.”

The group recognised that nationally their capability for bringing about change was small, and decided to limit the promotion of their views within the grounds of the college. Their

efforts, it was agreed, should focus on making the distinction between pro-choice and proabortion more apparent. Reflecting on the success of past SU video campaigns it was decided that a promotional video was the best way of achieving their aim. Some film students who were present agree to write a storyboard and it was suggested by McGlacken Byrne that they should meet again in a few days to figure out the finer details.

Posters were also considered a possibility, although some attendees were hesitant about this,

will not only improve the quality of life for gay people in Ireland but will have implications for those of us in international relationships, who are living in Ireland, and who need legal recognition of our relationship for work, tax, and immigration purposes. Well done to the provost for making this endorsement, and showing Ireland where Trinity stands on this issue!

Heath Rose, School of Linguistics

“

For me it comes down to a basic question: Do you want your children to grow up in an Ireland of fear and intolerance, or in an Ireland of inclusion and equality? I will be voting Yes for inclusion and equality.

Pádraic Whyte, School of English

“ “

I would vote ‘no’.

Vasilis Politis, School of Philosophy

You might be writing to me because you see the name “Catholic” in my job title. I am sure you already know, but just in case others don’t: many Catholic theologians have devoted their lives to debunking the horrors of anti-gay teachings and practices, and there is much pro-gay (and prointersex, etc.) Christian theology. Sadly, only the anti-gay theologies of the official churches tends to make it into the media and “religion” is therefore often seen as “anti-gay” - something about which, I imagine, God is very sad.

Siobhán Garrigan, Director of Loyola Institute

Trinity pro-choice activists to launch video campaign Conall Monaghan

Following Provost Patrick Prendergast’s endorsement of marriage equality last month, James Wilson and Andrew O’Donovan contacted over 900 academic staff members to ask how they intended to vote in the referendum on same-sex marriage this spring. Here’s what some of them said.

As a gay man, who entered into a marriage in New Zealand with my partner of 15 years, I am delighted that the provost has endorsed the yes vote in this year’s referendum. These decision

James Prendergast

Central Bank and debt write-off.

“Debt monetisation” refers to Investigative Correspondent the creation of new money by the ECB to buy government A number of Trinity academics debt. Given the level of “politihave lent their support to calls cal capital” invested by political for a European debt conference leaders in monetary union, Luto be held in Ireland. It comes cey said that a Eurozone breakup a week after a private member’s would be an “astonishing” but motion supporting a debt con- not an “improbable” possibility. ference, which was proposed Speaking to Trinity News, Senby Independent TD Catherine ator Sean Barrett said the euro is Murphy, was defeated in the Dáil “extremely badly designed and with government parties op- left unreformed will condemn posed the motion. Senator Sean Greece to decades of unrest and Barrett, fellow emeritus at the poverty”. He laid the blame for Department of Economics, told the crisis squarely on Europe, Trinity News that he would be especially Germany, saying, “the raising the issue during Order of mistakes were made in BrusBusiness in the Seanad today. sels and Frankfurt before they Professor Brian Lucey from the were made in Ireland. Germany School of Business told Trinity is unwilling to make sufficient News that, while he would be ap- transfers to make the euro work. proaching some of his colleagues Instead we get remarks that the about supporting a debt confer- Greeks are lazy tax avoiders, Ireence, most of the “big wigs” in land must try harder but is best College are “loth to get involved boy in class, Iberians take too in letters to the paper.” long over lunch, etc.”

Lucey said that a “large chunk” “A poorly designed currency of the debts should not have been brought huge capital flows from placed on “just Irish taxpayers”. Germany to Ireland, [and] then While there is “no magic bullet a property bubble and bank col… an optimal solution” would in- lapse. Every man, woman, and volve a combination of “a degree child is paying ¤64 a week for of fiscal retrenchment”, “debt the mistakes of bankers and bumonetisation” by the European reaucrats.” He said that Greece

what DO TCD STAFF MAKE OF the same-sex marriage referendum?

claiming that after the elections no one would want to see a poster for a while. It was suggested that if posters were to be used it would be only a small amount, so as to not upset students who may feel bombarded with all the current campaigns.

Finally, SU sabbatical officers confirmed that they had been in touch with a doctor to organise giving a possible guest lecture on the topic of abortion and all attendees concluded that it was a worthwhile endeavour.

“

As a British citizen resident in Ireland, I have no vote on matters affecting the Constitution. If I did have a vote, I would certainly be voting in favour of marriage rights for all citizens, regardless of sexual orientation or gender expression. I shall be actively campaigning for a ‘yes’ vote, from those who can vote. I am proud to count myself as an ally of the LGBT community.

John Stalker, School of Mathematics Continued on p. 4

TRINITY NEWS

Tuesday 10th February 2015

News

4

News In Brief

Passing of water charges referendum would help “normalise” TCD students - campaign manager Lia Flattery

what DO TCD STAFF MAKE OF the same-sex marriage referendum?

Student Affairs Correspodent Thomas Hanlon, the “yes” campaign manager for the upcoming SU referendum on whether or not the union should actively oppose water charges, has said that a positive outcome in the referendum would help to “normalise” Trinity for the wider public.Speaking to Trinity News about the referendum, he explained that Trinity “will always be perceived as an elitist institution and that’s because it is an elitist institution” and, regardless of the results of the referendum, it will be viewed as such for “many moreyears to come.”

While an overall vote in favour of abolishing the water charges would unlikely change this perception, he continued, it would contribute to the“normalisation of Trinity” for those outside of the college.

According to Hanlon, the “yes” campaign has experienced a largely positive reactionfrom the students and university staff that it has engaged with so far, though it remains difficult to predict the outcome of the referendum. “Trinity is an incredibly right wing college whether this be Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil or Labour,” he said. “Whether people feel strongly enough about water

Photo: Union Solidarity International charges to deviate away from their political affiliations, we'll just have to wait and see.”

“No” campaign manager, Richard Bonham, told Trinity News that he does not “think it is elitist not to campaign against a modest utility charge. The students of Trinity are educated people who look at both sides of an argument and aren't won over by sound bites and rhetoric.”

Launch of Trinity BDS campaign Matthew Mulligan Editor-at-Large

A new Boycott, Divestment and Sanction (BDS) campaign, run by Trinity students and aimed at getting SU support launched last Wednesday at a meeting held in the Arts Block.

In attendance to speak on the issue were David Landy, Associate Professor of Sociology, and Ronit Lentin, retired Associate Professor of Sociology, along with about 20 students.

The speakers were introduced by student Anne Moroux, with Lentin speaking about her experiences as a Jew born before the formation of the state of Israel and about her criticism of Zionism. Landy — ex-chairperson of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign — said that BDS movements in the past had successfully targeted companies such as the operators of the Luas, Veolia, which sold its stake in the Jerusalem Light Rail project after such campaigning. Landy also asserted that Ireland’s selling and buying of arms to and from Israel is something that should be campaigned against, describing the trade as “disgusting”.

One member of the audience challenged Lentin’s assertion that a two-state solution is unviable, asking her why, when most moderates favour that option, she did not. Before Lentin could answer, another member of the audience interjected to say why he believed a two-state solution would not be possible. Lentin’s comments on the topic cited population and size: that the whole area of Israel, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank was the area of Munster and contained around 12 million people. The same member of the audience asked the student organisers of

“

The focus of the movement at present is to obtain the 250 signatures required to prompt TCDSU to hold a referendum on the issue. the campaign to pinpoint the type of campaign that they want — whether cultural or academic.

A student affiliated with the campaign responded that the focus of the movement at present is to obtain the 250 signatures required to prompt TCDSU to hold a referendum on the issue, and to “endorse all kinds of boycott, from political to economic”.

A representative from the Apartheid Free Campus campaign was also present. He said that their focus is on campaigning against drone manufacturer Elbit Security Systems, a company which College has worked with on airport security projects, and a project with Israel’s International Security and Counter-Terrorism Academy. Last November, Trinity’s Graduate Students’ Union passed a motion by 33 out of 56 votes pledging to support the campaign.

Though water charges are “a political issue that… affect everystudent,” they are not “a student issue” and detract from more important SU concerns, he said.

He also commented on what he regards as the lack of a “yes” campaign presence, claiming that “the ‘yes’ side has not had any campaigners out on campus, no posters and has not been at any of the hustings that I have

been to.”

Hopeful of winning, Bonham said that the students he has spoken to have “responded well” when the arguments of the “no” campaign were explained to them “without the myths and quasi-legal nonsense that has been circulated in relation to this issue.”

“Lack of awareness” may result in defeat of sports centre referendum Lia Flattery Senior Reporter Lydia Todd, manager of the “yes” campaign for the SU referendum on whether or not the union should support an increase in the existing annual Sports Centre charge from ¤90 to ¤120, believes that a “lack of awareness” of the motives behind the increase may work against the “yes” vote. The simultaneous campaigning for the SU sabbatical officer elections as well as for two other referendums has made it difficult to effectively inform students about the issues at stake in the sports centre referendum, she said. “As the main focus has been on the sabbatical positions, there has not been enough information given out by College or the SU about the three referendums which are also taking place,” she told Trinity News,

adding that when she started campaigning “very little was known about them and the majority of students were unaware that they were even happening.”

According to Todd, the absence of a “no” campaign for the referendum is not anissue. “The facts are there for people to make up their minds, so I don’t really think it is a problem,” she explained. “For me it is more problematic that there are other, student charges being discussed at the same time as this.”

Though hopeful of winning, Todd expects a close result due the issue of “asking students to pay more when they are unaware of the consequences.” Despite these concerns, she has experienced “a good deal of support from the both student body and staff,” having met with few people strongly opposed to the motion.

Deputy News Editor The SU’s Electoral Commission (EC) reprimanded a number of candidates last week for breaches in the rules governing student elections.

Molly Kenny, the unopposed candidate for education officer, was disciplined after a University Times profile of her appeared on the paper’s website before the official campaigning period had begun, Trinity News understands. Kenny was contacted for comment but at the time of print had not responded.

Presidential candidate Lynn Ruane was also made postpone the launch of her campaign page on Facebook for a number of hours after she e-mailed a TAP students trying to recruit them prior to the campaign’s official starting point.

New SU board to be appointed Lia Flattery Senior Reporter

I will be voting yes because if you want to marry someone gender or sexual orientation should not be an issue. I am disappointed that the issue of reproductive rights and the right of women to have an abortion has so much less overt public support. So, while glad that gay and lesbian folk will be able to marry, I’m saddened by the 100 women a week who have to have surreptitious and unsupported abortions. It is extraordinary that we may have, and I hope that we do, samesex marriages before we have abortion rights.

Veronica O’Keane, School of Medicine

“

I very much support a yes vote. My partner and I had our civil partnership in 2013 because this was the only legal recognition of our relationship we could get. We would very much welcome full marriage equal recognition in state law.

Mary Nevin, School of Nursing and Midwifery

“ “

Yes., [it] will break up the family. I’ll vote No.

William Ryan, School of Medicine

Trinity Sports Centre. Photo: tcd..ie

Multiple candidates punished for breaking election rules Andrew O’Donovan

“

Continued from p. 3

Jemma O’Leary, the SU sabbatical candidate for Communications and Marketing, was also reported to the EC last week after a fake Facebook profile was linked to her campaign, Trinity News has learned. The profile since deleted - was used to attack the policies of her opponent, Aifric Ní Chríodáin, particularly her pledge to raise ¤5,000 in sponsorship to mitigate the 22% cut in the student hardship fund’s budget.

“Are you implying that the Student Hardship Fund is funded by the Students’ Union?

Because it appears to be your premise and it’s patently false,” a comment left by the profile on Ní Chríodáin’s page stated. “It’s funded by the Senior Tutor’s Office.” O’Leary’s campaign manager, Will Earle A’Hern, told Trinity News that the person behind the post was clarifying a “particularly misleading piece of rhetoric”

being used by Ní Chríodáin. “To be honest, they should have used their own profile. But I stand by the bones of their point,” he said.

He continued that the profile was used as “a simple mechanism through which we were able to manage the online aspects of [O’Leary’s] campaign.” He said that it “simply streamlined the process of collecting images of the campaign from volunteers and publishing graphics online.

There was no malicious intent, nor was it a platform for campaigning.”

The O’Leary campaign was ordered to deactivate its Facebook page for a period of time as punishment by the EC after the newly created accounted was reported by a suspicious student after it added over a hundred Trinity students within the space of a few days.

When contacted by Trinity News, O’Leary said that the fake

Facebook profile was “something that was set up by someone in my campaign team who manages the page. I wasn’t behind the page; it was somebody else whom I can’t name to you.”

She confirmed that the person responsible remains on her campaign team having been told “not to do it again.”

EC chair, Kieran McNulty, refused to confirm the specifics of the electoral rules breached.

“Several candidates have been fined, but I personally believe that this year’s candidates have behaved admirably and for the most part adhered to the rules,” he said.

SU president, Domhnall McGlacken-Byrne, is in the process of appointing a board of trustees for the SU following the Union’s adoption of a new constitution at the end of the last academic year.

Speaking to Trinity News, McGlacken-Byrne explained that the board will perform a largely advisory role, focusing on “strategic direction and financial oversight” of the SU, and will likely meet only two or three times annually. The board has yet to actually convene, and McGlacken-Byrne said that he

is still planning what form it will take. “I am now in the process of establishing its terms of reference in greater detail, of profiling the sort of individuals we want and of seeking to recruit them.” Ideally the board will be comprised of “a good mix of people,” including students who have “experience with the Union,” students “with an entirely fresh perspective,” and a range of political and legal professionals.

Given that the SU is currently at the consultation stage of forming a three-year strategic plan,

the need for speedy formation of the board of trustees is considered particularly pressing by certain union members. “While the board is most definitely not going to intervene in operational affairs,” said McGlacken-Byrne.

“I hope it will provide a degree of strategic oversight on the implementation of the themes of this plan.” It is intended that the board will be fully formed and have held its first meeting by the end of Hilary term.

Additional reporting by James Wilson.

I believe that the key issue here is that of equality between human beings, however they identify in terms of gender, orientation or sexual identity. I believe that marriage is a formalisation of a committed relationship that should be available to all adult couples irrespective of but recognising and valuing their diversity. As a lecturer in disabilities, I am particularly conscious of such diversity and reject ideas of bipolar heteronorms. As a researcher in LGBTI issues, I recognise the fact that such ‘norms’ are not representative of the realities of many people and, by their existence, they result in exclusion and marginalisation.

Fintan Sheerin, School of Nursing and Midwifery

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I am very strongly supporting the YES side in this campaign. Many reasons but to give four: 1) this is an important civil rights issue and is incredibly meaningful to so many people; 2) I was very struck by Minister Varadkar's powerful statement that he wanted to be an equal citizen in the country where he is a member of the government; 3) marriage equality won't damage the institution of marriage for those who are already married, but it will be a devastating slap in the face to those who want to be equal; 4) I really object to the dishonest arguments of many of those on the NO side. That reason alone is enough to vote YES.

Patrick Geoghegan, Department of History

Tuesday 10th February 2015

TRINITY NEWS

Features

Six students reflect on what they have learned from relationships and romance.

p8

absence How I got scammed through the College a timely TCD noticeboard wake-up call Accommodation scams are becoming increasingly common as the hunt for student residences becomes more desperate.

Nicole Campbell Contributor

Former classmates cannot see the suffocating emptiness of my days, the freedom to do anything that paralyses me.

Rent scams are becoming increasingly common, raising a number of questions: how do these scams operate? Why is it students who are so often the victims? Are victims of these scams particularly naive, or are they lured into a false sense of security in using usually trustworthy websites?

My own experience of being scammed through the TCD noticeboard proves that scammers are everywhere.

Scammer’s method

With students forced to battle it out against professionals and families, many look to TCD’s noticeboard. Recently, I posted an ad looking for a room to rent for the summer. One of the responses I received was from a 22 yearold Italian student who said she would soon be coming to Dublin to live in her parents’ flat and was looking for roommates to share with her. She was offering a double room on Molesworth Street for just ¤450 per month including all bills. The average rent I had encountered in Dublin 2 had been at least ¤600 so immediately my heart leapt. Reading the email a second time, I noticed she mentioned a ¤700 security deposit, which struck me as strange as I had thought deposits were normally to the value of a month’s rent, and none of the other replies I received had mentioned a deposit straight away. Cautiously, I proceeded to respond by asking a few questions about the room and why the security deposit was so high for a summer rental.

I received a reply from her the next day. She quickly agreed to drop the security deposit to ¤450 because of my short lease.

The email contained numerous photos of a beautifully decorated and spacious apartment. It also included a long description of her which was quite poorly written.

Most of it was about her studies and hobbies, but there were certain passages that seemed overly familiar. She spoke of eating in an Eritrean restaurant, how she would like to cook for us and detailed her recent holiday in Istanbul. I suddenly remembered the email a friend of mine had received last year when she placed an ad on the noticeboard. Her email was from a British man and similarly contained lots of weird personal information. I asked her to forward me the email and compared them; shockingly, entire passages of the email were identical to the description I had just received from the Italian student.

I posted this revelation on my friend’s Facebook page and a mutual friend commented to say he too had posted an ad on the noticeboard and received an identical email.

Eva Short Senior Writer The campus is seized with its usual furore. People are possessed with the need to complete their immediate goals; get to class. Get to the library. Read X criticism of Y text. Tackle some essay for some module before some certain date. Even their procrastination has structure. Students are chewing the cud of purchased lunches or half-heartedly swiping right on Tinder with the knowledge that they're killing time until a deadline closes in on them.

It's all familiar to me, and yet I'm uncomfortably divorced from it all. Due to necessity more so than choice, I've opted out of this year's study and gone off books.

The illness that initially demanded my attention and time has now passed for the most part, leaving me with my health and nothing on my schedule.

My situation is ostensibly enviable in the eyes of my (ex)classmates. I'm not hampered by any real commitments nor do I feel the weight of academic pressure.

They cannot see the suffocating emptiness of my days, the freedom to do anything that paralyses me.

Ladder

Response

The scammer was obviously using multiple email addresses and personas, so I decided that I would ‘go undercover’ and pretend I was interested. I asked when she would be in Dublin so I could meet her and see the apartment; she apologised and said she would not be here until May, but that I would need to pay her ¤900 for the deposit and first month’s rent as soon as possible to “secure my reservation.” She gave me her bank account details which were registered to a branch in Milan, and I was sent numerous forms including tenancy agreements and reservation documents. It struck me how official the whole process appeared at first glance and that I could find no obvious discrepancies in the information she gave me. Surely if there are documents to sign, it must be legit, right?

I soon found an investment firm registered to the her address on Molesworth St. I contacted them to ask if they were aware of any apartments to rent at the address and they replied that it was a business property only. I finally had concrete evidence that she was lying to me so I decided it was time to confront her. I first asked if she could provide me any evidence that she was not scamming me, as I had been advised against sending money to a stranger. She replied to me saying how hurt she was that I could possibly think that she would scam me and she attached many photos of herself, including scans of her passport and her student ID card, to prove her identity. The ways scammers trick desperate students were be-

Illustration:: Emer Ó Cearbhaill

“

The scammer was obviously using multiple email addresses and personas, so I decided that I would ‘go undercover’ and pretend I was interested.

I asked when she would be in Dublin so I could meet her and see the apartment.

coming clear to me. It is relatively easy to suppress one’s niggling doubts when sent official looking documents and passport scans as ‘proof’. I told her I knew she was lying about the property. I have not heard back from her since.

Other students who posted on the TCD noticeboard had also been targeted. One girl received the same email I had, but ignored it as she was suspicious.

However, another international student told me he had narrowly avoided sending ¤900 to a similar sounding scammer, as his friends advised him last minute against sending money to a stranger. He forwarded me the emails he had received; they were from a woman living in London who was offering a room on Townsend Street for ¤400 a month, but would not fly to Dublin for viewings without prior payment of a deposit to “discourage time wasters.” His correspondence with her followed the same pattern; he received fake tenancy documents and passport scans, and was asked to send money via Money Gram or bank transfer to an account in London. Whether this scammer was the same as the one who contacted me is unclear, but certainly someone, somewhere, appears to be watching our posts on the noticeboard, looking for potential targets.

Impunity

Armed with all this information, I went into the Garda station to ask whether it was possible to report scams, and to find out what someone should do if they’ve been scammed. Unfortunately, the answers I got were not very hopeful.

The Gardaí can only investigate a scam if money has actually been stolen and even in these cases, it is very unlikely that the money will be recoverable or that the scammer can be tracked down.

Services like Money Gram and Western Union are virtually untraceable, and money transferred into banks gets bounced around so many different accounts that the paper trail is very difficult to follow. Their advice was to never send money to a stranger over the internet, and to always meet the landlord and view a property before handing over any money.

At this point I felt like more needed to be done to raise awareness of these scams, particularly among users of the noticeboard.

There didn’t seem to be any proper system in place to report these scams to the college. I contacted College to ask about whether they knew about these scams and what they were doing to protect students. They responded saying that students who use the noticeboard do so at their own risk and that while they are aware of

online rent scams, only two such incidents had been reported in the past 10 years. They advised that students wishing to advertise only to others in college should select to post to the local noticeboard, and that those who post on the global noticeboard should cautious of any emails they receive. Finally, they said it was “under consideration” to include additional warnings on the noticeboard form warning students about scams and a reminder to exercise caution in regard to any responses they receive.

Online scams are more prevalent and cunning than I had previously thought. While we’re mostly all able to spot and ignore emails from the Prince of Nigeria, it’s easy to lose your senses when offered your dream apartment at an affordable price. Incoming first years or international students are particularly vulnerable.

Always be vigilant, even when using trusted property websites such as the college’s noticeboard or Daft.ie. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

In retrospect, I've never had to think particularly hard about how to spend my time up until this point. I've leapfrogged from one educational institution to another with a constant objective. I've had to pass exams, achieve grades and progress. The barometer of my success has been laid out before me in terms of numbers, awards and other quantifiable aims. The summers, though long and fraught with potential, were always easy to fill with the number of options that had been put in front of me. J1s, voluntours, au pairing in foreign countries and engaging in menial labour to fund festival tickets and nights out.

As students, we're bombarded with unit-filling activities. We're all bound in the soft cotton wool of these wonderful, wonderful structures and yet operate under the illusion of choice.

In a state of denial, I've been whiling away my time as if it were one protracted, unproductive reading week. Netflix keep updating their library at an alarming rate. I'm embarrassed to admit how many TV series I've watched and how many pairs of sweatpants I've invested in. Weekdays hold no real meaning, so I struggle sometimes to remember whether it's Tuesday or Saturday.

The reality of my situation has been creeping up on me slowly, as I become more uncomfortable with my idleness. The truth of my circumstances encroaches like nightfall, dark and inevitable.

I'm simultaneously putting off doing everything and nothing.

Seven months (the time between now and the new college year) doesn't seem significant, until I realise that I am the one charged with determining how to spend that time. What do I do? Do I get a job? Should I pursue my goals?

What are my goals? Isn't there a person out there who is supposed to tell me how to live my life, and objectively determine whether I'm doing it correctly? Who is responsible for that? My parents?

The government? The internet?

You? I'm having a panic attack.

Desperation

I can completely understand the desperation that inspires people to cut themselves off from modern conveniences and embark on forays into the wilderness.

I briefly considered following in the footsteps of Christopher McCandless and Jesus, hitting the road with a backpack and a pocket knife. It boils down to a strong desire for a tabula rasa, a

hope that cutting oneself off from the constant distractions of the real world will help to discover some strong intuition about one's purpose. As someone who breaks out into a rash after prolonged periods without internet access, I can't see this plan panning out well.

I'm a young woman with no transferable skills who considers making her own dentist appointments a "significant" step towards adulthood. I have no idea how to handle my current circumstances.

I want to travel into the past and punch my younger self for not learning Mandarin or graphic design or computer programming.

I'm furious, because no one prepared me for the swirling, vague abyss of my future. The idea of navigating through life on the compass of my own instinct is terrifying. The only solace I can take is that this small, controlled taster of real life will hopefully mean that I won't be as shocked when I graduate and actually have to figure out what to do with myself.

Preparation

This makes me wonder how my cohorts will fare. Reality is going to hit us all like a truck. Tertiary education attempts to seek out "self-directed" and "entrepreneurial" (hat tip to you, Prendervost) people. Yet I feel like these traits can only exist in a limited capacity when one is being herded through such a structured environment.

We aren't given enough time or preparation to gain the selfawareness to know what we want from this world. We get pushed towards these immediate goals without anyone bothering to inform us that there's a long term to consider. I've been learning for 16 years and yet still find myself in a simple situation that is at the same time devastatingly difficult.

I know it may seem dramatic to claim that we have no real guidance. College hosts career fairs and have advisors on hand to help us determine how to apply our degree. The alumni network (allegedly) is there to help us forge connections that could be helpful in the future.

It's not that I don't know what to do with my future. I have a pretty good idea of where my interests lie and what I will and will not be happy doing. It's that I'm coming to the point in my life (as most people my age are) in which I am only ultimately obligated towards myself, and will be the only one who can determine whether I'm content and whether I've been successful. Yes, I'll need some sort of job to make ends meet. Yes, that will set up some inherent obligation. I could get promotions and work towards goals, not dissimilar to the experience I've had heretofore. When I'm lying awake at night though, thinking about my day and waiting for sleep to come, and I ask myself whether I'm living the best possible life, there's only one person that can answer that question; me.

Do I even want a career? A job after college is the natural progression, in line with societal norms. However it might not make me happy. It stands to reason that there's more than one way to live a life, more than one option to pick. What if I make the wrong choice? Will I know it's the wrong choice? I feel the rumblings of a second panic attack.

I am existing outside the college bubble, and it hasn't been entirely pleasant. My return to Trinity will come around before I even know it, and I am sure the bubble will embrace me again (and I it).

I can't imagine I'll easily forget about all that waits for me posteducation. This new information will either make me more inclined to embrace my experience for what it is, having seen the end in sight, or burden me with a perennial disquiet caused by knowledge of what is yet to come.

I wrote this with the slightly selfish hope that I'd have an epiphany about what to do with my seven months. I haven't, for the record. I'm just as clueless as I was when this began. I'm riding the stormy waters of the big bad world on the flotsam of an interrupted education and some half-baked ideas about who I am as a person. It remains to be seen whether I'll return to the shores of third level with a stronger sense of self or not.

Tuesday 10th February 2015

TRINITY NEWS

Features

7

Former TCDSU presidents look back To mark the election of new sabbatical officers this week, TN reached out to past SU presidents to find out what union life was like during their terms.

Matthew Mulligan Editor-at-Large It all comes down to how you get started. Joe Duffy got involved for very simple reasons. The future USI president and RTÉ broadcaster was motivated to become involved in SU politics by a desire to dismantle the barriers to education that he saw. A letter he wrote to the Irish Times in 1978 as a second year social work student demonstrates this attitude.

“The opening of a new gate on Nassau Street does not hide, nor indeed alleviate, the fact that there is not one student in Trinity from the community directly behind it; the Westland Row, City Quay parish,” writes an incensed Duffy in response to an Irish Times story on the opening of the gate described it as opening “new windows on the world”. Indeed during his time as president he was involved in the setting up of the Union’s Community Week, an event which invited children from the area into the college premises. Duffy’s desire to get young people into the campus went so far that he attempted to get permission to have a circus tent on pitched up on College Park, complete with clowns, trapeze artists and animals.

Many other differences in student union politics can be seen from the 1980s until now. Duffy was surprised when I told him that tickets aren’t really a thing anymore in Trinity. Duffy himself was elected president of the students’ union as part of a ticket which included future Labour Party minister Alex White as deputy president and Liam Hayes as education officer. Once elected, maintaining communications with the student body presented challenges not present in today’s world of Facebook and emails.

The Students’ Union utilised a printing press located in House Six which they would use to make up leaflets to hand to students coming through Front Gate in the morning and distribute around lecture theatres.

Agitation

Along with that, Duffy holds a great fondness for his memories of conducting speeches and debates with other students on the Dining Hall steps, which took place regularly in addition to usual SU council meetings. One of Duffy’s largest displays of agitating resulted in a High Court injunction being issued against him and the rest of the SU officers. Angered over price hikes to the cost of college meals, the upholding of free commons and the subsidising of academics’ meals, the SU led a boycott of the college catering facilities. Instead, they set up their own restaurant and bar in the old Junior Com-

mon Room, at that point housed in the central location of Regent House above Front Arch. When the injunction to attend the High Court was ignored, the leaders of the boycott and occupation were arrested, though not prosecuted.

Duffy regards this as being a “comprehensive victory” for the SU, as College eventually introduced new menus and a catering committee involving students.

Shortly after Joe Duffy’s presidency of TCDSU ended and his time as president of the USI began, a new president was elected who also went on to an RTÉ broadcasting career. Aine Lawlor says she got involved in the SU by “pure happenstance”, though she was active isome publications beforehand. but switched to SU politics when she found herself more adapt at making her points through speeches and talks rather than the written word. She says it was enjoyable to be a female SU president, but that it was also “a rollercoaster” and a challenge.

The difficulties she faced in that position were her “first encounters with sexism and developing the resilience you need to get past that and the rest of life's obstacles”.

Lawlor counts “standing up to the USI over disaffiliation” as her proudest moment, alongside sorting out the Union finances and generally being able to help students. Lawlor has since come back to speak in College about women’s role in leadership, her experiences with breast cancer and women’s role in political life.

A lesson Lawlor took from her time leading the SU is that “the text of leadership is not the conflicts you start but the conflicts you resolve”, a more reconciliatory tone than some presidents have adopted. Lawlor remembers her stint as president fondly, saying that she “saw a side of college life through the students’ union [she] wouldn't have otherwise and that was a privilege”.

Social change

Ivana Bacik was SU president at the very end of the eighties, from 1989 to 1990, and was only the second ever female president of the SU after Aine Lawlor. Her presidential term was carried out at a time where Ireland was going through a lot of social change.

The first referendum on the introduction of divorce failed to pass in 1986, and the fallout from that was still being felt. The country would have its first female president by the end of 1990, and the Norris case had been decided by the European Court Of Human Rights just two years previously. Bacik existed in SU politics against a backdrop of vocal Trinity alumni taking strong stances on varied equality issues, something which may have passed down to the Union of the time.

She became involved in her first year because she “was interested in feminist and equality issues” and because of her perception that “the SU was very active and radical with a high profile on campus, and [she] liked the political work they were doing.”

During the course of her year in office the SU ran campaigns to keep prices affordable for college catering, and also campaigned to keep libraries open longer on campus. For most though, Bacik’s time as SU president is remem

“

Angered over price hikes to the cost of college meals, the upholding of free commons and the subsidising of academics’ meals, the SU led a boycott of college catering facilities. bered for an ongoing incident which revolved around the issue of abortion. During the course of her involvement in the SU, Bacik and other officers made available information to women who were experiencing crisis pregnancies “on all the options open to them.”

Distributing information about abortion was illegal at the time, but as someone who is pro-choice, Bacik feels that the SU had a right to do so, even after she was taken to court by the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child.

She maintains that one of the proudest moments of her presidency was “when TCDSU stood up to the anti-choice movement in the Irish courts […] and Trinity students came out on the streets in large numbers to support us.”

Bacik was in court represented by her lecturer Mary Robinson with the rest of the year spent fighting the case. Several years later it became legal to distribute information on abortion in Ireland.

Though Bacik was a president who became involved in issues that sometimes were bigger than

Top: Joe Duffy addresses protesters as USI president in 1984 and as USI education officer.

Photo: Student History Ireland Project

Bottom: Ivana Bacik joins Trinity students at the 2014 USI rally for education in October.

Photo: Matthew Mulligan

College, she does not think that an SU should necessarily have to immerse itself in national politics, and that there is no right or wrong way to run a students’ union. “I think that SU politics and levels of political activity tend to change depending on the context” she says. “We were often told when I was SU president that we were much less radical than the SU had been in previous years, so it always amuses me to hear students say now that the SU was much more radical back in the late 1989s and early 1990s”.

She thinks that students become involved in the matters that are

important to them, and says she has been “delighted to see so many students involved in SU campaigns on campus in recent years on many different issues”.

Advice

Though these SU presidents achieved a lot during their time in office, they’re hesitant to comment on how the SU should be run at present. Duffy says that no issue is more important than another, and that what matters is getting students involved in the fight for rights. “If plug sockets are the issue, then that’s the issue” he tells me. “Once people re-

alise they can come together and get that, they’ll realise they can come together and fight for bigger things”. Lawlor says that the importance of students’ unions and how they should be run is up to the students of today to decide.

Bacik somewhat agrees that the leaders of the past should not impose their beliefs or determinations upon the current generation, but admits some lessons can be learned when it comes to balancing the focus on local and national issues. “ was a challenge in my time and it remains a challenge for whoever are elected as SU officers this year,” she says.

Remembering a much less mobilised student community Trinity student politics of the 1960s suffered from relentless in-fighting as well a shortage of candidates.

Conor O'Donovan Features Editor Trinity in the 1960s, according to this paper, was a place where “everyone knew everyone”, a claim supported by gossip columns in which campus parties were dissected and students vomiting in Triumph Heralds were named in bold lettering. Student politics, though, was much less mobilised, with TN reporting in 1963 that the purpose of the Student Representative Council (SRC), as the SU was then known, was unclear to most of the student population. The paper, as a result, was unsure whether the candidates, who were all elected unopposed, were the best for the job or whether SRC had become a "closed shop, where the new officers were decided upon amicably among friends." Even more amicable was the proposal, three years later, of a Phil-SRC merger by several members of the SRC executive who also found themselves on that of the Phil, whose finances were not strong at the time.

Despite this amity, the performance of the SRC was often a source of frustration during

the 1960s. In 1963, the executive council was elected by a "handful" of voters, and low polls continued to be a problem throughout the decade. That said, "candidates who manned the polling booths were invariably successful" in the 1967 elections. TN put the disappointing turnout that year down to a lack of sincere campaigning, quoting a newly elected member of the council who felt particularly hypocritical: "For days I have professed an interest in the SRC, when in fact I know virtually nothing about it. My election was a bit of a mistake." Another candidate’s post-election angst was more existential. The "philosophically inclined" Paul O'Mahony, one of two candidates whose late appearance on the ballot caused it to be postponed, was jealous of his rival Edward Meylicke, who received no votes. Apparently, O'Mahony "felt zero was a more powerful number than one."

Resistance to change

The same year, the board made the decision to accept applications from candidates "only a) one of whose parents is a graduate of Trinity College, or b) who have a brother or sister at present attending the college, or c)

one of whose parents was born in Ireland, or d) who are from under-developed countries." Then president of the SRC's executive council, Beverley Vaughn, condemned the move as "deplorable."

It seems TN felt a stronger reaction was in order, predicting "a decline in student vitality and a coming homogeneity in Irish university life."

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Even more amicable was the proposal, three years later, of a PhilSRC merger by several members of the SRC executive.

By the end of the decade, election season dissatisfaction seems to have intensified. In 1969, the initial round of elections were declared void as sachets of acid were "deposited" in some of the ballot-boxes, "destroying an unknown number of ballot-papers."

When the elections were disrupted again a few days later, the returning officer decided to continue the election as only two ballot papers had been destroyed.

The same month, members of Students for Democratic Action and the Young Socialists sought the “sanctuary” of Trinity in order to avoid the attention of Special Branch, following a restless demonstration against continued US involvement in Vietnam at the US embassy

Political rifts

The apparent advent of party politics in Trinity had come the year before and was met with similar levels of consternation. President Vaughn, though "unperturbed" by the group's threats to his office, described the Candidates for Democracy, a group formed to campaign for SU reform, as "deplorable". TN saw through the movement's claims that its candidates were united by policy rath-

er than ideology, reporting that many were known to be left-wing activists while another "large proportion" were republicans.

Amidst the subterfuge, an unidentified member of the SRC defected to join the new democratic candidates. Meanwhile, Sinn Fein was recognised as a society by the CSC. Reform of the SU was frequently mooted over election season during the 1960s and was sometimes a motivating factor for new student parties. Chris McGrath, an independent candidate in the arts constituency in 1968, reasoned that although Trinity should not be "divorced completely from politics," its SRC should attempt to "change Trinity first and the world afterwards."

The electoral reforms introduced that year included the introduction of proportional representation and an end to the practice of voting "by proxy." In this atmosphere, the Moderate Reform Party was formed the week before elections in the hope that "the good work which the SRC has done in the past will not be destroyed by bickering." McGrath later denounced the party as "mainly reactionary." The following year was the first in which

president and vice president were to be offered sabbatical years, and candidates across the board "joined in an earnest appeal for an exceptionally high poll in order to demonstrate to the Board that their concessions have not been greeted apathetically."

Personality politics

The college's association with the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) was another recurring issue during the 1960s. In 1969, presidential candidate Adrian Bourke felt the formation of the Irish Student Employment and Travel Agency would mean the end of the USI. Later in the year, Mark Oxley claimed the subject of disaffiliation had been "fostered by (presidential candidate) Revington as a classic Harold Wilson trick to avoid discussing internal problems." As Soviet ideologues exerted control over the USI, Revington argued the organisation was "completely divorced from student opinion."

To further the case for dissafiiation, Revington referred to a recent conference in Galway at which Trinity delegates were so drunk that they couldn't "perform any useful function." Welfare officer, Ian Hamilton, responded by

pointing out that only three out of the 14 delegates had been drunk "for any lengthy period of time" and that one had consequently had his voting card confiscated.

According to TN, the 1969 elections saw "slight lessening" in the importance of personality in campaigning. It seems the intimacy of the Trinity experience in the 1960s gave rise to enmity, as well as amity. Later that year, acrimony prevailed at a meeting of the SRC executive where standing orders had been removed to allow then-president Ciaran McKeown to speak. Many were subsequently taken aback when he opened the meeting by slamming the executive for not officially inviting him. McKeown made a hasty exit and the vice-president adjourned the meeting, stating it had been reduced to "personal mud-slinging vendettas that were of no use and certainly of no credit to the SRC." In the elections that May, Trinity News comments that the victorious Revington (who seems to have been demoted by the time of this meeting) subdued his "usual effervescent self" in what was a "low-key campaign." Contemporary readers are left to wonder what might have been.

Tuesday 10th February 2015

TRINITY NEWS

Features

8

Lessons from love and longing

Illustration: Mariam Ahmad

With Valentine’s day fast approaching, six students offer timely reflections on what they have learned from relationships, romance and accidently uploading naked selfies to Facebook.

Love is kindness Orlaith Traynor

When I was 19, I hurdled into that powerful force field they called love. His name was Joe. It all seemed to equate to an intoxicating mesh of endless hand holding in the car and my mouth morphing into a Cheshire cat grin. You can’t prepare yourself for that immersive first dalliance.

I realised months later in November how lovely being in love with Joe was. One Sunday night I got horribly sick after a bad reaction to some medicine. I was very conscious of my limp weedy retching self, clasping the toilet bowl with martyrdom pallor urging him to go home. The aroma of vomit isn’t conducive to any new relationship. The night dragged on and I fell asleep with him sitting worrying in my window seat near my bed.

The next morning it all looked brighter when I woke up. I was momentarily stunned when I saw him curled up on my cold wooden floor like a muscular kitten, lying on an old coat beside my bed. It just hit me then: he had stayed.

And he didn’t even mind. He was as friendly as ever in the crumpled shadow of morning. Love is so powerful that it really has the ability to slice you into galactic particles if it goes pear shaped, but with the right person life kind of clicks. I know I can be patronising to my friends who aren’t in relationships, agonizing over Tinder, but why shouldn’t everyone accept they deserve the best kind of love? I love the smoky atmospheric conversations that take place unexpectedly with friends when they detail their dating.

Their enthusiasm is exuberating.

I also love reliving summer 2012 as it unfolded listening back to old songs all tainted with dizzying happiness.

But ultimately I am in love with the residual, determined and sometimes euphoric kind of love I experience everyday with Joe. When I see older couples milling around parks and shops with cute little dogs on leads I wonder if they can just reveal all their secrets and save me the philosophising. What I’ve learned however is very miniscule in the grand scheme of things; but it is important. Being kind is imperative. Having separate lives which occasionally interlink allows you personal space. Being compassionate towards your loved one is demonstrably essential. These things can help dissipate fights and in the long term nourish patient love. It is easy to court love but much harder to sustain it in the neat cracks that surround real life. This year my beloved has had his spine sliced open twice and his life is in a transient hazy place.

In the aftermath of something like that it is restorative to just eat

yellow M&M’s in silence holding hands. It is sometimes just everything to be still and breathe it all in together. Frost said it best: “love is the irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired.”

Don’t let Mam see your nudes Matthew Mulligan

Smart phones have had a massive impact on relationships. Coming of age right in the thick of the digital revolution, my adolescence started with a Bebo profile and ended with an internet enabled, high quality picture taking iPhone in my pocket. It’s always there, whether cheering me up or connecting me to friends. It’s also there for when my hormones get the best of me and I have to have some fun.

“

I hold my phone – front- facing camera active – above my head (no face, no incrimination), arch my back slightly to accentuate my curves and snap away.

I like to look good, and when I look good there’s nothing I enjoy more than making a pose and snapping a photo. From coy topless selfies to more explicit full nude pics, this has become part and parcel of life for many people, and I’m no exception. Just make sure you keep an eye on them, especially if you’re constantly at it.

Phones also have the amazing capacity to have apps such as Grindr accessible right alongside more innocent ones like Facebook. This creates a beautiful balance allows you to show off the photos of you doing a less clothed version of #SockOnACock on Grindr and keep ones of family, college and beautiful sunrises for Facebook and Twitter. It’s disappointing when someone puts a sunrise on their Grindr profile, but I know from experience that it is disastrous when you put a nude on Facebook.

Picture the scene. It’s 1:34 am on a Saturday night. I’ve been texting a guy for the last two hours and things are going well,

but I can’t continue to extract nudes from him without giving some of myself – the tipping point has been reached. I decide to start with something soft core, but with a naughty punch. I get up, and go stand naked with my back to the full length bathroom mirror. I hold my phone – frontfacing camera active – above my head (no face, no incrimination), arch my back slightly to accentuate my curves and snap away.

Definitely one of my best, and better than all his so I’ll probably get through the rest of the night on this one photo.

I’m feeling so pleased with myself that I decide to share an uncharacteristically cheerful status on Facebook. “Feeling just peachy!” I type into my phone as I laugh to myself. This is great.

My finger accidentally brushes against the photo button above the keyboard and I don’t notice. In the split second between that button being pressed and my thumb coming down to type the next letter, all changed, and changed utterly…

My bare ass was suddenly unapologetically splashed across the news feeds of 546 Facebook users, and the likes rolled in. I never knew so many of my friends were nocturnal. The commentary on what has just happened has spread to Twitter. In between receiving sleazy messages, calling me everything from a slut to the more observant “sweet cheeks”, I frantically attempted to delete the offending photo, only to find that such a failsafe was not included on the app version of Facebook!

I raced downstairs to find my laptop underneath a pile of clothes on the armchair. Remembering that I recently accepted a friend request from my mother prompted me to practically scream with terror as I finally found the option to end my misery and remove the photo from my wall.

Slinking back up to bed where my phone laid, I logged back on to Grindr to be comforted by my waiting Romeo. A little blue dot hung over his profile and I read his message. He was gone and had withdrawn all his photos. “All I asked for was a pic, I didn’t know you were such a prude. Has anyone ever even seen you naked?”

Ibiza is the island of fidelity Michela Esposito

When Carrie asks Big in Sex and the City if he believes in love at first sight, he answers only as Big can: ''I believe in lust at first sight.'' I have never known what to make of Carrie's question, and always found myself leaning towards Big's lusty view of romance; that is until I ventured to Space nightclub in Ibiza circa 2013, mojito-fuelled and ready to rave.

I had just turned 19, I was with my best friend on the party-island for two weeks and I was ceremoniously bejewelled with glow sticks ready to experience Space Ibiza, the Mecca of the house-loving nineties-baby. That old adage of love or lust at first sight never rattled me, and after a pitcher of Mambo's daiquiri that fateful June night I reckoned that any found 'love' would be stamped on a happy pill, served with 12 hours of dancing.

I have always been one to think of 'love' as like winning ¤2 on a scratch card: if you're always looking to win you never will. But one day when you least expect it you strike gold and bam, you're smugly perusing the McDonald's Eurosaver menu. You cannot look for love. When the time is ripe and you are independent, loving life, it will just appear. And that's just what happened to me: when Disclosure's set ended and I was jumping around wildly to Dusky's 'Nobody Else' I met my future best friend and boyfriend.

I have rather unbelievably conquered the insurmountable 'Holiday Romance' and the 'LongDistance Love' and now two years later the English boy who I danced all night with in Space has moved to Dublin to be with me. Whether it was the ecstasy, love, lust, or pure coincidence, I met my best friend that night and as we stumbled into a taxi at 7am as the sun rose over Bora Bora our story began. We spent the remainder of the holiday together, romantically sharing gravy chips on the road by a bin one night (our first date) before spending our last night carrying one another back to the hotel, soon realising our mutual 'lightweight' drinking stamina.

When the holiday ended we parted ways, with him heading back to Northampton and I to Dublin. I laughed when he said he would come to visit me in two weeks, just in time to celebrate his birthday in my neck of the woods. When I stumbled out of arrivals into my mammy's arms (wearing a cowboy hat and a Buddha around my neck I might add), I cried my eyes out. Maybe it was the emotion of leaving my English lover or maybe it was the two weeks' worth of sambuca still pounding through my body but either way I was met with an eye-roll as she heard about my mystery buachaill deas: ''Don't be telling your Daddy about your traipsing around an island with some English 'how-do-you-do' you little Jezebel.'' Ah, young love.

Two weeks later I found myself (minus cowboy hat) waiting for an English boy at Dublin airport arrivals, stripped of my glow sticks and the camouflage of a mini cocktail umbrella. It was the most nerve-wrecking moment of my life to say the least. Ultimately, he

missed his flight home that weekend. We continued our whirlwind romance et voilà, we had begun a long-distance relationship. For a year and six months, we travelled every second weekend across that wretched barrier of the Irish Sea and would spend one or two days together. People were often brought to tears by our story. Oh how romantic our Ryanair Romance must have seemed! We were certainly star-crossed lovers, but for some reason I don't think Juliet ever had to balance studying for her degree, working to afford flights, and travelling every odd weekend to get a glimpse of her dear Romeo never mind lug a suitcase around, ruining the whole ''fairest-of-them-all'' look.

No goodbye was ever easier than the previous one, and every hello brought back those pesky butterflies. Whether I was in the right place at the right time or whether karma decided it was meant to be (I can thank my little Ibiza Buddha possibly), after our night in June we simply couldn't party without one another. That Balearic island certainly has a lot to answer for: on Christmas Eve last year my mystery Ibiza lover decided to pack up his life in England and move to Dublin and we've been gracing the underground Dublin party scene together ever since. My lesson in love? Forget love at first sight, or lust at first sight, when the right moment comes it comes. Oh, and also, meet the love of your life at a rave. That seems to do the trick.

“

It is glaringly obvious that you are a massive lesbian.

Come out to yourself Naoise Dolan

Having boyfriends feels dishonest, but not in a way you can locate. The closest term you can stick onto it is ‘using people’ - but for what, exactly? What does a heterosexual relationship get you, except ‘a heterosexual relationship’? And why isn’t that making you happy?

But you know why, and have known long before you had the word for it. It is glaringly obvious that you are a massive lesbian. You laugh at yourself in the mirror the first time you say it to yourself. Painfully apparent, too, that time and time again, you mistook wishful thinking for love.

That you’ll have to start over now.

I’m not a Disney princess

Girlfriends over boyfriends

I spent my formative years with headphones on and my nose in a book. I rejected most crooners in favour of punk rock, rom-coms for action sequences and preferred stories of dragon chasers and vampire hunters to the writings of Jane Austen (but damn if Colin Firth in the white shirt didn’t get my attention anyway).

I was mostly taken by tales of superheroes, and there was one character that caught my attention above all others: Lois Lane, the stylish, sharp-tongued, award-winning reporter who just happens to be dating Superman.

Talk about a dream life! I figured if there was anyone on whom to model my life it was her. With an established career, home and sense of self, Lois Lane had all her ducks in a row before settling down. I would do the same if it weren’t for the recession limiting job opportunities, housing options, and so on.

One criticism I often face is that I don’t put myself out there, or I’m not open to dating. In my defence, I have dipped my foot into the dating pool. It’s not my fault that the good stuff is covered with pond scum, but I guess that’s why they tell you to dive in. My indifference to dating has been mistaken as “waiting for the perfect person,” but the truth is I’m waiting to be the perfect person.

I was hoping to have all my issues resolved by the time I fell in love, and I see now how that’s naively on par with waiting for Prince Charming.

I was raised on strict diet of Disney films and all the songs that really stuck with me are duets.

Two people working hard to stay in harmony: there’s a metaphor for love in there somewhere. But is it fair to join a duet not knowing your own voice? Ariel, Aurora and Belle were all comfortable belting out their tunes before they met their princes. I didn’t think I could share my life with someone if I didn’t know what I wanted from life. For this reason I shunned the idea of falling in love for the longest time.

This whole time, I failed to realise that I grew up watching a great love story unfold before me.

For nearly 30 years, my parents have been laughing and dancing their way through life. While they didn’t have it all sorted, they had an idea of what they wanted so they worked together to get it. Perhaps my life could still be a Broadway production. I’ll just have to let love see it through the work- in-progress phase, stage fright and bad reviews. If I have to put in the work, it might as well be for a good duet.

I was never really a girl’s girl growing up; I didn’t understand a lot of the subtleties involved in maintaining female friendships.

I spoke in very straightforward terms, and didn’t pick up on a lot of the things that teenage girls get offended by. Not agreeing on opinions for example, or sometimes just agreeing too much, because actually, liking Russell Brand is kind of their thing.

So I stayed in my comfort zone, and usually made friends with guys, because I laughed at dirty jokes, and could quote Anchorman. As we got older things got more complicated. Everyone starts to feel that their friendship changes when their friend is in a relationship, but it’s much messier when you’re friends with a member of the opposite sex.

While I had a lot of male friends growing up, I didn’t have many boyfriends, so I didn’t understand the other side of being jilted so that your mate can hang out with their girlfriend. It wasn’t until I was 18 that I got into a serious relationship, with a guy that I met through a bunch of lad mates.

The transition into college is a rocky time for secondary school friendships. I was unsure about my course and suffering from a particularly prolonged bout of the freshers’ flu. I had zero energy to go out once a week, let alone take part in the seemingly standard constant binge. All of my social interaction dwindled down to lazy nights in eating pizza and watching TV, with my then boyfriend. I started to rely more and more on my boyfriend to be my best friend. He would be jealous of my being close to other guys, as if playing board games with a couple of cans somehow muscled in on what we had. I had never imagined that breaking up with him involved breaking up with our mutual friends. I found myself left with the girls who I had always felt uncomfortable around.

What I discovered was that being friends with women was very different to being friends with girls. Everyone was less worried about appearing feminine, because we already knew we were.

Also, minus the people who lied to avoid hurting feelings, giving an honest opinion was suddenly valued. Becoming close friends with the women around me has been amazing. Girl talk not only includes pretty much the same stupid jokes I could make with lads, but also overwhelming support and understanding of exclusively female problems. That messy breakup created the strong bonds I’ve made with my ladies.

I now feel like a stronger person.

Adina Sulemane

Julie Farrell

Tuesday 10th February 2015

TRINITY NEWS

Features

9

Bringing the Korean Wave to Ireland Heavy cost of Kpop Ireland and Cork-based magazine Japako are among the groups making waves in order to promote Korean culture and merchandise in Ireland.

Michael Lanigan Online Features Editor In late November, the TCD Global Room saw itself playing host to an overwhelmingly large gathering of students and local Dubliners for the Korean Society’s culture day. Packed to the rafters, the sound of music and voices spilled out into the hallways of the Hamilton Building. Inside, it was difficult enough to manoeuvre around the peripheries. Crowds were crammed around food stalls, passing around gimbap seaweed rolls, tteokbokki rice cakes and glasses of black raspberry wine.

Countless numbers honed in on attractions obscured from view by each group’s close-knit formation, while many more stood hypnotised by the nine plasma screens with the almost blinding glare of neon and spandex coming from an endless roll of K-pop music videos.

The event was the first of its kind and from brief conversations that I could manage with the six people running the show, in between their frantic attempts to dole out food for insatiably voracious attendees, they seemed equally surprised. Yet the Korean Embassy had been advertising this event on their Facebook page for weeks, and about ten days prior, they had already called upon non-students to register in order to gain entry, such was the glut of interest that the exhibition provoked.

The Embassy had been devoting a significant amount of time and resources. They hoped to make the cultural exposé a milestone, to capitalise on the success of their Fantasia Music Festival during August, which I learned more about from Sangyeob Han, the society’s head. We spoke quite recently, when he told me, “The Korean Embassy has been very proactive and helpful in terms of

financial resources and tangible assets. Our society has been facing greater difficulties in receiving funds for from our university despite recruiting more members than last year.”

“We had been in close contact with the Embassy as it was our first time to try something new; moving away from the popular belief that K-pop is at the heart of Korean culture and towards more traditional values and categories.”

In the run up to this day, he continued, the two parties exchanged a vast swathe of ideas to bolster the event’s strength, with the embassy offering various books, DVDs and their secretary, to give a talk on the Korean economy.

Hallyu

What struck me as interesting here was the fact that this showcase came at a time when various other similar organisations were making efforts to solidify a sturdy base of followers on these shores.

While Hallyu, otherwise known as the Korean Wave has become a bona fide global phenomenon, its impact seems to have gone unnoticed in Ireland. However, having seen a noticeable rise in popularity here over the past two years, 2015 gives the impression of being a fertile year for growth as its various exporters and supporters are attempting to move out of niche circles and reach a broader Irish audience.

Hallyu has been championed the world over as the first economic phenomenon of the 21st century and a cutting edge example of marketing one small nation’s distinct lifestyle and culture, without compromising its values in the process. The concept originally came about as a means of reviving the Korean economy after it plummeted into serious debt during the Asian Financial crisis of 1997. The economy was further hindered by a 1953 US Mutual Defence Treaty, which restricted their developing of military-based technology.

Soft power

Through a radical form of rebranding, Korea rose to its feet as innovators of soft power, information technology and popular culture. Taking its extensive history as a third world country into account, the movement spread outwards with a view towards marketing in other developing countries.

First, it captivated audiences across the Far and South-East areas of Asia, before making a

major impact on the Middle East.

Then, once Hallyu reached the United States in the late 00’s, its presentation was of such high a standard that Korea became the underdogs of style. In the words of American-Korean journalist Euny Hong, the state salvaged itself by audaciously “peddling cool”. However, Europe remained outside its grasp, at least until April 2011, when the Seoul-based entertainment company SM brought several of its idol groups to perform in France. The event sparked a media circus after Choe Junho, a theatre director, orchestrated a pop coup d’etat of flashmob protests in eleven French cities, which was allegedly backed by the South Korean government. With this, the doors were thrown wide open. Europe saw eight more K-Pop concerts over the next two years, while 2013 brought 12 and 2014 exceeded 40.

International student Ellen McClure describes the extortionate costs faced by non-EU students studying in Ireland.

Bláithín Shiel Staff Writer Irish students’ discontent with the yearly increase in fees is an often documented bone of contention. As it stands for this academic year, EU students pay a student contribution of ¤2,750, while our tuition fee of ¤2,931 is covered by the HEA. But the total cost of education for international students is far higher than the rate set for Irish students. Ellen McClure, a second-year Law and French student hailing from Alberta, Canada, pays ¤16,430 a year for her course and sees Irish students are quite fortunate compared to those from outside the European Union.

Plans for Ireland

Now, the next in line appears to be Ireland, and there are two groups working towards making this so.

While the TCD Korean Society work on a broader level of showcasing more traditional forms of the culture, Japako, a Cork-based magazine, which distributes globally, and a Facebook page known as Kpop Ireland, which serves as a hub and merchandise exchange site, are campaigning to emanate the Paris phenomenon, albeit on a smaller-scale. Within these circles, I spoke with a significant number of people who travelled as far as Las Vegas to see their favourite idol groups. They are now actively fighting to bring groups to Dublin.

As co-founder and CEO of Japako Magazine, Sandie VGA plays a major role in attempting to bring Korean and Japanese performers to Europe. Her magazine, originally based in Germany, began to recruit writers globally two years ago with the purpose of promoting far-east Asian pop culture on the continent. However, the magazine relocated to Cork in order to break new ground, as opposed to blending in where such waves had already established a mass following. “We were used to seeing artists come over to France, Germany, Poland and sometimes the UK”, she told me.

“However, many other countries were forgotten, so we want to be able to bring a few artists to those places too now.”

In regards to Ireland, Japako are currently in the process of bringing several performers over

Why did you come to Ireland as opposed to other EU countries?

Psy's Gangnam Style and other K-Pop songs became worldwide sensations from 2012. here, including the male idol group Block B, otherwise known as that band who can send 1.5 million people into convulsions. To secure this show, which would most likely open the floodgates in Ireland, they have worked in conjunction with the K-Pop Ireland Facebook group, by creating online petitions. After months of campaigning, they are nearing their goal.

At the helm of this online hub is Carrie Moon, one of those in attendance at the now infamous Parisian SM concert in 2011, who is now known as the Mom of Irish K-Pop. Having unified a group of over one thousand impassioned Hallyu fans nationwide by creating events in both Dublin and Belfast, her activities have led to this partnership with Japako and sponsorship from the Parnell Street Korean restaurant Kimchi.

She is creating a budding network, which after four years, has made enormous strides for Korean culture here.

When I asked about how this movement has progressed in Ireland, she came back to me with an immensely optimistic and ambitious view for the coming year, based on what she has seen occur over the last twelve months alone.

“There are now Korean societies in almost all of the major colleges,” she said. “K-Pop is being included in the Irish convention scene at last, the Embassy held their first ever K-pop festival (in which an Irish dance team were sent to Korea and won the grand prize), and now we have the Block B campaign, so from this, I can really see things getting better.”

“It’s funny, because in the beginning, I just wanted to bring fans together so I could have more friends who liked K-pop, but after that, it became so much more. It is amazing that we could now join a global community. We just hope people can continue to support our campaign.”

Women on Web a viable alternative for Irish women seeking abortions The website has created a makeshift support network for those experiencing unwanted pregnancies.

Sarah Morel Staff Writer If you’ve spent any time on campus, you’ve probably noticed the vast amount of red and white stickers advertising ‘’Free Abortion Pills Online’’. Stickers with the familiar red dot and unusual offer have been stuck in almost every public space and female toilet currently in use on campus since the beginning of Michaelmas 2014. But perhaps even more striking than the vast amount of stickers that have appeared since the start of the year is the controversy that has erupted over what they advertise.

I doubt there exists a Women on Web sticker on campus that hasn’t been vandalised beyond recognition, with the all-important web addresses scratched off, only to be scrawled in again across the undamaged parts of the sticker soon after. Other individuals have written entries on their experiences with the website, encouraging their peers to turn to the website in times of need, while some have sent out warnings of the dangers of using internet bought medications.

All of this is taking place within the confines of each individual sticker.

It is difficult to say who is in the right. Indeed, the purchase and use of abortion pills is a little like a game of Russian roulette. The client will not know the result until she has actually used the pills, and any number of outcomes are possible with regards to side effects and complications. The legal repercussions that may arise are also unclear, especially in a country with such restricted laws as Ireland. Mysteries abound as to what the truth is behind this enigmatic website womenonweb.org.

What is Women on Web?

Womenonweb.org was founded

by Dutch doctor and abortion activist Rebecca Gomperts. Before the website, Gomperts worked from a boat which boasted a licensed abortion clinic onboard, performing medical abortions on passengers using mifepristone

and misoprostol, which is what the website now delivers to clients. The website defines itself as an international support network for women in need of abortion, as well as those recovering from one. This comes across in the composition of the site, as it is split up into two sections: the “I need an abortion” section and the “I had an abortion” section.

When you click on the “I need an abortion” tab you are referred to a page with all the relevant information for carrying out a medical abortion. Accordingly, you can only acquire the medications if: 1) you live in a country where abortion is restricted 2) if you are under nine weeks pregnant, as the abortion must be carried out before the end of the first trimester to reduce the chance of complications and 3) you have no severe illnesses. You are then referred to a licensed doctor in an online consultation who will ask the client ‘’approximately 25 questions’’ to assess if they have any contraindications or an episcopal pregnancy. According to an August 2014 New York Times article by Emily Bazelon, Women on Web uses five licensed doctors who work part time for the website, and apparently, these are the doctors that one converses with before a prescription is given.

And the medication?

The advertisement of ‘’free abortion pills online’’ presents a contradiction. Following the consultation with the online doctor, the client is asked to donate anything between ¤70 and ¤90 in order for the service to continue to operate as it does. Of course, the real question is, what is the donation paying for exactly?

As outlined above, Women on Web provides the patient with a combination of two pills, mifepristone and misopristol. Mifepristone has an illegal status in Ireland, whereas misopristol is tightly regulated, and for these reasons, many Irish women organise an address in Northern Ireland in order to collect the pills as to avoid problems arising with customs.

However, according to an Irish

Times article by Carol Ryan on the issue of medical abortion, in 2009, bulk portions of mifepristone and misopristol were seized by the authorities, indicating that an Irish medical abortion market was, and still could be, operating in Ireland today.

The pills work by inducing a miscarriage, and according to the website, the effects of the pills are in no way different to the effects of an ordinary spontaneous miscarriage which occurs in 1520% of pregnancies. In instances of incomplete abortion or other complications, the website have discovered a sort of loophole in navigating the legal landscape of countries where abortion is banned completely or extremely restricted.

For example, in the FAQ section of the website, it is recommended that in cases where medical attention is needed, that the patient should testify to their doctor that they have had a miscarriage rather than have induced an abortion should legal issues arise.

For this reason, the service has also recommended that the protocol for taking the medication should be to dissolve the misopristol dosage under their tongue, rather than via a pessary as any evidence of usage will disappear in a matter of hours rather than a few days.

Women on Web states that the pills have been “thoroughly researched and recommended by the World Health Organization” and have been placed on the Model List of Essential Medicines, due to the fact that thousands of women die from unsafe abortion procedures every year. According to the WHO, 21.6 million women worldwide experience an unsafe abortion each year with 47,000 of these dying as a result of complications from an unsafe abortion.

These deaths make up 13% of all maternal deaths.

What happens when you perform a medical abortion?

The ‘’I had an abortion’’ section of the website is full of testimonies from users all over the world.

Through this, Women on Web

being an international student

has created a makeshift support network for those experiencing the trials and tribulations of an unwanted pregnancy or the decision to have an abortion. In total, there are 30 testimonies hailing from Ireland, by women of different ages and of different socio-economic backgrounds and situations, all with equally unique experiences of the drugs.

According to the website, the typical response to the pills is that of prolonged bleeding for up to three weeks accompanied by painful cramps. However other side effects may occur and are indeed common, such as nausea, fever, hot flashes and headaches.

These effects normally occur just a few hours after taking the pills.

The website also boasts a section on the risk of complications in line with how far into the pregnancy the pills have been taken.

As aforementioned, the sooner the better and the pills will not be provided after the nine-week mark, as they are in fact sourced in India and will not arrive before the end of the first trimester otherwise. If they are taken before nine weeks, the risk is relatively low at 2% facing complications.

However, as it seems complications do indeed arise, the website stipulates that the purchaser not be more than 60 minutes away from medical assistance.

Of the many testimonies that are available, most, if not all have, had a positive experience with the medical abortion service provided by the pills. Indeed, what is interesting is the lack of negative experiences and also the lack of testimonies on websites that are not associated with Women on Web in some way.

Women on Web has stated on their website that they receive “thousands of emails from women all over the world every day’’ searching for support, but upon contact with organisations such as the Irish Family Planning Association or Irish pro-choice campaigns, no information is available on the amount of Irish women that actually avail of the service, and perhaps understandably due to the legality of using the pills.

“

Clients are asked to donate anything between €70 and €90 for the service to continue after consultions.

The women giving the testimonies all give varying results, with some declaring it a ‘’comfortable experience lasting only a week’’, while another woman declared it ‘’the worst pains imaginable’’.

When asked what they felt following the procedure, most answered that they experienced feelings of sadness and guilt but a realization that it was their best option.

The majority of cases stated that the results lasted only a week but with some cases lasting longer, up to three or four weeks.

None of the Irish cases detailed any complications.

Despite the efforts of pro-life movements and all their affiliates, abortion is a huge issue in the lives of contemporary women. The procedure may be illegal itself on Irish soil but it is completely legal for women to know their options and travel abroad to avail of the service. However, it goes without saying that abortions are expensive. According to the Irish Family Planning Association, a surgical abortion can cost anywhere between ¤600 and ¤2,000 not including travel and accommodation costs.

Due to the simple fact of cost, it’s not feasible for many Irish women, especially students, to travel for a safe abortion. For many, Women on Web might well be the best option for many Irish women looking for support for an unwanted pregnancy.

Trinity Law School ranked higher than other EU law schools. I came for the education. In Canada it’s far harder to get a law degree.

You have to do an undergraduate degree first to be admitted to law school. Essentially, it takes four years longer to achieve the same result.

Are the fees you pay here lower than they would be in Canada?

No, for me to study in Ireland costs $25,000 more than it would cost me for the same education in Canada, due to exchange rates and other hidden expenses. At home, our fees are heavily subsidised, but not to the same extent as here. In Canada, it costs approximately $8,000 per year, roughly ¤5,000, which actually is not much more expensive than Ireland, minus the additional costs. In theory, the cost is the same for a Canadian student to attend university in Canada.

Where it becomes more expensive is when I come to study in Ireland with all the hidden costs of being an international student.

The exchange rates change constantly, and can be hard to predict.

Depending on when exactly you pay your fees, you can get seriously ripped off by the exchange rate. It can be a matter of weeks sometimes, and it is impossible to tell when is the best time.

Is it worth paying the higher fees here?

No, I wouldn't have come had I known the true expense. There are also so many incidentals, extra fees and payments that come up throughout the year. A visa costs ¤300 per year, and transferring money is a huge issue as there is an $100 fee every time. When you combine all these accumulative charges with the exchange rate, the total cost of living and educating myself here was far more than I had anticipated.

Do you feel that Ireland has cheated you?

That's putting it strongly, but they definitely didn't make it clear just how expensive it was going to be. They put the ¤16,000 fee out there and don’t really tell you anything else. That is left to the student to figure out on arrival, when it is already too late.

I don’t think the quality of education I am receiving is in line with the fees I pay, and the lower cost of education in Canada does not reflect a lower standard of education.

Were there any other things that shocked you?

Coming from a country where healthcare is 100% free, it was a shock to pay for it here. Free healthcare is understood in a different sense here, where certain social groups and categories have medical cards. At home consultations, operations, medications, health scans, are all free. Luckily, the College Health Centre doesn't charge a consultation fee, but that is about the only thing. Moreover, I can't benefit from a healthcare plan here because I'm not a citizen. When faced with unforeseen health issues I have to pay upfront, which luckily for me has not been an issue. The Canadian government would reimburse some of my expenses, but that doesn't help in the initial moment when faced with a fee for a couple of hundred euro.

Do you think it is fair that only the wealthy can afford education?

Absolutely not. Everyone deserves the opportunity to be educated and to study abroad as there

By numbers:

€16,430 Ellen’s annual tuition fee

€300 Annual visa fee

3% Increase in international fees this year

18% Targeted proportion of international TCD students by 2019 is huge social and intellectual value in doing so. It costs me just under $50,000 a year to be here including tuition, living costs, accommodation and flights.

The average Canadian income is $48,250. You need to be earning double the average income, at least $100,000 to be able to support yourself at home as well as your child abroad. Most of my friends parents back home have a similar income to mine, but they still wouldn't be able to come here, as you have to have $200,000 saved to cover the cost of the four years. I'm very lucky.

Were there any scholarship opportunities for you here?

No, there are fewer scholarship opportunities for Irish students [than in Canada] and none at all for internationals. In applying to Trinity, there are no scholarships that you can be guaranteed to have before you sit your final school exams, or enter the university. You may get awarded one once you are in. On the other hand it is pretty common to hear of Irish students going abroad on scholarship, be it sporting or academic. Because Ireland relies on the money that international students bring, it doesn't make sense to give international students scholarships. This poses a larger question. I feel that I am partly funding the education of my Irish counterparts. If universities didn't have as many international students, the Irish would have to pay more.

Do you think charging foreign students a higher rate is justified? If you were attending university at home, would you feel it was justified that foreigners paid more?

Now that I've been an international student I would say that we should pay similar fees, even if it meant that as a local student at home I would pay more. Going abroad is such an experience, so we should incentivise it rather than penalising internationals.

Beforehand I would have said that of course foreign students should pay more, but experience has changed my view.

Given the fees that you pay, do you feel that Irish students should stop complaining about our fees, given the education that we get for it?

A university needs money to run so it's not realistic to expect not to pay anything; also, given inflation, it's not realistic to expect fees to remain stagnant. The way the university generates the extra revenue could be reviewed. A higher tuition fee for Irish students that would encompass all the extra little charges that have been recently proposed would be more effective as it would hit the students once instead of multiple times. As someone who gives an arm and a leg to go to Trinity, it's hard for me to weep about an extra couple of hundred euro.

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Tuesday 10th February 2015

TRINITY NEWS

Features

11

War reporting as art in a modern age Steve McQueen and David Cotterrell might be among the last in a history of battlefield artists.

Tadgh Healy Deputy Features Editor At the Abbey Theatre’s recent war symposium, artist David Cotterrell spoke about the ethical impasse associated with finding an artistic subject in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. Whilst there in 2007, he wrote in his diary: “Two Afghan children and their dignified elderly-looking father appear from the ambulances. I am struck by how beautiful they are.

The son has shrapnel to his face and is in pain. The daughter has a wound to her leg and looks like aliens have abducted her. She is wide-eyed and confused.”

Finding beauty in suffering

Illustration:: Mubashir Sultan

Little support for Vietnamese migrants kept trapped in Irish grow houses

Ireland's legal system has failed to protect vulnerable migrants who have been brought over to work in our growing cannabis trade.

Michael Lanigan Online Features Editor In January, a story began to circulate in national and international press outlets, detailing the arrest and imprisonment of a 54-yearold Vietnamese woman, charged with unlawful possession of cannabis for supply and sale contrary to section 15 of the Misuse of Drugs Act (1977). This woman, originally from rural Vietnam back, came to Europe in 2012 under the false pretence of gaining employment as a child-minder.

Upon arriving, she found herself working as a cultivator in a growhouse, located on the Lagan Road Dublin Industrial Estate. It was then in November of the same year, that Gardaí apprehended her, during a raid on the building, which had been padlocked from its outside.

In 2013, she applied for recognition as a victim of human trafficking, in accords with EU regulations. However, the High Court refused the claim and as a result, she remains in prison, awaiting an appeal to her case. Anti-Slavery International have cited her story as being but one part of a major problem in the Irish legislative system. Due to several legal loopholes, the hierarchies of various drug gangs remain unprosecuted, while the victims of forced labour remain unidentified as such, but are treated as criminals with few exceptions.

Growing trend

The Migrant Rights Centre of Ireland expanded upon this accusation in their 2014 study, entitled ‘Trafficking for Forced Labour in Cannabis Production: The Case for Ireland’. The paper expressed

key concerns regarding the maltreatment and exploitative nature of Irish grow houses, while also addressing the shortcomings of Irish authorities in their investigations.

The report found a distinct pattern in the state’s prosecution of cannabis gardeners, showing that those of Chinese and Vietnamese origins frequently face harsher treatment at the hands of our judicial system, than that of similar workers from either Irish, or European backgrounds. Here, MCRI noted that between 2011 and 2013, there were 51 convictions for cultivation of cannabis in total, 25 of which involved Chinese and Vietnamese workers, while 18 were Irish nationals. However, there were five Irish growers incarcerated, as opposed to 24 south-east Asians.

Furthermore, in 2013, MRCI found that overall, Gardaí had held 80 Asians in custody for drug-related offences, 36 of whom were charged for cannabis cultivation, while in 2014, a further 32 were imprisoned for the same reason. The rights group added to these statistics, by saying that 75% of these arrests fell under the category of exploitation and maltreatment, due to extremely poor housing conditions, confiscation of legal documents and low, if not any payment whatsoever. Yet, despite this fact, Irish authorities have only begun to treat their investigations as cases of forced labour, or human trafficking this year. Although this is a step in the right direction, the complex social and cultural reality behind the grow-house matte indicates that a drastic change of approach is still required.

Origins

For Ireland, the problem goes back to late 2007, when the Police Service of Northern Ireland conducted a major clampdown on grow-house activities around the Belfast area, during the awardwinning sting, Operation Mazurka. This began in October, when the PSNI Drug Squad uncovered a previously unknown series of organised criminal networks linked to South-East Asian gangs, who were operating around the state capital.

The operation led to the closure of 78 cultivation sites, 86 arrests and a seizure of 26,207 can-

nabis plants, with an estimated street value of £15.5m. Police reports stated that there was almost a 100% incrimination rate, three quarters of whom held positions in the higher tiers of such organisations, receiving an average fiveyear sentence, while cultivators received two.

“

Due to several legal loopholes, the hierarchies of various drug gangs remain unprosecuted, while the victims of forced labour are treated as criminals with few exceptions.

As a result, in the six months that followed, the PSNI reported that only four large-scale growing sites were shut-down nationwide as many of the organisations had pushed their operations down south of the border. Subsequently, this led to a skyrocketing in the number of plants seized across the Republic, which shot up from 100 in 2007, to 160 the following year, and 584 by 2012.

However, despite the reported rise in drug busts, Ireland remained a ripe ground for cultivation due to the increase in empty housing estates and warehouses from 2008 onwards. This made the acquiring of vacant properties in isolated areas significantly easier, as landowners appeared to accept cash in hand with fewer questions asked than would be the case over the border. Consequentially, these businesses could start afresh, also aided by the relative ease with which one could

transport illegal migrants into the south without detection.

Restricted movement

For Vietnamese migrant workers, the move to Ireland came from two main areas, the first being that of their own large communities present in the UK. In Britain, where a significant number live illegally in overcrowded areas, often with poor access to adequate healthcare, the offer of housing, food and money in exchange for cultivation was undoubtedly a highly beneficial opportunity.

Transportation did not pose a significant concern, because with the lenient border control around the Holyhead ferry-lines, the necessity of producing either passports or legal documentation seems to have been a non-issue.

Cross-continental travel represents a greater gamble. Here, many prospective cultivators would pay thousands of euros to make the long trek from Vietnam to Ireland in order to earn money for their families at home.

Whereas a typical salary for a farmer in Vietnam could see him, or her earn ¤100 per annum, the prospect of handing over one large sum of money, with the possibility of making ¤2,000 in any given year still proves a tempting reward for a temporary debt.

The demand remains high here, because the job is a guarantee for anyone willing to accept an offer. Each grow-house will be set-up in the days preceding ones journey, so upon arrival, everything is already in place, from the various working facilities, to the bypassed electrical meter to help in avoiding any external contact, or detection from authorities. Interestingly enough, on this matter, despite frequent press reports, which suggest the presence of a hierarchical structure involving hired plumbers and electricians who can move in and out of the premise, testimony from sources with direct involvement in these spheres, indicates otherwise. It would appear that the growers take these roles on themselves, developing a variety of skills quickly in the process as to remain self-sufficient to the best of their abilities.

The necessity of maintaining an internal structure requires certain measures be taken, the first of which is due to the con-

fiscation of all legal documents.

This assists in restricting movement. Furthermore, many workers are not aware of what country they are in, which, is further compounded by a lack of insight into the manner in which local authorities function. Therefore, a worker may be reluctant to come forward should they experience severe exploitation, or underpayment.

However, there is one additional deterrent frequently overlooked, which is motivates said migrant workers to remain in these work conditions. A factor that can explain part of the reason behind the higher rate of prosecution in Vietnamese and Chinese cases arises from the cultural significance held towards any debts owed. In the event of an arrest, although co-operation with Gardaí can provide a means of uncovering an illicit operation, it will not see reimbursement for the workers themselves.

As a result, a vicious circle emerges, leading many migrant workers to decide that prison is just another sacrifice in the process of paying off any debts, which is one of the primary aims in taking this job. To aid with investigations is to risk reducing future work opportunities, while the prospect of returning to Vietnam, whether through choice, or deportation without breaking even financially is to place upon one’s family a reputation of failure in their local communities.

Therefore, the aim is to keep moving, if not in Ireland, then through similar jobs in Europe.

Whereas an Irish worker can frequently make bail, while their superiors can anticipate cutting, running and relocating, for the illegal migrant growers, their lack of all social standing leaves them isolated and without any viable options. However, despite this fact, once a house is closed up they are the people left behind to endure the brunt of a legal system that often makes examples of them in a business that does not fold under such pressure.

Cotterrell spoke openly of his self-revulsion in finding beauty in suffering. War art has existed for centuries in many forms, be it painting or poetry, yet Cotterrell explained he chose photography as a medium precisely to divide himself from what he witnessed in operating theatres and helicopters. This was not because he wanted to avoid hard introspection- that was an inevitability. He wanted to avoid misrepresentation. He wanted to allow others for themselves to find a way to square beauty and horror when found in such close proximity.

Similarly, the artist and film director, Steve McQueen, turned to photography when he was the official British war artist in Iraq.

In his exhibition For Queen and Country, McQueen used the official portraits of soldiers who had died in the Iraq war. The portraits gave the soldiers’ names and were arranged in the chronological order of their deaths. The project recognised the duty of a war artist not only to the aesthetic ideals of other art forms, but also to reportage and its mandate to document events honestly. McQueen attempted to string these two ideals together by presenting his photos in the form of postage stamps. They would become a public graveyard, a place where the national consciousness might share in its mourning.

Ali Raza, an artist based in Cork, takes a more personal approach. Raza is a Kurd who survived the Anfal (genocide) perpetrated by Saddam Hussein in the late 1980s. He says, “My art is representative specifically of the victims of Kurdish Genocide, the hundreds of thousands of Kurdish civilians that have been executed because of their ethnicity.” He acknowledges that this is the primary driver of his work, however rejects the term ‘war artist’. As Cotterrell and McQueen discovered, the title is loyal to the faithful representation of events. Raza, however, is first of all bound to his own responses to those events.

His 2014 collection, The Story of Sand, brings together personal items such as clothes and shoes.

Some hang on canvas whilst others are piled on the floor. Each is coloured a uniform mid brown using glue, paint and sand. This method of course is very different to the photography preferred by McQueen and Cotterrell. However, Raza is keen to acknowledge his own debt to photography: “Photography has a main role and impact in visualising the event of conflict. From my own experience, all my current work is influenced by amateur and artistic photography of the Kurdish genocide and war that ensued.”

Informing public

He agrees with McQueen that war art is unique by way of its public responsibility, and himself believes part of his task is to inform the general population about the events of the Kurdish genocide, about which, he says, there is a severe “information deficit.”

However, for himself, the greater call is found through introspection. “For me, art has a power in the expression of what we feel and what we see. Photography is very useful in inspiring the pieces that I create, however I prefer the freedom to produce a work that is representative of my feeling.” He does not worry about misrepresentation in the same way as Cotterrell because his work comes from a subjective vantage point.

As an artist responding to war but not necessarily a ‘war artist’, the work is not required to encompass a nation, or speak objective truth.

Photography is restricted to visual reality. So, for Raza, although photography can certainly be considered art, it is a stimulus. It is journalism. “I just want to make people think, to see, to feel. Journalism is a witnessing of the event, but art is deeper than that. I believe journalism touches on the external, whereas art probes into the internal.” Raza sets up the traditional dichotomy: journalism strives to inform, art to evoke. Changes in both reporting and the nature of warfare do not immediately concur with Raza’s distinction. Focusing on micro, human stories as well as global geopolitical events means that journalism does have the potential to evoke, just as much as the best art can inform.

However, news coverage in more languages and locations that ever before means that the role of the war artist must change with it.

Raza’s view on art may well still be true; increasingly, the artist’s duty to inform has already been achieved. He says, “Technology and globalisation have made the occurrence of war more accessible through the Internet and social media. A war-artist may not even need to be in the vicinity of the conflict zone to be in a position to perform.” Shaping or prompting an emotional response is now the primary task of the war artist.

“

Ali Raza, an artist based in Cork, takes a more personal approach. Raza is a Kurd who survived the Anfal genocide perpetrated by Saddam Hussein in the late 1980s.

Changing nature of warfare

This ability to respond without being physically present mirrors what seems is the developing style of warfare today. Indeed, McQueen and Cotterrell might be among the last in a history of battlefield artists. As we have witnessed recently in, major Western cities, attacks are unpredictable and sporadic. The ‘war on terror’ has no precise location; it is ideological. A preference for drones and airstrikes puts great distance between combatants. Even if a war artist wished to experience fighting first hand, the location of war is becoming harder to pinpoint. As such, the artist is becoming increasingly reliant on accurate and impartial journalism.

Rather than hindering the work, distance between the artist and the object of his art is something that facilitates Raza’s work.

For him, the distance is not only geographical but also temporal.

The catalyst remains, and has always been, the Anfal in northern Iraq. It occurred when he was a boy however the events continue to provide the emotional source of his art. He says of his role, “I strive to deliver the pain that I feel, and try to get the audience to relate to that feeling.”

But surely this falls into the same quandary which Cotterrell, and all other war artists, wrestle with: how can you justify art from suffering, and beauty from pain?

Raza’s answer is found in his charcoal drawings, also completed in 2014. They are, as he terms them, “unusual” portraits of genocide victims. Some are frightening and others solemn. All are in someway obscured and difficult, and some appear more like masks than faces. The mouths are often obscured and particularly black.

It is a work dealing with identity, or the lack of it in the case of war.

Raza’s art is highly political. It attempts to return identity where it has been lost.

Even though his work derives from his own very personal experience, Raza consistently features identifiable people, or objects dealing with them, in this work.

He well knows war is a human product, and to produce art that does not stem from suffering would itself be a misrepresenta-

TRINITY NEWS

Tuesday 10th February 2015

12

Comment

What my queer family means to me Why I don’t ever I wouldn’t trade my parents for any smiling hetero two-kids-one-dog couple in the Iona ads.

Dee Courtney Deputy Comment Editor

I am sick of being repeatedly told that, as a woman, I will overnight become insatiably broody.

I hear people all the time talking about how, 10 years ago, you just couldn’t imagine same-sex couples getting married. I could.

Ten years ago, my newer mum moved in (I tried about ten different phrases for that, believe me that nothing sounds less awkward). I’ve pretty much been waiting for my parents to get married since then. My parents were waiting even longer; Mum 2 proposed to Mum 1 on their third date. Married lesbian life has been their reality for over a decade, though they didn’t tie the knot until 18 months ago – and according to Ireland, they still haven’t.

Heather Keane Senior Writer

Childhood

People often want to know what my childhood was like, but mostly they want to know what was wrong with it. The kind of light homophobia that comes from assumptions that you weren’t parented properly: did you have the right kind role models? Were you bullied? At the end of the day, it all comes down to asking you if you regret that your parents are your parents. This is and always has been hurtful to me because it’s deeply homophobic, but also because it’s deeply offensive to every day I’ve lived with my parents. My parents are wonderful people I won’t hear a word against. Or I wouldn’t if I had the option to choose. Too bad stories on queer families need that sense of ‘balance’.

My childhood was charmed.

I wouldn’t trade my parents for any smiling hetero two-kidsone-dog couple in the Iona ads.

And that’s not just a political statement; my mum worked hard to make me feel that way.

She scared the wits out of bullies. She stopped me from having nightmares. She made me eat healthy food I hated; food I love now, because she made me eat it enough times. Having two mums was normal to me growing up; they never made it feel strange. I only realised we were “non-traditional” when other kids in schools started asking questions. I was never bullied for it, but people asked pressing questions; everyone wanted to know if I was gay too. People’s assumptions and probing made me struggle with my own sexuality, even though my parents have been easy to talk to about it.

Illustration:: Nadia Bertaud Lack of recognition

I never had doubts about my family’s legitimacy; I don’t need the state to tell me that my parents are my parents. But the lack of recognition causes problems.

It’s frustrating to listen to people on TV saying your family is ‘not ideal’. It’s insulting to have to answer probing questions all the time. Most of all, though, I missed out on legal protection. When I was five years old, my mum’s first female partner was diagnosed with terminal breast cancer. She was given six months; she lived three years. It was the most surreal time of my life. Taking multiple holidays a year, getting a dog, re-doing the house, all laced with impending doom. I considered this woman a parent, and I started thinking about what would happen if my other mum died. When Mum 2 came into our lives, I felt more secure. But I realised at some point that she had no legal claim to me. If something happened to Mum 1, where could we go?

Not one but both of our parents would be taken away. Not many 10-year-olds have to worry about

things like that.

Legislation

The Children and Family Relationships Bill will help take children out of this legal limbo, but the state should acknowledge that we aren’t talking about the right couples might someday have to raise children; they already are raising children and those children have been failed.

I’m an adult now, no longer worried about my own situation.

Now I worry about the kids who are still vulnerable. I’ve heard of at least one case of a child being told by their Catholic school that they shouldn’t discuss their parents with the other children.

Luckily, my school was an Educate Together. If the bill is dealt with before the referendum, we’ll get some peace of mind. If it isn’t, passing this referendum is even more important. I’m not sure if I trust the government to organise themselves; it was supposed to be out of the way before Christmas.

Marriage isn’t personally important to me. I’ve never wanted kids and the idea of tying myself

to someone doesn’t sit right; I’d rather be just my own person. I also think families who aren’t tied together by marriage should be offered protection. If parents don’t want to get married, we shouldn’t disadvantage them or their children. But as long as the institution exists, as long as it comes with privileges, it needs to be equal. And for me, it’s also about having watched my parents campaign for years for this. Even without the problems for me growing up, my parents want their marriage recognised; that’s a good enough reason for me to cam paign.

The Children and Family Relationships Bill might pass before the referendum, which would solve most of the practical problems. But children won’t be taken out of the conversation about marriage equality, because the No side want us there. They want to paint us not as evil or incapable, just as ‘not ideal’. Apparently. The easiest way for the No side to win will be to wax lyrical about the child’s ‘right to a mother and

a father’, as if those concepts mean anything specific. Every parent is different. There are no characteristics that are unique to mothers or fathers, unless you believe in gendered stereotypes of Daddy breadwinners and Mammy bakers.

Children will be part of the conversation because we all have the image of the nuclear family branded into our minds after generations of heteronormative media. That’s the easiest way for the No side to look plausible. That means you have to counteract it with something; we have the statistics and reports, but what works much better is real people’s stories. Canvassing for marriage equality has always been more successful when queer people go door to door and tell the story of how happy they and their partner are. For children, this debate means opening up your childhood memories and showing them off. That isn’t fun, but if it means showing Iona that they can’t use me to hurt my family, it’s necessary.

Queerphobia in secondary schools a symptom of far greater problem The passive and active tackling of homophobia in schools is directly undermined by the hegemony of the Catholic church over Irish education.

Matthew Collins Contributor In the wake of the controversy caused by Coláiste Eoin’s “postponement” of a ShoutOut workshop on queerphobia, it seems unlikely that you could come across someone who hasn’t given the subject of queerphobia in secondary schools some thought over the past few weeks. However, it’s important to recognise that the education system’s failure in its responsibility to these pupils begins far earlier, in primary schools. It is at this stage that queerphobia is entrenched, and years later requires intervention from volunteer organisations like ShoutOut in secondary school. This passive facilitation of queerphobia in primary schools is ignored both by politicians and the public at large, branded as a touchy and uncomfortable topic.

Queerphobia is learned through an insidious imposition of heteronormativity on children from the first day of their education. By this, I mean the absolute lack of suggestions from teachers, or the curriculum, that there are positive sexual and gender identities other than cisgender heterosexuality. Unsurprisingly, this lack of any positive reinforcement of queerness then often causes vicious stigmatisation of LGBTQ students. Due to a somewhat squeamish attitude, there is an unfortunate lack of research on queerphobia within primary schools.

Personal experience

However, I’m willing to speak from personal experience on this one. My last year in primary school, was made almost unbearable due to homophobic bullying. Although I had yet to

want to have kids

personally or publicly identify as gay, this was largely irrelevant.

Queerphobic bullying is often caused by a perception by students of a deviation from heteronormativity. As a somewhat effeminate, skinny and nerdy boy, with no interest or aptitude for sport, I filled the role of deviant adequately. The bullying was never physical, but emotional. I was consistently called out for being “gay” by other students, and this was subsequently used as a reason to exclude me from socialising with other pupils.

One incident I remember particularly well involved a group of pupils taking a vote on the schoolyard as to whether I was gay, the result being a landslide victory for those who wished to publicly declare my homosexuality. This was then followed by the usual personal attack for being a “homo”, something which was pretty much a daily occurrence. The constant criticism of my behaviour and interests for being anti-normal and representative of me having an undesirable sexuality made school hellish because no matter what I did, I would be criticised and remain almost friendless due to a characteristic which people perceived in me which I couldn’t control.

Eventually, a teacher was informed of this bullying by another student. The fact that it went on for an extended period of time without any notice speaks to an apathy and incompetence in dealing with bullying in general within primary schools.

However, the school’s attempts at solving this specific problem were far worse than their original nonchalance. At no point was it suggested to me that being gay was normal and positive. I was simply told that I shouldn’t be excluded or called gay. At no

point were my parents informed of the bullying. At no point did the school decide to positively reinforce queer identities. And at no point did the school make an effort to monitor the situation more closely to ensure that the homophobic bullying did not resume, which it eventually did.

The school’s response to a clearcut incidence of homophobic bullying of one of its students was wholly inadequate, and made coming to school became an unnecessarily distressing experience for me. The result of this was that I entered secondary school very insecure with my relationship with my sexuality, and the manner in which my primary school dealt with homophobia very likely shaped the way all students in my class would go on to view sexuality and gender, and almost certainly helped to engender the queerphobia which ShoutOut fights against.

Easy prevention

This type of bullying, which exists in worse forms in vast amounts of primary schools can be easily prevented, but isn’t.

There are two easy remedies to this bullying, one passive, one active. The type of bullying I and countless others experienced in primary and secondary schools is the result of the normalisation of cisgender heteronormativity at the expense of queerness. The passive approach to countering this is simple. It involves small gestures like putting LGBTQ characters in the class reading, casually raising the existence of queer identities and providing non-gendered bathrooms. These small changes would combat a perception that being cishet is the only acceptable sexual and gender identity.

Secondly, looking at active policies, when bullying does oc-

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One incident involved a group of pupils taking a vote on the schoolyard as to whether I was gay, the result being a landslide victory for those who wished to publicly declare my homosexuality.

cur, schools’ reactions need improvement. Bullies should be properly admonished and a clear message sent that regardless of the sexual orientation or gender identity of the student, being LGBTQ is something which is normal and positive, and that bullying a fellow student for this is as unacceptable as all other forms of bullying. Primary schools have made some headway in this regard. In 2011, Educate Together and BeLonG To announced the organisation of an optional one day in-service training course on dealing homophobic bullying for primary school teachers. Also, following

the current government’s ‘Action Plan on Bullying’, all schools are mandated to address homophobic bullying.

Resistance to change

Despite this, significant problems persist. Despite the ‘Action Plan on Bullying’, the education system still relies on groups like ShoutOut to tackle queerphobia, and it remains entirely optional for schools to facilitate a ShoutOut workshop, with many schools evidently willing to ignore them. Moreover, the passive and active tackling of homophobia in schools is directly undermined by the hegemony of the Catholic church over Irish education. It seems impossible that a teacher in a school run by the Catholic church would always feel able to send a positive message about queerness in the case of queerphobic bulling, or that queer-inclusive learning curriculums or school facilities could be guaranteed while an openly queerphobic institution controls schools.

The solutions to dismantling a system which causes so much of the queerphobia we see in secondary schools are simple.

However, they won’t materialise independently. The Irish media and political establishment is unwilling to tackle these issues.

With an election due in under a year and a half, we have the possibility to demand change, so bear that in mind when your local politician comes to ask for your vote. Ask why children aren’t taught that being LGBTQ is normal. Demand to know why Catholic power over education is protected at the expense of queer students. If we all don’t take that opportunity, the education system will continue to leave some of its most vulnerable students behind.

For as long as it’s been a physical possibility, I’ve been assured in my decision that I won’t be having children. Hints came when, at three years old, I chopped the head off my only doll. Of course, this was a fairly standard and sensible choice when I was a young teen, but as I’ve aged I’ve been increasingly bombarded with casual opposition. Not that I protest against baby-making wherever possible, but when the need does arise to correct assumptions about my familial planning I am consistently met by a smug, “Just you wait!”

It’s understandable for people to assume that at my stage of life—beginning my twenties, about to graduate into the vast uncertainty of the “real world”— my choices are not set in stone. I might change career path, move continent, switch my hair colour after a decade of bleaching. But when I tell people that I plan to live in London for the foreseeable future, I’m never questioned.

The same goes for my weightier preference for avoiding marriage. Granted, having a child is possibly the biggest commitment any person can make, but this doesn’t justify the flippant reactions I hear from my peers.

Without getting too far into evolutionary biology, it is permissible to assume that a person’s genes would like to be passed on to the next generation. It’s not permissible to assume that this is an overruling factor in a person’s choice to have or not have children. It’s also not correct to think that this biological fact means that everybody has the urge, at some point in their life, to create and nurture a human life. Some people—a minority, yes—don’t feel that way, and ignoring their emotions is hurtful.

Pronatalism is anti-feminist

An insidious kind of shaming is happening when a person who shares their decision to not have children is defied. By telling somebody that they will want kids eventually, you are essentially telling them that the state they are currently in is not the right one. They need to wait a bit longer, and then they’ll be okay. They’ll be the parent society wants them to be. The philosophical term for this set of beliefs is “pronatalism”, an ideology that values the role of parenthood above all others, and that’s all it is—an ideology.

In my own case, I am being repeatedly told that, as a woman, my body will claim all authority on the matter and I will, overnight, become insatiably broody.

Rational and careful consideration be damned: I must be impregnated! This is an inherently anti-feminist view of the female body, and it’s a casual stance that’s taken by many without thinking. When you tell a woman that her decision will be invalidated by physiological maturity, you imply that her future is controlled by a biological clock that she is helpless to defy. Her mind is slave to her hormones.

Aside from assumptions about the fragility of a female decision, this kind of offhand opposition is completely dismissive of a person’s history. What if she can’t have children? What if she has a trauma that makes the idea of childbirth unthinkable? What if there are other circumstances that make it impossible for this person to sustain another life?

Many of these factors don’t apply to alternative options like adoption, but I never get the feeling that people are telling me anything other than an all-consuming need to get knocked up is looming at my next birthday.

I’ve heard men who’ve decided to be “childfree by choice”—the media’s unsightly label—have their opinions refuted, but much less frequently. Most likely, this is because men aren’t asked about their paternal instincts so often as women. We’ve all seen tragic headlines lamenting the likes of Jennifer Aniston’s debilitating loneliness, pregnancy rumours flying about always with a hint of relief for the actress. This gendered bias isn’t reserved for celebrity, however. While men can remain lone wolves for as long as they please, a woman without a child is always a woman missing something. A woman who says she doesn’t want children just doesn’t know that yet.

I’m an easy target at my age for this kind of dismissal, looked

down upon as romantically naïve about my own body. The curious thing is, though, that this patronising isn’t just coming from those who are older, wiser, paternally experienced. The snap judgement—“You’ll change your mind”—comes from people my own age who don’t have children.

The assertion that my womb is a ticking time-bomb is held by an entire demographic who couldn’t possibly know what it feels like to grow older and into “child-free” life, can’t really be advising me about any threat age imposes on my current choice.

It’s just a universally held truth that a woman must want to procreate.

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It’s also not correct to think that this biological fact means that everybody has the urge, at some point in their life, to create and nurture a human life.

Some people don’t feel that way, and ignoring their emotions is hurtful.

Things aren’t gonna get better

As I grow into my choice, I don’t expect things to get any easier.

The harsh cry against my decision’s futility, by the looks of things, is only going to fade into awkward whimpers of pity for my lonely life. A person who doesn’t want a child is deemed defective by society. It’s often something a person chooses to hide about themselves, for fear new relationships will be tainted by the idea that they are immature, uncaring, selfish, or just a little messed up inside. Women in particular can be shamed as unfeminine and emotionally empty if they fail to fit the maternal mould.

If they’re not lambasted, childfree people are often painted as a group tending towards luxury.

Portrayals in the media will often depict carefree, trendy couples using the money they’ve saved on nappies to go off on dream holidays, as if their choice will allow them to stay young forever.

This more flattering representation is still an untrue stereotype, failing absurdly to reflect the entire range of people who choose not to childbear.

There’s also the incorrect assumption that a decision to stay childfree equates to a dislike of or repulsion from babies and children. While some do genuinely feel that way, not everyone who makes the choice does so because of this aversion. There’s really no need to hide your baby from a childless forty-year-old: they won’t eat it. The scale does allow room to manoeuvre. It is possible to like kids without immediately wanting to make one.

The grand irony here is that this article in itself is going to be seen as the ultimate naïveté.

Writing this is surely going to bite me in the ass when my darling daughter googles my name thirty years down the line. The world will laugh in its unimpeached wisdom. This may be so. Things might change. Equally, though, I might wake up one day, look out the window of my city-center apartment, and gasp in horror. If I move back to the quiescence of my Leitrim hometown and fall headfirst in matrimonial love, I don’t think I’d get any amiable jeers: “I told you so!”

I wish the decision to be or not to be a parent was given the same amount of respect.

TRINITY NEWS

Tuesday 10th February 2015

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Trinity economics teaching needs to get with the times Economics students are currently left with far too many unknown unknowns. By coming together and sharing ideas, we can change the way we approach the subject for the better.

Jonathan McKeon Kevin Threadgold and Robert Wade Have you ever wondered about economics? Have you ever sat in a lecture or tutorial, wondering why on earth you are being presented with a combination of dodgy maths and conservative ideology? Have you ever thought, “yeah, the calculus is consistent, but this bears absolutely no resemblance to real people in real society”? We want to tell you something very important, something that many of you may, until now, have been completely oblivious to - it doesn’t have to be this way. There is a growing global movement in economics, recognising that the discipline is currently in a profoundly unhealthy situation, questioning the lack of pluralism in our economic education, and pushing for improvement. We want to bring that movement to Trinity.

We want recognition that for far too long, the currently dominant Neoclassical school of economic theory has been taught as if it is the only worthwhile option that exists. More than that, we want the opportunity to engage with the many different and equally useful approaches to economics that exist. Several lecturers have been openminded enough to acknowledge that Neoclassical economics is at least flawed. Some have examined those flaws at length in class. Some have encouraged us to “challenge the underlying assumptions” and speak out about what we feel is lacking.

What nobody has really accepted, though, is that this keeps the entire academic endeavour within the Neoclassical realm.

It is equivalent to taking us to the boundary, showing us the boundary, and stating that other things exist outside the boundary, but never actually transcending the boundary. We have had enough of exploring the limits of Neoclassical theory from within its own paradigm – we feel it is about time we looked at things from some completely different angles. In this endeavour we are taking inspiration from many sources, including the book Economics: The User’s Guide by Cambridge economics professor Ha-Joon Chang.

Why we’re taking a stand

We acknowledge that the Economics Department generally does a fine job, and that there are limits to what it can provide e.g. it is basically impossible to run a module on Marxist economics if none of the teaching staff are interested in Marxist theory as an area of research. That said we are taking a stand because we know that things can improve, and we feel that they urgently need to.

Not too long ago, a prominent and respected economist publicly criticised the narrow focus of economics teaching in Trinity.

When we met him again recently, instead of taking pride in how his words had inspired us to explore economic pluralism, he was instead sheepish and expressed concern that his opinion had riled the Department. He still firmly believed he was right and that what he was showing us was true, but strongly advised us not to mention any of it in our exam answers. What a sad state of affairs that is for us as students of a social science. In going through Trinity’s economic assessment, instead of thinking critically and applying theory to empirical phenomena based on explanatory merit, we may instead be forced to argue uncritically in favour of ideas like the efficient markets hypothesis, which as Chang and others highlight has been thoroughly debunked by the most recent global financial crisis. No other social science is

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People study economics here and go on to make decisions and implement policies that have profound impacts on the lives of literally millions of people.

structured in such a way, where one theoretical approach is promoted to the almost total exclusion of others; nor should economics be.

Neoclassical economics

What’s wrong with Neoclassical economics? Well, while a Neoclassical approach has its strengths, it also has several weaknesses. The theoretical world typically presented to us places too much emphasis on individuality, mathematics, and rational selfishness; it places too little on historical or cultural context, human psychology, and critiquing underlying distributions of power and resources. In reality, people do not have preference functions that can be geometrically mapped onto curves, with calculus used to derive explanations for their behaviour.

Nor can analysis of markets be made easier by utterance of the magic words “assume perfect competition”. Yet these are the scenarios presented to us time after time, the methods that we will habitually fall back upon when faced with real-life challenges. Staff can admit the flaws of this approach until they are blue in the face; what matters is that they keep coming back to it.

Ultimately, apologies are meaningless if you keep doing what you are supposedly sorry for.

One defence of this state of affairs is that economics, like other social sciences or indeed any science, needs to make fundamental assumptions. If we aim for too much realism in the construction of our models, they will become far too complex and unwieldy to be of any use in deriving knowledge – or so the argument goes. The analogy, as put forward by Hal Varian, is that “a map on a one-to-one scale” would be useless.

There is a difference, however, between an Ordnance Survey map and the kind of map you use to find your way around a theme park. We are not against simplification for modelling purposes or the making of assumptions, but against the often completely unrealistic nature of this “elimination of irrelevant detail” and the occasionally blatant political and moral assumptions underpinning an approach that masquerades as ‘value-free science’.

The Milton Friedman argument, that realism of assumptions is irrelevant compared to accuracy of predictions, surely holds no water. ‘Rational choice’ econom

Photo: Huda Awan ics is infamously bad at predicting real-world phenomena. The failure to prevent or successfully recover from the current Eurozone crisis is one of many examples of this failure.

Sure, Neoclassical has drawbacks, but what decent alternatives are out there? Plenty.

There’s Institutional economics for a start, which proposes that people carry out economic activity in a dynamic environment of formal and informal rules which guide their behaviour and preferences, and which can in turn be influenced by human actions.

Then there’s behavioural economics, also known as economic psychology – rather than assuming economic actors are selfish, rational individuals it looks at how people with bounded rationality make economic decisions in a complex and uncertain world, usually building on experimental evidence from psychological studies. Ecological economics criticises the treatment of the macroeconomy as an isolated ecosystem, instead characterising it as a dependent subsphere of the planetary environmental system. Other schools of economic thought include Austrian, Schumpeterian, Classical, Marxist, Keynesian, Feminist andDev-

elopmentalist. Our point is that even if you disagree with all of these approaches, you are better off if you are able to criticise them from a position of informed familiarity than if you have never properly engaged with them, or even heard of them. At the moment, economics students are left with far too many unknown unknowns.

Each of these approaches is good at explaining certain phenomena, and not so good at explaining others. Neoclassical theory, instead of being applicable to everything as some would have us believe, is in fact exactly the same – it is useful, not universal. We see plenty of compelling reasons why this needs to be emphasised much more than it currently is. The next generation of socioeconomic tastemakers, policymakers, CEOs, political leaders, community leaders, media moguls and, yes, entrepreneurs are learning about economics here. College is only too keen to point this out to anyone who will take notice – see the BESS promotional material on the 3rd floor of the Arts Block, flaunting famous alumni like Michael O’Leary, David McWilliams and Mario Rosenstock.

People study economics here

and go on to make decisions and implement policies that have profound impacts on the lives of literally millions of people. How much better would the world be if every economics student who graduates from Trinity can engage with the subject on its true merit? There’s only one way to find out.

We need your help

We are well aware of the potential for calamitous irony in this: three of us, relatively similar in attributes and background, calling for diversity and plurality of opinion. That is why we want, and need, more of you to join us. We want to hear what you have to say, what perspectives you have to offer, the more, the better. Also, there’s the small but significant fact that we are in our final undergraduate year – not only are we extremely limited in the amount of time we can commit to this, we won’t be around very long to reap whatever benefits it provides. Unless lots of you get involved, take the baton from us, and carry it forward as you see fit, our efforts will count for very little. The fact that we are making this stand regardless hopefully gets across how strong our feelings are. For the moment

look for “Students of Trinity for Economic Pluralism” on Facebook: we will be holding a public meeting within the next fortnight.

We know that we are not alone in holding these opinions.

Countless friends and classmates of ours have expressed their frustration and alienation regarding economics as it is currently taught. There are already movements taking place across the world, with organisations like the International Student Initiative for Pluralism in Economics and Rethinking Economics International representing members from countries as diverse as Argentina, China, Germany, Israel and Pakistan.

Trinity – and Ireland – have not kept up step, however. Now is the time to change that. Pluralism in economics is not about pushing agendas; it is about being able to understand the world in a fuller way through healthy academic discussion and debate. We want to begin the process of making it happen, but we need your help.

“Students of Trinity for Economic Pluralism” will be holding a public meeting on campus in the next fortnight.

Syriza victory signifies monumental change European political parties similar to Syriza could receive far greater popular support if its newly-formed government manages to run the country without the austerity that has been sold to the Greek population.

Oisin Vince Coulter Staff Writer One of the most widely prevalent themes in reporting on Syriza’s victory in Greece is a vaguely defined sense that this marks the beginning of something important. Varying from article to article, we are told that this could indicate the birth of new and fairer Europe or a period of extreme instability – perhaps both.

However, while a vast amount has been written about the rise of Syriza, its election campaign, victory and the immediate choices it faces, those same writers have been reticent to actually sketch out the monumental change the phenomenon of Syriza may mean for the future. Instead, we’ve had a lot of discussion of the implications, because it’s not only difficult to make accurate predictions about rapidly changing political situations but also because making statements that turn out to be widely inaccurate is something most journalists try to avoid.

Student journalists have more leeway in trying to figure out what the future could be. In the aftermath of the election not just of the most left wing government in Europe since the fall of the Soviet Union, but also the first government led by one of the series of new and populist political parties.

Coalition and the troika

To put things in context the immediate situation in Greece is deadlock between the coalition government consisting of Syriza and the anti-austerity, right wing Independent Greeks, and the powers that be who have, up to now, dictated Greek economic policy: the troika of the ECB, IMF and EU (primarily Germany). The deadlock is over Greek desires to either write down their national debt, which at the time of writing stands at

¤420,467,205,362 - 216.11% of their GDP, or to trade in some of that debt for long term government bonds with interest tied to growth. The troika opposes this to varying degrees depending on who in particular we are talking about, with Germany especially strongly opposing a debt ‘haircut’. The immediate possible outcomes of this deadlock are relatively simple, in that either one side concedes or a compromise is reached. The complexities arise from the unwillingness of either side to back down – Syriza have a mandate from the Greek population for debt reduction, and Germany is devoted to preventing it.

Political aspects of German reluctance

The reporting on German reluctance to allow for a Greek debt write-down needs to take into account the political aspects of the situation, which is where the ‘Syriza effect’ really takes on an international dimension. Germany, namely Angela Merkel and her ‘grand coalition’ government of the Christian Democratic Union and Social Democrats (very similar to our own Labour/Fine Gael government), are worried about the political contagion that a successful Syriza government could mean for Europe.

If Syriza manages to have their debt written down and run the country without the austerity that has been sold to the Greek population under the mantra of ‘There Is No Alternative’ (TINA), similar political parties across Europe could and probably would receive greater popular support from populations tired of harsh budgets. What I’ll refer to as ‘insurgent parties’ have been progressively more successful across Europe over the past number of years. These parties come from both the right and left, but share three primary features: they utilise populist political rhetoric to rally those

left disenchanted by the establishment political system (positioning themselves as ‘outsiders’ seeking to topple the status quo), they seek to challenge the European Union on economics or immigration (framing this as returning sovereignty) and have all drawn huge gains in support as a result of the economic crisis and the failure of traditional politics to resolve the fallout thereof.

There are examples in almost all European countries, from UKIP in the UK, to the Front National in France, Podemos in Spain and the Five Star Movement of Italy. Like Syriza, all these parties present a challenge to the EU’s traditional way of operating. Charting their rise, it seems relatively certain that we will see a Europe of greater and greater political extremes if

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It seems relatively certain that we will see a Europe of greater political extremes if there is no return to economic prosperity for the majority of the European population.

Alexis Tsipras , now Greek prime minister, greets supporters on the night of Syriza’s election victory . there is no return to economic prosperity for the majority of the European population.

The insurgent parties present a big problem for Merkel and the European Union as a whole, which is founded implicitly upon political understanding and common ground between centre right and centre left political parties. However, the failure of these traditional parties to deliver jobs and growth has resulted in their decline, which has also seen them entering ‘grand coalitions’ across Europe to maintain majorities and stability. Such colitions further fuel insurgent parties whose claims on there being little or no difference be-

tween mainstream parties appear to be proved correct.

European question

In Ireland we’ve seen a steady decline of establishment parties as well, and the rise of Sinn Fein threatens to create our very own insurgent party. But in many respects the individual elections in European states are no longer an important an element of the EU, whose large bureaucracy and extensive regulation prevents rapid or sweeping change. Instead, the question has become one that Syriza poses very well: in a period of growing polarisation between a wealthy interior and a debt-ridden periphery, can Eu

rope as we know it survive?

A huge amount of time, political capital and money has been poured into building the EU and maintaining it, so it’s unlikely at this point that as a whole it will fail or collapse. But if the systems of the EU are unable to accommodate Syriza and similar political parties coming to power, then we face not only the prospect a Greek exit from the EU but also a reality in which other European populations, angry that their futures are not in their own hands but those of bureaucrats in Europe, vote for insurgent parties.

Either way, insurgent parties are strengthened, either by the anger of populations deprived of

real political choice or by the knowledge that their own insurgent parties could achieve similar things to Syriza.

The future of politics in Europe looks likely to be one of both growing instability and polarisation, where issues like im-migration get caught up in a growing disconnect between the majority of the public and the politicians they elect. This disconnect and the resulting insurgent parties pose the prospect of a sea change in what Europe is, and Syriza’s victory could mark the beginning of the ‘new Europe’, or the beginning of the end of the European Project.

TRINITY NEWS

Tuesday 10th February 2015

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Should TCDSU be seeking commercial sponsorship?

The two candidates vying for the position of communications and marketing officers in this year’s SU elections go head to head.

This year’s SU elections has seen Aifric Ni Chriodain and Jemma O’Leary, the two candidates running for the new position of communications and marketing officer, publicly clash over the issue of headline sponsorship.

Ni Chriodain says her proposal to increase sponsorship could fund “12 months rent, 66 months of electricity bills, 100 academic textbooks or 1,000 hot nutritious meals.” The plan, according to O’Leary, would amount to “selling out” the union. Should the SU be more willing to engage with corporate sponsors? Both candidates go head to head in a special Trinity News debate.

Aifric: The expansion of the

role of communications officer to include marketing demonstrates the need for funding within the SU. Increased funding could help fund SU services across the board. With more money, the union could help fund student spaces and initiatives such as the Goldsmith sun room and the SU kitchen. The SU could improve its dedicated weeks such as Rainbow Week and Mental Health Week with a better range of events, more impressive than before. The SU could work with Ents to improve their deals and offers with Freshers’ Week, going on to work with the incoming Ents officer in order to arrange dedicated event sponsorship.

This will ensure bigger and better acts and improve the quality of Ents overall. With additional revenue, the union will also be able to divert some funding to the Student Hardship Fund which has faced such dire cuts in recent years. The SU will also be able to run a successful campaign to tackle the accommodation crisis. This year the union orchestrated a flyering campaign and directed additional resources towards the Accommodation Advisory Service, successfully sourcing 700 beds - the same number as will be provided in the new Oisín House development. The revenue generated from sponsorship can only provide a bigger, better, more useful SU for all.

Jemma: The SU is a highly

profitable organisation; its Leap card sales and on-campus 80,000 and ¤100,000 and a financial reserve of ¤500,000. Despite cuts to its budget of 10% over the last two years, this is not an organisation that is struggling for cash.

That is not to say that the union should not seek further sponsorship opportunities to help its services perform to the required level. Far from it - no one can afford to look a cash-cow in the mouth. But do we really need to clog our already under-performing communications channels with a message from our sponsors? Without wanting to sound facetious, “KPMG presents: free condoms” belongs to the same ideology that creates the identity initiative debacle and cuts to “unprofitable” student services.

The overwhelming majority of students in Trinity have little to no contact with their students’ union. Sabbatical officers are rarely seen outside of House 6, and most students based off the College Green campus would struggle to name even one of them. Developing the relationship between the union and its members should be the SU’s foremost priority - not helping business develop a relationship with students. Revenue is important, but not important enough right now.

It is a red herring to argue that student societies do just fine with corporate input. The relationship between societies and their members is completely different to that between the SU and its members. Societies are smallerscale organisations that have numerous points of weekly contact with their members. At present, the SU can only dream of that kind of interaction and engagement. There is one another important distinction between the SU and societies - the SU claims to be a representative body of all students, whereas societies do not. Societies can decide on their own terms what sponsorship suits them. The SU is not a club that you have a choice to opt in or out of.

For the SU to convince external businesses that it has strong

Jemma O’Leary (L) and Aifric Ni Chriodain (R) at the announcement of candidates on January 19th.. Photo: Kevin O’Rourke member engagement at present would be the ultimate act of marketing, when the truth is that it not for me.

Aifric: I understand the con-

cerns of a candidate seeking better engagement with students. A better funded SU is a better engaged union, a union better able to fund services to reach more students. I have the skills and experience to carry out these policies, but my experience is not limited. I am a candidate concerned with engaging students.

I have run the social media and campaign channels for the Phil, Gourmet Burger Kitchen, YO! Sushi, ShoutOut, PrHomo and Edinburgh Fringe, many of these organisations targeting students.

I understand Facebook and

Twitter’s algorithms and the value of photo or video content, and I have the technical skills to produce such content. I will use these skills to better present the union and to engage students.

Again, the expansion of the role of communications officer to include marketing demonstrates the need for funding within the SU. If you want to be facetious, the SU actually already receives condom sponsorship each year.

It’s not from KPMG - it’s from Durex and Think Contraception. Given that young people between the ages of 20 and 29 comprise half of Irish STI cases, I personally don’t mind “selling out” to Durex if it means keeping the welfare office stocked with condoms for a year.

I also don’t object to putting

a logo on a freshers’ pack if that pack holds what the average fresher needs - washing powder, pasta, noodles, condoms, sweets, and the odd hangover cure. That counts as sponsorship, and it has existed within the SU for years.

The free Domino’s and the Ents card exist solely because of sponsorship, but the SU has not “sold out” or given itself to corporate powers in exchange for these rewards. Further sponsorship can only improve the quality of guests and better develop the debate around students’ issues and students’ voices. I understand from my work with societies that students can expect a huge financial return for very little effort or compromise of ethos - for example, the +¤10,000 I secured for the Phil in return for little

more than logos on posters. I designed and presented a 30-page sponsorship proposal for every major financial company in Dublin until we found the organisation which best fit our ethos while offering us the best return.

I will do the same, and more, for the SU and its 17,000 members.

I plan to improve the SU’s current communications channels.

The Communications aspect of the role remains its primary function, and I have the experience to serve that role. The best way to engage students with the union is to improve the union.

The best way to improve the union is to improve the services offered, but that requires cash. I have the experience of negotiating marketing contracts with the various candidates. We can

and we shall improve student engagement without compromising the great work done by the union. Yet, it falls to the new communications and marketing officer to bring in revenue for the SU which can be appropriately spent on the services where it is needed most. Seeking sponsorship does not represent “selling out”. It is a tactic which has long been utilised by the SU and which the SU seeks to use further given the recent shift towards a communications and marketing role. Sponsorship is vital for the improvement of student services. This will improve student engagement but it need not compromise the ethos of the union.

Deconstructing the Trinity hack Has the word ‘hack’ been reclaimed or is it pejorative?

If so, who can use it? Are some hacks more equal than others? What does Jack Leahy have to do with it?

Who is a hack?

D. Joyce-Ahearne Deputy Editor Students’ Union elections. When a handful of brazen colourcoded pretenders, wearing the same clothes for the bones of a fortnight, shamelessly sell highly branded versions of themselves to us in exchange for our ECapproved approval.

For these two weeks, after “Vote for X?” and “No, I’ve already got one”, the most common utterance being thrown around the campaign trails will inevitably be “hack”. Not that the word is exclusive to election time. It’s arguably one of the most used words in Trinity, or rather I should say in Trinity society. The two are very different and to conflate the two is something a hack would say. Am I am hack then? Undeniably. Proudly and at times ostentatiously. But before that I should ask what exactly is a hack?

If you wikipedia the word, you’ll get the page for “hack writer” which gives the definition as “a writer who is paid to write low-quality, rushed articles”. Sounds like me to me. Considering the fact that I’m getting my definitions from Wikipedia I think it fair to say I’m a TN hack, though I don’t get paid.

This original meaning of hack, limited as it is to the field of journalism, would make it applicable only to TN and our friends across the hall. I won’t specify what hall but the hacks will know. The definition is also explicitly pejorative, in that it suggests the hack doesn’t take pride in their work.

But we at Trinity don’t reserve the term specifically for hack journos. How would we then explain terms like SU hack or GMB hack, people who don’t have anything to do with articles, lowquality, rushed or otherwise?

And all these candidates? How can they be hacks as the grapevine is suggesting, within the confines of this narrow, hastily googled definition?

In Trinity parlance the traditional definition of hack has been broadened to encompass anyone involved in anything whose involvement is for self-gain rather than for the benefit of the organisation with which they’re involved. A bit of a stretch from hack writer but the sentiment of insincere engagement stands.

However, more often than not, it is simply used to designate anyone involved in anything who we don’t happen to particularly like and it’s most often used by hacks to describe other hacks in the spirit of Dylan Thomas’ claim that “An alcoholic is someone who drinks as much as you do that you don’t like.”

Anyone mixed up in anything is liable to be called a hack of that something. Sheer exposure and overuse has seen the derogatory aspect of the word lessen and its meaning has been altered to the point whereby hack now merely signifies engagement.

Reappropriated

Alongside the fading negative characteristic of hack, the word has also been reappropriated by Trinity society, most of us now comfortable to use the term within the community. Hack is now considered a friendly term of solidarity within certain sectors of Trinity life. However there still those who take offence, particularly if the word is directed from one sphere into another.

For example, I may be entitled to call other people involved with TN hacks, due to our common involvement, and certain people in UT due to working relationships and professional courtesy. But given my nonexistent relationship with the

SU, my calling them hacks has not historically gone down well, though they may be happy to use the term among themselves.

The success of the re-appropriation movement has meant that the pejorative sense of the word has been so removed that today, for a derogatory sentiment to be implied, it’s necessary to emphasise the word by prefacing it and calling someone a “fucking hack”. Fucking hack has replaced plain old hack as the signifier of a self-interested schemer on the make.

At this point it’s worth defining where we stand: hack, noun. 1. Any individual involved in a particular aspect of Trinity society, e.g. “House 6 is full of hacks.” 2. (Pej) An individual involved in a particular aspect of Trinity society for self gain, e.g. “House 6 is full of fucking hacks.” verb. To be involved in a particular aspect of Trinity society, e.g. “Dahlings, welcome to High Society, tell me, who does everybody hack with?” adjective. Being of a hack nature, e.g. “I fucking love campaigns,” said Jack. “That’s such a hack thing to say,” said Jill.

for

fact, they must be. I should hope

Shift in meaning

This year will see a further shift in the wordscape of hack. Now that the position of University Times editor is separated from that of Comms, will the position still come under the definition of SU hack? Up until now the combined position meant that, on election, the sabbatical officer, if they weren’t already, became a top SU hack and the UT hack.

High level hacking in more than one sphere is often discouraged due to the possibilities of conflicting interests, but the position, by its nature, guaranteed the elected hack’s status in both.

This, however, could all change.

With the position now split, will the other sabbats still consider the UT editor a fellow SU hack? Is it even a matter of consideration or is it just a reality we must now contend with? With its newfound editorial independence, has UT lost all SU hack associations? Will it be acceptable

Illustration: John Tierney

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Will other sabbats still consider the UT editor a fellow SU hack?

for UT hacks to call SU hacks hacks? And vice-versa? Will there be UT hacks who will continue to identify as SU hacks?

DID ANYONE THINK OF THESE POSSIBLE REPERCUSSIONS?! Undoubtedly the SU is approaching a linguistic minefield.

Returning to the point, are the Leadership Race candidates all hacks? Presumably, surely in

they are. It means they know what they’re doing. Molly Kenny, if you look at her credentials, is a massive SU hack. Excellent. Edmund Heaphy is a complete UT hack. Perfect, I‘m sure he knows what he’s doing. To say that the candidates are all hacks is an endorsement. And it’s reassuring to see that they seem like a bunch of hacks to me.

If they weren’t already hacks

then I’d be worried. It would mean they haven’t been involved in student life, regardless of what aspect of it, up to this point. It would suggest that the only reason they were getting involved on a sabbatical level is because of the free accommodation, iPhone, salary and high profile nature of these particular hack positions. And if that was the case then they’d all be fucking hacks.

TRINITY NEWS

Tuesday 10th February 2015

Comment

15

Why I don’t believe in Stephen Fry’s God Trinity’s Methodist and Presbyterian chaplain reflects on Stephen Fry’s RTÉ interview with Gay Byrne.

Julian Hamilton Chaplain I’m with Stephen Fry. He states that he doesn’t believe in a malicious God who gives cancer to children and creates animals that cause blindness. Neither do I. I do not believe in the God Fry characterises. And neither should you.

For me, Stephen Fry is near the top of my ‘dream team dinner guest’ list. He is an award winning, highly lauded, rightly applauded, writer presenter comedian. He has come through crippling depression, and he takes his humanity very seriously – as seen by his involvement in charitable foundations and movements to enhance the Arts. He remains near the top of my dream team dinner guest list, not so I can argue with him about God, but so I can enjoy the company of a great mind. I am a minister of the Christian Gospel, so I obviously disagree with him over his views on who God might be - which, incidentally, is a philosophically interesting starting point for an atheist.

My view of God To be honest, my view of God does not involve a God who needs me to defend him/her.

God is not sitting in heaven upset over Stephen Fry’s outburst, wondering what to do about it.

That’s my first observation to this whole episode – it was an outburst. An unusual one.

Last year, a beautiful clip of Bear Grylls and Stephen Fry went around the Christian circles on the internet. It showed a much more thoughtful and

contemplative Fry – not angry about God, but respectful, intelligent and engaged. Grylls spoke gently about his faith, obviously a highly personal source of strength. Fry engaged softly, and honestly, offering explanation for his own atheism while listening to Grylls explanation for his faith. The mountains and the streams seemed to have a different effect on him than the lights and logistics of an enclosed room with Gay Byrne. There is a bit of me thinks this gentleman had an early start, had eaten something that was upsetting his stomach, was having an off day (all of which happen to most of us regularly), and was, inwardly bemused by what was essentially a silly question: “How will you react if everything you think is wrong and when you die you find yourself in heaven facing God?”

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My view of God does not involve a God who needs me to defend him or her.

God is not sitting in heaven upset over Stephen Fry’s outburst.

Julian Hamilton in his office in House 27 last week. Photo: Tadgh Healy Gay Byrne question

The question itself presupposes a Platonic misrepresentation of the Christian faith, the presumption being that Christian faith is all about a gateway to the afterlife; a ticket to heaven.

This Platonic misrepresentation lowers Christian faith to the ultimate consumer commodity. It demeans the person of Christ.

It creates a system of faith concerned only on individualistic end goals. And it foregoes the life of Jesus of Nazareth, concentrating only upon his death.

It demeans the person of Christ by turning Christ into a tiller at a shopping centre. You must have a basket filled with the correct elements, and correct money, to pass through. It creates a system of individualistic faith by turn-

ing questions of corporate family ‘here and now’ existence – into personal questions of ‘then and there’ existence. And it foregoes the life of Jesus of Nazareth (a life which constantly barged against systems of religion that keep people enslaved to power) in favour of an understanding of faith which centres on death – death of Jesus and death of us.

I am surprised Stephen Fry let himself be taken into the question. But he is a polite man; he knows TV. On a side note, another reaction of mine was to immediately picture the producer of the show, a gentleman I have met and whom I like a lot, sitting in the corner watching this conversation unfold and almost salivating, knowing the reaction will be huge. The reaction has been

huge. The show’s reputation and rankings will do the whole Irish TV industry good for a short time. But like all media, it hides more than it reveals – revealing only what is edited – and reduces real matters of life and death to sound-bites.

Misunderstanding

This brings me to my final thought. If the nature of TV necessarily reduces reality, Stephen Fry reduces it more by reducing (in this clip) the existence of God to one argument. The existence of pain and suffering.

Two things. Firstly, as stated above, the argument that God does not exist because God is evil is philosophical nonsense. How can you be evil, if you don’t exist?! But secondly, and a lot more

seriously, the question of pain and suffering is real in Scripture.

The oldest piece of writing in the Torah is the book of Job. Its content can be shortened to: “Why is this **** happening to me?” The answer? Unhelpfully, “God is God, you are not.”

I am not in a position to, and am not minded to, discuss an explanation for the existence of suffering more than to say, it is part of authentic reality. And for faith to be real, it must be authentic. I am minister of the Christian Church; I have buried the people Stephen Fry mentions. I have seen at close quarters – in hospitals, in morgues, at gravesides. I have no mind to explain it away.

But I am minded to remember the crux of Christian faith is not

the death of Christ, it’s the life of Christ. A life born a refugee.

A life that touched the untouchable, feasted with the forgotten, and held out hands to the unclean. A life that stood in the midst of the marginalized and was eventually killed for treason and blasphemy. A life laid down in sacrificial love. A life that more than anything else speaks, “I do know; I am not far from you.” This is the life that shows what Scripture wants us to know about God.

Is Catholic Ireland dead?

You can’t really argue with census figures.

Doireann Ni Chonghaile Staff Writer It’s probably not too much of a stretch to say that Irish people have a complicated relationship with religion. Most of us nowadays have little or no interest in organised religion, and tend to stay as far away from the Catholic Church as possible (and not without good reason). We go to mass at Christmas and Easter, if at all, and I personally don’t think I know a single young person who actually owns a Bible.

So, yes, the traditional Catholic Ireland of our parents and grandparents is dead and gone, and few people wept at the (nondenominational) funeral.

Ours is a different kind of country, and yet we’ve never really escaped that “Catholic Hangover”.

It’s still there in our education system, in our abortion laws, and in our over-the-top reactions to Stephen Fry’s opinions on God. It’s there when we bless ourselves as we pass churches or graveyards, it’s there when we jokingly tell people we’ll “say a prayer” for them rather than just wishing them luck. Have you ever gone abroad and felt conspicuous when you realised no-one else used “Jesus Christ” as a swearword? Excuse me, your Catholicism is showing.

It’s not like it’s surprising that we do these things. After all, most of us were educated in Catholic primary, and even secondary schools, and have been baptised, communion-ised, and confirmed. Roughly 99.99999% of those who were raised Catholic will still have their children baptised, because that’s just the done thing. It’s all just a bit of fun and ritual, right? Something you do to please your parents, or so your child can go to the Catholic school that’s so much closer to your house and has the nicest facilities. It is, as Douglas Adams might have said, “mostly harmless”.

Meaningless milestones

Though we still practise them, these Catholic milestones are no longer about being embraced into the bosom of Christ (that

was the point, yeah? I didn’t pay much attention), but are now just a fun day out with the family, an excuse to get dressed up, and, if we’re honest, a way to squeeze your extended family for all they’re worth. That’s fairly harmless, right? We’ve done away with the worst aspects of Irish Catholicism – we’re educated now, we’re liberal, we are progressive – and we’ve kept the easy bits, the rituals that are so ingrained in our culture that it would be more effort to abolish them than we can be bothered with.

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In any other situation, if we were asked if a child should have a choice in being inducted into an organisation that is almost impossible to leave and will shape most of their lives, the answer would be a resounding yes.

There’s something a bit off, though, something disquieting, in continuing to practise these rites despite our lack of faith.

Yes, our grandparents’ generation may have been repressed, oppressed, and every other kind of pressed, but at least when they went to mass or said their rosaries, they actually believed in what they were doing. Who among us really believes that when they take Communion,

Illustration: Daniel Tatlow they are literally eating the body of Christ, or that priests shouldn’t be allowed to marry?

(I’m going to assume the answer is “not many”.) These are some of the core tenets that separate us from Protestants, and most of us don’t even believe them.

So why do we still think we’re Catholic?

National identity

Catholicism is no more a part of our national identity than shillelaghs and little green top hats, so why is this the one stereotype we stick to? Hollywood would have us believe that the Irish are drunk, provincial, and above all, religious. (Anyone else remember that scene in Marley and Me, where they stayed in an Irish B&B decked out in portraits of saints, and had to sleep in twin beds?) We’ve tried to fight the image of the violent drunk, or the farmer with the stupid accent with varying degrees of success, but when it comes to reli-

gion, you can’t really argue with census figures. We are Catholics, if only in name – but that name is apparently important enough to us that over 3.5 million of the 3.9 million Irish nationals living in Ireland still chose “Roman Catholic” as their religion on the 2011 census. You can’t exactly rant and rave at films “misrepresenting” Ireland when, according to the Irish people themselves, almost 90% of them are Catholic.

Funnily enough, the census results don’t have a category for “Lapsed Catholic”. What did they do with those who wrote that (or similar) on their forms back in 2011? Did they lump them in with the rest of the Catholics, the “No Religion” group (173,180), or the enigmatic “Not Stated” (29,888) category?

Either way, both these categories combined still make up only about 5% of Irish citizens, despite being more realistic representations of the country as a whole. Why are we so reluctant

to be honest about our religious beliefs? Most people, if pressed on the issue, will say something along the lines of, “Well, I was raised Catholic, but...”.

Just because you’re technically a member of an organisation does not mean you have to follow its practices, especially if you don’t actually believe in them.

Being a member of a political party does not make you a politician, and being a member of the Roman Catholic Church does not make you Roman Catholic in any meaningful sense of the term unless you actually share that Church’s beliefs. And yet we can’t let go of that label, one that most of us didn’t have a choice in, that was stuck on us by our parents as babies, just as it was stuck on them by theirs.

Back in the days when both infant mortality rates and genuine religious faith were much higher, it made some sense to baptise babies early, but that’s no longer much of an issue in

deciding to baptise a child. Some parents will wait months, even a year or two, before they do so, but we never seem to wait long enough to let the child decide for themselves. In any other situation, if we were asked if a child should have a choice in being inducted, for life, into an organisation that is almost impossible to leave and that will shape most of their lives, the answer would be a resounding yes. But this is only a bit of fun and ritual, right?

Every time a child is born

Every time a baby is baptised into a religion it has no concept of; every time a child is sent to a Catholic school because it’s the nearest; every time a teenager is confirmed because they want the money, the pressure on them to identify as Catholic increases, and that 90% census figure creeps gradually upwards.

Anyone who looked at that census would, logically, consider Ireland a Catholic country

– which it’s not. It’s a country of half-empty churches, an elderly priesthood that struggles to recruit new members, and over three million “Catholics” who couldn’t name the twelve apostles if ten of them were standing in front of them wearing nametags. It’s misleading, and more importantly, it’s just wrong.

Granted, it’s not something that affects most of us in our day-today lives. Maybe you only think of every month or so when an elderly relative asks you when you last went to mass. But it’s a lie.

When we claim we’re Catholics – even lapsed ones, even nominally – when in reality most of us have little faith in God and no faith in a Church that has held us back for years, we are lying.

We’re lying to others and we’re lying to ourselves, and when did that last work out well for anyone?

TRINITY NEWS

Tuesday 10th February 2015

Comment

16

Teachers wrong to oppose Junior Cert reforms Reforms will allow teachers to better cater to their students’ interests and abilities.

Andrew O’Donovan Deputy News Editor Something historic is happening in Irish secondary education at the moment. The coalition plans to radically alter the shape of junior cycle; the headline change being the doing away with of an externally-marked state exam.

Teachers say doing so would remove objectivity from exams and corrupt the student-teacher relationship, and have so far gone on strike on two separate occasions in opposition. In the face of strident teacher opposition, and with Ruairi Quinn having been replaced as minister for education by Jan O’Sullivan, compromises have been offered: the final implementation date has been postponed and 60% of the grade in each subject will still be decided by a state exam akin to the Junior Certificate. However, teachers continue to insist that any internal grading would corrupt the system.

Support

Medicalised terminology only increases mental health stigma Medicalised discussion simplifies mental health to a point that could lead one to talk of cures, as if the person that has a black cloud following her around could instead have a herd of unicorns if the doctor gives her the right pill and she gets a boyfriend.

Rachel Graham Online Comment Editor “Sadness is something we all feel. Unfortunately, it’s all most us have to relate to people with a mental illness dubbed ‘clinical depression’”. This is how Sean Healy begins his recent article in The University Times, “The problem with current mental illness terminology”. He argues that stigma around mental health issues stems from a lack of understanding that these conditions are illnesses with physical causes, and thinks that we disrespect people suffering with them when we describe them in emotional terms. He calls for conditions such as ‘bipolar’ and ‘schizophrenia’ to be given names that denote their physical causes.

A similar sentiment, albeit usually without the direct call for renaming, is often expressed implicitly in the media and in campaigns about mental illness.

Mental health is discussed in increasingly medicalised terms, as more studies make links between neurological factors and psychological conditions. Acknowledging this connection is no doubt positive, as it aids our understanding of and ability to treat mental illnesses. However, I think calling for a general medicalisation of the discussion around mental health is misled. The problem I see with it is summed up quite neatly in the quote I began with. ‘Sadness’, a mere ‘emotion’ is pitted against ‘depression’, an ‘illness’. In this dichotomy, emotion is belittled, while illness, being seen as definitionally a bad thing and something we can all take seriously, is presented as something which the non-sufferer cannot understand but must respect. This is all wrong.

Mental illness is dubbed as such because it is the illness we experience not physically, but emotionally and psychologically. If you believe in science, it is probably not a surprise to you that mental illnesses have physical causes. If mental illnesses have physical causes, emotions do too. What makes mental illnesses important is not the physical processes happening in the brain. That would be like saying what makes emotions and thoughts worth taking seriously is their physical causes.

What makes them matter is their experienced content. A mental illness might be something that in the future we can diagnose with physical tests just like we can diagnose physical illnesses now. But their physical cause is

not part of their reality for those who suffer from them. I think the largest contributing factor towards stigma and lack of assistance for mentally ill people is not that people do not understand that these conditions have a physical cause, but that they don’t respect the psychological results of these physical causes for their own sake. In short, we are ashamed, embarrassed, and overly judgmental towards our own emotions and the emotions of others. We find physical problems relatively easy to deal with because they seem more objective and can be weighed on a scale that has life on one side and death on the other.

Physiological and medicalised terms are unhelpful

Framing discussion of mental health in physiological, medicalised terms only furthers this bias and discourages people from engaging with the psychological suffering of others for what it is – subjective experience. If people have trouble respecting and believing in mental illnesses, convincing them that mental illnesses really are just physical illnesses by another name is not the way forward. This allows people to be supportive of mental health sufferers in theory, while still telling their miserable friend to buck up and drink a few cans, because that friend hasn’t been diagnosed with a medical label that demands respect. A lot of problems around mental health stem from the fact that people are afraid they will not be taken seriously and do not ask for help, and often their fears are proved true (for some student accounts, see “Is anybody listening?”, Matthew Mulligan, trinitynews.ie).

Insisting that mental health is important because the way people experience life matters, and that that experience can only be known by the person themselves, is what is important in encouraging people to seek help. According to the HSE, one in four women and one in 10 men will require treatment for depression at some point in their lives.

The number that experience the condition but do not seek medical help is likely to be considerably higher. A message needs to be sent to people that they will never be dubbed ‘merely’ emotional if those emotions are having a severely negative impact on their life. People who currently have good mental health need to be able to recognise the situation if their health takes a turn for the worse. Wondering

whether or not their suffering is bad enough, or fits the right criteria to be given a clinical name and a physiological solution, is not a path from which people are most likely to seek help and feel justified in doing so.

Understanding brains

Physiological discussion of mental health also implies that mental illnesses are understood in a similar way to physical illnesses.

They are not. People still don’t really understand brains. You cannot look into a mentally ill person’s brain and find what’s ‘missing’. Mental illnesses are diagnosed purely on a symptomatic basis – there is no test you can do to prove definitively that you ‘have’ some particular mental illness, in the way that you could know you had a tumour, or a gall stone. Medicalised discussion simplifies the picture of mental health to a point that could lead one to talk of cures, as if the person that has a black cloud following her around could instead have a herd of unicorns if the doctor gives her the right pill and she gets a boyfriend. This is unhelpful for a lot of people whose mental health difficulties will persist over long periods, recur, and can only be managed, not eradicated.

For most people, drugs are not a cure but simply a short-term help or something that lets them cope with their illness long-term without ending it or even nullifying its effects. People might find it difficult to explain to people that the bad time they were having two years ago still affects them now, despite their medical treatment, and that ongoing psychological treatment could be needed to help them cope. The fluidity of mental health issues means that many people will be affected on and off throughout their lives by various conditions, to varying degrees. They need understanding and tolerance not only when their condition is deemed bad enough to require specific medical intervention, but before that point, whenever they are finding life difficult to cope with. An over emphasis on the physical nature and medical treatability of these conditions could impede a holistic approach to their treatment, and make it more difficult for others to accept their fluctuating nature.

Couching mental health discussion in medical terms also has a mystifying effect that furthers people’s impressions that mental health sufferers are different to them in some fundamental way.

Of course some psychological disorders, such as schizophrenia, can cause significant changes

not only in emotional function but also in rational and perceptual function, and these might be difficult or impossible for nonsufferers to understand and empathise with fully. But if you want to understand a mood affective or anxiety disorder, which is what the majority of mental health discussion centres around (another topic for discussion), go and play Depression Quest (www.depressionquest.com), or imagine yourself in a really distressing situation, such as taking an exam you haven’t studied for, and then imagine the resulting feelings of tension, upset and panic won’t go away for weeks, months or even years. Some people think that talking about mental health in this way is reductive, or even insulting, as it undermines the fact that people suffering from mental illnesses are suffering from something the majority of us don’t have to deal with, and that they have no control over. On the contrary, I think acknowledging that people’s suffering is important not because it can be given a specific label, but just because it feels like suffering to them, is perfectly respectful. It is also important to de-mystify mental health conditions to make them seem less outside the grasp of understanding of the average person - according to a survey carried out by St Patricks’ mental health services, 60% of employers would discriminate against hiring someone with a history of mental health difficulty. This demystification should be easier when keeping discussion at the level of experience than when talking of brains which have specific features that can be labelled as abnormal or dysfunctional.

‘Normal brains’ and ‘sick brains’

Lastly, and importantly, defining mental illnesses by their physical causes suggests that there are ‘normal’ brains and ‘sick’ brains.

This is a historical debate within the treatment of mental illness that has largely been won by psychiatry. The consequences of that victory are huge. According to one study (S. N. Visser, Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry), 6% of American children between the age of four and 17 were being given medication for attention deficit disorder in 2011. This happens not only because they are having difficulty physically or psychologically, but because they have something ‘wrong’ with their behaviour that is viewed as inherently problematic.

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What makes mental illnesses important is not the physical processes happening in the brain.

That would be like saying what makes emotions and thoughts worth taking seriously is their physical causes.

Whatever your views on psychiatry and the complicated issue of the treatment of people deemed insane or psychotic, the idea of the ‘normal’ brain has consequences for how we deal with more common mental health issues in our universities, families and society as a whole.

Something that is obvious from the large numbers of people who report experiencing mental health problems anonymously online is that although psychological difficulty is an undesirable part of the human condition, it’s not an unusual one. What the cause of this ubiquity is remains up for debate, but what seems clear is that the ideal of a normal, happy brain is not one which is consistently attainable for most people. When people almost certainly will experience mental health difficulties, unrealistically equating the ‘normal brain’ and the ‘happy brain’, creates the impression that people are failing to live up to an achievable standard, which may only increase their own negative feelings towards themselves and their lives.

In short, although mental health needs to be taken seriously, I don’t think that discussing it in physiological terms is the way forward. This is because it encourages a rigid understanding of things which are not yet understood, and delegitimises the subjective character of those illnesses, the lack of respect for which is possibly the biggest hurdle people with mental health issues face at the moment.

They seem to have support from outside of the profession.

According to a poll conducted for the Irish Independent, 60% of parents think that teachers should not assess their own pupils. Irish Times columnist Fintan O’Toole wrote recently that, while he believed the educational reasons behind the reform were entirely sound, because Ireland is “a place where corners are cut … where rules are made to be bent,” teachers should not be in charge of grading their own students. Using different logic, he comes to the same conclusion as teachers. That mindset, though, is rooted in conformity. It’s from the standpoint of one who has been through the system and cannot properly conceive of alternatives. What’s actually happening is that the Junior Cert – to be renamed the junior cycle student award (JCSA) – is being downgraded in terms of importance. This will not merely alter the way students are examined, but will rejuvenate learning at secondary school.

Curriculum

A formal set of examinations at the end of Junior Cert had its place when a large number of students was leaving education having reached the compulsory minimum-age. Those students needed a qualification to show for their nine years of schooling.

But that is no longer the case. In a recent report by the department of education, that number was shown to have declined to less than 10% from 16% 10 years earlier. In 1980, the figure was over 30%. The trend may well continue, especially if Ireland follows the UK’s lead and raises the age of compulsory education to eighteen. Dictating a curriculum to suit the needs of 10% is wholly misguided. That’s before you even consider that that cohort of students is likely to have substantially under-performed.

They gain nothing by having a scattering of mediocre grades receive state certification.

Teachers seem to have an axiomatic belief that the only way the results of exams can have credibility is if they are marked blind. In a typical Junior Cert year, around 95% of entries in each of the core subjects of Irish, English and maths will pass. That 95% is split between the four pass-grades – A, B, C, D. The cost of the state exams, which requires that hundreds of thousands of scripts be printed, delivered and corrected must be huge, and all so that students can be marked within four very wide grade boundaries. Such hyper-objectivity is almost comically wasteful. With all but a very small minority of students not progressing from Junior Cert to Leaving Cert there is no longer anything gained from a formal exam. And much is lost because of it.

The negative unintended consequences of the state exam are numerous and will be familiar to anyone who has experienced the Junior Cert. Exam preparation pervades the three years of the junior cycle, reaching a climax in the months leading-up to the exam. Reliance on past exam papers as a study aid is astonishing if you consider how at odds perfecting exam technique is with a utopian education. An ESRI study found that a common phenomenon, especially amongst boys, was for motivation to counter-intuitively wane after first year - as the state exam neared. Teachers are constrained by a curriculum whose content they need to have fully covered, lest they be accused of not preparing their students properly. Students develop the habit of mindless rote-learning as they are required to answer on three years’ worth of content in the exams.

Reforms

The new curriculum promises to remove the shackles that currently bind teachers and students, and offers the prospect of innovative ways of teaching and examining. Teachers can better cater to their students’ interests and abilities. Open-book exams, oral assessments, lab practicals, creative-writing portfolios, and class presentations can all be expected as means of assessment.

Enthusiasts of the formal exam, fear not: it will still constitute the principal way in which students are examined. But a student’s final grade will be based on second and third year sittings combined with project work. Objectivity will not be removed: teachers will continue to correct as they do unofficial Christmas and summer exams, and standardised test will remain in Maths, English, and Science. Analysis in Finland has shown negligible difference between teacher-corrected and blind-corrected marks.

The reforms could prove revolutionary for the type of student who struggles with traditional academics. Not only does internal assessment have the capacity to identify achievement that the one-dimensional JC doesn’t.

But, by not having his confidence knocked by poor performance, he may be far less likely to become disengaged. The range of subjects taught will increase. Traditional subjects can be substituted for a combination of so-called ‘short courses’ which schools and teachers are both entitled and encouraged to design. Coding, Chinese and forensics are three of what will become a catalogue of courses developed by the national curriculum body.

The most repeated argument against teacher-assessment is that, in Ireland, people will always try to break the rules. And because everyone knows everyone else, the pressure to massage results would be intense. The reason though that it is entirely irrelevant if cronyism is present in the system is that, as almost all external importance will be taken out of the final results of the junior cycle, why would a parent bribe or coerce a teacher?

To what end? And if they did, no other student is disadvantaged.

They are not measured against each other.

Practitioners tend to oppose change. From doctors in the health service to lawyers in the legal profession, there is always opposition. That is not, in itself, a good argument that the reforms are right. But it does give an explanation as to why so many teachers could be wrong, for those appealing to authority.

No doubt teachers have much of value to contribute. But it must be remembered that almost all teachers have only one’s year pedagogical training. Others must also be allowed to contribute. And here, they almost all side with the coalition’s reforms.

Several head teachers have publicly backed them as have domestic and foreign academics.

Teacher-led assessment is the norm in almost every European country, as well as the United States. The Irish teaching unions, who misrepresent the ongoing educational changes in the UK to suit their own agenda, conveniently forget that, according to Sally Tomlinson, an academic at Oxford University, “In the 1990s, an astonishing number of associations called for” the abolish public exams at 16.

“Sources as diverse as the confederation of British industry, the trades union congress, the royal society of arts, the advisory council on education, the association of sixth-form principals, the committee of vice-chancellors, the girls schools association, the headmasters conference, and more, urged a reformed post-14 curriculum.” Overwhelming support their is a stark contrast to almost unanimous opposition here.

The Junior Cert as it stands is an out-moded, ill-considered curriculum that is detrimental to the learning of students because of its inflexibility and ever-looming assessment. The JCSA will do away with those. No doubt, the reforms could have been implemented better: teachers should have had greater involvement in devising the curriculum and training should have been more comprehensive. But, when the JCSA has finally vanquished the junior certificate, and all the pre-compromise proposals have been embraced, what will exist is a curriculum that recognises and rewards a variety of types of student and which will better prepare students for their subsequent education.

TRINITY NEWS

Tuesday 10th February 2015

Comment

17

Water is not free It is unreasonable to demand an unsustainable level of public services without paying for it.

Callum TrimbleJenkins Staff Writer

Memorial to a famine victim in Dublin’s IFSC. Photo: Jason Weisberger

Feeble reality of Irish capitalism Ireland’s weak economic base and reliance on foreign direct investment has defined our general self-perception just as Marx said it would.

William Foley Comment Editor Karl Marx famously said that the economic “base” of society determines its “superstructure” - the culture, politics, social institutions and so on. This has proved to be a compelling and often fruitful theory, even if its empirical justification is still a matter of debate. I’m not going to try and prove the proposition here, but I think it provides an interesting framework through which we can examine the contemporary Irish self-perception.

Marx truly was “all about that base.” For him the nature of the economy - the level of technological development, the power and sophistication of the capitalist class and its relation with the working class, the technical structure of production and the composition of the commodities produced - determined, in a general sense, things like the culture, political system, dominant ideologies, social conventions et.c of the given society.

Is this the case? Could we say that the bold, self-assured storytelling of FitzGerald and Hemingway reflected a period of growing American economic power, and, later, hegemony, while the perpetually refracting irony and hedging of contemporary American novelists, obsessed with writing (physically) big novels that supposedly sum up the condition of contemporary America, reflects the decline of US dominance and the growing feeling of uncertainty in a world where the dollar no longer commands the respect that it once did? Maybe.

The interaction between economy and culture seems more apparent in the case of human geography. Think of the commonly accepted process of gentrification. A previously undesirable urban area is colonised, first by pioneering artistic types, leading to an exciting confluence of creative activity and a vibrant cultural scene (sometimes at the expense of the original working class inhabitants), which then attracts soulless young professionals, eager to fill the vacuums of their lives through their preferred method of unreflective consumption. House prices and living costs are driven up further until the penniless artistic types

are driven out and the area officially becomes high class and boring. Think of Montmartre today, or Berlin in the not so distant future.

One of the most interesting consequences of this theory is that, as Marx puts it in The German Ideology “The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas.” In other words, the dominant ideas in society are those produced by the members of the dominant class.I won’t try and launch a defence of this statement here, but it is not unitutive. As Terry Eagleton points out “It would be odd to come across a thriving feudal society in which most of the ideas in circulation were vehemently antifeudalist.”

Weak capitalist class

Perhaps this approach can tell us something interesting about Ireland. But before discussing its culture and institutions, we need to first take a look at the economic base. The first point to note is that Ireland is, by the standards of other OECD countries, a relatively feeble economy with a weak capitalist class. The country’s industrial development was delayed as burgeoning industry was suppressed by British colonial administration to prevent competition with their own industry, and so as to gear Ireland’s economic resources towards feeding its rapidly expanding workforce. By the time that the act of union eliminated trade barriers between the isles, British industry had developed such a large competitive advantage over its distorted neighbouring economy that most Irish firms who weren’t involved in non-traded or primary processes were wiped out.

The economy remained weak and disproportionately based on agriculture well into the twentieth century. Protectionism, introduced by the first Fianna Fáil in the 1930s, actually led to relatively significant industrial development. But, as has been pointed out by economists such as O’Malley and Crotty, this kind of development - based on replacing imported goods, which are priced out of the market by heavy tariffs, with domestically produced substitutes - is inherently limited and leads to stagnation. While the rest of the Western world enjoyed the fruits of the postwar boom, Ireland sunk into depressing economic circumstances. Growing unemployment, faltering production, and snowballing emigration led to a situation described at the time

by Garret Fitzgerald as a “crisis of national self-confidence.”

The resultant opening up of the economy, today identified with the efforts of the civil servant TK Whitaker, led to a boom period as foreign direct investment poured in. The opening up was supposed to lead to the development of new exportoriented industries, competing

on a world stage at every level of the supply chain. However, the economic slump of the 1980s revealed that the new turn had not only not solved the structural weaknesses in the Irish economy, but also had probably exaggerated them. Unemployment skyrocketed to 18% in 1987. Employment in manufacturing was hit particularly hard, falling by 20% between 1979 and 1987. Yet according to O’Malley, the average annual growth rate in industry was over 6 per cent between 1982 and 1987, and Ireland often had the fastest rate of growth of industrial output in the OECD in that period.

Foreign firms

How to explain the huge increase in industrial output occurring simultaneously with a significant decrease in industrial employment? The answer lies in the composition of the new firms producing the Irish export market. From the 1950s until the 1970s, indigenous Irish firms were steadily squeezed out of every sector except naturally protected ones (such as the processing of primary goods, or non-traded products), with a few exceptions. The new foreign firms which replaced them and which took the lion’s share of the new export market were very capital intensive and did not generate much demand for labour, or for indigenously produced inputs. According to one report by the National Economic and Social Council, Irish industry employed proportionally fewer workers than any comparable economy.

Thus the huge increase in foreign direct investment and the new foreign export-oriented firms did little to augment the industrial base. The indigenous industrial development all took place in naturally protected markets, or in areas such as packaging, cement, glass, clay, and metal fabrication - ie: supplying packaging for the new exportoriented firms, or materials for building new plants and for supplying the burgeoning construction industry. Construction was the other aspect of economic growth in the period of “opening up.” As has been well-documented in Conor McCabe’s book Sins of the Father, this was the period in which the unhealthy nexus between the finance and construction industries and with the political establishment - particularly Fianna Fáil - developed.

So we can see the structural frailties of the Irish capitalism.

It is parasitic, reliant on foreign companies who pay low or negligible amounts of tax, create little demand for labour, and import most of their inputs. The indigenous capitalist class is either directly reliant on the foreign firms, or engaged in low-tech, low value-added, usually naturally protected activities, or part of the unhealthy and unsustainable finance-construction-pol-

itics nexus which, beside being incredibly corrupting and antidemocratic, fuels cycles of boom and bust that ultimately only benefit a small, well-connected elite.

What does this say about our country with regard to Marx’s formula outlined above? Well for one thing this state of affairs in the economic base seems to be mirrored in the societal superstructure. One overlooked aspect of modern Irish culture is the huge gap between the town and the country - or more precisely between the large urban areas, Dublin in particular, and more rural areas, including the provincial towns. Because our collective self-perception is manufactured by media and cultural elites generally based in Dublin, we have come to think of ourselves as being far more liberal, secular, and progressive than we actually are.

Conservative culture

In reality, conservative ideas hold a much greater sway in rural areas than in urban ones.

In the countryside and in the provincial towns you will find greater proportional mass attendance amongst self-professed Catholics, and you will also find a greater proportion of the population identifying as Catholics.

Although there is now broad support for same-sex marriage in Ireland, there is still a significant difference in the levels of support between Dubliners and people in the other regions.

Mass attendance too is still much higher than you probably think. According to the last census (2011), 3.86 million people identify as Catholic. The fourth round of the European Social Survey (2009/10) reported that circa 52% of Catholics go to mass at least once a week, and a further 21% go at least once a month. Thus, 2.82 million people (albeit many of them children or teenagers) go to mass at least once a month.

Go into the small town or the village, and you will still see the traditional pillars of 20th century Ireland intact: the Catholic church, Fianna Fáil, and the GAA. This is more difficult to prove with quantitative data, but anyone with even secondary personal experience of small town and rural Ireland will confirm this.

All this chimes with the reality behind the notion, so popular amongst political elites, that Ireland is a successful small economy competing with the big boys on the international market. In truth, the economy is in many ways undeveloped and contradictory - just as the country is much more reactionary and conservative than we might think.

Irish artists are, in my opinion, also caught up in this contradiction, particularly in the narrative arts - literature, television, and film. The most celebrated Irish authors generally don’t come to

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Go into the small town or the village, and you will still see the traditional pillars of 20th century Ireland intact: the Catholic church, Fianna Fáil, and the GAA. terms with contemporary Ireland in a truly successful way. As the satirical writer Julian Gough (who has, in his fiction, directly addressed issues of modern political economy in the post-2008 era) pointed out in a 2010 interview, most Irish writers are still stuck in an imaginative universe invented by John McGahern decades ago. For example, John Banville, probably Ireland’s preeminent living author, seems not to be aware that the internet has been invented. Where is our Great Gatsby - a contemporarily relevant book about a midwestern boy drawn to the brights lights of the east coast where his life is wrecked and torn asunder?

Most of the commercially successful authors seem stuck in this nowhere version of Ireland - living neither in the stagnant and introverted past or the cosmopolitan and internationallyintegrated present. Irish TV is simply derivative - the latest overrated IFTA bait Love/Hate is an embarrassingly amateurish rip-off stuff that American television did over a decade ago.

I do not present the above as cast-iron evidence of Marx’ formulation. But I do think that it is interesting to note the similarities between the Irish economic base and societal superstructure: both are insecure, parasitic, and riven by a contradiction between a conservative and anachronistic simulacrum of the past and a feeble, second-hand version of liberal modernity. Our general self-perception - the ruling ideas of our society - are in accordance with the ideas of the political, cultural, and economic elite, all of whom are, at the very least, caught up in the contradiction which I outlined above. All countries like to indulge in national delusions. In the case of modern industrialised countries, these delusions are born of positions of relative strength. In the case of Ireland, the delusions are born out of a weakness, a weakness which the delusions themselves hold to be a strength.

The idea that water is free is frankly ridiculous. This is not a right wing free market view, rather it is a simple fact of living in a world of finite resources.

Nothing is free! Although water is relatively plentiful in Ireland there are large fixed costs associated with sanitation and supply of water. When we think of paying for water, in reality this is what we are paying for.

Nonetheless water is a prime example of what is known in economics as a ‘merit good’. In other words something which is beneficial for society that would be underconsumed if provided by market forces. It is not as some protesters have tried to claim a ‘public good’ which could not be provided at all by the free market. This is semantics however as the result is the same, water must be provided by the government.

Thus the question we are left with is how the government’s provision of water should be funded. Right2water.ie, a website dedicated to organising opposition to the charge argue that water is already covered by general taxation. If only this were the case. With government expenditure currently standing at ¤72.7bn, while revenue is only ¤63.8bn it is clear that general taxation is not covering all of government expenditure. This deficit is then funded by government borrowing, a perfectly normal activity in the Western world.

While borrowing in itself is not a problem for governments the current level of public debt and especially the repayments required to service that debt is very worrying. The Irish government currently has debts equivalent to 111% of GDP. If the country was to slip into another recession, it could prove impossible to match the fall in tax receipts with increased borrowing this mandating huge cuts to government expenditure further depressing demand and hampering growth. Servicing this level of public debt alone costs ¤8.25bn per year. To put this into perspective, if every household in Ireland paid the maximum water charge it would only cover roughly 0.03% of a figure which is the equivalent of the day to day running costs of the education system.

Two options

With borrowing out of the question, the government is thus left with only two realistic options.

Either they can raise revenue or cut expenditure. As part of austerity measures enforced by the Troika the government has already slashed the public budget.

Any further cuts would be the worst possible outcome for the poorest and most disadvantaged in our society, who benefit the most from government services.

With ‘efficiency savings’ already coming in the first rounds of cuts the only option would be to slash frontline services such as teachers and social workers. This outcome should be avoided at all costs.

With lowering expenditure clearly out of the question, the government must raise its revenue. This is exactly what it has done by charging for water. I would agree with the protesters that to charge for use is a particularly regressive system. Especially with a fixed upper limit the amount of usage will not vary significantly with income, yet the proportion of income that goes towards paying for water will of course decrease with increasing wealth. That being said it is still a preferable option to decimating other public services that are already at breaking point. Public expenditure also has a powerful multiplier effect meaning the benefits to the economy are greater than the losses associated with the charg

Need to raise revenue

Due to the large fixed costs, the marginal cost to produce an extra litre of drinkable water is actually decreasing. For efficiency sake society should be using more water up until the point where new production facilities are required. With high fixed costs and as a good which is not particularly responsive to changes in income it makes sense for the government to foot the bill.

So far it would appear that I am in agreement with the water protesters, apart from a view issues of definition and semantics.

The crucial difference is that I accept that there is a problem with public sector funding, with the deficit and public debt at its current level it is absolutely necessary to raise revenue. Thus what I propose would be even more unpopular than the water charge: a comprehensive increase in taxes.

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Low tax returns coupled with high public spending has led to the massive level of public debt that has proved so crippling.

Low tax returns coupled with high public spending has led to the massive level of public debt that has proved so crippling. I support a large public sector, and, in fact, I would like to see the government do more to create a more equal society. I believe this is a view shared by most of the electorate. Unfortunately there is not a similar willingness to foot the bill. Tax increase, particularly to income taxes are universally unpopular and a guaranteed vote loser. This has led to politicians increasing spending without the required tax increases to go with it.

Sweden is always held up as the ideal social democracy with low income inequality and high levels of development due to their wide ranging social welfare programmes. What is never mentioned is that they have the tax rates to go with it. The difference between revenue and expenditure is just ¤1bn and this is made up with grants from international organisations. This has led to a staggeringly low public debt of just 33% of GDP. Why? Their returns from taxation are considerably higher than Ireland’s.

Although the protesters and associated political parties have demanded tax increases on the rich, such increases would not go far enough. The middle class would also have to pay their proportional share of the bill, which would bring even more people on to the streets and create an even greater backlash at the ballot box. Nevertheless the reality is that if we want the government to provide the services it does we need to pay for it. Either we can do it through regressive means such as the water charge or taxes such as VAT or through fairer, progressive taxes like that on income and the profits of corporations.

The economic rationale for higher income taxes

On the face of it governments across the world have justified current income tax levels through economic means. Particularly the idea that taxes on income reduce the incentive to work. The Laffer curve is also important as it argues that at a certain tax rate this disincentive will actually reduce government revenue. However no one actually knows what this tax rate is, any attempts to study seem to suggest that it has not been reached and that governments should raise taxes to maximise revenue.

Companies are also shielded from paying their fair share for the protection society provides by arguments that an increase in corporation tax will depress economic activity, distorting competitive markets. If we return to the example of Sweden we can see that this is a fallacy.

The Swedish economy is the fourth most competitive in the world and estimates suggest that no other Western European country will sustain comparable growth rates over the next few years.

Then what is the real reason behind government’s refusal to raise progressive income taxes and instead focus on regressive ways of enhancing revenue?

They’re terrified of the political consequences. Changes to income tax are far more noticeable for voters than other forms of taxation, making them feel poorer than if the equivalent was taken by other means. Hence rather than blaming politicians we must take responsibility for this ourselves, it is unreasonable to demand an unsustainable level of public services without paying for it. The water protests are a perfect example of this immaturity. The more reasonable approach would be to offer an alternative. The only fair option is to increase revenue through an rise in progressive taxation across the board. Unfortunately, that wouldn’t be a very popular campaign slogan.

TRINITY NEWS

Tuesday 10th February 2015

Comment

18

I don’t appreciate working for the Prendervost for free Dear wealthy potential Trinity students in China and the US, the student life that the provost has been telling you about is actually going to peter out any second now.

D. Joyce-Ahearne Deputy Editor

Kant or coffee: the value of procrastination

Illustration: Mubashir Sultan

Can the true value of university education ever come exclusively from the classroom? Or is a certain amount of frivoling necessary in order to fully develop your thoughts, opinions and express them coherently?

Clodagh Bergin Contributor As I flop over delicately in my bed, the sunlight lightly caresses my face and my skin tingles with anticipation of another delightful day as a student in trinity college Dublin. I gather my thoughts and manoeuvre myself out of bed. What will the day hold for me in the finest institution of education in Ireland? Maybe I’ll complete next week’s reading?

Perhaps I’ll critically compare the German and English translations of the Critique of Pure Reason then debate at large with my lecturer as to the true meaning of the synthetic a priori. For some reason, totally unknown to me, another option always seems much more appealing: coffee.

So I dress and leave the comforts of my apartment. Having attended my one class of the day, I can usually be found nursing a cup filled with sparkles and dreams, wondering what I could have achieved had I spent the day in Ussher 4. Realistically, that is the truer, more Trinity option. That’s how the greats become so great. I know I should be reading and analysing and expanding my knowledge about the greatest philosophical works

known to man. What’s more, I too should be beginning to add my two cents. I should sit in the library and hammer out a coherent philosophy of how the world works, how language is conducted and whether or not God exists. I could be great. In fact, I could turn the world of Trinity on its head. I would be engraved on benches. You would see my name on spines beside Bentham and Berkeley and students would rip me to shreds.

But, instead of the glory and gold, everyday, I choose to waste this precious time in my academic career drinking coffee. It’s not that I’m lazy. I, like you, got into trinity. We all clearly have a good work ethic and huge potential. Moreover, I am lucky in that I am enjoying the material I come across and believe that the majority of Trinity lecturers are stimulating and engaging.

The big questions are invigorating, I want to find the answers and leave my mark on the academic world. Luckily for me, my grades don’t reflect the true time I spend avoiding the realities of studying and the impending doom that is the month of May. But for some reason I can’t quite fathom, at twenty one I find myself having an existential crisis about the most primitive academic tasks that cross

my path daily, whether they be completing a response paper, preparing readings for a tutorial, or even just getting up in time to make my nine am class. Yet if an arrangement has been made to meet someone for a breakfast coffee at 8:30 am, I’ll be five minutes early.

Virtues

But am I wrong? Is it truly wrong that I have spent more time in coffee shops than in libraries the past three years of my college education? Clearly I’m doing something right. Yes, I will hate myself and be locked by a desk for the month of April but I’ll still manage to scrape above average grades and perhaps grow as a human by virtue of the fact I kept it together under the stress.

Furthermore, think about all the fantasies I’ve entertained these ‘quick coffee breaks’. The discussions you have with friends over coffees drag you from Hogwarts to Hegel in less than thirty seconds. Thoughts and ideas flow.

Jokes are shared. Dates are dissected. You discuss career options, the substance of Descartes duality and that murky and mysterious place known as the future.

On rare occasions, one can even imagine a world outside of the Trinity bubble. A world

where a fifteen minute coffee break is just that. A world where student union elections metamorphose to a general election.

A world where your greatest worry isn’t trying not to pass out at pre drinks before Trinity Ball.

On these momentous three hour long breaks, a truer cognition of the human thought process is revealed to you. Theories are tossed over and back, whether that be in an attempt to solve Russell’s paradox or just figure out whether or not to redownload Tinder. We laugh, we cry, we make believe and become the essence of our own fairytale. And maybe, just maybe, you can grow in understanding of the friend who is sitting opposite.

As you both cradle a cup and ponder the complexities of a Trinity lifestyle, you can share your vulnerabilities and in doing so, engage in a process of interpersonal growth. These hours wasted contemplating the big and the small are invaluable despite holding no true consequence. Nothing is lost but time, and that can always be made up for. Nothing is gained but an understanding for not only the individual sitting opposite you, but the people they have met, the places they have seen and the stories that they have discovered.

Golden opportunity

So the question I pose is this: can the true value of university education ever come exclusively from the classroom? Or in order to fully develop your thoughts, opinions and express them coherently, is a certain amount of frivoling compulsory? The years spent at university are the final time we have to loiter, lounge about and make sense our existence on earth before the real world steps in, forcing our days to become filled with bureaucratic business and mundane musings about whether or not to attend the staff Christmas party a month down the line.

If these are the best years of our lives, I would be glad to say that I received average grades in return for above average conversations and relationships. I don’t really care whether or not mathematics can be reduced to logical propositions. But I do care about people and their story. And that’s what I think Trinity offers to us all: an excellent academic education and a sublime education about personage.

so many terrorists use it as a tool of justification.

Contributor

Qur’an

In light of recent events, events of the past, and events to come, I feel that it is imperative to understand what Islamic terrorism really is. It is easy to play the blame game and start attacking minority groups, religious scriptures or just religion as a whole.

However, issues this deeply rooted are not that simple. Once we understand that, we can actually start constructively combatting one of the most threatening issues of the 21st century, which in my opinion we are not successfully doing just yet. This article aims to bring to light the underlying problems of Islamic terrorism and how harmful and unproductive the approach currently being taken is.

So ‘“Islamic terrorism” - key word being Islamic. Let me be the first to say that I admit that Islam is central in understanding the problem with Islamic terrorism. I am sure you have heard the general rhetoric of “Islam has nothing to do with it; terrorists are just crazy people” and “Islam doesn’t promote violence; people need to stop associating these two things together because it makes Muslims look bad”. While I agree with much of that rhetoric, I feel that most Muslims who stand by that have been coerced into doing so out of fear of being associated with terrorism and violence. The truth is, in order for us to start combating the problem, we need toactually look at Islam and why

Islam is a religion, a set of beliefs that are designed for Muslims to live by. To accuse it of being the sole cause of terrorism is slightly absurd. However, I understand the concern about the Qur’an and all its scary referencing to violence and killing non-believers etc. I have read the Qur’an twice and know exactly what they are talking about, but there is something very amusing to me about the one-liners people pull out and say, “See, we told you Islam is violent”.

The Qur’an is a combination of timeless verses that are laid out to guide us in daily life and then verses about the life of the prophet and his family and issues pending at that time. I can assure you that every verse dealing with hypocrites and non-believers are to do with anecdotes of the enemies of the prophet. It is quite entertaining to see people on social media quoting lines from the Qur’an as “proof” that Muslims are out to get everyone, when if they read the context they would realise they are purely addressing the struggles of the prophet and those who were trying to kill him.

Taking lines from the Qur’an at face value shows a complete and utter lack of understanding about modern Islam. If people take the Qur’an so literally, you can begin questioning the use of tanks and modern artillery as in that time they only fought with swords and sticks. I’m not

sure how the prophet would feel if he knew the “Soldiers of Allah” were using machine guns to massacre Muslim school children in his name. There are so many problems here. You can see the incoherency. If we really want to be literalists, the Qur’an clearly states the importance of fair battle. Kamikaze bombings are hardly fair. Killing children is forbidden and mutilation is strictly not allowed. What I am trying to get at here is the fact that terrorists clearly do not have a solid religious justification for their actions.

Perceived justification

This is why I believe that Islam is central in understanding this sort of terrorism. We need to understand how easy it is to use it as a tool of justification because most people will not question religion, it is so easy to fall into the trap of misinterpretation. This is how terrorist leaders and organisations recruit people and this is why these groups are constantly growing. It is not helpful and can be incredibly harmful when even people from the west start going along with the idea that Islam is a violent religion, and that it alone is fuelling terrorist ideology.

We also need to look at the other factors involved in Islamic terrorism, now that we have established that Islam alone cannot be used as a solid justification. It is pretty widely known that the US were responsible for creating the Taliban and recently it has even been brought to light that the US had been funding what are now

known as ISIS. This had a large role in allowing the exponential growth of these groups. It came to a point where these groups were living off terrorism and using it as a means of income and purpose.

War on terror

As we already know, there is a long history of resentment from the Muslim world towards the west, specifically the US. This is due to a combination of colonialism, exploitation of resources and drone attacks on Muslimmajority countries. It is important not to ignore this as it highlights that the approach of the so-called war on terror is not exactly the best solution to a problem largely created by those who are conducting this ‘war’. The US’s involvement in trying to combat terrorism has not proven to be effective and is potentially making the problem worse. It is further fuelling terrorist organisations to attack the west as they see the war on terror as a threat, obviously. This approach will inevitably lead to a full-fledged war which is a very scary thought and not something anyone wants to be around to see.

There needs to be a change in attitude towards the issue of Islamic terrorism as it is clear that the current approach is not effective and even worses the problem. It is not as simple as just blaming religion as the cause of terrorism as this is exasperating the problem, we need to take into consideration all the relevant factors. We need to focus on education, how religion is

Letter

Dear wealthy potential Trinity students in China and the US, I wouldn’t bother if I were you.

Yeah we put on an amazing show but we’re winding it down now.

It’s just bad business when you’re being increasingly charged for putting in serious unpaid labour.

I’d imagine it’s the same in your own industries of oil and shipping.

The student life that the Prendervost has been telling you about is actually going to peter out any second now because it would appear he’s doing his utmost to kill it. I know, doesn’t seem to make any sense at all, but there you go.

It used to be great. There were legions of us, all contributing to a diverse and dynamic body that meant that Trinity was the kind of place that people wanted to go to. But the Prendervost started taking the almighty piss so we

Society stalls during Freshers’ Week. Photo: Attie Papas Student life

Understanding ‘Islamic’ terror Imaan Bari

I’ve a bone to pick. I feel used.

At the time of writing, I’ve spent most of my day in the Publications Office. I got here at 9.30am.

In fact, I’ve spent most of the last two weeks in here. There was the last production weekend. Then there was something to do with UT and the Phil.. It’s been hectic.

In between producing a paper, combating the forces of Minitrue and interviewing potential sabbats, I’ve been using my spare moments to write a 4,000 word essay on, and I quote, “the ways in which language isolates and divides by creating limits and defining borders which cannot be overcome”. Yeah that’s right, in between writing for a fucking paper. I hope it doesn’t sound like I’m complaining. I’m not. I love it.

Yesterday I read this account of Trinity life in the 60s and besides the slightly unsettling reactionary undercurrent it made me pause for a second, step away from the language doesn’t work essay and consider my own ongoing Trinity days. Turns out I’m a big fan. nd when I think of why that is I find that, by and large, it’s because of the students and what they do. Student life in Trinity is incredible. The diversity and quality of what we do here means that we operate in an environment that is probably the most interesting on the island.

Yeah I read the last sentence twice too. But I’m leaving it in.

welcome.” Is that right Paddy?

That’s grand, I’ll do that so…It’s the vibrancy and eclecticism of student life in Trinity that attracts these high rollers that the Prendervost wants to people his/ our College with. They’re not coming for the constant rain or the damp. Or the fact that Kinsella Hall is now called Kinsella Hall. It’s mostly because of us.

And we work for free. Up until last year.

Last year, the Prendervost decided to cut 5% from the budgets of all student organisations.

Effectively, or perhaps in what is just a demagogic flourish on my part, it’s fair to say that we’re now paying him so we can work for free. And he’d like us to pay more. He sells us and our work conditions worsen. It’s almost ridiculous that we continue to work at all, given the circumstances. I wonder what would happen if we did all quit. It’d take a lot of rebranding to sell that College, the one with nothing to do. So I’ve decided to write a letter to wealthy potential international students. And I want to cc. the Prendervost. I imagine it’ll have to be an email then but the rhetoric stands.

“

If we really want to be literalists, the Qur’an clearly states the importance of fair battle. currently being spread in Muslimcountries, how the Quran is being manipulated to indoctrinate people, how the uneducated ones don’t dare speak out against terrorist leaders out of fear of being accused of blasphemy and bigotry.

The religion itself isn’t the problem; the interpretation, execution and the egotistic value that some people feel entitled to the right to take others lives is what is wrong here. Once this is acknowledged by the west as a whole, only then can we hope to see some positive change. The more the west attacks, provokes and uses force against Muslims, the more they will aggravate the problem. The whole “We don’t negotiate with terrorists” mentality needs to change, because honestly, the west has been negotiating with terrorists long enough, when they admit that maybe we can move forward.

Now 90% of it I have neither the time nor inclination to engage with. But I’m glad it’s there. The GMB, for example. I’ve no fucking idea what you all do in there.

I wouldn’t go near the place other than to get my papers out of the bins. But whatever you do, you all seem to be enjoying it. A lot of people seem to get a great College experience out of it. So I’m very glad it’s there. If nothing else it keeps us in stories.

It’s now 10pm, and as I am mistily-eyed present tense reminiscing on how great we all are, for no reason in particular, a thought has struck me. I wonder if you would work for free? Yeah you. Would you work for free?

If you’re reading this you might well do. I do. In fact I’m writing this for free.

In fact, rereading what I just wrote, it would appear I do a lot of work for free. Deputy editor of Trinity News is an unpaid position. So is comment editor. So is online editor. So are multimedia editor and deputy news editor and online features editor. All our staff writers write for free too. The editor gets paid a stipend but that’s it.

Off the top of my head I think the SU sabbats might be the only other positions in Trinity student life (which encompasses Trinity Publications, the SU, the GSU, the CSC and DUCAC) which are paid. The rest of us work for free. Because work it is.

And not just because it’s toil. But because it spins a profit. Because when the Prendervost sets up shop in wealthy Gulf states to attract international students who will pay extortionate fees, one of his key selling points is us. And the work we do for free.

Hypocrisy

In this year’s An Introduction to Trinity: The Essential Handbook for International Students, the Prendervost declared to prospective cash cows that “You can turn up at any student society meeting and be sure of a warm

said to hell with you, you do all the work, you’re the one getting paid. And we left him up welcoming and involving new students creek without an enthusiasm and love for this college paddle.

So as far as I know he’ll be meeting you at the airport if you do decide to come.

Welcome to Trinity. We’ve no societies or papers or sports clubs anymore. But the Prendervost will sort it. And Freshers’ Week, that’s all him now too.

Good luck Prendervost, I hope you’ve experience dispensing free pizza and johnnies by the barrel. And putting up marquees in the fucking rain. For no money. And there’ll be no more events. No, no. He can invite you up for subsided tea and biscuits in that giant house he has that must cost a fortune to run.

And there’s no more debates or speakers. Because he’s not allowed in the GMB now.And the Freshers’ Pack you got rid of that too, didn’t you Prendervost?

That was helpful.

“We used to have a fantastic Freshers’ Pack that contained literature on all the various student organisations but I scrapped it for a flat screen toaster for the Global Room. But here’s an Ian Mooney for Welfare poster that I found down the back of an Arts Block couch. And a copy of TN from 2013 that was being used to stop a draft getting in a window in House 6. And a Phil sticker I peeled off the jacks. Jesus this is hard.”

‘Tis, Prendervost. “I know I’ve done a shit job but the people who did a stellar job all quit when I started taking their money away and making it increasingly difficult for them to do their job.

That they did for free.” We do do it for free. A bit of respect to go with it would be greatly appreciated.

Or we might stop bothering.

Sincerely, Everyone

TRINITY NEWS

Tuesday 10th February 2015

Editorial

19

Politicisation of SU elections a welcome change

Catherine Healy

EDITORIAL STAFF

Editor Candidates in our yearly SU elections have generally had the remarkable ability to appear apolitical, usefully able to represent all campus views when conditions dictate, even when their political stances have been in line with the status quo. They win over voters with niceness, enthusiasm and buzzy social media campaigns, with evidence of bureaucratic and society experience, and knowledge of SU structures.

The shift from the kind of radical platforms that once defined SU politics has left today’s students without effective leadership when it comes to issues like college cuts, student fees, grants and access to education. SU-led campaigns have been of immense importance in promoting open discussion of mental health issues in recent years, for instance, but their effectiveness is limited when they fail to address the economic barriers that restrict students seeking help, and fail to vigorously challenge the unprecedented funding cuts to the student counselling service that were reported at the beginning of this academic year.

Students have generally not fought back against their cumulative economic disempowerment not because they are apathetic, but because they have been led by a union that in recent years has not believed in protest, that has not believed its members have any chance of winning, nor sometimes believed in the arguments it has had to make in response to cuts and calls to rallies.

This paper, to take a recent ex-

Editor: Deputy Editor: Online Editor: Editor-at-Large: Contributing Editor: Multimedia: Art: Photography: Design:

Candidates pose for photos at the annual election poster run on February 1st. Photo: Conor O’Donovan ample, last month published an opinion article by the SU president that outlined his nine main objections to proposed new student fees, which, if introduced, would set a deeply worrying precedent, he said. It was shared on social media by said president with a caution that he did not write its “hilariously polarising headline”, “Any move to introduce new student charges must be opposed”.

Ahead of this week’s referendum on the issue, the SU and the Graduates Students’ Union then held a town hall meeting on student charges at which “all options” would be explored, students were told. The key question, the SU president told this paper, was whether charges should be “opposed out of hand” or whether it would be “more reasonable and realistic to look for “a compromise… [such as]

means-testing the charges, or having a per-exam charge rather than a flat irrespective penalty”.

The GSU president went as far as to suggest at the meeting that it is important to be practical and avoid burning the bridge between the unions and College.

The emergence of a determined, political rhetoric in this year’s SU elections has been a welcome departure from this state of affairs. Presidential candidate Lynn Ruane, a third-year PPES student, offers her peers something that has for so long been lacking in student politics: real political demands and the experience to deliver on them.

Unlike many past presidential candidates who have been oblivious to class politics, Ruane’s articulation of her three key policy themes - access, equality and inclusion - is based on an understanding of the systematic

disempowerment of students in Irish higher education as it is stripped of state funds and commercialised by business-minded bureaucrats. College’s current five-year strategic plan, as she pointed out in our election video debate last week, “talks about diversity and talks about increasing [the proportion of] nontraditional students” when its current expenditure can barely “sustain the ones that are here.”

But Ruane ultimately stands out from the other candidates in this race through her 15 years of experience in the community sector, experience that will give her the edge in mobilising students and addressing their grievances if elected this week.

Her campaign represents a welcome shift from the apolitical, technocratic election platforms we have become accustomed to and it has has captivated the im-

agination of students more than that of any other candidate in recent memory. For some - including the male student who last night asked Ruane at the Trinity Hall hustings how she would be able to handle the position as well as taking care of her two daughters - her campaign is clearly a threat, carrying as it does the promise to prise open this university, and speak truth to power and privilege. Ruane ‘s three opponents each have impressive credentials. and Conor O’Meara, in particular, has carried out a well-organised campaign based on comprehensive policy platforms on issues such at student accommodation.

Had it been any other year and any other opponent, his victory would likely have been a comfortable one. This year, though, it would appear that the odds are in Ruane’s favour.

News: Deputy News: Online News: Investigations: Student Affairs: Features: Deputy Features: Online Features: Comment: Deputy Comment: Online Comment: SciTech: Deputy SciTech: Online SciTech: Sport: Deputy Sport: Online Sport: Business:

Catherine Healy D. Joyce-Ahearne Naoise Dolan Matthew Mulligan James Bennett Daire Collins Natalie Duda Kevin O'Rourke Kevin Threadgold, Mariam Ahmad James Wilson Andrew O’Donovan Clare Droney James Prendergast Lia Flattery Conor O’Donovan Tadgh Healy Michael Lanigan William Foley Dee Courtney Rachel Graham Dylan Lynch Aidan Murray Luke McGuinness Alicia Lloyd Gavin Cooney Louis Strange William Earle A'Hern

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Trinity News is partially funded by a grant from DUPublications Committee. This publication claims no special rights or privileges. Serious complaints should be addressed to: The Editor, Trinity News, 6 Trinity College, Dublin 2. Appeals may be directed to the Press Council of Ireland.

Consent is not the last word in Time to lift ban on MSM combating male sexual entitlement blood donations

D. Joyce-Ahearne Deputy Editor The results of the SU’s sexual consent survey released at the end of last month showed that one in four female students had experienced a non-consensual sexual experience. In the current race for the position of welfare and equality officer, consent is seen as a key question.

The possibility of compulsory consent workshops for students is a subject also being mentioned in relation to the presidential race. In both the SU’s survey and the sabbatical races, the issue of consent is the point of focus of the conversation around sexual violence. When we choose to consent or not to consent to the sexual advances of another individual, whether these advances are physical, verbal, or more subtle, we are reacting to those advances. If we reciprocate the interest of another, then perhaps we might consent to these advances and a mutuallyconsented to encounter is initiated (on the other hand we might choose not to, for any number of reasons). If we don’t desire this interest or if we find the advances violent or sexually aggressive then we do not consent.

But what if one does consent in the latter instance? Out of fear perhaps? Or out of a belief that there is no other option? What if we consent because we don’t see anything wrong with the advances? In our front page news story, the women at class rep training consented to give men in the audience lap dances for the entertainment of those in attendance. Does their consenting mean that there is no issue, or even an aspect of the situation, that is worth discussing? At the training, only the women were asked to give lap dances, while the men were not. When the volunteers were hypnotised, it was

only with the women that sex was introduced as a topic worth exploring by the hypnotist for the audience’s entertainment.

The decision that women should give lap dances while men should not is indicative of the male claim on female sexuality that pervades our society. The question then is does consent, by definition an affirmation of conduct, legitimise the behaviour that it is consenting to? If the women consented to give lap dances, does that put the behaviour of those who facilitated or decided that female class reps should give lap dances for entertainment beyond reproach? Is questioning their decision to consent equal to questioning their agency in general, and if so, whose business is it but their own?

What is deemed inappropriate behaviour can vary from one person to another. Take the ubiquitous example of the top lad in the club whose pursuing of women is built on a societalendorsed sense of male sexual primacy and entitlement. He starts chatting up a woman who finds his advances (physical, verbal, etc.) repulsive. She does not consent to his advances and departs. He accepts her disinterest and he doesn’t pursue her in any way (i.e. doesn’t make comments, assault her, rape her.)

He understands consent. He is not being that guy.He moves on to the next woman. He deploys the very same advances. All this woman’s friends have seen his previous carry-on and tell her he’s an asshole. However she likes him for whatever reason.

She returns his interest and consents to his advances. They go on to have consensual sex and nothing non-consensual occurs.

On any one night he might go out and make advances on ten women, nine of whom find his behaviour chauvinistic. When he is made aware he moves on (because he is not that guy) and eventually someone might find his way of conducting himself charming and consent to his advances.

I’m not questioning or doubting a woman’s agency to consent to whatever she wants. My issue is that up to the point where consent comes into play (the point whereby the woman expresses that she is or is not interested), the man has essentially been using her as a sounding board for male entitlement, with consent being the measur-

ing stick by which he can gauge whether or not he has been appropriate. Men need to know what is and is not appropriate sexual conduct outside of seeing what effect it has upon impact.

Consent, by virtue of it being a reaction, is too late a point in proceedings to determine whether or not what has gone before has been appropriate or not.

Making consent the focus of the dialogue around male sexual entitlement shifts the focus from the man to the woman, from the potential aggressor to the potential victim. (Though one of the main points of consent campaigns is that men should recognise when women do or do not consent, it is still training men to react to a woman’s reaction to their behaviour, rather than tackling the man’s behaviour head on).

Consent is of course something that straight men (the usual perpetrators of sexual violence against women) need to know about but, as a point of focus, it is still in the realm of addressing the problem through the potential victim rather than the potential aggressor. The emphasis is on women to assert themselves in what may be, up to the point of consent, a horrendous situation, rather than addressing the man who has contrived this situation (through not knowing what is appropriate because this was prior to the point of consent).

We are moving away from a culture of victim blaming and we need continue in this vein and direct the discussion towards potential aggressors, potential in the sense that hopefully they become aware of the sexual entitlement that society breeds in men before that potential is realised in some form of sexually aggressive behaviour. Prevention being better than the cure, we should be directly engaging the straight male demographic on their sexual entitlement, rather than focusing on the issue of consent to their subsequent behaviour.

Consent, as a cause worth promoting and spreading information on, is an integral part of addressing the skewed culture a round sexual dynamics among straight man and is hugely important in combating sexual violence. Sexual violence is the most identifiable and thus combatable aspect of male sexual entitlement. But men can fully understand and appreciate consent

“

Making consent the focus of the dialogue around male sexual entitlement shifts the focus Matthew Mulligan from the man Editor-at-Large to the woman, of the many issues that have from the poten- One been raised during the current SU elections is that of the MSM tial aggressor blood ban as it stands in IreThe ban — which contrary to the potential land. to what some have said is not called the gay men blood donavictim. tion ban — relates to those men and abhor sexual violence while still endorsing and contributing to a culture of male sexual entitlement.

By focusing solely on consent (not that any of the candidates are, rather they have made it a primary point of focus) we run the risk of failing to push forward and striking at the heart of received ideas of male sexual entitlement. It is the disregard for consent that defines sexual assault, thus consent is a very obvious and important rallying point in the discourse around sexual violence. But we must not, by ignoring the fundamental causes of sexual violence (i.e. hegemonic male sexual entitlement), make consent a tokenistic chip that rallies people to a campaign while ignoring the cause.

As we see with the lap dance story, because the women consented to it, it was brushed off as being fine. Again, where consent is the last word, the agency of the individual woman vouches for what is a larger societal problem manifested in the individual man. Consent as the last word legitimises whatever is being consented to. It gives inappropriate behaviour a get out clause. Consent is not an end goal because it ultimately puts the focus on female agency rather than male agency. Men should know their behaviour is inappropriate without having to make a woman feel uncomfortable or unsafe to realise it.

who have ever had anal or oral sex with other men, regardless of whether or not a condom was used. Members of this group, who are mostly (though not strictly) homosexual or bisexual are banned automatically for life, from giving blood to the Irish Blood Transfusion Board, who use terms such as exclusion or deferral instead of ban. This is something which, as a gay man, causes me some discomfort both because of messages of equality and also the stigma imposed upon those with HIV/AIDS. I myself can’t give blood because I had jaundice as a child, which is of course a disease related to the haemoglobin of which red blood cells are a principle component.

Another gay man though — minister for health Leo Varadkar — has signalled that he favours relaxing the ban.

The reason that the blood ban makes me feel uneasy is because the message of safe sex needs to be pitched now more than ever to people of all sexualities and genders. There comes a time when directed marketing towards gay and bisexual men means that there is little in the way of warnings and guidelines for heterosexuals to engage in safe sex. Some people may feel that they cannot get HIV/AIDS, simply because the implication of the disease is still that it is one primarily affecting men who have sex with men. Add to this the appalling sexual education in our schools and the heavy focus of HIV/AIDS groups on target-

ing men who have sex with men and a blind spot occurs.

A study conducted by UCD in 2010 showed that while 40.5% of new cases of HIV here were contracted by men who have sex with men, 37.2% of these cases were contracted through heterosexual behaviour. Added to these statistics is the fact that heterosexual transmission was at one point the highest cause of new cases of HIV here, with 63.7% new cases contracted through heterosexual sex in 2002. In both homosexual and heterosexual cases though, it is a small percentage of each of the communities as a whole who are HIV positive.

Even if a gay man was faithful to his partner for life, and neither had slept with anyone else, they would both be banned from donating blood. On this issue of faithfulness, and the fact that promiscuity is reasoned to by the IBTB as to why men who have sex with men are high risk, William Murphy of the IBTB has admitted that “any regular blood donor in a stable partnership is safer than one who is not, all other things being equal” and said that the characterisation of all homosexuals as promiscuous is “unreasonable”.

has said he favours an option where men who have sex with men would have a twelve month long ban on giving blood from the last time they engaged in the aforementioned sexual behaviour. This could be comparable to the situation in Spain and Italy, where they classify sexual risk not by sexuality but by risk itself, asking prospective blood donors whether they have had “sexual intercourse with a high risk of transmission of STIs” in which case a permanent ban applies or whether they engage in “occasional sexual intercourse with a risk of STIs” in which case a year-long ban comes into effect. This means men who have sex with men can donate blood if not engaged in high risk sexual activity.

These measures do not single out gay people. Rather they take sexuality and sex as a spectrum of low risk to high risk, and ascertain how risky potential donor’s sexual behaviour is. This policy has been shown to even show heterosexuals who may have engaged in high risk behaviour realise that they are at risk. The important step that the IBTB needs to make is the distinction between high risk sexu-

Leo Varadker has signalled that the ban could soon be relaxed.

The group has also said that allowing MSM to donate blood would not make a substantial difference to the amounts of blood that they have in reserve, and that a relaxing of the ban is being considered purely for reasons of equality. Leo Varadkar

al behaviour with high rate of transmission, and a faithful lifelong gay couple who would be excluded. With the support of the health minister, this could soon be a reality.

TRINITY NEWS

Tuesday 10th February 2015

SciTech

Moral dilemma of animal testing in Trinity

20

Science in Brief Dylan Lynch SciTech Editor

College spent nearly 400k on lab animals in 2014. Should and could they find an alternative to animal testing?

Nessa Fitzgerald Contributor The issue of animal testing has become a hot topic on campus following recent revelations concerning its expensive use of lab animals. In 2014, according to information released to The Herald under the Freedom of Information Act last month, College spent nearly ¤400,000 on mice and rats alone. It purchased 8,563 mice, 1,346 rats, 29 pigs, and six rabbits between January of 2013 and November of 2014, mostly for biomedical research purposes.

Its total cost, ¤387,391.92, does not even cover the maintenance costs involved with keeping the animals. According the Comparative Medicine Price List, the cost of maintaining a single cage containing five mice is ¤5.15 per day, so if we were to take the 8,563 mice that Trinity purchased in the aforementioned time period - not allowing for those that have died or for reproduction, which is used as a method to reduce the cost of purchasing new animals - this works out at ¤8,815.89 per day, just to maintain the mouse population.

Father of birth control dies aged 91 Carl Djerassi, who invented the synthesis for the first ever orally active contraceptive pill, has died. While leading a research team in Mexico City in 1951, he prepared norethindrone – a molecule vital in the development of contraceptive research - synthetically for the first time.

DU Zoo Soc host leading snake expert College’s own Zoological Society, in association with BioSoc and the Herpetological Society of Ireland (HIS), hosted a lecture with Dr. Zoltán Takács last Wednesday in the Hamilton building. Dr. Takács gave a presentation to a bustling crowd of students and biology staff in the Joly Theatre on the search for ‘life-saving animals’. While working as an explorer for National Geographic,

Controversy

The issue of animal testing remains a major moral conundrum: is the life of a mouse or rat worth the life of a human being? Of course, people want drugs and treatments that will keep them healthy, and they want them to be safe and have the minimum possible risks, but many people cringe at the thought of the animals that these drugs are tested on.

Some of the more extreme animal rights groups campaigning against animal testing refuse to accept that there are any benefits to testing on the basis of pharmaceuticals, and believe that it should be banned altogether.

These groups at times spread misinformation regarding animal testing is spread by these groups.

In 2008, for instance, author John Banville wrote a letter to The Irish Times attacking Trinity’s policies on vivisections. He cited a statement from a member of National Animal Rights Association (NARA) that claimed that College performed research on “mice, rats, rabbits, and even horses, when they can.” The group claimed that most of this was for the purpose of teaching medical students, rather than actual research.

While it is true that senior freshman science students taking the Vertebrate Form and

The Austrian-born chemist died due to complications of cancer in his San Francisco home on January 30th and grandson Alexander Djerassi. In an obituary released by Stanford University, at which he was a professor emeritus of chemistry, Professor Richard Zare described Djerassi

Takács also researches the medical potential of snake venoms and is the co-inventor of the Designer Toxins technology, which allows a library of catalogued toxins to be focused on a particular target – such as a disease molecule – and tested. These toxin libraries have allowed researchers to improve existing drugs and identify new leads for drug development.

Illustration: Sarah Larragy Function module (BY2202) are required to dissect rats - many of which have been used for research already and have been humanely euthanised - many people outside of College seem to believe that researchers perform vivisections on unanaesthetised animals, which is an absurd idea that has been rejected by the college on more than one occasion following accusations by animal rights groups. Such experiments do not take in fact take place, the School of Medicine has confirmed.

Justification

Many animal rights groups propose ideas such as computer simulations as a viable alternative to animal testing, but if, say, a new potential drug for Alzheimer’s was being tested, a computer simulation could only show how that drug would affect a single part of the body. Such drugs affect more than one system, and this cannot be shown in a simulation. Even if it did only affect one system, this method probably wouldn’t show all effects of the drug on that system. This is where animal testing becomes important. Tests on ani-

mals show how a drug affects the body as a whole, rather than just the targeted areas, and show how safe the drug is before it can come anywhere close to human trials.

This minimises the risk to humans undergoing trials for these drugs. However, unfortunate side effects can still occur.

In 2006, Parexel International tested a new drug which had been proposed as an anti-inflammatory and a potential treatment for leukaemia on six healthy young men.

The animal tests (performed on cynomolgus macaques) had shown no severe side effects, and the drug had been cleared for human trials. When these six men took the drug, however, they ended up at death’s door, suffering from multiple organ failure.

Thankfully, all the volunteers survived the ordeal.

Of course, saying that we have an absolute right to use animals, or no right to use them, are both extreme views. The idea that the use of animals is fraudulent involves the thinking that it is not possible to extrapolate studies based on animals to humans. This argument is hugely flawed, and

highlights a misunderstanding of biochemical processes essential to most lifeforms.

Speciesism

There are two schools of thought among those who believe that humans have no right to use animals: speciesism, and personhood. Speciesism compares the use of animals to racism, and imposes certain ‘natural rights’ on animals which are equal to the rights of humans. This concept disallows the use of animals for anything other than a humananimal companionship.

Personhood involves the concept that animals are aware of themselves, and that the value of a life, be it animal or human, cannot be measured by how useful it is to others, but by its experience of how important its life is to itself. Proponents of this concept tend to believe that all humans should be vegetarians or vegans, and that the use of many animal products is exploitation. More extreme proponents of personhood have been known to employ terrorist methods to convince people that their view is the correct one. Some have even been known

to discourage diabetics from taking their insulin, as it comes from pigs.

Organisations such as the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), known for their shock-factor campaigns and sometimes unfounded accusations of cruelty and neglect, would be strong proponents of personhood. There are similar groups which share these ideals not far from College’s front arch. Each weekend see’s a group of a dozen protesters outside of Barnardo Furriers at the foot of Grafton street, campaigning for closure of the clothing shop.

Animal testing is a huge moral dilemma in the modern era, but it is difficult to know what could be used as an alternative. At present, there is no viable alternative, and many people are not happy about this. It seems unlikely that an alternative that does not involve live animals will appear any time in the near future, but perhaps one day it will not be necessary.

New evidence of monkey’s evolutionary history published Recent work by Dr. Kenneth Campbell of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County has shown that there is strong evidence to support one of the most widespread theories regarding primate origin. Having discovered fossils of a vertebrate in the Peruvian Amazon in 2010, Dr. Campbell first established that the fossils were in fact from a primitive monkey and mounting fossil evidence began to be uncovered by Campbell’s crack team of Argentinian palaeontolo-

gists. The evidence published in Nature on February 4thstrongly suggests that the South American monkeys have an African ancestry, and that a transatlantic journey must have been made at some point. Furthermore, this research shifts the evolutionary timeline backwards – the dating of these fossils indicates that these primates arrived in South America 36 million years ago, 10 million years further back in time than the previous estimate.

Trinity researchers to create Bitcoin regulation system College scientists are working on a way to make Bitcoin transactions safer. A student at the heart of the research explains how.

Luke McGuinness Online SciTech Editor Bitcoin, an online peer-to-peer payment network, has grown dramatically in popularity since its introduced as open-source software in 2009. The aim of its inventor, Satoshi Nakamoto, was to cut out the middle man - the credit card company or bank - in online payments, meaning that no one institution, government or person could place a fee on the transactions, or control the flow of the Bitcoin currency. Instead of one organisation holding all the information on the state of the transactions they mediate in a centralised ledger, it was intended that each user of the Bitcoin currency would record the transactions made together.

However, Bitcoin’s lack of regulation, which has allowed it to be used as a currency for financing illicit activities as well as making it liable to fraud, has led to some criticism of the system. A group of Trinity students are currently looking at ways to improve the security of transactions in Bitcoin through a “credit cheque” system, where potential partners in a transaction have the ability to scope each other out before deciding to do business.

How does work?

the

system

So how does the system currently work? Imagine going to a London pub, some of which now sell drinks for Bitcoin. You might have enough Bitcoin in your digital wallet to buy drinks for the entire bar, but how do you convince the bartender that you actually do? This is where the system of public and private keys, and a group of the Bitcoin community known as Miners come in. To pay for something in Bitcoin, or to transfer money from one wallet to another, you need to public key or public ID of the person you want to pay, as well as your own private key. Only if these two things are present to “sign” a transaction will it be allowed to proceed. The public key serves to identify the person or business you wish to pay, while your private key acts something like a pin code, ensuring that the owner of the wallet has given permission for the payment to take place. This is a minor drawback of the system, in that the community will not accept any other form of identification of ownership of a particular wallet except the private key associated with the wallets public key. This means that if the private key is lost, the wallet is no longer useable and the Bitcoins contained within it cannot be recovered, as happened in 2013 when a user threw out a hard drive containing his private key to a wallet containing 7500

Bitcoin, worth approximately $7.5 million at the time.

Following a transaction being signed by both parties, it is broadcast as a proposed entry to the ledger. The mining community of Bitcoin then take over, and ensure that the central ledger of all Bitcoin transactions, also known as the block chain, is kept consistent and complete by collecting and verifying new transactions into blocks, or pages of a ledger.

This also verifies that the account which is paying contains enough Bitcoin to do so. The miners compute a cryptographic hash function of a pair of transactions to give a digest, a single output, from this pair. A second hash function of the digests is then computed, effectively reducing the number of elements from the original four down to one.

This happens across all transactions on the ledger page, or block, until a single digest incorporating all the transactions with the block is given. This new digest is then incorporated, or “chained” to, the digest of the block previous to it, meaning that each block can be traced back to the beginning of the Bitcoin system and giving the central ledger its “block chain” name. This is what affords the system its security, as to change a historical transaction, not only must a particular block be modified, but all blocks since it must also be modified, as they incorpo-

rate the information of that particular transaction.

Despite the security of the system, one of the key issues surrounding the Bitcoin currency is the legality of it. The Baggot Inn, which for a period last year allowed drinks to be bought with Bitcoin, at a rate of BTC 0.0093 (¤4.40) a pint, has since dropped the scheme, citing the legal position of Bitcoin, and in particular Bitcoin ATMs, within Ireland as the reason behind the move as the Central Bank does not currently recognise Bitcoin as a currency. A number of reasons are associated with this, mainly that the system has little regulation, meaning that if theft or fraudulent transactions occur, for example if goods are bought online using Bitcoin and are not as described or don’t arrive at all, users are not protected by refund rights.

Trinity researchers

This is where a group of Trinity students, in particular Cian Burns, step in. Burns was originally involved in a group looking into creating a Bitcoin “regulator” - led

by Professor Donal O’Mahoney of the School of Computer Science and Statistics - before he went on to create a database of linked accounts by trawling the transaction ledger and grouping linked Bitcoin addresses as part of his dissertation. “What I was doing was effectively going back through

the ledger looking for linked activity and by doing so, creating a record of interacting accounts,” Burns tells Trinity News. “If I see a transaction with many accounts going into it, I know that each of these addresses is owned by the same person, similar to paying a ¤25 bill with a ¤20 note and a ¤5 note.”

After creating this grouping of accounts, and linking accounts to each other using transactions, Burns looked at building on his work to create a credit-check system that would allow potential transactions partners to scope each other out before deciding to participate in a transaction. ”The system might involve users reviewing their experience of dealing with a particular address, and on top of that, it could incorporate the proximity of the potential partners’ address to a malicious address,” Burns says.

For example, if the account a user is looking at doing business with is linked to an address known for fraudulent behaviour or an account that interacts a lot with black market addresses, a user might reconsider whether they want to proceed. This address reviewing system should prevent a few of the problems associated with Bitcoin at present. Future projects by the team are looking into how Bitcoin might be regulated to an extent, while still maintaining the attractions the

system currently possesses. A future Bitcoin regulator, according to the group, would want to know the distribution of Bitcoin among address and to be able to recognise patterns in the transaction history that the community of us ers ought to be concerned about, and which could, for example, indicate fraudulent activity.

While not yet perfect, Bitcoin deals with some of the grumbles

that users have with the current system, in that it does away with transaction fees and allows a degree of anonymity. Some regulation of the system, such as that proposed by the Trinity group, would likely improve the user experience and protect against exploitation of users, though.

TRINITY NEWS

Tuesday 10th February 2015

SciTech

21

Forgotten faces of science It’s time our forgotten scientists get the recognition they deserve. Úna Ní Artaigh Contributor To the average everyday person, names like Albert Einstein, Watson and Crick, Carl Friedrich Gauss and Sir Isaac Newton hold some significant standing. Less famous names - names like Christiaan Huygens, Nikola Tesla, Rosalind Franklin, Johann Josef Loschmidt and Luis Miramontes - have been more easily forgotten, though they were equally important contributors to the world of science and technology. It’s time they get the recognition they deserve.

Christiaan Huygens

Illustration:Natalie Duda

When changing theories challenge scientific reason Science is not a static state of facts, but a constant flow of change and new ideas.

Sammi Rose Derwin Contributor Changeability is a core tenet of science. Anyone who loves it, committed to a full four years of it in college or even just bumped up against a module or two would recognise the struggle to keep abreast of the endless stream of new and revised detail that floods the scientific community daily.

This is mostly wonderful. Knowledge is constantly refined, ideas and hypotheses changed regularly in accordance with the observable facts. Anyone familiar with science understands that these revisions are a sign of improvement and increasing confidence rather than uncertainty.

Sensationalism

However, for those not acquainted with the scientific community, it can sometimes be difficult to understand how this constant updating in response to a plethora of often conflicting results can constitute positive change. It is easy to see how the landscape is muddied for the general public by a stream of ever more sensationalist statements as the information diffuses unchecked from peer reviewed journals down through tabloids and into anecdote. One example of this is the

slew of completely conflicting dietary advice that pops up regularly in the media: chocolate is bad for you but also good for you; drinking alcohol will kill you unless it’s red wine which will make you live longer; everything is full of antioxidants which are for some reason good; sugar, gluten and dairy are the true evils of the western diet - the list goes on. Another perhaps more insidious example is the misconception that the well understood and almost universally accepted ideas which science refers to as ‘theories’ are somehow untrustworthy. In many ways this is understandable.

Re-examination

Just a couple of weeks ago, Padgett and Faccio released a paper that showed that the speed of light, a fairly certain constant, could be slowed under extremely specific circumstances. If you’re familiar with the process of research you know that first and foremost, one swallow doesn’t make a season. A single paper with a landmark result is just that, a single paper, which has yet to be fully exposed to the rigorous repetition that takes place before a surprising result becomes an established principle. At first glance it sounds like our knowledge has been turned on its head - and it’s true that such a staggeringly unexpected result has the potential

to change a lot of what we think we know.

“

Chocolate is bad for you but also good for you; drinking alcohol will kill you unless it’s red wine which will make you live longer; sugar, gluten and dairy are the true evils of the western diet However, what’s really being presented here is an unexpected, tantalising clue. It’s a hint that we have advanced to the point where our understanding can become so

much more refined than what’s passed before. It’s not that everything gets thrown out the window by something unexpected; it’s that whole new avenues open up, windows of enquiry that were previously unimagined or dismissed.

It makes us re-examine the things we took for granted and leads to the overall improvement and refinement of understanding that is so completely crucial to so many areas of our development.

Sometimes that can get a little lost in translation, partially due to the technical jargon scattered throughout research papers and partially due to the somewhat exclusive nature of academic journals themselves. A recent poll carried out by the Pew Research Centre highlighted the extent of this misunderstanding on some of the big scientific theories like climate change, evolution and the big bang theory as well as on a variety of topics such GM food and the safety of vaccinations.

Public distrust

The results showed that 37% of American adults don’t believe that scientists are generally in agreement that the planet is heating up, while 29% and 52% believed the same in relation to evolution and the big bang respectively.

These figures are concerning, especially given that they apply to some of the most widely estab-

lished theories in science today.

This potential for misunderstanding lies at the heart of the mistrust with which some members of the public view the scientific information presented to them. This has a knock on effect in terms of legislation and subsequent public action, particularly in relation to time sensitive issues like climate change or disease containment which simply can’t be dealt with without widespread public co-operation, not to mention adding to the problem of squeezed budgets and insufficient research funding.

The world of science is technical and complex by nature and only becomes increasingly so as our knowledge accumulates. That makes it incredibly easy for science to be kept for the scientists, for the people whose innate interest has helped them develop the rationale and technical jargon necessary to traverse the murky waters of peer-reviewed literature. This is a shame for lots of reasons, not least of which is how incredibly cool and absurd and magical the world we live in becomes when you understand some of what’s going on beneath the surface. Scientists like Neil De Grasse Tyson and Stephen Hawking do their bit in throwing open the closed doors of research to the general public; it might be time the rest of us followed suit.

Christiaan Huygens, our first forgotten scientist, first made waves when he challenged Newton when he suggested that light is in fact a wave, as opposed to a particle, as the renowned English natural philosopher had claimed.

Nobody believed Huygens as Newton had been knighted and possessed a lifetime of respectful work by then. It took around 200 years for Huygens’ principle to be proven by English physicist Thomas Young with his two slit experiment, though of course Einstein proved both Newton’s and Huygens’ theories to be true 200 years later. This shows how the human race often find it hard to entrust a new voice of reason without any concrete evidence.

The same can be said for Nicolaus Copernicus and Galileo Galilei whose astronomical theories were vigorously challenged by the Catholic church, particularly in Galileo’s case.

Nikola Tesla

Nikola Tesla is another classic example of the forgotten scientist. The Serbian contributed significantly to the world of electricity and, without his discovery of alternating current, our world simply could not have developed at the rate it does. Poor Tesla is often overlooked by the familiar Thomas Edison who is known for his invention of the lightbulb.

The general consensus seems to believe that the lightbulb lead to the creation of electricity. However before Tesla’s lightbulb moment (excuse the irony) we were severely limited by Edison’s DC (direct current) methods. Edison argued that his one-mile radius electrical system was safer in comparison to Tesla’s which could spread massive quantities of electricity over vast areas.

They quarrelled for years which lead to it becoming known as the ‘War of the Currents’. The results, one could argue, were quite fruitful.

Tesla worked for Edison at Continental Edison Company in Paris during the 1890s. He regularly stated that he could improve Edison’s prototypical dynamos (machines which convert mechanical energy into electrical energy). His insistence drove Edison to allow him to try and even offered him a rather hefty reward of $50,000 if he succeeded in his endeavours. Tesla, having the upper hand in this electric field, managed to exceed Edison’s attempt at generating electricity and so, asked kindly if he could receive his reward. Edison, being a sordid miser replied, “When you

become a fully-fledged American, you will appreciate an American joke.” In a fit of rage at his boss, Tesla quit and went on to found his own company, the Tesla Electric Company, and revolutionised the means by which our electricity is generated.

August Kekulé

The budding chemists will enjoy this one. The ever-controversial structure of benzene was supposedly first proposed by August Kekulé. However, he later admitted to stealing the delocalisation theory from the lesser-known Josef Loschmidt. Apparently, Kekulé, whose name is still somehow attached to the relevant Kekulé structure, attended a lecture given by Loschmidt where he first proposed the idea of the resonating double carbon-carbon bonds. Kekulé dared to say that he had come up with the idea from a dream he had of the ‘Ouroboros’, the ancient Greek symbol of a serpent eating its own tail. Kekulé went on to claim all recognition for the first correct proposition of the structure of benzene which was later confirmed by Kildare chemist Kathleen Lonsdale via xray diffraction methods.

Rosalind Franklin

Probably the most significant forgotten scientist is Rosalind Franklin. In the early 1950s, she determined the structure of the DNA molecule. This was an incredible discovery for the time as it meant scientists could advance their knowledge of the basic building blocks of biology of not only the human race but the entire animal kingdom too. At the time she was working alongside a fellow called Maurice Wilkins at Kings College in London. It was Wilkins who passed on her unpublished papers about the overall B-form of the helix to two eager biologists, Watson and Crick. They based their model of the DNA molecule on her research and findings and in 1962, received a Nobel Prize for “their” work. Franklin fell ill to ovarian cancer and unfortunately passed away due to it at the age of 34. She is often forgotten about when references are made to the development of the DNA molecule, probably due to her being a successful female scientist in such a patriarchal era and maledominated industry.

Luis Miramontes

Another major contributor to the scientific world was Luis Miramontes. He is certainly not a household name, although his invention can be found in most women’s handbags or medicine cupboards. The Mexican scientist was the first to synthesize the organic compound norethindrone, along with Carl Djerassi, that led to the invention of the oral contraceptive pill that has changed the lives of millions of women since 1951, changing the way they perceive and enjoy sex. It also laid down the basic structure for a variety of advancements in the contraceptive medicinal field.

And yet Miramontes has received relatively little recognition for his work. Like his other colleagues, the long forgotten Renaissance and female Victorian scientists, it’s time he gets the attention he deserves.

Colliding world of art and science The connection between chemistry and colour extends back to the stone age.

Turlough Heffernan Staff Writer “Technically, chemistry is the study of matter, but I prefer to see it as the study of change.” So says Walter White when teaching a chemistry class in the pilot episode of Breaking Bad. He proceeds to illustrate his point by spraying different solutions of metal salts into the flame of a Bunsen burner, thereby causing it to change colour.

Stone age

This connection between chemistry and colour is one that extends back to the stone age, when our ancestors utilised the most readily accessible of nature’s chemicals to produce pigments that could then be used for both body painting and cave art. However, the range of colours available to Paleolithic humans pales in comparison to the Dulux catalogue that we get to choose from today.

They were forced to rely upon the use of fire to change the shade of the pigments that they found in their environment. This process is an example of some of the earliest chemical reactions that mankind ever performed and demonstrates that the fields of art and chemistry have been inextricably intertwined for millennia.

Dyes

Indeed, we might not appreci-

ate today just how considerable the interactions between the two disciplines were in the past. For a long time, one of the main purposes of chemistry was to produce the dyes that were used by artists and in industry. Oftentimes the discovery of these dyes came about in a serendipitous fashion.

For instance, the first artificial dye, mauveine, was discovered when William Perkin attempted to synthesise quinine. He used potassium dichromate as the oxidising agent (a substance which accepts electrons) but the impurities present meant that instead of producing quinine, a purple compound which he christened mauveine was formed. This example of good fortune kick-started the modern organic chemical industry much like how Alexander Fleming’s chance discovery of penicillin ushered in the antibiotic era.

The foremost reason that the new synthetic dyes were in such demand was the fact that they were far cheaper than the older, natural pigments. Prior to the existence of mauveine, the colour purple was so expensive that it was associated with royalty as they were the only people capable of affording it.

Similarly, the colour blue was extremely difficult to find in nature. As recently as 2006, Nestlé had to temporarily get rid of blue Smarties because they couldn’t find a natural blue dye to replace

the artificial one that they had been using up to that point. It wasn’t until 2008 that they managed to source a suitable blue dye from a natural source, namely the cyanobacterium spirulina that is present in seaweed.

Fascinatingly, the rarity of blue in nature is reflected in our language. In the mid-late 19th century, the German philosopher Lazarus Geiger trawled through ancient texts from around the world while recording their use of colour. This included ancient Chinese literature, Vedic hymns, Icelandic sagas, the ancient Hebrew version of the bible, the Qur’an and so on. Geiger discovered that there wasn’t even a single mention of the colour blue. It turns out that different languages develop words for colours in pretty much the same order. Black and white always come first, red is always next, then yellow, then green and finally blue. Today this rule still holds, except in some scenarios where the only difference is the order of yellow and green. It is also interesting to note that the Ancient Egyptians were the first to make blue synthetically and they were also the only civilisation at the time with a word for the colour.

Radiation

Of course, the reason that substances are even coloured in the first place depends in large part on their chemical structure.

First of all, it is important to remember that colours represent wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation. The human eye is only capable of seeing a narrow portion of the electromagnetic spectrum which is known as visible light. This visible light has a wavelength range of 400 to 700 nanometres with violet at the lower end and red at the upper end.

For a material to appear a particular shade, it has to absorb its complementary colour (the colour that lies across from it on a colour wheel) while reflecting or transmitting the other wavelengths of light. So for an object to be identified as blue by our eyes, it must absorb orange light.

Similarly, the absorption of red light would make the object appear green.

The type of light that a compound absorbs is determined by a property known as conjugation.

In essence, a molecule is said to be conjugated if it contains an alternating arrangement of double and single bonds. The longer this arrangement is, the longer the wavelength of light that is absorbed. This means that for a molecule to be capable of absorbing red light, which has a relatively long wavelength, it must have a high degree of conjugation. As we saw earlier, the absorption of a particular colour means that the compound will appear as the complementary colour so a mate

rial that absorbs red light would be perceived by our eyes as being green.

It’s possible that some people might feel that explaining colours in terms of the physical phenomena of quantifiable wavelengths and chemical bonds somehow cheapens their beauty. This is an accusation that is often levelled at science, that it removes the wonder and mystery from our world.

Personally, I don’t share this view because I find that the more I understand something, the greater my appreciation for it becomes.

It’s hard to imagine someone making a similar accusation in another context, such as in the art world. For example, who would claim that knowledge of Picasso’s life lessens our appreciation of the works he painted during his Blue Period?

Science and art share many similarities, despite what one might think when one ventures from the Hamilton to the Arts Block or vice versa. The stereotypical view of science as a boring discipline fails to take into account how absolutely essential originality and

imagination are for scientists.

Consider how chemists use existing resources to synthesise completely novel materials that have never been seen before. Is that not analogous to the artistic process? Let us not forget also that those novel materials include the paints, pigments and dyes that artists make use of in their work.

TRINITY NEWS

Tuesday 10th February 2015

Sport

22 Gavin Cooney talks to sportspeople affected by mental health issues. p.24

Fundamental tensions of society emerge at local derbies This weekend’s sporting action showed that there is something primal about the meeting of two local rivals that goes beyond the confines of sport.

Louis Strange Online Sport Editor This weekend saw a veritable feast of sporting rivalry in the football world, with Atlético vs.

Real in Madrid, Spurs vs. Arsenal in London and Everton vs.

Liverpool on Merseyside. There is something fundamental, something primal in the crude tribalism which emerges on these occasions. It is fitting that one of the greatest – or, at least, one of the most hate-filled and terrifying – derbies in world football is the Rome Derby: like Romulus and Remus, the twin brothers of the city’s foundation myth who turned on one another, every derby thrives on a contempt bred by familiarity.

But because within the relatively restrictive limits of a city there is little room for manoeuvre when it comes to identity – everyone from that city is by definition from that city, and in the case of the North London derby, we are talking about only a portion of the city – a local derby gets people shouting from the rooftops, proclaiming their identity as a madridista, a gooner, or a follower of that bizarre cult devoted to the worship of Brendan Rogers.

Accents

Figures like Katie Taylor have challenged the typical image of boxing as a hyper-aggressive, masculine realm Photo: Sport for Business

In defence of pugilism

Boxing gives a constructive outlet for aggressive energy. Its very nature teaches you about self-reliance and self-respect, as well as about respecting others.

Stephen Cox Staff Writer Erasmus being a time for trying new things, two years ago, during my time in Spain, I bowed to a curiosity I’d always had: I joined a boxing club for the first time.

Despite being scared of what a bunch of seasoned Spaniards would think of an awkward foreign kid who was taking up boxing for the first time at twenty, I stuck with it.

I’m glad I did, and I’ve been training with the club in Trinity since my return from Salamanca. Even at amateur level, it is a very difficult sport, and while I wouldn’t profess to boxing to a particularly high standard (two fights, two split decision losses— I promise, it’s even harder than it looks), I would still recommend it to anyone who enjoys keeping fit and likes a challenge. Nonetheless, many of my friends find my interest in boxing difficult to understand, believing it to be little more than refereed barbarism.

MMA

Normally, I laugh these comments off. However, such criticisms came to mind lately in the light of a certain Irishman’s success in a different combat sport.

Over the last few years, the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)—the main promotional company for Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), a hybrid fight sport—has been canny in its marketing and use of the internet for drawing in fans.

Arguably none of its fighters have profited more from such exposure than Conor McGregor, a Dubliner whose larger-than-life personality is well suited to social media. McGregor has been receiving even more hype than usual lately, since his defeat of Dennis Siver three weeks ago lined up a featherweight title fight with José Aldo.

The subsequent fanfare even led to Fine Gael senator Catherine Noone branding his sport ‘vile’ on the Ryan Tubridy Show, and asking the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport not to approve Croke Park as the potential venue for his title fight in the summer. (Noone subsequently backtracked on her comments

after fans’ protestations via Twitter; the fight has been scheduled for Boston anyway).

Now, I’m not suggesting that my liberal, arty, Arts Block-dwelling friends would only badmouth boxing and not MMA; if anything, to most casual spectators, MMA is probably more violent, as it allows for more varied styles of combat than just punching. Rather, such disparaging comments about a sport with a rich legacy and history are indicative of how far pugilism has fallen in public consciousness and popularity—a state of affairs that is contrasted by the ascendance of MMA. In December 2014, the boxer Andy Lee became the first Irishman since the 1930s to win a world title on American soil, beating Matt Korobov for the WBO middleweight belt. Outside of his native Limerick, Lee has received little recognition on a nationwide level, let alone internationally.

Compare this with congratulatory tweets from celebrities such as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson for Conor McGregor’s recent victory, and it would appear that the curtain is falling on boxing’s status as a global sport.

Historical popularity

This was not always the case. Boxing has existed among various cultures and in different forms for thousands of years, but its popularity in the modern era took off after the regulation of professional prizefighting in the late 19th-century.

A sport once primarily practiced at amateur level by the British upper classes (the Marquess of Queensberry, a Scottish aristocrat, gave his endorsement to an influential set of regulations for professional matches) would soon be the domain of big-name prizefighters—like the Americans Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis and Rocky Marciano—who captured the imagination of fans the world over, and inspired many to take up the sport.

The close-up, combative appeal of live bouts also translated well to the small screen as more and more families bought televisions. Boxing, in particular the heavyweight division, received a lot of attention not just from the media, but also many prominent

intellectuals. Writers such as Ernest Hemingway, Norman Mailer and Vladimir Nabokov have all written about boxing (interestingly, only one friend picked up on this as a reason for my taking up the sport, subsequently labelling my interest ‘foppish’).

Muhammad Ali was one of only three athletes (alongside footballer Pele and the baseball player Jackie Robinson) to be named in Time magazine’s People of the Century in 1999. In the past, even people with no interest in boxing would know who the current heavyweight champion of the world was. Why does the general perception of boxing now steer towards apathy at best, and disavowal at worst?

There are numerous reasons for this, one being the preponderance of splinter associations within the professional sphere.

As boxing became increasingly popular in the early- to mid-20th century, it became increasingly lucrative—in no small part down to the influence of American mob bosses on fighters and promoters.

Over time, different professional organisations began to spring up, looking to make money from the victories of successful prizefighters.

Paul Gibson, writing in a recent Guardian article, notes that in 1949 there were nine weight divisions in professional boxing, with one champion for each. Now there are seventeen different divisions, offering “the potential for over 100 different men to wear world championship belts of varying standing and worth.”

Commercial interests

As a result general interest in professional boxing has waned, the discipline becoming increasingly fragmented and money-driven.

Boxing promotion companies have done their bit for the inaccessibility of the modern sport.

Such commercialisation has led to most big fights only being available on expensive pay-perview television—if you can even keep up with who’s fighting for what belt in the first place, that is.

When commenting on boxing as a whole, there are different issues to consider. For a rational defence of the sport, I believe it is first necessary to distinguish between amateur and profes-

sional levels. I have no interest in vindicating the current state of professional boxing, which is in dire need of reform and casts disrepute on a sport with a vivid history.

It remains to be seen whether professional boxing can regain its former popularity on a global level. At the very least, it has a solid grounding in tradition, aided by the more down-to-earth practices of amateur boxing. This differs from the professional leagues in that, typically, there are only three rounds per fight. Depending on the level of the boxers, protective headgear is often required.

I will resist the temptation to gripe about the popularity of ‘white-collar’ boxing events to say that the amateur game is not commercialised, and offers a safer, saner version of boxing— one that is based on sportsmanship and respect rather than just money.

That said, critics will question how any combat sport can be based on fair play, as the main fault found with boxing at any level has always been its violence.

Joyce Carol Oates—another intellectual boxing enthusiast—writes that the sport ‘raises to an art the passions underlying direct human aggression...In a civilised humanitarian society, one would expect such a blood sport to have died out.’

She goes on to say that pugilism ‘mimics our early ancestors’ rite of bloody sacrifice and redemption; it excites desires most civilised men and women find abhorrent.’ While I believe that such language overdoes the atavistic symbolism, it is true that much of boxing’s appeal lies in the pure imagery of two fighters, testing each others’ limits both physically and mentally. It is, thus, no coincidence that more films have been made about boxing than any other sport. Anyone who has seen a fight live will attest to the fact that a measured, controlled show of skill and technique from two boxers will merit a muted response from the crowd. It’s the slugfest that people pay to see.

Basic instincts

What this says about our baser instincts is uncertain. Perhaps some critics are merely reluctant to ac-

knowledge the human capacity for violence, even in a controlled setting. Nonetheless, any sport that advocates inflicting pain on the opponent is bound to be met with some hostility (as such, professional boxing remains banned in Cuba, while such restrictions were only lifted in Sweden in 2007, and, in Norway, last year).

While figures like Katie Taylor and Nicola Adams have challenged the typical image of boxing as a hyper-aggressive, masculine realm, the sport will always have its detractors—some of whom, like certain friends of mine, will call it barbarous without even listening to the opposing point of view.

“

Many friends find my interest in boxing difficult to understand, believing it to be little more than refereed barbarism.

I can understand a naysayer’s objection to a sport that involves physical combat, and seemingly rewards violent behaviour. Nonetheless, I reject wholeheartedly the idea that boxing is nothing but a regulated brawl. It gives a constructive outlet for aggressive energy. It offers lessons about tactics, making it the most dynamic chess game you’ll ever play. Its very nature teaches you about self-reliance and self-respect, as well as about respecting others.

Indeed, I have always held the view that a sport where two people pummel each other for a given number of rounds—and then shake hands and embrace—can’t be all bad.

And few things are as bound up with our sense of identity as our accent. It shapes who we are, how people react to us, how we interact with every single person we meet. But if you think about it, making a hard and fast distinction between one group of people and another group of people, or even between one individual and another, on the basis of marginal differences in the noises we make with a hole in our face – well, it’s a bit stupid. Stupid as it is, it still plays a huge role in marking ourselves as one thing or another, and in a world which has become globalised, multicultural and generally “plural” – to the point that we are starting to realise that traditional concepts such as “nationality” don’t necessarily hold – identification based on accent is almost a throwback to a bygone era. For example, no sane person would deny another’s right to claim a given nationality as their own based on the colour of their skin, yet there is a sense that we can do this (and get away with it) when it comes to accents.

The point of all this is that, in the sporting arena, accent tends to divide one group of fans from another (unless, of course, you are a Man Utd fan and you have any accent other than that customarily heard around Moss Side). If you were alive in the seventies or eighties and had little enough care for your immediate wellbeing as to go from London to Yorkshire to watch Millwall take on Leeds, and then went a step further in the attempt to realise your death wish by opening your mouth and revealing a London accent, you might find yourself slightly less towards the ALIVE end of the spectrum by the end of the day.

But all this changes during a local derby. Because during a local derby both sets of fans do the same sounds with their faceholes: accentual differences fade away, meaning that often the only way to tell two sets of fans apart is by the slightly less subtle method of making it clear that the opposing manager’s mother is a less than stand-up woman – a sentiment usually expressed in slightly different terms from these – or, otherwise, by simply cheating

and taking into account the colour of their shirt. You might expect, logically, that in such a homogeneous pool (at least in terms of accent) fans might forget their differences and some sort of happy-clappy love-in might begin.

Of course not. It almost seems that, without accent as a source of conflict, in a derby fans feel an impulse to compensate and assert their difference in even stronger terms.

“

It’s about accent, ownership, supremacy over those “closest” to you.

Tribal warfare

The aural homogeneity which causes friend and foe to coalesce, merging together as one unified voice, means that visuals take centre stage, in exactly the same way as they would have hundreds, if not thousands of years ago.

This tribal warfare works now as it always did: entering the field of battle (the modern football stadium) wearing your side’s colours (today, this means an overpriced replica shirt), and with war-paint smeared across each cheek (even if it’s now cheap face paint you bought down the shops before the match). The parallels are so great that some even confuse the symbolic warfare of the footballing arena for the real, blood and guts warfare which it replaces. Bringing concealed weapons into the ground, they are unable to resist the temptation of the pseudo-violence on the pitch, allowing it instead to overflow into the stands in the form of real violence.

Ownership

It’s about ownership. The local derby may be a battle for bragging rights, particularly when two sets of fans see each other every day – in school, in work, passing by each other on the street – but it is first and foremost about territorial rights, and in this sense it is a concept which almost transcends time: it is part of human nature, a constant that seems equally relevant to our prehistoric nature and the most recent social developments still concretising around us. The fear of immigration drummed up by a new wave of little-better-than-fascist political movements which have popped up all over Europe is a perfect example: it taps into the tribal, almost animalistic, base instinct which short-circuits rationality, overriding a thousand of years of painstaking social progress which had seemed to be leading us towards a more pluralist, enlightened place and replacing it with: THIS PLACE IS OURS, NOT YOURS. This is why the local derby plays such an important role in modern sport. It’s about accent, about ownership, about supremacy over those “closest” to you. It’s a historical re-enactment, seen countless times before in as many different contexts, and it is where the most fundamental tensions of human society manifest themselves. But don’t worry, it only happens twice a season.

Harry Kane celebrates his second goal in Tottenham’s 2-1 victory over Arsenal on Sunday.

TRINITY NEWS

Tuesday 10th February 2015

Sport

23

Ladies GAA preview Trinity Ladies begin their Giles Cup campaign against IT Sligo next Tuesday.

Ellen Beirne Contributor After defeating an impressive NUI Maynooth side to win the Division 2 league for the first time this year, Trinity are optimistic going into the Giles Cup Championship. With NUIM recently promoted to the first division, O’Connor Cup, Trinity are in an excellent position coming into the first round.

Strong panel

Success at water polo intervarsities Trinity water polo has done the double for the second time in three years after its men’s and women’s teams beat NUIG and DIT respectively at their annual intervarsities.

Daire O’Driscoll Contributor The phrase “golden generation” is a relatively modern one, more modern than most would assume.

The term was first used by the Portuguese media around 2000 while referring to the emergence of a group of talented young footballers, most notably Luis Figo.

Golden generations have come and gone in world sport, Ireland’s 2009 Grand Slam team and Spain’s European and World Cup winning teams of 2008, 2010 and 2012 among them. The proof of any golden generation is in the trophies they win. Few remember potential unfulfilled.

The Trinity water polo teams of the past five years could well be considered the golden generation. The men made every final save one since 2010 but had only emerged with one title. The women suffered a similar record, just one title in the five years running up to 2015. The double in 2013 was considered by many as the coming of age of Trinity water polo but an underwhelming varsity performance 12 months later for the men brought the hype to a shuddering halt. The women could well have been considered unlucky, losing the 2014 final to a last minute goal, a scenario all too common for the men’s team.

Those surrounding the 2015 men’s and women’s teams must have been quietly confident that this could have been another fruitful year for the university.

The injection of Kevin Johnston, an Irish international player, to the men brought something that had been lacking the previous year, an out and out goal scorer.

This was complemented by the arrival of freshman Jack Reilly, a solid defender with the ability to control games from the back. The women too could look at the return of Simona Herbaj as a similarly critical input.

Group stages

This year’s intervarsities group stages were relatively stress-free for Trinity. The women easily dispatched UCD (12-6) and the combined effort of NUIG and NUIM (15-10) in the group stage and emerged from their group as winners.

The men faced UCC and NUIG, the latter being the only team to beat Trinity since 2012; indeed nobody on the current men’s team had ever beaten the Galway outfit at a varsity tournament. The NUIG game was a scrappy affair with the 13-10 score line flattering the Connacht men somewhat, while UCC were dispatched with relative ease with a 10-2 score line.

Both teams were set to face Queen’s in the semi-finals. The men’s semi-final got off to the worst possible start for Trinity. A loose pass was intercepted and a Queen’s front three possessing an Irish international in the form of Matt Hanna raced through on goal, outnumbering the solitary Trinity defender and putting the ball past keeper David Cichon.

In previous years this may have derailed a Trinity side, who are notoriously slow starters, but the men led by the senior players of Mark Murphy, Kevin Johnston

and Melchior de La Rochefoucauld galvanised the 12 squad members and held firmly onto the coat tails of the Ulster men for the ensuing three quarters.

Former international rugby player Murray Mexted is often attributed a quote referring to the “ebb and flow of psychic energy” determining the result of tight games. In the final seconds of the third quarter, Matt Hanna’s third major foul excluded him from the rest of the game with the score at 5-6 to Queen’s and the ensuing quarter would see that ebb and flow firmly behind the Trinity men.

With three minutes remaining in the final quarter, Trinity centre forward Dáire O’Driscoll drew a major foul from an opponent, giving Trinity twenty seconds with a one man advantage. Trinity’s veteran coach, Bert O’Brien, showed all his experience by immediately calling a timeout, during which the ensuing team talk lasted all of five seconds: “get out there and do it”.

The Trinity men assumed their preferred “man-up” positions and resumed the game. It was then the ball landed in the hand of one of the squad’s youngest members, Cormac Dickson. Dickson, calmness personified, let fly and rifled the ball into the top corner, tying the game at 6-6.

From there on out Trinity turned the screw, a brace from Melchior de La Rochefoucauld and a goal from Kevin Johnston put the game beyond doubt. Trinity emerged from a bruising semifinal, 9-6 victors, and would face the team that had beaten them on the previous two occasions, NUIG, in the final.

It would be unfair not to mention the man of the match for the men’s semi final , the team’s youngest member, Jack Reilly.

Often the most important contributions go unnoticed, yet Reilly’s skilled handling of the attacking force of Queen’s allowed Trinity’s front three, Johnston, La Rochefoucauld and O’Driscoll to chip away at their defence.

Reilly was integral to everything that happened in that game, snuffing out attacks and distribut

ing quick ball to the forwards.

Special mention too should go to Trinity’s number 8, Mark Murphy, the Sandycove man quietly disrupting the rhythm of the Queen’s team and controlling midfield with an air of calm.

The women faced a similarly physical encounter in their fixture but Queen’s women posed fewer problems than the men.

Trinity’s women had made the final the previous two years with a rather stable squad of players. Five had tasted success two years previously and six of the seven starting players had beaten Queen’s at the exact same stage of the tournament the year before.

The women got off to a trademark fast start with Captain Naomi Beard leading by example, scoring a brace. Simona Herbaj and Caoimhe Slevin, who had been so commanding all tournament, put the Trinity women into a healthy lead by half time.

The exclusion of Beard for her third major foul of the game dampened the attacking threat of Trinity somewhat but Deirdre Kindregan, Fiona Fenton and Canadian import Nina Baker kept the scoreboard ticking over.

The women having dispatched Queen’s by 16 goals to 7 would face DIT, the team that had beaten them in the last minute of the previous year’s final. In hindsight it seemed prophetic that both teams would face the last team to beat them in the finals of the tournaments. The golden generation had been given the opportunity to prove its pedigree.

Women’s final

In the women’s final, four quarters of tit for tat scoring left the scores tied at 8 goals apiece at the final buzzer. The women could well have won in ordinary time, a penalty somehow disallowed despite hitting the back bar of the DIT net. This would have fazed many teams, injustice sometimes galvanises but often demoralises those who suffer them. However much like the men in their semifinal, the adversity only strengthened the determination to win.

A delightful lob from the left hand side of the goal by Caoimhe

Slevin, sailed over the Irish international keeper and nestled beautifully in the back of the net, 8-7 and retribution seemed to be in the hands of the Trinity women. With less than a minute remaining, eventual MVP winner Lisa Kelly took hold of the ball and equalised for DIT, 8-8. It required a wonderful save from Michaela Hogan to ensure that the game finished 8-8, her block down landing in the arms of Deirdre Kindregan who snuffed out the attack and brought the game to a penalty shootout.

The Trinity men, warming up for their final took seats, one member of the squad deciding he couldn’t watch and relying solely on the cheers and groans to determine what had happened. Penalty shootouts are almost akin to the Leaving Certificate; it’s probably not the fairest way to settle it but it’s the best option available.

Five brave souls would have to step forward and place their necks firmly on the block. Deirdre Kindregan, Caoimhe Slevin, Fiona Fenton, Simona Herbaj and Nina Baker would be charged with the unenviable task of settling the game. DIT elected to take the first penalty which was tucked away by MVP Lisa Kelly.

Step forward Trinity’s first penalty taker, number 5, Deirdre Kindregan. Kindregan, who had been so reliable throughout the tournament, fluffed her lines as her penalty struck the left arm of DIT’s Keeper and bounced back into open water. Advantage DIT. Michaela Hogan, the Trinity goalkeeper, who had been impervious for most of the games that weekend, must have been somewhat confident as DIT’s fourth penalty taker made the long lone swim to the five metre line. Hogan had gotten close to the previous two penalties but had been unable to stop DIT taking a 3-2 lead in the shootout, with Simona Herbaj and Fiona Fenton both slotting penalties for Trinity.

Hogan proved her worth as she got a hand to the penalty thrown her way. Slevin, who well could have been the match winner not five minutes earlier, stepped forward. The San Francisco native

placed her shot neatly in the top left corner tying the shootout at 3-3. Keepers are often animals of confidence; Hogan, buoyed by her save thirty seconds previous spooked DIT’s last penalty taker who rattled the post but ultimately failed to convert the final penalty. Advantage Trinity. The final penalty taker, Nina Baker, swam to the centre of the pool in almost dead silence.

An often analytical player, Baker had been silently watching the DIT goalkeeper fade to her right for each of the penalties. As the whistle of Patricio Masip sounded Baker placed the ball to the keeper’s right and won the tournament for the ladies’ team.

Men’s final

The men clapped but their joy for their female teammates needed to be short-lived, a rematch with the last team to beat them in a final was imminent. Ultimately they need not have worried; a scrappy yet convincing performance against Galway meant they entered the final minute five goals to the good. The starting six were withdrawn as Coach Bert O’Brien emptied the bench. Veterans of the 2013 win La Rochefoucauld, Murphy and O’Driscoll were joined by Johnston, the MVP, on the bench in celebration.

A testament to the team spirit that had enveloped the squad was displayed as the aforementioned quartet lifted Trinity captain Féilim O’Connor from the pool and embraced. A team had finally come of age.

The final score of 12-9 may not have reflected Trinity’s utter dominance of the game, indeed La Rochefoucauld and O’Driscoll squandered four one on one opportunities between them, but it did reflect one thing. The golden generation of players for both men and women had finally fulfilled the potential they held in such swathes. Trinity had done the double for the second time in three years - Trinity College Dublin: Men’s and Women’s Intervarsity Champions 2015.

Trinity can boast seven intercounty players including Amie Giles of Co. Westmeath, Aine Haberlin of Co. Laois, Caitriona Smith of Co. Cavan, Meabh Downey and Michelle Peel of Co. Meath, and Sarah McCaffrey and Nicole Owens of Co. Dublin.

Success is familiar to both Sarah McCaffrey and Nicole Owens who were part of the Dublin side that won the Aisling McGing Under 21 final last year as well as the Dublin panel that reached the TG4 Senior Championship All-Ireland Final in September last.

Davy Burke, the Trinity Ladies manager was part of the management team that took this impressive Dublin side to the Senior All-Ireland final. Caitriona Smith is no stranger to big games, having played for the Cavan team that took home the TG4 Intermediate All-Ireland Title in 2013.

Other than their county players, Trinity ladies have a very strong panel, with 20 players constantly competing for the coveted 15 starting positions.

They have been training hard since September, keeping up the hard work over Christmas, in the gym and on the pitch alike, while not neglecting the weekly show in Coppers.

This panel includes Petra McCafferty who was part of the Termon side that took home the Tesco All-Ireland Ladies Senior Club title recently. The girls are not afraid of hard work, boasting the motto “Trinity Ladies – the hardest working team in Giles” and hope that this will show in their campaign, when they face IT Sligo on Tuesday.

The Connaught side will be favourites come Tuesday and have the home advantage. IT Sligo

has just been relegated from the O’Connor Cup, and will be an experienced outfit. Among their many established players, Sligo can boast Geraldine McLaughlin, the star of the recent Tesco All-Ireland Ladies Senior Club Final. McLaughlin scored an impressive 22-27 in just six championship games leading her Donegal side, Termon, to All-Ireland success.

Tough group

Trinity will face the tougher of the two Giles Cup groups. Following a two week respite, they will play St. Pat’s Drumcondra, who have just been promoted from the Lynch Cup, after winning this competition outright.

With victory still fresh on their minds, the teachers will not bow easily to their Dublin neighbours. Trinity will only have a week to recover before facing IT Carlow in the last leg of the group stages.

Perhaps the favourites in the competition, Carlow are an experienced side well used to the standard required to compete in the Giles Cup. Having reached the semi finals last year this side will have the confidence to get themselves over the line in close games. On the other side of the draw await University of Ulster Jordanstown, IT Tralee and Athlone IT, one of whom Trinity will hope to meet in the semi final.

Ladies GAA is a minority sport in Trinity, but its popularity is ever growing. To date, the success of this year’s side is certainly helping to build the profile of GAA in the university. On the back of winning the Division 2 League in November and the Lynch Cup back in 2013 this outfit are no strangers to success.

This year the Trinity Ladies are aiming to reach the Giles Cup weekend which is being hosted in Cork IT, where the semi finals and final will be played. Yet just how good this side actually are will be decided when TCD face Sligo next Tuesday. It is yet to be seen if Trinity Ladies are in fact the hardest working team in Giles. Stay tuned to find out.

Solid results for Trinity athletes at Athlone intervarsities Strong results for female runners as four athletes finish in their races’ top three.

Louis Strange Online Sport Editor Trinity athletes took the spotlight at the Irish Universities Athletics Association’s annual indoor track and field intervarsity championship in Athlone on Friday 6th February. 70 athletes competed in 322 races, including DUHAC athletes travelling down from Dublin to represent Trinity.

Although DCU continued their dominance in both male and female competitions, having won gold for the last number of years running, Trinity came in with several strong performances.

UCC and UL – like DCU, familiar names at the top of the pecking order in recent times – filled the remaining two places on the podium.

Women’s results

There were several notable results from the women’s side of the competition as far as Trinity is concerned. The women’s 1,500m final saw a particularly strong Trinity performance, as Becky Woods and Irene Gorman finished in 2nd and 3rd respectively (with times of 4:37.44 and 4:38.12).

In the 3,000m final Maria O’Sullivan came in 2nd (with a time of 9:52.15). Laura Frey came 2nd overall in the Combined Events category (hurdles, weight throw, high jump, long jump, shot putt), and was also part of the Trinity quartet who finished 4th in the 4x200m relay final, along with Orla Furney, Niamh Donnelly and Agnieska Aziewicz (their time being 111.25).

The competition was launched by Maeve Phillips, TCD sports scholar and World Down Syndrome swimmer, Men’s results and Amanda Ní Ghabhann, water polo development officer for Swim Ireland. Photo: Student Sport Ireland Although perhaps

not as suc-

cessful as Trinity’s female contingent, there were a clutch of decent results for TCD’s men on Friday. Liam Tremble came in a respectable 13th (with a time of 4:09.17) in a packed 1,500m final, John Moroney and Kevin Kessler finishing below him in 17th and 21st respectively (their times being 4:20.36 and 4:50.25).

The 3,000m final saw three of Trinity’s men stick together, as Donal Foley, John Reidy and Colum O’Leary came in 12th, 13th and 14th respectively (with times of 9:08.55, 9:12.68 and 9:19.68).

Rob McDowell and Conal Campion finished 3rd and 4th in the 35lb Weight for Distance event, with Garrett Dunne in 8th. Eamonn Fahey, Samuel Olo, Garrett Dunne and Kieron Sexton made up the men’s 4x200m relay team which finished 5th (in 93.56), while Fahey also competed in the Long Jump, coming a respectable 4th out of 23, as well as the Triple Jump, in which he finished 5th. Cristopher Doherty came in 4th in the Pole Vault and Conal Campion and Rob McDowell finished 7th and 8th in the Shot Putt.

Although the chances of breaking DCU’s hegemonic dominance of the Intervarsity Championship may be slim, Trinity’s results provided evidence that, particularly in the women’s competition, there is something to build on looking ahead to the coming years.

TRINITY NEWS

Tuesday 10th February 2015

Sport

24 Success for Trinity water polo teams at annual intervarsities. p.23

Horse riding has offered Clementine Yost a sense of control, something she feels has been lacking during her struggles with anxiety and bulimia.. Photo: Matthew Mulligan

Finding solace in sport For those suffering from mental health issues, sport can either worsen matters or become a cornerstone in their recovery.

Gavin Cooney Deputy Sport Editor The positive benefits sport can have upon mental health are unquestionable. The issue has become a prevalent theme in this year’s SU elections, with two of the five candidates running for welfare officer citing plans to promote sport as part of positive mental health programmes.

For musician Niall Breslin, who suffers from anxiety issues and regularly speaks about his battle with depression, sport and exercise are a way of controlling longterm mental health issues. “For those who deal quite badly with general anxiety disorder, sport has that ability just to stop it,” he tells me. “As soon as I started training that nauseating feeling in my stomach would leave me, that breathlessness would ironically leave me. Most people get breathless when they train, I started getting my breath back when I trained. I started become more mindful and more aware of my body. Whenever I trained or played a match: for those brief moments my anxiety went away.” Most other people, he acknowledges, work the total opposite way, getting anxious before matches. “I am the opposite,” he says. “I get anxious for no reason.

I get anxious watching television, I get anxious in bed. But I don’t get anxious in environments like that.”

Sanctuary

Running, for him, has offered a sanctuary of sorts. “When you are running, you are completely present, completely mindful of what is happening there and then,” he says. “When you are running, everything else leaves your brain.

Thoughts are the absolute devil for people with anxiety issues; thoughts that you cannot control, that just go flashing through your brain all the time and you can’t control them. When you start

running, they disappear. The minute I start running, I become completely present, but if I try to meditate and be present then I get anxious and I hyperventilate.

But the minute I get into a running environment, everything else becomes irrelevant. That is a very difficult thing to achieve for people with anxiety problems: to be able to stop their thoughts.

That is what running does for me.

That is why I do it.”

Breslin is a triathlete, and frequently competes in the punishing Ironman triathlon. “The Ironman isn’t a physical thing, it’s a mental thing. It tests your mind.

I call it the iron mind.” In order to compete Breslin had to learn to swim, conquering a long held fear. “I learned how to swim even though I had a huge fear of water.

That was another part of my recovery, facing fears and showing my mind that I have an element of control”.

That feeling described by Breslin, of being utterly bewitched by the moment when running, is echoed by Clementine Yost, a final-year student at Trinity College. Her passion is horse riding and show jumping, and her descriptions of her sport are extraordinarily vivid and enthusiastic, as if she is reliving the moments she describes. “When I am on this animal, galloping around the arena, building pace and momentum, getting the push,” she tells me. “With show jumping, you have to create a balance, and you feel that you have helped this horse realise its potential in a way, stopping them from being something that might just run around and act the maggot to something that, bouncing, approaching the jump, then boom. It feels like an explosion. They get to the last stride, they plant their front feet, their hind feet plant down together and they kick off.” The experience is particularly uplifting after jumps, she says. “When you are over one jump, and can see another one coming, it’s un-

real. The feeling when you are in the air, it feels like you are flying.

It is like the climax of the experience. You are building their momentum, their energy, their frame and shape, you can’t have them with their heads too close to their chest or they’ll slow down.

You need them with their head out, shoulders raised, cantering with their hind legs pushing underneath themselves all the time.

Then you push over something, and that’s all you have been working for in those five minutes.”

Clementine has suffered from anxiety and bulimia, but finds that show jumping is helpful in dealing with issues of mental health. “I got bulimia because of my anxiety, and anxious people are anxious of ‘the inevitable’, so that is a lack of control. With horse riding, it offers control over the situation you put yourself in.”

Control

Sport is a tangible rendering of cause and effect; it offers the participant a most obvious and immediate way of asserting control.

This control is also important also for Breslin. “It [physical activity] is having an element of control,” he says. “With issues of anxiety, you feel you’re in freefall, you feel you can’t stop it, and that’s frightening, really frightening.

It’s terrifying to the point where you think that this is the way you feel it’s always going to be. If you can regain a touch of control, you start realising, fuck, maybe I can [deal with anxiety].” He used to control his anxiety through sleeping pills and valium, but eventually realised that this was unsustainable. “It’s not good for you.

It’s not the way I wanted it to go; I was addicted to sleeping pills for four or five years. I was on them every night and I knew it was doing me serious damage. I started learning other ways of maintaining control.”

Pressure

And yet with such high stakes,

sport can have a seriously negative affect one’s mental health.

Clementine says as much about her time as a coxswain on the Trinity Rowing team. She says the sport was ultimately detrimental to her mental health, as it set a racing weight of 55kg in the interests of fairness, to prevent teams drafting young, teenage coxswains in order to keep the boat as light as possible. “Rowing was detrimental as there was a weight restriction for racing,” she says.

“You have to be 122.5 pounds, and at 5ft 8. That was really hard. Two weeks before the colours race for Trinity, I starved myself for 14 days to get from 57 kilos to 55. I would have a bowl of cereal in the morning, and I would only have an apple for the rest of the day.”

This was not due to a culture among the club of encouraging her to lose weight but rather to the fact she did not yet feel comfortable in openly admitting her issues. “My senior coach never mentioned my weight once,” she says. “My coach last year, a week before an early season race, was like ‘oh we have a race coming up and we want everyone in tiptop shape, and coxes, if you could practise weighing yourselves, and remember that race weight is 55 kilos’. I genuinely believe that in his head he was used to having small, underweight coxes and he was saying that to say ‘make sure you bring your extra weights’ to the underweight coxes so they make weight. The way I heard it was ‘you’re so fat, don’t eat any food’.” The pressure she felt under was never noticed by those around her, though. “All the rowers were super guys but never noticed that’s what happened. From the perspective of the 6 foot, 100 kilo male rower, I was tiny, but in my head I was just letting him down”. Clementine is unsure whether support structures were in place within the rowing club, as she did not seek them out. “Last year I hit rock bottom and accepted that I had bulimia. Had I

accepted that earlier, I may have sought a support within rowing.”

Breslin experienced sport at its worst during his four year spell as a professional with Leinster Rugby. Having gone from embracing every sport he could as a youth, the pressure of professional sport proved intolerable. “When I became a professional athlete that environment changed. You have got pressure in an environment, an environment where mental health is certainly not spoken about or in any way promoted or nurtured. It made things worse and worse. That massive crutch I had in terms of physical health was taken from me and it became something I had resented until I retired.”

Structures

Breslin is critical of the structures in place at Leinster. “I’m not sure if my issues were clear, but not once was I asked how I was in any shape or form. People assume wellness in this country is associated with our physical wellness, but the fact is that I was in absoluter hell playing rugby. I was doing the one sport I loved the most in the world, and I hated every moment of it as I felt like a complete and utter outcast because I had this quiet kind of silent issue that I could never speak about.

The fact is that when I played professionally a lot of the coaches, some were from the old school where they would send you on the pitch with a broken leg and ask you to run it off, so I certainly wasn’t going to start getting into mental health issues with people who had an attitude like that to physical problems.”

Breslin believes that society as a whole needs to recognise the prevalence of mental health issues in sport. “I think in general, as a society, we need to open our eyes and stop being naïve to sport as being a beacon of people,” he says. “These people are flawless, powerful strong elite athletes.

They’re not. They’re human and

“

Two weeks before the colours race, I starved myself for 14 days to get from 57 kilos to 55. I would have a bowl of cereal in the morning, and I would only have an apple for the rest of the day. they have got serious problems that aren’t allowed be dealt with.

Now you have brilliant things like the GPA and IRUPA, who are about player welfare. They couldn’t give a shit about your contract, couldn’t give a shit about money, they are just there for player welfare and it is about time because the fact is that I think the IRFU are an amazing organisation who have done great things but do they care about the welfare of the players? Do they really? I don’t know.”

In defence of the IRFU, in November of last year the organisation launched a scheme alongside Pieta House entitled “Mind Ur Buddy”, aimed at equipping rugby club members across the country with the ability to recognize depression in others. Breslin is encouraged by the increasing openness with which mental health

is being treated. “It’s becoming a hell of a lot more acceptable in every facet. If you look at any of the top teams in the world, the first person they appoint is a sports psychologist. Somebody that is there to monitor the emotional welfare of the player.”

Sport is also likely to play a bigger role in positive mental health campaigns on campus in the coming months, with two SU candidates for the position of welfare office connecting issues of mental health and physical health. Conor Clancy, who has spoken of the importance of sport as a “powerful antidote to depression”, has also worked with the current welfare officer, Ian Mooney, on a voluntary programme to educate the captains of sports clubs about the signs of depression.

The benefits of physical activity to one’s mental fitness are undoubted, yet regular physical activity within a sports club must be supported by an environment encouraging openness relating to mental health. For Breslin, sport becomes problematic when it robs identity: “When I came to Dublin, I discovered that in certain schools, rugby was a religion, it actually defined a person if they played rugby. It defined who they were, where they were from, and everything about them. They had no identity. The minute you sacrifice your identity, you will start struggling. You have to establish what your values are and what you want to be and if someone in school is saying that ‘you play rugby and you’re brilliant’, and you don’t feel brilliant, then you are lying to yourself. For me it’s important in the sporting environment that no matter what you do in sport, do not sacrifice your identity or else it will eat at you. If part of your identity is issues with your mind, if sometimes your mind can be a little hard on you, then fucking tell people. Don’t hide behind it, or it will come back at you.”