UCC Express Vol. 21 Issue 10

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UCCExpress.ie | Volume 21 | Issue 10 Tuesday February 27th

UCC Partner with Opera House

Page 3 - News

UCC Feminist Society launched the campaign as part of their Consent Week (photo: UCC FemSoc).

FemSoc Petitions for Mandatory Consent Classes Molly O’Rourke, Deputy News Editor

UCC Feminist Society has launched a petition to introduce mandatory consent classes for all students attending the university.

If the petition is successful, UCC will be following in the footsteps of other Irish universities, including Trinity College Dublin and Queen’s University Belfast. A spokesperson from FemSoc explained that they “believe these classes are necessary to combat the alarming rate of sexual assault and harassment prevalent in university campuses, and in Ireland in general.”

Unfortunately, across Irish campuses there have been widespread allegations of sexual harassment & assault. FemSoc argues that this is partly due to a lack of sexual

education in Irish schools, stating that the system is “dramatically insufficient and outdated.” In their opinion, improved education and awareness regarding consent would create a safer, happier campus but would also mean “a young Irish population that has a safer, healthier attitude towards sex.”

With regards to funding for the classes, FemSoc hopes to work in conjunction with UCC Students’ Union and the Student Experience Office. The project will consist of classes taught by ‘consent ambassadors’, consisting of students and staff specially trained in the area. The society explained that the use of these ambassadors will minimise the cost.

When asked about ensuring

students attend the classes, the society explained that “central to (the) proposal is that these classes be mandatory for all incoming first years, with attendance taken and regulated as a compulsory part of orientation. In Trinity Halls this class is mandatory and held with the fire safety introduction.”

Consent classes have been in operation at Trinity since 2016, and a survey of those students who attended the classes showed positive results – 87% of attendees believed the classes should be taught at every orientation, and 87.4% stated they had learned valuable information at the event.

Continued on page 3...

UCCSU Survey Page 6 - Features

Interview with Brandon Havard Byline Magazine

NEWS INSIDE TODAY: 2

FROM THE EDITOR While 7 more candidates might not sound like a lot, in 2014 there were three positions completely unopposed, and all but three of the other positions only had two candidates. What’s more, there are like 15 female candidates this year, but there was only 7 in 2014 (and three of those seven ran for the same position) – representation matters, and it’s good to see UCCSU moving ever forward.

NEWS

Trinity lecturer in hot water over

04 FGM comments 06 Date set for referendum on Eighth

FEATURES

09 Do you do drugs?

08 An anxiety appraisal

FOOD

32 Tapas - Falafel, bread & potatoes

BYLINE

16 Women in Rock 23 Review: Derry Girls

SPORT

38 Federer tops the rankings 36 Politics in football

EDITORIAL TEAM Editor-in-Chief - Robert O’Sullivan Designer - Kelly Doherty News Editor - Michelle Beazley Deputy News Editor - Molly O’Rourke Features Editor - Ciara Dinneen Deputy Features Editor - Fergal Smiddy Opinion Editor - Chris McCahill Sports Editor - Dylan O’Connell Deputy Sports Editor - Claire Jouce Photographer - Emmet Curtin Webmaster - Evan Smith

Robert O’Sullivan, Editor-in-Chief

This is my second to last ever editorial for this paper. Jesus, it still hasn’t properly sunk in. By the time you read this the deadline to apply for this job will likely have passed – hell, we may have even hired my successor. Not really on any sort of topic, but it’s just trippy to think how close I am to being done with this publication essentially forever.

As I write this the nominations for SU have closed, and we have our candidates. I remember running for SU what seems like a decade ago, and so much has changed for the better: there are so many more candidates, for a start – when I ran for Equality Officer in 2014 there was 26 candidates overall, whereas this year there are 33.

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This is bordering on patronising, to be honest, so I won’t dwell too much on that. Regardless of gender, I wish every single candidate the absolute best, and hope they have a bit of fun over the weeks & days of campaigning. If I had to give any of you advice right now

it would be to not take it too seriously, to remember to eat & drink water and to take something out of this experience, regardless of the result. There’s a principle called Sayre’s Law, that’s often attributed to Henry Kissinger, that goes like this: “In any dispute the intensity of feeling is inversely proportional to the value of the issues at stake.

That is why academic politics are so bitter.”

I’ve seen so many pointless bustups and storming out of counts over the years that honestly could be avoided. I know it’s no fun to lose, and after two days (and several weeks) of constant stress and anticipation it can be easy to lose your head, but no one likes a sore loser.

And looking back you’ll definitely cringe. So remember, even though it sucks, it’s not worth it to throw a strop, or throw your drink for that matter.

Best of luck to those of you not running, too: may the elections bring many delicious free treats, as little stress as possible getting to lectures, and that sticker you get that stops campaign teams from bothering you. Don’t forget to vote early, and vote often.

Robert O’Sullivan

FROM THE NEWS EDITOR

Byline Editor - Cailean Coffey Fiction Editor - Sophie Mckenzie Gaming Editor - Zach Stevens Fashion Editor - Iris Maher Music Editor - JJ Lee Film & Television Editor - Aaron Frahill Humour Editor - Sarah Ryan Food Editor - Isabella Cosgrave Arts Editor - El Menton Staff Writers Laura O’Connor Jill Kingston Samantha Calthrop Lucas Brun Callum Connelly Eoin Doyle Kate Stapleton Eadaoin Regan

I bring up the gender breakdown of the candidates for an important reason. In my year on the SU, we only had one female officer – our SEFS Rep. While student politics aren’t the most important elections in the world, you’d be surprised just how many ‘proper’ politicians and activists get their start in students’ unions around the world. So to see such a jump in women coming forward for election shows that the times have changed, women feel more comfortable in running for positions and, hopefully, going on to ‘proper’ politics.

ISSUE 10 | UCC Express

Editorial Michelle Beazley

This is my second to last editorial, so I wanted to take the chance to talk to ye about something important. Here is the thing: the planet is changing, and there is no stop button, or painless fix. Ireland has been denounced as a “laggard” by our own Taoiseach in terms of our approach to climate change, underperforming when it comes to meeting key targets and falling far behind our European neighbours in terms of measures that would reduce our emissions.

The Government’s new 2040 national development plan hopes to change all that. It’s ambitious.

Public support for environmental protection has never been unwavering; especially in times of economic recession, and even now, in the wake of some of the most extreme weather events the world has ever seen, powerful Western countries (who also happen to be some of the worst offenders) are taking a step back from global accords like the Paris Climate Agreement when they should be taking steps forward.

There is hope: the Citizens Assembly last year voted near-unanimously (98%) to recommend that climate change should be at the centre of all policy-making decisions in Ireland, and this is reflected in the recent national development plan. The policy envisions a radical modernisation of how we view climate change, and the Government have put their money where their mouth is, designating one-fifth of the entire budget (€22 billion) to new environmental protection measures, with the ultimate aim of transitioning the country to a low-carbon economy by 2050.

There will be a ban on the sale of all petrol and diesel cars by 2030 in a bid to decrease air pollution,

with the State promising the construction of many more charging points to accommodate a resulting predicted 500,000 new electric cars.

From 2019, Bus Éireann and Dublin Bus will only be permitted to purchase electric buses. From 2021, up to 45,000 homes each year will be upgraded with more environmentally-sustainable components and, to finance all these essential advances, a new climate action fund will be instituted, financed from part of the pre-existing tax on petrol products. These kinds of fundamental changes in the way society operates scares people, and that’s understandable, but the alternative is much worse. We have the capacity, if we act now, to lessen the blow: create new, sustainable green jobs, shed our “laggard” reputation and, most importantly, protect the wellbeing of Irish people through sustaining one of the most determinant influences on our health and welfare: our environment.

Michelle Beazley

NEWS

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continued from front page According to a survey carried out in 2015, one in seven students attending UCC had been raped or experienced a sexual assault, with around one third of respondents saying that they had experienced “minor sexual assaults.” Of the 333 students surveyed, 82% said that they would not know how to report a case of sexual assault to university authorities.

Large Rise in Admissions of Students Suffering from ADD/ADHD to Third Level Institutions Cailean Coffey, Byline Editor Irish colleges have seen a large increase in the number of ADD/ ADHD sufferers being admitted, a recent report by the Association for Higher Education Access and Disability (AHEAD) has revealed. The report also stated a growing number of students with disabilities were not accessing disability services available to them that could potentially “have a negative impact on retention rates if not addressed.”

AHEAD’s report was based on figures provided by third level institutes across the country concerning the academic year 2016/17. The report

In response to this survey, a representative from FemSoc stated that it highlights the “now undeniable prevalence of sexual assault and harassment” that is occurring among UCC students. Adding that it is a concern that students don’t know how to, or even if they can, report a case of assault, the society hopes the university will hear

their plea for systems to be put in place to educate and protect the UCC student community.

After surpassing their initial goal of 500 signatures within 24 hours, FemSoc believes the students of UCC agree with their pleas; “as students and young people we have a duty to protect each other, our friends, and ourselves, and a right to be given the tools to carry out that duty”, added the represen-

aimed to examine the number of students with disabilities taking part in The AHEAD report also noted a 46% third level education. increase in the number of incoming students with a mental health condiAdmissions of ADD/ADHD suf- tion. In total, admissions related to a ferers saw the largest increase of all mental health condition accounted categories, with a 70% increase from for 14% of total admissions with a the 2015/16 academic year. ADD disability. Ann Heelan, Executive Di(Attention Deficit Disorder) and rector of AHEAD, says this increase ADHD (Attention was significant, but that the organiDeficit Hyperactiv- sation was “not surprised.” There was i t y Disorder) sufferers a decrease in admissions of students may sometimes find with other categories of disabilities, themselves having difficulties con- with the number of students adcentrating, reading quickly, taking mitted with Specific Learning Diffinotes or studying, which may cause culty falling by a notable 20% since them to feel stressed, isolate them- 2010/2011. selves from friends and family, or struggle to pass exams. With the help The areas of study which admitted of disabilities services, students suf- the highest number of students with fering from such issues can access disabilities were Education and Sciaids and services such as a voice re- ence, while the areas admitting the corder for recording lectures, easier lowest amount were Agriculture and access to computers, and a smart- Veterinary Science. pen, which allows you to write, as well as recording and listening to The report also examined the numlectures at a later date. ber of staff responsible for support-

tative.

A new goal of 2,500 signatures has been set on the online petition platform change.org, which can be found on Facebook.com/UCCFemSoc. At the time of writing, the petition had been signed by 2,438 supporters.

ing students with difficulties and the number of learning staff that universities employed. The figures showed that each disability support staff member had on average 167 students to assist, while each learning support staff member worked with an average of 475 students.

Commenting on the report as a whole, Heelan said that more effort was needed from third level institutions, but stated that: “Mental Health Matters research from 2016 indicated that creating a positive culture of disclosing mental health conditions is really important. Clear policies and procedures for college staff on what to do when someone discloses to them can also prove very effective in ensuring that students get the support they need.”

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NEWS

Trinity Lecturer Under Fire for ProFGM Comments Samantha Calthrop, Staff Writer Dr. Ali Selim, part-time lecturer at Trinity College Dublin, has been the subject of heavy criticism following comments made to RTE’s Primetime in support of female circumcision.

Selim teaches Arabic language classes at Trinity, and he is also a senior representative and spokesperson for the Islamic Cultural Centre, Clonskeagh.

ISSUE 10 | UCC Express ing urethra damage, childbirth complications, painful sexual intercouse, and greater risk of HIV transmission. Approximately 6,000 people in Ireland have been victims of FGM, with over 2,000 at risk.

Trinity released a statement the day after the controversial comments were made, stating that the college condemned FGM in all circumstances. The college also announced

fects the physical, psychological, and emotional well-being of women,” he stated. “It is binding upon all Muslims to speak against this practice, stop it if they are aware of its occurrence, and report any knowledge of it to the authorities.”

The Irish Muslim Peace & Integration Council and the Islamic Centre Ireland have both released statements condemning FGM, and called upon

“I’m not an advocate of female genital mutilation but I am an advocate of female circumcision,” he stated. “It is not an obligation but it should be allowed by law if needed and a medical doctor can decide if it’s needed or not needed. (...) It might be needed for one person and not another, and it has to be done by a doctor and practised in a safe environment.”

He made similar remarks to the Medical Independent several days previously: “Female circumcision is a matter that should be determined by a medical doctor.

If the doctor thinks there is a need for it, then do it and if otherwise, then otherwise. If it is done, then it should be done carefully and safely and should be limited to the amount needed.”

plans to employ another Arabic language lecturer, after a large volume of complaints from his students, so that those who did not wish to be taught

by Selim could opt not to be. Trinity College Students’ Union President Kevin Keane also wrote to the college calling for Selim’s resignation.

FGM refers to ‘female genital mutilation’, the removal of the female external sexual organs often undertaken for cultural reasons. There is no distinction between FGM and female circumcision, both of which are banned in Ireland under the Criminal Justice Act (Female Genital Mutilation) 2012. It is also illegal to compel any person leave the country to undergo FGM.

Prof. Chris Fitzpatrick, former master of the Coombe Women & Infants University hospital, condemned Selim’s comments in a letter to the Irish Times. Dr Deirdre Murphy, Professor of Obstetrics at Trinity, also opposed the statement: “Any doctor who suggests female circumcision is medically indicated is deluding themselves.” She stated that female genital cutting and female circumcision are “synonymous terms.”

Surgery falling under the term FGM is only performed under extremely rare circumstances, and is almost never medically advisable. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has condemned the practice, which causes unnecessary pain, distress, and many medical problems, includ-

Members of the Muslim community in Ireland have also spoken out against Selim’s comments. Shaykh Dr. Umar Al-Qadri, head Imam of the Islamic Centre Ireland, issued a fatwa (a ruling on a piece of Islamic law) against female genital mutilation: “there is no doubt that FGM af-

Clonskeagh Islamic Cultural Centre to do the same. Ali Al Saleh, Imam of the Islamic Centre in Milltown, also criticised Selim for his statement.

Selim consequently apologised for his remarks on TV3’s Pat Kenny show: “I condemn FGM in the strongest terms. I admit that I caused confusion based on my misunderstanding of the term [circumcision] and I do apologise for this,” he stated. “I’m not a medical doctor.” He stated that his English “lets him down” sometimes, and he was unclear on the implications of his statement. He also criticised media outlets for not reaching out to him to clarify his comments.

Around the Universities Michelle Beazley, News Editor Trinity College Dublin Trinity has announced that they will be facilitating an international dual degree programme in conjunction with Columbia University, New York. Starting next year, students enrolled in the programme will spend two years studying in Trinity, followed by two years at Columbia, culminating in a BA Arts and Humanities degree from the two universities. Subjects on offer include English, History, European Studies, and Middle Eastern and European Languages and Cultures.

University College Dublin Members of the anti-abortion group known as Irish Centre of Bioethical Reform recently campaigned at a popular UCD entrance, showcasing graphic images referred to as “abortion victim photography,” intended to persuade students to vote against repealing the Eighth amendment in the upcoming May referendum. UCDSU expressed concerns about the “graphic nature” of the campaign.

University of Limerick The Higher Education Authority has announced they will not publish a report investigating UL’s mismanagement of severance packages to the tune of €1.7 million, which were found to be conflicting with the rules governing public pay. The decision is related to High Court proceedings concerning several persons involved in the irregularities, and as such matters relating to the case cannot be publically reviewed.

NEWS

ISSUE 10| UCC Express

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UCC Partners With Cork Opera Cork Opera House, said that the aim exists in the School of Music & The- House, stated: “This collaboration is is to “develop arts industry leaders atre at UCC. unique in its structure and innovative House Molly O’Rourke, Deputy News Editor UCC has unveiled an exciting new collaboration with Cork Opera House, the first of its kind in Ireland.

The eight-year cultural partnership programme, launched on February 20th, aims to not only boost Cork’s already strong reputation as a city of learning and culture, but also to enhance the student experience in UCC. The plan will see these two organisations work together to educate and inspire the next generation of arts managers, creative practitxioners and professionals, which, it is hoped, will have a significant impact on the arts industry. A key feature of the new partnership is the creation of internships for UCC students in Cork Opera House. These internships will cover areas of organisational management, marketing, production, business development and stage management. This aspect of the partnership coincides with the national target set out recently by the Minister for Education and Skills, Richard Bruton, of providing all students in higher education with the opportunity to carry out work placement as part of their studies by 2025.

At the launch of the partnership Eibhlín Gleeson, Chief Executive of

for the future. (The) two institutions are investing in the future of arts in the region. We are developing and mentoring the people who will become the producers, arts managers, technicians, and heads of arts institutions in Cork and beyond. This partnership will give students access to a rounded learning experience including unique insight into the workings of Cork Opera House.”

There will also be collaboration by the Opera House and UCC’s School of Music and Theatre to research and develop a new masters programme in Arts and Cultural Management, which is due to open in 2019. On top of this, a jointly-funded PhD programme exploring the impact of Cork Opera House on Cork and the

southern region for the last 163 years will be launched. This academic research will avail of the expertise in Opera / Opera Archival Studies that

Referendum on the Eighth Set for examinations.

If the referendum culminates in a May 25th ‘Yes’ vote, the current 8th amendment prohibiting abortion will be Michelle Beazley, News Editor removed, and replaced with new According to a report by The Times, legislation reading: “provision may Cabinet has made extensive progress be made by law for the regulation on the referendum to repeal the 8th of termination of pregnancies.” This amendment by setting a poll date, provision would cease the control of May 25th, and approving the text of the Constitution over Ireland’s abortion laws, and allow the Oireachtas to the draft bill.

The late May date is thought to have legislate to reform current anti-terbeen fixed upon because it will fa- mination laws. An Taoiseach Leo cilitate University and Leaving Cer- Varadkar has stated he is confident tificate students to vote on Con- the text of the replacement provision stitutional regulation to access to is legally sound. abortion without interference with The Government is due to give final

Commenting on the new initiative Jools Gilson, Professor of Creative Practice and Head of the School of Music and Theatre at UCC, described the collaboration as “the missing piece of the puzzle.” Gilson explained that, while the performing arts school has “scholarship, lively debate, exploration, and a great deal of practice-based learning,” they cannot recreate what it means to run a live venue. She welcomes the fact that this new partnership will give students a practical, hands-on opportunity to work in a lively opera house.

Another aspect of student enhancement through this partnership will see a Theatre Artist in Residence undertake development work at Cork Opera House, which will inform their

in its ambition. There are great synergies there and we’re looking forward to the world of possibilities this partnership will generate. Beyond the direct impact of this, the wider scope of this is that we are putting Cork at the centre of this industry as the leaders and visionaries taking innovative approaches to how we learn and create together.”

While student experience and learning are central aspects of this programme, there will also be a new utilisation of Cork City’s assets. UCC will gain access to a 900-seat auditorium in the opera house, which will enable the university to host student events and increase our offering for large international conferences.

Branding for both institutions will be displayed throughout the Opera House and on the iconic tower, which will reflect the nature of this partnership, as institutions who are deeply encapsulated in the educational, cultural and economic fabric of the city.

Additionally, it reinforces and enhances Cork’s long-standing reputation for culture and education through its designation as a UNESCO City of Learning 2017 and as one of the EU’s eight ‘ideal’ cities for culture and creativity according to the EU’s Cultural and Creative Cities Monitor 2017-18.

UCC plans to invest €60K annually over the eight years – an investment contribution to teaching in the UCC which displays the university’s leadSchool of Music & Theatre, as well as ing role in the development of Munto the broader University population. ster to counterbalance the Dublin Tim Healy, Chair of Cork Opera region. confirmation of the text of the replacement provision by March 6th. At this point the referendum date will be finalised, if no substantive legal issues arise. The Taoiseach has dismissed allegations that the Government is stalling finalisation of the wording of the bill to make the confirmation closer to International Women’s Day on March 8th, and instead pointed to the ongoing Supreme Court case relating to the extent of the constitutional rights of the unborn outside of the 8th amendment. On Friday, the Supreme Court announced they would reserve their judgement on the case, and give a decision as soon as

they were in a position to do so. The Times quoted a government spokesperson, who spoke of his confidence that the polling date would be set for the last Friday in May despite a “tight time frame.”

Health Minister Simon Harris is in the process of publishing a policy plan in the next month, which would deal with the potential eventuality of the referendum passing and the Oireachtas obtaining power to legislate for Ireland’s abortion laws. The plan would permit access to terminations in the first 12 weeks.

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FEATURES Monday February 26th In the early hours of February 26th, 1960, an Alitalia flight from Naples & Rome headed towards New York stops over in Shannon to refuel. For reasons still unknown, the plane crashed shortly after take-off, killing 34 of the 52 passengers on-board. According to eyewitness reports, the plane flew low enough to clip several gravestones in the Clonloghan Cemetery, destroying a wall. It flew just passed the graveyard into a nearby field, spewing forth chunks of fuselage and luggage into the neighbouring field.

Famous Death: King of Ailech, Muirchertach of the Leather Cloaks (d.943) Holiday: Liberation Day (Kuwait) Tuesday February 27th On this day, in 1900, both the British Labour Party and German football club Bayern Munich were formed. The former was founded out of the trade union movement in the UK of the 19th Century, and would go on to form the main opposition to the Conservative Party from the 1920s onward. They would have their first Prime Minister in 1924, as Ramsay MacDonald lead a minority government into power.

The latter is the most successful football club in German history, having won a record-breaking 27 national titles and 18 national cups. They won their first national title in 1932.

Famous Death: Star Trek star Leonard Nimoy (1931-2015) Holiday: International Polar Bear Day Wednesday February 28th In 2013 Pope Benedict XVI resigned as Pope in the Vatican.

He was the first Pope to do so since Gregory XII did the same in 1415, though he was only the first to do it of his own volition since Celestine V did so in 1294.

The German-born Pope had not been as popular as his predecessor, being seen as a ‘regressive’ or conservative figure in the church. He had also been criticised for his spending on opulent interior design. He gave failing health due to old age as his reason for resigning.

An Anxiety Appraisal

ISSUE 10 | UCC Expres9

I often see people who I would never have suspected of struggling with mental health issues posting very eloquent explanations about their mental health struggles. I have always admired the courage that must take.

I am not one of those people. I just have a chip on my shoulder about a certain issue, so what better way to have a semi-rant than by writing an article for the college paper?

Firstly, we are all familiar with the usual accusations that mental health

fenders. They discuss how they perhaps just dropped their favourite eyeshadow pallet (which they got for free I might add – but that’s an article for another day) and declare “Oh god, my anxiety cannot deal with this today.” Or they will say, “I have to speak at an event today and my anxiety is really getting to me.” That is not anxiety. That is nerves. Get a dictionary.

Thirdly, I take issue with people saying ‘anxiety is your friend, it lets you know when you are wearing yourself out’ or ‘scientists believe it is actually your inner genius alerting you to danger’. I disagree. Anxiety is not my friend. And for this reason, whether

issues are a means to attracting attention. Listen, I have always been a drama queen for things that, in hindsight, did not deserve my time or attention; I mostly ended up mortifying myself. I admit it. I accept that, and like to think that I have (for the most part) outgrown it. What I don’t excuse is anyone accusing people of using mental health for attention.

Nobody has (to my face, at least) accused me of this; it is one thing that I won’t tolerate. It would be an insult to parade around mental health struggles in the hopes that someone might comment ‘hope ur ok hun xo’ or ‘DM me babe x’ on one of my Facebook posts.

Secondly, I would like to address the tendency of many famous people, such as the likes of the Kardashians, to overuse the phrase ‘I have anxiety’.

You see it on social media too, with certain bloggers being the worst of-

correct or not, I largely choose to ignore it now. I couldn’t deal with listening to myself go on about it anymore. It is a label that should never have been doled out to me and arguably to anyone. And so, after the first few months of telling several people, cripplingly aware that they assumed I was just looking for sympathy, I ripped the label off and fucked it in the bin. I never spoke of it again.

Before anyone goes berserk, fan noimead. I am in no way trying to be flippant here. Everyone is different in how they handle it, and I will, I hope, explain myself properly as this article continues.

Here’s how it felt at the beginning.

Although exposed to mental health issues within my family, I had never had much experience with it directly.

Yes there were times where it felt like the world was ending, but it generally was due to an unexpected, unwel-

by Daphne Murphy*, Features Writer

come or tragic event. GPs might have made a comment or hint here or there but I ignored it. I had been to grief counselling but again, those feelings passed. But after several months of unexplained illness, missing a woeful amount of work, feeling stressed, crying all the time, drinking too much to distract myself, being outrageously paranoid and feeling irrationally angry, I decided to go to the doctor. As someone who was generally very social and outgoing, it was a shock and a struggle to be labelled as someone with anxiety. Especially when I was simply told a counsellor would be assigned to me, was given a prescription for tablets and sleeping tablets before being sent on my merry way. I had no idea what this actually meant. I knew what it was, but for me?

In the morning I usually woke up exhausted. I have never been a morning person, but this was different; this was not the exhaustion I was used to.

Usually I would have grabbed my phone and earphones, blasted a perky song that hyped me up for the day. But this time no matter what I played in my ears, I would lie there indifferent to it. This is because I had spent the majority of the night feeling a stirring in my stomach and waking up every twenty minutes or so to check the time because I dreamed, again, that I slept in for work. This dream happened every single night for weeks. And every time I went back to sleep, it happened again.

When/if I got to work I was groggy but generally it was a great distraction once I got into it, but as I worked for a mental health office, naturally I was painfully aware that I was probably in the worst job, all things considered.

Having witnessed family member’s issues with tablets for various mental health issues, I was extremely cautious about taking them. But I genuinely felt like I couldn’t face getting up or seeing/talking to anyone anymore, so I decided to try the tablets. In fairness, they weren’t so bad. Within thirty minutes I would feel the tightness in my stomach go slightly. Anytime negative thoughts came into my head I could quickly brush them off, which was a luxury I had not experienced for several months. As the day wore on I would become extremely thirsty no matter how much I drank.

FEATURES

ISSUE 10| UCC Express I might feel a little tired as the medication wore off which was frustrating considering I then relied on the sleeping tablets once it was bedtime.

The real problems occurred whenever I went home. For several months I was tearful, anxious, stressed, angry and exhausted. There were three weeks in a row where I cried every night because I was so tired. I was stressed because I was missing work so much, which was not like me.

No one seemed to have anything to say except make comments about my missing work or asking me constantly “are you going to go to work tomorrow?”, as if I was waking up in the morning and going “hmmmm… could I be fucked today? Nah.” I was not someone who had the luxury of picking and choosing. There just always seemed to be something wrong with me to the point where I felt embarrassingly proud anytime I did make it to work. The home situation became worse, and the less I felt I could explain myself, the less I felt anyone wanted to hear about it. The anxiety told me that they thought I was useless, irresponsible, lazy and miserable. It didn’t matter whether or not that was what they did think.

Anytime I heard a whisper or conversation in the room next door, my anxiety told me that it was about me and that there was no point in explaining my side because it would start a war. This was not their fault.

But it was equally not mine. It was what it was. Essentially, being at my house was not a comfortable place for me. And someone with anxiety needs a comfortable place. When I approached my house every day after work, I started to feel a tightness in my stomach. By the time I got up to my room I felt physically sick and would shake. I would have given anything to settle down in the sitting room and chat to whoever was there, to laugh and joke or make plans to go off on an adventure somewhere.

But I couldn’t, and it often felt like it was being thrown in my face that I couldn’t. Again, this was probably not the case, but there we are: this is anxiety. Nowhere and no one felt like home anymore.

The thing about anxiety is that people assume that if you still go out to nightclubs, laugh during a film, go to work or meet friends that the days where you cannot pull yourself from bed or cannot go to work because

your stomach feels like it is tearing itself to shreds must be put on. To those of you who do think like this (and I admit, I have been guilty of it in the past), it is easier to socialise with bigger crowds than it is to sit at a kitchen table with your best friends, family, boyfriend, girlfriend or whoever is closest to you and tell them how horrible your day was, especially if it was horrible for no particular reason at all. It is awful, it is upsetting, it is embarrassing and makes you feel even more self-conscious but it is just the way it is.

My real worry was that because of anxiety (honestly, social media makes me cringe anytime I hear/read that word now) and the panic attacks, I could no longer plan ahead. If you knew you had a big day in work coming up, you’d make sure to get a good night’s sleep. If you knew you had to visit family after a big night out, you’d force about three litres of water into you before bed to ease the hangover. If you knew it was going to piss from the heavens on your walk outside you’d bring an umbrella. But if you can’t even sit down to a dinner in your own home without feeling sick or upset at the thought of anyone coming in, how on earth can you plan? And this is why anxiety was not my friend. It still isn’t. Again, this is why I ignore it.

I am not a doctor, I am not a counsellor. So please do not take my advice or experience as gospel. But honestly, what helped me was getting out of the situation I was in, completely.

Job, house, town – everything. I was also taken off the medication due to (and this had never been explained at time of prescription) its tendency to dangerously lower your blood pressure. If you feel like it could be affecting you physically, always go to your GP! I felt better because I took time to breathe, reassess what I wanted to do and, when I felt better, started to make my days so busy that I couldn’t possibly find the time to listen to those voices inside and outside my head.

The medicine was no longer needed and probably, in my case, never had been. I can now hold down not one but a few jobs, do my research, help out at home, socialise and survive off very little sleep. Because now when I do sleep, I actually sleep. Dead to the world. Like a baby. Like a pig in shite.

Whatever imagery best gets it across.

This was not the worst diagnosis I could have had, but for a long time it did feel like a life sentence. And it is something I feel, on a whole, I am managing well. It is a lot better. I am happy in what I do, not even just career wise but generally I am a happy person. Anxiety doesn’t go away.

I still go over every line I have said in a conversation sometimes, hours/ days later, wondering if I have offended someone. I might even text a friend every now and then to make sure I didn’t say anything I shouldn’t have that time we met for coffee six days ago that I haven’t been able to stop going over. But when you have the right friends, things like that are quickly laughed off.

Essentially, I am trying to say that while it might feel like you can’t be heard or taken seriously nowadays because of all those people who can’t tell the difference between anxiety and regular variable emotion, you absolutely can be heard. Those people overusing the word ‘anxiety’ may have sullied it a little, but that doesn’t mean it is a dirty word. If you don’t like the label, then don’t use it. Those people who may accuse you of attention seeking? Tell them to jog on.

Or don’t. Sometimes it is better not to react at all. With anxiety, however you experience it, however you try to adjust to it, the important thing is that you do experience it and you will adjust to it. Hang in there. It really does get better. It gets so, so, so much better. I promise. *The author requested that we provide them with a pseudonym, and we complied with this request.

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Famous Death: Scrap Saturday and Father Ted star Dermot Morgan (1952-1998) Holiday: Rare Disease Day (worldwide) Thursday March 1st In 1981 Bobby Sands began his hunger strike in the Maze Prison on this day. He, and other prisoners, went on strike for the right to wear their own clothes, to not do prison work, the right to free association & organise recreational/educational pursuits, the right to one visit, parcel and letter per week, and ‘full restoration of remission lost through the protest’. Essentially they wanted to be regarded as political prisoners instead of ‘common criminals’, as was the policy of the Thatcher government. He would pass away while on hunger strike on May 5th.

Famous Death: Publisher Andrew Breitbart (1969-2012) Holiday: National Pig Day (USA) Friday March 2nd The first film in the King Kong franchise opens in New York’s Radio City Music Hall on this day in 1933. This film is noted for its pioneering stop motion animation (done by Willis O’Brien) and musical score (Max Steiner). Rotten Tomatoes rank King Kong as the greatest horror film of all time, and the twentieth greatest film of all time.

Famous Death: Hurler Christy Ring (1920-1979) Holiday: Peasants’ Day (Burma)

Est.

8 1997

FEATURES

Interview with a Fake Social Media Influencer

By Fergal Smiddy, Deputy Features Editor This week, I sat down with South Dublin-based social media influencer Bianca Bourgeois. Cascading onto the lifestyle/beauty scene in early 2016, Bourgeois’ seemingly instantaneous rise to fame and swift garnering of a 400k following on YouTube (980k on Instagram) seems to be a commendable feat. Destined to prove that her success has been a product of incessant work ethic and not merely a side effect of her privileged existence, Bourgeois invited me out to her family home in Donnybrook, D4, where she says her passion for beauty and lifestyle all began: “I remember growing up we had, loike, this maid, and I would loike literally force her to put Mummy’s makeup on me while Mummy was away at pilates or the country club or whatever,” she cackles, sitting cross legged on the luxury sofa as she sets down her cup of Fit Tea atop the glass coffee table. “Sometoimes she’d, loike, ask if I could put some makeup on her, and I thought that was loike literally so rude because it was literally ALL Chanel products and it would just be a waste because the shade was loike just way too light for her skin and that.” A brief pause as the Fit Tea is raised to her lips once more.

“But yaw loike I remember just being literally obsessed with how pretty I looked with Mummy’s makeup on, and that’s definitely where my passion began”.

Determined to probe deeper into her character, I ventured to ask a more personal question. “Bourgeois is such an interesting name, I suppose your family is of French descent? Tell me about that.” She looks bewildered for a moment before answering me.

“Oh, no” she smiles, “actually, all of moy ancestors were British, but my

Granddaddy, loike, paid someone to have our surname legally changed to Bourgeois when he came to Oireland because apparently people didn’t like our original name or whatever. It’s literally so sad, loike, I wish I could just go back in toime or something and tell him to just, loike, ignore the haters and keep a positive outlook on loife.”

“Wow!” I gasp, hopeful that I’m establishing a connection, “what an interesting piece of family history, do you have any idea what your family’s original name was?”

“Yaw, I’m pretty sure it was like, Cromwell or something”, a nostalgic smile spreads across her face. “That name is loike so pretty and aesthetic, I don’t understand how anyone could have hated it.”

ISSUE 10| UCC Express tray of assorted cheeses and gluten-free crackers on the table. Bourgeois shoos her out angrily before regaining composure, and giving me a disturbing, charcoal whitened tooth-bearing smile.

“Well, Looiiiiiikeeee..” she drawls loudly as she prepares her answer (the “loike” actually lasted for about 7 seconds, quite impressive), “basically, my job as a social media influencer is to loike create content for my fans, and literally just loike influShe answers with confidence: “Yaw ence their lives in a positive way.” loike, to be perfectly honest loike I’m Underwhelmed by her brief answer, just such a positive-natured person I I attempt to flesh it out: “That’s cool” I lie, “and, do you get to interact with your fans a lot?”

Her eyes light up with excitement.

“Oh moy god loike yes, that is literally moy favourite part of being an influencer. I always reply to comments on my YouTube and Instagram and I literally, loike, tell my fans I love them in every single video!”

“Have you ever met a fan in real life?” I ask. She thinks for a moment, before answering: “Not really recently because I koind of have an agreement with my fans to, loike, not bother me when I’m out in public.”

She notices my perplexed look, and quickly goes to explain: “Loike, I really do love them and I have literally no problem with them coming up to me and taking a quick selfie. All I ask is that they don’t touch me or, loike, talk to me. I think that’s pretty fair, loike, it’s kind of the least that they could do considering everything I do for them.” literally just block out anyone trying to bring bad voibes into my loife.”

She breaks a gluten-free cracker in half and slides it onto her tongue, chewing with her mouth open.

“And honestly, loike, I think anyone calling me privileged or whatever just literally has no idea wot they’re talking about. Loike I literally had to start out taking pictures and videos on Daddy’s old camera, which loike, didn’t even shoot in 4K quality.

I think people really underestimate how much hard work it took for me to become the influencer I am today.”

She swallows the cracker, finally.

“That actually flows pretty well into my next question, Bianca” I chime in, trying with every fibre of my being not to show any semblance of disgust on my face, “why don’t you tell us about the influencer you are today? How would you describe your job to someone meeting you for the first time?”

Eager to change the subject, I got straight to the point. “So, you’ve received some criticism online in recent months. Videos like ‘HOUSEMAID DOES MY MAKEUP (SHE GETS FIRED!)’ and ‘SUMMER CLOTHING HAUL FOR POOR PEOPLE (LESS THAN €800 SPENT!)’ have landed you in hot water with some people labelling you as privileged and insensitive. What’s your response to all this?”

As I’m speaking, the housemaid shuffles into the room and lays a She ponders over this one for a while.

I smile at her awkwardly, but before I can move onto the next question, she continues: “Loike, it’s not that I don’t want to talk to my fans, it’s just I think personal space is loike really important. Loike one time I was vlogging out in Dundrum shopping centre and this girl came up to me and I loike literally ran away and started screaming . People loike literally slaughtered me online over that, calling me a drama queen. But loike, you can’t really blame me for thinking I was in danger, loike, she literally could have been from Ballymun”.

I stare bl ankly at her for what feels like a good hour. And with that, our time was up.

“Don’t you dare let anything out of this interview, roight? I want to read every bloody loike on that page!”

FEATURES

ISSUE 10 | UCC Express

Do you like drugs?

By Ciara Dinneen, Features Editor

I thought maybe it was just me; that now I am in my early twenties and in college I am more exposed to the drug culture that is most prevalent amongst college students and has always been there. But settling for this assumption, the assumption that this is just the way it is and always has been, and I just haven’t been exposed to it up until now, doesn’t satisfy me. It doesn’t dampen the niggling thought that hovers above the surface of my consciousness, the thought that there is a sinisterly dangerous wave of drug culture on the rise.

So I did some investigating; up until 2010 the most reliable research shows that the rise has been an overall one; that is, the rise in drug use in Ireland has been evenly spread among people of a wide range of ages, between 15 and 64. However, in more recent years, if you look at 2010/11 to 2014/15 in isolation, the age considered to be young adults, people aged between 15 and 24, has seen the biggest percentage rise in drug use. I also read that a national student survey carried out by campus.ie in 2014 that revealed that UCC students are more likely to have taken illegal drugs than students of UCD and Trinity. What is most frightening about young college students taking these highly dangerous drugs is that, a lot of the time, people don’t know exactly what it is they are taking; they don’t fully understand what these drugs are actually doing to their bodies.

Similar to the way alcohol and fast foods being bad for our health doesn’t stop us from consuming them, drugs being dangerous doesn’t stop people from doing them. As such, as a community in which the majority of us are young adults aged between the ages of 18 and 24, we need to carefully consider a drug policy that focuses on education and safety. UCC Students for Sensible Drug Policy Society are taking initiative in their own way by handing out testing kits to students this Wednesday, 28th February, in the O’Rahilly Building (Room G20). The message seems to be that, if you are going to take drugs, do them smart.

You should know exactly what you are taking; you should know exactly where the drug is coming from and

trust the source you are getting it from. As well as that, you need to understand what the drug is going to do to your body, in particular your brain.

It is unlikely you’ll find any one single person in college that doesn’t have at least one friend who has experimented with drugs. Therefore, even if you yourself don’t partake, there is no harm in knowing a bit about the most

leads to euphoric spike in energy levels, while serotonin is connected to mood. Now, as MD exhausts our brains in the rapid and intense production of both serotonin and dopamine, the come down is not pleasant.

Your brain, because it is left depleted, has to reduce its rate of production and uptake of these chemicals in order to replenish its levels. This

commonly used drugs. While marijuana is by far the most popular illegal drug, more and more college students are beginning to experiment with hallucinogens, sedatives and stimulants; the most popular being MDMA (3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine) aka Ecstasy, Ketamine (which is horse tranquiliser), and Cocaine.

What I have here is short and vague, and only a very simplistic synopsis of the information out there and you should do a lot more research before you consider experimenting. Here is the very basics of what you need to know:

MD anyone? Great craic, apparently. What does it do exactly?

It affects the brain by increasing the chemical activity and production of three major chemical hormones: serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine. MDMA enhances the release of these chemical hormones from nerve endings and/or blocks their reuptake, resulting in increased levels between the neurons at a synapse. The increase in the levels of dopamine in the brain

explains the depressed state in which users are left in for up to several days after taking MD.

Coke. Similar to MDMA, Cocaine wreaks havoc on the brain’s levels of dopamine. Normally the brain releases dopamine in response to potential rewards, like the smell of good food. It then recycles back into the cell that released it, shutting off the signal between nerve cells; reuptake like above. Cocaine prevents the reuptake of dopamine, causing excessive amounts to build up between nerve cells. This influx of dopamine interferes with normal brain communication, which causes cocaine’s high; extreme happiness, energy and mental alertness. Users may also experience intense paranoia, irritability and hypersensitivity to sound, light and touch. The comedown can feel a lot like the flu; runny nose, feeling generally run down, aches and pains and headaches… as such, the best thing you can do is get plenty of rest, drink lots of water, replenish your body with nutritious food and naturally, do not

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take cocaine again – ideally at all, but at the very least not any time soon.

Ket-outta here. Are you serious like? Horse tranquiliser?

Honestly already rolling my eyes at whatever random ass substance it is that pops its head round into popularity next. As an anesthetising drug, ket results in feels of dizziness and lightheadedness, but can also induce hallucinations. It has been said to result in schizophrenic-like characteristics in its users. Ketamine disinhibits the brain’s circuitry system, essentially putting a sort of brake on the system, which causes the brain to enter into a state of over-excitation in response to a stimulus. The comedown from Ket can include symptoms such as cravings, anxiety, sweating, shaking, increased heart rate, and is just over all a not pleasant experience.

At the end of the day, the safest way to take drugs is simply not to take them. But if you’re going to do it, do it with a bit of education and cop on. If you’re going to do drugs, do so with caution. www. drugsand.me is a harm reduction guide for safer use of drugs, and is a good place to go to get more information and learn more about the drugs you are taking, the effects they could have, how to handle the comedown and what to do when things go wrong.

If you have a bad reaction to drugs you have taken, please call an ambulance, and please tell the paramedics what you’ve taken. If you have any issues with addiction, or general issues with your drug taking, the HSE Helpline can be contacted by calling 1800 459 459, or by emailing helpline@hse.ie. If you want to know more about drug testing kits, you can contact the UCC Students for Sensible Drug Policy Society by emailing SSDP@ UCCSocieties.ie.

Est.

10 1997

FEATURES

Are you satisfied with your Students’ Union?

Robert O’Sullivan, Editor-in-Chief On February 20th we launched our SU Satisfaction Survey, a survey to gauge student opinions on their SU over the last year, and more generally about how the Union is ran. We asked students thirty-six questions across five categories. These categories were: General Info, information about the person responding

to the survey; Factual Questions, were respondents were encouraged to answer questions to the SU truthfully without resorting to Google; Feedback, asking respondents how they felt the SU did, generally operating on a 1-5 satisfaction scale; Engagement, seeing to what extent respondents engage actively with the SU, and what could be done to help them engage more; and finally, we gave people a section to give genuine, honest feedback about how the SU has done this year. The last section was entirely optional, as not every student may have had direct contact themselves with the Students’ Union.

145 people answered the survey in the five days it was open, with the majority of those responses coming within the first two days. 143 (98.6%) people who answered were current UCC students, with the other two (1.4%) being recent graduates. 91%

ISSUE 10 | UCC Express

of respondents were undergrads, and the rest were postgrads. Respondents were fairly evenly split as to what year in study they were in, with second, third and fourth years making up the majority of those answering, though first years were not far behind. This means that the majority of those surveyed (83.4%) had at least one other year of interactions with SUs to put their responses in proper perspective.

Keane), Gender Equality Officer (Iris Maher), Disability Rights Officer (Rosemary Kelly), International Officer (Lucas Brun), Mature Students Officer (Díarmúid Corcoran) and SÁMH Officer (Laura O’Connor). 62.2% of respondents either could not give an answer or gave incorrect answers. Many people answering the survey also believed that the Irish Officer and Equality Officer (understandably) were among the six. Disability Officer and LGBTQ The first question we put to students were the most common answers,

rigan (President), Michelle Byrne (Southern Area Officer) and Siona Cahill (VP Equality and Citizenship) were the most-named of the current USI OB, but none of those were named more consistently than Cian Power, for example.

to test their knowledge on the Students’ Union was simple, and it was to see if they knew the name of the current SU President; 94.5% put down Martin Scally, Martin, Scally, or some derivative of this. Only two respondents said they genuinely did not know, while two respondents listed former SU Presidents. Next, we asked people what the four colleges of UCC there are, as represented on UCCSU by the College Reps; only 9 people couldn’t name even one college, or just guessed wrong.

Some of the answers from these 9 suggest there is a lack of knowledge among some that there is a distinction between some degrees, though this is hardly the fault of those officers.

gave the SU a score of 2. The next highest score was a 3, with 26.2% giving the SU a middling response.

Only 6.9% gave the SU a score of 5. This trend was consistent across most of the specific Sabbat Officer questions, as most either received a ‘generally negative’ (mostly scoring 1 or 2) or middling (3) score. The main exceptions to this trend were the Welfare Officer, Kelly Coyle, and Ents Officer, Ben Dunlea, who scored a higher percentage of 5s (28.3% and 24.1% respectively).

The non-sabbats (Equality, Postgrad and Irish Officers, Council Chair and College Reps) received a similar share of votes, mainly 3s and 4s.

We also asked students to name who they believed was the ‘best’ officer was. Kelly Coyle, Welfare Officer, ran away with the poll with 32.4% of the vote; Ben Dunlea, Ents Officer, was runner-up with 13.8% of the vote, and Council Chair Aaron

with SÁMH not far behind. Again, as with the college reps, it’s hard to place blame on this year’s officers, especially as they are all part time officers. We then asked if people had heard of the EWG before reading the previous question, and people were fairly evenly split, with a slim majority (51.7%) saying they hadn’t heard of the EWG.

The last of the factual questions regarded USI, or the Union of Students’ in Ireland. Most respondents (96.6%) knew that UCC was a member of the USI, but 55.9% said they could not name a member of USI Officer Board. Of those who did name a member of officer board, most either named someone from UCC SU (namely Kelly Coyle, Martin Scally, Next we asked respondents to Kate Moriarty or Anna Heverin) or name the six officers of the Equality named someone from a past USI OB Working Group, or EWG. Those six (Annie Hoey, Cian Power and Dan are: LGBTQ Rights Officer (Marz Waugh, for example). Michael Ker-

We asked students for their feedback on the SU using a 1-5 point scale, with 1 meaning ‘very poor’ and 5 meaning ‘excellent’. When asked how the Students’ Union did overall, the majority (34.5%) of respondents

FEATURES

ISSUE 10 | UCC Express Frahill came third with 13.1%. The rest of the vote was fairly evenly split among the other officers, with each officer receiving at least one vote. We asked students what they believed the

best thing about the SU has been this year, and the answers that popped up most consistently were Docklands Festival, work done by the Welfare Officer and ents throughout the year – consistent with the answer from the previous question. Students felt that the worst things, generally, were the all-student emails, campaigns and the handling & cancelling of Christmas Day. This was reflected in the questions about the fulfilling of mandates, advertising of events and RAG Week questions, as feedback on those was ‘generally negative’ (mostly 1s, 2s and 3s).

In the last year, especially in the aftermath of the impeachment of UCDSU President Katie Ascough, many groups campaigning for a change to how students’ unions are run popped up around the country. Groups like FOCC UCD (Freedom of Choice Coalition UCD) have campaigned for changes to how SU memberships work, switching from the current automatic membership system for all students to an opt-in system. No such group has found its footing in UCC to date, and maybe that’s reflected by the votes in our question on opt-in membership: 69% of re-

spondents said membership should stay the way it is currently, 17.9% of those surveyed said an opt-in system should be brought in, and 13.1% said they didn’t know how to feel. Speak-

leaving only 2.8% who said it would make them less likely to vote.

When it came to running for SU itself, a majority (56.6%) of those surveyed said they would not consider running for SU in the future. In saying that, a wide majority (77.2%) said they would support & encourage a friend if they came to them wanting to run for election. There was an optional part of the engagement form where people could give feedback on how to improve elections. The most consistent points from this feedback point were to cap the spending budget on election even more (current limits are €500 for sabbat candidates, €250 for non-sabbat candidates, and €100 for college reps), cap the amount of fliers candidates can use, bring in online voting, shift some of the focus of campaigning to satellite campuses like Brookfield, WGB and Copley Street, hustings during the daytime, adding more polling stations or allowing students to vote at any polling station, more accessible manifestos, more promotion of elections and more encouragement of ing of membership, 81.4% of respon- women and people from disadvandents believed that UCC should re- taged backgrounds to run. Overall, main affiliated to USI, an important 78.3% of respondents gave suggesstat ahead of this year’s affiliation ref- tions on how to improve elections erendum. despite the question being purely Students’ Union elections are due to optional. take place next week, with voting taking place on the 6th & 7th of March. People had varying opinions on the The last major part of the survey re- different aspects of the SU, some I garded engagement, and how voting expected and some I didn’t. It must & election campaigns could be im- be said that if you were one of those proved. The people who respond- who had less than favourable views ed were a particularly democratic on the SU, or showed no intention of bunch, with 80.7% saying they vot- voting in this year’s election, the best ed in last year’s SU elections. 9% did way to see that improve or change is not vote last year, and 10.3% did not to get out there next week and vote. vote because they were not students (i.e. first year & some postgraduate students). 89.7% said they intended Voting takes place on 6-7th March. to vote in this year’s election, leav- RON (Re-Open Nominations) shall ing only 10.3% saying they did not be a candidate in all elections. intend to vote. Polling stations and Council Chair shall be elected at electronic voting has been a some- the last Student Council of the year. what controversial subject in the last Postgraduate Rep shall be electfew years, especially considering how ed in October. Officers of the EWG close last year’s Presidential election shall be elected at a by-election in was in the end. Generally people mid-late March. believe online voting would allow a lot more students to engage with the Union, but only 55.2% said online voting would make them more likely to vote in future elections; 42.1% said it would make no difference at all,

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SU Election Candidates President: Breathnach, Séamus Cahill, Tommy Collopy, Eoin Conway, Thomas Hayes, Alan Deputy President & Campaigns Officer Coyle, Kelly Meighan, Liam Education Officer Frahill, Aaron O’Brien, Alice Welfare Officer Connery, Niamh Hanley, Martina McCarthy, John McCarthy, Thomas Commercial & Communications Officer Finnerty, Matt Murphy, Faye Poland, Amy Entertainments Officer Carey, Ronan Cronin, David Equality Officer Browne O’Neill, Katie Richardson, Maeve Oifigeach Gaeilge Burton, Edel Duggan, Megan Ó Dullaing, Antoin CACSSS (Arts) Rep Burke, Andrew Conway, Cahir Daly Mulligan, Alanna O’Driscoll, Eoin SEFS Rep Hickey, Jack Mimoso, Iuri Rose, Mahrukh B&L Rep Chadwick, Jen M&H Rep Brennan, Noel Hennigan, Caoimhe

ISSUE 10| UCC Express

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Opinion: Pros and Cons of Students’ Unions Lindsey Naegle, Opinion Writer The nominations have closed, the signatures are in, and we have our candidates: the annual Students’ Union elections are upon us! So, at the time of writing, there will be days if not a couple of weeks of campaigning, promises being made to the electorate, annoying social media posts and people pestering you to like and share, but by the time you’ll be reading this you’ll likely have endured/ experienced or maybe even enjoyed the campaign trail. As such, this piece is going to ponder the pros and cons of Students’ Union membership, and of the Students’ Union as a whole too.

First off the bat, most students would probably equate wanting to opt out of SU membership with a decision like Brexit, and would definitively say that being out is a lot worse than being in. But if we break it down, what do students actually gain from students’ union membership, apart from

the free condoms, coffee, sweets and whatever else the officers of the day decide to give out for free at exam time? A voice in the running of the university? Fighting for what students need or want from their university, from study resources and changing the spaces within the university to

lobbying and campaigning for change from the local to the national level?

On top of all that they organise dozens of events, balls,campaigns and provide support and information services and much more, all of which most would probably agree are vital to students, and form part of that necessary support network students need to get through the stresses and strains of university life, while also providing some of the social experiences for a well rounded university experience.

with the event. And of course, while none of that can be condoned by the SU, the reaction to it was the failure.

The reality is that the cat is out of the bag, and christmas day, albeit unofficial, will likely still go ahead next year, and will likely be all the worse for it; no money raised for charity, no

proper organisation of events and no supports for students out that night.

That’s just a more personal example However, there are inevitably prob- of a poor decision made by an SU, lems and issues with all of these. which I feel will be to the detriment The first and most obvious one is of of the students and likely by extent course that, despite all the work the the university in the years to come.

Students’ Union does (even the worst of Unions still manage to achieve and On the other hand, of course, is the complete a good deal of work), not other elephant in the room: the stuall of it is necessarily for the better; dent’s voice in the university. SU events and supports are only as strong as the people behind it, i.e the officers, and again this is highly dependent on each individual year. You can have every sort of combination, ranging from a good group w h i c h works well as a team, to the years in fact, more often than one would where individuals shine but are ultilike, some decisions and work done mately held back because they can’t can even be for the detriment of stu- work with the rest of the team, right dents. On a personal note, for exam- down to the very worst years where ple, the decision by this year’s Union you have entire teams who literalto cancel Christmas day in UCC for ly have little to no interest in the the future based off of anti-social be- union, and are just there for the year haviour, noise complaints, drunken- off. As such, there is little benefit in ness and littering that were associated being a member of such Unions.

But of course, the opposite is always true, and it’s a great benefit to you as a member when the Union is full of hard working and dedicated officers.

Finally there is the political and representation issues. Think back to 2015, when a UCD student set up a group looking to change their SU policy to an opt in rather than mandator y membership, based off the Union’s pro choice platform on the abortion debate. The crux of the issue was how can the union represent you when it takes a stance to which you are opposed. It’s a tough issue, and one not easily reconciled. Sure you could easily have a neutral stance on such controversial issues, but that could go against the wishes and views of a potential mass majority of students. So either way, someone is left out, and not to mention how else will change be occured if students are not involved in political movements or campaigns for either or both sides?

Yet the point remains: how does your union claim to represent you if it doesn’t? As such it’s easy to see why Students’ Union membership may not be for you.

To conclude, the issue of membership to SUs is in reality probably more contentious that most would assume, and on the other hand it’s probably a conversation worth having if even just to identify flaws or issues with the current set up.

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Editorial

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Director and co-writer Ryan Coogler has done a fantastic job here. At only 31 years old he is the youngest director to direct a Marvel movie, and with the film having a budget of $200 Million, it has already raked in $361 Million in 2 weeks alone. It’s set to be one of the biggest movies of the year, and we’re only in February. It’s beautifully shot, the script plays into the African dialect to such a degree that conversations never seem forced or unwarranted. There isn’t a scene without a meaning, a shot without a reason or a character who you can deem unnecessary.

As all of you should know, it’s a film containing a cast of majority black actors and actresses, a demographic that is often underrepresented in Hollywood. For this film to be such a major success says a lot about the power that this community has, and is certain to pave the way for more films of this ilk. There is a political element to the movie, with the villain wanting to use Wakanda’s vast amount of Vibranium (strongest metal and power source in the world – in Marvel’s world anyway) to help the black community across the world to fight back against the oppression they face every day, but this never becomes an overtly political film.

It’s already breaking box-office records across the world, and I would urge everyone to go and see it. It’s entertaining, the CGI is incredible, the story is fantastic and the acting is as close to perfection as you can find. It truly is a force of nature.

Now, back to Byline. In this issue we have a fantastic analysis of the various fashion weeks that took place across the world, we have a review of the national phenomenon ‘Derry Girls’ and a delightful opinion piece on the latest poetry collection from Australian writer Courtney Peppernell. Enjoy and have a fantastic week!

So, as some may know and I’ve previously mentioned in an editorial, I am trying to watch as many new movies as I can in 2018 in order to keep up with what everyone’s talking about online, and also just because I love going to the cinema. I love the excitement before going into the theatre: the popcorn, the drinks, the squeaky but cosy seats, and the fact that it’s a rare excuse to turn off my phone and forget about assignments and work I should probably be doing instead. No matter what cinema it is, be it IMAX, 3D, whatever – I just love the experience.

So over the weekend I took a break from everything and went to see the latest movie Marvel has to offer, ‘Black Panther’, and I’m going to use this editorial this week for a short little review, and to urge everyone that hasn’t already seen it to give it a chance, even if you’re not the biggest Marvel or superhero fan. Unlike other Marvel offerings, this is not a film where you have to have seen the previous movie in the collection, or one that’s spoiled by not being up to date. There is one link between it and a previous movie, but that is within the first 15 minutes and it’s all explained well.

I’m not going to try explain the plot, as there is so many twists and turns, and I would inevitably find myself making a mistake somewhere, but let me tell you this with confidence: it’s a fantastic movie. The character of Erik Killmonger is one of the most fleshed out and multi-dimensional characters the Marvel Cinematic Universe has ever seen.

The vision, determination and dedication it must have taken actor Michael B. Byline Cover Art Credit: Jordan to execute such a role is unimag- Jill Kingston inable.

BCL (Law), Final Year

Cailean Coffey

HOROSCOPES

with mystic greg

Mystic Greg is ill today, so we’ve gotten a random intern of the cosmos to fill in.

Yes, she is a cat.

Aries (Mar 21st - Apr 19th) - O(+iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii +++++++++ ++++++============================ [Translation: I know I just ate, but milk is delicious, I demand more milk] Taurus (Apr 20th - May 20th) ======================== , ¬14o\ awa qw l,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo loo [Translation: meow meow meow meow, meow meow meow meow, meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow] Gemini (May 21st - June 21st) - yggggwqgfb’/pufdhsyyyyyyyyyy. [Translation: Now you I like, you once gave me some real good butt pats. You may live] Cancer (June 22nd - July 21st) - jdwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww’poiibt77b nmijdhugqvwe. [Translation: jdwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww’poiibt77b nm- ijdhugqvwe] Leo (July 22nd - Aug 21st) - koijshgdatfou7 tewfp=[;[lkdjh8 5dqgfrwtrye 8ru3y7pppppppppppppppppppppppp. [Translation: I could be the king of the jungle too if I wanted, jerk] Virgo (Aug 22nd - Sept 22nd) - shdaa;u o0m-21=--smjsbbsn ]dddi9wqu8dhwg. [Translation: you will meet with an unfortunate end when you cross my path, human] Libra (Sept 23rd - Oct 22nd) - qwdhugu86r2e97=pknlbvtsrdy21u09. [Translation: Pat my head yesssssss wait no….yesssssssssss-NO!....yessssssss] Scorpio (Oct 23rd - Nov 21st) - lpkoiu8y7e vxju08hushuxmwql;wqndbyg-221217vd ddlnnwdq [Translation: I will nap here. Oh, that’s inconvenient for you? Well how about I just nap here anyway] Sagittarius (Nov 22nd - Dec 21st) - mnjhgfsds90[ojs qhg--------------------09. [Translation: Thank you for buying a scratching post for me, human. How about I just ignore it forever, and sit in the box?]

Capricorn (Dec 22nd - Jan 20th) - lkjhgs wew424424679-oijhsugyyidoppppppp/’DBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB7TYSG. [Translation: You will begin work on your FYP, but I want to nap on your face, so better clear your schedule and forget that notion] Aquarius (Jan 21st - Feb 19th) - kjhgHJLKJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJDHASIUWQ [Translation: You will meet a handsome stranger, who you will fall madly in love with. Go with him, you will find serenity].

Pisces (Feb 20th - Mar 20th) - kjhsgg02s,s;s’[qqqqqqqqqqqqqqkjh876refokaKzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz [Translation: the cat legit just fell asleep on the Z key]

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT Review for Courtney Peppernell’s Pillow Thoughts El Menton, Arts & Literature Editor Pillow Thoughts is one of three books by Australian writer Courtney Peppernell published in 2017 and has become one of my favourite modern collections. Originally published in 2016, Pillow Thoughts gained international attention, with even The

Clearly Peppernell is not to be taken lightly.

rut recently, and Pillow Thoughts has helped me shift out of it.

You should see the amount of little sticky notes I have carefully stuck into this book, I may as well have stuck one on every page. My roommate caught me reading it, raised one of her perfectly-shaped eyebrows and said, “I take it you’re enjoying that, are you?”

The collection is divided into ten different sections, spanning over 250 pages. There’s no real need to read them consecutively, however. They’re each intended to be read while the reader is in a particular frame of mind – my personal favourite being “if you are heartbroken.” There’s one for wistfulness, love, heartbreak, loneliness, sadness, emptiness, encouragement, soul-searching, finding reasons to live, and (sweetly) the final part is dedicated to her partner, Rhian.

I was. Though there’s something about poetry collections that makes

Peppernell makes no big fuss about her sexuality. Without concentrating on what pronouns she uses in her love poetry, nothing about this collection really talks about her experience with being a member of the LGBTQ+ community. But I think this is a really natural touch that I really enjoyed about her writing; her love is recognisable to anyone; her feelings are universal. The love between her and her partner is not portrayed as a big, public, fuckyou to society (even though I love that kind of poetry too) – instead it’s as banal as love can be. This might seem like an obvious thing but it was something that really stuck with me after I finished reading.

For example;

Love is not always roses, honey, and tea. Sometimes it is difficult being you, and sometimes it is difficult being me. And in the night if we are restless and our love struggles to make sense, know that I will fight for us.

Because I love you, and I know that you love me.

Chainsmokers talking about how much they love the work. Andrews McMeel then republished the collection in 2017, along with Peppernell’s second poetry collection and a novel.

me want to say “I am.” I’m still enjoying it. Poetry doesn’t leave you so quickly – that’s one of the things I really love about it. It helps me ask questions and look for answers all at the same time. I’ve been in a bit of a

The universality of poems such as this one are what really appeal to me. Her love is no different to those in a straight relationship.

She normalises her love in an often all too hegemonic society which demonises such relationships, and labels them as ‘unnatural’. No one could argue that anything in this is strange or unnatural with a straight face (pardon the pun). It’s also a refreshing use of rhyme that rolls off the tongue and creates a calming

1515 rhythm. Rhyme appears to be used less and less by young poets, who instead opt for free verse forms, but nothing about this feels forced or – that word again – unnatural. Another seemingly mundane thing turned into something profound; I’m seriously impressed with Peppernell’s poetic skill.

She reminds me of Rupi Kaur in how she really draws on raw emotions, often using concise language to express how she feels. Courtney’s are, in general, a little more long-winded than that of Kaur, and plumped out with adjectives and striking metaphor, though sometimes a page only contains a single sentence that contains as much power as a paragraph.

I am no more the person that you left than you are the person that I miss.

These poets use very different metaphors to convey similar themes of heartbreak, self-love, inner strength, and finding beauty in the world around them. I’m a big fan of women’s writing, and love comparing and contrasting how they express their life experiences – I suppose what I’m really trying to say is that even if you weren’t a fan of Milk and Honey, I would still recommend trying out Pillow Thoughts. While they’re distinct from each other, I find that there’s some commonality between them and the essence of women’s inner strength that shines through both of their works.

Though I haven’t yet had the opportunity to read them, Peppernell has three other books out (The Road Between, Keeping Long Island, and Chasing Paper Cranes) two of which, as I mentioned before, she also published in 2017. You don’t even need to be a writer to see how impressive a feat that is. I have no doubt that I’ll be picking these up as soon as I can get my hands on them. ...I’ll have to buy a whole new set of sticky notes for that endeavour.

Film & TV

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Movie Recommendations I haven’t watched any movies in ages, so the best thing I can recommend is what I’ve been watching on TV, and that’s been either First Dates, because I love love, or else The US Office, because I love the Office. If you have never watched the Office you’re really missing out, I only started before Christmas to see what it was all about and it is fantastic!

New to Netflix

An Interview with Michelle of Irish Simpsons Fans I can’t remember how many conversations I’ve had that haven’t contained at least three references to The Simpsons – it honestly may be easier to count the conversations that didn’t contain reference to Matt Groening’s cartoon creation. If you’re an Irish person of a certain age, your postschool afternoons were built around waiting for The Simpsons to come on RTÉ 2 (or Sky 1 if we’re being fancy).

Express: The group seems to go through different trends of memes.

What have some of your favourite (and least favourite) trends been?

I really like the 8th of December memes that poked fun at people descending on Dublin for Christmas shopping. Of course, Gerry Adams memes are staples, they’re great. Not a massive fan of wrestling memes; they tend to be very niche, and fans

The Joel McHale show is the big thing being pushed right now by Netflix, so that might be something to watch if you’ve watched Community or the spiritual predecessor to this show, The Soup.

The Interview, which once was the most controversial thing known to humanity, is on Netflix again, and is pretty good!

Just Out I, Tonya is meant to be good, so maybe go see that if you want, there’s ice skating and stuff, and Margot Robbie is meant to be lovely. Of course there’s also Black Panther. We’re in that terrible time where there’s no new movies that are notably good are really out, happy days.

Person of the Week Ryan Coogler – Black Panther has been received super well, so that’s great! I think it’s broken the Marvel curse of having a terrible villain as well, which is great.

And the long-lasting appeal of the show, or at least the show’s first 8 or so seasons, has carried over to social media. Irish Simpsons Fans is one of the most popular Facebook groups in Ireland, with over thirty-thousand members. While the show’s quality has been on a decline for years, the Facebook group has the momentum of a runaway freight train. I spoke to Michelle, one of the admins of Irish Simpsons Fans (ISF), to ask her why they are so popular.

Express: How did Irish Simpsons fans come about and how long did it take for the group to take off?

Michelle: Two of the admins attended the same conference, and discussed being fans of a UK-based Simpsons fan group, and came up with the idea of an Irish version. This time last year we were at 11,000 members, and we are currently at 33,000. We began growing rapidly last summer after news sites began picking up our content.

of wrestling often comment on them confused. And those rhyming Valentines posts can get into the sea...

if necessary. We’re a fun spot, and we haven’t time for that. But on a personal level, I found that some members have gotten sexist or aggressive to me when I deleted something they liked.

I noticed it when I compared it to messages the other admins received.

Express: There have been some feuds with other meme groups along the way: how have they gone, and how was ISF able to stave off the competition?

Michelle: Hindsight is 2020, and if we had our time over we’d probably do things differently. We’ve found that things will take care of themselves if we continue to run the page in the best way possible. The page stays very current, we’ll see a meme on an event or situation within minutes of that news breaking, which keeps us growing Express: ISF recently launched a fundraiser for the Repeal campaign: can you tell me more about how that came about, and how it’s gone?

Michelle: It was something we discussed for a while, especially as some of our team know people involved in the coalition [to repeal the eighth amendment]. 100% of the profits from sales do go to the coalition, and feedback has been great. I saw 3 different people in one day wearing the Lisa Repeal jumper that my best friend Brian Quinn designed, which is fantastic. We also love getting suggestions and designs from our members, so drop us a line on Twitter or by email, iresimpsonsfans@gmail. com.

Express: What is it about The Simpsons, do you think, that it’s sustained such a level of popularity 20 years after arguably its peak of popularity?

Michelle: The Simpsons is classic and timeless, and part of a load of people’s childhoods. The quotes and characters are instantly recognisable, and I don’t think there’s a person in the country who hasn’t at least seen one Express: Are there any other future episode. plans for ISF, outside of a steady flow of quality Simpsons memes?

Express: The group now has over Michelle: We’ll keep you posted 30,000 members. Can it be tough to admin & moderate/manage a group of that size?

Thanks to Michelle for talking to Michelle: When we broke 5 figures we us. If you want to join ISF yourself, made the decision to bring on mod- you can find it by going to Facebook. erators, as there were only 4 admins com/SimpsonsIreland. They can also at the time. It took the pressure off be found over on Twitter, @iresimpand we all work together to keep the sonsfans, and their merch can be page fun and enjoyable. We’ve dealt bought by going to SimpsonsForRewith it on the page before. Deleting peal.Threadless.com. and moderating comments, blocking

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FILM & TV Editor - Aaron Frahill Review: Derry Girls Evelyn Lonergan, Film & TV Writer Ten years ago a comedy with The Troubles as its backdrop would have been booed off television. However, in 2018 Lisa McGee has gotten it just right – and made every person in Ireland, North or South of the border, fall in love with her witty and engaging sitcom, Derry Girls. Centred around four teenage girls all attending their local Catholic school, Orla, Erin, Michelle, and Clare, alongside their unlikely sidekick James (a “wee English fella”), as their teenage experiences make for a classic coming of age humour.

Clare, ever anxious, is introduced as wearing a denim jacket, and then bins it when she discovers Erin isn’t allowed to wear hers – she doesn’t want to be an individual by herself after all. She participates in a daylong fast to raise money for Kamal, a small boy in Ethiopia, a theme laughably relatable to anyone who attended a Catholic secondary school. Erin, self-righteous and a ring leader, always finds herself in the worst situations – including accidentally accusing a visiting Chernobyl girl of being a prostitute. Michelle opens the first episode with a new swear word, which she learned from a VCR tape of Pulp Fiction, and everyone has a friend like Orla, away with the fairies.

While McGee may have missed the mark with her 2013 sitcom London Irish, which wasn’t well received due to the degree of profanity and darkness, she has found the perfect middle ground in a lack of sentimentality cushioned by a witty script and the certain level of empathy we apply to teenage girls, who are just trying to not fail their exams and get to the chipper on a Friday. It’s difficult to find anything containing history of the Troubles other than old news-

reels and videos, and the teenage perspective of this time, which in Derry Girls appears as an inconvenience to teenage girls who have much bigger things going on, like Erin fancying Dave, who is in a band (every teenage girl’s heartthrob), and Michelle wanting to get off with one of the Chernobyl boys. In Derry Girls it’s less about the horror of war, and more to do with the everyday hassle of bombs being planted under the bridge, which means taking the long way to school. The inconvenience, and lack

my Tiernan pretends to be Australian). Clare also wears a union jack t-shirt, in protest of the fighting, to the prefect’s house party, something both hilarious and poignant in the context of the episode. Simple ideas, perfect punchlines, it all makes for a show that hits the ‘coming of age comedy’ nail on the head. With all the grittiness of Skins embodied in the rip-roaring Michelle, played flawlessly by Jamie-Lee O’Donnell, to the daft and profane humour an Irish audience associate with Father Ted.

something with emotional depth and historical context. The script keeps its lines simple, but employs the use of Derry slang. The show may have a deeper historical context, but at the end of the day, it’s a show about teenagers, who talk like teenagers and have their own everyday issues and problems, which are the centre of the script and storyline.

If you’re a fan of Father Ted, Skins, Fresh Meat, Young Offenders, or any comedy that makes you say, “I should not be laughing at that,

of understanding of the events by the girls, acts as a vehicle for the comedy more than anything else. In an early episode British forces come onto the school bus in a routine check, and the viewer tenses up only for a second, as it melts away into the background of the plot.

Having the girls from Catholic families and attending Catholic schools can at times seem exclusionary, however the degree to which the characters don’t care about the religious divide, and the portrayal of both Catholic and Protestant aspects of life in Derry, makes for an even greater comedy (hint – there’s an Orange Day parade in which Tom-

The pack are a microcosm for what one could imagine as Ireland at the time; they take pity on James because he is English (they couldn’t send him to a Christian Brothers school after all), and because they think he’s gay, the latter of which they are happy to forgive. The internalised English hatred is felt throughout, as the mildly uncomfortable agitation between James and Michelle at the beginning of the show, but like the bomb under the bridge and the Brits on the bus, it all melts into the background, and James becomes as integral to the story as anyone else.

From this point alone, McGee’s creation is more than just a comedy, but

but it’s so funny,” then Derry Girls is the show for you. A comedy about the everyday, with nothing off limits; Holy Mary apparitions, sneaking a freedom fighter across the border, and tying a Chernobyl teenager up in a toddler leash. If you haven’t seen it yet, catch up, all episodes can be binge watched on All4.

MUSIC

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Classic Album of the Week My Bloody Valentine – Loveless The Kevin Shields-led Dublin shoegaze outfit My Bloody Valentine are one of the most under-appreciated acts to come out of Ireland. Loveless is arguably the band’s peak, with hits such as Only Shallow, When You Sleep and Soon.

Top 5 Springtime Smile Inducers Leave the winter blues behind, the sun is back (barely) and throw on these bad boys to lighten the mood.

Here Comes the Sun – The Beatles Spring is Here – Frank Sinatra Can’t Stop the Spring – Flaming Lips When It’s Springtime in Alaska – Johnny Cash The First Days of Spring – Noah and the Whale Liam Gallagher Quote of the Week On Bob Dylan: “I know all about him and that, but he’s a bit of a miserable c**t as far as I’m concerned. I like that tune he did ‘Lay Lady Lay’. People go nuts for him, but he doesn’t really do it for me.”

Why do we listen to sad music when we’re sad?

Caoimhe Coleman - Music Writer In August 1942, Leningrad was a broken city; its occupants were besieged, starving and dying. Hitler had chosen to hold a ball on the 9th of the month to celebrate the fall of the city. As an act of defiance, the Russians decided to hold an orchestral concert. Extra musicians even had to be flown in due to the fact that only 15 members of the Leningrad Radio Orchestra had survived the war. For the finale, the musicians chose Dmitri Shostakovich’s Leningrad Symphony. The piece is a whopping one hour, twenty-four minutes and fifty-eight seconds long.

It is said that the desolation of the music paired with the desolation in their hearts served to bolster the spirits of the Russian people.

Apparently, the “final page of the ink-written score that was used at the world premiere is smudged and run with the tears of Yevgeny Mravinsky, the conductor.” As with all pieces of music, there is a complex relationship between the emotion that the composer wants portrayed, the listener’s interpretation and the listener’s mood. In a study carried out in recent years, when the piece was played for a group of people, 91% were “fairly sure” about the emotion the piece was meant to portray but were unsure of what emotion it evoked within them.

There is such a variety of responses that the same music can elicit within different people, which scientists have attempted to understand using brain scans, but we still have a long way to go in terms of actually understanding the interaction.

Even scientists don’t understand the interaction between music and our cognitive functioning, so how can we?

This led me to think about that fact that we, as a society in general, tend to listen to sad songs when we’re already sad. I mean, that just seems silly really, doesn’t it? However, I’ve done some research, and we may not be so silly after all – there’s a method to our madness. Psychologists have established a number of reasons why people listen to sad music when they’re already sad.

Firstly, to make a connection. We want to identify with the lyrics and use it as a method of “cognitive reappraisal” – in other words, to sort through our emotions. Secondly, this also involves seeking out a message we can relate to in the music, perhaps to feel that we are not alone in our emotions. A third reason is that we seek music with “high aesthetic value” to distract ourselves before assessing our own emotions, however, excessive use of this can lead to “avoidance” which can be detrimental to one’s mental health. Lastly, we use music as a “memory trigger” – to retrieve memories from past events.

Psychologist have discovered that when used for this purpose, it seemed not to enhance mood at all.

Once our initial feeling of sadness has passed, we are more likely to shift to more uplifting music - but what about when someone is depressed? Can music help then? Every year there are over 80,000 suicides worldwide, with 15-29 year olds being particularly affected – the ages at which, generally speaking, music has the most important role. Unfortunately, certain genres of

music, namely “emo” music have been associated with a number of suicides.

On average, we adolescents listen to 2-3 hours of music every day, but even more so when we are distressed. Music is a kind of catharsis and medium for us to work through our sadness, which is overall actually quite a healthy emotion to feel (within reason of course).

However, depression is different. Studies have shown a correlation between people with high scores in rumination (a tendency to get stuck in pattern of negativity) and feeling more depressed after listening to sad music. In contrast to this, when these same people listened to a song that makes them happy, even those with high levels of depression felt much better.

So why don’t we just listen to happy music when we’re sad? According to the study, even people who had reported feeling more depressed after listening to sad music still argued that the music helped them. This is possibly due to the fact that there still exists in our society a general lack of understanding of how behaviour affects mood. It has been proven that ruminative behaviour exacerbates depression, yet people continue to listen to sad music. Therapies have been, and are continuing to be, developed to make people aware of the effect that music can have. It is true that we should be working towards finding music that connects us to a happy time when we’re feeling down, but I’m as guilty as the next person for listening to Bon Iver and Daughter on repeat anytime I’m feeling low.

Sometimes you just need that little bit of time to wallow. The most important thing is to be aware of is the effect that music can have on your mood. Be careful not to wallow too much. After your Bon Iver binge, throw on your favourite happy song (I would 100% recommend Hey Ya! by Outkast) and I bet you will notice a shift in your mood almost immediately.

Music- JJ Lee 1919 music Editor - JJ Lee Women in Rock music – why is the East Coast of the US, the Debbie there still a stigma?

Harry fronted outfit Blondie were cutting their teeth in the NYC club JJ Lee – Music Editor scene. As the band rose to prominence in 1979, they launched the “I think music has gotten very girly,” “Blondie is a group” button camstated 57 year old Dublin man Paul paign – a combative effort against Hewson in a recent interview with members of the press and public The Guardian. Now, thankfully in who would erroneously refer to 2018, I feel the majority of us treat Harry herself as Blondie. As far quips like this as utter nonsense. back as the 70’s, this infuriating Hewson, for those of you who are brand of lazy sexism poisoned the blissfully unaware, is more com- burgeoning new-wave scene; Harry, monly known as Bono, the outspo- alongside Chris Stein and the rest ken “charitable” front person of U2. of her Blondie cohorts, again broke Outdated, misinformed statements walls. Blondie are one of the most like Hewson’s belittle and neglect influential guitar-based groups of the achievements made by women all time, led by the blonde haired in the history of rock music. For de- enigma herself. cades now women have been tear- Speaking of pioneering blonde ing down barriers, breaking bound- haired enigma’s, Sonic Youth’s Kim aries and inspiring countless young Gordon was one of the leading people, regardless of gender. You’ve lights of the post-punk, alt-rock simply got to ask the questions: what age of the mid-to-late 80’s. Gorgives this ageing musician the right don’s absolutely guttural vocals and to define what is girly & what is not, generally harsh lines are historand what does that even mean? It’s ic. 1990’s ‘Goo’ is one of the bands completely laughable. finest records, and the Gordon-led Music hasn’t gotten “very girly” ‘Kool Thing’ proved to be one of the – ‘girly music’ is a convenient box bands biggest chart successes. Kurt constructed by pundits, writers and Cobain lists Gordon as one of his people within the industry, where idols, and when Nirvana were inthey can lazily give out about a ducted into the Rock and Roll Hall member of the female sex reaching of Fame in 2014, the the pinnacle in a male dominated Sonic Youth bass industry. Music is a tool for expres- player took over the sion, an outlet, and Hewson’s frank- vocal reigns in Coly irresponsible comments do noth- bain’s absence, pering but demean his peers, those forming the grungy who came before him, and the fu- classic ‘Aneurysm’. ture generations.

As the 90’s rolled by, In 1970s Los Angeles, an all-girl we were treated to a group called The Runaways came slew of violent, powto be one of the most influential erful female perforpunk-rock bands of the late 70’s mances. The SmashAmerican Punk explosion. Front- ing Pumpkins took person and lead guitarist Lita Ford the world by storm was accompanied by the dynamic with their raw, fervent sound comand industrious Joan Jett on rhythm plimented by the punchy basslines guitar. Ford, Jett and Co would go of D’arcy Wretzky, while a few years on to conquer Japan with smash prior the Pixies had constructed hit single ‘Cherry Bomb’ in 1976, the blueprint, and conquered the whilst garnering a large degree of globe with Doolittle. Bass player fanfare at home in The States. The Kim Deal’s stripped back playing band were truly revolutionary as style (see ‘Hey’ as an example) and they almost single handedly fought now famous backing vocals genthe fight against what was then an uinely are the secret ingredient to uber-seedy, completely male-domi- that iconic Pixies sound. In 1991 nated rock industry. Meanwhile on the Courtney Love-fronted Hole

released their frenetic debut LP ‘Pretty on the Inside’, a record produced by the aforementioned Kim Gordon. Love’s combative and pugnacious vocal style led to a beautifully confrontational, raw and emotionally charged record – one that drew heavy inspiration from the original punk stylings of The Runaways et al. ‘Teenage Whore’ is adversarial and antagonistic in nature, and triggered a near tidal wave of youngsters donning the flannel and ‘fuck you’ attitude, arguably to the same degree as Love’s husband Cobain did throughout the following decade. It can be debated that Hole, with Patty Schemel on drums and Kristen Pfaff on bass (later replaced

by Melissa Auf Der Maur), are more important in music history than the likes of Nirvana, Pearl Jam etc. in grunge history. Personal attitudes towards Courtney Love aside, she played a major role in revolutionizing the music industry. At the time, even in this country, we had the absolute revelation that was Dolores O’Riordan tackling the outmoded status quo of Catholic Ireland by leading her band to dizzying heights. The Cranberries’ second album, ‘No Need to Argue’, was re-

leased in 1994, and is one of the finest alt-rock albums of all time. Ode To My Family, Zombie, I Can’t Be With You, Dreaming My Dreams are undoubtedly some of the finest tracks to ever emerge from this island. Women like O’Riordan, Gordon, Love and so many more had this chip on their shoulder, that they unfortunately had to work so much harder to be respected and appreciated in a completely biased

work environment. For me the altrock, post-punk, grungy sound of the 90’s is embodied by the stellar performances put forward by the women of that generation.

These icons blazed a trail, and Hewson’s idiotic claims are even more ludicrous when you examine the amount of female bands dominating the scene today, with more attitude, charisma and aggression than ‘Bono’ has had in his entire career.

For well over a decade alt-emo heroes Paramore, fronted by the effervescent Hayley Williams, have been selling out arenas globally.

From their hedonistic, frantic early albums ‘All We Know is Falling’ and ‘Riot’, to their latest post-pop release ‘After Laughter’, the group hailing from Tennessee have been inspiring a whole heft of kids – they’re one of the reasons I even picked up a guitar in the first place. London outfit Wolf Alice have similarly lit up the scene, with guitarist/vocalist Ellie Rowsell at the helm, throwing Bono into the middle of a pit during the bands encore ‘Giant Peach’ and asking him then if music is too girly.

The sheer amount of young bands releasing brilliant music is astounding, bands like The Big Moon, Sunflower Bean and Bleached to name but a few. These are not girl bands, these are bands. There is no such thing as a ‘girl band’ – that term is beyond archaic.

Rock and Roll music is alive, very much so, and thankfully in 2018 women are very much so at the fore. In Ireland at the moment we have a number of young, alternative bands coming through the ranks, one of which is Bitch Falcon with the exceptional Lizzie Fitzpatrick on guitar/vox. The work is not done however, as evidenced by Hewson’s obsolete ideas. Hopefully people will begin to realise that gender should be left out of music; it’s all-inclusive, gender-less and, as much as dinosaurs like Hewson try to define it as such, rock music is most definitely NOT just a boy’s club.

Interview

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Life Behind A Camera - A Conversation With: Brandon Havard YouTube is quickly becoming one of the most popular sources of news, entertainment and analysis in the world. It’s been just over thirteen years since the site’s founding, and You Tubing is no longer just a hobby – it’s becoming a profession.

As more and more people view videos posted to popular channels, the content creators are making thousands in advertising money per video. YouTubers such as Logan and Jake Paul have gone from being just two brothers with a video camera to becoming two of the richest young adults on social media.

While the Pauls run two of the most profitable channels on the site, there are other YouTubers who put more of an emphasis on the craft than the cash. One such YouTuber is Brandon Havard, a technology reviewer with over 55,000 subscribers and millions of views. Byline Editor Cailean Coffey got an opportunity to sit down with Brandon to discuss his childhood in theatre, his love of cinematography, and what YouTube can do to help creators. Interview transcribed by Ciara Dinneen.

Q. Were you always into film and cinematography as a child or was that something you developed?

That’s something I developed over time. I was from a theatre family.

I knew I wanted to get into telling stories, and film was something that I was interested in but didn’t necessarily know how to get into. I sort of idolised a lot of YouTubers at that time, so I went ‘I’ll give that a try’ and it sort of progressed from there.

Q. What was it like growing up in a theatre family?

It was such a different upbringing from even something like film or anything like that, because you get to work so closely and you get to spend time with people from very different forms of art that are working together. Musicians, actors, designers, costume designers, set designers, all that sort of stuff, they

all sort of come together in a similar space to do work together in unison, and growing up in that atmosphere allows for a lot of inspiration creativity to sort of spark.

It sort of left me with this urge to make something, and it gave me the inspiration to direct, it gave me the inspiration to design sets, it gave me the inspiration to do so many different things, and by no means do I want to make films for the rest of my life, but I do want to try different things so that’s sort of what theatre did for me.

Q. How did you become interested in photography and cinematography, and how did you learn the skills behind photography?

I watched a lot of Hitchcock when I was younger, and there’s also this overlap with film and theatre because obviously a lot of great films get turned into plays and vice versa, so I’d find myself really invested in a particular show that I see on stage and look at the movie, the notes that were created by the director, all of the production designers, that sort of thing and that got me interested in different art forms that went along with film. I’ve always idolised great movie directors like Hitchcock because of their ability to capture the audience just in the way they edit, and that’s something that I’ve always wanted to bring to my videos because it’s this powerful thing that you can’t really explain; it’s something that you feel. That’s what sort of sparked the interest,

just seeing the mental manipulation that happens within films and that was sort of the inspiration on that end. When it comes to how I learned, I did watch a lot of other YouTubers; one being of course Marques Brownlee, who’s the top technology YouTuber in the world. I find him interesting on so many different accounts because his style of video makes you feel comfortable.

It doesn’t make you feel uptight; it’s very roomy. I think he needs to give himself more credit than he actually gives, because I think he is a really smart editor, he is a really smart director because he’s able to capture an audience just through the way he presents his material. Then of course there’s different segments of YouTube that I idolised, like Casey Neistat, who’s a brilliant filmmaker, and there’s so many others! I saw their techniques, and I saw the way that they edit their videos, the way that they present themselves online, and at the start I did copy some of the things they did, and then I learned later on that it wasn’t neces-

sarily the best idea and from there I developed my own style, my own technique.

Q. When did you decide to start making YouTube videos?

It was like a year and a half, and it sort of expanded from there. I think I made my first video when I had 5 subscribers and it was a really weird feeling because a lot of people, if you say you should start making videos on YouTube, they’re like “oh yeah, I put so much work into it and then I get like maybe 10 views” and then maybe there’s one comment or one like if you’re lucky, and I get that because I was there too. It’s about constantly getting better, the constant revising and doing more and more and more that we do to attract subscribers, a bigger audience, that type of thing. I made that plunge about a year and a half ago, but I started making videos probably about 3 years ago, and then before that I had been making these projects on iMovie that I really loved to do probably 10 plus years

Interview by Cailean coffey ago.

Q. How quickly did you realise there was a growing interest in your YouTube channel?

It was about a year ago. I can’t remember what video it was but it since has been viewed by over a million people and it was actually a video on the MacBook pro or whatever it was, and that was when my subscribers went from like maybe 300 to like 2,000 within three days. I think I was out of town at the time, I was on a family trip or whatever and I saw that happen and I was like “okay, that’s weird” and then I got back and I was like “okay, maybe I should take this more seriously now” and I started making more videos after that. That’s also when my production rate went down because I put more effort into each video, and that’s when a shift happened in my video style, because I put more attention into the quality and paid less attention to quantity, just because that’s what my audience seemed to want.

Q. Your income now comes as a cinematographer, what’s the average day for a cinematographer?

It’s a lot of hustle, because obviously 95% of it is freelance, so you’re constantly hustling for jobs, you’re constantly trying to make connections, that type of thing. I did a business degree in Wilmington, and one of my favourite parts of the course… well the only part I really liked, was

marketing, and it taught me how to get myself out there and how to write an email, which is so important because you need to know how to sell yourself! That’s a huge thing when it comes to being in a creative space trying to be freelance, you have to know that business end. I usually spend my mornings rummaging through emails, that type of thing, just because it’s so necessary.

Then, depending on the projects, it usually takes me like, if it’s a higher quality production shoot, it usually is probably one to two days of actually shooting on the location and then after that the editing takes up a lot of the process for me, and that’s when everything comes together.

So I’ll probably spend almost a week in editing. It’s a lot of time, and even before all that starts there’s a lot of pre-production; deciding the location, deciding the scripts, making sure that all loose ends are covered up. You also need to make sure that whoever the project is for is fully on-board with your concept before you start making the correct hires and the correct decisions about where you’re going to shoot. I cannot tell you the amount of times I’ve started a project I think that everyone is on-board with and then you get into filming day and they’re like “wait no, we don’t want this, we want that” and I’m like “okay well, that’s not going to happen.”

the creators?

What I’ve been hit by this year is the demonetisation issue that we’ve been seeing. I’ve been hit by it with four videos so far. It’s very much the first and second day that you make the most amount of revenue on those videos, and if during those first two days you’re still under that demonetisation strike, you’re losing a lot of revenue. So the one thing I can say right now, which is most important on my end, is making sure that the response time to that demonetisation batch is within the first, at least, 24 hours.

Q. In your opinion, is there anything that YouTube can do to help

Q. Do you know why that was?

There really is no public statement on that yet. It seems like an oversight on YouTube’s end. A lot of people speculated that it’s because YouTube is connected to Google, and Google is trying to sell a phone of their own, but I don’t think that’s necessarily true.

At this point I think it could just be a glitch in the system that they don’t have a way to fix at the moment because they’re focused on bigger things; I mean advertisers don’t want

Q. What is the demonetisation issue?

Essentially, you put up a video and YouTube has some very strict guidelines about being able to monetise certain things, and it’s become more and more strict over the past few years. So, for instance, one thing that has been hit by it recently is what’s called the iPhone X monetisation strike, which is basically where any video about the iPhone X was automatically hit with the demonetisation strike. I think as far as I’m concerned that’s still an issue. So essentially with the iPhone X video that I released, that was automatically hit, and same for a lot of people I know, no matter what size of a channel they are; they all got hit by that.

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to be on videos showing graphic content and that type of thing, which is a much bigger ticket item than say an iPhone X video.

Q. Where do you see yourself in 5 years’ time?

I just started working for Marques Brownlee a couple of months ago, so it’s been a very fast paced couple of months for me. 5 years from now, honestly, I have no idea. I love my area, so I hope that I stay here or at least within very close proximity. But as far as the freelance is concerned I don’t necessarily love freelance. I’d love to get to the point where I make my living off of things that I enjoy more, such as regular uploads on YouTube, working for companies like Marques, like the Verge or whatever. That way it takes stress off of me as a creator.

Anything to make my life a little bit easier I will fish for that!

Q. Finally, what feeling do you want viewers to have after watching one of your videos?

The number one thing that I love to see is people realising just how much work I put into every video. It is such a large part of my life to actually produce a video. For example, the iPhone X video that I released took me probably a month and a half to actually fully produce, so I love seeing people in the comments section picking up on certain things that I’m really proud of and being like “wow, you really put a lot of thought into that.” That’s the type of stuff that I really appreciate, and that’s the stuff that I hope people take away from watching one of my videos, the passion for the edit, the passion for the art form.

You can find Brandon’s YouTube channel by searching ‘Brandon Havard’. You can follow him on Twitter at @BrandonJHavard.

GAMING

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Upcoming Releases De Blob 2 Remastered De Blob 2 Remastered is a rerelease of the 2011 platform puzzle game of the same name. It is a sequel to 2008’s Wii-exclusive De Blob. The original De Blob 2 was developed by Blue Tongue Entertainment and published by the now-defunct company THQ. The game will be released worldwide on PS4 and XBox One on February 27th.

Scribblenauts Showdown Scribblenauts Showdown is a party game developed by Shiver Entertainment and published by Warner Bros. Interactive.

It will allow up to four players to compete in minigames based on the classic Scribblenauts formula. It will be the first game in the Scribblenauts series released on Sony & Microsoft (Xbox) platforms. It is expected to be released worldwide on Xbox One, PS4 and Nintendo Switch on March 6th.

Warhammer: Vermintide 2 Warhammer: Vermintide 2 is a first-person action game developed and published by Fatshark. It is a direct sequel to 2015’s ‘Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide’. The original game was well-received by critics, receiving comparisons to Valve’s highly successful Left 4 Dead series. Warhammer: Vermintide 2 will be released on Windows PC on March 8th, with PS4 and Xbox One ports expected.

Retro Game of the Week Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time The side-scrolling beat ‘em up is a genre that seems lost to time, or at least one that’s only really covered by retro-inspired indies and throwback remasters.

While people are quick to hold games like Double Dragon and Streets of Rage up as paragons of that genre, I always think of this SNES classic. TMNT IV: Turtles in Time is as iconic a 90s game as you can get: those turtles were everywhere, from ice-cream to toothpaste, and video game behemoth’s Nintendo.

The gameplay itself is tight as hell, and the soundtrack contains some of the catchiest, well-written tunes in gaming history. Do try to find an arcade cabinet, or emulate it if you must, as the Reshelled rerelease left a lot to be desired.

Tabletop 8 tips for running your first RPG Samantha Calthrop, Staff Writer

RPGs have exploded in the last few years. What was once the peak of obscure nerd-dom has started to come into common knowledge, what with the likes of Critical Role and The Adventure Zone, and approximately one in five people you know having tried D&D. Tabletop RPGs, for those of you unaware, are half games and half a collaborative storytelling exercise. From the famous Dungeons & Dragons and Fate systems, to the almost gameplay-free Trollbabes, RPGs almost always have the same system: players, who each create and control a character, and a Game Master, the GM: the one who runs the plot, plays NPCs, rolls the dice and knows the rules.

Of course, if you want to give RPGs a try, and you’ve got at least two or three other people willing to try it with you, the onus is on you to run the game for your players. GMing for the first time, for a game you might not know, for some people who’ve never done it before? It’s easy to get daunted. But worry not: you don’t need to be a rules genius and

master creative to start GMing (al- every night, you may need to adjust though you’ll get there eventually if the tone of your Lord of the Rings you keep it up!). style epic story. It’s your job to figure out what your players want from the Whether you’re toying with the idea game and do your best to incorpoor trying to improve, here’s some rate it. If they don’t enjoy rules, don’t advice to carry you through. focus on them. If they like alternate answers and pacifist solutions, make Know the rules (but only enough to them work. GM a game you think pretend you know them) they’ll appreciate the most, and Some RPGs have rules for 200 pag- don’t waste your creative energy on es. If you’re running a game you’ve ones they won’t: it’s more fun for evnever played before, you can feel erybody. the pressure to have the whole thing memorised. Don’t! You only need Expect the unexpected enough of an understanding to do This item appears on pretty much what you’re planning and make up every article written about GMing a solution when something throws since the dawn of time, but it still you. You’re adapting the system to stands true today. Your players your game, not the other way round. will come up with solutions, theoIt’s okay to simplify things, skip ries, and generally think of things things, and make up solutions. Just you didn’t. They’ll ignore your plot be consistent, make a bit of sense, hooks, destroy your puzzles, kill and be clear with the players on what your NPCs and seduce your villains. you’re up to. As long as you’re play- Go with it, and get ready to think ing some kind of semi-functional on your feet and improvise. You can game, you can still enjoy yourselves. never plan for every eventuality- the beauty of the medium is that anyMeet your players where they are thing can happen!

If your players are first-timers who’ve never even played a video You’re not the enemy game, don’t give them the most dif- People who have heard of RPGs ficult, strategic, optimal-build war but never tried them often seem to campaign you can think of. If your think of the GM as the bringer of party has decided to call themselves death and scorn upon their players, the “dick squad” and want go out ca- but this simply isn’t the case. The rousing, stealing and buying kebabs GM is the storyteller, not the Grim

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gaming Edittor - Zach stephens Reaper. At the end of the day you’re there to make sure your players have a good time. Remember: the players have invested just as much time in their characters as you have in the world and story at large. Killing off characters occasionally can create a powerful and meaningful story, but killing off characters left and right to punish your players for not playing wisely enough is poor sport.

Give your players a sense of agency Though it’s your job to make sure that your players are interested in the plot you’ve created, you need to make sure that they have as big a role in shaping the events of the story as you do. You may overawe your players by pushing them down a linear story you’ve created, but they won’t feel the same sense of achievement as they would if they had helped to shape the world they’re investing themselves into. Give them important choices, roll with it when they do something unexpected, and let them decide where the plot goes next.

Don’t worry about originality You’re not under any pressure to make it a flawless, original, ground-

breaking piece of fiction. That’s not to say don’t do your best, but you’re not writing a novel or designing an AAA game! You don’t have to be a creative genius to run an RPG. Steal ideas, make bad maps, base the NPCs on your lecturers, and don’t be

afraid to do the first thing you think of. Nobody’s going to mind if you base your idea on a movie, a book, or another campaign, as long as you don’t pretend you didn’t! Don’t worry you haven’t written a story since you got a C1 in your leaving cert: playing even the most basic stories as RPGs is fun and your players will

Are violent video games ruining our kids?

Zach Stephens, Gaming Editor

No.

get into it, even if you’re not getting overall message- relax, don’t raila book deal any time soon. road, and focus on your players. As with any creative advice, take it with The rule of cool a pinch of salt. But if you’re going The dice are not the be all, end all to take away anything, take this last of the RPG. If somebody did some- bullet: thing astoundingly clever, original, Talk to your players Talk, talk, talk. You can’t read minds.

Ask your players what you’re doing well, what to improve on, what they like, and what they want. You’ll find that sessions you thought were terrible were really fun for them, or plot twists you thought were obvious flew right over their heads. Listen to your players and take their advice, not this advice!

meaningful or just plain damn cool, don’t be afraid to fudge your dice rolls for the sake of story. If you’re really rooting for something to work, guess what? You’re God. Your city now.

If you’ve made it this far, you’re probably getting a flavour of the

So, what are you waiting for? If you’re feeling ready to start running your own games, don’t hesitate. Not sure where to start? Pick up the rulebook and a pre-made adventure to start, like the D&D starter set. (Or look for a PDF of it on reddit). Where to go? Book at a table at the Tabletop café, drop in to the WARPS society some time, or enlist your friend with the quietest kitchen table. Starting is the hardest step: you can be sure it’ll be easier and not as scary as you think. Good luck, safe travels, and happy GMing!

fashion

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Top Trends Witnessed at the Collective Fashion Weeks

By Iris Maher Leopard Print: As mentioned, Victoria Beckham has created a leopard print coat.

She stated that she has never used the print before in her designs. If Beckham is beginning to use leopard print, I am sure its popularity will increase ten fold. Leopard print jackets were also spotted at Tom Ford.

Brightly Coloured Tights: A trend that reminds me of being a child, but bright tights were all over New York Fashion Week. A pair of these tights can look fantastic under a little plain black dress, to add something a little different to your look.

Plaid: We saw lots of red plaid and tartan at Simone Rocha’s show, but also captured at Paul Costelloe’s London Fashion Week collection.

White Boots: A little impractical, but patent white boots were all over London, New York and Milan’s fashion weeks. But they were not on the runway, the boots were spotted on those in the front row and on the streets. Fashion week street style can be just as important as fashion week itself.

Bright, Bright, Bright: Despite most of the collections featured during fashion week were for Autumn/Winter, much of the clothing displayed was bright in colour. Strong reds and blues are the future key trends. Cara Delevingne wore a multi-coloured coat walking down the runway at Burberry.

Blankets: At the Mother of Pearl collection, models were seen strolling down the catwalk with blankets under their arms.

Crystals in my Hair: At Markus Lupfer’s show models displayed crystals in the parting of their hair. It sounds a little tacky, and more appropriate for a festival, but Lupfer’s models made the trend look wearable!

Fashion Week 2018 Across the Globe tation. He was chosen for the award

By Iris Maher, Fashion Editor

by Sarah Mower, an ambassador for emerging talent in the British FashThe four main women’s Fashion ion Council. She sat beside Anna Weeks took place, and are continu- Wintour (Vogue’s Editor in Chief ) ing to take place this month. New and Caroline Rush (Chief Executive York Fashion week was the first to of the British Fashion Council). Sitbegin, taking place from the 8th to ting next to Anna Wintour was the the 16th of February. With London, Queen’s royal dressmaker, AngeMilan and Paris to follow, I will be la Kelly, who has worked with the looking at the trends and events monarch since 2002. Kelly was an that have taken place so far. As fash- integral part in the creation of this ion week is never just about the award, as she organised and declothing... signed the inaugural award. Going forward, the award will be presentThe Queen at London Fashion Week ed annually to a new British fashion designer by a member of the Royal

As a surprise guest, Queen Family.

Elizabeth II attended Tuesday’s event at London Fashion Week. She At the show the Queen wore a was present, front row, at Richard pale blue tweed jacket and skirt.

Quinn’s collection, sitting on a blue The jacket was embellished with velvet cushion. She has never be- Swarovski crystals. She finished the fore been to a show at fashion week. look with black gloves, and a black The media and those in attendance handbag. were shocked to witness her presence.

Gucci Autumn/Winter at Milan Fashion Week She was not at the show just to view the clothing, however, as she Gucci remains to be the label on evattended Quinn’s runway show to eryone’s lips. The brand is not known present him with the award for the for its timid approach to fashion, ‘Queen Elizabeth II Award for British and the autumn/winter show took Design’. A new design award! She place in Milan during Fashion Week. is quoted as saying, “as a tribute to For its latest collection we saw the industry and as my legacy to something never seen before (and all those who have contributed to I had thought we’d seen it all when British fashion, I would like to pres- it comes to fashion). Models walked ent this award for new, young tal- down the runway carrying a replient.” This was only Quinn’s second ca of their own heads. The replicas runway show, and this award is an were an exact match to the modincredible boost to his fashion repu- els’ own face and hair, such a close

match that it was eery to watch.

The designer of the show, Alessandro Michele, stated the move was influenced by cyborgs. The designer worked with a special effects company based in Rome called Makinarium. According to Vogue, the process of creating these heads took six months. Michele has been considered as the key figure in reinventing Gucci. Despite this success, he clearly wants to bring the brand onto another level.

The replicas of the models head were not the only strange ‘accessory’ brought down the runway, as other models carried baby dragons and chameleons with them down the runway. One model featured a replica of their eye placed in the middle of their forehead; another had horns applied to their temples; one model paid homage to Gucci’s traditional snake designs by carrying a red and white striped snake.

A truly unusual show for the brand.

The runway was setup to look like a hospital’s operating room, and as it was inspired by cyborgs, the show had a futuristic feel to it.

With all this emphasis on the what we could call ‘accessories’, the clothes were not anywhere near the centre of attention. In fact, the clothing displayed by the brand were quite plain. The dragons and replica heads were obviously the focus of the show. The clothes followed Gucci’s traditional fashion styling, with notes of plaid, floral designs and oversized jewellery. This collection will certainly not be forgotten, and it will likely be remembered for years to come as an extreme moment in fashion. Impressive, especially considering fashion tends to take things to the extreme on a regular basis.

Simone Rocha at both London and Milan Fashion Week

Irish fashion designer

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FASHION Editor - iris Maher Simone Rocha continues to go from strength to strength. Debuting her winter collection at London Fashion Week. As the daughter of fashion designer John Rocha, expectations are incredibly high. Yet, as always, Simone has exceeded them not once this season but twice. She is a graduate of the National College of Art and Design (NCAD) in Dublin, and Central Saint Martins in London.

Simone’s London Fashion Week collection included whimsical dresses in a variety of materials, including tartan and lace. Accessorised with oversized earrings and fur slippers.

In terms of colour, the primary tones were that of black, white and red. Makeup was minimal, letting the clothing speak for itself. The eye makeup was fun, with a gloss being applied to the eyelid. Rocha remains popular amongst our famous, fashionable elite, as the front row of this season’s show included Alexa Chung, Daisy Lowe and Pixie Geldof. Another royal was present at this collection, Princess Elisabeth von Thurn und Taxis.

Simone Rocha’s work was seen again in Milan. The Italian brand Moncler opened Milan Fashion Week. A change from normal, as that privilege is usually given to Gucci. Moncler has been relaunched by one of the owners, Remo Ruffini.

This relaunch has been called the ‘Genius Group’, a collaboration of many talented designers creating eight collections. Designers include: Pierpaolo Piccioli, Craig Green, and, of course, Simone Rocha. The showcase of these eight collections took place in a warehouse on the peripheries of the city. Moncler has also stated that it will move away from the two traditional collections a year, instead launching a new one each month. An ambitious approach to fashion for sure, their argument is that fashion is changing so fast they must keep up. They further stated that the concept of runway shows do not exist anymore.

collection was almost exclusively in black and white/pale pink, with standout pieces towards the end.

These pieces included a red ruffled dress paired with fur covered biker boots and a red coat in a similar design. She mixed a dark heavy aesthetic with floral motifs, a truly beautiful showcase.

Their runway show took place in the set of a living room, which featured a real fireplace. The set was created

by Scott Pask, a broadway set designer. Like Gucci above, designers are attempting to bring something different to their shows through a variation on the traditional runway.

The show took place in the New York Stock Exchange building near Victoria Beckham at New York Fash- Wall St. ion Week Star of the moment Gigi Hadid

New York Fashion Week has modelled for the show, while Sallost one of its favourite designers. ma Hayek sat front row. Bottega Victoria Beckham has announced Veneta’s showcased both mens and that she will be leaving the fashion womens fashion on the runway. The week to join London Fashion Week luxury label is not overt in its brand in September. She has been show- advertising on their items, and casing in New York for the past ten tends to stick with more traditionyears. Husband, David, and chil- al and timeless pieces. They made a dren, Romeo, Cruz and Harper, were slight change for their move to New in attendance to support Victoria. York, including brighter colours and Her eldest son, Brooklyn, was not experimenting with textures. The at the show. The runway show was company’s creative director, Tomas held at a private Upper East Side Maier, stated that they wanted to Drawing Room, consisting of two capture the ‘real bravery and boldsalons of 90 guests each. ness’ of the people of New York.

Despite this attempt at bravery, the Beckham is not one for the dramat- clothes remain extremely wearable. ic when it comes to the runway. Her designs have remained contempo- London Modest Fashion Week rary, modelled off her own personal style as it has developed through- London Modest Fashion out the past ten years. The clothing Week is in its second year running. exhibits an elegant style, as seen in Attempting to display modern her latest collection. Although this modest designers from across the showcase offered something new: globe. The founder of Modest Fashleopard print! Beckham has not ion Week, Rahima Rahman, states used leopard print before in her de- that “the aim is to get this to be signs. This collection featured a lot part of London Fashion Week Fesof workplace clothing, her current tival and showcase international trademark style. Beckham has nev- modest brands alongside everyone er shown at London Fashion week else.” Modest Fashion Week took before, and hope to celebrate the place over two days during London brand’s 10th anniversary with this Fashion Week in Victoria House, showcase in September, although Bloomsbury. Brands launching their she has admitted to being quite collections during these two days nervous about the move. included Beige, Samah Abayas, Amal Al Raisi and Hanayen. Dubai Bottega Veneta at New York Fashion also held their first ever Modest Week Fashion Week in December 2017.

Despite claims that New York Fashion Week is losing its top designers, the Italian brand Bottega Veneta have moved their show from Milan to New York. The move coincides Rocha’s collection for Moncler kept with the opening of a large new with a similarly dark palette. The flagship store on Madison Avenue.

Shehr Kazmi. Starting this brand after attending the inaugural London Modest Fashion Week last year in 2017.

J.W Anderson at London Fashion Week

In the opposite move to Moncler. J.W Anderson plans to reduce the number of shows launching each year. The designer, born in Northern Ireland, was currently releasing six collections a year, and is now planning two a year. He also plans to bring together the mens and womens collections, which he did at London Fashion Week. Aiming for ‘slow fashion’ instead of the increasingly popular ‘fast fashion’, Anderson’s showcased a mixture of streetwear/leisurewear mixed with high fashion in his latest collection, which was also cross-seasonal. Anna Wintour sat front row at the show. Explaining the move to slowing down the pace of fashion, Anderson stated “it doesn’t make sense to develop small collections. It’s time to pare back and start again. I wanted to go back to the very beginning, when we used to show everything together.”

Mary Katrantzou at London Fashion Week

Protests are not unusual at fashion week. This year Mary Katrantzou’s runway show was targeted by anti-fur protesters, one of whom made it onto the runway. Although Mary Katrantzou’s team has come forward and stated that there was no real fur used in the collection, only faux-fur. Similar protests occurred at Burberry and Christopher Kane.

What’s next?

Paris Women’s Fashion Week begins on the 27th of February, where we

A U.K based modest fashion will see collections from Balmain, brand also launched a collection Alexander McQueen and Marant, during London Modest Fashion to name but a few. I am sure Paris Week. Aiming to create and provide Fashion Week will not disappoint! contemporary modest clothing.

The brand is called ‘till we cover’ and was founded by Ruby Aslam and

Humour

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Science: New RSA ad to feature shots of Elon Musk’s sports car colliding with earth Health: Start gearing up for your summer body with this new celebrity workout craze: tilting your axis towards the sun!

Politics: Communist organisations everywhere embrace grime rap and its stars as choice recruitment device Finance: Well-known sock company loses millions as inexperienced stockbroker invests in the wrong kind of FTSE TV Listings: Friends: The One Where Monica Stops Abusing Adderall, Comedy Central, 6pm.

Leaked Oscar Winners Best Comedy - America.

Best Actress - Stormy Daniels (Even the president loves her!!)

Best VFX - Covering up years of systemic abuse (That’s one hell of a green screen) Best Corporate Overlords - Disney (they now own everything you hold dear) Biggest beta, soy boy, leftist, SJW, childhood ruining cucks - The cast and crew of Star Wars Best picture - Your snapchat story last Thursday, (you fucking disgrace.)

Waitress Massacres Five, Regrets Nothing Rachel McInerney, Humour Writer A local waitress has been arrested in relation to the murder of five different people in the space of five minutes, Gardaí have confirmed today.

Orla Egan, 19, had worked as a waitress in a city centre café for nearly a year when she suddenly turned upon a group of people who were in the café during her shift. Witnesses report that the young woman seemed to suffer ‘some sort of aneurysm, almost’ in reaction to what was widely agreed as a trivial, unnecessary and overall stupid request from a customer for some sugar-free, vegan whatever-the-fuck.

Upon informing the customer that indeed, Egan could not fulfil all their dietary needs, which seemingly included a rather mild form of coeliac disease considering the customer could not eat any bread, but had no problem consuming a massive slice of cake positively laden with wheat flour, the customer decided to make a formal complaint to the café’s manager.

The manager, reported by other members of staff to be a ‘Class A arsehole’, with no life to speak of except listening to what must be some thrilling podcasts about serial killers on his lunch break in the backroom, was diligent in handling the cherished customer’s complaint. Egan was given an appropriate scolding, and ordered to clean a bathroom which had recently been used by a regular customer - an old age pensioner just after three coffees, who’d presumably just had their first bowel movement in a fortnight. It was at this point that the young waitress was said to have whirled a dirty mop around, ninja bo-staff style, and subsequently smashed in the skull of the café’s manager. This grand gesture of a worker’s rebellion against the bourgeois establishment of hipster eateries was met with a surge

of applause from fellow comrades been found stuck outside the café – except for Karen, of course, the on a pike, wearing such a hair net smarmy cunt. a warning to anyone who may have had the audacity to suggest such a Karen, an alleged arselicker, re- thing ever again. mained true to her traitorous ways and protested the killings. She was Other businesses in Cork City censubsequently executed with a cake tre have been warned against takknife, along with a health inspector ing any actions that may drive their who, at the time of the first killing, staff to such grave violence, such was upstairs inspecting the kitch- as requests to stay on “just an exen. Witnesses say the health in- tra few minutes” as well as inane, spector met his end after request- patronising mottos including any ing Egan and other workers wear variation of ‘“the customer is always hair nets, which the workers took right,” because let’s face it - the cusas an infringement of their human tomer, generally, is a bit of a shit. rights, and a slight on their personal dignity. Sources close to the Gardaí say the inspector’s head had

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HUMOUR Editor - Sarah Ryan Conspiracy Corner: What is a ‘Leitrim’?

Eoin Doyle, Humour Writer

County Leitrim is renowned for its lack of offensiveness, and the fact that it is a thing that exists... or does it? Conspiracy theorists have today claimed that our favourite easily-forgettable Connacht county may not be the sheep haven that we always knew it to be. Controversial evidence suggests that in the late 1800’s, county Leitrim was actually a scientific metropolis controlled by the freemasons, only for this Victorian-era Babylon to disappear in the 1920’s. Some have pointed to the lack of success that Leitrim GAA has had, with its first success coming in 1927. Leading conspiracy theorists have jumped on these findings, despite reputable historical and scientific communities failing to verify many of the supposed claims laid by online speculators. We at the UCC Express have been hard at work gathering these claims and interviewing many of the individuals to try and put the full story together for the first time in perhaps over 90 years. We at the Express neither support nor deny what is to follow, and would like to warn those who suffer from chronic gullibility.

In the early hours of the morning on Tuesday the 12th of September I received a phone call from a hidden number that would soon launch me head first down a rabbit hole of lies, cover ups, murders and sheep. The message was clear – I had been sent 7 documents which contained different accounts of what may have been, at one time, the single greatest civilisation in the world. Partially disintegrated photos, notes that looked to be over a century old... all of these pieces of evidence that said more by what they did not contain than by what they did. Instantly I was furiously googling to try and find any info. The only things I could ever find were small communities with deleted posts and comments, and references to websites which no longer existed. There was something here.

After searching for about 5 hours, I finally came across a man who goes by the name ‘Joe Shlippy’ who seemed to be on the same mission I was. From him I received what would come to be the basis of this amazing claim. In 1873 County Leitrim was almost completely barren apart from sparse areas of grass that might be home to sheep.

However, in October of that year, Englishman and freemason Robert “Dutch Bob” Holland, along with other masons, first arrived with a plan to create their utopia. Over the next 2 decades thousands of masons arrived to help build this small community into a bustling city. Unlike much of Ireland at that time, which was heavily Roman Catholic, and looking towards Irish Republicanism after Charles Stewart Parnell’s rise in the 1890’s. Leitrim remained quiet and very unassuming in the background; Leitrim was its own isolated area, free from the speculative eyes of the rest of the country, and was able to become a centre of scientific experimentation and innovation hidden in the ‘wesht’ of Ireland.

period. Speculators posit that the reason for this is that the English would never want to disclose that the Tans destroyed Leitrim. Some even go as far as to say that when De Valera refused to go to London for the treaty negotiations, and chose to send Collins & Griffith instead, he did so as to not have to be humiliated by King George V who had discovered the Leitrim Colony before Dev himself.

Some say the reason we did not get 32 counties was that Collins was forced to trade the 6 counties for some of the information that was lost in the destruction of Leitrim.

This information is said to be passed Most small pieces of information around in the inner circles of YFG that came through from other and Ógra, explaining their cult-like sources all seemed to corroborate behaviours. with the story I was told that night.

But nothing explained the most The lack of cohesion of the stories, pertinent question: what the hell the lack of visibility of the commuhappened, and why is the area east nities and the lack of people willing of Sligo an empty and sad waste- to come out and say what they beland now? This is where things start lieve to be the truth. On the other to get weird: many speculators are hand, the removal of websites and torn on how it came to pass that the forum posts, the circumstantial evigreatest civilisation on Earth man- dence… there is just something not aged to disappear without even a right in Leitrim, and I don’t think brief mention in the history books. this is going to go away anytime Many claim the masons found a soon. If even some of this turns out better place to be home to their uto- to be true, then this proves a covpia, and that the Irish War of Inde- er-up by multiple governments, unpendence had caused many masons covers possible war crimes, reveals to fear for the safety of their city, but the denial of ‘Leitrimic’ scientific also that many English members re- genius, and provides even further fused to accept that an independent proof that Ógra is a cult. Leitrim Ireland might be home to some of has a dire secret and it will not be the most important scientific dis- hidden forever. coveries in history. Others dispute this, and believe that after the Black Longford’s real though, it’s just realand Tans burned Cork City to the ly, really boring. ground they learned of the Leitrim Colony. The British Government has never apologised for the actions of the Black and Tans during this

Fiction

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FICTION Editor - Sophie Mckenzie Ex Amino Autumn leaves painted the floors with bright reds, oranges, and yellows.

Every gust of wind carried new crisp scents and each ray of sun wrapped its arms around me.

“I want to go to big places, big cities and travel the world”, I said.

We did.

Mellow sunshine, rustic ruins, silver moons.

In and out of old churches, staring at pretty buildings and ancient monuments.

Throwing coins into old fountains in hope that our wishes would come true.

Each road, a different adventure with new cities, fresh history and more food for the brain and the soul.

Memories fill up as the heart continues to grow.

It’s an endless cloud of elation like a sky full of infinite stars.

Holly Buckley

food

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FOOD Editor - isabella Storey Cosgrave

Tapas ala Tower

if the chorizo looks a bit burnt, it’s still good. To make the Marie Rose Robert O’Sullivan, Editor-in-Chief sauce, put two parts mayo to every If you’re wondering about the title, one part ketchup in a bowl. Sprinkle I put that down because I wanted to a bit of pepper on top of the sauces write about lots of little recipes, but and mix them thoroughly. ones that aren’t totally authentic to Salt the potato during/after cooking. their respective home regions. Also I live in Tower now, and it sounded Bruschetta (if you don’t like fish or neat. tomato) Tapas are little snacks or appetisers, Ciabatta avec pesto with the term originating in Spain.

While each of these dishes could be Ingredients: their own starter, you can easily eat Ciabatta (or a bread roll) all of them in one go to make it your Pesto own little buffet. With their origins Cheese (grated cheddar or mozzarelon the Iberian peninsula, I thought it la) appropriate to start in España…

Equipment: Oven Patatas Bravas Fried potato & chorizo, with Marie Really really simple dish here. I know Rose sauce traditional recipes for bruschetta sometimes have you use some form Ingredients: of fish, or at least tomatoes, but I Potatoes am not a fan of either, so I came up Flour with an alternative. Preheat the oven Chorizo to 200c, and bake the ciabatta in the Ketchup oven (or heat it up a bit if you bought Mayonnaise it from your local shop’s bakery). Cut Salt & Pepper it in half and spread some pesto over Olive Oil the ciabatta like you would jam on toast. Sprinkle cheese over Equipment: the ciabatta and pop A large pan it in the oven A small pan again to melt Spatula/tongs the cheese.

Potato peeler Delicious.

Chopping board Knifes This is a really simple recipe, but one that is super delicious, and can look fancy as fuck if you plate it right. First you need to wash the potatoes, soak them for a bit and peel them. Then cut them into little pieces, about the size of your finger tip. Put all the chunks in a bowl, then put enough flour on the potatoes to provide an even coating on them. Pre-heat the oil on the large pan, then put all the potato pieces on the pan, frying them. Don’t forget to flip them with the spatula/ tongs every once in a while. You’ll know when they’re cooked when they start to brown up a good bit.

The chorizo only takes 3-5 minutes to cook, so don’t worry about putting them on too late. Also don’t be afraid

An onion Parsley (¼ cup) Garlic (Three cloves) Flour (1 ½ tablespoon) Salt (1 ¾ teaspoon) Cumin (2 teaspoons) Ground Coriander (1 teaspoon) Black pepper, cayenne pepper (¼ teaspoon each) Olive oil Pitta bread Equipment: Food processor, or blender Tongs Frying pan Chopping board Mixing bowl Colander Chop the onion and garlic to small pieces on the chopping board. Drain the chickpeas in the colander. Put the chickpeas, onion, garlic, flour and spices in the food processor/blender.

Stop every once in a while to stir the mixture to make sure the chickpeas are blended properly. You’re aiming for what looks like oatmeal with the texture of soggy sand. Put the mixture in the mixing bowl, give it a quick slow stir and put the bowl in the fridge for an hour or two. You can do without this letting it sit in

Falafel Just falafel, tbh.

Serving size: 14-20 pieces.

Ingredients: Chickpeas (1 ½ cans)

t h e

fridge, but it works much better if you do.

Preheat the oil on the pan. Form the mixture into balls with your hands, and put it on the pan. Flip and turn the balls with your tongs now and then, until the outside is cooked evenly. Falafel are traditionally deepfried, so pan frying it makes cooking harder (but a good deal healthier).

Cooking them all will take 15-20mins (approx). The falafel will be soft on the inside, but a bit crunchy on the outside. You can eat them on their own, with a sauce (may I recommend tzatziki?) or in a pitta bread. If you’re having them as part of tapas, maybe forgo the pitta.

Have your own recipes, or reviewed a new cool restaurant? Send your articles in to Food@UCCExpress.ie.

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䐀攀愀搀氀椀渀攀㨀 ㈀㠀琀栀 䘀攀戀爀甀愀爀礀

倀爀愀挀琀椀挀愀氀 䔀砀瀀攀爀椀攀渀挀攀

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愀瀀瀀氀礀

渀漀眀

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䔀搀椀琀漀爀ⴀ椀渀ⴀ䌀栀椀攀昀 䄀挀愀搀攀洀椀挀 夀攀愀爀

䐀䔀䄀䐀䰀䤀一䔀 䘀伀刀 䄀倀倀䰀䤀䌀䄀吀䤀伀一匀 匀䔀吀 䄀吀 䘀䔀䈀刀唀䄀刀夀 ㈀㠀吀䠀 䄀吀 䴀䤀䐀一䤀䜀䠀吀 ⴀ 匀䔀一䐀 䌀嘀Ⰰ 䌀伀嘀䔀刀 䰀䔀吀吀䔀刀 ☀ 倀䰀䄀一

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ISSUE 10 | UCC Express

Anois nó Riamh: Craobh na hÉireann buaite ag Ceann Tuirc agus Cnoc na Graí.

Ar an tríú agus ar an gceathrú lá de Feabhra, bhí lucht leanúna Cheann Tuirc agus Cnoc na Graí ar bís chun a bheith mar bhall dá gclubanna. Bhí na himreoirí, lucht tacaíochta, agus daoine éagsúla ó Dhú Ealla agus Corcaigh ag taisteal go Páirc a’ Chrocaigh le údar imní orthu, ach fós le dóchas, spiorad agus paisean an cheantair. Is dóigh liom féin chomh maith go raibh na tacadóirí muiníneach go mbeadh na himreoirí ón dhá thaobh in ann Gaisce a dhéanamh agus Craobh na hÉireann a bhuchaint sa chaide shóisearach agus san iomáint idirmheánach.

B’é seo an chéad uair riamh ina raibh na foirne in iomaíocht san léibhéal iontach ard seo. Tá aithne agam ar chuid des na leaids a bhí i mbun imirthe agus chun an fhírinne a rá bhíos buartha go gcuireadh an ócáid isteach orthu. Ach ní hamhlaidh sin a bhí ambaist!

I dtús baire, caithfidh mé a rá go raibh mé thar a bheith sásta go raibh foireann as Dúiche Ealla in iomaíocht sa chaide i bPáirc a’ Chrocaigh. Go traidisúnta, b’é caide an rogha spóirt is coitianta sa cheantar. Le blianta beaga anuas, a bhuí leis an dul chun cinn suntasach san iomáint sa cheantar, mar shampla na hiomáinithe idir-chontae cosúil le Anthony Nash agus Marc Ellis, bhí daoine áirithe ag déanamh neamhní don chaide.

Ní gá dom a rá ach go bhfuil caighdéan fíor ard caide sa cheantar. Creid nó ná creid, níor éirigh le Cnoc na Graí craobh Dhú Ealla a bhaint amach. Tar éis athimirt i gcoinne Bóthar Buí, buadh orthu. Dá bharr go raibh córas nua i bhfeidhm, bhí cead ag Cnoc na Groí dul chun cinn sa chomórtas an chontae.

Cad é mar thuras a bhí acu.

‘Tús maith leath na hoibre’ mar a deirtear agus d’fheadfaí a rá gurb é an sár-thús an phríomhchúis go raibh Cnoc na Groí in ann an lámh in uachtar a fháil ar Mhuilte Farannáin. D’aimsigh siad cúil luaithe agus bhí siad mar bhunchloch don cheád leath. An scór ag leath-ama ná: Cnoc na Graí 2-08 Muilte Farannáin 0-05.

Tháinig na fir ón Iarmhí amach go láidir sa dara leath. Fuair captaen na foirne David Wallace cúl agus bhí an ionadaí Mark Fallon thar a bheith éifeactach nuair a tháinig sé chun páirce. Scóráil sé dhá cúil iontacha. ‘An rud is annamh is iontach’ mar a deirtear. Aon uair ina n-éiríonn le do bhadóir cúl a bhaint amach, caithfeadh bua a bheith i ndán do fhoireann. Sin díreach cad a tharla nuair a fuair Patrick Doyle báide do Chnoc na Graí le dhá noiméad faghta.

An scór deiridh: Cnoc na Graí 3-13 Muilte Farannáin 3-09.

Maidir le Ceann Tuirc, bhí cluiche cruaigh ina raibh pointe amháin idir iad agus Béal Átha Ragad ag deiridh na himeartha. Cluiche drámatúil ab ea é ina raibh na himreoirí ón dhá thaobh ar a seacht ndícheall chun an ceann is fearr a fháil ar a gcéilí comhraic. Ní hamháin san ach bhí na tacadóirí ag screadaíl in ard a chinn is a gutha, ní a chur go mór le atmaisféar an chluiche.

Bhí na foirne gob ar ghob i rith an chluiche. Ach nuair a éirigh le Ian Walsh pointe a fháil sa noiméad deirneach d’am cúitimh gortaithe, chinntigh sé go mbeadh Craobh na hÉireann buaite ag foireann as Dú Ealla don chéad uair riamh ag an léibhéal seo. Ba léir go raibh Walsh ann in am an ghátair. An scór deiridh: Ceann Tuirc 1-18 Béal Átha Ragad 1-17.

Is foireann an-dlúth agus aontaithe iad Ceann Tuirc. Tá cúig ghrúpa de dheatháireacha agus tá cuid acu gaolta lena chéile. Mar shampla, tá Ian, Paul agus Ryan Walsh mar dheatháireacha agus ní hamháin san ach tá siad mar chéad chol ceathracha do Aidan Walsh. Deirtear go mion minic go mbíonn na clubanna áitiúla mar bhunchloch an Chumainn Lúthchleas Gael. Cé gur sórt cliché é, is léir go gcabhraíonn nadúr dúchais le forbairt chlub.

Mar fhocail scoir, ní dóigh liom go dtarlóidh a leithéid aríst im’ shaolsa. Éacht iontach déanta acu agus sé mo thuairimse féin go mbeidh na himreoirí on dhá thaobh in ann céim eile a thógaint i mbliana mar is foirne óga iad.

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圀愀渀琀 琀漀 愀搀瘀攀爀琀椀猀攀 眀椀琀栀 甀猀㼀

䔀洀愀椀氀 刀漀戀 愀琀 䄀搀瘀攀爀琀椀猀椀渀最䀀唀䌀䌀䔀砀瀀爀攀猀猀⸀椀攀 ㈀ ㄀㠀⼀㄀㤀

Ar mhaith leat seachtain a chaitheamh sa Ghaeltacht?

Tar go dtí Ionad na Gaeilge Labhartha Áras Uí Rathaille ORB G02 27 Feabhra – 1 Márta 2018 10am - 4.30pm

Scoláireachtaí Gaeltachta 2018

Fáilte Roimh Gach Éinne

Ná caill do sheans 021 4902314 www.ucc.ie/igl/scolaireacht

㘀 䄀椀戀爀攀渀 ㈀ ㄀㠀

Coláiste na hOllscoile Corcaigh University College Cork, Ireland

Irish Poster_2018_A4.indd 2

13/02/2018 13:37

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PHOTOS

PHOTOS

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SPORT

Where to now? Political identity in modern football Dylan O’Connell, Sports Editor “Barça is a global club. But the world is a big place, and right now we are occupying very little space” spoke Barcelona President Josep Bartomeu at a press conference on Times Square in New York. For the former Nike chairperson turned Barcelona front man, this was a historic moment in capital. Under his guidance and leadership, the Catalonian giants would be placed on a global stage, no longer confined to the boundaries of their Catalan homeland, as he hoped to turn the club into the first football team in the world to generate a £1Billion turnover.

The Empire State Building was painted red and blue as Ronaldinho greeted local kids at a secondary school in the Bronx. This was not just a statement from Barcelona, but a fork laid, as the famed political arena of the Camp Nou braced for the world stage.

ISSUE 10 UCC Express in Catalonia, the club once more reached out under the yellow and red dreams of self determination.

Barca player and World Cup winner Gerard Pique, devout Catalonia supporter, tearfully threatened to quit the national team because of the conditions the referendum was held in.

Last week Manchester City manager and former Barcelona head coach Pep Guardiola was threatened with fines from the FA for use of political symbols in relation to a Catalonian pin.

With these prevailing sense of nationalism and color comes the price.

What has been described as the ‘Madridification’ of Barcelona with a rush of blood and transfer fees, commercial ventures and product placement.

During a league game against Las Palmas in October 2017, which was played behind closed doors against the troubles outside, the club once more committed to Catalonian independence as stated over the club’s PR system. Coming in tow was the worry: for every call and color cast, what would come of the markets? Would potential investors see the club as a focal point of insurrection, and thus deter investment?

Flash forward to 2018 and Barcelona is a club on the brink. On paper This is not confined to Barcelona. things could not be stronger, as they sit ten points clear of second placed Atletico Madrid, and hold an away goal advantage over Chelsea in the Champions League, yet what is presented is merely a polished overview.

As Barcelona reach for the global stage once more, the concrete of the foundations cracks and divides heading into the next phase of the global project.

Historically, Barcelona has always been a safe haven for the Catalonian independence movement. During the Spanish Civil War the President of Barca and deputy leader of the independence movement, Josep Sunyol, was executed under General Franco. Under Franco the Catalonian language was banned, with the Camp Nou becoming a safe haven for the people for cultural practice. FC Barcelona was and still is the lynchpin of the Catalonian cause.

Across European football the crossroads of politics and sport have interjected, and the foundations are unsteady.

In the English Premiership, home to the £5.1Billion TV deal, clubs such as Liverpool are faced with an equal dilemma. The five time European Champions have been forever nestled in the socialist ethos of the city In 2017, as riots took the streets of Liverpool; with the Independence referendum

“The socialism I believe in is everyone working for each other, everyone having a share of the rewards. It’s the way I see football, the way I see life” These words of famed Liverpool manager Bill Shankly echo still; lifelong supporter of the unions in a city entrenched in the labour cause. In the 1990’s, Liverpool striker Robbie Fowler showed his support for the dockers of Liverpool before a UEFA Cup tie against SK Brann. Before a league tie between Liverpool and Southampton in 2017, a banner of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn floated across the Kop, in a show of support ahead of the General Election.

Against the left has been the movement of financial market and consumerism which has engulfed Barcelona. For Liverpool, this has been more direct under the guise of owners FSG, who proclaimed their ambition to “turn fans into customers” on their website. Fans of the Reds have publicly expressed their dismay at this turn for the club. In February 2016 10,000 Liverpool fans walked out in disgust over the increase in price of tickets during a league tie against Sunderland. For a club so deep-rooted in the working class cause, the alleys of profit are too dark for the socialistic

light of Liverpool.

In Scotland a similar debate is undercurrent in the green and white colors of Celtic. A famed political institution, built on the aspirations of the Irish diaspora, Celtic fans and club alike have always been intertwined with the Irish nationalistic sentiment, and the greater republican ethos.

Coming with this has been the united cause for an independent Scotland, intertwined with the calls for the self

determination to the people of Palestine. During a Champions League tie against Hapoel Be’er Sheva, the Green Brigade greeted the opposition with a wall of Palestinian flags. The gesture was met with fines from UEFA, with the Green Brigade countering this motion with a movement of their own, calling: “In response to this petty and politically partisan act by European football’s governing body, we are determined to make a positive contribution to the game and today launch a campaign to #matchthefineforpalestine. We aim to raise £75,000 which will be split equally between Medical Aid Palestine (MAP) and the Lajee Centre, a Palestinian cultural centre in Aida Refugee Camp on the outskirts of Bethlehem. From our members’ experiences as volunteers in Palestine we know the huge importance of both organisations’ work and have developed close contacts with them.”

Similarly, before a Champions League tie against Linfield in July 2017, the Green Brigade greeted their Northern Irish counterparts with a ‘freedom fighter’ banner for the home leg at Parkhead.

Club and identity at Celtic go hand in hand. But for these defiant movements there has been the calls of investment. Spend big to win big. To compete with the best on the European stage, Celtic need to spend big and keep their best, yet to do this the club would have to side step into the world markets. While the Irish audience has propped up and supported the club since 1888, to truly step into the public sphere Celtic have to target the global audience and marketplace, which both Liverpool and Barcelona prod and poke while clutching their ideological scarves.

Overall, nothing is broken. Both Barcelona and Liverpool are eased into the quarterfinals of the Champions League, while Celtic target both a double & a treble domestically. Like the invention of the 4-4-2 and the 4-3-3, football is a forever changing process. What remains are the colors, the passion... somethings can never be eroded.

SPORT

ISSUE 10| UCC Express

Around the grounds: Badminton

Michelle Beazley, News Editor I’m definitely biased as club captain, but in my opinion, badminton is the only sport worth playing. Don’t even bother with the rest of them. I learned last week that it’s actually the 2nd most popular sport in the world, after soccer, so surely all those people can’t be wrong. All you need is a racket, a shuttlecock (feather, not plastic, for the love of god), a net, and as many or as few people as you like. Fun fact about shuttlecocks: the best ones are weirdly enough made from the feathers of the left wing specifically of a goose, and each shuttle has 16 feathers. It’s the fastest racket sport in the world, so tennis and squash

can feck right off. Shuttles can reach up to 200 miles an hour (none that I’ve ever hit like, but I live in hope).

It’s probably the most sociable sport in the world too, there’s a lot more talking at matches and at training than there is actual playing. So come along to the best club in UCC: we are in the Mardyke Arena four times a week: coaching for beginners on Mondays at 6pm, recreational training on Tuesdays at 8:30pm and Saturdays at 12, and team training on Wednesdays at 8:30pm.

honestly, every team I’ve played with has always been a close-knit group of friends from the first week of the season. I’ve played multiple sports in my life, both individually and as a team, and I would definitely consider hockey to be my top sport. The tough fitness training, the finesse needed for skills training, and the unwavering determination needed in matches combine together to make it a difficult yet rewarding sport. Ultimately, women’s hockey is about the spirit of working with a team, speed, power, agility, and above all, not knowing where those Hockey Molly O’Rourke, Deputy News Edi- bruises on your leg came from.

We’re not just chicks with sticks, tor we’ve got balls too.

The world of female field hockey is, and sorry to be cliché here, one big community. Everyone appreciates the gruelling nature of the sport, and

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Cricket

Robert O’Sullivan, Editor-in-Chief We are on the precipice of a great age in Irish cricket. Finally we have reached the promised land of Test cricket, and with it comes the end of hemorrhaging top-class internationals to the likes of England. If you’ve never given cricket a go, I highly recommend it… especially if you’re a dab hand at hurling and camogie, the skills really do transcend disciplines.

A surprisingly deep game from what it appears on the surface, you need to have a sharp wit, be quick on your feet, and not be too afraid of taking a leather rock thrown at 90mph in the chest.

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ISSUE 10 | UCC Express

Swedish finish to a Franco-Ger- the questions on everyone’s mind Fourcade told the French sports news two-minute difference to the silver as the men’s relay, the final biathlon outlet L’Équipe: “When you start out medallists. Sweden’s Lindstrom’s imman winter wonderland Lucas Brun, Staff Writer Leading the table of medals this far into the competition there was very little suspense as to who would top the biathlon in this year’s Winter Olympics. Germany had a one medal lead that would have been difficult to surpass in a single event. The real competition was between the French and the Norwegians, at equal footing in the rankings, though there was a slight advantage to the French, who had a higher number of gold medals. Would the French increase their lead with yet another gold medal? Or would the Norwegians overtake them and reach second place? These were

UCC club holds Futsal Cup At the start of this month, our club organised the first ever Futsal Cup on the 3rd February in the Mardyke Arena. The event was in aid of the CUH Charity, and it was a great success. UCC students took great interest in the competition, with over 50 participants and over €200 raised. The event itself consisted of 8 teams, making up 2 groups of 4 teams. This tournament structure led to highly competitive group games, with the top 2 teams in each proceeding to the semi-finals and the chance to face off in the all-important final.

Thanks to incredible interest in the tournament, we decided to hold Group A in the morning and Group B in the afternoon, with the knockout stages held after a lunch break, in order to best facilitate the competitions running time. From group A, ‘Bits’ and ‘Battler’s Army’ managed to come

event in the 2018 Winter Olympics, was about to kick off.

The French team took the risky decision to send their top athlete, Martin Fourcade, third, giving Antonin Guigonnat, first time Olympian, the opportunity to close the race. Unfortunately for France this strategy could not be tested fully, as their chance for victory at this stage of the race was inconceivable. Poor racing performances from the very first relay, coupled with extreme weather conditions, delayed the French team, eventually proving to be lethal for their chances at success. Although the French did show us some nice moments, these little instants of hope were not sufficient to catch up. As

badly, it is difficult to get back into peccable performance at the shootthe match.” ing range made it impossible for the Norwegian to claim gold, finishing With the French out of the way, it second at 1:16:12.0. was the chance for the Norwegians to comfortably move closer to Ger- This Swedish surprise victory in many and secure third place in the men’s relay closed this year’s Winoverall table of medals. A chance that ter Olympics biathlon competition. could not be taken, as Sweden mirac- Germany is the overall grand-winner ulously overcame both weather and with 7 medals, followed by France Norwegian leadership to offer an im- with 5, and the unexpected Sweden pressive performance. With no pen- placing third with 4 medals. Martin alty and a 55.5 second lead on their Fourcade (France), Laura Dahlmeier opponents, Sweden swept the leader (Germany), and Johannes Bø (Norboard and won gold, kicking their way) came out of this competition as northerly neighbours out of the 2018 the most valuable players, each compodium. The German gold medallist ing back home with three medals, inSchempp, missing too many a shot, cluding three gold for Fourcade and could not bring his team to victory. two for Dahlmeier.

Germany ended third with an over

out on top with impressive wins over the unfortunate ‘Joga Bonito’ and ‘The RAMmen’, who crashed out at the group stage. The group itself was refereed by Oliwier Melon, with fellow committee members Dylan Bradley and Aidan O’Sullivan ensuring the event ran smoothly by time and score keeping, as well as promoting the event on social me-

O’Sullivan the referee this time around. This group (consisting of ‘Guys being Dudes’, ‘Kroos Control’, ‘Blink One Eto’o’ and ‘Electrical Engineering’) turned out to be the more competitive group with plenty of action. After the group coming right down to the last match where all 4 teams could still qua ify, it was ‘Guys being Dudes’ and ‘Kroos Con-

semi-finals with ‘Bits’ facing off against ‘Kroos Control’ and ‘Guys being Dudes’ coming up against ‘Batter’s Army’. For the knockout stages, Oliwier Melon teamed up with Aidan O’Sullivan to referee and ensure that each match was carried out in the fairest way possible, and the deserved winner coming out on top. After two hotly-contested matches, ‘Bits’ and ‘Battler’s Army’ each won their respected semi-final.

After a short water break for both teams, the final was ready to be played. It only took ‘Bits’ two minutes to pull into a 1-0 lead and throughout this very tight final, it seemed like that was how it would finish. That was up until a crazy last 5 minutes where ‘Battler’s Army’ pulled it back to 1-1 with only 3 minutes to go, only for ‘Bits’ to grab a 2-1 lead with a fantastic break-away goal with one of the last kicks of the game.

dia, taking photos and providing equipment for the participants such as bibs, gloves etc.

trol’ that eventually came out on top after a tight penalty shoot-out separating the two sides.

Group B began at 1:30, with Aidan

At 4 o’clock, it was time for the

Congratulations to ‘Bits’ for winning the first ever Futsal Cup, and thank you to all the teams that entered and made the day such a success.

SPORT

ISSUE 10 | UCC Express ...continued from back page.

UCC sought to make a change, and Fionnan Clifford made way for Daniel O’Brien. A skewed effort by Damien Comer at the other side after good build up play saw Donovan place his effort into O’Brien’s hands as the half played itself out. The away side led 1-4 to 0-2 at the break, with the home side registering the two efforts from frees.

The second half started at a frantic pace as UCC took the initiative. Killian Spillane’s shot came off the goal post. Shortly after UCC recycled possession, as O’ Beaglaoich and Adrian Spillane worked well to feed Stephen Sherlock, who slotted over a point.

Cein D’Arcy took the mark for the visitors, as Gallagher saw himself being fouled by Daniel O’Brian, only for Adam Gallagher to slot over the point for the visitors to stretch their lead.

After good work by Kennedy, Andrew Barry was dispossessed, with Sean Kelly playing deep for a corner forward.

Age Is Just A Number For Roger Federer Chris McCahill, Opinion Editor On February 17th, Roger Federer once again rewrote the tennis history books. A double fault from Dutchman Robin Haase on match point in Rotterdam ensured that

Federer would take over at the top of the ATP rankings, breaking several records in the process. On Monday Federer became the oldest player to attain the #1 spot at 36 years and 195

Brian Donovan was pulled for over carrying, which let off the home side.

There wasn’t a score from the 40th to 50th minute, as the away side looked to consolidate their lead and position.

It was very much topsy-turvy, as both teams struggled to put the necessary phases together for a scoring chance in the fourth quarter. Another Peter Cooke wide from a 45 saw the home side making a substitution, as Flahive was replaced for Graham O’ Sullivan.

Cooke got on the scoresheet soon after.

While Adrian Spillane stole Tadhg O’Malley’s puckout, only for Molloy to steal again as NUIG played percentages as the game wound down. Sean Mulkerrin stumbled on a pass from Owen Gallagher, which allowed Stephen Sherlock to pounce on the loose ball, feeding Michael McSweeney, who was taken out by keeper O’Malley. O’Malley then received his marching orders in the form of a black card from the referee. A wild ending was days old, breaking the previous record of 33 years set by Andre Agassi back in 2003. Federer will also break the record of the longest time between reigns at #1, which will now stand at 5 years and 106 days, with Federer last holding the #1 spot on November 4th 2012. It also marks the longest time between a players debut at #1 of 14 years and 17 days.

Furthermore, Federer will extend

his own record of 302 of weeks at the top of the men’s ranking. Finally, Federer also added to his own trophy haul with the Rotterdam title,

to be seen, as sub goalkeeper Manus Breathnach came on to make a dramatic save to stop Killian Spillane’s penalty. NUIG put the final nail in the coffin as the ball was driven down field, and Cein D’Arcy slotted over the insurance point to seal the win for the visitors, who progressed into the semi finals of the competition.

Teams: NUIG: T O’Malley (Galway); S Brennan (Mayo), S Mulkerrin (Galway), A O’Connor (Kerry); K Molloy (Galway), R Greene (Galway), G O’Kelly-Lynch (Sligo); C D’Arcy (Galway), P Cooke (Galway); A Gallagher (Mayo), O Gallagher (Antrim), E Tierney (Galway); B Donovan (Limerick), D Comer (Galway), S Kelly (Galway).

UCC: E O’Brien (Kerry); F Clifford (Kerry), J Foley (Kerry), M MacSweeney (Cork); B Ó Beaglaoich (Kerry), K Crowley (Cork), C Kiely (Cork); J dismissing Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov in straight sets,6-2, 6-2, which now stands at 97 career titles. It also marks his 20th ATP 500 title – he had previously been tied with Nadal on 19.

Agassi was among the first of fans, coaches and players alike to pay tribute to Federer on his remarkable achievement, tweeting “36 years 195

days...@RogerFederer continues to raise the bar in our sport. Congratulations on yet another remarkable achievement!!” However the man

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Kennedy (Tipperary), A Barry (Kerry); R Buckley (Kerry), A Spillane (Kerry), K Flahive (Cork); C Dorgan (Cork), K Spillane (Kerry), S Sherlock (Cork).

In the Ashbourne Cup it was third time unlucky, as University of Limerick beat UCC 0-15 to 1-9 in Mallow.

UCC were hoping to avenge the 2016 and 2017 cup final losses, with the college looking for their first Ashbourne Cup since 2003. UCC however had reason to be optimistic, as All Ireland winners Orla Cronin and Amy O’Connor shone in the midfield in the close-knit affair at Mallow.

The Fitzgibbon Cup came as a deep shock for UCC, as the college were trounced 4-18 to 0-8 in Limerick by UL. This result seals off a forgetful campaign for UCC, with the college only gathering one win in the competition. They now go in search of their first cup success since 2013. himself, despite having previously deemed the return to the top “one of, if not the ultimate achievement in our sport,” took to Twitter to poke fun at his own expense, tweeting: “Apparently I’m the oldest tennis player with a #1 ranking. Somebody might have mentioned that to me already but I had a hard time hearing.”

Federer currently stands 345 points ahead of Nadal on ranking points, however Federer will have 2000 points to defend from last season with his titles in Indian Wells and Miami, meanwhile Nadal will have points to defend once the clay season begins with Monte Carlo and Madrid, in addition to his Grand Slam title defense of the French Open. As such, the #1 spot could very likely being changing hands again in the weeks ahead.

So what’s next for the newly minted #1? Having won 9 of his last 10 finals and 1144 matches overall, many are speculating that Jimmy Connors’ record of 1256 match wins and 109 titles overall are now within reach of Federer, and free of back and knee injuries, that they may be what Federer will be chasing in the months and possibly years ahead.

SPORT

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UCCExpress.ie | Volume 21 | Issue 10 | February 27, Tuesday

UCC crashed out of the Sigerson Cup following a shock loss to NUIG (Photo: Jim Coughlan)

Highs and Lows for UCC GAA

Dylan O’Connell, Sports Editor

It has been a mixed period for UCC GAA, as the college’s Spring hopes were met with mixed results across the Sigerson, Fitzgibbon and Ashbourne Cups.

In the Sigerson Cup, NUIG pipped UCC 1-9 to 0-7 to book their place at the Cup Final weekend.

NUIG were out of the traps quick through Galway Inter County star Damien Comer. Eoghan O’Brien pulled off a great save to deny the Galway star the lead, but Enda Tier-

ney slotted over the rebound. UCC’s Stephen Sherlock was delivered a ball

by Cian Dorgan, but his effort went wide. After a good move for the away side between D’Arcy, Kelly, Cooke and Molloy, Jack Kennedy intercepted for the home side. Possession was then lost, and Peter Cooke launched a ball into Brian Donovan, who slotted it over for the visitors. UCC then set up good phases before losing possession.

Another UCC interception by Andrew Barry from a Galway attack meant that the ball was distributed among Kennedy, Foley and Barry, before possession was fed to Stephen

Sherlock before being done for a double hop. Unfortunate luck for the home side. NUIG’s Molloy’s break meant that the away side continued to build phases from the back, only for Crowley to steal possession before feeding Dorgan, who slotted his effort wide of the posts. NUI Galway’s Sean Gallagher and Sean Kelly linked well but their move was thwarted

by Andrew Barry. The game itself was on a knife edge, as both teams squandered positions after good work was made through the phases.

While the away side went into a commanding lead after the first quarter, UCC still continued to build phases

through O’ Beaglaoich. While Galway posted another wide through Enda Tierney, they would end up breaking the deadlock, as Gallagher and Enda Donovan linked up to allow the Limerick man to slot past O’Brien to increase the margin between the two sides. Play got scrappy as another Galway attempt went a begging, as the away side seamlessly went through the gears while the home side struggled to bring their forwards into the game.

Continued on inside page...