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EXPRESS

VERGE CATCHES UP WITH THE 1975

Tuesday, 18 February 2014 | www.uccexpress.net | Volume 21 | Issue 11

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Mock the Term: Representatives from UCC media and societes at “Mock the Term” in aid of the Irish Cancer Society

Council motion to address dispute over Student Centre charges

Stephen Barry | News Editor

it came to the Management Committee. It was

@StphnBarry dealt with by the Management Committee, it

A motion to Student Council, which was postponed from last Wednesday and is to be rescheduled after R&G Week, will ask Class Representatives to vote on a motion which would mandate the Students’ Union President, Padraig Haughney, to propose the removal of room usage charges for student groups. The motion has been brought by the Societies Guild which is dissatisfied with the charges associated with using Devere Hall.

The Guild had engaged directly with the management of the Student Centre to address their complaints and was directed to correspond with the Management Committee, chaired by Haughney, who they wrote to in December. This committee met on the 14th of January, their first meeting in four months, and drew up a list of proposals which were subsequently ratified by the Board of Directors of SFS (Student Facilities and Services) Ltd, who manage the operation of on campus facilities such as the Student Centre.

These proposals will be presented to Student Council by Haughney, who was unavailable for comment to the Express due to preparations for Raise and Give Week.

Terry Brennan, General Manager of SFS Ltd, said that the matter had been dealt with and is being returned to the students. “There’s been a lot of correspondence about this, and that’s why

was ratified by the board and it’s going back to the Student Council, so it’s in process.”

Speaking about the motion, Padraig Rice, President of the Societies Guild, explained why they oppose the charges; “I think that the other commercial activity should be charged more and the costs shouldn’t be levied on students, who have invested millions of euro into what should be the Students’ Union building at the heart of campus.”

Furthermore, dissatisfaction with the charges by the Student Centre has cast doubts over the Guild’s interaction over the proposed Student Hub project. “If we’re going forward and the university are talking about a Hub, or a Student Centre 2.0, I don’t know if we could support it given what has happened with the Student Centre; another building that would just house the commercial bank, house the commercial shop, and then just charge students for using the services.”

Rice believes that it is part of a wider trend of increasing fees for students to address shortfalls across the university. “If you look across the board in this university, every service is saying the same thing: ‘let’s increase service fees for students’.”

The Guild has been granted a seat by the SU at the next Management Committee meeting in March.

A motion to Student Council could mandate the Students’ Union President to propose the removal of room usage charges for student groups.

Brennan, whose mandate is to run the Student Centre to breakeven with any profits redistributed into student services, didn’t wish to speak directly about the motion but spoke about the Centre’s interaction with student groups.

“The last thing we would do here is put costs on top of events,” said Brennan. “We will not impose charges for reasonable usage of the room; we will impose them for unreasonable use of the room.”

Every year the Student Centre covers costs for society events from a €5,000 fund, although the Guild has concerns about how this fund is administered. In 2012/13 that fund was not fully used, however recently €1,000 of costs for Warpcon were covered by the Centre.

However costs are charged for events which

sell tickets; “if you bring in a commercial event, and you’re selling commercial tickets, then we’re going to charge you.” This is because the Student Centre is obliged to cover the VAT liability of ticket sales.

Rice disputes that societies run as commercial entities and those that sell tickets do so to cover costs of running their event.

According to Brennan; “the underlying principle for the Student Centre is that the facilities are available for all students, not just clubs and societies, at no cost. If what they want it do in the room involves a big amount of setup or a big amount of breakdown [such as taking out the stage], then a cost is involved.”

Costs quoted in the motion to Council include €275 for hall rental for ticketed events and €3,300 for the use of the pool room for one day, although the Guild say there has been a lack of clarity on the charges.

But while Rice believes that there is scope to increase costs to external users to offset losses resulting from this motion, Brennan refutes this: “Those coming from outside the building are charged nearly four times the student costs.

“We’ve had two conferences last year that were from downtown, both happened during the summer. There’s a limit to the number of outside events we can take, which came from another motion by the Management Committee in 2011, so that the Student Centre is available at all times for the students.”

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Tuesday February 18, 2014 | UCC EXPRESS

EDITORIALS

INSIDE TODAY

SU Council Delayed

Bitter Pills

Unseen and unheard -women in Irish media Audrey Ellard Walsh Editor @AudreyEWalsh

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Page 5

Marriage Meas na Gaeilge Equality

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Page 12

The New Corker UCC vs. TCD Short Story

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Features 7-10 Photography 14-15 Fashion 16-17 The New Corker 11 Gaeilge 12 Sport 20-24

Editorial Staff:

Contributors:

Editor: Audrey Ellard Walsh

Clara Hurley

Deputy Editor: Stephen Barry Copy Editor: Rebecca Baker Deputy News Editor: Heather Steele Features Editor: Grace O’ Sullivan Deputy Features Editor: Claire Crowley Photo Editor: Emmet Curtin Irish Editor: Rachel Ní hAodha Fashion Editor: Nicole Clinton Fiction Editor: Eoghan Scott Sport Editor: Barry Aldworth Designer: Cathal O’ Gara

Aaron Kieran Noonan Stephen Walsh Mohammad Ali Syed Hugh O’ Dwyer

Last weekend’s journalism conference drew welcome light on the topic of feminism in journalism.

While not often discussed, the dearth of female voices in the news is equivocal to that in the fields of politics and business.

When we take time to scrutinise our media we quickly notice a distinct imbalance in the voices conveying information. In fact, 80 to 90% of the time we turn on the radio we are listening to male voices. “Some people are initially shocked that gender balance is really a problem at all but once they start actively listening to the airwaves they can hear the imbalance for themselves.”states journalist Margaret E. Ward, founder of networking and advocacy group Women on Air. The vast majority of radio presenters are male and very few female presenters are featured during the prime listening hours from 8am to 8pm. In print media, whilst women make up twice the numbers of journalism graduates than men over the past decade, only 29% of journalists in our three national broadsheet newspapers are female, while 71% are male.

This issue which has been increasingly highlighted by journalists such as Una Mullally may seem on the surface a mere happenstance but I argue that it represents a much greater problem than mere lack of variety. The deficit of women’s voices in media leads to a skewed representation of news,

and as a result, of society as a whole.

Ward explains that “A healthy democracy relies on a robust, balanced and strong media. A media that only represents a narrow viewpoint is not serving the public interest.” It is indeed arguable that the relative absence of women’s voices in print, radio and television represents a crisis in democracy.

The Irish media is a prime example of a crisis of representation, yet unfortunately it is by no means an anomaly. As demonstrated in the 2010 Who Makes The News?

Global Media Monitoring Project, which surveyed 33 European region countries. Women were most visible at 36% of news subjects (74% male) in stories on science and health, and least visible in stories on politics and government at 21% (79% male). Overall, the report revealed that region-wide women news subjects made up 25% of print content, 24% of radio and 29% of television news.

It is interesting that regionally, as well as nationally radio fairs worst in the gender balance stakes. The toted myth that listener’s prefer men’s voices is something with Women on Air are determined to challenge “There is no research backing this up. yet it’s been a significant barrier for women who might be interested in a career in front of the microphone. We’re determined to make sure everyone knows this is simply not true...it’s a myth.”

The ongoing nature of the issue of gender imbalance in our media sparked the National Women’s Council of Ireland’s report and proposal to the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland’s on their draft code on “fairness, impartiality and

accountability in news and current affairs programming”. Their report, which examines the levels of representation of men and women on current affairs programming again throws up damning figures including that in one week of the survey, RTE Radio One’s “News at One” broadcast 49 male voices and only 7 women ( 87.5/12.5%) The survey concludes that on average, less than one quarter (23%) of voices on air are women and calls upon the BAI to “plac[e] a requirement on all broadcasters to encompass and apply both gender sensitivity and gender parity to the development of programming.”

While hard measures may have their place, so does a greater emphasis on changing media culture from other angles. Women on Air are committed to fostering greater diversity of voices on the airwaves and so through organising networking and training to enable women with the skills and confidence to go on radio and television. “It’s important for girls to have healthy role models”, says Margaret, “and at the moment the media’s “normal” role model is a presenter or contributor who is a man in his 40s or 50s. “You can’t be what you can’t see”. If we want a strong future generation we need to show them that balance is important in all things.”

Role models are important, yet they must exist to provide leadership.

It is evident that a strong emphasis needs to be placed upon addressing the gross imbalance at present. For any media to be truly representative, to truly covey the “full picture” it must exemplify the society it claims to represent, and not write out an entire demographic.

with a euro donated to R&G Week charities every time a survey is filled out.

While this is only commendable, there is a major problem with this move to online surveys.

You see in the old fashioned quill and ink days, when a survey was handed out by a lecturer, the response rate was the number of students in the class; and if the class occurred towards the end of the year, that meant a huge response rate and huge dataset for the university to learn from.

However the decision has been taken to make progress, and progress equals online. But moreover this progress means a devaluation of student opinions. Students are not

easily corralled into fill out forms by pleading emails, and even the promise of a charitable donation won’t come close to matching a survey handed out in class.

Plus if you think about the type of students who fill out online surveys, they’re inevitably predominantly from the upper bracket of ‘engaged’ students in college; but perhaps this suits those who are hoping for positive answers.

So rather than the university or the Higher Education Authority learning from these surveys, we can learn from these survey methods that our opinions have a printing cost, and those opinions aren’t worth those seven cents.

80 to 90% of the time we turn on the radio we are listening to male voices

A five minute survey

Marita Maloney

Stephen Barry | Deputy Editor

Siobhain Heylin

I’ve been told that I’m only needed for a short opinion this week due to my editor’s lengthy postulations above, and I’m more than happy to oblige; although perhaps I should feel like my opinions are somewhat undervalued.

I’m getting used to that though, especially with recent changes to UCC survey methods.

You see module and student experience surveys are increasingly done online, and of course the prevailing orthodoxy dictates that online is always a step forward.

The Irish Survey of Student Engagement is the big one currently,

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UCC EXPRESS | Tuesday February 18, 2014

Nurses claim understaffing and emigration at epidemic levels

USI, student representatives and student nurses gathered outside Dáil Éireann on February 6th to launch the ‘Everyone Loves Nurses’ campaign. for the day due to sick leave. Apart from the three drug rounds that day and administration of the antibiotics which an intern is not covered to do, I was the sole carer for every single one of these patients.

“The nurse in charge came to occasionally check on me but could not stay to help much because there were other emergencies with a higher priority

throughout the rest of the understaffed ward.

“A nurse that has been qualified twenty years would struggle with this patient load let alone a student intern.

For as long as I practice I will never forget that day, patients asking me questions I didn’t know the answers to and doctors ordering tests I didn’t even know existed. The question must be asked, in what sort of economy can this sort of practice be justified?”

Such studies are intended to be coupled with the question, ‘am I worth €6.49?’

“The working life of a Student Nurse in today’s recessionary climate has

been reduced to an unacceptable level of working conditions,” says another student nurse. “Unsafe staff shortages and long working hours are just a part of the contributing factors to the difficult and stressful life of a Student Nurse.

“The physical drain of a 13 hour shift, working under serious time constraints in an understaffed ward, pave the way for cutting corners in Patient Care and, in particular, correct manual handling.”

The campaign, which was launched at the start of February, will see bigger demonstrations take place at the Health Service Executive offices.

R&G Week festivities kick off Stephen Barry | News Editor

“It’s all coming together so we’ve got a lot planned for the week now,” said Students’ Union Entertainment Officer James Murray the Friday before the start of Raise and Give Week.

The week is headlined by comedian Bernard O’Shea in Devere Hall on Wednesday amid a series of other events and competitions such as Rat Race, Iron Stomach, the Nearly Naked Mile and more. “While I think we’ve got good events going on, we’ve got equally good prizes to reward people for their efforts,” said Murray with tickets for Munster’s Heineken Cup quarter-final, the 1975, vouchers, suits and hoodies all up for grabs this week.

With the majority of the organisational work behind him, Murray reflected on the charities chosen for the weeklong fundraiser.

“Some charities made bids as such, but it was brought up at Exec

Gender injustices found in media

Clara Hurley | News Writer

Stephen Barry | News Editor

Student nurses have come together under the Union of Students in Ireland (USI)’s ‘Everyone Loves Nurses’ campaign which hopes to see salaries increase for interns and graduates.

Student nurses earn €6.49 per hour when they are interning, in what is a nine-month internship, while the starting salary for new graduates is €22,000, a drop of €4,000 in recent years.

“The message to Minister Reilly today is loud and clear;” said USI President, Joe O’Connor, “change the starting salary level back to €26,000 for newly graduated nurses.

“This drop in starting salary is actively encouraging young graduate nurses to emigrate. Our hospitals need nurses to stay in Ireland to work. Understaffing is already a massive issue in the healthcare sector; conditions need to change now, starting with increasing the starting wage. Everyone has a right to a living wage, especially hard working nurses.”

They are also calling for an increase in the wage of interns, who are currently paid 50% of the starting graduate salary, a figure that previously stood at 80%.

An anonymous case study further tells the story of the nursing intern: “As a student intern, a mere two and a half months into my placement, I was once allocated to eleven patients with a senior member of staff who had to take charge

NEWS

so there was a general discussion. We decided we’d go with Breakthrough Cancer Research because they’re such a local one, based on campus basically, and the work they’re doing is phenomenal, developing all sorts of new treatments that are breaking all sorts of records in their effectiveness.

“COPE Foundation is more of a personal one, Gavin Lynch Frahill [SU Education Officer]’s brother is in the COPE Foundation so he’s been involved with the work they do for years, so we all agreed that was a good one to go with.

“And then the five sabbatical officers went up to visit CUH Children’s Ward in the first semester and they just took to it because the conditions up there should’ve been a lot better; for example having shared bathrooms between six kids, all in one room with no TV. You’d expect the place to be colourful and a nice place to be if it’s a Children’s Ward, but it wasn’t.”

Last year saw UCC students praised for their behaviour during Rag Week as the focus returned to fundraising for charity

Murray would’ve liked to have made an earlier start to the promotion of the week, but is happy overall with the daily highlights and the online donation system which he hopes will boost fundraising.

“We’re trying to remind people where the emphasis of the week is, said Murray of the perceptions of R&G Week, “that it’s not RAG Week, it’s Raise and Give Week.

“So having a full timetable of fun events that are worthwhile going to during the day that you don’t need to be drunk for is a key aspect of it.”

More ID checking in the campus bars, more security on campus and around the city at night with the Student Community Support are the foremost measures to ensure that the festivities are kept under control.

Discussion at the sixth annual UCC Journalism Conference last Saturday was dominated by two obstacles currently facing the industry; the uncertainty of the future of print media and the need for feminism in journalism.

In his opening address, the keynote speaker, Dolan O’Hagan condemned traditional media’s reluctance to embrace the digital era as being “archaic and banal.”

Indeed as the debate progressed, the need to prepare for a “multiplatform” future of journalism became increasingly evident.

While Mary Smithwick of the Evening Echo reiterated the urgency to become “platform agnostic,” she was adamant that this must not lower journalistic standards. Moreover, she urged the audience to “stop obsessing over the delivery method and concentrate on the product.”

During the Question and Answer session, Dr Finola DoyleO’Neill criticised the panel’s failure to address the prospects of the provincial press. It was revealed that the majority believe a sustainable future will be difficult to achieve because “the current model is no longer fit for purpose.”

The afternoon session focused on the lack of females in the industry as well as the fact that women tend to be assigned lightweight “pink subjects” such as fashion.

Columnists Alison O’Connor and Colette Browne both revealed that their experiences of journalism have been coloured by gender injustices. O’Connor has found that “the weight of the woman’s voice does not carry sufficient authority” in the world of journalism. Similarly, Browne recognises that the topics female journalists tend to be assigned conform to “sexist stereotypes of women.”

One contributor, RTE’s Fran McNulty caused commotion when he declared that he did not agree with the need for feminism in journalism. However, this statement was clarified when McNulty explained that while journalism does need more women, it does not need the political implications of feminism.

Tying the topics of both sessions together, O’Hagan stated that in order to move forward, journalism has to choose between “observing the past or rebuilding the future”.

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Tuesday February 18, 2014 | UCC EXPRESS

NEWS

Students set to escape UCC NEWS Robert O’ Sullivan Film & TV Editor

Fifteen teams of two from UCC will take part in a national Jailbreak competition this weekend.

All 15 UCC applicants were successful and they join 76 other teams from Trinity College Dublin, UCD, DCU & NUIG in the competition.

The idea of Jailbreak is to get as far away from Ireland as you can in 36 hours.

Competitors cannot spend any money on their travel, unless they specifically raise money for it.

The charity event was started last year in Ireland in Trinity. The winning team

in the inaugural got as far as Buenos Aries, while another team got to Syndey, although they arrived beyond the 36 hour mark.

This year also features the ‘SnapChat Rat Race’ where one person goes to a mystery location in Europe and sends SnapChats to the contestants, throughout the weekend, of pictures containing clues as to where in Europe they are. The first team to find the person and take a picture with them wins the Rat Race.

The Rat Race is proving popular with the UCC contestants, with a few of the 15 teams setting that as their

Famelab heat set for UCC

Stephen Barry News Editor Famelab, the world’s largest science communication competition, will hold a heat in UCC next Monday.

The competition is open to students, professionals and amateurs alike and features entrants giving a

three minute presentation, without the use of a PowerPoint, on bizarre and relevant science topics. The International final is held at the Cheltenham Science Festival.

Last year’s global winner was UCC environmental science researcher Fergus

IN BRIEF

main goal, rather than the traditional endgame of going as far as you can.

Jailbreak in UCC is organised by the Saint Vincent de Paul and Amnesty International Societies.

In speaking to one this year’s Jailbreak Contestants, they remarked at the difficulties faced when preparing for Jailbreak; “It’s difficult to raise money for these two charities, and try to get flights, when you and your team mate have college from 9am to 5 or 6pm every day, but we’re getting there!”

Competitors will be jetting off into the wild blue yonder on the 22nd of February.

McAuliffe who spoke about the Northern Canadian woodfrog and how they blur the line between life and death by freezing their organs during the winter but remaining alive; a topic which could influence the length of time organs can be stored for.

Stephen Barry | News Editor

Tyndall Professor ranked highly

Speaking about his experience of the competition, McAuliffe said; “for me FameLab was a great experience. Seeing as there are a number of different rounds you will improve as each round progresses. This is helped by all of the training you receive from some of the world’s top science communicators.

“By being involved your communication and public

speaking skills will be honed and these will be of use to you in many fields down the line. And most importantly it is great fun – getting to meet many other people from around the world who share the same passion as you for science communication.”

McAuliffe’s win resulted in a role on RTE One’s show ‘The Science Squad’ last autumn.

Professor Eoin O’Reilly was one of the recipients of the 2014 Rank Prize for Optoelectronics. The Head of Theory, Modelling and Design at the Tyndall National Institute won €15,000 for his pioneering work on strainedlayer laser structures, which helped speed up optical fibre communication transfers. O’Reilly was one of four professors who challenged the 1980s orthodoxy that such structures should be strain-free.

“The Rank Prize only recognises outstanding research which is found to be of significant benefit to mankind,” said Kieran Drain, CEO of the Tyndall.

“If you look around you – from your high speed internet connection, to your favourite DVD, strained lasers have been the key catalyst to a faster digital world over the past 30 years.

Eoin’s blue sky thinking has made him a pivotal member of a small group of pre-eminent researchers in this field and we are delighted that he has been honoured with this prestigious award.”

Campus shutdown for windy Wednesday

Tyndall strikers to picket main campus Eoghan Lyng Arts & Lit Editor Two further one day work stoppages have been declared by 70 Tyndall staff to take place this week and next.

These stoppages will take place on Wednesday the 19th, at all entrances to the Tyndall Institute, and Wednesday the 26th of February, at the Tyndall Institute and Main Campus.

The strikes are generated from the Tyndall staff’s

dissatisfaction with their payments.

According to a statement published on Services, Industrial, Professional and Technical Union (SIPTU)’s website, SIPTU Organiser Bill Mulcahy commented that “Following on from a one day work stoppage on Tuesday, January 21st, members will be intensifying their industrial action at the facility including the expansion of work to rule

measures and further work stoppages.”

It has been stated that the Irish Federation of University Teachers (IFUT) members will support SIPTU during this time. IFUT publicly supported SIPTU on January 21st, although none of their members took part on the day of picketing.

The Labour Commission has met up with SIPTU and the Tyndall Institute since the first strike was held.

It appears that these talks have been inconclusive.

SIPTU maintain that they are available for talks.

The strikes are based around economic inequity.

According to SIPTU`s website, members of the Tyndall Institute earn anything as little as 20% less than many of their other University College Cork colleagues.

In a statement UCC said “difficulties focus mainly on

current public service pay policy, and agreement could not be reached in that context.

“The university greatly values its staff and acknowledges that there should be no disparity of treatment between staff in Tyndall and staff within the university. However, resolution of any such disparity must also be in accordance with and have regard to the current legislation governing public pay policy and the provisions of the Haddington Road Agreement.”

The lecture timetable in UCC was suspended from 2pm, with students advised to leave campus from 3pm on, due to high winds causing a risk from falling slates, branches and debris on Wednesday the 12th. The Library and other buildings closed early before campus was cleared and roofs were repaired the following day. A tree fell in Brookfield Student Village, however there were no injuries.

In a timely announcement, UCC announced the launch of a Coastal and Marine Management Masters programme. The course incorporates extensive field and laboratory experience in coastal and marine study areas, including ship-based training on-board Irish national research vessel RV Celtic Voyager, as well as research.

Battle of the Flags The first major event of the historical re-enactment calendar took place in Perrott’s Inch Field on the UCC lower grounds last Saturday. Falling in the year of the 1,000th anniversary of the Battle of Clontarf, reenactors travelled from across Ireland for the event. The event was organised by the Medieval and Renaissance Society.

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UCC EXPRESS | Tuesday February 18, 2014

NEWS

Students to Relay for Cancer charities AROUND THE COLLEGES

Claire Crowley | Deputy Features Editor

60 teams have registered for Relay for Life UCC, a 24-hour fundraising event which will take place on the 28th of February in the Mardyke Arena. The event is running for a second year and looks set to grow from last year when 26 teams signed up and €20,236.94 was raised.

Relay for Life is an overnight community celebration which honours current and former cancer patients, their families and friends.

Teams of clubs, societies, staff, friends and families come together in groups of 8 to 20 people to take part in the event. All funds raised through sponsorship will go to the Irish Cancer Society to support their work in eliminating cancer as a major health problem and in improving the lives of those living with cancer.

Last year’s event received praise from the American Cancer Society and this year the aim is to raise €50,000.

While this fundraising event is organised by the UCC Cancer Society, the intention is to unite the entire community of Cork in the fight against cancer. There is an appeal for anyone who has dealt with cancer

Heather Steele| Deputy News Editor

Trinity Hist in sexism row

or who is simply interested in this unique event to contact CancerSoc and get involved.

As cancer never sleeps, each team is asked to have a representative on the track at all times during the day-long event. Otherwise, team members are free to socialise, play games and enjoy 24 hour live entertainment. The headline act for the event are UV5.

The Survivors’ Lap in Relay is an inspirational start to the event where cancer survivors of all ages are invited to begin the Relay by walking

the first lap of the course, cheered on by family, friends, and teams from the community. The Candle of Hope ceremony takes place later in

Last year’s event received praise from the American Cancer Society and this year the aim is to raise €50,000

the evening when darkness begins to fall. Before the event everyone in the community is invited to dedicate a Candle of Hope to someone they know who has been touched by cancer. As the evening approaches, the candles are set around the track and lit by participants.

Cancer will affect one in three people in Ireland during their lifetime. In Ireland an average of 30,000 new cases of cancer are diagnosed each year. The number is expected to rise to over 40,000 per year by 2020.

Student Council delayed until after R&G Week Stephen Barry | News Editor

Motions on topics such as financial transparency, exclusive entertainment contracts and support for the Irish language will be discussed at a rescheduled Student Council, after last Wednesday’s meeting was postponed due to the weather-enforced campus shutdown.

A motion on the Union’s financial transparency, put forward by current LGBT Rights Officer and Deputy President candidate James Upton, proposed a new system designed to promote greater accountability for the Union’s spending.

The motion calls the Current system “grossly inadequate for the current Union’s size and almost non-existent” stating that it alienates some students.

“You’re playing with students’ money,” said Upton of the Union’s financial responsibilities.

“If there’s so much student hardship and so much pressure on students, students deserve to know where their money is being spent.

“The Union needs to be accountable to where it’s spending money and why we’re spending it in that way and why we’re not

“The Union needs to be accountable to where it’s spending money and why we’re spending it in that way and why we’re not putting it into other things.”

putting it into other things.”

This motion would set up a finance sub-committee who would propose expenditure decisions to the Executive, while a summary of these decisions would be presented at Student Council each quarter.

Upton believes that this will enable Class Representatives to better justify the Union’s spending to their classes.

Another motion, put forward

by Entertainment Officer James Murray, would mandate the Union to not make exclusivity deals with venues that last more than two months.

The motion states that “exclusivity deals with single venues voids the Entertainment Officers role and surrenders SU advertising autonomy and commercial viability.

“The Entertainment Officer’s job is not to represent and promote a single venue and their events. This shifts the role’s focus to providing for venues as opposed to students.”

The motion further states that this “compromises the Entertainment Officer’s duty to the student population.”

Six motions in all were to

be discussed at the postponed Council. As well as debates about the Union’s financial transparency and entertainment contracts, a motion about the Student Centre room charges was to be discussed.

The other three motions all related to the Union’s Irish language policy.

The first mandates the SU Campaigns Officer, Annie Hoey, to work with Irish Officer, Timmy Collins, to get a greater role for the Union in UCC’s Seomra Caidreamh, a common room for Irish speakers and learners located in the O’Rahilly Building.

Another motion mandates the President, Padraig Haughney, to work with Collins and the Accommodation Board to provide cheaper Irish language accommodation, due to the relatively high price of Aras Ui Thuama, while the final motion asks the Union to support efforts to promote the Irish language and disagree with what it terms “the Government’s seeming disregard and neglect for the Irish language and its speakers.” That motion bore particular relevance to the Lá Mór na Gaeilge march last Saturday.

The Trinity College Historical Society was amid scandal last week by the publication of a document, which demanded an end to sexism within the society.

In response to this allegation the committee has agreed to elect an interim Equality Officer and introduce minimum gender quotas for future debates. Dee Courtney, one of the five signatories on the document, said that they felt they had go public with their demands.

She said “we had a committee meeting on Monday and it was clear that our demands were going to be met at that point. The reason we went public is because we felt it was a society as well as a committee issue. It’s important for freshers to know that things are going to change and it will be different for them if they run for committee.”

CIT bids for mass ‘selfie’ record Last week, 229 students from CIT turned up for the mass ‘selfie’ event to raise money for various overseas charities. The entire event was organized by first year business students studying at CIT. Before the event there had been no world record for a mass selfie.

There were strict rules in place for the record attempt. Students had to be seated and could not include another person in their selfie.

Halpin family pay tribute The family of the 18-year old DCU student, Patrick Halpin, who died in London last week, paid tribute to him in a mass in the city. Over 100 Irish people who live in London attended the mass.

The mass, which was organized by members of the Galway Association in London, heard readings from the Halpin family.

Halpin was seen alive leaving a club in Leicester Square to go to a fast food outlet. He was in London on a trip with DCU’s Drama Society. His body was found two days later in an enclosed area above the restaurant.

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Tuesday February 18, 2014 | UCC EXPRESS

COMMENT

INTERVIEW

Marriage Equality -an International Battle Brian Conmy talks politics with New York State Assemblyman Daniel O’ Donnell who was instrumental in passing the state’s Marriage Equality Bill s part of my college degree, Government in UCC, I am afforded the opportunity to partake in a work placement program in my third year of study. Thanks to special ties between University College Cork and the New York based College of St. Rose I am lucky enough to currently be residing in Albany New York where I’m interning in the New York State Legislature. This establishment is the seat of legislative power in New York State, where bills that affect the lives of almost 20 million New Despite this opposition by lobbyists which targeted Yorkers are passed on a daily basis. people in the legislature and sometimes specifically One such bill passed in 2011 may not directly Mr. O’Donnell there was also plenty of support. “I affect all of these 20 odd million people but was think there was more pro here because there was a nonetheless a source of much debate not only in sense it was coming. I’ve come to believe that New the legislature but among many people in the state, York passing Marriage Equality was the tipping point nationally and even internationally: New York’s in the conversation, when we first passed the bill in Marriage Equality Bill. Recently I was lucky enough 2007 less than 40% of New Yorkers supported it so to sit down and talk with the introducer of the bill it was a much braver vote in 2007. By 2011 we were Assemblyman Daniel O’ Donnell who assures me he getting around 50% and now it’s over 60% so the has no connection to a certain Irish entertainer of the movement was with us. After a step back with prop 8 same name. As Ireland begins to enter the discussion in California and people needed a sense of victory and about the Marriage Equality referendum that’s set to we got one.” take place in 2015 Mr. O’Donnell talked about his Interestingly in New York any attempt at experiences in passing the bill and also talked about introducing a civil partnership system in place of his feelings on the Irish situation. full civil marriage wasn’t made as it was in Ireland.

“It was the third time that a legislative body “People would say to me I’d vote for a civil union in the United States of America passed Marriage bill, New Jersey tried that and it didn’t work. The area Equality without being ordered to do so by a court” where it was most problematic was Assemblyman O’Donnell recounts hospitals, where somebody about the bill he introduced It can get very personal and very hard, actually would present at a hospital and say I alongside Senator Thomas Duane. but the truth is that homophobia exists, have a civil union and they wouldn’t When this bill passed it was also know what to do with that. It became the third time it was voted on. “In there are homophobes in our culture clear to me that you can’t have it 2007 was the first time we passed without calling it what it is and in our it in the Assembly and that was culture that’s called marriage. There seems to be a the third legislative body to do so in the country, misnomer that marriage is a sacrament in the Roman it didn’t become enacted until 2011. We ended up Catholic Church and it’s not, the sacrament is holy having to pass 5 bills before it became law” These matrimony and marriage is a license that’s issued by bills included amendments to the original bill done to the state. I wasn’t trying to change the rules of holy effectively appease the Senate which has traditionally matrimony I was trying to change the rules of the been Republican controlled versus the Democratic government about who could get a marriage license.” controlled Assembly in New York.

In recent weeks the argument around Marriage O’Donnell notes on the amendment to the bill Equality in Ireland has been brought to the forefront he introduced in 2011 to alleviate the worries of of the media through the actions of Rory O’Neill or Republican’s particularly in the Senate “It was kind as you may know him by his drag counterpart, Ms. of ridiculous, it says that the bill doesn’t supersede Panti Bliss. Ms. Bliss who Assemblyman O’ Donnell the first amendment. As if any bill the Assembly ever was more than aware of was shocked to hear about the passes supersedes the first amendment, so it was a bill issue that arose from the accusation of homophobia to ensure that it wasn’t going to impose this [Marriage made on RTÉ which was subsequently censored.

Equality] on religions which it was never going to When asked about this issue Mr O’Donnell equated do in the first place. This provided some comfort and the situation to an American one. “Well I was called allowed the bill to pass”. a lot of names I can tell you that. On the last day of Aside from the difficulties in wrangling debate in 2011 when I was explaining my vote on Republican’s to vote for, or at least not oppose, the the amendment that was passing I told them [the Marriage Equality bill there were dissenting voices Assembly] that I was happy this was happening but outside of the Assembly and Senate chambers. “There that sometimes it wasn’t pleasant. Some things were was a very virulent anti Marriage Equality lobby here said about me and my family that were very… I think in the building who would scream at me and call I said they would be worthy of me coming across and me names. You ride the elevators with them, they taking someone out. Which is a little more inflamed would know and I fight back. Which didn’t always than I try and be. It can get very personal and very work out so well. But I always tried to stay calm.” hard, but the truth is that homophobia exists, there are

homophobes in our culture, our society, our world and I don’t know how anybody can decide that you can’t if you’re experiencing homophobia that you can’t say it. It’s like if you can’t say racist on TV, you can’t say sexist on TV, that seems bizarre to me.”

With similar experiences to what we may see in Ireland, Mr. O’ Donnell had this message for Irish people and legislators in the run up to 2014.

“Well what I’ll say to you is that you have to have a communication strategy and you have to have a message. The messaging has to be consistent. When I first tried to frame this in 2007 as a rights issue I got into some trouble with the African American community for equating this to civil rights. So I moved away from that rights issue to an equality issue and that made it much better because then it was an equality issue and not about rights. You have to remember that people have a movie in their head and when you say to some traditional, heterosexual couple that was married in a Roman Catholic Church by a priest that lit candles and kneeled and said prayers, when you say to them you want a gay wedding the movie in their head is two men dressed in Vera Wang dresses walking down the main cathedral in Dublin. You have to get them to not see that movie in their head. You have to get them to see this from a civil government perspective, not a religious prospective. If you can succeed in doing that then you can win. It’s not easy.”

In the aftermath of the bill now almost 3 years passed trouble still exists around the issue of Marriage Equality. “Even today there was a vote on conforming the estate laws to bring them up to date with Marriage Equality and we’re still getting a dozen people voting against it. There is still work to be done particularly regarding the transgender community, with a need to ensure our transgender brothers and sisters are fully protected under the law. I continue to focus on those things and work forward”.

In thanking Mr. O’Donnell for his work and the interview he noted on the experience of passing the bill, “I’ll never have that feeling again. It was a lot of work but it’s very engaging, I will never feel that way ever again. I feel I played a role in history and New York was part of the tipping point. You should have your Irish compatriots invite me, I’d love to do something to help.”

With a better understanding of the struggles faced in passing a law which Ireland may pass next year I hope to one day share the feeling Daniel O’Donnell experienced that day in 2011 when he gained the right to marry his husband the same as any other couple can.

Tuesday February 18, 2014 | UCC EXPRESS

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FEATURES

JMUCC Team set to

conquer Canada

Claire Crowley | Deputy Features Editor

A team of four final year BComm students will represent the College of Business and Law at the John Molson International Case Competition (JMUCC) in Concordia University, Montreal from February 16th – 23rd 2014. Internationally recognised business schools compete in a weeklong event hosted by the John Molson School of Business.

Students are offered the opportunity to apply the knowledge and skills learned through university study and work placement in this event.

This competition gives the students the opportunity to interact with internationally renowned business leaders, other students from around the world and industry professionals.

Twenty four business schools were chosen to compete from all applying Universities. JMUCC is an opportunity for University College Cork to be seen on an international level competing alongside prestigious business schools from North and South America, Australia, Asia and Europe. We also see this as an opportunity for companies to market themselves to a large international audience. This is a serious case competition between high achieving young business leaders of the future in a fun, international and academic environment. The team representing UCC are James Furlong, Jennifer Keating, Emmett Fenton-Leogue, and Mary-Jade Hynes. Sponsorship has been provided by KPMG and by the UCC Commerce Society.

KPMG have also provided training on presentation skills to the team.

Preparation for the competition is very much a strong collaboration between the Faculty of Commerce academics, the Careers service and the sponsors. Following last year’s success in finishing 5th in the competition, it is expected that this year’s team will once again enhance the reputation of the College of Business and Law and University College Cork.

“The John Molson Undergraduate Case Competition provides a great opportunity to promote UCC on the International stage through our top performing students. Participation in this competition between the top Business Schools from Canada, US, South America, Australia, Asia, and Europe allows our students to network with internationally renowned business leaders, other students from around the globe and industry professionals. Preparation for the event shows UCC at its best, with students, academics, and the careers office, collaborating to showcase the talent UCC has on offer on the international arena” - Dr Noel Woods, BComm, Director.

Why not ditch the diet, forget the fad and just try to be healthy and happy?

Grace o’ Sullivan | Features Editor

They do say that everyone has a purpose and I think I have found one of mine – my aim is to dispel the myths that are out there in relation to dieting. As a twenty-year-old girl, I can say I’ve heard every single myth in relation to dieting. There is a constant pressure on girls, and boys alike to be a walking Adonis – and reaching it seems to be through any means possible. Over the next couple of weeks it is my aim to try and encourage you all to ditch the diet and forget the fad, and just live healthy. It seems simple enough to me – eat clean, and exercise regularly.

This weeks column has been spurred on by what I can only describe as an onslaught of advertisements in the media in relation to diet tricks, and fads that seem to be a sure fire way to get you thin. To say that these quick fix magic tricks get on my last nerve is an understatement. When you are worried about being overweight the chances are you are feeling vulnerable and self-conscious – this seems to me to be one of the main reasons the diet industry is worth so much money.

Perhaps we should forget about trying to be super skinny, or muscle men and just try to be healthier. The main objective of any transformation of lifestyle should be to improve your quality of life – be it having a healthy weight, or just being a little bit more toned. Every person is different and no one method will suit everyone.

So here are my basic tips to get you started on leading a healthier life:

BE SMART

It never ceases to amaze me how many people seek advice on how to get healthier, or lead a balanced lifestyle. The old mantra of “you know what’s best for you,” seems quite apt here. Making smarter choices should save you a lot of money on books, magazines and other subscriptions on how to be healthier. We’ve all heard the little gems of information in relation to asking yourself if you’re really hungry or are you just thirsty? There’s a lot of sugar in fizzy drinks, and read the labels. I think the main piece of advice in

The main objective of any transformation of lifestyle should be to improve your quality of life

if you’re attempting to shift a turkey tummy, why not do so the right way? Eat lean protein, wholegrain, fruit, vegetables and dairy. Just make the simple changes – such as switch from white to brown – don’t try to deprive yourself of anything.

Have a few treats, but work if off in the gym – life without ice cream for me would be bleak. Listen, nobody is perfect – by God I know – but just try and eat better foods, that grow in the ground or are minimally processed. It’s very easy to fall into the whole “well, it says fat free so I can have five” trap. The choice is yours, take simple, proven steps to establishing a healthier lifestyle, or keep trying to get on board with the latest craze that may or may not provide the instant changes.

ORGANISATION SENSATION

relation to being healthy is to trust yourself to make smart choices – “five a day” has been drilled into everyone since playschool, so why no try to implement it?

JUST DANCE

So it seems Lady Gaga was onto something when she released her first hit way back when. Physical activity is the key to maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Now I’m not saying you should be aiming to run a Marathon in two weeks (more power to you if you can) but make simple changes and you will look and feel better. IN relation to exercise do what works for you! If you’re a chatterbox why not try roping a friend into being your gym buddy – you can have a good aul catch-up side by side on a treadmill. If you consider yourself a bit of an amateur DJ and have a collection of playlists waiting to be heard – why not put in the headphones and start running or cycling until you can’t sing along anymore (my method of knowing I’m working hard enough). Take a class – you go to college every/most days in order to learn – so why not try doing a fitness class. You could

meet some cool new people and as well as that it’s a good way of knowing you’ve done the workout correctly. I would recommend Spin: the music is usually great!

PATIENCE MY DEAR

In a society where by you can have a pizza delivered to your door before you’ve even hung up the phone from ordering it, it is hard to wait it out and do things the right way. I will be to the first to admit that I like things to happen – and happen quickly, but such is life. I can honestly admit I did a few situps before bed one night and secretly thought I’d be waking up with a touch of a six pack: no need to say how that one panned out. All the best things in life take time, and are worth waiting for – healthy, fit and happier are no exceptions.

DITCH THE DIET

I would suggest you all forget the word diet and supplement it with healthy – diet has negative connotations, whereas healthy makes you feel good. [If you have a specific medical condition and need to stick to a certain diet then it stands to reason that you should follow it] However,

I feel as though people think maintaining a healthy lifestyle can be an expensive and time-consuming ordeal, thus convenience foods etc. are constantly being eaten. Yes you can go all organic and spend every bob you have on food and fancy spices. However there is an alternative: why not try making the most of the in season vegetables that are on offer? They are usually cheaper – seriously there is no excuse the offer leaflets come in the letterbox/fall out of every newspaper you buy. Make a batch of soup for a week and freeze what you don’t use. Buy cheaper cuts of meat – such as the legs of chicken: equally nutritious but much cheaper. I think it’s safe to say that with a bit of organization and a little extra effort you could be well on your way to healthier diet – and who knows you could save a few pennies along the way.

Overall, the one thing that I’d like for you all to take from this piece is that there is no need to starve yourself, or spend your hard earned cash on fad diets and pills. Just make the decision to take the small steps in order to have a healthier lifestyle – the rest will fall into place over time. So why not join me in my mission to ditch the diet and embrace the grace of a healthier lifestyle.

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Tuesday February 18, 2014 | UCC EXPRESS

FEATURES

The Ukrainian Crisis: Context and Perspective Aaron Kieran Noonan | Feature Writer

When reporting on international crises, journalists often fail to provide historical, cultural and political context. The immediacy of such crises, like the current unrest in Ukraine or the civil war in Syria, often imposes limitations on those reporting. The twentyfour hour news cycle generally disallows for in-depth analysis, with emphasis placed on reporting events expeditiously, leaving very little time and space for review and insight. So, while incidences of great upheaval such as civil wars, mass demonstrations, and revolutions are afforded much attention in the media, the fundamental factors that stimulate such events are oftentimes under-reported.

Ukrainians began protesting on 21 November last year to voice their frustration at the fact that President Viktor Yanukovych reneged on a deal to strengthen economic ties with the European Union. Instead, he has opted to economically ally with Vladimir Putin’s Russia, a move that is seen by many Ukrainians as counter-intuitive given Ukraine’s history of subjugation by the Soviet Union. While the original protestations surrounded the EU deal, Ukrainian anger has since turned directly toward President Yanukovych, a man long accused of corrupt practices. Many argue that since his election in 2010, he has driven the Ukrainian economy into the ground. He fuelled further discontent by passing highly controversial anti-protest laws in mid-January in an effort to curb the protests. These new laws severely limited free-speech, protest rights, and even made wearing helmets a criminal act. In clear concessions to protesters and the opposition they were repealed less than two weeks later but not before three protesters were shot to death. The country’s Prime Minister also tendered his resignation. For most Ukrainians, such compromises are seen as too little, too late. Demonstrators are now calling for snap elections, refusing to leave their protest sites until Yanukovych and his government resigns.

Although the crisis has clearcut surface tensions, namely Yanukovych’s perceived corruption and his yielding to Russian pressure, it is important to acknowledge that Ukrainian support for Europe isn’t as homogenous as western media tends to report (46%, compared with 38% for a Russian deal). Complex cultural, political and historical motivations very much affect how Ukrainians see the direction

On December 8th, protesters in the Ukrainian capital Kiev, toppled a statue of former Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin. Much of the demonstrations stem from the belief that Russia has too much influence over Ukraine.

they want their country to take, and explain why many, but not all, Ukrainians took to the streets to remonstrate against their own government.

Ukraine in its current form is a relatively young country, forming twenty-two years ago at the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Centuries of foreign occupation, mostly by Russia, has meant that Ukraine has had great difficulty in forming its own national identity.

When seeking to understand Ukraine’s identity issues, it is pertinent to acknowledge its cumbersome geographical position.

It sits right in-between Russia and Europe, like a jig-saw puzzle piece holding the East and West together.

Politically, economically and culturally it is being pulled in both directions - Europe seeks to bring it into the European Union while Russia sees it as strategically and symbolically important. With Russia currently struggling to re-establish itself as an influential player on the

international stage, losing Ukraine to the West would be damaging.

This push-and-pull from Europe and Russia has created an invisible border, more or less dividing the country in two. Those on the western side are generally seen as pro-Europe and the eastern side are mainly proRussia. Historically, Russia has exerted an over-bearing influence on Ukraine. A devastating famine took place in the country in the early

Due to the fact that western Ukrainians tend to align themselves with European ideals, they see any economic cooperation by President Yanukovych with Russia as a bad deal.

1930s, mainly in the east. Some historians argue (others disagree) that the famine was pre-meditated

by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin as a method of curtailing Ukrainian national pride, while simultaneously allowing him to repopulate stricken regions with ethnic Russians cementing The Soviet Union’s hold on eastern Ukraine.

Due to its history of occupation

by Russia, along with its proximity to Europe, the east and the west of present-day Ukraine are incredibly polarised. While Ukrainian is the official language of the country, only 50% of people speak it daily, and they are almost all in the west. By contrast, 29% speak Russian as their native tongue and they’re almost all in the east of the country. The Ukrainian language was banned in the east from 1804 until the Russian Revolution in 1917, and this greatly influenced the cultural divides that we see today.

Such divides pervade electoral politics also. Viktor Yushchenko, President of Ukraine from 2005 until 2010, was born in the west of Ukraine and was decidedly pro-European. He embarked on an intense campaign of ‘Ukrainianisation’ during his tenure in office, even opting to only speak Ukrainian to Russian President Vladimir Putin through an interpreter, despite speaking fluent Russian himself. By contrast, current President Viktor Yanukovych is a native of eastern Ukraine, and only learned to speak Ukrainian in his fifties. He has been far more friendly to Russia than his predecessor.

The current turmoil over the EU deal is symptomatic of this

divide. Due to the fact that western Ukrainians tend to align themselves with European ideals, they see any economic co-operation by President Yanukovych with Russia as a bad deal. As such, much of the protests have been taking place in the west.

Interestingly, since Yanukovych implemented those sweeping anti-protest laws in January, demonstrations have begun to spring up in the east of the country, with the east and west of Ukraine uniting in its abhorrence of the President’s increasingly authoritarian measures.

President Yanukovych now finds himself in an extremely delicate position. Although Ukrainians are divided over his co-operation with Russia, they are united in repudiating his autocratic tendencies. But with his position becoming increasingly untenable, such co-operation between western and eastern Ukrainians is unlikely to last if and when he is ousted.

Ukraine sits in a precarious position, tucked neatly in between the East and West - a situation which is forcing it to make a tough choice. To re-align itself with Mother Russia would be to renew an ancient, complex and not always fruitful relationship. To look west towards Europe would be to break new ground and achieve greater inclusion on the international stage.

A national debate needs to be held among Ukrainian citizens and its leaders, and the very real divide that extends to all aspects of Ukrainian society needs to be bridged if the fledgling nation is to break out of the shadow of its past and forge its own statehood.

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UCC EXPRESS | Tuesday February 18, 2014

FEATURES

Watch your Drink

BITTER

Deputy Features Editor Claire Crowley discusses alcohol and being at the wrong place at the wrong time

Lloyd’s Online Doctor.ie offers customers prescriptions for medications for a fee of €25 Audrey Ellard Walsh | Editor

An online prescription service, launched recently in Ireland, has been attracting criticism from a variety of groups.

The website, Lloyd’s Online Doctor.ie offers customers prescriptions for medications such as the contraceptive pill, asthma inhaler Ventolin and weight loss pills Xenical for a fee of €25.

The company promote this service as making healthcare “more accessible and more affordable” than a GP visit.

The customer must first complete an online form which is then reviewed by an Irish registered Doctor before the prescription is issued.

Questions may include a person’s weight and height, blood pressure and medical history however the lack of a face-to-face consultation has been touted as an issue by the Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP).

Dr Darach O’Ciardha of the ICGP considers acquiring prescriptions online as “a potential cause of concern in relation to patient safety and health in Ireland.”

He warns that while a form with predetermined questions can be helpful, it is open to potential misinterpretation. He also stresses that “Correctly measuring a woman’s blood pressure when prescribing the combined oral contraceptive pill to ensure it hasn’t increased since starting treatment is an example of the importance of the physical examination prior to issuing a prescription.”

Face-to-face consultations can, he argues, “lead to opportunistic health promotion, such as smoking cessation, pre-pregnancy counselling, mental health advice, and sexual health advice”, something which is negated by an online prescription procurement.

Bodywhys, the Eating Disorders Association of Ireland have also raised concerns with the service, particularly the issue that medicines intended for weight management are potentially available to people with eating disorders.

Jacinta Hastings, CEO of Bodywhys said: “The safe sale of pharmacy medicines should ensure that weight loss products are not readily available to those for whom they are not intended — people who are under weight and under age.”

“Stringent measures need to be in place so as to ensure that medicines are dispensed to those for whom it is clinically appropriate.”

The online surveys do not ask for a patient to reveal their age, or in

the case of the contraceptive pill, an accurate blood pressure reading. It merely asks to tick a box stating when the patient’s blood pressure was last checked by a GP, and if they were told whether it was “normal”, “low”, “high” or “don’t remember”.

Dr Tom Brett, Medical Director of Lloyd’s Online Doctor says that uptake of the service, particularly for the contraceptive pill, has exceeded expectations. He puts this down to a combination of the fact that the target market- women in their twenties and thirties are more internet savvy, as well as a cost conscious element.

In relation to concerns, Dr Brett explains that Lloyd’s try to ensure that when a person orders the pill that they do tell the truth, such as putting disclaimers at the beginning and end of the questionnaire asking a patient to declare that they are telling the truth.

He states that questionnaires are designed to flag inconsistencies.

“We are able to cross check the name on the credit card with the name of the person so if somebody is not being truthful with their name then we will query that with them. Our system also detects if someone is creating multiple accounts with the same address so we do have various safeguards in place to do that.”

Dr Brett also argues that private GPs in Ireland rely on patients telling them the truth in a face-to-face consultation too as much as we rely on them telling the truth in an online questionnaire.

With regards to the prescription of Xenical, he states that Lloyd’s are “a bit more vigilant with the weight loss service” calculating a person’s BMI when they provide their height and weight, querying inconsistencies and telephoning people at random to ask them about their use of the medicine.

He states that Lloyd’s have a pretty low threshold for rejecting patients for the weight loss service. According to Dr Brett with the UK and Ireland service combined, Lloyd’s refund up to 20% of requests.

“These services have all been tried and tested in the UK for up to ten years in some cases so you know we believe it is a safe and clinically robust system.”

Raise and Give week is upon us, once again. This week is associated with raising money for charities, and some fun events on campus. But it is also associated with alcohol. Alcohol is no stranger to news headlines, the recent epidemic of Neknominations have proven that.

But what about the people who drink sensibly; and still have unfortunate consequences thrust upon them? I was out with a friend of mine, Fiona*, who is the most sensible girl in the world.

She has, at most, two to three drinks on a night out. This one night, we were at an establishment in town, and she had bought herself a vodka and lemonade. We sat down, catching up, and I left her for all of three minutes to chat to another friend.

I turned around to see a man, about late thirties, sitting where I had been sitting.

I could tell from Fiona’s expression that she wasn’t impressed, so I went back over and he left the second he saw me.

We chatted for a few minutes, and she downed the last of her drink. I went up to the bar to order two more drinks for us.

The bar was after getting busy, so it took about seven or eight minutes before the bartender looked in my direction. As he did, the girl next to me at the bar started screaming. I turned to see Fiona foaming at the mouth, and shaking violently. She fell out of her seat and hit her head off the floor, continuing to shake. Thankfully the emergency services were on the scene within a few minutes. I followed my friend to the hospital. Waiting next to people who had various injuries from their night out made me really realise how dangerous alcohol was. Fiona had to get her stomach pumped, and had to me kept under observation for 48 hours. The doctors found a large amount of a wellknown date-rape drug in her system. Had she not been taken to hospital, she would have died. She was questioned about her drink that night, and she said that there was all of thirty seconds when her drink wasn’t in her sights: the man that had joined her earlier in the evening had ‘accidently’ knocked her handbag over, and she had to pick up its contents. It was deducted that in the space of those thirty second, the man had slipped the drug into her drink, and then was hoping that in the next few minutes, his prey would be caught. However, he had put too much of the drug into the drink, a toxic amount, causing Fiona to have that reaction. Fiona described those few moments before she fell to the ground as “the worst feeling, my whole body felt numb. I knew I was falling but I couldn’t do anything to stop myself. The room was spinning and then it just went black. It was so scary.” So, please, always watch your drinks. You never know what types of people are frequenting the same establishment as you, with awful thoughts in mind. Be safe. *names have been changed

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Tuesday February 18, 2014 | UCC EXPRESS

FEATURES

Where does the shame belong?

Ellen Desmond discusses the story of Philomena Lee

Philomena’s daughter has repeatedly claimed in interviews that the greatest inequality was that of the money making scandal, in which the nuns took part.

An Article About Writer`s Block (and Much Else Included) Eoghan Lyng | Arts & Literature Editor

My contribution to society is largely to provide acerbic comments and ironic pieces of writing. Ergo, I`m not a natural party animal.

reland and well, the whole world, has recently become overwhelmed with empathy for the story of one woman; Philomena Lee. However, 81 year old Lee’s story is not just important because of the injustice done to her but because it is reflective of an injustice that has been done to so many women and children, during a horribly shameful period of Irish history. Philomena, like most of the women who suffered this injustice, became pregnant “out of wedlock” at the age of 18. On The Late Late Show recently Philomena Lee recounted how, at the time of conceiving her first child, she had no idea of “the facts of life” and when her aunt asked her if she was pregnant, she did not know what it meant because she simply did not know how babies were made.

The highly educated but extraordinarily naïve 18 year old was shunned by her father and sent to Sean Ross Abbey, a convent run by the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, in County Tipperary.

The biggest injustice, so far as I can see, is not that Philomena was sent here so harshly and unfairly to be hidden away from the outside world. Nor is it that her son Anthony (renamed Michael Hess upon

adoption) was taken away from her, in what some evidence suggests was a money making scheme on the part of the convent. The biggest injustice is arguably that many years later, in the 1990s, when Philomena and her son were both looking for each other and simultaneously making contact with this same convent, the nuns remained a barrier between them. To reemphasize: these “people of God” withheld contact details from both an adult mother and son, while they were both looking for each other at the exact same time. They didn’t even disclose information when the son explained that he was soon to die and his dying wish was to find his birth mother.

Philomena’s daughter has repeatedly claimed in interviews that the greatest inequality was that of the money making scandal, in which the nuns took part. Allegedly the nuns gave these children as orphans to American families in exchange for huge amounts of “donations”. They did this even though these children nearly all had loving mothers who wished to keep them. Indeed even so recently as in the 90s, this same convent of nuns only permitted Anthony burial in their grounds in exchange for a considerable sum of money.

It is shameful indeed to think that these are the people on whom Ireland has so long based its moral ideals.

Philomena Lee herself has been heard several times to say she has managed to return to her Catholic faith despite this great ordeal the teachings of the church has brought upon her.

Most recently, as a result of Lee establishing of the Philomena Project, in an attempt to get open access to adoption records, Lee was given an audience with the pope. Nearly everyone around Lee seems to have become increasingly disenchanted with the Catholic Church after hearing her story but somehow, it has not been mirrored by the woman herself. Perhaps because of this her story may be the one to finally have the much needed impact on Catholic teachings.

Philomena Lee’s story has managed to make its way to an Oscarnominated movie starring Judi Dench and has received an outpour of both disgust at her mistreatment and an appreciation for the brave and decent woman that she is. Yet Lee has said repeatedly she felt ashamed of falling pregnant then and that she is still in the process getting over that today. A lot of people deserve to be ashamed but definitely not that innocent woman.

irstly, I`m not going to lie: words excite me. The sonorous aesthetics of a well formed word is that of carnal delight for this writer. It makes sense.

As an individual, I`m not the most party oriented. I`m rarely invited to orgies, my drinking partners are few and far a-field, while clubs both frighten and enlighten me. True, that is something I bring upon myself.

My contribution to society is largely to provide acerbic comments and ironic pieces of writing. Ergo, I`m not a natural party animal. Correct me if I`m wrong, but rare is the person who asks for a facetious hand-job, scarcer the individual who asks for a loquacious clubber. It`s a diabolical situation, but during these moments nominally spent for hedonistic ventures, I spend my time contemplating one`s malaise upon writing.

Worst of these malaises is the nasty blighter they call “writer`s block”. “Writer`s block” you say/ exclaim/divulge/convey. “What a petty concept”. Perhaps it is. But this bugger still thrives itself upon mocking the every-day student as they attempt to sit their exams.

He (yes, writer`s block is a he. Not a she or a neutral noun.) laughs as students attempt to write their analysis of Geoffrey Chaucer, only

to find that the miller`s arras is both impenetrable and compositionally unanswerable. Fear thee not! This article will alleviate such a frightful foe from its beastly bullying and return one`s attention ton compositional captivity. There are five ways to fight this dragged demon:

Write five words on a piece of paper. Choose any five. Personally, I quite like ‘Vivacious, Loquacious, Elizabethan, Hypotheses and Palindrome’, but that`s just me. Write them down. This should get your creative juices flowing. If they don`t, at least you decorated your page with a variety of lexicon. Nice work. Your English teacher would be proud!

Read a book. Cry over the flowery dexterity of such a novel. Flaunt as you realise that you will never compete with Far From Madding Crowd. Hell, you cannot even compete with Not Quite as Far From Madding Crowd( But Bloody Close Nonetheless!) Throw yourself into the seven stages of grief. After your weeping, have a cup of tea. Or coffee.

If caffeine is not your thing, eat a lemon. Eat two. But never three!

Think of the lilies. Are they unhappy? Considering that lilies, like all flowers, have no emotions, this is a redundant question. But consider them still. Somebody has to.

Go on holiday to Wales. Why not?

It`s a lovely place, full of Welsh people and Welsh food. Our patron saint Patrick was a Welsh man.

Allegedly a lovely guy (if a little unfair to snakes). Wales is nice and hilly. Very hilly. So hilly, it could not be any less hilly. In short ,it`s a very hilly place.

This isn`t ‘Waiting For Godot’. You cannot spend your life waiting for something (though wouldn`t it be nice if one could?). So read. Read.

And read some more. Suddenly, one`s mind whizzes, one`s pen fizzes and you cannot wait to write. What you read is entirely up to you. (Or is it? Do any of us have free will? Are we slaves to our literary pelvises?)

So that is a questionable list, solely written for the liberation of the literary proletariat. Writers of the world. Unite and write your essays.

You have nothing to lose but your taste for the vernacular. Hrow yourself into your essays, whether they be Machiavellian extrapolations or an ode to the homogenisation of the great potential of global dominance. And remember. This isn`t the end of the world. (If it is, grab your pencils, go to the Winchester, have a nice cold pint, and wait for all of this to blow over!).

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Tuesday February 18, 2014 | UCC EXPRESS

THE NEW CORKER

THE NEW CORKER

The Man Who Slayed A King

P

Ar mhaith leat seachtain nó coicíos a chaitheamh sa Ghaeltacht?

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(For Kazantzakis)

ilate walked on the sand, his feet covered by the grains of Jerusalem. His eyes were wet from the tears he had shed upon the sight of the dead. Crucifixion was never easy to look at, even after all these years, despite all the murderers, lecherers and sodomites he had nailed, his eyes watered at the thought of their pain. But never was he as sad as he was at present.

He sat to ponder the Empire he helped construct, an Empire of terror, an Empire of death, an Empire of Hope.

One of Hope.

He truly was a beautiful man, this Israelite they nailed and hailed as The Christ. He gave no sign of hurt after his nation`s plain to spill and kill him. Thirty-three. How young he was to give himself so cruelly. Why was he willing to die?

His eyes, so tired, his hands, so bruised, his demons flown away. Only the love of a mother could sustain such an awful sight, her eyes wet from the tears of a restless night. The Virgin they called her. How a soul so wronged and so pitied was so strong was admirable, palpable, even beautiful. She truly was a wonder to behold.

The lines of Jews rotting on their crosses was intolerably lamentable. Their scratch marks a betrayal of their soldiers hospitality. All men face death. Was the death of Babylonite a different one to that of Rome? Perhaps.

Perhaps not. Pilate knew not what to think anymore. What was he but an executioner, a soul barked at by the hounds of hell, salvaged by the Gods of War. How could he ever repent for his sins?

With his life? No. That`s

By Eoghan Lyng

what they all did. A life is too fickle, too little to give away. Too innocuous. But the Carpenter`s son was running with it. Running himself into the torturous device he and his step-father had undoubtedly constructed. A public suicide, meant for love.

How strange it was that such an item of repulsive violence could be seen as a sign of peace.

But the people cried at his side, neglecting sleep and comfort for such a sight.

Virgins, prostitutes and disciples circled his body as he breathed his last. Their feet buried in sand, their mouths drier than sand. Murderer, they called him. Murderer.

But what was a preordained murder? Gentile and Jew saw their place to voice his execution. Their voice, their say, their vision, their doing. Pilate simply signed the dots, watched the doves, gave the orders, all under the name of his conscience, the people`s conscience, the God`s conscience. All for sand and bone.

Land taken throughout the centuries from men who lacked the light to salvage them from swinery. Sand upon sand stolen from the deserts of purity. All for fame, all for gain. Orders. Pilate was only following orders. Orders had to be followed.

Then he saw the tears in the Israelites eyes. Crying to the populous “forgive them father. They do not know what they do”, he showed not one piece of sorrow or anger.

His voice quivered at the sight of death. His eyes reflected a soul in pain. But he did not betray any signs of hurt or anger. He simply allowed himself to die.

The thought was too much for Pilate. He turned away to catch his breath. Why was such a man so blind to his own needs? Barrabas saw his faults, yet thrived on them. A criminal had walked in the feet of a freer man, indulging himself on all his crimes, thriving on the death of another man, without guilt, with delight. The poor Christ!

“Pontius” he told himself.

“I find no guilt in him.” He walked away from the pitiful sight. Life. Was it all a game of luck. All that was left were crosses in the sand. Crosses.

Crosses and bones.

Picking up some grain, Pilate wrestled the pieces through his fingers. His heart felt heavy, his body old.

Dropping the grain into the ground, Pilate could refrain himself no more from his tears. The grains fell into submission as his crying flew down his face as his soul cried for the souls he had signed to death. Once he thought dying was unreasonable; now he knew better. A man had died for love, a love so pure, so perfect, so wonderfully noble, it could not convey the emotions of a human. And it was Pilate`s fault. He had, in fact, allowed the death, as much for himself, as others.

Pilate nailed himself to his thoughts. They were little pain compared to the nails within the Christ.

Pontius Pilate turned to run from his conscience.

But running was hopeless.

His soul, he realised, would suffer from this moment on.

Wherever he went, whatever he did, he would forever be the man who slayed a king.

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UCC EXPRESS | Tuesday February 18, 2014

GAEILGE

O’ Domhnail mar an Coimisnéir Teanga nua

Lá Mór na Gaeilge

Stephen Walsh | Scríbhneoir @Stephen_Walsh06

Tosóidh an Coimisnéir Teanga nua Ronán Ó Domhnail an post nua ar an 22ú la de mhí Feabhra tar éis Sheáin Ó Cuirreain a d’eirigh as an bpost.

D’oibrigh sé mar choimisnéir teanga do deich mbliain agus rinne sé go leor rudaí dearfacha don teanga in Éirinn ach ag an deireadh bhí fearg air leis an mion ó na stáit seirbhisí mar shampla duine tinn as an nGaeltacht ag labhairt Béarla leis na dochtúirí agus na duine eile mar ní raibh focal Gaeilge ar bith acu.

Is as An Cheathrú Rua i gContae na Gaillimhe d’Ó Domhnail agus tá sé ocht mbliana is triocha d’aois. Bhí sé ag obair mar iriseoir politiciúil le TG4 agus RTÉ le blianta beaga anuas. Glacann sé páirt le an-chuid cláracha faoin nGaeltacht agus gach toghchán ar an radió.

Tá súil agam go n-eireoidh go han-mhaith leis sa phost seo mar is post deacair é ach gheobhaidh sé go leor tacaíocht as an bpobal Gaelach in Éirinn mar bhí níos mó na 5,000 daoine ag siúl i gcathar Baile Átha Cliath thar an deireadh seachtaine seo caite. Bhí bus amháin ó Choláiste Ollscoile Chorcaí thuas ag an agóid agus bhí siad an- shásta leis an agóid. Seinm an banna ceol Seo Linn a n-amhrán nua ann agus bhí Kila ann chomh maith.

Mar fhocal scoir “Is fear Gaeilge briste, na Béarla cliste”.

Labhair Eoghan Lyng le eagarthóir Beo Liam Ó Cuinneagáin.

Rachel Ní hAodha | Eagarthóir Gaeilge

Cuireadh tús le feachtas chun cearta teanga a thabhairt do dhaoine le Gaeilge nuair a d’éirigh an Coimisinéir Teanga as an bpost.

Tá ag teip ar an Rialtas chun cothrom na Féinne a thabhairt do lucht labhartha na Gaeilge, go háirithe toisc nach bhfuil seribhisí Stáit as Gaeilge ar fáil dóibh. Is mór an náire é sin!

Le fada an lá, cáintear ar an ndrochshlí ina múintear an teanga sna scoileanna agus is mó daoine a bhfuil dearcadh diúltach acu ó thaobh na Gaeilge de dá bhárr. Ach an bhfuil an fhadhb iomlán bunaithe ar an scoláireacht? Tagann an ceatadán daoine amach as scoil agus grá mór don Ghaeilge acu ach níl aon leanúnachas lasmuigh den scoil maidir le spreagadh an Stáit í a úsáid.

Níl na háiseanna bunúsacha ar fáil as Gaeilge

agus is ceart an locht a chur ar an Rialtas.

Ní bhíonn aon deis ag daoine í a labhairt i rith an lae. Ní thacaíonn siad leis an bpobal Gaelach go ceart agus tá sé thar am seasamh leis an bhfód!

Is linne an teanga agus chuir an agóid sin béim ollmhór ar an neamhaird a thugann an Rialtas ar chearta an phobail Gaeilge. Is teanga náisiúnta í agus níl córas curtha i bhfeidhm fós chun soláthair do Ghaeilgeoir maidir le seirbhisí Stáit.

Is léir go bhfuil muintir na Gaeltachta go háirithe braon d’easpa tacaíochta a thugann an Stát dóibh. Mar thoradh den agóid, tá brú curtha ar an Rialtas chun ár gcearta a aithint agus tacú leis an nGaeilge agus táimid go léir ag fanacht le cad a dhéanfaidh siad.

Méan sa Gaeilge

Eogan Lyng | Scríbhneoir

Ní mór an eagraíocht chumarsáide in sa ghaolainn anseo in Éirinn. Ní mór an ionadh a chuirtear in iúl orainn ó thaobh na teanga agus í ann mar mion-teanga. Ach ar léibhéal eile, tá an chumhacht agus léargas ar an méan sin agus í scrite inár ndlúth teanga. Rinneadh iarracht cúrsaí a chur i mbéinn muintir na héireann agus iad ag labhairt faoi rudaí oiriúnacha ba chóir go mbeadh eolas acu faoi.

Fiú amháin, tá neart eagraíocht ann chun cursaí gnó náisiúntach agus idirnáisiúntach a chur in iúl. Is í TG4 ceann do na cláirithe ba chailiúla ar theilifís na héireann. Bunaíodh i 1996 í, agus fásadh go hiontach í ón mbliain sin ar aghaidh. Le deanaí, d`fhéach 155 míle duine ar an ‘Rugbaí Beo - Mumha v Connachta’ agus 87 míle ar ‘Ceol Daniel’, clár a chuireann béim ar cheol nach cloistear ar chláracha eile.

Foilsítear nuachtlitir gaolach darb ainm ‘Seachtain’ i lár ‘The Irish Independent’. Cé go bhfuil an nuachtán ag díríú go mór mhór ar dhaltaí scoile agus an Ardteist

le déanamh acu (an folóir dóibh a thuilleadh béim a chur ar dhaoine fásta agus rudaí le déanamh acu sa gnáthshaol? Níl a fhios agam.), tá réimse maith ann ó thaobh altanna agus Gaeilge de.

Agus ní hamháin go scríobhann scribhneoirí lán aimsire altanna gaolach. Tugann mic léinn na hollscoile a chuid tuairimí i nuachtáin poblacht áirithe freisin ( tá cheanna á léamh agaibh anois- nach ait é!).

Le linn ‘UCC Express’, ‘Motley’ agus ‘Bhuel’ anseo i UCC, ligtear do dhaoine a gcuid tuairimí a scríobh ar shuímh idirlíne freisin. Féachaigí ar fhíséan na Cuallachta ‘Anocht Bíodh Craic Againn’. Físéán a bhí ann a bhaineadh úsáid as méan na h-idirlíne agus na Gaeilge. Bítear ceann do na físeáin ollscoileach is cáiliúla, tar éis Trillogy agus ceol ‘Friends’ á canadh acu. Ní beag an rud sin!

Go hiondúil, tá ‘Beo’ ann chun píosaí scribhneoireachta a shocailt agus a léiriú. Irisleabhair páirtaimsireach atá ann a fhoilsíonn a nuachtán gach mhí. Le suíomh idirlin lonnaithe acu freisin, tá sé soléir go dtiocfaidh feabhas ar mhéan na Gaeilge.

60 Soicind le Beo C. Cathain gur thógadh an suíomh/iris seo?

2001 C. An raibh imní oraibh nach raibh morán eagraíochtaí gaolacha ann chun a gcuid tuairimí a chur in iúl?

Ní raibh C. Tá réimhse maithe ann ar an bhfóram seo. An tugadh ceadúnas do scribhneoirí pé rud ba mhaith leo a scríobh a scrí?

Tá monatóireacht rialta a dhéanamh air C. Tá neart suímh iriseoireachta cosúil le ‘ The Daily Shift’, ‘The Journalist’ agus ‘Beo.ie’ agus gan aon agó tá nuachtán poblacht cosúil leis an ‘UCC Express’. An bhfuil tuairim ar bith agat cén fáth go bhfuil siad chomh cailiúil sin?

Mar go bhfuil mórán daoine ag léamh ar líne, ar fhón póca agus ar ipad; tá an nuacht gearr ann le foas ar na haltanna C. An bhfuil sé níos speisiúla an Ghaeilge a spreagadh trí phíosaí scribhneoireachta seachas trí pholateoirí réibhloidice nó an dóigh leat go n-aontaíonn an dhá rud le chéile?

Téann gach rud le chéile ach gá le hiriseoireacht maith agus scríbneoirí C. Táim chun ceist conspóideach a chur ort anois. An dóigh leat gur suíomh a n-imríonn ar an gcliathán deas, an gcliathán clé nó an suíomh neodrach sibh?

Tá Beo.ie neodrach ach amháin ar an nGaeilge , táimid aontaobhach ó thaobh í sin!

C. An bhfuil cead ag aon duine scríobh díobhse?

Tá gá le scéal maith agus Gaeilge chruinn le halt nach dtéann thar 1.000 focal C. An bhfuil sibh ag tnúth leis an am atá le teacht? Cinnte

FRIDAY, MARCH 28, 2014 9.30AM - 3.30PM G18 WESTERN GATE BUILDING UNIVERSITY COLLEGE CORK UCC ENGLISH MASTERS PROGRAMME PRESENTS

THE SIXTH ANNUAL TEXTUALITIES CONFERENCE

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EXPRESS PHOTOS

Tuesday February 18, 2014 | UCC EXPRESS

UCC EXPRESS | Tuesday February 18, 2014

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EXPRESS PHOTOS

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Tuesday February 18, 2014 | UCC EXPRESS

FASHION

Fashioning Dreams Fashion Editor, Nicole Clinton, explores the reasons behind fashion’s reliance on movie stars t is no secret that fashion and films have always been engaged in a close relationship. Hollywood has been utilizing clothes from its earliest days to communicate character profiles or setting in its films and to market its movie stars off-screen. The power of fashion as a visual symbol is crucial to the film industry’s desire to influence cinema-goers’ thoughts and habits. However, this partnership is not onesided in its exploitation of the other party’s resources. Even though the fashion industry boasts a whole collection of its own stunning models, its reliance on film stars to sell their products is remarkably prominent. And I’m going to tell you why I believe that this method of marketing is so effective.

In recent years, we’ve witnessed affiliations develop between design houses and famous actors, with each star loaning their own unique image to the product they are endorsing. Natalie Portman’s dainty elegance exemplifies Miss Dior’s femininity. Emily Blunt’s sophisticated sensuality underscores the opulent scent of Yves Saint Laurent’s Opium. Matthew McConaughey’s panache lends D&G’s The One a hint of charm. James Franco’s intellectual interests give Gucci sunglasses and suits a cultured tint. By equating a given star’s personality or image with their product, the designer is attracting customers by insinuating that their merchandise will give you the stars special ‘something’. But why do we respond to this form of marketing that seems so exploitative when you see it written in black and white? To explain I’m going to apply my own personal condition as a passionate movie star lover to the world’s population. The mortal’s relationship with the movie star represents the ultimate case of unrequited love. Film stars are like the subject of great love poetry because they are essentially unobtainable. As while your wildest dreams may come true and you may end up married to Johnny Depp, he will not be the version of Johnny Depp that you fell in love with onscreen. The idea that they are unobtainable means that we can fantasise about them and mould them into whatever we would like them to be because the version that we are obsessed with is our own creation. We

use them as a tool to escape our dull reality.

We can love them without disappointment because we will never face rejection by the version of the star that we love because we control them. Although we all yearn to meet our favourite movie star, at the same time we dread it due to the fear that they wouldn’t live up to the hype and our dreams would be horrendously slaughtered. While in reality they are simply human beings of flesh and blood like the rest of us, there is something so much more captivating about them that makes them more alluring. What sets the movie star apart from us mere mortals is not necessarily their beauty or their talent but the unusual job that they do. They are masters of deception.

They lie for a living and make it seem genuine.

They pretend to be persons they are not and this is why they are so dangerous but yet so appealing. The absence of reality and truth that surrounds them allows us to insert them into our imaginations and aids us to live out even our most unbelievable fantasies. Their exceptional immortality stems from their very ability to manipulate our imaginations. The thing that turns an actor into a movie star is that special aura, that extraordinary magnetism called charisma. This charisma is the element that permits them to seduce the viewer into a deep trance of infatuation. It acts as a spark that generates flames of passion or pity or anger in our souls that we cannot extinguish once lit. It is rather stimulating to ponder on how much of the movie star’s appeal is them and how much is actually our perception of them. The enchanting influence of the film star over the minds and emotions of the public provides the fashion industry with a ready-made client base.

Designers seize the opportunity to steal the movie star’s aura to enhance their campaign and are able to authenticate their product’s promise of glamour and charm in this way. It prevents them from having to spend excess time and money establishing an image for their scent or handbag because the public can understand the intended image simply by associating the product with the qualities of the movie star that fronts it. The movie star’s presence alone conjures up a great deal more in the minds of the public than any symbolism or

The mortal’s relationship with the movie star represents the ultimate case of unrequited love. captions that the ad may convey.

The aspect that gives the film star the edge over the average fashion model is that while they may be equal in beauty, the movie star exudes an existing sense of charisma from their movies or their off-screen Hollywood personas that the majority of models lack.

The love affair between the movie star and the public is an ideal dynamic to prey on in the promotion of a fashion or beauty item as feeds into an active attraction.

However, fashion does not always solely rely on actors to make their product desirable.

Film directors are also being called on to use their visionary minds to shape the idealised lifestyle that this product promises to bring.

The legendary filmmaker, Orson Welles, once said that “a film is a ribbon of dreams.

The camera is much more than a recording apparatus, it is a medium via which messages reach us from another world that is not ours and that brings us to the heart of a secret.

Here magic begins”. By taking advantage of the minds of the most creative directors, the fashion industry is able to borrow this magical, otherworldly quality that a film exudes to attract the public. Baz Luhrman’s television commercial for the Chanel no.5 perfume reigns as the most extravagant example of this and resembled a condensed version of one of his movies. With the poignant Clair de Lune as its score, the spectacle starred his Moulin Rouge collaborator, Nicole Kidman, and employed all of his signature trademarks: luxurious glamour, dancing and a doomed love story. This particular love story saw Kidman, the famous actress, engaging in an affair with an ordinary man but ultimately, she could not stay with him as they inhabited different realms. What is interesting about this is that it reflects the love story between the public and the movie star as while they may seduce you and bring you momentous joy when you spend time with them in the cinema, once the lights dim, they will have to

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UCC EXPRESS | Tuesday February 18, 2014

FASHION

La Vie est Belle oney dissects French fashion and it Marita Mal s allure .

leave you. Drive director, Nicholas Winding Refn, recently projected his cinematic style onto Gucci’s advertisements for their female perfume Premiere and the corresponding male fragrance Made to Measure. The latter saw James Franco speed through the streets of Los Angeles in a chic car and featured a rather sinister, electronic soundtrack and overhead shots of the after-dark L.A skyline, similar to those showcased in Drive. The goldilluminated, never-ending high-ways and the brightly lit streets and sky-scrapers produce a sense of solitude or an impersonal vibe that is strangely appealing, a thematic and visual aspect that borrows heavily from the director’s 2011 film starring Ryan Gosling. With this ad, the fashion house not only entices buyers with a handsome star, but also uses the talents of a visionary filmmaker to tap into the allure of the movie industry’s home city. Therefore, the fashion and beauty industry’s collaborations with movie directors allow the transformation of their ad campaign from a passive, pretty picture into another realm with living, breathing characters and narratives. This permits fashion to steal cinema’s ability to offer the viewer an escape from their mundane lives thus luring them to buy into this world that they have been hypnotised by.

“When did I wake into this dream?” muses Rodrigo Santoro, Kidman’s co-star in Luhrman’s Chanel masterpiece, emphasising the exact thought the fashion houses want the viewer to contemplate when watching their commercials. Fashion advertising’s dependence on members of the film industry to promote their products aims to obliterate all sense of reason and reality in the minds of the viewer to convince them that they can buy their way into this dream. When analysed, it seems like a cynical tool of consumerism but when you observe these enchanting campaigns that flawlessly demonstrate the skills of movie professionals and the magnificence of the film star’s allure, you may in fact crave your next hit of fashion and film amalgamation. And like Santoro, you might find yourself saying “my world [will] never be the same again after [they] came into my life. No one can steal our dream”.

The French do many things well, inspiring numerous instantly associable thoughts in one’s mind, from macaroons and mistresses to vertiginous monuments and vertically challenged, power-hungry presidents. But none of these are done with such finesse as fashion. Paris is not only the country’s capital city but is also the globe’s foremost style headquarters, with its bi-annual fashion week attracting fashion’s glitterati and creating trend reverberations around the world. If fashion weeks were a family with New York playing the role of the classic aunt complete with a house in the Hamptons, London the cool, 20-something, hipster cousin and Milan the lavish, loafer-wearing bachelor uncle, then Paris is the fur clad, ‘lady-who-lunches’ grand dame.

During a recent trip to the enchanting City of Light I found it impossible not to become totally immersed in the captivating aura of French style, from window shopping along the famous Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré (where a dog collar was practically being given away on display at Hermès at a bargain price of €110,000(!)) to simply people-watching as its residents passed by. The words ‘instinctively chic,’ ‘uncomplicatedly elegant’ and ‘refined’ sprung to mind, and that well used phrase of a certain je ne sais quoi seemed to inherently emanate from the locals effortlessly. Black holds an almost authoritarian hold on the city dwellers’ wardrobes, and even wearing navy I felt assured that I would never pass for a native Parisian. However, rather than looking sombre and funeral-bound, the younger generation use texture to break up their outfit, with a hint of fur and a splash of silk accompanying tapered trousers and an oversized masculine coat, accessorised with a nonchalantly carried handbag and cigarette.

(The same can be applied to the men, albeit the handbag could be replaced by a satchel, in most cases at least). The elder madames stroll around in jaw-dropping fur coats, Chanel bags and widerimmed sunglasses, with sun not actually being a prerequisite to wear the latter. Even whilst jogging, striped Breton tops and perfectly coiffed hair is the outfit du jour.

The French style aesthetic is uncomplicated, streamlined and subtle, yet manages to tread the line between boring and classic effortlessly.

It commands a quiet elegance, and whilst an outfit may have cost thousands, it appears understated with no gaudy labels or over-

embellishment. As fashion doyenne and former Vogue Paris editor Carine Roitfeld remarked: “with French women you first see the woman and then you see the clothes”, and that is what differs from the Chinese or Russians, as without this “culture of clothes” they wish to parade in a plethora of labels to prove that they can afford them.

It is certainly impossible to deny that the French know a thing or two about this culture. Home to such fashion royalty as Louis Vuitton, Givenchy, Dior, Céline, Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, Hermès and Lanvin, to name but a few, Paris has a rich heritage that has transcended the decades, and in doing so the city has moulded and influenced the sartorial world like nowhere else. Through the establishment of the Haute Couture houses in the nineteenth and twentieth century, France cemented its place as a commanding presence in the couture sphere, and although questions arise today about the sustainability of this extravagant and outrageously expensive industry, it remains a tour de force as regards exquisite workmanship and mesmerizingly beautiful clothes. Virtuosos such as Coco Chanel and Yves Saint Laurent, with their introduction of trousers for women and the famous le smoking attire respectively, were the sort of creative genius that began in ateliers in Paris and overthrew the reigns of the zeitgeist at the time.

Indeed, the French carry on their legacy, and Madame Chanel’s quote advising that “before you leave the house, look in the mirror and remove one accessory" is certainly one such tradition maintained in the present-day. Francophiles around the world can observe the allure of France’s most famous exports, such as Marion Cotillard, Clémence Poésy, Carla Bruni and Catherine Deneuve (now aged 70) who epitomise their country’s inimitable style with aplomb. As regards interpreting French fashion, this is a feat that can be certainly be achieved, and if that perfect little black dress meets a beautiful leather handbag, accented with a smudge of kohl eyeliner and a silk scarf tied just so, then you will be universally chic, not just by France’s standards. The secret is that les Français have an innate sense of how they carry themselves, with a polished refinement and certainty of self, which in itself, will always be á la mode.

Black holds an almost authoritarian hold on the city dwellers’ wardrobes

Tuesday February 18, 2014 | UCC EXPRESS

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HUMOUR

R&G Week to address unemployment issues UCC Raise and Give Week 2014 will address the issue of unemployment, as well as its traditional charitable dimension, sources close to the Students’ Union have revealed.

Plans for the week outline how students will seek to create employment for local cleaners, fitters, repairmen and publicans with a campaign of fouling and littering as well as public and private destruction.

“The issue of unemployment, and in particular youth unemployment, is the social issue of our generation,” said a student representative ten minutes ago.

“But quite simply by doing damage to local property and amenities, UCC students will create jobs for those who are hired to repair and replace these facilities,” he continued before slugging back a can of Dutch Gold.

The range of work to be created by R&G Week is to target the services, construction and

manufacturing industries.

UCC itself will hire additional security and cleaners for the week, with repairmen on call from early in the afternoon until the early hours of the following morning each day.

The IGNITE programme has seen an increase in the number of these type of start-ups in recent weeks and they estimate that as many as 25 local jobs will be created for out of work contractors before the end of February; however the work will not lead to sustained longterm employment.

A college press release for the week said that; “in the past, R&G Week has been seen as a tool for mindless destruction; however UCC is keen to channel this wild party atmosphere into something which will create income and increase standards of living in the local community.

“These jobs will likely go to those on the lower rungs of the class ladder, helping to address social inequalities and fairer income distributions.

UCC is keen to channel this wild party atmosphere into something which will create income and increase standards of living in the local community.

“Organisers have already started discussing how to bring about world peace in the coming years’ R&G Weeks.”

A student poll revealed that, were it not for R&G Week, the money students spend in that period would increase from a €5 to €1 drink/ charity ratio, to being almost exclusively spent in pubs, clubs and off licences, as well as on quiz machines, claw cranes and other arcade games in late night chippers.

Nevertheless publicans and chicken fillet roll vendors alike are all expecting a boon in business this week, although college lecturers can expect to find themselves in a state which has been described as “paid unemployment” in the coming days.

It is in this spirit that both town and gown will be looking forward to an increase in the amount of partial nudity, Fishbowl-mooning and full nudity to be seen around Cork this week, as students drunkenly empty their wallets into collection buckets.

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UCC EXPRESS | Tuesday February 18, 2014

HUMOUR

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Express Crossword

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Tuesday February 18, 2013 | UCC EXPRESS

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Early dominance key to UCC victory Stephen Barry | News Editor

Despite some poor play in the second half of their Sigerson Cup group stage match with Trinity College Dublin UCC did enough damage during the game’s opening 30 minutes to secure victory.

On a day of constant rain and high winds both sides must be credited for the quality of football witnessed in the game despite the best efforts of the conditions to reduce this match to rubble.

During the games opening minutes the UCC forward line had their way with the Trinity defence, as the Cork side quickly opened up a 0-10 to 0-3 lead. With the wind in their favour UCC were able to put four points on the board in the opening 10 minutes, before their opponents had their first real scoring chance.

Whilst Trinity rebounded from the loss of wing-back Mark Kelly to a black card to score their first point of the contest, UCC were quick to cancel out the score, as two points from Conor Cox and one from Luke Connolly left them seven points to one ahead.

Connolly continued to have a significant impact on the early portions of the game, adding three consecutive points, with the final point almost finding the back of the net but for a great save from Trinity keeper Conor McConville. The scores left UCC poised for victory as the second half got underway.

As the second half got underway the weather took a drastic turn for the worse, as the wind in particular now became a much greater factor.

With the wind now in their favour Trinity took charge of the game with a well-struck penalty from Paul McPadden reducing the gap to just four points. The Dublin side almost added a second when Eoin Gallagher got behind the UCC defence, but a great save from UCC keeper Brian Kelly kept the effort at bay.

With UCC now on the back foot points from Trevor English and Gallagher left just two points between the

Demons simply too good for Dublin Inter Barry Aldworth | Sport Editor

C & S UCC Demons 98 – 76 Dublin Inter In a re-match of this year’s National Cup the UCC Demons were once again too good for Dublin Inter when the sides squared off at the Mardyke Arena on Sunday, February 2.

On this occasion the Dublin side performed at a level more indicative of the talent their squad possesses. However, even against a Demons side down two key players in Colin and Niall O’Reilly, once again the Dublin side found themselves a distant second.

Christian Anon got things rolling for the home side with a couple of early baskets but Inter were quick to reply with Aurimas Statkus leading the way. However, with the Demons implementing a full-court press tactic defensively Inter often struggled to move the ball into the UCC half.

Despite this the match remained close for much of the opening half, a pattern which was only broken following the

sides as a come-from-behind victory began to appear likely.

However, UCC were quick to bounce back, as points by Brian O’Driscoll and Michael Quinlivan increased the lead to four.

Shortly after his point Quinlivan was again crucial in UCC’s next score. Trinity keeper McConville pulled off a great save from Conor Dorman, only to be forced to watch helplessly as Quinlivan hammered the rebound into the empty net.

Whilst Trinity continued to push forward, adding one more point to their tally, the win was heading home with the

Connolly continued to have a significant impact on the early portions of the game, adding three consecutive points Cork outfit. However, despite the victory UCC will have to make a significant number of improvements if they want to lift the Sigerson Cup. UCC: Brian Kelly (Kerry); David Culhane (Kerry),

introduction of Shane Coughlan. Coughlan managed the team well on court, with the passing game immediately improving, and with five minutes remaining in the opening quarter UCC began to tear apart the opposition. Along with Daniel O’Sullivan who took full advantage of additional time on court Coughlan helped UCC to open up a 32-17 lead as the quarter drew to a close.

Despite some sloppy play early in the second quarter UCC continued to pick apart their opponents, and at times were seemingly scoring for fun. The first half was capped off by a great play from Brian O’Neill, who capitalised on a interception in the closing seconds to extend the UCC lead to 53-33.

As the second half got under way UCC let the momentum drop significantly, and Dublin Inter deserve a great deal of credit for capitalising on the opportunity. Several long range baskets from Audrius Dimiciukas and Mindaugas Tamusauskas closed the gap to 71-57 entering the final quarter, with the away side outscoring UCC 21-18 in the third quarter.

UCC managed to steady the ship in the final quarter as Ciarán O’Sullivan and Lehmon Colbert produced several great scores. Whilst Inter continued to fight, on each occasion where a comeback looked plausible the Demons were able to response quickly to stifle their opponents.

In the closing minutes UCC was able to make use of its entire squad, giving several players the chance to shake off the

Eoin O’Mahony, Fergal McNamara (Kerry); Conor Dorman (Cork), Brian Shanahan (Cork), Eoin Healy (Cork); David Nation (Cork), Ian Maguire (Cork); Luke Connolly (Cork), Alan Cronin (Cork), Brian O’Driscoll; Paul Geaney (Kerry), Michael Quinlivan (Tipperary), Conor Cox (Kerry).

Tiarnán Daly (Fermanagh), Seán Murray (Dublin); Mark Regan (Mayo), Mick O’Grady (Kildare), James McPadden (Offaly); Paddy O’Higgins (Dublin), Stephen Cunningham (Dublin); Conor O’Donoghue (Westmeath), Trevor English (Westmeath), Owen Gallagher (Antrim); Paul McPadden (Offaly), Luke Turley (Down), Seán Higgins Subs: Tom Hickey (Kerry) for (Kildare).

Cox (29, black card), Shaun Keane (Kerry) for Healy (48, Subs: Seán Flynn (Longford) injured). for Regan (11, black card), Mark O’Sullivan (Meath) for TRINITY COLLEGE: O’Donoghue (38).

Conor McConville (Dublin); Referee: Pádraig O’Sullivan Cormac Noonan (Meath), (Kerry). rust after their National Cup success. Ultimately UCC were able t close out the match with relative ease and maintain their place at the top of the league table.

After the match captain Shane Coughlan praised his teammates for closing the match out in a dominant manner saying: “We started relatively well and to be fair when you’re playing without players like Colin and Niall O’Rially and still win by 22 points you’re doing something right.”

He added that the team deserved a great deal of credit for bouncing back from a tough national cup schedule, noting that in the past he has found that “the first game back after the National Cup can be strange because you’re coming down from all the major media attention associated with it.”

With the prospect of a rare double at the fore of many minds within the Demons’ camp the side will need to maintain this style of play if they are to have a chance at winning the league.

C & S UCC Demons: C. Anon, K. Hosford, B. O’Neill, C. O’Sullivan, S. Coughlan, D. O’Sullivan, M. O’Leary, A. O’Sullivan, L. Colbert, C. O’Reilly (Did not play) N. O’Reilly (DNP) Dublin Inter: M. Cepliauskas, A. Dimiciukas, A. Statkus, R. Barry, R. Eidukas, G. Traukauskas, M. Tamascaukas, L. Glennon, M. Landos, R. Dimiciukas, L. Jonaitas.

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UCC athletes dominate at National Indoors Siobhain Heylin | Sport Editor

On Friday, February 7, a large contingent of UCC athletes made the long journey to Athlone I.T. for the national indoor varsities championships.

With a mixture of experience and youth on the team it was looking to be one of UCC Athletics Club’s most successful championships to date.

First year student Phil Healy got the day off to a flying start winning the 60m in a phenomenal 7.36, setting a new national u23 record, IUAA record and UCC record in the process.

She was followed by another fresher making her debut; Shona Lowe came 7th in the same final. Shona then went on to better that place in the 200m final coming an excellent 5th scoring some well deserved points for UCC. Our men’s 60m sprinters Liam Mulcahy and Karl Zhang both made their UCC debuts finishing a very 7th in their respective heats.

Edmond O’Halloran glided to a bronze in the mens 60m hurdles final.

In the 400m final twins Jessica and Christine Neville

ran superbly with Jessica coming 3rd in a new UCC record and Christine just behind in 5th.

In the 800m final Ciara Cronin gave a great display of front running and ran a gutsy race to be part of a blanket finish on the line but eventually came away with 3rd. Andrea Bickerdike was 4th in her 800m heat very unlucky not to make the final.

Kieran James ran his first race back after injury to come 4th in his 800m semi-final while Micheal Cassidy came 6th in

the other semi-final.

In the 1500m Niamh Moore was 7th and Niamh Walsh 12th in what was a very quick race.

The men’s 1500m was split into two races with captain Ben Thistlewood being part of the first race which had a very elite field. Ben battled hard with the fast pace set to come away with 8th place. Josh O’Sullivan Hourihan was part of the second race and came away with a brilliant fourth place.

In the 3000m Sinead O’Connor showed us what

First year student Phil Healy got the day off to a flying start winning the 60m in a phenomenal 7.36, setting a new national

a talent she really is running an intelligent race to win in a fantastic time of 9.49. Jacqui Hughes and Siobhain Heylin were 9th and 10th in this race also. The mens 3km was also an exciting battle with James Grufferty coming away with the silver medal and Eric Curran following him home in 9th place.

First year Luke Hickey obliterated the field to win the 2000m walk in a new UCC record.

Our throwers were out in force with Laura Mc Sweeney

winning the weight for distance with Clare Fitzgerald in 2nd. Clare then turned around to win the shot putt with Niamh Murphy in 2nd.

Patrick Mc Sweeney was 2nd in the weight for distance and 3rd in the shot putt.

Medals were also won in the jumps with Benjamin Guillou coming 3rd in long jump with Eoin Kelly 6th. Eoin Kelly was then victorious in the triple jump with Micheal Godley in 7th. Laura Lynch was 8th in both the long jump and triple jump.

To finish the day off our women’s relay team of Jessica and Christine Neville, Shona Lowe and Phil Healy came 2nd and smashed the UCC record in the process.

Our ladies finished second overall on the medal board with our men finishing fourth. This was definitely our most successful indoors championships to date and things are looking very well for the outdoors track and field in April.

Next up is Munster cross country this Thursday in CIT. Training continues Tuesdays and Thursdays at 6 at the the Mardyke Pavillion- all new members welcome as always

UCC dominate CIT to advance to Sigerson semis Barry Aldworth | Sport Editor

UCC 1-13 – 1-5 CIT Despite all expectations to the contrary the January 13 Sigerson Cup quarter-final derby match between UCC and CIT offered little in the way of a competitive fixture.

Looking to advance to their fifth consecutive Sigerson semi-final UCC got off to the best possible start when a Michael Quinlivan goal in the fifth minute, followed by points from Conor Cox and David Nation left the visitors stunned.

Given the quick nature with which UCC built up its advantage CIT were always going to struggle to overcome the challenge laid in front of them.

Despite losing midfielder Nation to injury mid-way through the first half UCC, managed by former Cork Senior Football manager Billy Morgan, led 1-6 to

0-2 at the break.

UCC continued to dominate early in the second half as points from Cox, Alan Cronin and Luke Connolly quickly extended the lead to 10 points. At that point the home side began to take their foot off the pedal, and despite an excellent Donal Óg Hodnett goal giving CIT hope, the closest the visitors ever got to UCC on the scoreboard was six points.

UCC (Cork unless stated): Brian Kelly (Kerry); David Culhane (Kerry), Eoin O’Mahony, Fergal McNamara (Kerry); Eoin Healy, Conor Dorman, Brian Shanahan; David Nation, Ian Maguire; Luke Connolly, Alan Cronin, Brian O’Driscoll; Conor Cox (Kerry), Michael Quinlivan (Tipperary), Paul Geaney (Kerry).

Subs: Seán Kiely for Nation (13, injured), Seán Keane (Kerry) for O’Driscoll (49), Gary O’Sullivan (Kerry) for Cox (59).

CORK IT (Cork unless stated): David Hanrahan; Eoin Byrne, Brian O’Regan, Pa Kilkenny (Kerry); Seán Finn, Peter Daly, Jason Collins; Brendan O’Sullivan (Kerry), Keith O’Connor (Clare); James Walsh (Kerry), Cathal Vaughan, Darragh Treacy (Limerick); Thomas Hegarty, Shane McCarthy, Donal Óg Hodnett.

Subs: Jerry O’Connor for Treacy (30), John Corkery for McCarthy, John O’Donoghue for O’Regan (both half-time), Stephen Cahill (Limerick) for Byrne (46), Daniel Daly (Kerry) for Hegarty (50), Conor O’Sullivan for Corkery (57).

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Tuesday February 18, 2014 | UCC EXPRESS

SPORT Barry Aldworth | Sport Editor

UCC 5-25 – 1-6 St. Pat’s Drumcondra With passage to the quarterfinals of the Fitzgibbon cup already secured UCC used their match with Drumcondra to show just how good they can be when firing on all cylinders.

St. Pat’s were always subjected to the tag of group “whipping boys” and against a far superior UCC side they clearly struggled. The Drumcondra outfit found themselves at an even greater disadvantage when they lost full-back James Kelly to a red card just three minutes into the match.

As early as the 20th minute UCC had put the game to bed, as even with star player Conor Lehane on the bench the home side quickly opened up a 2-10 to 0-1 lead. Despite the onesided nature of the match the UCC players never let up, as those normally outside the starting 15 sought to take full advantage of the gulf in class between the two teams and make a statement.

Among those to dominate the match was Willie Griffin, who over the course of the hour scored 2-10, with five points coming from frees.

Whilst Shane O’Donnell and Rob O’Shea also scored goals, the score of the match undoubtedly was that of Pat O’Sullivan. The corner-back gained possession inside his own half before waltzing through St. Pat’s defence with

UCC too good for St. Pats in Fitzgibbon Cup

ease and burying the ball in the back of the net.

By the end of the opening half UCC’s advantage stood at 3-14 to just two points, with no sign of a let-up as the game entered the second half.

Griffin added a fourth goal for the home side early in the second half, before UCC began to introduce players who normally find themselves fighting for a place on the bench. With UCC starting to relax St. Pat’s managed to bag themselves four unanswered points, although it mattered little in the grand scheme of things.

Despite Eoghan O’Neill scoring a late goal for the away side a trio of unanswered points by Willie Griffin concluded the match.

Next up for UCC is a quarterfinal match with UCD,

Among those to dominate the match was Willie Griffin, who over the course of the hour scored 2-10, with five points coming from frees

and whilst the final game of the group stage failed to offer much in the way of competition, the confidence boost which comes with performances such as these could be crucial.

Scorers for UCC: W Griffin 2-10 (five frees), J Ahern 0-6, R O’Shea 1-1, P O’Sullivan, S O’Donnell 1-0 each, B Murray O’Shea; W Griffin (Limerick), 0-2, P Deasy, T Butler, M S O’Donnell (Clare), J Ahern Sugrue, J Barron, B Lawton, (Limerick).

C Murphy 0-1 each.

Subs: S Roche (Waterford) Scorers for St Patrick’s: J for Murray, M Sugrue for McGrath 0-6 (four frees), E Lawton, T Butler (Tipperary) O’Neill 1-0. for Barron, P Deasy for O’Shea (all half-time), T UCC (Cork unless stated): D Wallace for McCarthy (42).

McCarthy; D Lester, D Glynn (Kilkenny), P O’Sullivan; ST PATRICK’S: S Russell P Prendergast (Waterford), (Tipperary); R O’Hanrahan C Spillane, C Murphy; B (Kilkenny), J Kelly (Meath), C Murray, J Barron (Waterford); Fennessy (Clare); D Flaherty D Roche, B Lawton, R (Dublin), P Butler (Kilkenny),

C Wafer (Kilkenny); N Maguire (Dublin), E O’Neill (Dublin); K Ryan (Wexford), R Peacock (Laois), J McGrath (Kilkenny); P Walshe (Kilkenny), D Martin-Carroll (Wexford), E Morrissey (Kilkenny).

Subs: C Joyce (Kilkenny) for Peacock, E McIntyre (Tipperary) for Walshe (both 38).

Referee: F Horgan (Tipperary).

UCC Table Tennis shine at intervarsities The UCC Table Tennis team headed to NUI Galway on 1-2 February with only one goal in mind – to bring home the silverwares. The club’s formidable squad of 6 Men and 4 Ladies did not disappoint. In the team events, both the Men and Ladies were up against the long reigning champions UCD in the finals.

After the first round of individual matches, it was a 4-4 draw between UCC and UCD Ladies.

The doubles matches would now be the crucial determining factor. Edel O’Reilly - Huizhuang Xie defeated UCD’s Sarah Timlin – Clodagh McMurrow comfortably in the first doubles match so it was the 2nd doubles match which would either seal the deal or bring the final into the excruciating deciding doubles.

The 2nd doubles match looked as though it was going to go UCD’s way when UCC found themselves

two games to zero down and trailing in the 3rd.

However, the match was far from over.

To everyone’s surprise, the pair of Kayrin Ong – Xie Chen made a good comeback to win the 3rd set.

A change of tactics and great fighting spirit saw the UCC ladies taking the 4th and eventually sealing the deal in a heart-pounding 5 sets thriller. Finally, the ladies brought home the cup after 7 long years!

As for the Men’s Team, they were unlucky to have lost out to UCD narrowly in a closely fought 4 hours final. Nonetheless, the team of Declan O’Brien, Alex Cooney, Gary Goh, Dave Buckley, Darragh Buckley and Naqiyuddin Misran did well to see off the rest of the participating teams rather comfortably.

The 2nd day of Men’s Singles event saw the club’s players performing much better with five players making it through to the quarter finals. Alex Cooney

was unlucky to be drawn against Declan O’Brien in the semi-finals and had to settle for 3rd place.

In the Men’s Singles Final, Declan defeated UCD’s Kieran Reilly in 3 sets to bring home the Men’s Individual plaque – 7 years after Mark White last brought it home.

UCC ladies also did well in the individual events.

Edel, Huizhuang and Xie Chen made it through to the semi-finals while Kayrin emerged as the Plate Winner.

It was a repeat of last year’s final when Xie Chen was staged to play against Sarah Timlin. Unfortunately, a muscle injury and nervousness meant that Xie Chen had to bow out with a 3-0 defeat.

With a total of 2 silverwares and 6 medals won, the team certainly did UCC proud. The future looks bright and hopefully we would go one better in the Men’s Team and Ladies Singles next year!

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UCC EXPRESS | Tuesday February 18, 2014

Silver lining for UCC Girls Athletics Siobhain Heylin | Sport Writer

On Saturday November 23rd the annual inter-varsities road relays took place at the picturesque NUI Maynooth campus. As always a strong and plentiful UCC contingent travelled with many people running in the coveted skull and bones singlet for their first time.

The Road Relays are the first event of our calendar year and give a taste of what is expected for the rest of the year. UCC sent a grand total of four women's teams and two men's teams.

The Athletics Club’s women’s team has been highly successful at the road relays bringing home silver medals the past two years. Hopes were high that this could be

the year that they took home the coveted gold medals but UCD put up a challenge that nobody could match winning their first Road Relays title in since 1997.

The UCC team of Niamh Walsh, Ciara Cronin, Sinead O Connor and Orla Drumm battled strongly to take the silver medal. The other three women’s teams ran exceptionally well also with notable performances from former sprinter Andrea Bickerdyke, twins Jessica and Christine Neville, Niamh Moore, Jacqueline Hughes and Siobhain Heylin. Our newcomers to the girl’s teams Niamh Clifford, Louise Mackey, Rachel Sinclair and Elena Borlen all ran excellently too!

The men’s team regular numbers were dwindled in comparison to other years

due to injuries and illnesses.

Despite this great runs from Josh O Sullivan, Shane Meaghar, Eric Curran, Ben Thistlewood and Kieran James helped them retain their 7th placing of last year.

Fast times were also had by our three newcomers to the squad Donal O Sullivan, Clemont Lacorne and Ronan Sheehan. Hats off to our president Ray Shanahan for also running a leg when needed- he certainly still has speed in his legs! Once again we were victorious over our Model Farm Road rivals CIT, this bodes very well for our next event which is a cross country that CIT are hosting on Friday December 6th at 7pm. Training continues every Tuesday and Thursday at the Mardyke Pavillion at 6pm, newcomers always welcome!

UCC emerge victorious at Cricket Intervarsity

Mohammad Ali Syed | Sport Writer

Let UCC mark the 26th of January down in its history books. In a major win for UCC, the cricket club came home victorious from the 2014 all Ireland Intervarsity indoor championship. This isn't just another moment of celebration for UCC. This is a first timer, with the club bringing home the Irish University Cricket Association Trophy.

The Intervarsity was held in University of Ulster, with 15 colleges taking part.

The club got off to a bad start, losing their first match against Institute of Technology Carlow by 1 wicket. However, the club maintained their focus, pulling themselves together to beat Queens University Belfast by five wickets.

It was this victory which injected the team with a 'can do' spirit, knowing that Queens University were the winners of last year's outdoor championship.

After securing their place in the quarter final

SPORT

in a victory over Dublin Institute of Technology and Dundalk Institute of Technology, the team where faced with their biggest contenders yet. Here, the team faced University College Dublin, a club who were on paper, deemed the favourites to win. But against the odds, UCC's cricket club pulled off a smashing victory, beating UCD by three wickets.

Now the UCC cricket club were in the semi-final against another big team, the host University of Ulster. The result was never in doubt as UCC pulled of a great victor.

Finally, UCC faced NUIG in the final and UCC handsomely defeated the opposition, claiming their first Irish University Cricket Association Trophy.

So who made this all possible? Who has put UCC on the Irish cricket map? The team is composed of Mohammad Ali Syed, Sunil Belur Nagaraj, Junaid Amin, Cian Scannell, Qassim Butt, Shahrukh Baig, Shahrukh Nawaz and Atul Chaudhari.

UCC Kickboxing to hold Charity Fight Night Hugh O’ Dwyer | Sport Writer

The UCC Kickboxing club will hold its second annual event in which club members face off to determine who will be crowned champion.

Fighters will be paired off according to their belt and weight, in a knockout competition consisting of several two minute round bouts.

Competitors will be stepping into the ring, not just for personal glory, but to raise much needed funds for R&G charities.

There will be music on the day brought to you by UCC FM’s very own DJ Davey Hogan, and refreshments will be available on the day.

The club have also invited fighters from the Northern Ireland Kickboxing Association to compete in the event as well as former World Champion Mrs. Patricia Dalton as a special guest referee. There will also be a raffle on the day with a number of great prizes. So it promises to be a great event and well worth a look.

Tuesday 18th February 2pm in Devere Hall

Demons’ O’Reilly named Manager of the Month Barry Aldworth | Sport Editor

Head coach of the C & S UCC Demons Colin O’Reilly continued to add to a growing personal trophy cabinet following the announcement that he has been named as the Philips Sports Manager of the Month for January.

So far this year O’Reilly has led the UCC side to the top of the league, whilst also securing the National

Cup in convincing fashion.

A dramatic overtime victory over Killester in the cup semi-final, followed up with a dominant win over Dublin Inter in the final made sure that O’Reilly’s name was at the top of the list of candidates deserving of the award.

The win marks the second year in a row that a Cork basketball coach has snatched the award,

with Bord Gáis Neptune’s coach Mark Scannell having picked up the silverware in January 2013.

After a loss to Neptune left UCC tied at the top of the league pressure is now on O’Reilly to continue the Demons’ fine form this season and deliver more silverware to Lee-side.

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24 UCC EXPRESS Tuesday February 18, 2014

Early dominance key to UCC victory

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SEE PAGE 15

P 20

BREAKING RECORDS

Phil Healy (UCC) was the standout performer at the 2014 Irish University Athletics Indoor Championships held in AIT International Arena. See page 21.

Demons taste defeat in home-town derby Barry Aldworth | Sport Editor

Bord Gáis Neptune 84 – 78 C & S UCC Demons In a thrilling Lee-side derby a final quarter collapse cost the UCC Demons what appeared to be a sure victory against Bord Gáis Neptune, in turn handing the Demons their first defeat of the season.

Despite some early nerves UCC looked sharp from the opening throw in, with a great defensive effort holding Neptune to just seven points in as many minutes. Having broken several scoring records over the previous two games Neptune’s Michael McGinn found himself receiving several double teams from the UCC defence, as the student’s built up a 2010 lead by the end of the first quarter.

However, the first quarter was not without its difficulties for the UCC team. Colin O’Reilly picked up two fouls early on seemingly losing the run of himself; something which he could not afford to do in his role as player/coach.

Despite this setback the Demons continued to dominate during the early portions of the second quarter. Led by Lehmon Colbert UCC opened up a 33-13 lead mid-way through the quarter and it appeared as if the proverbial fat lady had begun to warm her vocal cords. However, UCC soon came unstuck as their season-long use of quick rotations became a problem.

The Demons went into self-destruct mode and in a period of just over six minutes were outscored 24-4, reducing the gap between the sides to just 10 points. Given the scale of the UCC collapse it was surprising to see O’Reilly stay on the bench, and with the first half coming to a close a late three-pointer by Neptune’s Roy Downey left the teams tied at 37 points each.

With his team’s play descending into chaos O’Reilly put himself back into the match to begin the third quarter, a decision which immediately began to pay dividends. Despite receiving a harsh unsportsmanlike conduct foul O’Reilly opened up the scoring, nailing three straight three-pointers in Bord Gáis Neptune 84 – 78 C & S UCC Demons the space of four minutes as UCC opened up a 19 point lead. Whilst a late Neptune score reduced UCC’s lead to 66-50, the Demons appeared to be in pole position with just one quarter left to play.

However, it was at this point in time when O’Reilly began to make a number of questionable decisions which would go on to have a major impact on the outcome of the game. With Neptune’s defence visibly struggling the coach removed both himself and Colbert from the game, denying UCC its two top-scorers at that point. Furthermore, fans were left to wonder why Ciarán O’Sullivan

Inside Sport UCC too good for St. Pats in Fitzgibbon Cup Page 22

who has been in fine form lately was removed from the game for the majority of the final quarter, shortly after scoring from well outside the three-point arc.

As UCC once again fell into chaos Neptune, to their credit, found top gear and went after the favourites. Entering the game Neptune coach Mark Scannell made a decision to switch to zone defence and abandon the man-to-man style previously used by the side. Whilst the decision appeared to have little impact early on, within the fourth quarter it proved to be decisive as Neptune outscored their opponents 34-12.

Furthermore, Downey took advantage of UCC’s decision to keep a visibly worn out Christian Anon on the court, and with five minutes left in the match a superb threepointer from the Neptune player reduced the gap to two points. Despite these setbacks O’Reilly refused to change his tactics, with the decision to keep Kyle Hosford in the match particularly worrying. Whilst Hosford did secure a couple of late scores for the Demons

his turnover count for the match was in double figures, with Neptune easily capitalising on on every change of possession.

Following the victory Neptune coach Scannell was quick to heap praise on the UCC side as well as his own players. “Make no mistake about it that’s a very good Demons side we have beaten and I’m pleased my players showed incredible resilience,” the coach said.

Ultimately the 84-78 loss served as a reminder that this Demons side is far from invincible. Whilst the squad still have every chance of winning the league they now find themselves tied for the lead with Killester, and if lessons from this game aren’t learned quickly they may not be in that position for long.

Bord Gáis Neptune: G. Walsh, B. Kiely, M. McGinn, C. Muray, I. McLoughlin, D. Lenihan, G. Noonan, R. Downey, D. Bucan, D. Cronin, P. Stapleton, M. Kenny, D. Townes, M. Rudak.

C &S UCC Demons: S. Coughlan, C.

Anon, K. Hosford, B. O’Neill, C. O’Sullivan, D. O’Sullivan, M. O’Leary, N. O’Reilly, A. O’Sullivan, L. Colbert, C. O’Reilly.