Brains, brains, brains. No, this is not a zombie apocalypse, fortunately, this is Motley’s theme for this month. As the spooky season has just come and gone, and I am sure you have had plenty of time to soak in all the gorey brain content for this year. Time to give you some more to ponder on one’s mind. (Okay I will stop with the puns now).
In all seriousness, the brain is a much more diverse topic than I expected. I was unsure what my team and you fellow students would come up with for this issue.I was astounded with the range that was covered in this issue. But you must wonder why the brain? Well, the brain is a pretty cool thing if you really think about it. It is this organ, a clump of cells, slotted together into our skull. But this organ is complex, it controls all other organs in our body, it controls whether we feel happy, angry, or sad, it decides if we are hungry, it allows us to move and to speak. It holds memories in its tiny cells. Like deep in this organ there is a memory of you dropping your ice cream in Paris when you were three (this is definitely not biographical). If this organ can do nearly everything we need to survive as a human being, then of course there will be a hundred topics regarding this theme.
The brain is such a powerful thing within our lives, mental health makes it such a necessity for us to take care of it. If it means talking to someone twice a week, going for a walk, taking medication if needed, even if you just need to watch a “switch off the brain” tv show like Nobody Wants This (my current obsession I had to include it in some shape or form). In this modern age there is an emphasis on taking care of your mind, because looking at what it controls, it controls the entirety of ourselves. And when you put into that context you can see that it is a physical health problem that people should focus on as well. Think of your abs and your mind in the same context and how they are both so important to keep fit and healthy within your life.
Tech today is trying to conquer the complexities of the Human mind through Artificial Intelligence (AI). I am not the biggest fan of AI, in my opinion it scares me how developed it is getting at such a fast speed. Have you ever seen IRobot… But in all seriousness, AI has an uncanny ability to act like a human brain, but it does have its limitations. It has a lack of understanding and common sense which we humans develop as we grow older and wiser. They lack ethics and moral decision making. Meaning they lack a conscience, the voice in her head that tells us what is right and wrong. Yes an AI can write a review of a book for class, but they cannot hold a true opinion of the book. They do not feel the emotions that the author targets with their words. AI today is impressive but it does not compete with the complexity of the human brain.
Throughout this issue the topic of the brain is conquered in so many different ways. We get a glimpse into unique experiences of the brain through our Deputy Features and Opinions Editor Luca Oakman’s piece on her experience reevaluating life as someone who is Neurodivergent. Contributing writer Caia Hope lets us see into her personal experience of coping with Epilepsy. We are allowed to experience what they experienced in their daily lives through their beautiful words.
This issue is also overflowing with interviews with people in all different fields of media and the arts. Myself and Brayden got to sit down with tech content creator Nikias Molina about AI and his career for this issue. Our Entertainment editors, Tess O Regan and Darren Keogh both got to speak to the mind that brought Pokemon to Ireland, Brian Lacey of Lacey Entertainment. The up and coming fashion Designer Oran j Aurelio O’Reilly also chatted with our own Fashion Editor Stephen O’ Brien. We are really grateful to have such amazing people to be involved and to contribute to Issue two of this magazine
So relax your brain, grab a cup of tea and enjoy The Brain issue.
editor in-chief
LISA AHERN
Lisa is coming back to Motley after studying abroad in Boston for a year. She is in her final year of BA English and is returning to her Rory Gilmore wannabe role as Editor in Chief.
meet the TEAM
Tiernán Ó Ruairc, Deputy Editor In Chief
Tiernán Ó Ruairc is a final year history and politics student with an interest in current affairs, and is looking forward to another year at the Motley Magazine.
Adrian Quinn, Current Affairs Editor
Adrian is a final year arts student studying History and Economics. He loves music, cooking and playing sudoku whilst tanning on Mediterranean beaches.
Kate O’Hanlon, Deputy Current Affairs Editor
Kate O’Hanlon is a second year BA English student who loves to travel and go to concerts in her free time. She is also extremely interested in politics making her prefect for Current Affairs.
Tess O’Regan, Entertainment Editor Tess is returning to Motley this year while pursuing an MA in English Literature and Modernities. Always reading or watching something, Tess is particularly fond of the work of Cormac McCarthy, Hilary Mantel and Pat Barker, and will happily spend the rest of time rewatching The Wire.
Darren Keogh, Deputy Entertainment Editor
Meet our mature student Darren Keogh who is the Deputy Entertainment Editor in his final year of BA Arts studying History and English. He loves music, films, books and trying to find the cheapest vinyls around now that he is a student again.
Luca Oakman, Deputy Features and Opinions Editor
Luca is a second year Arts student. One of their biggest passions is Ancient Greek Culture and Mythology. Stephen Fry’s books are some of their favourites. They have always loved reading and writing, hence they are excited to get started working for Motley as they one day want to pursue a career in publishing.
Stephen O Brien, Fashion Editor
Stephen is in Final Year of BA English. He is deeply interested in Pop Culture, including music, film, and fashion, and is even a member of the Pop Culture Society!
Sinead Sheridan, Deputy Fashion Editor
Sinead Sheridan 2nd year English Student. Sinead has a huge interest in fashion along with photography. Writers Sinead looks up to are Anthony Bourdain and Hunter S. Thompson
Ester de Alcantara, Graphic Designer
Ester is a second-year International Law student with a passion for graphic design. She loves books, movies, good music and Tom Hiddleston (mention him at your own risk). Will spend her free time making pizza and brigadeiro for her friends.
Brayden Spencer, Web Designer Brayden is a third year Digital Humanities and Information Technology student. Brayden is the Web Designer for this year’s motley team. Brayden is a tech geek and also a huge cinema and TV nerd!
12 SECONDS
OR LESS
One’s attention span is how long they can remain fixated on any singular thing. The title of this piece takes its name from the Microsoft Corp study 2015, in which 112 people from a group of 2000 were monitored using electroencephalograms or EEGs to determine brain function during various activities. The results concluded that the average attention span was 8.25 seconds, making it shorter than that of a goldfish. A stark statistic considering its association with internet and digital stimulation in the western hemisphere, and even scarier as we continue to delve into a rabbit hole of satiating online lives.
However, the number of 8.25 seconds is contested by some, which includes Art Kramer, Professor of Psychology and Director of the Centre for Cognitive and Brain Health at Northeastern University, argues the numbers are a little less drastic and people in fact have an attention span of 45 seconds, which is still a significant decrease from previous data of 150 seconds or 2 ½ minutes. This decrease Kramer claims is the result of the ‘bombardment of information’ we face on a constant basis to be the downfall of the human attention span. The access of information ‘at just a click away’ is allowing people to chop and change their focus from topic to topic at will and at ease without any real consequences at a moment’s notice, detraining the brain from being able to analyse anything for extended periods without constant new stimulation. The other issue noted by Kramer is the constant presence of screens in our lives. He notes the screens in our pockets, homes and even in the car, where we are constantly told not to use our phones, are now equipped with bright screens screaming notifications at us as we travel further dampening hopes of human attention remaining on the road for the appropriate length of time.
The 2019 study by Tremolada et al found that there were disparities in the attention span of children aged 6-10 years old dependent on gender, school grade and of course age.
The results primarily noted the tendency of younger girls to rank higher on distractibility metres and are more likely to behave with compulsive reaction tendencies. While the study is interesting and an insight into a niche part of the brain, the constant in almost every other study has been screen time and information accessibility. CNN noted that once people lose focus or attention it could be up to twenty-five minutes before a person returns to their original task. According to Dr Gloria Mark, whom CNN interviewed, that return period to work after distraction leads to stress and anxiety, she has coined this the switch cost, and is without a shadow of a doubt the most dangerous part of poor attention spans, with such stress and anxieties contributing to decreasing standard of mental health in both home and work lives.
The issue of technology and attention has become such an issue in day to day life that many school districts in the United States are turning to a company called Yondr who manufacture pouches that students are made put their phones in for the school day, and are only opened using a magnet at the end of the school day by their teacher, this is the same type of pouch that the Irish government has set aside €9 million euro available in funding for schools to purchase these pouches for an approximate cost of €20 per unit. The aim of these pouches is to take away access to devices and therefore increase attention in school,, as noted by several Ohio school districts to date as noted in a local publication YSNEWS.com. YSNEWS journalist Lauren Shows discusses the open and compassionate culture fostered by the no phone policy in schools. While here in Ireland teachers and their unions have lambasted the government simply saying there are more pressing issues in the school system, and a counter argument people have against the introduction of these pouches is the inevitability of students putting a dodgy phone or a ‘burner’ phone in the pouch while still having their own phone on them everyday. Thus negating the whole system. It speaks to the addiction that our phones and therefore our addiction to media and access has become.
With the studies all pointing the finger of blame at our devices and access to information, not unlike what our mothers did when we were young, it seems obvious to decrease screen time and increase time with others in person and outside. That, however, is easier said than done. Our lives over the last decade have come to revolve around the one hundred and twenty-eight gigabytes in our pockets. The inclusion of Covid-19 into the mix and the promotion of remote working have only added fuel to the all-consuming fire which is our device usage. As this fire burns through every generation from Gen X with their professional careers, to Facebook posts with Millennials, to Gen Z who were the first to have phones from young teens and now Gen Alpha who have been raised watching Cocomelon and recreating TikTok dances. The damage appears to be irreversible, and it feels like maybe it is just time to give up and accept that our own children won’t be able to function with constant stimulation.
While rather a depressing note to end on, it is important that issues like this, issues regarding the mind, are taken seriously. Not simply because mental health is important but because this is only the liminal period of human decline as we become less and less useless as individuals and become ever more uniformed cogs in a system designed for a very few to live like kings and queens.
Tiernán Berhe Ó Ruairc
THE SILENT FRONT: HOW ISRAEL IS WAGING A PSYCHOLOGICAL WAR
In mid September this year, Israeli fighter jets, visible to the naked eye, swooped down over Beirut, breaking the sound barrier in the Lebanese capital. This resulted in explosion-like sonic booms which echoed throughout the city, sending residents into panic. A city not unfamiliar to explosions - most notably the Port of Beirut explosion in 2020 which killed at least 218 people - these encroachments on Lebanese airspace by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) are not a new phenomenon. Between 2007 and 2021, this occurred 22,111 times, as shown by artist Lawrence Abu Hamdan in his work titled “Air Conditioning”, which was on exhibition in Dublin’s Museum of Modern Art this summer. Despite these psychological attacks, the morale of many remains strong in Beirut as they take to the internet to make light of these occurrences at the website address ‘jidarsot.com’ (translating to ‘sound barrier’ in phonetic Arabic). Although the city’s citizens attempt to ease its pain through laughter, the reality is that over 2,000 people have died in Lebanon since Israel’s expansion of the war, as well as the death toll in Gaza having surpassed 42,000 at the time of writing.
The use of psychological terror does not simply stop there. As Israeli jets swept over Beirut in September, the recently deceased leader of the Lebanese resistance group Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, was making a televised speech. Nasrallah addressed the pager and walkie-talkie attacks, which he claimed were choreographed by Israel against his militiamen earlier that week. Over a two day period, thousands of Hezbollah owned communications devices exploded, injuring over 3,000 people and killing over 30, of which at least two were children.
BY CURRENT AFFAIRS EDITOR
ADRIAN QUINN
Both Hezbollah and the Lebanese government suggested that explosives had been planted in the devices during the stages of production, in a joint effort by the Israeli military and Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad. In widespread video footage of the explosions, Lebanese citizens can be seen panicking as people are indiscriminately maimed and killed throughout the country. This act of terrorism, labelled by notable western media news sources as “eye-catching” and “particularly innovative”, has instilled fear in the minds of not just resistance fighters, but also civilians.
Phone calls, texts and the distribution of leaflets are a further reminder of the omnipresence of the Israeli surveillance machine. From Gaza City to Beirut, citizens regularly receive pre-recorded phone calls, text messages and leaflets from Israeli military personnel containing evacuation orders before airstrikes are carried out in their area.
In the case of 40-year-old dentist, Mammoud Shaheen, from Al-Zahra, Israeli operatives called him in October of 2023 informing him that airstrikes would target his home and residential buildings nearby, giving him a short time frame of two hours to evacuate the area of hundreds of civilians, according to an interview conducted by the BBC. In other cases, others have not been so lucky to have been informed of imminent attacks on their homes. On Israel’s northern front in south Lebanon, residents of the small village of Wazzani received unauthorised leaflets prematurely distributed by a brigade of the IDF detailing orders of evacuation in mid September this year. The leaflets also specified that “anyone present in this area after this time will be considered a terrorist” according to one Al Jazeera report.
For local residents, abandoning their livelihoods indefinitely is not as easy as these leaflets may suggest. Statements like these may blur the lines between ordinary civilians and those engaged in combat. Matter of fact statements, with disregard to objectivity, construct a truth which shifts the burden of responsibility onto the victims of these attacks.
Assaults on the stability of the Palestinian and Lebanese psyche also take more aggressive forms. The targeting of schools, hospitals, and places of worship - spaces generally associated with safety and fundamental components of functional societies - in Israeli missile strikes, have been a recurring feature in its military campaign. Since the start of the war, hundreds of Palestinians have been massacred at Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza by the IDF. Israel’s government has identified Hamas as operating in tunnels and bunkers underneath the hospital - a claim still unproven. As of May 2024, 31 out of Gaza’s 36 hospitals have been damaged or destroyed. As well as attacks on hospitals, reports have recorded that as many as 90% of schools and universities in Gaza have been either hit or destroyed by Israeli airstrikes. Schools have been used as shelters for the displaced since the start of the war, but Israel identifies the ones it strikes as being Hamas controlled command centres.
The destruction of these linchpins of society create a disconnect between people and their homes. It creates an environment that’s not worth fighting for.
Seventeen years on from Israel’s initial blockade of Gaza, it is no surprise that Gazans are feeling the effects of their suffocation. The World Bank reported in 2022 that 71% of adults in Gaza were experiencing depression. A 2022 report by Save the Children reported that 80% of children were experiencing symptoms of depression, grief or fear, 60% of children were self harming and one in two children had contemplated suicide. These reports, conducted prior to Israel’s war on Gaza, are likely to increase in years to come. Likewise, many citizens of Lebanon, having experienced their own traumas from civil wars, explosions and Israeli torment, are showcasing high levels of anxiety disorders and post traumatic stress disorder. The psychological torture that is being inflicted on these people - seeing the dismembered corpses of your loved ones on the street, not knowing where your child’s next meal will come from, the fear of indiscriminate missile strikes on your home or watching a bedbound teenager burn alive in front of your eyes - is something that these people will have to live with for the rest of their lives, if they’re even fortunate - or unfortunate - enough to survive.
The Mental Health Crisis on Campuses:College The Neurological Impact of Academic Pressure
College is often seen as a transformative period, brimming with opportunities for growth. However, beneath the excitement of campus life, a mental health crisis is unfolding, impacting students globally. Driven by academic pressure and societal expectations, this crisis is taking a serious toll on students’ emotional well-being and, as research shows, on the brain itself.
Universities have reported a significant increase in mental health issues in recent years. Anxiety, depression, and burnout are on the rise, with alarming statistics illustrating the scope of the problem. A 2022 survey by the American College Health Association found that nearly 60% of students experienced overwhelming anxiety, and over 40% faced depression that impaired their daily functioning. Moreover, suicide, closely linked to untreated mental health conditions, has become the second leading cause of death among U.S. college students.
The causes of this mental health crisis are multifaceted. Academic pressures have intensified, with students facing increasingly high expectations, tight deadlines, and competitive grading. At the same time, many students are burdened by financial concerns, including tuition costs and student loans, while adjusting to new living and social environments. This creates an overwhelming sense of pressure, particularly for those already prone to stress. For these students, the demand to meet academic expectations can make college an emotionally exhausting experience. Furthermore, chronic stress does more than just affect emotional health—it physically alters the brain, reducing its ability to function optimally.
Prolonged stress activates the body’s stress-response system, the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, which releases cortisol, a stress hormone. While cortisol is essential for short-term survival, long-term exposure to it can harm brain health. Studies show that chronic stress impairs the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain responsible for decision-making and emotional regulation, making it more difficult for students to focus and manage their emotions effectively—skills crucial for academic success.
Chronic stress also negatively impacts the hippocampus, a brain region involved in memory and learning, impairing students’ ability to retain information and perform well on exams. The amygdala, which controls emotional responses, becomes hyperactive under stress, increasing anxiety levels and emotional sensitivity. This vicious cycle of stress, anxiety, and poor academic performance can leave students vulnerable to mental health disorders, further compounding their challenges.
In response to the growing mental health crisis, many universities have expanded their support services by hiring more counselors and increasing access to mental health resources. However, the demand for care still far exceeds the available resources. At many large institutions, students face long waits for appointments, and even when they do get help, the number of therapy sessions available is often limited. As a result, many students are left without the long-term care they need to address deep-rooted issues such as trauma, chronic anxiety, or depression.
To alleviate immediate pressures, some universities have implemented mental health initiatives like wellness programs, mental health days, and peer support groups. While these measures can offer temporary relief, they often fail to tackle the root causes of the problem: the intense academic culture that demands constant success. As a result, students continue to feel overwhelmed by academic and social expectations, despite the availability of these programs.
One of the significant barriers preventing students from seeking help is the stigma around mental health. In a highly competitive academic environment, many students fear that admitting they are struggling will be perceived as weakness. This stigma can deter students from reaching out, especially if they feel pressure to handle their challenges independently. The reluctance to seek mental health support often worsens their issues, leading to more severe problems over time.
Addressing the mental health crisis requires more than just expanding counseling services. Universities must rethink their approach to education and well-being. This might involve restructuring academic schedules to reduce pressure, implementing more flexible grading systems, and integrating mental health education into the curriculum. By fostering an environment that promotes balance and resilience, universities can help students navigate the stresses of college life more effectively.
Ultimately, addressing the mental health crisis in higher education calls for a cultural shift that prioritizes emotional well-being alongside academic achievement. Without this shift, the mental health crisis will continue to affect students’ success in college and their long-term well-being. Now is the time for universities to take meaningful action and support the mental health of millions of students across the globe.
By Aimee-Louise Geary
“RAPE IS CHEAPER THAN BULLETS”
HOW SEXUAL CRIMES CAN BE USED AS A TACTIC IN WAR.
TRIGGER WARNINGS: RAPE, SEXUAL ASSAULT
All war tactics are detestable but very few manage to leave the psychological and sociological impact that rape does. While rape has been used during war as a means of subjugation since ancient times, it was only officially recognised as a war crime and a crime against humanity by the United Nations (UN) in 2008. From the initial torture to lingering generational trauma, how does this abhorrent “war tactic” permeate the psyche of entire countries? And how do soldiers find themselves capable of such horrific crimes that they would not generally be able to perpetrate during a time of peace?
Soldiers are not natural psychopaths, they are usually just ordinary people. When examining the psychology of the offender, we must recognise that there are a myriad of reasons as to why an ordinary person may be capable of such atrocities when they are made a soldier. Not all reasons proposed in this article, if any, may be applicable to an individual soldier.
In some cases the rape of women can be used as a form of ethnic cleansing, for example the systematic rape of Tutsi women by HIV infected men in Rwanda (1994). Treatment was extremely hard to come by for these women and on average 25-30 percent of babies birthed by a mother with HIV will also have HIV. This also plays off of a type of misogyny that is inherent in warfare i.e. the men of one population undermining the men of another because they could not protect their own women.
Not unlike the rape of Tutsi woman and children in Rwanda an incident that was widely reported in Ukraine was the rape of woman in the retreat from Kyiv by Russian forces in early April 2022. The BBC reported a story where a woman, Anna, was raped under threat of death if she did not comply to the soldiers sadistic whims. When speaking about the war in Ukraine US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said that “What we’ve seen in Bucha is not the random act of a rogue unit. It’s a deliberate campaign to kill, to torture, to rape, to commit atrocities”. While calculated attacks such as these are often executed, rape as a war tactic can also be far more erratic.
The order to rape civilians is not one that would ordinarily be passed down a chain of command but rather is usually a decision made by an individual soldier or more often than not a group of soldiers. Sexual crimes could be perpetrated due to a sort of “mob mentality” within a group of soldiers, as in they may either fear ostracisation from their cohort if they do not participate or could feel the act is permissible due to a sort of “shared guilt”. Rape is often a twisted way of venting their feeling of anger and hatred towards an enemy and its population - soldiers would be completely desensitised already after killing perfect strangers and seeing their friends killed. Propaganda would have dehumanised the enemy and made their actions seem, in their own minds, completely legitimate.
These soldiers could also be committing these sexual crimes because the opportunity simply presented itself. One United States Air Force (USAF) general, Chuck Horner, wrote about the Iraqi troops who raped Kuwaiti women in 1991, stating that “They realized that if they wanted to, they could.” That being said, there is a shockingly low number of prosecution of soldiers for the crimes they commit during war time. Whether this is a form of leniency that is intended to support traumatised soldiers or just blatant negligence, all this does is perpetuate the violence against victims and ergo populations following war. Addressing this issue requires concerted efforts at legal, social, and military levels to prevent such atrocities and support survivors as well as soldiers.
During the October 7th massacre there were many atrocities reported, for example gang rape and genital mutilation. One witness for the New York Times, Sapir, saw many instances of such violence from her hiding spot. She saw a woman’s breast cut off and thrown at her, women with nails driven into their thighs and genital areas, one woman who while being penetrated was stabbed every time she flinched. A makeshift parade in which the severed heads of three women were carried around and shown to others in the massacre. When talking about protests in London, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he didn’t “think London had ever seen such a large demonstration of rape apologists before”.
Following the October 7th attack there was an “increasingly permissive attitude towards sexual assault in Israeli detention centres”. One United Nations report confirms accounts of Palestinian women and girls “being stripped naked and searched by male Israeli army officers”. There have also been at least two reports of rape by Israeli soldiers in these detention centres. In an open letter to governments involved in the war, “dozens of feminist and legal scholars and anti Zionist Jewish feminists condemned the ‘opportunistic manipulation of the issue of sexual assault by those commiting war crimes themselves’”. Rape is used over and over by the governments of victims in order to make the enemy out to be “monstrous”, yet these atrocities are often committed in both sides of a war, meaning that there is usually no moral high ground that could justify the continuation of a war that permits these acts of brutality.
Having discussed all of this we still need to look at rape itself and the impact it leaves not only on an individual person but also on a population as whole. During conflict rape victims usually don’t have access to medical or mental health supports. In conflict zones, women may become refugees, making them even more vulnerable to further violence and exploitation. There is also a massive amount of stigma surrounding rape, especially if you come from a more conservative culture. Following rape many people are extremely traumatised, often suffering from PTSD, depression, anxiety and feelings of shame which may lead them to isolate themselves. This prevents them from receiving community support. They may also feel the need to hide themselves and the reality of what happened to them due to fears of social stigmatisation.
The witness mentioned above, Sapir, did not want to give her second name to any publications because she knew that she would be “hounded” for the rest of her life if she did. The label of ‘victim’ does not garner support as often as it does deprive the person of social relationships and economic opportunities. If a victim is unfortunate enough to fall pregnant after an attack they are usually ostracised by their community as their child will be seen as part of the enemy. Wartime rape disrupts both social and familial structures, which in turn affects relationships and community cohesion. This perpetuates cycles of violence and trauma.
While pieces published in Motley are above all else meant to educate and inform readers, this article is also an appeal. Below Motley has linked some charities to support the victims of sexual abuse during war time. Don’t take this as a comprehensive list though, if you are able and willing to donate please do your research on the charity/cause and donate to those you think would most benefit from your help.
Congo : Panzi Foundation Ukraine : global survivors fund Official UN donation page, includes Gaza and Tigray: United Nations Population Fund
A STUDENT’S GUIDE TO WHAT’S ON IN
CORK: NOVEMBER
GIGS
• Hank Wedel & Ray Barron - Charlies Bar - Every Monday - 9pm - Free Entry
• Music Zone - In Store Gig with Sarah Hickey - 16th of November ( Hickey’s EP is out Friday 15th November) Free Entry
• Stand-up Comedy Club: The Roundy - 16th November, from €25.00
• Cliffords - Cyprus Avenue - 17th of November - €12.50
• Gurriers - Coughlan’s Bar - 29th of November - €16.50
• Pillow Queens - Cyprus Avenue - 5th of December - €25.00
VINYL RELEASES
• RSD Black Friday: Vinyl Releases to Watch Out for on 29th of November
• The Doors: Live in Detroit, Limited 4 x 140g 12″ Black vinyl album box. €115.00
• Ramones: Greatest Hits, Limited 1 x 140g 12″ Red vinyl album. €37.00
• IGGY POP: Acoustics KO, Purple 2 LP. €60.00
• Misfits: Earth A.D. Maleficent. LP. €38.00
FILM
• Cork International Film Festival Various venues (including: the Everyman Theatre, the Arc Cinema, Triskel Arts Centre) - 7th to 17th of November
• Triskel Arts Centre - tickets €7.50 (before 5pm)/€10.50 (post 5pm)
- Small Things Like These - 24th to 27th of November - Point Break - 24th to 27th of November
ART EXHIBITIONS
• Lavit Gallery - Winter Exhibition - 1st November to 17th of January
OPEN MIC NIGHTS
• The Underground Loft - The Liberty Bar - 12th and 26th of November
• Litreacha - Nudes Bar - Last Sunday of the month
GAMES
• Dungeons and Dragons Meetup - The Courtyard on Sober Lane - Tues days and Wednesdays
PUBLICATIONS
• Cork University Press: Atlas of The Irish Civil War- New Perspec tives- Out Now for €69.00
• The EC Archives: The Vault of Horror Vol.5, Trade paperback-Out Now for €25.99
• DC Comics: Absolute Superman, Issue 1. Out November 6th. €5.99
CROSSWORD PUZZLE
1. The Great Hall
2. Fattiest Organ in human body 4. Fontaines DC album cover 8. 80’s front man with career in music journalism 9. Diverse Crowd 12. Celtic punk band
13. 1989 Best Picture Winner 15. Dont Make unnecessary Journeys 17. Taxi Driver 18. Worlds first Green campus
2. The Lunatic is on the Grass 3. Genius Mouse
5. Religion over Education?
6. 25th Anniversary of Currency 7. Seven letter word for Patella 10. A Navy Kevin Costner 11. Beast dies at 66 14. Canadian Directors Sci Fi classic 16. Pizza loving green reptiles
A GENIUS BRAIN FOR SATIRE: IN PRAISE OF ARMANDO IANNUCCI
BY REBECCA JANE PARKE
As the US Presidential election draws ever closer, it is only natural that in an attempt to find comfort or at least meaning in the uncertainty, many have turned to television. In this quest, I have found myself seeking out Armando Iannucci and his wonderful body of television satire. In doing so, I found a genius mind for satire.
Of course, I am in no way unique in this discovery. A recent article from Zach Vasquez in The Guardian, explained how many have turned to Iannucci’s satire, Veep, since Kamala Harris replaced Joe Biden on the Democratic ticket. Airing from 2012 to 2019, Veep follows the first female Vice-President of the United States, Selena Meyer (played by Julia Louis-Dreyfuss), documen ting her rise, and occasional fall, whilst exposing the absolute moral bankruptcy of the US govern ment. The fact that the scene where Meyer finds out the President is resigning became such a po pular meme following Biden’s decision, speaks to the prophetic nature of Iannucci’s writing.
This is not the first time Iannucci’s work has fores hadowed later events. His BBC satire of the UK’s New Labour governments, The Thick of It, has often been compared to the chaos of the Tory governments in succeeding years, almost to the point of lazy cliché. Still, it speaks to the staying po wer of Iannuci’s satire, so mething that is quite rare. Comedies broadly, and satires especially, tend to age poorly and have the shortest shelf lives of any media.
In another Guardian article, by Nadia Kho mani, in which he is dubbed “the Nostra damus of Western politics”, Iannucci attributes his gift to the “cyclical nature of news”, explaining that if “you look at early epi sodes of [the 80s British sitcom] Yes Minister, it’s all about Europe, cuts, the NHS. These themes don’t go away.”
Iannucci is also known for the copious amounts of research that goes into his projects. This may be true, but it does not exactly account for Iannucci’s longevity where others have failed.
For me, Iannucci’s genius lies in his gift for understanding systems, both ones laid out in official rules and constitutions, and ones dictated by the press and interest groups. His satire is so exacting because his understanding of how day-to-day politics works in all its complexity is so clear. All Iannucci needs to do is make his characters and their situations ever-so-slightly larger-than-life, then the satire writes itself. His writing feels prophetic because political actors themselves have become larger than life whilst still operating under those same systems.
As a film student, I find Iannucci’s playing with structures echoed in one of the films that has influenced him. In a 2022 Sight and Sound article, Iannucci cites Festen, Thomas Vinterberg’s 1998 black comedy, as one of his favourite films. Although the mobile camera work of Veep and The Thick of It is often described as cinema verité style, for me their style is reminiscent of the Danish Dogme 95 movement, of which Festen is an essential part. An obsession with the rules and structures that govern society, and what happens when they are broken, is the driving force behind Dogme 95. That Iannucci is able to mix these principles with political satire only cements his genius.
In short, when historians look back at this terrifying, chaotic period of politics, they will be grateful to have satirists like Iannucci. He is a spectacular brain, able to deliver an understanding of the chaos in a way that elicits more than a few chuckles.
YOUR TWENTIES: A BODY FULL OF
Cortisol has negative connotations. Most people probably associate it with stress. Indeed, cortisol is an essential hormone that ensures our functioning in increased stress situations and prevents inflammation. But when your brain is in a constant state of emergency,and the stress never stops, you might experience a surplus of the cortisol hormone. In that case, cortisol can cause various symptoms of sickness. The characters in Megan and Shannon Haly’s play, struggle with escaping this persistent state of stress.
Your twenties are a challenging time. That was the premise of the Haly sisters’ play. They were not just writing their first piece of theatre but also staging it at the Dublin Fringe and the Cork Arts Theatre as actresses. Their debut was directed by acclaimed stage director Jeda de Brí, who added a twist to the sisters’ initial text with performance techniques like synchronized speech acts and movements. Frankly, the play’s story is not original to people who are immersed in contemporary coming-ofage novels, movies or theatre. Yet, some moments might speak to the audience, as the sisters have individual perspectives on struggling with intimacy, or self-reflection.
Izzy and Sam are making plans to travel together, promising each other to stay and figure out life together. But it develops as one might expect: Izzy figures it out and Sam doesn’t. Izzy eventually moves to Australia with her boyfriend, while Sam, struggling with her sexuality, life expectations, and her mother’s death in her early years, finds herself lost in Berlin, with an underpaid bartender job.
Sam feels overwhelmed and every question concerning money, relationships or her future releases cortisol in her body.
The audience might experience it or remember their times at this point: constantly justifying your existence and explaining your future plans. At the same time, you are grieving for past friends who you still hang on to, like Sam and Izzy. And when Izzy and Sam truly try to hold on to each other, they argue. Their arguments culminate in insulting blows against each other. But what strikes, mostly, is that Sam cannot escape her vicious circle of self-pity. She rejects anyone who offers to help her. Lastly, she seems to make Izzy responsible for her situation as she left her behind.
Besides the main conflict, this performance is equipped with three circular platforms equally distributed across the stage. During their short dance sequences, or when one of them is standing behind the other ironically and silently miming the other’s words, emphasizing their disagreement, the performance creates a unique dynamic between the two sisters. De Brí shows rather than tells; she skillfully highlights certain emotions by letting the sisters speak through their movements. Additionally, a recurring metaphor dominates the play: “You have to jump.” This circles back to Sam playing a jumping game as a child, but it also alludes to Sam starting therapy and facing uncomfortable emotions. Of course, it should never be forgotten that some people are lucky to have the resources of therapy available, which the play might seem to brush over a bit too briefly.
Even though the writing is noticeably a debut and therefore not comparable with, for instance, Sally Rooney’s grasp on being in your twenties (by the way, where are the Rooney stage adaptations, please?), the Haly sisters give after all a conclusion that might encourage people to reevaluate their twenties and the false promises they made.
BY LUCIE MOHME
The room is dark and then it’s not. Fluorescent pink flashes through dry ice. A twin column of blue follows. The lights are weak and flicker to a beat but they are enough to see the outline of shadows, bodies really, writhing on a dancefloor. The camera pushes in on a familiar face in profile, its expression almost visible, and—
Then we are underwater. The misty dance floor has become a murky seabed. Weeds dangle upwards like wet hair in reversed gravity, long strands of it clinging to a sandy scalp as it reaches for the sky. Then the strands shudder and separate, forced aside by a dark blubbery body. A seal, but no—
A sheep, braying, lambing, somewhere north, where everything is bare and endless and green green green. In the distance we can hear white horses crashing against the shore. We cannot see them. Except now we can. There’s a child on a beach, searching for curiosities. No. Switch again. There is a child under the kitchen table. There is a man screaming. A woman crying. Broken glass. In a different kitchen: more broken ware. More screaming, crying. In the morning, bandages. In the morning, anguish. In the morning, and in the night before—and the night before, and the night before—there are bottles and bottles and bottles. For two hours, the image flickers between past and present, London and Scotland, as The Outrun (2024) attempts to insert us into a recovering alcoholic’s brain.
The Outrun (directed by Nora Fingscheidt, produced by and starring Saoirse Ronan) is a mess of memory. A good mess. Ronan plays Rona, a young Scottish woman who had been pursuing a PhD in biology in London, while struggling with alcoholism. The film ostensibly follows Rona as she navigates her newfound sobriety. Fresh out of rehab, Rona returns to her family in the Orkney Islands. Here she contends with her separated parents: a loving mother who has found solace in God, and a father who has his own struggles with mental illness and addiction. To establish a life of her own, Rona gets a job as a wildlife surveyor. But as this plot unfurls so too does it begin to unravel, and what seemed like a straightforward story becomes complicated by a non-linear narrative.
Interwoven with present-day Orkney are scenes from Rona’s life before sobriety. We see her dancing with friends at a club in London, and, at the same moment, drunk out of her mind, alone in a bar at closing time. Memories intrude upon memories which intrude on the present. The action hurtles between Orkney and London at double speed, but somehow it’s not disorientating. Ronan acts as an anchor, the centre of every scene. Her onscreen presence is all encompassing. The Outrun might not have much to offer character-wise outside of its protagonist, but Ronan’s acting more than makes up for it
Time might not be in order but, as the camera clings to Rona, we get the sense that maybe the emotional experience of the film is. Rona processes her addiction and brings us along for the ride. We see life as it is inside her brain; not one consistent cohesive story, but flashes of sense memory. One moment she’s an adult sitting by a canal in London, pretending she can control the wind with her mind, the next she’s a kid, watching her dad do the exact same thing.
The Outrun is a triumph of perspective. It’s Ronan’s film and Ronan shines, but that is at least in part due to Stephan Bechinger’s editing and Yunus Roy Imer’s cinematography (both previous collaborators with Fingscheidt). This is a beautiful film. From underwater shots to city streets and the Scottish coast, the world feels raw and alive around us. And that’s not even accounting for the costuming (which adds another thrilling layer to the disorientating timescape of the film through outfit-repeating), or the hairstyling (the various bleach and colour jobs Ronan wears throughout are sure to have an impact on trends if this movie takes off).
There is perhaps too much to be said about the production of this movie, or its explorations of nature, addiction and family. For now, suffice it to say that The Outrun is well worth the watch, especially if you’re considering early Oscar contenders for Best Actress.
AN INTIMATE LOOK INTO A HEALING BRAIN: REVIEW OF
BRIAN’S BRAIN: THE MARKETING FORCE OF 4KIDS AND LACEY ENTERTAINMENT
He’s the brain behind bringing Pokémon to Ireland. The reason names like Yu-Gi-Oh! or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) are known globally. This month, entertainment editors Tess O’Regan and Darren Keogh sat down with Brian Lacey, of Lacey Entertainment, to talk about kids’ entertainment, international marketing, and what it means to be responsible for bringing some of the most beloved programmes to our screens.
The year was 1999 and Lacey was consulting for a little known company called Leisure Concepts. They had got odd bits of programming, nothing terribly compelling, but they had one thing to their advantage: they represented Nintendo. Nintendo was trying to push a programme of theirs. Although it started showing two years previously in Japan, it had yet to breach the US and international markets. In fact, as Lacey recalls, ‘nobody wanted it internationally. Nobody.’ The “it” in question was Pokémon, and while “nobody” seemed to be interested in it, Lacey saw potential. While Leisure Concepts (who later became 4Kids Entertainment) took up the US distribution rights, Lacey pursued the international ones. ‘And’, as Lacey says himself, ‘once you have Pokémon, the rest is history’.
Of course, it wasn’t that easy. Lacey has a trick for evaluating a programme, before deciding to acquire it. ‘I look at the programme, turn off the sound. I want the picture, right? If the picture tells a story, maybe there’s a chance this will work.’ It’s a return to the fundamentals of visual storytelling. During the early days of cinema, silent films had no trouble finding audiences internationally. Because there was no dialogue, it was the picture – the acting, the sets, the lighting – that told the story. In the case of selling Japanese programmes to global audiences, Lacey needed to make sure that the story made sense when stripped to its basic visual language. Of course, in the case of Pokémon, Lacey had more reassurance that the programme would sell than just the quality of its picture. ‘At the time, there were 23 million Game Boys in the United States, that’s a network’. Lacey saw that Nintendo had a ready-made market. Combined with the storytelling ability of Pokémon’s visuals, this programme was evidently promising.
That said, today, Lacey is quick to point out that ‘you can’t predict how successful something is going to be.’ In the early days of trying to sell the programme, Lacey struggled. When he says nobody abroad wanted Pokémon, he means it. ‘There was only one broadcaster [that was interested]’, he told Motley. This potential buyer was the broadcaster in Italy, who Lacey had a good relationship with, having ‘sold some other programs to her that [were] successful.’ Still, in the months that followed, Pokémon struggled to find a home elsewhere.
Lacey tried to place the beloved programme on Irish TV.
‘I had never sold a programme to Ireland,’ he says, but as Pokémon was beginning to take off he sent a fax to the head of acquisitions at RTÉ. ‘I’m going to be in Ireland […] on [a] holiday.’ he told the network, and ‘I’ve got something that I think might work for you.’ Then, doing what Brian Lacey does best, he appealed to the buyer on a personal level. ‘How many Irish-Americans do you deal with in the entertainment business? Do me a favour, buy the programme.’ RTÉ’s acquisition of Pokémon was just the beginning. Soon Lacey was bringing the network YuGi-Oh!, TMNT, and One Piece. Relationships are key, Lacey stresses, ‘the entertainment business is a business of relationships.’
Lacey had an unorthodox, but perhaps highly advantageous, entrance into the entertainment business. He majored in American Studies – a combination of literature, history, art, and philosophy – during his undergrad, and pursued a postgraduate degree in literature at Clark University, Massachusetts. After a brief period teaching the humanities, Lacey got involved in politics, specifically public relations, working on the executive branch for the Governor of New York and the legislative branch of the New York State Assembly. Soon, he moved to Estée Lauder, as a marketing consultant. But it was with World Events Productions that Lacey learned his trade when it comes to relationships.
Working as an Executive Vice President, Lacey entered the world of entertainment just as the 1984 science fiction programme, Voltron: Defenders of the Universe, was at the height of its success in the US. Realising the company was doing very little with Voltron internationally, Lacey applied the creative and marketing expertises he had honed during his studies, and his various roles in the political and beauty fields, to help launch one of the most successful merchandise licensed properties of the 1980’s worldwide.
One programme followed another, and soon Lacey embarked on a co-venture with fellow Irish-American Peter Keefe, called Zodiac Entertainment. Teaming with British broadcaster Central Independent Television, the pair strengthened their business relationships overseas. Lacey recalls going to international markets in Cannes, with simple one-sheets, that explained what the programme was going to be about, the visual look of the character, the programme’s logo, to sell programmes.
Zodiac found success this way, building relationships with broadcasters that would later serve Lacey when trying to place Pokémon in Europe.
In 1993, Central Independent Television was eventually bought out by Carlton Communications, for $1.2 billion and Lacey and Keefe had to shut Zodiac. But Lacey would not be deterred. In 1994, Lacey started Lacey Entertainment. Within a few years, he was approached by the creators of what became America’s Dumbest Criminals. The creators only wanted to get their money back on investment, but Lacey understood the value of the clip show. He brought the show to the international market and did extremely well with it. Twenty-six years and 104 episodes later, America’s Dumbest Criminals is still in circulation. Not only that, but Lacey revealed to Motley that he is currently ‘in discussions now about a reboot.’
If there’s one thing that Lacey sees as the ‘connective tissue’ of his career, it’s his ability to understand the fundamentals of marketing. ‘It’s all about basically knowing how to get into people’s heads’ he says, summarising his career to date. It’s an astute point, but Lacey might be selling himself short. There seems to be less of ‘an effort to modify people’s behaviour’ in Lacey’s storied career, than a genuine history of building long lasting interpersonal relationships. If it had not been for his connection in Italy, he never would have gotten Pokémon’s foot in the door in Europe. Similarly, it was his proactive nature, and diasporic connection, that helped him land the programme at RTÉ.
Even in his communications with Motley, Lacey was nothing but gracious. Engaging us directly, as he tries to demonstrate that an adult cannot get inside a kid’s mind, he asks: ‘What were you thinking about as a seven-yearold […] an eight-year-old?’ And, when the video link cuts out early, Lacey emails us, making sure we have all we need. The man might have an ideal brain for marketing, but it’s his heart that really sells it. This might be the arts student’s bias, but one could attribute these interpersonal skills to his background studying and teaching the humanities.
This year marks twenty-five years since Pokémon first broadcasted in Ireland. Thirty, since Lacey opened Lacey Entertainment. In those years he has brought many beloved programmes to children (and adults!); his sheer catalogue a testament to his ability to build and maintain professional relationships.
By Entertainment and Deputy Editors Tess O’Regan and Darren Keogh
DIVERGENCE IN THE TYPICAL WORLD
When thinking back to childhood days, many remember the simplicity of primary school and the excitement of secondary school. Rainy day lunches inside, assemblies sat on the long benches in the hall, yearly school trips, communions and confirmations and walking out of the school gates everyday after three to meet one of your parents outside. Those eight years of primary school were really simpler times, when we wanted nothing more than to grow up and be the big kids in secondary school. Then suddenly, that’s exactly what happened. The class you grew up with was divided as everyone went to different schools and your new school was now bigger and more daunting than you could have ever imagined.
The excitement of moving from class to class, making stops at your locker, going to buy your lunch and hiding your phone from the prowling teachers. Secondary school was where we all grew in our own individualities, we were officially teenagers who faced a whole world of changes, that awkward middle stage between being a child and being an adult. This is an experience that most, no matter where they grew up, can relate to. However this is not always the reality that some face.
When I think back, I remember nothing much but anxiety, loneliness and the dread that everyone was looking at me and judging. I, of course, had many happy memories but even under the happy ones where I was laughing with friends, I distinctly also remember that creeping thought that despite the joy and laughter, I was being annoying and they were secretly thinking less of me. I struggled to make myself sit down in the evenings to study or do homework, everything I did for school was done at the last minute. I couldn’t understand why my interpretation of school life didn’t match up to others around me.
I could never figure out why everything felt so difficult for me, why I couldn’t concentrate in silence, why going to new places I was unfamiliar with filled me with dread, why if my routine changed, my mood for the entire week was affected. I would watch in awe as people around me would strike up conversations with strangers while the thought of it left me frozen in fear.
I could never figure out why, so I ignored it. I figured that this must be the norm for everyone. Until I got to college that is. I made so many friends, so many new people who I suddenly connected with over shared experiences and I didn’t feel so alone anymore.
I didn’t put much thought into afterwards, that was until I was talking to a friend about how I hated that crammed, loud places full of people sent me into a panic and that if I am there too long, I start to feel like I want to break down and cry. I said this thinking that this was completely normal. My friend then in response said something along the lines of “That is a trait of being neurodivergent. You know that, right?”
Neurodivergent. That was something I hadn’t heard of before. My friend explained that those who have neurodivergent traits often get diagnosed with Autism or ADHD as well as other medical conditions, learning disabilities or other attention deficit disorders. I was surprised. Surely if I had a condition that classified me as neurodivergent, my teachers would have caught it in my early years in education. So I did what most do, I turned to google and the more I read the more I could relate to, but I didn’t understand. My experiences ticked every box for both ADHD and Autism, but how did no one notice? I spoke to so many people, in person and online, asking them to share their journeys and I found myself agreeing to everything they said. Suddenly, my life somehow made sense. My early education made sense, my relationship with study, with work and even with how I went about daily tasks, it all made sense but I couldn’t get my head around it, over 18 years of feeling alone and being left out and isolating myself around others. How did no one see it? I had convinced myself that what I was feeling was normal.
I had seen ADHD represented in the media but I didn’t really know what that meant. I just knew that it was more socially accepted. Something that I had to make myself come to terms with was the fact that I was autistic. That was something that was a bit more taboo, not in the world that I lived in, not in my social circle, but in my own head. Everyone who knew of my autism was accepting and kind but I couldn’t get past my own thoughts. I couldn’t get past the fact that I thought there was something wrong with being autistic. That it made me stand out. ADHD didn’t have the physical responses to loud noise or how I physically reacted to a horrible sensory sensation or just a sensory overload. I used to hide these physical and vocal reactions that I would do because I was taught, not by anyone, but by society, to hide the fact that I was stimming, a repetitive motion or sound that brought me comfort. This method of hiding, I later found out, was masking and I had unknowingly taught myself to mask so as to be presented as a completely normal neurotypical functioning person.
The worst thing about coming to terms with my self-diagnosis is the realisation that to get governing authorities to recognize that I have an impairment that I would like help with, I would need to go to the doctor, which seems like the right way to go about it. I thought that going to a doctor to get the help that I need would be the easiest thing in the world but when I got there, it was anything but. My experiences and everything that I had detailed to the doctor was suddenly inconsequential and everything was blamed on the fact that I had a menstrual cycle. I was told that these are all effects of my monthly cycle, but I knew what I was being told was wrong.
Doctors saw the fact that I was born female and they made presumptions without knowing me or my experiences. Most people who are late diagnosed are born female because of what society knows about ADHD and autism, and how it presents is based on the way people born male present it. I didn’t know that trying to get a proper diagnosis and help was going to be so hard and it’s frustrating that professionals won’t acknowledge what I already know.
Despite the struggles, I’m so thankful to have an amazing support group around me. These people, who accept me despite all my little autistic quirks. Because of them, I know who I am. I am a neurodivergent person, one of many who are left to navigate the ways of the typical world.
By Deputy Features and Opinions Editor Luca Oakman
SELF- CONTAINED IN THIS BRAIN OF MINE
BY AMY O BRIEN
I’ve lived in the same house since I was 2 years old. A sense of the word ‘home’ is something I’d consider myself to have. I’d look out the same window when I wake up in the morning- whether frosted or dripping with dreary tears of rain. I’d sleep in the same bed each night and sit at the exact same spot at both the dining and kitchen table. I’d built my routine around my home. What I ate, when I studied, when I went to bed, where I read, when I left. I’d discard my battered Nikes at the door when I come in from a Sunday morning run. The endorphins, kicking them off and them, landing always by the welcome mat. I’d brew a coffee, grabbing one of my favourite mugs instinctively. Amidst a cluttered sea of handles and stacked cups, only one or two mugs ever seemed to be allowed to evacuate the drawer. Before school, with sleep in my eyes like remnants of a blissful night, I got ready. Clockwork. Earrings, 1, a matching pair, 2, a matching second, swivel on the claddagh, a flick of mascara, blush, squirt perfume and go.
Since leaving that house to live closer to college, I think I see it as just that. A house. While I pack up some weekend essentials from my accommodation, I think, maybe all I’m flitting between are buildings. My house, with its echoes of familiarity, warmth and comfort. Its walls remember and continuously hold the love, laughter and support of its inhabitants. That perfect amalgamation of a built structure, a house and the family. With family willing me back after my move.
Now, I catch myself calling my room in Cork City- ‘home’. I feel a tinge of surprise when I hear it pronounced by my voice. Well then, is it home? It’s where I’m staying. It feels like my respite already. My repository, my restaurant, my bed, my study space. Yet, having been in one house so long- how can I call home a place I’ve been living in for a bare month?
Perhaps then, home is Mitchelstown. The town I grew up in, where most people I pass on the street, know me. In coffee shops where we’re actually ‘locals’, at matches and in the supermarkets- the same people ask, ‘How’s Amy getting on in college?’ who once wondered, ‘How did Amy get on in her Leaving Cert?’, ‘How is she liking TY?’, ‘How’s she settling into Secondary?’. The same few queried, ‘When’s Amy’s communion?’ and ‘So, how was her first day of big school?’ Compared to my newfound reliance on Google Maps, I know all the routes without thinking. It’s home to my grandparents. Now, it’s the common ground for me and my school friends. My best friend and I were once side by side 5 days a week, at least.
Now, for 2 hours on a Sunday, we yap so fast that people within the vicinity couldn’t eavesdrop even if they wished to. Before reluctantly drifting home to pack for spins, trains, buses back to Galway or Cork.
In that case, is UCC another home? A new community I’m wading into? The bustle and buzz of society’s activities makes it feel possible. The activity and movement on campus. Already, I shuffle into the huge lecture halls, 10 minutes before the lecture begins and can pick out faces of people I know. I have a regular shop. I have a cupboard and spot in the fridge of the shared kitchen. I’m currently trying out the different coffee docks nearby. I’m starting to remember my timetable without scanning a calendar app every hour.
I wasn’t sure what piece I’d write, given the prompt, ‘BRAIN’. Immediately my mind lept to cognitive neuroscience or psychology. None of which I’m studying or would feel best placed to write on. So, I left the keyboard to one side and let the word ruminate for a bit as I completed my day to day. B.R.A.I.N. Slowly, I realised that I was already there.
With this change, these fluctuations between one place and another, I’ve come to realise that the most consistent home any of us have, is within ourselves. Even at that, my body grows and changes. I dress it up distinctly with different outfits, hairstyles, and makeup. I’m not inferring my body. But my brain. Home to my memories. Memories located in UCC, my accommodation, Mitchelstown and my house. Memories of friends, family and neighbours. Home to all the insights and lessons I’ve grafted that are helping me adapt to a new stage of life. My brain is where I spent all of my time. Walking to class, in the cinema, on the treadmill, reading the next thick law book, cooking dinners. Where I think about the rule of law, morality, ethics and mens rea or just what lecture theatre I’m supposed to be in next or what coffee I might order afterwards. As I flit between college and my accommodation, my house and my town, I was thinking about and simultaneously forgetting about the prompt all at once - meanwhile, still occupying my brain.
Our brains, our own minds are our homes no matter where we are, what we’re doing, where we’re going. Content to be lost in our own heads, where the ebb and flow of life bobs about. When life fractures into pieces and scatters itself around cities and people and towns, there’s solace in knowing I am self contained.
Self-contained in this brain of mine.
‘Brain Rot’: A Meme or a Worry?
BY FASHION EDITOR STEPHEN O’ BRIEN
If you were to ask someone 10 years ago “What are your hobbies?” and their response was “I mostly just scroll online”, you’d assume that they are a bit lonely, maybe unfulfilled in their life. Today, however, there’s a worrying trend of people struggling with finding and partaking in recreational hobbies or interests, in part due to a lack of drive or attention span. Gloria Marks, a professor at the University of California, conducted a study on the human attention span in 2003, and found that the average person’s was two and a half minutes. Fast forward to 2016, and the average was 47 seconds. And that was well before the release of TikTok and the modern epidemic of short-form, dopamine-gripping content.
It’s been shown that the blue light from phone screens disturbs the body’s release of melatonin, the chemical that makes you tired. Have you ever found yourself scrolling on social media at 10pm, and suddenly it’s 2am and you’re still wide awake? That’s because your phone has held your brain hostage, and stopped the brain from being able to rest, even though it wants to. This obviously has a detrimental effect, as sleep deprivation affects not just your brain and mental health, but messes with your body’s natural circadian rhythm.
The idea of ‘brainrot’ content online is a meme, attributed to the stupid, mindless content you find on TikTok of Cocomelon or Roblox characters, with some song parody replacing the words with ‘rizz’ or ‘skibidi’. People (perhaps jokingly) question what damage these flashy, overstimulating videos will do to the younger generation consuming it; if the next generation of adults have already been doomed to addiction and the inability to think critically through their early exposure to dopamine-sucking algorithms.
However, this generation of adults, myself included, have too been manipulated by the internet and social media into addiction. My average screen-time last week was 9 hours, and whilst I was also working and being productive, and I use my phone a lot for research and communication, I also know a lot of that time was spent watching hour long video essays about video game speedruns on YouTube when I could have been reading, writing, or exercising.
And I don’t even use TikTok; I try to avoid shortform content as much as possible. Unfortunately though, every app seems to have its own knock-off of TikTok, whether it is Instagram’s Reels or YouTube’s Shorts. They are unavoidable in the app and are pushed upon the user without the option to be turned off or blocked.
The effects of social media on our brain and dopamine release cannot be understated; Dopamine is released from the brain for doing pleasurable activities, and high amounts of dopamine act as a reward for completing the jobs and tasks that take time and effort. Social media, however, produces extreme doses of dopamine and this acts as a drug for the human brain. This is why so many people seem to struggle with finding hobbies they enjoy, as nothing gives more pleasure to the brain than social media. Why do something that takes time and effort and won’t give you that pleasure immediately, when TikTok will give it to you for hours at a time? As the Internet has become integral to modern life, our brains have not yet caught up, and so many people have become addicted to scrolling at no real fault of their own. It’s an addiction, and one that is economically beneficial to the higher ups at Meta, X, and ByteDance (the parent company of TikTok). Why else would they create a content model designed to capture your attention, and one that is so easy to get trapped in?
In the grand scheme of things, social media is new, and the health risks of overconsuming it are only beginning to be understood. Eventually laws and restrictions will be created to combat this parasite on our brains, but for now, the only thing that can be done is avoiding the addiction’s trigger. Obviously, that’s easier said than done. Social media has become an integral part of most people’s daily life and way of communicating. But maybe turning off your phone an hour before bed, and performing some unwinding task like reading or drawing will be more fulfilling in the long run. The brain needs time to unwind, and as fun as scrolling through Instagram Reels can be, the stimulation that it causes will not be resting. Dopamine detoxes are incredibly hard, but maybe give it a go. It might change your life for the better.
24 INCH WAR
On average, there is approximately 24 inches between the brain and the heart. In the ballpark of two ruler lengths is all that separates one’s desire and one’s rationale. They are neighbours in a sense, but even still, they are millions of miles apart. The brain sits high on its throne, looking down on the heart for all its shortcomings. The brain separates itself from the intricacies of addictive anatomy. The brain stays away from the smoker’s lung, from the alcoholic’s liver, from the lover’s heart. All the while sitting with the burden of navigating all three through their failures. The brain has no one to speak to but itself in times of silence. When the body sleeps, the heart can simply keep working. Beat by beat, it fulfils its contract to its fellow organs. However, the brain is left awake some nights while all its brothers and sisters may rest at ease. The brain is forced to endure the dreams of all those beneath it. The other night, the brain was forced to dream of a tiger chasing the host around an empty school. As always, the brain used its rationale to deduce that a trip to the zoo the previous day had something to do with it. It also recalled what it saw a few nights previous where the old secondary school it refused to work in had its open day coming up. The heart asked the brain the following morning.
“What do you think that was about?”
The brain was already exhausted by the heart’s antics after one single question.
“The zoo and the open day, obviously.”
The heart wanted more than such a trivial set of meanings for what had been an exciting development to the host’s psyche.
“What if they’re worried about something?”
The heart so innocently asked. Like many others, this heart was filled with worry. The kind of worry that emulates that of an oil trail from a gas tank. The brain heard this concern in the heart’s voice and rejected it immediately. The brain knew not to light the flame upon that trail.
The heart wondered what it was that the brain was so afraid of. It wanted to understand what was so wrong with the feelings so human in nature. The brain always wondered why it was given the host it had. This host was unremarkable in nature. Its sense of spontaneity was limited, leaving the brain to do most of the heavy work day to day. The host was not like what you see in movies or magazines. More like what you would see in line at a pizza-by-the-slice place at three in the morning. The host sleeps too much, eats too little. All until it does the exact opposite of each. The brain felt responsible for a lot of this. It carries the burdens of another in a way.
The brain never wanted to to feel this way but its central role in the ecosystem of this human being was undeniable. The heart accepted the host early on. The heart was happy to live where it did. The heart knew to hear out the points of its neighbours, for better or worse. The brain and heart argued a lot. They were always conflicted by each other’s ideals. If the heart wants what the heart wants, the brain wishes to have only what it needs. It needs reason, needs cause and effect while the heart longs for a beautiful sunset that day. The heart knows what the brain does for it and remains grateful for its effort to uphold certain notions such as love, grief, anger and the like. But, only for so long can the brain keep explaining dreams about tigers and secondary schools. Those seem like novelties and privileges to a brain like this one.
“Are you sure it was just because of the zoo?”
“What is it about a fucking tiger and school corridor that brings you such terror and agony?”
“I’m sorry I can see past what’s standing in front of me. How long will it take until you stop taking things at face value and actually consider possibilities?”
“Do not talk to me about consideration or probabilities, okay? That is my job. You can keep on loving and feeling while I’m left with the bullshit of reality.”
This happens all the time between them. They bicker like children trying to reconcile every small issue. Those issues span from bizarre dreams to eating habits to when the right time to say ‘I love you’ is. Every single day.
“Why is it you believe that you’re the only one who has to deal with the real world? Why is it you that has to carry the weight of it all, and since when did it give you the right to treat the rest of us like dirt on the pavement?”
It was rare that the heart would ask the brain a question like this. More regularly would it ignore the brain’s comments and hope they can counteract one another as a means to find balance for their host. The host is the main priority throughout all of this. Without a host, a heart cannot beat, and a brain cannot see the worst in the world.
“Everytime we have this argument, you act like you’ve gained some sort of knowledge from the situation that I wouldn’t have already gathered maybe 4 crises ago. You are second to everything. You are constantly a step behind where I’ve been for what feels like a lifetime. When will you learn to just let me take the wheel on these things?”
“If you ever gave any thought to how I process things, you would realise that I’m not second to the mark. I’m where the real pain happens. I know every emotion that you’re afraid of better than you’ll ever know yourself”
“Again! With the constant meandering around ‘feelings’ and ‘pain.’ You are relentless in your ignorance to the world outside of yourself. You will drag out every ounce of emotion that I have the misfortune of having to understand.”
“I’m the only one of us who will really know what an emotion is.”
“Oh, please. I beg you to listen to yourself. If you could hear what I hear when you speak, you’d be hesitant to do it twice. You’ll exhaust every part of life for all its worth for your own sake. If someone puts a bullet in me, the host goes down right then and there. It’s lights out. If someone puts a bullet in you, you’ll just cry out every last beat until the host hasn’t a valve to breathe through.”
“Maybe if someone did put a bullet in me, it would give you enough time to see there was more to your life than what you made of it. But, I’m being optimistic in thinking that even slowly bleeding out could give you enough time to gain some perspective.”
All this over a dream about a tiger in a secondary school. The brain and heart would keep fighting for days on end. The host would simply have to suffer through all the cerebral and cardiogenic canonfire shot across a 24-inchspan. It hurt them as did it hurt the host. This fight would ease over time as they all did; but the brain and the heart never truly aligned in their ambition.
By Feature and Opinions Editor Cian Walsh
BY EDITOR IN CHIEF LISA AHERN AND WEB DESIGNER BRAYDEN SPENCER
SCRATCHING NIKIAS MOLINA’S BRAIN ABOUT AI AND HIS CAREER
Nikias Molina, a Barcelona born Tech Content Creator, with over 300k subscribers on Youtube, sat down in conversation earlier this month with Brayden Spencer and I. We discussed his impressive and continuously rising career at only the age of 25 and how moving to America at age of 14 helped transform his life. We explored the controversies that arose surrounding his most viral video of him using Apple’s Vision Pro on the New York Subway. With his knowledge and love for technology, we touched on the highs and lows of Artificial Intelligence and how he thinks there is a positive future in regards to AI. The interview that follows is cut down and edited to fit within this issue.
LISA AHERN: “You are incredibly young to have such a solid and well-established career, especially in this industry of tech, which is constantly growing. What do you think is your proudest moment in your career so far?”
NIKIAS MOLINA: “I think it’s obviously like the recognition of Apple inviting me to Cupertino, to the Apple event. It’s what every creator in the tech space just dreams to go to. Apple can announce the new iPhone, but you’re the person in charge to show the hottest product of the year to the world. So there’s a lot of eyeballs [on you]. In terms of a creator, you can get a lot of growth by being there because it’s such a big moment and everybody’s waiting for that content, for those articles. It’s just a life-changing experience for me. And I guess that was the biggest moment of my career.”
LISA AHERN: “I’m going to go back a few years now to when you were 14 and you moved to America. And obviously America is very culturally different to Spain which would be a massive change, what differences did you face and how did it affect you mentally?”
NIKIAS MOLINA: “So I guess something that’s great about the US is how much they motivate you to do and to pursue what you like. Obviously it’s still school and you still [have] to follow the same life patterns as the rest of the world. But something that really changed is that they discovered this spark inside of me and helped me find my true passion. It was extremely different from lifestyle to education. [However] just being away from friends, family in your life and just meeting new people from zero, gives you a totally new perspective on life. It was just a fresh new start for me.”
LISA AHERN: “You started making videos for your family to connect you over long distance. And then when you get to the point of saying, “hey, this is what I want to do as my career.” What was the reaction of the people around you, like your family and friends to this career path? “
NIKIAS MOLINA: “So they took it fine, I guess, because I was still studying, I wasn’t [saying] “I’m dropping out”. Once you finish college, you [have] to go to work. You got to find a job. And then once you find a job, it’s extremely difficult to maintain a full time hobby and a full time job. So once I actually started. I just wanted to make this my full time job and actually make money so I don’t have to find something else. My family supported me a lot. Obviously, when the first big salary reaches you, then your family’s point of view is like, oh, OK. It was not that they didn’t trust it in the beginning. I feel like that’s every mom’s worry, like, you know, “he’s going to waste his time”. They were super supportive and I can’t complain about that at all.
LISA AHERN: “Did you ever hesitate for a moment and think, Am I taking the right path?”
NIKIAS MOLINA: “Yeah, I think so. Like once you start making videos that you want people to watch, it’s tough because, you know [that] you’re wasting so much time and you think it’s not going to work. But I feel on YouTube and on social media in general and anything really in life, if you really want something to happen, it just doesn’t happen the next day, and not even the following year. It’s a big road plan ahead that you have to really work hard towards. So if you want social media to work instantly for you just because you want to make the money, you’re just doing it wrong. I just [made] videos because it was a pure passion of mine.”
BRAYDEN SPENCER : “I remember that video of you in the subway with the Apple Vision Pro and I saw a lot of different media interpreting it and I saw a lot of people using your video in a very positive light, [saying] this is the big thing of the future. And I was just wondering, how do you interpret the overall perception when it comes to creating or being a part of something that kind of blows up?”
NIKIAS MOLINA: “I think the reason a video goes viral is because there’s controversy. Just all this stuff just gets a lot of traction because there’s a lot of people debating one thing and there’s people debating the other thing. It was one of the most well planned, thought out strategies that I’ve done. A shot of a white skinny guy in the New York City subway using it by himself, which is a very dangerous place to wear such an expensive piece of tech, is also evading reality. I wanted that image to just impact people. You’re going to get both reactions.That’s the conversation that I wanted to happen on social media. It worked. I was expecting like one to five million views on that video, but it crossed over 150 million views, making it actually one of the most viewed videos of the entire year.”
LISA AHERN: “We’re doing this issue on the brain and a major contender to the brain is AI. As someone who works with the tech industry, do you believe AI could be used in a positive way, when so many people talk about it in a negative light?”
NIKIAS MOLINA: “I always say this analogy of a knife. I think a knife is a super useful tool that we use in our daily life to cut our food. Apart from cutting food, you can [use] knives to cut grass and plants. But there’s obviously people using it in a very wrong way,to do certain things that are totally illegal .So there’s obviously a bad thing to every single tool. We talk [about illegal use] when we talk about technology and AI. But now, ChatGpT has changed a lot. So the negativity of it is way much broader and the positivity of it is even more broad. I feel like AI is going to make us lose a lot of jobs in this generation, but bring us a lot more. I’m personally using it in my content and my workflow. I feel like the future of AI is extremely bright. We just saw a news report that there was this [type of cancer] that was able to be picked up before a human could, thanks to AI. That stuff is what I’d love to hear more than all the negative stuff.“
LISA AHERN: “It’s kind of terrifying sometimes as well, because as someone who does English and as a journalist like myself, it’s a frightening thing because it could replace us in the work space.”
NIKIAS MOLINA: “It will replace certain parts of your job, obviously. But robots will pretty much never have feelings, even though they’ll be able to express themselves more, they’ll never have that human touch, And yes, we will be living with robots and helping us in our workplace. So a lot of jobs will go away. But a lot of new ones [will arise] even my job 10 years ago, it would have been crazy and impossible. A new era is coming up.”
Inattentional Blindness
BY TADGH CONNERY
Belle du Jour
By deputy editor Tiernán Berhe Ó Ruairc
It’s the feeling of emptiness when you’re not around that keeps me coming back, your presence in my life is similar to that of a bumble bee that keeps hovering around annoying me, yet wholly undeniably necessary for the world around me to keep functioning. Despite not being afraid of you every time you land near me I swat you away for fear of being stung, this is only temporary relief from your buzzing as each swipe angers you more and you of course inevitably snap stinging me and dying, with a single sting the whole system collapses and you’re gone from my life forever.
As you pollinate the world around me bringing it to life, I become sick, with hay fever making your presence as much a discomfort as it is a blessing. The happiness the thought of you brings is incomparable to anything else experienced in life so far, the welcome sound of bees in the spring and summer bring hope and joy of long evenings and drinking, but of course with you comes the barely bearable aftermath, you of course are not a bee and rather than a runny nose and sore eyes the aftermath of you is the suffocating ball in my throat as I painstakingly comb through every moment of the days interaction to figure out what could of gone wrong.
Being with you empties my mind of all other possibilities and in place of all other thoughts you reign supreme, its welcome your presence and what it signifies. However, just as with the buzzing of a bee as I sit at a bench the anxiety of not fully knowing where you are deprives me of my solitude, instead you imbue me with your buzzing and with your love even if you do so unknowingly. The way you discuss our symbiotic relationship where we provide each other with seemingly exactly what we want is going to be our ultimate downfall as we delve deeper into our desires, we become more aware that our symbiosis doesn’t work long term and rather your involvement in my hay fever and my swiping at your approach is killing us both.
Invariably without you my world would collapse, with no other way yet available to express and have fun it has become apparent that despite the sickness your presence and work brings me, the fruits of your labour are far too pretty to live without. In your desire to collect pollen you rush to your beloved roses, which were planted for you, in honour of you, you enjoy basking in their soft petals and pretty scents. Alas there is a catch, not unlike the unforeseen consequences of your presence in my life there is of course consequences to my presence in your life, the beauty at the top of the green stems topped with yellow, red and pink heads masks sharp thorns beneath the surface. The sharp knotted thorns stab you as you try to bath yourself in the sweet scent of blooming roses, a sorry reminder that we are not okay.
Everything is so muddled up now, in a sweet and salty mix of desire and numbness of alcohol. We’ve damned ourselves to eternal cycles of painful love and relieving animosity as we navigate pretty flower beds and hot summer evenings. This whole story for us has become more and more bloated until it ends in one efficient and final swoop, swiping our love out from under our feet.
Can we Trust our Brains? Cognitive Psychology suggests not (or at least, not all the time).
You may, or may not, be familiar with the famous “basketball attention test” video. If you’re not, I would encourage you to go to Youtube now and watch it before reading on. Go on now, I’ll wait! Search for “basketball attention test” and click on the first option entitled “selective attention test.” Take your time. I’ll wait for you.
The video depicts individuals, wearing either black or white t-shirts, passing basketballs between them. Viewers are asked to count how many times the white-clad players pass a ball. Sounds easy, doesn’t it? And it is. Most people who watch this video keep an accurate count. However, as you may have guessed, there’s a catch.
The goal here was never to assess viewers’ counting ability but rather to examine how many people spot the gorilla who walks across the screen, beating his chest, in amongst the players. Did you spot him? Don’t be frustrated if not – approximately 50% of people don’t. You might wonder how on earth you missed something so obvious and incongruent with the environment you were watching. But cognitive psychology has shown that our brains often do not always show us the full picture. The phenomenon at play here is what cognitive psychology refers to as inatten tional blindness. This is a visual awareness glitch where individuals fail to perceive something important in your en vironment when your attention is focused on something else, such as a task, object or a person. You may have experienced this when you are so engrossed in a film or in working on an assignment that you don’t notice someone else in the room is talking to you.
Research has found inattentional to have serious re al-world implications. One study, “Crime blindness: The impact of inattentional blindness on eyewit ness awareness, memory, and identification” by A.N.Wulff and I.E.Hyman Jr., presented partic ipants with a video in which an obvious crime was committed. The researchers asked par ticipants to either: watch the video; count the number of people in the video wearing white clothing or; look out for a crime. They found that participants in the former two categories were significantly more likely to experience inattentional blindness, and not notice any crime being committed, than participants who were instructed to keep an eye out for crime.
Another study “Perceptual Load Induces Inattentional Blindness in Drivers” by G.Murphy and C.M.Greene had participants drive in a driving simulator and judge whether their car would fit through a gap between two cars in front of them. For some participants, the gap was obviously big enough to fit through. For others, though, it was more difficult to judge, requiring more concentration at the task at hand. These participants were more likely to experience inattentional blindness to a pedestrian at the side of the road than those who did not expend as much cognitive effort to judge the size of the gap.
While inattentional blindness is not necessarily something you can avoid, you may be able to limit its effects by becoming better in tune with your visual surroundings. Limiting distractions while engaged in important tasks, such as turning the radio off and putting your phone away while driving, may aid in reducing your susceptibility to inattentional blindness. Some car manufacturers have recently become aware of the dangers posed by inattentional blindness and have started to incorporate audio and visual signals when they detect a hazard nearby.
To sum up, inattentional blindness is a common experience and does not reflect poorly on your mental state or ability. If, and when, you experience it, please don’t panic or start to doubt the brain’s reliability. But keep your eyes
LOST FOR WORDS BY
CAIA HOPE
Iremember my first seizure in bed. I have the distinct memory of seeing my room in black and white, unable to breathe or move, and hearing the radio play in the kitchen downstairs while my mum sang along. I was able to sit myself up, seizure still in full swing, and attempted to stomp my feet on the floor, hoping she would hear my plea for help. Unfortunately my legs were too short, or rather the mattress too thick, so this time I had to let it pass on my own. After a few minutes I was able to hobble downstairs, opened up the door, mum looked over and immediately knew something had happened.
Prior to this there had been a few instances where I would suddenly find myself unable to speak or read, merely able to produce mumbled noises. We began calling these instances focals, rather unhelpfully as it turned out, as focal turned out to be a term used to describe certain seizures affecting different parts of the brain, and subsequently affecting different functions. For me it was speech and language formation, in a place called Broca’s area, located just above the left ear.
Two more tonic-clonic (shaking of the body) seizures on the one day, this time both with my parents by my side, about a month later prompted a visit to the GP and a quick referral to the hospital. Being 15 at the time, I fell into a weird position in the medical world by simultaneously being at the higher end of the children’s age range but also not quite an adult, so I ended up in a bed surrounded by a curtain covered in zoo animals and Finding Nemo playing on repeat on the TV hanging above the entrance door. I was brought back from dissociating, by the doctor pulling back the curtain. He confirmed my name and lended out his hand for me to shake it. I obliged and he replied “Congratulations… you have a brain,” prompting a good chuckle from my dad. That day I was diagnosed with epilepsy.
Epilepsy is a strange condition as it affects people in very different ways. An extremely common misconception is that all people with epilepsy are light-sensitive, whereas in reality this only affects about 1 in 20 people with epilepsy, with epilepsy itself having a prevalence of around 1 in 100 people. That means in a randomly selected group of 2000 people around 20 will have epilepsy and only 1 will have light-sensitive epilepsy.
This scientific research was quickly tested by my two brothers, after hearing of my diagnosis by immediately producing the flash on their phones and turning it on and off right in front of my face. I do not have light sensitive epilepsy.
I continued to have regular focals, and a tonic-clonic seizure around once every month and a half. I remember taking the train from Midleton with my friend to attend my first Pride event in Cork in 2018. On this short half hour trip I realised that I had not told her I had epilepsy, so I had to explain in this time what to do if I had a seizure, just put something soft under my head and let it pass. She asked how frequent my seizures were, then logically she asked when my last seizure was. I looked at her and noticed the panic in her face, as I had been very blasé about this sudden deluge of information she didn’t know about me before. I knew in my head that the true answer was about a month and a half previous, but I didn’t have the heart to further her panic so replied “oh.. I had one last week so it’ll probably be fine.” I can confirm I had a seizureless and fantastic first Pride experience that day.
I started on quite a high dose of medications to take twice daily for the foreseeable future. This diagnosis also caused my mum to start a deepdive search into everything there is to know about epilepsy, and admittedly I started a wikipedia hyperlink exploration on all the different parts of the brain. This supplied a great distraction instead of looking over material for the looming Junior Certificate. I also continued to have 6 monthly MRI scans, which have provided some of my favourite photos of myself. During Easter break, just before my exams, I was called back to the neurologist who informed me that they found a tumour.
The brain works by firing rapid micro-electrical pulses. Much like wired headphones, my brain worked most of the time, but sometimes these pulses would fire through the tumour and my body would freak out (ie. have a seizure or focal). It was removed in an awake craniotomy that August.
I have not had an epileptic seizure since it was removed. Although this is a great revelation for my general health I sometimes feel that I have lost a sense of my identity. Although this identity is lost physically, when I saw the topic of the issue was ‘the brain’ I couldn’t help myself. I hope this article raises more awareness about epilepsy and how it can affect people differently.
Are Smart Drugs Always Smart?
By Lia Daskalopoulos
Are smart drugs always smart? The midterm exams are approaching, and for a lot of us students that means increasing the consumption of caffeinated beverages, maybe having to pull off some all-nighters to make sure you get all those powerpoint slides read right before your exam (if only you had attended your lectures…) While caffeine is certainly the most popular stimulant abused for studying, some might find it tempting to turn to stronger alternatives.
The use of ‘smart drugs’ in Irish universities has not been studied thoroughly, according to a 2017 article in The Journal. It was about a British study done in 2014 found that 9% of those surveyed in the UK and Ireland had used pharmaceutical enhancers such as Ritalin and Adderall. Although more recent studies regarding drug use by college students in Ireland have been published since, they don’t specify the use of pharmaceutical drugs for studying. However, the availability of herbal alternatives to ‘smart drugs’ is increasing due to some students feeling that prescription medications come with “too many side effects”.
I spoke to Matteo, a mathematics major, who experimented with herbal supplements for studying because his experience with Ritalin left him feeling “awful” and “robotic”. He was recommended a supplement that his friend, who has been prescribed Ritalin for an ADHD diagnosis, described as “Ritalin without the weird side effects”. Its main ingredient is rhodiola rosea, a plant extract traditionally used to combat fatigue in Northeastern Europe. Other ingredients include L-tryptophan (an amino acid related to serotonin), vitamin B3 and caffeine. Although the blend is marketed as ‘fully natural’, Matteo didn’t describe it positively. “I’ve never tried crack, but it feels very crack-y.”
Matteo tried the supplement a few hours before his exam. “In my head I was like, it’s all natural, what’s the worst thing that could happen.” He started with the recommended dose, but when he couldn’t feel any effects after an hour, he took another one”
“Everything kicked in all at once. My hands were trembling and my thoughts were racing. It felt like I was on cocaine. It was impossible to sit still, so I started pacing around the study room on campus.”
Matteo made it to the exam hall, but he was not feeling well. “The moment I was confined to a room, shit hit the fan. I started panicking.” He was unable to concentrate on the exam. “After 15 minutes I thought I had answered all the questions, but when I double checked the sheet, everything was either blank or unintelligible scribbles. That’s when I realized something was wrong. I called out to a supervisor, and he checked my heart rate. He asked me if I needed an ambulance, because my heart was beating at 180 BPM. Luckily no ambulance was needed, but a security guard took me for a walk around the parking lot.”
Another student, Irina, had a similar experience with the same supplement, even though she stayed within the recommended dose. “I felt like I was tweaking for 7-8 hours. Sitting still was difficult, and I was so anxious that I had to leave the library and study at home. Concentrating was hard at first, but once I got into the flow I managed to study half of my course material in one sitting. I scored the highest grade I’ve ever gotten on that exam, so it did work. It was a very uncomfortable experience though, and I don’t think I’d do it again.”
When asked if Matteo would recommend any substance for studying, he didn’t have much to say. “Honestly, nothing. A good coffee and a nice snack are all I recommend. It’s best to study while sober.” Irina agreed with this statement. “I tried microdosing psychedelics for studying. It can be an experience, but you’re seriously risking sidetracking or feeling weird, especially if you’re feeling stressed about your exams. Your safest bet is to drink coffee and get enough sleep at night.”
Three
It would take approximately three thousand years to count the number of neurons and nerve cells in the human brain. That’s one hundred generations of people required to count just one hub of thought. How many years would it take then to decipher the rest? Add in all the emotions and ideas and I imagine it could take thousands more.
It’s a tricky thing, trying to understand the complexities behind the decisions of others. Often, we take the stance that we ourselves would never make certain choices, that our brain would know without doubt what to do if we were placed in such situations. But how can we ever be certain of this? How can we ever be sure that we know someone, that we know our own brain if we can’t be given three thousand years to figure it out?
For some people decision making comes easily, the thirty-five thousand choices we make every day are considered fleetingly by them. For others, even the thought of picking between two breakfast foods can be stifling. The act of making more permanent decisions can then become a tangled web of mistrust of one’s own brain. How can you make up your mind if you can’t commit to one of two simple options? How can you make a decision if you can’t trust your own intuition?
The idea of having a quiet mind is often a desirable one; peace can be hard to come by if the perpetrator of noise and chaos lives inside your own head. The scourge on my mind is often hindsight and its ability to wheedle its way into every aspect of life.
Years Thousand BY AOBH QUINN
“I should have said this”, “should have done that” and so on. Which neuron I wonder is responsible for those reoccurring thoughts? How many years of the count would it take to get to that one?
The human brain is about two percent of our body weight. And yet the concept of a heavy mind is a common one. How did the synapses and hippocampus manage to become leaden? Memory is one thing that is assured in its weight and importance. It’s carried by everyone, regardless of our awareness of it or not. Sometimes the lack of memory can be more hefty than the presence of it. A forgotten piece of information that was once important to you or someone you loved can leave craters of mammoth sizes if dropped.
Memories, like the tangle of neurons and nerve cells, can be maze-like in their ability to tie themselves into knots. It is just as easy to lose oneself in a memory as it is to mistakenly reach a dead-end in a maze. Without signs or maps however, this escape is a more difficult one to come across.
Continuous contentment in one’s mind is a privilege afforded to very few of our contemporaries. For some, the chemicals required for certain emotions get mixed up. Too much of one thing and not enough of another change the trajectory of a person’s life; leaving them to the mercy of their mind.
The billions upon billions of cells required to make up one brain may only be made from tissue but the mind has to be made from more. Three thousand years seems a miniscule amount of time when faced with the idea of deciphering the rest.
Nostalgia, the perfect dopamine hit to the brain. Our childhood reminds us of a time with no responsibility and the seemingly endless source of freedom. Alexander McQueen’s fall/ winter 2001 collection ranged from elegant to playful, the show was incredibly entertaining through many forms of theatrical methods yet it did not take away from the most important parts of the show, the fashion and the message. In an interview with Penny Martin in 2003, an insight into his thought process was uncovered. McQueen stated that the end product is precisely thought about. The final outcome of his designs are exactly what he imagined in his head, saying, ‘There is never no room for manouevre’. The attention to detail is purely astonishing, especially towards the visual arts. Films spanning from the 20’s to the 60’s were heavily referenced throughout the runway. For example there were actual looks based on ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’.
There were flashing amber lights within the void of darkness. Hundreds of petite fluorescent bulbs twinkling in a continuous motion. The neon tangerine scene invoked mystery and wonder. Suddenly, the short lived quaint scene was interrupted by the laughter of children, enforcing an unsettling feeling onto all.The silhouette of a merry go round stood still. A large shadow of an unknown figure entered the left hand side as it heightened the long awaited participation, Alexander McQueens ‘What A Merry-Go-Round’ runway had just begun.
THE MIND BEHIND THE DESIGN : ALEXANDER MCQUEEN
BY DEPUTY FASHION EDITOR SINEAD SHERIDAN
The model confidently strutted down the runway demanding attention from all, the first look consisted of a simple silhouette of a shirt and tie. The pants were baggy but clung onto the calves creating a new fascinating concept for pants. The texture added a sense of depth to this look, the shiny patent leather made the look all the more captivating with its unique yet edgy approach. McQueen cleverly produced the first look to captivate the audience enough for them to want more, simplicity lined with edge.The show was gradual, each look becoming more and more comfortable within the theme. Before then, completely accepting the spiral of creative madness.
The feminine hair and makeup was completed with outfits that were considered timeless, evident in the way McQueen kept the latest trends in mind that were popularized in 2001. Plunging necklines were seen all over the runways during this time, from well known fashion houses such as Gucci to Versace. This modern yet recurring trend throughout history came into the form of the flapper style. Clean cut professional wear dawned the runway, longer hemlines and power suits was a recurring theme.
As of spring/summer 2025, the idea of femininity and masculinity conveyed through clothing can be seen in the latest Yves Saint Lau rent show. The women’s fashion show composed of oversized suits fell loosely on the models fitting for the 2020s baggy trend.
The merry-go round began to twirl gently as circus music played softly in the background, the sharpness of the chords penetrating the crowd. Each model’s elegant poses be come more aggressive and dripped with an overwhelming sense of sex appeal. The walks and posing be came more disjointed, the hair was becoming slightly more messy, a transformation was beginning to take hold. As the first part of the show finished, cheers erupted for part two.
The cheers laced with excite ment clashed with ear piercing bells and laughter. A collection of circus mannequins and toys were cluttered together, one item piled onto the next. Loud singing was heard as the spot light embraced a puppet boy, his mechanical movements and sur prising voice distracted the audi ence as shadows appeared within the clutter.
Emerging from the darkness, the shadowy figures moved strangely. Their mannerisms were animalistic, preying. All at once, each clown revealed themselves. The hair was spiked and messy, cobwebs intertwined and hung loose from the hair. A great contrast to the glamorous waves seen before. The numerous faces were fully submerged in white clown makeup, details were inky black. Details such as exaggerated eyebrows and ‘tears’ were seen as each face portrayed different emotions from anger to sadness. As of the looks themselves, tulle and sheer fabrics were heavily used. Everything was bigger, the once bare neck lines completely enveloped heavily with tall structures of
A clown attached with black and orange balloons made her way to the center stage, the orange and black orbs rose and rose before eventually being out of sight as each bal loon was cut off. A golden skeleton clutched onto a clown’s ankle as it was dragged amongst the chaos continuously. The imagery of the clowns was cleverly chosen, not just to fit into the circus theme but it also represents our childhood fears. Nostalgia is not just about the good, it can be terrifying.
As the show came to an end the designer himself, Alexander McQueen revealed himself and a rapturous applause swiftly followed. Mary Poppins’ “A spoonful of sugar” blared, the final hint of childhood nostalgia being represented through song and film once again.
ORAN AURELIO: RACKING THE BRAIN
OF
IRELAND’S RISING
DESIGNER
BY FASHION EDITOR STEPHEN O’BRIEN
STEPHEN O’BRIEN: “Do you have a specific moment or memory from childhood that you would attribute to getting into fashion?”
ORAN AURELIO: “I think I’ve always been into fashion just through my mom. She used to work in Brown Thomas and then she worked in BT2, she was a makeup artist. We used to do those face charts for photoshoots because she used to do like, what’s it called? — NOW or VIP, like the [magazine] covers for those Irish celebrities: she used to do the makeup for them… so I’m a nepo-baby. (laughs) She works in a doctor’s office now — guys I’m ok! But she is very into fashion, like she is, to me, Carrie Bradshaw. Like her style, everything. I think through osmosis, and through watching Neighbours and Desperate Housewives with my mom, that got me into campy glamour, But I never really thought I could pursue it…”
STEPHEN O’BRIEN: “What is it like being a young designer in Dublin?”
ORAN AURELIO: There is so much that goes into it, and I hate saying that because at the end of the day I’m lucky. Most of the people are lovely… most of them. The problem with being young is automatically you’re not respected. And that’s crazy because I used to think ‘No, people aren’t like that’… I’ve heard conversations that are exactly like The Devil Wears Prada, and I’m like not in that world, whatsoever. And I think being a costume designer, but also a fashion designer — I think the fashion girls don’t really get it, and the costume girls are like ‘It’s too fashion-y’. It’s hard to find your niche, but I feel like Dublin is so expansive and there is truly room for everyone. I think it’s even about finding the right people to surround yourself with, and I was really scared to reach out to people in Dublin at the start because I thought, ‘They’re not going to fuck with me’. But I’ve made such amazing friends from literally just being like ‘Hey, we should do a photoshoot!’
STEPHEN O’BRIEN: “Do you think that being in Ireland has been a roadblock in fashion? Or has it been a blessing in disguise?”
ORAN AURELIO: I think it has been a burden rather than a blessing, only because all of my work is outside Ireland. CMAT and Nell [Mescal] — the outfit I made for Nell was for Paris, and she lives in London. [...]
Oran ‘Aurelio’ O’Reilly is a 22 year old fashion designer from Dublin, who has worked with the likes of CMAT, The Last Dinner Party, and most notably Chappell Roan, who in June of this year wore one of his dresses for Kentucky Pride. The Pop Culture Society in UCC, one that I am the Events Officer of, brought him down for an event in October, and I was finally able to sit down with him.
[...]So, it was me sending it over to London for her to wear in Paris. CMAT, I met her in Dublin, but this was for her tour, for Glastonbury. There’s not really a market here, and there’s so many amazing musicians over here and that’s what I love to do, I love to make stuff for performances. But there’s no budget here. There’s a lot of people doing it, but the budgets are all so small that people can’t really collaborate; you’re gonna have to work with management and you’re gonna have to work with stylists, and they’re all over in the UK or America. I think that Ireland is so small and the jobs that are there, people do get jealous over… Which I don’t really understand why. Everyone has their own niche, everyone will find the right job for them.
STEPHEN O’BRIEN: “I’ve seen it as well, so many of my friends are in bands and are moving to London or have planned to move to London; I guess there just isn’t the resources or pathways here”
ORAN AURELIO: I’ve had friends move to London; They’re doing really well over here, and then they move to London and they don’t have connections. I don’t know. I think it’s very hard and I think people are under the illusion that ‘Yeah, it’s doing so well, and even the film industries are moving here’, but all those jobs are done outside the country. Like Wednesday is being filmed here, but all the costumes are already made. They’re doing dressers and stuff over here, but that’s not reliable work. I think there’s a lot of way to go in terms of having a sustainable career path for those kinds of creatives in Dublin without having to move.
STEPHEN O’BRIEN: “So, how did the Divine dress for Chappell Roan come about?”
ORAN AURELIO: I’ve always been obsessed with the weird girls, Divine, John Waters, the 60s, 70s, 80s weird girls I love. I’ve been obsessed with Divine for forever. Then this April I responded to Genesis, Chappell Roan’s stylist being like ‘Oh my God, I love this outfit’ and she goes ‘I love your work, I’m Chappell Roan’s stylist’, which I had no clue about. She goes, ‘Would you be interested in making a look for us for this summer, she’s doing all the major festival stops’, and I said, ‘Yes of course’. A few weeks went by, and I didn’t hear anything, and I was kind of like, ‘okay, it’s not happening. That’s fine’. Then I get an email from Genesis saying, ‘Here’s the lookbook. You’re the first one I am sending this to’.[...]
[...]I think this is my first time saying this out loud, not to my friends: I made a second look for her. So, the original look was supposed to be Divine in Pink Flamingos, then the second look was underneath, and it was a blue, twopiece tiger print bikini, based on this 60s play Divine did, called The Neon Woman. I made that too, but that obviously didn’t work out. I was up at 3am on Twitter, looking at #ChappellRoan. I saw her wearing the look, but for some reason, seeing it on her, I was like ‘That’s not the look I made’. They’ve gotten somebody else to make it’, and especially because it was the leopard print underneath; They went with the original Pink Flamingos look rather than the niche Neon Woman [look].
STEPHEN O’BRIEN: “That’s crazy, I remember I saw it on Twitter before I even knew you made it and was thinking ‘that’s a really good outfit’, and then I saw your story and thought ‘Oh my god!”
ORAN AURELIO: And it was such a special reference to me and my friend Sadbh who’s obsessed with Divine, like [Divine] in Pink Flamingos is her wallpaper on her phone and has been for years. It was such a special, beautiful moment.
STEPHEN O’BRIEN: “I love your use of prints in your work, like Princess Diana, the Kate Bush one, and all the religious imagery. What are some of your weirder, more specific inspirations?”
ORAN AURELIO: The printed stuff is inspired by Vivienne Westwood, who is my favourite designer of all time. She did this collection called ‘Always on Camera’ and it was a Marlene Dietrich print of her lips and eyes; that was the inspo for the Natasha Lyonne corset. Then I was so obsessed with printing — it’s so expensive cause I can’t do it myself, it’s printed on bull denim, it’s not just t-shirt transferable. A good example is what I did with The Last Dinner Party this week; I printed Anna from Possession, Susie from Suspiria, Carrie, Isabelle Hubert in The Piano Teacher, Miss Danvers from Rebecca, and Little Edie. That vibe is —
STEPHEN O’BRIEN: “Regarding your close relationship with musicians like CMAT and The Last Dinner Party, you are a big part in fulfilling their artist output. How does that feel to know your work is becoming a part of their iconography?”
ORAN AURELIO: I don’t like thinking about that! Only because, Ciara — CMATs sister — sent me a photo when she was in New York of somebody at the merch table in a recreation of the Sexy Chicken outfit, and I started tweaking! I was so obsessed but also — that’s weird! That’s crazy! I don’t draw, I design everything in my head, and I just start cutting. I don’t have these intentions going into it, but I always think about if Ethel or Florence wear a dress I love, how impactful that is to me. Even The Last Dinner Party last night, I was standing at the back of the concert and the audience was going crazy! People were dressed up as them and I was thinking ‘This is people’s favourite artist in the world, and the fact I can make an outfit they might like’… Bonkers!
STEPHEN O’BRIEN: “Would you say that a lot of your interest in fashion comes from your family?”
STEPHEN O’BRIEN: “The strange, cult film girls of the 20th century”
ORAN AURELIO: Yeah! That’s what I love! Abigail [from The Last Dinner Party] was obsessed with the Possession dress. They took all [the dresses] with them so they’ll be worn sometime on tour. I think the sexiest fabric is suede because it’s skin, it’s so skin-like. I love the iconoclasm of ‘wearing somebody’ — like I wanted Abigail to be wearing the Possession dress, but wearing Isabelle Adjani, wearing the Possession dress.
ORAN AURELIO: Yes, oh my God, completely! Like my sisters are so chic. Even my dad is such a good business-head, he’ll always be like ‘Make a TikTok. I don’t care about Instagram, Instagram only has X amount of users. TikTok has this many, make a TikTok’. My mom is my best friend, my biggest inspiration, and that sounds so ‘Momma’s boy’ but all my friends are obsessed with her. She’s my fit model for anything that might be her size. I’m trying to do a TikTok of making the Possession dress and it’s just videos of her dancing around in Abigail’s dress. Chappell’s dress was fitted on her. And she loves it, because she loves fashion. I worked with The Last Dinner Party when they opened for Hozier in December, and in January they did the Tommy Tiernan Show, but I was in Cork working on a short film. They were like ‘Can we borrow some stuff’ and I thought ‘Oh fuck’. I contacted my mom and said ‘Would you please, please, please go to RTÉ and drop some stuff. Don’t go in, you’re dropping it at reception and going home’. She goes ‘Oh, ummm, ok’. She went in, spent the whole day in the green room, started talking to the producer of the Tommy Tiernan Show saying ‘My son made those’, and the producer was like ‘Oh, my husband is the producer of the Oliver Callan Show, I’d love to get him on’. So that’s how I got that, and then from that I got interview after interview, and that’s all because my mom networked the fuck out of the Tommy Tiernan green room. But she loves it, she loves the glamour. I relate all my recent success to that day in Cork when she was networking.
