Vol XXII - Issue 6 - Broadsheet

uo The University Observer

above Irish cancer society fundraising during rag week PHOTO Joanna o’malley

THE long road to the white house An insight into the us presidential election

sexual consent is ucd doing enough?

Soccer

Gavin Tracey P4

Eithne dODD P8

David kent p20

A discussion on the new fifa prseident

UCD’s senior academic positions predominantly held by male staff GRÁINNE lOUGHRAN Information obtained by the University Observer under the Freedom of Information Act has revealed a huge gap between the numbers of male and female academics currently in senior positions in UCD. The figures show that although there are 306 female and 285 male lecturers in the university, there are more than four times as many male professors as there are female, with just 33 female professors compared to 135 male.

They also show that there are 90 female senior lecturers compared to 149 male, and 26 Associate Professors compared to 55 male.

UCD did not respond to requests from the University Observer to comment on the figures.

The release of the figures follows a recent UCD Gender Equality Seminar and Workshop for staff and faculty on January 20th, organised by the UCD Athena SWAN Steering Group, which President Andrew Deeks commented in a recent email to all faculty had a “relatively poor attendance of male colleagues”

despite being well-attended.

The UCD Gender Equality Seminar and Workshop was organised to “invit[e] the wider University community to engage with the process” of applying for the Athena SWAN Award, which recognises universities’ commitment to achieving gender equality, according to the invitation sent out by the Steering Group Chairperson Prof Orla Feely.

The HEA are currently conducting a national review of gender equality among the staff of third level institutions. The most recent figures from the HEA from a review in 2012/2013, which was published in November 2015, show that among HEA institutions, 45 per cent of the total academic staff are female, whereas just 29 per cent of senior academic positions are filled by women.

UCD have outlined a commitment to achieving gender equality in the Strategic Plan 2015-2020.

UCD200 allegations “based on hearsay” Gráinne Loughran An investigation undertaken

by UCD into recent allegations of a Facebook group sharing inappropriate images of female students has found “no evidence” as to the group’s existence.

A report compiled by Deputy President and Registrar Professor Mark Rogers has detailed the timeline and the results of the investigation into the allegations, which were originally reported by the College Tribune, and have not been upheld by the University.

In an email sent to all students on Friday evening, Professor Rogers wrote that “the evidence cited in the article was based on hearsay from anonymous comments on Yik Yak by a quoted source to the College Tribune”. The full report on the investigation, which was undertaken from the 2nd until the 12th of February, is available at www.ucd.ie/registrar/ The reporter who wrote the original College Tribune article, Jack Power, appeared on the Marian Finucane show on Saturday morning on and claimed that he “absolutely stand[s] over” the original story.

Evidence of just one anonymous Yik Yak message potentially relating to the existence of the group was found during the investigation.

“I have found evidence of only one anonymous Yik Yak posting around this time which purports to be from an agricultural science student claiming that “I don’t even

partake in what’s happening, I personally only have sent 3 photos and a story or 2”.

However the anonymity of this social media site does not allow me to ascertain whether this posting is genuine or fraudulent.

Similarly, while there are hearsay allegations of others making similar claims, no evidence was presented or found,” writes Professor Rogers in the report.

Professor Rogers wrote in his email to students that the investigation “expressed disappointment” that information relating to the potential existence of an “Ag science facebook group” had not been passed to the University when it came to the attention of the College Tribune and the Students’ Union between 28 December 2015 and 5 January 2016 through Twitter and email.

Emails seen by the University Observer show that a student contacted the Students’ Union on the 28th of December asking if they could “confirm/deny these allegations”, and advising that “I think it would be beneficial for you guys to state that if the allegations are true you will work with the university and Gardaí to ensure the situation is resolved, particularly considering your #NotAskingForIt campaign”. SU Communications and Research Assistant David Burns responded to the email on the same day,

February 16th 2016 Volume XXIi issue 6 universityobserver.ie

Poetry and Fiction Submissions of poetry and fiction from UCD students

The plan states “…we will put in place a comprehensive performance development programme having undertaken a full review of our promotion procedures, training processes and leave provisions. We will work to ensure that all members of faculty and staff are enabled to achieve their full potential and are appropriately rewarded for their contribution to our mission, vision and community, and together, we will promote gender balance and equality of opportunity among students and employees of the University.”

However, the Equality and Diversity office has not updated the UCD website with any initiatives taking place to work towards achieving the goals laid out in the Strategic Plan, and the current version of UCD’s Dignity and Respect policy available online has not been updated since October 2013.

otwo p14 & p15

FROM Olympia to the 3ARENA INTERVIEW WITH THE ROCK SENSATION FOALS

REBEKAH RENNICK Otwo P17

Illustration: Aisling Mcguire

saying that the SU couldn’t confirm or deny the allegations because “we are unaware of which group is in question, of the alleged content and of many other important details.” The email continued with advice to the student to contact the Gardaí if they had seen photos or posts that constituted sexual harassment.

In response to Professor Rogers’ criticism, Burns told the University Observer: “They were the only allegations we had received at that time and we didn’t think it was necessary to pass on the information to the University based on allegations from just one tweet.”

Burns continued, “We replied to the email that we received advising him to go to the University and the Gardaí with any information he had.” SU President Marcus O’Halloran had not commented on the report at the time of going to print.

The College Tribune did not respond to requests from the University Observer as to whether they will be issuing a statement on the matter.

Professor Rogers ended his email to students by saying that although the investigation has been concluded, he does not believe that UCD is immune to this type of activity. “If you have been affected by the inappropriate sharing of private information on social media, the student advisors and wider University support services are available to you,” he wrote.

No UCDSU voting registration drive to take place UCDSU have recently confirmed that they plan to “mobilise” students to vote in the upcoming elections, but that they will not hold a voting registration drive.

This comes after almost 85,000 students have registered to vote nationally in the last year, many as a response to the marriage referendum last May. The University Observer contacted UCDSU Campaigns and Communications Officer, Cian Byrne, for a comment on the decision not to hold a drive and the SU’s plans to encourage students to vote before the general election. At the time of going to print, no response had been received.

Education Officer Dannii Curtis explained that “the drive last year was on registering the student vote, the drive this year is on mobilising it effectively.” Curtis went on to state that “given the growing certainty around future funding for third level in Ireland in the absence of a strong student vote during a general election, I think it’s very important for students to vote.”

She noted that there was now a significant bloc of students who would be voting for the first time and that this could be utilised to make an impact on key issues. “We’re hoping to put in place a platform online whereby students can ask, tweet and message the email addresses and social media accounts of politicians in their constituency with specific questions on electoral issues put forward by UCD Students’ Union.”

Some such issues include youth

Roisin GuyettNicholson

News Editor suicide prevention and sexual consent issues across campus. UCDSU has run campaigns focused on these issues, largely focused within UCD, since last semester.

“Since taking office, we have campaigned on youth suicide prevention, sexual consent and violence and student housing and transport — important electoral issues which nevertheless need to be highlighted by young people to politicians ahead of the 2016 general election,” Curtis said.

Accommodation costs and third-level funding have become key concerns for students in the last number of years, something that Curtis notes. “Over the last five years, areas rented by UCD students — Ranelagh, Rathgar, Rathmines, Clonskeagh, Booterstown and Stillorgan— have seen the sharpest rises in the Irish rental market.” She claimed that the focus of UCD has been campaigning on behalf of students with the Irish Strategic Investment Fund to keep rates for campus accommodation at the same level. Rent in UCD residences has gone up by 14 per cent this year.

Funding is also a prevalent issue for students, with Curtis commenting “The Cassell’s Report has received significant media attention over the past year and there’s been a lot of national debate on third level funding. High profile lobbying on this issue has been important but the real challenge on February 26th will be doing our utmost to ensure a turnout.”

OLD SCHOOL

spring HAS COME KIERA BLACK Otwo P27

MYSTERY JETS

OTwo’s music editor SPEAKS TO THE BAND ABOUT THEIR SUCCESS AISLING KRAUS Otwo P22

February 16TH 2016

News national news in brief

Quality Review Reveals Library Is Underfunded

Helen Carroll

Roisin Guyett-Nicholson

20 per cent of University Graduates Struggle with Basic Maths and Literacy Tasks A report by the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) has found that about one in five graduates have difficulty with basic maths and literacy.

Graduates can manage simple maths or literacy tasks, such as reading medicine bottle instructions, but struggle with more difficult or complex tasks.

One in six students fail to progress from first to second year in college, and these rates are much higher in low-point courses, indicating that they may enter into courses without the adequate skills to fully prosper from it.

Irish university students have some of the lowest literacy and numeracy skills in the developed world, ranking 18th out of 23 countries in literacy and 21st in numeracy. It has been suggested that this may be down to students without the basic maths and literacy skills being pushed into university, rather than alternative courses that better suit their needs. This report comes in the same week as the launch of the ten year National Skills Strategy, which aims to create 50,000 apprenticeships as part of a plan to give more alternatives for education to school-leavers.

Third-Level Institutions Face Uncertain Financial Future A number of third level institutions in Ireland have declared that they have financial difficulties. A combination of substantial decreases in State funding combined with Ireland’s increasing student population, alongside the recession since 2008 is believed to have created the complications.

Dundalk IT, Waterford IT, Letterkenny IT, Galway-Mayo IT and the NCAD have been hit the worst since State funding was cut by half. When the funding was short, many universities struggled to gather the resources to continue to deliver a high-quality education. This has led to financial penalties for those who started preforming poorly.

The largest colleges in Ireland, in particular UCD, Trinity and UCC are managing to survive due to financial deals secured with academia and major industry players. UCD gets €84m annually out of these deals, making it the largest recipient of this sort of funding in Ireland. Many ITs and other thirdlevel institutions simply cannot compete to earn these multi-million euro contracts and continue to face financial uncertainty. The HEA (Higher Education Authority) has said that for now, there are no fears of institutional collapse or closure, but more needs to be done to prevent them getting further into debt.

“Cybersafe” Course Launched in Ulster University A new adult education course has recently been launched by Ulster University and the PSNI in response to a marked increase in “cyber crime”. The five, two-hour long sessions will teach people how to limit what they share online, how to download and use anti-virus software and other advice on how to protect themselves online.

Douglas Grant, Detective Chief Inspector with the PSNI’s Cyber Crime Centre has said: “We all deserve to be able to use the internet to learn, explore and connect with each other however we also need to be aware that there are risks associated with our online activity.”

There will be real-life case studies on what to avoid and tips and tricks on ways to protect their personal data when browsing online, be it credit cards or personal information about themselves or others. It has been welcomed by the Academic Programme Leader of Ulster University Ursula Donnelly, who says: “By partnering with the PSNI Cyber Crime Centre… we have been able to develop a unique course which combines strategies to stay safe online with real life case studies of cyber crimes which have happened in Northern Ireland”.

2 February 16TH 2016

In a quality review released in December last year, it was revealed that UCD Library is severely underfunded.

The report stated that with a budget of €2.23M, the Library’s collection funding is the lowest in Ireland. It claims that “with the exception of the special collections, the Library cannot be considered adequate as a research library, even in the modern, digital sense. It cannot be compared favourably with the libraries of its comparator institutions with serious research agendas, struggling even to meet basic needs of all academic programmes.”

Compared to similar Universities in the UK, UCD Library is “a long way behind its UK peers for which the average budget is €7.5M.” In 2011 and 2012, the Library undertook a number of cost cutting and restructuring measures.

Among these was a compilation by each school of the lists of journals that received most traffic from their students. Lists with journals that were deemed most important saw these resources retained. The subscriptions for other journals were not renewed.

The total amount of journals available through the Library is 98,680.

The number of e-books

Eithne Dodd purchased by the library has almost doubled since 2012 while the amount of print books has remained relatively similar. The review notes that access to collections has become increasingly digital, with loans of hard copy material “beginning to show a gradual decline”.

However it states that this is not solely down to a lack of available material as shelves are often filled with materials that are not in regular use. Despite this, the review claims that a “major de-selection exercise is long-overdue and a significant barrier to progress.”

Another recommendation of the review group was extending Library opening hours. It states that “demand is far greater than is currently afforded.” In recent years there have been many appeals among students and potential Students’ Union sabbatical officers for longer opening hours. However a key issue is funding. “Funding can be identified, demand for a further extension to opening hours should be tested through a series of incremental pilot projects,” the report outlines.

The quality review office undertakes a number of reviews every year among different departments in UCD.

USI joins other unions to launch #MakeASmartVote Eithne Dodd The Union of Students in Ireland (USI) along with the Services Industrial Professional and Technical Union (SIPTU), Teachers Union of Ireland (TUI) and the Irish Federation of University Teachers (IFUT) have combined their efforts in order to encourage young people to vote in the general election on February 26th.

The Unions are trying to emphasise to students the importance of using their vote and contributing to the formation of the next government.

All Unions will be sending their members direct emails over this week and next to encourage their members to vote. UCD Students’ Union, which is not a The UCD Gender Equality Now campaign, which originally began in May of 2015, has recently become active again. UCD students, stakeholders and staff hosted a gender equality workshop and discussed gender equality issues within UCD and the general university industry.

These issues included accounts of rape, sexism, sexual assault, lack of adherence to Human Resource policies and the rise in discriminatory actions towards people with children, families and other carer commitments. As a result of this discussion it was concluded that these issues were not highlighted enough within UCD, leading to a lack of awareness within the university.

It was found that more tangible decisions could be reached and put into effect due to this

USI urges next Government to hold referendum on Eighth Amendment

member of USI, has not joined the campaign.

345,000 students on the island of Ireland are members of USI. SIPTU have over 200,000 members and TUI and IFUT represent over 5,000 educators and researchers.

Between them, they have over 559,000 members.

The four unions recognise that they have a common interest in the education and welfare of young people in Ireland. They have united for the #MakeASmartVote campaign.

Kevin Donoghue, President of USI said: “A voting group of people is an empowered group of people and it is extremely important for all four of our unions to empower its members.”

“We hope that young people across Ireland will engage with this General Election by using their vote and having their voice heard.”

The Union of students in Ireland (USI) is urging whoever forms the next government to hold a referendum to repeal the eighth amendment of the Constitution (article 40.3.3).

USI would like to see a repeal of the ‘Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013’ and to have it replaced by laws that ensure safe and legal access to an abortion.

The minimum cases which the USI believe qualify for

an abortion are rape, incest, risk to health or fatal foetal impartment. USI itself has been campaigning for abortion services since the 1980s and is a pro-choice organisation.

Current legislation in Ireland means that women in Ireland seeking an abortion must travel abroad in order to access. This has led to the abortion debate becoming, in part, a class issue. Women on lower incomes are unlikely to have the money to travel

and pay for the procedure abroad. This directly affects students whose access to funds is often limited.

In 2014, 3,735 women provided a Republic of Ireland address at an abortion clinic in England or Wales. The UK department of Health statistics shows that of the women who provide an Irish address when availing of an abortion, one quarter are between the ages of 18 and 25.

RAG week revenue totals yet to be announced Kevin Maguire

After a six year absence, RAG Week returned to UCD campus from the 1st of February. Four charities – Youth Suicide Prevention Ireland (YSPI), the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, the Peter McVerry Trust and a fund set up for the survivors of last summer’s Berkeley tragedy – will be the beneficiaries of all funds raised. The proceeds from all events over the week will be divided four ways between the named charities. However, the total proceeds raised during the week have yet to be announced, over a week since the conclusion of the event.

More than thirty events were held over the course of the week, including a Battle of the Bands, a Poetry Slam, a Mini World Cup and GaelBreak.

The UCD water tower was lit up in purple to mark the week long event.

The smooth passage of all the events of this year’s RAG Week will come as a relief to all those involved.

There have been discussions across the media in recent years about RAG weeks around the country, where the charity ethos of the event has been eschewed in favour of dangerous drinking habits. RAG Week in Galway has been banned since 2011 but unofficial events have still taken place. This week sees Galway’s unofficial RAG Week begin with extra Garda personnel drafted in to Galway.

“UCD Gender Equality Now” campaign

UCD Fashion Show launched for 2016 Patrick Kelleher

Lorcan Kelly workshop as a result of the many problems were brought to light over the course of the workshop.

It was decided that the related information be made more readily available to students, staff and stakeholders alike so that a larger and more effective movement could be put in place. The Gender Equality Now campaign is looking for support to make these changes happen sooner and to a greater effect.

Since then a petition has been formed which has now amassed 53 signatures. Co-ordinator of the campaign, Maeve Kelly, said that they had already received a level of support from the University and

UCDSU. However she noted that the public appearance of a University has often been a problem in addressing gender inequality and sexual assault on campus. “Universities do not want any stories getting into the media as to their problems with sexual assault, because parents will then be afraid to send their daughters to those universities. So the best way to protect your brand, as a university, is to ensure there is no news on this area,” she said.

More information can be found on the campaign’s Facebook page “UCD Students, Staff, & Stakeholders Say Gender Equality Now”

UCD Fashion Show was launched for this year on Tuesday 9th February in the Global Lounge by UCD Ents. The launch was attended by former Miss Ireland contestant and model, Shauna Lindsay.

At the launch, Lindsay wore an original design

by Irish designer Maria Lola Roche, and posed for photographs with students and volunteers.

The theme of this year’s Fashion Show is ‘Climate Revolution’. The show will be held on February 25th and 26th in the Astra Hall, with all proceeds going to the Down Syndrome Centre in Sandyford. The Young Designer of the Year Competition will take place on the second

night of the Fashion Show, on 26th February.

UCD Fashion Show Producer David Healy said of this year’s event: “It’s great to have a show like this in UCD especially as it gives students across the city the opportunity to showcase their work to such a big audience in such a big show. There’s also of course the fundraising side of the show which is so important each year and we’re hoping to raise as much money as possible for the Down Syndrome Centre.”

Tickets for the show can be purchased through the UCD Ents app and from the UCD Students’ Union shops on campus, priced at €12 and €15.

News Analysis: The change in student voting patterns With a General Election imminent, Alanna O’Shea examines how Irish students can make their voices heard As the build-up to the 2016 general election cycle continues, there are still questions about how large a role young voters and students will play.

Historically, the turnout among young people for elections in Ireland is amongst the lowest in Europe. However, in last year’s marriage referendum many young people not only cast their votes for the first time, but became active in their first political campaign.

Recent news coming out of Great Britain after their 2015 general election shows the importance of young people making themselves heard at the polling booth. Reforms of the UK’s electoral system, brought in by the Conservative Party Government, have meant that hundreds of thousands of students were recently struck from the UK’s electoral register. A new individual electoral registration system brought in in 2015 prevented universities from block registering students in their halls of residence. According

to figures released by the UK Labour Party, some 800,000 people have fallen off the register, with university towns losing sizeable percentages of their voters.

The Conservative party says that this is a method of ensuring that voting is as fraud-free as possible.

Labour politicians see this as an effort by the Conservative party to “rig the system“ by removing those who are unlikely to vote for them from the register (they say that as well as students, ethnic minority groups and lower income urban dwellers will be disproportionately affected).

Either way, this new electoral register has disenfranchised a large population of students.

This change makes it more difficult for thousands of young people to vote and is a significant step backwards, given that young people are already underrepresented in the voting process. In the British general election last year, there was a very high turnout among people over 65 years of age, which was instrumental in the Conservative Party being re-elected with

a majority in parliament.

Due to their strong support in older voters, there has been no reason for the Conservatives to listen to their younger constituents.

The Conservative budget that was put in place at the end of last year was disastrous for young people and students, with maintenance grants for poorer third-level students being scrapped. There was a cut to housing benefits for the under 25s. Meanwhile, there was tax relief for pensioners earning over £150,000 a year. So what can students do to ensure that the same thing doesn’t happen here?

Ireland’s young people have previously had a very low election turnout. One study found that in the last general election the number of 18-25 year olds voting was 20 per cent lower than the national average. However, one big event may have influenced young people since the last election: the marriage referendum, which got many students excited about politics for the first time. The high voter turn-out among the younger generation

ensured the highest turnout for a referendum in Ireland ever.

Kevin Donoghue, head of the Union of Students in Ireland (USI), believes students are more engaged in the political process since last May. “After the marriage referendum, we had a voter registration drive in October where we registered 10,000 people in one day,” he said. Donoghue also pointed out that on the day the election was called there were queues of third-level students outside Garda stations waiting register to vote.

“We registered 60 people in 60 minutes one day in DIT,” he said.

“Everyone’s very engaged, it’s actually now hard to find people that aren’t registered to vote.”

So, the stereotype of the cynical student has been thoroughly disproven and it is now clear that this generation of students are politically engaged about issues they care about. According to Donoghue, while third-level fees are a huge factor in deciding student votes, issues such as repealing the eighth amendment and finding graduate positions

are also important to them.

However, it takes two to do this general election tango: are the politicians listening to the students’ requests? The USI released its own general election manifesto to represent the interest of students. Donoghue says that many of their requests have been incorporated into the main parties’ election manifestos.

For those just starting out in the political process and unsure what candidate best represents their interest, Donoghue points to Smartvote.ie as a good place to start. By answering 30 questions on various political issues, this is a website where you can check which candidate in your constituency most closely aligns with your viewpoints.

Donoghue points to new technology such as this as a factor in the next election: “Students are not only more engaged and more likely to vote than they were in the past, but they are also better informed.”

It remains to be seen whether this new politicially active and informed young electorate will make their voices heard on the 26th of February.

News Analysis: Student Registration Drive – a vital part of the conversation Roisin Guyett-Nicholson looks at what your Students’ Union have done to campaign for students before the General Election

With the general election imminent and the future of third level funding less sure than ever before, one must wonder why the SU have not seen fit to launch a voter registration drive. As students in the UK gear up to defend the right for students to vote on campus, our omnipotent SU seem to think that encouraging students to vote is beneath their impressive hair-cutting abilities.

With a large number of students registering last year specifically for the marriage referendum, there is now a hugely inflated number of young people that may be voting in a general election for the first time. This presents a clear opportunity for student bodies, such as UCDSU and USI (Union of Students in Ireland) to influence prospective government policy.

While USI seem to be aware of this opportunity, UCDSU are lost in the wilderness of events and campaigns.

Last year in the months leading up to the referendum there was a large drive from the SU to get students registered.

Widely publicised across campus through posters, there

were centres set up to register students. Similarly a widely publicised ‘Yes’ campaign was run by the Union in the lead up to May last year. Over 4,500 students were registered in UCD, the highest figure for any third-level institution in the country. USI similarly ran a campaign which saw 20,210 students register, in which the UCD figure is not included.

Yet this year, the SU seem reluctant to capitalise on these newly registered voters, which could push politicians to take student issues seriously. While they say that accommodation and consent are big issues for them, how exactly do they expect to affect change without encouraging students to vote?

In a recent article in The Irish Times, Una Mullally argued that no political party has canvassed the youth vote, which has significantly increased. Almost 25,000 students registered to vote in the first half of 2015. This number has since risen again with 10,000 registered in November by USI at a “Rock the Register” event. USI have continued to run registration clinics leading up to the election.

A large influx of a new voting bloc should have a significant impact on party policy and offers a clear mandate for Students’

Unions across the country to lobby for student issues. While USI have run numerous campaigns, such as Repeal the Eighth Amendment and releasing a manifesto of specific student issues, UCDSU, who are not affiliated with USI, have yet to realise that there is a General Election at all.

For the largest University in the country, surely fees and accommodation should be a priority, particularly as this year’s tenure draws to a close.

The General Election is offering an opportunity for one last big campaign to really benefit students.

Instead, however the SU seem to content to focus on their various campaigns which are focused solely on UCD and have had a mixed degree of success. Despite the fact that the Campaigns and Communications officer’s role is specifically to run campaigns supporting the SU’s official position on national issues across campus, there have been virtually no national issues brought to attention. The C&C officer is designed to communicate not only what the SU is concerned about but also what it’s doing to deal with these concerns. By not running any kind of voter registration campaign, it implies that the SU simply do not care if students are registered or not, thus leading to a large number of students being left out of the conversation.

B&L Day to take place on Thursday 18th February Roisin Guyett-Nicholson This year’s Law B&L day will be held on Thursday 18th February. Volunteers are still needed for the faculty fundraising day. All funds raised go to Temple Street Children’s hospital which has been the main beneficiary for a number of years. All law lectures are cancelled on the day to give students an opportunity to get involved.

Organisers of the event are hoping to see almost 250 volunteers take part, which would see a jump from last year’s 200 volunteers. They are also hoping that this will reflect a change in the total amount raised, which last year was €7,000. This year it is hoped that the faculty charity day can increase this figure.

Events during the day will include a tag-rugby tournament which has become popular in recent years. It is also hoped that more faculty members and students from non-Law courses will get involved. Other highlights of the day include the annual breakfast in the morning and a pub quiz in the Clubhouse bar in the evening.

During the day, volunteers

“100 minds” Childline Challenge Launched

News international News in Brief Fergus Dunne

Change for students in UK voter registration According to research carried out by the UK Labour Party, an estimated 800,000 people have been removed from the electoral register in the UK, with students being the most affected.

This comes after a new system, independent electoral registration (IER), was introduced by the Conservative government in 2014. Under the old system the head of a household could register all eligible residents, but this practice has been stopped. This has had a significant effect on students living in university residences, as their universities are no longer able to block register them.

The results are most apparent in university towns such as Cambridge and Dundee, where voter registration dropped by 11 per cent, and Canterbury, where it fell by 13 per cent. There has been some speculation that the Conservatives brought in this system with the intention of putting a dent in the number of student voters, as they are, on average, more likely to vote for a liberal government.

Gloria De Piero, the shadow minister for electoral registration, in a letter to Cabinet Office minister John Penrose, suggested that universities should build voter registration into the enrolment process, a model that has been hugely successful in the University of Sheffield.

EU Mobility Grants Increase Reaching the end of its first year, the Erasmus+ programme has been deemed a success. Set up by the European Union in 2014, it has awarded approximately 650,000 mobility grants in its first year alone, offering people the chance to study, train, work or volunteer abroad.

Of the 650,000, 400,000 grants went to third level students studying abroad. The programme is set to last until 2020, and has a budget of €14.7 billion, which is 40 per cent higher than that of its predecessor.

Grants vary depending on what country the recipient is going to. For example, in countries with a higher cost of living, such as Ireland, the UK and France, the grant is €400 per month. While some have criticised such a big spending increase, research shows that the grants are already having a positive effect across Europe.

According to the European Commission, “more students can now be sure that the qualifications obtained abroad will be recognised in their home countries – 85 per cent in 2014, up from 76 per cent in 2013.” The programme has also given additional financial support to 10,000 students who are less well-off or have special needs.

An Erasmus Regional Impact Study has revealed that those in Southern Europe who go on Erasmus are 50 per cent less likely to face prolonged unemployment than those who don’t, while those in Eastern Europe find it easier to rise to managerial positions.

Shanghai Universities inflate graduate employment figures

Helen Carroll will also be collecting money around Dublin City Centre to raise funds between 7am and 9.30pm. The permits for the day extend from beyond UCD to the city centre.

The co-ordinators stress that even if students are not able to be involved with the bucket collections, they are still encouraged to take part in any of the events.

One of the co-ordinators, Conor Keegan notes that he and another co-ordinator, Dearbhla O’Sullivan had visited Temple Street before Christmas and that “the building is so old and so really unsuited to what they are doing. But yet they do amazing work, it is pretty incredible what they do on a daily basis in there.”

The other co-ordinator, Simon Keogh adds that “It’s always been the main charity, so that’s always been at the forefront of our aspirations for the day is to raise money for, as much money for that as possible. There were some other charities earlier on but for the last few years definitely it’s been a hundred per cent for Temple Street.”

The 100 Minds Childline Challenge was launched this month, and sees some of Ireland’s upcoming entrepreneurs, creators and leaders raising €1,000 each for Irish children’s charities through a variety of means.

Fundraising events include bake sales, charity runs, setting up a business, or tutoring people for a fee. Over €400,000 has been raised to date, going to many different causes across the country. These range from helping children who are in hospital access education, and providing support to those with disabilities across the country, as well as being a listening ear with the likes of Childline or Teenline.

All proceeds from the fundraising drive will go to the charity.

Students who sign up have to organise and run the fundraising event themselves. The organisers believe this allows them to learn valuable life skills that can benefit them in the future, as well as offering them the chance to give back to their community. The fundraising idea was created with the idea of having a double social impact, because both the children and the participating students earn something from it. Participants can receive mentoring throughout and have access to a huge range of

services from leading organisations and companies to improve their skills to help them succeed.

Joanna Siewierska, a first year Law with Social Justice Student undertaking this task, says that she signed up “because I wanted to make a difference and challenge myself doing something new”.

Siewierska believes that supports for children are very important, citing that as the reason for keeping her strong in her challenge. She says “Every child deserves to be listened to, and if I can play a small part in making sure that there’s someone there to listen 24/7, then I don’t mind giving up my time.”

Childline does not receive any government funding and relies on the donations of supporters to keep its phone lines and messaging services available to children all across the country. It is hoped that such an event will create muchneeded donations and awareness of their services for the most vulnerable members in our society.

In the coming weeks there will be many events across the country to raise funds for the cause, including a bake sale in UCD. More information on how to donate and other events can be found at www.100minds.org

Universities in Shanghai have come under criticism for inflating graduate employment figures, after the publishing of a report by the Shanghai City Administration.

The report, first published on the city administration’s account on the popular Chinese social media website Weibo, claimed that the 17 universities in the Shanghai area had falsified the number of recent graduates who have entered employment or gone on to master’s degrees.

A report from June 2015 concluded that, out of the 177,000 graduates from that year, 95 per cent had received job offers or been accepted into masters degree programmes. This is an extreme jump from the statistics of the Shanghai Education Committee from the same month, which sets that number at 62.4 per cent.

A number of students have come forward claiming that they were forced to sign “employment agreements” before being allowed to graduate, with one graduate of the Shanghai Institute of Technology alleging: “to get our graduation certificates we had to sign employment agreements with the printer shop in front of our campus!”

It is difficult to discern the universities’ motivation for the inflation. While many have said that it was to boost their reputation, Shanghai universities already receive a surplus of applications.

This year will see 178,000 students graduate in Shanghai, but due to China’s current economic situation, many will find it hard to find work.

February 16TH 2016

comment

Grading the Banking Inquiry

The Banking Inquiry was an examination into a series of events that continues to shape Ireland’s future. Shane Conneely talks to Senator Barrett, and offers his assessment of it for students If the Banking Inquiry was a college assignment what grade would it get? This is the question put to Senator Sean D. Barrett, formerly a Senior Lecturer in Trinity College’s Department of Economics, and the only University Senator on the Banking Inquiry that published its report on the 27th of January.

“That depends on what you think the Banking Inquiry was for,” says Senator Barrett. “We have had a banking inquiry that has succeeded, insofar as it has failed, because it was built to fail.”

Ours is a generation which will pay for the costs of the economic collapse. We live with continued emigration, a distorted housing market, and a burden of national debt which exceeds €200 billion and is expected to keep climbing until at least 2019. Having squandered the inflow of capital during the boom years we will have to pay out-of-pocket for the defined benefit pensions to civil servants with unfunded schemes that facilitated the economic collapse.

What are the lessons that we have to learn from economic collapse, and the banking inquiry that was to ensure we don’t repeat these same mistakes again?

According to Senator Barrett, “the necessary questions were never addressed with respect to the future [and] much of this had to do with certain logical fallacies that have become part of how policy formation takes place in Irish politics. Ultimately, the Banking Inquiry failed to put in place recommendations and findings that could enable policy to change in Ireland.”

“The first problem that we had to cope with on the Inquiry was the absence of evidence,” says Barrett. “Anything that may have been interesting was sent to us redacted on the grounds of business sensitivity. What

evidence we did get was merely testimony from some of the individuals involved.

Some erred, some may have lied, and certain witnesses contradicted each other. Even where this was glaringly obvious we were prevented from referring to it in the report, for fear that we might damage the ‘good name’ of the person who uttered the falsity.

The best that we could do was to remove the untruth from

the report in the hope that it wouldn’t get repeated, thereby becoming an accepted fact.”

“All that we had to work with was a Punch and Judy style of testimony where he said something and she said something else,” Barrett continues. “But whenever we started to apply pressure to the witness the Oireachtas lawyers forced the chair Ciaran Lynch TD to intervene and stop the questioning.”

Barrett’s dissatisfaction with the workings of the Inquiry are extensive. “As an example of the ridiculous restrictions placed on us by the lawyers and the secretariat, my former colleague Prof. Antoin Murphy published a book with former IMF Deputy Director Donal Donovan on the Irish crisis and bailout with Oxford University Press. It was peer reviewed and well received in academic and professional circles. But we

PHOTO: Rollingnews.ie

“The first problem that we had to cope with on the Inquiry was the absence of evidence. Anything that may have been interesting was sent to us redacted on the grounds of business sensitivity.”

were precluded from making any mention of this book because the witnesses had not been allowed offer their opinions on it.”

A recent OECD study of our Oireachtas highlighted the fact that Ireland’s parliament ranks last in budgetary oversight in the OECD. Will this report mark a turning point in this, or is the Banking Inquiry report part of the same problem?

“The Inquiry’s final report will only add more evidence as to the inability of the Oireachtas to ensure accountability,” says Barrett. “The 2015 OECD Budgetary Oversight analysis found that the Executive ‘dominates’ the Dáil and that the parliamentarians of the Oireachtas are to all intents and purposes excluded from the discussions regarding budgeting and the allocation of the national resources. But this is not a feature limited to the budgetary process, examples of it are replete across the system of government and the permanent government.”

“One of the most frightening things that I have seen since being elected to the Seanad is the soft power of the permanent government,” Barrett says. “The officials who will continue to guide their departments long after the Ministers of today have cleared out their offices. There is a habit in the governments of Ireland to order their policy like it’s a take-out. If there’s a political problem that needs a policy solution, the Minister calls in the official who has the responsibility in that area to tell her what to do. The official is of course a generalist with no technical competence in their area of responsibility so they leave the room and out-source decision making. Throughout the Banking Crisis, which I believe

to be a direct consequence of the hot-money that flowed in because of our flawed decision to enter the EuroZone, we have outsourced our decision making to the European Commission, and the European Central Bank – there were not enough technically competent people to do otherwise.

On the night of the Guarantee only 7 per cent of those working in the Department of Finance had a qualification in Economics, fewer still in other ‘Economic’ Departments. Finally once this take-out policy has been emailed back to the Department from the continent, the official returns to the Minister and reports to her that ‘the advice we have received is…’ and looking at the calibre of our ministers, how many of them are capable of seeing where the EU is leading them astray?”

What should the current crop of students take away from the Banking Inquiry? Firstly, the lack of accountability and transparency. Ministers were able to draft legislation in secret.

The contingency planning for a solvency/liquidity crisis took place behind closed doors during a time before panic but only opened up when the crisis was fully upon us and it was too late to present alternatives.

Secondly and as importantly we need to advance the capabilities of the Oireachtas.

The weaknesses of this Inquiry were brought about by a lack of flexibility wrought from legal decisions woven with unintended consequences, and the tyranny of low expectations. Oireachtas reform was much discussed but never seriously progressed since it suits the government to keep its backbenchers and opposition disengaged in the processes of scrutiny, oversight and governance.

Spanish Stasis: A Political Stalemate Spanish politics has been locked in a stalemate since late December over the recent general election. Henry Eviston examines these events and the parties involved Spanish banks entered a €100 billion EU-backed bailout programme in 2012 as they struggled to stay afloat. The ensuing austerity measures, including severe cuts in spending and salaries and increases in taxes and unemployment rates, coupled with a number of corruption scandals involving the establishment parties and members of the Spanish royal family, generated huge popular resentment and paved the way for the rise of anti-establishment parties. On the right Ciudadanos, a liberal formation led by Alberto Rivera; on the left, Podemos, a party born from the Indignados movement (which brought more than a million protesters into Madrid’s Puerta del Sol square in May of 2011) and led by Pablo Iglesias, a former political science professor.

Spanish voters were called to the ballot boxes on the 20th of December of last year to decide on the outcome of the most hotly

contested election in the country’s recent history.

Although Spain has a multiparty system, since the 1990s governments have been formed by one of two long-standing rivals, the Popular Party (PP), led by Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, and the Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE), led by newly

appointed Pedro Sanchez.

The 2015 elections effectively ended the era of two-party monopoly over power, as Ciudadanos and Podemos (with 14 and 21 per cent of the vote respectively) finished just behind the traditional duo – the PSOE, at 22 per cent, lost seven points with respect to the 2011 elections, while the PP, on 28

“Although the first move has been completed, negotiations are expected to take 12 weeks - Ireland will probably have a new government before Spain does.”

PHOTO: Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias

4 February 16TH 2016

per cent, was down 17 per cent.

Who exactly are these new parties? Each leader presented himself as the new face of Spanish politics, with both campaigning on anticorruption and anti-cronyism platforms. Podemos in particular supported breaking up investment and commercial banks, strong regulation of the banking sector and the elimination of fiscal loopholes to tackle tax avoidance.

The similarities end there, however. Podemos displays, both in its political priorities and economic policies, many characteristics of traditional left-wing formations. It has positioned itself to the PSOE’s left with the aim of eroding the party’s traditional working-class vote; it supports increases in welfare spending and minimum wage levels, strengthening unions’ negotiating power and imposing a thirty-five hour working week.

It also believes that the ECB should set itself new objectives, such as maintaining full employment levels – a policy reminiscent of those championed

by Syriza, Greece’s governing party and Podemos’ most notable European ally. Like Syriza before it (and Jeremy Corbyn and Bernie Sanders since), Podemos has been successful in mobilising significant numbers of disenchanted voters, notably amongst the youth and the unemployed. Unlike Sanders or Corbyn, however, it has studiously avoided any association with left-wing ideology, preferring instead to emphasise its credentials as an antagonist to Spain’s political and economic elites.

As the last party to rise to national prominence, Ciudadanos took great care to criticise establishment

parties while avoiding direct confrontation with them. Its calling card is that it represents a liberal third way between the extremes of Podemos and the immobility of the PP and PSOE. Its liberal economic policies have attracted support from both disillusioned middle class voters (both left and right) and liberal intellectuals. It opposes increases in public sector jobs and in the minimum wage, favours tax breaks for companies that offer long-term contracts and maintain low rates of dismissal.

It favours greater EU integration, although it advocates reform of its institutions and political structures. An observer recently summed up the difference between saying - ‘if Podemos offer a revolution, Ciudadanos promise an evolution.’

Since the election results were declared, the party leaders have been engaging in draining negotiations to form a coalition government. The process has been so long and arduous that the King, whose role in these affairs is normally marginal, has had to act as a steward for the entire process.

The talks have lasted for two months as each leader tries to find common ground with (and outmanoeuvre) the others without crossing electoral red lines.

Ciudadanos’ principal objective is to exclude Podemos from government, which means stopping a PSOE-Podemos pact.

It has always been pragmatic towards the PP and PSOE and has consequently been courted by both. Realistically, having cast itself as a pragmatic party, it must enter a coalition and achieve reform quickly if it is to maintain momentum.

Podemos, on the other hand, has maintained its aggressive stance towards the PSOE – it stands to gain most from remaining

uncompromising in its demands, a prolonged stalemate serving as the perfect example of the incompetence and selfishness of the political class. Furthermore, as a formation which aimed to take up the mantle of leadership of the left, it may find the prospect of entering a PSOE-led government unappealing.

The PP wants to avoid a coalition with the PSOE for fear of appearing too eager to conserve the status quo (an alliance with Podemos is not even on the cards) and has stubbornly insisted that, as the leader with most votes, Rajoy should lead whichever coalition might emerge from the talks – this stubbornness has only isolated it, however.

For its part, the PSOE has accused the PP of irresponsibly stalling and has looked to both Podemos and Ciudadanos to form an alliance. Internal distrust towards Podemos, however, coupled with Iglesias’ demand that Podemos be the PSOE’s sole interlocutor, have pushed Sanchez towards a rapprochement with Ciudadanos.

Two weeks ago, the Spanish King nominated Pedro Sanchez Prime Minister of Spain to work on forming a coalition. Two days later Ciudadanos and PSOE negotiators met to begin talks on a political programme for a transition government. The two parties do not have the majority in the lower house, however, so Rivera has insisted that he will participate in government only if the PP is included.

Although the first move has been completed, negotiations are expected to take 12 weeks – Ireland will probably have a new government before Spain does. New elections remain likely. The Spanish political establishment has been shaken to its core – perhaps irreversibly so.

Comment

What Now for a New Myanmar?

Myanmar is on the brink of its first democratically elected government. Kevin O’Leary examines the past, present and future for the state The 1st of February 2016 will be remembered as one of the most symbolic days in the history of modern Myanmar and indeed in the quest for representative democracy in the post-Cold War era. The arrival of Aung San Suu Kyi to parliament, following years of house arrest by the Burmese military junta signified the end of an authoritarian regime which stood as a relic from a bygone era of bipolar world politics. The question now is what this momentous occasion means for the people of this impoverished nation, which is beset by ethnic strife and extensive social problems.

What has just occurred in Myanmar draws clear parallels with significant developments in the world’s political arena following the collapse of Soviet communism. Suu Kyi’s presence in Myanmar’s lower house, just metres from representatives of the once all-encompassing and at times brutal military regime, was reminiscent of the swearingin of Polish president Lech Wałęsa in 1990, watched on by former dictator Wojciech Jaruzelski, or indeed the arrival of Nelson Mandela’s African National Congress to the first parliament of post-apartheid South Africa. More than twenty years on, it is now Myanmar’s turn to overcome years of ferocious political division, and much like what occurred in both South Africa and Poland, witness former adversaries work together for the common good of their respective populations.

What brought about these major changes in Myanmar politics? In 2011, after 49 years of military rule, a new constitution and an opening of the economy to foreign markets provided the catalyst for a new era in the country’s history. Following the 1962 coup d’état by the military, an extensive nationalisation process subjected the state’s citizens to widespread poverty, something which has persisted despite close economic ties to neighbouring China since the early 1990s.

The onset of foreign capital is hoped to stimulate an economy that has long suffered from stagnation, mismanagement and isolation. The adoption of a functioning democracy is an attempt to make the nation more attractive to outside investors and thus assist in this new economic approach.

For the new members of parliament, the challenges are substantial. Among the parliamentarians from Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) is Ma Thander, who after spending six years in jail as a political prisoner, lost her husband in 2014 when he was shot dead in army custody. 110 of the 390 NLD candidates elected to both houses of parliament have served time as political prisoners, with many only being released as part of the reforms that led to last November’s election.

Irrespective of any of the issues the new government will face, simply being able to work alongside their former jailers and oppressors will be a key test in itself.

Thander says however that she bears no hate, insisting that she wants both sides to “work together for the good of the country.” The first-time member of parliament alluded to the slight unease between the NLD and the military, stating “I can shake hands with them, but I don’t know if they will shake hands with us. We have been smiling at them [here in the parliament] but they don’t smile back.”

Notwithstanding the current rapprochement between the military and the NLD, the new government faces the arduous task of unifying a country split by half a dozen separate conflicts occurring in the nation’s border regions.

Myanmar’s diverse ethnic makeup stymies a national cohesion that could provide the momentum for the kind of national renewal and

pHOTO: Aung San Suu Kuyi, via bbc

development that would advance the nation from its current woes.

Not even rejection of the military junta over the course of five decades brought any meaningful co-operation between the various opposition groups in the country. Despite a peace agreement being signed in October between many of the armed militias, attacks involving the other rebels against and by the military continue unabated and threaten the very sovereignty of the Myanmar state. This and addressing the persecution of Myanmar Muslims, who in many

cases were even denied the right to vote in the democratic November elections, will pose the most pressing concerns for Suu Kyi and the government in the coming months and years.

Despite the evident challenges facing Myanmar, there is widespread support for Suu Kyi and belief that she is best placed to guide the state away from the last few decades which have witnessed such instability and turmoil. The 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner is the daughter of Aung San, who achieved independence for Myanmar and

ironically established what became the same Burmese army that some decades later would place Suu Kyi under house arrest. Aung Win, a prominent NLD member, has described the sentiments of the Myanmar people on her election to parliament, saying “I cannot describe what we feel about Aung San Suu Kyi. Today would never have been possible without her.”

Suu Kyi has been quick to temper the elation that has followed the November elections, warning supporters to

be humble and remain wary of the tendency of the military to intervene when it feels threatened. Suu Kyi’s presence in the parliament in early February was little more than ceremonial, with the real political decisions being made at the end of March, as this period will see the appointment of a new president and the formation of a new government.

Whatever way the negotiations between now and then go, what appears certain is that a deserving Suu Kyi’s NLD and the military will finally be sharing power after one of the most protracted internal political conflicts in modern history.

The Long Road to the White House The US presidential primaries are in full swing. Gavin Tracey looks at the format of the system, examining two very different candidates

photo: Bernie Sanders after winning New Hampshire primary, via daily caller

In order to narrow the field of candidates before the presidential elections, American states hold primary elections, the methods and rules for them differing in each state. They tell the party who is their strongest candidate and the one with the most amount of votes from all of the primaries will be selected as the party’s candidate.

However there are many exceptions, irregularities and eccentricities that make the whole process extremely difficult to fathom. There are many confusing details that, when explained, will make understanding the 2016 election that much easier.

The first is knowing the different

types of primary elections held.

The two most common types are primaries and caucuses. Primaries are relatively straightforward.

The public in each district line up and vote (anonymously), and whichever candidate wins the most districts wins in that state.

A Caucus on the other hand is a public vote. People gather in town halls and other centres, with supporters of one candidate lining up on one side of the room, supporters for the other candidate lining up on the opposite side. Debates take place, and anyone who changes their mind on which candidate they support must physically change sides. When the

debates have finished, the amount of people on each side is counted.

For the sake of simplicity, both types are called “primaries”. Each state has its own specifics, and even in the same state the rules can be different for Republicans and Democrats. There are also “open primaries” in which anyone may vote, and “closed primaries”, in which voters must register their affiliation with one of the two parties.

The topic of which states vote and when is another sometimes confusing aspect. Primaries are spread out over five months. Last week’s New Hampshire primary is always first, as it is written into their state law

that their primary will always be come around, usually only one held one week before any other candidate is left standing, and states. However, Iowa was the first so the convention is more of an to hold a primary. Iowa can get approval from the party leadership. away with this because they hold The battle for the 2016 candidacy caucuses, meaning New Hampshire has been extremely interesting, still technically holds the first with establishment candidates “primary” election. Another less such as Hillary Clinton and Jeb technical reason is because, in the Bush facing stiff opposition from grand scheme of things, the Iowa candidates such as Bernie Sanders primaries are not important. Only and Donald Trump. The rise of three non-incumbent candidates Sanders and Trump took everyone have won both Iowa and the by surprise, from political pundits presidential election: Carter, to candidates who were thought as George W. Bush and Obama. guaranteed for the nomination.

The voters do not give their The huge successes of the votes straight to the candidates, Vermont senator Bernie Sanders is but rather to delegates, who can be perhaps the most remarkable thing state representatives or officials, to come out of this election cycle. such as the mayor. The amount of The self- labelled “democratic delegates per state is determined socialist” has become hugely by population. Depending on the successful with younger voters. state, the delegates will choose the There is certainly much to be said candidate the people voted for, but for his track record; 16 years as a in other states the delegates are congressman, becoming a senator in free to vote whichever way they 2006, and was re-elected in 2012 please, regardless of how the people with 71 per cent of the popular voted. This rarely happens, as the vote. Throughout his years of public candidate with service, the most votes he has “The battle is the best consistently for the 2016 candidate to stood up candidacy has put forward for the for election. been extremely progressive The ideals which interesting, delegates then he still with vote for the espouses. candidates This long and establishment at the party consistent candidates convention, but voting history they are not the such as Hillary is an example Clinton only ones who of the can vote. There and Jeb Bush advantage are also “super facing stiff he has over delegates”, Clinton. opposition…” high ranking With the members of the party establishment consequences of the 2003 invasion such as congressmen and former of Iraq now obvious for all to see, presidents. They vote with the best many voters take issue with the interests of the party in mind, and fact that Clinton voted for it, and can make up 20 per cent of the Sanders against it. Indeed, some of vote. By the time the conventions the support for Sanders is a de facto

support from Democrats who have issues with Clinton. Many see her as having no real long term political convictions. In the 1990s she was a supporter of her husband’s Defence of Marriage Act (DoMA), and has accepted millions of dollars in speaking fees from multiple banks and corporations. She is viewed with suspicion by many of simply pandering to the Democratic base, and doing whatever is politically expedient at the time.

Of course, one cannot talk about the 2016 elections without having to acknowledge Donald Trump. His huge successes are easier to explain. For years the Republican Party has pushed right wing rhetoric on issues such as immigration and gun control, and it is now backfiring on them spectacularly. Ad hominem attacks were the norm, Democrats were compared to communists, Obama’s birthplace questioned because of the colour of his skin. Donald Trump is merely all of these rolled into one man, with some added racism and xenophobia.

Trump is the candidate the Republicans have been brewing for years. His other advantage is that he is acutely aware of how to play the media, delivering short, pithy sound bites that can easily be shared online. Trump’s stance on each major issue can easily be laid out in the length of a Vine.

In the grand scheme of things, the increased support for candidates such as Trump and Sanders is demonstrative of the growing dissatisfaction with mainstream politics in America, and a genuine desire to change.

Whether that change takes the form of radical leftism or extreme right has yet to be seen.

February 16TH 2016

comment Do millenials really have it all?

There has been much discussion about the ‘millennial’ generation over the last number of years. Philip Weldon discusses some of the stereotypes associated with the current generation The word ‘millennials’ brings to mind images of the fast-paced digital consumer age – an age which knows no limitations. From equality to opportunity, some would say that this generation have it all and there is some truth in this matter.

The world is now more connected than ever. We’ve seen massive leaps in technology, education, and opportunity. Millennials are changing the way things work.

Older generations can sometimes be fearful of these changes, and some reject new trends and ideas. For example the idea of car-ownership has been gradually replaced with car-sharing (Uber), brands are increasingly utilising social media to advertise their products and services (Facebook, Snapchat and Twitter) and renting is replacing ownership. Even employment is now an opportunity for most in the developed world, with organisations competing to attract and retain top talent.

These changing models have led to major improvements that will continue to define future generations.

But before we get too excited, let’s not blind ourselves with half truths. The actual truth is pretty ugly. This generation could have had it all, had the supposed wiser and older generations worked for others and not just for themselves.

We only have to look at youth unemployment rates in Europe to understand this. According to the World Bank, Europe has some of the highest rates of youth unemployment in the world. For example, the rates stand at 55 per cent in Spain, 54 per cent in Greece and 44 per cent in Italy. Similarly, poverty rates in developing nations are still at crushing highs. In Chad 38.4 per cent of the population live in poverty, in Niger 50.3 per cent and in Sudan 46.5 per cent.

The fault lies with the failure

of the supposed wiser and older generation to shape policy that drives economic growth and brings down unemployment and poverty rates. Much of the fault also lies with bankers whose greed led to the 2007/2008 worldwide financial meltdown. This is a far cry from the image that millennials have had everything handed to them. The world is grossly imbalanced and opportunities are much harder to

“It’s only natural that when you’re faced with an uphill struggle you will work to achieve better than anyone around you.

This ambition can be mistaken for ego and selfobsession.’’ find for most. There are 1.8 billion young people between the ages of 15 and 30 in the world and the demands that have been placed on them far exceed those of previous generations.

It’s harder to get a job now than it ever has been. Older generations are fearful that sharing information and knowledge will lead to job losses, so they ensure that things are stacked in their favour.

Organisations fail to acknowledge that the problem requires a bottomup solution, as opposed to the

top-down one that’s being used to address the knowledge vacuum.

It should be no surprise to anyone that the result has been a more ambitious and more driven generation of millennials. It’s only natural that when you’re faced with an uphill struggle you will work to achieve better than anyone around you. This ambition can be mistaken for ego and self-obsession.

Appearances mean everything in the 21st century. You must appear to have more, to know more and to be more than you actually are.

The demands to have more have placed increasing pressure on the millennial generation. We’ve been geared toward a much more material existence. Young people are pressurised to have more, to do more – with the bottom line being that more is never good enough. They say we are a mollycoddled generation, but the current generation has inherited a deeply flawed economic system and a fragmented world order that seems devoid of leadership. It’s hard to see how this can be described as being mollycoddled. The pressure to have more has led to increasing personal debt problems and social division.

These pressures have pushed us into a mental health crisis we’re only now coming to terms with.

This supposed lack of ambition is a smoke screen in an effort to deny the obvious problems that exist.

According to the National Suicide Research Foundation, at the peak of the economic crisis in Ireland in 2011 there were 554 suicides and 12,216 people were self harming.

This would suggest that the pressures faced by many were unbearable. The ambition and the drive to have more was pushed too far and the result was devastating. The unwillingness of the older generations to face up to the truth of a broken system had far reaching consequences. But

these problems are being addressed at home and around the world.

Millennials are the first generation with a social consciousness and the global awareness to deal with the problems humanity is facing.

Global problems will need global solutions and while some of the older generations may shun the emergence of new technology, it is these new technologies that have given us these solutions. Every generation brings with it a new set of challenges and the challenges this generation

faces are some of the greatest we’ve known. What this generation has shown though is that it wants to make things better for future generations.

The truth is that when the time for the next generation comes, millennials will probably lament for their time. They will say that those who are following are more self-obsessed. But every generation has always had its fair share of self-obsessed people – it’s the natural order.

It’s also good to be aware that

millennials are working to fix the broken world. Millennials are ambitious beyond themselves. They are aware of the problems and divisions that exist and are willing to face up to them. With increasing knowledge and availability of information, the problems are ours to solve. Millennials are about to move into the work force and become the prime consumers of what organisations have to offer. It would be wise to listen as they become the shapers of the world economy and wider world order.

The Student Voting Momentum Last year’s Marriage Equality referendum saw a sharp increase in student voters. Martin Healy wonders whether this momentum will continue into the forthcoming election The Union of Students in Ireland (USI) states that they have registered over 80,000 new student voters over the last two years. Their campaign has not ended there, as they continued to support voter registration drives up to the application deadline last Tuesday. When the Dáil dissolved two weeks ago, there were students queued outside a number of Garda stations throughout the country in order to register.

Are students in Ireland becoming a mobilised voting force? The assumption that students rarely vote has been around for years, both in Ireland and abroad. Especially in the wake of the financial crash and subsequent bailout, it was very easy for students to already become cynical toward any positive results emerging from politics.

This wave of cynicism

appears to have ceased thanks to last year’s marriage equality referendum, with around 62 per cent voting in favour of legalising gay marriage, making Ireland the first country to do this by popular vote. The number of students who registered to vote spiked for the referendum, as young people around the country rallied behind a referendum like no other in Irish history.

What remains to be seen is if students will keep up this momentum into the general election on February 26th – and it is hard to see why not. In a recent piece for The Irish Times, columnist Una Mullaly noted how Ireland has seen a shift into activist-based politics in recent years, and how young people are more willing to engage with these issues then the older generations. Young people have already become

heavily involved in movements like ‘Repeal the Eighth’ as well as protesting against Irish Water. This is a crucial time for students to have their say due to the housing crisis affecting many here in Dublin, as well as the growing spectre of student fees throughout the country.

As mentioned above, it is clear from the marriage referendum that young people tend to connect and corral around social issues. Young people have joined together alongside their parents, neighbours and friends to protest against the Irish Water charges throughout the country.

A strong sector of ‘Yes’ campaigners in last year’s marriage equality referendum were younger people, whether college-aged, or recently graduated. It is a classic stereotype that college students get immersed into political ideals

“The lack of a history of students voting has been particularly tough for third-level institutions over the last several years.

Political parties rarely design any of their policies around college students or young people.”

students queuing to register to vote PHOTO: Via usi twitter

6 February 16TH 2016

and possibilities as they enter adult life. If political parties aim to direct their policies toward a younger generation, not only will they get a large quantity of votes they assumed were not there, but they will get a sea of campaigners ready to get behind a political message and be willing to campaign for what they believe in.

The parties’ manifestos have indicated this shift toward social issues like water charges, as well as support for the ‘Repeal the Eighth’ movement from parties like Labour and the newly established Social Democrats. Parties who get behind social issues like these should feel the bump of the newly registered student voters. While water charges are a universal issue, ‘Repeal the Eighth’ is an issue which directly benefits from younger voters who are more likely to have a liberal view on abortion.

The lack of a history of students voting has been particularly tough for third-level institutions over the last several years. Political parties rarely design any of their policies around college students or young people. While reform for primary and secondary level is always on the books, the same cannot be said for third-level. British political parties have tried to court student voters in the past by trying to cut and lower student fees, as seen with the Liberal Democrats in 2010. That same tactic is not valid in Ireland.

But this may not last. While “free fees” have been in effect for over two decades now, the student registration fee has reached over €3,000 a year.

Comments from John Hennessy, who has just finished his five years as chairman of the Higher Education Authority (HEA) make for grim prospects for third-level education and students. He states that “the lack of funding is really hurting

the system.” The rise of student numbers, the fall in the number of staff, as well as cutbacks since the recession means that Hennessy sees third level as “stressing the system to the point of breaking.” Third-level lobbying is not as strong as that of primary and secondary level, but Hennessy comments that huge reform is required. This makes for all the more reason why students need to continue the momentum from last year’s referendum into the general election.

Strangely, despite this explosion in student voters, there has not been much of an economic response from the main political parties toward the future of third-level education.

There have been few promises shown towards students from the parties: Fine Gael has promised small student loans to be paid back when a graduate enters a specified income threshold (which would likely come at the cost of cutting back the HEAR grant scheme).

Elsewhere, Fianna Fáil and Labour have little to offer to students as well. Sinn Fein claim to have students in mind, stating that their election into government would be beneficial for students, but there is little evidence for this as anything beyond a basic plea for votes from younger citizens.

Political parties have to catch young people’s attention away from economic worries and issues around the state of student fees, as there is enough cynicism already surrounding a generation of people who grew in the boom and subsequent crash and austerity.

It is critical for young voters to keep up this momentum if they wish to see policy directed toward themselves and their futures. If young people do vote in force on February 26th, they may not see a change right away, but the numbers will not lie. Political parties are built to stay in power, and if young people become a viable sector, policies will change accordingly.

Gaeilge

An Ghaeilge Inniu Roimh an toghchán, tugann Déonna McLaughlin súil ar stáid na teanga i 2016, agus cén difir a dhéanfaidh an vóta don teanga

An Radharc ón dTúr Uisce Tá ranganna nua ag teacht chuig an gcoláiste. San alt seo, tugann Síofra Ní Shluaghadháin súil orthu ón dTúr Uisc

Gaeilge labhartha ar champas ag fás go beocht. Is cinnte go bhfuil daoine ann fós nach thuigean an ciall ná an tabhacht atá bainte le húsáid an teanga, agus nílim ag rá go bhfuil gach duine i gcoláiste tógtha leis an Ghaeilge.

Ach in ainneoin na daoine sin, tá beocht airithe leis an teanga agus í in úsáid ag an t-aos óg. Is rud iontach an suim seo sa teanga, d’ár liomsa, ach leis an fás seo, tá fás tágtha ar an slactivism.

Is é an rud atá in “slactivism” nó daoine ag chuir postanna suas ar Facebook ná ag Tweetáil, ach is é sin an mhéid a deanann siad. Feictear an sórt rud seo nuair a fhágann daoine an mheánscoil agus tar éis blianta doíbh ag cur síos gach éinne a raibh ag freastal ar bhunscoil nó meánscoil trí mheán na Gaeilge.

Is iadsan na daoine a athraíonn a ainm ar Facebook agus iad ag rá go raibh “grá acu don Gaeilge le linn a saoil”, ach de gnáth ní sin an chás in aon chor. Ní sin a rá go bhfuil gach uile duine

Le linn na blianta anuas, tá fás tágtha ar an líon daoine atá ag labhairt Gaeilge. Tá roinnt cúiseanna le seo. Do daoine áirithe, is é an Ghaeilge teanga laethúil an baile dóibh, ach fósta, tá líon na daoine atá ag foghlaim a chuid Gaeilge ar scoil, bíodh sin in a Ghaelscoil nó nach mbíodh, ag fás chomh maith. Is comhartha é seo den athbheochan fada, ceann a thosaidh chomh fada siar leis an 19ú haois. Is suimiúil é go bhfuil an fás seo ag tarlú sa Ghalltacht chomh maith is sa Ghaeltacht.

Tá tionchar ag an oideachas trí mhean na Gaeilge ar an athrú seo, gan dabht. Sa lá atá inniu ann, sa bhliain acadúil 14-15 dár le Gaelscoileanna.ie tá 187 naíonra lasmuigh den Gaeltacht agus 67 naíonra laistigh, tá 305 bunscoileanna agus tá 71 mheán scoileanna atá go léir trí mheán na Gaeilge tá na staitistic seo ag glacadh in áireamh scoileanna sa Ghaeltacht agus sa Ghalltacht.

Tá sé soiléir domhsa ar an choláiste, go bhfuil an oiread

a athraíonn a hainm ar facebook ag bréagadóireachta faoi. Ach ar an drochuair ní bíonn tromlach na daoine seo ag labhairt ná ag úsáid an Ghaeilge ar aon slí fiúntach.

Don mhéid is mó tá seasamh ná bPáirtithe ar an Gaeilge ar an chéim céanna. Níl páirtí ar bith i gcoinne teanga na Gaeilge, agus muid ag dúnadh go gearr leis an Olltoghchán, ach níl plean soiléir ag éinne ach an oiread.

Tá comhaontú an gur choir an Ghaeilge a chaomhnú mar an príomh-teanga Stáit, ach, níl plean ná stráitéis ar leith ag aon eagraíocht pholáitiúil ina dtaobh.

Glac, mar shampla, an pairtí is nua-bhunaithe, Renua. Is cosúil nó go bhfuil siadsan ag lorg coras mar atá faoi láthair sa Bhreatáin Bheag. Aontaím don mhórchuid leis an smaoineamh seo, ach sin ráite, níl fianaise dá laghad maidir le cur i bhfeidhm plean mar sin.

Is cinnte, ag an bomáite, go bhfuil an todhchaí den teanga fós inár lámha féin, mar sin.

Don cholúin seo, táimid ag teacht chugaibh le fógra tabhachtach ó na húdaráisí anseo san ollscoil.

Tá go leor cáinte le déanaí faoi ranganna nua atá molta do mhic léinn, ranganna praicticiúla agus mar sin de, ach i measc na cáinte seo uilig, cáiliú amach ar modúil amháin, ní héa, cúrsa iomlan nua, a bhéas ag teacht chugainn i mí Mheán Fomháir 2016.

Sílfeá, b’fhéidir, gur cúrsa staire a bhéas ann, le comóradh an Éirí Amach ag tarlú i mbliana, ach ní héa. A mhic léinn dhíl, is é an cúrsa a bhéas a cur ar fáil daoibh ná – STU100000, nó “Conas a bheith i do mhic léinn”.

Anois, tá a fhios agam, síleann sibh go léir nach bhfuil aon rud le foghlaim, ach éistigí go cúramach.

Béidh curaclam cuimsitheach agus fíor úsáideach ar fáil. Ar dtús báire, beidh na léachtanna ar fad ag a 9 ar máidín, agus béidh polasaí tinreamh contrártha i bhfeidhm. Ciallaíonn sé seo, an líon is lú ranganna ar a bhfreastalíonn tú orthu, an líon is mó marcanna a fhaigheann tú. Tá súil ag an gcoláiste go gcothóidh an bpolasaí seo iompar i measc na mic léinn atá an pobal mór ag dúil leis.

Ar ndóigh, nach bhfuil muid uilig leisciúl, ag deireadh an lae?

Má théann tú chuig na léachtanna, clúdóidh siad topaicí ar nós – “Conas aiste a scríobh in oíche amháin”, “Ní póit atá orm ach an fliú”, “Cá bhfuil an leabharlann arís?”, “Bradaíl 101 – Fuair mé an teolas seo ar Wikipedia/

Sparknotes”, “Ní féidir caidreamh leapa a bheith agat le léachtóirí (nó bealaí cruthaitheach chun mairceanna a ghiniúint gan faic a dhéanamh)”, agus b’fhéidir an rang is tabhachtaí – “Conas an nuacht a bhriseadh le do chuid tuismitheoirí go mbeidh orthu morgáiste eile a glacadh ar an teach chun íoc as na táillí uilig mar gur theip tú ar achán rud”.

Lasmuigh de scileanna acadúla mar seo, beidh cúrsaí ar nós “Conas siúl le liotar vadca (leat agus ionat)”, “Dreapadh tríd fhúinneog na seomra folctha, nuair atá dearmad déanta agat ar na heochracha”, agus, le bheith cinnte, “Béasa na griangrafa nochta – Conas iad a roinnt go rúnda”.

Beidh scrúdú ag deireadh an cúrsa seo, a suíofar i mBar an Clubhouse. Cuirfear trí pionta beora, nó/agus trí glincín vadca ar fáil do gach duine roimh reidh.

Ceapann muid anseo sa Túr Uisce gur bréa an smaoineamh é seo, gan dabht ar bith. Tá cuimhne againn go léir ar an chéad bhliain, agus ar an fhád a ghlac sé orainn na scileanna oiriúnacha a fhoghlaim chun bogadh chun cinn anseo. Tá an mhodúil seo ar fáil do gach mic léinn, iar mhic léinn, agus baill don phobal a mbéas ag iarraidh freastal air.

Chomh maith le seo, sa dara seimeastar, béidh clár díthocsainiú iomlán ar fáil do chách.

“Béasa na griangrafa nochta – Conas iad a roinnt go rúnda”

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facebook.com/BordnaGaeilgeUCD - twitter.com/BordnaGaeilge - instagram.com/ucdbordnagaeilge/

February 16TH 2016

features

Free Speech in Universities After the somewhat controversial visit of Milo Yiannopolous to UCD two weeks ago, Rosemarie Gibbons examines how UCD feels about free speech Manchester University, October 2015: Milo Yiannopoulos, a British journalist, and Julie Bindel, British writer and feminist, were invited to take part in a debate entitled “From liberation to censorship: does modern feminism have a problem with free speech?” by a student society. Both parties were promptly, and drastically, disinvited due to a Student Union backlash. The fact that two controversial public figures exercising their respective rights to free speech were disinvited from an event to debate that very topic is a sign of an issue much deeper.

Recently, UCD’s Economics Society held an event entitled ‘Has Political Correctness Gone Too Far?’ with guest of honour, Milo Yiannopoulos. Yiannopoulos speaking is an alluring prospect; his reputation as a controversial speaker meant he was sure to get an audience.

Conor McCabe, auditor of the Economics Society, spoke on the decision to invite Yiannapoulos: “Free speech and political correctness would not ostensibly be issues that an economics society would deal with, but our committee also has responsibility for Thinking Big, a series of lectures where we aim to tackle the big issues facing society today. We felt that in recent years, a culture of excessive political correctness has permeated university campuses. Universities and students’ unions seem to be increasingly more concerned with protecting students from offence rather than upholding the liberal values of free speech and open debate upon which they were founded”.

“We hoped that by inviting Milo to speak we would be able to ‘start a dialogue’, to borrow the cliché, about these issues on campus and to draw attention to some of (what we see as) the hypocrisy inherent in the modern liberal movement,” says McCabe. “We were certainly aware that he is a controversial person and some students

“Despite people’s common sense and personal beliefs, research shows that we are more likely to listen to someone who appears to be in a position of power” may well have been offended by his visit to UCD, but we did not feel that this was enough of a justification to deny him a platform to speak”.

As was anticipated by the Economics Society, not everyone was as thrilled with the news of Yiannopoulos’ visit. Niamh Ni Chormac is a member of the UCD

Feminist Book Club, a group which publicly opposed Yiannopoulos’ visit. “When I heard that Milo Yiannopoulos had been invited by the Economics Society to speak to students, I was disappointed but not entirely surprised. There is a culture within UCD where anything goes, where controversy around an

event serves as more publicity for whichever society is involved.”

She adds, “In this case, the Economics Society was delighted to “start a dialogue” – never mind the fact that they did not allow a platform for that dialogue to come about in any balanced way.”

Ni Chormac also commented on

whether it was truly harmful that a figure such as Mr. Yiannopoulos spoke to students or was he simply offering an alternative point of view.

“When it comes to controversial figures like Milo, the conversation surrounding them focuses on an abstract and philosophical idea that we should all sit and listen for the sake of free speech. While free speech is important, and no one is saying that it isn’t, it doesn’t entitle you to an uncontested platform. I think that it is harmful for such a big campus society to endorse the views of Mr. Yiannopoulos without offering an alternative view.”

In response to the news of the impending visit by Mr. Yiannopoulos, the Feminist Book Club decided to pen an open letter to those in the Economics Society. The letter asked the organisers to make the event into a debate, with someone representing an alternate point of view.

The open letter said: “The Economics Society has given Milo Yiannopoulos a pedestal to influence students of UCD, and despite people’s common sense and personal beliefs, research shows that we are more likely to listen to someone who appears to be in a position of power.”

In response to the open letter, McCabe says they were open to suggestions. “We considered the requests of the Feminist Book Club but the letter was only sent to us on the morning of the event.

We had agreed a format for the event in advance with Milo and springing a change of format on him with such short notice would not have been professional.”

Yiannopoulos has also voiced his disdain about university promoted ‘safe space’ policies (a policy agreed upon by an educational institution to have a no-tolerance attitude towards any form of ‘hate speech’ directed towards a certain minority group), and was banned from

speaking at Manchester University as his view didn’t line up with their individual safe space policy.

On whether this ‘safe space’ model could work in UCD, McCabe remarks that although his views cannot represent all member of Econ Soc, he believes “a university mandated ‘safe space’ would be a disaster that not just threatens but completely undermines the values universities supposedly espouse.

Gone would be the intellectual curiosity and diversity of opinion that the university currently tries to instil in its students. Instead, we would be left with a group think with little room for individual reasoning”.

Ni Chormac, on the other hand, believes that “there is something to be said for safe spaces within universities. Let’s not pretend that there is anything new about what Milo is saying. It’s the same homophobia and misogyny that’s plagued society for centuries.

Safe spaces allow those who have been silenced to speak up.”

The open letter, which The Economics Society and The Philosophical Society sent in response to the Feminist Book Club also gave an opinion on free speech: “We think that it is important to be exposed to views you might find unpalatable and it is a move into dangerous territory when universities and Students’ Unions worry more about offending students than protecting free speech on campuses. Universities, once bastions of liberalism and open debate, have been moving down the path of cultural authoritarianism under the guise of political correctness and inclusivity.”

Differing opinions of free speech aside, McCabe says the society stands by their decision to invite Yiannopoulos. “The event was very well attended and seemed to be well received by most in attendance.”

Sexual Consent on University Campuses Eithne Dodd looks at the current trend of sexual consent campaigns across third level institutions

PHOTOGRAPHY: Gráinne loughran

8 February 16TH 2016

Third level institutions all over the country have recently intensified their efforts on the issues of sexual consent awareness. In January, the Students’ Union of Trinity College Dublin unanimously passed a motion mandating the organisation of compulsory sexual education workshops to begin this September. These classes will be mandatory for nearly 1000 firstyear undergraduate students who live in Trinity accommodation.

After the findings of a survey carried out by TCDSU, Trinity has become increasingly aware of the need for sexual consent campaigns.

1,038 students responded to the Union’s survey, which found some unsettling figures. Slightly less than a third of female respondents to the survey said they had experienced unwanted physical contact while at Trinity. 25.2 per cent of females and 4.5 per cent of male respondents said that they had had a nonconsensual sexual experience. 42 per cent of the women surveyed reported experiencing verbal harassment. And yet less than a third of those surveyed had any knowledge of consent campaigns.

Trinity is not the only institution to have reacted to news of sexual abuse on campus. On the 2nd of February the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) launched its “Say Something” Campaign in response to survey results completed by over 2,700 students. Their survey found that 11 per cent of female respondents said they had been subject to unwanted sexual contact and, in addition, 8 per cent of women said they were victims of rape or attempted rape. In response to these figures Kevin Donoghue, President of USI said: “We hope that these statistics will shed new light on the area of violence, including physical and sexual harassment.”

Educational institutions appear to desperately need to change their approach to sexual consent issues. Of those who partook in the USI survey, 16 per cent of students reported having received some form of unwanted sexual experience while at their current educational institution.

A large proportion of victims did not report incidents of assault. Of those who did not report abuse, 29 per

cent were ashamed or embarrassed of what had happened. 22 per cent worried they would be blamed and 21 per cent did not want their family to find out.

The two most common reasons given as to why incidents of unwanted sexual experience were not reported to the Gardaí were that they didn’t believe the incident was serious enough to report or that they didn’t believe what had happened was a crime.

The announcement of sexual consent classes in Trinity has been met with praise from a variety of organisations.

Not only is UCD due to follow suit, but Donoghue of USI said: “We want to open up dialogue and provide students with the language and information that is needed in relation to sexual consent… initiatives such as the proposed consent workshops in Trinity College Dublin are very important in empowering young people and changing attitudes about what is and is not appropriate behaviour for all students.”

Ellen O’Malley Dunlop, CEO of The Dublin Rape Crisis Centre echoes this sentiment. “We hope they get the support they need from both the college authorities and from the students themselves. The recent conversations about sexual consent and the need for on-going age-related programmes from early childhood to third level institutions are very welcome.”

In the last week, the attention has turned from Trinity to UCD in the wake of allegations of the existence of a ‘revenge porn’ group in UCD by the College Tribune. They alleged that 200 Agricultural Science students were partaking in a Facebook group in which explicit photographs of women were shared and commented on.

Although an investigation conducted

by UCD found these allegations to be unsubstantiated, they have incited UCD into action regarding sexual consent.

UCD Students’ Union has promised to change people’s perspectives on sexual consent. In a statement made on UCDSU’s Facebook page recently, they said: “We’re not going to pass the buck.

We will change ‘lad’ culture in UCD as promised following our election to office.”

In this same statement the SU promises to change UCD’s policy in a number of areas. They have promised the introduction of mandatory sexual consent workshops as well as increased funding for UCD Counselling

Service and a comprehensive survey of UCD student experience in relation to sexual violence.

President of the Students’ Union, Marcus O’Halloran met with UCD President Andrew Deeks to discuss the UCD consent campaign. “The President, he was very aware of what the campaign was about,” says O’Halloran.

“I put a proposal to him that we should follow suit, basically said to him that Trinity have gone down the route of introducing mandatory consent classes for people that live on res in Trinity.”

O’Halloran added that President Deeks was very supportive of this idea.

Before the consent classes begin, the SU will carry out a survey of UCD students on their experiences of sexual violence. “The procedure we’re trying to go about is that we can show the results to the University and show there is a genuine need for this to take place,” O’Halloran says. “The plan always was to have the results first before the classes.”

“I think a lot of people have attitudes towards consent that they don’t realise they have,” says Hazel Beattie, Students’ Union Graduate Officer and Vice President. “These classes might make them more aware of those attitudes and change their understanding of what consent actually is, and help them to practice consent, and to get the conversation going amongst the student body.”

“The whole disclosure of the UCD 200, it was disappointing from our end because we received the criticism from everybody,” O’Halloran says. “Up until then, we had been extremely proactive on the issue, and now it makes us look like we’re being reactive… it’s just a pity that this had to happen and that we hadn’t it announced.”

UCDSU has said that university-led sexual consent classes will begin by September 2016. It is hoped that these classes will help end ‘lad culture’ and increase student awareness of consent.

With the attention that is currently on UCD after the false allegations surrounding UCD 200, O’Halloran adds: “If anything, it’s made us more focused than ever to make sure it goes ahead. It’s by far the most important thing we’ll do this year.”

features

Government Party Manifestos: what are they promising for students?

Kevin O Leary outlines the elements of party manifestos which hold particular relevance to students ahead of the general election With the general election scheduled for Friday the 26th of February, the political parties have been publishing their manifestos in a bid to outline to citizens their objectives if they enter government.

There are approximately 180,000 undergraduate students studying in colleges across the country.

Political party policies’ on thirdlevel education and Ireland’s youth could have a significant impact on their success in the election.

In order to aid students with information on their options before casting their vote, this list has been compiled highlighting the various policies supported by the parties that will affect students.

region of €25,000 per annum).

Renua supports a Public-Private Partnership to increase the rate of housebuilding in the country, to tackle the present shortage in supply. Increasing access to Job Bridge is also a policy of Renua, as is support for water charges.

SOCIAL DEMOCRATS

FINE GAEL The party intends to double housing output to 25,000 a year by 2020 to contain the cost of housing, which should have a positive impact on future students seeking accommodation. They also intend to boost the affordable housing supply to stem the tide of lowincome families becoming homeless and relying on emergency accommodation.

Fine Gael wishes to double the number of apprenticeships to 31,000 by 2020, as the number of people going into trades is currently declining at a sharp rate. A core policy proposed by the party is to abolish the Universal Social Charge (USC) while simultaneously raising the minimum wage gradually over the life term of the next government. Both of these would have an impact on young people in employment in particular.

A draft of Fine Gael’s education manifesto has stated that they will introduce a student loan system for third level education.

FIANNA FÁIL Fianna Fáil are considering introducing a student loan system for young people who don’t have access to the student maintenance grant to access third level education.

An increase in spending on third level is part of their manifesto as well, with a particular emphasis on research and development. Providing more

apprenticeships is also contained in their policies. An increase in the supply of social housing is mooted to address the issue of an overheated private renting sector.

The introduction of rent control in Dublin is a policy they hope will prevent further price hikes in the city’s property market, which has been a serious problem for UCD students in recent years.

and social housing sectors.

They also seek to establish rent certainty, introduce a tenant’s rights charter as well as considering a capping of rent subsidies, which are moves that would have particular relevance to UCD students.

A move towards raising the minimum wage to the living wage is also a promise from the party.

deemed to be high income earners.

Notably for students, Labour aim to gradually raise the minimum wage to €11.30 over the lifetime of the next government. Labour have also pledged to hold a referendum on the Eighth Amendment if they are re-elected, supporting the right to termination for reasons such as risk to health, life, rape or fatal foetal abnormality.

AAA/PBP

LABOUR SINN FÉIN Sinn Féin have pledged to reduce student fees by €500 if they enter government. They also intend to ensure that 20 per cent of new housing developments go towards the affordable housing

In the run-up to the election, the Social Democrats published their ten-year manifesto which outlines the policies people can expect if they enter government after the election.

Most notably for students, they wish to reduce the student contribution fee to €2,000 and cap it at this figure.

The party wants to extend rent caps and use fiscal policy to bring vacant homes onto the market, moves which should assist students in finding affordable accommodation in a tight market.

They intend to build 10,000 units of social housing per annum if they enter government.

The party strongly supports removing the Eighth Amendment from the constitution and are committed to holding a referendum on the issue within the first 18 months of the next Dáil.

If they enter government, they promise to abolish the water charges.

The party proposes increasing investment in Dublin Bus in order to reduce fares.

Furthermore, the Social Democrats intend to raise the minimum wage to the living wage and also to ban zero-hour contracts; two employment-related issues which affect thousands of students.

RENUA Joan Burton has announced Labour’s intention to reduce student fees by €500 if re-elected.

Similar to Fine Gael, they support the abolition of the USC, but unlike their current coalition partners’ plans, the abolition would not apply to those

Like Fine Gael, the party supports the introduction of a student loan system, with students expected to repay the loans once their salaries exceed a certain threshold (likely to be in the

The Anti-Austerity AlliancePeople Before Profit (AAA-PBP) was established to maximise the presence of left-wing TDs in the next Dáil. Both the AAA and the PBP retain their individual organisations and will publish

separate election manifestos. They have ruled out coalition with Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael or Labour.

The alliance is unified by its opposition to water charges and the Job Bridge scheme, which disproportionately affects college graduates. It is their intention to abolish the USC and support raising both income and corporation tax.

A millionaires’ tax has been proposed by the alliance and they support the Repeal of the Eighth Amendment, as well as a referendum on abortion to allow women the right to choose.

GREENS The Green Party believes thirdlevel institutions should construct more on-campus accommodation to take as many students as possible out of the private rental market, and also therefore make the college itself more attractive to prospective students. They propose the setting up of a housing body or housing trust which would be linked to local authorities and therefore be outside the general government sector and provide a combination of affordable and social housing. The party also prioritises energy efficiency in new housing units constructed in the state.

INDEPENDENT ALLIANCE The Independence Alliance has no defined policies and a party whip will not be enforced in the Dáil, enabling their TDs to have a free vote on any Dáil motions.

Students may be enticed by the freedom these and other independents will have in the Dáil to vote without instruction from a party hierarchy, though students should note that one IA candidate may have views that differ from another. If more than seven IA candidates are elected, they will have extra speaking time in the Dáil which could allow them to focus on issues of minority groups, which may include students.

High profile candidates include Shane Ross in Dublin South and Finian McGrath in Dublin Bay North.

Tribute to Ireland’s Rebels in Revolution 1916 Exhibition

‘‘Original and Authentic”, Siobhan Mearon looks at the Revolution 1916 Exhibition which promises to take us back in time, and experience the Easter Rising through the eyes of those who lived it Among the many celebrations taking place all over the city this year is ‘Revolution 1916’, an exhibition that incorporates many unique relics, with interactive sets that take the visitor through the same Dublin that the rebels fought in 100 years ago. The exhibition opens on 27th February in the Ambassador Theatre on O’Connell Street, a fitting home for the year-long event.

In 2016, the 100 year anniversary of the Easter Rising, Dublin city has further reason to remember the events of the past that have shaped Ireland into what it has become.

Spokesperson for the event, Bartle D’Arcy, spoke of the importance of the exhibition’s surroundings. The Ambassador Theatre, formerly the Rotunda Rink, holds strong ties to the Rising, as D’Arcy mentions. “The building that it’s in is particularly important, because that’s the building in 1913 that all the volunteers signed up to fight in 1916, and it’s also sitting on O’Connell Street which was the main centre of operations 100 years ago.”

Not only does the Ambassador Theatre have such a rich and relevant heritage, but its prime position on O’Connell street ensures that the exhibition will attract huge crowds, be that of intrigued tourists, or even Irish people wishing to learn more about their own history. D’Arcy says that the exhibition is expected to receive upwards of a quarter of a million people.

The visitors to the exhibition will

experience the celebrations of the 1916 Rising on a few different levels.

D’Arcy reveals that the exhibition houses “the largest private collection of original artefacts from that period”. This unique collection of various military artefacts is sure to be a highlight of the exhibition because, as D’Arcy explains, “they’re quite rare because the Rising was a military defeat so a lot of the arms were broken by the volunteers before they surrendered, and were obsolete so the British destroyed them.” This only adds to the authenticity of the exhibition as the pieces are not just valuable remnants of the fight against the British soldiers, they’re extremely rare.

The pieces for the exhibition, as they are rare, have been donated to Revolution 1916 by the Irish Volunteers Commemorative Organisation, a private collector that has been collecting artefacts like the ones exhibited at the event for 70-80 years. This exhibition also holds the original Proclamation, one of only 50 among other rare items.

“We have original Howth mauser rifles, brought to Ireland in the gun running of 1914,” D’Arcy explains.

The exhibition has three of the twelve

in existence. None of the artefacts have come from national museums.

The sets that are built downstairs allow visitors to experience Dublin of 1916 first hand, D’Arcy says. “Visitors are able to walk through the main operations of the Rising, into the GPO as it was on Easter Monday, they can retreat down Moore Street and will end up in Kilmainham and the place of execution, the Stonebreaker’s Yard.” These sets, although seemingly ambitious, purely serve to create an authentic atmosphere, which gives an insight into the past for the visitors to fully immerse themselves in. D’Arcy claims this is an important aspect of the exhibition.

“We want people to try and feel what it was like, to understand the history.”

D’arcy says that the 1916 Rising tells us a lot about how people lived 100 years ago. “The question is why did those men and women feel it was necessary to raise arms and seize buildings and to fight against the British Empire, because they don’t feel the need to do that now.” This unique perspective on the reasons for the Easter Rising seem to be replicated throughout the exhibition.

The ideals and hopes of the Irish rebels in 1916 can be translated

into the modern day. Specifically, D’Arcy brings up the ideas of equality that are often spread in times of revolution: “The document (the 1916 Proclamation) was the first at the time to give equal rights to men and women within the first line… then after the Free State was formed, women were again relegated back into being inferior to the masculinity of the Free State.”

The 1916 Rising has parallels in these modern times. Women today are also often sidelined in favour of the masculine ideals of Irish society.

D’Arcy furthered this by explaining, “a lot of the women who fought in 1916 weren’t deemed to be competent, so they didn’t get their pensions for about 20 years afterwards.”

“The document itself, in cherishing the children of the nation equally, and also it being a 32 county republic, none of those things have been realised by a succession of Irish governments, both in the 26 counties and in the 6 counties in the North. So, that’s why it’s relevant today, because a centenary is a very important time, commemorating what happened on the streets of Dublin and all over Ireland in 1916, and now we’re

coinciding with a general election as well so it adds a little bit more to it.”

The Proclamation is a fitting theme to the exhibition, as D’Arcy calls it “the defining document for republicanism.” D’Arcy references the fact that the Proclamation itself could be traced back to Robert Emmet’s proclamation in 1803, as well as incorporating the ideals of the rebels. He said of the Proclamation, “it has a lot of the United Irishmen’s ideals written into it, Mitchell’s thoughts, Pearse’s thoughts, and Connolly influenced a lot of it, which would be where the equality comes into it, and also the right of the Irish people to the sovereignty, and to the assets of Ireland.”

With the Centenary celebrations taking over Ireland this year, the eyes of the world will be on Dublin.

D’Arcy puts this down to all the events commemorating the 1916 Rising, saying, “Dublin has a rich heritage, including some buildings still intact from 1916 on Moore Street, that are very valuable from a heritage and a tourism point of view… I think it has a wide appeal for everybody.”

Dublin’s unique history is undoubtedly attractive to tourists because as D’Arcy concludes, “not all cities had revolutions.” Revolution 1916 will not only bring valuable tourism to the city, but perhaps more importantly to emphasise its rich history and remember the events that formed this country.

February 16TH 2016

features

The Ultimate Cabinet Rundown You’ve All Been Waiting For (Probably) With the present government’s tenure coming to an end, Billy Vaughan takes a closer look at some of our Ministers

Joan Burton - Social Protection and Tánaiste JOB PERFORMANCE A sterling reminder to every politician that no matter how you perform in your role, if you fall out of a boat into ankle deep water your legacy is essentially ruined.

A sage lesson there for all TDs. ELECTION PROSPECTS There are some who believe that if she leans too far to the right then it could spell disaster. At least that’s what the woman who was on the boat with her thought.

Michael Noonan - Finance JOB PERFORMANCE Enter Michael Noonan. With his smooth yet slightly chilling tones familiar to many during budget time, he gave the financial crisis a voice.

That voice being somewhere between Barry White and Hannibal Lecter.

ELECTION PROSPECTS It is widely believed in his native Limerick that touching his bald head on the last Sunday of the month gives good luck, which goes some way towards explaining his consistent electoral success. Should breeze the General Election.

10 February 16TH 2016

Brendan Howlin Public Expenditure & Reform FUN FACT Brendan Howlin was the first childhood love of Black Keys frontman Dan Auerbach, and was the subject of their popular hit “Howlin for You”.

FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS Howlin is in quite an enviable position, firstly for being the only Labour Party Minister let near anything resembling real power.

Mostly though, it’s because his particular cabinet position means he can be best buds with wellknown government hell-raiser and sesh head, Michael Noonan.

Richard Bruton - Jobs, Enterprise & Innovation JOB HISTORY It’s quite ironic that the only two job applications our Jobs Minister made in recent years were both unsuccessful. Those jobs, rather awkwardly, being “Next Taoiseach” and “Leader of Fine Gael”.

Simon Coveney - Agriculture, Food & Marine/Defence FUN FACT Simon Coveney is the 2,857th expupil of the prestigious Clongowes

College to make it into a government cabinet. He was, however, expelled in Transition Year, automatically making him Chief Ledgebag of the Cabinet.

James Reilly - Children & Youth Affairs

FAMILY AFFAIRS

At the beginning of this government, James Reilly took on the “poisoned chalice” of Health.

Despite warnings from colleagues, he gulped like a fresher on race day. And like many a fresher, he ended up shortly after somewhere strange, not really knowing how he got there, with a newly bestowed responsibility for a few kids.

Simon is the son of ex-TD Hugh Coveney. The Coveneys are one of Cork’s historically powerful “merchant prince” families. Many have enquired as to what the hell this means, but realised that it was Cork people they were dealing with, and it would be unwise to ask too much.

Frances Fitzgerald - Justice & Equality JOB PERFORMANCE After the massive hurricane of Alan Shatter related excrement that has beset the Department of Justice lately, Fitzgerald has done quite well simply by the virtue of doing nothing incredibly incompetent so far. A bit like if you got a new job as a bus driver because the previous jobholder was Stevie Wonder.

ELECTION PROSPECTS

Does Microsoft word detect your name as a spelling mistake? No? Then I’m afraid you’ve satisfied the watertight “West Brit” test, like Frances here. They tend to do well in constituencies within The Pale, like Fitzgerald’s in DublinMid-West. Overall, looking good.

JOB PERFORMANCE

Leo Varadkar - Health JOB PERFORMANCE Since taking up the job, Leo has won praise for making honest criticisms of the HSE and how it was run. And then kept doing it, forgetting that as Minister, he actually has the power to solve these problems.

FUN FACT Journalists recently threatened to go on strike over claims that Varadkar was “doing their work for them”.

ELECTION PROSPECTS If things don’t work out he could be a great Joe Duffy replacement.

Charles Flanagan - Foreign Affairs & Trade

FAMILY AFFAIRS

very separate groups of people.

Charlie is the son of ex-TD and friendly neighbourhood anti-Semite, Oliver J. Flanagan.

O.J. once famously claimed that “there was no sex in Ireland before television”. Awkwardly enough, Charlie was born six years before RTE was created, making him the only person since Jesus born as a result of immaculate conception.

Paschal Donohoe - Transport, Tourism & Sport

At the time of the Cabinet reshuffle in 2014, Paschal Donohoe was seen as the best qualified candidate. He worked in a hotel part-time, had a minivan, and played a bit of hurling with the lads on Thursday evenings. Probably.

ELECTION PROSPECTS

FUN FACT

Being the second coming of Jesus, his re-election prospects look good. However, his LaoisOffaly constituency is made up of mostly devil-worshippers (78 per cent) meaning that his status as the son of God could work against him.

He went to Trinity, and was secretary of the Phil. There are no words…

Alan Kelly - Environment, Community & Local Government JOB PERFORMANCE As the Minister in charge of the setting up of Irish Water, Kelly has taken more than his fair share of abuse from the general public. He has recieved threats from everyone, from anti-Irish Water activists to dissident republicans. He has had to make it clear in the past that these are two

APPOINTMENT

Heather Humphreys - Arts, Heritage & Gaeltacht HISTORY Popularly known as the “Department of Fun” in previous years, mainly because the Department name used to have the word “Recreation” in it. Which goes some way to show Irish people’s rather misguided ideas of what “fun” actually was.

FUN FACT A previous holder of this office was Jim McDaid. He had to resign after the part-time GP (just let that sink in before moving on) was caught driving on the wrong side of the road while absolutely hammered. Many were even more horrified that a Donegal man had managed to be appointed a Minister.

Aoife Hardesty Science Editor

science

Here be Monsters Aoife Hardesty explores the origins of fictitious monsters and the nature of those in real life

Deep in the dead of night, whilst safe and snug in a nice warm bed, the slightest sound can awaken a sense of terror in the core of a person’s being.

As children, a bump in the night can cause all sorts of nightmarish thoughts. Is there a monster hiding in the closet?

Outside the bedroom window?

Under the bed? Best to keep the feet under the covers just in case a hand might reach up and grab you by the ankle.

As adults we know logically that fairytale monsters don’t hide around houses deliberately waiting to terrorize people, but being afraid of monsters has become an innate aspect of our being.

A fear of monstrous beasts would have given our ancestors an evolutionary advantage.

Imagine being out in the dark and hearing a rustle from the trees behind you; if you run you’re more likely to escape being eaten than the person who goes to investigate.

Nowadays we often forget that we can be someone else’s dinner. Take us out of our safe, sheltered environments and place us in the wilderness and we can quickly become the hunted.

There have been several cases of captive burmese pythons getting loose and killing people by wrapping their long bodies around their prey and squeezing, slowly suffocating the life out of their victim. The larger members of the constricting snake family are able to eat a person. Once the victim is suffocated, the

snake opens its jaws wide and swallows their prey whole. Inside their body, their meal is digested, but at least you’re dead by this stage.

Every year dozens of people are attacked by lions.

Some are on safari and get too close. Other times a lion is so starved that they will chase anything edible nearby. In Ancient Greece, lions were prevalent. People lived without the modern inventions we have today and so lion attacks were more frequent and more deadly.

Guns have made killing much easier than it once was, but without such weapons, the Ancient Greeks were less likely to survive a lion attack.

The Nemean lion features in Greek mythology as a monstrous lion, with skin so strong it cannot be pierced by any weapon. Hercules is tasked with destroying the lion in the first of his 12 labours and eventually does so by strangling the beast with his own bare hands. Considering the danger posed by lions to these ancient people, a myth of a lion so strong that it was virtually unkillable would surely have been terrifying.

Such a myth could also have acted as a cautionary tale much in the same way as fairytales were supposed to, serving to warn people to stay away from lions.

Fairytales regularly feature monsters in various guises. The standard cliché of a fairytale is a damsel

in distress held captive by a fearsome dragon, awaiting her rescue by a knight in shining armour. Legends of dragons can be found in civilisations all over the world.

The origin of dragons remains a mystery. However it is not inconceivable to imagine a person discovering the fossilised remains of a dinosaur, a great giant creature, and attributing more monstrous characteristics, such as scales and the ability to breathe fire, to their find.

Eastern dragons bear a resemblance to lizards, but not yet has a fire breathing lizard been discovered. Whilst it cannot burn its enemies to a crisp, the gila monster is a venomous lizard capable of killing a grown human (although the most recent recorded death was in 1939). As the gila monster clamps their jaws around their prey, they release a neurotoxic venom through their teeth into the wound, subduing their victim.

The deadliest of all lizards is the cannibalistic komodo dragon.

Growing up to an incredible length of three metres, the larger komodo dragons will eat smaller dragons, so young dragons use their sharp claws to climb trees and hide from the older, heavier dragons. Komodo dragons will eat carrion, and cases have been reported of dragons digging up human corpses from graves for feasting. With jaws strong enough to break a man’s leg in two, the ability to outrun a human, and a venomous bite that prevents blood clotting, a live human is also at risk

from a komodo dragon.

Our imaginations have not been limited to creating monsters on land: with the dangers associated with voyaging across seas and oceans, stories of monstrous creatures of the sea became popular amongst seafarers.

Depictions of sea monsters are usually fantastical and seem utterly ridiculous and impossible, but the creatures that lurk beneath the water are some of the strangest on this earth.

Anglerfish are about as scary as they come. Resembling an extra terrestrial monster with a wide mouth full of sharp teeth, the anglerfish lures its prey using a luminescent bulb attached to a long filament growing out of its dorsal fin. Attracted to the light, unsuspecting fish swim right into the anglerfish’s mouth to be pierced with the fangs and eaten.

We live in a time where we seem to have mastered the natural world. Rarely do modern humans have to fear the power of mother nature.

Rarely do we feel the blood pumping furiously through our body while staring down the jaws of death. It is unlikely that a monstrous beast shall be responsible for your death, but the next time you are awoken by a bump in the night, remember to beware. Regardless of what you may believe, there are monsters out there.

(Some of) The Wonders of Space Laoise Fitzpatrick takes us on a journey of exploration into outer space Ah, space; it has dominated the imaginations of the young and old alike for generations. Since the very first days of our species, humans have looked to the stars and wondered “what on Earth might be up there?” These days, with the scientific equipment both up there and down here on Earth, it seems we learn about new wonders every day. Just following NASA or ESA on Facebook will provide you with enough beautiful images that you’ll never be without a phone wallpaper again. Have you ever wondered though what these spectacular sights are, or how they came to be?

“Where are we in the universe?” seems like an almost pointless question. The universe is pretty big, so how do we narrow it down? We know we are in the solar system, a collection of planets and other stuff orbiting the star, but what structure is that a part of? The solar system, as many of you will know, lies in the Milky Way galaxy, a collection of billions of stars and planets. This might be enough for some, but to ensure our mail gets delivered, the next line on our address is the local group. This is a collection of over fifty galaxies, big and small.

It includes our nearest galaxy, Andromeda, which we will someday crash into quite spectacularly.

After the local group comes the Virgo supercluster, a concentration of galaxy groups like ours. This contains thousands of galaxy groups and clusters and, until recently, that was where the address ended. In 2014 however, astronomers published a new way of analysing superclusters, and discovered that we are a part of one more even greater structure - the Laniakea Supercluster.

This sprawling concentration of stars contains over 100,000 galaxies and innumerable stars and planets and is one of the largest structures in the known universe. It makes getting lost on campus seem a small problem by comparison.

The question of how many planets there are in the solar system is one that can cause some tension in die-hard astronomy circles. When we were growing up there were nine planets, then one day there were eight.

Poor Pluto. In recent years though we have been looking beyond our own solar system for planets. This process was helped by the Kepler mission, which analyses far-off stars for signs of orbiting planets. To date it has discovered over 1000 confirmed extra-solar planets, or exoplanets.

Few are more interesting though than Kepler-452b, or as it has been perhaps presumptuously nicknamed, Earth 2.

What makes Kepler-452b interesting is that it is the most Earth-like planet found to date. It is 60 per cent larger than Earth and orbits its star every 385 days, but even better, it lies with its star’s habitable zone. The habitable zone is the area around a star within which a planet can contain liquid water – necessary for life as we know it to flourish. If we were to ever settle on a different planet, those in habitable zones would be the first choices. This doesn’t mean that “Earth 2” is suitable for life: because of how far away it is, not much can be known of its surface, but even if it is a rocky planet it may have a greenhouse effect similar to Venus.

Chances are we won’t find out though; it lies 1,400 light years away. Our fastest travelling space probe, New Horizons, would take over 26 million years to reach it.

The other planets within our own solar system may not be habitable, but they each have interesting features.

Mercury is the smallest and nearest the sun. Venus is the only planet named after a woman, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. Mars appears red due to the amount of iron oxide present on its surface.

Jupiter is the largest planet within our solar system and has at least 67 moons. Saturn is usually depicted

“The question of how many planets there are in the solar system is one that can cause some tension in die-hard astronomy circles.”

IN photo: THE pillars of creation

with a hula hoop surrounding the planet. Although not the only planet to have a ring system, Saturn’s rings are more prominent than any other planet. Uranus has the coldest atmosphere in the solar system at -224.2°C. Neptune is the furthest planet away from our sun, and in fact, takes 164.79 years to orbit the sun.

There is a theory that it can rain diamonds on Jupiter and Saturn.

Lightning can liberate carbon molecules from methane which clump together as soot. Under the great atmospheric pressure of the planets’ atmospheres, the soot is compressed into diamonds. But, when it comes into contact with high temperatures of 8000°, the

diamonds liquify and diamonds rain down onto the planet below.

One of the most famous images of space is of the Pillars of Creation. This photo, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, shows three majestic pillars of dust and gas, with the light from newborn stars streaming through them. The Pillars are part of a gigantic cloud made up of molecular hydrogen and dust. This cloud is what is known as a “stellar nursery”, an adorable term for an area where stars are in the process of being formed. The hydrogen and dust starts to clump together under gravity, which in turn causes more gas and dust to be attracted

together. When the mass becomes heavy enough, the hydrogen at the core starts to fuse together, releasing light and heat and is from then on known as a star. As the Pillars are approximately 7,000 light years away, the stars we see have aged a little by the time their light reaches us, but they are still only in the infancy of their more than billion year life cycles.

Unfortunately, the Pillars themselves might not have such a long existence. Images of the region show clouds of superhot dust which may have been caused by a supernova.

The power from such a blast would destroy the Pillars - in fact, they may already be gone.

Light can only travel so fast, and the images would have the blast occurring six thousand years ago. If this is the case, we may point a telescope at the Pillars of Creation in a thousand years time to find them gone.

In the great space outside our planet lies so many fascinating and beautiful wonders. So, the next time you’re outside at night time, preferably outside of the city, look up, and allow yourself to marvel at the amazing universe we live in.

February 16TH 2016

science

Living in the Future of the Human Genome Project

15 years on from the first sequencing of a human genome, Alanna O’Shea looks at how the Human Genome Project changed the future of medicine new things about DNA. Genome sequencing has revolutionised the field of genetic testing where someone’s genetic sequence can indicate whether or not they have disease-causing mutations.

This is the case for cystic fibrosis, Ireland’s most common inherited genetic disease.

Once upon a time, this disease was diagnosed by a midwife by licking a baby’s forehead to see if they had especially salty sweat (a characteristic of cystic fibrosis). Nowadays, the testing is slightly more hygienic.

A diagnosis of cystic fibrosis is confirmed by genetic testing, where a child’s DNA is scanned looking for specific diseasecausing mutations. Knowing their own particular mutations can be crucial for the patients’ prognosis and treatment.

Genetics has not been the silver bullet against cancer that some might have hoped, but genetic testing has still saved lives in the battle against this pernicious disease. The most famous example of this is testing for BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations, which are known to cause breast and ovarian cancer.

The BRCA1 mutation is perhaps the most famous genetic mutation in the world: it made headlines last year when actress Angelina Jolie revealed she had tested positive for the mutation. Like many women with this mutation, Jolie opted to have a mastectomy

and oophorectomy (ovary removal) to prevent developing cancer.

Many people who have a history of cancer in their family can now opt to have a genetic test. If a person is found to have a specific cancercausing mutation, they can have more regular cancer screening so if cancer develops it is found at an early stage, and if they do develop the disease, treatment can be shaped specific to the genetic profile of the cancer. As a result, genetic testing has measurably improved the prognosis for many cancer sufferers.

Genetic testing is a lot more complicated than was anticipated in 2001.

The positive stories, such as cystic fibrosis and BRAC1, are usually diseases caused by one mutation in a single gene. Researchers in the field have found that diseases are rarely that simple. Most diseases are caused by multiple genes interacting with each other, as well as with the environment.

Since the Human Genome Project, an entire new discipline of genetics has flourished: epigenetics, which studies how DNA is expressed and how genes are effectively turned “on” or “off”.

For geneticists, it is like coming to the end of a video game and finding out that there is a whole other level, with an even more difficult enemy to face.

One positive is that genomic testing has become cheaper and faster in the last fifteen years. It cost upwards of $3 billion dollars and 10 years to get the first genome sequenced; now it is possible to do so in little over 24 hours, at a cost of only $1000 dollars.

An entire cottage industry of companies has sprung up to offer cheap “mini” genomic testing to consumers. It is now common to see ads on the internet or television for DNA testing. The most well-known

“Fifteen years on and it is still unclear if the promised revolution has taken place.”

In February 2001, the preliminary results of one of the biggest research projects ever undertaken were released: the Human Genome project, the complete mapping of the entire genes of a human being. At the time, members of the public, and of the scientific community, thought that this information would revolutionise medicine. Soon, every patient at the doctor’s office would

have their own genome sequenced and receive personalised care based on their own DNA. Optimists even thought that if we could crack the DNA code, diseases such as cancer would be a thing of the past.

Fifteen years on and it is still unclear if the promised revolution has taken place. Amazing advances have been made in genetic testing,

entirely changing the way we treat certain disorders. But in some ways, we are living in a dystopian future, where for a thousand euro you can send a swab from your cheek across the world and have your personal genome sequenced.

The story of how we use genetics in medicine is still complicated and researchers are still discovering

company offering these services is 23andMe. For just €169, 23andMe will send you a DNA kit and analyse a saliva sample. They can give you information on a wide variety of genetic characteristics, such as ethnic ancestry and genetic traits. You can also get information on genetic risk factors for certain diseases, such as certain cancers or Alzheimer’s disease, and identify potential poor drug reactions you may have.

One big problem with these miracle tests is that it is still unclear how accurate these predictions are. Even if you have a gene that predisposes you to get Alzheimer’s disease, it doesn’t mean you will definitely get Alzheimer’s disease. The chance may be as low as 20 per cent.

In 2013, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ordered 23andMe to stop marketing it’s Personal Genome Service in the United States, citing “the potential health consequences that could result from false positive or false negative assessments for high-risk indications.” For instance, a false positive for a gene that carries an increased risk of breast cancer could lead to a person deciding to undergo unnecessary chemotherapy or even surgery. Similarly, a false negative could lead to someone ignoring an actual health risk. 23andMe stopped including the health related results in the US for two years, until 2015, when it started offering revised FDA-approved results. It still offers health related results in Europe.

Since the Human Genome Project, the science of genetics remains one of the most exciting and growing areas of medicine. Our genetic information is easier to access now more than ever, but our ability to analyse it may take some time to catch up.

Until then, consumers may have to take information they learn from a cheek swab with a pinch of salt.

Science fiction technology isn’t just fictitious With science fiction once again in the limelight, Helen Carroll looks back to see all that the genre has given us so far, and what the future holds

Humanity has always had an innate fascination with technology and development, and science fiction has always appealed to this fascination. Humans strive to learn more about the world in which they live, as well as what they can create. Many inventors have credited science fiction with inspiring their love of creating as well as being a source of inspiration for many different things, ranging from the internet to tablet computers and space travel.

One of the earliest fascinations amongst the most prominent science fiction writers, notably Jules Verne and H.G Wells, was with space. Books such as War of the Worlds, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Ender’s Game, a Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and 2001: A Space Odyssey, amongst innumerable others gave us an insight into the idea of extra-terrestrial life and human habitation of planets other than our own. Science fiction books have been quoted as the inspiration for many astronauts as well as the technicians and mathematicians who helped get humans to the moon. These books were all written before we had made it to the moon, and it is no surprise that the 1970s and 80s were heralded as the “golden age” of science fiction, following on from the 1969 moon landing.

The technology and intelligence needed to get us to other planets is very difficult to imagine, which was actually a good selling point for this cult fiction.

It wasn’t just books that catapulted this genre into the mainstream, although most movies were either partially or fully inspired by books already written.

Blade Runner and Short Circuit taught us about the possibility of intelligent AI and Terminator showed us what could happen if artificial intelligence were to become corrupt. The Star Wars saga gave us lightsabers and 12 February 16TH 2016

IMAGE: 2001 A SPACE ODYSSEY, VIA WHATCULTURE.COM

laser guns, both of which actually now exist in some shape or form.

Science fiction oozed intelligence, so it was an inspiration as well as an escape for many. It is difficult to say which individual books or films had the greatest impact for technology or inspiring the masses, but Jules Verne’s From The Earth to the Moon is amongst the most influential novels, showing us that someday, mankind would get to space. The book was written in 1865, predating so much of the technology used by Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin in 1961, yet it came to fruition. It’s amazing to think how Jules Verne was able to correctly predict spaceships in 1865.

It is impossible to say what the most influential science fiction film would be, because there are so many contenders. Terminator

taught us to be careful with what we invent, whilst Star Wars captured the minds of a generation, becoming one of the most successful movie series of all time. Mad Max told us of how humanity could survive after an unknown apocalypse. Gattaca gave us the idea of genetic profiling to sort and improve the human society, posing moral and ethical questions about changing your unborn child that persist to this day. There is no definite answer as to what one movie inspired the most future technology, but a serious contender would be 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Based on the novel of the same name, this movie revealed the notion of space travel being something ordinary. The main character is out on a regular business mission to a base on the

moon. The HAL9000 inspired voice recognition software, which is now mainstream technology such as software like Siri on the iPhone. It also gave us the idea of in-seat TV entertainment, video calls, computer chess technology, liquefied food and tablet computers, although this should really be credited to Star Trek.

Star Trek inspired the most technology by far, due in part to its huge cult following and the fact that it ran for many years. The universal translator (Google translate, anyone?), badge communicators (ie: mobile phones), phaser guns that could stun (inspiring the idea of stun guns) and even the famous visor that gave sight back to the ship’s engineer Geordi LaForge. The visor gave us the idea of bypassing the damaged sensory organs and

instead transmitting images or even sound straight to the brain, which has given many back their sight in recent years.

One could talk for years about how much science fiction has done for us. It has made us question established authority, develop medicine and radically increased how quickly we got to the moon. We are currently trying to get to Mars, develop electric and self-driving cars and eliminate debilitating diseases from fertilised cells. This work was all done by scientists and other researchers who are portrayed in a myriad of ways in the genre itself, proving that even when the scientist is the crazy old man fumbling with the papers, it doesn’t stop us from wanting to be just like him. On screen and on the

page, scientists have been evil, they have been cold and calculating, they’ve been manipulative.

But they’ve also been the ones who ask the questions, who get to the bottom of the problems and can see what others miss. The scientists have the answers, and even if their intentions are evil, it’s what makes them so unique.

Science fiction helped to make intelligence “cool”. Suddenly you weren’t just a nerdy kid, you had the blueprint on how to create the space shuttle or a molecular model that might cure a form of cancer.

Science fiction permeates everything in both the fictional and real-life universe and it continues to inspire a future generation of people to learn, question and improve. Who knows what it could help us create in the future?

Business & careers

Wealth inequality in Ireland

Jane Purdom asks whether wealth inequality actually exists in Ireland, and if the problem is as bad as it seems Questions regarding wealth inequality often dominate conversations regarding opportunities, the economy and the standard of living in Ireland. This issue was discussed in even more depth and vigour after the economic downturn, with many arguing that Ireland began to mirror countries such as the US – where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

However, in order to accurately discuss wealth inequality in Ireland, several key factors that are often overlooked must be considered – such as comparisons with other EU countries, the 1 per cent control of wealth and the rise and stagnation of certain income levels.

Irish media widely suggests that wealth inequality has always been an issue and is on the rise in Ireland. The last four budgets have largely favoured the wealthier and the gap between the rich and the poor has widened in recent years. However, the 2016 budget finally showed an equal split of additional funding between spending increases and tax cuts, and therefore an equal share of the benefits of the recovery has finally been created. As evidence suggests a strong link with wealth inequality and unemployment, crime and reduced overseas investment – which many deem the backbone of the Irish economy, this recent development is perhaps crucial in the struggle against wealth inequality.

So where does Ireland stand on wealth inequality compared to other countries?

Although many consider us to be following in the United States’ footsteps, statistical analyses of income-tax records suggest that Ireland’s wealth inequality patterns are closer to the EU than the US. The rich in Ireland, contrary to popular belief, also suffered the plight of the recession that everyone else felt – and the wealthiest 1 per cent control of wealth decreased in this time. This shows a departure from US patterns that have been suggested, as the 1 per cent wealth occupancy continues

to grow. Although we may not be seeing US levels of inequality, evidence from the European Anti-Poverty Network suggests that Ireland’s wealth inequality is larger than the European average.

In this sense, we must acknowledge that while it is not perhaps as grave as suggested by the mainstream media, Ireland does have a wealth inequality issue. This inequality is evident in the homelessness crisis that is prevalent across the island, as well as the high incidence of intravenous drug users that we have compared to other EU states.

In order to understand this, we must consider the nature of the Irish economy.

The construction industry contributed to a huge volume of work before the economic downturn and gave high paying jobs to the less educated worker who may otherwise have only had options of low skilled and low paid work. When this sector dried up, so did the income and this can perhaps somewhat account for the wealth inequality that exists in Ireland today. Furthermore, nearly all of our multinational investors operate highly skilled firms that can only employ highly skilled workers.

It is logical to conclude with some concrete statistics in order to truly see where Ireland is with regards to wealth inequality. The Central Statistics Office (CSO) in Ireland published the Household Finance and Consumption Survey in recent years which concluded that after excluding debt, those with the top 20 per cent of incomes have nearly 40 per cent of the existing wealth, whereas the bottom 20 per cent have 11.4 per cent. This shows that wealth inequality is still an issue in post recession Ireland. However, we must consider ourselves in relation to other wealthy nations, and remember that government policy may finally be taking steps to rectify wealth inequality – it seems that although wealth inequality is certainly an issue, Ireland may not be in as bad a place as some believe.

The positive effects of a third rate of income tax

Megan Fanning looks at the effect a third rate of income tax would have on our economy If there was an easy policy that would enable Revenue to take in €385 million more per annum, would we implement it? Independent think-tank, Tasc, published a report, A Defence for Taxation, calling on the government to introduce a third rate of income tax in past budgets. It is considered a more favourable tax introduction, only affecting those who earn more than €100,000, which amounts to only 5 per cent of those who pay income tax.

The introduction of a third tax band would positively affect the ‘squeezed middle’ – those who have been hit hardest by austerity, and those who have had to pay the most because they’re on the borderline. A new tax band would make the system far more equitable. We do have a progressive tax system in our country, but the rate of progressiveness begins to slow down at around the €70,000 mark due to our taxation system only currently having two tax bands.

This introduction would increase revenue by €385 million per year if the third tax band was set at 48 per cent for those who earn over €100,000. This would enable the government to improve public services and to perhaps even cut taxes for low to middle income earners.

Some would argue that the introduction of a new tax band would yield a negative effect on what has recently been a positive improvement on the

employment front, and that it may have a negative influence over investment decisions. However we should be realistic and take note that investors judge much more important factors than tax rates in its choices, such as infrastructure, geopolitics and the country’s talent pool among many others.

Ireland hasn’t always had two tax bands. We have ranged from two bands in more recent years to up to six bands in 1977 and 1983. The figures show that the more bands we have, the lower the gross income share the top 10 per cent hold. In 1977, when we had six bands, the top 10 per cent only held 27.3 per cent of income share. In 2014, with just two bands, the top 10 per cent hold 36.1 per cent of income share. In less than forty years, the income share of the top 10 per cent has increased by 8.8 per cent. They pay less tax and earn more due to increasing incomes.

If the policy recommended by Tasc is implemented, the recently increasing inequality in our society could start to close, with the ‘squeezed middle’ being rewarded after years of austerity. It would also enable the government to increase tax revenue greatly while affecting small numbers of people, leading to the ability to mend public services and fund tax cuts.

It would make our system more progressive, more equitable and more favourable to those who cannot afford to pay more.

Is Business to Blame for the Corruption in Sport?

Sinead Conroy looks at current corruption in sport and asks whether sponsorship from businesses is to blame

The current international sporting landscape doesn’t exactly paint a positive picture of elite or international sport today. The tarnished reputation of cycling has been joined in the dock in the past twelve months by international football, athletics and even tennis.

It hasn’t been a good time for those within sport. There have been accusations of match fixing in tennis. Alongside this, more than half the FIFA executive board have been suspended from football in the face of corruption allegations. An independent report by the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) investigating bribery at the very top of the governing body of athletics has also resulted in negative headlines for world sport. This is all incredibly disheartening for the genuine sports person or the up and coming star who still performs for the love of the game. Who or what is behind this reputational crisis in international sport? One common factor is money, and the money generated within sport, in the main, comes from business. So what is the relationship between business and sport?

40 years ago the first corporate jersey sponsorship of a soccer team in the UK was negotiated by Kettering Town who signed a four figure deal with Kettering Tyres to place the name of the tyre company on the front of their jerseys. It was met with huge opposition from the league officials who threatened expulsion from the league if the branding was not removed from the jerseys. Since then corporate sponsorships of not just clubs but leagues and federations have become an essential survival tool in an increasingly competitive worldwide sporting environment. What would the Kettering Town executives have made of the latest Manchester United kit deal reportedly worth a staggering £750 million. So is business interest to blame for the money-hungry sporting society we have today?

Founder of Sport for Business, Rob Hartnett, is of the opinion that business is only taking its due opportunity to find an audience.

“Business is driven by what we as consumers find to be acceptable or

not. The World Cup and the Olympics remain the stand out opportunities to talk to the world. So long as the world keeps watching, the biggest brands with the deepest pockets will want to be there in their line of vision,” says Hartnett.

has given us the “spectacles” we have come to know and love in all disciplines.

Soccer correspondent with The Irish Times, Emmet Malone, who has written extensively on the self-inflicted troubles affecting FIFA, is of the opinion that “we

many households,” he says. “If that burden can be reduced through a team wearing the name of the local supermarket on their jerseys and parents feel inclined to reward that supermarket with their custom as a result, then I think that’s great.” However,

However, the idea that business interest is ruining the allure for the wholesome fan is not one held by Hartnett. “The corporate boxes in modern stadia can be a bit removed from the heart of the sport but they pay for the better facilities we now enjoy throughout the whole ground,” he explains. The business involvement

passed the point of a win-win situation quite a long time ago” when it comes to the knock on effects of business involvement in sport. Malone believes that in theory and at a local level the issue of business sponsorship or partnership is an asset. “Sporting hobbies are not cheap and can be a real strain in a great

on the global sporting brand scale, the concept of aiding a struggling club in return for custom goes out the window.

“How it still costs €100 to go see a game in a league (Barclays Premier League) in such a hugely commercialised competition is genuinely beyond me,” Malone says.

The most recent negative spotlight has

fallen on international athletics and in particular the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). The World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) report has highlighted serious question marks concerning the governance of the IAAF, resulting in suspensions of senior IAAF personnel. Such doubts are echoed in the wavering continuance of Adidas as one of the main sponsors of the federation. From an Irish perspective, Chief Executive of Athletics Ireland, John Foley, believes that governance is the key issue. “It is essential that there are no blurred lines when it comes to governance,” Foley explains. He says that large sponsors are fundamental to sport and “to the benefit of this and the next generation of athletes world-wide.”

Foley also drew on the importance of sponsorship and corporate involvement in the Irish context – “Athletics Ireland has a number of dedicated sponsors and they are of huge importance to us to ensure we can progress our sport and organise high quality events,” he says. “Athletics Ireland has doubled its membership in the past six years to over 56,000 and the loyal support of our sponsors is a key ingredient in the achievement of this growth,” he adds.

Business and sport are joined at the hip but it would be incorrect to blame business for the negative state of elite sport today. It might be more accurate to suggest that business and money are essential for the progression of sport at the highest levels but with that comes huge responsibility in the area of governance and oversight. The idealists among us would like to suggest that the GAA have mastered the links between business and their sport without significant controversy: a wholesome game, still technically amateur yet with a turnover of €55 million euro annually.

However, as Malone points out, its greatest stroke of good fortune might be that nobody much cares about it outside of Ireland. “It’s worth remembering that there were people even 25 years ago who would have been utterly horrified by how commercialised and professional GAA games have become.”

It would appear that for sport to survive and thrive, at every level, the links between business and sport, while sometimes blurred and troublesome, are here to stay – and for good reason too.

November 17th 2015

OPINION The Students’ Union: is it all worth it?

In the coming weeks, the hopeful candidates will begin their campaigns in the hopes of securing a position in the 2016/17 Students’ Union. But what does the SU actually do for the students? Ciara Duffy explores the relevance of a Students’ Union today The Students’ Union here in UCD has had a varied and colourful past following its inauguration as the succeeding body to the Students’ Representative Council in 1975. From its separation from the USI in 2010 to the catastrophe of the 2012 UCD Ball, which resulted in a huge financial loss for the Union due to the ball’s relocation from campus, the SU has the burden of its history to bear. But have current SU officers learned from their predecessors’ mistakes, or are they still showing signs of their Celtic Tiger Cub instincts? This is an ongoing debate in the minds of many students.

So is the SU just ‘the cool kids’ hanging out for kicks in sabbatical and paid positions whilst drowning out the reality of their responsibilities and the intense diversity of their community? The recent arrival of a social media parody account under the guise of ‘Ron For UCDSU’ offered us an abrupt open letter of the SU’s failings this year. But many of us weren’t shocked or surprised. Social network discussions in response to the letter showed more than one side to the debate. Many students

interacted with on different issues have been courteous in giving me their time and utilising the services at play in society at present. But that was the problem. The SU is, in our lives, a majority of nice people playing by the rules – rules which have lost their origins of reasoning a long time ago. In my personal experience, I have sought help from both the university and SU for advice and support with mental health and financial strain.

I’m not embarrassed to admit that both were heavy burdens on young shoulders starting out in the adult world. University is scary leaned toward the idea that SU repre- enough without these elements sentatives were elected based on their playing in the shadows, but in ‘likeability’ and previous involvement facing up to them, I found there in societies on campus. In observing was very little to access here in a candidate’s reasons for running, it’s college. I followed the path that the more than common to hear comglossy campaign posters promoting ments to the tune of “Oh, but she wellbeing led me down, and found was treasurer of Law Soc... He was a bureaucratic minefield. Waiting ‘in’ with the L&H... She was on the lists. Apologies. Sincere apologies. committee...” While experience is of Another waiting list. A chance to be obvious benefit, it begs the question: seen. Another waiting time. It felt has the SU become a glorified society? as though no one really wanted to My own personal experience with deal with the nitty gritty elements the SU hasn’t been a negative one, of mental health services here on but not an entirely inspiring one campus. The appalling student either. The individuals whom I’ve to counsellor ratio, the lack of

essential advice clinics regarding financial aids, the silence surrounding the disastrous state of our current SUSI system. These are all issues I feel our SU should have been fighting to resolve.

The key issue to remember is that the SU is a body of representatives where sometimes the most honest and proactive voices struggle to have their say. To be fair, the SU has made sure to make effort in a very select number of issues – issues which they resolved in an admirable manner. The marriage equality campaign last year was carried out with a very passionate and dedicated effort. But that was an issue for the majority. An issue which affected us all, as sexuality and freedom are two things that we expect hand in hand in Irish contemporary society.

So, in order to answer the question as to whether the SU has any relevance in the lives of students here in UCD, the answer is yes. The Union has a very powerful position here – but it is our responsibility as students to make sure that those in its highest positions are not left to ponder our issues. Instead, we each have the right and opportunity to shape our Union to represent us in the way that is most relevant and responsive to issues which hinder, dampen or supress a positive experience of university study.

Can We Panic Now? Life After Graduation As final year students confront the reality of their last semester at UCD, Ciara Fitzgerald explains what goes through the mind of an upcoming graduate For many, the realisation comes on quite suddenly and is often quickly followed by intense feelings of dread and disbelief.

That initial excitement and commitment to enjoying one last year with all our friends has worn off and now it is time to face the awful truth: we will not be in college much longer. Graduation is fast approaching and many of us have no idea what’s going to happen next. For those of you still revelling in the newly discovered joys of student life, know that if you think choosing a college course is hard, wait until you have to choose what you’re doing with the rest of your life.

Or so we are led to believe.

It seems as if the decisions we make now will determine our entire futures. But really we all know this is completely untrue. Think back to filling out that CAO form all those years ago. Did you ever think you would be where you are now?

I certainly didn’t. I imagined a completely different path for myself at 18 compared to what I see now at 21. We are

different. We want different things.

Therefore we may not always want the same career. The choices we made now will not define the rest of our lives. They may not even define the next ten years.

Evidence of this fact sits next to us in class everyday, with mature students who chose to make a change and try something new.

It is quite terrifying though that after 18 years of structured education, of a definite plan, any and all decision making is our responsibility. The endless options do not help matters. No one ever told me how much work has to go into even making a start. Endless hours of research later, all I am is confused.

The standard belief nowadays is that our undergraduate degrees are no longer enough. To have any hope of getting a well-paying job we ‘need’ a Masters. I don’t believe that. For some maybe, but not me. After four years of college I’ve had enough of studying, and I think many others have too.

So that was my first big step.

No masters. Great. Now what?

My old friend panic reared its ugly head again. I have to find

a job. An internship. Something.

Should I look at going abroad?

Should I take a year off to travel?

It’s enough to make you run to the cosy confines of bed and Netflix immediately, to forget it all and live in denial, hopeful that someone else will figure it all out for you.

Unfortunately, family don’t let us forget. “What are your plans after college?” is the most despised sentence in the English language for final years. And yet we are bombarded with it by everyone from grannies to taxi drivers. These people have the best intentions, but what I want to know is why everyone is so obsessed with what happens next. Why can’t we just enjoy what is apparently our last few months of security? It suggests that we should know, thanks to a concrete, well-thought out plan already in place. Students don’t do concrete or thought out. It’s just not in our nature. At 21 or 22 years old, we don’t need a plan, or even half a plan. What we need is an opportunity to explore the many options before us, and an understanding that it may take a long time to settle into a stable anything.

Help is needed though, and more can be done to help students make these choices. Yes the Career Development Centre is an excellent source of information, but more than anything I find myself turning to Google for answers. Lowly Arts students don’t have companies trying to woo them with free food.

We don’t get talks from industry leaders or targeted career fairs. I understand it is difficult; we are such a diverse group and could do absolutely anything. But surely that only makes things harder?

Surely that means we need support?

UCD prides itself on independent learning, on allowing us to decide the route our education takes. Yet when it comes to these big life decisions, they seems to forget that we are all still very young.

Try to remember, class of 2016, that thousands come up against the same fears every year. Somehow everyone manages. We will too.

We need to save Moore Street As the campaign to save Moore Street continues, Jeff Gibbons looks at the controversy and argues that we should protect our history A campaign is underway to save one of Dublin’s most historic streets involved in the Easter Rising of 1916 from demolition and re-development, which has had minimal coverage from mainstream media outlets. Moore Street, which is located just off Henry Street in Dublin City Centre, was the site where the leaders of the 1916 Rising had their headquarters after the Easter Rising before surrendering. The ‘Save Moore Street from Demolition’ group has launched an occupy movement on the terraces of number 18 and 19 Moore Street. The campaign has arisen after plans were confirmed by the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht and Dublin City Council that number 13, 18 and 19 Moore Street would be demolished. The Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht has said that the buildings in question “are not historically relevant” and therefore have paved the way for the demolition in order to insert gables which according to the Department are “necessary” to safeguard the long term stability of the national monument.

Around 300 volunteers escaped to the buildings on Moore Street from the GPO after it caught fire during the Easter Rising of 1916.

Number 16 Moore Street was set up as the headquarters for the leaders of the revolution until their surrender on April 29th 1916.

The buildings from 14 to 17 Moore Street have been designated as a national monument since 2007, IMAGE: the arms around moore street campaign

14 JANUARY 26TH 2016

however issues have arisen with the During recent demonstrations on neighbouring number 13, 18 and 19.

Moore Street, politicians such as Mary The Department of Arts, Heritage Lou McDonald and Richard Boyd Barrett and the Gaeltacht have said that these have addressed the crowds in calling subsequent buildings were in ruins for the preservation of Moore Street. prior to the rising, citing valuation Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams has records from 1911-15, and are therefore also been in attendance at a number of not “historically relevant”. Controversy demonstrations on Moore Street. Damien was sparked in 2015 when the Farrell, a spokesman for the Save Moore development company Chartered Land Street from Demolition group, has said was granted planning permission for a that they want guarantees that 18 and 19 development, part of which is located Moore Street will not be demolished. on Moore Street.

The buildings on These plans Moore Street date “Controversy was for planning back to 1763, and the sparked in 2015 when permission street today is home were for the the development com- to numerous fresh construction of fruit and veg stalls pany Chartered Land a new shopping which operate daily centre in the was granted planning on the street. It seems city centre. permission for a devel- a shame not to extend The campaign protected status to opment, part of which the to preserve the three remaining these buildings is located on Moore buildings on the has gained street, as although Street.” traction in not used directly recent weeks with many politicians by the revolution leaders of 1916, joining in the call to preserve Moore these buildings are steeped in history.

Street as a National Monument.

It seems a great shame that these John Halligan, Independent TD historical buildings would be levelled for Waterford, who along with the in order to provide for yet another Technical Group in the Dail have commercial premises in the city centre. previously put forward a bill to We should preserve our national preserve the site, said that “it is a monuments and buildings instead of national disgrace that this area has re-developing them in the interests of been left to dereliction.” He also capitalist pursuits. The revolutionary outlined “the need to preserve the leader and Socialist Jim Larkin would entire historical area from the GPO to be disgusted at Irish citizens for the site of surrender on Moore Street”. even contemplating this decision.

OPINION Quinn’s Bizzness As we move further into the second semester, Jess Quinn gives a round up of all the shenanigans happening on campus at the moment

Jaysus lads, there’s a lot going on around campus these days, and I’m not talking about the refreshers flu. Rumour mill is in full swing with this latest “revenge porn” scandal. What started out as completely unreliable claims on the notorious anonymous broadcasting app, Yik Yak, has led to a national news story. The power, the reach and anonymity of Yik Yak is an even more dangerous combination than Coke, Mentos and Donald Trump. Disgracing an entire faculty, causing panic amongst anyone who has ever sent a risqué snap and tarnishing the good auld UCD name. But any publicity is good publicity, right?

The Sun’s headline was “UCD investigate student sex snap swap shame.” Now, try saying that three times fast and you’ll get a degree in linguistics from DIT. Instead of sending nudes, I send pictures of my x-rays, because it’s

what’s on the inside that counts.

This chat seems to be the biggest scandal since the exposure of the Burn Book. “It’s their own fault for sending the nudes.”

Yes, because it was my own fault for leaving the house that day I got mugged. Regardless of the claims being true or not, the victim shaming, dismissive response to the story just highlights the lack of understanding around consent. How’s that #NotAskingForIt thing going, lads? Coming in 2017, a Netflix original documentary, “Making A Group Chat”. I mean you have to believe everything anyone ever writes if there’s a statistic or a quote from a famous person attached. “Can’t stand lads these days, they is all the same jfc.” - Mother Teresa.

It’s a pity this story drowns out the great RAG week we had. It was amazing to see so

many societies organise events for those worthy charities all under the inspirational gaze of our lovely SU. Although is anyone else a little unsettled by the fact that our paid representatives are off having the craic, feeding their egos and plaguing us with Facebook event notifications while doing nothing about the issues that are affecting us? Skydiving, nude calendars and raves are grand and all, but what about our overworked, expensive health service, accommodation crisis and the increase in student fees? It’s something worth thinking about for the next sabbatical election.

While the Ag students are famous for letting their hair down, the Arts students are famous for letting their parents down.

Exam results are out, session on. Eat, sleep, pay €230, repeat.

Well done to all the brain boxes amongst us. I hate you. For anyone

like me, chin up; you can’t else has ever been. Instead spell degree without a D and a of going to Starbucks, I make few Es. Although I was peeling my own coffee, shout my a small orange and I was given name out incorrectly and a PhD in Mandarin from DIT. then light a €5 note on fire.

Fun fact, if you stretch the My parents should have human large intestine to its named me Hamlet or Macbeth full length you will get thrown because my life is so tragic. out of first year Medicine.

Someone ripped the pages out It’s great to have a new batch of both ends of my dictionary. of international students. I It just goes from bad to worse. thought I had a Chinese friend Shout out to all my haters, I in my course but it was just am one of you. In the run-up my imagine Asian. You never to Valentine’s Day I upped realise how odd some Irish my Tinder game. My new bio traditions are until you have to says “disease free and single”, explain them to someone. Yes, sure I mean what more do you on the 1st of February children want? Sometimes I think girls make swastikas out only like me for my of bog grass and money, but then I “Instead of hang them around remember I’m broke the place, what of it? going to Star- and no one likes me.

I went to my first bucks, I make “I like a girl with a same-sex wedding my own coffee, rocking bod, what since that’s an okay about you?” “I like a thing now. It wasn’t shout my name girls that have a deep much different out incorrect- understanding of from a conventional ly and then social issues and like wedding. Except, complaining about instead of “you may light a €5 note the same things I now kiss the bride” on fire.” do.” Some good news the best man tapped though, I got a job as the bride and said a waitress, probably “here, will you shift my mate?” because in the interview I said and then society crumbled I could bring a lot to the table. and the institution of marriage With the general election collapsed. But sure being I urge students to use their LGBT is very in fashion at the voice, register to vote and moment, just like veganism. grill candidates on issues that The hardest part about being affect you. Something close a vegan is getting up at 6am to to my heart is the decision to milk the almonds. My vegan repeal the eighth amendment roommate started crying or not. Your body? Your while cutting an onion, I think choice. Not your body? Not he’s taking it a bit too far. your choice. Not your body For anyone thinking about within your body? Not your embracing the hipster life, the choice. Killing tapeworms is first step is finding a quaint evil. Although to be honest little coffee shop that no I don’t think there’s a single one has ever heard of, but is Irish politician that would better than anywhere anyone survive a Wonka Factory tour.

Life with M.E. M.E. is one of the most misunderstood illnesses around. AM Doyle opens up about her experience with the illness, and the impact it had on her life Have you ever been so tired that you ached all over?

So spent that you became aware of previously unknown muscles? So wrecked your joints pounded with every step like the bass line of bad club music? Have you ever been so mentally drained that stringing a thought together was like laying breezeblocks?

Now imagine that being your standard. That was a good day for me with ME. I won’t get too technical.

Even the researchers don’t know what causes myalgic encephalomyelitis or how exactly it works, as it affects every patient differently. I will say that it can be caused by a virus or severe emotional upheaval that essentially tricks the body into thinking, ‘holy shit, we’re under attack!’ and sends it into emergency mode. Only that mode, which is usually used in short bursts to make sure you don’t die, becomes the default.

To be diagnosed with ME you must have at least four of the eight main symptoms for a period of longer than six months.

I had all eight. For three years.

To say I was relieved when I was diagnosed is a laughable understatement.

I’d spent all of Leaving Cert convincing myself I had some rare, hard-to-diagnose form of cancer, sure I had something incurable, something terminal.

I was half right. ME doesn’t kill you, but neither does it leave you – unless you snare a miracle. My doctor, one of the sweetest men you’ll ever meet, explained what ME was to me, how it worked and how I could manage it.

Cue first year of college. I’d had a summer to rest and the excitement of finally going to UCD, the place I’d worked so hard for two years to get to was palpable. It was the best I’d felt in years – new people, interesting lectures, no militarian teachers hounding after every assignment. I was studying Physics and soon had a nice group with whom

there were some near misses).

Falling in public, whether on my everyday Everests or on the flat plains of Science East was a fear that had haunted me all through school. Though my friends knew I had some unpronounceable invisible chronic illness that was why I never came out with them, it would still feel like being outed. One of the perks (and, ironically, one of the hardest parts) of ME was that other people got to forget. I looked perfectly healthy. No pasty paleness or thinning hair, nothing to suggest I was any less fit than the

rest of them. So when my joints got too bad, or the brain fog halted my speech, they’d be reminded that I was Other. It’s hard to feel accepted around people when you can see that judgement in their eyes. You can see them remember that I was Defective, Inferior, Unable. I’d gotten used to that look over the years, adapted to it like I did to the pain. Both still hurt.

It’s also really hard to be in a relationship when half the couple can’t hold hands for more than a few minutes at a time.

“It’s hard to feel accepted around people when you can see that judgement in their eyes. You can see them remember that I was Defective, Inferior, Unable. I’d gotten used to that look over the years, adapted to it like I did to the pain. Both still hurt.”

to puzzle through Applied & Computational Maths.

The initial boost of starting college lasted about three weeks. Then the only thing keeping me going was what had saved my intellectual reputation in school: momentum. ‘Whatever happens, whatever comes up, just don’t stop. Keep going, keep moving.

If you stop, you won’t be able to get going again. Do. Not. Stop.’

Which, as a philosophy, is more than a little lacking.

Impossible to follow indefinitely. Eventually, your body breaks down, which, when you’re already broken down and trudging on like a faithful old banger, needs more than a week of Bed Therapy to rectify. During my five years of ME I had four breakdowns.

Physically, every joint ached.

Not a pulsing throb, not an acute sting when they moved a certain way. A ceaseless, unavoidable presence of pain.

The pressure would build and I’d click them, which hurt but would relieve the ache for a few seconds or minutes, depending on the day. Stairs were my nemesis; going up was tough, coming down was terrifying.

I’d cling to the banister until my knuckles were white – if whomever I was walking with hadn’t inadvertently blocked the safety rail. With every step I was expecting my knees or hips or ankles to buckle, sending me crashing down onto pointy marmoleum. Which, yes, would’ve hurt and added evidence to the fear of the Evil Dr Stairs, and I wouldn’t know until it happened whether I’d be physically able to get back up. But the worst part of that fear was people.

What if people saw me collapse? Healthy people don’t just fall down stairs – sure, some will trip if they’re not paying attention or are running on fumes, but they don’t go careening down a whole flight (neither did I, by the way, I somehow avoided that particular spectacle, though

We had to cancel more plans than were made because of a particularly bad night before the date, rendering me unable to sit up in bed for any length of time, let alone capable of mooching around town.

Having an invisible long-term illness comes with challenges people with visible illnesses, such as cancer, are thankfully unaware of. Unlike ME, people understand cancer. They know as soon as you say it that it’s some awful burden you’ve been stuck with for which you are completely blameless. True, with ME you can fake it, act normal more easily, but cancer has treatments. Foundations. Global fundraisers. Empowering stories about survivors and families who bonded together, friends who visited the hospital three times a day with flowers and donuts and wouldn’t dream of belittling or blaming you for being sick. When you have cancer, you’re never accused of making it up for attention.

No one knows about ME. One in sixty people have it in the UK. There’s no equivalent statistic for Ireland, nor is there an Irish charity dedicated to its research and sufferers. Treatment is experimental and the levels of success vary with each patient.

I’m one of the lucky ones. I only had a “mild to moderate” case and on the 16th May 2014 I had my miracle in the form of Phil Parker’s Lightning Process. I have been free of ME’s symptoms for over twenty months. Its effects linger and are just as powerful, but I now understand the true meaning of the phrase ‘a new lease of life’, and let me tell you, it’s one of the best phrases in the English language. Now I’m studying English and Film, actively pursuing my love of storytelling, am the auditor of my favourite society, and have a group of friends so ineffably wonderful I’m frequently baffled. And they never look at me like I’m Other.

I am one of the lucky ones.

JANUARY 26TH 2016

student voices FilmSoc: Life within a society AM Doyle, auditor of FilmSoc, gives an insight into what it’s like to be a part of a society, from the highs of giving it your all, to the stresses and strains.

Working as part of a society committee is far from easy. No matter what position you have, you devote your time and energy to planning and organising events you might never have the chance attend. You collaborate with a bunch of people who share your enthusiasm for film or literature or music to bring to life that passion on campus. You act as a cog in a machine that has been churning out friendships, leaders, great thinkers and doers for longer than you’ve been in the college – in some cases for longer than you’ve been alive. You are a part of something bigger than yourself.

Some great entity lives through you and the care you offer it. Without you it won’t exist, yet with you it can thrive.

It can expand its ever-welcoming arms to include more people like you, who never knew what it was to be accepted.

People who learned to downplay the intensity of their passion are offered a sanctuary where that passion is not only tolerated, but celebrated.

Friendships forged there run deep and last long after you have parted ways.

Threads of confidence are nurtured into pillars. Without you, the society will it lurk forgotten on the fringes of campus, detached from its purpose and devoid of the chance to touch others and return the care it is given.

A society belongs to no one person.

It is passed from committee to committee, generation to generation.

It breathes in the energy you bring and breathes it back out into the community you’ve helped it create. You belong to it. You mind it diligently for a semester, a year, or throughout your whole course, and you never forget what it has offered to you and those on your committee.

Everything you do, you do for others. Every event, every post and every email, every Thursday putting up posters is for the members. What better joy could there be than seeing strangers connect and laugh and jest with each other, seeing yourself reflected in their presence? Your efforts are rarely acknowledged, and few will verbalise their gratitude, but the devotion has to be there, and it doesn’t need validation.

Working for a society, or for anything you love, is practising wholehearted living. Pouring yourself into anything feeds your soul, and when that thing offers the same privilege to others, you create something truly special. The work is hard, the hours are long. It’s stressful, it’s complicated. There can be people on your team who never seem like they are, some who actively become an enemy. It can be

demoralising, despairing, distracting.

Yet even when the thought of being around that person or struggling again to facilitate that event tightens a knot in your stomach, you learn such skills as would take years to form without this incognito asset.

Even working as a committee can be something of a nightmare at times, so too can it be the dream you never thought to concoct. You can be matched with a group so compatible, so devoted and caring that to simply know them is privilege enough, never mind the incredible work you can do together. Running a society is a collaborative effort and made all the more rewarding because of that.

They say your college years are some of the best of your life. If you devote even a fraction of those years to any society, any club, whether you simply attend the odd event or become auditor, that statement will ring true and you will be a happier and stronger person as a result. Embracing a society can be embracing the best of yourself and the best of others. The love you give will be returned to you, whether you recognise it or not, and it is a love that will never leave you.

Society News Lorcan Kelly and Gráinne Loughran

Seachtain Na Gaeilge Seachtain na Gaeilge (Irish week) runs all this week, from Monday 15th February until Friday 19th February.

Following yesterday’s official opening of the Seomra Caidrimh and the “My First Gaeilge” event, today (Tuesday) a coffee afternoon will be taking place in An Cuas running from 1-2pm. At 4pm a panel will be held with the L&H in the Fitzgerald Chamber discussing the Irish language, followed by a wine reception in the Clubhouse.

TradSoc will be performing traditional Irish Céilí music in Club Chonradh na Gaeilge, 6 Harcourt Street at 9pm. On Wednesday the 17th ‘Kings’ will be shown in Theatre R, Newman. In the Red Room a stand-up comedy session will be held from 8pm, all of which will be performed in Irish, and is a BYOB event. On Thursday, LawSoc’s Maidens na Gaeilge finals will take place in the Fitzgerald Chamber at 6pm. On Friday, UCD will be playing Trinity’s Cummann Gaelach in a 15-a-side Gaelic football match (time TBC). To finish off the week an Irish history exhibition ‘Torthaí na

Réabhlóide’ will be held on floor 2, block AB in Newman from 12-4pm.

Musical Society Following the overwhelming success of ‘Jekyll and Hyde,’ ‘Legally Blonde’ will be coming to UCD from the 15th to the 20th of February. The show will run every night this week with doors opening at 7.15pm and the show commencing at 7.30. There will be a Matinée on Saturday 20th at 2PM, with doors opening at 1.45.

Tickets cost €20 for adults and €15 for students, children and OAP’s, excluding the Monday show and the Matinée which will be sold at €15 and €10 respectively. Tickets are on sale now at ucdmusicalsociety. com and at the Legally Blonde ticket stand in the New Student Centre.

Group bookings must be placed by sending an email to musical@ucd.ie.

DrawSoc Submissions are now open for Drawsoc’s 2016 exhibition. The theme for this year’s exhibition is Limit[less]. All entries must

be accompanied by an online submission form which can be accessed at ucdsocieties.com, and the deadline for submissions is midnight on March 27th.

AgSoc This year’s Ag Week takes place this week, with proceeds going to Console, the national suicide awareness and prevention charity.

This year’s lineup includes today’s Ag versus Vet rugby match, a fancy dress tractor race, Ag’s got talent in the Clubhouse bar, and an FBD/ ESB farm safety campaign. For more information, see the Little Mick Ag Soc Facebook page.

Litsoc Litsoc will compete in the Intervarsity Poetry Slam on the 9th of March alongside TCD, MU, IADT, NCAD and NUIG. Two poets from each are sent to represent their university. Anyone can sign up prior to the heats, which will be held this evening (Tuesday) at 7pm in Nth1 in the Newman building.

2016

Monday 7th March 2016

16 February 16TH 2016

editorial

editorial

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measured, and would certainly not serve to encourage them to speak out. This is a direct result of the extensive, unverified coverage the story received.

Although the story ought not to have been reported on without evidence, the accusations leveled of the existence of such a group chat could easily have been true, and the potential existence of similar groups cannot be negated.

UCD200 has launched a national conversation about sexual consent.

But there are dangers associated with starting a conversation based on misinformation, and we’re lucky that the conversation hasn’t been thrown out altogether as a result of the events this week.

We need to talk about cases such as those of the young women in Cork in order to have any kind of a valid discussion on sexual consent; cases where it cannot be argued that the allegations were unfounded. It can only be hoped that the coverage of the alleged “revenge porn ring” doesn’t make the divide between those in support of the supposed UCD200 and those who rightly vilified them even greater.

an

were from Cork, were copied from their social media profiles and posted to a pornographic website. Some of the images were reported by the Irish Examiner to have been Photoshopped into explicit situations. And yet, this substantiated and horrific account of sexual harassment was not reported on extensively.

Celebrities such as Louise O’Neill did not speak out against it. Twitter did not explode with criticisms. But cases like this, with first-hand information and verifiable proof, are the ones we really need to be talking about.

The response to the results of UCD’s investigation have shown the damage that irresponsible journalism has done to victims of sexual harassment and the sharing of explicit images. Both men and women have been culprits in saying that groups of people such as those accused of being involved in the UCD200 have been vindicated, that Facebook groups like the one described could not exist, and even that the entire story was a “witch hunt” (according to one Twitter user) against men. The damage that seeing quotes like these could have on someone who has been sexually assaulted and may be frightened to come forward cannot be

Fl

completely unsubstantiated story.

The BBC, normally a reliable news outlet, reported the story as being completely true, as well as writing that UCD Vice President Mark Rogers was the UCD President, which even a rudimentary Google search would have quickly corrected. Numerous Twitter and Facebook users have been quick to accuse the College Tribune of poor ethical standards, but there are also questions to be asked of our professional journalists who sacrificed ethical reporting for a shock-inducing headline.

The National Union of Journalists has a professional code of conduct for their members, the second point of which reads “Strive[s] to ensure that information disseminated is honestly conveyed, accurate and fair.” The fourth point reads “Differentiate[s] between fact and opinion”. In many reports relating to the UCD200, neither of these guidelines were observed.

It is important to note, and Professor Rogers did note in his email to students, that there is little doubt that groups like the UCD200 do exist, in UCD and elsewhere. Sexual harassment and the sharing of private images occurs regularly. Less than a month ago reports surfaced that a number of images of teenage girls as young as 14, most of whom

ILLUSTRAT

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By now, everyone’s heard about the UCD200 story published by the College Tribune last week.

The article alleged that there was an online “revenge porn ring” in existence in a Facebook group chat predominantly made up of Agricultural Science students. The allegations have since been declared

by UCD to be “based on hearsay” and an investigation found “no evidence” of the group’s existence.

There are any number of editorials and column inches to be written on the UCD200, from the questionably hasty investigation undertaken

by UCD, to the unforgivably slow response of the Students’ Union to allegations made at the end of December. But perhaps the most striking aspect of the story was the damage that can be done by poor (or in this case, non-existent) journalistic standards of college newspapers and national broadsheets alike, which resulted in national uproar and have damaged very real cases of sexual harassment and violence where there is, in fact, substantiated evidence to prove they happened.

The UCD200 story has grabbed headlines in media outlets from The Irish Times to Joe.ie, and although the College Tribune can be criticised for their own lack of ethical journalism, it was perhaps even more shocking to see the number of large media outlets that took on a

Talleyrand Greetings, dunglords, What a week it has been! In the many years I have been roaming this accursed campus there has been little to equal the UCD200 scandal, the general UCD and UCDSU ineptitude surrounding it, and of course, that most irksome of all cockroaches, the College Tribune.

I have heard it mentioned that the “newspaper”, or the bundle of sheets often scattered around the rubbish bins of the campus, is unapologetic for their coverage of the scandal. It is likely that Jack Power-Hungry will shortly be made editor of the publication, having displayed his unparalleled talent for making completely unfounded accusations. It is extremely amusing to me that the editorial staff will stand over a story that has been denounced as being almost entirely fabricated for what I would imagine is their dignity’s sake – although that particular characteristic is not one the College Tribune has ever displayed in the past. After all, if anybody is qualified to spread hearsay and unfounded accusations, it is myself, Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, and the stories I have heard this year alone would blow a porn ring out of the water.

There will be more to follow…

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the entire diplomatic fiasco has been the response on the part of the UCD aristocracy. The

UCD communications department, who are so often silent on giving quotes to this very publication, have leapt from their slumber and have spent an entire working week writing reports, answering questions (though not for the Observer) and launching investigations – somehow, it was possible to disprove the existence of a private Facebook group within a week – and they have presumably gone back into hibernation since. It is an interesting change from the results of last year’s reportage of the ‘Girls I’d Shift if I was Tipsy’ Facebook page, which provoked no such investigation. Perhaps UCD prefer to stay quiet on stories that haven’t received enormous national coverage and attention.

However, the biggest SU news recently has not revolved around the UCD200, the lack of a voting drive or anything similar.

Undoubtedly the most thrilling event the SU have held all year has been Cian Burnout’s new haircut. The Union have been hard at work over the past number of weeks preparing for this truly momentous event while dutifully ignoring allegations of sexual harassment tweeted to them.

A truly impressive feat, and a standout moment of their year in office, Burnout’s head has never more fully resembled a shaved scrotum than it does now.

Last week’s SU council meeting was extraordinarily entertaining from my hidden vantage point in the eaves. At one point, the chairperson had to stop any more class reps leaving in the middle of it because so many had abandoned

the discussions of how to improve your mental health while sitting on the toilet – an actual mandate which was raised for discussion during the meeting.

I find it most amusing that the SU are so boring that even the SU can’t stand them. Discussions of the UCD200 did not focus around reaching out to potential victims of campus sexual harassment, but repeatedly bleating “We’re doing our best”, “We’re fundraising”, and perhaps the most revealing, “You can’t expect people to do everything on their manifestos.” I for one didn’t expect the SU to do everything on their manifestos and still I am disappointed in this year’s showing.

In other SU-related news, Danniiiiiiiiiiii has organised yet another conference that nobody cares about, and that woman who used to do Welfare things, like that time she organised a five-minute long SHAG event, appears to have gotten lost on her way to the office for the past four weeks. Does the Welfare office still exist? Does Clare O’Connor actually live a double life wherein she has joined a top secret religious order and taken a vow of silence? Or is her silence merely a result of total and utter incompetence? If anybody sees O’Connor wearing a habit and a veil, I’ll eat my feathered hat.

A word to RonforUCDSU; there is only room for one Talleyrand on campus, and that space has been filled since before you were born. Watch your step.

TALLEY OUT

letter to the editor

the university observer Editor Gráinne Loughran Deputy Editor Patrick Kelleher VISUAL CONTENt & Design Editor James Healy Chief of pHOTOGRAPHY Joanna O’Malley News Editor Roisin Guyett-Nicholson Comment Editor Martin Healy Features Editor Eithne Dodd Science, Health & Technology Editor Aoife Hardesty BUSINESS & CAREERS Editor Megan Fanning Eagarthóir Gaeilge Síofra Ní Shluaghadháin Sports Editor David Kent Otwo Editors Eva Griffin & Karl Quigley Food Editor Niamh O’Regan

Dear Editor, Games Editor Adam Donnelly

I heard from a friend of mine who heard from a friend of hers that there’s a secret WhatsApp thread where UCD students prostitute themselves for cash. Perhaps Jack Power and the College Tribune will read this and write an article about it?

Music Editor Aisling Kraus

Yours ect.

Michael O’Rourke

Fashion Editor Lucy Coffey

letterS to the editor Letters, corrections and clarifications pertaining to articles published in this newspaper and online are welcome and encouraged.

Photography & Illustration Joanna O’Malley Louise Flanagan Annabelle Nguyen Sarah Dunne Aisling McGuire Bronagh Kieran James Holohan

Film & TV Editor David Monaghan

Words Alanna O’Shea Helen Carroll Laoise Fitzpatrick Jess Quinn The Badger Owen Steinberger Adam Lawler Kiera Black Rosemarie Gibbons Talley Lorcan Kelly AM Doyle Conall Cahill Fergus Dunne Kevin McGuire Shane Conneely Jeff Gibbons Ciara Fitzgerald Ciara Duffy Sinead Conroy Jane Purdom Billy Vaughan Siobhan Mearon Kevin O’Leary Philip Weldon Deonna McLaughlin Gavin Treacey Henry Eviston Aaron Poole Andrew Carroll James Holohan Safa Zaiani Kevin Murphy Paul Igoldsby Seán Hayes Daniel Ryan Katie Devlin Bilkis Ogunseye Megan Hickey

Creative writing Editor Roisin Murray Arts & Literature Editor Maebh Butler ONLINE EDITOR Keira Gilleechi

Letters should be addressed to The Editor, University Observer, UCD Student Centre, Belfield, Dublin 4.

Correspondence may also be sent to editor@universityobserver.ie.

February 16TH 2016

sport

McCaffrey ready to bring the Sigerson Cup home After UCD’s victory last week over UCC in the Sigerson Cup, Conall Cahill sat down with captain and current GAA Player of the Year Jack McCaffrey to get his thoughts on the Dubs, Dave Billings and doping

3rd August, 2013. 7:57pm.

Dublin and Cork are neck and neck as the opening minutes of the second half tick away. Dublin midfielder Cian O’Sullivan gets the ball off Bernard Brogan and delivers a perfect pass with the outside of his right foot to the onrushing Paul Mannion. When Mannion delivers the ball to Jack McCaffrey just outside the 13 metre line, there doesn’t appear to be any huge threat to Cork’s goal. Thomas Clancy blocks the route to Alan Quirke’s net and the angle appears too narrow for a shot at the posts. But then time seems to slow and the crowd can only watch, spellbound, as with five steps McCaffrey has sped past Clancy. But still he is faced with an impossible angle against one of the greatest goalkeepers in Ireland. Hill 16 holds its breath.

As the ball rifles into the top corner there is a brief, disbelieving pause before the crowd erupts.

Behold, the answer to all of Gaelic football’s problems. The 19 year old speeding back to take his place in defence has, with one three-second burst, cemented himself as the symbol of hope for the revitalisation of a sport.

Two and a half years later, Jack McCaffrey still possesses the ability to make grown men in the stands of Croke Park quiver when he has a football in hand and clear grass ahead of him. Few Irish sportsmen in the modern era can bring a crowd to the edge of their seats like the UCD medicine student can. But for Jack, his high profile within the country remains slightly baffling.

Especially given that, in his own words, “I run around on a pitch.

It’s a bit mad. I talk about this the odd time with my parents... it is a bit bizarre alright.”

McCaffrey and the UCD team saw off UCC in a Sigerson Cup

clash last week, winning 3-11 to UCC’s 1-9. One of the favourites for the competition this year, McCaffrey denies that the strength of the squad which contains six other county players puts any extra pressure on to achieve results.

“It’s not quite social football, but you’re playing with some of your best friends so we just really go out and enjoy ourselves. For a lot of people this is their final year in college now, a lot of my good friends, so this is the last couple of weeks we’ll have together. Good fun more than anything else.”

McCaffrey plays with a smile on his face and with a lightness of heart, and has a clear love for playing the game, whether in the pressure cooker of Croker or wearing the red of his club Clontarf. This pure enjoyment of Gaelic football lies at the very heart of his motivation to keep playing at the highest level.

“There’s a lot made by certain people of the number of sessions, the number of hours you commit to it – but it’s the God’s honest truth that I enjoy every second of it... if it ever got to the stage where I wasn’t enjoying it I just wouldn’t do it,” he says.

College classes mark a welcome break from the intense tactical sessions he experiences with the Dubs, where there are often “four weeks to sit down and look at (an upcoming game) – sometimes that drives you mad!”

To have a brief conversation with McCaffrey about what is important to him in life and in sport is to get a glimpse into an individual whose strong values mould everything he says and does. Running deep in him is a well of love and respect for

family, friends and those who have worked hard to improve him as a footballer and as a person. This perspective would make it hard for him to embrace professionalism were it to creep into the inter-county game.

“I love the GAA, I love the association, it has been here for 130-odd years, and the key part of it is its amateur ethos,” says McCaffrey. “I would struggle to go back to my club and look my friends in the eye if I was getting paid for playing the same game they’re playing. I think it would be a devastating thing for the GAA if money came into it.’’

McCaffrey describes the “slow gradual drift away from the club” as a prevailing condition in the GAA that needs immediate curing, commenting as an individual who is highly cognisant of the debt he owes to his own club: “Clontarf GAA Club will be there long after I’m finished. And I wouldn’t be where I was if it wasn’t for Clontarf.”

The GAA’s amateur status and thus its preservation of the amateur ‘ethos’ is, the 22 year old adds, perhaps a form of protection: “Because of the ethos that is drummed into every player from the age of four, five, six, it [doping] is just an alien concept. But I do think that, once money comes into anything, it becomes a motivating factor.”

When one meets a sportsman known universally for their skill on a pitch or a track, one can sometimes make the mistake of assuming that just as you only know them for their athletic feats, so they themselves live life through the prism of their sport. But, like his classmate and soon to be Olympian Mark English, sport is, for McCaffrey, a mere chapter in the varied and diverse book of his life.

“I think that was something I really focussed on last year, I maybe just relaxed. If I wanted to go to the pub a week before the game and have a few pints I’d go down and do it.

[With] all the managers we have ever played under, we have never had any kind of drinking ban or anything.”

Does he find it hard to balance the GAA with his medicine degree?

“You’ve lads who are auditors of societies, who are in orchestras... I don’t know how they have enough hours in the day to do everything – just because my hobby is in the public eye a bit more, suddenly it’s looked at as a huge challenge. You don’t want to be fully, 100 per cent involved in Gaelic football. I think [the difficulty of maintaining a balance] is something that is over-emphasised”.

McCaffrey and his classmates are painfully aware of the fragility of life and the need to grab opportunities with both hands while one can. The tragedy in Berkeley last summer that claimed the lives of two of his classmates, Lorcan Miller and Eimear Walsh, has made McCaffrey keenly aware of both the triviality of “running around chasing a football” and the importance of the GAA to his life. ‘’You take a step back, you look at football (and ask yourself): ‘why am I taking this so seriously?’ Ultimately you come to the realisation that... if I was dealt the same deck again and I went back to when I was a little lad, I’d do the exact same stuff. Because I love

football. It’s not a chore for me’’ The great sportswriter Tom Humphries once remarked that the main “method” of late UCD GAA stalwart Dave Billings was “enthusiasm – it is better for you to be disappointed in Billings than it is for Billings to be disappointed in you.” McCaffrey is a fitting example of the values Billings epitomised. The future is full of promise for Jack McCaffrey. He dreams of going a step further than his father and bringing a Dublin title back to his beloved Clontarf.

He wants to keep Sam Maguire in the capital city. And he wants to live fully, and with a smile on his face. Because whether it’s in football or normal life, that is what Jack McCaffrey is all about.

Ladies GAA: Ciara Murphy’s bid for the O’Connor Cup UCD Physiotherapy student and captain of Ladies GAA, Ciara Murphy talks to Keira Gilleechi about the O’Connor Cup, Ladyball, and womens’ sport in UCD

IN PHOTO: Ciara murphy in action

18 February 16TH 2016

Ciara Murphy has been playing Ladies Gaelic Football at an Inter-County level for Kerry since Under 14s, and she is currently the captain of the UCD Ladies GAA O’Connor Cup team. Murphy is in her fourth year of studying physiotherapy, and combines her tough training schedule with work placement, while continuing to play Inter-County football at weekends.

With the O’Connor Cup kicking off last week, we asked Murphy how the team are shaping up this year under her leadership.

“The girls are fantastic and I really, really enjoy playing with them. I could not fault their commitment or their effort in training, but it’s hard when you’re playing with first years who are only kind of coming to terms with this whole O’Connor Cup thing, whereas you know the girls who have been here a little bit longer, just really, really want to get there.”

Getting there may be slightly easier this year, given the draw. What effect will this have on the team?

“Last year our group was named the group of death or something, because it was ourselves, UL, DCU and Queens,” Murphy says. “So, yeah I was happy enough with this year. But Galway, you definitely can’t write them off. We’re definitely not going up to Galway thinking that we’re going to win a match.

They’re a tough group of girls up there, and they’re going to give it everything, but hopefully we will too. Hopefully, at the end of the day we’ll be coming away with the win.”

Last week the team played their first match of the Cup against defending champions, University of Limerick, and lost narrowly. Murphy believes it was a combination of unlucky weather and a strong UL side that led to the defeat.

“There was an absolutely howling breeze in their favour, but, you know, they took their scores, and they were well able to take their points. That being said, we did keep it level in the second half; but the damage had been done at that stage and there was just no recovering from that.

UL are just an absolutely fantastic team, they’ve won the O’Connor Cup the last two or three years’’

Despite the serious commitment and dedication that goes into the O’Connor Cup, Murphy is keen to emphasise the social aspects of the sport as well.

“We did a Pot Luck last week, where we all like kind of made dishes and brought them to one of the girl’s houses and just hung out as a team,” she explains. “I’d always advise first years to get involved [with UCD GAA] because I’ve met friends from the UCD team that like I’d consider my close friends now, and it’s a great way to meet people when you are in first year.”

Lidl’s recent partnership with the Ladies Gaelic Football Association, and the promotion of Ladyball, was met with huge controversy online.

UCD’s Gaelic Games Executive and former Dubin footballer, Ger Brennan, was at the forefront of the campaign, and works closely with Murphy and the O’Connor Cup team. Murphy says that the reaction was mixed to the Ladyball phenomenon among the team. “[When it first launched] there was WhatsApps flying with pictures like ‘what is going on? What is he at? Why are they doing this?’

As controversial as it was, did it achieve what they wanted it to do?

Yes. People were talking about it, and not just within the LGFA community. People were talking about it and tweeting about it. I feel like there’s a lot more advertising and a lot more power behind it now, but poor Ger got a rough time for it.”

The main message behind the Ladyball campaign was that women’s sport should be taken seriously, and Murphy has experienced Ladies GAA being under-appreciated in the past. “I suppose there’s always that underlying ‘sure it’s only ladies football’ - kind of remark.

I definitely have experienced it not being taken seriously, but I think it just goes over my head now because I’m so involved in it.”

With regards to the high drop out rates from Gaelic sports after the age of 16, Murphy suggests it could be a result of inequality of treatment between men and women at an Inter-County level.

“I’m not saying that it’s like this in UCD, but the male dominated world in sport have a lot more privileges

than the girls do. You see the Kerry Senior team getting new gear every match, getting 60 cent per euro for every mile they travel for training.

It’s hard to keep that commitment level when you’re not really being treated the same as they are. I have to travel to Kerry at the weekend to train and I don’t get anything for that, I just do it out of the want to play. You know, like I wouldn’t want to let my team mates down. I just wonder if someone on a male Inter-County team wasn’t getting that 50 cent or euro per mile that they’re getting, would they be as willing to travel home?”

Murphy admitted generating interest is something which Ladies Football struggles with as a whole, partially due to the constant comparisons to the Men’s competition.

“I don’t think [Ladies GAA] gets promoted enough. You know there isn’t enough TV coverage of it, but then people would argue why would we want to watch it. I think it comes back to being compared to our male counterparts. It is under the same sport, but it’s a different game; there are different rules in it.”

Even within UCD, game attendance at the Men’s GAA equivalent of the O’Connor Cup – the Sigerson – seems to be met with much more interest. “I was actually physio for the Sigerson lads in their final, and that was in Parnell Park.

Now it wasn’t full, but like, we’d never get a game in Parnell Park.

Our final was played on the astro out there [in UCD]. So there obviously is a difference in attendance.”

Can the LGFA change attitudes to the game as whole? Murphy thinks so, but it will take time. “It’s not going to be an overnight thing, it’s going to take a lot of time. Lidl are definitely on the right track with the sponsoring and the advertising and just promoting it more. Their tagline is that we take Ladies’ GAA seriously, so I think that is probably the right road to go down. But like I said, it’s not going to be this year, it’s not going to be next year, it’ll be future generations.” It’s going to take some time to change perceptions of women in sport, but with young women like Murphy at the helm, the process is well underway.

sport

Bets, drugs and breaking bones: what’s happening to sport?

David Kent argues that there’s no such thing as a clean sport anymore, and the problems are only getting worse.

From injuries across the board to corruption and bribery scandals, something terrible seems to be happening in the world of sport. The controversies keep emerging. In the same week that one of the greatest Irish sports stars of all time retired, we saw another named as part of an investigation into substance abuse at a World Championship. And it isn’t just humans involved in it anymore.

We see horses being caught up in Olympic scandals (most notably Cian O’Connor for Ireland). The sporting world has been marred by corruption and greed, and it’s fair to say that there is no such thing as a clean sport anymore.

Football is corrupt on every level, be it at the very top echelons of the game down to the grassroots. The election of a new President of FIFA takes place next weekend. Whoever comes out victorious will have an incredible job on their hands to turn around the shambles that has been left by their predecessor.

Sepp Blatter, the suspended President, destroyed the idea of FIFA by paying off anyone who dared stand against him in an election – for sixteen years.

Bribes, money laundering scandals, a stubborn refusal of anything modern like technology being introduced to football. As a result of FIFA, football is in the dark ages.

It’s unlikely to come out of them for a few years.

But it’s not just internationally that football is destroyed, as domestically in Ireland, we have our own mini-Sepp running the FAI. There’s no better man to accept a £5 million ‘loan’ from Blatter as hush money. This is in

a country where the league winners get not even a quarter of that as prize money. Match fixing is rife (particularly in Africa), TV money has become astronomical. What’s needed is a complete cleanout.

Across the pond, things are also not so good. Where does one start with the NFL? The New England Patriots and their various seasons of cheating? Michael Vick’s dog ring from a few years ago? Nothing encapsulates what’s wrong with American football more than Greg Hardy and Ray Rice. Ray Rice punched his girlfriend in the face, and dragged her unconscious body out of an elevator on camera.

Instead of being jailed (like a normal person would’ve been) Rice received a two game suspension.

This season, Greg Hardy was punished for a similar offence, and got four games. The message is a stark one: domestic violence is fine if you’re a top sports star. As is drug use apparently. This season’s Super Bowl MVP from last weekend Von Miller cheated a drug test in 2013. His case isn’t unique on the gridiron, as there are a whole host of substance abusers that have been caught, and even more so that haven’t. Super Bowl winning QB Peyton Manning was implicated in a report in December, and yet no punishment arose from the NFL.

IN PHOTO: Sepp bLATTER AT THE MERCY OF PROTESTERS

Even Ireland has its fair chunk of doping scandals in terms of athletics. Usually if you’re caught, you’re punished severely. But even up until last week, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) continue to be rocked.

There’s an Irish twist to these ones

“The IAAF claim to be fighting the cause against drug use in athletics, but they’re clearly not doing a very good job.”

So there’s advice for Americans.

If you use drugs, become a sport star and you’ll avoid conviction.

If these footballers were athletes, they’d at least face a stricter sentence. 724 athletes have been suspended since 2000 with a total of 66 Olympic medals revoked.

too, as Sonia O’Sullivan is set to be awarded a gold medal 20 years after competing in a race after it emerged that her competitor in a 1993 race won while on drugs. How did it take 20 years for someone to get caught for doping? The IAAF claim to be fighting the cause

against drug use in athletics, but they’re clearly not doing a very good job. Cheating seems to be ingrained in the spirit of competition.

Moving onto cycling, it goes without saying that there’s a problem. On average, seven cyclists from the top ten of the Tour De France are caught up using performance enhancing drugs.

Had it not been for the persistence of Paul Kimmage, it’s likely that Lance Armstrong would never have been caught. Ironically, doping tests are getting stricter.

The chances of getting caught are getting greater all the time, and yet there are still people that take PEDs and get away with it.

Problems are even rife on home turf with the GAA. They made nearly €100 million in ticket sales alone over the last ten years.

Equipment needed for hurling will set you back €100, club

membership a further €250, and that’s before insurance costs. They then charge a massive €65 for All-Ireland final tickets, meaning touts can string them off for nearly double that. Never mind the fact that the recent financial reports showed more money was plunged into Dublin GAA than any other county by the group. You could’ve combined the funding for 12 other counties and they wouldn’t have come close to Dublin’s total.

These are just a few examples.

Snooker has been caught up in match fixing scandals on three separate occasions since the turn of the millennium. Even darts has players doping. Tennis officials are being ‘secretly suspended’ for match fixing after a report came out. Players are dying of sports related injuries sustained in rugby union and rugby league. The spirit of competition in sport is getting

lost in a sea of corruption, doping and a desire to win – no matter what the cost. It seems about time that the various sporting organisations took a step back and looked at what they’re doing. This is the only way we can start to enjoy sport again.

The badger It’s been a bad start to 2016 for sport in Ireland. First we had the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) launching their new strategic plan for Irish football over the next five years – and conveniently forgetting to invite the majority of the mass media. Then we had the leader of that organisation (a ‘non-political’ organisation) out canvassing on behalf of the current minister for Environment Alan Kelly.

Then there was the GAA and the soccer school fiasco. Retired English soccer player Jamie Carragher’s soccer schools see the Champions League winner fly over to train kids for a day across various parts of the British Isles.

Last August, Carragher took his school to Longford. Longford isn’t exactly blessed when it comes to top notch soccer facilities that could’ve hosted this event, so they used local club Dromard’s GAA pitch. The GAA then fined them €2,000 for this. Their reason? Dromard had broken a rule that states: “A GAA property shall be used only for the purpose of or in connection with the playing of games controlled by the Association and for such other purposes not in conflict with the aims and objects of the Association, that may be sanctioned from time to time by the Central Council.”

So the problem was that Carragher’s school wasn’t part of the games controlled by the Association. Imagine a world where a GAA club rented out facilities for a sport that was not

GAA. The Badger’s local club in the past four months has rented out its grounds for: basketball, indoor tennis, athletics training, race nights, darts and badminton.

The Badger isn’t aware of the date when the GAA started controlling all these sports; so the problem is with soccer.

Sadly, this isn’t the first (and it certainly won’t be the last) incident of this kind.

Moving on to rugby, things haven’t been looking so good over there either.

Something that Irish head coach Joe Schmidt said before the start of the RBS Six Nations last weekend really irked this omnivore. Schmidt thinks a top half finish would be good enough for Ireland in the Six Nations. Two of the teams in the Six Nations aren’t even that good. Yes, Ireland have a lot of injuries, and Paul O’Connell was a big loss to the side following his retirement. But for a side looking to make European rugby history and become the first side to do three titles in a row, to hear our head coach say that a top three finish is good enough is disheartening.

The Six Nations as a whole is a bit of a joke this time around. The Badger proposes that we either turf out the perennial losers in Italy and Scotland, or do away with the competition all together, and just bring the Southern Hemisphere sides up for a series of tests from February to April instead.

Have we forgotten that the final four of the World Cup were the four major rugby sides outside of Europe? The only way Ireland and the three other major rugby nations can shake off the stranglehold of New Zealand is to play them more often.

Sports Digest A round-up of the sporting happenings around UCD Rugby: UCD Captain, Stephen Murphy has been named on the Ulster Bank Club International Team and will take on French Federale, in Stade Jules Ladoumègue in Paris. Andrew Porter, Hugo Keenan and Jimmy O’Brien all started for Ireland in the defeat to their French counterparts in Paris at the weekend in the Under 20 Six Nations. Adam Byrne is part of an online feature on Leinster’s academy beginning next week.

Women’s Rugby: UCD student Elise O’Byrne White competed as a member of the Irish

team in the Women’s RBS Six Nations match against France on Saturday. In spite of an unfortunate 18-6 loss in Perpignan, O’Byrne White made a valiant attempt at a try in the second half, falling to a tackle five metres short of the line.

Fencing: The UCD novice fencers competed at the beginning of February in the Maynooth Novice competition.

Medallists included Bartosz LekkeHensoldt (3rd in Men’s Foil), Ellen Nugent (3rd in Women’s Foil), Kristy Rozenberga (2nd in Women’s Foil) and Colm Casserly (2nd in Men’s

Epee). The fencing intervarsities will be hosted by Maynooth on the 5th and 6th of March.

GAA: UCD’s freshers’ football team are through to the final of the Corn Daithi Billings, named after the ex-UCD GAA legend. The final is in Croke Park against DCU. After overcoming NUIG and UCC, UCD’s first team are now in the Sigerson Cup semi-final against UL in Belfast.

Hurling: The Fitzgibbon Cup quarter finals

await UCD’s first team, as they beat Maynooth in Belfield last week.

Nicky English’s side now go to on to face IT Carlow on the 16th.

of February. With over 200 competitors from all over Ireland expected to compete, it is the largest climbing competition in Ireland.

Volleyball:

Ladies Hockey:

The UCD Ladies Volleyball team finished 7th at the Volleyball England Student Cup Finals in the University of East Anglia at the beginning of February.

The UCD Ladies hockey team had a victory over Railway Union on Saturday in the EY league. The match ended on a scoreline of 3-2, with goals from Emily Beatty, Deirdre Duke and Elaine Carey.

Mountaineering: UCD will be hosting the annual Irish Climbing Intervarsities this year on the 27th and 28th

Athletics:

Championships in Athlone stadium on Saturday. Karen Blarney placed second in the long jump, while Damien Landers placed second in the 1500m.

Claire Foley, Aisling Drumgoole, Orla McGinley, Ellie Hartnett, Jack Saunders, Conor Duggan, Kevin Woods, Tom O’Keefe, Colm Moran, Rickard Nally, Jamie Cullen, Cian O’Reilly, John Joe Kelly, Mark O’Rourke, Peter McDermot, Conor O’Rourke, James Gibson and Daniel Hanlon also competed in the events.

UCD were the winners of two medals at the IUAA Indoor Track and Field February 16TH 2016

sport

Fairness in Football: FIFA at a crossroads ahead of election

The general election isn’t the only important vote happening on the 26th of February. Ruan McGuinness takes a look at what the next FIFA president needs to do On the 26th of February, an ‘Extraordinary Congress’ will be held by FIFA in Zurich. Here, the world’s football governing body will elect a new president. He will succeed Sepp Blatter, who is leaving his position in disgrace after the corruption case in which US federal prosecutors indicted fourteen people, including nine FIFA officials, on charges of corruption.

The arrests took place preceding the 65th congress of the organisation, where the latest presidential election was planned to be held. Despite it going ahead, and Blatter being re-elected to the office which he has held since 1998, developments since then have seen Blatter suspended for eight years from FIFA activity, and facing a criminal investigation by Swiss authorities.

Issa Hayatou, a Cameroonian former athlete, is currently serving as the stand in President until the extraordinary congress elects an official successor.

Almost unbelievably, the International Olympic Committee, of whom Hayatou is a member, have announced that he will be investigated for unrelated accusations of bribery. As if things in FIFA weren’t bad already, the stand-in President can’t even avoid controversy.

FIFA will attempt to regain some degree of credibility on the 26th after a year marred by criticism.

Mounting pressure about the controversial selection of Qatar as host of the 2022 World Cup, as well as a general disillusionment from the general footballing community due to years of suspicions of corruption, has put the organisation back against the wall. If FIFA are to regain any sort of trust from the footballing world then it seems a necessity to select a respectable figurehead to lead them into the future. But who are the candidates?

Five men have been declared as eligible: Prince Ali Al Hussein, Salman Bin Ebrahim Al-Khalifa, Jerome Champagne, Tokyo Sexwale and Gianni Infantino.

Prince Ali Al Hussein, the son of King Hussein of Jordan, has already received some exposure in relation to the election as he was the sole challenger to Blatter’s most

recent election success. Since 2011, he has been one of several Vice Presidents of FIFA. He is also the president of the Jordanian football association, as well as the founder and President of the West Asia Football federation.

Jerome Champagne, perhaps the least likely to win the election out of the five, is a former French diplomat who has held several different high-profile positions within FIFA. Since his departure in 2010, he has been an advisor to numerous somewhat meagre associations, including the Palestinian and Kosovo FAs, and a Congolese club. Champagne attempted to challenge Blatter in May, however he bowed out due to a lack of support. It seems unlikely that things will be much different this time around.

The other major outsider is Tokyo Sexwale, a South African businessman and politician.

Sexwale’s credentials are fairly impressive, having served as a Minister in the government, and interestingly served time with Nelson Mandela in Robben Island for his activism in the antiapartheid movement. However, his involvement in football is limited to his participation in the organisation of the 2010 World Cup, which was held in South Africa. This seeming lack of engagement in the sport itself is exactly what FIFA should be trying to avoid.

A man with considerable support behind him is the Swiss Gianni Infantino. Infantino is a multilingual lawyer who has spent the majority of his career working at UEFA. He has served as the General Secretary for the association since 2009. The executive committee of UEFA agreed to support him in his bid, praising him as the candidate who will be able to “restore the integrity and credibility” of FIFA. The backing of the second most influential organisation in football will surely count for something, and Infantino stands an excellent chance. He has been present at every UEFA draw of the last few years, so is known by the average football fan.

The favourite to become the new

FIFA president is Bahraini Salman Bin Ebrahim Al-Khalifa. He is the president of the Asian football association, and formerly Chairman of the Asian Football Confederation Disciplinary Committee, and Deputy Chairman of the FIFA Disciplinary Committee. He is a member of the Bahraini Royal family, who have been criticised hugely for the horrendous human rights record of the oil-rich state. Salman himself has been accused of complicity in crimes against humanity, due to his alleged heading of a committee which identified 150 athletes involved in pro-democracy demonstrations in 2011, many of whom were later imprisoned and tortured. Although he denies these allegations, it seems absurd that FIFA would even consider someone with such an attachment to their name.

The tragic deaths of almost 200 migrant workers in Qatar during construction for the upcoming World Cup, as well as the release of a report by the International Trade Union Confederation which estimated that up to 4,000 more workers may lose their lives, has seen massive criticism of FIFA for allowing such apparent atrocities to be committed under the name of their competition.

The election of a man accused of involvement in the violation of human rights seems like the worst possible route for FIFA to take considering these current circumstances. But it would not be surprising to see.

Which of the five candidates will be elected remains to be seen, but the sporting world’s eyes will be on FIFA to select a President who can rebuild the organisation’s reputation after a series of blunders and controversies.

There’s an argument about whether the damage done by Blatter and his various stooges is reversible. Too many nations and organisations were crossed by the 79-year old in his time in charge. Trust has to be rebuilt.

Whoever is in charge in March will face a grilling from the continental alliances about technology, assembling of tournaments and expansion of the current formats for the major competitions. Keep an eye on Infantino; he seems to have the most radical changes to the sporting calendar.

IN PHOTO: gianni infantino

Club focus – UCD Sailing

As UCD Sailing continue to prosper, Conall Cahill talks to four men involved in the club at their training regime, as well as their successes

There is no doubt that for the men in UCD’s Sailing Club, the routine is intense. They work incredibly hard to stay at the right weight, to build their skill and their speed, all so that they can win. Talking to four of the men involved in the club, it is lucky that their love of the sport trumps the sometimes gruelling nature of the workouts. Even better is that they glow with enthusiasm as they discuss the activities of UCD’s Sailing Club and the ins and outs of their chosen sport.

20 February 16TH 2016

Experienced sailors Will Byrne, Ronan Jones and club Commodore Robbie Hynes join Blair Flinn, a beginner in the sport, to discuss UCD’s Sailing Club. Byrne previously raced at the World Cup in 2014, while Jones finished third in the world racing for UCD in the Student Yachting World Cup. In spite of the stereotypes, Hynes insists sailing is a sport open to all backgrounds. Misconceptions may exist because, as he puts it, “if you win the Lotto you buy a yacht”, but he paints a different picture: “What we do is get into our wet gear, into small little boats, little dinghies that just about fit two people. When you’re growing up sailing you grow up in a boat that could cost a few hundred euro.” This price may still make some shiver, but, as Byrne emphasises, this could be no more than “a few weeks of a soccer camp. It just depends on where your loyalties lie.”

Sailing made a rare foray into the nation’s sporting consciousness in 2012 with the success of former UCD student Annalise Murphy when she nearly placed at the women’s Laser Radial Class (she finished fourth). Hynes believes that this helped change the sport’s image in the eyes of the public, “because you don’t see these people on yachts, you see them on smaller boats, especially in the Olympics. With Sky covering the America’s Cup, things like that are going to change it, but... you’ll always have people who are a bit ignorant of the true facts.”

UCD’s sports clubs are notable for their range of abilities and levels of achievement, and the UCD Sailing Club is no different.

Victors at the World Cup in 2012 and with a high performance team that trains twice a week in UCD, they also facilitate students looking to start, or simply get a taste of, the sport. They train every weekend from September until April in Dun Laoghaire and compete in events around the country suitable for all abilities. Flinn, who hails from California, claims he got “addicted pretty fast” after initial struggles: “the first half day (you’re thinking) there’s no way I can keep doing this – the boat just keeps flipping over. But then later in the afternoon, everyone’s giving high fives, everyone loves it.”

The origins of the club are fairly mysterious, but Byrne describes a recent period of two to three years when an ambitious group of sailors “transformed” the club into what it is today. And, judging by the animation and enthusiasm from the four men, the club has every intention of continuing that transformation.

Events such as the Colours race against Trinity in April and a four-day racing event at the start of March mean that for prospective new members there remains plenty to engage in before the college year is out.

The intervarsity races feature up to six teams from UCD alone, meaning that there is no shortage of boat spaces for beginners with a thirst for competitive sailing. For anyone worried about understanding the tactics and rules of the sport, Hynes explains that the fortnightly theory and tactics sessions, often with an older member of the club or even

an international juror (the “referees” of sailing races), are designed to keep members up to speed on the intricacies of competitive sailing’s technical side. After talking to the University Observer, the quartet will be making their way to a meeting with Gordon Davies, International Sailing Federation judge, for a renewal of their tactical and rulebook knowledge. This side of racing can be just as important as the speed of the boat, as UCD know too well.

One race in the World Cup ended in a disqualification for the UCD team after a marathon of protest hearings.

The high performance aspect of the club, and the team that the club sends to the World Cup (by no means a guaranteed spot; qualification out of Ireland must first be achieved) is in no way exclusive. While the squad have their own training, coaches and gym programme, anyone can sign up to the “intense” selection process to decide who gets to fly their country’s flag against the rest of the world.

It is evident from the easy banter and relaxed chat between the four that life within the club has brought them close together. Byrne opines that the nature of the club, where members get involved in all areas of activity on and off the water – from boat maintenance to fundraising – is a key reason for the “family” environment that exists. It is within this environment that one of UCD’s most successful and promising sports clubs continues to prosper.