Vol. XXVI, Issue 3, UO

News

Comment

Features

Science

Sex for Grades Garrett Kennedy

The Ignoble Prize Max K. Feenan

Civil Unrest in Hong Kong

Don’t Play with the Ouija Board Vanshika Dhyani

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Sam Keane

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THE UNIVERSITY VOL. XXVI, ISSUE 3

OBSERVER 30th October 2019

Precarious work as a PhD in UCD; PhDs organise to fight for better working conditions The group ‘Anti-Casualisation UCD’ has been formed by UCD PhD students in order to combat what they claim are unjust working conditions, as well as seeking to address the severe quality of life issues that are faced by PhD candidates in Ireland. They highlight several issues with the current system, including a lack of transparency, poor to non-existent pay for their labour, and discrimination between EU and non-EU PhD candidates.

Currently there are two methods of funding for PhDs in Ireland, either internal or external funding. External bodies, such as the Irish Research Council, offer stipends of €16,000 per year to successful applicants. Internally, UCD can offer scholarships to cover the cost of fees - although the fees can still rise by €500 a year, this increase is not covered by the college, meaning PhDs can enter university with their fees ostensibly paid, only to leave and owe up to €2,000.

Stipends can vary in their amount, but the IRC’s €16,000 is roughly the average amount offered to PhD candidates. This poses several immediate issues; most notably rent.

Living in Dublin is more expensive than it has ever been, with rents averaging at €1,391 per month, according to the latest figures from Daft. ie. A single person paying this rent would pay €16,692 a year - exceeding the total stipend on rent alone. Even in a sharing situation, annual rent could exceed €9,000, leaving little to no disposable income. This intense financial strain leaves PhDs with little choice but to take on a second job, or teach at the university.

Speaking to The University Observer, representatives from Anti-Casualisation (AC) spoke of the problems faced by PhDs in Irish

universities, especially around the issue of teaching classes; “Students are often required to teach and demonstrate as part of departmental scholarship, without receiving additional compensation for this work. In many cases it is unclear ex ante how many hours a student will have to teach.

“In 2011 the hourly rates of pay for tutors and demonstrators were cut as part of the public sector wage agreement. So now there is a two-tier system between people who started working in UCD on an hourly rate before 2011 and people who started to work here afterwards.

The post-2011 rate for undergrad tutor demonstrator is now equal to the minimum wage. Pay has been restored elsewhere in the public sector and in the university.”

“The PhD stipends can vary in a range from €1,000 and €18,500, but some schools offer only fee waving and then you might be offered the opportunity to work as a tutor/ demonstrator and be paid hourly .This means that you end up doing a double work: researching and teaching intensively in order to sustain yourself.”

UCD AC also outlined the smaller, consistent issues facing PhDs who teach - some have to pay for the photocopies they bring to class, in certain departments they are not paid for their office hours, or for answering emails.

“There is also the issue of being paid for a certain amount of hours in which you are expected to complete both teaching and preparation, but you end up working for longer since obligations like office hours and answering emails are not properly accounted for.” a representative from UCD AC told The University Observer. There is a huge amount of variety between schools when

it comes to PhDs - from the fees to pay, there is little to no consistency throughout UCD.

The University Observer spoke to Frank Jones, the Deputy General Secretary of the Irish Federation of University Teachers about the precarious nature of employment for researchers in Irish universities. He told the Observer that he has represented workers from nearly every industry and profession, but has “never come across the precarity the researchers are engaged under”. Because of the manner in which they are engaged, many PhDs are not covered by legislation that protects workers, due to them being classified as students. “It isn’t acceptable in Tesco, it isn’t acceptable in Pfizer, it isn’t acceptable in any other sector that I’m aware of.” Jones told the Observer.

A representative from UCD AC spoke on this issue, saying; “As a student you are not considered an employee and so certain issues which may be considered labour issues do not apply to you as you are a student. But then if you consider PhD students as students then the quality of their education is impacted by the fact that while the PhD should be mostly about doing research, learning, etc, you end up spending a lot of hours on tutorials just to make ends meet. There is an issue on both sides, for the

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Gavin Tracey

quality of education PhD students and precarious workers (postdoc and hourly paid workers) can provide under these conditions and for the standard of research they can do.”

Conor Anderson, the Graduate Officer for UCDSU has been working with UCD Anti-Casualisation, and he spoke to the University Observer about the current state of PhDs in UCD; “There is no reason to think of PhDs as primarily students, they do not operate primarily as students, they operate primarily as academic labourers. The university runs on the underpaid and free labour of PhD students.”

Both Jones and Anderson agree that the only way things will change is through PhD students organising and lobbying for change, both on the local level in UCD and on the national level. “The classification is not going to change on it’s own, it will change through organised struggle” Anderson told the Observer. Jones said that no minister or university president will ride in on a white horse to fix all of these issues, and that “this issue will only be sorted by the group themselves becoming organised.”

Groups similar to UCD Anti-Casualisation have been established in other Irish universities, and UCD AC has said it will work with these groups to cooperate on common issues.

UCD professor ties intelligence to genetics in Irish Times letter Aoife Mawn The Higher Education Authority (HEA) published a report on Monday, 21st October, detailing the economic profiles of students in third level institutions in Ireland. The report came to the conclusion that students from above average and affluent areas were more likely to achieve higher points and therefore attain higher level courses such as medicine and law.

The findings of the report were widely discussed last week, with various institutions and publications dissecting their results. Many came to the conclusion that the reason why wealthier students were achieving these higher points was due to their parents ability to fund supplementary education such as grinds, trips abroad and extra tuition.

In The Irish Times letters page, on Thursday, 24th October, UCD Associate Professor of Psychology, Dr. Michael O’Connell

argued against the idea that wealth was the main factor in the attainment of higher points, but that wealthy parents had higher cognitive ability and therefore their children did also. Citing research from Robert Plomin, Dr. O’Connell said “almost all traits, including intelligence, have a substantial heritable component, i.e. children tend to resemble their biological parents for genetic reasons.” He went on to say; “People with higher cognitive ability tend to do better in school, and are more likely to end up in occupations with higher status and more pay. Thus, they tend to live in more affluent backgrounds.”

“Basically his argument would suggest that the kids born in Dublin 1 are just less smart than the kids born in Dublin 4. I just don’t think that’s true.”

His comments were initially met with condemnation from Senator Aodhán O’Riordan and UCD Labour. When approached for comment by The University Observer, Dr. O’Connell said; “Certainly many people, including myself, are often disconcerted and surprised when the evidence points to strong genetic influence on key life outcomes. It seems counter-intuitive.

But the beauty of good science is that it challenges our intuitions.”

The University Observer also contacted various professors and staff from the Schools of Sociology, Politics and Social Policy to ask them if this evidence was correct. Professor Mathew Creighton from the School of Sociology said, “I’d think many people who study educational mobility (not just sociologists) would find that opinion to be minimally supported by evidence.”

Dr. Aidan Regan from the School of Politics also

responded saying, “What he has done is basically take the social out of social science,” adding “basically his argument would suggest that the kids born in Dublin 1 are just less smart than the kids born in Dublin 4. I just don’t think that’s true. Clearly what matters is you have access to social capital, you have access to good education, you have access to grinds, you know how to play the system, you do the points game, so to say that social background does not matter is just simply not true.”

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NEWS Campus News in Brief Andrea Andres

Technological Universities Received Millions in Funding Andrea Andres

Eight UCD Schools receive Athena SWAN Bronze Awards

The UCD School of Medicine, UCD School of Biology and Environmental Science, and UCD College of Engineering and Architecture, comprised of six schools, have achieved the Athena SWAN Bronze Awards for their commitment to gender equality.

The awards acknowledges work done to improve gender equality and representation.

The Athena SWAN (Scientific Women’s Academic Network) is a charter created to recognise and encourage commitment to advancing women’s careers in STEM. They were established in 2005. But in May 2015, they have expanded to include the arts and humanities, social science, law and business.

This brings the number of schools in UCD who have received the honour to 12. In 2017, UCD received the Athena SWAN Bronze Institutional Award for its recognition of issues on gender equality and creating an action to tackle these problems.

Another nine Schools and one College are now seeking the recognition of the award. This marks the second round of UCD schools that have received the Bronze award.

Professor Orla Feely, Chair of UCD’s Gender Equality Action Group and UCD Vice-President for Research, Innovation and Impact has said that: “Diversity is one of the core values in UCD’s strategy, and one of our strategic objectives is the attraction and retention of an excellent and diverse cohort of students, faculty and staff,”

“The Athena SWAN process is central to our ability to deliver on this objective and deliver on UCD’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy.”

She congratulated the Schools that won the award as well: “I am delighted to congratulate the Schools that have achieved this success on the basis of their commitment to delivering gender equality, encouraging greater female participation in STEM and ultimately making UCD a more inclusive place to work and study for everyone.”

UCD to introduce Postgraduate Student advisor UCD has announced that there will be a student advisor for research postgraduate students, starting in November. They will be serving the roughly 16,000 students currently enrolled in research based postgraduate courses. Student Advisors provide support and advice to students within the many structures and supports in UCD so that they may achieve their academic goals.

Speaking to The University Observer, Aisling O’Grady, head of student advisory service, said “I came into the post three years ago, and it was one of the things I was looking at, when we created new posts that the postgraduate research students would be in need...and when a new post became available that’s where it went”.

UCDSU began lobbying for the creation of the role in October 2017 under Graduate Officer Niall Torris, who subsequently included this lobbying in his reelection manifesto and a Council motion mandating the Graduate officer to continue this lobbying.

Speaking to the The University Observer, Torris said “I’m delighted…[the role] will benefit students greatly”.

Speaking about the impact the new role will have, current Graduate Officer Conor Anderson said “When casework falls onto the Graduate Officer,...I am not a trained counselor, I am not a trained advisor...so having a student advisor role [is beneficial]”.

Second UCDSU Council held

The second UCDSU council was held on the 21st of October. Discussion began with the idea of a Council Ball being held - that being a special ball only for class reps, college officers and sabbatical officers, no agreement was reached. Joshua Climax, college officer for the School of Engineering gave a powerpoint presentation on the new running track, which would remove car parking spaces, and what UCDSU could do to encourage those who live locally to commute or cycle in to college. There was a lengthy debate as to the merits of this approach, after which no agreement was reached. President Joanna Siewierska gave a talk on her work helping students in Direct Provision.

Elections for various co-ordinators and college officers were held. A discussion was held on being able to enforce mandates given to sabbatical officers outside of impeachment or IADB. After much discussion, no decision was made.

The sabbatical officers gave their reports, all of which were approved. Siewierska spoke about the work she has been doing to investigate the rental situation on campus.

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€11.8 million has been allocated towards the growth and development of technological universities in Ireland. €90 million in total will be given in funding towards the development of technological universities between the period 2020-2022.

A total of €14.25 million in funding has been allocated under the Higher Education Authority and is to aid in “higher education landscape restructuring, consolidation and collaborative projects” according to a press release by the Department of Education and Skills.

TU Dublin, comprised of Dublin, Blanchardstown and Tallaght Institutes of Technology, received €3.8 million from the fund. €2 million has been set aside for other consortiums of Institutes of Technology such as the TUSEI (The Technological University for the South East Of Ireland) consortium made up of IT Carlow and Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT). Funding will also be given for

the creation of further consortiums such as one between Athlone IT and Limerick IT.

The Minister for Education and Skills, Joe McHugh, has stated in the press release that: “This funding package will be significant for these third level institutions to develop and align courses, push on in the field of research and ultimately progress to technological university status.”

While the Minister for Higher Education, Mary Mitchell O’Connor said that: “The emergence of the technological university sector is the single most important development in the higher education landscape of recent years and a very significant element of the national research agenda.”

She described technological universities as “anchors” and a “catalyst for local and regional economies as employers, and also as incubators for industry and technology.”

Dr. Patricia Mulcahy, President of IT

Carlow, has thanked both ministers for the support in such an important time for the TUSEI project. The funding will enable the IT to “move to the next stage in institutional change”, and mobilise their staff, students and stakeholders.

The funding towards IT Carlow and WIT indicates confidence from the government that they will provide a university in the South East of Ireland according to the President of WIT, Professor Willie Donnelly. “This funding allocation will allow us to build on the momentum to date and accelerate the project to completion. Together with all our stakeholders across the region, we are impatient for the delivery of a much-needed university for the South East, a critical element in delivering on the Government’s ambitions for the region as set out in Project Ireland 2040 and absolutely essential to secure the economic future of the region.”

New Bill would make learning Traveller history obligatory Sophie Finn The Oireachtas is currently debating a piece of legislation which aims to make the study of Traveller history and culture an ‘obligatory’ part of the primary and secondary curriculum.

The Bill, introduced by Senator Collette Kelleher would amend the Education Act 1998 to include the compulsory teaching of Traveller culture and history.

Senator Kelleher has had an important role in the development of the Bill. The Senator explained that the purpose of this bill is to contribute to a more inclusive school environment for Irish Travellers, whom the Senator says are “50 times more likely to leave school before completing the Leaving Certificate” than the general population. “This situation needs to change,” she declared.

Kelleher believes the Bill would “recognise and validate” the distinct culture of the Traveller community, as well as combat feelings of “exclusion”, which in turn would increase

levels of educational attainment in the Traveller community.

Kelleher also maintains the implementation of the provisions of the bill would allow pupils and teachers to become more educated on Traveller culture and history, and this may help to counter the “discriminatory attitudes” towards Travellers.

The Bill was initiated in July 2018 and passed by the Seanad on the 16th of October 2019. Despite the passing of the Bill, concern over the wording has been expressed. Seanad debates on the 16th of October saw Minister for Education and Skills Joe McHugh outline how although he is “supportive of the overall principle underlying the Bill”’ he believes the draft could “potentially be problematic if passed”.

Due to this concern, a number of amendments regarding the wording of the Bill were proposed. This included diluting the proposed provision of teaching Traveller history

and culture as part of the syllabus to the arguably lesser obligation “to promote” it.

Senator Kelleher expressed her dismay at this amendment, stating that she believes this obligation could be satisfied with “even the most minimal activity on the part of each individual school”, however she feels this Bill has opened a basis for “further conversation”, and she called for the Minister to prioritise the Bill going to the Dáil.

The minister closed the matter by outlining his intention to “prioritise the Bill progressing to the Dáil”, and ended the Seanad sessions by commenting that “history will truly be made when there is somebody from the Traveller community standing where I am today.”

NEWS

Cambridge Don readmitted despite sexual harassment Nathan Young

National News in Brief Andrea Andres Number of homeless 18-24 year olds increased by 110% since 2014

Dr Peter Hutchinson, a don in Trinity Hall, Cambridge University, has been readmitted as a fellow emeritus less two years after it was announced that he had been permanently removed.

An internal investigation of Dr. Hutchinson’s conduct took was instigated by the college in 2015 after over nearly a dozen complaints over “inappropriate” incidents between 2014 and 2015. Following the investigation Dr Hutchinson quit his position teaching modern and medieval languages. Having been found to have sexually harassed 10 students, Trinity Hall announced in 2017 that Dr Hutchinson was permanently banned from Trinity Hall and contact with students after breaching sanctions imposed on him after the initial complaints. A spokesperson at the time said “We can confirm Dr Hutchinson has withdrawn permanently from any further involvement with college affairs, including from his role on the finance committee. He will not be

present in college at any time in the future”

However, the college has now announced that it will afford Dr Hutchinson his rights as a fellow emeritus in his retirement.

Confusion first arose following Dr Hutchinson’s attendance of a lecture in 2017. A statement on the Trinity Hall website reads “The following statement has been agreed following extensive discussion and legal advice: I. Dr Hutchinson’s name was mistakenly removed from the online list of Emeritus Fellows in 2017 but has now been reinstated… VI. In line with the rights and privileges afforded to emeritus fellows of the college, Dr Hutchinson will continue to attend certain college events and to exercise his dining rights, but will not attend events primarily aimed at students or alumni except by agreement with the college”. BBC News has reported that “the college had been advised Dr Hutchinson could threaten legal action and there were internal

concerns about the impartiality of the process”.

Several former students have waived their right to anonymity to speak out about the decision. Sophie Newbury, who graduated from Trinity Hall with a degree in German and Russian in 2018, has described the decision as “a slap in the face” to complainants who had “worked up the courage to speak out.’’ Speaking to BBC News, Newbury alleged that Dr Hutchinson had offered to give her a “big kiss” on her birthday, made comments about her clothing, asked a group of students if they would “sleep [their] way to the top” at a film night in his home.

In a statement, Trinity Hall said: “Given the extensive and confidential nature of the consultation, it would not be appropriate to comment further on that”. Speaking to BBC News, Dr Hutchinson said that there had been “No legal finding of harassment”, and emphasised that it had been an internal, college investigation.

UCD’s gender equality action plan Last November, The University Observer reported on UCD’s gender imbalance problem, specifically relating to the lack of women in senior-level staff positions.

At the time, only 30% of UCD Heads of School were women and only 24% of UCD full professors were women. The target is a 40% balance. It is unclear whether these figures have increased since then, as faculty promotion statistics for 2018 are not yet available to view. However, several more schools have been awarded the Athena SWAN bronze award for their gender equality action plans.

Gender imbalance in the university has been improving in other ways, albeit slowly.

On 10 October 2019, UCD announced that the UCD School of Medicine, UCD School of Biology and Environmental Science and UCD College of Engineering and Architecture (made up of a further six Schools) had officially received Athena SWAN bronze awards. The Athena SWAN Award was established in 2015 to identify barriers to equality in universities and to promote the advancement of women’s careers in higher education and research

In total, twelve UCD Schools, encompassing 1350 faculty and staff and 10,000 students, have now achieved Athena SWAN recognition for delivering on their equality action plans. Securing the Athena Swan Bronze award is central to the university’s objective to ‘attract and retain an excellent and diverse cohort of students, faculty and staff’ and entitles UCD to apply for research funding from Science Foundation Ireland, the Irish Research Council and the Health Research Board.

As part of the development of the next Gender Equality Action Plan, the Athena SWAN event was held on 7th October 2019. Dr Rhona Mahony gave a talk on being a woman in leadership and ensuring people are included, feel safe, feel that they belong and that their contribution matters.

There has never been a female president of UCD in the university’s history. A government task force was formed to work on gender equality in third level institutions and their report was released in late 2018. The gender equality

taskforce estimated that, at the current pace of change, it could take up to 20 years to achieve a gender balance minimum of 40 per cent women at professor level.

The task force said that dramatic steps are needed to speed up the process and to ensure women occupy a higher percentage of leadership positions. Shortly after the report, the Government pledged to fund dozens of women-only professorships up until 2020 to help “eradicate gender equality” in higher education.

The task force also said that achieving gender equality is “neither linear nor guaranteed, and the rate of improvement at senior levels in HEIs internationally is extremely slow”. In an attempt to accelerate the closing of the gender gap, funding for universities is now somewhat linked to diversity targets, which has acted as an economic incentive to increase equality in third level institutions.

The task force recommended implementing a requirement that all colleges set one, three and five-year targets for the promotion and recruitment of academic, professional, management and support staff. University College Dublin has adhered to this requirement through the new Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy and Action Plan 2018-2025.

The new strategy and action plan, launched in March 2019, is aimed at creating an environment which ‘promotes equality and

Jade Wilson

reaps the benefits of diversity and inclusion’.

At the time of the launch, UCD President Professor Andrew Deeks said: “We want to ensure that employees and students can thrive in UCD, able to participate fully in their work and study, in a respectful environment where they can reach their full potential.”

“This strategy won’t be achieved by any one particular action but rather through the implementation of many smaller actions, all of which will contribute to UCD being a great place to work, learn and develop,” he said.

One such action included a further number of schools aiming to achieve Athena SWAN recognition, as well as the promotion of the Aurora Leadership Development Programme, an innovative training programme aiming to encourage women in academic and professional roles to think of themselves as leaders and develop their skills and potential. Other planned actions include establishing Vice-Principals for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in each of the Colleges, to incorporate EDI into coaching and mentoring programmes and to mainstream EDI into various non-EDI training events, e.g. UCD Festival.

The EDI strategy and action plan aims to “promote a culture of dignity, respect and wellbeing for all, and eliminate all forms of discrimination.”

The annual Focus Ireland conference has heard that the figures of 18-24 year olds is now 910, a 110% increase from 435 since August of 2014. This age bracket is also six times more likely to be discriminated against by private landlords.

Focus Ireland described young people as being “at the brunt” of homelessness and housing crisis. The charity’s CEO Pat Dennigan said: “Young adults are most likely to bunk-in with friends and extended family to keep a roof over their heads.” “People in these situations are part of the ‘hidden homeless’ and are not included in the Government’s official homelessness figures.”

“The fact is there is a lot more that needs to be done and we really need to have a Youth Homeless Strategy in place,” he added.

Speaking about the conference, youth homelessness is “mainly related to poverty and family difficulties” according to Dr. Paula Maycock from Trinity College Dublin. She said: “We need prevention. We need a new homelessness prevention strategy that directly addresses the needs of youth and their situations because the reasons they become homeless are different.”

Focus Ireland has also called for a strategy in which tenants are given “greater security” so they won’t lose their homes as well as making sure that homeless services are LGBT+ friendly.

Brexit Deal could potentially lead to loyalist violence according to PSNI chief

The head of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) has warned that a Brexit deal perceived to be a threat to the union between Great Britain and Northern Ireland could cause civil unrest by loyalists.

Depending on the result of Brexit over the next few weeks, there is a possibility that loyalists may “bring violence back on the streets”, according to Simon Byrne, head of the PSNI.

Speaking to BBC2’s Newsnight, he said: “You can anticipate a lot of emotion in loyalist communities and the potential for civil disorder . . . Similarly if things go a different way, you can see a rising of emotion in the nationalist community a similar threat,”

“There are a small number of people in both the loyalist and nationalist communities that are motivated by their own ideology and that have the potential to bring violence back on to the streets,”

He also said that: “It’s well rehearsed that any hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic will be seen as a return to state institutions by the nationalist community and it will raise the threat of attack towards infrastructure.”

He believes that they have to be prepared to be in a “position to thwart that sort of behaviour with the support of the communities and all parts of Northern Ireland.”

Report on voting scandal recommends no sanctions against TDs

A report by Dáil clerk Peter Finnegan has probed into the events surrounding Fianna Fáil TDs, Niall Collins, Timmy Dooley and Lisa Chambers. It was revealed that Mr. Collins had voted for Mr. Dooley six times in his absence. While Lisa Chambers had also inadvertently voted for her colleague Dara Calleary while he was on a radio show. Mr. Collins admits later that he pressed Mr. Dooley’s button thinking that he was still present.

However, the report makes no findings against Mr. Collins, Mr. Dooley and Ms. Chambers and recommends no sanctions on them. However, it does recommend that TDs should no longer be allowed to vote on behalf of another colleague. It also stated that there is also a “general acceptance” of voting for colleagues who are also in the chamber. The report has described this as “not good practice and must be discontinued.”

The report asserts that all TDs should be present before voting can start and must vote in their designated seats. Chair tellers and party whips are responsible for verifying votes and correcting any errors. The report has recommended that a “wider review of the voting system should be undertaken to provide such assurance”.

30th October 2019

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NEWS International News in Brief Jade Wilson U.S. and Turkey agree to ceasefire in Syria Earlier this month, Turkey and the United States agreed to a temporary ceasefire in northeast Syria in order to allow Kurdish fighters to withdraw. The announcement was made after talks between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and US Vice President Mike Pence. By Monday 24th October, Kurdish forces began withdrawing from areas near the Turkish border. On 25th October, the US Defense Secretary Mark Esper said some US forces will remain in Syria to defend oil fields from the Islamic State, partially reversing Trump’s decision to withdraw all forces’, which critics say allowed Turkey to invade and endanger the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.

Speaking at a press conference in the Nato headquarters, Brussels, Esper said the US deployment “would include some mechanized forces,” but insisted that the overall withdrawal from Syria by the US would continue. The troops would remain in the eastern Syrian province of Deir al-Zour, he said. Esper’s announcement came a day after Trump tweeted: “we will NEVER let a reconstituted ISIS have those fields! Perhaps it is time for the Kurds to start heading to the Oil Region!” Esper would not say how many US troops would remain, however, he indicated that it would be fewer than 1,000.

Riots in Chile On Friday 18 October, violence broke out at protests in Chile over a now-scrapped hike in metro fares. Several metro stations were hit with Molotov cocktails, leaving 41 metro stations destroyed, and all 164 attacked. Some buses were also torched.

The protests are part of a wider outrage against social and economic conditions in the country. President Sebastian Pinera declared a state of emergency and deployed troops into the Capital, Santiago, for the first time since Chile returned to democracy in 1990. Deaths were reported from 20 October, including two women burning to death at a Walmart store and a four-year-old child killed during the protests.

The death toll has risen to 18 people since the start of the protests. The protests are still ongoing, however, they have since become more peaceful as Pinera has announced measures including an increase of the universal basic pension by 20%, cancelling a recent 9.2% increase in electricity bills and a new law proposal that would see the state cover expensive medical treatment costs. He also said the government would introduce health insurance for medication. According to the National Institute for Human Rights, over 250 people have been injured and almost 2,000 arrested.

Shops and businesses are slowly reopening their doors but schools remain closed in the Santiago-area.

39 bodies found in a shipping container in Essex 39 people were found dead in a lorry container in Essex, England on 23rd October. Initially, most of the victims were believed by Essex Police to be Chinese nationals. However, the police have now said it is a “developing picture”.

A Vietnamese woman named Tra My is feared to be among those who died. The 26-year-old was identified by Human Rights Space, having sent a series of messages to her family around the time the container was in Essex.

Four Irish people are being questioned by police in Britain over the deaths.

They include a 48-year-old man from Northern Ireland arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to traffic and manslaughter, an Irish man and woman who were arrested in Warrington, England on suspicion of the same charge, and the driver of the truck, a 25-year-old man from Northern Ireland who was arrested on suspicion of murder. The trailer was leased from one Irish company to a second business run in the Republic. At present, it is unclear where and when the victims entered the trailer.

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Connacht-Ulster Alliance Consortium to receive €90 million in funding to achieve TU status Andrea Andres

Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT), Letterkenny IT and IT Sligo, collectively known as the Connacht-Ulster Alliance (CUA) Consortium, will receive €90 million. This important multi-annual fund will aid these institutes of technology in their “ambition of becoming a Technological University” serving the west and north-west of Ireland.

Speaking on behalf of Dr Brendan McCormack, President of IT Sligo and Mr Paul Hannigan, President of Letterkenny IT, Acting President of GMIT, Dr. Michael Hannon, has welcomed the funding and acknowledged “the leadership shown by the Minister and her officials in supporting this national strategic objective.”

He added that: “A key principle underpinning the establishment of TUs is connectedness and collaboration with their region. This collaboration has been evident for some time across the higher education technological sector and more recently in the development of the

Technological University Research Network (TURN) report that provided the evidence base for this €90M investment.”

This funding will also support initiatives in the CUA such as the EMPOWER programme. “EMPOWER is a programme to support women entrepreneurs and GMIT welcomes this additional funding as a support to addressing gender equity, a key government priority.”

Minister for Higher Education, Mary Mitchell O’Connor was “delighted” to announce this ”additional package in tertiary education. The sector needs this level of funding so as to be in a prime position to address digital skills needs, to focus on upskilling, reskilling and lifelong learning.”

“This fund will assist TUs in delivering significant inputs to national strategic priorities in relation to higher education access, research-informed teaching and learning excellence. It will also assist increased regional development and socio-economic progress

through TUs connectedness to their regions, and their collaboration, deeply embedded and fostered over many decades, with business, enterprise and local communities.” she said.

In a press release announcing a €14.25 million fund for the development of technological universities, Minister for Education and Skills, Joe McHugh has stated that he is “pleased to see the deepening of the connections within the Connacht Ulster Alliance between Letterkenny IT, GMIT and IT Sligo as they work towards their goal of establishing a technological university, as well as the strengthening of cross border links in the North-West. This funding package will be significant for these third level institutions to develop and align courses, push on in the field of research and ultimately progress to technological university status.”

The CUA Consortium is also set to receive €2 million from a total of €14.25 million fund under the Higher Education Authority.

Sex for Grades: Several lecturers fired after BBC documentary exposes sexual harassment. Garrett Kennedy Lecturers at both the University of Lagos and the University of Ghana have been suspended following the release of the BBC’s Sex for Grades documentary. The film was part of a year-long investigation by BBC Africa Eye into sexual harassment in West African universities.

The documentary contains a combination of first hand accounts from students with personal stories relating to various lecturers and undercover journalists posing as students to see how the lecturers act around them. The aim was to uncover what many people believe to be a systematic problem of sexual harassment in some of West Africa’s most prestigious universities.

One student talks about how a lecturer withheld her exam results for two semesters and pretended that she had never sat the papers. When confronted on it he allegedly repeatedly demanded she have sex with him. This experience caused her to drop out of university.

At the University of Lagos, Boniface Igbeneghu, a local pastor and academic, was caught asking asking inappropriate questions of an undercover BBC journalist posing as a 17 year old prospective student. He physically harassed her and repeatedly asked her to kiss him in his locked office. He also threatened to tell her mother if she was “disobedient”. Several other students made similar allegations against the lecturer. One said that the event caused her to attempt suicide several times.

The university suspended Dr Igbeneghu and another academic by the name of Dr Samuel Oladipo as a result of this evidence.

They have also established an investigative committee to discover the extent of the problem in the university. They have also said that they have closed the staff room known as the “cold room” which Igbeneghu claims was where lecturers brought students. Igbeneghu’s church have also asked him to step down.

At the University of Ghana, two lecturers, Professor Ransford Gyampo and Dr Paul Butakor have also been suspended following the documentary. Both lecturers propositioned journalists who were posing as students for the documentary.

Kwesi Yankah, Ghana’s minister of state in charge of tertiary education thought the story reflected a general trend of inaccurate media coverage of Africa. He described it as “stereotypical” and questioned how many stories have been covered which gave a positive image of higher education in Africa. He still stated that it was important not to “rest on our oars” and that the documentary’s findings were important. “We would rather want to see them more refreshing stories about strides that African universities are making, not painting them black”, he said.

The chairperson of the University of Ghana’s Anti-Sexual Harassment and Misconduct Committee, Dr Margaret Amoakohene, condemned the actions of the Ghanaian lecturers in the film. She called it “Unacceptable, inappropriate behaviour that is really an affront to their positions as lecturers at the University of Ghana.” She has claimed that the problem of

sexual harassment at the University of Ghana was “persasive” among both lecturers and students.

Olabukunola Williams, executive director of the Nigerian charity Education as a Vaccine, says sexual harassment and assault in universities is “pervasive in Nigeria.” While she was not involved in the documentary, she says that it has forced people to confront the problem, and has provided concrete evidence of malpractice. She says that to continue the conversation that has been started there would be a need to extend it out to rural areas. She argues that the religious leaders in these rural areas “hold a lot of trust” and in order to highlight the problem, these leaders would have to talk about the issue.

She has said that the committee follows up all reports of sexual harassment but that they “cannot chase after the wind”. In the past there had been cases where guilty individuals had been suspended. Nonetheless, the committee is going to make recommendations to the university once the investigation has concluded.

A Nigerian non-profit, Stand to End Rape Initiative, has reported an increase in the reporting of sexual assault and violence since the premiere of the documentary. It’s chief executive, Oluwaseun Ayodeji Osowobi, says that the issue of sexual harassment is not exclusive just to universities, but extends to workplaces too. She welcomed the documentary, saying; “Men feel invincible. This moment is women saying, ‘You’re not.’”

COMMENT

The Ignoble Prize Is the Nobel Prize really worth anything? And if so, what? Max K. Feenan asks.

“The Nobel Prize should finally be abolished.”

These words were spoken five years ago by the 2019 Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature; Peter Handke. The Nobel committee justification for Handke winning the award was “that with linguistic ingenuity (he) has explored the periphery and the specificity of human experience.” The Austrian writer is best known in English for his experimental 1966 play Offending the Audience and his 1986 novel Repetition.

Handke is famous for writing about alienation, displacement and conflicted identity. He is of Austro-Slovenian heritage and this is the autobiographical subject of Repetition. This link to Eastern Europe relates to the controversy surrounding Handke.

“The Nobel Prize should finally be abolished.” These words were spoken five years ago by the 2019 Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature” Handke openly supported and endorsed Slobodan Milošević, the former President of Serbia, who has been tried for war crimes by the UN with charges including ‘genocide’ (and complicity with) ‘deportation’, ‘torture’ and ‘murder’.

Handke does not only endorse him as a leader and a person, having spoken at Milošević’s funeral in 2006. He also publicly denounced the UN’s intervention in Bosnia during the Yugoslav Wars as “criminal”. Handke has said that Serbia was the victim of the Bosnian conflict not the perpetrator and even claimed that the massacres were often staged by the other side and blamed on the Serbians. This not only contradicts most historical views of the conflict, but also the CIA findings upon investigating the conflict. These stated unequivocally that nearly all the atrocities were committed by Serbian militants. For obvious reasons, many are outraged

at the Nobel Committee’s decision in awarding Handke the prize.

Whether or not the award should have been given to Handke is not the question at hand. The choice of him for such a high honour brings into focus a deeper controversy surrounding all the Nobel Prizes, especially the Peace Prize. This controversy is the question of whether they are legitimate or meaningful at all.

All the Prizes from Literature to Physics have had their share of controversy over who should or shouldn’t have received it, but the Nobel Peace Prize is different. The list of winners contains many largely uncontroversial figures such as Albert Schweitzer, Martin Luther King Jr., Kofi Annan, and the International Red Cross.

However there are many recipients whose reputations are more controversial and who have serious allegations from varying sources.

Henry Kissinger was given the award in 1973 alongside Lê Đức Thọ (who refused it) for the Paris Peace Accords, intended to bring an end to the Vietnam War. Kissinger was also, at least partially, responsible for the covert bombing of Cambodia between 1968-75 and Operation Condor, which involved secretly supporting various violent military coups in Latin America. Kissinger being given the prize caused outrage in America and Europe with two members of the Nobel Committee resigning in protest. Kissinger did not appear at the ceremony because of concern over possible protests and in 1975 when North Vietnam invaded the South, he tried to return the award. The Nobel Committee refused. The satirical songwriter Tom Lehrer quipped that “Political satire became obsolete the year Henry Kissinger won the Nobel Peace Prize”.

Moving onto the early 1990s, the prize was awarded to Aung San Suu Kyi, the current State Councillor of Myanmar. She was imprisoned under house arrest between 1989 and 2010

for her pro-democracy activities, being intermittently released then re-arrested. She helped found the National League for Democracy party, which she later became leader of, and was first democratically elected into Government in 1990, but was under house arrest at the time.

The military remained in government until her eventual release in 2010, due to international pressure. She was renowned as one of the most remarkable political figures in the world and has been awarded many humanitarian awards outside of the Nobel Prize. Almost all of these, except the Nobel Prize, have been rescinded because of her refusal to give any statement or take measures to address the massacres of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar. The ethnic violence has steadily escalated to the point of ‘cleansing’ and despite international pressure, Suu Kyi has refused to comment or act. This has damaged her reputation significantly and many now consider her to be complicit in genocide.

“The controversy, the question of whether they are legitimate or meaningful at all.”

These examples show how the Peace Prize has been marred by serious controversy for many years. These controversies must be taken seriously because of the seriousness of the allegations against the recipients. If they are true, they render the Nobel Peace Prize’s credibility almost entirely void. What kind of Peace Prize

can be offered to people who create wars, or condone mass killing?

There is also a philosophical problem underlying this. How valid is an award for peace in the first place? Peace does not seem to be something we should make a competition out of. There is no benefit or logical justification for it. The UN, which is also a recipient, is not tasked with diplomacy in order that it should win anything. It is supposed to act out of duty and in defence of universal human rights. Peace is not something we should attach a value to in the same way we attach it to a medal. Many think of Peace as essential spiritual while others think of it as primarily political. It is an inherently subjective concept. This shows how difficult the idea of ‘Peace Prize’ is when examined.

There is a dark irony which hangs over all the Nobel Prizes. The famous myth surrounding their founding is that Alfred Nobel created them after reading about his own death in a premature obituary. He was shocked to see the headline “The merchant of death is dead.’’ a title relating to him being the inventor of dynamite. He was reportedly so upset at this reputation that he decided to create the Nobel Prizes, to be awarded for extraordinary contributions to humanity. The Peace Prize was particularly important to him. However with it heavily tarnished history, Nobel’s arguably altruistic desire may have been in vain. The truly terrible part is that it may never have made sense in the first place.

The Righteous Anger of Protest?

Is it time for students to protest more aggressively? Max K. Feenan reacts.

What do you think of when you think of protest? The theme of political discontent seems to be everywhere. Whether it’s Trump’s America, Brexit Britain or continental Europe, people are full of righteous anger. Recently, young people across the world have taken to the streets to voice opposition to Government and corporate inaction on Climate Change. From the 20th to the 27th of September, school and university students alongside numerous others marched on strike, calling for the Government to focus on climate policy and take seriously the threats of global warming and carbon emission. The Irish Times reported that over 10,000 people attended the protest. Many UCD students were among the protestors.

In the late 60’s, UCD experienced what became known as the ‘Gentle Revolution’.

These were a series of protest events that quickly led to changes in the University’s policies.

One of the main concerns was that the influence religion had within the University. The students protested the Catholic ideology influencing and, in many cases structuring nearly all aspects of college life. One of the most memorable examples of these protests was when nearly all the female students wore trousers around college, in defiance to the dress code, which was afterwards overturned. Another example was in reaction to the lack of facilities, particularly concerning the Library, in which the students occupied Earlsfort Terrace in protest to the governing body’s inaction. The demands were met, and further escalation didn’t occur.

This small-scale protest by students against University authority is not unknown today. Last year the ‘Take Back Trinity’ campaign halted plans to increase exam resit fees within the University.

This sit-in was effective too. Both colleges were also at the forefront of the ‘Repeal’ campaign which overhauled the Eighth Amendment.

Despite the global and, to a lesser extent, local trends of anger at the current systems, wider social and political change has been slow in Ireland. The ‘Repeal’ campaign was a long time coming. Calls for abortion legalisation go back to the early 1980s and were proposed in the Seanad even earlier in 1974 by Noël Browne.

UCD students were unsuccessful with abortion long before #Repeal became prevalent. In 1988 the Student Union were giving out information on access to abortion Officers were brought to High Court by the Society of the Protection of the Unborn Child (SPUC). There were mass demonstration outside the Court on the day of the hearing from students. Despite this the case went on for four years until in 1992, the High Court granted an injunction in favour of the SPUC. Throughout the 1990s student protest in Ireland cooled and a more passive attitude seemed to be the norm. This changed in the wake of the global financial crisis, or ‘the recession’ as it became known in Ireland.

In recent years protest and demonstration have returned to the streets of Dublin with students leading the charge. Whether for Marriage Equality, Repeal of the Eighth Amendment, or the recent movement for action on Climate Change, students seem to be more politically engaged now than they have been for a long time. The discontent of the present political climate might light the spark of protest within colleges themselves, as the politics of the 1960s did before. UCD students were able to bring about change before, so why not again?

Around campus today, complaints and

Photo: Sofia Dragacevac criticism often revolve around one thing: accommodation. The problem is not just for students. Dublin was named the most expensive city in the Eurozone to live in, earlier this year.

Costs have risen exponentially since the crash and are continuing to rise. The main reason for the inflation is the housing crisis, which is quickly becoming a threat to social stability and will be a deciding factor in the next election.

UCD, along with other universities, are at the forefront of this, and should be. Students and immigrants are the two groups most affected by this crisis. Accommodation is difficult to find and costs a fortune. Two semesters in accommodation currently ranges from €7,514 to €11,591. On top of the academic fees and general cost of living in Dublin, these prices are putting students into debt and forcing them to work longer hours. Students are not coming near coping with the cost, despite working more and for longer.

Using this case of accommodation, it is worth asking how students should go about

changing this. It may seem like students have very little power to alter the situation, especially given its wider social aspects, but this is not true. In the 1960’s, organised, decisive and fundamentally stubborn protest did affect change. There is no reason that this could not happen again. The pressure should be put on university administration by the SU but also by the student body itself. Alongside this, societies need to mobilise and band together under a common objective: bring about change to the cost of university life. Only then can aggressive protest such as sit-ins, occupations, and refusals to comply, achieve anything. Without the structure and organisation behind them, acts of civil disobedience are empty gestures and do not achieve anything. In order to really bring about change and draw attention to serious problems, protest must be aggressive, but it must also be intelligent. Student protest should be the angry and informed voice of youth. Without it young people have no voice and no place to address their issues and those of the nation.

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COMMENT

You have to be red to be green With numerous controversies surrounding Extinction Rebellion protests and Green party proposals, Nathan Young considers if perhaps they aren’t radical enough.

People involved in the current wave of climate activism, from Extinction Rebellion (XR) to the many admirers of Greta Thunberg, to the Green Party, must recognise that the struggle for climate justice is an innately left wing political project, not only as a matter of principle, but as a practical and tactical point. That is to say, ending the climate crisis not only requires a confrontation with capitalism, but to frame the narrative this way is necessary to succeed.

Liberalism has failed utterly to address the climate crisis. The targets set by the international community in the 2015 Paris Agreement, the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, and others, promise far too little to actually prevent global warming.

This matters not, however, as countries are not keeping to their targets, or are simply withdrawing from the agreements. That the powers that be can’t even keep to the paltry targets they set themselves is telling.

Meanwhile, communities in the global south face the brunt of the already devastating effects of climate change. Drought, famine, and floodings are on the rise, which themselves lead to war and conflict, increasing the body count even more. This crisis is already happening, but the west is as of yet relatively unscathed. This too is changing, with those fleeing the aforementioned disasters and conflicts increasingly finding themselves at the borders of fortress Europe and the United States, and the ScienceDenier-in-Chief Donald Trump having protective walls built to protect his golf course on the county Clare coast from the effects of climate change.

Given this background, and the name of Extinction Rebellion, one would assume that a real fight is being put up. But, with a handful

of exceptions, one would be wrong. Members of XR Dublin brought their protest to Pennies to combat the scourge of working people buying clothes in the only shop they can afford. In London many Tube Stations were targeted by protesters who were seemingly unaware that public transport is in fact incredibly good for the environment, as it reduces traffic and emissions, and that CEOs and politicians tend not to use the Tube in rush hour. People who use the tube, generally speaking, work in offices and service jobs, and it shouldn’t need to be outlined why targeting working people is not how mass movements are formed.

Those in power know what kind of threat they are facing, should XR figure out what popular movements can achieve, but they need not worry. After a section 14 order banning XR protests from London, and a slew of arrests of activists and organisers, one released campaigner sent a bundle of flowers “To all the kind souls at Brixton police station, for all you have done with decency and professionalism”.

This kind of bootlicking is pretty offensive when put into the context of black Britons dying in custody, including in the same Brixton police station. In Dublin, too, there is the hauntingly stupid chant-cum-singsong of “Gardaí, Gardaí, we love you. We’re doing this for your children too” which accompanied Gardaí shoving and grabbing protesters to allow TD’s cars remain scratch free. Pretty pathetic move from a group calling themselves a rebellion.

Green party leader Eamonn Murphy has recently stated that people in rural Ireland don’t need so many cars, as a village of 300 people could possibly share 30. He might be right, but as a man in a position to fight for vast expansion

of public transport in rural Ireland, it was pretty insulting. He has since emphasised that he didn’t mean it like that, and that it’s the public who are wrong for not understanding his ideas.

Again in the Green Party anyone can see a recognition that the world is practically on fire, and a political solution that doesn’t really address this basic truth, and is too unpopular to ever be implemented anyway.

It’s worth noting here that most liberal environmental activists consider the ending of global warming the main issue, and that “socialism” is toxic in the public imagination, and getting basic reforms with left/right consensus is the only way. Consider, then, the Yellow Vest movement, as well as the rise of Eco-Fascism.

Neo-Liberal thought leader and president of France Emanual Macron introduced a standard set of tax reforms with some nods to the environment in the form of increased fuel tax. Rightly seeing the disproportionate increases to the cost of living for working and middle class people compared to the wealthy as unjust, hundreds of people from across political divides took to the streets in some of the most violent protests in recent memory, demanding, among other things, a decrease to the fuel tax and the reintroduction of the “solidarity tax on wealth”. So much for the myth that liberal reforms are easy

to get consensus on, but socialist policies scare the masses.

Compare this to the increasingly popular idea in the US of a “Green New Deal”.

Not a set of extra taxes on the average joe, nor a bedraggled band of misguided hippy cosplayers thanking the police for their brutality, but some form of positive investment and change.

Most major players on the left of the democratic party, and even some of the more cynical in the centre, have endorsed the idea of the New Deal of the Roosevelt era being reimplemented, but this time with environmentalism. Investment in healthcare, green energy, public transport, and other necessary eco-friendly industries to not just prevent sky-rocketing living costs with the reduction in oil dependency, but to actively provide good, well paying employment for the millions of people who currently work in the fossil fuel industry. With increased automation in so many industries, any kind of jobs program could prove popular.

At this stage in the game it is reckless and irresponsible for activists to even consider giving established politics another chance to solve this crisis. There’s a world to save, and liberalism has proven itself not fit for purpose.

Should we be friends with bad people?

Looking at Ellen’s new friendship with President Bush, Aoife Mawn thinks that being friends with people you disagree with isn’t all that bad.

The internet has been up in arms recently over photos of former President, George W. Bush, and talk show host and national sweetheart, Ellen DeGeneres, schmoozing at an NFL game.

Bush, an outright obstructor of same sex marriage, should have been the last person that Ellen, one of the first modern LGBT icons, should have been cosying up to; he is vehemently against everything she is and represents. This seemed to be the general consensus online, along with the people who highlighted the war atrocities that occurred in Iraq during Bush’s presidency.

This is not the first time something like this has happened though. How about Kanye openly wearing a MAGA hat and having meetings with Trump in the Oval Office? Or GCN referring to Leo Varadkar as one of their #RainbowIcons? What about Roseanne Barr with her (and her characters) outright support of Trump, and her series’ ultimate cancellation? Where do

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we draw the line with people and bodies we admire and support who have opinions which are regarded by wider society as wrong?

Cancel culture has become rife in society, with every day seeming to have another public figure say or do something horrendously offensive, or an old comment pulled up of the same nature that causes so much public backlash that the person often hides from society for a while or disappears from public consciousness altogether. When we look at the case of Roseanne Barr, who has said some pretty racist things in the past, her reboot of her eponymously named show was cancelled after she tweeted racist comments about a former Obama advisor.

While she did later apologise, this followed a list of other missteps and she has since drifted from mainstream entertainment. But why is it okay for some people to hold these views and not others?

Kanye West has been a vocal supporter

of Donald Trump since the latter’s election in 2016. His appearances with the president have become the source of endless memes and jokes, and his sporting of a MAGA cap on more than a few occasions is brushed off as a funny nuance rather than a very serious, very real endorsement of a man who many view to be completely out of step with the views of wider society, not to mention his numerous sexual assault allegations.

Yet, when Roseanne’s television character, one of American televisions most recognisable, was a vocal Donald Trump supporter, much like Roseanne Barr herself is, social media and society at large criticized the show, and Barr, for being biased and normalizing some of the language Trump uses, accusing her of making the fictionalized version of Trump much more acceptable than he actually is. What is really the difference between these two cases? Why is it still okay to be excited for Kanye’s new album, but not cool to rewatch old episodes of Roseanne? Why is it one rule for some and another for others?

The idea that you must excommunicate anyone for holding a different opinion from you is insane, and potentially dangerous. Look at the example of Northern Ireland. If it hadn’t been for the leaders from the two different groups putting aside their differences in opinion then, we would not have the Good Friday Agreement that we enjoy today. Neither side agreed with the others primary goal, but they put their differences aside for the greater good. Years after the agreement had been made, Ian Paisley, the leader of the DUP, and Martin McGuinness, the Northern Irish leader of Sinn Féin, once sworn enemies who had actively tried to kill colleagues and comrades of the other, were said to be very good friends right up until Paisley’s death in 2014, after which McGuinness said “Our relationship confounded many. Of course, our po-

litical differences continued; his allegiance was to Britain and mine to Ireland. But we were able to work effectively together in the interests of all our people.”

All that being said, I completely understand the fury over Ellen’s rendevouz with Bush. She is not just a normal woman with a friend whom has questionable opinions. She represents and to many people is the face of an entire community, a community that has been negatively impacted by Bush’s actions. Her response was ill-judged and tactless, ignoring much of the criticism she faced. But it is the tone of that response that highlights a greater issue with this debate: shouting at people and telling them their opinion is wrong is not going to make them change their mind; it only reinforces their opinion. We will get nowhere if we do not have debate. The world centres around differing opinions and how we find common ground. By shutting down opinions and labelling them as ‘stupid’, or refusing to listen to someones reasoning as to why they believe something, we are not doing anything to improve society, we are only making it more hostile. Look at Brexiteers or Trump supporters. The more we shout at them and tell them they are wrong, the more they double down and think they are right, retaliating with the usual “snowflakes” or “triggered”. There has to be room for debate, but the right tone must be struck.

I have friends who I vehemently disagree with on many major issues. I have friends with very different political ideologies to me.

However, I choose to remain friends with them because the things we do have in common are more important to me than what we do not. To quote the late British MP, Jo Cox: “We are far more united and have far more in common with each other than things that divide us.”

COMMENT

Head To Head

Should we ban private schools?

YES Sara Rafter

NO Garrett Kennedy

Education plays a vital role in shaping the values and attitudes of young people. Students spend their days in a single school environment which undoubtedly moulds their perception of the world around them and often dictates the course of students’ third-level educations and careers.

The two-tiered education system in Ireland has long been a topic of contention. The Irish system is unique in comparison to those abroad as private schools continue to receive funding from the state. The majority of teachers in private schools are paid by the Department of Education, just like teachers in public schools. Fees paid to private schools are used to employ additional teachers, lowering class sizes and allowing niche subjects to be taught. Fees also allow private schools to offer one of their unique selling points, superior facilities and a diverse range of extracurricular activities.

Private schools do not provide an inherently better education besides having smaller class sizes and better facilities. Teachers are trained in the same institutions and required to teach an identical curriculum as those in public schools. While statistically speaking, the standard of attainment in private schools may be higher than that of public schools, this cannot be solely attributed to the quality of education provided by fee-paying schools. It must be acknowledged that it is largely upper middle-class parents who choose to invest in private schooling because they value their children’s education and can afford to pay for supplementary benefits. This creates a network of families who are driven and thoroughly supportive of their children’s education.

There is an expectation that children attending private schools will go on to third-level education. With such high expectations mirrored by their peers, it cannot come as a surprise that a higher proportion of privately educated children progress to top universities. Social class inequalities are heightened by a system in which the wealthy can buy their children a private education which disadvantaged parents simply cannot afford.

Fee-paying schools exist as an alternative to underfunded public schooling. In fact, the state’s continued support of private schools is a blatant admission that the public education system is not fit for purpose. Schools across the country are under-staffed and under-resourced. If the state allocated appropriate funding to all schools, the demand for private schooling would fall instantly.

For the most part, Irish private schooling does not come at the exorbitant costs of private schools abroad, and as a result it is more widely accessible to the middle class in Ireland. Parents continue to send their children to fee-paying schools due to growing disenfranchisement with the failings of the public system.

The principal harm of private schooling is that it creates an echo-chamber of middle-class privilege, in which students become oblivious to the real demographics of society. Private schools are often descended from historically religious institutions, including many schools comprised of religious minorities. Many private schools possess a strong religious ethos and may lack cultural, ethnic and class diversity. Private schools promote an elitist, segregated society in which middle class children only associate with one another and have no interaction with those outside of their closed circle.

Banning private schools would weaken class divisions and create schools which are a much more accurate representation of society. Elitist circles would be broken in favour of a system in which motivated children, regardless of their socio-economic backgrounds, would be afforded equal opportunities to excel. Furthermore, rather than resorting to private schooling, the wealthy and influential would be forced to campaign for better allocation of their taxes to education. Rather than supplementing the shortcomings of state funding with fees, parents would be forced to campaign to the government to tackle flaws within the system, which would in turn benefit all children.

The right to free education in Ireland need not be shrouded is so much controversy. The solution is clear; in order to provide improved opportunities to all children, private schooling should be banned in favour of a public system in which regardless of their parents’ earnings, children must attend their local public school. A similar model is in place in Finland, where fee-paying schools have been banned since the 1970s. Every child must attend the regional school, regardless of whether their parents are unemployed or millionaires. This exposes children to different backgrounds and reinforces their common humanity.

As a society we must choose to value the education of every child. We cannot continue to abandon the less well off to a failing system which the wealthy can pay to bypass. The only effective way to ensure the system is reformed is by removing the option to disengage; namely by banning private schools.

Banning private schools is a good idea in theory. If you have rich parents, you start off on a much better footing than people without rich parents. (Parental income is the single best indicator of an individual’s future income.) This is clearly bad and private schools are undoubtedly a significant factor in this being the case. Banning them is theoretically a quick and tidy way of addressing this problem.

Despite this, trying to do this is a bad idea, at least in Ireland. This is because the political costs are too great to justify it. Furthermore, there are other ways to address this inequality which would be slower but also significantly less aggravating to voters the left needs in order to do all the other things it wants to do.

It is important to realise that a policy this radical would be basically impossible to implement in Ireland. The main reason for that is that no matter how well a left-wing party does in the next general election there is very little chance that they will go into government with anyone other than Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil. A policy this radical would be a non-starter in such a government.

Even if you could get some kind of left-wing coalition into Leinster House, that could only happen on the backs of many middle-class Dublin people voting for the Greens, Labour or the Social Democrats. Many of these people went to private schools or have children in them. They like private schools. They would be very annoyed if you took them away. There is no way Eamon Ryan would keep his seat in Dublin Bay South if he banned Gonzaga. The left needs these seats if they are to achieve anything through electoral politics.

The best case scenario is that the Greens and a coalition of other parties get into government for one term and pass loads of radical policies, most of which get repealed by Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil a year later, and then never get into power again. Conversely, they could get into power and pass less blatantly radical policies which achieve the same goal in the long term, without alienating the entire Dublin middle class.

In order to justify supporting abolishing private schools in any meaningful way, you need to trade it off against every other left-wing policy such a government could implement. Introducing a wealth tax, increasing corporation taxes, or tackling climate change are all things that they could plausibly achieve if they did not do this. It does not seem obvious that banning private schools is more important than all of those other issues.

Even if you specifically want to target generational inequality, there are other ways of doing this which reach the same goal. A good starting point would be to remove public funding for private schools, increase SUSI grants and change the way university admissions work. Introducing interviews and personal statements as part of the admissions process would significantly allow students from less prestigious schools to differentiate themselves despite their potentially lower points. This would also seriously damage the efficacy of point factories like The Institute of Education and The Dublin School of Grinds. That can only be considered a good thing.

Similarly, ideas such as introducing quotas for how many low-income students universities need to accept could be similarly effective with much less controversy. The famously conservative state of Texas has a policy that if you are in the top 6% of your year you qualify for all public universities in the state. This means that talented students are not punished for going to a worse school and the advantages students get from going to good schools are limited significantly. If you can get George Bush to back a policy like that then you can get Fine Gael and their voters to do it.

None of these ideas solve the problem entirely but they go a long way to making it better while not preventing the left from achieving its other goals. I know this is an incredibly cold take but the left needs to be realistic in how it can achieve its goals. Going all out on a single radical policy like banning private schools makes it far harder to actually offer meaningful help to the people who are hurt by private schools.

Rebuttal: As is the case with implementing any radical change within a system, it could prove challenging to win support for the banning of private school. Such a measure could be the political death warrant of local TDs in affluent areas served by private schools. Arguably, however, the current government’s failure to combat growing inequality within the education system will come at an even greater political cost in the future if nothing is done.

The suggestion of removing state funding from private schools is one that would serve only to heighten the inaccessibility of private schools. Currently, government funding ensures that fees for Irish private schools are lower than their counterparts overseas. If public funding was revoked then fees would soar and only the exceptionally wealthy would continue to send their children to private schools, creating a more defined wealth gap in education.

Perhaps in an ideal world, a wealth tax could serve as a solution to funding an entirely public education system. If the wealthy were forced to pay higher taxes, and if this money was put towards public education, then rather than supplementing their own children’s education by paying fees to private schools, children from poorer backgrounds would also benefit from increased funding to public.

Rebuttal: I agree with a lot of this argument for banning private schools. Despite this, it still seems to lack an awareness of the political trade-offs inherent to doing this. That trade-off is too great to justify it.

We are offered two arguments in opposition to private schools. The first is that public schools are underfunded. I support removing public funding from private schools. That would go some way in freeing up extra money to be invested in public schools. Conversely, banning private schools would not obviously increase general funding for public schools.

The second argument, and probably the more serious, is that private schools enhance class divisions by creating echo chambers. This is true but I do not think this would change drastically with the abolition of private schools. This is because a lot of this class division is also to do with geography. Both public and private schools in Blackrock have richer students than the national average because people who live in Blackrock are generally richer than the national average. This means that regardless of where you live, there will still be some kind of classist echo chamber. It definitely improves things slightly, but I am unconvinced that it is enough to justify the immense political cost.

30th October 2019

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FEATURES

The civil unrest in Hong Kong and how it came to be Sam Keane delves into the civil unrest in Hong Kong, first considering it from a historical perspective, in order to understand this small territory’s turbulent relationship with its behemoth northern neighbour.

Scenes of violence on the streets of Hong Kong have dominated news cycles in recent months.

Protests involving hundreds of thousands of Hong Kong citizens have garnered the attention of ordinary people and politicians alike all over the world, as have the police’s heavy handed and often brutal response. The current unrest was sparked by the attempted implementation of controversial “Extradition Bill” by the Hong Kong legislature that would permit the extradition of criminal suspects to be tried in mainland China. However, the underlying tension that led to these protests stems from something deeper; the Chinese Communist Party’s augmented efforts in recent years to erase its border with the territory, essentially bringing an end to the “One country – Two systems”. This arrangement has stood in place since British control of the territory was relinquished in 1997. This article aims to consider the situation from a historical perspective, in an attempt to make the roots of this small territory’s turbulent relationship with its behemoth northern neighbour somewhat clearer.

Hong Kong is no stranger to mass protests. In 2014 civil unrest, dubbed by political commentators as “The Umbrella Revolution”, erupted as citizens took to the streets in opposition to the Chinese government’s attempts to instate a pro-Beijing candidate while the head of the Hong Kong territory’s Chief Executive attempted to bring a new extradition bill into law. This bill would allow the Chinese government to extradite criminal suspects from Hong Kong to face trial on the mainland. Immediately, critics voiced concerns that this move could undermine the territory’s judicial independence which had been promised as part of the 1997 handover agreement. It was also feared that the bill could be used by the Chinese government as a way of imprisoning political dissidents and journalists who criticised the Communist Party.

Massive demonstrations led to the bill being indefinitely suspended and eventually withdrawn.

This move failed to quell the unrest as by then the protests had evolved into a large-scale revolt against the growing influence of mainland China in Hong Kong society.

Violence increased over the summer with masked protestors storming the Hong Kong legislature and clashes adjacent to the airport disrupting international flights. This escalation led to an intense crackdown by police who employed tear gas and baton charges, often times indiscriminately, against crowds assembled on Hong Kong’s busy streets. Hundreds of demonstrators were arrested and charged with sedition. As public discontent grew, protestors began calling for the acceptance of their “Five Demands”. Their first demand involved the complete withdrawal of the despised Extradition Bill, something Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam eventually agreed to. They also called for the official classification of the demonstrations as “riots” to be dropped and for

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full amnesty for activists arrested by police during the protests. An impartial inquiry into police brutality was also requested after amateur footage capturing police violence against against protestors provoked fury among Hong Kong citizens and the international community alike.

It was the final demand however; universal suffrage in Hong Kong, that simultaneously drew the ire of China’s government and the attention of western liberal democracies.

The situation devolved further still; on October 1st, the 70th Anniversary of the founding of Communist China, Hong Kong experienced its most chaotic and violent day to date.

Clashes involving thousands of protestors erupted all over the city. Police fired tear gas at demonstrators who responded with petrol bombs and other projectiles. Businesses suspected of being sympathetic to the Chinese regime were attacked and vandalised. Footage emerged of a police officer shooting an 18-year-old protestor in the chest from point blank range, the first proven instance of live ammunition being used against protestors. The government announced a ban on face masks and began arresting anyone who they perceived to be the organisers of the unrest. High profile figures from around the world, especially some prominent US Republican politicians, began openly denouncing the actions of both the Chinese government and the Hong Kong police and openly voiced their support for the protests. The Chinese president, Xi Jinping chose this time to publicly announce that any attempt to divide China would be met with “bodies smashed and bones ground into powder.’’ a decidedly graphic warning to both the Hong Kong protestors and any foreign powers that would think to involve themselves in what he perceived a domestic Chinese affair.

So how exactly did we get to the stage where violent clashes have become a daily occurrence on the streets of one of the world’s wealthiest cities? To answer this question, we need to consider the series of events that led to Hong Kong becoming a “Special Administrative Region” of the People’s Republic of China.

The 19th century brought tremendous advancements in maritime navigation and technology in European seafaring nations. The resulting boom in international maritime trade impacted China more than any other nation. With goods such as tea, silk and porcelain found in larger quantities here than anywhere else in the world, trade agreements with China were highly coveted by European powers, particularly Britain, whose population had developed a fondness for tea at this time. The ruling Qing dynasty of China chose only to accept pure silver bullion as payment for their resources, something that the British saw no particular issue with until their domestic supply of silver began to run out.

Faced with this threat to their lucrative trade arrangement, the British came up with an ingenious, if highly immoral, solution. British officials chose to secretly sell opium, a highly addictive

drug grown in the nearby colony of India, in exchange for Chinese silver. This silver would then be exchanged for tea, silk and other goods in the same way as the initial trade agreement had worked. The Chinese Emperor was quickly made aware of this illegal opium trade and, seeing large sections of the Chinese population become addicted, chose to crackdown on the drug and dumped 12,000 chests of it into the sea.

This infuriated the British who launched a military attack on China, beginning the first Opium War in 1839. The British imposed a humiliating defeat on the Chinese, forcing the Emperor to sign the Treaty of Nanjing in 1841. As part of the war reparations China was forced to pay, Britain took control of the tiny island of Hong Kong.

Further treaties and a second Opium War led to Hong Kong island, the Kowloon Peninsula and the New Territories all being ceded to the British. In the final treaty of 1898, it was agreed that the British would maintain control over Hong Kong for 99 years, something that a prominent British diplomat involved in the negotiations believed was “as good as forever”.

As a consequence of this decision, Hong Kong took a radically different trajectory to that of mainland China. Following the end of a civil war in 1949, China adopted an authoritarian communist ideology and embraced economic isolationism and cold war militarism.

Its stagnant, state-controlled economy was the antithesis to the aggressively capitalistic fiscal policies introduced in Hong Kong. What was once a collection of tiny fishing villages of 7000 people soon became an economic powerhouse, an international centre of financial trade and one of the busiest commercial ports in the entire world. Hundreds of thousands of refugees from the Chinese mainland flooded across the border causing near dystopian levels of overcrowding. British influence in the territory also began to influence aspects of Hong Kong society, forming a unique culture distinct from that of the mainland. The architecture of the city also reflected its place as a wealthy western-oriented metropolis with colonial-era British buildings interspersed with towering skyscrapers built by enormous financial corporations such as HSBC. As the 99-year lease began to approach its final days concerns emerged over how exactly the UK was going to handle the territory’s handover to the People’s Republic of China. UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher met with Chinese President Deng Xiaoping in 1984 to discuss the conditions of the transition and set the date for the handover as July 1st, 1997. At the time, the economic output of Hong Kong was roughly a quarter of the size of the entire Chinese economy. The Chinese President realised that imposing the same strict communist economic principles as followed in mainland China would prove economically disastrous for the wealthy territory and result in a significant loss of revenue for the Chinese state. For this reason, and as a result of Thatcher’s demand that Hong Kong citizens

retain the right to free speech and assembly, Xiaoping agreed on the implementation of the “One China – Two Systems” policy. This policy was intended to aid the transition of Hong Kong as it was assimilated into the Chinese state. It allowed Hong Kong to retain its governing Executive Legislature, have its own distinct flag and, most importantly continue to operate by capitalist economic principles. This deal was to last until 2047, when it was hoped that the territory would be fully assimilated. However, despite these assurances, thousands of Hong Kong citizens began emigrating to Canada and Australia and many companies began moving their assets out of the territory in response to the looming uncertainty.

At midnight on the 1st of July 1997, the Union Jack was lowered and the red flag of the People’s Republic of China was raised over the territory, alongside the newly designed flag of the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong. Some Hong Kong citizens cautiously welcomed this transition of power while others, particularly European expats living in the territory, expressed their concerns. The international community waited with bated breath, wondering if China would respect the concessions it had made in the handover negotiations with the UK. In the decade subsequent to the handover, China mostly abided by the “One China-Two Systems” protocol. However, two developments soon threw the agreement into peril. The first of these developments involved the tremendous economic progress experienced in China in the mid-2000s. A manufacturing boom coupled with laxer government regulations on enterprise allowed cities such as Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen to dwarf the economic output of Hong Kong. Suddenly, Hong Kong was no longer an essential part of the Chinese economic framework and the concessions of economic and political freedom seemed less and less necessary. The second threat to Hong Kong’s position as a “special administrative region” was the ascent of Xi Jinping to the Presidency in 2011. This enigmatic figure has made it his mission to return China from a once-humiliated nation to the global power he believes it ought to be. He has amassed more power than any other Chinese leader since Mao and has made concerted efforts to gain influence in nations across the globe, particularly in Africa, while at the same time aggressively asserting Chinese control of the South China Sea. Drawing on comparisons with the former Soviet Union, he has repeatedly affirmed the need for unity and order as a prerequisite for the survival of the state. The protestors’ calls for democracy and an end to Chinese meddling Hong Kong go against his vision of a strong, united state immune to Western interference.

Exactly how president Xi will respond to the unrest in Hong Kong remains to be seen.

When asked what he believed to be a likely outcome of the protests, UCD’s associate professor of Politics and International Relations, Jos Elkink, stated: “The Chinese government is probably hoping that through escalation, and continued disruption of life, the protesters will gradually lose public support, and will then dwindle, without any major intervention”. This is similar to what occurred in the late stages of the “Umbrella Revolution” protests in 2014.

The decision to implement a ban on face masks was likely an attempt to provoke the protestors into more violent and disruptive demonstrations, thereby by diminishing public sympathy.

Asked about the likelihood of Chinese military intervention in the territory Elkink believes that “if the more violent features of the protests persist, the Hong Kong government might at some point explicitly ask for intervention by the Chinese Army.” Overall, although he remains cynical about the outcome of the demonstrations, Elkink suspects they will at the very least have the effect of emboldening the population, especially the younger generation: “People are much more likely to speak up and actively engage in protests or political action more generally once they see they are not alone”.

FEATURES

The end of an Antibiotic era?

Anjan Venkatesh explains the potential crisis facing the world of medicine as bacteria become increasingly resistant to antibiotics.

Few anecdotes are as enduring in the world of science as the story of how Alexander Fleming discovered the first modern antibiotic, penicillin. On 3rd September 1928, Fleming, a Scottish microbiologist, returned to his lab after a month’s holiday. He noticed that an uncovered plate of Staphylococcus bacteria on his lab bench had mould growing on it. Curiously, bacteria had grown all over the plate, except around the mould. This antibacterial effect of the Penicillium mould had been documented before, and Fleming’s research did not garner much attention until it was picked up by American researchers at the start of the Second World War. But yet, in the public consciousness, this ring of inhibition heralded one of the most groundbreaking scientific discoveries of all time. Antibiotics, along with vaccines and improved hygiene, revolutionized medicine. Diseases could be treated and outbreaks quelled before they became epidemics.

Following his discovery, Fleming methodically grew Penicillium mould, produced the antibiotic (which he nicknamed “mould juice”), and tested it on bacterial cells. He found that using too little antibiotic or stopping the doses too early caused the cells to become resistant- they were no longer killed off by the same amount of penicillin. Over time, they would become immune to the effects of penicillin entirely. How could this happen? Different classes of antibiotics disrupt different processes in the bacterial cell, including cell wall synthesis and DNA synthesis. Bacteria can survive this onslaught on their cellular machinery by three main mechanisms- changing membrane permeability to the antibiotic (not letting it into the cell), degradation (breaking down the antibiotic), and by changing the protein targeted by the antibiotic to render it untargetable.

Once an antibiotic is in use for treating infections, the emergence of a resistant strain is an inevitability. A 2015 report found that re-

sistant strains are typically reported within three years of the introduction of a new antibiotic. So far, strategies to treat resistant outbreaks have relied on reserving some antibiotics (to which resistance is less common) for the second and third tiers of treatment. Some, like carbapenems, are reserved as the final line of treatment when all other antibiotics have failed. This has happened numerous times in the past, with multi-drug resistant tuberculosis and Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) outbreaks regularly featuring in the news. Some cases of bacterial infections that are resistant to all known antibiotics have also been reported.

Dr Keiji Fukuda, former assistant director-general at the World Health Organization, wrote in a 2014 report: “Without urgent, coordinated action by many stakeholders, the world is headed for a post-antibiotic era, in which common infections and minor injuries which have been treatable for decades can once again kill.” Given the urgency of the problem and the massive potential for epidemics and loss of life, the onus is on governments to fund research and develop policy aiming to mitigate resistance. The WHO’s 2015 publication “Global Action Plan on Antibiotic Resistance” lays out the main strategies to meet this end goal. Over the past decade, many governments (including that of Ireland) have published their own action plans.

Any plan to combat resistance involves spreading awareness about antibiotic misuse and curbing unnecessary prescriptions. Antibiotics are often wrongly prescribed to patients with viral infections, and prescriptions are not adequately monitored. Many bacterial infections in humans are caused by “opportunistic” bacteria (like Streptococcus) that can harmlessly live in the human body until the immune system is weakened, at which point they cause an infection. If these bacteria acquire resistance through repeated exposure to antibiotics, an

Michelin Stargazing

For over a century, the Michelin Guide has been the most famous hallmark of fine dining.

First launched by the Michelin tyre company in France, the system reviews restaurants and awards one to three stars to the food establishments they believe have achieved culinary excellence. The accolade began as a merchandising strategy; by recommending restaurants to drivers, Michelin hoped to increase the time spent driving, thus selling more tyres. According to the Guide one star means worth a stop, two stars means worth a detour and three stars means worth a special journey. However, despite its humble beginnings, achieving a Michelin star has become an extremely sought-after honour for chefs and restaurateurs everywhere.

Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay, best known for reducing others to tears in the kitchen, claims that he cried when his New York restaurant ‘The London’ lost its two star status in 2014. In fact, the compulsion to achieve, or maintain a Michelin star has even become a matter of life and death. In 2003 Bernard Loiseau, a French chef, died from a self-inflicted gunshot after a newspaper suggested that his three stars might be stripped from his restaurant.

infection is far more dangerous. The problem does not end here- when antibiotics are excreted out of the human body, they find their way into sewage, and often into the environment.

Even though they are far less concentrated at this point than when they are in the body, over time they contribute to the emergence of resistant bacteria in the environment.

In the absence of clear, accessible, and accurate information about healthcare and disease, misinformation and paranoia thrive. For example, the plethora of misinformation about vaccines has led many parents to refrain from vaccinating their children.This includes vaccines against bacterial infections such as Streptococcus and tuberculosis, creating a fertile environment for resistant bacteria to spread. As a result, outbreaks of preventable diseases are occurring in developed countries for the first time in decades. In the 20th century, vaccines and antibiotics reduced infectious disease mortality and child mortality rates to unprecedented lows.

We do not need to look very far into the past to see what the world looked like without them.

Spreading awareness and regulating antibiotic misuse can help stave off antibiotic resistance, but they cannot completely stop its spread. Bacteria will continue to evolve resistance to any new antibiotics that are introduced.

The only real cure is to introduce new drugs at a faster rate or to develop drugs that bacteria are less likely to become resistant to.

A key challenge in developing any new antibiotic drug is specificity- how do you target only the cells that you want to kill? Bacterial cells are different from human cells in many important ways. For example, they have cell walls, while human cells don’t. Many of the most commonly used antibiotics affect the ability of bacterial cells to build the cell wall, while causing no harm to human cells. Now, however, we are running out of obvious differences to exploit.

One strategy is to target bacteria-specific pro-

teins that human cells do not have. Identifying such “druggable” proteins that can be targeted without affecting human cells is an extremely laborious, expensive process.

As a result, antibiotic discovery has slowed considerably since the mid-20th century. As of September 2019, only 13 antibiotics were in the final stage of clinical trials. Most new antibiotics are slightly modified versions (or combinations) of existing drugs. The cost of screening thousands of different compounds to find few (and often zero) viable antibiotics is astronomical. The rewards are often modest, with limited drug viability and rapid emergence of resistance. From the perspective of a pharma company trying to turn a profit, there are better ways to spend money. Pfizer, for example, shut down its main antibiotic drug discovery program in 2011 citing lack of shareholder returns.

Some other promising alternatives are being explored- the “Ancientbiotics” group in University of Nottingham have found some traditional plant-based medicines to be effective in treating resistant infections. There has also been a recent resurgence of interest in bacteriophage therapy to overcome antibiotic resistance. Bacteriophages, or phages, are viruses that infect bacteria, produce copies of themselves, and eventually destroy the bacterial cell. Bacteria can become resistant to phages, but through the same mechanisms, phages can (and do) evolve to overcome this resistance.

This makes them especially appealing. Phages are also highly specialized to the bacteria that they infect, and are incapable of entering human cells. However, because phages are so specialized, the exact species of bacteria causing the infection must be determined before treatment can be started- which is not always feasible. As of now, reliable alternatives to antibiotics are few and far between.

In light of the recent release of the Michelin Guide for Ireland and Great Britain 2020, Eleanor Moloney investigates the Michelin Star restaurants in Dublin and their relevance to diners today.

So why, after all these decades, is this award still so strongly coveted in the food and hospitality industries? In a 2014 interview with The Telegraph, renowned chef Marco Pierre White stated that for him, ‘winning a Michelin star was like winning an Oscar’. Chef Francesco Mazzei of ‘L’Anima’ restaurant in London told the BBC that ‘a Michelin star is the best achievement a chef can ever gain. It helps the chef to become a perfectionist.’

Indeed, perfection is something that chefs must strive for when hoping to be awarded the prestigious accolade, as stars are given based solely on the food served. Despite secrecy concerning the judging process, criteria known to be considered by Michelin’s anonymous adjudicators include the quality of the food, the chef’s mastery of the particular cooking method and the consistency of the food between visits.

An additional ‘fork and spoon’ system is used by the Michelin Guide in order to rate aspects of the restaurant’s décor, atmosphere and service, but these elements are not involved in the process of awarding stars. Since 1997, the Michelin Guide have also awarded a prize called the Bib Gourmand which, as per their official website,

indicates ‘good quality, good value restaurants’.

The Michelin Guide for Great Britain and Ireland 2020 was announced on the 7th of October 2019 at a ceremony The Hurlingham Club in London. Five new Irish restaurants achieved Michelin Stars, bringing the total of Michelin Starred restaurants in the country up to twenty one. Several, such as Dublin restaurants L’Ecrivain on Baggot Street and Chapter One in Parnell Square retained their one-star status, while several others received stars for the first time. Aimsir in Kildare, which opened only six months ago clinched two stars, joining Dublin’s The Greenhouse and Patrick Guilbaud as the only three Irish restaurants to have two star status. Not only that, but Variety Jones on Thomas Street became one of the first gastropubs in the world to secure a star. Variety Jones owner Keelan Higgs trained as a chef in both The Greenhouse and Locks Brasserie, which won a star in 2013. Higgs told The Independent that his culinary inspiration and determination comes from “sharing food around a table ...it’s part of Irish culture to bring people together”.

Despite the mania surrounding Michelin stars, the system has been harshly criticized by chefs and laypeople alike all around the world. In fact it has been widely speculated that the Guide, having been pioneered in France, typically favours lavish, formal French restaurants and overlooks some more progressive and modern establishments. This effectively makes the Michelin Guide less relevant to the average diner. However, recent publications of the Guide contradict this assumption. In 2014 gastropubs began to be included in the Guide and, as well as Variety Jones, The Wild Honey Inn in Lisdoonvarna also currently holds one star.

Keelan Higgs was again quoted in The Independent saying ‘I think the inspectors saw that we were doing something different and went

with us.’

2016 saw even more drastic changes to the inclusivity of the Michelin Guide, as two Singaporean street food stalls were presented with one Michelin star each.

The notion of Michelin Guide restaurants being very expensive has also been debated by critics. A recent study on the consumption of fast food in Ireland, conducted by Dr Mary McGreevy in conjunction with RedC Research and Marketing, uncovered that three in four people under the age of thirty four eat fast food and takeaways at least once a week. So, with people leading increasingly busy lifestyles and the cost of living growing by the day, is it really practical to spend extortionate amounts of money at a Michelin star restaurant, when a cheaper meal could be sourced elsewhere?

For students, foodies and connoisseurs on a budget, this is where the Bib Gourmand comes into play. This list, which highlights the best quality food at the most affordable prices, has been growing longer each year. Dublin, in particular, is teeming with these value-for money-restaurants. Dylan McGrath’s ‘Fade St Social’ on Fade St offers ‘homegrown produce… assembled in an uncomplicated way’ and you can dine there, according to the Michelin Guide, from just twenty five euro per person. Pichet on Trinity St offers meals from twenty four euro, while you can enjoy The Pig’s Ear on Nassau St for just twenty three euro per person.

Given how long the Michelin Guide has been around, its impartiality and, indeed, its relevance have often been called into question. However, to this day it continues to direct diners towards top quality food and to motivate chefs and restaurants; spurring them on to, figuratively and literally, reach for the stars.

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SCIENCE

Consider How the Plants Feel! Will Plant Cognition be the Next Big Scientific Discovery?

Is it possible that plants have feelings too and if so what proof is there? With the controversial field of plant neurobiology igniting opinions, Jade Norton leafs you wondering what the future may hold for plant cognitive research.

We live in a world that is increasingly aware and sensitive towards other people’s feelings and attitudes, but have we forgotten about the plants?

There has been increasing controversy over the possibility of plant sentience and consciousness with fields such as plant neurobiology and plant cognitive ecology questioning do plants have a neural network and is their behaviour based on an ability to learn and remember responses to stimuli. In a recent study by Lincoln Taiz he unapologetically denies any trace or requirement of consciousness in plant life.

Another critic is Monica Galgiano who doesn’t believe that plants have the same neural networks as animals but does believes that plants may be capable of learned behaviour and she terms this plant cognitive ecology. However, this is not the first examination on plant cognition as back in 1973 the “infamous” The Secret Life of Plants was released by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird and documented their controversial experiments that claimed to reveal plant sentience. Generally regarded with scepticism by scientists due to a lack of evidence, plant consciousness has the possibility of being a hidden phenomenon in front of us all but if it does turn out to have scientific basis, what would that mean for the future of the planet and our relationship with the organisms that are essential for

our survival.

The Secret Life of Plants is a book that uses the works of 19th and 20th century plant scientists such as Dr J.C Bose and George Washington Carver to claim that plants had emotions and sentience. In 1925, plant scientist Dr J.C Bose was fascinated with the strange and unusual behaviour of plants in response to stimuli and set up many experiments to show that electrical signals were present in plants. His invention of the Crescograph allowed the measurement of plant responses to stimuli and scientifically proved parallelism between plant and animals’ tissues. However, his work was denied publication by the Royal Society as it was seen as absurd that “normal” plants could share electrical signals similar to that of more complex animals.

The first ever discovery of electrical signals in plants was recorded by Pierre Bertholon de Saint-Lazare in 1783 and Burdon-Sanderson and Darwin also used this idea in their experiments in the early 1870s and it led to the general acceptance of electrical signals in unusual plants such as the Venus fly trap and mimosa pudica.

However, The Secret Life of Plants correlated electrical signals to evidence of consciousness, and this cast doubt on whether electrical signals were in fact present in “normal” plants rather than just in the more unusual plants. This cap-

tured the mainstream audiences’ imagination and effectively caused an impasse in funding for electrophysiology research in plants in the US as it promoted pseudoscience claims that were irreproducible. This fuelled the assumption that electrical signals were not needed in plants as they were sluggish, sedentary and definitely not emotional. This stigmatised all future experiments in plant cognition including plant neurobiology.

Plant neurobiology as field of study that started to gain traction in 2006 from a paper by Dr Eric Brenner that claims that the electrical signals given off by plants as a means of intracellular communication can be compared to the neural network in animals. This has parallels to the research from The Secret Life of Plants but with reproducible experiments. The paper compared elements of the internal physiology of plants such as auxin transport, to animal neurotransmitters and glutamate signalling, to the firing of an action potential in the animal neuronal cell. Auxin is used to regulate the growth of plants and is influenced by trophic conditions such as phototropism, where plants grow towards the sun and thigmotropism as seen in the mimosa pudica where the plant responds to physical contact. Plants also release chemical pheromones that can warn nearby plants of a danger or induce a chemoattraction/movement towards a plant of the opposite sex. All these behaviours are plants experiencing a stimulus and reacting to it. This allowed plant neurobiologists to infer that plants have, at a molecular level, all the components of an animal neuronal system.

From this it can be interpreted that plants are experiencing a consciousness as a culmination of reactions associated with stimuli that create a mental mapped image in a sensory dimension just like in an animal.

There is a strong argument against the plant neurobiologists, stating that plants are stationary organisms that do not have a need for consciousness as it would not aid their existence but would rather be a drain on resources that could be being used to create energy to survive with instead. This is the basis of opinion piece

Absolute Time: A Causality In 2003, an article detailing the arrest of Andrew Carlssin, (44) was printed in the Weekly World News. Andrew claimed to be a time traveller, from the year 2256. He made 126 high-risk trades and managed to win every single time, this alerted the Wall Street watchdogs. With an opening investment of just $800, he was able to earn over $350 million in two weeks’ time reported the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC).

He was arrested for stock fraud, and claims were made that suggested that Andrew was in possession of illegal inside information of the stock market. In a lengthy- four hour long confession with the FBI, Andrew claimed to be a time traveller from 250 years in the future. “It was just too tempting to resist,” Carlssin said on camera during his confession”I had planned to make it look natural, you know, lose a little here and there so it doesn’t look too perfect. But I just got caught in the moment.” His claims were attributed as complete bogus and statements like “he’s either a lunatic or a pathological liar.” surfaced. No records of Andrew Carlssin can be found, prior to December 2002. Adding to the suspicious tale, in April, 2003 an anonymous patron paid $1M as Carlssin’s bail, prior to his hearing. Soon after, Andrew disappeared and was never seen again.

“Even a non-time traveller could have told him that profiting from 126 consecutive high-risk trades over two weeks was sure to get him noticed,” commented the Guardian.

Time travel is often deemed as an impossibility, due to logical inconsistencies. One

famous discrepancy is ‘The grandfather paradox’- a rational and probable argument that would arise if a person were to travel back in time. This paradox reasons that if a person was to build a time machine and travel to the past, to kill his grandfather, before the grandfather had any children; the time traveller would have prevented the event of his own birth. Which does not hold true, logically.

When William A. Hiscock, a professor of physics at Montana State University was asked if it was possible, to travel into the distant future and whether it was possible to travel into the past, he addressed the problems and said: “Our current understanding of fundamental physics tells us that the answer to the first question is a definite yes, and to the second, maybe.”

Turns out, travelling forwards in time is-theoretically-quite easy. Einstein’s theory of relativity is based on two postulates: i. Laws of physics are the same for all observers and ii.The speed of light is the same in every inertial frame of reference. If a rocket was to leave the Earth’s atmosphere at the speed of light, when it returned, they would return to Earth’s future because time would have moved faster for those on Earth than it would have for the rocket. However, it is important to remember that the mass of an object increases with an increase in its velocity. This implies that the closer the rocket gets to the speed of light, the heavier it gets. At almost the speed of light, the mass of the rocket will tend to become infinite and will become impos-

by Lincoln Taiz in Trends in Plant Science that uses a particularly grim example of the ineffectiveness of consciousness for plants in a forest fire.

The plant in the forest is anchored in the earth yet must observe the deathly fire knowing that it has no mechanisms of survival and if it is lucky to survive it will be riddled with grief from the death of the surrounding plants. There is no evolutionary advantage to having feelings in this situation or even the ability to react because plants cannot move at the speed that would aid their survival.

In response to the idea that plants have their own version of neurons Taiz believes that the experiments are too one sided. The experiments look at the physiology of plants and try to infer their relationship to consciousness by seeing molecules that do the same things without reasoning why they do it.

Whether plants have consciousness or not is still contested with two sides of the debate certain of their hypothesis. To fundamentally agree that plants have cognitive ability would require a change in the established convention.

Taking the plants feelings into consideration would mean that experiments involving plants and even the idea of commercial forests would have to be reevaluated.

The current mindset of established scientists is that plant consciousness or cognition is an anthropomorphism of plant biology but throughout history hypotheses have been dismissed for going against the status quo. This happened with Barbara McClintock who was dismissed for her experiments into the movement of genes in corn genomes only to be awarded a Nobel Prize for her work 50 years after her initial discovery, so there is still hope for the plant neurobiologists should they find definite proof of plant cognition. Despite this, the answers would still lead to more questions, but it may lead to a world that cares more for the environment when it knows if it feels.

Vanshika Dhyani explores the nature of time travel and finds that there is nothing called absolute time and simultaneity is relative.

sible to accelerate. The closer something moves to the speed of light, the slower time seems to move for the object. This phenomenon is called time dilation, and is responsible for making the clocks on the International Space Station tick slower than the clocks on Earth.

Newton’s ideas about time were borrowed from his predecessor -Isaac Barrow. He acknowledged time to be analogous to a straight line, representing past, present and future. An excerpt from Newton’s Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica describes it as: “Absolute, true, and mathematical Time, of itself, and from its own nature, flows equably without relation to anything external,”

While the idea of time travel never picked up momentum during the reign of classical physics, Einstein’s work inspired modern physics to toy with the idea. Today, many physicists not only entertain the possibility of time travel, but also write extensively about accomplishing such a task.

Pestered by the repetitive questions about time travel, Stephen Hawking-theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author threw a champagne party in 2009, for time travellers from the future. “You are cordially invited to a reception for time travelers hosted by Professor Stephen Hawking,” read the invitation printed in October 2013. “To be held in the past, at the University of Cambridge Gonville & Caius College, Trinity Street, Cambridge.” He also included the exact coordinates of the location

so that it would become easier for the time travellers to locate the position with precision, in space and time. “I’m hoping copies of it in one form or another will survive for many thousands of years. maybe one day someone living in the future will find the information and use a wormhole time machine to come back to my party, proving that time travel will, one day, be possible” said Stephen Hawking about the party he threw, a decade ago. Time travellers were also invited to his memorial service, on March 31st, 2018. “We cannot exclude the possibility of time travel as it has not been disproven to our satisfaction,” a representative of the Stephen Hawking Foundation told the BBC service.

Researchers are always coming up with new theories that find a way around the paradoxes-such as breaking the speed of light barrier. While time travel may fascinate the experts and the general population, alike; scientific and experimental work in the field is still sparse. “If one made a research grant application to work on time travel it would be dismissed immediately,” wrote Stephen Hawking in his latest book’ ‘Brief Answers to the Big Questions’. The question remains: Is it impossible to time travel? Or does someone in the future hold a Nobel Prize for its discovery? The only way to know is to travel forward in time- second by second.

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SCIENCE

Don’t Play With The Ouija Board- It Lies A board game for game night; pop culture’s vogue every Halloween or a portal to Hell? Vanshika Dhyani investigates.

Ouija boards have equal parts intrigued and intimidated their way into pop culture. The Exorcist is a 1973 American horror film through which the board made its blockbuster debut.

By this time it had already been an integral part of spiritualism for decades. The Ouija board (known also as a Spirit board or Talking board) is a device for divination, commonly believed to be a portal to the spiritual world. The central part of the board comprises of the alphabet, with numbers (0 – 9) appearing right below them. A ‘yes’ and a ‘no’ is inscribed on the top left and right corner, respectively, while a ‘Goodbye’ is positioned in the centre, below the numbers.

Each board comes with a teardrop shaped piece of wood or plastic called the ‘planchette’ meaning ‘little plank’ in French. The planchette acts as a pointer. The board works when two or more people are seated around it, with their fingertips placed on the planchette. When a question is asked, the planchette supposedly moves on its own, to spell out the answers.

There is a lot of ambiguity associated with the board’s history, and the same goes for the origin of its name. No one ‘really’ knows where it came from or what it means. Some spiritualists believe that the peculiar name for the talking board comes from a combination of the French and German words —oui and ja, both meaning “Yes”. However, Helen Peters-the medium-who coined the term told a different story about the origins of the name. While using the board with her brother-in-law Elijah Bond, she happened to ask the board what it wanted

to be called. Allegedly, the planchette spelled out “Ouija”. When the board was asked what it meant, it spelled out “good luck”

Robert Murch, founder of the Talking Board Historical Society believes that ouija boards gained popularity in America after the civil war. “Everyone lost a father, a son, an uncle, a grandfather, a cousin,” Murch said.

“Death touched everybody in a way that had never happened in the US.” In the wake of the war, many had to deal with bodies of their loved ones never being recovered. These circumstances led to a widespread desire to make contact with the dead. Mediums began advertising their services of spirit channeling, while spiritual instruments such as talking boards were became a household object. “They gave people peace of mind because they couldn’t get answers any other way.” Murch believes. The ouija boards became so well acclaimed that the New York Times compared its popularity to ‘chewing gum’, in an article printed in 1920.

The ouija board was patented under the name of Helen Peters. In order to get a patent under her name, Peters had to prove the authenticity of the board, at the patent office. Thus, it was later advertised with a “proven” to work tagline. William Fuld- an entrepreneur took over the business and started to market the board, in national catalogues like ‘Sears’. “Ouija – The Magic Game. Remarkable, interesting, and mystifying game. Great mirth and making game for parties. Apparently answers questions concerning past, present, and future,” read one ad in the

Sears catalogue. Another promotion read: “If you call it we-ja or wee-gee, it still spells good fun.” and promised to answer questions related to “past, present and future with marvelous accuracy” This is how ouija boards made their way into American households, after a wave of spiritualism hit the country. Fuld’s family sold the business to Parker Brothers, after William’s death. It was later bought by Hasbro, whose website warns: “Handle the Ouija board with respect and it won’t disappoint you!”

While the board has taken over almost all subgenres of horror films-with claims from the spiritual world that label it as vortex- science has too, had its fair share of fun with the board.

In an episode of NatGeo’s well acclaimed show Brain Games, Mark Edward, a paranormal expert, conducted an experiment with a couple of participants. Under his guided supervision they attempt to use the Ouija board. In the first part of the experiment, they seemed to have established contact with the spiritual world. One of the volunteers believed that she had channelised the spirit of her deceased grandfather, who was responsible for moving the planchette. The second and the final step of the experiment involved contacting the spirits, again, only this time there was a little twist- the participants wore blindfolds. If we assume that the volunteers were in fact communicating with the spiritual world, the blindfolds shouldn’t have made a difference, right? But they did. The ‘spirit’ got confused and drew blanks instead of clearly pointing in the direction of the alphabets, like they had without

the blindfolds. This begs the question: ‘why did the participants get no definitive answers with their blindfolds on?’

People who choose to use these boards are often looking for comfort and consolation in a time of uncertainty in their life-at least that is what the movies suggest. While spiritualists claim that answers come from ‘the beyond’ scientists have a slightly different take on it. Science terms this ‘ghostly affair’ as a psycho-physiological principle called the ‘ideomotor effect’.

This is also employed in other extrasensory experiments such as lie detection, dowsing pendulum, etc. The ideomotor effect is a psychological phenomenon whereby a person makes motions unconsciously. This implies that muscular action is not always an outcome of our awareness.

During ideomotor action the planchette seems to move on its own to spell out words, however our perception of a definite outcome can influence and direct the movements of our arms and hands. There is no supernatural element to it, our body makes diminutive movements subconsciously that can become exaggerated. This is the same principle on which Chevreul’s Pendulum or the Dowser Pendulum works. The effect was investigated by the English scientist Michael Faraday, Manchester surgeon James Braid, French chemist Michel Eugène Chevreul, and American psychologists William James and Ray Hyman.

The Newest Discovery Shaping the World There’s a new shape on the block and it’s shaping the world of biology in many ways! Arisha Ali investigates.

In a world full of cubes, cuboids and circles there has emerged a new shape: a scutoid. The scutoid first emerged in a paper published on July 27, 2018 in Nature. In this paper, scientists from Lehigh University in the USA and the University of Seville in Spain presented their discovery of the new shape on the block.

So, what is a scutoid exactly? The technical definition of a scutoid is that they are “characterized by having at least a vertex in a different plane to the two bases and present curved surfaces.” However, biophysicist at Lehigh University and one of the scientists involved in the discovery of the scutoid put it simply as a “prism with a zipper.” From what I can see, the scutoid looks like a cross between a cylinder and prism with the corners sliced off.

The scutoid wasn’t discovered by accident or a shape created for fun either. It is one of the most common shapes, especially in living things. This makes it easy to understand why the scutoid was missed by the generations of physicists and mathematicians and was finally discovered by a collection of biologists and biophysicists.

12 VOL. XXVI, ISSUE 3

“To put it in a nutshell, anywhere cells curve the scutoid is found.”

The curious scientists investigating the shape didn’t originally set out to discover a brand-new shape. The team set out to simulate the curving of cells using a computational model called Voronoi Diagram. This model is often used in Geography and architecture but was used in this case to predict which shape would be the most stable at different curvatures and radii. The data entered into the Voronoi programme pointed to the scutoid.

Until this point, the scutoid was completely theoretical. For the scientists’ discovery to really come to life, they had to prove that the scutoid really existed in nature and in living things.

The team did this by looking at epithelial cells in the salivary glands of Drosophila larvae.

Here they found that a similar shape existed. Up to a certain radius of a tube-like shape, the cells are closer to a frustum structure. However, once this radius increases and the tube becomes more asymmetric (the outer radius changing, while the inner one remains constant), the cells take on a more scutoidal shape. This shape, it seems,

is the most efficient way to tightly and compactly arrange a sheet of cells into a curved shape.

“Whether you are a fly, a penguin or a person, your existence can be divided into cells”

When the curious minds delve further into the scutiod, they found it to be abundant in all living things. The researchers examined it in the embryos of fruit flies. They found that the scutoidal-cells divide, aggregate and fold to form salivary glands and egg chambers. The shape was also visible in tissue matrices but only where the cells curved. It quickly became apparent that we were all made of scutoids.

If you’ll recall from Junior Certificate Biology, cells are the building blocks of life.

Whether you are a fly, a penguin or a person, your existence can be divided into cells. One of the many mysteries of living cells is how they manage to blossom into coherent many-celled units. Some of these cells become tissues and organs. The cells collect into layers, bending and folding to form hearts, brains and hands.

Looking at it from a mathematical point of view, the formation of a human body is a geometry

problem. The cells twist and curve, changing shape in accordance with the whole, and they do so as efficiently as possible with the help of the scutoid.

Unlike the Eiffel Tower, Greek pillars and roman arch, cells don’t just stack on top of each other like cuboidal bricks and metal does.

According to Buceta, the way these cells pack and stack is “actually kind of weird.” Hence, the discovery of the scutoid was essential to our understanding of how cells develop and change to form organs and different structures in the body.

To put it in a nutshell, anywhere cells curve the scutoid is found. This involves our skin, our organs and even some of our joints that are more prone to curvature. The scutoid allows our cells to stack, bend and contort freely.

The discovery of the scutoid is not just relevant to biologists. Scutoids were found not only in flies but also developing cells. Understanding the formation of these shapes allows for advances in epidemiology and medicine. Advances in In-vitro fertilisation and organogenesis could also be accelerated with the discovery of the scutoid. Furthermore, the new shape allows for greater accuracy in the production of artificial organs.

SCIENCE

The Science of Interstellar Eniola Kasim examines the movie Interstellar and some of the scientific concepts behind the movie.

ing the singularity pass through an event horizon which acts like, a one-way membrane, from which they can never return. If two singularities in far-apart locations could be merged, a wormhole tunnel could be formed.

“As the physicist Kip Thorne describes it, a singularity is ‘the point where all laws of physics break down.’

Objects approaching the singularity pass through an event horizon which acts like a one-way membrane from which they can never return.”

Interstellar was a 2014 science-fiction epic directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway as well as a long list of Hollywood A-listers. Grossing over $677.5 million at the box office worldwide “Interstellar” was a commercial success. The film is set in a dystopian future where the earth is slowly becoming uninhabitable and humanity is on the brink of extinction. The story follows a team of NASA scientists, engineers and pilots who travel through a wormhole in space in a last-ditch attempt to find a new planet that could sustain human life.

While the plot might have seemed grandiose and like speculative science-fiction, some of the main concepts of this movie are rooted in theoretical physics. One of the most striking things about Interstellar is how visually intriguing the artist made space look. And, in the year of the movie’s release it won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, and rightfully so. This is because many of the films stunning visuals were created using real world science. The premise for Interstellar was developed by producer Lynda Obst and American theoretical physicist Kip Thorne, an expert on blackholes and wormholes who provided the math that the special effects artists used to create the movies spectacular

visuals. From the appearance of the blackhole to the mechanism by which the wormhole in the movie worked, real world physics is used to bring these concepts to life.

In the film, the spaceship Endurance and its crew must travel to the distant corner of the universe in order to find a new planet for humanity to live on. However, the only way to get to a distant corner of the universe is to find a blackhole and travel through its wormhole.

Blackholes are a phenomenon predicted

by Albert Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity. A blackhole is a region of space in which the gravitational field is so powerful that nothing, including electromagnetic radiation such as visible light, can escape its pull – it is like a bottomless pit in space-time. Current theory suggests that as an object gets sucked into or falls into a blackhole, it approaches a point within the centre of the blackhole called a singularity. A singularity is a one-dimensional point at the centre of a blackhole which contains a huge mass within an infinitely small space. At this point, density and gravity become infinite and space-time curves infinitely, and the laws of physics as we know them cease to operate. As the physicist Kip Thorne describes it, a singularity is “the point where all laws of physics break down.” Objects approach-

Like blackholes, wormholes were also predicted by Einstein’s theory of General Relativity. Wormholes or Einstein-Rosen bridges are a hypothetical ‘bridge’, formed by spacetime bending to bring two distant points in the universe closer together to create a shortcut for long journeys across the universe. They consist of two mouths, with a throat connecting the two.

In two-dimensional diagrams, the wormhole mouth is shown as a circle. Seen in person, a wormhole would be a sphere. A gravitationally distorted view of space on the other side would be seen on the sphere’s surface. If the purpose of a blackhole is to act like a vacuum and suck things into it – a wormhole functions to deliver that matter into a different space-time. The film offers a nice simple explanation of this phenomena – there are two points on a piece of paper; drawing a line between these two points shows the distance between these points in normal space time. If you were to fold this paper almost twice over and poke through the paper with a pencil to connect those two dots, you would create a shortcut through space time much like a wormhole.

In the movie, the crew travels to Gargantua, which is a fictional supermassive blackhole near Saturn with a mass 100 million times that of the sun. This particular blackhole rotates at 99.8 percent of the speed of light or approximately 299.193 kilometres per second (the speed of light in a vacuum is about 299,792 kilometres

per second) which is staggeringly fast in comparison to the rotation speed of the surface of earth at the equator, which moves at rotates 0.46 kilometres per second. Gargantua is depicted as a disk-shaped blackhole outlined by a halo of light.

This light enveloping Gargantua is due the blackhole being surrounded by an “accretion disc” containing gas and dust with the temperature of the surface of the sun. This disc provides light and heat to Gargantua’s planets. Accretion disk refers to a disk-like flow of particles around an astronomical object, such a blackhole, in which the material orbiting in the gravitational field of the astronomical object possess enough rotational or angular momentum that it does not fall inward toward the astronomical mass along a straight line. Instead it follows a disk like path losing energy and angular momentum as it slowly spirals inward. The blackhole’s complex appearance in the film is due to the image of the accretion disc being warped by gravitational lensing into two images: one looping over the blackhole and the other under it. To date, this is the most accurate simulation of what a blackhole would look like and was the product of a year of work by 30 people and thousands of computers.

After passing through the wormhole, which is shown in the film as being 2 kilometres wide and 10 billion light-years long, the crew lands on an ocean planet where time moves much more slowly than on earth. This plot point is another feature of Einstein’s theory of relativity which states that time passes slower in higher gravity fields. So on a planet orbiting close to a blackhole, a clock ticks much more slowly than on a spaceship orbiting farther away.

While the movie did a fantastic job of depicting blackholes and wormholes based on real world mathematics and astrophysics, these phenomena have never been observed directly in the real non-cinematic world. However, the general consensus is that these phenomena do exist and some physicists are encouraged to think that real counterparts may eventually be found or fabricated.

Detecting Dark Matter Ruby O’Connor delves into the mysterious subject of dark matter and dark energy, and comprehensively examines the most recent scientific work on detecting dark matter.

Dark matter was discovered through the investigation of the expansion of the universe. In the 1990’s, scientists believed that the expansion of the universe was slowing down due to the forces of gravity. However, in 1998, observations through the Hubble Space telescope showed that the expansion of the universe was instead accelerating. The presence of a substance that scientists call dark energy was theorized as an answer to why the expansion of the universe is accelerating.

Scientists believe that the Universe consists of 68% dark energy, 27% dark matter, and 5% normal matter. Normal matter makes up all visible phenomena made up of atoms, such as the Earth and our Solar System.

There are many theories which attempt to explain what dark energy actually is. However, none to present day have been one hundred percent confirmed.

Albert Einstein theorized the idea of a cosmological constant, essentially a force which counteracts gravity. Now, as National Geographic explains, we could very well understand dark energy as Einstein’s idea of a cosmological constant, explaining the acceleration of the expansion. Einstein’s theory also included the idea that a property of space is the possession of its own energy, meaning that as space expands, so does energy; this could explain the acceleration of the expansion as well. Quintessence is another theory which attempts to explain what dark matter is. Quintessence is a name given to a dif-

ferent form of energy which has an impact on the universe contrasting that of normal matter and energy.

What is dark matter then? The most common theory is that dark matter is made up of particles called Weakly Interacting Massive Particles, known as WIMPS.

However, more recent theories propose an alternative, that dark matter is composed of a “dark electromagnetism” which would include “dark photons” and other particles.

If we can’t observe it, how do scientists know that it is really there? What evidence is given for the existence of dark matter? The gravitational effects of dark matter can be seen with reference to stars. National Geographic explains that stars on the outside of a spiral galaxy should travel slower than stars in the centre according to physics. However, according to our observations, stars travel at approximately the same speed regardless of their position in the galaxy.

Scientists have therefore concluded that a gravitational force (which is dark matter) must exist to explain this phenomenon.

Another piece of evidence is the appearance of rings and arcs of light in pictures of the galaxy. This light is potentially a distortion created by the presence of a mass, which could be dark matter. This phenomenon is known as “gravitational-lensing”. An additional possibility is that Einstein’s general theory of relativity is incorrect, and that scientists need to find another theory which can explain the acceleration. As

one can see, there is much that is unknown in the field of study of the Universe.

Up to this point, the basics of what is known of dark energy and dark matter have been explained. But what current research is being carried out in relation to dark matter and dark energy? In January 2019, a study investigating data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory found evidence that that the amount of dark energy is growing with time. The DAMA experiment in Italy claims to have detected dark matter as of March 2019.

Two studies, ANAIS’ and COSINE-100 then attempted to verify the results found by DAMA’s study. ANAIS’ is a dark matter detector at the University of Zaragoza in Spain, and COSINE-100 is a collaboration between the Korea Invisible Mass Search and Yale University at Yangyang Underground Laboratory in South Korea. The results? Highly inconclusive. However, as Juan Collar of the University of Chicago says to Nature magazine, “There is really no conclusion to be drawn at this point, other than mounting suspense.”

In June 2019, further new ideas emerged. Researchers John Terning and Christopher Verhaaren expand on the theory of dark matter being composed of “dark electromagnetism” and propose a new option, the existence of a dark magnetic “monopole” that would interact with the dark photon. A monopole is a particle acting like one end of a magnet. They propose a new way to detect dark matter, based

on their theory of its composition. They argue that the dark “monopole” could be detected because of the way it shifts the phase of electrons as they pass by it. Their research was supported by a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy.

Another study investigating the amount of dark matter in a galaxy called Markarian 1216 found that it has more dark matter in its core than scientists expected. The method they used to determine the amount of dark matter is X-Ray analysis, acquired from data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. They studied the X-Ray brightness and temperature to determine how much dark matter was at the centre of the galaxy.

A different study proposed using “high-purity lab-grown diamond crystal” to detect dark matter. The diamond crystal would theoretically be designed with sensors to detect soundwaves at the collision of a dark matter particle with an atomic nucleus or an electron in the diamond.

The researchers explain the benefits of using a diamond crystal as opposed to germanium and silicon, which has been used in the past. They say that a diamond will allow them to detect dark matter particles of a lower mass, as well as ease the measuring of vibrations set off by the collision of the dark matter particle, due to the (mostly) single carbon isotope composition of the diamond.

With regards to the detection of dark matter particles, it seems many new experiments are being designed and tested. But only time will tell if they operate as theorized by researchers.

30th October 2019

13

GAEILGE

Athbheochan na Gaeilge Béim curtha ar riachtanas na teanga chun náisiún ceart a chruthú. Le Danielle Nic Gill Fhinnéin San ochtú agus naoú céad déag tháinig fealsúnacht chun tosaigh san Eoraip. Ba iad teanga agus náisiún eochairchoincheapa na fealsúnachta áirithe seo. Chreidtear go forleathan go raibh anam ag gach aon tír agus gurb í na coincheapa sonrach seo a chruthaigh tír neamhspleách. Is sa tréimhse seo gur tháinig cumainn athbheochana ar an bhfód in Éirinn leis an bhfealsúnacht seo a chur chun cinn acu.

Dhá chumann athbheochana a tháinig chun cinn sa tréimhse seo ná Éire Óg agus na hÉireannaigh Aontaithe. Bhunaíodh na hÉireannaigh Aontaithe sa bhliain 1791 chun feachtas a dhéanamh le haghaidh leasú parlaiminte.

Bhí Tiobóid Wolfe Tone agus Thómas Ruiséil beirt bhunaitheoirí den Éireannaigh Aontaithe.

Chreid an bheirt seo go raibh an teanga náisiúnta mar cheann de na tréithe is tábhachtaí a bhí ag tír ar bith. Is í seo an chreidiúint a bhí ag an bhfealsamh Gearmánach Johann Gottlieb Fichte agus is ó Johann Gottlieb Fichte gur fuaireadar na tuairimí seo.

Is ón inspioráid agus creidiúint seo gur tháining Bolg an tSolair ar an bhfód, irisleabhar Gaeilge a bhí curtha i gcló chun béim a chur ar tábhacht buntenaga na tíre. Ba é Thómas Ruiséil mar an ball is mó sa chumann a bhí spéis aige sa Ghaeilge. Bhí Tómas Ruiséil agus Pádraig Ó Loingsigh mar bheirt údair ó Bholg an tSolair.

Scoláire agus scríobhaí Gaeilge ab ea Pádraig Ó Loingsigh agus bhí é féin agus Tómas Rúiséil mar bheirt údair ó Bholg an tSolair.

Bhí cur síos déanta ar áilleacht na teanga agus tábhacht bhunteanga tír mar príomhtréith a bhaineann le náisiún. Bhí an teoiric seo le fáil san iris. Bhí béim curtha ar an riachtanas don teanga chun náisiún ceart a chruthú. Bhí béim curtha ar ceol agus filíocht na tíre san iris comh maith. Léiríonn an iris seo an tábhacht a bhain le náisiún agus teanga agus chun go mbeidh náisiún ann, bhí bunteanga ag teastáil.

Ní raibh ach eagrán amháin de Bholg an tSolair ach bhí sé ríthábhachtach d’Athbheochan na Gaeilge. Bhí dhá aiste le fáil san irisleabhar.

Ceann amháin ó Pádraig Ó Loinsigh agus ceann eile ó Charlotte Brooke. Beirt an-thábhachtach a bhí bainteach leis an Athbheochan. Léirigh Bolg an tSolair mórtas cine agus mórtas náisiún-

ta. Rinne na hÉireannaigh Aontaithe iarracht náisiún a chruthú that na blianta ach an toradh a tháinig ó shin ná éirí amach 1798. Theastaigh óna hÉireannaigh Aontaithe tír daonlathach, neamhspleách a chruthú ach rugadh buadh orthu.

Grúpa eile a bhí bainteach leis an Athbheochan ná an cumann Éire Óg. Theastaigh ón gcumann Athbheochan na Gaeilge a chur i gcrích. Cad a bhí i gceist leis an gcumann Éire Óg ná grúpa a theastaigh aisghairm a dhéanamh ar an tír. An sprioc a bhí acu ná chun náisiúnachas a spreagadh sa tír agus tábhacht na Gaeilge a spreagadh sa tír comh maith. Fear a bhí mar bhall den chumann seó ná Thomas Davis. Bhí sé eolach ar theangacha agus bhí suim mór aige sa Ghaeilge. Chreid sé nach ba cheart go mbeadh neamh aird tugtha go dtí stair na hÉireann nó go mbeidh an Bhéarla mar céad teanga sa tír agus teanga na tíre, an Ghaeilge mar mhionteanga.

Bhain lucht na hÉireann Óige úsáid as an nuachtán ‘The Nation’ chun stair agus cultúr na tíre a chur chun cinn. Fiú amháin, an t-ainm den páipéar, léiríonn sé meon an cumann agus an sprioc a bhí acu. Scríobh Davis altanna sa pháipéar faoin nGaeilge agus an tábhacht a bhain leis. Bhí sé mar príomhduine an cumann a theastaigh an Ghaeilge a chur chun cinn. Shíl sé go raibh mórán tábhachta ag baint leis an nGaeilge. Chreid sé go raibh an Ghaeilge ag teastáil chun náisiún a chruthú. Níl aon amhras ina thaobh go raibh Davis cinnte nach féidir náisiún a bheith ann gan bhunteanga na tíre.

Ní raibh lucht na hÉireann Óige in ann dul chun cogaidh I gcoinne Sasana agus bhíodar ag iarraidh aontacht chultúrtha a chruthú chun tionchar Sasana a laghdú sa tír agus náisiúin neamhspleách a bhunú. Is féidireacht dealraitheach í go raibh inspioráid faighte ag Davis maidir leis an mbunteanga agus náisiún ó bhfoinsí ón Ghearmáin mar shampla Johann Gottfried Herder, Wilheim Von Humboldt agus Johann Gottlieb Fichte. Bhí tuiscint ag an nGearmáin go raibh anam ag gach náisiún.

B’ionann teanga agus cultúr agus b’ionann cultúr agus teanga. Seo an meon a chreid von Humboldt. Mar Fichte, chuaigh Wilheim

von Humboldt I bhfeidhm ar Davis. Bhí Davis ag iarraidh an meon seo a roinnt le pobal na tíre agus is tríd ‘The Nation’ a rinne sé iarracht a grá don theanga a roinnt. Chun go mbeadh stádas náisiúin neamhspleách ag an tír seo ní féidir a shéanadh go bhfuil bunteanga ag teastáil ag an tír.

Bhain an-rath ar an gcumann Éire Óg agus an páipéar a foilsíodh darbh ainm The Nation. Bhí thart ar 250,000 léitheoir acu agus bhí níos mó rath ag an bpáipéar seo ná aon pháipéar lonnaithe i mBaile Átha Cliath ag an am seo. Is fíor le rá gur chuadar i mbéim ar go leor daoine maidir leis an teoiric a bhí acu maidir le náisiún.

Cé gur chuir Davis béim ar an nGaeilge, chreid sé nach raibh athrú chun teacht ar an stádas a bhí ag an mbunteanga. Cé gur bhain na dhá chumainn athbheochana seo éacht mhór amach leis an méid tacaíocht a bhfuair siad agus an t-eolas a chur siad ar fáil don phobal, níor éirigh leo stádas an Ghaeilge a chur in ardú mar a theastaigh uathu. Scaip meon an náisiúin thar timpeall na tíre agus chuaigh sé i bhfeidhm ar chuid maith daoine ach faoi dheiridh bhí ró-thionchar ag an mBéarla sa tír agus bhí an Ghaeilge mar an dara teanga. Cé go bhfuil sin fíor, bhí níos mó béim curtha ar an nGaeilge sa tír mar gheall ar obair na gcumann seo.

Gaeilge4all - An t-athrú atá ag teastáil Tá orainn an Ghaeilge a chosaint agus a chur chun cinn i measc an phobail. Le Shane MacDomhnaill Níl aon dul as nach mbíonn taithí dearfach ag gach éinne agus iad ag foghlaim an Ghaeilge ar scoil. Mura ndeachaigh tú ar Ghaelscoil seans ann go raibh gráin agat don ábhar - ar a laghad feicimse a leithead sna chairde agamsa a chuaigh go scoileanna Bhéarla. Is cúis ollmhór é an curaclam agus neamhaird an rialtais i leith an Ghaeilge le haghaidh na fadhbhanna seo. Chun athruithe a chur i bhfeidhm tá polasaí ceart agus plean cinnte ag teastáil don ábhar. Seo an méid atá ag teastáil ag an ngluaiseacht Gaeilge4All. Tá an ghluaiseacht faoi stiúir Conradh na Gaeilge agus is é aidhm oifigiúil an ghluaiseacht ná:

“An Ghaeilge a chosaint agus a láidriú sa chóras oideachais chun go mbeidh eispéireas sásúil foghlama Gaeilge ag gach dalta sa chóras oideachais ón réamhscoil go dtí an tríú leibhéal.”

I ndiaidh an cur is cúiteamh ar fad i rith an tSamhraidh maidir le stádas na Gaeilge mar ábhar éigeanteach don Ardteist bhí mé ag fanacht agus ag súil le freagra ón bpobal Gaelach.

Tuigim go bhfuil an córas trína mhúintear an Ghaeilge briste, agus is ceart agus is cóir dúinn an córas a dheisiú ionas go mbeadh deis ag gach éinne Gaeilge a fhoghlaim, agus go mbeadh taithí dhearfach acu á dhéanamh.

Príomh aidhm na gluaiseachta ná an Ghaeilge a chosaint sa chóras oideachas. Sa bhliain 1974, bhain an rialtas an riachtanas go mbeadh Gaeilge agat chun post a fháil sa státseirbhís. Sna blianta ó shin, tá líon na seirbhísí gur féidir leis an rialtas a chur ar fáil trí mheán na Gaeilge ag titim go ghéar. Sa bhliain 2019, níl ach 1.5% den fhoireann sa Roinn Oideachais

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agus Scileanna inniúil anois chun seirbhísí a sholáthar trí Ghaeilge. Más é go mbainfear stádas na Gaeilge mar ábhar éigeanteach don Ardteist, rachaidh an ábhar i léig sa chaoi céanna.

Tá an ghluaiseacht Gaeilge4All ag impí ar an t-Aire Oideachas agus Scileanna, Joe McHugh, chun polasaí chuimsitheach a chur le chéile a chinnteoidh conair acadúil i leith na Gaeilge, ón Naíonra thuas chuig an tríú leibhéal. Dar le Julian de Spáinn, Rúnaí Ghinearálta Chonradh na Gaeilge, cuirfidh an polasaí seo na coinníollacha ar fáil ionas go mbeidh gach dalta in ann an teanga a fhoghlaim i gcoibhneas lena chumas féin.

Bheadh trí chuid i gcroílár na bpolasaithe seo. Polasaí faoi leith maidir le hOideachas Ghaeltachta, oideachas trí mheán na Gaeilge agus freisin oideachas trí mheán an Bhéarla. Ní cheart dúinn gach éinne, ó gach cúlra a mheas leis an mhéadarshlat céanna. Le na hathruithe atá á lorg ag an ngluaiseacht seo, bhéas polasaí chuimsitheach i bhfeidhm a chuireann an Ghaeilge chun cinn i ngach scoil, le modhanna atá dírithe ar chumas na ndaltaí sa scoil sin.

Ach cén saghas athraithe a thiocfadh i bhfeidhm dá gcuirfeadh polasaí nua i bhfeidhm?

Tá cúrsa ina bhfuil béim níos mó curtha ar an teanga labhartha. Sa chúrsa faoi láthair, cuirtear béim ar an bhfocal scríofa atá dírithe ar scrúdú ag deireadh bliain a sé. Locht ollmhór atá ag an gcúrsa seo ná nach spreagann sé labhairt na Gaeilge, agus díreann sé ar stór focal agus rialacha ghramadaí chun grád ar a bhaint

amach. Tá gá le béim a leagadh ar an teanga labhartha ionas go mbeadh cumas labhartha go caighdeán faoi leith ag gach éinne a dhéanann staidéar ar an Ghaeilge. Tá Gaeilge4All ag iarraidh go mbeadh cúrsa ar fáil a chinnteoidh go mbeidh seal spraoiúil agus tairbheach ag daltaí scoile ag foghlaim na Gaeilge.

Tá breis tacaíocht ag teastáil freisin óna mhúinteoirí inár scoileanna agus tá Gaeilge4All ag impí ar an rialtas acmhainní agus traenáil sásúil a chuir ar fáil do mhúinteoirí Ghaeilge.

De bharr laigí an chúrsa, bíonn deacrachtaí ann do mhúinteoirí gach dalta a shásamh ó thaobh tacaíocht agus cabhair san ábhar. De bharr seo, go háirithe i scoileanna nach Ghaelscoil iad, ní fhada é go mbíonn daltaí taobh thiar ó thaobh cumas labhartha agus scríofa na Gaeilge de. Níl sé sásúil go mbeadh daltaí fágtha taobh thiar sa chóras oideachais toisc nach bhfuil an rialtas ag cur dóthan acmhainní ar fáil chun múinteoirí a thacú sa phost ríthábhachtach atá acu. D’fhéadfá a rá gurb iad múinteoirí atá ag iompar lasair na Gaeilge. Tá sé thar am dúinn na hacmhainní atá ag teastáil acu a chur ar fáil.

Freisin, ní fheictear ar an gcóras nua i leith díolúnaithe mar chóras shásúil nó éifeachtach ach an oiread. Tá sé i bhfad níos éasca anois díolúine a fháil ón nGaeilge ná mar a bhí

sé riamh - is cur chuige mícheart é seo i leith an ábhair. Ba chóir dúinn breis cabhair is tacaíocht a chur ar fáil d’éinne atá ag foghlaim Gaeilge in ionad iad a díchomasú. Freisin, níl fiannaise ar bith chun an teoiric nach féidir le héinne disléicseach teanga eile a fhoghlaim. Ba chóir cabhair agus tacaíocht a chuir ar fáil do gach dalta le deacracht foghlama in ionad iad a dhíspreaga ón teanga.

Tá an rud céanna luaite agam arís is arís eile, agus is é sin ná cabhair agus tacaíocht an Ghaeilge a fhoghlaim. Sa chóras faoi láthair, ní spreagtar daltaí an Ghaeilge a fhoghlaim ar chor ar bith. Cad atá spreagtha ná foghlaim de ghlan mheabhair agus liostaí rialacha ghramadaí chun tú a iompar tríd scrúdaithe na hArdteiste. Tá an cur chuige seo neamh-thargúil agus déanann sé dochar don teanga go bhforleathan. Tá athraithe chuimistheach ag teastáil agus tá na hathruithe seo á lorg láithreach ag an ngluaiseacht seo.

Cúis bhuairt a bhí sna tuairimí a tháinig chun cinn i rith an tSamhraidh maidir le stádas na Gaeilge mar ábhar éigeanteach don Ardteist ach tá sé le feiceáil go gléineach nach tacaíonn le mórán den tír leis na tuairimí seo. Tá gluaiseacht ríthábhachtach ann arís chun muid go léir a spreagadh. Tá an lasair á choinneáil go fíochmhar fós.

AGRICULTURE & RURAL AFFAIRS

Artificial Intelligence gains ground within agriculture With a growing global food demand and strains increasing on farmlands, artificial intelligence becomes a necessity for efficient agriculture in its effort to feed over nine billion by 2050, writes Niall Hurson.

Agriculture is the world’s largest industry providing an estimated 1.3 billion jobs and contributes in excess of €2.1 trillion to the global economy. In Ireland the agri-food sector generated €12.1 billion in 2018. The shared aim within the farming community is to produce greater quantities of crops and meat through increased productivity and yield of worked acres. In an effort to achieve this common goal the industry is now turning to Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies to help farmers achieve greater yields in an efficient and environmentally friendly manner.

Ireland has been no exception to the current global trend with AI technologies appearing on farms across the nation in recent years.

Drone technology has been deployed by farming communities for farm management, pesticide application, sheep herding, fire and crime prevention. In May of this year, the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NWPS) teamed up with Coillte to tackle forest fires using innovative drone technology. Coillte recorded 150 fire incidents last year which affected more than 600ac of forestry.

In order to combat this problem, the two bodies have called in the help of Drone Consultants Ireland who will survey the fires as they happen, providing invaluable data to the various services tackling the blazes. It is hoped the initiative will change how we manage public and privately-owned forests and combat the blazes which have ripped through Irish woodlands in the past.

In the US, Californian vineyards have been deployed drones in the application of pesticides.

Using a multispectral camera, the drones identify exactly where the chemicals are needed. It has been reported that this method has the potential to reduce pesticide application by 80%.

AI presents a solution to the labour challenge in Ireland, where just 5% of farm holders are under the age of 35. In addition, 25% were aged 65 years or over in a 2016 census. Ireland is moving away from being an agrarian society where in the past large numbers of people lived on farms. Urban areas are growing, with a constant trickle of people leaving rural communities, opting for a city lifestyle. When employment in inputs, processing and marketing is included the Irish agri-

food sector accounted for almost 10% of national employment.

A solution to help with this shortage of workers is AI agricultural robots capable of replacing previous human labour. Automatic milking systems (AMS) is one such advancement using AI to reduce the labour strain within Ireland’s dairy industry. AMS were developed in the late 20th century and have been commercially available in Ireland for over 20 years. The core of these systems allows complete automation of the milking process through the use of an agricultural robot, computers and herd management software. The system provides monitoring of the health status of cows on the farm while freeing the farmer and his workers from the milking process and associated rigid schedule.

What started out as a small minority of farmers in Northern Ireland is now a growing community of robot milking farms across the island. Lely is one such manufacturer of the automatic milking system with their series of “Astronaut” robots. The concept of free cow traffic grants cows’ constant access to the robot and pasture, and in turn allows the animals themselves to decide when to eat, drink, relax or be milked. Lely is a leading brand in Ireland for AI incorporation on farm and agricultural robots with many other Ag-tech companies developing similar products in order to tap into this lucra-

tive market. Lely has diversified and widened its robot spectrum to incorporate many of the other farm jobs with the capability of tending to animal feeding, manure management, livestock health, and housing.

The agricultural sector has responsibility when it comes to climate change, with heightened focus in countries aiming for carbon neutrality. Artificial intelligence presents the opportunity for great improvements within our climate goals, with its benefits far outweighing the associated financial costs. Sufficient on-farm education will ensure the technology is used to its full potential and each enterprise reaches its environment neutral goal. The benefits are not constrained to higher income countries, even the basic ability to get real time weather updates can have a huge impact on agricultural practices for all farmers, and especially those in lower income countries.

Through the use of AI technologies, farms across the world are able to run more efficiently, with less workers than before. In turn this allows greater proportions of the population to live in urban areas without a labour stress on farms. The continued rapid uptake of the latest emerging AI technology by farmers will ensure the agricultural sector is in place to meet the global food demand as it grows.

AgSoc ambition rooted in rural tradition After 96 years, the Agricultural Society has remained true to its rural origins, writes Niall Hurson.

Founded in 1923, the Agricultural Society (AgSoc) at UCD is one of the oldest on campus, attracting more than 1000 student members and all the while generating over €50,000 for charity each year. A committee consisting of 28 members have their shoulder to the wheel, in charge of orchestrating the renowned AgSoc events with Aoife Bergin at the helm as the 2019/2020 auditor. The society is composed of predominantly Agricultural Science students but remains a diverse group with strong support from the nursing and engineering faculties to name but a few.

The heart of the Agriculture and Food Science building happens to be located in the basement, in what is known as the tea shop. Here AgSoc members and UCD students can purchase the cheapest cup of tea and snack combo on campus, if not the country on sale at just €1, including free refills. The main artery of the building is the

Ag common room which Auditor Bergin describes as “an area of respite, to drink tea, read the Farmers Journal and socialise.” The tea shop though modest in appearance can turn a pretty penny. In week five the total income for the five-day period was in excess of €1200, generating close to €700 for charity minus the cost of stock which is bought in at wholesale price. AgSoc events are equally as lucrative, with Bingo Loco generating nearly €6000 for charity and took place at the Talbot Hotel, Stillorgan, on October 16.

Last year AgSoc raised €65,000 for charity. Teac Tom and St. Johns Ward Crumlin are this year’s charities and will receive a donation from AgSoc in May 2020, bringing conclusion to another year of fundraising efforts. Teac Tom is an initiative started by the Hayes family to support individuals and their families affected by, or contemplating suicide. The counselling service

which is based in the south east has over 100 people pass through its door on a weekly basis. Bergin believes “within farming we have a mental health stigma. Through raising money for charities like Teac Tom students can feel more open towards their own mental health. These generous acts help us tackle this stigma early on, during our college life at UCD.” St. John’s Ward Crumlin is a children’s cancer ward with the aim to save young lives through research and providing top priority care.

All funds raised this year will be split between the two deserved charities.

For semester one AgSoc plan to host seven events in 10 weeks with a break for the last two weeks in consideration for exams. Directly before this exam break though, one of the biggest AgSoc events of the year will take place on November 13, Ag versus Vet boxing. The night will see 30 fighters face off in 15 individual fights, with students going toe to toe with reputation and bragging rights on the line. Agriculture Week (AgWeek) is one of the highlights of the year for AgSoc members.

It falls on the third week of the second semester

and offers a plethora of events with something for everyone. Events this year are to include a milk race, wellie walk, tractor race, auction in the clubhouse, Ags got Talent, 5-a-side, trad session in Ryans, and a headline act on the Thursday.

The Agricultural Society is a diverse group, with members coming from all 32 counties of Ireland, evident on nights such as “county colours.” Similar to the School of Agriculture and Food Science, Agsoc in the past had a male majority. In the same shift as the faculty in which it is based, Agsoc has experienced the transition towards an equal split between the genders. Bergin feels “we have a different generation of Agriculture students coming through the college now. It’s a modern generation but firmly tied to rural ways.”

It is these rural ways that constitute the foundation on which the Society is built upon, from inclusiveness to contributing towards the greater community, AgSoc remains true to these rural standards.

The Agricultural Society is a community with its sleeves rolled up.

As veganism becomes prominent meat consumption remains dominant While veganism has come to prominence in media circles, its effects have not yet been met with the same uptake in our dietary habits as a nation, writes Noel Bardon.

The rise of veganism in western countries has led many to question the possible environmental and social consequences of the relatively new dietary choice. The discourse has been markedly divisive, with meat eaters and vegans refusing to cede ground in the forum of public debate. Each side claims the diet they support tends to incur benefits to both human health and the global ecosystems.

Many of those who are undecided can be led by celebrity influence, tabloid headlines and unreliable internet content within mass media circles.

Veganism is a diet which is devoid of meat and differs from vegetarianism in that its adherents not only abstain from meat, but also from many other animal products, including but not limited to, eggs, dairy, leather, beeswax and wool.

The reasons commonly cited for such changes in diet, tend to be those of environmentalism, animal welfare, ethics and purported benefits to health.

Some followers argue the lifestyle led by those in the movement is one of sustainability for a growing population and that the modern way of life has deviated too far away from that in which mankind evolved. Vegans claim that the land used to grow crops that are fed to animals would be better used

to grow human edible greens, potentially alleviating pressure on the global food supply chain. The role of animals within society is another point of contention. Vegans believe it to be unethical for humans to slaughter, exploit or hold captive any animals on the grounds of cruelty, even within current animal welfare regulatory framework existent in practically all developed nations.

Non vegans dispute these points, alluding to the land use benefits associated with animal agriculture, the unsuitability of many regions to support widespread crop farming, as well as the low levels of many nutrients necessary for disease prevention found in plant tissue in comparison with animal products. It can reasonably be argued that the land grazed by Irish ruminants provides more than just protein and calories. There is the filtration of rainwater, the recycling of nutrients, sequestration of carbon and the provision of a habitat for biodiversity. A lesser stated fact concerning crop production can also be made in reference to the vegan argument; arable farming is not without its harming of animals. Pests and non-pest alike are subject to death or suffering through conventional cropping, whether they be slugs on cabbages,

aphids on cereals or rodent pests in crop storage areas.

The figures surrounding the topic can have poor reliability, as many are published by bodies with a vested interest in the issue. Bord Bia estimates the proportion of vegans and vegetarians in the Irish population to be 2% and 8% respectively. This may appear to be a figure of only minor significance; however, veganism has seen a great expansion in the last number of years. An approximation of the growth of veganism in the US has been suggested as a six-fold increase in followers of the lifestyle. Such increases have, thus far, forced change to only minor elements of the food supply chain. Vegan restaurants are becoming more numerous in affluent areas of the country and meat substitutes can be seen on the shelves of many retailers.

The pressing concern amongst the farming community, regarding the vegan movement, is

the increase in intimidation of producers by vegan activists. The recent invasion of a piggery in Co Westmeath brought the reality of such incidents which are prominent in the UK and continental Europe close to home. Although not necessarily representative of the entire vegan body, these experiences create unwelcome attitudes of fear, suspicion and loathing against the movement.

Ireland’s animal production system has not seen major challenges to suppliers caused by the shift in consumer attitudes inspired by veganism. Levels of dairy and meat consumption are still relatively high, and the outlet of agri-food exports appears likely to alleviate any other similar minor societal changes in this respect. Moving forward, it would be of mutual benefit for a common ground of constructive progress to be found between Irish farmers and vegans, in the hopes of bolstering animal welfare regulations, whilst allowing the industry to continue along its path of sustainability.

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LAW & POLITICS

Bye Bye Bibi? Israel’s Electoral Stalemate Explained As political uncertainty continues to plague Israel, Andrew Wall explains the events that led us here.

On October 21, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, handed back his mandate to Israeli President Reuven Rivlin after failing to secure parliamentary support for forming a coalition government. This comes after weeks of negotiations led by Netanyahu and his Likud party, two successive general elections and a string of corruption scandals. To understand how this happened, we need to go back to early 2017.

Since the beginning of January 2017, the Israeli police have questioned Netanyahu on his involvement in two different cases: ‘Case 1000’ and ‘Case 2000.’ In ‘Case 1000’, Netanyahu is accused of receiving inappropriate ‘gifts’ from wealthy businessman in exchange for political benefits and legislated tax breaks.

The case names Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan and James Packer (who worked on 12 Years a Slave and Fight Club) as being involved.

Under ‘Case 2000’, Netanyahu is accused of striking a deal with the newspaper group Yedioth Ahronot, which would have seen favourable coverage given to Netanyahu and Likud in exchange for his government facilitating legislation to hamper Yedioth Ahronot’s competition.

In February 2018, the Israeli police stated that it had enough evidence to indict Netanyahu on charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust in both cases. It was the first time in Israeli history that a sitting prime minister had been indicted in an ongoing police investigation.

While these scandals were emerging in 2018, Netanyahu’s coalition was divided over a number of key political issues. It all began with a controversial bill that would allow full-time Torah (Yeshiva) students to be exempt from serving in the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF). Conscription of the ultra-Orthodox community in the military has always been a contentious issue in Israeli society, particularly among the secular population, who make up a greater proportion of those serving. Then Defence Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, resigned in opposition to this bill and a ceasefire that was negotiated with

Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Naftali Bennett, leader of the Jewish Home party and a key partner in Netanyahu’s coalition, demanded Lieberman’s former position, threatening to bring down the government otherwise. Although Bennett would eventually step down from this position, elections were called for April 9 as numerous scandals and allegations continued to plague Netanyahu and threaten his position as Prime Minister.

In this climate emerged Benny Gantz and the newly formed Blue and White alliance: Blue and White is an alliance between three parties, Israel Resilience Party, Yesh Atid and Telem with the hopes of removing Netanyahu from power. Gantz is a former Chief of General Staff who ran on a centrist platform, advocating for legislation to fix term limits for prime ministerial office (of which Israel has none), barring indicted politicians from serving in the Parliament, and re-open channels of dialogue with the Palestinian Authority. Gantz has not explicitly supported the Two-State Solution but has called for continuing to strengthen Israeli settlements in the West Bank, vowing that Israel will never surrender the Golan Heights. In a speech in January 2019, he stated that “The Jordan Valley will be our border, but we won’t let millions of Palestinians living beyond the fence to endanger our identity as a Jewish state”. These are but typical positions in Israeli elections, as candidates aim to be perceived as having a strong stance on concerns of national security.

The election of April 9 resulted in a stalemate. Out of the 120 seats in the Knesset, Likud and the Blue and White alliance won 35 seats respectively (about 26% of the popular vote), while the next largest parties being Shas (a Haredi religious party) and United Torah Judaism winning 8 seats (5%) and the remaining seats being divided up between Labor, Hadash-Ta’al (an Israeli-Arab party), the Union of Right-Wing Parties and Yisrael Beiteinu (a secular-nationalist party). Gantz accepted de-

feat and the election to Netanyahu. As no party could independently form a government, the next step is for all the leaders of the parties with seats in the Knesset go to the president and ‘recommend’ someone to lead the next government. Netanyahu received 65 recommendations, Gantz 45, and 10 members from the Arab parties abstained. Netanyahu then received the mandate from President Rivlin to form a government. What happened next was a first for Israeli politics.

Over the course of the next few weeks negotiations between Likud, its coalition partners and the Blue and White alliance failed.

Netanyahu was unable to secure the old partnership, which collapsed over the conscription bill for yeshiva students, as well as some parties (including the Blue and White), declining to join a government with a prime minister who was under investigation. On May 28, the Knesset voted to dissolve itself for the first time and have a second election in a given year. The second election was set for September 17.

Unsurprisingly, the second election, while fiercely contested, produced a similar result. The Blue and White won 33 seats (25.95%) and Likud won 32 seats (25.10%). What was important this time around, however, is that the Joint List, which is an alliance of all the major Israeli-Arab parties won 13 seats. Between the end of the election and September 25, leaders of all parties called on Gantz and Netanyahu to

form a unity government and avoid a third election. Gantz refused, stating that his alliance had won the election and receive the mandate independently. After another fierce battle for nominations, which saw the Joint List endorsing Gantz (the first time an Arab party endorsed a Zionist leader), Netanyahu received the mandate from the president.

Once again, Netanyahu struggled to form a government as refusals from both the Blue and White and the right-wing religious parties left him in a political limbo. After being threatened with a leadership challenge, Netanyahu finally accepted defeat, informing the president he was unable to form a government.

On the evening of October 23, President Rivlin handed the mandate to Gantz, who now has 28 days to form a government.

Netanyahu’s future does not look bright: If Gantz can form a unity government in the next few days, it is likely that Netanyahu would be arrested in connection with Cases 1000 and 2000. On the other hand, the future for Israel, may be slightly brighter under Gantz: He has shown some enthusiasm for finding a lasting peace with Palestine. Being in coalition with the Joint List will certainly bring him and his (potential) government into a closer dialogue with the Palestinian Authority. A Blue and White-Joint List led government has the potential to reignite the peace process and end years of stalemate under Netanyahu.

Crisis Prolonged: Catalan Secessionist Leaders Convicted of Sedition With the Spanish Supreme Court pronouncing its judgement on the Catalan secessionist leadership, Arshdeep Kaur highlights what is at stake.

A week of violent clashes and unrest gripped Barcelona as the long-running constitutional crisis in Spain came to a head on October 14, when the Spanish Supreme Court pronounced its judgement against Catalan secessionist leaders on trial since February 2019. With proceedings lasting over four months and including around 400 witnesses, the highly anticipated ruling ended one of the most politically charged trials in Spain’s recent history.

The court sentenced nine separatist leaders to prison terms, finding them guilty of sedition in connection with the unilateral attempt to break away from the Kingdom of Spain, marked by the infamous 1-O referendum organised in 2017. The most severe sentence of thirteen years in prison was reserved for Oriol Junqueras, the former deputy premier of Catalonia and leader of the Catalan Republican Left (ERC) party. Other former Catalan ministers received similar terms, close to the maximum time permitted by law, in addition to temporary bans on holding public office. Three others were convicted of disobedience and ordered to pay fines. Four were also declared guilty of misappropriation of public funds.

Much to the chagrin of conservative factions, the court ruled that the defendants’ actions did not amount to rebellion as they were not enough to “impose effective territorial independence and the derogation of the Constitution.” The judgement acknowledged that the referendum and the subsequent declaration of independence were merely symbolic gestures that “never had any practical concreteness” as the secessionist leaders lacked the means to

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subdue the Spanish state: They were merely geared towards mobilising citizens and pressuring Madrid to enter into negotiations over Catalonia’s status within Spain. As per Spanish law, the secessionist leaders would have faced up to twenty-five years in prison had they been charged for rebellion against the Spanish State.

Several ex-government officials, including the former Catalan premier Carles Puigdemont, continue to evade detention and trial by living in self-imposed exile elsewhere in Europe. The European arrest warrants issued against these leaders were reactivated following the Supreme Court’s ruling. Defence attorneys have announced that they plan to appeal the “severe and unfair” decisions in the Constitutional Tribunal as well as the European Court of Human Rights.

As the ruling was pronounced, thousands descended upon the city to demonstrate against it, blocking major roads and disrupting train and flight services. Reports of severe police brutality emerged, as security forces struggled to quell the widespread protests and rioting. Madrid’s heavy-handed approach over the past few years has only served to polarise Catalonia and increase mass support for secession.

Wide-ranging public support for protests organised by the pro-independence organisation Tsunami Democràtic are testimony to this fact.

This is anything but new, some would argue. As the leader of the Basque independence party EH Bildu, Arnaldo Otegi writes in The Guardian: “The verdict against the Catalan pro-independence leadership… the Spanish state is not interested in democracy and will use violence to

conceal its undemocratic nature.”

The Supreme Court’s interpretation of what sedition entails has also raised concerns over the rights to freedom of assembly and protest in the country. Writing in Contexto, Constitutional Law professor Joaquín Urías states that it “leaves out the need for a genuine uprising.”

Instead, it describes any given campaign of civil disobedience. This reading, he further argues, is reflective of the Court’s motivation to “protect the sacred territorial unity of Spain.” By conflating the two offences, the Court has overstepped its mandate.*

The roots of the current crisis can be traced back to the period known as ‘The Transition’ in Spanish history, after the end of the Franco dictatorship. A delicate constitutional compromise was reached in order to resolve tensions between the need for a strong, united Spain and demands for recognition of the distinctiveness of the Catalonia, Basque Country and Galician cultures: The word ‘nations’ was replaced by ‘nationalities’ and the constituent power vested in a ‘united Spanish nation’ in Article 2 of the 1978 Constitution. In line with this, the territorial organisation and distribution of competencies between the Central and provincial governments were also left unstated. These were to be negotiated on a case-by-case basis, to allow for an asymmetrical federation with greater autonomy for the peripheral nations. This inadvertently exposed the process of shaping the terms of the relationship between Madrid and the provinces to considerations of electoral and coalition politics.

The secessionist turn in Catalan politics was triggered after a newly approved Statute of Autonomy for Catalonia was legally challenged by the conservative Partido Popular (PP), and consequently struck down by a Constitutional Court judgement in 2010. The new Statute in-

cluded references to Catalonia’s historical fact as a distinct nation, granted greater fiscal autonomy to the region, and accorded the Catalan language a preferential position. Since then, elections to the Catalan regional legislature, Parlament de Catalunya, acquired a plebiscitary character.

At the heart of this protracted crisis lies the question of regional sovereignty and the recognition of a minority nation’s social and cultural rights. Inarguably, it is one that can be resolved through a policy of negotiation and accommodation, much like it has been done in Quebec or Scotland. As Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez of the PSOE visited Barcelona in the aftermath of the violent protests on October 21, he was met with signs asking Spain to “sit and talk” with Catalan leaders.

Regrettably, Madrid’s response to the Catalan secessionist bid so far has been representative of a disturbing trend: The propensity for the judicialization of politics by seeking legal resolution for what is a fundamentally political problem: the accommodation of plurinationalism within a polity. As Otegi remarked, Madrid’s line with the Basque independence movement remained that “there was not a political problem in Spain, just a criminal one.” Sanchez maintains that ‘rule of law prevailed’ in the Court’s judgement and refuses to engage with current Catalan premier Quim Torra. As the rest of Europe looks away and both the national parties (PSOE and PP) set to gain by appealing to reactionary nationalistic sentiments in an imminent snap election, it seems unlikely that the Catalan crisis will be curtailed soon. *Translated from Spanish

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8. kept his wings by staying away from the sun

7. Big, yellow and weird

9. Don't just let hake, scramble it

10. Bitchiest Glee character

11. Dennis and Flan 12. Look through it's tiny hole - so pretty

The Harpy

Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam.

All Mid-Term Assignments Cancelled Woman Reconsiders Necessity Of Due To Student Tweeting “can’t be Men To Society Following Tinder arsed with these tbh” Date Young Man Belfield

Johnny Journalist In a shocking move by the administrative arm of UCD, all mid-term assignments across all schools have been cancelled and all students will receive full marks for these assignments due to a student sharing on social media that they “can’t be arsed with these tbh”. Following close review of the tweet posted at 2 in the morning and the accompanying picture of a laptop, UCD have decided that the best course of action is to cancel all exams immediately.

First year Arts student Luke Pretty, or @xantastic on Twitter, was incredibly surprised at the action taken by UCD due to his tweet. “I don’t even know what these assignments would be like, I hadn’t even opened up my email account or anything to see what the questions are.

I just opened up Word, typed “Assignment” and then took a picture of it. I thought it’d be kinda funny but I never imagined that it would actually result in anything happening.” Luke is currently formulating plans on further tweets he could post to make other sorts of changes, such as posting a picture of a landlord with the caption “aw wish he’d go away” or a picture of the Dáil with the caption “bye bye”.

In a statement posted on UCD’s own Twitter account, they explained that they cancelled the assignments because they “didn’t realise that you guys didn’t like this stuff” and that “if we had known you weren’t into assignments

we never would have given them to you”. When they received criticism for not recognising the opinions of students until they could see a possible PR stunt in the future, they replied with a shallow attempt at a meme that hadn’t been funny in weeks.

Lecturers and tutors from all faculties across the college have expressed unprecedented levels of relief since the announcement of the cancellation. One tutor was overheard saying that they “can actually get a proper break instead of correcting film essays all day” and an average of 12 flights per faculty was booked through Skyscanner this week. “Honestly,” one teacher told the Harpy, “the only way I could be happier with this week is if they told me that I never had to teach anyone ever again.” Any attempts to approach President Deeks’ office for a statement has been met with silence, although one reporter claimed to hear champagne popping, cheering and the music of Tame Impala coming from inside the office.

Other students are trying to use this same technique to achieve their goals too. An unnamed editor from the Observer was seen to tweet a picture of The Harpy saying “wish this could go away” so if you’re reading this article now, it means that the tweet didn’t work and they can go suck a fat one.

Following a series of bad Tinder dates and unsolicited crotch pictures, a young woman from Dublin is conducting studies to decide whether the male sex is necessary for the development of the human race.

Theresa LightThatNeverGoesOut is a final year science student in UCD who has decided to focus her final thesis on figuring out a way to eradicate the need for men. Titled “Are Pricks Pricks? A Journey To Freedom”, Theresa plans to conduct academic study and experiments on the behaviours of men to see exactly what they contribute to society.

“It wasn’t until I came to college that I really started questioning the need for the opposite sex”, said Theresa. “I always had a sneaking suspicion they were useless from watching them rip each others shirt pockets in secondary school, but it wasn’t until I started dating that I really interrogated the notion.” Key examples of the inherent uselessness of man according to Theresa includes lack of hygiene, the inability to maintain a friendship with anyone they’re attracted to, and essentially every major war in human history.

The announcement of the study was met with much controversy and opinions have been split on the topic of the thesis. Sharon Spit from FemSoc was quoted as saying “honestly, we could have told you the answer to this ques-

tion years ago. We’re glad Theresa is making this study though, now we’ll have irrefutable proof that men are the worst, other than all the proof that we have from text messages, governments, and the past three thousand years of civilisation.” Mark MyWords from UCD’s MRASoc was approached for interview, but the only words reporters could make out were “not all men” before he erupted in a fit of rage, calling Theresa a lot of names that can’t be published in this paper, but we can tell you they rhyme with “stitch” and “punt”. UCD’s L&H Society had announced that they were to host a debate on the topic, but were forced to cancel due to a lack of any sort of organisational skill from the committee.

Despite the conversation occurring on campus about the subject of her thesis, Theresa is excited for her work to be published for the world to see. “I just hope that this work can be passed on from generation to generation, and I just hope that my daughters will never have to receive a dick pic in their entire lives. If I had to give one piece of advice for all the men in the world, it would be this; stop. Just stop. You know what I mean. Stop it.”

30th October 2019

17

EDITORIAL

Talleyrand Tell your class rep then, because if Talley has to sit through another hour of talking about committees then he’ll be back off to France quicker than you can say “impeachment”.

Hello again all you ghouls and goblins, How frighteningly lovely it is to see you all again, and can I commend UCD Estates for making the campus look so gloomy and oppressive for the Halloween season. What’s that? It always looks like this? Well, at least they’re saving money on something.

Council has returned and it is as dull as ever before. Remember the Pretty Little Thing protest?

Yes I know you do, but do you care? Thought so.

I was perusing through the Irish Times the other day and noticed a very interesting letter from a professor here in UCD. Finally someone speaking some sense! It is not just because of Talley’s astronomical wealth that I am so much better than all of you, it’s my parents fault for giving me flawless genes. I look forward to the grand opening of the UCD School of Phrenology next year.

For those of you who are worried about how much money UCD is spending on seeming frivolous, Talley has some good news for you - I’ve been let in on some top secret plans to make the university more cost efficient. For a starter, they are going to replace the toilet roll with copies of the College Tribune. I know this is shocking how are they so late to the party? I’ve been wip-

ing my big French bottom with it since 1989. In order to keep the cost of counselling down they are going to expel anyone with mental health problems. Finally, Mark Rogers is now the chef in the restaurant, as well as taking out the bins, shutting the library every night, and walking Deeks’ dogs.

THE UNIVERSITY OBSERVER TEAM Editor Gavin Tracey Deputy Editor Aoife Mawn Art and Design Editor Alex Fagan

And what’s been going on in the Union this week then? No seriously, I haven’t a clue either.

Talley doesn’t get periods; what about the men?

Where’s our fun? Would somebody please think of the men? The feminists are taking over.

Design Assistant Orla Keaveney

I must also ask you to stop it with all of these ghost costumes - I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again, my culture is not your costume.

News Co-Editors Andrea Andres Jade Wilson

With that, I bid you adieu, my wretched lovelies,

Comment Editor Garrett Kennedy

Talley

Assistant Editor Nathan Young

Features Editor Doireann deCourcy Mac Donnell Science Editor Lillian Loescher

Editorial As is so often the case in the stories we cover here in The University Observer, our front page covers a story that is, at its core, a story of how UCD refuses to spend money where it is needed most. Almost all aspects of college life is shaped by these decisions, and we are starting to see the seeds of serious problems being sown. We already are witnessing UCD fall year upon year in the global rankings - the question is how far do we have to fall before anything is done about it.

Of course not all of the fault can be laid at the feet of those who run UCD - their hands are tied by the lack of funding they receive from the government. But we cannot pretend as if all

Deputy Science Editor Vanshika Dhyani of these issues are not interlinked. The funding crisis has led to many problems, and a boost in Higher Education spending would surely resolve many of them, but to use this as a smokescreen to explain away mismanagement is disingenuous.

Mismanagement may seem like too harsh a word, but when one considers how a university ought to be run, it seems to be the most pleasant way of putting it. Universities exist to educate, to foster a sense of community for students, researchers and academics, to give any and all students who attend them a world class education. These should be what guide a uni-

versity. Profit should not be taken into account.

Vanity projects should not be considered while so many students are struggling, while buildings around campus fall apart and any common spaces where one is not obliged to spend money are being slowly eradicated.

One can begin to sound like a broken record when discussing matters such as this, but it is vital for all of us who care deeply about this institution to never let it leave the front of our heads. To do otherwise is to capitulate to those who want from the university that which does not have the common good of staff and students at heart.

Eagarthóir Gaeilge Danielle Nic Gill Fhinnéin Agriculture and Rural Affairs Editor Niall Hurson Law and Politics Editor Arshdeep Kaur The Harpy Editor Hugh Carr Sports Editor Andrew Dempsey Chief of Photography Alex Fagan Deputy of Photography Sofia Dragacevac Chief of Videography Eleanora Dzhungurova Deputy Videographer Fiadh Melina Brosnan Columnists Contributors Sophie Finn Max Feenan Sara Rafter Sam Keane Eleanor Moloney Anjan Venkatesh Ruby O’Connor Eniola Kasim Arisha Ali Jade Norton Shane MacDomhnaill Noel Bardon Andrew Wall Young Man Belfield Johnny Journalist Gráinne Daly Edward Leonard

********************************* Letters, corrections, and clarifications pertaining to articles published in this newspaper and online are welcomed and encouraged.

Letters should be addressed to: The Editor, University Observer, UCD Student Centre, Belfield, Dublin 4 Correspondence may also be sent to editor@universityobserver.ie

18 VOL. XXVI, ISSUE 3

Production Ingredients Chocolate buttons, Elly’s filmsoc popcorn, feeling oddly relaxed, Mikey and Ted, just hearing a pull quote, the new office lamp, a kettle that works

SPORT

The start of the wave?

After a seismic achievement for former UCD student Ciara Mageean, Andrew Dempsey has a look at what may come next for Irish Athletics in the wake of the Doha World Championships.

Incredible. Outrageous. Unprecedented. They are just some of the words that have been used to describe Ciara Mageean and her phenomenal display at the World Athletic Championships in Doha earlier this month. A former UCD student and prodigy of the UCD Athletics Club, Mageean surprised many with her gallant showing in the final of the 1500 metres final, setting a personal best time of 4:00.15, just a mere nine seconds off eventual winner Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands, who clocked a championship-record time of 3:51.36.

In truth, it was a superb result for Mageean who became only the second Irishwoman in history to reach the final of the 1500m World Championships final – with a certain Sonia O’Sullivan being the only other to achieve that feat. As she told RTÉ Sport after the race, the

Down native was overjoyed with her performance in the sweltering Qatar heat; “I’m absolutely over the moon. I said I’d come in and throw the kitchen sink at it. I did, that pace went out hard. I know there’s girls out there who have ran 3.56 - I’m just not there yet. But whenever the pace went, I said ‘Ciara don’t get disheartened. You’re at the back of the field but that’s OK.

work to do to be where I want to be. First place is my goal in life and I’m going to work super hard over the next while to close that gap.”

A recent graduate of Physiotherapy in UCD, the 27-year-old continued; “Coming down that last home straight, I was hurting. And it’s very hard whenever you know you’re at the back of the field. Sometimes your mind can go. I did everything I could to catch the Ugandan girl and listen, 10th in the world - I put the swan on a lead and I tried my best to keep hold of it! I ran out and ran 4.01 in a split of a mile over in Monaco and it just showed me where I can be. Give me another race and I could run sub-four but it’s October. I’m ready for a break, I’m going to fly into Dublin, watch the girls play football in Tallaght. I can’t wait! I’ll see my boyfriend, see my family and then the hard work starts again.

“However, Tokyo is still quite a long distance away, that much is clear”

“I want to say a huge thank you to everybody out in the crowd. I saw the tricolours and the Down jerseys. It’s an absolute credit and I’m so grateful for that. I see the messages coming through and it really means so much, it gives you a lift.

I think everyone can see I’m a different athlete now, it’s clear to see how much I’m enjoying it.

“That’s not a bad place to be for a I’m grateful to be able to wear this vest, to be able to represent my country, my hometown, my wee girl from Portaferry” county and my team in Manchester.”

Clearly overjoyed by it all, many questions have “I came into this competition ranked probably emerged in the midst of Mageean’s achievement 14th or 16th and came 10th in the world. That’s – with one of the most pressing being, where can not a bad place to be for a wee girl from Porta- we go from here? Are we on the crest of a wave ferry. I’m delighted, it shows me that I’ve a lot of in Irish Athletics once more? Who knows really,

especially given the disappointment regarding both Thomas Barr and Mark English in their respective events. English, a fellow former UCD student came seventh out of an eight man field in his semi-final heat with a 1:47.25 time – which was ultimately not enough in his 800m speciality.

While English’ performance and subsequent time did not come as a surprise to many of those who would keep a firmly fixated eye on Irish Athletics, there will undoubtedly be a feeling of who knows what comes next for the Donegal native – a previous psychology student and recent physiotherapy graduate. English will be 27 by the time Tokyo 2020 comes around, and he will be 31 come Paris 2024 so this could, in theory be his last shot at glory on the Olympic stage, and to produce another performance on the world stage that many believe he is capable of showcasing. But, what better way would it be to do this on the greatest stage of all next summer.

However, Tokyo is still quite a long distance (pardon the pun) away, that much is clear.

There is plenty of time for form to be won and lost, injuries to be picked up and shrugged off, and a scandal or two to emerge before the serious business kicks off in Japan next summer.

Perhaps it is slightly premature to make any assertion as to what Doha achieved for Irish Athletics. It was definitely a step in the right direction however, that must be accepted, but will it have as much of an impact as the Olympics will have?

Probably not, but that’s the question we will all love to find out the answer to. As for now – Doha needs to be seen as a stepping stone, a platform even, for greater hopes and dreams to be realised in the coming years, one can hope.

Club Focus: Olympic Handball Andrew Dempsey takes a look at the goings-on at the UCD Olympic Handball Club.

Nestled within the homely comforts of the UCD Sports Centre, the UCD Olympic Handball have been building slowly over the past couple of years. A sport that is far from mainstream on these shores, handball has accelerated into being a rapidly rising niche in mainland Europe.

To put the comparison of how Ireland fits into the European model of a sport on the rise, there are only six senior teams that compete on the Emerald Isle – in both male and female disciplines. That begs the question, what is Handball exactly? To find out, The University Observer set off to find out more about the sport – with a little bit of a helping hand from UCD’s own Olympic Handball Club.

A game of handball consists in which two teams of seven players each pass a ball using their hands with the aim of throwing it into the goal of the opposition. A standard match consists of two periods of 30 minutes, and the team that scores more goals wins, naturally enough.

Modern handball is played on a court of 40 by 20 metres with a goal in the middle of each end. The goals are surrounded by a 6-meter zone where only the defending goalkeeper is allowed; goals must be scored by throwing the ball from outside the zone or while “diving” into it.

The sport is usually played indoors, but outdoor variants exist. The game is fast and high-scoring – professional teams typically score between 20 and 35 goals each per game - although lower scores were quite commonplace until recently enough. Physical contact is allowed as a defender to try to stop the attackers from approaching the goal.

Clear? Maybe so. To find out more, we called in the expertise of UCD Olympic Handball’s own David Kiely who explained why one should join the club located on the Belfield campus; “It’s a really popular sport in mainland Europe. I’d say it’s as big as football as it is over here,” Kiely explained.

“A lot of the tackling is very similar to Gaelic football, basketball and a little bit like rugby as well. It’s a very physical game. When I

took it up, I thought it was non-contact, slow and not a good game to be honest. I only took it up because a friend of mine told me to go with him and here I am today running the club! Also, in the UCD club there’s a lot of Erasmus students and internationals so you get to meet a lot of people from everywhere and that’s what’s nice about it. It’s something different and something you wouldn’t get anywhere else really.”

While it was an eye-opener to David when he first joined the club – there are plenty more fascinating tales to tell about the club as he continued; “As it happens, we have two players on our starting team – our men’s team – who play for Ireland. A lot of the call-ups for the Irish team come through us. They ask if anyone involved with the club has Irish heritage so you could end up playing for Ireland at some stage which isn’t something that is normal with any other club.

“We also play in the senior league which is a nice thing to have to say to people. We play in the Irish Premiership for handball. It’s something funny because to play in the top leagues in Europe you have to be insanely good. Everything is done very officially – the shaking of the hands,

waving to the crowd - even if there’s no-one there! - it’s a good laugh to be honest with a good social aspect to it.”

With a potential call-up for Ireland in the pipeline should you possess the talent to achieve it, there is also the opportunity to represent UCD in the British Universities Handball Championships – with UCD becoming the first Irish university in the British Championships.

But, it was only an uncanny turn of events that led to this opportunity presenting itself for the Handball Club as Kiely mentioned; “I guess my personal highlight was three years ago. Over the summer of 2017, I played handball for a handball club in London – I was born there – and my family live there. I played for a mediocre side, Chelsea Handball Club.

“A few of the players on the team were university students and they were telling me about this competition. It’s called the British Universities Handball Championships. They played it up to be the Champions League of Universities in Britain and Northern Ireland and in September of my second year in college I emailed the head of the English Handball Fed-

eration and I asked if UCD could participate in the event.

“They said we could participate but we had to qualify. As there’s no qualification process in Ireland, we hosted a game against UCC. We won the game easily enough so we emailed the result to the Federation and they said we could participate.

“The highlight was going to that event in Kent. We played Durham, Oxford and Edinburgh Universities and that was a real eye-opener to be honest. The level over there is way higher than here and that trip was great for developing the club over the past two years, I think. This year we happen to be going to that same tournament again – which will be a great experience!”

Should you wish to get in touch with the UCD Olympic Handball Club, you get in touch with them via their social media channels – while you can also email them (ucdolympichandball@ gmail.com) to learn more details about the club and schedules.

30th October 2019

19

SPORT

Art of Fighting Gráinne Daly takes a look at whether or not combat sports lost their soul to ‘box-office’ fighting events.

Let’s not be deluded by thinking that the concept of box-office fighting events belongs to our era of mass media. A glance back to the ancient Greeks and their obsession with the Olympic Games indicates that, even then, there was a healthy appetite for big sporting occasions. And the old Greeks, just like us, also had a bit of a thing for combat sports. Pankration was a form that consisted of a blend of boxing and wrestling, much like techniques we see in present day MMA (mixed martial arts).

The word athlete comes from Greek and means ‘one who competes for a prize’, and prize fighting is an innovation that has been in combat sports for some time now. In professional boxing and MMA, the objective is clear and simple: incapacitate your opponent, hurt them bad.

Knockouts are the silver linings. And for as long as silver linings have been spun from sweat and blood, there have been those reaping gold: promoters.

Mixed martial art fighting gained traction in Brazil in the 1950s in tournaments that predominantly featured capoeira, boxing and Brazilian jiu-jitsu. In 1980, the first regulated MMA league was founded in the US and in 1993, the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) was formed with a clear aim of developing the tournament into a television franchise. Thus heralded the dawn of MMA for entertainment sake. This, combined with the popularity of big ticket boxing and wrestling events, fortified the strength of the combat entertainment industry on the whole.

And that is precisely the key business involved: entertainment. Fat cheques have lured fighters to other codes under the glare of

spotlights, cameras and pay per view eyes. Muhammed Ali versus Antonio Inoki in Wrestle Mania 1976 wasn’t an isolated case of boxer versus wrestler. Mike Tyson and Floyd Mayweather are among other big names to have since followed suit. Conor McGregor left the octagon to play pugilist against Mayweather who came out of retirement to take the fight. Or should I say the money? Because that’s all there was to it, with both fighters pocketing record sums in pay per view and sponsorship earnings in addition to the purse. Last week Tyson Fury took to the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) stage to fight Braun Strowman. Fury is due a rematch with Deontay Wilder in February 2020, so the WWE gig is an exercise in pre-fight promotion, plus a handsome payday. But in sporting terms, it is like asking T.J. Reid to hurl with a lightsaber.

It is not sport. It is fantasy.

“There is still so much work to be done to eradicate the perception that sport only exists in a man’s world.”

Among the promoters to have benefited from the success of the combat entertainment business is Eddie Hearn. He came in for criticism recently when Saudi Arabia was announced as the venue for the former heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua’s December rematch against Andy Ruiz Jr. Hearn responded by admitting that the money offered by the Arabs was simply “too much to turn down.” A purpose built 15,000 seater arena is under construction for what is being dubbed as the ‘Clash on the Dunes’ but given that AJ is expected to receive around $75M for the fight,

one could be forgiven for mistaking it as ‘Cash on the Dunes’.

We know that men and women who are paid to beat each other up, aren’t always nice guys and girls, something that promoters believe enhances their market appeal. Sonny Liston, Prince Naseem Hamed, Mike Tyson: boxing has had its fair share of bad boys. The same goes for the octagon: Conor McGregor and Jon Jones, the highest paid UFC fighters, have had numerous bouts with the law. Jones has a number of convictions and was suspended twice from the UFC over failed drug tests, McGregor is racking up charges here and in the US for a variety of offences. But the King himself is no stranger to trouble. The most famous promoter of all time, Don King, who oversaw ‘The Rumble in

the Jungle’ and the ‘Thrilla in Manila’ was twice charged with murder and faced many lawsuits by his former clients, one of whom was Mike Tyson, who claimed King had defrauded him of $100M during the course of his career. This is the stuff of gangster films and box-office productions.

When it came to sport, the Greeks believed that a god or a hero was responsible for inventing the rules. In professional combat sports, promoters are gods. They make big bucks in the jungle, have built arenas in the desert. They turn a blind eye to bitten ears and drug abuse.

The fighter’s power: his fists… his feet…? The fighter’s greatest strength is his promotability.

In the undisputed era of combat entertainment, showmanship not sportsmanship is the prized commodity.

Are we doing enough for women’s sport?

Despite record attendance at women’s sporting events, Edward Leonard asks if we are doing enough to support the development of women’s sport?

2019 was another year for record attendances at women’s sporting events. The 2019 All-Ireland Ladies Football final saw an attendance of over 56,000 – an increase of over 5,000 in 2018. Such attendance figures would have been unheard of 7 years ago when 17,000 fans travelled to Croke Park to see Cork and Kerry fight to win the Brendan Martin Cup. The promotion of women’s sport in recent years is clearly behind the increase in attendance but are we doing enough to support the development of women’s sport? The recent Ireland v Ukraine women’s soccer match was a sell-out but are we placing enough pressure on sporting organisations to further promote women in sport?

Last March, Sport Ireland launched its Women in Sport policy, outlining their commitments to promoting female involvement in sports. There is still so much work to be done, despite the gap between male and female sports participation falling from 15.7% to 4.5% between 2007 and 2017. Even though just over

20 VOL. XXVI, ISSUE 3

40% of women regularly participate in sport, there is a large proportion of women not actively participating in sport. This is partly due to sport historically not being highly encouraged towards females. But the lack of funding that has gone into female sports has greatly affected the amount of coaching and resources and the overall female participation. Despite the recent announcement of a €3 million investment into women’s sport by Sport Ireland, much more investment is needed to promote gender equality in sport.

The recently launched 20x20 movement has been working towards increasing the overall visibility of women’s sport and to change the perception that Irish people have towards women in sport. Their primary targets are, by the end of 2020, for there to be a 20% increase in media coverage of women in sport, 20% more female participation in sport and 20% more attendance at women’s sporting events. Their ambition is to ensure sport is something where both men and

women can be included. ‘Show Your Stripes’ is their way of asking people to play their part in increasing the visibility of women’s sport in Ireland, adopting the stance of “if she can’t see it, she can’t be it”. This was seen at the recent All-Ireland Senior Football semi-final between Dublin and Mayo which, despite it being a male sporting event, having 82,300 people focusing on women’s sport is a positive step forward.

The overall media coverage of women in sport has increased greatly in recent years, through both broadcasting women’s sporting events and an increased number of female pundits and presenters. To think that you could have women providing punditry on men’s matches would’ve been inconceivable 10 years ago but is now a regular occurrence. Retired sports stars such as Alex Scott, Fiona Coughlan and Hope Solo all opted to move into punditry upon retirement and proved early on to be fan favourites.

An even more inconceivable concept 10 years ago would have been having women hosting TV

coverage of men’s matches, but now with RTE and Sky Sports both having their GAA coverage anchored by women, in Joanne Cantwell and Rachel Gredley respectively, the idea that talking about sport on television is just for men is fading gradually. Even video games have now opted to include female sports for the first time, with the FIFA series now including female international teams and the UFC including female fighters in their video game series. By doing this, they are furthering their reach of promoting women in sport to a predominately young male market who may only be aware of male athletes.

Despite all this work, there is still so much work to be done to eradicate the perception that sport only exists in a man’s world. This was highlighted in the recent ‘tracksuit-gate’ saga, where the Irish women’s football team were asked to change in airport toilets to hand back their tracksuits so other teams could use them. These were some of the disgraceful demands being placed on them by the FAI. All they were looking for were, “the basics”, according to player Áine O’Gorman. There are many underage male teams who receive better resources so to think that a national senior side were exposed to such treatment amplifies the work that sporting organisations must do to reduce the gender equality gap in sport.

We all need to play our part to help encourage more women to get involved in sport, but equality will not automatically arise. Little things, such as increased TV coverage of women’s sport, greater government investment into helping schools, and sporting organisations to get girls involved in sport and to reduce female drop out levels. Men and women are not equal in sport now, but over time, through increased female representation, we can ensure that sport is enjoyable for all.