The University Observer: Volume XVI, Issue 1

SPORT

UCD STAY IN Hunt for promotion BACK PAGE

Observer Digest NEWS LawSoc defend Model debate The auditor of LawSoc has defended a Glamour Model debate where a guest stripped to her underwear P3

OPINION Sympathy for the Devil Aidan Kirrane asks if Brian Cowen is the right man at the wrong time P14

File sent to DPP over FEE occupation MICHELLE MCCORMICK A file has been sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) relating to the occupation of a Green Party TD’s office by the Free Education for Everyone (FEE) lobby group.

The sit in, which occurred last December at the Lucan constituency office of Dublin Mid-West TD Paul Gogarty, resulted in a member of staff being locked into the office with the protestors, and damage caused to the building when Gardaí used force to enter the premises.

Deputy Gogarty’s constituency office is located in the Muintir na Tíre Hall building, which predates the Great Famine and is thus a public listed building.

Deputy Gogarty, the Green Party Spokesperson for Education, was unable to comment to The University Observer on the DPP proceedings, but confirmed that the action involved a member of his staff.

He did state that he was concerned about FEE’s actions during the occupation. “One important issue [the DPP file] does not involve was the misappropriation of computer equipment in my office by some of the individuals concerned”, Continued on P2 >>

15th September 2009

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY...

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RECORD BREAKERS otwo meets the man behind guinness world records

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15th September 2009

Bridget Fitzsimons examines the value for money of living on the campus residences P5

PROTESTS, PITCHES AND POLITICS: A HISTORY OF BELFIELD

SUPPLEMENT

The University

VOLUME xiv ISSUE 1

ANALYSIS A place to call home

FEATURES

Ne quid false dicere audeat ne quid veri non audeat

IRELAND’S AWARD-WINNING STUDENT NEWSPAPER

Retailers may refuse new student card for discounts BRIDGET FITZSIMONS

T

he new student cards introduced by the university will prove problematic for students who wish to avail of student discounts, The University Observer has learned.

Many well-known retailers – including IMC Dun Laoghaire, Topshop, Burton and Schuh – have said that a student card without an expiry date would be difficult to use when trying to avail of student discounts.

While some said they would accept the cards for the current academic year given the issue date of September 2009, they said that discounts for the 2010-11 year would not be offered with cards issued in 2009. Other retailers have said that they cannot accept any student cards without expiry dates.

Students’ Union (SU) President, Gary Redmond, says the SU will “have to sit down and work it out with the retailers,” and that he feels that, for him, it “is important, as a former Ents officer, [to ensure] that the discount for students is not only encouraged but also maintained.”

The cards, which differ from previous versions in that they do not expire each year, have been introduced by UCD as part of a money-saving scheme.

Redmond believes the change “does save the university somewhere in the region of €40,000 per year,” which he called “a

Former Editors of The University Observer gather to celebrate our 15th Birthday Nathalie Márquez-Courtney

welcome saving”, and also feels that “the role of student cards is changing.”

Redmond is adamant that the SU, in partnership with the university, will ensure that student discounts can be retained. He stated that, in the coming months, UCDSU would “be working with UCD, and any retailer that has a problem, to work toward a final solu-

tion.”

The new student cards are intended to last students for the entirety of their chosen programme. If a student changes programme, they will be issued with a new student card. Redmond could not confirm the exact cost of replacing a student card, but confirmed that it has increased from last year’s charge of €13,

and is reported to be in the region of €30.

Students living in the Roebuck Hall and Glenomena campus residences can also use the new student cards as door keys for their apartments, while one hundred students living in Merville are piloting an entry scheme to access their housing using microchipped cards.

University defends Health Centre charges QUINTON O’REILLY

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university spokesperson has defended the introduction of fees for the Student Health Service, which came into effect on 6th September.

The charges- €10 to see a nurse, €25 to see a doctor and €40 to see a psychiatrist- are expected to help cover the costs of running the Health Centre, which amount to €750,000 annually for doctor and nurse consultations, and €650,000 for the student counselling services.

University officials have defended the rates, stating that they are around fifty per cent of the typical GP charges. They also said that while the new charges won’t make a profit, the cutting of university funding meant that the introduction of these charges was necessary.

“Given that the University’s funding has been cut again, the decision was taken to introduce a charge for the health service in order to be able to maintain

this service,” said the spokesperson. “If they [the students] cannot afford it, they can apply to the Student Welfare Fund.

This fund has been increased substantially this year to allow for this need.”

President of the Students’ Union (SU), Gary Redmond, said that while the Health Centre is a vital service for students, it was not prioritised as the most important based on the opinions of students. Redmond referred to the survey conducted by the SU last term, in which the majority of students felt that maintaining the university’s library service was of a higher priority then preventing the introduction of health centre charges.

“The Health Service certainly is an important service, but not the most important one in UCD, as dictated by the students themselves,” explained Redmond. “The SU took their priorities from the survey conducted of all students last semester, in which they stated that

maintaining a good library service was more important than preventing the introduction of Health Service charges.”

Redmond stressed that the most vulnerable students will be exempt from the fees, instead having their bills covered by the Student Welfare Fund. He acknowledged that applications for this fund could increase, but felt that it would be difficult to judge how much the number would increase.

The distribution of all funds within the Health Service will be decided by the Director of Student Health, Dr Sandra Tighe, the Vice President for Students, Dr Martin Butler and Redmond. All surplus revenue generated by fees will be allocated to the Health Service and would cover staffing costs and the introduction of extra facilities.

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15.09.09

NEWS

news@universityobserver.ie

HSE chief to return as Files sent to DPP over FEE occupation Professor of Paediatrics CONTINUED

GAVAN REILLY

<< continued from P1 he stated. “At least one computer was illegally accessed by members of the FEE group, to send out a press statement and to do coursework. These computers contain private and sensitive information relating to constituents,” said Deputy Gogarty.

FEE spokesperson Julian Brophy was unaware of the file being lodged with the DPP, and was adamant that no charges had been brought against any of the protestors. He also denied that that any computer equipment was tampered with during the protest. “We didn’t access the computer at all, not at all. We talked to the secretary there and guaranteed her, as much as the word of eleven students could mean, that we had no intention of snooping through the

office, that we were only occupying the office as a statement against fees.”

Deputy Gogarty went on to say that he felt the protest undermined the efforts of the FEE campaign. “I found their invasion of my office and their intimidation of a staff member to be unfair, immature and ultimately counterproductive. The USI and UCD Students’ Union have been doing fantastic work to highlight the problems that reintroducing fees or a loan scheme would have and the efforts of FEE have only served to damage the cause so dear to the hearts of many students,” he said.

“I respect the right of people to protest, but these individuals had no right to access my computer or barricade the door with a member of staff still inside the office.”

Current CEO of the Health Services Executive (HSE), Professor Brendan Drumm, is to return to UCD as Professor of Paediatrics when his tenure with the HSE ends next year.

Prof. Drumm is currently on a leave of absence from the position, worth approximately €284,000 a year, and is also expected to return to duty as a consultant gastroenterologist in Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin.

A spokesperson for UCD confirmed that Prof. Drumm’s leave of absence extended for a maximum of five years, and that he “is entitled to return to the University when [his term with the HSE] is completed. The practice of facilitating staff in this way is well established and doesn’t have any implications in the context of the current recruitment policy.”

UCD currently operates a recruitment

freeze for financial reasons, forbidding the hiring of new staff.

The spokesperson also confirmed that Prof. Drumm would be paid “on the academic consultant scale”, and when questioned about the salary for such a role, described the figure of €284,000 as being “in the ball park”.

Prof. Drumm’s current role carries an annual salary of approximately €400,000 plus bonuses, though he has insisted that this falls below his combined earnings from his earlier roles in UCD and Crumlin.

When appointed as the HSE’s first Chief Executive Officer in 2005, reports suggested that Prof. Drumm’s employment was dependant on his returning to a high-level position when his tenure ended in summer 2010. Minister for Health and Children, Mary Harney, refused to commit to such an appointment at that time. The dispute was resolved, however, when UCD offered to provide

Professor Brendan Drumm a leave of absence, giving Prof. Drumm the option to return to academic life next summer.

Prof. Drumm is expected to take time to update his clinical skills before returning to full medical practise.

Walk of Life Former Deputy Editor inspired to walk 500 miles in 28 days for charity

BRIDGET FITZSIMONS UCD graduate and former Deputy Editor of The University Observer, Emmet Ryan, has completed a walk from Malin Head to Mizen Head in aid of the Cystic Fibrosis Association of Ireland.

The walk totalled over 500 miles and took Ryan 28 days to complete, raising €3,000 for the CFAI. The idea for the walk came to him after hearing The Proclaimers’ song ‘500 Miles’ in a bar. Ryan remarked, “I’d love to say I was hammered when I came up with the idea and blame it on that but unfortunately, it was early in the night and I was being cocky.”

Ryan completed the walk largely unaccompanied and has admitted that

readjusting to meeting and talking to people has been strange. Ryan cites UCD students and alumni as a great support to him during the trek, saying that “a lot of alumni and current students helped me find places to stay along the way. I was amazed at the way so many people connected to the college were willing to help out and support what I was doing.”

The walk took its toll on Ryan’s body – losing three stone throughout the four weeks – but nonetheless he is planning to follow this with further fundraising, admitting that “a charity boxing match has come to mind, but there are issues to overcome to make it a reality.” He has entered the Dublin Half-Marathon in September and the Adidas Dublin Marathon in October, but will give himself a well-deserved rest in the meantime.

UCD graduate Emmet Ryan arriving at St Patrick’s Church , Goleen, marking the end of his trek

Freshers’ Ball survives last minute line-up cancellation MATT GREGG

Tinchy Stryder cancelled his appearance at the Freshers’ Ball

U

CD Students’ Union Entertainments Officer, Mike Pat O’Donoghue, has called the Freshers’ Ball “a great success”, surviving the late withdrawl of the advertised headline act, Tinchy Stryder.

The event, which was held in The Academy on Monday 7th September, was a sell-out with approximately 1,600 students attending.

Simian Mobile Disco were confirmed as the replacement headline act for the event on Friday 4th September, following Tinchy Stryder’s withdrawl due to a “scheduling conflict.”

O’Donoghue told The University Observer that the artist had been booked early in the summer, and that he is confident the rapper will perform in UCD in the near future despite the cancellation. He said he felt that UCD is “owed” a performance by the artist, and added that he had “no more than ten” requests for refunds from ticketholders after the change in the bill was announced. However O’Donoghue admitted that he “got lucky” with the availability of a high-calibre replacement act following Tinchy Stryder’s withdrawl.

The final line-up included Simian Mobile Disco, Fight Like Apes, The Flaws, Size2Shoes

and Keywest, who performed in separate locations over the three stages of the venue.

O’Donoghue deflected criticism that the final line-up had an excessive emphasis on electro performers, saying that “there was a good mix of acts [with] something for everyone.”

Second year Agricultural Science student Josh Morton, was not disappointed with the change in line up, commenting that “the DJ acts were very good” and that “music-wise it was probably an improvement over last year.”

Not all students found the event satisfactory, however. Second year Arts student, Cormac Kavanagh, felt drinks prices at the venue were uncompetitive and “very dear.” He also questioned the value for money offered by the night, saying that the €15 ticket price was poor value

Simian Mobile Disco, the act that replaced Tinchy Strider at the Ball for what amounted to “the same as a normal night out”.

O’Donoghue stated that the SU were prepared to run the event as a loss leader, to generate interest in the UCD Ents events. However preliminary figures show that the event appears to have turned a “small profit”. The official figures for the night were unavailable at the time of going to print.

15.09.09

NEWS

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Modules condensed to accommodate swine flu BRIDGET FITZSIMONS

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ecturers have been asked to condense the 12-week lecture term into ten lectures, to allow for an average two-week absence due to swine flu. The proposal is one of several measures implemented by the newly appointed Swine Flu Committee.

Students’ Union Education Officer, Donnacha Ó Súilleabháin, told The University Observer that although “the same amount of material will be in [each] module, and the structure will be altered to allow self-directed learning.”

The Office of the President has set up the committee to deal with the consequences of a potential outbreak of the Influenza A(H1N1) virus. As well as the Flu Response Committee, there are “two sub-committees, which deal with more

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specific, day-to-day issues and report back to the committee,” according to SU President, Gary Redmond.

Other measures include the preparation of contingency plans in each School to combat any other disruptions caused by an outbreak. Locum heads of school have been chosen should any current Head become ill and unable to work.

An information website has been compiled, as well as a poster campaign to educate students and staff on how to deal with the symptoms of swine flu. A hotline has been set up to advise students and staff on the identification and treatment of the illness.

As part of the new plan, a selfcertification form has been introduced for students who contract the virus, in lieu of the standard extenuating circumstances form requiring a doctor’s signature.

Ó Súilleabháin has welcomed this measure, saying “students can fill out [the form] themselves if they contract the flu, as current HSE advice is to avoid GPs if you think you may have flu.” The form can only be used once, as Influenza A(H1N1) symptoms cannot be re-exhibited in previously affected individuals.

The University has already been host to an outbreak of swine flu this summer.

In July, seven foreign students visiting UCD for language courses were quarantined after displaying flu-like symptoms, while SU Welfare Officer Scott Ahearn also contracted the virus after a Union of Students in Ireland training event in Waterford.

Advice for UCD students and staff pertaining to the swine flu virus can be found at the UCD influenza website, ucd.ie/influenza.

LawSoc Auditor defends surprise stripping at debate BRIDGET FITZSIMONS

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CD Law Society Auditor, Conor O’Hanlon, has defended last week’s Glamour Model debate, at which a model appearing as a guest speaker stripped to her underwear. When asked whether he felt that the behaviour was inappropriate, he stated that “some people might take that view. I wouldn’t.”

The debate, which took place on Tuesday 8th September, also featured speakers from the Society who appeared on stage inebriated, and who made a range of sexist and racist jokes.

While O’Hanlon said that some of the behaviour was “regrettable”, he saw the evening as “quite an enjoyable event.”

He told The University Observer that the members of the Law Society who appeared drunk while speaking at the debate “are due to make a full apology at the next LawSoc meeting,” and that “they’ll also be putting a full, written apology on the LawSoc noticeboard.”

He also said that, in future, “there will be a full check on speakers before they

go on,” to prevent drunken members of the Society from speaking.

O’Hanlon felt that “there was nothing that I could do or that the Law Society could do” to stop the glamour model from stripping, however he did state that he “would have stepped in had she tried to go any further.”

When asked if he thought the event reflected badly on the Society, O’Hanlon replied that “there were a number of things at the event that I’m not happy about, but I wouldn’t say that the event was a complete disaster.”

He felt that, despite certain issues, the evening was successful and that “the vast majority of people enjoyed themselves.”

O’Hanlon continued, “I wouldn’t say that it was appropriate for a Law Society event or for a formal debate”. He added however that the feedback he has received from people who attended the debate was mostly upbeat, stating that, “the vast majority of comments that I’ve heard have been positive.”

O’Hanlon made a full apology for the behaviour of both the Society and guest speakers at the debate.

Rooms still empty after 7% price hike Res reopened to second years and Dubs AMY BRACKEN The atrium of the current Student Centre

Student Centre opening earmarked for March 2o11 MATT GREGG THE NEW UCD Student Learning, Leisure and Sports Complex will now be completed by March 2011, according to the current Student Centre Manager, Dominic O’Keeffe. He confirmed that they “have got the builder waiting to go” and that construction “should start in mid-September.”

Although originally scheduled to be ready for use in December 2008, O’Keeffe insists “that they haven’t had any delays” in building the new student centre. “At the outset, you may say you’ll have it done in three years, but when you go and do it you find other things you have to sort out first.”

O’Keeffe explained that much of this work, such as the relocation of the National Hockey Stadium or the installation of a drainage system, could not have been completed any earlier, as they

could only be carried out in the summer months. “It’s not like we’ve been doing nothing for six months and just going off to the beaches in Sandycove,” he said.

“We have to build to suit the seasonality of things.”

O’Keeffe also highlighted the effect that the new method of contracts’ procurement had on the project. Under the legislation introduced two years ago, building companies now bear responsibility for any costs exceeding the agreed budget of a project, rather than the client.

“This makes for a more complex tender process which takes longer,” stated O’Keeffe. “This is positive too, because it results in very competitive prices which are not as high as we thought they were going to be. The project has now come in at about €5m under budget.”

O’Keeffe made it clear that this will have no effect on the student centre levy, which increased to €157.50 this year.

Pointing out that the original referendum declared the levy “to increase in line with normal inflation,” O’Keeffe stated that it was merely a matter of “defining normal inflation” and adding it to the centre levy.

“You’ll have inflation going up more one year than another,” he continued.

“So our financial advisors, Meszaros, advised to charge a mean average so that it was fair and balanced on everybody.

Otherwise one fellow may have to pay €270 one year while next year they would only pay €170.”

O’Keeffe announced that the charge to cover inflationary costs has been “locked in at five per cent”, and continued that none of these funds will go into the construction of the centre itself but rather contribute “to cover the cost of running the project over the lifetime of the mortgage, like it says in the 2006 referendum.”

Accomodation places on campus are still empty following the seven per cent increase in prices this year. According to the UCD residences website, the places will be offered to all undergraduates in a bid to fill the spaces left over.

Despite an average seventeen per cent fall in the rental prices around Dublin during the past year, UCD authorities chose to increase the cost of renting campus accommodation by seven per cent on last year’s figure.

Accommodation fees have risen from just under €4,000 per academic year to €4,288 per year for Merville and Belgrove residences, while Roebuck Hall residents, who were previously charged approximately €5,000 per year, are now required to pay €5,324.

Students’ Union (SU) Accommodation Officer, Dave Jones, told The University Observer he suspects “numbers are down because the prices have gone up, [but] I didn’t think they were inviting second years to apply”.

A UCD spokesperson defended the increase in rent, explaining: “the accommodation office undertook a review of rents last February and implemented a seven per cent increase across the board.

Although private rental accommodation

has fallen, the office maintains on-campus residence is still very good value.”

In another change to the rules governing the UCD campus accommodation, students will now be allowed to sign in on guest to stay overnight in their apartments. Students previously faced fines of one hundred euro for accommodating overnight guests.

It has also emerged that the UCD accommodation office has also acquired apartments near Stillorgan, which have been made available to UCD students.

Apartments in the Beechwood Court development at Galloping Green were

Belgrove now costs €113 per week reportedly been made available after the developers struggled to sell them. Jones remarked that the “Beechwood Court apartments were hired en bloc and given out to UCD students”. The complex consists of two bedroomed apartments, costing approximately €1200 per month.

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15.09.09

NEWS

news@universityobserver.ie

Students’ Union breach Travelcard; boycott mandate BRIDGET FITZSIMONS

UCD Young Progressive Democrats donating their remaining funds to the UCD Welfare Fund in June 2009. The cheque for €136.56 was accepted by University President, Dr Hugh Brady. In the photo are three of the former auditors of the Young Progressive Democrats in UCD (from left to right), Stephen Fitzpatrick, Patrick Thomas Carroll and Abey Campbell. The society was offically dissolved over the summer in UCD.

UCD political parties face problems with SIPO JACK HORGAN-JONES Several youth political parties in UCD have encountered problems whilst registering with the Standards In Public Office commission (SIPO) The University Observer has learned.

SIPO requires that each branch of a political party send the previous year’s accounts and register activity with them annually, a practice which extends to the UCD branches of parties including Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, the Labour Party, Sinn Féin, and prior to their disbandment, the Progressive Democrats.

However, this year many of the parties have had to engage into lengthy correspondence with SIPO

for a variety of reasons in order to fulfil this requirement.

Karen Daly, former Chair of UCD Young Fine Gael (YFG), explained that she “wasn’t sure whether we [YFG] actually had to register with SIPO, because we are a society in UCD as opposed to a branch”. SIPO informed YFG that registration was required, but failed to include the relevant forms in their correspondance. Having requested and submitted these forms, Daly is yet to receive further contact from SIPO. The Kevin Barry Cumann, UCD’s youth branch of Fianna Fáil, have also encountered difficulties in registering with the commission. Conor King, former Chair of the KBC, explained that correspondence from SIPO to the

KBC had twice been posted to the wrong address, an error SIPO later acknowledged.

The Young Progressive Democrats (YPD) also encountered problems, with former National Chairman, and UCD postgraduate student, Abey Campbell explaining that the poor returns at the 2007 general election, were the root cause of the problems the YPDs encountered when registering with SIPO, as the party could no longer afford a full-time secretary.

SIPO, Labour Youth and Ógra Sinn Féin were all unavailable for comment at the time of going to print.

SU apologise to Green TD after ad mix-up GAVAN REILLY UCD STUDENTS’ UNION were forced to issue an apology to Deputy Mary White, [Green Party TD for Carlow-Kilkenny], after contributing to a newspaper advert wrongfully claiming the TD to be in favour of third level tuition fees.

The full-page advertisement, which appeared in the 17th August edition of The Irish Times, listed the contact details of each TD alongside their stated position on fees.

Deputy White was incorrectly quoted as being in favour of a means-tested system of fees for college education.

The advertisement was compiled in partnership with the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) and other SUs around the country, and was timed to coincide with the Round One of this year’s CAO offers.

UCDSU then began a media offensive against the TD, claiming her given position to be a direct U-turn on her earlier policy, and contravening that of the Green Party.

SU President, Gary Redmond, told The Irish Independent he believed Fianna Fáil to be “corrupting the once-principled Greens”.

Redmond later explained that the confusion arose when a UCDSU representative, while researching the advertisement, called Leinster House seeking to speak to the Deputy’s office and was mistakenly connected to the office of Senator Mary White of Fianna Fáil, an outspoken advocate for means-tested tuition fees. According to SU reports, Lein-

ster House staff repeated this error on four different occasions.

Deputy White, who is the Green Party Deputy Leader, said she wanted “to re-iterate my view, which I have always held, that I share the view of my Green Party parliamentary colleagues that there should be no re-introduction to fees. I have always been opposed to them and remain so. The confusion arose because the USI [on whose behalf UCDSU were acting] contacted the other Mary White, asked for her views, and published them thinking that they were mine.”

The UCDSU Press Office told The University Observer that Deputy White “failed to respond to four letters – two from UCD Students’ Union, one from DIT Students’ Union, one from TCD Students’ Union – and so a call was put in to her Leinster House office to gauge her stance over the phone. The Leinster House switchboard put the call through to Senator Mary White, of Fianna Fáil, and her views were recorded in the full-page Irish Times ad.”

He went on to say that “UCD Students’ Union spoke with Mary White TD and clarified the issue and the Green Party reflected this through a press release on their website.”

He concluded by saying the SU hoped “to rely on her in the fight against fees”.

USI Deputy President, Dan O’Neill, confirmed the dispute between the Students’ Unions and Deputy White had been resolved, describing Deputy White as being “as happy as she could be, being in a government who seem intent on bringing in fees”.

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CD Students’ Union may have been in breach of a mandate relating to the Student Travelcard since it was enacted during the 2007-08 academic year. The mandate requires the SU to boycott the card, as well as campaigning for its removal as a requirement for student travel fares, and was passed by the Union’s Council almost two years ago.

Despite this mandate, Student Travelcard have continued to operate within the SU Photocopying Bureau in the library tunnel, while this year’s Freshers’ Guide also carried an ad for the Student Travelcard on its outer cover. Advertising rates for the outer cover were set at €3,000, and revenue from the advert goes directly to the SU, contravening the mandate to boycott the card.

SU President Gary Redmond has defended the Union’s actions, insisting that the SU are completely within the mandate to receive sponsorship from Student Travelcard as well as

housing them in the SU Photomoney off it, and continues to copying Bureau. He stated that earn money off it. However, as providing office space for, and I said, the Union’s view is that receiving advertising revenue it shouldn’t exist but while it was “absolutely not” against the does exist, we have to work with mandate. them, unfortunately. ” Redmond cites student Redmond also said he doesn’t needs as a defence for the SU’s feel that there is a conflict of continuing relationship with interest in this case as “this is Student Travelcard on campus. absolutely nothing new.” He He said that “it’s cheaper for students,” and despite the fact that he feels that “the Student Travelcard shouldn’t exist,” Redmond believes that it “it’s the only way that students can get discounts for the train, bus and Luas. We have to accept them while they exist.”

The back page ad and cover of Irish Rail, Luas and Dublin Bus services only accept the Students’ Union Guide a Student Travelcard for student discounts, whereas Bus Éireann accept most universaid that “it really is a conflict sity student cards. within the CIE group that their Despite being mandated subsidiary Bus Éireann will take to campaign for the abolition a student card but another one, of Student Travelcard, the SU Dublin Bus, won’t.” receives both advertising money Redmond declined to comand a contribution from Student ment when asked how much Travelcard allowing them to Student Travelcard pay for their occupy space in the Photocopyspace in the SU Photocopying ing Bureau. Redmond stated that Bureau. “the Students’ Union has earned

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ANALYSIS

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Rip-Off Residence

With rent prices falling all over Dublin but rising on campus, Bridget Fitzsimons asks if UCD can offer value for money

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or students coming to UCD from counties beyond the Pale, rent is a primary collegiate expense. Situated as it is in the leafier suburbs of south Dublin, rents in Belfield and the surrounding areas have historically been reasonably high.

But now, due to the spiralling economic climate and the collapse of the property market, rents across the city have fallen dramatically – a trend that sadly has not been followed on the Belfield campus.

While rents are estimated to have dropped by 17 per cent in Dublin, according to a report conducted by property website Daft.ie, rent on campus has continued to rise by an average of seven per cent each year.

According to the Daft report, South County Dublin has experienced the sharpest fall in rents of any area in Ireland over the past year.

Indeed, rental prices in the area have fallen 23 per cent from their peak.

In an economic climate like ours, where prices are falling in the surrounding areas of Belfield, why is UCD continuing to raise on-campus rent?

The three main undergraduate residences on campus – Belgrove, Merville and Roebuck Hall – all charge rents well above the market average. The former two residences cost €4,288 for the academic year, which runs from 31st August to 21st May, with Roebuck Hall charging

€5,324 for the same period. Weekly rates work out at €113 and €140 per week respectively.

While both Merville and Belgrove fall within the current national average, the facilities on campus cannot be compared to those provided in private residences.

UCD on-campus accommodation is quite basic; Roebuck Hall charges above the market rate, yet apartments do not have an oven, as students are only provided with hobs and a microwave.

Similarly, residents in Merville and Belgrove must share toilets, and some in Belgrove are even required to share bedrooms. If a student can get their own room off-campus a short walk away, why would they pay more to live within the campus walls? While the convenience of living on campus cannot be denied, the standard of the accommodation simply does not justify the constant rise in prices.

According to Students’ Union Accommodation Officer, David Jones, this year’s rise in rent prices for on-campus accommodation is about seven per cent, while South Dublin prices have fallen by 17 per cent. It is no wonder then that residences have had trouble filling spaces this year, with applications extended to second years and others traditionally turned away from campus living. Residences are still not full, something of an

This year’s rise in rent prices for on-campus accommodation is about seven per cent, while South Dublin prices have fallen by 17 per cent

UCD ‘s Roebuck Hall residences charge €5,324 for a 38-week stay, or about €140 per week. anomaly when first year, final year and international students ordinarily snap up the 2,747 on-campus bedrooms.

It seems as if students are finally voting with their feet, and telling UCD that the ridiculous fees are simply not acceptable. If a student can get their own room, far more space than they would on campus, and the peace and quiet that UCD residences simply cannot provide, they will take it. The surrounding areas of Clonskeagh, Ranelagh, Stillorgan, Blackrock and Booterstown offer more personable accommodation only a short walk away.

UCD must offer more value for money if they want campus residences to once again become the most desirable option for students. In times of economic

downturn, students are one of the groups hardest hit. With the possibility of thirdlevel fees bearing down on new students, budgeting is now more important than ever. Parents, who are undoubtedly feeling the strain, will make more of an effort to help their children source cheaper accommodation instead of just sending them to on-campus accommodation, which seems like an easier option.

Individuals are becoming more proactive in saving money, and UCD must budget for this.

In the long run, there is more money to be made by offering lower rents and having on campus residences full, than having expensive rent and be desperate for applicants.

It is up to students to demand better

value and better services, and this is what they seem to be doing this year. UCD accommodation should be based on value for money and provision of good services, instead of an opportunity to rip students off.

Students simply do not have the money to throw away on overpriced accommodation anymore. UCD will not fill these spaces by appealing to other students, as few can afford the current rates.

UCD must realise that it is surrounded by affordable and well-serviced accommodation, and strive to provide competitive encouraging students to live there for the year. Until this happens, the UCD halls of residence will remain unfilled.

Taking charge of our campus S

cantily-clad ladies everywhere; suggestive poses; oiled skin; seductive interplay of light and shadow to create a sensual image… oh, and please attend the debate on the objectification of women in modern society, etc. You may see a few dozen of these posters in front of the James Joyce Library as you emerge from the smoke-cloud beset upon its front steps.

Most people who find these images disagreeable, do so because they feel such posters don’t belong in the corridors of an institute of higher learning. To some, however, they represent a deeper and more systemic problem in the student-governance of our university.

It is said that the evolution of higher consciousness requires the development of self-awareness. This leads to the ability to reflect, to exercise more control, and take more responsibility for our actions.

Our student body – a thriving, changing organism – should be expected to evolve in the same way.

Too often in the recent past we have neglected to exercise self-awareness beyond the simple scope of a token debate or rally. The time is ripe for students to take responsibility for their own actions, yet we continue to let these opportunities slip by.

The annual back-and-forth over society posters is a prime example. For years our student governance has had the chance to step in and institute a poster-checking policy, where before anything can be posted in a public area, an appropriate official could veto it. An offending party (be it a club, society or business) could be fined, or banned from posting again.

This isn’t about free speech, it’s about students governing students. Should we wait until a poster really upsets someone, the national media get involved, and the UCD administration fill this regulatory role instead – thus quashing yet more student autonomy?

This is simply one example of the lack of self-responsibility of our student body.

The sale of cigarettes on campus is another. We sell Fair Trade coffee, organic fruit, recycled paper, and we banned Nestlé and Coca-Cola – yet implicitly endorse smoking!

As a student body we have the ability to control our own destiny, to set ourselves upon a path of intellect, ethic and principle. We have unlimited opportunities to illustrate that our moral compass points true – but neglect to do so.

I know the free speech/will/the-dolphins brigades will find this abhorrent,

With more society posters criticised for lewd imagery, Farouq Manji asks if students can learn to regulate themselves but implementing ethical policies takes nothing away from a student’s free will, nor is it paternalistic in nature. They are simply steps towards students taking responsibility for their own actions.

With ambition, vision, and courage, we could begin building a distinct student voice within campus. The significant principle exhibited by a small act like taking control of posters could be extrapolated to a far greater extent.

Students host many events around campus every year, and people misbehave at every single one of them. Just as with the posters, we are content to

sit back and allow UCD itself mete out punishment. This is not to imply that UCD are unfair or unjust – but wouldn’t a student-centred, student-operated discipline programme be much better?

I’m not speaking of simply banning a student from the Forum Bar for a semester; this goes beyond simple discipline.

If students could implement formal peer-driven discipline, we could create a distinctly unique, transparent, open process to deal with misbehaviour. The benefits of self-regulation would be astronomical. Rather than an arbitrary ruling, a student would face a jury of their peers,

Should we wait until a poster really upsets someone, the national media get involved, and the UCD administration fill this regulatory role instead?

better understand the significance of their actions, and accept a decision far more readily.

The development of self-regulatory systems would make our student body more autonomous, and give us more power over our own affairs – and ultimately, would enhance our position on campus around the decision-making tables.

Of course the ideas expressed here would take years to implement – but that should be a motivating factor, not a deterrent. We must start somewhere, anywhere; perhaps posters are the perfect place.

If we can do posters, maybe we can do more. We can grow, change, evolve.

Twenty years from now, the political atmosphere on this campus could be very different – with a robust, influential and powerful student government, but it starts with today, and us, becoming aware.

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COMMENT

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Looking after the pennies

Many have seen the gradual equalisation of the euro-sterling exchange rate as a chance to save money over what they feel are extortionate prices, but Catherine Maguire explains why we’ll need more than a good exchange rate to save at the local shop

ASDA in Strabane turns the highest profit of any ASDA outlet in the UK

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e’ve all seen the reports following Galway families travelling to Asda in Enniskillen to do their monthly shop, and images of Sainsburys’ car park jammed with Wexford numberplates. It’s a well-known and obvious fact that shopping ‘up North’ is not just cheaper, but markedly so.

This has been more apparent in recent months with the steep decline in the value of the pound sterling, and consumers nationwide have begun to realise what those on the border counties have known for many years.

With this realisation has come anger and resentment at the inflated cost of shopping locally.

What makes matters worse is that direct comparison of prices in major retailers common to both sides of the border has revealed that their prices are not quite in line with the currency exchange.

But before labelling all cross-border traders as cheats, we should investigate all the reasons behind the price differences.

Although the gap between the euro and sterling is expanding again, what most consumers have not taken into account are the many differences in trading costs between Ireland and the UK. It is not just the exchange rate that plays a part in the setting of the prices in any retailer; many other expenses must be taken into account.

A substantial amount of the seemingly inflated prices we see in Ireland are required to cover staffing charges. The National Minimum Wage Act of 2000 states that any experienced employee must be paid €8.65 per hour. In comparison the minimum wage in Britain is £5.52 – or around €6.27. Paying higher staffing costs automatically increases operational costs, which unfortunately are passed on to consumers.

Further to differing pay rates between the two countries, trading in Ireland is also more expensive than in Britain.

Taking property, labour and utility costs into account, operating in Ireland is about a quarter more expensive than in the UK – and this is after the retailer has bought the goods at a set rate. Overall, a National Consumer Agency survey showed that the total cost base of Irish retailers is about 5-6 per cent higher than their UK counterparts. With the result that the NCA reports grocery charges as 31 per cent more expensive in the Republic of Ireland than in the North – with even ownbrand goods between 11 per cent and 17 per cent dearer.

Elsewhere, exaggerated prices on both land and property elevate

Therefore those who reduce their prices to echo a reduced exchange rate lose huge sums of money in the process

Gordon Brown can no longer resist calls for a Leaders’ Debate in advance of the UK General Election next spring, writes Gavan Reilly

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s Gordon Brown’s Labour government watches the clock run down on its five-year term, and the UK slowly creeps towards a General Election, the world will turn its eye to the centre of the old Empire and once again marvel at the archetypal democracy mastered by Britain and bequeathed to the wider world.

The political system in the vast majority of former British colonies, including Ireland, is modelled on the ‘Westminster system’, a simple model in which the people elect members of parties, and the parliamentarians elected the prime minister.

Yet, oddly, the prototype Westminster system – Westminster itself – has never, until now, offered the public what in other countries is considered to be an intrinsic and resolute part of the political calendar: the Leaders’ Debate.

Until now, there has been no formal debate between the leaders of the Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties, and no opportunity for the UK’s 27 million active voters to listen to the three Prime Ministers-in-waiting debate the issues of the day before deciding who they want as their head of government.

Televised debates between the leaders of the main parties are nothing new.

John F. Kennedy outpolled Richard Nixon by a mere 112,000 votes in their 1960 presidential election, with the victory attributed to Kennedy’s smart appearance in the country’s first TV debate, contrasting with Nixon’s groggy and haggard visage.

trading costs, particularly in Dublin, and many retailers in more expensive areas – such as the Dundrum Town Centre or Grafton Street – also rent their outlets.

Rent in these well developed areas is considerable, as the lease is calculated at five percent of the unit or property’s worth.

Nevertheless, prices in larger high street retailers remain the same throughout the country in comparison to much smaller individual businesses, resisting the logical step of adapting their prices to account for local property prices.

Another reason explaining the discrepancy in the euro-sterling rates is the prepurchase of goods at certain times of the

year. Most retailers operating in the UK and Ireland buy stock at the beginning of the UK tax year in April. Therefore those who reduce their prices to echo a reduced exchange rate lose huge sums of money in the process – meaning that companies like the Arcadia group, who run highstreet chains including Burton, Dorothy Perkins, Miss Selfridge and Topshop, incurred substantial losses when lowering their prices by a fifth earlier in the summer. Adopting prices to a consistently changing market would prove expensive to retailers who would then have to pay even more for labour and waste charges.

Accordingly, as proportions of total

operational fees, labour comprises 49 per cent, while property charges entail a further 28 per cent.

While Tesco are to be applauded for introducing euro-for-sterling pricing, the losses they incur as a result are less destructive to their business than if for example, Next were to offer the same deal.

It would seem then a severe cut in wages and devaluing of property is the only way to address the extra price of operating in Ireland, and addressing the extra price of operating in Ireland is the only sure way to decrease the prices consumers pay.

The Silent Debate

Indeed, countless elections around the world have been swung by perceived victories in such debates since – including Bertie Ahern, whose victory in the 2007 General Election was widely attributed to his performance against Enda Kenny on the televised Prime Time debate.

In advance of the next general election, required to take place before May 2010, Sky News have sought to buck this tradition by creating an online petition asking Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg to face off in a televised threeway debate. The campaign has quickly gathered pace amongst the public and the media alike: over nine thousand people had signed the petition before it mysteriously vanished from the internet at the time of writing.

The notion of a debate has also attracted support from figures across the international political establishment. Quick to hop on the cause, ITV has also declared its intention to host such a debate, and Cameron and Clegg have publically stated their willingness to participate, leaving only Gordon Brown continuing to stonewall public demand to take part.

Brown’s silent refusal to take part is difficult to comprehend. With his party cruising for a dismal battering at the polling booth – latest polls suggest the Conservatives can expect a comfortable 96-

seat majority after the election – and with detracting from open debate. Labour his own personal approval at a wretched supporters alike have jeered the plans, 19 per cent, it likely concerned at the would seem that prospect of a fatally poor Brown, in a strange Brown would performance from the parallel to Brian Cowen, PM. have nothing to lose by sparSuch concerns are has appeared shaken ring with his tough to sympathise and uneasy in power successor-to-be with. Few media outlets, David Cameron. with the only genuine Perhaps it would showcase some of the exception of national broadcasters, can be steel, grit and determination with which trusted to have no political partisan whathe was synonymous as Chancellor of the soever – and if channels did have a bias, Exchequer. such spin would already be evident in its Brown, in a strange parallel to Brian current affairs coverage, countering noCowen, has appeared shaken and uneasy tions that public debate would be exposed in power since ascending from the finance to novel levels of misconception. To credit brief two years ago, and would surely ben- such worries, no obvious reason exists for efit from a chance to shake off the image the BBC not to stage such debates, a step of being asleep at the helm. that would fully calm such fears beyond Perhaps unsurprisingly, the relative rebuttal, but this hardly redeems concerns culture shock of a TV debate has not met that politics would descend into mediawith universal support. Many voters have driven farce. expressed disappointment that, having For the modern home of parliamentary instigated the movement, Sky News – as democracy not to offer its voters a chance part of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corpoto hear their potential leaders debate the ration media empire – would host, and major issues of an election is a strange supposedly politically skew, the debate. and counterproductive anomaly. The only Others feel that debates would cheapen overall impression one can be left with is the political environment and give opthat Gordon Brown, in resisting public portunity for the party leaders to engage demand to appear before the nation, is in sound-bite politics, leaving comments striving to resist the inevitable and abusopen to over-analysis and ultimately ing an inexplicable absence of open tradi-

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COMMENT

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Compassionate Leave?

The release of the Lockerbie bomber is a cold gesture to the families of those he killed, writes Aidan Kirrane

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Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the Lockerbie bomber

atching television on the 20th August, you would have been forgiven for mistaking the scenes at Libya’s main airport as the homecoming of an athlete fresh from winning gold at the Olympic Games. Instead the jubilant crowds were there for Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the Lockerbie bomber, who was convicted of killing 270 people in a bomb attack on a Pan-American plane in 1988 but released on compassionate grounds following a diagnosis of terminal prostate cancer.

Unsurprisingly, the Scottish government’s decision to grant his release sparked controversy on the international stage, with the families of victims speaking of the pain caused by the reopening of old wounds.

The United States, from where the majority of victims came, also directed its particularly venomous ire at Scotland.

Washington pointed fingers at Gordon

Brown’s role in the events leading to the release, with whispers circulating on the other side of the Atlantic of Brown being complicit, seeking to improve British trade links with Libya, Libya met with heavy criticism when The Lockerbie bombing killed 243 passengers, 16 crew, and the scenes 11 on the ground of Meghari’s homecoming ceived much less publicity, and the parwere broadcast around the globe. While ties involved could have avoided much Libya pointed out it could have held a unneeded embarrassment and anguish. grander celebration and that there was The main complicating factor in the no official government representation case was the moral grey area into which at the airport, Meghari was granted an it fell, and the questions this raised. audience with Colonel Gaddafi the Should any human being be denied the following day. right to spend time with their loved ones Any sensitive issue will be made in the twilight of their lives? If such a an even thornier one once cancer is right exists, should committing an act as involved. However, when Meghari’s terrible as mass murder lead to this right single life is measured against the 270 being rescinded? he took in such a brutal and calThe only positive to come from the lous manner, the indignation of the case was the exposure of a worrying victims’ families on aspect of law – the his release is underfreedom of governstandable. ments to effectively However, when mute the rule of a the maths and morcourt on welfare als of the situation grounds - that needs are weighed up redress in clear and against each other, it unequivocal terms. becomes clear that The most obvious a well thought out solution would be legcompromise could islation dealing with have provided a far the issue of compasmore satisfactory sionate release, while outcome. If Meghari taking into account had been granted the effects of such a extra visitation release on those who rights, or was transsuffered most from ferred to a different the crime committed. facility, he would Such a move would have been allowed not be a knee-jerk to spend more time reaction specific to with his relatives, while still sparing Meghari’s case. The Great Train Robber, the feelings of the victim’s families Ronnie Biggs, was also granted compasby keeping him in a higher degree of sionate leave on health grounds, so the custody. scenario is not unique – and it is more The Scottish Justice Secretary, than likely a similar situation will arise in Kenny McAskill, with whom the the future. decision ultimately rested, ruled out Meghari maintains his innocence even any such arrangement in the debates now and still aims to prove it before his preceding the release. He argued that death. Indeed, there were rumblings that placing Meghari in a suitable safehis release was part-compensation for house or hospital would require the the miscarriage of justice that led to his constant presence of 48 police officers, imprisonment in the first place. Howand described the strong possibility of ever, it would seem more likely that if he a media circus engulfing the locatruly was an innocent man, this could tion “grotesque”. However, the size of have been proven in the twenty-one security required seems exaggerated, years since his incarceration. and any media coverage that would A compromise catering for the needs have materialised could not have been of all parties would have been the ideal worse than what transpired in the afsolution. An absolute release was more termath of Meghari’s ultimate release. than a man who killed 270 people The failure to find a suitable middle deserved, and caused untold damage to ground is what has led to the situation the reputation of several governments. becoming so protracted and even Human decency would determine that more distressing. If the circumstances a person is entitled to spend the end of had been handled in a more sensible their days with those closest to them, but and subtle manner, it could have reit is certainly unjust that Meghari will share a final word with his loved ones in complete freedom – a last goodbye he denied to the families of the passengers on the fateful Pan Am Flight 103.

Washington pointed fingers at Gordon Brown’s role in the events leading to the release, with whispers circulating on the other side of the Atlantic of Brown being complicit

Megrahi was given a hero’s welcome on his return to Libya

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FEATURES

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Belfield Begins With the Belfield campus reaching a forty year milestone amid a wave of further expansion of buildings and facilities, Quinton O’Reilly examines the early years of UCD’s familiar home

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hange is a major factor for us around this time of year. For many students starting university, change will be all adapting from second to third-level education. For others, it could be moving away from home and experiencing life away from their family, or simply breaking away from a routine of lie-ins and late nights to something a little more (or less) disciplined.

While these changes tend to be individual, one aspect of UCD that has been changing since its inception has been the campus itself. One need only look at current projects like the new extension for the Sports Centre and Student Centre, and the redevelopment of the Science building, to see physical embodiments of this.

Such developments have been ongoing since the plans for Belfield were laid by then UCD President, Dr Michael Tierney, in the 1950s. His aim was to unite all the different facilities on one campus, instead of having them dotted across Dublin. Medicine students were based in Earlsfort Terrace, now home of the National Concert Hall, while Engineering students were based in Merrion Street in what are today known as Government Buildings.

To achieve his vision, various plots of land around Belfield were purchased throughout the 1950s before work commenced on its first building, the Science block, in 1962. It took a further 44 years for Dr Tierney’s dream to be fully realised, when Medicine students moved from Earlsfort Terrace to the Health Sciences building in 2006.

While the university is over 150 years old, the campus itself was only opened in 1964 upon completion of the Science Building. The move began during a fraught time in the world, with massive social and political change like the Cold War, Martin Luther King’s iconic speech, and the rise of the Beatles. Ireland in the 1960s was no different in experiencing its own changes – so what was it like to experience such change?

One person who has witnessed the move in its entirety is Paddy O’Flynn.

Having worked in UCD since 1959, he is potentially the longest-serving staff member in UCD – but when the move was in its opening stages, he was a junior lecturer in Chemical Engineering, then based in Merrion Street.

O’Flynn wistfully recalls the ceremony for the turning of the first sod for the Science building by then-Taoiseach, Éamon de Valera, saying he “can remember him out there with a shovel, and he looked like he was going to dig the whole site”, before joking that the ceremony’s main attraction was the free alcohol given to those who attended.

After the opening of the Science Building, the next facilities to follow were Commerce in 1969, and Law and Arts in 1970. However, problems emerged between the university and its students, who opposed moving to Belfield before the completion of the James Joyce library. O’Flynn speculates whether the protests, which closed the university for a week, came from students’ genuine concern or simply opportunism by those who wanted to emulate the activism then so prevalent around the world.

Another person heavily involved with

such protests and action was Conall Ó Móráin, a broadcaster and entrepreneur who currently co-presents Today FM’s Sunday Business Show. Back in 1975, Ó Móráin was President of the Students’ Union and faced many issues and campaigns during his term.

One such campaign was trying to improve the facilities in the James Joyce Library, mainly extending the opening hours as well as increasing the quantity of books on offer for students. “Ultimately you’re there to learn, and it was a ludicrous situation where you couldn’t get books and there were long queues come exam time… there were no space in the apartments or student accommodation, so where were you meant to

without ground floor windows or areas for students to congregate, eliminating the threat of a break-in or occupation. Ó Móráin recalls having to organise mass meetings in Theatre L of the Newman building, because “if you stood on a table in the Arts Block, no-one could see you; it’s fantastically designed to make sure you cannot hold mass meetings.”

Of a student population of ten thousand during the 1970s and despite the dispersed student population, Ó Móráin felt that the student body responded with interest to campaigns.

“We’d go down and address them and they actually listened… we took to the streets with – out of ten thousand, I guess we’d get 1,500 to 2,000 people – but people took it far more seriously [back then].” Ó Móráin and O’Flynn agree that due to the smaller numbers in its earlier days, the university offered a more intimate experience than its present form. Ó Móráin recalls having known around two thousand students in the university personally – a factor, he claims, which got him elected into the Students’ Union.

O’Flynn has a somewhat different view, believing that the campus’s overpopulated feel works to its advantage, similar to the university’s pre-Belfield days when “you couldn’t go from point A to B or look at a notice-board without bumping into someone”.

If you stood on a table in the arts block, no one could see you; so it’s fantastically designed to make sure you cannot hold mass meetings study if you were in digs?”

To counteract any emulation of student activism or dissent on the campus, the design of Belfield’s first buildings, mainly the Newman and Tierney buildings, was done to prevent groups of students causing problems for the university. The Tierney building was designed

Comparing the current generation’s protests with those of its predecessors, O’Flynn believes 1960s idealism to be a key variable. “Some people just see the decade as a decade of sex and rock and roll, but that was just one aspect of it… they [the students] were concerned about changing the world. It was a strange time but it wasn’t just in UCD or

Irish history, it happened all over.”

The campus has undergone significant evolution since its beginnings, and looks set to change even further if the plans for the Gateway project are to be realised.

What changes Belfield will experience in the next forty years are really anyone’s guess.

Belfield by Numbers: The Early Years 1933: The purchase by UCD of Belfield House, with its 44-acre site along the Stillorgan Road (now part of the N11), marks the beginning of an enduring relationship between the University and the area. The site is originally earmarked for playing fields and sports facilities 1947: The appointment of Dr

Michael Tierney as UCD President signals the beginning of firm plans to relocate the University from its city centre location to a new suburban site 1947-1961: Further land acquisitions by UCD see the original Belfield site greatly expanded.

In 1962, the sod is turned on Belfield’s Science Block, with con-

struction commencing in earnest 1964: Science moves in to its new accommodation 1969: UCD’s ‘Gentle Revolution’: student discontent over the proposed move of further faculties from the Earlsfort Terrace campus to Belfield results in protests and sit-ins. Their grievances are eventually resolved, and in September

that year, the Newman Building opens its doors to the University’s Commerce students 1970: Both Law and Arts follow suit and make the move south to Belfield 1973: The James Joyce Library opens, completing the first phase of development on the Belfield Campus

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FEATURES

Freshers’ First Steps September 2009, and the concrete boulevards of Belfield are straining under the annual influx of incoming First Year students.

Ciarán Ó Braonáin asks some of those newcomers how they feel about the times ahead

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ith the start of every year at UCD comes a massive influx of first year students. Most are fresh from secondary school; some are starting anew after switching courses; others have finally found a chance, later on in life, to come back and study at college – and, of course, more and more international students are also being drawn to Irish universities.

There is an immensely diverse assortment of people to be found taking their first steps towards a third level degree at UCD and The University Observer went out amongst them to get a feel for what their hopes, fears, expectations and initial first impressions are of college life.

Mark O’Rahilly is a 21-year-old First Year Medicine student. Mark had previously attended UCD as an Arts student, but decided after oneand-a-half years that it wasn’t for him. “I didn’t really have an interest in the courses. It was more a case of looking through the list and saying ‘I don’t like that, don’t like that, don’t like that’ and then I just ended up with whatever was left.”

A significant drawback Mark noticed about Arts in UCD was the difficulty in properly getting to know people. “There is no class atmosphere at all. It is unfortunate that with the sheer class sizes and wide range of course choices it can be quite difficult to make friends among your fellow classmates. It is definitely an

aspect of the Arts degree which tends to take away somewhat from the college experience.”

It really sounds like it wasn’t the right course, so why did it take so long to bite the bullet? “It was a tough decision. I had been contemplating it throughout first year and then again in second year… I thought I’d drive through and finish my degree, but then halfway through second year I just packed it in because I hated it so much.”

Now, after returning to school and re-sitting the Leaving Cert, Mark is back in UCD and seems to be delighted that he is finally in the right course for him. “There’s a much better class atmosphere now, it’s just easier when you see people more regularly.”

On top of his enthusiasm for his new course, Mark is looking forward to the future of college life in general, not having to switch the phone off Monday to Friday, worrying about CAO points and – of course – he’ll be one of the few lucky students currently paying for the new Student Centre who will get to actually use the facility!

And a final word of advice for his fellow first years? “Do what you have to do… if you don’t like it get out.”

Aoife Brophy is a 17-year-old Law student from Kilkenny, and Emma Saunders, also 17, hails from Laois and studies Children’s and General Integrated Nursing.

Many Dublin students miss out on the genuine college experience, as they never have to leave the comfort zone of

home or need to make new friends. This hasn’t been the case for either of the girls, who’ve both moved from home – with Aoife finding on-campus accommodation and Emma living nearby in Sandyford. Living on campus tends to be a great way to engage with other students, and makes the process of forging new friendships considerably easier.

“People bring strangers home and then we get to know each other’s friends – and then we’ve loads of friends and that’s how it works.”

Something as trivial as a dead battery could be the reason for making new friends. “I forgot to bring my charger up so I had to go knocking on doors last night looking for one, so I met loads of people like that.”

Both girls seemed to be brimming with enthusiasm for what lies ahead despite some rather ominous warnings from lecturers. In fact Emma’s class were told: “Look to your left. Now look to your right. There’s a very good chance that one of those people will have dropped out by the end of the year.”

Then there was Aoife’s lecturer recounting a tale of girl who dropped out last year, Aoife herself could draw some striking similarities: “She was only seventeen, she was very young to do this course and she lived in a small little village and she came to Dublin and she couldn’t hack it.”

Foreboding warnings and all, the girls love college so far and are looking forward to the fun of Freshers’ Week.

And, even if things don’t work out in class, at least Emma has an “illuminating bathtub” at home to help take her mind off things. Whatever that means!

UCD’s un-PC world Cheered by the news that a Welsh County Council has struck a worthy blow for contemporary sensibilities by banning the name Spotted Dick on its canteen menus, “Slightly Mollified” jams his beanie cap on and gets out of bed before midday for once to see just how politically correct UCD is in 2009

My, but it’s a tough time to be a card-carrying liberal. No sooner did we succeed in getting one of our own back in the White House after a lengthy absence (may His name be praised without reserve); then Saint Ted of Massachusetts went and… well died. Even a seasoned 3rd Year Sociology repeat like me was stunned by how low the forces of Right Wing conspiracy stooped this time. I mean, of all the conservative skulduggery – a malignant brain tumour?

All the same, I was heartened last week to see that at least some out there are still fighting the good fight.

The trail-blazers at Flintshire County Council in Wales have decided to tackle a monumentally offensive historical hangover by banning the term Spotted Dick from their canteen menus. The obnoxious pudding will henceforth be termed Spotted Richard, and proper order too. After recovering from my initial spotty outrage that such a bastion of sexist innuendo could have lingered on in to the 21st century in the first place, I matted my dreadlocks up and went out on to campus to see if we could follow suit.

The news wasn’t good. No sooner had

I gotten over my surprise that Belfield opens on a Friday when I was confronted by a poster advertising UCD’s Michael Smurfit School of Business. The sheer reactionism of naming an educational facility after a capitalist fat cat was enough in itself to make me choke on my organic muesli, but what really stunned me? The location.

That’s right, in 2009, UCD still insists on maintaining an outpost in an area named Blackrock. Blackrock. The sheer crassness of it all. How this hasn’t yet managed to embroil the University in a controversy of huge proportions is beyond me, but I was determined to act quickly to avert the trouble that could yet ensue.

Marching up to the Student Centre, I wanted to vent my spleen at the Student representatives nestled within. They might be part of the system, and that itself makes them part of the problem, but whether they liked it or not, change was about to batter their Establishment barriers down, By next week, we were going to have a Belfield South campus instead; and I was prepared to go to whatever lengths necessary to save future generations from the anachronisms of

UCD SU Welfare Officer Scott Ahearn

“Did Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council naming conventions perturb the workers that stormed the Bastille in 1968? Did postal districts bother the patriots of Easter Week when they fought the SAS and the B-Specials?”

their predecessors.

UCD Students’ Union Welfare Officer Scott Ahearn is a nice young man, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that he himself was doing his bit to struggle against orthodoxy by refusing to wear a suit – or indeed, any form of business-like attire – during working hours. For all that though, he really didn’t seem to comprehend the scale of the problems facing us.

I jabbed my fingers at him, still calloused from the agricultural work I spent doing in July on a collective farm in Cuba, and demanded to know just what he was going to do to.

Ahearn swallowed nervously. “Belfield South? It’s a different district, isn’t it?”

Not good enough, Scott.

Did Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council naming conventions perturb the workers that

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FEATURES

First Impressions A seasoned veteran after completing her own first year in UCD, Natalie Voorheis casts her mind back to her own sudden introduction to Belfield and offers sage advice for first time students

W

ith the Leaving Cert behind them and the best days of college life ahead, thousands of first years have begun their new life in UCD this month. So: does it feel like home yet?

Recalling my own experience of First Year, a year ago, I find my memories of Orientation and Freshers’ Week blurry at best. The first days of college play in my head as if it were a DVD on fast-forward.

I remember feeling I’d only drawn breath from the initial confusion and trepidation of meeting my fellow Freshers in Orientation, when the rest of college returned and campus seemed more zoo-like than ever.

Not much stands out from this blur, but I do remember one nightmarish tour of the library in my first week. I got stuck talking to a guy who quizzed me at great length about the exact details of my Leaving Cert results. First Years, please, don’t make this mistake! After losing a year of your life to the Leaving, there is absolutely no point in rehashing the past, and sacrificing more of your time to that nightmare. The Leaving Cert is over; you have arrived. So seize the day and move on.

When asked about their initial impressions of UCD, students will often

describe their first venture into the Newman Building. Dodging club promotions girls, ascending the steps, drinking in the soon-to-be-familiar student aroma of cigarette smoke and coffee fumes. And finally, finally entering the wonderful shrine to the architecture of the 1970s that is the Arts Block - through the door marked OUT, of course.

Theatre L in the Newman building, one of the largest lecture theatres in the country with a capacity of 505, is a daunting place for the new student. While talking to students in the course of writing this article, many said they might skip lectures

Dodging club promotions girls, ascending the steps, drinking in the soon to be familiar student smell of cigarette smoke and coffee fumes

held there, feeling totally overwhelmed by its scale. Each year without fail, the new generation discover that a lecture in Theatre L really means a solid hour of playing Tetris and instant messaging with friends. Only then does UCD start to feel like home.

Observing new first years is a spectator sport by many seasoned UCD students.

For some first years, starting college is a long-awaited chance to reinvent themselves. Others will be solely preoccupied with finding the extension of that clique they were in at school. These antics provide great fodder for the rest of the student body, as Cork accents become thick D4 drawls and wellies are swapped for Uggs.

What’s the best advice a First Year can get? For me it’s the advice uttered so often to newbies that its impact is diluted, becoming the backing track to their first weeks. Yet through experience, I deem it a crucial piece of advice: get involved.

Every year some First Years miss this memo and end up complaining about the size and impersonality of our campus.

What they fail to realise is that it’s up to them to get involved in the smaller communities, clubs, societies and groups within the mammoth student body – and that everything else will fall in to place, guaranteed.

Getting the money knowledge for college If you’re worried about all things coinage this term, let the Financial Regulator Aoife Murphy guide you through the mire If you don’t want to spend the last term munching on cold baked beans or hanging your teabags out for a third time, here are some tips to help you manage your money.

stormed the Bastille in 1968? Did postal districts bother the patriots of Easter Week when they fought the SAS and the B-Specials? Well actually, I suppose they did - I do remember something about a post office in that First Year Revolutions elective I took (and nearly passed). I asked him just what he’d do if we got the demo to end all demos brewing outside his office door.

“It would go through a complaints procedure with the local County Council, and they’d sit down and explain the situation – why it’s called Blackrock. There’s obviously a history behind the name, but a lot of people might not understand where the term comes from.”

Somewhat placated, I withdraw my threats of imminent People Power and retreated from Ahearn’s lair of bureaucracy. It was only outside, sitting on the steps as I sipped a cup of Venezuelan Fair Trade coffee and sparked a roll-up, that it hit me. The parchment scroll I’d seen framed on the wall of Ahearn’s office. The liar. The utter, sly, fox. He’d been one of them all along.

Pausing only long enough to show my typical disrespect for uniformed authority by glowering at a Pulse Security patrol

from behind one of the concourse pillars; I hurried back in to the Student Centre to confront my new nemesis. Kicking the door open as hard as my sandals would allow me, I screamed it at him.

“You’re a History graduate, Ahearn?! A History graduate?! Why not Herstory, eh?

No, this ends here. We want it renamed Past Studies, and we want it now.”

He tried to stonewall me.

“It’s an anagram, and changing the words around to make things fit. I don’t regard history as male-dominated; I think there’s been some iconic female politicans and figures. The majority of lecturers [in UCD’s School of History] are female.”

He could talk the talk all right, but I had the measure of this Establishment chimera now. His protests were in vain.

“You’re going to change an iconic word that every human being from the age of five knows?!”

Eventually, a compromise was reached.

Ahearn agreed to take my passionate protests on board. I, in turn, took his advice to visit a supermarket at some point and purchase something he took the trouble of writing out for me. Where is it, again?

Ah, yes. Lynx.

Bring on the budget You’ll need a good plan if you don’t want to blow all your cash in the first month. Work out how much money you’re getting (grant, summer savings, loan, allowance from parents) and what your expenses are (rent, food electricity, entertainment, any loan repayments). Then, you can work out your budget.

The budget planner on www.itsyourmoney.ie makes budgeting easy. A good budget will then allow you to decide how much money you have to splurge in the Students’ Union bar. Try not to go over the budget no matter what. Problems always arise when you lose track of your spending, so keep a close eye on your bank account. The easiest way to do this is to use online banking.

Be careful with credit When you start college, you may be offered student loans, student credit cards and a student overdraft. An overdraft can be handy if you find yourself a bit short one month, but the interest can be high and if you go over your limit, you could be hit with extra fees. And with all credit options, check the cost comparisons on www.itsyourmoney.ie A credit card can be convenient, especially for buying online or booking flights or hotels. The major banks have differing criteria and spending limits on their student credit cards, so check them all out before you sign up to one. Try to find a card with a low Annual Percentage Rate (APR). A typical credit card charges an APR of 14.5 per cent, so it will only take three and a half years for your debt to increase by 50%, thanks to interest alone!

Remember that credit limits are not a spending target, and that purchases will mount up quickly- so use your credit card wisely and always pay off as much as you can each month.

Credit cards are an expensive form of short term credit, espe-

cially if you do not pay off your balance in full at the end of each month. So, they are not suitable for funding day-to-day expenses, unless you know when and how you can pay them off.

If you need to get a student loan, try not to spend it all in the first few weeks. Remember, this is your first real stab at living independently, so don’t blow your money in freshers’ week.

Once you have set a budget, stretch your money out over as much of the term as you can.

Don’t be duped by account freebies Most banks offer student current accounts but the terms and conditions vary between providers. Don’t be distracted by any gimmicks, freebies or giveaways on offer – choose the account that best suits you. Look at the fees the banks charge for the service you use most, where their branches are located, and the interest rate on overdrafts and any related fees before you decide which account to open. You can compare the features of the different accounts, including overdraft fees and charges, by using the student current account cost comparison on itsyourmoney.ie.

Look for student discounts or money-off vouchers in shops, restaurants or cinemas. There are lots of savings you can make.

You can find out more about great savings for students on www.studentcents.ie If you need help just ask If you’re in financial difficulty, don’t be afraid to ask for help.

Speak to your bank or the student welfare officer at your college. Ignoring the problem will only make things worse.

Remember that missing repayments will impact negatively on your credit record and your ability to get loans in the future.

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THE UNIVERSITY OBSERVER

15.09.09

FEATURES

Blast from the past As the much-anticipated Defamation Bill comes into law, the blasphemy provisions throw up more questions than answers, writes Zelda Cunningham, international woman of mystery

I

reland’s defamation laws received a much-needed and long-overdue makeover with the signing of the Defamation Bill 2006 in July this year. Previously, the issue of libel was fraught with complexities, with vast gaps in jurisprudence leading to much uncertainty for those both facing and bringing charges of defamation. The Irish courts have faced criticism by the European Court of Human Rights for their lack of direction to juries regarding the extent of damages, where arguably disproportionate awards have been lavished on injured parties.

Admittedly, many of these concerns have been addressed, and according to Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Dermot Ahern; resolved by the Defamation Bill 2006, however, it was the controversial blasphemy law, that overshadowed the legislation.

Now, acts of gross indecency, intending to cause offence to any religion could face a maximum fine of €25,000.

On the face of it, this blasphemy law doesn’t appear to be overtly restrictive; however, serious questions and objections raised by a number of commentators have cast doubt on the very constitutionality, and public support of this dubious provision.

Blasphemy, although specifically referenced in Bunreacht na hÉireann, has not been recognised as part of Irish law since 1995, with the Supreme Court ruling it was more or less unenforceable in this jurisdiction. This was the year in which the Divorce Referendum was affirmed by the Irish people; and the Supreme Court decision appeared to represent the evolving Irish distaste for restrictions on freedom of speech and indeed, the power of the Catholic Church.

For this reason, many have questioned why the Minister for Justice initiated such a provision in the Defamation Bill. Yes, it was filling up a vacuum in our constitutional law, however, perhaps it would have more prudent to suggest removing blasphemy from the constitu-

tion in the next referendum considering the uncertainties this law has raised.

In Ireland (under the influence of the UK courts), blasphemy specifically referred to Christianity. The Satanic Verses case, regarding Salmon Rushdie’s work provided this assurance. However, the 2006 Bill clearly states that any religion can seek the protection of the law in this regard. Although reflecting the more multi-denominational society Ireland has become, it also could see a can of worms opening in the courts.

Gross indecency is a term that is subjective to the particular religions. For example, depicting the Islamic prophet Muhammad has proven to incite rage from some Muslims. Does this mean that producing such images amounts

order has the aim of protecting society as a whole, not just those of religious inclination.

Surely, the public good, in the broadest sense, is the only excusable basis for restricting a right as intrinsic to a free society as that of expression. In this light, a €25,000 fine for offending something you may consider a complete delusion seems unwarranted.

The debate continues to rage over this provision. Considering the difficulties regarding blasphemy, questions were raised as to why President McAleese did not use her power under Article 26 of the Constitution to refer the Bill to the Supreme Court and thus determine the constitutionality of the legislation.

The Atheist Society of Ireland has already elected to challenge the constitutionality of the blasphemy law by composing a purposely blasphemous statement designed to provoke outrage, therefore attracting the punitive measures of the Bill. As the Supreme Court did not have the opportunity to test the legality of the Defamation Bill and judging from the jurisprudence from the ECHR, the Atheist Society could perhaps topple this law- which would be a humiliation for the Oireachtas and President McAleese.

The Defamation Bill 2006 will certainly be a bone of contention in Irish society in the coming years. Freedom of religion is undoubtedly of crucial importance to all Irish citizens, and naturally, having one’s faith insulted will cause upset and possibly outrage.

However, in modern European society, the outrage of some is not something we should let restrict the fundamental rights of everyone. It is not a question of atheists versus people of faith, saints versus sinners… The right to expression is guaranteed to citizens and shouldn’t be restricted for any thing less than their protection.

But luckily for the Government, it took our mind of the recession for five minutes!

Now, acts of gross indecency, intending to cause offence to any religion could face a maximum fine of €25,000 to criminal liability in this country?

Conversely, adjudicating liability by an objective standard would seem artificial.

Would the courts judge it from the perspective religious person? If so, what religion? The disparity in beliefs in practically every sect can be expansive, provoking the question, who determines what is offensive?

The ECHR has accepted that certain blasphemy laws are a justified limitation to the right to freedom of expression. However, the rationale behind this limitation was the preservation of public order. As mentioned, ‘outrage’ is subjective and personal, whereas public

Speak no evil: the blasphemy laws could be an undue restriction of expression

Booked Out

The Booker Prize nominations increase the suspicion that the novel’s death is imminent, writes Paul Fennessy

JM Coetzee is aiming to capture The Booker Prize for an unprecedented third occasion

C

an people really tell the difference between the authors Hilary Mantel and Sarah Waters? When the Man Booker Prize nominations were made known last week, extensive media coverage was granted to the event. The Irish Times devoted a Page three article to the announcement, while several other prominent publications also focused heavily on its proceedings.

Nonetheless, it could legitimately be questioned whether the depth of the coverage equated with the degree of public interest in the story. After all, nowadays literature (at least, the type of novels favoured by Booker judges) is a decidedly niche subject – a status confirmed by the poor sales of each of this year’s nominees.

Moreover, the market for novels grows more perilous by the day. Column inches dedicated to book reviews have dwindled in recent years and sales have simultaneously suffered. While it is commonplace that the most popular products in an industry are invariably not singled out for prestigious awards, as is often the case with Oscars and Grammys, acclaimed books have acquired a particular level of obscurity.

The central reason for the discernible lack of interest in the Booker process can be attributed to the fact that people rarely, if ever, take the time to read modern novels. More often than not, bestseller lists are filled with innumerable celebrity memoirs.

Furthermore, lists are increasingly beginning to appear in newspapers with titles such as ‘the top ten books people lie about reading’.

The fact that people are willing to concoct such blatant falsities, rather than simply reading the said novel, is a telling sign of the times. Many UCD English students are hardly strangers to this phenomenon either and if even they neglect to read comprehensively, then there is surely little hope for the average man on the street.

While one of the primary reasons for this literary crisis is the added distractions heralded by the Facebook generation, there are arguably other underlying problems that are partly accountable.

Perhaps the authors themselves are not entirely blameless in the context of the crisis. Topics of the novels shortlisted – such as Mantel’s story focusing on Henry VIII’s aide – were never likely to have garnered mainstream attention, nor were they designed for this purpose.

One possible conclusion therefore is that the contemporary world of serious literature is one irrevocably detached from reality and the popular consensus.

Such claims were reinforced by the reaction that met the decision by the National Book Awards committee in 2003 to honour Stephen King for his contribution to American letters. Several preeminent members of the literati voiced their outrage at the fact that such a popular and, by their assessment, lowbrow author should be unabashedly venerated.

However, in his acceptance speech, King retorted by accusing many contemporary novelists of merely aiming to acquire “social academic brownie points for deliberately staying out of touch with your own culture”.

Similarly, in an interview published last week, Nick Hornby – another commercially successful writer who is regularly dismissed by critics – accused the majority of modern authors of operating on “the margins of a cultural conversation.”

Therefore, writers such as Hornby and King have shown that it is possible to write in an intelligent and engaging fashion that allows scope for a sizeable readership. Rather than relentlessly criticising them, perhaps their more esteemed peers could learn from such methods.

At the moment however, many of the literati essentially come across as smug, self-satisfied egotists with a thinly veiled contempt for the general public.

On a related note, Declan Kiberd wrote in his most recent work – Ulysses and Us – that Joyce’s most renowned novel “took shape in a world which had known for the first time the possibilities of mass literacy and the emergence of working men’s reading libraries”.

However, like this masterpiece, modern literature in general seems fated to be ignored indefinitely, despite our increasing levels of education and supposed sophistication.

15.09.09

THE UNIVERSITY OBSERVER

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THE UNIVERSITY OBSERVER

15.09.09

COMMENT

comment@universityobserver.ie

TA L L E Y R A N D Regimes may fall and fail, but I do not…

Yes, dear foes, it pleases me to tell you that reports of my demise have been greatly fêted, but once again overstated. A wise man once declared all that is exaggerated to be insignificant – sage advice when dealing with another incestuous crew of self-adulating, decrepit MEPs-in-waiting, roaming the fabled SU corridor for twelve caustic, incompetent months. Why MEPs, I hear you ask? Simple, chums: MEPs are the ones you don’t seem to lay eyes on very often. Breaking news – the Student Centre has been twinned with the European Parliament building in Strasbourg. Where else in the world might one find such a shining beacon of pointless excess, chock full of narcissistic crap?

We digress. Gossip columnists have spun yarns that Talleyrand was holidaying (permanently) in Naples – your correspondent does admit a preference for hot air of the natural, and not egotistical, variety – but alas, the thought of this year’s Band of Bothers (sorry, Brothers, though not short of tits amongst them) toddling about without grown-up supervision was too grievous to bear. Hey, what’s another year?

After all, Talleyrand has been waiting, such a long time.

If you’re new to this corner of print, beware: there are no niceties to be had here. All you’ll find are the maundering venomous thoughts of an aristocrat and his pen. You won’t know who the subjects are, nor will you care; what you will know is to avoid them like the plague they are. You’re ignorant now, but Talleyrand’s still serving out his community service, laying your Students’ Goonion™ out for inspection.

Let’s start with Arklow’s finest (not saying much) export, Students’ Pooh-nion supremo Gazza Redmond. A lad of humble Computer Science origin – that’ll explain the hair then – your first encounter with Head Hack will like have been sometime two weeks ago in O’Reilly Hall, on the butt end of a soliloquy honed to trademark mediocrity in front of the magic mirror in the Union Jacks.

Il Duce’s political acumen is matched only by his spark potential to one day don a suit and gown to pick up a First Class Honours degree. How long’s it been now, boss? Six years in UCD, and still no letters after your name other than ‘return to sender’? There there, you’ll be a Bachelor yet, Gaz – Talleyrand is amazed the freshers haven’t succumbed to the rusty can of Gillette Satin Care already.

Vice-President for Being On Executives of Sub-Committees Derived from Working Groups, Donnacha-wishyour-girlfriend-was-hot-like-him Ó Súilleabháin, has been catching up on his Father Ted, when not posing as a maître d’ who’s lost his serving cloth. Not content with kicking his ‘friend’ (Talleyrand guffaws at such allegations) in the head, the Achill Animal has been engaging in some one-armed dodgems down the N11. We can still see the teethmarks.

Meanwhile, Campaigns & Communications Vice-President, Rob Lowney, has been doing a stellar job as the Goebbels to Redmond’s Shitler, navigating the good ship Freshers’ Guide around the Cape of No Hope – sorry, that’s Paddy Ryan – and safely to the hands of the needy newbies. Where else, in these uncertain financial times, are the latest crop of Union subjects meant to acquire such discount toilet roll?

Oh, and for the sake of public service, Mike Splat O’Donoghue, your new Jester-in-Chief, has been busy occupying himself getting Simian Mobile Disco to campus – only to discover it’s not, in fact, a travelling nightclub for the more monkey-like Ents Officer of his ilk – and as for Scott… well, the Well-fairies can keep that show on the road. No change there, then.

I’ve been prying such a long time, with such a lot of pain in every tear. What’s another year?

Talleyho, Talleyrand

FF: A Series of Unfortunate Events

With support for the Government running low, Andy Howell wonders if we should feel at all sorry for Cowen and his team

IT CAN’T BE easy to wake up in the morning when you are part of a government that 75 per cent of voters want to see out of office. The figure, which was revealed in an Irish Times/TNS MRBI poll at the beginning of this month, will realistically come as no shock to the current government, which has become less and less popular with each passing month. The Lisbon Treaty, NAMA, medical cards, education cuts – the electorate have just had enough of them.

I wonder if Bertie Ahern had a premonition about the impending doom a few months before he left the office of the Taoiseach.

Brian Cowen gladly stepped up to the plate, only to find himself plunging head-first into the worst recession in decades, on a scale greater than any of our fellow EU member states.

“DireLand” was the title of the piece about us in the Financial Times, while the Economist chose to run with “In a Stew”.

Uncertain is probably the best way to describe this government’s future – we are in new territory with this coalition of Fianna Fáil and the Green Party. The Greens entered government during more stable times with the expectation that we would continue growing, albeit in a more sustainable fashion. Since then, they have been reliable coalition partners for Fianna Fáil, who have pushed ahead with measures which are moving us even further away from creating an equal society – something the Greens are supposed to support. Nobody is more unhappy with these measures than Green supporters, 74 per cent of whom favour a change in government according to the above survey.

The Green Ministers have been badgering away in their respective departments producing quite substantial legislation, and can be credited with such things as the reform of building regulations, planning, local government, and the civil partnership bill – arguably some of the best pieces of legislation to come out of the current government.

Unfortunately the electorate are seeing people losing their jobs and houses as result of a society which lost the run of itself and failed to demonstrate the trickledown wealth that capitalism promised us, and the people are turning to the Greens to protect the most vulnerable in society. The Green Party grassroots may be where this protection comes from in the end - while Ministers Gormley and Ryan are presenting a unified front in the media, the membership’s call for a Special Convention on NAMA is an omnipresent reminder that the Green TDs are at the mercy of their members, who can make or break the government.

Fianna Fáil backbenchers are revolting in their own way too: there was no shortage of TDs speaking out against budget cuts earlier in the year, and losses in the June local and by-elections are a worrying sign for them. The fact that Bertie Ahern’s brother Maurice couldn’t even vaguely challenge for the seat vacated by the late Tony Gregory is a sign that the party is losing its strong grip on the electorate.

There seems to be an invisible barrier between the people and the government; as in the run up to the first Lisbon vote, there is a wide sense of confusion among

As a friend recently remarked, it appears his game plan is to ‘walk softly and carry a very big stick

the public regarding the government’s NAMA plan, and despite the insistence

by Brian Lenihan to the contrary, the idea that this is a bailout for bankers and developers just won’t go away.

The electorate, meanwhile, are seeing an opposition who are calculated and consistent in their attacks on the government parties, despite the reality that none of them would rather be in power during this time. Fine Gael and Labour made huge gains in the local elections, and Eamon Gilmore is the most popular party leader by far. Enda Kenny’s ability to lead may be constantly in question but his party’s wins in the elections now make Fine Gael the strongest party on local councils.

His plan for a ‘good’ bank is also coherent, and likely to be popular in its ultimatum for banks to clear themselves of bad debts.

As a friend recently remarked, it appears his game plan is to “walk softly and carry a very big stick”.

Since the opposition have no desire to be in the FF-Greens position, is it just unfortunate that this is how the last general election results worked out? Did Brian Cowen take the reins with any knowledge of what was coming? What if it happens that the advisors in the various departments are not consciously working towards the creation of a more equitable society? The problem with this “it would have happened anyway” approach is that it relinquishes our TDs’ responsibility; their purpose is to run our country fairly and make decisions in our best interests – not in the interests of big businesses, bankers or developers.

It is their responsibility to do things right from the start, and produce legislation which looks to the future (unlike in the case of the civil partnership bill). It is their responsibility to create a stable economic system not built on speculation and gambling, allowing speculators and gamblers to command huge wages for their recklessness. Now is the time to remind our representatives of this, and not allow other voices to shout louder.

Quotes of the fortnight “It’s not like we’ve been doing nothing for six months and just going off to the beaches in Sandycove”

“That’s the policy”

Student Centre Manager Dominic O’Keeffe assures us of his work ethic

“That’s the situation we’re in.

If students want to receive discounts on their travel, that’s just the facts of life at the moment”

“What I would say is that it was down to her lingerie, it wasn’t a fully nude strip or anything like that” Lawsoc Auditor Conor O’Hanlon puts his society’s Glamour Debate shenanigans into perspective

“No comment on that” O’Hanlon again on whether he has regrets about the semi-strip

SU President Gary Redmond on why Union Sabbats refuse to speak directly to the media

SU President Gary Redmond waxes fatalistic about the Student Travelcard

“I’ll be your Deep Throat” SU Welfare Officer Scott Ahearn didn’t get the memo

15.09.09

THE UNIVERSITY OBSERVER

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EDITORIAL

editor@universityobserver.ie

Editorial - 15th September 2009 Fifteen years ago this month, the very first edition of this publication arrived in Belfield. Its purpose was to present an independent view on the news and current affairs of UCD and the wider world.

This newspaper was, and is, in the lucky position of being financially backed by UCD Students’ Union – and therefore by you, our readers – while still retaining full editorial independence.

The idea of editorial independence is perhaps an intangible one for those outside the media world. To us, however, it is one of vast import. It preserves our right to publish articles which can defy

the established governance; it preserves our right to present you with an alternate view to that of University officials; and it preserves our right to have final say over these pages.

For you, it means that the news you read and the views you are presented are in no way influenced or interfered with by outside bodies, elected or otherwise.

For you, it means that the opinions expressed are those of the students, written by the students and presented for the students. For you, it means the right to reproach, the right to refute and the right to be heard.

In the recent months, the editorial independence of this publication has been impinged upon. Attempts to subvert the established course of this newspaper have resulted in greater Students’ Union influence over the staffing process, and thereby the autonomy of The University Observer.

Students’ Union President, censorship has taken a step forward: a step that could lead to the disappearance of this publication in its current format on the whim of one individual; a step that lends more weight than should be afforded to threats of withdrawn funding.

Over the coming months we will seek to rectify the conditions that have allowed a shadow of imposition fall over this newspaper. We ask you for your support; we ask you for your help.

We may even have ask you to stand up and be counted on our behalf. Whether you agree with what you read or not,

Although the existence of an editorially-independent newspaper is constitutionally enshrined, its identity, size, format and staff appointment procedures are not. With two of the three members of staff of The University Observer now directly employed by the

Photo of the fortnight

whether you say ‘hot’ when we say ‘not’, or whether you care or not, you must always have the freedom to choose – and you must always have the freedom to express.

On your behalf, we will continue to provide honest, impartial and educational information about this university.

On your behalf, we can be threatened, but not silenced.

Letters to the Editor Letters should be sent by email to letters@universityobserver.ie or by mail to: The Editor, The University Observer, Student Centre, Belfield, Dublin 4.

All letters are subject to editorial approval. The Editor reserves the right to edit any letters.

even greater importance that SU Welfare lives up to its promise to waive the fee for any student who cannot afford treatment. Failure to do so will lead to grave disillusionment with the current SU as a representative body for students.

Students’ Union president Gary Redmond feels the wrath of the clampers.

Catriona Laverty

Madam, We are told that health charges will improve the quality of service available to students. Whether it will improve overall student health is extremely doubtful, however. Quite simply, many students are operating on extremely tight budgets.

Consequently, many will ignore symptoms of ill health because they cannot afford to pay to see a doctor.

It is important therefore that the Students’ Union is made fully aware of the widespread anger surrounding the introduction of health centre fees. It is of

Yours etc, Bryce Evans PhD student and Senior Tutor, UCD School of History and Archives Madam, Last time I voted Yes to Lisbon; this time I will be voting NO. I was wrong to approve this Treaty without knowing

Editor Catriona Laverty

otwo Editors Eoin Brady & Colin Sweetman

Deputy Editor Gavan Reilly

Special Guest otwo Editor Paul Fennessy

Art & Design Director Kristin McKnight

Film & TV Editor Conor Barry Fashion Editor Seán McGovern

News Editor Bridget Fitzsimons Features Editor Peter Molloy Science & Health Editor Farouq Manji Sport Editor Killian Woods

Image Editor Colin Scally

what’s in it, and I am happy to have the chance to correct this error. I cannot vote Yes again in good conscience.

The contents of the Lisbon Treaty are a labyrinthine enigma. Where are the efforts by the EU to explain this Treaty to the common voter? Shouldn’t people know exactly what powers they are giving away?

I could list many reasons for changing my vote but one is sufficient to completely warrant it. The people of the EU are not being given the chance to vote on it. The three nations already to hold a referendum all voted No! Too many EU citizens have been denied the opportunity to voice their opinions.

Horgan-Jones, Andy Howell, Fearghal Kerin, Aidan Kirrane, Lisa Lavelle, Alison Lee, Catherine Maguire, Dara Martin, Michelle McCormick, Seán McKernan, Mystic Mittens, Slightly Mollified, Aoife Murphy , Ciarán Ó Braonáin, Jake O’Brien, Eimear O’Reilly, Quinton O’Reilly, Breffni O’Sullivan, Kate Rothwell, Martin Scanlon, Talleyrand, Natalie Voorheis Photographer Kenneth Barrett

Special Thanks Contributors Danielle Moran, Zelda CunHugh Adler, The Badger, Amy ningham, Rob Lowney, Michelle Bracken, Brian Carty, Zelda McCormick, Nathalie MárquezCunningham, Grace Duffy, Deir- Courtney; Kenneth Barrett; dre Fogarty, Matt Gregg, Jack Diarmuid McDermott; Richard, “Edmond”

Until the people of Europe are all offered a vote, I will not allow Big Dog to drown out the voices of the people who must abide by the terms of Lisbon. Until the EU decides to honestly and transparently inform EU citizens of the Treaty’s contents, I will not vote to give the EU elite a blank cheque for power.

I call for a direct referendum on Lisbon before the citizens of every member state.

It’s the only way to give the EU a democratic heart and soul.

Yours etc, C. Cunningham Sligo

Graham, Malcolm, Ian, Tim, Dave, Jonathan (and the robots) at Trafford Park Printing; Eilis O’Brien and Dominic Martella; Colm, Claire, Rory and Danielle at MCD Promotions; Orla Breslin at Friction PR; Laura and Darren at Warner; Giselle Jiang; Dave Carmody; Dominic, Grace, Mark, Sandra, Charlie, Paul and all the Student Centre staff; Lavazza coffee, Boston Cream donuts from Nine One One, Domino’s Pizza and Sunkist.

Very Special Thanks Mr Paul Fennessy

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THE UNIVERSITY OBSERVER

15.09.09

SCIENCE & HEALTH

science@universityobserver.ie

Late night snacks and heart attacks Resident Science Buff Farouq Manji looks at the debates on whether late-night eating is detrimental to one’s health

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quick poll of Irish families would indicate that there is substantial variation among the supper times of most households. Even day-to-day eating schedules differ within families – and weekends are an entity unto themselves, where a 3pm Sunday dinner is not unusual.

It is interesting then, to consider what effect different eating times have on the health of each family. A 2006 study from Oregon Health and Science University reported that an individual’s calorie intake alone was singly responsible in determining the person’s weight gain. According to the study, the time of consumption – how late the subject ate their main meal of the day – was not an important factor.

This study, however, was only based on sixteen female Rhesus monkeys, who had had their ovaries removed and whose eating habits were studied for one year. Though monkeys are considered an excellent model for human physiology, the size of the group, and the methodology of the study – strictly observing their natural eating habits and drawing conclusions – makes it difficult to readily accept the conclusions of this study.

Before you tuck into your routine post-pub indulgence, it would be wise to consider several studies released in recent years. A 2009 study published in Obesity, examining various sets of Swedish twins – where only one twin was obese – indicated that rates of night

Studies suggest that night-time eating can contribute to obesity eating, defined as consuming more than a quarter of one’s caloric intake at night, are roughly double in the clinically obese. Additionally, night eating increases the likelihood of sleeping problems and is also related to binge-eating.

Another study, published by the Center for Sleep and Circadian Biology in Illinois, has drawn the conclusion that circadian rhythms – your ‘body clock’ – play an important role in weight management. Nocturnal mice were fed only during daylight hours, when they should be sleeping, and then compared to mice who were fed during normal waking hours. The caloric intake and activity of all mice were the same – but the mice fed during sleeping hours gained significantly more weight.

Although the latest study was exclusively carried out on mice (and therefore,

the closest evolutionary relative to a UCD Fresher), the general principles applied within the study are translatable to human physiology.

Circadian rhythms are the natural, cyclic changes in your brain that regulate sleep, hunger, hormone release (and therefore sexual drive) and also regulate the metabolic activities of the body. It is not inconceivable that caloric intake at times of varied metabolic activity could influence the way calories are utilized.

It is important to note however, that extra eating at night is undoubtedly unhealthy. Additional night-time calories, for instance after a solid supper and a few beers, is obviously destined to end up as extra weight. The debate rumbles on, however, whether or not routinely late evening meals are detrimental to one’s health.

Race to the top As UCD welcomes the first medical students to have sat the HPAT exam, Hugh Adler considers the merits of aptitude testing The debate continues over the ideal way to select the ‘best’ medical students from the large pool of bright, committed Leaving Certs who apply to the CAO each year. UCD has recently admitted the first cohort of students selected using the Health Professionals Admission Test (HPAT), a test already beset by controversy.

Recent years have seen a points’ race among students applying for places in one of Ireland’s five medical schools.

Like other aptitude tests, the HPAT is said to test skills and attributes that are underrepresented in curriculum-based exams like the Leaving Cert, which has been accused of over-reliance on rote learning. Entry to medicine – previously requiring at least 575 points – is now based on a combination of Leaving Cert points, essentially capped at 560, and a HPAT with a maximum score of 300.

Be that as it may, this new approach raises many important issues. Disappointment is built into the CAO process – there will always be more students applying than there are places available, particularly for courses like medicine. In an ideal world, exactly 400 Leaving Cert students each year would possess the right ‘aptitude’ for medicine, and a method would exist to identify such students and extract them from the crowd. In reality there are more than 400 such students, but only 400 places – and our selection methods are imperfect.

Much of the public’s ire has focused on the gender balance of the current Foundation Year, as its female-to-male ratio – traditionally a pleasant 60:40 – falls to an unimaginative 50:50. Some commentators have suggested that this is a deliberate design implement of the HPAT, either to neutralise women’s supposed advantage in the Leaving Cert, or to rebalance the medical profession in favour of men – perhaps as a

way of reducing the number of doctors taking maternity leave.

The country’s deans of medicine – including UCD’s Prof. Bill Powderly – refuted these suggestions in a letter to The Irish Times in August.

Whether a 50:50 gender balance is desirable in medicine is an entirely separate argument. Folk wisdom has always stated that the reason the majority of consultant doctors are men is that women take time off to raise families. Ideally the whole system would be made more family friendly, with male doctors being offered paternity leave.

Any suggestion that men are incapable of competing with women without having their grades artificially inflated by the HPAT is rather insulting.

Quite apart from accusations of social engineering, many continue to question whether the HPAT is necessary at all. Proponents of the HPAT claim it measures qualities not tested by the Leaving Cert, such as empathy and spatial reasoning.

Classically, surgeons have been described as lacking in any ability to relate to their patients, but this is not always the case in real life. In any case, interpersonal skills grow and change during a six-year degree. As for “spatial reasoning”, it might be considered necessary in a surgeon, but students with poor spatial reasoning can simply chose to go into a non-surgical specialty after graduating.

The points race for medicine benefits nobody, and the adoption of the HPAT was recommended by experts, who presumably knew what they were talking about. Whatever the ramifications of the selection method, the class of 2015 will undoubtedly make a great contribution to the medical profession, and we should take this opportunity to welcome them to UCD.

Swine Flu: Menace or Media Hype?

With the world gripped by fears of a new pandemic, Sean Mc Kernan asks how serious a health risk is swine flu?

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ith the intensity of media coverage over swine flu this summer, one can be forgiven for having mentally tuned out. Ever since swine flu appeared in mid-March of this year, countless news reports have proclaimed the carnage and death this virus will bring. Although swine flu presents a severe challenge to world health, it may not be as severe as largely presented by the media.

Swine flu, as the name suggests, is a virus normally endemic in pigs, but is most recently believed to have passed to humans with the infection of a young boy in Mexico City early in 2009.

Evidence suggests that the virus may have been present in humans for several months, and that Mexico was already in the midst of a silent epidemic, before the virus was formally recognised and diagnosed.

Historically, swine flu has caused several epidemics, with a vaccine for an earlier strain developed in 1976. As viruses mutate rapidly, this vaccine is now obsolete and we have little natural immunity to the virus in its present form, formally identified as the A(H1N1) strain. The race has now begun to create a vaccine for the current strain, which has the

potential to make billions in profits for pharmaceutical companies.

The virus itself can cause varying symptoms within carriers; ranging from effects comparable to the annual seasonal flu, to more severe sickness; muscle pain and heavy vomiting. People with underlying health conditions, respiratory conditions, diabetes and heart conditions, as well as those who are pregnant are the most likely to suffer severe complications or to die as a result of infection.

In its severest form, the virus attacks deep in the lungs and creates more severe respiratory symptoms than other flu viruses, which attack only the upper respiratory system. This can cause more serious breathing difficulty than other influenza viruses and increases the risk respiratory failure.

Swine flu carries a higher mortality rate than the seasonal flu, but the difference is greatly exaggerated by most tabloid newspapers. With the winter approaching in the northern hemisphere, however, the number of cases may take a long time to plateau.

So why has swine flu become such a serious health topic? One reason may be its prodigious rate of spread. With air travel and international travel now commonplace, the rate of viral spread is

increasing. SARS and Bird Flu are perfect examples of recent viral outbreaks where air travel was a major factor in the rapid spread of disease.

Alarming virus epidemics have occurred in the past. In 1918, Spanish flu was spread to sub-Saharan Africa by two soldiers returning home from World War I, and caused the deaths of approximately two million Africans.

The Black Death of the 1340s is another example of a lethal and easily transmitted infection, which claimed at least 75 million lives.

Now with air travel widespread, disease can travel internationally to numerous countries, creating silent epidemics where the virus has spread widely before it can be controlled. Border control has also been stepped up by several countries such as China in a bid to curb the spread.

Swine flu is an excellent example of how modern life can make it easier for diseases to spread at pace. The study of its epidemiology may provide vital data to scientists that could be used to prevent other diseases from spreading in the future, and thus ensuring that minimal

lives are lost.

In the meantime, frequently washing your hands and covering your mouth when coughing or sneezing is the most effective way of preventing the spread of disease, as eighty per cent of all bacteria are transferred via hand contact.

15.09.09

THE UNIVERSITY OBSERVER

SPORT

sport@universityobserver.ie

Life after Ronaldo Gavan Reilly asks if the Red Devils can survive losing their Galactico

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hen Manchester United finally succumbed to Cristiano Ronaldo’s voracious wanderlust – and happily accepted a cheque for £80m – many would have expected the Red Devils’ stranglehold on the Premier League to come to a mute and subdued end. With no side ever having claimed England’s top flight for four successive years, and having stuttered to a third straight Premiership last May, the loss of the talismanic winger – so often the goalscorer in 1-0 wins – seemed the death knell to United’s title ambitions.

United’s initiation to the new term, though, seems to offer some sunlight to the red faithful. Barring the notable blip against newly-promoted Burnley – who, to their credit, have flourished under Owen Coyle and look a safe bet to survive the drop – United have exhibited a footballing renaissance of sorts; playing a gritty, commanding, physically resolute game, juxtaposing the shapely, trim, luxurious football of the Ronaldo era.

The contrast in styles Sir Alex Ferguson’s men have demonstrated can be embodied in their chief playmakers of each era. The deluxe football achieved at the pinnacle of Ronaldo’s tenure – a 7-1 drubbing of Roma in 2007 springs to mind – can almost be seen as an extension of Ronaldo’s own play. In the Portuguese’s absence, United’s creative lynchpin has been rescued from a wider berth and restored to his ideal position, bearing down in front of goal: a player embodying United’s new aggression like no other, the gristly Wayne Rooney.

United’s real ability to survive Ronaldo’s departure, however, will likely come in the Champions League. The Red Devils’ opener

tonight against Beşiktaş will offer the first indication of whether the European stage on which Ronaldo performed his best can succumb to the hardier style Rooney’s United have adopted, or whether the stage is set for United’s meek exit and a stylish success for Ronaldo and the rest of Florentino Pérez’s neuvos Galacticos at Real Madrid.

While United seem incapable of repeating the svelte performances Ronaldo so often seemed to propel, the signs for the Old Trafford faithful are strong so far. Victories against fluent Arsenal and Tottenham sides might not be the final rung on the ladder to further success, but they may certainly be the foundations on which United’s throne could be built.

He never said he knew everything about football – he just knows more than everyone else

sional note, here is a list of three players who are going to take the competition by storm.

(This piece of the column is merely for told-you-so purposes when Standard Liège win the Champions League. You heard it here first.)

Diego: After building up a cult status at Werder Bremen, he took the big leap up to Serie A over the summer. Del Piero will want to look over his shoulder – Diego has shown that he means business as he picked apart Roma in his second game. He is the signing that will turn Juventus from hopefuls into challengers.

Edin Džeko: The big money moves to Chelsea and AC Milan never came about, so this talented Bosnian is still at Wolfsburg. He was part of Europe’s deadliest strike partnership last year with Brazilian Grafite, scoring 26 goals in 32 matches. Considered both a provider and a goalscorer, he sounds like a good version of Berbatov.

Miralem Pjanić: The boots Juninho left behind at Lyon will take some filling, but after having a year to bed in, this guy has flashed hints that he is capable.

Pjanić has the burst of pace that Juninho

‘Fearghal’ on Sport Trapattoni, Harrington and Cody are all under the spotlight in the first instalment of Fearghal Kerin’s tentatively named new column

Wayne Rooney has become United’s creative lynchpin

The Badger IT’S BEEN A typical start to the season. Referees continue to make mistakes (costing me a healthy balance on Betfair), international football is still boring the hell out of people, and Spurs once again threaten to actually achieve something.

I’m not too worried about the last bit.

Spurs will just fall away as they do every year, whether it’s another bout of food poisoning from dodgy lasagne; hiring a manager who refuses to speak English; or maybe this time having a crisis of Harchester United proportion.

News reports of Heurelho Gomes holding the team hostage in the dressing room at half-time against Blackburn when ‘Arry Redknapp signs David James, 63, wouldn’t shock The Badger.

Even though Brazil thumped Argentina last week, and Brian Kerr’s Faroe Islands won their first game since 2001, the media still managed to write about something other than international football – though I rather enjoyed the schadenfreude regarding Chelsea and their transfer ban. One word seemed to sum it up in all fans’ minds: ‘comeuppance’. Not in Chelsea’s minds, though; their phrase of the year seems to be ‘UEFA conspiracy’.

On a more up-to-date note, The Badger knows that Spanish minnows Barcelona and Italian pub team Inter Milan are facing off tonight. However, he’ll be sleeping through the occasion, resting up for the inevitable showpiece between Dynamo Kiev and Champions League debutants Rubin Kazan. Without getting ahead of oursleves, this really could be the dress rehersal for the final in Madrid next May. But never mind: on a more profes-

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lacked, and can spread play well.

Don’t forget to join The Badger’s Fantasy Premier League mini-league – the code is 548380-122022 Mario Balotelli: When Mourinho comes out publicly and calls someone arrogant, you can nearly smell the hypocricy. Inter’s boss loathes this player and constantly berates his attitude, and yet always gives Super Mario a way back into the team. Mourinho sees something in the powerful striker and so does The Badger.

Steven Defour: Considered Liverpool’s second option if they didn’t get Aquilani. The Standard Liège captain is an energetic box-to-box midfielder who isn’t afraid to shoot. He is the fundamental part to the Belgian champions play and will use this stage to showcase his skills.

THE BEGINNING OF a new Observer year heralds the first ever Fearghal On Sport, a forum for me to vent my frustrations, knowledge and witticisms, in a feature likely to be ignored by many just reading the sport to find their name in a match report.

Nonetheless, I’m taking the responsibility seriously; I’d debated the alternative title of ‘Kerin Affairs’, but that might’ve been a tad obscure.

And piggybacking on the paragon of sport that was Michael D Clark is difficult enough as it is. Suggestions for slightly more original and clever titles are therefore most welcome!

Given my promotion to the side of page 17, and the expectations that come with such lofty placement, many will be disappointed at what is to come. Given the string of accumulator bets I’ve placed and lost this summer, often in the most obscure circumstances (Newport County’s draw with Lewes last month was sickening), my confidence in my own status as a bastion of sporting knowledge is at its lowest ebb, but we may plough ahead regardless.

Depending on who you’re talking to, Giovanni Trapattoni is either a Messiah, here to guide us to redemption on the high veldt next summer, or a parasite sucking life from our once-swashbuckling national side.

In many ways neither is exactly correct, as the playoff is likely to be the rock upon which the Irish team perishes. There are several good teams bound to finish second in their groups, and though the likes of Croatia haven’t covered themselves in glory in this campaign, it’s hard to imagine Ireland having an answer to their class. The same goes for Serbia, likely to finish behind France in their group, and though Portugal seem odds-on to be eliminated at the group stages, they are yet another of the quality teams that would be heavily favoured to eliminate Ireland.

For whatever reason, there seems to be ignorance amongst the Irish as to the perils of the playoffs. In recent memory, Ireland have been defeated by Belgium and Turkey (the latter game memorable a brawl that would make Millwall v West Ham look tame) and have only advanced past mediocre Iran at the play-off stage. Victory is by no means assured, though thankfully Northern Ireland’s defeat to Slovakia means we won’t suffer the ignominy of being knocked out by our rugged, sexilyaccented, over-achieving cousins.

For what it’s worth, I’m not criticising Trapattoni or the Irish players.

Not unlike the North, Ireland have a reasonably limited squad and have done well to achieve what they have so far. Criticism of Trapattoni’s tactics and pragmatism confuses

and annoys me. Firstly, isn’t victory regardless of the manner in Nicosia in 2009 several times better than the 5-2 mauling at their hands in 2006?

Secondly, Trap has never played flowing, tici-taci football wherever he has managed, so for those who heralded his arrival to jump on his back once they see his work is hypocritical, and exposes the ill-informedness of Dunphy… er, I mean, the critics-at-large.

One of the pleasures this summer has been watching Padraig Harrington complete his battle with his swing demons, and start competing for tournaments once more. At the time of writing, he’s sunk eight consecutive rounds below 70 and though it hasn’t been enough to retain either of his majors – or indeed any event – it has been enough to keep him in FedEx Cup contention.

There are few evenings comparable to a Sunday watching Harrington sink the back nine in full flight, though if he could avoid quintuple bogeys at such stages, it would make those evenings less wasted.

With UCD’s Shane Lowry having a fairytale summer, and Rory McIlroy’s rise to the forefront of the Race to Dubai, it’s been a great summer for Irish golf. Per capita, Ireland must be the best in the world at golf, with Northern Ireland in particular producing an amazingly disproportionate amount of talented players.

Trappatoni Long may it continue.

Successful teams are often universally disliked, especially if they are a ruthlessly efficient team that rarely looks like losing. If they dominate a sport for years, they become all the more hateable. Yet there’s something about the Kilkenny hurlers that I find hard to hate: maybe closer observers or opposition players see systematic fouling or intimidation of referees, but I don’t. Instead I see a team that are never rattled, and for whom the greatest threat is not from opposition teams, but from emerging squad members taking their places.

Like all the greats – from Aidan O’Brien in horse racing, across the board – there seems to be a feeling with Kilkenny that they’d rather have the other teams be as strong as possible. Kilkenny natives have often said they take no pleasure in putting five goals past Offaly or Wexford, and it’s this yearning for a higher standard that makes them the team they are – though a sending off and a dodgy penalty do help.

To finish, I want to clarify one issue. I’m not sure if I was one of the members of the press that Brian Cody was thinking of when he said there was a witch-hunt against Tommy Walsh, but if I am, I apologise.

Anything to resist being torn apart like poor Marty Morrissey.

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THE UNIVERSITY OBSERVER

15.09.09

SPORT

sport@universityobserver.ie

Developing in a winning environment Leinster centre and upcoming Irish international Fergus McFadden talks to Killian Woods about the Churchill Cup and his future career Following his debut professional season being in the squad, even when he wasn’t with Leinster last year, the vibrant Fergus playing: “I would have looked up to the McFadden has much to look forward to likes of O’Driscoll and D’Arcy when I was in the new season. After playing a halfin school. They’re two of the best centres dozen games last year in what was conin Europe certainly, and probably the sidered a strong Leinster team, McFadden world. I learnt a great deal from being will be hoping to cement his place in the with them, playing with them and chatsenior squad and play a pivotal role in the ting with them about the game.” province’s future success.

The dynamic centre is clearly feelHaving started Leinster’s first Magners ing at home in the Leinster camp, League game of the season against the and hearing him refer to O’Driscoll Llanelli Scarlets, McFadden also made and D’Arcy as “work colleagues” the first fifteen in the provinces match and “friends” incidates being against the Newport Gwent Dragons at pointed in the right direction. the RDS, a match which saw him give a After finishing out the year with solid overall display. a string of impressive performancAfter playing out the early stages of his es for the province – taking on career with kicking duClongowes ties in many I don’t know, it’s hard to games – McCollege, McFadmake comparisons with Fadden caught den moved to the eye of the UCD and enjoyed a player of his calibre. But Irish selecconsiderable tors, looking it’s nice to be compared success with continue to him, and maybe people to the under 20s, Irish rugby’s think I might be following success into notably winning the JP Fanagan the summer, and in his footsteps League. When was called up to the asked about the Ireland A squad for set up of UCD Rugby, McFadden names the Churchill Cup. organisation as a key contributor to the McFadden played a central role in an club’s success in winning trophies and Ireland A team which ultimately emerged developing promising players. victors, defeating Canada, Georgia and “UCD have a great set-up. Obviously England Saxons in the final, with McFadthe facilities are unbelieveable, and they den carrying his end-of-season form probably have some of the best facilities into the tournament and offering some in the country in terms of all sports. With thrilling displays of his skill set. These the likes of rugby, the management team impressive performances, especially in is strong. Bobby Byrne and Gary Coakley the final against England Saxons, led to are extremely good coaches. There is also him picking up the curiously designed [UCD Director of Rugby] John McClean, Most Valuable Player trophy. who’s excellent at recruiting players from However, the impressive looking schools to play at under-20 level for the trophy may have seen better college.” days. “I was staying on in McFadden is one of a long line of UCD America for a few days players to break into the Leinster and for a holiday so I gave Irish senior squads, following the path the trophy to one of the taken by players such as Rob Kearney, more reliable lads to bring Denis Hickie and Brian O’Driscoll. home”, he admits. “He got it back for me McFadden made his Leinster debut but its kinda half-broken; it’s still in one against the Cardiff Blues in September piece though. But it’s nice to have it, a 2007, though he only managed to earn good memento of the competition.” two starts that season. His first year as After his summer performances for Ireprofessional, in 2008-09, reiterated his land A, comparisons between himself and potential and brought his name to the the aforementioned current Irish captain fore of the Leinster and Ireland managebegan to crop up. Speaking of these ment teams. comparisons, McFadden modestly seems McFadden has clearly benefitted from unaware of the idea. “I don’t know, it’s

More of the same, please Following a season where Irish rugby teams won almost every trophy available to them, Dara Martin thinks prospects for the coming year look bright

A Grand Slam for Ireland, the Heineken Cup for Leinster, the Magners League title for Munster, a Churchill Cup victory for the Ireland A squad and the highest ever Irish representation on a British & Irish Lions tour amounted to the most successful year ever in Irish rugby, and possibly in the history of Irish sport. The so-called ‘Golden Generation’ including the likes of Brian O’Driscoll, Paul O’Connell and Ronan O’Gara have finally garnered the silverware that evaded them for so long.

No longer were Irish rugby fans satisfied with second-place finishes in the Six Nations or even Triple Crowns. The national team finally went on to complete their first Grand Slam in 61 years last March – a day many thought they would never see following the lows of the Rugby World Cup in 2007. The revolution in form under new head coach Declan Kidney was also backed up by successful seasons at provincial level, but what’s in store for the coming season?

The senior Ireland squad remains

hard to make comparisons with a player of his calibre. But it’s nice to be compared to him, and maybe people think I might be following in his footsteps.”

His performances also seem to be catching the eye of Irish coach Declan Kidney. McFadden was called up to the numerous camps over the summer showing that Kidney clearly has him in his mind for selection for the upcoming autumn internationals. “I’ve been involved in the first few camps over the summer and I suppose if I try to keep playing well for Leinster hopefully I might be in with

a shout when the international fixtures come along. All I can do is train hard, play well and hope I catch his eye.”

Admittedly, trying to hold a place in a Leinster team that has experienced, world-class centres will be tough for McFadden, though with the new format of the Magners League – with play-offs between the top four clubs being introduced to decide the eventual winner – the coaches will have more license to experiment this year.

“I personally think the new format is better. In the past it was great that the

team who played the best rugby over the year wins. But the new format probably makes the league more competitive for the fringe teams and interesting overall”.

The timing of Fergus McFadden’s career could not coincide better with the current boom in Irish rugby, allowing him play with – and learn from – some of the best players and coaches this country has ever produced. Developing around this winning mentality can only be positive. Don’t be suprised if this venturing young player features in the upcoming Autumn tests.

largely unchanged, although potentially it Kidney the opportunity to experiment by could even be stronger than last year, bolproviding some of the younger players stered by some of the in-form Churchill with much needed game time at the highCup players such as Neil Best, Fergus est level.

McFadden and Devin Toner. Cover for The fact that Felipe Contepomi has John Hayes at tighthead prop remains moved on from Leinster should allow the one area of major concern. Going on Jonathan Sexton an extended run in the 36, whether or not Hayes will make it to number 10 jersey, allowing him challenge the next World Cup in 2011 depends on O’Gara for the Ireland outhalf position his remarkable in the Autumn Inability to stay ternationals. Eoin The match against the injury-free. It Reddan’s return to is unlikely that Ireland from LonSpringboks, currently there will be any Wasps could ranked first in the world, don other retirements see him competwill be a good barometer before the tournaing to regain the ment in New Irish scrumhalf of Ireland’s standing in Zealand. jersey from Tomas the world game This November, O’Leary and Peter Ireland welcome Stringer. MeanWorld Champiwhile, the very ons and newlyimpressive Cian crowned Tri-Nations victors South Africa Healy is putting strong pressure on Marto Croke Park, as well as Australia and cus Horan in the front row. Such competiFiji. The match against the Springboks, tion for places is vital for success, while currently ranked first in the world, will be also providing the Ireland team with real a good barometer of Ireland’s standing in impact off the bench. the world game. Although Australia have Although it has been a turbulent struggled in this year’s Tri-Nations, their summer for rugby across the Irish Sea in young team will also provide a stern test, Britain, regarding widespread drug use while the game against Fiji might afford and evidence of cheating, the Irish prov-

inces remained largely uninvolved and unaffected, and look forward to building on the successes of last season in the Heineken Cup and Magners League.

There have been some notable transfers in and out of the provinces, particularly Munster’s acquisition of Springbok centre Jean de Villiers as well as the up-andcoming fullback Felix Jones, while Contempomi, Chris Whitaker and the irreplaceable Rocky Elsom have departed the Leinster setup.

Both Munster and Leinster are among the favourites and top seeds in this season’s Heineken Cup, while Ulster must overcome Bath, Stade Français and Edinburgh before progressing from their group. Meanwhile Connacht will be hoping to avoid a last place finish in the Magners League for a fourth year running, and instead challenge for a place in the Heineken Cup. With no Rugby World Cup or Lions Tour this season, the Irish players and provinces can focus solely on defending the titles that they won last season.

However, with visits to Paris and London to come in the Six Nations, back-to-back Grand Slams seem a tall order, although the current squad certainly has the ability to achieve further successes.

15.09.09

THE UNIVERSITY OBSERVER

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SPORT

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Towering Cork set for All-Ireland glory at Kingdom’s expense Brian Carty previews the meeting of Munster’s juggernauts at Croke Park this weekend for the All-Ireland Football Final The upcoming 122nd All-Ireland Senior Football Final sees Munster kingpins Cork and Kerry clash for the third time in this year’s Championship.

Their last meeting occurred in the modest surroundings of Pairc Uí Chaoímh in the Munster semi-final, with victory for Cork, but the latest chapter in their rivalry takes place on the grandest stage of all.

While Cork gave Kerry a footballing lesson that day, revenge is a dish best served cold, and Kerry are a completely different outfit from the one that rolled over so tamely in June.

As with every game between these two keen rivals, it is tough to predict the victor, and it is probably worth noting that for all of Cork’s success over Kerry in the Munster Championship over the past few seasons, when it comes to showdowns between them at headquarters, it is the Kingdom who have the Indian sign over Cork.

In order to determine the possible victor, one must look at the paths each team took to the decider. Conor Counihan’s Cork have cut a swathe through the Championship this year, with their combination of a towering, physical central spine and a youthful, dangerous

full-forward line wreaking havoc to those unfortunate to face them.

They followed up their commanding replay victory over Kerry with a less-than-impressive victory over Mickey Ned O’Sullivan’s Limerick in the Munster decider. However, they really kicked back into gear in the quarter-finals when they destroyed a lacklustre Donegal outfit, before putting their Croke Park hoodoo well and truly behind them, deservedly dethroning reigning champions Tyrone by four points despite playing with only fourteen men for the entire second half.

In contrast to the consistency shown by the Rebels, Kerry have experienced a rollercoaster of form throughout the summer.

They appeared a side well and truly beaten following the replay defeat to Sunday’s opponents, and looked like a team in dire need of revamp following uninspiring victories over lowly counties Longford, Sligo and Antrim, three sides to which they would usually show no mercy.

However, as is the Kingdom tradition, they really came into their own in August when they gave arguably the performance of the Championship on Bank Holiday Monday, obliterating the much-hyped Dubs by seventeen points,

Kerry are a completely different outfit from the one that rolled over so tamely in June

immediately staking claims as possible All-Ireland contenders in the process.

They followed up that victory over Dublin with a hard-fought, but nonetheless comfortable victory over surprise package Meath in the semi-final, setting up a chance to exact revenge against their near neighbours in the decider.

Centre-back and captain, Graham Canty, has been the source of much inspiration this year for Cork, while midfield duo Nicholas Murphy and Alan O’Connor and centre-forward

Pierce O’Neill all stand at least 6’4” and command the key midfield sector.

Meanwhile, youthful triumvirate Daniel Goulding, Donnacha O’Connor and Colm O’Neill have proved to be a confident, talented full-forward line, each capable of being match winners on their day.

Kerry’s ship has been steadied somewhat by the return from retirement of Michael McCarthy, playing now at his more customary centre-back berth, while Paul Galvin and Declan O’Sullivan appear to be revelling in the roles given

to them by Jack O’Connor.

Much will depend on whether Darragh Ó Sé can exert his influence on O’Connor and Murphy, while Cork will hope that Anthony Lynch can continue his recent impressive man-marking job on Colm ‘Gooch’ Cooper.

Both teams will lack nothing in motivation, skill and form, and while there will be no more than a couple of points in it either way, this writer feels that since their dethroning of Tyrone, Sam Maguire is destined to spend the winter on Leeside this year.

Platini’s European Cup Experiment kicks off As Europe’s finest clubs begin their pursuit of the coveted Champions League tonight, Ciarán Ó Braonáin discusses the possible outcome

In recent years the UEFA Champions League group stages have become a drab, insufferable trudge through a host of tedious and uninspiring encounters.

Groups have come to be a mere formality, with the majority of qualifiers easily predicted before a ball is kicked. The past five years have seen an average of 13 of the 16 top-seeded teams progress to the next round, most doing so with considerable ease.

This year, however, sees the first stage of UEFA president Michel Platini’s attempt to readjust the balance of power and “level the playing field” in European football. The 2009-10 Champions League boasts the highest number of actual European champions for a decade as well as eight clubs making their debut in the competition. Amongst the newcomers only the German and Dutch champions, Wolfsburg and AZ Alkmaar respectively, have any conceivable chance of advancing to the next round.

Although the remaining six new teams – Zurich, APOEL, Debreceni, Rubin Kazan, Unirea Urziceni and Standard Liege – face a sobering experience, the fact they have even made it to the cash-rich promised land of Europe’s premier football competition bodes well for the future.

Platini’s slight tinkering with the

qualification system is only a small step.

It will be a long and arduous journey to promote substantial growth of football outside the traditionally dominant nations, but his dedication and enthusiasm must be commended.

Despite this restructuring of format, things are almost as predictable as ever.

Each group has a clear favourite with Bayern Munich, Manchester United, Real Madrid, Chelsea, Liverpool, Barcelona, Sevilla and Arsenal all expected to top their respective pools.

The battles for second place however seem to have more of a competitive edge about them than usual with Juventus and Bordeaux (Group A), AC Milan and Marseille (Group C) and Lyon and Fiorentina (Group E) all too close to call.

The most intriguing group is probably Group B, where the evenly matched CSKA Moscow, Besiktas and Wolfsburg are all in contention for the runners-up spot to Manchester United.

When it comes to predicting the eventual winners it is difficult to look past the established order of England and Spain with Barcelona, Madrid, Chelsea and Manchester United being the clear favourites. Barcelona are the bookmakers’ pick, and deservedly so, but might Pep Guardiola be left ruing his questionable

decision to trade Eto’o for Ibrahimovic?

All eyes will be on Madrid after their unparalleled spending spree and in particular on whether or not Cristiano Ronaldo can ever justify their valuation of him. As for last year’s beaten finalists, Manchester United have yet to prove that they are capable of maintaining the highs of recent years after the loss of crowd favourite Tevez and club talisman Ronaldo.

Arguably it is Carlo Ancelotti’s rejuvenated Chelsea side that are best equipped to go all the way. Despite a lack of transfers, the new manager has given a new lease of life to the squad. Provided that injuries are kept to a minimum, the FIFA-enforced transfer ban shouldn’t impact considerably on Ancelotti’s side, who may even benefit through a siege mentality. All this, coupled with a hunger derived from the near misses of the last two seasons, could well be the driving force that sets them apart from the rest.

AC Milan and Liverpool can never be ruled out of course, but must be considered veritable outsiders. The one other side capable of challenging is José Morinho’s Internazionale. Nothing seems impossible with the enigmatic Portuguese maestro at the helm and with the addition of Eto’o to the squad they may be this year’s dark horses.

The Champions League gets underway this week with many small teams quietly harbouring big dreams. Despite the odd memorable scalp or two, actual progression for these minnows will remain the stuff of dreams, for this year at least. But, if Platini gets his way, in a few years time we may well be talking about the dominance of the Cypriot and Israeli – and perhaps even Irish – giants of European football.

20

THE UNIVERSITY OBSERVER

15.09.09

SPORT

sport@universityobserver.ie

Fergus McFadden talks Leinster, Ireland and wonky trophies P18

Promotion surge continues with solid home performance UCD 3 Monaghan Utd 0

Martin Scanlon watched UCD dominate and make Monaghan pay for lacklustre defending at the Belfield Bowl last Friday

U

CD recorded A comfortable 3-0 victory against a disappointing Monaghan United side on Friday night, regaining momentum in their push for promotion. Beginning the night in third place – sitting behind Sporting Fingal on goal difference – the victory will come as a welcome boost to manager Martin Russell as the season reaches its climax.

However the margin did little to flatter the hosts, who could easily have scored more in the second half as the game’s intensity died.

On a chilly evening where UCD had all the chances, the Students took a deserved lead on twenty-five minutes when Pete McMahon was felled by a clumsy challenge just inside the penalty area. Ronan Finn coolly slotted a firm shot into the bottom left-hand corner, leaving Monaghan keeper Aaron McCarey with no chance.

Even before the opener, Monaghan looked bereft of ideas, seeming content to absorb wave after wave of UCD pressure. For long periods they withdrew all eleven players to within forty yards of their own goal, allowing UCD time to pass the ball cleverly and find holes in their defence. The visitors’ cause was not helped with the loss of their centre back, Conor McMahon, after just seven minutes following two heavy collisions.

UCD’s main early successes came from the sweet left-footed deliveries of Peter Corry, making his full debut for the side. Twice in the first half, his corners had McCarey muddling underneath his own crossbar. The Students’ best opportunity to go further ahead came just before half-time when Corry’s central free kick was flicked towards goal by Evan McMillan, forcing McCarey to pull off a wonderful save to tip the ball just past his right hand post.

Monaghan’s only attempts in the first half were a tame header into the arms of UCD keeper Gerard Barron, who spent most of the match a spectator, and an ambitious lob from halfway that drifted well wide.

The second half continued in the same vein, with UCD’s midfield triumvirate of Corry, Finn and McMahon effortlessly controlling possession. Corry’s inclusion in front of the back four gave Finn and McMahon freedom to push forward and be the side’s main creative influence. The trio successfully muted Monaghan’s threat and gave a springboard to the home side’s attack.

UCD could have had a second goal early in the second period, when Finn’s drive and Ciaran Kilduff ’s curling shot both won corners. The advantage was finally doubled in the 62nd minute with a well-worked move from the right, the unmarked John Reilly taking the easiest of tap-ins.

The three home substitutes all looked impressive, particularly Graham Rusk who added UCD’s third.

After attempting a one-two, the ball fell neatly to Rusk who placed it past the flailing hand of the overworked McCarey with just seconds remaining.

Manager Martin Russell will know that tighter and tenser matches will follow if UCD are to return to the top-flight next season.

UCD: Barron, Shorthall, Boyle, E McMillan, Nangle, Reilly (Ward 75), Corry, Finn, McMahon, McMillan (Falconer 82), Kilduff (Rusk 75) Monaghan United: McCarey, McKevitt, Grimes, Whelan, McMahon (Flynn 8), Hanaphy (Brennan 73), O’Connor, McCrossan, Bermingham, Freeman, Clancy

UCD dominated in midfield to deny Monaghan

Anything but a Colourful Affair UCD 20 Trinity 13 Killian Woods watched UCD put one over their rivals at the Belfield Bowl After losses to Old Belvedere and Clontarf in the first two games of the Leinster Senior League Cup pool stage, the grudge match against Dublin University was a nice way to bow out of the tournament with heads held high.

Both of these sides had little to play for but pride, and the intensity of a typical Colours match was conspicuously absent.

The incapacity of both teams to show fluency in their game plans resulted in lack of discipline due to frustration.

UCD made the first breakthrough after retreiving a garryowen in midfield, with Trinity called up for handling in the ruck, and the resulting penalty calmly dis-

patched by UCD out-half Niall Earls.

Trinity hit back immediately though; a good move off a ruck between and neat link-up play put them over the line with the conversion following. The city centre side consistently passed the ball through the hands from one wing to another, but with handling errors restricting their flowing game, they never managed to make the final pass.

It was these errors that led to UCD’s first try, as an ability to keep the ball alive on the Trinity try line resulted in flanker Gavin Murphy touching down. The conversion was successful and put UCD ahead by 10-7.

UCD’s back line prevented the team from surging forward, and Earls was left with few options when looking to distribute the ball while his backs’ off-the-ball movement seemed non-existent. When Earls was forced to use the boot, however, his tactical kicking was effective.

UCD were put on the back foot at the start of the second half when substitute Ronan McCormack was binned for tackling in the air. To their credit, though, UCD continued to take the game to their visitors. Captain Matt Nagle soon broke through Trinity’s defence and surged past the 22, only to be turned over at the breakdown.

The fly-halves traded penalties throughout the second half until UCD made their clinical breakthrough in the last ten minutes. Adventurous play between UCD centres offered a platform for their forwards to barge over, with Gavin Murphy grabbing his second try of the day.

The game ended on a sour note, however, when the touchjudge called the referee to cite UCD’s McCormack for punching, with the prop forward subsequently shown a red card.

After the bitter end to last season, culminating in UCD’s relegation from Division One of the AIB league, the club has seen some personnel and leadership

changes. Last year’s charismatic captain Michael Hastings has moved on, as has talented centre Killian Lett. New captain, backrow forward Matt Nagle, hopes to lead his side to instant promotion back to Division One. UCD: Michael Twomey, Peter Condon, Andy Cummiskey, Eoghan Conran, Tom Fletcher, Niall Earls, Rob Shanley, John A Lee, Gavin Telford, Brian Hall, Brian Crawley, Arthur Houlihan, Shane Grannell, Gavin Murphy, Matt Nagle (capt). Substitutes: Andy Pollard, Ronan McCormack, Wes Carter, Simon Gillespie, Joe McGinley