REVIEW OF THE DECADE e on erver’s retrospectiv The University Obs
the noughties
PULLOUT SPECIAL
REVIEW OF THE DECADE
SUPPLEMENT WILL ‘WE WILL ROCK YOU’ ACTUALLY ROCK YOU? INSIDE
WE CAST A LOOK BACK OVER THE LAST TEN YEARS AND REVIEW THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY OF THE NOUGHTIES INSIDE
Observer Digest NEWS DPP considered SU action over condoms State papers reveal that SU faced legal action over 1979 condom machine P2
Observer The University
COMMENT Hopeless-hagen
VOLUME XVI ISSUE 7
NE QUID FALSE DICERE AUDEAT NE QUID VERI NON AUDEAT
19th January 2009
IRELAND’S AWARD-WINNING STUDENT NEWSPAPER
The world wasted a golden chance to address climate change P25
UCD volunteers leave Haiti three days before earthquake BRIDGET FITZSIMONS
SPORT Ladies lose to Loreto UCD Hockey team pipped 1-0 in tight encounter P30
Former UCD employee jailed for child abuse BRIDGET FITZSIMONS A former UCD employee has been jailed for two years for the indecent assault of 19 boys in the 1960s. Seán John Drummond, a former Christian Brother and a Library Assistant at UCD, committed the crimes while working as a Second Class teacher in a Limerick national school. Drummond was sentenced on 10th December at Limerick Circuit Court. The court heard that Drummond was moved to another class and then to another school after a parent complained about his behaviour . Drummond, who was 19 at the time of the crimes, subsequently left the religious order in 1970. He has since married and had children, and had been living in Ballinteer. The crimes were first reported in 2005, after which all pupils of the class he taught were contacted by the Gardaí. Judge Carroll Moran stated that the prolonged abuse had had a “traumatic effect on young boys who were at an impressionable and young age.” He also acknowledged that fact that Drummond had been able to move on and live a relatively stable life, while those he abused faced a number of problems, including alcohol and drug abuse, marital problems and learning difficulties. He also commented that Drummond’s sentence would have been less strict in the 1970s and that he had taken into account the number of victims, as well as the length of time over which the abuse had occurred. Providing a psychological profile of the convicted, a senior psychologist for the Granada Institute, Fergal Rooney, Continued on P3 >>
T
welve members of the UCD Volunteers Overseas (UCDVO) charity group left Haiti just days before the country was struck by a massive earthquake. The earthquake, which occurred on Tuesday 13th January and measured 7.0 on the Richter scale, is estimated to have caused the deaths of between 30,000 and 200,000 people. The alumni volunteers for UCDVO had been participating in development works in Gros Morne, a town situated about five hours north of Portau-Prince. They had constructed two houses in the two weeks that they had been in the town and flew out of Portau-Prince on Saturday. The team arrived back in Dublin on Monday, a day before the earthquake hit Haiti. This year had been the first that an alumni project had been put in place to visit Haiti. UCDVO’s Manager Caroline O’Connor expressed her relief that she and her team had made it home safely and that those involved in their projects were safe, including their missionary partners the Sisters of Jesus and Mary. O’Connor stated that UCDVO were “in touch with them on Wednesday and the town of Gros Morne hasn’t been directly affected by the quake” and that “two of the missionaries have gone down to Port-au-Prince with supplies”. UCDVO began an appeal for funds to aid the relief operations in Haiti on last Wednesday (January 14th) and are continuing fundraising efforts this week. O’Connor has appealed to UCD students who wish to get involved to get in contact, saying that UCDVO are “looking for more ideas and help to
Noah’s Egg provided some comic relief amid the misery of the cold weather last week. The Belfield campus was shut due to the extreme weather conditions for the second time in eleven months. Photo: Colin Scally organise things.” She also told The University Observer that any students with ideas for events to raise funds should contact UCDVO. O’Connor commented that the staff and student response to the appeal has been very strong. UCDVO volunteers have been collecting on Grafton Street
since the quake, and O’Connor hopes that they will be able to continue to do so throughout the week. She expressed happiness at the fact that “staff have contacted us saying that they want to do something when term starts back.” The organisation is to hold a nightclub event in BaseBar this Friday to
raise money for the relief efforts, and tickets will be on sale around campus. Donations will be accepted at UCDVO’s website, www.ucdvo.org, and any staff or students who interested in getting involved in fundraising can call the UCD Volunteers Overseas office at (01) 7167793.
Fire disrupts Science building works COLIN SWEETMAN A minor fire broke out in the UCD Science Centre South, informally known as the Chemistry Block, last Wednesday afternoon, 13th January. Crews from two units of the Dublin Fire Brigade, aided by a basket crane, successfully battled to bring the fire under control and stop it spreading to the rest of the building. It is believed that the blaze broke out when an overheated boiler exploded, causing materials in the plant room located on the fourth floor to catch fire. However, this is still under investigation and could not be confirmed by the university at the time of print. The fire occurred in a section of the building which is currently under con-
struction and therefore no students or staff were faced with immediate danger. Only a small number of students were present in the building at the time and evacuation was rapid and trouble-free. Plumes of thick smoke could be seen billowing from the rooftop with winds carrying the smoke northwards through the campus. After the fire alarm was activated, UCD Buildings & Services investigated the incident and immediately contacted the city fire service, who arrived on scene within minutes. Additional ‘height units’ were called in from Pearse Street station, as the fire took place on top of a fourstorey building. According to Buildings & Services, all boilers are regularly serviced in accordance with standard Health and Safety
procedures. This does not rule out such an incident happening again, although it is speculated that the severe cold spell may have compelled the boiler to be overused. A spokesperson for the university stated that the fire was limited to the plant room on the roof of Science South A1. “As this area of the building is due for renovation, it had been stripped back to a shell in advance of any works,” he said. “There were no injuries, and the result of the localised fire will not affect ongoing renovations.” The University Observer had contacted Dublin Fire Brigade for clarification on the nature of the fire and its effects, but had not received a response at the time of going to print. The Science complex is currently un-
dergoing a large-scale renovation project as part of the University’s extensive plans to regenerate the Belfield campus. Other works include an Arts extension and the construction of the new Student Centre.
19th January 2009 ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY... 1941: Wrestler and UCD toilet door hero Pat Patterson is born in Montreal