University Observer Volume XVII Issue 11

VOLUME XVII ISSUE 11

NE QUID FALSE DICERE AUDEAT NE QUID VERI NON AUDEAT

IRELAND’S AWARD-WINNING STUDENT NEWSPAPER

29th March 2011

COMMENT

FEATURES

MEMBERS OF THE LGBT ARE INTERVIEWED ABOUT THEIR EXPERIENCES OF COMING OUT

WE DEBATE THE IMPACT OF THE NEW PRIVACY LAWS ON SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES

PAGE 11

PAGE 13

SU ELECTION SPECIAL WE INTERVIEW THE CANDIDATES FOR THE FORTHCOMING ELECTIONS PAGES 6-9

Republic of Loose and O Emperor to play UCD Ball AMY BRACKEN News Editor

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epublic of Loose and O Emperor are among the acts that have been confirmed at this year’s UCD Ball on April 21st.

While the headline acts are yet to be announced, other confirmed acts include Lyaz, I-Rate Sound System, Bluemoose, Royseven, Fourplay, Frank Jez & Tando, Hogan, the Battle of the Bands winners, Daft Funk, Brian Maher (Spin 103.8), Fight Like Apes, Lost in Flight, Brandon Block, Disco of Doom, Casette Jam, and Red n’ Head.

UCDSU Entertainments Vice-President Jonny Cosgrove is confident that this will be the fastest selling UCD Ball yet, as a result of many months of preparation: “We have put a lot of time and effort into ensuring that the musical bill covers everything,” he said. “We tick all the boxes, from ensuring the best international festival DJs, to home-grown talent to the cheesiest of the cheese and our own UCD talent take the stage.”

Confusion was rife since construction begun on the new Sutherland School of Law at last year’s Ball site as to where this year’s event was to be held, yet it is now understood that it will be held at the running track on the N11 side of the campus.

Cosgrove spoke of the changes being made on last year’s event as well as the publicity he expects it to obtain: “This is looking to build on last year’s success as we move it to a more permanent home, bump up the lineup, our largest and most diverse to date, as well as adding in a carnival which was absent last year due to a licensing issue which we have built on this year.

We are also looking to confirm that Spin 103.8, UCD Ents media partner for the first time this year, shall broadcast live from the event.”

Cosgrove confirmed that he and his Ents Crew are currently in the process of implementing security measures in conjunction with the Gardaí and with university authorities.

Cosgrove says the ball will be “a day to remember, an event you can’t miss” and expressed his gratitude towards the organisers of the event: “Finding the new location and setting what was an extremely tough budget, I am happy to say the UCD Ball will be the cherry on top and I’m so thankful to everyone who has and has yet to put blood, sweat and tears into this unique event.”

Cosgrove concluded that the event will mark the culmination of a very successful Ents year and that he wants it to be the best Ents event yet: “I’ll only be happy when I see the thousands of attendees having a great day to cap off a year of high.”

Tickets for this year’s end of term UCD Ball are set to go on sale tomorrow outside the library and on UCDEnts.com, with the headline act to be confirmed later this

Members of the UCD Mountaineering Club are left hanging around during the Intervarsities Cup. See page 22.

Olympic ambitions for new Student Centre SARAH DORAN

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Chief News Writer he University Observer can exclusively reveal that the new UCD Student Centre is in the running to serve as the preLondon 2012 Olympics base for at least three European National swimming teams.

UCD Student Centre Manager Dominic O’Keeffe told The University Observer that the Vice Chair of the Swedish Olympic Association and a group of Swedish National Swimming Team delegates visited UCD on March 22nd to inspect the facilities. “We had them on a tour looking for 900 bed nights for about 35 people to come here,” said O’ Keefe.

The delegation was taken on a tour of catering facilities including the Main Restaurant and viewed the accommodation facilities at Roebuck Castle, Roebuck 2 and Glenomena. Details with regard to the accommodation of entourage and commuting times to London were also discussed. “They were more than impressed with the facilities of UCD,” O’Keeffe said. “They looked at bringing a second sport along with swimming, so we said we could accommodate that but you know; all these things are negotiable.”

However, the team are also looking at an area in Northern Italy for an Olympics base.

O’Keeffe also pointed toward an educational advantage should the Swedish team

choose UCD: “They’re based in Gothenburg too so they spoke about the Erasmus programme and education and so there could be links improved as well there.”

Sweden is not the only country to have expressed interest in the facility: “We have two opportunities with the Dutch Team who actually want to come and have a look at it and Germany want to come here as well. So fingers crossed we’re going well on that front in the international market,” O’Keeffe said.

“If it’s not the Swedish it might be the Dutch and the Germans might even come here, so it’d be an even bigger team.”

O’Keeffe understood that a final decision with regard to the choice of venue

by the Swedish team would be made around September of this year following consultation with the national Olympic Federation.

However he was eager to emphasise that Olympic ambitions were “a byproduct of what we’re trying to produce.

We’re trying to produce the student facility really at the end of the day.”

O’Keeffe explained that as a result of a “slippage in the programme due to weather, technical problems and building ability,” the projected opening date for the new Student Centre is now January 2012. “It’s more about the quality of the building than the actual opening date,” he stated. “Hopefully sometime in January of 2012 we’ll be in it.”

UCD email service to be powered by Gmail RONAN O’KELLY

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lans are underway for a major overhaul of the UCD e-mail system, which will see the existing IMAP Student Mail replaced with a Google-powered network.

If the proposal goes ahead, students will have access to over 7GB of storage capacity, as well as a fully customisable e-mail interface and access to integrated Google Apps.

UCD’s IT Services Department have confirmed that the new student Gmail system is currently being tested by members of the Quinn School along with 50 other students throughout the university.

Speaking with The University Observer, IT Services’ Communications Officer, Olivia

Jackman, explained: “The process began with a panel of UCD students and staff reviewing the service offerings from a number of providers.

“Many universities in Ireland and abroad have already moved their services to Google and feedback from the UCD panel indicated that customers would like a move to Google powered mail.”

Having passed a technical assessment, the plan is currently in its pilot stage in which feedback from test groups is being evaluated.

Students from the Quinn School of Business have been involved in this process from the start and took an active part in the customer review sessions.

When asked if criticism of the current system is the reason for the switch, Olivia

Jackman stated: “The existing student mail environment has not received much criticism,” she said. “The replacement of the server infrastructure for the existing system would be required soon and this, as well as the possibility of offering greater e-mail capacity and integrated apps for students led us to assess the suitability of cloud services.”

The Google Apps software is designed to allow freer and more effective communication within the entire campus body and is provided cost-free and ad-free to most thirdlevel institutions.

IT Services have already introduced Google Calendar and access to Google Docs last year, but the new Gmail system will allow student mailboxes to integrate with these and numerous other Google ap-

plications. E-mail addresses will remain the same and will continue to be available to students even after they leave UCD. The system has proven extremely successful in many other Irish universities, including Trinity College, where students have been availing of the free service since its inception in 2007.

IT Services have confirmed that the UCD Connect environment will continue as normal with access to the new e-mail environment being provided within UCD Connect.

No date has been confirmed for the transition to Gmail, but IT Services will decide this in conjunction with Registry and other official bodies within UCD when the test period is over.

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THE UNIVERSITY OBSERVER 29 March 2011

EDITORIAL

news@universityobserver.ie

The Students’ Union elections and real student power This year’s Sabbatical elections raise some interesting questions and their results will go some way towards revealing whether UCDSU is truly representative of the student body Let’s be clear, the Students’ Union is – at least to a certain extent – a clique, as has been claimed by some students recently. However, to suggest it is different to any other entity in UCD seems slightly unfair.

A clique is defined as “a small exclusive groups of friends or associates”. Even the staunchest SU Officer would be hard-pressed to deny that this is not a legitimate description of their current status.

It seems impossible, inhuman even, for a group of people who spend so much time together not to become friends. Similarly, most groups tend to require certain guidelines for entry.

In order to make an impact and acquire a position as a Sabbatical Officer, it can be assumed that certain skills – oratorical competence, friendliness, and political nous – are imperative. Consequently, like most coveted positions, there is a certain degree of exclusivity attached to the role. Not just anyone can become a Sabbatical Officer.

Yet complaints about the SU being an ‘old boys club’ (both literally and figuratively) cannot be easily dismissed. Essentially, the underlying problem, which leads some to question the credibility of the Students’ Union, is inextricably linked with the issue of student voting.

Last year, roughly 4,300 students voted in the SU Elections – a paltry figure and one that amounted to a turnout which was 20 per cent less than the previous year. Admittedly, this can be partly attributed to the fact that three of the Sabbatical positions last year were un-

contested. However, to extrapolate the implications of the aforementioned figures, as part of a feature investigating students’ attitudes towards the Union, our reporter had to go out of her way to find and interview students who genuinely seemed to care about its workings.

Moreover, many of those who do vote can hardly be said to be doing so with the interests of the student body in mind. Anyone who has ever walked through buildings in Science or Arts on voting day knows the level of farce that often characterises proceedings.

Some students vote purely out of personal allegiance to the candidate (or someone on their campaign team), while campaigners hassling students until they relent and somewhat reluctantly vote for the candidate in question is another common practice. All of which underpins the broad student apathy that in turn brings into question the relevance of the Union.

If UCDSU is truly worthy of the praise that it often lavishes upon itself, if it truly is “the best Students’ Union in the country”, as has been claimed, then surely a concerted effort must be made to discourage elitism, to actively promote political engagement and to ensure the voter turnout increases substantially in the forthcoming elections.

Its credibility as an organisation depends on it.

And regardless of how many posters, manifestos or cheesy online videos which candidates promulgate, the ultimate success or failure of next year’s SU lies with you, the student. Therefore, it is impera-

tive to think carefully before registering your vote. Students only have themselves to blame for the general disillusionment that arguably exists with the status quo. And the only way to alleviate this frustration is to scrutinise the manifestos, pay attention to the campus media, and question the campaigners.

And while last year’s voting turnout was alarmingly low, there remains legitimate scope for optimism this year. For instance, there are 14 candidates actively running in this year’s Students’ Union Elections – precisely double the amount of candidates that ran last year, a figure which would have been even higher had a series of technicalities not reduced the overall number.

Incredibly, no woman has been elected into the SU since 2007.

However, there are now a record number of women running, and they will be represented in at least one of the positions unless the RON (Re-Open Nominations) vote intervenes. The elections thus represent a vast opportunity to achieve gender equality in student representation.

Lastly, the record numbers of those voting in the recent general election – including a significantly high portion of young people – creates further cause for optimism. If university is a microcosm of society, then surely this trend will be mirrored over the next few days.

Yet the choice, as ever, solely remains with all the students to vote to achieve a truly representative student body.

UCD, binge drinking and student alienation The lack of a vibrant community spirit and social awkwardness of many UCD students is masked by a tacit acceptance of binge drinking in UCD. Such attitudes ultimately prove detrimental to students’ overall quality of life and university experiences Is UCD a welcoming place? This was one of the questions that The University Observer asked the candidates for Welfare Officer during our Sabbatical interviews this issue and the general consensus was that room for improvement existed in this area.

UCD can be a haven for social hermits. Too many students are content to blend in with the scenery for the duration of their degree until the requisite time passes and they are at last permitted to escape its confines. Alternatively, the weight of social exclusion sometimes becomes too heavy a burden to bear, and they elect to drop out owing to the intensity of their loneliness and disenfranchisement with university life. According to the old cliché, university is one of the best times of a person’s life, but for some, it amounts to years of painstaking torture.

Moreover, the Irish are a notoriously repressed race. And such attitudes have been sustained from generation to generation. However, university should serve as a counterpoint to this shortcoming.

Students need to serve as role models for the rest of the country by nurturing camaraderie between one another.

At the moment, UCD is anything but a vibrant environment. It is a sleeping giant whereby the number of students attending lectures, involving themselves in societies and voting in student elections is disconcertingly low.

Part of the problem is the seemingly inextricable links between

college and alcohol. Excessive student drinking remains prevalent and there is a widespread tolerance of the status quo. Many societies in UCD amount to little more than glorified drinking clubs, and students’ ambivalent attitudes towards binge drinking are currently typified by the fact that a number of the candidates’ manifestos in the upcoming SU Elections seem at best to make light of binge drinking.

However, binge drinking should be treated as another social disease, not as a hilariously unfortunate circumstance which people finds themselves in from time to time, or as an essential part of social interaction in college life.

While there have been token efforts to address this problem, most students continue to engage in it, if statistics are to be believed. According to a report in The Irish Times last November, 45 per cent of students go binge drinking at least once a week on average. And despite this eye-opening evidence, SU candidates interviewed by The University Observer, while acknowledging its pitfalls, seldom highlighted the issue as one of their key priorities to be tackled.

This sense of expectancy in which ‘getting wasted’ is a rite of passage in the college experience is a one of the subversive problems with Irish university life. It leads to a number of other problems also.

Alcohol is a depressant. It therefore imbues some students with a temporary escape from reality. It induces in them a sense of laziness, which causes them to attend lectures irregularly, or to sit passively in

front of the television whilst nursing their hangovers when they could be achieving self-fulfilment in a broader context. It is one of the reasons for the high suicide rate among young people in this country and it has also led directly to the unnecessary deaths of many, in cases where innocent drinking games have ended in tragedy.

Last November for instance, The Irish Times reported on the death of a UCC student who had “downed a large quantity of vodka in one slug for a dare at a party in his student flat”. It is this groupthink mentality, whereby it is reasonable to treat drinking as a sport and in which fun and social interaction are believed to be fostered by copious consumption of alcohol, which constitutes one of the few remaining widespread taboos in our society that date back to pre-Celtic Tiger Ireland.

Perhaps the incoming Welfare Officer will make further efforts to tackle this problem or perhaps the college and the country as a whole will continue to quietly ignore this issue. One matter is certain however, SU candidates jokey references to being passed out “on your neighbour’s bathroom floor” is at best irresponsible and at worst, highly insensitive to the feelings of those who have experienced the perils of alcoholism first hand.

The incoming Welfare Officer needs to address this binge culture, as failing to do so undermines the credibility of this important position and makes a joke of the entire Students’ Union.

Quotes of the Fortnight: SU Election Special I got into the fashion show, so it’s definitely open to everyone.

Ents candidate, Stephen Darcy, rejects claims that the UCD Fashion Show is in any way exclusive.

I’ll be the kind of Welfare Officer that you can ring at any point in the day. If you’re stuck out in Balbriggan, and you need a lift, if you’re in danger, I’ll be there for you.

Welfare candidate, Lorna Danaher, outlines the lengths she is willing to go to in order to help students.

You sign up at Freshers’ Week.

Ents candidate, Robert Manning, responds to the question of how you become a member of UCDSU. The Observer’s great!

Welfare candidate, Regina Brady, does not in any way try to influence our analysis of her.

My manifesto’s a comic book.

Ents candidate, Darragh Kinsella, responds to the question of what distinguishes his candidacy.

As for education, I don’t even know who’s running anymore – it’s so confusing.

Ents candidate, Edel Ni Churraoin, sums up the general feeling surrounding the Education race.

29 March 2011 THE UNIVERSITY OBSERVER

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NEWS

news@universityobserver.ie

Staff enter UCD residences unannounced, survey finds QUINTON O’REILLY

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urvey results have shown that more than half of students living on campus accommodation have experienced accommodation staff entering their apartments or rooms without their permission.

The survey, which was conducted by the Student Legal Service (SLS) at the beginning of March, also found that almost 35 per cent of students had requests to maintain or fix something in their apartments ignored.

Member of the SLS, Doireann O’Daly, said that the aim of the survey was to give a voice to students who were unsure as to what their rights are.

“Generally there’s a lot of students who come to us with queries, such as the shower’s broken and the heating’s not turned on in various residences,” she explained. “They can’t force the authorities to come and help them Staff in UCD residences such as Glenomena have been criticised by some for their intrusive behaviour so what are we meant to do. They have licenses…there’s very little power against them.

“There’s a huge difference between a lease one-sided completely,” she said. “It’s at UCD’s didn’t really come out in our favour,” admitan inventory when they moved into campus and a license. It’s a license to reside so you sole discretion. I think it says on the license to ted O’Daly. “In hindsight, we should have accommodation and only 40 per cent have a really don’t have many rights and that’s what evict you if they feel that you don’t deserve to just done UCD [but] it’s an idea for next year copy of their written agreement. you have in UCD.” be living there.” for the SLS to do that, that’s really why as The SLS have sent a letter with the results of She called the license to reside on campus O’Daly felt that the survey reflected the there’s no one really giving a voice to students the survey to UCD accommodations with the “barbaric,” referring to the lack of obligation living standards experienced UCD accommoin residences.” results last week.

UCD have towards residents and the condidation but felt that the results would provide Almost 150 students from across the The University Observer attempted to contions they must accept before moving in. a basis for a more comprehensive survey in campus were surveyed about their experiences tact UCD accommodation about the results “You have no choice, you have to accept this the future. living on and off campus. Other results of of the survey, but had not received a response [the license] when you go into UCD so it’s “With regards numbers and statistics, it the survey showed how only 25 per cent took at the time going to print.

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Active RON campaign for Education race confirmed QUINTON O’REILLY

A

campaign to Re-Open Nominations (RON) for the position of Students’ Union (SU) Education Officer is underway as SU elections begin this week.

The campaign was formed after Áine Gilhooly was not permitted to run for the position after submitting her nomination late. After SU education candidate, Sam Geoghegan, appealed the decision, the Independent Appeals Board (IAB) ruled that she had missed the 6pm deadline and was ineligible to run for the position Member of the RON campaign, Doireann O’Daly, said that the aim of the campaign was not to deny Geoghegan the chance to become Education Officer but to make sure that the best candidate gets the job and give students the best possible choice for next year.

“I reiterate that this is not an anti-Sam campaign, this is not pro-Áine Gilhooly, this is not pro-James Doyle. This is just about giving students a choice,” explained O’Daly. “So if we do get a really strong experienced candidate who knows politics in UCD, who knows education issues, it could eventually save the students a lot… [you can’t] put a price on getting the right people for the job and I sincerely believe that.”

While O’Daly acknowledged that Gilhooly was late with her submission, she felt that implementing the rules in such a manner was unfair: “Rules are there not to be rigidly applied, rules are there as a guideline especially when you come to a really serious matter like this. The rules are open to interpretation and it’s really important to bear that in mind.”

Another obstacle is the lack of campaigning that those supporting the RON campaign can carry out. “We’ve been told by Morgan Shelly (the SU returning officer) that we can’t print things, so it’s really hard to get our message out there,” said O’Daly. “His campaign team say that ‘they (students) do have a choice, you can vote for him or you can vote for RON,’ but he has media, he has a campaign team around him, it’s been really hard for us to get organised without official support or official status.”

Chief Returning Officer for the SU, Paddy O’Flynn, said that while it would be inappropriate to comment on the situation, he had no objections towards students campaigning for RON provided “it’s decent and within the general rules”. When asked about his reactions towards the RON campaign, Geoghegan said that “people are entitled to their own opinion and if they feel that voting RON is the best for the students of UCD, then that’s their prerogative”.

However, he reiterated that he is running because he feels he is “the best candidate for the job that’s the only reason why I put my name forward”.

NEWS IN BRIEF UCD sign agreement with ministers from Malaysia UCD alongside the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland (RSCI) have recently signed an agreement with Ministers from the State Government of Terengganu, Malaysia to provide medical education.

The Penand Medical College in Malaysia is run by UCD and RCSI and allows Malaysian Students to spend the first two and a half years of their medical training in Dublin and the remaining two and a half years in Penang. This programme is currently open to 130 students and is expected to build up to 150.

A medical college branch campus in Terengganu, Malaysia will be set up as a part of this new agreement.

According to Most Hon Haji Ahmad Razif bin Abd.Rahman, the Malaysian Chairman on State Education: “Irish medical education has an excellent international reputation for training high quality, clinically skilled doctors and Terengganu welcomes this agreement with UCD and RCSI to extend this education program to our State.”

The President of UCD, Dr Hugh Brady, said: “Since the original agreement with the Malaysian Government over twenty years ago, thousands of Malaysian doctors have received some or all of their training in Ireland. These students play an active part in campus life and are testament to the true value of internationalising our higher education sector.”

The value of this two-and-a-half-year programme, as well as a similar five-year programme, is almost €20 million per annum for UCD and RCSI. - Katie Hughes UCD graduates to receive reduced rate for new Student Centre services Student Centre manager, Dominic O’Keefe confirmed that recent graduates of UCD, who paid the Student Centre Levy, will be receiving a reduced entry fee to the Student Centre facilities.

“We did say originally to people, those who paid the levy, that we’d give them a reduced entry on a graduate level and also that if you pay the maximum fee we’ll give you six months free membership,” he said.

Mr O’Keefe says that getting the graduates back to the university is “about marketing, it’s bringing the students that are graduates back to the college”.

Students who have already left Dublin can transfer their membership so “if you can’t take up the offer, you can always give it to your brother or your sister, so if you leave Dublin, you don’t lose it – you can transfer it to somebody.

“We’ll write to all the graduates, probably between now and Christmas and inform them – we have a vast database from Banner,” Mr. O’Keefe said.

He insists that “we’re trying to honour all the commitments we said we’d do and also give the graduates who left here four years ago an opportunity to come back and see what it looks like eventually.”

- Katie Hughes L&H host National Maidens competition The National Maidens debating competition took place on the 18th and 19th of March. It was hosted by UCD’s Literary and Historical Society (L&H) on campus with the final being held in the Morehampton Hotel in Donnybrook.

This year’s competition saw 44 speakers and 30 judges participating from UCD, Trinity, NUI Maynooth, UCC, UL and NUIG. The competition takes place in a different participating university each year, with last year’s competition being held in NUI Galway.

PriceWaterhouseCoopers, who provided food and socials for the weekend, sponsored the competition. According to incoming auditor for the 157th session, Christine Simpson, this sponsorship was essential to have “the most fun possible while keeping the cost to the speakers at a minimum and ensuring it was affordable to all”.

The format of the competition was a mace style – speakers were given the motion for the debate 15 minutes before it was scheduled to begin. Speeches were five minutes long, with six speakers in every room.

Motions from the weekend included topics of feminism and emigration. The motion for the semi-final was “that this house believes that in countries where abortion is already legal, it should be incorporated into the National Health Service and be made free”. The motion for the final was “that this house would brand sex offenders” which was ultimately won by Trinity speaker, John Doody.

- Mathilde Guenegan

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THE UNIVERSITY OBSERVER 29 March 2011

NEWS

Williamson set to run for USI Education Officer

news@universityobserver.ie

Success for Dramsoc at ISDA awards

SARAH DORAN Chief News Reporter

T

h e University Observer understands that Students’ Union (UCDSU) Education Officer, James Williamson, intends to contest the position of Union of Students in Ireland (USI) Education Officer.

The decision comes after delegates voted to re-open nominations for the position at the National Congress held in Dunboyne earlier this month. Should he be elected, Williamson will be the fifth UCDSU representative elected to the six-member USI National Council for 2011-2012.

“At this stage I’m 99 per cent sure that I am going to be contesting the election,” Williamson stated. “It’s the early stages yet, the nominations don’t open for a few weeks,” he added, “so I have a bit of time to get stuff together and I’m going to use the next two weeks to come up with my plan for the year.”

Williamson indicated that support for smaller colleges, increased national interaction, the preservation of quality assurance and the development of funding models for the institutions would be amongst his priorities should he be elected.

Former UCDSU Irish Officer, Aoife Nic Shamhráin, is considering contesting the part-time position of USI Irish Officer. “I’m trying to find information about it and trying to see whether it’s the best option for me and whether I could do the best job,” she said. “I’ll be leaving the Irish Scéim next year so I’d like to continue promoting the Irish language and doing my best for Irish.”

These announcements come following a particularly successful National Congress in which UCD delegates were elected to four of the six positions on National Council.

Former UCDSU President Gary Redmond was elected to the Presidency of USI for a second consecutive term, recording a landslide victory of 92 per cent.

UCDSU Welfare Officer, Scott Ahearn, was elected USI Welfare Officer.

He believed that the experience gained in his position as Welfare Officer over the past two years and his successes with national campaigns such as Please Talk were key to electoral success. “It’s a great honour,” Ahearn stated: “I want to do things for students, I want to do things for [Constituent Officers], I want to do things for national policy.”

UCDSU delegate and USI Disability Rights Officer Ger Gallagher was elected to the position of USI Equality Officer.

“One thing which I hope to bring is visibility to the Equality campaign,” Gallagher explained. “I’ve been on the USI Equality working group for the past year [and] I can continue with the progress that we’ve made.”

Former UCD LGBT Auditor Siobhán McGuire was also elected to National Council in the position of USI LGBT Rights Officer.

The position of Deputy President was filled by former Waterford IT Student and incumbent USI Education Officer Colm Murphy, who currently remains the only 2011-2012 National Council member without UCDSU affiliation.

“I think it shows that we’re producing a very high calibre of officers in UCD,” Gallagher said of the success of UCDSU candidates. Ahearn stated, “I think it’s a credit to UCDSU’s officers for their interest and the importance in which they hold national issues”. The remaining USI positions will be decided at National Congress in Maynooth this May.

Members of JazzSoc performing in the Student Centre last week

DAVID FARRELL

U

CD’s Drama Society (DramSoc) were highly successful at the recent Irish Student Drama Association (ISDA) awards picking up ten nominations and winning four awards.

The four awards won were all from one of the society’s entries ‘A Whistle in the Dark’.

Sam McGovern picked up the Best Supporting Actor award; Best Actress went to Auditor Caitriona Ennis, while the show’s director Eoghan Carrick was named Best Director. The

final award won was Best Overall Production for ‘Which is Best in the Festival’.

Alongside ‘A Whistle in the Dark’, the other two shows sent were ‘Sluts’, which picked up two nominations, and ‘The Dumb Waiter’.

Secretary for DramSoc, Enda O’Reilly, explained that the ISDAs are an annual event in the form of a festival “in which colleges from around the country sent plays down to the festival for seven or eight days”.

The festival is seen as the premier student drama society awards, as it is run by “the umbrella organisation for all the drama societies in Ireland, student drama societies”. O’Reilly explained: “Each one [college] sends two or

three plays. Approximately 24 to 25 shows were staged this year.

“Three judges go to every show during the festival and they pick a shortlist of nominations and the awards.”

O’Reilly said of DramSoc’s success in this year’s awards that it “proves that as one of the top drama societies in Ireland that we deserve what’s going to be built in the new Student Centre, that is, the new theatre.

We think it’s for us.” While the awards are “purely for prestige”, members of DramSoc are “over the moon” at the success, especially following last year’s results, in which the society obtained five nominations but

no awards.

After only obtaining five nominations at last year’s ISDAs, O’Reilly felt that this year’s society had improved and that their effort paid dividends: “We did a lot of hard work. From last year’s disappointment, we knew we needed to work harder.”

The society is looking to continue the success as “the festival is coming to UCD next year. It’s definitely something to build on and to defend and hopefully do as well as we did this year.”

The ISDAs were staged this year from March 4th to 12th in Galway, while next year’s festival will be held in UCD.

29 March 2011 THE UNIVERSITY OBSERVER

NEWS

news@universityobserver.ie

SU bookshop backlog leaves students waiting for cheques

NEWS IN BRIEF University of British Columbia, Canada Around 800 students rallied together on the parliament lawn in Victoria, Canada to protest against the rising student debt, specifically the increases to students’ tuition charges.

The group of students was made up of representatives from student societies from across British Columbia, the majority coming from institutions such as Camosun College, Simon Fraser University and the University of Victoria.

The protest was seen as necessary due to the high level of debt that many Canadian students find themselves in. The average British Columbian student faces a debt of $27,000 for a four-year degree.

Many students were outraged by the comment made by the Minister of Advanced Education, Naomi Yamamoto, who claimed that students could afford the increase in fees if they bought one less cup of coffee per week.

In an attempt to help solve this crisis, various student groups will be coming together to lobby the government for reforms in coming months.

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame in America is seeing a surge in students applying to study the Irish language and Irish cultural affairs.

Notre Dame professor, Brian O’Conchubhair, who is an associate professor of Irish in the Department of Irish Language and Literature in the college spoke about how Notre Dame students have been at the centre of this revival: “Irish was being taught here as a subject in the 1860s and 1870s, before it was taught in the Irish universities.”

This spring, there are 24 courses being offered from a wide range of subjects; fifteen of which can be applied to a minor in Irish Language and Literature.

O’Conchubhair is hopeful that the language will continue to survive and be spoken. In order for this standard to be attained, the college is also offering internship and study abroad programmes at universities in Dublin.

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is planning to go ahead with massive cuts to the financial aid offered to students amid mounting pressure from academics.

Under the current system, students from disadvantaged areas are offered a grant of up to £3,400 to help them fund their studies at the college. This amount is linked to the current level of tuition fees that UK students must pay.

Despite the fact that the fees for Cambridge are expected to rise as high as £9,000 in 2012, a University Working Group has put forward a plan to lower the grant level to £1,625.

In order for the university to go ahead with its proposals, a vote from all of the current academics must be held. The Cambridge University Students’ Union (CUSU) proposed an amendment to the vote to ensure that the maintenance grant levels remain the same.

The university dismissed this amendment on the basis that the vote is concerned with fees and not grants. In response to this “administrative fudge”, the CUSU organised a large-scale demonstration outside Great St Mary’s Church in King’s Parade, Cambridge.

- Matthew Jones

5

Crunch Fitness to close in June BEN STOREY

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SU Education Officer James Williamson has defended the SU bookshop’s staff despite their slow response in paying students

had still not been notified.

The student said that although she has CD Students’ Union bookbeen calling down to the bookshop regushop has yet to pay some stularly since November in order to claim her dents whose books were sold cheque, she is always told “we can’t find in the first semester. your cheque, we’ll send you a mail next The secondhand bookshop, which is week”. run by Education Officer, James WilThe student added that she never reliamson, works on the basis that students ceived any emails and was recently told give in their unwanted books along with that the reason why she had not received the price they would like to sell them for. her cheque yet was because her name was When their books are sold, they receive an on the bottom of the list. “I don’t underemail informing them of this occurrence stand how I could be at the bottom of the and can then claim a cheque for the sale. list if the book was sold in October,” she However, this year, students have not said. “Anyway, she didn’t give me a cheque received emails even months after their because she didn’t have any cheque books. I books have been sold. One student who still have to wait until next week.” spoke to The University Observer anonyWilliamson puts this down to the great mously informed us how she found out increase in sellers this year, which has crethrough her SU account that one of her ated13:32:26 a backlog: “We had a load of books Hot Chocolate 235mm x 157 Final CO1.pdf 21/01/2011 books had been sold in October, and yet

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dropped down to the Student Centre this year,” he says.

He also noted that sometimes students don’t write their email addresses down clearly and therefore it can be difficult to contact them if their books are sold off.

He also mentioned the possibility of such emails accidently appearing in spam folders when they’re sent to a student’s email account.

Williamson admits there are flaws in the SU Bookshop system, in that the emails are sent out manually and due to the large influx of books this year, combined with a necessary stock take, the bookshop’s staff find it difficult to get through the list. Plans to remedy this include setting up an automatic system so that as soon as the book is taken off the online database, the student would be sent an automatic email.

he UCD branch of Crunch Fitness is to close this June after providing health and fitness facilities to the university for 15 years, causing questions to be raised on the issue of temporary on-campus fitness services for students during the first half of the next academic year.

The closure comes as a result of the construction of the new UCD Student Centre, which will include a new gym as part of its facilities.

However, this means that the university could spend a period of six months without proper gym facilities available on campus.

Crunch Fitness, an external company that is contracted by the university, will not be affiliated in any way with the new Sports Centre, according to Branch Manager, Karolina Zygmunt.

Zygmunt further stated that the date of closure in June is final, yet the option is still open to students to join the gym before it closes for a monthly fee of €49.

Student Centre Manager and project coordinator, Dominic O’Keeffe, was uncertain about the date by which the centre would be ready, but expects that it will be handed over to the university from the building firm in January of next year at the earliest, despite previous claims that it would be ready by September 2011.

On the issue of temporary gym facilities, O’Keeffe said that management were currently working on a temporary solution for students and staff, saying: “The Sports Centre management are actively working on getting a sports facility for students on campus.”

Assistant Sports Centre manager, Brian Cashman, said: “We haven’t been told anything officially.” Cashman added that he would “imagine that in the coming days, there would be a decision made with regards to it”.

In relation to the site of this temporary gym, Cashman proposed that it would probably “remain where it is. I would imagine they would keep it on the top floor.”

O’Keeffe is optimistic that the new centre will “bring new facilities and services to people” and stated his belief that the gym will get “active participation of anywhere between seven and ten thousand students per annum”.

The new Student Centre is expected to open in January 2012. When opened, it is expected that the new gym will be twice the size of what’s currently available along with free membership for current students. Alumni and graduates will also get a reduced rate on membership.

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THE UNIVERSITY OBSERVER 29 March 2011

SU ELECTION SPECIAL

news@universityobserver.ie

Students’ Union President: De Brún v Lannoye v Gray AMY BRACKEN News Editor

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his year’s presidential election race is proving to be a stark contrast from last year when Paul Lynam ran unopposed. It marks a break from tradition, with two of the three candidates, Brendan Lannoye and Lorcan Gray, having no prior experience within the Students’ Union. All three candidates have political experience however, despite all of them being just 20 years old.

Pat de Brún arguably has the benefit of being the only candidate having already held a Sabbatical position, but admits that some of the main campaigns of his tenure, including the Fight the Fees campaign, fell short of their ultimate aims.

However, these shortcomings are unlikely to debilitate his chances of obtaining the presidential office.

What is obvious is that the vast majority of priorities in de Brún’s manifesto have already been in the pipeline for some time, such as the fight to reduce re-sit/repeat fees, the introduction of a 24-hour study area and the

PAT DE BRÚN Name: Pat de Brún Age: 20 Course: Second year Law with Politics, currently on sabbatical as the SU Campaigns and Communications Vice-President.

From: Carlow Do you drink, smoke or take drugs? I drink, I smoke, unfortunately, but I don’t take drugs.

What are the names of UCD’s seven vice-presidents?

First of all the deputy president or Vice-President for Academic Affairs, Philip Nolan, second we have the Bursar, or Vice-President for Finance, I think, Vice-President for… is Áine Gibbons, Vice-President for Research is Des Fitzgerald, Vice-President for Students is Dr Martin Butler, Vice-President for Staff is Eamon Drea, Vice-President for University Relations.

What is the role of president? To be the chief spokesperson of the SU, financial controller of the SU, and then in real terms, the team leader, control the direction of the SU; People managing. It’s dealing with the highest level of negotiations, if there’s someone involved in the HEA, the minister, the President of the university, that kind of thing.

De Brún shows a vast knowledge or the workings of not just the Students’ Union but additionally of the university itself, being able to cite the titles of all seven university Vice-Presidents. Aside from being a Class Rep and a former Law Programme Officer in the SU Executive Committee, he is currently completing his tenure as SU Campaigns and Communications Vice-President. De Brún is also very familiar with the workings of USI, and expresses his belief that the affiliation fee paid by UCD to USI every year is worth the cost.

Top of de Brún’s priorities as stated in his manifesto include the creation of a transparent union and to fight cuts to the third-level grant, as well as endeavouring to have the cost of re-sit/repeat fees lowered and the establishment of more internships and work experience for degree programmes, of which he says: “I want this to be driven through university policy.”

He cites the University of Limerick as an example, where 33 per cent of students are currently on work placement.

He intends to fight for an optional intern year for degrees that do not have an obvious work experience pathway, and believes it will free space in the university, as well as help university finances.

De Brún says that he is not running for president for personal gain, but for care of students, and says that his stated aims as president are in the interest of the Union and not for prestige: “Nothing in my manifesto is there as a vote-getter.”

Commenting on the performance of this year’s Students’ Union, de Brún says that he regrets what he perceives to have been a slackening on the part of the SU following the November 3rd protest, which he feels wasn’t improved upon until the second semester.

“There weren’t visible achievements for the rest of that semester,” he says. “We were tired, and there’s no excuse for that because we’re paid officers, and the students are paying our wage.” De Brún is, however, confident that more people will take an interest in the SU elections this year than before due to the general election and a “spirit of voting”.

“I’m there to serve the students,” he adds. “If I set my aims out on an agenda for the SU at the start of the year, then I will stop at nothing for that to be achieved.” De Brún says that his ideas as are all achievable, despite admitting that the campaign to have the registration fee capped was a failure this year.

De Brún says that he does not feel the image of the Students’ Union as a clique is a fair assessment, stating that the majority of his friends are from outside the Union, and that he barely knew the other sabbatical officers until he took office.

introduction of an SU Mobile App. While de Brún comes across as a good public speaker and has a wide knowledge of UCD trivia, Lorcan Gray’s referral to “Hugh Brady and the lads”, and “that Labour lad” is hardly the type of vocabulary and university knowledge that would be expected on an incumbent Students’ Union President.

Gray’s involvement in FEE and the Socialist Worker’s Party may win him some votes from activists in those areas, along with those who are disillusioned with the current state of the SU. However, despite claiming to bring “a new

and fresh approach in the campaigning of all fees and cuts to education”, Gray contradicts this manifesto statement by saying that he intends to get more students out on the streets to protest against student fees. He seems to care more about criticising the current Sabbatical team than with regards to student welfare.

Brendan Lannoye claims in his manifesto to have calculated up to €296,940 that could be cut from the Students’ Union budget.

However, in his interview he clarifies this claim, saying that the money won’t be cut, but re-allocated.

It is debatable whether Lannoye’s proposal to donate €100 of his weekly wage to the Welfare Fund is an attempt to buy votes, or is genuinely for care of student issues.

Unlike de Brún, Lannoye mentions very little about care for student welfare, and instead is focusing on overhauling both the Students’ Union and its affiliation to USI. However, his impressive ability to adeptly defend everything in his manifesto and his honesty and professional tone may be attractive in terms of voting, and it isn’t difficult to imagine him at the helm of the SU.

LORCAN GRAY

BRENDAN LANNOYE

Name: Lorcan Gray Age: 20 Course and Year: Second year Arts.

Do you drink, smoke or take drugs? I drink and take drugs occasionally.

Name UCD’s seven vicepresidents?

You mean, Hugh Brady and the lads? I just know Students, because he sends around that email. It’s hardly the best communication on their part Who are the President, Registrar and Bursar of UCD? Hugh Brady’s the President. The other lads? Again, [I don’t know] it’s due to a lack of communication.

What is the most important part of the position of President? It’s to oversee the whole Union – the four other Sabbats, the Exec, and the likes of that, and also to be a mouthpiece for the Union and to organise students.

It should be to organise them into particularly a fighting force, but also a political structure that actually means something and actually works, and respect the Constitution in that sense.

Name: Brendan Lannoye Age: 20 Course and Year: Second year History and Politics Do you drink, smoke or take drugs? I don’t smoke, I don’t take drugs – well, there was one Amsterdam trip.

Name UCD’s seven Vice-Presidents? I’m not sure.

Who are the President, Registrar and Bursar of UCD? The Registrar is Barbara Proctor, or has that changed over yet? David Carmody is one of those as well.

What is the most important part of the position of President? The President needs to set the agenda for the year. Obviously, there are a lot of administrative roles he sits on, about 40 committees; there’s a lot of nitty-gritty stuff and that’s all incredibly important. But I think the President, through his actions, and through what he does, can almost set the mood of the college, and I think it’s incredibly important for the President to be out there talking to people, because it’s students who own the Union.

Lorcan Gray emphasises his belief that the Students’ Union needs him as President to transform it into a “fighting union”, referring to the fact that he is an active member of FEE (Free Education for Everyone) and hopes to continue the fight to cap the university contribution fee and to combat graduate unemployment. Additionally, the idea of a “fighting union” is referring to his desire to fight “the hacks” as he refers to current Students’ Union Sabbatical Officers.

Gray cites his experience in campaigns such as Shell to Sea and the anti-war movement, as well as his involvement with the Socialist Workers’ Party at UCD, as being among the reasons why he feels he has what it takes to be the SU President for 2011-12. He admits that he is running in conjunction with C&C candidate and fellow Socialist Worker’s activist Suzanne Lee. In addition to this, he says personal skills that would benefit him for the role include the fact that he has spoken at many public events.

He says: “Again it’s the age-old question: who knows the Sabbatical Officers? Who knows their Class Rep? The Class Rep goes for a piss-up at the start of the year and then organises a handful of parties, and that’s it; puts it on their CV.” Gray is critical of the performance of this year’s Sabbatical Officers and claims that the Sabbatical positions are mainly a stepping-stone for the officers into politics.

Gray is adamant that USI did not do enough for student issues in the political arena after the march in November, yet believes the €5 paid by all full-time UCD students to USI is worth it: “We’re paying them over €100,000, but we’re also paying Brady over €200,000 and giving him a free mansion.”

Gray says that he would like to improve on the performance of this year’s Students’ Union by getting more students out on the streets in protests, and states in his manifesto that he does not believe that campaigns such as the TellYourTD.ie campaign are effective in ensuring student issues stay near the top of the political agenda.

Gray says his top priorities, if he is elected, will include moving Class Rep training back to campus, and to create mass student assemblies with a view to involving students in the decision-making process. He also emphasises his belief for the necessity of a transparent union, and his desire to end what he believes is the cliquish nature of the Students’ Union.

He says that he stands for “genuinely free education and for a new and fresh approach in campaigning for the scrappage of all fees and cuts to education”. His other priorities include the preservation of student nursing salaries, and to fight the cost of healthcare on the UCD campus.

Brendan Lannoye is running on the slogan “Fight the clique”, referring to the perceived cliquish nature of the Students’ Union – or ‘Student Union’ as the potential President refers to it as in his manifesto, on posters, and throughout his interview with The University Observer.

Lannoye believes that cliques are formed in the Students’ Union that merely provide policies that benefit them as a platform for a political career: “Cliques are grand…but we want to have policies that don’t favour them ahead of everyone else.”

Lannoye cites his experience in politics as well as involvement in UCD societies as some of the reasons why he feels he has the ability to lead the Students’ Union.

However, he believes his most important attribute to be the fact that he is a student and knows the workings of university life. He believes that while being a Sabbatical Officer for a number of years may gain you the political experience necessary to run the Union, being on sabbatical for a number of years (he cites former SU President Gary Redmond’s five-year sabbatical as an example) does not qualify the person as a student.

Furthermore, Lannoye is keen to emphasise that he wishes “to bring the Student Union [sic] back to the students”.

He states in his manifesto that up to €296,940 could be cut from the SU budget (although in his interview, he claims that these funds could be re-allocated, and not cut), and cites electoral reform and Class Rep training as two of the areas in which he would re-allocate SU funds.

Lannoye also aims to eliminate the perceived careerism that exists within the SU by pushing for the constitutional review group (which is to be set up during the next academic year) to look at a proposal that would prevent Sabbatical Officers from being re-elected. However, Lannoye also states that the review group would have full independence on the basis that it is the students of UCD that own the Union.

A key proponent of the Re-Open Nominations for Education Vice-President campaign, Lannoye still wishes to reform the Students’ Union elections to make them more cost-effective, but admits a RON campaign would heighten electoral costs for this year’s race. His electoral reform includes following the Trinity College model of running elections through the Student Information Service (SIS), and he says the basis for his support of the RON campaign is that he believes the more people that run for office, the more likely it is that the best person for the job will be elected.

Lannoye claims that current Students’ Union lacks honesty, on the basis of rumours, and says: “Rumours don’t come out of nowhere.” On this issue, of Sabbatical Officers and what he perceives as a sense of careerism among the ‘clique’, he says: “To be honest, if there was someone making private gains out of their role in the Union, I would do everything to get them out of office as soon as I could.”

29 March 2011 THE UNIVERSITY OBSERVER

7

SU ELECTION SPECIAL

news@universityobserver.ie

Campaigns and Communications Vice-President: Fortune v Lacey v Lee SARAH DORAN Chief News Reporter

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ortune is a competent and experienced candidate with an ambitious and varied manifesto.

With regard to campaigns, her policy seems to be continuity with increased involvement on the ground: she does not bring anything radically new to the table. In communications the feasibility of production of a weekly web show and the true impact of viral media

are questionable.

Her concern over pay is understandable; however it may prove an issue for student voters. Fortune clearly has a passion for the role and for UCDSU and her marketing experience could indeed prove invaluable. A competent public speaker, she seems sure of her capability.

However her manifesto is ambitious and it is difficult to imagine that she will have time to deliver on every promise during what may prove a challenging year with a new government.

Lacey seems to have the most succinct

EMMA FORTUNE

manifesto. He appears confident in his aims for the office and has set clear goals.

He aims to improve the way UCDSU campaigns through regeneration of the format of campaign weeks and increased involvement in lobbying alongside USI. With communications, he does not promise any radical changes. His ambitions for Class Rep training are commendable, but the actual impact on cost is unclear and students may question his opposition to the use of other Dublin campuses. Lacey is a confident candidate with a passion for campaigning for

students and a track record of achievements in his position as Sports Officer; however his confidence could initially be mistaken for arrogance and so first impressions could have a significant impact on his campaign.

Lee’s manifesto clearly differs to that of her competitors. She does advocate the continuity of campaigns with regard to access to education and student nurses’ pay, but disagrees with the current campaign format entirely.

Lee’s allegation that campaigns have been “dire” may seem overly harsh even

to critics of the SU. However, she does present a valid argument with regard to the lack of student awareness and involvement that needs to be combated. Her desire to move toward direct action, peaceful though it may be, may concern students.

Her determination to move Class Rep training back to campus to cut costs may prove popular and her clear passion for the redevelopment of campaigns is commendable. Lee is a fresh face with a different approach; however this approach may prove too different for some students to support.

BRENDAN LACEY

SUZANNE LEE

Name: Emma Fortune Age: 21 Course and year: Third year Commerce Do you drink, smoke or take drugs? I drink and smoke, but I don’t take drugs.

Who are the President, Registrar and Bursar of UCD? The President is Hugh Brady, the Registrar is Philip… Sorry I’ve totally blanked, and the Bursar is Gerry O’Brien.

How do you rate the performance of this year’s officer? I think he has dealt so well, he was probably one of the real backbones to the education not emigration march. I think he was very good.

Name: Brendan Lacey Age: 22 Course and year: Second year Business and Law Do you drink, smoke or take drugs? I drink and smoke. I don’t take drugs.

Who are the President, Registrar and Bursar of UCD? The President is Dr Hugh Brady, the Registrar is still Philip Nolan until August and the Bursar is Gerry O’Brien.

How do you rate the performance of this year’s officer? In terms of what Pat’s managed to achieve with the problems he’s been faced with, I think he’s done a great job.

Emma Fortune has a wealth of experience in both UCD and UCDSU having served on numerous committees and crews; she is the incumbent Business PRO. She recognises that UCDSU can be perceived as a clique but thinks “it’s more of an image than an actual thing […] I think it’s viewed as exclusive but I think that there need to be more people involved.” Fortune is eager to “break the view, but I would like to maintain the camaraderie that exists between the officers”.

She is supportive of the USI and believes that this year they “empowered the regular everyday student to know that they could bring about change”. As a full maintenance grant student, Fortune spoke at the USI-organised “Education not Emigration” march last November.

If elected, Fortune aims to improve communications by bringing viral media to UCD. Through weekly web shows and iPhone apps linked in to Twitter and Facebook, she hopes to change the way that UCDSU communicates, though she admits that she would not “get rid of posters”. These technologies are already in place, but she believes that they have not been fully harnessed and aims to do this. She also hopes to utilise campus media in order to spread campaigns on the ground.

In terms of campaigns themselves, she will continue to oppose the rising registration fee, cuts to student grants and cuts to student nurses’ pay.

Fortune would also continue to promote the voter registration campaign. She believes that the experience she has gained studying marketing will be invaluable to the SU in reaching target audiences and promoting campaigns.

Fortune is eager to cut the cost of Class Rep training, but says that: “Until I’m in the job, I can’t make a definite decision.” She acknowledges that there “has to be another way of doing it that we can cut costs”.

In her position as PRO she has experience dealing Class Reps and aims to utilise this: “I’d be very active meeting my Class Reps […] it’s not 100 per cent there and hopefully that’s what I’ll do next year.”

Fortune is not opposed to taking a pay cut but would prefer to negotiate the rate: “I couldn’t take a €100 pay cut. I live away from home; I pay rent; if this happened I think that Sabbatical positions would be kept for the wealthy.”

Fortune cites her creativity and her experience as that which sets her apart in the race. “I think both the other candidates are very strong but I just think I have the edge in that sense,” she says. “I know my stuff.”

Brendan Lacey has, in his own words “been involved at almost every level of the Union bar Sabbatical Officer”.

As the first UCDSU Sports Officer, he has been involved in the organisation of numerous events on campus this year, most notably the recent Sig Fest.

He has been active in campaigns with the USI, an organisation that he believes has “consistently delivered on its aim to fight fees and represent students”. He would “love to hear the debate,” regarding USI membership and welcomes criticism of UCDSU. “We can grow and learn a lot when people are criticising us,” Lacey explains.

He believes: “Campaigns have become stale and communications can be a lot more effective.

“We need more than posters and texts,” he says, promoting the idea of apps for smartphones and Facebook. If elected, he would encourage students to become involved in improving the SU website which he believes is “ineffective”.

Lacey has a definite vision for campaigns: “I think waiting for things to come on to our doorstep isn’t good enough anymore. We need to get out and set our agenda from day one.” He hopes to continue to fight fees, lobby against the introduction of a graduate tax, continue the campaign for student nurses and push for a solution to the graduate jobs crisis, amongst various other campaigns.

“We’re brilliant in the SU at getting things done, we’re not so good at telling people about it and that’s what we need to improve on,” Lacey argues.

With regard to class raps Lacey is eager to ensure that accountability is not “a buzzword that nobody ever explains”. He aims to set clear goals for Class Reps and give them the support to achieve them. He hopes to create a handbook containing advice from Sabbatical Officers, which will allow reps to deal with student issues on the spot.

As regards the training weekend, he wants to “keep the good points and bring down costs”. He would attempt this initiative through “campus swaps” with other universities, though not Trinity College or DCU, as he believes that this would defeat the purpose of going “off-campus. A university is purpose built for training students,” Lacey explains, citing the cost of hotels with conference facilities as that which has driven costs upward in previous years.

Though admittedly under financial strain, Lacey will accept a pay cut should he be elected: “I’m not the president, if he cuts my wages I’m happy enough with it.”

He is confident that his ideas and experience set him apart from his fellow competitors: “I’ve got the best new ideas and I’ve got the most experience to deliver on them.”

Name: Suzanne Lee Age: 21 Course and year: Second year Mathematical Science Do you drink, smoke or take drugs? Yes, I do all three.

Who are the President, Registrar and Bursar of UCD? The President is obviously Hugh Brady, but I don’t see it as my duty to know who they are. I’m paying to go here, surely it should be them making themselves known to me rather than me having to go and find out who these people are.

How do you rate the performance of this year’s officer?

Before I started this campaign I went and read Pat de Brún’s manifesto from last year and looking at it, I can’t remember anything that he’s actually properly followed through on, but that isn’t to say that there isn’t. The officers seem to be grand individually when you go to them with anything, but in terms of working together and pulling off stuff, they don’t seem to be able to do that.

WHAT IS RON?

RON stands for Re-Open Nominations and will appear as an option at the bottom of voting ballots. Students would vote RON when they are dissatisfied with the candidates running for election and seek another election so that alternative options may be pursued.

Students can thus vote for RON as they would any other candidate and its votes are also tallied and weighted in the same manner as they would be for other candidates. If RON is elected, the Union Returning Officer will invite nominations again and organise anoth-

Suzanne Lee is an active campaigner involved with Shell to Sea, Free Education For Everyone (FEE) and the Alliance for Choice to name but a few.

She criticises what she believes to be the “lack of transparency” in UCDSU and the actions of USI in condemning the group of students who occupied the Department of Finance at the November 3rd Education not Emigration March. Lee does not believe USI is worth the affiliation fee, but does not see this “as a reason to leave it, I see that more as a reason to change it”.

She believes that there is a severe lack of communication between the Students’ Union and the student body. “For a Union that’s supposed to represent however many people, they’re not very good at telling you what’s going on,” Lee argues. She cites the failure to publicise the referendum on changing the title of Women’s Officer to Equality Officer as one example of their inefficiency in this regard.

“I think in terms of campaigns, UCD has a lot of them need to be re-vamped,” Lee states, deeming the standard of campaigns this year to be “dire”. “Nobody is consulting students on what they want campaigns on,” she explains. If elected, Lee aims to promote peaceful direct action in place of “silly letter writing campaigns” to fight rising reg fees, student nurses’ pay cuts and promote more effective mental health awareness.

Lee is prepared to discuss her own experience with mental health issues in the campaign for change: “No one else is doing enough to end stigma, no one else is doing something about this, so it might be hard, but I’m going to have to talk.”

With regard to Class Rep training, Lee’s policy is simple: she will hold it on campus. She dismisses the argument that off-campus training is important for ensuring a collective audience: “[If] you run for that job, you should be focused,” she says. “When you get trained for a job […] you get trained on the job, and I don’t see why this should be any different.”

Lee states that her involvement with FEE will not influence her agenda if elected: “If I’m doing something for someone, I will listen to them rather than people in the background.” She acknowledges that her policies differ from other candidates’, but insists that this will merely encourage her to lobby more effectively rather than walking away.

She has stated in her manifesto that she is prepared to take a pay cut if elected.

Lee believes that she will bring a much-needed fresh perspective to the role: “I actually want to work for [students], not further my career or better my CV.”

er election as soon as possible.

RON is especially pertinent in cases where a candidate is running unopposed and students seek an alternative to this candidate. This enables the situation to be more democratic, as it prevents students from

being elected by default.

There has been a particularly strong RON campaign for this year’s race for Education Officer, as many students are unhappy that Sam Geoghegan is the only candidate actively running for election.

8

THE UNIVERSITY OBSERVER 29 March 2011

SU ELECTION SPECIAL

news@universityobserver.ie

Welfare Officer: Brady v Breslin v Danaher PAUL FENNESSY Editor

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ll three candidates are strong in certain areas. Regina Brady comes across as quite personable in her interview, easily laughing the most of the three candidates and therefore, she might be more approachable and adept at dealing with personal cases (and she has already dealt with some this year).

Unlike the other candidates who only became involved this year, she has two years of experience within the SU. She claims she will do her utmost to ensure more people become involved in student life, and her sheer positivity makes this assertion seem credible. However, her responses to our questions are occasionally quite weak, which suggests some of her ideas on welfare aren’t yet fully formed. For instance, when asked who is to blame for the lack of mental health awareness in UCD, she replies: “The university, for being too big.”

Breslin, by contrast, offers a more comprehensive analysis in many cases. She speaks articulately on what she would bring to the role, saying: “I’ve always been very organised, and I think it’s vital that if you’re in such a role, you’re able to communicate and to quickly and effectively respond to people, and that comes from organisation.”

While lacking the experience of Brady at SU

level, she is by no means inexperienced on the matter of welfare, as her election to the role of ViceSecretary of the Welfare Crew attests. Moreover, her level of pre-college involvement in youth politics is impressive, having been involved in Donegal Youth Council since the age of 14.

On the other hand, Breslin is not quite as naturally personable as Brady and lacks her obvious charisma, which may come in handy when dealing with personal cases.

Danaher, by contrast, has a decidedly different CV to that of the other candidates. Her involvement in student politics is clearly not as strong.

Nonetheless, her experience in the real world in “doctors’ offices” and “crèches” may make her appeal more to the average students who suspect the SU to be a clique.

She is clearly someone who understands the dedication that being Welfare Officer entails, as her assertion that it is “not something you [just] do from 9 to 5” suggests.

Nonetheless, her manifesto is arguably the most vague of the three candidates, while some of her ideas – such as the designated drivers scheme, which has been done before – while eminently realistic and achievable, seem somewhat stale and unoriginal. This election looks set to be closely fought, and its result may well come down to whichever campaign team does the best job in promoting their candidate.

LORNA DANAHER Name: Lorna Danaher Age: 20 Course: Second year Business and Law Do you drink, smoke or take drugs?

I do drink, I unfortunately do smoke but no, I don’t take drugs.

Name the President, Registrar and Bursar of UCD: Registrar is Philip Nolan, President is Hugh Brady and Bursar is Gerry O’Brien.

How do you rate the performance of this year’s Welfare Officer? The performance of this year’s SU has been very good. One thing that I don’t really like are the posters and this is a small thing, I think they’re irrelevant and students don’t even notice them any more. I think we need to find a new way and also it’s just about general media – we just need to find a new way to get through to students.

Lorna Danaher lists her “experience with people” as being key assets for the role of Welfare Officer. While not having the level of experience of which her opponents hold within the SU, she believes her real-world experience to be just as important.

She says: “I’ve worked with special needs children in the crèche, I’ve worked in another crèche as well. I work with people on a regular basis; I’m very good with people. I’m also an experienced debater and I think that next year is going to be a big year, with fighting with the college and a lot of the cuts that might be coming into place.”

She vows to put in the substantial workload that’s required for the job, saying: “Welfare to me is a job that you take home with you, it’s not something you do from 9 to 5. I think it’s a job that if you’re going to do it, you have to accept the fact that I would be putting my phone number on the door, I will have an open-door policy and I will be there as much as I can.”

Danaher’s top priorities include financial assistance, mental health and res life, and plans to introduce ideas such as a Designated Drivers Scheme whereby designated drivers are given free non-alcoholic drinks in the Student Bar. On the issue of sexual health, she feels that more work needs to be done to promote the on-campus STI Screening service and wants condoms to be made available on campus.

Another of her goals is to create more accessible drink and drugs campaigns, “educating them by entertaining them. I actually know a magician and this is something I’m really excited about. He’s basically working on a Drink Aware campaign and doing it through magic. We’re going to be working with Drink Aware to try and get the relevant facts in with the performance.

Education Vice-President - Geoghegan vs Fox QUINTON O’REILLY Copy Editor

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riginally beginning with four interested candidates before being whittled down to one active candidate, the race for Education Officer has clearly been the most eventful and controversial, leaving RON as Geoghegan’s main opposition.

Geoghegan’s appeal against Aine Gilhooly’s late submission has left certain factions seeking a RON vote, but while that has been a contentious issue since the race began, Geoghegan must be judged on whether he can benefit the students of UCD or not.

Despite falling ill and effectively dropping out of the race, Jennifer Fox remains on the ballot paper and could still win the election in theory, although it seems unlikely.

So what does Geoghegan bring as a candidate? A lot of the problems he aims to address stems from his own experiences in areas such as grants and registration. From this, he is sympathetic towards those who face the same problems.

His emphasis on improving communi-

REGINA BRADY Name: Regina Brady Age: 19 Course: Second year Commerce Do you drink, smoke or take drugs?

I drink, I don’t smoke and I don’t take drugs.

Name the President, Registrar, and Bursar of UCD: President is Hugh Brady. Bursar is Gerry O’Brien and the Vice-President for students is Martin Butler.

How do you rate the performance of this year’s Welfare Officer? I think he’s done a very good job. He’s brought Welfare to a new level and it’s something we can build on.

Obviously a new person will bring new ideas.

I think he could improve by bringing more anonymity to the job.

Regina Brady also claims to be the “most experienced and “most passionate” candidate for the Welfare position. She has been part of the Welfare Crew in UCD for the past three years and her roles within the university have included Women’s Officer, Inclusion, Participation and Awareness (IPA) Secretary and Peer Mentor. She was also chosen as a delegate for the National Please Talk Conference (a campaign which she hopes to expand if elected).

She argues that her experience at a university level is what makes this claim valid.

“I know people say it’s nice to have a fresh face,” she says. “But people need to know exactly how the Union structure works – how to deal with politicians, how to deal with universities. I know Rachel talks about her position in secondary school, but I didn’t put that in my manifesto. It’s what you’ve done since you’ve come to college.”

While praising the work done by current Welfare Officer Scott Ahearn, she feels there is room for improvement in certain areas, such as making students more aware of events on campus. “I want to restructure the way talks are held,” she says. “I want to hold talks in busier areas. We need to be in students’ faces. Like when we had Miriam O’Callaghan in the Atrium. People were eating there and that made them notice it.” She also lists “road safety” and “drug awareness” as the two other areas that she’d look to look to improve on.

If elected, Brady’s plans include “Come Dine With Me” between apartments on Res and a Drug Awareness campaign in which guest speakers including ex-addicts and gardaí are invited to share their thoughts.

She also seeks to implement an “anonymous chat box on the SU website where people can ask personal questions without revealing identities”.

cation between the university and students through a texting service and easing the burden on students in areas such as repeats and resits and grants, while idealistic, is a step in the right direction.

There is a honestly and frankness to his personality which is refreshing, however these same qualities could potentially rub people up the wrong way as he discovered before, and Geoghegan may need to work on this if he’s dealing with the university.

While he has a good working knowledge about the university and councils, he doesn’t possess the same experience or profile previous officers have had which may result in a steeper learning curve for him if he is elected.

There are certain parts of his manifesto, such as the introduction of extra-curricular credits, have already been in the works while others areas, such as the 24-hour study area, are already going to be introduced.

On the other hand, those parts of his manifesto that are original, such as holding an Electives Expo over the first two

RACHEL BRESLIN Name: Rachel Breslin Age: 19 Course: Second year Business and Law Do you drink, smoke, or take drugs? I drink occasionally, I don’t smoke and I don’t take drugs.

Name the President, Registrar, and Bursar of UCD: Dr Hugh Brady is the President, the Bursar is Gerry O’Brien and the Registrar is Philip Nolan.

How do you rate the performance of this year’s officer? I think he did a lot of good work this year and especially with the Welfare Crew, because that’s what led me to get involved and it’s brought together a group of students who were really interested in Welfare and it has fostered that interest.

Rachel Breslin believes she is the “most experienced, the most knowledgeable and the most passionate candidate running for this position”.

While she has only become involved with the Welfare Crew this year, she has swiftly ascended the ranks and was elected Vice-Secretary of the Students’ Union Welfare Crew. On this matter, she says: “I know a lot about Welfare, because I see what Scott does every day.”

Moreover, she emphasis her experience outside of college as well, which includes being chosen by UNICEF to represent Ireland at meetings and international government policy level conferences on HIV/AIDS and being selected onto the Donegal Youth Council aged 14. “I have experience of standing up and speaking to people about welfare,” she says.

When asked what distinguishes her from other candidates, she responds: “I would pride myself, on my organisation skills, my leadership skills and my communicational skills.

“I’ve always been very organised, and I think it’s vital that if you’re in such a role, you’re able to communicate and to quickly and effectively respond to people, and that comes from organisation.”

Breslin’s manifesto includes a number of original ideas such as confidence workshops to reach out to students with self-esteem issues.

On this subject, she states: “I struggled with confidence issues and public speaking issues when I was in school. I think that when people recognise that there are other people in the same position, they won’t be afraid to come along to these workshops.”

She also intends to promote the free counselling service in UCD more and prioritise students on need rather than on a first-come-first-served basis. “Counsellors are trained, experienced and qualified,” she adds. “I could never say they don’t have the knowledge to make the decision.

I would trust them to make the best decision.

I would have 100 per cent trust that this is the best system.”

weeks, are very ambitious and could easily prove to be a logistical headache. Arranging for lecturers and tutors from each school and programme to dedicate their time over this period will take a significant amount of organisation and preparation for it to truly benefit students choosing electives.

Overall, Geoghegan is solid if a little unspectacular, but maybe that isn’t a bad thing.

Whether you agree with his decision to appeal or not, students should decide whether they feel Geoghegan is capable of managing this role, or if voting RON will benefit everyone more in the long run. Either way, the drama won’t be ending soon.

SAM GEOGHEGAN

Name: Sam Geoghegan Age: 20 Course and year: Third year Economics and Politics Do you drink, smoke or take drugs? I drink occasionally, I work in a pub so I’m surrounded by drink all the time, I don’t smoke and I don’t do drugs, I never have.

Who are the President, Registrar and Bursar of UCD? President is Dr Hugh Brady, Registrar is Dr Philip Nolan and the Bursar is Gerry O’Brian.

What is the most important part of being education officer? In my opinion, it is the link between the university and the students, so arguably it is the most important position of the five sabbatical positions

Currently the only active candidate in the race for Education Officer, Sam Geoghegan refers to both his time on the Economics staff-student committee and as Economics Class Rep as giving him the necessary experience for the role.

Currently the vice-secretary of Students’ Union Council and Treasurer of the Kevin Barry Cumann, Geoghegan describes himself as “hard-working, organised” and “perhaps a little too honest”, and says that “a lot of people who had the role before say I would be good for the role…[and] I think my policies are quite good.”

Geoghegan cites grants, library opening hours and registration as three of the main issues facing UCD students, the latter he feels is a huge issue for incoming students. “You’re thrown in the deep end, you’re hearing all these terms you wouldn’t know through school.

Electives, seminars, tutorials, what are these?”

He believes that one of the bigger problems is the lack of communication and clarity between students and the university and cited the events of last semester’s exams as an example. “I wouldn’t say [how the university handled it was] horrendous, but no one knew what was going on. I had an exam the other day and I only found out on Facebook…I think that’s a joke.”

To tackle this problem, he hopes to bring in a texting service that will alert students to any cancellations of lectures or exams. He envisions that this would be conducted by each school if the system is required and states: “If UCD want to stay in the top 100 (of the Times Higher Education World University Rankings), I think it’s needed.”

Another of his main ideas is to introduce an Electives Expo during the first two weeks of term that would showcase available electives from all programmes and schools in the university.

He singled out the O’Reilly Hall as the preferred venue, although he mentioned the Astra Hall or a marquee setup (similar to the Freshers’ Tent) as other possible venues.

Explaining that the expo would “bring clarity or what module they’re going to pick if they do pick electives”, Geoghegan claims that it would help strengthen the degrees of students by allowing them a more informed choice instead of choosing ones randomly. “If you have an ‘Electives Expo’, you’ll have lecturers there, people who have done it before, you have tutors…maybe that will correlate with what you want to do [with your degree]” Geoghegan praised the current sabbatical team, but felt that the majority of students were disillusioned with the SU, saying: “There’s 23,000 students in UCD and just over 4,000 voters. That is a sign.”

29 March 2011 THE UNIVERSITY OBSERVER

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SU ELECTION SPECIAL

features@universityobserver.ie

Entertainments Officer: Darcy v Manning v Ní Churraoin v Kinsella KATIE HUGHES Deputy News Editor

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s well as promising students the time of their lives if they are elected, the main themes running through this year’s manifestos are the website, an opt-out clause for the texts and having more events run for students living on residence.

The most innovative manifesto of the four candidates is undoubtedly that of Darragh Kinsella. However, what some consider to be filled with refreshing enthusiasm, others believe to reveal a lack of experience and no knowledge of how Ents functions, not to mention the

existence of a budget.

Thus far, Kinsella has proven himself popular among the students due to memorable lecture addresses and his differentiating factor of never having been affiliated with the Students’ Union. If his enthusiasm proves to have some backbone, and he convinces students that his plans are in fact realistic, he will prove a formidable opponent for Manning, Darcy and Ní Churraoin.

Though one might not consider Manning, Ní Churraoin and Darcy’s manifestos to be filled with extraordinary new plans, they do bring fresh ideas to the table – that though not as ambitious as Kinsella’s – are certainly more

feasible with the current budget.

Darcy’s main focus appears to be getting student opinion and involvement in every which way he can – from setting up an Ents executive board, to having students vote on potential acts.

The four years of both Ents and outside experience, can be seen in certain aspects of his manifesto – while there are some outlandish ideas such as an intervarsity Mystery Tour, proposals such as the “Inishbobbin” trip and the intervarsity RAG week seem to be not only doable, but appealing to students.

Manning wants to do it all: organise graduating students final-class parties, launching a cocktail bar in the Student Bar and have cam-

pus bands support headline acts. Though his manifesto has a lot of varying ideas, the majority appear to be both well thought-out and feasible.

Of the four candidates, Manning is the only one to dedicate a section of his manifesto to charity. While the remaining three candidates have a substantial focus on introducing more sporting events to students, it does not appear to be one of Manning’s top priorities.

Ní Churraoin exhibits some new ideas though appears to want to build and expand on what is already in place rather than bring in her own vision. One of her main focus points is having a better system through which to inform students of upcoming events, something

STEPHEN DARCY

EDEL NÍ CHURRAOIN

DARRAGH KINSELLA

Name: Stephen Darcy Age: 25 Course and Year: Third year Geography and Art History Do you drink, smoke or take drugs? I drink; I do neither of the other two.

Name the President, Registrar and Bursar of UCD: The president is Hugh Brady, the Bursar is Gerry O’Brien and the Registrar is currently Philip Nolan.

Name the last five gigs you’ve been to: I was at The Script, Boyz Noise in Tripod after the UCD Boyz Noise gig, Michael Bublé, Funeral for a Friend and Digitalism.

Name: Edel Ní Churraoin Age: 20 Course and Year: Third-year Psychology Do you drink, smoke or take drugs? I drink, I don’t smoke and I don’t take drugs.

Name the President, Registrar and Bursar of UCD: Hugh Brady, Philip Nolan soon to be Barbara Redmond and the bursar – I should know this but right now I don’t.

Name the last five gigs you’ve been to: I was at The Script, Michael Bublé, a Saw Doctors gig, I Techno and at the X Factor gig.

Name: Darragh Kinsella Age: 20 Course and Year: Second-year Arts Do you drink, smoke or take drugs? I drink, I smoke and I certainly do not take drugs.

Name the President, Registrar and Bursar of UCD: Martin Butler, Hugh Brady – he’s the president, that’s all I know.

Name the last five gigs you’ve been to: Oxegen 2010, Electric Picnic 2010, Oxegen 2009, Electric Picnic 2009 and Oxegen 2008.

Long-time Ents Crew member, Stephen Darcy, is contesting the race for Ents Officer, believing it to be his experience and “100 per cent doable” manifesto that will get him elected.

Darcy criticises the manifestos of some of his opponents, insisting that camping for the UCD Ball will never happen and saying that “I left out the outrageous ideas because I don’t want to give students empty promises that won’t happen; it comes with experience – knowing what to put in your manifesto and what not to”.

According to Darcy, UCD’s RAG week has consistently “struggled to get off the ground”, he believes that having a big event at the start of the week – in this case the RAG ball, will be the ideal way to commence the activities. Alongside this, he hopes to run an intervarsity RAG week with other colleges.

With his previous experience with the UCD fashion show, Darcy believes having “one big show – a 6,000-person event in The O2”, which he describes as a “onenight sell-out”, to be the key of making it a successful, sold-out event.

With the idea that entertainment in UCD should not be solely at the discretion of the Ents officer, Darcy hopes to introduce a system whereby students vote on which of two acts they would rather see a few months in advance of the gig itself. He aims to achieve this by booking two acts provisionally for the same night and cancelling the one with the least number of votes: “I want students to get what they want,” he insists.

It is his “experience and know-how” that Darcy feels make him the best candidate for the job: this experience comes from doing his own entertainment work, so as to best prepare for the position: “Being a member of the Ents crew doesn’t warrant doing a good job as an Ents officer.” He continues: “I will give students the best year of their college life and won’t let them down.”

As the only female candidate contesting the position of Entertainments VicePresident, Edel Ní Churraoin cites her various roles in different events across campus over the past three years as her biggest asset, having acted in various capacities from Arts Programme Officer to Auditor of Tradsoc.

Current Vice-Auditor of ArtsSoc, Ní Churraoin cites lack of sufficient advertising as Ents Officer Jonny Cosgrove’s greatest shortcoming: “Towards the end of the first semester and some of this semester, some events haven’t been advertised in time, or as they should.” This is an issue that she hopes to combat by postering two weeks in advance of an event as well as publishing an Ents wall planner, something that has not be seen in UCD for a few years.

Though Ní Churraoin suggests in her manifesto that camping during the UCD Ball would be an option, she also says that the idea is something that she would look in to due to demand, but states that the resulting increased price of tickets would not be something she would compromise on: “If the price was as much as is being suggested by Buildings and Services and people like that, it would not be worth it.”

Due to the closing of the residence gates, “banter between the residences” has been greatly reduced according to Ní Churraoin. Her solution to this is revitalising residence life by hosting sport competitions, a Res Ball and outdoor movies.

Ní Churraoin refers to Cosgrove’s opinion last year that “the process of drinking and just having a good time” is more important; to this extent she hopes to host many more sporting events, possibly in conjunction with Nike, who have allegedly expressed interest in the idea.

Believing herself to be “approachable”, Ní Churraoin considers herself the optimal candidate for the position due to her all-round immersion in campus life, who wants to “bring Ents back to campus”.

Newcomer Darragh ‘Ozzy’ Kinsella has ambitious plans to “change, change, change” the Ents office ranging from class parties to a Sports and Soc Ball which he hopes will raise €25,000 for societies and sports clubs.

Though he openly admits to having “no experience in the traditional sense”, he feels it can be made up for by having regularly attended nights out run by both the UCD and Trinity Ents offices. “I go out with the people so I get to see what people are like on the ground, what they think of all the various nights out and the things they’ve been saying.”

Kinsella rates current Ents Officer Jonny Cosgrove’s performance as having done “well, but could have done a hell of a lot better”. He cites the Freshers’ Ball as Cosgrove’s biggest success, but among his failures, lists the Christmas Ball, Halloween Ball and Mystery Tour, stating: “There wasn’t that many people there.”

One of Kinsella’s prominent ideas on his manifesto is the UCD Olympics – a faculty versus faculty, three-day event.

Though nightclubs will be arranged for the evenings, they will not be affiliated with Ents as Kinsella insists: “I don’t want to get involved in nightclubs or any of that sort.”

Another one of Kinsella’s major aims for the coming year would be to make Ents more approachable, something he doesn’t believe was the case this year: “I want people to be able to approach me next year with ideas and suggestions, people don’t feel that they can approach Jonny in the way that they can approach me.”

Bringing UCD students an international Mystery Tour is Kinsella’s biggest priority in terms of making a change to the Ents Office; he states that if other colleges are doing it, “I want to do it here in my own college”.

Kinsella describes himself as a “social and outgoing people’s person”, all qualities which he believes make him the ideal candidate for the job, as well as “knowing what the people on the ground want”.

she felt was lacking this year.

There are few distinguishing factors between Manning and Darcy – both appear to be able candidates who know enough about the Ents office to prevent it tumbling to the ground in the coming year, while bringing in new ideas which will no doubt appeal to students.

Kinsella, despite lacking the experience of the other candidates, may prove to have the drive and originality to bring students a year like no other.

Ní Churraoin has few original ideas, but many plans to build and improve upon the systems already in place that, though a safe play, is maybe what the Ents Office requires.

ROBERT MANNING

Name: Robert Manning Age: 22 Course and Year: Third year Social Science Do you drink, smoke or take drugs? I drink, I don’t smoke and I don’t do drugs.

Name the President, Registrar and Bursar of UCD: The president is Hugh Brady, the registrar – I actually had a look at that on the UCD webpage and they’ve stated that it’s Philip Nolan and the bursar – Dave Carmody.

Name the last five gigs you’ve been to: That’s an interesting one, I can’t remember – it was probably some good ones – it’s very hard to fit in around studying.

Ents Crew member Robert Manning has chosen to contest the position of Ents Officer this year, claiming that the experience he gained during close work with Ents Officers dating back to Stephen Quinlivan has made him the best candidate in the highly contested race.

His plan for bringing the Freshers’ Ball back to campus is loosely based on an idea for the UCD Ball four years ago which had the status of the ball not increased, would have gone ahead. “We originally planned to have it (the UCD Ball) in separate sections based around the Student Bar – so I’ll hopefully have the Freshers’ Ball up by the bar like that.”

While current Ents Officer Jonny Cosgrove considered his tendency to jump from “idea to idea” an asset which would make Ents more interesting, Manning believed it to have ultimately been one of his biggest flaws. He stated that he was more focused than Cosgrove: “When I put my mind to something, I’m on that, I won’t skip away.”

Manning went on to reveal Cosgrove’s absence during earlier office hours as one of his downfalls: “He’s not really a morning person, so I’ve actually looked after all the promotions for Jonny from flyering to postering.”

Manning came out with a manifesto which he describes as being filled with “great ideas” that are all “feasible and doable”. These “great ideas” include introducing a cocktail bar, ensuring that there is an organised graduation event for those who finish college and introducing a student discount in shops already not carrying one such as Quicksilver.

Considering himself as being a friendly and open-minded person, Manning hopes to support all events across campus from faculty days to graduation parties, though not in the capacity of putting the Ents label on them, but “if they need help or anything like that they can come to me and I’ll help them as much as they want”.

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THE UNIVERSITY OBSERVER 29 March 2011

FEATURES

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A drive towards equality In light of the of the recent EU Court of Justice ruling regarding driver insurance rates, Faye Docherty analyses the issue and looks at students’ opinions on the topic

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t the start of this month, the EU Court of Justice ruled that insurance companies could no longer charge men more than women for motor insurance. This decision, which will be implemented on December 21st, 2012, puts an end to a heavily discussed and debated topic.

The topic, which has divided both men and women’s opinions for years, questions whether the fact that women currently pay less for car insurance is sexist. The court decided that the question in hand fundamentally breached EU law.

The EU Court of Justice ruled that this was simply another case of discrimination and therefore must be regulated. The EU’s Justice Commissioner’s Vice-President Viviane Reding, said: “All customers must be treated equally. This is a matter of respect for fundamental rights.”

The ruling will mean that the gap between insurance rates for men and women will close with women paying more and men less. However, statistically women continue to prove themselves to be better and safer drivers, a fact that has been reflected with the current rates offered to them.

As Mike Kemp, Chief Executive of the Irish Insurance Federation, says: “At present female drivers benefit from discounted rates for their motor insurance because of their better claims record.” For men under the age of 30, the difference between their premium and that of their female counterparts is staggering.

Men can pay anywhere up to 100 per cent more than women. Yet once men and

women reach the age of 35, the gap in premiums narrows between the two. This shows that now more than ever, young male drivers are perceived as the main risk on Irish roads, irrespective of whether members of this demographic adhere to the stereotype.

Kemp further argues that “insurers have always priced risk objectively based on statistical evidence and there is no reason why this process should be interfered with… removing the ability to take gender into account where relevant will ultimately have negative consequences for consumers across the board.”

Many insurers are already predicting other areas will be affected by this new ruling, such as life insurance and pensions. David Hughes, Director of Irish insurance company Get Cover & Company, explains that insurance companies that are “offering specialised motor insurance products for women will find the change most challenging”.

Many other factors are considered when calculating motor insurance and Hughes confirms this trend will continue. These factors include the type, age and size of the vehicle, the age and occupation of the driver and the location the vehicle is used. Get Cover & Company, along with many other insurance companies, is currently reviewing its rating structures in light of the ruling.

Although Hughes claims Get Cover & Company have not experienced any complaints or queries on the matter so far, he tells The University Observer that they are still confident they can “find another way to provide value and fairness” to their customers.

Out on campus, it seemed that a num-

ber of UCD students felt the EU Court’s ruling was a step in the right direction. Garvin Lawlor, a second-year Commerce student, says: “I think it’s fair enough that everyone should have to pay the same amount for insurance because it’s unfair guys are being tackled, as not all guys are bad drivers.”

However, Lawlor does note that many young male drivers don’t help their stereotype as they try to prove themselves and impress the people around them. He continues: “That kind of macho male idealism definitely comes into play.”

Alison Denver, a third-year Archaeology and Geology student, agrees that although men being charged more is unfair, they have in fact “brought it on themselves”.

However, Fegal Bannon, a second-year Science student, disagrees with the EU Court’s ruling. “It doesn’t sound very fair,” he says. “When you look at the stats, women have fewer accidents and if you are treating them the way it should be, they should get charged less as they have less accidents, so it’s not fair really. It’s not fair on women as they deserve to pay less.”

It is evident that this is a divisive issue and is one that young student drivers, with the constraints of the current economic climate on their shoulders, are concerned about. Whether or not you believe men have brought higher insurance rates upon themselves, it will no longer be a concern from December 21st 2012.

Should all men have to deal with the consequences that a minority of boy racers cause or are we being fundamentally sexist? Whatever your opinion is, the court has ruled.

The reputation of women as safer drivers will no longer be a consideration when calculating insurance premiums in 2012

Postcards from Abroad: Shanghai As people all over the world became Irish on March 17th, Daryl Bolger experienced St Patrick’s Day: the Chinese way

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e’ve been back i n college here just two weeks and I’m already longing for a break. A planned trip to Japan now looks unlikely so Beijing for a few days to visit friends is on the cards for next month; a bit of a downgrade from a trip to Tokyo.

Fortunately however, March 17th came in the middle of my second week back. Shanghai knows how to throw a party and it seems St Patrick’s Day is one of their favourites.

The week started innocently enough, the Shanghai authorities’ decision to cancel the Irish community’s parade down Nanjing Lu (think Grafton Street except flashier, longer and better) left us with a hastily organised party in a shopping centre downtown.

On show were Irish ballad singing, a bit of a trad session and an all-Chinese Irish dancing troupe. There were also stands promoting studying in Ireland from universities such as UL, TCD and DIT. UCD, however, was notable in its absence.

Not to be outdone by the no-fun education stands, Murphy’s had a stand offering pint after pint of free stout. After one sip I learned I hate Murphy’s. I mean, I really hate Murphy’s.

Three agonising days of class passed before St Patrick’s Day rolled around.

What a start to the day it was – up at 7.30am for an 8am Chinese grammar

class. After four hours of painfully slow class, the tri-colour was proudly wrapped around my shoulders and it was off for a traditional Irish lunch – a greasy ‘Meat Feast Pizza’, washed down with some 35c beers.

From here it was to our local, Helen’s, where we somehow spent five hours, making our way through yet more cheap alcohol. Our international friends started to arrive slowly but surely, intrigued as to what we actually did for ‘St Patty’s’, as the Americans like to call it. However, the offer of free beer from 9pm onwards meant most wouldn’t visit until later.

Meanwhile we jumped in some taxis and headed to The Blarney Stone. The Blarney Stone is a classic example of the typical fake Irish pub, a pint is overly expensive, a bodhrán is never far from earshot and the walls look like the Guinness marketing department threw up on them. St Patrick’s Day, unsurprisingly, is their busiest day of the year. Most of our Irish friends from outside UCD were there, many unaware that wearing a green hat in China signifies that your partner is cheating on you – the Chinese must think we’re a nation of polygamists.

Of course there were the token nonIrish there too, from the American who studied here 20 years ago and who kindly bought us each a €7 pint of Kilkenny, to the Norwegian who wouldn’t stop shouting at people to sit down so she could see the band, the same band that’s there every single night.

After a pint, or four, we headed on towards a club offering an open bar for a fiver for five hours. A few green beers

later, my body told me to call it quits and my head agreed. It seemed late enough at the time but I found out the next morning it had only been midnight, shamefully early had it been any other night, but for St Patrick’s it must constitute a personal best.

The festivities weren’t to end there; the next night was a formal affair – a reception held by the Irish consul to Shanghai.

Hearing rumours of sit-down dinners and open bars in years gone by, I approached the event fully expecting it to be front-page news back home the next day for wasting taxpayer’s money.

Not a bit of it, actually it turned out to be a showcase of Irish business and tourism. Tayto, with their new crisps for the Chinese market, Baileys and Jameson were all on show, giving samples of their products in the hope of drumming up business.

Of course all they got were Irish expats delighted with a free drink and some Tayto to go with it. Murphy’s were on show again giving away free stout – I stuck to the Jameson. Afterwards we tumbled into The Blarney Stone, where, yet again, everyone was sporting green hats, although this time it was a pub crawl offending the Chinese.

The St Patrick’s weekend festivities made me miss Ireland, but even more so it made me realise how lucky I am to be Irish. From our consuls and our confectioners to our breweries, there’s not one other country that looks after its own like we do and for that we should be grateful.

Daryl Bolger is a UCD student currently studying in Shanghai.

The shamrock is internationally recognised as the official emblem of St Patrick’s Day

29 March 2011 THE UNIVERSITY OBSERVER

11

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Confronting prejudices With the academic year almost over and many students having come out over its course, Bríd Doherty speaks to two LGBT members about their experiences

For many people who are coming out, breaking the news to loved ones can be a daunting and stressful process

F

or most, coming out of the closet is a psychological journey, a matter of personal identity and a rite of passage. It is something that each and every member of UCD’s LGBT community has gone through or will go through at some point in their lives.

The uncertainty of how loved ones will act when breaking the news means that the beginning of this journey can be a difficult and stressful period for those at the centre.

The University Observer spoke to two members of UCD’s Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Society, Simon and Linda, about coming out and being a member of the LGBT community in UCD. Simon is a Social Science student and a committee member of the LGBT Society while Linda is an Arts student and one of the most active members of the LGBT Society.

Simon first came out when he was 17 but had known for years that he was gay.

He came out first to his parents, adamant that they would find out from him and not from someone else. He found coming out to his parents very difficult and they were shocked when he told them he was gay.

Although not entirely accepting of his sexuality, Simon’s parents gradually began to tell other family members. On the other hand, his friends responded warmly to his coming out and offered a great deal of support. Although he attended an allboys school, he was lucky that his year were very accepting and comfortable with his sexuality. He warmly describes his last day of school when “everyone was in the pub and they were all interested to see if I thought they were good-looking or not”.

Linda knew by twelve that she was gay.

However, she didn’t formally come out until she was 18. She attributes this delay to her background and the fact that she comes from quite a politically conservative area. While in school, she was confused

about her feelings towards certain girls and was caught wondering if they were feelings of friendship or perhaps something deeper. “I had a little bit too strong feelings for a girl in the year above, but I thought I just really really liked her as a friend.”

Linda’s journey began when she told a select group of people that she was bisexual to pave the way for her own coming out.

It was only when she joined the LGBT society near the end of heir first year that she properly accepted who she was. Linda began to come out to her friends shortly after this, finding it easier to tell strangers rather than those who were close to her.

Like Simon, Linda’s experience of coming out to her parents was difficult: “I came out to my parents by accident last year. My mum asked me outright if I was gay and I was so taken aback, I didn’t think about it and told her I was. I decided to come out to my dad because my girlfriend at the time told me it was a good idea for me to say it to him, rather than him hear it from someone else. My parents then told the rest of the kids.”

Unfortunately, Linda’s coming out journey has been a rocky one thus far. “They don’t accept it at all,” she says of her parents. “I had a very tough time this time last year but I had good support around me.

It was very hard for me for the first few months after I came out.

“My father had a very bad reaction. I left the house for two weeks after I first came out and came back to my apartment because it was so hostile and horrible at home. They just weren’t dealing with it at all and I couldn’t deal with it either as a result.”

The conflict didn’t end there as Linda was kicked out of her home during the summer because of her sexual orientation.

“It came to a head that my cousin had found out over Facebook and had told one whole side of my family and that didn’t go down too well and my mum wasn’t happy in the slightest.” She mentions that her

father’s side “don’t know at all and he would like to keep it that way”.

However, the reaction of Linda’s family proved to be in stark contrast to the warm reception from most of her friends and from her new roommates in UCD who barely batted an eyelid when she informed them of her sexual orientation.

When she was coming out, Linda said that the UCD counselling service has proved very helpful during this period and emphasises that many members of the LGBT community have been given a great deal of support by the service. Both Linda and Simon keenly mentioned the role of LOOK (Loving Our Out Kids) in helping parents come to terms with their child’s sexual orientation.

Often, parents may require support in this regard especially as they are of a generation that barely tolerated or talked about homosexuality. It is organisations such as these that make the coming out process easier for both parents and their children.

However, in the midst of the difficulties associated with coming out, there are always a few heart-warming stories. Linda and Simon described one such example regarding a member of the UCD LGBT society. Upon coming out to his parents, the student in question was welcomed with open arms by his parents who gifted him with a rainbow-patterned cake.

Both Linda and Simon agree that general consensus among their peers is that UCD is a warm and welcoming place for its LGBT students. There are very few reported cases of animosity from classmates of LGBT students and Simon notes one particularly progressive case: “There’s a man in my class who is very religious and we’re talking about organising some kind of Christian-LGBT event together.”

The UCD LGBT society provides the foundation stone of support for students and organised events such as Rainbow Week which campaigns and raises awareness of issues faced by gay students. Events

such as this provide a platform for raising awareness about LGBT issues as well as promoting understanding and acceptance among the student populous.

Alongside this, Pink Training is an event run by the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) every year for LGBT students from all over Ireland. Comprising of seminars and workshops, Linda describes it as “one of the best experiences I’ve ever had. Everyone’s gay and everyone’s supporting each other. It really brings out the best in every single person there.”

Unfortunately, although generally positive, the experiences of UCD LGBT students have not been exclusively so and there have recently been a number of incidents of homophobia on campus and no action taken against them.

One such incident involved a member of the LGBT committee and her girlfriend while they were in the Forum Bar on campus. A patron of the bar commenced shouting homophobic slurs at them, punctuating his rant by tossing a pint over them. They immediately reported this to the bouncers who took no action and didn’t remove him from the bar.

There have been a number of altercations similar to this as well. Simon notes: “I don’t think UCD has a good record for following through on homophobic occurrences.”

Simon mentioned that he has experienced homophobia on two notable occasions. Recently, he was in a pub with his arm around a guy and the pub-owner gestured for the two of them to move apart.

They refused and eventually confronted the owner about his homophobia, which resulted in them both being removed from the pub. They reported the event to Gardaí who took statements but failed to take further action.

On the second occasion, Simon was in a well-known Dublin nightclub and after disclosing his sexuality to a person there; he was violently punched in the face.

In light of these incidents, The University Observer asked Simon and Linda if members of the UCD LGBT community are apprehensive about being openly affectionate with each other in public places. Simon does not allow it to deter him in the slightest and feels no need in the slightest to hide his sexual orientation, saying: “I came out of the closet for a reason.”

Linda, on the other hand, wasn’t initially comfortable with being affectionate in public. She attributes this to the fact that she was not fully confident in herself and her sexuality when she first came out. She says that it wasn’t until she fell in love for the first time that she was prepared to display her affection publicly.

Simon and Linda spoke about the challenges facing couples when one person is in the closet and the other is out.

Both agreed that it is undoubtedly preferable for both parties in a relationship to be comfortably out of the closet for the relationship to work.

Simon previously ended a relationship because the guy he was dating wasn’t comfortable being affectionate in public.

However, Simon explains that the relationship he had with his last boyfriend, who wasn’t out of the closet, proved to be the longest relationship he’s had. Simon explains: “It can be done, but I wouldn’t recommend it. I think people need to be at the same stage.”

As students of UCD, we must endeavour to offer support and understanding to our fellow LGBT students. As Harvey Milk, Gay Activist and former Mayor of San Francisco, said: “All young people, regardless of sexual orientation or identity, deserve a safe and supportive environment in which to achieve their full potential.” Let us hope that in UCD we have created such a haven for all students and an environment in which they can come out.

The LGBT Starlight Ball is on April 7th in The Sycamore in Temple Bar.

12

THE UNIVERSITY OBSERVER 29 March 2011

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Your Students’ Union?

As students gear up to cast their vote in the SU elections, Natalie Voorheis gets out on campus and gages the attitudes towards student politics

O

n March 30th a n d 31st, UCD students will cast their votes in Deputy Features Editor the Students’ Union (SU) elections. Last year’s election saw roughly 4,300 of 24,000 students exercise their voting rights. This year’s election demonstrates a variation, in a number of ways, from last year. With more candidates running in 2011 than in 2010 and female representation within the SU, which has been notoriously lacking through its history, is set to change with the welfare position being contested exclusively by women.

In addition to these factors, the 2011 general election saw an extremely high turnout to polling stations across the country and the media hype surrounding it has left political concerns fresh in the minds of Irish people.

It remains to be seen if student interest has been sparked, resulting in a higher turnout at the polling stations. The University Observer ventured around campus to ascertain general student opinion of the SU candidates and their campaigns.

A number of things came across in discussion with students from across campus. Firstly, an ignorance of details relating to the election, with not one student we spoke to able to name five candidates correctly. Secondly, a sense of dissatisfaction about the roles of the SU officers and their achievements through their time in office seemed evident, but again, this seemed based on ignorance of the facts regarding the SU rather than in concrete examples or evidence.

One student, Rachel Denógla, in finalyear Arts, when asked whether she thought UCD students consider that the SU elections are an important part of student life answers: “To be honest, I don’t think so. I think it’s always the same thing every year, people don’t

really mind the manifestos to be honest. They just vote for whoever pulls them along in the corridor on the day. I know that’s the only time I’ve voted.”

Denógla adds: “I think a lot of the student politics in UCD is more of a popularity thing than wanting to do good for the student population… [the campaigning] is more in your face than telling you what they’re actually going do for the college.”

Denógla wasn’t the only student to express distrust of the various campaigns. John Breslin, a third-year Economics and Finance student, says: “I don’t reckon they have much power at all... I’d like to give them more power, but you need the right people in there as well. Some of the people running never follow through on any sort of promise. It’s more of a publicity stunt, a popularity contest. They should have a bit more power so you can actually see something done, something visible.”

One student, by contrast, was vehemently enthusiastic about the SU and the elections.

Darragh Mulryan, a first-year Commerce International student, says: “I think they (students) do think it’s important because they’re getting pretty into all this voting and there is a lot of debates and a lot of my friends were talking about it outside college. I follow politics, so I’m reading all the manifestos.”

He then adds: “Look at what their plans are compared to each others ones and [see] who has better ideas.”

It remains to be seen whether the recent general election and the frenzied media coverage associated with it will have an impact on voting turnout. Such figures as 23-yearold TCD student, Dylan Haskins, who ran unsuccessfully for a seat in Dublin South East, have not only received media attention, but also undoubtedly sparked student interest in politics.

Whether this student interest in national politics will translate to UCD’s student poli-

The majority of students in UCD appear to be apathetic towards student politics, with only 4,300 turning out to vote last term

tics seems unlikely considering that not one of the students interviewed were able to correctly identify five of the candidates running for election in the SU. The disparity between what students want from their SU and what they are actually getting remains painfully obvious. But student misunderstanding of the SU is also an issue that needs to be addressed by the

Off the beaten track

S

ince the Belfield campus was officially opened in 1964, it has undergone a transformation, perhaps better termed a deterioration, far beyond the original architects’ desires. Concrete, unlike fine wine, does not age gracefully.

On campus this has lead to a somewhat post-apocalyptic concrete sprawl on the edges of Donnybrook. We have all read on numerous occasions, in this publication and others, of our campus being described as a concrete jungle. It is easy to see why; with each building bringing its own distinct off-colour grey to the campus skyline while underfoot, thick slabs of all shades of grey concrete dominate.

Despite this, with some searching, there are plenty of colourful areas that are waiting to be explored and perhaps fight against the popularised reputation outlined above. Students seeking solace may know very well where to find the secret lakes, the Zen garden and the forest walks, but for the mass body of students these remain hidden. The

University Observer went exploring and spoke to a number of students to find out what they think about the Belfield campus.

French and Philosophy student, Kate Smith, disagrees with the above assertion. “I’m very fond of UCD and I don’t mind it so much and I do think there is a lot of diversity with the buildings,” she said. “I mean, if you look at the Arts Block, it’s very old so obviously it’s going to have that type of architecture, but I think you’ve got the new Health Sciences Building, the Quinn Building and you can find the secret lake and the Zen garden. You have to look past the outside sometimes.”

On this reporter’s trip through campus, the above is certainly true with all the most interesting spots to be found away from the centre of Belfield. On a trip through the isolated colony of Richview, there is a grand piano hidden in the corner of the Memorial Hall ready to be played by all the wandering bohemians looking for a place to pass the lunch hour.

Also towards the Clonskeagh end of campus, there is the horticulture centre composed of greenhouses and rows of trees, although a word of warning, this does have restricted access. Not forget-

incoming officers. The power of the SU this week lies in the student’s hands, and a student body that doesn’t understand what has been achieved by the SU and what remains as achievable is a dangerous thing.

Commerce and French student, Sean Brennan, expresses his hopes for the future of the SU: “I think the recent general election saw a change in what you could say

With summer approaching, Sean Finnan looks at some of the more serene and beautiful spots on campus that one may come across on a sun-drenched stroll

Outside the hub of campus lie a series of beautiful forest walkways to explore

ting the secret lake and the many forest walks that are scattered on the outskirts of campus. One other spot highly recommended is the top floor of Arts in the School of Philosophy where one is treated to a wonderful view of the O’Reilly Hall all the way towards town and beyond to the sea.

Another area, unknown to many, is the classical museum located in

nationally was a governmental clique and it showed a kind of a smashing of that, it wasn’t a complete revolution, but it was a step in the right direction and maybe there’ll be something similar to happen here with this election.”

Whether something similar will occur within UCD will only be discovered when students turn out to cast their vote.

the School of Classics in Arts. The museum, open to both students and the general public, houses a wide range of relics including Greek vases, Roman pottery, Egyptian antiquities and a marble sarcophagus.

When asked what were the preferred areas of students to hang out on campus, the students – many of whom had congregated at the lake owing to a rare

sunny on campus – gave a variety of responses.

“I love out beside the lake especially when it’s warm, but where I really like is the decking area outside the Arts Block,” says Smith. “It’s all kind of wooden and got all the benches, so that’s nice, and if you really want to go for parkland, there’s all sorts of circuits that you can go to.”

Erasmus student, Marianna Minari, from Sardinia in Italy, says: “I like the Daedalus Building where there is the study area, because you can have small talk as well as it being quiet. I don’t need much silence, I just need to be interested in what I am doing, but also I really like the lake.” Meanwhile, Arts student Alastair Graham answers: “There are a few spots. The secret lake is a good quiet spot and also the spiral staircases in the Arts Block.”

It is clear that, with a bit of exploration and a keen eye, hidden niches can be revealed that can open up the campus grey into a more vibrant and student friendly world. With most of our time here spent in lectures or the library, take a moment or two to go beyond the lake and see what this campus has to offer. Who knows what you might find.

29 March 2011 THE UNIVERSITY OBSERVER

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The antisocial network?

As the EC proposes a reform of data protection rules, Sinead O’Brien and Philippa White debate whether social networking sites violate our privacy online

NO

particularly for those who are unfamiliar with the technical intricacies of Facebook – but also the changes are often unannounced and therefore go unnoticed.

Secondly, in regards to content, the user only has a limited amount of control over what appears on the site. One may have the ability to delete content from one’s own profile but oftentimes this simply does not offer sufficient control over privacy.

Think about all the incriminating videos, employment-jeopardising photos and potentially relationship-shattering comments that have surfaced somehow on the average Facebook wall. Yes, photos can be ‘detagged’ and comments can be removed but quite often the damage is already done by the time these vital clicks are executed.

Furthermore, in the case of photos, videos and notes, even if one manages to remove them from one’s own profile, they are still visible to a vast number of prying eyes on other profiles. Thus, user-to-user approval does not have to be sought before certain items are published and controversial or damaging content can hang proudly and publicly from one user’s wall and other users are left powerless.

Privacy means being selective – selective about what information we disclose to others and selective about with whom we share this information and when. With Facebook, this selectivity is removed.

Whether you are a minimalist in terms of how much you reveal about yourself online or whether you are, on the other hand, shamelessly vain and feel confident in the fact that there is a public demand to know that you ‘like’ sleeping, are inspired

by Gandhi and have proficiency in French, your privacy will, either way, be invaded somehow on Facebook.

V

ivian Reding, Vice-President of the European Commission, recently announced new proposals to reform the data protection rules in the European Union.

In relation to these reforms she has said, “a US-based social network company that has millions of active users in Europe needs to comply with EU rules”. No prizes for guessing who she is referring to.

While the reform of data protection rules of the European Union is needed in our technologically advancing society, there is an argument to be made that Facebook is being unfairly scapegoated in order to justify the enactment of these, perhaps paranoid, reforms. Keeping Ms Reding’s proposals in mind, do social networks like Facebook lead to the violation of your privacy? I would argue that the social networks themselves do not.

To violate is to break, infringe, or transgress (a law, rule, agreement, promise, instruction etc). Has Facebook, for example, ever broken any laws, rules, agreements, promises or instructions? The astonishing conclusion that you will be forced to draw is that no, it has not. Indeed Facebook has faced many charges and allegations since its inception, but no judgement has been handed down to date to say that they have violated anyone’s privacy.

In fact, despite the assiduous criticisms that target Facebook’s privacy policy, if you go to the source and read them for yourself, you will be pleasantly surprised by how reasonable they actually are.

Section Two of the Statement of Rights and Responsibilities primarily states that as a user, you own all of the content and information you post on Facebook, and

Many people have asked who are the real violators of privacy: Facebook or its users?

Facebook, in and of itself, does not violate your privacy rights you can control how it is shared through your privacy and application settings.

This is subject to an additional provision which states that content covered by intellectual property (IP) rights, such as photos and videos (“IP content”), are granted to Facebook under an IP License to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook.

This IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your account, unless your content has been shared with others and they have not deleted it.

This is a standard clause that is also used by other information sharing websites.

YouTube has a similar clause in its terms that is slightly more far-reaching given the activity engaged in by the site. Section 8.1 states that when you upload or post content to YouTube, you grant to YouTube what is simply an IP License. Section 8.2 goes a bit further by stating that the licenses granted by you in textual comments you submit as content are perpetual and irrevocable.

Back in 2009, Facebook announced its new terms of service, which were very simi-

lar to those of YouTube cited above. The major difference was the widespread user outrage and criticism that followed.

The furore that arises every time Facebook announces a change in its terms or settings may be attributed to the arrogant and audacious manner in which Facebook’s founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, goes about making them.

Unfortunately, one cannot be sued for simply being arrogant.

The central idea behind the changes imposed in February 2009 was to protect Facebook from liability in the event that images or messages you upload end up residing on servers outside of Facebook’s direct control, as is oftentimes the nature of the internet.

It has always been the case that you should approach sharing any information about yourself on the internet with caution, so why treat the information you share on Facebook otherwise?

Facebook endeavours to protect your information and your privacy to whatever degree you choose by offering you a variety of privacy settings. But as with anything, it can only go so far in protecting you from people uploading malicious viruses, or protecting your information from dexterous hackers.

As Wikileaks has aptly demonstrated, if confidential American diplomatic cables can be exposed to the masses, then there is no guarantee that the information you provide to Facebook will remain private. But rather than such breaches of privacy being the fault of Facebook, this is instead a fact of life when it comes to sharing anything online.

Facebook is constantly being criticised for violating user’s privacy rights, when it

is really our society as a whole that undervalues such basic information as our name and age. Certainly, anyone with a Tesco Clubcard has enabled Tesco to gather intelligence on members’ purchasing habits, so that they know quite literally what you eat for breakfast.

Facebook, in and of itself, does not violate your privacy rights. If anything, the ‘friend’ who photographed you while you were doing nothing of interest and promptly tagged you in his/her Facebook album can be credited for that. And if you were moronic enough to have yourself photographed shoving poker chips between your bare butt-cheeks while drunk at a party, then I’m afraid the only person violating your right to privacy is you.

- Sinead O’Brien

YES

F

acebook is a remarkable tool. It has revolutionised the way in which 600 million people worldwide communicate. It can be informative, useful and enjoyable. Alas, this 21st century phenomenon has dramatically changed the world in which we live and has brought the idea of personal privacy to its knees.

One might argue that when one joins Facebook there is not so much an invasion of privacy as there is a voluntary surrender of it – it is we who are eagerly signing up to it at the end of the day. It is we who are choosing to reveal to a large community, parts of ourselves that were once only shown

to those closest to us.

Indeed, how could it be an invasion of privacy when it is we who are choosing to expose ourselves like this, selling our souls piece by piece, day by day, as we type personal (and more often than not, trite) ramblings into the online void?

This might sound a tad melodramatic but the point is that now everyone – from your employer, your neighbour and even that guy from Commerce with whom you had one awkward date back in first year and now are loathe to even salute in the Arts Block – can glimpse, at any given moment, into your daily life and all because you have chosen this.

Alas, I digress. It may be the case that an invitation rather than an invasion has brought Facebook into our private lives.

Nevertheless, there are undoubtedly situations when Facebook oversteps its mark and disrespects the privacy of its users.

Firstly, consider the privacy policies of Facebook. The user can decide what is made public and what is made private.

There is an option to allow only ‘Friends’ view photos, read status updates and one can even prevent all ‘Friends’ from viewing any of the comments left on ones ‘Wall’.

This may be all well and good but from a privacy-preserving perspective, there is one gaping flaw in the system: it is the user who must actively choose these settings. In other words, the default settings leave most parts of the profile viewable to more people than one’s few hundred so-called ‘Friends’.

Therefore, every time Facebook decides to revamp its image and change its policies, the onus is on the individual user to reset the privacy settings. Not only can this be troublesome and confusing for users –

How could it be an invasion of privacy when it is we who are choosing to expose ourselves like this?

As mentioned above, others can publish information about you or a photo of you without your consent and it requires a great deal of effort to remove it from Facebook completely. Moreover, the data you upload onto Facebook is revealed to a wider audience than you may realise.

Much of your personal information, for example, is passed on to third parties such as companies who specialise in tailor-made marketing.

In conclusion, privacy means the ability to select what we put into the limelight and when. Facebook does not give us this power. Therefore, maybe you do not believe in a God and think the idea of a Big Brother belongs only in Orwell novels. However, if you have a Facebook page, you will know that someone, somewhere out there, is currently watching you.

- Phillipa White

14

THE UNIVERSITY OBSERVER 29 March 2011

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Kenny Live!

Lights, camera, Enda: Sarah Doran reviews the new Irish government’s first few weeks in power

“W

hen our children look into our eyes, I want them to see a future with the kindness and the goodness, the dreams and imagining, the strength and the belief that has passed silently, unobtrusively from mother to daughter, from father to son over the millennia,” said Kenny at the opening of the 31st Dáil on March 9th. So how has the government fared in its first few weeks?

Three weeks on a review of the government’s performance may seem slightly premature. However as the nation learned in previous months, a week is an incredibly long time in politics. With stances on banks, busts and bailouts declared at the ballot boxes the coalition was under pressure to act.

Yet before any action could be taken, the actors themselves had to be chosen. The Cabinet appointments caused a media frenzy as gender inequality became the number one issue with merely two women, Joan Burton and Frances Fitzgerald, listed amongst the 15 senior ministers.

This situation was somewhat remedied by the appointment of four women, Lucinda Creighton, Róisín Shorthall, Jan O’Sullivan and Kathleen Lynch, to junior ministerial posts.

Burtongate then dominated coalition coverage as Joan’s appointment as Minister for Social Protection came under intense scrutiny. Brendan Howlin, a teacher from Wexford, was chosen above the economically focused Labour TD for the Public Expenditure and Reform post. Was Burton

betrayed by the boys? The public seemed to think so.

Howlin was amongst the first of the senior figures in the Labour Party to concede that Burton had been disappointed. However, he defended the choices that had been made: “It falls on a party leader to make a discernment on who takes each job and that decision was made,” he stated. Burton denied that she had been disappointed by her appointment to Social Protection, informing RTÉ reporter Charlie Bird that “I was qualified; I am qualified to be a minister in any department in the Government”.

The first act of the new coalition government was one which encouraged faith in their promise for change: a reduction in ministerial pay was announced. At their first meeting, the new cabinet agreed to reduce the Taoiseach’s pay from €214,187 to €200,000, a reduction of six per cent.

The Tánaiste’s salary was reduced from €187,486 to €184,405 whilst government ministers’ salaries were cut by almost €12,000 per year to €187,283.

Junior ministers of state were subject to a €9,000 pay cut, their salaries reduced from €139,266 to €130,042. While for many this represents positive progress in the political arena, it could be suggested that the cuts may be deemed too little in comparison with those facing Enda’s beloved ‘Paddy’ come coalition Budget day.

Yet another welcome development came in the form of a government decision to cut spending on ministerial transport; all but three members of the cabinet were informed that they would be forced to supply their own cars from May of this year onward.

Only the Taoiseach, Tánaiste and Minis-

Enda Kenny has so far survived tough media scrutiny in his new role as Taoiseach

ter for Justice and Equality will still enjoy the luxury of a State-supplied car with a full-time Garda driver. Other ministers will still be given drivers but the car will have to be supplied by the minister themselves.

The new policy will affect former Taoisigh and Presidents who will lose their automatic right to official State-supplied cards and Garda drivers, except on those important State occasions when they are required.

This news was widely welcomed by a public who had called for cuts at the top.

Enda Kenny and Michael Noonan left domestic politics behind when they took to the European mainland to discuss the

bailout with the Eurozone leaders. Within days, there were arguments with Angela and a spar with Sarkozy on the issue of Irish corporate tax. Kenny and Noonan stood firm in their defence of the tax rate; even former Tánaiste Michael McDowell told the Sunday Independent that a concession on corporate tax would be “political and economic suicide”.

The Irish people backed the Taoiseach and the Minister for Finance with 78 per cent of people polled by Quantum Research for the Sunday Independent backing Kenny’s position instead of accepting Sarkozy’s offer of more favourable bailout

rates in exchange for corporate tax concessions.

The first St Patrick’s Day in Washington also proved incredibly successful for the newly appointed leader: Barack Obama announced his intention to visit the Emerald Isle in May of this year. With the Queen of England’s visit already scheduled, Kenny and Gilmore’s hosting skills will be thoroughly put to the test.

It is simply too early to judge whether or not the government can bring about the change they have promised, but to the everyday observer they seem to be off to a good start. Tús maith, leath oibre?

In defence of nuclear power Despite the recent radioactive leaks at Fukushima, nuclear power is ultimately a safe and environmentally friendly energy source, argues Eoin Brady

G

iven the hysteria of the past few weeks, one would be forgiven for thinking that the prophecies of the beardies with the “The end is nigh” placards were finally coming true. Planet Earth was teetering on the brink of nuclear apocalypse, and the people charged with saving it were under-prepared, underresourced and underwater.

The leakages at the Fukushima plant have been described as being the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl. At first, this sounds disastrous. However, the Fukushima accident was considerably less serious than Chernobyl.

Even it, the worst civilian nuclear disaster in history, did not have an enormous human cost. A UN and WHO-backed report from 2005 put the number of deaths from cancer due to Chernobyl at 9,000. Much of these deaths were due to thyroid cancer, which people contracted by drinking milk that was contaminated with radioactive iodine. This number of deaths would have been dramatically lower if the Soviet government had taken the basic precaution of providing locals with an alternative food supply.

Describing the deaths of 9,000 innocent people by cancer as “not enormous” is not intended to diminish the seriousness of that deplorable event. However, it is necessary to put the disaster in context. 6,000 people die

in coal-mining accidents in China every year.

China suffers the equivalent of a Chernobyl every 18 months due to coal mining.

The evidence demonstrates that coal is much more dangerous than nuclear energy.

Despite this, the future of nuclear power has been called into question by the accident at Fukushima. Nuclear plant construction has been put on hold around the world in response to it.

In the US, the nuclear industry has been in decline since the Three-Mile Island accident in 1979 turned public opinion against it. No new reactors have been built since that year.

Concerns about energy independence, energy costs and carbon emissions had led to a recent resurgence in support for nuclear energy: Nobel Prize-winning Energy Secretary, Steven Chu, is a proponent of nuclear energy as is President Barack Obama.

However, the task of persuading a suspicious public of the merits of nuclear energy has become more difficult since the Fukushima incident.

The main builder of new plants is China, which has 27 plants under construction.

Despite having suspended construction to perform a safety review, its plans are unlikely to be affected significantly by Japan’s accident.

While this safety review is to be welcomed, the lack of curtailment serves to highlight

The leakages at Fukushima have led to a global reconsideration of nuclear power.

what The Economist referred to as “the great nuclear dilemma”. While safe nuclear power requires the transparency and independence of regulation that only well-developed democracies can provide, the only states that are able to proceed with large-scale nuclear development are the ones that pay little attention to the popular opinion of their populaces.

Russia, the second-largest nuclear builder, has 11 plants under construction.

France appears to be an exception to this dismal rule: it is a healthy democracy, and relies on nuclear power for 75 per cent of its energy. It provides the example that other na-

tions should follow.

According to a study for the European Commission, nuclear energy is similar to wind energy, in terms of both cost and carbon footprint. The only source of energy that performs better is hydroelectricity. The main weakness of hydroelectricity is the limited number of locations in which it can be implemented. Solar energy is four times more expensive than nuclear and, surprisingly, produces three times more carbon emissions.

Fossil fuels produce at least ten times more carbon emissions than nuclear.

Climate change’s potential for causing

environmental damage and human misery is enormous. The main source of carbon emissions, the driver of climate change, is fossil fuels. The alternatives – which are safer, renewable, less environmentally damaging, and not significantly more expensive – are wind and nuclear energy. Each should be developed, where appropriate.

The main stumbling block to nuclear development is negative public opinion.

This unjustified fear exists because radiation is perceived to be mysterious, dangerous and difficult to detect and control. None of these problems are, in reality, more serious for nuclear energy than they are for other forms of energy.

As argued on David Spiegelhalter’s ‘Understanding Uncertainty’ blog, states should work to correct this imbalance in public opinion by explaining the realities of nuclear power through scientists and prominent, trusted members of society.

In most western democracies, it appears that the end is nigh for nuclear power. This would be a terrible shame. Nuclear energy is safe, cheap and clean – despite what the beardies would have you believe. The gravest threat facing the Earth is not nuclear apocalypse; it is climate change. Nuclear power should have a major role to play in averting this problem.

29 March 2011 THE UNIVERSITY OBSERVER

15

COMMENT

comment@universityobserver.ie

Fighting for a costly freedom As the rebellion in Libya intensifies, Bríd Doherty examines the reasons behind the conflict and the possible outcomes

“O

ur blood, our tears from more than 40 years”, and “From the desert to the sea, Libya, Libya will be free”. These were the words belted out by a crowd of over a hundred people calling for Libyan freedom on O’Connell Street in Dublin on March 19th. Libya is the third major Arab state to rise up against its despotic leader and call for freedom and democracy.

Thus far, it has without doubt been the most violent of all the revolts. It has been defined by the brutal manner in which Gaddafi has viciously murdered his own citizens. In order to fully comprehend the events in the North African state and contemplate the outcome, it is necessary to look at the composition of the opposition and Gaddafi himself.

The composition of opposition to Gaddafi is, as in all other revolts sweeping the region, very diverse. What unites all involved in these rebellions is the rejection of a dictatorial regime and a lust for freedom and respect for rights.

Beyond that, there are many differing outlooks. In Libya, there is a mixture of human rights activists, democracy

Gaddafi’s regime has been subject to an increasing amount of national and international pressure

advocates, intellectuals, tribal elements and Islamic forces – a very broad accumulation.

The most notable political influence in the Libyan uprising is the “Youth of the 17th of February Revolution”, which

has a democratic platform and calls for the rule of law, political freedoms, and free elections. The Libyan movement also includes sections of the government and the armed forces that have split from Gaddafi and joined the opposition.

The Gaddafi regime is constructed around the invulnerability and security of Gaddafi himself. Every aspect of Libyans’ lives rotates around him and no one has the courage to question his orders. Gaddafi has been the leader of Libya since a military coup on September 1st 1969. His 42 years in power make him one of the longest-serving leaders since the inception of government.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Gaddafi’s government was considered an undesirable state by the West, denounced for acts of state-sponsored terrorism, oppressing internal dissidence, assassinations of expatriate opposition leaders and unashamed nepotism which garnered a multi-billion dollar fortune for himself and his family.

In 1979, he stood down as prime minister, and was subsequently named “The Brother Leader” or “The Guide” in Libya’s Socialist Revolution. Gaddafi steadily sought more benevolent relations with the west, resulting in the rais-

ing of UN sanctions in 2003. Gaddafi vowed to “die a martyr” if required to in his fight against the rebels and external forces that are currently insisting on freedom.

Gaddafi is willing to deploy any means to buy himself time and try to curb the opposition, principally in the western areas of Libya. He is undoubtedly prepared to manipulate whatever collateral damage might occur at the hands of coalition forces to gain sympathy both from Libyans and from the Arab world.

The likelihood of him using civilians in harm’s way to ensure such tragedies take place must not be ruled out. He and his son have tried to stoke the flames of civil war but have not succeeded thus far.

It is difficult to predict what will now happen in Libya. The UN did not call for regime change outright, it called instead for the protection of civilians.

The future of the Gaddafi regime is undetermined.

The key question is whether the uprising will resume in western Libya, including Tripoli, giving rise to a fragmentation of the regime’s armed forces. If that occurs, then Gaddafi may be overthrown soon. But if Gaddafi manages to remain rigidly in control in the west, then there

will be a schism in the country. This may be what the regime had decided to choose as it announced its compliance with a recent UN resolution and proclaimed a ceasefire.

What might result from this is a drawn-out standoff, with Gaddafi controlling the west and the opposition the east. It will undoubtedly take time before the opposition can amass the weapons it is receiving from and through Egypt to the point of becoming able to conquer Gaddafi’s forces.

Airstrikes by NATO commenced last week, but Gaddafi and his allies show no signs of relinquishing power. However, this will undoubtedly strengthen the position of the opposition and weaken the despotic hold that Gaddafi has over Libya.

The priority is that we should support the victory of the Libyan democratic uprising. Its defeat at the hands of Gaddafi would have a severely negative affect on the revolutionary wave that is currently shaking the Middle East and North Africa. One can only hope that the fight for freedom will not have been in vain and that freedom of Libya will be the end result of the turmoil that currently enraptures the entire world.

High society

As illegal drug use proves itself ever more prevalent in Irish society, Kate Rothwell asks why public figures are admitting to the crime

T

he fact that the use of illegal drugs is, as ever, increasing in Ireland is news to no one.

Comment Editor There is, however, another worrying drug-related trend on the rise, and that is the open admittance of drug use among public representatives.

That is not to say that their actions would be tolerable if kept under wraps, but the casual manner in which this violation of the law is now seemingly often being admitted to by politicians confirms that the use of illegal drugs, in particular that of cannabis, has come to be viewed as acceptable within our society.

The trend has also spread to college politics, with two of this year’s candidates for UCD Students’ Union (SU) President admitting to The University Observer that they had either taken drugs in the past or even still continue to take them. Many SU officers aspire to a career in national politics, so perhaps it is their political idols that have lead them to believe that being blasé about a little recreational drug use is a smart move.

There are certainly a few pro-cannabis role models to look up to in the current Dáil. Independent Roscommon-South Leitrim TD Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan has long been an advocate of introducing the legalisation of cannabis in Ireland, but his election appears to have toned down his radical campaign.

Last week Flanagan announced that he would no longer be smoking cannabis in the Republic of Ireland because of the danger it would pose to his position in

Dáil Éireann and the distress that it would cause his family were he to be prosecuted.

The drug’s legalisation is also not listed as a main policy on his website; Flanagan clearly knows that pushing his pro-hash policy too far will not do him any favours.

Yet there is support for his cause to be found in Leinster House, with fellow Independent Mick Wallace also promoting the legalisation of the drug. He too is cautious in his crusade, acknowledging that cannabis could “cause problems” and that while he had smoked the drug in the past, he no longer does today.

Transport Minister Leo Varadkar, former TD and MEP Eoin Ryan and former Taoiseach Brian Cowen have all admitted to smoking cannabis in the past, as has US President Barack Obama. One has to wonder what the motivation behind such confessions of criminal behaviour could be. Are these politicians trying to play the honesty card and admit to a crime before a rival reveals it? Obama’s revelation was made in his autobiography Dreams from My Father in 1995, more than ten years before his presidential campaign began.

Yet there is a more disconcerting possibility as to why politicians allude to recreational drug use during their more formative years; the hope that their admission could appeal to the youth vote. Their aim may be to show teenagers and twentysomethings that they are not just straightlaced politicians; they too were once wild, carefree and curious. We can only hope that this is not the case, as such irresponsible policies can only further the already flourishing drug trade in Ireland.

Last year’s European Monitoring Cen-

tre for Drugs and Drug Addiction report listed Ireland as having the highest rate of reported heroin use in Europe and as being among the top ten European countries with the highest rates of reported use of cocaine, cannabis and ecstasy.

The largest cannabis farm ever uncovered in Ireland, discovered by the Gardaí just two weeks ago, was about to undergo an extension that would have allowed it to produce a crop valued at €1.4 million every eight weeks. This case alone makes it clear that those supplying the drug are confident of a customer demand sufficient to meet an extensive supply.

Cannabis is a drug that is viewed by far too many as commonplace and relatively harmless. A user may smoke cannabis “just to relax”, but its side effects can be anything but unwinding. Potential short-time effects include panic, paranoia and loss of co-ordination, while long-term effects can include high blood pressure, respiratory problems and infertility. A recent study published in the British Medical Journal also showed that the use of cannabis increases the risk of developing psychosis.

Another risk that many cannabis users often choose to ignore is that of being charged with drug offences. A quick look in any local newspaper will prove that it’s not just dealers who get charged. Possession of the drug can be met with fines ranging from a maximum of €381 for a first offence to €1,270 and a possible prison sentence of up to twelve months for a third.

Cannabis is a force to be reckoned with, so whether you’re a politician, potential SU president or an average recreational smoker, don’t run the risk of underestimating its dangers.

Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan has campaigned for the legalisation of cannabis

16

THE UNIVERSITY OBSERVER 29 March 2011

COMMENT

comment@universityobserver.ie

What next for Talleyrand Fianna Fáil?

There has been talk recently of Martin’s party merging with the SDLP

S

peaking on RTÉ’s Radio’s News at One in the aftermath of Fianna Fáil’s decimation in the Irish general election, the party leader Micheál Martin announced that the organisation is ‘actively considering’ entering Northern Ireland politics. Critics have been quick to accuse Martin of jumping on the Republican bandwagon. In a desperate attempt to rescue the party from the political graveyard he has returned to the rhetoric of Republican nationalism.

Do Martin’s comments smack of political opportunism or are they, in fact, a genuine policy initiative to breed new life into a bewildered organisation? In the first instances, given the traumatised state that the party finds itself, his comments do seem opportunistic. With only 20 Dáil seats, no women TDs, much of the Ógra generation wiped out and the party in a shambles at local level, the last place Martin should be looking at is Northern Ireland.

His pledge, however, is not simply a case for political jostling. In fact, in recent years the Fianna Fáil hierarchy has already made some small footprints in the political landscape of Northern Ireland. Although tentative, since 2007, Fianna Fáil has officially begun to build up its organisation through the North.

In September 2007, then taoiseach and Fianna Fáil leader Bertie Ahern announced that Fianna Fáil had decided to extend its organisation into Northern Ireland so as to possibly contest future local and Assembly Northern Ireland elections, scheduled for 2016. Upon Ahern’s announcement, a new sub-committee of Fianna Fáil’s National Executive, the ‘Northern Ireland Strategy Group’, was formed to draft the party’s strategy on the North. Up until his recent retirement, the sub-committee was chaired by the former minister for justice and border county TD for Louth, Dermot Ahern.

In early December 2007, Fianna Fáil commenced its first recruitment drive in Northern Ireland in almost seventy years.

Two new ‘Political Societies’ were established: the first, the William Drennan cumann at Queen’s University Belfast, the second the Watty Graham cumann at Magee campus of the Ulster of University, in Derry. Furthermore, in the same month, Fianna Fáil successfully registered with the UK Electoral Commission as a Northern Ireland political party.

At the Fianna Fáil Ard Fheis, in February 2009, it was revealed that the establishment of a Fianna Fáil Fora across Northern Ireland, initially on a county-by-county basis, had commenced. A Fianna Fáil spokes-

With Fianna Fáil in turmoil following the general election, Stephen Kelly questions whether the party will look to begin participating in Northern Irish politics

person said each Fora would not constitute a party branch, but was an informal grouping of people interested in or sympathetic to Fianna Fáil. The aim of each Fora is ‘to build up membership and a solid party structure’ in a particular electoral region.

The Fianna Fáil leadership stressed the need for local organisations within Northern Ireland to form themselves and then to approach party headquarters for formal recognition and support. This ‘bottom up’ approach has been continually echoed by senior Fianna Fáil members, former taoiseach and leader of Fianna Fáil, Brian Cowen articulated that the party’s approach towards its entry into Northern Ireland should be ‘carefully and quietly’ managed.

In September 2009, Fianna Fáil officially formed its first Fora in the constituency of Downpatrick, south Down. In July of the same year, the youth wing of the Fianna Fáil, Ógra Fianna Fáil, held its first summer school in Derry; in early August 2010 the Ógra Fianna Fáil again held their summer school in Northern Ireland, on this occasion the venue was Belfast.

In November 2009, a further constituency Fora, the party’s third (the other being established in Crossmaglen, south Armagh) was formed in the constituency of Fermanagh south Tyrone. While in July 2010, Brian Cowen visited the republican heartland of Crossmaglen, south Armagh, to officially open a Fianna Fáil office in the town; Cowen’s presence marked the first occasion that a serving taoiseach visited Crossmaglen.

Fianna Fáil’s decision to cross the border was undoubtedly influenced by the ‘normalising’ process which has occurred within Northern Ireland politics over recent years. The Democratic Unionist Party’s decision in 2007 to enter a power-sharing executive with Sinn Féin, as noted by a senior Fianna Fáil source, meant that there was no longer any reason for the Fianna Fáil not to enter Northern Ireland politics, it was now ‘pragmatic ... politics as usual’.

Sinn Féin’s recent success in the Irish general election – now representing a major Opposition force in the Dáil – lends further weight to Martin and those within Fianna Fáil, that the time is now opportune to push forward the party’s drive in the North. Indeed, for many of the Irish electorate, the Fianna Fáil government’s leading role in the peace process is the only positive factor that can be accredited to the party’s fourteen years in power.

In declaring Fianna Fáil’s intention to return to the ‘fourth green field’, Martin hopes to steel from Sinn Féin the title of the

true ‘All Ireland’ political party. In the same vein that Sinn Féin successfully secured a percentage of Fianna Fáil’s core vote during last month’s general election, Martin will ultimately hope to tap into those northern nationalists that have grown despondent of Sinn Féin’s polices.

The question of whether Fianna Fáil would seek to merge with the SDLP is interesting. The SDLP are not in good health at present; they have found themselves marginalised in recent years by the polarisation of politics in Northern Ireland.

Speaking only last month, Martin ruled out the probability of an immediate deal between Fianna Fáil and the SDLP. Nevertheless, over recent years the kite has been flown. Some within the SDLP are known to favour an alliance with Fianna Fáil. The election of Margaret Richie as leader of the SDLP in February 2010 means for the meantime any merger with Fianna Fáil is highly unlikely. Speaking at the Irish Labour Party conference in April 2010 she maintained that there would be no alliance with Fianna Fáil on ‘my watch’.

Micheál Martin’s recent announcement that Fianna Fáil wished get involved ‘on the ground’ in Northern Ireland politics bares all the hallmarks of a politician desperately trying to carve out an ideological niche for a party that is on the brink of the political abyss. His comments, however, are not to be unexpected. Prior to the general election it was anticipated

by Fianna Fáil headquarters that by the end of 2011 further Forums would be established in every of Northern Ireland’s six counties, with plans to create Fora in Belfast city, Derry city and Co. Tyrone.

Given Fianna Fáil’s collapse, it is difficult to envisage that the party can secure this objective.

Nonetheless, over the coming years, in the run up to the Northern Ireland Assembly election scheduled for 2016 (the centenary of the 1916 Rising), Martin may look to the North for some salvation from the political turmoil that Fianna Fáil now finds itself. If the party is to fashion a new identity, based on the key values and ideological principles of Fianna Fáil’s founding fathers, as Martin has himself acknowledged, maybe its extension into Northern Ireland, will help to regenerate and refocus the party.

Stephen Kelly is a Post Doctoral Research

fellow in the UCD International Centre for Newman Studies

Shalom scumbags, Well this is an election season the likes of which Talleyrand has never seen before. It seems as if everyone in Hackdom has gotten themselves involved in someone’s race. Talleyrand hasn’t seen the Goonion this active since… well, never. Nothing brings out productivity in hacks like a bit of ambition and careerism.

Speaking of careerism, Talleyrand almost admires Paul “Photoshop is my friend” Lynam for essentially admitting that his time in Hackdom was merely a launching pad for this ‘sterling’ political career. Slynam has high hopes of creeping in the Upper House, but it’s a pity he’s the only one with such optimism. Even his campaign team see the futility in this endeavour, so it’s surprising that the Seanad hopeful doesn’t share their vision. Oh, wait.

Talleyrand will at least commend him for employing Photoshop methods to improve his face, unlike the majority of candidates in the sap-battical elections, who assail Talleyrand’s sensitive disposition with their ugly, ugly, mugs on a daily basis. And after putting up with all of Gary “Gaddafi” Redmond’s election posters over the years, that really means something.

All except for Brendan “for President 2012” Lacey’s, that is.

Apparently he showered and wore clean clothes for his photo-shoot, which, as we all know, is totally out of character for him. And through some miracle, he appears to come across as mildly educated in his materials, which is amazing considering the fact he’s been in first year for four years, and has failed at everything he’s ever tried.

Talleyrand has always suspected his beau Lorna “I’d like to compliment Scott for his hard work, and I’d like to thank him for his hard work, and I’d like to associate myself with him so I get votes” Danaher was the smart one in their lusty affair, but her electoral strategy of dropping Scoot’s name as often as she can isn’t going to transfer into votes.

Speaking of transfer, it will be interesting to see where Regina “Who?” Brady’s votes go when she’s eliminated first. Will they go to her Welfare Crew homie and fellow Union candidate Rachel “What’s spellchecker?” Breslin or will they go to Danahard? This race is a close one, plebs.

Another close one is Ents, but only between Darragh “You mean the Ents budget isn’t €800,000?” Kinsella and Stephen “Sweeney is supporting me, so that’s got to mean something, right? Right?!” Darcy. The other two, Rob “Goafer” Manning

and Edel “Ke$ha” Ni Crayon will be lucky to get a 100 votes together. They’re just too nice for a race as dirty as this. Darcy has been planning his sly tricks for – literally – years now and Kinsella has a Rath behind him so expect things to get nasty, dear readers.

Ripping posters, bribing Services, faking manifestos… anything’s possible in this one.

It’s also entirely possible that token crazy leftie Suzanne “Oppress me at your own peril” Lee might be in with a chance, after surprising everyone when she came out as somewhat intelligent and passionate, which is a far cry from fellow contender Emma “Magikarp” Fortune, who has failed to make an impression on anyone, including this humble commentator.

In the Presidential race, Pat “The pleb” de Brún is hoping that a few suspiciously well-produced videos will be enough to win over the hearts of Hellfield, hence why his manifesto is so poor. Well, at least that’s the conclusion that Talleyrand is drawing.

Giving him a run for his illdeserved money, avid College “Independent” Tribune contributor Brendan “Stepping out of my brother’s shadow” Lannoye is winning approval from the masses with his ‘break the clique’ platform, which, coming from an L&Her, is just all kinds of ironic. The last hopeful in this race to the bottom is veteran leftie Lorcan “I look like I haven’t showered in days – and you’d be right” Gray, who promises more breakaway violent demonstrations and more endangering of students’ lives if elected. Talleyrand actually likes this.

Last but not least, the race to garner the most attention (for a second year in a row, no less) is Education, where the sole remaining candidate, Sam “Charlie Moonhead” Geoghegan has been accused of underhand tactics in reporting the fact that someone handed in a nomination form late.

The sheer unfairness of it all. Deadlines are there to be ignored, surely? That’s the attitude an Education Officer should promote amongst the plebs.

Talleyrand’s never been one to side with a KBCer, but all Sammy Boy did was to ensure the Goonion stood by their own rules. We can’t have them wavering from what’s enshrined in the Constitution, now, can we?

He can enjoy a smooth and easy descent into the lows of the Edumacation office, now that his apparently active opponent RON has revealed to be in fact Paddy “Hapless” Ryan. Unless Ryaners can replicate his own historic electoral victory, the KBC love affair with the Edumacation office looks set to continue.

The more things change, the more they stay the same, eh?

Talleyho!

Talleyrand

29 March 2011 THE UNIVERSITY OBSERVER

LETTERS

letters@universityobserver.ie

Letters to the Editor

The Students’ Union finances Sir, I see from your editorial on student media that you’ve discovered that the now defunct Students’ Union motion on the Observer’s financial support originated from a discussion on boards.ie. I also read that in your opinion what precipitated this motion was a lack of ”recourse to the necessary information on a topic of contention” i.e. just how much of the budgeted €50,000 the Observer is actually drawn down from the Union. After making such points you then promptly fail to inform your readership, the 22,000 members of UCDSU, just how much the Observer has actually received from the Union in this or any other year.

Could this be another example of “the laziness of the internet generation writ large”?

17

In contrast the News Editor’s piece on the forthcoming constitutional review raises the question of “how much is it going to cost?” Current Union president and former Fianna Fail supporter Paul Lynam says that outside contributions will be sourced through apparently cost-free interviews. While this technique might be useful for suppressing a written record of the valued opinions people will give, it must be remembered that interviews take time and it’s not like people with valued opinions ever expect to be paid for that.

All cynicism aside, the truth is you are not required to inform the Union membership of what the Observer costs. In fact a quick reading of the constitution will show just how few of the financial controls recommended by the €25,400 Deloitte and Tou-

che Development Plan were included in the current constitution by the card-carrying Fianna Fail member (and her boyfriend) who presented it to the Union membership barely three years ago.

However, for anything produced

by Fianna Fail to get 60% of its intended value or lifespan is an extraordinary achievement nowadays.

Yours in begrudging optimism, Pierce Farrell Vice-Chairperson of Council 2003-04 Chairperson of SU Constitutional Review Group 2004-05(that was free by the way) Students’ Union Communications and I.T. Officer 2005-06

Contributors: Volume XVII, Issue 11 Acting Editor Paul Fennessy Copy Editor Quinton O’Reilly Art and Design Director Jenn Compeau O-two Editors Emer Sugrue Killian Woods News Editor Amy Bracken Deputy News Editor Katie Hughes Chief News Reporter Sarah Doran Features Editor Leanne Waters

Science Day and the skydive cancellation

Deputy Features Editor Natalie Voorheis

Sir, As the coordinator of the skydive for last year’s Science Day committee, I was extremely dismayed by the report in your last issue that the skydive was cancelled due to logistical problems last year. I can assure you that there were no significant logistical problems that would warrant the cancellation of the dive. In my eyes the Skydive last year was a resounding success with over €6000 raised from the skydive alone. The article also reported that the skydive and the Cycle to Galway took place around the same time, which is also inaccurate. The Cycle to Galway took place in the first week of February while the skydive went ahead on the 16th of April. This is a gap of over two months between the two events.

As somebody who took part in the skydive, I can honestly say it is such an exhilarating expe-

Science, Health and Technology Editor Alan Coughlan

rience and something I would definitely do again. Everyone involved echoed this belief on the day. That is why I was both surprised and disappointed to learn that the skydive would not go ahead this year. Not only is it an extremely fun and thrilling way to raise funds for charity, it was also an event which was unique to the Science Day committee (now society), as to my knowledge no other society on campus runs such an event. The skydive was completely separate from other Science Day events and was organised by subsection of the committee that had nothing to do with the Cycle. It is therefore not a valid explanation to say that the reason for its cancellation was due to logistical problems last year between these two events, as they were organised by two different groups of people within the committee.

Given that Science Day is now a society and has more people involved than ever in my time at UCD, I feel that had a skydive been organised this year, it could have been bigger and better than ever, especially considering the success of last year’s event.

Unlike myself last year, this year’s organisers would have had guidelines on how to go about organising the event and so could have really built on the success of last year’s skydive. I felt this article really disparaged our efforts last year and didn’t offer a convincing explanation as to why there is no Skydive this year.

Yours etc, Yvonne Smith 4th Medicinal Chemistry and Chemical Biology

Letters should be sent by email to letters@universityobserver.ie or by mail to: The Editor, The University Observer, UCD Student Centre, Belfield, Dublin 4 All letters are subject to editorial approval. The Editor reserves the right to edit any letters.

Clarification and Corrections It is the policy of The University Observer to rectify any errors as soon as they arise. Queries and clarifications can be addressed to info@universityobserver.ie.

Comment Editor Kate Rothwell

Sports Editor Ryan Mackenzie Music Editor George Morahan Film Editor Jon Hozier-Byrne

Hines, Matthew Jones, Adam Kearney, Daniel Keenan, Ronan O’Kelly, Alison Lee, Sophie Lioe, Joseph Murphy, Mystic Mittens, Fadora McSexypants, Ben Storey, Breffni O’Sullivan, Talleyrand, Aoife Valentine, Philippa White.

Illustrator: Olwen Hogan Photographers: Emer Sugrue, Jon Hozier-Byrne, Sean Finnan, Gordon O’Callaghan Special Thanks: Peter, Ian, Tim, Malcolm, Ade, Jonathan, Dave, Emma, Jed, Bob, Steve (and the robots) at Trafford Park Printing; Paul at Higgs; Eilis O’Brien and Dominic Martella; Colm, Sabrina and Rory at MCD Promotions; Bernie Divilly at PIAS; Mary Kate Murphy at EA; Giselle Jiang; Dave Carmody; Dominic, Grace, Charlie, Jason, Gary, Stephen, Mark, Sandra, Paul and all the Student Centre Staff; Very Special Thanks: Dave Neary, Rob Lowney

Fashion Editor Donna Doyle Online Editor Killian Woods Contributors: The Badger, Sinead O’Brien, Anna Burzlaff, Gordon O’Callaghan, Mary Cody, Laura O’Connor, Eoin Brady, Bríd Doherty, Faye Docherty, Cormac Duffy, David Farrell, Sean Finnan, Daryl Bolger, Ciara Gilleece, Mathilde Guenegan, Imelda Hehir, Andrew

Tel: (01) 716 3119/3120 Email: info@ universityobserver.ie www. universityobserver.ie The University Observer is printed at The Guardian Print Centre, Longbridge Road, Manchester,

SCIENCE & HEALTH

Old Wives’ Tales Debunked: Shellfish for sex

science@universityobserver.ie

The mind behind meteorology When Darwin embarked on his famous voyage on the HMS Beagle, another revolutionary scientist was on board. Alison Lee reveals the life and achievements of Robert FitzRoy

Robert FitzRoy is credited for his work in advancing meteorology and paved the way for accurate weather forecasting

C

If you think this looks like a vagina, you may need to get out more

Can oysters help improve your sex drive?

Let Alison Lee inform you first before you change your entire diet to shellfish

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ore than 50 per cent of men over 40 will experience erectile dysfunction – FACT. Ok, if you’re reading this, chances are you’re a pimply undergraduate who still hasn’t quite figured out how to get laid but guys, you’ll hit 40 someday.

And even young men can experience impotence (not that an old wife like myself would know anything about that sort of thing from personal experience, of course). This can be due to, sadly, pretty much anything, such as diabetes, obesity, and the old faithful alcohol, tobacco and drug abuse.

If you’re one of the poor unfortunates suffering from this problem, you might want to stock up on some aphrodisiacs.

Luckily this doesn’t mean filling your fridge with exotic delicacies like rhinoceros horns and tiger penises, because oysters, purported for centuries to enhance sexual performance, might actually do the trick.

Sceptics claim that there’s no real evidence for this. According to the nonbelievers, it’s merely a myth arising due to the shape of an oyster, which is similar to that of a woman’s genitals.

We can therefore safely assume that such sceptics haven’t gotten many closeup glimpses of “down there”, because no sane, sexually-fulfilled person can say there’s much resemblance between a grey slimy thing in a knobbly shell and a vagina. They argue that throughout history, this resemblance has been recog-

nised – hence Boticelli’s famous painting “The Birth of Venus” (the Roman version of Aphrodite), depicting the goddess emerging from a clam shell. However, the original legend goes that Aphrodite was born when the god Cronos cut off the genitals of the god Uranus and threw them into the sea, resulting in Aphrodite being birthed from the sea foam. That’s pretty damn weird, but there were no molluscs involved.

However, scientists have discovered that oysters are rich in zinc, a mineral essential for testosterone production. Testosterone regulates sex drive and ensures a normal sperm count. Also, researchers have used high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) on oysters and discovered that they are also rich in the amino acids “D-aspartic acid” and “N-methyl-D-aspartate”.

Rats supplemented with these amino acids demonstrated increased production of sex hormones progesterone and testosterone.

So, problem solved. When the big 4-0 rolls around, take up oyster fishing and never go unsatisfied again. But beware; cooking oysters destroys these nutrients, so eat them raw. Also, oysters caught in springtime (the breeding season) have the highest concentration of amino acids.

However, all this scientific evidence doesn’t alter the fact that eating raw oysters may simply increase ones passionate desire to reach for a sick bag. Luckily chocolate is also scientifically proven to be an aphrodisiac, so if shellfish doesn’t turn you on then a plain old Kinder Bueno might just do the job instead.

harles Darwin, founding father of the theory of evolution, is celebrated the world over for radically changing the face of science forever. But few have heard the story of the other scientist on board the HMS Beagle, Vice-Admiral Robert FitzRoy. Despite the fact that FitzRoy made huge strides in the field of meteorology, his legacy was forever left in the shadow of Darwin’s.

Both men lived in an age of scientific, religious, and political turmoil, and both faced these challenges in different ways. It would seem that FitzRoy is just as deserving of acclaim as Darwin, not only as a man of science but also as a man of integrity.

FitzRoy was born into the highest echelons of British aristocracy in 1806 as the great-grandson of King Charles II of England. He entered the Royal Naval College at Portsmouth at the age of twelve and was something of a prodigy, passing the course with the highest result ever achieved – 100 per cent.

At just 20 years old, he was made temporary captain of the HMS Beagle after the previous captain, Pringle Stokes, committed suicide due to depression while surveying the desolate land of Tierra del Fuego.

Despite his youth, FitzRoy proved himself to be an able surveyor and commander and soon became the official ship’s captain. During this voyage, Fuegian natives, three of whom were taken aboard as hostages, attacked the Beagle.

FitzRoy, a devoted Christian, decided to take them to England, “civilise” them and send them home as missionaries.

However, this altruistic but misguided plan failed when one of the natives died after receiving a smallpox vaccine in Britain. Feeling responsible for the young boy’s death, FitzRoy refitted the Beagle at his own expense in order to return the remaining Fuegians home.

Mindful of the suicide of the Beagle’s former captain, FitzRoy requested a “gentlemen companion” with a similar mind to be brought along to keep him company. His ideal companion would be someone who shared his scientific tastes and would use the voyage as an opportunity to conduct research on natural history. Such a man materialised in the form of Charles Darwin.

Darwin had dropped out of medical school and just about scraped through his Bachelor of Arts degree in Cambridge, as he much preferred to spend his time collecting insects, learning taxidermy and devoting himself to the study of natural science in general. His friend John Stephen Henslow, an acclaimed botany professor, recommended him as

the perfect companion for FitzRoy. FitzRoy approved Darwin for the position and although Darwin’s father initially objected to what must have seemed like a crazy plan, he eventually gave in and financed his son’s trip.

At first, the two were firm friends but while they occasionally argued violently over issues such as slavery, their fundamental disagreements over religion came to a head much later. During this voyage, FitzRoy studied the geology of the New World and found himself doubting his long-held belief that the vast plains of South America were laid down during just 40 days of the Great Flood mentioned in the Bible.

He impressed these ideas on the young Darwin, giving him a book by Charles Lyell entitled “Principles of Geology” which contradicted the “Noah’s Ark” story still held by many as fact.

FitzRoy’s studies on geology won him a gold medal from the Royal Geographical Society but because of the influence of his religious wife, and his fear of causing dissent against the Church, he began to dissociate himself from such radical new ideas that questioned Creationism.

But it was taboo theories such as these that saw Darwin heralded as a hero by Britain’s scientific elite when he returned to England, bearing a collection of exotic plant and animal specimens and a mind full of new ideas about the “origin of species.”

FitzRoy was then assigned the nearimpossible task of governing the colony of New Zealand, with little to no resources from the British government.

Caught between his desire to defend the rights of the native Maori and his political obligation to the English settlers, he made himself extremely unpopular.

He ruled that the Maori should be paid a fair price for their lands, which turned his British subjects against him.

Meanwhile the Maori, resentful of the foreign incursion into their country, waged a war against the settlers. He was soon recalled to England where he was elected to the Royal Society and began his work on meteorology under the guidance of Francis Beaufort.

During this period, he instigated the practise of weather forecasting, an entirely novel concept at the time. He distributed scientific instruments to ships’ captains and collected meteorological data from all over the globe, also invented different types of barometer and established a telegraph system that allowed the daily delivery of weather reports to his office.

Thanks to his work, the first weather forecasts were published in the Times in 1860 and have been ever since. Setting

out to sea when the weather forecast was banned, which saved the lives of countless ordinary fishermen. However, FitzRoy’s good intentions were once again turned against him when owners of large fishing fleets objected to this loss of potential revenue and the ban was lifted.

Perhaps it was disappointments such as these that made FitzRoy turn towards religion and away from forsaking the scientific community. Darwin’s opus magna, “On the Origin of Species”, was published in 1860, to the dismay of the fervently Christian Vice-Admiral.

He attended a debate on the book at the Royal Society and was reported to have stood up wielding a Bible and exhorted the crowd to “believe God rather than a man”. It’s almost impossible to believe that this fundamentalist was once Darwin’s closest friend.

Although FitzRoy’s political career in New Zealand had been something of a disaster, his love of justice made him extremely popular amongst the working classes. He was elected as a Tory MP for Durham where he took his desire to do well to extremes, spending his entire family fortune (the modern equivalent of £400,000) on public works.

This came to light after his tragic death in 1865. Financial pressures, failing health and his lifelong struggle with depression drove Robert FitzRoy to take his own life. His widow and daughter were left destitute but survived thanks to a trust fund established by FitzRoy’s friend, Bartholemew Sullivan, to which Darwin contributed £100.

Although his forays into science were less glamorous and less provocative than Darwin’s, FitzRoy’s meteorological work paved the way for modern weather forecasting. Even in his lifetime, this work saved many sailors and fishermen from death at sea.

Yet tragically his best intentions seemed to all end in catastrophe. Few of his good-hearted notions, from “civilising” South American natives to fighting for the rights of the Maori worked out as planned. It is likely that these failures contributed to feelings of frustration and depression, leading to his eventual suicide.

FitzRoy was indeed a victim of his own good intentions and principles.

Although most of us accept Darwin’s theory of evolution over FitzRoy’s deeply held belief in Creationism, we must afford FitzRoy the respect he deserves.

Not only was he truly a man of science, he stood by his principles and maintained his integrity. This being no mean feat in a tumultuous world where political, scientific and religious clashes were just as violent as they are today.

29 March 2011 THE UNIVERSITY OBSERVER

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SCIENCE & HEALTH

science@universityobserver.ie

Scientific sacrifice From experiments on prisoners to instilling fear into a nine-month-old child, Alan Coughlan investigates the darker side of scientific endeavour.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF DAYLIGHT SAVING

Von Bruen made breakthrough discoveries about human endurance at high altitudes, although these were based on subjecting prisoners to inhumane experiments

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ithout pain, without sacrifice, we would have nothing”. Brad Pitt’s Tyler Durden says these words in Fight Club, A movie that extols the virtues of self-sacrifice and nihilism in order to free oneself to do anything.

The anecdote being spoken of was of an ancient people washing clothes in a river.

The idea was that through the suffering of victims of human sacrifice, certain parts of a river became enriched with lye (a strong alkaline solution used for washing) Clothes became cleaner when washed here more than others. In this case, the first soap came from the bodies of tortured victims.

Can it be true that we owe aspects of our lifestyles to the pain and suffering of those that came before us? The principles of science and medicine are to build on reputable and respectable evidence-based research.

It may not surprise the average person that large multi-national drugs companies have over time been embroiled in lawsuits for malpractice and unethically falsifying research. However, it may shock some to discover how some of our modern conveniences came to be. Specifically those that have helped to make the world and even space a smaller place.

In the Dachau concentration camp, Doctors from the German air force carried out experiments on prisoners. They used a low-pressure chamber to test the maximum altitude at which a human could survive. This would allow them to know at what height one of their pilots could still bail out of a damaged airplane operate a parachute and survive. Prisoners were also subjected to freezing temperatures during attempts to find effective treatments for hypothermia. Not surprisingly, many of the subjects in these experiments died painful deaths.

Wernher Von Braun who as director of the Marshall Space Flight Centre oversaw the design of the Saturn V rocket which put man on the moon. Von Braun was a rocket scientist active in Nazi Germany, directly involved in the design of the V2 rocket that was used to great success against Britain during World War Two. As a member of the air force, he would have visited the Dachau concentration camp and no doubt knew of what went on there. Special mission V2 was designed specifically to obtain V2 rocket parts and plans and represented the world’s first ballistic missile and was sought vehemently by the allied forces.

Operation Paperclip was a US endeavour to recruit German scientists and to deny access specifically to the USSR. At

the planning stage, President Truman specified that no persons that had been active Nazi party members would be eligible. If this had been implemented, it would have made most of the scientists identified for the operation, including Von Braun, ineligible.

It has been speculated that what he brought to the table research wise, while grotesque, answered all the questions needed about human endurance at high altitudes. It could be argued that modern aviation owes its very existence to some of the more despicable practices of science in the past.

Von Braun has become quite a big name amongst conspiracy theorists and this is not helped by the fact that in a recent batch of declassified documents, his file was conspicuously empty. It would be easy to infer from this that he was either privy to grisly so-called medical research data or worse, had taken part in it.

What is known today about the effects of freezing on the human body is based almost exclusively on the Nazi hypothermia experiments. Under the rules of medical trials in place today, no sane person under informed consent would enter into such an experiment where death is highly likely.

In the case of the Nazi experiments, surviving them was of no consequence as all subjects were executed. With this in mind, the question must be asked as to what should be done with this data? Once such atrocious experiments have been carried out, can any physician under Hippocratic oath study them?

It is undeniable that those experimented on died painful deaths solely for the fact that these scientists could treat them as they pleased. However, there are those who would argue that by ignoring any data produced the subject’s deaths become all the more pointless. However, general consensus in the scientific community is that these experiments should be ignored as they represent only a dark time in history and could never have been carried out in a truly scientific manner.

Another example occurred in the 1920s when John Watson investigated whether or not fear is a learned response or innate.

A nine-month-old baby named Albert was selected for the experiment and a number of behavioural experiments were performed on him. He was shown at various points a white rat, a dog, monkey, masks, cotton wool and burning newspaper. He showed no fear to any item.

The conditioning of Albert did not begin until he was eleven months old. He would be placed on a mattress and then a white laboratory rat would be introduced which Albert would be permitted to play

with. Again, he showed no fear of the animal.

After several sessions, Watson then used a steel bar and struck it loudly with a hammer every time the boy touched the rat. This, of course, distressed Albert and taught him a conditioned fear. Whenever the rat was subsequently introduced, the child became distressed. He would cry and try to get away from the animal.

Whatever was learned from this experiment, it’s that cruelty is manifest. The child was taken away a month before the trial ended and thus no reconditioning or desensitising was performed.

Scant details exist about Albert’s life but it seems that he died while still a child and no information about any lasting harmful effects from the experiment are known. When one reads about such practices, the horrible lengths people will

go to when permitted are highly shocking.

In today’s world, there exists a code of ethics in scientific practice to prevent undue cruelty and distress. Informed consent allows subjects to know exactly what they are getting in for when they sign up to a trial.

Tyler Durden’s speech argues that without sacrifice there would be no progress and behind this development will always be the blood of innocents.

No regard is shown for any lasting effects of experimentation and what can pass for scientific practice is often sadistic cruelty under masquerade.

History shows us that if a group of people is presented as inferior, then there are those who are more than willing to take advantage of this. That might be the greatest lesson to take from these cases.

Hopefully everyone has adjusted after that one hour less in bed on Sunday and we can all look forward to brighter, longer evenings now that we have made the switch to IST, Irish Standard or Summer time.

This periodic changeover of course has many historical uses in aiding farmers to protecting children walking to school on dark mornings.

However, a nationwide experiment carried out in Great Britain in 1968 revealed an interesting anomaly.

The clocks were left alone that winter and no change was made.

As was expected, accident rates increased in the darker mornings.

However, there was a compensating factor at the other end of the day. In fact, there was a net reduction on the number of deaths on the road that year. It would seem that drivers are more prone to accidents in the evening after a days work when they are tired.

Yet as scientific journalist Robert Matthews pointed out, more accidents in the morning meant more children killed on the roads and thus more sensational headlines.

While many people were alive that undoubtedly wouldn’t have been had the usual changeover been observed, these ‘survivors’ were statistical phantoms. If they couldn’t be identified, they essentially didn’t exist. Children being injured or killed on the roads was horrific news, while survivors unaware of their good fortune were invisible.

The British government returned Daylight Saving the following year.

- Alan Coughlan

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29 March 2011 THE UNIVERSITY OBSERVER

SPORT

sport@universityobserver.ie

Serve, set, pass, attack!

The UCD Volleyball team beat Amber Coast 3-2 last Saturday to book their spot in the Association Cup final. But what is this game all about? Ryan Mackenzie reports

Reaching the Association Cup final has been one of the few highlights in what has been a disappointing season for the Students

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olleyball, first played in Holyoke, Massachusetts, way back in 1895, is about as simple as a game gets. Both sides have six players, including one elite defender called the Libero – who usually wears a different colour jersey – and play with a white ball inside a small court with very few lines and restrictions. A net that hangs nearly twelve feet in the air and spans across the court divides them. Each team has three touches of the ball to return it to their opponents and points are awarded when a team can’t return it for whatever reason. That’s about it.

The game involves intense teamwork.

Unable to stop the ball and regroup, players are forced to shout at each other and hope for the best when trying to return the ball, making their seemingly organised formations all the more impressive.

As it turns out, UCD are quite good at this. Few on campus would know of the success this team achieved last Saturday, but even fewer would believe that the University boasts one of the biggest clubs in the country with over 100 players competing at a top level.

The Students beat Amber Coast to reach the Association Cup final in a close and

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gripping contest, for the most part. In all honesty, watching volleyball can become somewhat tedious. As much fun as it looks to play, and it really does, its fair to say that once you’ve seen one or two passages of play, you’ve seen a thousand.

There are very few variations of play.

Unlike sports such as soccer and rugby, volleyball offers little to spectators in terms of unpredictability and diversification,as there are few components to this simple game.

The basic concept of returning a ball to the other team in three touches without stopping play doesn’t exactly make for much of a spectator sport.

However, from a player’s perspective, this seemingly simple game presents no easy task. The game can pick up into a relatively fast pace. Defending players must be on full alert to deal with every eventuality, as the opposing team run dummy routes and decoy jumpers to put their opponents off guard.

Defending teams respond by racing around like a flock of bees, picking off the ball in what would appear to be random movements to the average bystander but what are in fact calculated and methodical defensive manoeuvres. Careful defensive

placement is paramount to any teams success.

The Libero, who generally holds the fort on defence, can never lose track of the balls flight. He or she never plays at the net, providing a position for the vertically challenged in a game which requires a lot of height, and generally stays perpendicular to the ball in anticipation of a spike.

The spike is the blue ribbon of volleyball, the flagship move, and the crescendo to any passage of play. It involves an attacker rising above the net and slamming the ball to the opposing teams floor, winning the point with dramatic style. They invariably elicit a rapturous response from the team, which is a common sight in volleyball.

Indeed, the obligatory high-fives and chest-pumps, which follow every winning point, are as much a part of the sport as the ball itself. That said, in a game of four sets – five if needed – where it takes thirty points to win a set, these demonstrations of joy and team camaraderie can seem rather contrived at times.

While no doubt a fringe sport in UCD, volleyball is actually a major sport worldwide. It’s been a feature of the Olympic games since 1964 – although the

introduction of Trampolining has somewhat cheapened the honour – and in 1992 beach volleyball was inducted into the games.

Brazil are currently ranked number one in both the men’s and women’s game, with the men winning the recent World Championships in Italy last year.

Unfortunately, Ireland don’t feature on the main stage, making a gold medal in London next year quite unlikely.

That’s not to say that the domestic game is substandard. UCD’s achievement in reaching the Association Cup final is terrific. Made up of students, staff and alumni, the team boasts internationals from home and abroad, and play the sport at a high standard.

Talking to the team after the game, they describe how the cup is their season objective each year. Rather than competing for glory in the league, they state that: “We always play our best team in the cup.” This tactic is evident from the Students relatively poor league position, lying in sixth place and 17 points off leaders Munster Thunder.

Thus, a victory for UCD in the final on May 7th is crucial.

SPORTS DIGEST Ultimate Frisbee The UCD Ultimate Frisbee team won their first tournament for some time last week in Maynooth. With rivals Trinity and UCC competing in UK Nationals, it was vital the team put in a solid performance and boost morale before the upcoming Intervarsities – which take place in DCU at the beginning of April.

Boasting eight former U-20s Irish players and four current Senior Irish players, the Students had every right to be confident of a successful campaign, which saw them take on teams from NUI Galway and Maynooth, UL, Queens University Belfast and home side DCU. The opening day of the tournament was Saturday, which saw the bulk of the action. First up for UCD were the team from NUIG, whom they overcame quite easily by a scoreline of 15-11 – the Galway total was somewhat inflated by poor UCD defence. The Students placed greater emphasis on their defence in the next game, which saw them overcome a tough DCU side by a scoreline of 15-8. They went on to beat UL by the same scoreline and also surpassed Queens in their most difficult contest of the day by only 13-10.

Sunday saw UCD once again play NUIG, who performed the shock of the tournament by beating DCU to book their place in the final. UCD had little trouble in dismissing their opponents, however, running out 15-10 winners to cap off a successful weekend. A solid tournament was paramount for the team heading into the biggest tournament of the year and the talented young team will be boosted by their success as they look to take on the favourites from Trinity and UCC. Lacrosse The university’s men’s Lacrosse team are on course to complete an astonishing unbeaten league season. If they achieve this, it will be the first time in the league’s history and will also give UCD its second consecutive title. Their last two matches are against Trinity and Dublin Lacrosse in UCD on April 2nd. Team captain, Aiden Marshall, in a recent interview with Keith Kane, expressed his optimism and subtle confidence at securing the coveted unbeaten season saying: “This is the finest team I’ve played with. If we are ever going to do it, it’s going to be this year.”

Their next big test after the end of the league season is the Dublin-fest tournament, which takes place from April 11th to 15th. A number of teams will travel over from the UK and across Europe, making it a highly competitive competition. The Students will be hoping to make it an impressive three titles in a row, all the while looking ahead to the upcoming national trials.

Ladies Hockey This season has been another successful one for the university’s Ladies Hockey team, who currently sit in second place of their league pool.

They are behind a Railway Union side that hold first place due to a slightly better goal difference. A recent draw to Armagh was a minor blip on what has been a great run of results. A couple of 3-0 wins over Ards Hockey Club and Cork Harlequins respectively helped the Students earn their high league position and no doubt boosted their moral for the Irish Senior Cup. The team beat Cork Harlequins 3-2 in Belfield last month. An extra-time golden-goal was needed to settle the tie and fortunately for the Students and Caroline Hill was on hand to net the winner and sent them into the semi-final. Their opponents will be either Pegasus or Lurgan, who face off in Queens on Saturday. Pegasus are favourites to make it to the next round and, should they play to their potential, UCD will have a difficult task on their hands. The team will be looking for their second title in three years, having won the competition two years ago, when the semi-final rolls around on April 16th.

Snooker The UCD Pool and Snooker club is hosting an exhibition game between Ken Doherty and Jimmy White in the Astra Hall next Monday. The best players on campus will get their chance to face off against the legends and tickets are available for €10.

- Ryan Mackenzie

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THE UNIVERSITY OBSERVER 29 March 2011

SPORT

sport@universityobserver.ie

Climb to victory UCD Mountaineering Club clinched the Intervarsities Cup after a dramatic finish, reports Jon Hozier-Byrne

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fter a remarkably dramatic three day competition, UCD held off bitter rivals Trinity College Dublin and Queen’s College Belfast to snatch the 2011 Rock Climbing Intervarsities title away by the narrowest of margins – UCD beating Trinity by just two points out of a possible 2,000. The competition, held in the UCD Sports Centre, also bestowed UCD the top climbing college in the country.

With 13 colleges from around the country competing over one weekend, this marks a huge achievement for UCD Mountaineering Club Captain, Michelle Ryan, and her team. Ryan was ecstatic saying “it’s great for the climbers, it’s great for the club, [and] it’s great for UCD”.

UCD’s own Jonathan Redmond came top of the Male A’s competition, winning with a modesty that belies his status as one of the strongest climbers in the country. Eoin Diamond also claimed first place for UCD in the Male Beginners competition, showing great promise for a man so new to the sport.

Joan Mulloy of NUIG, with UCD’s Linda Monaghan claiming a hard-fought third place, snatched the Female A’s Competition up. Emily Panter of Galway, who put in an impressive performance, won female Beginners. Surprisingly, there was nothing but disappointment for odds-on favourite Claire Ryan, who, despite a spirited performance, fails to place in the Female A’s competition.

Bigger disappointment still for UCD’s own Shane Smith, who was stricken down with an injury not long into the competition; “I felt my finger go, and that was that,” explains Smith, “It’s incredibly frustrating. I’m just sorry for all my fans that came out to see me climb”. His injury is all the more devastating considering his massive win at the National Bouldering Championship not two weeks previous.

The weekend was fraught with injuries, including one competitor from the University of Limerick who fell off a particularly difficult problem, breaking his ankle upon impact with the floor. The injured party was promptly rushed to A&E before the competition could continue, albeit with a more solemn air to proceedings.

UCD Mountaineering club were named Overall Best Ranked College 2011 at this year’s Intervarsities Cup

The competition opened on Saturday with twelve problems set by acclaimed climbers Michael Duffy and Ricky Bell, ranging from the difficult to the downright impossible.

The Bouldering problems for the first day held a massive challenge for the hundreds of competitors who had shown up to try and prove their worth, fighting their way up a huge over-hang, with sure footholds few and far between.

The ‘unlimited attempts’ system meant that competitors could attempt the problems again and again, resulting in dozens of young climbers lurking around the walls until the late hours, at which time services

had to practically drive them out. On the first day, it became clear who were the real contenders to place, with UCD’s Paul Mallee leading the pack with an effortless display of both strength and gentlemanly fair play.

Louis Malloy of NUIG and Seamus O’Boyle of Trinity also put in a particularly great effort, but special notice must go to Trinity’s so-called Darragh “Bender” Sweetnam, who not only put in a remarkably impressive climb, but also worked with the crowd with an unexpected boyish charm.

By Sunday morning, veteran climber and Mountaineering Ireland Training Officer, Alun Richardson, and the UCD

Mountaineering Club Committee, were back at the wall preparing for the final day of the Intervarsities, and the daunting challenge of the leading competition.

A particularly difficult route was set, making use of massive stretches across the sidewall before competitors could even attempt to clip on to any protection above them. The air was filled with the anticipation of both climbers and spectators alike, as competitors attempted the last routes just one more time before the results were calculated.

When all the results had been counted and verified, Alun Richardson presented the trophies to the winners, including a vast

slab of engraved granite handed to Ryan as prize for Overall Best Ranked College.

Richardson told The University Observer: “It was a fantastic weekend for all involved, and although it was competitive, ultimately you’re just working to beat yourself, to prove you can do it better. That’s the beauty of the sport and everyone got a taste of that this week.”

All eyes are on UCD Mountaineering Society to see if they can keep up this remarkable form in the coming year, but with some of the immense talent seen representing UCD in the Sports Centre this weekend, there’s high hopes for this group once the Jordanstown Intervarsities begin in 2012.

The Badger goes to college Like Mikael Blomkvist, except he’s a Badger, the Badger unearths the systematic mess that is UCD Sports

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or far too long the Badger has kept his mouth shut about UCD sports and how much of a mess they are. First up on the Badger’s list, UCD Rugby.

A system so up its own bum that getting onto the team is purely an arm width contest. Admittedly though, head honcho John McClean does go around Ireland watching the respective Schools

Senior and Junior Cup rugby from the four provinces to scout for genuine talent (the Badger has never quite worked out why he watches the Junior Cup).

McClean stands back, looks at young boys throwing around an oval ball with their hands that are attached to sculpted arms due to protein supplements, and pulls the ones he feels have potential aside for a quick chat.

“Listen here son, you could play for Ireland Under 20s or Connacht A someday. I can help you achieve that goal.

Come with me to UCD and I’ll get 150 points shaved off that Arts Omnibus entry requirement. I’ll even get you free accommodation in Crunch fitness and if you’re ever left failing an exam, you just let McClean know.”

If the excessive muscle growth due to steroids hasn’t stimulated the epithelial layers of tissue to close over their ears, they might just barely work out what the honcho has to say, and they usually follow him to UCD pastures.

On a whole, the recruiting methods of UCD Rugby are working. Top of Division 2 and unbeaten in the league this season, they must be doing something right at the Belfield Bowl. Then again, they can scrape a victory out of nowhere against Ballynahinch on a blustery afternoon at the Bowl, but can they pass an exam on a suffocating afternoon in the

RDS Industries Hall?

The Badger’s main gripe is that it’s one rule for them and a kick in the face for the rest of us. Why should their excessive arm width mean they get a leg up?

The Badger has personally witnessed former UCD golden boy Fergus McFadden leave a UCD Christmas exam after 40 minutes so he could pop over to Leinster training across the way on the RDS pitch.

After this rant, the Badger can expect his pitiful self to be turfed out of college for blasphemy (or something like that) against Hugh Brady’s favourite Belfield toy. Adoration beamed through his eyes when he saw his team of babies in blue spanked 24 -41 by a Combined Universities side in a match that honoured 100 years of rugby at UCD. Of course caviar and champagne imported from the most southern part of South France was served up before the showcase event at Chez Brady (funded by your reg fee).

Alright so, the Badger may not have blown the lid off UCD rugby and revealed all the series of back handed payments or tours abroad paid for by Colonel Gaddafi (that’s actually true), but he has set the ball rolling. The Badger’s watching you, John McClean.

Letters to the Badger

For all those sending enquiries as to why the Badger is referred to in the male form, you are very naïve. Did you really expect girls to write about sports? Even if the Badger was a girl, he would still make reference to himself in the male form so that his opinions remained respected and not maligned. Pfft, women in sport. And don’t use Karen Brady as an example, an abundance of facial hair means she doesn’t count.

Note: Jealously was a principle agent behind the writing of this article.

29 March 2011 THE UNIVERSITY OBSERVER

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Winner takes all With Premiership sides drawn in mouth-watering ties, Daniel Keenan suggests that this is where the Champions League gets interesting.

Gareth Bale has been one of the best players of Spurs’ European campaign

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ngland cricketer, Matt Prior, said last Tuesday, that the quarter finals are “the sexy part of the competition”. He was, of course, talking about the Cricket World Cup, but he makes a very valid point.

The Champions League group stages have always been a massive bore, where bigger clubs often send out second-string teams to grind out results against clubs whose name you struggle to pronounce.

This year’s round of 16 served up equally dull football, with only Barcelona and Arsenal, putting on exciting two-legged ties. We now finally stand on the edge of potentially exciting matches, where the world’s best can show their splendour.

Manchester United and Chelsea will face off in a repeat of the 2008 final. Chelsea will be aching to put the demons of Moscow behind them, where John Terry slipped while taking a penalty to deny Chelsea their first Champions League trophy. The newly reinstated England captain will hope to get off on the right foot (pun not intended) as his side welcome United to Stamford Bridge in the first leg.

The two sides have of course met numerous times since that famous final but not in the Champions League, which does bring about a particular edge. European competitions bring different tactics and playing mentality and there is also a real feeling that this is the only competition that either manager really wants to win.

Roman Abramovich has made no secret of his longing to see a Champions League trophy in Chelsea hands for the first time.

Managers have come and gone because of their inability to win Europe’s top trophy, and Carlo Ancelotti’s job may rest upon doing just that.

With eleven Premier League titles and five FA cups under his belt, Alex Ferguson will be eager to add to the two Champions League trophies he has amassed over a quarter of a century at the club. What’s more, with United in such financial turmoil, the calls from the boardroom will be to focus on European glory, which carries higher television revenue.

The match itself is tough to call. Chelsea are resurgent since January after their mid-season horror shows, but will be without David Luiz, a central figure to that revival, because of cup tie. And whether or not £50 million man Fernando Torres can hit top form this season is up for debate.

United haven’t hit good form all season, failing to impress even during their 29-game unbeaten run. With a long list of defensive injuries, coupled with the sketchy form of star man Wayne Rooney, they look

vulnerable. However, with the form of Hernandez and Berbatov, along with the return of Antonio Valencia, and possible returns of Vidic and Ferdinand, United would have to be favourites.

Two of the other ties seem more clear-cut.

Champions, Inter Milan should avoid upset against Schalke 04, while few would doubt Barcelona in their tie against Shakhtar Donetsk.

Any neutral will be divided with the draw between Real Madrid and Tottenham Hotspurs. Spurs, once the underachievers who struggled to come out of the shadow of fellow North Londoners Arsenal, have now eclipsed their rivals in the Champions League this season.

Everyone loves an underdog and Tottenham’s goal-strewn path to this stage has captured the imaginations of many, with victories over both AC and Inter Milan accompanied by footballing masterclass from the Welshman, Gareth Bale. Madrid, though, are the team everybody loves to hate.

Ever since the big-spending Galàcticos of the early 2000s continued, they no longer enjoy the support of anyone outside their immediate fanbase. Barcelona’s homegrown squad of Xavi, Andrés Iniesta and the exquisite Lionel Messi trump Madrid’s manufactured international squad of Kaka, Cristiano Ronaldo and Ángel di María, in both popularity and class.

Nevertheless, support for the North Londoners may be lost among neutrals since Barcelona are their probable opponents in the semi-final and the mouth-watering possibility of two more El Clásico ties on the calendar may sway some fans to support Los Galàcticos.

Injury news is positive for Madrid: Ronaldo has an outside chance of making it back for the first leg while Gonzalo Higuain will be fit after hernia surgery in January.

News from the Tottenham camp is not so positive. They will sweat over the fitness of Bale, who picked up a hamstring injury while on international duty last Wednesday.

A repeat of Spurs’ uncharacteristically defensive show against Milan is unlikely – the game plan simply didn’t suit Harry Redknapp’s side.

Displays against Inter earlier in the competition highlight Tottenham’s true strength – quick counter attacks, launched from a gritty defence.

If Tottenham can grab an away goal at the Bernabéu, even a losing result will set up a thrilling encounter at White Hart Lane.

Should they play to their strengths, and with a bit of luck, Tottenham can progress next Tuesday, but with a likely tie against Barcelona to follow, it is difficult to see this Cinderella story ending in silverware.

Do n wo ’t ta ask rD fo ke ou gr our r it. r aD . uat L aw . es!

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VOLUME XVII ISSUE 11

29th March 2011

PAGE 21

PAGE 22

PAGE 23

WE TAKE A LOOK AT THE CURRENT STATE OF VOLLEYBALL IN UCD

THE BADGER CASTS HIS ACERBIC EYE ON UCD SPORT

THE UPCOMING CHAMPIONS LEAGUE QUARTER FINALS ARE PREVIEWED

Students fail to sparkle Another disappointing result for UCD’s soccer team saw them drop all three points to a visiting Bray side last Friday, reports Gordon O’Callaghan UCD 0 – Bray 1

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at Devlin’s Bray Wanderers were the visitors to the Belfield Bowl on Friday night in what was a tight affair. UCD made two changes from their draw with Galway United, with Sean Harding coming in at right back and Samir Belhout drafted into the left wing.

Both teams lined up in a fluid 4-3-1-2 and 4-3-2-1 formation with Graham Rusk and Chris Shields playing in the number nine role for UCD and Bray respectively.

Possession was a key in a game where both teams where trying to play the ball on the ground, with captain Gary Dempsey pulling the strings for Bray Wanderers in the centre of the park and helping them to dominate early on.

Bray’s high pressing line meant that the Students back four where forced to pump long balls into Rusk, however Bray’s centre back pairing of Adam Mitchell and Derek Prendergast where quite comfortable with this approach.

The first chance of the game fell to Bray as winger Jake Kelly whipped in a dangerous cross from the left, which UCD keeper Ger Barron bravely cleared before it could reach the on rushing Shields.

The game was played at a frantic pace, but despite Dempsey’s best attempts, both teams were sloppy in possession and neither were able

to build substantial periods of possession.

UCD’s first attempt on goal was in keeping with what was becoming an increasingly frustrating evening. Good build up play in the middle found full back Sean Harding in space outside of the box, only for him to run out of options and attempt a speculative long range effort that went well wide of the target.

As the half progressed and Gary Dempsey continued to dominate in the centre of midfield, Bray started to look more and more comfortable, and really should have went in front as midfielder Danny O’Connor was set free from a long throw but Barron came to the rescue once more. Mulroy had a follow up effort that was blocked and eventually a free out was awarded. The Students started to make tentative steps into the game after this and found some success down the right with Dean Marshall. Despite skinning his opposing full back numerous times, Marshall either failed to deliver a quality cross or confronted a solid Bray defence that cleared the ball well.

Then, on the brink of half time, UCD had their best chance with Paul O’Connor chipping through for Rusk, one-on-one with the keeper his first touch let him down as Wanderers keeper Matt Gregg got down low to collect the ball.

As the first half came to a close it was obvious that although both teams showed good attacking intent, too many stray passes were costing the sides with Bray enjoying the better of the chances.

UCD started the second half in much the same fashion as they finished the first with the midfield of Corry, O’Connor and Creevy starting to gain more possession. Two free kicks on the edge of Bray boxes were the home side’s best chances in the early period, with Corry failing to test the keeper.

Against the run of play however, Bray went in front as a free kick from Joe Kendrick was powered in off the head of Danny O’Connor leaving Barron no chance of stopping it.

It was clear that Wanderers were happy with a one-goal lead, as they began to sit back and soak up their opponents’ pressure. UCD brought on Yael Haro for the anonymous Samir Belhout, in an attempt to add some power up front.

Haro’s direct style was somewhat beneficial, as he found himself in two prime goal-scoring opportunities late in the game. The first was a fluffed shot from the right that went the other side of the post and the second was from a similar position but only a fine save from Gregg denied the Students their equaliser.

Bray held on for their three points and their first win at the Belfield Bowl in over a decade.

But in truth, UCD will be unhappy that they did not get at least a point from the game. Next up for UCD is Dundalk in Oriel Park this Friday evening, where Martin Russell will be hoping his boys can show more killer instinct in front of goal and come away with some muchneeded points.

A failure to take chances and sloppy possession ultimately led to frustration as UCD came out second best

I don’t like cricket, I love it The ICC Cricket World Cup is nearing its conclusion and with only four teams left, Kevin Beirne discusses the quarter finals and what we can expect from the semis

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his year’s Cricket World Cup has been a memorable one.

The celebration of the sport that is associated with the adjective ‘dull’ more than any other has given us some real surprises. Ireland’s record run-chase against England lessened the country’s apathy towards the Irish team.

The tournament itself has been exciting. Ireland’s victory threw a sense of uncertainty into the qualification mix, and almost every game that featured England went down to the wire. Unfortunately, there were no real surprises in who was contesting the quarter finals last week.

First off, there was Pakistan’s ten-wicket drubbing of a West Indies team that is a shadow of its former self. The ‘Windies’ could only manage a dismal total of 112 from 43.3 overs before losing their last

batsman.

The West Indies were frustratingly inconsistent throughout the tournament.

They followed a demolition of Bangladesh (where they only allowed 58 runs) by going all-out for 225 against England (having been 222-6) two weeks later.

Co-hosts India knocked out defending champions Australia. Captain Ricky Ponting’s 104 was not enough to see off an Indian team which had the enormous backing of their home supporters. A passionate Indian side enjoyed three players achieving half-centuries, with Yuvraj Singh top-scoring with 57 not out off 65 balls.

This loss ended Australia’s awesome run of three consecutive World Cup victories. India will now be heavily backed to push on and win the tournament, with this victory giving them the con-

fidence they need to match their skills and the backing of the crowd. This sets up what promises to be an interesting tie against rivals Pakistan in the semi-finals tomorrow.In Friday’s game, South Africa collapsed spectacularly against New Zealand, having been sitting pretty at 1082 after 24 overs. The target of 221, set earlier in the day by a conservative Kiwi team, seemed more than achievable. It wasn’t until Jacques Kallis was caught out for ten balls that things began to change.

Despite having seven wickets, and almost half the overs remaining, South Africa panicked. They eventually found themselves all-out for a lowly 172. The African giants will be disappointed that they failed to learn from the errors of previous years.

England betrayed their earlier appearances in the tournament and provided

an unexciting game against Sri Lanka on Saturday. Tillakaratne Dilshan and Upul Tharanga both hit centuries as they bettered England’s total of 229-6 without losing a single wicket and using only 39.3 overs.

This was the fourth ten-wicket victory of the tournament, but only the eleventh in World Cup history. England must now realise their inadequacies if they wish to move forward, but Sri Lanka will be confident they can overcome New Zealand today and land themselves a final berth.

The bookies are heavily backing the host nations to contest the final, but, given how the tournament has gone so far, wins for New Zealand and Pakistan shouldn’t be ruled out. The semi-finals look set to be close and exciting affairs and one can only feel that there’s much more to come.

The Cricket World Cup has thrown up its fair share of surprises since it began last month