VOL.XXIV, Issue 8, UO

THE UNIVERSITY OBSERVER A HISTORY OF STUDENT PROTESTS CLAUDIA DALBY PAGE 9

YEAR IN REVIEW LOOKING BACK ON 2017/2018 PAGES 12-14

REPEAL THE 8TH ROISIN GUYETT-NICHOLSON PAGE 18

UNCERTAINTY ABOUT HOW TO REPORT SEXUAL HARASSMENT AND ASSAULT IN UCD ENDANGERS STUDENTS

AOIFE HARDESTY EDITOR On February 20th, the University Observer published an article detailing an investigation into how a member of UCD Societies dealt with complaints of sexual harassment.

Two students wished to make a formal complaint of bullying and sexual harassment by a society member, Matthew*. The report found that the staff member involved should not have organised a meeting which took place to discuss the incident, and that the students should have been informed of how to make a formal complaint through the Dignity and Respect Policy.

The complaint failed to enter the appropriate channels, and two years later, Matthew was accused of raping another society member, Jenny*.

Jenny reported the events of the night, which began at a society event, to the Gardaí, and attended the Rape Crisis Centre. She handed over screenshots of facebook messages (which have been seen by the University Observer) to the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). In the facebook messages, Matthew admits to non-consensual touching, but not rape.

Following an investigation by the Gardaí and taking into account the evidence from the Rape Crisis Centre and the facebook messages, the DPP deemed there to be insufficient evidence to take the case to court and dropped her suit.

While going through that process, Jenny was trying to find out how to make a complaint within UCD. Through the SU Welfare Officer, she was put in contact with a student advisor.

Her hopes at the time were “to pursue a complaint because I was very uncomfortable about the fact that this person was still, after the fact and after they had sent me texts admitting what he did, was still able to walk around on campus.”

During the meeting with the student advisor, Jenny was told she could make a complaint under the Dignity and Respect Policy, however, she never made that complaint. The Dignity and Respect Policy applies to UCD staff and students. At the time of the alleged incident, Matthew was an alumnus and society member, but

17TH APRIL 2018 VOLUME XXIV ISSUE 8 UNIVERSITYOBSERVER.IE

neither a member of staff nor a student. issue to management. Residences management consists Jenny never moved further with making her com- of three people, only one of whom is employed by UCD. plaint because “it didn’t cover, as far as I was aware, When asked about the procedure for reporting sexual people who were former students, it had to be current harassment no RA or SRA mentioned the Dignity and students.”

Respect Policy Not all students who have experienced sexual asThe most recent version of UCD’s Dignity and sault or harassment are directed towards the Dignity Respect Policy was approved by the University and Respect Policy, as detailed in the internal report Management Team on June 20th, 2017. examined by the University Observer in the article on The policy states that complaints “should be made February 20th. within 12 months of the alleged incident(s) giving rise The report states that: “The University must share to the complaint or within 12 months from the date of in the responsibility for [the] lack of clarity on how to the alleged last recurring incident.” submit a formal complaint of sexual harassment.” The “The intention of the person against whom the comreport points out that students go through the process plaint is being made (the respondent) is irrelevant. The of “registration through to orientation and the process fact that the respondent may not intend to bully/harass/ of integrating into university life,” information on how sexually harass an employee or student is not a defence. to make a formal complaint is not made clear during The effect of the behaviour on the employee or student this process. is what is relevant.”

One student, Marion* who experienced sexual The following are examples of sexual harassment harassment in her on-campus residence reported the listed in the policy: incident to Residential Advisors, and the matter was “- Physical contact such as unnecessary touching, referred to residences management. The management patting or pinching or brushing against another body, organised a hearing in which the accused “vehemently assault or coercive sexual intercourse denied being the male who trespassed into your apart- Sexual advances, propositions or pressure for sexual ment” and also maintained that he had a friend who activity, continued suggestions for social activity after would vouch for his whereabouts on that evening. it has been made clear that such suggestions are unThe complaint moved no further as the panel at the welcome, unwanted or offensive flirtations, suggestive hearing were unable to establish which version of remarks, innuendos or lewd comments events were true. Marion was never informed during - The display of pornographic or sexually suggestive this process how to make a formal complaint via the pictures, objects, written materials including posters, Dignity and Respect Policy. emails, text-messages, social media messaging or faxes “I think I could have reported it through the Dignity - Leering, whistling or making sexually suggestive and Respect policy but no one ever said that that was an gestures option. It wasn’t until I started to look into it… thinking - Conduct that denigrates or ridicules or is intimidatory about how poorly that was handled that I realised that or physically abusive of a person because of their sex.” there actually is a policy.”

Students can make a complaint through the Dignity The internal report received by the University and Respect Policy through contact with student Observer makes reference to the need to examine how advisors. You can find your student advisor at ucd.ie/ incidences of sexual harassment in on-campus accom- studentadvisers modation are dealt with. Information sourced under the Freedom of Information Act 2014 revealed that UCD *Not real names.

Residences received three complaints of sexual harassment during 2015/2016. There were two complaints of If you are affected by issues raised in this article you bullying, harassment, or sexual harassment the follow- can contact the following: ing year, and as of December 2017 there had been no Dublin Rape Crisis Centre at 1800 77 8888 (line open complaints this academic year.

24 hours a day) or drcc.ie The University Observer spoke to four RAs and Niteline at 1800 793 793 (line open 9pm – 2:30am) SRAs (senior RAs) about how they are told to deal with or niteline.ie reports of sexual harassment in on-campus residences. Pieta House Tallaght at 01-6200020 or pieta.ie RAs are advised to bring the matter to the attention of Samaritans at 116 123 or samaritans.org an SRA and SRAs say their procedure is to report the

OTWO LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE INSIDE

TARA FLYNN INTERVIEW WITH IRISH ACTOR, COMEDIAN AND WRITER, TARA FLYNN CLAUDIA DALBY P14-16

FASHION LOOKING AT THE BRITNEY AND KENZO COLLABORATION SHANE CULLEN P24

MUSIC INTERVIEW THE LE BOOM CIAN MONTAGUE P17

FOOD DIGESTING STUDENT COOKBOOKS AURORA ANDRUS P21 20TH FEBRUARY 2018 1

NEWS STUDENT GROUP DEMANDS ABOLITION OF STUDENT CENTRE LEVY AND RESIT AND REPEAT FEES

CAMPUS NEWS IN BRIEF Dylan O’Neill

AUTHOR: DEAN SWIFT UCD Fair and Free, a student-run group campaigning to raise awareness and reduce the financial burden carried by students, has become active online and on UCD campus. Ailish Brennan, a spokesperson for the group, has detailed the four main demands of the group, “the first one is to abolish resit fees, second... to abolish repeat fees, third is to abolish student centre levy… fourth is fee certainty for post-grad students and non-EU students.”

Speaking on the student centre levy, Brennan elaborates that the financial burden should not be placed on UCD students through funding cuts to the SU or societies should the levy be removed.

UCD RESEARCHER HELPS GIRL (8) TO SPEAK AGAIN Researchers from the UCD Academic Centre on Rare Diseases (ACoRD) along with the life science company Genomics Medicine Ireland (GMI) have successfully restored the hearing of an eight year old girl, who suffered from a severe case of dystonia. Led

by Professor Mary King of the School of Medicine, the research team carried out genomic sequencing to identify the rare mutation in the patient’s gene KMT2B, that has caused her severe pain and inability to speak.

The patient, Mary-Ann Cleary, was then treated with Deep Brain Stimulation, after the cause of her condition was identified, in September 2017. Weeks after Mary-Ann’s treatment, she was able to speak for the first time in four years, with her pain subsiding significantly. Professor King has said that this case in particular highlights the enormous potential in genomics for precision medical diagnostics.

Chief science officer and director of UCD AcoRD, Sean Ennis, has said, “Genomic research studies usually take many years to yield significant actionable results, so to achieve such an important, tangible outcome so quickly is amazing, especially given the critical condition and time-sensitive nature of the patient.”

Brennan notes that the SU has “expressed support for the campaign” but are hesitant with the impending UMT report. Brennan acknowledges that they themselves are waiting on the UMT report, however they predict that the report will not go far enough. “I don’t think anyone believes that it will give us a change that will meet the demands we’ve laid out.” The group believes there will be a slight reduction in repeat fees, but merely a “token reduction that won’t amount to significant changes.” Brennan details the group’s involvement with the Take Back Trinity movement, who are keen to make this a wider movement, beyond their respective universities.

200-YEAR-OLD MURDER-ACCUSED AFTER UCD EXPERT REVIEW Myles Joyce has been pardoned by President Michael D Higgins for his wrongful conviction in the 1882 Maamtrasna case. Joyce was accused and hanged, along with two other men, for the murder of five members of the same family in Maamtrasna, Co.Galway.

Despite the co-accused admitting that Joyce was innocent of the accusations, their testimonies were not deemed sufficient by the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Earl Spencer.

This trial was considered by many historians to be “one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in British legal history.”

The pardon comes after UCD legal expert, Dr. Niamh Howlin reviewed the details of the case and is the first acquittal of a conviction that was handed down before the foundation of the Irish state. Having found what she described as a number of factors that cast doubt on the eye witness evidence presented at the trial and no translation of the proceedings for the defendants, she concluded in her report that “The result of this was that he was unable to adequately understand and participate in his own trial.”

This is the fourth presidential pardon granted in the Republic of Ireland and the second posthumous pardon in Irish history.

UCD STUDENT LEGAL SERVICE

PICTURE: MAXPIXEL.NET

PRESIDENTIAL PARDON OF

Regarding how the group will campaign for these changes, Brennan explains that they are “waiting for the UMT report… it is very soon, but we are keen not to put our foot in it a little bit with the UMT report, because the SU have been vocal about how things are looking positive.” However, the group believe that the change will not be as substantial as the SU expect. The group has plans “for different forms of direct action,” which are “soon to be finalised.” The group notes any response will be measured to the results of the UMT report.

Detailing why the group is vocal and active in regards to fees, Brennan notes a particular testimonial on their Facebook page. It regards a student who had to drop out of college due to resit fees. The student “was struggling to get a job… and focusing a lot of his time getting a job.” Due to the time and financial burden the student was forced to drop out. The group believes firmly that fees restrict many from pursuing their degree, even if such a student receives financial aid from programs such as H.EA.R and SUSI, as some costs are not covered. Brennan notes that, “SUSI does not cover the student centre levy.”

On their Facebook page, the group have written about the “regressive” nature of UCD and its “cash cow culture.” The page contains profiles of two students who say they have experienced difficulties with UCD’s repeat and resits fees. Kate, a Stage 1 Psychology student is quoted as saying “I am a first year student who paid to resit an exam; but was never given the opportunity to actually take the test.”

“Arriving to my first exam in UCD; I was nervous but prepared. That was until I realised I had arrived to the wrong exam and had missed mine by just two hours.”

Kate states that she the only option made available to her was to write a 3000-word essay and pay the €230 repeat fee.

The UMT report is due to be released on April 17th, following its release, UCD Fair and Free will make a decision on the actions they will take if they are dissatisfied with the changes to resit and repeat fees.

UCD STUDENTS ‘REINVENT THEMSELVES’ IN AID OF DRCC AUTHOR: RITIKA SUREKA The UCD Fashion Show returned this year in support of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre (DRCC). Ireland’s largest student-run fashion show was held over two evenings on April 11th and 12th in Astra Hall. The show was run by almost 150 students and staff and featured the works of ten finalists competing in the UCD Young Designer of the Year Competition.

All proceeds raised from the show, including tickets and profits from the raffle, went directly to the DRCC. With about 600 guests attending on the first night alone, the show managed to gather a considerable audience for its cause.

Fionnuala Moran, Deputy Editor of GOSS.ie, hosted the event. The show featured the works of student designers from all over the country and the theme, ‘reinvention,’ was to showcase designs inspired by Alexander McQueen. The show was sponsored by FM104.

After a brief introduction from Moran, the show began with models strutting down the floors of the hall. The makeup and clothing seemed to be inspired by the Hunger Games series (although the outfits were inspired by McQueen). Amongst the many show-stopping ruffled gowns, plaid skirts, open tinfoil jackets revealing sculpted abs, the focal point of the show’s cause was a skirt that showcased newspaper clippings surrounding the trial of Paddy Jackson and Stuart Olding.

Speaking to the University Observer, Ciarán McShane, the producer of the fashion show, explained how the skirt was meant to be the statement piece, “It just seemed relevant to put into the show and relevant towards our charity. Obviously we’re not commenting on the verdict itself, we’re just pointing out facts and highlighting the importance of the case itself.”

The event was as much about the cause as it was

about the fashion. Between sections of the event, Moran called on Maeve, a UCD student who is a survivor of sexual assault, to relate her experience on stage.

Cheered on by a sympathetic crowd, she appealed to the audience, “We cannot let this rape culture and shaming of rape survivors continue. We need to speak out, and I urge anyone who survived rape or sexual assault to talk.”

The winner of Young Designer of the Year was Larraine O’Callaghan. Following the event, the DRCC tweeted, “We would like to say a big thank you to absolutely everyone who took part in & donated in support of the DRCC for the #UCDfashionshow the last 2 nights. It was heartwarming to see so many students want to support our crisis counselling services.

DRCC - 1800 77 8888.”

UCD Student Legal Service (UCDSLS) raised a total of €6,045.58 for the Society of St. Vincent de Paul Ireland (SVP). UCDSLS held a Law and B&L Day to raise funds, in association with law firm Maples and Calder, in support of SVP on February 15th. Some of the events included bucket collecting, a tag rugby tournament, and a ‘LAWLAPAZLOOZA’ night out in the Bowery, in which all the students paid to partake, in order to raise money for SVP. SVP Ireland is the largest voluntary charitable organisation in Ireland. It relies greatly on charitable donations in order to fund its organisation and the work it carries out to deal with poverty in addition to the wide range of services it provides to vulnerable people through their local offices, shops, resource centres, housing, daycare, and holiday schemes in Ireland.

2 VOLUME XXIV, ISSUE 8

PICTURE: DREDD LUNA

RAISES OVER €6000 FOR SVP

NEWS UCDSU DOCUMENTS REMAIN UNPUBLISHED NATIONAL NEWS FOR YEARS; FINANCIAL STATEMENTS SHOW IN BRIEF SU SALARY RAISES Brían Donnelly COUNCIL AND EXEC MINUTES

BRÍAN DONNELLY NEWS EDITOR The minutes recording the events of Union Council meetings have gone unpublished since February 2017, while Union Executive minutes have not been made available since late October.

The Union Budget and the reports of the Union Executive, the Campaign Coordinators, and the Entertainments Forum have not been published online since the 2014/2015 academic year. Links to eight reports from that year are inaccessible on the UCDSU website. Minutes available for 2015/2016 and 2016/2017 show that budget and report proposals were approved by Councils in those years.

The financial statements of UCD Students’ Union Ltd, received by the University Observer, show that the Union has had an income of over €1 million for both of periods over 2014/2015 and 2015/2016, with a recorded profit of more than €340,000 over the two financial years. UCDSU last published financial statements on their website for the year 2013/2014.

The financial statements for 2015/2016 list only one person being employed as staff for the University Observer. There are currently, and were during that year, three paid positions within the newspaper: the Editor, the Deputy Editor, and the Design Editor.

The statements also show an increase from €19,070 to €21,570 in the average wages and salaries paid to SU employees between 2014/2015 and 2015/2016. The number of staff in 2015/2016 was 14, a decrease of 3 from the previous year.

Separate financial statements for UCDSU Commercial Services Ltd, the company which operates the SU Shops, show that that the company made a profit of just under €140,000 for the 2015/2016 period.

The UCDSU Constitution does not require the audited accounts of the Union to be published.

The Union Executive is responsible for the day-today operation of the SU and consists of the Sabbatical Officers, the College Officers, and the Irish Language Officer. Under the Constitution of UCD Students’ Union, the Union Executive must meet ‘a minimum of every two weeks.’

Minutes for both Council and Executive meetings are taken and prepared by the Union Secretary, who, according to the Constitution, must publish them “not later than one month after the relevant meeting.” The current Union Secretary, Helen Vystoska, was appointed by former-UCDSU President Katie Ascough before her impeachment on October 27th. Vystoska took the position from acting secretary, Education Officer Robert Sweeney.

The membership of Union Council consists of the Sabbatical Officers, the College Officers, the Irish Language Officer, the individual Class Representatives, and the individual members of the Campaigns Forum.

UCDSU Constitution requires that Union Council meet

every three weeks during the ordinary teaching terms of UCD. Union Council are responsible for formulating policy and mandating individual members of the Union Executive, Entertainments Forum, or Campaign Forum to undertake particular tasks.

The most recent Union Executive minutes available relate to an emergency meeting held on October 24th, during which a motion was passed appealing the decision to deny the Sabbatical Officers annual leave. The decision had been made by the Returning Officer.

Union records since 2013 are mostly accessible, although some links on the UCDSU website to Union minutes for the 2013/2014 session are broken.

Records of Executive meetings from 2015/2016 span only 3 meetings in September of that academic year, in contrast to the 2013/2014 and 2014/15 executives, which published 21 and 20 sets of minutes respectively.

UCDSU President Barry Murphy declined to comment in relation to this year’s Union record-keeping.

UNIVERSITY TUITION FEES A student at University College Cork has raised almost €4,500 over 20 days to cover the cost of attending a nine-week Space Studies Program in the International Space University (ISU) in the Netherlands.

Cian O’Regan, who is studying towards a BSc in Business Information Systems, exceeded his original target of funding €4,000 of the €18,500 necessary to attend the course. A post on his gofundme page reads, “This is a prestigious and highly sought-after opportunity to network with the best and the brightest of the global space industry. It truly is the opportunity of a lifetime and unlike any other adventure I’ve ever planned before!”

The ISU website states that the SSP is a “graduate level professional development program… The curriculum covers the principal space related fields, both non-technical and technical.” O’Regan states on his gofundme page that all donations “will be used for the cost of living and tuition at the International Space University.”

O’Regan has promised to thank his donors by sending a hand-written thank-you letter and a “mounted photographic print” of a photo from his photography site if they donate more than €25; an item from O’Regan’s space memorabilia collection if they donate more than €50, and a hug if they donate more than €100.

LABOUR SENATOR APOLOGISES FOR TWEET ABOUT BELFAST RAPE TRIAL Aodhán Ó Ríordáin has apologised for a tweet that he sent in the wake of the Belfast Rape Trial. The original tweet, which has since been deleted, included the trending hashtag ‘#Ibelieveher,’ and stated that “The smug well-connected middle-class boys win out again.”

In a tweet on April 9th, Ó Ríordáin stated “My tweet of 28 March concerning the Belfast rape trial was not designed or intended to suggest that either Paddy Jackson or any of the other accused men were guilty or that the jury got it wrong. I apologise for any suggestion to the contrary. I accept that I was not privy to all the evidence put before the jury during the trial.”

On March 30th, lawyers for Paddy Jackson stated that they had “no option” but to issue a notice of intention to sue Ó Ríordáin because of the “defamatory comments made by him in the immediate aftermath of the jury’s verdict.”

Media reporting restrictions in relation to the trial were lifted on April 11th, and revealed that lawyers for Stuart Olding attempted to have the jury discharged because of a tweet sent by Naoimi Long, leader of the Alliance Party.

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT CALLS FOR GENDER EQUALITY IN TRADE DEALS proposing then we will be laughed at… we cannot impose our vision of gender on the world. It’s colonialist behaviour.”

Although the text at this stage is only declaratory, the Commission has already announced specific provisions on gender in the trade deal with Chile and Canada, as Social Affairs Commissioner, Marianne Thyssen, announced on March 12th. Thyssen also stated that the agreement with the EU should include references

to previous treaties such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

However, Lola Sanchez Candentey, a member of the development committee, expressed her scepticism regarding the provisions, and asked for precision and specificity regarding the chapter and its binding clauses.

It therefore remains to be seen how the EU will follow up on their policymaking and its implementation.

YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT FALLS TO 12.5%

PICTURE: WIKIMEDIA

AUTHOR: RITIKA SUREKA Gender equality in trade agreements was discussed thoroughly in the plenary session at the European Parliament in March.

MEPs voted, with 512 votes in favour and 107 against, to support the resolution that would consider including gender equality in trade agreements.

While the European Commission named gender equality as one of its founding values and established the strategic engagement for gender equality 20162019 as a framework for the Commission’s future work towards achieving gender equality, progress has been gradual in incorporating it in all its policymaking. There has however, been some advancement in the agenda, with the EU building a platform in November 2017 to boost women’s employment in the transport industry, and now with its initiative to involve gender equality in its trade deals.

Today, only 20% of EU trade agreements mention women’s rights. Malin Björk, co-rapporteur of the draft resolution, alongside Eleonora Forenza, said during the session that “trade policies are not neutral on gender equality.”

According to Björk and Forenza, free-trade agreements would have different impacts on women in sectors such as agriculture or textiles, which are areas in which the livelihood of women is relatively insecure.

If the services sector were to be liberalised, new agreements could have a further negative effect on women, such as limiting their access to healthcare. Hence, the rapporteurs believe that the need for the gender equality chapter in trade deals is evident.

However, there has been some opposition to the resolution. Joachin Starbatty, MEP from the European Conservatives and Reformist Group, said, “If we start putting forward clauses such as the one you are

UCC STUDENT CROWDFUNDS SPACE

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for persons aged 15-24 was 12.5% in March 2018, according to the statistics released by the Central Statistics Office earlier this month. This represents a decrease of 0.2% from February and down from 14.3% in March of last year. The total number of unemployed youth sat at 35,000 for the month of March compared to 40,200 at the same time last year. The total number of unemployed males stands at 21,800, while the number of unemployed females is lower at 13,300. During the economic crisis, the youth unemployment rate peaked at a record high of 31.6% in February 2012.

Commenting on the latest figures, Alan McQuaid Chief Economist at Merrion Economics stated that the “jobless rate for persons aged 15-24… remains elevated” “The rate has declined from 17.5% in March 2016, but the bottom line is that youth unemployment is still far too high. The Government needs to put particular focus on getting this rate down into single digits as quickly as possible.”

17TH APRIL 2018 3

NEWS INTERNATIONAL NEWS IN BRIEF SAUDI ARABIA: GREAT REFORMATION OR

PUBLIC RELATIONS PLOY?

Katia Gillen FLORIDA STUDENT ASKED TO

AUTHOR: ELIZABETH WELLS The de facto leader of Saudi Arabia, Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, has widely been praised as a revolutionary for opening up one of the most conservative kingdoms in the world. While he has not yet been named King, it is widely understood that he is now calling the shots.

Among these reforms are allowing women the right to drive and attend sporting events, lifting a 35-year -old cinema ban, supposedly cracking down on corruption, and promoting a more moderate form of Islam.

All of these fall into his broader economic reform plan, Vision 2030, which is designed to minimise the country’s dependence on oil by diversifying the economy. The kingdom’s economy has suffered greatly from lowering oil prices over the past few years and is in a desperate need of revitalisation.

His recent visits to the USA, the UK, and France have mainly been about attracting foreign investment into the country, as well as a public relations tour. As Nader

COVER UP “REVEALING” OUTFIT WITH PLASTERS 17-year-old high-school student Lizzy Martinez was asked to place band-aids over her nipples earlier in March to comply with her school’s dress-code. The Florida teen wore an oversized Calvin Klein shirt without a bra to school, and was asked to come in to the Dean’s office. The Dean told her that her nipples were “distracting” to other students, as “a boy had been laughing at her.” Martinez claims she was given a second shirt to wear, and was then told to “stand up and, …, move and jump around” so the school staff “could see how much [her] breasts moved.” She recalls feeling “mortified.”

Afterwards, she was sent to the nurse’s office, where she was given four band-aids, so that she could “cross out [her] nipples.” She then “went to the bathroom and cried.” Martinez has not returned to school since the incident. She says she is uncomfortable going back to school, and a teacher she knows sexualised her. The school has released a statement acknowledging that the “matter should have been handled differently… and corrective measures have been taken to prevent a reoccurrence in the way these matters will be addressed in the future.” The young woman intends to use the incident to start a conversation on standards for appropriate school wear that do not differ based on gender.

Hashemi, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Denver’s Josef Korbel School of International Studies, told Al Jazeera, “Saudi Arabia has an image problem,” an image problem the young leader seems to be handling quite well.

He received a glowing welcome by USA President Donald Trump, Hollywood elites, and media moguls.

Before his arrival in the USA, 60 minutes aired a flattering interview presenting the Crown Prince as a great reformist: “Known by his initials ‘M-B-S,’ his reforms inside Saudi Arabia have been revolutionary. He is emancipating women, introducing music and cinema and cracking down on corruption, in a land with 15,000 princes, but selling Saudi Arabia won’t be easy. In his first interview with an American television network, he was eager to discuss his country’s promise and its troubled reputation head-on,” Norah O’ Donnell introduces him.

In reality, his social reforms have been relatively

minor. Saudi Arabia is, after all, the last country in the world to grant women the right to drive. Freedom House, an NGO watchdog organization that tracks freedom and democracy around the world, categorised the country as one of the least free countries in the world in terms of both political rights and civil liberties. Under the socalled “guardianship laws,” women still need a male’s permission to obtain a passport and travel outside the country. Homosexuality is still illegal. Political dissent is violently repressed. And it is leading the coalition bombing and blockading Yemen, creating one of the worst humanitarian crises.

All things considered, providing women with more rights and opportunities is fundamentally good. Integrating women into the economy and society empowers them and allows them an identity of their own apart from their relations to men. It opens the doors for further liberalisation, and an improvement in quality of life.

YOUTUBE ACCUSED OF

MEMBERS OF NOBEL PEACE PRIZE COMMITTEE RESIGN Peter Englund, Klas Östergren, and Kjell Espmark, previously members of the Nobel Prize committee, resigned earlier this month over its handling of sexual misconduct allegations against a man with close ties to the board. Membership of the Nobel Peace Prize committee, a selected group of 18 people that decide the winners of the Prize annually, is intended for life, and no one has ever successfully resigned before. Espmark has explained his resignation in a statement saying: “When leading voices in the academy put friendship and other irrelevant considerations before [this] integrity, then I can no longer participate in the work.”

The two other members have also made public statements in regard to their resignations. Englund linked his resignation to the academy’s handling of allegations against Jean-Claude Arnault, the artistic director of a Stockholm literary club. The man was accused by 18 women of sexual assault and harassment in a Swedish newspaper. The academy subsequently cut all ties to the man, but later held a vote to decide whether to dismiss a board member because of his close ties to the accused. It is believed that the three members that resigned wished to see the man dismissed, but the vote went against them.

4 VOLUME XXIV, ISSUE 8

DONALD TRUMP’S LAWYER INVOLVED IN FBI RAID On Monday April 9th at 3am, the hotel room and offices of Michael Cohen, USA President Donald Trump’s personal attorney, were both raided by the FBI. During the raid, documents, electronic files, and other records pertaining to a number of topics, like the Stephanie ‘Stormy’ Daniels case were seized.

The raid on Cohen comes after he himself hired Daniel Schwartz to be his counsel in late March after Daniels came forward with her story that she received payment before the election to keep silent about Trump’s affair with her.

Usually, when prosecutors wish to obtain documents from the accused there is a process whereby a subpoena is issued requesting the necessary documents. For this raid to take place, a search warrant had to have been granted by a judge. For anyone to be raided, there would have to be adequate evidence of criminal activity against them and an indication to the prosecutors that they are hiding something from the law. A search warrant shows the suspicion of the prosecutor as to whether the person of interest is being totally forthcoming.

For a president’s counsel to be raided, the conditions and processes taken have even tighter checks. Cohen is now under official criminal investigation by the Justice Department.

After the raid, President Trump took to his preferred platform for public notices, Twitter, to voice his outrage and his subsequent plans. In Trump’s tweets he accuses the Department of Justice of going on a “Witch Hunt.” Since, people are speculating that due to the Russia investigation that is being conducted by a Special Counsel led by Robert Mueller and now this raid, Trump plans to fire Robert Mueller. However, the raid and the case against Cohen is being conducted by the Southern District of New York, the USA Attorney’s Office and not Mueller who is investigating Russia.

PICTURE: FLICKR

23 children’s advocacy, consumer, and privacy groups have joined together to file a complaint with the USA Federal Trade Commission alleging that Google knowingly collects data of, and advertises to, those under the age of 13. The complaint is specific to Google’s use of YouTube, which is claimed to only be accessible to those over 13. The information allegedly collected by the website includes children’s location, device identifiers, and phone numbers, as well as their activity across other websites. If the information is collected without first receiving parental consent, YouTube is in violation of the USA Child Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

Josh Golin, executive director of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC), one of the 23 groups involved in filing the complaint, says, “For years, Google has abdicated its responsibility to kids and families by disingenuously claiming YouTube, a site rife with popular cartoons, nursery rhymes, and toy ads, is not for children under 13.” YouTube does have an app designed specifically for children called YouTube Kids with content and ads tailored towards those 13 years of age. The main platform has also recently hired more moderators to watch over its content.

PICTURE: KREMLIN.RU

COLLECTING DATA ON CHILDREN

It is important to note, that the investigation against Cohen is being carried out by the USA Justice Department, which is headed by the USA Attorney General who is nominated by the president and then confirmed by the Senate and is a member of Cabinet.

The current Attorney General is Jeff Sessions.

Notably, although Cohen’s accused crimes have not been disclosed as far as is public knowledge, he has only one client and that is Donald Trump. As his office was raided, that could mean that there is a

direct tie between what Cohen is being investigated for and the work he does for Donald Trump. Trump has had issues with lawyers in the past. During his time in office, John Dowd, his lead lawyer in the Mueller investigation, resigned and two attorneys have notably declined to represent him. Furthermore, Cohen joins the ever-growing list of those associated with Trump who are being investigated such as Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn.

COMMENT WILL ANYTHING CHANGE AFTER THE BELFAST TRIAL? Clara Brannigan examines the aftermath of the Paddy Jackson trial and finds that distrust in the justice system is causing a surge against toxic and archaic cultures of abuse.

An important message that swept across Ireland this month is that the words “not guilty’’ do not mean innocent. Women living in Ireland have seen “not guilty” verdict after “not guilty” verdict, they have been called liars and they have been blamed. Why are the voices of these women continually ignored as they repeatedly tell their stories, as demanded by skeptical courts, when they are only asking to be believed? That is what makes the Paddy Jackson trial in Belfast so groundbreaking. The #IBelieveHer hashtag which sprung up in solidarity with the survivor is just the beginning of the fight to break down the culture of how survivors of rape are treated in Ireland.

The “not guilty” verdict, however depressing, has given many others the courage to attempt to break the silence and stigma around sexual assault by sharing their own stories.

Text messages from the complainant the morning after the incident said: “I would report it if I knew they would get done, but they won’t. It will be a case of my word against theirs.” That is exactly how it turned out to be, her words turning out to be prescient not from an innate psychic ability but from the heavy knowledge of how the system works. The vile texts of the accused were brushed aside as “locker room talk,” her weeping and distressed state in the back of a taxi overlooked.

It has been a difficult few months for the complainant and a difficult month for anyone else who has been a survivor of sexual assault. The aftermath of this trial has left fundamental questions hanging in the air such as how will this toxic lad culture be tackled? Even before that, how do we make people see that it is indeed

PICTURE: ANDERSEN.AF.MIL

This has been a problem building for generations with women’s sexuality being seen as a threatening force that must be controlled. Ireland has never trusted women to have control over their own bodies as they cross the border on planes and boats, or are placed in the Magdalene laundries. Irish women have been raised to feel ashamed, to feel like the ‘asking for it’ culture is the truth and that their subjugation is just the way things are and is not to be questioned. Irish women have been raised believing that they should check themselves and make sure that they do not get too drunk and that they should not walk home alone.

toxic lad culture that is the problem? This behaviour gathered outside of City Hall in Dublin and marched needs to stop being shrugged off as ‘boys will be boys.’ to the Department of Justice. In Belfast, several hunWomen have been taught how to avoid getting raped dred people protested outside City Hall, with socialist instead of boys being told that it is vital to seek consent, feminist organisation ROSA, to voice their anger at and this is not acceptable. the mistreatment of this woman and other survivors The “not guilty” verdict, however depressing, has of sexual assault. given many others the courage to attempt to break the Jackson attempted to backtrack on his first statesilence and stigma around sexual assault by sharing ment, this time attempting a “heartfelt” apology, a very their own stories. Just when Jackson and Olding felt different approach to his first statement in which he they were in the clear after being acquitted, an outcry asserted himself as the victim and was furious at being of grief and rage from rape survivors swarmed social mistreated by the “malicious” and “misinformed” commedia. The hashtag ‘#IBelieveHer’ was used by thou- mentary on social media. His latest apology was a drasands across the country. Almost instantly a rally was matic change as he shared his feelings of “regret” and planned for the following day to show people’s solidar- “self-immolation” in relation to the events of that night, ity with the woman involved. Over 4,000 protestors admitting that his WhatsApp messages were degrading, betraying his family values. This was a very different approach from a man who threatened to sue every person for defamation if they mentioned his name in a negative light. The hashtag #SueMePaddy followed, taking on great significance as people refused to take this bully tactics seriously. These tactics stem from a sense of male entitlement long past its sell-by-date.

Now that Jackson’s career is at stake he appears to have had a change of heart about the events of that night, a see-through attempt to win back his reputation with no remorse for his actions. The damage is done, to the woman who was victim of this savage trial and to the trust people may have had in the handling of rape cases in Ireland. This apology comes nine days too late and may as well begin with ‘After employing a new PR person, I have reconsidered.’ With public anger showing no signs of ebbing away, his apology rings hollow. Women have always fought, but it is time now for men as both perpetrators and survivors to stop staying silent and work collectively to end toxic rape culture, and this begins by believing survivors, even if they do not, like the accused, have promising sporting careers and a group of apologists surrounding them.

THE FINAL PUSH FOR REPEAL

PICTURE: THE IRISH LABOUR PARTY VIA FLICKR

In our last issue before the referendum to repeal the eighth Amendment in May, Adam Lawler looks back over the events of the last year, and forward to the weeks ahead.

It has been a tiring year. Even before the referendum to repeal the eighth amendment was announced to take place on May 25th tensions were rising across Ireland between those on either side of the debate. The yearslong battle to repeal the eighth amendment has been augmented by wins and fraught with relative losses, both inhabiting a grey area where no win is completely pure and no loss is completely without merit.

Katie Ascough was case in point. In a moment that startlingly placed UCD in the epicentre of the abortion debate, the SU president was impeached. While she is indeed still gone despite her embittered closing speech, the repercussions can still be felt months after. Pro-choice activists had to wonder how she managed to be elected in the first place. The pro-life hacks in the employ of the Irish Times and the Irish Independent would now have fuel for their zealous fire, and Ascough would unavoidably be seen as a martyr for her beliefs. No one could have predicted the countless interviews and almost weekly op-eds she would be allowed to write for Irish newspapers, the most recent featuring the deathless “there has become a stigma that being pro-life isn’t cool” quote. We should have known, though; missing the point, after all, is the basis of the pro-life “No” side.

One win for the pro-choice side took place where it counts. Health Minister Simon Harris finally solidified his position firmly on the side of repeal, but even this came after months of debate made truly upsetting by the fact that so many male politicians were not only rallying against abortion but questioning why a referendum was needed in the first place. Then there are the marches; hundreds of thousands attended the marches on International Women’s Day, tainted by the sting of mainstream news outlets’ attempts to skew the numbers and willingness to promote the pro-life marches’ obviously exaggerated figures of attendees at their own marches. This itself could be considered as having brought about a win in that this, and talk shows’

insistence on having representatives from both sides, a legitimate campaign, and is emphasised by the lack of clearly exposed media bias. It does not make the fight accurate statements on the posters. “One in five babies any less tiring, though, especially when considering the are aborted in England” they leer down at passers-by. motives of the pro-life side; what exactly do they want? “Abortion is Murder” scream others, conveniently If the 8th is retained, then what? Will they advocate placed outside primary schools. These tactics should for prison sentences, or do they simply wish that the really speak for themselves. country stop talking about it and go back to normal?

Imagery is important in posters which, tellingly, ofThe poster race, especially, seems to expose the mis- ten show the internal shot of the foetus, usually a foetus sion statements of each side of the campaign. Visibility at six months, not the face or body of the woman. It is is important, and the No side got their posters up sus- somewhat confusing that the No side would so brazenly piciously fast, but that means little when the posters admit that they see women as nothing but vessels, but are inflammatory and without a printer or affiliation in these posters, and the ones of the crying rape victim, visible. It comes across as more of a mad scramble than they do exactly this with no palpable sense of shame.

The “License to Kill” slogan is unintentionally hilarious and depressingly stupid all at once. The goal here seems to be to fool the easily-fooled, nothing more, probably less. For a side whose premier argument against the Yes side for so long was to tone-police and accuse them of not being able to have a respectful and mature discussion, this is a failure and a flag as roaring red as the aggressive colour scheme employed by this side. The Yes side has been slow to put up posters by comparison, but posters cost money that is not being

No win is completely pure and no loss is completely without merit. handed to the Together for Yes campaign by unseen sources or American donors. Together for Yes have raised €280,000 in the past few weeks, far surpassing their original goal, and they received this amount from actual people.

What we need to remember is that the Yes side of the Repeal campaign is not based on scaremongering, sloganeering, or bullying. It is based on compassion and gently spreading the message through facts and civil play. Every win is heavy and hard-won but all the more satisfying because of the forces of historical subjugation and ignorance that are being challenged and broken down, and the weight of the subject is reflected in the heartening return of the thousands of Irish citizens expected to vote in the referendum. No Americans or hired extras are needed to bolster the side of the campaign that is rooted in suffering, and heartbreak and a desire for justice and fairness. Tides of opinion are turning and there is a righteous fire, but these last few weeks are not the time for complacency.

The Yes side is on the right side of history, and hopefully the events of the next few weeks reflect that.

17TH APRIL 2018 5

COMMENT SIGNING AWAY OUR RIGHT TO PRIVACY In the wake of Cambridge Analytica obtaining the information of over 50 million Facebook users, Dean Swift examines users’ rights to privacy when using apps.

Facebook deny responsibility for any ‘violation,’ while still refusing to police the access to user information.

Another app, Grindr, introduced a policy which was largely applauded of having its users state their HIV/ AIDS status, due to the reported risk among its community. However, they then shared this information to third-parties, and were roundly condemned and have since vowed not to do so again. These are only two examples, but there are many ways in which our private information is becoming increasingly less private. The questions that arises from such actions are: Do we care?

Do legislators care? And will the law prevent this?

From an American perspective, there seems to be very little indication that there will be adequate law reform in the area. Mark Zuckerberg, testified before the American Congress regarding the breach. Many had assumed such a session would be damning for Facebook. Facebook’s stock, which had been dropping after the Cambridge Analytica debacle, in which they threatened to sue the Guardian in an attempt to prevent the story from releasing, began climbing both during and after the testimony. One would perhaps

question how this was possible, with many predicting only further damage to Facebook. Both quick and indepth viewing of the footage would quickly clear up any doubts as to why. Many of the committee simply did not understand what the issues were, or simply how Facebook acted. Senator John Kennedy apparently believed the user agreement was the issue, saying “your user agreement sucks… you want it written in English, in non-Zwahili,” then going on to say they want to know who they’re sharing your data with. This was in spite of Facebook already making this available, and proceeding to ask questions which Facebook had already answered. Is it any wonder why with this level of scrutiny led to Facebook’s stock increasing? The testimony was largely a win for Zuckerberg, or as one Congresswoman put it “Zuckerman,” and Facebook, as the members appeared to be uninformed about the issues of privacy in the digital age, or indeed about to Facebook itself.

On the European side, there appears to be wider protection, in the form of the General Data Protection Regulation, which comes into force on May 25th 2018.

The underlying principle of this regulation is that an individual, company, or legal entity shall process the personal data of an individual within the EU. On its face value this appears to be a large move in favour of an individual’s personal privacy, however scratch just below the surface and cracks immediately begin to show. The easiest way around this is simply to have a user agreement, to which said user can only use the app if they agree to the agreement, wherein there is usually a policy regarding user data. To use these apps, we sign away our right to privacy. Google the underlying operator of all Android phones, require a user to have a Google account to download and use their apps, their privacy policy allows Google to “share personal information with companies, organisations or individuals outside of Google when we have your consent to do so.” It is then fair to ask, even in an EU context, if our private information is safe when we place it in the

hands of private corporations which use it to identify ads we might be susceptible to. Are we the product, and not the consumer?

Perhaps when pondering these issues, one needs to consider the idea of applications, and further social media sites in a simpler manner. Facebook’s business model is completely reliant on using and selling users’ private information, which primarily can be seen in the form of targeted ads on the user’s profile. Facebook deny responsibility for any ‘violation,’ while still refusing to police the access to user information. Edward Snowden, famous for releasing detailed information of American monitoring of individuals both inside USA

and outside through the NSA, tweeted “Businesses that make money by collecting and selling detailed records of private lives were once plainly described as ‘surveillance companies.” Their rebranding as ‘social media’ is the most successful deception since the Department of War became the Department of Defense.”

We as users could refuse to use these apps, but is that a reasonable expectation in today’s environment?

It appears all legal efforts are doomed to fail, so it is pertinent to ask do we care enough? Have we set a price for our privacy, or rather are we simply willing to give it away for free?

PICTURE: FLICKR

The news that Cambridge Analytica may have helped the Trump campaign win the USA presidential election caused a massive stir that dominated headlines for a fortnight. The company had violated an agreement with Facebook, and gathered over 50 million users’ data, even the data of those who had not downloaded the app that allowed this. The word ‘violation’ is used, as Facebook claim this was not a data breach. By Facebook’s own admission they did not do enough to regulate the data transmission.

THE BAN OF PLASTIC AND THE NEED FOR LOCAL ACTION Following Lidl’s announcement that they will be reducing their plastic packaging, Jack Knowles looks at the reasons to go plastic-free.

6 VOLUME XXIV, ISSUE 8

will ban plastic cups, plates, and cutlery with the law coming into effect in 2020. This is part of France’s Energy Transition for Green Growth, which is an ambitious plan that serves as a roadmap for France’s energy usage. This is to allow for cleaner, more environmentally-friendly energy to reduce greenhouse gases (GHG). Some proposals included for example: reducing GHG emissions by 40% by 2030, reduce fossil fuel consumption by 30% by 2030, and halving the amount of landfilled waste by 2025. These are just some of its goals.

Theresa May has committed the UK to diminishing its plastic usage completely by 2042. Laying down a

25-year plan and investing £7 billion in research for plastic innovation, the UK move on plastic in comparison to European counterparts seems less urgent. When looking at it overall a lot of countries seem to simply be laying down plans instead of undertaking immediate action, which is required.

Iceland recently had a parliamentary proposal submitted by the Social Democrats to ban plastic bags, following the example of many European countries.

The European Commission aims to ban single-use coffee cups by 2030 and the European Commission outlined their wish to make all plastic items recyclable and reusable. This comes in the wake of China’s ban on

importing contaminated plastic, China also has plans to ban 24 types of material waste from being imported.

This recent action is part of President Xi Jinping’s mission to make China more environmentally-friendly.

China’s move comes with economic consequences for the likes of the USA and the UK. Ireland, will also be hit as we are currently exporting 95% of our waste.

It is time to look at what we can do locally and how that will have a large effect on a cleaner environment.

By acting, we will not only create an environmentallyfriendly country but we will give the government a

Plastic is dangerous to the environment as it is made from non-biodegradable substance: polythene.

PICTURE: PIXABAY

Global warming is a reality. Now it is time to think: how we can stop it? The planet is being destroyed by us.

We are digging under the earth we stand on, leaving no support for ourselves or our future. Our actions have a global impact. The generation now is so well informed.

The margin between awareness of global warming and action is too small. It needs to change. Little victories will be the path to grander ones to come.

This comes in light of Lidl’s announcement on April 7th that they received feedback from their customers and are reducing plastic packaging for vegetables, by introducing loose packaging. For the previous several weeks Lidl had reduced plastic usage of fruit only. It should be noted that not all fruit and vegetable nonrecycable plastic packaging has been removed. Neither is it in full operation. It will continue to be trialled and tested. This may seem insignificant, but it is a step in the right direction.

In March, Lidl announced that 100% of their ownlabel packaging will be recyclable, reusable, or compostable by 2025. Lidl also wishes to cut its plastic packaging by 20% by 2022. Aldi has stated that they plan to reduce their plastic packaging to be 100% recyclable by 2022. These are steps in the right direction, for now. The fight for retailers to act more urgently still hangs. Retailers produce 80,000 tonnes of plastic waste in Ireland alone and this can be avoided.

Plastic is dangerous for the environment as it is made from a non-biodegradable substance: polythene. It can take 1,000 years to decompose. In 2013 a report from the European Commission revealed that plastic was found in the stomachs of over 93% of birds in the North Sea. The burning of plastic releases toxic substances such as carbon monoxide, dioxins, and furans. These chemicals severely pollute the atmosphere.

The reduction of plastic plan outlined by the retailers seems to follow the trend of bans circulating the globe. Back in 2011, Italy banned the use of plastic bags. Before the law was put in place 20 billion plastic bags were used a year. In 2016, France said that they

push to recognise the urgency of the matter needed.

Look at local actions being taken up recently. In Newpark, a secondary school in Blackrock, a campaign by transition year students called ‘Plastic Outta the Park’ has eradicated the use of plastic items on its school’s campus. A local small effort is something to be cherished. Next, look at a petition on change.org, for Trinity College, that proposed Trinity becomes a plastic-free campus. The petition was a success and the first steps to becoming plastic-free campus are to be implanted in coming months.

I urge you to join the battle against plastic. One local action that you can do, if you wish, is to sign a local petition that calls for supermarkets to eradicate the use of single-use plastic packaging. You can find it on change.org. titled ‘End Plastic Packaging of Fruit & Vegetables in Supermarkets.’ This is something we can do and can add to the slowly building snowball, that will only grow greater with more small actions.

COMMENT IT’S TIME TO TALK ABOUT THE LACK OF WOMEN IN POLITICS With just one female candidate being elected to UCDSU this year, Heather Reynolds examines the struggle in getting women into politics.

Student Union election season has ended, with only one of the six female candidates elected to a sabbatical position. This, being no surprise to anyone, was not commented on outside of a few unpopular tweets expressing mild resignation.

UCD students, used to the all-male sabbatical team from the 17/18 session, see the lone elected female candidate as either a step in the right direction or a non-issue, which, on one level it is. Going from a male dominated sabbatical team to a team which contains a singular woman is, on paper, an improvement.

However, when compared to the year previous which had a team consisting of two women and three men, and the year before that, which had three women, it shows that overall, the election of women to sabbatical positions is on a downturn.

It is worth examining why the first three eliminated candidates for the presidential race were all of the women who ran.

This downturn is not for lack of engagement, as there are women running. All but one seat in the contested sabbatical elections featured a female candidate, all of whom had relevant experience, interesting ideas, or both. In fact, almost half of the candidates who ran were women, all of whom were qualified and charismatic in their campaigns. So why did none of them win? The preferable answer is that the other candidates ran on better policies, or had more active campaign teams, however the campaign is only half the battle with elections. Personal experience with candidates, or internal bias, can change how a well-fought campaign

is perceived, and so misogyny is not something that can be easily discounted when discussing this issue. If public engagement was the decider between candidates, how did Murphy beat McFadden in Richview, where only she and Aljohmani had canvassers for the entire voting period? If people voted based on policies, how did O’Brien get more first round votes than McFadden or Aljohmani when both were more confident in their manifesto points at hustings? While it may seem reductive to assume lack of votes for female candidates is down to sexism, it is worth examining why the first three eliminated candidates for the presidential race were all of the women who ran. The same can be said in the race for Education Officer, where the candidates ran on virtually identical campaigns, had uncannily similar experience, and yet Crosby won by almost 10% of the vote.

Since 1975, only forty-three women have held a sabbatical position within the union. That is one woman for every year the union has been in session.

Considering that the union rarely has less than four sabbatical officers, and that the percentage of female students at third-level is typically slightly higher than male students, less than a quarter of those who have held a position being women speaks to a larger issue that has echoed across student unions in Ireland. This year, Trinity students’ union had thirteen candidates for election, two of which were women, one of whom was running for a position that was not actually part of the union, that of the University Times editor. Both female candidates won, however both were running virtually uncontested for the positions, as O’Mahony, now editor of the University Times, was running against a joke candidate who was also running for president.

She won 58.5% of the vote. Aimee Connolly, TCDSU’s incoming Education Officer, ran entirely unopposed.

The view on this may be that student politics is a nonsense aspect of student life that holds no bearing, and who cares who gets in because they never change anything anyway, they only sap funds from clubs and

societies. This may or may not be true, however student politics provide a valuable role to those who wish to pursue politics in their later careers. Paschal Donohoe, current Minister for Finance & Public Expenditure and Reform, started out in the Trinity College branch of Young Fine Gael and was actively involved in student politics throughout his time in university. Without this background, he may never have gotten anywhere in national politics as it provided him with experience and contacts which uninvolved students would never encounter.

It is notable that the percentage of women holding seats in the Dáil currently stands at 22%, less than a quarter of the seats available, in line with both Trinity

and UCD’s most recent elections, where one out of five officers are women. Student politics are a lot of people’s first foray into politics as a whole. In UCD it provides a lot of students with their first experience voting down the ballot, engaging with election material, and making an informed decision regarding who they want in a democratically elected position of authority. We are pushing women to get more involved with politics on a national level, yet male prevalence in student unions is going unexamined. Real world politics informs student politics, and student politics provides an introduction to real world politics, and so these pushes should be unified, as one cannot exist to the best of its potential without the other.

BIG BOY ISRAEL AGAINST UNDERDOG PALESTINE With unrest continuing between Israelites and Palestinians, t looks at what is being fought for.

The most recent bout of headline-grabbing “clashes” between the Israeli Defence Forces and the Palestinians, featured sniper fire aimed at unarmed protesters including teenage children, and one journalist whose flak jacket was labelled “Press.” Following on from this incident, it might be time to remind ourselves of the history of the conflict, what is at stake, and what we can do.

The modern movement for a Jewish state began with Theodor Herzl’s “Der Judenstaat.” There are two central arguments for this, both of which remain influential in modern political discourse. The first is that the reclaiming of Palestine is God’s wish, as he gave that land to the Israelites. The second, and more secular one, is that the Jewish people need a state to defend themselves against the oppression they face in other lands. Anti-Semitism has been a staple of European life for centuries, with pogroms and expulsions from Spain to Russia, and denunciations of the Jews for decades from the pulpits of nearly every Christian church.

Incidentally, anti-semitism was only condemned by the Church of Rome in 1962.

PICTURE: WIKIMEDIA

Anti-Semitism has been a staple of European life for centuries.

The majority of ethnically Jewish people in modern Israel are the descendants of people who were persuaded by one or both of the above arguments.

Palestine was chosen largely because of the historical and religious links to the land, although British support for Jewish resettlement in Palestine helped. British Jews had previously considered an offer that the British Empire provide large parts of what is now Kenya to European Jews trying to escape persecution in 1905.

The difficulty with this choice, of course, was that while Palestine had a historic connection to Judaism

and a large Jewish population, the majority of people support is a ragtag mix of much poorer Arab states, living in Kenya were non-jews. By the end of WWII human rights organisations, Islamists, and left wing only a third of people living in Palestine were Jewish. activists. One difference often claimed by supporters of The founding of Israel was a violent affair, beginning Israel is that it is the only true pluralist and democratic in 1947 with the Civil war between Arab and Jewish society in the middle east, whereas Palestine culturally communities in Palestine, and directly leading into the and politically is tribal and theocratic. Whilst Israel 1948 Arab-Israeli war. Between these 3,000 to 13,000 may not have an official state religion, it is defined as Arabs died, and Israel emerged as a victorious and “Jewish and Democratic,” and is seen by many religious established nation. jews as a fulfillment of God’s promise to Moses. This, The differences between Israel and Palestine are stark. combined with the “Law of Return,” a law whereby Israel has a GDP of $332.5 billion, whereas Palestine Jews may “return” to Israel and claim citizenship, has a mere $11.94 billion. Israel is a recognised mem- makes Israel at least partially ethnically and religiously ber of the UN and supported by the USA. Palestine is Jewish by definition. merely an observer state in the UN, and its international From a cursory glance at the headlines or television

coverage one would assume that this is not the case.

The international mainstream and establishment press and discourse continue to refer to the conflict in terms of “both sides.” In other words, as if there are two equal and legitimate causes. An example of this is in the Associated Press Tweet from April 6th which broke the news that Israeli troops had begun to “fire back” at Palestinian protesters who were burning tyres.

To phrase it this way is to imply that the smoke from burning tyres is somehow equal to sniper fire from one of the world’s most powerful militaries.

The differences between Israel and Palestine are stark.

Israel has a GDP of $332.5 billion, whereas Palestine has a mere $11.94 billion.

It is in this climate that the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement (BDS) exists. Its stated aim is to boycott Israeli products until Israel withdraws from the occupied territories of the West Bank and the Gaza strip. The BDS protects the full equality of Arab and Palestinian citizens of Israel, and supports the right of return of the Palestinian Diaspora. In other words, it complies with the UN resolutions on the issue. The primary method of the campaign is boycott. Officially aimed at companies with links to Israeli settlements or the IDF, many participants of the boycott refuse to purchase any Israeli goods. At the end of last month Trinity’s Students’ Union voted to support this campaign, and with boycotting being the specialty of UCD activists, perhaps it is time for us to consider similar action.

17TH APRIL 2018 7

LOOKING TO GET INVOLVED IN JOURNALISM OR DESIGN? Applications are open for positions on the editorial team of the University Observer for the academic year 2018/2019.

The Position:

The Editor of the University Observer is responsible for all aspects of the newspaper. The Editor is responsible for the management of the newspaper, the publication and distribution of the newspaper, the content of the newspaper and is responsible for the co-ordination of the newspaper’s writers. The Editor is responsible for all internal appointments (with the exception of the Deputy Editor and the Designer) within the newspaper as well as any disciplinary matters that may arise (with the exception of the Deputy Editor and the Designer).

EDITOR

The position of Editor of the University Observer is an extremely demanding one and applicants for the position should be aware that the role involves working unsocial hours in a highly pressurised environment. The Editor is responsible for all deadlines being met by the newspaper.

The position includes working alternate weekends.

The University Observer is editorially independent from the Students’ Union, as enshrined in the Union constitution. The Editor has complete authority over the content of the newspaper, proviso to the standard regulations governing newspaper content (e.g. defamation etc.).

The Editor is appointed for the full academic year, 2018/2019.

Remuneration:

Wages currently stand at €650 per issue minus taxes (eight editions of the paper are normally published) and some expenses incurred during production of the newspaper may be reclaimed.

Application Procedure: Applicants for the above position must submit a cover letter, curriculum vitae and a detailed proposal, outlining how the candidate intends to operate and manage the University Observer. Specifics areas where the newspaper can be improved should be dealt with in some detail.

Note:

• Applicants are only permitted to apply individually.

Joint applications will not be accepted.

• Canvassing members of the interview panel is forbidden. Candidates who canvass members of the interview panel may be disqualified from consideration.

• No formal training is offered to successful candidates.

• Applicants should make it clear in their cover letter whether or not they would like to be considered for the role of Deputy Editor as well as Editor.

•Applications should be no longer than 5,000 words.

Closing date for applications is 5pm, May 4th, 2018.

Applications should be sent as a .pdf file to editor@ universityobserver.ie or to the following address: Aoife Hardesty, The University Observer, Student Centre, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4.

Short-listed candidates will be called for an interview.

The Position:

Note:

The University Observer is editorially independent from the Students’ Union, as enshrined in the Union constitution. The Deputy Editor has authority over the content of the newspaper, subject to the standard regulations governing newspaper content (e.g. defamation etc.).

Closing date for applications is 5pm, May 4th, 2018.

The Deputy Editor of the University Observer, upon direction from the Editor, is responsible for all aspects of • Applicants are only permitted to apply individually. the newspaper. The Deputy Editor, subject in all matters concerning the newspaper to the direction of the Editor, Joint applications will not be accepted. shall be responsible, with the Editor, for the management of the newspaper, the publication and distribution of • Canvassing members of the interview panel is forbidthe newspaper, the content of the newspaper and is responsible for the co-ordination of the newspaper’s writers. den. Candidates who canvass members of the interview panel may be disqualified from consideration.

The position of Deputy Editor of the University Observer is an extremely demanding one and applicants for the • No formal training is offered to successful candidates. position should be aware that the role involves working unsocial hours in a highly pressurised environment. The • Applicants should make it clear in their cover letter Deputy Editor is responsible for all deadlines being met by the newspaper. whether or not they would like to be considered for the role of Deputy Editor as well as Editor.

The position includes working alternate weekends.

•Applications should be no longer than 5,000 words.

DEPUTY EDITOR

The Deputy Editor is appointed for the full academic year, 2018/2019.

Remuneration:

Wages currently stand at €610 per issue minus taxes (eight editions of the paper are expected to be published) and some expenses incurred during production of the newspaper may be reclaimed

Application Procedure:

Applicants for the above position must submit a cover letter, curriculum vitae and a detailed proposal, outlining how the candidate intends to operate and manage the University Observer. Specifics areas where the newspaper can be improved should be dealt with in some detail.

Applications should be sent as a .pdf file to editor@ universityobserver.ie or to the following address: Aoife Hardesty, The University Observer, Student Centre, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4.

Short-listed candidates will be called for an interview.

The Position:

ART & DESIGN EDITOR

You will be responsible for the design and layout of the newspaper, working in conjunction with the editors and contributors in producing and sourcing high-quality imagery and related media. The position requires an understanding of visual culture, and the integral role it plays in journalism. The position will require work at alternate weekends, whilst working hours during the week are flexible. Although this work is highly demanding it is also highly rewarding. The successful candidate would be expected to constantly strive to improve the overall design of the newspaper.

The Art, Design & Technology Director reports to the Editor and Deputy Editor.

Remuneration:

Note:

• Applicants may be required to present a portfolio of work upon request.

• Interviews may be conducted using modern communications media for candidates who are not able to attend in person.

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8 VOLUME XXIV, ISSUE 8

FEATURES LESSER SPOTTED UCD: THE OLD DRAMSOC THEATRE In this year’s final instalment of Lesser Spotted UCD, Sambhavi Sudhakar delves into the past of the old Dramsoc Theatre.

The most recent bout of headline-grabbing “clashes” between the Israeli Defence Forces and the Palestinians, featured sniper fire aimed at unarmed protesters including teenage children, and one journalist whose flak jacket was labelled “Press.” Following on from this incident, it might be time to remind ourselves of the history of the conflict, what is at stake, and what we can do.

I was painfully shy when I got to college but I loved creative writing, and when I saw dramsoc were running a scriptwriting programme I decided to get involved.

Palestine was chosen largely because of the historical and religious links to the land, although British support for Jewish resettlement in Palestine helped. British Jews had previously considered an offer that the British Empire provide large parts of what is now Kenya to European Jews trying to escape persecution in 1905.

The difficulty with this choice, of course, was that while Palestine had a historic connection to Judaism and a large Jewish population, the majority of people living in Kenya were non-jews. By the end of WWII only a third of people living in Palestine were Jewish.

The founding of Israel was a violent affair, beginning in 1947 with the Civil war between Arab and Jewish

The modern movement for a Jewish state began with Theodor Herzl’s “Der Judenstaat.” There are two central arguments for this, both of which remain influential in modern political discourse. The first is that the reclaiming of Palestine is God’s wish, as he gave that land to the Israelites. The second, and more secular one, is that the Jewish people need a state to defend themselves against the oppression they face in other lands. Anti-Semitism has been a staple of European life for centuries, with pogroms and expulsions from Spain to Russia, and denunciations of the Jews for decades from the pulpits of nearly every Christian church.

Incidentally, anti-semitism was only condemned by the Church of Rome in 1962.

The majority of ethnically Jewish people in modern Israel are the descendants of people who were persuaded by one or both of the above arguments.

communities in Palestine, and directly leading into the society in the middle east, whereas Palestine culturally 1948 Arab-Israeli war. Between these 3,000 to 13,000 and politically is tribal and theocratic. Whilst Israel Arabs died, and Israel emerged as a victorious and may not have an official state religion, it is defined as established nation.

“Jewish and Democratic,” and is seen by many religious The differences between Israel and Palestine are stark. jews as a fulfillment of God’s promise to Moses. This, Israel has a GDP of $332.5 billion, whereas Palestine combined with the “Law of Return,” a law whereby has a mere $11.94 billion. Israel is a recognised mem- Jews may “return” to Israel and claim citizenship, ber of the UN and supported by the USA. Palestine is makes Israel at least partially ethnically and religiously merely an observer state in the UN, and its international Jewish by definition. support is a ragtag mix of much poorer Arab states, From a cursory glance at the headlines or televihuman rights organisations, Islamists, and left wing sion coverage one would assume that this is not the activists. One difference often claimed by supporters of case. The international mainstream and establishment Israel is that it is the only true pluralist and democratic press and discourse continue to refer to the conflict in terms of “both sides.” In other words, as if there are two equal and legitimate causes. An example of this is in the Associated Press Tweet from April 6th which broke the news that Israeli troops had begun to “fire back” at Palestinian protesters who were burning tyres.

To phrase it this way is to imply that the smoke from burning tyres is somehow equal to sniper fire from one of the world’s most powerful militaries.

It is in this climate that the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement (BDS) exists. Its stated aim is to boycott Israeli products until Israel withdraws from the occupied territories of the West Bank and the Gaza strip. The BDS protects the full equality of Arab and Palestinian citizens of Israel, and supports the right of return of the Palestinian Diaspora. In other words, it complies with the UN resolutions on the issue. The primary method of the campaign is boycott. Officially aimed at companies with links to Israeli settlements or the IDF, many participants of the boycott refuse to purchase any Israeli goods. At the end of last month Trinity’s Students’ Union voted to support this campaign, and with boycotting being the specialty of UCD activists, perhaps it is time for us to consider similar action.

LOOKING BACK TO SEE THE FUTURE OF PROTESTING IN UCD 63.2% of UCD students feel that we should be doing more to protest against issues - but how does this compare with a UCD of the past?

Claudia Dalby takes a look.

Fifty years ago, the famous Gentle Revolutions in UCD had students protesting everything from women’s attire, to administrative incompetence, to insufficient facilities. Aspirations for greater change were rife as students found themselves a window of opportunity to make their voices heard. How are we in 2018, faring in comparison?

March and April of 2018 saw students from Trinity and DCU make national news as they took measures to protest increases in fees. After an unprecedented price increase of 27% to DCU’s student accommodation, students responded by staging the #ShanowenShakedown, a mass sleep-out. The students of Trinity College Dublin saw success after two weeks of protesting following the announcement of a €450 charge for exam repeats. The bold tactics used by protestors - such as cutting off access to the main entrances and occupying the Book of Kells - caught the attention of the administration, causing them to rescind the decision.

The audacity of the 60s and 80s was found in their willingness to commit to a cause.

UCD has not seen similar protests in recent years.

The University Observer surveyed 171 UCD students to ask their opinion concerning their own political engagement. 78.4% of students surveyed considered themselves politically aware.

66 of the 171 students had protested something in the past year, and many cited voting and canvassing as forms of taking a political stand. Fewer than 55% could name all of their local TDs, and 11% had not made any move to make their political opinions known.

However, students are bothered by political issues.

69 students feel that not enough is being done to protest accommodation and tuition fees. State funding for education has dropped almost 40%, from €1.4 billion in

2007/2008 to about €860 million this year. The state of fees in Ireland is at crisis point, with austerity pushing many students who cannot afford university to spend more time working than studying.

Counselling and mental health services in UCD are also a central issue. Many express a frustration with the university administration. One student noted, “students should be protesting the lack of transparent governance in UCD.” With the never-ending health services waiting lists, and building sites cropping up unannounced, students feel less like the university is working for them, and more that it is working for profit alone.

If we look back fifty years, it is clear that the big issues - fees and services - have been regular points of objection. The ‘Gentle Revolutions’ in 1968/1969 fell when student activism was at its peak internationally and reverberating through the halls of UCD. The “disorderly and disrespectful” move from Earlsfort terrace to the Belfield campus in 1968 caused an apathy towards the “incompetent” administration.

Protests were regular and rampant during that time. The avid protestors aimed to draw attention to lesser known student issues, such as the loneliness of student life, difficulties of studying, and general costs of university.

They displayed acute self-awareness, wanting their protests to highlight “the implications on wider Irish society,” and acknowledging their privilege as students. As portrayed in the RTÉ documentary which covered the protests, at the time their ideas were described as “naïve.”

Results did not always transpire. Some issues were addressed - for example, women students who were not allowed to wear trousers to college put on “a mass protest, with women students all wearing trousers and storming the corridors” which “put paid” to that rule, according to a 1969 graduate. In the fifty years since, the library and study space solutions they sought have been attended to, yet larger problems they were addressing are still prevalent.

Skipping forward to the 2000s, state support of

education continues to slip while the numbers attending willingness to commit to a cause. When asked what third-level rapidly rises. Gradually, numbers at pro- students should be protesting, one student stated: tests, which had been lowering since the 80s, began “Whatever they want really. Protesting is key.” Another to rise again. said, “Given students have always been the driving 2010 saw almost 40,000 students marching against force of social movements, I think they should be prorising fees, which the Irish Times described as “the larg- testing whatever issues they feel passionate about - so est student protest for a generation.” Similar protests, long as they are doing so with feeling, and not for the organised mainly by USI, saw students from all over sake of it.”

Ireland marching between 2011 and 2016.

The last two decades have seen a fall in numbers 2018 and the 8th amendment referendum has brought attending protests compared to the Gentle Revolution. thousands to the streets. Rally for Life, and marches The protests in DCU and Trinity erupted after a public for the Strike for Repeal and International Women’s decision was made, an event occurred. For UCD, deciDay, have brought in huge numbers, showing the scale sions on new campus buildings, and the endlessly long of support for the respective causes. With eyes on the waiting list, are slow burners, too quiet to catch. A upcoming referendum, they are coming together in gradual incline in protesting, and an event to spark it, strength and solidarity. might take UCD back to its hayday of former protestThe audacity of the 60s and 80s was found in their ing glory.

17TH APRIL 2018 9

FEATURES

COLLEGE; IT’S NOT FOR EVERYONE Rory Clarke discovers how and why Ireland has become obsessed with college education and questions the wisdom of such a trend.

The line ‘school didn’t really suit me’ has become synonymous with hugely successful global entrepreneurs and forward thinkers.

DIARY OF A TAOISHMUCK An exclusive look into the personal diary of Leo Varadkar.

Dear Diary, Since I, like, gush over the sound of my voice 24/7 and I’m totes the techiest Taoiseach of them all it comes so natural for me to tell Siri all my problems. Ah Siri, the only female I’m capable of feeling beyond mild apathy for; mostly due to her facilitation of my self-obsessed googling of my totes soaring IPSOS/Irish Times voter satisfaction ratings. LEGEND. Alas, I tragically spilled my ‘World’s Best Taoiseach’ mug of chamomile tea on my iPhone X so I must resort to ye olde method of writing by hand like a plebeian. #SadTaoish!

Maybe I’ll bag a free replacement for myself and my bearded bae of a housing Minister Murphs’ (what a lad!) after that €13 billion of Apple’s we’re desperately pleading the European Commission to just not give us falls through? Or if we keep doing nada to resolve our corporation tax loopholes so mammoth multinationals can continue ravaging half the population unencumbered by parching our tax revenue reservoirs? I guess kinda like how Ulster Rugby players can apparently ravage half the population at their own free will too. Awks…

Son of a socialist! This writing stuff is exhausting. If I ever want propaganda spewed about me I can normally just order my communications unit minions (or ‘spin unit’ as Mary Lou-ser McDonald calls it) to whip up a photo-op of me looking dashing and audacious in a construction worker hard hat or holding a putrid proletarian baby in my hands. If this is what it means to be a working-class wench slaving away like the Ruth ‘Commie’ Coppingers and Paul ‘the Pauper’ Murphys of this world then smite me down holy Hosanna Thatcher so I can soak up my plush public pension siphoned from the pockets of my loyal subjects of Ireland before the age of 40.

It’s time for me to bid adieu and attend to my nocturnal ritual of wistfully dreaming of Angela Merkel cradling me in her lap as she strokes my hair and calls me her next Macron. Maybe needlessly expelling that Russian diplomat will get me a raise on my allowance this month!

Leo the Legend, Out!

because in those countries far more school leavers go into apprenticeships than into third-level education.

In Germany even primary school children learn basic manual skills and two thirds of school leavers take up apprenticeships and one third go to university.”

It might be said that the obsession with the CAO and formal college education is due to a lack of awareness of the alternatives and their benefits. According to Fields, this is for a number of reasons, among them “a lack of communication and advertising/promotion on behalf of the FET sector” and a common perception amongst students that “without college they will end up in a dead-end job.” Many people are not aware, for example, that FET courses are aligned with the National Framework of Qualifications (NFQ) and can thus assist in formal progression. Unlike degrees, these schemes offer a near-certain pathway for people to work in certain preferred fields.

The solution is far from obvious. Mr Byrne suggests

a system of “aptitude tests and interviews” to determine an applicant’s compatibility for a certain course.

Although administratively “inconvenient,” such matriculation requirements are far more likely to ensure that only those that are suited to college actually go to college. He offers the example of “a student may get high Leaving Cert points and aspire to become a psychologist but if they do not have an empathetic and non-judgemental personality they are unlikely to become an effective therapist.”

There is little doubt that if the current trend continues, with more and more of our school leavers proceeding to undertake a college education that does not suit them, Ireland as a whole will suffer. The marginalisation of non-academic skills, which is a consequence of this academic obsession, will lead to damaging uniformity in society, repressing art, culture, and expression. For some, college is the perfect place to improve and grow, but not for all. School simply does not suit everyone.

PICTURE: WIKIMEDIA

and Byrne condemn appraisals of a school’s quality based “on the numbers progressing to HE [higher education] over FET [further education & training].” Fields expands on that point, noting that “school guidance counsellors are required to push third-level and are often reluctant to highlight other options,” possibly for fear of seeing their school regress in the league tables (which Byrne castigates as “a staple obsession of the Irish middle class”).

The line ‘school didn’t really suit me’ has become synonymous with hugely successful global entrepreneurs and forward thinkers. While it would be misguided to claim all non-college graduates go on to become leaders in their field (á la Alex Ferguson, Richard Branson, and Steve Jobs) it is clear that formal education does not suit everybody and moreover that it can repress those who would succeed in other areas.

Mr. Byrne recalls “many students who were not really capable of learning independently and who required a great deal of ‘hand holding.’” While college education is clearly not without merit, it is not the holy grail that many suggest it is.

Byrne points out that, ironically, in response to “the According to Sean Byrne, a retired DIT lecturer and entry to third-level of many students who do not have leading thinker in this sphere, this attitude traces back an aptitude for academic education, there has been a lot to Ireland’s historical “neglect of vocational educa- ‘dumbing down’ of courses,” to the extent that although tion.” Due to “an underdeveloped economy with few we have become increasingly obsessed with college job opportunities an overemphasis [has been placed] degrees their practical value is actually decreasing. on academic qualifications.” Ms. Sharon Fields, of the Mr Byrne believes that this shift towards purely Dublin and Dún Laoghaire Education and Training academic education has contributed to the “acute shortBoard, goes even further, suggesting that a negative age of skills such as bricklaying [and] carpentry” in attitude has developed towards practical skills as “em- Ireland and the redistribution of these jobs to “workers ployers are looking to engage employees with higher from countries in central and Eastern Europe.” This levels of education.” is a result of the relative neglect of the development The wide proliferation of college-focused school of practical skills in Ireland. He cites the example of environments has contributed to a devaluation of ap- Germany as propagating advanced education, across prenticeships and practical skills in Ireland. Both Fields a broad spectrum; “[They’re] getting those jobs

Dear Diary, What a long day! People don’t realise how much pressure it is being Europe’s marginally more ethnically diverse answer to Justin Trudeau. I mean, making littleto-no substantive effort to effectively tackle domestic issues like: a flatlining health service, a Brexit policy incoherent beyond the mantra of “Europe good, Britain bad,” a homeless population that could form its own town the size of Longford, and WORST of all… maintaining this arduous gym bunny lifestyle so the salivating press can fester over pics of my perspiration-laced biceps long enough to forget I’ve achieved nothing in my tenure, LOL! It takes its toll but hey, I guess the #Taoishlife chose me; not like I staked out Fine Gael parliamentary party members and courted potential ministerial support for years in advance of that personified pile of peat moss Enda Ken-doll’s inevitable elimination from this Oireachtas TV special of Celebrity Big Brother. The thrill of public service and fulfilling my civic responsibility for the good of the humble citizen really makes this job worth it though. And, of course, by humble citizen I mean anyone earning above the 40% income tax bracket and that owns a couple of three-bedroom apartments in Ranelagh or Donnybrook.

Besides that, in the world of do-nothing Dáil proceedings things have been rather blasé, recently it’s WAY woke. We did pass that legislation setting the abortion referendum date for May 25th after my party successfully, and humbly, postponed its advancement through the Oireachtas for as long as is constitutionally and humanly possible to impede social progress. Not only that, but we managed to divide Fianna Fáil in two now that that debilitating, drivel-spewing delinquent Micheál Martin decided to sacrifice every ounce of his rural constituents’ morals becoming prochoice for the sake of a few youth votes. How did we not think of this years ago?

Young people don’t vote LMAO! I feel for him though, I know the pain of being subjected to the intolerable torment of taking into account the thoughts of conservative Corkonian Christendom *cough* that personified version of a soggy salted cracker Simon Coveney *cough* Anyways, I’m gonna crack open some rad caramel IPA craft beers that match my alluringly exotic complexion with my ministerial ‘bros before hoes’ (or should I say before bros?) partner Murphs.’ Maybe tonight I’ll stop myself from fantasising of what it would be like to caress his neo-yipster beard in a purely platonic way.

Leo the Legend, Out!

PICTURE: MEADHBH SHERIDAN

10 VOLUME XXIV, ISSUE 8

PICTURE: MEADHBH SHARIDAN

Modern Irish society has, for a myriad of reasons, cultivated an idealistically positive attitude towards college degrees, often bordering on obsession. Increasingly, parents are subscribing to the adage that success is a foregone conclusion for college graduates. Many would argue that a large proportion of school leavers are ill-suited to academic education, the inherent design of the Leaving Cert/CAO system, endemic social condemnation of non-college graduates, and pressured school environments pigeonhole many students into degree courses that they neither need nor want.

FAILED MODULES: A STUDENT’S PERSPECTIVE

FEATURES

With so many students failing modules every year in UCD, Gavin Tracey talks with students about their experiences of failing modules.

Earlier this year, the University Observer reported that almost 4000 students had failed at least one module in 2016/2017, which earned UCD at least three quarters of a million euro in repeat and resit fees. The University Observer sat down with students who have failed one or more module(s), and asked them about their own experiences.

I feel that it is very unfair, especially when other colleges such as Maynooth and DIT charge so much less for repeat exams.

Sarah* is a second year Arts student, who failed two modules in first year. “I failed the two modules for several reasons. In the case of Early Modern Europe, I felt that the module itself was very difficult because in the lectures, the lecturers did not use any form of slides or power-points, or put anything up on the screen to take notes from and instead it was just one man or two men talking about the subject. They also actually discouraged us from taking notes, saying that it would be better to just listen.”

Harry*, a third year Arts student, had similar problems: “I failed for a number of reasons. I was having many personal issues at the time outside of college.

so my parents agreed to help out.” She added, “it made me feel a lot worse for failing. As of right now though we still haven’t paid the fees off and we have received a letter in the post asking for them, but we will have to pay them at a later date. It may not have put me personally under financial pressure, it has definitely put my family under large financial pressure.”

“I feel that it is very unfair, especially when other colleges such as Maynooth and DIT charge so much less for repeat exams. What annoys me as well is that it is not clear where exactly the money goes, and there are still hundreds of things around UCD which need fixing and it seems that this money isn’t used to fix them. So it begs the question, where exactly does all the money go and what is it used for? I feel that this should be made clearer to the students because it’s their or their parents hard-earned cash.”

Harry has similar concerns when it comes to the

repeat fees, telling the University Observer “the repeat fee was really a strain, because my parents weren’t in a position to pay it, so I had to take on more hours at work.”

Both students interviewed said that UCD need to step up to the plate and start caring more about the welfare of their students. This could also be having a negative effect on the incoming students. Harry, when he was in 6th year, was told by his guidance counselor that “while UCD was great and all, it was a huge place, and people will ‘walk over you if you fall in a corridor.’

I kind of wish I had listened to her and gone to a smaller college, like Maynooth or something.”

If this is the reputation UCD is now earning for itself, the administration should start listening to the students and their concerns, before talented individuals start flocking to other universities. *Not actual names.

PICTURE: FLICKR

GAVIN TRACEY FEATURES EDITOR

I signed up for counselling, but I had left it too late and wasn’t able to see anyone. I tried talking with my tutor, who was understanding, and they sent me to the module coordinator, who was again sympathetic, but could only offer me an extension.”

This is a complaint that many students who spoke to the University Observer had, poorly organised modules meant that revision was next to impossible, with no notes on Blackboard or lecture notes. As well as this, the tutors and lecturers can only help up to a certain point, after which students are effectively left to fend for themselves, unless they can afford to seek help outside of UCD. “I kind of fell into a bad downward spiral, I wasn’t feeling well so I didn’t go in to college, which meant that I fell further behind, which was meaning I was feeling less and less motivated to go in,” Harry tells the University Observer. Sarah says, “while I was struggling with the two modules, I never really asked for help from the tutors or lecturers, because I believed that I would be able to get everything together in the end to pass the two subjects, but that obviously didn’t happen. After I failed the two exams I had to do two repeat essays, which I got help with from a tutor who specialises in repeat essays. I found this to be helpful, but I still don’t know if the essays I did were good enough to help me pass the two modules and I won’t know until I get the results in the summer.”

Throughout all of the student testimonies, it is clear that there are severe communication problems between academic staff and students. Harry says, “There are student advisors, but I was actually completely unaware that they were there until the start of my second year.”

Many students have this same problem and many who do know that student advisors exist are not aware of who their student advisor is.

For many students, fees are the main concern when having to repeat a module. Sarah explains, “the fees for failing two modules were extremely high, and although I have a job I would never have been able to work enough hours while in college to pay for the two resists,

€40 TICKETS ON SALE IN ALL UCDSU SHOPS from 9am Wednesday 21st February When they’re gone.... they’re gone!!!

Don’t be disappointed.

17TH APRIL 2018 11

UCD STUDENTS’ UNION – REELIN’ As we near the end of the current academic year, this year’s sabbatical team sat down with the University Observer to discuss their year in office.

What was the best thing about the year?

Barry Murphy, President: “The best thing the SU has done was our revamp with the exam period, improving our bus shuttle service, mainly making more students aware of it and having the bus going more frequently, and then our increased presence at the RDS, not just big flags and pop ups, but us getting out there and talking to students.”

Robert Sweeney, Education Officer: “I would say I was happiest in the role when I was able to get an issue for a student sorted and got to see their positive reaction.”

Eoghan Mac Domhnaill, Welfare Officer: “What I enjoyed the most was the student cases. There are students who you’re really able to help and some students you’d never see again, but there is the odd one or two that you’d see around campus that you’d go “maybe they’re in college because you are able to help them out.” One person came in and gave me homemade biscuits; things like that are just really lovely.”

Niall Torris, Graduate Officer: “I really enjoyed Mind, Body, and Soul just there now. I thought it was great.

A lot of people really responded to it well. The best part of my role was the case work, it was really fulfilling.”

The Ascough Fiasco

In the second week of semester one, the University Observer broke the story that then-President Katie Ascough arranged for the Wingin’ It in UCD books to be re-printed in order to have abortion information removed.

Following the release of that information, students gathered enough signatures for an impeachment referendum, with all four remaining sabbatical officers campaigning in favour of impeachment.

Do you believe impeaching Katie Ascough was the right thing to do?

Barry Murphy: “Yes. It was the right thing for the SU, for the student body, and especially in the build up towards this current referendum on the 25th of May. If Katie Ascough had survived the impeachment we would not have had the engagement with the union in that the majority of students would have hated us and would refuse to engage in a lot of our events.”

Robert Sweeney: “I think [the students] made their decision, and that was the decision they believed in. I think it showed that students do care about what happens in their Students’ Union when 6000 people turned out [to vote]. I don’t think… the union could have continued in the way that it was so it was a fix that had to be made.”

Eoghan Mac Domhnaill: “I do. You can’t argue with democracy. The students stood up against. I originally defended Katie, I did that, and I don’t know if I’d do it again looking back on it. The students made up their mind, we made up our mind, and we lost someone who was a really good friend. During the summer, we were really really good friends, the five of us, and it wasn’t a nice way to end it.”

Niall Torris: “I think they were right to vote her in, if that’s what they wanted to do originally. I think they were right to vote her out if that’s what they wanted to do later on. That’s the way the organisation works. [Students] are perfectly valid to hold their elected officers to account. I think they are well within their rights.”

Former President Mary Robinson receiving the James Joyce Award from the L&H.

‘Won’t Someone Please Think of the Children?’

Following two referendums amongst the student body in the past five years, UCDSU has a pro-choice mandate that mandates that they campaign to repeal the eighth amendment. UCDSU has been working with UCD for Choice to run this campaign.

Are you happy with how the campaign has been run this year in the lead up to a referendum on the issue scheduled to take place on May 25th?

Barry Murphy: “The campaign for repeal was always going to be our biggest campaign this year. I feel like we’ve done well, could have done better. We are looking at next week as our build-up towards the referendum with voter registration drive and online campaigns and videos, when students are studying and won’t be able to come to rallies, but will hopefully be on social media.

Also, the process of impeachment, while not part of the campaign, got people thinking about abortion and pro-life vs pro-choice and really made the campus aware of the upcoming referendum. I feel like we’ve done that well, despite the [lack of a] C&C officer.”

Robert Sweeney: “The repeal campaign has been quite effective, a lot of people have liked it and it’s roped a lot of people in. The repeal campaign has been one big success, and I hope it will grow and go further and that we can do more.”

Eoghan Mac Domhnaill: “In terms of the eighth, we’ve had a very good working relationship with UCD for choice. We had over 300 people at the March for Choice in September, and about 500 people at the launch for repeal this semester, which was absolutely phenomenal. UCD students really stood up and made their voices heard, and I think that’s what you need.”

Niall Torris: “I think through UCD for Choice we have done quite well. Aoife Gray and everyone involved in the committee have done stellar work this year. They’ve held really great events, the panel discussion that went on last month was fantastic. The idea of having an expert panel discussion as opposed to some kind of formal debate, offered something students weren’t getting in another way. Ultimately, that idea came out because there was an engagement with the other side of the debate, over what kind of engagement can we have with each other.”

Katie Ascough’s ‘Vote No to Impeachment’ campaign.

The Fee Gees: How Deep Are Your Pockets?

The summer of 2016 saw the publishing of the Cassells Report, which looked into the future of Ireland’s third-level funding. The report proposed three options for its future funding: increase government spending on higher education so that it would be entirely state-funded, continue with the current model of ‘free fees,’ but with increased state-funding, or introduce an income-contingent loan system whereby payment of third-level fees would be deferred until the student has graduated.

UCD students voted in a referendum for UCDSU to lobby for the adoption of the first option, an entirely government-funded approach to third-level education.

Anne-Marie Keogh at Relay for Life

Do you think the union is doing enough about student fees?

Robert Sweeney: “I think [campaigning to improve fees on a national level] has been difficult. I think the union is pushing but in terms of students I think they have a problem with the university and what they’re doing to raise money. There isn’t a focus on funding and fees because the eighth amendment is this year’s topic and it is this year’s push, and so is housing. Those are the two things that are affecting people massively where fees is something that will affect the funding of universities as time goes on. We will see a deterioration in funding, it’s a slowly sinking ship.”

Barry Murphy: “On fees we had the March for Education in the middle of the impeachment referendum, and it completely affected the turn-out. It showed some of these students maybe don’t care about fees, as UCD is in one of the most affluent parts of the country. It was really disappointing to see, maybe around 30-40 people turned up, if even. We’ve had an interest though in specific fees like the resit fees and the student centre levy, graduate fees. Students have showed objections to those and a want for them to be changed, e.g. UCD Free and Fair at the moment. If there was a bigger interest in fees we would have definitely been there supporting them, but there wasn’t in first semester. Not that people are content with the current fees but they are not concerned enough to do anything about it.”

The launch of the campaign for Repeal by UCDSU and UCD for Choice.

12 VOLUME XXIV, ISSUE 8

IN THE YEAR 2017/2018 Paying for an Empty Shell: the Student Centre Levy

The Student Centre Levy was first introduced to UCD in 1998, at which time it was R£30 the equivalent of €38.

In 2006, students voted to increase the Student Centre Levy to fund the construction of the New Student Centre.

Now plans are being proposed to build an extension to the Student Centre, with the suggestion that UCD students will pay for the extension through the continuation of the Student Centre Levy. It is expected that students will have the opportunity to vote on this issue next year.

Do you support the continuation of the Student Centre Levy to fund the Student Centre Expansion?

Barry Murphy: “It’s a very difficult question, something that went to our last Council. I don’t think students should be funding the agenda of a few people. I think students who have been paying this levy on UCD, and [who have seen] what it has done for the student body, would be happy to vote on its future, as long as there’s consultation and they’re getting what they want out of it. The levy goes towards student services, which control the lighting, the offices, the printing of the counselling services but the wages and salaries of the counsellors are paid by the university. They need to cut themselves from that altogether so it becomes a university issue, rather than having a company that looks over recreational and sporting services looking over counselling services. I know that if we were to have a vote tomorrow for every student paying €5 [to fund counselling services], many students would be happy to do it. It would be nearly unanimous, even if it was €10, but we shouldn’t have to do that. The university should be funding that themselves. It depends on the conditions, what it’s including, what consultation there has been, and its not [a] minority pushing something.”

Robert Sweeney: “I think there needs to be consultation done there, it needs to be effective and there needs to be transparency on where is the loan at the moment, how much is left. I think there needs to be a high level of consultation not only amongst the union council, I think socieities feed in there a lot, and also around sport.

“I think the student centre levy could fund things like a free doctors service and I think we need to know why the Student Centre Levy can’t fund it, what the opportunities are there for, what HEA funding does fund and what students should be funding. Should students fund library improvements when that’s the responsibility of the university? Should students fund an extra counsellor when that’s up to HEA funding and the university? I would support it if students wanted it and if there was transparency surrounding it.”

Eoghan Mac Domhnaill: “I have issues with the proposed development because it doesn’t account for the counselling service. … Until that problem is addressed… I don’t know if we can get behind a student levy, because welfare is really one of the most important things that a university should care about, education yes, but you have to make sure they get through the education.”

Niall Torris: “Not in its current plan. It’s all well and good to build it, and there is a need for increased services and amenities… The services are already strained and there is quality issues with some of the services that have been there for a while, just through wear and tear over time. It does need to be developed, but… there is no point in building an empty shell.

“Students in UCD are, in particular, crying out for improvements to the counselling service. At a lot of other universities, their Student Centre Levy is used to cover the cost of doctor’s appointments and stuff like that, so students don’t have to pay the cost. There are issues like that that could be a massive benefit to students with an increase, that just are not being looked at. If you’re going to have to pay, what are you paying for the university and what are you paying for that’s more of a direct benefit to you as a student?”

Stressing About the Counselling Service

The University Observer has previously reported about the excessive waiting lists to access counselling in UCD. The length of waiting lists is a concern for large numbers of students and is an issue that was raised by many candidates during the recent SU elections.

UCDSU and students marching to ratify the CRPD.

Candidates for President at Hustings.

Does you think that improvements to the service are possible in the near future?

Barry Murphy: “Myself and our team, we have been pushing for improvement of counselling services. It’s a very difficult situation, in that you talk to students and you hear what’s going on upstairs in the counselling service and you read articles in the student papers and you then go to sit down with the Dean of Students and the Head of Student Services and they tell you a completely different story and they show you figures to tell you how its all lies. As the representative of the student body you always go with what the students are telling you. Our biggest thing was to do with how students were treated when they went to the counselling services. They were told that they can’t be seen for two weeks, which is horrific in any service. They are currently hiring three new counsellors to come in this summer. They are bringing in clinical analysis, the triage, where if a student comes in they are screened for ten minutes to determine the urgency of the case. There are some that don’t approve because why should the students that feel that they need to see a counsellor, which is a very fair point, but its the best way to determine who needs it most as soon as possible. It is too late for this year’s exams, but at least it will be in place for next year. It has been discussed since last November.”

Eoghan Mac Domhnaill: “Current situation: bad. The mental health review that was published has a number of proposals. Some of the proposals made in that are going to be positive and are looking quite positive. Other proposals, not so much. I think the future of the counselling service will be better because of the recommendations made there. The triage thing, it’s being looked at, and it’s going to be one of the most positive things. Welfare is a signposting position. You’re trying to get people to the best supports for them so that areas like the counselling service aren’t super full all the time. So that people are getting contact at that point, so I can tell them that the waiting list is quite long at the moment, but there is this external counselling, and they are very good, and it’s all free, and… what people don’t know is that the triage service will fix that, it will really help, not completely, but it will be really positive.”

Students at the Rally for Solidarity.

Analysis of the SU’s Year

Whatever this year’s sabbatical team may wish, their year in office will be remembered as the year in which the pro-life SU President was impeached. That memory will be aided as the impeachment took place in the same academic year as the referendum on the eight amendment. Campaign-wise this year’s SU has focused mainly on the repeal campaign, and this campaign was majorly aided by UCD for Choice who provided an organised group of people who have worked tirelessly for this cause.

The sabbatical team rightly give praise to this year’s disability coordinator Amy Hassett who helped get the SU involved in several events including the March in Support of Disabilities to ratify the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

At the time of writing, the level of success the union has had in changing university policies is not yet clear, although an announcement is expected regarding a change in resit and repeat fees, an area Education Officer Robert Sweeney has focused heavily on improving.

The Welfare Officer Eoghan Mac Domhnaill has been drawing attention to the long waiting lists to access counselling services in UCD, even bringing the issue up at high-level boards. The news that new staff are being hired should be welcomed, but will it be enough to improve the problem of the length of waiting lists?

With Niall Torris remaining as Graduate Officer next year it will be interesting to see if he does manage to introduce the role of Graduate Student Advisor. Torris has not been the most popular Graduate Officer, with over half (60%) of students in the graduate-only Carysfort campus voting to reopen nominations instead of voting for him in the recent elections.

Barry Murphy is heading into his first full year as President, a much happier-appearing man than when he started as President in November. Only time will tell whether he will successfully be able to make change easier by maintaining pressure on university management.

Words and transcriptions by Aoife Hardesty, Dylan O’Neill, and Katia Gillen.

Pro-Life Protestors at the launch for Repeal.

17TH APRIL 2018 13

ILLUSTRATIONS IN REVIEW

Marc Coyle

Meadhbh Sheridan Rhea Cassidy

Aisling Brennan

Rhea Cassidy

Priya Garg

14 VOLUME XXIV, ISSUE 8

Meadhbh Sheridan

SCIENCE FORGET ABOUT BATMAN, MYOTIS BATS COULD SAVE HUMANITY In conversation with Emma Teeling of UCD’s BatLab, Aoife Hardesty explains how bats could help prevent cancer.

According to a team of researchers at the BatLab in UCD, bats may hold the key to the secret of diseasefree ageing.

The team, led by Professor Emma Teeling, have been studying bats that live exceptionally long lives for creatures of their size: the species Myotis. Their research, published in Science Advances, has shown that as these bats age, their chromosomes are protected differently to those in humans and other animals.

In addition to living longer, bats seem to age healthier than humans, with cancer being very rare Teeling is affectionately referred to as ‘the batlady,’ by students who’ve been in her classes, because of her enthusiasm and passion for bats and the genetic secrets they possess. Speaking to the University Observer, Teeling explains that she started working in UCD in 2005 “looking at the evolutionary history of bats,” which led to her being awarded ‘Young Researcher of the Year’ by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI).

Following that award, SFI provided funding to study “which inherited mutations in genes leads to deafness and blindness in bats,” and the funding “allowed me [to] establish the BatLab here in UCD.” The BatLab’s big project over the past number of years has been to study ageing in bats. Bats are small and similar in size to a mouse with wings. Smaller animals tend to use energy faster and live shorter lives but some bat species live into their thirties and this, Teeling says, makes them “quite unusual, their ability to live long lives relative to their body size.” In addition to living longer, bats seem to age healthier than humans, with cancer being very rare.

The BatLab has discovered that Myotis bats’ DNA is protected differently than human DNA, and this may be the key to healthier ageing.

In order for living things to age, their cells must divide. Within the bodies of all living creatures, cells are continuously dividing, replacing older cells and enabling growth and repair. Every time a cell divides the genetic material needs to be copied. DNA is stored within chromosomes, and it is through replication of each chromosome that the DNA is copied.

However, chromosomal replication is not perfect, and each time a chromosome is copied, a little piece at either end can be lost. Evolution has allowed for such loss by providing a protective cap at the end of chromosomes called ‘telomeres.’ These are long stretches of unnecessary DNA, existing for the sole purpose of being removed during chromosomal replication to protect the DNA that is needed.

Each time the cell divides, the telomeres get a little bit shorter. Eventually, they get too short, and the cell can no longer divide. The cells either die or become inactive. This is all part of the ageing process in humans and results in age-related diseases such as cancer. The protective cap is added to chromosomes by an enzyme called telomerase in humans and other animals, but not in Myotis bats.

In cancer, cells divide, and telomeres become shortened and if they become too short the cells die.

However, some cancers will result in increased levels of telomerase, which prevents telomere shortening, allowing cancerous cells to survive.

The BatLab discovered, through genetic analysis, that the telomeres of Myotis bats do not shorten as they age. As these bats do not have the enzyme telomerase, the scientists looked at the 225 genes associated with telomeres, and found two genes: ATM and SETX, which they suspect is responsible for telomere maintenance in bats.

To study the ageing of bats, Teeling explains that the

lab had to start with catching baby bats, so that they would be able to tell their age, and capture the same bats every year. To do this, the lab teamed up with a group in France called Bretagne Vivante who have been studying Myotis bats in France for over 20 years.

The European Research Council awarded a grant in 2012 which would enable the BatLab and Bretagne Vivante to work together to develop bats as a model to study healthy ageing. Every summer since then, the BatLab have travelled to France where they capture bats as they’re flying out of their roosts at night.

The bats the BatLab studied roosted in old gothic churches and the team capture the bats when they fly out at dusk to hunt for food. “They would fly into the traps we set up and go down a plastic chute… and land in a soft box.” The team would then take that bats into the church “where they’re heated and weighed and measured. We take a little tiny bit of blood and a little

bit of wing and we flash freeze that in liquid nitrogen.”

The team can then analyse the genetic makeup of the bats.

The welfare of the bats is of the utmost importance.

The team want the bat population to continue thriving and there are four vets involved within the programme.

When the bats are captured Teeling says, “Everything has to be done to the best of their welfare.”

Understanding how bats maintain telomere length through gene activity could lead to potential genebased therapies to maintain telomeres in cells, and protect the cells, tissues, and the entire body from the negative effects of ageing. Bats may not be the most beautiful creatures to a lot of people but hidden within their DNA could be the answers to protecting us against cancer. All in all, such research could lead to humans living, not longer, but healthier lives in their later years.

BESIDE MYSELF: THE SCIENCE OF OUT-OF-BODY EXPERIENCES Out of body experience is an elusive phenomenon that is as much a part of the paranormal as the normal, Aoife Muckian reveals.

An out of body experience (OBE) is a phenomenon that prompts philosophical questions about the conception of a ‘soul,’ but also neuroscientific ones about the way in which the brain operates. The scientific evidence instead of suggesting evidence for a soul or a spirit, suggests a role for the brain in these mystical experiences.

Susan Blackmore, a visiting Professor at Plymouth University, has carried out extensive research in the field of out of body experiences, and defines the

phenomenon as “an experience in which a person seems to perceive the world from a location outside his physical body.” The term “out of body experience” was first coined by George Tyrrell in 1943, who himself considered the phenomenon halluctionary in nature. It had been previously believed by some scientists that OBEs were a form of psychosis, but it has been shown that participants who do not suffer from psychosis can also experience them.

OBEs have been documented for centuries. In the 19th century, theoretical approaches looked at the phenomenon as a way for a soul to exist independently of the physical form of a human being. Some were skeptical of such a concept, such as Charles Richet, a French physiologist who believed these phenomena could be explained by disruptions in memory or imagination. Few experiments were carried out to support any of these approaches, but this period marked the first efforts to investigate OBEs. Conceptual discus-

PICTURE: WIKIPEDIA

The term “out of body experience” was first coined by George Tyrrell in 1943, who himself considered the phenomenon halluctionary in nature. sions continued in the early 20th century, though by the late 20th century, the focus shifted to analysing a psychological basis for the phenomenon.

More recently, there have been experiments in which scientists have been able to induce an out of body experience in their patients. One of the first of these experiments was in 2002 by Olaf Blanke, a neuroscientist in Switzerland. In an isolated case, a woman experienced out of body sensations when an area in the brain which integrates visual and vestibular information was stimulated by electrodes. They gradually increased the intensity of the stimulation, so at first the woman reported feeling lighter but eventually, she told them, “I see myself, lying in bed from above.” Terence Hines, a Professor of Psychology at Pace University considered this explanation “reasonable,” given the

vestibular system’s functions to balance and align the body. Further studies conducted by Blanke and others on patients have also shown evidence for the ability to induce an out of body experience.

In 2007, Blanke and others conducted a study that is similar to the “rubber hand illusion,” using virtual reality. The rubber hand illusion is a trick in which a person mistakenly believes a rubber hand is actually their own hand. The way in which this is achieved is if the hand of the person is hidden in a drawer, and above the drawer is a rubber hand which aligns with the person’s shoulder (in this case if the left hand is being used, it would be the left shoulder). Experimenters then stroke both the real hand of the participant and the rubber hand. In the confusion of processing both the visual and sensory information, the brain believes that the rubber hand is a part of the person’s body.

In a study examining this, researchers note that electric signals to the real hand would decrease dramatically, as the brain seems to believe it is not the real hand and seems not to be inclined to use it. In Blanke’s study, the participants were shown a virtual body through the headset. Both bodies were stroked, and similar to the rubber hand illusion, the conflicting visual and sensory information caused the participants to mistakenly localise themselves within the virtual body. Though it should be noted that the experiment only produces some aspects of the phenomenon, and not the entire out of body experience.

These scientific discoveries help neuroscientists understand the way in which the brain understands the body, the areas which evoke such phenomena, and the reasons they occur. They also garner significant philosophical interest due to raising questions about consciousness, agency, and selfhood. Studies in the future may reveal more about out of body experiences and shed the mystery behind them.

17TH APRIL 2018 15

SCIENCE MYTH UNIVERSE: VIOLENT TIMES? Many of us think that we are living in some of the most violent times yet known to man, Sean Mooney dispells this notion.

Each year since 2002, more people in America were killed by lightning, deer, peanut allergies, bee stings, and nightwear catching fire than by terrorist attacks.

Today’s advanced military arsenals might suggest war is more dangerous than ever but the annual global death rate from war is receeding. During World War II, 300 per 100,000 people died from war globally each year. This dropped to 22 in the 1950s, 5 in the ‘80s, and just 0.2 in the ‘00s. War has not occurred between developed countries for seventy years. There has also been a 90% reduction in genocides since post-World War II highs. Civil wars continue but are typically less destructive than interstate wars, and the Syrian civil war has only pushed the global war death rates back to 2000 levels.

We live with the contstant threat of nuclear war but despite apocalyptic prophecies, no nuclear weapons have been used in combat since Nagasaki.

Since then, the Cold War ended without destruction and 16 nations abondoned nuclear weapon programs.

The number of nuclear weapons being maintained has been reduced by 80% and a global agreement has locked down the remaining nuclear weapons, with the phased elimination of all nuclear weapons having been endorsed in principle by major world leaders.

Terrorism fears have been on the rise since the turn of the millenium but the truth is terrorism is incredibly rare. Each year since 2002, more people in America were killed by lightning, deer, peanut allergies, bee stings, and nightwear catching fire than by terrorist attacks. The homicide rate in much of modernday Europe has dropped below one per 100,000 people per year, a hundred times less than it was in the Middle Ages. In the rest of the world, violent crime rates are expected to continue to drop with criminologists expecting the global homicide rate to be halved within 30 years. The rate of infanticide in the Western world today is less than a thousandth of what it was during Middle Ages. This contrasts the statement from a British coroner in 1862 that said police thought no more of finding a dead child than that of a dead dog.

Child abduction by a stranger is a common fear today, but is an extremely rare occurance: Warwick Cairns calculated that if you want your child to be kidnapped, you would have to leave the child outside and unattended for 750,000 years. Even children’s entertainment is mellower. 17th century nursery rhymes resort to violence 10.8 times more frequently than television programs. Between the 15th and 18th centuries, 100,000 women were burned at the stake for witchcraft. Not only have we outgrown this, but also violence against women of all kinds, including female genital mutilation and human trafficking, are in decline.

Although work is by no means done, women are being educated better, paid more, marrying later, and are in more influencial positions than ever. The rate of racially motivated attacks has been in decline throughout much of the world in the past hundred years.

Slavery was once thought of as an ethical part of life but is now condemned by countless treaties,

The rate of infanticide in the Western world today is less than a thousandth of what it was during Middle Ages. conventions, and declarations. In 2015, there was a record number of people living in free and open societies.

In the past, criticising the king or following the wrong religion could get you executed one of a hundred

different ways. The Medieval apetite for torture knew no bounds and the English monarchy used to revel in beheading both friend and foe. Currently, there is a movement to nominate the Queen Elizabeth II for the Nobel Peace Prize.

It is unlikely that we will ever outgrow war and violence entirely but modern society has its apetite for it. In total, 500,000 people were killed in front of packed crowds at the Colosseum for Roman entertainment whereas today there is controversy over every advertisement containing violence, and such outrage highlights not how low we have fallen, but how high our standards have risen.

PICTURE: US ARMY VIA WIKIMEDIA

There is a sense that violence is an increasing problem and that the past was generally a more harmonious era, but this could not be further from the truth. We live in the most peaceful era since civilisation began and violence is in decline in almost every domain. People feel the world of today is more dangerous than the past for several reasons. Firstly, journalists report disasters, not incremental progress, because that sells. Gory news footage stays with us, leading us to overestimate the likelihood of these events. Our change in standards is also outpacing our change in behaviour. UNICEF are concerned about the child mortality rate in Eritrea today, not that it plummetted five-fold since 1974.

YOUR FRIENDS ARE (ON AVERAGE) MORE POPULAR THAN YOU Sad and paradoxical in equal measure, social science tells us that our friends are more popular, attractive, and disease-prone than we are.

Janice Lau takes a look.

Centrality relates to the number of connections you have, direct and indirect. If you are more central, you have more connections. them on average? However, the mathematics of the Friendship Paradox are sound. Ultimately this phenomenon relates to something called class-size paradoxes, whereby extremely popular individuals have a disproportionately large number of friends, making all those friends feel relatively deprived. On the other hand, the people with very few friends only make those very few people feel relatively advantaged. Think about it: you are more likely to become friends with people who make a lot of friends and the chances are that you have an average number of friends. Naturally this means that on average, your friends have more friends than you.

Moreover, a “Generalised Friendship Paradox” has been proposed, whereby the Friendship Paradox is applied to other attributes. In other words, individuals

16 VOLUME XXIV, ISSUE 8

demonstrate lower levels of a specific trait, relative to their friends, whether this be popularity, attractiveness, or social activity.

Random friends of randomly selected individuals are not so “random” at all. In fact, these people have specific traits. We may select our friends using a semiunconscious selection process. Do you really want to be friends with someone who lacks integrity and honesty?

We pick our friends carefully, depending on our own personal values, and if we don’t like someone, they’re out. Regardless, the point is that random friends have a higher likelihood of possessing traits that are not typical of the general population, such as greater popularity and greater power, as proposed by Thomas Grund.

You may be wondering why all this matters. Well, the implications of this non-randomness amongst random friends of random individuals are important. First of all, an understanding of the Friendship Paradox may help in the early identification of epidemics. If our friends are more popular than ourselves, they are also more likely to be central. What does central mean?

Think about a social network – like Facebook, or your actual social network. The people in these networks are nodes, connected to each other to varying degrees.

Centrality relates to the number of connections you have, direct and indirect. If you are more central, you have more connections, this also means that you are more likely to be infected sooner. This means that if we monitor the central individuals, we can catch and prevent outbreaks earlier. To demonstrate this point, researchers have shown that providing immunisation for a random group of friends of random individuals is more effective than immunising the random group of individuals themselves.

Aside from the prevention of epidemics, the Friendship Paradox may be used in looking at cooffenders in crime. Co-offenders are more likely to

demonstrate non-random attributes which may prove important in examining criminal networks – both in the identification and the targeting of key players.

Moreover, the Friendship Paradox can be used in political elections, political candidates want to influence those who are the most influential. Who are they, you ask? The chances are that your friends are more influential than you are. As Singer proposed, it is quite likely that you yourself are not influential, but you know someone that is. These central people are the key to winning elections, stopping epidemics from spreading, and much more.

So what does this all mean? That your insecurities are right? No. What you should take from this is that the Friendship Paradox is based on averages; this is not all-encompassing, but we should pay attention and keep this in mind. Moreover, look at what social science can contribute to society. This one phenomenon (the Friendship Paradox) can help prevent epidemics, target key players in a criminal network, and influence political elections. What more can social science do?

Stay tuned and find out.

PICTURE: ISPRO.PL

Social science is often overlooked as being a ‘soft science,’ as opposed to the ‘hard sciences’ of physics and chemistry. However, what can social science offer?

One answer: an explanation into common day-to-day social phenomena. Let’s look at the science.

A sociologist named Scott Feld observed a phenomenon called the “Friendship Paradox” that states that our friends are, on average, more popular than ourselves.

This seems counter-intuitive, how could it be true that for most people, their friends are more popular than

SCIENCE THE HUMPBACK COMEBACK: A CONSERVATION SUCCESS STORY Smart conservation tactics are responsible for the saving one of the largest sea creatures from extinction. Lisa O’Dowd takes a look.

Industrial whaling that occurred in the 20th century sent the global whale population to the verge of extinction.

Industrial whaling that occurred in the 20th century brought the global whale population to the verge of extinction. The humpback whale was among those targeted during this period. Prior to the establishment of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in 1946, little regulation on whaling existed.

The number of Humpbacks had decreased to such a

between them, so risks were assessed individually.

Entanglement in fishing nets poses a significant threat to the population found in the Arabian Sea, for example, (estimated to be around eighty individuals) but poses little threat to whales in Hawaii where the population is more than 10,000 whales. Their recovery may be owed to geographically differing conservation methods.

Unfortunately, four known populations retain status as endangered and one as threatened. It is important that in the midst of celebration that these populations are not forgotten and efforts are concentrated to increase them to allow for flourishment of diversity.

Humpback whales, like most other marine animals, face an ever-increasing number of threats from human activities. These include entanglement in fishing nets, ocean pollutants, collisions with ships and noise from industrial, military, and shipping activities. Climate change may also pose challenges as the abundance

and distribution of their prey change. The development and exploitation of oil and gas off the shores of Brazil, Gabon, Angola, Mozambique, and Madagascar may also impact on these animals in the future. If these threats and challenges are to be addressed, international co-operation amongst scientists, governments, international organizations, and conservations groups will be essential.

The recovery of the population of the Humpback whale population conveys hope and presents an opportunity to celebrate the success of conservation.

Their story may bring with it a positive change in conservation research goals and objectives by enabling resources to be dedicated to other endangered species to give them an equal opportunity to recover. We share a blue planet with these magnificent mammals and so it only right that everything is done to protect it.

CHINESE SPACE STATION CRASHES BACK TO EARTH

GHOSTLY IMAGES

Christine Coffey reports on the recent uncontrolled re-entry of China’s first space-station prototype.

A pioneering new x-ray imaging technique may make x-rays cheaper, safer, and more detailed. Su Wei Ng investigates.

Tiangong-1, (or Heavenly Palace 1), China’s first space station prototype, was functional for two and a half years and had been in orbit since September 2011, before it fell to a fiery and uncontrolled end after passing through the Earth’s atmosphere last week. This was to be the first in a series of test space stations in the ambitious Chinese space programme to “help master key rendezvous and docking technologies,” before sending up a larger model sometime after 2020.

When the first estimates stated that the 8,500 kg space-laboratory module would fall towards earth sometime between March 31st and April 1st, people were not reassured by statements such as “the orbiter would burn up in the atmosphere eventually.” Most of the debris fell into the Pacific Ocean, northwest of Tahiti, and thankfully no Pacific islanders were harmed in the re-entry of this space station.

In the digital era, new technology and innovations could change the world by bringing better, safer medical equipment and improving the quality of patient care. New technology could make x-rays cheaper, and perhaps more importantly, safer. Recently, a team of physicists in China used “ghost imaging” to make detailed x-ray images they claim have decreased the radiation dose by a “million times.” This is undeniably great news for people who require routine x-ray imaging due to health conditions.

According to the New York Times, this was an uncontrolled re-entry as communications with the space station were lost in 2016, and they were unable to guide it for the final part of the journey. Since the loss of communication, the orbiter has spent the majority of the last two years circling the planet at distances between 300-390 kilometres above sea-level in a rather redundant fashion, not sending any messages or recording any data (or so they claim) and not crashing into any satellites. Many private companies and other agencies tried to predict potential hit zones, stretching from South America to Africa, and from the Middle East to central Asia. The orbiter was moving quickly, and this resulted in a broad range of possible landing sites.

Most of the space station didn’t make it through the earth’s atmosphere before burning up, meaning there was very little chance of being hit by falling space waste. According to the European Space Agency, “the

personal probability of being hit by a piece of debris from Tiangong-1 is actually 10 million times smaller than the yearly chance of being hit by lightning.”

This is not the first space station whose communication systems have come up second best against our atmosphere. NASA’s Skylab had a similarly uncontrolled re-entry in 1979 and a few Western Australians experienced unusual weather conditions and managed to escape the falling debris. Keeping control of orbiters upon re-entry is evidently difficult, but not impossible, as ESA have guided five cargo spacecrafts into uninhabited regions of ocean since 2008 and the Russian’s managed to steer the remainder of the Russian Mir station into the Pacific in 2001. The Chinese multibillion-dollar programme have another non-permanent space station currently orbiting the planet. Hopefully they can keep control of its landing.

Recently, a team of physicists in China has used “ghost imaging” to make detailed x-ray images they claim have decreased the radiation dose by a “million times.”

from starlight to determine the diameter of a star.

Wu and his team have made a prototype using a smaller, cheaper, and more portable imaging system created by connecting a single-pixel camera to a patterned light source to produce x-ray images following thousands of successive pictures taken with a sandpaper filter. A computer is then used to calculate the image from the dissimilarities in the sequence of grey pixels to produce the final image. This statistical technique is believed to cause less noxious radiation than conventional radiography techniques.

The main advantages of this system are exactly those which medicine seeks: cost reduction and increased safety. Nevertheless, further improvement on the image quality is required to make this system available for diagnostic purposes in the medical field.

In conventional radiography, x-rays, a form of electromagnetic radiation, are used to visualize the internal structures of a patient. The x-rays are passed through the body and captured behind the patient by a multipixel detector; film sensitive to x-rays or a digital detector. There is variance in absorption of the x-rays by different tissues within the body - dense bone absorb more radiation, while soft tissue allows more to pass through. As a result, bones appear white on the x-ray, soft tissue shows up in shades of grey, and air appears black. This variance produces contrast within the image to give a 2D representation of all the structures within the patient.

Ghost imaging constructs images of objects using information from light detected at two detectors. The idea is to use correlations in intensities between an object beam that strikes the object and a reference beam that does not, similar to the use of intensity correlations

PICTURE: YALE ROSEN VIA FLICKR

Most of the debris fell into the Pacific Ocean, northwest of Tahiti.

PICTURE: US ARMY VIA WIKIMEDIA

point that only a few thousand individuals remained worldwide. Humpback whales were protected from commercial whaling in the North Atlantic by the IWC in 1955. Similar status was given to this species in the Southern Ocean in 1963 and in the North Pacific in 1966. However, it was not until the Endangered Species Act of 1970 that their protection and their classification as endangered became widespread.

Intense conservation efforts and whaling regulation has led to their slow but steady revival. In 1990 their status as endangered by the Interational Union for Conservation of Nature was downgraded and they were classified as vulnerable. Further increases in their population occurred and in 2008 they were listed as a species of least concern. It is rare that a species conservation status is downgraded and removed, even rarer that it is reclassified from endangered to a species of least concern. There are few other examples of this.

Today, their global population is thought to be in excess of 50% of their pre-whaling abundance and believed to be just short of 100,000 humpbacks. Their estimated global average growth rate is between 8-14% per year and is greater than known population trends worldwide. In September 2016 the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries released a statement proclaiming that nine out of the known fourteen populations of humpbacks have recovered past the point of qualifying to be on the U.S. List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife.

It was decided when attention was drawn to their diminishing numbers that individual populations would be treated separately due to their different parameters and requirements. All of the fourteen populations of humpbacks are believed to be generally distinct. Some share feeding grounds but all migrate to their own location during the breeding season. Therefore, genetic mixing only occurs within populations and rarely

PICTURE: WIKIMEDIA

The Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) is a species of Baleen whale belonging to the Cetacea clade and is one of the largest whale species, measuring between twelve and sixteen metres long. They inhabit every major ocean from the North Pacific, to the Atlantic, to the Southern Ocean and the Indian ocean. Humpbacks are characterized by their enormous size, majestic song, aerial talents, and migrating pilgrimages. They feed in the colder waters of high latitude such as the oceans off the coast of Alaska and the Antarctic. Conversely, they migrate to warm waters of low latitude during their mating season such as waters off Hawaii and the Gulf of Maine. They are known to travel over 9,000 kilometres every year, making them one of the furthest migrating animals in the world. It is accepted that these alluring mammals have no significant natural predators apart from the odd mammal-eating killer whale. Humpbacks are opportunistic seasonal feeders that primarily prey on krill, with an estimated two tonnes consumed every day.

17TH APRIL 2018 17

STUDENT VOICES DON’T LIKE ABORTION? THEN DON’T HAVE ONE Ahead of the referendum, Roisin Guyett-Nicholson argues that repeal is the only choice.

Abortions for Irish women are already happening. We just need to provide better support. welfare in Ireland, particularly the history of maternal welfare.

The 8th amendment is only the latest in a long line of issues relating to the control of women in this state.

Reading sources from the early 20th Century to now, it is clear that what women wanted and needed was not a primary concern for those in charge of hospitals, churches, or schools. What was a concern however, was controlling people. If you lose the mother you lose the family.

It was not solely a Catholic Church effort either.

Ireland, as an island, is a relatively conservative place.

Our society has comparatively been one of the most conservative in Europe, particularly in relation to the way we treat women.

That is why it makes no sense to me when pro-life people argue that repeal is a ‘radical’ move. It is not.

Ireland is the only country in Western Europe that does not allow women to access abortion for any reason the woman deems necessary. By repealing the 8th, we would only be coming in line with wider European practice and standards.

Furthermore, access to abortion is already possible in Ireland. If I were to have a crisis pregnancy tomorrow, I would be easily able to travel to England. Both my partner and I could comfortably afford it, and I have plenty of family in London.

Travelling to access abortion services is a realistic choice for me, but it is not for so many others, the hard cases that the pro-life side refuse to acknowledge.

What about Sheila Hodgers, who died in agony in 1983 because she was refused cancer treatment?

Refused treatment because she had breast cancer. Both she and her unborn baby died. How is that loving both?

What about Ms Y? The refugee who was refused an abortion in the state but was unable to travel outside Ireland to access the service she so desperately needed.

She had been raped in her home country and did not wish to carry on the pregnancy. She refused food and fluids, as she would rather die than carry on with the pregnancy. Eventually she had a C-section at 26 weeks.

How was she supported?

What about the countless women, who are forced to carry pregnancies to term, knowing that the baby will not survive outside of the womb? Everyone in Ireland knows that woman. Maybe she has not said anything to you, but you know her.

Recently someone I know lost a baby. Is it right that my first thought was ‘thankfully the baby doesn’t have a heartbeat, so the mother won’t be refused the care she needs’?

For a lot of women, they can already access abortion services by travelling, but it is the hard cases that suffer the most. They might be the minority of abortions sought by Irish women but they are the ones that need it most.

This is something that the pro-life lobby fails to deal with appropriately. Abortion is available to people with the money to travel or to buy pills online. The 8th amendment doesn’t stop people accessing the service.

It only stops people accessing it safely.

An argument often put forward by the Love Both group is that the time it takes to book a trip to England

is the time they needed to decide not to opt for an abortion. For many women, the extra time needed to book travel and accommodation forces them to make a decision before they are ready.

What we need is better counselling services for women in crisis pregnancies. For doctors to be able to give better, more appropriate advice, rather than directing people to Well Women centres. We can only get this with the removal of the 8th amendment so medical professionals are not afraid of giving women all the options. Abortions for Irish women are already happening.

We just need to provide better support.

Ultimately, this debate comes down to consent.

Many pro-life people accept that a woman has bodily

autonomy, which is violated in rape. However, they do not extend this autonomy when a woman becomes pregnant. Before the 12 weeks limit being proposed by the government, the fetus/baby is not able to survive outside the body of the mother. It needs the permission of the mother to continue to grow.

If the mother declines to consent to that permission, it is her right to terminate the pregnancy, and nobody has the right to tell her not to.

If you don’t like abortions, don’t have one. Don’t stop me, or my family, my friends, or Ms Y or Sheila Hodgers from accessing what we need. If you want to support Irish women, then vote yes to repealing the 8th amendment on May 25th.

PICTURE: GIUSEPPE MILO VIA FLICKR

Earlier this week, some Love Both canvassers knocked on my door to ask me to vote no in May. They asked me if I wanted any information on the upcoming referendum. I don’t think I was quite what they were expecting.

I have been pro-choice and pro-repeal since I was in secondary school, and since coming to college my views have only strengthened. I am currently doing a Masters in History, which I also studied for my undergrad. I have spent a lot of time studying the history of

OVERCOMING THE ANXIETY OF TALKING ABOUT DEPRESSION Joanna O’Malley opens up about living with mental health issues.

It took me five years from being officially diagnosed and getting treatment to feel better.

So why bring it up now?

Last week someone asked me the question: “so how did you get better?” as if they were desperately looking for some quick fix. That question got me thinking, and so here we are.

What did my depression/anxiety look like from an outsider’s point of view? In secondary school, I looked like the kid who thought they were too smart for class and who’d stay at home instead of attending and I’d laugh along with that. In reality, I sometimes really didn’t feel like, and often just couldn’t bear, getting up in the morning and instead felt like crying for absolutely no reason to the point where I’m pretty sure I missed about 45% of my Leaving Cert cycle classes.

In college, I looked like the person who was too busy doing society work and photography jobs to go to class.

Sometimes that was true, but I’m still involved with societies while in final year and have three jobs, and I rarely miss class or my assignments (all-nighters are way easier when not on meds!). What was happening was that I felt anxious at the thought of feeling

18 VOLUME XXIV, ISSUE 8

overwhelmed in a classroom of over 300 people for an hour or facing my degree in any real way because I was already “behind” and it was too overwhelming.

How did I get better?

I suppose I should start by saying I’m more comfortable discussing the topic now given that I’m almost three years off meds and I can honestly say I no longer feel like I have either depression or anxiety and haven’t for a year or two. Does that mean every day I’m smiling, never stressed or never tearful? Absolutely not, but it means I no longer feel like I won’t ever be able to overcome my problems; the world doesn’t feel too daunting to leave the house, and I now deal with stress a lot better. I also like to smile way more, and that’s just lovely.

One reason why I had depression/anxiety for so long was because it took a while for me to treat/get the treatment that suited me. I want to acknowledge that I had an incredibly supportive family and friend base. As well as that, both my secondary school and university faculty could not have been more accommodating/ helpful, although I do know that not everyone is this lucky. In trying to find the best course of action for me, I ended up seeing (in order) a psycho-analyst, two psychiatrists, a college counsellor, a GP, another counsellor, and a final psychiatrist to figure out how to get off my meds safely. First off I needed meds for a while, and that’s absolutely fine and what I needed at the time. It wasn’t forever, but I’d always say if you’re struggling you shouldn’t fear taking medication. After that, I finally convinced myself that if I don’t exercise within a week, I’m probably at least 10% more likely to cry for no reason at some point. I learned CBT techniques to put everything into context, so my over-analytical brain wouldn’t blow everything way out of proportion.

I learned to recognise when my illness would give me a “bad day” and how that was ok and, on those days, I needed to actually be kind to myself. I learned to avoid triggers. If I was having a bad day and supposed to

be seeing my friends for drinks, for example, I might give it a miss.

It took me five years from being officially diagnosed and getting treatment to feel better, and I had to work incredibly hard to get there when sometimes I really didn’t want to. So honestly, if you have depression, anxiety, or another mental illness, this probably won’t give you any tips to fix you quickly. The reason I’m sharing it is because I’m hoping that if you’re reading this and you’re currently struggling with anything that you may feel less alone, and just perhaps you’ll not want to give up. It does get better and if you’ve been feeling a bit off for a few weeks, don’t be afraid to talk

to a counsellor, to your friends or family or to ring a helpline because it’s always better to look after yourself when there’s any doubt.

Finally, I’m sharing this because I’ve come out the other side and I now feel I can say just because I had depression/anxiety it didn’t make me “less employable” or “weak.” The thing most people don’t realise is that depressed people are some of the most successful people who you just don’t realise are struggling. I now feel like depression/anxiety is one of the greatest (and honestly horrible) endurance tests I’ve ever passed and I know if it rears its ugly head again I’ll be ok... and I honestly believe so will you.

PICTURE: PMGNILRE VIA FLICKR

I’ve always been willing to discuss my mental health in person. However, I have never talked about it publicly online for two reasons: I never wanted to be defined by an illness because I still worry that there would be a stigma attached to it which would alter how people saw me, and honestly, I worried I’d be less likely to get employed. That could make me a part of the problem of stigmatisation, but as someone who has dealt with depression and anxiety for over six years and spent five of those on meds, I feel like I’ll forgive myself for not wanting to discuss an issue I struggled with greatly in an incredibly public manner.

GAEILGE AR CHÓIR DON CHUMANN LÚTHCHLEAS GAEL BHEITH MAR CHUMANN GAIRMIÚIL? Labhraíonn Medb Ní Dhúláin faoin gCumann Lúthchleas Gael, ag ceistiú stádas na gcluichí mar spórt amaitéarach sa tír seo.

Amharcann na páistí seo ar a gcuid laochra ag imirt ar fhód beannaithe Pháirc an Chrócaigh agus iad ag caitheamh geansaí an chontae. Is é seo an leibhéal is airde agus is gairmiúla ar imrítear an spórt sa tír seo ach ní fhaigheann na n-imreoirí aon airgead ar bith dó.

Bíonn níos mó na ochtó míle duine ag freastal ar chluiche ceannais na hÉireann gach bliain agus bhí beagnach caoga míle duine i bPáirc an Chrócaigh do chluiche ceannais na mban i mí Mheán Fómhair 2017 – an scaifte is mó ag aon cheann de na mórimeachtaí spóirt do mhná ar fud na hEorpa le linn na bliana, cé gur spórt amaitéarach atá ann.

Dá rachadh an CLG go gairmiúil mar chumann, bheadh costais níos airde ag na ticéidí chun phá na

THE FAKE FADUDA Cian Griffin

Is gasúr Uladh mé, Cé gurb as Cill Mhantáin dom.

Is mise an “Fake Faduda”, Cad é mar atá tú?

Cha raibh mé riamh i mBéal Feirste, Cha raibh mé riamh i Gaoth Dobhair.

Tá blas na ndaoine Uladh agam, Agus tá sé ait go leor.

Ní bhíonn sé agam i rith an lae, Agus mé ar mo chiall.

Ach má tá alcól i mo chorp, Ní fheicfidh tú a leithéid riamh.

Is cuma má tá beoir nó fíon i gceist, Tá siad go léir mar an gcéanna.

Faighim pian i mo ghíosán; Agus bíonn mo Ghaelic trí chéile.

Cuirim R’s ar fud na háite, Ní féidir liom ‘seachtain’ nó ‘hocht’ a rá, Ach tá mo Ghaelic fíorcheolmhar, Agus bíonn sé sothuigthe, de ghnáth.

So má tá Gaelic Uladh uait, Má tá sí de dhíth.

Ní gá duit cleachtadh a dhéanamh, Déan dearmad ar na leabhair gramadaí.

PICTURE: REA CASSIDY

Fan glan ar an leabharlann, Fan amach ón ollscoil fosta, Má tá blas Uladh uait, Dáiríre, níl sé ró-chasta, Níl i gceist ach alcól, Rud atá fíorchabhrach liom.

Boidéal vodca Tesco a ól, ‘Is gheofar na torthaí láithreach bonn.

Mar sin, ná bígí buartha, Beidh cúpla deoch againn, Beidh muid go léir mar Ultacha, ‘Is déarfaimid “Sláinte!” Ar aghaidh linn!

BLIAIN NA GAEILGE 2018: FRÁSAÍ AN EAGRÁIN Cian Griffin Bliain na Gaeilge 2018 atá ann, agus tá sé mar aidhm againn ceiliúradh a dhéanamh ar an teanga sa tír seo.

Cuirfidh an mhír seo den nuachtán béim ar frásaí éagsúla chun bhúr scileanna foclóra a fhorbairt! Bain sult as!

Lá na nAmadán! – April Fool’s Day! Thaistil sé trasna na hEorpa le mála droma an samhradh seo caite, agus tá sé ag dul arís - He backpacked across Europe last summer, and he is going again.

Beidh mórshiúl ar son Bhród na nAerach ar siúl ag tús an tsamhraidh – There will be a Gay Pride march at the start of the summer.

Fuair sí áit ar fholéas ó chara don samhradh - She got a sublet from a friend for the summer.

Baineann mic léinn céimeanna amach san Ollscoil seo gach bliain – Students in this University graduate every year

spórt. Is rud é seo a chuireann in iúl cé chomh speisialta is atá an Cumann Lúthchleas Gael sa tír seo agus na laochra a imríonn, gan stad gan staonadh, mar chuid den chumann gan pingin rua a shaothrú dó.

Ní féidir a sheanadh go bhfuil borradh faoin spórt in Éirinn le fiche bliain anuas agus leis an bhorradh seo, tá athrú suntasach tagtha ar thiomantas na n-imreoirí ar fud na tíre, ní amháin i measc imreoirí na gcontaetha ach i measc imreoirí na gclub fosta – is minic a mbíonn bainisteoirí éagsúla tagtha isteach chun seisiúin traenála a ghlacadh a dhíríonn ar ghnéithe nua den aclaíocht nach raibh fecithe taobh amuigh de spórt gairmiúil fiú deich mbliana ó shin. Ba dhomhan eile ar fad é an sport gairmiúil i gcodarsnacht leis an sport amatéireach sa tír seo ach is cinnte go bhfuil an bearna

ag laghdú idir an dá leibéil anois.

Taobh istigh d’aon seachtain amháin, thiocfadh le duine amháin bheith ag traenáil dá gclub, dá scoil nó ollsoil agus dá gcontae sa dá chluiche. Caithfidh siad trealamh a cheannach, costais taistil a íoc agus cuid mhór ama a thabhairt don spórt agus is cinnte go mbeadh pá de chineál éigin go mór ina gcuidiú leis na rudaí seo. Ach is cluichí iad cluichí Gaelacha le cultúr na tíre agus muintir na hÉireann istigh ina gcroí.

Is spóirt iad a imrítear i ngach cineál aimsire, spóirt a imrítear ar fud na tíre idir óg agus aosta, spóirt a imrítear don ghrá amháin. Nach léiríonn sin nach bhfuil aon chúis leis an Chumann Lúthchleas Gael a bheith mar chumann gairmiúil nó nach ann ach ceist ama go n-athrófar rudaí?

PICTURE: WIKIMEDIA.ORG

Is é seo an leibhéal is airde agus is gairmiúla ar imrítear an spórt sa tír seo ach ní fhaigheann na n-imreoirí aon airgead ar bith dó.

n-imreoirí a mhaoniú. Bheadh níos lú suime ag imreoirí ar fud na tíre nach bhfuil aon fhonn acu faoi láthair don chumann athrú. Scríobh Benny Coulter, iarpheileadóir le Contae an Dúin, ar Twitter ar na mallaibh, “Just reading some rugby player saying the GAA should think about going professional. That would destroy the GAA! #GrassTootsAllTheWay.” Tá an ceart ar fad ag Benny.

Tá costais maireachtála sa tír seo ag síormhéadú an t-am ar fad agus is cinnte go mbeadh sé ar dóigh do dhaoine óga aigead a shaothrú do rud a dhéanann siad ar aon nós don chraic amháin. Ach is cinnte nach mbeadh nádúr an spóirt riamh mar a gcéanna arís tar éis an athrú sin a dhéanamh.

Ar ndóigh, tá daoine mór le rá mar chuid den Chumann Lúthchleas Gael agus tá an t-ádh orthu go raibh siad in ann mbeatha a shaothrú fríd an spóirt – Henry Shefflin, Anna Geary agus Dónal Óg Cusack mar shampla. Nuair a bhí siad fós ag imirt, fuair siad go leor airgid ón urraíocht do bhrandaí éagsúla ach bhí orthu poist a choinneáil ag an am chéanna. Anois, oibríonn siad mar iriseoirí, láithreoirí agus tráchtairí agus is mar gheall ar na céimeanna a ghlac siad le linn a ngairmeacha go bhfuil siad in ann an saol seo a bheith acu anois.

Is annamh imreoir reatha nach bhfuil gá dóibh post a fháil agus dá mbeadh seo níos coitinne, cén chineál sampla a mbeadh sé do pháistí óga? An athróidh an Cumann Lúthchleas Gael ar bhealach an sacar? Is dea-shamplaí iad na n-imreoirí atá againn ar leibhéal idirchontae faoi láthair d’imreoirí óga mar léiríonn siad cad é mar a aimsítear an chothromaíocht cheart idir an obair, an t-oideachas, an teaghlach agus, ar ndóigh, an

AN T-EAGARTHÓIR GAEILGE MO FHADHB LEIS AN TEANGA Labhraíonn Cian Griffin – an t-Eagarthóir Gaeilge linn – faoin teanga agus faoin gcóras iarbhunscoile sa tír seo ó thaobh na Gaeilge de, ag díriú ar na fadhbanna is mó dar leis féin.

Tá fadhb mhór agam leis an gcuraclam iarbhunscoile sa tír seo ó thaobh na Gaeilge de. Ní argóint nua é seo, ach tá sé mar aidhm agam níos mó béime a chur air chun athruithe sa chóras oideachais a spreagadh.

Bhí mé riamh ag iarraidh bheith i mo mhuinteoir meánscoile, ach tar éis ceithre bliana a chaitheamh sa Choláiste Ollscoile Baile Átha Cliath (COBÁC) ag stáidéar na Gaeilge (ag leibhéal fochéime agus ag leibhéal máistreachta), ní dhéanfainn é.

Is breá liom bheith i mo theagascóir anseo i gCOBÁC, caithfidh mé a rá. Tá grá, meas agus paisean ag na mic léinn don teanga. Is dócha go raibh deis acu dul chun na Gaeltachta, nó d’fhreastail siad ar Ghaelscoileanna den chuid is mó. Tá suim acu, ach is mór an difear idir iadsan agus lucht na meánscoile, cinnte. Mura bhfuil an tsuim ann cheana féin, níl sé éasca iad a spreagadh.

Cuirimse an locht ar an gcóras oideachais, ar an gcuraclam Gaeilge agus ar an Ardteistiméireacht – an tástáil chuimhne is mó a rinne mé riamh.

briathra foghlamtha b’fhéidir, ach b’in é! Ní raibh an Tuiseal Ginideach cloiste agam fiú! Níor thuig mé go raibh inscne ag na hainmfhocail. Tá sé dochreidte é sin a rá anois, toisc go bhfuil siad lárnach ó thaobh gramadaí de, ach sin í an fhírinne lom. Anuas air sin, ní bhíonn na ranganna meánscoile múinte trí Ghaeilge uaireanta – d’fhoghlaim mé gach rud trí Bhéarla. Tá sé éasca beag a dhéanamh de anois, ach tá sé dochreidte ag breathnú siar air!

Ní dóigh liom gur féidir ginearálú a dhéanamh, ach sílim go bhfuil feabhsúcháin ag teastáil i bhformhór na tíre ó thaobh Gaeilge de sa churaclam iarbhunscoile.

Tá an iomarca béime curtha ar rudaí a fhoghlaim de ghlanmheabhair, agus níl dóthain béime curtha ar cruinneas na teanga ná ar chúrsaí gramadaí. Tuigim go bhfuil sé tábhachtach filíocht agus prós a dhéanamh go pointe áirithe, ach tá an iomarca i gceist leo sílim.

Ba chóir dúinn athruithe a thabhairt isteach agus athchóiriú iomlán a dhéanamh ar an gcóras oideachais in Éirinn, cinnte. Caithfimid aitheantas a thabhairt do ghramadach na Gaeilge agus an tábhacht a bhaineann leis an teanga labhartha freisin. Tá fíorghrá agam don teanga Gaeilge agus don mhúinteoireacht, ach níl mé ag iarraidh post a fháil mar mhúinteoir Gaeilge sa tír seo, agus tá an locht ar an gcóras oideachais!

Cuirimse an locht ar an gcóras oideachais, ar an gcuraclam Gaeilge agus ar an Ardteistiméireacht – an tástáil chuimhne is mó a rinne mé riamh. Tá fadhb agam ag foghlaim de ghlanmheabhair, ní fiú é a dhéanamh. É sin ráite áfach, chaith mé dhá bhliain ag foghlaim anailíse, achoimrí agus na seanpháipeár.

B’in an rud a mhol an múinteoir agus b’in an rud ar moladh dí is dócha. Níl cruinneas na teanga i gceist ar chor ar bith. Níl i gceist ach ceisteanna samplacha a fhoghlaim agus athchúrsáil a dhéanamh orthu. Bíonn daoine ag scríobh agus ag rá rudaí nach dtuigeann siad den chuid is mó. Ach bíonn sé ag teastáil chun grád maith a bhaint amach ar an drochuair.

Ní raibh gramadach na Gaeilge déanta agam in aon chor sular thosaigh mé anseo i gCOBÁC. Bhí na

PICTURE: SANCTUARY.IE

Is ábhar é seo a mbíonn i gcónaí i mbéal an phobail sa tír seo ach is é an cinneadh a dtagtar i dtólamh air ná gur lúthchleasaíocht don ghnáthphobal iad na cluichí Gaelacha. Is fíor go bhfuil mian ag gach paiste atá ina mball den Chumann Lúthchleas Gael le bheith ag imirt dá gcontae sa todhcaí ach is í an áit ar thosaíonn an brionglóid seo ná sa chlub áitiúil.

17TH APRIL 2018 19

BUSINESS AN INTERVIEW WITH KEVIN QUINN OF STAGSANDHENS.IE Ciarán Busby interviews the one and only Kevin Quinn of StagsandHens.ie.

Can you tell us about yourself and how you got to where you are today?

My name is Kevin Quinn and I am from the class of BComm ’95 UCD and MBS ’96 Smurfit School of Business. After the completion of my studies, I travelled around North America for nine months and returned to Sligo in mid 1997 to take up a position in our family’s core business which is in the hospitality sector, primarily the licensed and late night trade. I have been involved in a full-time capacity since then and have enjoyed both the boom times and the expansion and diversification of our business operations, battled through the recessionary times with both the rationalisation and consolidation it entailed and also the search for new opportunities.

During the recession we were looking for different ways to generate revenue. We were aware that towns like Carrick-on-Shannon in Leitrim and Westport in Mayo had a thriving business catering for the hen and stag market. Sligo wasn’t really performing in this market but we knew it was very well placed to compete here. Sligo is widely known as the Adventure Capital of Ireland so there are countless activities that would be perfect for hens and stags. We started developing www.HenandStagSligo.ie in 2014 and had it ready for the 2015 season.

What have you found to be instrumental in the success of the business?

The primary focus for the hen and stag part of our business was to market heavily in Ireland and Northern Ireland in order to put Sligo in their minds as a possible destination. Given the nature of the business, all available online tools were instrumental in our marketing plan. We used social media, YouTube, and Google Display for brand-awareness marketing and Google Search for more targeted searches. It was tricky at first to get the right combination but once we had it right, it proved invaluable to generating business for us.

What sort of challenges have you encountered, and how have you overcome them?

There were two big challenges for us (and Sligo) getting a foothold in the Hen and Stag market. Firstly, it was difficult to convince the existing package providers to include Sligo as a destination. They already had deals with other towns which were working for them so they were reluctant to change. Secondly, the package providers who were working with Sligo were looking for a lot, but willing to pay a little, so it made the business unprofitable for us. It was mainly due to these challenges that we decided to start our own site and basically cut out the middle man. While it involved significantly more work on our side, it did give us full control over the level of service provided to our customer from start to finish.

in advance. We have some very loyal customers and we are responsible for keeping up a very high level of customer service and delivering a great product. Our business definitely fits the tagline ‘if you’re standing still, you’re going backwards!’ so we always like to be forward-thinking in order to stay ahead of the curve.

Do you feel as though your company helps the community it is based in?

I think our business and our staff most certainly help our community in many ways. Our primary business has been in operation for almost 40 years and effectively has operated as an SME giving valued employment to our loyal staff members. The Hen and Stag business unit works closely with other business owners and organisations in Sligo, and we feel this adds a definite quantifiable boost to the local economy. One area in which our businesses are particularly active is with festivals and we help organise a number of large music festivals in Sligo each year. I am an ex-President of Sligo Chamber of Commerce, an active member of Team Sligo assisting with the promotion of Sligo and also help out in the Sligo Tidy Towns.

How long did the process take to become established? Who helped the business to get where it is now?

HenandStagSligo.ie took about one year of development before we launched it. My brother Fergal was instrumental on the technical end of things and I mainly worked on establishing relationships with all the many suppliers we work with. We have well over 100 suppliers that we deal with in Sligo and we send six figure levels of business to some on a yearly basis. On the IT end of things, my brother had a company in Pakistan working on developing a database system to manage bookings. It is incredible how the internet has allowed us to source expertise from all over the world.

To what do you attribute your success?

The four years I spent in both Belfield and Blackrock undoubtedly gave me the foundations for a solid career particularly in the strategic management in my business and the professionalism to deal with the various aspects of running an SME in a provincial town. However, I firmly believe in the college of life and that ‘every day is a school day,’ in that I am always open to learning something new. I liken it to the Japanese principle of Kaizen and continuous improvement.

I reminisce sometimes about my days in Belfield and the use of the computer room! I left college in ’96 and the iPhone was not released until ’06 and look how far we have come now. Advances in technology have been crucial to the setting up of HenandStagSligo.ie and, to be honest, it would have been much more difficult without the online platforms for group management and even marketing.

How do you advertise your business and how did How did you uncover mistakes during the start-up you get help with advertising initially? process and how would you advise others to learn The main mediums for advertising are Google and from these mistakes?

Facebook. We have tried the more traditional forms of We bring many hundreds of people into Sligo most radio and newspaper but quickly found them less suited weekends. We organise everything from accommodato our type of business given we are online. My brother tion, meals, transfers, and activities so there is quite Fergal has always had a keen interest in IT and quickly a lot of variables to have right. Sometimes a simple learned about designing advertising accounts on both mistake like an incorrect bus time can snowball into Google and Facebook. He went on a number of courses a very bad experience for a party. We quickly realised and found endless amounts of information online that after some minor mistakes that we really need to ensure helped him become proficient here. He handles the we are 100% organised every single weekend. We inadvertising side of the business on a day to day basis vested heavily in IT systems and this really allowed us and keeps a close eye on performance reports. to scale our business with confidence. We also have a What makes your company unique? Do you feel that team of people on the ground every weekend to ensure being unique is essential in today’s business climate? everything goes smoothly for all our parties.

Our Hen and Stag business is unique in that we package hens and stags to generate business for our Do you have any tips for aspiring entrepreneurs? core businesses, which involve bars, a restaurant, and When I finished my studies, I entered the workplace a nightclub, rather than profiting from packaging at the start of the 10-year strong economic growth, the which most of the companies in the market do. This “Celtic Tiger.” Business was strong and everything was allows us to price our packaging well below a lot of our positive, there was an air of infallibility to our economy. competitors. This pricing advantage certainly helped We, like a lot of people, diversified into areas of indusus initially get the company off the ground. From the try that were outside the scope of our core business start, we have had a very strong focus on customer and when the recession hit, it knocked the wind out of service. We are also one of few companies that have a our sails and took a number of years to recover from. team of people on the ground at the weekend to look There are always opportunities for the eager entreafter parties. This one-on-one service really goes down preneur no matter how the economy is, and a keen well with parties and is instrumental in us achieving astute entrepreneur will thrive. Most students now are 5-star reviews from our customers and getting repeat studying for careers in areas of industry that may not business down the line. have even been created yet.

However, I would advise not to over stretch yourself What are your responsibilities as business owner? and to stick to what you know, what you are excellent Our core business in hospitality employs nearly 80 at and what compliments your core business. It was for people so we have a strong responsibility to the staff this reason that our strategy shifted towards an area of and ourselves as business owners to run our business the market that would complement our core business to the best of our abilities. We need to be able to adapt with definite synergies. to changes in business and even try to identify changes

20 VOLUME XXIV, ISSUE 8

The four years I spent in both Belfield and Blackrock undoubtedly gave me the foundations for a solid career.

PUZZLES

Across

Down

3. National flower of the country with the youngest Nobel Prize laureate (7) 4. Animal that comes about as a result of a male lion and a female tiger mating (5) 6. Country in the South Pacific Ocean, whose flag contains a boar tusk and counts Bislama among their official languages (7) 8. Seat with a back and often arms, mediator of a discussion (5) 10. Decorative style named after an historical region in what is now Czechia (8) 11. One of the original ingredients used in the construction of the dome of the Taj Mahal (3,5) 12. Assam, Lapsang Souchong, Darjeeling

1. Dutch distillery brand, known for the teardrop shaped bottle its liquers are sold in (4) 2. Deep fried choux pastry, dusted with icing sugar, often associated with New Orleans (7) 5. Fair associated with parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme can be (9) 7. Common name for the genus of a flowering plant in the mint family, known for its calming scent (8) 9. Oxide of the eighth most common element in the universe (by mass) (6)

For puzzle solutions, go to universityobserver.ie/puzzles/

ILLUSTRATION BY DANIELLE CROWLEY

SUDOKU Easy

Medium

Hard

17TH APRIL 2018 21

EDITORIAL EDITORIAL I have spent the past six years of my life in UCD, five years as a student, one year as Editor of the University Observer, and I didn’t come across the Dignity and Respect Policy until six months ago. That UCD has a Dignity and Respect Policy is something that should be universal knowledge to all UCD students. That students do not know about it, and do not know how to go about reporting other students under that policy is a failing of UCD. We need the future students of UCD to be told how to report someone who is harassing or bullying them.

We need students to know that such behaviour will not be accepted or tolerated. We need students to know that they will be safe, that UCD has systems in place to protect them. We need students to be educated about what is and what is not appropriate behaviour. We, as a society, need children, adolescents, young adults, middle-aged adults, elderly adults; everyone, to know what behaviour is okay, and what is not.

This is how society evolves. By knowing what to do when we are being mistreated we can stop the mistreatment. By educating people throughout their lives, people can improve their behaviour. To make certain standards of behaviour the norm, we need to have correct systems in place to punish those who step out of line, which means tightening up and improving the way our legal system deals with complaints of sexual harassment, assault, and rape. For a start, we could stop putting survivors on trial and dissecting the minutiae of their lives and instead examine real evidence instead

THE UNIVERSITY of slut-shaming women, because in case you didn’t know, women can be sexually active without being the devil incarnate.

Stories such as this issue’s front page, and our front page of issue 6 are made possible by people speaking up, and refusing to stay silent. Here in this newspaper, we hope the stories we have published this year have made changes, but these changes are only possible if people continue to speak out against injustices.

Sexual harassment and violence tends to disproportionately affect women, and have been used throughout history as a means of silencing women. This year we have seen huge volumes of women speaking out about their experiences of sexual harassment and assault as part of the MeToo movement, and in the lead-up to the referendum to repeal the eighth amendment we are continuing to see more and more women speaking out about how the eighth has affected their lives.

Ireland has continued its shameful history of treating women appallingly. We’ve moved on from locking up pregnant women to turning a blind eye to the women who have abortions. A phrase you may hear uttered in coming weeks is: “Keep Ireland abortion-free,” this is exactly the type of ignorance I’m talking about.

Irish women are already having abortions, they’re just not allowed access them in their own country where they can receive treatment before, during, and after. Instead they’ve been leaving this island, quietly, and more wrongfully, in shame.

This is the year when women will not stay quiet

any longer. This should be the year when rape victims are no longer punished more than their rapists. When better laws should be brought in for rape trials, when UCD improves the transparency of dealing with sexual assault and harassment on campus, when our laws no longer force a women to carry the baby of her rapist if she does not wish to.

If there is anything to be learned from the past year, it is that if you have a voice, you have power. The University Observer will continue to let your voice be heard. This past year has clearly shown how loud the voice of a student newspaper can be, and this newspaper is going to continue speaking up for the student voice, for anyone who comes to us with an injustice, with concerns, with a point to be made.

Do not ever let your voice be silenced. Keep shouting about things that make you angry. Keep marching for change, for better. Always vote in elections. We are privileged to live in a democracy, and this is how we can make our voice heard by elected officials. If that’s by holding our elected representatives to account in an impeachment referendum, voting for a political party you think will bring the change you want to see, or voting for Michael D, a democracy can only work if we use our voice and vote.

On May 25th, be sure to get out and make your voice heard, and please, for the sake of the women of Ireland, vote to Repeal the 8th amendment, dammit.

OBSERVER TEAM EDITOR Aoife Hardesty DEPUTY EDITOR Ruth Murphy ART & DESIGN EDITOR Joanne Olivia NEWS EDITOR Brían Donnelly DEPUTY NEWS EDITOR Fiachra Johnston COMMENT EDITOR Adam Lawler FEATURES EDITOR Gavin Tracey SCIENCE EDITOR Emmet Feerick BUSINESS & CAREERS EDITOR Ciarán Busby EAGARTHÓIR GAEILGE Cian Griffin SPORTS EDITOR Ian Moore DEPUTY SPORTS EDITOR Christine Coffey CHIEF OF PHOTOGRAPHY Phoebe Ireland CHIEF OF ILLUSTRATIONS Meadhbh Sheridan

TALLEYRAND

ONLINE NEWS EDITOR Katia Gillen

Talley ho!

We are coming to the end of another abysmal year at this hellhole and the University Observer and the UCDSU are to be reborn, though some ugly faces will remain. The same old Talley will continue to haunt these walls for many years to come. Talley knows you’d miss him as much as you miss having a male dominated sabbatical team and microwaves.

This year has been unusually disastrous and that is coming from a man who has seen more wars than he has heard dubstep songs.

UCD’s President continues his reign of error still sounding incredibly jaded and unenthused about the year ahead. His lack of joy could make you want to hear the beautiful sounds of Katie Ascough starting an answer with “Absolutely” before failing to answer the question.

Roberto Sweenz is still droning on about fees when all the students want is for the poor to not be targeted

by Ireland’s difficult legislation on abortion. Luckily, he will soon be replaced by whatshisname so the same

words can come from a different mouth this time.

Eog-han Mac Domh-naill really appears to miss his old friend #LoveBothLoveWomenLoveBabiesLoveRyanair.

Soon he will escape UCD just as she did. His desire for consent probably won’t get as much coverage as her desire for a lack of it in medicine but sure it’s grand because can all have a consensual cup of tea. Eoghan will be replaced by the also disgustingly charming Melissa I-don’t-have-sex-between-the-hours-of-9and-5 Plunkett. Plunkett has asked the students if they have sex during working hours and if they are up for a protest. It is unclear how students are expected to respond to this brief survey.

Mr. Beard is confident that returning to this putrid institution for another year is a good idea, completely ignoring that the only Graduate-only school on campus would rather vote against him in a race with no other candidates. That is so poor that Talley sees little need to make further joke of it.

Next year Scum Union should, in fact, have a C&C

Officer in the form of Tim Mayo who it appears cannot read and has no opinion on the border. It is news to Talley that Mayo folk have no opinion on the border but then again Talley is not from Mayo. Does a ghost have a home county? Particularly a ghost who is originally French and whose only lose connection to Ireland is this student newspaper.

Talley could say that he hopes that some day University College Dublin, Dublin SU can do something to lift this spirit but Talley left his hope with Napoleon.

Talley does not care for goodbyes because Talley does not miss people.

Talley out!

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

STAFF WRITERS Rory Clarke Dean Swift Clara Brannigan Jack Knowles Nathan Young Priscilla Obilana CONTRIBUTORS Ritika Sureka Sambhavi Sudhakar Owen Cuskelly Heather Reynolds Aoife Muckian Lisa O’Dowd Su Wei Ng Sean Mooney Janice Lau Roisin Guyett-Nicholson Medh Ní Dhúláin Martin Healy David Kent Marie-Juliette Michel COVER PICTURE Dylan O’Neill

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

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

22 VOLUME XXIV, ISSUE 8

ONLINE COMMENT & FEATURES EDITOR Orla Keaveney

SPECIAL THANKS SU Staff Dee Carr Webprint Rachel O’Neill Led Zeppelin Martin, Roisin, and David All our section editors, staff writers, and

SPORT NO BOX IN WHICH TO BOX Christine Coffey talks with Phil Rooney about the poor state of Boxing Facilities in UCD.

We’ve got a very mixed group here, lots of different nationalities and backgrounds, some GAA players, Archery, Rugby.

GAA pitches, AstroTurf, basketball and squash courts (all in the plural), you would really hope for the some funding for successful clubs like this for just one functional training hall at the very least.

Sparring with nearby clubs such as Anova and Drimnagh provides great opportunities for the UCD students against unfamiliar opposition. “They’re so used to each other at this stage” says Rooney. The club is well rooted in the Dublin boxing community, having strong relationships with some of the most successful clubs in the province. This lends credibility

to Rooney’s claims that in running their own facilities in UCD they would be “self-sufficient. We’d host tournaments and events for the different clubs.” As is unfortunately often the case, capital is cited as the main barrier to this goal. However, Rooney believes this investment would be beneficial, not just for the Boxing Club, but for lots of other college teams too. Agility, speed, and footwork are synonymous with boxing and the sport contains a skill-set that is transferrable to most other sports on campus, and the coach claims that some campus teams have already expressed interest in using boxing training as a vehicle for improvement in the fitness department. “We’d love to bring them in. We’ve got a very mixed group here, lots of different nationalities and backgrounds, some GAA players, Archery, Rugby.”

“It takes a lot of courage to step into the ring,” says Rooney “We put them [new boxers] on a six week training programme, working on their defence, technique, stuff like that. You know if they have what it takes when they get to step in the ring.” Newcomers Macdara O’Morain and Zoe Beato claimed Dublin novice titles and Seamus Lyons won his senior third level-division in March, highlights of a hugely successful season for the club and testament to the impassioned work of its members to develop these young charges. “The committee we have are the best group I’ve ever worked with” claims Rooney. As it stands, UCD Boxing Club is engaged in a struggle to make-do and compromise, a struggle that won’t be over until someone’s hitting the canvas, a canvas for UCD Boxing Club.

THE BADGER

PICTURE: ARMY.MIL

Club officers charged with directing the development of a club they care about often talk about premises like Kirstie Allsopp and Phil Spencer talk about location. Phil Rooney, a prominent figure in Irish boxing circles and a major contributor to the UCD Boxing Club over the past 5 years, is no exception. I spoke to Rooney before the first of the club’s bi-weekly speed sessions in Hall C, an area that falls short of reaching the ‘adequate’ title for an elite and hardworking group.

Facilities are of the upmost importance, and when you look around the UCD campus and see rugby pitches,

SPORTS ROUND-UP

By Martin Healy UCD TRIUMPH IN IRISH SENIOR CUP FINAL

UCD Hockey bagged silverware last week as the women’ side won the Irish Senior Cup, making it their fourth title in seven years.

The team saw off Pegasus with a commanding 4-0 win at Belfield. UCD took the lead in the 12th minute through Emma Russell. Despite a strong first half performance from the students, it remained 1-0 at half-time.

Any hope of a Pegasus comeback, however, was dashed early in the second half with a goal from Abbie Russell, the younger sister of Emma. Two further goals followed in the second half, coming from Katie Mullan and Sorcha Clarke respectively, allowing UCD to cruise to the title With UCD now fully focused on the league, they followed up their cup win with a trip to Monkstown on Sunday afternoon. Emma Russell got on the scoresheet again as UCD dominated in a 5-0 victory in rainy conditions.

UCD AFC COME FROM BEHIND IN BATTLE AGAINST FINN HARPS

The Badger was really looking forward to ‘’club only April’’ as installed by the GAA at the start of this season. It was a clever initiative, to free up the entire month so that the club championships could be run off early in the season, allowing county players to fully focus on the All-Ireland series in the summer.

However, like a lot of well made GAA plans, the proof was in the playing. We are halfway through April at the time of writing. The Badger’s team (a senior hurling side) have had a total of zero Championship games and had THREE league fixtures postponed due to the inclement weather. It has gotten to the stage where the Badger’s manager has no idea when the next game is, so he cannot plan training sessions accordingly. It is an utter shambles. It isn’t exclusive to hurling either. The club’s adult footballers have had one Championship game out of six. Now, when June and July comes around, both sides will be considerably weakened by the loss of their county players. Not to mention the fixture congestion that will occur once the postponed matches have been refixed. Club only April? Only for the elite it seems.

The outrage isn’t just reserved for the national sport though. A 5,000+ petition was brought to Ravenhill to reinstate Paddy Jackson and Stuart Olding to both Ulster and Ireland following their acquittal in the wellpublicised trial. Cue the outrage when the IRFU correctly revoked their contracts. The Badger’s personal favourite was that ‘Ireland will be in trouble without

Paddy’. Yep, we’re really struggling at fly-half, what with Jonny Sexton, Joey Carberry, Ian Keatley, Ross Byrne, Tyler Bleyendaal and JJ Hanrahan all firing.

No, let’s go with the disgraced lad that hasn’t played a game in almost a year! That’s sure to help us when we inevitably crash out of the World Cup in 14 months.

Meanwhile, the general media are outraged with the scuffles and skirmishes that happened in the domestic soccer league over the last fortnight. Six red cards in one minute in ‘UFC at the RSC’, but the pick of the bunch came from TalkToJoe.ie. In the aftermath of another fantastic advertisement for the league in the Dublin Derby between Shamrock Rovers and Bohemians, one fine ‘’writer’’ decided to talk about the action in the stands, rather than on the pitch. Despite admitting himself that he hadn’t attended a derby in two years, the writer was startled by the sheer amount of policemen and security installed at Tallaght Stadium.

Imagine that. A fixture with historic incidents of violence surrounding it, resulted in extra Gardaí presence!

I do hope this journalist alerted the church elders. Far be it from the Badger to dictate, but maybe just maybe, he should attend League of Ireland games more often. Just a suggestion. Then, he might be able to climb down off his high horse and realise that praise of the on the field action is far more helpful to the league than criticism of off the field action.

Despite being a goal down at half-time, UCD came from behind to beat Finn Haps 3-2 in Friday evening’s First Division clash. The Students took the lead after fifteen minutes, with a tidy finish from Georgie Kelly. UCD fell behind to two quickfire Harps goals, from Sam Todd and Mark Coyle respectively, and finished the half a goal down.

Kelly led UCD’s comeback in the second half, when he first put one past Harps’ Conor Gallagher. Kelly then bagged the winner and his hat-trick a few minutes later after a cross from Ciaran O’Connor in the 72nd minute. UCD held on for the last 20 minutes to claim all three points.

UCD continue their strong start to the season and hold onto their spot at the top of the First Division, two points clear of Drogheda United in second. The Students have an away trip to Longford next weekend.

A POINT FOR WAVES IN LIMERICK AWAY TRIP

UCD Waves travelled to Limerick on Sunday afternoon and came away with a point for their efforts. In the first ever meeting between the two sides, the Waves took a lead in the first half, with a goal from midfielder Avril Brierly.

Despite having the lead at half-time, Limerick grabbed one in the second half, after a nice finish from Limerick’s Rebecca Horgan.

The result leaves the Waves with four points from their opening two Women’s National League games.

Their previous away trip to Munster saw them see off Cork City 2-nil in the opening game of the season.

Next up for the Waves is a home tie against Shelbourne next Sunday at Jackson Park.

LAST MINUTE DROP GOAL SPELLS EXIT FOR UCD IN FRASER MCMULLEN CUP

In a dramatic semi-final at Castle Avenue, Clontarf beat UCD 27-25 to advance to the final of this year’s Fraser McMullen Cup. Clontarf U20s needed a last-minute drop goal right at the end to beat the students. Clontarf will meet Dublin University in next week’s all-Dublin final, though the venue is yet to be announced.

UCD beat UCC 17-12 in the quarter-final at the Belfield Bowl the previous Saturday to set up the tie. The students have not won the cup in six years since they last won it in 2012 on the back of their previous win in 2011.

17TH APRIL 2018 23

SPORT LUCK OF THE IRISH NOT WITH IRISH RIDERS Marie-Juliette Michel reports on the events from the Showjumping World Cup Finals in Paris For the first time since 1987, the jumping and dressage in November, and now qualifying for his first World World Cup Finals were held in Paris. Created in 1978, Cup final. the World Cup Circuit is the winter tour par excellence: However, for both men, the final in Paris was an divided into leagues all over the world, it is without objective when they started the indoor show season: any doubt the most prestigious indoor tour that cur- “The World Cup tour is an objective for this winter,” rently exists. said McAuley, “Of course I wanted to qualify for the final,” added Lynch for French media Jump’inside.

The last Irish rider to have reached the podium during a World Cup Final is 22 year-old Bertram Allen, who won bronze in 2015 with Molly Malone at only 19 years of age in Las Vegas.

It is therefore with the utmost determination that the two riders came to Paris last Tuesday. Lynch had chosen to ride no other than his loyal All Star 5, a 15-year-old stallion with whom he won his gold medal at the Europeans and took part in three World Cup Finals already. McAuley took Miebello, a 14-yearold gelding who brought him to the top spot for the past year.

The championship was divided into three classes taking place on Thursday, Friday, and Sunday. On the After months of qualification, two Irish riders first day was the Speed Class, an event during which won their ticket to Paris: Tipperary’s Denis Lynch the thirty-seven qualified combinations had to be the and Co. Louth’s Mark McAuley. Two men but with fastest to complete a course of 1.6 metre fences, with two very different profiles. Lynch is far from being 4 extra seconds added to the time per fence down. The a novice in the area, he took part in no less than one course was difficult and only eight riders managed Olympic Games, two World Equestrian Games, three to do a clear round. Like many others, Lynch and European championships and five World Cup finals. McAuley got tricked by the course designer, McAuley With a gold medal in the team competition at the last finishing 19th while his compatriot ended 27th.

European championships in 2017, and winner of the Unfortunately for both men, things did not go Grand Prix of Aachen in 2009, one of the most difficult better on the second day of competition. The Friday competitions that exists, Lynch had all the experience evening class was very different, more technical and needed. McAuley, on the other hand, has been rising more precise. Riders had to complete a first round and quickly for the past few years, being a reserve for team the lucky ones who had not touched a fence would Ireland at the last European championships and win- compete once again during a jump-off. While the first ning the Grand Prix of Lyon’s World Cup Qualifier part of the course went well, the situation got more

The last Irish rider to have reached the podium during a World Cup Final is 22 yearold Bertram Allen, who won bronze in 2015 with Molly Malone at only 19 years of age in Las Vegas.

complicated during the latter one for Lynch and All Star and the pair ended up being eliminated. McAuley was a bit luckier as he knocked two poles down and got one time penalty.

The final event took place on Sunday, a 1.5 -1.6 metre competition in two rounds. Fifth to enter the arena, McAuley and Miebello had two rails down and finished 23rd overall while Lynch ended 36th. After leading throughout the entire championship, USA’s Beezie Madden and Breitling LS were crowned

champions of the World Indoor Championship.

Although the Irish men did not manage to reach the podium this year, they will need all the support they can get in the months to come with the World Equestrian Games (outdoor championships) coming up soon. With the European champion title above its head, team Ireland, led by chef d’équipe Rodrigo Pessoa is determined to obtain good results at the World’s in September and win their ticket to the 2020 Olympics.

CLUB FOCUS-UCD CANOE CLUB Christine Coffey chats to the UCD canoe club in a smashing Club Focus.

It’s hard to separate the value of a club from its successes and to recognise the importance of their social impact, especially when the club is moving upstream in the eddy and on the epoch of a period of great growth.

UCD Canoe Club hosted the intervarsities this year, a major competition in their calendar, and managed to finish in the top five of every category, something that had hitherto “never been done” by the club according to member Shanley Shaw.

Jack “forced [himself] to get involved with a sports club this year” and does not regret the decision.

More than 53 newcomers travelled to Tramore on the club organised ‘Freshers’ trip’ in October and Shaw said of the bus journey down and the weekend itself that “It’s hard not to make friends. It’s a great way to promote community in the club.” For both Shaw and fellow member Jack Van Lang the social aspects of the club seem very important. “It gives you a sense of place in college” according to Shaw. As an Arts student, the large class sizes can create an impersonal culture and an environment that can be superficial. Jack “forced [himself] to get involved with a sports club this year” and does not regret the decision, citing training groups as important in immersing yourself in the community and getting to know people.

“There’s a nice mix in the club, some beginners, some exchange, some foreign students.” “It’s a nice sport to jump right into” claims Van Lang, and Shaw echoed this statement, saying “some of the team sports, some people have been playing from a very young age” and even though they have “lots of teams” that certain standards are almost pre-requisite for the top team.

There are beginners’ lessons, for example, for some international students interested in picking up a hurley for the first time and there is a natural difference in the standard between these lessons and the competitive

24 VOLUME XXIV, ISSUE 8

grade teams, a gap that doesn’t appear to be as big in the Canoe Club. “There is a swim test” explains Van Lang, but he assures that it isn’t anything taxing and results to not much more than a length of the pool. “As long as you are comfortable in the water-that’s the most important thing.”

Polo is an event in the club that has recently gained momentum, with specific instructors having been brought in and time being set aside and dedicated to it, and its events like this which maintain the team aspect of sport if that is an element that participants are interested in. With such a broad range of disciplines available to members and the freedom to crossover and participate in several different events, it is easy to see that the club caters for different levels and different skillsets; everything from balance and technique to endurance, freestyle to slaloms. There are two weekly pool sessions for the members in the UCD pool, held in an evening time slot. “There aren’t as many people around and it’s safer for practice and skill development.

[It’s] warmer too.” These trainings are different to the regular weekend sessions in the river Liffey or Boyne, or sometimes even outside Dublin. “It can be daunting at first,” says Shaw “you’d be afraid of capsizing.”

The challenge for next year’s charges is not just to replicate the achievements of this year’s competitors, but to take it one step further The highlight of the competitive year is always the intervarsities, and this year the competition held a special significance as the UCD club was hosting the competition. A committee of ten were primarily responsible for organising the event, but it takes a village, with nearly ten people needed to be present for each event to do both the seen and unseen work necessary for the seemless running of events. “We need people

for safety, obviously, and at the start and the finish for recording times and people calculating points.” Such is the demand of hosting the event, that Shaw says “It’s harder to win the competition when you’re hosting,” but UCD managed to balance organising the event and competing with great aplomb. UCD’s Simon Grennell and Jayne Stephens won the Colm Johnson Trophy and Niamh Tompkins Trophy respectively for the best male and female paddler on and off the water, coveted trophies that are awarded after a vote from the captains of all competing clubs.

The challenge for next year’s charges is not just to replicate the achievements of this year’s competitors, but to take it one step further and improve on this year’s result and not just win the overall competition, but to enjoy success in even more individual events.

Both Shaw and Van Lang alluded to a competitive rivalry between themselves and next year’s hosts, the University of Limerick. “It would be great to beat them down in UL. We want to do even better than this year” hopes Shaw.