Vol. XXIII - Issue 5 - Berliner

UO the UNiversity oBserver ABOVE STUDENTS AT THE CRPD MARCH OUTSIDE LEINSTER HOUSE Photo aLex fLoss-JoNes

MENTAL HEALTH EXPERIENCES IN THE LGBTQ+ COMMUNITY shaUNa GaviN P15

January 24th 2017 volume xxiii issue 5 universityoBserver.ie

ACCOMMODATION HORROR STORIES FROM THE FRONTLINE OF STUDENT ACCOMMODATION emma tooLaN P11

uCD lanD that was “perfeCt for Development” iDle for 10 years BiLLy vaUGhaN featUres editor UCD HAS no plans to further develop a site that it received from Denis O’Brien as part of a land swap concluded between 2007 and 2008. It was expected that student accommodation could be developed on the site.

A governing authority document from 2008 detailed that UCD would “now [have] a site, adjacent to the Belgrove apartments that will enable expansion of these apartments.” Multiple other recommendations at the time claimed that the site could be used to develop Belgrove further.

UCD’s campus development plan 2016-2026, released in August 2016, shows no plans for building on the site. There have also been no planning applications submitted for the site. This is despite extensive plans for new accommodation across campus.

The UCD-owned Roebuck land currently houses a car park. The land acquired by Denis O’Brien from UCD has recently been granted planning permission for luxury apartments. It is estimated that he will make approximately €50 million from the development.

A 2010 report by Sherry Fitzgerald of the transac-

tion stated that they believed O’Brien would “build no more than two houses on the Thornfield site.”

UCD exchanged land it owned at Thornfield with land at Roebuck owned by O’ Brien. UCD also received a cash payment of €15 million under the deal. €8 million of this would go towards the building of the new Student Centre, while the cost of contractual obligations under the deal would also have to be paid out of the payment.

UCD had considered the land at Thornfield to be unfit for the development of student accommodation given the amount of private two-storey houses surrounding the site. However a Costello Commerical report and valuation of the lands in 2007 described the land as a “prime residential area” with potential for more than 50 dwellings.

Advice that UCD received at the time appears to have been highly favourable towards the deal. Sherry Fitzgerald and Costello Commercial, both appointed to oversee the deal, stated multiple times that the Roebuck site would be a good choice for future development of student accommodation.

A report by Grant Thornton, hired to provide a

cost-benefit analysis of which site would be better to build on, concluded that building costs would be high and potential revenues would be lower on the Thornfield site, and that it would ultimately make a financial loss.

The Roebuck site was put up for sale by the Little Sisters of the Poor in 2007. At the time UCD made a bid for the land. O’Brien’s company also made an offer “totally in excess of market value,” according to the Sherry Fitzgerald report. Shortly thereafter he made a proposal to UCD to acquire their land at Thornfield. Both sites are roughly the same size, but the Thornfield land also has access to the N11.

Six bids were submitted to the Little Sisters of the Poor when the Roebuck land went up for sale.

Documents released to the University observer also acknowledge that UCD was approached by several student accommodation operators at the time. They offered to buy the Roebuck land and develop accommodation if UCD entered into a long-term occupancy lease with them.

UCD have declined to comment on future plans for the land.

THE YOUNG OFFENDERS AN INTERVIEW WITH TWO RISING YOUNG STARS otwo P16

SAN LORENZO’S BRUNCH OF CHAMPIONS aUse aBdeLhaq otwo P7

aCaDemiC reGulations unDer review aLaNNa o’shea News editor A WORKING group has been set up to review all of UCD’s Academic Regulations. The academic regulations provide undergraduate and graduate students with definitions and guidelines about modules, grade descriptions and semesterisation.

These guidelines include information about the maximum and minimum number of credits students can take in a semester, the number of modules a student can fail and still progress to the next stage of their course and which modules can be taken as electives.

According to Lexi Kilmartin, UCD Students Union’s Education Officer and a member of the working group, the aim of the review is mainly to “make the regulations more user friendly” both for staff and students, as well as cleaning up some of the language.

However, she says that more substantive changes could be made, as this as an opportunity to “set the goal posts.”

The Academic Guidelines are reviewed by the Academic Council each year, but many of the regulations for undergraduates have remained the same as when they were first put in place in 2007. “Obvi-

ously there are some things that they need to change and need to take into account,” says Kilmartin.

“UCD is a very different place than it was ten years ago.”

The regulations also need to take into account some of UCD’s educational partners, such as NCAD and the Institute of Bankers, as their academic regulations come under the university’s regulations.

NCAD formed an alliance with UCD in 2010, while the Institute of Bankers became a school of UCD in 2006.

Changes to the regulations could include alterations to how elective classes are offered. Recommendations have come from the Elective’s Review Group and Implementation Group, who wish to bring in more interdisciplinary modules and change how elective modules are distributed.

At the moment, a module needs to get an exemption if they don’t want to offer any elective places but according to Kilmartin this could change, as for some modules “it doesn’t make sense to offer elective places”, while “some modules are really oversubscribed.”

The regulations may also remove the requirement

for students to take an elective module in the first semester of first year. According to Kilmartin, this will allow students to get a bit more taste of what college is like and then they can make a more educated choice of elective in future semesters.

Academic Regulations include structures for whether a student can progress to the next stage of their course after failing modules. At the moment, students can progress to the next stage of their degree carrying ten credits of modules they have not passed and any changes to this regulation could have a large impact on the rate at which students progress through their degree.

Kilmartin is looking for students to reach out and give their feedback to the working group on the changes they would like to see in their Academic Regulations. She can be reached at education@ ucdsu.ie.

A report by the working group is planned to be finished by March, which will then go to the Academic Council in May. Implementation, Kilmartin says, will take much longer and these changes will most likely come into effect in the academic year beginning in 2018.

2016 FILM RECAP EXTRAVAGANZA otwo P10

FIRST FORTNIGHT INTERVIEW WITH THE COFOUNDER OF THE MENTAL HEALTH FESTIVAL eZra maLoNey otwo P28

January 24th 2017 1

News News in Brief

Campus News in Brief

Katie Lalwani Aoife Hardesty NUI Galway Students Protest over University President Irish Requirement A ceilí protest was held in NUIG, opposing the University’s recent decision to no longer make Irish language proficiency a requirement for the university’s president.

Around 50 people gathered in support of retaining the Irish language requirement as part of a ceilí protest held at the Quad in NUIG. The protest was organised by Misneach na Gaillimhe and supported by the Students’ Union who opposed the decision.

The decision was made at the end of last year by the NUIG governing authority, Údarás na hOllscoile, as it was felt that the requirement was very restrictive and limiting the number of potential candidates for the position of University President.

The Irish language is a key part of college life at NUIG, which prides itself on being a bilingual university. Under the NUIG Students’ Union constitution, Irish and English are recognised as the two ‘co-equal official languages’ of the university and all written and electronic communications are made available in both languages.

New Bus Service to Start for UCD Students A Clondalkin to UCD bus service is being introduced for the beginning of the second semester. Run by Ridgeway Coaches, the route will serve stops in Clondalkin, Tallaght, Firhouse, and Rathfarnham.

The route will make UCD a more accessible option for people living in southwest Dublin, as current transport options are limited, and it may encourage students looking for accommodation to look in southwest Dublin.

The fare costs €3 each way, and Leap cards are accepted on board.

The bus is scheduled to leave Clondalkin at 7:15 am and arrive in UCD at 8:10 am, and to leave UCD at 5pm Monday to Thursday, and at 3:30 pm on Fridays. A full downloadable timetable is available online on the UCD Estates Services website.

Some Third-Level Courses See Drop Out Rate of 70% A report by the Irish Times has indicated that 70% of students in some third-level courses drop out. Data obtained between 2015-2016 shows that, during this period, one in six students, or around 6,000 people, left their course.

Computer science, construction and business courses are among those which see the highest drop-out rate.

University courses have the lowest drop-out rates at between 10 and 12% as opposed to institute of technology courses which see this figure double. Level 6 and Level 7 courses see the highest numbers of students who do not progress with their course.

Programmes which have some of the highest drop-out rates of over 70% include computing with software development at IT Tralee, computing and games development at IT Sligo, industrial physics at DIT and computer forensics and security at Waterford IT. Reasons for students not progressing with their third-level courses include previous academic attainment, students choosing a course not suited to them, high costs, and medical concerns. The report raises concerns with many, in particular when it comes to the high non-progression rate in computer based courses as there is a high skills shortage in this area.

New Student Group Lobbies for Access to HIV Prevention Drug A campaign group has been set up in UCD to lobby the student’s union to campaign for access to the HIV prevention medication PrEP (Pre-exposure prophylaxis) in Ireland. PrEP is prescribed for people at high risk for contracting HIV. It involves taking daily doses of HIV medicines, which lower their chances of contracting HIV by 90% for sexual transmission and 70% for intravenous transmission. People at high risk include homosexual men, transfeminine individuals, and intravenous drug users.

PrEP is recommended by the World Health Organisation as a preventative measure against HIV. It is currently unavailable in Ireland, despite 1 HIV

Student-run UCD Economic and Political Review to be Published A new UCD journal, the UCD Economic and Political Review, is seeking submissions from undergraduate and postgraduate students. The publication will be annual and will give students from economic and political backgrounds the opportunity to “pursue academic work and research through essays or articles on either individual subjects or on matters of political economy” says founder Brían Donnelly, a Law with Economics student.

Led by a student committee, the publication will have input from staff from the Schools of Economics and of Politics and International Relations. Students looking to submit their work will be encouraged to “undertake their own original research, evaluate current literature and research on a particular topic, or write essays and articles on domestic, EU, or international economics and political affairs”.

Submissions (2000-4000 words long) will be accepted from week 2 of this semester, with the aim to publish the first issue of the UCD Economic and Political Review by the end of the year.

The committee can be contacted through their Facebook page “UCD Economic & Political Review” or by emailing economicandpoliticalreview@ucd.ie

executive positions in UCD Students’ Union.

Positions include President, Post-Graduate officer, Welfare officer, Education officer and Campaigns & Communications officer. The posts of college officers and Irish language officer will also be elected.

Potential candidates must be nominated by at least 150 members of the union. Nominations close on 20th February and elections will be held the week starting 6th March or week 7 of the semester.

Planning application submitted for O’Reilly Hall UCD has submitted a planning application for an extension to the north-west side of the existing twostorey O’Reilly Hall. The proposed building will be 1832.45 square metres in size and situated at the north-west side of the existing building.

The building is to function as a “University Club,” expected to be used for alumni and external events. The new building will “include social and dining facilities, meeting rooms and support spaces,” according to the planning application.

Another application has been submitted for a one-three storey extension to the Quinn School of Business, which will include a new lecture theatre and other teaching spaces.

Both projects were included in plans for the university’s Campus Development Plan 2016-2026.

The plan also included extensive plans for new student accommodation, which would encompass 3,000 new beds. Planning applications for this accommodation have not yet been submitted.

Both the applications were submitted late December 2016. The deadline to make any observations on the applications is the beginning of February. For more information see: www.dlrcoco.ie

Roisin Guyett-Nicholson editor Nominations for UCDSU elections open February 6th Nominations will open on February 6th for those wishing to put themselves forward to run for

RAG Week 2017 to launch next week

Universities Owed Thousands in Unpaid Fees and Charges

Orla Keaveney

THIRD-LEVEL institutions in Ireland are owed hundreds of thousands in unpaid student fees and charges such as library fines. Documents obtained by the Irish Times indicate that €1.3 million worth of contribution charges has not been paid by students while over €560,000 in in library rental and late fees is owed in the seven universities and DIT. NUI Maynooth, one of the country’s smallest universities, is owed €450,000 in contribution charges. The college is also owed €170,000 in unpaid library fees. NUI Maynooth does not write off debt nor disallow students with outstanding debt from graduating which may account for the high amount owed.

Other colleges with significant amounts of unpaid contribution fees include University of Limerick with €208,000, DIT with €176,000 and Trinity College with €110,000.

UCD and NUIG were unable to provide a breakdown of how much was owed in contribution charges. As larger universities, this would be expected to be higher meaning the overall figure could be much higher than initially reported. UCD does withold results and awards if fees are unpaid.

The contribution charge for students is currently €3,000 per year. University funding in Ireland is a topic currently dividing many with some suggesting in the future, the student contribution charge should be discontinued and replaced with a student loan scheme.

UCD’s annual campus-wide fundraiser, RAG Week, will be kicking off on Saturday the 28th, with events continuing throughout the week. This year all the proceeds will go to one organisation, Pieta House, an Irish charity dedicated to helping those affected by suicide or self-harm.

The highlights include a gig with comedy sketch group Foil Arms & Hog, Wexford Wednesday with Aslan, and the Rag Ball to finish off the week. There will also be bucket collections on the Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday, where student volunteers will be rewarded for their efforts with a free lunch, a night out, and Leinster rugby tickets.

Last year, RAG Week raised almost €10,000, split between four separate causes. But this year will differ by concentrating its efforts on one charity – according to Luke Fitzpatrick, the UCD Students Union Campaigns Officer.

He stated: “this means that the message is simpler, from raising awareness about a specific issue to communicating a clear timetable of events well ahead of schedule”.

While there is no set target, UCDSU are hopeful that the whole campus will get involved to maximise the earnings, as over 100 students

2 January 24th 2017

diagnosis every 18 hours, according to HSE figures.

The group recently started a Facebook group, which had just under 100 likes at the time of going to print. Finn McLysaght, founder of the group, says they started campaign in UCD because of “how influential student unions can be in grassroots campaigns such as the marriage equality referendum and the ongoing Repeal the Eighth campaign”.

The group plans “to bring a motion to the Student Union Council in the hopes that they will not only formally call for widespread access to PrEP, as Trinity College’s SU has, but that they will actively campaign for PrEP, when they attend Pride, for example. We also wish for the SU to facilitate the distribution of valuable information about PrEP throughout the student body.”

have already signed up to volunteer.

RAG Week was only officially reintroduced in UCD last year after a five-year ban, as vandalism and anti-social behaviour put an end to the event in 2011. Following arrests for public order offences in NUI Galway and Waterford IT, universities across Ireland are shifting the focus of RAG Week back to the charities these weeks support.

UCD’s chosen charity, Pieta House, has nine centres in Dublin and five centres outside

Dublin and employs 180 therapists who provide free counselling for people who are experiencing suicidal thoughts, have attempted suicide or who are engaging in self harm.

Public mental health services have recently faced cuts and last year UCDSU participated in a protest against €12 million cuts to these services by the government.

Tickets for the major events are on sale in SU shops. For more details, or to volunteer, see the UCDSU’s RAG Week event page on Facebook.

News & analysis

News Analysis: UCD’s Most Expensive Car Park billy vaughan Features editor Following on from our lead story this issue, Billy Vaughan delves into why UCD agreed to a landswap and why nothing has been built on it since 2008.

Photo credit: niamh o’regan

AT the time, it was hailed as the perfect solution to UCD’s accommodation problem and its cash flow crisis. It seemed like a no brainer. UCD would get rid of its old greenhouses at Thornfield, and in exchange, receive €15m in cash, and a prime three acres for expansion of Belgrove. But today, all that stands on the land that UCD received is a car park. Where did it all go wrong?

The documents that the Observer received only give a small glimpse into the many manoeuvres that surrounded the 2007 deal. There were multiple bidders, which included Denis O’Brien, UCD, student accommodation operators, and others. We do not know the details of each bidder, or indeed how much they all offered for the Roebuck land. As a result we cannot easily ascertain whether UCD’s €10.5m bid for the land would have succeeded had O’ Brien not made his offer.

It is very likely that Denis O’ Brien had no real intention of ever using the Roebuck land when he bought it, as it is only accessible from UCD. It was probably always meant as leverage to secure the prime Thornfield land from UCD. Even before he had formally bought the land, UCD received correspondence from his office offering the swap. It seems that UCD was just a pawn in the grand scheme

to secure Thornfield, the development of which is now set to make O’ Brien millions.

It is ironic to note that just a couple of years later, the new Science building would be named in recognition of his generous financial contribution to that project. However, this is not a story of O’Brien’s gain; he is just a businessman out to make as much profit as possible. On the contrary, this is very much a story of UCD’s loss.

The much-vaunted €15m that was included ended up being severely depleted by contract obligations that came out of UCD’s pocket. The fact that, throughout the documents, there is no final figure for these costs incurred (it is variously quoted as €4m, €5m & €6.5m in the documents) is scandalous in itself, and illustrates the unusually ad hoc and casual attitude that was taken to the deal.

However, the real mystery at the heart of this story is why the land has been idle, when it was deemed suitable for development by no less than 3 external advisor companies involved in the deal. At the time the benefits of building on the Roebuck site were trumpeted endlessly. It is very likely that if UCD had known what had become of it now, the deal would not have taken place, potentially saving millions in the long run.

There appears to be three scenarios that led to this fiasco: either UCD thought that the Roebuck land was suitable because the three auditors were incorrect in the professional advice that they gave; UCD can actually build on the land now and choose not to; or that UCD somehow knew that the land was unsuitable, but went through with the deal anyway.

All of these scenarios suggest either incompetence or corruption.

The irony rings even louder given UCD’s current housing crisis, where every square inch of campus is now seen as potential space for accommodation development. Page 29 of the most recent Campus

UCDSU partake in CRPD Ratification Protest Eithne Dodd online news & features editor 2007, after 10 years, the convention is not legally binding here. 150 countries have ratified the convention and Ireland is the only member of the EU that has not ratified the CRPD. A first year Trinity student, Niamh Herbert, organised the protest and along with another Trinity student Laura Beston founded a charity called “Disability and I” to raise awareness of people with disabilities in Ireland.

Following the demonstration, Richard Boyd Barrett asked Francis Fitzgerald to give a firm date for when the legislation for the CRPD will be brought through the Dáil. The Minister has set the date for the second week of February.

Photo credit: alex floss-jones

Last Thursday, the 19th of January, UCDSU took part in a march outside Leinster House to protest Ireland’s non-ratification of the United Nations Convention of Rights for People with Disabilities (CRPD).

The UCDSU was joined by the students’ unions of Trinity, DCU, NUI Galway as well as the USI alongside others. There are over 600,000 people living with some kind of disability in Ireland.

The UCDSU website said: “this absolutely vital piece of documentation states the basic human rights of people with disabilities of any kind, and it’s shameful that our government don’t recognise it.”

Although Ireland did sign up to the framework in

Campaigns and Communications Officer, Luke Fitzpatrick protesting with students outiside Leinster House last week for CRPD ratification

Development Plan (2016-2026), shows a veritable forest of planned accommodation blocks in the green spaces between the Sutherland Law School and Roebuck Castle. No open space is safe from the desperate eye of the campus development authorities; except, it seems, the one parcel of land that was specifically acquired for the development of student accommodation.

It is important to remember here also that not only was there a long-term potential financial loss, but the opportunity cost of giving away the Thornfield land was devastating. If the deal had not gone through, there could very well now be (revenue generating) student apartments on the Thornfield block. The fact that O’ Brien’s proposed development is fairly high-density shows that the council was favourable towards projects of that kind.

There are also notes in University documents and those of external contractors that claim the council would have been favourable to new student accommodation built in locations close to third-level institutions. This was in 2008, before the nation-wide accommodation crisis hit.

If the car park remains, which seems likely, then UCD gave away prime N11 real estate, and were given a glorified back garden. The key element here is Grant Thornton’s cost benefit analysis of both sites, which came down overwhelmingly against Thornfield and for Roebuck. With the benefit of hindsight, this recommendation seems farcical, and ought to be looked into further.

While at this early stage we do not know the reasons why, or how this strange state of affairs has come to pass, the very fact that there has been no action taken where construction was not only planned, but publically promoted, suggests that there is much more than meets the eye.

internatioNal

News in Brief Josephine Leahy 40% of Scholars more likely to leave UK after Brexit FOLLOWING the result of the Brexit referendum last year, 40% of British academics and 75% of EU national academics, living and working in the UK, are “more likely to consider leaving Britain”, according to a University and College Union (UCU) survey carried out by YouGov. The results of the survey adds to the growing concerns in universities of the impact Brexit will have on higher education in the UK. According to the Higher Education Statistics Agency figures, 16% of academic staff are EU nationals. 44% of those surveyed stated they knew of those who, since the Brexit vote, had lost access to research funding.

Overall, 90% of academics surveyed stated that they agree that Brexit will have a negative impact on the UK higher education. Sally Hunt, UCU general secretary says, “I am deeply worried that so many academics already know of staff leaving as a result of the Brexit vote, and that three-quarters of EU nationals are now considering leaving the UK.” Along with the Brexit decision, recent policies put forward by the conservative government have caused worry amongst most academics. The new Higher Education and Research Bill, currently passing through the House of Lords, is aimed at inspiring a stronger university sector packed with academic competition and innovation.

The Conservative government believe that deregulation will lead to a revival of the old-fashioned institutions, as new, private universities force them to improve. However, the vast majority of those asked in the UCU survey (80%) believe that the new plans will negatively affect the UK’s higher education sector.

Tuition fees reintroduced in Germany

Beat the Blues Week organised by UCD Science Eithne Dodd online news & features editor

THERE will be a “Beat the Blues Week” during week one available to all UCD Science students and staff. The week was organised by UCD Student Advisor for Science Paola Carrettoni.

“We’re trialling it in science” said Carrettoni “if it goes well who knows… I’d hope that other college(s) might adopt it but it’s their choice.”

Some of the events taking place this week are mental health lunchtime talks given by representatives from charities such as Pieta House and Mental Health Ireland. “I originally wanted to do a mental health week only but then I thought about those with friends or family members who have mental health (issues)” says Carrettoni.

The talks are for anyone who has a mental health issue or knows someone that does. Carrettoni gives the example of a lab technician perhaps being able to learn something from the talk that may help someone they are teaching who struggles with anxiety.

“It’s just little tips” says Carretoni “someone may be doing something that isn’t helping their friend or they may be doing something that is helping their friend but it is affecting them”.

Other events during the week include Yoga and Pilates classes, ‘Writing for University’ workshops, a photography competition, and a welcome centre with the Students’ Union and Science Societies.

When asked why she had organised the Beat the Blues Week for week one of term Carrettoni said “students are back and everybody hates January.”

The hope is that this week will help science staff and students to hate it a little less.

A UCDSU organised Mind, Body and Soul event will also be held later this semester. This follows a significantly smaller one that was held in September.

COME Autumn 2017, tuition fees for non-EU international students will be reintroduced in select universities across Germany. The news was announced earlier this month by the South West state of Baden Württemberg.

Germany has been renowned for its free university education, with tuition fees initially scrapped in 2011.

In 2014, Lower Saxony became the last German state to abolish fees. However, certain factors have led to the reintroduction of fees by some universities. There has been a rise in popularity of Germany as a study destination and, as a result, the higher education ministry is unable to afford free education to all students.

According to the higher education minister, the department is currently required to fill a gap of €48m next year. For the 2017/18 academic year tuition will stand at €1,500 per semester, which is still considerably cheaper in comparison to other countries.

Second degree students will pay a reduced price of €650 per semester.

Certain exceptions have been made to some international students such as refugees with a right to stay in Germany, students from Erasmus states and students from non-member countries with permanent resident status in Europe.

Websites selling Fake Degrees Shut Down s MULTIPLE websites selling counterfeit degrees have been shut down in the UK, according to the BBC. In June 2015, the government announced that it would be taking action on the issue of these websites and began its initiative to shut the websites down. The government plan was launched following the 2014 discovery by BBC Radio Kent that fake degrees from the University of Kent were being sold in China.

Those who created these fake degrees used the names of real universities but made minor spelling changes in order to create differentiation while trying to still appear legitimate. Evidence has also been found of these degrees being sold on eBay. Ninety of these illegal and fraudulent websites were discovered by the Higher Education Degree Datacheck, a UK agency specially created to investigate the issue. Jane Rowley, director of Higher Education Services, stated that September 2016 had been the month that had seen the greatest number of fraudulent website shutdown both in the UK and abroad.

Rowley also expressed concern and issued caution to genuine graduates sharing photos of themselves and their legitimate degrees on social media platforms as it can aid the creation of fake degrees.

January 24th 2017 3

international News Japanese military grants provoke academic conflict

Tuition Fees Scrapped in Philippines

Ross walsh Staff writer

Julia Canney

RECENT increases in grants by the Japanese military has provoked conflict and division among the nation’s academics and scholars. Universities where defence-related research and projects are taking place are set to receive a large boost to their funding, at a time when government and other funding for research grants in general has continued to decline.

General research funding has seen an average annual drop of 1% over the past number of years.

However, in contrast, grants for defence related research will see an increase of nearly 2000%; from JPY600 million ($5.23m) in 2016 to JPY11 billion ($95.88m) for the 2017 fiscal year.

Military subsidies for defence research were launched in 2015 by the administration of Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe. The purpose of this funding is to increase the strength of the technology used by the Japanese military. In 2015 and 2016, the Ministry of Defence cited the threats from North Korea’s missile testing and China’s growing naval influence as reasons to improve the technological assets available to Japanese military personnel.

Academics are divided over both the symbolic and practical effects that the funding increase could have for Japan. The Science Council of Japan has released positive statements regarding the move, and is in the process of discussing whether or not to amend council statements from the 1950’s and 60’s declaring that the Council are “never to engage in military research”.

However, the Japan Scientists Association believe that the subsidies may be illegal under Japan’s post-war peace constitution, and have taken part in protests against the subsidies, organised by the Japanese Coalition Against Military Research in Academia. The coalition also released a statement on 28th December last year saying that “Japan is on the way to forming a ‘military industry-academic complex”.

Some universities have gone so far as to ban their researchers from applying to avail of grants, including Hiroshima University. Hiroshima was one of the two tragic sites where America dropped atomic bombs, ending the Second World War. After the war the Japanese constitution was changed in an attempt to ensure that the country would work towards peace, and Hiroshima University in particular strictly prohibits any links to military activities.

Hiroshima International University

SOAS Students Call for Philosophy Syllabus Change Helen Carroll STUDENTS at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London are under fire for demanding that they ought to study mostly Asian and African philosophers, rather than the predominately western philosophers currently on their syllabuses.

There has been a considerable backlash against the students in the UK press as a result of the claims that certain philosophers should be removed “simply for being white”. The Daily Mail stated that the students have fallen to “special snowflake syndrome” and that the so-called “PC culture” has gone mad.

A world-renowned university, SOAS is a constituent of the University of London and specialises in the study of Africa and Asia.

The protesting students have called on the university to amend their syllabuses claiming that, as the university purports to specialise in Oriental and African studies, the majority of philosophers taught should be of African, Middle Eastern or Asian origin.

Furthermore, the students argue that western philosophers should be taught in the colonial context in which they lived and wrote from.

The Pro-Director for Learning and Teaching, Dr Deborah Johnston, has defended the claims and proposals of the students, stating that “one of the great strengths of SOAS is that we have always looked at world issues from the perspective of the regions we study - Asia, Africa & Middle East.”

Philippines President Robert Duterte IN a highly anticipated move by the administration of Philippines President Robert Duterte, increases to the 2017 education budget will now guarantee free undergraduate education in state universities and colleges.

Although the budget for higher education had increased under the previous president, Benigno Aquino, Duterte had repeatedly emphasised his commitment to his ‘10-point socio-economic agenda’, which prioritised education over health concerns for the country.

In a bid to make access to education easier for impoverished families, the budget for 2017 will increase from PHP433 billion (US$8.7 billion) to PHP544.1 billing (US$11 billion); however, the budget will only cover tuition fees for students.

The decision to increase the budget comes after years of tireless efforts by youth groups who were hopeful that Duterte would follow through on his

campaign promises of making higher education more accessible. In an interview after the decision, the Senate Finance Committee Chair Loren Legarda emphasised the fact that she hopes the 2018 budget will expand to include room and board for poorer students.

In a presidential term that has been dogged by extremely violent repression against drug users and dealers, as part of Duterte’s ‘war on drugs’, the move to expand the education budget comes at a critical time.

In August of 2016, a mere two months after Duterte was elected, he was repeatedly making promises to public sector professionals that he has been unable to keep. These included an increase in the salaries of soldiers and police officers, as well as an increase in salaries for public school teachers.

Unlike these empty campaign promises, which were soon proven to be impossible due to budget constraints, the move to increase the education budget appears to be on its way to becoming firm legislation. The move focuses heavily on improving the lives of poor people throughout the Philippines, which was one of Duterte’s promises to make his country safe and wealthy.

The increase in the education budget comes alongside increases in funding for jails and prisons, as well as drug rehabilitation programs. Duterte has claimed that the education budget increases, combined with other efforts by his administration, will create a youth throughout the Philippines that will be committed to bettering their nation.

Captive American University of Afghanistan Professors Call for Release of Taliban Rory Geoghegan International News Editor IN a video released by the Taliban on Wednesday the 11th of January, two American University of Afghanistan professors called on the US government to free Taliban fighters. The two professors, Kevin King, an American, and Tim Weeks, an Australian national, were kidnapped at gunpoint outside of the university’s compound in Kabul on August 7th last year.

A few weeks after the kidnapping, on the 24th of August, Taliban fighters launched a coordinated gun and bomb attack on the university compound, killing a dozen people and leaving scores more injured.

In the footage, the professors are visibly shaken, crying as they make their appeal.

“We have been here for five months; the people who promised to take care of us have forsaken their promise; we are here with no help or hope. The American University of Afghanistan and the US government have sent representatives to talk to the Taliban, but they could not reach an agreement,” Weeks says. In the video, the two men can be seen wearing traditional Afghan clothing, having also grown beards.

Throughout the video the men plead with their

governments to cooperate with the Taliban for the release of insurgent prisoners in exchange for their freedom. “We have been here for a while and we haven’t heard anything,” said Mr. King, who is now 60 years old.

A press statement by the American University of Afghanistan has called “on the Taliban to release immediately and safely Kevin and Tim and all other hostages.”

The university also noted that it was “pained by what we have seen in the video the Taliban released using our colleagues”, and that “these innocent people have done nothing to harm anyone and need to be reunited with their family, friends and colleagues.”

The video is the first public confirmation by the Taliban that they are holding the two professors. Last September, there was an unsuccessful attempt by US special forces to rescue the professors, the failure of which led many to criticise former President Obama’s handling of the situation.

The university remains closed due to continuing security concerns, however it is expected to re-open in March of this year. It is yet unclear whether any negotiations to free the captives are underway at the present time.

Timothy Weeks and Kevin King making statements in a video released by the Taliban

4 January 24th 2017

CommeNt heaD to heaD – meDiCal mariJuana Ireland has become the latest European state to approve a bill allowing for the use of medicinal cannabis. The bills’ ratification will be debated in early 2017. Ross Walsh and Orla Keaveney debate this issue head-to-head.

for

against

ross waLsh staff writer

orLa KeaveNey staff writer

In favour of introducing medical marijuana, Ross Walsh argues that the benefits to the lives of the sick are too great to be overlooked.

“Unlike legal drugs such as tobacco, research thus far has failed to turn up any evidence linking marijuana to the development of cancer.”

THE issue of marijuana has been a near constant public debate across much of the globe for decades.

Now, Ireland is set to become the latest country to legalise the use of marijuana, also called cannabis, for medical purposes. The bill was put forward by People Before Profit TD Gino Kenny, and some commentators predict that it will become law as soon as Easter of this year.

For some, this represents a step onto a dangerous slippery slope. For most, it is a step in the right direction towards the complete legalisation of the drug, as is the case in countries like the Netherlands. For others, it is simply a chance to improve the lives of extremely ill loved ones, where other medical avenues have failed.

An Irish poll carried out in November of last year by Red C Research on behalf of non-profit campaign group Help Not Harm showed that 92% of respondents are in favour of the legalisation of medical marijuana. Decades of research have gone into studying the effects of marijuana on the human body and mind, most notably on how the substance can be used for medical purposes.

Tens of thousands of papers have been published on the subject, with different studies getting different, and sometimes conflicting, results.

The American ‘National Academies of Sciences, Medicine and Engineering’ recently slogged through the many papers to compile a summary report, condensing everything scientific research has learned about the health effects of marijuana.

The strongest evidence of the benefits of medical marijuana pointed towards great effectiveness in treating chronic pain. Combined with a complete absence of evidence pointing towards any risk of overdose, workplace injuries or general mortality, this makes marijuana a much safer alternative to traditional opioid-based painkillers which cause tens of thousands of deaths every year from overdose.

In Ireland, the Health Research Board has said in recent years that there has been a considerable increase in the number of deaths involving prescription medication. Alternatives, like medical marijuana, must be explored if we are to curb medication and painkiller-related overdoses.

There are also huge amounts of evidence that cancer patients can benefit greatly from medical marijuana, either through smoking it or through the use of products like cannabis oil. Side effects of chemotherapy include nausea, vomiting, and a near complete loss of appetite, which can all be lessened through the use of marijuana. An increase in appetite is a commonly known side effect of marijuana, colloquially referred to as “the munchies”. For those suffering from multiple sclerosis, it can also reduce muscle spasticity.

Unlike legal drugs such as tobacco, research thus far has failed to turn up any evidence linking marijuana to the development of cancer. In fact, in most areas of risk commonly pointed to by antilegalisation campaigners marijuana is as safe as or even safer than tobacco or alcohol, both of which are legal and widely available to the public.

As with any type of drug, medical or otherwise, there are concerns with its use, and marijuana is by no means without some risks. These concerns should of course be addressed, but they do not and cannot outweigh the medical benefits that marijuana can bring to the patients of Ireland.

There is certain hysteria that seems to envelop many people at the mention of marijuana, medical or recreational. Its current status as illegal binds it into an association with criminal gangs and shady drug dealers, an association that will only be broken through legalisation.

The Government are taking a step in the right direction by allowing Gino Kenny’s bill to pass through the Dáil. They are listening to the medical and scientific research on the issue, rather than the fear-mongering of prohibitionists. With our health service in the state it is, there is no option that shouldn’t be explored to improve the lives of patients, and medical marijuana is top of the list.

“As with any type of drug, medical or otherwise, there are concerns with its use, and marijuana is by no means without some risks.”

UNLIKE household pills like paracetamol, or even prescription medication like morphine, the exact chemical components of marijuana are not standardised. Two different strains of the cannabis plant can vary as much as two different species of dog, and even more hybrids are being created by modern growers. The effects on an individual can vary hugely depending on factors such as previous experiences and tolerance, the method of ingestion, or their sensitivity to marijuana’s chemical compounds like terpenes.

Due to this inconsistency, research into the effects of marijuana does not meet the standards that we demand of pharmaceutical companies. Proving the medical benefits or harms has been stunted by its illegal status in most countries.

Scientists’ ability to study the effects of marijuana on controlled groups is limited. Much of what we hear of its effects is based on anecdotal evidence from recreational users, a biased group widely in favour of legalising the drug – it is akin to asking the opinion of a butcher when deciding whether to become a vegetarian.

Despite the popular perception that cannabis is not addictive, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association, 30% of marijuana users develop a dependency disorder. Along with the paranoia and hallucinations that can occur while under the direct influence of marijuana, The Royal College of Psychiatrists has linked cannabis with depression, anxiety, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

By promoting the use of marijuana for medical reasons, the government will add to the growing perception that it is a ‘harmless’ drug, only condemned by paranoid suburban mums who are convinced that their kids will overdose from “injecting the pot”.

With renewed faith in marijuana, more members of the public without prescriptions will be encouraged to try the drug from illegal sources.

This could in turn drastically reduce users’ vigilance in ensuring that their supply is of a high quality. It would provide greater income for the criminals who bring Ireland’s marijuana supply

“Ireland needs… a clear plan for tackling the multifaceted problems that marijuana is likely to introduce.”

“Promoting the use of marijuana for medical reasons, the government will add to the growing perception that it is a ‘harmless’ drug.” into the country and the softening of attitudes towards drug laws could extend to more harmful, addictive substances.

While these side effects could arguably be an acceptable price to pay to alleviate the suffering of cancer patients, the lack of reliable medical research means that the benefits of legalising medicinal marijuana are by no means guaranteed to be worth the risk.

The police may crack down on illegal marijuana purchases to combat the predicted rise in the wake of this legislation. But even if these methods were effective (which, due to severe Garda shortages, is unlikely), the legalised medicinal marijuana would be easy to share with friends or family with no prescription.

While prescription drug abuse is already a serious problem, most chemical drugs come in the form of tablets or IVs, which are difficult to share.

In contrast, sharing marijuana is as simple as passing around a joint.

Marijuana could be distributed in pill form to combat this, but besides increased expense, it would not prevent passing the drug onto third parties. Due to the limited scope of research into medical marijuana, doctors base their dosages on the patients’ analysis of their symptoms, so by exaggerating symptoms one could get enough to sell on.

Medical marijuana is a stepping-stone towards legalisation of the drug. Ireland has severe problems with abuse of legal drugs, namely alcohol. Ireland has the second-highest proportion of regular binge drinkers according to the World Health Organisation. Before throwing another drug into the mix, Ireland needs to control this issue, and have a clear plan for tackling the multifaceted problems that marijuana is likely to introduce.

The legalisation of medical marijuana in some parts of the globe will better scientists’ ability to study the effects it has. It would thus be prudent to examine those results before deciding on a course of action. Without reliable, unbiased evidence of the drug’s benefits it would be reckless and short-sighted of the government to legalise medical marijuana in this country.

rebuttal

rebuttal CURRENT prescription medications have undeniable dangers, particularly overdose, but at the very least these are well understood. Although the strong link between psychiatric disorders and cannabis is known to the medical community doctors have no way to identify which patients are susceptible to this damage. Therefore it is even harder to know the risks involved.

Opposition to the legalisation of medicinal marijuana is often written off as paranoia by its

Disproving the use of medical marijuana Orla Keaveney argues that it would do more harm than good.

supporters, but when the welfare of Irish citizens is at stake, safety must be prioritised over the easily influenced popular opinion. The fragile state of our health system means that this country will be particularly ill-equipped to deal with the hazards of this drug, especially as mental health funding is already stretched to the limit. For these reasons, now is not the time for Ireland to take the uninformed risk of legalising medicinal marijuana use.

THERE are indeed many different strains of the cannabis plant. However, without legalisation, and therefore regulation, the chemical components of marijuana used for medical purposes cannot be standardised. Legalisation is the only way to ensure that the quality of the drug meets medical standards. As for the idea that there is a lack of reliable evidence, this is completely false. The research has been done and is available. Marijuana is effective in treating pain, alleviating the side-

effects of chemotherapy, and is safer than many of the medications doctors prescribe to their patients on a daily basis. In the U.S, up to 45% of overdoses are linked to prescription medications, verses 0% for marijuana. This debate is not about some slippery slope towards letting everyone in Ireland smoke weed every day. This debate is about providing another safe, effective medical option to the patients in Ireland who are suffering right now.

January 24th 2017 5

Comment Slave to Fashion Benjamin Jordan looks into the ethical grey area of high street clothing.

WITH the Christmas season firmly behind us, and shoppers still scrounging around Dundrum, Blanchardstown, and Liffey Valley in search of the tail-end of the January bargains, perhaps now is a good time to step back and separate the wood from the trees by taking a look at ethics of the retail industry.

If one were to walk into any high street 19th Century retailer in Dublin, London or Paris selling fine clothes, one would likely be met by a welldressed man with a plump moustache smoking his pipe. Nowadays, a certain 2004 smoking ban prevents workers from puffing on pipes, nevertheless the five o’clock shadow is a reminder of what retail stores once were.

All that is seen by the Western consumer is the items on sale and the people behind the checkout.

The manufacturing of the item usually does not cross our minds, the question in the pub is “that’s a

“It is too easy for the consumer to overlook details which do not fit into their comfortable lifestyle” lovely top, where did you get it?” rather than “how much did they pay the worker who made that top?”

It is too easy for the consumer to overlook details that do not fit into their comfortable lifestyle; out of sight, out of mind. In the West, those whose ancestors may have worked 14 hour days during the Industrial Revolution in unsafe factories are now the ones who boast about a bargain bagged on high

street as if it was a hard-earned achievement.

A report by labour rights NGO India Committee of the Netherlands in January 2016 highlighted appalling conditions for living, where factories provide hostels to workers in Bangalore, in Southern India. Arvind, a supplier of popular high street store H&M, were shown to be housing 220 male workers in a three storied-hostel. Seventy workers were staying on each floor.

Three tier bunk-beds with no mattresses were provided and bathrooms were being shared by between 12 and 14 people. 300 Rupees, or about €4, was deducted from their wages for accommodation, electricity and water charges.

Nothing else was found to be provided, and workers were expected to cook their own food without a kitchen facility.

These hostels usually separate males and females. Other areas in the region were found to be suppressing women’s freedom of movement by only allowing them out of the hostel for two hours per week, and having them under constant surveillance from male security guards.

It’s an interesting kind of ignorance we have in Western society. The word “idiot” comes from Ancient Greek, meaning somebody who does not wish to take part in public affairs, preferring to remain a “private citizen”. Yet these harsh conditions, in India and elsewhere, are being funded by the consumer who turns a blind eye.

People may remember the media coverage of the Rana Plaza collapse of 2013 in Dhaka, Bangladesh in which 1,129 people lost their lives while at work.

The factory was manufacturing items for Western

High Street companies like Benneton, Monsoon, and Primark. Or maybe people don’t remember.

It seems that, to many, it is more convenient to

“Profit is the ultimate end, and ethics regarding the means to that end go out the window.” detach from such atrocities lest we realise that by supporting these companies we all have blood on our hands.

Indeed Western society has, and will continue to do so, outsourced its manufacturing industry to developing countries where workers’ rights are not prioritised, they are not being protected, and they don’t get a decent wage for their hard work.

about the price they will pay for a share than the price those Rana Plaza workers paid on the 24th of April 2013. The privilege that they hold is taken for granted, and the workers in the developing world are swiftly forgotten.

The accident of birth that is wealth or a plausible path to wealth is assumed available to all of us with enough hard work and effort. Profit is the ultimate end, and ethics regarding the means to that end go out the window; a system that rewards humans’ natural greed is embraced as the way forward in a constantly expanding economy. “Fair enough” says Western society, “capitalism is the only societal structure that has been proven to work”, they say, as buildings collapse on workers in Bangladesh.

Oxfam released a reported in January stating that eight men own the same amount of wealth as 3.6 billion people, making them as rich as half the people on earth. The second wealthiest of the batch is Amancio Ortega, the man behind Inditex, which owns clothing giants Zara, Bershka, and Pull & Bear among others.

The production of these clothes has come under serious ethical scrutiny in recent years with numerous strikes and out of court settlements and yet sales continue rise.

It is in fact the top 1% of earners who own the big retailing franchises, who invest and trade in them on the stock market. Such elites care more

Oxford Street in London. Home to many of the highstreet retail giants under scrutiny for their treatment of factory workers.

Behind Educational Inequality Private schools send vastly disproportionate amounts of students into the top courses. Bill Lozenge questions why this is the case.

A REPORT on feeder schools, recently published by the Irish Times, has indicated that educational inequality is alive and well in Ireland. The annual publication reveals the number of students from every secondary school that progress to third-level education.

The figures for 2016 revealed that of the twentyfive secondary schools sending the highest proportion of students to high-points courses, private schools accounted for twenty. This is despite fee-paying schools only accounting for 7% of the country’s secondary schools. The disproportionate representation of private school students in the top courses represents an education system that is deeply flawed.

When the government introduced free university fees for lower-income families, its hope was that dismantling the financial barrier to third-level education would lead to a reduction in the participation gap. Now, twenty years later, it is clear that the measure produced little results.

The plan relied on a meritocratic conception of

education, where the students with the greatest abilities and drive would rise to the top, untethered from their burdensome financial situation.

However, this vision is overly simplistic, and we must not forget the social dimension that is a key component of academic success. If we fail to acknowledge this, we suggest that the consistency with which the best performing students emerge from the private schools of South Dublin is a mere coincidence.

We suggest that cutting the resources of the most disadvantaged schools is acceptable, as the most talented students will succeed regardless. We suggest that students that fail to achieve success can be dismissed as lazy or stupid, having only themselves to blame.

Inequality in education is the consequence of a divergence in access to the resources. It thus enables only some students to take advantage of educational opportunities. One study discovered that the social class of a school is a more reliable indication of whether a student will proceed to third-level than the

“Of the twenty-five secondary schools sending the highest proportion of students to high-points courses, private schools accounted for twenty” students’ own social background or academic record.

A student attending a school with a predominantly working-class student population is less likely to proceed to third-level than if they were to attend a school with a largely middle-class population. Certain schools nurture a specific climate of expectation, where higher education is promoted from an early age. It is almost taken for granted in middle-class schools.

In response to this, the ESRI (Economic and Social Research Institute) recommended in a report that all schools should seek to instil this culture of

Bord na Gaeilge UCD www.ucd.ie/bnag Join us 2016-2017

LEARN IRISH- MAKE FRIENDS- HAVE FUN LANGUAGE COURSES @ 5 LEVELS European Certificate in Irish / Teastas Eorpach na Gaeilge

Bígí Linn: www.ucd.ie/bnag/ga/

6 January 24th 2017

high expectations.

The same report discovered that while students in middle-class schools considered advice from their own families to be more informative and useful than that from their school’s career guidance counsellors, the reverse was true for students in working-class schools. Students whose parents did not attend thirdlevel education lack a valuable resource in understanding the full range of their options. This results in a social class difference in aspirations to higher education that is evident as early as the junior cycle.

A 2016 Tasc report shows a strong negative correlation exists between a child’s self-image and their social class background. By 13, children have internalised their inequality by reducing their expectations and thus just 36% of children aged 13 from the bottom-income decile expect to achieve a third-level education in contrast to 65% from the top-income decile.

This is a huge shift considering there is no correlation between household income and cognitive potential at nine months. Positive school climates and high expectations from the beginning are thus key in determining the choices students make about attending university.

But not everyone is convinced that the feeder report’s findings are a cause for concern. A recent article in the Irish Times actually criticised the report for implying that it is preferable for high numbers of students to enter third-level courses after secondary school, rather than beginning an apprenticeship or other vocational training.

It also suggested that there is a snobbery around higher education, where students that are not wellsuited to third-level courses are pressured into them.

The piece recommended that we should develop a model for apprenticeships more in line with Germany’s, which enjoys a great popularity among students due to its high social status.

However, such a response ignores the main issue that is highlighted by the feeder report. Of course, all students across the social spectrum should be encouraged to examine the range of their options upon finishing secondary school, to determine for themselves whether they are better suited to a thirdlevel course or an apprenticeship. The problem is that current figures suggest that the students that are the ‘most suited’ for third-level courses are constantly emerging from the fee-paying schools of South Dublin.

The disproportionate representation of students from these schools on the top courses suggests that many students across the country are not being exposed to the full range of options, but are systematically excluded from aspiring to third-level by a lack of resources.

the proBlem of fake news

CommeNt

Fake news is an increasingly prominent issue today. Aileen McGrath looks at the toll it has taken on the world stage.

THE reporting of news has long stood as one of the most important interests of the general public.

There will always be a demand for accurate news reporting. But, in recent years the form in which it is presented in has evolved.

The spreading of fake news is an increasingly pertinent issue in our world. This ‘news’ is often a twisting of facts or over-exaggerating certain incidents. Perhaps the demands imposed by 24hour online news coverage, which has developed rapidly over a relatively short period, has put accuracy behind speed.

In a number of cases, the truth has been deliberately skewed. News reporting should be unbiased, with the intention to not directly alter or influence people’s views but to provide them with the sufficient information to form their own. This concept seems to have been widely lost. Fake news is an umbrella term, one which includes bias, propaganda and deliberate misinformation.

An example of this close to home comes courtesy of The Liberal.ie, which claimed at the end of 2016 that political correctness was preventing the reporting of “a massive riot of 250 mostly AfricanIrish youths in Dublin on St Stephen’s Day”.

Reports show that events occurred but on a much smaller scale than was reported. Thus, there was pretty heavy criticism over how the story was tackled with a political agenda.

The internet and various other forms of social media have fast become the primary mediums of communication today. The influence the media holds is truly astronomical. The recent wave of fake news has proven to demonstrate this influence.

Stories without an ounce of factual evidence behind them still serve to guide opinions. The more shockingly salacious the better. Their word is gospel. The hype garners up enough attention to assure that any remedying of this untruth is buried under the hysteria.

Ability to reach the masses and connect instantly has put accuracy in the back seat. This is a dangerous turn of events. People are only interested in being first to break a story, to get the most clicks, to be the most shared, but at what cost?

The washington Post for example published two inaccurate Russia-centric bombshell stories over the past two months. The pieces have been amended yet the damage of haste had been done.

Regardless of the number of editor’s notes in the piece, the title remains the same. A central driving force behind fake news is that up to 60% of the links shared on social media are shared based wholly on the title, with the sharer having never read the article the title of a piece, for many, becomes the story itself.

That even top tier newspapers like the washington Post publish articles that have not passed a thorough fact check against multiple sources is problematic. A solid reputation means their word is taken as true. The facts they present are presumed to be correct and the story grows. Altering important and influential information changes people’s perceptions. Once a story is published it doesn’t really matter if the truth comes out, the impact has already been made.

We can use Hillary Clinton as an example.

While her loss was not a direct cause of the slurry of fake news in the final days of her campaign, reporting on the topic certainly did not bode favourably.

Around a week before the November election somebody posted on Twitter that Hillary Clinton was at the centre of a paedophilia ring. This story was retweeted by bots and eventually, outstandingly by General Michael Flynn, who is soon to be President Trump’s national security adviser. As such, fake news is a direct threat to democratic institutions.

Supporters of each candidate were so ready and willing to believe any headline thrown at them with a view only to condemn the reputation of their

opposition in the eyes of the public. They raced to find the most shocking headline, bypassing both moral and ethical codes of journalism in their entirety.

We can see the real impact fake news has socially and democratically and yet it is seen as too petty to be a criminal offence in Ireland. But should defamation laws change? It isn’t really feasible considering the power of these major media outlets. Let alone that the scope seems too broad. Trying to regulate something that cannot be controlled would be futile.

Truly, the most important counter to fake news is good old fashioned journalism. However, it must not be forgotten that words are powerful. Fake news has very real repercussions.

“Stories without an ounce of factual evidence behind them still serve to guide opinions.”

“Fake news is a direct threat to democratic institutions.”

no Comment Ause Abdelhaq looks at the raucous online abuse that led to many media outlets disabling their comment sections.

IN 2011, mentalist Derren Brown placed thirty random people in an audience. He gave them masks and afforded them total control over one man’s life for an evening. Given two choices, one which would give the man joy and the other pain, the audience consistently and overwhelmingly voted in favour of the latter.

Over the course of the evening, the man was fired from his job, kicked out of his parents’ house and dumped by his girlfriend – all at the hands of the audience who were watching the events unfold. Eventually the audience chose to have the man kidnapped by a group of thugs but, as he broke free from the hired actors, he was hit by a van.

Brown, after leaving the audience stewing in guilt for some time explained that the evening had been an experiment to see how people behave under the guise of anonymity. Of course, as the man’s safety was confirmed there was visible relief, but more prominent was the overwhelming

guilt which people clearly felt after realising what they had done.

This experiment’s relevancy in today’s society is undeniable. In a world dominated by online communication, the internet affords people an anonymity which they never would have had before.

For the first time anybody can say anything they want, with little fear of repercussion. Anonymity provides distance from the person being affected.

“The internet affords people an anonymity which they never would have had before.”

People on the internet have no reason to fear any backlash over what they post, especially when they’re just one voice in a thousand.

Recently, vice announced that they’re removing the comments section from their website; this follows decisions by other media outlets such

as Usa today and the verge to do the same. In their justification for this move, the company argued that they “don’t have the time or desire” to continue monitoring a section which has devolved into “racist, misogynistic maelstroms where the loudest, most offensive, and stupidest opinions get pushed to the top.”

The argument in favour of the comments section is an argument in favour of free speech; after all, comments sections are nothing more than modernday equivalents to the traditional ‘letter to the editor’ section, which has featured in newspapers since the mid-18th century.

As vice themselves put it, comments sections at their best, “can foster a productive community discussion around a particular story or topic, often providing insight or commentary that might have been missed otherwise.”

However, this is little more than idealistic jargon; the emergence of doxing (a practice whereby private information about the writer is broadcast publicly), death and rape threats, and commonplace hate speech means that comment threads have become major deterrents for people

“Rather than being an open space where people continue a discussion, the comments section has become a cesspool of hatred”

to produce content freely online.

In an in-depth study, published in the Guardian, detailing their own comment threads, found that there was a correlation between the number of blocked comments under a piece and the gender, sexuality or religion of the author. Of their ten most abused writers, eight were women, and also included gay, Muslim and Jewish writers. The ten least abused were all men.

The study included testimonies from writers who had been targeted by abuse; their accounts of being threatened and attacked are harrowing to read. Rather than being open spaces where people continue a discussion, the comments section has become a cesspool of hatred where the victim is the very real person who gets abused.

Places of free speech are not a new idea.

Forums of discussion, from town hall meeting to soap boxes have existed for centuries. Yet the kind of abuse felt online, however, is thus far unique to the internet – it’s thankfully rare for people to scream vitriolic hatred at one another in everyday life.

Some suggest the reason being that mob mentality can cause people to act differently. However, many are reluctant to stray from their values. The more likely reason for this behavioural gap is the anonymity the internet provides us.

In Brown’s experiment, the guilt that the audience felt when emerging from under their masks suggests that despite knowing that such actions were wrong, they did them anyway – this indicates that the anonymity allowed them to abandon their values until they saw with their own eyes the devastation they caused. Does this mean that if blocked commentators on the Guardian’s website saw the impact which they have on the writers they abuse, they might rethink their choices?

In any case, the sad reality at the moment is that whenever people are allowed to put on their masks, and hide behind usernames, they descend into a destructive state, forcing us to question how moral we really are as a society. Does our morality truly come from deeply held beliefs, or does it come from the peering eyes of those around us? The continuing censorship of our comments threads may provide the answer.

January 24th 2017 7

Business

Trump Calls Time on Corporate Abuses As Trump begins his term in office, Eve Ryan examines his tense relationship with multinational corporations

ABUSE of international taxation systems has seemingly become a pandemic. When the European Commission declared last year that Apple had benefited from illegal state aid, many pointed out that this was simply another addition to the ever-growing list of international tax avoidance.

Starbucks, Amazon, McDonald’s; all have paid egregiously low amounts of tax in recent years.

These companies, and many others, benefit from strange, lucrative tax structures and rulings by individual European states.

International attempts to clamp down on corporate tax inversions have been slow and largely ineffective. However, US President Donald Trump has vowed to clash horns with multinational corporations, forcing them to locate jobs in America, and resist shifting their profits to countries with lower tax rates and large tax credits.

President Trump has taken an aggressive stance by threatening to impose a hefty fine on Toyota in response to a shift in production from the US to Mexico, signalling a willingness not only to punish US multinationals who move jobs or production

“Republicans have not offered a route out of the apparent ‘race to the bottom’ when it comes to corporate taxation.” abroad, but also foreign companies who do so.

As in the past, the Mexican peso fell as investors were reminded of the tension between the incoming administration and the US’ neighbours. Toyota produces more than 1.3 million vehicles in the US each year at 10 production plants in 8 states, while Mexico accounts for roughly 20% of vehicle produc-

tion in North America.

The Trump administration is also offering these global “International companies a carrot; Wilbur Ross, attempts to clamp the new US Commerce Secretary, has announced plans to lower the down on corporate US corporation tax rate in order tax inversions have to increase competitiveness and attract business. been slow and According to a 2014 report by largely ineffective, the Tax Foundation, a US federal policy think-tank, the US has the but Trump has 3rd highest marginal corporate vowed to clash horns tax rate globally, at 39.1%. This is in comparison to Europe’s with multinational average corporate rate of only corporations” 18.6%.

While cutting the top rates of tax, Congressional Republicans have promised to alter the treatment of overseas corporate profHeadquarters of Toyota Motor Sales for the US, based in Caliits, expenses, and debt financfornia, one of Trump’s targets for his corporation clampdown ing. Indeed, many have hailed Republican tax plans as an antidote for a dishonest significant loss of jobs… we don’t want to have them President’s economic team and Republicans are split corporate tax regime. go abroad.” over how to recuperate tax revenue from foreignHowever, they have not offered a route out of the However, Trump, as ever, is liable to change his based profits. apparent ‘race to the bottom’ when it comes to cormind at a moment’s notice, and the early stock boom The uncertainty surrounding US participation porate taxation. Financial Times economics editor, following his election win has given way to more in the North American Free Trade Agreement Chris Giles, estimates that in large, advanced econo- uncertainty than Republicans would wish to admit.

(NAFTA) will become a critical issue for multinamies, corporate tax rates have fallen from an average Spokespersons for Trump have encouraged critics tional groups in the coming months. Research by of nearly 50% in 1983 to less than 30% in 2015, in not to take the president at his word, a tactic which the Mexico Institute, a think tank in Washington a constant attempt to become more competitive. may have created anxiety among his proponents, D.C., has found that almost 5 million jobs depend Stephen Moore, Trump’s senior economic adviser, and divisions between Trump’s administration and on trade with Mexico. stated last November that an essential part of the Republican seniors have not been wholly bridged.

Investment in the US will almost certainly depend administration’s economic plan was to encourage forThe repeal of the Affordable Care Act, or on a functioning economy, and job insecurity for eign-based US firms to return, and targeted Ireland Obamacare, is one such example. Trump told such a large number of people will hardly attract in an interview with BBC Radio 4’s World at One. the Washington Post that he planned to replace wary businesses. On the eve of Trump’s inaugura“[US firms] are effectively renouncing their US Obamacare with “insurance for everybody,” while tion, US stocks on the DOW marked a 5th consecucitizenship and they are moving to Canada, to many congressional Republicans have backed an tive day of losses, only amplifying the anxiety felt Britain, to Ireland, to China and Mexico… that is a immediate repeal of the Act. Furthermore, the new by businesses.

McGuinness’ Resignation Marks Uncertainty for Stormont As the Stormont Assembly collapses, Caoimhe Donnelly addresses the political fault lines in Northern Ireland diplomacy just before Brexit. ticipated Brexit talks with the European Parliament.

It is doubtful that the election will provide a sizable setback in the triggering of Article 50.

Politicians are therefore expected to campaign not only according to their party’s opposition to either Sinn Féin or the DUP’s conduct, but also based on

“The crisis has exposed the widening fault lines in diplomatic efforts between two fundamentally different parties, shoehorned together”

Stormont, home of the Northern Ireland Assembly THE Northern Ireland Assembly has been awash with controversy and political upheaval recently following the resignation of former Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness. Tensions between McGuinness and First Minister Arlene Foster reached boiling point, due to her refusal to step down from Stormont despite narrowly dodging a no-confidence vote.

A near-empty Assembly comprising almost exclusively of Foster’s Democratic Union Party fellows sat in stoic support for their transitional leader, as Sinn Féin’s absence symbolised their ardent opposition to the current structure of the cabinet. Foster’s unwavering stance comes in light of a lack of inquiry into

8 January 24th 2017

her handling of a Renewable Heat Incentive, which is estimated to cost the North around £1.18 billion over 20 years.

However, McGuinness’ resignation is only the straw about to break the camel’s back; the proposed upcoming election gives body to the pitiful breakdown of a cabinet barely eleven months old. No doubt the upcoming campaign trail will see staunch attempts by the opposition to tarnish the remainder of the DUP’s reputation, and resolve for a surge in Sinn Féin fealty.

The apparent dark cloud looming over the proceedings are the fears that Stormont deliberations will delay Prime Minister Theresa May’s highly-an-

the outcome they desire in regards to Britain’s departure from the European Union. Constituents will be subject to Members of the Legislative Assembly’s vocal desires to follow May’s suit and depart from the EU, or their campaigns to remain and potentially leave the UK. Concerns have arisen over whether issues such as healthcare reform, education, welfare, and even the RHI policy may be placed on the back burner for lack of engaged political dedication. Voters’ own personal frustration may be vented in simply electing candidates based on their pro- or anti-Brexit stances, regardless of the concrete outcomes these proposals can produce.

Perhaps McGuiness’ inevitable departure from Stormont was a clear-cut catalyst for a more critical evaluation of the contentious power-sharing executive. The crisis has exposed the widening fault lines in diplomatic efforts between two fundamentally different parties, shoehorned together. When DUP Stormont speaker Robin Newton initially allowed Foster to address the floor with her statement in the heat of the RHI scandal debate, a protest walk-out followed. The speaker was accused of compromising the central joint office of the power-sharing structures.

The fragility of this delicate balance is becoming

increasingly apparent. With each new infringement upon the idealist concept of the power-sharing executive, the Northern Irish government is increasingly seen as something of a petulant child unable to behave well with others by those in Westminster.

So what does McGuinness’ resignation signify?

What are the implications for the future of Stormont? It is certainly indicative of a long-standing exasperation with forced close political proximity in Stormont from the perspective of Sinn Féin members. The fiery backlash against Foster’s administration and Sinn Féin’s steadfast unwillingness to elect a replacement for the former Deputy First Minister in order to further propel an election may not necessarily have been a calculated decision, but is certainly not uncharacteristic of the party’s historically stubborn temperament.

“The proposed upcoming election gives body to the pitiful breakdown of a cabinet barely eleven months old” The negative light the DUP has been cast in as a result of the turbulent proceedings following the RHI agreement has aided McGuinness’ fellows in gaining some semblance of public sympathy, and helped to further demonise the majority government party to a certain degree. The alleged ‘arrogance’ of the former First Minister’s reluctance to bow to opposition pressure may have tarred and feathered her party. It is likely to significantly hinder their electoral success.

It is not far-fetched to suggest that the political in-fighting of the parties traditionally at loggerheads with one another will come to full fruition during the course of this fresh election. It will be seen, too, the manner in which it inexorably acts as a proxy for last-ditch Brexit support or condemnation.

Gaeilge

Cath na Saoránachta Conas mar a oibríonn an córas saoránachta sa tír seo, agus cé gur ceart dóibh í a fáil? Téann Orla Keaveney ag tochailt Tar éis na tuairisceoireachta a chualamar go síoraí sna meáin chumarsáide, tá fhios againn go léir conas mar a chaith pobal na Ríochta Aontaithe a vóta sa reifreann “Brexit”. Chomh luath agus a foilsíodh torthaí conspóideacha an reifrinn, casadh an córas polaitiúil bun os cionn, thit luach an phuint steirling go tobann, agus cuireadh eagla agus éadóchas ar na mílte daoine a thacaigh leis an taobh “Níl”. San atmaisféar teannasach agus scanrúil seo, fuair Ambasáid na hÉireann i Londain iarratais don saoránacht Éireannach, agus tar éis tamaill gearr, ní raibh go leor foirmeacha fágtha acu. Idir Iúil agus Méan Fhómhair 2016, seoladh breis is fiche míle iarratais do phas Éireannacha chuig an Oifig Gnóthaí Eachtracha – ach cé chomh tábhachtach is atá saoránacht na tíre bheag seo?

An bhliain seo chaite, cheiliúramar cothrom céad bliain Éirí Amach na Cásca 1916, imeacht a chur tús le Cogadh na Saoirse. Nuair a bhunaíodh Saorstát na hÉireann sa bhliain 1923 chun críoch a chur leis an gcoimhlint, ba mhian le muintir na dá oileáin taistil saor a choimeád eatarthu, go háirithe ag an limistéar idir an Tuaisceart agus na contaetha eile.

Mar thoradh, tosaíodh an “Comh limistéar Taistil”, polasaí a mhaireann fós inniu – tá cearta taistil, cónaí agus oibriú ag gach saoránach Éireannach, gan pas nó víosa ar bith, i stát ar bith sa Ríocht Aontaithe, agus a mhalairt. Tugann na himeachtaí sin stádas do hÉireannaigh nach bhfuil ag tír eile ar bith san Eoraip – fiú nuair a imíonn an Ríocht Aontaithe ón Aontas Eorpach, beimid in ann ár nasc a choimeád leis an dá eagraíochtaí.

I bhfocail eile, ní athrófar an stádas taistil atá ag Éirinnigh ar chor ar bith, agus mar sin, is rud thar a bheith luachmhar í, saoránacht Éireannach. Cé atá in ann leas a bhaint as na buntáistí saoránachta? Go ginearálta, is féidir le Briotanach

a bheith incháilithe an stádas fháil ar dhá bealaí: ar dtús, tugtar saoránacht d’éinne a chaitheann breis is cúig bhliana ina chónaí sa tír seo. Chomh maith leis sin, glactar le iarratas an dhuine má tá tuismitheorí, nó fiú sean-thuismitheorí aige a rugadh in aon den dhá contaetha is tríocha.

Inniu, ceaptar go bhfuil thart ar sé milliún daoine sa Bhreatain a bheadh ábalta áit breithe a sinsir a úsáid chun saoránacht a fháil – uimhir atá níos mó ná daonra na hÉireann. Go réalaíoch, ní bheidh an méid sin Briotanaigh ag lorg saoránacht na hÉireann. Cosnaíonn próiseas na hiarratais €1125, agus is beagán duine a bheadh sásta an t-airgead sin a chaitheamh don craic. Ach do daoine óga atá ag iarraidh saol a bhunú dóibh féin nó taithí oibre a fháil i mór-roinn na hEorpa, ní praghas rómhór é.

Spreagann an éileamh ar saoránacht Éireannach imní i gcroíthe an phobal sa tír seo, toisc nach bhfuil éinne in ann tuar a thabhairt ar na hiarmhairtí, gan amhras. Mar shampla, ní thuigtear an leibhéil tionchair a bheidh ag muintir na Breataine ar cúrsaí polaitiúil in Éirinn. Caithfear a admháil go bhfuil ceart vótála ag gach saoránach, ach ní féidir le duine a mballóid a chaitheamh mura bhfuil siad ina gcónaí in Éirinn. Mar sin, ní bheidh na Briotanaigh a úsáideann a stádas chun obair a fháil san Aontas Eorpach in ann an córas anseo a athrú. Ar an dtaobh eile, is toradh féideartha é go gcuireadh na saoránaigh nua isteach ar tionscal na turasóireachta in Éirinn.

Ar taobh amháin, d’fhéadfá a rá go spreagfaidh sé suim don chultúr Éireannach i measc na n-iarrthóirí, agus go dtiocfaidh siad anseo ag lorg eolais faoina “n-oidhreacht Éireannach”. Ach ar an lámh eile, tugfar cearta taistil do Briotanaigh le sinsir Éireannach, an grúpa is claonta teacht ar saoire anseo – agus mar sin, is amhlaidh go gcaillimid turaseoirí go tíortha sa mór-roinn.

An ceart linn a bheith drogallach nó neirbhíseach fad is atá Briotanaigh ag baint úsáid as ár dtír mar lúb ar lár chun a aidhmeanna féin a fhíorú? Ní léiríonn an dearcadh sin mórán measa ar Éire mar tír neamhspleách atá ar comh chéim leis an mBreatain. Is deacair a rá conas a cuirfidh na hiarratais isteach ar stádas na “fíor-Éireannach” sna hoileáin Briotanacha nó i mór-roinn na hEorpa – b’fhéidir go bhfeicfear muid mar Bhreatain bhreise ina meoin.

Ach ag deireadh an lae, fiú nuair atá cúis imní ag baint le tabhairt na saoránachta do Bhriotanaigh, ní féidir linne a bheith leithleiseach. I rith ár staire, sheolamar imircigh timpeall an domhain ag lorg oibre, go háirithe chuig an Bhreatain Mhór. Ba ghníomh fimíneach é cearta taistil a thabhairt do daoine soineanta, a roinneann na haisling ceánna lenár sinsir. Is amhlaidh go mbeidh ar Éireann nó ar an rialtas na droch-thorthaí thuasluaite a sheachaint – ach ar an iomlán, tá sé de dhualgais orainn cineáltas a thaispeáint dár gcomharsana trasna na farraige, nuair a theipeann ar a bpolaiteoirí féin

“Cosnaíonn próiseas na hiarratais €1125, agus is beagán duine a bheadh sásta an t-airgead sin a chaitheamh don craic”

Gluais

saoránacht- citizenship reifreann-referendum cothrom céad bliain- cetenary incháilithe-eligible lúb ar lár-loophole leithleasach-selfish grianfhuinneamh-solar power

“Is rud thar a bheith luachmhar í, saoránacht Éireannach”

Ag moladh an aonarachas Is annamh an rud níos deise ná am a chaitheamh i d’aonair, ach ní ró-mhinic go leagtar béim ar comh tábhachtach atá sé. Roineann Niamh O Regan a smaointe faoi.

IS coitianta go leagtar béim ar an tábhacht a bhaineann le bheith oscailte agus caidreamhach, go háirithe is saol na hollscoile; tá cairde agus caitheamh aimsire nua le fáil i ngach áit. Bíonn an béim dírithe ar an tábhacht a bhaineann le labhairt agus comhluadar, ach ní i gcónaí faoi am a chaitheamh go haonarach.

Tá cuid áirithe, de bheith in aonair, go bhfuil gá ceiliúradh a dhéanamh faoi. Mórán den am, bíonn an iomarca comhghéilleadh i gceist le daoine; cén áit, cén am cé comh fhada agus a leithéid. Le aonarachas is chugat féin atá na srianta sin, agus tá rud éigin deas úr, fiú saor faoi bheith i d’aonair.

Le bheith ghléghlan mar gheall ar, ní atá i gceist le aonarachas sa cás seo go mbíonn duine leo féin go fisiciúil, ach timpeallaithe le rudaí ag cur isteach ort trí do ghuthán nó áiseanna eile. In aonair sa cás seo, is é tú féin, leat féin agus le do smaointe.

Tá easpa ceiliúradh ar thábhacht an aonarachas, tá mórán moladh gan dabht ar an “mindfulness” agus a leithéid, a bheith in aonair agus smaoineamh fút le díriú ar suaimhneas anama a shroicheadh.

Tá meon beagáinín diúltach go ginearálta áfach, i dtaobh daoine a bheith ina n-aonair. Tá stiogma áirithe bainte le bheith i do aonar, nó má is rud é go bhfuil tú in áit éigin leat féin go gcaithfidh go bhfuil uaigneas ort, nó rud éigin ag goilleadh ort.

Tá an meon seo ag athrú de réir a chéile ach fós níl dearcadh iomlán dearfach i dtaobh ag baint taitneamh as do chomhluadar féin. Is rud difriúil í an uaigneas, agus cé go mbíonn mórán dóibh atá uaigneach aonarach, ach níl an dhá rud domhain ceangailte dá chéile. Bíonn mórán atá ina n-aonar go breá agus mórán atá i mbéal daoine, uaigneach.

Ní hea seo le rá nár cheart dúinn a bheith eolasach agus aireach faoin uaigneas, mar is mór

an fadhb é. Fiú nuair atá uaigneas ar duine, is buntáiste í an aonarachas dóibh mar slí chun fáil amach díreach cad atá amú, beagán de comhrá agus comhairle leat gan daoine agus gníomh eile ag cruthú a thuileadh strus. Tá cuid de faoi aithne níos fearr a chur ort féin cinnte, ach tá riachtanas áirithe le bheith in ann a bheith i do aonar. Beidh amanna ann agus nach mbeidh éinne timpeall agus caithfear a bheith in ann déileáil le sin. Tá buntáistí bainte le bheith i d’aonair cinnte tá an argóint a tagann go minic go féidir leat aithne níos fearr a chur ort féin. Is deacair a bheith i do aonair nuair nach féidir leat a bheith go hiomlán i d’aonar le do smaointe.

Go hiondúil, tá an cuma ar an sochaí go ceaptar nach ceart do dhaoine a bheith ina n-aonair. Áiteanna agus amanna áirithe, bíonn sé ceadaithe; sa seomra folcadh, sa spórtlann, ag déanamh

“Mórán den am, bíonn an iomarca comhghéilleadh i gceist le daoine; cén áit, cén am cé comh fhada agus a leithéid.

Le aonarachas is chugat féin atá na srianta sin”

machnaimh agus a leithéidí mar sin, ach i ngach cás bíonn gníomh áirithe i gceist, agus “gníomh aonair” a bhíonn ann. Caithfidh daoine a bheith timpeallaithe i gcónaí, ní féidir rudaí a dhéanamh in aonair, fiú rudaí nach mbíonn comhluadar daoine bainte leo. Is annamh mar shampla, go bhfheicfeá duine ina aonair sa phictiúrlann mar shampla, bosca dubh áit nach bhfuil fiú deis cainte ann ar feadh dhá uair a chloig. Ait a dhóthain, fós ceaptar go aisteach an rud é imeacht i do aonar. Is minic go feictear ar dhaoine le trua má is rud é go bhfuil siad ina suí i mbialann ina n-aonair nó ag tógaint pionta deas ciúin dóibh féin.

Uaireannta bíonn rud éigin scanrúil bainte le rud a dhéanamh leat féin don chéad uair, rud mór mar shampla, mar dul ar saoire. Ní hea gníomh an taisteal in aonar, ach dhá nó trí lá a thógaint go hiomlán leat féin, gan plean a eagrú le duine ar bith, na himeachtaí ar fad gur mian leat a dhéanamh a thógaint ort féin a dhéanamh leat féin. Cad atá cearr leis? Is fiú trial a bhaint as; imeacht go mbialann tráthnóna éigin, dinnéar agus gloine fíona a ordú agus é a ithe, taitneamh a bhaint as, gan cuideachta nó comhluadar guthán nó leabhar nó ceol pearsanta. Ní minic go mbíonn daoine leo féin d’aon ghnó, bíonn an saol gnóthach agus ní bhíonn an am, ach tar éis an iarracht a dhéanamh, is féidir mórán taitneamh a bhaint as, is minic go maith an comhluadar an comhluadar a bhíonn leat de shíoraí nuair a tugtar deis do.

Gluais aonarach- alone uaigneach- lonely comhluadar- company spórtlann- gym suaimhneas anama- inner peace/calm amharclann- theatre cuideachta- d’aon ghnó on purpose deis- opportunity

January 24th 2017 9

features Reaching Out To The Hermit State Andreas Engstrom, official delegate of Korean Friendship Association Ireland, talks about the realities of life as a supporter of North Korea, and gives his views on the Korean Question. billy vaughan Features editor & Gerard Maguire NO one can deny that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (or North Korea) is a unique society.

Its leaders, Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il, and Kim Jong-un, are revered as near deities. It is the only remaining “communist” country in the world, insofar that it does not have any form of official market economy. It is also fiercely nationalistic, and wary of outside influences. These elements are together bound up in the all-encompassing philosophy of “Juche”.

The ideology of “Juche” can be seen as the DPRK’s uniquely “Korean” brand of socialism. It holds that national unity is paramount, and that the individual is the master of their destiny; but its precise definition has changed over time.

While it has proven to be a vague concept, its power and importance in North Korean society cannot be underestimated. It is not only a central tenet of the DPRK’s political system, but is supposed to provide a framework within which every Korean lives, thinks, works, and dies.

Some critics have merely defined Juche as communism with nationalist elements, but Andreas Engstrom, official delegate of Korean Friendship Association Ireland, disagrees with this, seeing it as an over-simplification. To explain the differences, he draws on Korea’s long history of occupations by foreign powers.

“If you actually look at the Juche idea, there are lots of original ideas there” he says. “It is based in the anti-Japanese resistance struggle. If you look at Russia, it was a case of one class overthrowing another, but in Korea the whole people were fighting a foreign power together”.

There are questions over the DPRK’s refusal to work with international authorities, such as the UN Commission on Human Rights, on many issues such as the labour camps that exist within the country.

Critics have pointed out that if North Korea respects human rights like it claims, then there should be no problem with showcasing that to the international community.

While acknowledging that labour camps do indeed exist, Engstrom insists that the penal system is only aimed at non-political offenders. “If you look at the so-called ‘human rights’ issue, you can see that they do have labour camps, but they don’t have prisons. If you commit a less serious crime, you do community service, but for more serious crimes you are sent to a labour camp”.

Engstrom mentions the case of Shin Dong-hyuk, a defector from an internment camp in North Korea upon whose story the book Escape from Camp 14 is based. He alleges that Shin is “well paid by the South Korean National Intelligence Service”. He also points out that Shin later recanted certain elements of his story about his experiences, and that his father (who still lives in North Korea) alleged that he was in the camp because he had raped a 13-year-old girl. Shin denies the allegations as propaganda.

The KFA, or “Korean Friendship Association”, is an organisation that was founded by Alejandro

of the organisation, and would defend the organisation against criticism that it is merely a projection of North Korean “soft power”, akin to the Confucius Institute or the Alliance Française. “It’s not our job

“It’s not our job to influence anyone. We are working for the peaceful reunification of Korea” to influence anyone, we are working on behalf of the DPRK. We are working for the peaceful reunification of Korea”.

The Washington D.C.-based Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK), in their 2012 report entitled “The Hidden Gulag”, allege that the North Korean authorities have not acted to refute the claims of North Korean defectors about prison camps and political prisoners. They infer from this that the DPRK is implicitly admitting to human rights violations.

Engstrom denies that there are political prisoners in the DPRK, calling it “a fabrication”. He points out that in North Korea, “the constitution guarantees freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and demonstrations, and freeform of religion” so that the population are protected from such human rights abuses.

The international community remains sceptical, to say the least, and doubts are not helped by the fact that North Korean authorities refuse to engage with international monitoring missions and organisations. Engstrom says, however, that the history of Korea means that the DPRK is very reluctant and cautious about engaging with outside institutions.

“If you look at the Korean War, the US used the UN as puppets to invade the DPRK. Why would the DPRK let in soldiers who once invaded them and are still occupying half the country?”

There has been a marked increase in defectors from North Korea in recent years, and some have attributed to this to the increasing influence of the black market. Bootleg DVDs of South Korean soap operas and films are smuggled into North Korea

from China, and some North Koreans are tempted to leave by what they see. Engstrom agrees with this: “there are lots of defectors to South Korea after they have seen South Korean soap operas and they think that everyone is living in luxury, but when they get there they realise that this is not the case and they have to work very hard”.

He suggests that many defectors are not prepared for living in a non-socialist system when they leave North Korea. “There are lots of people who defected because they wanted a better life, but they have to pay for rent. They don’t have to pay for accommodation in the DPRK. If they get sick, they have free healthcare in the DPRK. They are protected there, but not when they go to the South”. He says that there are many defectors who later want to return to the DPRK, but are unable to because of the permit system that South Korea has in place to regulate cross-border movement.

It is safe to say that many of North Korea’s problems, such as its economic troubles and international sanctions, are blamed by the DPRK government on malevolent US influence. But does the leadership of North Korea themselves acknowledge that at least some of their problems are caused by internal factors?

Engstrom claims that all of these woes can trace their roots back to the division of Korea, and points to the DPRK’s plan to set up a “Federal Republic of Koryo”, which would afford large levels of autonomy to both states within one Federal framework. But

“The constitution guarantees freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and demonstrations” he says that the US presents an obstacle to these plans. “They are always trying to ruin reconciliation moves,” he says.

There are some who say that the two Koreas should try to cooperate with each other more on a bilateral level, without (or with minimal) US involvement. This would seem to suit both sides,

as US presence in South Korea, both militarily and diplomatically, is the DPRK’s main sticking point.

Engstrom echoes this, and emphasises that “there are discussions at governmental level”. He says that “[The DPRK leadership] are always open to discussion, but not if the US are at the table”. This has perennially been a red line issue for inter-Korea negotiations.

Engstrom contends that the South Korean government is also no stranger to political repression, referring to the South Korean United Progressive Party, which was banned in 2014 because of its policies of reunification and ending co-operation with the US, which were seen as “Pro-North”. “They

“If they get sick, they have free healthcare in the DPRK. They are protected there, but not when they go to the South” jailed the leaders of the party”, he says, referring to the alleged involvement of some party members in a 2013 sabotage plot. The ban was criticised by Amnesty International at the time.

In terms of how the whole Korean situation eventually plays out, it seems that anything is possible, especially with the recent breakdown of inter-Korean relations. The election of Trump is also a major destabilising factor, considering his vague and contradictory rhetoric on the issue during the campaign.

Engstrom hopes that despite the gloomy outlook, common ground can eventually be found, and Korea can once again be united, but on one condition: “only if the US pull out of South Korea”. While the KFA, South Korea, and the US all hope for a peaceful resolution in the long term, it remains difficult to deny that in this decades-long icy standoff, at least one party must eventually emerge bruised and bloodied.

This interview was conducted in November 2015.

“The juche idea is based in the anti-Japanese resistance struggle” Cao de Benós in 2000. He features heavily in The Propaganda Game, a 2015 documentary film about North Korea. It has members in 120 countries, and its stated aim is to “show the reality of the DPRK to the world, defend the independence and socialist construction in the DPR of Korea, and work for the peaceful unification of the Korean peninsula”. In simple terms, it works to promote friendship and goodwill in the international community towards North Korea.

It has an Irish branch, KFA Ireland, in which Engstrom is heavily involved as an Official Delegate. In this capacity, Engstrom attended the Annual Conference in Madrid, which was held at the DPRK Embassy there. There he met the founder of the organisation, Mr. de Benós. “He’s a really cool guy, he is a very well organised person and doing a great job organising everything. He also has dual citizenship with Spain and North Korea”.

Engstrom points out that the KFA “is officially recognised by DPRK government, so we do have very close connections”. He is an ardent advocate

10 January 24th 2017

Badges for the Korean Friendship Association (KFA), a North Korean organisation founded to promote positive relationships between North Korea and the international community

features Waiting for the Trump Era Matthew Hanrahan looks at the effects of a day that, just a little over a year ago, most would never had predicted. and registered Democrat, Róisín O’Gara said “traditionally the inaugural address has been a chance for the incoming president to offer an olive branch to their former opponents […] no such sentiments were detected in President Trump’s words. It was very much derivative of his campaign speeches, heavily reliant on nationalist rhetoric.”

Many are fearful that Trump’s election poses a threat to them, according to UCD Archaeology

“His behaviour throughout his campaign is nothing short of shameful”

US President, Donald Trump WHILE there is disagreement as to whether Trump’s inauguration was a moment which should be anticipated or dreaded; there is little disagreement of the just how surreal it was to watch Donald Trump, a former reality television show star with no political experience, become the 45th of the United States. Although the Republicans now control the House, Senate, and Presidency, and have nearly completed Senate hearings for Trump’s cabinet, there is a sizeable proportion of America and the world that continue to reject Trump and what he stands for.

The focal point of the inauguration was Trump’s address. The inaugural address is typically a fairly empty speech that is heavy on unifying rhetoric and light on almost anything of substance. Trump’s, however, was incredibly divisive.

On the one hand, Trump spoke about a desire to rebuild American infrastructure and create jobs, but that was not what stood out for many who heard it. According to Executive Committee Member of Democrats Abroad Ireland, Andrew Grossen, he felt

“Using language of fear and anger against “American carnage’ is far from the “Yes we can” of Obama” that Trump’s inaugural speech was troubling.

“Using language of fear and anger against ‘American carnage’ is far from the ‘Yes we can’ of Obama or even the “morning in America” of Reagan.” UCD Economics and Politics student

graduate student, Mary Cain. Trump’s election has changed how people act in her home city of Philadelphia. “People who supported Trump now think it’s okay to openly discriminate against others because of their race, religion, gender or ethnicity because of how Trump essentially normalised it.”

Grossen also mentioned of hearing of people who have “encountered ugly bigotry and racism in wake of the election. His election has been used as justification for many acts of hate and those who commit such acts feel they are validated. All this just speaks to how divided and polarized my nation is at the moment.”

The largest protest event in response to Trump’s inauguration was the Women’s March on Washington. According to the organisers of the March, it intends to “send a bold message to our new government on their first day in office, and to the world that women’s rights are human rights.”

Cain believes that people were motivated to protest by being “mortified and disgusted by Trump’s rhetoric and character. His behaviour throughout his campaign is nothing short of shameful and deplorable and to be named the most powerful person in the United States, it poses a threat [to] people who have been ostracised by him and his base supporters.”

The march far surpassed organisers’ expectations

with hundreds and thousands of people flocking to Washington – in numbers far greater than those at the inauguration.

In addition to the protests across America, the inauguration triggered a response throughout countries around the world. Solidarity marches with the Women’s March on Washington were held everywhere from London to Bangalore.

In Ireland, a march took place in Dublin with hundreds of people in attendance. What sparked this particular Irish consternation with Trump’s presidency? According to UCD Feminist Book Club member, Niamh Ni Chormac, she believes that “the constant streaming of American politics by mainstream media means that Trump is always seen by us and so his message is carried with that.”

For O’Gara, the fact it is a protest driven by women stems from an increasing willingness to stand up for women’s rights in Ireland. “It’s evident from the sheer numbers who attended the Repeal the 8th march last year that we are establishing ourselves as a political force to be reckoned with.

The fears that American women have, particularly in relation to cuts to Planned Parenthood, are identical to the reality that Irish women are living in. Therefore it is easy to understand why there is such a noticeable degree of empathy.” This sentiment, particularly the idea that the Repeal the 8th movement is a catalyst for political mobilization, is an idea shared by Ni Chormac and Grossen.

An eventful first 24 hours for the Trump administration was capped with the signing of an executive order, which seeks to undermine the Obama’s landmark piece of legislation, the Affordable Care Act. Despite the evident acrimony of many towards the Trump agenda, it has not prevented him pushing ahead with his plans.

Grossen argues that the approach to opposing Trump throughout his presidency “should be both focused and forceful. Trump continues to bring controversy almost daily to the political dialogue making it a challenge to have a focused critique and opposition to him.”

Houses of Horror: Students and Substandard Accommodation In a highly competitive rental market, Emma Toolan reveals the unacceptable housing conditions that students in Ireland are forced to contend with. thick coat of furry mould spanning the entire length of her bed.

Again, the landlord was contacted; this time replying but only to suggest that she open her window more often in order to ventilate the room.

Later on in the year, the boiler ceased to fire.

The landlord was contacted once again. A phone conversation took place in which the girl was advised to take up a knife and attempt to turn a

‘‘The landlord himself arrived at the house and attempted to fix the shower himself despite having no experience with electrics or plumbing of any kind.’

Left Hanging: Many students have to contend with poor accomodation and landlords who are reluctant to pay for proper repairs A report on the demand for and supply of student accommodation in Ireland published by the Higher Education Authority in 2015 estimated that in the previous year of 2014, there was an estimated demand of 51,104 student beds.

The amount of beds supplied that year by third-level institutions and private student accommodation was estimated to be 31,296. This means there was an estimated 25,808 beds which were still required and which therefore spills over into the private rental sector. They further estimated that in 2019, this figure would be 23,159 and 25,182 in 2024. The remaining 20,000 or so student beds must be obtained through the private rental sector.

However, according to a rental report published

by Daft.ie in 2016, it is estimated that there were less than 3,700 properties to rent nationwide. Yet this shortage in rental properties is not the only problem that students face. They are not alone in

this rental market and their competitors include young professionals and families to name but a few.

The competition is extremely tight and often students are faced with no alternative but to accept and contend with substandard accommodation.

Whether it be an unresponsive landlord or the opposite; a landlord overstepping their mark in terms of privacy, inadequate and sometimes unsafe housing conditions or difficult neighbours.

Four students from across Ireland reveal their difficult experiences with student accommodation: “Aoife” is a student living in a house in South Dublin. Upon moving in, she noticed that her wardrobe had been largely eaten by woodworm.

She emailed her landlord but received no reply.

Following this, she began to notice a small growth of mildew in the corners of the ceiling to which she paid little attention until she awoke one morning to discover a dark shadow directly beside her bed.

Upon pulling the bed from the wall she discovered a

valve on the boiler to rectify the problem. This did not fix the problem and eventually the landlord sent a repairman.

“John”, a student in Limerick, has also experienced a landlord attempting to take shortcuts with regards to repairs. After the electric shower in the main bathroom of the house stopped working, the landlord was contacted and promised to send a repairman.

After two weeks of persistent reminders, the landlord himself arrived at the house and attempted to fix the shower himself despite having no experience with electrics or plumbing of any kind.

In doing so, he did further damage which caused the only remaining ensuite shower to stop working.

On discovery of this, he then promised to send in a technician to fix both showers who did not arrive for a further six weeks. He installed two brand new showers due to the damage the landlord himself had inflicted. The problem lasted roughly eight weeks.

“Sarah” is a student living in an apartment block in North Dublin. Upon moving in she discovered that the kitchen had not been cleaned since the previous tenants had moved out. The countertops were filthy with old food underneath appliances.

The couch in the living room was also missing a leg

and was resting on one side. She then inspected her bedroom and discovered the bathroom fan was

“Security which patrol the premises tend to walk into her apartment unannounced and without prior warning” broken, with a window that did not close properly and had a broken blind.

She then emailed the residences office and within a number of weeks most issues were resolved.

She also details how security which patrol the premises tend to walk into her apartment unannounced and without prior warning. She says this makes her feel uncomfortable and vulnerable.

Finally, a Maynooth students’ experience reveals a landlady invading her tenants’ privacy.

Unbeknownst to the landlady, the student was staying up in her accommodation for the weekend rather than travelling home. She discovered her

“Her landlady had let herself in and was doing her own washing in the houses’ washing machine” landlady had let herself in and was doing her own washing in the houses’ washing machine. Along with this, on occasion she would let herself in to the house in the morning time unannounced to enquire whether anybody was in. Although the student found these incidents to be harmless, they were still annoying.

Students have a limited choice of rental houses to choose from, and left with no alternative, are not in a position to challenge the inadequacy of their accommodation. Unless a large number of houses or student accommodation becomes available to rent, this is a situation which is set to continue.

It is abundantly clear more must be done, both to provide more and to improve the standard of the accommodation available to students.

January 24th 2017 11

Features Where Slavery Survives Keri Heath looks at the thriving slave trade in Mauritania, and the seeming indifference of the international community

“18% of the Mauritanian population – 600,000 people – is still affected by slavery” that works to protect activists across the world.

Erin Kilbride is the Media Coordinator for the organization.

“Western conceptions of slavery have to do with transnational human trafficking,” Kilbride said.

“We think of slave ships from Europe and what is now the United States going over and literally stealing human beings. In Mauritania, it’s at least partially or at least largely a domestic issue.”

Kilbride said one of the biggest problems Dah Abeid’s organisation faces is educating the slaves

themselves about their rights. Mauritania is composed of several ethnic groups. Typically, the lighter skinned white Moors enslave the darker skinned black Moors, black Africans, and Haratine caste. Many individuals in these groups live somewhere between slavery and freedom.

“The government is saying it is very hard to eradicate something if the victims of that crime

“Those in slavery are told that their paradise is bound to their master and that if they do what their master tells them, they will go to heaven” don’t know what their rights are,” Kilbride said, “but that argument is completely washed away by the fact that they’re imprisoning human rights defenders who are fighting against those problems.”

Because of the historic nature of the slavery issue in Mauritania, a practice that has been carried out since up to 2,000 years ago, this social education is crucial in ending the issue. Ide Corley is an English professor at Maynooth University and has researched the historic African and Atlantic slave trade. She said understanding the mental bondage is just as important as learning about the physical.

“What makes slavery different from other forms of serfdom or servitude or debt bondage is… the natal alienation of the slave,” Corley said. “The slave was… divorced from his or her parents…from all legally enforced ties of blood, alienated from any attachment to particular groups of people, like nation or tribe, and also from their own locality.”

According to Anti-Slavery, the landscape of Mauritania also makes it difficult for slaves to escape. Vast stretches of desert leave enslaved people dependent on their masters for food and shelter. In addition, Anti-Slavery’s website points out that “those in slavery are told that their paradise is bound to their master and that if they do what

their master tells them, they will go to heaven.”

Kilbride at Front Line Defenders pointed to lack of media attention as the reason this issue has not been made widely known in western countries.

Jonathan Hill, a professor at King’s College London who studies postcolonialism and the politics of North Africa, indicated similar reasons.

“It is the forgotten country,” Hill said. “The country has a degree of importance to western governments who are willing to tolerate or turn a blind eye to certain practices, but to the wider global community… I think internationally, there’s just a lack of interest.”

It’s important, Hill said, because Mauritania is often used as a spring board for migrants from southern Africa trying to reach Europe. He said

that by stopping migrants in North Africa, Europe can find some relief to its migrant crisis. Current Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz came to power in 2008 in a military coup, and Hill said that he appears secure in his position.

“The current regime, like a lot of authoritarian leaders, leads essentially a negotiation with the power brokers in the country,” Hill said, “so I don’t think it’s going to challenge significantly those groups that have an interest in perpetuating the status quo.”

Besides Dah Abeid’s organisation, a few other abolitionist groups exist in Mauritania, including S.O.S. Escalves and Association Mauritaniennes des Droits de l’Homme. As of May of 2016, only two instances of criminal prosecution against slave owners have occurred.

photo credit: Ferdinand reus

TODAY, the word “slavery” brings to mind the historic industry, which transported people across vast stretches of ocean and which sparked bloody wars. It conjures up old images of individuals in chains. But agricultural slavery is still very much alive in the desert of Mauritania.

The small country on the west coast of Africa officially abolished slavery in 1981. This made Mauritania the last country in the world to do so.

In 2007, slavery was officially criminalized. But according to Anti-Slavery, a British NGO that fights slavery across the world, an estimated 18% of the Mauritanian population – that’s 600,000 people – are still affected by slavery. However, no definitive studies have been carried out to date.

In the past few decades, a few abolition organisations have emerged within Mauritania.

One such NGO is Initiative pour la Résurgence du Mouvement Abolitionniste, a group that provides free legal aid to slaves and tries to build cases against slave masters. Biram Dah Abeid, the president of the organisation, was just released from prison last May, after serving a year and a half in prison for “illegal assembly and rebellion.”

Before his arrest, Dah Abeid received an award from Front Line Defenders, an organization

Mauritania, Africa

“New Year, New You?” – New Year’s Resolutions With the New Year amongst us, Rosemarie Gibbons explores the history of this long-held tradition, and asks whether resolutions are still relevant amongst people today.

NEW Year’s resolutions are seen as essential part of marking the end of the festive season, and beckoning in the New Year. While Christmas is the season for overindulgence, New Year’s resolutions are seen as the (sometimes harsh) wake-up call.

Those boxes of Celebrations under the Christmas tree and telly-watching marathons, once seen as an essential part of the Christmas season – and the ‘treat yourself’ mentality that invariably comes with it – are seen as strictly verboten by January 1st, and are replaced by intentions to partake in intimidating ‘clean eating’ regimes, and sessions of hot yoga.

We’ve been making resolutions to ‘make this MY year’ for 4000 years, since the ancient Babylonians rang in the New Year by making promises to the gods that they would repay their outstanding debts, hoping it would bring them good fortune in the coming year. The religious roots of the New Year’s resolution continued well into the 1700s, where

early Methodists would hold ‘watch night services’ on New Year’s Eve, usually spent praying and again, making promises to the gods.

It continued as a mostly Western and religious

“The lack of true motivation is why I feel most resolutions are dead and buried by February” tradition until modern times, where resolutions become less about pleasing the gods and more about self-improvement. Whether it’s learning a new language, becoming fitter and healthier or travelling more, we are now firmly in the age of the self-reflective New Year’s resolution.

Declan, a second year Science student, didn’t make any New Year’s resolutions this year.

“Personally I don’t believe in them. For myself, the goal is too vague”. He continued, “I don’t feel too different after a change in year, so if I wanted to resolve something I would need a more specific goal”.

When considering their purpose, he says he believes most people have good intentions when they set out to make New Year’s resolutions, however “the mind set of [the] people doing it is wrong. I feel most people who have a resolution are only doing it because everyone else has one; so they don’t look lazy”. When considering the sticking power of some of the more grandiose resolutions people tend to make, he adds “the lack of true motivation is why I feel most resolutions are dead and buried by February”.

The failure rate of New Year’s resolutions is certainly something to consider: a study exploring this not-so-modern phenomenon, published by Richard Wiseman of the University of Bristol in

“You [make] a New Year’s resolution so you can say to people, ‘my life is going somewhere” 2007, showed that 88% of those who set New Year resolutions failed, despite many participants originally showing extreme confidence and eagerness to commit to their resolutions.

Furthermore, in the age of social media, the pressure to ‘self-improve’ – and later document it – is very real. Not a day goes by when the average Instagram user isn’t bombarded by a multitude of ‘#transformationtuesday’ or ‘#fitspo’ posts, and with shows such as Operation Transformation on RTÉ becoming a national phenomenon in its own right, the outward pressure to make a ‘big change’ in the New Year is evident, and contagious.

Declan believes it is this pressure to conform

12 January 24th 2017

that has fuelled the tradition of resolutions for so long – “People are more like sheep than they care to admit. I feel people only make resolutions at New Year because everyone else is, because you see it posted everywhere on social media”.

Daniel, a second year English and History student, also accredits societal pressure as having a role in making these resolutions. He also believes that people’s motivation to make changes in their lives in the new year actually stem from a much bigger fear of failure- “You [make] a New Year’s resolution so you can say to people, ‘my life is going somewhere’, because no one likes to be thought of as wandering aimlessly”.

However, Emma, a second year English and Drama student, sees the value in making resolutions for the New Year- “to act as sort of stepping stones or a kind of map to get [people] where they want to be”.

Emma calls her only resolution a ‘simple’ one – “if I was to do anything differently in 2016, it would have been to have more fun”. She says it won’t be an easy one to follow, admitting it is something she is “struggling to incorporate”, and puts it down to exam and general life-related stress.

“There are just so many things to worry about. In the final weeks coming up to the end of term, when assignments and essays and feedback sessions and exams pile on top of you like a tidal wave, we abandon [having a] life because we have to”.

New Year’s resolutions could be labelled by the cynic in all of us as ‘a waste of time’ and a particularly self-serving trend – their low success rates certainly speak for themselves. However, in the wake of the past year, where certain events in the public sphere challenged people’s idea of what was possible on a much larger, worldwide scale; perhaps the idea to harness the strange adrenaline rush of reigning the New Year to promote one’s own personal goals or wishes, be they superficial or momentous, are exactly what people need to face a brand new year.

Science Year in Review: Science As a new year gets underway, Danielle Crowley looks back at some of the most important science stories of 2016 2016 was a funny old year. While most will remember the political upheavals and drama, it also saw huge advancements and unusual results in many scientific fields. Here are just a few of them to get the New Year started.

Space:

In one of the first major science stories of last year, 2016 saw the existence of gravitational waves proved for the first time. Gravitational waves are ripples in spacetime, these particular ones occurring because two black holes collided to form one. This was exciting not just because it provided evidence for Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, but it also means that astronomers can now detect black holes, something they couldn’t do before.

A new planet, known as Proxima b was discovered orbiting our nearest star, Proxima Centauri. Known as an exoplanet, this has roughly the same mass as Earth and is in the habitable zone, or “Goldilocks Zone” around its star, also known as the region where liquid water can exist. At “just” 40 trillion kilometres away, it would take our fastest spacecraft about 80,000 years to get there, so don’t start packing just yet. However, in the future this could be a possible destination to begin our advance into space.

Health:

Remember the Ice Bucket Challenge? The money raised from it helped fund six research projects,

“A new drug to treat Alzheimer’s is in the testing phase” and a gene responsible for motor neuron disease (ALS) was found. Now that a gene has been found, research into gene therapy to fight the illness can commence.

A new drug to treat Alzheimer’s disease is in the testing phase. The drug works by removing the build up of protein plaques in the brain that contribute to the disease. There are hopes that we will soon have a vaccine against this debilitating condition.

A baby was born with three biological parents.

Since mitochondria (which power every cell in our body) can only be passed down through the maternal line, if mothers have mitochondrial disorders they can very easily pass them on to their children. This technique, known as pronuclear transfer works as follows. The nucleus of a donor egg (with healthy mitochondria) is removed and replaced with the fertilised egg of the couple who want a child. When the baby is born (free of mitochondrial defects) it contains the genetic material of three people.

Climate:

Unfortunately, 2016 broke climate records, and not in a good way. Last year was the hottest on record,

“Last year was the hottest on record, and Arctic ice coverage during the winter was at a record low” and Arctic ice coverage during the winter was at a record low. Over 90% of scientists are in agreement that this unprecedented change is mainly due to human activity. The effect of carbon dioxide in this was shown to be far worse than previously thought.

Our seas also took a bashing, with the iconic Great Barrier Reef suffering the worst bleaching event on record.

But not all hope is lost (the ozone hole is on the mend for starters). If serious action is taken now, we may be able to snatch ourselves from the brink of disaster.

The West Indian Manatee’s downgrade from “endangered“ to “threatened“ was one of the positive developments in the world of science in 2016

Biology:

Obi the parrotlet flew through lasers wearing tiny goggles to protect his eyes. Using this data, scientists were able to debunk several animal flight models.

The West Indian manatee (sea cow) was downgraded from “endangered” to “threatened”.

Tiger numbers are also on the rise.

An unusual sound recorded in the Marianas Trench is suspected to be a new type of baleen

whale call. These filter feeders are the largest animals on Earth and include the blue whale.

A fossilised dinosaur brain was found, the

“A fossilised dinosaur brain was found, the first ever” first ever. It’s amazing because soft tissue rarely fossilises and can tell us reams about the animal.

All there’s left to say is bring on 2017.

Social Media and You Eithne Dodd examines the effects of social media on our health, both mental and physical.

Photo credit: Jason howie via flickr

SOCIAL media has something of a bad rep. It gets blamed for everything from “fake news” to trolling and while it is, for many of us, an unavoidable part of life, its effects on health are not to be ignored.

Social media has made it much more difficult to stay focused on what is going on around us. How many times have you been in a lecture only to get distracted by a buzz or a ping that takes you away from the factors leading to the First World War and towards the most recent celebrity break-up?

This can lead to isolation as we stop looking to the people around us for news and conversation, we also stop looking to them for other emotional needs.

This need not be completely negative however. If we continue to socialise in person then the internet, with its various social media sites, can be a helpful tool in generating even more social interaction.

In fact, a study done in 2010, found that while teenagers were more likely to text their school friends than spend time with them in person outside of school hours, the time that they spent in person

“The paper suggests giving up social media sites for a week as a means of improving your mental health”

with their friends had remained steady over the previous three years, they had simply texted each other more. This means that social contact in fact grew rather than diminished.

Those in their twenties are often accused of being too preoccupied with themselves. Their self-image and self-worth are often seen as being too dependent on the media they consume and the portrayal of themselves that they give to their various social media outlets – Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, Tumblr etc.

This culture of “chasing likes” or getting retweeted in a bid to earn approval is obviously damaging. Especially since it is so easily forgotten that people try to present only one particular version of themselves on social media.

Portraying ourselves in a positive (often artificial or inflated) light with the best social life and the best of friends can actually damage the mental health of others, not just ourselves. Just before Christmas researchers from the University of

Copenhagen found that looking at other people’s posts on Facebook can make a person feel envious or even depressed.

1,300 people, mostly women, participated in the survey, which found that regular use of social media sites can affect your emotional well-being and satisfaction with life. Particularly harmful is “lurking”, the act of looking at other people’s lives as portrayed to you by social media without

“Bad posture can trick our brains so that those with a tendency to slouch are more likely to have poor self-esteem” engaging with those people in any way. The paper suggests giving up social media sites for a week as a means of improving your mental health.

The feelings of inadequacy that social media can drum up in people as they compare their lives to that of their friends has lead the HSE funded website “YourMentalHealth.ie” to also suggest a social media detox as a means of improving mental health.

Another study conducted by the University of Michigan found that people who use Facebook often are less happy than those that use the site sparingly or not at all.

It is no secret that mental health services in Ireland are underfunded and understaffed. In a survey involving ReachOut Ireland, the HSE’s National Office for Suicide Prevention and the Irish Association of University and College Counsellors found that more than 8 out of 10 students of the 5,556 students surveyed thought that using the internet for mental health information would be advantageous.

The survey found that 45% of students spend between two and four hours online engaged in noncollege related activity per day. Seeing as there is approximately one full-time counsellor per every 5,000 students, perhaps providing positive mental health messages on social media would not only

make social media more positive from the point of view of mental health, but also alleviate some of the pressure on a highly demanded service.

Of course social media can also affect your physical health. The media in general has long been blamed for portraying unrealistic images of beauty in magazines and movies that young people then feel they must aspire to look like. This leads to disorders such as anorexia or bulimia.

Social media has only compounded this problem with sites like Instagram and photo editing software, meaning a culture has developed of scrolling through photos and photos of “normal” beautiful women. The NHS reports that the number of teenagers with eating disorders has doubled in the last three years and there are many studies, which show a correlation between social media consumption and eating disorders.

Crouching over our phones or tablets as we scroll through social media can also lead to bad posture, which can have surprisingly sinister affects.

When humans slouch, we do it because we are feeling scared, vulnerable or upset. A study published by the Brazilian Psychiatric Association in 2010 found that depressed patients were more likely to stand with their necks bent forward, shoulders collapsed and their arms drawn in towards their bodies’, much like someone does when they are reading their Twitter feed on a bus.

Bad posture like this can trick our brains so that those with a tendency to slouch are more likely to have poor self-esteem.

In another study published in Health Psychology in 2015, non-depressed participants were divided into two groups. One group was told to sit in an upright position, the other to sit in a slouch. The people of both groups then had to answer mock job interview questions and questionnaires. Those that sat in a slouch reported lower self-esteem, worse moods and greater fear levels than those of the upright sitter.

In today’s world it isn’t feasible to be rid of social media for more than a week at a time, but reducing our time might have significant positive impacts on our health and when you do check your Snapchat stories, remember to check your posture also.

January 24th 2017 13

Science A New Star on the Horizon A new star is going to appear in our sky. Aoife Hardesty gives us the details.

FOR thousands of years humans have walked the Earth, and until recently, night was filled with darkness. Stars provided pinpricks of light in the inky dark and gave safety to travellers, aiding navigation.

In many religions and belief systems, stars have played roles of importance. The birth of Jesus was accompanied by a new star in the sky, and this star guided the three wise men to the Messiah. The native American Pawnee tribe’s creation myth says the first woman was created from the marriage of stars.

The Greeks named many constellations based on their mythology, the constellation Cygnus, was named for swans, and associated with stories of men or gods turning into swans for differing reasons, be it to escape justice or seduce maidens.

Stargazing as a science, or astronomy, has a long history all over the world, in particular China and the Middle East. It began with cataloguing the

“It’s a one-in-a-million chance that you can predict an explosion. It’s never been done before”

Photo credit: Ole Nielsen

stars and planets, which allowed for a reference when new objects appeared in the sky. Some rare occurrences appear as bright new “stars” in the sky, and astronomers today often have a good idea how to classify them but not how to predict them.

One rare and interesting phenomenon is about to occur in our time; two stars are getting closer and closer together, and will soon collide and fuse together into one star, resulting in an explosion known as a Luminous Red Nova, which will be visible in 2022.

This star, which is being called a “Boom-star”, will appear in the constellation Cygnus, also known as the

The Cygnus Consellation, where the “Boom Star“ will appear and be visible by 2022

Northern Cross, and for roughly six months it will be one of the brightest objects in the night sky, although its brightness will fade over time.

The soon-to-collide stars are part of a binary star system called KIC9832227, the two stars orbit each other but they are currently too faint to be visible

“Two stars are getting closer and closer together, and will soon collide and fuse together into one star, resulting in an explosion known as a Luminous Red Nova” to the naked eye. They are 1,800 light years away, which means that the light from the stars takes 1,800 years to reach us here on Earth, so although we won’t see the results of their collision until 2022, the stars actually collided nearly 1800 years ago.

The two stars orbit each other every 11 hours but in 2013 Professor Larry Molnar and his team at Calvin College, Michigan, noticed that this orbital speed was decreasing. The orbit is getting faster and faster, signalling that the two stars would eventually collide.

“Explosions of this size occur about once a decade in our Galaxy. This case is unusual in how close the star is and hence how bright we will see it shine and unique in that it is the first time anyone has predicted an explosion in advance.” said Professor Molnar.

“It’s a one-in-a-million chance that you can predict an explosion. It’s never been done before.”

This will not be the first Luminous Red Nova to occur, but it is the first time one has been predicted.

In 2008, the binary star V1309 Scorpii unexpectedly resulted in a red nova. But studying data of the binary system collected prior to the explosion indicated that the time taken for the stars to orbit each other was decreasing.

This information is what enabled Professor Molnar and his team to predict the occurrence of another red nova for binary system KIC9832227.

The prediction of the red nova means that astronomers, professional and amateur alike can be on the look-out for the appearance of the boom star.

The star will be roughly 10,000 times brighter than the binary system and will be easily visible to the naked eye, and so all members of the public will be able to search the skies and watch for the star. And so, like our ancestors, we can turn to the skies to watch for a new star.

Body and Soul As our understanding of diseases continues to expand, George Merrin explains what psychosomatic illnesses and injuries are and why there is so much mystery around them.

Have you ever had a phantom pain come and go and been unable to explain its origin? Have you ever gone to a doctor only to discover that they too are unable to determine the source of the pain? If you answer yes to either of these then you may have a form of psychosomatic illness.

Psychosomatic refers to anything relating to the interactions between the body and the mind. To put this in context, a psychosomatic illness is an illness which can be made worse by mental factors such as depression and anxiety. Yet how these factors alter the physical body is still undetermined. For anxiety, symptoms such as an increase in heart rate, palpitations, chest pain, and sweating are not psychosomatic as they are caused by the excretion of adrenaline.

Anxiety however affects certain diseases, such as eczema as it can increase the spread of the rash, heart disease as it can increase blood pressure, and it can cause psoriasis (a form of skin disease)

“Symptoms can include general weakness and paralysis, tremors and unsteady gaits, and sensory problems such as hearing loss, blindness, and numbness” to flare-up. These diseases can therefore be called psychosomatic disorders.

Somatoform Symptom Disorder (SSD) is a mental illness which causes bodily symptoms such as pain. The difference between psychosomatic and somatoform disorders is that in the latter no physical damage is done. There are many types of SSD. One such disorder is illness anxiety disorder.

This was formerly known as hypochondriasis and occurs in people who continuously believe they have a serious medical condition. This can be seen where a person has a minor headache and believes this to be a symptom of a brain tumour.

Another form of SSD are Conversion Disorders, which are also commonly called Functional Neurological Symptom Disorders. They are disorders that affect the brain, i.e. they have neurological symptoms, yet there are no known medical causes. Symptoms of this can include general weakness and paralysis, tremors and unsteady gaits, and sensory problems such as

John Watson’s phantom limp in TVseries Sherlock

hearing loss, blindness, and numbness.

An unusual form somatic symptom disorder is pseudocyesis, or phantom pregnancy. This is when a woman believes she is pregnant and even has physical symptoms such as abdomen enlargement, foetal movements, etc. despite the fact she isn’t pregnant.

Injuries can also be psychosomatic, common to people with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

This was portrayed in popular culture in BBC’s Sherlock, as Dr. John Watson starts out the series with a limp, however in later episodes all evidence of his once crippling affliction is gone. To put it in simple terms, his leg was never injured, it was a physical manifestation of his internal feelings of worthlessness and incompetence. So when he found his purpose it vanished as if it never existed.

PTSD has many difference physical and mental manifestations, however chronic pain is one which can be either somatoformic in origin, or evolve into one.

There is still a lot to learn about psychosomatic illnesses and injuries. Before MRI was invented in 1977, multiple sclerosis was believed to be a form of hysterical paralysis. With advances in imaging techniques and modern medicine, soon we may be able to explain some if not all the mystery that surrounds these puzzling conditions.

Lions, and Tigers, and Chimeras Oh My! Human-animal hybrids are no longer the stuff of science fiction. Aisling Brennan investigates.

14 January 24th 2017

While there is definitely interest within the scientific community to pursue these fields of study, various government and ethics bodies make sure that there are limits and rules imposed as to how that research occurs and how far it can go.

As science has progressed, and fields like

“There have been claims that the species are ‘just too close, and the results too disturbing to contemplate’” stem-cell research and gene-editing techniques have become more and more refined, we’ve come closer than ever before to the edge of some of these ethical concerns.

The result is groups and panels trying to find a careful balance between advancing knowledge and science and an ethical (and political) disaster that could result in a lot of public backlash.

In August 2016, it was reported that the U.S. National Institute of Health (NIH) plans to lift the funding ban on research creating human-animal hybrids, which had been placed in September 2015.

This moratorium prevented funding for experiments involving injecting human stem cells into animal embryos. While such experiments were already underway in the U.S., none of the animals had been brought to term out of ‘scientific caution’. Furthermore, the scientists working on

the project (at the Salk Institute and at Stanford University) said that the foetal animals would have only contained at most a small proportion of human cells.

Going forward, the NIH said it would form a special committee to oversee funding of humananimal projects, a move which in and of itself could raise questions of political interference in science. It also tried to firm up its restrictions on some of the ‘scariest’ of possibilities resulting from this research.

The NIH expressed wishes to expand an existing regulation that forbids funding for any research combining human cells and early ape or monkey embryos. There have been claims that the species are ‘just too close, and the results too disturbing to contemplate’.

Another restriction is planned to explicitly bar any of these hybrids from being allowed

to reproduce. The main risk named in such an occurrence is the, extremely remote, possibility that two chimeras could mate and produce a human foetus, which could be theoretically possible if their sperm/eggs were human.

While this situation unfolds, it’s interesting to think about all of the breakthroughs that are possible, and the progressions that are feared.

photo credit: harvard art museum

THE idea of human-animal hybrids is something that has fascinated humanity for millennia. In fact, you’d be hard pressed to find any culture or mythology (or fantasy novel) which doesn’t explore this intrigue with creatures like the minotaur, merfolk, winged-men, or werewolves. And while figures like the Minotaur, Bastet, Chu Pa-chieh or Pan are cool to imagine, how does the part animal/ part human idea translate into modern science?

To gain insights into biology and disease, scientists have created and used animal models containing human cells for decades. A common example is growing a human tumour inside of a mouse. Organisms resulting from this sort of genetic manipulation are often referred to as ‘hybrids’ or ‘chimeras’. Specifically, the terms refer to an organism that ‘contains cells or tissues from more than one species’.

More modern research takes a slightly different approach, with the idea being to inject ‘potent’ human stem cells into an early-stage animal embryo when it itself is only a few dozen cells in size. Theoretically the human cells could have the potential to end up contributing to any part of the animal, and to any degree.

What even is the point of this research? The answers are widespread and staggering. Imagine being able to grow a human liver or heart in the body of a pig for example. Organ waiting lists could be cut in half, transplant rejection rates could similarly shrink, and a whole new way to farm human transplant organs would be opened up.

“Theoretically the human cells could have the potential to end up contributing to any part of the animal, and to any degree” Psyche and the mythological human-hybrid god Pan as featured in Edward BurneJones 19th century painting

stUdeNt voiCes we’re here, we’re queer, we’re DepresseD While mental health is a huge issue among the Irish people Shauna Gavin looks at its higher prevalence among the queer community.

WHEN I first started dating my girlfriend I would occasionally refer to periods of my life where my mental health was far from perfect. When she questioned me about it, I tried to brush it off. I said, “I don’t think I’ve ever met someone who identified as LGBTQ with perfect mental health.” A joke that was much too accurate. She laughed and informed that I now had, as she had never experienced any major issues with her mental health, and I was surprised.

That one conversation has stuck with me ever since. It suddenly dawned on me that I wouldn’t expect a fellow queer to have not experienced difficulties with mental health, for the simple fact that so many of us have.

It’s crazy to think that someone who hasn’t experienced such

ILLUSTRATION : MEADHBH SHERIDAN

difficulties in the queer community would be met with surprise. This is not okay.

I understand that, at the moment, mental health is extremely important for everyone. It is something that needs to be talked about, to be addressed and to be treated like any other illness, regardless of sexuality or gender. We cannot, however, have a proper discussion about the state of the population’s mental health without addressing the fact that mental health problems occur much more frequently in the queer community when compared to the general population.

No matter where you look, the facts are there.

LGBTQ youth are more likely to self-harm, in fact

“LGBTQ youth are more likely to self-harm, in fact it’s been reported that around half of all LGBTQ teens have deliberately harmed themselves.” it’s been reported that around half of all LGBTQ teens have deliberately harmed themselves. LGBTQ teenagers are three times more likely to attempt suicide and are four times more likely to have experienced depression or anxiety.

These specific statistics are from a study done by GLEN and BelongTo on Irish LGBTQ people but any study of similar issues always shows the same thing: queer people have markedly worse mental health than the general population. This study in particular is really important for highlighting the mental health problems of the LGBTQ community in Ireland.

Its findings support the same story that is being told again and again, in Ireland and abroad: a significant proportion of LGBTQ people experience mental health difficulties. The findings of this study are shocking. Homophobia has not disappeared in

Ireland, or anywhere in the world, and contrary to popular opinion, marriage equality did not fix all the problems the queer community face.

Why is the mental health of LGBTQ people so much worse than everyone else’s? Along with everything that growing up entails, the fear and worry, the anxiety and school stresses that every teenager faces, LGBTQ youth have added stresses.

They might deal with isolation or name-calling, homophobic bullying and harassment and even violence. I understand that anyone can become a victim to any of these issues, but the truth is problems such as these are just more prevalent among LGBTQ youth. The internal struggle to accept oneself and the dread that loved ones won’t accept who you are or who you love is a challenge specific to LGBTQ youth. An upbringing in a society where anything other than heterosexuality is ‘normal’ may cause someone to find it difficult to accept their own identity when it happens to differ from this norm.

So many issues can arise from an inability to accept ourselves: self-hatred, anxiety, depression,

“ShoutOut (shoutout.ie) is one such organisation that works to combat homophobic bullying in secondary schools around Ireland.” self-harm. It’s impossible to pin all mental illness on one specific cause, but when you look at everything that the queer youth face combined, is it really any surprise that our mental health is far from perfect?

It’s not all doom and gloom though, the GLEN study previously mentioned is the largest study of LGBTQ people in Ireland to date and the fact that it was commissioned by the HSE has to show some sort of movement towards identifying problems

and inciting change. From the study it’s clear that LGBTQ youth need more resources. They need more information and they need more help. We need to teach all young people exactly what constitutes homophobic bullying, and we need to stop it. There should be sexual education in secondary schools that doesn’t completely ignore the fact that samesex attraction exists and, is actually pretty common.

ShoutOut (shoutout.ie) is one such organisation that works to combat homophobic bullying in secondary schools around Ireland. It delivers workshops to teens to try and teach them about terms used in the LGBTQ community, to normalise LGBTQ people and to try and prevent or stop bullying. The workshops are led by volunteers (usually college students) and if you’d like to get involved they regularly hold training for volunteers and it’s a great way to feel like you’re making a real difference in the lives of LGBTQ youth in Ireland.

Things are grim at the moment, but I honestly do feel that we are moving towards a more accepting and open society. We need to educate and inform and love and support. I don’t for a second believe that this will cure the mental health of LGBTQ youth in Ireland but it would be taking steps in the right direction. I know that helping young queer people isn’t going to fix your anxiety or remove the scars from my arms but we have to start somewhere.

If anyone reading this is struggling with their mental health, LGBTQ or not, please don’t suffer in silence. Help is out there and I know it’s cheesy but things do get better. if you are struggling with your mental health in any way resources are listed below: Pieta House 1800 247 247 pieta.ie Samaritans 116 123 samaritans.org Aware 1800 80 48 48 aware.ie LGBT Helpline 1890 929 539 Pleasetalk Pleasetalk.ie and Pleasetalk.ie/ucd Student Counselling www.ucd.ie/ studentcounselling/

summer in the Deep south Fancy a J1 trip to the US? Cian Griffin recalls his experiences of travelling to South Carolina.

“Our only other option had been an Ohio city in which you had a 45% chance of being involved in a knife related crime if you went out after 8 PM.” course. It was more like one of those crappy motels from movies where drug dealing and prostitution reign; with an eternal damp smell permeating each and every surface.

The place was straight out of american horror story – dimly lit corridors, dirty carpets stained with marks I preferred not to question, flickering lights and pale walls that shed onto the floor. Although the bullet holes in the elevator were the icing on the cake. This image may be concerning, however we

acquired quite a strange sense of ownership over the place by the end of summer, even if it was four of us to a room built for one! It may have been a crack-den, but it was our craic-den.

Our job was as comical as our lodgings, and provided just as many laughs as the (very regular) police

“Speaking of befriending locals, it really does pay to make American friends!” drug-raids in our hotel; although for all the wrong reasons. We worked in an indoor amusement park and I got a job on their rope course. I was in charge of getting customers into their harnesses, explaining the rules, and sending them up onto the course.

As anyone with retail experience will tell you; customers are idiots. These frubes however, were on another level. One of our only rules was that pockets had to be completely empty while on the course; something people never quite seemed to grasp; as I had phones, selfie-sticks and even a hunting knife dropped on me from above.

Without the job however, we would have had no means of funding our social life. I – for most of my JWan – was only twenty years old, which thankfully did not affect me on the same scale as it did my friends in places like California, Chicago and New York.

The legal age for drinking in America is twentyone, and for a lot of my friends in bigger cities around the country, this meant that they could not get in to nightclubs. One massive advantage I found with the Deep South was that clubs were a lot more relaxed about the laws of their country. I always got in, my age just meant that sometimes I had to pay a bit extra for entrance and huge X’s were drawn on my hands to stop me from being served. Although thanks to Four Loko, a dangerously caffeinated alcoholic beverage, described as “legalised cocaine in a can”, we never had to buy drinks out, because two cans of this stuff at the start of the night (for less than $2 a pop) was more than enough to knock out a horse.

Almost habitually however, I managed to get in through dumb-luck, Irish “charm” or simply by getting to know the bouncers over the three months. It wasn’t until the end of June that we found out from our American co-workers that we could actually get in for free because of where we worked. Moral of that story is to always make sure you investigate things like that early on to save some dollars.

Speaking of befriending locals, it really does pay to make American friends. If you have bike luck as bad as ours; between theft, vandalism, car accidents

and road rage from drivers forcing us off the road, it helps to have someone to drive you around when you need it.

And it also means getting invited to American house parties, where you end up standing on your supervisor’s kitchen table, freestyle rapping as a squad of Jamaican girls twerk in a circle around you and Turks shower you in dollar bills. It’s a cultural experience you need to try, because it was the best summer of my life, even if I only had enough money left at the end to visit relatives in New York for just a week.

photo CreDit: Cian Griffin

“DON’T trust nobody apart from our staff, ain’t nothin’ round here but lying thieves,” warned the hotel receptionist through a full set of silver teeth.

Whether you traverse the countries of Southeast Asia, interrail across Europe or jet off on a €9.99 flight with Ryanair on the day you book it; college is a great opportunity for travel that should not be ignored. One of the most popular escapades for culchie and Southsider alike, is the J1 – or the “JWan” as I (mis)pronounce it – a summer spent working and travelling in the States.

We chose Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; a tourist spot nicknamed the “Dirty Myrtle” by seemingly every other state in the US. We had high hopes before arrival however, as our only other option had been an Ohio city in which you had a 45% chance of being involved in a knife related crime if you went out after 8 PM – groovy.

Accommodation in Myrtle Beach was as easy to find in our area as a hooker – they lived on the second floor (I wish that was a joke). We ended up in a hotel a few kilometres from the beach, right beside our employer – who had tipped us off about the place. I use the word hotel quite generously of

January 24th 2017 15

oPiNioN

quinn’s Bizzness While 2016 may have been a year to forget (RIP Prince), The Captain decides the last thing we need for 2017 is more new year’s resolutions.

WELCOME back students of the finest university in the universe, according to UCD’s marketing team.

Have you ever seen UCD’s social media accounts?

Honestly, I am jealous of their enthusiasm and zeal for life. The people who still wear their UCD scarf after the first week evolve into the people who manage the UCD Instagram.

Welcome International students who have joined us this semester, I hope you enjoy your time here.

Be sure to check out UCD’s Instagram for pictures of swans, sunsets, and the occasional rainbow.

If you’re a first year and returning to UCD after a semester of disappointing classes, zero friends and parties nothing like the movies, it’s okay. This is my fourth year in UCD and I haven’t made any friends.

I still manage to get up and go to class, after

Don’t sleep more, nap more!

screaming into my pillow and a quick cry in the shower. No, but seriously, the first semester of first year can be rough. If you are feeling overwhelmed and miserable, you have plenty of opportunities to join societies and clubs to meet like minded miserable people on Refresher’s Day. For the people who have friends, it isn’t much better. Now you have to catch up with the people you saw on your Snapchat story, and hated, for the past few weeks. You’ll sit in Readers with some overpriced and burnt Costa coffee and hear all about their ‘spontaneous’ trip to some European city. Seriously, how do students afford spontaneous holidays? I can’t even afford a spontaneous can of Dutch Gold.

Even worse are the people in your course who did some kind of internship for a company that you’ve never heard of. It’s okay, don’t stress out about how insignificant your degree is without any practical experience.

There will still be jobs for even the most unremarkable of students. I mean, you can always become a lecturer in DCU. Anyways, enough of the misery.

The beginning of a new semester brings with it a refreshing notion

“If you are feeling overwhelmed and miserable, you have plenty of opportunities to join societies and clubs to meet like minded miserable people on Refresher’s Day.”

that this time you will be better, more organised and a model student. Funnily enough, this is also usually accompanied by an acceptance that you’re not going to change and you’ll remain the clueless, procrastinating waste of oxygen you were before midnight on New Year’s Eve. New Year’s resolutions are weird. You plan to make vague and unsustainable changes in your life, fail after two weeks and then spend the rest of the year wallowing in self-loathing. Here are some typical resolutions reworked with some Quinn cynicism.

•Lose weight. First of all, why? Life is hard enough without voluntary torture and needing a calculator to eat your lunch. Exercise and the gym is supposed to make you feel better. If your health is genuinely bothering you why not focus on achieving a health heart rate instead of posting protein shake recipes on your new fitspo blog. If you want to lose weight to get more likes on social media, maybe change your goal to quitting social media.

•Get more sleep. This just isn’t going to happen when you’re a student. Change your goal to getting less sleep and quit being such a moan. Also nap more. Why live one day, when you can nap and turn a day into three exciting mini days?

•Become more involved in social justice issues. Just stop. This is a bad idea. Once you open the door to that life you’ll realise how truly awful the world is and either become clinically depressed or a nihilist. Change your goal to just not being a terrible person on a personal level during your daily life.

•Travel more. To where? You’ll only get sick.

The further away you go the worse the germs.

Change this one to, “Try not to get Diphtheria.” Or maybe look out the window on the bus instead of reading clickbait articles or doing Buzzfeed quizzes •Learn a new skill. No offence, but you’re not even that learned in the skills you already claim to have. Change that one to spending less time on Facebook and more time in an actual book.

•Figure out who you are. No. Ignorance is bliss and besides, no one truly knows who they are. The most self-aware people are also the most confused and miserable. Don’t believe me? Google ‘special snowflake syndrome’.

•Quit smoking. Actually, this one has only positives. Whatever about cancer, smoking isn’t even cool anymore and vaping makes you look like a massive douchebag in a cloud.

Speaking of quitting things, when will the SU just stop trying to make RAG Week happen? It’s not

“Speaking of quitting things, when will the SU just stop trying to make RAG Week happen?” going to happen, Gretchen. RAG Week is basically going to be a disaster of under expected ticket sales, disappointed first years and awful nights out. However, it will still be better than last year’s RAG Week, of which the highlight was someone shaving someone else’s beard in the Clubhouse and somehow that was worthy of people’s attention.

I care about nothing, but have strong opinions on everything. No one knows what they are really supposed to be doing and even the things that appear to have a purpose do not. For example; the whole purpose of humans having eyelashes is to prevent things from getting in your eyes. But whenever I have something in my eye, it is almost always an eyelash. How eye-ronic.

Stop worrying about being perfect and selfimprovement. No one cares. Focus more on becoming a productive member of society, graduate with a useless degree, work a meaningless nine to five office job, be insignificant, have missionary sex that lasts ten minutes and live with the satisfaction that you never failed at anything because you never tried.

it’s time to start savinG our home: the earth Aoife Hardesty discusses the damage mankind has inflicted on the Earth, and ways we can all help fix the damage.

SOMEHOW, life managed to evolve on our planet.

This world gave all the necessary conditions for life to evolve as we know it: carbon for us to become more complex, oxygen to give us energy, abundant food, water and land. Mother Earth supported us as we grew from single cells to multi-cellular organisms. Her ozone layer has shielded us from the harmful effects of our sun, and without that protective layer, we would just die.

To thank her, we have cut her open. We have drilled deep into her for fuel, to build magnificent cities and grow our societies. We use these fuels to fuel our lives; cars, factories and more. And as a result, we are constantly feeding pollutants into the air. We are destroying the ability of our planet to support life, and we’re not doing it slowly either, but very, very quickly.

If we continue the way we are, soon our planet won’t be able to sustain life anymore. And that doesn’t just mean human life, but all the other animals, the trees and the fungi. Because of us, they could all die.

And it wouldn’t be the first time we’ve been responsible for a species’ extinction (just think of the dodo). Humans are causing species to become extinct 1,000 times faster than nature. Overfishing,

“Our planet has only so much to give us, and we are taking everything she’s got.” all around the globe, means that stocks of fish are decreasing, hunting and poaching have reduced animal populations, such as tigers and rhinos, and we have destroyed huge forests, habitats to thousands of organisms, to grow grass for grazing and to build cities.

Our planet has only so much to give us, and we are taking everything she’s got. 90% of Ireland’s energy came from fossil fuels in 2014, 70% coming from natural gas alone, which is completely unsustainable, and a push must be made to move towards more renewable sources.

The Irish government has been funding compa-

16 January 24th 2017

nies to set up systems of harnessing renewable energies, such as windfarms. Unfortunately, windfarms face huge opposition from local communities.

Where I’m from, in South Kilkenny, a windfarm, which would have 5 windmills, has been proposed for a nearby hill. And the people who live at the bottom of that hill don’t want them there. They don’t object to windmills, but not near where they live.

“Global warming is not a myth, it is not a ‘Chinese hoax’, it is a real and serious threat to life as we know it.”

They’re too noisy, they’re unattractive, they decrease property values. But for the most part these people agree that we need to be using renewable energy, so long as they’re not inconvenienced by it.

UCD has a number of institutes and research teams working on renewable energy and environmental protection, such as the UCD Earth Institute, and the UCD Energy Institute. According to the UCD website, some key areas include carbon reduction, renewables and sustainability.

Despite housing a large research operation to improve the ways we use our planet, UCD won’t be winning any awards for environmentalism any time soon. Most houses now have two or three separate bins, plastic recycling, compost and other waste that can’t be recycled. But not UCD. On campus accommodation has recycling facilities, but the campus for the most part does not.

Recycling bins are currently only present in the Ag Science building. The SU Environmental Committee and Green Campus are working hard on this, and have put forward a proposal for recycling bins in the College of Science.

Trump’s administration may not recognise global warming as a reality, but it is not a myth, it is not a “Chinese hoax”, it is a real and serious threat to life as we know it. Nobody can deny our weather has changed dramatically in even the last few years.

Winters are warmer. Summers are wetter. And it’s

not just nostalgic remembrance, data shows that temperatures are continuing to increase.

Sea levels are rising, due to the melting of polar ice caps and glaciers. Glaciers in South America are shrinking at record speed, such as the O’Higgins Glacier, which has retreated 15km in the last century, and HPS 12 Glacier which is thinning at a record speed of 28m a year.

Ireland isn’t immune from the results of global warming. Seasonal rain is increasing around the country, resulting in more flooding and erosion than before, and less productive crops. If this trend continues, Ireland could be subjected to extreme storms, and our coastline could be affected by rising sea levels.

So what can the individual person do to reduce their impact on the environment? Luckily there are a number of easy steps to take.

If you are a regular tea or coffee drinker on campus, bring your own travel mug, or ordinary mug when you go to get coffee. Those disposable cups don’t get recycled and with so many cups being served a day in UCD, they add up quickly.

If you drive, consider switching to a more sustainable mode of transport if at all possible. Public transport, walking and cycling, and sharing lifts all cut down on the amount of greenhouses entering the atmosphere.

Buying local produce reduces the transport impact from long journeys. You can also reduce the amount of things you buy that come with excess

“If you are a regular tea or coffee drinker on campus, bring your own travel mug, or ordinary mug when you go to get coffee.” packaging. Individually wrapped fruit and biscuits for example, can be a waste. If you don’t need them, go with something else. Reduce your food waste, and if it’s compostable, then compost it.

Consider going vegetarian, or vegan, or incorpo-

rating more meatless meals into your life. A friend of mine and her family do “meatless Mondays”. It can be a fun way of trying out different food, like tofu, and the meat industry is one of the largest contributors to global greenhouse emissions.

Plant trees and protect those already there. Buy paper items that that use sustainable sources.

Check for the FSC (Forestry Stewardship Council) symbol and avoid products that don’t have it.

Try and avoid products with palm oil, a product responsible for huge deforestation in Indonesia, and a huge threat to the Orangutan. Plant flowers which attract bees, such as lavender, fuchsia, and bluebells.

Global warming and the destruction of the environment is not an unsolvable problem, but it does need action on an individual and global level to stop it getting worse. Thanks to policy changes in the 1980s and onwards, the hole in the ozone layer is getting smaller, and is expected to close in the coming decades, with some saying it could be healed by 2050.

We can all help save our planet, by taking small steps to reducing our carbon footprints.

editoriaL

eDitorial WHEN I first wrote an article for this paper, over two years ago now, it was on student fees and how successive governments have done so little to improve the position of students. Way back in September, I wrote my first editorial on the value of an education and what is not being done for students.

These positions have not changed. There is woefully little being done for the welfare of students or to alleviate the pressures that they are put under.

The issues and things that matter to students are being ignored in a systemic way and there is so little being done to address these that it amounts to nothing. Successive governments, universities and students’ unions do not seem to recognise all the issues and are doing very little to intervene.

Young people in 2017 are expected to have an undergraduate degree or diploma. In order to enter into a job with a decent salary, being a graduate of a third-level institution is necessary. However, the hours that students are expected to invest in their future are ridiculous.

There is an expectation that every 5 credits a student completes must have about 100 hours of work. In UCD, most undergraduates will complete 30 credits a semester. This means that per a 12 week teaching semester plus exams, students are expected to complete 600 hours of work for their degree.

Roughly speaking, this means an average of 40 hours a week spent on your degree. Most full time jobs require between 35-40 hours a week.

This in itself is not the issue though. If students had no other expectations to fulfil then it would be no problem.

However the financial burden of college means that most students have to work part-time during

the UNiversity oBserver their degree. In most cases, to pay for accommodation, transport or course materials. A number of students will also need to work to pay their fees.

There are numerous other costs that come with college and to deal with them, students must find part-time work.

It is rare that you will find a third-level student that does not work outside college. In my group of class friends, 6 out of 8 of us worked weekly parttime jobs. Most of these jobs will expect around 20 hours of work a week, for not much more than minimum wage.

As well as a part-time job and degree work, students are also expected to amass a number of extracurricular activities. When students start in UCD, they are told to “Get Involved!” This pressure also comes from employers who want to see a certain number of extras on a CV. This shows commitment and dedication. It shows that students are willing to give up their free time.

Involvement in societies and clubs is a wonderful part of the college experience.

However, students can spend anywhere between 5-15 or more hours a week on these activities. On top of the 60 hours they are already expected to spend on their degree and their part-time job. This means most students will be expected to spend 75 hours per week trying to pay for college and then the associated activities they must do when there.

To include the recommended 8 hours of sleep a night, this leaves leaves only 37 hours a week for anything else. Including transport to and from college or work, healthy food preparation and the amount of relaxation that humans are supposed to have.

The truth of the matter is that we are putting our

students under too much pressure. The appropriate amount of student accommodation is not available, leading to searches in the private market. This is not of a guaranteed standard and can increase the pressure on students.

After four years, students are then not even guaranteed paid work. It is commonplace for graduates to enter into low or unpaid internships. Or they enrol in a Masters degree, which is becoming increasingly necessary to get employed.

Students are being pushed to the limit for too small a return.

It is too easy for colleges to claim that this is in part due a lack of funding. Irish universities are falling in international rankings, do not offer enough student accommodation for their population and do not invest in counselling services.

Yet somehow UCD found the money to invest in a university club for alumni and external events, for which they have already submitted a planning application. At the same time, no planning permission applications have been submitted for the accommodation they claim to be building.

Decisions, like grading changes, are routinely made without the input of students. The University Management Team makes decisions unilaterally and then expects committees with student representatives will rubber stamp.

Students and their concerns have been ignored for far too long. Expected to put in a ridiculous number of hours, students are then cut out of any discussion on what effects them.

This government, this university and countless others are catastrophically and continuously letting young people down.

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

art & desiGN editor Louise Flanagan Chief of PhotoGraPhy Camille Lombard News editor Alanna O’Shea dePUty/iNterNatioNaL News editor Rory Geoghegan CommeNt editor Julia O’Reilly featUres editor Billy Vaughan eaGarthÓir GaeiLGe Niamh O’Regan sCieNCe editor Danielle Crowley Co-sPorts editors Conall Cahill & David Kent BUsiNess editor Brian Donnelly

staff writers Aisling Brennan Matthew Hanrahan Keri Heath Orla Keaveney George Merrin Ross Walsh

TALLEY HO, DUNGLINGS! Within that almighty corridor Talley also hears suggestions of insubordination, investigation and non-renewal of contracts. It’s almost enough to make a Machiavellian young student think of getting involved. No doubt all the party political hacks are dusting off their boots.

But of course, then the union would run the risk of actually taking a political stance. We couldn’t have that now. The dark corners of the corridors wouldn’t like that. It might throw off their chance to campaign for their latest favourite issue.

Talley spotted one of these illustrious idiots outside the Dáil looking particularly forlorn. Expect to see old Fitzsnapback fronting the Concern campaign for “Poor unfortunate and harangued sabbats” any day now. Though one wonders at a group that complains about not getting enough coverage for their latest campaign and then doesn’t respond to queries about it.

Perhaps the New Year will bring about a sense of hope to the corridor, however Talley fears not. That would be too much like hard work.

Meanwhile, Roisin O’Incompetent seems to be giving her predecessors a run for their money for the title of “most useless sabbat ever”. Talley is sure

dePUty editor Martin Healy

Broadsheet oNLiNe editors Ruth Murphy Eithne Dodd

talleyranD WELCOME back to another semester here at UC Depressing. Are you in for as wild a ride as the last one? Students actually almost cared about student politics for half a minute there. Or at least 20% of them did. The rest of them were too busy eating chicken fillet rolls and getting out of bed at noon to care about the union’s stance on anything.

Speaking of which, Talley hears rumours we might be afforded an opportunity to see a referendum unfold all over again when the campus limbers up for sabbat elections. Coke and Bacardi’s lot might actually be pushed into taking a stance on something for once in their useless lives. A truly terrifying thought, my dear plebs.

And the turnout will be as high for these executive elections as they were for the abortion referendum. Naturally. A women’s right to choose is clearly as important to students as to what faceless, boring, hacks will be running that bastion of power that is the SU. Donald Trump can hardly contain his fear at the thought of what upstarts might upstage him as stupidest elected official to walk the earth.

Although, for those of you thinking of entering the SU race for most important office ever, don’t forget Talley will be watching.

editor Roisin Guyett-Nicholson

if she keeps up the hard work of not answering emails, talking to anybody or generally understanding what’s happening at council then she’s sure to win.

Though Lexi Kiljoy might just swing it, with her apparent lack of any desire to actually work on behalf of the students. Even if the University does make decisions without union or student input.

That’s not something that seems to trouble Kiljoy or Coke and Bacardi.

Both will face stiff competition from Cian “The Ghost” Casey, the ruler of those who certainly don’t give a shit about the university: post-grads.

The sheer indifference from The Ghost and his band of post-plebs makes for a veritable cocktail of uselessness. O’Incompetent and Kiljoy: you come at the king, you best not miss.

For those freshers starting their second term at this illustrious institution, this semester will be totally different to the last one, Talley assures thee.

You will make all those friends you couldn’t find last semester. Don’t worry, they’re all hiding down by the secret lake.

TALLEY OUT XOXO

Broadsheet CoNtriBUtors Ause Abdelhaq The Badger Julia Canney Helen Carroll Caoimhe Donnelly Shauna Gavin Rosemarie Gibbons Cian Griffin Aoife Hardesty Colm Honan Benjamin Jordan Katie Lalwani Josephine Leahy Bill Lozenge Gerard Maguire Aileen McGrath Ian Moore Jessica Quinn Eve Ryan Talley Emma Toolan visUaL CoNteNt CoNtriBUtors Alex-Floss Jones Annabelle Nguyen Joanna O’Malley Niamh O’Regan Meadhbh Sheridan sPeCiaL thaNKs Ollie Hayes Webprint Fleetwood Mac

Letters should be addressed to: The Editor, University Observer, UCD Student Centre, Belfield, Dublin 4.

Correspondence may also be sent to editor@universityobserver.ie.

January 24th 2017 17

sPort

CluB foCus: uCD mountaineerinG CluB Conal Cahill chats to some members of UCD’s Mountaineering Club about all manner of climbs and hikes. day and Wednesdays from 12-2pm. You can attend as many or as few sessions as you like, and there is often a trip to the UCD Clubhouse afterwards.

Oh, and then there’s the regular pizza and movie nights - and the small matter of the UCDMC Ball in the second semester (“nuts”, according to one previous member).

The aforementioned flexibility regarding training is one of the things that attracted Roisin Rigg, a second year student of Human Nutrition, to the prospect of joining the Club. She explained “it’s hard to make time for a lot of things...I think it (the Club’s schedule) works quite well”. Roisin also noted the the open and friendly nature of those within the club.

“Everyone’s just there because they enjoy it. They do compete, but I know a lot of other sports clubs are very much about competing so you have to go to

OURS is a fast-moving world, full of noise and action. It can at times feel all-consuming, impossible to escape. ‘Escaping’ means different things to different people. For some, it can be as simple as going home for a weekend. Others prefer a good night out. And then there are those for whom escaping into nature is the ideal tonic - feeling the fresh air around your face, trees rising high all around you and enjoying the silence that descends when you move away from vehicles or roads. If you fall into the latter category, then you should certainly consider signing up to the UCD Mountaineering Club.

We are open to correction on this, but it seems safe to assume that there are few clubs in UCD with leg muscles to match those of the Mountaineering Club (cue hordes of angry cyclists bashing on the Observer’s office door).

The Club engages in both hiking and climbing

(for hiking, think long walks along woodland trails; for climbing, picture Spider-Man) and they conduct these activities in some of the most beautiful places in Ireland - from Achill Island to The Burren in Clare, up to the Mourne mountains in County Down.

Normally taking about five trips a year (all of which strike a balance between mountaineering and socialising), the Club also have a yearly excursion to Wales during the second semester mid-term break (where they go quarry climbing and hiking) and typically see their members off for the summer with a post-exam blowout somewhere around Ireland. And, every Sunday, a bus full of members head off for a few hours’ hiking nearer to Dublin.

But that’s not all. The Club offers an extremely flexible training schedule, with four sessions per week at the UCD climbing wall (in the Sports Centre): Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5-7pm and Mon-

“I think the whole travelling sense of it has kind of given me a new sense of purpose.” every session and be part of the team and stuff. But the Mountaineering Club’s more about...everyone just enjoys climbing.”

Andy Keating, a final year Chemistry student, was the captain of the Club last year. Speaking to him, one is struck by the way the Club can broaden its members’ horizons and instil in them a sense of adventure. To members who already have that, the Club teaches new ways of travel and exploring the world. Andy told the Observer: “I think the whole travelling sense of it has kind of given me a new sense of purpose as well. Before, I would just go to the cities. I’d go to Rome, or I’d go to Madrid or something. Well, now I’m looking and going: ‘Wait - where else can I go?’ Instead of going to Rome I might go to the Italian Alps or the

Dolomites.”

Travelling this way is cheaper, too - he tells me that two weeks in Germany wound up around €400, including flights - and in good company, it would seem. Andy travelled with friends from the Club, and he says that the Club’s unique blend of characters is one of the things he really enjoys about it:

“Everyone’s just there because they enjoy it… everyone just enjoys climbing.”

“Everyone’s their own character. It’s kind of like a TV show in that sense, everyone is so different and, you know, they all have different inputs. It’s funny to even sit around and watch a conversation happen from all the different points of view.”

He has put the skills he has learnt to good use: having gained a qualification in Mountain Skills, he intends to go on to try and achieve a Mountain Leader Award and, perhaps, work in the field some day.

As for Roisin, she’s just hoping to get out for some climbs with the Club when the weather picks up. But though they may have different ambitions within the sport, one thing holds true for both Roisin and Andy: the UCD Mountaineering Club is one of the most fun, friendly and unique clubs in the whole of UCD. If you’re interested in joining UCDMC, join their Facebook group (‘UCDMC - UCD Mountaineering Club’), email mountaineering@ucd. ie or simply pop down to their stand in the UCD Sports Hall on Refreshers Day on 31st January from 10-4pm. The Club provides members with all necessary equipment for participation in their activities.

sports DiGest

the BaDGer

The best of the recent sporting action around UCD.

The observer’s resident omnivore takes aim at the people everyone hates.

Volleyball: UCD will host a big mixed tournament with 24 teams and players from all over the country coming to UCD on the weekend of January 27-29th.

Both teams won their respective varsities and the club are heading to Norwich to take part in the English student cup as the Irish representative.

64 minutes and Byrne knocked over a pair of conversions as Leinster secured a home quarter final at the Aviva Stadium.

Tickets are now on sale for the Women’s Rugby World Cup, which takes place in UCD’s Belfield Bowl and Billings Park starting in August.

Rugby: UCD’s Dan Leavy and Ross Byrne were both key to Leinster’s 24-24 draw away at Castres in the European Champions Cup. Leavy scored a try after

GAA: UCD’s hurlers begin their Fitzgibbon Cup campaign against Maynooth on Tuesday. They failed to qualify from their Walsh Cup group after heavy

defeats to Dublin and Wexford. They did manage to beat Carlow by thirteen points in Dr Cullen Park.

The Fitzgibbon Cup draw has seen them put in a group alongside UCC, UUJ and NUI Maynooth.

They’ll be hoping to get to the finals, which take place in Galway this year on the 25th of February.

It was a similar enough story for the footballers.

Being defeated in their opening game, Jack McCaffrey led the Students to a win over his own county Dublin but they failed to capitalize on that, being beaten by DCU by six points. The defence of their Sigerson Cup starts with a visit to either GMIT or IT Sligo next weekend.

Soccer: UCD’s Saturday Major side blew a 3-1 lead against Cherry Orchard at the weekend to lose 5-3.

They sit mid-table ahead of the start of the First Division season at the end of February. Veteran striker Jason Byrne departed for Cabinteely, who UCD open the campaign against.

HORSE RACING IRELAND

STUDENT SUMMER Paid Summer Internships for 2017 The Role

The Locations

The Qualities

You will work on event management, marketing, digital marketing, sales, race day operations & festival promotions

Places are available in Horse Racing Ireland, Leopardstown Racecourse, Tipperary Racecourse, Fairyhouse Racecourse & Navan Racecourse

You will be a positive and enthusiastic team player, preferably with an interest in horse racing

APPLY NOW

Download an application form from goracing.ie and send with your CV to internship@hri.ie (Closing date: 20th March 2017)

Want to know more? Visit www.goracing.ie races.ie

18 January 24th 2017

Tipp Yellow. C:0 M:10 Y:100 K:0 Tipp Blue.

C:100 M:44 Y:0 K:0

Refreshers Day: Refresher’s Day for UCD Sports clubs takes place on Tuesday the 31st of January. This will be student’s chance to join any of UCD’s 50+ sports clubs or societies for the second semester. Members from all of these clubs will be present in order to answer any questions. Demonstrations will also take place for certain clubs.

Refreshers Day takes place in the Astra Hall of the Student Centre from 10am-4pm. For more information, log onto the UCD Sport website or call down to the Sports Centre.

A HAPPY New Year to everyone that reads this. Of course, we’re almost into the spring, so it’s probably a bit late but that’s more the fault of hibernation and you know, UCD than anybody else.

A student came up to the Badger during the week and asked whether the Badger is keeping their resolutions. The first one was to be more nice to people, but that was broken within an hour of Big Ben’s chimes. The second was to eat healthier, but earthworms are too delicious.

So yes, The Badger has indeed failed. But yours truly is continuing to head to the UCD gym, keeping up the trend from before the break. The only difference now is that there is a queue of at least three people at every single machine.

Now, The Badger isn’t trying to discourage anyone who is genuinely going to the gym to try and get themselves fit for the New Year. The Badger hopes to see them there in April, but from seeing the latest new recruits in the opening weeks of January, hopes are low. Primarily because these people in queues go to the machine, do their reps and then leave. The machine is sweaty, there’s a bit of a smell, and The Badger is now feeling a bit sicker.

What makes The Badger even madder is watching the people that have left the machine like this instantly stroll over to the free weights and the mirrors – with them just happening to have taken their mobile phone out at the same time. It’s time to show everyone what a BEAST they are with a new Facebook or Instagram post. And then immediately drop the weight randomly as opposed to putting it back where they got it from.

No. That’s not how gyms work. You see, gyms are kind of like borrowing things, or indeed life. You put things back where you found them. You go to get fit, to lose that bit of belly that you’re feeling bad about, to improve your cardio or your overall health.

And The Badger is aware that it may sound a bit mean for the people genuinely trying to do that. But he encourages these people that are feeling unfit to get off their backsides, put away the Pringles and get to the magnificent gym in UCD. Just be very wary of The Badger’s set on the way out; there’s some traps left about for the selfie generation.

Head-to-Head:

sport

‘The Lions series is grossly over-hyped’ With the Lions tour coming up this summer, Conal Cahill and Niamh O’Regan debate whether it’s worth the fuss.

For

Against

Conal cahill

niamh o’regan

“Ireland’s one victory over South Africa in their summer tour this year will arguably trump any manner of Lions triumph in New Zealand.”

“This jersey isn’t made for everyone. It is earned.

Saved for the very best. No player will touch it until they are chosen. Until they have earned it. Until that moment, it is untouchable.

In five months’ time, I will name my squad.

A group of men who reach further, dig deeper, push harder. The jersey will be theirs to wear with pride…”

Five months! And that’s until he’s naming the squad!

This Oscar-worthy performance from British and Irish Lions head coach Warren Gatland came as part of a promotional video ahead of the release of their official jersey in November (theme: ‘The Untouchable Jersey’). The jersey, when finally ‘released’, looked much the same as it always does.

It was red, for example.

Admittedly there wasn’t a big public song and dance about the big jersey ‘reveal’. Nonetheless it is just part of the over-hyping of an institution that - while undoubtedly entertaining - can never mean anywhere near as much to us as watching our province or country play.

Last March -- over fourteen months before the 2017 Lions tour to New Zealand is due to begin -Stephen Jones, this country’s least favourite rugby pundit, was selecting his ‘as it stands’ Lions squad.

Jones had another crack at it three months later, before going at it again in September. Three times in seven months, a year before the tour starts, one of rugby’s leading writers - in a Sunday paper, too, so arguably with more choice of ‘content’ - tries to figure out who will be on the plane.

Mercifully most publications waited until after the Autumn internationals before piecing together their own squads, but why even then? Perhaps the reality is that articles about prospective future squads always go down well with readers.

Whatever sport is the subject of such debate - whether it is GAA, soccer, rugby or otherwise there is always a fascination with trying to second guess a manager as to what their squad selection will be, an enjoyable “I told you so” moment with mates if your own selection proves correct over theirs.

So when the Sunday Times or the Telegraph announce their ‘Lions for 2017’ they do so more to tap into this common fascination rather than out of any sense of urgency or real importance.

Among those to criticise the Lions tour in its current format are Saracens head coach Mark

McCall and Wasps director of rugby Dai Young, both unhappy with the insane demands the tour places on players (who are already broken from a hard season of club and international rugby). This is coupled with the fact that clubs are left to patch players back up upon their return from Lions duty.

Players, however, are likely to continue voicing their approval for the tour. Why wouldn’t they? As well as a tasty £70,000 (before bonuses) that each will reportedly receive for taking part in the tour, it is undoubtedly a huge honour to be picked as a Lion; it is a title of great prestige.

The tour offers players the chance to learn from and get to know players from other countries - what makes them tick, how they prepare for matches and each Lions campaign always sees the springing up of friendships between players who had only ever been foes.

On top of all that, any player who makes it into the Lions squad is by definition an incredible competitor, one who will relish the opportunity to compete at the very highest level against the best opposition available. At the moment, that’s a spot on the Lions team to play New Zealand.

But that’s all for the players. All those brilliant prizes are up for grabs for Johnny Sexton, Leigh Halfpenny, even Dylan Hartley if he behaves himself in the Six Nations. But can those of us outside the white lines really find enough to get excited about that justifies the months of build-up?

Yes, the Lions tours can be brilliant to watch - who can forget the drama in Pretoria in 2009 - but any enjoyment from victory can never match what most of us feel when our country win.

Ireland’s one victory over South Africa in their summer tour this year will arguably trump any manner of Lions triumph in New Zealand this summer (even a series win). Most of us cheer on the Lions firstly because of the Irish representatives, secondly because of a desire to see big Southern Hemisphere sides beaten and thirdly, perhaps (at a stretch), out of some strange Anglo/Celtic bond that develops around Lions time (probably more because of the ‘us and them’ dynamic than anything else).

It isn’t the same fiery passion that grips us during the Six Nations and most of us won’t be getting the same knot in our stomach in the weeks before the Lions tour as we have now in the run-up to Ireland’s

Is the Lions series hyped? Yes. Is it over hyped?

Not at all. Every competition has a certain element of hype to it, that’s what builds the excitement.

Over hyping is making something out to be bigger and better than it really is, for it to end in disappointment - something which is unlikely to apply to the 2017 Lions tour, considering the calibre of the players on offer. Late November may appear to be a bit soon to discuss a competition that doesn’t start until the summer, but there are multiple considerations.

Although the first match is on the 3rd of June there’s training beforehand, and not long before the selection is the Six Nations. There are normally around 37 places on the squad. Those places will be filled from a pool of approximately 165 players.

On top of that there’s the 22 men chosen for each of the matches, and each of the many potential combinations needs to work as well as each other for optimum consistent performance.

It’s perfectly natural that this lends itself to discussion for a lengthy period of time.

Earlier in the season is also an opportune period to discuss players because of two potential issues: injuries to big players and the emergence of new talent. Which players might unexpectedly stake a claim to be in Warren Gatland’s squad? How will the Lions deal with injuries to certain key figures? These are all pertinent questions that lend themselves to discussion ahead of the Six Nations.

Johnny Sexton and George North, for instance, are great players, but have proven susceptible to head injuries. With ten matches being played over the course of five weeks in the Lions series (though teams will obviously be altered), choosing a player not only comes down to their strength, skill and stamina, but also on their ability to withstand and survive Kiwi ferocity. Discussing player selection early cannot be merely reduced to a hype build, it’s good management and good planning.

Media pundits are not the only ones discussing who might make the team, the same discussion happens in pubs and living rooms around the four nations involved. The fact that seven months out from the competition there was discussion about which players might be selected is testament to its popularity and tenure. Fans know the competition is coming, they want to know who it is that will be competing.

Thousands follow the tour and travel to the Southern Hemisphere. To suggest that there aren’t fans of the Lions is ludicrous: without fans (such as the forty thousand who travelled to Australia in 2013) the series couldn’t survive. Is the series as important to them as the Six Nations? No, probably and understandably not, but that doesn’t mean it’s not important. It’s not your national team or your club playing, but the Lions will perhaps include players from both, and fans want to support them.

And of course fans want to see their favourite players stick it to the opposition - but, when it boils down to it, it is the overall team that you want to see triumph.

If that were not the case, the Lions as a spectacle would consist of people screaming at the telly, demanding two men do all the work.

Moreover, when the opposition faced is the might of Southern Hemisphere countries - with (despite certain events in Chicago last year) their grip on rugby union as tight as ever - the desire to win grows stronger still.

One of the most successful and memorable tours was the 1974 tour in South Africa, the Lions winning all three matches against their hosts.

While great rugby was played (or so us young ones are told), the overarching memory associated with the tour is the “99 call” (this was a tactic set out by captain Willie John McBride to avoid intimidation of the Lions by the Springboks. If a Lion got into a scuffle, McBride would yell “99!” and every Lion would run in to support their colleague).

In 1974 a try was also worth four points, you couldn’t lift in the line-out and concussion assessment was barely a concept, let alone a rule.

The point is that yes, rugby has changed. It has developed, like almost all sports do. There is no denying that the Lions are a commercial success, they are undoubtedly a mega brand, but that doesn’t mean the tour has lost the excitement it had back in 1974.

The Lions won their 2013 tour in Australia (2-1). If the Autumn Internationals are anything to go by, New Zealand will have a strong side but not an impenetrable one. Indeed, a side that could certainly be penetrated by a Lions team, agonisingly chosen many months in advance. It’s a fascinating prospect; some might even say it will be worth the hype.

“This is coupled with the fact that clubs are left to patch players back up upon their return from Lions duty.”

January 24th 2017 19

Sport Is There A Point to Pre-Season GAA Tournaments?

After seeing UCD defeat the Dubs in Parnell Park, David Kent found himself debating whether it was worth it.

WE hear all of the arguments in September when Dublin get to the All-Ireland semi-finals or further. The ‘diehard’ fans aren’t able to get their hands onto the precious tickets because of the supposed bandwagon getting there ahead of them. The big argument you always hear is that ‘they weren’t there in January’. But is there a good reason to show up to Parnell Park, or Tralee in the winter months? Are they that important?

The managers of the major GAA counties certainly don’t care that much about them. That’s not just a generalisation. It’s not even a harsh statement. The signs are everywhere.

Let’s take the Dubs as an example again. They were beaten by UCD in the second game of their O’Byrne Cup campaign. That’s a brilliant result, UCD are the first team to beat Dublin since Longford at the same stage last year, the back-toback All-Ireland champions. Wait, no. The All-

Ireland winning Dublin squad were on holiday at the time. Jim Gavin wasn’t even at Parnell Park, instead deputising the role of manager to Paul Clarke.

“No one cares about the pre-season in the GAA.” So it’s evident that the managers don’t really consider the pre-season important. We can even see that from the team selections of most of the ‘bigger’ GAA counties. Be very surprised if you see half of the starting Mayo squad in their FBD League campaign still around when they inevitably win Connacht to get to the All-Ireland quarters.

And as for the smaller counties, if you’re from Leitrim or Carlow, the chances are you’re going to play a quarter of your season in the space of

two weeks, unless you pull out a miracle in the provincial championships. Good luck with that.

Now let’s look at the players. We’ve seen the issue of player burnout come up a lot recently, particularly for the younger players that have to deal with college tournaments, under-21 championships and then whatever comes up with their county. So much so that the historic Club Players Association has been formed in order to try and protect them (well, the gaelic football players at least).

If you’re at the top level of inter-county football, your season is probably going to last nine months from January. Particularly if you play for a decent club side as well.

A club might have several months gap between one championship game and the next, with players not knowing when they might be able to go away on holiday or take breaks - and the elongated inter-county season is arguably much to blame for this.

Anyone who saw the ridiculous ‘contract’ put forward by St. Brigid’s in Dublin is aware of this.

And they’re a relatively successful club in a successful county. It’s the stuff of wonder for the likes of Ratoath in Meath or Carbery Rangers in Cork.

And as for players taking the competition seriously, there was one county playing against

PHOTO CREDIT: MARTIN HEALY

“If you’re at the top level of inter-county football, your season is probably going to last nine months from January.” a collegiate side. A player had been named at full-back for the county, but had elected to play for the collegiate side instead. You would imagine that the county manager would be informed of this decision – he didn’t find out until the afternoon of the game.

UCD Bowl

The managers don’t seem to care, the players don’t seem to care. So why should fans? True, there has been a swell in attendance, particularly in Ulster for the McKenna Cup, with regular crowds of 4,000+ watching the various matches.

These crowds have been reflected in some parts of Leinster for the O’Byrne Cup. But of course they’ll be the ‘them vs us’ argument when it comes to getting tickets for the big games later in the year. These fans that show up

“Why risk illness to watch players you’ll forget about in four months?” to watch the likes of Armagh vs Down in a dead rubber McKenna game will probably get their hands on some.

Consider the timing of these matches, often on a Tuesday or Wednesday night in a freezing cold stadium in the middle of January. Why would you want to go out and watch a match when you could stay at home with a warm cup of soup, or even down the pub? Why risk getting an illness to watch players you’ll forget about in four months?

I can barely remember the last major star to come out of January football.

Tyrone beat Donegal by twenty points in their group game in Ulster. But were people rejoicing and jumping around like they would do so if they managed to do in the Championship? No. Because no one cares about the pre-season in the GAA. Rory Gallagher wasn’t on the sideline for Donegal, his side were mostly under 21. The match report from Tyrone GAA’s official site consisted of two three line paragraphs and about eight photos.

If you went to a pre-season GAA match, fair play to you. You’re brave, but you might just be stupid.

And this is just the football competitions. We could be here all day if we included the hurling.

The Five Weirdest January Transfers With the football season at the halfway stage, it’s time for the clubs of the Premier League to get out the chequebooks. Ian Moore takes a look back at the strangest January moves.

YOU would be easily forgiven for thinking that the silly season was well and truly behind us for another year but as anyone with a passing interest in the beautiful game knows, the juggernaut that is the January transfer window will continue the frivolity right into the new year.

Propelled by a perfected storm of wantaway stars, opportunistic agents, and perturbed managers; the January transfer window has given us inflated transfer fees, panic buys and occasionally the player that can salvage a season. With its pot-luck nature, there is no surprise that the window has given us it’s fair share of surprises so here are a few of the deals that have raised eyebrows over the last few seasons.

Andy Kellett – Bolton to Man Utd (Loan) It’s not every day one of football’s superclubs comes calling for the services of a youngster with only a handful of appearances for a struggling second tier side to his name. But with the Red Devil’s Under-21 side threadbare in defence local lad Kellett was brought in for cover on Deadline Day in 2015.

As the all too familiar yellow ticker announced the story on Sky Sports News there was no melee of delinquent supporters in wait at Old Trafford or Carrington, in fact Kellett himself struggled to wrap his head around the switch, fully convinced that he was on the receiving end of a wind-up from then Trotters boss Neil Lennon.

Unsurprisingly, Kellett never featured in a first-team game for United and after returning to his parent club he soon moved on to Wigan where he has featured sparingly since.

20 January 24th 2017

Andy Carroll – Newcastle to Liverpool (£35 Million) Deadline Day in 2011 was a godsend for Sky Sports. It elevated the tickered televised event to the status of cultural phenomena and will be best remembered for the almost instantaneous stagnation of its two marquee signings.

Fernando Torres had left Anfield for Chelsea in a £50m move and Liverpool decided to make his replacement (a player with one full Premier League campaign to his name) the most expensive British player of all-time in a move that has become a byword for all the excesses of the January transfer window.

Multiple bids were made, Carroll suggested he was “forced out” of his boyhood club and then he goes and hands in a transfer request, and finally Kenny Dalglish’s fax machine coughed and just like that Andy Carroll became the eighth most expensive player of all-time right before our very eyes.

Stephen Caulker – QPR to Liverpool (Loan) There is no doubt that Jürgen Klopp is one of the foremost tacticians in the modern game but many scratched their heads when the bespectacled maestro brought in the former Spurs centre-half to sure up the Red’s injury ravaged defence after Caulker was essentially anonymous in a similar spell with Southampton earlier that season.

In a strange development, the one cap England man never featured in the very defence he was intended to slot into. In fact, Caulker appeared as a “striker” in all three of his Premier League appearances where unsurprisingly he failed to score and didn’t feature again after February and

returned to Loftus Road, presumably wondering like the rest of us what had just happened?

Cohen Bramell - Hednesford to Arsenal (£40,000) Arsenal’s first (and likely only) foray into this edition of this January transfer window has all the hallmarks of an Arsene Wenger scheme, a mesh of youthful obscurity and penny pinching will leave a certain section of Arsenal supporters shaking their heads.

It’s safe to say virtually no one saw this one coming, let alone actually knew much about the 20-year-old left-back who combined lining out in the seventh tier of English football with working in a Crewe car factory, from which he was made redundant days before joining the Gunners on trial.

While it is clear from Bramell’s highlights reel that he is a cut above what the Evo-Stik NPL has to offer, only time will tell if he will emerge from

Andy Carroll

obscurity and join Tony Cascarino’s “sold for a bag of tracksuits” in the pantheon of non-league transfers.

Julian Faubert – West Ham to Real Madrid (Loan) With their pedigree as a financial powerhouse it’s hard to imagine Los Blancos ever requiring the services of a middling right-back from the wrong end of the Premier League. Nonetheless, it appeared that is exactly what Juande Ramos had in mind when he brought Faubert to the Bernabau.

The highlights of his time in Madrid included giving himself the day off training and falling asleep on the bench during a game against Villarreal and actually managing to get on the pitch twice. Abundantly clear that he wasn’t cut out to be a Galactico, the Frenchman returned to a West Ham side facing a season in the Championship, a level much better suited to his skills.