Volume XX – Broadsheet – Issue 3

The University Observer

Jealousy

Religion on campus

Girls on film

Science assesses the intricacies of jealousy

Investigating religion’s role in students’ lives

the Bechdel test & Gender imbalance in Hollywood

Grace Yu P12

Fionnán Long p8

Ruth Murphy P5

uo 15/10/2013 Volume XX issue iII

above: trad soc raising money for trocairé in the student centre photo: conor O’Toole

Israel condemns ‘total ignorance’ of UCD SWP

martin freeman Steven Balbirnie talks exclusively to John ‘Bilbo’ Watson

Steven Balbirnie otwo p12

» Israel claims SWP have no moral credibility » UCD SWP refuses to back down kevin beirne editor The Embassy of Israel in Ireland has condemned the UCD Socialists Workers Party (UCD SWP) for their stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Freddie Hoskin, Auditor of UCD SWP, has stated, “We don’t believe, philosophically, that the Israeli state should exist.”

In response to Hoskin’s comments, Derek O’Flynn, press officer for the Embassy of Israel, says, “Mr. Hoskin is an adherent of an ideology that murdered a hundred million people in the 20th century, so he has no credibility taking a supposedly moral stance on this or any other issue.”

The Embassy of Israel in Ireland on the ucd swp auditor

mr Hoskin is an adherent of an ideology that murdered a hundred million people in the 20th century

Concerns were originally brought to the University Observer in relation to the UCD SWP’s stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In particular, it was questioned why an official UCD society would have a position on such an issue.

UCD SWP have long been opposed to the Israeli state, instead promoting a single Palestinian state in the area, a view that reflects the views of the SWP on a national level.

Speaking to the University Observer, Richard Boyd-Barrett, a TD for Dún Laoghaire who has close ties to the SWP, called the statement from the Israeli Embassy “truly despicable, dishonest and, frankly, slanderous.”

Boyd-Barrett, a member of the People Before Profit/United Left Alliance, went on to say, “It is stock-in-trade for the Israeli Embassy to make such disgraceful allegations. They know how dishonest such allegations are.”

Hoskin claims, and Boyd-Barrett agrees, that the best solution to the conflict would be a single state, a solution that O’Flynn believes “would be a catastrophe… and the likely outcome would be another genocide of the Jewish people.”

He also claims that “what [Hoskin] says betrays a total ignorance of Zionism and the history of the Middle East.

‘Palestine’ was never a nation in the European sense, merely a geographical entity.”

This is not the first time that UCD SWP have upset the Israeli Embassy, as they have been known to host ‘die-ins’ outside the embassy on Pembroke Street to protest the occupation of what they see as Palestine.

Hoskin explains, “It’s simply the view that the area is Palestine, not Israel, and it’s the Palestinians who have a right to the area.”

UCD Pro-Choice Society appeal for recognition UCD Pro-Choice Society Auditor, Suzanne Lee, has told the University Observer that the society will renew their efforts to gain recognition as an official society in the coming weeks.

The process of gaining recognition for a society in UCD requires a proposal to be presented to the Societies Council Board, following which a decision will be made on the creation of the society outlined.

The Life Society UCD is an officially recognised society in UCD and represents the pro-life view of students. Their aims state that they intend “to promote the dignity of human life from conception to natural death, through reasonable and informed

» UCD has had a Pro-Life Society since 1983 » Application for recognition of Pro-Choice Society made October 2013

discussion on the issues of abortion and euthanasia at our university.”

On October 1st and 2nd, UCD students voted in the UCD Students’ Union (UCDSU) Abortion Policy preferendum and elected to adopt Option B, which stated that “UCDSU should adopt a policy of legalising abortion in Ireland upon request of the woman,” as official policy of UCDSU. Lee feels that this preferendum highlights that UCD student’s opinions on abortion now lean predominantly towards a pro-choice viewpoint and that the pro-life ideology doesn’t resonate with students to the same effect.

Speaking to the University Observer, Lee was adamant that the UCD ProChoice Society deserves official

recognition. “UCD has a pro-life society and with the fact that 8% of the students in this preferendum voted pro-life it seems weird that we can have a society that represents 8% of students, but not 45% of students [who voted for Option B].”

Lee continued to describe the convoluted process that is preventing the UCD Pro-Choice Society gaining recognition from the Societies Council. “Well, we applied for society recognition last October. At the start of it all, I would go in every few weeks and say, ‘When are they going to meet?’ and was always told it would be the next few weeks.

“Just before the exams [in May] I got a phone call to say you will be a getting another phone call very soon

In response to this, O’Flynn calls Judaism more than a religion, saying it is “a national identity” of the Jewish people, a claim with which Boyd-Barrett takes exception.

“For them to equate Judaism with Zionism, which is a political philosophy that was developed in the late 19th century, is, again, utterly dishonest. The Israeli Embassy are well-aware that there are many, many Jewish people around the world who oppose the Israeli state.”

Both he and Hoskin are keen to dispute any claims of anti-Semitism, with Boyd-Barrett accusing Israel of hiding behind such claims as “a way of justifying the apartheid policies of the Israeli state.”

Newton Faulkner Otwo talks to Newton Faulkner about wristing it all for his fans

Jack Walsh Otwo P16

Additional reporting

by Declan Moran

Preppy fashion Killian Woods deputy editor

because were going to meet and nothing came of that. I guess this semester, with time being taken up with the referendum, it is my plan to go in this week and see what is happening.”

At the time of going to print, UCD Societies were unavailable for comment.

NUI Galway and NUI Maynooth are two Irish universities that have recognised pro-choice societies in place that campaign on the issue of women’s rights in relation to abortion.

Last year, however, the Central Societies Committee in Trinity College Dublin, refused appeals to create both pro-choice and pro-life societies, citing that “there is an inability for such to exist beyond a limited period of time surrounding national debates on the issue.”

ucd weather

Fail to preppy, prep to fail Emily Mullen Otwo P20

Spirited away

the Ghost is clear for the world Ghost Convention Otwo P22 by cathal nolan

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

Rain Spreading

Overcast, Wet

Sunshine & Showers

Heavy Showers

Sunshine & Showers

Sunshine & Showers october 15th 2013

2

News

News TCDSU President pressed to resign in Brief Yvanne Kennedy

Rebecca Hart

Economic Development workshop held on UCD campus Professor Guo Xibao of the Centre for Economic Development Research of Wuhan University (WHU) visited UCD on the 8th of October to discuss the success of the Chinese economy.

The College of Human Sciences welcomed students from all areas of campus to the Global Lounge to hear Professor Chuseng Ye explaining the poverty trap in rural China and the threshold effects of social capital affecting household welfare.

The two visitors from WHU were joined by Professor Ron Davies and Professor Patrick Paul Walsh of UCD to talk about the protection of government procurement auction and how we can use efficiency to build equity in the case of social protection respectively.

The workshop on economic development was planned with the aim of working on a research programme between UCD and Wuhan University in the coming years.

UCD moves up 26 places in university rankings University College Dublin (UCD) has climbed 26 places from 187 to 161 in the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings.

Trinity College Dublin (TCD) fell 19 places in the same rankings.

Thirteen indicators, covering five areas, are used to produce a ranking of the top higher education institutions. The key areas are teaching, research, citations, knowledge transfer and international outlook.

The main areas UCD improved upon were publications per academic, citation impact and international coauthorship. UCD President, Dr. Hugh Brady said, “UCD’s climb in the THE rankings is a great credit to our staff who, despite cuts in state income, have worked tirelessly to maintain the high quality experience offered to our students and sustain our world-class research programmes.”

If UCD is to continue to compete with best universities in the world, Brady says it will have to be stressed to “all with a stake in the future of the university, that the State is becoming a minority funder” for the institution.

According to Brady, “[UCD] cannot compete with both hands tied behind its back” as he believes it currently is and that State command of higher education does not work in Ireland, as it has not done in any other country.

NovaUCD project raises $10 million in funding A new cloud-based service provider, associated with collecting and analysing online data, has raised $10 million in SeriesA financing. The service, known as Logentries, has also named Andrew Burton as President and CEO. Polaris Partners, RRE ventures, Floodgate and Frontline Ventures led the financing, with Floodgate being the newest member of the investing team. Each of the other firms provided $1 million in 2012 as seed money and Logentries plan to use the funds to speed up the product development process.

Logentries, co-founded by Dr. Trevor Parsons and Dr. Villiam Holub in 2010, currently serves over 10,000 users in more than 100 countries. This graduate company of NovaUCD was the overall winner of the NovaUCD Start-Up Company of the Year award.

Their goal is to “harness the power of log data and make it accessible to anyone” according to Burton. They focus on finding and extracting the individual events that matter most.

Logentries has been built on decades of advanced academic research in collaboration with IBM and has already reached the global market.

october 15th 2013

A campaign has been initiated in Trinity College Dublin (TCD) calling for the resignation of TCD Students’ Union President Tom Lenihan.

Lenihan, the son of the late former Minister for Finance, Brian Lenihan, was found to have cheated in an exam in May. This then led to calls for him to step aside soon after his election.

The campaign is being steered Eoin Silke, a former LGBT Rights Officer of TCDSU. Speaking to the Sunday Independent, Silke’s said,

Sebastien Junger was in UCD as part of the ‘8x8 Film Festival’, organised by Suas.

His film Which Way Is the Front Line From Here about the life of Tim Hetherington's life was shown in Film Base as part of the festival

“In the simplest terms, I don’t believe that someone who has cheated in an exam should represent students as president of their union.”

Lenihan’s recent interviews in relation to his struggles with depression and the circumstances leading to his cheating, coupled with the beginning of the academic year, have been attributed to the reignition of the campaign that began during the summer break.

In response to calls that he is being “insensitive” to the troubles faced by Lenihan in the wake of his diagnosis,

Silke says he “sympathises fully with Tom’s mental health issues” but noted that Lenihan himself recognised that they did “not excuse” his actions.

A motion is yet to be passed by TCDSU Student Council in relation to this issue and Silke will need 500 student signatures in order to have a referendum called on the matter.

Silke’s concern is that, where Lenihan was elected before the controversy arose, there can be doubt as to whether he retains the support that put him in the position in the first place.

Lenihan does not believe that his position has been compromised in the eyes of students and agreed that what he did was “wholly wrong and unacceptable.” In a recent article that featured in the University Times in support of Lenihan retaining his office, it was suggested that “if [he] is successfully impeached, it will send out a clear message to those with mental illness that we don’t trust them to hold a sabbatical office,” though Silke himself said the issues gave “context” to his cheating.

A recent study conducted in Ire-

land, Germany, Portugal and Hungary as part of a European collaborative suicide-prevention project highlighted that one in three people in Ireland would not vote for a politician if they knew they had been depressed.

The research contained in the survey titled “Optimising Suicide Prevention Programmes and their Implementation in Europe” indicated that, while attitudes towards mental health have improved in recent years, significant numbers still do not feel as comfortable with those with mental health problems.

Journalists don’t tell you what to think.

Journalists tell you what to think about

photo James Brady

USI make pre-budget submission to government Lucy Ryan In pre-budget statements made last week, the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) has attempted to warn TDs about future cuts to the already dwindling student maintenance grant.

USI President Joe O’Connor said, “If one in every hundred students drop-out of college as a result of cut to the maintenance grant that could result in €6 million per year in dole payments.”

The primary focus of the submission revolved around preserving the grant at all costs in order to safeguard already financially vulnerable students. Since 2008,

third-level funding from the government has been reduced by 25%.

The briefing outlined the priorities students placed on specific aspects of their expenditure, coinciding with proposed measures to tackle the health and welfare requirements of young people nationwide. It demands that decisions made in Budget 2014 uphold the fundamental principle of equality of educational access.

They also asked the government to guarantee that the grant will not be depleted in rate, threshold, or eligibility as it has been for the past four years.

USI have said that if these

conditions are met, the opportunities and employment prospects are limitless for graduates on completion of their studies. They argue that a cut to the grant will inevitably weaken access and retention to university level countrywide and create a domino effect of drop-outs.

The Union acknowledges that “the grant system is not perfect, but it is the main support we provide to ensure equality of access to third level; to get people into college that otherwise wouldn’t have a chance.”

As Minister for Education, Ruairi Quinn, announced that the planning to increase the Student Contribution

Charge to €3,000 by 2015 had begun, USI requested that a study be conducted on the financial and mental impact of the incremental increases on students and families and for the Minister to consider a timeline for “post-recessionary row backs.”

Quinn has said that “it is clear that we have to proceed over the next few years within a very constrained funding environment.” USI has also stressed the continual support necessary for active mature student participation in Higher Education.

They have condemned changes to the Back to Education Allowance, the support system for mature

students and have pushed for a fairer postgraduate loan scheme.

Last year, 76,600 students were supported by the student grant scheme, 38% of all full-time students. USI caution that if the government continues down this education austerity path, it will face the anger of students.

According to O’Connor, the government faces an ultimatum. “[The government] can either cut the student grant, which will cost millions and hurt families in the short-term, or it can protect the most vulnerable students and ensure they are supported through third-level and into employment.”

Students protest expansion of JobBridge scheme Sinead Conroy Socialist MEP Paul Murphy has described the extension of the government’s JobBridge scheme as “super-exploitation” of workers, claiming that the scheme should be phased out altogether as it “normalises people working for free.”

Murphy was speaking as students took to the city centre streets on the 5th of October to protest against the expansion of the scheme by Minister for Social Protection, Joan Burton.

The protestors, consisting mainly of student union groups, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) Youth, the Union of Students in Ire-

land (USI), and UNITE Youth voiced their frustration at the Minister’s decision to extend the length of time a worker can remain on an internship from 9 months to 18 months.

The organisers of the ScamBridge. ie, a campaign focused on exposing the JobBridge scheme, were also present in support.

JobBridge started in July 2011, with the Department of Social Justice describing the programme as an opportunity for unemployed young people to up-skill in order to be desired candidates for future permanent positions of work. A system

of monitoring was to be introduced in order to ensure interns were not being exploited and were gaining valuable skills and experience.

According to Murphy there is not enough man power or money to ensure the positions are monitored.

He claims that you can “look at any of the jobs on any given day and see that they aren’t really internships.”

UCD Students’ Union (UCDSU) President, Micheal Gallagher said, “The JobBridge scheme is something that may have been abused by certain employers in the scheme. UCDSU believes that the scheme is something

that must be closely scrutinised so as that there are not internships that are simply doing menial unskilled work without training.”

Since the scheme became effective, 5,000 people previously unemployed for more than three months were given internships of either six or nine months. The aim of the scheme was to assist in breaking the cycle where jobseekers are unable to get a job without experience.

Participants on the scheme could continue to claim their unemployment benefits and would receive a €50 upskilling bonus in addition .

Minister Burton hailed the project as “a job interview for a longer period of employment,” hoping that “some employers who, through JobBridge, find talented and motivated interns can make the decision to offer employment to their intern.”

The recent protest and emergence of anti-JobBridge websites highlights the growing discontent among many at what they see as the failures of the scheme.

Still, Gallagher adds that, “If the extension of the scheme is structured and monitored that there’s real opportunity to have a job at the end of it, then that’s something that UCDSU is in favour of.”

Economic Forum recommend reform of Irish ITs Gráinne Loughran The Global Irish Economic Forum brought Irish universities onto the agenda last week as the Chairman and CEO of Glen Dimplex announced that he believes there is a “need to pick the winners and the losers” of Ireland’s seven universities.

Addressing the forum in Dublin Castle, Sean O’Driscoll voiced concern that Ireland has too many universities and needs to formalise the role played

by Institutes of Technology (IT).

O’Driscoll went on to say that the role of Institutes of Technology also needs to be reformed, with a

more substantial distinction made between ITs and universities in their manners of teaching. He said that “we need to redefine the role of ITs. They should not be quasiuniversities. ITs should be about apprenticeships and internships.”

In agreement with O’Driscoll was Aer Lingus Chief Executive Christoph Mueller, who claimed that Ireland looks down on Institutes of Technology as being places for people who didn’t get into university.

“We have to promote non-academic education as something equal to

academic training, if not better.”

Currently there is a gap between Institutes of Technology and universities with regard to academic training, with the seven universities responsible for 93% of doctoral candidates in Ireland, 98% of research expenditure, 99% of research contracts and grants, and 84% of research staff from 2010-2011.

The employability of graduates also came under fire. Mueller said, “We need to incentivise employers to offer apprenticeships and internships. Irish graduates are

not necessarily fit for their jobs.

There should be on-the-job training as part of academic education.”

Despite this view, according to the European Commission Study on the Efficiency and Effectiveness of Public Spending on Tertiary Education in 2009, Irish universities have the highest graduation rate in Europe and their graduates are in fact regarded as the most highly employable.

Almost 20,000 international students come to Ireland to study every year, but almost all of them leave immediately afterwards. The idea of

visa extensions was floated, which should be given to entrepreneurial students from abroad to encourage them to set up businesses here.

This year the Global Irish Economic Forum was focused on job creation, with discussions held on the domestic economy, youth unemployment, technology and public financing, as well as education, over two days.

Present at the forum was Tánaiste Eamonn Gilmore, who said that all recommendations and ideas from the event would undergo further examination by the government.

Plans for technical university announced

UCD Environment launch first campaign of year

News

3

national

News in Brief

Cian Carton Anne-Marie Stacey

Claudine Murphy

To coincide with World Food Day on the 16th of October, UCD Students’ Union (ucdSU) EnviEfforts to create the new ronmental Office will launch its south-eastern Technical University ‘Feeding the 500’ campaign with have been stepped up following the the slogan “Feeding Bellies not formal announcement by both the Bins.” The campaign is aimed at Institute of Technology Carlow raising awareness about the volume (ITC) and Waterford Institute of of food that is needlessly discarded.

Technology (WIT) of their intention World Food Day was started to to submit a detailed business plan mark the foundation of the Food for this proposed university to the and Agriculture Organisation of Higher Education Authority (HEA) the United Nations in 1945. The at the beginning of next year. theme for 2013 is Sustainable Food A key recommendation of the Systems for Security and Nutrition. programme for government is the To challenge this wastage, 500 establishment of a multi campus vegetable curries will be served technological university in the on campus to highlight how supsouth-east, and this is seen as playing posedly “misfit” vegetables are a critical role in maintaining the actually a healthy and viable infrastructure necessary to ensure sustainable economic development in this region of the country.

Following consultations with government ministers, the two institutes of technology have appointed Senior Director of Online Operations with Microsoft Ireland, Colin Browne, a graduate of both institutions, to the Project Implementation Board.

Speaking at a meeting of the board, Mr. Browne stated that he “looks forward to working to develop and implement the plan to create an enduring and important asset for the south-east.”

Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Brendan Howlin, said, “The establishment of a technological university for the south-east is a key programme for government commitment and developing a business plan to merge the existing institutes is a critical step in that direction.”

Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government, Phil Hogan, said a technological university in the region would be “critical for the economic development. I am delighted with the spirit of co-operation being shown by both institutes in working to achieve university status.”

The scale and impact of such a university would be significant, as it will become a key element of the infrastructure required to drive sustainable economic development in the region of the south-east.

Upon establishment, the new Cian Carton South-East University will be a regional multi-campus university that UCD Students’ Union (UCDSU) will operate campuses in Waterford, President, Mícheál Gallagher, atCarlow, Wexford, and Kilkenny. It tended the One Young World summit will have over 15,000 students and in Johannesburg, South Africa, produce 4,500 students per annum earlier this month as part of the Irish to meet industry and engineering delegation to the annual conferrequirements, across disciplines ence of the world’s young leaders. such as business, science, engiOne Young World was founded neering, and the humanities. in 2009 by David Jones and Kate The University will be worth an es- Robertson. It is a London-based timated €250 million to the regional charity that attempts to create positive economy, employing over 1,300 staff. change by gathering together young Its focus on research development and people from all over the world. innovation will drive the creation of The annual summit is a platform new knowledge and business in key where issues presently facing economic activities such as agriculsocieties are debated with the hope of ture and information technology, as generating solutions. The 2013 sumwell as the environmental, biological, mit saw 1,300 delegates in attendance and pharmaceutical sciences. from over 190 countries worldwide.

The multi-campus university will Events at the gathering inalso house and support up to 100 cluded keynote speeches by renowned new and emerging enterprises and plans to create strategic working partnerships with multinational and indigenous business focused on job creation activities.

The University also proposes to have a significant international element, functioning as a university of international reputation with up to 1000 international enrolments through the creation of partnerships in 35 countries.

option to students. It pointed out how students can avail of cheap, nutritious food for very low prices, which can be of assistance to those under financial difficulty.

Some of the University’s music societies will be playing live at the event, including Jazz Soc. UCDSU Enviornmental Coordinator Maria Jacob has promised a large event with a panel held on the day in the Red Room in the Student Centre from 5pm until 7pm where several guest speakers will be talking about environmental issues.

There are hopes for a live stream of the event on BelfieldFM, as well as a documentary to be compiled by the Campus Television Network (CTN).

The event marks the beginning

of UCDSU Environment campaigns for the year. The group wants to try to eradicate the current image of environmental justice as a boring and tedious ideal. They are trying to create a positive image towards both environmentalists and environmental responsibility.

The overall goal is to set up an environmental society, as currently no independent society exists to tackle these issues. Speaking about the event, Jacob said, “Last year’s environmental coordinator has done some good work on developing the documents and the office this year wants to build on that and strives to complete that process.

“The events planned by the [environmental] office this year will be such that they promote a positive opinion of envi-

ronmental responsibility and stimulate interest among the student body and in the existence of a society.”

The society would serve to represent those who want to be involved in environmental protection, but who do not necessarily have an interest in politics.

Jacob notes that UCD is not part of Green Campus, an initiative run by An Taisce to make green values part of college life, and this has contributed to a lack of environmental activism in UCD. Previous co-ordinators have also attempted to expand recycling on campus to little or no avail and campaigns have been quite invisible with low turnout at events and too much behind the scenes work.

DCU honours Northern Ireland Politicians Honorary PhDs have been awarded to both Lord David Trimble and Seamus Mallon, former First and Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland respectively. This was in acknowledgement of their role in the Northern Ireland peace process and their “courage, dedication and a lifetime of commitment to the service of others.”

The conferral, which took place in Dublin City University (DCU) coincided with the 15th Anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.

DCU President, Professor Brian MacCraith, said that, given the timing, it was “fitting that we honour these two remarkable men whose commitment to democracy over conflict and to making a difference in society is an inspiration to us all.”

The degree is the highest honour that DCU can award in recognition of exceptional individuals who have demonstrated excellence in scholarship, in their profession, in services to the arts or in outstanding services to the University.

World Space Week takes place at Trinity College Dublin

UCDSU President attends One Young World Summit entrepreneur Richard Branson, former Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, and Sir Bob Geldof, about key issues affecting young people worldwide.

One of the many examples of social businesses that have been founded by youth activists that were on display at the summit includes the Red Light campaign. This endeavour focuses on stopping modern day sex slavery and challenge the perception of human trafficking on an international scale.

Speaking about his time in South Africa, Gallagher told the University Observer about a discussion he had with a delegate from Pittsburgh, USA about initiatives relating to young men being encouraged into leadership roles.

He said that he met “a man called

in otwo Hayao Miyazaki’s final film & Local Natives

Frank Caldwell from Pittsburgh and he talked about the initiatives they’re doing in developing young men in leadership roles. I got to sit down with him afterwards about how what he’s doing is directly reflected in the My World’s ‘One Good Adult’ Survey [which highlighted] that if young people who are going through a tough time have that one good adult to talk to, their positive mental health experience is far greater.”

The issue of mental health was briefly touched on during plenary sessions on human rights within this year’s summit. Following the announcement that the 2014 summit would be held in Dublin next October, Gallagher used his opportunity to firmly put mental health on the agenda for the 2014 event

during his speech to the crowd.

He was delighted with the response, saying that his speech was “very warmly received by the summit” and that he is “looking forward to actioning that statement.”

The main theme for the Dublin showcase in 2014 is “1,000 welcomes, Cead Mile Failte,” while there will also be sessions on issues such as youth unemployment, sustainable development and environmentalism, which were touched on this year in Johannesburg.

Gallagher thinks that the decision to locate the event in Ireland will “help students and social entrepreneurs all around the country who are looking to create good social businesses.”

World Space Week, an international event to celebrate science and technology, and the contribution they have made to the advancement of humanity, took place last week on the grounds of Trinity College Dublin (TCD). This is an annual event and the theme of this year’s event was ‘Exploring Mars, Discovering Earth.’

The programme of events was of a wide range from interactive workshops and exhibits to free talks and tours that invited all members of the public to deepen their knowledge of the planet Mars.

There was a showcase of robotics research in Trinity, a 3D visualisation of Mars exhibit and a family day included in the lineup also. The family day, in particular, was a busy one, as it offered activities such as comet making workshops, a zoological museum and an interactive session with a NASA scientist.

Chairman of Discover Science & Engineering, the Irish Government’s science awareness programme, Leo Enright, interviewed Dr. Paul Byrne of TCD, who is currently working at the Carnegie Institution of Washington on NASA’s MESSENGER mission to Mercury.

Galway Pro-Choice to hold a public meeting on ‘Abortion and Austerity’ A meeting of Galway Pro-Choice will be held on the 15th of October.

There will be three main speakers at the meeting; Director of the London-based Abortion Support Network, Mara Clarke, Dr. Conor McCabe of the UCD School of Social Justice and Dr. Sinead Kennedy, a supporter of pro-choice group Action X, from NUI Maynooth.

Clarke said that although “the abortion debate has been going on for years, what seems to get lost is the real, human cost of Ireland’s abortion law. Any restriction on abortion will only ever mean that when faced with an unplanned or unwanted pregnancy, women and couples with money who want an abortion have options and women and couples without money either have babies or do dangerous and desperate things.”

Speaking on the issue of the austerity agenda on women, Dr. McCabe stated, “Cuts are a feminist issue. As more and more of the state’s revenue is diverted away from care supports and towards repayments for the bank guarantee and Troika bailout, it is women who are expected to hold Irish society together while finance does its best to rip it apart.”

october 15th 2013

4

news analysis

international

News in Brief

Reform, not Abolition, for JobBridge

With protests against the JobBridge scheme gaining momentum, Yvanne Kennedy highlights that reforming the system, and not cutting it, may be the answer

Andrew McKeown

‘Elitist Conservative’ Measures in English Universities A new report published by the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) has stated that many of England’s elite universities are reducing the number of part-time degree courses, with the hopes of attracting “high achieving full-time students.”

HEPI has stated that there is “prima facie evidence” that changes in student support and higher university tuition fees, introduced in 2012 by the coalition government, have led to a reduction in both the supply and demand for courses. This in turn has directly led to fewer parttime entrants to third level education.

The governmental White Paper (2012) claimed that up to around 175,000 part-time students could benefit from an entitlement to tuition fee loans. HEPI has argued that only a minority of part-time students were eligible for loans, and that for those who are eligible, the benefits of access to loans may be outweighed by the likely increase in fees.

The report warns of the danger that “universities will scale down what they treat as a peripheral business.

That is mature, and particularly mature part-time recruitment, to focus on their core business of teaching young students on full-time courses,” which has been condemned as elitist and conservative.

Unrest in Nigeria as Universities remain closed A strike by lecturers in Nigeria has paralysed public institutions for the past three months. As a result, many families who can afford to do so have enrolled their children in the private universities, which have remained open.

However, students studying medicine, dentistry and engineering have to wait for public universities to reopen because these applied science courses are not offered in private institutions. Most of the children of the Nigerian elite were in private universities.

A member of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), who asked not to be named due to his role in the current trade dispute said, “They don’t care if public universities are shut down. Private universities made up their mind not to allow academic staff to join unions.”

Adding to this problem is the fact that Nigeria has experienced great violence; preventing many more from attending even private university in northern Nigeria due to attacks by Boko Haram, the Islamic group fighting for the imposition of sharia law.

Agnes Okon, who has been admitted to read medicine at a public university, said that she “will wait until the strike is over.

[The] government should make more concessions so that university teachers can go back to the campuses.

I am tired of staying at home.”

JobBridge, the previously much-praised initiative from the Department of Social Protection, which aims to provide internships to those on the Live Register, has come in for a rake of criticism of late. The scheme was set up in 2011 as a means of providing vital practical work experience and workplace skills to graduates.

Critics, however, have argued that positions filled by paid workers before the project’s implementation are now being dressed-up as internships, for which a small supplement to social welfare, rather than a working wage, is being paid.

Concerns raised by the extension of these ‘internships,’ from 9 to 18 months, has brought the situation back into the spotlight, with

national student and workers’ unions calling for a reversal of these plans.

The JobBridge scheme itself, as an idea, is not at fault. In an economy where paid work is difficult to come by, the idea that assistance would be given by the government to these workers to get the experience they needed really was brilliant.

Perhaps it was a simple idea, but it is one that undoubtedly has helped a sizeable number of people.

To get experience, you need experience, and gaps in CVs have been plugged by the positions people were offered through JobBridge itself. The problem of exploitation has, however, eclipsed any positive press it has received.

It is a real and pressing issue, particularly for recent graduates

hoping to gain the experience needed to acquire a paid position, but also for those deciding to up-skill while out of work. When the option of hiring either a fullwage worker or a cut-price, but equally as suitable candidate are presented to employers, the need to cut costs and corners would seem to be too tempting to refuse.

Bar a higher level of scrutiny of the scheme by the Department of Social Protection, there may seem that there is little that can be done.

There are even difficulties with this, as the already cash-strapped department would need to assign a section of its office to this task, therefore prejudicing other vital services, or employ an inspector, or inspectors, at an additional cost.

The largest dilemma facing the scheme and the good that it is doing is the endemic lack of employment opportunities. When offered the option of receiving a moderate social welfare payment to job search day in and day out against the opportunity to gain experience, a small stipend, and potential opportunities for full-time work, the latter option can sound enticing.

The scheme came about in order to stem the growing tide of youth unemployment. Although, in some sense, it has cut certain graduates off from the prospect of work that could potentially lead to employment and has had a different, but potentially just as damaging, effect.

Some people are excluded from JobBridge due to the necessity that

Picking your battles As UCDSU adopt a policy on abortion and UCD Socialist Workers Party share their opinions on the IsraeliPalestinian conflict, Killian Woods asks if these entities should be taking these kinds of stances

Forcing students to vote students to vote on such on such an issue an issue is always is always going going to leave to leave a specific a spesubsection cific subsection of them of them left left feeling feeling underrepreundersented represented on this on matter this matter

New European Research Plans The Vilnius Declaration, aimed at integrating social sciences and humanities into societal challenges has been submitted to Lithuania’s Minister of Education and Science, Dainius Pavalkis.

This came at the conclusion of an international conference on Horizons for Social Science and Humanities.

The declaration will help with a pillar of the next European Union research programme, Horizon 2020. This will be the eighth major funding framework programme from the European Commission since 1984, and will channel €70 billion (US$95 billion) into research over the next seven years.

European Commissioner for Research and Innovation, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn said, “At its heart is the idea that we cannot build long-term sustainable growth without improving our research and innovation performance in Europe.”

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applicants must have been on the Live Register for three months prior to putting their names into the hat.

Therefore, those who are working in low-paid work unrelated to their field of expertise are excluded from the opportunities under the scheme. It may be a smaller problem, but the overall impact is the creation of a culture where a full-time job is neither desirable to possess nor possible to achieve.

Ultimately, what needs to happen is an overhaul of the system. There is the basis of a good idea in place.

If the extension of the scheme is structured and monitored, then there is a real opportunity to have a job at the end of it and prove that the system is beneficial to those struggling to apply their skills in areas of interest.

Taking a stance seems to be the new trend at the moment.

Between UCD Students’ Union (UCDSU) feeling the need to adopt a policy on a abortion and the UCD Socialist Workers Party (UCD SWP) defiantly backing their view that Palestine should be freed from Israeli oppression, UCD student organisations are putting issues that are of national and international relevance on their agenda.

The stance taken on abortion has become a popular policy adopted by many Students’ Unions (SU) nationwide, with NUI Galway SU taking a similar stance to UCDSU earlier in the year follow-

ing a similarly modelled preferendum that saw the majority of students elect for a the pro-choice policy.

Arguments have been outlined about the validity of abortion as a student issue that is worthy of the SU allocating precious time to campaign for abortion on demand in Ireland and funding such endeavours. The topic of abortion divides the Irish population into far more factions than four options on a ballot paper.

Forcing students to vote on such an issue is always going to leave a specific subsection of them left feeling underrepresented on this matter. Even if 8% of the total vote represented a pro-life view, this 8%

should be entitled to their view and a right to hold it. Now these students are a member of a union that holds a view on abortion that is exactly the opposite of their own. Your union, someone else’s voice, it seems.

The results of the election have already enticed certain students to consider their membership of UCDSU, with some even voicing their intention to disassociate themselves from their representative body.

Although this is an unprecedented situation for UCDSU, it may be some students’ only option if they want in no shape or form to be affiliated to a union that is mandated not to adhere to their personal opinion.

As mentioned previously, UCD SWP are casting their aspersions as far as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, extending an olive branch of solidarity towards the Palestinian people that is in line with their party ideology that the SWP are anti-oppression in any form. These views, which are political statements that are representative of the party itself and a bigger political plan, don’t necessarily warrant adoption by a student society.

Highlighting such an incongruity in UCD SWP’s priorities would be unfair without putting in context the rest of student related issues they campaign on. Their free education for all stance falls in line with the opinion of the majority of students who purely want

to keep their costs down and their aim to bring issues such as full LGBT* rights and homophobia to the fore are admirable, however, opinions on Israel seem quite beyond their remit.

The argument behind what battles the SU should be battling or societies should be campaigning on boil down to the merits of fighting a cause that is in one’s personal opinion worth fighting, student related or not.

Although ideology such as Freedom for Palestine, as cited in UCD SWP literature, does fall in line with the party line, students are right to question whether the society or union that they are a member of is dealing with issues majorly relevant to students.

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Girls On Film

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How many films nowadays have a realistic representation of women? Ruth Murphy looks at why a number of films don’t feature female characters

Every week new blockbusters are rolled out. Men and women file into cinemas across the world to be taken in by powerful acting, unexpected plot twists, sentimental stories and excellent special effects among other things. Often, however, we only take in certain aspects of the film subconsciously or not at all.

Was there a good soundtrack? Was the cinematography beautiful and did it match the style of the script?

Did every actor have an adequate amount of lines relevant to their role and a purpose in the movie?

Was there equal attention given to male and female characters?

In 1985, Alison Bechdel, a comic-strip writer, wrote in one of her comics, Dykes to Watch Out For, the

idea of a test to focus easily on the representation of women in films.

The Bechdel test consists of three simple questions. Firstly, does the film have at least two named women in it? If so, do they talk to each other at any point in the film? Finally, do they ever talk to each other about something other than a man? For a film to pass the test it must answer yes to all the three questions.

This seems extremely simple, but most films churned out of Hollywood each year fail the test.

Some of the surprising examples of films that failed the test are quite modern films. The Social Network is a prime example in which there are named female characters, but none of them ever talk to each other.

It is unfortunate that this error in film often goes unnoticed, not just by men, but also women.

Many women love the film Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, which failed the Bechdel test despite having two strong, named female characters

The scriptwriter Aaron Sorkin even admitted that the women in the film simply act as “prizes” for the male characters. A similar case exists in the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy. In each film, there are female characters, but none of them ever speak to each other.

Jennifer Kesler, the founder of The Hathor Legacy, a blog that focuses on highlighting the inequality of gender roles in entertainment, writes about her experience in film school at UCLA and how she was told that “the audience only [wants] white, straight male leads.”

Even when female characters are slipped into the background, their scenes are often cut out of the final film, as is the case with the female

fighter pilots who were cut out of the Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. It seems that not only is it tough to produce a film with a female lead, but even female background characters are deemed to be unnecessary.

Maybe the producers of Star Wars were given the same advice that Kesler received, that “the audience doesn’t want to listen to a bunch of women talking about whatever it is women talk about.” It is possible that this view is affected by the lack of women in screenwriting, but even so it is shocking that anyone would think of women as one-dimensional people with little to talk about.

Other films opt to portray the women in the background of their films simply as naïve, young girls who need to be saved by a brave, strong man. You may see this stereotype in most horror and science fiction films, with the few exceptions of the Scream and Alien franchises, in which women must truly fight for their cause.

This stereotype is unnecessary and adds in no way to the storyline of a film, except maybe to help a male character feel better about themselves and in turn make us feel good too. Could a male character end up with the strong, confident, woman and still be happy?

It is unfortunate that this error in film often goes unnoticed, not just by men, but also women. Many women love the film Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, which failed the Bechdel test despite having two strong, named female characters and slagging other American films which misrepresent women with the line, “Ferris Bueller, you’re my hero” being said by Bueller’s male best friend, Cameron Frye.

Never do the two female characters in this film talk to each other and one of them reaches their happiest point with the line “he’s going to marry me” and the other girl, the uptight sister only calms down when she kisses the young Charlie Sheen.

It is often all too easy to ignore the errors with films like this one.

We are too immersed in the plot to

notice the lack of female characters.

It seems we almost have to train ourselves to notice what’s missing from a film. Although the film is an iconic staple of the 1980s and is a cult classic, this doesn’t excuse its disregard for gender roles.

Maybe when writing new films, writers should give a little more depth to the female characters rather than making them simply the main character’s girlfriend or the main character’s sister.

We would think that in 2013 many of the problems of sexism in film would be fading away. It’s surprising then to see that many of the films that have passed the Bechdel test are actually not from the last 5 years. This could be because in the last 5 years more sequels have been produced than ever before, or it could be because nothing is changing in the world of Hollywood film.

Popular films such as Psycho, Juno, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Kill Bill Vol.1 and Little Miss Sunshine all pass the Bechdel test. This may be due to their niche style. Very few of these films would have been aiming to become a mainstream blockbuster and so they didn’t bother letting the words of film teachers hold them back.

Another interesting thing to note is that these films are not known as feminist statements, nor were they written purely for the female audience. They are box office successes, despite their array of female characters.

This test will not tell us what films represent women and what will not. A film may pass the test and still give a one-dimensional sexist view of women. However, this test draws our attention to the failures of Hollywood scriptwriters.

Next time you see a film, you can question the representation of female characters in the film, and be shocked when your favourite, modern, non-sexist films fail this simple test. Equality is out there, but not in Hollywood films.

Unlike Head Start, the HCZ is not a government-run organisation.

It was founded by Geoffrey Canada, who invested in schools and extra curricular activities while also addressing issues of poor parenting.

Canada hopes to create a society in which children from poorer backgrounds can claim equality in outcome as well as access. Of course, the HCZ project has not been immune to negative press.

Reports that it is too costly and its impacts too modest have been rife.

Evidently, these programs are

not perfect. They need work, but so does anything worth having. Is it not better to try and try again rather than stagnate and complain? Even though the Irish education system is often looked upon fondly by many of our overseas neighbours, if this inequality gap widens, it is doubtful as to whether that will still hold true.

Even leaving this aside, don’t we want to live in a society whereby people of all social standings can live, work, and learn together?

Education should be about expanding our horizons, not narrowing them.

Bad Education With a new report claiming that educational outcomes are decided by the time a child turns seven, Anna Carnegie investigates whether it’s the education system or deeper societal inequalities that cause some children to get left behind A recent study has shown that an adult’s educational achievement can be tracked back as far as the age of seven. Highlighted in a study commissioned by UK-based charity, Save the Children, the study found that over 80% of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds who were falling behind in school will go on to achieve poor GCSE (an equivalent to the Irish Junior Cert) results, thus damaging their chances of continuing to higher education.

This isn’t a purely British problem.

UNICEF argues that inequality is a problem for the vast majority of developed nations. In Ireland, for example, a child is 90% more likely to progress to further education if their parents are high earners.

Why is this? We don’t have problems with access to education, as the majority of our primary schools are free. State-employed teachers staff almost every school in the country, so it is unlikely to be related to the calibre of teaching.

Some commentators think the fault lies with the parents. One British head teacher stated that being on benefits has caused parents to suffer from a “lack of ambition,” which is passed on to their children.

Others believe that poorer families aren’t bothered reading to their children, and don’t seem to care about their education overall.

Such viewpoints conveniently forget a couple of vital points about the world we live in. Not all parents who fall into the low-income threshold are lounging about on the dole. Many parents work incredibly long hours in low-paid sectors in order to provide for their family. These individuals, termed “the working poor,” neither have the time nor the money to provide their children with opportunities for educational advancement.

The number of books in a home is a good indicator for future

academic achievement. Limited financial resources are likely to mean fewer books in the family home. In a society where more and more children are arriving at school hungry, can we really expect less well-off families to provide for items that, by these standards, would be deemed luxuries?

The realisation that such stark inequality exists to this day in the western world begs the question as to how far we have moved on. Yes, all children have the right to attend school. Not all children, however, have equal opportunities once they arrive.

Many of us currently in college are extremely fortunate. We were able to attend pre-school, which Nobel Prize-winning economist James Heckman showed has the effect of increasing the likelihood of graduating from secondary education by 20%. We had books to read growing up. We were able to take part in extra-curricular activities, which increase cognitive ability.

Many are not so lucky. For children who have a family member who is ill, or in need of care, it is not always possible for the focus to remain on their schoolwork.

Parents who have physical or mental health problems, conditions that disproportionally affect the poor, are far more likely to be distracted in school and unable to do homework in their home environment.

Furthermore, for parents who are not able to read or write, helping a child with their homework can prove a daunting and often impossible task. Branding parents as lazy or disinterested is not the answer. So what is?

Might it be time to follow in the footsteps of our American counterparts? They have responded to widespread educational inequality by providing initiatives whereby children from low-income families

In Ireland, for example, a child is 90% more likely to progress to further education if their parents are high earners

are provided with social, emotional and cognitive skills in order to enhance their early years and improve their readiness for school.

The Head Start program is one such project, based on the research that pre-schooling can improve a child’s chances of academic achievement. Their website features a number of success stories, with parents praising the noticeable improvements in their child’s schoolwork.

Nevertheless, the program has come under criticism, with the Washington Post claiming that, despite its modest benefits, more work is needed to make the project worthwhile. President Obama’s proposed changes to Head Start’s funding may make some impact, but for now, the efficacy of the organisation remains uncertain.

The Harlem Children’s Zone (HCZ) is another program tackling a range of issues from truancy to obesity in the poorer sectors of society. This program focuses on both increasing individual academic ability, and trying to change social factors that limit involvement in education.

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US Cruz Control With the US government currently shutdown, Emma Merrin asks why the most powerful country in the world can’t manage to keep its government open for business

The US government has been officially shut down. The US financial year ended on the 30th of September and the politicians from both chambers of congress failed to agree on a new budget. Without a budget in place, there is no legal agreement to pay non-essential federal employees. Simply put, the government cannot pay any member of the federal workforce.

This is the first shut down in 17 years. The last time this happened was in 1995-1996, under the Clinton government. That shutdown lasted 28 days. Shutdowns were a regular occurrence in the 1980s, but they only lasted for a few days at a time. In total, the American government has shutdown 17 times.

Investors believe that this particular shutdown will be relatively short.

We cannot compare this situation to other countries, as no country has a government like the US. The president submits the budget, which needs to be passed by both houses before it can be signed into law.

The problem, according to the Cook Political Report, is “205 of 435 House districts are solidly Republican, basically impossible to lose without an unexpected bribery or sexting scandal. Only 163 districts are solidly Democratic. If Democrats swept the table and won all the districts currently rated as tossups or leaning Republican, they’d win 213 seats, five short of a majority.”

This is due to the gerrymandering of districts in favour of Republicans, as well as the fact that liberals tend to cluster in dense urban areas while conservatives often live in rural areas. By comparison, the division of solid Republican to solid Democrat Senate seats is more even, and some argue that the Democrats have an advantage in the Electoral College that elects the president.

This means that it is unlikely

that a situation will ever arise where one party will ever have a majority in both houses as well as the presidency. With the Tea Party movement in the Republicans moving them even further to the right, the US continues to be polarised by its differences. With two parties in government who so fervently disagree with each other, it’s almost impossible for them to do their jobs.

Having a legislature which is willing to compromise is vital.

The Senate must approve many important presidential appointments, including cabinet officers, federal judges, department secretaries, U.S. military and naval officers, and ambassadors to foreign countries.

All legislative bills for raising revenue must originate in the House of Representatives. The president is both head of state and the federal government, but without a guaranteed majority in either of the legislative bodies he cannot make legislation.

The president can’t simply push laws through Capitol Hill. He needs the House of Representatives and the Senate to agree.

Contrary to popular belief, the issue which brought the government to standstill wasn’t just Obamacare, although the Republican dominated House of Representatives keep proposing more cuts and delays to Obama’s Affordable Healthcare Act. Republicans have been campaigning on the idea that the government is unnecessarily large for almost 40 years. This is a chance to shut down the government and hope that people look around and see, as Fox News put it, “the sky hasn’t fallen down.”

Their problem with Obamacare is not that they believe that people shouldn’t have healthcare, but that government should be limited in all aspects of people’s personal lives.

The function of the government, in their minds, should be restricted to services such as the military, law

Their problem with Obamacare is not that they believe that people shouldn’t have healthcare, but that government should be limited in all aspects of people’s personal lives

enforcement and infrastructure.

Democrats say that they believe that Republicans are being driven by the most extreme elements of their party, the right-wing Tea Party, to use the federal budget to extract concessions on healthcare that they could not win through the traditional legislative process.

The US government system is being effectively held for ransom.

The government shutdown isn’t the only problem, it is raising fears over the debt ceiling. The legal limit that the USA has on borrowing currently sits at $16.7 trillion, and it’s likely to cross that in mid-October.

The government needs to vote to extend the legal borrowing limit and if they don’t, they will run out of borrowing room and the world’s most powerful country and biggest economy will default on their debts.

The shutdown is cutting down on valuable time to fix the debt ceiling. Raising the debt ceiling involves legislation and Republicans

are again trying to link the plan to Obamacare. They are arguing that healthcare reforms are unaffordable.

Many believe that the Republicans will, eventually, have to buckle.

According to polls, most voters blame the Republicans, not the president, for the shutdown. Similarly, history shows that Republicans were blamed for the winter shutdown of 1995–1996.

No one is certain that Republicans will remain united on their insistence on healthcare concessions, especially if the shutdown lasts for some time.

When Representative Phil Gingrey of Georgia was asked whether Republicans could hold together through the end of the week, he replied, “I don’t know. I don’t know.”

In short, the shutdown is a direct result of the conflict of two different ideas, from the two different parts of the Congress, led by the two major political parties. The Democrats and the Republicans are involved in a political stalemate.

This is exacerbated by the fact that Republicans stated that their

number one priority wasn’t good governance, or any particular reform, but to stop the Democrats from winning the election.

The shutdown and the fear that the debt ceiling will not be lifted are symptoms of a bigger problem in the US; namely the ideological divide between its two main parties and a government structured so that this is almost impossible to reconcile.

Additional contributions

by Elizabeth O’Malley

The Arms Race To The Bottom With the UN inspectors in Syria and the US engaging with Iran, James Brady argues that the biggest threat is not the countries, but the proliferation of arms to militias and rebel groups There are now more people in the world that can wage an armed war, with no flag, uniform or nation tying them down.

These are the people the world should fear

Syria’s future looks bleak. The absence of any prospect of resolution to its civil war leaves it lost to the ravages of insurgency. Instability has become the norm for the region.

The Arab Spring has unearthed post-colonial dissatisfaction with former political establishments as well as the power struggle for domination in the area between Israel and Iran. Chemical weapons in Syria and Iran’s nuclear programme are often cited as the cause of instability in the region, but the true source may lie elsewhere.

After the chemical attacks on civilians in Syria around Damascus, the international community responded by means of UN inspections. There was cynicism about these actions; that intervention at this stage for the Syrian people was too little, too late.

Public comment on the issue consisted of exasperation and anger that Al-Assad could spend two years killing his own people, but it took a chemical weapons attack, the precursor to genocide, before the world reacted. october 15th 2013

China, North Korea and Iran are equally interested in extending influence as the power balance shifts east, and have therefore also taken to arming rebel groups in unstable regions.

After the outbreak of civil war, rebels obtained sophisticated weaponry from various sources, such as captured supplies and imports from foreign supporters. As members of the Syrian army defected, they took with them their military knowledge and skill. Evidence has emerged of rebels using surface-to-air missiles as well as various anti-tank missiles.

There is a real need for international involvement in bringing The situation regarding Iran and into the hands of armed militias about peace. There are now more its nuclear weapons programme has and rebel groups. These armed people in the world that can wage followed a different route. Under uprisings require not just political an armed war, with no flag, uniform the guise of the provision of energy, and social pressure, but physical or nation tying them down. These nuclear technology and expertise has pressure too. The ability to exercise are the people the world should spread into the country. UN trade this has its roots in colonialism. fear. The world should fear the men embargoes have stymied economic Colonialism largely took place who are willing to go to war for growth and development in Iran. through the use of force. Colonial nothing more than an ideology.

Assassinations, tactical airstrikes nations such as Belgium, Italy and Disarmament of Syria’s chemical and the use of the Stuxnet virus by two France had private companies weapons is of little consequence key players, the US and Israel, have supply their armies with weapons. in global politics in comparison only managed to delay Iran’s plans.

In the 1960’s, the deconstruction of to the effect that conventional Despite this, the real source of instabil- colonial empires took place under weapons could have. From a historiity in the region will continue to come the auspices of the UN. Since then, cal perspective, the most effective from less publicised and feared sources. weapon manufacturers in these terrorist campaigns were sustained Nuclear weapons require relatively countries have maintained their rela- by assault rifles and plastic exlarge amounts of finance, technology tionship with post-colonial leaders. plosive. One needn’t look further and expertise to become a credible The unstable political nature of than Northern Ireland and the threat. Iran may acquire some of the these countries, such as Libya, Mali Provisional IRA for confirmation. technology, but lacks the experienced and Sudan, has allowed for varying deInternational players now face a armed forces to sustain a war. The US grees of government breakdown, with terrible prospect. Engage with Assad and Israel, on the other hand, have factions and weapons going separate and give legitimacy to a governthe political willpower and physical directions from government rule. The ment who kills its own citizens or capability of maintaining an armed Cold War allowed Russia and America the unpalatable idea of allying with campaign for a far greater period. to engage in war by proxy, with each rebels linked to Al-Qaeda and the Throughout the conflict in Syria side arming opposing governments, Al-Nusra Front. These “ordinary” and the downfall of Muammar Gadd- rebels and various radical groups weapons were the tools for the afi, there has been an increasingly which the arming nation will call Rwandan genocide or the decadelarge amount of weaponry falling enemy, friend and terrorist as it suits. long war in Afghanistan and are

capable of ruining countries.

As finance and technology flows into Syria to both sides of the conflict, disarmament of chemical weapons is a token gesture. Iran will continue to support any regime that feels threatened by US influence.

Nuclear and chemical weapons are not affecting the power balance as much as the sustained influence that explosives and guns are having.

The death toll from the chemical weapons attack is considered to have been in the hundreds. The total from conventional weapons in the civil war is in the hundreds of thousands.

However, there are some benefits to be seen from the Syrian government’s acceptance of the UN Security Council’s demands regarding its chemical weapons.

The conditions include inspections, decommissioning of chemical weapon manufacturing-facilities, delivery systems and the destruction of any existing stockpiles.

While this provides some hope of limiting Assad’s capabilities, his conventional forces retain their strength and will continue to fight. As long as Assad continues to receive outside support, the violence will go on.

Bringing about peace in Syria and in the wider region is in the world’s interest. Disarming the conventional weapons of Syrian rebels and proAssad forces will allow refugees to return home and for the reconstruction of national infrastructure to occur.

The atrocities carried out with chemical weapons highlight the desperate and sordid nature of war.

International focus should be placed on the real origins of instability; the guns and explosives in the hands of the politically disaffected, angry man.

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Head to Head— austerity against austerity Supporting the anti-austerity side of the debate, Robert Nielsen writes that there is always another option

Whenever someone tells you there are no other options, don’t believe them. There are always other options and when people pretend otherwise it’s usually because they want to shut the debate down. So, when Michael Noonan grimly announces that we have no choice but to implement austerity, we shouldn’t blindly accept this. There is always an alternative.

Let’s take a moment to talk about the numbers. In 2009, the budget deficit was €25 billion, a figure the government declared too high and began introducing austerity. Since then roughly €25 billion has been cut from the budget, mostly in the form of spending cuts but also tax rises.

Surely that would mean that we now have a balanced budget and don’t need to cut anymore, right? Wrong. The deficit is €7 billion this year. How does that add up? Contrary to what the government implies, balancing the budget isn’t as simple as cutting the budget until the deficit shrinks away. You see policies of austerity actually make the economy worse, which in turn makes the deficit worse.

Let me explain why austerity is a false economy. Let’s say the government cuts public sector pay and thinks it has made a saving. What actually happens is that these public sector workers now have less money to spend. So let’s say they decide to spend less money on eating out.

This might sound like being sensibly frugal, but if everyone does it, then local restaurants will go out of business. Now we have more people unemployed, who now have less money to spend and so more businesses go bankrupt and so on. So austerity, far from improving poor economic position puts us into a vicious cycle of economic decline.

Worse still, the budget has not improved. So, although the government is spending less on public sector wages, it is now spending more on unemployment benefits and receiving less on taxes. In this way, budget cuts can actually make the budget deficit larger, not smaller.

For example, the €6 billion in cuts in the 2010 budget merely pushed the economy back into recession and undid most of the proposed savings. This is why austerity is self-defeating; not only does it inflict pain on the most vulnerable members of society, but it fails on its own priority of reducing the deficit.

But don’t we have to cut the budget? Isn’t it better to get the pain over and done with?

Actually, no. There are two ways to reduce the national debt. We can either implement austerity in the form of spending cuts and tax rises or we can grow the economy. For example, if the national debt is 100% of GDP and the economy grows by 10%, then the debt has fallen to 90% of GDP. The crucial point is that austerity policies prevent the economy from growing and only make the recession worse. So imagine if we cut spending by 10%, but the economy contracts by 10%, then we are no better off.

We would have suffered the pain in vain.

This is actually how most countries deal with deficits. Developed economies were heavily burdened with debt after the Second World War. At this time, instead of focusing purely on cuts and austerity to reduce the debt, they focused on growing the economy.

By delaying repayment, their economies were able to grow into a stronger position, making the debt far easier to pay.

Inflation also wore the debt down so that by the 1970s, although little of the debt had been paid back, the debt was reduced to a low percentage of GDP. This is the worst recession since the Great Depression, so it seems logical to examine

This is the worst recession since the Great Depression, so it seems logical to examine it to find solutions to our current crisis

Many will argue that we should have grown the economy in order to create more money, but this assumes that we’re a position to borrow money to invest in growth it to find solutions to our current crisis.

Back then there were problems over deficits too and many people called for austerity.

However, the countries that recovered fastest were the ones that ignored the calls for austerity and instead launched a stimulus.

By spending money, the government was able to give private businesses a boost and put people back to work. Then once the economy had recovered, government could easily pay back the debt.

It is worthwhile to examine how Ireland got out of the high debt doldrums of the 1980s. Little of this debt was paid down, instead the economy grew at such a rate that the debt seemed tiny in comparison.

In a growing economy, deficits are not the main concern. If people have jobs and a decent income, then tax revenue will be high and there will be less need for government services. Growth, not austerity, is key.

The emphasis of the three main parties on austerity cuts has been very damaging to the economy. Thanks to austerity, the economy has continued to stagnate and unemployment has remained disgracefully high.

Continuing to cut is preventing the economy from recovering and is keeping us mired in recession. Even if you put aside questions of fairness or sharing the burden equitably, the simple fact is that poorly planned cuts don’t reduce the deficit but can actually increase it. Austerity isn’t working; it is only pushing us back into recession.

rebuttal Debt is certainly a problem, but so are mass unemployment and a stagnant economy. So it becomes a question of cost. Is it worth the increase in debt to boost the economy into recovery?

If we don’t, the economy will continue to stagnate and the level of household and corporate debt will increase. There is no debt-free option. Until the economy begins to recover, debt will continue to rise.

The line that debt above 77-90% causes damage to the economy is incorrect and the research by Rogoff & Reinhert has refuted this claim. Austerity has never worked and the case of Latin America

had more to do with the rising price of raw materials than austerity, which only increased poverty and inequality.

Cutting the deficit is not like offering a sacrifice to the markets in the hopes they will be pleased. The bond markets will lend to us only if they believe we can repay our debts.

Whether or not a country can repay its debts is based primarily on the strength of the economy. So, if we want to get back into the markets, then we need a strong, growing economy. Therefore, if cuts weaken the economy, they are actually delaying our return to the market.

one of the pieces commissioned by the WPA FEDERAL ART PROJECT AFTER THE GREAT DEPRESSION

in favour of austerity Arguing in favour of austerity, Elizabeth O’Malley says that these harsh measures are the only choice Ireland has Back in November 2010 austerity was not a choice. Our government was about to run out of money. The growth only route requires the ability to borrow cheaply enough in order to be reasonably able to pay back your debts. The U.S. was able to do this because they were in a far better position than us financially.

No one but the troika (the International Monetary Fund, EU and European Central Bank) was willing to lend money to us; in return for getting enough money to stay afloat we needed to agree to austerity. How did we get to a position where no one was willing to lend to us?

Our current debt to GDP ratio is 125.1%. To put this in perspective, 77-90% is when an economy starts to get into trouble. Debt becomes a vicious cycle. It turns away foreign direct investment as companies worry that while our corporate tax is low at present, we will have to raise that tax in the future to pay creditors. This deprives Ireland of jobs, infrastructure and tax.

Debt requires our government to focus on short-term returns on investment. This is why we’re focussing on identifying and eliminating waste in the public service instead of, for example, making huge investments in the education sector that would take at least a generation to pay off.

Once your economy accumulates so much debt, there are only two possibilities. The first is to default; to not pay back our debtors or burn the bondholders. This would have been far worse than austerity.

Once a country defaults, it becomes impossible to borrow money. Defaulting also turns away foreign investment, as

companies don’t want to settle in a country where financial conditions are unstable.

In Argentina, defaulting led to a lost generation that was marked by huge unemployment, riots, and growth of inequality.

National businesses, such as Aerolíneas Argentinas, either came close to bankruptcy or became bankrupt. Those worst affected were the poor. Ireland would have fared far worse, given the open nature of our economy, which relies on trade.

Our other option was to find some way to pay for our debt. Many will argue that we should have grown the economy in order to create more money, but this assumes that we’re a position to borrow money to invest in growth. The fact that we have so much debt scares off investors because they are worried that we wouldn’t be able to pay them back.

Even if we could borrow money, it is not as simple as investing in our economy and getting growth in return. In order to create growth, you first have to provide jobs that don’t divert money from the private sector and therefore shrink another part of the economy. Secondly, it could put people off spending their money if they are afraid that the government will have to increase taxes later, or if it raises interest rates, therefore decreasing demand.

Real growth is impossible while we have huge levels of debt. As long as our debt exists, we are required to raise taxes and cut spending; putting this off only raises our levels of debt, and turns away anyone willing to lend to us. Even if the Troika was willing to lend to us regardless, the larger our debt, the higher our levels of interest and the higher our debt will be pushed up.

Has austerity worked? While our bonds are considered a high-risk investment, we are still performing better than Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain.

The ratings agencies, Moody’s, Fitch and Standard and Poor have upgraded our ratings to ‘stable’ and ‘positive’.

Despite this optimism, they warn that “faltering in Ireland’s commitment to austerity” would have a dire effect on ratings.

“Downward pressure would develop on Ireland’s government rating ... if the country’s fiscal consolidation process were to falter.”

Economist Dr. David Duffy argues, “The remaining consolidation measures should be introduced as planned. This is because uncertainty remains for domestic and international growth. Even at the end of the consolidation process, the government will still be running a deficit. In addition, there is a continued need to reduce government debt.”

The theory of austerity isn’t new.

Lowering debt levels by raising taxes and cutting spending lowered debt levels of Latin American countries during their debt crises of the 1980s, and this sparked massive GDP growth.

Our economy is growing for the third straight year, mostly driven by a growth in exports. Our unemployment levels have fallen from 15.1% to 13.3% in the last year alone, albeit partly due to emigration. Consumer sentiment has risen sharply over the last few months, meaning that there is likely to be an increase in consumer spending. The signs are good; it is just a question of sticking the course to make sure these years of hardship weren’t for nothing.

The idea that we cut spending by 10% and the economy shrinks by 10% is highly unlikely. The ratio is more likely to be 10:1. Figures like cutting our economy by €25 billion only reduced our deficit to €7 billion fail to take into account that our debt has risen due to the fact that we had to borrow and pay interest.

European countries may have been able

to outgrow their debt, but they also had the Marshall Plan providing them with money for such growth. Unfortunately there’s no Marshall Plan this time, no big supply of capital with which to invest in creating growth. In the 1980s we weren’t in as dire a position as we are now, with nowhere near the level of debt. We’re left with what we have, which is a troika demanding austerity.

rebuttal “Whenever someone tells you there is no other option, don’t believe them.” Whenever the IMF, the Central Bank, the ratings agency and a number of highly esteemed economists tell you there is no option, it is prudent to give them the benefit of the doubt. When the Labour party tells you there is no option, when they have every reason to say otherwise, they must be aware that there is no other option.

october 15th 2013

8

Features

Dwindling Economy, Bustling Nightlife As businesses close down and people become more cautious of their spending, Kelly Daly looks at how the Dublin social scene is one of few industries thriving

streets are packed, the shops that are still open have queues out the door, and taxi ranks are never busier.

The Signature representative notes, “A lot of people still go out, they might not go out as much, but they still go out. They might be more budgeted for what they do, or try and get a bigger taxi but people still go out”.”

Clubs are capitalising on a culture of drinking and partying, and don’t limit their deals and special offers to just group bookings. Enter any nightclub and you will quickly locate a specials board, advertising how many Jaeger bombs you can purchase for a €10 note that night.

These larger deals, often offering two, three, or four drinks for a set price, and encourage larger groups to make purchases together in an effort to keep the costs down. The culture of buying rounds is also making a strong comeback, with groups of friends taking turns purchasing the drinks deals and sharing them out.

Along with these drinks deals, many nightclubs run cheaplists in conjunction with Facebook, where if This premise encourages people you post a comment on the company’s to try and get a larger group of Facebook page you can receive free people together, in the hopes of or discounted entry. These posts act getting bigger and better deals. as free advertisement for nightclubs, For a bustling city centre nightclub, as friends can see who is attending a few free bottles of cheap champagne what club on any particular night. is a small price to pay for the money a Despite the discounted entry and large group of drunk college students drinks promotions, college students will spend on an average night out. still find economical ways to inGetting large numbers to attend these crease intoxication levels on a night nights out means the representaout. An employee for a city centre tives receive a small commission, nightclub commented that they feel and occasional perks, depending on “pre-drinking has taken over.” the numbers they manage to get.

Many get as drunk as possible, In fact, nightclubs seem to be the while trying to remain sober enough only organisations still thriving. Step to still be allowed into the nightclub. onto the streets of Dublin at 4am on The employee explains, “I’ve had a Friday morning, and it could pass to take drink out of girls’ handbags for a bustling Saturday afternoon. The while doing bag checks, but you

For a bustling city centre nightclub, a few free bottles of cheap champagne is a small price to pay for the money a large group of drunk college students will spend on an average night out

students enjoying the new bar on campus photo conor o’toole

Drinking is commonly portrayed as an essential part of college life.

Few television shows or movies featuring college protagonists escape the cliché of drinking and partying every night. You might think that the current generation of college students should be encountering a problem with fulfilling this stereotype, and that problem is the economic recession. But is it affecting student nightlife as much as you might think?

Every week, new themed nightclub events seems to pop up across Dublin, with the event promoted by the establishment as a unique night out where they offer the ultimate party experience. Many students will be able to list of host of nightclub

events; probably enough for each day of the week. Yet, how are they finding the money to support this drinking and partying culture?

Most college students will claim to be too broke to buy basic goods, such as their college textbooks or food to live off for the week, and yet always manage to afford at least one night out per week. Students are most definitely not getting richer. Rather, the control over student nights out is in the hands of a few big players, and this allows them to advertise and market the cheapest nights out.

Companies like the Signature Group, who represent major Dublin nightclubs like Palace, Wrights and Copper Face Jacks, can afford

to hire young college students on commission based wages to work as ‘promotional representatives’. These are the people who bombard your Facebook newsfeeds with nightclub invitations and drinks offers.

They also have the authority to offer young people deals on group entry into nightclubs, which can include anything from free entry for a limited number, to a free Bucket (A large bowl filled with vodka and energy drinks designed to be shared among a small group with straws).

“The greater the amount of people you get, the better deals you’ll get,” is how an anonymous Signature Group representative simplified the idea behind nightclub promotion.

Religion against a generation of doubt Examing the role of religion in the lives of UCD students, Fionnán Long finds that it doesn’t necessarily take a back seat

says she has not found it difficult to continue to practice religion. “In the two years that I have been in UCD, I’ve yet to come across anyone who has judged me because of my faith…

I’ve actually received a couple of encouraging and positive comments.

I’ve never been judged by anyone.”

Eamonn Barron graduated from UCD this year with an MA in Psychology. He is a student of faith, and agrees with Fr. Ó Giolláin. He says, “Some students could come to college with a somewhat strong faith; they could be practicing.”

He says that these students may find it difficult to maintain this faith. “I feel that they are coming into an environment that isn’t very faith friendly. I would say a number of them fall off.”

Nonetheless, Barron is still a Near UCD’s new multimillion person of faith. “I became more euro Science Block is a small and interested in my faith when I came understated chapel; Our Lady Seat of to college… at home I didn’t have Wisdom. Students hurrying between any peer support.” According to lectures don’t pay it much notice.

Pereira, her faith has remained This is representative of the growing strong for a number of reasons: secularisation of Irish young people.

“Religion has been a very natural A report published by the Irish part of my life… because of my Catholic Bishop conference in 2011 upbringing and because of my found that only 18.6% of Irish own personal experiences.”

Catholics between the ages of 18-24 While Barron and Pereira were attend mass weekly. Statistics like both practicing Catholics before they this are giving weight to movements came to college, students in UCD by groups such as Atheist Ireland that have also converted to Catholicism. aim to end faith formation lessons Fr. Ó Giolláin explains, “There in Irish Catholic schools. While the are students who have discovered inclusion of lessons on atheism in the faith here in Ireland and asked Irish multidenominational schools to be baptised after instruction.” has recently been announced.

He recalls a Malaysian student Through it all, this generation of who converted from a Buddhist Irish college students are leading background, and the two still keep the rising tide of scepticism and in contact. “Friendships that are religious apathy. All this has led to formed at that level of depth last.” an unstated social disapproval of Peer support is important for religious practice amongst students holding on to faith, and friendships in UCD. Religion could be described made through religion tend to last. as ‘uncool’ at the very least.

The Newman Society allows a student “The culture is not favourable of faith to find likeminded people. towards religious practice,” says “They form close, deep and lasting Fr. Leon Ó Giolláin, a Jesuit and friendships,” says Fr. Ó Giolláin. member of UCD’s chaplaincy Barron also found this to be true: team. For religious students, he “I probably made my best friends claims, “It’s more difficult… in college through the Newman They have to be courageous.”

Society. That’s not to say that my Christine Pereira, auditor of the only friends are through the NewNewman Society, UCD’s society for man Society, or share my faith.”

Catholic students, disagrees. She Pereira believes religious friend-

A report published by the Irish Catholic Bishop conference in 2011 found that only 18.6% of Irish Catholics between the ages of 18-24 attend mass weekly

october 15th 2013

ships to be so strong due to the “sense of belonging” these likeminded people share. “I think because of our faith we tend to be really genuine, quite accepting. We tend to try not to judge people usually because that is what our faith teaches us.”

The Newman Society is an active society, with at least two meetings a week during the semester. This year, around 65 students registered for the society, and in total there are more than 100 members. The Society attends inter-Christian gatherings, inter-faith gatherings, organise prayer groups, and organises discussions on topical issues.

Fr. Ó Giolláin says the Newman Society can be important to international students, “There are many foreign students who come into the country who are Catholics from Malaysia. They are minority Catholics in their own country. When they come to Ireland it’s very important for them to find the support in their faith; they find it in the Newman Society.”

Faith is a central part of a person’s life, according to Barron. “Your religion can be something very telling in your own life. It can have a decisive bearing on your own behaviour. It can be very formative and guiding”.

He is glad to be religious because it allows him to rely on the power of prayer in difficult circumstances, but he knows how strange the concept may seem to a non-religious student. “It’s something that might be very alien to some people depending on their background.”

Pereira says, “My faith has been an anchor for me. Especially during challenging times or when I’m confronted with difficult issues.

Because of my faith I know what I stand for and why I stand for those things. I feel that because of my faith I always have a place that I can go to, like someone that I can turn to.”

On weekdays, in the little chapel near the Science Block, there is a mass at lunchtime. “Anything between 20 and 40 people would be there,” says Fr. Ó Giolláin. The pews are sparsely filled. There are young faces and old. “They’re standing up against the current,” claims Fr. Ó Giolláin. “They have to be courageous.”

can tell just by looking at them that they’ve been drinking before hand.”

It makes more sense to pre-drink in the eyes of college students. You can buy a shoulder (350ml) of a cheap vodka for about €10 in any off licence, whereas €10 in an average nightclub might get you two or three shots, which measure 35.5ml each.

When it comes to nightlife in Ireland, the only places to have suffered really are the smaller nightclubs that can’t afford to have the deals and promotional team the likes of larger nightclubs have.

An employee from an Enniscorthy nightclub told of how their place of employment shut down as a result of the recession. “Some nights it was so empty we had to give the few who paid in their money back as there was just no one there.”

A lot of the people who would usually populate nightclubs like this, students and young professionals, have moved to the city centre for either for work or college. A nightclub outside the city area just doesn’t have the same pull for people.

Students just want to have fun, and large nightclub groups have turned this into their cash crop. They can afford to have a promotional team who they pay a tiny commission to.

The can also afford to throw in the occasional free drink or free entry to lure students in in their masses Are the nightclubs the winners in this situation? If anything, its students who seem to be winning.

They have nightclubs vying to offer the best deals so they’ll return again and again. The nightlife industry is one that will not slow down or stop because of a recession. Instead it allows the recession to help it evolve rapidly moving from your small local nightclub to massive chains of luxury party venues.

features

Spilt Milk

9

Closing dates are drawing to a close, meaning many final year students will be expecting a graduate placement shortly but, as Corinne Owens explains, there are many opportunities outside the milk round

spotless academic records, in-house internships, and well-rounded lists of extra-curricular activities.

According to the UCD Career Development Centre, recruiters may additionally rely on verbal, numerical, and spatial reasoning tests as well as personality profiles to distinguish potential candidates.

Ranging in fields from finance to technology, new graduates view these programmes as the promised land for solid foundational skills and an easy ladder to climb in their career.

Furthermore, in the wake of an unstable economy, the stress to achieve success during milk rounds leaves many new graduates feeling as if it will be their only alternative to the dole.

As Patrick Fitzgerald, a Law student in UCD and former chairperson for the UCD Legal Service describes, “In the climate we’re in, there is fierce competition to get a contract as part of the milk rounds, and that takes its toll. I can see that people in my class are naturally nervous. I think everyone is nervous about the situation we’re in at the moment, and that [the state of the economy] is feeding into the pressure of the milk rounds.”

That being said, does failure in milk rounds actually warrant such apprehension? Former recruiter and current master’s candidate at Trinity College, Nicolas Switalski, seems to think otherwise. Of his similar experience as an undergraduate in Paris, he says, “Some of [my classmates] got interviews, and afterwards got internships. Some never got called back, but did not despair, and even got placements in the very same companies who did not call them back.”

Switalski received a placement at his graduate-training school in Paris and eventually spent some time as a recruiter. He recognises that the candidates he met put in tremendous

While graduate programmes in the well-known companies provide glorified safety nets, they are worthless when they serve any other purpose than the pursuit of answering this question

“Why would you like to work for [Insert Employer Name Here]?”

Queues of final year students face this question as they wait for a chance to glean coveted business cards, free pens, and buzzword filled advice from ‘the ones who made it.’ In a process commonly referred to as the milk rounds, hundreds of employers visit campuses across Ireland and the UK every year to promote their graduate-training schemes.

During these tours, employers such as Morgan Stanley, ALDI, and Deloitte seek graduates who possess

Student Assistance Fund 2013-14 Applications to the Student Assistance Fund 2013-14 are available through your SIS Web account.

UCD Student Assistance Fund (SAF) is part of the Third Level Access Activity which is funded by the Irish Government and part funded by the European Social Fund (ESF) under the Human Capital Investment Operational Programme 2007-2013.

The Student Assistance Fund is a means tested fund.

Closing Date Online Closing Date: 31st October 2013 Supporting documents deadline: 29th November 2013

Address Fran Rooney Student Assistance Fund Student Centre Belfield Dublin 24 You must submit your fully completed application including relevant supporting documentation, original receipts by the 29th November. Please note incomplete applications will not be accepted. Applications will be assessed on a first come first served basis from the 1st November 2013.

Application is a three part process as outlined below:

Part 1 Read the guidelines carefully before making an application through your SIS Web account.

The guidelines can be found here: www.pleasetalk.ie/ucd/ financialassistance

Part 2 If you are eligible for the fund complete the application form on SiSweb, your SIS account under the Student Services tab. Please complete on-line application, but before pressing the tab to SUBMIT please print the application form.

amounts of work in the name of success. Many applicants, like Brian Batemen, a final year Commerce student in UCD, send out as many as five applications at one time.

Furthermore, applicants participate in endless testing and interviews to increase their placement chances.

In spite of this, Switalski immediately recalls first impressions as lasting ones. “Candidates who would stand out would be chatty, have opinions different from yours and defend them with good arguments. Or they would already think in the shoes of the recruiter by trying to understand what their prerogatives should be.”

As the UCD Career Development Centre points out, employers seek candidates who are going to “make a difference,” rather than carbon copies of the employees they already have.

Due to the hubbub, new graduates feel tremendous amounts of pressure to be the stand-out recruit. When asked to respond, however, to the question of why they want to work for the large, well-recognised companies, many offer up desires ranging from security, to having a roof over their head and a few euro in their pockets.

While these are all legitimate claims, more passionate replies could exist. More and more graduates avoid the simple truth that a secure job by September 2014 is not a guarantee for a lifetime of financial, or more importantly, personal bliss. Similarly, failure in a milk round is not condemnation to an eternity of defeat either.

In fact, numerous studies report that the average person changes careers between five and seven times as they seek fulfilling work. This research proves that new graduates entering the professional world will wander and struggle regardless of their initial experiences.

Milk round failure, then, transforms into an alluring

opportunity. New graduates without milk round offers are free to travel abroad, explore positions in smaller companies, and further their education.

A quick glance at the UCD Career Centre website demonstrates the availability of such alternatives to the milk rounds. Examples like the JET programme, where young professionals teach English in Japan, are easily discovered with a bit of research. Moreover, those without milk round prospects have time to consider a more salient question than their recruiters may pose, how do I want to make a difference?

While graduate programmes in the well-known companies provide glorified safety nets, they are worthless when they serve any other purpose than the pursuit of answering this question. Therefore, final-year students should not limit themselves to performing in hyperbolised milk rounds purely in the name of financial security, as they will quickly recognise the missing component of passion come September.

For students like Fitzgerald, exploring other avenues before entering the milk rounds allowed him to make a difference on his own terms. He believes, “While there might not be many opportunities in Ireland at the moment, there will always be work for people who are dedicated to their profession and willing to work hard.”

Milk round competitors would agree that life-ahead seems to be a grave and daunting task.

Although, with or without a job offer come December, they can find solace in the fact that the failing to secure employment during the milk round does not lead straight to the local unemployment office.

The opportunities will always be there for those who look further than right on their doorstep.

UCD Student Childcare Fund The University recognises that some students with family responsibilities, particularly in relation to childcare costs, may face significant financial difficulties.

In response to this need the University has put in place a Childcare Assistance Fund to assist those student parents most in need of financial assistance.

All expenditure through this fund is subject to stringent eligibility guidelines and audit requirements.

For further information please contact: sfs@ucd.ie, your Student Advisers, Chaplains, or SU Welfare Officer.

Part 3 Submit part 2 of your application (Hard copy of completed on-line form) together with relevant documents (income documents) and original receipts to address above.

october 15th 2013

10

Features

Voluntourism Charity is now only as worthwhile as what you get back discusses Roisin Finn, as she delves into the benefits and pitfalls of ‘voluntourism’

The public debate surrounding ‘voluntourism’ has, of late, become more prominent in the public eye and inevitably more divisive. While many people travel overseas to help those less fortunate, a small number of people are giving international voluntary work a bad name, by being more like tourists than volunteers.

While fundraising for a trip abroad, a volunteer may come across everything from the deepest of cynics to the most overwhelming optimists. A phrase which comes up all too often is, “Oh, won’t that be a lovely holiday for you.”

All volunteers, especially young students, face a moral dilemma. Are they travelling purely to volunteer, or do they have subconsciously selfish motives? Is the exotic location more attractive than the challenging work? Is overseas volunteering an ego boost, a CV-filler, a different way to spend a summer, and nothing more? On some level, there may be a little ‘voluntourist’ in everyone.

Exact statistics on international volunteering are difficult to find. Comhlámh, an organisation who provide action and education for social justice, have released statistics regarding the socio-economic impacts of volunteering. These figures appear in their latest report, ‘New evidence on overseas volunteering from Ireland and its socio economic impact in Ireland.’

According to the report, in total, volunteer sending organisations (VSA’s) placed 2,120 volunteers in placements overseas, with students making up almost 40% of the volunteers. With the percentage of young people volunteering increasing rapidly, the question looms, is this all purely driven my an unselfish want to give freely of our time? Or are the reasons we see an increase in student volunteers more complex than meets the eye?

A surprising amount of damage can be done with the very best of intentions, or rather, when good intentions are not executed in a competent manner. A misguided or underprepared volunteer can have a detrimental effect on their project in a number of ways.

Volunteers that enter communities with little or no knowledge of the local’s history, culture or lifestyle can lead to a superficial relationship that transforms the western volunteer into a saviour or caregiver, and the locals as dependent charity cases.

Certain organisations are, however, attempting to combat this stereotype.

Programme Officer in charge of Volunteer Programmes at Experiment in International Living (EIL) Intercultural Learning Ireland, Anton Kieffer says, “The approach at EIL is about giving a helping hand to local projects already in communities. Sometimes there is this vision that countries in the south need our help, however, a lot of people there are skilled, and skill sharing and intercultural learning is what we should focus on.”

Another valid argument against the industry is the fact that in some cases, international volunteers can take jobs from skilled local people, thus worsening the local economy. In such circumstances, the paying volunteers may be unwittingly usurping keen and local workers who cannot work for free, let alone provide money in order to work in the projects.

Caroline O’Connor, of UCD Volunteers Overseas (UCDVO), disagrees, “I actually think volunteers can create jobs by the nature of their placement.

For example, this year our project in Haiti created 60 jobs for the duration our volunteers were there, and with IT training in Tanzania the employability of teachers was greatly enhanced.” Although she does admit that, without a properly planned and executed project, the economy could be worsened.

Inherent in the term ‘voluntourism’ is the taking part in touristic activities and travel during your time as a volunteer. Does this lead to less commitment to the volunteer projects? O’Connor doesn’t think so: “No, absolutely not.

Volunteers are working full days, Monday to Friday in some cases, and weekends as well if a project demands that.

“I think it’s healthy and natural for people to have time out as there’s a risk of burnout. They’ve invested a massive amount of personal time, effort, and commitment throughout the year and while they’re out there. october 15th 2013

A surprising amount of damage can be done with the very best of intentions, or rather, when good intentions are not executed in a competent manner. A misguided or underprepared volunteer can have a detrimental effect on their project in a number of ways

To criticise having a day off is a cheap shot at volunteers. They’re all humans, and entitled to have a day off while on placement. The actual issue is whether the cost is covered by the organisation or individual.”

Kieffer, however, acknowledges the reality that some volunteers, who do have purely touristic and travel based motives for volunteering, can lessen their effect and contribution by spending too much time in tourist activities. “It depends on the volunteer’s personality and the projects they’re doing in one sense it can be truly obvious. I don’t like the word ‘voluntourism’; I prefer ‘volunteerism’, as programmes should be about volunteering first and foremost.”

The importance of intercultural sharing and learning in volunteer programmes cannot be denied, however, and this involves a certain degree of travel. Kieffer explains, “I’m not against intercultural and touristic components in a programme, but if a programme is presented and sold as purely touristic, it’s obvious the volunteers would be less committed.”

According to Comhlámh, overseas volunteering is akin to a full-time job during the time committed, with over 70% of VSAs estimating that their volunteers worked between 30 and 49 hours per week during their placements abroad in 2012. It’s difficult to argue that these volunteers don’t deserve time off to experience the country they’re working in.

Seasoned UCDVO volunteers Sarah Irwin, Eva Carter and Glen Daly spoke about their experiences and their thoughts on taking time off to travel the countries they were placed in.

With experience volunteering in Nicaragua and Delhi, Carter addressed the concern expressed that some volunteers cannot commit to the project due to the long distance travelling causing burnout amongst the helpers.

“Our projects are only four weeks, but you need to be high energy all the time, and need some time off, otherwise you would completely burnout. There’s no way you can work for four weeks straight and still have high energy for kids. It’s also really good for the group dynamic.”

Irwin, a fellow volunteer with experience in Nicaragua agreed, although did stress the importance of balance with regard to these activities. “You get a better picture of the culture and the country. Some volunteers from organisations go over and are flashing cash and getting drunk, which is so inappropriate and disrespectful to the culture.”

According to Daly, “In a place like Delhi, there’s so much going on. It’s such a hectic city. It’s nice to take a step back to take a tiny bit of time to re-evaluate what’s really going on and what you’re really doing.”

A massive issue surrounding voluntourism is a student’s reasons for taking part. Are we simply trying to assuage the guilt of our Western privilege? Paradoxically, that guilt seems to deepen as some volunteers realise the illusory impact of the work.

Is the developing world becoming merely a playground for idle westerners looking for a meaningful way to spend our time between education and work? In many ways it is. Volunteering abroad has become a commodity which is sold to our age bracket as a novel method of experiencing a new and exciting culture and make a difference to. Do we buy into this big business because it is sold to us as

fulfilling and exciting, as opposed to labour intensive and challenging?

Irwin agrees that volunteering is “glamourised way too much” in the way it’s advertised, however she goes on to say that “UCDVO is one of the better organisations, we are quite well prepared before we go, we learn about cultural awareness and getting across the seriousness of the situation. You’re going to teach kids, you have a responsibility you should take seriously.”

It’s the responsibility of both parties, both VSA and volunteer, to set out clear guidelines and expectations when advertising or researching placements, according to Carter.

“Both sides should know what they’re getting themselves into. It’s down to the organisation to interview people and put them through a proper application process, because it’s not fair either to send people away on a holiday when it’s really not.”

The sustainability of the overseas volunteering approach has been questioned in recent times. Would our time and energy be better spent advocating purely for IMF and World Bank reforms, and thus tackle the unjust economic order head on, instead of focusing on the surface symptoms of poverty?

While this is undeniably a worthy approach, it seems volunteers, when properly equipped and educated, can make a substantial difference in their relevant projects abroad. O’Connor gives a comprehensive overview of the contribution UCDVO make to their communities: “UCDVO projects are planned in partnerships with NGO’s in the communities and returns to the same communities each year.

“We meet with the host organisations to talk through the plans were going to implement with them. The communities have identified issues they’d like us to help with, be it developing a health centre, school, needing volunteers as teachers, an awareness campaign, IT course, literacy, whatever they’ve identified

According to the report, in total, volunteer sending organisations (VSA’s) placed 2,120 volunteers in placements overseas, with students making up almost 40% of the volunteers

as the needs of the community.”

It seems that the success of voluntourism depends largely on the mentality of the volunteer and the quality of the VSA. Both Kieffer and O’Connor stressed the importance of choosing the correct organisation to travel with.

The principle piece of advice Kieffer would give to a budding volunteer is to thoroughly research the VSA you have chosen, and above all else, ensure that they abide by the Comhlámh Code of Good Practice. “There is a high risk that volunteering can have a negative impact which is why EIL and other VSA’s devote so much time to developing a good practice, because we feel if the volunteer is prepared and supported sufficiently, they can have a very beneficial effect on communities.”

The debate surrounding this industry can be largely one-sided and negative in the media, which can be deeply unfair. Yes, more regulation with regard to VSAs, and more stringent interview and application processes for volunteers are necessary. However, if volunteers are well prepared and trained, and the sending organisation is reputable, then there’s no end to the good they can do.

Engaging in the culture, learning about the history and befriending the people are an integral part of the volunteer system. It most definitely is not a crime to enjoy the beauty of a country or a culture, especially when volunteers do so much to help photos from the ucdvo facebook page the community they work in.

‘Mioncheist’ an Chothromais Inscne

Irish

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Le difríochtaí idir mná agus fir le feiceáil sa saol nua-aimseartha seo, déanann Mollie O’Keeffe plé ar ábhar an chothromais

Le caoga bliain anuas, rinneadh forbairt ollmhór sa tír seo ó thaobh cothromas inscne de. Bhí ar mhná dul trí dianfheachtais gránna go dtí go raibh cead acu vótáil nó staidéar, nó postanna a bheith acu fiú. Ach anois sa tír seo, tá na deiseanna ceannann céanna ag mná agus fir go léir, ach fós tá saoirse na mban in Éirinn ach amháin ina brionglóid don iomarca mná ar domhan sa lá atá inniú ann.

Tá gnéasachas fós i mbéal an phobail i gcónaí, in ainneoin an dul chun cinn atá déanta againn. Bíonn daoine ag iarraidh an t-idirdhealú idir mná agus fir a bhaint amach chun an tsochaí a bheith mar aon ghrúpa amháin, seachas dhá ghrúpaí iomlán éagsúla. An fiú an ghníomhaíocht seo, nó an bhfuil cothrom ar son cothroime féin i gceist, gan buntáistí dáiríre a bheith ann?

Ag deireadh na bliana seo caite, ritheadh dlí nua a bhain le hinscne agus préimheanna árachais. Dar leis an dlí seo, ní féidir le cuideachtaí árachais rátaí difriúla a thabhairt do chustaiméirí mar gheall ar a n-inscne, tar éis chás sa Chúirt Bhreithiúnais an Aontais Eorpaigh a d’aimsigh gur leithcheal a bhí i gcéist.

Ba ghnáth go raibh préimheanna na bhfear i bhfad níos airde, toisc go mbíonn timpistí bóithre níos dealraithí acusan seachas ag mná.

Anois, in ainneoin an riosca níos ísle, tá na rátaí préimheanna céanna á íoc ag na mná. Sa chás seo, is léir go raibh an bua ag cothromas inscne.

Ní chóir an ginearálú sin a dhéanamh; gur tiománaithe baolacha ar fad iad na fir agus gur tiománaithe breátha slána iad na mná, agus fós tá an cheist ann; an féidir linn leanúint ar aghaidh leis an gcóras seo? Níor aontaigh an AA le cinneadh na cúirte, toisc nach raibh sé cóir de mhná, dar leo. Leis an loighic chéanna, an bhfuil aoiseachas i gceist nuair a theastaíonn tiománaithe óga préimheanna níos airde a íoc?

Bhí ceist an chothromais inscne sa

nuacht arís i mbliana nuair a thosaigh an dream ‘Let Toys Be Toys’ a fheachtas in aghaidh na fógraíochta agus margaíochta ininscne a bhíonn thart timpeall na bpáistí, ach go háirithe i bhfógraíocht bréagáin leanaí. D’áitigh siad nach bhfuil sé i gceart go mbíonn stiogma i gceist nuair a thosaíonn garsúin óg ag imirt le bábóg, agus an rud céanna le cailíní ag plé le caranna nó trealamh eolaíochta.

Cuireann an fhógraíocht atá againn inniu le steiréitíopaí inscne ‘as dáta’.

Ach ní thagann na ‘steiréitíopaí’ seo ón margaíocht amháin. Tá siad bunaithe i nósanna atá le feiceáil sa phobail láithreach. Déanann na bréagáin leanaí atá margaithe do chailíní agus do bhuachaillí ar leith aithris ar na gairmeacha beatha atá roghnaithe ag mná agus fir. I nginearálta, spreagann bréagáin do chailíní mothúcháin grámhar, mar shampla bábóga breoite nó ospidéil d’ainmhithe. Tá na tréthe seo infheicthe i ngairmeacha na mban Éireannach chomh maith.

Dar leis an CSO i dtuarascáil darbh ainm ‘Mná agus Fir in Éirinn 2011’, ‘is iad na mná atá ina n-oibrithe sna hearnálacha Sláinte agus Oideachais den chuid is mó’. Tá thart ar 80% de postanna san earnáil Sláinte ag mná, agus beagnach 75% de postanna oideachais. Tá na treochtaí céanna le feiceáil le fir. Díoltar uirlisí agus tarracóirí bréige do bhuachaillí óga, ach ag an am céanna, tá na fir fásta timpeall orthu ag obair i dtalmhaíocht nó sa tionscal foirgníochta mar líonann fir beagnach 90% de postanna sa dhá thionscail seo.

Mar sin, ní féidir a rá go gcuireann fógraíocht ná margaíochta saininsnce brú ar pháistí bréagáin áirithe nó féiniúlacht a roghnú fiú, toisc go bhfuil na steiréitíopaí céanna ag teacht ón tsochaí arís is arís eile.

In aon chás, ní stopann margaíocht saininscne tar éis na hóige. Baintear úsáid as stéiréitíopaí inscne i

bhfógraíocht do dhaoine fásta chomh maith, rud atá le feiceáil i ngach fógra beorach nó gluaisteáin atá dírithe ar fhir agus i ngach fógra iógairt nó earraí glantacháin do mhná.

Bhí rath réasúnta maith ag ‘Let Toys Be Toys’. Fuair siad go leor tacaíocht ón phobal agus ó na meáin, agus d’aontaigh an sreangshiopa ollmhór ‘Toys R Us’ chun fógraíocht saininscne a thógáil as a siopaí go hiomlán.

Ach ó thaobh cothromas de, is féidir a rá nach bhfuil mórán againn le bheith buartha faoi sa tír seo. Níl ach mionargóintí beagbhríocha iad na cásanna thuasluaite nuair a chuirtear iad i gcomparáid le cruachás na

mban thar lear. I dtíortha áirithe eile, níl forbairtí cothromais ach ag tosnú faoi láthair na huaire.

Sa domhan forbraíochta, bíonn cearta bunúsacha daonna diúltaithe do chailíní chuile lá, agus ní ligtear ach do chailín amháin as gach cúigear ar domhan dul ar scoil agus oideachas a fháil di féin. Tá feachtais ar nós ‘Because I Am A Girl’, ag teacht i mbéal an phobail a bhuí le Malala Yousafzai agus a leithéid ag streachailt chun an topaic seo a scaipeadh. Agus an cruatan dáiríre seo fós ann sa lá atá inniu ann, nár cheart dúinn díriú ar an sort cothromais seo?

GLUAIS

Cothromas inscne—Gender equality Préimheanna árachais—Insurance rates An Cúirt Bhreithiúnais an Aontais Eorpaigh— The Courts of Justice of the European Union Leithcheal—Discrimination Infheicthe—Visible Saininscne—Gender-specific Sreangshiopa—Chain store

An Stoidiaca Le tréithe áirithe a bhaineann leis na réaltaí, breathnaíonn Lia Wright orthu go cruinn

GLUAIS Stoidiaca—Zodiac Reithe—Aries Tarbh—Taurus Cúpla—Gemini Portán—Cancer Leon—Leo Maighdean—Virgo Meá—Libra Scairp—Scorpio Saighdeoir—Sagittarius Gabhar—Capricorn Uisceadóir—Aquarius Éisc—Pisces

Más Reithe thú (21ú Márta – 19ú Aibreán), tá tú láidir, spraoiúil agus gealgháireach. Maith thú!

Is minic go ndeireann daoine go bhfuil tú beagáinín páistiúil ó am go chéile, ach is cuma. An rud is tabhachtaí ná go bhfuil tú ag baint sult as gach uile rud i do shaol. Is maith leis an Reithe a bheith ina bhuaiteóir. Seans maith go teastaíonn tamailín uait ag déanamh cinnte go bhfuil tú gléasta chomh maith agus is féidir sula dtéann tú amach (agus beidh tú ag dul amach, mar is socialite thú, ar ndóigh) An dath duitse, a chara, ná dearg.

Ag bogadh ar aghaidh go dtí an Tarbh (20ú Aibreán – 21ú Bealtaine), bhuel, tá a lán faoid ag an Tarbh.

Is múinteoirí íontacha iad, agus déanann siad cinnte go bhfuil neart ama acu rudaí a dhéanamh. Is fuath leo nuair a bhíonn orthu rudaí a athrú, fiú más rud beag é, ar nós buladh suas le cara leathuair níos déaní ná mar a phleanáil said! Is maith leo nuair a bhíonn pleann acu, mar go mbíonn siad ag iarraidh mothú go bhfuil saol deas socraithe acu, agus má tá buachaill/cailín acu, beirfidh siad orthu go daingean.

An dath a bhaineann leo, ná glas. Ó thaobh an Chúpla de (22ú Bealtaine – 21ú Meitheamh), is duine cliste, fiosrach agus greannmhar é an Chúpla. Taithníonn teicneólaíocht go mór leis, agus beidh sé i gcónaí ag cur téacsanna chuig duine éigin nó ag léamh cúrsaí reatha ar a ghuthán cliste. Is brea leis an gCúpla giúirléidí, ar ndóigh. Tá ceird ag an gCúpla daoine a chur ag gaire agus iad a mholadh. Is fuath leis fanacht in áit amháin rófhada. Buí duit, a Chúpla.

Bí cúramach leis an bPortán (22 Meitheamh – 23ú Iúil). Go minic, tógann sé rudaí an-dáiríre. Mar sin, tá sé tábhachtach go mbíonn tú cineálta leo. Tá sé i gcónaí iontach ceannúil ar a chuid cáirde agus déanann sé

cinnte go bhfuil sé i dteangmháil leo.

Uaireanta, mothaíonn an Portán faoi bhrú ach bíonn sé ábalta an-spórt a bheith aige agus tá sé thar a bheith greannmhar freisin. Bán don Phortán.

Tá an Leon (24ú Iúil – 22ú Lúnasa) fiachmhar, cróga agus bródúil. Is é an Leon an saghas duine a bhíonn ag gach cóisir. Baineann daoine sult as a bheith sa seómra céanna leis an Leon.

Tá bealach acu áthas a scaipeadh gach áit a bhíonn siad, caithfidh siad a bheith cúramach nach ndéanann siad dearmad nach iadsan an t-aon duine ar domhan, áfach! Is cairde dílis iad, agus cé go bhfuil siad i gcónaí ag smaoineamh fúthú féin, tá siad ábalta seasamh suas do dhaoine eile chomh maith, cairde ach go háirithe. An dath is fearr leo ná ór.

Is duine réasúnta ciún, séamh í an Mhaighdean (23ú Lúnasa – 22ú Meán Fómhair). Is maith leis an Maighdean caint agus a bheith ag pleanáil laethanta saoire. Ní maith leo a bheith thart ar daoine torranach ná mímhúinte. Is daoine traidisiúnta, béasach iad agus bíonn siad i gcónaí ag smaoineamh. Is maith leo scannáin agus ag foghlaim.

B’fhéidir dubhghlas don Mhaighdean!

Is maith leis an Mheá (23ú Meán Fómhair - 23 Deireadh Fómhair) le bheith ag caint freisin. Is breá leo rudaí álainn a fheiceáil, cosúil le ealaíon nó radharcanna aoibhinn. Is minic a bhíonn siad ag léamh agus is brea leo a bheith ag argóint! Bíonn na daoine seo i gcónaí ag smaoineamh ar chothromacht, an dlí, cearta daonna is mar sin. Bíonn siad sásta nuair atá a lán cairde thart orthu, agus is fearr leo a bheith le daoine eile seachas a bheith leo féin. Bándearg don Mheá.

Tógann an Scairp (24ú Deireadh Fómhair – 22ú Samhain) rudaí go han-dáiríre agus uaireanta cuireann siad eagla ar dhaoine mar go bhfuil siad chomh díográiseach. Cosúil leis an dTarbh, is múinteóirí den

scoth iad mar bíonn cumhacht acu. Tá siad iontach dílis agus tá siad go maith ag coimeád rud éigean rúnda. Ní athraíonn siad a n-intinn faoi rud ar bith! An dath is fearrdon Scairp ná burgúine.

Tá an Saighdeoir (22 Samhain – 21ú Nollaig) i gcónaí reidh le dul amach. Ní mhaith leo a bheith ag suí thart ag déanamh tada. Is minic gur maith leo spórt. Is breá leo a bheith ag caint, agus bíonn smaointí acu i gcónaí. Is brea leo rudaí nua a thriall ar ndóigh. Is maith leo scéalta agus scannáinn thar aon rud eile. Oráiste don Saighdeoir.

Is maith leis an nGabhar (22ú Nollaig – 20ú Eanáir) obair a dhéanamh in am, go leór airgid a thuilleadh agus éadaí compóirdeach a chaitheamh.

Tá sé íontach tabhachtach go mbíonn plean acu gach uile lá, agus mothaíonn siad beagáinín caillte muna bhfuil. Tá siad go maith ag coimeád smacht ar rudaí agus orthu féin. Is cairde iontach iad le bheith agat gan aon agó. Liath, sin é.

Tá an tUisceadóir (21ú Eanáir – 19ú Feabhra) iontach croíúil agus bíonn siad i gcónaí ag faire amach do dhaoine nach bhfuil ábalta aire a thabhairt dóibh féin. Is daoine carthanach iad agus bíonn siad in ann labhairt le duine ar bith. Is ealaíontóirí maithe iad go ginearáilte agus taithníonn rudaí cosúil le filíocht, ealaíon agus drámaíocht go mór leo. Gorm don Uisceadóir.

Go deireanach, feicfimis na hÉisc (20ú Feabhra - 20 Márta). Athraíonn an duine seo a intinn gach cúpla nóiméad. Is fuath leo a bheith ag argóint, ach is minic go bpiocann siad argóint le duine eile! Tá siad ealaíonta agus is breá leo scannáin a chuireann smaointe orthu. Titeann siad i ngrá chomh héasca is a thiteann siad amach as grá. Tá siad thar a bheith greannmhar agus íontach maith le hainmhithe. Déardaimis… Airgid! october 15th 2013

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science

Conquering the green-eyed monster The green-eyed monster is a nasty beast, but one that can be kept in check with a little awareness, writes Grace Yu

Othello Relating His Adventures to Desdemona, 1869 Giclee Print by Robert Alexander Hillingford

A Japanese research team discovered that the area of our brain that processes physical pain also processes mental pain.

Thus, jealousy can sometimes feel like a punch in the stomach because of our brain and how it processes information

Have you ever discovered yourself transforming into the greeneyed monster? No, not the Hulk, but rather the monster that is jealousy.

It’s not a pretty sight. That mirror on the wall would never say you’re the most beautiful of all, that’s for sure.

Jealousy often hurts us literally as our hearts seem to burn with envy, but did you know that the pain felt during those moments in our lives is not psychological? In 2006, a Japanese research team discovered that the area of our brain that processes physical pain also processes mental pain. Thus, jealousy can sometimes feel like a punch in the stomach because of our brain and how it processes information.

After those moments of hurt and

anger, there’s always that desire to take action and take revenge, drop everything and ruin the other person’s life, and we mean everything; recent findings have proven that jealousy tends to make us forget about what is important.

Two researchers in the University of Delaware conducted a study on heterosexual romantic couples and found that people tend to forget their assigned tasks and focus on their jealousy instead when an event occurred to stimulate jealousy.

This may be due to a subject’s body reacting to jealousy in a similar way to how they process stress.

When we are stressed, just as when we are jealous, our heart rate increases, blood pressure

goes up, the mind become fixated on solving the problem, and our senses become keener. The problem, according to Dr. Richard Smith, a psychology professor in the University of Kentucky, is, “If you’re an envious person, you have a hard time appreciating a lot of the good things that are out there, because you’re too busy worrying about how they reflect on the self.”

So, if jealousy is so bad for us, then why didn’t we evolve past it?

You’d think evolution would do its job, but jealousy does not occur due to our desire to have something we cannot obtain, rather it exposes our fear of losing someone we consider valuable; it is not the same thing as envy. As social beings, we thrive on

our relationships with other people and we fear losing that connection.

We fear that the people we find to be vital to our mental and physical survival in this world might leave us high and dry. Thus, we become jealous as method of protecting them and keep them from leaving us. Our actions, then, determine if our jealousy is channeled positively or negatively.

On one side of the spectrum, we could shower the apple of our eye with attention and offer them cookies and candy to prove to them how much better it is for them to stay with us. Or we could kick and scream at them asking ‘How could you do this to me?’ We’re more mature than that I’m sure.

Superstition ain’t the way Belief in superstition and curses are widespread in modern society, but are we not too sensible for all this, writes Aoife Ní Chroidheáin

Moments after the final whistle blew in the Dublin-Mayo All-Ireland final, the air in Quinn’s pub near Croke Park was saturated with both shouts of joy and disappointed moans.

At the bar sat two older men. Having fervently watched the game in the hopes of a win for the Heather County, they turn disappointedly back to their pints of Guinness, convinced that it was the Mayo Curse that struck again.

So what is the Mayo Curse? For those of you, who haven’t heard, former Mayo All-Ireland finalist, Liam McHale explains the history behind the legend. “When the 1951 Mayo team were returning from their All- Ireland win, they apparently reached a funeral taking place in one of the towns approaching Castlebar.

“Apparently, some of the lads, maybe enjoying the trip home, angered the local priest, who cursed them, saying that Mayo would never win another All-Ireland while any of the 1951 team are alive.”

Perhaps it is a bit of a ridiculous excuse for having let the Sam Maguire slip away six times since 1951. Yet people all over the country still buy into the curse. Efforts were even made to exorcise the curse from the team, with Father Costello of Foxford Parish blessing the team before the game in an effort to counteract the curse.

So are superstitions and curses legitimate components of our society today? It is certainly true to say that superstitions have and always will be rife in the world of sport.

Stuart Vyse PhD, author of Believing in Magic: The Psychology of Superstition explains, “A lot of athletes are encouraged to develop a ritual before a game to calm and focus them, a ritual like a mantra.” But the line october 15th 2013

between a ritual and a superstition is fine. “The dividing line,” clarifies Vyse, “is whether you give some kind of magical significance to the ritual.”

It seems, however, that even top-class athletes, for all their excursions to sports psychologists, have tip-toed their way across into superstitious territory. Take three-time Wimbledon champion Serena Williams, for example.

This world-class sportswoman insists on bringing her shower sandals to the tennis court, she has a certain method for tying her shoelaces and consistently bounces the ball five times before her first serve and twice before her second.

Michael Jordan, considered the greatest basketball player in the world by many, the redeemer of Bugs Bunny and the Looney Tunes by others, wore his University of North Carolina shorts under his uniform to every game for almost two decades.

From Franklin D. Roosevelt refusing to travel on Friday 13th, to Independent TD Michael Healy Rae’s efforts to amend Ireland’s car registration system for 2013, lest motorists be deterred from purchasing a car in 2013 for fear of bad luck, superstitions and curses have even filtered into political life in Ireland and abroad.

So what is it about people that lead them to follow superstitions? Is it that the superstitions in terms of sport are so psychologically embedded in our brain, that we feel we cannot and could not perform without them? Or is it merely a habit, a taboo that is easier to keep fuelling than to break?

“Sometimes the creation of a false certainty is better than no certainty at all,” says Vyse. “We are often in

situations in life where something really important is about to happen, we’ve prepared for it as best we can but it’s still uncertain.”

With the easy accessibility of knowledge and education, it is easy for people today to scoff at the early pagan’s futile efforts to ward of bad luck for winter by walking their cattle between two bonfires at the Celtic Samhain ceremony. Yet are we not essentially doing the same thing each time we make a conscious effort to avoid walking under a ladder?

It seems it is part of the human condition that we latch onto certain things to subconsciously try and predict our fate. Indeed, Vyse confirms this saying that superstitions provide people with the sense that they’ve done “one more thing” to try and ensure the outcome that they are looking for.

Therefore, can we catalogue superstition as a friend or a foe?

While it certainly lends security and confidence, it really is a doubleedged sword. The failure to fulfil a certain habit or wearing a lucky shirt, or in the case of the Mayo team where the negative superstition of the ’51 curse hung over them, can have a real psychological effect on a person- hindering their performance.

The trick seems to be not to take superstitions too seriously.

And while Trinity students might completely refuse to walk under the Capanile bell on their campus for fear of failing their exams, as their college superstition goes, we here at UCD are a lot more sensible and realise that when we find a euro or two on campus, that superstition dictates a trip to Insomnia.

a cat from reddit

So, as mature grown-ups, how do we let others live their lives how they want? Identifying the reason for your jealousy is a start. Are your feelings due to something that has happened or something you think happened?

If you think something has happened, why you feel this way?

This could even be a similar situation to one experienced in the past, giving you a benchmark from which to deal with the jealousy.

Feeling insecurity as a result of jealousy generally relates to a history of feeling like you could lose that special someone in your life.

Assessing whether the jealousy being experienced has a history that can be used to contextualise the situation could help you appreciate your feelings and take the reins. After knowing the cause, it becomes easier to recognise when you’re feeling jealous. So, every time the feeling bubbles up, take a break and just let it be. Don’t think about a solution or worry about the future. Think about if the feeling is rooted in anger or fear.

Accepting jealousy as a normal process that all people go through for whatever reason is crucial to eventually making peace with the situation that has warranted such an emotional reaction. This allows you to maintain the situation in the future and build trust between you and the other person, or end it.

If your jealousy is due to your fears, have a calm, honest discussion with the other person. Express your fears to them to see if there is validity in your fears. If not, keep it in mind each time your jealousy arises and decide if you want to continue believing them.

Jealousy can never be overcome by attacking someone else and accusing them of causing you pain and sorrow. Start with you.

Question your thoughts. Isn’t this what college is for, to teach us to question everything, even ourselves?

Then, remember the Hulk. Bruce Banner eventually learned to keep his anger in check, thus keeping the green monster in check. We should take after Dr. Banner and learn control our feelings of jealousy.

Only then can we save the world as we wish, without destroying it.

Michael Jordan, considered the greatest basketball player in the world by many, the redeemer of Bugs Bunny and the Looney Tunes by others, wore his University of North Carolina shorts under his uniform to every game for almost two decades

The early bird catches the 66X

Morning person or not, Michael O’Sullivan investigates why it is so tough for some to make it in for 9am

For the purposes of this article we shall refer to the early risers as Larks and the nocturnal populace as Owls.

A lot of people fall into one or the other category. In fact, 30% of people are either Larks or Owls, with the rest of us just being normal people who sit somewhere in between the two.

What makes a person more oriented to being a Lark or an Owl? The zoologists among you may say wing structure, cranial structure and diet. This would be correct, but also an obnoxious display of “look at me, I know stuff,” so we shall ignore the interjection completely.

Also should a person begin swooping about and consuming a collection of snails and small rodents for lunch, the psychiatric team would be called in, and so we shy away from The alarm goes off. You roll out the zoological end of things entirely. of bed like Jabba the Hut in a heat Based on commonly accepted wave and slap the alarm clock until views, Larks are stereotyped as it stops blaring its satanic squawking being super perky and upbeat, while at you. You then sit in a heap on Owls are characterised as rather your bed/floor/bin/park bench and morbid and antisocial. Scientists contemplate the difficulty of your have recently shown that Owls life while scratching yourself and and Larks actually have structural blinking the crust off your eyes. differences within their brains that Or maybe you don’t. Maybe you’re make them the way they are, as the kind of person who hops out of opposed to simply being overly lazy bed as fresh as a daisy. With birds or infuriatingly on top of things. tweeting sweet nothings while floating Jessica Rosenberg at RWTH on the sunbeams sneaking through Aachen University in Germany rethe crack in your curtains, lighting up cently ran a study where she observed your face. Then butterflies dress you Larks, Owls and normal folk through while you sing about rainbows and brain scans. She then compared rub your pet unicorn behind the ears. the structures of said brains to try We’ve all met them before. Morning and discover the reasons why some people and not-morning people people have sleep patterns that differ are pretty easy to pick out from a so greatly from those of others. crowd. It’s a pretty commonly known The results were startling to say fact that some people love the early the least. She discovered that Owls morning chill and some people prefer have a reduction in integrity in white to stay up all night and refuse to matter in their brains. White matter get out of bed the next morning. is fatty tissue that helps speed up The dishevelled hair, bleary eyes the neural transmission process, and smell of three days without a essentially allowing our brains to shower characterises those who don’t process information a lot faster. like mornings, while fresh faces, This doesn’t mean that Owls immaculate hairdos, fantastic outfits have a reduced mental capacity, and annoying peppiness are the far from it actually. Their brains overwhelming traits of those who do. function perfectly normally and well

A lot of people fall into one or the other category. In fact, 30% of people are either Larks or Owls, with the rest of us just being normal people who sit somewhere in between the two

under average everyday conditions.

When those conditions change, however, things get a bit murky.

She discovered that the white matter reduction was localised to certain areas of the brain. These areas have numerous functions, but are quite active in mental health and general wellbeing.

This may go a long way to explaining why Owls tend to consume greater amounts of cigarettes and alcohol and complain of tiredness during the day. The symptoms have been compared to chronic jet lag.

They also have an increased risk of suffering from depression, which may be the source of the initial stereotype.

It’s not all bad, though. There is also evidence that suggests rewiring of the brain is possible. By going to bed earlier and forcing yourself to rise earlier, it may be possible to train yourself into becoming a Lark. Or even simply minimising your exposure to artificial lighting and getting more direct sunlight can have a positive effect.

As students we live a life that is dominated by the mantra “work hard, play hard”. The combination of continuous assessment and party lifestyle are hardly conducive to behaviour characteristic of early risers. Nor does it help that long hours spent in the library result in a lack of sunlight exposure so severe that skin becomes almost transparent to the point that campus security receive numerous reports of Nosferatu around Christmas time.

In fact it could be argued that the student lifestyle clashes directly with Lark-like behaviour, which has now been shown to be the healthier alternative. With mental health disorders on the rise, maybe we need to rethink our attitudes to college life and learn that sometimes partying four nights of the week is neither healthy nor sane, and would require a bank loan with the cost of drinks in Dublin.

And there you have it. Next time you sleep in and miss an important

tutorial, simply explain to your lecturer that you are an Owl and as such your brain is wired differently to most.

If they would be so kind as to provide you with a section of the roof of Newman on which to sunbathe, you could rewire your brain and arrive on time. Apparently the School of English has a great view of the college pitches. Try there.

There is also a second perk to the research, seen as most of the precursors necessary for this process would usually end up in compost heaps or landfill, the method could also be put forward as a waste reducing technique.

Has Dr. Brown single handedly saved the world from a future of darkness and woe? Not likely. There is the slight issue of mass production. The enzymes that the bacteria produce to digest the plant matter cannot simply be extracted wholesale or synthesised in a lab just yet. Enzymes are ludicrously complicated molecules made from millions of amino acids chained together in a very specific way.

Years of work goes into correctly synthesising just one in a lab, and getting these enzymes to work more efficiently is also a problem. A 65.4% success rate is simply not a high enough number to justify producing anything on an industrial scale.

There is also the advent of the electric car, which has taken off quite dramatically in recent months.

Alternatives, however, are always a good thing to have should one avenue become closed to us, and electricity production is another area that needs serious rethinking if it’s going to be maintained into the future.

What was achieved in Mississippi is a good start to a true and viable method of producing biofuel. Those of us who wish to see Dr. Emmett Brown’s poo-powered time machine DeLorean will have a while to wait however, as there is no such thing as time machines.

Though we may soon have toiletpowered cars, now won’t that be fun?

science

Psycollegey In her new column, Louise Dolphin discusses what we really mean when we say we feel lonely Stephen Fry’s stark and brutally honest blog post about his battle with depression and his suicide attempt cited loneliness as the “the most terrible and contradictory of my problems”

Silence of the Noms Hannibal Lecter likes to eat brains for dinner, but your brain has more control over how much we eat than we think, writes Kate Purcell

Comfort-eating is a well established phenomenon. You would be hard pressed to locate a single person who hasn’t overindulged on ice cream and chocolate at some point to mask their sorrow. The reasons behind comfort-eating have never been completely understood, but recent studies have shown that anxiety and depression are intricately linked to our eating habits.

Garret Stuber of the University of North Carolina has shown a crucial link between fear and anxiety in the stimulation of over eating in rats. By focusing on the effect these emotions have on the lateral hypothalamus, the hunger centre of the brain, his research has shown that perhaps there is more to the endemic rise of obesity and eating disorders in society than merely the physical need for food and the neurological experience of hunger.

This wider interpretation of destructive eating habits may well prove a means of controlling such behaviour in years to come. For more than fifty years prior to this study, the control of food intake was hypothesised to lie in two areas of the brain, the lateral hypothalamus and the ventromedial hypothalamus, the centres for hunger and satiety respectively.

Known as the dual-centre hypothesis and developed by Elliot Stellar, scientists believed that damage to these areas would provoke over or under eating.

Essentially this concept derived from the idea that these two areas work in balance with each other.

When blood sugar levels dropped, receptors in the blood send a message to the lateral hypothalamus leading to the feeling of hunger. Once these levels returned to normal, a similar message would be sent to the ventro-medial hypothalamus, causing the satisfaction that fullness creates. This is essentially your brains way of telling you to stop shoving Doritos down your neck.

In a historical study conducted

by Anand and Brobeck in 1951, lesions were made in both the lateral and ventro-medial areas of the hypothalamus of rats in an effort to

Stuber’s study agrees that eating disorders and obesity have a neurological basis and that the disruption of circuits to the lateral hypothalamus could indeed contribute to such problems

discover how this would affect their eating habits. Their results showed that lesions in the ventro-medial hypothalamus resulted in the rats being unable to feel full leading them to excessively overeating.

Conversely, when the lateral hypothalamus was damaged, their inability to feel hunger culminated in a dramatic decrease in food intake.

While the dual-centre hypothesis has in some ways been debunked and it is now thought that the pathways of hunger and satiety are ultimately more complex.

The original idea behind the study still rings true, that the process is ultimately a neural and hormonal balancing act. Perhaps this can go some way to explaining why we comfort eat so much, as once hormones become involved, all bets are off.

Stuber’s study agrees that eating disorders and obesity have a neurological basis and that the disruption of circuits to the lateral hypothalamus could indeed contribute to such problems. Rather than drawing attention to this previously accepted chemical see-saw, however, his work instead focuses on how the hunger centre is affected by the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST), a band of fibers running along the brain that are commonly interpreted as the area that controls anxiety.

A large portion of the inhibitory

neurons associated with the BNST transmit to the lateral hypothalamus, and the results of Stuber’s research of its interaction with this sphere of the brain were, according to Hans-Rudolf Berthoud, a neurobiologist attached to Pennington Biomedical Research Centre, “completely unexpected.”

Stuber used a technique called optogenics to influence the neurons within the BNST in such a way that they would turn on and off the blocks located on the neurons of the lateral hypothalamus. Once the cells within the hunger centre were suppressed by stimulating the BNST, mice ate uncontrollably no matter how well fed they were prior to the experiment.

In fact, when given the choice between healthy foods and those with a high fat content, the rats showed a clear preference for the latter.

As soon as the optogenic switch was turned off, the gorging ceased.

Similarly, by halting activity in the stria terminalis, the rats involved under ate or didn’t eat at all.

This research is contradictory to studies that have come before it, which may revolutionize the way society understands eating disorders and obesity and may indeed lead to more effective therapies for these diseases.

Stuber states that “[the] BNST is really important for affective behaviour state in response to emotionally relevant stimuli, and the results show the output of those cells can actually directly modulate feeding behaviour.”

Although this is not a new idea, and it has shown true in patients with anorexia in previous studies, there has yet to be a foray into developing therapies for obesity or eating disorders based on the pathways of the brain. That said, there is a clear connection between anxiety and eating disorders such as anorexia and, indirectly, obesity.

A study published in General Hospital Psychiatry in 2008 showed that people who suffer from anxiety are 30% more likely to be obese than their calmer counterparts. The understanding of anxiety and mental health as a whole has come along in leaps and bounds in recent years, with a

menagerie of therapies available, from pharmaceuticals to cognitive behavioural therapy to mindfulness.

SSRI’s (Specific Serotonin Re-uptake Inhibitors) are one type of drug which has proved successful in the regulation of anxiety, and hopefully with time neuroscientists will find a way of helping patients control their eating habits in a similar manner in conjunction with treating anxiety.

While these experiments have yet to be repeated on people, there is little doubt that Stuber’s study holds hope for the future of comforteaters everywhere. On the other hand, Ben & Jerry’s will be disappointed by the study, as the news surely predicts a massive drop in their share price in the near future.

13

“Loneliness kills” was scrawled across the blackboard of my sixth year English class. The first “E” was underlined a couple of times. With only three weeks to the Leaving Cert, our teacher, generally a lively and passionate mentor who was a female embodiment of Mr. Keating from Dead Poets Society, was wholly exasperated by the majority of us miss-spelling loneliness in the previous night’s homework.

“E tablets can kill you, loneliness can kill you, therefore put an E in loneliness.” Having been one of the guilty ones, I didn’t forget the “E” again, but I also didn’t forget that phrase.

I recently came across a diary I kept in my first year of college. My abiding and somewhat romanticised recollections of my undergrad years include extended tea breaks, nights out, and long-winded debates and discussions with numerous friends; happy memories that I recall fondly.

Skimming through a few entries, though, I was somewhat surprised to be reminded that my memory was selective, for I had also felt quite lonely at this stage of my life.

Loneliness is not quite the same as aloneness. The only condition needed for being alone is being by yourself, but we don’t necessarily feel lonely when by ourselves. The philosopher and theologian Paul Tillich stated, “Language has created the word ‘loneliness’ to express the pain of being alone, and it has created the word ‘solitude’ to express the glory of being alone.”

Short term solitude is both desirable and essential; giving us time to regain perspective, contemplate, foster creativity, self-reflect, or simply rest. On the other hand, while loneliness is generally accepted as a painful and negative state, loneliness is not necessarily based on your surroundings.

We can feel lonely when alone, but also in the company of others.

Surrounded by people we know and love, we can still experience feelings of intense loneliness. It is ironic really, that we can feel lonely in a crowd. Particularly a university crowd where we are surrounded by people who supposedly have similar interests and ideas to us.

In order to feel socially satisfied, we don’t need all that many people.

According to Professor Cacioppo of the University of Chicago, who researches how social isolation and loneliness affect people’s health, the key is in the quality of those relationships, rather than the quantity.

We just need several others on whom we can depend and have an emotional connection with.

But research in the developed world indicates that feelings of loneliness are on the rise. A 2006 study in American Sociological Review found that the number of Americans saying they had no one to discuss important matters with had nearly tripled since 1985.

In a society that can judge us based on how expansive our social networks appear, it is worth noting that even those with seemingly large social networks can report high levels of loneliness. Last year, an Australian study in Computers in Human Behaviour reported that undergraduate students with higher levels of loneliness reported having more Facebook friends.

Stephen Fry’s stark and brutally honest blog post about his battle with depression and his suicide attempt cited loneliness as the “the most terrible and contradictory of my problems.”

He ended the emotive piece with, “I am luckier than many of you because I am lonely in a crowd of people who are mostly very nice to me and appear to be pleased to meet me. But I want you to know that you are not alone in your being alone.”

That is the irony of loneliness.

We can walk around, trapped in a bubble of painful disconnectedness, forgetting that many people walking past us feel exactly the same. There is nothing shameful about loneliness. It is a universal human emotion which has been experienced by every individual that has ever gone before us.

My English teacher also had quite a flare for philosophy. Quoting Plato, she told the class to “be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle,” and, over 2,000 years on, this couldn’t be more relevant. october 15th 2013

14

opinion

I’m coming out, I want the world to know Sometimes coming out isn’t exactly as glamorous as Diana Ross sang about, but each story is unique and offers its own insight, writes UCD LGBT Auditor Jack Carolan

UCD LGBT and UCD Students’ Union all have confidential welfare officials who are always on hand to talk about any problems you may have.

Don’t feel that coming out has to change you

When I was ten-years-old, a boy in my class told me that “gay” was the word you called a boy who liked other boys. That was when I realised I was gay. I had known before then that there was such a thing as being gay, but only when someone said the word to me did it become real.

Looking back now, I don’t understand how it took that long. I had to be Princess Peach everytime I played Mario Kart and I knew, and unashamedly still know, the words and choreography to the majority of Britney Spears’ greatest hits. Lady Gaga clearly was singing about my personal experience when she said, “I was born this way.”

Despite the ease at which I accepted my own homosexuality at ten years of age, it wasn’t until I was thirteen that I even discussed with other people my attraction to the same sex.

Ten year old me knew that the word gay made some people uncomfortable. In my desperate need to be liked by those around me, I

knew it would be better if I didn’t use this word to describe myself. It didn’t change who I was if I added this new word to the adjectives of my personality, so why should it have to change the way people look at me?

The majority of problems people have with coming out stem from this issue. You have lived your whole life the same way, but when you add the word gay, lesbian or bisexual, suddenly everything has changed.

The heteronormative expectation that has been put on the world means that others can easily become upset when a person comes out to them.

We are conditioned to believe that everyone is born in the body they are supposed to be in and are attracted to the opposite sex. When you reveal to someone that this is not the case for you, it can almost feel like you have lied and betrayed them your whole life. Everything they have ever perceived about you is wrong because of the trivial detail that you like kissing boys instead of girls.

During my adolescence, my coming

out only added to my embarrassingly debilitating social awkwardness.

While I never actively went about telling people I was gay, when you have a voice with a pitch like mine, it’s something that follows you around. The thing was, rather than being liked by people in spite of being gay, or simply being disliked for being gay; people seemed to like me more because I was gay.

The fear of being rejected for being gay was off my back and the confidence I now had (as well as a knowledge of pop culture that would make Perez Hilton quake in his boots) was all I needed to make friends.

Eventually, by word of mouth, it just became common knowledge that Jack with the gay voice was in fact Jack who is gay. Even Mom and Dad figured this one out. They had to accept that no girl could have given a boy a hickey that big and, in a rare instance proving that I am related to them, they approached the situation like ten year old me with a silent acceptance.

Gay or straight, they know I would never discuss my romantic life with them; so they accept that my being gay doesn’t have to be a whole family affair. Dad asks me every year if I’m going to the Dublin Pride Parade and Mom doesn’t leave the house without getting the all clear from me on her outfit. So, just because their acceptance is not as vocal and prominent as other parents, that does not make it any less real.

Today, at twenty years of age, I can safely say that everyone in my life knows that I am a vibrant and confident young man, who also happens to be gay. I know that there will be people in my future who will not know that. Coming out is rather like eating Pringles; once you pop, you just can’t stop.

The coming out process is something I am going to have to go through for the rest of my life.

Heteronormativity is not going anywhere for a while, so I know that when I meet new people in the future and talk about my

partner, James, they will still be surprised I didn’t say Jane.

Yes, it’s a complete drag, but I hope that if I keep coming out to people I meet with such ease maybe one day in the future a ten year old boy won’t have to tell people he’s gay because people won’t assume he was born straight.

So, for the reader who is questioning themselves right now or simply afraid to come out, what advice do I have to give? Don’t let people bring you down.

So what if you aren’t straight?

Who cares? If your friends don’t feel the same way, then they were never really proper friends to begin with. Do give people time.

While your sexuality isn’t a big deal, some people don’t quite get that and need to take a moment to themselves to come to terms with it.

They will come back don’t worry.

Please Talk. Bottling things up doesn’t make them go away. There is a worrying trend, particularly among young men, of not talking

about problems they have dealing with coming out. This can be damaging to your mental health.

UCD LGBT and UCD Students’ Union all have confidential welfare officials who are always on hand to talk about any problems you may have. Don’t feel that coming out has to change you. Just because people know who you are attracted to doesn’t mean you are any different. You never have to be written off as something you’re not just because of your sexuality.

Everyone’s coming out is a unique process, and while mine was quite early in life, this is not the always the case. Sometimes people need more time to come to terms with their sexuality than others.

Last year I was seeing someone four years older than me who had not come out to anyone. Some people need a lot more self-reflection before coming out than others, so don’t ever feel pressured by others to come out if you are not ready. The way I see it, when you feel ready to come out, the best thing to do is embrace it.

How to be cool with Conor O’Toole The Art, Design & Technology Director takes time out of his busy schedule to talk about cycling or whatever

Everybody hates cyclists.

Motorists hate cyclists. Pedestrians hate cyclists. The government hates cyclists. The weather hates cyclists. Odin hates cyclists (probably). Cyclists hate cyclists.

I cycle everyday, and let me tell you, nothing grinds my gears more than a cyclist cycling too slowly and delaying me, or a cyclist cycling too fast and making me feel like an unfit square. Not to mention cyclists who cycle at the same speed as me, creating the impression that we’re racing or something. We’re not.

I think the reason cycling causes such exaggerated reactions from people is all your blood is going really fast through your body when you’re on a bike. If you cycle every day, you’ll almost-die a startlingly number of times. I won’t cycle at rush hour any more, because it’s complete lunacy to do so.

I can either get to work an hour early or an hour late, and I work here, at the University Observer, so I always choose the latter. During rush hour, the ‘cycle-lane’ between my house and UCD is the gap between the curb and the second double yellow line.

On one side, I run the risk of falling onto the footpath, taking out any auxiliary children on my way, and on the other side I may well destroy a number of wing mirrors, resulting in seven, 14 or even 21 years of bad luck.

I don’t blame motorists for hating cyclists. After all, we’re like

october 15th 2013

motorists; we enjoy travelling by machine. But we don’t have to deal with nonsense like traffic jams, motor taxes and those colouredylight-things. I think of the roads as being like oceans. Cars are like big fish, tuna or something I haven’t fully thought this through.

Taxis are definitely sharks, though. I think of buses as being like whales. They’re huge and generally well meaning. If I was killed by a bus, I wouldn’t be as annoyed as I would be if I was killed by a car (in a hypothetical situation where I can feel emotion after my death).

If you were killed by a whale, it would be vanity to think it had any interest in killing you, as you are tiny and whales don’t think about you. Unless you work in SeaWorld, in which case orcas are thinking about killing you literally all the time. They’re usually just too good-natured to bother. Also, they’re not whales, they’re just large dolphins so are not subject to this metaphor. I suppose Orcas would be like private hire minibuses.

They’re both morally neutral.

Cyclists and pedestrians have a strange relationship. Pedestrians like to put their baby strollers into cycle lanes before they cross the road. Cyclists like using footpaths as shortcuts. Either way, the cyclist and pedestrian’s encounter is always extremely short, and any verbal communiqué explicit.

Explicit words are usually the

most efficient. It is humbling to think that a cyclist is never more than a flat tire away from being a pedestrian, and a pedestrian is never more than a health kick or a government incentive from becoming a cyclist. It could happen to anyone.

For all their pro-cycling schemes, that is to say, schemes that promote cycling, not Tour de France attempts, the government does not want people to cycle. They make this very clear by constantly digging up cycle paths, dumping glass in the lanes and ritually sacrificing a cyclist every year to keep the Luas working, although no one ever talks about that.

At least not in the liberal media.

Bicycles, having limited to no suspension and small to non-existent leather seating, are very sensitive machines to ride. You feel every bump, every crack. You don’t need to be able to read Braille to know that a lot of Dublin roads have ‘AVOID’ written all over them.

I imagine the roads make very little sense in Braille anyway.

The bicycle logo painted on the cycle lanes is a classic example of how little anyone thinks about cyclists in Dublin. Never mind the non-round wheels and the lack of a chain, the paint they use is so thick you can feel it. It actively slows you down.

Clearly what we should do is ban cars and turn all roads into cycle lanes. That’s what they did in France and things seem to be going well over there.

I don’t blame motorists hating cyclists.

After all, we’re like motorists; we enjoy travelling by machine. But we don’t have to deal with nonsense like traffic jams, motor taxes and those colouredylight-things

Editorial

Editorial

Last week was UCD LGBT’s Coming Out Week, while Friday was International Coming Out Day. For many people out there, you’ll never have to know what it is like to have to “come out” to friends and family.

If the statistics they always mention in the movies are true, about 10% of you will know what it feels like.

Coming out as identifying with one of the letters in LGBT is a bizarre experience. Depending on your situation, it can be the most stressful decision you’ve ever made.

For others, it’s not even a decision you end up making for yourself. In a way, I fall into that second category.

I have known that I am bisexual pretty much since I became sexually aware, but I would say that I have only accepted it since I was around 16-years-old. I have been officially ‘out’ for over a year now, but I didn’t exactly let myself out of the closet in the first place.

It would be petty to get into the details here, so I’ll just say that nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, gives you the right to out someone against their will.

The act of disclosing your sexual orientation or gender identity with someone else involves a huge amount of trust. If someone trusts you with that information, don’t ever make them regret that.

One of the main reasons that bisexual people, particularly bisexual men, don’t come out is because of a lack of understanding of bisexuality as a legitimate sexual orientation among the general public.

As a teenager, realising that you are interested in more than the one gender is an intensely confusing experience. If you are gay or straight, at least you know that. For years, I simply couldn’t reconcile in my mind the fact that I found men attractive as well as women.

There is a perception out there that when people say they are bisexual, it is either for attention (this usually refers to women) or you’re just saying it to ease people into the idea of you being gay (this usually refers to men). Both of these perceptions are harmful and pretty awful, really.

If someone tells you they identify a certain way, it’s probably

because they do. You shouldn’t think that someone has an ulterior motive for coming out of the closet. Stigmas like these are what keep people in the closet.

For me, I found it pretty easy to hide my sexuality; I limited myself to only getting with girls and went over the top with pretending to be gay sometimes in order to make it feel like the idea of me being gay was preposterous. In reality, I was expressing a part of me that I usually suppressed. Hiding in plain sight and all that.

I have always been intensely passionate about sports, something that makes people assume you’re straight. It’s strange how people’s ideas of sexual orientation are so firmly tied up in gender roles. I acted like a man is expected to act, so people assumed I was straight.

I fully intended to go through life without ever properly coming out, because I felt like I could just ‘pass’ as straight. Even to say that I’m bisexual isn’t entirely accurate.

I’m actually pansexual. That means that I can be attracted to people

of all gender identities, not just the binary of men and women.

When I finally did come out, even if it wasn’t entirely on my own terms, I honestly felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I know it’s a cliché, but it’s true. Trying to hide something like that for so long really does take its toll after a while.

It is amazing how much of a difference that can make in your day-to-day life. I honestly didn’t even realise how much energy I was wasting everyday to keep myself hidden. It’s like putting on weight gradually, over the space of a few years, and then suddenly having liposuction to remove all the weight you gained over the last few years.

It helps that I had a strong core group of friends and family who I could rely on during it all. If you have someone going through the process of coming out (and,

believe me, it can be a very long process), the best thing you can do for them is just remain visible.

Let them know that you’re still around and that their sexual orientation or gender identity does not change the dynamic of your relationship. This is especially important if the friend is the same gender as you, as they will likely be worried that everyone of their gender now assumes they’re attracted to them.

It’s strange that guys who complain about no girls liking them automatically think that every non-straight guy wants to jump their bones. Likewise, the same thing happens with girls too. It’s a bizarrely egotistical homophobia that won’t ever really make sense to me, not that any form of homophobia ever does.

There are hundreds upon thousands of helpful pieces out

Deputy Editor Killian Woods Art, Design & Technology Director Conor O’Toole

talleyrand

News Editor Yvanne Kennedy Comment Editor Elizabeth O’Malley

thick and thick for the man who only last week escaped charges of The whiff of impotent democracy from causing the apartheid movement in the newly dubbed ‘Societies Building’ South Africa at a war crimes trial. this week was woefully stagnant Gallaghwhore’s first council, and took far longer than Talleyrand in fact, was awfully similar to the would have liked for it to migrate judicial hearing in South Africa. out of the Societies’ FitzGerald He was forced to field a series of Chamber. Yes, that’s correct, five questions about why he is forcing weeks into the academic seems like students to have abortions and a perfect time to kick off student why he believes UCD should be politics and engage with glaze-y eyed a recycle-free zone indefinitely. first years and overly enthusiastic Talleyrand has one message for Masters students who want their first these cretins who are picking on taste of succulent political action. his friend Mícheál. He may be a Talleyrand shouldn’t overdo his gunrunner for both sides of the jaunts into folly when mocking Syrian conflict, but Mícheál definitely the important process that is recycles. In fact, that’s what made Student Union Council. It is a great him such a successful gunrunner in opportunity for wannabe hacks/ the first place. That point of order first year class reps to change the needed to be established before world from their FitzGerald Chamber such matters got out of hand. thrones in the ‘Societies Building.’

Talleyrand can only hope Mícheál And they gave a good crack at their was able to look after himself during first attempt, from what Talleyrand’s the weekend while these up-and-atspies have heard, as questions came him reps went seeking the customary

blood-sacrifice to the The Dear Leader, Pat DA Brún, who has finally returned to the promised land of the UCDSU corridor last week. Sorry if you got eaten alive, Mícheál.

Although, after a weekend of drilling into their adorable little reppy heads the ins and ins of the clique they just signed up for via a blood pact, the sabbatical team will have their work cut out for them. None more so than the education duo of UCDSU, Lorcan and Russia’s favourite Czar, Adam.

The brothers irrelevant fought for the approval of the reps, as they did their best to keep themselves as prominently involved as they could. Talleyrand hopes his dearer comrade Adam (sorry Lorcan) drew the long straw and was at least benefitted the opportunity of addressing the new reps first to outline what he actually does in the Union other than trying to figure out how to install Google

there designed to help people who are gay during their coming out process, such as Jack’s column on the page to your left.

That’s not my expertise, but I do know what it is like to struggle to come to grips with a sexual orientation that encompasses more than one gender. I suppose the whole point of writing this is to try and do something that might help someone who was in a similar position to me, because it’s very difficult to find informative pieces about bisexuality or pansexuality if you don’t know where to look.

I doubt I’ll live to see the day when people genuinely don’t care about sexual orientation and gender identity, but it’s a nice thought. You can do your part to get us there by realising that there are much more important things about people, like who their favourite band is.

the university observer Editor Kevin Beirne

Bonus crastina skankbags,

15

Chrome using Internet Explorer 6 on his Windows 98 Office Version.

Cian, meanwhile, has finally copped on that bringing in furry creatures and inviting anyone and everyone in to stroke his cat is the best way to boost recognition in the non-existent polls. Talleyrand has it on good authority that Dowling only acquired the cat by accident, after ordering the wrong item from his favourite Swedish adult website.

Obviously, he had misspelled the word “hat”.

Of course, our Cian couldn’t pass up on such an option to bolster his presidential campaign by at most two whole votes, but how quickly would those two turn into minus five if valuable constituents were told that Cian had to dispose of the cat for unknown reasons?

On an unrelated note, Cian. How long DOES it take to drown a kitten?”

Tally out

Features Editor Nicole Casey Irish Editor Cian Ó Tuathaláin Science, Health & Technology Editor Michael O’Sullivan Sports Editor Shane Hannon Otwo Co-Editors Steven Balbirnie Jack Walsh Games Editor Niall Gosker Film & TV Editor Laura Bell Music Editor Rebekah Rennick Fashion Editor Emily Mullen Chief Otwo Writer Emily Longworth Staff meterologist Cathal Nolan

letters to the editor

Staff Writers The Badger Louise Dolphin Orla Gartland Rebecca Hart @tila the Hun Mystic Mittens Robert Nielsen Talleyrand Laura Woulfe Contributors James Brady Anna Carnegie Jack Carolan Fergus Carroll Cian Carton Sinead Conroy Shane Corbett Amy Courtney Kelly Daly Eva Griffin Martin Healy Sara Holbrook Esther Hor Ciara Leacy Fionnán Long Grainne Loughran Jack McCann Orla McEvoy Andrew McKeown Emma Merrin Thomas Mitchell Declan Moran Claudine Murphy Ruth Murphy Ellen Murray Aoife Ní Chroidheáin Darragh O’Connor Mollie O’Keefe Louise O’Toole Corrine Owens Kate Purcell Joe Ronaldson Lucy Ryan Anne-Marie Stacey Grace Yu Illustrations Emily Longworth Michael Vance

Send your letters to editor@ universityobserver.ie

Chief Stylist Christin McWeeney

Dearest sir,

Thanks Dramsoc for the use of their dressing rooms. Richview Library staff. Emma Bolger in River Island and Katie from Shotsy. All the staff at the Student Centre. Eugene, Maeve and all the folks at Smurfit Kappa. Alex, Sorcha and everyone in the L&H. Sarah, Orla Gartland, Foil Arms and Hog

at least half of my degree. Obviously, this will not be the case for me now.

I am writing to you with regards to the I do not see what the building new Sutherland Law Building and the itself will offer over the current continued delay in its grand opening. Roebuck building, besides better As a final year law student, I came access to the rest of campus, better to UCD under the guise that I would classrooms, and hopefully comfier be able to use this new building for chairs. All of these would be nice,

but do they represent good value for the money spent on this project?

Furthermore, what will become of the soon-to-be defunct Roebuck facilities? There have been rumours circulating from the opening of a new bar to the opening of a some kind of shopping centre, although it will

probably just end up as another lake.

Those of us who know the college well will know that there is only one certainty in UCD, and that is there are never enough lakes, apparently.

Yours etc, Ella O’Connor

Photographers James Brady Joanna O’Malley

Special Thanks Whoever designed the men’s bathrooms just outside our office. The person who invented the internet. The little gender neutral lad under the c in Poliça.

Not Thanks Whoever designed those urinal cakes in the men’s bathrooms just outside our office. The Cincinnati Bengals. october 15th 2013

Hey guys, It’s Dylan, your Graduate Education Officer here.

I’ve had a few students getting in touch with me over the past few weeks who are conducting research and are looking into getting larger sample sizes to partake in their surveys.

If you are looking to find people to take a survey then get in touch with me at ‘graduate@ucdsu.ie’ with a detailed outline of what it is you’re doing and how many people you need, and I can help you with this!

My job is to be the voice of the graduate students on campus. You guys have spoken to me and let me know that this is something that you want. Make sure you check the SU Facebook page, and also www.ucdsu.ie over the coming weeks to find out how this is progressing.

Best of luck with it all!

KEEP UP TO DATE WITH ALL TRAVEL ARRANGEMENTS AT

OVER 18S | GOV ID REQUIRED | ROAR

october 15th 2013

“... I CAN HELP YOU WITH THIS!”

sport

You’ve been framed

17

In light of Stephen Lee’s ban for match fixing, Thomas Mitchell argues that snooker is a sport that needs to clean up its act

the utmost importance of the respectful nature of the crowd have enhanced the image of the game.

The world of snooker was rocked in 2006, when Australian Quinten Hann was proven guilty of agreeing to lose to Ken Doherty in exchange for, or in solicitation of, large sums of money. An eight-year punishment was imposed upon the man who was ranked 22nd in the world at the time.

It was the suspension of John Higgins that deeply damaged the brand. Ending the 2009/2010 season as world number one, Higgins was caught agreeing to, or failing to report, the transfer of money in exchange for manipulating the result of a game.

Although he was not found guilty of directly match-fixing, Higgins was suspended for six months and fined £75,000 for giving the impression that he would be willing to breach the rules and indeed accept a financial gain in doing so.

The Scotsman has since returned to snooker and his position as world number one, but his reputation, and indeed the reputation of the sport still bears the scars of his actions.

One heckler even labelled Higgins nearly impossible to earn a living as a disgrace to the game during his out of snooker when aged 50, a victory over Mark Williams in 2011. major financial blow considering The act of match-fixing, if Lee has already amassed over £2 notoriously hard to prove, is still million in career winnings so far. deemed rife in the dark catacombs The five-time tournament champion of snooker’s murky underbelly. In is rumoured to be considering an the aftermath of Lee’s ban, Ronnie appeal, but given the severity of the O’Sullivan claimed that there were ban, the WPBSA seem to be making many more similar incidents in the an example of an incident that has game. Before his death in 2010, Alex plagued the sport for decades.

Higgins claimed that, in his prime, he Pioneer of the sport, Joe Davis, a and many others were repeatedly the man viewed as an all-time snooker subject of efforts to throw competitions. icon, was himself reported to With the widespread condemnation have manipulated the direction of Lee from many within the sport, of particular games in order to including Barry Hearn and Judd generate excitement and income to Trump, plus the severity of the ban the growing sport in the 1930s. on one of the game’s higher profile As the game has grown and players, there is reason to believe that developed, match-fixing has snooker will be able to break away continued to be a trend within from the demons that have plagued the the game. The clean-cut image of sport. Let’s hope the next generation of the players, the strict obedience table talent will represent an altogether to the umpire’s decisions and cleaner frame of competition.

The great divergence of class interest in the sport left snooker in a position of almost inevitable vulnerability to the vultures of cheating and manipulation

status. The marginalisation of the working classes from the game, coupled with the rise of the pub as a communal being and the colour television era saw smaller, cheaper snooker clubs opened and, in doing so, the sport became a favourite of the blue collar, proletariat people.

Snooker developed in the same environment as games such as dominoes, darts and Aunt Sally. The nature of these games as part of the pub and leisure culture inevitably drew links to gambling. The great divergence of class interest in the sport left snooker in a position of almost inevitable vulnerability to the vultures of cheating and manipulation. The professionalisation of the sport only saw the stakes get higher and the vultures draw nearer.

Lee’s recent controversy is the latest in a long line of misdemeanours and corruptions seemingly haunting

Since the emergence of snooker as a professional entity in 1968, organisers have stressed the credibility and integrity of a sport long associated with match-fixing, gambling and cheating. With the recent suspension of former world number five Stephen Lee, the sport continues to fail to shake off the black cloud repeatedly snookering the future of the game.

Snooker finds itself in the curious position of a having a history defined by two polar opposite classes. The genesis and growth of the sport saw the upper classes and military leaders of the British Empire use snooker as a means of entertainment often at social events to impress certain social circles.

The game was a platform for the distinguished gentry to express the frivolity that was becoming of their

the sport. In a bold, if drastic attempt to nullify the demons of the game entirely, the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) has imposed a 12 year ban on the 38-year-old.

At this point in his career, Lee is unlikely to return to the professional circuit and almost certainly will not reach the heights of his 2000/01 and 2003/04 fifth placed world rankings.

The allegations date back to 2008 and in the following four years, Lee was found guilty of match-fixing in seven separate matches with three further matches also investigated.

The independent tribunal also judged in September that Lee was to pay costs of £40,000.

Despite calls for a lifetime ban from certain sections of the media and within the sport, Lee’s age and the growing competition in the sport suggests that he will find it

A punch-drunk sport The focus on money in professional boxing is in stark contrast to its amateur roots, writes Joe Ronaldson

Now a multi-million dollar industry, professional boxing consists of weigh-ins, face-offs, and trash talk sessions that end in media hype and edgy relations between boxers. It is sometimes forgotten that their whole purpose is to fight one another in a 20 x 20 foot ring.

This modern boxing, as some people now call it, is driven by money with greedy promoters and venue hosts raking in millions after a quick 12 round bout; if it even makes it that far. These showboating fighters are closer to being actors than boxers, with their seven figure pay checks and fanatical fame. No wonder they can’t resist the ring.

As the weight goes up, the showboating and everything else that goes with it grows. Ever since Muhammad Ali’s shuffle, the heavyweights have reined superior in showmanship terms.

The big men have always built up the tension, the drama and the image of a world heavyweight title fight. Is that what makes a great fight and a talented boxer?

These days it would almost be frowned upon to merely stroll into the ring without a favourite theme song blaring in the background.

Your fans may disrespect you for turning away first at a face off or even accuse you of cowardice.

These outside ring activities can distract and sometimes ruin young boxing talent, as they find it impossible to deal with all the distractions. With all this media attention it is easy to lose boxing focus for a place on the tabloid front pages or maybe even a $5,000 bonus from media interviews.

Some of the less successful boxers in the professional ranks are there solely to act as punching bags for new up and coming fighters. Money is the unfortunate catalyst in this equation, as top fighters will only dare to fight these promising young pros once they have weaved themselves through the hordes of money fighters.

There was nothing that resembled the professional side of the sport; no gimmicks, no acting, just two women desperate to claim what they had trained for and dreamt about for years

They have lost the ambition to be the best and are prepared to let themselves get pounded in the ring. There is little skill needed, just the talent to subject themselves to a heavy defeat in exchange for a healthy paycheck. This is the part of professional boxing that is hidden in the background away from the spotlight of the media.

A great example of a money fighter came last November when Freddie Flintoff overcame an unheard of American by the name of Richard Dawson. In this carnival-like fight, Dawson was just required to show up and let Freddie, the English cricket star, win his first ever professional bout.

Dawson was the sacrifice needed for Flintoff to appear a credible fighter. It was evident from the outset that money was the deciding factor in the fight rather than the skill of the boxers.

Yet, behind this mass of money

and self-obsessed fighters, there is a cleaner side to what was once called a gentleman’s game. Amateur boxing has still endorsed the more respectful and good-natured aspects of the sport and keeps the game great.

Amateur boxing in Ireland is centred around a community of volunteers trying desperately to keep kids off the streets and give them something to focus on.

When amateurs fight, there are no ring entrances, no face offs and certainly no money involved. It overshadows the professional game in terms of learning the virtues of respect and sportsmanship.

These great values have almost vanished from the professional game, without much deliberation or debate. Money has become the new valued prize of professional boxing; gone are the days when boxers fought for belts and pride.

Two fights can be used to illustrate this point. A heavyweight battle set

to demolish records in and out of the ring versus an inspirational yet sheepish Katie Taylor who was on her way to securing Ireland a priceless gold medal at the Olympic Games.

David Haye and Wladimir Klitschko in the battle of showmanship. Taylor and Sofya Ochigava in the more traditional battle. In the heavyweight clash that was to define a decade, millions watched as David Haye eventually bowed down to the dominant Ukrainian, Klitschko, with ‘The Hayemaker’ blaming a broken toe for his defeat.

The fight produced none of the drama that was once associated with the heavyweight division and the boxing world was left red-faced as this highly anticipated bout came to a very banal end. The arranged face-off between the fighters, the media hype that was created and the five-minute long ring entrances could not even produce a few decent rounds of boxing.

In comparison, the amateur protagonists did not have the same spin doctors behind the scene telling tales about how this bout was going to redefine boxing, but overall Taylor’s fight was a better spectacle.

Four two-minute rounds is all it took for Taylor to inspire Ireland as a nation and claim the gold medal.

It was breath-taking to watch as the two competitors put on a spectacular and inspiring display of boxing.

There was nothing that resembled the professional side of the sport; no gimmicks, no acting, just two women desperate to claim what they had trained for and dreamt about for years.

This is the level of excitement professional boxing should be aspiring towards. Perhaps one of the most exciting professional boxers in the world today is American Floyd Mayweather, but with a nickname like Moneybags, it is clear the professional game has taken a wrong turn somewhere along the road. october 15th 2013

18

sport

The best losers Many great teams and athletes have failed to achieve the success their ability has threatened to deliver, writes Shane Corbett Renowned as one of the best football sides of all time, the Dutch team at the 1974 World Cup in West Germany beat Brazil, East Germany and Argentina by a combined score of 8-0

When sports stars train so hard for the ultimate prize, only to be constantly toppled at the final hurdle, it can be understandably deflating. But for some, that deflating feeling is all-too familiar. There are many who are considered great in their respective sports but have been unable to claim the greatest prize on offer time and time again.

In snooker there is Jimmy “The Whirlwind” White, who lost six World Championship finals, including an amazing five in a row between 1990 and 1994. In golf, you have Colin Montgomerie, who has won the European Tour’s Order of Merit eight times but has never won a major.

Amazingly, he has finished runner up in a major on five different occasions. Paula Radcliffe is the women’s marathon world record holder. In fact, she holds four of the five fastest times ever, but she has never won an Olympic medal.

Then there is the Brazil team that failed to shine at the 1982 World Cup. Brazil have won the World Cup five times and produced arguably the world’s greatest ever soccer player in Pelé, however it is their 1982 team that is often considered one of their best of all time.

With the likes of Zico and Socrates at their disposal, many fancied them to win the tournament, however, they bowed out 3-2 to eventual winners Italy in what was then the second group round. Similarly, the Dutch “Total Football” team of 1974 are also regarded as a team that failed to follow through.

Renowned as one of the best football sides of all time, the Dutch team at the 1974 World Cup in West Germany beat Brazil, East Germany and Argentina by a combined score of 8-0. In the final against West Germany, they scored a goal after 80 seconds without the opposition

ever touching the ball, but West Germany eventually triumphed 2-1.

An excellent example of a great team who struggle for silverware is Mayo. Their loss to Dublin in this year’s All-Ireland football final was their sixth since 1996 and their second in a row. This ensured that their wait for an All-Ireland title will stretch into its 63rd year.

In the quarter-finals, Mayo produced the performance of the season to destroy the then reigning All-Ireland champions Donegal by sixteen points. Even before that, the signs were looking ominous for the other teams in the championship.

It seemed Mayo were intent on revenge after losing out to Donegal in the 2012 final. In the Connacht championship, Mayo defeated bitter local rivals Galway by 17 points, then Roscommon by 12, before demolishing London in the final by 16 points.

In contrast, Dublin, the 2011 champions, had come from behind to beat Kerry in the semi-final courtesy of two late goals. This led many to believe that this just might be Mayo’s year at last. In the final itself Mayo were leading at half-time only to lose by a single point.

After contesting four of the last ten finals, this Mayo team is undoubtedly very talented. Yet, after failing once more at the final hurdle, you have to wonder was that the last chance for this current generation of Mayo players?

The team that lost the final faded badly in the second half and looked a poor shadow of its former self. One theory for these consistent defeats at the final stage is overconfidence after being so dominant in the previous rounds and reaching the final without being pushed hard in any of the previous fixtures.

The pressure and weight of

expectation on a team or athlete’s shoulders grows when losing at the final stage becomes so regular.

Mayo were no different and had a 62 year bridge to gap since they last lifted Sam Maguire.

Perhaps they were just unlucky, or maybe it’s a mental block now after losing so many finals. In 1996, Mayo had led by six points in the second half, only for Meath to come back and in the dying seconds and score a long range point to force a replay.

Ten years later, in 2006, they seemed to suffer stage fright and lost to Kerry by a massive 13 points.

They also appeared to freeze initially last year after failing to score in the opening fifteen minutes.

Another popular theory is the curse. Mayo’s last All-Ireland winning team was the team of 1951.

At that time Mayo had just won back to back All-Ireland’s and had contested three of the previous four.

The story goes that on their victory drive home the team of ‘51 passed through Foxford where a funeral was taking place and they didn’t pay proper respect to it. This enraged the local priest who swore that as long as any member of that team still lived, Mayo would never win another All-Ireland title.

Now 62 years later, three members of that team survive and yet again Mayo have failed to win. Whatever the reason for their latest setback it will be very tough for Mayo to pick themselves back up to try again next year.

How well they manage to regroup will show us just how good this Mayo team is. If this current generation of Mayo stars fail to win an All-Ireland they will rank high on most peoples list of the greatest sporting teams to never win a title.

Clearly many great sporting teams and individuals seem to fall just short when the pressure is on. Whether or not they were cursed is debatable, but one thing’s for sure, these unlucky few may have been disappointed in terms of silverware, but their contributions to their respective sports cannot be understated.

Teenage dreams With teenager Shane O’Donnell bursting into the public spotlight at the All-Ireland Hurling Final, Ciara Leacy looks at other teenage prodigies that have fulfilled their early promise

A hat-trick of goals in an All-Ireland Final truly is the stuff dreams are made of. As Clare buried Cork’s hopes of bringing the Liam McCarthy Cup back to the banks of the River Lee, Shane O’Donnell from Ennis managed this incredible feat within the first 20 minutes of the game. He went on to score a total of 3-3 and bag the Man of the Match award. No mean feat for a lad who didn’t even know he was starting until the day of the match.

Perhaps the most incredible thing about this story though is the fact that at 19-years-old, O’Donnell is the youngest player on the Clare team. A student in University College Cork, he was lining out for the Clare minor team only last year.

While most of us idle away our teenage years, O’Donnell is one of a select group of young people who spend their time at perhaps more worthwhile pursuits. Back in 1995, another nineteen year old made his name in the GAA, though in football instead of hurling. Jason Sherlock was the young star of that All-Ireland winning Dublin team, and remained the darling of Hill 16 until his retirement earlier this year.

Stellar performances are not limited to young GAA players however. In 2002, a 16-year-old Wayne Rooney scored a last minute screamer for Everton to beat Arsenal and end their 30 game unbeaten run. Arsenal’s manager, Arsene Wenger, described Rooney as “a special talent” and “a big prospect for English football.”

Perhaps more widely remembered are commentator Clive Tyldesley’s prophetic words, “Remember the name. Wayne Rooney.” Rooney, as we all know, would go on to become one of the best players of the last decade, winning the Premier League five times to date with Manchester United.

Usain Bolt is another teenage prodigy who rose to fulfill the hype surrounding his sporting prowess.

Bolt is the most recognisable athlete of this generation and is fast becoming one of the alltime greats, ranking alongside october 15th 2013

Ye had been subject to a gruelling training regime in a statesponsored school since the age of 11.

She had been separated from her parents and only permitted to speak to them on the phone on Sundays

Ye Shiwen

true legends of sport such as Muhammed Ali and Pelé.

Before he dazzled us with his incredible performances in Beijing and London, however, the man dubbed ‘the Lightning Bolt’ was something of a prodigy in athletics.

In 2002, at the World Junior Championships in Kingston, Jamaica, a 15-year-old Bolt won the 200m gold medal, becoming the youngest male world junior champion in any event in the history of the competition.

A year later, he broke the world junior 200m record, an achievement he replicated the following year as he became the first teenager to run 200m in under 20 seconds.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Michael Phelps is another household name, and one of only a handful of sportspeople who could convincingly lay claim to the title of greatest sports star of all time. The most decorated Olympic athlete in history, Phelps boasts 22 Olympic medals, 18 of them gold. He first came to prominence when he broke the world record in the 200m butterfly

at the 2001 US Spring Nationals.

At 15 years of age, he was the youngest swimming world record holder ever. Later that year, he won the first of his many world titles.

In 2003, he set an unprecedented five individual world records at the World Championships just weeks after celebrating his 18th birthday.

At the same London Olympic games where Phelps cemented his status as one of the greatest Olympians ever, Plymouth-born diver Tom Daley was the poster boy for Team Great Britain at the age of 18, but in reality his sporting career began long before he bagged the bronze medal in the 10m Platform Final in the Aquatics Centre in Stratford.

In 2007, aged just 13, he was allowed to compete in the Australian Youth Olympics despite the fact that the minimum age for competing was 15. Nevertheless, he took home the silver medal in the 10m Platform Synchronised event. A year later, he won his first European title and reached two finals in the Beijing Olympics. All this before

he had even finished school.

In 2000, ten-year-old Michelle Wie shot to prominence when she became the youngest ever qualifier at the USGA Women’s Amateur Public Links Championship. Although she was young at the time, her golf career had begun years beforehand when she first played golf at the age of four.

At 13, she became the youngest player in history to play in an LPGA tour event, the Kraft Nabisco Championship. The following year, she became the first woman to shoot a below par round at a sanctioned men’s PGA event. In 2005, she finally turned professional at the tender age of 16 and since then has gone on to become an excellent golfer, becoming a regular on the LPGA tour.

Teenage success often comes at a high price, however. For many, it means an early end to the carefree days of childhood. For others, it signals something far more sinister.

In 2012, 16-year-old Ye Shiwen of China won two Olympic gold medals. Her win was shrouded in controversy however, with widespread

allegations of mistreatment of athletes such as Ye by their coaches.

It was revealed after the games that Ye had been subject to a gruelling training regime in a state-sponsored school since the age of 11. She had been separated from her parents and only permitted to speak to them on the phone on Sundays. More chillingly, there have also been allegations of beatings of young children in many of these schools as they strive for Olympic glory. Is this the price that must be paid for sporting success?

Thankfully, this does not hold true for the majority of cases. For most teenagers, sport is a healthy outlet for them to develop crucial leadership and interpersonal skills, while at the same time improving both their mental and their physical heath.

From the legions of young people who seek sporting success, only a few will emerge as true champions. These incredible talents will serve as inspiration for the next generation of young athletes, and so the cycle continues.

sport

The Race for Lombardi

19

With the new season in full swing, Fergus Carroll picks the teams and players to look out for as he makes his Super Bowl XLVIII predictions

With six weeks of NFL action in the books, we are starting to get an idea of the teams that will be contesting for silverware, and those who can start looking to next year. Hard luck Tampa Bay, Pittsburgh and Jacksonville.

The standout team thus far has been Peyton Manning’s Denver Broncos. Manning has been exceptional at Mile High Stadium, with the 37-year-old playing statistically better than he was a decade ago; and that’s after neck surgery.

It helps that he’s had plenty of offensive weapons at his disposal, including Tom Brady’s former target Wes Welker. Questions remain as to the quality of Denver’s defence, but as seen in their recent 51-48 shootout with Dallas, Peyton needs to be stopped if opposing teams are to have any chance of winning.

With an equally impressive start, the Seattle Seahawks are also looking like contenders. Led by the calm and self-assured Russell Wilson, they have an explosive offence that can score fast. Furthermore, none can underestimate the impact of their imperious defensive backs, the self-professed Legion of Boom.

Led by the polarising Richard Sherman, he is the bad cop to Wilson’s good. While they suffered a tough away loss to Indianapolis, the ‘Hawks have looked mightily impressive, particularly in their stunning 23-20 comeback win against Houston. After already besting last year’s Super Bowl runners-up, San Francisco, in a blowout, they look the team to beat in the NFC. From the best teams in the league, we turn to the worst. The hapless Jacksonville Jaguars, yet to even look like winning a game, entered the game against the Broncos in week six as one of the biggest underdogs in NFL history.

Denver managed to score more points in that shootout against Dallas than Gabbert and co managed to compile through the first five games of the season. If there is some consolation for the Jags fans, it’s that they’ll face little opposition for the number one draft pick.

The ability to drastically change

Denver managed to score more points in that shootout against Dallas than Gabbert and co managed to compile through the first five games of the season

one’s fortunes can be seen with the New Orleans Saints and the Kansas City Chiefs, who both went unbeaten through the first five weeks, despite neither side finishing with a winning record last year.

The Chiefs, under new Head Coach Andy Reid, have already surpassed their 2012 win total of two. With a strong defence and a more than competent Alex Smith, who was unceremoniously dumped mid-season last year by the San Francisco 49ers, the Chiefs are viable contenders.

The Saints, meanwhile, welcomed Sean Payton back from a year-long suspension, and enjoyed instant success with revitalised Drew Brees and a surprisingly strong defensive corps. If this continues, they will be looking to add to the Lombardi Trophy they won in 2010.

Undoubtedly, the surprise team so far have been the Cleveland Browns. The perennial AFC North

whipping boys, Cleveland sports teams have been the butt of US jokes recently. So much so, the phrase “God hates Cleveland” has become a common taunt.

After starting 0-2, it looked like business as usual for the Browns, until Cleveland native Brian Hoyer got a shot at quarterback and led the Browns to two straight wins.

This coincided with the Indians making the MLB play-offs.

Just as their fortunes seemed to be changing for the better, Cleveland fans endured the agony of the Indians getting booted out of the play-offs and losing Brian Hoyer to a season-ending torn ACL over two successive nights.

We have recently seen the emergence of the NFL becoming a passer-friendly league, after a number of rule changes to improve player safety. Despite these changes, the league’s most noted signal callers have enjoyed wildly contrasting starts.

The past two Super Bowl winning MVPs, Joe Flacco and Eli Manning, have been especially disappointing. The winless Giants have been plagued by turnovers and Eli has his share of blame to shoulder with bad decision-making.

The Ravens have somehow managed to stay in contention, despite Flacco’s poor form, who threw an astonishing five interceptions in their week 4 loss to Buffalo. They currently sit one game behind the Bengals, who top the AFC North.

Tom Brady, meanwhile, has been managing to win games even with a weak receiving corps, as the Patriots appear to be in control of a largely weak AFC East. They eagerly await the returns of Rob Gronkoski and Danny Amendola.

On the west coast, Philip Rivers has seen a welcome return to form for the Chargers while Tony Romo will be hoping to build on his fantastic,

albeit losing, effort against Denver, where he threw for 506 yards.

Finally, to Houston’s Matt Schaub who has thrown a pick-six in each of his last four games, leading some fans to burn his jersey in public and allow journalists to have a field day with headlines such as ‘Schaub Story in Houston’. His days in Houston may be numbered, as he went down injured last Sunday in a thumping against the lowly Rams.

So which team will be lifting the Lombardi trophy this February in New Jersey? To be honest, it is difficult to see the Super Bowl being contested by any teams other than Denver and Seattle.

After a gruelling contest in the cold conditions of New Jersey, Seattle could bring the Lombardi trophy back to the west coast. Russell Wilson and his teammates have the firepower and defensive steel to defeat the Denver juggernaut, the fact they have proven they can rally and win big games will prove invaluable.

The Badger In this issue’s much-anticipated column, your furry friend, The Badger, expresses his dismay at some recent events in the world of sport

Last week The Badger read rumours in his favourite newspaper, the Irish Daily Set, that disturbed him greatly. The word on the street was that the European Football Governing Body (UEFA) were considering expanding the European Championships to include Brazil, Argentina, Mexico and Japan.

The Badger’s first thought was that John Delaney must have received an early Christmas promotion and stumbled into the role of UEFA President, because who else would come up with such a far-fetched and not-verywell-thought-through plan?

Don’t get The Badger wrong, he wants to see Shinji ‘play-a-maker’ Kagawa play more regularly than he is at the moment under new

United manager Chris Moyles, but throwing Japan into the European Championships just to give him more game time seems a tad excessive.

The Badger thinks this rumour was concocted by someone with a very sick sense of humour, and he is thankful that UEFA have since denied the reports. The Badger is convinced that putting these four nations into the Euros would simply not work; much like putting ‘The Situation’ and his Jersey Shore mates into the Geordie Shore house in Newcastle wouldn’t work.

On a wholly unrelated note, the Badger noticed that Arsene Wenger wasn’t too pleased recently with the antics of one of his most-prized midfielders, Jack Wilshere, who was snapped smoking a cigarette outside

a nightclub. Wenger says this sort of conduct isn’t professional and that it isn’t a great example to set for budding young sports stars of the future.

The Badger agrees profusely with Mr. Wenger’s opinion, and feels that if you are getting paid to kick around a pig’s bladder for 90 minutes, you should stay in the fittest shape possible to do so as well as one can.

The Badger is going to ring Mr. Wenger this week and tell him that if he wants Jack to stop chewing on those cancer sticks all he has to do is lock him up on UCD Campus, where The Badger’s sources tell him smoking may soon be a no-no.

Not much is known about The Badger, but he is willing to admit that he has a natural flair for golf.

Perhaps it is the fact that the Badger’s

first home was in the hole on the 16th green of his local course, but he had to eventually move out as the rent was way over par.

Some good news now, and The Badger is aware that Tiger Woods recently helped the US clinch the President’s Cup, but that is not the reason the Badger is proud of the golfing great.

One female fan decided to get stark naked as Woods attempted to wrap up victory for the States, and he somehow managed to keep his composure. The Badger knows that the proud sex addict tends to get a tad excited at the sight of a pair of breasts, so The Badger is proud of his composed reaction.

points ahead of Shelbourne in 11th and Bray Wanderers in 12th position respectively. The Students need one point from their remaining two games to avoid direct relegation to the First Division, while a draw against Shelbourne in the final game of the season will see the students avoid the promotion/relegation play-off.

Past members include Olympian James Nolan (current UCD distance coach), World Indoor gold and European Outdoor silver medallist in the 100m hurdles Derval O’Rourke, along with Irish senior international athlete Joanne Cuddihy (400m).

Currently, the club boasts a number of junior, under-23, and senior international representatives and now provides training and competition for all abilities and levels of competition.

Teams regularly compete in track and field, road relay, mountain running, and cross country intervarsities, as well as the annual colours event with Trinity. Training is also provided for jumps, throws, sprints and distance athletes.

Badger Out.

Sports Digest UCD AFC draw with Drogheda United UCD AFC moved one step closer to ensuring their place in the Airtricity League for another season after holding Drogheda to a 1-1 draw in Hunky Dory Park. Robbie Benson scored the equalising goal for UCD on 33 minutes after the Students fell behind to an early goal from Peter Hynes after only 11 minutes.

UCD were lucky not to fall behind earlier in the fixture, as Drogheda were denied a penalty when the referee failed to notice that the arm of Mark Langtry deflected Gavin Brennan’s effort on goal after only three minutes. Brennan, however,

turned provider for Drogheda less than ten minutes later as he set up Hynes, who headed past UCD goalkeeper Conor O’Donnell.

UCD had plenty of chances to level the game before Benson eventually found the net. Sean Russell saw his free-kick from 20 yards out saved by Gabriel Sava in the Drogheda goal, while Craig Walsh was denied by the frame of the goal on the half hour mark.

The second half saw both sides cancel each other out. Drogheda had the best chance to win the game in injury time, but Mark Langtry blocked Gavin Brennan’s shot to ensure UCD left Hunky Dory Park with a point.

Sitting in 10th place on the Airtricity League table, with 27 points after 31 games played, UCD are six

Athletics The UCD Athletics Club looks to continue their tradition as one of the most successful intervarsity club in Irish sport. The Athletics Club has a proud history of developing talent and has produced more Olympians and World Championship competitors than any other UCD sports club.

Camogie The UCD Camogie club will field three teams in the Higher Education League and championship competitions this year. The Senior 1 team is to compete in the Ashbourne Cup and AllIreland league, while the Senior 2 team will be challenging for the regional league and championship.

Meanwhile, the freshers team will take part in the Higher Education fresher competitions and 7-a-side blitzes during the academic year.

The Senior 1 team have drawn WIT and NUIG in their group to achieve their minimum goal of reaching the Ashbourne weekend, which is being hosted by UUJ this February. WIT beat UCD last

year in the semi-final in Limerick and went on to win it outright, by beating UL in extra time. UCD are also in a group with DIT, DCU, and UUJ starting from the 18th of October.

The Ashbourne team will be managed this year by Declan Phelan and Simon Aylward. They have big shoes to fill, with last year’s managers Graeme Dillon and Niall Williams nominated for Camogie Managers of the Year for their efforts with the Kilkenny camogie team.

Shane Hannon

october 15th 2013

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sport Back to reality for Marian UCD Marian 87 Killester 93

photo kevin beirne

UCD Marian kicked off their season with a hard-fought defeat against first-placed Killester in the UCD Sports Centre last Saturday night.

The visitors rallied from a two-point deficit at half to time leave Belfield as eventual winners, building on their 79-61 dismantling of Dublin Inter in the first week of action.

Conor Meany was the stand-out player for a UCD Marian side who were ultimately undone by their own indiscipline. New head coach Ioannis Liapakis will be encouraged by certain aspects of Marian’s play, but he will have to address the team’s fitness levels, as they allowed the game to get away from them late in the fourth quarter.

The defeat marked the first game of the Liapakis era, who joins UCD Marian from DCU, where he won the U-20 National Cup with DCU Mercy.

Liapakis arrived in UCD over the sum-

mer with a European pedigree already, having spent some time as a coach with AEK Athens in his native Greece.

Killester got out to an early start in the game, establishing a fivepoint lead after the opening five minutes, although they did not hold the lead for long as UCD tied the game at 16-a-piece, following an impressive three-pointer from the in-form Meany two minutes later.

The sides traded scores for the remainder of the opening quarter, as UCD Marian took a 24-22 lead into the second period of play.

Marian were allowed to pick up some cheap points in the first quarter, as Killester found themselves with three players on two fouls early on.

Marian began the second period with a blitz of their guests, as they opened up a 31-26 advantage, outscoring the visitors 7-2 in the first minute and a half of the quarter.

Killester needed to find a way to stop the momentum the home side were building up to avoid falling too far away, and the phenomenal Isaac Westbrooks did just that.

As UCD marched towards the basket, Westrbrooks stepped forward to make a crucial steal and he made no mistake in turning the tables and driving to the Marian basket to pull Killester to within three points.

But it wasn’t long before UCD drew the lead out to six points, their largest lead of the night. Liapakis decided to call a time out with just over five minutes remaining in the half, a decision that he may look back on and regret.

Almost immediately after the time out, he was forced to take Neil Baynes off to avoid him picking up too many fouls as UCD’s indiscipline allowed Killester to whittle away at their lead by putting up five unanswered points.

A neat basket for UCD as the shot

clock expired was quickly followed by two baskets in twenty seconds by the visitors, as Killester regained the advantage for the first time since the seventh minute of the game Again, the sides traded baskets, although UCD proved to be a little more prolific than Killester as they went into the half time break with the score sitting at 48-46, a fair reflection of how close the first half’s proceedings had been.

The third quarter was the closest of the entire game, as neither team could establish any sort of dominance over the other, with nether side opening up a gap of more than four points on their opponents.

The teams looked perfectly matched, as every three-pointer by one side was immediately followed by a similar play by the other. A Killester time out with just over six minutes remaining in the quarter

was to prove a turning point, as they were able to plan a turnaround from a two-point deficit to a four-point lead by the end of the quarter.

Both teams were visibly tired, as the final period of the game opened with neither of the two sides able to register a single point for the first 80 seconds, until Kevin Foley sunk a three-pointer that brought the crowd to life.

The home fans were doing their best to cheer their team on to an opening day victory, but Michael Westbrooks followed up Foley’s three-pointer with a three-point play of his own, as he made an impressive basket, despite being fouled in the process. He then cooly slotted home the free-throw, despite the home fans’ best attempts to distract him.

Spurred on by the crowd, Meany once again drove home a sweet basket to reduce the gap, but a minute later Mike Bonaparte struck back with an immense

slam dunk. It only took Marian a few seconds to respond, as they took the lead through a perfect three-point effort.

Unfortunately, it was to be their last lead of the game, as they could not capitalise on the visitors’ inaccuracy from the free-throw line.

Although he struggled to convert his free-throws, Bonparte recorded another powerful dunk to emphasise Killester’s late-game dominance, as they eventually ran out 87-93 winners.

Marian now look forward to a meeting with a Moycullen team who finished on the same amount of points as them last season. Although they lost on Friday, UCD will travel to Galway on Saturday with the confidence that they can pull out a win. Moycullen, meanwhile, go into the game on the back of two defeats, both by more than ten points. kevin beirne

From relegation candidates to title contenders Following the club’s opening day victory over YMCA and a loss at the hands of Three Rock Rovers, Jack McCann previews the prospects for UCD Men’s hockey for the rest of the season With more scholarships being offered to hockey players, the club was able to attract players who were part of the Irish and Provincial hockey set-up

photo killian woods

UCD men’s hockey started their league campaign with a well-earned 4-2 away victory against YMCA in Claremont Road, followed by a tightly contested away game against Three Rock Rovers, which saw them succumb to a 2-1 defeat.

The summer additions of Kirk Shimmins and Peter Brown from Pembroke and Banbridge respectively, has added to an already strong squad, and shows the desire of the team to push on from their top four finish last season.

Last season, UCD men’s first team bucked the trend of the previous half dozen seasons by transforming themselves from being perennial relegation contenders to potential league winners.

With more scholarships being offered to hockey players, the club october 15th 2013

was able to attract players who were part of the Irish and provincial hockey set-ups. Players like Shane O’Donoghue came to UCD and were able to form a strong core to a team coached last season by Rory O’Donoghue and Paul Fitzpatrick.

The addition of Fitzpatrick brought an added edge and competitiveness that the squad had previously been lacking. The results were visible almost instantly, as they became harder to beat and the defence was stronger than ever.

UCD were finally able to compete with, and even beat, some of the more established men’s teams like Pembroke and Monkstown, who both had settled squads compared to the merry-go-round of college teams.

Beating Monkstown 2-1 in the last game of the season to confirm a top

four finish meant the team were able to look forward to a place in the Irish Hockey League for the first time in the history of the club.

This season, because of the temporary nature of college sports clubs, UCD have lost a couple of key players; with Keith Kenning and Patrick Shanahan moving on.

The additions to the midfield added significant quality to the pool of players at the disposal of the coach Rory O’Donoghue. Shimmins and Brown are expected to bring an added quality to a team that was considered to be fairly settled last season, with many players entering their third or fourth year in the squad.

This new blood will also create fierce competition for places, which should only benefit the team in the long run, as everyone pushes

for a place in the 16-strong squad for each game. Being able to call upon experienced players like Shane O’Donoghue, Nick Burns and Luke Chadwick will be vital in the team’s attempt to keep the momentum of last season.

As well as the highly impressive top four finish last season, UCD won the Under-21 Cup and reached the semi-final of the Neville Cup. Their pre-season ended with a string of good performances in a tournament hosted at the National Hockey Stadium in Belfield.

At the tournament, UCD beat Glenanne, Cork Church of Ireland, and UCC, only faltering when they came up against the formidable Instonians side. Considering many of the players had only returned from working or holidays abroad

the week before the tournament, the performances produced in this preseason event were an impressive sign of things to come this season from UCD. The first game of the league season against Monkstown was postponed to allow the club an extra week to get the team organised.

They ultimately won their first game against YMCA, which is the first time the team have won their opening league game.

Last weekend was meant to be the first double game weekend of the season for the team, but, due to a lack of umpires, their postponed game against Monkstown from round one of the campaign had to be pushed back again.

A double game weekend would be a significant test of UCD’s abilities at this early stage of the season and would have showcased the squad’s strength in depth. It certainly would have tested their big-game pedigree, as both Monkstown and Glenanne harbour aspirations of major honours this season.

If UCD are to fulfil their potential and push on from the success they enjoyed in the previous season, they are going to need to shore up their defence, which has conceded eight goals in the first three games. They’ll be hoping that players like O’Donoghue, Shimmins and Brown can stay fit throughout the whole season, as these are the type of players who can change a game in an instant.

Although the results of the opening fixtures of this season have been relatively disappointing, the performances are certainly encouraging. A top four finish for UCD this season would still represent progress for a team that has been very inconsistent over the past several seasons. With the additions to the squad boosting the quality of the team, maybe even loftier heights are within reach.