THIRD LEVEL IN IRELAND Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Trinity senator Ivana Bacik on the fallout from the Savita Halappanavar tragedy, page 12.
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The University Times Hist to pursue electoral reform Jack Leahy News Editor THE COLLEGE Historical Society will pursue reform of its electoral laws in Hilary Term, The University Times has learned. A Law Reform Sub-Committee will be established in Hilary Term to act upon the recommendations of the electoral-subcommittee after concerns were raised as to the size of the electorate for recent byelections. The subcommittee, which will be appointed in the fi rst teaching week of Hilary Term, includes in its terms of reference remit to suggest reforms in the society laws to ‘normalise the levels of attendance expected at debates from members to determine their eligibility to vote in by-elections of the Society.’ Th ree formal submissions were made to the subcommittee in relation to the size of the electorate during the recent electoral period, while a number of members of the society spoke to The University Times to express concern that the highest affairs of a society of 2,000 members was being decided by the votes of 29 people. Hist laws currently require that an individual seeking franchise in an election has attended three ‘ordinary weekly meetings’ (debates) of the Society during the session in which the by-election is held. However, the resignations of auditor John Engle - as well as ordinary members of committee Caoimhe Stafford and Kirsten Nelsen-de Búrca - in late October prompted a major election after only five such meetings had taken place. Th is lead to 29 members initially being declared eligible to vote with a further 25 added upon the success of viva voce appeals and email submissions requesting reconsideration of eligibility. The society’s laws require that a new electorate be assumed if an election takes place six weeks or more into a new session of the society. As Ruth Hoey’s election to the position of treasurer took place in week five of
Michaelmas Term, the society were permitted by their own laws to franchise the same individuals who elected the committee at the society annual general meeting in March. The necessarily lower ratio of attendance required for elections held in the traditional period at the end of term made that electorate considerably larger at a maximum of 72. The electoral subcommittee’s detailed report on the elections indicate that ordinary members of the society and members of committee had expressed concerns as to the ‘unrepresentative’ size of the electorate. One such regret was formally submitted by former auditor Engle, who eventually resigned in October after it was revealed in late September that he had taken an unathorised €2,000 loan from the society during the summer. ‘Engle’s submission’, said the authors of the report, ‘expressed concerns about the size of the electorate, the eligibility of the Inaugural and the defi nition of eligible meetings in the Laws.’ Engle argued that the Inaugural, an annual event at which the society auditor presents a paper and invites response from academics and notable figures, be considered when appeals to franchise were being considered. Traditionally the event has taken place in late Hilary Term but Engle presented his Pax Americana paper on US foreign relations before his resignation in October. At the end of the 2010/2011 academic year, the University Philosophical Society amended its laws to enfranchise those members who had attended a particular number of the society’s activities, rather than specifically evening debates. The move was considered reflective of the broad nature of the society’s activities and allows for a large yet intimate electorate, but the Hist’s electoral subcommitee report affi rms its debate-only entitlement in stating that ‘attendance at debates is not felt to be an unfair condition for electoral entitlement.’
“Exclusion in college is one of the biggest problems for students
Leanna Byrne, How Prevelant is Bullying on Campus, page 7
“Abercrom-
Adding a touch of class: DUPA host photography exhibition in campus rooms. Photo: Cat O’Shea
CSC evict Sci-Fi society from coveted House 6 room Hannah Ryan News Staff THE UNIVERSITY Times has learned that the Central Societies Committee (CSC) executive committee has voted to move the Dublin University Science Fiction Society out of its allocated room in House 6 to a room shared with DU Gamers Society in the Arches in Goldsmith Hall. The decision was reportedly announced by Ronan Hodson, honorary treasurer of the CSC, at a recent meeting of the executive committee. The official reason given is that the society are not making full use of such a large space - the biggest society space in House 6 - and that the ever-growing number of recognised societies dictates that no society can justify having a room for its exclusive occupation. The decision to move the society from its current location was made on Wednesday 14th November, but the society was not informed of
the decision for a further 26 hours, by which stage The University Times was already aware of the outcome of the meeting. Speaking to The University Times, a Sci-Fi Society source has said that this decision has ‘long been in the making’ and expressed the society committee’s collective suspicion that the room was being earmarked for Q Soc in their stead. Th is sus-
suggestions when speaking to The University Times on Sunday afternoon. The society have claimed that the decision was announced by Hodson at the end of the meeting. The position of honorary treasurer is non-voting and does not imbue the holder with decision-making authority. Sci-Fi committee members approached the CSC on
CSC Secretary David Doyle: “This was the decision that the exec felt was the best for societies in general” picion, said the spokesperson, is based on Hodson and CSC secretary David Doyle’s shared affi liation to Q Soc. Doyle held the position of auditor in the most recent academic year and Hodson held the same position in his days as a student. The spokesperson also questioned whether or not quorum was reached at the meeting of the executive. Doyle denied both of those
Friday to request a copy of the minutes of the meeting but that request was denied on the basis that sensitive information had been relayed in another part of the meeting. A further request for the minutes of the relevant section of the meeting only was also denied. A University Times source indicated that this was indeed the case, but Doyle
stated that the decision was that of the executive and that quorum was in fact reached at the meeting: “it was an exec decision…exec voted on it.” When questioned about the suggestion that Q Soc would replace Sci-Fi in the room, he said that “the list of who’s moving in hasn’t been decided yet…all this movement is part of a larger movement of all societies. Th is was the decision that the exec felt was best for societies in general.” A member of the DU Gamers Society committee, who would be sharing its space with Sci-Fi if the move goes ahead, has expressed concerns to The University Times that there is no room for another society in their room in Goldsmith Hall. Doyle refuted this claim, stating: “it’s been assessed by the CSC exec and it’s felt that there is defi nitely room for both societies.” When asked about the subject, and the prospect of several societies being
TIMESFEATURES
TIMESOPINION
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Hubie Pilkington, a man who refuses to sell out to the realities of modern consumerism, continues his discovery of the finer things in student living.
In light of the tragic death of Savita Halappanavar, Trinity Senator Ivana Bacik calls for legislative reform.
Rory McCarthy reports on DUFC’s thumping victory over UCD at College Park.
Conor Murphy and Conor Kenny go head-to-head on whether Irish men have a romantic bone in their bodies.
Conor Bates remembers Drazen Petrovic, the man who eclipsed the NBA before dying in a tragic accident at the height of his powers.
Shauna Watson reviews the best places to sit and relax on campus.
moved in to share Sci Fi’s room, Sam Heavey, treasurer of the society, stated emphatically that “I am not happy with the decisions… the logic, we believe, is unsound. We have addressed our concerns with the CSC, but they refused to acknowledge it. We may have a chance as they did say we can write a proposal and officially submit it to them. “Our proposal is simply to move some other societies into the room with us that have already agreed to it, if the CSC allows.” Asked if he thought the move to be a form of punishment for the society’s unsatisfactory accounts for 2011/12 and poor security of its room that led to €1,000 being stolen during broad daylight, Heavey said “I do not believe that we are being punished. They claim to have had plans to move societies, although it possibly put us in the spotlight.” Additional reporting by Jack Leahy
bie may not be the problem, but merely a symptom of it Louise Duffy, What Lies Behind the Smile, page 8
“There is an
obvious truth in saying traditional romance is dead Conor Murphy, Are Irish Men Useless at all Things Romantic?, page 11
Aoife Considine, In a Man’s World, page 10
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Irish-American culture is its own phenomenon, and with Barack Obama’s grandfather’s grandfather hailing from Moneygall, we talk to this distant cousin about the world’s most powerful chancer.
Tuesday, November 20,2012 | The University Times
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UTNEWS Whats happening on campus?
Shona McGarry Societies Editor This week the second half of Michaelmas kicks off at DU Players with Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, directed by Chris O’Connor, showing every day at 1pm. Conor Clancy directs the comic book adaptation The Killing Joke at 7pm, with a 5pm show on Wednesday, to be followed by an Acoustic Chill Night in the theatre. Head over to Studio 191 on Tuesday 20th at 4pm for a Free Tap Class, courtesy of DU Dance. Meanwhile, DUGES team up with Oxfam on the 21st for a talk on Ending Poverty Starts With Women, starting at 7.30pm in the Swift Theatre in the Arts Block. On Wednesday 21st, in celebration of Shag Week, Food and Drink are holding an interactive Edible Desires night, featuring foods ‘to boost your sex drive’. The four euro tickets are available in the Arts Block from 10am on the morning of the event. The Hist debate on Wednesday starts at 7.15pm in the GMB, with the motion that This House Believes in a United States of Europe, while the Finals of the Eamonn O’Coine Memorial Maidens take place at The Phil on Thursday at 7.30pm. DU Scan Soc embark on their much-anticipated IKEA Trip this Thursday at 4pm, which includes a Scavenger Hunt and a free IKEA dinner for the lucky winners. Sign up on Monday and Tuesday in the Arts Block to snap up one of the 25 places. This week also marks Trinity FM’s annual bi-monthy Broadcast Week, which gets underway with a ‘super fun mega party’ on Wednesday evening from 7.30-10pm in the Eliz Room of House Six. This is followed on Thursday at 9am with the Naked Radio Broadcast. On Thursday 29th they host their Annual Pub Quiz in MacTurcaill’s at 7pm, which promises ‘TFM banter’ as well as prizes for the winners. Next week Q Soc host the Opening Ceremony of their 30th Anniversary with a Gala, Reception, Exhibition, and Launch of a Commemorative Publication marking the occasion. The festivities take place on Monday 26th November in the Dining Hall at 7.30pm, and guests include David Norris and historian Tonie Walsh. Also on Monday, the Theological Society host Fr Peter McVerry, who talks about leading A Religious Life Combating Homelessness in the GMB. Finally, this year the 24 Hour Musical returns as part of the Trinity Fringe Festival. Auditions are taking place on the 30th November, with the musical itself going up on the 1st of December in Players with all proceeds going to charity. Want your society featured here? Email societies@universitytimes.ie with all your upcoming event details
The University Times Th is newspaper is produced with the fi nancial support of Trinity College Students’ Union. It is editorially independent and claims no special rights or privileges.
Credits EDITOR Owen Bennett DEPUTY EDITOR Leanna Byrne NEWS EDITOR Jack Leahy FEATURES EDITOR Colm O”Donnell OPINION EDITOR Matthew Taylor SPORTS EDITOR Conor Bates DEPUTY NEWS EDITOR Fionn O’Dea DEPUTY FEATURES EDITOR Molly Rowan Hamilton DEPUTY OPINION EDITOR Conor Murphy PHOTO EDITOR Cat O’Shea Magazine Editor Tommy Gavin Magazine Deputy Editor Michelle O’Connor MUSIC EDITOR Eoin Hennessy FILM EDITOR Robert O’Reilly CULTURE EDITOR Maria Giulia Agostini FASHION EDITOR Aoife Considine CREATIVE DIRECTORS Caelan Rush & Rob Boland WEB EDITOR Josh Roberts
A week in the life of Trinity’s Twitterati Ronan Mc Guire
Kevin Humphreys TD
Eanna Drury
@Ronan_Mc_Guire
@KHumphreys
@ EannaDrury
Mid November and College still haven’t registered me despite all fees paid...pull the finger out TCD #whingetweet
Sorry I won’t be able to make public meeting, speaking in Dáil at 8 with vote at 9 @tcdsu
I know what’ll make Michael Noonan and Ruairi Quinn stop cutting education in the next budget, I’ll turn my back to them in the Dáil.
Shauna Watson
Fi Hyde
James Downey @JamesDowney
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@andgoseak
The climbing Santa is back in the Jervis shopping centre. No one can hate on Christmas when climbing santa is around.
The bravest act in student politics since Zack stood up for Chicano rights in Saved by the Bell.
Imagine being in a hospital and being repeadedly denied a medical procedure you know you need to live, while in agony. You’re in Ireland
ESRI proposes graduate tax » Scheme would see students pay back cost of degree over 15 year period. » Similar scheme in place in UK, Australia and Canada » Cost to students higher than current €2,250 Student Contribution charge
Jack Leahy News Editor THE ECONOMIC and Social Research Institute has submitted proposals to Minister for Education and Skills Ruairí Quinn that would see third-level students fund their degrees through a graduate-tax-style system. Ireland’s leading economic think-tank has proposed a system whereby students would pay back the cost of their degree over a suggested period of 15 years once they achieved a certain income level. It is understood that students would ultimately contribute more towards their degree than the current student contribution charge of €2,250. The system is formally known as an Income-Contingent Loan (ICL) Scheme and is already in place as a third-level funding model in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Canada, and Australia. An ICL scheme is just one of a number of radical funding reform proposals being examined by the Minister, but if enacted will effectively remove up-front fees. Alternatively, the state will ‘loan’ the cost of a degree programme to the student and will recoup the cost through taxation over
a maximum period of 15 years. Th is type of scheme is distinct from the traditional graduate tax, whereby those who complete an undergraduate degree face a higher rate of taxation throughout the rest of their professional lives. An ICL scheme involves a direct levy from pay packets over a specified amount of time. The ERSI has declined to expand on the what level of contribution is referred to in its proposal, but notes that the immediate benefit of such a scheme would be to take pressure off families who are struggling to meet the costs associated with higher education and the ever-rising student contribution charge. Middle-income families whose children do not qualify for a state maintenance grant are cited as a major beneficiary of such a scheme and the paper’s authors believe that Ireland is ‘well-placed’ to implement the funding model. The paper was released by the Higher Education Authority (HEA) on Friday as part of the statutory body’s examination of the future landscape of higher education in Ireland. A preliminary report on such was released earlier this year and
all higher-education institutes were requested to issue a strategic response. It takes into account projections for student numbers, expected to rise by more than 40,000 by the year 2020, and the €500m a year that the third-level sector will require to meet rising demand. A fi nal report will be submitted to Quinn in April as he looks to radically reform funding in third-level education. Analysis of institutional responses Strategic responses to the HEA’s ‘Future Landscape of Higher Education’ were also published by the authority on Friday. Institutional Responses to the Landscape Document and Achieving the Objectives of the National Strategy for Higher Education: A Gap Analysis refers positively to Trinity’s concentration on inter-institutional association, but notes an unwillingness to fully integrate the likes of Marino College of Further Education and Church of Ireland College of Education. The analysis refers implicitly to a proposed merger between UCD and Trinity, a formal proposal of which was submitted by
A full report on alternative higher education funding models will be presented to Minister Quinn next April. an international panel last week. While noting that the universities have made significant advances on cooperation, it cites ‘little evidence’ of any desire to collaborate further: ‘The institutions refer to several areas of collaboration between them and with other institutions, including a major effort to extend and enhance cooperation between TCD and UCD specifically. The two institutions have developed process to strengthen collaboration in Teaching and Learning and to “evaluate opportunities for collaboration in education, de-duplication and the sharing of resources”.
TCDSU votes against reform of Universities act Elizabeth Brauders News Staff ON TUESDAY November 13th the Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union Council voted to oppose the passing of the Universities (Amendment) Bill of 2012. Th is act has been proposed by the government to allow the Minister for Education and Skills to assume administrative functions of a
servants. College maintains that there was no breach of the agreement, as the employees in question were not covered by the Higher Education Authority grant, and in voting against the reform, the Students’ Union is supporting the college in its decision. The wording of the motion introduced by TCDSU President Rory Dunne recognized the principles
a university was “entitled to regulate its affairs in accordance with its independent ethos and tradition … in regard to … iii) its obligation to public accountability”. It also gave Trinity additional freedoms not afforded to others, as some 6 sections of the Act do not apply to the university. The proposed amendment adds in a section which, amongst other
SU President Rory Dunne introduced the motion to SU Council and focused on the principles of academic freedom and their ‘crucial role” restoring economic prosperity. University in relation to renumeration, staff numbers, and pay. Ministerial powers will not be extended beyond those already granted by law. Last year, two lecturers and a library worker were given compulsory redundancy in Trinity College Dublin, which the labour court ruled was in breach of the Croke Park Agreement, which guarantees that in the period of 2010-2014, there ought to be no compulsory redundancies for public
of academic freedom and its ‘crucial’ role in restoring economic posterity. Some representatives disagreed that the College should be encouraged to act contrary to the national framework for public sector employment but the vote was ultimately passed. The proposed bill is an amendment to the original Universities Act of 1997, which gave Ireland’s universities a certain autonomy, the right to academic freedom and which stated that
things, gives the Minister for Education the power to “give a direction in writing to that university requiring it to comply with a… policy decision made by the Government or the Minister in so far it relates to the remuneration or numbers of public servants employed in that university, or … collective agreement entered into by the Government or Minister. It also allows for a report
on the operation of a university, carried out by a person or persons appointed by the Minister after which the Minister can specify in writing directions and measures to be implemented. The bill requires the university to comply with any of these orders from the minister, and would give him the power to reverse TCD’s decision to make the above employees redundant. Many also fear the bill will interfere with the academic freedom of Ireland’s universities, and impose government control over various areas of thirdlevel education, while others believe it may just be a warning and that the powers it grants the government would never be used. A similar motion was passed by University College Dublin Students’ Union Council last week, while the Union of Students in Ireland has no mandated position on the ame
‘Academic unit heads in the two universities are engaged in detailed discussions with their counterparts to identify opportunities for collaboration in the provision of joint programmes, the mutual recognition of credits and the sharing of physical and human resources. To support these processes the universities intend to establish a formal framework to remove structural impediments to effective collaboration. ‘While the intentions of the universities are to take these collaborative efforts seriously, there is little evidence of the outcomes that these efforts have generated
thus far, and there appears to be no desire to take collaboration further. There is also no indication that any rationalisation of courses in expensive areas such as medicine or engineering is being contemplated.’ Quinn’s distaste for certain proposals including the loan scheme and the TCDUCD merger was evident in a statement released last night. He said he was anxious that the review adhered to government policy adding that “any divergence has the potential to significantly derail the process of reform which is already well underway”.
Oireachtas na samhna rathúil arís Ciara Heneghan Comhfhreagaí na Gaeilge D’EAGRAÍODH AN chéad turas ag an gCumann Gaelach i mbliana ag tús na míosa seo na chuig Oireachtas na Samhna i Leitir Ceanainn. Dúirt Pádraig Schaler, ball choiste, nach raibh ticéad fágtha ag an gcumann fiche nóiméad tar éis an seastán a oscailt. Is ócáid í a dhíríonn ar na healaíona dúchasacha agus ar nualitríocht na Gaeilge. Tá an féile ag cur fáilte ‘roimh óg agus aosta, scríbhneoir, fi le, amhránaí, damhsóir, ealaíontóir, scéalaí, aisteoir, aithriseoir, cumadaóir ceoil agus amhrán, ceoltóir agus pobal na Gaeilge, in Éirinn agus thar lear’ le níos mó ná 100 bliain anois. Ní raibh aon ionadh ag Reachtaire Andrew King faoin éileamh. ‘I gconaí téann slua againn go dtí an Oireachtas, is traidisiúin é a bhunaíodh i bhfad siar i stair an chumainn, ceann láidir, beomhar, gan aon mheath.’ Chuaigh thart ar 130 mac léinn go Leitir Ceanainn chun páirt a ghlacadh in Oireachtas na Samhna 2012. Príomhfhéile bhliantúil de chuid na nGael atá i gceist leis agus bhí na mac léinn in éineacht le 10,000 duine eile
a bhí i láthair ag an bhféile. Ghlac ós cionn 650 mac léinn ó 20 coláiste páirt ag an gcéad imeacht den deireadh seachtaine, Coisir na Mac Léinn oíche Dé hAoine san Óstán Clanree. Bhuaigh Coláiste na Tríonóide an duais don choláiste is fearr gléasta ar an oíche agus ina theannta sin bhí na buaiteoirí don ‘fheisteas is fearr’ sa chéad agus sa dara áit againn. Bhí Aodhan Ó Deá i gceannais ar an imeacht agus dúirt sé: ‘Ba iontach an rud é an méid is mó Mic Léinn riamh a fheiceáil ag Oireachtas na Samhna i mbliana gan aon lóistín oiriúnach dóibh. Taispeáineann sé cé chomh tiomantá is atá na Cumainn Gaelaigh don Ghaeilge go raibh daoine sásta fanacht i gclubteach CLG nó Portacabin ionas go raibh siad in ann freastal ar na himeachtaí i mbliaina.’ Bhí rath ag baill an chumainn ó thaobh ceoil de chomh maith i mbliana. Bhuaigh Éanna Drury an chéad duais i gcomórtas na píbe agus fuair Ruaidhrí Mac Aodhagáin an triú duais i gcomórtas an Veidhlín. Beidh féile na bliana seo chugainn ar siúl i gCill Airne, Co. Chiarraí ó 1 – 3 Samhain 2013.
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The University Times | November 20, 2011
UTNEWS
Logue arrested at Dáil following townhall meeting » Students from TCD, DIT and NCI attend meeting on cost of education. » Labour TD Ó Ríordáin clashes with USI President over cutbacks in education budget » Logue arrested for disobeying Dáil standing orders Fionn O’Dea Deputy News Editor THE UNION of Students in Ireland (USI) hosted a public meeting on the cost of education last Wednesday evening in Dublin’s Alexander Hotel as part of their ongoing pre-budget ‘Fed Up? Stand Up’ campaign. The event was co-hosted by Trinity’s Students’ Union as well as the Students’ Unions of National College of Ireland and Dublin Institute of Technology. The evening comprised of speeches from USI President John Logue and by the SU presidents of each participating university including Trinity’s Rory Dunne. USI launched their current campaign on October 20th and have been hosting similar meetings across the country. Th is meeting was the 10th of 17 being hosted around the country before the government budget for the forthcoming year is announced. The meeting acted as a forerunner to a Dáil vote on education, a vote subsequently attended by the vast majority in attendance at the meeting, most notably Logue who was arrested for refusing to comply with Dáil standing orders. TCDSU President Dunne was the fi rst to speak and revealed that this year, for the fi rst time, TCDSU’s Welfare
Officer has been keeping a box of food under her desk for students going hungry due to fi nancial pressures. He mentioned that Ireland is a country at a cliff face, the ‘tipping point how it treats education.’ Referring to the pre-election pledge signed by Education Minister Ruairí Quinn not to raise 3rd level fees should Labour come into power, Dunne commented that he hoped Quinn kept to this trend and reverse his decision to add €250 to the current contribution fee until it reaches €3,000 in 2015. ‘We can’t dig our way out of recession; we are stripping this country of its potential.’ Dunne also slammed the absent Kevin Humphreys TD, claiming the deputy has ‘left his principles at the door of the Dáil.’ Humphreys, a Labour Party TD representing Dublin South East, has been the target of a pressure campaign by TCDSU of late and his absence sparked a reaction among students on Twitter before the event. Despite Humphreys’ absence, Dunne appeared to send him a message, saying that ‘this isn’t about votes or policies, this is about your epitaph’ before claiming to the assembled students: ‘If the deputy does not think we’re worth hearing then he’s mistaken. He will hear us on twitter,
he will hear us on Facebook, he will hear us by email and most of all, he will hear at the polls.’ Aaron McGee, SU President of NCI claimed that despite past challenges for his university, this year is by far the worst and that his union has doubled the number of loans given out compared with the entirety last year. McGee criticised the current culture of emigration in Ireland, claiming that government are doing nothing about the current plight of students. He said that it is ‘time for everyone to come together and stand up against this and try and put an end to this mess.’ DITSU President David Keogan, meanwhile, made reference to current delays to the arrival of student grants nationwide as a result of problems with the new, centralised service Student Universal Support Ireland (SUSI). Keogan claimed that the 5 officers of DITSU have been inundated with people still seeking their grant and that food vouchers are being given out ‘left, right and centre’ in DIT. John Logue, speaking less than an hour before his arrest, said that since the foundation of this state, the Irish people have had faith in education though that faith is now being tested. He quoted Bank of Ireland
‘No student has got back to me with alternatives’ Jack Leahy sits down with Labour TD Kevin Humprheys, the government member being targeted by TCDSU in the prebudget campaign. Jack Leahy News Editor KEVIN HUMPHREYS appears remarkably candid; as good-humoured and relaxed as it is reasonable to expect from a politician supposedly conscious of his political vulnerability. IF THE Union of Students in Ireland and TCDSU had their way, Humphreys would be travelling the same trajectory taken by his predecessors Michael McDowell, Chris Andrews and John Gormley: elected as the fresh face enjoying the cheers of the crowd, hounded by failures to the battlebloodied pariah who can no longer hope to be loved. No-nonsense: take a seat in the concourse, dictaphone on, sly comment about the camera in my hands and its potential to produce another large poster of his face, and we’re off. Before I can ask, he lets me know that he’s aware of the
campaign and its particular libels against him: ‘Hiking Your Fees and Cutting Your Grant’ - quite the indictment. What does he make of it? ‘I think students have the right to lobby and I have no problem with being lobbied. But really, it’s the practical examples that I’d be more interested in, whether I’m targeted or not. I wouldn’t have been targeted like this before; I’ve been lobbied before, but usually it’s been policy-based and not based on an individual.’ After initial praises for the innovative, co-ordinated approach to lobbying, the USI’s strategy of targeting individual TDs for lobbying based on perceptions of political vulnerability has come under criticism by some who have accused the students’ unions of harassment. He has implied a certain level of distaste for the methodology, so I probe a little deeper:
‘Well, really it’d be the practical examples I’d be more interested in: making proposals, looking at the alternatives, looking at the overall budgetary position. I’ve met with a lot of students who have come in to discuss the issues - I’ve asked them for ideas and no one’s come back to me. ‘My concentration, given the area that i’m coming from [Ringsend] is the huge problems in primary and secondary level that have been greatly overlooked. Certainly, third-level education has a huge role in the economy and needs to the protected. It also needs to be looked at - within a very short period, we’ve had a huge increase in the number of students in third-level education. How are we going to fund that? ‘I think we should do everything we can to maintain the grants at the current level. We have a massive problem at the moment and we
research suggesting that one year of college can cost a student €10,500 after fees, accommodation and living expenses are accounted for, meaning that parents are currently faced with a decision between which of their children to send to university. ‘What kind of day and age is this that we tolerate this?’ Logue asked, ‘stand up for yourselves because you’re the only ones that ever will.’ Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, a Labour Party TD, made his presence known at the beginning of the questions and answers segment of the evening. Ó Ríordáin, a former teacher and principal in Sherrif Street School, claimed that his priorities are, and have always been, the gaps in education much earlier in the life of a student. ‘My priority is that 3 year old. I’m not asking you to agree with me, I might not agree with you. At least I’ve been honest with you.’ Ó Ríordáin’s comments were refuted by Logue, however, who said that the TD was attempting to make those in attendance ‘feel bad for getting what you deserve. Not one person in this room is saying that you should cut primary or secondary schools. Th ink before you speak, deputy.’ Logue spoke to the applause of those in attendance while Ó Ríordáin hurriedly left have to manage it carefully. There’s only a particular amount of funding available and we have to ensure that we protect those who most need it. Much like Aodhán Ó Riordáin in Dublin North Central, Humphreys bears the responsibility of being a Labour politician in a working-class area. With that, he says, comes the reality that third-level education is beyond the standard for which that system currently prepares his constituents. Like Ó Riordáin, he prioritises addressing disadvantage primary- and secondarylevel: ‘When a child is going into school without the basic skills of holding a pencil, you have to worry, and they’re starting at a huge disadvantage initially. From my experience in the communities I work with, that kind of problem runs all the way through. Very few students from my area make it to third-level education. ‘There are huge problems at all three levels of education and we need to look at them all equally. Th ird-level students are really good at lobbying, but children aren’t so good at that. Their rights have to be heard too - we’ve just had a constitutional referendum to give effect to that in other areas. One reason for which Humphreys was isolated as a strategic target is his proximity to the Minister for Education and Skills Ruairí Quinn. Quinn has held his seat in Dublin South East since 1977 (save a brief interruption in 1982) and Humphreys’ election to the constituency on the 10th count in the 2011 general election made history as Labour have never had two TDs in the constituency at one time. Quinn’s election is a matter of enduring consternation for students, to whom Quinn infamously pledged that, if elected, he would oppose any increases to the student contribution charge. ‘He was wrong. I said he was wrong at the time and I still think he was wrong. Everybody makes mistakes. Blunt, and to the point - perhaps out of necessity, Humphreys is in reflective
DITSU President David Keogan address Wednesday night’s public meeting on fees. without another word. The night’s drama was far from over at that point however as most students made the short journey to Dáil Éireann to view a debate and then vote by TDs on a Fianna Fáil-proposed Bill asking the government to ‘refrain from further cuts to the education budget and increases in third-level registration fees.’ The Bill was passed but with significant amendments passed prevote. Upon arrival, students were asked to respect the chair and reminded that ‘this is the Dáil’. A number mood. He’s not defensive, though; he manages to maintain an alluring balance between bullish and laid-back. His body language communicates that he is in charge, but there is a sense that this a new dynamic for him. If he is deflective, it’s because education isn’t his brief. His answers are those of the party line, and you can hear them from Joan Burton, James Reilly, Ó Riordáin and any other Labour politician whose brief is other than education. Quinn will expand for hours on the various motivations behind funding allocations and prioritise, if for no other reason than these being the questions he has to think about. Humphreys is one of the many who don’t. Before he bounces away to an environmental committee meeting, he offers a fleeting insight into what motivates him. Like many Labour politicians, he is an idealist with a pragmatist’s purse. His motivation to protect his constituents is admirable, even if the presentation of a binary in terms of education funding is dubious: ‘I would like to see us maintain the contribution at €3,000. I think that’s fair. My own preference is that education would be free, but pragmatically I don’t see where we’re going to get the money to pay for it. I think it would be an achievement for any government to maintain it. ‘Looking from a selfish perspective, there is a whole sector of society that doesn’t have access to education. As a Labour Party politician coming from a workingclass background, I have to work to extend access to those people. It’d be a real achievement to get them into third-level education. Kevin Humphreys, ladies and gentlemen - Hiking Your Fees and Cutting your Grant.
of students brought with them banners to unfurl as the vote was in progress but refrained from displaying them after inferring that such activity would result in their removal from the viewing gallery. Before the Dáil activities came to a close, most of the students in attendance rose to their feet and turned their backs at the prompting of USI officers as a visual symbol of the ‘Fed Up? Stand Up’ campaign. Dáil staff immediately asked students to sit down citing ‘health and safety’ reasons. Whereas most students sat
down immediately, Logue remained standing with his back to the TDs below. He persisted despite warning that refusal to sit down would result in his forced removal. Logue was told by Dáil staff that a Garda would be gotten if he did not sit down. Moments later, he was arrested and removed for refusing to obey the standing orders of Dáil Éireann. Students were told to put cameras and phones away as photos were taken of Logue being brought away. A round of spontaneous applause broke out among
Photo: Benedict Shegog those in the gallery, disrupting for a moment the proceedings below. With staff growing increasingly unhappy and the campaigners’ point seemingly made, most students left the gallery at that point. Logue was later released from Pearse Street Garda Station. without charge The government’s budget for 2013 will be released on December 5th.
Ó Ríordáin’s speech to students ‘’THE WONDERFUL people who are proposing the motion tonight, and castigating the government over what the plan is, left government last year and asked you to pay €2,000. Now here’s the honest to God situation with me: if I’m asked to make a value judgement between the children that I was elected, in my own heart and soul, to look after in terms of their education and providing pre-school for them, [and students], there’s only one thing I can do. Here’s the reality: if you take a three-year old kid, from a disadvantaged area,
“If you don’t like it, well at least I’ve been honest with you” with a welfare background, that child has about 400 words in his vocabulary. If you take a three-year old kid from a professional family they have 1,200. There’s a huge gap in the education system before you even hit the school system. My priority, unfortunately for you guys tonight, is not you, but it’s that three-year old. I’m trying to defend everything I can at primary level. I want to defend everything I can in Deis schools and I want to defend everything I can in special ed. I want to defend everything I can at second level. I want to give every single student at second level to get the
opportunity to be where you are. Now, it does come down to value judgements, and you mightn’t like what I have to say but it does. So I could lose a vote from a whole lot of 20-year olds, who rightfully would come to my office (if you are coming to my office by the way, Donnelly’s bakery is just beside - use it, they need the money) over what promises were made or the two hundred and fi fty quid that we’re asking you pay again this year and the year after and the year after. I could prioritise you, or I could prioritise the illiterate four-year old to whom I’m trying to give a chance of an education. Here’s what I have to deal with. In schools in my constituency there were twelve parental suicides last year, with three of them in the one class. That’s where my heart is, that’s where my political priority is, and that’s my reality. If that makes you think less of me... well, that’s where we’re at. You spoke about the student assistance fund earlier, John, and we spoke about this already ourselves. It’s running out in 2013 - I’ve already made a proposal to the government that there by a levy on online betting and a levy on alcohol in order to make sure that that fund remains intact. I’ve heard all the stories from student leaders about how difficult it is to get through College. I want to make absolutely sure that whatever grants we have
available to us from the €355 million are directed at those who need it most. But there situations in which students are availing of grants when their parents could probably put them through College independently. I told a story on Monday on Frontline about the person with
“I could prioritise you, or I could prioritise the illiterate four-year old to whom I’m trying to give a chance of an education” €270,000 in the bank and still getting a grant. We have to change the system to make it fair, I have to make decisions that I believe are fair. You may be disappointed in me for that. I’m not asking you to agree with me and I mightn’t agree with you, but that’s the reality. I came tonight because I said I would and I’ve given you the reality as I see it. If you don’t like it, well at least I’ve been honest with you.’’ Aodhán Ó Ríordáin is a Labour party TD for Dublin North Central. Photo by Benedict Shegog.
Tuesday, November 20, 2012 | The University Times
4
UTNEWS Trinity students condemned by catholic newspaper Louise Duffy News Staff FR. BRIAN McKevitt, editor of the Irish Catholic monthly newspaper Alive! has written in the November issue of the paper about his despair at the deep intolerance of Trinity students. Fr. McKevitt spoke last month at a Phil debate which focussed on whether religion and homosexuality were compatible. Fr. McKevitt, being in all respects a hard-line catholic, was a member of the opposition. McKevitt’s main argument, according to his recent article, was, “the purpose of sexuality is to express and deepen the love between husband and wife in a union that is open to new life.” However, his argument was not well received.
Mid-way though the debate members of the audience began shouting ‘Shame’ at Fr. McKevitt. Fr. McKevitt, as evidenced by his reaction on the day as well as by his piece in this month’s Alive! was particularly offended by this, and saw it as censorship of his views by the audience. “(T)he Intolerance was also a form of censorship. In Trinity we might have expected solid rejection of such a ‘known-nuthin’ limit on free speech.” Speaking to The University Times, Lorcan Clarke, Auditor of the Phil, commented “Fr. McKevitt represented a perspective on the compatibility of homosexuality and religion in society which is not commonly found among Trinity students. The audience reaction to him on the night was evidence of this,
suggesting they largely disagreed and in some cases took offence to the view he presented.” However, he continued “His contribution was important to the debate, representing a real perspective in this debate, not uncommon in wider society, outside of the more liberal setting of Trinity. If we were to hold another debate in the future in which Fr. McKevitt was deemed to be the best spokesperson for a particular perspective on the issue, I am sure he would be invited again.” Th is is not the fi rst time that Alive! has featured articles critical of Trinity. It is a well established theme of the newspaper that a college education in Ireland is a dangerous thing because our Universities are not under the direction of the church. Tweeting in
response to an article entitled ‘Helping Victims of a College Education,’ Professor Brian Lucey, an economics lecturer at Trinity, said “Oh this is priceless: read page 4…. Ignorance is holy is seems.” McKevitt’s written response was again despairing, arguing that college professors continue to believe in the value of many modern academic disciplines despite the fact that many of their founders were ‘no hope atheists.’ He concluded that until such time as Irish lecturers re-examine their often irrational assumptions, many young students will continue to be intellectually and religiously harmed.
The organisers of the NMC, with Irish Times Editor Kevin O’Sullivan, the ecent’s keynote speaker. Photo: The Irish Times
Trinity hosts National Media Conference Gareth Gregan News Staff ALL ROADS lead to the Arts Block on Saturday last as Trinity played host to the fi rst National Media Conference. The event, which was organized entirely by Trinity students, featured speeches by many household names such as news-reader Brian Dobson and Nob Nation curator Oliver Callan. The conference aimed to offer a platform for would-be journalists to learn from experienced names as well as highlight various issues facing the industry at large. The organisers received €5,000 of sponsorship from The Irish Times. Upon arrival attendees were issued with lanyards before being ushered into the Davis Theatre where they were greeted by a large TweetBoard which streamed all Tweets under
Dr. Patrick Buckley, a Pro-Life lobbyist to the UN, addresses the Phil during last Thursday’s debate on stem cell research. Photo: Andrew Murphy
Students of pioneering course graduate Una Kelly Online News Editor SEVENTEEN STUDENTS of Trinity’s pioneering course for people with intellectual disability graduated at a ceremony on Thursday 8th November, where they were formally awarded Certificates in Contemporary Living. The two year course is run by Trinity’s National Institute for Intellectual Disability (NIID) and is the fi rst full time course of its kind at university level in Ireland. Other courses based on the model are now being taught at third level in Ireland and abroad. Th is was the fi fth class of graduates from the programme, with an additional ninety students having graduated from certificate partners nationwide. NIID was established at Trinity to promote the inclusion of people with intellectual disability and their families. The Institute works to ensure that the basic human rights of people are upheld and that access
to appropriate education, health services, employment, housing, social amenities, community presence and participation are provided. One of the ways the NIID promotes lifelong learning is through the Certificate in Contemporary Living, an educational programme which involves Trinity staff and Trinity students undertaking professional degrees. The key aims of the course are to promote lifelong
» Debate focuses on delays in processing SUSI grants » Claims that some colleges not allowing those waiting on grants to access services » Logue denies suggestions grants system biased towards rural families Vladimir Rakhmanin Deputy Online Editor
The Margaret McLoughlin Student Prize for excellence in the expressive arts was awarded to student Noelle Doran and presented to her at a special reception before the graduation ceremony. NIID Education Officer, Molly O’Keeffe, described the hard work and achievements of the students: “The CCL graduates have overcome great challenges and struggles in their journey to achieve their goals. In achieving their ambitions, the students have also enabled the College and the wider community in developing a deeper understanding of the strengths and abilities of people with intellectual disabilities. In supporting the roll-out of the Certificate in Contemporary Living programme amongst other third level institutions it also ensures educational opportunities across the country for this marginalised group.”
AGApIrNofiled E M I T T nd A IT’S THidates - confirmed a
USI President appears on Frontline debate
JOHN LOGUE, President of the Union of Students in Ireland, took part in the RTÉ Frontline debate on Monday the 16th of November. The debate was moderated by Pat Kenny and consisted of a discussion on the issue of student grants. Others present during the debate included Charlie McCona-
logue TD, the Fianna Fáil spokesperson on education, Aodhán O’Riordáin, Labour TD for Dublin North Central and part of the Oireachtas Committee on Education, and Dr Ed Walsh, founding president of the University of Limerick. McConalogue criticised the delay in processing student grants through the new Student Universal Support Ireland (SUSI) system. He stated that the problem was extensive, despite the government assumption that lks dams ta Gerry A Reavey:the process ‘should have ne been quite simple’. He also to Euge page 8
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TUESDAY, 19 OC TOBER 2010
ties and taxes, are living on 50 euro a month, a sum that they now have to use to attempt to send their children to college. Dr Walsh, who had appeared on a similar debate the network’s Primetime over the summer, noted that any minister who decides to merge 66 bodies into one is heading in the right direction, despite evidence that the logistics of the process were ‘totally messed up’. He also criticised the system in general, stating that those
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system was still very new, and that students are handing in wrong documentation with their applications. He also stated that this new system was desirable, as it condenses 66 bodies to one. O’Riordain criticised the fact that certain colleges did not let students who were still waiting on a response use their facilities. Nevertheless, he was still optimistic about getting through the grant applications by Christmas. Logue emphasised the understaffi ng issue: he recounted talking to some of
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who go onto higher education are predestined to become wealthy. When probed on whether he thought the grants system was biased (91% of applicants in County Donegal receive grants, when compared to 33% in County Dublin), John Logue explained that the reason rural counties get more grants is due to significantly higher unemployment levels in those areas. He alsow warned of the danger of increasing fees, giving the example of the UK, where an increase in fees led to a 17% decrease in young adults applying for higher education. After being asked whether it was fair that 1.4 billion euro is spent on supplementing the fees on education, Logue replied that higher education should not be thought off as a personal investment – it benefits the entire population of the country, as adults who complete higher education pay 17% more tax on average.
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the staff, who were certain that they would not be able to complete processing the applications in good time. He also expressed his concern about the fact that parents now have to play an even larger part in funding their children’s higher education, reiterating his goto statistic that 1.3 million parents in Ireland, once you subtract the bare necessi-
USI President John Logue has heavily critical of the perceievd understaffing issue at the grants authority
s e m i T y t i s r e The University TimThe Univ es T O I R N itting
said that most of the blame should be directed at Quinn, who ‘took a hands-off approach’ with this issue, and was nowhere to be seen during the crisis. McConalogue also noted the high probability that most students will only be able to receive their grants by early spring due to this poor management. O’Riordáin admitted that the system was ‘not perfect’. He explained the situation by saying that the
AC
TRINITY’S “FIN ANCIAL BREAKING POI NT” Barra Roantree inter views the Vice-Provost on p3
learning for people with intellectual disabilities and to ensure that appropriate employment opportunities will arise from third level education. There are three aspects to the course: academic learning, personal growth and career development, with modules including English and Spoken Communication, Mathematics and Financial Management, Social Studies, ICT, International Awareness and Expressive Arts.
throughout the day as students from TCD were afforded the opportunity to mingle with their counterparts from different colleges around the country; such as DCUfm’s station manager Ciaran O’Connor. Th is continued on after the conclusion of affairs as all were invited to the GMB to avail of free refreshments. Speaking afterwards conference director Damien Carr spoke positively about the event.. He claimed that the aim behind it was to “give anybody tempted to enter the media industry the opportunity to do so”. Furthermore he ensured that “NMC12” was only the beginning when he said “No sooner had the conference ended than we were approached about NMC 13 - that says it all really!”.
in media and the difficulties associated with verifying the legitimacy of videos uploaded onto social media sites. The afternoon saw the diversification of the crowd as three lecture halls were taken up with a series of talks and discussions about fi lm, print and radio media. One of these, a discussion about the implications of the Leveson Inquiry, saw internet law guru Simon McGarr warn of the dangers of the over-regulation of the media industry in Ireland. A select number of students were fortunate enough to earn a place in a feature-writing workshop. The workshop was run by The Irish Times and was carried out by their Features Editor Conor Goodman and freelance features writer Ciara Kenny. The conference maintained a positive buzz
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Students and staff at TCD’s National Institute for Intellectual DIsabilities. Photo: TCD Communications Office
the hashtag #NMC2012. Irish Times editor and keynote speaker Kevin O’Sullivan began proceedings by speaking about the future of print media. Mr. O’Sullivan was optimistic, claiming that while newspapers may not always be fi rst to bring you the news, they will always be there to give you the “why” behind it, something he claimed people will continue to pay for. He also spoke about the recent revamp which the Irish Times has undergone in order to become a more “digitally-driven” company. Next up was Dr. Claire Wardle, a late addition to the bill as a replacement for former Trinity student Mark Little. Dr.Wardle, Director of News Services at Storyful, again spoke about the ever changing nature of journalism. In particular she spoke about the increasing role of “citizen journalists”
Tuesday, November 20, 2012 | The University Times
6
UTFEATURES
Shopping like a student Kathleen Gallagher is a seasoned veteran in the art of discount grocery shopping. Here, she offers some tips on how to beat the supermarkets at their own game.
I
T’S NEARING THE end of the month, and the budget is a bit tight, so what’s the fi rst thing to skimp on? Alcohol? Partying? Clearly, it’s food. But just because you can’t afford to buy every meal at Fallon and Byrne doesn’t mean that you have to be stuck with canned tuna and beans (not a bad combo, actually). Your saviours can be those little yellow labels that indicate that expiring food has been marked down in price. There is no shame in taking the food that no one else wants, especially if it’s a bargain. In fact the Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras is advocating that Greek people do the same. Yet another commonality between the Greek and Trinity students, along with living in fi nancially crippled countries! While buying discounted food can be a fun and cheap way to shop, certain foods (notably meats) should be avoided. True, the ‘best before’ dates are a precaution only and a lot of food doesn’t expire until well past the date stated on the packaging. However, If you’ve gone to the Tesco or Dunnes Stores expiring food section you will have seen
less-than-tantalizing chicken that is a little bit gray or those sausages that resemble meat even less than they normally do. Technically, they pass safety requirements, but at the
same time saving those extra pence isn’t worth making yourself sick over. A few slightly off-colour vegetables or fruits are fairly innocuous. Just remember that there is a real time constraint on eating all food. If you keep it in the fridge for
too long it will inevitably start to stink up your apartment and attract fl ies. So where is the best place to shop for discounted foods? In Dunnes Stores and Tesco it tends to be in an
out of the way in a corner of the refrigerated section by the juices and yogurts. So, next to the nicely packaged in-date food, which is being purchased by Yuppies and Moms, there are starving students crowding round an odd assortment of food, scrambling for the best pick.
If you get there on a Sunday morning the shops will have just restocked, meaning the goods have just been marked down so there should be a lot of choice. Also, a tip: go for the ready-
made meals and soups, you can easily eat them that night or freeze them and bring them out another day. However, the cornucopia of discounted goods is to be found at Marks and Spencers on Grafton Street. While normally a little pricey and a store only to go
to for a rare treat or a deal, you can get some of their delicious food at a reasonable price if you’re smart about it. The store marks down twice a day, once after the lunch rush at about 3pm and again right before closing at about 7pm. T h e 3 p m ma rkdo w n tends t o have a bit
m o r e choice and the store itself is normally empty, leaving students to roam the aisles grabbing anything with a yellow tag. Again readymade meals are the key here and Marks and Spencers does them amazingly. Just stock up and throw them in
the freezer. Here the going off meat still looks delicious so grab it, cook it and keep in the fridge for the week or divide it into portions and freeze some. Canned peas aren’t so bad if you’re having them with a lovely piece of chicken right? If you’ve got a sweet tooth, you can check out their baked goods which are shoved into bags and only cost about two euro for five pastries right before closing. Getting good mark-down food really can be the luck of the draw and it does depend when you go shopping. But if you’re clever about it, discount shopping can be a fun way to ensure you stay somewhat well-fed. A meal with slightly less fresh-looking food might not initially be as appetising, but if it is looking a little off-color, just cover it with a bright sauceit’ll probably be fi ne. Out of sight, out of mind! As well as eating well and saving money, discountfood shopping can make you feel a little better about your environmental habits. A new survey by the Environmental Protection Agency recently revealed that households are throwing away up to 1,000 euro worth of wasted food a year. As a poor student, you’re actually helping your nation. Who knew? Disclaimer: The University Times takes no responsibility for those who suffer from food poisoning due to expired food...
The top tips “Your saviours can be those little yellow labels that indicate that expiring food has been marked down in price” “ The cornucopia of discounted goods is to be found at Marks and Spences on Grafton St.”
“ If it’s looking a bit off colour just cover it with brown sauce” “Go for the ready-made meals and soups, you can easily eat them that night or freeze them for a later date”
Facebook and honesty
Conor Murphy looks at recent innovations on Facebook, innovations which have for the first time brought the online privacy issue into everyday life.
F
ACEBOOK IS A billion dollar company run by a billion dollar man. It holds most of the world’s digital photos. It holds a huge portion of the worlds conversation. It seems unassailable. Yet some pundits have been predicting Facebook’s downfall, saying its revenues aren’t high enough for its valuation. They say its clashes with government watchdogs over privacy
might force it to contract. But there is another clash coming, a direct child of the privacy clash but one that is more likely to cause it to lose business, and fast. That’s the honesty clash. There is a gap between how we interact with Facebook and to how we live out our real lives in the real world - and it’s quickly becoming an impassable chasm made ever narrower by the onslaught of invasive
new online features. In the real world, we all lie, even the most open and candid of us lie socially on a regular basis - we don’t have time to meet that boring friend, we never saw that invite, sorry, love, we’re gay. We do it to soften blows and to ease our conscience, we do it because we’re cowards and we always have been; that isn’t going to change anytime soon.
invasive features is live-location tagging. Th is has nearly caught me out a few times and I would consider myself a relatively honest person.For instance, how do you convince someone that you were at home when you were tagged at the cinema? Th is is not a new way of starting a story online (“Oh it was when I was with Jack at that party”), this is just feed fi ller, yet for something so boring-
invasive. You can turn off the function, however Facebook have made it deliberately awkward to manipulate, so it’s difficult to do. I can’t stop location tags without stopping picture tags. So I must stop this extra level of useful functionality I really like, just to prevent this other functionality which I hate. There are other features that have been introduced that can be even more invasive and sometimes impossible to get rid of. Our penchant for dishonesty is also being compromised by the, “who’s seen this post” feature. Th is is worryingly invasive and impossible to disable. It is of course useful to organisers to figure out how many people have viewed their event suggestion/witticism, but it is a special kind of mental torture to behold as an event/ comment garners a 100+ views and no likes or comments materialise. The authors of this post can’t pretend that no one has seen it, they can’t fantasise that everyone they know was caught up in Hurricane Sandy that weekend so that’s why their carefully planned party suggestion was ignored. And we can’t allow ourselves
“Our penchant for dishonesty is also being compromised by the ‘who’s seen this post’ feature. It’s a special kind of mental torture to behold as an event/comment garners 100+ views and no likes or comments materialise” The fi rst of these new
ly pointless it is remarkably
the pretence that we didn’t
notice their social slight. We can’t allow ourselves or others those simple lies that we’ve used for so long as a social lubricant. In a study by the University of Massachusetts, re-
norms actually affect how we live, that’s why its one of the most dangerous challenges to Facebook’s continued domination of the social networking market. Moreover, Facebook is
“In a study by the University of Massachusetts, researcher Robert Feldman found that in a conversation with a stranger the average person tells 2.92 lies every ten minutes” searcher Robert Feldman reveals that in a conversation with a stranger the average person tells 2.92 lies every ten minutes. The more interesting part is that, afterwards, participants watched back the ten-minute conversation and didn’t even spot their own lies. While this is not a perfect situation it shows how basic lying is to us that we don’t even notice when we do it. Facebook’s desire to become the “New Internet” clashes strongly with these and other changes. If it wants so much of the internet traffic it can’t make assumptions about the lives of people as other niche websites do. It has to cater for all people, especially the majority of us, or be prepared to lose people, and fast. Privacy is a strange concept, often coming with foreboding thoughts on future government spies. Th is is one of the fi rst ways we’re seeing this breakdown in privacy
taking a more active, abd indeed undesirable role how it scans and censors our private conversations. Try to share a redtube porn link (between two adults) on chat. Facebook literally says that isn’t suitable for its website. It has been famous in removing breast feeding photos as nudity, justified on the grounds that such photos are not suitable for public sharing. Yet in completely private chat sessions it still censors and culls things it deems adultthemed or potentially offensive. The weird thing is that if Facebook knows if the people in the conversation are adults, why on earth censor this private conversation? Facebook is becoming the only website besides the google homepage to not be able to make assumptions about its users. So it’s going to have to become more flexible, or risk losing the momentum it has garnered
over the last few years to more gentle and flexible platforms like Google+ or more niche platforms like Instagram.
Society Adverts The University Times has greatly added to the discourse and student life of Trinity College since its inception three years ago, having won Student Newspaper of the Year each year of its existence. In 2012/13, we aim to give back more and promote the college’s own societies on a great platform. From the next issue onwards, a limited number of discounted ads will be available in the paper exclusively for societies and clubs. With a circulation of 3,000 print copies, read by the majority of Trinity’s 16,000 students, and one of the most respected brands in Irish student media, this is a great opportunity for your society to reach a wider audience and get your message out there. To encourage a number of ads from college societies, prices will range from as little as €10 up to €60, depending on its size and complexity, a tiny percentage of the full ad rate. If you’re interested, please mail advertising@universitytimes. ie with the tagline “Society Ad”, giving a description of your society and what you want to advertise.
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The University Times | Tuesday, November 20, 2012
UTFEATURES
How prevalant is bullying on campus? Leanna Byrne talks to the two women behind the Anti-Bullying Research and Resource Centre, who have spent years researching bullying in third level education.
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IDDEN IN A dark corner on the fourth floor of the Arts Block sits the Anti-Bullying Research and Resource Centre; unloved and unrecognised. The Centre was opened in 1996 on the heels of work done by Dr Mona O’Moore and her team on the Nationwide Survey of Bullying at School in Ireland. Yet, the only thing that separates the centre from a maze of classrooms and offices is a small A4 page clinging to the door with the words ABC printed on it. Needless to say it was difficult to find. When you walk through the ABC door the first thing you notice is the battle
education. Before I could ask any questions Lían McGuire launched into an enthusiastic account of her most recent third level study findings. Through the help of USI (the Union of Students in Ireland) McGuire collected data from universities all over Ireland through an online survey. From the 400 respondents she found about 14% of students had experienced a form of bullying in university, a figure which is twice as high as the UK. According to McGuire this study is “next to nothing anywhere in the world”. “There are individual studies here and there in the US and Turkey, but they only
In fact, exclusion in college, which is often seen as something we should learn to deal with, is one of the hardest problems for students according to McGuire’s findings. In this case the bully is able to selfselect. It takes huge courage from other members of that peer group to interact with the person excluded for fear of their own exclusion. The second biggest issue that was found, particularly in females, is unwanted sexual attention. In the study about a quarter had experienced unwanted sexual attention, a worryingly large figure. Regardless of these significant findings Trinity
“Exclusion in college, which is often seen as something we should learn to deal with, is one of the hardest problems for students, according to McGuire’s findings” against space. Three or four desks have been shoved into an average sized room, there seems to be a library standing its ground in the corner, and papers pile high. There is another room, however, that is spacious enough for guests. That is where I was brought to talk to Dr O’Moore and Lían McGuire for just over an hour about bullying in third level
focus on one university,” explained McGuire. Interestingly, the findings showed that cyberbullying was quite low with only 3.5% of those surveyed experiencing it. Although McGuire reckons this will change in the next five years because she was looking at a group of people who view the internet and social media as a relatively new phenomenon.
College and the majority of universities across Ireland have little or no anti-bullying policies. In our own institution we have a ‘Dignity and respect’ policy that points to no formal complaint structures and is extremely hard to come by. McGuire believes it to be ‘strange’ because university is the breeding ground for people going into the
workplace. “People are just going to fall into the workplace without any new ideas or new outlooks on bullying. It needs to be looked at badly” At this point Dr O’Moore chimed in to offer me an example. “I was on the Ray D’arcy show this morning and he had two people on who had been victims of bullying. One was a thirty-five year old woman who had been bullied for five years. It almost led her to suicide. Her tor mentors went onto college and carried out the same torment at third level. Sadly, these are the people who have a manipulative power to be charming on the one hand and ruthless on the other. They get their way, they go upstream and before you know it they’re in a very high position.” Dr O’Moore went on to tell me that college could do “so much more” on the matter. Without formalities in place it is impossible for a student who feels bullied in college to report it or to have somebody look into it. “It forces students to lose concentration from their
work and even drop out of college.” But surely it is extremely tough to provide proof of bullying in such a disaggregated environment? O’Moore and McGuire agreed with this. In fact, they told me that the traditional bullying met hods are
much harder to prove than bullying online - but it is possible. “They (the college) claim they have everything in place, but if you try to go through the steps you’ll come to a dead end,” said O’Moore. “They’re not as open and as transparent as they say they are. There should be no shame with having an anti-bullying policy!” I suggested that maybe
the university expected us to handle bullying ourselves because we are seen to be a lot more mature than we were in secondary school. McGuire replied that bullying is an issue at all stages in life and in all organisations. “A policy should be for an overall benefit. I think it needs to happen, but the universities do not want to deal with the matter”. O’Moore often found it to be worse for adults to come to terms with bullying since they d o
not want t o come across as a burden and the feeling of inadequacy can be severe. This leads to question why universities have not dealt with the problem already. They both laughed at me. Dr O’Moore told me about Trinity’s plan to do an exit survey about why people leave college that never got off the ground. The administration felt it necessary to have all the steps in
place before they conducted the survey to make sure they did not find a problem. “I just find it such a strain that there is so much stigma around,” O’Moore re-
Perhaps it is strange that Trinity have no clear-cut anti-bullying policy after sixteen years of ABC. I found this to be a point of distress for them as McGuire could
“Both women maintain that College is ‘not willing to call a spade a spade’” marked. “There are so many students dropping out and we don’t really know the reason behind it, or even why so many students suffer from depression. Did they have these problems before they came to college?” Both women maintain that the university is “not willing to call a spade a spade” because they see implementing an anti-bullying policy as wcreating a negative image for them. Lían urged universities across Ireland to conduct surveys of their own to look at the problem areas and to model a policy for their universities. “The quality control has to run from the top down, it has to be followed up on and it has to be seen to be followed up on. We can’t keep pushing it under the carpet anymore because a tragedy could happen.” O’Moore hoped that Trinity might soon have a campaign about the issue and does not see any reason why students do not receive a leaflet about bullying in their Freshers packs. “College could have a website, a helpline, a walk-in; something dedicated to the issue so the students know they are actually interested in their welfare”.
not comprehend why the university does not ask ABC for any input at all. “In this college we don’t really exist,” said O’Moore. “Maybe one day a philanthropist will come in and support our research into bullying and look at us as a resource.” ABC was set up initially as an independent research body targeting the area of bullying, a course it sadly continues to follow. The resource side of their work, including counselling and “victim support” aspects, evolved as a result of their research. The little money they receive from the seminars they give is what keeps them ticking over. “The research that we do promotes us so that we can do seminars outside of college. It is important for us to be known for our findings because I might be asked to go out and give a talk in schools about it. Of that we will get a professional fee and a percentage of that goes to the centre. That’s what keeps us ticking over.” “It would be lovely if the college gave us recognition, said McGuire. “Even if they just took pride in our work,” replied O’Moore.
Nightclub photos: Why you should think before you laugh In the wake of recent Embarrasing Nightclub Photos Facebook pages, Una Kelly asks to what extent can we expect privacy in the modern world?
I
’S A FEELING familiar to so many college students. You had a bit too much to drink. Combined with your youthful boisterousness and exuberance it created a dangerous cocktail. You displayed dance moves you didn’t even think your body was capable of. Got a little too friendly with someone. Threw up in your brand new handbag, or worse, your friend’s. Perhaps you threw caution to the wind and attempted to commandeer a sailing vessel while shouting “I’m Jack Sparrow!” as one unfortunate woman was reported to have done in the Australian press recently. You know, the usual. Whatever the antics, it is likely that you would rather forget that they happened. Thankfully, they took place in a dark and dingy nightclub and your friends are all sound so there will be strictly no uploading of photographs of you caught in a compromising situation, please. Unfortunately, this can no longer be relied on to be the case. ‘Embarrassing Nightclub Photos’, apparently originating in Australia in July of this year, is a website, Facebook page and tumblr page which has almost 1.5 million ‘likes’ on Facebook. People are
encouraged to send in their photos in which they have captured the most ridiculous, hilarious, or crude that they have happened upon in nightclubs all over the world. As many readers will have come across this during the course of their daily procrastination, the details of particular photos do not need to be elaborated on here. Whatever you can think of, it’s probably there, and a good few you hadn’t thought of too. What is also worrying is that many photos are simply of people, often female, doing nothing much out of the ordinary, but who are deemed to be physically repugnant by commentators, and then savagely critiqued and ridiculed in view of hundreds of thousands of people online.
colleges. The website irishcentral.com reported that in response to complaints the administrators would take down explicit photos of people who did not want them to be posted. However, the administrators also said, “We have not breached any Facebook regulations otherwise we would have been shut down. Facebook is a public forum. If you don’t want people to see your boozy nights out, maybe don’t post them on Facebook...?” An obvious point, and one that seems to miss that of the complainants. We all know the ramifications of our online activity in the digital age. A photograph, once on the Internet, is infinitely reproducible. We select what we want to be tagged in on Facebook, navigate privacy
“We all know the ramifications of our online activity in the digital age” ‘Embarrassing Irish Nightlife’ appeared soon after. With Ireland being such a small country, the locations and therefore the people in the photo are much easier to identify, with some uploaders posting the name of the venue in which it was taken, or even specific events at specific Irish
settings, change our profile names to evade detection by curious potential employers. So what is the situation when we find ourselves identified in an unflattering image that was certainly not posted by us or our friends, but rather by any person who just happened to catch you when you were not at
Photos from nightclubs might appear funny and lighthearted but there are deeper concerns to be aware of. your best? Is this a blatant invasion of privacy, or can we expect any privacy rights when we are out in public? The legal situation here, as in many other areas, is not exactly crystal clear and is still developing. The Irish Constitution grants us an implied right to privacy, while Article 8.1 of the European Convention on Human Rights guarantees that “Everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence.” How far does this right extend into the public sphere? Irish case law suggests that photos taken in a public place may not be covered by our constitutional right to privacy. In Hickey v Sunday Newspapers Ltd in 2010, it was held that photos taken outside a building on a street and published in a newspaper did not breach privacy rights as the street was a public place to which this right did not extend, there could be no reasonable expectation of privacy here. However rulings from the
European Court of Human Rights held that Article 8 of the convention would cover a person if they complained their right to privacy had been breached as a result of a situation such as a photo taken in a nightclub. It most also be considered that recent cases from the UK have suggested that when one ‘courts publicity’ this could weaken an expectation to privacy in a public place. If a person regularly
Trinity Law School. “There have been some decisions of the English courts suggesting that courting publicity may weaken privacy rights and some suggestion of this in the Irish case law also. Those cases relate, however, to persons with a degree of celebrity rather than individuals whose only action has been previous posting on Facebook. Again, Article 8 of the Convention seems likely to cover individuals in
“People are encouraged to send in their photos in which they have captured the most ridiculous, hilarious or crude that they have happened upon in nightclubs all over the world” posts photos of themselves on the internet, could this be equated to courting publicity? “This is more complicated,” says Dr Ailbhe O’Neill, lecturer in Media Law in
this situation.” A growing issue in recent years has been whether these days, with the ubiquity of camera phones, internet and Facebook, we can have
any reasonable expectation to privacy in public. In light of changing times, should the law develop to strengthen our privacy protection in public? “Article 8 of the ECHR already covers privacy in public places because the European Court of Human Rights has recognised that there is a difference between doing something in public and having recorded images of it disseminated to a wider audience,” says Dr O’Neill. “The position under the Irish Constitution is less clear. It is interesting that at a time where the cultural trend - particularly among young people - seems to be an increasing lack of concern about privacy, the law is actually evolving to protect privacy and developing remedies for persons whose privacy is violated.” Presently, if you wake up some day to find that a photo of you caught in a compromising situation has been shared all over the internet, the options seem to be either deal with the embarrassment, become involved in
protracted legal wranglings, moderate behaviour in public in the first place or just hope that the administrators of such pages will show sympathy and discretion. The first three do not sound like appealing options, while the latter is unlikely. So many millions of people view these photos online because they are strangely compulsive. If we admit it to ourselves the reason is probably the same reason why we continue to watch Jeremy Kyle and vapid reality TV shows; secretly it makes us feel a little superior. It can be funny when it’s not happening to you, but the reality is that someday it could very well be you or a close friend in the photo. In this case, it will be quite a bit harder to forget. The Blandness of Facebook
Tuesday, November 20, 2012 | The University Times
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UTFEATURES
What lies behind the smile Louise Duff y focuses on the dark underbelly of Abercrombie & Fitch, a US brand which has drawn considerable attention since opening its doors in Dublin recently.
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WHAT IS DIVERSITY, and why is it important?’ Th is, so the gossip goes, is a question asked to every aspiring model during their Abercrombie interview. Th is, to me, is quite a bewildering question, that means very little. ‘Diversity’ – ‘The state of being diverse’ is better understood by reference to its antonym – uniformity. Diversity, or a lack of uniformity, is of course very important. That isn’t the bewildering part. The bewildering part is why Abercrombie would be asking such a question. Abercrombie is perhaps the least diverse organisation that I’m familiar with. I have worked in many shops, with many kinds of diverse people of all different ages, nationalities and backgrounds. Never once in an interview have I been asked to defi ne diversity; however, diversity was usually apparent. In Abercrombie, however, they go to great lengths to
include mentions of diversity in their hiring process. Yet, it would seem to me that there is a very distinct uniform ‘type’ that they are looking to hire. Th is is, namely, young, good looking, wholesome, all-American style, polished-looking college students. Even once they hire this fairly homogenous group of young people, they further streamline them by setting rules
call this diversity. ‘What is diversity, and why is it important?’ Th is is a question with a history. Because, you see, Abercrombie is a lot better than it used to be. These days, there is at least one type of diversity that Abercrombie is anxious to get its hands on: ethnic diversity. Abercrombie is now more than willing to hire young, good looking, natural, All-American style,
“In 2005 the company handed over $40 million dollars as part of a settlement for an employment discrimination law suit” as to how employees style their hair, wear their makeup as well as dictating ways of interacting with customers. Call this clever, call this good business practice, call this profitable- but do not
polished college students of different skin colours. Racism isn’t cool it would appear, nor is it profitable. In fact, a lack of diversity proved very unprofitable indeed for Abercrombie when
Models and door staff at Abercrombie & Fitch’s new College Green store. in 2005 the company handed over $40 million dollars as part of a settlement for an employment discrimination law suit. The action was brought by nine young people of colour who claimed that they were refused sales jobs or had them terminated on the basis of their race. They sued on behalf of themselves as well as others affected by the alleged practices. These plaintiffs were joined by more as the action grew. The plaintiffs were given considerable support by various non-profit legal groups. The accusations of the individual plaintiffs were startling. One plaintiff claimed that in the two weeks after Abercrombie corporate managers came to visit the
store where she worked, five Asian American employees were fi red and white employees were hired to replace them. Managers were instructed to, ‘make the store look more like’, one of the posters, featuring a white male model. Of course, you wont see anything like this anymore. As part of the settlement, Abercrombie agreed to take substantial action on ‘diversifying’ their workforce. The commitments included hiring 25 recruiters to seek out minority employees, hiring a, ‘vice president for diversity,’ and providing all employees with so-called ‘equality’ and ‘diversity’ training. However, the most important commitment, as judged by many involved
in the action, was Abercrombie’s promise to reflect their new diversity policy in their marketing material- in their glossy catalogues and gigantic posters. One big reason that this was so important was that many members of minority groups had felt discouraged from applying for a job in the fi rst place. The other reason, perhaps more important, is that Abercrombie, as a huge retailer, have a certain power. A company that spends so much money on advertising is bound to have an effect on the public psyche, and they were, intentionally or otherwise, using this power in a way that was causing harm. As Mr Gonzalez put it, “they were portraying the image that all-American is all
white. That’s not the case”. I think most people intuitively feel that this settlement, despite Abercrombie not admitting to any wrongdoing, was a step in the right direction. Th is case, some would argue, was a clear one; morally if not legally. However, the case may pose more questions than it answers. If Abercrombie is not allowed to discriminate on the basis of skin colour, then why is it allowed to discriminate on the basis of hair colour? Or face shape? Or height? All of these are things that people cant change about themselves (within reason). Yet, Abercrombie bases its hiring decisions on these factors because it helps them to sell more clothes. Because, due
Top free apps for students Andriod
iOS
Compiled by Conor Murphy
Compiled by Colm O’Donnell
Do It(Tomorrow) Th is is the to-do app for procrastinators everywhere. Everything not done today automatically pushes over to tomorrow. It has a cute (if too “real worldly”) interface and looks fantastic on all those big phones available nowadays.
Google Drive For all those assignments on the go. Use google drive, this is basically google docs but you can put anything on it. It syncs your half done documents effortlessly across all devices and is the only writing app I’ve used in four years of college because it saves to .doc format on your computer.
Evernote Th is is the note taking app slowly taking over the world. It looks fantastic on all sizes and is very powerful (as powerful as note taking apps can get). It really is your one stop shop for quick notes and works across all platforms.
8Tracks Th is is the app of the website and does use your data connections. 8Tracks is the website that just has lots and lots of playlists, The amount is key. The span of its “study” playlists is breathtaking and single handedly gave me to drive to actually pass some exams last year. There is a caveat, it’s quite buggy on some phones. It crashes, stutters and stops for a lot of people but the only way to check is to actually go and try it. If it works on your phone, (or even use it on your computer) then you will get addicted and fast.
Mantano E-reader Lets assume for a second that you, by some form of internet luckiness, stumbled across the pdfs of all your class books online for free. Then you might want to get Mantano e-reader, it imports all pdfs really well and lets you read all those book pdfs on the bus, couch or class, you’ll feel so perfectly studious that you’ll probably be able to get all your reading done on the bus in. Totes.
Apple iBooks Apples own new and improved reader app comes complete with everything you need to make owning actual books irrelevant in the future. The recent addition of the ability to highlight text and add notes in conjunction the various options for font, font size and viewing colour makes the whole experience of tackling course texts more fun. While you will never have the physical sensation of turning pages, in time you will grow to love the freedom of having a practically unlimited amount of books at the touch of a fi nger.
Dropbox Dropbox should be familiar to most students by now, it’s a fi le sharing app which lets you click and drop fi les from a computer to a mobile device and vice versa, upload from a mobile device to a computer. The only restraint on it is a storage limit which you can pay to increase the size of, or participate in various competitions and promotions run by Dropbox. Incredibly useful for moving lecture slides or presentations around between devices, among many other possibilities.
iStudiez Pro The app that will timetable your life and make sure you don’t miss any lectures or assignments, iStudiez Pro is worth the €1 that it will cost a hundreds time over. It sets up as a interactive timetable in which you can input assignments, lecturer contact information, etc. It also lets you input grades as you go along and it will calculate a GPA for you, or whatever other grade system you want it to operate on.
Twitter Do you like staying in touch with the world? I do. And with Twitter it’s more or less impossible not to. Top tip, follow about a thousand people, and spend your life constantly refreshing. Todays generation live a second screen lifestyle, with a compulsion to see what everyone else thinks instantly while watching sports, tv, or simply people reacting to a news event.
Co-Op: Einstein, explorers and exuberant fun Societies Editor Shona McGarry, reviews the Freshers’ Co-Op, one of DU Players biggest productions of the year. Societies Editor
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HIS YEAR’S FRESHERS’ Co-op in the Players Theatre was a scientific, character-driven, rollicking ride through time, jungles, secret bases and the west of Ireland. Shona McGarry was there. The Freshers’ Co-op took place in Week Six, in a seven-show run that saw, among other things, explorers being turned into handpuppets, a stage that was at once a grotty Irish pub and the SS Suff ragette, and a plethora of characters so varied it was hard to believe it had all happened within the six opening weeks of term. Directed by four experienced Players - Oonagh O’Donovan, Jack Gleeson, Neil Fitzpatrick, and Heather Walsh - it was ‘the biggest production’ of the year, and a sight to behold. Thursday night was a
predictable sell-out, and the cast attacked their script (and their stage) with gusto. The premise: seven (or something) misfits go on a quest to capture a magical orb before evil bandits get there first. (“It’s from the bible,” Oonagh tells me. “These angels had this all-powerful orb and... if any man were to get their hands on this orb they’d only use it for evil.”) The misfits are among others - a memorable Irish lad who only wants to play a bit of GAA (Tomas the hurler who ends up in Morocco for a match while wearing a soccer jersey was one of the brightest stars), a D4 chap with a degree in Gender Equality with a very square pair of glasses, and a chavvy girl who only talks in sex metaphors - and the evil bandits are a bunch of camp conquistadors. Along
the way they meet a funny little group of colonials - all drawn-on moustaches and khaki shorts - a girly James Joyce, the Cripple of Inis Maan (“I’m not drunk,
Photo: Jack Leahy to some freaky evolutionary psychology that makes us more susceptible to the influence of attractive people, we all seem to buy more clothes if they are sold to us by sales assistants who are hot. It is worth considering that Abercrombie may not be the problem, but simply a symptom. Red Bull: Redefining Advertising. Page 12
If this year’s co-op has taught us anything - besides the fact that anything drinkrelated is usually a winner - it’s that it has no creative limits. With co-op, anything goes. Einstein can be a girl (a very exuberant one). It can accuse itself of having racial stereotypes. You can say, ‘F the Brits’, if that’s the main thing on your mind. And you can go anywhere in the world, even if it’s just to hear some of the most ear-scratching accents imaginable. Not to mention the fact that you can make hand-puppets relevant to just about anything. The only thing this year’s effort was sorely lacking in was a typically sloppy Co-op kiss. (There was one tiny one, but I’m not counting that. They made up for it with the sex jokes. And the bit when someone says: ‘You’re sure about this, Einstein?’ to a girl in an Arnotts lab coat.) There was even a pub brawl thrown in there, a bit of IRA action (an IRA letter being read out in a strong D4 accent was one of the most sparkly moments), and a lecture from an economist. It really had something for everyone. “Going to see something like Co-op is always such a different,
“Hearing an IRA letter being read out in a strong D4 accent was one of the most sparkly moments” I’m just severely crippled”) and the Wright Brothers (“two wrongs don’t make a right, they make two Wright brothers.”). As if that wasn’t enough, the live, dressed-up band played a series of songs that the actors roared along to, and the whole thing culminated in a showdown at Einstein’s secret lair in Antarctica.
experience”, says Donal, one of the producers. “And I think it always is a hilarious show.” To read more about the background, foreground, and fairground of the Freshers’ Co-op 2012, check out the website for the full article!
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The University Times | Tuesday, November 20, 2012
UTFEATURES
Hubie on...whiskey Hubie Pilkington, a man who refuses to sell-out to the realities of modern consumerism, continues his discovery of the finer things in student living.
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HISKEY IS ALLURING. It isn’t just because supping it out of thick crystal glasses by firesides is one hell of a good look. It isn’t just because ordering a Jimmy, Johnnie or Jack ‘on the rocks’ is one of the suavest bar order going. It isn’t just because its Irish name, uisce beatha, translates as ‘water of life’. Nor is it just because it severely loosens up the lips, limbs and loins. No, whiskey is alluring because of its very composition and attributes – a honey glow, a simultaneous sharp and sweet taste, a smokey scent. It is no wonder then that there are nearly 750 recognisable whiskies worldwide. Ireland has one of the most prominent positions in the whiskey world. We produce roughly 60 million
bottles a year. Trademarks such as Jameson, Bushmills, Middleton and Powers are worldwide names. Of late, Irish whiskey sales in the US have surpassed those of their Scottish counterparts for the first time ever even though our production only equals to 5% of that of the Scots. The Scots rattle nearly 90 million cases (with
of the stuff, such as Famous Grouse, Johnnie Walker and Glenfiddich. The Americans, also, have claimed a decent slice of the pie with their sweeter tasting brands. Their influence is such that, littered throughout American culture, mentions of “My friend Jack” or “My pal Jim” are constant. Furthermore, there have been many
“Irish whiskey holds its history, like a lot of Irish culture, in the church” 12 bottles to a case) off the production line annually. Their production and distribution has turned from a small cottage industry into an international phenomenon. They too claim some of the best known brands
other nations that, more recently, have been joining the whiskey band-wagon such as Japan, Scandinavia, Australia, India and Germany. There is a reason that, in the last decade or so, global whiskey production has
Hanging out campus style Shauna Watson Online Features Editor
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ITTING ON THE cricket pitch has always been a Trinity student’s favourite. Arsing around, possibly a cheeky game of danger can and that one person KO’d on the grass after three and a half glasses of Kopparberg and blackcurrant. But as the November rain falls, arsing around on the cricket pitch has just turned into a soggy arse as the security men regain their pride and control of being able to throw people off the grass – three culprits are a lot easier to handle than 300. So unless you’re Paddy ‘Barack Obama’ Prendergast, a nurse or in the Phil/ Hist you have more than one
choice of place to hang (‘Phisties’ are only allowed out of the GMB during Freshers week to make them look social.) Somewhere to nom your Maguire’s chillet roll, somewhere to lock-in a life partner with your enticing Trinity conversation, or just somewhere for you to sit alone and retell yourself your secrets. So, embracing the stereotypes (and I’d encourage you, reader, to
company associated with them. When I refer to the arts block sofas, I’m not talking about the strict BESS territory of the red arts block couches. I believe this area was the shadowy place that Mufasa was warning Simba about. Lest you, a non-BESS student, find yourself wandering foolishly into this zone of intimidation you will no doubt be attacked
“There are only two types of people who frequent the Arts Block Smoking Area” embrace my embracing of the stereotypes), I’ve run through a few of the most common places to hangout around college and the
with a can of L’Oreal Elnett hairspray to the eyes and a Paul’s Boutique bag in the genitals. And that’s just by the guys.
grown. It is experiencing a renaissance. It is being revived as something that is no longer for the older gent. In fact, today’s youth are embracing whiskey to such an extent that the gender stereotype that has surrounded whiskey for so long (that it is not a feminine drink) is being de-constructed. Whiskey has become a drink that students and CEOs alike can enjoy. But ‘why?’, you may ask. Well, the allure and flexibility of the ‘golden spirit’ is quite tricky to escape, especially after the first glass! But to explain the phenomenon of the past few years, it’s helpful to understand the most prolific categories – Irish, Scotch and American whiskey. Irish whiskey holds its history, like a lot of Irish culture, in the church. When I’m referring to the black arts block sofas in the main area and the implied invitation to “Get the shift here”. Once you sit down on these deep pods of love laden with the sexual frustration of those still living at home, magical sexual dust hidden somewhere in the cushions of the sofas trigger the release of hormones and chemicals such as phenylethylamine, dopamine and orepinepherine (they’re all real, I’m not just stringing consonants together) and before you can shout EL James you find yourself straddling the male or female sitting next to you. So you see, it’s not their fault. It’s science. And if you’re a Chandler Bing type of lover who’s hopeless and awkward and desperate for love, take some tips from the romping sight before you. It’s practically free porn and it will teach more about awkward intimacy that a Twilight film. Staying with the arts block, we venture to the arts block smoking area (ABSA). There are only two kinds of people who frequent the ABSA. Hipsters who like to smoke standing
Irish monks returned from their Mediterranean travels around 1000 A.D. they brought with them a technique for distilling perfumes. Unsurprisingly we began modifying the technique until the result was a drinkable spirit. The distilling method has changed over the centuries, however, not to a great extent. In today’s Ireland, Irish whisky still can only be considered such if, firstly, it is made on the island, secondly, if its aroma and taste reflect the flavours of the materials that were used in the distillery process and, thirdly, if it has been aged for at least three years in wooden casks. Furthermore, Irish whiskeys are, more often than not, triple distilled. Of course, each distillery differs in its brewing, whether
this be through the type of casks used, the source of the water involved or the flavour of the grain that’s fermented. With all whiskeys, different attributes make for different tastes. Three well known brands which effectively represent t he spectrum of Irish blended whiskey are Bushmills, Jameson and Paddy. Bushmills Black Bush label is aged in old sherry casks providing a smoother and fruitier taste. Paddy whiskey, while still soft, has a slightly dryer and spicier taste. Jameson can be deemed the middle ground between the latter two. It presents a smooth taste. The spice of the mixed grains used is balanced with the sweeter taste from the aging in sherry and bourbon casks. Scotch whisky,
meanwhile, was born from Irish whiskey a number of centuries after Ireland began making the spirit. The differences between Scotch and Irish whiskey, firstly, lie in the spelling – ‘Irish whiskey’ as opposed to ‘Scotch whisky’. Taste-wise, Scotch is a rougher whisky as a result twice-distilling (in comparison to Irish’s triple distillation). This leaves the rugged edge intact and lends to a far dryer taste. Scotland’s best selling blended Scotch, The Famous Grouse, has all the qualities of what makes a Scotch whisky, subtly balancing fruitiness with a smoky, spicy and peaty finish. Despite its light nature it packs a lot of richness. Johnnie Walker’s Black Label holds a more intense sweet-to-spice nature, initially embracing honey,
Photo: Leanna Byrne up and hipsters who like to smoke sitting down. In between drags of their menthols, you’ll hear regular talk about how cool it is to wear Christmas jumpers all year round and how Workman’s on Saturday was too mainstream but Workman’s on Sunday was really chill but not as good as Workman’s on Monday when the Fish Soc dj’s were playing because the Fish Soc guys are such great CATCHES
(only said by Fish Soc themselves). If the chatting in the 24hour computer room is anything to go by, we’ll hit up the library as our next stop on the hangout guide. Whether you’re there to catch some z’s, check out the meat, or to do some actual work (unlikely) ,grab a coat and a hot water bottle because this is your pie in the sky. As regular as the Libro cop himself, there’s always
one perky and distracted library-goer who is only there for a solid Facebook status documenting the person sitting next to them. In the last week, I’ve seen ‘like’ marathons about students who have opened their laptop to the sound of Call Me Maybe on loudspeaker (poor guy) or were watching Power Rangers unaware of the resounding volume of their headphones and others with inappropriate groans. Now,
vanilla and a touch of peat with a long, spicy and smoky finish. Meanwhile, Glenfiddich’s Special Reserve 12 year single malt presents a simultaneously fruity and malty taste leaving behind a smoky and nutty flavour. American whiskey is a lot sweeter than its European influences. Trademark brands such as Jim Beam, Jack Daniels and Maker’s Mark all possess greater vanilla and honey flavours with smokey finishes, respectively. Fragrances vary depending on the grains used, the type of wood the casks are made of and the length of maturity. From this brief overview of the world of whiskey it is clear to see that a lot of thought, time and patience goes into every brand, barrel and bottle. The variety of flavours available make it possible for each person to choose their own preferred label and this has stretched to the younger generations. Whether this is a result of good advertising or raw interest is up for debate. Whatever the case though, more and more people are drinking whiskey; be it mixed, as a cocktail, on ice or unspoiled and straight. Furthermore, with Ireland’s rich tradition of whiskey distilling it would be a pity if our youth did not take hold of our history in the pubs, clubs and off-licences... and proceed to sip it from a thick crystal glass! Visit www.universitytimes.ie this week for an insight into Hubie’s favourate whiskey cocktails.w
“Scotland’s best selling blended Scotch, The Famous Grouse, has all the qualities of what makes a Scotch whisky”
I’m no expert in statistics but at least 43 statuses are written every minute about someone else in the library. And one of those is most likely written about you. But what about the GMB, I hear you say, it’s a great spot to hang? Well what they haven’t been teaching you in English grammar is that you can’t spell Phil and Hist without incest. There’s a reason why you only ever see Ph-isties using those GM(Hepatitis)B couches and it’s not for a daytime nap. So how does one avoid the awkward shifting, the infected debaters, and everyone in the Hamilton? Unless you fancy joining the rest of the college community and spending most of your time in Trinity’s ultimate hangout spot, IS Services, then the best thing to do when you’re looking for somewhere to recline is to just give up and go back home.
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Opinion Editor Matthew Taylor Tuesday,November 20, 2012 | The University Times
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UTOPINION
LETTERS to the Editor
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John Logue’s arrest: How students reacted Last Wednesday night, USI President John Logue was arrested in Dáil Éireann. To gauage students’ reaction to the event, we asked the following question on The University Times Facebook page:
it rt at n’t
‘USI President John Logue was last night arrested for turning his back to TDs in the Dáil after the government rejected a motion to maintain grant levels and the student contribution charge at the 2012 rates. Was he right to do it?”.
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Of the 917 students who responded to the Facebook question, 78% answered Yes and 22% answered No.
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Logue’s arrest garnered a considerable degree of attention with dozens of students engaging in a debate on our Facebook debates regarding the merit of his actions. Here are some of the of the comments posted:
A gay man’s perspective on sexual health Samuel Riggs Contributing Writer
S David Higgins: Throw away the key. How did we JUST vote to stay with the bastion of maturity that is the Union of Students in Ireland? Trinity can do better than this folks! Mark O’Meara: I know dozens of people who have been in the Dáil and have somehow managed to not get arrested. Is there a reason why John Logue wasn’t able to manage it? Helena Hughes: While we’re all harping on about how the leader of the USI is going to be viewed folliowing his arrest, just looking at the comments above (in the thread) re- veals how quick we students are to jump the gun and condemn him as a criminal for fighting a cause for our benefit. Whether it was right to stand up as part of the campaign is almost irrelevant, at least he’s doing something. We weren’t there, why do we feel l iike we can judge him straight off as being the one in the wring and slander him? I feel like we’re missing the point here. Our government is in the wrong regard ing its stance on education and third level fees. David Byrne: Ah jaysis Rebecca Ní Smurchú: FFS, the USI could cure cancer and the Young Fine Gael clones would still find something to sh**e on about. Yawn. G’wan Logue!
ex. It’s one of the basic desires which drives men and women to extraordinary measures in order to attain it. It’s one of the most baseline parameters by which we define ourselves as individuals. Everyone is different in their sexual exploits, experiences and enjoyments. When it’s good, it’s mind-blowingly excellent. And when it’s bad... well, it’s still sex. Then why in the world does sex induce in me such a mindnumbing, ridiculous fear? It’s nothing to do with issues of emotional closeness or physical intimacy – when it comes to these, there really can’t be enough in my book. It’s certainly not because I don’t enjoy it; I am a redblooded male, all evidence to the contrary when I’ve had a few drinks. Being a gay man, I believe, is something which contributes highly to my fear of intimate sexual contact. I take a look at some of my friends, and envy the frivolity with which they approach sex.
To some, it seems to me, sex with someone is just the natural conclusion to a night out. Or, to a few of my looser friends, just the natural conclusion to a night in general. But being gay, there’s always that niggling voice in the back of my head whispering ‘What if they have something? What if it’s AIDS? What if, because of this night, you end up being dependant on anti-retrovirals for the rest of your life?’ I feel that the prevalence and sheer variety of STIs and STDs out there is one of the largest contributing factors towards my apprehension. But the AIDS epidemic, though having been far more prolific in the US, is still a very tangible memory to a lot of older queer people in Ireland today, and it hangs, a ghost of the past, over the younger generations who have come after them. Even my parents, sequestered away in their country homes, are afraid of it. Shortly after I came out to my mother, one of the first comments she made on the matter, after the initial shock, was ‘If you EVER
have to tell me you’ve got AIDS, you best do it over the phone, because if you say it to my face, I’ll kill you before it does.’ Despite my mother’s volatile reaction, we know nowadays that it’s not a death sentence. We know it’s treatable, and that people often go on to live completely happy, healthy lives long after they’re diagnosed. Even statistically, I really have so little to worry about – worldwide, Ireland has one of the lowest HIV infection rates on the planet. According to the Dublin AIDS Alliance, there were only 320 newly diagnosed cases of HIV in Ireland. Of these, 235 were male, 42.5% of which were in the M2M (men who have sex with men) group. 8.8% of all new HIV diagnoses were in the 18-24 age-group. Now, I’m no good at maths (no, really, I am diabolical), but this means there is an incredibly small number of people my age, men and women, living with HIV in Ireland currently. And I’m sure I’m not being naive when I say that those who have been diagnosed are almost definitely
In a man’s world Aoife Considine looks at positive discrimination towards women in typically male dominated industries.
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’ve never been held back because I was a girl, though knowing my mum was not even offered the chance to even do honours Maths at Leaving Cert, I was aware that I was one of the first of a new generation of female equals, but an odd one at that. You see, although this generation is considered the first to not have to worry about gender discrimination (in a broad sense of the phrase, I choose my words carefully here), the generation above us grew up in a world that was much more closed-minded on these topics. As a result, we are now in a sort of limbo with regards to gender equality, a limbo that those coming after us will never experience, and that those above us shaped. If you ask me, there is no better time to be a woman in a man’s world than now; as long as we don’t let them know it. I first realized this in transition year in school upon choosing my Leaving Cert subjects and, as it felt at
the time, the rest of my life as I knew it. Being a little sister, my admiration and awe of my big brothers had never diminished, or maybe I just wanted to show I could be just as good as them, so I chose subjects they had chosen; physics, applied maths, chemistry, honours maths. At the time I think I did it just to annoy people, or maybe even just to be different, but as it transpires, it set me on the road that I have not looked back from ever since. Choosing a college course was the next big decision and for me, it was a no brainer. While other sixteen-year-old girls had posters of whomever the One Direction of 2007 were on their walls, I had newspaper cutouts of Jeremy Clarkson. Maybe not your typical teenage heartthrob, but because my brothers watched Topgear, I did too. I absorbed it and in two years’ time I was enrolled in Engineering at Trinity, inspired by a lust to one day hopefully impress Jezza; a good a reason if any
to chose a career. That was over three years ago now and although I joke about my reasons for ending up in Engineering, there was a far bigger instigator than the godly body of a middleaged grumpy old man that led me to my course decision. Back when I was applying to the CAO there was a scheme to promote engineering amongst girls. If you received an A in higher level Maths and in higher level of any of the Sciences or Engineering, you were eligible for a prize, ten of which were to be awarded across the country to girls going on to pursue degrees in engineering. This prize was €200 every year of your degree, a free laptop and a summer work’s placement in industry, all just for being a girl. I remember thinking then how unfair it was that boys weren’t given this kind of incentive but knowing not to complain if money was being thrown at people like me simply for pursuing a career that I was already intending
practising safe sex, and being responsible, even more so than we all should be already. This isn’t to say in any way that HIV/AIDS is the only STI out there that I’m terrified of. Recently, I picked up a booklet which gave a terrifyingly comprehensive list of every single potential infection and disease you can pick up from sexual contact. You know, casual bedtime reading. With every page I turned, on every tab marked ‘Prevention’, there seemed to be one word jumping out at me. “Abstain. Abstain. Abstain.” Now, I’m no stranger to the idea of abstinence – my tenure in a Catholic boys’ school saw to that remarkably well. But it can’t be a healthy thing. Abstaining from something which, by design, gives you a ridiculous amount of pleasure simply because you fear it isn’t a good conclusion to come to. My main point in this article isn’t to present to the world my fear of sexual contact. It’s more to point out that my fear is irrational, that after nearly 2 years of
being in college, I should just be getting the hell over it. Between SHAG week, educating myself in the issue due to my role on the QSoc Committee and the plethora of Channel 4 shows which seem strangely obsessed with bad things happening to people’s genitals, I should know that I need not fear sex in any way, shape or form, so long as I’m not an absolute tool when it comes to using protection and being safe. They say that sex is good for the soul, and even better for the body. It’s my own paranoia that holds me back from enjoying a regularly healthy sex life, but it shouldn’t be something that anyone else suffers, and it’s something I’m working on for my own personal benefit. If I could say one thing to gay men, queer people, and just sexually active people in general, it would be; don’t fear it as long as you’re being safe, get checked regularly even if you’re sure and, in the most literal sense of the word... just do it!
“We are now in a sort of limbo with regards to gender equality, a limbo generations after us will not experience” to do. They don’t give this prize any longer, in fact, I think we were the last year it was run. As I’ve already said, there is no better time to be a woman in a man’s world. It may seem bad to many people out there that they are basically paying women to get them interested in science and engineering, but for those of us already involved, we reap the benefits simply for existing and for being female. My male classmates often joke about certain placements and awards catered specifically towards women as being, “the ovary”, placements or awards, and they’re right. I in no way feel that just because I’m a girl I should be getting any special treatment, no matter what field of study I choose to go into. But if companies and government bodies are willing to have special graduate schemes and give grants specifically to girls, I’m not going to complain, but rather use what they’re offering to my advantage.
I realise that I am in the last generation to experience this limbo period where people feel it necessary to congratulate girls for doing engineering. Sure it gets annoying the seventieth time someone replies with, “really?” when you tell them what course you do, but then you remember that in a couple of years time, things will be equal; companies will no longer be giving privileges merely for having ovaries, batting one’s eyelashes will no longer work to get someone to help you with your work and god forbid they may even employ a woman on Topgear. Until then however, I’m happy to ride this positive discrimination wave until it inevitably comes to shore.
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The University Times | Tuesday, November 20, 2012
UTOPINION What’s this budget thing all about? Economise This
Origins of a double standard
Lorcan Clarke Student Economic Review 2012 Committee member
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t’s that time of year again. The winter is upon us and a harsh budget is in store. Amid Christmas cheer, Budget 2013 will be announced on 5th December. How will it affect us students though? First up, here’s a bit of background: The government has committed to austerity measures of €3.5bn for this budget, to meet the Troika bailout target of a deficit of 7.5% of GDP for 2013. The plan after that is for a fiscal adjustment of €3.1bn in 2014 and €2bn in 2015. The good news? We’re on track as 2012’s GDP deficit target of 8.6% looks likely to be achieved and tax revenues returned to growth last year for the fi rst time since 2007. However, after four years of austerity, most of the politically easier spending cuts have already been made, so further savings will necessitate controversial decisions. With Labour’s commitment to not cutting social welfare benefits or public pay and Fine Gael’s to not raise income tax rates, something has to give. There is grounds for even further austerity, given that the GDP growth forecast for 2013 has recently been reduced from 2.25% to 1.5%, mainly on account of slower growth internationally hurting Irish exports. Although this will decrease the tax take, the government has insisted there is no need for a tougher budget and fears it would make an already bad situation even
“A key that opens many locks is a master key, but a lock that can be opened by many keys, that’s a shitty lock”.
worse. So that’s the background, now where will this €3.5 billion of savings come from and what does it mean for students? €1bn will come from new taxes while day-today spending will be cut by €1.7bn. In addition, the government plans to use extra revenues generated this year and cut back on reserves to reach the targets. The tax changes aren’t of much concern to students, at least not directly, but let’s consider them fi rst. While income tax rates and bands will remain unchanged, the increase in revenue will come from new taxes, reducing tax reliefs, and broadening the base for PRSI. The main new tax looks set to be a property tax, likely to cost homeowners an average of €300 per year. Th is, combined with broadening the PRSI base to include rental income, is of significance to students, as increased costs for landlords can be expected to translate to higher rents. Some bad news for hedonists, drivers, and hedonist drivers, as excise duties and taxes on motoring, both VRT and motor tax, are set to rise. However, your right to a sugar fi x is being defended by the most unlikely candidate, the Dental Association (IDA). They have opposed the idea of a 10% hike in tax on soft drinks on the grounds that 60% of the population does not consume them so any measure aimed at taxing them would
target a minority and disproportionately lower income group. Students who earn more than €100,000 should know that a “solidarity tax” is on Labour’s agenda, but worry not as Fine Gael have insisting the only tax rise should be the property tax. So that’s the tax changes, now what about the spending cuts? The government’s aim here is to save money by having better-targeted social spending. All social transfers are potentially in the fi ring line, but especially universal payments such as child benefit, which is paid to all families regardless of income and accounts for over €2bn, a tenth of the total social welfare budget. Research from the ESRI has found that 94% of Irish people are better off in employment than out of work and the majority of the other 6% are actually in work anyway. Th is would appear to undermine any calls for cutting social welfare in order to incentivise work. Pensions are a politically sensitive area for cuts, with the government having avoided cutting them in the previous two budgets. However, Budget 2013 looks set to take away the tax relief on pensions worth more than €60,000. Further concern for the grey lobby, as allowances are under scrutiny and qualification criteria for medical cards are back on the table due to the spiralling costs for providing the cover.
Of primary important to students is the Education budget. There will be much interest in the student contribution, currently standing at €2,250, which is set to reach €3,000 by 2015. Minister Ruairi Quinn has to cut an extra €20m from the budget due to the higher-thanexpected number of teacher retirements last February, and the higher increments bill for young teachers. With 78% of the budget going to pay and pensions protected under the Croke Park deal, the hit will have to come from somewhere else. A reduction in school grants and a fall in the teacher-pupil ratio looks most likely. What about job prospects for fi nal year students? The unemployment rate looks to remain as high as 13% until 2015 at the earliest, with long-term unemployment accounting for 61% of those out of work now. The Budget looks to have minimal increase in the tax burden which would have damaged the business sector by increasing the cost of employment, according to the Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association . While the fairness of the incremental rise in the Student Contribution is much debated, the budget overall does not look likely to disproportionally target students. Pensioners, schools and property-owners will be more affected. So in a relative, purely self-interested sense, happy days.
t’s true; a guy who “whores” himself about is thought of as a “top lad” while a girl who engages in a similar type of behavior is branded with the name of “slut” and must bear the weight of all the negative connotations the name bestows. I, for my sins, fall into this latter category. Now, I could talk for pages about the origins of this double standard and of why it is that men can get away with casual promiscuity with women cannot but I’d rather just talk about what it’s actually like to be one of “the sluts”. Being promiscuous isn’t the kind of thing you wake up one day and decide to do; it either suits your personality or it doesn’t. People often relate sluttish endeavors with the kinds of girls with low IQs, low self esteem issues and even lower cut tops, but promiscuity, like people, comes in all shapes and sizes. I like to think myself not the most unintelligent person in the world; I read many books, enjoy museums and the works of Dali, Pollock and Klimt, I don’t have any body issues and I in fact am often one to cast a dirty glance at any girl I might see dressed in something vulgar or inappropriate. Yet I fi nd myself tarred by the same words that describe members of that oldest profession. It can be really hard one to get your head around the idea of promiscuity; even I myself am at a loss to fathom it at the best of times. People often think promiscuous females are only after one-night stands, but I have had many boyfriends, some for extended periods of time.
I’m not going to beat around the bush, I enjoy sex, and I realize there is a taboo in admitting that as a girl these days but I feel it is essential to my point. Although I enjoy the act of sex, I think as a girl there will always be an emotional attachment, no matter how much we claim there isn’t. I make my best efforts to suppress this, mainly for fear of seeming weak, and I know many others who do the same. After sexual intercourse I can roll over and go to sleep and happily leave the next morn-
now I must lie in it, but sometimes, on those nights when I climb into it alone and am no longer able to fall asleep to the sound of my own thoughts I wonder is it all worth it. Is it this fear of being alone that has spawned my lust for male attention, however fleeting? Or is it simply that I enjoy sex? That I enjoy being wanted? That I’m somehow mis-wired and have been fitted with the mindset of a “lad”? Then again, maybe it’s just how I am, and is that not okay? Must I be branded as some-
ing, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to ever hear from you again. I was recently told upon asking why I hadn’t received a text after some such occasion that I “didn’t seem like the kind of girl who expected a text the next day”. That’s when it fi nally started to hit home that I couldn’t do this forever. Being single is enjoyable, but if I’m perfectly honest, more often than not when I end up with somebody after a night out it’s their company I’m after, not their body. I enjoy lying next to someone and simply chatting, getting to know little things about people that they otherwise wouldn’t say or admit in a different setting. It’s unfortunate that these situations too are the setting for such actions that have given me the name I have, they almost go hand in hand I suppose. I have made my bed and
thing bad for doing something I enjoy? Of course once in awhile it would be nice to be wanted for more than one night, but as long as the guy seems happy enough to leave things at a goodbye kiss then I suppose let that be it. It’s true to say I’ve been hardened by years of living my life this way, I never really meant it to be like this. I could decide to blame a multitude of things, a multitude of boys, a multitude of scenarios and I’d imagine I’d be a psychologist’s wet dream to analyse, but I choose not to place blame on anyone but myself. Th is is how I live my life, and I do not judge anyone else on how they live theirs. It’s very easy to put someone in a box and label them and I’m a criminal to this myself, but you never really know. I have been called many names, and have heard
“I’ve been hardened by years of living my life this way”
many nasty rumors about me. What I have learned from living like is to let people think what they want of you, let them call you names and let them spread their rumors, as long as you’re not hurting anyone, especially yourself, how you conduct your personal life should not shape how you are viewed as a person. I’ve learned more from my encounters with men than I ever could from any book, TV show, or self help guru and for that I am really rather grateful. I have been broken down many times, and I’m sure I have broken others along the way too, but I have always ended up stronger as a result. People often look down at those who are promiscuous, especially when they’re girls, but you’ll often notice that those who are promiscuous rarely, if ever, look down upon anyone else. When it boils down to it, is it really such a bad way to be? We’d all love the stable relationship, the two kids and the black Labrador, the white picket fence and the “honey I’m home” after a long day at work, but the reality is that’s just not how it is for everyone. It doesn’t mean I can’t still want that though, and I hope one day I get it, but who’s to say I can’t have fun on the way? Yes, one day I’ll have the house with the wooden door with the big brass knocker and the double lock for safety, but right now, I’m happy enough just being a shitty lock for a while. The author of this piece has chosen to remain anonymous.
UT Opinion head-to-head
Irish men are useless at all things romantic For
Against
Conor Kenny
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hen I was about eight years old, I remember my grandparents watching The Quiet Man on VHS on one of many wet and windy family holidays in Glengarrif. One scene that stood out for me was the bit where Mary Kate explains to Michael how romance in Ireland is done. “Well, we just started a-courtin’, and next month, we, we start the walkin’ out, and the month after that there’ll be the threshin’ parties”. Even as a kid, although I pretended to feel revolted by the mushiness, I actually remember thinking it was quite cute at the time. These days Mary Kate’s description might contrast quite jarringly with a more realistic version that goes something along the lines of: “well, we just started scor-
shuts we’ll go for a kebab”. And I actually heard that line, pretty much word for word, being said to some lucky girl last year. When you think about it, Ireland should really be one of the most romantic places in the world. It has all that literature by people like Oscar Wilde and Yeats, plenty of rustic green scenery, and more patriotic martyrs than you can shake a shillelagh at. So what on earth’s happened since then? It seems like we’ve gone backwards to the sophistication levels of the Iron Age Celts. As much as some girls would like to pin the blame on a Laddish culture composed of Soccer AM and Top Gear, I just don’t see it myself. Still none of them are able to explain to me how blokes reading FHM is any
“An unscientific byt plausible theory exists that Bono is to blame, mostly for his pissing everyone off so much” ing, in a few minutes you’ll take me out the back for a quickie in the alley outside Alchemy, and then when it
different to girls ogling the lads posing outside that naff clothes store on Dame Street. I could give you some
philosophical waffle about how both sexes are degenerating into a material image based world, but I just reckon girls are able to get away with murder. When and where the romance was sapped out of Irish life is difficult to pinpoint. An unscientific but
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Conor Murphy simply because he thought it was romantic. For whatever reason, that kind of thing just doesn’t work in this country. The other day I tried surprising my girlfriend by sending flowers using InterFlora, and far from being a romantic gesture, they ended up at Cen-
Ireland should really be one of the most romantic places in the world” plausible theory exists that Bono is to blame, mostly for pissing everyone off so much that they just can’t be arsed doing anything nice for their significant others any more. My flat mate from Milan is better schooled in this area. These Italians just tend to be more naturally sophisticated. Even their food is sexier, even more so when compared to our own national cuisine. I mean, what are women more likely to fi nd aphrodisiacal when they’re being wined and dined – beef stew and a bit of soda bread, or something with a name like pollo alla cacciatora? Last year the flat mate in question bought a rose for a girl he was fond of, not for any special occasion, but
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tra five minutes down the road, ringing her and asking her to walk down and collect a mysterious parcel that was addressed to her. It was more like the ending to Se7en than anything out of The Quiet Man. Yeats, when he wasn’t busy being a clingy sod towards Maud Gonne, seemed to have a fair bit of foresight. In his poem, September 1913, he wrote, “Romantic Ireland’s dead and gone”. Nearly a hundred years later, that certainly seems to have remained the case in this country. Unless you’re happy to settle for that kebab.
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omantic Ireland’s dead and gone. It is an old argument, it is trite, and in a relationship context it is possibly truer than anywhere else. The blame is often laid at the feet of Irish men. Our inherent chattiness has clashed with the inherently more sexual nature of the twenty fi rst century and turned us into horny foot in mouth leviathans. The problem is not with Irish men though, we’re doing the best with what we have. Men had the total responsibility for making all romantic decisions dumped at our feet when we breached puberty and we’ve been fumbling that responsibility ever since. Many of the liberations and equalisation of the sexes in the sixties and seventies have still not affected Irish romantic life. Even such simple things as the supposed sexual freedom we all have is now an awkward hybrid between free love and catholic disapproval. Is it wrong for a guy (or a girl) to just want sex? Obviously not, but how are men or women meant to go about it? Do we just say, do you want to come home for a shag? No, because a large portion of Irish people have been brought up with the notion that before you are actually in the bedroom,
you have to pretend to be asexual. The bizarre pantomime some men and women play, “”oh yes we’ll go for a walk in the direct opposite direction to my house, but I’m not going to sleep with you”. As if all every person in Ireland really wants is to be surprised by being beside the bedroom and then
countless girls complain about why didn’t he make a move if he liked me. The same has happened where women have a man sitting in their shadow constantly for a year and have made the hilarious assumption that if he hasn’t asked them out then he musn’t be attracted at all!
“There are few other rarer forms of modern confusion” just go “oh well, since we’re here...”. The amount of the responsibilty that has been laid at mens feet is tremendous and because of this men have been trapped into playing these weird and creepy games of cat and mouse by the state of all of our attitudes to casual sex. However the blame has also been consistently laid at men’s feet because the majority of women still won’t get off their comfy beds of romantic laziness and take equal charge of their romantic lives. Men I know have played in sexual “will-they won’tthey” games for months with pseudo friends of theirs and inevitably when things go south I have heard
Men can be incredibly useless in this regard and one of the greatest social changes that was meant to happen with gender equality was that women didn’t have to sit around twiddling their thumbs waiting to be picked up like a porcelain damsel. They who continue this path will all say its shyness but since men have to get over this why shouldn’t women? If we’re meant to be the less mature of the sexes then why on earth leave all the big relationship moves to us? There are a few other rarer forms of modern confusion. From an inherent misunderstanding of who should pay for what (treat it like you’re out on the lash with your mate, you both pay
for different things and you end up square) and also an inherent misunderstanding of what you should say about this whole rigmarole. I still feel the need to awkwardly bring up the fact that if I pay for theatre tickets, you’re grabbing the drinks etc. However this is gradually ironing itself out. There is an obvious truth to saying traditional romance is dead, as it should be, it is predicated on weak women and lumpish ignorant men. In modern romantic Ireland I can truly see most guys making a serious effort to be generally honest with women, to be generally less ignorantly lumpish. I see extraordinarily little fight from women though, only a few that will seize the situation, only a few with a true backbone about it. However when that does become the general truth, then that will mean the romantic Ireland will have risen again, where women and men share responsibility for their romantic and sexual lives, where everyone’s more honest about what they feel, and everyone has a lot more guilt free sex because of that truth, and isn’t that what romance is really about anyway?
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Tuesday, November 20, 2012 | The University Times
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UTOPINION
The blandness of Facebook photos Eoghan O’Sullivan Staff Writer
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s part of this year’s Mental Health Week and S2S Day 2012, students were encouraged to take part in the ‘It’s Alright Not to Feel OK’ campaign. Participants were asked to change their usual Facebook profi le pictures and replace them with ones in which they were “not looking their greatest.” The campaign seems to have been very successful, with six hundred and eighty people attending on Facebook; many others and I took part. To see the success of a mental health campaign such as this is wonderful; mental health is an issue that deserves greater public awareness and should be talked about more than it is. Those who participated duly obliged with their selection of profi le pictures. Pictures of people without make-up, drunk, or taken at precisely the wrong moment were the order of the day. Photographs from unflattering angles, with closed eyes, with open mouths: many were fantastic examples of
the type of pictures that people are usually very reluctant to allow others to see. What struck me when viewing this array of photographic catastrophes was not how bad, ugly or undesirable the people in them looked, rather what I was struck by was how much more interesting these “bad” photographs made people seem than the profi le pictures that they had had
are photographs taken at the ideal moment where we have beaming smiles, with lighting and camera angles that highlight our best features. Men and women both indulge in this; in case anyone thinks I am criticising one particular gender. Other favourites seem to be people participating in sporting activities, surrounded by friends or meeting a celebrity. I should probably point
“Impressions formed based on Facebook profiles can be deeply misleading”
before. These new pictures were genuinely engaging: they were funny, they gave a better sense of the person and they even made people look more attractive in some cases, although admittedly not in a conventional sense. Th is led me to realise that our Facebook profi le pictures are, in the majority of cases, staggeringly similar. I would guess that a large majority of the profi le pictures on Facebook
out that I am not saying people are blameworthy in choosing such photographs as their profi le pictures; in this regard, I am as guilty as anyone. The situation calls to mind the oft-repeated truism that the world would be a boring place if everyone were alike. On Facebook everyone’s life seems to be more and more alike in that everyone is presenting an ever more appealing picture
Red Bull: Redefining advertising In light of their recent sponsorship of that jump from space, Tom Myatt takes an indepth look at the marketing strategy of Red Bull.
Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner sensationally broke the record for the highest ever human altitude fall, last month. Wearing only a pressurised spacesuit and a battery of video cameras, he launched himself from a balloon at the edge of earth’s atmosphere - a height of 39 km - reaching a speed of 1342 km per hour at his peak, and in the space of just ten minutes the entire planet was astonished. Th is was an entirely private enterprise, funded by brand-leading energy drink Red Bull. Someone thought the great expense of this sky-dive would be a profitable investment; the dividend would be five minutes of global (and digital) fame. How so? Because the whole astonishing event was named Red Bull Stratos…and their brand was
seen by millions of potential consumers worldwide. Red Bull really does have wings, right? Yet this publicity stunt has been part of a rapidly growing trend in the global market place – fi rms desperate to gain attention and publicity through any means necessary. The only number that mattered to Red Bull was that 8 million of us saw it live and many more watched later on YouTube. There is an emerging world in which tactical marketing and ‘being-seen’ is apparently becoming more important to fi rms than the actual product. Red Bull is an organisation entirely based on marketing. They can’t seem to get enough of it. The brand dishes drinks out to every sports event you can think of - including aerobatics. Red Bull doesn’t try to deny
it. They’re creating a cool lifestyle to aspire to, that centres around their drinks - extreme sports sponsorships ‘prove’ they live it to the max! But they are by no means the only ones involved in extreme marketing. Virgin’s ‘galactic’ service, for example, claims to be a pioneer in space travel, owning “space-jets” and even a “spaceport” in New Mexico. And you can even book yourself a place via their website. Unsurprisingly, such figures as Katy Perry and Angelina Jolie have publicly signed up for tickets, and at a total of $200k per ticket it’s not an experience that all of us can enjoy. Yet even that large figure is far from making such a mission profitable, and fi rms never do anything without that in mind. But the whole world is waiting.
of themselves; people share details of trips, nights out and the other exciting details of their lives. Anything will become boring if we are exposed to it often enough, and on Facebook we are now confronted with a bland and boring sea of the uniformly exciting, desirable and perfect. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that people’s imperfections are what make them interesting, but I think that they certainly help, yet the nature of Facebook makes it a forum on which we rarely display our flaws. It is understandable that people want to give the best possible impression of themselves, but at the same time, impressions formed based on Facebook profi les can be deeply misleading. Most of us do not look our best most of the time, and this means there can be situations in which a person barely resembles their Facebook photos. The person with a picture of themselves playing rugby might not have played sport in years. The person who has a picture of them dancing with their friends in a nightclub might only have been in a nightclub once in the past
year. I don’t think anyone would deny that we all engage in some limited vanity and self-deception, I know that I certainly do. Indeed, a large part of the modern cult of positive thinking and selfbelief is that people should always think the best of themselves, and talk themselves up in their own mind. These are relatively minor foibles, and, for the most part, they are entirely benign, but I think that when we all engage in them on a public forum we can warp other’s perceptions about just how great our lives are. Facebook profi les can and do become shrines to how we want the rest of the world to see us, rather than being reflective of who we really are. Th is might seem harmless enough, but one of the main points of the S2S campaign was to highlight how viewing these beautified and enhanced depictions of other people’s lives can make those who are struggling feel worse about themselves. A sort of “why can’t I go out all the time, and have loads of friends, and get great grades, and meet
famous people” envy, although a more pithy description of this phenomenon might be required. Again, I do not think this is something that people can be blamed for; the situation resembles a social arms race of sorts, with no one wanting to appear less perfect than anyone else. I don’t know that there is a solution to this problem, and to be honest I’m not even sure whether describing it as a problem is accurate. It may simply be a fact of life in the age of social media. As I have said earlier, I think it is entirely natural for people to want to present the best possible image of themselves; it is not something that should be viewed as a moral failing. But, something I do know is that people having “bad” photos as their profi le pictures made Facebook a more interesting and genuine place, with less pressure to aspire to ultimate social desirability, and that is something that was nice while it lasted.
Watching. Seeing if they can do it. Virgin’s publicists are more than content with just how many headlines it has gained in the past few years - but with no real astronautical effect: founded almost a decade ago, they have yet to put a passenger into space. In fact such strategies are even seen locally, too. We all, of course, know about Abercrombie and Fitch’s new store opening on College Green. We all do. No-one could miss it. About three weeks before their blast off, they narrowly avoided prosecution by hanging a 3-storey high su-
overpriced, yet people are prepared to fight their way into the shop….and then you get the privilege of advertising for them by having their logo smeared across your chest! But such events just show the raw power of getting your fi rm some attention. Its moment of fame. The hype wasn’t about any notions of great clothing – just a great image, which customers admit. I’ve heard many a conversation, good and bad, about this shop’s opening. Th is is something fi rms have become brilliant at in recent years; managing to tell us we want it so much…that we actually do
per-stud poster in front of the building; had their gorgeous employees standing on the balconies just cheering at us. The result? Unprecedented queues and even bouncers at the doors - preventing the crowds from going mad with Abercrombemania. But why? Where does the company have a real competitive advantage? The clothes are ridiculously
– or simply creeping their way into our heads. Th is prevents real advancement through competition, rather than a successful company being the one able to offer the best goods at the lowest price. However, maybe all this over-hyped publicity is not such a bad thing. It is, undeniably, clever. It certainly will be impressive if
Virgin galactic eventually do make space travel accessible. Heck, I’d be at the front of the queue if they offered a student discount. Even if the main motivation of fat cat corporations is all about publicity when they pour their millions into sponsorship, their money is nevertheless necessary to fund these large scale projects, which many see as symbolic of mankind’s achievements…and which might never take place otherwise. Thanks to corporate wallets, the line between the constant striving of humans to achieve something noble…and the race to sell more products, is becoming a very fi ne one indeed. But my point is that all this becomes problematic when companies block anyone else from starting their own business… we will have no choice but to buy their product. A new (and probably better) clothes shop would shut in minutes with shops like Abercrombie and Fitch lurking about. Fundamentally, it’s the reasoning I have difficulty understanding: Red Bull threw a man out of a balloon, therefore their drink tastes nicer?
“Red Bull is an organisation entirely based on marketing”
Speak and ye shall find Stephen Cox Staff Writer
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couldn’t help but be struck by an exchange I overheard in one of the many hardware shops under Chinese ownership here in Salamanca. Looking on the shelves for household essentials, I overheard a conversation between the shopkeeper and a middleaged Spanish woman. She began describing what she was looking for in unnecessary detail before, with a sigh of exasperation, the elderly Chinese man interrupted her. “You mean a coat rack?” His little snort of irritation revealed that this was not the first time a customer had been over elaborate, as if the foreign owner of a hardware shop could not be expected to know the correct terms for the goods he was selling. Th is led me to consider the nature of languagelearning. When you begin to learn a new language, whether at home, school or university, there are
countless words you take for granted in your mother tongue yet still don’t know in the language you are trying to master. I am reminded of a retired professor of French in Trinity who used to berate his students for not knowing the French words for parts of the body such as eyelid, earlobe and nostril. If we as language-learners are ignorant of such seemingly basic nouns, is there any hope for
along the way. I remember hearing about an Erasmus student who caused great amusement in a restaurant here when she asked for “polla” (penis) and not “pollo” (chicken); it would take a curmudgeon not to chuckle at this linguistic slip. Mistakes such as this add to the fun of learning a new language; in English, at least, I fi nd most foreign accents appealing.
expressing ourselves clearly in another vernacular when it matters? Writers such as Joseph Conrad who become master stylists in an adopted language are the exception. Lesser mortals may eventually become more or less fluent in a second language, but will struggle and sometimes make fools of themselves
Indeed, I have perhaps been dismissive of some languages just because they don’t have the aesthetic appeal of, say, French or Italian. Each language is a unique descriptive instrument with its own quirks and fascinatingly untranslatable words. For instance, ask any native Portuguese speaker what the most
“Is there any hope for expressing ourselves clearly in another venacular when it reallly matters?”
beautiful word is in his language and your reply will be “saudade”. Th is translates roughly as “yearning” or “longing”, but these words in English don’t begin to describe the range of emotions suggested in Portuguese; I, with little more than a basic knowledge of the language, can’t do better than WordReference.com in this instance. A recent conversation with an Erasmus student from Poland made me think further. After a lecture on literary theory we were discussing the previous hour’s material. I thought it was interesting that, while she enjoyed the class, she admitted, in perfect English, “I’m not sure I’d have liked what he was saying in Polish.” It should be noted that our lecturer is Spanish, and was of course speaking in his mother tongue. I got the sense from her words that, had she heard a direct translation of the lecture in Polish, his ideas might have come across as pretentious, or at least lacking the same sonorous appeal as in Spanish. The phrase
“lost in translation” is commonplace to express gaps between languages, but this was the fi rst time I had come across the concept of “gained in translation”, as if the same idea or sentence in Polish would positively benefit from being uprooted from its original mode of expression. Lately I have been shown links to the personal websites of various polyglots, detailing their secrets of language acquisition and the foreign tongues they claim to have mastered. While one person’s fluency in eight or nine languages may at fi rst seem implausible, it is too easy to be cynical. As English-language natives we have it easy. It is common for people in many African countries to be fluent in three or four different tongues. Vladimir Nabokov was trilingual growing up, and even in England indifference to foreign languages is relatively recent; in the past educated people usually had a grounding in Greek and Latin, and were be able to read literary classics in French, German and Italian.
Now we have greater learning resources than have ever been available, I feel we should all make some effort to overcome our monoglot laziness. When I expressed an interest in Russian to a friend in his second year of studying the language, he informed me knowingly of the verb “starat’sya”, which apparently translates as “to try” but with an implication of failure in the attempt. Going all-out to prove him wrong is tempting. Until then, the closest English equivalent I can fi nd to this Russian idea comes from our own Samuel Beckett, who wrote in Worstward Ho “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” Anyway, perhaps I should remain on more familiar ground before taking such ambitious linguistic projects on board. After all, when in Spain...
Said with authority Ivana Bacik
Legislative inaction costs lives Th is week we have learnt the true cost of legislative inaction. The news that 31-year old Savita Halappanavar had died after suffering a miscarriage at 17 weeks of pregnancy in Galway University Hospital has shocked the nation. The account of Savita’s fi nal days, as expressed in the dignified words of her grieving husband, is heart-breaking. Th is was a preventable death. On learning that the foetus she was carrying was not viable, she repeatedly asked for the pregnancy to be terminated. It appears that doctors refused to terminate on the grounds that there was still a foetal heartbeat and that ‘Ireland is a Catholic country’. She thus remained in hospital for some days, miscarrying in appalling pain; an infection set in and she tragically died as a result. Th is desperately sad case has generated immense grief and anger nationally. Vigils and protests are happening all over Ireland in solidarity with Savita. The news has also generated headlines internationally and has reinforced the stereotype of Ireland as a backward Catholic-dominated country, where women’s lives are subject to ideology. Most of all, Savita’s death has generated a strong sense of national shame. It is utterly shameful that our state could have failed this young woman so tragically. Most shameful of all is that deaths of pregnant women in circumstances like these were predictable since the 1983 amendment to the Constitution was passed, equating the right to life of the ‘unborn’ with that of the pregnant woman. It took the X case in 1992 to make people see the real implications of the 1983 amendment - the refusal of lifesaving medical treatment to pregnant women or girls in order to preserve the life of the ‘unborn’. The Supreme Court ruled then that because the 14 year old girl X was suicidal, the pregnancy threatened her life, and her right to life should prevail. The test means that abortion is lawful where a woman faces a ‘real and substantial risk to her life’ which can only be avoided by termination of her pregnancy – but no guidance is given to doctors on how to assess this risk. At the time, the Court described the failure to pass legislation giving direction to doctors as inexcusable. Yet, twenty years later, there is still no legislation. For all that time, the debate has been dominated by a group of highly vocal lobbyists, backed by the Catholic Church – the so-called ‘pro-life’ campaign. Their intimidatory tactics have scared politicians away from legislating. Over the past few days, I have listened in disbelief to their smooth spokespeople making ridiculous arguments, suggesting that abortion is never necessary to save women’s lives. Now is the time to confront these discredited arguments and to acknowledge the disgraceful failure of our political system to acknowledge the pressing reproductive health needs of women, like the many women who have bravely gone public in recent days about their own experiences of crisis pregnancy. The ‘pro-life’ campaign must not be allowed to hijack this debate again. They did so after the X case, and pressured the government into holding a referendum in November 1992 to rule out suicide risk as a ground for abortion. It was defeated. In March 2002, following more anti-choice pressure, another referendum to overturn the X case was put to the people. Again the people voted to keep the test. Yet still no legislation. More recently, the European Court of Human Rights in the December 2010 ABC case again criticised the lack of legislation. The Court found that the Irish state had breached the human rights of another young woman whose pregnancy posed a risk to her life, and who was forced to travel to England. The judges stated the need for a ‘legislative or regulatory regime providing an accessible and effective procedure by which [she] could have established whether she qualified for a lawful abortion in Ireland.’ The report of the Government’s Expert Group on how to implement the judgment of the European Court has coincidentally been delivered to Health Minister James Reilly this week. Th is report must now be acted upon swiftly. The Government has a deadline of 30th November to report to the Council of Europe. A fi rm proposal for Government legislation needs to be made by that date. Legislation must clarify the principles outlined by the Supreme Court in 1992, affi rmed since by referendums and given expression in current Medical Council guidelines. Legislation is necessary to fulfi l our international responsibilities, to provide clarity in our law and most importantly to prevent any further uncertainty for doctors. We need to give doctors clear instructions as to when the performance of necessary procedures, including abortion, may be carried out to save the lives of pregnant women. We need legislation urgently, because the current state of our law is placing women’s lives at risk. No more legislative inaction. We know now that it costs lives. Professor Ivana Bacik is a fellow of Trinity College Dublin and lectures in the school of Law. She currently represents the University of Dublin in the Seanad. Professor Bacik is a former President of Trinity College Students’ Union and has been an active campaigner for the ProChoice movement in this country.
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The University Times | Tuesday, November 20, 2012
UTOPINION
The University Times ENTS MOVING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION
“Business, more than any other occupation, is the continual dealing with the future,; it is a continual calculation, an instinctive exercise in foresight “ Change is the law of life and no facet of human existence can escape this reality. In a political, social, cultural and economic context, everything is transient. Our generation has observed change and progress of an unprecedented pace, from the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the spread of democracy (albeit at a slow pace) in the Arab world, to the evolution of computer technology and the democratisation of the internet. Indeed, once could say our generation has experienced change like no other previous. The speed of technological progress over the past one hundred years is an exemplar of this timeless reality. Industries which were once pillars of society, such as shipbuilding in Northern Ireland and mining in Wales have long since gone. Enterprises which cannot adapt to changing preferences of consumers are now ruthlessly cast by the wayside as the force of change renders the continued existence of those businesses that cannot keep pace highly unlikely. This reality is very much at play within our own college community. Our largest student-run enterprise, namely Trinity Ents, has for a number of years treaded water, struggling to remain relevant in an economic climate that offers it no quarter. Indeed, the Dublin nightlife entertainment scene could arguably be considered one of the most competitive markets in our city. Established brands such as Midnight Promotions, Signature Group, Pampelmouse and Emergence have fostered an economic climate unkind to repetition and fruitful to innovation. The ultimate failure of Madhaus to establish itself as a resident night on the Dublin club scene last year is testament to the reality that Ents as an institution simply cannot compete with the established brands in this field. Unlike the other regional third level institutions around the country, Trinity simply does not enjoy the vibrant and intimate college community needed to support an entertainments arm focused on providing nightlife entertainment in a city saturated with late bars and nightclubs. This reality was laid starkly bare last year, and the collapse of the Trinity Ents’ clubnight strategy was a fate which had been on the table for a number of years. In that context, this newspaper welcomes the direction Trinity Ents has taken this year. The move away from
fully funded and promoted clubnights toward the outsourcing of creative control in exchange for more favorable financial terms has seen the business command a healthy budgetary position in the early months of this academic year. Of the three Trinity Ents affiliated weekly clubnights, the organisation has a financial stake in none. It’s sole function is to promote the events, a task an organisation which lacks expertise in event management is best suited to. Moreover, the individual at the top of the organisation, namely David Whelan, has come through on his promise to ‘learn from the mistakes of the past’, and has placed a heavy emphasis on events unique to Trinity and events which steer clear of the traditional clubight scene. The Trinity Warehouse Project, Whelan’s marquee manifesto promise, is the most obvious example of this. Such an event has rarely been attempted in such an organised manner in this country and the degree of interest the event has generated to this end should be seen by the organisation as an endorsement of the direction it has taken. Moreover, the Chapel Gigs, intimate acoustic sessions planned for the College Chapel capture Ents’ unique selling point, the product the organisation should always be seeking to sell. Neither Midnight, nor Signature, nor Pampelmouse can offer such an event on-campus and as such, this project represents a market, albeit not a very profitable one, which Ents ought to focus on. However, as finances become tighter and tighter, Ents remains an obvious target for cutbacks. Of the annual Students’ Union budget, the arm commands over €100,000 of it, not a small sum in this age of austerity. As of next year, TCDSU will be the only Students’ Union in the country with a full time Ents Officer, reflecting the country-wide sentiment that money can be better spent elsewhere, be it welfare spending, campaigns or student publications. In order to ensure its long term viability in the eyes of both the market and the hand that feeds it, Ents must maintain and indeed enhance its drive toward innovative entertainment for Trinity students. If it does not, it will realise the end of so many business in a similar position: non-existence.
SHAKING OFF THE TOXIC BRAND A year is a long time in politics. Many of us remember last year’s much maligned USI led occupation of the Department of Education, a publicity student which alienated the organisation from many of its members and those whose support it was courting. The failed Occupation resonated particularly in this college, sparking an unprecedented surge in anti-USI sentiment and popular consideration of disaffiliation from the organisation. Indeed, a persistent theme of the referendum on USI membership last month concerned USI’s inability to command respect on the national stage, a perception heavily informed by the Occupation stunt. The ultimate strong endorsement of USI in the referendum, in the form of a 62% Yes vote, was largely informed by USI’s claims of a fresh approach to the means by which it conducts its business, an increased degree of professionalism and understanding of the sentiments of Trinity students. In that context, one would have expected that USI President John Logue’s arrest at Dáil Eireann for an obvious publicity student last Wednesday night would have been meet by stinging criticism from the politically engaged element of the student body in our college. In the early months of his presidency, Logue was modeled by USI as the likeable alternative to Gary Redmond, the previous leader of the organisation who became the focal point of Trinity students’ grievances with the national students’ union. However, the reaction to Logue’s arrest was largely positive, in this college at least. Logue’s stunt, a symbolic slight to the parliamentarians he feels have turned their
Reality before philosophy country, or at least this state is wrong about. Freedom and equality of religion, the right to life, the right to choice and the competency and principles of our elected officials. So let us look at these one by one. “This is a Catholic country” are, to my mind, and speaking as a non-Catholic, the most repugnant words in the Irish lexicon. They speak to a level of ignorance and exclusivity, a xenophobic cancer which infests a great number of our citizens, eschewing the foreign, the diverse and the interesting. It labels all those non-Catholics as non-Irish, not belonging, alien and unequal. They speak to the flawed basis underpinning our current legal stance regarding abortion. The law, surely, must be based on reason and fair standards applied by all for all, as opposed to by many for all. Theocracy is a bad word, but how can we call our state anything else if it’s underpinning is religious belief, separate to moral-
an increasingly diverse population still praises its saviour Jesus Christ in the constitution? It strikes me that the reference to this man in the preamble directly contradicts the words which follow, “seeking to promote the common good, with due observance of Prudence, Justice and Charity, so that the dignity and freedom of the individual may be assured, true social order attained”. By the state’s insistence on its Catholic nature, we inhibit the dignity and freedom of the individual that is not Christian, interrupting that attainment of social order. Indeed, as we have learnt in the past week, by clinging to these Roman notions we jeopardize the lives of others. If we were not so fervent in this preposterous belief, if we applied a more ethical and universal principles to our laws, then surely we would recognise the essentiality of the right to terminate an unviable or unwanted pregnancy. The most complex issue surrounding abortion is the conflict between the right to choice and the right to life. What we have learned, and what is in many ways unique about the Halappanavar case is that it presents us an example where
ity? If the underpinning of this is indeed Catholic dogma, what are we to tell nonCatholics? How can we justify enforcing the morality of men in silly hats and cloaks, childless celibates whose only knowledge of women is either through a confessional window or a kitchen door? How can a nation with
the two are directly connected. The right to life could only be protected by the right to choose, but again the fixation on the right to life, not of the living but of the unborn, blinded authorities to the truth that it is the living, those capable of making choices for themselves, that must come
Opinion Editor Matthew Taylor examines the broad societal circumstances which allowed Savita Halappanavar to die
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t is something that happens very rarely; when an event’s magnitude is recognised by contemporaries, rather than signified after the fact. The revelations surrounding the death of Savita Halappanavar was such an event. Within hours of the story breaking, it had captured the public consciousness and, not only reinvigorated, but fundamentally changed the debate surrounding abortion. What makes this case unique is that it seems to defy every cliche and generalisation you will hear from either side of the debate. It pulled back the veil, revealing to us that the life of the mother versus that of the child is not some philosophical abstract. It is a life; in this case the life of a woman needlessly cast aside over the unwillingness to perform a medical procedure to expedite an inevitability. People had hidden behind the legal ambiguity, believing that a threat to the life of the mother was a situation where the doctor would have a clear path to follow before making a decision. We now know that failure to act promptly, that ambiguity, can be fatal. I have changed my stance on abortion. Why? Because Savita Halappanavar was alive, and her baby wasn’t. She could have been saved, her baby couldn’t. Her life was just as sacred as anyone elses, but an arbitrary moral judgement made by a religion, an ethical structure and an outdated legal structure, none of which she subscribed to, meant that her life was unnecessarily wasted. What is so fascinating and abhorrent about this case is that it touches issues across a spectrum of things that this
“I have changed my stance on abortion. Why? Because Savita Halappanavar was alive and her baby wasn’t”
first. Ms. Halappanavar did not want an abortion. She wanted a healthy child, but when this was denied to her by circumstance she made a choice. She was prevented from protecting her own life, and she died. The right to life is not some platonic ideal, a heavenly concept unattainable by cave dwellers, something to be kicked about in philosophy lectures and Hist debates. It is a palpable idea, which lives and breathes within us. The life
to civil and human rights will always run and hide until the problem seemingly subsides. If you kick the can down the road for too long, you will eventually run out of road. In the aftermath, there has been an air of hope among Pro-Choice campaigners that we are on the cusp of change, and that the march on Saturday represented a great leap forward for the movement. I would not be so sure. My moth-
of an unborn child, the veil of ignorance, is a concept, but your life is your own and you must defend it through your choices as a born individual. We must stop fetishising concepts and embrace actual lives. It is a human reaction, in difficult circumstances, to seek to apportion blame and select a guilty party. In the pursuit of justice, many have laid blame at the feet of the medical professionals in question. This strikes me as a messenger-shooting exercise.The blame lies in the cowardice of our elected officials who, as ever, have had to wait for disaster before solving a problem. The chronic and pervasive short sightedness of the political class is, as it transpires, capable of negligent homicide. The failure to legislate X must be a lesson to all citizens and politicians that cowardice is not acceptable in government, particularly one which is only too happy to make ‘tough’ decisions when it comes to taking money from our pockets and food from our mouths, but when it comes
er, who to my knowledge has not marched before in her life, marched on Saturday. When I asked her why she had decided, for the first time, to do so she told me that the government had neglected its responsibility to women’s health by not legislating for X and protecting the mother in cases of maternally fatal pregnancy. I asked her had she, therefore, changed her stance on abortion? No, she told me, I have never and will never support abortion as a matter of choice, only as a matter of emergency. She also told me that, speaking to other women and generations at the march, this was the prevailing opinion. A word of caution then; the fight for choice has not moved nearly as far forward as we might like to think. While steps have been taken, the road is still several can-kicks longer and it could be years still before we see proper movement.
“The right to life is not some platonic ideal, a heavenly concept unattainable by cave dwellers”
back on students, lacked the juvenile dimension of previous USI attempts at garnering attention. It it clear that in Logue, the organisation boasts a charismatic front to drive a somewhat unfashionable vehicle. In recent years, the national student movement has been hindered by a lack of common appeal, a leadership alienated from those who it claims to represent. The current crop of USI officers appear to have endeared themselves more to grassroots members, in so small part due to the greater emphasis placed on facilitating a two-way communication between the officers and students. This newspaper has repeatedly endorsed the direction and ethos of the ‘reforming’ USI. While the organisation and its member students’ unions will more than likely fail in their aim of preventing an increase in the Student Contribution charge in the upcoming budget, there is still cause for optimism. The USI pre-budget submission outlines some viable means by which savings can be made in the education budget without inflicting further financial hardship on students. The five year plan for a fully funded exchequer model of third level education, while somewhat aspirational, is carefully crafted, and may well be taken seriously in government buildings. Indeed, both internally and externally, the organisation is making changes for the better. And more importantly, as the reaction to Logue’s arrest suggests, these changes are being judged positively by the students whom USI exists for.
Dispelling the Schols myths Margaret Dee Assistant Schols Secretary
I
t’s that time of year again. Following an email, a steady trickle of students enter and exit the Enquiries Office, key textbooks are reserved on loop until Christmas and the numbers of second and third year students in the library increases. In recent weeks, the Scholarship exams have been discussed more than usual. A review of Schols began last June, necessitated by the change in the time of exams from Easter to January as a result of semesterisation in 2009. The working group drafted a list of recommendations, all of which were approved by University Council and by Board. The final recommendation will affect the student body the most: from 2014 only SF students will be able to sit the exams. An information evening was held on the 12th in a packed out Emmet Theatre, demonstrating the large interest in sitting the exams by both SF and JS students. The Scholarship exams have a certain air of mystery surrounding them. Even among current scholars, an element of mystery persists. So let’s dispel this for good. The foundation charter for the college named three scholars, or undergraduate students, as part of the body corporate of the college. The charter of Charles I in 1637 capped the number at 70. From then on, the college admitted undergrads and the tradition of scholarship as a separate exam was born. As the college population grew so did the type of scholarship awarded. The number of foundation scholars was capped at 70 in accordance with the charter. The charter is ridiculously hard to change, so the college introduced NonFoundation scholarships. The only difference between
the two is that foundation scholars technically own part of the college and can “grant assent to any petition to amend the constitution of the body incorporate”. As a result , the relationship between scholars and the college has often been political. The secretary to the scholars sits as an observer on University Council, a graduate scholar sits as an observer on the Central Scholarship Committee and the opinion of the scholars is often sought when matters arise pertaining to scholarship, such as changes to the statutes or reviews of the format of exams. The exams are taken during the first week in January and typically consist of three exams totalling nine hours. The exams are searching and candidates are examined at an upper Senior Freshman level. Scholarship is awarded on merit, and merit only. After the exams, the waiting begins. Once corrected and checked, the list of potential scholars is sent to the Central Scholarship Committee, and onwards to College Board to be approved. There is no limit to the number of Scholars each year. If a student gets a majority of firsts in their exams totalling an overall first, then they are awarded Scholarship. No questions. The names of successful Scholars are announced on Trinity Monday. If you are successful, here begins one of the strangest yet exciting days of your student life. The Provost calls the names of new scholars in course order. I have been in Front Square when people’s names haven’t been called out. It’s a day of mixed emotions for so many. The tales of entitlements associated with Schols have descended into the realms of urban legend. To clear it up, as of 1986 you can’t: wear a sword, graze your sheep on college green, ride a horse on campus, access the secret tunnels or
demand port in your exams. You can have a half glass of Guinness at Commons, but there are only six per table so be quick! As a scholar, you are entitled to free rooms on campus, fee remission, an annual salary of €200 and commons free of charge. Commons is a three course meal served at 6.15 pm in the Dining Hall. It’s responsible for the “scholars’ stone”, the fabled weight gain associated with the first year of Schols. Is it worth the study and missing Christmas fun? This question was asked at the information night and the only answer is “yes”. I studied for the exams and never expected to get them due to their fabled difficulty. I sat the exams so that in ten years’ time I could sit with my friends and reminisce about the time we all sat Schols. To some students, getting Schols will mean more from a financial perspective. It means you or your parents not having to pay for accommodation, for mature students it means free fees and for international students it means a significant reduction in fees. For all it means an opportunity for further postgraduate study, something they may never have considered. For the college there is a possibility for association with new research. Schols are voluntary exams. Nobody makes you sit them. True, the pressure to achieve may be greater for some students for financial reasons, but try not to panic or stress. If you are panicked or stressed, remember that your tutor, the Welfare and Education Officers and Student learning and Development are here to support you. As the saying goes, “if you’re not in you can’t win”. Good luck.
Tuesday, November 20, 2012 | The University Times
14
UTSPORTS
Vanguard of European basketball
Conor Bates remembers Drazen Petrovic, the man who eclisped the NBA before dying in a tragic accident at the height of his powers IT IS difficult not to become emotional about sports. In so many instances, sporting stories are more intriguing, realistic and passionate than any novella imaginable. Consider the incredulity of a team of golfers winning 8 ½ points from 12 to record the biggest comeback in Ryder Cup history. Or the rags to riches story of Michael Oher, the Baltimore Ravens lineman whose story inspired 2009 blockbuster ‘The Blind Side’. Lou Gehrig, Pelé, The Miracle on Ice, Buster Douglas beating Mike Tyson, Jim Laker taking all ten wickets, the list is seemingly endless. No matter what sport you follow, those awe-inspiring moments mesmerise and gratify fans. Although not yet mentioned, basketball is no less captivating. Aside from Jordanmania in the 90’s, the assembling of the Olympic Dream-Team and the ‘Linsanity’ surrounding Jeremy
Lin in 2012, the biggest success in the NBA in the last twenty years has been the assimilation of European players into the game. It’s a story which has exploded in recent times, with foreignborn players more present than ever in America’s professional league. It wasn’t always like that, but like all great tales of change it took a strong presence to influence people’s mindsets. Drazen Petrovic died in a car crash in 1993, aged 28. In the 19 years since his death, European players have spellbound the NBA in almost an equal a measure as its grassroots stars. Every single one of them owes an untold debt to the Croatian dynamo. Petrovic was the forerunner for European success in America. A product of late 80’s Yugoslavian basketball, he amazed millions on a national stage and captured the hearts of New Jersey fans, where he enjoyed the
Petro holds one of the highest verifiiable tallies for points scored in any game of professional basketball most successful period of his career. He stunned, startled and bamboozled his way to the top, before his tragic death. Since then he has become the only European player to be posthumously, and the first European player overall, inducted into the NBA Hall of Fame. The maestro’s number 3 jersey was also retired by the New Jersey Nets. Although Drazen will never know the dramatic change he brought to the NBA, the world does realise it. This is, in part, thanks to a wonderful documentary, ‘Once Brothers’, directed
by former teammate Vlade Divac. In an epic saga of friendships made and broken, tumultuous political circumstances in the Balkan nations and the contrast of some smooth, stylish and downright magical basketball, Divac recounts one of the greatest sporting tales ever told. Through this effortless mix of human emotion and sporting prowess, we see the reality that Drazen Petrovic made the NBA a global franchise, and made the basketball world that much smaller. “I heard he once scored 112 points in a single game.”
If there was ever a line that grabbed attention, that was it. True enough, Petrovic holds one of the highest verifiable tallies for points scored in any game of professional basketball. In the biography of the legendary player, that reality is more gripping than any fictional tale. On the court, ‘Petro’, as the fans knew him, was unstoppable. He was poetic. From his early days in Yugoslavia, where he dominated the national league for years, up to his Olympic and World Championship successes, he was incomparable. With his superlative
Soccer likely to benefit from NFL headaches Concern is growing stateside that American Football is too dangerous a sport for young people to play. As Colm O’Donnell explains, soccer may be the unlikely beneficiary of this reality THE NATIONAL Football League is in a lot of trouble. This year 3,236 former players have been named plaintiffs in 127 complaints against their former employers. These complaints mostly relate to the issue of concussions, and how players who had them were diagnosed and treated. The allegations include complaints such as players being misdiagnosed, or not diagnosed at all after receiving blows to the head. The players also contend that the league had prior information on the potential long term effects of multiple concussions on their health and did not inform them.
American Football has traditionally been a sport that requires a warrior mentality from its participants; the intense physical nature of the game demands it. Players have long been expected to shrug off injuries and play on, no matter the cost. Legendary player Jack Youngblood of the Los Angeles Rams played in the 1979 Super Bowl on a broken leg, which he had injured the week before. Sadly, the long term cost of head injuries has become too much for many former players. Most people in all walks of life will suffer the misfortune of banging their head at some stage or another, the
experience is common; initial shock, clouded vision, your ears ring, it hurts. In football, it is known as ‘getting your bell rung’. It was something you shrugged off, some players still do. Pittsburgh Steeler Troy Polamalu commented in a recent radio interview, ‘If you count those as concussions, which I don’t, then every player in the league has 50100 concussions a year.’ A telling statement from a current player, because, even though the information gathering process is ongoing, the evidence seems to be there that those do count as concussions. Even as minor incidents, the scientific
evidence regarding concussions seems to indicate that the more you get, the easier it is to get the next one, and the cumulative damage done is greater. The question of whether this is affecting former players is moot; there have been a number of tragedies involving former players including former Chicago Bears defensive-back Dave Duerson and linebacker Junior Seau, both of whom shot themselves in the chest. Duerson left a note indicating that he had done so in order for scientists to examine his brain and when they did they found significant damage as a result of football. Seau’s brain is currently being examined at the U.S. National Institutes of Health, an institution where the league just recently made a $30 million donation in a
move that could be seen as high public relations. They need to take this issue seriously as it threatens the very existence of the league in a number of ways. Firstly, should the former players win a large payout in court, the sheer cost of the
reactions, deft passing and unmatched shooting ability, the young Croat was the first Yugoslavian to join an NBA franchise. There have since been 49 others from the former Balkan state. Despite a rocky start to his American odyssey, Petrovic’s sublime skill, notably his trickery and trademark reverse passes, made him one of the most revered and feared shooting guards in the league. His major break came at the New Jersey Nets, where he was allowed to recognise his full potential as a player. Of all the stats, the most impressive was Petrovic’s made that the expense of ensuring the health and safety of players will kill the game. This may not necessarily affect the pro level or the upper echelon college level both of which are very big businesses, but at the grassroots level, the game could be in jeopardy. If the player pool doesn’t exist, the game would dry up very fast. It seems as young players get bigger, faster and stronger, instances of high profile injuries at the youth level keep cropping up. A college student at Rutgers, Eric LeGrand, suffered terrible injury when he was involved in a collision in a game against Army. He was initially diagnosed as paralysed from the neck down and it was later confirmed that he had fractured the C3 and C4 vertebrae in his spinal cord. A similar incident occurred when Tulane player Devon Walker broke his neck in a head-to-head collision with a teammate. In addition, there has been a noted amount of former and current players saying they would rather their sons not play football, including legendary quarterback Kurt Warner, and interestingly the father of current Patriots QB Tom Brady. So what is going to happen when concerned parents start stopping their young children from playing football? They will flow to different activities. The redistribution of this talent pool would have a huge effect on the sporting landscape in the country. First, basketball would take some of the elite talent, particularly in urban areas, where it rivals football in popularity. The problem with basketball is simple,
“The long term cost of head injuries has become too much for many former players” settlements might leave the league, billion dollar entity though it is, financially insolvent. This is the most basic worry they should have. The argument has been
there aren’t enough spots to go around; it’s a 5 a side game. There are 30 teams in the NBA, each team with 15 spots. That’s 450 professional jobs in a country of
high percentage of 3-point shooting. He was among the league leaders every year, and became so notorious, that the commentator’s cries of “Petro, for three!” became a catchphrase. He was a sensation, as no one had ever encountered a European player who was capable of going toe-to-toe with the home-grown stars. The former Los Angeles Lakers’ general manager, Jerry West, notes that, “at the time, no one really had any confidence in European players.” That all changed with Drazen. The Lakers drafted Divac in 1989, and he joined Petrovic in the NBA. Already friends from their days on the imperious Yugoslavian national team, Divac recounts the tale of how the two relied on each other early in their careers. After all, they were strangers in a foreign land, with very little other than a friend. Due to political tensions in their homeland, and the outbreak of the Balkan war of the 1990’s, the two fell apart, with Vlade recognising that “to build a friendship takes years; to break it takes one second.” In the heartbreakingly human side of this narrative, Divac and Petrovic go their separate ways, never reconciling, until Petro’s untimely death. Vlade Divac has made it abundantly clear that there is regret over their broken relationship. Besides the troubling element of not fixing things before it was too late, Divac also holds a sense of regret about what Petrovic did for him, and all other European players; he never got to thank him.
Drazen had such a fantastic impact on the game that the world took notice. Divac played 15 seasons in the NBA as a very solid centre. He earned his right to be there, but without Petrovic he might never have been considered in the first place. Without a European player breaking the mould, Vlade Divac, Pau Gasol, Toni Kukoc, Tony Parker or Dirk Nowitzki may never have graced the NBA with their presence. Like all great tales of change, it took a strong presence to influence people’s mindsets. It is difficult not to become emotional about sports. We are all liable to stare mistyeyed at an athlete every now and then and consider their legacy, good or bad. What did Barry Bonds do for baseball? Or Zinedine Zidane football? Or most recently, consider Lance Armstrong. What did Drazen Petrovic do for basketball? He opened it up to millions. He made people realise that European players were just as good as Americans. He left us a beautifully unfinished memoir; a saga which can be picked up by any European player in the league today. As this season of the NBA continues, or any season of any other sport for that matter, we will all pick our stories to follow. As far as the tale of Europeans in basketball is concerned, we can all be thankful to Petro for writing the first chapter.
over 300 million citizens. Next up, baseball. Considered a dying sport, with interest in the younger demographics waning by the year, it’s a league predominantly made up of Central American players, who hold the sport as a religion. Baseball was known as ‘America’s Pastime’ for much of the 20th century, a moniker that was passed onto football recently. This indicated that the gridiron game was the nation’s most popular sport, which is ironic considering the predicament of the organising body today. My contention is that a large percentage of this talent pool will find its way to
player increases. People have noticed the potential for soccer to become a dominant sport in America. John W. Henry, Head of Fenway Sports Group, co-owner of Liverpool F.C. and the Boston Red Sox, has in recent times seemed apathetic towards his baseball franchise; they have gone from a division leading team in the last few years to a historic collapse, firing the manager, dumping a huge amount of player salary in a trade with the Los Angeles Dodgers and finishing the season with an awful record. Liverpool on the other hand, has seen increased in-
“The redistribution of this talent pool would have a huge effect on the sporting landscape the growing sport of ‘soccer’ as it is called in America. For one, it passes the injury test for worried parents and is thus, a very attractive option. It’s certainly better than the fate of former star Jim McMahon, who has recently been diagnosed with amnesia, aged 53, after numerous career concussions. The US Soccer Federation has, in recent years done a number of things right with regards to the development of the game stateside. They have pumped money into youth football, setting up elite academies at locations around the country where players are given both an education in football, and academia. They have done good work in trying to change the attitude at youth levels from winning at all costs to more of a player development ethos, something which should bear fruit down the road. One of the more interesting decisions made was to limit Major League Soccer rosters to three salary cap exception players, something which will keep the financials of the league stable as the game grows. I have no doubt that the average salary of players in MLS will grow in the coming years as the standard of the average
vestment, increased attendance at games and interest from ownership. The potential of the Fox docu-series ‘Being Liverpool’ to sell his club to the prospective English Premier League fans who have yet to choose a club seems to be leaving two old fashioned dollar signs blinking in Henry’s eyes. The Red Sox are one of the most storied franchises in all of American sports, and are a lucrative team to own, but they have a relatively defined market area. The potential to sell an elite, historic club across a nation must have Fenway Sports licking their lips. All of the above leads me to suggest that somewhere down the road the United States of America might well be fielding an elite international soccer team, all because of a court case against the NFL.
15
The University Times | November 20, 2012
UTSPORTS
Novice fencers strike at Schull Killian Hanlon Fencing Correspondant
A PARRY here. A riposte there. Duels at high noon, sword in hand. Leaving victorious, carrying off the gold (and the silver, and the bronze). An excerpt from the Three Musketeers? No, just an average weekend for the DU Fencing Club beginners. Every year, University College Cork hosts the Schull Novice Foil competition, a tournament for those who have been fencing for less than two years. Many of Trinity’s prolific fencers have begun their careers with a good showing at Schull. This year, DUFC’s latest crop of new recruits exhibited a stunning performance, blowing the competition out of the water. In the men’s competition alone, Trinity took first, second, and third place, as well as finishing with ten fencers in the top sixteen. Results like these aren’t to be sniffed at. “They’re very hard working, with some real talent to go with it,” commented Conor Traynor, captain of the club. “Even after seven weeks of nothing short of intense training with limited equipment, people really step up to show you what they’re capable of.” Clodagh MacCarthy-Luddy, DUFC’s Ladies’ Captain, was equally impressed. A quarter
finalist herself (losing 15-13 to the eventual winner), she was “extremely proud” and thought the performance boded well for the future. Across the board, DUFC dominated across the day, topping the poules in both the men’s and women’s contests. In many cases, Trinity fencers found themselves pitted against club mates – this was epitomised in the men’s semi-final. Ian Kenny and Niall O’Brien, both firm DUFC favourites, clashed in the semi, with Kenny coming out on top by only a single point (13-12). This led to an all-DUFC final between Ian Kenny and Carlos Ritter. Both fenced admirably, but Ian’s extra year worth of experience served him well, defeating Ritter to take the gold (15-6). The competition in the women’s was tougher, and, regrettably, there were far fewer women fencing for Trinity than there were men. However, they did very well in the poules, and in all but one case, DUFC’s ladies won their first elimination match, or were knocked out by another of their club. Colm Flynn, a longstanding TCD fencer and now the club’s coach, was also more than pleased with how the competition turned out,
saying the Schull results showed the potential in this year’s beginners. Of course, Colm adds, “a good novice doesn’t always become a good fencer, but even so, getting results like this from the outset can only be a good thing.” Ian Kenny, the victor of the day, was delighted not only with his performance, but with that of the club. Ian is the Beginner’s Officer for DUFC (a resource few clubs possess), and so was responsible for organising the trip to Cork, as well as taking care of the beginners throughout the year. He notes that it was “encouraging to see that, despite having only picked up a sword two months ago, [the beginners] had progressed so far”. He was particularly impressed with silver medallist Carlos Ritter, who had progressed to the final, beating back some respectable fencers, despite being a complete beginner. From such humble beginnings can come great successes – Jack McHugh, DUFC’s Alumni Officer (and former Beginner’s Officer), took up fencing for the first time in college, and now only a few years later ranks among Ireland’s best. Fencing isn’t a hugely
Photo Ciara O’Connor popular sport in Ireland, but DUFC is taking it upon itself to try and grow enthusiasm for it nationwide. Club Captain Conor Traynor has pressed upon the college that one of the main aims of the club is to attract new
talent and nurture it. As a minority sport, he knows, DUFC often can’t rely on experienced fencers joining the club to provide their expertise. As such, results such as this one make him particularly happy, as it “shows
Autumn Blues Where did it all go wrong against for the Irish rugby team against the Springboks and what can we expect at home to Argentina this weekend? Alicia Lloyd Online Sports Editor BRIAN O’DRISCOLL, Rory Best, Rob Kearney, Sean O’Brien, Paul O’Connell, Stephen Ferris. The list of Irish casualties read like the script of a Declan Kidney nightmares. The South Africans may have put up a good fight in matching our woes with their loss of Bismarck du Plessiss, Schalk Burger, Pierre Spies and Bryan Habana, but the 2007 World Cup winners were not to be underestimated, whatever fifteen they fielded. Things were not looking good. As the situation would have it, things ended just as bleak as they had begun. It’s all a bit grim. Five successive defeats and the press are arguing amongst
themselves as to whether or not the Irish national rugby team may have in fact forgotten how to win. Tommy Bowe has been reported as saying that the mood in the squad is positive, they’ve moved on from the disappointment of Saturday week’s defeat. Good to hear; considering Argentina’s convincing defeat of their hosts, Wales, our looming test with the Pumas seems rather ominous. Shame the same can’t be said for the mood among the fans. After a promising first half, our boys reverted to that old habit of squandering their chances, leaving fans as disillusioned as ever. Couple a loss that has
left supporters disheartened and demoralised, bitter even, with the scandal surrounding selection and Declan Kidney is far from flavour of the month. We lack depth in numbers and a diversified bench however, and Kidney’s hand was forced when it came to Michael Bent. There’s a name you’ve all heard. The New Zealander and former Taranaki prop qualifies for Ireland through his grandmother and his selection last week set tongues wagging, particularly those of former internationals. Some saw it as an insult to the green jersey - straight off the plane and into the dressing room for Bent (though we may be on the verge of some sort of identity crisis with the launch of those black jerseys). The consensus before the match however, was that the game would be won and lost in the pack. Aside from the fact that we’re lacking power in the scrum, we needed a backup tight-head. Like I said,
Kidney’s choices were limited. Sceptics have piped down significantly after Bent made an impact in winning a penalty against Heinke van der Merwe, affording him rather pointed backslaps from his team-mates. The players may have been trying to tell us something. Bent’s ‘Irishness’ or lack thereof shouldn’t be a concern. We have bigger issues. Disappointment and frustration aside, credit must be given where it’s due. Ireland put in an encouraging first half performance. They were sharp and fast with some promising open play from Simon Zebo. Sexton was kicking well, making Lambie’s poor performance an issue for South Africa. Our defence was decent and crucially, our men isolated the South African ball carriers. Though we were abetted by a side playing poorly, we were outplaying South Africa. The Springboks conceded an unacceptable
amount of penalties, due to Irish pressure. There were also some individual performances worthy of a mention, most notably Michael McCarthy and the Trojan work of Donnacha Ryan. Given our last outing, there were some positives to take forward. Then the second half happened. 43 minutes on the clock; it all starts to go wrong. The Boks have come back with more conviction and directness. It looks as though we’ve lost a key player in Cian Healy. Our fearless leader illegally takes down a maul, certain to lead to a South African try. 10 minutes in the bin pass. Heaslip returns. Ireland have conceded ten points in his absence. They fail to score in the time remaining. A final penalty for the visitors seals the deal. The Irish have lost at home…again. The South Africans of the second half were a different team. Those who suggest that they were disinterested
what we can do with limited resources when we have a unique and dedicated team”. Traynor hopes that competitions, especially beginner’s competitions like Schull, will help to attract both novice and experienced fencers
in the first forty minutes do a disservice to any international rugby players. Their improved style of play exposed many of our weaknesses in the second half. Kidney and the rest of his coaching squad are dealing with a team somewhat bereft of experience at this level, but there’s plenty of talent. Declan’s to do list: adjust the game plan; introduce creativity into our attacking play; get the basics right; develop the younger squad; keep one eye firmly on 2015. Looking forward now to the next game and there’s a lot more at stake than just a test match against the Argentinians. Vital world rankings will be determined, and we must remain at least eighth in order to avoid becoming a thirdstring team and a repeat of the ‘pool of death’ situation we faced in the 2007 World Cup. In Cardiff, the effort of the Argentinians up front was outstanding, they played with pace in the second half and breached their Welsh opponents’ line for two tries in just seven minutes. In short, we have our work cut out. It should make for a thrilling contest, let’s hope we don’t have a repeat of the slow tempo game we saw last Saturday that, as rugby goes, makes for unenjoyable viewing. With our reputation in tatters and our credibility compromised, the boys in green (or black, who knows?) need to go in search of some redemption. I won’t make a prediction on the outcome of our next game. Expectations will be low; the perfect opportunity for our team to pull itself from its recent trough, to reach a turning point. We can handle an economic depression but one in rugby terms may be too great a mental strain.
to the club, and help to foster growth in the years to come. Schull is, as coach Colm Flynn said, only the beginning. When one looks at those only beginning their journey in the club, though, one can’t help but think the
future is bright.
In brief Compiled by Conor Bates, Sports Editor
Hockey Trinity men’s hockey team reached lofty heights at the annual intervarsity competition in UCC. DUHC reached the semi-finals where they were eliminated by eventual runners-up, Ulster University, by a score of 2-0. It was their best success in four years at the IV tournament, which included an 8-1 win over ITT and a 12-2 over RCSI. Steven Nolan had the standout performance in the latter game, netting 5 times. Outside the IV, the team currently lies second in Leinster Division II.
Soccer DUAFC maintained their superb league form with a 1-0 win over Ballyoulster FC on Saturday. Centre-half Conall O’Shaughnessy provided the goal that saw Trinity record their eighth win, and clean sheet, of the season. The college side now sit in 2nd place in the Sunday Major League, behind Swords Celtic. Their next opponents are Colaiste Íde, in the College’s League, on Wednesday.
Athletics The Intervarsity Road Relays are the first major competition of the year for DUHAC. Held every November in Maynooth, both men’s (nine mile, five person relay) and women’s (six mile, four person relay) teams put in sterling efforts on the day, with both squads finishing in third place overall, and pocketing valuable bronze medals for the club.
Ultimate Frisbee Trinity Ladies Frisbee Team finished a fantastic 2nd place at the Women’s Indoor Intervarsities. Our girls, rightly recognised as one of the best women’s college teams in Ireland, put on a great show in reaching the final, where they were beaten 9-6 by UCC. Last weekend the club’s first team showed their prowess in reaching the final of the Open Indoor Varsities in Galway, seeing off UCD and Maynooth along the way. The team rounded off the weekend by beating the UCC firsts in the final and taking home the title.
If you wish to see your team featured in the In Brief section email sports@universitytimes.ie
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Tuesday, November 20th, 2012
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Inside
Soccer likely toofbenefit The vanguard from NFL headaches, european basket- page 14 ball, page 14
Niyi Adelokun skips through the UCD defence on his way to DUFC’s first try in last Sunday’s thriller at College Park. Photo: Peter Wolfe
Trinity thump UCD in college park thriller Final Score DUFC
38
UCD
14
Rory McCarthy Deputy Sports Editor TO WIN in sport requires precision. In the first half of this thrilling encounter UCD were short of the line on three occasions by mere inches. That lack of ruthlessness and clinical ability to shut out the game proved to be a major factor but Trinity’s awesome performance with some colossal performances was the difference between the two sides. The first half was a curious affair and it was hard to gauge whether UCD started well or DUFC started poorly. On reflection DUFC while not playing well certainly played well below their potential. UCD outhalf James Thornton settled his sides nerves with an excellent
penalty after eight minutes and his side through the hard-hitting Risteard Byrne and the vibrant Alex Kelly were putting Trinity in all sorts of bother. DUFC for their part were quite soft in contact, almost shying away in collisions. Too often the ball carrier passed late right before contact leaving the receiving party on the end of a thumping hit. UCD’s lineout was performing solidly with the accurate Byrne connecting with Shane Grannell and Brian Cawley time and again to great effect. However one area that Trinity did have the upper hand was in the scrum with Tom Collis putting Leinster
‘A’ loosehead James Tracy under extreme duress. From one infringement David Joyce opened his account to make it 3-3 after fifteen minutes. In the mean time UCD continued to carry into contact with abrasive and energetic relish and were it not for the efforts of Paddy Lavelle then their chance conversion would have been much higher. Lavelle was in the midst of a defensive masterclass consistently sending opposition carrier’s way back beyond the gainline and actively seeking out UCD players to hurt. If a foreign race of extra-terrestrial aliens were to land on planet Earth and immediately ask for a display of defensive prowess then one would have to bring them no further than College Park. He was simply everywhere and with his actions inspiring his teammates it was only a matter of time before Trinity got a chance. Whether they
DU Tennis enjoy astonishing success Stephen Ludgate Sports staff THE LAST month has been one of the most successful in the history of DULTC, with fantastic singles and team performances. These were showcased in the Irish University Championships where Trinity had winners of the men’s and ladies singles as well as the ladies doubles, and then at the ECTA European Colleges finals in London, where the Trinity men’s first team finished an incredible 5th in Europe. The Irish University Championships saw a large amounted of DULTC players entered in the draws. This
competition brings together the top college players from across the country and the standard is extremely high with many former USA college players competing. Before this year, Trinity had never had a winner of the men’s or ladies singles, until two Junior Freshman students, Julian Bradley and Sinead Kennedy, put in fantastic performances to win the men’s and ladies singles titles. Both cruised through their opening rounds winning all their matches, including their semi-finals, in straight sets. The finals however were not as straight forward and produced two fascinating ties. Bradley
took on DCU student Mick Lynch, a tough player to break down. Lynch secured the only break of the first set and it was enough to take the set 6-3. Bradley displayed great form, playing some sublime tennis to fight back and win the second set 6-4. This brought the match to a champions tie break and it was an epic. Bradley was forced to save four match points until finally prevailing 18-16 in the nerve-wrenching tie breaker. Kennedy was also taken to a championship tie break when she took on DCU’s Sinead Staunton. Kennedy comfortably won the first set 6-3 but Staunton fought back
would have the precision to execute was another matter. Following a Brian Du Toit turnover, Trinity went wide to Niyi Adelokun. Adelokun got the ball in his own half and burned the UCD cover defence to score a brilliant individual try. Joyce’s conversion made it 10-3. Trinity were ahead in the score line but aside from individual heroics aside the cohesion was lacking and it was punished accordingly by UCD. From a misguided kick by UCD scrumhalf Jamie Glynn, Joyce went to restart but namesake Eoin blocked his twenty-two clearance. From this UCD went wide and caught Trinity out of numbers and out of shape. Despite Lavelle’s desperate cover tackle, Alex Kelly battled over and scored a decisive try making it 10-8. Trinity still struggled to find cohesion and the scrum, which had been a
strong point of Trinity’s game descended into a free for all. More often than not, the ball was rolled along the ground rather than passed to Joyce and sloppiness entered Trinity’s play however they did manage to get a penalty through excellent work for Jack Kelly and debut winger Max McFarland. Joyce missed the kick and once again the precision from Trinity’s play was absent. UCD started the second half in good fashion and Thornton added another kick to his tally following a scrum infringement. Then the game changed completely. From the restart Trinity seemed to go into a feral state carrying with intensity previously missing from their game. Following superb work from Du Toit and Jack Dilger, Joyce was fed the ball. Noticing the UCD midfield was in a dogleg shape with a mismatch
he went himself heaved through Cawley’s tackle to get under the posts for a try pushing the score to 17-11. UCD tried to get going again with Alex Kelly and Grannell prominent in their forays in DUFC territory. However Lavelle seemed to be personally insulted by those unauthorized excursions and again his defensive work was first-rate with one monster hit on Paddy Dix notable. Even when Pierce Dargan was sin binned for a ludicrous decision Trinity continued to push on. Referee John McNeice has a note-worthy background with controversial displays in some big matches, though it would be unfair to comment on it impartially. Nonetheless while the Dargan sinbin can be put down to human error his positional play and his slowness were clearly perceptible. When Lavelle hit a
switch with Joyce and barreled over it was clearly a try, however McNeice was slow to reach the actual contact zone in the try line allowing a UCD defender to belatedly put his hand under the ball resulting in a scrum to DUFC. From the resulting scrum DUFC made sure the referee was aware of the ensuing score when after a burly carry by Dilger, Du Toit dived over from close range to make it 24-14. Du Toit was playing in typically vintage fashion, making countless turnovers and competing with Lavelle in the tackle count stakes. Another rash call from referee McNeice resulted in Dave Fanagan being sin binned harshly for alleged sealing off. Quite how a player as slight and small as Fanagan could be guilty of being an obstruction is a question for another day but the decision stood. DUFC as best they could paid no heed to this
interference and another sortie into the UCD twentytwo saw McLoughlin switch with prop Ian Hirst who arced his run and sprinted over for an impressive try. That score sealed the bonus point however Trinity were not done. Their sharpness and focus was luminous and it was typified by Jack Kelly’s excellent line break that saw him shrug off countless defenders. This was started by Ciaran Wade’s outstanding carry that splintered a tired and broken UCD midfield. From the ruck Marsh spun a deadly pass to Dargan to fed Adelokun with a perfectly timed pass. The precision was plain for all to see. Marsh had the final say with his kick making it 38-14. To win requires precision. Trinity displayed that and more.
well in the second set and won 7-5 with a late break. The tie break in this match was much more straight forward, as Kennedy won 10-3 to take the ladies title. Sinead’s achievement is even more impressive given that she combined with pharmacy student HannahMay Morrissey to win the ladies doubles title. Compounding the recent successes, the men’s first team qualified for the ECTA finals 5-1 wins over both UCD and DCU at the Irish finals, highlighting the strength of tennis in Trinity at the moment. It was only the second time that Trinity have ever qualified for the ECTA finals which were held in the UK National Tennis Centre. The team that travelled to London comprised Mark Carpenter, Julian Bradley, Karl Rogers and Ian O’Connell. On the opening day Trinity played Durham
University, the number one seeds in the competi-
team put up a good fight losing at first, third and fourth singles, all in tight matches. Bradley continued his recent red hot form however and won at number two singles 6-2 7-5. Bradley and Rogers then played doubles in the final rubber of the match and lost in two tight sets, meaning that Durham won 4-1 overall. Bern University were the opposition in Trinity’s second match. The team got off to the best possible start when O’Connell got the ball rolling with a comprehensive 6-1 7-5 win. Rogers was the next to win as he dug out a very tight win in a champions tie break, winning 6-4 3-6 10-8. Bradley kept his blistering form up with a straight forward 6-3 6-3 win. Carpenter was faced with a tough task, taking on one of Switzerland’s top players, who had previously been a member of their Davis Cup
team. He got off to a great start and won the first set 6-3. However he began to tire in the second set and after losing a crucial break point at 2-2 in the second, he went on to lose the set 6-3. The match tiebreak was close but the Swiss number one came through to take it 10-7. This meant the match came down to doubles and Carpenter and Bradley were able to secure an 8-5 win at number one doubles to secure the match, Trinity’s first ever in the ECTA finals. The final day saw Trinity play Stirling University in a 5th/6th playoff. Due to time constraints the final match took on a slightly different format to the first two matches, with one doubles and two singles. Bradley and O’Connell played singles while Carpenter and Rogers played doubles. O’Connell came up against a talented Spaniard and was unable to
get his rhythm going, losing 6-2 6-0. Bradley then produced the performance of the weekend, securing an incredible 2-6 6-3 10-4 win against the Stirling number one, a player who had won the Australian Open junior doubles title in 2007. Carpenter and Rogers were then able to repeat the previous days feat of winning the deciding doubles match, winning 6-3 6-4 and securing the overall win, completing an incredibly successful weekend for the club and the college. At present, the ladies leagues teams are also enjoying an extremely successful year and the first, second and third teams have made it to the semi-finals of their respective leagues ensuring that the three teams will play in classes 1, 2 and 3 next year.
Photo: Justin Hintze tion, and the current number one ranked team in Europe. Durham’s top three players were all former US college division one players and all had professional experience. Despite this the
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