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Now I really shouldn’t have even said ‘black Africans’, I should have said certain people from a certain part of Africa

The majority, be it staff or students, understand the value of a close look at Trinity’s identity

The University Times VOL. V - ISSUE V

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TUESDAY 10TH DECEMBER 2013

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www.universitytimes.ie

Proposed Motion on the Ban of Coca-Cola Products

Trinity Christmas Tree Lighting

SU Council to Hear Motion for the Ban of Coca-Cola Products During Winter Olympics Samuel Riggs Opinion Editor

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Following the succes of last year’s Christmas Tree Lighting, Provost Patrick Prendergast invited all students and staff to join for this year’s lighting on Front Square on Monday, December 2nd. Photo by Eavan Mcloughlin.

Capitation Committee Rejects Proposal to Increase Sports Centre Charge Paul Glynn Staff Writer

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proposal to increase the student charge for the Trinity College Dublin Sports’ Centre has been tabled and rejected by the college’s Capitation Committee.

Michelle Tanner, Head of Sport and Recreation and a representative of DUCAC on the Committee, proposed that the mandatory charge added to yearly student fees be increased from €77 to €87. Ms Tanner submitted a memorandum to Moray McGowan, Chair of the Capitation Committee, dated the 14 October, outlining her proposal to increase the charge by €10 for the coming academic year from 2014-15.

According to the pro-

posal, an additional €10 paid by every student on registration would generate approximately €160,000 which would allow for the facility to deal with the costs of the replacement of depreciating equipment, and increase capacity, as well as manage wages and pensions for its employees.

The proposal stated that the centre was expecting an operating deficit of around €45,000 for the year 201213.

Speaking on the potential increase in the student charge, Ms Tanner said that it would “enable [the Sports Centre] to continue to deliver affordable brilliant sports facilities and services to all students that rival our competitors. It is useful to note that relative to counterparts in other

Irish Universities, Trinity students enjoy unrivalled value-for-money for sport and recreation.”

She added that “the levy hasn’t increased in 5 years, but the cost of providing excellent facilities and programmes has increased year on year.”

Tanner stated in the

financial feasibility and allows the Department to maximise opportunities and strategic objectives for students and the college.”

The proposal further mentioned that external sources of income, such as that coming from membership fees, would not suffice to cover the operating

Michelle Tanner Head of Sport & Recreation Aims to address Sport Centre Charges again next term proposal to the committee: “Sport and Recreation contributes significantly to a quality student experience in Trinity College. It is therefore essential that the business model underpinning the service safeguards

UT Features UT Opinion

costs of the facility. External membership numbers were below target by 33% for the year 2012-13. Although student charges were the main source of income addressed in the report, Tanner stated that

UT Sport

Nelson Mandela: The Trinity Connection

Trinity Athletics Postive Performance

Colm O’Donnell on Mandela’s connection to Trinity College and the Students’ Union.

Colum O’Leary reports from he annual InterUSI: Drinking ‘Aware’ varsity road relays took and the Realities of Alcohol Consumption place in NUI Maynooth

it would be possible for non-student membership prices to increase as well, saying: “Changes are made as and when required in response to market and economic demands.”

The level of uptake on student memberships to the Sports Centre was, nevertheless, commended in the proposal. 10,000 students activated their membership in 2012-13, which stood for 72% of the facility’s total usage. “On a national and comparative level,” the proposal states, “this is outstanding and a success reflective of the charging model for students, whereby more students pay less.”

Ms Tanner is hopeful that the proposal will be brought up for discussion again in the near future,

noting that: “we were advised due process regarding budgets and charges will be followed and will be addressed next term.”

The charge for the Sports Centre has been at €77 since the academic year 2009/10. The charge was introduced in 2007/08 at €70 with the proviso that it would increase yearly in line with inflation. The student charge for the TCD Sports Centre is also one of the cheapest for university sports facilities in Ireland: the complexes in DCU and NUI Galway charge €250 per year, which can be included optionally in students’ yearly fees, while all UCD students pay €208 mandatorily per year for membership, with an optional €99 top-up for extra services.

Editor: Leanna Byrne Volume 5, Issue 5 ISSN: 2013-261X Phone: 01 646 8431 Email: info@universitytimes.ie Website: universitytimes.ie

n Tuesday 10 December, a motion will be brought before the Students’ Union Council to propose implementing a ban on products sold by The Coca-Cola Company in its commercial outlets for the duration of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

The proposed motion comes on the back of reports of ongoing attacks on LGBTQ citizens across Russia, as well as the startling revelation that any journalist who attempts to use anything that isn’t official recording equipment, such as iPads or mobile phones, or tries to to record anything that isn’t Olympic footage may have their press pass revoked, and be asked to leave the country.

As well as this, the motion will officially condemn the discriminatory and oppressive anti-gay laws that Russia has implemented in its recent history, and will applaud the LGBTQ community and its allies at large in their continued boycott of, and actions against, the holding of the Winter Olympics in Russia.

The Coca-Cola Company, one of the official sponsors of the Winter Olympics, were asked to make a comment on the issue, but declined. Similarly, the Olympic Council have refused to take a stand on whether or not they support the Russian government’s condemnation of LGBTQ people.

The motion will be proposed by Students’ Union (SU) President Tom Lenihan, and is heavily supported by both QSoc and Amnesty. Katie Biggs, QSoc Auditor, said of the motion:

This newspaper is produced with the financial support of Trinity College Students’ Union, but maintains a mutually agreed policy of editorial independence

“It’s an outward demonstration of support for the LGBTQ community in Russia by the college. We are a socially aware college, and we like to be involved and raise awareness; this is one way of achieving that.”

The Russian government have assured the international community that no harm will come to athletes, their teams or their supporters. However, it has been pointed out by many that it is not the government carrying out the violence, it is vigilantes in the streets of the cities. “The problem isn’t the government, it’s the radical people who launch attacks on LGBTQ people in Russia,” said Biggs. “Most people are aware of what’s going on, but they may not understand the direct impact of having the Winter Olympics somewhere that supporters, athletes and the people of the country are not allowed to express their sexuality in any way.”

If the motion passes, all products produced by The Coca-Cola Company will be removed from outlets such as the SU Shop and SU Café for the duration of the Winter Olympics, from February 7th to February 23rd, 2014; these include all forms of Coca-Cola, but also Sprite, Fanta and Evian.

TCDSU previously banned the sale of CocaCola products on campus in light of the abuse of factory workers’ rights in Colombia. This was overturned by a referendum held in April 2009. The Union has also been engaged in a boycott of all Nestle products since the 1990s, initially surrounding a scandal which involved the distribution of baby milk formula powder to mothers in Africa.

To contact The University Times write to: The Editor, The University Times, 6 Trinity College Dublin 2

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UT News

Tuesday 10th December 2013

Renaming of House 6 to “Mandela House” to be Brought Before Council

Photo by Hannah Ryan The Mandate

Hannah Ryan News Editor Students have spoken of the motion as a “tribute” and a move to “show respect for the great man and his legacy”

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he meeting of the Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) Council on Tuesday December 10 will hear a motion for College’s House 6 to be re-named

“Mandela House”, following the death last Friday of world-renowned civil rights activist and former President of the Republic of South Africa, Nelson Mandela.

The motion, proposed

by Junior Sophister student Fiachra O’Raghallaigh and seconded by TCDSU Education Officer Jack Leahy, arises from the fact that Trinity College was among the list of organisations which Mandela publicly thanked following his release from prison.

The motion will propose the incorporation of Mandela House, the alternative name of House 6 since 1988, into all Students’ Union communications relating to the building.

Speaking to The University Times about the proposal, O’Raghallaigh stated: “As TCDSU along with the wider study movement continue to play an important part in turning Ireland into a more egalitarian society, it’s important that

CAS Employ Careers Adviser for Students with Disabilities to cope with demand Leanna Byrne Editor

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rinity College Dublin’s Careers Advisory Service (CAS) have employed a special adviser to cope with a demand for support for undergraduate and postgraduate students with disabilities across all the schools in the college. The role will support students with disabilities to enable them to transition into employment.

The new role which was created last month has already seen a spike in the amount of students who wish to avail of an adviser specifically catered to students with disabilities.

In less than three weeks there has been a total number of sixteen requests for appointments and eleven meetings with students.

Eileen Daly, who has taken up the position, voiced concerns over students with disabilities who felt they were unable to come forward and disclose their

disability with CAS. “A lot of students were not coming forward and if they were they were not always comfortable disclosing their disability,” said Daly.

Furthermore, Daly said that based on the positive numbers that are beginning to come forward from all schools and faculties she hopes the service could be extended from three to four or five days a week.

Many of the issues surrounding students with disabilities seeking employment are related to disclosure of a disability, confidence and reassurance of their skills.

Similarly, Daly pointed out that students with mental health issues would face many of the same issues when applying for jobs as statistics show that many of these graduates find it very difficult to sustain employment.

Projects & Intiatives To combat this, College has received a grant

from Genio, a body that works with philanthropy and government to generate project funding, to support Junior and Senior Sophisters through application processes and employment in January 2014. After the first year this project is set to expand out to other Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) such as Dublin City University (DCU).

When asked whether or not she felt that there was still stigma among employers in relation to hiring students with a disability, Daly admitted that there is “still a lot of fear of the unknown among employers”, but that it is part of her job to dispel these myths.

Daly also feels that students should be provided with more internships so they can get used to a working environment to give them more confidence.

“That will give them reassurance so they can sell themselves as people with skills and as a valuable contribution to the workplace”.

we show proper recognition for the achievements made by Nelson Mandela.

Mandela House is the proper name for House 6... we ought to show respect for the great man and his legacy.”

Tom Lenihan TCDSU President “He will always be a great world leader that captured the hearts of the students of TCD”

A Tribute Seán Ó Taidhg, an M.Phil student of Medieval History who has been campaigning for the renaming of House 6 to Mandela House for some time, also commented on the motion:

“It was already policy, it was just about convincing people to use [the name], but there wasn’t really the desire to do it - maybe due to the current crop of student’s separation from the events which preceded Mandela’s relief.

“I am happy that this is going ahead but I’m terribly sad that it took the death of the great man for people to think him worthy of this tribute.”

TCDSU issued a post on their Facebook page on Friday to pay tribute to Mandela, stating: “He will be remembered as a great political leader and a symbol of peace and hope.”

The statement continued, “The Students’ Union resides in House 6, which is also known as Mandela House. The original sign

that TCDSU displayed in support of the anti-apartheid campaign during the years Nelson Mandela was imprisoned can still be found above the doorway to Front Office.

It was officially unveiled on April 11th, 2000 to mark the visit of Nelson Mandela to Trinity College.”

President of TCDSU, Tom Lenihan expressed his wish to “thank Nelson Mandela for his recognition of the support TCDSU gave him during his imprisonment”, and said that “he will always be a great world leader that captured the hearts of the students of TCD.” Mandela was conferred with a Millenium Honorary Degree in Laws from Trinity College in 2000, as the “past century’s most outstanding champion of human rights”

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The University Times

Clarification:

Relating to Mr. Ronan Burtenshaw and Trinity News “The University Times offers the following clarifications in relation to our volume V, issue III headline story, “Advertising Revenue Shortfall in Trinity News Accounts”.

The article states that Mr. Burtenshaw “wrote down that he was owed a large sum of money from advertisers, but did not follow up to collect the fees at the end of the year.”

In fact, he did not write this down and made a number of attempts to collect outstanding fees at the end of the year.

It further states that Mr. Burtenshaw “left the country without giving the incoming editor, Elaine McCahill, any help in gathering the revenue.” We acknowledge that Mr. Burtenshaw’s booking of flights predated the emergence of outstanding advertising revenue as an issue. We further recognise that he made all relevant parties aware of his travel plans, made a number of attempts to recoup outstanding fees before departing, and declined his final month’s remuneration, which covered costs while he was away.

The Article states that Mr. Burtenshaw “had originally agreed to a discussion on this subject but was unavailable for comment at the time of print”. In fact, no agreement was in place for comment on the subject. However, a brief discussion of this article occurred between our Editor and Mr. Burtenshaw on Friday, November 15th, when the Editor said that she would seek further comment from Burtenshaw later in the weekend, but we were unable to reach him before the issue went to print.

The Article also stated that Trinity News “may now have to accumulate the money [from last year’s advertising] itself”.

By this, we meant that, to the extent that advertising revenue from the last academic year was uncollected, then it would continue to be contractually due and owing. The current editor of Trinity News, Ms. Elaine McCahill has clarified that any loss of advertising revenue has not had to be made up by Trinity News in some other way

DCU Students’ Union to Propose Referendum on USI Affiliation Hannah Ryan News Editor

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ublin City University Students’ Union (DCUSU) will propose a motion at their next Council meeting to hold a referendum on re-affiliating with the Union of Students in Ireland (USI), The University Times has learned. If passed, it is likely that the vote will take place early next semester, perhaps in January.

Asked to comment on the subject, USI President Joe O’Connor said that he could not yet confirm that the referendum would take place, but did state that representatives of DCUSU were in attendance at last weekend’s National Coun-

cil as guests, along with members of the University of Limerick Students’ Union.

This newspaper previously reported that a similar referendum would be taking place in the National College of Art and Design in the near future. At that time, O’Connor expressed his hope that other colleges would also reconsider the subject, and mentioned the ongoing talks which were underway with DCU and the University of Limerick.

Several smaller colleges, including Griffith College and All Hallows College, have also expressed an interest in joining the USI. In addition, O’Connor hopes to approach University College Dublin next semester.

Formal Opposition To Capitation Cuts Underway Fiona Gribben Staff Writer

Capitated bodies set to formalise a strategy to oppose cuts of 5% across the board over a period of two years

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rinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) President Tom Lenihan has reiterated his opposition to the cuts to capitated bodies in College, and has described the decision to implement the measure as “illegitimate”.

The representatives of bodies directly affected by

the cuts, namely Dublin University Central Athletic Club (DUCAC), the Central Societies Committee (CSC), Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU), the Graduate Students’ Union (GSU), and Trinity Publications, met on Thursday, 28 November to formulate a coordinated response to the

move.

A formal plan to tackle the College Board’s decision has not yet been articulated, however Lenihan said: “There will be a review on the decisionmaking process for allocating the capitation grant but in the meantime it will be brought up at Board and we will go from there. We will be voicing strong opposition to the proposed cuts.”

He continued: “I would also like to add that all the bodies that are affected by these cuts are in solidarity and oppose the cuts forced upon us through an illegitimate process.”

Impact GSU President Ryan Kenny described the impact the cuts will have on the body he represents.

“Over the last two years, the GSU has developed a comprehensive orientation programme for postgrads.

This welcomes thousands

of newly-arrived postgrads to College every year, and is organised and delivered solely by the GSU. “In other words, the college relies on the GSU to make good on its commitment to provide an adequate orientation to the students. This year, our orientation programme cost us about 5% of our annual budget - precisely the amount we stand to lose for the coming year.”

CSC Secretary Éanna Drury also commented on the cuts, saying: “The CSC is disappointed both in the proposed cut itself and the manner in which the decision was announced, and has been forced into a position where it will have to adjust its budget to mitigate the damage to student life that this cut is capable of causing.”

There has been a 5% reduction to all capitated bodies in Trinity, with an overall €60,000 reduction to funds distributed for

2013-14, which will be followed by a further 5% reduction for 2014-15.

Decision It was said that these were among a number of financial decisions approved by the College Board on 26 June 2013 on foot of recommendations made by the Planning Group in College.

However, Senior Dean and Chair to the Committee, Moray McGowan has stated that while he “had been advised” in the last academic year that reductions might be imposed in 2013-14, he received “no formal notification of this decision” until Thursday, 14 November – nearly five months after the plans were initially approved.

TCDSU President Tom Lenihan is set to meet with the Provost to discuss the cuts and will bring the proposed cuts as an item for discussion to the next meeeting of the Collge Board.

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UT News

Tuesday 10th December 2013

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The University Times

Growing Number of TCD Students Using Counselling Services UT Investigation 7.7% of Trinity students sought help from Student Counselling Services in 2011-12, an increase of 3.31% from the previous year

Catherine O’Callaghan Contributing Wrtier

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he percentage of Trinity students seeking help from Student Counselling Services (SCS) has increased from 4.39% in 2005-06 to 7.7% in 2011-12, reflecting an increasing trend amongst students of actively seeking support and taking action regarding their mental health.

Deirdre Flynn of the Student Counselling Service feels that these figures reflect a positive trend that relates to the reduced stigma and changing attitudes surrounding mental health issues. Speaking to The University Times, she stated: “Rather than fearing it will compromise their independence, young people are coming to see seeking help as taking control and empowering themselves.”

Reasons for Increase This increase can, in part, be attributed to the work of the SCS to increase its visibility on campus and its training of various members of the college community in mental health awareness. Mrs Flynn also credits TCD with showing strong support for the services, proving itself to be “committed to students’ well-being and ensuring they do everything possible to ensure students’ success.”

The Niteline service has experienced an increase in total call volume of 97.8% from the OctoberDecember period last year, while online listening has increased by 121.18%. In assessing the reasons for this trend, Niteline Coordinator, Hannah Jean Ryan, commended the hard work of a number of Irish mental health charities in helping

to reduce social stigma, as well as the courage of well-known and respected figures who have spoken openly about their struggles with mental health.

Students’ Union Welfare Officer, Stephen Garry, has also expressed his views on the matter: “I think the fact that more people are willing to visit the counselling service is testament to the fantastic work taking place aiming to eliminate stigma surrounding mental health. We constantly encourage people to talk more and I’d like to think that this increase signifies students are more willing to do so. It may also indicate that students are realising that certain misconceptions regarding the counselling process are unfounded.

“The counselling service is busy, particularly at this time of year, and I commend them for continuing to work exceptionally well under conditions of increased demand. 1 in 3 young people experience a mental health problem... talking about it is the first step towards alleviating the struggles.” The feedback SCS received last year strongly supports this, with 87% of respondents reporting positive change, and 30% stating they felt that counselling was either an important factor or the most important factor in keeping them enrolled at Trinity.

Percentage Still Low Unfortunately, evidence also suggests that the students seeking help still represent only a small fraction of those who may need it.

A recent MyWorld Survey found that among third-

Pictured is the TCD Counciling Service located in 7 - 9 South Leinster Street. Photo by Leanna Byrne level students in Ireland, 15% experience moderate mental health difficulties, 5% experience severe issues and 9% suffer from very severe problems.

At this time of year in particular, more students need extra support, with November being one of the busiest months of the year for SCS. This can be attributed to a number of factors, including forthcoming exams and assignment deadlines, as well as the financial and emotional pressure of Christmas.

Speaking about the particularly high volume of calls Niteline has received over the last month, Hannah Jean Ryan said that “although it is encouraging to learn that more students are willing to speak openly and vulnerably and seek support rather than suffering alone, it is distressing that so many students are struggling at this time of year. We can only encourage more students to seek support from the many excellent support services available in College.”

Stephen Garry TCDSU Welfare Officer

“The counselling service is busy, particularly at this time of year, and I commend them for continuing to work exceptionally well under conditions of increased demand.”

In particular, the SCS wants to encourage more students to participate in the range of group sessions it offers.

The SCS has found that these groups are a highly effective form of counselling that allow students facing similar issues to learn from and support each other in a non-threatening environment.

A number of these groups are facilitated by external groups who specialise in a specific area, including Aware, BodyWhys, OCD

Ireland, and Console - for those bereaved by suicide.

There is also a “Mindfulness Drop In” that requires no sign up and runs weekly.

Further information on group sessions is available at www.tcd.ie/Student_ Counselling. Niteline also provides support to students on their Freephone number of 1800-793793 or through instant messaging on their website at www. niteline.ie Niteline is completely anonymous and is available between 9pm and 2.30am every night of term.

College to Develop Undergraduate Certificate in Entrepreneurship Hannah Ryan & Leanna Byrne News Editor & Editor >> The course will form a part of Trinity’s recently-announced Strategy for Innovation and Entrepreneurship <<

Pictured: Provost Patrick Prendergast and Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton.

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he University Times has learned that the college is planning to develop a certificate programme for undergraduate students with a focus on innovation and entrepreneurship. These plans were revealed in an interview with Provost Patrick Prendergast last week.

Commenting on the subject, Professor Vinny Cahill, Dean of Research, stated: “The planning is at an early stage so I cannot provide precise details now.

We already offer a Postgraduate Certificate in Innovation and Entrepreneurship through the Innovation Academy and we would like to provide similar opportunities to undergraduate students.

“This is one of the key features of our Innovation and Entrepreneurship Strategy launched by Min-

ister Bruton [Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation] last week.”

Provost’s Remarks Dr Prendergast said: “The strategy that we launched last week went about bringing together a coordinated set of actions that improve what Trinity does in the area of innovation and entrepreneurship.

“It involves developing our business school to be a component and driver of that strategy and it involves creating an innovation and entrepreneurship hub colocated with the new Trinity School of Business. This should lift the College’s ability to develop entrepreneurial activities whether that be business formation or creative or social entrepreneurship.”

He continued, “This is going to permeate in many ways the education that we

offer in Trinity. There are educational initiatives that will be taken, such as the development of our Innovation Academy, the creation of an undergraduate certificate in entrepreneurship and so on. There is a great need for this in Trinity.”

Prendergast also mentioned that LaunchBox, an incubator programme offering funding and support for student business ventures, will run again next year with the possibility of increased funding, which Professor Cahill will oversee.

The Strategy The Strategy for Innovation and Entrepreneurship document states the intention to “forge an entrepreneurial campus” and “further embed a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship right across the

University…[the] Strategy will permeate the activities of Trinity’s 24 academic schools, as well as integrating our flagship research institutes.”

This will also involve the establishment of a new “creative quarter” through a €70 million building project which will extend from Pearse Street to Grand Canal Basin and 30 new academic staff, including a new Professor of Business Studies, offering a full range of business programmmes.

The document also cites the forty-five start-up companies incubated on campus for 2013 and the 290 inventions from 20082013, as well as the 1,700 members of the Trinity Entrepreneurial Society (10% of the student population) as indicators of the College’s focus on innovation and entrepreneurship.

Targets new company creation through spinouts, spin-ins, and support for student and graduate enterprises.

By the end of next year, Trinity aims to have supported the creation of 48 start-up companies, with that figure rising to 55 by the end of 2015, and to 58 by the end of 2016.

The new Innovation and Entrepreneurship Hub, co-located with the Trinity School of Business, will provide space for prototyping and company incubation projects and academic and administrative offices.

The project intends on connecting the historic and modern ends of Trinity’s campus along the Pearse Street axis, offering creative and learning space to the whole university under the common theme of innovation and entrepreneurship.

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UT News

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Tuesday 19th November 2013

This week in societies

The University Times

by Anna Harrington

Cancer Society Naked Calendar Released

Kele Okereke visits The Phil

Santa’s Little Helper’s Christmas Doggy Crawl

Environment Society’s Upcycling Workshop

Fish Soc National Aquatic Centre Trip

Wednesday All Day

Wednesday, 4pm in the GMB

Thursday 5.30pm, O’Reilly’s

Thursday 6pm, MakeShop

Saturday 1.30pm, Meet at Campanile

With 22 clubs and societies featuring and 100% of the proceeds going towards the Irish Cancer Society, the Cancer Soc Naked Calendar looks to fare well in this year’s battle of the nude calendars. Writers from The University Times will also feature draped tastefully in newspapers. Not to be missed.

If you were an NME-reading angsty teen with an undying love of Bloc Party, this might not be the event for you. Leader singer Kele Okereke has abandoned his roots and will speak to The Phil before jumping on the bandwagon to go and play a House gig that evening (seriously).

Still though, his address will undoubtedly be a lovely trip down memory lane.

Thursday sees the Horse Racing Society abandon their equestrian roots to get drunk at a greyhound racing night for the ridiculously low price of 3 yo yo, which is pretty impressive.

Crucially, Dunnes stores vouchers and mince pies have been promised for the evening, which may sway even the firmest of animal rights activists.

In one of the more wholesome Christmas events this week, the Environment Society are hosting an upcycling workshop at which members can repurpose their rubbish to give as Christmas gifts. Email environment@csc.tcd.ie to sign up for the workshop.

Although it has been a limited semester in actual fishing for Fish Soc, events like these make up for it. To recover from their pub crawl taking place the night before, they have organised a group trip to the National Aquatic Centre on Saturday (think minimal effort, maximal lazy river fun).

Credits

ut EDITOR Leanna Byrne DEPUTY EDITOR Vladimir Rakhmanin ONLINE EDITOR Conor Murphy EDITOR AT LARGE Colm O’ Donnell NEWS EDITOR Hannah Ryan FEATURES EDITOR Ludovic Dawnay OPINION EDITOR Samuel Riggs SPORTS EDITOR Conor Bates MAGAZINE EDITOR James Bennett

TCD Student Parents Group Granted Society Status Campus Clare Droney Staff Writer

The society aims to make student parents “more visible as a group” within Trinity

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CD’s Student Parents Group, an initiative which began as an Equality Fund Project two years ago, recently gained provisional society status in College.

The aim of the society is to provide a network of support for students with children, to increase the visibility of student parents and their needs within the college community and to support the further integration of student parents into all areas of college life.

The social aspect of the society is particularly important as student parents will have opportunities to take part in extracurricular events, “something we are often excluded from due to family commitments” according to Nicole Jagusch, a mature student of Sociology and Social Policy and Chairperson of the Society.

Ms Jagusch, a student parent herself, is particularly concerned with raising awareness of the barriers facing parents in third-level education and she comments that “the society is a first step in making us more visible as a group” within the college.

She emphasises the importance of making Trinity

students with children can be particularly difficult as many face financial concerns and the issue of balancing college classes and coursework with parental responsibilities.

While student parents are a diverse group, most hold the same desire as traditional students to partake in the full college experience; however they “are inevitably constrained by the competing demands on their time and resources,” according to Mark Kearns.

He suggests that some of the issues facing student parents may be alleviated when significant others, such as the students’ children and/or partners, also feel part of the college experience. The society hopes to address this by organising family events on the college campus.

This may help some of the problems for student parents, as well as giving their children some experience of third-level institutions.

Lynn Ruane, a Trinity Access Programme (TAP) student with two daughters, hopes that the introduction of more family-friendly events and services in Trinity will give these children a greater understanding of

MULTIMEDIA EDITOR Cailan O’Connell PHOTO EDITOR Andrew Murphy

college life and encourage them to pursue a third-level education.

Kearns’ research indicates the need for student parents to be able to access “particular support, education, as well as networking and social events that are especially geared to their needs” and the society is particularly committed to addressing these areas.

The granting of society status to the Student Parents Group is recognition of the growing diversity of the student body and the variety of student needs within Trinity. The Student Parents Society sees it as an encouraging step in the promotion of diversity and equality in the college community.

The society plans to or-

ganise family-friendly events for both undergraduate and postgraduate student parents and their children, as well as hosting talks and workshops on issues such as balancing family commitments with education and work.

The next event for student parents and children is on Saturday, 14 December.

An Tóstal á chéiliúradh ag an gCumann Gaelach i Seomra na Gaeilge i lár champais na Tríonóide, seomra caidrimh a d’oscail anuraidh. Seinnfear ceol traidisiúnta ag baill na linne seo agus beidh pictiurí agus gradaim ó stair an chumainn ar thaispeáint.

SUPPLEMENTS EDITOR Shauna Cleary COPY EDITOR Michelle O’Connor

more accessible to people from backgrounds which differ from that of the traditional student body.

Ms Jagusch was a central figure in the development of the Student Parents Society. She secured funding for an Equality Fund Project (2011-12) to conduct research into the experiences of student parents in Trinity. A group was then established to develop a student-parent policy and two successful welcome events for student parents and their families were held in October 2012 and September 2013. The Student Parents Society developed from this Equality Fund group.

The society is particularly relevant given the growing diversity of the student body in Trinity. There has been a noticeable increase in the number of non-traditional students entering higher education.

According to research conducted by PhD student parent and treasurer of the Student Parents Society, Mark Kearns, there have been a growing number of people returning to education at a later stage in their lives. This has resulted in an increase in the number of third-level students who are also parents.

For many mature students, the difficulties of re-entering education after several years are coupled with the issue of balancing college life and external responsibilities. According to Ms Jagusch, the first few months for mature

Fionn O’Dea Scríobhneoir Foirne Sinsir Beidh an ócáid ar siúl i Seomra na Gaeilge i lár champais na Tríonóide

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eidh tóstal ar siúl ag Cumann Gaelach Choláiste na Tríonóide ar an 13ú lá de mhí na Nollag chun ‘The Gathering’ agus Bliain na Gaeilge 2013 a chéiliúradh.

Tá fáilte mhór roimh iarbhaill an chumainn, iarmhuintir na Scéimeanna Cónaithe agus éinne a bhfuil suim acu sa Ghaeilge i

gColáiste na Tríonóide.

Mhínigh Reachtaire an chumainn Niamh Ní Chróinín go bhfuil an cumann ag iarraidh “deis a thabhairt d’iar-bhaill an chumainn teacht le chéile an Nollaig seo. Beidh iarReachtairí an Chumainn ag labhairt ar an oíche agus beidh soláistí ar fáil.”

Beidh an ócáid ar siúl

tas na Mac Léinn.”

Cuireann an ócáid tóstal eile a bhí ag an gCumann Gaelach i mBealtaine 2007 san Atrium i gcuimhne.

Teagmháil l’iar-bhaill Cé go mbíonn sé deacair i nginéarlálta d’iar-bhaill na gcumann sa choláiste fanacht i dteagmháil leis na baill atá ann faoi láthair, go háirithe na laethanta seo le an-chuid dóibh thar lear, mhínigh Ní Chróinín an bealach gur chuir an cumann cuirí amach: “Tá muid ag baint úsáide as na meáin shóisialta chun dul i dteangmháil le hiar-bhaill an chumainn.

“Maraon leis seo, tá cuireadh seolta againn go mic léinn a bhí sna scéimeanna cónaithe i gColáiste na Tríonóide agus d’iar-Oifigigh na Gaeilge le hAon-

Niamh Ní Chróinín Reachtaire Chumann Gaelach Oíche a bhí ann chun an chéad bhliain ónar bhunaigh Dubhghlas de hÍde an cumann a chéiliuradh.

Is é an ócáid seo an chéad tóstal gur cúrtha ar siúl ag an gcumann d’iar-bhaill ó shin.

Gaeilge sa Choláiste Tá saol na Gaeilge sa choláiste tar éis athrú ó

shin friesin: “Osclaíodh Seomra na Gaeilge ag tús na bliana seo caite, mar sin, tabharfaidh an ócáid seo deis d’iar-bhaill an chu-

“Tabharfaidh an ócáid seo deis d’iarbhaill an chumainn an seomra agus an áis iontach seo a fheiceáil don chéad uair” mainn an seomra agus an áis iontach seo a fheiceáil don chéad uair” a dúirt Ní Chróinín. “Is pobal mór é pobal na Gaeilge i gColáiste na Tríonóide agus tá mé ag súil go mór go mbeidh iarbhaill an Chumainn ar ais le chéile sa choláiste.”

An Tóstal Tá an ócáid ar siúl mar

chuid den Tóstal (The Gathering) 2013, feachtas a bhí ar siúl an bhliain ar fad chun níos mó cuairteoirí a mhealladh go hÉireann. Spreagadh muintir an phobail a gcuid tóstail féin a eagrú.

Tá sé mar chuid freisin de Bhliain na Gaeilge 2013.

Dar le suíomh Bliain na Gaeilge “Cuireadh tús le hathbheochan na Gaeilge in 1893 le bunú Chonradh na Gaeilge.

In 2013 beimid ag tabhairt aitheantais don dul chun cinn ar fad atá déanta le 120 bliain anuas ag na heagraíochtaí Gaeilge agus Gaeltachta, na scoileanna agus grúpaí eile ó shin i leith leis an nGaeilge a chaomhnú, a bhuanú agus a chur chun cinn.”

Tosaíonn Tóstal an Chumainn ar an Aoine ag 19:00.

Chun níos mó eolais a fháil, seol ríomhphost chuig eolas@cumann.ie.

For all your student banking needs Talk to us today

Talk to one of our student advisers www.bankofireland.com Bank of Ireland is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland.

doh000692 - Trinity press ad.indd 1

18/01/2013 15:01

6

InFocus

Tuesday 10th December 2013

//

The University Times

What’s in A Name? What Happens When Trinity Markets Change

Leanna Byrne Editor Provost Patrick Prendergast talks about privatisation, going global and the identity intiative

A

ccording to his annual review, our Provost Patrick Prendergast finds himself in the midst of a period of transition in higher level education. In order to keep up with the rest of the leading universities, Trinity needs to meet the expectations of the “global generation” by attracting new industry and becoming more innovative. All of this sounds very attractive, which is probably the point. At the same time, what happens when a college is not just implementing change, but marketing the change as well?

Does the narrative support the actions or is it the driving force in itself?

My interview with the Provost took place in his library shortly before he turned on the lights of the Christmas tree in Front Square. I was instructed to ask him questions about the Trinity Global Graduate Forum (TGGF), the identity initiative and the exciting stuff about innovation and entrepreneurship that Richard Bruton has been grinning about recently. Bearing in mind that the consultation process for the five year strategic plan is set to begin in the next few weeks, these instructions gave me enough scope to ask about the rumours of privatisation and growth plans that everyone has been talking about.

The TGGF was hosted last month to connect with over 100 of the best and brightest Trinity alumni globally. The forum was broken down into five breakout sessions: education, growth, funding, technology and our reputation. I tried to steer the conversation to combine the topics of funding and privatisation,

and was met with a firm response.

“Clearly when you have alumni from around the world coming here, many who are working in North America for example, where you have a mix of private and public universities, and even the public universities would have substantially more private funding in the US, clearly the conversation was going to come onto the agenda. Everyone is free to have that conversation - we have academic freedom after all. So I wasn’t surprised that privatisation came onto the agenda.”

Without giving his personal preference, he went on to tell me that the privatisation of Trinity is not something that fits easily with the current Universities Act (1997) that redefined Trinity as a public university.

“That’s only something that can be changed by legislation,” he explained. “So I don’t think it’s realistic to talk about straightforward privatisation in the way that it was done.”

Yes, but is privatisation even feasible? He responded by reminding me of the Act he had just spoken about. I proposed this hypothetical situation where there was no Act. Did we have enough in the coffers to sustain ourselves if other private universities receive up to 30 per cent of their income from alumni funding, whereas we’re stuck at a measly 3 per cent?

He informed me that I needed to be clear about the fact that Trinity has spent most of its life as a private university. The college was founded in 1592 as a chartered corporation.

It was a royal charter in receipt of

government funds for activities, but not subject to regulations as part of the public sector. Of course, all that’s changed now with the Universities Act. However, I suggested that it wasn’t feasible because of funding, I was wrong about that funding isn’t the crux of the matter.

“I think the crux of the matter is really legislative,” he said. “The government and the Universities Act that makes Trinity a public university. I think we can achieve most of these objectives as a public university if we can find a way to operate with the constraints we are under.”

What are those constraints? “I think a key aspect is how we can spend the money that we get. We raise private money and we are to be as flexible as possible in how we spend that money. One thing that is a constraint is the employment control framework is in keeping with government regulation that constrains us and we do that because we are a public sector university.”

So it’s the government and legislation that are putting the universities under pressure? No, it’s because of the funding environment. Although he admitted that things are made more difficult by the management of these resources which is not fully in control of the university.

The strain also comes from various government regulations like the employment control framework or… well, that one in particular.

Since we were on the subject of funding, I asked if it was important that we prioritise international students to generate more revenue: “I don’t think international students should be brought in solely as a revenue generator,” he explained. “Although we do get a higher fee from international students, there are other ways to generate revenue.”

On the matter of international students, increasing numbers of non-EU students is good for a cosmopolitan global education that Trinity has to offer. This is the primary reason. Universities that use international students solely as revenue generators, well, he didn’t think that was a successful strategy.

Trinity can be better than that.

Surely, then, if becoming more international is the priority, this is why we’re undertaking the “identity initiative”? Wrong again. Well, not as the primary purpose. It’s really about student improvement.

Even I would see the benefit from graduating with a degree from a university that is well recognised around around the world. In fact, it would be valuable for all of Ireland to have a university whose name is recognised around the world.

I suggested that Trinity College was well known enough, but the Provost disagreed saying that he didn’t think it is recognised around the world as much as it could be.

“There are some universities that everyone knows,” he said. “Then there are some that are only known locally. It’s reasonably well known in the English speaking countries...

It can be better known.”

Fair enough. But is rebranding Trinity the most important step in making this well-known, global

didn’t remember.

I told him that I wasn’t necessarily asking for his survey answers, but if he would like to answer my question…What he thought the Trinity identity is?

Yes. What is the image we want to portray to the outside?

The Provost believed his opinion on the matter was uninteresting; however, he expected the survey to say that Trinity is independent, with an international standing and an outstanding class of students.

Now, I asked, what did he make of the reports that the rebranding would drop the “College Dublin” from Trinity.

I had read it in one of the many interviews he’s given. At this, the newly appointed Director of Marketing and Communications, Bernard Mallee, intervened and said that “Trinity” would remain, but a particular variation of it would come from the consultation process. Prendergast replied by saying that “Trinity will always be Trinity”.

What about the “College Dublin”? Is it important for Trinity to be in Dublin?

“Trinity is also the University of Dublin. Everybody in the country knows that.”

I remarked about the clubs and societies using “DU”. Exactly, it’s important for Trinity to be understood to be the University of Dublin, but it’s confusing having two names.

“For many people abroad, a college is a secondary school, not a university. So, if you go to get a job in Hong Kong and you went to Trinity College they’ll say: ah she didn’t go to a university then. That’s not helping you. We have a requirement that we address this issue.”

I asked him if he would call it Trinity University Dublin (TUD).

He told me that he didn’t think that particularly the best. There are many options. Again, it all depends on the survey. He certainly isn’t going into the process with any preconceived notions about what might be the best way.

But does the college even want this identity initiative? Well, he said, looking for clarification, who’s

I think we can achieve most of these objectives as a public university if we can find a way to operate with the constraints we are under university? Aren’t there more important things to concentrate on?

“Well,” he said. “You can do a lot of great things, but unless you tell people, they are not going to be widely known. We have been doing a lot of great things and we’re going to be doing a lot more great things.” With the identity initiative Trinity are striving to ensure the quality that they offer in education and research is more widely known. He reminded me that this is an important benefit not just for students and staff, but the country as a whole.

Having recently completed the questionnaire he emailed to all students relating to Trinity’s identity, I asked him how he would answer the question relating to what he thought Trinity’s identity is. This caused a bit of confusion. After all, what we answer in the questionnaire is confidential. Anyway, he

the college? I began listing groups off the top of my head: the staff, the fellows, the students…

“All those groups?”

“The academics, societies, capitated bodies… I’m sure I’m leaving somebody out.”

He told me that he obviously doesn’t know. He can’t ask everyone. Perhaps I was being unfair, but I was sure that at least somebody mentioned it. He informed me that they hadn’t.

“The Board of the College want it and the Board of the College contains elected representatives of faculty and staff and students,” he said.

“They approved a communications strategy that included the Trinity identity initiative. We’re following through on that Board approved strategy. So as far as the Board represents the College then yes the College does want us to look at it.”

He further reassured me that any outcomes will be put to the board, so nothing is going to happen that doesn’t have the buy in of the college community. Mallee repeated “it’s in the strategic plan”.

The Provost turned to me again and continued by saying: “If you ask me out straight, I haven’t asked the capitated bodies, I haven’t asked them all if they want it or not, but I believe they do. I am happy to see this work being carried out. There are some vocal opponents to it, but I believe the majority, be it staff or students, understand the value of a close look at Trinity’s identity and if we have developed it in a way that is to everyone’s advantage or not.”

The thing is, I’ve learned that the best way to think of Trinity is that it is made up of dozens and dozens of autonomous pockets, who enjoy residing under the Trinity umbrella as long as they are granted the liberty to do as they please. Asking them to implement changes and to change their outlook in order to become globally orientated is one thing, but to suggest that means they will all be united in their mission and vision ignores the true identity of Trinity: blissful fragmentation.

I told the Provost this by saying that after being here for almost five years I felt like the university was like “the Republic of Trinity” with so many different parts to the whole.

Surely, then, it would be very complicated trying to make us all conform to one identity and name?

He paused for a few seconds.

“Well, we’ll see won’t we? We’ll just have to find out.”

The University Times //

InFocus

Tuesday 10th December 2013

Niteline’s ‘Public Faces’ Campaign

Sinéad Baker Deputy Online Editor

N

iteline, a phone and online listening service ran by students for students in TCD, UCD, DCU, RCSI, NCAD and Maynooth, is trialling a new ‘public fac-

the service.

I sat down with Hannah Jean Ryan, Niteline’s coordinator, to discuss the changes taking place in the organisation. Niteline runs a strict policy of

Anonymity has been one of our four cornerstones since the beginning. It’s important for students to be really confident that we take this policy seriously es’ campaign which aims to both increase both their publicity and connect more students with

anonymity; their posters claim, “We won’t know who you are”, and their volunteers are trained to

keep their involvement with the organisation secret. Hannah emphasised that although it seems they face a dilemma by launching this new campaign, as “anonymity is so fundamental to who we are”, she stressed that their policy of confidentiality and anonymity will never be compromised.

“Anonymity has been one of our four cornerstones since the beginning. It’s important for students to be really confident that we take this policy seriously, especially as a student organisation. Those policies have to be respected.”

The new campaign will see Hannah and the current Regional Representative (formerly a trainer and Coordinator) Aaron Watson become the current ‘faces’ of Niteline; their experiences of working with and their knowledge of the organisation were cited as the reasons they were chosen to act as its spokespeople. “I’m no longer in college anymore, and I’m no longer on the phones, so for me it makes sense”, clarified Hannah, highlighting how as a result of their training many volunteers would not have felt comfortable being a public face without coming off the phones, “and that’s the heart of our service”.

The new campaign follows the success of Nitelines in the UK with similar campaigns. “It means we can put a voice on the organisation, and speak at public events and to the media” she explained, citing previous frustrations at having to use volunteers from the Students’ Union or peer mentors

rather than their own volunteers. “We’ve had our people out in morph suits before, to remind people

the future for Niteline if this trial campaign is successful, and she stressed that anonymity will al-

We want to improve transparency so people can engage with us that we’re here, but some people did find it creepy.

We believe really strongly about what we do and we want to be able to talk about it.”

Niteline is currently unable to release many figures regarding callers, and often have to rely on feedback from Welfare Officers. “We’ve tried to stay creative, but we can’t go much further without this step,” Hannah explained, “it’s hard to publicise with such strict anonymity. It’s an enormous challenge to humanise the service and to connect with students. We want to improve transparency so people can engage with us”. The step would also allow them to speak publicly about welfare from a student perspective,

ways remain at the heart of the service. “In some Nitelines all of Exec are public, but it just couldn’t work that way here. The College community is not that big, even if a student tells their housemate they work for Niteline it might make them reluctant to call. We have to be mindful of the different cultures”. The success of their instant messaging service, which has “taken off enormously”, has been partly attributed to the extra level of anonymity that it provides; no one can recognise your voice, and you cannot be overheard.

The organisation is committed to continuing to value this commitment to anonymity and confidentiality; she admits “it might be hard to create

In some Nitelines all of Exec are public, but it just couldn’t work that way here.

The College community is not that big an area they believe they are uniquely qualified to speak about, “We’re open 9pm until 2.30am, when the services offered by the Welfare Officer and Counselling Service are closed.”

I asked Hannah about

a presence with only two people, but the ‘public faces’ campaign will never extend to all of our volunteers”. She clarified that it may one day expand to a core group of five or ten volunteers yet maintained, “we have a long

way to go before that.”

The organisation is currently working on releasing a statistics package of those statistics which they can release legally, “we’re receiving more calls than ever, and we need more facilities” Hannah added.

Niteline trains their volunteers through a group of four trainers that are elected by Exec, “They are experienced volunteers, and training is on-going”.

The system is based off the success of many Nitelines in the UK, and Hannah is keen to emphasise the support network in place for volunteers, “we have a mandatory support meeting every two weeks for all volunteers, we’re very strict and they can only talk about their emotions but there’s a massive support culture.

For us volunteer support is number one, they give up their sleep and we have to make sure they’re safe.”

Niteline commits itself to the principles of “nondirective listening”, listening “carefully and with attention” without offering professional advice unless asked for information. The service provides an unbiased and impartial space for students to “explore their problems” and to receive support and information from a unique student perspective. They urge any students with issues to get in touch with the service, and for anyone with questions to contact info@ niteline.org The service is available at niteline.ie and at 1800 793 793, and is completely free.

7

How to Survive Christmas Sophie Guillermin-Golet Contributing Writer

T

he first term is coming to an end.

Essays are almost all over. Exams will soon be a (bad) memory. But there is still an ordeal to overcome. I am not talking about the difficulty to pack for those who do not live with their parents, or about the impossibility to find presents for all your relatives. I am writing about the dreaded family reunions.

In 1984, Band Aid sang that at Christmas “you throw your arms around the world”. However, sometimes, I tend to believe that you just want to throw yourselves in your bed, and spend your time watching Christmas movies on your own.

So I am going to share useful tips in order to survive the “most wonderful time of the year”.

First of all, do not eat useless things. I know that it seems as impossible as the films of Tom Cruise. I am the first to claim that I cannot wait to be back home to forget my student food. But this case is a particular one. Forget your breakfast the morning before a big lunch, and forget the afternoon snack before an even more important dinner. In fact, Christmas meals can be considered as the contrary opposite of the Hunger Games.

There is food, too much food, and sadly, nobody is going to steal it from you.

Thus, your main goal is to be able to eat as much as possible, in order not to upset the Capitol, or rather the host.

Choose carefully your place at the table. Let’s be honest: nobody wants

to sit between Grandpa Alfred and Grandma Edith, who will spend their time bickering about the quality of the food, talking about their dentures, and asking you awkward questions. So, choose someone slightly younger than them as an aunt or a cousin. But do not sit at the kids’ table. I do not think it would be an enjoyable experience, except if you want a food fight.

One of the most important points is certainly the following: find an ally.

An ally is really useful to make fun of the others (as they say, the more the merrier), or just to have quite interesting conversations. The ally is often someone who is around your age, who does not spend the dinner staring at his plate, and who has a good sense of humor.

Once this ally is found, you can try to invent games with them. I swear that time will fly by if you manage to have some fun.

It can be something like “throwing little pieces of bread in the glass of this annoying uncle”, or “counting the number of drinks you are able to drink without being noticed”. You only have to let your creative side express itself.

Still, even if you do not specially appreciate these moments, try to find some happiness in it. As dysfunctional your family can be, they are all you’ve got. And you know, all I want for Christmas is you…to say that in the end “it was good craic”.

“Have yourself a merry little Christmas”!

Nelson Mandela: The Trinity Connection ficially renamed House 6 ‘Mandela House’, the name it is still officially recognised as by College today.Then president of the SU Mark Little (of Storyful and RTÉ News fame) remarked on Twitter when he heard of the passing of Mr Mandela: “In youth,

rallying cry for them.

The deeds and words of Madiba are familiar the world over, but it was his message of a need for dialogue and an end to violence that rang familiar to those involved in the peace process on our own island. Mary McAleese,

[I] danced to his freedom, named buildings for him.

In maturity, inspired by his humility. In death, celebrate his legacy to our kids.” Incidentally, TCDSU was one of the organisations thanked by Mandela upon leaving Robben Island.

While looking through old SU handbooks, I discovered that there was an active Anti-Apartheid society within the Trinity community for a number of years leading up to Mandela’s release and the ending of Apartheid.

Their focus was on attempting to rid Trinity of any South African products on sale there, a policy the SU Shop enforced. wIn a time where students were perhaps more strongly politically aligned, and more inclined to protest against injustice the world over, Mandela and his cause on Robben Island proved a

while reflecting on his passing in an interview on RTÉ Radio 1 mentioned that it was through this message that she found her affinity with, and her respect of Mr. Mandela.

It seems fitting to end with the closing of the speech that J.V Luce gave in the Exam Hall thirteen years ago; “You see before you a man of exceptional tenacity and exemplary magnanimity whom I think it appropriate to salute in the old Roman fashion as ‘father of his country’. As he inscribes his name on our Roll of Honour, see to it that the thunder of your applause re-echoes through this Hall.”

Nelson Mandela has forever written his name on the Roll of Honour of the human race, and their applause for him will echo through time for generations and centuries to come.

Nelson Mandela has forever written his name on the Roll of Honour of the human race

Colm O’Donnell Editor-at-Large

T

he above quotation from Lord Alfred Tennyson’s poem ‘In Memoriam’ began the speech announcing the candidature of Nelson Mandela for an honorary degree of a Doctor in Laws at Trinity. In the light of his recent passing, those words are made

and Sir James Black, a No-

parison

between

the

degree from NUI Galway.

tist. Mikhail Gorbachev, former president of the Soviet Union, was invited to attend the same ceremony, the Millennium Honorary Degree ceremony, but couldn’t attend until 2002. That Trinity initially had hoped to have Gorbachev and Mandela share the same stage creates an interesting com-

within their countries, and both won the Nobel Peace Prize as a result of these changes.

He returned to Ireland in 2003 to give a speech at the Special Olympics, showing his willingness to champion all human causes. While in the country at that time he also received an honorary

described the occasion as a day that ‘counts amongst the most memorable occasions in the history of our University.’

Mandela’s relationship with Ireland and Trinity began when he was awarded the freedom of Dublin on 18 July 1988, the same date the Students’ Union (SU) of-

“Ring in the valiant man and free, the larger bel Prize winning physi- men - both were catalysts The President of the uniheart, the kindlier hand” cian and research scien- for tremendous change versity, Dr. Jim Browne, more poignant; Tennyson wrote ‘In Memoriam’ as an ode to his best friend who had died at the age of 22. Today, the world has lost such a friend.

That speech was given on Tuesday 11 April 2000, by the college’s renowned former Public Orator John V. Luce. In his speech

Luce described Mandela as ‘the most outstanding champion of human rights from the past century.’ He was the first South African leader to receive an honorary degree from the college. Also given degrees at the ceremony were then President of Ireland, Mary McAleese

InFocus

8

Tuesday 10th December 2013

//

The University Times

My University Times: Rachel Johnson Rachel Johnson Guest Writer

I

t didn’t occur to me until I was at least 16 or 17 that I wanted to go to University at all. I was far too busy for that.

I was, mostly, “having a sleepover with my friend Kate in Mortlake” or that’s what I told my mother I was doing, anyway.

In fact, I was striking out to pubs in Hammersmith to hear rockabilly bands or sneaking off to Stiff Little Fingers concerts at the Lyceum, where I picked up my first love, a Mohican from Billericay.

Or I was staying up all night to get lucky at the Roxy in Kings’ Cross, where they held back to back screenings of horror movies starting from midnight.

It was not until my beloved stepfather, an academic and New York University professor, asked me idly what my “plans” were (we were driving on the Westway – I remember it like yesterday) that I realized that I needed a plan at all. I gazed out of the window into the rain and said, “I want to go to University”.

I said it to please and impress him mainly.

“Do you? Where?” He asked, as if surprised.

“Oxford,” I said con-

fidently. After all, my parents had met there.

My mother had been six months pregnant with me when she did Finals.

All my grandparents and aunts and uncles had been to Oxbridge, and my brother was at Balliol.

“Oh,” he said in a dubious tone. “You’d better start thinking about doing some work then.”

To cut a long story short, I did get into Oxford but I feel it was probably a mistake. Still do.

Every day I was there, I had terrible impostor

September that I was changing to Classics as otherwise I “wouldn’t get in”.

So I went up to read Mods and Greats at New College, Oxford in 1984 and the flipside of imposter syndrome is that every single day at Oxford I felt was a bonus. I felt blessed. I felt determined to profit from the admissions tutor’s mistake and, if possible, to prove them right after all.

What to single out?

In my first year I lived on a staircase and my room was cleaned by a scout, called Gerry, who came into empty my bin and make my room, if anything, rather dirtier. I shared a bathroom with eight others and no one ever cleaned the bath.

Having grown up with three brothers this didn’t faze me.

Nor did the fairly horrible food in Hall (those who have been to English prep schools are pathetically grateful for any food at all). Oxford always seemed colder and darker and damper than London but also completely magical; Narnia. You could even drink in the pubs that C.S. Lewis drank in (The Eagle and Child).

Oxford always seemed colder and darker and damper than London but also completely magical; Narnia syndrome. I know, for example, that I wasn’t very good at my subject (I got in to read Classics) and would have far preferred to have read English, but my father wouldn’t let me. Fathers had some control in those days.

So after having dutifully ploughed through the canons of Austen and Shakespeare in the summer leading up to the Entrance Exam in October (as the system then was) he announced in early

The Mail on Sunday columnist is the first in a new series inviting journalists to reminisce on their student days.

I never tired of gazing over bowling-green grass to honey-stoned quads and watching anxious looking undergraduates in mortarboards cycling over cobbles on their way to Schools, black gowns flying out behind them.

In my second year I came almost top of the room ballot and was able to move into a suite of rooms in the Garden Quad.

I had a tall, blonde and amusing boyfriend.

He was called Sebastian Shakespeare. For those

of you who have seen, or preferably read, Brideshead Revisited, you can see why someone called this was irresistible to a certain sort of romantic bookish girl which, despite my punk past, I secretly was.

At Oxford I developed a work ethic. In my defence, this was the ‘80s. Greed was good and hard work was its own reward. Everyone I knew was swotting, even if they were taking lots of drugs as well to “ease their pain”.

In my third year, the

daughter of a Cabinet Minister, called Olivia Channon, died in a friend of mine’s rooms at ChristChurch, of an overdose. It was the end of the Bright Young Things and the beginning of something else: of growing up.

A sense that every action you took had a consequence.

That privilege only took you so far, and into some places no sane person would want to go. That no-one was immortal, or so special even - not even the gilded youth at

Ireland’s Youth Crisis and The Effects of Unpaid Internship Culture Laura Harmon Contributing Writer

U

npaid internships are on the increase in Ireland. As of September there were 86,000 people in publicly-funded ‘labour activation schemes’. This number has nearly doubled in four years - up from 45,000 in 2009.

Internships have always played a role in the economy where there is a skills mismatch. However, that role has transformed and internships are beginning to replace work that should be paid. Internship culture is massively expanding in the U.S., where we should be looking for trends. In 1992, 17% of graduates took on an internship and by 2008, that number was 50%. In Ireland, it is becoming more and more expected that young people ‘need’ to earn their place in the workforce by completing some unpaid work first.

What constitutes an internship and what constitutes paid work?

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions have produced an information fact sheet on intern rights which says that provided you are doing work of value to the employer, have a similar level of supervision and responsibility as the rest of the workforce then you are likely to be entitled to be paid at least the national minimum wage. It is important to note that if a person is on a Government intern or work experience scheme that scheme may be exempt from minimum wage laws and then different rights to payment apply.

The most recent internship phenomenon is JobBridge. One in five interns leave it dissatisfied. 3% of employers admitted to using the scheme to displace existing paid employment. This amounts to around 300 employers yet to date, yet only 23 companies have been banned from using JobBridge. In fact, 28.6% of interns eventually progressed to employment with their host organisation which tallies with the 29% of employers who said that they would have been highly/

fairly likely to have offered paid employment in the absence of the JobBridge scheme.

Why are the Government paying for companies to replace what would have been paying jobs with unpaid internships? Would this money not be better spent on targeting specific skills instead or increasing the student maintenance grant to encourage people to enter education?

Schemes like JobBridge put downward pressure on wages and there are already problems in relation to this. Half of the workplaces inspected by the National Employment Rights Agency (NERA) between January and Oc-

tober 2012 f o r compliance with the National M i n i m u m Wage were found to be paying under the €8.65 hourly rate. A JobBridge intern working an average working week of 40 hours (and we can see from the Indecon Report that many work longer hours) makes €3.75 per hour.

The economic crisis in Ireland has also left us with a youth crisis.

41.8% of those aged 18- 24 are at risk of poverty or social exclusion.

Budget 2014 introduced significant cuts to Jobseeker’s Allowance for young people. The payment to new entrants aged 22-24 is reduced

from €144 to €100 per week, and for those aged 25 the payment is reduced from €188 to €144 per week.

According to Moira Murphy, Organiser with We’re Not Leaving: “The proposed cuts to social welfare will drive young people into poverty. While welfare payments have been consistently reduced for people under the age of 25 since 2009, this cut will have a more severe impact than any of the previous ones. With the rising cost of living, especially the lack of access to rent allowance and increasingly unaffordable transport fares, with 100 euro to live on a week the Government is sending out a clear message emigrate or live in poverty.”

M o s t jobs adverstised are in urban areas. The welfare cuts d o not

take into account the geographical location in which people live or the costs associated with travelling to seek work or undertake an internship. According to the Daft (2013) rental report, renting a single room costs €433 in Dublin City Centre, and €286 in Cork City Cen-

tre per month. If a young worker moves to Dublin City Centre, and then becomes unemployed, €100 per week is not sufficient to live off without some other assistance. Unemployed young workers may need to move back to their native region, and search for work there. This can affect inter-regional mobility and contribute to social exclusion of young people. Furthermore, not all young people have families to move home to or additional supports available and emigration itself is expensive. It is not a viable option for everyone.

The Government also announced in Budget 2014 that they would be introducing fees for all apprentices for the time they spend in Institutes of Technology. These will start at approximately €540 and will increase, depending on the Apprenticeship and the time spent attending at the Institutes during their off the job training on Phases 4 and 6.

This will prohibit the participation of many on these courses.

While there was a 14 million euro investment in the Youth Guarantee in Budget 2014, it falls far short of the estimated 273 million euro required to implement it properly. However, even with the Youth Guarantee, there is no guarantee that internship schemes are closely monitored so that it doesn’t turn into another JobBridge.

Some necessary steps to prevent this include creating an oversight body including representatives from unions employers and Government and ensuring that the practice of replacing paid employment with internships is against the law and subject to appeal to an Ombudsman.

Perhaps the Government should follow the example of countries like Scotland by committing to introducing equality budgeting in Ireland. This will help Ireland move to a more conscientious approach to budgetary decisions and ensure that impact assessments are conducted to prevent cuts disproportionately affecting certain sections of society over others.

Commem Balls - that life wouldn’t catch up with them in the end.

I moved into a house on the Cherwell River and for the next two years I divided my time according to my tutor’s precept: work eight hours, he told me, play eight hours, sleep eight hours.

I thought there was a chance – even though I had clearly got in by accident – that I might get a First. I am a cup completely full person, a congenital pessimist. So I slaved over my Thucydides, my Hero-

dotus, my Roman poets, my Greek Tragedies. And then missed it.

I don’t regret a single thing I did or didn’t do at Oxford, and after Finals were over, I was still wandering around in eighth week, a few days after the official end of term. I bumped into my tutor in the porter’s lodge.

“What are you doing STILL HERE?” he challenged me. “Go home!

Or you’ll be like me, and you’ll never ever leave.”

Sometimes I wish I never had.

Food, Glorious Food Emma McDonnell discusses students’ attitude to food

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s the person once categorised as having a “fatal fascination with food” by their own mother, I don’t eat to live, much to the contrary in fact. I live to eat. Equally as important as sleep, food fuels the body. For correct physiological function, maintenance of good health and prevention of disease, adequate nutrition is vital.

Sadly in recent years, food has been treated as a discretionary element of existence. Students tend to neglect their food habits. Perhaps it is our attitude towards food that dictates our eating patterns.

Nutrition levels among university students see a dramatic baseline drop. Once little Tommy enters the hallowed doors of Trinity College, his eating habits go awry. That IKEA casserole dish will not once be utilised during his time living in Halls.

Lack of student nutrition generally stems from sheer laziness.

Healthy foods are readily available but sustaining meals don’t prepare themselves. If you’ve survived your first semester of college with minimal to no cooking skills, address the problem. During the Christmas holidays, succumb to the embarrassment of it all and don a festive apron. Ask a relative or friend to teach you how to cook. Equipped with the capability of cooking simple meals, your chance of survival away

Nutrition levels among university students see a dramatic baseline drop from home increases greatly.

Student houses are ranked as one of the coldest places on Earth, following the Antarctic region. This heightens the requirement for a hot, nutritious meal every night. Nowadays, the health service directives for diet and calorie intake are supposedly null and void. The most recent to congest social networking sites and pollute conversations is the Paleo, or Caveman diet as it’s colloquially termed. Based on a hunter-gatherer regime of plants and animals, it excludes essential components of a healthy diet such as grains, dairy products and the quintessential Irish potato.

Food follows trends in all respects however. Last year saw few too many burrito references. The humble wrap received unprecedented attention until the lunacy was realised. Trademark white boxes of Yum Thai have worked their way around campus.

We see each café and food establishment surrounding college experience the rise and fall of the discerning tastes of the student population. KC Peaches is one of the few to enjoy continuous and unyielding success. Its strategically close proximity to campus, unbeatable value, healthy options and cosy surroundings ensure it is top of the crop.

The quirky Walter Mitty on Dawson Street is a cool little hang out with a wall of artsy scrawls- your chance to leave your indelible mark behind. New York-style deli The Pig and Heifer on Pearse Street is popular with Biomedical building buffs. Cornucopia offers vegetarian lunch options for competitive prices with student discount. Wherever the weekly TCDSU Deal of the Week applies will enjoy their transient and brief stint of popularity.

Like fashion, food and eating habits are continuously evolving, along with our attitudes towards them. As a glorified foodie, I am inclined to agree with Bernard Shaw- “There is no love sincerer than the love of food”. Amen to that.

The University Times //

InFocus 9

Tuesday 10th December 2013

An Interview With ‘Hermitage Green’ Despite the band’s clear drive and ambition, there remains a sense of cautiousness regarding the uncertainty of releasing a first album. Speaking before the album’s release, Graham seemed wary but altogether optimistic, saying he was ‘‘curious and hopeful that it’ll do well’’.

Live At Whelans has since followed their EP - The Gathering in claiming top spot in the iTunes store, no small feat for a band whose standing continues to rise.

The way Graham speaks about the band is always positive, particularly with regard to the effort each band member puts in to produce a sound that represents them. The other Darragh in the band, Darragh Griffin, writes the basis most of their lyrics and melodies (though Graham is quick to say that each song represents the contributions of every member of the band). ‘‘Once he [Darragh Griffin] gives it to the band, it’s kind of torn apart and put together again’’. Each member of the five-man band contributes to the distinctly different yet cohesive sound the band produces.

This sound is not something that the band worked on but is, rather, a natural development. ‘‘It’s not an aim, it’s just a bit of a fluke’’, Graham remarks.

He sees their sound as being resonant of acoustic folk rock, but is hesitant to place the band in a specific genre. Their most famous songs, such as ‘Gibson’ and ‘Golden Rule‘, fit roughly in the label of acoustic folk rock, still retaining that something different which the

as well as the rough, distinctive voice of singer Dan Murphy. Speaking in general about the fourpart harmonies that the band have done, Graham reiterates the point of view the band have to trying new things,‘’I don’t know if people think it’s impressive but, it’s nice to try it anyway.’’

The band’s open attitude is one of the reasons why each song they produce is so unique.

Throughout the interview, Graham’s words reflect a band who are unafraid to be themselves and see where that takes them: ‘‘The way we are now is the way we all turned up on the first day and jammed together’’.

From speaking to Graham, there is a real sense that Hermitage Green are here to stay; with their genuine, humble and experimental approach to their music, along with their obvious talent, they have attracted a following which is growing by the minute. The success of The Gathering and now, Live At Whelans, looks set to form the backbone for the band’s future endeavours, which will undoubtedly see Hermitage make their mark on the Irish music scene and beyond.

Our gigs would be our practice...we would be trying new things in gigs that we wouldn’t have tried in practice even

Neil Willoughby Contributing Writer

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ince their abrupt rise to fame in the summer of 2011, Hermitage Green have certainly not rested on their laurels. The Limerick band’s early covers of such songs as ‘Grounds for Divorce’, ‘Cosmic Love’ and ‘Timshel’ attracted a lot of interest. However, this is something they have sought to move away from in recent times, as they aim to establish a name for themselves in

their own right. The success of these early covers is something that Darragh Graham, the band’s djembe and banjo player, labels as a ‘‘double-ended sword’’. The success the band enjoyed on YouTube presented a challenge, ‘‘the issue of establishing a new version of the band’’ - their version of the band.

The release of their debut album Live At Whelans, back in No-

vember, marked the end of their transition from a band renowned for their cover songs to a band earning a name for themselves in their own right.

Their Electric Picnic gig earlier this year was a great example of their development since the covers that marked their early days. The gig saw 7,000 fans crowd into the Electric Arena to hear their energetic performance, a show the band rates as

a highlight of their year.

The strength of their live performance is something the band value and sought to incorporate into their debut album.

The ‘‘honest’’ tag that Graham places on the band’s music is evident in their decision to record a live album. The gritty, strong sound that epitomizes their music was something they wanted to retain, to ‘‘bottle that live energy’’, as Graham puts

it.

Constant touring and gigs have marked the band’s journey over the last few years. Graham says that at some points, ‘‘Our gigs would be our practice...we would be trying new things in gigs that we wouldn’t have tried in practice even’’. It seems fitting, as a band most comfortable on stage rather than in the studio, that they recorded this album live.

band is known for. The album also features such songs as ‘Ashling’, which holds a clear Latin sound, as well as their a cappella cover of Massive Attack’s ‘Teardrop’, showing the range of the band’s ability, sound and vocal range well.

The band’s cover of ‘Teardrop’ is an example of the four-part harmony the band use well in their music to create their unique sound. The modesty of the band is evident in the way Graham speaks about the band’s use of four-part harmonies. ‘Timshel’ by Mumford and Sons was one of their first attempts at that kind of song, which has led to many comparisons between them and the folk rock band from West London.

Undoubtedly, this was also sparked by their raw, powerful acoustic sound

Hermitage Green’s debut album Live at Whelans is available now

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UT Opinion

Tuesday 10th December 2013

//

The University Times

Is Ireland Obsessed with Israel?

Alan McEneany Contributing Writer

Why are we as a nation so obsessed with a land over 4000 km away, with which we have no historical ties?

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here is no shortage of humanitarian causes across the world to keep the modern bleeding-heart liberal occupied. Oppression in Tibet has been an issue for over six decades now with no compromise in sight.

I’ve never seen a Tamil Tiger solidarity march down O’Connell Street and West Papua’s struggle for independence from Indonesia barely gets a mention in Western mainstream media. The average Joe on the street could even be forgiven for being unaware that such a campaign exists.

However, there is one volatile region of the world that hasn’t left the Irish political consciousness since the 1970s. I am of course talking about the IsraeliPalestinian conflict - an issue so divisive that it can send an ordinarily placid, peace-loving hippy into an apoplectic fit of rage. Ireland has an internal and external image of being very pro-Palestinian whilst also being very anti-Israeli.

We were deemed the most “hostile country in Europe” in 2011 by the Israeli foreign ministry after an overthe-top pantomime performance on Grafton Street where activists portrayed IDF soldiers as Nazis – a particularly insensitive and hard-hitting insult to the majority Jewish state.

This begs the question: why are we as a nation so obsessed with a land over 4000 km away, with which we have no historical ties?

Surely we should be more concerned with getting our own back yard in order?

Let’s examine several theories often put forward to explain this peculiarity.

The perceived parallel with Northern Ireland is perhaps the most oft-cited reason, with Republicans seeing their anti-imperialist struggle against occupation mirrored in the events in the Palestinian territories. When Nationalists started flying the Palestinian flag in the early 2000s as an act of solidarity, Unionists reacted by immediately adopting the Israeli flag. It’s almost a case of fighting by proxy amongst the Northern Irish communities. But their new found empathy with Israel made the local Jewish community feel uneasy, given the long history of connections between Loyalist paramilitaries and neo-Nazi groups such as Combat 18, prompting calls for the passive-aggressive flag waving to cease.

At first glance, the comparisons of the Ulster plantation and the foundation of Israel seem obvious.

The history behind each is not so straightforward of course, but the simple analogy suffices for the lazy barstool commentator not willing to delve deeper into the details, especially if it can be twisted to suit one’s personal political slant.

In both cases, religion is used as motive for aggression even though it’s all about land. There are further complexities when you consider that the Provisional IRA received training and arms from the PLO from the 1970s to mid-80s.

The continuous presence of Irish peacekeepers in

Lebanon on behalf of the UN since the late 70s has also ensured Israel remains in the spotlight. However, the other peacekeeping missions in Bosnia, Chad or Liberia don’t seem to have warranted the media attention that the Lebanon deployment did, maybe because of the deployment size, the length of the deployment or even because there were very few incidents on them.

It’s seen as a “fashionable” cause, particularly amongst left-leaning university students. A cliché, I know, but the heavy presence of various Palestinian solidarity groups on university campuses cannot be ignored. College is a time when most young people form their political views

and so are especially vulnerable to swallowing the propaganda being shoved at them from questionable quarters. The keffiyehclad Palestinian teenager throwing rocks is seen as the underdog fighting the all-powerful US/Israeli military machine - a replica of the David and Goliath scenario.

The Western media latch onto these emotive images and broadcast them on our nightly news, thereby recruiting more middle-class Western supporters of the Palestinian cause. This stark contrast in power is not so conspicuous in other conflicts.

Which leads nicely onto my next point: The Palestinians have a bloody impressive propaganda ma-

Honey, I Shrunk The Vote!

Ciar McCormick Staff Writer

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t has been decided that by the end of 2015 there will be a referendum in Ireland regarding lowering the voting age from 18 years of age to 16.

The National Youth Council of Ireland (NYCI) is in support of the proposed reduction in voting age.

There are several reasons for the proposed reduction of voting age. The

most persuasive of which I believe is that it will put youth issues on the political agenda.

The NYCI suggests that “the involvement of more young people in Irish politics would … ensure issues affecting young people specifically would gain more prominence in the political arena because the people af-

fected by those issues would be able to exercise their franchise to influence the policymaking process”. If the population between 16 and 18 years of age were added to the electorate, this youth block alone would account for 3.1% of the voting electorate (based on the population figures from the Census taken in 2011). This is a proportionately large amount of the electorate considering it only involves an age range of two years.

Another such reason is a demographic factor Ireland is facing; like the rest of Europe, Ireland is experiencing an aging population. If meas-

chine, derogatorily dubbed “Pallywood” by critics. In the past, they’ve been exposed for staging photos of IDF soldiers apparently harassing women and being overly-aggressive

College is a time when most young people form their political views and so are vulnerable to swallowing propaganda with children.

The trained eye, however, can quickly spot the fakes, with the actors caught out holding the wrong issue gun or subtle giveaways with an incorrect piece

of uniform. The Internet has been convenient for spreading propaganda, but conversely it is also a great tool for debunking it.

Finally, it wouldn’t be thorough to conclude the article without examining anti-Semitism as a possible explanation for the Irish fixation with Israel. A highly contentious one, but one that must be addressed nonetheless in the interests of leaving no stone unturned.

It would be highly naïve to think there isn’t a cohort of people out there using the cloak of Palestinian rights to attack the Jews.

Brief instances of anti-Semitism dot our recent past, mainly stemming from the omnipresent, domineering influence of the Catholic

ures such as reducing the voter age to 16 are not implemented to actively engage young people in the political system at an earlier age, the consequence is that democracy will be threatened by the emergence of a Government and political representatives elected by a minority who are unrepresented. This is an overwhelming argument that such a demographic factor would have profound implications for future generations and would result in the emergence of a State which is not accountable to the majority of its citizens.

Sixteen is a common age for young people to gain many rights. At the age of 16 youths are given the right to leave school and seek full-time employment, while at the same time becoming liable for tax. It is also the age citizens are allowed obtain a licence to drive a tractor and may also sit their driver theory test in preparation for obtaining a full driver’s licence at the age of 17.

If this youth block can be trusted with these civic responsibilities, why then can they not be entrusted with the civic responsibility of voting?

Another argument put forward by the NCYI is to remain consistent with the growing consensus of the matter.

They advocate that Austria has lowered the voting age for all elections to 16. Seven of the sixteen states in Germany have lowered the voting age and a region in Switzerland has introduced it. Further they argue other countries such as the UK and Denmark are also considering such a move.

The UK seems to be the most active on this matter with the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey introducing the right to vote at 16. Further to this it has also been announced that the referendum in Scotland on Scot-

Church, which propagated the usual myths of the Jews being Christ killers and the like. Limerick priest Fr. John Creagh led a pogrom against the tiny population of Jewish merchants in the city at the turn of the last century. Then there was Fine Gael TD Oliver J. Flanagan, infamous for his anti-Semitic rants in the Dáil right up to the 1980s. His re-election fourteen times would suggest he had his supporters.

Is the current bizarre obsession with Israel the latest manifestation of Irish anti-Semitism?

Equally we could ask does Israel gain Western supporters from some wrongheaded notion of guilt for having set up the Jews after the Holocaust.

tish Independence in 2014 will have a “key difference from normal voting arrangements [in] that the minimum age for voting in the referendum will be 16 instead of 18.”

Furthermore, the NYCI suggests there are proposals by the EU Parliament to allow young people across the EU to vote in EU Parliamentary elections at the age of 16 and 17 years.

Outside Europe other countries have lowered their voting age to 16: Cuba, Nicaragua in 1984, Brazil in 1988, Ecuador in 2008 and most recently Argentina on the 1 November 2012. Written and aggregated, these statistics may put forward a popular

Whether these recommendations are implemented or not, I see no problem with lowering the voting age to 16 years change among countries, but it is still an unavoidable fact that 18 is the most common voting age around the world with over 173 member states having this voting age.

It is well known that one of the goals of lowering the voting age is to create a greater interest in voting and participating in society from a young age. Although The NYCI suggest subjects like C.S.P.E. (Civic, Social and Political Education) taught at secondary school level will educate young people, will this be sufficient to create informed youths? It was Gore Vidal who said “fifty percent of people won’t vote and fifty percent don’t read newspapers. I hope it’s the same fifty percent”. We are putting trust in young people to be informed on issues if they are to vote.

British colonial interference in the Middle East is responsible for many of the current borders there, which lump different warring ethnic groups and communities together while dividing others.

Palestinian terrorists (or freedom fighters, depending on your slant) have really grabbed the attention of the West in the past few decades, with high profile plane hijackings and the Munich Olympics disaster.

The eyes of the world were drawn to the Middle-East and have never really left it. The Tamil Tigers never brought their war to Europe like the Palestinians did. It could be argued that we were never interested in the conflict until we were dragged into it.

Maybe the question of an informed electorate is the least of our worries but rather the question of whether these potential young voters will vote at all? With an influential character such as Russell Brand spreading the word that he doesn’t “vote because to [him] it seems like a tacit act of compliance”; and instead advocating some kind of revolution. Could this sway young voters to join the growing trend in apathy towards voting?

The decline in voter participation in recent years has been well documented as a growing trend in Ireland and across Europe.

In a study on voting behaviour

by Richard G. Niemi and Herbert F. Weisberg they reported: “Over the last 40 years, voter turnout has been steadily declining in the established democracies.”

The NYCI has provided some recommendations on the matter of low voting numbers. One of the more appealing ideas set out by the NYCI is a Government initiative to implement a Taskforce on Active Citizenship to establish an Independent Electoral Commission to oversee voter registration, voter education and the electoral process. Another suggestion made by the NYCI was to get the Government to move towards automatic registration of young people when they reach the age at which they are entitled to vote which held a lot of weight with me as a young person eligible to vote but presently unregistered.

Whether these recommendations are implemented or not, I see no problem with lowering the voting age to 16 years. Regardless of the age of the voter the wise words of Theodore Roosevelt are still applicable: “a vote is like a rifle; its usefulness depends upon the character of the user.”

The University Times //

Be Reasonable Daniel O’Brien Staff Writer Drinking ‘Aware’ and the Realities of Alcohol Consumption

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ollege students like to drink. More specifically, college students like to drink too much: far more than is healthy for them or ideal for society. That generalization holds as true for students in Dublin as it does for those in New York, Ber-

UT Opinion

Tuesday 10th December 2013

lin, or Moscow. For many of these students, unfortunately, alcohol abuse will have life-altering consequences, whether from a one-time drunken mistake or a lifelong struggle with addiction. In this context it is all the more crucial to find an approach that ac-

knowledges the accepted social benefits of alcohol while promoting responsible consumption and individual accountability.

The pursuit of this goal is severely impeded by those who would turn a blind eye to the realities of alcohol consumption and instead

advocate staunch teetotalism.

The relevance of this particular issue stems from a recent decision by the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) to withdraw support from the Drinkaware.ie initiative. For those unfamiliar with the program (or

unable to draw logical conclusions from the title of a website), Drinkaware “promotes responsible drinking and finds innovative ways to challenge the national drinking culture to help reduce alcohol misuse and minimize alcohol-related harm.” A reasonable person would be forgiven for struggling to find a particularly objectionable word, phrase, or sentiment within that statement.

It not only acknowledges the existence of a harmful national drinking culture, it seeks to actively challenge this culture to minimize the danger of alcohol abuse. For the USI, however, this position is not nearly radical enough.

In a letter to the group that sponsors the Drinkaware campaign, Mature Enjoyment of Alcohol in Society (MEAS, another reasonable objective), USI President Joe O’Connor stated that “encouraging students to drink responsibly is still an encouragement for students to drink – regardless of how it’s qualified”. Mr. O’Connor is undeniably correct in his

‘Everywhere I’ve Ever Worked Has Closed’

logic, but appears to further imply that because the above statement is true, drinking responsibly and just plain drinking are therefore one and the same.

This twist of rhetoric leads to the disingenuous conclusion that the best way to curb student alcohol abuse is by prohibiting consumption entirely.

In its response to the USI,

The “do not drink” approach is ineffective in preventing irresponsible consumption MEAS rightly points to the wide range of empirical evidence suggesting that the “do not drink” approach is ineffective in preventing irresponsible consumption.

Promoting teetotalism is the logical equivalent of promoting abstinenceonly sex-ed; it theoretically solves everyone’s problems but ignores both the basic realities of human

The Irish Government lacks experience. They didn’t grow up in the current crisis, although they caused it

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look at my CV like we’re at dinner after having broken up. The truth is my bosses burned down all the bridges that once ran between us.

My non-renewable contract at La Sorbonne Nouvelle is drawing to a close, and the university along with it. Paris III, the name by which it is more commonly known, will shut down in 2016. Programmes are in place for a new college, an amalgamation of four pre-existing faculties,

set to open around the same time. However, as with everything in the third level education system, the organization is a dog’s dinner. The only thing clear to me is that in the autumn of 2014 I will be out of a job, and my CV is looking a lot like Lewis Carroll’s Cheshire Cat. I feel like the employee version of a Black Widow.

I’m hardworking, I’ve had a job since I was 16, but everywhere that has taken me on has since shut.

This is perhaps something to keep quiet, but there’s not much left to lose. Just ask the Wexford Art’s Centre café, D’Lush, where I started.

Every Christmas Eve after I got to college, I spent running food in Chatham Brasserie. The owner took me on, but only after I got a haircut, and with the recommendation of my old boss in Wexford. They both had a history in catering.

They both treated me well.

The summer before I left for France with my degree and a job in Paris, Gerry found me a place in his brother’s restaurant Frankie’s Steakhouse. I worked the days in one and the nights in the other.

When I left for Paris, with an envelope full of cash, Gerry gave me two grand in holiday pay and a letter of recommendation.

My arrival in the City of Lights scared the hell out of me. Rent is sky high here.

Everywhere is so expensive.

A pint is €7. I got work in an Irish bar called The Coolín.

The letter of recommendation and the restaurants on

my CV convinced the owner, and he hired me. I continued the routine started over the summer as long as I could and then, after finding and furnishing a studio, I gave my notice. The boss took it well and allowed me go home for Christmas. The Coolín will close December

I feel like the employee version of a Black Widow

2014.

The contract I’m currently on at Paris III is what the French call a CDD. Roughly translated, ‘a contract of pre-determined duration’.

The next place I’ll go looks to be South Korea. They pay well for English teachers there, and that’s the only

thing still on my CV. I’ll need to stay there for a while to accumulate experience. Otherwise, when next I move, there won’t be much to put to paper. I’ve been lucky all my working life, but right now the cracks are widening under me and given the breadth of places closing, I can’t be the only one slipping through.

The Irish Government believes young people to be resilient. We are.

The Irish Government believes young people should be in work or education. I don’t think anyone would disagree.

However, what the Irish Government and other governments lack is experience. They didn’t grow up in the current crisis, although their generation caused it. Consequently, they don’t understand the nuanced nature of the challenges posed. They fail to appreciate that you can have tried your hardest only to find the ground you’re standing on disappearing from under you.

made about the sincerity of such efforts, but to reject them entirely without advocating a viable alternative is equally irresponsible.

Ultimately the USI is only doing a disservice to the students of Ireland by withdrawing support from the Drinkaware campaign. It is sending mixed messages about whether alcohol should be entirely avoided, or whether responsible consumption is appropriate just so long as drinks companies aren’t the ones advocating for it. The culture of student alcohol abuse is well documented and its consequences are real, which is why the right approach to combatting it must be that which is most realistic. There is a rational discussion to be had about why this culture exists, as well as what (if anything) can be done to curb its excesses.

A flat-out rejection of the most ubiquitous and well-funded effort to promote responsible drinking in Irish society can only impede progress toward a reasonable solution.

The Twelve Days of Hate-mas Sigma Gruels Resident Grinch

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David Burns Contributing Writer

nature and the practical benefits experienced by the vast majority of reasonable individuals.

Additional misgivings expressed by USI toward the Drinkaware campaign include the fact that the program is funded by a “selfregulating drinks industry” and that it is strongly associated with the promotion of Arthur’s Day. The first point is particularly and perhaps laughably misguided.

The very existence of a campaign for the responsible consumption of alcohol, one that is not mandated by the government and is in fact funded by drinks companies like Diageo, shows that the drinks industry is aware of the potential for abuse of its products and is foregoing profits to curb those negative consequences.

As for the campaign’s association with the promoters of Arthur’s Day, perhaps Mr. O’Connor would prefer not to have the phrase “Drinkaware” plastered on literally every Arthur’s Day poster throughout the city.

Claims can certainly be

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you’ve been wanting to get with since all me a Grinch, call me a Scrooge, breathing down their neck at the very first call me whatever you like. But ever lecture in first year. Alternatively, you might since I was abruptly thrown from get with the eerie person I mentioned in the relative comfort and obliviousness of number 3. It’s a thin line. my teen years into my early adulthood, Eight mind-numbing hangovers. Seven my celebrations of Christmas have taken of these hangovers are results of the aforeon a slightly cynical and overall bitter mentioned Christmas parties you’ve been edge. Here are twelve reasons why, and attending. These hangovers will be filled feel free to sing along to the tune of ‘The with regret and self-loathing as you look at Twelve Days of Christmas’; the 14 ‘Opened’ (and ‘Ignored’) Snapchats One Job in Retail. Anyone who works in you sent to your ex the night before. The retail over the Christmas period can tell other one is the inevitable Stephen’s Day you - the holiday season is an absolutely hangover, as you down wine in order to try unmitigated nightmare of Hellish proand cope with your family. portions. Overflowing stockrooms, mothNine million calories. Or that’s what it ers wheeling their prams into your ankles feels like anyway, when you’re on your and a highly-strung boss slowly losing second helping of turkey dinner, and you their sanity as irate customers bark orders realise there’s still a Christmas pudding at them from over the counter. Next time (always forgetting that you don’t even LIKE your mum says, “Go and get a Christmas Christmas pudding) to come. Not to mentemp job”, take a tip from me; don’t. tion the gargantuan leaning tower of QualTwo Screaming Children. It is a guarity Street staring at you from the corner, anteed fact that, at any given time, in any whispering “eat me, eat me...” as you conshop between the top of Grafton Street tinue to bloat from the mashed potatoes and the bottom of Henry Street, from apyou’ve just inhaled. And it’ll be even harder proximately the 10th day of December to shift those pounds, since the Sports Cenuntil the very last of the sale items has tre are planning on been ripped from the Anyone who works in retail introducing higher charges. Great! shelves, you over the Christmas period Ten euro on Sewill be able to cret Santa. Exactly. find at least two can tell you - the holiday No more and no children scream- season is an absolutely less.

Seriously, ing for attention guys. And between whilst their par- unmitigated nightmare of work, your class, ent, dehydrated Hellish proportions your friends, your and wild-eyed, housemates and that one socithrows Christmas presents at an embitety you’re involved in, it feels like the tered and overworked cashier. Fact. whole world goes mad for the Christmas Three Christmas cards. If you’re lucky. game clearly invented by Satan. You stress One from your parents, one from that and stress over the absolutely PERFECT slightly eerie person in one of your modgift to get for someone who you don’t know ules who gives Christmas cards to the particularly well, and might not even parwhole class, and one from Eircom. Adticularly like, only to receive something mittedly, this I am happy about. shitty like a Lynx gift set or, worse, a ‘joke’ Four Michaelmas Term Essays. All due present like a Justin Bieber calendar in reon the last day of term. Don’t you just apturn. Ha ha, lads. Ha ha. preciate so MUCH how every single modEleven Christmas arguments. Whethule co-ordinator thinks that their subject er it’s with friends or family (it’s always is most important, and instead of conbloody family though, isn’t it really?), the tinuous assessment, 100% of your final Christmas table is a minefield of material grade is based on that one ream of paper for arguments to navigate. That said, when you have to, admittedly, panic-write at it doesn’t involve you, it can be quite fun to the very last minute, and then shove into sit back with a nice glass of your favourite the hands of a bewildered office adminalcoholic beverage and watch all the ageistrator at ten minutes to the deadline? old family secrets and juicy grudges get Which brings me to point five. dragged up and aired for the world to see Five working printers. In the entire colagain. lege. What’s that about?

Twelve Christmas specials. Every show Six relatives asking why you haven’t has a Christmas special these days, with ‘settled down with someone’. Seriously bad celebrity cameos and dragging longgrandma, get off my back. I’m 21, I’m in dead characters back from the brink (Docthe prime of my life, and it’s either anothtor Who being the ultimate for this, if the er 24 pack of Bavaria or ask someone out 50th anniversary was anything to go by). to dinner. At this moment in time, I know No matter what poor gimmicks they atwhat I’d rather. tempt to employ, they’re all shit, and that’s Seven Christmas parties. You might all I have to say on the subject. shift that one hot guy/girl in class who

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UT Opinion

Tuesday 10th December 2013

Niemba – the birth of an army Fionn Rogan Deputy Opinion Editor

T

he term ‘Baluba’ entered the wider Irish lexicon around the 8 November 1960.

Used to describe someone who is untrustworthy and barbaric, the expression made its lexicographical debut on the back of the infamous Niemba ambush where nine Irish soldiers were killed during the Irish Army’s peacekeeping expedition with the United Nations Operation in the Congo. The eponymous Balubas, a local tribe, perpetrated the attack on the 33rd Irish Battalion that was patrolling in the area.

The ambush has since become a historical checkpoint in Irish military history.

The shocking barbarous nature of the ambush captured the public’s attention as it brought the reality of war in the Congo home.

UNOC was the first international operation that the Irish Defense Forces had participated in, and as such there was a degree of excitement and pride surrounding the enterprise.

The Niemba ambush was the first legitimate stumbling block that faced the Irish in their new international capacity, and it’s interesting to see how the events abroad affected feelings at home.

There are several disparities in how the details of the ambush were reported, but drawing from the eyewitness accounts of survivors

and soldiers who came upon the scene a day later it isn’t difficult to see how unsettling the Irish people found the event. The details recounted by two of the survivors reads more like an extract from a spaghetti western than the events of real life. The ambush was morbidly fantastical enough to capture the public imagination, but had just the right degree of locality injected into it in order to give it the essence of tangible tragedy.

The significant impact of the ambush was the affect it had upon the general mood regarding the Congo operation. Up to this point the entire exercise had been perceived almost as an innocent adventure for the Irish lads, up for a bit of craic. There was an air of gaiety surrounding the expedition, and the Niemba ambush served to sour the Irish Army’s involvement in the Congo.

It brought home the reality that death was practically an assurance in a warzone. It may seem foolish to think that the Irish could have been so naïve as to negate such a possibility, but such credulousness was a consequence of the overbearing positivity that surrounded the mission.

Writing about the event, Cathal O’Shannon recalls: “It was at Niemba that innocence died for the Irish Army in the Congo. For the

first time, Ireland saw the sons who had marched off so gaily putting their lives on the line thousands of miles away.”

The sense of pride that the Irish people felt in the army was mirrored in their actions and good wishes. There was a palpable friendly jingoistic fever that captured the nation. When the UN first announced that it would be calling on Ireland for assistance in the Congo, it was reported by the Irish newspapers with an air of surprised smugness. Ireland was a small and relatively young independent nation; such an invitation was met with delighted surprise. It was a validation of the Irish nation by the international community and it also brought to light the commendable work carried out by fifty Irish officers two years previously

the peacekeepers’ ration packs.

The Irish Times carried full-page photo spreads of the 32nd Battalion leaving the Baldonnel airfield. The Irish public was enthralled with the entire escapade as it tapped into the escapist desires of the Irish psyche. The paper carried photos of smiling young men dressed in their number one uniforms jostling amiably with one another.

It appears that no one in Ireland was immune to the intoxicating effects of the jingoism surrounding the mission.

With all this in mind it isn’t difficult to understand just how hard Ireland took it when news of the Niemba ambush reached Irish shores. The Balubas were a bizarre and foreign entity to the Irish public. Independent T.D Frank Sherwin summed up the Irish

The attack punctured the swelling pride that was emboldening the nation. The professionalism of our soldiers was called into question, which wasn’t received well in Ireland in the UN Observation Group in the Lebanon. Being invited as one of three European nations to serve in the UNOC signaled an international approval of Ireland, thus it cannot be surprising that the country was brimming with pride.

The international praise was having a positive effect in Ireland. It gifted the country a much-needed sense of self-worth. Following a particularly grim 1950s, Ireland required something to revive its spirits.

This bolstered national self-esteem manifested itself in a generous rallying about the troops destined for the Congo. BrigadierGeneral Patrick Diarmuid Hogan, remembers several companies in Dublin offering their services to the Irish Army to help with

conception of the Congo when he said: “To me and most Irish people the Congo is as remote as outer space.” The Irish public had invested so much of themselves into the Irish soldiers; the attack felt all the more personal.

The hours of prayers and rosaries held for the protection of the Irish men in the Congo were effectively nullified by the attack.

Whilst only six hundred and fifty men were sent out originally, the Irish public felt like they had a personal relationship with each of them. The strength of these ties is evident in the Trojan efforts made to fundraise for the soldiers, including £1,000 worth of donations and gifts being received by the Comforts for Irish Troops Overseas Committee.

Whilst some members of the Irish Defense Forces appreciate that the Balubas were more than likely not targeting the Irish soldiers, the Irish at home couldn’t help but feel like they had been personally attacked themselves.

The survivors maintain that they would never blame the Balubas for the attack, believing that the natives had mistook them for a group of Belgian soldiers or mercenaries. They even go so far as to sympathise with them, fully aware of how the black Congolese had been brutalized by Belgian colonialism.

The effect of the Niemba ambush on Irish society’s perception of the army was massive. The attack punctured the swelling pride that was emboldening the nation. The professionalism of our soldiers was called into question, which wasn’t received well in Ireland. It presented a stumbling block to the development of the Irish military and Ireland’s position as an international force.

However Ireland managed to regain its composure.

Ireland’s position in future UN peacekeeping operations was preserved due to an impressive handling of the siege at Jadotville the following September.

The Irish managed to come back from the attack but with a more realistic viewpoint. When the 32nd Battalion landed in the Congo for the first time there was this sense that the Irish believed our soldiers were invincible.

“The Irish soldier is a very friendly guy when he is out anywhere. He is never aware or thinks about danger.”

The Niemba ambush awoke the Irish to the fact that Irish soldiers will die in the line of service and perhaps it can be reasoned that the ambush was a healthy, if tragic, lesson that the Irish people and army needed to learn.

//

The University Times

Aisling Curtis Staff Writer

Privacy Is Dead

E

very week, a little spy from Col- in a week, rather than the broader legeTimes.ie creeps through scope of our personalities – our interFacebook and selects the most net representation can turn into the attractive Irish students, plastering only one others know. their photos online. Though the choIf your photos are procured by some sen ones aren’t informed before their Internet page and displayed there, that faces are splashed up across the web, is all you become. A sum constructed CollegeTimes maintains that because of posed photos and nights out in their profiles are public they’ve au- town, a selection of parts reminiscent tomatically signed themselves up for of Barbie and Ken. this kind of thing.

The boundary between on and ofMaybe I’m just bitter because I’ll fline is increasingly blurred: somenever be so lucky as to feature on times you can’t tell the difference, and their list. Maybe the people who do sometimes a difference is no longer are pleased when they see themselves allowed. Internet creeping is done by revered online. But there’s just some- everyone these days, from your ex to thing about the blasé theft of some- the USA’s National Security Agency. body’s personal photos that seems to Only recently, the FBI hacked and deme completely invasive and wrong. molished the anonymous drug-selling Though the column may be both Silk Road. The Tor Network – the most morally- and legally -ambiguous, private way to surf the web – rests unit’s symptomatic of a phenomenon der NSA’s greedy eye. Facebook killed that is deeply pervasive in society its search privacy function just last month, these days: that of the Your photos are procured by some meaning casual Fa- Internet page and displayed there, if you’d wanted to cebook that is all you become hide from creep, the minor or major stalk through some- strangers you no longer can.

Technology nowadays is all about body’s personal life, assessing the streamlining your life, paring off the persona they advertise to the world.

We do it with ease; it takes neither unwieldy edges, synching your online time nor effort to click somebody’s platforms into one global representaprofile and size them up. We think tion of your life. Though it’s frightennothing of it, and maybe there’s ing, this is the future. Privacy may be nothing wrong with it. But Facebook dead.

We have swapped our anonymity for creeping, and Creep of the Week, are concrete manifestations of the real the luxury of information always available on demand. Dragged kicking and lack of privacy in our modern lives.

Few among us don’t have several screaming into the artificial light, we hundred Facebook friends, who have might as well start to resign ourselves access to all of our confidential mo- to the fact that, if we’re not careful, ments, the relationship statuses, the many of our most personal details will embarrassing photos and the event end up online.

In fact, CollegeTimes may have the attendances, so everyone knows exactly where we’re going and with truth of it: though you can do your who and, afterwards, what happened best to bulwark your personal life, you can’t avoid the intrusion of the Interthere.

Apart from a few privacy settings, net unless you’re willing to hide yourour fortress against the far reaches self away in a cave.

These days, our privacy is only ours of the wider web is limited and fragile; we’re generally happy to befriend in the most concrete terms; in the the odd club event page, regardless abstract of the Internet, we sacrifice of who might be lurking behind its our secrecy in exchange for informafaçade. It seems completely inno- tion about everybody else. A bitter cent. We ask ourselves what could go trade-off, but a trade-off nonetheless. wrong. But though our internet repre- Though you might be exposed to the sentation is a cold and restricted ver- web’s plethora of creeps, at least you sion of ourselves – quantifying us into can creep on everybody else in your the number of nights out we attended turn.

The University Times Turning Points

Trinity & Mandela

WHEN SOUTH AFRICA’S president Jacob Zuma was announcing Nelson Mandela’s death Twitter blew up.

The tweet, posted at 9:46pm from the @BBCBreaking Twitter account was retweeted more than 77,000 times. Previously their highest number of retweets for a single tweet was just under 20,000 shares.

Leaders and organisations around the world flocked to social media to pay their respects to the inspiring political leader. U.S. president Barack Obama said “Mandela has achieved more than could be expected of any man, he lives for the ages.” British prime minister David Cameron was one of the first to express his grief on Twitter, calling Mandela “a hero of

our time.”

In fairness, never was a man more truly deserving of this media attention.

In Trinity, we were reminded of our own relationship with Mandela as students tweeted at the @tcdsu account and tagging the sabbaticals in posts demanding we return to using ‘Mandela House’ in all Students’ Union communications. Of course, in true SU fashion, a mandate has been put forward to Council to mark the occasion.

In recent years the SU connection with Mandela had been forgotten.

The old and haggard sign counting down the weeks above the door of our Front Office is not well known

by Trinity students today. Those that even know that the SU is there refer to it simply as ‘House 6’ and even that is

considered to be ‘insider knowledge’.

It is a shame that it took his death for us to remember man so dedicated to freedom and equality for us to pay tribute to him like we did twenty years ago. Perhaps the fact that we pass by the sign on a daily basis without acknowledging its significance is a broader take on student apathy and a lack of awareness about our history.

Regardless, at least the students felt that they had the right to call out the Students’ Union on the fact that they were as guilty of apathy as the rest of the student populace.

Here’s hoping the motion passes and that the rest of the press releas-

es, emails and social media posts remember a great political leader.

Halfway There

RIGHT NOW, as I’m writing this Editorial, I’ve hit the halfway point of my term as Editor of The University Times.

T h i s i s s u e is particularly special be-

cause it is the fifth issue of the fifth volume. That said, this year our issue has taken a backseat for the realisation that our online content is our driving force.

Before I started my term we had a series of meetings asking what we are about and where we want to go.

Those questions might seem easy to answer, but it took the editors a lot of arguing and an array of witty remarks to figure it out.

Apart from a mission statement and a number of other very corporate things I threw at them, we realised that focusing on a print deadline every three weeks was a bit redundant if our website was to be any use.

We changed our structure, getting rid of the online section editors, and the editors agreed on meeting weekly deadlines instead of tri-weekly.

With the aim of going onto the website on Monday and seeing an entirely different front page on Friday, the writers and editors have surpassed all expectations by generating so many articles that the front page changes daily. For a student newspaper, being able to say that we produce over 150 articles with up to 40,000 hits a month is pretty incredible.

In the spirit of Christmas, I would like to thank the Editors, the Deputies, the Columnists, the Bloggers, the Senior Staff Writers, the Staff Writers and of course the Contributing Writers; whether it is your first or your second article you’re a part of something that continues to grow and get better with each year.

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and hope you have a lovely New Year.

The University Times //

UT Opinion

Tuesday 10th December 2013

Was the November B Series a Success or Failure for Irish Rugby?

Rua Rogan Contributing Writer

Pictured is Rua’s rugby injoury

efore we go on a witch hunt, baying for blood and demanding a new head coach, or alternatively lauding praise upon the head of Joe Schmidt, we must first examine at what our aims and expectations were prior to the November Series. Did we expect to complete a grand slam against three higher ranked opponents? Not a chance! Did we expect to finally topple the mighty All Blacks, whose only loss in two years has come at the hands of England and some food poisoning?

Again, not really. What we did hope for was to string together some good performances, bed in a new management team and game plan and start building for the future by blooding new players against some high quality opposition. Now the question is, did we manage that?

Simply put, I think the answer is yes. Perhaps I’m being too easy on Schmidt, but I like to think that we are further developed as a team than we were a year ago, and the performances have certainly improved since last March, when we suffered our first defeat in a 6 Nations match to Italy.

I am of course allowing for the team to settle and during this stage of transition it is more important to get performances than results.

As the saying goes, Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Likewise, we can’t expect Irish Rugby to blossom under Schmidt in the first test series after four years of somewhat nega-

tive rugby under Kidney. and only, real challenge of with injury clouds hangJust ask Ewan McKenzie the series. We were playing ing over key players in key and his Australian team! an Australian team in poor positions, but when they They suffered five defeats form at home, Ireland were came out onto the field in their first eight matches sure-fire favourites! We all they looked ready to take under his tutelage, before know what happened next. on the world. Everything coming good just in time to The Irish went down 32-15, in the first half fell their beat the Irish convincing- but it wasn’t the score that way. All 50:50 calls were ly. With this in mind, I sug- came as a major shock, it going in Ireland’s favour, gest that we allow the Irish was the lack of a perfor- and they were leading 22-7 Management this series mance, heart and pride at half-time. There was a for tweaking and adjust- in the jersey that hurt the buzz in the stadium that ing and hopefully come Irish fans most. It simply could be sensed through Spring we will improve on wasn’t good enough and the television. The crowd last year’s 6 Nations, some- the players knew it. They was behind the team and thing which hasn’t been had let the jersey down and the All Blacks looked ratachieved since the Grand they had just eight days tled. Former coach DeSlam in Kidney’s first sea- to turn that around. And clan Kidney stated at half son at the helm. Although turn it around they did! time that this was Ireland’s that may have had more to With just three changes of best chance of ever windo with the ‘Golden Age’ of personnel, all in the back- ning this fixture. Cue the players as opposed to line, it seemed like a new second half, the Irish were the management and revitalised Ireland that pumped, but they could itself. ran out onto the pitch to not score. The All Blacks It seems the got a penalty We can’t expect Irish Australian result took and replacement many Irish rugby fans Rugby to blossom under Owen Franks by surprise, when re- Schmidt in the first test series got a try. 22-17. ally all the signs were after four years of somewhat Sexton missed a there that we weren’t bread and butgoing to walk all over negative rugby under Kidney ter kick to push the fourth best team the Irish out of in the world. As a team, the face the All Blacks. Whichsight with just Irish were experimenting ever way the result fell in minutes remainwith new combinations this match, it didn’t mat- ing. O’Driscoll off injured, and on top of that they ter, one side was going to Healy knocked out and just didn’t have the match make history. For the Irish, O’Mahony not fighting, all readiness of the Australi- it was another chance for the signs of the All Blacks ans, who already had eight their first win against the building pressure were top flight matches under mighty machine that is there but the Irish were their belt by the time they New Zealand and the last making them work for set foot in Ireland. The chance for O’Driscoll and every inch. Both teams Irish on the other hand perhaps also O’Connell to were out on their feet and had only played a weak- do so. For New Zealand, all Ireland had to do was ened Samoan team who it was a chance to remain cling on, and cling on they rolled over fairly easily, unbeaten for an entire cal- did. With just 30 seconds leading many to believe a endar year, no team had remaining Ireland were in new dawn of Irish rugby managed this since the the lead and in possession. had come. The mindset of coming of the professional A feeling of dread mixed the Irish people going into era. New Zealand were, as with hope had every rugby the match was that this always, hot favourites, and fan in the nation willing was going to be a walko- they were looking strong. them on. Then comes a ver, building some nice The Irish on the other hand penalty for the Irish not momentum for our first, had had a disrupted week, keeping their feet in a ruck,

13

a pet peeve of ref Nigel Owens. With 15 seconds remaining the All Blacks had been given a chance and they took it, denying the Irish their deserved win. Cruden took two bites of the cherry to secure the match winning (stealing) conversion and the perfect year had been completed.

Ireland had lost again, and this loss hurt more than any of the previous 27. It has often been said that the best teams win, even if they don’t deserve to, and New Zealand are the best, but that doesn’t take anything away from the pain the Irish players must have felt at the final whistle. They had given their all but could not defeat the All Blacks.

What they did achieve was much bigger than any win; they gave the fans the match of the year. This match will be remembered for years to come and compared with the best. At the top of this article I said that the Irish people wanted a performance out of their team and they certainly got that. After this series the Irish fans and players can go into the 2014 6 Nations fearing no one and with the belief that they can accomplish something spectacular for the first time in five years. With this in mind I would consider this series a success. We dismantled a weakened opponent, struggled once and reacted well and gave a performance that could not be faulted. I, for one, am a proud supporter of Irish Rugby and expect good things in the future.

Does literary snobbery judge books by the cover?

Stephen Cox Staff Writer

W

e judge and rank others all the time and in all kinds of ways. It can be the way they speak or the way they dress, the music they listen to or the films they watch—the compulsion to sort people according to their tastes is never far away. It should come as no surprise, therefore, that students of languages and literature may judge people on the basis of the books they read.

This is hardly a topic that is reserved for debate on the Arts block couches; the issue of literary snobbery has reared its head publicly on several occasions in recent years.

Martin Amis commenting on former glamour model Katie Price in 2009 is a case in point. In spite of admitting to ‘never physically writing’ her books, in 2006 Price’s debut novel Angel outsold the year’s entire Man Booker Prize shortlist, a fact that provoked Amis’ bemusement.

However, any serious point Amis was trying to make was lost in the furore he caused with his characterisation of the model formerly known as Jordan as ‘just two bags of silicone’.

Going so far as to base a character in his 2012 novel Lionel Asbo on Price, he later praised the ‘several volumes’ of her autobiographies he read for ‘research’—in spite of lauding the ‘candour and honesty’ exhibited throughout, he hastened to add that ascribing literary worth to them ‘would be pushing it a bit’.

To a degree Amis’ annoyance is understandable. Attention on Price’s fictional exploits distracts from what are, in his view, works more deserving of the public’s imagination.

Even in humanities departments of universities, it sometimes feels like classics that deserve reading and study are brushed off in favour of lesser-known novels just for the sake of covering ground. At the same time, it should be noted that these are still books that are seen as being of literary merit; except for specialist courses on popular fiction, the Twilight saga doesn’t tend to feature on many required reading lists.

As the Martin Amis case proves, the issue of what books are deemed fit to be taken seriously can provoke controversy. Amis is by no means the first writer to go on the offensive on behalf of ‘serious literature’. American novelist Jonathan Franzen created a stir on being chosen for Oprah’s Book Club, declaring in an interview with National Public Radio’s Fresh Air that his 2001 title The Corrections was ‘hard for that audience’, and that the presenter had ‘picked enough schmaltzy, onedimensional [books] that I cringe’. Franzen was accused by some of elitism and, according to fellow author Verlyn Klinkenborg, ‘an elemental distrust of readers, except for the ones he designates’. In the same interview, Franzen stated that ‘so much of reading is sustained in this coun-

try by the fact that women read while men are off golfing or watching football on TV’. He added that several male readers admitted to being put off by the novel being an Oprah pick, as if this automatically made for a female-oriented readership.

These comments are particularly interesting as regards the success of a writer closer to home. Irish author Colm Tóibín was longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2009 for his bestselling novel Brooklyn.

While the book garnered acclaim, several female popular fiction novelists questioned the fairness of the reviews given the nature of the text. A brief summary of the novel— with its plot focused mostly on female characters and much given over to the protagonist’s love life and homesickness—is not very different to the kinds of stories written by Cecilia Ahern or Marian Keyes dressed up in Tóibín’s serious reputation. It is probably true that, if either had written the same text, they would not have been nominated for the most prestigious prize in English-language fiction.

So, is literary pedigree merely a matter of taste?

Or can valid distinctions be made between works considered ‘serious’ or otherwise? Are the established classics just the product of the prejudices of a lot of dead and near-dead white men?

There is no straightforward answer; several variables, such as a writer’s style or the particular pretensions to which they might aspire, are usually good clues as to whom and how the novel is marketed.

Perhaps the argument can be made that the can-

Photo by Brandon Minich on proves its relevance by showing us which books to read. In 1602 the Bodleian Library of Oxford University had 2,500 volumes; a scholar who dedicated his life to their study could plausibly make his way through most, if not all of them. The same library now claims to hold 11 million printed items. After four hundred years, with countless titles since published and the distractions of the modern world to contend with, it is now almost more a question of what not to

read as opposed to what books we should devote ourselves to. The canonical status of certain authors may serve as a guideline to worthwhile literature, but ideally this should n o t c o m e at the mockery of supposedly less worthy writers, as reading is in itself a rewarding, enjoyable activity no matter the title or author.

In defence of this idea I refer you to two of George Orwell’s essays. In Good Bad Books he lauds ‘the kind of book that has no literary pretensions but which remains reada b l e when m o r e s e r i ous productions have perished’. Orwell invokes a similar idea to a more powerful effect in the later essay Lear, Tolstoy and The

There is no test of literary merit except survival

Fool. Referring to the Russian author’s extreme distaste for Shakespeare, Orwell declares that ‘there is no kind of evidence or argument by which one can show that Shakespeare, or any other writer, is “good”.

Ultimately there is no test of literary merit except survival, which is itself merely an index to majority opinion’. If this is the case, we can be confident enough that Shakespeare, Tolstoy and countless other classic writers will continue to be read, as they have already

stood the test of time.

While my suspicions tell me that Katie Price’s novels will not be regarded in years to come as master examples of prose, this does not mean that her readers should be held up as fodder for the joyless wouldbe guardians of literary meritoriousness.

Indeed, refusing to bow to what we’re told to like is, in the words of Robert Louis Stevenson, ‘to have kept your soul alive’—a principle that applies as much to reading as to anything else.

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UT Sport

Tuesday 10th December 2013

No Phoenix For The Ashes

Conor Bates Sports Editor

A

lthough the hours that the television coverage takes place at is unsavoury at its best description, few could have failed to miss the British media laud the exploits of Stuart Broad on the first day of the Ashes’ first test.

The Australians were far less complementary, blurring out Broad’s face from their newspapers, referring

to him only as a “medium pace bowler” and making an exceptional amount of references to the cheating incident which marred last year’s Ashes series, and was seen to sully the game, and its traditional code of good sportsmanship.

The first series was not short on drama; Broad took six wickets in the first innings, while England then capitulated twice, at the hands of irrepressible bowler Mitchell Johnson.

England fell apart while chasing 561 runs, losing

their final seven wickets for less than forty runs, as Australia cruised to an opening victory on home soil, in their attempt to reclaim the Ashes. Having not held the Ashes since a 2-1 loss to England in 2009, this edition looks to be the first real chance for Australia to regain the greatest prize in international test cricket.

With the second test wrapping up recently, the quest will go on for almost another month, finishing in the first week of January. Taking into account

Progressive Season for Ladies GAA Teams Amy Codd

Ladies Football Correspondent

I

n attempting to capitalise on the success of the previous season, TCD Ladies Football teams progressed further than previously in their current divisions this year, but didn’t quite reach their target potential, as both teams ultimately aim to challenge for the top positions in their respective leagues; Divisions 2 and 4.

The senior team reached the semi-final of their league, beginning their campaign with a narrow defeat to Athlone IT (AIT).

Despite a strong start from TCD in this game, coordinated defending from AIT prevented TCD establishing a comfortable lead, and AIT fought back in the second half to win by five points. Trinity demonstrated a clear recovery from this unfavourable start to the league with a comprehensive dispatch of DCU’s 2nds, putting the game out of sight of their opponents within the first half. TCD achieved their most hard fought victory against last year’s Giles Cup winners NUI Maynooth. In this game TCD came back from a six point half-time deficit with crucial second half goals from Sinead O’Sullivan and Maebh Downey. End to end attacks throughout the game meant the result was uncertain until the last minutes of the game; strong defending from Amie Giles and Michelle Peel denied Maynooth a winning score, progressing TCD to the next stage. TCD faced Carlow IT (ITC) in the semifinal of the league, a game which they poured great

energy into, with a Lucy Mulhall goal getting them off to a positive start. Trinity lead the first half, although an ever threatening ITC clawed their way back into the game in the second half and overhauled TCD to eventually claim victory.

The senior team will take from their league campaign encouragingly skilled play against NUI Maynooth and fighting spirit against ITC in their preparation for the Giles Cup in 2014, in which they will face many of the teams they encountered in the league.

The competitiveness of the team TCD entered into the Division 4 league this season is a continuing example of the growth the club has enjoyed in the past number of years. The club’s 2nds reached the quarter final of their league, beginning their season with a relished victory over rivals UCD 3rds. Freshers Roisin Boyce and Ailbhe Finnerty displayed great skills in the game, while Aoife Kavanagh commanded the midfield. The team then drew against St. Pats 2nds, having led for most of the game with Siofra Mulkerrin dominating midfield.

In the second half, the St. Pats countered quickly and they almost overtook Trinity with the final attack of the game. Fortunately, the composure of TCD’s full back line kept them from defeat. They demonstrated their desire to put that close call behind them in a convincing victory over AIT 2nds but were unprepared for the step up, when they faced University of Ulster, Jordanstown and were

outclassed in their league quarter-final. The team will incorporate aspects of each of the results they experienced in the league to prepare for the Donaghy Cup. Their experience in the quarter-final, although negative, will set the standard they wish to perform at during their championship encounters.Ladies Football in Trinity has seen its largest sign-up so far this year. The progression of the senior team has finally awarded them the chance to contest the Giles Cup for the first time.

The seconds’ team have established themselves as contenders in their league and championship competition and, as individuals, the players also make their presence known as competition for inclusion on the senior team. A number of Trinity Ladies Footballers also line out at county level, representing Longford, Cavan, Wicklow and Westmeath to name but a few. This year saw Caitriona Smith included on the Cavan team which won the Intermediate Ladies Football All Ireland Final and Lucy Mulhall and Jacinta Brady have also each received prestigious Sports Scholarships. All members of the ladies football club are now switching their focus from their league campaigns to their respective championships, in which the standard, at the later stages of the season, will be particularly high. This will only serve to drive the teams to excel and push each other at training and exhibit their ability on the high stakes match days.

Few could have failed to miss the British media laud the exploits of Stuart Broad

the time difference, which makes this iteration of the series a tough watch, the question does remain, is anyone watching? Are only die-hard, niche fans staying up until the early morning to watch five days of first class sport at a time?

Does anyone care about the Ashes anymore?

The advent of soundbite culture has done little good for the likes of test cricket.

With the pace the world moves at these days, the prospect of enduring five days of bowling and batting

has become a dying facet of our sporting mindset, confined to yore, romance and tradition. As it stands, the concept of sitting through five days of ennui, with the possible outcome being a draw, is just not an attraction for most people anymore. Only the true cricket enthusiasts will really endorse the format as it stands, in the name of honour, rivalry, tradition and sportsmanship that The Ashes has come to represent. Even at that, many ‘fans’ resort to a large

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The University Times

amount of drinking to get them through the long days of test cricket.

Snooker faced a similar problem a number of years ago, as long sessions at the World Championships saw television figures and early round attendance waning. They tried everything; pumping in entrance music, á la darts, gave a minimal lift at the start of a game. ‘Power Snooker’ was a failed format that was rightly swept under the rug as one of Barry Hearn’s notable failures. The only successful innovation they had was the ‘Snooker Shootout’, which attracted a reasonable volume of people to Blackpool for a day of one-frame, knockout, shotclock-controlled snooker.

This proved somewhat popular with enthusiasts, and was not dissimilar to cricket’s own innovation: Twenty20.

Twenty20 is to cricket what penalty shootouts are to football. A typical Twenty20 game lasts for three hours, is fast paced with some powerful batting, and with the system of powerplays involved, it can often be unpredictable and very exciting. It’s one of the few success stories in terms of changing formats of a game, when compared to snooker, or the Arena Football League, for example.

Twenty20 hits the mark in terms of value and excitement, and it sits well with the Twitter generation: it’s an attractive form of the game for the soundbite mongers whose attention

spans have depleted as the years have gone by. Between the Indian Premier League, English Twenty20, the Cricket Champions League, and the Twenty20 World Cup, in which Ireland have been relatively successful, we now buy into this game more than the test format, or even one-day, fifty overs cricket.

Spare a thought though, for the traditionalists among us, who relish the sledging and rivalry between England and Australia. The five day game is the purest form, it’s what we’ve grown up with and something we love.

The world probably does move too fast for cricket to keep up. Twenty20 is the new cricket for the young people and it has flourished. Old fogey that I am, at the ripe age of twenty-two, I can’t deny the growth of the format, the attractiveness of it, and the undeniable future that it has in our sporting consciousness. But I still love the Ashes. The quest for the prize, the traditions of the game, the relative absence of commercialism and the satisfying drama of the slow-burner are all facets of a great game and a great series that appeal to me endlessly.

You can’t begrudge anyone enjoying Twenty20 cricket, its primary purpose is entertainment, but for the sake of traditions, test cricket should be cherished. The reality is that, these days, the Ashes look rather burnt out.

From the Sublime to the Ridiculous Cathal Groome Staff Writer

P

rior to the tremendous Irish performance against the imperious All Blacks I was musing over how I would tackle this article on the premise that we would be completely demolished by what many decree as one of, if not the, best team in rugby. Before this game Ireland were abject in their performances. The scoreline against a depleted Samoa team flattered Ireland and the Australia game was a sobering one for those expecting Joe Schmidt to perform a miracle in such a short space of time. However the script was thrown out the window as Ireland served up a performance against New Zealand utterly unrecognisable compared to the other two games.

Against Australia, Ireland were thoroughly outclassed by a team that on paper at least was our equal. The Irish performance however was one of the most insipid, passive and dispiriting displays that I can recall in the last few years. The defeat to Italy at the end of the last Six Nations campaign was appalling but at the same time one can understand a complacent display in a match that meant little to the team. Ireland however usually pride themselves on competing with the socalled bigger nations like Australia. This pride was worryingly absent. Players simply did not seem to be putting themselves on the line for their country.

This perceived lack of effort has also to be seen in the context that it was only Joe Schmidt’s second game

in charge. One must recall that at the beginning of his time at Leinster he had a number of poor performances. There were even some ludicrously premature calls for his head. As such it was naïve to think that Ireland would adjust to his methods so quickly, even if a large proportion of the squad were Leinster players from his time at the province. Accuracy in every part of the game is a hallmark of his coaching and it was conspicuously absent in the Australia game. It was utterly bemusing how many times Paul O’Connell seemed to receive the ball in the stand-off position and for all his obvious strengths, distribution of the ball is not one. This did not play to our advantage.

The passiveness that allowed Australia to punch numerous holes in our defence however cannot be put down to new coaching

against New Zealand. This point was highlighted as pivotal by Conor O’Shea.

Everyone knew that Ireland would improve from their previous displays through fear of embarrassment at the hands of New Zealand. What followed however was far more than just prevention of embarrassment; it was a restoration of pride. The sight of Peter O’Mahony belting out Amhráin na bhFiann

Hopefully when the Six Nations begins in February, at home to Scotland, we will be given proof that Ireland have turned a corner and not just peered around it. team; it was more so the poor performance of the players. They needed to take a long look at themselves. It appears that they certainly did this. Paul O’Connell in an interview for RTÉ mentioned that Ireland needed to show some brutality in the game

hinted at the intensity that would follow in the match.

From the first minute Ireland played with a ferocity that we have all too rarely seen. Every single ruck was challenged for and New Zealand were shellshocked. Rob Kearney’s try was as a result of some pro-

foundly uncharacteristic poor handling by New Zealand due to the viciousness of the Irish defence. Yet at the same time there was a clinical aspect to the first half performance. Controlled chaos is an apt description. New Zealand are not the best team in world rugby for nothing. They regrouped and set about reeling Ireland in. Furthermore the intensity of the Irish display waned as the game went on as no team would be able to play at that pace for eighty minutes. Ireland did not add a single point in the second half. Once Sexton missed the penalty kick with five minutes to go there seemed to be an inevitability about the final try. Credit must be given to New Zealand though; the way they played those last few minutes was awe inspiring considering a single knock-on would have ended their perfect season. They passed and off-loaded as if they were twenty points to the good and showed why they are so great. They earned their just rewards of the perfect season.

But where do Ireland

go from here? The performance, if not the result against New Zealand should provide us with hope. There is a major caveat. We’ve seen these types of performances from Ireland in the past. Certain performances against England spring to mind, for example. The team has never really built on them.

These performances only come about when Ireland have been backed into a corner. Consistency of performance is vitally important. Interestingly many of the players have come out since the New Zealand game and highlighted this fact and alluded to the reality that Ireland will have no excuses in the future if the performances revert to those seen in the insipid displays against Samoa and Australia. Ideally we’d have another game so as to maintain some momentum and for the players to further adjust to Schmidt’s ways. Hopefully when the Six Nations begins in February, at home to Scotland, we will be given proof that Ireland have turned a corner and not just peered around it.

The University Times //

UT Sport 15

Tuesday 10th December 2013

Positive Performances at Road Relays

Photos by DUHAC

Colum O’Leary Athletics Correspondent

T

he annual Intervarsity road relays took place in NUI Maynooth campus on a cold but clear Saturday afternoon. This year’s race was the most contested and competitive to date, with over two-hundred athletes from Irish colleges taking part. Nevertheless, DU Harriers stepped up to the challenge, with above par performances from the athletes on each of the ten teams that represented the

college.

The women’s race consisted of four legs, each were laps around the 1 mile loop of the campus. Athletes on the first and last legs were required to run 1 lap while the 2nd and 3rd leg athletes ran 2 laps. Trinity made up five of the 21 female teams that battled it out for glory. The fact that only six athletes could fit in one line across the course meant that the start of the race was fast and physical.

However, that didn’t affect DU Harriers athletes from performing impressively.

The five teams showed courage and determination to come 4th, 9th, 16th, 18th and 20th respectively.

Maria O’Sullivan’s top class form continued, running the 2nd fastest women’s 2 mile leg of the day in a time of 10:49. This combined with Irene Gorman first race back from injury, who blazed out the first mile and the impressive debut

The event was the first IUAA competition of the 2013/2014 season, which is turning out to be a very promising one

races from Sorcha Humphreys and Clare McCarthy secured 4th position for the Trinity A Team in a time of 33:01. Last year, the women’s A team came 3rd in a time of 34:26, which shows that the competition of this year’s event was brought to a completely new level, and that Trinity’s female athletes are responding to this.

There was also a number of individual personal best times on the day including a great performance over

Carrying the Weight Ross Mullen Staff Writer

S

upporting a sh*te football team is one of those aspects of life which will never seem to improve. Languishing in the lower leagues becomes the norm while being able to watch a match live on TV becomes a distinct rarity to such an extent that when your team eventually do make it onto Sky Sports that it is met with delight.

This is despite the fact it’s probably a cup game where a hammering is imminent.

The bright wealthy lights of the Premier League seem to further distance themselves with each passing year while solace is almost drawn from the mere survival of the club. Thankfully, in my case, Leeds United have at least risen from the lower doldrums of English football but the heights still tower far above.

When I was a naive young boy, Leeds were a top team.

Reaching the semi-finals of the Champions League in 2001 under David O’Leary, Leeds were living the dream and splashed out accordingly. Players were offered inordinate contracts while others were bought at hugely inflated prices. Nothing summed up the idiocy more than the story of youngster Seth Johnson’s contract negotiations with then chairman, Peter Ridsdale. Johnson’s agent told him he wouldn’t settle for anything less than £13,000. However, Ridsdale awestruck them both with an opening offer of £30,000 which he then rose even further upon seeing the genuine shock on the young player’s face. Unfortunately, the story was

untrue but has passed into legend and the fact it was even believed to be true still highlights the chaos underway at Elland Road at the time.

Leeds’ descent into the forgotten realms of lower league football have been well documented since.

Relegation from the top

with ease. Unsurprisingly, they failed to get promoted, losing to Doncaster Rovers in another playoff heartbreak. Promotion back to the Championship finally came the following year in dramatic fashion. But a return to the Championship doesn’t feel completely worthy of celebration. It’s

I can’t change club now, it would be sacrilegious and go against every fundamental element of being a fan flight coupled with a cutprice sale of a heap of our finest talent led to a very difficult time for fans of the club. A glimmer of hope in the form of a playoff final against Watford and the chance to return to the promised land ended in typical Leeds United fashion, a crushing 3-0 defeat.

Further relegation and fifteen point deduction followed only a year later and even the most loyal of supporters couldn’t be ad-

like finding your phone after a few weeks but realising at the end of the day, it’s still only a Nokia. An iPhone is still well out of grasp.

I find it hard to explain why I follow Leeds. Essentially, I blame my dad; an avid fan when he was younger, during the glory days when Leeds competed for league titles, and even won.

Back when a cup victory was not a dream, when

I’ve always wondered would I inflict the curse of following Leeds on any sons I have in the future, much like my dad did to me. monished for questioning why they put themselves through such pain. Leeds continued their rollercoaster form of slight highs and immense lows by winning their first seven, eradicating the points deduction

beating Manchester United at Old Trafford was a regular occurrence rather than only in the FA Cup. My brothers and I foolishly followed in his footsteps, just as the tides began to turn. My brothers

jumped ship before we sank towards the bottom of the football pyramid but I remained, blindly loyal to a worsening football team.

They’ve had much happier times following Chelsea and Arsenal. My family has a wealth of experience in following sides with trophies; none belong to me.

Following Leeds brings more misery than joy.

Throughout my life I’ve seen my team plummet impressively and stagger slowly upwards. Every opportunity for delight or cheer is normally swiftly ruined in moments. I will never forget the devastation felt when Mark Viduka left, not because he was a fantastic striker but be-

sons I have in the future, much like my dad did to me. On one level, I’d do so merely out of spite; I must pass it on. Suffering through the constant abuse and slagging from friends throughout childhood is a rite of passage, which my son should pass through much as I did. I’m forever grateful to Jermaine Beckford for the goal he scored to beat Manchester United while we still endured the plight of League One football because it meant others were on the receiving end of taunts, not me, for once. On another level, I will do so because many fathers wish for their sons to mirrors their tastes.

My dad’s collection of

One can always hope by the time I have kids, Leeds will have arisen from their slumber and be challenging at the top once again cause I had his name emblazoned across the back of my shirt.

So why do I continue to devote my time to a club that only causes me pain? Loyalty is an odd human characteristic. I can’t change club now, it would be sacrilegious and go against every fundamental element of being a fan. I’d be ridiculed and belittled for abandoning my club for a more successful one. For better or for worse, Leeds United will be my club until my death, or theirs.

I’ve always wondered would I inflict the curse of following Leeds on any

punk rock was a perpetual soundtrack in my younger years and his efforts to almost force this shared taste in music were not wasted.

One can always hope by the time I have kids, Leeds will have arisen from their slumber and be challenging at the top once again.

It is also equally likely they will have returned or dropped to even greater depths. The only certainty is my unwavering support.

It’ll be an arduous task for them to attach themselves to another club anyways, as there is not a hope I’ll be buying them any other football jerseys anyway.

the two-mile leg by Anne Linden. UCD A team took the gold.

The men’s race was arguably the most competitive national intervarsity race of 2013 with thirty-two teams taking part on the narrow campus course, including World ‘A’ standard 800m runner Mark English (UCD) and multiple national cross country champion, Joe Sweeney (UCD).

The starting athletes from the 32 teams had to stay

physically strong as well as aerobically strong on the narrow windy course.

DCU A team were convincing winners in a time of 40:26. A total of ten teams broke the 45 minute barrier, compared to six from the previous year (which was competed on the same course in similar conditions). The four DUHAC men’s teams gave it their all to come 10th, 16th, 20th and 26th respectively. Topnotch performances from

Gerard Claffey, Guglielmo Ziani, Thomas Martin and Samuel Kinirons, as well as courageous efforts from Dónal Foley and John Reidy, made it a successful and rewarding day for DUHAC. The event was the first IUAA competition of the 2013/2014 season, which, after the performances at Intervarsity Road Relays, is turning out to be a very promising one for Trinity Athletics.

Sports in Brief Conor Bates Sports Editor

The latest in college sport

American Football Trinity Football claimed their third consecutive College Bowl trophy by beating the University of Limerick Vikings 13-0, in Limerick.

Rushing touchdowns for David Lunn and Josh Megan gave Trinity the win on the day, and brought the trophy back to the college once again. They followed up their win by taking on Dundalk Mavericks in a challenge match the following week, giving many new rookies a chance to experience their first game for the club.

ond win, 20-13, over Blackrock.

Rugby DU Ladies Rugby were runners-up in the second annual ladies intervarsity rugby cup. In the roundrobin stage of the competition, Trinity beat UCD and NUI Maynooth, setting up a final clash with NUI Galway. The Kay Bowen Trophy, of which Trinity were reigning holders, went to NUI Galway this year, as they bested Trinity in the final with a try late in injury time.

The men’s team succumbed to Belfast Harlequins, 13-8 in Northern Ireland, but recorded their first win of the season the following week, with a 22-20 home win against Malone RFC, and their sec-

Ultimate Frisbee DUUFC’s ladies teams travelled to Galway for the Ladies Indoor Intervarsities, in late November. The club sent two teams to the competition, with mixed results for both squads.

The second team won their opening game 5-1, but were bested by UCC at the second hurdle. The first, on the other hand, cruised through their first two games, 8-1 and 11-1 respectively, leaving them in a semi-final with UL, later on in the day. Trinity fell behind early, but battled back to level the score by the game end. Hopes were dashed however as the UL side won the match on ‘universe point’; a golden-

Karate November was a successful month for Trinity’s Karate club. The second annual Dublin Inter-Collegiate Cup took place in the middle of the month, and saw Trinity send a delegation to compete in UCD. Trinity emerged from this competition as winners, beating hosts and rivals UCD by one point. The club followed this up later on in November by winning the Connor Cup, in Galway.

goal-type rule.

Soccer The FAI Intermediate Cup dream came to an end for DUAFC in December as they crashed out to west Dublin side, St. Mochta’s FC, losing 2-1. The league campaign produced another resounding win for Trinity, as they beat Ratoath Harps 5-0, in Meath, and a 2-0 win over league leaders Garda FC. The wins leave DUAFC midtable, with a number of games in hand. There are more positives in the Colleges and Universities League as well, as a draw against IT Tallaght saw them top their group. They have been drawn at home to NUI Galway in the quarter-final in January.

Hockey Trinity Ladies 1sts recorded a 1-0 win against Pembroke 1sts, building on their great season to date.

Anna May-Whelan scored the winning goal. They currently have nine points in Division 1. The Men’s 1sts beat Monkstown away to keep them in the hunt for division survival. The team found themselves 1-0 with a few minutes to play, but goals from Stephen Ludgate and Tom Gibbs gave Trinity the win.

UT Sport

Tuesday 10th December 2013 // The University Times

Eighteen Scholarships Awarded by DUCAC

Conor Bates Sports Editor

E

ighteen students were recipients of annual DUCAC scholarships, awarded on 27 November.

The scholarships acknowledge outstanding achievement in sport, and aim to nurture the development

Relations.

In her introduction, Head of Sport, Michelle Tanner, noted that “significant momentum was created as a legacy of the London Olympics.”

As such, it is notable that one of the marquee schol-

The scholarships acknowledge outstanding achievement in sport, and aim to nurture the development of sport in Trinity of sport in Trinity. The ceremony was held on campus, and saw awards go to athletes in thirteen different sporting disciplines.

The awards were presented by Jane Ohlmeyer, Vice President for Global

arships went to Scott Flanigan, who represented Ireland at the 2012 Olympics, in the 470 sailing class.

This is his second scholarship award, and he noted that “the programme has provided fantastic benefits

to [his] training regime.”

Similarly, in noting the diverse Olympic tradition of Trinity, JF computer science student Prakash Vijayanath has his sights set on the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

The South African badminton player has excelled in the South African, and All African Championships this year, and his award is an acknowledgement of these outstanding achievements.

The programme has been very effective in developing talented sports students, who have generated great wins for the college in recent times.

Ladies Gaelic football captain, Jacinta Brady, was a part of the Lynch Cup winning team in 2013, and

the Longford footballer received her second scholarship on the night.

She was joined by clubmate and Wicklow Ladies captain, Lucy Mulhall. Offaly inter-county footballer, Paul McPadden, received a scholarship for the men’s

BESS, picked up an award for the soccer team; his exploits on the pitch for Trinity and Drogheda United did more than enough to earn him the scholarship. PhD student, Victoria Mullin, received her second scholarship for her proficiency

In her introduction, Head of Sport, Michelle Tanner, noted that “significant momentum was created as a legacy of the London Olympics.” game, while SF student, and Waterford U21 hurler, Paul Coughlan rounded off the GAA awards for the night, with his second scholarship.

Ciarán McGahon, of JF

in air pistol shooting; as the top ranked Great Britain athlete in the sport, her second award was hardly ever in doubt. Mullin notes that her goal is to appear at the 2014 Commonwealth

Games, but perhaps an Olympic appearance isn’t too far off either. Following a sterling performance at a recent Student Riders Nations Cup event, three-dayeventer Melanie Young received the only equestrian scholarship, while ladies harrier’s captain, and national intermediate cross country champion, Maria O’Sullivan, picked up her first award for athletics.

Men’s hockey captain, Stephen Ludgate, received his second award, while SF students Anna-May Whelan and Avril DooleyO’Carroll picked up awards for their involvement in the ladies side of the sport.

On the receipt of his award, Ludgate was very grateful: “the scholarship programme give us the op-

portunity to focus fully on our training and our academics. I’m very thankful for all their help.”

International standard kayakers Iomhar MacGiolla Phádraig and Tom Brennan picked up their second consecutive scholarship awards, with JS en-

for rowing.

With Pinks to be awarded later in the year, Tanner commented on the vitality and calibre of sport in Trinity: “The rigours of competing at the top level in sport requires support from the College.

The talents we are rec-

The talents we are recognising via the Sports Scholarship Programme surpass expectations year-on-year gineer Aisling Smith completing the trio of kayak recognitions. The final two awards were also given out for competition in watersports, with Hannah McCarthy and Sinéad Dolan receiving two scholarships

ognising via the Sports Scholarship Programme continue to surpass expectations year-on-year and we must keep pace with the demands of the students and the competitiveness of Trinity in this arena.”

DUGC Open the Season Strongly Andrew Stokes and Darragh Garrahy Golf Writers

T

he 2013/2014 season began early for the men of Dublin University Golf Club as they travelled to Scotland in early September for a week of competitive golf, in what has become a biennial tour. Their first stop was the Dundonald Links in Ayrshire to compete in the Stirling Invitational. The field consisted of the best university teams from the UK, Ireland and continental Europe. A solid team performance saw DUGC finishing fourth in the team competition. Last year’s

captain, Darragh Coghlan, lead the individual tournament after two days, eventually finishing tied for sixth.

After Dundonald, the team headed east to take on Edinburgh University and Dundee University. The match against Edinburgh took place at Gullane No.1, one of the finest courses in Scotland. DUGC were unlucky to lose 3.5-2.5 to an impressive Edinburgh side but made up for their loss the following day with a comprehensive 6.5-0.5 victory over Dundee. The

match against Dundee was played on the historical links of Panmure Golf Club.

DUGC look forward to reciprocating Scottish hospitality when Dundee and Glasgow Universities tour Ireland in May 2014.

Freshers’ Week saw the arrival of some new faces for both the first and second teams and this translated into a third place finish for the First team at the Colleges Matchplay in Murvagh, Co. Donegal.

Harry McHugh was the best of the individual scores with a 36-hole score of

one over par, good enough for sixth place. Club Secretary, Johnny O’Driscoll, impressed on the final day, carding a one under par round to ensure the team

team receiving a bye thanks to their performance in Donegal. They will play host to Blanchardstown at Portmarnock in the coming weeks. The seconds,

With camaraderie like this, it is easy to see how DUGC have started this year so positively finished one shot ahead of UCD. The Colleges Matchplay tournament, a knockout competition between all third level institutions, is under way with the first

playing out of Royal Dublin and captained by Conor Fitzgerald, have opened with a victory over Dundalk IT and now face NUI Maynooth in the new year.

In addition to the inter-

collegiate golf run by the Golfing Union of Ireland, DUGC has a number of fixtures with other clubs and universities. In mid November, DUGC and DULGC hosted their annual trip to Lahinch where the men’s team took on the Senior Cup team of Lahinch Golf Club for the Bunberry Shield. Thanks to the work of the members of Lahinch, this fixture has been taking place for in excess of 40 years. The club is also very proud of its annual day out with the Trinity VDP kids club, which is now an ea-

gerly awaited staple in the diaries of both groups.

The golf club is enjoying a healthy revival over the last few years due to the great work done by previous captains, most recently Darragh Garrahy and the aforementioned Darragh Coghlan. With the ongoing support of DUCAC, the club has grown in size and stature and is now the most active student golf club in Ireland. DUGC’s fixture list continues to grow and in the coming months DUGC will play Colours matches against Queen’s University,

Belfast and UCD. Golf in Trinity does not cease upon graduation and there exists a very active graduate golfing society, the DUGS, who play a host of fixtures throughout the year both here and in the UK. Membership of DUGS is open to all golfing graduates whether they played in their time at Trinity or not.

DUGS continue to support DUGC in their endeavours.

With camaraderie like this, it is easy to see how DUGC have started this year so positively.