Cathal O' Gara

COLLEGE TRIBUNEVolume XXVI Issue 7

Independent Student Media Since 1989 www.collegetribune.ie29th January 2013

Uncertain future for student nurses

The College Tribune can reveal that plans are in place for a 190 bed student residence

on the site of the former Montrose Hotel. In documents submitted to Dun Laoghaire - Rathdown County Council a private company has pro-posed to operate the former hotel as residential accommodation for UCD students.

The building, which has re-mained vacant for a number of years, is hoped to provide students with what the operators call “be-spoked service accommodation”, with student accommodation units arranged in 26 clusters of up to eight ensuite bedrooms which will include shared kitchen, living and dining areas.

The companies, Ziggurat (Mon-trose) Ltd, with a registered ad-dress in Jersey, and Lonnegan Trading Company Ltd plan to tar-get returning students along with

postgraduate students according to documentation submitted along with the planning application. The rooms would be let directly by Zig-gurat to students and would not be linked commercially with UCD RES.

A small number of parking spaces have been provided as part of the plans, with just 15 spots for cars along with 35 spaces for bicy-cles. Much of the car park at the front of the building is for the use of commercial tenants on the ground floor of the building and will not be available for people residing in the residence.

The management company Zig-gurat, who plan to run the residence on a day to day, basis describe themselves as a ‘specialist provider of purpose built student accommo-dation’. According to their website the company also provides student accommodation close to the Uni-

versity of Edinburgh campus.The company also has requested

permission to rent the rooms on a short term basis during the Sum-mer period.

The Montrose Hotel was opened in 1964 by hotelier PV Doyle and op-erated at that site up until January 2010. Select Retail Holdings, which previously operated the supermar-ket chain Superquinn, bought the site from the Jury’s Doyle group in February 2007 for a reported sum of €40 million.

A large number of residents in the vicinity have voiced their objec-tions and observations about the proposed development. Concerns have been raised over the inad-equate number of parking spaces that will be available for students living in the residences as there will be only 15 spaces available for 190

Student RES planned for Montrose Hotel site

Above: Student and Graduate nurses gather at the INMO Rally Croke Park after pay scale threat

Ronan Coveney & Thomas CullenNews Writers

Editor

James Grannell sits down with Ruairi Quinn to talk revolution and reform

Page 7

INSIDEPATRICK WOLF

Continued on page 5

Undergraduate and gradu-ate nurses are set to step up their campaign of opposi-

tion to the HSE scheme aimed at recruiting graduates on a reduced salary.

Last month, the HSE said that the scheme had been approved by the government to recruit the nurses to the public health service this year. As part of the initiative, the nurses were to be offered a two-year contract on a rate of 80% of the first point of the pay scale for a staff nurse - €22,000 in com-parison with the current rate of just over €26,000.

The Irish Nurses and Mid-wives Organisation (INMO) and the Psychiatric Nurses Association (PNA), collectively representing over 45,000 nurses and midwives, are opposing the scheme, labelling it as a “cheap labour under the su-perficial guise of an educational graduate programme”.

Earlier this month more than 500 new nursing graduates, many from UCD, attended a rally in Dublin's Croke Park and agreed to oppose the introduction of the scheme.

The HSE began advertis-ing the lower-wage positions on January 11th. Days later, the dead-line for applications, which was to be January 18th, was extended to February 1st. It is reported that just over thirty of the thousand posi-tions have been applied for. Ad-ditionally, though the scheme was initially aimed at 2012 graduates, it was extended to include 2010 and 2011 graduates. Both the INMO and the PNA believe that this change in terms and dates “confirms that the call for a boycott of this flawed pro-gramme is being followed by new graduates”.

In a press statement, the INMO has said that their campaign was ‘further galvanised' by the re-marks made by the Minister for Health, James Reilly, last week.

"He effectively said to these new young professionals,

either take this low paid job (with 100% responsibility) or you can emigrate or work behind a fast food counter," it said.

Áine, a final year UCD nursing student, said “There’s a lot of anger. I won’t take these con-tracts when I graduate this year. To be paid less than the nurse standing beside you is ridiculous. It’s slave labour.”

“I’d love to stay in Ireland to work, but obviously that’s not an option anymore. I feel like I’ve been ran out of my own country...I voted labour in the last election. I was promised the internship wouldn’t be cut and it was, I was promised the qualified nurses’ wage wouldn’t be cut and it was, I was promised the sun, moon and stars and I got dirt. I feel betrayed, ” she added.

Carol, a recent UCD Nurs-ing Graduate, said “My contract with the hospital is up at the end of February. If it comes to it that they accept these new pay cuts, I’m definitely going to apply else-where. Even though I love my job and where I work, It’s just not a realistic option for me... I think it’s disappointing that after studying nursing for four years, after years of free placement and qualifying as an RGN, I may have to look abroad…It’s sad.”

“At the rally, they talked about the pay scales in the hospital and it turned out that the cleaners were actually being paid more than us after a four year nursing degree in UCD. Something's definitely wrong there, ” she continued.

Mr Reilly has shown his intent to further extend the conten-tious scheme for nurses towards other faculties of the health ser-vice, including occupational thera-pists and other professions. This contrasts the recent decision by Mr Reilly's department to decline an extension of the State intern-ship programme to physiotherapy graduates, as was suggested by the Minister last year.

Page 4

25th October 201111th October 20112 COLLEGE TRIBUNE editor@collegetribune.ie29th January 2013

Never were words so apt as these are in our present time. Across the country

many are suffering as a result of the “economic downturn”. As real people endure hardship we are relentlessly lectured from on high about markets, capital, bonds, and how we need to take the harsh medicine that will cure us of our fiscal woes.

We here in the university are not immune to this. Many stu-dents are being hit hard by the decisions of this government. To some readers it may seem far-fetched, but there are those among us who are having trou-ble feeding themselves. There are those among us who can-not afford bus fares, who worry about where they will find next months rent and who are uncer-tain if they can finish their de-gree for want of money.

While the Dáil pantomime continues, real people suffer.

A Google calendar pop-up is behind this document, flash-ing, nagging me to respond.

There’s a meeting going on right now and the pop-up is saying that I should really be there, right now -behind it is the *blip” *blip* of Fa-cebook chat. I am one of the hun-dreds of individuals within UCD who want to be involved and plan to be involved, but somehow always miss, intentionally or not, that one new society I wanted to try or that event with any given speaker.

It is commonly Tierney that UCD is home to over one hundred student societies. However, it's few and far between societies that can get more than twenty members at each meeting/event.

When attendance is habitually low, it seriously diminishes the so-ciety’s effectiveness. The people who attend feel awkward, the audi-

“The most revolutionary thing one can do is always to proclaim loudly what is happening.” – Rosa Luxemburg.

You have been invited to...

The idea of democracy was that the people ruled themselves, yet we as a society have become ac-cepting of something less than this ideal. We have settled our-selves to elect rulers to whom we surrender our liberty and in-dependence. How odd it is that a government elected by the people can carry out an agenda that the people do not want. They tell us that they know best and we, like devoted and trust-ing children, believe them.

An establishment has emerged in this country that has lead to the alienation of the masses of people from the gov-erning elite and yet we remain silent and docile.

Now is most certainly the time to proclaim loudly what is happening. Now is the time to proclaim the hardships being forced on ordinary people. Now is the time to proclaim that our politicians are a pack of shame-less barefaced liars. More im-portantly, now is the time to fight for change, to stand side

tors and officers dejected. Nothing much can get done with only a few people there, so the meeting/event is, more often than not, short and stilted. It ends with plans to meet again for more stultifying stilting.

This general lack of attend-ance and enthusiasm disincentiv-izes students from becoming ac-tive in societies. The ambience of disregard lends itself to a sense of pointlessness. No one wants to walk out in the cold and rain only to find themselves sitting around in a quiet room for 15 minutes or hear-ing unprepared speeches in an ill-prepared talk..

It is a vicious cycle — if no one shows up, nothing can get done, the effort will seem pointless and the society unproductive. Thus, at the next meeting, no one shows up. Once somebody makes the deci-sion to skip a meeting, they join the campus-wide negative cycle that

James Grannell

Cathal O'Gara

Editor

Editor

by side in solidarity and shout “no more”.

The student movement should be at the forefront in this fight. For too long we have slumbered while our weak willed leaders have sat idly by, more worried about their future political ca-reer than the needs of those they are supposed to represent. Indeed in 2010 we learned that not only does this sickly leader-ship ignore the plight of their Union members, but they will actively condemn them for mak-ing a stand against the masticat-ing jaws of the state.

I am all too aware that our dear leaders will protest at my words, but again I ask, what have they done? Given us a day out in the city once a year for a carefully choreographed march? Where is their radicalism? Where are their ideals? Where is their backbone? Even Ruairi Quinn organized an occupation during his student days and he’s hardly an example of the radi-cal left.

grips like a vice.Why does it happen? Students

are constantly overwhelmed with classes, jobs, familial duties and may just not be interested in what these societies have to offer. How-ever, there are many other reasons for this lack of involvement that re-grettably cannot all fit into a single editorial column. An overall lack of enthusiasm is a problem that needs to be addressed within each indi-vidual. The decision to get out of the Daedalus and go to a meeting is theirs and theirs alone.

The distribution and organiza-tion of societies, however, can be collectively addressed. Facebook communicatio is easily ignored, forgotten and deleted. Emails re-garding societies are definitely no exception. While Facebook is cur-rently the best system we have to communicate and disseminate in-formation, it clearly is not doing

We need to take back our Un-ions. We must take them and mobilise. In doing so creating a force that can take on the gov-ernment, the HEA and the uni-versity. Within UCD it should be the policy of our Union to stand side by side with the academics and the staff of the shops and restaurants as well as cleaning and caretaking staff etc. thus creating a block that can act as an effective lobby group in university decision making. On a national level we must sup-port campaigns against auster-ity policies that are affecting the country as a whole. Perhaps when we next march with the national Unions all of us will turn out on the streets to pro-claim loudly what is happening.

In the meantime, let us pro-claim loudly what is happening to us students and our universi-ties and let us proclaim loudly the lies we were spun. Let us proclaim what is happening to our society and let us fight to take it back.

a wholly adequate job. An online campus-wide schedule of societies would better inform the student body of the overall organization of their position on campus, thus en-couraging involvement.

Many societies’ lack of accessi-bility is also apparent through the divide between those leading the society and those merely attend-ing the meeting. Long-established societies on campus can sometimes feel insular to new members, in-tentionally or not. Individual soci-eties ought to work to avoid such insularity and find unique ways to further promote attendance. Each society should find what works best for their target audience and use it.

A revitalised single campus-wide schedule (owing to the fact that the UCD Connect one is atrocious) , open to all societies, would greatly aid in collective accessibility and student organization.

INSIDE THE TRIBUNE

NEWS

FEATURES

REGULARS

GNÉ - AILT

SPORT

EDITORS' CHOICE

BOI sought guarantee-free loan scheme

Change Behind/Change Ahead: Economic healthPage 9

Siombailí mar shiombailí de rudaí eileL 14

Interview with Leinster's Adam ByrnePage 19

Ruairi Quinn Interview

Page 7

Cathal says:

James Grannell meets with Min-ister for Education, Ruairi Quinn, discussing the hot topics of revolu-tion, reform and why he signed the pledge in the first place.

COLLEGE TRIBUNE

Scan the QR code to visit collegetribune.ie

COLLEGE TRIBUNE

Editors:Cathal O'GaraJames Grannelleditor@collegetribune.ie

News Editor:James Grannell

Deputy News Editor:Thomas Cullen

News In Focus Editor:Dawn Lonergan

Contributors List Chris BectonKathryn Toolan,Lisa GorryPeter HamiltonLauren TraceyStephen WestEoin Callaghan Thomas Hobbs Niall Conroy Michael DonohoeElizabeth CooteKate O' Donnell

Ronan CoveneyCiarán CareyRachel CareyPeter HamiltonMatthew H. FarrellyDarragh MoriartyCeithreann MurrayEoin ó CróinínElaine McDonaldDarragh O' ConnorShane MeagherAnninka E. Barry

Features Editor:Michael Phoenix

Illustrator:Robert MulPeter

Eagarthóirí Gaeilge: Cormac Breathnach

Daire Brennan

Sports Editors:Conall Devlin Amy Eustace

Chief Writer:Stephen West

Music Editor:Ciaran Breslin

Fashion Editor:Róisín Sweeney

Arts Editor:Conor Fox

Designer:Cathal O' Gara

COLLEGE TRIBUNE STAFF

TRAVEL

BUSINESS

New York Frame of Mind

Page 10

AbenomicsPage 12

Shauna HayesSilvana LakemanPeadar O' Lamhna

Community & CollegePage 15

COLLEGE TRIBUNEnews@collegetribune.ie NEWS29th January 2013 3

UCDSU Constitution to undergo changesSeveral changes are being

proposed to elements of the new UCD Students’ Union constitu-tion which was voted in by stu-dents in March of last year. The suggested alterations include a restructuring of the current class representative system and the in-troduction of a timeframe for the release of executive meeting min-utes and attendances.

A constitutional review group was set up by UCDSU to discuss and propose these changes before they are approved by SU council and later voted on in an upcom-ing referendum. The group have held meetings before and after Christmas, with the final meeting being held this week. The group meetings were chaired by SU President Rachel Breslin.

The most notable change be-ing considered is the complete

overhaul of the current Union Council Representative (UCR) position. Under the proposed changes UCRs will be replaced by a Class Representative position, which is similar to what students have had elected in their classes in previous years.

The Class Reps will attend and vote at SU council as well as or-ganise various social events for their classes. A new position of “Base Representative” is also be-ing considered. Base Reps will be elected to represent classes not adequately represented by a Class Reps, and will be deter-mined by the College Conveners based on guidelines agreed at the beginning of the year by mem-bers of the executive.

Changes to Article 15 of the constitution have also been sug-gested. This relates to the Stu-

dents’ Union funded newspaper The University Observer. The alterations will mean that the newspaper editor will have to present a detailed & fully costed budget to the Union executive before August 1st each year. The editor may also have to meet with the SU President at the end of semester 1 to review the news-papers budget. Any negative vari-ances in excess of 5% in the pa-pers budget must be referred to the Independent Appeals & Dis-ciplinary Board (IADB). Discus-sions also took place regarding the pay of the University Observ-ers editors and designers.

It has also been noted that un-der the new constitution one of the roles of the Union Secretary was to record the minutes and at-tendance list of each meeting of the union executive. These min-

Thomas CullenDeputy News Editor

utes were meant to be published once they had been approved, but have only recently been put up on the UCDSU website. The proposed changes mean the min-utes and attendance lists from each meeting of the executive will have to be released not later than one month after the relevant meeting.

Financial aspects were not dis-cussed during the constitutional review meetings as they were an important part of the loan deal which the Union received from the university. The new sabbati-cal positions were also not up for discussion as they had not yet come into effect, however, sev-eral members of the review group wanted to discuss a return of the Ents Officer in the constitution. As a result a future referendum may be called in relation to the

Ents Officer position. If such a referendum passes, it may mean another election will take place further on in the semester for the Ents position.

Other notable changes that are being considered include execu-tive members producing reports at every second meeting of coun-cil, the president and returning officer to annually review the Class Rep constituencies, and for the Welfare and Equality Officers to ensure strict confidentiality when dealing with cases unless it risks the health of the student involved.

It is believed that the referen-dum on the changes to the con-stitution will be held in tandem with the upcoming USI referen-dum.

4 NEWS COLLEGE TRIBUNE news@collegetribune.ie29th January 2013

Noam Chomsky to give lecture in UCD

Noted intellectual, philoso-pher and political analyst Noam Chomsky has been confirmed to give a lecture in an event organised by the UCD Philosophy Society. The lecture will take place on the 2nd of April. Chomsky last visited UCD in 2009 and be-fore that had given a series of lectures over a number of days in 2006. He is a profes-sor in Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is known worldwide for his writings on linguistics, politics, war and philosophy.

UCD professor wins award for contribution to folklore scholarship

UCD Professor Patrica Lysaght has been honoured for her outstanding contribu-tion to folkloristic and ethno-logical scholarship. Professor Lysaght has written ten books and more than one hundred research articles during her career. Her best known work is the 1986 book The Banshee: The Irish Death Messenger. Lysaght has also worked in Germany and Russia before she came to UCD.

THOMAS CULLEN

NEWS IN BRIEF UCDSU ExecutiveMinutesReleased

The Students' Union execu-tive has published minutes of their meetings for the first

time since the beginning of term. The executive has the responsibil-ity of looking after the day-to-day operation of the Union and is com-posed of the sabbatical officers, the college convenors and the Irish lan-guage officer. Prior to the Christ-mas break some of the executive minutes had been sent to a College Tribune writer without being ap-proved. These minutes have now been published in their entirety with approval.

UCDSU president, Rachel Bres-lin, intended on having executive meetings on a weekly basis howev-er minutes of those meetings have only been published online up to the meeting on the 30th of October 2012. Commenting on the part-publishing of the minutes, Breslin said, “the executive wanted a clari-fication of some things that were said at the minutes of the Novem-ber meetings.”

The Union has decided to pub-lish these minutes now because “I had time over Christmas to gather them and give everyone a chance

to review them…and it’s something that we’ve discussed in the consti-tutional review group, to put a date on when they should be published,” remarked Breslin.

As the constitution stands there are no time limitations on when the minutes have to published and thus it’s up to the discretion of the Union.

Discrepancies have been noticed between the minutes of the execu-tive that were sent without approv-al and the final minutes.

“There were a number of inaccu-racies on the notes that were taken,” commented Breslin in regard to the unapproved minutes. She says that with the taking of minutes one ends up with a very “haphazard account of what actually happened.”

Breslin doesn’t foresee that the Secretary will be punished for her error because “there was no malice and when this happens on a once off basis, you’re able to move on with it and it was an honest human error.” The matter has been dealt with internally and Breslin was not willing to disclose any dealings to the public.

Peter HamiltonNews Writer

‘Don’t Be That Guy’ campaign launched in UCD

The ‘Don’t Be That Guy’ cam-paign aspires to raise aware-ness of the links between sex-

ual assaults and alcohol. It targets potential offenders and asks them to take responsibility for their ac-tions in the hope of putting an end to rape and sexual assaults. One of their main aims is to fight against the culture of victim blaming.

This campaign has recently been set up in UCD with the official launch coming on 14th February which occurs during Sexual Health and Guidance week. Spokesper-son for the UCD branch of the campaign, Ciara Johnson, told the College Tribune that they hope to attract not only college media but national media at the launch even-ing. “It will hopefully mean that people will not only begin to talk about these issues in UCD, but also all over Ireland,” Johnson added.

As well as having guest speakers on the evening of the launch, the campaign will also involve posters which will use blunt language and striking images. These posters will be the basis of a permanent poster campaign which will take place on

campus. Lecture addressing, cam-paigning on social media sites and stands based around UCD will also be a major part of the campaign. The members of the ‘Don’t Be That Guy’ campaign also hope that other societies in UCD will help support this drive to promote awareness of this growing campaign.

Second year Arts student Laura-Blaise McDowell explained to the College Tribune why she wants to be part of the movement:“Victim blaming is rampant in our society and it's time that instead of girls being told not to get raped, guys were told not to rape. It's important to highlight what is classified as sexual assault and what's not okay, and it's also vital to draw the blame away from the victim”.

Johnson also told the College Tribune of the growing level of in-terest amongst students who wish to set up a gender equality society in UCD. A preliminary meeting has already taken place about how best to proceed with establishing this society. Currently this idea is in its very early stages.

Rachel CareyNews Writer

Running track location bailed for Ball

It has been confirmed by UCD-SU President, Rachel Bres-lin, that the running track is

an unlikely option for this years UCD Ball as it is “being used as a storage compound for the Sci-ence Facility so we don’t have access to it.” If it is to be consid-ered, an agreement will have to be made with the contractor who is currently using the facility but at present it seems as though it is not the likely option.

Both Breslin and Ents officer, Eoin Heffernan, are working towards an on campus location for the ball, however Breslin could not confirm that it would take place on UCD prem-ises. The locations that are cur-rently being considered include the car park to the rear of the student centre and a site near Richview but “no site is without problems” according to Breslin.

It is anticipated that UCD ball will not require an event license but will need an alcohol license which takes ap-proximately six weeks to process. Breslin says that she is worried about that ball and that every option that the Union looks in to has its complications, but she is

confident that there are enough contingency plans in place.

Ents officer, Eoin Hef-fernan, agrees that health and safety risks are the biggest is-sues and the Gardaí need to be satisfied for a location to be con-firmed. He is confident however that a location will be decided on within UCD.

The position of the Ents officer is uncertain at the mo-ment as, according to the UCD-SU constitution, the position will be abolished for the next ac-ademic term and the officer will be replaced by a full time profes-sional in the role. There has been speculation that the officer posi-tion will be decided upon again by popular referendum, how-ever, no referendum process has yet begun. The Union are ques-tioning whether there is a desire among students to have an Ents referendum, but as of yet no sig-natures have been handed in to begin the referendum process.

Peter HamiltonNews Writer

BOI sought guarantee-free loan scheme

In an interview with the College Tribune, Minister for Educa-tion and Skills, Ruairi Quinn

revealed that Bank of Ireland re-quested that the government does not underwrite or guarantee their graduate loan scheme in what he described as a “commercial deci-sion” on the part of the bank which received a €4.7bn government bail-out in 2011.

“They wanted to be able to tell the international markets and the wider market, if you like, at home that they weren’t dependent on government underwriting to make it a success,” stated Quinn.

He also revealed the banks belief that if there was no guarantee pro-vided by the state, that those who borrowed would be less inclined to default.

The Minister admitted that this perception on the part of the bank was worrying, describing it as a “moral hazard”.

“This might say a lot about us all as a country,” said Quinn who sees the scheme as a means to shore up the economic crises within the Irish education system.

Bank of Ireland launched their Post-Grad loan scheme, which was developed in conjunction with

the Department of Education and Skills and the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA), in August of last year.

This move on the part of the banking sector had been to some extent necessitated when the gov-ernment decided to discontinue maintenance grants for postgradu-ate students in 2011.

The bank also provide a loan scheme aimed at parents and guardians of third level students to cover the cost of the annual regis-tration fee. The loan is available at a discounted rate with a 9.9% APR while another scheme where students can fund their own regis-tration fees is available at a rate of 11.9% APR.

On the 9th of January the gov-ernment sold €1bn of bonds used to bailout Bank of Ireland in 2011. The bonds were sold for a sum of €1.01bn, a return of 10% per an-num, described by he Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan, as “a generous return” for the Irish tax-payer. The Irish government cur-rently holds 15% of the Bank of Ireland while American investors bought a 35% stake in the bank 18 months ago.

Matthew H. FarrellyNews Writer

UCD graduates nominat-ed for Irish Times Theatre Awards

Two former UCD students Caitriona Ennis and Gavin Drea have been named on the shortlist for the Irish Times Theatre awards. Ennis has been shortlisted as best ac-tress for her performance in the play “The Boys of Foley Street”. Drea's performance in the play “A Whistle in the Dark” has earned him a nomi-nation for best supporting ac-tor. The award was first given in 1997 and has since hon-oured excellence in Irish the-atre, from actors, directors, to production, writing and design. The winners of each award will be announced in a ceremony in February.

COLLEGE TRIBUNEnews@collegetribune.ie NEWS29th January 2013 5Student RES planned for Montrose Hotel SiteRonan Coveney &Thomas Cullen

News Writers

behaviour that students may en-gage in that will have a negative effect in the area. This includes the consumption of alcohol and late night parties that could lead to high levels of noise pollution. Rubbish being left in the surrounding areas by the students is another concern voiced by the locals.

The planning application does not include the ground floor, which has led to objections from the locals on the basis that they should not ap-prove of any development until they know the entire plan for the build-ing. The addition of an extra storey is not consistent with the height of buildings in the surrounding area.

students. The surrounding area is already known for having few parking spaces available for locals due to students parking in the area before walking to the UCD campus.

Another observation is the leaking of sewage into the nearby houses and Glenomena Park from the building. This was a nuisance for locals when the Montrose Hotel was in operation, yet the new plans do not contain any form of solution to this problem. Residents in the area claim that there was very little consultation with them before the plans were announced.

The local community have also stated worries about the anti-social

Continued from front page

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What will the neighbours think?“Most of these students do no harm but we do from time to time however experience drunk-enness, public urination and unacceptable noise…our chil-dren must be allowed freedom to travel to the shops/neighbours houses etc. in peace, safety and comfort”

- Because UCD students are always either publicly urinating or restrict-ing children from shopping.

“It restricts the freedom of movement for our children”

- Will someone please think of the children!

“This will become a death trap. Drunken students and balconies don’t mix!”

“Given the general stress of student life and indeed on young persons in general and the increasing incidence of suicide, the access to the roof area should be eliminated. With the same concern in mind, it is essential that all windows should have a system to prevent them from being opened completely”- Studies have shown that no roof access and closed windows dramatically reduces suicide rates in Ireland

“When occupied and dis-playing the various county colours the building will look like a tenement and will not enhance the appearance of the area”

“God help us when the ten-ants arrive!”-Resident on the locals' impending doom

Best ACTUAL objections to planned development

UCD Repeat fees highest in Ireland

The cost of repeating modules or resitting an exam in UCD is currently higher than any

other university in Ireland. The amount that a student must pay in order to repeat a module or resit an assessment is set at €230.

The second most expensive insti-tution to resit an exam is NUI Gal-way where the cost is €200 in total. This is regardless of the amount of exams that are being retaken. DCU is also expensive with the cost of €190 for an August resit, with an additional €60 late registration fee if the student fails to register before August 1st. In Trinity College Dub-lin students who have failed must undertake supplemental examina-tions which are free of charge.

The difference in UCD between a repeat and resit is that students re-peat the taking of an entire module while resits involve retaking only an assessment in a module. When modules are repeated the grade and grade point is awarded which is capped at 2.0. When resitting an assessment a pass/fail grade is given and the grade point is also

capped at 2.0.When asked why repeating a

module which includes lectures and tutorials, is currently the same as a resit which only involves an assess-ment, Michael Sinnott, the Director of Administrative Services, told the College Tribune in September that “repeat and resit charges (flat rate irrespective of credit load) are set at the same level primarily to ensure that when a student chooses be-tween a repeat or resit they do not make such a decision on financial grounds. For example, if we were to charge less for resits than re-peats, bearing in mind the pass/fail for resits versus the letter grade for repeats, we could be accused of cre-ating a financial pressure for stu-dents to get basic pass/fail grades, with more of these appearing on transcripts, reducing the value of degrees etc.”

Mr Sinnott also confirmed to the Tribune that there is no particular allocation for the money that is re-ceived by the University from re-peat/resit fees. Module registration for repeats and resits closes at 5 o clock on Friday 1st February.

Thomas CullenNews Writer

6 NEWS IN FOCUS COLLEGE TRIBUNE news@collegetribune.ie29th January 2013

According to the Irish Blood Transfusion Ser-vice, 3000 donations are needed every week

to keep supplies available. This is ongoing while one in four people will need a blood transfusion at one point in their lives, and over 70,000 people in hospitals will receive these donations this year. However the problem is this; only three percent of the people of Ireland give blood and a single unit of blood just lasts for 35 days.In the period just before the the 11th of January this year, supply was very tight with just 4 days available in all of the major blood group. Donations have in-creased since this but this should never have happened, especially as it is something that can be eas-ily maintained. How did this hap-pen in the first place, if becoming

a blood donor is as easy as good health, between 18 and 65 years of age and weigh at least 50kgs? There are numerous rules that stop many people from giving blood, which are as simple as that you must wait four weeks after you get a piercings,and four months after a tattoo. You must wait also wait two weeks to donate if you are currently on antibiotics. Additionally, if you have a cold sore you cannot give blood until that has healed. You should not donate blood for 2 weeks if you have recently recovered from the flu or have just completed a course of antibiotics.You can never give a blood transfusion have received a blood transfusion in the Ireland on or after the 1st January 1980 or if you have spent 1 year or more, in total, in the UK from 1980 to 1996.

The more complicated ones include the following: you or your partner is HIV positive, a 12 month ban if you have given birth, or a lifetime ban if you are a homosexual man. In a previ-ous article written by The Col-lege Tribune Over 600 signatures were collected as part of the “Give Blood Because We Can’t” cam-paign, which is looking to lift the ban on men who have ever had sex with another man from donating blood.Many people fear what exactly will happen when they give blood, even though it is, according to Third year Law with Politics stu-dent Margaret Hayes, “such a sim-ple thing to do that could poten-tially save a persons life” What happens exactly when you go in is that, firstly a drop of your blood will be ana-

lysed for haemoglobin (iron level) content.After the medical screen-ing process which is to check if you are anaemic, you will be shown to a donation bed. A doctor or nurse will then insert a needle that is attached to a blood bag. The bag is kept out of sight below the level of the bed. You will be asked to open and close your hand to ensure smooth blood flow from the arm.The donation itself takes between 8 -15 minutes, and takes just under a pint of blood.People also have worries about giving blood to something that has a bad history of spreading dis-ease due to incorrect procedures. For example, in Ireland between 1977 and 1994 a number of people were infected with Hepatitis C un-knowingly, and clear evidence on this did not become available un-til the mid 1990s. Most of the peo-

Dublin during World Blood Day, 2011.

You’re Somebody’s Type

Dawn Lonergan examines the details of the Blood Drive on Campusple who received this blood were women. The Hepatitis C and HIV Compensation Tribunal was established by the Hepatitis C Compensation Tribunal Act, 1997, and amended by the Hepatitis C Compensation Tribunal (Amend-ment) Act, 2002, to compensate people who contracted Hepatitis C or HIV as a result of receiving blood or blood products. People are recognised for their commitment by being awarded as follows: a silver award for ten donations and a gold award for twenty donations; a gold drop is given for fifty donations and presentation at an awards din-ner ceremony; a porcelain pelican for a hundred donations with the presentation at an awards dinner ceremony.

From January 1st 2013, Ire-land assumed the Presi-dency of the Council of European Union for the

7th time since Ireland joined the European Economic Community 40 years ago. But what does the Presidency mean for the ordinary Joe or Joesephine Bloggs on the street? What impact will it have on the daily lives of Irish Citizens who are generally see the European Un-ion as getting further and further away from being accountable to the

Irish public? Launching the Presidency, An Taoiseach Enda Kenny, An Tá-naiste, Eamon Gilmore and Min-ister of State for European Affairs Lucinda Creighton highlighted the priorities of the Irish Presidency – Stability, Jobs and Growth. In the Irish Presidency document the Government states that their prior-ities will be to ensure lasting stabil-ity throughout the Union, starting with the necessary renewal of eco-nomic governance in Europe. Key

areas for p r o g r e s s will be a B a n k -ing Union and finan-cial servic-es reform. With re-gards jobs, the Irish P r e s i -dency will place a spotl ight on youth

unemployment throughout their six month term of office. The Government intends to ensure momentum behind the Youth Em-ployment and Social Investment Packages and secure agreement on decisions in the areas of health, mobility and education. The Gov-ernment states that their essential approach will reflect the best of the previous Irish Presidencies – which have always been regarded as be-ing honest, open and transparent, striving for efficiency and with a firm focus on results. On the other side of the argument, Euro Skeptic MEP Ni-gel Farage of UKIP stated that Ireland’s role of holding the Presi-dency as being nothing more than hosting a few meetings with some nice tea and sandwiches thrown in for good measure. Whilst the im-portance of the rotating Presidency has decreased some what since Bel-gian Herman Van Rompuy was ap-pointed permanent President of the Council to stop the heads of gov-ernment bickering like 27 ten year olds in a playground, the rotation

allows for countries to put forward their own agendas such as negotia-tions in CAP (Common Agricultural Policy) and marine quotas, which no doubt Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney TD will try to use to his advantage during his six months at the helm of the Council of Agricultural Ministers. Council meetings and ne-gotiations during the Irish Presi-dency will no doubt be regarded as hostile amongst certain member states. Last week, British Prime Minister David Cameron gave an historic speech on the future of the UK in the Union. The certainty of a UK in/out referendum by 2017 will no doubt leave the Unions future uncertain and will have significant implications for Council meetings in the near future. The thought of a country leaving the union would make Schuman and Monet, the founding fathers of the Union, un-easy if they were alive today. 2013 also marks the Eu-ropean Year of the Citizen which was launched in Dublin City Hall on January 10th at a special event

attended by Commission President, Jose Manuel Barrosso and his Vice President, Viviane Reding, and Minister of State for European Af-fairs Lucinda Creighton TD who en-gaged with over 200 citizens in the Citizens’ Dialogue which was mod-erated by Pat Kenny. Questions such as the bank bailout, the future of the Euro, Citizens’ Rights and the future of Europe all dominated discussions with Commissioner Reding stating that Citizens’ Dia-logues will be taking place across Europe throughout the year. Min-ister of State Lucinda Creighton told the audience present that the Irish Government planned a series of European roadshows throughout the country with the next one tak-ing place in Cork on Friday, 15 Feb-ruary 2013. Finally, European Move-ment Ireland launched a Young Journalists Programme to cover the Presidency from the prospec-tive of 18-25 year olds which shows a growing interest in the concerns of young people.

European AffairPeadar Ó Lamhna examines the Irish presidencey of the European Union

FEATURESCOLLEGE TRIBUNEfeatures@collegetribune.ie 729th January 2013

Quinn: The man who

signed the pledgeJames Grannell sits down with Ruairi Quinn

to talk revolution and

reform

U CD 1968 - a group of students occupy Earls-fort Terrace demanding their voice be listened to on how the university should be run. Among

the leaders were Kevin Myers, Úna Claf-fey, and Ruairi Quinn. All three went on to hold prominent positions in their own right; Myers as a contrary column-ist, Claffey as an advisor to Bertie Ah-erne, and last but not least Quinn was elected to Dáil Eireann as a Labour TD for Dublin South-East in 1977. He cur-rently serves as Minister for Education and Skills.

Reminiscing on those heady days when gentle revolution was in the air Quinn comments, “It wasn't a univer-sity as far as I was concerned, it was a Catholic academy.”

“Philosophy was taught from the benchmark of Thomism, economics like-wise, and sociology, all in accordance with Catholic social teaching. There was an informal kind of understanding, basically Fianna Fáil saw UCD and to a lesser extent the other two universi-ties as basically the retreat for Fine Gael people and they didn't intervene very much with it…it was just poor. I mean the occupation in UCD in the school of architecture was about academic excel-lence.”

“We realized we were in serious dan-ger of losing it so there was, basically an occupation designed to concentrate everybody's energies around reforming it and improving it, which is what sub-sequently happened.”

As part of this reform Quinn and his comrades backed a student by the name of Eddie O’Connor in his bid for the presidency of the Student Representa-tive Council, the precursor to the Stu-dents’ Union. O’Connor went on to win the election and after his UCD days had a glittering career, he is co-founder and chief executive of Mainstream Renew-able Power as well as being the founder of Eirtricity.

When asked about the future for cur-rent students Quinn, who served as

Minister for Finance from 1994-1997, responds by pointing out all that is posi-tive for Ireland’s youth. He points to the markets and to the ease at which com-munication can take place in the mod-ern world with its global market.

“The education they get is portable,” states Quinn. “The world is shrunk in terms of communications…I think the broad second and third level education system is good and the access that peo-ple have internationally is extremely good. There's an awful lot of aca-demic collabo-rative work now taking place over the inter-net where peo-ple in fact don't physically even get to meet on occasions. They might have a Skype telephone c o n v e r s a t i o n , but a lot of it is collaborative work done on a shared platform and shared e-mail.”

Quinn admits that there is a problem with third level funding that needs to be shored up. “I would main-tain that view and sustain it by saying 42%-43% of people going into under-graduate courses in third level get some form of grant assistance, from 100% down to a limited amount. That's pretty high statistic by any standard,” he adds.

“We do have to look at the funding model for third level education and what I've said on a number of occasions is let's proceed with the implementation of the Hunt Report - that's going out to the next stage this coming calendar year - and see where we can get synergies and can get economies, where we can avoid duplication and drive down costs and maintain standards and then look at what the viability in terms of funding

actually is.”Quinn points the finger of blame for

the hikes at his successor as Minister for Finance, Charlie McCreevy. “When he came into Finance after I was Minister for Finance he did not index the value of the Student contribution, the replace-ment for the fees and so towards the end of the Fianna Fáil period the fees went up by over 900% in terms of student charge,” he states.

“What I’ve done now and I did it with a heavy heart, but never-the-less had to do it, was to say yes, we have to fill this gap and we’re going to do it. To give people notice we’re going to do it over four years and this is the way it’s working out.”

With recent talk of collabo-rations and mergers at third level in the na-tional media, the Minister

questions the need for duplication of courses and, given improved transpor-tation, the need for so many smaller third level institutes.

“There's a question mark as to wheth-er we need, given the modern technolo-gy and communications that I've already referred to, plus the transportation infrastructure which has transformed time/travel distance we’ll say from Dun-dalk to Dublin or from Dublin to Galway, whether we would, if you were starting today, have 14 Institutes of Technology and seven universities plus DIT. And do we need all those courses? Does Dublin city, for example, need to have three dif-ferent business schools or could those business schools actually combine and

share facilities, because they’re all be-ing funded publicly.”

The Minister is also a believer that the access route for third level has to be reformed, that the junior and leav-ing certificate exams have to be changed and that the points system needs to be reformed. He is committed to accom-plishing these changes during the term of this government.

“Other access models have to be looked at, because while Ireland is a very unequal society in terms of power and wealth and the distribution of income, there’s no evidence to suggest that in-telligence and creativity is confined to those people who also have money and status. We have to find more ways of opening the doors for people to get into third level, it’s not just the convention-al route of primary school, secondary school, leaving certificate and then into college,” remarks Quinn.

The sixty-six year old Minister for Education believes that it is under-standable that the USI campaign is fo-cused at his party.“I happen to be the political minister and I happen to be from the Labour Party. If it was a Fine Gael minister it might very well be Fine Gael. But I think that’s understandable and inevitable,” says Quinn.

In relation to the USI pledge signed by the labour Party before the last gen-eral election in which that party gave a commitment not to increase fees, Quinn states: “you can’t change history, you can’t change the past and it was a de-cision, I didn’t take it on my own…We wanted to send as clear a signal as pos-sible that the need for a change of gov-ernment was absolutely imperative.”

Ruairi Quinn is a prime example that participation in radicalism during your student days won’t hurt your future career. However, after speaking to the man who broke the pledge and raised fees while cutting maintenance grants for third level education, I think he is perhaps a better model of how youthful optimism can so easily be crushed by a determined political career.

What I’ve done ... I did

it with a heavy heart, but

never-the-less had to do it

8 COLLEGE TRIBUNE features@collegetribune.ie8 29th January 2013

Silvana Lakeman talks to UCD lecturer Vincent Hogan in an attempt to pierce the economic veil

With budget cuts, increasing taxes, rising unemploy-ment rates and decreasing access to education, for many in Ireland it is easy

to get caught up in the hype generated by our government and other smaller govern-ing bodies, even those such as our Student Union. Often, the more we pay attention, the more we are subjected to political speech and endless numbers. In light of this, an impor-tant question for students is how can we look behind this front and make sense of the eco-nomic downturn as on a personal level, and how can we make the most of what we are given.

The students coming through university today are not the same as those in previous years. We’re no longer the children of the

Celtic Tiger, we’re those who were too young to cash in on the boom at the time, and we are now working our way through college in very uncertain economic circumstances. It is sadly very common these days to know of someone who has been refused a grant, is working ri-diculous hours to get by, or has had to drop out of college altogether. It’s all too real these days for many of us, which is why I decided to get the opinion of one of UCD’s very own economists on the matter, Vincent Hogan.

In early October last year, the Irish Exam-iner printed an article which stated that the ‘recovery’ we hear of from our politicians as regards the downturn is non-existent, and just a story spouted by TD’s to keep the mo-

rale of the Irish public high and compliant to demands made by the government such as the continuously increasing taxes we face. According to Hogan, the main idea of the Government when entering into the bailout when it started was that although the do-mestic economy wouldn’t do well, the rest of Europe would hopefully have rapid growth, which would then lead to growth in Ireland. In terms of any truth to the ‘recovery’ rumors, ‘there are some definite slight improvements in the Irish economy. Firstly it has stopped getting worse and come to a standstill of sorts. Mr Hogan points to exports at home as one of the few bright sparks that hint at re-covery, however ‘even though they are doing very well, investments in other areas aren’t doing well enough for exports to offset eve-rything else.’

When we talk about ‘exports’, the sectors that we are talking about include anything to do with international finance and business, pharmaceuticals, engineering and informa-tion technology. The activity in these areas means that studying within them at universi-ty could lead to a career in an area that is still seeing great growth in Ireland, as opposed to the standstill seen in the civil service sector. However, Hogan also pointed out what we’ve all been told before – that it is still important to pursue a degree in something you enjoy and excel in. ‘Good graduates will always have better luck at getting jobs, I still write plenty of job references for students all the time, so I think the big thing is to study what you like, because if you have a first class hon-ors in a bachelor degree, even in something like Greek and Roman civilization or Hebrew, that is going to look better to employers than mediocre grades in something like econom-ics.’

The important thing as a student is to be positive, and not let your career decisions be influenced by the current state of the econ-omy. Students have never been completely financially independent, as while we can have more control over our money and the direction we choose to go in, we are still de-pendent on others for a leg up at this point. ‘From straightforward economic prospects, employers are not going to be hiring many people anytime soon,’ said Hogan. ‘There will be jobs, but it’s more a question of will there

be enough for those who want them, which is no.’ Hogan highlighted that in regards to the 87 000 people leaving Ireland every year, students need to make their own decisions in relation to study options and what comes af-ter they leave the education system. This, he says, has always been the case, regardless of how the economy is doing. In relation to our job prospects here in Ireland however, ‘there is and will be for a while very high unemploy-ment, you can’t escape that the Irish econo-my is generating less jobs than there are peo-ple seeking jobs. The ECB and its choices will ultimately dictate our opportunities, as well as recovery in the rest of Europe. There are a lot of ifs right now.’

For the average student paying their way through college, at least partially by their own means such as through a part time job (if they are lucky enough to have one) an in-crease every year of two-hundred and fifty euro in fees is a huge amount of money to have to come up with. Since I started here at UCD, fees have gone up drastically; however in the coming years, new students will pay much more than I to graduate. The big ques-tion I had for Professor Hogan was whether he thought increasing fees without either in-troducing a loan scheme or simultaneously increasing the number of grants issued each year (as opposed to the reduction we’ve seen since the last budget) was the best decision economically for our government, and if our current system is a sustainable one? ‘Yes and no. The budget constraint is very tight, and there’s no vested interest group in Ireland that would choose to put money into third level education as it stands. The big question economically for the government is would it be better to give students the money, or to someone else? Because someone has to lose out, and the truth of it is that no one really cares about students to be honest! Not at a time like this.’

Taking a look at how Ireland currently manages its tertiary system, we seem to hover between a few different methods in place around the world. Many believe the student loan system in place in coun-tries such as Australia is what we should model ours on, whereas other countries such as the United States have very high fees, yet provide enormous grants to al-

low those who deserve to be in college to keep their place there. Hogan pointed out that ‘comparing a college such as Harvard (where the fees currently stand at $57, 950 for a US citizen) to those we have in Ireland, fees are relatively low here with a high implicit sub-sidy, whereas many of those students at Har-vard would not be able to afford to go there unless the government paid for them. In Ireland, because everyone is subsidized, you then get problems because the poorest still won’t be able to afford the subsidized fees, but those who benefit from the current sys-tem aren’t going to object.’

In an ideal world, most would agree that we would have a system in place where those who deserve to be in university are able to at-tend irregardless of income or socio-econom-ic background. The idea of a loan scheme is that someone who earns a place in univer-sity but cannot afford it outright can borrow money, to be paid back post-degree and in installments, at a time when their income is above a certain level. However at a time when there is really no money to be spared, it does not appear likely that such a system will be implemented anytime soon. The topic has been on the table for a while, however, so only time will tell whether we see the introduction of such a system in the future. ‘Ireland might think of starting a loan scheme,’ said Hogan, as ‘there’s always been small-talk of it. It may occur before the end of the downturn but it’s all very up in the air.’

FEATURES

The Economics Underneath

The big question economically for the

government is would it be better to give students the money, or to someone else? Because someone has

to lose out...

FEATURESCOLLEGE TRIBUNEfeatures@collegetribune.ie 929th January 2013

Change Behind: Change Ahead

Now that the Christmas break has ended and semester two has commenced, it’s time to start learning, study-ing and worrying about your future, once more. Since you’ve gone and spent your couple of quid buying pre-sents for people you don’t really like or buying various

unnecessary items on ‘sale’ that you didn’t really need, you’re back to being a broke student counting down the days until the grant is lodged. For us students who have invested our time, money and effort in choosing to attend college in the first place, our future certainly looks to be more uncertain than we had planned.

For the vast majority of us our future prospects in Ireland at the moment seem to be bleak. We owe so much mind-boggling amounts of money that my little Arts head gets hurt when I at-tempt to watch the Frontline or Primetime. We had it so good for so long that any change was always going to negatively affect the lives of all people. Not everyone reaped the benefits that Ireland’s dramatic economic growth had to of-fer, but the majority did, the ‘good times’ as they’re now referred to could never ever be sustained and now a lot of people have fallen from grace and are stuck with houses worth half of what they paid. Life in Ireland though, day-to-day life in general may not be as bad as it’s made out to be according to some reports. An OECD study, released in 2011 found that the average Irish person when asked to rank their all-round ‘life satisfaction’ from 0 to 10, ranked themselves at 6.9, above the 6.7 aver-age compared to other developed countries. Despite this, if you were to listen to any given phone-in show on any particular radio station some people of Ire-land would have you believe that this government has pushed people into poverty with their austerity programme, ‘people can’t afford food’ some might say. How can the average person rank their life at 6.9 out of 10 and then claim that they can’t afford to eat? There may not be enough money to have steak every night but people could surely sacrifice their Sky or UPC every month if they really faced going hungry.

Indeed, all people, right across the country have been adversely affected by the policies of our government and yes the people at the bottom are always going to feel it that bit more, but Labour have abandoned their core voter base and allowed Fine Gael to safeguard the money of the people in the upper echelons of our class structure – that’s a story for another article. Dear Enda on the other hand is off earning brownie points in the EU for being such a good little austerity imposer. He’s lapping up the plaudits for overseeing a relatively smooth running austerity programme that has ticked along nicely without much meaningful or sustained opposition. He will continue to do so until Ireland can re-enter the markets and start borrowing again. Ireland’s international credit-ability has been put back together piece by piece by this govern-ment, not to the liking of the people but to the liking of the people that we owe the ridiculous sums of money to.

Darragh Moriarty looks for answers to the past and the future of Ireland’s wellbeing

The report also found that young people aged 15-24 in Ireland

face difficulties with an unemployment rate of 28.7% compared with the OECD average of 16.7%. It doesn’t take a genius to surmise that this statistic is correlated to the fact that this age group lived off the fruits of the ‘Celtic Tiger’ for a number of years and now they appear to be reluctant to get up and go get a job. This is be-cause too many jobs are beneath our young people. I’ve personally known people who have not taken jobs because they’re only mini-mum wage. More statistics show that the average person in Ireland works 1,664 hours a year (32 a week), less than most people in the OECD who work 1,749 (34 a week) hours on average. According to this statistic Irish people work less than our developed counter-parts. Despite this however, the average person earns 24,156 US dollars a year, more than the OECD average of 22,387 US dollars

a year. According to this particular report we work less and yet we earn more.

There’s no doubt most people in Ireland were earning more than they deserved over the past ten to fifteen years. Of course this is not why we find ourselves where we are economically. Today, de-spite our recession we are still earning more than other developed countries. The report found that in overall comparison with other countries, Ireland has come a very long way in a short space of time. Compared to the actual poverty (such as a family of ten living in a two bedroom flat) that people had to live through in the 1980’s, we are now a different country. 94% of people in Ireland claimed that they were satisfied with their living conditions, much higher than the OECD average of 87%, but perhaps more crucially, higher than Germany’s 93%. When asked about their general health perhaps some-what typical of the Irish disposition, 83% of people

claimed they were in good health, compared with the OECD aver-age of 70%. This is despite the fact that our obesity rate has soared to 23% compared to the OECD average of 17%.

What do these statistics mean and why are they being written about? This is to show that Irish people are doing well compared to what they’re saying on the Adrian Kennedy show. In 1988 Ireland was ranked as the 15th best place to be born in the world. Since then the US, France, the UK, Germany, Italy and Japan who made up six of the top eight have all fallen behind Ireland. Ireland is now ranked as the 12th best country to be born in 2013, this is despite our apocalyptic economic situation. We’re not doing as bad as we think. We came a long way in a very short space of time, what’s gone on here over the past five years or so is that we did not know how to manage our new found wealth. All we can do is learn from this. This is a case of two steps forward, one step back. The government, as unpopular as they are, have made a difference. We’re on target to become economically independent in the not too distant future so perhaps the future for us students does not look as desperate as it seems. Perhaps we won’t have to get a one-way ticket to Canada or Australia.

This is a case of two steps forward, one step back. The

government, as unpopular as they are, have made a difference. We’re on target to become economically independent in the not too distant future so perhaps the future for us students does not look as desperate

as it seems.

It all started in Grand Central. After tipping the shuttle-bus driver and alighting onto 42nd street I decided

upon lunch. Entering the station I was greeted with tall windows, grand marble staircases, extravagant chandeliers and the famous four-faced clock positioned above the central in-formation booth. A symbol of the centennial, that clock would be-come the prime meeting point for my time in NYC. A ceil-ing painting of the zodiac tow-ers above the main terminal, a mirror image of the sky made from gold-leaf c o n s t e l l a t i o n s and twinkling light bulb stars -apparently painted from God's point of view. I wander. There's a hole in the ceiling near the Pi-sces constellation that marks the spot where cables secured a rocket ship dis-played there in 1957. In the ceiling’s northwest corner, near the stationmas-ter’s office, there’s a black square – the colour of the ceiling before the reno-vation owing to cigarette smoke (or so every New Yorker had told me since my first visit; I think it's an urban myth). After wandering the halls of the sta-tion for nearly an hour, I lunch at the Oyster Bar. This is where things got weird. Just outside the Oyster Bar lies the “whispering gal- lery”, an archway where if you press your face to the corner and w h i s p e r it can be heard clear as day

across the w a y . There stood a woman, dressed head to toe in

red, whispering into the corner and at-tempting to run fast enough to hear her-self on the opposite side. This woman was trying to run faster than the speed of sound. If you ever happen upon any-one trying to break the sound barrier in heels I have a tip: don't laugh.

I laughed. I laughed so much that

the tourists in the Vanderbilt hall admiring the portrait of Jackie Onas-sis could have heard. At this point I'm ap-proached by a man who squawks, “Do you think s o m e t h i n g ' s funny?” I pause, gather myself and re-alize that he's not the only

face looking in my direction. Appar-ently, dressing like a Special K advert and running from corner to corner in a train station in Manhattan in an attempt to catch the sound of your own whisper is “ART.” Mortifying. The man informed me of a similar 'event' which was take place on the High Line later that even-ing. I was intrigued, however I had no idea where this 'line' was or even how 'high' it rose. I was adamant on seeing similar 'art' pieces, if not just for the laughter. As I soon found out, what New York lacks in decent nightclubs it makes up for in art. Everything in the city is an installation or “work in progress”. On the western fringe of Manhattan, paral-lel to the Hudson River, a steel bridge hangs nine metres in the air, like a new horizon. This is the High Line Park, once an expanse of derelict elevated railway that was sen- tenced to death

b y demolition, now reinvented as

a pathway. From Gansevoort Street in the former industrial hub of the Meat-packing District, it runs north as an uninterrupted mile-and-a-half-long promenade through artsy Chelsea and the Garment District to 30th Street, in-vigorated by art installations and more than 100,000 indigenous shrubs, trees and flowers. Beneath the promenade, the 10th Avenue traffic muscles its way uptown with its customary urgency. Yet on the High Line, there is no road rage or interference from crosswalks and commerce. Here, it’s the old-fashioned, open-air enchantment of walking, sur-rounded by nature and interacting with art, all while being suspended above the city. From the staircase’s first land-ing, the view includes the windows of the niche boutiques that now deco-rate the formerly drab and industrial Meatpacking District where butchers once dominated – Ted Baker, Trina Turk, Tory Burch and the High Line’s star ben-efactress, Diane von Furstenberg. There’s a sudden roar from below: revellers are sampling pints of German beer and cab-bage-sized pretzels at the Standard Hotel’s Biergarten. The ho-tel literally straddles the High Line: the Standard’s columns rise above the park like a grey rocket, albeit one made of brick and glass. Beneath it, at street level, are cafés, the raucous Biergarten and the stylish Standard Grill, where designer-clad patrons click-clack across the floor – made from a composi-tion of c o p -

10 COLLEGE TRIBUNE features@collegetribune.ie10 29th January 2013TRAVEL

per pennies – and lounge on curvaceous banquettes made from soft, berry-col-oured leather. Near 14th Street, a toe-deep water feature spills over the walk-way, encouraging pedestrians to remove their shoes and wade through a rip-pling pond as a rustic border of cattails catches the breeze. Women take off their sandals. Men remove their 'sneakers'. Children splish and splash to escape the heat. Patient customers queue for ice lollies at the People’s Pops stall, where a handchalked sign describes today’s fla-voured ices, made with locally grown, sustainable fruit and herbs: a pungent toasted yellow plum and appealingly astringent apricot & lavender. Further along, above 15th Street, the Porch café serves artisanal beers on tap. Chilled-

out groups chat and drink at umbrella ta-bles, looking out to

the river as cruise-lin-ers pass by the Chelsea Piers. Beer and wine are confined to the Porch premises, but the ice lollies, like the purple asters and radiant cone-flowers blooming in the gravel track-beds, are enjoyed everywhere. At the Sunken Over-look, the 10th Avenue traffic below doubles as the entertainment: wooden benches form a mini-amphitheatre where viewers experi-ence a voyeuristic slice

of hectic street life through a four-sectioned window. Nearby, pas-sers-by experiment with the ‘talking’ drinking fountains – pressing buttons to take a sip and listen to poetry, sing-ing and helpful messages such as “drink freely” and “however, please do not lick the fountain”. Only in New York...

New York Frame of MindCathal O' Gara travels to New York City and discovers that there's much more to the city that never sleeps than meets the eye

If you ever happen upon

anyone trying to break the sound barrier in

heels I have a tip: don't laugh. Here, it’s the old-

fashioned, open-air enchantment of walking, surround-

ed by nature and interacting with

art, all while being suspended above

the city.

The Tragedy of YouthI know how the cynic is born.She is born on a snowy April day,The hopes of light and life perpetually postponed.The means are never adequate to reach the ends.She carried the burden of hope for twenty two years,Only to feel the mirage

Melt and Drip through the cracks of her open palms.Her hands were open, waiting, ready to receive.She did not turn cynic over night, but slowlyHer hands began to shrivel and curl back into fists.Hands do that when they have nothing to hold on to.Her nation declared Life Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.

So she pursued,But while looking for the fountain, lost her youth.Spectators yelled from the sidelines:If you just Work Harder!If you just Believe!If you just Dream!

Ha. Dreams are all teases. You can look but you can't touch.Yet she kept running, even though the machine that oncePumped hot blood through her veinsHad long since stopped working, rusted with tears.She ran to please the spectators.Always meant to be a pillar of strength,A woman of faith. How long must she wait?Oh, if they only knew.A cynic was born at twenty two.

- MacKenzie Hayes

29th January 2013 Page 11Poetry

Page Eleven PoetryCOLLEGE TRIBUNEfeatures@collegetribune.ie

11

Send submissions to features@collegetribune.ie

An attack of fierce kissesamidst a frenzy of discarded garments.Bare bodies,naked to our souls.A moment in each other's skinsto be a negligible chapter in the stories of our lives. A kiss unshared, a heartbeat that never skips;a moment in the future that goes untouched - AH

So it goes

and now thatthe timefor sending poems is overthe time forwritinghas begunand there’s all the inkin the worldand it flowsand flows

you only wishwith your mouthwith your fingersand knucklesthat it could stop - DM

Back home before your window

All the love in the world is but a drop in the ocean, When one already has a river in mind.She moved with such grace and beauty, Can angels be as kind?

She sat by the river, Lying in the sun.I wished to join her, But Courage, I had none.

Her hazel hair shone like the water, Glistening like gold.She walked through the wood, Eternally beautiful, strong and bold.

Her lips so soft, her eyes so gentle, Few men are lucky to taste her kiss.She sang softly by the river bank, Her sweet sound is what I most miss.

For she has my heart, But I not her's, She moves as the river flows.But I will stay here and wait, Where the memory of her never goes. -Scott Calvin

A Woman by the river

My boarding pass said Gate 32. After a night of drinking my mouth was dust, so I bought some orange juice, airport price. It was too sour anyway and I threw it all away.

Then I went into W H Smith and read the front pages. Something about burning flesh in Palestine. I got a book called The Catcher in the Rye. I think it was Ariane's favour-ite book, so I should have known better. I put my eye on the first page and looked out the window. The morning sky yawning.

I never sleep on planes even when I have to. There was an inflight magazine full of ads in the seat pocket. That, and the women's magazine Elle. No pathetic thanks. I opened the book again, but I couldn't make it to the first full stop. I don't see how she could have read this. I don't see how she could have finished it.

A pretty young air hostess, college age, came wheeling a trolley down. I asked for a gin and tonic. -Anything else? she said after leaning over me and fixing the cocktail. She smelled like brie. -Are we over France yet?-No. Still England. She seemed confused. -Well. If you wouldn't mind, miss, please come back and tell me when we're passing over France. If you wouldn't mind. She smiled at me and said not at all. I winked.

I tried to read that book. So artificial. So fucking full of issues, calling everything a phoney but its own evil self. This man Salinger was a fool who thought the world owed him something, I'm sure. Probably had affairs.

But I didn't care, I drank my drink. Gin and tonic is like a perfume on the nape of a neck. I'd leave the book at the end of the flight. Hopefully someone else will enjoy it because it wasn't for me.

She came back.-Sir. We're just across the channel now and over northern France. Callais.-Perfect. I got up and went into the bathroom while we were flying over France and urinated.

-Colm Sewell

Gate 32Days blend into one and you do not count them as they pass some are sunny and some windy and rainy but you do not count them and you don’t even dream because how could you? You live and smoke and drink and sit outside this pub and you listen to the waves in the company of seagulls and think of neither past nor future and you do not count the days as they pass but you drink tea and good stout and good whiskey smoking drinking and sitting outside pubs bearing witness to fights between the sailors and the soldiers and the fishermen who live and drink and smoke too much and do things such as counting the days as they pass but not you you think of neither past nor future just sit and smoke and drink and feel the sun heating the bench on which you sit until it blisters your skin but you do not count the days as they pass for they pass slowly and lazily and you do not measure them in the beating of the waves against the shore you live and sit and smoke and drink doing things such as not counting the days as they pass because counting is a waste and you cannot get those days back and the soldiers and the sailors and the fishermen and the whores know it but they cannot help it but you can as long as you do not count the days as they pass. Until you cannot help it any longer. And you still live, sit, smoke, drink, but now you count each drink, each cigarette and each crashing wave. And then there is just a week left, and tomorrow two more days left and sixty, fifty-nine, fifty-eight cigarettes left and you do what you do but it is no longer the same because there is only one more day left and you buy tea in the morning, Guinness in the afternoon but you skip the whiskey because they don’t take drunks on board.

You say goodbye.

You get up and walk slowly to the port.

You leave your bag behind.

You don’t need a bag where you’re going, Charles.

- Amadeusz Kepinski

KINGSTOWN 1922 (fragment)

Mortgagae crisis stalls recovery

Abe Attempts to Resuscitate a Dormant Japan

Given that Ireland has experienced one of the most spectacular housing booms and bust, it is of little surprise that many are now struggling to pay the mortgage. Many re-ceived loans which are simply unaffordable now, due to reckless lending and significant drops in net income. The latest Central Bank figures on Mortgage arrears support this no-tion. Out of 761,000 mortgages 135,000 are in arrears. In addition to this another 43,000 accounts are not in arrears but have been re-structured, these are cases where the mort-gage holder has been up to date with their mortgage, but now feel they will not be able to meet their repayments.

So almost a quarter of all mortgag-es could be described as being “in distress”. It would seem that many of these cases are those that bought close to the top of the mar-ket and now find their mortgage unafford-able. People simply have too much debt (and any increase in interest rates will not help either). The implications of this are well es-tablished, excessive household debt slows growth considerably. It seems pretty intuitive that if people are up to their eyeballs in debt they will be reluctant to spend, they become very cautious economic agents.

The current policy of the banks to deal with problematic mortgages has been to restructure them. This incorporates tempo-

We here in Ireland know too well the short term consequences of a spec-tacular financial boom and bust. In

recent weeks we have been led to believe that our economic woes have hit rock bottom and are on the rebound. We have restored com-petitiveness, especially in labour costs, and have expanded our export market further. The signs suggest a return to normal eco-nomic activity in the medium term.

Japan experienced its very own financial meltdown, following a stock market and real estate bubble bursting in the early 1990s. After the Second World War Japanese poli-ticians put policies in place that coerced the public to save their income. As banks built up large deposits, credit became more readily available and at cheaper prices. Combining cheap money with deregulation and expan-sionary central bank policies resulted in large capital investment and financial speculation. The “maddening of crowds” became evident as people became over-confident and more bullish in their investment decisions. The bubble reached full volume in December 1989, and popped soon after in 1990.

The aftermath of Japan’s financial collapse has become a textbook topic. The economy has never fully recovered, with many commentators referring to the last 20 years as “Japan’s lost decades”. In the most recent global turmoil, central banks and pol-icy makers have done their upmost to avoid the catastrophic mistakes made by their Jap-anese counterparts in the 1990s.

In order to curtail the asset price bubble, the central Bank of Japan (BOJ) hiked nominal interest rates in 1989 - which was the first domino in a line leading to finan-cial turmoil. Having increased rates, the BOJ was then reluctant to lower them in response

rarily reducing payments, extending the term of the mortgage and giving mortgage holders a “payment holiday”. All of these measures are short term measures, they do not deal with the fundamental issue: many people have too much debt. They cannot afford to pay it now and will not be in a position to pay in the future. There has been a limited amount of write downs on mortgages. It is important to clarify this, the banks have accounted for los-ing about €6bn on mortgages, but this does not mean they have written down peoples mortgages. The banks seem to be hoping that if they adopt this “wait and see” approach of reducing payments now, people will be able to pay the mortgage at some stage in the fu-ture. An immediate write down of mortgages which are vastly unsustainable would be bet-ter for growth prospects.

The main Government response has been the personal insolvency bill. The main consequence of this legislation is to reduce the term of bankruptcy from 12 years to 3 years. However, at any stage of the bank-ruptcy, the bank can apply to the courts for a bankruptcy payment order. If granted, the bank can access a portion of the borrower’s income for a further 5 years. While the head-lines may say bankruptcy only lasts 3 years, it can be 8 years.

The other important element of the

to the collapse of the economy. Keynesian economics suggests that in times of crisis monetary policy should lower interest rates in order to stimulate economic demand. When the BOJ eventually decided to follow this approach, they found that their policy had no effect. According to Paul Krugman, Japan had fallen into a liquidity trap. This oc-curs when the public saves large amounts of money in fear of deflation or lack of economic demand. It is diagnosed by a combination of near-zero interest rates and ineffective mon-etary policy – both features were present in the Japanese case.

Alongside the BOJ policy failures, the government continued to prop up in-solvent banks with vast amounts of money (sounds similar – right?). With effectively unlimited sovereign financing, the Japanese banks continued to lend at very low rates and did little to deal with their insolvent debt-ors. Commentators coined the term “zombie bank” to describe this unsustainable business model. While the Irish government bailed out our own banks in 2008, they did so with very clear conditions attached which aimed to restructure troubled loans, provide real eco-nomic benefits to the SME sector and wide ranging management changes. Japanese pol-icy makers took 8 years to finally deal with their zombie banks, in a large scale industry consolidation in 1998.

Over the last 20 years Japan has experi-enced an unusually long period of stagflation – almost constant decreases in prices. The government has built up an enormous level of national debt, reaching 230% of GDP in 2011, with a budget deficit of 9.7% in 2012. Most of this has been financed domestically, utilizing the large stock of private savings. However, with a large ageing population and

Niall Conroy

Eoin Callaghan

12 BUSINESS COLLEGE TRIBUNE editor@collegetribune.ie29th January 2013

a desire to return to economic growth, policy makers are desperately trying to revitalise the economy.

In December the country voted in a new Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, who had signaled a desire for the BOJ to double its in-flation target from 1% to 2%. Inflation target-ing is a process used by central banks, where they set a target and adjust monetary policy in order to achieve their goal. It is thought to bring economic stability. In Japan’s case it is hoped to end a period of stagnation and lost opportunity.

Alongside this “bold” monetary policy, Abe recently announced a $116bn

economic stimulus which “will be the first of a unified policy package” that he promises to “implement strenuously.” The third element of “Abenomics” will come later this year with measures intended to increase Japan’s eco-nomic potential, which has diminished by a substantial amount over the last two decades.

Abe and his economic policies have re-ceived differing comments in the public media. If they fail, Japan will face an in-creasing debt burden with no economic green shoots in sight. If Abe succeeds, he may become the final paragraph in the textbook chapter on Japan’s infamous eco-nomic woes.

Above: Shinzo Abe, newly elected Japanese Prime Minister

legislation is the introduction of personal insolvency practitioners. They will mediate between banks and borrower when the bor-rower is unable to pay. They will propose an agreement along the following lines: the borrower agrees to pay an affordable amount for 5 years, after this the mortgage is written down to an affordable level. The mortgage holder stays in their home and the bank gets as much money back as seems possible. This scheme is desirable because it gives the mort-

gage holder some hope and certainty for the future and allows them to participate in any potential recovery.

The only problem with the scheme is that it requires the cooperation of the bank. The bank can always decide to reject the rec-ommendations. In order for the legislation to work the banks must be forced to accept the findings. What will happen? Will the banks engage? Well, like the banks we’ll just have to “wait and see!”

14 14 GNÉ - AILT COLLEGE TRIBUNE gaelige@collegetribune.ie29th January 2013

Siombailí mar shiombailí de rudaí eile

Ficsean an chultais: an bhfuil a leithéid ann i litríocht na Gaeilge?

Ardaítear ceist na féiniúlachta ag an am seo gach bliain ar na hoileáin seo. Tá Comór-

tas na Sé Náisiún ag druidim linn arís agus is ar na páirceanna imear-tha a throidimid ár gcathanna na laethanta seo. Glaonn lucht rugbaí na hÉireann, na hAlbain, agus na Breataine Bige an ‘sean-namhaid’ ar na Sasanaigh, agus tuige nach nglaofaidís? Is tíortha beaga muid, agus úsáidimid spórt mar uirlis a bhaineann lenár bhféiniúlacht. Tá an tír seo ag athrú agus tá sé deacair féiniúlacht na hÉireann a mhíniú, ach is é an cluiche in aghaidh na Sasanach ceann de na hócáidí is tábhachtaí dúinn fós. Bíonn éile-amh mór ar na ticéid i gcónaí, ach bhí éileamh as cuimse orthu i 2007.

B’shin an cluiche ba thábhachtaí i stair nua-aimseartha na hÉire-ann, an chéad chluiche in aghaidh Sasana i bPáirc an Chrócaigh. Thu-ig muintir na hÉireann go raibh níos mó ná cluiche le buachan ar an lá sin. Den chéad uair riamh, seinneadh ‘God Save the Queen’ san áit inár mharaigh airm an Breataine ceithre shibhialtaigh déag. Cé go raibh agóidí beaga ar siúl, thug lucht leanúna ardmheas don amhrán sin, agus deirtear gur thaispeáin an ócáid sin go rab-hamar aibí go leor mar náisiún. Níor canadh ‘Amhrán na bhFiann’ chomh hard riamh, agus tar éis an

Is iad leabhair chultais an cineál leabhair a aimsítear i bpócaí dúnmharfóirí. Dúnmharfóir

John Lennon, bhí The Catcher in the Rye á iompar aige nuair a mharaigh sé é agus is cosúil gur cheap sé gur Holden Caufield, príomhcharachtar an leabhair chéanna, a bhí ann féin. Cuirtear an leabhar seo i gcatagóir an fhicsin chultaigh go minic. Leab-har eile ná Growing Up Absurd le Paul Goodman, a bhí á léamh ag matamataiceoir Meiriceánach, Ted Kaczynski, a fhad is a bhí sé ag scaoileadh buamaí i Meiriceá chun

ruaille buaille ar fad le hamhráin, thugamar léasadh ceart dóibh, agus bhí dhá bhua againn ar an lá sin.

Tá comparáid ann idir an ócáid sin agus le gach rud atá ar siúl i mBéal Feirste faoi láthair leis an mbrat. Cé nach bhfuil féiniúlacht na tíre chomh soiléir is a bhíodh sí, táimid fós tógtha le siombailí, amhráin agus brait. Tá a fhios againn go bhfuil rudaí níos doimh-ne ar siúl ansin agus nach mbaine-ann na hagóidí leis an mbrat am-háin. Cé nach aontaím leo, tuigim a gcruachás agus tá cead acu agóid a eagrú ach chaill siad meas nuair a thosaigh an foréigean. Bhí an lámh in uachtar ag na hAontachtaí i mBéal Feirste ar feadh na mblianta. Bhí siad sásta ina stát Protastúnach féin, ach tá ré na nAontachtaithe ag druidim chun deiridh sa chathair. Is léir gur thaitin neamhionannas leo, agus ceann de na rudaí is measa faoi seo ná go bhfuil easpa ceannai-reachta ag teacht ó na polaiteoirí. Ní féidir leat sochaí dhaonlathach a bheith agat mura bhfuil polait-eoirí sásta cloí léi. Bhí an rialtas, na póilíní agus an airm acu agus bhí na náisiúnaithe faoi chois acu chomh maith. Le fiche bliain anuas, bhí orthu íobairtí áirithe a dhéanamh; cumhachtroinnt le Sinn Féin agus an R.U.C.; agus an U.D.R. a scor. Shamhlófá go mbeadh na hath-ruithe sin níos measa dóibh agus

nach mbeidís buartha faoi bhrat, agus gabhtar do leithscéal más rud é gur cheap tú go raibh síocháin cheart ansin toisc nach gcloistear scéalta faoi bhuamaí a thuilleadh. Tá ardmheas ag na dílseoirí don bhrat, bheifeá in ann é sin a fhe-iceáil sna heastáit tithíochta atá lán le brait ar na cuaillí solais agus atá péinteáilte ar na colbhaí. An bhfuil an brat mar shiombail níos táb-hachtaí dóibh ná cumhacht sa ri-altas nó an siombail iad na hagóidí seo ó dhaoine a bhfuil frustrachas

orthu, atá ag cúlú agus ag iarraidh a bhfrustrachas a thaispeáint ionas nach ndéanfar neamhaird orthu? Ceapaim go bhfuil siad mí-shásta toisc nach bhfuil an chumhacht chéanna acu, agus bhain siad úsáid as an mbrat mar shiombail den fhrustrachas sin.

Seans ann nach bhfuil féiniúlacht chomh tábhachtach is a bhíodh sí, ach tá na siombailí a bhaineann léi fós ann. Beidh 50,000 ag caitheamh rud atá glas agus tabharfaidh siad meas

Eoin Ó CróinínScríbhneoir

d’amhrán Shasana san Aviva ar an 10ú Feabhra nuair a thiocfaidh Sasana, agus leanfaidh na hagóidí i mBéal Feirste ar aghaidh ar feadh tamaill eile. Tá sé ag éirí níos dea-cra idirdhealú a dhéanamh idir thíortha, agus cé go bhfuilimid níos cosúla lena chéile ná riamh, déanaimid iarracht aon leithscéal a chumadh ar mhaithe le féiniúlacht éagsúil a bhaint amach, agus úsái-dimid siombailí cosúil le hamhráin agus brait chun é sin a dhéanamh.

aird a tharraingt ar an laghdú atá tagtha ar shaoirse an duine faoin gcóras caipitlíoch.

Deirtear gurb é Crá Croí Werther Óg le Goethe a chuir tús le ficsean an chultais. Foilsíodh an leabhar sa bhliain 1774 agus is cosúil go raibh an-tóir air i measc fear óga rómánsacha na hEorpa a raibh crá croí fulaingthe acu. Chuaigh an t-úrscéal seo chomh mór sin i bhfeidhm orthu gur tháinig bor-radh ar an ráta féinmharaithe ina measc agus iad ag leanúint sampla Wether. Tarraingíodh aird, dá bhrí

sin, ar an bhfeiniméan ar a nglaoitear “féinm-harú aithrise” - nuair a mharaíonn duine é féin i ndiaidh do chara leis nó do dhuine ar aithne aige é a dhéanamh. Ar ndóigh, baineadh stangadh as scríbhne-oirí agus údaráis na haoise nuair ba léir gur chúisigh an leabhar seo na féinmharuithe seo. Athscríobhadh deireadh an leabhair ionas nach gcuireann Werther lámh ina bhás féin ach bhí conspóid

Dáire Ó BraonáinEagarthóir

ag baint leis seo, ar ndóigh. Ar aon chuma, thaispeáin an eachtra seo an chumhacht a bhí ag an litríocht dul i bhfeidhm ar shaol an ghnáth-phobail i ndiaidh don chlóphreas teacht ar an bhfód go gairid roimhe sin.

Is deacair cur síos cruinn a dhéanamh ar thréithe sainiúla an genre litríochta seo, agus d’fhéadfá a rá nach bhfuil tréithe sainiúla coitianta ar bith ag na húrscéalta a gcuirtear lipéad an fhicsin chul-taigh orthu. Ach tá rudaí áirithe i gcomónta ag úrscéalta cultais: na mothúcháin a mhúsclaíonn siad in aigne na léitheoirí, cuir i gcás: an chaoi a dtéann siad i bhfeidhm ar na léitheoirí agus a mbíonn na lé-itheoirí faoi anáil acu. Déanann lé-itheoirí ionannú chomh mór sin leis an úrscéal go ndéanann siad déithe de charachtair áirithe sa leabhar agus go nglacann an t-úrscéal sun-tas reiligiúnda nó thar a bheith suntasach ina saol. Go bunúsach, deirtear go bhfeidhmíonn siad mar bhíoblaí pagánacha de chineál do léitheoirí áirithe.

An bhfuil a leithéid de leabhair chultais ann sa Ghaeilge? Dá gcuirfeá ceist ar dhaoine óga Éireannacha céard iad na leabhair

is mó a chuaigh i bhfei-dhm orthu is annamh an duine a luafadh leabhar Gaeilge leat. B’fhéidir go mbeadh corrGhaeilgeoir olls-coile a luafadh leabhar Gaeilge éigin duit ach ní chuireann an chuid is mó de mhuintir na tíre mórán suime i li-tríocht na Gaeilge. Ar ndóigh, is annamh an duine a bheadh dóthain Gaeilge aige, fiú, chun leabhar Gaeilge a lé-amh. Dá bhrí sin, is dócha go bhfeadfaí a rá gur litríocht chul-tach gach uile leabhar a scríobhtar sa Ghaeilge, sa mhéid is go bhfuil údair na Gaeilge ag freastal ar phobal beag léitheoireachta, a fhaigheann inspi-oráid agus dóchas ó leabhair scríofa sa teanga. Na léitheoirí Gaeilge, is dream iad atá tugtha don teanga agus a bhfuil tionchar mór aici ar a bhféiniúlacht agus, dá bhrí sin, ar a saol. Is bocht an cás é go bhfuilim ag cur léitheoirí na Gaeilge i gcom-paráid le léitheoirí an fhicsin chul-

taigh, ach caithfear a rá gurb am-hlaidh atá. Is beag duine, i dtéarmaí daonra iomlán na tíre, a fhaigheann sólás nó spreagadh ó leabhair Ghaeilge. Cheapfá go mbeadh níos mó léitheoirí Gaeilge ann, agus formhór de mhuintir na tíre tar éis ceithre bliana déag a chaitheamh leis an teanga sa seomra ranga.

REGULARSCOLLEGE TRIBUNEeditor@collegetribune.ie 1529th January 2013

Community within University College Dublin

Why community? Well I say why not commu-nity. University College

Dublin for me was all about the community within its walls. Dur-ing the last year I have borne wit-ness to many of my past colleagues losing their jobs in the area of the Student Union Office, Shops, and Student Bar. During the stress and strain that they were enduring at that time, many protests took place and there was sound support from staff and students. However this support, while giving the workers who were losing their positions -some of whom had worked over 25 years- support, came to nothing and some of the finest people did have to accept that their jobs were lost to them.

The word community came back to me and it stayed in my mind throughout the months of 2012. U.C.D. has been over many years a very close knit community; I am a living witness to that. It was through community support and help that I and others were able to hold onto the Student Union Shops during 1990’s. A multina-tional company saw how profitable the S.U. shops were and they put a bid forward to take over. They did not succeed which was due to community spirit and support from the majority of staff and students. During 2012 it appeared to me there was little or no community or spirit to save the many jobs which were lost, in my opinion lost un-necessarily. Good management is common sense, knowing your cus-tomers needs, treating your staff well. Add to this the fact that the

University has a captive customer on its campus; this makes all of the above so easy to implement and supply. Give the students and staff fair prices and the products they need to do their work and complete their studies. Common sense tells us that funding is needed to run a University and that battle is be-tween government and the college authorities. All citizens should give support for proper and fair funding for our students, our elected politi-cians should fight for our citizens to be given the best education, which they know brings with it rewards which cannot be measured in a monitory way. Past history shows us how the people of Ireland had to fight to get any kind of education over many centuries. We must not go backwards we must keep fight-ing for future generations.

When I advocate student prices, it is to help them and their parents who incur huge cost during the third level years. One very sen-ior man, I will not call him a gentle-man, made a remark to me when I was supporting students and work-ers, during a protest on campus. He said, and these were roughly his words, ‘ job loss, that’s down to the S.U. not running their enterprise properly with proper management and proper pricing, well let me tell you that once we get them inside the gates and their fees have been paid by government, we need to make profit on everything they pur-chase so that we have enough funds to keep this place open.’ I reply, 'it is the people of Ireland who pay with their taxes for their children’s edu-cation.' If there were no students

and academic staff, that particular man would not be employed. What I learned working and being a stu-dent is that a place of learning can never be compared to a place of business or commerce. The man in question has no idea how the sys-tem works. Let me enlighten him.

Over my 30 years and many years before my time, U.C.D. authorities had in place a Senior Administrator employed by them to take care of the S.U. and its finances. I worked with two of these gentlemen who preformed their duties for the S.U. and Bars and in all the years they were in charge the businesses were financially sound. These men pro-tected the jobs of the staff working for the S.U. by submitting full ac-counts, which were audited by the accountants employed by the S.U. and brought yearly to the Bursar's Office in the Administration Office. The system for S.U. employees was very different to those employed by U.C.D. Those employed by S.U. or Student Committee meant terms of employment were not with U.C.D. but with the new President of S.U. elected yearly, the staff had a new employer year after year. Looking back I see how difficult these condi-tions were and very hard to believe that any worker would work for such an establishment, however we did.

We relied on the Admin-istrator to guide the President and Officers of Student Union to treat the staff with respect, which dur-ing my term of employment was 99% successful. Returning to the beginning of this article: the word community and what it means.

Elizabeth CooteWriter

Community is made up of people of all different walks of life who come together for the good of all. Within any community there are those at the top and those at the bottom, it is when those at the top have re-spect for those at the bottom and vice versa. People in good commu-nities accept that everyone within the community has something to contribute. U.C.D. had one of the finest communities, originally in Earlsfort Tce and moving to Belf-ield in late 1950’s -a huge change for all, however the community settled into Belfield and the com-munity thrived. The academic staff and students were respected and seen as the main stay of Newman’s University, his vision of what a Uni-versity should be was all around us. We had academic staff, administra-tion, telephonists, porters, security, restaurant, lady and gentleman cleaners, grounds staff, lady deans, and chaplains, all of them working tirelessly for the good of students. The student and their welfare was the main priority, the community generated a huge love of the College and the majority of us were work-ing in a secure job, good conditions, respect for ourselves and respect for our colleagues. Cynics may say ‘yes and all of you were sheltered from the outside world of business’ and so implying we did not know how the real world did business. My answer to that is, we were not in business we were working in a place of learning and culture and when anyone of us might leave and go to work outside the walls of the University, we brought with us the knowledge and skills which would

help us to deal with people, and make a fine contribution to our new place of employment. Community is people and we all need people, perhaps not so much when we are 18 years of age, but later in life, as we age and go through life, it will not be sufficient to have the latest piece of technology in our hands, it will be our family and the people in our work place and neighbourhood, which will sustain and support us.

To the friends who are no longer employed by S.U: the year 2012 brought huge hardship to all of you, which was not of your mak-ing, it was caused by people who took their eye off the ball. They must live with their conscience, if they have a conscience. I wish all of you good fortune and remember it may have been a difficult year for all of you, but you will carry with you the goodwill and gratitude of many within these walls. Good luck and good fortune is just around the cor-ner, you are not the loser in all of this; it is the University who have lost some of the finest workers ever employed by S.U. and Student Bar Committee.

So on that thought best wishes dear friends and colleagues, wishing you and your families a very happy and prosperous New Year in 2013.

Finally to our current students and staff, make your mark in 2013, put community first, be proud of the past and remember what is to learn from it, work for the future, which all too soon will be your past.

The “legalization” of the Golden Dawn party in Greece under the pretext of the need for the implementa-tion of the democratic government procedures, is an attempt of the current political establishment to shift the boundaries of political discourse to the conservative far-right, to the point of suppressing the citizens' active participation in decision-making in matters affecting their lives.

The Greek political establishment, as much as the European political establishment, are responsible for the rise of neo-Nazi ideology, its parliamentary representation, and its devastating impact upon peo-ple's lives. Cases of stabbings of immigrants by the Golden Dawn fascists are being reported throughout Greece on a daily basis. Also, there are recorded cases of humiliation of homosexuals and of all the “dirty scumbags” forced by the “normalization” discourse to the far margins of society.

The Golden Dawn fascist group has been infiltrating the Greek police force for years now, and by now they are receiving its major support. Despite the fact that sufficient evidence is often provided, the majority of cases of racist attacks remain uninvestigated, and the Golden Dawn neo-Nazis remain unpunished for their crimes. On the contrary, members of anti-fascist protesting groups that have expressed their opposi-tion to the violent racist attacks by the Golden Dawn, have been arrested, detained, and illegally tortured in their custody in the police stations. All the ones responsible for their torture, also remain unpunished.

The Government, in full knowledge of the above, forces its own far-right agenda and tries to divert the public's attention from the real problems brought about by a corrupt political/economic elite leading the country deeper into depression. An example of its racist ideology is the recent organization of concentra-tion camps, where thousands of immigrants are crammed every day under appalling conditions of living. As politicians admit themselves, they will thus “clean” the Greek society from their illegal presence and protect the autochthonous “Greek family” whose unity and “safety” has been “under serious threat”. This “Hollywood”-style mission is tragically facilitated, as hundreds of immigrants are drowning in the Aegean Sea–cemetery every year or blown up by minefields on the northern borders, in their struggle to reach the promised land where rumours have it that dignity of life is being protected.

Fascist violence in Greece is rising every day. Torture and humiliation of dark-skinned immigrants by policemen on their so-called “Hospitable Zeus” or “Xenios Zeus” operation, attacks against actions of self-organization of social and public spaces, are a few more examples. Since the end of 2012, the Government, under the motto “Law and Order”, has initiated raids in squats arresting and charging their occupants. The squats, which have for many years been exposed to violent attacks by neo-Nazi and racist groups, are open public places where non-commercial cultural and social activities take place. In these open social spaces, groups of people engage with the local communities and organize non-profit cultural events, screenings, anti-racist talks, debates and workshops, seminars, Greek language courses for the immigrants, commu-nity kitchens and gardens, music events and theatrical performances, workshops for children, etc.

The Golden Dawn party has become the right hand of the political establishment. It is not a new phe-nomenon, neither in Europe, nor in Greece. Already from the 80s they have been lurking in the dark Athe-nian streets raging against weak individuals - facts which the mainstream media have carefully managed to conceal. The leftist parties, on the other hand, have been condemning racist violence in theory, however, they have rarely tackled the actual problem by taking direct anti-racist action down the streets. In a similar way, their often repeated argument, for years, that the Golden Dawn ideas and their racist action shouldn't

be “over-emphasized” because thus they become empowered, only leads to closing one's eyes to the cruel realities of racist violence, further endangering the lives of many fellow-human beings.

The existing problem of racist violence in Greece, has now alarmingly grown. Having seemingly en-tered the bounds of “legality”, the Golden Dawn have come out in full daylight. In some cases they have been interrogating immigrant vendors in open markets, smashing their benches if the latter refuse to show them their documents, and playing the role of the macho cop who darts threats and takes the law upon his hand. In other cases, they have been reported to blackmail educators who encourage humanistic, multicultural education, while trying to attract the attention of Greek school students and propagate their ideology of hatred.

Golden Dawn mentality didn't come out of the blue sky. It is being hatched by the average European and Greek citizen for some while now, under cosy blankets of myths that rehash the modern Greeks' di-rect racial and ethnic origin from a pure land called ancient Greece ; under Herculean myths about a fiery macho people. An ethnic pride which makes the bones of those buried under Acropolis ground rattle with laughter. Hopefully, all European tourists brave enough to visit Greece for some idyllic summer holidays this year, will pay them the honour of laughing along at those “myths”, under the scorching Athenian sun.

Of course the egg is not only hatched in Greece. In this moist part of the “Western” world, the golden egg is hatched upon trays abound with pints of

Guinness and mashed potatoes, which serve the idea of the happy leprechaun – the carrier of gold. On one hand, a modern pure Greek elite in direct seance-like communication with its ancient Greek ancestors, on one other hand, a happy-go-lucky hobbit-land mentality, already cultivated from the “Celtic Tiger” economic boom years. Each nation ideology is being formed by the construction of similar myths. Isn't it a matter of time until another macho man under the name Cuchulain, rises “like a phoenix from its ashes” in the midst of economic crisis -- to use their golden dawn discourse— and starts wiping out all dark-skinned or “dirty” deviating leprechauns? Sounds like a sci-fi scenario one would say, but it crossed my mind as I gaped, flabbergasted, at a bunch of Golden Dawn neo-Nazis disguised as moustached national heroes, parading into the Greek Parliament after they had been found attempting to illegally carry firearms. They were fully advertised by the mainstream Greek media, in proud neo-Nazi salutation inside the Parliament. Mainstream media that have for decades fostered the above harmless myths of Greek ethnic sovereignty (under the motto “Family-Church-Nation”), now advertise the neo-Nazi ideology. In “the land of Democ-racy”. The myth of a nation that constitutes one of the limbs of “Democratic” Europe. A Europe that takes pride in its Nobel Peace Prize, in the midst of fascist rise.

The rising European neo-Nazism goes hand in hand with a far-right State conservatism. Its examples range from the French Roma deportation under Sarkozy, and Merkel's and Cameron's statements about the “failure of multiculturalism”, to a general xenophobic presentiment and the violent racist attacks re-ported all over Europe, from Norway, Austria, and Britain, to Germany, Begium, and Italy.

As an Irish resident and Greek citizen, a wanderer between two worlds, unable to comfort myself with the idea of a national identity, I feel the need to voice this deep concern. The Golden Dawn egg of Europe seems to be hatching a very familiar beast that one day might cast its most horrid shadows upon our lives.

A B O U T T H E T H E B E A S T H A T C H I N G “ G O L D E N D A W N ” E G G S LETTER TO THE EDITOR

F r o m a n A t h e n s - b o r n I r i s h s t u d e n t

INSIDE"French troops

invade Mali in a desperate

attempt to win a war. "

There are three kinds of people: those who can

count and those who can’t.

Humpty Dumpty was pushed!

Stop repeat offenders. Don't re-elect them!

On the other hand, you

have different fingers.

Linguists search for another

word for “Thesaurus”.

It’s Satire, STUPID!

"Before I die I want mental health to be taken seriously. "

A s part of a week aimed at raising awareness around mental health issues

our dear Students’ Union have decided to assist the depressed in creating their own bucket list. What do you want to do before you die?

Gone be the eternal focus on the positive aspects of l ife that plague every depressed and downcast heart. No more optimism for the dejected, instead we are all called to focus on our impending de-mise in an ingenious move on the part of the UCD Wel-fare crowd, who will do doubt

jump on the event with all the gusto of a Hare Krishna music group.

What we really need to improve mental health prob-lems is a sharp focus on our last days. Indeed it is a well-known fact that individu-als with suicidal tendencies don’t think about death half enough. If they could just make it their most prevalent thought, even for one day, then they’d surely feel better.

If you were contemplat-ing your last actions before you shuffle off the mortal coil then this is the prime oppor-tunity to state them publicly

for all to see. Think death, think last wishes, think Wel-fare.

The event follows last se-mesters profound plan to round up the depressive rab-ble and have them crawl un-der a mound of duvets. After all , everybody knows that what the mentally i l l need is more time in bed to reflect on the misery that is their l ife.

Rumour has it that the coming weeks will see more outstanding events to make UCD a more caring, warm and all round fuzzy place to be.

These events may or may not include Zumba dancing for

disability week, cake sales to raise awareness of diabetes, a banquet to end obesity, paint-ing and decorating classes for homeless week and lessons on how to be more “Irish” for in-ternational week.

The essential message is that negative feelings must always be reinforced; you must never ever accentuate the positive.

In any case the Turbine ex-pects this latest venture to be greeted with moans of dis-belief from many who have drank from the lake of mel-ancholy and know its bitter taste.

Guiney's Puppy farm exposed

Ishould have worn

my other tie today...I KNEW tribal chic was in.

17SPORTCOLLEGE TRIBUNEsport@collegetribune.ie

The FA Cup was not the only knockout competition seducing the eyes of the

football world this weekend. Superleague teams, fresh from the Winter Break and despite testing conditions, returned to lock swords in the form of the glamorous League Cup. The competition, won by The Absolute Gents last term, has never been starved of drama and things continued in that vein with the UCD soccer astro staging scenes perhaps even more enthralling than those from Elland Road and Griffin Park this past weekend. Roebuck Rangers might have welcomed Friday evening’s encounter with Fifty Shades of Bray as a chance to turn over a new leaf after a torrid first half to the Saturday Division 1 season but the law students found themselves on

29th January 2013

the wrong end of a 10-9 penalty shoot out. Having shocked the crowd and pundits alike through Kevin Casey’s early ‘worldie’, Rangers hearts were broken when Gavin Walsh equalised for Fifty Shades to finish the match 1-1 before penalties.

The winter break may have come at a bad time for sleeping giants Bayer Neverloosin who appeared to have fallen into an even deeper slumber by Satur-day afternoon ahead of their tie against Athletic Bilbao Baggins. The Neverloosin, who finished 2012 with some strong league performances, welcomed back anchorman Conall Devlin but the Belfast man was left with little worth writing about and could do little to prevent a 0-3 loss.

Saturday Premier big boys Fil-bert Athletic took a day off from their bitter rivalry with Dart-

mouth Darts to over-come Oil Sheiks in a thrilling 5-4 encoun-ter. Things did not go entirely to plan on the day for Filbert who had to recover from a 4-2 deficit to win the game but the season-long plan to make history main-tains momentum with manager Philip “Big Ead” Dix assert-ing that the treble dream is “still alive”.

Elsewhere, Inglorious Basterds were forced to play with nine men for the entirety of their match against All Blacks not through sendings-off but as a consequence of injuries and alleged “international call-ups”. It was a testament to Basterds’ players that they held the All Blacks to a 2-1 lead until the

80th minute at which stage their pressing for an equaliser back-fired with two late goals which secured the tie for eleven man All Blacks. CFR Clunge made routine their win over FT Ladzio with a confident 2-0 success al-though Ladzio will bemoan the fact that the game was denied the opportunity to be a free flowing affair given that the goal posts

had to be repositioned every few minutes due to strong wind.

In brief, other games saw wins for The Dirk Kuyt Rises, Breast Homage Albion, Borussia Monchenblacksack and Sauce Pan Celtic.

Michael Phoenix relives his experience of the Catalonian derby between Barcelona and Espanyol

Hearing Catalonia

The metro was filled with claret and yellow. I folded my ticket into two and hid it in the palm of

my hand, deep in the front jean pocket. At the far end of the train a song was beginning. A woman of 70 stepped onboard with Messi in gold across her hunched shoulders. A kid in hat and scarf got up to offer her his seat. She scowled and he sat back down.

Her wrinkled hand covered in rings gripped a pole for bal-ance as the metro moved on to-wards the stadium. Under half moon glasses she looked up at two grey haired men who stood beside her wrapped in 1980’s jerseys under thick dark jackets. One talked from beneath a full moustache, the other through a white bushy beard. They spoke slow and curious Catalan and the lady in claret joined in. Here and there I caught words: Xavi, Messi, Pedro, and the names were said with joy and fury and pats on backs and hands thrown in the air. The old woman, hav-ing taken offence at some com-ment about Valdes, had turned her head away from the pair. They in turn began to examine the faces of the train they must have been riding together eve-ry second weekend for the last thirty years. One leant across to the other and whispered some

joke in his ear and they shared the laugh of great old friends and the song that had started out of sight was coming closer and the old men saw it and together arched their necks back and then with clear voices began the next verse. All of our carriage joined in and I mouthed the sounds.

We arrived at the station and the crowd began to move and carried the song with them. I stuck close to the two old men who knew their way through the throng and as we went the con-crete stadium appeared above the buildings in the distance. Men with dark faces moved across the streets with cans of beer, catalan, for sale. I bought one and drank it as we walked. At the end of September, unem-ployment in Catalonia reached 23.9%.

I left my unwitting guides be-hind and passed through an old fashioned turnstile, then began to climb the clinking steps to-wards the 7pm January sky. At first you could only let yourself be carried by the crowd, but the tide fell away as you went higher until there were only few climb-ers left.

The cheapest ticket to see the Catalan derby in the Camp Nou was €57.50. For that you could peer from the top of the stadium. Up at the top there are arch-wayed tunnels to walk through

before the grass of the pitch spreads out. As I passed under the curve everything was quiet. I stepped out and looked around. It was five minutes to kick off.

In my section there were more seats empty than taken. I sat down and the seat was cold. A group of four young men be-hind me stood up and as they

did a hush came. I lent forward. The teams appeared from the tunnel in two streams of smoke, one yellow: Espanyol, the other claret and blue: Barca.

The speakers of the stadi-um fuzzed, the fans filled their lungs, Catalan flags were held overhead, and then the trumpets started. A handful of Espanyol

fans cowered down below as the hymn rang out in a voice that clicked together like a key un-locking. Warmth spread through the empty section from the voic-es below. The players made for their positions and the sound continued louder and louder, until the first Espanyol player touched the ball.

Cup drama in the...Thomas Hobbs gives a round-up of the weekend’s League Cup action

18 18 SPORT COLLEGE TRIBUNE sport@collegetribune.ie29th January 2013

McLoughlin knows nothing less than 100% will do against Trinity

UCD will go into tonight’s (Tuesday 29th) first round Sigerson Cup game

against Trinity College with a firm favourite’s tag weighing on their shoulders. Trinity, managed by Down footballer Conor Laverty, return to the competition after having won the Trench Cup ‘B’ All Ireland last year but few expect them to advance against a UCD side boasting the likes of Kevin McLoughlin, Dublin’s Rory O’Carroll and Westmeath’s John Heslin. However, McLoughlin knows from past experience that the Sigerson is notorious for throwing up surprises. “In my last Sigerson game for DIT, we played UL in the first round expecting to beat them as we had a very strong team. We ended up losing by four points”. And so McLoughlin will do, as only he knows how- to put in the hard yards and grab the game by the scruff of the neck. Thankfully for UCD, he happens to be one of the best footballers in the country at doing so. He showed a remarkable level of consistency in Mayo’s run to the All Ireland last year at wing half forward. His ferocious pace and work rate made him the intrinsic link between the defence and attack. In an era of

passing was far too lateral, and UCD were more than up for the physical battle on the gainline. Ballymena’s one period of sustained pressure five yards from the UCD line, eventually ended when second row Shane Grannell won a penalty for not realising.

After failing to score following such a long period of pressure Ballymena’s spirits began to rapidly drop, they lost number 8 Matthew Rea to the sin bin for an off the ball tackle following Danny Kenny’s 50 metre break. From the resulting penalty, UCD went down the touchline, Emmet MacMahon claimed the lineout, McGroarty was used as first receiver, his pass was excellent and meant that Sam Coghlan Murray had plenty of space to use his fleet feet, to score his second. The two points were added by the inform Thornton.

The bonus point was secured following an excellent break up the wing but Coghlan Murray, who kicked infield for the onrushing Gilsenan to score under the posts.

A comprehensive and thoroughly deserved win for the home side who showed excellent defensive discipline throughout.

UCD: Andy Boyle, Sam Coghlan Murray, Alex Kelly, David Lynch (Stephen Murphy 60mins), Barry Daly, James Thornton, Jamie Glynn (Rob Shanley 60mins) , James Tracy, Risteard Byrne, Kieran Moloney (Rory Harrison ht) Shane Grannell (Brian Cawley 60mins) Emmet MacMahon (Shane Grannell 72mins) Conor Gilsenan Mark McGroarty (Adam C l a r k i n 60mins) Danny Kenny.

physical play dominating Gaelic Football, McLoughlin’s elusiveness, unpredictability and flamboyancy makes him an indispensable breath of fresh air for any team he lines out for. If Gaelic Football had an Andres Iniesta, it would come in the form of Kevin McLoughlin, honing the tiki-takanaccio or in this case the 30 yard kick pass almost to absurd perfection. When he was off the field in last year’s semi-final against Dublin, they scored seven unanswered points. More tellingly he played a part in fifteen of Mayo’s eighteen scores on the day they defeated the then All Ireland champions. He is the ultimate team player. So reputed were McLoughlin’s performances last year, many felt it a travesty that he was omitted from the GAA/GPA All Star Team of the Year for his efforts. Did he feel he should have been dusting down his formal wear? “I was flattered to hear I was nominated in the first place. I would have liked to have got one but I don’t choose it so I didn’t dwell over it too much.” He may have been snubbed, but as it so happened McLoughlin got the next best thing as he was called up as a replacement for Dublin’s Paul Flynn and took

his rightful place in the GAA/GPA All Star Game to New York. The Knockmore clubman relished the experience, comparing it to playing college football: “It’s great to get to know guys from other counties. I met guys I never would have talked to before. With most good footballers, you can be yourself on the pitch and be genuine off it. You can go hell for leather and be a good guy afterwards.” One such acquaintance was DCU and Donegal captain Michael Murphy. Trainee teacher McLoughlin feels the 2012 Sigerson champions are favourites to win the competition again this year, but was impressed by St. Mary’s, Belfast in the Ryan Cup and also his former college DIT, who beat St. Mary’s in the Ryan Cup final after extra time. However, he remains optimistic of UCD springing an upset- “we will hopefully have something to say about that because hopefully we will be playing DCU in the quarter final”. Looking ahead, McLoughlin will return to Mayo duty for the Allianz National League and then the Championship aware that they have a multitude of obstacles to overcome before they can get over the line they fell just short of last September. “We have

Collidge Breeze Past Ballymena

the hardest possible route through Connaught presuming we could win each game so we can’t think too far ahead. It’s in the back of our minds but we can’t think ahead of the first game.” For tonight, however, and hopefully well into the advanced stages of the Sigerson, McLoughlin’s displays his unique talent in a UCD jersey. His first objective? Ensuring the underdog tale of UL doesn’t repeat itself.

Sigerson and Fitzgibbon Cup PreviewsSigerson Cup First Round- UCD v Trinity, Tuesday 29th January, 7.30pm, Clan na Gael:

An attractive game for the neutral observer, and the only first round Irish

Daily Mail Sigerson Cup tie set to be played under lights, sees the “Colours” Rivalry of the two biggest Dublin Universities renewed. TCD, one of only two of the University Teams still waiting for their maiden victory in this competition (UL the other) could not have asked for a much tougher assignment on their return to the competition, their first appearance since 2005, than a game against their city neighbours.

In the Ryan Cup in first se-mester, UCD made it as far as the Semi-Final stage before losing out to St. Mary’s College, Bel-fast. They defeated DCU, NUIM

and IT Sligo. For Trinity, things didn’t go so well, and despite los-ing all three group games to Ulster opposition, they regrouped well to defeat NUI Maynooth in the Rel-egation Play-Offs. In the O’Byrne Cup, UCD were very competitive, and unlucky to lose all three games, as they went down to Louth, Meath and Longford by a combined total of nine points. TCD did not take

part in the O’Byrne Cup this season.For TCD, it will be interesting to

see how their players react to plying their trade at the top level this year, but for the likes of Darragh Daly of Westmeath, Fermanagh’s Tomás Corrigan and Dublin’s Sean Murray their experience on the Inter-Coun-ty scene should help lead the side. Down footballer Conor Laverty coaches Trinity and will ensure that they are as shrewd and spurred on to cause an upset.

UCD again have many household names in their squad, and must be wondering how long more they have to wait for their next Sigerson Cup title as the country’s largest third level institution has now gone sixteen years and seen eight other colleges capture the silverware since their last win back in 1996. The performances of players like Captain Josh Hayes, John Heslin, Rory O’Carroll, Kevin McLoughlin, Craig Dyas, Donie Kingston and Paul Cahilane, few if any of whom need any introduction, will be key to their bid to capture the Sigerson Cup and take it back to Belfield lat-er next month.

UCD come into this game in indifferent form but if they get on top early in the contest they should advance against the Sigerson new-comers.

Ahead of the Senior Footballers game against Trinity in the first round of the 2013 Sigerson Cup, SportsEditor Conall Devlin speaks to one of the most respected footballers in the county, Mayo and UCD, forward Kevin McLoughlin.

Continued from page 20

Verdict- UCD by 8 pointsPossible UCD line up: Eoghan Ke-ogh; Josh Hayes, Rory O’Carroll, Michael Furlong; Ciaran Lene-han, Luke Keaney, David Drake; John Heslin, Craig Dias; Kevin McLoughlin, Kevin Dyas, David Larkin; Niall Kilroy, Donie King-ston, Paul Cahillane

Fitzgibbon Cup Round One- UCD v Limerick IT, Thursday 31st January, 2p.m., Belfield:UCD have been paired with Lim-erick IT and DCU in Group C of the Fitzgibbon Cup. They play off a Round Robin with the top two teams qualifying for the quarter finals. Those who reach the semi-finals will be heading West to be hosted by GMIT on March 2nd or 3rd.

Collidge have emerged as dark horses for the competition after a strong performance in the league. They have relied on Tipperary star Noel McGrath in the past few two years however they have a stronger supporting cast on paper this year. Man of the Match in the All Ire-land Final Wally Walsh will look to dominate at full forward, while the talents of Cillian Buckley, William

Phelan, Liam Rushe and Rory O’Carroll make the spine of the team very formidable. They will be quietly confident that they can make a push to win the competition for the first time since 2001.

As ever the Munster colleges are fancied to reach the advanced stag-es of the competition and the same applies for Limerick IT. The 2007 champions were beaten finalists to UL in 2011.

UCD have a tough opening as-signment but with home advantage may just sneak over the line to set up a quarter final spot.Verdict- UCD by 2 points

Donie Kingston is a key player for the Sigerson Hopefuls

19SPORTCOLLEGE TRIBUNEsport@collegetribune.ie

Schmidt asking how his exams were going, whether he had an exam the following day, and would it be possible for him to come to some of the Captain’s run the following day because ‘’oh yeah, you’re on the bench on Friday night.’’ At first he thought it was a joke and went as far phoning one of the Strength and Conditioning coaches to confirm that the phone call he received was from the man himself. A precaution which received some stick from the senior players.

He did not in fact make his debut that night and while he is not saying that he didn’t want to play, he was happier that he didn’t because he felt that he may have been exposed due to his lack of preparation and familiarity with the team’s patterns. Ten days later, when the side met Connacht in the RDS, he was again named on the bench. This time, he was chomping at the bit to get on. He recalls just looking at the clock, thinking ‘’Put me on, put me on, please put me on.’’ He was surprised by how quickly he settled into the game.

29th January 2013

SPORT IN BRIEFFormer UCD striker called up to Ireland squadFormer UCD AFC and current Derby County striker Conor Sammon is one of four newcomers to be called into Giovanni Trappatoni’s 27 man squad ahead of the friendly with Poland at the Aviva Stadium on February 6th. Nicknamed the “Sammon of College”, has been a meteoric rise for the Dubliner who enjoyed 3 seasons at Belfield between 2005 and 2007, scoring 13 goals in 69 appearances. His career has also taken him to Derry City, Kilmarnock, Wigan Athletic and now with the mid-table nPower Championship side. Looking back on his time spent in a UCD jersey, current UCD AFC assistant manager Diarmuid McNally said, “It’s a different footballer, he wasn’t the goal-scorer he is now. All he had here was potential but at UCD we had lots of players with potential and he didn’t stand out.” Mentally however McNally couldn’t fault Sammon, saying he had the drive to bring his game forward. “If you look at what he did subsequently, he moved to Derry because he knew they were a good club to go to if you wanted to get a move beyond the league,” says McNally. “Then he went to Kilmarnock, a move a lot of lads might not have been willing to make, and he made it work from there.” Pete Mahon, Sammons’

manager while at UCD , said he was surprised but delighted at the former UCD striker getting the call-up from Giovanni Trapattoni. “Last week against Notts Forest, it was the best game I’ve seen from him in a while. He wasn’t in a good situation at Wigan, getting most of his chances as a substitute,” says Mahon. “The level he’s at now, with Derby, he’s going to get the chance to play every week and continue his development.”

UCD’s McSharry makes Ireland ‘A’ debut UCD and Connacht centre Dave McSharry made his Ireland ‘A’ international debut for the O2 Ireland Wolfhounds on Friday night, playing 69 minutes in a 14-10 defeat against the England Saxons at the Sportsground in Galway. Roared on by the home faithful, McSharry and fellow Connacht teammate Robbie Henshaw enjoyed a few early carries and looked assured throughout.

UCD Hurlers Walsh Cup match against Dublin called offUCD Senior Hurlers were unable to build on their opening 0-15 1-11 Walsh Cup victory over Laois on Friday night as their game against Dublin at Parnell Park was postponed due to a waterlogged

Byrne born from a different cloth at Leinster

At 18 years, 8 months and 20 days, Adam Byrne is the youngest player to ever

represent the Leinster senior team. His rise to the top has been rapid, however unheralded to the same degree as that of previous teenage debutants, Luke Fitzgerald, Andrew Conway, and to a lesser extent, a one Brian O’Driscoll. Uniquely, however, Byrne, the latest addition to the seemingly endless conveyor-belt of Leinster back three rugby players, only took up the game at 16.

A former Manchester United academy member and keen Gaelic Footballer, Byrne only took up the game after being suggested to by a friend following a move to Naas from Dublin. He also cites the added incentive of missing school hours as an additional motivational factor. He joined Naas Rugby Club where he was quickly spotted by selectors for the Leinster Regional team, eventually leading to his selection for the Leinster Youths team. All this while playing a year above his actual age group. He

credits playing the extra year of Leinster Youths rugby as an serious advantage in terms of developing his skill set on the pitch and physique in the gym. One assumes it is modesty which prevents him from acknowledging that in order to play a year above your actual age group, you have to be quite talented to begin with.

Incredibly it is just five months ago that Byrne was training and playing with the Leinster under-19s side. Byrne thinks that his omission from the under-20s squad led him to play in the under-19s Interprovincial Series with what he described as ‘’a kind of chip on his shoulder’’. A strong performance for the 19s was rewarded with a place in the Sub Academy, which was in many ways the spring board of his current success.

His first involvement with the senior side came when the team travelled to Ravenhill to face high flying Ulster. He got the call from Joe Schmidt on Wednesday. He explained how the conversation began cordially enough, with

‘’It’s actually much more relaxed than you’d think,’’ he claims, ‘’Ian Madigan was just there calling moves and throwing the ball around.’’ The night finished with him singing ‘’I Got A Feeling’’ by the Black Eyed Pees, in celebration of his first appearance.

With respect to the future, the second year e n g i n e e r i n g student isn’t getting ahead of himself. He unfortunately broke his ankle recently and his main aim is to recover for selection for the Under-20 World Cup which takes place this summer in France. He is aware of the element of luck that was involved in his selection for the senior team and suggests that he is aware he may not play for them again for a while due to the return of various players to fitness. However there’s no doubt that this talented young player will be faced with plenty more chances in the future.

pitch. No date for the rescheduled game has been made yet. The Hurlers begin their Fitzgibbon Cup campaign at home to Limerick IT this Thursday January 31st at 2pm in Belfield.

Comerford wins 800m at Swedish Grand PrixUCD Elite Athlete Academy student, Lisa Comerford just won the 800m freestyle at the Swedish in Uppsala. Lisa finished in a great time of 9:22:15 to come away with the gold. Scholarship student Shauna O Brien also claimed a bronze medal in the 50m Butterfly with a time of 28.32 seconds

Leinster Victories for Men and Women Hockey TeamsBoth the Men and Women’s Senior Hockey teams recorded home victories at the National Hockey Stadium in Belfield at the weekend. The Men came back from 1-0 down to beat Fingal 3-1 with the goals coming from Nick Burns and a brace from Jeremy Duncan. Meanwhile the Women’s team beat Pembroke Wanderers 4-0. Anna O’Flanagan was on target as was Nikki Evans who helped herself to a hat trick.

25 Elite Athlete Scholarships awardedThe Ad Astra Scholarship Ceremony

was held last Thursday in the O’Reilly Hall, with 25 Elite Athlete Academy Scholarships awarded. The scholars form an esteemed list of outstanding talent across many sports:

(UCD EAA students: Athletics- David Campbell, Mark English, Ciara Everard, Ciara Mageean; GAA- Cillian Buckley, Kevin Dyas, John Heslin, Joe Lyng, Jack McCaffrey, Noel McGrath, Rory O’Carroll, Matthew O’Hanlon, William Phelan, Grace Walsh; Golf- Alexander Gleeson, Chloe Ryan; Hockey (Ladies)- Niamh Atcheler, Leah Ewart, Brenda Flannery, Nicola Gray, Katie Mullen, Anna O’Flanagan, Chloe Watkins;

Ceithreann Muray

Conall Devlin

Sports Writer

Sports Editor

Hockey (Mens)- Nicholas Burns, Ross Canning, Luke Chadwick, Ben Dobson, Jeremy Duncan, Shane O’Donoghue; Modern Pentatholon- Arthur Lanigan-O’Keeffe, Claire Lambe, Paul O’Donovan; Rugby- Andrew Boyle, Bryan Byrne, Edward Byrne, Sam Coghlan-Murray, Patrick Dix, David Doyle, Conor Gilsenan, Eoin Joyce, Daniel Leavy, Luke Leavy, Luke McGrath, Sean O’Brien; Sailing- Annalise Murphy; Soccer (Ladies)- Dora Gorman, Ciara Grant, Siobhan Killeen; Soccer (Mens) Tomas Boyle, Niall Corbet, Robert Creevy, Michael Leahy; Swimming- Lisa Comerford, Aisling Cooney, Donal Drought.

Ceithrean Murray speaks to the youngest ever debutant for the Leinster Senior Rugby team, UCD student Adam Byrne.

TRIBUNECOLLEGE TRIBUNE

sport@collegetribune.ie

29th January 2013

UCD 32-3 Ballymena

A strong UCD side overcame a limited Ballymena outfit in the UCD Bowl on Saturday,

scoring some fantastic team tries in wet and windy conditions.

The home side had the better of the early exchanges, with loose head James Tracy and openside Mark McGroarty affecting a choke tackle resulting in a scrum for the

home side. From the resulting play, fullback Andrew Boyle made an excellent line break, the ball was recycled and the forwards were used for a midfield hit up, Ballymena infringed in a very cynical fashion, killing the ball, and James Thornton slotted the resulting penalty to make it 3-0 inside the first 10 minutes.

Ballymena immediately had a chance to equalise after Shane Grannell infringed at the restart, however they failed to capitalise. Poor kicking, both at goal and for field position, was a characteristic of Ballymena’s play throughout the first half.

The first half was largely characterised by UCD’s high tempo

running game. They kicked the ball only 10 times in the opening 40 minutes. This high tempo approach, coupled with excellent passing from Thornton, Lynch, and Kelly, meant that line breaks were aplenty in the first half. When captain Risteard Byrne ran 60 metres, further pressure led to UCD’s second penalty, which Thornton converted for a 6-0 lead. Ballymena eventually got off the mark, after 18 minutes, when Mark McGroarty was penalised for an overly exuberant tackle, which lead to play being stopped and a concussion assessment.

The score was well poised at 6-3 when UCD finally got the break through their ambitious

Collidge Breeze Past Ballymena

20

Sam Coghlan Murray helped himself to two tries in Saturday’s 32-3 victory.

Conal DevlinSports Editor

play during the opening quarter deserved. Conor Gilsenan secured Thorton’s restart, the ball broke for McGroarty, who carried strongly into the centre of the Ballymena defence, breaking two tackles before being stopped. The ball was moved right and Thornton threw a beautiful pass to Danny Kenny, which put him on an outside arc, his fast hands allowed the ball to be moved on the Sam Coghlan Murray, who scored in the corner. Thornton’s touchline conversion made it 13-3.

Things would only worsen for Ballymena, who lost outhalf Rory Drysdale to the sin bin, for a deliberate knock on. UCD could sense there were more scores out

there with their opponents reduced in number. However four times they entered Ballymena’s 22, and failed to score; they were guilty of trying to force the passes, much to the frustration of coach Bobby Byrne.

Winger Barry Daly did manage to score just before half time, again it was down to UCD building the phases and not trying things that weren’t on. The conversion was missed, and Collidge lead 18-3 at half time.

A more spirited Ballymena appeared for the second half. However while they enjoyed the lion’s share of possession, their

SPORT

DD

LEINSTER'S ADAM BYRNE

SPEAKS WITH CEITHREANN MURRAY

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