Trinity News 09-10 Issue 3 by Trinity News

Irish Student Newspaper of the Year 2009

A-Z OF WEIRD SPORTS,

HANDSOME FURS INTERVIEW

MAN VS. WILD: THE WILDERNESS

SPORT, P21

FEATURE, TN2

TRAVEL, P20

Tuesday October 20 2009

www.trinitynews.ie

Students on offensive at DUCAC AGM Kate Palmer Deputy News Editor THE ANNUAL General Meeting of the Dublin University Central Athletics Committee (DUCAC) was held last week amid accusations of failing to represent students and failing to properly audit the finances. They have also been subject to accusations of unfair allocation and lack of accountability in its distribution of funds. As the governing body for 50 of Trinity’s sports clubs, DUCAC’s primary purpose is meant to further the interests of sports in the College. The Executive Committee and various sub-committees of DUCAC currently manage the allocation of funds to various clubs, income for which is derived from a number of sources including part of the college student charge and revenue from the Pavilion, which reached €85,000 last year. At the recent meeting, however, Student’s Union President Cónán Ó’Broin accused DUCAC of allocating funds to sports club to be at the “whim” of the Committee members, which totalled a record high of €366,907 this year. Ó’Broin continued “it seems to me that there is no written criteria for the allocation of €350,000 of students’ money”, an accusation which DUCAC Honorary Treasurer Cyril Smyth refused to validate. Ó’Broin has been active in the campaign for DUCAC reform since May this year, chairing a meeting attended by 35 club captains representing their teams. Acting as a forum for captains to voice their concerns regarding DUCAC, the main point of contention revolved around how funding was split between different clubs, with captains angry over the lack of breakdown available to explain how finance is divided. The DUCAC Honourary Treasurer Cyril Smyth admits there is an element of “subjective judgment” when it

IIssue 3 3, V Volume l 56

TRINITY TAKES TO THE STREETS: PAGE 3

comes to allocating funds to clubs. Ó’Broin described DUCAC’s finance management to Smyth as “basically at the whim of yourself”. A general consensus among the sports captains indicates that sports clubs are not being properly represented by DUCAC, which fails to acknowledge many of their problems, according to the minutes of the May meeting. It was noted that DUCAC is the only capitated body that receives funding through the Student Charge yet students have no DUCAC’s finances are at the whim of Cyril Smyth, says O’Broin Participants Ross Dungan and Ben Clifford along with motivator Matthew Smyth, training hard in prepation for the Dublin City Marathon. Matthew fractured his leg on his second day training and will have to make do with cheering his friends on from the sidelines. Photo: Josh Carnahan real say in committee affairs. Currently only 8 out of 49 sports clubs are allocated as representatives on DUCAC. Captain of the Trinity Heraeans and three year-Club Representative Claire McGlynn says “clubs don’t feel like we’re supported enough…. DUCAC don’t strive for enough success with clubs”. She points out how difficult it was to organise a Sports Ball and Trinity Sports Day as a result of the lack of interaction between DUCAC and sports captains. Ó’Broin pointed out the SU were in no position to change or reform DUCAC, only being able to facilitate meetings and speak on behalf of clubs, stating at the time that “it’s up to the sports clubs now to bring reform forward.” However, steps towards greater student representation in DUCAC occurred in the form of constitutional change last week. Students at the AGM voted unanimously in favour of a new student committee position, Assistant to the Honorary Treasurer of DUCAC, which has since been filled by PhD continued on page 2

Late-latest joke at our expense Claire Acton & Lisa Byrne STUDENTS’ UNION President, Cónán Ó’Broin, has offered to take Ryan Tubridy on a tour of the College following the presenter’s comments that “students enter Trinity Irish, and leave English”.The comments were made by Tubridy on RTE’s “The Late Late Show”. Ó’Broin has refuted the claims saying the comments could not be further from the truth. “Irish culture, through societies such as An Cumann Gaelach, Trad Soc and clubs such as the GAA, is alive and kicking in Trinity. The days of Trinity being a bastion of AngloSaxonism are now a part of history.” Ó’Broin also said that if the presenter was in any doubt, he would welcome the

chance to invite him on a tour of such societies and clubs. Tara O’Brien, publicist for Mr. Tubridy, has said that he will not be Tubridy’s comments were, he feels, “clearly made in jest,” and a response is unnecessary responding to Ó’Broin’s comments. “It was clear during his interview with Ricki that his comments were made in jest. However, he would be happy to come into Trinity to meet with Conan at a point in the future,” she said. These comments come on the back of an apology made by UK Trade and Investment this week. The British

government organisation’s website referred to the College as a UK university in an article analysing the recent Times Good University Guide. Referring to the UK universities that made the top 50, the article read “A further five UK universities are in the top 50: Edinburgh, King’s College London, Manchester, Bristol and Trinity College, Dublin.” Having been notified of the error by Trinity News, the editor apologised and amended it immediately. This incident further highlights the connection regularly made between the UK and Trinity College Dublin and UK references. Time and again there have been Anglo remarks regarding Trinity, still linking the college with Britain. Indeed Trinity College is a university of protestant ancestry, founded in 1592 under Queen Elizabeth I’s rule. While

Catholics were permitted entry over 200 years ago, many still observe Trinity as a protestant Anglo institution. The Roman Catholic Church only lifted its policy of disapproval and in some case excommunication of Catholic students who enrolled in Trinity College without special dispensation in the 1970’s. Students have, in the past, rallied to implement the College’s nationality as an Irish college. In 2006, Ó’Broin put forward a motion to install a tricolour on the college grounds. The three flag poles currently placed in front of Trinity remain bare, bar national holidays and special occasions. Ó’Broin has recently stated that he will not be following this up as there are other “more pressing” matters to attend to.

Third-level students bid farewell to fees debate Meadhbh McHugh & Lisa Byrne STUDENT UNIONS around Ireland have been celebrating after the government announced that it would not be re-introducing fees following talks with the Green Party. The new Programme for Government, which includes the commitment, was accepted by the Green Party with a majority vote of 84 percent at a conference held in the RDS on Saturday October 10. Students’ Union President Cónán Ó’Broin has said that he is “absolutely over the moon”. Speaking shortly after the decision, Ó’Broin said that it had come about “as a result of hard work by a lot of people”. The Union of Students in Ireland have also welcomed the Green Party’s commitment. Deputy President Dan O’Neill said “the moves by the Minister for Education to reintroduce student fees made no sense in a time when we are reliant on the smart economy for our recovery. We welcome the commitments obtained by the Green Party in the new Programme for Government regarding third level

fees and will be working with them as much as possible to ensure that higher and further education provides the basis for our economic recovery.” However the relief that has been felt may be short-lived, with rife speculation that a possible hike in registration fees may well be a back-door attempt to force students to contribute towards the cost of their education. Minister for Education Batt O’ Keeffe insists the issue has merely been “parked” and that in the future a student contribution will most likely be implemented as a means of funding the third-level sector. Despite the commitment by the Greens and Fianna Fáil, O’Keeffe is also considering raising the student registration fees in Ireland, which are already the highest in the EU. Speaking in Cork during the week, O’Keeffe said he was still of the view that students should pay towards their tuition and that he thinks it will be necessary in the future for students to do so, but that the government can readily park the issue at the moment given it wouldn’t have immediate impact on funding. The USI has condemned the Minister’s latest endorsement of

fees with the Union President, Peter Mannion, calling for the Minister’s resignation if he “cannot respect the Programme for Government and insists on embarking on his own agenda.” The registration charge, which increased this year in most colleges from €900 to €1500, is decided annually by third-level institutions who receive permission from the government to increase it. It is exacted by colleges to finance the costs of registration, exams and student services. It is not intended as a fee to pay for more general student costs as there is “free fees” legislation in place since the abolition of fees in 1995. Indeed, education sources say attempts to raise the registration charge may come up against legal challenges due to such legislation. Mr. O’Keeffe said the increase of charges this year to €1500 brought the student contribution more in line with the actual cost of the services provided to them and said past registration figures did not represent the total allocation made towards student services from institutions’ budgets and that institutions had been using the core grant to subsidise the provision of such

services. USI president Peter Mannion has also taken issue with this stating “students already struggle to pay €1500 upfront just to register at the beginning of the college year. Many of our members have indicated that they don’t get value for money for their registration fee. Despite paying more this year, the students of Ireland are in fact seeing fewer services on campus for their money. Any further rise in registration fees would be unacceptable.” Ó’Broin has said that fighting the increase of the registration fee will be a “much trickier fight” claiming it will be “not nearly as clear cut” as the fight against fees. As the College itself will decide the whether there will be an increase, Ó’Broin claims it will become an “institutional fight” but says that he will have “a chat” with the Provost, Dr. John Hegarty, closer to the time of the national budget. The Presidents of the seven Universities in Ireland expressed surprise at the statement that in complying with the new Programme, the Government will not proceed with any new scheme of student contribution. The IUA (Irish

Universities Association) has called for a “better balance between individual and public contributions in the funding of higher education” basing this view on factors such as the “financial gains that accrue to graduates, the need to generate additional resources to widen access “A bad day for higher education,” according to DCU President Ferdinand Von Prondzynski. to universities, and the international data which shows our system to be underfunded, largely due to its excessive dependence on central government.” The Presidents welcomed the other committments to the overall education system that the renewed Programme for government outlines but said that the priority accorded to education and innovation in the Renewed Programme needs to be “reflected in realistic levels of investment in the sector, whatever its source.”

Professor Von Prondzynski, President of DCU and a rumoured potential successor to Dr. Hegarty in the role of TCD Provost, blogged that it was a “bad day for higher education.” He said he suspected the motive behind the decision to keep fees free to be “purely electoral.” He continued that “as the taxpayer is in no position to increase funding, or even maintain the existing levels, we are now facing a situation where the increasingly scarce resources will be concentrated on the wealthier sections of the population and the disadvantaged will be neglected. In addition, the sector as a whole will be asset stripped and unable to compete.” He said the decision may save votes but will do “long term damage to the sector.” Ó’Broin has refuted this allegation and has said he is not suprised by Von Prondzynski’s comments. “Let’s be clear” said the Union President, “the purpose of the third level sector is to produce high skilled graduates. Some people in the sector believe that isn’t the purpose”. It appears that a new war may soon be eclared by the by the SU.

COLLEGE NEWS “They go in Irish and come out English” Late Late Show presenter Ryan Tubridy on Trinity College students.

“This amendment is in the best interest of sports in the College and the students in the College” Former SU Deputy President Seamus Conboy, in his speech seeking a constitutional amedment at the DUCAC annual general meeting.

TRINITY NEWS October 20, 2009

THIS FORTNIGHT THEY SAID...

“This decision may save votes, but will do long term damage to the sector. It is a bad day for higher education.” President of DCU and possible successor to the Provost, Professor Ferdinand Von Prondzynski on the decision not to re-introduce fees

“By Jesus there were some laughs!” Student Union President Cónán Ó’Broin on his reaction upon hearing the news that the Green Party had managed to secure a committment from Fianna Fáil not to re-introduce third-level fees.

“Yes, I agree there is an element of subjective judgement” Former Honorary Treasurer for the Dublin University Central Athletic Club, Cyril Smyth, on the allocation of funds to sports clubs.

NUMEROLOGY

James spins a win

Compiled by Lisa Byrne

303,000 » The number of visits made to the College gym last year

84 » The percentage of Green voters who agreed with their Party’s new programme for government, thereby eliminating the return of fees

7 » The number of years in a row Trinity College has been voted ‘Best Irish University’ by the prestigious Times Good University Guide

50,000 » The amount in Euro of the ‘challenge grant’ offered by College groups to the ‘Trinity Take to the Streets’ campaign

2 » The number of goals the ladies hockey team beat the Corinthians

579 » Days until the next beard and moustache championships

Photographs: College News: National News: International News: News Features: Features: Opinion: World Review: Travel: Business: Science: College Sport: TN2 Editor: Film: Music: Fashion: Books: Theatre: Art: Food and Drink:

Chris James, winner of the Ents DJ competition, warms up the crowd. Photo: Daniel Wu

CHRIS JAMES proved the deserving winner at the recent Ents DJ competition. Students had been invited to send in mixes of their sets and from the mighty pile, an eventual winner in the form of Chris James was chosen. His coveted prize was the warm-up slot for the Ed Banger night that was held on Friday October 16th in the Button Factory. The crowd where then treated to perfomances from some of the industry’s greats including So Me, Breakbot, Busy P, Feadz and Ed Red.

Students score new representative continued from page 1 Statistic student James Sweeney of the GAA club. Sweeney says he will push for “student input and oversight in the allocation of funding” in a committee where students are in the minority. He describes DUCAC’s budget forms as “very vague… not being disrespectful, but it [the budget] doesn’t seem that transparent.” Furthermore, the current executive

position of the Chair of the Captain’s Committee is to become the Honorary Secretary of the Captain’s Committee. As part of the constitutional change, the captains’ committee itself will elect this new position, thus devolving significant influence to the sports clubs themselves. DUCAC still remains in the spotlight, however, as sports captains say the lack of resources remains a serious issue, with many clubs being limited to facilities in Santry and the old Luce Hall. Talks between captains and the Student’s

Union President concluded that booking facilities was confusing and difficult, while many clubs fail to gain recognition by the Committee at all. One such club not recognised by DUCAC is the American Football team, which came top in the national league last season. Treasurer Conor Campbell told Trinity News that DUCAC’s “steadfast refusal to help new clubs nearly forced American football to fold”, describing their limit on club recognition as “illogical and irrational”. Furthermore, he says the Committee

have left the team “out in the cold” after breaking a promise to recognise the club by this season. “We feel that a student-run DUCAC, in line with the Central Societies Committee, would work with sports clubs and not against, and ensure the development of all sports in Trinity and not just the oldest few” says Campbell. An informal meeting held last month to address the issue was attended by the sports captains, who agreed to work together in order to bring further clarity and transparency to the issue.

HE SAID, SHE SAID... Compiled by Kate Palmer and Michael Armstrong

INFORMATION Editor: Deputy Editor: Website: Business Manager: Copy Editors:

“If you’re not getting €150bn back then you’re being robbed”. World renowned economist Joseph Stiglitz on Ireland’s National Asset Management Agency (NAMA).

“To emphasise that the “Trinity Experience” and the “College Community” are grounded in the reality of individuals working together because each wishes to, not because each is told to” The aim of the Central Societies Committee’s “Fourth Week”, an initiative to promote work of the College societies.

Compiled by Lisa Byrne

David Molloy Aoife Crowley Tom Lowe Jennifer Finn John Colthurst Aoife Fleming Bina Dangol Eleanor Friel Tess O’Leary Yuliya Bespala, Jean Morley Lisa Byrne, Kate Palmer Fearghus Roulston James Coghill, Stuart Winchester Hugh Taylor, Peter Martin Charles Baker, Sarah Fulham Claire Brett, Shane Quinn Grace Walsh, Paul McDonnell James Lee, Ralph Marnham Jason Somerville, Lisa Keenan Ronan Lyne Paul Galbraith, Alexandra Finnegan Michael Armstrong Rebecca Long, Alex Towers Verity Simpson, Karl McDonald Patrice Murphy, Ana Kinsella Niall O’Brien, Cillian Murphy Rachel Parker, Jamie Leptien Theresa Ryan, Aisling Deng Kara Furr, Kiera Healy

All Trinity News staff can be contacted at firstname.lastname@trinitynews.ie. Trinity News is funded by a grant from DU Publications Committee. This publication claims no special rights or privileges. Serious complaints should be addressed to: The Editor, Trinity News, 6 Trinity College, Dublin 2. Appeals may be directed to the Press Council of Ireland. Trinity News is a full participating member of the Press Council of Ireland and supports the Office of the Press Ombudsman. This scheme, in addition to defending the freedom of the press, offers readers a quick, fair and free method of dealing with complaints that they may have in relation to articles that appear on our pages. To contact the Office of the Press Ombudsman go to www.pressombudsman.ie

DID YOU JOIN ANY SOCIETIES DURING FRESHER’S WEEK? ARE YOU STILL ACTIVE IN ANY OF THEM?

KAREN HOWE POSTGRAD BIOCHEMISTRY

“I joined societies like the Athletics society and the blue Fianna Fáil one and Cumann na Gaelach because they offered free things, such as whiskey. See the thing is, I really really like whiskey, especially when it’s free. But I never go to them because they all suck. They’re full of cliques and cocks. It’s usually just the committee and all of their friends, and it’s hard to get to know anyone and you wouldn’t want to anyway.”

MICK HEIL SS ENGINGEERING

“I would normally join seven or eight societies during freshers’ week in a frenzy! I only really kept up with Judo, which means I don’t have time for anything else.”

WARREN HARDIN JF B.E.S.S.

“I don’t really take part in societies, I just joined all of them in freshers’ week for the free vouchers and stuff.”

HUGH KELLEREN JS ENGINEERING

“I joined DUBES, the Cancer Soc, Hist, loads of societies. But rugby takes up most of my spare time.” PATRICK MCHUGH SS PSYCHOLOGY

“I joined the Cards Society and I still go to it every week. I wouldn’t want to get involved in any positions in the society though, I just go for the craic.”

LUKE MCNALLY POSTGRAD ZOOLOGY

“I did join some societies, but I’m only really active in two of them, the Zoology society and the Literary society. I joined the Zoology society because I was on the committee for two years and they have deadly trips abroad, and I joined the literary society to learn about books but so far I’ve only used it for the free booze. I joined the Metaphysical society, but they never emailed me about any of their events.”

COLLEGE NEWS

TRINITY NEWS October 20, 2009

College set to take to the streets Andrea Marrinan & Lisa McCann THIS MONTH Trinity students, alumni, staff and friends are taking to the streets of Dublin to run the Dublin City Marathon. The Trinity Run will be in aid of University initiatives, which aim to give disadvantaged groups a greater possibility of an education in the future. The initiative entitled ‘Trinity Takes to The Streets’ (TTTTS), hopes to raise €10,000 to support the three schemes addressing educational disadvantage for students through the Trinity Access Programme (TAP), The National Institute for Intellectual Disability (NIID) and the Student Hardship Fund. All runners will be raising sponsorship for their chosen project. The initiative itself has gained sponsorship from some of the most influential businesses in Ireland including Fuse Design, Google and The Irish Times. TTTTS has also announced that the Trinity Foundation Board and TCD Alumni Groups (including the US Fund) are supporting TTTTS by putting up a challenge grant of €50,000. This means that every euro

raised will be matched euro for euro up to €50,000. The College has a long-standing commitment to tackling educational inequalities. TTTTS aims to continue this commitment, especially during these unusually difficult economic times. The Trinity foundation is an independent charity whose sole purpose, according to the Foundation itself, is to “support TCD’s implementation of ambitious educational, research and outreach programmes.” The Trinity Run will raise finances necessary to maintain these initiatives, which address the many educational disadvantages that are prevalent in Dublin and beyond. Many of the projects being undertaken have been regarded as ground-breaking and have even received international recognition. While many runners and walkers have signed up to take part, ‘Trinity Takes to the Streets’ are encouraging those who simply want to sponsor or motivate the teams to get actively involved. Many events have been organized in the lead up to the marathon this month, including the ‘Trinity Fun Run’. The ‘Fun Run’

starts from the Pavilion Bar at 5.30pm on Friday 23rd of October. This run is aimed at trying to get eager alumni involved. The group will run the perimeter of the College grounds in groups to cover the twenty-six mile target of the full marathon. After running the group will reconvene in the newly refurbished Pav for a well-earned drink! Other events include the New York Alumni Fun Run on Saturday 24th of October, Google TTTTS Quiz on Wednesday 28th of October and ‘TAP Laughs Comedy Night’ on Thursday 29th of October. The Dublin City Marathon will take place on Monday the 26th of October, celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Lifestyle Sports - Adidas Dublin Marathon. Runners will take to the famous Georgian streets of Dublin. The starting point is at Fitzwilliam Square East and the mainly level route will finish at Merrion Square close to the city centre. If you would like to get involved in ‘Trinity Takes to the Streets’, details are available on their website www. trinitytaketothestreets.ie.

DARA O’BRIAIN AND HIS COMEDIC FOIL

DUBLIN UNIVERSITY Fencing Club were on hand to teach comedians Dara O’Briain and Griff Rhys Jones the ways of the fencing world when the three men recently paid a visit to the College. The Irish intervarsity champions taught two of the “Three Men in a Boat” the basics of the ancient skill: Louis Arron, who has represented Great Britain, taught Griff a few tricks while Colm Flynn took on the challenge that was Dara. The comedians, who are currently in Ireland with the BBC to promote the new Fáilte Ireland region, proved that fencing is no laughing matter, dueling it out in a tense match. While Dara won the first match with five hits, Griff then fought back, winning the second match. Ladies Captain Hannah Lowry-O’Reilly said of the event, “the banter between the two comedians was hilarious they spoke in comedian language!” Asked about their natural level of skill, Lowry-O’Reilly said “While Griff was more scrappy, Dara proved to be quite a natural.” Lisa Byrne

STUDYING IN DUBLIN? Put yourself in our place! HALLS OF RESIDENCE GRIFFITH CAMPUS Griffith Halls of Residence for The Trinity campanile by night. Photo: Daniel Wu

Top of the table Clara Andrews Staff Reporter IT HAS been another successful year for the College, having recently been placed top of the Sunday Times university league table for the seventh year running. Universities in the league table are ranked in six performance areas including average entry points, research, employment prospects and the amount of firsts and 2.1s awarded. Despite being awarded first place in the league table, Trinity College failed to top the rankings in all but one of the six key areas. What allowed Trinity to maintain its position as the number one university in Ireland was its ability to attract students with the highest number of Leaving Certificate points. In several of the other areas, however, Trinity failed to excel. The College came in joint-third with NUI Galway for the percentage of students leaving college with a first or 2.1. Sixtyeight percent of students at these universities obtained first class and 2.1 degrees, however, Trinity’s closest competitor in the league table, University College Dublin, had a figure of 71%, while University College Cork had a proportion of 72%. Despite coming top of the table, Trinity College did not obtain the title of University of the Year, and has not done so since 2007. This year the title of University of the Year was awarded to NUI Galway, which did consistently well in the six performance areas, although it had a relatively poor student-to-staff ratio. NUI Galway has a high completion rate of 89% and claims that just 2% of graduates are still seeking work nine months later. It is, however, its prestigious research programme, that has secured Galway’s title as University of the Year. The university’s decision to invest in this area has proven successful, and six companies have already been created this year to exploit its research. Overall, in the area of research, full marks were given to NUI Maynooth. University College Dublin ranked next with 76 points out of a possible 100. Maynooth, which won the Sunday Times University of the Year title in 2008, is widely acknowledged as the centre of research in Ireland. With Trinity College failing to excel in the area of research, it is left to question where the college is going wrong. Dr David Lloyd, Dean of Research at Trinity comments that the problem lies not in the quality of Trinity’s research programme, but rather in the methodology used to compile the Sunday Times list. He asserts that if the outputs of research were considered, “its wider relevance and an assessment of the consequence of the research conducted”, then Trinity College would be ranked the highest in Ireland for research. Additionally, he says that if inputs and outputs of research were both considered – as opposed to just inputs – again, Trinity College would take the top spot in the area. Internationally, Trinity has impressed once again, this year advancing six places from last year’s position of 49th to 43rd in the QS World University Rankings. These rankings are seen as a reliable way to examine university performance. The only other Irish university to be placed within the top 100 was Trinity’s closest competitor in the Irish league table, University College Dublin which moved up 19 positions to 89th place. The University of Limerick was placed disappointingly below all the other Irish universities which saw a boost in their ratings. TCD Provost, Dr John Hegarty has commented on Trinity’s achievement: ‘Our stated ambition was to be at the front rank of world universities and among the top 50 globally. We have achieved that in a relatively short period of time and this year’s ranking of 43rd place has surpassed that original goal’. Trinity’s new placement of prestige will hopefully allow the university to attract not only Ireland’s, but also the world’s elite.

affordable, secure, self-catering accommodation. Open to students studying in any educational institution in Dublin.

s &REE "ROADBAND s "AR AND 2ESTAURANT s ,AUNDRY FACILITIES s &ITNESS 2OOM s $OMESTIC 46 s MINUTES WALK FROM $UBLIN #ITY #ENTRE s #HOICE OF TWIN SHARED AND SINGLE ROOMS s 3ECURE 5NDERGROUND &2%% CAR PARKING s 3ELF CATERING BED !PARTMENTS s HOUR 3ECURITY AND ##46

RENT FROM ONLY

€89.00 PER PERSON SHARING PER WEEK!!

Phone +353 - 1 - 416 3320 WWW.GCD-ACCOMMODATION.IE

HALLS of RESIDENCE | Griffith Campus

COLLEGE NEWS

TRINITY NEWS October 20, 2009

Anatomy Building due for dissection Christina Higgins & Leah Tierney THE FUTURE of Trinity’s Anatomy Building seems unclear following recent decisions to “transfer the medical teaching activities to the Biosciences Institute upon its completion”. There are fears among both students and staff that this transfer will lead to the demolition of the historic building, following plans made by the College in the Development Plan of 20032008. As stated in the plan, the College considered knocking down the building with the intention of creating a more landscaped space. The area involved amounted to approximately 4000sqm, or real estate to the value of €16m, at the

time of the plan. According to it: “the buildings in the area at the East End, referred to already, were earmarked in DCP 1 for demolition, to be replaced by landscaped areas only. This was essential to the vision of having open, landscaped space in this high density and congested part of College.” Furthermore, the Plan went on to state that this should “continue to be a central objective, with no action taken that would jeopardise this.” It appears that these development plans for the three East End buildings evolved after decisions were made that at least two of the buildings may need major maintenance work in the next ten years, “work that could be more costly than the construction of new space”. According to the Development Control

Plan, a further driving force behind these plans stemmed from the issue of the building’s long-term suitability for scientific teaching and research. Addressing the development plan, Director of Buildings, Paul Mangan, has told Trinity News that “no decision has been taken in relation to the future use of the Anatomy Building as of yet”. It is recommended that the Development Control Plan is updated every five years to take into account the changing circumstances of the college and the surrounding city itself. Following the advice, authorities are currently preparing a new Development Plan that, according to the College, “will consider, among other things, how these buildings and this section of

the College site can be redeveloped to meet the College’s space requirements.” According to the Director of Buildings, the New Development Control Plan 2009 will “make proposals as to how the site and buildings are to be used or reused”. However students have voiced concern over the possible demolition of such buildings, in particular the Anatomy Building, especially due to its long history in the College. The Anatomy Building was constructed in 1711, just prior to the official opening of the Medical School. Playing a busy and vital role to many students, the Anatomy Building is used to teach human anatomy to students from a variety of science courses including among others, medicine, dentistry,

physiotherapy, occupational therapy, therapeutic radiography. Any plans will first be processed through the Site and Facilities Committee Board in April of next year. If the plans do pass, the College will need to get permission from Dublin City Council. The ‘Dublin City Development Plan’ plays a large role in regards to any planned changes to listed buildings within Trinity College and is in a position to override any. It seems the fate of these historic buildings lies in the balance and will be decided in the near future. The Biosciences Institute is scheduled for completion at the end of 2010, will house students from the Biochemistry Building, the Anatomy Building and the Chemistry Building.

Doherty dazzles at Goldsmith Hall for comedy soc gig Zach Eustace Staff Reporter DAVID O’DOHERTY appeared at the College last Wednesday in association with DU Comedy Soc doing his third show on campus since Freshers’ Week last year. A packed-out Goldsmith Hall saw O’Doherty perform his particular brand of comedy, self-described as “very low energy musical whimsy, or VLEMWy”, for short. Support for the night was provided by College’s very own Matt Smyth, just home from a sell-out run in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Avoiding a theme, Smyth recounted a collection of hilarious tales: among others, Matt talked about the difficulties of being intimate while wearing a medically prescribed boot for a broken foot, how to stop getting bullied for being fat (stop being fat), and read excerpts from a book taken from the Sociology section of the library entitled: “That’s The Joint: A hip-hop studies reader”. For a relative newcomer to the stand-up scene, he was excellent, and by the time the main act came on stage, the

Major problems for TSM with Erasmus Thomas Raftery Staff Reporter TRINITY NEWS has found a marked discrepancy in various departments’ attitudes towards their students studying abroad. Two Subject Moderatorship students studying a language have complained of difficulties in trying to organise an Erasmus for their Junior Sophister year. In their third year, TSM students must choose which subject to major in. Students across a range of disciplines have argued that it is not made sufficiently clear that this decision will have serious implications on whether they will be able to study abroad. Leonard Crippely, a third year TSM student studying Russian and History, has expressed his vehemence at his department’s decision not to allow him to go to Russia for the year. “I love Russian but I am livid, spending a year abroad is something that is very important to me, and the progress of my studies.” Crippely explained that his decision to major in Russian was what denied him a placement abroad for his Junior Sophister year, “In choosing to major in Russian, I elected to take my history finals in my third year – which would have meant sitting them in Russia, which is something the History department weren’t prepared to allow.” Crippely went on to detail how for many students, “going away is an absolute pre-requisite, and for many it is a decisive factor in electing to study at Trinity”. Megan Corp, a Junior Sophister TSM student reading Mathematics and French, has expressed her personal disappointment at not being able to study in France for a year, “French is only offered as a TSM

subject, but during the application process it was never made clear to me that the Mathematics department has a policy whereby it will not let students go on placements abroad.” Corp added that “while this is clear now, you are not given any clue that this policy exists until you actually apply to go away”, which perhaps explains the perplexity of many TSM students denied the opportunity to go abroad. Dr. Sarah Smyth, Head of Russian, was eager to express the Russian and Slavonic Studies department’s commitment to its students studying abroad, “I’ve no doubt at all in my mind about the benefits of studying in Russia for a semester, or preferably a year … and we do everything to encourage students to do that”. Dr. Smyth asserted that she is “very positively disposed towards students spending time studying abroad”, and that she would “like more students to avail of the opportunities provided by the very significant network of international relation in Europe and further afield, I do appreciate that there are a number of constraints which militate against some students or groups of students participating in exchange programmes”. However, other departments are not seen to be as accommodating. Trinity News has spoken to History students, who have slammed their departments attitude towards foreign placements. The students, who wish to remain anonymous saying “the channels of communication are very bad, the department are very vague about their policies, and in cases seem distinctly apathetic”. TSM language students, including those who aren’t able to go abroad, are still required to complete at least two months language experience in a country of their choice where their

language is spoken natively. Flick ReesJones, studying Italian and French, was unable to go on a placement, which has meant that she has spent to last two summers completing the required experience, and subsequently has been unable to either work or spend time with family and friends. This policy can also pose a significant problem to students who, for financial reasons, are unable to forgo a summer of paid work. The problems with foreign study do not seem to end there. Registration week held a few shocks for a number of Trinity students who had been erroneously registered by College to be studying abroad. Hector Lloyd, a 3rd year TSM student reading Politics and Philosophy, was in such a position. “I never gave any agreement, yet I received a confirmation letter ... I had to spend a considerable amount of my own time talking to both departments, the Erasmus department and co-ordinator, and the student records office to rectify this mistake”. Similarly, Clare Hammond arrived at her registration in Paris this September, only to discover that Trinity “had forgotten” to register her with the hosting University. Dr. Smyth believes that the problems for foreign placements are threefold. “Some of the constraints are academic – there needs to be an existing exchange with the University so you can study your subjects at a level required by TCD. Some of the constraints are financial – studying abroad is not cheap, and some are linguistic – not all students are equipped with the linguistic skills necessary to derive benefit from studies abroad.” Students confused as to whether they are eligible for study abroad, speak directly to your head of department, or the International Office.

crowd was nicely warmed up. By his own admission, David O’Doherty doesn’t ‘do’ jokes, and there was no real structure to his marathon set. His hour and forty minutes consisted of musical numbers (including the strangely poignant “Not Everything Is Shit”), stand-up, and storytelling. His funniest moments came from ad-libbing or talking to members of the audience: asking an engineer who their favourite civic engineer of all time was or rooting through a girl’s shopping bag (an Angel boxset on VHS, a Placebo album, and a combined carrot grater/ lunchbox). There may not have been any real structure to the show, and he may not have huge themes, and his hair may closely resemble a dead cat, but O’Doherty still provided an evening of very enjoyable, funny, lighthearted comedy. O’Doherty appeared as disappointed as the crowd when the security eventually turned on the lights in Goldsmith forcing him to get off stage, with the comedian exclaiming “My God, security in Trinity being narky?”.

Sports centre strife Thomas Raftery Staff Reporter PARTS OF Trinity’s Sports Centre remain closed as the repair and redevelopment work continues into the fourth week of the semester. The Sports Centre, which cost a total of €16 million, has been experiencing significant problems with water leaks across the male and female changing rooms, and into the gym itself. Training patterns of users have been disrupted by the works which saw the men’s changing rooms closed totally and male members redirected to changing space in the swimming pool. At the recent DUCAC AGM, Terry McCauley, the College’s Director of Sport, commented that “some leakage was discovered and had to be addressed immediately”. Concerns of members were raised when buckets were positioned in the gym underneath light fixtures through which water was seeping. Parts of the gym itself have been cordoned off due to the water leaks. Dermot O’Riordan, a 3rd year Rugby player, commented that “it is disappointing when areas are unavailable given the facilities are so new and cost so much.” The redevelopments are at the centre of concerns that Trinity is unable to maintain the enormous development. The €16 million was raised partly through a donation from Martin Noughton and partly paid through student donations. For a number of years, students were asked to pay an annual levy towards the construction of the Sports Centre, however many of the students who contributed never got to use the Sports Centre as they had graduated by the time of completion. The Sports Centre has become extremely popular. Last year there were 303,000 visits to the gym, and 69% of those were by fitness conscious students. Terry McCauley added that although the sports centre is currently under repair “it should be in operation by this weekend”. While the Men’s changing facilities have been opened, the showers remain closed. Mr. McCauley added that “the women’s facilities will need to be repaired too”. D.U.C.A.C, and Sports Centre management were unavailable for comment.

A Celebration of Colour www.nolanart.com telephone - 8372162 email - john@nolanart.com

Fine Art prints and cards. Art classes - John Nolan will help you explore colour through his unique style of painting.

TRINITY NEWS October 20, 2009

Economist Stiglitz slams bank bailouts as just “cash for trash” »» Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz honoured by Historical Society in a ceremony last week »» Stiglitz sharply critical of Irish economic policy »» Government-backed NAMA singled out as a particularly poor deal for the Irish taxpayer Conor Sullivan Staff Reporter NOBEL LAUREATE in Economics, Joseph Stiglitz visited Trinity last week, receiving the Historical society’s award for “contribution to public discourse”. Chairing a debate on globalisation and its effects on the world’s poor, he heavily criticised the actions of firstworld governments for worsening global poverty. Prof. Stiglitz was commended as the “most articulate defender of the worlds needy and poor, when the mainstream of economic thinking was diverted elsewhere” and praised as a “stalwart against conventional wisdom”. When asked by an audience member about Irish economic policy, he sharply criticised the Government’s approach to dealing with the problems in the banking sector as it would “burden generations” with repayments for possibly 50 years, he claimed. Stiglitz called the government’s approach, of having a public agency (NAMA) buy and manage the assets, as “criminal” and involving a “massive transfer of money from the public to the bankers”. “The view that there are no alternatives is wrong,” he added; the government could take an increased share in the banks. He said that “if you’re not getting €150bn back then you’re being robbed,” since the government should be compensated for the lengthy period of investment and risky outcome. Stiglitz also said he was “uncomfortable with a Government with such minority support making such a decision”. He held that the government should have invested in the banks and taken increased share holdings. Stiglitz won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2001, with George Akerlof and Michael Spence, “for their analyses of markets with asymmetric information”. This is where some agents in the market know more than others; the insured knows more about their likelihood of having an accident than the

insurer, for example. This raises problems about the efficient operation of markets; Stiglitz showed in his academic work how these can be solved. The prize announcement said that “Stiglitz has shown that asymmetric information can provide the key to understanding many observed market phenomena, including unemployment and credit rationing.” He is currently a professor of economics at Columbia University and former world bank chief economist, and wrote the 2002 best seller “globalisation and its discontents”. His speech was preceded by a public debate on globalisation with contributions from academics and students, who debated whether globalisation had a negative influence on the worlds poor. Dr. Kieran Allen of the UCD Sociology department railed against world inequality, citing globalisation as a leading cause of this, and condemning that the “resources of the planet are controlled by rich people”. Prof. Philip Lane, head of the Economics department, responded by noting that globalisation was not the cause of the world’s problems, and that the opposite was isolationism, something “nobody wants”. Stiglitz followed the debate with a speech and responded to question from the audience. He said people tended to overlook the positive aspects of globalisation such as the “big success story” of China where globalisation has “lifted a large number of people from poverty, something like 300-500 million people”. “Globalisation has helped hundreds of millions of people around the world. The problem is the way globalisation has been managed - it has been worked to the disadvantage of the poor,” he said. Some policies acted were strongly in favour of rich countries, he said, such as the World Bank only pushing investment in primary education, and countries imposing small

CSC PROMOTE SOCIETIES IN “FOURTH WEEK”

Joseph Stiglitz addresses the Historical Society. Photo by Yuliya Bespala tariffs on imports of raw materials, but large ones on processed goods. On the financial crisis, he said it was a prominent example of the problems of unregulated markets, and talked of the benefits that could have accrued if the abundant cheap capital of the last decade

Siobhan Margolis Staff reporter

THERE SEEMED to be very little publicity around campus in the lead up to Jack White’s Trinity visit. Usually guests of this renown leer down from posters on every noticeboard. However, the sole poster in the GMB, a facebook group and word of mouth were enough to ensure that queues started forming early outside the GMB. White was in Trinity to accept the Honorary Patronage award from the University Philosophical Society before being interviewed by Niall Stokes, editor of Hotpress. In his perculiarly meandering style of speaking, White touched on many

topics, from family to music to film. He talked at length about his belief that massproduced goods are generally bad, and that the most important thing in music is to be authentic and real. As an example, he told of how when he worked as an upholsterer, he would stitch poetry into the inside of the upholstery before he sewed it up, in the hope that one day another upholsterer would find it. Fans went home with unsigned memorablia as White did not give out autographs. Aoife Crowley

ECHO OFFERS “CHANCE OF A LIFETIME”

EVENTS

had been put to better use. He criticised the approach of the US government to bank bailouts, dubbing it “cash for trash”, and cited analyses of the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office that the government had lost money in its efforts to provide temporary assistance to banks.

Trinity professor Luke O’Neill has been honoured by an expert panel of judges who have decided to present him with the nation’s highest accolade in the field of scientific research, the Boyle medal.

Jack White earns his stripes at the GMB

COMPETITION

THE EUROPEAN Commission Humanitarian Aid Department (ECHO) has teamed up with its partner’s GOAL and Concern Worldwide to offer one college student the opportunity to become a crisis correspondent. Every year, more than 200 million people are affected by natural disasters and a further 42 million are forced to flee their homes through conflict and persecution, yet many of these often go unreported. The competition offers students the chance to visit Uganda and gain first hand experience of the humanitarian aid that ECHO and the Irish NGOs are providing to people affected by crises in Uganda. The winner will also receive a professional camera to record their story from Uganda and the assistance of a mentor who will give them professional advice on their career. For more information on the competition, including details of how to enter, visit www. crisiscorrespondent.ie. Matthew Pilkington

Irish Times Boyle-d over by biochemist

Jack White cracks a rare smile in the GMB. Photo: Caroline O’Leary

SHORT CUTS

TRINITY COLLEGE’S own Luke O’Neill, Professor of Biochemistry, has been chosen unanimously by a distinguished panel of expert judges as the 37th winner of the RDS Irish Times Boyle medal for Scientific Excellence. This prestigious award, which is the nation’s highest accolade in the field of scientific research, will be presented to Professor O’ Neill on Monday 16th November at the RDS. The Boyle medal is an honour bestowed upon only those individuals whose academic research is felt to have contributed significantly to the global advance of science, and Professor O’ Neill’s discovery “of key ‘cogs’ in the immune machine”, as he himself simplified it, is certainly research of this calibre. His groundbreaking findings have shed new light on the causes and potential treatment of diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and also potentially fatal diseases that continue to plague the developing world such as TB, malaria and pneumonia. When asked what his long term goals were regarding his research and how he would like his academic legacy to be read, O’Neill cited finding potential cures for these diseases with the intention of benefiting humanity as one of his primary aims, along with continuing to discover new components in the immune

system – “a bit like Christopher Columbus”. Before studying in both University of London and Cambridge, Professor O’Neill began his scholarly career as an undergraduate science student in TCD, and it was here that he first became interested in the study of inflammation which was to form the basis of his life’s research. In being presented with the Boyle medal, he joins the illustrious ranks of many world class Irish born or Ireland based scientists who are previous recipients of the award. O’Neill considers it “an honour to be ranked alongside previous winners such as Paddy Cunningham (Science Advisor to the Government) and Garret Fitzgerald (the clinical scientist who made major findings in the area of inflammation) as well as Derek Walcott, the TCD zoologist who made huge contributions to our understanding of evolution.” Praised by the judges of the Boyle medal as “a fantastic ambassador for Irish science”, O’Neill is certainly a man at the dizzying heights of an eminent career. He advises aspiring young scientists to “be positive, passionate and persevering” and to involve themselves in a field of study which they “really find fascinating”. Describing the world of scientific research as “one of the biggest adventures”, it is not difficult to recognise the great passion that inspires Professor Luke O’ Neill’s outstanding work and that will mark him out as one of the great scientists of our time.

THE CENTRAL Societies Committee have created an initiative entitled “Fourth Week” in a bid to promote the College’s societies. According to the CSC, the aim of the initiative is to “show the breadth and depth of student commitment to societal activity and to emphasise that the “Trinity Experience” and the “College Community” are grounded in the reality of individuals working together because each wishes to, not because each is told to”. The committee have announced the piloting of the Postgraduate Society and Club Information Day and will be conducting a College-wide survey in a bid to gather feedback on the needs of societies and their members. The Committee have also announced the Dorian Gray project which is based on the idea of a time capsule. Students and members of staff will have the opportunity to get their photographs taken which will be stored digitally for a decade before they will be sent to students via email. Dorian Gray Day takes place on November 30th, marking Oscar Wilde’s The initiative was launched on Monday October 19th and will run until Friday the 23rd. Lisa Byrne

DISCOVERYS

TCD RESEARCHERS DISCOVER SAFER METHOD OF DRUG INSERTION A TEAM of Trinity scientists have developed a new delivery system which will decrease the risks associated with transferring drugs into the retina. The researchers, led by Dr. Matthew Campbell and Prof. Peter Humphries, have succeeded in opening the bloodretina barrier to allow the drugs that treat retinal disease to be inserted into the eye. Lisa Byrne PRIZES

POWER AWARDED ROONEY PRIZE FOR LITERATURE THE NOVELIST Kevin Power has been awarded the College’s Rooney Prize for Irish Literature for 2009. The announcement was made by the Provost, Dr. John Hegarty, at a reception held in the College on October 8th. The Rooney Prize which was first presented in 1976, is awarded every year to a published Irish writer under the age of forty whose work the committee feels shows outstanding promise. Power’s first novel entitled “Bad Day in Blackrock” was published in Dublin in 2008 The prize is administered by the Oscar Wilde Centre for Irish Writing, School of English, Trinity College Dublin. Lisa Byrne

NATIONAL NEWS

TRINITY NEWS October 20, 2009

SHORT CUTS DAME EDNA HONOURED BARRY HUMPHRIES, an Australian comedian also known as the beloved character Dame Edna Everage, has received the James Joyce Award at University College Dublin from the college’s Literary and Historical Society. Humphries has undoubtedly had a prolific and varied comedic and entertainment career; as Dame Edna, he has written books, satirical columns, recorded albums and hosted an array of television programmes. Her character first appeared in 1955 and is still today dubbed “Australia’s first lady.” In 2008 she was one of the faces of cosmetic brand MAC, with her own collection of cosmetics. Speaking on Humphries’ visit to UCD Conor McAndrews, auditor of the UCD Literary & Historical Society, said “The award is in recognition of Barry Humphries’ amazing career as a comedian and entertainer. With her trademark lilac-coloured hair and overthe-top cat eye glasses, and cleverly wicked humour, Barry Humphries has made Dame Edna one of the world’s most recognisable comedians”. Former recipients of the UCD Literary and Historical Society’s James Joyce Award include: the Beatles’ producer and music arranger, Sir George Martin; Hollywood comedian, Will Ferrell; Harry Potter author, JK Rowling; author, Salman Rushdie; theorist, Noam Chomsky; comedian , Eddie Izzard; and lead singer of the Who, Roger Daltry. Mairead Casey

The poster was visible for only a few hours before being removed. Photo illustration: Colin Scally/UCD Observer

UCD societies hit by €5,000 postering fine Fearghus Roulston National News Features UCD’S BUSINESS and Legal Society, and their Arts Society, have been hit with a €5,000 fine for posters intended to advertise their joint event, the ‘Virgin Ball’. The societies are to share the unexpectedly harsh fine equally. The posters were put up around campus on Thursday the 3rd of September, but were removed later that day on the advice of UCD societies officer Richard Butler. The Recognition Committee of Societies Council and Academic Council decided on the fine, describing the posters as offensive and “in breach of the basic standards of propriety and consideration”. The Arts Society auditor, Niamh Kiely, and the Business and Legal Society auditor Aoife McGuinness, were asked to submit a joint defence of their societies’ actions by email. They were not permitted to attend the disciplinary

meeting, and were informed of the sanctions via email. Both auditors maintain that such a severe fine was unnecessary. Kiely acknowledged that the poster in question might have been “a bit close to the line”, but felt that the fine was harsh. McGuinness agreed, explaining that “we’d completely accept a fine, but not €5,000 . It’s a lot. I don’t understand how they’re justifying it.” Richard Butler gave a statement to the University Observer elaborating on the thinking behind such a large fine. “The Committee considered that the message conveyed by the poster was insidious and dangerous, and that it constituted a deliberate act of emotional manipulation designed to prey on the fears and worries of students.” He also dismissed the arguments offered by the societies as “mendacious”. The posters, he felt, had a “real danger of triggering significant harm to the university community”.

However, Kiely and McGuinness feel they have been treated unfairly. They claimed the “decisive and rapid action” they took in changing the posters, and their decision to rename the event ‘Slave to the Rave’, should be considered as mitigating factors. The auditors warned that the scale of the fine meant big society events like the B&L Ball and Arts Day would suffer. Kiely concluded that she couldn’t be entirely sure Arts Day would go ahead in the light of the punishment. A University Observer editorial on the matter questioned the decision. “How have we come to the point that something called ‘The Virgin Ball’ is seen as an offensive and derogatory event? Crass perhaps. Juvenile undoubtedly. Funny – not particularly, but worthy of a €5000 fine?” The students have not yet been given a deadline for the payment of the fine, which will be donated to the Student Welfare Fund.

Hume honoured by University of Ulster Fearghus Roulston

NEW TECHNOLOGY DETECTS WEAPONS IN SECONDS SCIENTISTS AT Queen’s University Belfast have developed a spectroscopybased sensor to detect chemical agents and illegal drugs. It is hoped the new system will help monitor the threat of terrorist attacks. Special gel pads will be used to swipe an individual or crime scene. The sample is then analysed by a machine which can detect the presence of chemicals in seconds. This will allow better, faster decisions to be made in response to a terrorist threat. Dr Steven Bell, who is leading the research, said: “Although we are still in the middle of the project we have finished much of the preliminary work and are now at the exciting stage where we put the various strands together to produce the integrated sensor device. For the future, we hope to be able to capitalise on this research and expand the range of chemicals and drugs which these sensors are able to detect.” It is also hoped the new sensors will form the basis for developing new kinds of breathalysers. These could test for drug use in a similar way to breathalysers used to detect alcohol. At present, police can only use a practical test of abilities to determine if a person is driving under the influence of drugs. There are concerns that this method is easy to cheat. Stan Brown, the chief executive of Forensic Science Northern Ireland, said, “we consider the work being carried out by researchers at Queen’s University extremely important and potentially very useful in driving forward the effectiveness, efficiency and speed of forensic science practice”. Fearghus Roulston

Hume, pictured receving his Chair in Peace studies.

Students from Cork universities gathered at a mass protest in the city days before the end of the debate.

Last days of fees protests Fearghus Roulston National News Editor AT A recent protest in Cork, attended by up to 6,000 students from both the Cork Institute of Technology and University College Cork, CIT Students’ Union President Gearóid Buckley rang Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe’s personal mobile phone from the podium in Grand Parade where the protest had been taking place, telling him he was talking to 6,000 angry Cork students.

Mr Buckley then read out Mr O’Keefe’s number and asked those gathered to text him the message ‘No Fees’. The Students’ Union president declined to explain how he had obtained the minister’s personal number. Despite criticism of the manner in which the minister was contacted, Sean O Sé, UCC’s student officer, said the event went well and was important in encouraging the Green Party’s commitment to not introducing third level fees. “The protest was a great success

with over 6,000 students marching to make the voices heard. The protest played a key role in forcing the Green Party to ensure that third level fees will not be introduced during the lifetime of the current government. However the Program for Government will not protect students from a further increase in the registration fee. The battle against fees may be over for the moment but the fight against a deterioration in student services and an increase in the price of education will continue.”

JOHN HUME, founder of the Social Democratic and Labour Party in Northern Ireland and co-recipient of the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize with David Trimble, has been awarded an Honorary Chair in Peace Studies by the University of Ulster. The Nobel Laureate is regarded as one of the most important figures in the recent political history of Northern Ireland. Over a hundred people attended a celebratory dinner last week to mark Professor Hume’s seven-year tenure of the Tip O’Neill Chair and inaugurate his new honorary role. Tributes were paid to the former politician during the celebration in Magee. The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Richard Barnett, said “the lengthy list of men and women of distinction who have delivered ‘Tip’ O’Neill Peace Lectures at the personal invitation of John Hume underlines his international stature as a statesman and peace-builder.”Here in his home city of Derry, the University of Ulster is proud to thank him for his continuing dedication, and for making Magee a venue for world leaders.” Professor Hume was presented with a specially commissioned record of Tip O’Neill Lectures and the luminaries who have delivered them over the last fifteen years. They include the former US President Bill Clinton, who inaugurated the programme with his first visit to Northern Ireland in 1995. The Provost of Magee, Professor Jim Allen, echoed his colleague’s sentiments, emphasising John Hume’s role in reinforcing the campus’ reputation as a leading centre for the study of conflict and its resolution. INCORE, the international conflict

research institute jointly established with the United Nations University, was founded on the campus in 1993. The Provost said “in the past seven years, high profile speakers have delivered addresses on peace-building at Magee, drawing on the lessons of history and analysing current ethnic and power-bloc conflicts around the world. They consistently praise John Hume’s role as one of the architects of the Good Friday Agreement, and hold it up as a beacon of hope to divided communities around the world”. Professor Barnett also explained that plans were being made to create a memorial at Magee to Tip O’Neill, a Speaker of the House of Representatives in the United States. The ViceChancellor described O’Neill as “that most redoubtable of 20th century American politicians”. The grandson of an emigrant from Donegal, the politician remained proud of his Irish origins. “In the 1970s, influenced by John Hume, he joined senators Edward Kennedy and Daniel Moynihan, and New York governor Hugh Carey, to work for a peaceful settlement in Northern Ireland.” “It is therefore entirely appropriate that the Tip O’Neill Chair in Peace Studies should be located here, and that in 2002 John Hume should come to hold it.” “It would be difficult to overstate the dedication he has shown. Unpublicised, he has regularly met groups of visiting students and academics, freely sharing his experience and philosophy of peacemaking.” Professor Hume, who has spoken at Trinity several times, seems sure to continue to hold an important role in both the University of Ulster, and in politics across Ireland.

Rising rankings, falling funds New French novel set in Limerick

John Fitzsimons Staff Writer

THE RECENT publication of the Times Higher Education global league table sees the world rankings of Irish Universities improving considerably. The well-regarded international league table, now in its sixth year of publication, is compiled by academics and employers on the basis of data gathered on peer academic review, employer review, international faculty ratio, international student ratio, student faculty ratio and citations per faculty. Trinity has climbed six places from 49th to 43rd. However, the biggest news came for UCD and NUI Galway. NUI Galway recorded the greatest jump of all the Irish universities by rising 125 places, putting it in 243rd place. This rise in ranking, as well as the recent award of the 2009 Sunday Times’ University of the Year, were cited by Dr. James J. Browne, President of NUI Galway, as confirming “NUI Galway’s position as one of Ireland’s leading universities, and a growing force on the international stage”. UCD recorded an equally impressive

feat by entering the top 100 universities for the first time. Placed in 89th, a rise of 19 places, this ranking puts UCD in the top 5% of universities worldwide. The college’s rapid rise from 221st in 2005 to 89th in 2009 is a remarkable achievement that many have attributed to the modernising, pro-business agenda of UCD President, Dr. Hugh Brady. While admitting that there are many faults to be found with assessing universities on the basis of league tables, Dr. Brady insisted that there is no denying the reality that rankings do matter. According to the UCD President, they “matter when top quality international students and staff are choosing a university, they matter increasingly to Irish students when deciding whether to study in Ireland or abroad, and they are cited as one of the top 10 reasons why multinational companies choose a particular region in which to invest”. Increases were also achieved by UCC (207th) and DCU (279th), while both UL and NUI Maynooth are placed within the top 500. The impressive performance of the Irish universities was tempered by some, including Ferdinand

von Prondzynski who has predicted that these rankings will mark the apogee for Irish universities. Writing in the Irish Times, the DCU President claimed that this year’s rankings reflected “Government investment in the sector and efforts by staff and students to make good use of our resources. But all of that is in decline”. These concerns were echoed by UCC President, Dr. Michael Murphy, who warned that the severe cuts facing the third level sector will greatly affect its “ability to compete internationally at the highest level and drive forward the Government’s own agenda for a knowledge-based economy.” The news that the Green Party had secured a government guarantee of no introduction of third level fees was also met with dismay by the Irish universities as this will mean that much needed funding is not provided. Irish universities have done extremely well to compete with many British and American universities which are far better funded and resourced. The challenge now for the third level sector is to maintain these high rankings as budgets, and staff numbers, decline.

Mairead Casey Staff Writer DOMINIQUE LE Meur, lecturer of French at the University of Limerick, has launched his new French novel based in Limerick city. Retour vers l’ailleurs was presented in September as part of the UL Languages week, and launches officially on Thursday the 29th of October in the Alliance Françoise. Le Meur says the new novel explores the recent dramatic changes in Irish society. “Set in Limerick, this novel looks at the deep changes that have taken place in Irish society over the past few years through a gallery of characters. Moloney comes back to his hometown Limerick after having spent ten years in London and totally missed the Celtic Tiger years which have dramatically changed the country.

Chloé, from Germany came to Ireland in a quest for a new life and Axel, from France, has been living in Limerick since the early 90’s. This book tells the story of interwoven destinies which cross and collide in an ever-changing Ireland in the new millennium.” The novel’s protagonist, John Moloney, has difficulty coming to terms with the new modern city of Limerick, having long ago written it off as a backwards backwater town. Le Meur was born in France in 1964. His first novel Ou vas-tu Irlande? (1998) won the Prix des Ecrivains Bretons in 1999. Set in Northern Ireland, it focused on the intercultural relations and attempted to present to French readers the complexity of the situation in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. L’Eire des Amants, his 2005 novel, a devastating and passionate love story, is also set in Limerick.

October 20, 2009

South African university sees racism debate return Rachael McKeon Contributing Writer A DEBATE over racism is, again, about to engulf South African universities this week as four students stand trial for charges of racism. Students from the prestigious University of the Free State in Bloemfontein provoked rioting on campuses throughout South Africa, when a video appeared on the website YouTube showing black cleaners being coerced to take part in a violent “integration” ceremony. In the clip, made for a “cultural evening” at their halls of residence in 2008, the cleaners are subjected to a drinking contest, a sprint, and are forced to drink and swallow a foul smelling, brown stew into which the camera captures a student apparently urinating. Referred to as “squeezzas”, the black cleaners are filmed gagging and spitting out the mixture accompanied by the shouts and taunts of the students involved. Consequential national outrage ensued after an ex girlfriend of one of the antagonists posted the offending sequence online. In the space of 24 hours, riots had erupted on campus, along with protests in the townships of Bloemfontein. The broadcasting of the incident has revealed the university to be a boiling pot of racial tension. Before making the video, it emerged that eight black students in their first year had been assigned to live with over 100 white students at the Reitz Hostel halls of residence. Furthermore, these black students endured intimidation in the form of

their windows being repeatedly smashed, among other things. It is the video, however, that has landed the students in most trouble from university authorities and the South African government. Of the four boys involved, two were immediately expelled. But now all four face criminal investigation and prosecution. The South African director of public prosecution has stated that the trial is due to start the week beginning O c t o b e r 26th. But interestingly, the court, the university authorities and the parents of the accused are anxious for both parties to reach an agreement before the commencement of the trial. This case has divided the South African public. Parents and relatives of the students involved feel their sons were acting in jest and that the video was misunderstood. But those filmed in the video have a somewhat different perspective. Laukaziemma Koko, one of the female cleaners featured, feels that she and her fellow workers were taken

advantage of: “they treated us like dogs,” she said. Rebecca Adams, another cleaner featured in the video feels “betrayed”. Adams does not blame the boys for their actions however. Instead, her anger is directed towards their parents who she feels are responsible for their sons’ backward attitudes. “It is not them I wish to forgive. It is their parents, they made them that way.” Those in defence of the four students claim that they all come from rural backgrounds where their only experience of black people were of the men and women who clean their homes and tend their gardens. James Roberts, the father of one of the four involved, is willing to fight a civil case if necessary. He said, “When this dies down, the university will be blamed for forcing integration upon students.” The incident and resulting prosecution has naturally brought The University of the Free State under public and media scrutiny. On its homepage is the quote: “The university is a multicultural and multi-lingual

institution…we are recognized as a leader in transformation.” One assumes that the word “transformation” has replaced “integration”, and this incident has highlighted the fact that integration has not been as successful as the university likes to portray. Paloma Jurie, a student and member of the university’s all-black choir, feels there is little or no integration on campus, claiming that white students refuse to share rooms with black students. There are separate black and white choirs, and separate church services on Sunday. Professor Jonathan Jansen, the new rector at the university, feels that even the white students are often very frightened: “The white students carry profound fear, an exaggerated fear based on the political transition that is given deep meaning in their homes and churches. Their parents have created this.” Jansen states that in an attempt to deal with this problem, from 2010 all students will be integrated in residences on a 50% white and 50% black basis. If students refuse to comply with this new regulation then they will simply be refused accommodation on campus. Indeed, this incident leaves us to wonder about the future of South African education, but Archbishop Desmond Tutu has hope. A few months after the incident he stated, that despite the nation’s challenges: “we can become a caring and compassionate society where everyone counts.” Only time will tell if this vision fostered by so many can become reality, and if South Africa can step out from the dark shadow that is her past.

Asian universities continue long march up international league tables NUMBER OF UNIVERISITIES IN TOP 200 BY AREA Country

Region

2008

2009

North America

Europe

Canda

North America

Japan

Asia

Netherlands

Europe

Germany

Europe

Australia

Australasia

Switzerland

Europe

China

Asia

Belgium

Europe

Hong Kong

Asia

Sweden

Europe

France

Europe

South Korea

Asia

Christopher McCann Staff Writer THE TIMES Higher Education Supplement (THES) last week published its annual ranking of the top 200 universities in the world. The list which saw Trinity rise six places to 43rd, is annually dominated by institutions in the US and the UK; this year, however, saw a slight change to the status quo. Representation by US colleges dropped as six universities fell out of the top 100. In spite of this decline, US institutions still account for over one third of those within the top 100. Asian universities were among those that profited from the US’s dramatic decline. Asia’s representation increased with two more institutions entering the top 100, bringing the total number to 16. In addition to this overall increase, Asian institutions were observed moving up within the top 100 itself. This trend was most noticeable among Hong Kong’s representatives. The University of Hong Kong rose two places to 24th and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology gained four places to rest at 35th. The highest ranked out of the Asian colleges was once again the University of Tokyo in Japan, which actually fell by three places to 22nd. On a pan-Asian note, the continent now has representatives from China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan. Speaking about Asia’s recent surge in the

rankings, Philip Altbach, director of the Centre for Higher Education at Boston College in the US, proposed a number of explanations: “These countries have invested heavily in higher education in recent years, and this is reflected in the improved quality in their top institutions,” he says, “They have also attempted to internationalise their universities by hiring more faculty from overseas ... this helps to improve their visibility globally.” Altbach added, “these universities have also stressed the importance of their professors’ publishing in international journals, which has no doubt increased the visibility of their research.” However, he also stressed that, although the rankings were indeed improving, the tactics being used may not be entirely advisable. Altbach believes that, through encouraging the use of English, these institutions may be having a “negative impact on intellectual work in the local language”. Experts are predicting that this may be just the beginning of Asia’s rise and, thus, America’s decline. Don Olcott, head of the Observatory on Borderless Higher Education has suggested that it would be naïve to think that institutions in China, India, Malaysia, South Korea and the Gulf states do not want to build long-term, high-quality, sustainable university systems. Olcott’s warning should ring true in an America that has recently announced a decrease in funding for its Ivy League institutions, the same universities which so regularly dominate the top spots of the THES tables.

Endowments plunge as recession takes toll Stuart Winchester Deputy International News Editor AFTER ANNOUNCING very large losses to their endowments, many US colleges and universities have had to make substantial budget cuts in order to protect their endowments. In the past 18 months, with U.S. colleges and universities reporting an average loss of 25 percent, many administrations are finding ways to tighten budgets. When discussing an average 25 percent loss, one has to appreciate how crucial endowments are to the yearly running of most universities in the United States. Many universities in the US cannot make ends meet with just tuition alone, considering the large amounts of financial aid that they award every year and the research that they fund. Thus, to make their bottom line, the necessary money comes out of their respective endowments. Endowments are formed by alumni donation and then maintained with investment, which has proved dangerous in a stock market that fell up to 40% at its worst. Though very few universities managed to escape without some sort of loss, large

universities suffered the worst, particularly Ivy League universities. The Ivy League consists of eight of the oldest and generally most prestigious universities in America and as a result they also boast some of the largest endowments. Between Brown University’s $2.01 billion and Harvard’s massive $28.8 billion, the largest of any academic institution, Ivy League endowments have long been held up as a model for long-term money management. Unfortunately, respect did not insulate them from the recession. The top three in the Ivy League - Harvard, Princeton and Yale - lost on average 30% of their endowments in the past 18 months. Though they maintained their very high rankings in the recent Times Higher Education Supplement rankings, all three universities have had to come to grips with budget cuts some more public than others. Harvard administrators, besides implementing salary and hiring freezes, have cut some of the small comforts that are, according to one student, “the things that are at Harvard that you can’t get anywhere else.” These cuts, which have drawn some

discontent from the student-body include no hot breakfast in the dormitories, no more free tracksuits for athletes and the reduction of the shuttle service between student residences and the central campus. Although these cuts may seem trivial, it must be noted that they were made in part so that Harvard could continue to award significant financial aid to students in need. The total sum of aid this school year totalled $145 million. Other universities, both inside and outside the Ivy League, have been forced to make cuts and layoffs to maintain financial security. University of Michigan president, Mary Sue Coleman, stated on October 5th that “Everything is a moving target” for cuts. At a school like U. of Michigan, which is not tuition but government funded, the endowment is even more precious, as it provides some independent security for the university. Coleman warned that cost-saving cuts will double in the coming year, in order for the university to remain secure. Many smaller colleges have managed to conserve in smaller ways, so their students do not feel the pinch quite as much. By shutting some dining halls and altering library hours,

administrators are working to make ends meet more subtly. However, some large universities are trying this technique as well. Princeton University, for example, is making slight cuts in food services, but much more significant cuts in utilities. When questioned, Princeton administration stated that instead of the “more precipitous and dramatic” things that are being done by Harvard, their aim is to “lose the weight and keep it off.” With this statement in mind, utilities have been cut by 25% in all residences and students have a limit on their printing from school computers for the first time. Overall, the recession has significantly impacted universities around the world. Did the slip in finances that U.S. universities experienced this year make room for the very well-funded Asian universities, which leaped upward in the 2009 THES? What will recovery look like for these American institutions? These questions remain unanswered for now and will remain so, until the smoke clears from this worldwide recession and American universities are able to recover from their losses.

Global Campus

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

TRINITY NEWS

UNITED KINGDOM

LECTURERS GET “SCRUFFY” JEANS BAN LECTURERS AT a UK university have been told they will be sent home to change if they continue to turn up to work in jeans or scruffy trousers. In a new set of rules published by Birmingham Metropolitan College, lecturers are required to have “tidy hair, wear business suits and skirts, show no visible tattoos or ostentatious earrings.” The lecturers’ union said staff had been “astonished” by the dress code imposed by the college management – with claims it reflects a “Victorian attitude” towards staff. The setting of a dress code is the latest example of higher-education institutions trying to become more business-like. Earlier this year students in Manchester set up a hotline to ring if lecturers were more than ten minutes late.

INCREASE IN STUDENTS GAMBLING THEIR LOANS GAMBLING CHARITY Gamcare has singled out British students as the fastest growing problem group for gambling in the UK. An increasing trend of students, the study says, are becoming addicted at a young age, primarily whilst studying at college or university. Judith Carey, director of Student Services at the University of Lincoln, said that although it is not a “common problem”, the numbers of students suffering with financial problems from gambling is “increasing”. She told the student website: “Students receive their loans and then play games like poker as they think that it is a game of skill, but can quickly get themselves into financial trouble as gambling can often get out of hand.” Poker has been singled out by Gamcare as a particular gambling type that students get drawn to, as a way of funding their studies and allowing them some disposable income. However, it doesn’t always work out that way as many are finding out. UNITED STATES

YALE HOLD MEMORIAL FOR SLAIN STUDENT THE YALE University graduate student who was found murdered a month ago on what was to be her wedding day, was remembered as a “model student” at a memorial service for the university community last week. About 150 classmates, professors and others gathered at Yale’s historic Battell Chapel for a private memorial service for Annie Le, the 24-year-old found strangled behind a wall in a school laboratory. Yale President Richard Levin called Le “a model student for the Yale of the 21st century — a child of immigrants, raised in America, bright, accomplished, ambitious and disciplined, yet caring, loving and spontaneous.” EGYPT

TOP EGYPTIAN UNIVERSITY BANS NIQAB EGYPT’S AL-AZHAR University, the most prestigious centre of learning in the Sunni Muslim world, has decided to ban the wearing of full women’s veils, known as the niqab, from classrooms and residences across the campus. The ban extends to female dormitories and to schools affiliated with the university, it said. The aim of the ban is to spread the spirit of confidence, unison and understanding between teachers and their students. The niqab is worn by devout Muslim women and differs from the hijab, which only covers the hair. It is widely associated with Salafism, an ultra-conservative school of thought mostly practiced in Saudi Arabia. AUSTRALIA

AUSTRALIA TOPS CLASS FOR STUDENT SAFETY FOREIGN STUDENTS have rated Australia as the safest place in the world to study, despite recent international media coverage of attacks on Indian students in Australia. “The main purpose was to find out [what] they thought about Australia in comparison to other English speaking destinations,” the chief executive of IDP Education, Tony Pollock said. “The somewhat surprising result and indeed promising result is that they believe Australia to be the safest destination of all the English speaking destinations - and by quite a margin.” The survey also revealed that students ranked the United States and Britain far above Australia in terms of educational prestige.

NEWS FEATURES

TRINITY NEWS October 20, 2009

Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize: deserved? Though the US President has inspired hope in millions, it is difficult to defend the award when his most difficult problems remain unsolved. Peter Martin Deputy News Features Editor THE SELECTION of Barack Obama for the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize has sparked fervid controversy over the legitimacy of this year’s award. While some believe that Obama’s powerful calls for action and reversals of unfavourable US policies have uniquely changed the world over the past year, many were left puzzled by the October 9 announcement in light of the President’s seemingly short list of accomplishments relative to past Prize winners. Obama’s detractors contend that his term has been better defined by hopeful speeches and wishful thinking than actual pragmatic efforts. Further, sceptics note that nominations for the Prize were due on February 1, when Obama had only been in office for 12 days—scant time to earn a nod for one of the world’s most prestigious honours. Supporters of the President, on the other hand, have praised his diplomatic foreign policies for shifting the tone of politics globally and establishing America once again as a positive international force. Obama himself has taken the award not so much as recognition of realised success, but as an encouragement to further pursue peaceful solutions to the world’s problems. This attitude bears similarities to a sentiment held by many unconvinced parties, that this award was premature—that perhaps Obama will one day deserve the Prize, just not until his goals have been better fulfilled. However, some of those in the “premature” camp are quick to make the bold assumption that, granting

he hasn’t done so already, Obama will probably achieve results worthy of a Peace Prize. While not implausible, this is a problematic stance to take on faith when the standards are as high

Obama is a Peace Prize winner who is still managing two wars, and casualties in [Afghanistan] have risen from 294 in 2008 to 414 since last January. as those of the Nobel. Only two sitting US presidents have won the award in the past, and for much more concrete accomplishments: Theodore Roosevelt in 1906 for his help in ending the RussoJapanese War, and Woodrow Wilson in 1920 for founding the League of Nations. The most notable omission from the list of past Laureates is Mohandas Gandhi, who was nominated five times but never given the award. With this kind of storied reputation, the Prize should not be handed out speculatively, even if the seeds or signs of this level of accomplishment are present. The Norwegian Nobel Committee, for one, does not believe that Obama’s award was premature. The group of five voted unanimously to give him the Prize over the other

204 nominees, citing his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.” Obama has indeed made several notable policy changes in the past year which, coupled with his compelling rhetoric, have ostensibly improved foreign opinions of the US. When nominations for the Prize were received less than two weeks after his term began, he had already pledged to end US use of torture and secret prisons overseas, and to close the controversial prison at Guantánamo Bay—all notable reversals of predecessor George W. Bush’s policies, which were received hostilely by the world at large. But in handing out praise at such an early juncture, the Committee has run the risk of anticipating success

rather than rewarding it. Take the closing of Guantánamo, for example: though Obama signed an executive order to have the prison shut down within his first year as President, it remains open, and US Attorney General Eric Holder has said that the January deadline will be “difficult to meet.” Granted, the directive to close Guantánamo was a valuable gesture that improved foreign perceptions of America and helped create the “new climate in international politics” which the Committee hails in its press release on Obama’s award. Yet with the captives still occupying the prison and no suitable replacement facility in line, it is too soon to count this example as a victory for the fledgling president. Many who agree with the choice of Obama also point to his success in the Iraq War to support his

candidacy for the Prize. In setting a timetable that would remove all American troops from Iraq by September 2010, the President seems on his way to ending a six-year war that Bush began by flouting the judgment of the United Nations and the world at large. On a more tangible level, US and allied forces have seen casualties in Iraq decline from 322 in 2008 to 129 with around three months left in 2009 (figures on Iraqi deaths are much more disputed and thus harder to use as a measure of success). Critics, however, point out the irony that Obama is a Peace Prize winner who is still managing two wars, and casualties in the Afghanistan Coalition have risen from 294 in 2008 to 414 in the past year. The President faces a tough decision in how to handle Afghanistan, having deployed 13,000 new troops earlier this week, and with General Stanley McChrystal requesting an additional 40,000 to fight the Taliban. Even if the War in Iraq were to end ideally, US forces could be mired in Afghanistan well beyond Obama’s first term. High expectations have already hindered Obama’s presidency, and winning the Nobel Peace Prize will only generate more unrealistic hopes. His approval ratings dropped precipitously over the past nine months after his moving rhetoric led American voters to expect rapid change on fronts like the economy, health care, and the Middle East. Now the President must justify his receipt of the award and live up to the standards of past Peace Prize winners—no mean feat, given the challenges before him. Amid all of the controversy

surrounding the President, one must recognize that he is not at fault for receiving the award; in fact, Obama has done a good job of downplaying the honour while remaining gracious to the Committee. He modestly claimed that he did not “deserve to be in the company of so many of the transformative figures” who had previously earned the Prize, while he accepted the award nonetheless as a “call to action.” But some critics assert that Obama should go a step further and refuse the award to acknowledge that most of his goals remain unfulfilled. Though this course might garner praise domestically, it could prove catastrophic internationally. So many of the efforts that won Obama this award and put him in the good graces of the European community were departures from the policies of George W. Bush, and rejecting such an esteemed prize would be seen as a return to Bush’s hubristic approach to international relations. While the Peace Prize may endure as a political obstacle to the President, he should respectfully accept the award in Oslo, in keeping with the courteous attitude that helped him win it. The Nobel Committee has given Obama its most coveted honour while his greatest challenges still loom large and uncertain; they erroneously looked more toward the future than to the past and present in their selection. But as he attempts to resolve two wars and push forward drastic health care reform, how to handle the Prize is far from Obama’s top priority. Meanwhile, it’s up to him to prove that this award was merely premature, and not just undeserved.

Photo: Rajkamal Aich

Higher Education Authority fails to make the grade Though its effects may go unnoticed by the casual observer, the Authority is essential to university autonomy and development. Hugh Taylor News Features Editor

The Greens’ Programme would eliminate the GPO and create a new Abbey Theatre in the space on O’Connell Street. Photo: William Murphy

Abbey Theatre to relocate to GPO John O’Rourke Staff Writer ON ENTERING O’Connell Street’s GPO nowadays, one immediately gets an uncanny sense of having slipped back ten years in time. The walls are furnished with Eircom’s top of the range pay-phones circa 1999, and throughout the corridors populated by pensioners and bemused tourists trying to figure out what all the fuss is about, there is a pervading sense that this venerable building, though located geographically and symbolically in the heart of Dublin, was inexplicably bypassed by the Celtic Tiger. True, only one tenth of the actual construction is accessible to the public, the rest taken up by An Post and its various subsidiaries’ administrative and bureaucratic offices. Though most people on the street could tell you what the three letters stand for or what happened in this once-great building in 1916, they probably couldn’t say when was the last time they had entered into its hallowed halls. So it comes as no surprise that the Green Party’s insistence on a feasibility study to investigate the possibility of relocating the Abbey Theatre to this relic of Old Ireland as part of their new Programme for Government was met generally with enthusiasm. The GPO’s cultural cachet as the epicentre of the 1916 Rising meshes nicely with the Abbey’s Irish Literary Revival pedigree, a movement pioneered by the likes of W.B. Yeats,

Lady Gregory and J.M. Synge, that goes hand-in-hand with the early rumblings of Irish nationalism. Plans to relocate the Abbey have been in the air since 1994, with many board members deeply unhappy with the current structure’s facilities following its rebuilding in 1966 after a fire consumed the original theatre. Before the recession there had been vague plans to situate the new venture in the IFSC, but this project has yet to properly get off the ground. If all goes to plan, it will be a great coup for the Greens in 2016 to be able to claim this as their idea, despite the fact that Trinity College’s Senator David Norris has been mooting it for years. A century after Pádraig Pearse’s clarion call for independence, the GPO should finally be able to hold its own amongst the great monuments of Europe, and not just be little more than a post office with a stamp museum attached—albeit one with a monumental Georgian facade. But before succumbing to the sort of hysteria that often follows these kind of announcements, it might be worthwhile to consider the practicalities and consequences of this repositioning. While the Abbey is already enshrined as Ireland’s “National Theatre” in much the same way as the Royal National Theatre or Royal Shakespeare Company of England, or La Comédie-Française in France, a move like this may serve to overly politicise the establishment. Though it goes without saying that Easter 1916 has come to be the most

resonant date in Irish cultural memory, the Rising itself is just as frequently viewed nowadays with the same derision

A century after Pádraig Pearse’s clarion call for independence, the GPO should finally be able to hold its own amongst the great monuments of Europe. that contemporary Dubliners had for it and its lack of strategic organisation, as it is glorified for its vigour and passion. It may prove to be a rash move to tie the Abbey down irrevocably in support of the events of 1916 before history can make its final judgement. One of the more attractive features of the relocation is the centrality of O’Connell Street itself. Not only (like the current site) is it highly accessible by DART, Luas, Bus, etc., but its prominence in the eyes of the throngs who would pass by it every day could conceivably boost attendance rates. However, if that is one of the motivating factors, perhaps city planners would do well to remember the long-neglected site of the old Carlton cinema, vacated for the past fifteen years, only a few doors up, and of course originally built around an functioning auditorium. The

GPO would have to be significantly gutted and rebuilt to house the Abbey and if it is not done right and the same level of dissatisfaction is felt as about the theatre’s current incarnation, then it would indeed be a very costly mistake. Admittedly O’Connell Street’s rejuvenation in recent years would be significantly buoyed by a centre of culture (neither Dr. Quirkey’s Good Time Emporium nor the Savoy truly count), but it is difficult to ignore the fact that the former Carlton site might be a significantly more convenient location. All things considered, though, it would be terribly remiss not to realise the potentials of this opportunity. As they stand, the current GPO premises are up to three times the size of the current Abbey, Gate or Olympia complexes and thus a venture like this would easily leave room for a commemorative 1916 museum, the theatre itself and even a functioning post office in a symbolic gesture that many would feel appropriate. It would also allow the vast majority of the 950 staff of An Post who work in the GPO at present to relocate to one of the glut of brilliantly designed but currently uninhabited office blocks dotted around Dublin—to spaces that are infinitely more manageable than the creaky rooms originally built in 1818. The GPO is undeniably the focal point of Dublin, and in ten years time it should have received some kind of refurbishment that brings to it the grandeur it most certainly deserves.

THE FORCED shrinking of Government looks likely to gain another victim, with the Higher Education Authority being next on the target list for cuts. The HEA, the agency concerned with distributing the State’s higher education budget, has been named in several recent internal reports—including the McCarthy audit—as ripe for dissolution. And so what, one might add. The HEA is another mysterious government acronym, in a government bogged down with them (NAMA especially springs to mind). Given our financial state, it certainly seems worth getting rid of an extra layer of bureaucracy; surely it’s a function that could be equally well managed by the Department of Education? There, unfortunately, lies the rub— and it’s one that doesn’t favour Irish Third Level institutions. The HEA is in fact a hugely significant body for all Irish universities, since it not only distributes both core grants and research funding, but is—critically—the main advocate for higher education within the corridors of power. It is in effect a buffer between the Department of Education—which has traditionally been suspicious of universities—and the institutions themselves, creating space for a degree of cherished autonomy. This autonomy, while not only valued, is crucial in terms of success. You only have to look at the recently released Times Higher Education rankings to get some idea of the importance of institutional independence. Germany, with its strict state control of education, has no universities in the top 100, Ireland has two, and America, with a laissez-faire approach to university regulation, dominates the top end of the rankings list. Certainly, money comes into it (Harvard’s endowment, while taking a 27% hit, still tops $26 billion) but the best research, experimentation and teaching undoubtedly occur at universities held at arm’s length by the State.

In terms of advocacy, the HEA’s position of university/government gobetween has been vital over the summer in the very sensitive area of hiring new staff. As the financial crisis really began to bite this spring, the Department of Education told universities to stop hiring regardless of where funding was coming from, leaving departments across Trinity with the stark prospect of having to cut courses and enlarge teaching loads. However, the HEA managed to gain an agreement with the Department, which allowed institutions to widen their range of funding streams, safeguard staff levels, and therefore keep courses going. One example of this mechanism in action is the preservation of the South Asia Initiative, a project led by Dr. Deana Heath in the History Department, who was herself threatened with redundancy. When funding for the project and its associated courses was suspended by the Department of Education, the History Department was able to secure funding from the South Asian community within Ireland, who wished to see such an academic programme maintained at Trinity. And even if the HEA is dissolved, most of its functions would still have to be carried out by Department of Education. The money saved would also not amount to much. It is important that whatever cuts likely to be implemented by the government are looked at in a broader context: if the chief mediator for universities in Ireland goes, research excellence will be stifled, and the universities, who should be the engines for Ireland’s recovery, will be weakened overall. After all the furore over the lifting of the threat of Fees, it’s worth pointing out that it’s not much use getting a largely free university education if the education you receive is directly moulded by a controlling State. The HEA offers a valuable check on direct government influence, and it’s in all of our interests, both as students and graduates, to see the agency continue.

FEATURES

TRINITY NEWS October 20, 2009

Down in the dirty Charlie Baker took a ten-day road trip through the Southern United States, meeting all the stereotypes and having the time of his life. But the South isn’t, he found, deserving of its sometimes negative image.

CLICHÉ is usually a cliché because it is true, or so says famed travel writer and famed douchebag A.A Gill. And to get the point, there are few places more redolent in cliché than the South of the United States. When beginning a piece on the region a writer can try and steer away from swimming in the obvious, for of course there are lilting accents, there is for sure hanging moss over ancient plantations, and absolutely everyone meets some humourous AfricanAmericans cracking jokes in ol’ time bars in your absurdly universal personal odyssey, but in reality any contemporary outside perspective is mixed into one whole grizzled, whisky-inflected, well-mannered, timewarped cliché. So apologies in advance. Steering away from a rapidly baking Manhattan, I reached Nashville, Tennessee with little sleep from my flight. Greeting me at the airport was my flatmate, Harry Cargill, who had been there all summer working as an intern and seducing the country music industry. Whilst I was up in the North we had debated endlessly over what our likely itinerary was to be. We were rushed for time, and had many places to visit. Atlanta and New Orleans were on the menu and I was very keen to revisit Charleston. For the meantime we had some stay in Nashville. Pacing through a green-drenched landscape reminiscent of West Cork, we passed endless McMansions, looming above either side of the road. It’s in the suburbs of America that you really get a taste of the country’s wealth, and when you drive through miles of houses which definitely have a swimming pool, definitely have a home cinema and probably have legions of Hispanic gardeners, you see why the US is top dog. South Dublin doesn’t compare. Sorry. Our destination was more romantic than mock-Tudor though. We were staying with our friend Robert, a music publisher turned bestselling author of historical fiction. He lives in the real country, in an 18th century log cabin filled with bizarre curios and looted with books. Robert is one of the best people I have ever met in my life. He has been a best man twenty two times so I am not alone in my opinion. I remember one hilarious evening with him in Temple Bar when he was interrogated by a group of Scottish lesbians, but, baby, don’t let me commence. Harry and I went rope-swinging into a river and drank beers. Whilst taking photos of each other “put it on facebook! Put it on facebook!” - I noticed a mural dedicated to some who had died there last week, which was macabre, so we didn’t swing no more. We headed over to see Harry’s friend Justin, who is a landscape gardener. Justin looks after a historical site called Carnton, a rebuilt plantation. In 1864 the Tennessee section of the Confederate army launched a last charge at the Union divisions who had cut deep throughout the region. It was a massacre. Over 4000 troops died in an hour. They were bought back to Carnton, the local “big house”. Here the injured died in their hundreds. The photographer Sally Mann thinks of the South as marked by death, something she evokes in her haunting photos of the landscape, for it is truly a place of loss, of defeat. Unlike the rest of America, it has known hard times, the pain of conquest, of reconstruction, of the search for lost identity. It’s where the blues were born. These factors, so opposite to the endless success of the rest of the States, give the South

its flavour. It’s very obvious at Carnton. You can still see the blood stains embedded in the oak floors, indelible forever. Showing suitable appreciation for a place of such gravitas, we roared into the visitor’s car park on quad bikes. Dismounting, we heard a pseudo-smart Englishman look at his wife and shake his head: “rednecks”, he whispered mockingly. Harry and I looked at each other, laughed, then started a conversation before our startled countrymen in our best BBC accents. A glorious moment. Heading out into the night with Robert, who was full of stories as ever: He had been campaigning for Obama, and had traveled throughout the country on behalf of the incumbent President. Late at night, he was deep in the sticks. Turning up on a doorstop, he was greeted by a wild-haired girl with a marlboro red hanging from her mouth. “Hello,” said Robert. “What the fuck you want,” said aforementioned girl. “I’m here to advocate you vote for…” “We already votin’!” “Who are you voting for?” “We’re voting for the nigger.”

Unlike the rest of America, it has known hard times, the pain of conquest, of reconstruction, of the search for lost identity. It’s where the blues were born. We headed to a couple of honkytonks. Nashville is great at night, with genuine names playing at low-key venues. There isn’t much glamour or sexiness, but there is a lot of fun. It’s the perfect antidote to snooty metropolitan pretension. The atypical American bar remains still, as does indoor smoking. At B.B. King’s they played a slow set of the most moving jazz I have ever seen to just 7 or eight twirling couples. We left at sunrise the next day. We had four hundred miles to New Orleans. This sounds like a lot but it is nothing in America, with their wide highways. We were listening to a lot of country (of course) and a lot of Creedence Clearwater Revival, who are actually from San Francisco - an episode I sadly had to break to a crestfallen southerner. We made it to New Orleans in the evening. As Harry, remembering his West London indie-kid roots, memorably said “it drips with decadence”. It really is fantastic. What the South lacks in landscape, it more than makes up for in terms of town. The French Quarter, still standing postKatrina, is one of the most bizarre places I have visited. Beautiful colonial architecture - all porches and elegant balustrades - is juxtaposed with brash neon and competitive drinking. I love it. We went and met up with our friend Monte, a photographer. The man is a real-life Quagmire - the sex obsessed bachelor from Family Guy. Every single one of his stories concerns his bedroom conquests. They are numerous. He sounds absolutely ghastly but is in fact charming and the perfect New Orleans companion. We went to the Marigny, to the “Real Big Easy”.

te This is where there aren’t quite rs so many tourists, and there are bars er with real punks and bikers, not hipster de poseurs in leather jackets. We made ed good friends with a barman called Curtis who was handing me a lot of gin ark & tonics. The night culminated in a dark ons strip club where one of our companions hed was having his hands forcefully pushed dy’s into an amply endowed black lad lady’s bosom. rleaans What is great about New Orleans vement is that despite its willing involvement with all matters of depravity, it remains a uniquely cultural city. The next day I went to my favourite bookshop to purchase some Truman Capote. To me, his writing evokes the city perfectly – salacious, witty, and above all brilliant. One of the more absurd statements in a preceding paragraph is a straight rip-off from one of his “conservational portraits” in Music for Chameleons. That’s another thing about thee South which a lot of people aren’tt aware of, particularly Europeans:: re it has produced a lot of culture ee - Cormac McCarthy, Tennessee re Williams and William Faulkner are uld a triumvirate of writers who would ed whip anything that the pasty-accented 0th Limeys could offer up for the 20th get century at least. We shouldn’t forget ular that the South also invented popular hm music as it is known today. The rhythm he So outh and blues birthed it all, and the South ed R’ ’n’B. was the landscape that created R’n’B. E I need not mention country, or Elvis, he South South or Outkast. The thing about the mity and is that its fierce unconformity kes a obsession with independence mak makes d reli igious lot of self-righteous bores and religious me o of the wackos, but it also makes some tic pe eople most creative and idiiosyncratic people in the world. n culture ture Where else could the Cajun merican exist? A weird mix of French, American an who and Native Indian? The man he next took us on our swamp tour the day looked like he should havee been sipping café-au-lait in the Marais, ness. such was his inherent Frenchness. Next to Atlanta, to see posed my godfather, a transposed mily Englishman who moved his family h to from Paris to Georgia, much ted the mirth of his sophisticated friends. The American culturee is so persuasive that all three of his ed daughters are now fully fledged ng college girls, all about shooting 40s and smoking bowls, despitee being archetypal Parisians justt five years back. A very funny spectacle to observe. Pressed for time, we made cursory visits to Charleston, like a sub-tropical Bath (the Georgian city in the UK). It is the perfect town, right next to the beach. The ell-dressed population are uniformly well-dressed and the girls beautiful. Back in New York, Harry and I went to a n people from trendy nightclub where seven my old school walked in. The King’s Road had seemingly marched across the Atlantic to the West Village. I wish I was back in the South.

Top to bottom: Lil Wayne’s tour dates in New Orleans; a bayou in Cajun Country; Carnton’s plantation, with Charlie Baker and Harrisson Cargill pictured. Photos courtesy Charlie Baker

Get with the Times: we’re not living on champagne Zach Eustace takes a look The Irish Times Magazine and its failing attempts to reach a middle-class audience in the post-celtic tiger world

HERE ARE a lot of things you can miss when you’re not in Ireland. The craic, the banter, the Guinness, even the stereotypes. Some Hiberno-specific matters that seemed unbearable prior to my departure now don’t seem all that bad. Maybe the racist taxi drivers are ok after all; maybe Camden Street on Saturday night is the sine non qua of European nightlife; maybe five euro chicken-stuffing sandwiches from Centra are indeed the apex of quick cuisine. But there are some things that just can’t be forgiven, and I remain convinced that The Irish Times Magazine is a blot on all society; a decadent, obsequious frippery that would make even Caligula vomit with rage and abstain from further offerings of delicious elephant pie. You can begin, I suppose, with the

curling smarminess that is conferred by the title, The Magazine: a crypto-retro offering, attempting to be so achingly definitive, for after all this is the only magazine that you could possibly want or in fact need. But this is by no means the slightest of their serial misdemeanours. The Magazine’s most abhorrent quality is the blatant hypocrisy - a magazine that two years ago couldn’t leave have a sentence without a mention of the Celtic Tiger, and how fluffy and wonderful everything was, and once had “Raspberries and Mascarpone” on their “What’s Hot” list (“because Strawberries and Cream is so passé”), now harp on about how the Celtic cubs can’t survive in the Celtic wilderness and are being picked off by Recessionary Game-hunters ploughing through the plains of disenfranchisement. Firstly, a Celtic Tiger would be as

A Celtic Tiger would be as pointless an animal as it is a fiscal symbol, and would almost definitely be destroyed by a Gallic Bear in an international economymetaphor duel.

pointless an animal as it is a fiscal symbol, and would almost definitely be destroyed by a Gallic Bear in an international economy-metaphor duel.

Secondly, the people who write for and read the Irish Times Magazine aren’t generally as badly hit by the recession as many others, though admittedly they may have to switch back to strawberries and cream. From the way “the prosperity boom” is being retrospectively described in all Irish media, you’d think that everyone had been living on a diet of zebra truffles and sparkling wine for 10 years, and that every third child was forced to be called “Champagne” by court order. According to the staff of this fetid publication, Dublin doesn’t extend far beyond the Liffey, and anywhere beyond the Pale is strictly for weekends only, preferably at an ostentatious and pointless five star hotel, or your charmingly appointed Kerry shack, replete with widescreen televisions. After all, this is the magazine that

popularised the use of “SoCoDu” as an abbreviation for South County Dublin (and if you’d never heard of that before, I’m so sorry, there are some things you can just never forget). In my mind there are no editorial meetings for the magazine, but rather a series of grandiloquent dinner parties with the word “Recession” projected on the wall where they all chortle inanities and snort crumbled up meringue chopped by their Superquinn Club cards, while Roisín Ingle sits in a bowl chair in the corner contemplating her error - one can almost imagine the pontifications. “What’s vaguely interesting and middle class this week? Twitter, you say? Brilliant. 1500 words please - just make sure you include the words ‘latté’, ‘blog’, and a quirky pop-psychology conclusion. They won’t know what’s

hit them. We’re going to have to hold back on the ‘White? Wealthy? Why not be smug?’ feature for a few weeks until the big-money-bad thing goes away.” A collective sigh. Once they actually harness the powers of the internet, instead of just giving it perfunctory lip-service, there will be no stopping them. Liveblogs of the latest trip to Dunne and Crescenzi, video blogs about the new Ikea catalogue, and a Twitter that automatically defines the word “vacuous” every three and a half hours. Of course, knowing my luck, they probably did a special supplement this week on how to make the world a better place by wiping away orphan’s tears and giving stray dogs bellyrubs. Because that’s the type of people they are. All that being said, the TV listings are pretty handy.

FEATURES

TRINITY NEWS October 20, 2009

HE LOVED

COLLEGE

Ruadhán Ó Ciaráin lets us in on what happens behind the frat house doors, and why our American counterparts can have swivel chairs in their lecture theatres.

HERE IS a lot to be envied in the organised people amongst us. We all know them. They seem to check their emails with regular fervour: with the advent of the sun, before lectures, never during but immediately following lectures, and again every 15 minutes or so thereafter, and so they always have the drop on me in terms of knowing what’s going down in the Law School’s House 39. (On the off chance that any first-years are reading this, you should attempt to buddy up with some such person – they’re usually the nicest, kindest and most sincere people you’ll find over the next four years. Plus they will probably save your arse again and again). It should serve as no great surprise, then, to reveal that those deific beings again had the drop on me when the email arrived indicating that applications would now be taken for the Socrates/Erasmus program. Like horses out of the trap, whole prospecti were devoured. All aspects of foreign universities were carefully pitted against all others, and each respective plus and minus brought into the fray until, finally, only one can survive the grilling. At last, these living embodiments of machinelike efficiency can retreat into stand-by mode, comforted in the knowledge that before them they possess a clearly formulated, well thought out and logical decision. In the spring of my Senior Freshman year, I was no such enviable gent. Rather than retreat into stand-by mode, I remained in it permanently, spending whole days happily lolling about the place with my head foggy in the clouds. Known to occasionally reach the horizontal edge of laid back, (all to my great detriment I might add), the process of how I came to select Washington and Lee University in Virginia, USA, as my destination to spend a year studying abroad, was a considerably more simple one. The hobo within began to get itchy feet and, classy hobo that he is, knew that the bright lights of America still hold the allure of adventure for young Irish men. So with no research behind me, yet not without that indelible Irish trait of “ah-shur-it’ll-be-grand”, I found myself before the scrutinizing eyes of Professor Scannell as she attempted to gauge how well I’d fare in a foreign land surrounded by mature postgraduate

American law students. How that favour is allocated to one candidate over another in such circumstances I have no idea, but I can say with certainty that the Gods were smiling on me that day. Having received the nod, I was heading to Virginia. After leaving a sizeable carbon footprint with my hours of travel, I finally arrived in the quaint little historic

... the intimate details of fraternity induction are generally not something discussed post-facto, I will say this: a bottle of Tabasco sauce is all that’s needed, both to wake the neighbours and show you an entertaining time town of Lexington, Virginia. The Colonial-Georgian buildings adorned in the July sunshine that greeted me upon my arrival stood as testament to the fact that I was now, indeed, in the “old-South”. The vibe of the place is something I could only vaguely describe as a mish-mash between a buck-tooth hillbilly and an urbane theatre toff - it had the rudimentary, gritty feel of an old small rural community, coupled with the obvious style and culture that went with a Nationally Registered Historic Town and tons of preppy undergrads in coffee shops. A vibe immediately appealed to me. Whereas my previous experiences of America had been the bright lights of New York or the calm streets of San Francisco, this felt like a more real America. It was old. The University was founded in 1749 and the rolling green colonnade and the small chapel in front of it were national landmarks. National heroes were buried here. The transience of bright lights and the anonymity of flashy branding so prevalent in major cities elsewhere were lost here to the sense of genuine tradition that imbued every aspect of the University’s character. Dotted

among all of this were the unmistakable Greek-Revival style mansions that could only signal fraternity houses, the bizarre institutions specific to America and obsessed over by Europe. Socialising among the undergraduate students at W&L revolves entirely around the Greek system (i.e. frats and sororities), and the infamous keg parties. I became a member of Phi Delta Theta and, although the intimate details of fraternity induction are generally not something discussed post-facto, I will say this: a bottle of Tabasco sauce is all that’s needed, both to wake the neighbours and show you an entertaining time. (P.S. I accept absolutely no responsibility for any injuries or embarrassment sustained as a result – you have to talk to the nurse in the health centre as to what happened without referring to this article). For frat dues of $1,500 I was receiving three square meals a day, unlimited beer, and rides to and from the various off-campus houses that would be throwing parties. At this point, I should probably mention that I was actually in W&L for the proposed purpose of studying with postgraduates in Law. My doublelife was leading to some extreme study habits; many all-nighters had to be put in to compensate for too many hours of study lost having a good time. ould Regardless of the exhaustion, one could not help becoming swept up in what the School of Law at W&L could offer. Now tone do not get me wrong - I do love the stone ouse steps of Trinity’s law school in House usly 39 and how they become dangerously ed slippery on a wet day, and the packed classes where elbows touch as d too many students are squeezed n together on antediluvian pews in t. room 2.1, but W&L is a world apart. h When I entered into a classroom with ble dimmed lights, sat in a comfortable nto swivel chair, plugged my laptop into a discreet socket on a large table and rials began watching videos of criminal trials on a cinema projector as part of the way lecture, I knew I was a long way away from Trinity. What I take away as the most beneficial aspect of my time in W&L was the opportunity to work closely with the brilliant Dean of the Law School, Rod cing Smolla. Imagine a top-class practicing ding lawyer, who stands as one of the leading w in authorities on freedom of speech law

the United States, has argued in front of the U.S. Supreme Court on numerous occasions and is a personification of the words “cool“, “suave” and “able” – now you’re getting close to Dean Smolla. Behind a warm face and a cordial smile sat a razor-sharp legal mind. The class consisted of the seven others and I formulating arguments for and against certain constitutional issues that arise in higher education, and culminated in a pre-trial hearing where the Dean sat as a judge and probed our arguments. I imagine there have been athletes who have run whole marathons and managed to sweat less than I did when put through Dean Smolla’s hoops. So, what is the great difference between American universities and those of Ireland? How is it that college over there seems to be so much more of an all-round experience? In a word, it is “money”. In terms of the partying, I paid $1,500 for frat dues, but I actually got a good deal. The majority of the lads there paid in the region of $4,000 in total for the year (including accommodation etc.). Now think of the parties you could throw when there is a large mansion at your disposal and approximately 45 gents all paying $4,000 each to finance the operation. The budget is then increased sizeably when another sorority or fraternity is invited to foot the bill, and not

forgetting the donations received by frat alumni. In terms of facilities, the average cost of attending a private third level university (like Washington and Lee) is $33,000 a year – it gives the school considerably more money to provide for its students than our Department of Education could possibly give to Trinity. Although you might think you could not afford such spending if you were living in America, the reality is that if you were American, you could apply for government backed student loans and, for the most part, people are approved. The downside is that students come out of college in the region of $150,000 in debt, meaning graduates are rarely interested in any avenue of employment other than one that comes with a high income. The social and cultural cost is obvious – the budding artist or writer dwindles away to become a cog in the machine of big business. The next potential Marcel Marceau could find himself bitterly disappointed to discover that, alas, after years of face-paint ck and black clothes, the life of a mimee cannot nott cover thee

thousands of dollars of debt he has accrued over the years. The other limitation of fees is of the intrinsic value to be derived from the college experience and the education (in the broadest sense of the word) that it provides. The individual has the opportunity to develop during these college years and, as such, it benefits both the individual and society overall to have an educated population. When fees are entered in to the equation, there is a good chance that those on the margin of being able to afford college will decide against it. If such fees were to come in, whenever that may be, we could expect to see a vast improvement in the education infrastructure of Ireland. Once sufficient safeguards are put in place to ensure that those of merit from less wealthy circumstances still have the opportunity to attend university, there should be nothing to fear. That being said, when fees arrive, my first thought will be with that unfortunate artist who finds himself or herself dreaming of the stage, but trapped behind a photocopier.

Nobel intentions and great expectations “I will accept this award as a call to action, a call for all nations to confront the common challenges of the 21st century.” Peter Schwartzstein explains why the Nobel Peace Prize Committee are taking a risk by putting the weight of the world on one man’s shoulders.

HE road to hell is said to be paved with good intentions. For me, Barack Obama is a shining beacon lighting America’s departure from the dark days of the Bush Administration. All the same, I find it cloying to think of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee joining in the clamour of cheerleading and self-congratulation that has marked Obama’s unfulfilled first six months: especially when one considers the prize shortlist was in the second week of his term. Earlier rewarding the work of more bureaucratic diplomats, then drawn to populist movement figureheads, there has been a recent relapse towards the administrative and the amorphous – like the desperately selfinterested anointments of the United Nations (2001), the International Atomic Energy Agency (2004) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2007). The apparently aspirational aims of such selections only serve to diminish the stature of the Peace Prize, which has its sense of selfimportance soon shown up. The UN was subsequently ignored by countries from the US to Sudan. After Obama declared, “We have re-engaged the United Nations,” to cringing cheers, the General Assembly was introduced

to “leader of the revolution, president of the African Union, the king of kings of Africa” Colonel Muammar al-Qaddafi, who then demanded the reopening of the investigation into the assassination of JFK in a rhetorical exhibition of magical realism. Reports that the IAEA was refraining from publishing full evidence of Iran’s nuclear ambitions were followed by the public revelation of a second uranium enrichment plant. A confidential document drafted by senior officials, titled “Possible Military Dimension of Iran’s Nuclear Program”, was leaked to the Associated Press. It was suspected to be the “secret annex” detailing certain findings - such as weapons intent - alleged to have been withheld by ex-agency chief Mohammed ElBaradei. Soon afterwards, the US, UK and France announced on the world stage the hitherto concealment of the underground facility near Qom and, sharing the stage with the other leaders, Obama warned, “The size and configuration of this facility is inconsistent with a peaceful programme.” North Korea continued its belligerence outside of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons this year it has launched a missile over Japan and apparently tested a nuclear weapon.

For all the hot air expounded by the globetrotting, private-jetting Al Gore, global climate change talks in Bangkok ended in retrenchment as the US tried to move the ground away from a Kyoto successor, bringing along other developed countries but leaving nothing under the feet of poorer countries. It is at this pivotal point that Barack Obama and the Nobel Peace Prize could reconcile themselves. The concluding talks in Copenhagen in December overlap the award ceremony in Oslo and Obama will be expected to rally the world then. The set-up is no coincidence – the citation anticipated him “now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting.” Frequently depicted as the Messiah, Obama will always have been aware of axioms like, “To whom much has been given, much will be expected.” The added burden of this accolade was something he could have done without. The last US President to be so heralded was Jimmy Carter. The American public are more likely to associate him with the Iran hostage crisis, stagflation and a period he infamously defined in his “malaise” speech, than with his progressive foreign policy and the humanitarian achievements of his Carter Center. Again, his selection also had a

pointedly political motivation: then head of the Nobel committee, Gunnar Brege, saying, “With the position Carter has taken on this, it can and must also be seen as criticism of the line the current U.S. administration has taken on Iraq.” The previous incumbent presidential winner was white supremacist Woodrow Wilson. Founder of the ephemeral League of Nations (which America never joined), he personally vetoed a Japanese-proposed clause on racial equality in the Covenant and was the man who brought Jim Crow to Washington DC and segregation to federal government. Along with the most widespread occupancy of sovereign Latin American nations in US history, Wilson’s government, seeking “the protection of the nation against the insidious propaganda of the pacifist”, invoked the 1918 Sedition Act to ruthlessly repress any antiwar sentiment - akin to the later USA PATRIOT Act. The interventions in Mexico, Nicaragua, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Cuba were a precedent for the subversion of self-determination in the region, and beyond, which would make space for dictators and continued for the rest of the century. The remaining presidential laureate was the sabre-rattling Theodore Roosevelt, founder of the Rough Riders,

a cavalry regiment formed for the Spanish-American War, before which he had proclaimed, “I should welcome almost any war, for I think this country needs one.” TR ominously set the tone for American world policing with his global tour of the “Great White Fleet” battleships. Most controversial of all American recipients was Henry Kissinger, given the award in conjunction with Le Duc Tho for the negotiation of the Paris Peace Accords. Tho refused the award - the only person to have done so - as there was still not peace in Vietnam, and Kissinger indicated he wanted to return it afterwards. Given his orchestration of the bombing of neutral, but nearby, Cambodia and the questions which he continues to evade into his role in the government co-ordinated Operation Condor campaigns of political assassinations and abductions in South America (wherein several tens of thousands were probably killed), and many more charges besides, the Committee might have learnt to avoid pouncing on perceived openings. Those predecessors obviously had many positive deeds as well, but it goes to show the inherent difficulty in trying set a universal moral agenda - and using politicians from the world’s most

bellicose superpower to do so. It is an inbuilt contradiction that will always complicate what is, after all, a vestige of a guilty conscience – that of dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel. Shaw’s Major Barbara offers a stark parody, with the arms manufacturer Andrew Undershaft literally buying the Salvation Army to manipulate his daughter Barbara, the “saviour of souls”, to his side. The 1925 Nobel laureate in Literature later said, “I can forgive Alfred Nobel for having invented dynamite, but only a fiend in human form could have invented the Nobel Prize.” It is a paradoxical reminder of the awkward reality of patronage that is all too resonant today – Goldman Sachs are due to spare £122mn for educational initiatives after its bankers share in a £10,000mn pot, held over by $10bn from the US taxpayer while the economy disintegrated. Keeping the peace in his own country has proven enough of a challenge for Obama. The political capital written off on compromised healthcare reform and the obsequious aversion of global financial regulation suggest that the Nobel committee might have done better than hitching the rest of the world onto the Obama bandwagon. He can hardly take any more passengers.

WORLD REVIEW

TRINITY NEWS October 20, 2009

Resolution of the Armeno-Turk Crisis? One step forward, two steps back: Armenia and Turkey face a rocky road to reconciliation as a century old debate rages on with no sign of resolution. Can the recent peace accord heal the bitter wounds of genocide and mistrust?

Alison Spillane Staff Writer ON OCTOBER 10th last, Armenia and Turkey signed historic protocols to reopen their shared border and establish diplomatic ties after sixteen years of silence, and almost a century of animosity. Armenia’s Foreign Minister, Edward Nalbandian, and his Turkish counterpart, Ahmet Davutoglu, met in Zurich to sign the accord under the watchful eyes of the Russian and French Foreign Ministers, Sergei Lavrov and Bernard Kouchner. Also present was U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Rodham Clinton. Whilst this may be a positive step, Armeno-Turk relations are still haunted by the question of genocide and both governments face an uphill struggle in their attempts to normalize relations. To date, only around twenty countries have recognised the mass killings of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1918 as genocide. Amongst these are France and Russia, but major powers such as the U.K. and the U.S. have repeatedly shied away from the term “genocide” when dealing with the issue. The protocols will establish a joint commission made up of Turkish, Armenian and international historians to investigate the events. However, the prospect of such a commission has caused outrage in Armenia as it implies that their government is willing to leave room for doubt concerning the veracity of events. The border between the two countries has not been opened since 1993 when Turkey ordered its closure to show support for Azerbaijan in its conflict with Armenia. So why open it now? Turkey, an influential power in the region, with one of the largest economies in the world, would not seem to need much from its tiny land-locked neighbour. Armenia, by contrast, has not had an easy time since declaring independence in 1991. The collapse of the Soviet Union left its economy in tatters. This, combined with the devastating

after-effects of an earthquake in 1988 and an armed conflict with Azerbaijan made the early 1990s a dismal period for the small republic. The blockade

“The success of Turkey in pressuring Armenia into accepting these humiliating, one-sided protocols proves, sadly, that genocide pays” imposed by Turkey, one of Armenia’s largest potential trading partners, did little to help the situation. Although things have improved in the last decade or so, particularly due to the country’s switch to a free-market economy, establishing good relations with Turkey would present great economic opportunities for Armenia. This small, poor country can no longer afford to be isolated from Europe. Domestic trouble, particularly the violent dispersal of anti-government protestors after the 2008 presidential election, means that President Serzh Sargsyan’s government still needs to prove itself internationally; developing healthy diplomatic relations with its neighbours would be a vital step forward in achieving this. Turkey also stands to gain more from the accord than one might expect. The ruling AK Party has worked hard on improving its foreign relations with the prospect of EU membership on the horizon. In particular, it has adopted “zero problems with neighbours” policy which automatically put its relationship with Armenia high on the agenda. Furthermore, the conflict with Armenia could also threaten Turkey’s newly-established standing as peacemaker in the Caucasus; President Gul Abdullah worked hard to bring long-term enemies Israel and Syria to the table back in 2008 and would hate to see his reputation dashed by bitter

disagreements closer to home. The proposal of a joint commission also lets the AK Party wipe the sweat from its brow as such a project would inevitably entail a comprehensive, and therefore lengthy, study of the history of events and so the Turkish government wouldn’t have to deal with the verdict for at least two to three years. The need to preserve a positive relationship with the U.S. is also high on Turkey’s list of priorities, and Washington has been pressuring Ankara to act on the Armenian issue for some time. American interests stem, of course, from Turkey’s strategic location. With Iran only a stone’s throw away, the U.S. finds itself with a strong ally in its fight against President Ahmadinejad’s nuclear policy. What’s more, President Obama’s reputation is on the line, particularly as he has just accepted the Nobel Peace Prize after a mere nine months in office. Essentially, Mr. Obama has failed to follow-through on his preelection promise to recognise the Armenian genocide. In addition to this, his administration forced Armenia to enter into talks with Turkey without any preconditions - no small insult considering at least one million Armenians were murdered by the Turks during World War I. Fear not Obama lovers, for this new Armeno-Turk accord hands the man in the Oval Office a get out of jail free card. With both parties agreeing to the establishment of a commission to examine the events of 1915, President Obama will no doubt be further praised for his diplomacy in keeping mum and thus not rocking the boat. As luck would have it, keeping schtum also means Mr. Obama doesn’t risk damaging relations with Turkey. It would appear that both Turkey and Armenia have a lot to gain from this agreement, and as both governments hold parliamentary majorities it is likely that the protocols will be ratified. However, nationalists in both camps are determined to make this process as protracted as possible; in Armenia the nationalist Dashnak Party pulled out

Turkish President Abdullah Gul with Donald Rumsfield. Photo: Helene C. Stikkel of government over the accord, and in the week preceding the agreement, protestors gathered in the Armenian capital Yerevan. The Armenian diaspora worldwide also voiced its discontent in demonstrations in the U.S., Argentina, and the Lebanon.

growth and less dependence on Russia, means that overcoming their differences would appear to be the smarter move for both countries. However history has left a bitter taste in the mouths of both countries and the genocide debate rages on with no signs of abating.

ORIGIN OF THE TURKISH-ARMENO CRISIS

“We are trying to boost our relations with Armenia in a way that will cause no hard feelings for Azerbaijan” There is a general feeling that the subject of genocide is being largely sidelined by this accord and that it favours Turkish over Armenian interests. Tensions are also high across the border in Turkey where many feel there should be no contact with Armenia until it resolves its conflict with Azerbaijan (with whom Turkey has an extremely close relationship) over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh territory. With the protocols signed, both governments now face the difficult task of selling the accord to the public before having it approved by parliament. Turkey’s EU membership and relations with the U.S. hang in the balance, and Armenia’s need for more economic

» In May 1915, Ottoman commanders began mass deportation of Armenians from eastern Turkey thinking they might assist Russian invaders. » Thousands were marched from the Anatolian borders toward Syria and Mesopotamia (now Iraq) and Armenians say some 1.5 million died either in massacres or from starvation or deprivation as they were marched through the desert. This forms the basis of the Armenian genocide argument. » Ankara has said large numbers of both Christian Armenians and Muslim Turks were killed during the violent and chaotic break-up of the Ottoman Empire. A law in Turkey makes it a criminal offence to call the killings a genocide. » Turkey has kept its land border with Armenia closed since the early 1990s in protest at Yerevan’s backing for Nagorno-Karabakh, a slice of territory belonging to ally Azerbaijan which is populated by ethnic Armenians. Armenia had gone to war with Azerbaijan some 30,000 people died when the war finally ended in 1994.

Failure of democracy in troubled Romania Joshua Roberts discusses the recent collapse of the coalition government amid accusations of electoral fraud. The economic growth trend of late has been shattered by the loss of political stability, foreign investment and the threat of rejection from the European Union. Romania’s future hangs in the balance, caught between the promises of Europe and the IMF, and banishment to Russia’s outer sphere of influence.

Joshua Roberts Contributing Writer IT WAS announced last week that one half of the Romanian coalition government will be resigning all of its ministerial positions after one of its members was fired for accusing the other coalition party of voting fraud. The government is formed by two parties – the Liberal Democrats (PD-L) who did the firing, and the Social Democrats (PSD) whose interior minister Dan Nica was dismissed. Mr. Nica caused outrage by alleging that the PD-L were planning to rent buses which would be used to transport voters to multiple voting stations, allowing them to vote in more than one constituency. His accusations were promptly and vehemently denied by the PD-L, who responded by asking the president to expel Mr. Nica from office. It was at an emergency meeting after Mr. Nica’s dismissal that the PSD decided to resign all their posts in protest. The walkout has far-reaching and severe consequences for the Romanian people, who have been ravaged by the global recession. Its politics, described by some as ‘broken’ and ‘shredded’, are now a cause of international concern. In the short term the PD-L must find new candidates to fill the vacant offices and ensure that these candidates are approved by a parliamentary council. There is outrage amongst the Romanian electorate who are furious that they will not be able to democratically elect their ministers. More worrying for the Romanian people, however, is the news that the walkout may lead to the country failing

to meet the conditions of a crucial loan from the International Monetary Fund. This loan would be used to plug the gaping holes in the government’s finances. Indeed, plans for the twenty billion euro loan which was supposed to prepare Romania for entry into the Eurozone may now be scrapped due the lack of political stability. The IMF imposes strict criteria on countries accepting their aid. Political stability

The President succeeded in creating a political crisis catastrophic enough to spilt Romania right down the middle is a prerequisite for the IMF to even consider lending to troubled countries. Were the loan to be refused, this would effectively halt Romania’s recovery from the international economic crisis. Prior to the implosion of the global banking system, Romania was one of region’s greatest economic success stories, with the highest GDP growth rate in Europe, low unemployment and a booming property market. However over–reliance on Italian-led export demand left the country extremely vulnerable to changes in the economic climate. Heavy industrial sectors such as car and steel manufacturing have been the worst effected, with thousands of

jobs being lost and factory closures imminent. The substantial IMF loan would entirely cover the costs of economic recovery according to Ionut Dumitru of Raiffeisen Bank, and would therefore avoid thousands more job losses especially in state run sectors where some workers have not yet received salaries for September. Indirectly, the political disorder and the potential for the IMF to withdraw the loan has led to acute reductions in international confidence and hence investment. Prior to the economic meltdown Romania was the largest single attractor of foreign direct investment in South and Central Europe and was internationally renowned for being an easy place to do business. U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton said in 2008 that “Romania is one of the most trustworthy and respectable business partners of the USA”. This reporter doubts if she would say such a thing today. With less foreign direct investment the recession will be deeper, longerlasting and more painful for the Romanian people, who were just beginning to experience the benefits of a free-market economy. While there is little danger of a return to Romania’s communist past, evidence suggests that there are serious doubts about free market principles in the minds of some cabinet ministers. Many had hoped that the recent years of prosperity would continue and, as such, extol the virtues of democracy, this however, was not the case. The recent appointment of Lucian Croitoru, a central banker, as Prime

Minister has been met with some opposition in parliament. Former Prime Minister, Emil Boc, was ousted following the collapse of the government. His government suffered a vote of no confidence after the PSD party stormed out, joining forces with the Liberal opposition. The opposition has vowed to oppose Mr. Croitoru’s nomination. Mr. Croitoru is a widely respected policy maker but the controversy regarding his nomination is likely to sustain the governmental crisis. The presidential election taking place 22nd November only complicates matters further. Deadlocked in confusion and in-fighting, the Romanian government is losing out on valuable time to restore economic stability and present a united front to the international community. Vital for the recovery of the economy are severe budget cuts and a strict fiscal policy. Some commentators have suggested that without the voice of the PSD and with greater freedom, a purely PD-L government may be better placed to drag Romania out of the cold clutches of recession. A decision on the IMF loan has yet to be made and with the E.U. on-side there is every chance of a sympathetic decision in Romania’s favour. Though it is unlikely that investor confidence will return in the near future, there is a muted feeling that with the rest of the Western world in disarray, this political crisis could not have come at a better time. It is almost impossible to suggest that society’s confidence in politics or in democracy have been irreparably damaged by recent events. However, a forcible jolt in the right direction is sorely needed for Romania to recover.

Ousted Romanian Prime Minister, Emil Boc. Photo: Iosif Solomon

WORLD REVIEW

TRINITY NEWS October 20, 2009

A diamond in the rough; brutality in the D.R. Congo The people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo have suffered since the state’s inception. Yet the recent improvement in political stability has done nothing to ease the fears of these resilient people. Catherine Nicholas Contributing Writer THE DEMOCRATIC Republic of the Congo is one of the world’s most troubled countries. Mired in corruption, slavery, rape and murder, the Congo is a permanent stain on the books of many aid agencies and international organisations. Recent controversies regarding the illegal mining of precious minerals by rebel armies has caused international and domestic uproar in a country still recovering from the African equivalent of a world war. The Democratic Republic of the Congo is struggling in the aftermath of a five-year war with Namibia, Angola, Zimbabwe, Uganda and Rwanda. Since the Lusaka peace accord in 1992, political progress has been slow, with the first democratic elections in almost four decades being held in 2006. Following the disorganisation of an interim government, the initially disputed results were resolved with the appointment of Joseph Kabila as president in late November 2006. In August 2007, the notorious Tutsi general, Laurent Nkunda, initiated a series of battles between his militia and the Congolese Army against the Hutu clan, who had fled Rwanda following their participation in the 1994 genocide. The fighting continued throughout the year, driving hundreds of thousands of people from their homes in eastern Congo and threatening to spiral the already fragile country back into civil war. Mr. Nkunda claimed he was protecting Tutsis from extremist Rwandan Hutus. In January 2008, the government and the rebels signed an agreement that had both sides withdrawing their troops from combat, disarming rebels and eventually integrating them into

the national army. The cease-fire fell apart in August and fighting resumed between Nkunda’s militia and the army soon afterwards. In an attempt to bring the situation under control the government, in January of this year, invited troops from Rwanda to help mount a joint operation against the Rwandan rebel Hutu militias active in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. However, even with the arrest of General Nkunda on 22nd January 2009, eastern areas of the country remain beset by violence. In late September of this year, members of the Ugandan Lord’s Resistance Army, one of the most brutal guerrilla movements in the world,

There is a need to take advantage of the change that has taken place in the Congo, however tragic that has been in its coming made a surprise attack on the sleeping inhabitants of a small village in the northeast of the Congo, ending in a gruesome bloodbath, which saw twentytwo civilians killed with machetes. Five days later came the kidnap of two aid workers providing sustainable relief to the people in the East Congo. The driver managed to escape but the other hostage was severely beaten and died after crawling three kilometers back to the nearest camp. These deaths come after a highly publicized visit to the Congo by U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham

Clinton, during August of this year, in which she pledged $17 million in aid to victims of sexual violence in Africa. In October, as part of her efforts to improve the Congolese domestic political situation, she promoted a U.S. sponsored resolution calling for the appointment of a special representative to the U.N. Secretary-General who would coordinate efforts to end episodes of sexual violence in armed conflict. Bowing to international pressure, President Joseph Kabila, announced a zero-tolerance policy regarding sexual abuse. Since July, several rape trials have commenced; one leading to the conviction of two high-level military officers. Another officer has recently been arrested, accused of raping a twenty-eight year-old woman and persuading three other soldiers to participate in the rape. Despite these recent advancements, there is still a nationwide lack of systemic enforcement of the anti-rape policy. The U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon recently stated that the integration of rebels into the national army, the FARDC, has been poor. The army however, has recently grown in size due to the forced conscription of minors. Recent reports have suggested that the LRA rebels are now moving back to Chad after sustaining heavy attacks from the FARDC. Despite the increasing size of the national army, the Democratic Liberation forces of Rwanda; the FDLR, still controls a number of tin mines in eastern Congo and is continuing to finance its activities by means of illegally trading minerals. In many cases, the Congolese military has assumed control of mines, employing violent tactics to intimidate and exploit miners and their families. Attempting to quell domestic and international criticism, the

The humanitarian crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has worsened in recent years. Photo: Julien Harneis Congolese government has signalled its determination to nationalize the mining sector, effectively removing the mines from military control. The U.N. has asked mineral-buying countries to refuse minerals from FDLR controlled mines in an attempt to halt their main source of funding. One of the world’s largest smelting and refining companies, Thaisarco, has followed this directive in a surprise move towards promoting responsible mineral sourcing. This effort is well supported abroad with the U.S. Congress focusing on legislation decreeing that the onus is on the company to declare the source of the minerals used in their processes. Last week, the human rights group ‘Enough’ called on the Congolese army to halt the current military offensive against the FDLR and concentrate on consolidating peace and stability in liberated areas instead. This request was met with silence. To further consolidate peacekeeping efforts, the South African government has been urged to reengage with the Democratic Republic

of Congo to help stop the increasing violence against civilians. Congo’s most urgent problem now lies with the thousands of refugees who fled the eastern Sud-Kivu province in 2004. They refuse to be transferred to a new camp in eastern Burundi because of its proximity to a rival Congolese community in Tanzania. Instead, the vast majority have decided to return home, despite a warning that the conditions which originally forced them into exile still prevail. In October, the repatriation of over two thousand Congolese Tutsi refugees began, but this is a mere step in their struggle for reintegration into society. Living in a place scarred by the relentless wave upon wave of unimaginable violence, one would be forgiven for guessing that most of this population have passively succumbed to their fate. On the contrary, it has been the civilians who have galvanised reform efforts, forcing change and highlighting the struggle of their plight on an international scale. They are a

population struggling mightily and ingeniously to survive in a world where their hope of change is matched only by the permanence of greed from their leaders.

CONGO: AT-A-GLANCE » Politics: The Democratic Republic of the Congo has suffered several years of political upheaval. The current government is partly composed of former rebels and members of opposition parties. » Economy: The Congolese economy is one of the poorest in Africa and is largely dependent on mineral exports. » International: The IMF has recently agreed to a loan of over $600 million to bolster the Congo’s fragile economy.

Triumphant Zelaya returns to Honduras Following the arrest of President Manuel Zelaya in his pyjamas, the controversial Honduran coup has caught the world’s attention. Caroline O’Leary Contributing Writer HONDURAN OFFICIALS finally announced plans on 3rd October for talks between deposed President Manuel Zelaya and de facto President Roberto Micheletti. Talks will be aimed at bringing an end to the political and civil stalemate that has seen the suspension of Honduran civil liberties and the crippling of much of Central America’s trade. However few can predict just how these talks will go, with opinion in both Honduras and the international community divided over Zelaya and the coup that took place just months ago. The move ends two weeks of deadlock since Mr. Zelaya’s covert return to the country, with both sides claiming rightful control of the Presidency and defending their actions prior to the coup. However, agreeing on a mutually satisfactory solution may be even more difficult due to the controversial actions of both sides. President Zelaya, who was forcibly removed from the presidency three months ago in a military and government backed coup, has been determinedly outspoken about his experiences and mistreatments since the coup. His secret return to the country two weeks ago triggered demonstrations, protests and riots which led to the

government’s decision to suspend all civil liberties and censor all nongovernmental media. Claiming refuge in the capital’s Brazilian embassy, the controversial figure recently told a reporter for the Miami Herald that during his time in the embassy he has been under attack by Israeli mercenaries who have been subjecting him to toxic gases and high-frequency radiation. His “calls for insurrection”, encouraging his Honduran supporters to launch

They had Zelaya boxed into a legal corner, and then they snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. a protest march on the three month anniversary of his removal, caused the interim government to use emergency public unrest procedures; granting police and armed forces special powers to break up meetings, make arrests without warrants and impose a curfew. However two days before the riots, in an interview with the BBC, Mr. Zelaya called for a non-violent resolution to these problems and asked for the

support of the international community in bringing about a peaceful solution. As well as the crisis within the country, the past three months of unrest have had a catastrophic effect on the trade and economies of much of Central America. The constraints put in place have included the Honduran borders being tightly controlled, especially since the return of Mr. Zelaya. Due to the country’s geographical location nearly all of the area’s goods trade passes through Honduran territory, and the new regulations and curfew mean neighbouring countriesparticularly Guatemala, El Salvador and Costa Rica- have been losing millions per day in revenue from food, clothing, plastics and even transport. Lost trade between Honduras and Guatemala alone is though to be totalling $8 million per day. As the democratically elected President of the country, Zelaya has been supported by the Organisation of American States and many neighbouring states including Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela, where President Hugo Chavez is considered to be a strong friend and ally of President Zelaya. The Obama administration has advocated negotiations between the two sides for a peaceful settlement, and despite Mr. Zelaya’s frequent anti-American sentiments, have acknowledged his position as the country’s democratically elected leader.

Manuel Zelaya celebrates victory with friend Hugo Chavez. Photo: Bernardo Londoy In spite of this, Mr. Micheletti continues to claim that Mr. Zelaya’s removal was legal and necessary and was carried out with the support of the Supreme Court, the military and a majority of the population. Prior to being overthrown, President Zelaya, who had a reported twenty-five percent approval rating at the time his removal, removed the head of the Honduran armed forces for not supporting him in his proposed changes to the country’s constitution. The Honduran Supreme Court subsequently declared Mr. Zelaya’s proposed changes unconstitutional and ordered the reinstatement of the army chief. However Mr. Zelaya refused to adhere to this and organised what he

referred to as an “unofficial poll” of the Honduran people about the proposed changes. His opposition claim that among these changes was to be an amendment to the article specifying a President may only spend one term in office, which would open the way for Mr. Zelaya to run for a second. Mr. Zelaya himself denies this, but regardless, was arrested the day of the intended poll, 28th of June, and exiled from the country until his return two weeks ago. Opinion in the country since then has been mixed, with riots and protests organised by both sides. Prior to the October 3rd announcement, Costa Rican President and Nobel peace laureate Oscar Arias

attempted to host talks and bring about a resolution which would have seen President Zelaya returning and finishing his term of office until early elections at the end of October. The suggestion was immediately refused by Mr. Micheletti, whilst Mr. Zelaya has determined that he will not accept any terms that do not restore him to his previous position. With the economic situation in Central America worsening by the day, many believe the only possible solution lies in the intervention of the US, Honduras’ largest trading partner who have the ability to entirely shut down the Honduran economy if they choose to. The next few weeks will see the fate Mr. Zelaya, Mr. Micheletti, and Central America’s economy decided.

EDITORIAL

TRINITY NEWS October 20, 2009

TRINITY NEWS Issue 3, Volume 56 Tuesday, 20 October 2009 6 Trinity College, Dublin 2 www.trinitynews.ie

FEES ‘VICTORY’ SOLVES NO-ONE’S PROBLEMS The fees debate, it seems, has been temporarily put to rest, as has been sufficiently reported elsewhere. This is being hailed as a victory by many, including those student officers from Student’s Unions across the country who dedicated themselves to the cause. Nonetheless, the fact remains that this university, like so many others, is drastically underfunded. Among the crises that have faced Trinity in the past few years are the decline in focus on undergraduate education, shortage of storage space in the Santry book depository, sports facilities (also in Santry) that are an embarassment, and a swipe card access system which is barely functional and requires a complete overhaul. There is too little money in the education sector. Alongside rocketing salaries, there has been a massive increase in expenditure on research, and much higher administration costs. The arguments for reducing expenditure on the above may be well-intentioned, but are somewhat futile for the mere reaosn that this is how a modern university works. This university maintains its position as one of the foremost in Europe by simultaneously holding on to its proud traditions and refusing to be swept into obscurity as a mere item of historical insterest. As an insitution grows, so too does its administration. Our concern should be that these staff members are put to efficient use for the benefit of the academic community rather than as unecessary additional sectrarial officers for bloated departments. The battle-cry raised so many times over the past decade has been “underfunding”, something which crops up time and again when there is no other immediate threat to the student populace. This is not coincidental; it is due to the reality that more cash is needed in the higher education sector as a whole. Yet no-one, it seems, is willing to pay. The opportunity to introduce student fees seems to have passed, yet it is exceptionally unlikely that this government will increase funding to the education sector in any other way. Nor will any other administration that may come to power in the coming months or years, for the simple reason that there are no resources to draw upon. Maintaining current commitments to education is proving challenging enough. Free fees are an excellent idea in theory. They are not, however, truly free; merely paid for by another. Quality education costs money, more money than is available at present. And one cannot help but wonder what will happen in the coming years as the signs of increased financial stress become ever more apparent and move from notations in committee minutes to visible non-functioning systems, poorly maintained buildings and less teaching staff. The details of how to operate a fees system were being hammered out in recent months, and are likely to now be abandoned. This is unfortunate, as we will almost certainly see the same debate rise again within the decade, and we will be no closer to solutions than now; merely closer to insolvency.

ABUSE OF ELECTED OFFICIALS IS UNACCEPTABLE At a recent anti-fees protest in Cork, the President of the Student’s Union in the Cork Institute of Technology telephoned the Minister for Education, Batt O’Keefe TD, on his private mobile number. How he obtained this number is a mystery, and there is nothing remarkable about this event in and of itself. Yet what followed, where Mr Buckley read aloud the number to the gathered students and implored them to all simultaneously text the Minister was nothing short of harassment. The denial of vital telephone services to an elected official acheives nothing except to further distance student representatives from the negotiating table. We are not children, and cannot condone such childish behaviour. Were Minister O’Keefe himself so petty, Mr Buckley may have found himself meeting with members of An Garda Síochána, something whihc doubtless would have taught him a lesson. Thankfully, not all Mr Buckley’s contemporaries share his enthusiasm for stirring trouble, and have conducted themselves well in their dealings with political representatives over the last number of months. Mass protests make for an impressive spectacle with their momentum and noise, but the real work is done behind closed doors with careful consideration and diligence. We can only hope that in domestic matters in the Cork Institute of Technology, Mr Buckley is more reserved, and that this event stands as a singular incident brought about by over-enthusiasm in the heat of the moment.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

LETTERS TO THE Editor should be sent to letters@trinitynews.ie or to Trinity News, 6 Trinity College, Dublin 2. The Editor reserves the right to edit submissions for style and length. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of Trinity News, its staff or its Editor.

letters@trinitynews.ie

Regarding anonymous columns

Sir– Your recently published article by Lisa Byrne on the “increased powers” of Dean Stokes was somewhat lacking in context. It failed to report the reasons why such “powers” were necessary in the first place. Under past editorships, Trinity News has been responsible for printing some really malevolent dross about individual students. The ‘Evelyn Tent’ gossip column was the worst offender. As a feature, it served merely to propagate the petty agendas of anonymous hacks. Its “writers” used their public platform as an opportunity to discredit those whom they simply did not like; among their favourite targets

were College Historical Society committee members and high-level college staff. Your article quotes the Chair of Publications invoking that lofty argument about freedom of speech – one of the “foundation stones of an enlightened community”. I’m afraid this rhetoric is misplaced. No credible publication would allow itself to be used in the furtherance of a cowardly vendetta; circulating libelous comments made by unnamed parties. Such a practice is not only lacking in accountability and integrity, but perhaps more pertinently, it constitutes very bad journalism. I appreciate that the incumbent staff of the Trinity News bears no responsibility for these

bad practices, but in order to avoid repeating them, they must first be brought to light. Free speech is meaningless where students can have their names bandied about and sullied without cause or provocation. The individual student should be protected from printed speculation about and mockery of his or her personal life and character. I wholeheartedly welcome the Junior Dean’s new powers to help ensure this protection. Yours, etc. Janet Coen SS TSM English & Philosophy

A response from the college Sir– I refer to a front page article which appeared in Trinity News, dated 22nd September 2009 last, entitled ‘Stokes increases powers’ and continued on page 2 in an article entitled ‘Dean in power grab’ which contained a number of factual inaccuracies which the College wishes to correct. The article stated: “The addition comes less than a year after Trinity News revealed that the Junior Dean, Dr. Emma Stokes, had gone outside of her power to discipline Andrew Booth, the then-Editor of Piranha! magazine.” At the time, it was revealed in an email by Dr. Stokes herself that “following a request for legal advice, I understand that, under current arrangements, the Office of the Junior Dean does not have a role in dealing with what you, as Editor, allow to

be published.” This is incorrect. Mr. Booth did participate in disciplinary proceedings, Trinity News published a letter from him as part of his agreed sanctions following an investigation by the Pro-Junior Dean. In addition, the e-mail referred to in the article was one sent, not to Mr. Booth, but to Mr Gearoid O’Rourke who was not a registered student at the time. “Dr. Stokes has now succeeded in her bid to legally increase her ability to discipline, something which is a cause of concern for many students.” The document submitted to Board for its meeting on 8 July 2009 was not prepared by the Junior Dean. The proposed Calendar change was considered as item C.13 at the behest of the Acting Secretary on the basis of extensive legal advice following consultation with interested

parties, including student representatives. “The Junior Dean was not available for comment and did not attend the Board meeting on Wednesday 16th September. “ Comment was provided to Trinity News by the Communications Office which responds to all media queries on behalf of the College. The implication of your statement is that the Junior Dean for some reason would have been expected to attend Board on 16 September 2009. For the avoidance of doubt the Junior Dean is not a member of the Board and would only ever attend at the invitation of the Board. Yours, etc Caoimhe Ní Lochlainn College Press Officer

Charming, idyllic novel by a devoted son of Trinity OLD TRINITY by PETER HENRY

MOST TRINITY undergraduates are more familiar with The Ginger Man at the back of college than they are with the novel after which it is named. I’m the same: I haven’t read JP Donleavy’s The Ginger Man in a couple of years, but it’s only a few days since I last had a pint of “Writer’s Block” in the Fenian Street pub. Despite pub overtaking book in the mind of the Dublin student, Donleavy’s work is still popularly considered the archetypal “Trinity novel”, a kind of Dublin Brideshead Revisited. But while The Ginger Man may be the most well known book with a Trinity connection, it is hardly the Trinity novel par excellence. Dangerfield is a student here, but the plot does not revolve around his life within these walls. Donleavy is far from alone: many novels are partly set in Trinity College. Charles O’Malley and Life of a Collegian, from 1841 and 1853, are early examples. Mason Jones’s Old Trinity: A Story of Real Life from 1867 was probably the first to use the college’s name in its title. Many books of the last century also touched upon life here, and new Trinity-related novels continue to appear: All Names Have Been Changed by Claire Kilroy being the latest. There is one forgotten novel in which undergraduate life is the defining characteristic – and it deserves the affections of more Trinity students and graduates. This book’s author is Henry Albert Hinkson. A Trinity Scholar and graduate, Hinkson, born in 1865, was a writer in love with this university, and we have him to thank for several entertaining Trinity-related books. His Student Life at Trinity College, Dublin, a valuable and unique record of college life in the late 19th century, was written from the unusual perspective of the young graduate rather than the don. He also compiled a volume of poetry, Dublin Verses by Members of Trinity College, to which Oscar Wilde contributed.

Henry Albert Hinkson, author of O’Grady of Trinity: A Story of Irish University Life Hinkson penned a book which has a true claim to the title of the Trinity novel. O’Grady of Trinity: A Story of Irish University Life (1896) follows the adventures of young Hubert O’Grady as he enters Trinity and becomes involved in everything student life has to offer: good friends, sport, girls, academia and more. Imperfect and sometimes predictable, the book nevertheless captures the languid, naive and hopeful spirit of a young man enjoying the extended adolescence which university permits. And O’Grady of Trinity doesn’t lack the love story which all good narratives need. Hubert is our protagonist, but Ned Daly is the novel’s hero. Hinkson has given Daly the attributes of the perfect Trinity student: he is erudite, intelligent and accomplished, but, above all, fun. Surrounding Daly are Trinity’s best, and it is into this set that Hubert is welcomed. A contemporaneous review in The Sketch magazine praised both author and novel. Hinkson, says the reviewer, “shows himself a devoted son of Trinity College, and such patriotism is essential to success in such a book.” He continued: “Mr Hinkson’s strength lies in his dramatic or humorous scenes: a boat race, a steeplechase, a cricket match, a fight, the night after a ball, interviews with an eccentric tutor and a wily bursar; these are excellently described in direct and telling language.” The novel, says the Sketch review, could do with “a more definite picture of the college itself, its grounds and buildings, and a more studied impression of its ... intellectual life.” I wouldn’t consider these huge drawbacks: a Trinity man can easily paint a picture in his head of the scenes where the novel’s events are set, and the intellectual life is surely less interesting fodder for a novel than an Enniskerry party, the College Races, rowing, rugger, and the other diversions of Hubert and his friends. Professor Stanford, writing in TCD: A

College Miscellany in 1965, described O’Grady of Trinity as “that most idyllic of books”, with a “happy-go-lucky, carefree mood”. It is, he says, “a charming, unmawkish, happy, wellwritten book, redolent of the ease and opulence and gaiety and leisure of the college’s Indian summer, which lasted for a decade or so before and after the [1892] tercentenary.” Hubert O’Grady, like Hinkson, is from an Anglo-Irish family, but an unlikely affection for Catholics can be detected in the novel. Hubert is pals with an ill-fated seminarist from his part of Ireland. Cardinal Newman’s Idea of a University is quoted on the novel’s title page – the eminent ecclesiastic, who had been the first rector of the Catholic University of Ireland, had only gone to his reward six years previously, and he is unlikely to have been the toast of Trinity. These mentions make sense when one learns that Hinkson had been received into the Catholic Church. His wife, Katherine Tynan (they married in May of 1893), was a far more famous author than her now-forgotten husband – she had even once been amorously pursued by WB Yeats. It seems that it was she who encouraged Henry to cross the Tiber. This observation is an aside. Further biographical information on Hinkson is scarce. If more information can be unearthed then I will return to the subject of his life in the future: until then, we can surely get a glimpse of the man’s personality in his memorable book and its protagonist, Hubert O’Grady. HOW MANY of today’s students have read O’Grady of Trinity? It can’t be a large number. One Dublin bookseller wants nearly €200 for a copy, and most people aren’t keen on spending a day in Early Printed Books. Hinkson died in 1919 (requiem aeternam dona ei, Domine) so the book is long out of copyright, allowing me to put it on the internet. Visit trinitynews.ie/ oldtrinity to download a copy. pehenry@tcd.ie

OPINION

TRINITY NEWS October 20, 2009

IN PROFILE

William Hague: bold, bald, and back in the spotlight Neil Warner Contributing Writer THE PROMINENCE which Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague holds in the British Conservative Party these days has become so commonplace it has almost ceased to be noteworthy. Following on from a rather bizarre and disconcerting Tory Conference in Manchester this month, it is worth considering the “second coming” of this oddest of all British political caricatures, and what it means for him, for the Conservative Party, for Britain, and the EU. This was a conference that appeared to deliberately set the clock back, when the Conservative Party’s encouraging move towards the centre of the past few years seemed to stop suddenly and turn full speed in the other direction. There were many indications of this: Shadow Chancellor George Osborne’s grim calls for belt-tightening and austerity, the bland populism of the “Taxpayers’ Alliance” coming from the floor, and David Cameron’s cry against “big government” just over a year after small government nearly brought about the total collapse of the global economy and big government brought it back from the abyss. But perhaps the most striking image that embodied it, albeit one of the less surprising moments of the week, was the speech made by Hague, the recently proclaimed “elder statesman” of the party - at the age of forty-eight. There was nothing particularly nefarious in the speech’s immediate content. Its most prominent assertion

was a denunciation of the Lisbon Treaty as against the “spirit of our age”, and the reiteration of the party’s demands for a referendum, though again shirking the tricky question of whether there would still be one even if the treaty had been ratified by all twenty-seven EU member-states. The treaty was slammed for its lack of legitimacy and accountability and its failure to live up to the “fundamental belief that people should only be led and governed with their consent.” In many ways it was an admirable democratic sentiment,

The only man ever to outshine Tony Blair in the House of Commons, only to find out that the latemodern public was far more concerned with the fact that he was bald and had a Yorkshire accent. and one that I applaud wholeheartedly on one level. But it is the image that is really meant to resonate in cases such as this, and in image it smacked of an underlying “Little Englandism”, a fluffy “I love Britain and goddamit if we can’t have our own foreign policy”, and of eerie similarities to sentiments

expressed by Hague over eight years ago. Has British politics really progressed in this time? These different sides to a single speech reveal an ambivalence that lies behind the persona of William Hague. He is, I think it is fair to say, a remarkably talented, and remarkably strange, figure. Speaker at a Conservative Party conference at the age of sixteen, MP at twenty-seven, leader by the age of thirty-six, resigned after leading his party to one of its most humiliating defeats by the age of forty, returned to the front-bench in 2005 following several highly profitable years in a premature wilderness. On one side of William Hague there is the statesman that the Tory party likes to talk about: witty and erudite; a man with democratic and patriotic ideals clearly far more genuine and carefully thought out than most British politicians; a biographer of William Pitt and William Wilberforce; the only man ever to outshine Tony Blair in the House of Commons, only to find out that the late, modern public was far more concerned with the fact that he was bald and had a Yorkshire accent. There is also the clownish and dangerous side that Labour spin doctors still like to emphasise. Sometimes this is just funny, like when he claimed as leader to have drunk fourteen pints of beer a day as a teenager (the “William Hague Fourteen Pint Challange” is now something of a Facebook Phenomenon

with today’s youth). But there is yet another side of

Hague which embodies the very culmination of the “Nasty Party” that Britain tried to turn away from. It was a reminder of this Hague which we got, only very tacitly, in Manchester this month. At a Tory conference in Harrogate some eight years ago, Hague made a vigorous defence of “little England” and warned that Britain was becoming a “foreign land”, the final act in a mutation of the Tory party of that era that threatened to turn it into a permanent, “foaming-at-the-mouth” minority party, increasingly obsessed with a self-created image of an allenveloping, centralising beast called the European Union; ever-encroaching,

though, for some reason, never quite getting where it had imperiled. There was a time when Hague was an embarrassing episode for the Tory party as they attempted to scramble their way back from the lows of the 2001 election. Now, worryingly, they love him again. At Manchester, they gave him a standing ovation before he even started. With the election apparently already decided, there appears to be an element of euphoria among the membership, and as figures of old like Hague are embraced with increasing gusto, the “Cameroon” mask of the “Nasty Party” may be slipping off. The question is whether Britain will see it on time; I fear that it won’t.

‘Hello father, goodbye progress’: a response to Senator Ivana Bacik

In a response to last issue’s piece on the laws regarding blasphemous libel, Johnathan Wyse argues that the protection of religious belief in law is a justified endeavour, and that Senator Bacik has misperceieved the issue.

Johnathan Wyse Contributing Writer SENATOR IVANA Bacik claims that the Minister for Justice brought us back to the Dark Ages with the revision of Ireland’s law on blasphemy (“Hello Father, Bye Bye Progress”, October 6, 2009). If only this were the sole consideration in his recent decision. Unfortunately for all of us, censorship may be reappearing in response to a newer and far more malevolent force than catholic conservatism. To consider first: is criminalisation of blasphemy legitimate? If a democratic majority believe that an individual should be free from having their personal religious beliefs attacked, that is the only standard by which to judge its legitimacy, particully considering the imperative to protect minority rights. There is, after all, no objective definition of harm which is free from prejudice. It may be difficult for godless heathens or atheists such as the Senator to understand, but individuals can suffer greatly when they are thusly abused. At what cost do we grant religious groups this small mercy? Senator

Bacik facetiously cites innocuous acts which would have been considered blasphemous under past definitions, and which will now be prohibited. Actually, you have to go pretty far to be covered by the legislation. In future, just do your best not to produce matter “that is grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by any religion, thereby causing outrage among a substantial number of the adherents of that religion”. It shouldn’t be too difficult. The Senator also omits the full definition of the abuse of blasphemy, which criminalises blasphemy only when “he or she intends, by the publication of the matter concerned, to cause such outrage”. The courts need to be satisfied that you were really going out of your way to antagonise a religious minority. I’m sure it was just an oversight on her part, and not intentionally misleading to depict the legislation as draconian to suit her purposes. Even if you don’t agree with me, your position is at odds with the constitution. Regardless of what popular or invogue atheist opinion says, the laws of Ireland should be consistent with that document. So until a referendum is held

on the matter, we need a blasphemy law on the books. Would the Senator advocate allowing the Dáil to legislate according to its whim, unbound by the Constitution? She would not. In fact, she even suggests as an alternative an amendment to the Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act. Unfortunately, this would satisfy neither God nor the Constitution. So we’re left with Minister Ahern’s legislation for the time being. Is there good reason to keep it? Let’s remind ourselves of a terrifying manifestation of the forces who really are trying to impose censorship on the world – the controversy and violence resultant from the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed in the Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten. The response of the Danish government was either admirable or fool-hardy, depending on your perspective. Danish soldiers were targeted in Afghanistan, Danish goods were boycotted by Muslim countries, Danish embassies were burnt to the ground. All in all, more than a hundred people died as a consequence. Voltaire would be proud. The government of Denmark defended free speech.

Perhaps the Senator will be happy when Irish embassies have been burnt to the ground Unfortunately, certain fundamentalist Islamic clerics did not agree, and thus demanded the deaths of those who would offend their prophet (and also anyone vaguely associated with them). Let’s be clear: there was no perfect outcome possible here. If newspapers are censored or even engage in selfcensorship out of fear, their freedom is being infringed upon. If they aren’t and won’t, it may cause bloodshed and cost lives. Where external actors threaten force to over-ride the moral sentiments of a society that values freedom of speech above all else, that’s clearly not right. But, whether you like it or not, even if the government of Ireland declares unmitigated freedom of speech, they are very limited in their ability to truly protect it.

What happens in the event that somebody does create blasphemous matter? For example, consider an artist who decides to publish an offensive cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad in an unflattering manner. This decision, if it happens to capture the imagination of a radical fundamentalist Islamic cleric, may impact on the lives and livelihoods of Irish people everywhere. The costs will not exclusively be imposed upon the artists. Thus, there is a public cost to this choice. States can generally force citizens to respect the rights of each other. When you are dealing with zealots who believe that eternal life will be their martyr’s reward, deterrence typically breaks down. They have no means of controlling such fervent creatures, and that is why states must so radically adapt in the face of the terrorist threat. It is legitimate for a nation to collectively adopt the way of Voltaire and Senator Bacik. It should be deemed equally legitimate for a state to deem the cost of permitting freedom of speech too high. Is it blackmail? Yes. But if the Irish government has decided to take pre-emptive action to prevent such an

occurrence from ever happening, that is their prerogative and they have a democratic mandate to do so. Senator Bacik laments the government seizing the freedom to blaspheme, But what of allowing an offensive cartoonist seize the freedom not to be a target for terrorist attack by fundamentalist Islamic zealots from Irish people everywhere? Which freedom will you miss less? Perhaps the Senator will be happy when Irish embassies have been burnt to the ground. But if you feel like your freedom of speech is being infringed upon by the new law against blasphemy, don’t blame the Irish government. First of all, recognise the constraints of the constitution and the stated aim of the government not to permit any prosecutions. Or maybe, just maybe, you should blame those misguided elements of the Muslim faith which propagate violence in response to criticism. If blasphemy stays, it will be to protect us from them. Let us hope that freedom of speech returns some day, when cartoons are no longer used to promote violence against the West. But for the time being, let’s not give them an excuse.

OPINION

TRINITY NEWS October 20, 2009

Irish politics in serious need of some va-va-voom Orla Donnelly Contirbuting Writer SEEING AS the Government failed to prepare us for the R-word, one shudders to think how they would handle a major sexscandal. Invisage Monday morning outside Government Buildings. The mood is somber as Coughlan and Lenihan keep our fearless leader company on his smoke break: “Think, Brian! If you can talk them into NAMA, surely there’s a way you can spin this,” Cowen urges Lenihan, who shuffles uneasily on his feet. “Bertie handled the affair thing nicely,” Mary suggests hopefully from beside the Taoiseach. “Maybe you could give him a ring?” “This is way out of his league. It’s hopeless…I’m ruined.” Cowen’s head droops to the printed sheets of paper resting on his knees. Lenihan slips the paper from the pudgy fingers of the better known Brian. “This is their front page, then?” Cowen nods, as Lenihan’s eyes glance down - his eyes are paralyzed by the bold jumbo-sized letters at the top of the page: “KENNY - COWEN: STAR CROSSED LOVERS!” Even if such a revelation came to light, our country’s short sexual political history would still seem inadequate in the company of our more experienced European partners. Westminster set new standards in sleaze, such as the eponymous Profumo Affair, when a showgirl switched between the beds of the Secretary of State for War and a Soviet spy, or the curious incident of the dog on the Exmoor climb: the shooting of a Great Dane in the crossfire of an alleged hit-attempt on the homosexual lover of a Liberal Democrat leader. Just which country’s parliament could claim to be on top of the body of political affairs? Germany has been suitably chastened by the latest “Iron Lady”, Angela Merkel. The otherwise missionary exploits of Silvio “I am no saint” Berlusconi give Italy a swinging chance. However, there is one nation whose laissez-faire philosophy on sex is so true to stereotype that it reinforces all others: that is,

the croissant-eating, Café au lait-drinking, beret-clad, smoking politicians of the Fifth Republic of France. Coming out of the closet; publicly defending an accused sex offender; or being accused of paedophiliac acts: any one of these would land an obscure Irish celebrity on the front pages. So, imagine the response if it were not a meagre singer, actor or winner of a reality TV show, but an elected member of Dáil Éireann. Enter Frédéric Mitterrand. The recently appointed French Minister of Culture has undoubtedly led an intriguing life. A few years before he was promoted to the Cabinet position by Nicolas Sarkozy, Mitterand published a purportedly “autobiographical novel”, including details of paying for young Thai “boys” in “the slave market”. Sympathetic attention at the time focussed on the honest attitude of the openly bisexual author. His public defence of film director and international fugitive Roman Polanski, who has a US arrest warrant for statutory rape with a 13year-old girl in 1978, in his new role has relayed accusations of child abuse towards Mitterand himself and prompted calls for his resignation. Yet this latest scandal appears to have only mildly set French tongues wagging. Are the French simply bored of reading reports of raucous romps featuring their public officials? François Mitterand; France’s longest-serving President, and uncle of Frédéric, was a pioneer in the field of political sex scandals: he coopted terrorism powers, such as wiretaps, to suppress the story of his love child for twenty years. President Sarkozy’s reputation was, if anything, boosted by his marriage to

Italian singer Carla Bruni in that same year, only a few months after ending a relation-ship with his previous fashion model wife (which began and ended with elopements). The French electorate seemed happy to ignore any impropriety in the match, instead stamping S a r k o z y eternally as a most successful a n d charming ladies’ man. Every a c t i o n is only equal to its reaction and France’s politicians s h o u l d appreciate the fact that the public hastily grow bored of reports concerning their bedroom escapades. But with all the calls on the government to provide stimulus and innovation, just how would the general public be expected to respond to something more salacious sliding out the back? Perhaps by familiarising ourselves with some dangerous liaiasons in foreign affairs, we could handle the climax of such an event.

“Are the French simply bored of reading reports of raucous romps featuring their public officials?”

Kevin Myers fuels anti-Islamic fires Laura Williams Contributing Writer KEVIN MYERS published an article in the Irish Independent on 24th September outraging students with his anti-Islamic views and promotion of Euro-American society as the creator of world culture while commenting on Fourak Hosny’s failure to win the coveted position of Director General of UNESCO. Myers used the September election to highlight Fourak Hosny’s controversial anti-Semitic statements made last year during Israel’s attack on Palestine. Needless

“Myers’s statement that ‘world culture is essentially a Euro-American creation’ is appallingly ignorant.” to say, Myers neglected to mention that it was during this heated period that the statements were made and that Hosny has since accepted full responsibility and issued an unreserved statement of regret. AntiSemitism existed long before Islam, though there’s little denying that Israel does receive anti-Semitic threats from some Islamic states, Iran being the obvious example. The issue that has outraged people is that Myers has tarred Arabic societies with a sweeping generalisation in explaining that he can understand why Israelis are “sometimes a little glum” considering that, in his opinion, all Islamic-Arabs have offered the world is “suicide bombers, pathological anti-Semitism, female circumcision and the hijab”. A senior Theology student argues that “To assign suicide bombers, anti-semitism, the hijab and many other negative stereotypes to Islam without recognising the numerous positive cultural, scientific and spiritual contributions of Islamic civilisation to both Western and World culture is typical of the same ignorance and narrow mindedness that Myers so vilifies Hosni for promoting.” In his admiration of Euro-American influence, Myers mentions its cultural

offerings of: Beethoven, Bach, Shakespere, Leonardo, Darwin, Newton and Wren. Note that these are not recent contributions to modern society. Yet when he challenges readers to list cultural contributions from the “Islamo-Arabic” culture, he demands that it is from the recent past. Arabic culture has contributed extensively to numerous endeavours within the fields of medicine, mathmatics, art, literature, language and science by offering the work of poets like Ferdoswi and Rumi; Avicenna (medicine); Averroes (philosophy) and, within the last century, Loris Tjeknavorian, the Iranian-Armerian composer whose work has been performed by the London Symphony Orchestra and the American Symphony Orchestra amongst others worldwide. I also cite Naguib Mahfouz, the 1988 Literary Nobel Prize winner; Mohamed Anwar al-Sadat, the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize winner; Shirin Ebadi, the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize winner; Ahmed Zewail 1999 Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry; and Abdus Salsm, the 1979 Nobel Prize winner in Physics. More recently, the award-winning novel The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini has been adapted into film and theatre in the United States and has been highly acclaimed throughout the Euro-American world. Are these not valuable cultural contributions? Mathematics was developed in the Arabic

“According to Myers, all Islamic-Arabs have offered the world is suicide bombers, pathological anti-Semitism and the hijab.” world, leading to the evolution of the subject and the modern invention of computers, which, as pointed out by Myers, is a “EuroAmerican” invention. Is it too idealistic to suggest that by combining the diversities of human capabilities, we could actually evolve further as a human race? Many modern advances come about not as a result of one single inventor or civilisation but rather

represent the result of multi-disciplinary transglobal research initiatives which draw on research from many different societies. The assumption that Euro-American

“This is the kind of opinion one would expect from someone during the colonial ages.” culture, alone, is responsible for the development and evolution of the human race, when Myers states “world culture is essentially a Euro-American creation”, is appallingly ignorant. He has completely dismissed the influence of many of the world’s accomplished civilisations, offered by societies stretching from Africa & Arabia and expanding as far as China and Japan, via India. Myers has just sliced away the two thirds of the world’s cultural creators who also happen to constitute the world’s non-white societies. This is the kind of opinion one would expect from someone during the colonial ages; it is certainly not something that should be appearing in light of the current trends toward postcolonialism studies, as well as the general shift in cultural theory that we see most clearly in the use of “buzz words” such as multiculturalism and metropolitanism. Not every Muslim fits into Myers’ negative stereotypes wherein he accuses Islam of being locked in a “cycle of self-destructive, impoverishing nihilism”. It is saddening that such an essentially racist attitude still survives in Irish society, and is almost deemed as acceptable. Taking history into account - rather than religious or cultural nature, surely it is human nature that is found to be destructive? Is it not the human desire for power that influences destruction via cultural and religious beliefs? If Myers gave some time to research the positive input of the modern Islamic world, he might have come across another of the many forward-looking faces of Islam. I quote Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi: “My aim is to show that those governments that violate the rights of people by invoking the name of Islam have been misusing Islam.”

MYERS’S HEADLINES KEVIN MYERS seems to delight in controversy. Throughout his writing career, his inflammatory opinions have sparked widespread debate. Below is a selection of his most memorable headlines.

The anti-Semite Farouk Hosni is, in fact, the forward-looking face of enlightened Arabia September 24, 2009

Anorexia and obesity arrived at the same time as feminism, and possibly on the same train September 17, 2009

We should force-feed Greens their bikes until they choke

ROUND UP SHANE QUINN HEALTH

CAN YOU REALLY IMAGINE YOUR WORRIES AWAY? RECENT RESEARCH shows that children can use their imagination to tackle stomach pains. A relaxation-type CD, asking children to imagine themselves in different scenarios like lying in a field, led to dramatic improvements in such pain. The US researchers said the technique worked particularly well in children as they have such fertile minds. One example is letting a special shiny object melt into their hand and then placing their hand on their belly, spreading warmth and light from the hand into the abdomen to make a protective barrier inside that prevents anything from irritating the tummy. As crazy as the idea sounds, the statistics have proven reassurringly positive. 73.3% of those using the CDs reported that their abdominal pain was reduced by half or more by the end of the treatment course compared with 26.7% in the normal care group. In two-thirds of children the improvements were still apparent six months later. AUCTIONS

TRAFALGAR UNION JACK TO GO UNDER THE HAMMER AUCTIONEERS BELIEVE that the only surviving Union Jack from the Battle of Trafalgar could fetch a staggering £15,000 at auction, after it was found in a drawer. The flag was flown from one of Nelson’s warships, HMS Spartiate, in the naval battle off the Spanish coast in 1805. It was presented by the 540-strong crew to Fife-born Lieutenant James Clephan after the conflict, one of the highest honours that could be bestowed upon an officer by his men. The flag bears a number of “battle scars” holes caused by shot and shell splinter damage sustained during combat. The Union Jack will go under the hammer after being put up for sale by Charles Miller, an Australian descendant of Clephan. It was treasured by his family, who kept it in a drawer to preserve it. Charles Miller is selling the piece in London tomorrow, Trafalgar Day. Clephan retired in 1840 with the rank of captain and lived in Edinburgh for 11 years until his death g of 83. at the age RETAIL

ALCOHOL RULES CAUSE DISTRESS THE NEW Labour legacy of top-down, contolling big government has become all too apparent after a woman was refused wine at UK supermarket giant Morrisons in case she was buying it for her 17-yearold daughter. Jackie Slater, from Leeds, said she felt like a “criminal” when the cashier told her that she couldn’t sell her the wine. Mrs. Slater tried in vain to explain that the wine was for her husband and herself but the cashier and the store manager wouldn’t back down. A spokesperson for Morrisons said, “Under current licensing laws, stores are unable to sell an alcoholic product to a customer they believe could be buying for a minor or for someone who is unable to prove their age,” Mrs Slater’s local MP, Liberal Democrat Health Spokesman Greg Mulholland said, “Whoever thinks this policy will do anything to stop antisocial drinking by kids is in cloud-cuckoo-land. This is simply absurd and Morrisons should be ashamed of themselves.”

October 13, 2009

Africa’s real problem today is that it does not have enough fo the “colonial” values of materialism. October 6, 2009

Do we really want to turn this country into a pathetic cross between Seattle and Barcelona? October 8, 2009

HOME NEWS

EX-FÁS CHIEF STILL UNDER SPOTLIGHT ENDA KENNY has questioned the legitimacy of the €1.1mn severance payout to Mr. Molloy, who resigned in the aftermath of expenses controversy at FÁS. Kenny claimed in the Dail that the payout is outside Department of Finance guidelines. An Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, defended it, claiming the sum was in-line with what the former Director General would have received if he had been sacked. The disagreement is over the argument that, having resigned as opposed to having been dismissed, Mr. Molloy was no longer eligible for a large severance package.

OPINION

TRINITY NEWS October 20, 2009

Forget it, Jake. It’s Tinseltown. Thomas Broe Contirbuting Writer IN THE past couple of weeks droves of Hollywood’s finest came out to defend one of their colleagues after his arrest in Switzerland on a 31-year-old US arrest warrant. They had finally got him; at last Roman Polanski, pending an extradition order, will face charges in the US. On further enquiry into the events leading to last week’s arrest one feels a mixture of repulsion and empathy. Repulsion at the sinister nature of the crime the man is accused of: the drugging, raping and sodomising of a thirteen-year-old girl. And yet empathy is never far away when one hears of Polanski’s ordeals at the hands of the Nazis during World War II, the brutal murder of his wife Sharon Tate by the Manson family and his exile from the US for fear of re-arrest. Added to this is his contribution to the arts. Polanski has directed many arguably seminal movies: “Rosemary’s Baby”, “Chinatown” and “The Pianist” to name but a few. Let us put his professional career aside until later and focus on the events 31 years ago that

“

led to Polanski’s recent arrest. As part of a plea bargain he pleaded guilty to engaging in unlawful sexual intercourse with 13-year-old Samantha Geimer. Having been released from a psychiatric evaluation after the incident, he sought legal advice from his team and left the States, bound for France, within 24 hours. In France, Polanski was immune from extradition due to his French citizenship. Since then, by avoiding visits to countries likely to extradite him, he has managed to evade the US Courts and been able to continue his directorial career. Is this justice? Continually living under the shroud of allegations must be difficult but, judging by the response of his peers since his arrest, it appears people in the French film industry had few qualms about working with him. One wonders should he have voluntarily given himself up, having had time to reconsider his position whilst safe in France. Such an act may have affected any judgement passed on him in a US court. However in times of crisis people don’t always make the most cogent decisions and a moment’s imprudence can haunt. Polanski may not only regret his crime

but also choosing the easy way out and fleeing the US to avoid the impending trial. (They say the best thing to do when in crisis is nothing!). The reflexive response of Hollywood to defend one of their own is akin to the Catholic

The reflexive response of Hollywood to defend one of their own is akin to the Catholic Church’s unequivocal denial of clerical sex abuse

Church’s unequivocal denial of clerical sex abuse. Hollywood excuses a lot in the name of artistic license. The culture it breeds encourages expression of creative sides of people, whilst ignoring personal flaws. What if a person is not an artist and has a darker side, what excuse can they use? Legendary rocker David Bowie

has managed to successfully use his creative side to reinvent himself many times during his illustrious recording career spanning five decades. Folk, R & B, rock: name a genre and Bowie has recorded in it. His lifestyle has been anything but ordinary and inspired some of his finest work, such as “Space Oddity” and “Ashes to Ashes”. However, wile his drug taking clearly harmed him, his criminality didn’t extend to others. Polanski’s actions directly impacted on another life: Samantha Geimer’s. I wonder did Norman Bates in Psycho consider himself an artist. In order to uphold societal values we follow certain laws, and it may be said that it’s irrelevant how Polanski and Bates (yes, he’s a fictional character) perceive themselves because in the eyes of the law they are criminals. The much-maligned and some claim overzealous American judicial system appears to have finally caught their man. What about the waste of taxpayers’ money over the intervening 31 years? Upholding state laws comes at a price to all citizens and that price for Roman Polanski could well be his freedom. Anyone who has seen Polanski’s film-

noir masterpiece Chinatown will testify to the chilling results that the pursuit of justice and answers have on the life of the private investigator JJ Gittes (aptly played by Jack Nicholson). Incidentally, Polanski was responsible for the cheerless ending, expressing his creative side in altering Bob Towne’s original script. Thankfully, I watched Chinatown blissfully unaware of the director’s coloured past, and so was spared any possible distaste I might have felt towards the movie had I known. Polanksi’s artistic legacy, built on films before and after the alleged crime, will in some circles be tainted and no amount of character references from Hollywood stars or Polish and French foreign ministers can reverse that. Nevertheless, whatever about Polanski’s plight and the scrutinising of his actions, one shouldn’t forget the real victim, Samantha Geimer. She has tried to move on and earlier this year filed to have the charges against Polanski dismissed from court. The mother of three wants closure. Let’s hope both Ms. Geimer and Roman Polanski get closure in the ensuing months.

CASE HISTORY Wanted in USA after pleading guilty to having sex with a thirteen-year-old at the home of actor Jack Nicholson He had a plea agreement with the judge whereby he would be sentenced to the 42 days he had already served in jail Fearing the judge would alter the terms, he skipped bail in 1978, fleeing to France where his French citizenship protected him from extradition The 2008 documentary “Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired” - included interviews with Samantha Geimer, who claims he is not a danger to society and appealed for leniency. Polanski lost a case to dismiss charges on the basis that there had been prosecution and judicial misconduct 30 years ago.

HEAD TO HEAD: ACADEMIC BAN ON BURQA

PRISONERS BEHIND A SCREEN CATHERINE NICHOLAS

ERHAPS THE fact that the word burqa means “to sew up” gives some illustration of the dehumanisation that occurs when a Muslim woman wears this cloak. The burqa serves solely to consolidate the profound estrangement between the sexes in the Islamic world through a primitive gender apartheid and holds no place in modern civilisation. The Burqa is a symbol of inequality and female slavery. French President Sarkozy was right when he said recently, “The burqa is not a religious sign, it is a sign of the subjugation, of the submission of women. In our country, we cannot accept that women be prisoners behind a screen, cut off from all social life and deprived of all identity.” It is the ultimate way to bind a woman’s mind, to straitjacket any emotional or intellectual independence from her husband. The belief that a woman is a precious gift from God to be hoarded from the world for protection becomes a pious lie to justify depriving a woman of her liberty under the guise of religious observance. The burqa is not in the Qur’an. It is an obscene manipulation of women which should strike horror into the spirit of any person today. Some argue that the wearing of the burqa is an oppression freely chosen by women, but victimization often involves acquiescence to subjugation. Victims defend their victimizers or justify their suffering rather than confront the oppressor. These are women who have never known freedom, who have lived all their lives

behind a prison veil. The wearing of the burqa exacerbates the problem of religious segregation in society. It is seen as a potent symbol of allegiance to radical Islam which violates Western standards of universal human rights and undermines secularism. There is a clash of civilisations, with values of Western enlightenment conflicting with ancient Bedouin tradition. In 2006, Tony Blair spoke of this failure of integration in which the burqa became “a mark of separation” which heightened the existence of parallel societies and prevented community cohesion. This sinister cocoon that women are forced into is being used by Islamists as a landscape for political and religious statements. To some it is even an intimidating totalitarian symbol, comparable to the Nazi swastika, which fosters isolation of Muslim community in the Western world. There are also compelling practical reasons against the wearing of the burqa. There have been reports that women cannot breathe properly or get headaches from having a constant pressure on their head. Moreover, the health of the next generation is being compromised. Doctors have told of the sharp rise in babies being born with rickets, which is caused by their mothers having a vitamin D deficiency due to lack of sunshine. Security reasons provide another argument for why we should ban the burqa. One of the July 2005 London bombers, Yassin Omar, took on the burqa twice: once when fleeing the scene of the crime, then a day later, when fleeing London for the Midlands. I can only hope that one day we will look back on the burqa and wonder how it came to be that our civilisation allowed such cruelty. Today the silence from burqa wearers is deafening. They will continue to fade into nothingness and become a shadow of their husbands unless we challenge ourselves to do something about it now.

IT IS NOT OUR PLACE TO CONDEMN JAMES KELLY

HE TOP cleric in Egypt has this week claimed he will ban the wearing of the full veil in academic institutions on the grounds that there is no basis for it in the Qur’an. This has brought the issue of the burqa once again into the public arena both here in Europe and in the Middle East. As many in Egypt itself are saying, the wearing of the burqa is a matter of personal choice. Muslim women everywhere have cried out, claiming it is not an oppressive, vindictive instrument, and one they will continue to wear regardless of any ill-advised decree. Ultimately, here in the West, the choices open to women in the Arab world are not of our primary concern; it is not our place to condemn or condone such issues. Where it does come into the remit of our discussion is in relation to the substantial Muslim minorities in Europe. Firstly, as we idealise freedom of thought and expression in the arts and all other areas, surely this must be applied to the wishes of those who we may disagree with. Equally, in a country where minority interests are supposedly protected, there needs to be a standardisation of the treatment for all religions. Consider the public outcry in the UK in 2006 when BA tried to prevent a woman wearing a crucifix to work. Consider were this to happen in Ireland: there would be nation-wide uproar. Joe Duffy’s lines would be clogged for a week! Based on this, then a Muslim woman’s right to wear a burqa is just

as valid as a Christian’s right to display a cross. On the same footing, to limit or inhibit the wearing of a burqa must entail the prevention of outward displays of Christian symbolism. Compare this to the toleration of Westerners in the Arab world. In Dubai, alcohol is illegal for Muslims on religious grounds, yet the acceptance of other beliefs is strong enough that it is available in bars and off-licences for ex-pats, This is the degree of accomodation we should be aiming for in “liberal” Europe. It has been claimed that the burqa intimidates people, for the fact that it can be associated with terrorism and radical extremism. I would say this is based on ignorance and stereotyping played upon by the extreme right and the mainstream media, and is ultimately our problem, not the Muslim community’s. We cannot allow our ignorance to cloud our vision, which requires re-education on our part. The issue of the burqa and that of women’s rights in the Middle East, often lumped together, are in fact entirely different things. No one can deny that female liberation is needed, and whether woman are permitted to vote, to enter the professions or even the workforce after having children needs to be addressed. Equally, freedom from paternal control and the right to independence from a husband in the eyes of the law and the community needs to be implemented. However, the wearing of the burqa is an entirely separate issue. Any acceptance of moving forward in issues of women’s rights needs to come from within, not imposed by Western idealists. Look only to Afghanistan, where there has been a backlash against women attending education or even voting in the recent elections in Taliban controlled provinces. We must not allow ourselves be one of the ignorant few who refuse to see the real picture in favour of the sepia-tainted version.

”

The roots of education are bitter; the fruit sweet Sarah Clarkin Contributing Writer THE OLD proverbs are always the best: “Education is a light load to carry.” Without meaning to sound clichéd, (but ultimately recognising that I do!), it literally opens doors for people, creates untold opportunities, places them one step closer to achieving a dream. Education can be the pathway to a new life. Yet, the sorry fact remains in this country, that many socio-economic groups are drastically under-represented at third-level. Access programmes, such as the Trinity Access Programme (TAP), have been aiming to rectify this since the early 1990’s, helping members of such socio-economic groups participate in Trinity, and their role is more important now than ever. In an ideal world, a university education would be the logical step proceeding from completion of

secondary school, for all those who wished to avail of it. Not naïve enough to believe all of the wrongs of the world can be easily righted, the injustices ended or even half of the problems tackled this decade, I am certain of one thing: TAP is making huge headway in equalising opportunities. Education should not be a pseudonym for elitism; it is society’s greatest leveller. Whatever about fairness or morality, it isn’t commercially viable to have those from only the top tiers of society in higher education, as it drastically limits human capital of the national workforce. This view was supported at the Global Irish Economic Forum in Farmleigh by former Intel Chief Executive and Chairman Craig Barrett, who warned the government that the Irish education system wasn’t strong enough to facilitate economic revival. History shows that it doesn’t matter what you call an economic crash - from

the Slump, to the Great Depression, to the not-so-great Recession - the outcome is always the same: working people suffer more than any other group. Every other day there is news of public sector pay cuts, more job losses in the private sector, massive cuts in the health budget, more bullying of pensioners; there has yet to be talk of Fianna Fail, the ones who squandered our wealth during the boom, taking a hit themselves, and the newly satisfied Greens have permanently lost their voice. As financier George Soros put it: “The people who end up paying the price are never the people who get the benefits.” Economic experts such as George Lee and David McWilliams warned a crash was imminent but, like Homer’s cursed prophet Cassandra, the warnings fell on deaf ears and we wheeled our own Trojan Horse, in the form of an over inflated property bubble, into our city.

The worst of all cuts, though, has to be in education. A small consolation are the 500 new teachers secured by the Green Party over the weekend, but it does not go far enough. Ireland has no hope of dragging itself out of this economic mess without education. A large, educated workforce is a greater resource than any roads or ports, and would help the IDA to entice the big MNC’s back from the East. Cuts in funding to Access Programmes, or indeed any other education programmes, need to be seriously revised. The Trinity Access Programme is broad in its ambitions. In communities where there is lower than average progression to third-level education, they aim to normalise it as an idea. Knowing how boring the concept of spending longer than necessary in school can be to young children, TAP inspires interest in learning so that pursuing further education is an appealing prospect. As

well as the children, there is some focus on the parents, who are given access to the information necessary to facilitate their child’s interest in education and the third-level. These endeavours take place in the form of poetry and picture programmes, and maths and science exploration programmes, amongst others. The Community Outreach Programme is one of many run by TAP. Others include the Higher Education Access Route (HEAR), which supports school leavers who have the ability to benefit from and succeed in higher education to progress onto university, and the TAP Foundation Courses for Higher Education, which work with young adults and mature students from under-represented areas to aid them in the same way. At the moment, 15 percent of Trinity places are reserved for nontraditional students, which includes socio-economically disadvantaged

students, mature students and students with a disability. On average, HEAR students compete for five percent of reserved places in Trinity, which equated to approximately 95 students in 2009. Of the thousands of people in TCD, 95 places is hardly enough, but TAP is making significant inroads in breaking down class barriers and normalising education in areas where it was never popular. It is a strong start in equalising opportunities, and in the days that follow, their capacity to operate will be more crucial than ever. It is a slow process, but the Trinity Access Programme’s development has been steady, complementing Donogh O’Malley’s introduction of free second-level education in 1966. To some, funding for TAP may appear an extravagance when our National Debt is climbing exponentially but, to quote Aristotle, “The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.”

BUSINESS & CAREERS

TRINITY NEWS October 20, 2009

Super-Quinn Alex Hamilton Staff Writer IT IS a wet dreary Thursday afternoon and Leinster House is full of the usual gatherings, whisperings, machinations and plotting, as John O’Donoghue rolls out an impassioned and some might say embittered defence of his time as Ceann Comhairle. I arrive just in time to see Seamus Kirk TD take up his new post in the aforementioned office, but am swiftly whisked off to today’s area of interest, Senator Feargal Quinn’s office. His P.A. jokes with me that I will have a tough time shutting him up, so I arm myself with quick-fire questions and a steely resolve; however no sooner am I in the door of Senator Quinn’s office than I am disarmed by a firm handshake and a welcoming smile from the great man. Feargal Quinn is one of Ireland’s most successful and innovative entrepreneurs in the last 50 years. Though much of his time is now spent on the Seanad floor, the vast majority of his working life was spent nurturing his own highly successful supermarket chain, Superquinn, which he sold in 2005. Superquinn’s unrelenting ability to constantly innovate and deal effectively with an ever-changing market place made Quinn a legend in his field. I start by asking him “Why business?” He tells that it’s very much a part of his heritage. “My father was a businessman who ran summer camps, and when I was a teenager I would help out in almost every department, be it calling the bingo numbers, organising the herds of eager children or dealing with the parents”. At the Red Island Holiday camps, there was a huge emphasis on bring the customer back, and that was certainly not lost on a young Feargal Quinn. When he finished secondary school, he went on to study Commerce in UCD. During that time he regrets being on the fringes of university, “doing the odd bit of debating and the like”, but

ISEQ ROUND-UP IRELAND VOTING ‘Yes’ to Lisbon and the Green party’s decision to back both the program for government and the NAMA bill should have set the stage for a strong performance in Irish Financials over the past fortnight, however fears over the bank’s ability to raise capital post NAMA resulted in a double digit declines for the indexes’ largest banking stocks. Shares in Allied Irish Banks dipped 11.9% to €2.67, while Bank of Ireland plunged 16.5% to €2.69. Overall the ISEQ index of Irish shares finished the fortnight down 1.2% at 3265. CRH shares surged over the past two weeks after CRH’s Indian JV (My Home Industries) revealed plans to increase its cement production capacity to 10m tonnes over next 3-4 years. Despite pulling back on Friday after a late sell off, shares ended the fortnight up 6.9% at €19.50. Elsewhere, Tullow Oil put in strong performance, up 9.1% to €12.32, after it revealed that Kosmos was in talks to sell its stake in the Jubilee oil field in Ghana for at least $4bn. Shares were also boosted by the news of two successful drilling operations. Paddy Power finished up 6.4% after Sportingbet Plc (which is 51% owned by Paddy Power) reported its full year audited results for 31st July 2009. The group saw amounts wagered up 17% and net gaming revenue up 13%. The company significantly outperformed rival bookmaker Ladbrokes after the group announced a 1 for 2 rights issue to raise £275m.

never fully integrating and delving in to the pursuit of academic excellence, instead working in a local grocery in Dun Laoghaire for much of his time. Armed with an insatiable appetite for real business, and an abhorrence of all things accounting (which caused him to repeat a year) he set off to France for a year to seek different pastures. “There I learned a wonderful thing” he says with his customary enthusiasm. “In France, they had a fantastic thing called self-service, where if one wanted to get, say a magazine, you would go to the shelf and pick one out yourself. In Ireland, that didn’t happen and you had to ask the person at the till to get your magazine from behind the counter”. This was his first epiphany moment, and formed the basis of what was to become his own company. Returning to Ireland with a newly found fervor, he eagerly told his father of this revelation. His father suggested going into the area of food. With a year in England under his belt where he learnt his trade, he came back to Ireland in 1960 where he opened his first shop on, he tells me, “25th November, 1960 in a 210 sq m site in Dundalk with a staff of eight”. I am impressed by his sharpness as he remembers every details like it was yesterday, and goes on to tell me that he opened his second shop on the 17th June, 1965 and his third in February 1968. I ask him what drove him on in the early days. “Without a doubt, there was the whole fear of failure. I was one of the few who started their own company after having studied business studies! Many went in to teaching, the family business, or God forbid accounting, and so being one of the few I wanted to prove to others that I could do it. And of course there was an element of me wanting to impress my father”. He speaks of his early days with pride and fondness, and his shops quickly grew a healthy reputation. He was one of the first to put in music overhead and had a microphone

for telling customers of special offers (both described as terrible ideas at the time, but came to be commonplace in every supermarket in the country). “In essence”, he says, “it was about making the weekly shop a bearable experience, and if it could be enjoyable then all the better, as that was the way you were going to get the customer back!” From the late 1960s onwards where his chain grew from 5 shops in 1969 to 11 shops in 1980, he saw himself as more of a leader than a manager. “I did not have the time to manage everything, so I learned that delegating was one of the most important facets of managing a business. I had to trust people to get things done, and my job was to motivate them in their jobs”. Though things were going well for him and his family, he doesn’t hesitate to allude to how hard he worked at

... six days a week, sometimes 13- 14 hours a day, and did not have many friends. times. He was in work six days a week, sometimes 13- 14 hours a day, and did not have many friends outside Superquinn in the beginning. He looks on the fact that many of his friends were able to go to rugby internationals with unashamed jealousy while he was toiling on a busy Saturday afternoon, tending to the needs and wants of his ever-expanding customer base. Added to this there was the constant pressure to innovate. Superquinn quickly came to be a leader in this area. “We brought in playhouses for children while mothers shopped, introduced delis, pizza and sausage kitchens, encouraged complaints and feedback from customers, and we even took away sweets from the tills (though this would take away valuable

revenue, mothers were extremely happy they were not screamed at by impatient children eager for a morsel of chocolate)”. I put it to him that he seems to have led a very successful life in business, and that all seems to have gone to plan. Are there any regrets/ mistakes? “Oh yes! Definitely! In the beginning, I was not very good at managing cash, and that definitely hampered things slightly. We could also have gone into technology earlier, and at other times, we did it too much, spending money on unnecessary additions to the business”. When he looks at businesses today, what are the common mistakes? “Well, definitely the management of cash is a big issue; many companies can be profitable but run out of cash. Also many firms are copycats rather than improvers, and that will get you nowhere.” And what of prospects for budding entrepreneurs, or students on the verge of graduation in these tough times? “Look we are going through tough times at the moment, but we must take the medicine [he agrees with spending cuts and NAMA]. As soon as we do that, the sooner recovery will come. There will always be opportunities out there for people wanting to start their own business, and I think Ireland is still a great place to do business, and it will be in the future.” I cannot help but admire his continued passion for work at the age of 72 and I as I leave his office I reflect that if Ireland is to pull itself out of the current recession, it will certainly a new generation of entrepreneurs like this one.

Where are we going, where have we been? Prof. John O’Hagan Dept. of Economics, Trinity IF THE economic crisis is to be adequately dealt with three major challenges must be addressed: resolving the toxic-assets problem of the banking sector, controlling the fiscal deficit and restoring competitiveness. With the setting up of NAMA (National Assets Management Agency) the first issue is now close to resolution, which it needs to be as it is a necessary condition for economic recovery. As for the fiscal deficit problem, it was recognised many months ago, but it was not until July, with the publication of the McCarthy Report, that the implications of this for every sector of state expenditure were spelt out. The challenge now is to implement most of these proposed changes without political turmoil and possible social unrest. There were two issues outside the remit of the McCarthy report, which it addressed regardless. The first is public sector pay and the second is public sector pensions. Controlling both is crucial to resolving the fiscal deficit problem. This is also crucial to restoring Ireland’s competitiveness. Competitiveness FEW HAVE realised the scale of Ireland’s loss of competitiveness up to 2008. Pre-tax wages though have fallen by 10 to 15% in some parts of the private sector in the last year and tens of thousands of jobs have been lost through compulsory redundancy. Falls in pre-tax public sector pay and

numbers may also be required, as the implicit or tax ‘price’ of many public goods and services in Ireland appears to be much too high. The ESRI (Economic and Social Research Institute) found that the average earnings gap between the public and private sectors was 26% in 2006. On the basis of anecdotal evidence in relation to academics, doctors, judges, politicians, etc., pay levels in the public sector also seem to be much higher than in many other EU countries, To what extent this is true is now under investigation by the government. However, unlike in the private sector where the consequences can be stark and immediate, in the form of closures and unemployment, the consequences of too high a price being paid for state services take longer to materialise and any moves to ameliorate the situation can be resisted by very strong public sector unions. Such resistance is already underway, even before any cuts have been announced. The tax or implicit price of public services is an issue that will not go away and has to be addressed sooner rather than later if Ireland’s competitiveness is to be restored. This, as the McCarthy Report states, has to be done through reform of work practices and organisational structures in the public sector, reduced numbers employed and also through pay rates. If pay rates take the brunt of the adjustment it will mean that services can be maintained at present levels, in the health and education sectors in particular, two key areas in ensuring competitiveness in the medium to long term. For example, a pay cut in teacher salaries could prevent

the loss of thousands of teaching jobs. This is the trade-off the government must put to the electorate. The McCarthy Report also highlighted the exceptionally generous position that applies with regard to public sector pensions. There is both a fiscal and equity issue here. Why should public sector pensions, funded mostly by the taxpayer, rise relative to the take-

The last two years have seen a slowing down and then a significant reversal of the boom times...but there has not been a disaster. home pay of those at work and more importantly why should those lucky enough to have had secure employment in the public sector be so much better-off than those exposed to the uncertainties of the market place? Part of the solution here would probably automatically follow from action on the pay front but more probably needs to be done if the ‘tax price’ of public sector pensions is not to stifle the competitiveness of the economy for decades to come. Where Now? THERE IS no reason why Ireland cannot prosper in years to come. The country has a healthy, stable democracy and a well-established rule of law.

People are not afraid of hard work. More young people (aged 25-34) have acquired a higher education than in any other EU country except Cyprus. There is an openness to competition and entrepreneurship that simply did not exist in the 1980s. Ireland has the security of membership of the Eurozone and a strong commitment to the EU and thereby free trade, international competition, a cleaner environment and all that the EU stands for on the world stage. Labour markets are open, and workers will continue to flow into and out of the country with ease. Export competitiveness is already beginning to improve. Predictions of economic decline can be altered within months. An example of this is the earlier forecast by some in 2009 of a long Japanese-style relative decline in Germany to be followed six months later with the reality of Germany pulling out of recession faster than the US or UK. The last two years have seen a slowing down and then a significant reversal of the boom times from 1995 to 2007; about that there is no doubt. But there has not been a disaster. Standard of living may fall back to 2003 levels but these are still some of the highest in the world and represent a huge increase in living standards over say 1995 when Ireland was already a very wealthy country in a global context. Even if the worst predictions for 2010 come true, there will still be 80% more in employment in 2010 than there was in 1995, a huge increase seen in a historical context. It is true that the distribution of losses in the last two years has been

skewed. Many thousands of people have lost their jobs, and with little notice. Others have lost their entire life savings or pension funds, as a result of the collapse in asset prices. Many of these were not wealthy individuals but people in the private sector who invested, either personally or through a life-assurance scheme, their relatively small savings for retirement. The vast majority of people though are still in employment and have experienced a fall in the cost of living as prices in the last year have declined. Social welfare payments for the unemployed are at high levels compared to other countries and for those who were in relatively low-income employment a major cushion against the income loss arising from unemployment. There are many, including some small farmers and other medium-income people, who sold at the peak of asset prices and are now wealthy beyond their wildest dreams. The challenges outlined above are all within our own remit and can be resolved, given the political will and an informed and realistic public debate. In relation to the former, the vociferous objections of special interest groups must be resisted, by all political parties. In relation to the latter, alternatives must be presented, especially by those whose job it is to sift and present information/arguments in an objective way, so that informed decisions can be made. The alternative is never, as the public debate often assumes, some utopian ideal, but one with its own uncertainties and difficulties. Decisiveness, determination and certainty, not prolonged prevarication, are what are required now.

FORTNIGHT IN FIGURES

16.8% tax revenue down this year, compared to same period last year

€20,158m Budget defecity posted by Exchequer for January-September 2009

0.5% 3% rise in industrial output for the period June to August 2009

the level at which Bank of England interest rates are likely to stay until 2011 according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research

9% fall in the volume of retail sales in for the 12 month period ending August 2009

£4bn the value of credit assets Barclays is expected to sell in order to clean up its balance sheet

BUSINESS & CAREERS

TRINITY NEWS October 20, 2009

150.0 Q: How many Chicago School economists does it take to change a light bulb? A: None. If the light bulb needed changing the market would have already done it.

112.5

BOOKS 75.0

World leaders at the G20 summit in London. Photo courtesy Downing Street

G20: a new world order Alan McQuaid Chief Economist, Bloxham AFTER DECADES in charge, the club of rich industrialised nations is fast losing sway as a share of global economic power shifts towards big developing countries. That was a lesson of the Group of Seven’s meeting in Istanbul a little over a week ago, when the absence of China showed the G7 could no longer tackle the world’s economic problems on its own. Finance ministers and central bank chiefs from the G7 implored China in a diplomatically worded statement to let the Chinese currency rise, as they have done for several years. But China showed no sign of complying, and the G7 spent much of its time discussing whether it should meet less often, with less pomp and perhaps with fewer public statements. G7 statements have all too often “interested nobody because there’s no follow-up most of the time”, said Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the International Monetary Fund. Indeed, many in the market see Istanbul as the G7’s swan song, before it relinquishes power. The G7’s weakness In Istanbul was a far cry from the status it enjoyed before the financial crisis of the past two years. Founded in 1976 to bring together top financial officials of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States, the G7 guided world financial markets for decades. In 2000, G7 central banks intervened in the foreign exchange market to boost the value of the euro off record lows. Now, as the world emerges from the worst slump since the Great Depression, policymakers have once again to deal with imbalances in the global economy, but China is a major source of the trade imbalances, and it is not a member of the G7. As a result, world leaders decided in Pittsburgh last month that the larger Group of 20, which includes China, India and other big developing nations in addition to G7 countries, should become the premier forum for managing the global economy. China seized on the Istanbul meeting to ram that point home in a commentary by the official Xinhua news agency. “As emerging markets have substantially increased their weight in the global economy, especially after the sub-prime crisis exploded, the G7 cannot effectively address international economic issues, and its replacement by the G20 conforms with the tide of

history,” Xinhua said. Before the Istanbul meeting, some G7 officials said the group might not bother to issue its customary communiqué. Tim Adams, a former US Treasury Undersecretary for international affairs who attended many G7 meetings, said there was speculation that the G7 might even decide to shut itself down. Those worstcase scenarios did not happen. Canada said it would host a G7 meeting next February, declaring that the group would continue to play a “pivotal role”. By issuing a communiqué, the G7 kept alive its claim to have some jurisdiction over key areas of global economic policy, such as foreign exchange. But Adams, now managing director at the Lindsey Group, a macro-economic consultancy in the United States, said the G7’s image in the currency market had been somewhat compromised. “To carry optimal weight and force, there has to be more than the G7 as part of the currency discussion,” he said. “What we saw in Istanbul was the G7 commenting about exchange rate policy including China, but China was not at the table at those discussions. With an empowered G20, that looks a bit awkward,” he added. G7 officials did not reach concrete decisions in Istanbul on exactly how the group would continue operating and what role it would play. But the common thread in comments from several officials was that the G7 should consider reinventing itself as a more informal forum which met less often to discuss important issues, including exchange rates. “It might be better we meet more informally with less of an entourage,” said Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling. There was also talk that the G7 might be used to prepare for G20 meetings. Conceivably, it could become the focus of a rich nations’ faction within the G20. “There is a long history of interactions among those individuals and those countries; there’s an infrastructure and relationships that were incredibly important in a time of crisis,” said Adams. “So it’s worth keeping it around for some time, as a kind of sub-committee of like-minded interactive entities, until they figure out how the G20 is going to work on a more operational basis.” However, one can’t help feeling sceptical about the whole thing, as the moment you have to tell people you are still relevant, it’s generally because you are not relevant any more.

37.5 THE ASCENT OF MONEY: A FINANCIAL HISTORY OF THE WORLD NIALL FERGUSON

0 1992

1994

1996

1998

2000

2002

2004

2006

2008

Irish household debt in billions, shown here, demonstrates that the de-leveraging process underway.

A fate worse than debt John Dineen explores how households de-leveraging from historically high debt levels could prove to be a major drag on economic growth John Dinneen Contributing Writer IRISH GDP has fallen by 10.5% in real terms since the fourth quarter of 2007. Indeed, Ireland has fallen from the top of the Euro Zone growth table to the bottom. Given the state of the housing market and the country’s publicsector indebtedness, the economy’s performance comes as no surprise, but it does raise the question as to why Ireland is being significantly outperformed by countries experiencing similar deficits. One might conclude that it signals an over-reliance on external trade; however, export volumes were only down 2.8% in the first half of this year. So we must therefore look to the domestic economy for an answer. Figures show that this is where the problem lies with domestic demand having spiralled downwards by 15.5% since the fourth quarter of 2007. A sluggish domestic market Why has Ireland experienced such a high drop in domestic demand? The main cause is the extreme weakness of the labour market. The fall in demand reflects the lower incomes of the unemployed as well as the straightened circumstances of those in employment. Personal disposable income was heavily affected in the early months of this year due to the combination of wage and salary reductions, and increases in taxes and levies. Concerns about job security and the risk of falling into negative equity have encouraged consumers to increase their precautionary savings. Schemes like SSIAs kept the savings ratio hovering around the 7.5-9% mark between 2001 and 2006, however, early 2009 has seen a rise to about 10%; a sign that the deleveraging process continues. It is clear that consumers are continuing to save and pay their debt rather than take out new loans; some of this is due to the fact that credit from banks is no longer freely available. It is this credit

shortage which the Government is seeking to address in setting up the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA), albeit focusing on increased lending to companies rather than individuals. Still, the Irish economy has a long way to go before it can start to benefit from NAMA’s creation.

The economic downturn has seen consumers becoming more frugal with their income and this cautious behaviour is being seen throughout many sectors of our economy In the meantime demand for credit remains weak as consumers continue to fret about the underlying health of the economy and job prospects in particular. The Quarterly National Household Survey (issued at the end of September), which measures unemployment, stated that the number of people in the labour force in the second quarter of 2009 was 2,203,100; representing a decrease of 36,500 in the year. This is a stark reminder of the hardship that many private-sector workers have endured over the past twelve months and is also a sign that things will get worse before they get better. The job-loss originated in the construction sector, with the problem later spreading into other parts of the economy. A recent poll of Irish economists saw an average projection for the unemployment rate at year-end being 13.9%, as opposed to 6.3% in 2008. However, based on

improving trends and a recovery in the global economy, some forecasters predict the unemployment rate peaking at just below 15% in 2010. An increasingly frugal society Household debt has risen dramatically over the past decade and a half. In 1995 it stood at 48% of disposable income, but by the end of 2009 it is predicted to be in the region of 176%. Irish people owe €170bn to banks and other financial institutions, mortgage lending accounting for €150bn of this. The proportion of personal debt secured on property exceeds all Euro Zone countries except the Netherlands. House prices are currently down 24% from their peak in 2007 and some analysts believe a decline of 50% is possible. Potential buyers are being kept out of the market because of their expectations that prices will be lower in the future and because confidence in future financial security is at an all time low. Long gone are the fruitful days of the Celtic Tiger. The economic downturn has seen consumers becoming more frugal with their income and this cautious behaviour is being seen throughout many sectors of our economy; reduced spending in the retail market, dramatic price falls in the housing market and indebt tax receipts being heavy indicators of this change. An average fall in expenditure of 7.5% is predicted for this year. However, this is expected to level out in 2010, with the weakness in spending being concentrated in the first half of the year. Although analysts are beginning to hope that the figures won’t be nearly as bad as expected, there are some who fear that perhaps this fall in demand could be set to continue into the foreseeable future. If the deleveraging process has only just begun, economic recovery is sure to be sluggish for the foreseeable future.

Not worth the paper it’s printed on Michael O’Sullivan explains quantitative easing: the policy of printing money out of nothing to promote growth. Michael O’Sullivan Contributing Writer TRADITIONAL MONETARY policy attempts to revive flagging economies by cutting interest rates. However, a continued decline in economic activity, coupled with a seizure in intra-bank and bank lending, has forced central bankers to adopt more extreme measures. In most cases, this led to blanket guarantees on bank deposits and recapitalisation of financial institutions through government-purchase of toxic assets. Nevertheless, these approaches have not proved entirely effective and have forced policy makers to adopt measures last used by Japan during the ‘lost decade’ of the 1990s. The policy instrument in question is ‘quantitative easing’. It involves stimulating the economy by injecting liquidity into the financial sector, despite interest rates already being at,

or close to, zero. Quantitative easing advocates the creation of money out of thin air, either electronically or physically, via the printing press. With this new money, central banks are able to infuse additional liquidity into the financial sector through the purchase of financial assets, including government and corporate bonds, equities and even mortgages. The aim of this process is to increase the primary reserves of afinancial institutions whilst reducing risk on the balance sheet. Quantitative easing can therefore increase tier one capital and allow for the creation of more loans far in excess of the initial capital injection. Likewise, the mass purchase of bonds induces institutions and investors to introduce extra capital into the economy. The primary goal is to get banking institutions lending to consumers and business again which will stimulate the economy.

With such an extreme widening of the monetary base comes the serious danger of inflation, or even hyperinflation. As such, these risks have brought into question the benefits of quantitative easing as a monetary policy instrument and have caused many inflation-fearing central banks to abstain from its use e.g. the ECB. The main proponents of quantitative easing are currently the United States Federal Reserve and the Bank of England. For these two economies, the expansion of the money supply has proven reasonably successful in the recapitalisation of the banks and the stimulation of economic growth. Moreover, the weakening of the dollar has given rise to a major improvement in the US balance of trade with imports declining and exports increasing considerably. This has also occurred in Britain, although not to the same extent.

This decline in the dollar and sterling relative to other currencies, particularly the euro, has increased the costs of imports and amplified inflationary pressures within both economies, while fears over the future value of the dollar have been demonstrated in increasing gold prices which traditionally move in line with US inflation. As such, the reputation of the dollar as the world’s reserve currency and primary unit of international trade has been put at stake. China, Russia, OPEC, Japan, and even France are rumoured to be calling for a move from the dollar as the unit in which oil is priced and sold in favour of a basket of international currencies. This proposition would have serious ramification on the value of the US dollar, as a major increase in supply brought about by a global move away from its use would essentially destroy its value. Nevertheless, the fact that the dollar

is the primary unit of currency reserve serves to support the notion that Russia – and China in particular which holds over $2trillion worth of currency and government bonds – cannot afford to devalue the dollar as the potential impact which this may cause to their reserves could devastate their respective economies. This suggests that the noises being made about a move away from the dollar are aimed more at encouraging the US Federal Reserve to adopt more prudent monetary policy than at actually introduce a new global unit of exchange. The general consensus in recent weeks and months therefore, has not necessarily been concerned with the fate of the dollar as a global reserve currency, but rather with what extent fears of future inflationary pressures will impact the value of gold, oil and the relative price of the dollar itself.

HUMAN BEINGS are a fickle bunch; place one in the most horrifically depressing of circumstances and they will be perfectly content as long as someone, somewhere is suffering worse them themselves. In a time of increasing economic pandemonium, we as a species demand catharsis, and Niall Ferguson’s latest work serves as an impeccably timed reminder that someone, somewhere has been through all this before. The Ascent of Money charts the rise of the modern financial system, how it has faced financial catastrophes on an almost continual basis and how the evolution of money has precipitated these crises. Written to accompany a BBC television series of the same name, this is certainly not the most comprehensive historical study on finance ever written, nor was it ever going to be. It is aimed at a readership somewhere between avid economic theorists and those, such as this reviewer who have to be reminded of the silent ‘b’ in ‘debt’. The success of this work therefore relies on its ability to communicate effectively to the uninitiated the origins of modern and historical finance whilst avoiding alienating and irking those who were drawn to the title because of their already extensive knowledge in the subject. Faced with such a daunting task, the author proceeds to tackle the origins of several key characteristics of the modern financial system: the history of money, credit growth, the bond and stock markets, insurance, the property market, hedge funds and the theories and theorists that helped fuel it all. Alongside, Ferguson takes several key episodes of history, and entertainingly depicts the financial subplot behind their success- or lack there of- from the ancient Mesopotamian’s clay tablet system of recording debts to the rise of the first truly successful bond. However it is the author’s treatment of contemporary financial history in later chapters that is most illuminating. Ferguson’s core belief in the theories of behavioural economic theory asserts that the volatile nature of finance as an evolutionary beast exists, to varying degrees of success, as the single most contributing factor in human economic and social development. His description of the symbiotic relationship between America and China that exists today, what he calls “Chimerica”, where “The East Chimericans do the saving and the West Chimericans do the spending” is an economic disaster in the making according to the author, akin to the collapse of international investment and capital flow at the outbreak of World War One. Ferguson’s style is concise, informative and engaging, and perhaps displays best the talents of an author experienced in dealing with that kind of subject matter. However, alongside his skill for historical analysis, he has keenly clung to his tendency to provoke the kind of controversy that so epitomised his earlier works. For some, his belief that finance has the most lasting effect on the development of modern society and his glorification of the ascent of hedge funds and financial speculators will be jarring- to say the least. Similarly, a reader already up to scratch on the basics of financial jargon and theories may find his deconstruction and reconstruction of those same basic concepts tiresome. As a popular introduction to the world of finance and its origins however, Ferguson has succeeded in creating something that may not be as optimistic a result as the subtitle suggests, but an entertaining and informative distraction from economic malaise nonetheless. Andrew Scanlan

SCIENCE

TRINITY NEWS October 20, 2009

IN BRIEF RONAN LYNE INTERNET

WAVE OF BEMUSEMENT GOOGLE WAVE, Google’s 21st century re-envisioning of email, went to preview release recently, and invites are still tough to source. Each “Wave” combines wikis, social networking as well as instant-message-style interaction, and claims to be “half conversation, half document”. It has enthralled some, and bemused others, who are still skeptical of its usefulness. If you’ve watched the 80-minute explanation on Youtube and are still confused as to what a Wave is, exactly, you’re not alone – easiertounderstandthanwave.com will inform you that most things are, in fact, easier to understand [aside from women and Scientology, that is].

The onset of obesity is often a gradual process, which causes a myriad of social issues, particularly in children. Illustration: Michael Whitehead

Weight expectations Joanna McHugh examines the balance between a healthy and an unhealthy view of obesity, and the further complications these views may cause. Joanna McHugh Staff Writer ANTON DU Beke is in a spot of bother this week. The ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ star made a rather unsavoury racist comment during the filming of the show, along with some sizeist sentiment in an interview. “I’m not a body fascist”, du Beke professed, “but I have no time for fat people. They should all be shot”. Ten of the twelve (moderated) comments in response to this interview were in complaint, with comments such as “fat is not a ‘choice’” and “once again let the fattie be the butt of all comments”. So far, so politically correct. It goes without saying, of course, that it is unacceptable to express these sentiments about the obese population. The stigma surrounding obesity has been linked to depression, isolation and suicidal behaviour. Shame surrounding obesity can even prevent health-promoting behaviour, such as visiting a doctor or exercising. Indeed, research has even found that health professionals such as doctors, psychologists, nurses and medical students have negative attitudes towards obese people. The general population shares this view; one 2007 study showed that children tend to characterise obese peers as “fat, friendless and unhealthy”. These attitudes pervade people’s thoughts, conscious or unconscious, and deeply affect those living with obesity. So two sides of the coin; first, a public outrage at anti-fat declarations, the belief that people do not choose to be obese, the taboo nature of calling somebody the dreaded F-word. Then we have the hidden, implicit negative attitudes that govern our behaviour and our opinions, regardless of what we would publicly profess. There is a commonlyheld belief that obesity is the result of poor

self-control; that while food is enjoyable for everybody, it remains a personal responsibility to temper our appetites. Thus obese people are characterised as being impulsive and unable to say no to themselves. These underlying beliefs about obesity are reflected in our actions in ways that are not immediately obvious. A recent study showed that we feel more powerful when we are about to talk to an obese person than when we are about to talk to a person of normal weight. The researchers, based in the University of Minnesota and in Université Libre de Bruxelles, showed participants photos of people they were about to meet. The people in the photos were either of normal or obese weight. It was found that when participants were shown a photo of an obese person, their sense of personal power increased. Furthermore they tended to go on to form

“I’m not a body fascist”, du Beke professed, “but I have no time for fat people. They should all be shot”.

negative impressions of the obese person. So wherein lies the truth? It appears that while we pay lip service to the ideal of equality across individuals regardless of weight, our thoughts and behaviours are frequently negative towards the obese. While sugaring unsavoury aspects of human nature with culturally acceptable bon mots is nothing new, it seems potentially counterproductive that the obesity issue is so dichotomous.

One could ask, what purpose do these bon mots serve? No one is advocating the marginalisation of the obese; this would be harmful and counterproductive. Research into minority groups has shown that beliefs about a marginalised people are often taken on by the people themselves; thus there is the danger that obese people may themselves begin to believe their own bad hype, as it were. Perpetuating these beliefs will only increase the negative psychological effects of obesity. Rather, it may be that there is a fine line between being diplomatic about attitudes towards weight, and becoming permissive about it. The fact remains that obesity is not a desirable state. Obesity is linked to 80% of all cases of Type 2 diabetes in Europeans, 35% of all cases of ischaemic heart disease, and 55% of hypertensive disease. The European Association for the Study of Obesity estimates that at present, obesity indirectly causes 1 million deaths a year, or 1 in 13 deaths, within the E.U. Our trend towards obesity is reported to be 10-15 years behind that of the U.S., where 67% of all adults are overweight or obese. The World Health Organisation estimates that most developed countries have 2-7% of their annual health budget apportioned to dealing with the fallout of obesity. Judging from these (among countless other) statistics, it is reasonable to question whether or not we have fallen foul of political correctness in lieu of sensible social norms about healthy eating and the risk associated with behaviour which promotes obesity. Obviously it may be a little facile to view the obesity debate in these black and white terms. As with most things, the obese population is neither 100% culpable nor 100% innocent regarding their status. The European Association for the Study of Obesity point out

“Our trend towards obesity is reported to be 10-15 years behind that of the U.S. where 67% of all adults are overweight or obese”.

that there are biological, behavioural, social and environmental factors at play here, and interactions therein. For instance, it has been put forward that there are genes that can promote weight gain, which may interact with bad eating habits at a behavioural level, and poor availability of healthy, low-calorie foods at an environmental level. At the social level, a 2007 study showed that one’s likelihood of becoming obese is linked to the weight of one’s nearest and dearest; if you have an obese friend, you are 57% more likely to become obese. The same article argues against the theory that obesity is a personal choice, instead suggesting that since no one exists in a social vacuum, our eating habits, like everything else, are governed partly by the behaviour of those around us. Successful treatment of the obesity problem may require interventions at all of these levels, including, potentially , a reevaluation of what society’s responsibility is when it comes to tackling obesity in an appropriate yet sensitive manner. The berth between public proclamations and personal beliefs about obesity cannot be conducive towards understanding and treating obesity. Who knows, du Beke may have unwittingly sparked a revolution…

Annually, on October 16, the genius of Hamilton is remembered. Eiseart Dunne benevolates this great Trinity mathematician, whose work was a major contribution to the modern science of vectors.

ON THE 16th of October every year, the Mathematical world pays a tribute to the work of Sir William Rowan Hamilton (1805-1865), after whom Trinity’s main science building is named. On this date 166 years ago, Hamilton received a spark of inspiration which led him to formulate the key concept of quaternions, an extension of the idea of complex numbers into four dimensions. Trinity College and the Royal Irish Academy celebrated the day with a talk entitled ‘Noncommutative Algebra: From Hamilton to Our Time’ by esteemed mathematician Efim Zelmanov who also gave a talk to the college Mathematical Society the previous day. Zelmanov, who received the prestigious Fields Medal in 1994 for his work on group theory, reminded his audience of the importance of the formulation of the quaternions in opening up the field of algebra to new possibilities in the form of noncommutative algebras. The quaternions are one of the first

examples of a noncommutative algebra (a mathematical structure in which xy may not necessarily be equal to yx). Hamilton’s main breakthrough, which came to him as he crossed Broom (then Brougham) Bridge in Cabra, made him realise that his struggle to devise a three-dimensional representative system of complex numbers was in vain. Instead a four-dimensional model, which achieved the same goal of allowing him to represent certain aspects of spatial mechanics mathematically, followed intuitively from his creation of a multiplicative axiom, the nowfamous formula ‘i2 = j2 = k2 = ijk = -1’. This formula provided the defining properties of his new invention, quaternions. Quaternions are a four-dimensional system of numbers, which are a precursor to more general vectors. Hamilton, fearing he may forget the formula, etched it into the bridge immediately. Their use was widespread during the first 40 years after Hamilton’s discovery, as they had applications in threedimensional geometric rotations, as with the complex numbers in two dimensions, and were thus applicable to problems in three-

dimensional mechanics. More simply, quaternions could be used to describe the movement of objects in the real world. Although still having applications in some fields of physics and computing, after this time the theory of quaternions began to become less and less important as vector analysis brought forth a more efficient language with which to consider the problems to which quaternions had previously been applied. However, modern vector analysis borrows extensively from Hamilton’s original work and it was Hamilton himself who first coined the term ‘vector’ as being an entity of length and direction . Apart from his work in mathematics, Hamilton applied himself to astronomy and physics and devised the way of viewing mechanics now known as Hamiltonian mechanics. He was also proficient in Latin, Greek and Hebrew as well as having a knowledge of several modern languages both of Europe and the Middle East. For the last twenty years in honour of the birth of the quaternion, NUI Maynooth

“YUPPIE FLU” NO MORE CHRONIC FATIGUE syndrome, also known as myalgic encephalomyelitis [ME] was thought by many to be simple malingering by those afflicted. However, the condition has recently been linked to a retrovirus, XMRV, which is also common in people with a certain type of prostate cancer. A team of immunologists from the Whittemore Peterson Institute in Nevada discovered that 66% of patients with the condition tested positive for viral DNA, and almost 95% of patients had antibodies against the virus. The discovery furthers controversy around the condition; many believe it to be a psychiatric illness, while others believe it is linked to a dysfunction of the innate immune system.

ENVIRONMENT

BUNNY BIOFUEL

The i to k of William Rowan Hamilton Eiseart Dunne Contirbuting Writer

HEALTH

STRAY RABBITS are being shot and used as biofuel by enterprising Swedes eager to make use of their leporine pests, to the chagrin of animal rights activists. The rabbits, which are respoonsible for the destruction of vegetation in Stockholm’s parks, are shot by hunters, then frozen. From there, the carcasses are are transported to a heating plant in Karlskoga, where they are ground and pumped in to a boiler, and used to heat homes as part of Sweden’s district heating system. Residents of the city are divided; some believe the problem should be dealt with more humanely, whereas others insist that the massive rabbit overpopulation should be put to some use.

#FOLLOWTUESDAY @SCI4HUMANITY A charity that seeks to use science to solve the problems of the world’s poor. Could be tedious, but consistently & conscientiously updated. @MUDPHUDDER Think you’re an overachiever? Slang for MD/ PhD, these tweets by an overworked junior doctor will make you feel sympathy - and relief.

TRINITY RESEARCH RESEARCHER:

BRIAN ESPEY

A quaternion julia fractal. 3D render by Ellen Meiselman has organised an annual pilgrimage from Dunsink Observatory to Broom Bridge in Cabra on the 16th of October, following the steps of Hamilton on that momentous occasion. Sadly, his original etching on the bridge has not survived to the modern day, but a plaque has been fitted to commemorate his genius.

Stars like our own Sun shed their envelopes as they evolve, thereby seeding the interstellar medium for future generations of stars, planets, and life. The bulk of common elements (C,N etc.) in the solar neighbourhood comes from such stars, but because the mass loss is in the form of a relatively slow and cool wind, it is exceedingly hard to diagnose how this wind develops. By observing cool stars that have an orbiting hot companion, we can observe individual layers in the cool star, and build up a level-by-level picture of the wind structure. We can then model the stellar atmosphere using high performance computing facilities. The Trinity Astrophysics Group’s research is primarily in the areas of solar and stellar physics, and Dr. Espey’s interests are in the study of how processed material escapes from evolved stars to seed new generations of stars and planets. More information on our Group’s activities is available online.

TRAVEL

TRINITY NEWS October 20, 2009

The Canadian Wilderness

MAN VS. WILD

In the tranquil scenery of Northern Canada, Travel Editor Jimmy Lee found a world where serenity and toil co-exist outdoors. By Jimmy Lee Travel Editor IF YOU are one of the 12 people on the planet who have not yet experienced the BBC Planet Earth Documentaries, then this specific reference won’t mean much to you. But if you’ve seen the first episode “Pole to Pole”, you might recall the beautiful scene where the timelapsed cameras move from the Arctic Tundra of Northern Canada to the Tree line, where life begins to take flourish. The scene belongs to the infamous Boreal Forest, where Bears and Wolves abound. Sadly, making it up to Boreal requires a good amount more logistics than the average bear has the time for. But fear not, my friend. Algonquin Provincial Park offers a setting much to the same caliber as Boreal, but without the arduousness of trying to orchestrate a survival escapade. Unlike the small aircraft you might have to book for Boreal, Algonquin is a 3 hour drive from Toronto, and has about 3 directions in total the entire way up to the launch point on the lake. But once you’ve reached Algonquin itself, you’ve got a myriad of routes to take in this prodigious park, ranging from a painless cruise to the masochist’s paradise. The Masochist’s Paradise Now, the park is highly regulated, and is absolutely crawling with park rangers. So if it’s a bear hunting expedition you’re looking for, you’re in the wrong place. But the park is absolutely huge; most park rangers can’t claim to have seen all 7725 square kilometers. The difficulty of your route is dependent on basically two things: the nature of your route, and just how much time you’ve given yourself to complete each stage. Each stage you say? That’s right. The best, and only way to see the most of Algonquin, is by portage, which means carrying your canoe and gear lake to lake… to lake. The entire park is filled with over 1500 lakes and 1200 kilometers of streams, each a sight for sore eyes, and after some of

the more demanding portages, it won’t be just your eyes that’ll be sore. The portages can be anywhere from 100m to well over 3km, with many of the trails filled with mud pits, fallen trees, and mosquitoes so thick you’ll be putting the mozzy spray into your canteen before its all said and done. Mapping out your route is a critical part of your adventure, and its important not to overshoot your days labour. After all, all work and no fun makes jack a dull boy. 7 km of portage a day is tough for just about any able bodied man, and that’s if you’ve got enough whiskey to keep your body fueled and your mind as loose as possible for those long treks. Choosing your resting points for the nights is also important financially, as the park rangers are very stringent on the rules, and will fine you without remorse if you are not at your pre-arranged lake stop. Of course, even with 7 km of portage a day, most of your time will be spent on the water. If you fancy yourself an experienced paddler, you shouldn’t have too much trouble navigating and maneuvering the waters of Algonquin. But even the most experienced of paddlers can find themselves caught in a nasty storm. Winds can get to a point where you can paddle as hard as you can

There may not be lions and tigers, but there are definitely bears, oh my... and Canadian black bears wrestle a whole lot better than Baloo ever did. and you’ll have moved backwards, or at best, managed to stay completely still. In these situations, it’s best to simply try to steer the boat to land to wait for the storm to finish up. Although

relatively rare, tornadoes have hit the area in the past. My own crew narrowly missed a storm in the area that left the surrounding towns declaring a state of emergency. Make sure to have an idea of what the weather will be like during your stay. A helpful hint is to basically follow common sense: if the clouds look ominous, they’re probably something you don’t want to run into. Try to stay close to the shore for a smoother ride. Easy Peasy, Lemon Squeezy Portaging is not for everyone. Some people enjoy their creature comforts, whether that’s on the couch watching footie or in the Canadian wilderness watching the sunset. So if you would rather settle in than tromp around, fair enough to you. The park is as beautiful at its onset as it is deeper within. Each entry point to the park will have a main first lake where you can set up camp for as long as you want. Islands are key here, as they tend to have relatively less mozzies than the mainland. You may still have a couple simple portages to get to your new woodland home, but they are usually very manageable, especially if done in a couple trips to carry all the gear. It is important to be familiar with the rules of Algonquin Park. As aforementioned, the park rangers are everywhere, and aren’t shy about handing out fines. Some of the most often broken rules are the least obvious: no glass bottles or tin cans. This can be rough on the casual camper, who is used to bringing a nice bottle of Jameson and a tin of Heinz beans along for the ride. But your budget beans may be much harsher on your wallet, so pack everything you can into disposable or reusable bottles and packaging. Another common mistake is to camp in a lake you’re not booked for. Algonquin may not be a hotel, but it can certainly fill up like one, especially during late August when the Toronto crowd makes their mad rush for fresh air after breathing in city smog the entire summer.

Serenity found on the rivers of Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada. Photo: Martin Kastner The wildlife of Algonquin is truly in plenty. At the same time, you might find yourself at the end of your trek and have only seen loons and frogs galore. One of the best sightings in Algonquin is the giant moose. This majestic creature is relatively harmless, and Algonquin is one of your best bets for a random encounter. They are often found in small creeks between lakes, cooling in the water. There are also deer, beavers, foxes, and even wolves abound, so keep your wits about you, you just might find yourself

face to face with a curious creature. There may not be lions and tigers, but there are definitely bears, oh my. Its important to keep all your edible goodies tied in a sac up in a tree. The last thing you want is to wake up to a huge black bear or a pack of hungry wolves at your tent, sniffing at the oats you thought you’d sneak away for a midnight snack. Unlike the famous tale of Mowgli, these wolves won’t take you in and raise you like family, and Canadian black bears wrestle a whole lot better than Baloo ever did.

HOW TO GET THERE Round trip flights from Dublin to Toronto run anywhere from 300 to 500 Euro. Check out Expedia for the usual internationals, but smaller airlines like AirTransat may have opportunistic deals. Flying into New York is also an option, and often much cheaper. It is a long bus ride to Toronto, but an overnight bus costs as little as $1 if booked early enough.

The Burren, Clare: it rocks By Jimmy Lee Travel Editor ROCK CLIMBING. Though it may seem like only for lumberjacks and Chuck Norris look-alikes, traveling with the Dublin University Climbing Club (DUCC) can show you just how you too can don that flannel and hoodie and begin exploring Ireland the way it was meant to be: hand over hand. The DUCC holds club nights twice weekly, but the real draw is the club trips. I traveled with the club on its annual opening trip to the Burren, in the Northwest region of County Clare. The Burren is well known to the Irish, but for the average Dubliner, getting out of the car and heading off to climb the highest cliff isn’t usually the first thing that springs to mind. With the club, this is the only thing on everyone’s mind. That, and the booze. The club rents out a collection of cozy caravans along the water in a spot optimal in its isolation and scenic pleasure. The party caravan is quickly delineated by the club, and hilarities ensue almost instantly and well into the night. No matter how sore the group is feeling the next morning, just about

Climbing County Claire. Photo: Jimmy Lee

Toys R Us Man’s upper hand on the mother nature has always been his ingenuity. Here’s a few cheats man has picked up in the ever ongoing battle between Man vs. Wild

THE BEAR GRYLLS COMBO: Hunting knife, flint, canteen

everyone makes it out rain or shine. Once the most nauseous of the gang is up, the hike starts for the first climbing spot. It’s hard to describe the opulence of the Burren scenery. After all, it’s just a bunch of rocks. Rolling yellow-green grass, with an abundance of randomly distributed, giant rocks. But these rocks form a landscape so uniquely… well, to put it bluntly, Irish. The name itself, in Irish, Bhoireann, means “a stony place”. It is exactly what most people in the world imagine when they think of the Irish seaside: table-top cliffs that drop off like they were in fact designed by a climber, and a flat limestone valley sprinkled with sporadic boulders, perfect for, well, bouldering. It’s almost as if a giant had spilt its bag of marbles coming down the stairs. To sum it up, the whole scene is not altogether unlike the cover of a harlequin romance novel (basically an American version of a Mills and Boon). The DUCC trips operate on a firstcome, first-serve basis, and are as cheap as they come. For a weekend trip, the Burren escapade cost roughly 30 Euro a head, covering the bus and the caravans. However, if you decide to opt out on the heated furnace and the other luxuries of

the caravans, tenting can make the cost substantially cheaper. The club provides extra gear for anyone who doesn’t have it, and the vets don’t shy from giving tips here and there to help you along. If climbing really isn’t your bag, taking a few walks along the water around the caravan site still makes the whole trip worthwhile. Should you be so inclined, side trips to other major panoramic spots are only a stones throw away. Most notably are the popular Cliffs of Moher, Ireland’s largest attraction. Annually, the cliffs draw almost a million people, and on a clear day, you can see all the way out to another one of Ireland’s major tourist spots in the Aran Islands. If you don’t feel up to the hike, you could always experience the Cliffs of Moher by renting The Princess Bride (1987) or the more recent Harry Potter and the HalfBlood Prince (2009). Another spot to check out is the Aillwee Cave, just outside Ballyvaughan. This is the biggest of the many caves that are open to the public. Pol an Ionain at Ballynalackan is another cave to check out. This one has a fun, crawl through water, where at the end, you’ll find yourself in a huge chamber housing a colossal stalactite, reportedly 6.7m

THE JACK BAUER SPECIAL:

THE TOURISTA TOOLBOX:

Multitool, light stove, headlamp, canteen, Walter PPK Pistol

Multitool, light stove, iodine pills, cookset, binoculars, lighters, extra pairs of everything.

long. There are a good amount of caves in the area, and as tempting as it might be to take a rope and start spelunking, much of the caves have actually been closed off to the public, and are unsafe to navigate without a professional who is familiar with the terrain, so remember what your mammy told you, and always look before you jump. In the end, it doesn’t matter if you’re a newb to the island or grew up in County Claire, the Burren rocks (pun fully intended). And if you’ve only seen the Burren with your eyes or worse, through a viewfinder, you’ve yet to experience all of what it has to offer. So go ahead and ask the climbing club for a hand. They’ll be happy to drop you a rope.

CARAVAN CLUB If you can’t make the trips with the climbing club and want to head out on your own, the caravan site the club uses is the Fanore Caravan site (065-707-6115). It’s actually a house number, so be sure to mention that you’re looking to book one of the caravans and you’ll be set.

SPORT

TRINITY NEWS October 20, 2009

A to Z of weird and wonderful sports Ever wondered how and where you can showcase your amazing talent for bog snorkelling, competitive ironing or ferret legging? Alexandra Finnigan has gone on a tour of the sporting underworld to find out

TOUGHEST BOUNCER COMPETITION: Ever heard of Mr. T? Well, he got his big break winning this televised competition. Big tough bouncers have to navigate their way around an obstacle course consisting of bar rails and bar stools. They also have to break down a door and toss a 60kg stuntman!

EARD AND MOUSTACHE CHAMPIONSHIP: According to their website, there are only 579 days until the next competition, so get growing lads. There are eighteen categories ranging from Moustaches to Full Beards. These categories are then split into subdivisions including the Wild West moustache, the Imperial moustache and the Dali moustache. The website includes some of the funniest pictures imaginable.

pulled tight to secure the waist. The person who can bear the sensation the longest is proclaimed winner.

OAT GRABBING: This event is a fierce Afghani game that can be translated as “Buzkashi”. It originated in the 13th century in the days of Genghis K h a n

RON STOMACH: Being a TCD student, you should have come across this competition at some point in your time here. It varies from place to place but the basic concept is that

UDE RECREATION: Have you ever experienced the sheer joy and freedom of “au naturel”? Well if you haven’t yet enjoyed this exhilarating freedom, I suggest partaking in all these weird and wonderful sports, but in the NUDE!

CTOPUSH : Octopush is another name for underwater hockey. Players wear diving masks, fins and snorkels and attempt to push a puck across the bottom of the swimming pool and score in one of two goals. The stick is less than 4cm long and players wear protective gloves “to protect against pool bottom abrasion.”

D E

when the decapitated carcass of a goat was dumped into the centre of a circle and then surrounded by competitors of two opposing teams on horseback. The aim of the game is to retrieve the carcass and safely bring it across a goal line or into the winning circle.

ORSE vs MAN MARATHON: Just as the name suggests, this Welsh marathon covers 22 miles and the human runner competes against horseback riders. In 2004, twenty-four years after the start of the annual race, a man finally won and was awarded £25,000!

LEPHANT POLO: This sport is a variant of the well known game of polo. However, participants must ride elephants in order to compete. Elephant polo has become internationally renowned, with a series of grand slams across the world. ERRET LEGGING: This is a really strange one. Contestants have to remove their underwear, don a pair of woollen trousers and secure each trouser-leg around the ankle. Once this has been done, two ferrets are dropped down inside the trousers and a belt

AWN MOWER RACING: This sport has been described as “the cheapest form of motorsport in the UK” by Motor Sport News. It was invented in 1973 by a couple of lads at a village pub in West Sussex who felt that motorsports were too expensive to get involved in. The lawn mowers are adapted for the race and their blades are removed for safety. ARBLES: People from all over the world compete in international competitions of marbles. The rules are extensive and detailed but the basic aim is to knock your opponent’s marbles off the circular horizontal surface on which the game is played.

H E E S E ROLLING: An ancient sport with simple rules: You turn up to the competition, launch your cheese off the nearest available hill or slope and then chase it by tumbling head-first down the same hill. Apparently it can result in serious injury or even death, so participate at your own risk.

WARF TOSSING: This is mainly an attraction for the pub. Participants compete to see who can toss a dwarf the furthest distance. The dwarfs do wear special protective clothing such as pads or Velcro costumes but it is now illegal in most countries. As Gimli the dwarf tells Aragorn in the film Lord of the Rings, “Nobody tosses a dwarf!”

equivalent “Red Rover”, though with a few vital differences. Two teams, facing each other on opposite sides of a field, each send a raider in to fight the opponent and then return. However, raiders must hold their breath during the entire process.

contestants have to eat the most disgusting things imaginable and the last one standing, or not vomiting his intestines out, is the winner. I have witnessed people eat dog food, toothpaste filled donuts and entire raw onions!

AI ALAI: This is a Basque sport which has been dubbed the fastest in the world. It is quite similiar to badminton, though instead of using shuttlecocks, goatskin-covered balls are caught and thrown in fluid motions (no holding or juggling allowed).

ABADDI: This pre-historic sport originated in India and could be compared to our

OOH STICKS: If you remember being read House at Pooh Corner – a Winnie the Pooh book – when you were little, then you may recognise this game. Players stand on a bridge over running water and drop sticks into the water on the upstream side of the bridge. The first stick to appear downstream is the winner.

UIDDITCH FOR MUGGLES: Another literary inspired game. Unless you have been living in a cave for the last ten years, you will have come into contact with Harry Potter and the wizarding game Quidditch. Unfortunately, due to a lack of magical broomsticks, this sport has had to be adapted dramatically. The Quaffle is replaced with a football, the Bludgers with tennis balls and the Golden Snitch with a tiny bouncy ball. It’s a mix between handball and netball

and, compared to the fictional version, utterly boring.

OCK, PAPER, SCISSORS: Everyone knows this one. How many times have you settled the smallest dispute with this game? Well, you may be good enough to compete at the International World Championships.

NORKELLING IN BOGS: A little like bog-hopping, except that players spend more time in the bog than leaping over it. Competitors have to swim two consecutive lengths of a 55 metre long peat bog in the fastest time they can. Normal swimming strokes are not allowed, however swimmers are allowed to wear snorkels and flippers.

HAI FISH FIGHTING: This sport is strictly illegal in certain countries. Two male Siamese fighting fish that are very placid when alone, turn into manic warriors when opposed with each other. Bets are placed on which fish will triumph and winners are those which bet on the fish that carries on attacking after the other has given up.

NICYCLING IN MOUNTAINS: Ok, so unicycling sounds hard enough, but to be equipped with only one wheel on mountain terrain (grass, dirt, rock and even snow) must be terrifying. It’s an incredibly challenging sport and requires huge concentration and strength. Good luck on those downward slopes.

V W

ARPA: This game dates back to the Viking age and takes place outdoors. It is similar to Boules but instead of a round ball, a flat, heavy ‘varpa’ is used instead.

IFE CARRYING: This sport originated in Finland where, in the past, men who courted women would run to their village, pick them up and carry them off. These days, male competitors have to carry a female team mate across an obstacle course in the fastest time possible. Possible “positions” include fireman lift, piggyback and Estonian style (upside down, legs around man’s shoulders and neck).

TREME IRONING: Choose the most random, most extreme place in the world, take your ironing board with you and attempt to iron clothes – simple, yet brilliant. The official website says this about the new attraction, “It’s the latest danger sport that combines the thrills of an extreme outdoor activity with the satisfaction of a well-pressed shirt.” People have extreme ironed whilst bungee jumping, sky-diving and even deep sea diving.

O-YO: The 2000 World Yo-Yo contest saw competitors of huge skill. Many amazing tricks exist and the competition usually consists of a set of compulsory tricks and freestyle. The earliest mention of Yo-Yo was in 500 BC played with turtle skin disks.

ORBING: Also known as Sphering. Contestants are placed within giant transparent plastic spheres and rolled down hills. There are both harnessed and un-harnessed spheres and the non-harnessed spheres can contain up to three riders. Water can be added for an extra “fun” element!

Ronaldo: more than just another pretty boy Kate Rowan Contributing Writer HAVING RETURNED from a visit to Madrid, one of the highlights of my brief sojourn was a visit to the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium: home, of course, to Real Madrid and their second wave of “Galacticos”. At the end of the stadium tour, I was wandering around the club’s mega store, when suddenly I saw a familiar face pouting through the shoppers. I felt a lump start to grow in my throat. A large photo panel showed Cristiano Ronaldo, his skin a dewy bronze, lips puckered suggestively, tugging at the neck of his dazzling white Real Madrid jersey revealing a set of equally sparkling white rosary beads beneath. Seeing Ronaldo posing like this for the Madrid giants brought home the fact that he was gone from the Premier League, and I couldn’t help but feel rather nostalgic for the days when he bombed up and down the wing in a red jersey. At first I couldn’t understand these emotions because, as a Chelsea fan, I spent a lot of time making snide comments at the television-screen Ronaldo. However, towards the end of last season I started to grudgingly admit to his footballing genius. Ronaldo provided huge entertainment value with his precocious talent, petulance and pretty-boy image. He may be incredibly cocky but he got away with it because of his enormous skill. Manchester United may still be

fighting for top honours, but there seems to be a sort of charisma vacuum left where Ronaldo used to prance with such power up the pitch. The likes of Wayne Rooney and Paul Scholes are fantastic players, but they are sorely lacking any kind of natural glamour. There are undoubtedly lots of great players in the Premier League, as well as many colourful personalities, but it is hard to find any who can match Ronaldo’s talent and his ability to divide opinion. One player who almost matches Ronaldo in the talent stakes is Liverpool and Spain’s star striker Fernando Torres. When it comes to temperament, however, the Madrid native is an altogether different animal. He may have that trashy blond highlights and hairband combo going on but El Niño does not possess Ronaldo’s show-off mentality. It seems that every time a Chelsea match is broadcast on Sky, one of their shiny-suited pundits, such as Jamie Redknapp, claim Ivorian Didier Drogba to be “completely unplayable”. This also could be said of Ronaldo. They both share a tendency to be controversial and enjoy topless goal celebrations. The Real Madrid man is cheeky and boyish in his petulance, but when things go against Drogba he tends to let rip in Hulk-like fashion. His histrionic tirade at Norwegian referee Tom Henning Øvrebø after the Blues were denied a place in the Champions’ League final last May makes Ronaldo’s fondness for removing his boots when substituted

look like childish antics. When not playing the beautiful game, Drogba is a more likable presence. He is a United Nations Goodwill ambassador and has campaigned for improved education for children in the Ivory Coast. Drogba often adopts the air of a union shop steward on the pitch, hovering over injured team mates to ensure that they are receiving the correct treatment. While Ronaldo is the skillful glamour boy, both Torres and Drogba have their own media personas well established. One is gifted but controversial, the other the prodigious nice guy, and so neither can fill the Galactico’s gleaming boots. Speaking of glistening football boots, Arsenal and Denmark forward Nicklas Bendtner made his pitch as a bit of a metrosexual last season with his marvellous shocking-pink pair. The young Dane even managed to score a last gasp winner in his Nike Pink Mercurial Vapour Rosas against Dynamo Kyiv last year which safely saw the Gunners through to the knock-out stages of the Champions’ League. Bendtner has also hit the tabloids with the incident during which he was escorted from a Kensington night-spot with his trousers around his ankles. He subsequently apologised for the episode. The Gunner may be doing well in the style and partying stakes but, despite a number of solid substitute appearances for the North London side and three crucial goals, he is not quite in the “best player on the planet” league. Another young gun who could have

been a possiblity to fill the gap left by Ronaldo was Tottenham Hotspur and England midfielder David Bentley. Unfortunately, like Bendtner, Bentley is another case of style over substance. Bentley certainly has the prettyboy looks and has had a wonderful array of hairstyles over the past few seasons. He also displayed some flashes of great footballing talent, particularly during his time under Mark Hughes at Blackburn Rovers after overcoming a gambling problem. It looked as if Bentley’s star would continue to rise after a £15 million move to Tottenham Hotspur in summer 2008 and then his wonder-goal against Arsenal, with whom he began his career in the North London derby. Alas, that was to be the Spurs man’s only league goal of last season. He has since become a permanent fixture on Harry Redknapp’s bench. His chances of a transfer or loan deal in order to gain more regular football dwindled this past summer after being arrested on drinkdriving charges. Bentley’s behaviour was seen as too much of a liability by other clubs. It is sad to see a talent such as this young Englishman’s go to waste and hopefully he can start to turn things around. So, we are still confronted with the dilemma of who will fill Ronaldo’s hot pants in the Premier League. Perhaps, it is that his brand of precocious talent is unique and irreplaceable. We may just have to make to do with watching his La Liga and Champions’ League appearances.

SPORT

LACROSSE MOST LOOKED at the Trinity Trojan’s stand in Fresher’s week with a degree of bewilderment. Several had the insight to approach and ask if free condoms were on offer; sadly that sponsorship deal was not secured. Lacrosse is a field sport, similar in pace to Hurling. 12 players on each side pass the ball up the field and shoot into a six foot by six foot goal, guarded by a keeper. The men’s game is full contact. Recent injuries sustained by the Trinity Boys, such as broken collar bones, suggest it is not for the faint hearted. Anywhere on the body from shoulder to knee can be violently beaten by the opponent’s stick in an attempt to regain possession of the ball. Padding and helmets, similar to those used in American Football, are worn for protection. The women’s game is non-contact but equally as fast and furious, testing fitness, skill and endurance. Following a recent trip to Galway, the Trojans now stand fourth in the National League. The establishment of the Trinity Trojans comes at a great time in the history of Irish Lacrosse. Until recently the Irish National teams have been dominated by players from America claiming Irish Heritage. In true American style, Irish lacrosse was monopolised, and Ireland’s national team became something of a “seconds” to the US side. Unlike the UK, however, Ireland took a stance against American dominance and has recently established an independent Irish Lacrosse League. The Trinity Lacrosse Club is open to those of all levels of experience who wish to play.

TRINITY NEWS October 20, 2009

SPORTS FEATURE: AMERICAN FOOTBALL

Superbowl still anyone’s game As with seasons past, there have been many surprises so far in the NFL 2009. Frederik Ramussen reports IN THE season so far, Josh McDaniels and his Denver Broncos are the pick of the bunch. They are posting a 5-0 record so far, and also leading the league in points allowed, with a mere 43 leading into this weekend. The team gave up a season-high 17 in last Sunday’s 20-17 overtime win against the New England Patriots, while posting an average of 6.5 points allowed-per-game up until that game. What is most astonishing about this Broncos team is that the undefeated record has been posted after an offseason filled with turmoil. Shortly after Josh McDaniels filled the headcoaching job filled by the departed Mike Shanahan, he encountered a battle of egos with then-quarterback Jay Cutler, who felt betrayed by McDaniels. Soon after this, star wide-receiver Brandon Marshall became disgruntled with the state of the team, and the new regime under Josh McDaniels, leading to the team suspending him for the final two pre-season games. However, Marshall has seemingly adjusted to the coaching-style of McDaniels lately, catching four touchdowns in the last three games, including two in the win against the Patriots last week, one of which was the game-tying TD, ensuring overtime. The win against the Patriots was not only important in the standings; it was also a monumental win, personally, for head-coach McDaniels. McDaniels left his job as offensive coordinator for the Patriots this off-season to take over the head-coaching job at the Broncos. The match-up with the Patriots also marked a head-to-head with his former mentor, head coach of the Patriots, Bill Belichick. McDaniels out-manoeuvred his former

the team this past off-season, and with two rookie receivers, Austin Collie and Pierre Garcon. Meanwhile, the team is playing highly impressive defence, led by the ever-present defensive tackle, Dwight Freeney. The team are still without safety Bob Sanders, defensive captain and reigning defensive player of the year. The Saints are marching on with a high-powered offense, led by QB Drew Brees. The Saints offense has been well known for its prolific nature in seasons

“The Saints offense has been well known for its prolific nature in seasons pasts, but the team’s defence has been its Achilles heel.”

New York Jets play the Eagles, September 2009. Photo by Ed Yourdon mentor. While the Patriots notched up 17 points in the first half, McDaniels and his defence held Quarterback Tom Brady and his offence to 0 points in the second half, the Patriots going zero for six on third downs. The return of Tom Brady this season after a 2008 season cut short midway through the first quarter of the opener against the Kansas City Chiefs, when he tore both his anterior cruciate ligament and medical collateral ligament in a low hit by Chiefs safety Bernard Pollard. So far this season Brady has looked distinctly off-beat. Time will tell whether

“It remains to be seen how the team will cope without the threat of WR Plaxico Burress, who was jailed for two years after he accidentally shot himself with his own gun in a New York nightclub last November.”

GAA WIN TRINITY’S FRESHERS are off to a flying start after an impressive pre-season win over DIT on the 7th of October. The team had some pregame worries, as they were forced to turn to Donnchaclh ó Collatáin as stand in Keeper. The nerves were quickly settled though, as DIT’s full back line allowed the TCD forwards to show their class with a flurry of early scores and goals. Eoin ó Siochru’s pass from the left wing left the DIT backs with no choice but to watch and admire the display as full forward Donal Beirne fired home from 6 yards for the first of his two goals. The forward drives from David Carolan caused panic amongst the opposition ranks and set the tempo for the rest of the game with Trinity continuing to pile on the pressure. Yet at times leaking points as DIT capitalised on the space between the defensive lines. Luke Turley seemed to surprise his own forward line with his pin point balls down the park. Captain for the day, Luke’s contribution was certainly greater than just putting over the frees to keep the scoreboard ticking. In the second spell, goal scorer James Bingham took the No1 jersey from Donnchaclh ó Collatáin, and was replaced in midfield by Senan Coughlan who assured the Trinity dominance in midfield. The forward drives continued with ó Collatáin, now playing as wing back, releasing his goalkeeping frustrations over the bar with two points. James Granahan finished off a successful first outing with Trinity’s seventh goal.

Brady can regain his form of 2007, but it is false hope to think the Patriots will be putting the same number of points up on the board this season. During that season it was not a question of whether they would win games, but by how much. This season, things are a lot harder to come by for the Patriots. The team looks more like those of past superbowl-winning seasons, when the mantra was to find the points to win, by any means necessesary. However, even that is proving difficult, as Brady works his way back from his injury. What is very characteristic about the NFL is that early on is the separation of teams. Five teams are undefeated going into week 6: The Denver Broncos, Indianapolis Colts, New York Giants, Minnesota Vikings and the New Orleans Saints. One of those records is sure to end as the Giants travel to New Orleans to take on the Saints. Never have there been this many undefeated teams this late in the season, which could point

to less parity in the league than usual. Also, nine teams post records of one win or less so far. The question remains then: who are the actual front-runners for a place in Super Bowl XLIV? A few weeks ago, The Baltimore Ravens were favourites among many experts to represent the AFC in the Superbowl, but they have suffered consecutive losses to New England and division rivals, the Cincinnati Bengals. The New York Jets looked dominant in their week two win against division rivals New England, but they too have suffered back-to-back defeats lately. Of the undefeated teams, the Colts and Saints look like the pick of the bunch. Colts QB Peyton Manning is looking at his absolute best, throwing for over 300 yards in the first five games this season. With a first-quarter TD pass last week, Manning lies behind Dan Marino and Brett Favre on the all-time TD passlist. He is doing all this without all-star WR Marvin Harrison, who was cut by

pasts, but the team’s Achilles heel has been its defence, the reason why the team lost the 2006 NFC championship to the Chicago Bears, and why the team missed the playoffs in the two subsequent seasons. If the defense can hold up, the Saints could well be on their way to another NFC title game, let alone a Super Bowl berth. The forgotten team in all this is the New York Giants. They also allow the fewest passing yards per game, with the help of their highly effective pass rush, led by defensive end Osi Umenyiora. It remains to be seen how the team will cope without the threat of WR Plaxico Burress, jailed for two years after he accidentally shot himself with his own gun in a New York nightclub last November. His absence in the playoffs severely hampered the Giants, as the Philadelphia Eagles eliminated them in the Divisional Playoff game. Burress caught the winning TD against the Patriots in Super Bowl XLII. The NFL schedule is short, but brutal and unforgiving. If teams are left behind early, it is very difficult to recover. Much of the questions posed will be answered in the coming weeks. What is true of teams in the NFL is: You are only as good as your record. Right now a lot of teams are looking pretty good, while others are looking like bottom feed. The coming weeks will separate the elite teams from the good teams, and some slow-starters like the Patriots, Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers might yet emerge as title contenders.

Come and have a go if you think you’re hard enough

MERICAN FOOTBALL is a game played by people who are too soft to play rugby. Its players (also known as “sissies”) wear big pads and helmets because they are scared that their pretty-boy faces will be broken, thereby reducing their chances of a starring role in the next Disney movie about those perennial childhood sweethearts, the quarterback and the cheerleader. They wear jockstraps, which is really a bit ironic since there’s nothing down there. They shower together and make droll remarks about such. That is American football. Though it will doubtless belie everything I have put out in the above statement, I am not a rugby player. I have never been a rugby player. In fact, for the past year-and-a-bit, I have been the personified version of what I have just described. That’s right – I play American football. That’s me – complete with pretty-boy face, if I do say so myself, and no balls... or so they

said in the schoolyard. In reality, the opinion circulated mainly in rugby circles that Americans decided to wear pads and helmets simply because they were too weak and lazy to play “real” rugby is a wonderful and succinct fallacy; they wore them because they were too good at it. Rugby was played so aggressively by Americans that it had become known as a mob game in the 19th and early 20th Century. Not least as a result of the players playing it, but by design: formations as ruthlessly effective as the infamous “Flying V” were never even conceptualized in Europe, while the authorities in the States had already broken from their counterparts at the RFU in England to allow tackling below the waist. The net result was that the sport began to spiral out of control. The now-annual Harvard-Yale rivalry game was suspended indefinitely after its 1894 edition, which had become known as the “Hampden Park Blood

Bath”. Four players had suffered crippling injuries; several more were badly injured too. Two years later, the first “head harness” was developed to protect players’ skulls, while soft pads had already been around since the institution of the new tackling rules. By 1905, the situation had become too serious to ignore: despite the new forms of protection, 19 players were killed across the U.S. and Teddy Roosevelt threatened to shut the game down if drastic changes were not brought in. This was the final nail in the coffin representing the relationship between American football and rugby. Pads and helmets became a necessity, while the introduction of the forward pass opened the game up and created the tactical stoppages which are now a defining feature of play. Fast-forwarding to the present day, most people will probably be more familiar with American football as that bastard child of the satellite television age, something of a late-

night entertainment spectacle replete with cheerleaders who make HD worth the extra money and big black guys who make dogs fight in their spare time. Behind the glamour of the NFL however, or perhaps as a consequence thereof, the game is spreading quickly. It is the fastest-growing sport in Ireland: the Irish American Football League (IAFL) has doubled in size in the past three years, and indeed was the only sporting organization in the country which saw its funding increase at the last budget. Here in Trinity, the sport landed in 2007 in the form of the Dublin University American Football Club. Despite no support or recognition from DUCAC, the club survived its first season and came of age in its second - a remarkable 7-1 win record was achieved in the IAFL 8-a-side league, which saw the team run up 273 points in the space of those eight games. This year, the squad size has swelled to more than 40 players, not least by the arrival

of rugby converts in search of success, but flush with former soccer, GAA, and basketball players too. Next month sees the inauguration of the American football intervarsities, a three-day tournament taking place in Limerick and pitting the league’s two newcomers (Trinity and UCD) against its two stalwarts of this decade (UL and DCU). Trinity will be looking to capitalize on last year’s record-breaking season, as well as to set the tone for their move to the full 11-a-side league when it gets underway after Christmas - success in which will mark the club’s swift rise into the highest echelons of the IAFL. This open invitation is yours - knock the game all you want, but maybe, just maybe, you should try it out. We’ll make sure you can barely walk the next morning. (And you might even get in the next High School Musical.) Trinity Football is still welcoming all newcomers. For more information, visit americanfootball.tcdlife.ie, or email trinityfootball@gmail.com.

SPORT

TRINITY NEWS October 20, 2009

Got surf?

THE COMMENTARY BOX

Ronan McGuire gives us a taste of what’s in store at this year’s Windsurfing Championship in Mayo THIS YEAR’S October Bank Holiday weekend will see the return of the Irish Windsurfing Championships to the far-flung peninsula of Bellmullet, Co. Mayo. This is a much loved stop on the tour, which also visits other charming locations such as Castlegregory, Co. Kerry, Crookhaven in Cork and Achill Island, Co. Mayo. The discipline for the series is wavesailing, where the competitors use the power of the wind and the energy of the wave to ride and draw lines on the wave just as a surfer would. This is done by connecting a series of bottom turns and top turns, staying as close to the critical section (the breaking part of the wave) as possible. Aerials and other transitional moves such as 360s are also scored highly. If the conditions allow, the judges also look for several jumps from the competitors. Forward loops, back loops, 360s and even double loops are seen regularly, thanks to the continuously rocketing standard of windsurfing in Ireland. This is a lot to pack into an eight-minute heat, and sometimes results in the manifestation of arguments and

HAS SKY SPORTS NEWS RUINED SPORTS JOURNALISM?

Photo courtesy of Trinity Windsurfing tantrums which can be as entertaining as the action on the water to the on-looker. Reigning Irish Champion Finn Mullen, who won the Achill event this year and thirteen time ex-champion Oisin Van Gelderan (who placed 2nd in Achill) will be eager to do battle come the 24th. The title has changed hands between these two to almost every other year, which may be about to change this year as the notorious Galway crew and others from all corners of Ireland snap at their heels.

Morgan Mc Guire, Nigel Plummer and Dan Gardener amongst others will all be vying for the winner’s podium. The level of windsurfing in Ireland has risen substantially over the past few years. Many sailors are now sponsored and go on several foreign training trips to hone their skills and sail with the best in world. The same can be said for the fairer sex, where serious rivalry can be found in the women’s fleet, as Katie Mckenena, Noelle Dorian and Ailbhe Mc Dermot jockey for the

top slot. Many competing in the Irish Wavesailing Championships also take part in the Intervarsity event, which will be hosted by NUIG and take place in Achill in March. This event, as you may have guessed, has more empahasis on fun and the social side of the event is second to none. But, for the competitors of the Bellmullet Championships, the Guinness will have to wait until the closing party.

Rifle club off to a shooting start Ever wondered how to win an Olympic Gold without moving an inch? Trinity Rifle Club’s Katharina Wilhelm tells you how to go about it DU Rifle Club provides Trinity students with a unique chance to try target shooting with air and smallbore rifles. Compared to non-university rifle or target shooting clubs, where membership is a grand on average, DURC costs four euro for the year, which includes the loan of all equipment and teaching on a one-to-three basis at most. Besides running fun shoots, charity shoots, and quiz nights throughout the year, the club trains and competes in several target shooting disciplines. One of these is the Olympic 10m Air Rifle. The main difficulty of this discipline is the requirement for shots to be taken from a standing position. However, as in all target shooting practices, shooters must also overcome mental challenges such as controlling their breathing and keeping relaxed, even under the stressful conditions of the competition of their life. A rifle shooter needs to be something of a perfectionist, as is obvious by the world record score of 600 out of 600. Don’t worry though, it’s a niche sport in Ireland, so you quickly get to know the country’s best

shooters, and they are always willing to share advice. Additionally, the class-ranking system means that you are likely to start winning prizes almost immediately. In last year’s Irish Air Nationals, about half the competitors were shooting for DURC and brought back many awards and prizes. Shooters who reached the final included members of that year’s novice squad, that is, they only started shooting the discipline at this time last year. To be considered for this year’s novice squad, head down to the range on a Monday, Wednesday or Friday. The Club’s dedication to people who are new to the sport is evident in Trinity never having lost the novice competition against UCD. On Tuesdays and Thursdays 25 yard .22 (smallbore) is shot in the range. The prone position (lying down) in which this discipline is shot is easier than the standing one, while there is more recoil of the rifle and an even greater degree of perfectionism required. The club also competes in the 50m outdoor discipline, providing extra challenges of wind and light changes to master.

“Shooters must overcome mental challenges, control their breathing and stay relaxed, even under the stressful conditions of the competition of their life.”

Conor McDermottroe shooting smallbore in the 50m Isle Of Man competition Last year the DURC smallbore shooters took home crystal and medals from, besides others, the Irish Smallbore Nationals, DURC’s own 25 Yard and 50 Metre Opens and the Wilkinstown, Leinster and Wicklow 50 Meter Opens. We had at least two shooters in each of the finals. The club aids its members in all aspects of competitive shooting, organising transport to and entry into competitions, as well as providing the equipment at the events. Experienced shooters from this year

onward will also engage in the Olympic 3 Positions discipline. This involves shooting smallbore in the standing, kneeling and prone position within the same match. Practicing the standing position at our own range with the lighter air rifles will be beneficial to enthusiastic prone shooters. It is never too late to start target shooting – in this sport your career does not finish in your thirties, Olympic Gold Medals are won by shooters of ages as diverse as 25 and 65.

Ballydoyle to show derby potential Eric Cullinane takes a look at the Group 1 Racing Post Trophy, a key race for Epsom Derby hopefuls THIS YEAR’S feature 2yo race takes place at the weekend in the shape of the Group 1 Racing Post Trophy. The feature race on the Saturday card at Doncaster is the final British Group 1 of the year and sees this season’s top juveniles battle it out for their first taste of Group 1 success. Often a key race where the following years’ Epsom Derby is concerned, three of the last seven winners of the Racing Post Trophy having gone on to win the Derby. High Chaparral, Motivator and Authorized have completed this illustrious feat. Because of the notable connection between these respective races, there is value to be found in the Ante Post market prior to the running of Saturday’s feature event. If there is a horse you fancy for the 2010 Derby that is taking part in this season’s Racing Post Trophy, it could be worth considering a wager before the race. Bookmakers tend to cut the price of

the winner and even placed horses may shorten up. Dancing David looks set to be Brian Meehan’s main hope of retaining the RP Trophy after Jukebox Jury’s victory last year. He completed a stylish maiden victory at Newbury a fortnight ago and Meehan will have the Danehill Dancer colt well primed for this weekend’s race. Another horse who merits respect is Elusive Pimpernel, and his trainer John Dunlop looks set to send the unbeaten son of Elusive Quality to Doncaster. He showed a blistering turn of foot to beat the highly touted Godolphin horse Emerald Commander in the Group 3 Acomb stakes at York and should be in with a shout. Godolphin has seen a striking resurgence in form over the past few months, typified by their recent St. Leger 1-2 and will be represented by the talented colt Al Zir. The 2yo looks to have a bright future after comfortably beating useful opposition in

both of his 2 wins to date. The step up in trip should not prove a problem and provided the ground is not too soft, he will take quite a bit of beating. Trainer Peter Chapple Hyam will allow the unbeaten Coordinated Cut takes his chance after his impressive victory at Doncaster in September and will undoubtedly go close. On this side of the water, Aiden O’Brien will have a strong hand in the race with the immaculately bred St Nicholas Abbey expected to line up on Saturday. The Montjeu colt has won his first two starts and is already as short as 8-1 for next year’s Derby. A win this weekend would see those odds becoming even more prohibitive. Royal Lodge stakes winner Joshua Tree is another possible runner, along with the highly regarded pair of Cape Blanco and Midas Touch. The race itself is usually dominated by the market principals, if one was to take race trends into consideration. However, the race has been won by 20-1 and 25-1 outsiders in 2005 and 2006 so a big priced winner is not out of the question. But one thing that is for certain is that we, the racing public, have a truly exciting group one event in store.

RECENTLY SIMON Cowell, the high-waisted pantomime villain of Saturday night light entertainment, got me thinking about Sky Sports News. You may ask what perma-tanned Cowell has to do with sports news? Allow me to explain. During the X-Factor’s “Judges’ Houses” round of auditions, he described primary school teacher turned vocal gymnast Danyl Johnson as “musical Marmite”. People will either love him or hate him. This got me thinking of the journalistic Marmite that the Sky Sports News channel has become. A good example of how Sky Sports News is being described as a revelation and also a death knell for sports journalism was their coverage of the football transfer window two summers ago. For some, being able to follow every moment of Robinho and Berbatov’s transfers to the blue and red halves of Manchester respectively was a televisual landmark to be enjoyed in much the same way as Obama’s historic victory in the US elections. Others, however, mourned the loss of the excitement. Sky Sports News had ruined the story for them in much the same way someone would spoil a film for you by telling you the ending. The close of this summer’s transfer window was unfortunately rather anti-climatic compared with 2008’s high drama, but Sky Sports News still tried their best to make it as much of a spectacle as possible, with reporters hovering at the gates of training grounds and stadia throughout England. There was a particularly excited young reporter dashing between Portsmouth’s Fratton Park stadium and training ground, closely monitoring the movements of star goalkeeper David James’ Range Rover, were he also to join the mass exodus out of the now struggling south-coast club. Sadly for Sky Sports News, but happily for the Pompey, faithful James didn’t drive off into greener pastures. Sky Sports News’s detractors complain about how the channel is sucking the newsworthiness out of every major sports news story, with its flashing yellow breaking news bar replacing the traditional print headline. However, they have to be complimented by how they have looked at the successful formula of tabloid newspapers and applied it in a novel way to their 24-hour stream of news, like the racing tips from the jovial Alex Quinn. Speaking of the female Sky Sports News presenters, one has to look at Georgie Thompson. She bares some resemblance to old page three favourite Katie “Jordan” Price, so will keep many of the male tabloid punters happy, despite the fact she is considerably more decently clad. Some though, including pundits on the Guardian’s “Football Weekly” podcast, have described Thompson and some of her colleagues such as Millie Clode as “robot women”. Even the presenters on Sky Sports News seem to have the Marmite “love ‘em or hate ‘em” effect on viewers. Sky Sports News have also copped on that the tabloids’ sports pages’ success also stems from a healthy injection of salacious gossip about sports personalities’ private lives. Last June, just days before Madeira’s most famous son Cristiano Ronaldo became the most expensive man in football, Sky Sports News viewers were able to have a peek at him as he sashayed around LA’s boutiques. Why look at a photo of Ronaldo’s shopping spree in the papers when you can get live footage on Sky Sports News? So back to the question of whether Sky Sports News is ruining sports journalism. Perhaps, print journalists should use this as an opportunity to look more deeply at their stories and give the reader a different angle on news that has already been broken by Sky Sports News. Because for the moment Sky Sports News is very much so here to stay, whether you love it or hate it. Kate Rowan

CLARIFICATION In the article titled “Clontarf in Clear Victory”, it was claimed that handling errors made before the break by John Lynch cost his team opportunities. Mr Lynch did not play in the first half of the game, and was misindentified by the reporter. Trinity News would like to apologise to Mr. Lynch for this error.

SPORT

NFL SEASON ANALYSIS SPORT, P22

Twarted at the last moment » Trinity and DIT draw at College Green in the first Varsity game of the soccer season » A late free kick from DIT player Eoin Kavanagh thwarts otherwise comprehensive performance from Trinity » Skipper Guerin pleased with Trinity’s grit SCORE

TRINITY DIT

1 1

Ciaran O’Callaghan Sports Reporter TRINITY PLAYED the first of the varsity games in the full knowledge that they had to stand up to tough competitors in DIT. Having been well-prepared through rigorous training sessions, the Trinity squad were more than ready to stand up to any challenge thrown at them from the visitors to College Park. The game kicked off on a mild Wednesday afternoon with Trinity playing in the standard red and black colours and DIT sporting a rather fruity yellow and navy kit. The perfect condition of the grounds combined with the slightly moist playing surface created ideal circumstances for a fastpaced, enthralling game. The action lived up to the anticipation as soon as

the referee’s whistle sounded. DIT piled on early pressure to the Trinity back four. Two clear-cut chances fell to midfielder Tiernan Rossiter, who looped a free header over the bar followed by another sitter which he abruptly scooped over the bar at the museum end of the pitch. Many observers commented that the gigantic frame of Trinity keeper Niall O’Carrol put off the naïve DIT player. History and Politics student Conor Hynes started in the centre of midfield, making his first start for Trinity this season, and he faired well in the “niggly” first quarter of the game. The midfield stayed strong as Ed Tinsley caused trouble to the back four with some levelled control of the ball in the DIT half. The first goal of the game went to Trinity, as skipper Luke Guerin placed in a delightfully lofted free-kick into the path of centre back Colin “Colly” Hyland, who eloquently headed the ball across the keeper into the back of the net. Following this opener, two changes

SEASON PREVIEW

In a tight competitive game, the goalkeepers on each side were crucial to the final result. Photo: Yuliya Bespala

were made by coach Jimmy Cumiskey, as Ciaran Lawler came on upfront and Evin O’Reilly was put on in the midfield to help spread the ball behind

“Hyland may now be nicknamed ‘superman’ by the Trinity squad due to a particular incident midway through the second half when he defied gravity and flew across the goal line.” the opposition. Cormac Farrell gave a sterling effort just before halftime, which was matched by DIT keeper Craig Hyland. The second half began well for Trinity with Conal O’Shaughnessy and Colin

Hyland masterfully commanding the Trinity 18-yard box. Full backs Connor Malloy and Darren Burk both had strong games, dealing with some skilful running soccer coming from DIT’s Stephen Ruche and David O’Sullivan. Hyland may now be nicknamed “superman” by the Trinity squad due to a particular incident midway through the second half when he defied gravity and flew across the goal line to deflect the ball off the line, maintaining the Trinity lead. Both sides ran their feet into the ground as the second half continued. Oisin Foggarty performed an ambitious volley near the touchline that came closer to the posts than he ever could have imagined. Ciaran Lawler also created some further chances for Trinity. Lawler was aided by Donal O’Cofaigh who battled through the build up of lactic acid in his legs to keep the ball in DIT’s half. However a second goal would not come. This proved to be quite significant as DIT were awarded a free kick from around 25 yards in the third

minute of injury time. Eoin Kavanagh stepped up to the plate and pulled off an excellent strike into the top right hand corner. On another day Trinity might have found a second goal from such great efforts and buried the game so DIT would have had no chance of gaining a point. Nevertheless, retrospectively, DIT did have a fair amount of chances, which also could have rippled the net behind Niall O’Carrol. In a brief post-match interview, Trinity captain Guerin had mixed feelings over the game. He stated: “I wish we could have found an extra goal to take some of the pressure off of our back four. However we played with a certain amount of grit and determination that I am extremely proud of.” Guerin added that man of the match would go to Colin Hyland, due to his consistent ball winning tackles. He seemed happy with Trinity’s performance, even though it is of course “tough to go so far in a game and see a win slip through ones fingertips when one battles so hard.”

THE SENIOR captain of DUAFC soccer, Luke Guerin, insists that the 09/10 Season will be an exhilarating season for the club. Guerin implied that this is partly due to the introduction of new second year players to the line-up, most significantly tall lean centre back Conal O’Shaughnessy. Moreover, Guerin suggests that the “training has never been better” due to a “fundamental willingness” of the whole squad to do well this season. Manager Jimmy Cumiskey has masterminded training sessions with the introduction of new one-touch passing routines and drills. The intense heat of the October sun has been making training sessions tough, however, the squad are pulling their weight when it comes down to grudge matches. Guerin suggests that this is essentially due to “increasing fitness levels”. An example of such escalating fitness can be seen through Conor Molloy who has been described by many involved in DUAFC as a “handsome Phil Neville”. Keeper Niall O’Carroll is in terrific form and has dedicated himself to a lengthy ‘boozeban’, which will more than likely improve his skills in between the sticks. Additionally, certain individuals such as Evin “the stinger” O’Reilly and Oisin Foggarty currently maintain excellent form in defence and in attack. Many players also suggest that Donal O’Cofaigh, the “zoolander panda” will also cause some upsets this season, even though his mind can wander into the glitz and glamour of the modelling world. The eclectic mix of players, old and young, tall and short, are helping to improve the sliding reputation of soccer players around the world. Ciaran O’Callaghan

MENS RUGBY

LADIES HOCKEY

Poor discipline costs Trinity team dearly

Third time is a charm for Ladies

» Despite periods of impressive play, a consistent lack of discipline led to a sound defeat » Galwegians take advantage of sin binning to score three successive tries SCORE

GALWEGIENS DUBLIN UNIVERSITY

22 12

Timothy McCoy Sports Reporter ON A sunny day in Crowly Park, Trinity College arrived with high hopes of taking a win against the Galwegiens, an AIL Division 1B team in the AIB Cup. Trinity started well with a number of nice, wide moves, gaining yardage from inside their own half. However it was Trinity’s lack of discipline that kept undoing all the good work. Galwegiens showed their intent by refusing to kick two penalties from in front of the DUFC’s posts. Some slick moves had Connaght winger Liam Bibo racing down the tram line, only to be stopped by some great scrambling defense by Trinity, with brothers Shane

and Neil Hanratty to the fore. However it was Trinity, who against the run of play struck first with a great move from the half way line. Trinity’s out half, David Joyce made a dummy pass to forwards running a hard short line and instead passed to centre Richard Brady. Brady off-loaded to fellow centre partner Conor Colclough who managed to get the ball off to the full-back who then drew the opposite full back and left winger, Colin Murphy, with an easy run in. Unfortunately the conversion sailed wide. Galwegiens response was swift. Solid attacking from the Galway men and constant ill discipline from Trinity led to Trinity prop, James Gethings being sin binned. This proved to be costly as Galwegeins managed to score three unanswered tries during this period, the first of which was a push over try from five yards out. The second was due to a good move around

the middle of the park coupled with bad discipline in the Trinity defense. This led to the home side’s centre making a break down the right hand side and sucking in all the away side’s defenders and then spinning the ball wide with a simple miss match leading to ‘Wegiens number six running over the line. The last try that was scored seemed far too easy. From the restart, Trinity’s defense was all over the place and it was all too easy for Galwegiens who simply cut through the defense and eventually strolled over the line for the third try. A penalty chance late in the first half was missed by Trinity so that the score was 19-5 at the break. The second half started a great deal brighter for the students with most of the play taking place in the ‘Wegiens half. Some great running rugby from the students led to a concerted amount of pressure in the Galway teams 22.

A lovely wide move off the top of the lineout was doubled with a great line from full back Shane Hanratty which led to the pressure. Unfortunately, the pressure led to nothing as the defense was too strong. Trinity’s substitute hooker Kevin Buckley did, however, get over the line eventually. After a superb penalty touch finder from out half David Joyce, a well worked maul led to the sub being left one on one with his opposite man with very little space, but he managed to bundle himself over the line. Trinity were close to regaining the lead but small handling errors led to a great counter-attack and repeated poor defense from TCD led to Galwegiens getting over the line to take the game away from the visitors. Another lose for DUFC, but if they maintain the positive style of rugby they are playing at the moment it shall not be long til they are winning on a regular basis.

SCORE

COLUMBA TRINITY

0 2

Katie Grehan Sports Reporter ON SATURDAY October 17, Trinity Ladies found themselves in Columba’s College, ready to take on the Corinthians in their third game of the season. With perfect weather conditions the game got off to a tough start with both teams battling hard to get ahead. Midway through the first half, Trinity’s first goal came from a perfectly timed pass from the centre midfielder Rachel Scott onto the stick of oncoming forward, Kylie Deverell. Kylie, having picked the ball up at the edge of the circle, beat the Corinthians’ keeper with a slightly raised shot blasted from the edge of the D. Immediately after gaining the lead, Trinity found themselves under fierce pressure from the opposition, and a great save from keeper Jessie Elliott

kept Trinity on top. Before half-time, there were numerous chances at both ends of the field, and the Trinity girls were happy to reach the break with a one nil lead. In the first few minutes of the second half, Corinthians applied major pressure looking to get the equaliser. Trinity stayed strong in defence with Captain Caroline Murphy and Vice Captain Maebh Horan showing great leadership from the back line. Nearing the conclusion of the match Trinity, winning the midfield battles, were justly rewarded with a second goal from a penalty corner. The ball, pushed straight to the top, found the backboard with a perfectly placed shot from Maebh Horan. This was a great win for the Trinity Ladies and leaves Trinity with six points and a position at the top of the table after three away games. Team coach David Bane will be particularly happy with the team’s overall workrate and attitude. It has been a great start to the season and the team can be confident heading into the Intervarsities tournament next weekend.