SIN Volume 22 Issue 11

NUACHTÁN SAOR IN AISCE VOL. 22 Issue 11. 06 APR 2021

Student Independent News

WINNER: BEST NEWSPAPER AT THE NATIONAL STUDENT MEDIA AWARDS 2019

Students’ Union moves for levy Referendum amid Kingfisher cost dispute • University Management Team claim funding cuts are inevitable if referendum passes • “It’s worrying that they are talking about opportunity costs and not the welfare of students”- Toomey calls for Students to back proposed levy reform

By Conor Brummell @ConorBrummell A notice of referendum has been put forward by the NUI Galway Students’ Union aimed at reforming the student levy.

The announcement was made on Wednesday March 29th, and requires 500 physical signatures to be put to the student body as a referendum. SIN understands that the proposed referendum would take place on April 22nd in conjunction with the Students’ Union Full-Time Officer elections.

The €224 student levy has been at the heart of many heated debates in NUI Galway over the past fourteen years.

In the academic year 2007/2008 the student levy was increased by €100 by referendum to contribute to the building of a new Sports Centre on campus, which later became known as The Kingfisher.

By extension, the Sports Centre, which officially opened its doors in 2008 has also been scrutinisedas the money borrowed to build the facility is still currently being paid back by students through the student levy, almost 14 years after its establishment.

When the Sports Centre was planned in the early 2000s, it was to be one aspect of a trust called ‘The Infrastructural Development Fund’ which would cost the University €40,000,000.

These projects included the construction of the new Sports Centre, as well as the renovations and refurbishment to the old Sports Centre on campus, which was to become a cultural centre known as Áras na Mac Léinn.

There was also a series of smaller projects included within the fund to improve basic Infrastructure on campus which included facilities such as parking, roads, site works and acquisitions, as well as other projects like the University Park and Ride scheme.

Original Budget In a budget outline dated 2003, NUI Galway committed to contributing €9,776,000 to the fund, while €4,917,000 was to be raised for the development fund through gifts to the University.

Atlantic Philanthropies (AP), was also to contribute €8,500,000 to the project.

This would lead to a total investment of €23,193,000 from the University and other nonstudent contributors.

The €100 sports centre charge included within the Student Levy was to account for the other €17,000,000 within the original budget outline for the Sports Centre.

This was borrowed internally by the University Management Team in NUI Galway, as the money could not be fronted by the Students’ Union at the time.

In 2005, the University argued that the amount to be funded by the Student Levy was outlined as €15,700,000, which was €1,300,000 less than originally intended.

According to figures shared with the Students’ Union in 2014, however, the Sports Centre accounts state that the cost of the Kingfisher was €21,930,000, with funding of €6,000,700 made up of contributions by the University and the University Foundation.

This resulted in a deficit of €15,900,000 to be covered by the student levy, which was lower than the original €17,000,000.

In a statement to SIN, the University Management Team claimed that they raised €9,600,000 through the Galway University Foundation, an increase of €3,500,000 on what they had initially set out in the 2014 budget.

The Sports Centre had been in operation for six years up until this point, and the Students’ Union maintains that the construction cost funding should have been finalised.

Although the budget sat at €21,844,000, some delays and shortfalls resulted in the budget being reset to €22,711,000 at the end of 2012, which is detailed in the Capital Project Report summary of 2013.

This report also states that the purpose of the levy was to create a stable flow of money for the sports centre project.

“The levy was budgeted initially to create a cash inflow of €1,250,000 per annum, over an eighteenyear period, from which was to be deducted a notional interest charge to reflect the University’s payment of the construction and other costs in advance of the levy collection period,” the report states.

The Kingfisher Gym has been a bone of contention for the Students’ Union for many years. (Photo: Oisín Bradley) “The payments are currently running slightly in excess of €1,400,000, which contributes €900,000 annually after a notional interest charge of €500,000.

“The students’ support for the venture and their willingness to demonstrate this support though a levy agreed by referendum gave a strong incentive for the University to ensure the delivery of the project.”

Error in Budget In October 2018, the funding total from the University had been reduced to €4,950,000 and the expenditure had increased to €22,699,000.

This resulted in a much larger deficit of €17,490,000 to be paid from the student levy, which is closer to the original budget outline from 2003.

The Student’s Union received an explanation from the University regarding the reconciliation in October 2018, which stated that, “these represent the reversal of previous entries funding the Sports Centre from the University Income and Expenditure account.”

“The original plan to fund the Sports Centre did not envisage any financing directly from the Income and Expenditure Account, and the two entries referenced above should never have been posted to the Sports Centre account in 2008/2009 and 2009/2010.

The removal of the monies was simply correcting a posting made in error.”

The Students’ Union claim that this amendment of an error made ten years after the error occurred

“added an additional €1,827,000 to the Sports Centre deficit,” which students were expected to pay from the levy.

The Union also states that, “it’s unclear how the costs reported in the Infrastructural Development Programme Updates presented to FRC did not account for such an outcome.”

In documents seen by SIN, it can be revealed that the University in fact collected €20,800,000 from the levy in the past 14 years.

This has raised questions as to why the €100 sports centre charge is still in place if the payments were running more than €1,400,000 per annum, as the €17,000,000 contribution from students would have been raised at a faster pace than the 18-year period originally set out.

Furthermore, the final cost of The Kingfisher Club and infrastructural development fund came under the original budget- with the final cost of the new sports centre sitting at €22,700,000, and the final cost of upgrading the old Sports Centre in Áras na Mac Léinn resting at €6,100,000.

This meant that the final budget for the infrastructure programme sat at €28,800,000, instead of the original €40,000,000 which was proposed.

According to the UMT, the €40,000,000 budget was “fully utilised when the infrastructure programme was subdivided into a number of smaller projects.”

Continued on page 4

2 N E WS

Corrib Village deals with Cryptosporidium crisis 4 NUI Galway USI hustings held online prior to students voting under new system 5 Fiery Council sitting sees emergency meeting called 6 Landmark multi-purpose cultural venue a focal point of NUI Galway’s proposed Innovation and Creativity District 7 Supports and Services Available to You: The Galway Rape Crisis Centre 8 Satire or sexism? Caricature of Mary Lou McDonald sparks controversy 9 Student Diaries 11 Three painters worth knowing 12 What is Bollywood? 13 French literature: three essentials 14 Ceolchoirm i ré Covid-19 15 A bright eye on Galway, a talk with Chaosheng Zhang 16 The Chopping Block: Pulses & Beans 17 Moving in with your partner as a student, is it worth it? 18 Budgeting Advice 20 Beauty Bag review— April 21 USI Virtual Protest – The Education for All Day of Action 2021 22 Transphobia, Freedom of Speech and NUI Galway 23 Should the voting age be lowered in Ireland? 24 Disappointment once again for Irish football as Galwegians miss out 26 Honours even for Galway WFC as Kearns secures hat-trick. 28 NUI Galway Announce Centre of Excellence Partnership with Basketball Ireland 30 Green light given for some easing of sporting restrictions 31

EDITORIAL

For the second last time this academic year, we are back!

Oh what a long aul slog of a year it has been, full of down, some more down, twists and some turns thrown in for good measure. For those of you who have decided to turn our virtual front page in search of your fortnightly remedy to the misery, welcome back!

With all the cautious optimism and excitement that has come with the news that we may be able to walk on a boreen a whole six kilometres from our home dwelling in the coming weeks, I don’t know if you any of you will be able for the thrills offered inside our humble 32 pages of NUI Galway news, views, sport and everything in between, All sarcastic barbs aside, there is some quality content inside and you should definitely check it out .

The past few weeks have been jam-packed with events filled with hollow significance. Events such as Paddy’s Day and Easter Sunday that even in the mundanity of lockdown life ,don’t seem to generate much excitement at all. The kinds of occasion that you send a text to your great-grandmother expressing holiday greetings, only to see an endless archive of texts that have preceded it stating almost the exact same thing. “Happy Easter Noreen”, “Thanks Paddy”, almost on loop for the previous decade.

Undoubtedly the best part of the last fortnight has been the putting forward of the clocks. The day you lazy folk describe as the one where you “lose an hour sleep” . The switch to Daylight Saving Time to me signals the point where we leave Winter in its wake and look ahead to what the Summer months have to offer, which in the

editor.sin@gmail.com

Find us online:

www.sin.ie EDITOR: Paddy Henry editor.sin@gmail.com LAYOUT: Shannon Reeves SPECIAL THANKS: Ellen O’Donoghue

#NUIGSU21

lectio E U

ns

An bhfuil rud éigin le rá agat?

Cur litir chuig an Eagarthóir chuig

Galway case is usually just warmer rain.

But sure looks, we love it all the same.

As always, a huge thank you must go to the SIN editorial team who have worked their socks off in difficult circumstances over the past six months or so. If Stephen Kenny had workers as hard as you in his ranks we may have nicked a draw against Luxembourg!

Instead, a nation looks longingly towards Ireland’s very own Gennaro Gattuso, Glenn Whelan, for some solidity in midfield. Or maybe that’s just me.

Joking aside, I hope you all enjoy this issue, and that twilight zone we are entering between mid-term assignments, and final exams. Our usual publishing schedule will changing slightly this month. Issue 11 will be our only full issue this month, however, keep an eye out for our election special coming very soon, and look at the positives, this year there will be nobody dementedly waving election pamphlets in your face as you float between the abyss of an 11a.m. and a 1p.m. lecture. Our twelfth and final issue will be hitting the online shelves on May 4th , Star Wars day for some, another one of those hollow holidays that I text my bewildered grand mother Noreen on, wishing her a good one! Happy reading folks! keep the faith.

S

INSIDE

SIN Vol. 22 Issue 11

WILL YOU RUN?

Part Time Officers ➥ Irish Language Officer ➥ Mature Students ➥ Clubs Captain ➥ Societies Chairperson ➥ International Students Officer ➥ Gender and LGBT+ Rights Officer ➥ Disability Rights Officer ➥ Postgraduate Taught Officer ➥ Postgraduate Research Officer ➥ Ethnic Minorities Officer Nominations Open: Nominations Close: Election Day:

➥ Convenor of the College of Arts, Social Sciences and Celtic Studies

➥ Convenor of the College of Science and Engineering

➥ Convenor of the College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences

➥ Convenor of the College of

Business, Public Policy and Law

10:00 Wednesday 14th April 2021 17:00 Wednesday 21stApril 2021 Thursday 29th April 2021 @nuigsu

NUIGalwayStudentsUnion www.su.nuigalway.ie

www.nuigsuelections.com

NUACHT

April 06 2021

NEWS EDITORIAL

By Caoimhe Killeen Hey all, I hope you all had a somewhat restful Easter break after the stress that was midterms. We’re coming up to the busy point of the semester where assignments are starting to pile up, and yet we’re so close to Easter. This would be the point where I quote from Bon Jovi’s “Living on a Prayer”, but no one wants that, so without any further ado here’s what you can expect from the news section in Issue 11.

Our editor Paddy Henry writes about a novel initiative by Occupational Therapy students. The Build-a-Box campaign helps to aid the cruel isolation of the Covid-19 pandemic by sending parcels to those in the most need.

I give the lowdown about how this year’s virtual USI hustings for NUI Galway went, as well as the news of the discovery of the potentially harmful Cryptosporidium bacteria in Corrib Village’s water supply with my co-editor Ellen O’Donoghue.

Ellen has also written about the latest SU council and its emergency meeting, as well as NUI Galway’s involvement in a landmark cultural venue that is set to become a focal point of a proposed innovation and creativity district.

Valerie McHugh has also written about how more Irish language programming is needed in independent radio stations, while Paris Ediagbonya informs us on how NUI Galway and CÚRAM have developed new cell therapy for treating Covid-19 patients and other patients with respiratory illnesses.

Finally, Saoirse Higgins tells us about how the Nursing and Midwifery Society’s first ever event “Period Panel” tackled the subject of periods head on.

As always, don’t be afraid to email either myself or Ellen at deputy.sined@gmail. com if you want to pitch an idea. Keep hydrated and safe (and if you’ve read this far, go grab a cup of tea or coffee because chances are that you’ve earned one!)

FEATURES EDITORIAL

By Saoirse Higgins Hi everyone, and welcome to another issue of SIN. I’m afraid I’ve no interesting tidbits for you if you’ve decided you’re bored enough to read the editorials this week. However, the features section this week might spark your attention.

So, grab a cup of tea, settle into your seat and feast your eyes on the latest issue of SIN this week.

First up, our regular columnists are up to their old tricks. Aine, Cormac and Tom tell us a bit about their lives, their opinions (specifically on sports this issue) and

give their advice on how to stay positive in this pandemic. Éanna Johnston takes on the Covid-19 Column this week, with a positive spin to keep you hopeful for the future.

For articles this week, we delve into political scandals. Ellen O’Regan and Tom Molloy detail several Sinn Féin scandals, from Mary Lou McDonald being characterised as a witch to the controversy surrounding Paddy Holohan.

Niamh Casey details the services the Galway Rape Crisis centre offer after headlines of Sarah Everard in recent weeks.

That’s it for features this week. If you have any ideas of your own don’t be afraid to email me at features.sined@gmail. com. Have a nice week!

ARTS AND ENTS EDITORIAL

By Alice O’Donnell Hi guys! Wow, second last issue of SIN of this year! Where has the time gone? Honestly, semester one seemed to stretch and stretch, and semester two is just flying by.

It feels like last week it was January, and suddenly we’re already a third of the way through 2021! Insane that we’re already at the penultimate issue of SIN, but it sure is a good one!

To start us off we have some fab book recommendations. Sophia Hadef details her top choices of French literature – she picks a range of novels that differ in era and subject matter but are equally as fascinating as the next. Similarly, Rachel Garvey takes a look at her favourite picks of renowned writer Stephen King’s work.

She examines each of the books, but also takes a larger look at the genre of horror as a whole.

We also have some great articles on the film world. Caroline Spencer takes a look at the decision to make the upcoming Oscar’s Award show an in-person event.

Caroline’s look at the decision is witty but also deeply insightful as she wonders if this decision to “return to normal” for the night is really the correct one given the current spread of Covid-19.

Finally, Niamh Casey details three underrated artists throughout history who have gone largely underappreciated.

Their art spans time and regions, but each of the artists’ work are similar in their poignancy, as well as how criminally unknown they are.

A huge thank you to all the talented contributors who have helped make this section one that I am very proud to present to you all. If you have any interest in writing for SIN, the arts and entertainment section accepts creative writing, reviews and basically anything to do with entertainment. If this sounds like something you would be interested in getting involved with, shoot me an email at artsentertainment.sined@gmail.com.

FASHION & LIFESTYLE EDITORIAL

By Anastasia Burton Hello my beauties! One more issue of SIN this year. If you have not yet written anything this year, it’s never too late to volunteer and pick up some pieces. With each issue I always like to thank our wonderful writers for always producing quality articles. We really appreciate the time you put into writing these wonderful pieces so keep up the good work. I hope midterms went smoothly for those of you finished and for those who are not, I wish you the very best of luck!

This issue is once again blessing you with fascinating works like an interview style Q&A with photography genius Choesheng! Our regular budgeting advice, cheap and easy recipes, and beauty bag review.

Don’t forget about these goldies; Let’s talk periods! We have just the article for you about coping with menstrual pains and little tips and tricks.

Dating during a pandemic? Sounds impossible but we have a piece diving deep into the subject of love and lockdown! Beauty disasters happen more often than one might think, and we have just the article to share with you! Thinking about moving in with your partner, then why not flip over to the fashion and lifestyle section to hear some advice from someone who has experience (we need to get all the advice we can!)

And a bonus piece made by yours truly about my 30-day diet and fitness plan, how did it go and do insta nutritionists and trainers really know what they are doing?

Enjoy the pieces and we hope to have you reading our next issue!

Lots of love, Anastasia

OPINION EDITORIAL

By Darren Casserly Hello again everyone and welcome to the penultimate (not including our election special) issue of this year’s edition of SIN. This year has really flown by, it really only feels like yesterday I was writing my first opinion editorial. It was unfortunate that we weren’t able to have a print edition this year, but it was every inch as good as any other year and real credit goes to our contributors.

As always there’s plenty to look forward to in this issue’s opinion section where we cover everything from the issue of transphobia in the college

3

to wondering if social media companies should let you post anonymously online, there really is something for everyone.

Rachel Garvey writes about the tragic death of Sarah Everard and how we as a society can make women feel safer walking on the streets alone.

I look into whether the voting age in Ireland should be lowered to 16 and what the benefits that such a move could have on people. As well as this I give you my opinion on how NPHET has been unfairly taking the blame for the government’s mishaps for the majority of this pandemic.

Orlaith Mc Cabe writes about the issue of transphobia in NUI Galway and gives us advice on how to make people feel more welcome on campus.

We have this and a lot more for you to look forward to in this issue.

As always, I would like to finish up by thanking all of our contributors for making the paper what it and if you would like to write for the SIN or just have any questions you can email me at opinion. sined@gmail.com.

SPORTS EDITORIAL

By Oisín Bradley Hello one and all, and welcome back for the eleventh issue of SIN. The past few weeks have certainly been eventful, and of course for the students of NUIG it’s been no different, not least in the world of sport! We’ll be on hand to give you our take on the events of the last few weeks, be it on campus or further afield.

We’ll start with Ireland’s international affairs on the sporting front. Both Jonathan Browne and Michael Bolton were on hand to offer their perspectives on the recent fixtures of the football and rugby teams, with both sides enduring mixed fortunes.

Both Galway United and Galway WFC were forced to settle for a share of the spoils on the opening day of their respective league campaigns. We were on hand to capture the drama of each of the clashes, Galway United’s scoreless yet incident-filled opener vs Shelbourne and the goalfest that was Galway WFC vs Cork City.

We also have a round-up of the government’s plans for the return of sport, as well as an excellent piece from Eithne Tierney, where she interviewed gymnastic instructor Alannah Cunningham on her experiences with the importance of physical childhood activity.

Finally, we have a piece on the new Basketball Ireland collaboration with the University to make the university a new Centre of Excellence for the board.

4 N E WS Corrib Village deals with Cryptosporidium crisis

By Ellen O’Donoghue and Caoimhe Killeen On-campus accommodation complex Corrib Village is dealing with an outbreak of Cryptosporidium in its water supply.

Cryptosporidium is a microscopic parasite found in many vertebrates and can cause cryptosporidiosis, an illness that can cause diarrhea, weight loss, dehydration, stomach cramps fever nausea and vomiting.

Students were notified of the presence of cryptosporidium in the water supply on the 19th of March, when an email from Campus Living, the association who runs Corrib Village was circulated to students

by Campus Living, who operate Corrib Village and neighboring Goldcrest.

It stated that “we have been notified of a case of Cryptosporidium, in Corrib Village. This case has been registered with Irish Water.

Tests are to be carried out on our water supply.

As a precaution and until further notice, we would strongly advise following the Boil Water Notice instructions...to minimize any risk. We will update you when we have more information.”

“I got an email from Campus Living’s Gmail account stating that there was Cryptosporidium in the water and that there was an active Boil Water notice in place” said Fionn Sexton Connolly, a student currently residing in Corrib.

“I didn’t find this out until my roommate told me that they had emailed us. I had been drinking the water all day by that point.” he said.

Fionn himself started to feel symptoms about seven hours after first ingesting the water: “At about five o’clock, I started to feel sick, and I had to come home from a walk early. I was feeling unwell for about two hours or so, but it faded fast.”

The first-year student also remarked that no further information has been sent to students about the outbreak or what is being done to solve it.

“I haven’t heard a peep since. I am drinking bottled water all the time, and I shower carefully so I don’t take in anymore. It’s worrying but we are all dealing with it.”

However, Irish Water stated that the Boil Water notice sent out to Corrib students was made in error.

Toni Bourke from the Irish Water Press Office stated while they were notified of the single case of illness and that the HSE were indeed investigating the case that the notice was circulated by mistake; “Communication was undertaken on Friday between Irish Water Call Centre and Corrib Village, but advice regarding a Boil Water Notice was made in error. Boil Water Notices are only issued after consultation with the HSE, and one is not required for Corrib Village.”

Student’s Union President Pádraic Toomey urged students to take heed of the notice being issued, stating that if there was such a notice in place “please boil water before drinking it, or buy some water instead.

We know that it’s not the most sustainable, but it’s most important that people’s health is prioritised in these situations. It would be interesting to know what happened to the water, if it’s that there are less students living in Corrib Village this year, or if it was another factor that led into it.

Hopefully, it was just another one of those things that went wrong, and we hope students prioritise themselves and are careful in consuming their water.”

SIN Vol. 22 Issue 11

Students’ Union moves for levy Referendum amid Kingfisher cost dispute Continued from front page

Interest on Sports Centre Loan They also state that the notional 5% interest rate which was added onto the loan was “the market rate for the cost of borrowing money in 2008.”

Under documents released to SIN through the Freedom of Information Act, there is currently €5,490,581 (inclusive of 20/21 levy) left to be paid on the debt incurred by the construction of the Sports Centre in NUI Galway.

The amount of interest paid on the loan from the Student Levy to date is €6,670,799 (inclusive of 20/21 interest), and it is estimated by the University that all outstanding liabilities left to be paid on the constructions will be completely discharged by 2023.

The UMT states that the Union has been kept regularly updated on the arrangement, saying: “As a member of the University’s Finance Resource Committee, the Students’ Union has had oversight of every aspect of this arrangement.

“Since the Sports Centre was opened in 2009, the Students’ Union have received annual statements from the University stating the exact amount paid to date, the interest paid to date and the balance outstanding. The construction commenced in 2007, but the last levy payments are not due until 2023.”

However, Students’ Union President Pádraic Toomey has disputed this claim, stating that there is only one student representative on the University’s FRC, and that the interest rate was never agreed upon.

“The University Management claimed that the 5% interest rate was agreed upon because an SU President was at a meeting where the 5% was alluded to,” he told SIN. “They have this idea that there is an “implied contract” just because an SU President was present and there at the time. However that’s not how contracts work- you can’t imply a contract. They are maintaining that millions more are owed because of an implied contract, because somebody was sitting in on the meeting where it was mentioned.

“The loan should have been paid off by now. It’s almost as if the University saw the eighteen-year period referenced in the original referendum statement and decided to say, ‘Well how can we make sure this actually lasts an eighteen-year period?’”

“At one point they had in their emails that they were contributing money towards the project, and then suddenly they weren’t anymore.

This moved the final payment date to almost ten years longer than what it was supposed to be. They called it an accounting error- and there are a lot of these things that would make you think, “How did they let this happen?”

“Then you’d wonder if they did it so that they could make sure they could charge the students the full whack of €224 every year,” he said.

for societies and clubs according to a Higher Education Authority report in 2013, and what we’re proposing with the new levy is to give societies and clubs €90,000,” he told SIN. “Even though the University is threatening to take away funding from some other aspects of life on campus, we’re actually going to be giving more money to the things students care about by reducing the levy.

“We must remember that the University borrowed this money from itself, and that the interest rate was added on afterwards. The University is constantly talking about opportunity costs, but I’d be worried about them talking about the Sports Centre or the levy as an opportunity cost because the Kingfisher is a building that the University owns.”

Funding Cuts

Revenue Generator

The University Management Team says that if a referendum to reduce the levy is passed, it would leave the college in a “very difficult situation”.

“If the referendum proposing the restructuring of the levy is passed, the University will be left with a debt of €5,490,581 unpaid. The University has no sources of funding or income to pay the outstanding debt. In the absence of alternative income sources, the University will have no alternative but to consider its current expenditure budgets,” they said in a statement.

“Ultimately the University will seek reductions in expenditure to compensate for the three years of levy income outstanding, which has the potential to impact on other student activities, in addition to the proposed cuts to the student project fund. This would impact initiatives that are popular with our student body, such as the Seas Suas training programme, Active Consent, and sustainability projects.”

However, Toomey says that the new levy will contribute more money to student activities, contrary to the University’s claims.

“The University gives societies and clubs €80,000 in funding. We’re the Union that has the smallest funding

The Students’ Union President states that the Sports Centre is a revenue generator for the University, and that it produces a guaranteed annual return in the form of licence fees from the operator.

“It is a building that adds value to the college, that attracts students to the University. It’s a building the University is going to own forever, and it’s worrying that they are talking about opportunity costs and not the welfare of students,” he continues.

“The building is still going to be here when the levy is paid off, and it is a building that earns them a lot of money.”

The UMT argue that the philosophy of the Sports Centre has “been to provide NUI Galway’s students with the best value available.”

“The cost of gym membership in the Sports Centre is lower than equivalent gyms throughout the city and the students account for 66% of the activity in the Sports Centre, but generate only 33% of the income. They are being subsidised by public membership and other revenue generating activities,” they said.

“The student body was strongly represented on the tender evaluation committee, including the President of the Students’ Union and the Clubs’

Student Levy: Timeline

Captain. They made an important contribution to analysing the competing tenders and ultimately to the selection of the successful candidate.”

Speaking about the referendum, and why it is being proposed now, two years before the 2023 cut off date for the Sports Centre charge, Toomey states that “just because it’s going to be paid off in three years’ time does not mean that students who might only have three years in NUI Galway should pay for a building they did not agree upon.”

“We should not be paying an interest rate on a building that the University owns, and is going to own forever, and has very little cost on. They raised a lot of money through philanthropic means to build the Centre. They got a free building, all they had to do was front the money for it in the first place.

“We shouldn’t sit and say “Oh sure it’ll be paid off in a few years, it’ll be grand,” when it’s a building that students are paying a lot of money towards, and they don’t even have free access to.

“At the end of the day, students still pay a lot of money to use the gym too. The building has been here too long for us to have that attitude.”

“We’re the one college who has not refunded students for repeat fees, and we’re one of two colleges I think that charge students’ late fines if they don’t pay their fees on time. Only one college other than NUIG does that, and realistically, charging someone late fees because they can’t pay their fees on time just seems backwards.”

“What we are seeing here is NUIG in a new light, where they very much are all about the money and not about the welfare of the students. It comes back once again to the language used- and the talk about “opportunity costs”.

“Why do we need the levy, really?

If the University had the money that they borrowed off themselves in the first place, why did students need to pay for it?

“It’s like they just decided to build the building and looked at how they could charge students the most for it.

It’s just very backwards,” he finished.

Sports Centre Levy: amount collected annually € 2000000

€220 €200 €180

€7 increase in line with inflation plus €100 Sports Centre Levy.

Levy remains unchanged at €224 since 2010-2011 Increases in line with inflation

€ 1500000

€160 €140 €120 €100 €80 €60 €40

Áras na Mac Léinn Levy: IR£30 (€38). IR£10 equally spilt to supplement Student’s Union, Clubs, and Societies.

Remainder pay fit out College Bar. Funds after fit-out for capital developments of student services nature.

€ 1000000 07-08 08-09 09-10 10-11 11-12 12-13 13-14 14-15 15-16 16-17 17-18 18-19 19-20

Balance projections comparing 5% and 1.076% interest rates €4 increase in line with inflation plus €40 apportioned to the Students’ Union, Clubs, Societies and the Student Health Unit.

€6 increase in line with inflation Increases in line with inflation plus €5 for USI affliation fees.

€20 1997 ’98 ’99 ’00 ’01 ’02 ’03 ’04 ’05 ’06 ’07 ’08 ’09 ’10 ’11 ’12 ’13 ’14 ’15 ’16 ’17 ’18 ’19 2020

€10000000 €8000000 €6000000 €4000000

5%

€2000000

1.076%

0

-€-2000000

18-19

19-20

20-21

21-22

22-23

23-34

24-25

NUACHT

April 06 2021

5

NUI Galway USI hustings held online prior to students voting under new system

By Caoimhe Killeen Co-News Editor

NUI Galway’s Student Union livestreamed their portion of this year’s Union of Students in Ireland (USI) hustings on YouTube, giving students an opportunity to hear the manifestos of this year’s candidates.

This year’s hustings were not only significant because they were being held online, but it is the the first year that voting is open to all registered students in NUI Galway.

NUI Galway Student’s Union President Pádraic Toomey chaired the hustings alongside Vice-President for Education Emma Sweeney, Vice-President for Welfare and Equality, Roísin Nic Lochlainn and Societies Chairperson Barry Sugrue.

Sweeney handled the questions for the Academic Affairs race in which Eimear Curtin from University College Cork (UCC) Students’ Union ran against Megan O’Connor, current Vice President and Education Officer at Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU).

O’Connor won 11 total votes towards her national tally with 56% of the vote, over Curtin’s 36%.

O’Connor stated she was running for this position as she loved getting involved from the moment she started work as a class representative.

“I really want to continue this work on a larger scale with USI”, she stated.

“This past year has further highlighted the inequalities facing students in higher education, and we students are missing so much, from missing hands-on experience in practical courses to working on the frontlines as essential workers in a pandemic, and just not having the same

opportunities as you should have. We need to make up for lost time.”

Her manifesto included a safe return to campus, better access to required software for students, a planned transition to third-level campaign, as well as an academic integrity campaign and improved public funding for third-level education.

Questions asked by Sweeney to both candidates included how they would increase the use of Irish amongst students and through education, how they planned to support rural students who may not be able to return to full time on-campus learning and what candidates foresaw as being the biggest challenges in the academic affairs world next year.

The welfare race was not heard at the NUI Galway hustings, as the sole candidate Somhairle Brennan was unable to attend.

Yet, he received 87% of the vote, securing 17 votes from NUI Galway.

The only candidate for Campaigns Officer, UCC’s Commercial and Fundraising Officer Beth O’Leary received 81% of the vote in her race.

In her briefing, O’Leary stated: “Working on the ground has not only given the experience needed for this role, but the passion for fighting for student’s rights. Irish students have the potential to be changemakers…it’s time to fight for a fairer and more accessible State-funded education.”

Her manifesto included changing the way that the USI uses communication for their online campaigns, updating the website and making it more accessible, boosting followers across social media platforms, a campaigns town hall once a month for students, and an Irish student manifesto to highlight the problems that students face.

“I want our campaigns to be across every platform, so that we see a rise in student engagement and that our numbers put pressure on the Government” stated O’Leary. “It doesn’t matter how much our message rings true if it isn’t reaching the people who need to see it.”

Questions put to O’Leary included how she would increase awareness of sustainability and global climate crises on Irish campuses and how campaigns about raising consent awareness and lessening sexual assault on campus would be handled.

Welfare and Equality Officer Roísín Nic Lochlainn quizzed candidates for the Equality and Citizenship race.

Candidates Bukky Adebowale, Maynooth University’s Students’ Union’s Vice President of Student Life, and Luke Daly, Vice President of Welfare and Equality at TCDSU were quizzed on what they would do to help international students in Ireland if elected, on what would be done to help ethnic minorities on campus and how to best aid transgender and non-binary students.

Adebowale explained her manifesto would work on breaking general barriers like cultural shock for international students, and asking about student services, immigration issues with undocumented students and asylum seekers, providing better social spaces for international students and working on the Student Assistance Fund.

In relation to the question of the biggest barriers facing ethnic minorities in Ireland, Adebowale also felt that the USI needed to recognise its privilege to help students.

“The process of acknowledging privilege is painful, it’s uncomfortable but it’s the most important… It’s not just talking about what

we want to do, it’s about giving the tools and resources needed to do better.”

She ended up securing 65% equating to a total of 13 votes over Daly’s 32% and 6 votes.

In the race for Leas-Uachtrán don Ghaeilge, chaired by Societies Chairperson Barry Sugrue, former TCDSU Oifigeach Gaeilge Muireann Nic Corcráin won 54% of the vote over Queen’s University’s SU President Grian Ni Chromain.

“I’m someone who wants to create opportunities for students to use Irish and to inspire everyone to become engaged in the conversation about making Irish more accessible and inclusive” stated Nic Corcráin.

“So many students haven’t had an opportunity to have their voices heard within the Irish community.”

NUI Galway Student’s Union President Pádraic Toomey also handled the questions for his predecessor, and sole candidate for the USI President position, and current USI Welfare Officer Clare Austick.

“Every year, USI candidates talk about the role USI has had in contributing to societal change around abortion rights, marriage equality, consent education and so much more” stated Austick.

“While I think it’s important knowing and understanding our strengths and objectives, I think that it’s also important and necessary to think ahead about our future as a movement and what direction we’re heading in.... I’m putting myself forward for this position because I believe wholeheartedly in our movement, I care deeply about the students I represent but most importantly, I have a vision that our movement will spearhead social, cultural and educational change.”

This year’s USI Election will be held online on April 7th during the annual USI Congress.

NUI Galway report shows that more support needed for independent radio stations with Irish language broadcasting

By Valerie McHugh An NUI Galway report has shown that independent radio stations need greater support with Irish language broadcasting.

The research was funded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) to explore the opinions of station representatives on the difficulties and opportunities surrounding Irish language radio programming in the future.

One of the main findings that the report revealed was that all independent stations need improved support in the area of all Irish language broadcasting, with Irish language output among the stations sampled remaining minimal and scheduled for mostly off-peak hours.

Stations included in the research ranged from commercial, regional, public service and community radio stations including Athlone Community Radio; Flirt FM; Galway Bay FM; Highland Radio; iRadio NEAR FM; Newstalk; Ocean FM; Radio Kerry and RTÉ radio services other than Radió na Gaeltachta.

Flirt FM, located on the NUI Galway campus, was involved in the report from its early stages and have suggested changes that could be made to make

life easier for stations when they are broadcasting in Irish.

Station Manager Paula Healy told SIN that she thinks that there should be training provided to improve Irish language output, and that a support network among Irish language broadcasters should be established: “There should be training, and that there should be a network for Irish language broadcasters to support each other. There should also be supports around radio stations being able to find people with Irish of a certain level to talk on a certain subject whatever that topic may be. But overall, it’s just excellent to see that the ‘Aer Thonnta’ database has been set up recently which is basically just a collection of Irish language broadcasters in one place. This is a really good move.”

The report has made many recommendations for the future of Irish broadcasting, one suggesting that ‘The Broadcasting Act’ should be amended to ensure that all radio stations create their own Irish language material for broadcast on FM and on digital platforms.

Speaking on her own relationship with the Irish language, Paula said; “I did honours Irish for Leaving Cert but I’d nearly feel more comfortable

speaking French. When I took an Irish class, it made me realise that we were never taught conversational Irish in school and being on the air is nothing if not conversational. That’s just everyday spoken Irish and we should be able to go through school using conversational Irish and freely having a chat as Gaeilge while getting corrected on bits we need to improve on. I think that then we would have a whole generation of people who would feel more comfortable broadcasting in our national language.”

Despite identifying areas that needed to be improved within Irish language broadcasting, the research concluded that despite its challenges, some stations have built successful Irish language programmes to date and are positive about further development of radio material in Irish.

Speaking on the Irish language content that is broadcast from Flirt FM, Paula said: “Our license says that we are supposed to have five hours a week of Irish language broadcast, but we actually have six or seven hours. It varies every year, sometimes every single show is brand new or live. But other years it’s just harder to get people and you might have two or three new shows a week with some of the shows supplemented by

Radió na Life.”

“We try and prevent the Irish language slots from becoming too ‘old school Irish’ because sometimes there is a tendency to just talk about the Irish language and Gaeltacht issues. We want to make it about lifestyle issues as well to make it of interest to everyone. All of our shows are very understandable, and the level of Irish is good, so if you did Irish in secondary school, you should be able to pick up most of what is being said.”

Dr John Walsh, Senior Lecturer in Irish, School of Languages, Literatures and Cultures at NUI Galway, and author of the report has confirmed that “new legislation about online safety and media regulation currently being discussed provides an opportunity to deal with” the issues identified in the report and “ensure a central place for Irish in the future media landscape.”

BAI Chief Executive, Michael O’Keeffe, said; “The BAI was very pleased to have provided funding support for this third phase of the research project which focuses on the challenges and opportunities of Irish language programming.”

The BAI also thanked Dr John Walsh and all the team for conducting the research and establishing the findings.

6 NEWS

SIN Vol. 22 Issue 11

Fiery Council sitting sees emergency meeting called Motion relating to Fascism, Far-Right Extremism and all Forms of Discrimination altered after lengthy council sitting

By Ellen O’Donoghue Co-News Editor Never one for smooth sailing, NUI Galway’s Students’ Unions’ fifth Comhairle of the academic year was no different to those previous.

Beginning sixteen minutes later than scheduled on March 22nd, members were first asked to vote on new standing orders which were intended to ensure that things were run in a more efficient manner following fractious sittings earlier in the year.

The standing orders, which were ultimately passed, outlined how to speak, how long to speak for, and explained the meanings of procedural motions.

The issue of the Irish language needing twice as much time to be spoken upon allowing translation was brought up. It was stated then that this would be amended for the next council, and that council would be lenient at this sitting.

It soon became clear that standing orders made proceedings a lot trickier than in previous sittings, as Zoom chat functions were disabled and students could not unmute themselves.

Students were not informed of these changes prior to the sitting.

These changes were accompanied by alterations to the voting system, and class reps used YourSpace to cast their ballots with voting links circulated prior to the proposal of each motion.

The last motion brought forward of the evening was ultimately the most controversial.

Final-Year Class-Rep for Engineering, Conall McCallig proposed a motion entitled “Opposing fascism, Far-Right Extremism, and all Forms of Discrimination”, composed by himself and a cohort of around forty students.

The motion was accompanied by much debate and confusion, ultimately leading to numerous votes of no confidence in the chair and the chairs’ decisions.

None of these votes of no confidence were passed.

Council members spoke passionately both in for and against McCallig’s motion.

Speaking against the motion, Niall McGowan said that although he is not affiliated with any of the organisations mentioned in the motion, it failed to describe fascism and far-right extremism.

He also said that while he does not believe that the motion is a threat to freedom of speech, it is a threat to democracy.

Niall also commented on how he felt that it was inappropriate that People Before Profit were pushing their political agenda on the Union before proposing that the question be put at another time by way of proposing a 9B motion.

Welfare and Equality Officer, Róisín Nic Lochlainn spoke against this proposed 9B stating that the motion is not a People before Profit motion, but rather a motion brought forward by members of the Comhairle.

Adam Mullins spoke in favour of the 9B, who claimed that that while he agreed with the motion, he felt as though it was aimed and targeting, reiterating McGowan’s points.

The 9B motion then fell after being voted on via Zoom polls, where non-class reps could have voted.

Council then, continuing debate, let two speakers against the motion talk in a row.

One speaker, Wesley Wilders, stated that the motion was discrimination via discrimination.

It was then brought to Council’s attention that speakers had consistently been against the motion, and Council amended this issue by allowing two speakers in favour to speak.

Amendments were proposed to the motion via a 9C by Second-Year Engineering student Joe Mee, which saw the motion split into separate parts.

After confusion surrounding the purpose and function of a 9C motion, the Managing Director of the Students’ Union intervened.

The 9C was voted on a total of three times, with only the final vote counting.

After the second 9C motion was called, Rian Ó Donnchú called procedural motion 9E – challenging the chairpersons’ ruling – because Council called the vote on the 9C before the vote was done, which he argued seemed undemocratic. Ó Donnchú asked for a vote of no confidence in the chair for the duration of the meeting, alleging that the vote was taking place when people were still deciding and voting. He argued that this could influence the way in which members voted making the procedure less democratic.

It was then realised that Ó Donnchú had

This motion was passed with 88% in favour.

Sai Gujulla brought forward the next motion which was to mandate for better co-ordination of lectures and deadlines, so that students don’t need worry about overlapping deadlines.

The motion required the Union to campaign for lecturers as well as co-ordinate and discuss deadlines among each other to prevent overlapping and stress. The motion was passed with a 78% majority.

Joe Mee was next to propose a motion, this time regarding the release of provisional grades.

The motion mandated that the Students’ Union ensure that results be released by the provisional deadline and that the Students’ Union should lobby for official results to become available during the early part of the second semester in future.

Erin Mac an tSaoir, Oifigeach na Gaeilge, spoke to highlight the work that Education Officer Emma Sweeney has done on the issue, noting that it is slightly outside her remit.

Joe Mee called a 9C almost immediately after the debate commenced and had a PDF document ready with each part to be removed clearly outlined.

He stated that extremism is bad on both left and right sides of the political spectrum, and that the organisation list set a bad precedent of blocking a group outright, without looking into their point at a given time.

Therefore, he asked for the motion to be split into parts including all mentions of the far right, right wing, and the organisation list, asking members to vote to remove these parts of the motion.

After Cian Mortimer spoke against the 9C which was subsequently passed and debate on the motion continued.

Many points mentioned at the last council were reiterated with many passionate arguments being made on both sides.

These arguments went from authoritarianism to campus not being safe for some students.

Final-Year Class-Rep for Engineering, Conall McCallig proposed a motion entitled “Opposing fascism, Far-Right Extremism, and all Forms of Discrimination”, composed by himself and a cohort of around forty students. The motion was accompanied by much debate and confusion, ultimately leading to numerous votes of no confidence in the chair and the chairs’ decisions. intended to call a procedural motion 9F instead, a vote of no confidence in the chair.

Education Officer, Emma Sweeney, became acting Council Chair until voting was completed.

The motion was defeated with a 54% majority.

Upon returning to his position as chair, Council asked for all voting to be moved to polling website SurveyMonkey and sent out to links exclusively to class reps to ensure democracy.

It was here when numerous 9F’s were proposed and discourse began among students, before Council Chairperson Fionn Sexton-Connolly said, “this is a farce, and I am not entertaining it anymore. If there is a call on my decision, we will vote on it. If there is a call on my bias and non-bias, we will vote on it.

But currently there is a vote to be had on the 9C”.

After this, the 9C was explained and voted on and passed by a 65% margin, McCallig’s motion was then split up into eight parts, with section voted on individually.

The subsequent 9F and 9E procedural motions then fell, before Education Officer Emma Sweeney called procedural motion 9D, that the matter be referred back, and shelved until the next possible Comhairle.

This subsequently passed.

Seven other motions were also put forward at the sitting.

The first motion tabled was a motion regarding the Irish language in NUI Galway, proposed by Reece McArdle and Anna Ní Nualláin.

The motion noted that as Ireland’s only bilingual university, NUI Galway should provide all students in all colleges with access to Irish courses, instead of just three colleges.

Numerous attendees voting links would not work, however the motion was passed with an 87% majority.

The second motion was proposed by Niamh Lynch, who proposed a motion that the constitution of the Students’ Union be changed from binary pronouns to gender neutral pronouns. The motion proposed that Council mandates a change throughout the constitution.

Sweeney further noted that although she sees the importance and value of the motion, mandating the Union to do this does not mandate the University.

Two students spoke against the motion, while two other students spoke for the motion.

Welfare and Equality Officer Róisín Nic Lochlainn further stated that this issue has been raised with staff and that it was being worked on.

Upon voting, 80% were found to be in favour, and the motion passed.

Oifigeach na Gaeilge Erin Mac an tSaoir brought forward the next two motions, one being that the video editing service of the union be changed to a bilingual company with bilingual subtitles provided, and the other being that the Union’s Irish Language Committee be made a standing committee of the Union.

Barry Sugrue, Societies chairperson, spoke for the first motion.

Both were passed with a majority of 87% and 80% respectively.

Mac an tSaoir proposed the seventh motion of the night, stating that the Union’s name be changed to the Irish versions on the email addresses.

This was brought to 9B, that the question not be put.

The 9B was passed with 77% in favour.

Mac an tSaoir further proposed a motion stating that the pronouns on Union business cards be changed from English to both English and Irish.

This was passed with 85% of members in favour.

Conall McCallig then proposed a motion mandating the union to support the establishment of a publicly funded education committee being set up.

The motion fell with 60% voting against.

After the proceedings on March 22nd, Students’ Union President Pádraic Toomey called for a special Comhairle to take place on Wednesday 31st March, beginning with McCallig’s anti-fascism motion.

McCallig began his speech by saying that the motion is not a People before Profit motion and that a platform is a privilege.

Adam Mullins further mentioned that the motion fails to give any mentioned groups due process.

Orlaith McCabe said that in not passing the motion, the Union would be putting people of the LGBT+ community on equal footing with those who do not like them.

Saoirse Connolly also spoke against the motion saying it was biased as it only included far-right extremism, and questioned the definition of free speech asking if it is “actually inciting violence or is it something that you don’t like?”

Eve Regan spoke for the motion saying that healthy discourse is what students want rather than hateful discourse.

Another student further mentioned that Ireland’s revolutionary historical figures would have supported the motion.

Students’ Union President Pádraic Toomey called a 9A, for the question to be put immediately.

His motion was subsequently passed.

In his summation, Conall McCallig said that “we need to check our privilege”.

Furthermore, he said; “a platform is not a privilege, a platform is us giving space to these organisations to speak. We shouldn’t be giving these organisations a platform to speak if they are going to spread hate against our members”.

He also mentioned the paradox of intolerance, saying that if we do not oppose intolerance then intolerance will destroy tolerance and there will be no tolerance left.

The amended motion eventually passed with a 64% majority after students voted to remove the terms “far-right” and “right wing”, along with the list of organisations.

Two constitutional changes were then briefly discussed, one being the implementation of an Environmental and Sustainability Officer, and the other being to appoint an External Council Chairperson.

Both of these changes were passed upon voting.

NUACHT

April 06 2021

7

Landmark multi-purpose cultural venue a focal point of NUI Galway’s proposed Innovation and Creativity District

By Ellen O’Donoghue NUI Galway and Galway City Council have welcomed an announcement by the Government of €4.3 million in funding for the Innovation and Creativity District in Galway.

The development of Nuns’ Island and Earl’s Island as the focal point of an Innovation and Creativity District is at the heart of Galway’s plan to connect all of the resources that give Galway its vast potential.

The Innovation and Creativity District plans to incorporate a riverside campus as part of the urban regeneration of Galway City, along with a landmark cultural and performance space.

This also comes as an acknowledgement of the University’s role as a national cultural institution and its contribution to Galway as a Capital of Culture.

The transformative plan includes a performance space to enrich the artistic life of the city and unleash the creativity of cultural engagement, a new innovation hub and riverside campus to regenerate this part of Galway and strengthen the linkages between business, research and a living city.

Furthermore, there will be an enhanced public realm for everyone who lives in or visits the city, and an expansion of the Galway to Connemara Greenway through the city and the University cam-

pus, to Moycullen, Oughterard and onto Clifden.

The Innovation and Creativity district development with consist of two distinct areas – Northern and Southern – each offering a distinct experience, atmosphere and sense of place.

The Northern area will have an academic building, to reinforce NUI Galway’s role and contribution to the city and region, a multi-purpose cultural venue, and a hotel connected to the University both physically and in terms of planned usage and integration with teaching.

The planned area will be within a sustainable public realm to support engagement with the waterways and the natural landscapes of the urban environment Galway holds.

The Southern area will have two key zones of activity.

Zone One will have a residential Waterways Village, addressing the need for more housing.

Zone Two, the redeveloped Mills, is to be the location for the Innovation centre, City Lab, NUI Galway’s Adult Education Centre, outreach and showcase venues for inspiring creativity and community engagement, alongside a host of new social spaces.

Speaking about the plans for the proposed district, President of NUI Galway, Professor Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh thanked the council and described the move as a “major step forward”;

Building Boxes and Building Bridges: Occupational Therapy students help the vulnerable with parcel campaign Paddy Henry Occupational Therapy students in NUI Galway have developed a novel initiative aimed at supporting people in high-risk categories during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Build-a-Box campaign sees students send parcels to those in vulnerable groups to help ease the sense of isolation that the pandemic has brought about among those most at risk from the potential effects to the virus.

The campaign is being run in partnership with COPE Galway, Galway City Partnership and a local primary school and was brought to life by third-year undergraduates in the service-learning module Community Engagement, Around 100 boxes filled with items to reduce the negative effects of confinement are being delivered to older adults living alone, women in Direct Provision, homeless women and children with additional needs and in lower socio-economic groups.

Commenting on the initiative, President of NUI Galway Professor Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh commended the Occupational Therapy students for their efforts and engagement with the wider community; “In the context of ongoing clinic​al and academic demands, we commend our occupational therapy students for helping to reduce the impact of Covid19 on some of the most vulnerable people in our society. Initiatives such as the Build-a-Box campaign emulate NUI Galway’s vision and values of openness and respect, of our students and staff as citizens connected to and contributing to community and society in Ireland and internationally for the public good.”

Dr Sinéad Hynes, lecturer in Occupational Therapy in NUI Galway’s College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences praised the Occupational Therapy students for taking ownership of the initiative: “Loneliness and isolation are significant issues for many people, particularly older people, and this has been further exacerbated by the pandemic.”, she said.

“The students have taken ownership of this

project and partnered with community organisations, which is especially difficult when working remotely. It is our hope that the Build-a-Box campaign might be one way in which we can support those in our society who may be more severely impacted by the restrictions.” added Dr Hynes.

Occupational Therapy student Maria Stapleton, from Loughrea, said that the project helped give those taking part a different perspective on the impact that the pandemic is having on the more vulnerable sections of society: “It was really interesting to learn about the impact of the pandemic on different vulnerable groups, and working with the community partners gave us a different perspective on the effect it has had.”, she said.

Fellow student Lorraine Moloney, from Corrandulla, added: “The Build-a-Box campaign was a rewarding and challenging experience. It gave me a better understanding of the effects of the pandemic on vulnerable groups, while providing our class with an opportunity to address these issues and make a difference in their lives.”

The Build-a-Box project is supported by funding from the Community Knowledge Initiative, NUI Galway, with the boxes provided by Carabay Packaging.

NUI Galway lecturers Dr Sinéad Hynes (far left) and Dr Hazel Killeen (far right) with students (L-R on steps) Eilísh Ní Chiobháin, Dearbhla Forkan, Jack Sayers, Jason Mulhern and Megan Farrell at Build-a-Box launch.

“I would like to thank Galway City Council, the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, and all of the stakeholders who have approved this application, a milestone in supporting this vital project in and for Galway.

This represents a major step forward in the planning phase of this new Innovation and Creativity District. It supports the creation of a City Lab and landmark multi-purpose cultural and performance space that will be transformative for Galway and the wider region, both to live and work in.

“NUI Galway is committed to the public good and this development very much speaks to this ethos and to our core values of Openness, Respect, Sustainability and Excellence. With these values as our guide, the plan for Nuns’ Island which this funding supports will continue to be developed following consultation with our local community,” he continued, “Following this funding announcement we look forward to further engaging with our

community to deliver the best possible project of our region, for our world”.

NUI Galway and Galway City Council plan to engage fully with all stakeholders.

An initial public consultation has already taken place and further consultations with stakeholders will continue throughout the process.

Brendan McGrath, Chief Executive of Galway City Council, spoke of his gratitude to those who have worked on the project, describing it as a “fantastic outcome” for Galway City; “I am very grateful to the fantastic team of people who collaborated and worked in such a committed way on this project. This is a fantastic outcome for Galway City Council and the City and this scheme will be truly transformative for the city and the region. We look forward to working with NUI Galway and all stakeholders on plans to develop a world-class Innovation and Creativity District for Galway,”, he said.

Artist’s impressions of the Southern (right) and Northern (above) areas of the Innovation and Creativity District in Galway. Image: NUI Galway

Insight SFI Research Centre at NUI Galway partners with Avaya for next generation Artificial Intelligence development

By Paris Ediagbonya The Insight SFI Research Centre for Data Analytics has launched a collaboration with US based technology and communications company Avaya in a research initiative which aims to develop and test new Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Insight SFI Research Centre specialises in research in data analytics to facilitate better decision making for the benefit of industry and society.

The development of this AI technology is aimed at improving communication with customers through AI, with increased levels of sophistication, for the purposes of improving customer experience solutions.

It will ultimately aid Avaya in implementing more intelligent and efficient AI capabilities in its communications and collaboration solutions, which will help measure the impact of their customer experience in order to improve general functionality.

Explaining the agenda and benefits of this research, Mike Conroy, Vice-President of Research and Development at Avaya, said; “Our plan in partnering with Insight, one of the largest dedicated Analytics & AI Research centres in Europe, is to develop next generation customer experience through better real-time insights and context powered by new AI methods.

“By partnering in this project with Insight at NUI Galway, we can help our customers and help them realise even greater levels of augmented AI experience across seamlessly blended automated and assisted customer engagement channels.”

The research programme will investigate the development and implementation of new types of machine learning AI, which functions include problem solving through learned experiences.

It is hoped that this next generation of AI will conduct more advanced automation and data mining (processing data into useful information) in contact centre applications.

Professor Mathieu d’Aquin, Site Director for Insight and Principal Investigator in this research, stated; “hundreds of millions of people around the world are consumers of ever-improving AI, developed in the hope of making their experiences better while simultaneously improving business efficiency.

Essentially the research we will conduct and systems we will test, thanks to the partnership with Avaya, is all part of making those improvements.”

Embracing this new partnership, Professor Mark Ferguson, Science Foundation Ireland Director General and Chief Scientific Adviser to the Irish Government said; “Insight SFI Research Centre for data analytics is part of the world-leading SFI Research Centre network which develops industry partnerships and promotes collaborative research with Irish academic institutions, stimulating valuable knowledge exchange.

This elevates Ireland’s international reputation for research excellence with impact while developing a competitive edge in emerging technologies with real-world business applications. We look forward to the opportunities that this collaboration will create.”

8 F E AT U R E S

SIN Vol. 22 Issue 11

Despite losing her hearing last year, Niamh McGrath has not let it hold her back. She talks to SIN about the trials and tribulations of life as a deaf person in a hearing world and her hope for a more inclusive future.

Silence is Deafening I can’t count how many times I have been asked something and I explain that I am deaf and if they could write it down, but no. They turn to the person I am with and expect them to answer for me, because it is easier for them. I haven’t suddenly turned invisible just because I no longer have hearing.

Niamh McGrath There is a common phrase that says “Silence is Deafening”. I never really understood what it truly meant until I lost my hearing on July 31st 2020. I lost my hearing due my neurological disorder, Functional Neurological Disorder (FND). My world went from hearing to silence over the course of four weeks. I thought I was going to go crazy.

They say sensory deprivation is a common form of torture and I can understand why. To have something so vital to your being snatched away from you, is more painful than you can ever know.

I lost everything I knew. Voices of people, music, basic sounds like footsteps or a doorbell or your phone ringing all gone in an instant. I had to find a new way of life.

The simplest things like going to the shop and buying food changed. When prices on tills weren’t facing me as the total was being added up, the panic would set in on how I would know how much I was to pay because I wouldn’t understand what the cashier would say behind their mask.

As time has gone on, the hardest thing is forgetting how people sound.

Forgetting how my parents sound, my brother, my friends. That has been the most devastating part.

In these types of situations, you can either sit and wonder why me? Or you can try adapt to these new circumstances you’ve been given. So that is exactly what I did.

I started a sign language course to learn how to speak a language that I was now going to rely on for people talking to me when I wasn’t able to lip read.

I got in contact with Chime, a charity for deafness, where I received equipment that would let me know when someone is at the door, a new alarm clock to vibrate to wake me and a fire alarm that would alert me if the situation arose.

The hardest part of my journey so far has been other people. The inaccessibility for Deaf people is shameful. If hearing people were denied being spoken to because it was easier to talk to the person next to them or for services to be taken away because you weren’t able to make a phone call, there would be uproar.

I can’t count how many times I have been asked something and I explain that I am deaf and if they could write it down, but no. They turn to the person I am with and expect them to answer for me, because it is easier for them. I haven’t suddenly turned invisible just because I no longer have hearing.

I can’t explain how frustrating it is when people call me and I explain that I am deaf and that I need an email address

or text line because I can’t hear over the phone. They just hang up or explain that they don’t have services like that.

The fact that I am expected to bring someone with me at all times to everywhere I go to speed things up to your side because you won’t write it down is wrong!

This is just the tip of the iceberg.

Inaccessibility should never be a reason

people with disabilities should not do things. But the fact of the matter is that they do. They don’t leave their homes.

They don’t talk to a wide range of people or try new things because of the fear of how they might “inconvenience” someone else.

This fear should not exist in 2021. For any disability of any kind. Inclusivity needs to start, and it needs to start today.

Supports and Services Available to You: The Galway Rape Crisis Centre

By Niamh Casey The conversation surrounding sexual harassment and violence against women has been steadily gaining traction since the beginning of lockdown last year. Headlines in relation to some form of brutality against women has gradually become a weekly occurrence and it is finally starting to be recognised as a serious issue. Over the past few weeks, the topic has been the subject of much attention due to the recent study by UN Women UK, where they released figures saying that 97% of women, aged between 18 and 24 yearsold, relay that they have been sexually harassed. A further 96% say they did not report it as they did not think anything would come from doing so. The report was released just a week after the murder of Sarah Everand, a story that resonated with so many women all over the world.

It is no wonder that the two news reports became intertwined, leading to a worldwide call to move towards bringing an end to sexual violence once and for all.

The recent media attention is being used to bring awareness to the broad range of services and supports that are available for those affected by crimes of sexual violence or harassment. The most recognised support service available in the Galway area is the Galway Rape Crisis Centre (GRCC).

Founded in 1984 the centre was set up by a group of women who were concerned about the lack of services for survivors of sexual abuse. By 2001 the centre had expanded its services to include male survivors. Since then, it has grown to become the largest rape crisis centre outside Dublin, with outreach branches in Ballinasloe, Gort, Oughterard and Tuam. The Students’ Union at NUI Galway has worked with the Galway Rape Crisis Centre in the past and continues to do so, with the centre being one of the selected charities that benefit from its fundraising events. The union, in partnership with the GRCC, regularly offers students the chance to attend consent workshops as well as disclosure train-

ing, where attendees examine attitudes, values and beliefs surrounding sexual violence and practice scenarios involving a disclosure of sexual violence.

These are just the services offered through the college, but there are many more that the centre provides. Susan Costello, Fundraising & Communications Manager for the Galway Rape Crisis Centre said, “The biggest part of our service is the provision of counselling and therapy for survivors of sexual violence and abuse.”

The GRCC offers confidential one-onone counselling for survivors as well as their supporters, or anyone else affected by sexual violence and harassment. “The first contact a survivor will make with us is generally through our telephone helpline [1800 355 355]. When survivors contact GRCC they are offered an initial support and assessment meeting. During this first meeting, the client’s current situation is assessed, they are informed about what means of support is available to them including from our service”.

The centre also offers an adolescent clinic specifically for people under the age of 24; “The Adolescent Clinic provides a different support model for young people (14-24) who contact us.

Through the clinic we are able to provide young people with support in a more timely manner, with counsellors who have experience of working with young people.”

The counselling service at GRCC is aimed towards providing a professional, caring and confidential place for victims to share their experiences and heal from them; “Through this counselling, the centre offers support to survivors and affords them the opportunity to be heard and have their experience validated.

Through this work they are enabled to make positive changes in their lives”.

The centre also offers services, such as the Sexual Assault Treatment Unit (SATU), which provides specialist care for females and males age 14 years and over who have been recently sexually assaulted or raped. The Unit supports

clients with information on medical issues and/or accompany them to GPs for a check-up free of charge, which can be vital after a recent assault/rape. “Our Psychological Support workers (PSW)’s provide 24/7 psychological support and advocacy within the Galway SATU. All our PSWs receive specialist training and the team is led by our Psychological Support Team Manager”.

The Galway Rape Crisis Centre is constantly striding towards a future where the cultural and societal tolerance of sexual violence no longer exists.

“GRCC’s goal is to continue to expand our education service thereby helping to prevent future crimes of rape and sexual abuse. A key tool in achieving this goal is through engagement in meaningful and open debate about this very complex and difficult subject, dispelling rape myths and ending victim blaming”.

If you or someone you know wish to contact with the Galway Rape Crisis Centre, call the HELPLINE at 1800 355 355.

GNÉ -ALTANNA

April 06 2021

9

Satire or sexism? Caricature of Mary Covid-19 Lou McDonald sparks controversy Column

By Ellen O’Regan

Readers of the Sunday Independent were recently treated to a charming caricature of Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald, stirring up “frenzy” in her magic cauldron, complete with black cat and crooked witch’s hat.

While there’s nothing particularly unusual about politicians being the butt of satirical doodles, portrayal of McDonald as a witch was condemned as “deeply sexist” by the National Women’s Council of Ireland, and raised concerns amongst many about gendered tropes and unfair attacks on women in politics.

Mary Lou McDonald joins a long list of female politicians, including former Tánaiste Joan Burton, US Presidential candidate Hilary Clinton and former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, to be branded as a witch.

Disappointingly, I’m sure, for those accusing female politicians of witchcraft, we no longer live in the good old days where troublesome women can be burned at the stake.

However, perpetuating the stereotype of women in politics as cackling hags intent on wreaking irrational, man-hating havoc does serve the purpose of turning women off getting involved in politics altogether.

It is easy to shrug off caricatures like this as not having any real impact, especially when Mary Lou McDonald herself seems unphased, confidently tweeting “We are the granddaughters of the witches you could not burn – Deal with it #womenpower”.

What we don’t see is the number of women deflated by yet another female politician having

to stand up to sexist abuse, and making the mental note to never go asking for trouble by getting involved in politics.

In a lot of ways, there is no better time in human history than right now to be a woman. Often it can be difficult to prove that sexism does still persist, as it lives in more intangible ways than oppressive laws or open discrimination. Politics, however, is one area of our society that remains blatantly and quantifiably imbalanced.

Only four countries in the world have 50% or more women in parliament (credit where it’s due to Rwanda, Cuba, Bolivia, and the United Arab Emirates). According to the UN, gender equality across the globe won’t be reached for another 130 years.

Ireland is ranked 101st globally in terms of female representation in parliament. We’ve inched up from 1% female representation in the Dáil in 1918 to an underwhelming 22.5% in 2020. Only 22 women have ever served as senior cabinet ministers, and we’re still waiting on the first female Taoiseach. If you tried to fill the Dáil with every female TD ever elected since formation of the State over 100 years ago, you’d still have 10 spare seats.

While the figures are dismal, there are some hopeful steps being taken to remove barriers for women trying to enter politics. The introduction of gender quotas in 2012, requiring at least 30% of candidates out forward by political parties to be female, led to a 90% increase in the number of women running in the 2016 elections. The quota is to be increased to 40% in 2024. Additionally,

By Éanna Johnston

Helen McEntee will become the first Minister to take maternity leave next month, with work underway to make parental leave a permanent benefit of Ministerial positions.

But all the maternity leave and gender quotas in the world won’t be enough if women are intimidated from participating in politics in the first place.

Sure, there’s a place for caricatures and satire, but when the same tired old tropes are wheeled out again and again, you have to ask whether it’s good humoured slagging, or serving to dehumanise, discourage, and diminish the few women who do brave the world of politics.

We are very much still in the age of breaking through glass ceilings, working twice as hard for half the recognition, and striving to embody for younger generations the role model they never had for themselves. That’s a tough enough job for anyone to take on, without being dragged in the weekend papers as a wicked, wart-nosed villain.

The Paddy Holohan controversy explained

By Tom Molloy.

Paddy Holohan announced recently that he would not be renewing his membership of Sinn Féin and will now sit as an independent councillor for South Dublin. This article looks back on the background of the Holohan controversies from when they first broke over a year ago.

Four weeks before the General Election of 2020, thenSinn Féin councillor and former MMA competitor with the UFC, Paddy Holohan came under fire for remarks he made on his “No Shame” podcast. On this particular episode of “No Shame”, Holohan was discussing the decision by Fine Gael to commemorate the infamous Black and Tans. The Black and Tans were reinforcements to the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) deployed to Ireland during the War of Independence. The “Tans” developed a reputation for police brutality including the administration of extrajudicial punishments such as murder. It is, therefore, no surprise that Fine Gael’s intention to commemorate them was met by the majority of Irish people with all kinds of emotions ranging from bewilderment to outright abhorrence.

It was Holohan’s personal comments towards Fine Gael leader and then-Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, during this discussion, however, that sparked controversy.

Holohan stated that he believed “a family man with children” would be best equipped to run the country. His comments about Varadkar were not limited to that, though. On a previous episode of the same podcast, the now-independent councillor said of Mr. Varadkar, “Leo Varadkar’s blood obviously runs to India. His great-grandfather is not part of the history of this country”. He went on, “’[Varadkar’s] an Irish citizen but his passion doesn’t go back to the times when our passion goes back to.”

Holohan’s comments about the Fine Gael leader were widely criticised on social media at the time, with many believing that his views would be more at home amongst people of a right-wing persuasion. They were clearly at odds with Sinn Féin’s pro-immigration views. Following Gerry Adams’ call for Holohan to “correct” himself “if he misspoke”. Holohan then took to Twitter, “Firstly, I would like to apologise as my comments may have offended people as I of course did not intend to do so.” Sinn Féin leader, Mary Lou McDonald said her party had insisted on an apology and “[Holohan] has apologised”. McDonald stopped short of seeking a suspension of Holohan’s party membership.

Mary Lou McDonald, however, moved to disciplinary action and suspension days later when further comments made by Holohan on his podcast were unearthed.

This time, underage girls were the target of his comments. In response to a guest on his podcast suggesting that some women may seek female-only fitness classes because there are predators out there, Holohan said, “Now, saying that, I just want to stop you on that, there is some f****** scum women out there as well. And I just want to say to you, there’s a situation that I heard during the week... somebody was underage, the [other] person didn’t know they were underage, the girl pursued the guy. Got whatever she needed, had pictures, had videos, and then said, ‘I want 10 grand’”. He continued, “that wasn’t the first person, there was loads of them. What

is that kind of situation is that that’s going on in society now? I have two sons. It petrifies me, petrifies me that somebody could turn around and say I’m literally just going to say that you attacked me if you don’t give me 10 grand”. Holohan then switched his target to female victims of sexual violence and bemoaned the fact that men seemingly aren’t allowed to “joke” about sexual assault whereas women can.

No matter what way you look at that comment from Holohan, there is no doubt he was shifting the blame onto victims of statutory rape. These are comments that one would be more accustomed to seeing on the social media account of a member of the #notallmen brigade. A spokesperson for Sinn Féin then came out and said, ““These are not appropriate comments to make and are not the views of Sinn Féin.”

The dust had seemed to settle and Holohan served his five-month suspension. The following June, however, Holohan was nominated by his party colleagues to become a candidate for mayor of South Dublin.

Sinn Féin said it was “not aware” of such a move and their housing spokesman, Eoin Ó Broin, expressed his dissatisfaction with the move, “The judgement of councillors was very, very poor. It wasn’t the right choice.” Holohan ran but was not successful.

Just after Holohan offered his support for a hair salon-owner in Balbriggan who breached Covid-19 guidelines by unilaterally opening her shop, the news broke that Holohan would not be renewing his party membership citing complaints with the party’s investigation into him. He referred to his treatment by Sinn Féin as “highly unfair”.

A few questions need to be raised following this whole affair. Although Holohan believes he was railroaded, what punishment actually came his way? He still had the option to renew his membership of the party just like Mary Lou McDonald and Eoin Ó Broin have. Also, what can Sinn Féin and other political parties learn from this whole debacle?

Eat, work, sleep. This seems to be an all too familiar routine for most of us these days. To say cynicism has taken over our lives is an understatement. Headlines are filled with high case numbers, rumours of lockdown extensions, and tragic stories of the lives that have been impacted by this virus. Right now, this is the last thing we want to hear about in our day to day lives. I think it’s important we highlight the good that people have done during this troubled time for a change. From the small things we do for our neighbours, to efforts being done to help us all collectively.

Connecting with people has been pivotal in killing the monotony of our day-to-day routine as well as helping us at our lowest points. We’ve all relied on the support of friends and family to get us through this strenuous time. I know I’ve lit up at the sight of a Snapchat message or Twitter DM from friends whenever I’m having a particularly rough day. It’s important now more than ever that we remain in contact with those we care about most. Whether it be a simple text to a friend, or sending something in the post for them, it’s the small things that can brighten up our day.

Simple group chats on Twitter have brought people with similar interests together, as well as created some brandnew circles of friends that may not have met otherwise. For me, I’ve found a close group of friends where I’m able to vent my frustration, share my worries, or even just send a meme I found. We’re already planning on what we’ll do after this, and it gives us a much-needed feeling of hope.

The Students’ Union has been monumental in bringing us all together. From the weekly Hump Day Hoolies that bring together people from every corner of the University to have a laugh, to dozens of online workshops that can help us better ourselves. Their promotion of the 50808 line to help struggling students find comfort has been crucial to those who find themselves in a dark place with no one to turn to. With everyone having too much free time on their hands, the recent Hair Raiser charity campaign has taken advantage of this to do something good for those less fortunate than us. The Cara Connect programme has given isolated students a chance to have someone to talk to day to day. Personally, I’ve met some amazing people from these events that I’m proud to call friends.

This is perhaps the darkest moment that many of us will experience in our life.

However, it still amazes me a year on, the power that we have as a group to find the light in this darkness. We should be proud of the individual and collective effort we have made during the past year. Writing this article has given me optimism for the future ahead, and I hope you walk away feeling the same way. Some positivity is needed for a change.

Stitch

Bitch FUÁIL IS FUADAR

Join our knitting group for chats every Tuesday

Glac páirt inár ngrúpa cniotála agus comhrá gach Máirt

All crafters welcome!

Fáilte roimh gach cniotálaí!

More information from / Tuilleadh eolais ar fail ó studentsunion@nuigalway.ie @nuigsu

NUIGalwayStudentsUnion www.su.nuigalway.ie

GNÉ -ALTANNA

April 06 2021

Final Year Diary

By Tom Molloy.

Hey, everyone. Welcome to the eleventh and penultimate issue of my Final Year Diary column. I’d love to say I have lots of interesting incidents and anecdotes to relay but, unfortunately, I do not. I’ve been finding it difficult to muster the motivation to do these midterm assignments. It goes against human nature to be at peak mental capacity without the option of recreation. I owe a lot to Saoirse though, as always. I’d be fully insane by now if it weren’t for her cheery demeanour, witty observations, and spaghetti carbonara.

Those of you who are inclined to watch sport now and then will be aware of the crisis that has engulfed the Republic of Ireland national football team. Ireland are without a win in ten games under Stephen Kenny and have failed to score in eight of those. Let’s not sugar-coat the situation, Ireland lost a competitive football match to Luxembourg, a country famous for Jean-Claude Juncker and bringing pop music to culturally-oppressed Irish teens via pirate radio in the 1950s. Their victory against Ireland was only their sixth in the history of World Cup qualifying. Many, including Ireland legend Paul McGrath, have called for Kenny’s head but I still say give him time. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and Rome wasn’t left in tatters by John Delaney before Romulus and Remus came along.

When it comes to footballing philosophy, I am by no means a pragmatist. I endorse what Stephen Kenny is trying to do. Three at the back, attacking wingbacks,

short passing, heavy pressing. It’s all very sexy, but it’s futile without goals. Surely there’s somebody in this country who can score goals. I knew a lad who played for Tuam Celtic years ago. A wreck of a man. The type of fella who’d come home from a night out with a bag of cold chips and another lad’s pair of shoes but, holy St. Anthony, the man knew how to find the back of the net. An absolute peach of a left foot and fond of a free kick. The man loved three things: Harp lager, Mr. Brightside, and the Western Hygiene Supplies Galway & District Football League Division Two. I think he’s in Australia now. A loss to Irish football as much as he’s a loss to the craic. I bet he’d have no trouble poaching a goal against the mighty Luxembourg.

In one of the more exciting things to happen to me in the last two weeks, I got my car through the NCT so we’re good until next January. Can you believe the lad failed me because I had stylish number plates? Whatever happened to artistic expression? Imagine a car failing the NCT due to what were basically, as the rock bands say, “creative differences”. You better believe the jazzy plates are going back on ASAP. You can call me the George Harrison of the Eastway Business Park.

So that’s ye caught up in my adventures. I hope to have some more exciting news for my final edition.

Who knows? I could go for another walk. Either way, it’s going to be emotional. You’re on the home stretch now for this academic year and you’re doing great. Don’t forget to vote in the Students’ Union elections on April 22nd! Take care!

MOL NA MEÁIN: Caoimhe Nic Giollarnáith Le Eímear Nig Oireachtaigh Is í Caoimhe an chéad duine atá ag rá go bhfuil an iomarca á déanamh aici.

Is léachtóir í in Ollscoil Chathair Nua Eabhrac, agus bíonn sé ag múineadh in Ionad Ealaíon na hÉireann atá thall.

Chomh maith leis sin, bhí sí ar dhá choiste ag am éigin, agus dul amach go hócáidí beagnach gach oíche. Saol an duine óig i Nua Eabhrac – an bhrionglóid! Ach stop sé sin go léir nuair a thit an phaindéim amach. Anois, tá gach rud ar líne, agus tá an deis aici sos a thógáil (anois is arís!).

Nuair a chuirim ceist uirthi faoi, faighim léargas ar an saol i Nua Eabhrac. Dar léi, bíonn gach uile dhuine i Nua Eabhrac ag oibriú go dian, agus tá dhá phost ag go leor duine thall ann. Cé go bhfuil sí sásta leis an saol sin, luann sí nach bhfuil sé do gach duine, agus beidh ort áit éigin eile a phiocadh mura bhfuil tú ag iarraidh an cineál saoil sin.

Bíonn sí ag múineadh litríocht agus gearrscéalta san ollscoil, le tosaitheoirí sa teanga. Cheap mé go raibh an difríocht idir an tír seo agus Meiriceá chomh suimiúil nuair a bhí mé ag múineadh daltaí ó Mheiriceá, agus dúirt sí go díreach an rud céanna. Tá meon go hiomláin difriúil acu nuair a thagann sé chuig an nGaeilge, tá siad i bhfad níos dearfaí. Ní mhothaíonn siad an brú céanna is a mothaíonn daoine sa tír seo, toisc nach bhfuil an teanga bhainteach leis an náisiúnachas atá

acu, ach lena bhfréamhacha in Éirinn.

Gach seans go dtéann na fréamhacha sin ar ais go dtí an naoú haois déag, agus mar sin ní mhothaíonn siad go bhfuil an ‘locht’ orthu nach bhfuil an teanga acu.

Déanann sé sin post an mhúinteora i bhfad níos éasca, toisc nach bhfuil ort dul i ngleic leis na réamhchlaontaí atá acu, agus tú ag múineadh.

Tá Caoimhe ag baint an-taitneamh as a saol i Nua Eabhrac, gan dabht. Ach ní féidir leat labhairt faoi Nua Eabhrac gan labhairt faoin gcostas. Is é an costas an fáth go mbíonn a cairde ag bogadh ar ais go hÉirinn nuair atá páistí acu, toisc nach bhfuil an t-airgead acu (nó ag mórán daoine i ndáiríre!) páiste a thógáil thall. Luaigh Caoimhe go gcosnaíonn sé $60,000 do bhliain amháin i scoil phríobháideach i Nua Eabhrac. Ar ndóigh, níl ort é sin a íoc, ar ndóigh, agus tá na scoileanna poiblí iontach maith ann freisin. Ach céard faoin bpáiste a thabhairt ar an saol sa chéad dul síos? $20,000. Gan trácht ar an gcostas atá ag árachas sláinte. Leis sin ina hintinn, tá Caoimhe ag smaoineamh faoi bhogadh ar ais go hÉirinn taobh istigh de deich mbliana, ach ceapaim féin go ndéanfainn an rud céanna!

Má tá tú ag iarraidh éisteacht le Caoimhe ag labhairt faoina post, rinne sí agallamh an-suimiúil ar ‘Bladhaire’ i 2019. Níl ort ach a hainm a cuardach ar shuíomh Raidió na Gaeltachta chun í a aimsiú: Caoimhe Nic Giollarnáith.

11

First Year Diary

By Aine Fogarty Hello everyone and welcome back to another diary entry! I hope you’re all doing well. We’re nearly halfway through this semester and slowly getting closer to summer. Easter break is on the horizon too and I won’t deny I am quite excited for that mini break.

Why am I excited for Easter break? Well obviously, because it’s a few days off and I have the excuse to munch on chocolate but mostly because I feel very burnt out. My procrastination levels are at an all-time high and it seems like every time I get one assignment or lecture done another five pile up on top of that. Sleep has eluded me too and I spend most nights awake and unable to sleep. I don’t know if it’s just me feeling like this, but I suspect not.

I won’t enforce any more complaining on you this week and I’ll move onto a topic that I’m sure everyone has seen already.

The Six Nations Championship is my favourite sporting event of the year. I’ve always been a rugby fan and this year’s fight for the win didn’t disappoint. I’m writing this before the crunch match between France and Scotland has happened but you will know the outcome when reading this. I can imagine the tension during that match. The two matches that really stumped me were Ireland v England and France

v Wales. The French and Welsh match would have shocked us all for obvious reasons. That try France snuck in at the last minute has given them the chance to knock Wales from their firstplace reign. They’ll have to pile up the trys and secure a bonus point but it’s possible. It all lies on the deciding match which I’ll give you my thoughts on during the next diary entry.

The Ireland v England match is what really shocked me. Ireland have seemed to have a lack of drive this year and I expected the same to be seen against England, but I was very much wrong. Thank God! Ireland slammed into the English side time and time again with the help of England’s defense being quite poor. The English players were basically handing us penalties on a platter too. I had been prepared to witness another Irish loss, but once the first half had come to a close I had hope we could win, and we did.

It’s crazy to think I’ve been writing the firstyear diary for 6 months now. I remember in September when I was just starting and I was worrying about not having enough to talk about and struggling with ideas, but this turned out not to be a problem. Even though I’m spending the majority of my time at home, the abundance of topics never dries up. I hope you’re enjoying these entries and aren’t too sick of my complaining because I’ve a lot more ready to be written.

Brownies WE ALL LOVE

Simple Recipe Just For You!

INGREDIENTS:

185g Dark Chocolate 75% 185g Butter (Diced) 80g Plain Flour 50g Cocoa Powder

METHOD:

100g White Chocolate Chips 3 Large Eggs 225g Caster Sugar 50g Icing Sugar

1. Melt Dark Chocolate and Butter in a bowl over a pot of water (make sure the water doesn’t touch the bowl) 2. Whisk Caster Sugar, Icing Sugar and Eggs together until thick and creamy (best use an electric mixer) 3. Fold the cooled Chocolate mixture into the Egg mixture (do this gently, one third of the mixture at a time) 4. Sieve Flour and Cocoa into Chocolate Egg mixture (do this gently, one third of the mixture at a time) 5. Butter and flour a baking tin & line the bottom of the tin with baking parchment.

6. Pour in Brownie mix and sprinkle with white chocolate chips 7. Bake in a pre-heated oven @180°C for 25-30 minute

12 A RT S & E NT E RTAIN M EN T

SIN Vol. 22 Issue 11

Three painters worth knowing

By Niamh Cusack Artwork has been a vital part of culture and society since the dawn of humankind itself. Throughout all of history, from the earliest cave paintings to the modern-day abstract style, artistic expression has always been part of our way of life. Every country on every continent has a style unique to them and their traditions, as Beverly Sills said, “Art is the signature of civilisations”. Since art tradition has such a long and diverse history, it’s easy to understand how some artists might not have gotten the recognition they deserve, especially when they are among such well-known company. However, to forget their creative genius and talent would be a crime, so here are just three that through the ages have displayed skill and vision to be celebrated and remembered for.

The first painter is a woman by the name of Artemisia Gentileschi, a Baroque artist who was born in Rome in 1593. She specialised in oil paintings and, true to the period, is renowned for her use of deep colours and dramatic scenes portrayed in her work, like we see in her portrait titled SelfPortrait as the Allegory of Painting. Though she is now considered to be one of the greatest Baroque painters, it’s seldom that you see her name mentioned outside scholarly discussions. It is all too

common that female artists are excluded from school curriculums, which heavily feature their male counterparts. It is only after we dig a little deeper into art history that we discover spectacular painters, like Gentileschi, with talent that easily matches, if not outdoes, their male contemporaries. Artemisia experienced this struggle to be

acknowledged first-hand, and channelled the injustice she felt into her work. Her paintings depict scenes, often terrifying in nature, like the famous Judith Slaying Holofernes, which showcase the savage nature of the world she lived in. She was the victim of many attacks, physical and verbal, in her lifetime, and she turned those attacks, the darkest moments of her life, into art as revenge.

Another painter that is regularly overshadowed by other artists of her time is Katsushika Oi, born in Japan around 1800. She was the daughter of famous Japanese painter Hokusai, and they often collaborated on projects together. Even though they were never in competition with each other in their lifetimes, history can’t help compare them and their works, with Hokusai usually being the recipient of more praise and recognition. However, Hokusai himself said that in technical aspects of painting, Katsushika outshone him. If the word of one of the most influential Japanese artists of all time isn’t enough, one needs only to look at her eye-catching paintings to realise just how skilled Oi was. She is recognised by her use of traditional Japanese motifs and how she depicted them from her own point of view, just like in her Cherry Blossoms at Night painting. This unique viewpoint gives onlookers a more personal glimpse into moments in time captured through Katsushika’s eye. Her Display Room in Yoshiwara at Night is a great example of this. Her bold, block colouring is what makes her style so recognisable and really makes her stand out

against other painters of the time, making her talent definitely deserving of more global recognition.

The final painter takes us up to modern day, and his name is Kehinde Wiley. He made history in 2017 when he became the first Black artist to paint an official presidential portrait and was personally requested by Barack Obama himself. Kehinde is known for his style of portrait paintings, which is both realistic and otherworldly. He uses famous portraits as an outline but replaces the subjects with famous black figures, like in his Napoleon Leading the Army Over the Alps painting. All of his subjects are set to a variety of statement colourful backgrounds, like his Willem van Heythuysen painting set to a red and gold patterned background. In Barack Obama’s case, he was set to a lush green background which features the flowers of Chicago and Hawaii as well as African blue lilies, as a nod to the former President’s heritage. Heritage and identity are two things that resonate with Wiley and are huge inspirations for his works. Rococo, Islamic and African art are all contributing factors to his final vision. His paintings, like the other two artists, are the product of a strong sense of selfidentity, that when paired with skill and talent create distinctive works of art that are often more masterful than they are recognised for. It’s understandable that we might miss a few great painters in the grand scale of things, however these are just three that definitely should not be overlooked or have a blind eye turned to.

No more nights of “Normalcy”

By Caroline Spencer Oscar’s night is as good as its drama. The memorable stand out moments are rarely to do with the big winners (with the wonderful recent exception of Parasite sweeping the board last year). Fan outrage, wrong envelopes called out, awful name pronunciation; this is the stuff dreams are made of.

It’s these absurd moments that I adore. For all the pomp of the ceremony, human fallibility can still take over. But this year I don’t feel the same excitement. It has everything to do with the next event being staged live as a night of “normalcy”.

Referring to the upcoming situation as a “night of normalcy” is an insult to the very concept of normalcy. Most of the people attending are famous performers with absurd wealth and mansions to hide from the bitter reality of the pandemic. The 1 percent like to say that we are all in the same boat.

Really, their boat is a superyacht in tax free haven

Monaco. Most of us are on rinky-dink houseboats if we’re lucky.

“It’s a bit Marie Antoinette” I say to my sleep paralysis monster as I watch the well-heeled organisers and presenters exalt the awards. The disconnect between those who make the rules and those who suffer due to them grows wider. It’s a paradigm that we can see the world over.

Just about everything to do with Covid-19 safety measures point to systematic inequality. How does someone living in cramped accommodation isolate themselves? How does a person without private transport manage to go for a test? Safety measures are implemented by predominantly middle- and upper-class political representatives. For all their good intentions, they do not fully include the needs of people who exist outside of their social strata.

This may sound like a stretch, but the Oscars are taking a similarly misjudged view. The people who will attend the ceremony can afford to take the risk.

They have rapid testing, resources, and space. What rankles is the thought of the people who suffer for this risk. The people who will drive the beautiful people to the event, who will carry out the logistics of holding an internationally renowned ceremony in one of the most Covid-19 impacted cities in the world. Nothing about this situation is normal. To pretend otherwise speaks to a larger disconnect.

We all miss the cinema. Before this latest lockdown I watched Memories of Murder in the Pálás cinema. It was wonderful. I want to see so many films the same way, like Minari, Nomadland and Promising Young Woman. But I can’t. None of us can. That is because the things we used to treat as normal are no longer. Normal has ceased for some now. Are the organizers of the Oscars so cosseted in their own world not to know this?

There are a lot of aspects of this year’s awards to see positives in. Chloe Zhao may well sweep the big prizes for Nomadland, and she shares nominations

with two other female directors. (It’s depressing that in the year of Our Lord and Saviour Dolly Parton 2021 that this is news, but it IS big news).

Zoom awards are awkward and stilted but live versions of ceremonies like this feel off. Watching the recent Grammys, I was picturing the scores of people behind the scenes who may be wondering; “Is this a super-spreader event?”.

The concern wasn’t about who would win or perform, but who will suffer for this? That trumps any ‘drama’ or high-jinks of an award show. The past year has been dramatic enough.

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What is Bollywood?

By Aicco Sapi When you think “Bollywood” what do you see? A faraway land, a different language, a tragic love story? While all true, this is just the surface. Bollywood, a mash of Hollywood and Bombay (the colonial name for Mumbai, a city in India), is a riveting cultural expression through cinema. It’s the floating of beautiful, coloured saris, multiple intricate dances, and singing sequences. The tearjerking storylines tell tales of falling in love through speech and through sight. It is a perfect blend between fairy-tale and reality. This multibilliondollar industry produces anywhere between 150 to 200 films a year, much more than the big shots in Hollywood. Bollywood movies allow us to have a little taste of the rich Hindu culture and I can tell you once you give it a try you will not be disappointed.

Over the last couple of decades, Bollywood has gone through a number of changes. Once famous for melodramas, exaggerated scenes and regimented character tropes, filmmakers have moved towards more naturalistic storylines, while still keeping their authenticity. Don’t get me wrong several Bollywood classics are loved for their dramatics and extravagance. For instance, take Kabhi Kushi Khabie Gham. A story of forbidden love, it follows the life of the son of a stringent traditional man, Rahul, who returns home after years abroad and falls in love with Anjali, a girl who is far from his father’s liking. The movie is about choosing between love and family, and the severe consequences that result after. Another household classic is Kuch Kuch Hota Hai—a story of friendship, first loves, heartbreak and sacrifice. It revolves around Rahul and Anjali, who are childhood friends. Anjali, who has feelings for Rahul, chooses to forgo her emotional needs and watches Rahul and their other friend, Tina, get married. Now you might be asking why didn’t

Anjali just confess her feelings to Rahul, as they had been friends way before Tina came along? I can assure you it is worth watching to find out why exactly she chose to keep her feelings secret. This is one of my absolute all-time favourite movies.

Now if you are not into the numerous dance sequences or prolonged emotional journey or perhaps, you’re just into something more modern, then look no further than Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara. The movie is about three estranged childhood friends, Arjun, Kabir, and Imraan, who reunite for a bachelor party adventure, due to a pact they made years before. As they live out their adventure in Spain, we get to learn the complex lives of each character, why it is they lost contact with each other, and their troubled love lives. I watched this movie a total of three times, once with my entire family. It is funny, adventurous, and gives you a warm fuzzy feeling inside when you see their friendship evolve.

However, if you’re not in the mood for love triangles, and just want a movie about triumph and that inspires, look no further than Hichki. Trigger warning: this movie will make you an emotional mess. It is centred around a woman, Naina, whose lifelong dream is to become a teacher. That sounds fairly doable, right? Well, not when you have Tourette’s syndrome, and despite your qualification and enthusiasm, nobody wants to hire you. The movie touches on multiple social issues, such as exclusion due to disability, the rigged education system, poverty and gender norms. Overall, it encourages the viewer to live through the difficulties of being defined by external forces, rather than personal character.

What if you are not in the mood for complex relationships or difficult social topics, and just want something to laugh at? You are just in luck because Luka Chuppi is just the film for you. The movie is about a young couple, Rashmi & Vinod, who want

to try a live-in relationship before getting married.

The only issue is that Rashmi’s father is a traditional politician who is strongly against the new movement of live-in relations. The story unfolds as the couple moves to another town, fakes a marriage, then goes through several failed attempts to actually get married. It’s a story of mischief, challenging societal norms and forming new traditions.

These recommendations don’t even begin to uncover the rich expanse that is Bollywood. With more than 100 years worth of storytelling, there is something for everyone and then some. I personally keep coming back to Bollywood films because with every movie there is a sense of rising above the adversity and preserving the Hindu culture throughout time.

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CREATIVE CORNER Dreams

By Aidan Moloney I wonder what hides in the line between dreams and our waking consciousness What treasures or poisons exist only to have us ponder Over what we ourselves sketch onto the safe canvas of our eyelids, Washing us in our own ocean of pleasure Before erasure Before that which we sculpted through the witching hour Is reduced to something so distant So cruelly transparent But with an ethereal complexity even its creator cannot comprehend Read more of Aidan’s poetry on Instagram — @pursuit.of.poetry

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14 A RT S & E NT E RTAIN M EN T

SIN Vol. 22 Issue 11

French literature: three essentials

By Sophia Hadef French literature secretes incredible treasures.

Have you ever wondered which ones are the mustread books that you should tackle at least once in your life? They have frequently been among the best-selling books in history. Historical novels, paperback, fantasy novels, realistic novels, detective novels... The choice is extensive. Here are three books you should read to discover French literature.

First, Madame Bovary by Flaubert. You should know that more than a novel, Emma Bovary’s story has become a concept: bovarysme, which reflects a form of ambiguous maladjustment to reality.

One thing led to another. This great masterpiece of French literature has recently given its name to a tearoom/bookstore in Toulouse (if you ever think of a visit post-covid). It is a space where you can take refuge when reality becomes disappointing or heavy. Immerse yourself in the world of books and sweet flavours because there is a Madame Bovary hidden in each of us. Madame Bovary, a young woman who had built a romantic dream world for herself, tries to escape in a sort of vertigo - the boredom of her life, the mediocrity of her marriage.

When Flaubert published Madame Bovary in 1857, all the novel’s innovation lay in contrast between

such highly accomplished art and the painting of such a common universe. “It was no longer a novel like the greatest had done,” Maupassant (another great French writer) said: “It was life itself. One would have said that the characters stood before their eyes as they turned the pages. The landscapes unfolded with their sadness and joy, their smells, their charm, the objects also appeared before the reader as an invisible power invoked to them, hidden somewhere”.

Talking about Maupassant, he wrote Une Vie (A Woman’s Life) which is one of the best books I have ever read. Jeanne, the only daughter of Baron and Baroness Le Perthuis des Vauds, joined the family home after spending several years at the convent.

At the dawn of her new life, the young girl is impatient. All the enthusiasm, even Normandy’s rain, does not seem to be an obstacle to her happiness.

Installed in the house, she is delighted, and her meeting with Julien de Lamare brings about the climax of this happy period of her life. Quickly, she marries the young man, convinced that she had found the love she dreamed of in the convent.

Unfortunately, Julien will not be the loving and caring husband she has hoped for. The young Jeanne goes from disillusionment to disillusionment, living in latent boredom, a significant sickness that nothing comes to fill. “But now the sweet reality

of the first days was about to become the daily reality that closed the door to vague hopes, to the charming worries of the unknown. Yes, the wait was over. So nothing more to do today, tomorrow or ever.” This first novel by Maupassant is a remarkable painting of Normandy’s local customs in the 19thcentury. Maupassant denounces social laws and the hypocritical constraints they impose on women and the conditions linked to nature, weighing on every human being. If the novel is firmly pessimistic, it is carried by beautiful writing so intense that we forget the darkness to retain only the essence, the purity.

When the publishers Gallimard published L’étranger in 1942, Albert Camus was not yet thirty years old. Critics of the time welcomed this short novel, the first in the tetralogy “The Cycle of the Absurd”, half-heartedly and yet, seventy years later, this early work is by far the best-known Nobel Prize in literature. The narrator, Meursault, lives in Algiers, which in this first half of the 20th century is still the eponymous prefecture of a French department. Insensitive to the world around him, this uneventful man has a most atypical personality. The daily events, the things of life, don’t affect him and appear to glide over him like raindrops on a bird’s feathers. Stoic during his mother’s funeral, whose body he refuses to see, reconcil-

ing with his two neighbours of bearing with the primary behaviours, ready to marry his girlfriend Marie despite the fact that he does not really like her, Meursault takes life as it comes. Everything is useless to him, and nothing matters. After a horrific event, L’étranger suddenly plunges into the trap of absurdity. With a great humanist message, L’étranger is a classic of French literature and an absolute must read.

The Monsters lurking inside

By Rachel Garvey

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Stephen King is a name that is well known amongst readers, particularly amongst fans of the horror genre. In a recent interview with the BBC, Stephen King discussed how fearful fiction can be cathartic to us, to provide psychological relief through open expression of strong emotions.

I have to agree with this statement because I believe that reading fearful fiction is a productive way of showing our true hidden emotions that are frowned upon in the company of the public eye; emotions like anger and aggression and sadness.

We let loose our secret hidden monsters when we read about the world of fiction and its twists of supernatural and magic happenings. A personal favourite of mine from King’s collection is Needful Things and in second place is Pet Sematary.

Needful Things plunges us into a world of chaos in a small town called Castle Rock where the inhabitants are bursting with curiosity as a new face comes to town with a new store. To give a brief insight into why it holds the top place; it feeds our hunger for learning if evil truly exists, and we find deep satisfaction with how easy it is to manipulate a human into doing things they wouldn’t normally do. Things that would be considered criminal, but it’s easy to manipulate such people when they think they need something, when the case is that they think they need it. It’s rather complicated to explain, an equation that seems complicated, but when you take a step back and break it down then it eventually becomes clear, but it would be easier if you picked yourself up a copy and read it yourself!

Pet Sematary takes on a slightly different approach, but in keeping with the idea of the supernatural, this novel takes us on a journey of life, death and then reincarnation. In the book, the bodies of dead humans and animals are sent to the infamous Pet Sematary.

Those laid to rest at these spooky burial grounds possess the ability to return to earth in their same body form, but with one major alteration; their intentions are purely evil and often cause them to inflict harm upon others, with death being their true intent.

Part of me believes that there is a life after death, but reading this novel fed into my hidden belief that

reincarnation isn’t purely good, that some things are better left for dead. In that particular universe it is possible, and it brought me relief that the victim’s reincarnation brought out the monster that lurks inside of us all. Perhaps there are two of us stuck inside the one form and it takes death to bring out our evil side that was dying to get out.

In Stephen King’s interview he stated “We understand it’s not real with the monsters! A lot of people enjoy horror stories because it allows them to express their anxieties in ways that don’t have anything to do with the real world, it gives them a chance to experience emotions that are not allowed in a polite society like anger or fear or aggression and when you see it or read it, it allows us to test drive those emotions.

When you have something real, for example Coronavirus, they are real anxieties. A thing that really interests me is that a lot of books came out around that time that dealt with that particular issue. One by the name of End of October that deals with the pandemic that’s eerily like what we’re going through now”.

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15

Ceolchoirm i ré Covid-19 Na laethanta seo nuair atá mé sa líne do Dunnes, ligim orm féin go bhfuilim ag dul go Páirc an Chrócaigh agus go bhfuil na hoibrithe ag iarraidh a sheiceáil an bhfuil deoch mheisciúil i bhfolach i mo mhála. Faraor, níl siad ach ag iarraidh mo theocht a thogáil agus caithfear a admháil nach bhfuil an scleondar céanna ag baint leis.

Le Laine Moylan Fiú leis an vacsaín, is léir go bhfuil neart obair le déanamh ag an rialtas agus ag muintir na tíre chun smacht a chur ar an víreas agus earnáil na n-ealaíon a choinneáil beo. I mí Eanáir 2021, d’éirigh rudaí níos measa sa tír maidir le cásanna Covid-19 de agus bhí os cionn 8,000 cásanna againn gach lá. Leis na sócháin nua atá ag scaipeadh tríd an phobail, ní haon iontas é go bhfuil na hEalaíona ag streachailt arís. Tá neart obair agus sár-iarracht déanta ag an earnáil chun an cultúr a choinneáil beo, ach fós bíonn deacrachtaí ag baint leis na bealaí nua seo. Caitear neart airgead ar an trealamh cosanta pearsanta chun na hoibrithe a chosaint ón víreas. Is léir go mbeadh an t-airgead ag na comhlachtaí móra san earnáil ach bíonn orthu féin leithlisiú a dhéanamh nuair atá Covid19 ag an gcriú. Is dócha go bhfuil níos mó costais ag baint le seo arís. An bhfuil na healaíontóirí beaga in ann déileáil leis na costais seo?

Is minic a chuimhním siar ar na heachtraí éagsúla a thug mé cuairt orthu thar na blianta. Chuaigh mé chuig mo chéad cheolchoirm nuair a bhí mé cúig bliana d’aois, sea, sin a dúirt mé, cuig bliana d’aois! Ba é Bruce Springsteen a bhí ag casadh agus is léir nach bhfuil aon duine níos fearr ná “an boss”. Níl tú in ann cur síos a dhéanamh ar cheolchoirm, bhuel, go teicniúil b’fhéidir

go bhfuil, ach chun a bheith fírinneach, níl focal ar bith san fhoclóir a léiríonn an t-atmaisféar sin. Fós tá mé ábalta a bheith ann i m’intinn ach gan dabht, bheadh an fíor-rud níos fearr. Ach, chun ár gcroíthe a choinneáil slán, breathnóimid siar anois, chun a bheith ar ár suaimhneas sa tréimhse dhorcha seo.

Tosnaíonn sé leis an gciú lasmuigh de Zhivago nó sa bhaile ar an ríomhaire, agus tú ag déanamh athnuachaintí ar an suíomh idirlíon. Ansin tá na ticéid agat, agus tú ag comhaireamh na laethanta go dtí an lá, agus beidh ort d’éadaí a athrú cúig huaire roimhe. Bíonn snaidhm i mo bholg i gcónaí sula dtéann mé chuig an gceolchoirm agus mé ar bís - b’fhéidir go mbuailfidh mé leis an mbánna agus go rachaimid chuig an gcóisir iar shiamsa? Níl aon teorainn leis na roghanna!

Fós, bíonn pian i mo chroí agus mé sa bhaile ag déanamh iarrachta ceolchoirm a eagrú i mo sheomra (le scaradh sóisialta!), ach níl tú in ann é a athchruthú.

Na laethanta seo nuair atá mé sa líne do Dunnes, ligim orm féin go bhfuilim ag dul go Páirc an Chrócaigh agus go bhfuil na hoibrithe ag iarraidh a sheiceáil an bhfuil deoch mheisciúil i bhfolach i mo mhála. Faraor, níl siad ach ag iarraidh mo theocht a thogáil agus caithfear a admháil nach bhfuil an scleondar céanna ag baint leis.

Is léir gur cuireadh neart imeachtaí ar ceal i mbliana agus ní raibh sé slán go mbeadh daoine ag bualadh le ché-

ile. Cuidíonn na himeachtaí ar líne le healaíontóirí agus leis an lucht féachana mar cruthaítear spás do dhaoine chun sult a bhaint as na hEalaíona. I mbliana, is léir nach raibh mórán deiseanna againn bualadh le daoine agus tá muid ar fad ag streachailt sa bhaile. Airím uaim an strainséir a casadh liom ag an gceolchoirm agus an comhrá eadrainn faoin mbánna atá an bheirt againn i ngrá leo. Fiú do soicindín amháin, tá caidreamh eadrainn mar tá meas agus grá againn don rud céanna. Ansin, tar éis bosa a bhualadh leo nó barróg a thabhairt dóibh, tá siad imithe dodhearmadta (chance encounter de shórt).

Airím uaim an spontáineacht sin agus leis na srianta Covid-19 is léir go bhfuil sé ródheacair a bheith ag déanamh na rudaí seo. Níl aon rud chomh maith leis an dordfhuaim i do chroí agus an ceolán i do chluasa ach i ndáiríre, ní bheadh mé compordach i slua mór, cé go bhfuil mé ag breathnú siar ar na good times.

B’fhéidir go mbeidh athrú ar an saol an bhliain seo chugainn agus muid ag tabhairt ár bpas vacsaín do dhuine den lucht slándála. Ach, go dtí sin, beidh mé ar na himeachtaí ar líne agus beidh ceolchoirm agam sa teach, mar ní fiú a bheith ag ceiliúradh, muna bhfuil muid ar fad slán.

Amy Winehouse’s Black to Black album

By Alice O’Donnell Arts and Entertainment Editor I have not listened to Amy Winehouse for a tragically long period of time. After her death in 2011, my family did what most people seemed to do and bought her final album, the result of a strange morbid curiosity mixed with macabre-like guilt. As with all promising stars who dwindle away from drugs, the

public always seems to bear an unspoken sense of responsibility – a collective thought of could we have treated her better? As the recently deceased’s images swim on the news, before we. collectively, as the public switch channels back to MTV again. And then the darker side of that guilt, a knowledge that their creative output has reached its duration, the twisted resentfulness in the knowledge there’ll be no more new work to consume.

So in 2011, in the months after her death Back to Black became the UK’s bestselling album. And the album became the go-to album playing in our car for a year.

Don’t get me wrong, I adored the songs.

The upbeat mix, the jazzy undertones, Amy’s raspy lyrics. It’s only now that I listen to them and am mildly horrified at the lyrics I was singing along to with no understanding of their meaning. But hey, no harm done right?

One evening, my flatmate had a throwback 2010s hits playlist on, and You Know I’m No Good started playing.

Well, what a blast from the past that was! The next day, I decided to rediscover my long-forgotten love of Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black album.

And guess what album I’ve had on repeat for the past three weeks?

The album is full of some great hits, catchy and incredibly easy to sing along to. In what seemed to have been a talent of Winehouse’s, her songs balance the fine line between upbeat and tragic impossibly well. Look no further for an example than ‘Rehab’. Winehouse managed to spin an arguably soul-destroying point in her life (being advised to go to rehab) into a catchy, upbeat tune. Yet at points, lines of the song are just so moving, such as “I don’t ever want to drink again. I just… need a friend.”

‘You Know I’m No Good’ and ‘Tears Dry On Their Own’ are songs that strike a similar chord. Wonderfully upbeat, really fun songs to bop to, and yet under the layer of cheerfulness is a current of sadness. I mean, if nothing else the titles alone hint to this fascinating dichotomy.

I’ve had ‘Love is a Losing Game’ on repeat this last week. There’s something deeply unjust in that fact it’s one of her lesser-known songs – I would argue that it is her best. There’s a devastating vulnerability to the song. A gentle plea of the heart, regret rife in the soft melody dancing with Amy’s deep vocals.

As I was researching the song, I realised with a shock Amy was around my age when she penned the song ‘Love is a Losing Game’. I won’t lie, I did shed a tear or two. I sat on my student-accommodation couch and cried. Because I tried to imagine living through 21 years of life that made me pen the words “Love is a losing game”, and fully believing them to be true. For the first time, I felt like I finally was seeing Amy Winehouse.

Not just listening to her music, but seeing the glimpse of her character that lingers on in her music.

When I was 11, 27 seemed like a fantastically old age. I didn’t see the vulnerable woman behind the popstar, I couldn’t fully understand that these songs I listened to weren’t just catchy music, but an insight into Amy Winehouse herself. Not the star, not the brand with the over-the-top hair and massively emphasised eyeliner wings, but a young woman who had so much promise and sadly suffered so much.

I’m not going to go making any great or grandiose statements on Amy Winehouse’s legacy. She seems to have been an incredibly complex woman, full of both promise and flaws. To try and sum her down to a concluding line would be cheap and untrue. And also, impossible.

So I’ll simply end with recommending the Black to Black album. As I sit here writing this article, I’m listening to You Know I’m No Good, and I really am so glad that I rediscovered the album.

16 FA SH IO N & L I F EST Y L E

SIN Vol. 22 Issue 11

A bright eye on Galway, a talk with Chaosheng Zhang

By Sophia Hadef Some people have an eye, a talent or a gift to capture a scene, a landscape or a seascape, and Chaosheng Zhang is one of them.

We all follow the social accounts of This is Galway, Visit Galway etc. and Chaosheng’s pictures are often shared there. Galway has something utterly magic and breathtaking through his lenses. Dr Zhang is originally from south-west China where he studied physical geography at Peking University in Beijing.

He moved to Galway in 2000, and he is now a senior lecturer and director of the International Network for Environment and Health at the School of Geography, Archaeology, and Irish Studies in NUI Galway.

Chaosheng is an emblematic figure of Galway, and he is the chair of the Joint Conference of ISEH 2022 & ICEPH 2022 on Environment, Health, GIS and Agriculture in the Big Data Era organised by NUI Galway.

Below you will find a little Q&A from the professor.

Hi Chaosheng, thank you so much for accepting this interview. First, you must make people who are not living in Galway so impatient to visit our lovely city. What is the essence that you love the most in this city?

Galway is famous for its beautiful scenery! Before I came to Galway, a friend told me “Do you know how beautiful it is?!” Indeed, Galway a bright gem on the Atlantic coast! I have to admit that I only began to take landscape photos starting from 2017.

Before that, I mainly took landscape photos using a mobile phone. I am delighted that many people like my photos when I post them on social media, making me feel quite rewarding!

Perhaps you have found that most of my photos are taken during sunset or sunrise, with some of them taken during the so-called blue hours before sunrise or after sunset. Galway is really beautiful when the sky is in bright colours, but the best colours normally last only a few minutes. If the beautiful moments are not recorded, they just disappear! I am delighted that I have managed to have some of the beautiful scenes permanently recorded and shared.

How did the lockdown and Covid-situation impact your work?

The unexpected outbreak of Covid-19 has seriously impacted my work. I have to re-organize all my teaching materials to match the requirements of both online teaching and on-campus computer practical.

I have been teaching Geographical Information Systems (GIS) at NUI Galway for 20 years. Normally I revise my teaching materials every year, based on the current development as well as my own new understanding of the contents. However, this time, the ‘revision’ is like rewriting. I am offering both pre-recorded materials and live online teaching to my students. I find that live teaching is so important to our students, which makes our students feel more connected to the University and indeed less lonely while studying at home.

Meanwhile, I have to offer the option of oncampus computer lab sessions. I had nearly 100 students attending the Introduction to GIS course.

About 20% of them have difficulties using computers at home, either because their computer is not good enough to run the GIS software, or the computers are not compatible with the software.

Ireland is lucky to be captured by you. With the five kilometre restrictions, have you been able to discover little secret gems places in Galway and what is your favourite spot?

Thank you! I am lucky to live here in Galway. In fact, at the early stage of the lockdown, there was a two kilometre restriction. Luckily, the campus of NUI Galway is within two kilometres of my home.

I found a very nice viewing point of River Corrib, just outside the new Alice Perry Engineering Building. In the early morning, you can see the sun as it rises in the mist over the river with trees on the other side of the riverbank. Sometimes you can see ducks and swans moving slowly on water. More interesting, birds are always singing, providing nature music for you to enjoy the beauty of nature.

There was also a beautiful tree nearby.

Another secret gem is the nest of swans in the canal beside the Cathedral. I am always lucky when I go there.

When the babies were hatched, they were always active, providing me opportunities to take photos.

Of course, our campus is one of my most favourite locations for photography. The quadrangle is no doubt the most photographed building. I am providing a photo of the Quad taken using a wideangle lens on a sunny day.

What details do you believe make the best photographs?

The straightforward point is to keep your photo tidy and clean. Do not try to tell many stories in one photo. Keep it simple: One photo with one story. This is very much like writing a scientific paper. You need to tell one and only one good story in one paper.

Of course, you need to master the basic skills of a camera, at least you should know how to set the three most important parameters of ISO, aperture and speed. The basic rules of photography need to be followed, such as the 1/3 composition and symmetry. You can gradually forget about the ‘rules’ once you have established your own style of photography.

What is the one thing you wish you knew when you started taking photos?”

Perhaps many amateur photographers like using the automatic settings of a camera. It is easy to use the AUTO or AUTO+ mode, and you can always take ‘nice’ photos. However, I regret that I did not learn to operate the camera settings earlier! If you want to be serious about photography, I would urge you to move towards manual settings as soon as you can.

When the light is strong with bright sunshine, the automatic settings do end up in fairly good photos.

However, under challenging conditions, for example, when you take sunset or sunrise photos, you had better control the three major parameters of ISO, speed and aperture yourself. If you cannot get satisfactory photos, you may then think about using a tripod!

What professional photographers have influenced your work, and how do you

incorporate their techniques into your photographs?

When I first saw beautiful photos of Ireland taken by professional photographers on social media, I was so impressed, and I was wondering how they could take such beautiful photos of Ireland! I was asking myself: “When can I take such a beautiful photo, even one photo, just one?” Such a curiosity attracts me to read articles on photography and understanding the basic rules of photography.

One useful technique for professional photography I want to mention is a long exposure. Many beautiful photos were taken using the long exposure technique.

This is required when the light is weak while you want to take photos that are clear enough. If you do not use a long exposure, you have to set ISO very high to maintain the speed. There will be many noisy dots on photos with a high ISO value. On the other hand, even when the light is bright, if you want to get special effects of moving clouds or moving water, long exposure is also a useful technique. While some people may dislike the ‘artificial’ effects of long exposure, we need to treat photography as art!”

Your beautiful pictures were exhibited in Eyre Square last year, and you must be so proud; what are your projects for 2021?

Yes, I am really honoured that I got the chance to have a photo exhibition in Eyre Square Shopping Centre last October. The feedback was extremely positive. I am really grateful to Galway City Council for this valuable opportunity! In 2021, I want to travel outside Galway City, at least to explore the Connemara area in County Galway. There are so many beautiful places in Ireland, especially in the coastal areas.

You’re involved in the environment and health sector. Tell us more about ISEH 2020 as there is an increasing demand for international experts to work collectively on this topic of general interest.

The conference was planned for summer 2020.

However, I had to postpone it until Summer 2022.

I organised three international conferences in Galway SEGH 2010, SESEH 2022, ISEH 2016, which attracted 200-300 delegates to Galway in each event. I am honoured to have received the ‘National Conference Ambassador Award’ from Fáilte Ireland back in 2018. It is estimated that the Joint Conference of ISEH & ICEPH 2022 will attract 600 delegates to Galway, with 550 from abroad.

One ‘complaint’ I received from my previous conferences was that the shelves with luxury products, such as bags, cosmetics and shoes were empty during the week of the conference, as they were bought by the conference participants. I hope shops in Galway are better prepared next time during the week of August 15-21, 2022.”

You can follow Chaosheng Zhang on Twitter at @ ZhangChaosheng and @chaoshengzhang on Instagram. You can visit the ISEH 2022 link at http:// www.nuigalway.ie/iseh2020/

FAIS EAN

April 06 2021

7

NÓS MAIRE ACHTÁLA

17

The Chopping Block: Pulses & Beans

By Paul Lewis Beans from a can, in sauce, have long been associated with the students. Times inexorably have changed. It is now more likely that tin of beans contains chickpeas or kidney beans, which is a great improvement for the student body. But now that we all find ourselves interminably at home, finally we can ignore fast recipes catered to our ‘on-the-go’ lifestyles and give cooking and eating the time and attention they deserve. And so, it is high time we gave cooking some pulses and beans our serious consideration. And it’s always nice to have some fresh company around the kitchen.

Some vegetables, fish, and meats, correctly treated, are superb eaten in their raw state. Some vegetables can be most pleasant when cooked with still a bite to them. Pasta is favoured al dente. In terms of nutrition and gustatory preference, we wish generally to avoid overcooking our food – it becomes dry or too soft or all other states of unsavouriness. Not so when it comes to pulses and beans. They must be cooked - cooked thoroughly until edible, soft and digestible. There is no argument to be had here. Please cook the beans. If you are not sure, wait and eat or serve something else.

This is the time to open the tin. Or overcook them - the sauce goes thick and beany and completely delicious.

Soak your beans in plenty of water overnight.

Some lentils, you’ll survive without soaking, especially the red ones (they cook and turn to tasty mush so quickly). Puy lentils require soaking. Don’t be fooled by split peas – yellow or green, they need long soaking and cooking. All beans, dried ones that is – butter, soya, turtle, black-eye, black, cannelini, kidney, berlotti, fagioli, fava, chickpeas, you name it, all require overnight soaking. All of the aforementioned foods are ready when there is no hardness, gritty or graininess left and they become soft enough to enjoy. It sounds obvious, but even restaurants sometimes don’t grasp this.

After soaking your legumes, drain, rinse them well and cook in plenty of water. Boil for a while, and stir, and then turn down to a gentle simmer.

Add more water as it evaporates. You can flavour this pot with stock vegetables, bouqet garni, spices and so forth, but it’s not entirely necessary if you are soon going to be flavouring your stew, soup, curry, salad or wherever the cooked legumes are bound.

Don’t add salt at this cooking stage, it can harden the skin. Cooking time ranges from half an hour to three hours, more sometimes. Every bean is different - not only varieties, different batches can differ vastly in cooking times. Don’t drain the beans of their liqor once you are satified they are cooked - allow them to cool in their cooking liquid and store them in it or use some in the dish you are making them in.

Canned beans can be perfectly pleasant, lovely even, but rinse them quickly of their liquid. Some recipes will recommend using bicarbonate of soda to break down your beans as you cook them, but time should take care of this, and save the flavour.

Each time I open the cupboard and look through full and half packets of beans of the globe, I think of the English cookery writer Rose Elliot’s introduction to her brilliant The Bean Book - ‘I’m a compulsive bean buyer.’ It’s a great thing to be.

They are cheap, nourishing, versatile and delicious, when cooked properly. Time and care are the main ingredients.

To make falafel, use well-soaked chickpeas and avoid phony recipes that tell you to use cooked chickpeas. Hummus is of course made with cooked chickpeas. To achieve smoothness, rinse lighlty the chickpeas in a colander and quickly rub off their skins as you do so. Blend with both water and olive oil and please, go wild with lemon and tahini, but easy on the garlic. Chickpeas and spinach is my favourite chickpea dish – make a sofrito by cooking onion, crushed garlic, bay leaf and smoked paprika; add grated tomato and a splash of wine, cook a while; add cooked chickpeas, some of their liquid and some stock, cook until liquid is 80% evaporated; season, add plenty of washed and chopped spinach, remove from the heat and finish with a little parsley and olive oil. It can be eaten

as dinner, a lunch, or tapa with some bread and hard cheese, an accompaniement to fish – however you please. Chickpeas and spinach can also be flavoured with little pieces of chorizo or black pudding.

Chilli-bean lovers - black beans are the new kidney beans. Or black-eye beans. If you are going to make a mixed-bean chilli, soak and cook separately, so sticking to one kind makes sense. Soak overnight and cook for hours. Gently fry onion, fresh chilli and garlic; add cumin, smoked paprika, cajun, chilli powder and oregano – or whatever your go to chilli spice mix is; add tomato purée and tinned tomato, cook for a while; add diced pepper and sweet potato, black beans and some of their liquid, a pinch of cocoa powder and stew slowly until the sweet potato is cooked through. Make loads and serve with all the bits – tortillas, salsa, guacamole, sour cream, cheddar.. The following morning make heuvos rancheros, or that night a big tray of nachos.

If you want to update the student stereotype and make your own baked beans to have on toast: soak and cook cannelini/white beans; make a simple, blended tomato sauce; mix togther in a casserole or roasting dish with a little of the bean liquid and a pinch of cayenne and brown sugar, and bake for two hours, covered well with foil in a medium oven – you will not be disappointed.

Coiste Gno EXECUTIVE

Cheap and Easy Recipes

By Anastasia Burton Hello and welcome back to cooking and eating well while on a budget! Today I present to you a few recipes I have recently fallen in love with. Trust me, homemade food is always better than takeaway that will cost more than your average dinner. Be money smart and healthy at the same time by eating simple things like

Frozen Yogurt Granola Cups INGREDIENTS FOR 12 CUPS • Four tablespoons for different flavours of peanut butter • One strawberry • Four tablespoons of honey for garnish • Two cups of granola • One blueberry • Two and a half cups for garnish of Greek yogurt, four • Dark chocolate single-serving cups chunks for garnish

METHOD: 1. 1. Heat peanut butter and honey in a microwave for approximately 30 seconds, or until melted.

2. In a medium sized bowl, pour the melted peanut butter and honey over your granola and stir to combine.

3. Spoon the granola mix evenly into 12 lined muffin cups, pressing firmly into the bottom.

4. Top each cup with about 1.5 ounces (45g or ⅓ of a single-serving container) of yogurt.

5. Top each cup with strawberries, blueberries and dark chocolate chunks.

6. Cover tightly with foil and freeze for at least two hours.

COMMITTEE

Vice President / Education Officer Leas Uachtarán / Oifigeach Oideachais

President / Uachtarán

Emma Sweeney

Pádraic Toomey

su.education@nuigalway.ie 086 385 3658

2020 -2021

Vice-President / Welfare and Equality Officer Leas-Uachtarán / Oifigeach Leasa agus Comhionannais

Róisín Nic Lochlainn

su.welfare@nuigalway.ie 086 385 3659

su.president@nuigalway.ie 086 385 5502

7. Keep frozen and allow to thaw for a few minutes before eating. Wrap individually in foil for an easy on-the-go snack.

8. Enjoy!

Chicken Teriyaki Stir-fry INGREDIENTS (FOUR SERVINGS): • Three chicken breasts • A pinch of salt • Some Pepper • One teaspoon of garlic, crushed • ½ a cup of soy sauce • ⅓ a cup of honey • One and a half tablespoons of

sesame seeds, more to garnish • One sliced onion • Two small bell ­peppers, thinly sliced • Two cups of broccoli • One green onion, thinly sliced • White rice, cooked

Gender and LGBT+ Rights Officer Oifigeach um Chearta Inscne agus LADT+

Disability Rights Officer Oifigeach um Chearta Míchumais

Erin Mac An tSaoir

Michelle Mitchell

Maeve Arnup

Patricia O’Mahony

091 493 570 su.gaeilge@nuigalway.ie

085 853 7011 su.maturestudents@nuigalway.ie

091 493 570 su.lgbt@nuigalway.ie

085 212 0689 su.disability@nuigalway.ie

Oifigeach na Gaeilge Irish Language Officer

Mature Students’ Officer Oifigeach Mic Léinn Lánfhásta

Postgraduate Taught Officer Oifigeach na nIarchéimithe Teagasctha

Postgraduate Research Officer Oifigeach na nIarchéimithe i mbun Taighde

Clubs Captain Captaen na gClubanna

Martin Smyth

Sebastiaan Bierema

Kirsty Moran

087 781 0130 su.pgtaught@nuigalway.ie

091 493 570 su.pgresearch@nuigalway.ie

Convenor of the College of Arts, Social Sciences & Celtic Studies / Tionólaí Choláiste na nDán, na nEolaíochtaí Sóisialta & an Léinn Cheiltigh

Claire McHale

085 882 4797 su.clubs@nuigalway.ie

091 493 570 su.arts@nuigalway.ie

METHOD: 1. In a pan, cook your chicken over a medium to high heat until almost done. Add salt and pepper for flavour.

2. Reduce heat to medium and stir in the crushed garlic.

3. Add in the soy sauce, honey, and one tablespoon of the sesame seeds. Stir until thickened.

4. Remove the chicken from the pan, leaving the sauce, and add the vegetables to the pan.

5. Cover the pan for several minutes and cook until the vegetables begin to soften, then remove the lid and stir until the sauce is thick again.

6. Split the rice, vegetables, and chicken evenly between four containers. Top with a sprinkle of sesame seeds and sliced green onion.

Convenor of the College of Medicine, Nursing & Health Sciences / Tionólaí Choláiste an Leighis, an Altranais & na nEolaíochtaí Sláinte

Evan O’Flaherty

Convenor of the College of Science and Engineering / Tionólaí Choláiste na hEolaíochta agus na hInnealtóireachta

Societies Chairperson Cathaoirleach na gCumann

Barry Sugrue

Fionn Sexton Connolly

087 775 0227 su.scienceengineering@nuigalway.ie

087 155 5949 su.socs@nuigalway.ie

085 225 2185 su.council@nuigalway.ie

Aoife Buckley

091 493 570 su.medicine@nuigalway.ie

SU Council Chairperson / Cathaoirleach Chomhairle Chomhaltas na Mac Léinn

Convenor of the College of Business, Public Policy & Law / Tionólaí Choláiste an Ghnó, an Bheartais Phoiblí agus an Dlí

International Students Officer Oifigeach na Mac Léinn Idirnáisiúnta

Niamh Quinn

Cheyanne Nwaonukwube

085 732 8570 su.business@nuigalway.ie

087 659 1874 su.international@nuigalway.ie

087 606 5095 su.ethnicminorities@nuigalway.ie

Victor Igonin

@nuigsu

Ethnic Minorities Officer Oifigeach na Mionlach Eitneach

NUIGalwayStudentsUnion www.su.nuigalway.ie

18 FA SH IO N & L I F EST Y L E

SIN Vol. 22 Issue 11

Dating gives Covid-19 Pandemic a super like!

By Rachel Garvey A part of me always used to think that finding a compatible partner would be easy, but as I grew into a young adult, I quickly realised that I was wrong; Easy was replaced with difficult. Unfortunately, the reality isn’t reading off a romance movie script and we are not destined to bump into someone at the coffee shop or coincidentally reach for the same book in a bookstore at the same time as a handsome stranger. I’m not being pessimistic; I’m just being realistic.

Nowadays, Tinder or Badoo or even the new Facebook dating graces our screens with their presence because meeting people nowadays isn’t permitted. Although it’s not against the law to meet people, we still can have social contacts, but we can’t do what we used to do in previous times with meeting random people and visiting people’s houses. My dating options

are strictly limited to Tinder and online acquaintances, but that’s as far as I’ll allow myself to stretch, no further. As a frontline worker, I don’t allow myself to meet with any new people and even though meeting new people has brought me out of my comfort zone and has made me feel more confident in myself, it feels somewhat reassuring to talk to someone online for a bit rather than rushing in to meet them straight away.

The Covid-19 pandemic has thrown a major spanner into the works when it comes to dating people, but I think that we are viewing it as a purely bad thing, we need to learn to read between the lines and find the good amongst the cloud of endless swipes and fizzled out conversations. Meeting people to see how they are in person teaches us to realise who they are as a person and how they speak to us as well as experiencing their actions towards us, it helps us to judge whether they are compatible for a future second date. I find that talking to

people online is a secret test to see if they are serious or merely just another timewaster, some people falling at the first obstacle with many starting off strong and losing their focus somewhere in the middle. I’m still waiting for one to emerge victorious from the test, but I don’t make it easy. I call it playing hard to get; if someone wants me in their life as I want them in mine, then they need to be able to keep my attention, they need to be able to just be themselves!

Getting to know a person virtually isn’t as boring as you think it may be, once you find that person then you’ll find that conversations flow easily without them being forced. You’ll get a little smile that’ll tug at your lips when their name shows up on your phone screen and you’ll find that messaging them or video-chatting them becomes a favourite part of your daily routine. Virtual communication is all we have nowadays, its importance can’t be emphasised enough.

Dating has made a new profile on

Tinder and their bio clearly states “looking to connect people on a virtual level! Loves DMCs, virtual dates and socially distanced hot chocolate dates”.

Meanwhile, it seems that the Covid-19 pandemic has also made a profile and people are curious to know what their bio reads. Let me feed that niggling inquisitiveness by sharing their bio:

“Don’t even know why I’m here…boredom I guess. Don’t reply that much, hit me up on my Snapchst covid_maskislife”. The news just keeps getting better as there have been numerous reports of Dating giving Covid-19 pandemic a super like on Tinder with pandemic’s profile responding with a swipe right; could this be a match made in heaven or hell?

Moving in with your partner as a student, is it worth it?

Bobo the Clown – A Wexford Wedding

By Ethne Tierney

By Caroline Spencer

As a girl in her twenties living during these “Tinder” times, where a casual encounter is a few taps away, moving in with my boyfriend seemed like a huge commitment that I was not willing to make. Social Media and friends kept telling me that I was too young and that it was risky, as me and my partner met no more than a few months ago. Little did I know the pandemic would change all of that.

You see, we moved in together by accident. Before the first lockdown, I went for a visit to his place, a few hours away from where I lived. When lectures and my part-time job ceased, and intercounty travel became prohibited, I had no option but to stay what we thought would be two weeks. But the months passed by, and the restrictions were still the same. We knew that if I went back to my tiny room in a shared house, we were not going to see each other, and since social life revolved almost exclusively around Zoom, it would have been lonely too. So, I stopped paying my rent, and

we decided to live together in his small room provisionally until the lockdown was over.

It didn’t take us long to realise it was going to be a permanent decision. Now, looking back, I am only grateful that the pandemic forced us into this situation, since we didn’t have the courage to make the first step. It seemed way too early to talk about moving in together!

Living together is great. Every day seems like a holiday. We were surprised by the lack of conflict while staying in such a small space 24/7. It was all the result of open communication about likes, dislikes, dealbreakers and habits; a lot of mutual understanding, and making compromises. We discussed it and we tried to be realistic: we knew there were things we had to give up in order to get new rewards. I found the messiness around the house tedious, and we had to have a chat about that. He kept in mind that he had to share his space now and be considerate, and I tried to understand that things can’t always be my way. We try out best to be tolerant and always find a happy middle.

Another thing that felt weird at first was having my boyfriend there, no matter what I had to do. Seeing me without make up, in my pyjamas and with frizzy hair when I had a particularly bad day felt strange as before we would meet outside and tried to make a little effort on my appearance. And don’t even get me started on sharing a bathroom. I was terrified of him opening the door while I was shaving or using the toilet. However, we got used to and we realised that everybody does those things and that it’s not a big deal.

There were some challenges, but finances were certainly the biggest ones. I was a student on the Pandemic Unemployment Payment benefit, and my boyfriend had a good full-time job.

The income difference was notorious.

Although he offered to pay a bigger percentage of costs, I was aware that we needed to be equal if we wanted to stay away from possible resentments and conflicts in the future. It was important for me to know that no matter what happened between us, the place where I was living and where all my stuff was would still be partly mine.

Moving in with someone I love so much was a big commitment and came with some sacrifices and challenges, but it has made me a more caring person and the good aspects of it outweigh the bad by far. This is why when people ask me if it’s hard, I tell them it is not. To any couple with strong foundations that would like to cohabit but feel like they are “too young” or that it is not something you do in college, I tell them to be brave. There are no right or wrong decisions in relationships if you care about each other and have the willpower to make it work.

Any upcoming events where hair and makeup are ‘a thing’ I wait for the familiar pang of foreboding. The question every woman in the family asks, “Who’s doing your make-up?”

It’s a fair enough question. Weddings are long all-day affairs. Irish weddings are especially vulnerable to the elements.

Every summer wedding I’ve attended has seen the extremes of all seasons in a single day. They are events where heavy-duty makeup is needed to withstand the chaos.

Mainly it’s handy, and one isn’t re-applying eyeliner at nine p.m. after doing four Jaeger shots with their cousins’ new girlfriend.

I was on board with all this; until I wasn’t. Until I took a chance and have had lingering trust issues ever since.

The year was 2012. Gangnam Style was somehow in the charts. The London Olympics had just finished, a new dawn in international unity beckoned.

I was on my way to a family wedding in Wexford, at this point a yearly occurrence.

So many cousins dotted around the country seemed to have the same matrimony epiphany at the age of 30. The Northern Irish cousins had it at 25. Truly a Sinn Féin style cross border policy was afoot.

This event took place in September, during the perennial Indian Summer. So, the weather was nice but windy. An aunt said to a godmother who said to another aunt about a great makeup counter in Gorey that did make up for wedding guests. All the women in my family looked it up; the reviews were glowing.

The slots were booked. I went first, while the various sisters/aunts/mothers went looking for hangover cures. The room was startlingly bright. The nice make-up artist asked me what I wanted, I said something

along the lines of “going to a wedding this afternoon, the reception is an hour’s drive after the ceremony, please do something that will last and make me look nice and human.” She nodded, It was her third wedding of the day and it was still morning. I was in safe hands.

And then 45 minutes later she let me go. Under the harsh light, she showed me a mirror.

“Hmm,” I thought. “A little strong but sure, that’s what you want today right?”

I thanked her and wandered out of the room. I pass the next client, my sister. She unsmilingly tells me I look “well”. That’s not good. I head to the nearest café, maybe I’m too groggy.

Another sister passes by. She tells me “it should calm down”, “it” being my face.

With all this mystery, I go to the public bathroom. Thankfully, it was empty, so no one could hear my gasp and bellow of “Oh f **k!”.

The nice lady clowned me. She literally daubed me up into Bobo the Clown. My pale face was now the tincture of Cheetos. My eyes had more purple glitter than the Dragrace workroom. My lips were a toddler’s attempt at destroying their mothers make up.

With very little time to spare, I legged it back to my hotel room, tore out some face wipes and re-did the canvas. The makeup was indeed durable, as I spent more time cleaning it off than applying anew. The rest of the day my sobriety and makeup abilities stayed on a level playing field.

What was the lesson here? The one I took away was to never trust your aunt, or indeed anybody.

The real one is maybe trying to be nice but firm about what you want, but this event is why I have trust issues.

PS: The wedding itself was great, 10/10 would recommend, Wexford as a fun spot.

áin C h c h g

L M

To

#NUIGSU21

AN RACHAIDH TÚ SAN IOMAÍOCHT?

Todhchán na nOifigeach Lánaimseartha ➥Uachtarán ➥Leas-Uachtarán / An tOifigeach Oideachais ➥Leas-Uachtarán / An tOifigeach Leasa agus Comhionannais Osclófar Ainmniúcháin: 10:00 Dé Céadaoin 7 Aibreán 2021 Dúnfar Ainmniúcháin: 17:00 Dé Céadaoin 14 Aibreán 2021 Lá an Toghcháin: Déardaoin an 22 Aibreán 2021 @nuigsu

NUIGalwayStudentsUnion www.su.nuigalway.ie

www.nuigsuelections.com

20 FA SH IO N & L I F EST Y L E

Budgeting Advice

By Anastasia Burton Today I bring to you yet another budgeting advice piece. This week we will be focusing on how not to be cheated out of our money. For example, you see an ad for a website selling something trendy or even cheap. Number one rule is always look for company reviews (preferably with pictures). The more reviews you find the better as no one wants to be cheated out of their hard-earned money on a product or service that is really not worth it.

Speaking of services, I recently did an experiment where I signed up to an influencer/trainer/nutritionists 30-day New Me Challenge. The idea is clear, this is a weight loss challenge where the influencer will claim to send you quality advice, training plans and nutritional menus. I did this with a friend of mine and honestly, I was pretty shook from the beginning. Instead of this being personalized and tailored to each person specifically in terms of dietary restrictions and allergies, we were all put into one group chat of around twelve women. All different ages and all different sizes and so on. We paid about €40 for this and of course didn’t expect it to

be perfect but did expect some sort of professionalism.

As time came for us to begin our workouts, we also found out all her videos were pre-recorded from 2019 with some exercises that have no effect on your body or wrong positioning suggestions. Of course, I wanted to lose weight and do my best, but I ended up spending money on something that did not make me happy and did not bring me massive positive results. Not only was I paying for something I could have found online for free, but I also was not told how to work out or eat based on my dietary needs. This is a trap that many fall into. Influencers are great but they are not Gods, and they are not miracle workers. If they are trying to tell you their products are the best or their services are better than anywhere else don’t believe them. Don’t waste your money on hype that will be extinguished. From botched lip fillers to horrible quality make-up products there seems to be no easy way of saving money while also getting quality service.

So, the lesson we learned today is to be vigilant and do not fall for hyped products and services which you can get for free or from a physical place where you can test and see the products for yourself.

SIN Vol. 22 Issue 11

We’re not ovary-reacting!

By Rachel Garvey Periods. Each woman has a different way of describing their periods, but we all have one thing in common; that being we suffer under the hands of our female reproductive system. I remember being laughed at by a co-worker at work as I bent over in pain with period cramps and I told him “you wouldn’t be laughing if it was you” to which he shook his head. They can be quite painful, thinking about it now, it feels like Gru’s minions are having a danceoff on your ovaries. It’s not just pain we have to deal with, but a whole other list of pre-period symptoms.

Acne Many ladies break out before their period starts, that break-out acting like an alarm clock to prepare you for what’s to come. Take this opportunity to ready yourselves by purchasing the feminine hygiene products that you need. Remember, the period life chose us, we didn’t choose it, so we don’t necessarily have to spend our well-earned money on expensive tampons and period pads. However, there is still no law against purchasing your favourite brand or favourite type of tampons or pads. Our periods throw us into a deep pool of self-consciousness so it’s all about finding the product that will make you feel more at ease and confident when menstruation begins especially when you’re wearing those stylish white jeans. As for acne, why not indulge yourselves with some clay face masks for your evenings at home, it’ll make you feel fresh and relaxed afterwards.

Cramps

We’d like to say a huge thank you to You - our customers and supporters, both loyal and occasional.

Thanks for dropping in to see us; for picking up a cup of lovely Fairtrade coffee or a salad; thanks for being there. It means a lot.

We’re all battling through unprecedented times, we’re fighting to stay alive and to keep some staff at work.

Thank you also to our hard-working staff, for keeping us all safe.

It’s taking longer than we’d all hoped, but we are getting there.

And we’re getting there together. #StayHome, where possible. Chins Up #SupoportLocal & #StaySafe.

By endurance we conquer.

They can either be bearable or horrifyingly unbearable. As painful as they can be, there are still solutions to make them ease up so you can go back to a world of feeling pain-free. A good investment would be a hot water bottle, a genius little invention that will become your best friend during your period. Placing it on your lower stomach/ abdomen area usually helps, but you must have patience as the cramps won’t ease within a matter of seconds, give it a few

minutes and let your body relax. Other pain relief methods include yoga and exercising if you want to stay on the active side of things, but some girls just like to take it easy by having a hot bath. Another method would be to massage small circles with your palms around your lower stomach area while the hot water bottle is nearby. Let yourself decide which solution is best for you, you got this!

Chaotic emotions Ah yes, the mood swings; one minute we feel happy, then we feel like we’re going to tear up and then we feel anger. It’s quite difficult to get a handle on all these emotions, but please don’t judge us, we simply don’t always have control over our hormones. The best thing to do is to not act against these emotions, let them be. A way to keep yourself in check is to do something nice for yourself; make a hot chocolate, read your favourite book, surround yourself with your close friends who understand how you feel, good company and laughter will take your mind off your mood swings. One thing is for certain, mood swings are perfectly normal so giving yourself a hard time over it should not be an option!

Cravings Chocolate. Jellies. All things that are sweet and sour. We know these cravings all too well. Has anyone ever watched Cian Twomey’s video of his girlfriend’s impression of when she’s on her period?

When he whines “I need Nutella” it feels like such a mood and we feel this huge sense of familiarity that we’ve all been there at some stage. If we give in to our cravings, there’s a sense of guilt that comes with it from binging on chocolate or all things sweet. Don’t feel guilty, it’s okay to have cravings, but there’s no need to over-do it. Personally, I keep some small chocolate bars with me in my locker at work and in my kitchen press at home and when those cravings start, then it’s okay to pop a little square of chocolate in your mouth and let it melt on your tongue, maybe sometimes even two squares of chocolate if I’m feeling cheeky.

Mise agus mo mhuinín – mo chuid taithí pearsanta Le Anna Campbell San alt seo, beidh mé ag labhairt faoi mo chuid taithí a bhaineann leis an muinín. Ceapaim go bhfuil go leor baint ag an muinín leis an mbealach a labhraíonn tú leat féin, do chlann, do chairde, an pobal, an tsochaí agus na meáin chumarsáide.

Tá ról láidir ag gach ceann sa liosta sin ar do mhuinín. Thosaigh mé ag aisteoireacht nuair a bhí mé an-óg agus musclaigh an aisteoireacht féinmhuiníne ionam. Ghlac mé páirt i go leor seónna agus ceolchoirmeacha, agus mar sin, mhothaigh mé mar go raibh muinín agam.

Ach nuair a bhí mé ag an aois álainn 14, mhéadaigh mo “awkwardness” agus tháinig laghdú ar mo mhuinín. Bhí aicne agam agus mar gheall air seo ní raibh aon mhuinín agam. Lá amháin, áfach, is maith is cuimhin liom gur tháinig mé ar an smaoineamh seo: ní fheiceann daoine a bhfuil grá agat daoibh do chuid éiginnte- rud a chuir mé ar mo shuaimhneas.

Go tapa ar aghaidh cúpla bliain agus tá go leor muinín agam arís. Anuraidh, bhreathnaigh mé ar gach gné de mo shaol féin agus conas gur féidir liom a fheabhsú. Mar shampla thosaigh mé ag rith, ag ithe go maith, ag déanamh machnaimh gach lá, ag éisteacht le podchraoltaí, ag léamh agus ag scríobh dialann freisin.

Gach maidin dúisím agus deirim frásaí dearfacha liom féin. Cuirim an cheist orm féin gach oíche “cad a rinne mé go maith inniu?” agus “cad is féidir liom a fheabhsú?” Tá sé seo iontach maith chun do mhuinín a fheabhsú. Ceapaim go bhfuil an frása “bréige é go dtí go ndéanann tú é” thar a bheith fíor.

Cuir ceist ort féin cén fáth nach mothaíonn muinín ort agus déan rudaí a dhéanfadh duine muiníneach.

Mar shampla tá díospóireacht ann na laethanta seo, faoi staidiúr ioga darbh ainm “Superman Pose”, agus cén fáth nach bhfuil sé go maith a dhéanamh.

Ceapaim féin go bhfuil sé iontach é a dhéanamh roimh scrúdú nó agallamh ar feadh nóiméid nó dhó i seomra ciúin chun faoiseamh a bhaint amach!

Cé go bhfuil drochlá agam ó am go ham, tá leid agam anois chun dul i ngleic le dúshláin mar cosúil le teicnící análaithe agus cé go ndeirtear go minic é, nuair a chuireann tú glaoch ar chara nó duine a bhfuil muinín agat as. Freisin, uaireanta nuair atá rásaíocht ar m’intinne suím síos agus déanaim rudaí suaimhneach mar phéinteáil, ag éisteacht le ceol, agus cúpla lá ó shin thosaigh mé ag cniotáil agus chun na fírinne a rá ní do sheandaoine amháin é! Is iontach an féinchúram é! Á chur i gcrích, “bréige é go dtí go ndéanann tú é”! Má tá drochlá agat, bíodh sé agat- ach beidh tú ceart go leor sa deireadh. Ná déan dearmad “is staid intinne í muinín”.

FAIS EAN

April 06 2021

7

NÓS MAIRE ACHTÁLA

21

BEAUTY BAG REVIEW— APRIL

By Anastasia Burton Hello, my fellow make-up lovers, and welcome back to my beauty bag review where I tell you about the products I have in my project pan and how I feel about the products and their performance.

Project panning is a great way of using up old products and learning selfcontrol. Nobody wants to be a make-up hoarder trust me. Not only will project panning and decluttering used up products give you satisfaction from seeing yourself actually use up make-up you own, but you will also notice how much money you are saving on unnecessary goods! So, let’s take a look at what’s going on in my beauty bag this month!

Mascara: Maybelline le colossal volume express + essence volume hero I underestimated these two. From using them both I have learned that both are perfect for my lashes. The Essence mascara gives me great length, perfect for when I want to look more natural, while the Maybelline mascara gives them that long thick look which I don’t hate!

Catrice inside eye highlighter pen

I love this pen. It makes my eyes look a little less dead fish-like and that’s all I want!

Concealer: Soap& glory kickass

Eyeshadow: Jeffree star Blood Lust palette

Blush: #Proartist blush

Don’t come hating at me for liking his makeup please he may not be the best person, but his make-up is divine. I wanted to try out one of the JSC palettes I had laying around and found this guy. Untouched, precious. I swear down the shadows made me fall in love. It’s a pricey palette but I just can’t seem to keep it off my mind.

I don’t use blush that often because of my complexion, so I can’t judge this product too harshly. It’s just okay, nothing to write home about.

Eyeshadow: Urban Decay Naked 2 basics

Eyeliner: Victoria Secret beauty rush black eyeliner This was awful! The formula of this was disgusting. Not only was it pulling at my eyelid throughout, but there is literally no pigmentation. I purged this and am currently searching around for a good replacement.

Ew, just ew. The formula is not bad, but the colour is not it! I got the lightest shade, and it still is about five-hundred times too orange. It blends okay but it does not sit well on the eyes at all.

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I do like this palette, but I have to say it is a lot duller than I remember. I think this one will be given to a family member as I just don’t feel inspired by the palette or the colours.

Last but not least...

Lipstick: Jeffree Star Leo liquid lipstick I adore this. I have to say I have never loved a formula this much in my life!

And I am a professional lipstick hoarder. If you ever get the chance to get your hands on this product I would suggest you grab it. That is all for this issue! Hope you enjoyed.

Happy panning!

22 O PI N IO N

SIN Vol. 22 Issue 11

USI Virtual Protest – The Education for All Day of Action 2021 Neasa Gorrell When I think of the young people paying the highest fees in Europe for third-level education, my mind immediately thinks of places of grandeur; historic and wellfunded, world renowned, prestigious, and sought after Universities. I think of places that bolster state-of-the-art facilities, neatly primed gardens and communal spaces, sublime accommodation, sophisticated and modern.

I do not think of Universities that are under-funded, out of date, ill-equipped, and lacking the capacity to even begin to accommodate the student body they flout for cash each academic year. At the very least, I do not think of a Government that supports and perpetuates this unsustainable system, which disadvantages and imposes economic barriers against a massive cohort of the demographic the Government is supposed to support.

Unfortunately, the latter is the reality for more than two-hundred-and-fiftythousand University students in Ireland who have been fighting for change for over a decade now. The downfall in government spending on higher education has been acutely observed and protested against by many, including the Union of Students in Ireland.

It was a success for Ireland’s young people when third-level education fees were abolished in 1996. Still, poor leadership and decision making in Governments since have seen Ireland go from being a global leader looking towards future innovation through education funding to the most expensive, unsustainable and probably most under-funded education system in all of Europe.

Documents proposed by the Union of Student’s Ireland show that funding for Higher-Level education was cut by 35% in 2008, with the student contribution fee increased by 363% between 2007 and 2014. This is a stain of the economic crisis that shook the Irish nation. Although I was only nine years old in 2008, I still recall the public fall out and dislike of Brian Cowen in his time as Taoiseach, who was a Fianna Fáil leader, of course.

It all makes sense now.

The reality is that the situation facing Ireland’s young people is nothing current or previous Governments don’t already know about. For years now, Governments have been strongly versed in the fact that the current system is unsustainable.

As recent as 2019, the Director of Governance and Funding at the European Universities Association (EUA), Thomas Estermann, warned that “after almost a decade of cuts, the long-term sustainability of the higher education system in Ireland remains an issue.” Mr Estermann classified the current system of higher education funding as a “danger.”

The Union of Students in Ireland has been fighting an uphill battle since their foundation in 1959, amplifying our voices as the sole national representatives of third-level students in Ireland.

With every setback, they push harder to achieve a milestone, and they come back stronger again and again.

We owe it to the USI for their determination, resilience and refusal to let-up the pressure against the steady stream of incompetent Governments, all of which uprooted any remanence of moral value or etiquette in selling the false image of an open and accessible education system.

From the very beginning of the movements and campaigns brought by the Union of Students in Ireland, their message has been very clear – Education is a right, not a privilege. Therefore, it should be publicly funded and available to all.

With the rising cost of living, rent inflation, a pandemic, graduate job insecurity and researchers warning about the dangers and unsustainability of the current state of higher-level education in Ireland – this message has substance now more than ever.

We must demand Education For All. In light of this, the 24th of March 2021 was the Union of Students in Ireland Day of Acton in relaunching the ‘Education For All’ campaign. Due to current circumstances, we couldn’t flood the streets of the capital like students before us did on many occasions throughout the last decade. Still, instead, the USI hosted a Virtual Protest in order to protect public health.

Regardless, the turnout was phenomenal, with Students’ Unions from Universities and Institutes of Technologies across the country, and students alike, showing up in support of the campaign.

Many speakers highlighted different aspects of the campaign and spoke on various goals the Union intended to

achieve and implement. They supplied statistics and concise information about the inevitable crisis facing students and the wider economy if the current system fails to change.

The USI representatives such as Craig McHugh and Marie Lyons spoke about how every euro invested in higher education here in Ireland translates to a four euro return in the economy. They also pointed out that the entire ‘student experience’ Universities sell to young people, and especially to International students in order to generate more revenue, has been completely turned on its head this year in light of the pandemic.

The USI also pointed out that although the campaign’s overall goal is to remove the barriers to education and develop a publicly-funded system, this year, more than any other, there was no justification for the 3,000 euro student fee when learning was conducted remotely and online.

Overall, the USI Virtual Protest platformed many brilliant and wellinformed speakers to talk on various issues, but most significantly highlighted the problems while delivering achievable resolutions that the Government can adopt. They also inspired all of the students who were in attendance to act together and make our voices known, which we did at the time by getting the hashtag ‘#EducationForAll’ trending on Twitter.

On being active for education reform with the USI, the President of NUI Galway Students’ Union, Pádraic Toomey said; “Earlier that day, I and officers around the country rang TDs from all corners of the island and urged them to sign the pledge and support the Education For all campaign. We are hoping this means they will support upcoming

bills and finally reduce the cost that students and families have to pay to get an education.”

The reality is that now is the time we need to generate the conversation about our education. Take hold of the narrative, fight back and be loud. This starts with student engagement in politics and the various issues that the USI have highlighted.

Truth be told, the day after the USI Virtual Protest, the coalition Government and the Minister for Higher Education, Simon Harris, voted down a bill that would have eradicated many of the financial barriers we are facing at the moment. Throughout this pandemic, the current Government have made their considerations about thirdlevel students very well known, and this latest move has been a testament to the little regard they have for us.

On that note, I say this is not good enough. Students deserve better, and in the words of previous President of the Union of Students in Ireland, Annie Hoey, “We can’t have a Government that stands up in the Dáil and proudly declares to the world that multinationals come here for our educated workforce and then have the God-damn audacity not to invest in that educated workforce.”

For more information and to get involved in reforming the Irish thirdlevel education system, go to www.usi. ie/EFA

Should Social Media companies allow people to post anonymously?

By Niamh Casey If there’s something that most people can agree on, it’s that social media has the potential to be an extremely harmful, if not dangerous place. That potential has even become a reality on several occasions. Some examples that immediately come to mind are the countless sketchy, (to put it lightly), subreddits, where people go by false names to discuss, what can be described as criminally damning, topics. It’s not hard to imagine what kind of topics are meant by that either, and in many cases, people have actually been tracked and arrested by police due to alarms being raised by other Reddit users based on what was being posted.

These are extreme examples, but one doesn’t need to dig too deep to see everyday instances of online abuse.

There is already plenty of hate spread by alias accounts, where people feel that under the guise of these anonymous platforms, they are entitled to say anything. Online bullying and aggression is already an issue, so to make it impossible to trace threatening comments or posts back to the original source would

be an extremely unwise move. Making it possible for social media accounts to be made completely anonymous would only enable people that have harmful intentions to act on them more freely and without consequence.

If anything, we should be moving in the opposite direction, and Twitter is currently leading by example in that regard. The social platform was updated in May of last year to alert users of when a tweet may contain misleading information. It alerts users to contents that are nonfactual, or to media material that has been manipulated, altered, or fabricated. What this means is that a user with an alias Twitter handle can no longer state something as a fact and link a fake news article to “back up” their claims without having people who view the tweet being notified that what is being said has not been verified.

We have always been told to not believe everything you read, especially if it is online and from an unknown source, this update is essentially a visible reminder for Twitter users of that fact. This change was welcomed by many online, and other social media compa-

nies, like Facebook, should seriously consider following this initiative. Twitter allowed posts to be made completely anonymously and untraceably, there would be no way of validating a source to make sure the fake news and false allegations they are spreading aren’t taken seriously. It is a crucial step towards stopping the spread of dangerous misinformation, which is still easily and rapidly spread on other sites.

The argument for making social media posts completely anonymous is based on concerns raised over protection of character, a matter which is something worth considering, but in a different way. Rather than making online claims more anonymous, we should instead be questioning how credible are statements that someone has said on social media and how much should we use their posts on an internet

platform to judge their character. This is the more complex issue, and obviously the answer will vary depending on the circumstances. Should a post made when a person was eleven, twelve or thirteen be used to judge their personality ten years later? Probably not. Should posts someone has made recently that display a pattern of being aggressive, or even violent, be taken into account?

Most would be inclined to say yes. Since 2019, private messages and social media posts can be used as evidence in the Irish court, and such evidence can be very useful and important in a case.

If a person is on trial for some form of anti-social behaviour, and has displayed such behaviour online, or even posted themself in the middle of the act, then that evidence is crucial. Social media posts should not be allowed to be made anonymously; people should be held accountable for what they choose to say publicly. Social media sites are a public platform and if you want to anonymously post something that you would rather not be quoted as saying, then perhaps it is better to keep it to yourself.

TUAIRIM

April 06 2021

23

Transphobia, Freedom of Speech and NUI Galway

by Orlaith Mc Cabe The weather was exceptionally mild, there was no risk of rain nor shine. I was comfortable in my thin red jacket as my eyes darted around my surroundings, eventually locking onto a black rectangle out of place on a Covid-19 restriction sign strapped to the bicycle shelter across from the concourse’s Bank of Ireland branch. “WOMAN noun: Adult human female” It’s what I was looking for, but didn’t want to find. Transphobic stickers, the likes of which students have been finding all over campus. It is a slogan and symbol of Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists (TERFs), a term I’m sure you’ve come across recently. The slogan is trans exclusionary as it intends to claim that transgender women are not women, that they are separate from women as a whole. Many of these TERFs claim that trans women are “men invading women’s spaces”, a deeply transphobic and discriminatory belief.

I pulled out my wallet and grabbed a fifty cent coin, with which I began to remove the sticker. The coin was used as it’s not uncommon for these people to hide razors beneath their stickers to snag dissenting fingers such as my own.

The people who put up these stickers would say I’m infringing on their right to free speech by doing this, and sure enough when I publicised what I was doing online I got flooded with replies from these TERFs calling me a misogynist, a bully, a clown, using a wide variety of ways to demean me. I even got labelled as a “totalitarian idealogue”.

However, I would counter this claim by saying my actions (and those who have done the same) were in the name of protecting transgender people. I fall

under the trans umbrella myself, and seeing this hate towards me and others in my community is deeply harmful, and it is our responsibility to make sure we all feel comfortable living as who we are and to not allow people to attempt an infringement on our right to exist, with their use of “freedom of speech” as their defence; almost as if to make themselves the victims.

And so from these TERFs grew organisations.

These organisations often label themselves as feminist or as promoting gay rights, but if a feminist or LGBTQ+ rights activist includes transgender people in their activism, they get labelled as deluded sell-outs and fake activists. They avoid explicitly calling attention to them being trans exclusionary, preferring instead to use terms such as “male exclusionary”, further compounding how they do not see trans women as women.

But you might find yourself asking: “why have students been finding these discriminatory stickers all over campus?” Well, I am a part of a group of students who have written and proposed a motion at Comhairle Chomhaltas na Mac Léinn which aims to deplatform hateful and discriminatory groups as an expansion and strengthening to already existing SU policy, and within this there is a list of organisations that the motion claims fit this description, including what the motion labels as TERF groups. Because of this, these groups and their supporters are up in arms.

We cannot talk about this motion and the philosophy behind it without first talking about Anti-Fascism and Anti-Fascist Action. Anti-Fascism is a political movement which aims to oppose the growth of fascism and resist fascist governments where supporters of the far-right ideology have already seized power, as the name implies. The movement started in 1920s

Europe, and recently the Anti-Fascist movement has seen a great resurgence in recent years alongside the global rise of totalitarianism.

To fully understand Anti-Fascist Action we need to understand how fascism itself spreads and proliferates within a society. Contrary to popular belief, fascism doesn’t rise through a vast swathe of the population becoming extreme nationalists, only a core few are unabashedly fascist, with the rest of the support coming from fascist sympathisers.

Fascist sympathisers usually turn a blind eye to the more extreme elements of fascist groups in order to further the parts of the groups’ philosophy they agree with. A good example of this is President of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte. Under his leadership, extrajudicial killings of drug users has skyrocketed, though he remains popular as the Filipino population turns a blind eye in favour of the economic growth the nation has seen under him.

And so Anti-Fascist Action believes it must also work against these fascist sympathising groups, and

this would include explicitly bigoted and discriminatory organisations, such as the topical Transgender Exclusionary Radical Feminist groups.

And it is this philosophy which the motion, named “Opposing Fascism, Far-Right Extremism, and all Forms of Discrimination”, builds itself upon.

The stickers around campus and the vitriolic online response to the motion has shown that there is an issue with transphobia in our University, there are people in our community who wish to deny the rights of transgender students and they unashamedly spread their harmful messaging on our campus.

Nobody is under any illusion that the motion will solve this issue by deplatforming harmful groups, but it’s a step in the right direction. Students should work together to show this vocal minority that their bigotry is unwanted on our campus, and to prove to them that we, as a community of students, want trans people to feel welcome; that we believe trans men are men, trans women are women, and nonbinary people are vibing in the void of nothingness.

horrific things, we as a society, should have the power to make people feel more at ease and here are some ways that society should integrate into daily routines:

late and though sometimes our social batteries can drain quickly, being in someone’s company doesn’t mean you have to keep talking with them every second, walking in silence is more than okay too, as long as it’s with someone and not alone.

Text me when you get home safe

By Rachel Garvey Following the recent news of Sarah Everard’s death, we can’t help but think about how we can help to prevent something so horrific from happening in the future. Social media was drowning in sexual assault/harassment awareness posts and how people, both male and female, should be looking out for one another when such situations arise.

There are people out there who walk to their buses after a late-night shift in work, or take a late-night walk because it’s a normal routine for them, but when you hear stories related to women being

attacked or kidnapped it does start to make us all very uneasy and a feeling of unsafeness sinks in. Walking to my bus stop every night after my shift is a daily ritual and it’s something that I’ve familiarised myself with, but nowadays I do feel a little on edge. I’m not the only woman out there who feels this, I know there are a generous number of women out there who feel the exact same, but perhaps using the word “generous” is unsuitable because the number of women effected by this is large, quite large.

Even though there is a certain feeling of helplessness that comes with the fear of becoming victim to such

A simple text We live in a world where our heads are constantly looking down on to a phone screen or how our precious devices are always stapled to our fingertips, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing especially when we use our mobile phones to keep communication open between family and friends. The power of one text cannot be emphasised enough. Three little words, “I’m home safe” hold a greater power than any of us will ever have the will to comprehend. You will not believe the feelings of relief and happiness that come with those texts. There’s always a certain adrenaline rush when we see someone typing to us, but that doesn’t compare to the smile on our faces when we hear that our loved ones are home safe. One simple text that will only take a few seconds to type. Do not underestimate that!

Strength in numbers If you’re out late at night whether it be running for your bus after work, or taking a walk, then it would be a smart option to have someone with you. Personally, I walk halfway to my bus stop with my close friend who works alongside me in work and there is no better feeling than having company beside you when you’re walking through dark quiet streets.

People don’t realise the importance of having a friend or family member with them if they’re out

Non-stranger danger When we were young, it was drilled into our heads not to talk to strangers and we still use that rule in this day and age, but we also need to take into account that not all strangers are dangerous. There is the concept of trying not to become involved in the business of others, but when it’s in relation to one’s safety then it should be okay to intervene, but only if you aren’t putting yourself in danger’s way too (a valuable lesson I learned during my First Aid Responder Training: Scene Safety). You see a woman at her bus stop and you can tell the male beside her is making her feel uncomfortable by getting too close to her, what do you do? It takes no effort to approach her and ask if she’s okay. What would you do if you witnessed a man grabbing a woman’s dress in a club and started pulling on it, but you can see from her facial expression that she’s terrified? It takes no effort to go over and escort her to safety or to alert one of the security guards on the door.

What I’m saying is it shouldn’t take any effort to make sure that the women in our society are safe.

Reality is scary, but it’s the people that live in our society that make it scarier and that is something we need to work on.

24 OPI NIO N Should the voting age be lowered in Ireland?

By Darren Casserly There have recently been calls for the voting age in Ireland to be lowered. It hasn’t been the first time that such calls have been made. There have been arguments against it which have revolved mainly around whether 16-year-olds are mature enough to vote intelligently in elections, and to partake in a process that may have a profound impact on the future. The response to this is, is there any real difference between 16 and 18, I have known 18-year-olds who have been far more immature and uninformed than many 16-year-olds. Maturity has nothing to do with age, at a certain point people are immature at any age.

It has been over 50 years since the voting age was lowered from 21 to 18 and in that time, education has gotten far better, and young people have a better understanding about important issues than ever before. It’s also not like this is a radical new idea. Dozens of countries around the world have already implemented it and it hasn’t ruined anything.

Lowering it to 16 means that thousands of more people can vote, making them even more engaged in important topics when they know they have a vote in it.

It is very odd what people think a 16-yearold can and cannot do, they can drive on the road, work full time, but not have a vote on things that greatly affect them. It is just a matter of time until it does, and the sooner its enacted the better. There is no downside to letting them have their say and if politicians are afraid of what could happen it’s probably a good thing.

There is definite resistance to this from politicians because it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that young people are generally more progressive and there is not a lot of politicians in Ireland who you could call that. I know first-hand when I was that age, politicians would come to the door campaigning for a local election and they never had any interest in talking to me because I didn’t have a vote. Changing this could mean that politicians would have to talk to everyone with a bit of respect because they can vote. Young people want to be respected, not talked down to.

It’s clear that this is an issue that won’t be brought about thanks to politicians.

It’s not a seismic change that will benefit millions or anything like that, but it is a change that is needed and is right.

SIN Vol. 22 Issue 11

NPHET has been unfairly blamed for the Government’s mishaps

By Darren Casserly Opinion Editor Over the past couple of months, the government has hid behind the National Public Health Emergency Team’s (NPHET) press conferences and Dr. Ronan Glynn’s comments, which have turned him into something of a lightning rod for people’s anger over this seemingly never-ending lockdown.

There is no roadmap back like there was last summer, it is very much a wait and see. This article has been written prior to the April 5th lockdown update, so we don’t know if anything changes or if we do have a bit more freedom. Especially in regard to the five-kilometre limit which has been hard for people and even more so for those who live in rural areas where five kilometres would barely bring you to a patrol station never mind a shop.

The few words we get from the government have not been of assurance either and the best example

of that was Leo Varadkar’s comment “The summer should be better”. These types of comments leave you with more questions than answers and leaves us in little doubt as to why NPHET has been left in the lurch recently.

This year has really warped what people believe NPHET is and what they can do, they don’t have control over anything to do with lockdown they can only make recommendations. It’s a different conversation whether they should announce it publicly before the government has made any kind of decision, and this could have added to people’s misinformed opinions about what their role is in this pandemic.

In saying all this, NPHET has been right in all their predictions and recommendations, from opening too quickly last summer to its warning of opening up for Christmas, we could be in a very different place if we had followed the advice for all of this. People have been annoyed at NPHET,

claiming that they are too conservative and that the numbers weren’t that high.

You have to look at the opinion polls in the national papers and wonder do people know Fine Gael are still in power and are equally to blame as Fianna Fáil? The last year has been a disaster for the government, and there are people who would happily see them stay in power for longer. It really shows how afraid some people are of change, even if they are in a bad situation like this one.

This lockdown has been nothing more than a sieve and NPHET are not to blame entirely for it, their support for keeping schools open should be criticized, but the government have been slow in putting in place basic barriers like mandatory hotel quarantining for people coming in the country to stop the spread of the virus. The vaccines are our last hope and if they don’t pick it up soon there could be hell to pay.

Is there any use for daylight savings anymore?

By Ian Casserly Rural Electrification, Flush Toilets, and the Women’s right to vote. All these ideas were far fetched at the time Daylight Savings were first introduced onto these shores back in May 1916.

Daylight Savings first came into the public conversation when the Kiwi, George Hudson proposed a two-hour time shift in the summertime all the way back in 1895. His fascination with this idea was brought about from his desire to hunt bugs in the summertime in the sun.

This desire for more sun hours in the day was common at this time as seven years after Hudson proposed this idea, William Willet the great-great grandfather of Coldplay’s Chris Martin independently thought up the idea of Daylight Savings whilst out horse riding.

He petitioned political leaders such as Winston Churchill for its introduction and unsurprisingly they agreed it was a good idea and should be implemented. Unfortunately for Willet, World War One was a slightly more pressing matter, and Daylight Savings was put on the long finger whilst they fought in Europe.

Ironically, Willet’s idea would be introduced but not for who or why he wanted it. As World War One continued to rage on, its effect on the resources of the German and Austro-Hungarian empires were catastrophic. The severe depletion that two years of war caused to their empire meant that they needed to innovate and try to find ways to conserve any resource necessary for the war effort.

Remembering Willet’s idea of Daylight Savings, the Germans were intrigued by this idea, but rather for its energy conservation application rather than leisure application. Daylight savings would allow for the Germans to have additional daytime while saving money and energy very necessary in a cola powered world.

The German Hungarians introduced Daylight Savings in early 1916 and were followed by almost every country around the world who thought they could also save money and energy.

Fast forward 100 years, there is electricity in the

countryside, flush toilets are no longer a luxury, women can now vote and there in no global war (depending on who you ask). In modern Ireland a one hour difference in daylight means very little, most people would rather get rid of the outdated idea because of such minor annoyances as changing the times on clocks. The hour of lost sleep already makes daylight savings far too great of a sacrifice inconvenience in my opinion.

As we have mostly moved on from 20th century life, Daylight Savings should recognise its place and get with the times.

Slow roll-out of Covid-19 vaccinations slowing hopes for a virus-free summer Keith Faherty Cases of Covid-19 in Galway and across the country are fluctuating from week to week.

For the entirety of this year and for a significant part of 2020 Ireland has been under tight Covid-19 restriction to keep case numbers down and death at a minimum.

The approval of vaccines for use in Ireland is seen as the way out of this cycle of strict lockdowns that we find ourselves in.

Progress on the vaccination front has left much

to be desired so far and slow rollout has led to widespread criticism from the public.

Former Fine Gael TD Seán Kyne feels that more vaccination centres are needed across the country.

Kyne said; “The total numbers of cases in Galway Is still quite high. More progress is needed on vaccinations, progression needs to be aided with the help of more access to vaccination services in the county.”

GPs play an important role of vaccinating the most vulnerable in their practices and in designated hubs across Galway such as Merlin Park.

After they receive their jab patients need to be

observed by GPs for a 15-minute period to ensure that they do not have an adverse reaction to the shot such as shoulder pain or sickness.

The locations of vaccination hubs across the country to allow for mass vaccination were announced by the HSE in February, with Ballybrit racecourse being home to Galway’s sole mass vaccination centre.

While this location is ideal for people be living out in the northeast side of Galway additional locations need to be determined for different areas in the county.

Locations such as Tuam in the north of the county, Ballinasloe in the east and Carraroe and

Clifden in the western part of county should also be considered as potential locations.

Kyne has suggested people living in Gaeltacht areas need to be provided with vaccination locations closer to their homes.

With the current months of uncertainty that lie ahead for us, and the slow progress of vaccination, some form of restrictions look set to be in place for the long term. If progress can rapidly improve to the point where 80% of the adult population are vaccinated by the summer, it will give people hope and relief of getting back to some normality.

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26 SPORT

SIN Vol. 22 Issue 11

Opening-day draw for Galway Utd vs 10-man Shelbourne SSE AIRTRICITY LEAGUE FIRST DIVISION

Galway United 0-0 Shelbourne FC

By Oisín Bradley Galway United pushed Shelbourne to the pin of their collars in the league opener under the floodlights in Eamonn Deacy Park, however there will be a sense of bitter disappointment for the Tribesmen as they couldn’t break the deadlock in a 0-0 draw on their home patch.

United made attempt after attempt to bang the door down, however a combination of a fine goalkeeping display from Brendan Clarke and misfiring up front saw Shels head back to the capital with sentiments of a point gained having been down to ten men for much of the clash.

It took all of 50 seconds for the visitors to put the men in white under the cosh at the back. Yoyo Mahdy’s attempt was blocked and fell favourably to JJ Lunney in a threatening position. Lunney’s snapshot skewed high and wide. An immaculate through ball from Shane Duggan mere seconds later had Padraic Cunningham cutting in with menace at the Shels defence, however his attempt from an acute angle was deflected behind for a corner.

Georgie Poynton’s free-kick from the left pocket caused consternation for Conor Kearns between the sticks, who had to be alert to palm the ball away from danger. Glen McCauley’s cross fizzed across

the face of goal and was begging to be converted, but no-one in the black of Shelbourne was able to get the all-important touch.

Mikie Rowe’s free-kick from distance in the 24th minute was powerful, but Brendan Clarke didn’t have to break sweat for his first save of the evening.

A minute later, some commotion from a free-kick saw Clarke have to show agility and put in a bit more effort to palm away Padraic Cunningham’s header amongst the chaos. From the resulting corner the ball was inches from crossing the goal-line, however the Shels’ defences blushes were spared by a fine goal-line clearance.

Whilst goalkeeper Clarke showed some silky footwork to evade the onrushing Cunningham earlier in the game his pass left a lot to be desired as he gifted possession to Ruairi Keating on the edge of the box. Keating was unable to pounce on the error however, as his attempt was wayward.

The game also saw the first red card of the First Division season, as Shelbourne’s Glen McCauley was shown the line five minutes from half time.

McCauley was sent for an early bath after a truly shocking tackle in the centre of the park.

An altercation followed where everyone piled in, and McCauley seemed to lead with his head as he made his feelings known towards David Hurley. If there was any doubt that the red card was coming it was eradicated then, as the Shels attacker saw red and gave Ian Morris’ charges a mountain to climb.

As the clock ticked into the red there were chances at either end. Firstly, it was the turn of the Tribesmen as the ball fell favourably to Shane Duggan, whose attempt inched over the bar. Conor Kearns had to be at his best to tip away a pinpoint Kevin O’Connor cross which was destined for the head of Mahdy to keep matters even at the changeover.

Michael O’Connor was sprung by Shels at halftime replacing Yoyo Mahdy, and Shelbourne fans would likely have been disappointed not to see more of last season’s top scorer in the division.

The hosts came dangerously close to drawing blood five minutes in, and had it not been for heroics by Clarke in the Shelbourne goal. Mikie Rowe showed strength to get beyond Ally Gilchrist and get his shot goalwards. The shot was parried back into Padraic Cunningham’s path, and his daisy-cutter produced a fantastic double save to keep Galway at bay.

Whilst Shels were notably on the back foot due to their numerical disadvantage, there was little room for complacency for the Galway rear-guard as the prowess on the pitch from the Tolka Park outfit was clear to see. Half-time substitute Michael O’Connor gave ample evidence of their potency as his beautiful curling effort had beaten Kearns before cannoning off the crossbar.

As the ball made its way to the other end, Clarke was once again ensuring that the clean sheet would be kept intact for the moment, reacting at short notice to keep Keating at bay.

As Galway raced away from the Shelbourne defence 70 minutes in, it seemed that the goal was at Shane Doherty’s mercy, however stellar defending from Max Kouogan kept Galway out once again.

Whilst United kept pushing to try and break the deadlock, the final pass always appeared to be just that bit off, and misplaced passes coupled with resolute work from Shelbourne on the back foot made life extremely difficult for Caulfield’s men.

The Galway manager made change after change as his side hunted blood in the season opener and kept asking questions of their recently relegated opposition. That being said, Shels always had the answer, and come the full-time whistle, it was abundantly clear which side would be happier with the result.

GALWAY UNITED: Conor Kearns, Conor O’Keefe, Stephen Walsh, Gary Boylan, Maurice Nugent, Ruairi Keating, Shane Duggan, Padraic Cunningham, David Hurley, Mikie Rowe, Conor McCormack.

SUBS: Shane Doherty for Rowe(60’), Colin Kelly for Walsh(82’), Wilson Waweru for Hurley(89’) SHELBOURNE FC: Brendan Clarke, Ally Gilchrist, Max Kouogun, Sean Quinn, George Poynton, Kevin O’Connor, JR Wilson, JJ Lunney, Yoyo Mahdy, Ryan Brennan, Glen McAuley.

SUBS: Michael O’Connor for Mahdy(HT), Bryan McManus for Brennan(60’), Shane Farrell for Poynton(85’) REFEREE: Eoin O’Shea.

Disappointment once again for Irish football as Galwegians miss out

By Jonathan Browne There were signs of improvement from Stephen Kenny’s Republic of Ireland team in their 3-2 defeat to Serbia in Belgrade, however come the full-time whistle in the Aviva stadium with a 1-0 defeat to Luxembourg to make the road to Qatar an uphill battle, those feelings of enthusiasm were dashed spectacularly.

The Serbia match was one where despite losing there were encouraging signs, but they evaporated after the Belgrade clash was followed up a couple nights later with another disappointing display against an unfancied Luxembourg side in Dublin.

Luxembourg were boasting some players who have played Champions’ League football this season while others have played in the Bundesliga and Ligue 1, while the Irish side was predominantly made up of Championship players. Young 19-yearold goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu, who is currently on loan at League One’s bottom side Rochdale from Manchester City, made his debut in goal.

Chances were created for Alan Browne and James Collins, who both should’ve had a goal or perhaps two.

But the Boys in Green were not clinical while Luxembourg played some nice football and threatened with a couple of half chances and speculative efforts. Ireland’s young goalkeeping debutant Gavin Bazunu looked good and more mature than his 19 years would tell you.

Ireland rued their missed opportunities, as five minutes from time Dynamo Kiev man Gerson Rodrigues took a shot early from outside the box and it nestled in the bottom corner as Luxembourg somehow took the lead at the Aviva. Ireland weren’t able to reply in time as they were left with two defeats from two to start their qualifying campaign.

A statistic which underlines the madness is that it was Luxembourg’s first away win since they beat Switzerland 2-1 in 2008 as Ireland now have only scored 3 goals in 9 games since Kenny took over last Summer.

It was a disappointing night for the Galway representatives in the squad also, as neither Daryl Horgan or Ryan Manning saw a minute of competitive action across the two games. Manning, who has impressed in the colours of Swansea in the run-up to the International break, always faced an uphill battle to usurp Enda Stephens at left back and so it proved.

Aaron Connolly did start the Serbia clash, however was ruled out for the dismal Luxembourg defeat. In his absence and with a goal vital in the closing exchanges on the Dublin turf, many would’ve expected to see Daryl Horgan sent on in an attempt to eke out the all-important result. However, Stephen Kenny instead opted for rising talent Troy Parrott.

Days earlier, there was a different sort of attitude in defeat for the Boys in Green, who were likely cursing the lack of VAR in the wake of the 3-2 Serbia defeat.

Ireland, who hadn’t scored since Stephen Kenny’s first match in charge away to Bulgaria in September, were able to miraculously open the scoring after 18 minutes through an Alan Browne header after a delightful Callum Robinson chipped cross. This

was Ireland’s first true chance of the match as they were on the back foot to a Serbia side with star names such as Sergej MilinkovićSavić and Luka Jović on the bench.

That didn’t matter however as Ajax star Dusan Tadić time and time again was dictating play as the Serbs mounted more and more pressure on the Irish defence. Kenny’s attempt of playing out from the back along with high pressure from Serbia led to mistakes in the Irish half and gave Serbia more opportunities to score.

The Boys in Green were to be outdone just before half-time as a Serbian goal kick landed to the former Southampton man Tadic and he slipped through in form Fiorentina striker Dusan Vlahović. Vlahović slotted it home to equalize it for the home side as it was a 1-1 tie at the break.

After a disappointing display by their standards, Serbian manager Dragan Stojković decided to bring on three substitutes in the early stages of the second half in the form of Fulham striker Alexsander Mitrović, Getafe midfielder Nemanja Maksimović and dynamic Eintracht Frankfurt winger Filip Kostić. These subs would most definitely change the favour to Serbia as they were able to attack down the left while pressuring Ireland towards their own goal and cause even more mistakes.

That said, when Ireland could break-out they looked good, even having a debatable penalty shout go against them as Galway man Connolly was tackled in the area. Perhaps with VAR a foul would’ve been given but without the technology Italian referee Davide Massa chose to just give the corner on this occasion, as Irish fans were left frustrated.

The gulf in class between the two sides however widened as the game went on and the scoreboard was reflected on 69th minute. Dusan Tadić yet again threaded a pass through out wide to Mitrović and with the Fulham man running towards the corner flag he hit an audacious chip over a suspiciously positioned Mark Travers in the Irish goal to give Serbia the lead.

The lead gave Serbia more comfort as they took a strangle hold of the match. Tadić completed a hat trick of assists as he lobbed in a cross much like Callum Robinson for the Irish goal into Mitrović and the Fulham man scored his second, becoming Serbia’s top goalscorer in the process and giving Serbia a 3-1 lead.

The Boys in Green kept looking for another goal, but you could really tell that these were a bunch of players that don’t get regular starts for their club and even if so, they aren’t playing at the Champions League quality that some of the Serbians are playing at. A consolation goal was scored however, as James Collins tapped it into an empty net to round out a 3-2 defeat for the Irish in the first match of World Cup Qualification.

Stephen Kenny’s side have now not won a competitive match since June 2019 when they beat Gibraltar 2-0 in Euro Qualifying, going 13 matches winless in the process. They will now need a result against a star-studded Portugal if they want a chance at heading to Qatar, but the odds are now against their favour more than ever Some have come out against Stephen Kenny, but Kenny was always going to be a long-term appointment and after years of underdevelopment and underinvestment from John Delaney and the FAI, we are now perhaps having to experience the worst Irish team ever. We are at the bottom of the long mountain we have to climb again if we want to reach the World Cup for the first time since 2002 and it will take time until we reach those heights again.

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28 SPORT

SIN Vol. 22 Issue 11

Honours even for Galway WFC as Kearns secures hat-trick.

SSE AIRTRICITY WOMEN’S NATIONAL LEAGUE

Galway WFC 3-3 Cork City

By Oisín Bradley at Eamonn Deacy Park Sports Editor

A fantastic strike in the dying embers from Cork City skipper Becky Cassin was enough to snatch a point from the jaws of defeat for her side, as Galway WFC relinquished their iron grip on a captivating and enthralling game of football in Terryland.

It was a game which was end to end, and not even a masterclass from Rachel Kearns could keep the women in green at bay.

The hosts dominated from the outset, and it was in keeping with the game that Cassin’s strike five minutes from time was totally against the run of play.

That said, there were plenty of positives to take from how Galway controlled the tempo of the game and were it not for an inspired performance from Abby McCarthy in the Cork goal there is no doubt where the three points would be resting.

Galway manager Billy Clery took the chance to offer three players their competitive bows for the club, including Slovenian ‘keeper Maja Zajc

and former Peamount defender Chloe Moloney.

For the visitors, it was a debut for Sarah McKevitt, whilst Sophie Liston was forced off in the opening exchanges following an unfortunate injury.

The Galway ladies had their Cork counterparts on the back foot from the off, and the pressure told at the first instance. Shauna Brennan’s corner was inch-perfect and found the head of Rachel Kearns.

Kearns leaped highest to get purchase on the ball and direct it past Abby McCarthy for the club’s first goal of the 2021 season, and a goal which they will feel was well-earned for their consistent pressure.

Only six minutes later, the ball was in the net via the prolific Kearns again. Some dogged pressing from both herself and Brennan saw them win the ball in the penalty area, before Brennan squared it to Kearns to make it a brace before the half-way point of Act One. Cork City struggled to find any sort of creative spark as Clery’s charges pinned them back time and again, and continued to make life difficult with aggressive pressing.

It came as a surprise when Cork pulled one back on the half-hour mark. It was against the run of play when Sarah McKevitt skipped past Savannah McCarthy on the left flank and fizzed a dangerous

ball along the turf and across the face of goal. Substitute Lauren Eaboloniu found herself unmarked on the far side, and her side-footed finish past the outstretched glove of Maja and over the line breathed life into the clash.

Seven minutes later, the visitors got their wish after a skewed clearance from net-minder Maja.

The new ‘keeper’s miskick fell to a Cork attacker and following some pinball the ball fell to the feet of Éabha O’Mahoney, who opened her body excellently to curl the ball into the far corner and level proceedings.

The penalty was only a brief reprieve from the goalkeeping heroics of the half, as McCarthy produced another fine stop to keep the goal-hungry Kearns at bay from long-range. McCarthy had to be quick off the line again in the 75th minute following a defensive mix-up. The red-hot goalkeeper was quick to smother the ball at Kearns’ boots 10 yards out.

It looked for all the world like it would be the hosts would be finishing the game with the three points in the bag, but such sentiments were turned on their head; once again against the run of play.

However, the elation of visitors lasted a mere 45 seconds. From the kick-off, captain Shauna Fox’s inquisitive ball into the box rebounded off the Cork defence and fell to Kearns. Kearns’ goal-scoring form showed no sign of slowing up, as she let the ball drop over her right shoulder and unleashed a sumptuous volley to re-establish her side’s dominance.

There was a sense of disappointment from the Galway WFC contingent at giving away two sloppy goals, however they couldn’t complain about their prowess in front of goal spearheaded by the talismanic Kearns.

The frequency of goals in the first half didn’t carry on in the opening stages of the second, although that said it certainly wasn’t for a want of trying. Zacj Maja redeemed herself in some style to deny Sarah McKevitt, before a magnificent double save on the hour mark from McCarthy.

McCarthy got down low to deny Kearns at the first point, before showing incredible reflexes to regain the ground and block Lynsey McKey’s daisy cutter.

Maja wasn’t to be outdone however and was at the peak of her powers to divert danger once more.

Galway squandered a golden opportunity to push the lead out to two for the second time of the afternoon after Lauren Walsh gave away a penalty for scything down Lynsey McKey who was barrelling towards the goal. Up stepped last year’s Under-17 captain Kate Slevin, however her accuracy was off as she arced over.

Éabha O’Mahony’s throw-in produced a scuffed Galway clearance. Cork skipper Becky Cassin latched onto the ball with a fantastic looping shot from 30 yards that dipped under the bar to earn the visitors from the South a share of the spoils.

Galway almost snuck the winner as the clock ticked into the red. Shauna Brennan’s floated free-kick found the head of Shauna Fox in the 91st minute, and it looked a dead cert that the ball would be nestling in the back of the net.

Once again however, luck was not in the favour of the hosts, and the ball rebounded outwards once again. As the full-time whistle shrilled, honours were even, and despite the best efforts of the hosts, they’ll have to settle for a point.

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GALWAY WFC: Zacj Maja, Shauna Brennan, Chloe Moloney, Kate Slevin, Shauna Fox, Therese Kinnevey, Savannah McCarthy, Rachel Kearns, Chloe Singleton, Lynsey McKey, Aoife Thompson.

SUBS: Elle O’Flaherty for Thompson(78').

CORK CITY: Abby McCarthy, Zara Foley, Lauren Singleton, Lauren Walsh, Danielle Burke, Eva Mangan, Éabha O’Mahony, Becky Cassin, Christina Dring, Sophie Liston, Sarah McKevitt.

SUBS: Lauren Eaboloniu for Liston(5'), Nathalie O’Brien for Singleton(HT), Laura Shine for Mangan(68'), Shaunagh McCarthy for Eaboloniu(87').

REFEREE: Joe Hession

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30 SPORT

SIN Vol. 22 Issue 11

“Adolescent girls should be encouraged to keep physical activity up for fun, even if they are not elite” Gymnastics coach Alannah Cunningham talks to SIN about the importance of physical activity during childhood and adolescence, as well as her own life experiences.

By Ethne Tierney Women and girls have long been an under-represented group in sport, and teenage girls in particular take part in sport and physical activity far less than the national average in Ireland. In Alannah Cunningham’s experience, a young coach from the Renmore Gymnastics Club in Galway, this is a pattern she often sees at the gym where she grew up, first as an athlete and later as a coach.

“There seems to be a drop out stage at this age where adolescent girls should be encouraged to keep physical activity up for fun, even if they are not elite” Alannah is a role model for the young gymnasts she coaches. The belief that a coach can play a key role in the physical and mental development of children is one of the reasons why she stays involved in the sport.

“You learn that hard work pays off when the training sessions are long and tough. You then see yourself improve and it’s worth it when it comes to the competitions.”

“Coaches help you push your boundaries when you are finding it physically tough or when you don’t believe in yourself”

Having been diagnosed with liver and bowel disease as well as having shorter limbs on her right-side, Alannah was involved with the sport since she was seven years old. The commitment to the sport took her mind off her health conditions and gave her a sense of purpose that now she strives to pass on to other adolescent females in love with gymnastics.

Although she does not compete anymore, she is determined to stay involved in the sport and now encourages a healthy lifestyle among girls with health issues.

“Sport does help build resilience, but when dealing with health issues it’s important not to over-exert yourself.

Knowing your limits and being comfortable taking rest is key to finding balance between health issues and sport” She was inspired to start gymnastics by an older cousin that encouraged her to participate in the Community Games.

She experienced social, physical, emotional, and cognitive benefits that helped her set healthy habits for the rest of her life. The sense of community and safety was important for her.

“I loved my friends, my coach and the variety and discipline the sport offered.

As I progressed and excelled, I grew to love the sport more and more.”

“It kept me very fit as a child and we were encouraged to eat healthy from a young age. It definitely kept me motivated as it’s such a progressive sport that leaves you wanting to improve and get better.”

Now she coaches in the very same gymnasium that she began practicing as a child. A few years after her retirement she became a certified coach as she got so much out of the sport, she wanted to get back into it in some way. Although passing valuable lessons that the youth can use in and out of the gymnasium is important, there is a social part to coaching in the club where she grew up. Many of the other coaches were gymnasts in her squad and older coaches that trained her in her youth.

However, according to Alannah the best part is seeing the kids you teach progress.

Her experience in the sport throws some light on the fact that participation in sport is not only about fitness.

It’s about community, sportsmanship, a way to cope with health or mental problems and mindset development.

“It’s extremely important to start to participate in sport at a young age as it helps

brain and muscle development which stand with them for life, as well as teaching them perseverance and determination.”

A recent report made by Sport Ireland shows that just 7% of girls aged between 14 and 15 are meeting recommended physical activity levels, one of the main reasons being because they do not think they are “sporty enough.” When asked what she would say to adolescent females in regard to this, Alannah said: “The more you put into the sport, the more you get out of it.

The main goal is to have fun and enjoy it!”

With initiatives such as The Adolescent Girls get active resource, Girls Get Active Hackathon online event, and their Women in Sport Broadcast Training among some programmes launched by Sport Ireland as part of their Women in Sport programme. This programme aims to have equal participation between males and females in sport. The gender gradient in sports participation has closed from 15.7% to 4.5% since 2007 according to the most recent Irish Sports Monitor, and it’s expected to get smaller in the future. Soon there will be more female coaches like Alannah acting as role models and proving that there is opportunities and benefits to physical activity during adolescence.

NUI Galway Announce Centre of Excellence Partnership with Basketball Ireland

By Oisín Bradley NUI Galway has struck an agreement with Basketball Ireland to become one of ten Centres of Excellence for the national basketball association which will be spread across the country.

The University is one of two centres to have been revealed so far by Basketball Ireland, with the other one being fellow third-level institution University of Ulster, Jordanstown.

In a statement from the Association, Basketball Ireland explained that NUI

Galway’s Centre of Excellence will provide access to expertise, such as strength and conditioning, sports medicine, sports psychology, diet and nutrition, sports management and administration, coach development and training. It will also have media and meeting facilities.

There are plans that the University’s facilities will be utilized by the international teams as a national training camp, whilst Basketball Ireland will also be availing of the facilities on-campus for a plethora of other events, including Basketball Ireland academies, international fixtures, national senior competitions, intervarsity competitions, along with local schools cups and blitzes.

Mike Heskin, Director of Sport and Physical Activity at NUI Galway said “we are very excited about this new partnership with Basketball Ireland’s High Performance Programme. The University has been developing partnerships with a number of the High Performance Sport programmes in Ireland, involving both domestic and Olympic sports.

“We are certain these partnerships will prove hugely beneficial to our Uni-

Aine McDonagh, NUI Galway Mystics and Ireland Underage International. Photo: NUI Galway Room for QP versity athletes by providing a clean pathway for them to achieve their athletic goals. We are especially delighted to be in partnership with Basketball Ireland to build on the existing relationship.”

Bernard O’Byrne, the CEO of Basketball Ireland, also expressed his excitement at the new arrangement, stating “we are delighted to be teaming up with NUI Galway who have wonderful facilities and a proven track record in sport, developing athletes for elite competition. This Centre of Excellence is a major infrastructural initiative by

Basketball Ireland to deliver world-class facilities and will give our international players and teams the best chance of success when they compete.

“These Centres of Excellence will be geographically spread, meaning there will be top of the range resources available to the local basketball communities in every corner of the country.

We want everyone participating in the sport to have the opportunity to fulfil their potential. We have seen a surge in interest in basketball in Ireland and we are determined to continue its growth.”

SPÓ IRT

April 06 2021

31

A campaign of ups and downs: Ireland’s Six Nations review

By Michael Bolton Ireland ended a mixed Six Nations campaign with a dominant 32-18 win over England, with many describing the performance as the best under Andy Farrell. Two brilliant tries from Keith Earls and Jack Conan showed just what this team was capable of, despite the struggles that the team endured early in the campaign with two defeats in a row against Wales and from this France.

The tournament did not finish until the following Friday due to the rescheduled France v Scotland game, Ireland held onto third place by the width of their fingertips after the dramatics in Paris.

Although the team will be disappointed coming away with no silverware from this campaign, the win against England showed just what this team is capable of.

From the beginning of this campaign Ireland were up against it. A number of key players, such as Garry Ringrose, Tadhg Furlong and James Lowe came into the competition with little game time due to injuries. In the opening game, a red card to Peter O’Mahony for dangerous play at the ruck made Ireland up against it from the start.

Despite a brave performance, the 14 men couldn’t leave Cardiff with a win due to poor discipline and individual errors. In the game, Johnny Sexton, James Ryan and Conor Murray all came off with injuries, making the challenge against France

all the more difficult. Despite the narrow 13-15 loss, France never looked like losing, which prompted criticism towards management as to where this team was going.

The depth at fly half was also something that is still a worry. Billy Burns mistake against Wales highlighted the gap between Sexton and the rest of the number 10s within the Ireland set-up. Ross Byrne has been unable to bring his form from Leinster to Ireland, while his highly valued brother Harry has not been giving an opportunity to show his quality. All eyes will be on Joey Carbery, who played almost 70 minutes for Munster in their PRO14 final defeat to Leinster late last month.

An injury free run will surely see him become the long-term successor to Sexton, who at 35, can’t go on forever.

Despite the struggles and issues that this campaign has highlighted, there is a number of positives that Andy Farrell will take away from this campaign. A number of players have stood up and made themselves counted for not only Ireland selection, but also for the Lions this summer. Second row Iain Henderson is arguably in this best form of his career right now.

Henderson won the second most lineouts, with the appointment of Paul O’Connell to the backroom team shown through his from. He also won the second most turnovers. The only player ahead of him, Tadhg Beirne. Between injuries and competition

Green light given for some easing of sporting restrictions

By Oisín Bradley Many key sporting organisations across Ireland have been given a renewed sense of hope and optimism following the release of new government restrictions, some of which have a significant impact on sports.

Last Tuesday, the Government announced their plans to ease some of the restrictions which have been in place since late December as part of the ‘Covid-19 Resilience and Recovery Plan 2021’ program. Upon glancing through the document, there were a few changes to the current rules that would catch the eye of those involved in sport both locally and nationally.

One of the key changes announced was the decision to permit the return of Senior inter-county GAA training and games. Per the announcement, from April 19th there can be a full return to all gaelic games, including Ladies’ Football and Camogie, as well as the return of League competitions such as the Allianz Leagues, the Lidl National Football League and The Littlewoods Ireland Camogie Leagues.

The announcement will be news to the ears of all involved in under-age sport as well, with the news that there is to be a resumption of underage training from the 26th of April. There will be some restrictions in place, such as the specification of training being non-contact and the limit of 15 people per training session, however many will likely be pleased at the option to get back to some form of action in the coming weeks.

Other sports that are considered ‘elite’ with high-performing athletes will also be given the green light to return to action providing they are granted clearance by Sport Ireland.

The GAA have stated that come the end of the week they will be releasing their roadmap on how they plan on returning to competition in the near future. In a statement from the President of the organization Larry McCarthy and Director General Tom Ryan, the pair confirmed that the organization would plan to have the findings of their discussions by the end of the week.

“We need to finalise competition structures and dates for the upcoming inter-county season, as well as ensuring advice is provided for all clubs in relation to how they can safely recommence underage activity (and in the case of the Six Counties, adult club training from April 12th).

“We also hope to have finalised updated versions of our Return to Play documents for both intercounty and club activity ahead of the stated dates for resumption North and South of the border.”

The CEO of the Football Association of Ireland Jonathan Hill welcomed the news that underage players would be celebrating a return to training in the near future, whilst also praising those members outside of the League of Ireland and Womens’ National League for their patience.

“Non-contact training in pods of 15 represents the start of a return for our game that will see all our players at all ages permitted to train and then to play in what we hope will be the near future.

This battle with Covid-19 has been so demanding for Irish society and our footballers have had to endure so much in Level five lockdown.

“We thank them for their perseverance and their patience.”

Golf and tennis players have also been handed a big boost with the news that both sports will be amongst the list of sports given permission to resume activities on the 26th.

in the second row, Beirne has never put together a solid run of form for Ireland, until now. Beirne showed with his performance against England why he’s currently regarded as one of Ireland’s most important players at the moment, outplaying his opposite number Maro Itoje.

Meanwhile in the centre, former Connacht player Robbie Henshaw has really shown his quality through this campaign. Making the most carriers against England, Henshaw has shown himself to be one of the players of the tournament and an invaluable asset to the Men in Green. The only question is does he play 12 or 13, having excelled at both.

The emergence of young players will also have been a highlight for Ireland throughout this campaign. Craig Casey made his debut in the tournament against Italy, and looks to be the long term replacement for Conor Murray for both Munster and Ireland. Casey will hope to add to his sole cap in the coming months. 21-year-old Ryan Baird is another exciting prospect that made his debut in this campaign.

Baird’s athletic build and work in the breakdown is similar to his provincial teammate James Ryan.

Baird’s work to win the winning penalty against Scotland shows what Irish fans have to look forward to. Hugo Keenan looks to be the long-term replacement to Rob Kearney at full-back, while Will Connors was performing well at seven until his injury.

As for Connacht involvement, some players will be disappointed at their lack of time on the pitch. Bundee Aki’s only appearance was against England, being unable to break the partnership of Ringrose and Henshaw until Ringrose’s injury. Aki’s energy and physicality made a big difference to the Irish team. However, his red card means he will be banned for four games, including the Challenge Cup last 16 tie against Leicester.

Ultan Dillane could only manage 20 minutes in the defeat to France, and may have fallen behind Ryan Baird in the pecking order in the second row. Meanwhile, Dave Heffernan could not force his way past Rob Herring and Ronan Kelleher to make an appearance. Despite these struggles, some players cannot be far away from a call up if they continue their form.

Alex Wootton was the joint top try scorer in the PRO14 with nine tries, earning him a permanent contract with the province. Jack Carty has shown signs of his 2019 form, and will feel frustrated he wasn’t part of this campaign, while Gavin Thornbury has been very consistent for the last two years.

If Ireland have a summer tour this year, they will be eager to be a part of it.

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