Griffiti Issue 52

Issue 52

Featuring GCD VS GCD

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WIN 2 tickets to the Rubber Bandits

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Fashion Design In Focus!

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Griffiti

Issue 52 November 2012 Contributors Abdul Michael Aine Geoghegan Aimee Doyle Alina Dylnova Amy O Loughlan Christine Fagerbakke Christina Erasmus Daniel Flynn Daniel James Diarmuid Crowley Drew Peacock Grainne Kennedy Jacquie Ryan James Dooely Lance Kerrigan Matthew Foyle Muhammad Sami Olenka Moore Orla O’ Neill Oscar Finn Robbie Robert (Bob) Purcell Stephen Donnery Theophane Dodeller Thomas Harte

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A letter from the Editor

re you well?

No, I thought not. Those assignments used to get me down in the dumps too.

Keep your head up though, they’ll be over soon.

Luckily, the SU have been hard at work organizing Welfare Week which starts on Monday November 26th. The poster is inside if you want a look at what we have planned for the week.

But I’m getting distracted, Issue 52! Abortion and Ireland’s stance on it has featured strongly in the media recently so we have our say on the matter.

We had this years Graduations during Assignment Week. It was great as always to see familiar faces back about the campus.

We even had Irish Poet and winner of the Nobel Prize for literature Seamus Heaney speak on the second day of Graduations. It was nothing short of an honor to sit in the same room as a living legend.

GCD sport has been interesting this month with our Soccer A team meeting our B team in the CUFL (College & University’s

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Football League) and our basketball team continuing their success from last year.

As ever, there is a lot to say about our entertainments. Our trip to Galway was the most fun I’ve have had in a long while.

The Halloween Ball was brilliant as always and we are all in eager anticipation of the Christmas Ball.

But I won’t shite on about all this here, it’s all inside if you want to know more!

Hope your all having a great year so far.

I know I am.

Ian Donegan, Editor

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State of the Union What have we been up to?

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SU News Halloween, Discovery and the like

01 4150 463

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Sport GCD VS GCD

Percision Print

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We’re getting there Children’s Referendum

Griffiti Magazine

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Abortion in Ireland Too Little to Late

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Like A Boss Interview with the makers of Swipe

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Party People Can you see yourself?

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Reviews Movies Music and Tech

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Creative Writing The Intruder

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In Focus: Fashion Design

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The Genuine Article Sir, SU, Sir!

Advertising Enquiries Printed by

Griffith College Students’ Union South Circular Road Dublin 8 Email: su.president@gcd.ie Griffith Magazine is the Students’ Union Publication at Griffith College.It was established in 2004.

All contents copyright of Griffiti, reproduction of any part of the magazine without permission is prohibited.

The views expressed in Griffiti do not necessarily reflect that of the college or the SU

state of the union Claire Aston Entertainments Officer

H

ey guys,

Safe to say, this month has been a hectic one and I am sure you all used assignment week as a means of well needed recovery, following the Halloween Ball and the Delphi Adventure Trip. The Halloween Ball was a great success with over 600 people attending and everyone in amazing costumes.

Congratulations to Tendai Muzwidzwa and Lorcan Mullally who made the shortlist for the best costume competition and to Malin Ydeskog (aka Lady Gaga) who won the tickets to go and see Chris Brown in the O2 on the 3rd of December.

We had people dressed in all kinds of costumes from ware-tigers to the batman brigade.

After Halloween, the Discovery Trip came right on time.

Although anyone expecting a weekend of relaxation on the west coast of Ireland was sadly mistaken as hill-walking to see the sights turned into a scene from Tarzan as students tore through the trees and fell into holes filled with what can only be described as sludge. Similary, what may of been pictured

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as a leisurely trip to the beach turned in to a fight between each person and there determination to stand on a surf board with the addition of the cold Irish sea which seemed to take everyone by surprise, but if all that along with wall-climbing and kyaking etc. wasn’t tiring enough there were 2 nights of drinking just to boost them energy levels.

Friday night consisted of drinks in the adventure centre which was kept lively by some of the sightly more energetic students until 5am, who then started all over again on Saturday night when we hit Westport for a night on the town. With incidence such as Stephen Donnery getting kicked out of the nightclub for being “inappropriate” with a country girl, along with Sean Flatley our resident Beer Pong king raiding the kitchen of the hotel and proceeding to cook himself some grilled chicken with parmaham, cream sauce and some boiled vegtables left from dinner. In most cases this wouldn’t go down to well but the fact that the security guard joined him, fills me with utter respect for him!

It is hard to believe it is still only Semester 1 and we still have the Christmas ball to come which will not disappoint. This will take place on the 12/12/12 which is a reason in itself to be out celebrating and we know just how to do that. With Ice-skating planned for during the day and then heading to D|two Nightclub.

We have Karaoke in the SU every Wednesday. I owe a quick apology to Jack Lawes one of our great band members who I left out of my last article, so my humble apologies to him.

See you all around & don’t be stressin’, few nagins, be grand.

Sean Alari Clubs & Societies Officer

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i Everyone,

I hope that you all finished assignment week without much stress. Having done it myself, I know what it’s like to have 3 or 4 or even 5 assignments to complete within a very short period of time. I wish you all the best with your results. The past month has also been quite hectic in the Students’ Union.

As of now lots of Clubs are already under way in their respective intercollegiate leagues.

The men’s basketball team soared to their first home success this season against Athlone IT. The game was tight but our boys managed to win by a ten point margin (51-41).

The men’s rugby team are on the back of two defeats.

However, the team spirit and commitment of our players has been outstanding from the start and I am sure that it can only get better from here.

The men’s football A team managed to top their group and narrowly lost against Mater Dei College in the cup.

The men’s second football team, have still qualified to play in the league quarterfinals.

Our badminton team travelled to IT Carlow. Aside from

the defeat, the team showed great enthusiasm.

Due to a few set backs, volleyball has had a slow start. However, both male and female teams are entered into their respective leagues that will require us to start playing our first matches very soon.

Special mention should be made for the passion that the girls have shown in these past few weeks at training.

Fencing training is still takes place on Thursdays (7.30pm) down at Basecamp Fitness on Pim Street. Our coach Doug Hazel is doing a great job and we will hopefully do well in the competitions that we will enter this season.

Our table tennis teams are due to compete in UCD in the first leg of the singles competition. Having won the second division last year, it will be a great test for our lads to see if they can compete with colleges like DKIT and UCD. It is heartbreaking to say that our boxing will not go ahead. However, kickboxing and taekwondo will be taking off as soon as possible so I hope you are still interested in joining.

I know I have not yet managed to start running all of the societies that I set out to organise. The reason for this is that I have so many things to do at once and it has become very challenging to be dedicated to 30 plus clubs & socs. This is why I will ask you to help me in the running of these societies, by simply putting your name forward and becoming a Head of Society or a Secretary of Society. I am sure that with a few simple adjustments you and I will be able to make it happen.

Enjoy this last month before the Christmas holidays!

All the best.

SU NEWS DISCOVERY TRIP 2012

for the first 10 minutes but then you get used to it and enjoy learning to ride the waves.

Another group went hiking.

They reached a point where their guides said “Ok, it’s getting dark soon so we have to go back. We can either go back the way we came or we can cut our own path through the swamp.” He pointed to an ominous looking forested area.

There were non-resolute murmurs until one student asserted “This is what we are

here for!” And so off they went through bog and trees (more than one humming the theme of The Lord of the Rings to themselves) until they returned back to the resort.

Also on offer was Jacob’s ladder, rock climbing, kayaking and more.

The next Discovery Trip in 2013 with talk of medieval castles and banquets. If the same amount (if not more) craic isn’t had, this writer will eat his hat.

Welfare Week Griffith College Studnets’ Union has it’s first ever Welfare Week and hopes it becomes an annual event

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hat time of year rolled around again and it was time for the Discovery Trip 2012. Entertainments Officer Claire Aston swore last year that she would break away from the norm as far as this event goes and she did just that.

T The Adventure Discovery Trip took two busloads of students from grey and stony Dublin to the rough and beautiful coast and moors of County Galway on the West of Ireland.

We went to Delphi Adventure Centre where a myriad of adventure based sports and activities are available.

There was no messing about. On arrival on Friday the first group went surfing. Now, you may think that surfing on the west coast in November would be cold and you would be right, but wetsuits work like magic. It is true that your hands and feet hurt like all hell

his year’s Welfare Week begins on Monday November 26th. Each day will concentrate on a different aspect of health and well being.

Monday is Mental Health Day. A number of speakers from different organisations that promote mental health will be giving a talk in A107 between 12:00pm – 2:00pm. These organizations are: Headline: Promotes responsible media coverage of mental Health 12:00pm Challenging Stigma (Promotes Awareness of Mental Health Issues) 12:30pm 1Life (Provide support to people feeling suicidal) 1:00pm Samaritans (Provides support for anyone in emotional distress) 1:30pm Tuesday is Sexual Health Day. Free condoms will be available around the college throughout the day and a sexual health speaker will be in V003 from 12:00 – 12:30pm Wednesday will be Physical

Health Day. There will be a Stress Management Speaker in AF103 from 1:00pm – 1:30pm.

Irish Heart Foundation with be in Arthur’s Bar from 12:00pm – 4:00pm. They will be testing Blood Pressure and also doing a Carbon Monoxide Test which will tell smokers (or anyone) how much carbon monoxide they have in their lungs.

At 6:00pm that evening, a personal trainer from RAW Gym will be doing a demonstration downstairs in the SU. They will showing us the best exercises to do in order to get in shape.

Finally, Thursday will be Drugs and Alcohol Day. There will be two speakers. One from Pearse Street Drugs Squad (12:00 – 12:30pm) and another from Alcoholics Anonymous (1:00pm).

You may not be struggling with any of the issues that this week deals with but there is every chance that someone in your is. So please spread the word during the week about the talks and activities and you might make someone’s life easier.

Welfare

Griffith College Students’ Union Presents

Week 2012

November Mon 26th Thurs 29th

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Karaoke Nights Wednesday Evenings in the SU

Costume Contest Winner Malin Ydeskog took the prize of two tickets to go see Chris Browne live at the O2 on December 3rd in the Best Costume Contest at this year’s Halloween Ball.

Three candidates were cho-

sen; Lorcan Mullally as a Vampire and Tendai Muzwidzwa as The Devil. It was put to the vote over the weekend and by Monday Malin was the clear winner.

Congratulations Malin and please enjoy the show.

SEE our facebook, Griffith SU, for more details Following the success of the SU’s Karaoke Night way back when during Freshers’ Week, Karaoke has become a regular event in the SU. Taking place in the SU in the evening time in the Common Room on Wednesdays. However, please check The Facebook Griffith SU before hand, if they are having an event or have something else going on on a particular Wednesday the SU staff will not be organizing this.

Sport Sports

A B Positive Griffith vs griffith The Griffith A and B football teams face off in a thrilling local darby

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his match was seen as a training match and a way to experiment with team tactics.

It most certainly did not play out that way. This was a full blooded affair between the Griffith A team and B team with crunching tackles goals and passion. The A team ran out 3-0 winners once again showing how crucial it is to be clinical with your chances.

Although the score line tells a story, it does not tell the whole story. Possession over the 90 minutes was certainly in favour of the B team and they kept the ball well with Captain Brian Porcello showing great moments of skill and vision throughout. As well as this the corner count was 14-2 in favour of the B team.

The early pressure came from the A team in the opening 15 minutes and there was nearly a freak goal as a looping cross from the left almost snuck straight in but luckily floated over. After the opening 15 minutes the balance of power shifted as the B team began to pass the ball with pace and accuracy. A great cross field ball from Chaudary was picked up by no. 7 Suleiman Akaubi which led to a great chance but was well saved by Kenny in nets for the A team.

Despite this the A team were able to score against the run of play just after the half hour. A great in swinging cross from

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Alexis Duchatel was brilliantly headed in

by Luke Hogan with his back to goal, 1-0 to the A team.

There was consistent pressure from the B team after the restart, yet once again they conceded on 38 minutes from a quick break. Some good feet from the A teams captain, Stephen Donnery gave him the space to play a good ball down the line to Jordan O’ Dwyer. He took the shot from a tight angle, but the B teams keeper let it slip through and it was 2-0 to the A team with two goals in the space of eight minutes.

After this setback it was clear that the B tem were determined to get a goal back just before half time so they had something to push on with in the second half. On 45 minutes, Suleiman Akaubi was running in on goal and had options to his right. He elected to shoot but it was well saved by the A teams keeper. At half time the score was 2-0 to the A team.

The second half was once again the B’s dominating possession and showing good touch all over the park despite the injury to defensive linchpin Jesper Pederseu on 50 minutes. He was promptly replaced by Shay Abiola.

Despite the full blooded passion on show the game was not without its moments of humour with Stephen Donnery

by Daniel Flynn sweeping the leg away from Sean Alari on the touchline. Whether it was deliberate or not, only Stephen can give you the answer.

As the B team pressed and pressed for that elusive goal they left themselves more susceptible to a counter attack. It was because of this that they eventually conceded for the third time on 78 minutes.

A low cross from the right was not dealt with by the B teams defence and after a bit of pinball in the box, the ball was stabbed in

by Vinicius Luz, who came on earlier in the half for Soufiaue Lotli.

Despite one more chance for the B team from substitute Amderssom, which brought about a good save, it proved in vein as the game finished 3-0 to the A team.

After the match it was evident that the B team’s Captain, Porcello, felt it was a chance missed. “3-0 is very hard on us. We played good football but just could not take our chances. We played good football throughout and probably should have had more from the game but I feel on another day we could beat them, we just need to be more clinical.”

Overall it seems there is much promise in both these teams and with both of them competing this year, a lot will be expected.

Some good football was on show and one can only hope this form is brought into the other matches this year.

GCD Basketball Team continue last year’s success

by Abdul Michael

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fter winning the championship for division 3 of college basketball league 2011-2012, Griffith College Basketball Team has been moved to division 2 which is a much more difficult tournament On 8th November we had our first game of the year with Athlone IT in a home game. During the game, 3rd quarter, when we were losing 6 points down our new team player Sean Flatley impressed us by “making it rain” with 3 three-pointers in a row and brought us the lead up by 3. All members played well and kept the lead and we earned our first win for the year with score 51 to 41.

Coach Dave Baker (pictured with his team) continues to be delighted with his team.

National College Ireland by in seventh Stephen heaven Donnery

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hat-trick from Robbie Byrne helped see National College of Ireland (NCI) run out easy winners against GCD’s second panel.

GCD didn’t get off to the best of starts in today’s Division 3 opener in Clontarf.

NCI pressured right from the start and two goals in the 21st and 22nd minute saw many of the GCD heads drop.

Tolami Olowu was simply given too

Athlone at last

much room in the 21st minute and accepted the challenge in shooting from distance as he witnessed his shot find the top left hand corner.

It was followed a minute later when Tolami latched onto a sloppy kick out from Xavier, who found his inch perfect pass find the feet of who Matt Whelan calmly slotted passed GCD keeper Timm Hermann.

Hermann was called upon once again in the 26th minute when a beautiful over the top ball from Ste Cleary found Matt Whelan, however Hermann stood his ground to save comfortably. However five minutes into the second half and the game was over as good work from BJ found Byrne in acres of space and calmly slotted into the bottom right hand corner.

Fifty minutes in and it was 4:0 when Johnny Kennedy ran untouched from left back to drive his shot into the bottom right hand corner.

It then went from bad to worse as

GCD Rugby Team faces Atlone IT by Thomas Harte

everything NCI did seemed to turn to goal.

Sixty minutes into the game saw an ambitious cross from Sean Tucker find the top left hand corner for goal number five.

GCD did find a consolation goal with twenty minutes left when a pinpoint ball from Martin found Suleiman who controlled the ball expertly before beautifully slotting his shot past NCI keeper Iain MacMab. But GCD’s joy was short lived as beautiful trickery from Byrne saw him make his way into the oppositions penalty area before scoring his second of the match.

Byrne did finish the scoring for the game with his hat-trick as another blistering strike found its way past Hermann.

The last opportunity of the game fell to GCD, as a tantalising run from James McHugh saw him brought down, but unfortunately Bryan Porcello’s sweetly struck free-kick was easily collected by Iain MacNab. The game finished 7-1 to NCI.

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assing by Griffith was poor, with frequent knocking of the ball forward and dropping it too. This gave the opposition numerous chances to take penalties against us.

After 26 minutes, the Griffith boys finally scored their first penalty; but by that time, the score was already 15-3 to AIT. The Griffith guys finally got into match spirit in the second half, following that penalty. They got back at AIT with more forceful play from the forward row.

The forwards opted for the scrum option, making it the first of the game. We got very near their 22-line and had the chance for a tri-score. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen as we lost possession of the ball in the scrum and it was taken back down the pitch by AIT. Now with the score at 34-3. The final score of the match was 46-3.

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Features

We’re getting there Just not fast enough

Although a Yes vote in the Children’s Referendum was a step in the right direction it was not nearly big enough.

By James Dooley

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he Children’s Referendum should have been the hot topic of the past few months.

Yet despite the fact that it was to change the most important document on which the Irish State rests, there was little or no debate for much of the run up to voting day. Many of us are still unsure as to what the implications of our vote are. Yet this referendum has not been taken on a whim. In fact millions of euro has gone into the research alone in order to get us to this point. The calls for a change to the Irish Constitution have spanned

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decades. Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore has said that although it has always been the aspiration of this State to protect children it was excluded when the 1937 Constitution was written. Children currently have rights under the Constitution but they are not explicit rights. Special Rapporteur on child protection Geoffrey Shannon has also stated that “The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, the international standard-setter, has called on Ireland on

have called on Ireland to institute constitutional change.”

The Irish Constitution was written in the Ireland of 1937. Society of that time in many respects was worlds apart from us today. Children were not viewed so much as individuals and were to be ‘seen and not heard’. Currently, the only specific rights children have in the constitution are that of free primary education.

The constitution prior to the referendum recognises in some respects different rights for different children based on whether their parents are married or not.

Children from a married family find their rights in Articles 41 and 42 of the Constitution which hold that their best interests are to be found within the marital family. This means that these children have rights as part of the family unit rather than as individuals. How-

If political will is not there to pursue change it will not happen two occasions to introduce constitutional reform to enshrine the rights of children in the Constitution,” he said. “Not only domestic bodies but international bodies

ever, children from unmarried families find their rights under ‘personal rights’ in Article 40.3. One problem that the referendum could solve would be the constitutional barriers that may impede child protection.

Article 42.5 does currently allow State intervention “in exceptional cases where the parents for physical or moral reasons fail in their duty towards their children”.

This has allowed for the creation of certain limited child protection legislation including the Child Care Act 1991, Constitution still serves as a legal impediment to child care practices. However, the Ombudsman for Children and several others in this area having claimed this threshold to allow State intervention is so high that it can be regarded an impediment to child protection. Especially relating to the adoption of children from a martial family who are now within state care. On the 19th of September 2012 the government published new legislation providing for the voluntary adoption of children of married parents.

Children’s minister Frances Fitzgerald has pointed to previous cases of children on the verge of adulthood who had gone to court to be legally adopted by their foster parents, but failed the rigorous test currently laid down by the Irish courts in respect of this.

Chairperson of the Referendum Commission Ms Justice Finlay Geoghegan said in October that the new amendment explicitly recognises children’s rights and places an obligation on the state to defend and maintain those rights. She said the amendment allows State intervention where parents fail in their duty to the point where the safety and welfare of the child might be detrimentally affected. In effect, it will give legal equality to children irrespective of the status of their parents.

Importantly however Children’s minister Frances Fitzgerald has also said “There is a huge focus from a regulatory point of view to intervene first to help families/the whole focus of our childcare legislation is to work with families in a supportive way.”

This referendum has been such a long time coming, and yet it is only the beginning for change. It is an important starting point as the amendment does not recommend legislation to support children’s best interests in many other aspects of their lives. It makes no express mention of areas of Government policy like child poverty, school support services, disability services, asylum-seekers’ accommodation etc. The amendment refers to children’s rights as their ‘natural and imprescriptable rights’ which some critics have claimed is too vague. The rights of the child are outlined by the United Nations in the ‘Convention on the Rights of the Child’ which has been ratified by Ireland. Despite this the amendment does not refer to this convention.

Our duty does not end with the casting of our vote. Connor O’Mahony, a lecturer in constitutional law at UCC has pointed out that much of the substance of the amend-

ment will in fact be found in legislation, “this proposal has become a bit more ambiguous because instead of stating that the best interest principle is a constitutional obligation of the state or instead of stating that the right to be heard is a constitutional right of the child it has preceded those principles by the words ‘provision should be made by law’, in other words what that

Irish society has a dark and disturing past where its children are involved

means is that those principles shall be legislated for by the Oireachtas, so instead of the right to be heard being a constitutional right of the child it will now be a legislative right of the child”. As a result it is important that we as a society ensure that the legislation is appropriate and most importantly implemented.

Judge Ann Ryan, in a case involving a seventeen year old girl at the Dublin Children’s Court last October said the shortage of places for children needing special therapeutic care was “a shame, a sin, and a disgrace”. She said “It is a joke listening to the children’s referendum — nothing changes, and nothing will change with the referendum, the bottom line is the same as the first day I sat in this court.”

No change will be forthcoming without extra funding, staff and facilities. If a child-at-risks’ ‘Best Interests’ are to be of the utmost importance, then this funding is crucial. Peter Grady, a commentator on children’s rights has said that a “Lack of resources too often means a lack of support for carers and frequent changes of carer which is very damaging for the child’s emotional security in relationships. There is still no emergency out-of-hours child protection service and children are routinely brought to Garda stations or hospitals for help because there is nowhere else to go…

If resources for children improve children will do better, but if there are cuts then

children will suffer.”

Irish society has a dark and disturbing past where its children are involved. It has for far too long turned a blind eye to the atrocities visited upon its weakest and most vulnerable members.

The constitutional amendment is worthless unless society accepts responsibility for the welfare of its children. Political commentator Vincent Browne has claimed “This referendum campaign is part of the concerted denial of how we could hardly care less about very many of our children and once it is passed, there will be reason not to care at all, in the illusion that we have done our bit by voting ‘Yes’.” As much as it would be easy to brush this off as mere pessimistic outlook, it is most telling that The Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, which had initiated the SAVI report, has been systematically refused funding from government to have another survey conducted regarding such abuse in order to understand the scale of the resources required today.

It is clear that a close eye must be kept on the legislator and child care policy. If we care about the children in this state, it is our duty to keep ourselves informed on child care policy and to ensure that no injustice goes on heard as well as ensuring a stringent frame work for protection is in place to limit any such abuses. It is also our duty to ensure our politicians support the necessary changes required and most importantly provide adequate funding.

The SAVI report is only one of several condemnations on our society’s history of blissful ignorance regarding child abuse.

The infamous Kilkenny Incest Investigation 1993 pointed out that the special position given to the family unit may consciously or unconsciously be interpreted as giving a higher value to parent’s rights rather than the rights of children. Then there is the Ryan Report, published in May 2009, which exposed systematic abuse of children living in institutions throughout the country that spanned half a century. The extent of this abuse was greatly contributed to by societal attitudes. Despite this report again little or no action was taken. There was a general feeling among us as a society that again, this was all in the past. That is not so.

The recent St. Patricks Institute Report, a follow on from the Prison Chaplains Report from two years ago shows us that our society is no more advanced in its protection than it was twenty years ago and can be just as blasé and heartless.

The constitutional amendment does change the law on the adoption of children of married parents which is an important step forward. However it is argued that it is not going far enough. If political will is not there to pursue change it will not happen.

Political will stems from one place, us the people. What we want, what we shout for, what we demand. Let this referendum have been a turning point in all our attitudes towards child protection and in moving society forward.

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Irish Abortion Referendum Amy O Loughlan

Will the rumoured 2013 Abortion Referendum be made redundent as we now have a clinic in Ireland

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hat topic that can turn friends to foes and divide a dinner table in a shot, abortion.

Whether you’ve had one, know someone who’s had one or have a strong opinion on it. It is something with which many countries have moved with the times and made legal, giving women the choice of whether to become mothers or not. In an age when casual sex is a part of many peoples Saturday night it comes as no surprise that women are crying out for more options.

After all, most women who are of age and sexually active do take all the right measures to protect themselves from an unplanned pregnancy.

But it cannot be forgotten that condoms (the highest used measure of contraception) are only 97% effective. How many of us could forget Ross’s meltdown over a box of condoms when Rachel became pregnant on Friends.

And in this writer’s opinion, it probably had most men running to their bedside lockers to check the facts and figures.

There is now a strong prediction of a referendum being called for the legalisation of abortion in the Republic of Ireland in 2013. The last referendum on abortion in this country was held in 2002 with the population voting against the illegalisation by a landslide victory of 51%. Since this event, there have been major cases of young girls wanting abortion due to rape and risk to the mothers/babies health. Forgetting for a moment that women simply not wanting children or being in to difficult a financial or mental standpoint in their lives to have children, there are a rising number of girls under the legal age of sexual consent (17 years old) falling pregnant in this country.

Children are now raising children, giving away their lives because they have no choice otherwise. The only other choice to these young mothers in this country presently is adoption. While this is a great option and allows parents who cannot have their own children to have a family, it is an impossible mental burden to ask of any girl. A child the age of 15 can barely make the decision of what jeans to wear on a night out, let alone the decision to give away their child after carrying it for 9 months.

With Ireland desperately behind the times in these issues, one clinic in Northern Ireland has taken a step closer to revolutionising this issue in our fair Emerald Isle.

The Marie Stopes women’s health clinic group has, as of the 18th of October opened their latest branch in Belfast. The clinic is the first of its kind to ever open on the Island of Ireland. It is operating under legislation in place in the United Kingdom, which allows the administrating of medical abortions. Northern Ireland however, while a member of the United Kingdom does not operate under as loose rules when it comes to abortion.

When the 1967 Abortion Act legalized terminations in the United Kingdom it was not extended to Northern Ireland. The English Parliament at the time left it up to Northern Ireland’s own parliament to decide. The Northern parliament never made a point to refuse or accept the illegalization of the issue and even when Direct Rule returned, the Act was never extended to include the province.

In the UK, it is completely legal to administer an abortion up to the point of 24 weeks into the pregnancy. The Marie Stopes clinic in Belfast will only administer them up to the point of 9 weeks into the pregnancy and only if it is mentally or physically harmful to the mother to be pregnant.

While there have been protests against the clinic before and since it’s opening, it is unlikely it will bow to the criticism.

Girls don’t even have to leave their own country to avail of the procedure

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With the abortion clinic in Belfast now operational, girls now have the option to simply take the bus to the clinic. Will the possible referendum in 2013 be of any consequence?

Whether or not it is legalized in the Republic, the option is still there. After all, from Belfast to Dublin is only 3 hours by bus, theoretically a women could be home for supper without anyone knowing. The much used cover story of visiting relatives in England for the weekend is now obsolete. Girls don’t even have to leave their own country to avail of the procedure.

I’m afraid, my dear Republic; you are too little too late.

This has been one argument on Abortion. Griffiti invites anyone who would like to write a counter statement to do so.

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1.

Fa c ab ts o ab ut o in rtion Ire lan d

Abortion is illegal in the state of the Republic of Ireland. Except is when there is a substantial risk to the life of the mother and is at the discretion of the operating doctor.

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It is completely legal to provide information to people in Ireland about abortion services abroad, a doctor can provide information on clinics aboard which offer the service, even give them number to contact.

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However, it is illegal for a doctor or a one-to-one counselor to encourage or advocate an abortion in individual cases

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It is also illegal to make an appointment with a clinic on behalf of a pregnant woman

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It is also legal for women to travel abroad to avail of abortion services. A doctor in Ireland then has a duty to provide care, support and follow-up services for those women on their return.

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Figures released by the Department of Health in the UK showed that 4,402 women gave Irish addresses when attending clinics to have terminations during 2010.

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A Sunday Times polled 923 randomly selected people. This survey showed that 80% of these voters would support a change to the law to allow abortion where the life of the woman was at risk, with 16% opposed and the final 4% undecided.

Like a Boss

During your evenings scrolling across the internet you might have come across some clips of the like of travellers calling each other out over the internet, Shite Irish Lads Say, the Eurovision, Christmas ads or even Tallafornia; Ireland’s answer to Jersey Shore.What you might not have come across are the 2 Irish guys giving us their thoughts on them. Peter Ganley and Chris Greene of ‘Final Boss Media’ compile the best (and worst) of them into 1 video adding their unique commentary.

By Robbie Purcell

G

riffiti spoke to Peter Ganley, founder of Final Boss Media, about where he got the idea to ‘swipe’ Irish and internet phenomena, why he thinks his videos have become popular both sides of the Atlantic, being ‘threatened’ on the street and if he and Chris have any plans to go back into TV or other areas of media apart from YouTube.

Peter and Chris first met each other while they were both working for iRadio which is one of Ireland’s regional radio stations. They worked on different types of shows at the station with Chris working on a music based show while Peter worked on a more talk based

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show. Asking him why he decided to leave, Peter said: “I wasn’t really that happy on a talk show and radio in Ireland is fairly restrictive on what you can say anyway.”

“I left iRadio last year and started putting up videos of things that just annoyed me.” Starting out on his own he confesses he wasn’t the greatest at video editing with just a degree in Journalism behind him. That was where Chris came on board. “When you get down to it, once you know how to edit audio, editing video isn’t that much different.”

The first big break came with TV3’s Tallafornia and their views on the stars of the show. The first video they posted, which was of the promo of the show, received international attention. “We made the video for the craic. We didn’t think anything would come of it but Chris woke me up one morning and told me to look on Reddit.

Someone had seen the video and the link they posted had made it to the front page.”

The videos of Final Boss Media have now become successful both domestically and internationally. We asked Peter why he thinks people like them so much: “I think anyone with an IQ higher than a frog can see Tallafornia is shit but at the same time it’s so shit it’s good and you can’t turn it off. I think people like to know they’re not the only one wondering what the fuck have they just seen. It’s a kind of escape for people I suppose.”

The Youtube channel has over 4 million views. That’s roughly 12 thousand a day over the year

”

Each video uploaded so far is, on average, about 6 minutes long.

Peter and Chris make their talking over each other and joking look natural and easy but as Peter told Griffiti a lot of work goes into making and editing just one video. “Because of the shows we take the mick out of there aren’t many torrents on the internet so usually we’d just use screen capture and watch them on the TV3 player or one of those players so we can put them on the green screen and then there’s about 16 hours of editing to do for each video. A lot of work goes into each video but it’s like anything, the easier it looks the more hard work has gone into it behind the scenes.”

“There is a lot of work and editing that goes into each one and I might make it sound like I don’t fully enjoy it but I genuinely love doing them. They’re great fun to do.” So it seems as if Peter has found the Holy Grail; getting paid for a job he genuinely loves to do.

Even with the success of the videos Peter says that he doesn’t get recognised often or that it’s mostly if he’s attending a student night or something along those lines. He’s said he thinks it’s funny when he is spotted in the street: “I think it’s funny that someone who recognises me does it for me doing something that I edit in my kitchen having a cup of tea and eating toast.” When we asked if he had any funny stories of being recognised on the street he starting laughing and told me of a story after he and Chris had done the ‘Traveller Fight Swipe.’ “I was walking down the road in Athlone and a van started to slow down.

They rolled down the window and two ‘slightly intimidating’ gents inside just shouted at me “Hey! Are you on the internet?!” and all I could think to say was “Yes, I’m on the internet.” I could only answer what they had asked but that was the most aggressive, funny thing that’s happened to me.”

Recently, the guys have taken to the street as part of what could be their new series. ‘Street Swipe’ so far has one edition uploaded. The first edition focused on “What’s the best cure for a hangover?” As you

“

can imagine the answers given by the Irish are the full range of weird and wonderful while the answers of people from other countries are probably going to actually cure your hangover.

I asked Peter if Street Swipe was what they were going to be focusing on for the time being or if a Tallafornia Swipe season 2 is in the works: “I’d like to do more street swipes alright. It was fun going out and meeting people instead of doing it all in the kitchen, it was a cool change. As for Tallafornia, I don’t think we could top last year’s Tallafornia finale with Cormac’s outro.

So, no, I don’t think we’ll do season two but maybe an international version with Jersey Shore, Geordie Shore and The Valleys.”

Peter and Chris haven’t just appeared on our computer screens though. No, they made their TV debut on TV3 on the Tallafornia wrap up show; showing some of the series’ funniest/cringiest moments.

“TV3 was a great experience for us but there’s nothing else planned with TV3. They don’t much do comedy series so they don’t really suit us but I couldn’t say a bad word about the people at TV3.”

The past year for Peter and Chris has surpassed, probably, both their expectations. The Youtube channel has over 4 million views. That’s roughly 12 thousand a day over the year if you want to break it down.

“It’s been a great year, but for next year I think we’re going to branch out, maybe try to more street swipes. We’re going to go back to TV but it’s more than likely going to be in England rather than Ireland.”

So if after reading this you watch any swipe videos (Griffiti highly recommends them) and want to do something like yourself, Peter has advice for anyone interested in it: “All you have to do is look at us two, we’re not “YouTubers” in the sense we don’t spend much time on YouTube. We make videos about the stuff that interests us and the things we like.”

So there you have it; the insider secret to YouTube success. Now go forth and be the next online sensation.

I think anyone with an IQ higher than a frog can see that Tallafornia is shit but at the same time it’s so shit it’s good

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y t r a P e l p o e P

Reviews

Two Tech pages This month it’s an Orchard of gadgets from Apple, Newsweek replacing print-media with digital,We are living “life without wires”, Analysing our Facebook friends, checking out the latest tech featured in Skyfall. And “May the force be with you” as you play the latest Angry Birds Game.

by Lance Kerrigan

Apple Apple launched a parade of products at their October 23rd conference with new Mac’s, upgrades for iBooks Author and of course the highly anticipated Ipad Mini. Apple certainly surprised us all with a 4th Generation Ipad, overshadowed by its premature arrival.

Apple launched a new upgrade to the Mac Mini, that’s Apples smallest desktop Mac. This time it’s twice as fast with the i5 and i7 Intel processers. Starting at €659 for the i5 500GB HDD, this makes a powerful but affordable desktop mac for many customers, who want to join the Macintosh ecosystem.

The next Mac is the 13-inch MacBook Pro, Apples biggest selling Mac. The MacBook Pro laptop has been slimed down to a mere 1.9cm. (The Previous been 2.41cm) Powered by an i5 processor this laptop comes with that beautiful retina display, 128 or 256 GB storage capacity on flash memory, a HDMI port, 2 USB3 ports and two thunderbolt ports. Of course to pack in all this we loose the optical disk drive. A user can expect to get up to 7 hours of battery life. Another key feature with the MacBook Pro’s is Power Nap, this allows your computer to continue updating calendar invitations, pull emails, backup to time Machine and download updates while the computer is sleeping. The 13 inch MacBook pro starts at €1799.

But Apple didn’t stop there, they also lunched a 4th generation 10 inch Ipad, Twice the speed. Putting aside this great new model, the launch was overshadowed by the fact that this comes seven months after the release of iPad 3, which is unorthodox for Apple and left those who purchased that ipad3 on a limb, considering Apple Products get at least 12 months before they become the “old model”.

However the 4-generation is a fantastic upgrade, if you are due one, its worth it.

Facebook Analysis Facebook’s data on you is quite extensive, especially if you are one of those users who loves to wear your heart on your cyber sleeve, that’s what millions of us are doing, every little detail of our lives is posted on Facebook. From Marriages and relationship, to what you just eat, saw or even purchased. Of course we have a large number of friends doing the exact same and when everyone’s data is pooled together this can gather some very interesting stats.

Finally iMac. The iMac computers are Apples ‘All in one’ desktop, and over the years they’ve slimed down iMac from a bulky monitor style machine to a thin display, however the 2012 upgrade has an amazing 40% less volume than the previous generation, making the 2012 iMac only 5mm at its edge. This computer is remarkably thin, yet packs in all the power and more of its predecessor.

It also comes with Apples new Fusion drive, this is a combined hard and flash drive where data is managed on either a flash based memory or Hard disk drive memory depending on which is frequently used and demanded at speed.

It’s unclear yet how much the iMac will sell for in Ireland. We can expect it to be available to order later this month.

Of course this is a brief outline of the main specs found in these new devices, for a full detailed description I recommend checking out Apples website.

But the biggest and most eagerly awaited news was the 7.9-inch Ipad mini. Years of rumours of a smaller tablet have now been put to rest. The Ipad mini is Apple attempt to be more competitive with the Amazon Kindle Fire and Google’s Nexus 7, who’s target market is those who want an e-reader style tablet. However with the €339 Price tag, it will be a challenge for Apple to be competitive with Google and Amazon considering their competing tablets in this range are cheaper. Perhaps Apple are looking at iPad Mini to be a more premium style in this range. In saying that, Apple reported Ipad mini sales of over 3 Million over the first weekend of November.

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iPad mini

Answer engine Wolfram Alpha have decided to develope an exciting new tool for Facebook users, to gather this data in a collective and readable format. Wolfram Aplha specialise in collecting data to make it easier for anyone to get answers and knowledge any time any place. What they have created is a tool that lets you analysis your Facebook’s profile for statistics on everyday activates, likes, comments, uploads and general time spend on your profile.

It takes just a few steps and allowing the tool access to your account like most other Facebook Apps and with a brief wait, you have a detailed analysis on your profile. With Text and graphs you get a great insight into things like the percent of uploads you make verse comments posted, or how many likes you made, It shows your most liked post or what friends comment on your profile the most. But here is where it gets fascinating. You can collect data on the percentage of Male friends verse Female, and what percentages are single or in relationships. Information could show whether there is an equal amount of single people as in relationships or if there are more single males than females.

Angry Birds Star Wars November 8th saw the release of the latest angry birds mobile game. This time those angry birds will join forces with the intergalactic heroes of Star Wars. Rovio, the makers of Angry Birds announced last month that the popular game will join forces with the epic blockbuster to bring a game with a Star wars theme, but the fun and excitement of an angry Birds adventure. The game brings together the powers of lightsabers, laser beams, ‘the force’ and of course the favoured angry bird powers seen in previous games.

Newsweek Although not well-known in Ireland, Newsweek is Americas second-largest weekly news magazine, however it was themselves providing some significant news last month when they announced that December 31st will be their final printed publication and that their magazine will from January 2013 onwards be digitally published only. This is a significant step forward for digital media and perhaps the begging of the end for printed media. This comes at no shock to the magazine world, an industry that is rapidly changing, seeing more digital publications of its works.

Life Without Wires BitBuzz is a wireless Internet service who provide Wi-Fi hotspots in various public locations, like hotels, cafes and airports throughout Ireland and the UK. Founded in Ireland in 2003 Bitbuzz is expanding its locations rapidly. The service allows account holders access to the Internet within a hotspot location once you have a voucher, subscription or complementary code (some hotels or cafes provide complementary access to its customers) This service could prove a valuable subscription. However one major benefit of this service is if you are a 3 or O2 mobile customer, who can enjoy free access at all hotspots with an App available from the butbuzz website. Bitbuzz slogan is Life Without Wires and this proves excellent to introduce my next topic on wireless charging.

Wireless Charging Tiered of wires and cables dangling around tripping you up or causing that heat dropping feeling when your gadget crashes to the floor, well perhaps those days are coming to an end.

Wireless charging is no longer a futuristic idea, it’s a reality.

The technology known as inductive charging harness the electromagnetic field to transmit energy from one device to another. In doing so this eliminates the need for a cable connected to a power source and the device.

There are many models to buy at the moment including Duracell’s power map, that allows you to charge your iPhone by placing it on a “power mat” with the phone in a special charging case.

Although this technology is still developing it could prove successful and could be adapted by many manufacturers ranging from Smartphone makers to computers even electric cars. The potential is endless. Currently to charge your device you need it attached to a special case and the case provides the power, however long-term you could see manufactures building the technology needed for wireless chagrining into the handsets themselves.

Windows 8 Microsoft have launched their latest upgrade in windows operating systems, however to call it an upgrade is an understatement, Microsoft have completely revamped Windows 8 positioning everything “in one place.” This is perhaps the biggest change Microsoft has made to its OS in years. The first key feature is no start button; instead everything is laid out on screen, composed of tile like application buttons. The OS is designed to work on desktop, laptop and mobile devices, however its focus is very much on touch screen interfaces, but it does work well with a mouse. Microsoft launched Windows 8 on October 26th.

Skyfall The 23rd Bond Blockbuster saw some great new tech one of which been Sony’s latest Smartphone the Experia T. Sony continues its attempt to break into the competitive smartphone market. Overall it’s a decent smartphone, but lacks that WOW factor which Apple and Samsung continue to deliver.

Running Android 4.0 Ice-cream sandwich, that’s one-generation behind the updated 4.1 Jellybean. The phone has a 4.55-inch display with a 13-megapixel camera, powered by a 1.5 GHz Qualcomm Krait Processor. Battery life is expected to last up to 7 hours talk, 16 hours music and up to 450 stand by.

The Experia’s built in storage capacity is up to 16GB of flash Memory with a Micro SD slot giving a user up to 32GB of additional storage. The cost of this phone is around €550 unlocked, but discounts are available from mobile operators with a 12 or 24 month contract.

One other exciting feature in Skyfall’s technology was Bond’s unique palm print handgun. This handgun described by Q as “PPK/S nine-millimetre short,” has a built in palm print reader allowing only James Bond to fire the weapon, which comes in very handy during the movie, as gadgets always do.

Experia T 19

Movie Reviews

Cert: 12A Release Date: Out Now! Running time: 143 mins

Cert:15A Release Date: Out Now! Running time: 120 mins

“What were you expecting, an exploding pen?”

H

alf a century ago this month the first ever James Bond Movie, Dr. No screened in London. 50 years later, the character having been reinvented and re-reinvent the Bond franchise still attracts the masses. Admittedly, sharp suits, fast cars, dangerous women, clever gadgets and dry one-liners are all timeless and fussing them all together into one character does make for a classic character.

In any case, Daniel Craig is back and in an infinitely better piece of film than that stain upon Bond history, Quantum of Solace.

As ever, James begins by chasing someone. This time by car, motorbike and train. He loses the final fight and a list of his fellow MI6 agents. He falls from a bridge into a river he is presumed dead.

He enjoys death for a time, until he sees that MI6 has been attacked and rushes home to help M track down who did it.

M’s past is explored which causes Bond to question his faith in her. That is not all that is questioned. For the first time Bond’s age is called into question. Indeed, we see him struggle with some of the more athletic feats in the film. The phrase ‘a younger man’s game’ is tossed around but as always his pathological disregard for authority allows Bond to shrug it off and just get on with it. It also boasts the franchises first

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Rust and Bone

homoerotic scene, kind of.

Bond’s past is explored in much more depth than we have ever seen. Indeed, the title is not the name of a terrorist global domination plan or a villain’s alias as seen in pervious films. This time the title is very personal to James himself.

Casino Royal and Quantum of Solace were criticised for being too new age and not true to Ian Fleming’s original character and style. This has very obviously been taken into consideration. Retro cars and the reintroduction of Moneypenny will make veterans feel right at home.

Gadgets take a hit in this one. Perhaps with the sudden popularity of the smartphone the writers thought they might be talking down to the audience with a pen that emitted a frequency that put their opponent to sleep, the kind of thing Moore would have wielded.

Javier Barden (No Country for Old Men) is a superb bad guy. He is causing havoc, not for megalomaniac or monetary purposes but for revenge making him the scariest bond villain yet.

Every Bond film is unique but Skyfall has made a huge effort to set itself apart and yet exude vestiges of the essence of the franchise. The personal touches and extensive character exploration might get on the nerves of lovers of the past regimes but as a stand-alone film Skyfall is deeply entertaining, has great action scenes and is just as slick as any of its predecessors.

Daniel James

A

“I am so sorry.

I didn’t have a choice”

n emotional, richly rewarding drama, the film is centred on a miraculous friendship slowly evolving into a romance with a distinct lack of sentimentality.

Stephanie (Marion Cottilard) is a young woman who trains Orca’s and displays a majestic but natural control over the animals, and a base connection she struggles to find in her own kind until she meets the other protagonist, Ali (played by Matthias Schoenaerts).

Ali, an unafraid and unembarrassed man ruled mainly by his raised testosterone levels meets the quietly proud Stephanie at a club where he is working as a bouncer, and takes her home after she gets involved in a fight.

We are still puzzled at this point as to whether his motives are selfish but Stephanie gives him the benefit of the doubt and is clearly touched by his concern.

Disaster strikes when during a live Orca show, there is a horrific accident in which Stephanie is involved and ends up having both her legs amputated as a result. After the incident and due to her adverse reaction to pity and special treatment, she turns to Ali as a friend. After the friendship develops Ali suggests sex as an option, putting it in simple and purposeful terms, the puzzle deepens. Stephanie accepts and their relationship takes its second step into the realm of a no strings attached sexual friendship, constrained to the boundaries of a shallow

understanding only by Ali’s lack of commitment and wandering animalistic needs.

Stephanie then turns to bringing Ali to fame in his questionable career path as a street boxer, with which she succeeds.

Here we see her feelings deepen from a need of human contact, to that of a romantic connection All the meanwhile, Ali’s six year old son, Sam, hovers within the background of the film (looked after mainly by his caring and long suffering aunt) continually reminding us of the feckless nature and lack of responsibility shown by Ali throughout. This tragic flaw serves to pull us right back after we are shown glimpses of what could be.

As the film draws to a close we see Ali suffers even greater turmoil. This is the moment in which he punches through our impression of him to finally reveal exactly what we had hoped lies just below the surface, a kind and ultimately emotional human being.

The beauty of this film is in the matter of fact approach director, Jacques Audiard (A Prophet) which is perfectly contrasted by small but dominating flashes of emotion grabbing music along with some exquisite cinematography. Its plays with emotions well by balancing them in a way that is provocative and leaves the viewer a little confused as to their stance on the view of human nature that is portrayed. It identifies in all of us our individual flaws and uses them to highlight the good.

Matthew Foyle

Music Reviews

Movie Reviews

Cert: PG-13 Release Date: Out Now! Running time: 89 mins

“Not forgetting anything else, are we Sir?” “No, no, I shouldn’t think so”

T

his year sees the remake of original 1966 film Gambit directed

by Michael Hoffman and screenplay by Ethan and Joel Cohen.

Staring Colin Firth, Cameron Diaz, Alan Rickman. True to the Cohen brother’s style, this movie offers a comedy based on a prospective crime that backfires.

Harry Deane (Firth) is an unsuccessful, lackluster art curator. Who has over time become tired of cow towing and being at the mercy of his obnoxious bully of a boss Lionel Shahbander (Rickman).

Harry devises a revenge plan to con Lionel into purchasing a much coveted 2nd piece to complete his ‘Haystacks’ collection of Monet paintings.

What Lionel doesn’t know, is that Harry has enlisted the talents of Major Wingate, a professional artist and forger to reproduce a copy of ‘Haystacks at dusk’. Between Harry and Major, they seek and hire sassy Texan cowgirl and rodeo queen PJ Puznowzki (Diaz) to play the role of owner to the ‘original’ Haystacks at dusk painting. Acting as a pawn for Harry, PJ is to be seen as eager to part with the oil painting to Lionel for a substantial sum of money.

Harry sets up a meeting between prospective buyer

and seller in London. However Harry’s plan starts to unravel and take a turn for the worse, as what he had envisioned is turning into a disaster. Lionel, who is not so easy to convince has become quite taken with the outspoken charms of the vibrant PJ and attempts to make a play for the feisty Texan.

Things go from bad to worse as the ever proper Harry finds himself getting deeper and deeper into a hole.

This pushes Harry to consider attempted robbery and failing miserably, while becoming locked in a linen closet by a vodka swigging chambermaid.

Diaz is spectacular as trailer trash’s rodeo girl, with a remarkable ability to wield a whip. Firth lives up to his loveable but ‘can’t catch a break’ typical gentlemen played in Harry. Rickman’s portrayal of a confidence shattering, egotistical boss with too much money and little manners, is hilarious.

The storyline although slightly farfetched, is cleverly written with an unexpected twist. Complete with cringe worthy scenes on Harry’s behalf, karaoke singing Japanese businessmen and a bizarrely shaved cat. The remake of Gambit, although it’s not blockbuster material, still has plenty of laughs and is definitely worth a watch.

Grainne Kennedy

Taylor Swist Red

I

Red in the lips, not in the face.

n each new album Taylor Swift steps further away from her country roots, Red is another leap from country-girl into pop princess. The 16 track album is a mixed bag of emotions and sounds, with makeup and breakup songs for every occasion. There are a few distinct country ballads and there are lots of upbeat pop numbers.

There’s ‘dance around your bedroom with your girlfriends’ tracks. There’s a pair of duets with indie rock dudes. Swift has multiple musical personalities and she doesn’t try to bury or deny them. Instead, she fully indulges each one.

There’s a real sense of risk to Red, in that Swift is game to try just about anything.

As usual Taylor doesn’t hold anything. She truly writes what she knows, this is all bad news from her exes, to be sure, but unless you are without a pulse, it’s hard not to sympathize with Taylor’s tales.

The first single from the album, ‘We are never ever getting back together’ is undeniably the catchiest Swift song yet. It’s one of those songs that make it impossible not to dance along to.

The dub step theme in ‘I knew you were trouble’ is massively new for Taylor. It is a cute attempt at widening her audience. The song is repetitive and funky adding

a surprising new flavour to the Taylor palette. When we heard there would be a taste of dub step on her new album, Taylor fans worried she had stepped too far away from her Nashville sound but this song compliments her growing varieties of genre.

There are songs where she actually likes men, surprise!

‘Begin again’ was the second single released and is very different from the first. In this song Taylor is telling us about a new love, how it’s different from the others. The finger plucking and tempo of this song is typical Taylor, it reminds us of her previous albums. Don’t worry; she doesn’t forget to mention the ‘self-indulgent takers’ she previously dated.

The two duets on Red make it a difficult album not to love.

Her collaboration with Ed Sheeran and Gary lightbody from Snow Patrol gives the album a more mature sound.

Unlike her sometimes whiney men hating songs, these duets are completely romantic and we start to hear a grown up Taylor. Overall the album is a new side of Taylor Swift that we have not seen before, although lyrically she is staying true to her usual theme, the sound of Red is shockingly different in parts with beautifully contrasting songs which make this her best album yet.

Aimee Doyle

21

Music Reviews

Robbie Willians Take the Crown

Paddy Casey The Secret life of Something that one doesn’t expect from a man who sang songs on Dawson’s Creek

A

fter a five year hiatus Paddy Casey has returned with his fourth album, The Secret Life of. Promoting it the same month as his concert in the Olympia, the Dublin singer’s latest album consists of eleven tracks including Wait.

The album itself looks through various styles as well as the acoustic rock that transformed Casey from a nobody playing in the International Bar into a recognisable name. It begins with the song There is Light that sounds like something from a nativity play and ends with a song called Close Your Eyes, similar to a lullaby.

These songs also take a view of various powerful themes from depression in the city to a couple living in a broken relationship. He matches these morals with an equally powerful melody and voice.

The Secret Life of has a lot of variety in terms of genre from the beat in Lightsong to the blues from The Love Harmonica. However, the strongest songs are the acoustic rock ones like It’s Really Up to You. Wait is another song where backing vocals and guitar help make an addictive song. While it doesn’t have the same

22

impact as It’s Really Up to You, listeners still get an understanding of Wait’s theme: be patient about certain things like relationships.

Songs like Show Me Yours and Lightsong don’t do the album justice. These songs swerve Casey’s “saint” attitude towards the style of a “sinner” as he is discussing a purely sexual relationship.

While Casey is experimenting with various genres and tones, this theme doesn’t suit his artistic personality. His digitally enhanced voice may also put people off the album as The Secret Life of is a track for those seeking naturally powerful ballads.

No serious thought seems to have been put into the order of the tracks. Given that Close Your Eyes is the type of song that you play before going to bed and is perfect as the last track, one feels that the first track should be something that wakes you up like the extremely upbeat Rise and Shine with a catchy beat sounds like a nightclub hit.

The Secret Life of is a great album for Paddy Casey fans and those who are looking for some mellow listening. From this, we find out what Paddy Casey’s secret life is: despite a tad bit of ring rust from about two songs, he can perform at a pretty good level even after a five year absence.

Diarmuid Crowley

Certainly doesn’t take the Crown on this occasion

F

or many people of a certain age, Robbie Williams has influenced our music taste, and has become enshrined in our memories. From his early days in Take That, the 8 albums later and 14 years since his epic back to back Slane concerts he has, now after some time produced the long awaited album ‘Take the Crown’.

We never thought we would have seen our parents and grandparents enjoying the music legend but on the night of Friday November 2nd in a desperate plea to let the Irish public make his single ‘Candy’ number 1 in Ireland he appeared with Tubs on the late late show. It should be noted this is the first time the singer has produced a single that has not gone straight in to number one in the Irish charts. For the first time in my life out of shock I heard my father saying who is this man and I have to get his CD. From the interview and the talk about babies one would have the fear the Robbie is turning into a older musician and no longer the lively entertainer he once was.

The lack of drugs, rock and roll have made the new album dull and lifeless, not that “I would be condoning that kind of thing!”

Watching Tubs on Friday

night, and the singer preforming ‘Candy’ impressed, maybe old age was not such a bad thing, and the singer was not gone past it. However, the album was a total let down on this regard. The contemporary upbeat vocals of Williams have decreased leading to a more subdued album.

It is true that he may have lost some of his lively upbeat charms, but in reality we are seeing a man maturing and settling down in life and this has shown by his music. He may have never been known for his amazing lyrics and he still won’t be, but this new maturity has improved the singer/songwriter’s ability to come up with lyrics, some of this has been credited to the new songwriters he is working with. These new songwriters considered to be ‘no names’ in the industry have in a way done themselves very proud.

His music is still attractive and with songs included, such as ‘losers’. The album is more acoustic than any other Williams album to date.

For all die hard Robbie Fans out there, ‘Candy’ is still up beat enough to wet your appetite. However post this, the album is enjoyable and pleasant and something you can play for your mum and dad possibly putting ‘Shit on the Radio’ on skip just to keep it PC. Definitely worth a listen.

Jacquie Ryan

Creative Writing

The Intruder I

By Oscar Finn

awoke before sunrise, everything was a dark blue, like in the movies when it’s night time. I hadn’t been sleeping, college assignments were piling up and I was beginning to get the fear. It was mid-October; the days start late and don’t last long. The room was cold, I would have liked nothing more than to turn over and go back to sleep but that was not an option. I had to get up, get dressed and get out of the house before eight or I would miss my bus and things would go rapidly downhill from there.

I opened the bedroom door and looked out into the landing.

It was very quiet. I half expected to find one of the lads passed out, snoring at the top of the stairs – another victim of a long night on the town. If they managed to get in the door they were doing well, making it to the landing is quite an accomplishment.

I made my way down stairs, trying not to make too much noise. The old creaky floor boards can be rather loud if you step on the wrong spot. The only pleasure to be had from getting up early is having the house to myself. When I got to the foot of the stairs I saw the two lads, standing on either side of

the kitchen door, they looked like sentries guarding the tower of London.

When I got closer I could see their faces; their eyes wide, staring back at me.

“What’s up?” I said

what happened but they just looked at me as if nothing had happened, nothing was out of the ordinary and I was acting strange. One walked to the window, gazing out into the garden, the other lay on the floor pressing his face against the cold tiles deciding to ignore the situation and wait for me to deal with it.

I looked around the room trying to make sense out of what had happened. I noticed that there was no blood around the body despite its chest being torn open but when I looked around the room I could see a pool of dried blood that was almost indistinguishable from the terracotta tiles. The body had been moved post mortem.

From what I could gather the lads were out late, they got home and went into the kitchen and discovered the intruder, a struggle ensued and things got out of hand.

Having known the lads their entire lives I was surprised at the level of violence they had displayed. Even now in the aftermath, looking around the blood stained kitchen, it is difficult to picture them as savage beasts.

My mother came down the stairs and nearly fainted when she saw the body, I told her not to be so dramatic and to put the kettle on. She looked at the lads and scolded them for making such a mess, then went into the pantry and took out a loaf of bread to make toast. I placed a sheet over the body and went to get a shovel.

When I returned the lads were getting restless so I scooped up the dead mouse and dumped it unceremoniously in the wheelie bin outside. I then put out two sachets of Whiskas for the lads and went back to getting ready to go to college. I would be starting my Creative Writing class this afternoon and thought to myself that this could be a good story to tell.

My brain struggled to comprehend the ruined, dead thing that lay before me But they didn’t respond. I walked into the kitchen. I turned on the light, which blinded like the light of a thousand suns. I shut my eyes and waited a moment to adjust to the light. I took a step forward and looked down.

Then I saw the last thing I’d ever expect to see on the kitchen floor at 7:15am on a Thursday morning.

The body lay there limp, and lifeless. My brain struggled to comprehend the ruined, dead thing that lay before me. It was a terrible sight but I couldn’t stop looking. How did this happen? Where did it come from? The lads sauntered in to the room. I asked them

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In Focus Fashion Design Aine Geoghegan Collection: Asylum

Alina Dylnova Collection:

Far and Beyond

Olenka Moore Collection:

Shells

Graduations 2012 Student Prize Winners

Design

Diploma in Design Oxana Yurchenko BA in Interior Design Caroline Maguire BA in Design (Interior Architecure) Kine Solberg BA (Hons) in Interior Architecure Helle Jonson BA (Hons) in Fashion Design Heather Lynch

Business

Journalism

BA (Hons) in Business Studies Martin O’Reilly BA (Hons) in Accounting and Finance Wei Kent Lim BA in Hospitalisty Management Monica Mambo BA (Ord) in Marketing Laurella Magdalou Higher Certificate in Business Grainne Stone

Law

LLB (Hons) in Irish Law Anthony Bates BA (Hons) in Law & Business Ruth McGovern Diploma inLegal Studies and Practice Helaine Tumble LLM (Hons) in Commercial Law Jamie Burke

Computing

Certificate in Computing Science Sean Ryan High Diploma in Science in Computing Peter Smith BSc in Computing Stefan Sigle BSc (Hons) in Computing Science Ciaran White MSc in Computing Ruairi O’Murchu MSc in Applied Digital Media Partrick Browne

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Nobel Prize Winner Seamus Heaney was awarded the Griffith College Fellowship Award

Diploma in Photography Pamala O’Donnell BA in Photographic Media Karen Tierney BA (Hons) in Journalism and Visual Media Emma Loughran BA in Journalism Omatayo Anna Shonubi MA in Journalism and Media Communications James Keating Diploma in Media Techniques;Video Colin Hurley Diploma in Sound and Music Technology Martin Gustafsson

Competition WIN 2 tickets to

Where is the SU Christmas Ball taking place this year?

Email your answer to griffiti@gcd.ie Before December 10th to be in with a chance to win!!

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THE GENUINE ARTICLE

TITANIC Griffith College has begun a campaign to get Leoanrdo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet to come to the College and do the “I’m flying” thing on our very own Titanic Building. Donations greatly appreciated

SIR, SU, SIR! The truth beinhd the SU’s new Health Plan

By Drew Peacock

T

he Genuine Article has conducted an investigation over the past month that has revealed staggering evidence that the Students’ Union is planning something horrific for the students of Griffith College.

Our suspicions were aroused with the announcement that the SU would be running a marathon in April. We have gone through years of records and have deduced that SU staff have never been anything but lazy bastards so something more insidious

28

was undoubtedly at hand.

Our suspicions grew with the introduction of boot camps in Raw Gym. At 8am on Mondays and Thursdays students are forced to endure traumatic bouts of exercise, pushing them to their very limits and leaving some bedridden for weeks.

The Genuine Article found only one explanation to this series of events. Griffith College Students’ Union are preparing its students for war.

Jealous of the over large budgets and luxurious facilities of SU’s like that of Trinity and UCD they have decided to train, brainwash and mobilise their students against these colleges and take back what they believe is rightfully theirs.

When questioned on the matter, Entertainments Officer Claire Aston’s

cheeks blushed as red as her flaming hair and mumbled “We’re just trying to get the students active and healthy.”

She was momentarily joined by Sports Officer Sean Alrai who shouted “Non ci sono altre domande!” (‘No more questions’. He’s working on his English and has been doing very well, although still resorts to grunts and crude sign language when trying to say big words like ‘demilitarised’.)

However, we GA folk are a clever breed.

We bribed SU President Ian Donegan with a packet of Jammy Dodgers and he started to spill the beans even before he had ripped the plastic off the packet of biscuits with his teeth and began to gorge.

“It’s been the plan all year but we didn’t start making real headway until we took the students on a paintballing trip to see if

they could be used in warfare. It became obvious very quickly that this plan would work as many on the trip showed distinct signs of psychopathy and sadism, which is exactly what we were looking for.”

Ian abruptly stopped talking at this point.

His Jammy Dodgers had run out. Luckily, one of us had a Toblerone. We handed it over and he instantaneously began munching and talking at the same time.

“But to be honest, we aren’t likely to be up and running until next year. We’ve got a load of other things going on and this is really just a side project that we are giving a go.”

There you have it, our benign SU content in brainwashing students in order to attain better facilities for the college.

Never has the Genuine Article been in such strong support of the Students’ Union.

Best of luck guys, bring us back a snooker table!

Above: Student Army Training

NEWS IN BRIEF

Adventure Trip not as gay as name suggested SU Karaoke Night incites werewolf rumour SU introduces Cum Dine With Me (much more fun that the original series) Genuine Article criticised for poor use of Photoshop Rugby Team attend RAW Gym’s Boot Camp Rugby Team unable to play for at least one month Cricket Society in violent competition with Grasshopper Society SU Gives out FREE Condoms for Welfare Week College pregnancy levels sky-rocket

Under the

Spotlight Aimee Doyle Occupation: GCD Receptionist/ Brazilian Tobacco Tycoon Hobbies: Playing dead at the Reception desk / Appearing in the background of RTE News Likes: That YouTube video of the Baby Panda sneesing. Has watched it 30,567 times to date / Being on the Ents Crew Dislikes: Being told that faking death is not a professional way to act in the workplace / Skittles / The rest of the ents crew Interesting fact: Is Head of ISPFDYDUFS (The Irish Society for Promoting the Fact that Dressing Your Dog up is Fucking Stupid) 29

membership deals 1 month €45 3 months €119 6 months 189 9 months €229 12 months €279

Doing a demonstration in the SU at 6:00pm on Wednesday November 28th for Welfare Week

Welfare

Griffith College Students’ Union Presents

Week 2012

November Mon 26th Thurs 29th

Monday 26th Mental Health Day

Mental Health Speakers in A107

Headline (Promotes responsible media coverage of mental Health) 12:00pm Challenging Stigma (Promotes Awareness of Mental Health Issues) 12:30pm 1Life (Provide support to people feeling suicidal) 1:00pm Samaritans (Provides support for anyone in emotional distress) 1:30pm

Tuesday 27th Sexual Health Day

Charter Medical Sexual Health Speaker in V003 12:00pm - 12:30pm Look out for FREE Condoms!!!

Wednesday 28th Physical Health Day

Stress Management Techniques AF103 1:00pm - 1:30pm

Blood Pressure & Carbon Monoxide Test Arthur’s Bar 12pm - 4pm RAW Gym Tutorial. Personal Trainers show you the easiest ways to get in shape 6:00pm - 7:00pm Downstairs in the SU

Thursday 29th Drugs & Alcohol Day Pearse Street Drugs Squad Speaker AF103 12:00pm Alcoholics Anonymous Speaker AF103 1:00pm

Griffith College Students Union Presents

Chrismas Ball

2012

Wednesday December 12th (12/12/12) Dtwo Nightclub €5 at the SU or FREE with your SU Gold Card €8 at the door Doors open at 10:30pm ROAR