The College View Issue 3

Wednesday October 31st, 2018

www.thecollegeview.com

. Est. 1999 .

Success for Shepherd as deportation order extended Emily Sheahan News Editor @emilyaine_s The deportation order against DCU student Shepherd Machaya has been extended by the Department of Justice and Equality until February 5th, 2019.

Machaya was originally ordered to leave the country by Sunday, October 21st. He received the deportation order in early September, before he was due to start back to college.

“I did not expect that kind of result,” he said. “Having run away from torture and death threats, there is no way under the sun I would expect to be sent back to that kind of situation.”

He had until October 24th to hand himself into the Garda National Immigration Bureau. Machaya went to the Immigration Bureau on the 24th, accompanied by several members of the DCU Students’ Union and a DCU staff member.

DCU SU President Vito Monoley Burke said they didn’t know which way it was going to go when Machaya was called into the booth accompanied

by Gardaí. “You do kind of get that fear of ‘what if this is the day?’” he said.

“But then Shepherd comes out beaming, and slightly bemused”, letter in hand, Burke told the College View.

Burke said that they have to bear in mind that the February date is a “terrifying date itself”. He said that “really quite soon we’re going to have to shift back into campaign mode”. However they first have to wait for legal advice, he added.

He described the “horrible room” in the Immigration Bureau as big, noisy, and sweaty. He said that there were many people there in Shepherd’s situation who were “very much on their own”.

Machaya is a second year Management of Information Technology and Information Systems student in DCU. He applied to DCU through their University of Sanctuary scholarship and was one of 10 applicants out of 62 to be successful.

He fled Zimbabwe nine years ago out of fear for his life. “They tortured me,” Machaya told the College View.

He said he feels his life would be under threat should he have to return to Zimbabwe.

“This is a very difficult time for me.

I am very depressed at this moment.

I am trying, by all means, to get an education so that I will not be a burden to the state. I want to contribute to the state through paying tax and by being a role model to those in the asylum by demonstrating that education is key to success.”

The governing body did not give their reasoning for the decision to extend the deportation order. Burke said that their legal advisers commented that it was likely to be a result of the noise made publically around the campaign.

A social media campaign launched

by DCU SU, dubbed “Save Our Shepherd”, contributed to over 14,000 signatures on a petition hosted on Change.org at the time of writing. The petition, addressed to Minister for Justice and Equality Charlie Flanagan, argues that Machaya “should be afforded the right to complete the studies he has thrived in thus far”.

In the petition, the SU said: “He has

Features

Sports

Ireland’s Darkest Hour

Powell dives into pro swimming

Page 19

Page 23

contributed so much to this country and has aspirations of continuing to do so”.

Flanagan has yet to publicly comment on Machaya’s situation.

Machaya said he faced violence and threats in Zimbabwe because he was vocally against the ruling political party ZANU-PF. After Machaya left the country he received news that his best friend has been killed. Machaya said his friend was not fortunate enough to leave the country when he did.

Former President of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe was succeed by Emmerson Mnangagwa in 2017. Mnangagwa was Mugabe’s second-in-command when he was president, and both represent ZANU-PF. Machaya said: “It’s the same people, it’s the same principles, it’s the same party that has been killing people”.

Burke said that within minutes of leaving the Immigration Bureau, Shepherd was saying:“I can’t believe I can go home tonight and actually study”.

Opinion

Discrimation will not win an election Page 13

Burke said that the whole experience has been “soul draining for Shepherd” since he received the deportation order and the campaign to have it revoked began. “Everywhere Shepherd goes on campus, heads turn,” he said, adding that Machaya needed a well deserved break before continuing with the campaign. “He’s like our local celebrity”.

“Yesterday was such a big win really because we had such a narrow time frame from the moment we found out about Shepherd’s situation,” said Burke. He said they threw everything they could at it which is what made for such an “explosive” campaign.

Machaya has been living in a Direct Provision centre in Portlaoise since he arrive in Ireland. In 2017, he completed a PLC in Computer Science in Portlaoise College. Machaya says he has a passion for technology and wishes to pursue a career in systems analysis once he graduates from DCU. “Now I will try to focus on my education because this is an opportu-

Gaeilge

nity I can not let to slip through my fingers,” he said. “I have to hold on to this scholarship with a firm grip because it’s not a kind of opportunity that comes every day or every week. It is a lifetime opportunity that I have to make those that trusted me by awarding me the scholarship proud.”

Burke said that the “Save Our Shepherd” social media campaign “will be going on the backburner for a weeks, at least while we get our heads around where to take this next”.

He said that Philip McKinley and DCU’s Interfaith Centre as a whole had been instrumental in providing refuge for Shepherd, “a place to go and rest, a place to go and take his mind off things”.

McKinley said it is vitally important that Machaya be allowed to finish his studies and that Machaya has been a spokesperson for the University of Sanctuary scholarship.

News

Staonadh Digiteach

University funding crisis

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Page 8

Editorial

2 INSIDE The Hype

Editor-in-Chief Callum Lavery

TV & Podcasts Red Dead Redemption 2 Read on Page 6

Film & TV

Welcome to the House of Horrors Read on Page 4

Editor’s piece

Travel

Wanderlust in New York Read on Page 14

Facebook: TheCollegeView Twitter: @thecollegeview Read more on our website; thecollegeview.com Editorial Team Editor-in-Chief: Callum Lavery, Deputy editor: Gabija Gataveckaite,

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sports@thecollegeview.com Thanks to Sportsfile, SLC, Office of Student Life

Just as we are about to enjoy the Halloween celebrations and wrap up for reading week, we can be happy that we are finishing the first half of the term on a joyful note.

The deportation order against DCU student Shepherd Machaya has been extended by the Department of Justice and Equality until February 5th, 2019.

The social media campaign launched

by DCU SU named “Save Our Shepherd”, contributed to over 14,000 signatures on a petition addressed to Minister for Justice and Equality Charlie Flanagan, arguing that Machaya should be allowed to complete his studies.

While this battle has not been won it is a welcome bit of good news in what often seems like the dark and dreary times that we live in currently.

In this weeks The College View our news editor Emily Sheahan follows Machaya’s story closely.

In other news President Michael D Higgins has been elected to serve a second term in office. An announcement well received by many students, who voted for the candidate. Higgins received a higher number of votes from young adults than

any other candidate.

Higgins second term is a huge relief to many in DCU who were left with a bitter taste in their mouth following Peter Casey’s remarks on the Traveller community.

Casey’s comments were not well received by the student population.

And rightly so, Casey had claimed that Travellers are “basically people camping in other people’s land”, that house prices drop in areas where they settle and that they are “not paying their fair share of taxes in society”.

Such blatent generalisations of an entire community, already ostracised daily was never going to bode well with a younger, more enlightened and welcoming group of voters.

While we can rejoice that such remarks do not lead a candidate to the presidency, we remain nervous, that candidate such as Casey are able to secure 20 per cent of the nations votes through isguising racism and bigotry as populism.

That sort of populism would be very unpopular indeed.

Ah sure Jesus Christ, at least we voted to remove blasphemy from the consitution.

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News

Surge in illegal firework possession sparks concern for emergency services

Aoibhin Bryant Arts Editor @aoibhinbryant_ An increase in the illegal usage of fireworks has led to more pressure on the emergency services, according to recent Gardaí reports.

A report, broadcasted on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, found that in 2017, Gardaí seized over the largest amount of fireworks in five years.

A spokesperson for the Gardaí, Celine Ross has stated: “The Gardaí will confiscate any fireworks found in the possession of persons and such persons are also liable to prosecution.”

“Apart from the risk of injury, fireworks can cause great distress and annoyance to elderly residents.

They can set off intruder alarms, causing unnecessary extra demands on Garda resources,” Ross continued.

Fireworks, because they are explosives, are regulated under

Criminal Justice Act 2006 which requires that fireworks can only be used by trained operators in official displays.

General members of the public are prohibited from using outdoor fireworks.

UK laws are more lenient, with Northern Irish laws requiring a licence to purchase outdoor fireworks.

Daniel Bryant, a secondary school student in border town Dundalk spoke of the common occurrence of travelling across the border to purchase fireworks.

“Loads of young lads on the border buy their fireworks in the shops up north and then drive down to where teenagers hang around, open up their boots and sell them,” said Bryant.

“It’s like an ice-cream truck”.

“There was absolute carnage a couple of years ago but the Gardaí have really struck down though, there’s checkpoints now along the border for fireworks. I doubt many will be bothered with importing them once Brexit happens,” he continued.

The use of fireworks also causes other problems in regards to animals and wildlife, according to Gillian Bird of the Dublin Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (DSPCA).

“The biggest issues are pets getting a fright and running scared into traffic and getting injured or lost.

Wildlife are also affected by fireworks including birds, foxes and

Credit Megan Hannan Emerency services such as ambulances and the fire department are not the only people busy around Hallowe’en due to the surge in illegal possession of firewroks.

Vets and animal shelters are also impacted as sometimes fireworks are used on pets.

badgers as it scares them and they can run into traffic.” said Bird.

“Small animals like hedgehogs often die after piles of logs they have made their hibernation homes are set on fire,” she said.

There has also incidents of people involving fireworks in animal cruelty.

“Some people have in the past fed swans bread with a lit banger inside, that swan had to be put to sleep as a result of injuries to its beak,” said Bird, Various other similar incidents have occurred such as people “tying fireworks to cats and dogs tails.”

Technological University Dublin to be established by the new year James Nolan Production Editor @JamesNolan97

A draft order seeking the establishment of Ireland’s first technological university was approved in the Dáil earlier this month.

The order, written up by then Minister for Education and Skills, Richard Bruton, in July, will see the three current institute of technologies, Blanchardstown IT, Tallaght IT and Dublin Institute of Technology, dissolve and form one Technological University to be headquartered out of DIT’S Grangegorman campus.

The new institution will be named Technological University Dublin, with the translation to Irish being ‘Teicneolaíochta Bhaile Átha Cliath’.

The provision for the creation of technological universities under the Technological Universities Act 2018 is thought to be a key element of the government’s plan to drive balanced economic growth and to make Ireland’s education and training service the best in Europe by 2026.

Minister of State for Higher Education, Mary Mitchell O’Connor believes the opening of the new technological university will mark a milestone in Irish higher education.

“The establishment of Technological University Dublin, the first ever technological university in the history of the state, on 1 January 2019, will be a milestone date and event in the evolution of the Irish higher education sector,” said Mitchell O’Connor.

The new university is set to become Ireland’s largest with approximately 28,000 students expected to be reg-

DIT, IT Tallaght and Blanchardstown IT will officially join and become Technological University Dublin in January 2019.

istered. It will provide programmes from level six to eight on the National Framework of Qualifications, as well as facilitating level nine and ten programmes at post graduate level.

“The new university will develop and use new knowledge through industry focused research and will enhance the pivotal regional and national role traditionally played by the Institutes of Technology in facilitating the widest possible access and progression by students of all ages and socio-economic backgrounds through a multiplicity

of full-time, part-time, blended and online learning approaches,” added Mitchell O’Connor.

Students currently registered, including those in their final year of study, with the three institutions will all receive Technological University degrees as opposed to the awards previously given by the Institutes of Technology.

Shane Gill, a final year student studying Construction Management in DIT, believes the development of the new Technological University will

Credit: Mikey Walsh

propel DIT, along with the other two institutions, to a whole new level.

“DIT is already a well-recognised institution internationally, but now alongside Blanchardstown and Tallaght ITs, the creation of this first ever Technological University will propel it onto an even higher platform in terms of its educational reputation”.

“It’s fantastic that I will now be graduating from a university as opposed to an institute of technology,” added Gill.

News

Trinity College secure €100m loan from EIB

Callum Lavery Editor-in-chief @callum_lavery Trinity College has received a €100 million loan from the European Investment Bank (IEB) for a period of 30 years.

The loan, from the world’s largest internationally owned public bank, will be used to cover the expansion of the university, specifically the growth of the school of law, new student accommodation and the refurbishment of the arts block within the university.

The new student hall accommodation will house 300 students to meet the demands of the rising student population in Dublin. This accommodation will be built in addition to the student residence currently under construction on Pearse Street, which will provide housing for 250 students.

The flagship ‘E3’ - Engineering, Environment and Emerging Technologies initiative at TCD is a major benefactor of the funding, primarily through the construction of a ‘Learning Foundry’, a state of the art 6,086

square metre facility based on the main Trinity campus.

Vice President of the EIB, Andrew McDowell, said: “New investment is crucial to continually strengthen research, educational excellence and world-class innovation, as well as provide students with skills for the 21st century.”

“In recent years the EIB has supported transformational investment as all Irish universities and EIB are pleased to continue our close cooperation with the sector with the new EUR 100 million loan agreed today.”

This space will provide new teaching facilities and an interactive learning space for undergraduate and postgraduate students. The Schools of Engineering, Computer Science and Statistics, and Natural Sciences will share the new ‘Learning Foundry.’

The facility will provide an additional 1,800 places for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) students. This, in turn, will mean an increase of 50% STEM places in the next ten years.

On the loan, Provost of TCD, Dr Patrick Prendergast, said: “Without

Trinity College receiced a €100 millioan loan from the IEB

such support, we would not have been able to progress with important flagship projects such as E3 and much needed student accommodation. Their support combined with important philanthropic fundraising are essential in building a better university for the

Changes in public transport fares announced

Roisin Phelan Deputy News Editor @ _roisinphelan

Dublin Bus, Luas and DART fares are set to change in 2019 according to the National Transport Authority (NTA).

CEO of the NTA Anne Graham announced on October 16th that, “ some fares will rise and some will be reduced.”

Fares across Dublin Bus, Luas and DART routes will be altered from the end of December onwards.

The Authority is aiming to eventually move towards only two main Leap card fares in line with their Bus Connects programme. The aim of the Bus Connects initiative is to make Dublin’s buses more efficient.

Graham said, “For Dublin Bus passengers, there is no change in fares either for shorter journeys or for longer journeys.”

Objectives of the Bus Connects initiative include, improving signage and bus shelters, introducing bus lanes and safe bike lanes on 16 of their routes and implementing the ‘just the ticket’ idea.

It says , “the biggest cause of bus delays, after traffic congestion, is the payment process at bus stops.”

The Authority want to limit people using cash for bus tickets because it is slowing down boarding time.

They acknowledge that even with Leap cards, many passengers, such as students, still chose to interact with the driver in order to use cheaper fares.

The aim is to eventually introduce a, ““tag-on” and “tag-off” facility, similar to Luas and DART, or a single “flat fare” approach.”

Currently over 70% of Dublin Bus

Credit: Alison Clair

benefit of all.”

The loan will be used alongside other sources of finance from the college such as philanthropic donations.

Earlier this year, the Naughton family made the single largest private philanthropic donation in the history of the

payments are made by Leap card. The hopes are that in the coming years this number will increase, and cash payments will be streamlined out of the system completely.

Graham encouraged people to move to Leap cards saying, “Again in all cases, cash passengers can beat the increase by moving to Leap.”

The main changes to Dublin Bus include the Leap fare for stages over 13 dropping from €2.60 to €2.50 while the Leap fare for journeys of the 4-13 stages will increase from €2.15 to €2.25.

The cash fare for stages 1-3 will increase from €2.10 to€2.15 and for stages 4-13 will increase from €2.85 to €3.00.

For Luas passengers, there will no

Credit: Rachel Halpin

longer be peak and off-peak fares, there will only be one standardised set of fares.

This means the €1 city centre offpeak fare will be withdrawn from December onwards.

Monthly Luas fares will also increase by about 10% to €121.

Second year student Rachel Power commutes to college and who uses a Leap card said, “If I were to forget it on a day, it means I’d be spending over €10 to go back and forth to college everyday which is mad.”

Power said she hopes that Dublin Bus routes, “improve in quality and timing.”

state to the new E3 development by donating €25 million.

Maynooth and China announce joint college Aoibhín Meghan Contributor @thecollegeview

CEO of the NTA Anne Graham said users can, “beat the increase” by moving to Leap cards.

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Maynooth University establishes a new joint international college of engineering in China which is expected to pave the way for future research and innovation partnerships between Ireland and China.

This new engineering college is part of Fuzhou University one of China’s leading universities and it is expected that 1,200 Chinese students will graduate with Maynooth qualifications over the next four years.

Speaking to the Irish Times Professor Philip Nolan, president of Maynooth, explained that “Fuzhou has been selected as one of the highest potential universities in all of China”.

Nolan feels that “a long term partnership” is the best way forward in order to develop engineering research and teaching.

The academic partnership will see Chinese students receive qualifications in computer science and electronic engineering, and this college is expected to expand research and innovation particularly in areas such as artificial intelligence and robotics.

Overseas student won’t be the only ones gaining access to these new computer science qualifications, Irish stu-

dents will also be able to avail of the new courses.

Last year it was announced that Computer Science would be added to the Leaving Certificate curriculum, therefore teachers and experts in these areas will soon become in high demand.

Maynooth hopes that by introducing more courses related to computer science and engineering it will alleviate the lack of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) teachers in Ireland.

Dr Noel Murphy, a senior lecturer in DCU’s Electronic Engineering department feels that Maynooth’s new venture will be very beneficial for Irish education.

“Having access to these additional experts in these important areas will indeed most likely bring additional STEM education benefits to the Irish educational system” said Murphy.

This partnership with Fuzhou is all part of Maynooth’s new Strategic Plan 2018-2020 which was announced in the middle of October.

The college is expected to have 300 graduates each year, at full capacity, and Maynooth are currently recruiting 13 lecturers as well as administrative staff to take part in this international partnership which has been assisted by Enterprise Ireland.

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Millennials pave the way for cashless payments Aoibhin Meghen Contributor @thecollegeview MILLENNIALS will pave the way for cashless payments in Ireland, with 60 to 70 per cent being cashless in the next five years, according to a recent study.

The study conducted by Martin Raymond of strategy firm The Future Laboratory in London found that cash payments will become the minority in Ireland in the coming years.

The rise in cashless payments across Ireland is said to be due to its rapidly expanding tech scene as well as its population demographic.

The report from this study estimates that 440 million people will use contactless across the world this year, creating a market that will be worth €120 million by 2022.

Cashless payments can be seen taking over in countries such as Sweden where 80 per cent of transactions are done without cash but in Ireland this number is only about 25 per cent.

Ireland’s population is one of the youngest in Europe. One third of the Irish population is under 25, according

to Irish Demographics Profile 2018 by Index Mundi.

It is this population demographic that will push cashless payments into the majority in the coming years, according to Raymond.

For Irish students, paying by card or using other cashless methods is all about ease and accessibility.

“With tap technology cash has kind of become second to a lot of people...

[Cashless] is just so easy to use and you don’t have to worry about scrambling for change,” said Isabella Finn, a second year in DCU. Simplicity is key for millennials, with apps such as Circle, friends can send and receive even the smallest amounts of money to each other at the touch of a button.

These apps are very appealing to the younger demographic, particularly students as it is an easy way to split bills and pay as a group.

According to Daniel Walsh, a second year BCL student in DCU, relying on ATMs to access money is not realistic for students and their everyday lives.

Walsh says that he prefers to pay with card rather than taking money from an ATM because “you can only

The rise in cashless payments across Ireland is said to be due to the expanding technological advances.

take out big sums of money and it makes me feel like my money is rapidly running out.”

Legitimate concerns are being raised about the level of data protection with

Credit: Aoibhinn Bryant

all these online payments but Raymond claims that the younger generations will be willing to give up privacy, as long as they receive benefits in return.

Amy Donohoe Deputy Social Media Editor @amydonohoe1

Sean Gallagher spoke to those in the Law Society in DCU days before the presidency of Ireland was decided.

Gallagher spoke about how important the future is and why we should be focusing on it rather than reflecting on the past.

“We must learn from history and use it to create the future,” said Gallagher.

The former Fianna Fail representative said: “In 20 years time you will be working in a job that’s not yet developed.” and “it’s up to yous to shape the future.”

He warned students not to wait for

Industrial actions causes IT disruption ahead of graduations Ciara O’Loughlin Deputy Features Editor @ciara_olo

Candidate Sean Gallagher spoke to young voters in DCU days before the presidential election SEAN Gallagher spoke to the Law Society members in the U last week.

It was his last event of his campaign before the vote on the Irish presidency.

Gallagher began by saying that he was raised in a small rural village where he knew everyone and most of them were entrepreneurs, but they never called themselves that. They inspired him to become the businessman he is today.

“He spoke about the future of Ireland, the importance of innovation and empowering the youth to insight change in society. He took our questions in his stride and I wish him the best of luck in his future endeavours,” said Yazmeen Mac Donnell, Law Society chairperson.

Gallagher said that the next president has to be here for seven years and that they have to be full of energy. He briefly criticised the lack of effort from President Michael D Higgins as he never appeared on Wednesday night’s presidential television debate along with the other candidates.

“If you want the last seven years, vote for President Higgins, but if you’re looking for change, vote for someone else.”

He has worked in business for 30 years and he believes that Ireland has the skills, talents and confidence to improve our nation’s trade.

News

politicians to change the country and do it yourself.

“Don’t learn to follow linear lines.”

He also stated that he wants to work on the disability system. Gallagher was born with congenital cataracts, which has left him with limited sight. This has inspired him to help the 50,000 people in Ireland with disabilities.

He is determined to help our country in the face of the uncertainty of Brexit

Credit: David Conachy

and prevent people from losing their jobs.

He also described himself of having too much to give. He explained that he wasn’t born to pay bills, he was born to create change and take risks as “only in failure can you learn.”

He encouraged each student to make use of their vote and vote for the candidate they want.

INSTITUTE of technology students across all campuses in Ireland are being affected by industrial action being taken by staff.

Since last week, library, clerical and administrative staff across the 14 institutes in the country have not been making or taking phone calls, responding to emails or video conferencing.

This has led to difficulties in the organisation of graduating ceremonies for thousands of students. DIT have two upcoming ceremonies on November 3rd and 17th, both of which could face disruption. Currently on the DIT website there is still no confirmation of the time the graduation ceremony for the School of Business, whose ceremony is on the 17th, will take place.

“It’s affected all the students in blanch [Blanchardstown IT] really bad because we can’t make appointments for anything. It’s so hard to get a hold of my thesis supervisor” said Néamh Maguire, a final year student in the Institute of Technology Blanchardstown.

“As no administration staff is replying to emails maybe some past students are having difficulty finding out more information on the ceremonies” she added.

However, it seems that many lecturers don’t know much about the industrial action being taken by the library, clerical and administrative staff.

In May 2015, a commitment was agreed as part of the negotiations that led to the Lansdowne Road agreement in relation to job evaluation for library, clerical, administrative and support grades.

According to Fórsa, the trade union which represents the staff in question, the industrial action has been on the line for over three years to ensure that this commitment is implemented.

This would secure the staff concerned a comprehensive job evaluation exercise. This initiative could lead to staff receiving a higher wage.

“I had to ask around [about the strike] but from what I can gather it’s some of the administrative staff that are on strike. I don’t know what the strike is about or if it’s going to impact the graduations.” Patrick Dundas, an Assistant Professor in Manufacturing Technology in Limerick Institute of Technology, told The College View.

According to Blanchardstown IT’s website, graduation ceremonies will go ahead on November 9th. All schools on the campus have been given a time for their ceremony.

The Workplace Relations Commission held talks last week aiming to resolve the dispute between the Trade Union, Fórsa, and managements of the IT’s. However, they adjourned after a few hours.

According to The Irish Times, a spokeswoman for Fórsa said no date has been set for further talks and that industrial action will continue.

News

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Universities across Ireland call on the government to tackle funding crisis Ellen Fitzpatrick News Editor @elinfizpitryk UNIVERSITIES across Ireland have launched a campaign to encourage the government to take action against the funding crisis in third level education.

Seven Irish universities launched ‘Save Our Spark’, a campaign which tackles the expenses of state funding and aims to force the government to tackle this crisis.

The campaign aims to raise awareness of the crisis and encourage the public to sign petitions asking local TDs to act on it.

“If the higher education crisis is not addressed by Government urgently, then we risk a serious drop in quality or a shortfall in places for students in the future,” said Jim Miley, Director General of the Irish Universities Association.

State funding for universities in Ireland is currently at €5,000 per third level student, half of what it was a decade

DCU is among the seven universities calling on the government to tackle the funding crisis.

ago and only a fraction of what it is compared to other European countries.

The Budget 2019 saw third level funding being granted a €150 million increase.

The IUA have developed the ‘Save Our Spark’ campaign after over two years of campaigning this action to the

government.

The IUA believe that there is a huge risk of a significant drop in education quality if the funding crisis is not tackled and improved in the coming years.

“For the first time ever, all seven Irish universities are coming together to demand urgent action on the funding cri-

Credit: Flickr

sis, as we need substantial investment to accommodate the extra students that are expected to enter the system over the next decade,” said Miley.

The campaign includes links to petitions that call on the Department of Education to address this problem and tackle the under-funding, as well as

links to those that are members of the Oireachtas Education Committee.

The campaign came to be after the two years of inaction since the publication of the Cassells Report, a report in which a number of funding options were put forward.

The seven universities involved in the campaign are Dublin City University, Maynooth University, National University of Ireland Galway, Trinity College Dublin, University College Cork, University College Dublin, and University of Limerick.

“Our future economic competitiveness will be eroded and there will be a serious drop in quality if the public funding deficit is not addressed. If urgent action is not taken, there’s a real risk that today’s 7 and 8-year old primary school students will not have sufficient college places available to them in 2030 when the demographic bulge peaks with an additional 40,000 students seeking to access third level,” said Lia O’Sullivan, the IUA head of communications.

Lack of visa meetings for international students Brendan Fernando Kelly Palanque Deputy News Editor @BrendanPalenque

International students are having difficulty getting online visa appointments with the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB)

Credit: Alison Clair

INTERNATIONAL students are having difficulty getting online visa appointments with the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB).

After filling out their personal details on the GNIB website to get a visa, students were told that there were no appointments available.

Global Business student Ann Hanna is from Canada, and she said that the website would “sporadically” post that there were meetings available. But when you registered, it would tell you the exact opposite.

Due to the fact she was unable to get an appointment, she had an expired visa for over a month. In the end, she had to go the GNIB’s offices to register for a meeting.

“They [the GNIB] weren’t helpful

when I talked to them about the trouble in getting an appointment online,” she said.

“I think they need to update their online interface and their processing software.”

The GNIB is in charge of deportations, border control and investigations relating to illegal immigration.

There are currently no dates free for a meeting before 2019. Without a visa, international students are unable to work, and thus unable to make money.

There also appears to be no system for deciding who gets a visa meeting first. Hanna said the appointment times were completely random.

“I got an appointment a few days after my friends and my appointment time ended up being a month before theirs. I think that is unfair.”

This sentiment was shared by a doctoral researcher at the UCD School of Sociology, Carl J Bindenagel. In a letter to The Irish Times, he said that “the process is like musical chairs, but

without any chairs.”

That’s not the only problem with the system though. Hanna said that at the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service (INIS) office, they wouldn’t recognise her health insurance which was covering her abroad.

She said that similar students in her position had no issue, but the officer she was with told her she had to buy Irish health insurance.

“He didn’t even want my policy number to double check that I purchased insurance and was covered. He only checked my confirmation email,” she said.

“I had to purchase the insurance right in the office in front of him.”

INIS also used to have an online appointment system, but this was replaced in September with a postal-only booking service. However, this new service requires applicants to forfeit their passport for five to six weeks before they arrive in Ireland.

Councillors take up to 7 months to re-let vacant social housing Cáit Caden News Editor @AreYou_Caden_Me THOUSANDS of local authority homes were left vacant by the end of 2017 which councillors take approximately seven months to re-let.

As much as 3,600 social homes across the State’s 31 local authorities were empty by the end of last year which indicates “substantial reductions in average re-letting times,” from previous years according to a report done by council watchdog: The National Oversight and Audit Commission (NOAC).

“I wouldn’t know why that is,” said Cllr. and Sinn Féin Deputy Mayor Cathal King when asked why it takes 28.9 weeks on average for councillors to re-

let vacant social housing.

Earlier this year Taoiseach Leo Varadkar declared the level of homelessness with the housing crisis is a “national emergency” as numbers reached the threshold of roughly 10,000.

The majority of people included in this figure are living in emergency accommodation and housing provided by friends and family in comparison to the minority that are sleeping rough, according to figures from the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government.

Labour spokesperson for housing TD Jan O’Sullivan called the amount of social housing vacancies “totally unacceptable” and said Minister for Housing Eoghan Murphy has to “take control of this situation.”

Dublin City Council, Ireland’s largest local authority, gave a statement in

response to the report which argued that the figures were exaggerated and that “Dublin City Council has successfully kept its vacant properties at any given time during 2018 below 2pc.”

“The turnaround for our locality is less than a percentage,” said King who added that his local authority in Dublin had the “lowest vacancy rate” of 0.4 per cent.

The report showed that rural counties such as Leitrim with 5.86 per cent, Longford 4.78 per cent and Donegal with 4.39 per cent had the highest vacancy rate in the country.

“We have to look at those local authorities which are actually able to bring houses back into use quickly and see what are they doing,” said Director of Advocacy for Focus Ireland Mike Allen.

Allen believes “perverse incentives”

Since Taoiseach Leo Varadkar declared the housing crisis to be a national crisis, several protest were organised including activists sleeping in vacant houses.

have entered the system lately.

Allen said that these properties can be classed as voids if left too long to be renovated by councillors.

When enough time passes “the department of housing will pay for it to be

Credit: The Irish Sun

renovated and also the department of housing will say that they’re wonderful for bringing a void back into use,” according to Allen who added that this would save councils having to use their own resources to do this.

8

News

€200m funding to go towards ‘below market rent’ apartments in Ballymun

Last month, Dublin City Council issued a €1 billion tender for factory-built homes to try and reduce the social housing list.

Dave Kelly Sub-Editor @thecollegeview “BELOW market rent build to rent” apartments in Ballymun were proposed

by Dublin City Council to combat the housing crisis.

The Cost Rental Residential Project aims to build around 300 apartments priced below the market standard for

a fixed period. The project is valued at €200 million and will cover 2.8 acres of council-owned land.

“My concern with this project is that it will be private sector led, and therefore not as affordable as other initiatives. I’m not convinced the private sector can provide effective solutions. I don’t think students will qualify for the project unless they have substantial independent income” said Eoin O’Broin, the Sinn Féin spokesperson for hous-

Credit: Alison Clair

ing, to The College View.

Last month, Dublin City Council issued a €1 billion tender for factory-built homes to try and reduce the social housing list. The government’s new Land Development Agency (LDA) is also considering providing additional affordable homes on nonState owned lands.

The average monthly rent in Dublin now stands at €1936, according to the latest report from Daft.ie. This is a rise

of 13.4 per cent since last year. Student accommodation, such as Shanowen Square, have also raised their prices to €9000 for one academic year.

“The cost of rental should have no link to market rents whatsoever. There could bands of rent within the cost of rental depending on someone’s income.

These things are meant to be available to people. If rent is set a certain level for those on a combined €75k a year say, it would exclude those on 55k or 60k.” said O’Broin to the Journal.ie.

O’Broin said that even putting rental prices 15% below the market standard would be too expensive for most people. He pointed to a housing project in Inchicore as an example of a progressive housing initiative. It’s Ireland’s first ever ‘cost rental’ housing scheme.

Under this new scheme, housing is built to ensure that rents are based on the cost of providing, financing, building, and maintaining the development, rather than to maximise profit. The Cost Rental Residential Project is being provided on the private market.

O’Broin was involved with the introduction of The Residential Tenancies Bill 2018 which aims to protect students against steep rent increases by private owned accommodation providers. This bill is currently in the committee stage of the Dáil.

“The Bill would also ensure that tenants have access to the RTB [Residential Tenancies Board] dispute resolution process in cases such as deposit retention and maintenance issues,” said DCU SU president, Vito Moloney Burke.

DCU granted €330,000 by Facebook for anti-bullying programme Orla Dwyer Opinions Editor @orladwyer_ FACEBOOK has given €330,000 towards a three-year anti-bullying programme in DCU for post-primary schools across Ireland.

The programme was announced on October 17th, and is set to begin in January 2019. The partnership between the National Anti-Bullying Research and Resource Centre (ABC) in DCU will see an anti-bullying and online safety training programme offered to an estimated 800 post-primary schools.

“I welcome the fact that the focus is on providing training for teachers and parents who are both faced with the growing challenge of supporting students dealing with all the complexities and dangers associated with bullying, cyberbullying, and online safety,” said DCU President Brian MacCraith in a statement.

The ABC is a university designated research centre in DCU that builds on over 22 years of research.

ABC experts will give the training to teachers and parents of 12-17-year-old

The National Anti-Bullying Research and Resource Centre (ABC) in DCU will see an anti-bullying programme offered to post-primary schools in association with Facebook.

students through workshops and online modules. However, there have been some concerns about the impartiality of the education given the €330,000 funding from Facebook.

“Frankly, I am not impressed with this partnership and frankly, I question the motive behind it. In 2017 Instagram was the site where most incidents of

Credit: DCU

cyberbullying occurred, yet its owners Facebook have done little in my opinion to address this. To me this appears to be a cosmetic effort,” said John Dwyer, founder of Let’s B Safe, an organisation that provides workshops to students about bullying, cyber-bullying and online safety.

A 2017 study from global anti-bul-

lying charity Ditch the Label on cyberbullying found that 42% of young people surveyed had been cyberbullied on Instagram, a platform owned by Facebook.

“The Anti-Bullying Research and Resource Centre at DCU approached Facebook asking them if they would be willing to fund a programme they had developed based on their research and wanted to scale up. Facebook agreed to provide funding and have absolutely no involvement in the content, the operation or the administration of the programme,” said a spokesperson from DCU. Through workshops and online modules, participants should be able to identify and understand bullying and develop the skills to support students when it comes to online safety.

“Making sure people feel safe when they come to Facebook is our most important responsibility, especially when it comes to young people. Through partnerships like this one, we know we can all better tackle the issue of bullying, whether offline or online,” said Julie de Bailliencourt, Facebook Global Safety Policy Manager in a statement.

RTÉ and NUIG partner in research and teaching Orla Dwyer Opinions Editor @orladwyer_ RTÉ and NUI Galway have teamed up for an audience research project and an MA in professional practice in media.

An audience research panel of 500 Irish-speaking contributors will be recruited from around Ireland to give feedback on Raidió na Gaeltachta. The MA is run by Acadamh na hOllscolaíochta Gaeilge at NUI Galway and started in September 2018.

“Among RTÉ’s challenges around Irish-language output are identifying clearly our audiences so that we may best serve them, and also ensuring that we enable future media practitioners to continue to provide the high-quality services provided by RTÉ,” said RTÉ’s Group Head of Irish Language, Rónán Mac Con Iomaire in a statement.

“That RTÉ have been able to work with NUI Galway with the aim of fulfilling these two key challenges shows the enormous value of partnership and the importance of building on the continuing relationship between our two organisations,” added Mac Con Iomaire.

The programme combines online academic modules with practice-based work experience in RTÉ in journalism, broadcasting, and content creation for radio, television and online platforms.

The course has a maximum of 15 places per year and it emphasises practical learning through Irish at a number of RTÉ studios.

Students will study at NUI Galway along with different Irish-language units at RTÉ’s headquarters in Donnybrook, RTÉ regional studios in Connemara and in other Gaeltacht areas.

“The MA Cleachtas Gairmiúil sna Meáin offered by Ollscoil na hÉireann, Gaillimh looks like a great course and it’s an option DCU’s Gaeilge graduates might want to consider if they want to pursue a career in the media,” said Colm Ó Ciardubháin Programme Chair of DCU’s BA in Irish and Journalism.

“Gaillimh is uniquely suited to offer such an MA. They are close to Gaeltacht Chonamara and close to the centre of the Irish language media hub,” Ó Ciardubháin added.

The new Irish language audience research initiative is called Fíos Físe.

This will investigate the reach, satisfaction levels and listening habits of Irish speakers from the north and south of Ireland with regard to RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta. It is the first time that the views of Raidió na Gaeltachta’s core target audience will be investigated on a regular and ongoing basis.

This research will be used by NUI Galway in Acadamh na hOllscolaíochta Gaeilge’s teaching and research programme in Irish-language broadcasting. Participants in the initiative will complete a weekly online survey and the results will be regularly submitted to RTÉ.

Science and Health

9

Up to 70,000 removed from waiting lists without consultation Catherine Gallagher Deputy News Editor @Cather_i_ne NEARLY 70,000 patients have been removed from out-patient waiting lists this year without an initial consultation, according to Fianna Fáil’s health spokesperson Stephen Donnelly.

The figures obtained from GPs and shared by Donnelly reveal that 69,836 patients were cut from waiting lists as part of a “validation exercise” after staff inquired that they were “ready, willing, suitable and available” to attend.

The National Treatment Purchase Fund established a centralised unit for validating hospital waiting lists in September of this year. Minister for Health Simon Harris said this was to set out a standardised approach to the process.

Speaking to The College View, Donnelly commented on the efficacy of the validation process: “It is always important that list numbers are accurate.

Invariably there are some patients on waiting lists that shouldn’t be there, however, what the recent statistics show us is that the current approach to patient care by the Government is clearly wrong.”

The South/South-West Hospital Group – which includes the likes of Cork University Hospital, University Hospital Kerry and Lourdes Orthopaedic Hospital Kilcreene - had the largest number of names removed of its list by over 22,000.

“The Government has failed to provide us with details as to why there

was such a huge number of patients removed from waiting lists in the South/ South-West area,” Donnelly added.

Nationally, more than 10 per cent of the overall number of 500,000 names were removed from the list. There have been reports that doctors are being inundated with 100 letters every week due to the validation exercises.

In a statement released by the National Association of General Practitioners, it said that the validation system in “its current guise is a national disgrace,” and will be the “next inevitable scandal of our health service.”

It added: “There is no logical reason for this form of validation and indeed it creates more barriers and bureaucracy, in terms of access to care for the most vulnerable in society. We want immediate reform of the validation process.

“We believe the HSE should directly contact patients and that if a patient fails to attend three appointments at a hospital, they would then be removed from the list and be so notified.”

It also transpires that 9,864 people over the age of 75 were left lying on trolleys for at least 24 hours between January and August of this year. The figures shared by the Fianna Fáil TD show that the South/South West Hospital Group consistently had the highest number of over 75s on trolleys compared to other hospital groups.

Patients were particularly affected at the start of the year as there were 1,955 people on trolleys in January alone.

Donnelly predicts that the numbers are set to rise: “I really do fear for the coming winter. I fully expect the total

The South/South-West Hospital Group – which includes the likes of Cork University Hospital, University Hospital Kerry and Lourdes Orthopaedic Hospital Kilcreene - had the largest number of names removed of its list by over 22,000.

number for this year to exceed 14,000 – a shocking statistic in itself but even worse when we consider that these are our parents, our aunts and uncles left lying, often in a very vulnerable state, on uncomfortable and unsuitable trolleys.”

Age Action Ireland is a national independent organisation that supports

older people. It acts as a development agency to promote better policies and services for the elderly ageing in society.

“It is scandalous that people over the age of 75 are left on trolleys. We believe the reason for this is that the resources are not being properly allocated,” Gerard Scully of Age Action said.

Credit: Pexels

“More resources need to be allocated to community services which would allow more people to move out of hospital care into the community where most older people want to live. This would inevitably free up beds and take the pressure off Accident and Emergency services,” he said.

Ward-of-court replacement scheme allocated a third of funding requested Catherine Gallagher Deputy News Editor @Cather_i_ne A new ward-of-court replacement scheme has been allocated just a third of the funding from the Government requested by the Mental Health Commission.

The commission had the responsibility of establishing the Decision Support Service, in line with the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015, to work with vulnerable adults and adults with intellectual disabilities in making choices in their lives.

The commission requested €9 million from the Department of Justice to commence the new service in 2019, but Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan confirmed that €3 million would go towards the initiative.

Due to the shortfall in funding, the Decision Support Service will not be in operation until 2020.

It is aimed at replacing the wardof-court system which was founded

Due to the shortfall in funding, the Decision Support Service will not be in operation until 2020.

Credit: Wikipedia Commons

under the Lunacy Act of 1871. This sees decisions made by the High Court and acts as an agent for a person who is deemed by the court to lack capacity to make decisions for themselves.

These matters can range from buying or selling property to medical procedures.

There are up to almost 3,000 wards in Ireland with total assets worth over €1 billion collectively.

Communications and Information Manager of Inclusion Ireland Sarah Lennon said that through their advocacy work, the system is not “respectful” of a person with a disability or older people. Inclusion Ireland is the national association for people with an intellectual disability.

“We have had advocacy cases where a person was made a ward of court perhaps because of an inheritance or receiving damages after an accident and it has a huge knock-on effect on every part of that person’s life,” said Lennon.

She added that the association welcomed the Assisted-Making Act

in 2015, but they are concerned about the potential consequences of further delays in establishing the new system: “Without the correct funding of the Decision Support Service, there will be delays in setting up the new alternative to the ward of court system but also the review of people who are currently ward-of-court. This means, there is a very real chance that people will die without being released from wardship.”

In January of this year, the National Safeguarding Committee released a report on the ward-of-court system, branding it as “inadequate and archaic.”

According to the report, it found that there is “substantial public confusion and lack of understanding around the wards-of-court system”, and “it relies too much on the integrity of family members and professionals.”

10

Science and Health

‘Top-ups’ given to deal with vacancy crisis in psychiatric nursing staff

Supersonic spacecraft burning through the sky on the way to Mercury

Dave Kelly Sub-Editor @thecollegeview

PSYCHIATRIC nurses are experiencing a recruitment and retention crisis with a 40 per cent increase in vacancies since last November.

Vacancies have increased from 500 to 700 since 2017. The Psychiatric Nurses Association predicts that due to high age profiles, 1,752 psychiatric nurses are expected to retire immediately or within the next five years. This is 34.2 per cent of the workforce.

“The conclusion of the Pay Commission that there is no issue with nurse recruitment is completely at odds with the evidence and experience of psychiatric nurses across the mental health services,” said PNA General Secretary, Peter Hughes.

An Oireachtas Committee report on the Future of Mental Healthcare has recommended that special payments for psychiatric nurses to incentivise recruitment and retention.

“One of the main reasons why there is a lack of recruitment probably because there is still a massive stigma around mental health. People are scared to go down the psychiatric nursing route because of the common stereotypes surrounding mental health such as patients are dangerous or they will get beat up not because of the poor pay,” said a DCU psychiatric nursing student who wanted to remain anonymous.

The report also calls for a doubling of acute beds from 22 to 50 over the next three years. Psychiatric nursing beds have decreased exponentially over the past 34 years. There were 12,484 beds in 1984, which fell to 4,173 beds in 2004. In 2016, there were 1,002 beds available, a total decrease of 91 per

Mercury is one of the least explored planets in the solar system. The extreme heat on the planet is a contributing factor to this.

Alison Clair Images Editor @aliclair_

Due to the shortfall in funding, the Decision Support Service will not be in operation until 2020.

cent. Children have been committed to adult beds as a result.

“The recommendations contained in the report in relation to additional payments such as ‘top-ups’ of allowances would have to be considered in the context of Public Service Pay Policy and the recommendations of the Public Service Pay Commission,” said the Department of Health’s Press Office when contacted.

One in seven teenagers experience significant symptoms of depression, according to a report conducted by the National Suicide Research Foundation (NSRF), with data drawn from the Saving and Empowering Young Lives in Europe (SEYLE) study.

The report found that 7 per cent of teenagers had serious suicidal thoughts while a further 4 per cent had attempted suicide. One in four teenagers had symptoms of anxiety.

Minister for Mental Health and El-

Credit: Wikipedia Commons

derly people, Jim Daly, has cited online psychiatric consultations as a potential solution to the vacancy crisis. This suggestion comes in the wake of the Better Help scandal, where an online counselling service was accused of malpractice.

“Using and supporting highly trained professional psychiatric nurses in the role of Advanced Nurse Practitioners and day hospitals/home-based treatment offers realistic and workable options for mental health services rather than relying on the fad of online video assessments and diagnosis to meet the current crisis,” said Hughes.

The committee report and the PNA have proposed that preliminary screenings by Advanced Nurse Practitioners would reduce waiting lists and allow greater access to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services. Currently the CAMHS heavily relies on overtime and agency nurses.

A European – Japanese spacecraft was launched in the early hours of Saturday, October 20th embark on a seven year journey to examine Mercury.

The spacecraft designed and built by the ESA European Space Agency and The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched the BepiColombo mission from Europe’s spaceport in French Guiana at about 1.45am Irish time on Saturday.

They plan to examine the iron content, internal composition and magnetosphere of the solar system’s smallest and least explored planet.

“The density of Mercury is much higher than the Earth, so trying to understand its origins is important if we want to understand the formation of the other planets and moons.

Answering these questions with telescopes on Earth is very difficult, but a spacecraft orbiting around Mercury can,” said Dr Ernst de Mooij, from the school of Physical Sciences in DCU. This mission is only the third ever visit to Mercury because of the planets close proximity to the sun. Mercury is less than 60 million km away compared to Earth being near 150 million kilometres away.

Surface temperatures on the planet can reach 400 degrees during the day, and

Credit: Japan Today

drop to minus 170 degrees at night.

This is what makes the trip challenging.

BepiColombo, named after the 20th century Italian Mathematician and Engineer Giuseppe (Bepi) Colombo, will slingshot off the Earth’s gravitational field 1½ years after this launch.

It will then pick up speed on its journey, will fly past Venus twice and then fly by Mercury six times before finally slipping into its orbit around December 2025.

Once it has entered into Mercury’s orbit it will release two separate spacecraft it is carrying.

ESA’s Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and JAXA’s Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO).

MPO will then study Mercury’s surface and internal composition, to determine the planet’s iron content and examine why its core is partially liquid. JAXA’s Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO) will collect data on the planet’s magnetosphere.

Dr Mooij added how, “building, launching and operating a spacecraft is expensive and to answer all the questions related to Mercury requires engineers and scientists with a wide range of combined resources and knowledge”.

Both orbiters will study the planet for one year, with scope for possible oneyear extension.

Brexit set to cause science to suffer in the UK Ian Brennan Podcast Editor @IPJBrennan

Due to the shortfall in funding, the Decision Support Service will not be in operation until 2020.

Credit: Wikipedia Commons

The immigration system in the UK is “not up to scratch”, according to The Wellcome Trust.

The problem has come to the fore again this week after Dr Mohamed Alnor was denied entry to the UK to attend the World Congress of Psychiatric Genetics in Glasgow.

Dr Alnor, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Sudan International University, had spent in excess of $2,500 (€2,200) in fees in order to make it to the event. The Wellcome Trust, which grants over £1b towards research every year, questioned the immigration system in the UK after Dr Alnor was unable to attend the event in Scotland.

Paul Cahill, a professor at the School of Biotechnology at DCU, has said that the problem lies with the time taken to

process visa requests. “The restrictions on access of foreign researchers to UK for conferences, workshops etcetera has been due to the untimely delay in processing visas, as far as I am aware,” said Cahill.

Cahill also added that the consequences could be dire should this continue due to Brexit.

“If this persists due to Brexit, the collegiate collaborate environment for science within the UK will suffer greatly.”

Chenxing Liu, a neuropsychiatrist based in the University of Melbourne, was also unable to deliver a planned presentation at the four-day event due to not getting a visa in time.

The Wellcome Trust published a report which found a quarter of all African and Asian researchers encounter visa issues, three times more than their European colleagues.

Cahill warned that that science in the UK will have a lasting negative effect

after Brexit happens.

“If Brexit ends up as a hard Brexit, then UK science as a whole will greatly suffer as EU funding will end and the knock-on effect will be the departure of a large number of world class scientists from UK universities for EU institutions,” said Cahill.

Professor Thomas Schulze, President for the International Society of Psychiatric Genetics, described the questioning of visa applications from academics from less developed countries as “discrimination and libel.”

Dr Alnor said that while he understands the caution used by the UK Embassy to stop abuse of the system, it does make it very hard for others.

Alnor was denied access due to him having insufficient funds in his bank account. He points out that Sudanese people tend not to keep money in banks due to limits on how much money can be withdrawn.

Business and Tech

Ireland’s meat production no longer bite-sized

Mikey Walsh Deputy Images Editor @Walshy_mikey ACCORDING to a statistical release by the Central Statistics Office on October 18th, the total supply increased by 4.6 per cent in 2017 despite the risk of Brexit-related fallout and the threat of a loss of €1.7 billion to UK markets.

Bord Bia released figures saying that 30 per cent of all Irish food and drink exports were meat, worth a total of €3.8 billion to the market last year.

They were just behind dairy exports which made €4 billion - 19% growth from the previous year - making last year Ireland’s eighth successive year of growth in the food and drinks industry.

Beef and veal made up the majority, accounting for 54.1 per cent of the total meat supplied in the country followed by sheep and poultry. The only decrease was in pig meat, which dropped by 0.5 per cent from the previous year.

Clare farmer Sean O’Driscoll said that he doesn’t feel pressure to meet the demand of the increasing market but said “the price is what affects the farm-

There was an increase in the supply of meat produced in Ireland between 2016 to 2017, reaching 1,430,120 tonnes coming through the country.

ers, what the farmer puts in the product

and what he gets out are only marginal.

UCD professor wins 2018 Allergen Innovation Award Róise McGagh Illustrations Editor @roisemcgagh DR. Nicky Bertollo has won the 2018 University College Dublin (UCD) Allergan Innovation Award with an innovative design for patches that deliver drugs and vaccines through the skin.

Dr Bertollo will receive a research bursary of €7,000 for developing his new microneedle patch (MNP) design that will allow more effective exposure of the vaccine or drug when applied to the skin.

The bursary will make a real difference to my research; enabling me to carry out drug-coating and elution studies that will inform how our microneedle patch design can be brought to the next stage of development,” said Dr Bertollo at the awards ceremony during the 2018 UCD Conway Festival of Research & Innovation.

Microneedle patches look like a plaster or nicotine patch but have an array of microscopic needles that deliver, for

Dr. Bertollo with his Innovation award

example, a flu vaccine through the skin in a painless manner. They can be self-administered and so have huge potential for widespread use.

However, conventional MNPs only achieve between 15-45 per cent exposure, as the skin can be pushed away during application. This new two-part design has angled microneedles that allow the patch to be essentially ‘clipped’ on to the skin, achieving a full effective exposure.

Dr Bertollo is an early career researcher in the UCD School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering and is working with Dr Eoin O’Cearbhaill, Fellow of UCD Conway Institute and Assistant Professor in Biomedical Engineering.

The team are looking to commercialise the new design with their startup UCD spin-out company, Latch Medical.

The pharmaceutical company Allergen began the €50,000 Innovation Award Programme to mark 40 years in business in 2017. UCD also secured funding through

the award last year.

We are pleased to build on our longstanding relationships with communities through providing educational support to universities and colleges around the country, by reaffirming our commitment to the future of life sciences,” said Dr Francis Bates at the ceremony. Dr Bates is the Vice President Global Solid Oral Dosage Manufacturing at Allergan and the Plant General Manager at the manufacturing facility at Clonshaugh in Dublin.

Barbara Hughes, a doctoral candidate was presented with a second bursary prize of €1,000. Her research aims to develop a live cell imaging technology that will track the development of sperm inside the human fallopian tube. Working with Professor Sabine Koelle, UCD School of Medicine and UCD Conway Institute this will help make strategies for couples in increasing their fertility and maintaining fertility in people affected by gynaecological cancer.

Credit: UCD

Credit: Wikipedia Commons

Basically, the farmers are at the bottom of the pile and the supermarkets and

11

meat factories dictate the industry.”

71.3 per cent of the total supply of meat was exported worldwide and China opened its market to Irish beef last year for the first time in 18 years. In Ireland however, the price of beef has dropped by as much as 20c/kg this year.

In September, meat factories decided to offer 5c/kg less off prime cattle quotes. With rising prices in meat and the fodder shortages, Irish farmers may be left to catch up to their ever-shrinking profit margins.

According to a study by Our World in Data, meat consumption has risen steadily since the 1960s and the average person now consumes 43kg of meat per capita. The price of meat increased internationally across 2017 also, partially due to consumer trends such as wanting to know where meat comes from.

A study by Bord Bia showed that healthy eating is on the rise as when asked, 32 per cent of people said they’ve changed their eating habits for health reasons. Eating meat has been linked to having many health benefits because of its richness in vitamins and minerals that are not in as high a densi-

Kleenex rebrand ‘mansized’ tissues

Amy Donohoe Social Media Editor @amydonohoe1

THEIR “mansize” tissues will now be branded “Extra Large.” Kleenex For Men tissues were launched in 1956 and the company were pressured by public demand to change the name, despite not itself believing that the ‘mansize’ branding suggests or endorses gender inequality.

“The term “man sized” is kind of pointless, I mean I can still use man sized tissues even though I’m a woman. Extra-large is probably a more apt term to use for the product,” said DCU student, Emily Donnelly.

As described in their product description, Kleenex Mansize Tissues were created because “sometimes we need a little softness with our strength.

Kleenex Mansize is comfortingly soft and strong so you can be confident it won’t let you down.”

Sam Smethers, chief executive at feminist campaign group, the Fawcett Society, praised the move, by saying: “Rebranding man sized tissues is not to be sneezed at. Removing sexist branding such as this is just sensible 21st century marketing. But we still have a long way to go before using lazy stereotypes to sell products is a thing of the past.”

Some people have queried the decision of Kleenex. A Twitter user stated that: “You do realise you don’t need to be a baby to use baby wipes? Or to be Irish to drink Irish whisky?”

Kimberly-Clark stated to The Telegraph that they never suggested that being soft and strong is an exclusively masculine trait, nor do they believe that the Mansize branding suggests or endorses gender inequality.

It comes amid a wider backlash against unnecessarily gendered products, with consumers and campaigners criticising manufacturers of razors, pens, confectionary and other products over “outdated” gender stereotyping.

Yorkie’s infamous “it’s not for girls” marketing campaign was launched in 2002 and was so successful the brand stuck to the message for the 10 years that followed.

The UK Advertising Standards Authority, which regulates adverts, has also said it will ban those that encourage gender stereotypes, such as women cleaning up after their family, or men failing to do housework.

12

MyTaxi went the extra mile in its last quarter

Eoin Harte Deputy Lifestyle Editor THE average waiting time for a My@EoinHarte98

Taxi is now down to three minutes and thirty seconds, according to the company behind the app.

The app, formerly known as Hailo, had its busiest ever quarter in Ireland, serving four million customers be-

tween July and September.

The app has proven to be quite popular among DCU students. Cathal McCahey, currently studying an MA in public relations and strategic communications, said he thought MyTaxi was “100 per cent” better than hailing down a taxi on the street.

“You can go for pre-drinks and have it ready for you, you can book it in advance. I think it’s handy,” he said.

International relations student, Darragh Houston, echoed these sentiments.

“It’s better because it comes straight to your location. You don’t have to go looking for taxis. It always comes within 10 minutes.”

Cathal O’Rourke, a second year communications student, recalled how he was advised to use the app when he

started college.

“We were warned in first year that it’s a safer option to use MyTaxi so you know the driver number and whether you were charged incorrectly.”

However, O’Rourke has experienced some problems when using the app. “I know from personal experience, I’ve been in town on a Saturday night going home early, I’ve missed the last bus and all of a sudden I can’t get a taxi. I had to wave one down because I was waiting 20 minutes, half an hour for a MyTaxi.”

O’Rourke’s fellow communications student Dylan Mangan was less critical of the app and explained why he thought that MyTaxi was overtaking the more traditional method of getting a taxi.

“People aren’t bothered to wave down taxis on the street any more, it’s much easier to just whip out your phone. It’s just convenient more than anything else I think,” he said.

MyTaxi posted an increase of almost 50 per cent in demand for taxis to and from Dublin Airport in the third quarter when compared to last year. Over the same third quarter, 568 new drivers signed up with MyTaxi.

The company experienced its busiest Thursday on record on September 20th, with Storm Ali being responsible for the boost in popularity on the day.

The MyTaxi app is available on both iOS and Android devices and is free to download.

Irish businesses are falling behind their European counterparts in their integration of artificial intelligence David Kelly Sub Editor @thecollegeview

THREE quarters of Irish businesses are at risk of being outmatched by their European counterparts due to their lack of artificial intelligence (AI) integration.

A new study by Microsoft has found that while three quarters Irish businesses are in the planning and piloting stage of integration, full implementation is yet to occur. This creates the fear that there will be a lack of investment and buy-in from a board level.

“AI encompasses lots of different things. It’s not just robots; it’s also computer processing, so in many instances what is understood as ‘AI’ is actually ‘machine learning’.

Pretty much everything we do now in our research area (human language technology) is data-driven, where the machine makes inferences (about what sentences mean, or how to translate a sentence, or what a user wants to see given a specific query in Google, say) from large collections of data,” said Professor of Computing, Andy Way. Way said that these systems been shown to work best on a wide range of tasks and that AI systems outperform traditional machine systems.

A common example of AI in busi-

A new microsoft study shows that full inimplementation of artificial intelligence has yet to occur.

nesses are chat-bots. European countries have incorporated these systems into their customer service, often serving as the first line of contact for customers.

Across Europe, 65 per cent of organisations expect AI to have an impact on their core business in the future. About half expect it to impact areas that they haven’t even considered. However, only four per cent consider themselves advanced in this area.

“So, if we interpret the Microsoft study in this light, I think it is probably credible that three quarters of Irish

businesses have indeed integrated AI. If we’re talking machine learning, that’s relatively straightforward; if it’s replacing boring human tasks with robots, clearly that’s much harder,” said Way. The exponential development of AI has been influenced in large part by smartphones, wearable devices, the internet and the power of the cloud that helps harness that data and make sense of it.

Humans are crucial in the development in AI, with research indicating that companies that put an emphasis on

Credit: Pixabay

emotional intelligence have better success in adopting AI. “One issue though, even with machine learning is that today’s deep learning approaches require GPU architecture rather than CPU, which are expensive, and the models take longer to train, so the architecture is more expensive and there is undoubtedly an impact on climate as these models take a long time to run, so more computer power in both senses of the term is needed,” said Way.

Business and Tech

Singapore and EU strengthen economic ties Sabrine Donohoe Contributor @thecollegeview EU and Singapore have signed three Agreements: the EU-Singapore Trade Agreement, the EU-Singapore Investment Protection Agreement and the Framework Agreement on Partnership and Cooperation, according to a press release from the European Commission.

The Trade Agreement and Investment Protection Agreement aim to increase the EU’s presence in the key region, seeing as its trade with the EU was worth S$75 billion (over €47.45 billion) in 2017 and Singapore stands as the EU’s biggest trading partner of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

The Framework Agreement on Partnership and Cooperation aims to strengthen efforts in areas like climate change, education, culture, transport, organised crime and counter terrorism efforts.

President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker said in a statement: “The trade agreement will open up new opportunities for European producers, workers, farmers and consumers, mirroring what this Commission has delivered with other like-minded partners across the world, whilst our collective resolve to tackling global challenges will be strengthened through political dialogue.”

Singapore was the preferred investment area in Asia among European countries, with 10,000 companies choosing to establish there. The economic agreements will cease nearly all remaining tariffs on EU products like food, pharmaceuticals and electronics, and simplify customs procedures.

The nation is one of the four Asian Tigers, along with Hong Kong, South Korea, and Taiwan. These countries underwent exceptionally fast economic development in the 1950s and 1960s, with annual growth rates exceeding seven per cent.

GDP in Singapore grew by 3.6 per cent to S$447.3 billion last year, according to the Department of Statistics Singapore (DOS). The Singaporean GDP per capita also increased from S$72,376 to S$76,863 between 2016 and 2017, a 6.2 percentage increase year on year while the population remained at 5.6 million.

The Partnership and Cooperation Agreement is the fourth among ASEAN countries, following agreements with Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam. It will overwrite the legalities of the 1980 Cooperation Agreement between the European Economic Community and ASEAN member countries.

ASEAN was established on August 8, 1967 with the aim to increase economic and cultural considerations and maintain peace in East Asia.

14

Opinion

Is helicopter parenting harmful?

Parental encouragement can be fantastic but sometimes it can go too far, writes Clara Kelly.

Clara Kelly Deputy Opinion Editor @clarabkelly

I

t seems like for as long as there has been competition, in sport and everything else, there have been overbearing parents trying to force their children to compete, but is this control good or bad?

Ever since the emergence of sports, drama and dance clubs for kids, there has been an equal number of parents pushing their kids to attend them.

Since shows like Toddlers and Tiaras and Dance Moms came into the public sphere, this behaviour appears to have been normalised even further.

It is easy to see the many benefits of getting your child involved in clubs of some kind - improving social skills, making friends, and learning new and useful abilities. However, we must ask where it begins to cross a line?

When kids who have little to no interest in sports end up being forced to compete because their parents notice they are good at them, despite not enjoying them, that is when it becomes a problem. It would be like forcing a child who loved sports to pursue drama

or dance because of the parents own beliefs on what is best.

Wanting the best is human nature, but where it gets troubling is when parents begin to live vicariously through their kids until the children themselves no longer get any joy from the activity.

That is when a re-evaluation of priorities needs to occur.

Some children are forced to live under tremendous pressure. The effects of this can be traumatic and lead to resentment towards their parents.

If a kid is being forced to always think of the next competition, trophy or medal, to win, win, win at all costs, I believe there is no way that will not have a damaging impact on their mental health and subsequently, relationship with their parents.

This win-at-all-costs attitude that prioritises the child’s abilities to succeed and benefit their mother or father over their well being is ever-present in shows like Dance Moms. Their popularity shows there is no shortage of entertainment value in watching how toxic and controlling coaches and parents can be.

People tune in to shows like this and forget about the real children, the children who often seem unhappy as they are forced into makeup and spray tans

Do some parents live vicariously through their children and how dangerous can this be?

and practice for hours on end, instead of just being allowed to be a kid and have fun.

We might still see similar antics on a smaller scale on a local football field or community centre, kids who do not want to be there and parents who are a little too eager and overly excited for that next win.

This idea of helicopter parenting has always been present even when it

comes to the educational system. People who pay far too close attention to their kids’ experiences, particularly their achievements. They can be too concerned with their grades and reports and put an enormous amount of pressure on them to not just succeed, but excel.

Placing large amounts of pressure on little shoulders, to take piano lessons or learn an instrument, play a sport and do

Romper.com

well at school is far too much for young people to handle.

As a society, we have such mixed values when it comes to this particular topic with some parents cursing participation medals, however, I don’t think a shift towards those attitudes would necessarily be a bad thing.

Children are ultimately still just children and should be treated as such.

Discrimination will not win an election Peter Casey’s discriminatory comments about travellers reinforce prejudice in Ireland, writes Orla Dwyer.

Orla Dwyer Opinion Editor @orladwyer_ The surge in votes for Peter Casey in the presidential election after his discriminatory comments against travellers highlights that Ireland has a long way to go in terms of acceptance.

Casey’s comments have reinforced the prejudice a lot of settled people in Ireland have towards the ethnic group.

Although the general reaction to Casey’s traveller comments was outrage, this is usually not the case when it comes to casual discrimination against travellers. Even in the most liberal circles, derogatory language towards travellers is used far too often and is entirely normalised.

Casey first made the comments about travellers in the Independent.ie political podcast, The Floating Voter, on October 17.

“I don’t believe that travellers should be given special status. Why should they be given status over and above yourself or myself?” Casey said in the episode.

“They’re basically people that are camping on somebody else’s land. Imagine the poor farmer whose land that they camped on. Who will buy the land

from him?” he added.

It appears that some of the “poor farmer” population agrees. A Sunday Business Post Red C poll undertaken in the days before Casey’s traveller comments claimed that Casey was on 2 per cent of votes, the lowest of all candidates at the time. In the end, Casey received 23.3 per cent of the country’s vote coming in second behind Michael D Higgins’ 55.8 per cent victory. This is a massive increase over the space of a week.

The presidential candidate had called the minority ethnicity status of travellers “a load of nonsense” and later said on RTÉ News that he was unaware of its existence.Formal recognition for travellers as a distinct ethnic group in Ireland was officialised in March 2017.

Whether it was these statements about travellers or other comments made by Casey, it is clear that many voters felt he was a breath of fresh air in a stale race. However, a wealthy man making cheap shots at a minority group and reigniting hatred from the past does nothing for the people of Ireland.

In rural areas near towns with high traveller populations, the vote for Casey was stronger.

In Galway East, for example, he received 33 per cent of votes, among

2018 Presidential candidate Peter Casey

the highest in the country. Is it a coincidence that Galway has the highest traveller population in Ireland according to the 2016 census?

Included in this constituency is Tuam, the town with the highest number of travellers in Ireland.

His comments and surge in popularity are part of a greater issue surrounding traveller discrimination. A report from the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission on discrimination in Ireland showed that travellers are almost twice as likely than white Irish people to experience prejudice in seeking work.

Of the 10,000 travellers eligible to work in 2016, 80 per cent were unemployed according to CSO statistics. How much of this rate is due to discrimination in employment? Comments from people like Peter Casey do nothing to reduce these negative attitudes many people have towards travellers.

“It is a historic day for our Travellers and a proud day for Ireland,” Enda Kenny said after traveller ethnic Credit: Róise McGagh

status was confirmed last year. The same thing could not be said after Casey received such a significant increase in votes after his discriminatory words.

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Derogatory language and terms can be hurtful and unjust

14

Opinion

Keep your hands off my chick lit

Chick lit gets a lot of slack from critics and certain readers, but Mary Ryan argues that it is a genre worth celebrating.

Mary Ryan Contributor @thecollegeview

T

o suggest that another woman’s ostensibly written literary novel is chick lit feels catty, not unlike calling another woman a slut- doesn’t the term bring down all of us?

This was how Curtis Sittenfeld started her 2005 New York Times review of “The Wonder Spot” by Melissa Banks. The review sparked a conversation about the disdain female literary authors, like Sittenfeld often have for commercial or chick lit authors.

But what is chick lit exactly? According to Collins dictionary, it is “a genre of fiction concentrating on young women and their emotional lives”.

If you asked the 18 female authors involved in the This is Not Chick Lit collection of short stories, they would give you a slightly different version.

“Chick lit: A genre of fiction that often recycles the following plot: Girl in big city desperately searches for Mr. Right in between dieting and shopping for shoes. Girl gets dumped (some-

times repeatedly). Girl finds Prince Charming.”

For every one of us out there enjoying chick lit, there are a million female writers with equal enthusiasm in condemning the genre as a plague upon womankind. They gleefully remind us that “for every stock protagonist with a designer handbag and three boyfriends, there is a woman writer pushing the envelope of literary fiction with imagination, humour and depth.”

We get it. You’re vastly superior to the rest of us mere mortals who read for fun. You’re desperate for male literary critics recognise how separate you are from us. Now let me read my book in peace.

Critiquing a genre is great. Preferring one genre over another is fine.

Continuously demeaning a genre written for women by women, about women’s emotional experiences is not conducive to creating a society which does not regard any woman as lesser, even those who like romance and shopping.

To continue to perpetuate the idea of a single white female looking for love in the big city as the industry standard shows that you haven’t actually read any modern chick lit and proves that your desire for proper representation

Chick lit novels such as Bridget Jones’s Diary are worthy of acclaim and celebration.

isn’t genuine but merely wielded like a weapon against any genre you do not like.

The literary ladies have their own share of representation issues. The sad white woman and her inner turmoil over how special and broken she is is just as much of common, tired trope in literary fiction.

What about Helen Hoang’s “The

Kiss Quotient” about a woman with autism who finds love, written by an autistic woman?

What about “Addicted” by Kristen and Becca Ritchie, where an alcoholic and a sex addict fall in love and seek help together after realising love won’t cure their addictions?

The world of chick lit is evolving to a genre that encourages and uplifts the

Credit: Itison.com

voices and experiences of authors who, before now, would have been drowned out by the overarching, white, Anglo-Americanised narrative.

As Ian McEwan once wrote; “When women stop reading, the novel will be dead.”

And you will certainly have to pry my chick lit books from my cold, dead, french manicured hands.

Is age just a number when it comes to love?

Love knows no bounds, but Aoibhín Bryant argues a large age gap in a relationship can be detrimental.

Aoibhín Bryant Arts Editor @aoibhinbryant_

T

he phenomenon of age gap relationships expands across the globe and probably began at the dawn of civilisation. This is expected to happen. We are people and we end up making connections with others regardless of age, gender or race. But I

believe that, as a precaution, we should be wary of the May-December romance and the problems it may bring, from a practical point and a rather more sinister one.

Of course, not all relationships with a significant age gap between the two partners are going to end in flames.

There are plenty of people who have built a foundation of love and trust despite a 10-year difference between them and I am not here to say that they should break up immediately and find

Relationships with a large age gap can sometimes end in flames.

someone else their own age. However, the statistics are not friendly to this form of romance.

According to a study by Andrew Francis and Hugo Mialon, relationships with a five-year age gap are have an 18 per cent chance of ending up in divorce. When you double that age gap to 10 years, couples are 39 per cent more likely to divorce and with an age gap of 20 years, the rate staggeringly rises to 95 per cent.

From a practical point, this makes

Credit: DNAIndia.com

sense. In age gap relationships, the people are at different stages of their lives. In a case where one person is in their fifties and the other person is around 35, obvious problems are going to rise. If the younger partner wants

“

We should be wary of the May-December romance

to settle down and have a family, the older person may have children already and not want to go through the process again. These key incompatibilities are more likely to rear their heads in these relationships.

Of course, we have to look at relationships where the age gap can create an unequal power dynamic. Obviously, a person at age 45 going out with someone age 50 is not going to faze many, but a five-year difference between a 20-year-old and a 15-year-old is very strange and also illegal. Even a 23-year-old dating an 18-year-old

where it is technically legal is a strange sight for many, and rightly so.

The experiences and maturation one endures through the years of 18 to 23 is huge and although there isn’t a huge gap between the two people number wise, there is a vast disparity in relation to their mentality. The younger person in a lot of age gap relationships can be quite vulnerable as their older companion can take advantage of their innocence and inexperience.

The rule of thumb to determine if the age gap is socially acceptable is to divide your age and add seven. As a 21-year-old myself, this indicates that I can go out with a 17-and-a-half-yearold and it would be passable. From a personal standpoint, the thought of going out with someone aged 17 is very off putting. 17 year olds are really annoying because, well, they’re 17 and still teenagers.

I’m sure this is not a rare outlook on behalf of other 21 year olds out there.

Also, if you’re 18 and a 24-year-old is interested in you romantically, ask yourself this one question: “Why can’t they talk to people their own age?”. It’s a serious red flag if an adult prefers the company of teenagers and I suggest you run.

To conclude, although age is technically just a number, with that number there is connotations of incidents and developments that make a healthy agegap relationship difficult to attain.

Gaeilge

Staonadh Digiteach

15

Insíonn Clíona Hughes dúinn maidir lena taithí le sos a ghlacadh ó na meáin sóisialta

Clíona Hughes Eagarthóir na Gaeilge @ hughescliona

A

g tús an tsamhraidh seo chaite, tháinig nochtadh orm. Nuair a d’amharc mé ar Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook agus Twitter, tháinig drochghúimear orm agus ar dtús, níor thuig mé cén fáth.

An samhradh a bhí ann agus bhí easpa brú agus strus orm agus bhí go leor agam le bheith sceitimíneach faoi agam. Ní raibh tuiscint dá laghad agam maidir leis na mothúcháin a bhí agam ó thaobh m’aipeanna de.

Cuireann daoine na rudaí is fearr suas ar líne chun na híomhá is fearr dóibh a thaispeáint don domhain - smaoinigh ar an méid féiníní a ghlacann tú sula gcuireann tú ceann amháin ar do phróifíl, déanann gach duine é seo agus is dócha nach bhfuil na híomhánna áille a fheiceann tú ar Instagram díreach mar a fheiceann siad.

Mhothaigh mé nach raibh a ndóthain ar siúl agam ag tús an tsamhraidh agus mé ag scrollú ar Instagram agus a leithéad, cén fáth nach ndearna mé féin J1? Cén fáth nár smaoinigh mé obair dheonach a dhéanamh? Cén fáth nár thug siadsan cuireadh dom dul ansin? Rith na gceisteanna sin tríd mo chloigeann agus is ansin a thuig mé go raibh na haipeanna seo ag síothlú isteach i mo cheann.

Táim cinnte go dtarlaíonn sé seo duitse uaireanta chomh maith, fiú má cheapann tú nach dtarlaíonn. Cé go bhfuil an chumarsáid chomh lárnach inár saolta sa lá atá inniu ann, tá an coincheap atá againn ar an bhfocal ‘cumarsáid’ lochtach sa lá atá inniu ann.

Táimid ag brath go hiomlán ar na haipeanna seo nuair atá leadrán orainn, nó nuair atá muid ag iarraidh eolais a fháil amach faoi chéard atá ar siúl ag duine éigin. Cén fáth nach gcuirimid ceisteanna ar daoine faoina shaolta seachas a bheith díreach ag scrollú trína gcuid pictiúir chun eolas a fháil amach fúthu?

Shochraigh mé staonadh digiteach a dhéanamh, díreach chun a fheiceáil an dtiocfaidh feabhas ar an meon a bhí agam le sos a ghlacadh ó na meáin sóisialta. Scrios mé Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram agus Facebook (seachas Facebook Messenger) ó m’fhón póca agus ag an tús, caithfidh mé a rá go raibh sé deacair. Uaireanta, clic mé ar an áit ina raibh aip éigin cheana gan smaoin-

Gafa leis an bhfón agus na haipeanna atá air

eamh sula d’aithin mé go raibh an aip scriosaithe agam, is ansin gur thuig mé go raibh andúil de chineál éigin agam maidir leis na haipeanna seo.

Tá sé ráite i bpáipéar foilsithe ag an tSochaí Ríoga do Shláinte Phoiblí go bhfuil na meáin sóisialta níos andúila ná toitíní agus go bhfuil baint ag na meáin sóisialta leis an dúlagar imní agus easpa coladh. Sa staidéar seo, d’aimsigh siad go raibh an tionchar is measa ag Instagram maidir leis an dúlagar imní ó thaobh corpíomha agus ‘FOMO’ (imní faoina bheith ag cailleadh amach ar rudaí) de.

Má tá cuma dheas ar phictiúir dhuine éigin ar Instagram, ní chiallaíonn sé sin go bhfuil saol foirfe acu nó go bhfuil siad go hiomlán áthasach an t-am ar fad, agus caithfimid é sin a chuimhneamh níos minice. Cruthaítear íomhánna faoi leith ar Instagram chun ‘likes’ a fháil, agus ní bhíonn na híomhánna sin fíor an cuid is mó den am, go háirithe na híomhánna atá ag daoine cáiliúla, íocann comhlachtaí na mílte euro as ‘influencers’ pictiúrí foirfe a chruthú chun a gcuid táirgí a chuir chun cinn.

Mar sin, cinnte, cruthaíonn siad íomhá a bhfuil ‘foirfe’ - tá siad ag iarraidh

Credit: Blogtrepreneur on Flickr

airgead a thuilleadh agus táirgí a dhíol, níl an focal ‘réalaíoch’ bainteach leis an gcóras sin in aon cor.

Ar dtús, d’airigh mé ó na haipeanna agus mé ar an mbus nó ag fanacht ar rudaí, ach tar éis tamall, thuig mé faoi deara go raibh rudaí eile le déanamh agus thosaigh mé ag baint sult as a bheith ag breathnú amach as an bhfuinneog nó ag

“

tú go ndéanann sé maitheas dá sláinte sos a ghlacadh Ar ndóigh, d’íoslódáil mé na haipeanna arís tar éis mí go leith ach caithim a rá gur bhfiú an tsosa toisc nach n-úsáidim mo chúntaisí ar na meáin sóisialta pioc chomh minic is a d’úsáid mé iad cheana.

Nílim ag rá go gcaithfidh tú do chúntais a scriosadh go deo agus go

daoine ag stánadh ort lá i ndiaidh lae agus tá tuairim éigin ag gach duine fút. Cinnte téann an coincheap sin isteach i do chloigeann agus cúisíonn sé sin freagairt instinneach dhiúltach sa duine.

Caithfimid go léir iarracht a dhéanamh taitneamh níos fearr a bhaint as an saol réalaíoch. D’aimsigh staidéar amháin le Brian Primack go gcuireann an

...thuig mé go raibh na haipeanna seo ag síothlú isteach i mo cheann

éisteacht le phodcraoltaí. Tar éis seachtain amháin, thug mé faoi deara gur mhothaigh mé níos fuinniúla agus níos beomhaire le sos a ghlacadh ón dúpholl sin agus go raibh níos mó ama agam le caitheamh ar rudaí níos fearr agus bhí an-áthas orm an t-athrú seo a fheiceáil.

Caithfidh mé a rá go bhfuil an coincheap seo níos éasca ráite ná deánta.

Tar éis tamall ach go háirithe, bíonn sé deacair cloígh le staonadh digiteach ach cabhraíonn sé nuair a smaoiníonn

bhfuil na haipeanna seo go hiomlán dainséarach dá shláinte, ach táim ag rá gur bhfiú é sos beag a ghlacadh uaireanta. Má mhothaíonn tú go bhfuil tú sáinnithe maidir leis na meáin sóisialta, ná déan dearmaid gur féidir leat éalú ó na haipeanna ar feadh tamaill gan fadhb ar bith agus go han éasca chomh maith.

Deir na mílte ‘influencers’ ar líne go bhfuil an galar imní acu, ach an bhfuil sé seo bainteach lena gcuid láithreacht ar líne? Cinnte, níl sé éasca nuair atá

brú chun a bheidh comhaimseartha ar na meán shóisialta isteach ar daoine ag cruthú buairt agus dúlagar go háirithe mar gheall ar an bhfíric go bhfuil aire an duine roinnte idir thascanna laethúil agus a gcuid cúntais ar na meáin shóisialta. Mar sin, tá sé fíor-riachtanach aire a thabhairt dúinn féin agus a bheith eolach faoi na dainséirí atá thar timpeall orainn, fiú ar ár gcuid fóin pócaí.

16

Gaeilge

An nasc atá idir na nGaeil agus Oíche Shamhna Pléann Lauren Ní Chatháin an stair leathan Ceilteach atá ag Oíche Shamhna Lauren Ní Chatháin Scríbhneoir @ thecollegeview

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uair a chloiseann daoine “Oíche Shamhna”, smaoiníonn siad ar tine cnámh, puimcíní, feistis, taibhse, cat dubh, cailleacha, deamhain agus, dar ndóigh, milseáin agus “bob nó bia”!

Ach ní fhios ag an iomarca daoine go dtagann na traidisiúin seo ó sheantraidisiún Ceilteach.

Sa lá atá inniu, is traidisiún Meircieánach í Oíche Shamhna. Deirtear gur thug inimircigh de chuid na hÉireann na seantraidisiún Ceilteach go Mheiriceá. Mar a tharlaíonn sé, níor céiliúradh Oíche Shamhna i Meiriceá go dtí gur tháinig na Éireannach i rith na mblianta an Gorta Mór.

Bhí Oíche shamhna suite idir gheimhreadh agus samhraidh, mar sin níor leanadar na gnáthrialacha den am.

Bhí saoirse iomlán ar anamacha na marbh filleadh ar an saol seo. De réir seanscéalta, tháinig na hanamacha ó dhomhain eile go dtí an saol seo tríd “tairseach bhriste”.

Déanann daoine a gcuid tithe chomh sceirdiúil agus is féidir leo. Níl aon choinneal nó tine (sa teach) ag lasadh chun an teach a coimeád dorcha agus mífháilteach. Tháinig an traidisiún le feistis ó na daoine fadó ag

Cuid de na rudaí is fearr linn faoin bhféile seo

Credit: Sabrina Donohoe

iarraidh eagla a chur ar na hanamacha agus na sprideanna. Mar sin, b’fhéile an-tábhachtach í Oíche Shamhna, cosúil lena trí

(1 Bealtaine) agus Lúnasa (1 Lúnasa).

An rud is cáiliúla maidir le hOíche Shamhna ná an “jack o lantern”.

Snoíonn daoine puimcíní agus bíonn

féilte réamh-Chríostaí a buí ag na Ceiltigh eile Imbolc (1 Feabhra), Bealtaine

cuma ar an bpuimcíní gur fear darbh ainm Jack. Rinne Jack calaois ar an Di-

“

Cuid de na rudaí is fearr linn faoin bhféile seo

abhal cúpla uair agus nuair a fuair sé bás, níor thug Dia cead aige dul isteach ar Neamh. Chuaigh sé síos go hifreann agus, dar ndóigh, níor thug an Diabhal cead aige dul isteach ar Ifreann. Mar sin, bíonn sé ag imeacht roimhe ar fud an domhain, ar feadh na síoraíochta.

Seo é cúpla scéal faoin Oíche Shamhna ó ‘dúchas.ie.’ Insíonn na scéalta seo faoin na nósanna a bhaineann le hOíche Shamhna i rith na haoise.

“Sula dteach an teaghlach a luí

arís chuireadh síos tine bhreá mhór, scuabtaí an t-urlár go maith is d’fhágtaí na cathaoireacha agus na stólta thart fán teallach nó bhí sé creidte ag an Ghael go bhfaigheadh na mairbh fáil ar ais an oíche sin.” Is scéal ón An Coimín i gContae Dhún na nGall é an scéal seo.

Insíonn an cuntas conas a d’ullmhaigh daoine le haghaidh Oíche Shamhna.

“Bíonn bairín breac le n-ithe acu an oíche sin. Bíonn fáinne, agus cipín, agus píosa éadaigh ins an bhairín bhreac. An duine a gheibheann an fáinne deirtear gurb é sin an duine is luaithe sa tigh a phósfar, agus an duine a gheibheann an cipín deirtear gurb é sin an duine is luaithe sa tigh a gheobhaidh bás, agus an duine a gheibheann an píosa éadaigh, más buachaill é deirtear go bpósfaidh sé bean fhuála, agus más cailín í deirtear go bpósfaidh sí táilliúir” Tháinig an scéal seo ón Eaglais i bPort Láirge.

Beidh na taibhsí agus puimcíní ag líonadh na sráideanna an tseachtain seo chugainn, agus nuair a fheicimid é seo, ceapaimid ar ár n-oidhreacht. Bhí Éire bhuailte go holc ag an imirce i rith na haoise agus tá sé deas smaoineamh ar ár gcultúr i dtíortha eile. Idir 1700 agus inniu, chuaigh timpeall 9-10 milliún daoine ar imirce ach thug siad a nósanna thar lear.

Caighdeán na Gaeilge ar Champas na Naomh Uile agus ar Champas Phádraig Insíonn Róisín Ní Chuillinn dúinn faoina tuairim ar chaighdeán na Gaeilge anseo in DCU

Róisín Ní Chuillinn Príomh-fho-eagarthóir @thecollegeview

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o stairiúil, bhí caighdeán iontach Gaeilge ar Champas Coláiste Naomh Pádraig. Bíonn an áit lán de chainteoirí líofa agus foghlaimeoirí teanga.

Tá na múinteoirí bunscoile agus na múinteoirí Gaeilge den todhchaí ar fad ina gcónaí i nDroim Conrach. Tá cuid mhaith de na daoine seo ag teacht ó na háiteanna Gaeltachta. Ach, anois níl aon teach Gaeilge ar Champas.

Go hiondúil- is áis iontach é an scéim cónaithe do na mic léinn atá ag staidéar an Ghaeilge i gColáiste. Tugann sé deis dóibh bualadh le cairde nua- cairde leis an spéis chéanna. Tugann sé deis dóibh an Ghaeilge a cleachtadh agus a fhorbairt in atmaisféar compordach.

Anois níl aon teach Gaeilge ar Champas Naomh Pádraig nó ar Champas

na Naomh Uile fiú ar Ghlas Naíon níl scéim cónaithe i bhfeidhm.

Tá Ciara Nic Aonghasa ag déanamh Gaeilge in Ollscoil na hÉireann Má Nuad. Ghlac sí páirt sa scéim cónaithe agus bhí feabhas le feiceáil ar a Gaeilge labhartha. “Tá sé deas a bheith i mo chónaí le daoine a léiríonn an spéis chéanna atá liomsa, go háirithe nuair atá tú ag déanamh obair bhaile deacair.”

Mhínigh Craig McHugh, DCU SU Leas Uachtarán Oideachas agus Sochrúcháin go bhfuil sé ar intinn ag an SU an fhadhb a réiteach. Tá Oifigeach na Gaeilge ar saoire mháithreachas agus cruthaíonn sé sin na fadhbanna.

“For it to be a fair process, it needs to be lead by the university Irish Officer. DCUSU and campus res want to see Irish speaking housing grow and develop in the way it deserves in the coming years, but unfortunately due to the maternity leave situation its been postponed. There is a serious intention to begin work immediately after the return of Siobhan the Irish Officer.”

Fadhb eile atá ar Champas Naomh Padráig i mbliana is’ea an méid Béarla atá ar siúl sa Seomra Chaidrimh go háirithe ag am lóin. Is áis iontach é an Seomra íontach chun Gaeilge amháin a labhairt go háirithe nuair atá mic léinn ag ullmhú don Bhéaltriail.

Ceapann Sorcha Ní Chonghaile, Oifigeach na Gaeilge ag DCU SU go bhfuil sé tábhachtach an caighdeán a

“

An leabharlann ar Champas Phádraig

Tugann sé deis dóibh bualadh le cairde nua

Credit: Ali Claire

choinneáil ard.

“Is coincheap iontach í an Seomra Caidrimh agus ar domhain idéalach, bheadh sé mar thearmann do Ghaeilgeoirí agus Foghlaimeoirí chun éalú ón mBéarla. Ach tá saghas drochmheas ag roinnt daoine nuair a thagann siad isteach ag spalptha Béarla agus atá siad i mbun an micro-oighean a úsáid gan smaoineamh faoin sprioc an tSeomra Caidrimh. Bíonn caigh-

deán maith ann chomh fada agus go bhfuil duine amháin ann chun brú a chur air nó sampla a dhéanamh nuair a thosaíonn siad féin ag labhairt as Gaeilge ach níl sé cothrom ar na daoine sin. Is seomra Gaeilge atá i gceist, i ndáiríre, agus caithfidh muid a bheith níos curamaí chun cinntiú go bhfuil an chaighdeáin ag coinneáil sách ard don sprioc an tseomra a bhaint amach.”

Features

17

DCU’s favourite bartender Allan Stevenson or ‘Allan from Nubar’ is one of the university’s best-known faces Gabija Gataveckaite Features Editor @gabysayshey

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he myth, the man, the legend- Allan Stevenson is perhaps DCU’s friendliest face on campus.

Best known for pulling pints at Nubar, Allan sits perched on a blue painted metal stool in the student bar and thinks back to his time in the university.

He recalls back to studying for his BA in 2011, how he would sit at the bar and work on his assignments.

“I love the noise,” he laughs. “I used to sit up at the counter here and I would always have a pint in front of me. But I might only have three pints the whole day; some people may have sweets- when they finish a paragraph, they would eat a sweet- and I would take a sip.

“The library is too quiet and as friends would come into Nubar, I could have a chat with them too, but I can’t really do that in the library apart from the couches on the first floor,” he adds.

The South Africa native found himself in Ireland 17 years ago, when the recession saw him lose his job in a security company due to redundancy.

He then decided to make a return to education and completed a FETAC Level 5 in Dunboyne before coming to DCU. He then completed a BSc in Education and Training in 2014 and began researching his PhD in the university.

It was when he became a postgraduate that he realised how overlooked postgraduate students are in student

Allan Stevenson has worked behind the Nubar counter for seven years.

life. His name is inscribed in the hall of fame as the university’s first ever postgraduate officer in the Students’ Union.

“I just put my name forward and I got elected by election and I kept the position for a second term as no one challenged me,” he explains.

In his time as a postgrad officer, Allan dealt with on-campus accommodation woes for postgraduate students.

“Postgrad residences are over-priced and students weren’t guaranteed accommodation for the following year as there was lottery system in place.

When you are postgraduate, the last thing that you should be doing is worrying about is not having any where to live next year,” he adds.

“I’ve loved the past seven years- I have an interest in student life improving it for them. I was postgrad officer

when DCUSU put forward the proposal for the USI to establish a Postgraduate Officer at the USI Congress several years ago- and now that they did, it means every postgrad in Ireland is represented,” he explains.

Allan has seen the college grow and shape shift over the best part of a decade. During this time, DCU has grown and matured into an established university. However, he believes that there is still room to improve.

“As a whole, DCU is doing a fantastic job as it is, and it is a phenomenal university,” he admits. “I would like to see more assistance for students struggling, be it financially or mentally- I like to see happy students.”

Seeing happy students is exactly what the bartender spends most of his days doing during his shifts at the on-campus student bar. However, happiness may also come in the form of excessive alcohol consumption- but Allan explains how he’s has very little issues with rowdy, disorderly students.

“

everyone is a local, if you come here twice a week, you’re a local

Originally from South Africa, Allan has lived here for 17 years.

Credit: Gabija Gataveckaite

“There are off times where you have to take a minute, go for a smoke and calm down,” he says. “Sometimes, you get the students that are very ignorant or bad mannered and you just wanna throw them out, but of course, you don’t. 99.9 per cent of the time, our students just want to have a good time and I want to have a good time with them- if a great song is playing,

Credit: Gabija Gataveckaite

I’ll dance behind the bar with them too,” he smiles.

Over the years, he has collected many fond memories.

“Shite Night is definitely on the list of favourites, but small things happen that to one person may not be that important but to me are. The first time that the LGBTA society raised the rainbow flag on campus, to me was just wow- a more inclusive DCU,” he recalls.

“One of our locals- but everyone is a local, if you come here twice a week, you’re a local- her friends went and made had a necklace made where they had her name engraved on one side of the pendant and on the other side it says ‘Jack Slatts and a dash’,” he laughs.

“There’s a serviette somewhere that three girls from a few years ago wrote a note to me saying thank you as they didn’t have enough money for the Slatts [cider] and I said sort me out the next day when you come in and they came back the following day, here’s the money, done and dusted,” he smiles.

The start of the new academic year may not see Allan as postgraduate officer, but he remains to work the bar and see new and excited first years come in through the doors of the legendary establishment for the first time.

“The first years come in and in the first couple of weeks and they’re all bright eyed and bushy tailed,” he says.

“They come in here and get their Jack Slatts and then you sort of see them mature and over the years, see them grow up and become adults really.”

Features

Keeping up with the times

18

Once rampant with power, the traditionally conservative Catholic Church now faces the question of LGBTA issues.

The World Meeting of Families earlier this year saw a turnout of 10,000 people.

Mary Ryan Contributor @thecollegeview

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he consensus about whether or not the Catholic Church in Ireland has had a good year depends very much on who you ask.

If you ask the institution itself, it will cite its World Meeting of Families held in Dublin earlier this year, which saw a turnout of 10,000 people, many of whom came to witness the first ever visit of Pope Francis to Ireland.

Many believed that the Pope’s address to the people of Ireland, in which he repeatedly asked forgiveness for the “sense of betrayal” caused by the clerical sex abuse and cover up, was taking a first step towards making amends for the grievous hurt caused.

However, controversy emerged over the alleged exclusion of LGBTA people from the event as officials reportedly ignored the request of The Rainbow Choir for a stand, which caused many to wonder where the Catholic Church stands in their relationship with LGBTA Catholics.

Speaking to The College View, members of the Church, Lay Catholic organisations and LGBTA Catholics themselves shared their image of religion and sexuality in 2018. Marianne McGiffin hadn’t heard the word ‘lesbian’ until she was 19. Growing up a Catholic from a “multi-faith background”, it was only when she attended Trinity College that she had her first “inkling” that she was gay, she remembered.

“I was at an English lecture and somebody mentioned a book called “The Well of Loneliness” by Radclyffe Hall,” she explained.

“The lecturer said that the main character was a lesbian, so I went over to

the library and I looked it up, and it said a woman who loves women and I thought ‘God, that’s what I am!”

Growing up in a loving family, Marianne,who has a theology degree and a biblical studies degree, says she felt that as a result, God loved her too.

“Because I felt God loved me, I felt he loved me the way I was.” Like many other LGBT people she knows, she says she feels “ignored” by the Catholic Church, first as a woman and then as a lesbian. She knows many people who have left the church, as a result of feeling “denigrated, and made feel like sinners or less than human.”

Unlike Marianne, Colm Holmes says he didn’t have a “particularly strong faith” until he met his wife, Seline, who confided in him about her calling to become a priest. Together with a family friend, a priest, they founded BASIC (Brothers and Sisters in Christ) in 1993, which later merged with We Are Church Ireland in 2002. Now part of the elected Core Group running We Are Church Ireland, Holmes is adamant that change in the church “must not come from the top”.

“We should all be involved in decision making within our church,” he said. The international We Are Church movement began in 1996 and arrived in Ireland a year later.

One of the organisation’s five main aims is to create an “inclusive church” that is welcoming to all and won’t “marginalize people because of their sexual orientation.”

However, Fr Seamus McEntee, a Roman Catholic chaplain at the Interfaith Centre at DCU, says he sees the church as already “very broad and as inclusive as possible” and is adamant that it is accepting of LGBTA people of faith. He says that in his experience,

those speaking out against the church aren’t representative of all Catholic LGBTA people.

“It’s a particular community that does not represent all gay or homosexual people,” he explained.

“It’s a diverse community. I know many [LGBT people] who are very involved in their churches and very involved in their faith,” he said. “Not everyone does feel excluded.”

One issue of contention for many people is that Article 6 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church states that “homosexual acts” are “intrinsically disordered” and against “natural law”.

“That’s a terrible thing to say about anybody,” said Holmes. “We just think that that is wrong and it needs to be changed.”

“But it’s still there in the rules and regulations of the Catholic Church,” he added. While Fr. McEntee agrees that the wording is strong, he says that the Catechism also encourages the church to “show respect, compassion and sensitivity to people.”

“I would say that’s more important to me than using the word ‘intrinsically disordered’ he said.”

Dr. Claire Jenkins disagrees: “What you say publicly when you’re in a position of power, as the hierarchy of the church is, the words you choose to you will have a big impact on people,” she said.

Dr. Jenkins, who has a PhD from the University of Sheffield, transitioned in 1999. To her, there had “never been a problem” in her relationship with God. “I’ve always thought God’s loved me as I am,” she said.

“Negative stuff about gay and lesbian people for example.. its not good, that just feeds prejudice.”

She says the church’s lack of a ‘com-

“

Credit: Tomekah George

I was born into this church and I was raised in this church

prehensive’ policy on trans issues such as priests who have transitioned, or the “spectrum of gender identities” is a help rather than a hindrance.

“I’m just fearful that any policy it ends up with, as I jokingly said, would make me a sinner.”

On the topic of people who are struggling with their identity and their faith, the advice is the same across the board.

“They are loved completely and intimately 100 per cent by God, for who they are and for being alive, because God only creates good things and good people in the world,” says Fr. McEntee.

Dr. Jenkins believes that God and Jesus “love” and “care” for young LGBT+ people. “My best advice would be to do what I do try to work out where there are priests who are going to be accepting and loving towards them, and there will be but finding them is not easy.” “[Being gay] is a gift given to me, so that I can have empathy with people on the margins in other situations,” said Marianne.

“You can be a spiritual person, and a person in a relationship with Jesus without being able to belong wholeheartedly to a particular religious tradition.”

As for the future of the church, the outlook is slightly more divided:

“I’m not very optimistic the church will change in any way,” Marianne continued.

“I’m not sure that my age group will come back to the church. I think they’re so fed up of it they wouldn’t come back.”

While commending Pope Francis for creating “far more openness and dialogue within the church, and to some extent in the Vatican,” Dr. Jenkins is adamant that the church needs to improve its language about LGBT people and transgender people in particular.

“The church needs to be careful with what it’s doing and saying, not to encourage violence against trans people,” she added.

Holmes say the Catholic Church in Ireland is aware of the work and aims of We Are Church Ireland, but “refuse to engage in any discussion”.

“They’ve been brought up in a hierarchical system, where they’re always looking to Rome for answers and whatever Rome says, goes.”

“I was born into this church and I was raised in this church,” he said.

“I like it warts and all, and I’m going to do my best to try and bring about change in this church, that it will happen and that we will become an inclusive church.”

19

Ireland’s darkest hour

Features

This October marks the 50th anniversary since the start of the Troubles; however, its effects are still very raw.

In Northern Ireland, there are about 2,000 Trouble-inspired murals painted on houses.

Sonja Tutty Contributor @thecollegeview

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n the summer of 1985, Siobhan Maguire and her friends spent an evening at a disco in the Hillgrove Hotel in county Monaghan On the bus home, a passenger was brought to their home across the border. When the coach reached the border, it was stopped and police armed with shields and guns came onto the bus to do a security check.

Looking for anything posing a threat, the police left Siobhan alone as she was Scottish and they were primarily focused on anyone with possible connections to the IRA. The Irish passengers then were questioned and extremely intimidated by the police.

Anxiously waiting for the bus to be let across the border, Siobhan heard the man seated behind her utter, “Scottish b*stards”.

This October has marked the 50th anniversary of the start of the Troubles, meaning that at the age of 49, a majority of Siobhan’s life was made up of the daily tensions and turmoils of the Troubles. Being half Irish and half Scot-

tish, her family spent their summers in Clones, county Monaghan, located less than a mile away from the border.

During these summers, she was often mocked for for her Scottish nationality. Likewise, spending the rest of the year in school in Scotland she endured negative comments for being half Irish, which put her in a never ending cycle of criticism.

“

Image credit: The Independent

and then watched them be sentenced to prison for their involvement in explosions or attacks. Many of them are still serving out their sentences today.

Even the local electrician who did the wiring for Siobhan’s house was put under investigation for a bomb found in the town. All though he claimed the bomb was placed there by someone else, it was later uncovered that

with her second daughter, Roisin Maguire who was born in 1997.

Roisin is now 21 years old and while she spends weekends with her mother in Clones, for the majority of her week she lives nearly 90 miles away in Dublin as a student in DCU. Sitting across from her in the bright blue couches of the DCU library, we talked about how life for her mom

there is a stark difference between her experience and that of her daughter’s

After completing school in Scotland, Siobhan decided to move to Clones where she started her job as a clerical worker.

However, her move to such a tense area in Ireland during such a heated time meant that her social circle and general surrounding included active IRA members. She watched these friends and acquaintances entangle themselves in the nationalistic agenda of the IRA

he was involved in the manufacturing and attempted detonation of it.

Surrounded by the turmoil and fear of the Troubles, it is no surprise that Siobhan moved in and out of Ireland to Scotland, but eventually permanently settled in Ireland. During her visits to Scotland, she met her then husband and had two children with him.

Siobhan eventually settled in Clones and currently lives their

has been so different than it is for her.

“I’m definitely grateful I never had to deal with border police,” she said.

“My whole childhood consisted of us travelling over to Scotland which meant always crossing the border.”

While the majority of Siobhan’s life is defined by the Troubles, there is a stark difference between her experience and her daughter’s, who is able to commute to and from her workplace in Northern

Ireland and between Dublin and Clones for college without the fear of unwanted confrontation or verbal abuse.

On that bus between Clones and Dublin, Roisin’s biggest worry is sitting next to someone who doesn’t wear deodorant, rather than having passengers pick up on her accent and harass her for it. Where Siobhan feared that the armed police at the border would target her, Roisin worries that the bouncer at Nubar may not let her in because she’s forgotten her student card.

However, a very real concern for Roisin is the consequence Brexit might have on the border.

“I would be worried about losing my job across the border if worst comes to worst, or that there will be difficulty in crossing when I do go to work,” she explained.

Roisin may not have friends in the IRA or an electrician who dabbles in bombing, but Brexit has brought back a certain fear or concern over the border.

With Ireland and the UK constantly in talks and disagreements over the topic, it’s hard to say how things will turn out.

But, the new border can not be the same as the one Siobhan crossed in the summer of 1985.

Features

Closed until further notice

20

With some of the best loved venues in the city closed down and replaced with hotels, where do we go from here?

The Big Tree, Palace nightclub and Hangar are just some of the venues which have shut down in recent years.

Amy Donohoe Social Media Editor @amydonohoe1

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he essence of the Dublin club culture is a really beautiful thing. A dancefloor is a place where people can truly forget about how the world defines them and just lose themselves in the music. It’s a communal space, where people come together, have the craic and gather around music.

Places like Hangar and The Big Tree brought a change to the Dublin nightclub scene and gave people a place to dance that wasn’t situated on Harcourt Streetbut they both closed earlier this year.

Hangar nightclub at Andrews Lane, Dublin 2, was forced to shut its doors so rapidly that it didn’t even have time to organise a farewell party.

It was one of the city’s few Dublin clubs large enough to host international house and techno DJs.

For Olivia Forde, final year English and Religion student, The Big Tree was one of the first places she went to when she first came to Dublin back in 2015 and she claims that it is hard that it’s not there anymore.

“It was like a home away from home, you’d go down and have the best night ever. It didn’t feel like a nightclub even though it was,” she explained.

“Whenever an event was announced for a student night, the whole university was buzzing especially St Patricks Campus. There was no denying that everyone was going to be there,” she added.

Towards the end of her first year, Messy Mondays began in The Big Tree and one night, Forde spoke with a young man who travelled all the way from UCD to go to it. She thinks that it meant a lot to many people, especially when they travelled a distance especially for it.

“It was always going to be the best night in The Big Tree no matter what and with four ‘jagerbombs’ for a tenner they were doing nothing wrong.”

Forde thinks that the fact the nightclubs in Dublin are closing and being turned into hotels is ridiculous considering there are so many overpriced hotels already and not much affordable student accommodation.

“Nightclubs are a part of student life, there’s no denying it and with all the universities and colleges here student life is inevitable, so closing nightclubs down isn’t helping the student life and atmosphere and turning them into hotels

Image credit: Alison Clair

is no benefit to students whatsoever.”

“When The Big Tree announced that it was closing down I was devastated. I don’t think I’ve known heartbreak like it. I remember texting the lads who run WhyNot Networks asking for one last Big Tree night and they apologised because they couldn’t do anything about it even though they asked, begged and pleaded. The bulldozers were going in in the morning after the All Ireland Final during the summer so we nev-

“

for the students to keep the them here rather than commuting,” said Forde.

“If it’s not going to stay as a nightclub at least give the students a home and turn it into affordable accommodation,” she added.

Some of Forde’s favourite nights in the bar include bumping into well-known personalities.

“The Big Tree had famous faces,” she recalled. “I met Mickey Joe Harte and Marty Mone. Acts like Welshy, Marty

It was like a home away from home

er got to have our last night and say goodbye to The Big Tree and the memories,” Forde remembered.

The Big Tree property was originally intended to be turned into student accommodation and it seemed to be the ideal location place to build it as it was close to many campuses.

“If it was closing to be turned into student accommodation I think every student would’ve got behind it because in times like these, we need places for students to live, we don’t need hotels. It should’ve been kept

Guilfoyle, Basshunter, Ultrabeat, Ali B and Cian Charlton performed and there was loads of great DJs and musicians, especially Mickey Joe Harte.”

A huge reason for many nightlife properties closing is due to the fact that Ireland’s old-fashioned licencing laws don’t relate to the functions of modern society. The cost of opening for an extra two hours beyond closing time is excessively high and proves to be unprofitable in the long run.

A fee has to be paid on a night-bynight basis, demanding that venues

must hire a solicitor to go to the courts every single month to detail exactly what nights they will open. This means that it is simply not financially possible for a venue with a capacity of 200 or less to open late and because of this there is nowhere for young DJs to play, which poses a threat to young acts.

Whilst big venues and events have enjoyed a golden period, small clubs have struggled under the high cost of running nights that last just three to four hours. Some of the beloved venues have been demolished because of this.

The Government do allow certain “hotels” to run until five in the morning, like the ones on Harcourt Street. Later licensmeanans more work for taximen, later and safer public transport, more shifts available for people working in restaurants and within nightlife itself and it creates a safer and healthier transition from the dance floor to home.

The city is to get more than 5,000 new overpriced hotel rooms by 2020, whilst local talent loses the opportunity to play to large crowds, when they should have the ability to share and develop their music in their own city.

David Kitt, a singer-songwriter from Dublin, admitted earlier this year that he was priced out of the city due to rental costs. For the first time ever, young Dubliners are now losing communal spaces to commercial interests.

21

Sport

Streimikyte runs away with European Championship DCU Masters student wins gold in Para Athletics Championships

“Now I’ve won a gold medal, obviously the big change is standing on a podium representing Ireland and the national anthem was playing, it was a huge honour, I suppose that was slightly missing in Rio, but we will see what the future holds.”

Having started athletics at a relatively old age, Streimikyte has come on leaps and bounds, with her first time representing Ireland being only three months before the Paralympic games in 2016 in Rio.

Ian Brennan Podcast Editor @IPJBrennan97

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reta Streimikyte spoke of her joy at winning gold for Ireland over the summer and what her future has in store for her.

The Business Management masters student was victorious for Ireland in the European Para Athletics Championships in Berlin during the summer.

Greta’s was the first of six gold medals for Ireland as the team won a further three bronze medals to finish 11th in the medal table.

Streimikyte ran a convincing 1500m race in the T13 category to finish eleven seconds quicker than her closest rival.

T13 athletes have the least severe visual impairment. They have the highest visual acuity or a visual field of less than 20 degrees radius.

The Lithuanian-born athlete was a relative latecomer to athletics, having started after she moved to Ireland in her teens, but drew inspiration from some of the great athletes from the world and from Ireland too.

“I started athletics when I was old, let’s be honest I was like 17 years old, so when I joined, there were big stars like Usain Bolt or Jason Smyth, Michael McKillop or Ciara Mageean let’s say, from the Irish perspective.

“You can see those athletes doing

“Tokyo is always

going to be and will be my priority

DCU Director of Sports & Wellbeing, James Galvin with DCU’s FAI Student Activators Festus Ejike and David Azcona.

Credit: DCU Men’s Soccer Club

Greta Streimikyte celebrates after winning gold at the World Para Athletics European Championships.

brilliantly and they are a very huge, I suppose inspiration, to see what the hard work can do if you really want to achieve something.”

The middle-distance para athlete was understandably elated after winning in Berlin, saying it was an incredible experience and that you can’t put

into words the feeling you get when you stand on top of the podium.

Two years previously she had finished a very impressive fourth at the Paralympic games in Rio Di Janeiro.

So which of these achievements means more to the Clonliffe Harriers runner?

Credit: Luc Percival / Sportsfile

“I suppose it’s slightly different because, well, you know Rio is a much bigger competition than European Championships.”

“At that stage, when I came fourth, for me, ok I couldn’t say it’s like winning a medal, but it was for me my biggest achievement.”

For the 23-year-old, her priorities are very clear moving forward.

“First of all, I need to finish my master’s in Business School. I suppose first of all Tokyo is always going to be and will be my priority, but I have World Championships in November 2019 in Dubai, so I would like to take it step by step.”

“Making the team to Dubai would be amazing so this is my goal and then there’s only going to be nine months left to Tokyo so hopefully I make the team for Tokyo, that would be amazing.”

Holden off the competition at handball intervarsity Holden wins single crown at Handball intervarsity

John Morley Deputy Sports Editor @johnmorleysport

A

oife Holden won the singles crown at the Irish Collegiate Handball Association’s 60x30 handball inter-varsity in

Wexford.

Holden defeated her DCU teammate and doubles champion Fiona Tully to claim the victory.

“I didn’t expect to win it,” admitted Holden.

“They had a seeded system and I was number one. Fiona Tully was number two and Sinéad Meagher was three, but there’s nothing between any of us,” she said.

Holden admitted that such was the competitive nature of the Collegiate handball scene that a “toss of a coin” on the day usually determined success or failure.

“I played Fiona in the final and it was such a tight game,” said Holden.

“I’ve played her all up along like juvenile and even intermediate two years ago, so you never know who’s going to win on the day so thankfully I just got over the line,” she said.

The World Handball Championship was held in Minnesota over the Summer with Holden being one of the DCU contingent represented.

“A lot of us from Ireland actually went out, so it was nice to have a lot of familiar faces around,” said Holden.

“Me and my doubles partner Emma Donlan were runners up in the U19 doubles. It was a good experience to play somewhere new and to play new people,” she said.

expect “ I didn’t to win it

Holden and her doubles partner challenged themselves at home by partaking in the senior 60x30 competition finishing second to Cork in the final.

“It’s a bigger step up, a harder grade, so it was great to get games and get experience. We were happy enough with that,” said Holden.

The driving factor behind Holden’s success and passion for the game started in her own Kilkenny club of Kilfane.

Aoife Holden after defeating fellow DCU student Fiona Tully to win the Women’s Open Singles Title at her first ICHA event.

Her father and grandfather were “really big into handball” and they passed on their love of the game to Holden.

“When I was six or seven my dad used to bring me and my brother up to the handball alley and I kind of got playing from then,” said Holden.

Regarding DCU Holden is optimistic for the future of DCU handball.

“It is a big club. I’d know a lot of the guys from outside DCU from playing,” said Holden.

“We’re represented very well in the girls and the boys over the weekend in

Credit: Irish Collegiate Handball Association - ICHA

both courts. It’s a good club and definitely growing,” she said.

All roads now lead to Galway in a week for Holden for the 40x20 double.

Holden is now prepping for the tighter court as the 40x20 collegiate season kicks off just after Christmas.

22

Dickson sails to U-23 World Title

Sport

Dickson and teammate Waddilove have their sights on Tokyo after winning the U23 World Title.

Ellen Fitzpatrick News Editor @elinfizpitryk

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CU sailing champion Robert Dickson is preparing for the Olympics after taking gold at the U-23 Sailing World Championships in the 49er class in France.

Dickson, along with his teammate Sean Waddilove, became world champions after a five-day sailing regatta in Marseilles, France in August and are now in training for the next Olympics.

“We still have to qualify. The first qualification at the senior worlds this year, the nation didn’t qualify so we have another chance to qualify, in New Zealand in the 2019 worlds,” said Dickson.

After becoming world champions, which had its hardships, the pair’s next goal is to make it past the qualifiers and onto the Olympics.

“We’re going to try go there (New

Zealand) and qualify the nation (Ireland) and then after that there’s a series of individual qualifier events so it will be decided which one will go,” said Dickson “There is a lot of preparation, we’re training all the time now so from now until then we’ll just be training constantly. We’re training at the moment here in Dublin but at the start of November we’re going to move all our boats to Villa Mora in Portugal.”

Dickson won gold at the 49er Sailing World Championships in August after a five-day event took place. Although there were obstacles in their way at times, he said that he felt confident throughout that it would be a victory.

“We went into the regatta feeling pretty confident, we knew we had a chance to do well in the regatta from all the other regattas we had this season, straight through the regatta we just tried to keep a level head and then coming up to the last few races it was getting pretty nerve wrecking because we were overnight leaders so we went into the last day in the lead,” he said.

“

I didn’t get emotional about it and tried not to worry “We had to hold that lead for the last day. We tried to just not think about anything except just sailing and then once

Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove in action for Ireland at the U23 World Championships in Marseille.

we finished the last race it was just an amazing feeling, I don’t know how to describe it.”

Although he was confident in the regatta, Dickson knew that at any moment something could switch.

“I knew that we already had the lead anyway at that stage so it was kind of just consolidating our points against the rest of the fleet and I knew roughly about where all the other boats were so I was pretty confident that we had won it at that stage but it’s never over because it was still really windy and we

could’ve capsized at any point up to the finish line.

“We didn’t have it until the last jibe, the last few meters when we crossed the line,” said Dickson.

It wasn’t until a gear malfunction occurred that there was any type of scare in the course of the regatta. After a break to a vital piece of equipment, Dickson had to act quickly to assure that he would maintain a leading position.

“Our tiller extension broke, for steering, so it wasn’t actually that the gear

Credit: Pierik Photographe

failed per say, it was that I fell over and landed on it so it broke,” Dickson said.

“We just came out of a tack and I tried to go out on the wire and I basically just held on to the tiller extension too hard and snapped it over the side of the deck by accident because I was half falling out.”

“I managed to not fall out in the end and drag myself back in, put the new tiller extension on and finish the race.”

“I didn’t get emotional about it and tried not to worry about it too much and move, race the next race,” he added.

Tokyo the target for MacDermott

Fiachra MacDermott and Oskars Veide placed at the All Ireland Series Outdoor competition. have to qualify through tournaments throughout next year, with the World Championships and the European Games at the top of his agenda.

“Next year there are two main tournaments I’ll be focusing on for qualifying, the World Championships and the European Games.”

“I still need to qualify for the European Games though which will hopefully happen around April,” MacDermott said.

The Irish Student Archery Association (ISAA) runs five indoor Intervarsity league competitions and a National Student Indoor Championship every year.

Gerard Grimes Sports Editor @gerardgrimes11

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CU Archery was represented at the All Ireland Series Outdoor competition during the summer, with two current members, and one DCU alumni taking the top three places on the podium.

Current members Oskars Veide and Fiachra MacDermott placed second and third respectively while DCU Alumni Adam Taylor won the competition.

MacDermott came third in the same competition twelve months previous and while he was happy with his finish, he admitted he would have liked to improve on last year’s performance.

“I was happy enough with that finish, it was the same place I achieved last

“

If I’m not aiming for the top then I’ll never get there Oskars Veide, Adam Taylor and Fiachra MacDermott

year but I’d wanted to improve rather than just maintain my level,” MacDermott told The College View.

“The season for me had been pretty busy so by the time the series final came around I was kind of burnt out, but I shot pretty well.”

“I only lost one match to someone who really had set his goal on winning

Credit: Oskars Veide

that competition, while my goals are more focused on next year and international competitions,” MacDermott said.

MacDermott has set his goals high, as he aims to qualify for the Olympics in Tokyo in two years.

“My goals for next year are to qualify for Tokyo 2020. It’s a big ask and

I’ll need to put a lot of work in for it but if I’m not aiming for the top then I’ll never get there.”

“The Team Ireland goals are much the same as my personal ones - Olympic qualification and raising our standard of shooting when we come up against the best in the world.”

If he is to achieve his target, he will

The first two intervarsities take place this year, with the first taking place in IT Carlow on November 10-11 before the second takes place in DCU on November 24.

“As far as a team goes, the DCU team broke a record last year in the intervarsities and I’d like us to break that record again.”

“We have some new talent coming in and our members are improving all the time,” MacDermott said.

Sport

Powell dives into pro swimming

23

Robbie Powell competed in his first two major championships in the last three months.

Gerard Grimes Sports Editor @gerardgrimes11

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he last three months have been a learning experience for First Year DCU Engineering Student Robbie Powell.

Powell competed in his first two major championships, including October’s Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

However, Powell was first part of the Ireland team that took part in the European Swimming Championships in Glasgow in August.

Powell was part of the men’s 4x100 Freestyle Relay team that broke the Irish Senior Record.

Alongside Shane Ryan, David Thompson and Jordan Sloan, the quartet took two seconds off the previous record, with Powell bringing them home in a time of 3:17:55.

“I felt I gained more experience with competing at a major scale at the European Championships. I was racing the best senior male swimmers in Europe,” Powell told The College View.

“I saw how they operate before, dur-

ing and after races. It was quite different to junior swimmers that I was accustomed to competing against.

“I observed these differences and used it to my advantage. It was also very useful when I got the chance to deal with pressure of the media and being on TV for everyone at home to see me,” Powell said.

Powell then headed to Argentina, where he competed in three events at the Youth Olympic Games, competing in the 50m Freestyle, 100m Freestyle and the 50m Butterfly.

The Athlone man felt the Youth Olympics were a very different experience, introducing him to a big scale multisport games for the first time.

“The Youth Olympics on the other hand were on the other side of the world and they introduced me to a big scale multisport games.

“I had less pressure on me to perform in the pool so swimming fast wasn’t the main focus for me. Tactics were the focus in the pool and I learned from it.

“I found the village life a bit overwhelming at first as I found myself walking around doing fun activities and treating myself to the free food and drink, the Olympics are sponsored by Coca-Cola,” Powell said.

“I had to learn how to get the best out of my performance while being in an unusual atmosphere. I didn’t have a cosy bed in a nice hotel in somewhere familiar with nice scrambled egg for breakfast.

“I had to adapt and that’s why I see the Youth Olympics as a beneficial experience for the real Olympic games

Robbie Powell swims in the 4x100m Freestyle Relay at the 2018 European Championships in Glasgow.

rather than for any other swim competition,” Powell said.

Powell’s father was a swim coach so he was introduced to the sport at a young age and stressed that the journey

“

I was racing the best senior male swimmers in Europe

to qualifying for two major championships was a long journey.

“My father was a swim coach so he always had me in the pool since I was young. From then, I always made the next step towards where I am today.

“It has been a 10-year journey to qualifying for the youth Olympics and European Championships. It didn’t happen suddenly.”

Irish swimming seems to be making strides, shown further by Shane Ryan’s bronze medal in Glasgow and the success at the Youth Olympics of Powell, Mona McSharry and Niamh Coyne.

“I’m glad to be a part of it and this

Credit: David Fitzgerald /Sportsfile

success will continue. I think the success is due to the hard work swim Ireland have been doing to make Ireland a household name at major international meets,” Powell said.

The likes of Brendan Hyland, Cillian Colvin and Ben Griffin have all swam for DCU and Powell admitted that was a factor in him choosing DCU as his college to study in.

“Some of the best swimmers were attending DCU and they had been well supported by the college throughout the years so it seemed obvious for me to join them.”

Routine key to Herar’s positive approach DCU MMA’s Sophia Herar talks about the importance of the sport in daily life

Hugh Farrell Deputy Sports Editor @HughFSports

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he positive effects of MMA from a fitness perspective are obvious but does it help with mood and mental well being too?

Sophia Herar, a member of DCU MMA, agrees with the importance saying “it definitely does.”

“If you’re feeling low, it’s hard to get out of the house and make the way to the gym, but once you’re there and get absorbed in training, you start feeling a lot better.

“At least I do. Training gives the mind something to focus on and since the sport is both physically and mentally demanding, it leaves your head very little time to focus on whatever it was that made you feel low in the first

Herar (right) with Team Ryano members.

place.

“It has certainly given it more routine. If I’m healthy, I try to train at least four times a week. Even if I don’t make it to a full session, I’ll meet up with a training partner at lunch for a few rounds of rolling or sparring, or come an hour earlier to the next session.

“Overall it has made me a more balanced person and I definitely find that I rarely skip training in favour of going out.”

Sophia got into MMA two years ago

Credit: DCU MMA

after deciding to try a new activity in college. She ended up having so much fun that she never left.

“When I joined DCU MMA 2 years ago, I had never practised any martial art before, but I enjoyed the classes

from the start. Our coach Oisín is structuring the classes very well, so I found it easy to learn new techniques quickly and without losing my enthusiasm for the sport.”

With a club, one of the biggest com-

gives the mind “ Training something to focus on

ponents that assist with mood and mental health in sport is the team aspect.

“The team members are all great, although, especially as a woman, it takes a while to start feeling like part of the team, simply because there aren’t too many other female members. However, all of the lads are lovely and sticking around long enough to get to know everyone was definitely worth it.

“The atmosphere and feeling of being part of a team has gotten me through many a bad week because it gave me something to look forward to at the end of each day.”

The club are also understanding when it comes to mental health. “It is never a problem to sit out a drill or take a short break if things get overwhelming.

“Overall I have to say that it this been pretty amazing. I did have a couple of setbacks, injuries, mental health issues, etc. but I always came back and never stopped enjoying it.”

Coach Oisin McCabe also said “It is a form of meditation in many ways.

Tough to think about anything else while someone is trying to grapple you. It builds confidence and gives a direction and focus not just as a competitive outlet, but also as a martial arts lifestyle.”

SPORT

INSIDE

Greta Streimikyte talks to The College View after she won gold at the European Para Athletics Championships.

O’Connor hooks away competition to make TOTY Wexford hurler Rory O’Connor speaks to The College View after being named in the Bord Gáis Energy U21 Hurling Team of the Year.

Conor Breslin Contributor @thecollegeview

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exford and DCU hurling star Rory O’Connor adds another award to his list as he has been named on the 2018 Bord Gáis Energy U21 Team of the Year at centre half forward.

The 20-year-old St Martins club man said that while the award was an absolute honour, he felt that it was undeserved since he only played two out of Wexford’s three games as they were defeated by Cork in the All Ireland semi-final.

A knee injury prevented Rory from lining out in Nowlan Park as he saw his team brutally beaten by 22 points at the hands of the Rebel county.

“I’ve been quite lucky over the last number of years in the achievements I won, it was a privilege to receive the award but from a team point of view the semi-final wasn’t good enough and I think the award was handed to me on merit more than anything else,” O’Connor told The College View.

O’Connor comes from a great tradition of hurling legends with his

Rory O’Connor in action against Tony Kelly during the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Quarter-Final.

grandfather Paddy lining out midfield for Wexford in the 1940s, while his father John O’Connor and uncle George O’Connor both won All-Ireland medals with Wexford in 1996.

His brothers, Harry and Jack O’Connor, have also played for Wexford in the underage grades.

“You think when your family is so successful it would put pressure on you

to follow in their footsteps but not for one minute did I ever feel pressured, all I wanted to do was play hurling and see where it takes me.

“When I was 15 I dropped all other sports to focus merely on GAA including club rugby, which we were the most successful team in Leinster at the time,” O’Connor said.

Rory played both county minor hurl-

Credit: Brendan Moran / Sportsfile

“All I wanted

to do was play hurling

ing and football for Wexford until he began suffering with leg and knee injuries after playing a bizarre 20 games in 15 weeks.

In 2017 just after finishing his Leaving Cert exams, Rory was a late call up to Davy Fitzgerald’s Wexford senior panel and was told he would make his Championship start in the All Ireland quarter final against Waterford.

This information however was hidden from the press by Fitzgerald to protect the then 18-year-old.

“I didn’t even tell my family I was starting, some of my teammates probably didn’t even know who I was.

“Even though I was intimidated I made sure to do the simple things right, I wasn’t going to be replaced by nobody, I had to prove myself, I had to be tough and I carry that same hunger to every game I play now.” O’Connor said.

Over the past 12 months Rory has captured the Wexford county championship, the third in his club’s history, a fresher A hurling All Ireland with DCU and now an Under 21 All Star.

With Wexford getting to four All Ireland quarter finals in the last five years, Rory believes he is apart of a team that will have Liam McCarthy in their hands very soon.

Sigerson team hoping to Reape rewards this season DCU Footballer Brian Reape is aiming for silverware in both the Ryan and Sigerson Cups this year.

John Morley Deputy Sports Editor @JohnMorleysport

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ith the Ryan Cup well underway and the club season coming to an end for most players, Mayo and DCU footballer Brian Reape is looking to push on with the DCU footballers after “disappointing” seasons the last two years for the Sigerson team.

After two wins to Ulster University Jordanstown and St Mary’s and a loss to Queen’s University the DCU Dóchas Éireann footballers have qualified for the quarter finals of the Ryan Cup. “It’s been disappointing the last two years for the footballers,” said Reape.

“With the fresher footballers and the hurlers doing good it definitely puts that added pressure on,” he added.

Reape lamented the one-point loss to Queens on the road, in their second match after they had blitzed Jordanstown at home in the DCU Sports Grounds in a match where Reape got two goals.

“We were disappointed. We thought we were in a good place after the UUJ game, but college football is difficult

on the road. Home advantage really makes a big difference in these competitions,” said Reape.

“We’re in two competitions this year the Ryan Cup and the Sigerson. We have to aim for silverware in both,” he added.

Reape has spent his last two summers in America playing with McBride’s club in Chicago this summer alongside fellow Mayo teammates Diarmuid O’Connor, Conor Loftus and Michael Plunkett.

McBrides won the Chicago championship with Reape firing well from corner forward for the side throughout the summer championship.

Due to Mayo’s early departure from the championship this season Reape and players like him stateside faced a quick turnaround for the club championship back home.

“Last year with Mayo being in the

“

We have to aim for silverware in both

final, I would’ve had three weeks to get back into the (Moy Davitt’s) team,” said Reape.

“I came back around a similar time this year and I had six days before our opener against Knockmore,” “I trained in Athlone before the Knockmore clash and thankfully I was lucky enough to get back in,” he added.

The Moy Davitt’s team were knocked out of the Mayo Senior Championship after meeting the eventual county Champions, Ballintubber, at the quarter final stage.

“We won an U21 in 2013 and a minor title in 2014. There’s an older crop of players there too so we’re trying to hold that group together at the moment,” said Reape.

The early nature of the club championship in Mayo this year meant that McBride’s lost all their players before the North American championships and had to pull out from the competition.

“I came back around the 24th of August and the North Americans were two weeks later. It would have been nice to play in,” said Reape.

Reape is among 100 Mayo players called in to James Horan’s trials in Beacon last weekend and he looked forward to the challenge the trials would

Brian Reape in action for Mayo

bring.

“I haven’t really been told too much about it only that it’s in Beacon on Saturday and Sunday,” said Reape.

“Lads like Colm Boyle, who has been on the team for years will have to do the trials too, which is good in a way

Credit: David Maher / Sportsfile

because everyone will have to prove themselves,” “Its going to be challenging and anyone could have a bad ten- or twenty-minute patch in a game, so the stakes are high,” he added.