the NOVELTIES issue
Starting something new is difficult. If you say you don’t find it difficult you’re either a superhuman who I want to be or you’re lying. For me personally starting things I have never done before is extremely nerve wracking. My entire tummy feels like a knot scrunched up so tightly that it may never untangle. But what I find worse than starting stuff is ending them. Finishing something without a clear set path in front of me is utterly terrifying. I know for many of you readers, just like me, graduation is just around the corner and probably a good portion of you are like me and brush aside “so what’s your plan?” from all your friends and relatives.
If your response is I don’t have any, well you’re definitely like me. At this very moment of writing this, the only plan I have is to finish my dissertation, release the final Issue of Motley and then after that? Well I will just have to wait and see, which if you know me, is a crazy positive outlook for me. Usually I am the girl who had a set plan from the age of eight. However, at eight years old I didn’t know how real life worked and expected to be a full time Vet
Novelty can be a hard thing to crack down on, but I am really impressed by what our team and our dear contributors have whipped out for this issue. The final push as I call it. In this issue we will look at a beautiful homage to summertime in her homeland that I believe everyone will relate to and be transported to the place that contributing writer Nefeli Pyrovolaki describes in her Features and Opinions piece.
Our Current Affairs Editor Adrian Quinn chats overseas with Abdul Saidi about his rising music career, as he performs with stars as big as Dermot Kennedy. Also in Entertainment Darren Keogh recounts his experience at the intimate show and signing with band The Murder Capital.
As you can see we have lots of amazing content for you to browse through. I want to finish off by saying thank you to our amazing team for working their asses off all year. To get six unique issues out as full time students, whom many have part-time jobs, is pretty impressive. To all our contributors, we would not have a magazine without you. Each of you have such individual stories to share that it has been a pleasure exploring and publishing them. Finally I want to thank the readers for supporting us, picking up the issue or reading online means the world to us. To know our work is not being wasted and that you, who is reading this right now is well… reading our work, is a novelty in itself. It has been a massive pleasure Motley, signing off for the final time.
So for now let us just reflect on the years we spent in college. I have been in college for 4 years and I have had so many experiences, many which I have Motley to thank. For example last month, we collabed with Underground Loft to host a poetry night. Now the only poetry night I regrettably been to prior was also Motley organised, but this time I was the host. I had never been the MC for anything before. It was definitely outside of my comfort zone, but I got to meet really interesting people who just gather every Tuesday to read, perform or just listen to poetry. I thought it was a beautiful night where like minded people can let their words loose. It got me over some anxieties of public speaking and just felt extremely rewarding.
There’s small things in life that will come along, like Motley for me and other things for you. So why should we have a set plan on what will come in the next few years? We just need to take each day by day. New things will fly at you constantly, and it’s up to you to welcome them with open arms, even if it is kinda scary.
Ali O Mahoney, UCC’s Student and Young Alumni Engagement Officer, discusses the transition of one’s life after graduation in her article “From Freshers to Firsts”.
LISA AHERN
editor in-chief
Lisa is coming back to Motley after studying abroad in Boston for a year. She is in her final year of BA English and is returning to her Rory Gilmore wannabe role as Editor in Chief.
meet the TEAM
Tiernán Ó Ruairc, Deputy Editor In Chief
Tiernán Ó Ruairc is a final year history and politics student with an interest in current affairs, and is looking forward to another year at the Motley Magazine.
Adrian Quinn, Current Affairs Editor
Adrian is a final year arts student studying History and Economics. He loves music, cooking and playing sudoku whilst tanning on Mediterranean beaches.
Kate O’Hanlon, Deputy Current Affairs Editor
Kate O’Hanlon is a second year BA English student who loves to travel and go to concerts in her free time. She is also extremely interested in politics making her prefect for Current Affairs.
Tess O’Regan, Entertainment Editor Tess is returning to Motley this year while pursuing an MA in English Literature and Modernities. Always reading or watching something, Tess is particularly fond of the work of Cormac McCarthy, Hilary Mantel and Pat Barker, and will happily spend the rest of time rewatching The Wire.
Darren Keogh, Deputy Entertainment Editor
Meet our mature student Darren Keogh who is the Deputy Entertainment Editor in his final year of BA Arts studying History and English. He loves music, films, books and trying to find the cheapest vinyls around now that he is a student again.
Cian Walsh, Features and Opinions Editor
Cian Walsh is a third year History and Politics student. He wanted to get involved with Motley for the way it culminates a lot of the creative endeavours he has always had a passion for. Different avenues like poetry, short stories, opinions, etc. Besides that, he ’s also good at getting told he looks like any male actor with dark hair and sleepy complexions.
Luca Oakman, Deputy Features and Opinions Editor
Luca is a second year Arts student. One of their biggest passions is Ancient Greek Culture and Mythology. Stephen Fry’s books are some of their favourites. They have always loved reading and writing, hence they are excited to get started working for Motley as they one day want to pursue a career in publishing.
Stephen O Brien, Fashion Editor
Stephen is in Final Year of BA English. He is deeply interested in Pop Culture, including music, film, and fashion, and is even a member of the Pop Culture Society!
Sinead Sheridan, Deputy Fashion Editor
Sinead Sheridan 2nd year English Student. Sinead has a huge interest in fashion along with photography. Writers Sinead looks up to are Anthony Bourdain and Hunter S. Thompson
Ester de Alcantara, Graphic Designer
Ester is a second-year International Law student with a passion for graphic design. She loves books, movies, good music and Tom Hiddleston (mention him at your own risk). Will spend her free time making pizza and brigadeiro for her friends.
Brayden Spencer, Web Designer Brayden is a third year Digital Humanities and Information Technology student. Brayden is the Web Designer for this year’s motley team. Brayden is a tech geek and also a huge cinema and TV nerd!
Joanne Ryan, Social Media Manager
Joanne is a third year English and Politics student. She loves sport, coffee and film and she is looking forward to joining the Motley team as Social Media Manager
CONTRIBUTORS
Leo Troy Lia Daskalopoulos Cian McDonagh Ali O Mahoney
INSIDE
ISSUE SIX - APRIL 2025
CURRENT AFFAIRS ENTERTAINMENT FEATURES AND OPINIONS FASHION NOVELTY OR INERTIA: WHAT GAVE RISE TO THE OSTENSIBLE RENAISSANCE OF NAZI CULTURE IN THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION?
NOVELTY CROSSWORDS
FADING CHILDHOOD MEMORIES
CHARMS & TRINKETS; HOW OVERCONSUMPTION CLUTTERS OUR MINDS
P. 5 P. 7 P. 17 P. 23
NOVELTY OR INERTIA
What Gave Rise to the Ostensible Renaissance of Nazi Culture in the Trump Administration?
Though Donald Trump has only been in office for a few months, his administration has drawn some striking parallels with the rise of the Third Reich in Nazi Germany. From Elon Musk’s alleged Nazi salute in January, to Trump’s desire to seize what is autonomous Danish territory, some experts are getting nervous about the increasing amount of similarities between our current era and the period leading up to World War II. For historians, it has always been difficult to establish legitimate and instructory parallels between the past and present. However, according to Dr. Peter Hayes, a historian and professor at Northwestern University Illinois, certain comparisons can seem “exaggerated” on the surface but in retrospect they have been “increasingly relevant” warnings. With Western societies facing rising nationalism, extreme right-wing rhetoric and inward-looking attitudes, this article will look at Trump’s ostensibly fascist regime. This article does not intend to call Trump himself a Nazi or defame his character but rather explore the facts of his administration so far and the likeness between that and 1930’s Germany.
In a joint session of Congress on March 4th, Trump made it clear that he would like to “welcome [-] Greenland into the United States”. The main motivation behind this desire for acquisition of what has been sovereign Danish territory for years, according to Trump himself, is for ‘international security”. However Hayes fears this move is reminiscent of Hitlers Lebensraum policy and that Trump’s logic behind this is similar to Hitler’s reasoning behind his tactics in the Caucasus, stating that “for Trump, it’s minerals; for Hitler, it was grain and oil. Control of these things appears to both men as vital to victory in the dog-eat-dog struggle of world politics”. Dr. Chris Browning, who is a Holocaust specialist at the University of North Carolina has also spoken on the matter, stating that Trump’s move to “grab[bing] Greenland and Panama and subjugating Canada to fit into a late 19th century imperial mentality is akin to Hitler’s Lebensraum”. Browning also notes an “uncanny resemblance” between the January 2021 insurrection in Washington and Munich Putsch in November 1923, writing that both failed coups, came to power again and went on to launch “legal revolutions” from within the system that are fettered to their own ideologies.
by deputy current affairs editor Kate O Hanlon
We can also see a quelling of free speech under the Trump administration that is shockingly similar to the artistic and ideological censorship that was seen in Nazi Germany before the outbreak of WWII. Columbia Student activist, Mahmoud Khalil, has been detained in a federal detention center after becoming a vocal activist at rallies and sit-ins protesting US foreign policy in relation to their handling of the war in Gaza. Nearly all of the students at these protests wore masks but Khalil chose not to, stating “What am I doing wrong that I need to be covering my face for?” Even though the protests were entirely peaceful and there were no legal repercussions as severe as this for student protestors under Biden’s presidency, seven weeks after the inauguration of Trump, federal officials arrived at Khalil's door and he now faces the risk of deportation for exercising his right to freedom of speech. The timing of his arrest is not coincidental as Trump has been quite outspoken on both his views about the war in Gaza and his contempt for student protestors. The right to free speech is also being revoked from communities like the trans community, as President Trump recently signed an executive order requiring all US government identity documents to reflect a person’s assigned sex at birth. This includes passports which have stranded a lot of legal US citizens, having taken the right from these citizens to move in and out of the US freely under their own identity. This act of denationalisation is starkly similar to the treatment of Jews, Roma and Communists in Nazi Germany according to Browning. While Trump hasn’t outright ostracised or started attacking one specific ethnic group like Hilter did with the Jewish population of Europe, Trump has showed an unrelenting aggression for ‘the enemy within’, which seems to be directed at people like Khalil who don’t align themselves with the values of his directorate.
This is not to say that Trump is a Nazi (although that is an allegation he has faced before, seeing as Trump maintains that Hitler “did some good things” and Trump's former chief of staff John Kelly has gone on record saying that Trump “certainly” meets the definition of a fascist) but rather point out the dangers of the absolute power that figureheads like Hitler and Trump try to attain for themselves. Democracy has come such a long way since the horrors of WWII and the subsequent Geneva convention; it is totally disheartening to see the rise of right wing politics that imitate fascist pasts. Modern democracy is often manipulated by men like Trump for their own benefit and collective public awareness of this manipulation, as well as awareness of the revoking of rights of fellow citizens, is key to the betterment of democratic systems following the presidency of Mr. Trump.
ACROSS
1 Roger Rabbit's redhead romancer (7)
5 Singer Cody who competed in the 2022 series of Dancing with the Stars (5)
8 Slowing down in a car (7)
9 What an anime is often adapted from (5)
10 Fandom name for BTS (4)
11 Bullock of "Bird Box" (6)
14 One of the friends in "Friends" (6)
15 Form of transportation on water (3,3)
18 Reflect off of (6)
20 ____ Ora, singer with a collection in Primark (4)
23 Despise (5)
24 "Grey's ______", TV hospital drama (7)
26 "_____ No. 5", novelty song that names each of the shaded answers in the chorus (5)
27 James Joyce novel (7)
DOWN
1 Punch or vaccine (3)
2 Bowie song who's titular figure is "waiting in the sky" (7)
3 Cork band with the same name as a flower (4)
4 Leo and Virgo month (6)
5 _____ Macron, French president (8)
6 Central (5)
7 Solution to the riddle "When is a door not a door?"....."When it's _____" (4)
10 Genre of YouTube videos in which noises are made to induce a tingly feeling (1,1,1,1)
12 Situation (8)
13 Singer Turner (4)
16 Sea men (7)
17 Uncanny sense of seeing something again (4, 2)
19 Ancient Irish language written on stone (5)
21 What a fortune-teller may be able to read (4)
MOTLEY CROSSWORDS
22 Bloody figure that will appear if you repeat her name three times at night (4)
25 Word of agreement (3)
MOTLEY CROSSWORDS
Motley Novelties Crossword
Across
2. Genre of music characterised by improvisation and syncopation (4)
3. Evard Munch shocking painting (6)
5. Young dog (3)
8. Dvds, a 2000's childhood novelty (10)
13. Seasonal novelties often related to special occasions (11)
14. Genre or Uma Thurman movie (4,7)
15. A joke toy (3)
17. A very sharp chair (4,6)
18. movie about a board game (7)
19. Collectible items that are trendy and fun (11)
20. Creator of Frankenstein (7)
1. Hallmark's favourite holiday (10)
4. What lies ahead (6)
6. Musician also known as ziggy stardust (5,5)
7. Retro toy, often tangles (4)
9. Pointless to minimalists (9)
10. Term for a word that can be read forwards and backwards (10)
11. small creature used for comic relief in animated films (6)
12. Comedy in search of a legendary cup (4,5)
16. Famous villain who carries a red glowing stick (5)
19. Cheerleader style, one hit wonder, 1982 (6)
THE MURDER CAPITAL: IN-STORE AND SIGNING REVIEW.
BY DEPUTY
27/2/2025
DARREN KEOGH
ENTERTAINMENT
EDITOR
The mood was set, the timing was right, and yes The Murder Capital were back in the ‘REAL Capital’ (AKA Cork) as we all gathered outside the Music Zone shop in Deabrock Business Park Togher, waiting for the doors to open at 6pm. Most of us had purchased our vinyl or CD online, others would purchase one once they heard the new tunes for the album launch at this special in-store gig. The band had just completed a small tour of in-store gigs in record shops over in the UK, to promote the release of Blindness. Starting on February 20th these gigs included: Kingston, Brighton, Nottingham (Rough Trade), London (Rough Trade), Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow (Assai Records, a personal favourite of mine) and Edinburgh. Then back to Ireland on the 26th for an in-store and signing event at Spindizzy Records. The 27th was a chance for the Cork fans to hear some songs off their third album Blindness for the first time, live and acoustic at Music Zone. This was all done in a week, so not much room for much else and a nice tight schedule for the boys to pack in some on-the-road practice while also showcasing their new material.
“Can’t Pretend to Know” was the first song of the evening. The bass was strong on this and Gabriel Paschal Blake deserves a mention. This being the third track of the new album with a heavy intro, the lads did well to open with this song in an acoustic setting as Diarmuid Brennan played a soft percussion on his cajon. The second song they played was “Swallow” and this has a nice acoustic feel to it too, with anxious lyrics like: “I need you to go / So you don’t swallow me whole.”
Here, James McGovern on vocals is letting it be known that something or someone is either very overbearing or very goddamn beautiful. The third song of the evening opened with the intense riff of “Death of a Giant,” with poetic lyrics from McGovern: “Black horse in the centre of the street / Marching solemnly in grief / while the Liffey leaves its sleep.” Now we are really getting into it as fans on either side of the shop realise what a treat we are in for hearing these new tunes live for the very first time.
But this does have a good grunge element to it which is a step away from the post-punk label The Murder Capital are heralded for. With lyrics such as: “Over-sensitive and under-reaching,” and “Oh I never need you to say, / I love you / The words lost meaning,” I am sure there would definitely be someone in the twenty-seven club that wishes they wrote those lyrics.
The second last song came with a little story added beforehand. I love these little stories, they always make an impression on the song right before you have even heard it. This is always good for the listener and of course gives the singer another chance to bring you closer to his meaning. McGovern explained he was at a restaurant with some family a while back when someone at his table recognized a guy that walked in and said: “Oh that guy is trailing a wing.” Now, as McGovern admitted himself, I myself did not know what “trailing a wing” meant and even when McGovern asked the crowd, no one was really sure what it meant either. And so he explained; it means that this guy was cheating on his wife. McGovern condemned cheating immediately but just as he said this, I think it hits us all that this was a good title for a song and not one that he could let slip by him. The lyrics of the song are perfect for the title and I think McGovern nailed it on the head when he matched those lyrics to a passing comment and that became a song on their new album.
Then, before the next song was played it was revealed to me that James McGovern was indeed a Cork man. How did I not know this already? Where had I been all this time? What in God’s name was I thinking? Anyway….
After this news and much cheering from the crowd, McGovern jokes lightly about dropping out from all the local schools in Cork before meeting the guys in the band, much to our amusement. After all this was his calling. The next tune was “Words Lost Meaning.” Now, I have to say I was listening to the album that week since its release on the 21st and this tune really stood out to me. The opening guitar riff from Damien Tuit reminds me of something Cobain would have written, but hey who am I to call out the big guns?
The final song of the evening was a special one, “Love of Country.” McGovern mentioned that this will be their next release on the 7” single (keep your eyes peeled for this as I have no release date so far). This has a raw distorted sound that is kind of addictive. I kept listening to it off the album to make sure I was hearing it right and just as I thought it does sound almost like a live demo which is the way their producer for this album John Congleton wanted it to be. This song has a homegrown element to it, just as McGovern sang it back in his hometown of Cork with lyrics including: “Don’t you love your country? Don’t you love your fellow men?” Fantastic patriotic elements here.
When it comes to it, one must remember: in-store gigs and signings are very intimate settings. It could be said many bands lose their edge after much touring and even hanging out with big ego’s like Nick Cave or recording their album in LA as The Murder Capital did. Not these guys, they signed all our records and even personally thanked me for buying the earlier albums. They were very humble and even after a long week of driving around the UK and then back to Ireland for two more gigs in seven days, they really were up for the fans and ready for the world to hear Blindness.
The Murder Capital play The Iveagh Gardens, Dublin, Saturday 19th July 2025.
Thanks to Ray, Shane and Young Adam at Music Zone for this intimate gig and their help and support with the setlist.
CAN YOU TELL US A BIT ABOUT YOURSELF AND THE MUSIC YOU’RE INVOLVED IN?
My name is Abdul Saidi. I’m a multi-instrumentalist and music director. I grew up in Ennis, and I suppose musically, I grew up in the church. I started playing from the age of four or five. I started on drums, and I just kept playing. I got a lot of experience from a really young age. Then I picked up the piano from around eleven, and I taught myself both instruments, and luckily, I had people around me who were good at them also, so I was able to watch them and just practice myself at home.
The music I’m involved in now, I kind of work with a lot of original artists at the moment, and I do a lot of gospel–so directing choirs or gospel bands or ensembles. With the artists I work with, they’re mostly Neo Soul R&B, maybe a little bit of jazz here and there. They’re all kind of from the same tree.
RECENTLY, YOU’VE BEEN MAKING A NAME FOR YOURSELF IN THE IRISH MUSIC SCENE, BEING HEAVILY INVOLVED IN CHAMOMILE CLUB, PLAYING ALONGSIDE THE LIKES OF ABY COULIBALY AND MONJOLA. CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THAT? HOW HAS IT INFLUENCED YOUR MUSIC?
CALLING ME FROM NEW YORK, I MANAGED TO TALK OVER THE PHONE TO CORK MUSICIAN ABDUL SAIDI ABOUT HIS MOST RECENT MUSIC EXPERIENCES, FROM PERFORMING WITH DERMOT KENNEDY TO WHAT’S NEXT IN HIS CAREER AS IT GOES FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH.
TALKING NOVELTIES WITH MUSICIAN ABDUL SAIDI
The Irish music scene is really popping at the moment. Chamomile Club [has] been successful for a long time, but they’re really taking off now. There are also artists such as Shiv, Calum Agnew, Salamay–there are so many different artists that are blowing up at the moment. I’ve been lucky to have worked with a few of them. Recently, Melina Malone is another [musician] as well that I’ve been working with recently. I think it’s great to be involved, because I was just somebody who was a fan. To be able to work with people I used to listen to is just such an amazing feeling. It’s given me a lot more confidence in my craft and what I’m able to do. It’s given me an ear for songwriting when I’ve got the opportunity to be in the studio with some of these artists, like MOIO, Monjola, Abby and Femi as well. So that’s been a really enjoyable experience. As a keys player it’s a different feeling to being an artist, because I’m not an original artist myself. The Irish music scene was not like this, like five years ago–it was so different. Now all these guys are starting to take off, and I’m happy and grateful to be a part of it, for sure.
BY CURRENT AFFAIRS EDITOR ADRIAN QUINN
ON TOP OF THAT, YOU’VE BEEN PERFORMING IN PLACES LIKE LONDON, PARIS AND NEW YORK WITH ARTISTS SUCH AS DERMOT KENNEDY AND MOIO. WHAT HAVE THESE NEW EXPERIENCES BEEN LIKE FOR YOU?
The traveling has been great. I'm literally just finishing up in New York now as well. The first time I travelled for music, I went to Berlin, a year ago. It’s such a blessing to be able to travel with music. They've been very intense experiences, because these gigs are intimate. It's not like going to Paris to play a show in front of 100,000 people. It's going to play a show in a room of like 50 people who are so locked into what's happening. It's really special. Traveling around with MOIO has just been insane, because of the kind of gigs and the kind of music he does. I much prefer playing to a smaller setting of people who are sitting down and really taking in what you're playing. These experiences have been amazing, just getting to see these cities as well.
So Dermot Kennedy - the way that happened was crazy because I was doing the show for MOIO in London. I got to London and on the day when I met MOIO, it was just like yeah, Dermot’s pulling up. He had sent me "Power Over Me" literally like two days before and he said you should learn this. He didn't really give me any context. Like obviously he's like a superstar, but he was so chill about everything. It was so nice to talk to him and play with him. One of the most enjoyable experiences today for sure. I would have never expected this to happen even like six months ago. There seems to be a lot more on the cards, too.
WHAT’S NEXT FOR YOU IN YOUR CAREER?
The most likely destination is London–that seems like the logical next step for me. I want my base to be in London, just to get to meet more people, a new environment, and change the scenery. Personally, I'm going to be doing a personal project in the next few months, under my own name, which is something I've never done before. It's going to be a collaborative project, and we're going to get lots of my friends –whether it’s to sing, co-write, produce or rap.
It's going to be really fun, because my artistry isn't going to be me as the singer or the rapper. I'm going to be the guy behind the music–the keys. An example would be Robert Glasper. He's an idol of mine.
I’m excited to experiment with it. It's something I've always wanted to do. Just never felt like it's been the right time. It feels like the right time now, and I'm excited to get music out there.
YOU PLAY A RANGE OF DIFFERENT INSTRUMENTS - PIANO, DRUMS,
SINGING, COMPOSING - HAVE YOU PICKED UP ANYTHING NEW RECENTLY? (DJ, SAX?)
So recently, DJing was probably a big thing that I started recently, and that was like in the last, like eight months. I wanted to know how to DJ because it just seemed fun. But it's been great, and I’ve been doing a few gigs around the city the past year.
I've also started learning the saxophone recently. I'm just about to do, like, my grade two exams. I think, with learning something new when you get to [it], I'd say anyone over 18 learning a new skill is so humbling, because you're used to being good at things. Then doing something you're not so good at is a really humbling experience, because it's like you have to kind of throw yourself into the deep end to really get good at it. But I think it's really important to keep learning new skills. I think that's like the best way to grow.
I've also been doing a lot of composing recently–a lot of composing for strings, which I had never done before, and for brass as well. So that's also something I've gotten into recently, and I've found it enjoyable.
Motties Final
To close out Motley 24/25, I (Lisa Ahern) thought it would be a good way to tie up the year nicely, by asking my fellow teammates what they thought of their Motley experience. They discussed their favourite moments during their experience in Motley and I also asked what each member plans for the next year, if graduating, what new journeys they will soon embark on. Here is what they had to say…
TIERNÁN Ó RUAIRC
DEPUTY EDITOR IN CHIEF
Experience: It's a novel. I grew up playing rugby and hurling in school and with clubs but being part of the Motley was a new way of working with people. Probably the thing that sticks out the most is that it's been a different group of people who are more diverse than any group I've worked with before and therefore has given me fresh outlooks on life, work and writing.
Best Moment: The Christmas party from my first year with the magazine. That night was the first time I met the team as I was hired late due to the then Current Affairs Editor being on Erasmus. That Christmas party in November was my first real night out in Cork. That same night I asked for a Beamish but was handed a red ale and was gaslit into believing red ale was what I ordered.
To the Future; Final year here and no chance of a masters yet. Probably won't go abroad because I prefer the Curragh of Kildare over any other place so I’m still figuring it out. I will bring from Motley Teamwork skill and doing what makes me happy, because that's what made working so much fun and meeting deadlines easy.
ESTER DE ALCANTARAGRAPHIC DESIGNER
DARREN KEOGH DEPUTY ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR
Experience: Fantastic experience straight off the bat. I personally loved being able to voice my opinion on each monthly topic with regards to entertainment. Editing was kind of new to me and thanks to my peers I was able to gain experience in this department. Now I have a real interest in editing.
Best Moment: The Heritage Issue
To The Future: I’ll be Job searching for sure. Fingers crossed I will do a Masters part time next year.I will bring Motley with me as a fantastic work experience but really as something to be proud of.
Experience: Motley was my first real experience designing a magazine, and while it was challenging at first, it quickly became an incredible journey. The beginning was stressful, between balancing layouts, perfecting details, and meeting deadlines, but once I found my rhythm, it turned into so much fun. The team was absolutely amazing, and I feel incredibly lucky to have worked with such talented and supportive people. Honestly, it was an unforgettable experience, and I’m truly grateful to have been a part of it.
Best Moment: My favorite moment was probably seeing the printed magazine for the first time. After all the late nights editing, revisions, etc, holding the finished product in my hands was incredibly rewarding. And seeing others engage with and appreciate the magazine made all worth it.
To the Future: Next year, I’m going on an exchange year in Brazil, and I couldn’t be more excited! After so many years away, it feels incredible to finally go back to my home country ;) I know it will be unforgettable! My experience with Motley has given me so many valuable skills that I know I’ll carry into future endeavors. Not only design, but also problem-solving, working under tight deadlines; I’ve learned how to stay creative and adaptable even in high-pressure situations.
Final Roll Call
CIAN WALSH
FEATURES AND OPINIONS
EDITOR
Experience: I learned what it’s like to be in charge of what other people put out into the world. It sounds dramatic but people’s names are always going to be attached to the articles we publish and I like to think they come from a real place. It’s been stressful at times and writer’s block is a real shit show but the feeling on release day is always worth it. My only regret is that I didn’t apply to be here sooner.
Best Moment: The first gathering outside of a meeting back when The Freedom Issue was published. It was really cool to meet almost everyone properly and it’s great to add names and stories to people who otherwise I would’ve just walked past and nodded at.
To the Future: Go work for a year. Travel when I can. Make some money up and figure out what I want to do after that! I’ll stay open minded to different ideas more so than I have been in the past. Hopefully I’ll be better at waiting out the writer’s block process rather than just getting frus-
TESS O REGAN ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR
Experience:It has been a pleasure to write and edit for Motley this year. Collaborating with student contributors, seeing what they do with the themes and working with them to ensure their pieces achieve their visions – it's very rewarding.
Best Moment:Working with my friend and classmate, Dante Kunc, on a collaborative article. The project was something we were both very passionate about, so seeing it in print in the Controversy issue was something special.
To The Future: I'll be finishing my MA in Modernities and English Modern Literature in the autumn. I hope to continue in academia with a PhD, but for now I'll be focusing on writing my thesis over the summer. I aim to remain active as a writer and editor. Recently, myself and two friends started a queer literary zine, called Homofile (@homofilezine), and already I find myself using the editorial skills I developed at Motley while editing our first issue. Motley has been a big part of my life for the past two years and the development I've seen in my writing and editing is already proving invaluable in future endeavours!
As you can tell from our lovely editors and designers that we have had a blast this year and hopefully you (yes you) see this and feel inspired to join the Motley family next year. The future Editor-In-Chief could be reading this right now. I myself am grateful for this experience in Motley and can’t wait for what comes next for the person who takes over from me.
By
Editor in Chief Lisa Ahern and Editors
LUCA OAKMAN DEPUTY FEATURES AND OPINIONS EDITOR
Experience:It's been truly amazing, not only was it a brilliant learning experience for my personal writing skills, I also gained so much experience in editing and team work as well as valuable insight into the publishing world.
Best Moment:My favourite moments are always the day the magazine comes out and getting to see it around campus, and admiring the designs of every article.
To the Future: I will be doing my final year! I hope to stay in motley next year. Not only will I try to apply everything I've learnt to my last year in college but I will bring all my knowledge and experience with me when I move abroad for my masters. I also hope that this will be an amazing set of skills to bring with me when I start working, hopefully in publishing
By Staff Writer Lia Daskalopoulos
Madonna,
faced controversy while adopting her four children in Malawi due to bypassing Malawi laws regarding adoption and being accused of bullying Malawi state officials. She allegedly demanded V.I.P. treatment while visiting the country due to her philanthropic efforts. State officials of the country describe these efforts as ‘exaggerated’, as she claims to have built several schools in Malawi, but has only assisted in the building of a few classrooms, according to a press release by former Malawi President Joyce Banda in 2013. A Reuters article from 2007 states that the father of Madonna’s first adopted child from the country claims that he did not understand the adoption papers signed by him since he cannot read or write. This resulted in misinformation about the adoption proceedings of the child, although these claims have been dismissed as untrue by a Malawi government official. Whether true or untrue, evidence suggests that western intervention in developing countries can be unnecessary and lead to damage within families and communities.
A young, white American woman, Katie Meyler, went from being an internationally celebrated philanthropist to perhaps one of the most hated women in Liberia in just a few years. In 2014, she was named one of Time Persons of the Year for her philanthropy work. In 2018, Vox reported on Liberians marching on the streets of the country’s capital Monrovia with her name plastered on placards. “Fix the system. Shame on you Katie Meyler.”
Millions of people travel overseas every year to volunteer in humanitarian aid efforts, hoping to do good or improve their CV. However many of those volunteering abroad genuinely want to seek personal growth and feel like they’ve made a change in foreign communities. Celebrities like Madonna and Angelina Jolie are famous for their philanthropy efforts and adoptions of children from African countries. The aspiration to help those seen as less fortunate is noble, but unfortunately a lot of businesses in humanitarian aid and voluntourism sustain practices and institutions that do more harm than good.
Wealthy university students pay thousands of euros to help at orphanages, which are popular destinations for voluntourism. According to a 2018 article in The Guardian, the number of orphanages has been growing in countries like Haiti, Cambodia and Uganda, not because of a growing number of orphaned children but because of a huge rise of foreign tourists willing to work in them. ‘Child finders’ are paid to go into communities and identify families from poor backgrounds in order to convince them to institutionalize their children. Lumos, a London-based group that seeks to end the institutionalization of children, believes that some of these orphanages are engaged in trafficking and selling children for adoption in wealthier countries.
Meyler was the founder of More Than Me, a non-profit organization designed to protect young girls from sexual abuse and offer them opportunities for education, in a country where rape has been declared a national emergency and women are systematically denied access to education. According to ProPublica, her charity would go on to raise over $8 million in USD by 2018. As a result of this charity work, Katie Meyler got to meet Bill Gates and Oprah Winfrey, on top of receiving a White House invitation to meet former President of the USA, Barack Obama.
However, a 2018 investigation by ProPublica uncovered a dark secret. The girls who were supposedly being ‘saved’ by More Than Me were being systematically raped by its co-founder and close friend of Katie Meyler, Macintosh Johnson. Although Johnson’s crimes filled hundreds of pages of police and legal records, More Than Me worked hard to obscure details, shift responsibility and prevent victims from coming forward. The abuse was not limited to Johnson. Other staff members had been accused of rape and spreading sexually transmitted diseases to female students aged 12-16. More Than Me went as far as to blame Liberian culture, and claimed that the good they have done made up for any suffering caused. “Where is your school? Where is your scholarship providing healthcare, or anything for these kids?” Meyler asked at the end of a 2018 interview with ProPublica regarding Johnson’s horrendous crimes.
No one seemed to question whether a young American woman with no previous experience in education, healthcare or management would be fit to run a school and medical center for thousands of Liberians. According to the 2018 ProPublica investigation, not only her, but Meyler’s entire team’s lack of qualification was evident. No teaching experience was required in the process of hiring teachers and principal staff. The school didn’t have accreditation from the Ministry of Education for years. When the Ebola epidemic hit west Africa in 2014, Meyler organized Ebola-relief efforts in Liberia, which required high levels of professional healthcare expertise. More Than Me never received approval for an Ebola care facility from the Liberian Ministry of Health. A Ministry of Health official stated to ProPublica that Meyler appeared to be repeatedly disregarding local laws. According to Vox in 2018, money was reported missing, and the charity’s country director, Morgana Wingard, expressed her concerns about girls being taken from their homes and spending the night at staff houses.
Johnson, who Meyler described as “Jesus of West Point”, was raping girls as young as 10 years old. Johnson’s victims told authorities that he threatened to take away their scholarships or kill them if they came forward about the horrors they experienced. He impregnated several students, one of them being 14 at the time. Johnson never faced punishment for his egregious actions; he died of AIDS before a final trial could take place. Several of his young victims also tested positive for HIV. The American charity shut down in 2019 in response to the ProPublica investigation, after initially denying and questioning claims made in the article.
“The white saviour supports brutal policies in the morning, funds charities in the afternoon, and receives awards in the evening”, writer Teju Cole wrote about white saviorism on Twitter in 2012. The ‘white saviour industrial complex’ refers to institutions and practices that use historical inequities to validate white people’s privileges and emotional experiences. It is usually used in reference to western intervention to systematic issues in formerly colonised countries.
The WISC rewards the ‘saviour’ emotionally while allowing them to overlook the policies that created those problems in the first place and disregard the long-term sustainability of their solutions. These countries are situated as places in need of heroism, perpetuating the need for external forces to come and save the day while diminishing the agency of locals.
Iris Martor, school nurse whom students initially confided to about the abuse at More Than Me, told ProPublica that Meyler didn’t understand Liberia and that More Than Me didn’t listen to its staff. “They think we are all stupid people with little to no education, and our system is fragile, and they can get away with things because their skin is white. That is what Katie feels.
Cole concluded his series of 2012 tweets on white saviorism with a powerful statement. “I deeply respect American sentimentality, the way one respects a wounded hippo. You must keep an eye on it, for you know it is deadly.”
the saviour? White Saviorism And Its Dangers
SOURCES: https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/sep/13/the-business-of-voluntourism-do-western-do-go oders-actually-do-harm (The harms of voluntourism, The Guardian 2018)
https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2018/10/24/17995536/liberia-girls-more-than-me-katiemeyle r (Vox 2018)
https://features.propublica.org/liberia/unprotected-more-than-me-katie-meyler-liberia-sexual-expl oitation/ (Investigation into More Than Me by Propublica 2018)
https://www.propublica.org/article/more-than-me-shuts-down (More Than Me Shuts Down, Propublica 2019)
https://www.undp.org/liberia/blog/sexual-violence-liberia-end-silent-epidemic (Rape as national emergency in Liberia, UNDP 2023)
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/03/the-white-saviour-industrial-complex/25 4843/?single_page=true (White saviourism, Teju Cole 2012) https://www.reuters.com/article/us-madonna-idUSL2274514220061023/ (Madonna adoption controversy, Reuters 2007)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/apr/11/malawi-madonna (Former Malawi President press release regarding Madonna, Guardian 2013)
CHILDHOOD
FADING MEMORIES
I hear it sometimes, that distant tune,
The scent of rain in the heat of June.
The creak of a swing, the patter of feet,
Hide-and-seek shadows stretched long in the glow, And though we have grown, and the years pull tight,
After thirty-one late-morning swims, forty orange sunsets, and twelve days spent blissfully in the company of my cousins, we plan road-trips, eat fresh melon and gossip excitedly, relishing the feeling of togetherness. There is something of a haze that settles over my memory. Here, I am so far removed from winter that I have entered an almost parallel dimension. Immersed in the now, I begin to feel summer. The fresh-off-the-plane excitement, the novelty of the starry nights ,which the cloudy winter so long denied me of, wear off and are replaced by a relaxed familiarity. I relapse into my summer rituals and before long, I am acclimated to the bare-footedness and the sleeping on my stomach (which somehow feels right under my thin bedsheet). I sleep late and I sleep in.
Sometimes I could swear that summer is a feeling, and not a season. I feel it in the early-morning air when I wake up unintentionally and the sun has barely begun its ascent. I watch it as it tints the blue sky orange and warms the 6am coolness. The cockerel crows, the dogs bark, and the crickets chirp incessantly. Outside our bedroom window, I know that an endless series of perfect tomorrows await us. "Perfect" becomes the word by which my world can most aptly be defined in this alternate reality. Filled with this thought, I drift back into a blissful sleep until the crickets reach crescendo and dawn achieves its fully-fledged morning status.
I feel summer in breakfast on the balcony, in wearing no shorts underneath a slouchy tee, in drinking freshly-pressed orange juice. Most especially, I feel it in that morning greeting exchanged with the neighbour, the shopkeeper, or the restaurant owner. The smell of my granny’s biscuits drifts from out of her kitchen window, reaching the front gate. Orange zest and toasted sesame seed. We walk the corridor of bougainvillea, our pathway to the sea. Our swimsuits hang on the line, patiently waiting to dry.
I feel summer whilst I soak the midday heat on a salty rock. I always choose the smoothest, darkest rock, where the heat is greatest and I can lie comfortably. My body was made to be in the sun, I think, every trace of tension it held now having dissipated. Later we will return again, me and my sister. We know the footing by heart and scale the rocks with ease. We watch the sun fall behind the not-so-distant headlands of the island, the water dark and glimmering with its gold reflection. Its descent lasts a little over fifteen minutes. The air starts to cool again, with no clouds to trap the warmth.
I feel it when the sea is ours, the tourists flocking to their evening restaurant meal. We've spent the whole summer together, and still we find an abundance of things to say. Nothing has ever felt so much like home than this dark water, surprisingly warm. And no, it no longer feels novel, but better still, it feels known, like it belongs to us two alone. This too, we tell each other, along with everything else under the sun. Our trivial chatter lapses into reflective musing and back into girlish laughter, until we reemerge, and only the wrinkles on our fingers remain to prove the passing of time. Tired now, we begin to feel the cold. Teeth chatter, sunbleached hairs stand to attention. Then the most beautiful part: the unruly salty hair, the soft dry fabric on my skin, the calm sensation setting in.
I feel it when dusk gives way to darkness, when the crickets lapse into their drowsy nighttime coo. Summer air, my favourite. Finally silent, we walk the way home, thinking. I feel it when we wish all those we pass goodnight, and know that that's all there really is, today and tomorrow, in our world of summertime perfection.
BY NEFELI PYROVOLAKI
SUMME R T IM E IN my home la nd
WORD TRAVELS
Letters travel from far and wide, from the deepest depths to the most inhospitable places on earth, wherever human ideas are spread.There are few feelings as novel as receiving a piece of post. A birthday wish, a valentine’s kiss, a letter from someone you miss. This article is not going to mourn the decline in the postal service, more so it is a celebration of its novelty.
MISSILE MAIL
In the thin and chilly air that can be found at the 5,364 meters atop Everest Base camp, there sits an old army tent. The post office that sits at the roof of the world is as modest as it is remote. Owned by the Chinese Eastern Broadcasting Company, picturesque postcards can be sent to your loved ones in a matter of weeks provided the weather. The trail conditions to the nearest village, and the availability of the local sherpas. Letters will take roughly a week to reach China, two to reach Europe and more than two to reach the Americas.
LOFTY LETTERS
POLAR POST
Port Lockroy sits on a rocky outcrop of the world's most southerly and icy continent. The UK’s Antarctic Heritage Trust has a small team of 5 staff working in their Antarctic base with one of the roles being the Antarctic postmaster. The current postmaster is Geroge Clarke who will hold the position for one year. Each year the UKAHT sends a new team to share the Island with over 1,000 gentoo penguins, to manage the museum, shop and wildlife research. The position is open each year during the southern hemisphere summer season for a new postmaster to take the role, anyone interested can apply at for the role on the UKAHT website. Perks of the job include risk of slipping, limited access to shower facilities unless visited by a passing cruise ship and occasional whale sighting.
BY CIAN MCDONAGH
MIND MIND MIND MIND
There are few things faster than email delivery speeds, however back in the pre internet days the USA postal department in collaboration with the US Navy decided the way forward for postal delivery involved rockets. “Missile Mail” as its name suggests is the act of stuffing post into the top of a missile and firing towards the mail’s destination. The 1959 Test involved the firing of a missile from the newly established post office onboard the submarine USS Barbero (also making it an underwater post office). The 22-minute journey carried the 3000 letters one hundred miles to a navy base in Florida. A sensational system. Cork’s Centenarian Correspondences In the soggy street hidden away in a brick alcove sits what us Corkonians might argue is the oldest post box in the world. The Kent station pillar box was dated somewhere in between 1857 and 1859. The box itself is unique in several ways, it's only 4 feet tall, it is void of the royal insignia that was stamped on all Victorian boxes of the era. Rather oddly it's slot is installed in the top of the box leaving it open to this fair city’s damper aspects. Its twin post box was demolished in a car crash leaving the Kent box the last of its kind and the oldest box not only in Ireland but also the world, still in operation. Next time you use it make sure it’s a dry day. These snapshots of the more novel aspects of the postal service showcase its weird and wonderful history. Although it is fading from the spotlight, its legacy is a testament to humanity's need to share stories, spread ideas and connect. So next time, you receive a piece of mail in the post, enjoy the novelty.
Have you ever been sitting at the bottom of the ocean and thought, “Man, I would love to send a letter right now”, well fear not because the small fishing village of Susami in Japan has you covered. Sitting at a depth of 10 meters on the ocean floor there sits an apple red post box among the murky teal of the ocean depths. Inspired by Toshihiko Matsumoto the town's 70-year-old postmaster, it’s been a huge success for the town’s tourist scene with over 40,000 letters sent since its opening in 2000. Those who wish to send a letter must grab a waterproof letter and some oilbased ink before suiting up and diving to the box that sits below the town's harbour.
DEEP DISPATCHES
MIND THE GAP MIND THE GAP MIND THE GAP MIND THE GAP MIND THE GAP MIND THE GAP THE GAP
I get the train into college every morning. It stops in Midleton at 7:38. Arrives in Kent at 8:08. That gives me thirty minutes. Half an hour to pass the time as the fields whiz by out the window. For the first few months this meant being on my phone, scrolling reels, or the NYT mini games. Then it was a book, or a look over my notes. After a while it gets stale, it all feels like a loop. The same fields, same games, same staring at your phone and waiting for the thirty minute intermission in your life to be over. It’s like a loading screen. Nothing happens here.
The rumble of the train on the tracks is the only evidence that time passes at all, all the fields look the same, sometimes I forget which stop we’re at and have to peer around someone to check. I go from my town, my home, places I know, streets I could walk with my eyes closed, to loud cars, pedestrian lights, people traffic, tall buildings and unfamiliar places. It’s as if I’m on a gradient between the two worlds. The old and new, two faces of the coin of my life. But what about the time in between? The side of the coin, the gap, the half an hour each way I spend suspended between the two? Am I in a third place here, or like Schrödinger's cat, somehow in both at once? If my life is split between two places, this is the intersection, either both or neither. But what to do with the time? Something new, something familiar, something half known, a skill learned and forgotten many times over. I sit writing this on the train, unsure if this is what counts. Is this the best use of the time I have here?
This writing is my only evidence of being here, this train bears no mark of my existence, yet it has captured my mind recently like a hopeless crush. I cannot avoid this time, it is a necessary part of my life, yet somehow feels completely pointless. An unavoidable tedium, to get through this same scene day in, day out. In twenty, thirty years time, will I remember this feeling? The hour I spend every day waiting, in limbo between my two places. What is there to remember, is the sheer uneventfulness of this time somehow noteworthy in itself? What will I have wished I did this time? Maybe nothing is the right answer, maybe looking out at the world through the window, not waiting for the time to pass but being present, maybe that is the best I can do. Do I need to try something new? Is the answer to my problem simply that the problem does not exist? Is the ad break of my life not just as important as the rest? I’m seeking a solution to boredom, something fresh, something to decide which side of the coin this journey falls on. I do this under the assumption that boredom requires fixing, that it has no benefit. I don’t appreciate the boredom, but is it not the thing that makes me crave novelties?
If I delete this part of my life, upset the equilibrium, which way will the reaction go? Do I stand to lose something by sending biased parties into no man’s land? Are my notes or my books battling for control over something neither should own? I’ve been unfair to this train, to what it represents–a neutral party, the one part of my life belonging only to me. I need to be grateful, for the break, the escape from my worlds that this train provides. For now I’ll keep my Switzerland, my depletion layer, my gap between old and new. I’ve found a new way to be bored. Novelty and boredom, love and hate, yin and yang. I need one to enjoy the other.
BY ADAM MURPHY
(Preface: much of this article is satire. Some parts of it are not. I’ll let you decide which is which.)
THELITTLE THINGS
One night on Q3, a youtube short had come up for me that had clipped an interview of Kurt Cobain talking about his envy of the “blissfully happy.” As a guy who loves Nirvana very much and procrastinating even more, this was the perfect fit for my ever exhausted and unmotivated brain. I thought it was just another short clip of an idolised musician I enjoy from an era where playing and philosophy had been entangled with one another. Granted, that is exactly what it was but alas, I don’t want to work on my dissertation at this time and I’m making it your problem. Still though, to take something away from his sentiment that some people have this innate gift to enjoy life’s smaller and simpler pleasures is that maybe it’s less common than we think.
I like to see myself as a realist, which is a self-serving and proud way of saying that for me, the glass just shattered to pieces on a tiled kitchen floor rather than half-full or empty. It’s tiresome but it wins arguments. It’s also not specific to me. Everyone nowadays is far more involved or interested in the bigger picture than they are the smaller, more particular and god forbid, nice things in life. There’s something novel about appreciating what’s in front of you when you’re typically not seeing the wood from the trees. It’s sweet, it’s kind, it makes me think, “Damnit. My therapist was right!” Above all else, it’s a nice change of pace.
Sometimes when I’m feeling particularly insufferable and find myself giving unwarranted advice to friends both smarter and richer than I, they throw a question at me asking “Who are you saying this for?” To which I am immediately stunned and respond “How dare you imply there’s a deeper meaning behind my nihilistic sentiments? What kind of friend are you?” It’s the sort of response held by someone who is far too sensitive to admit a shortsightedness in their approach to life. Sure, if I solely bother myself with the intricacies of life and how I can be a better person every single second of every day, you’d probably tell me to chill the hell out and get snickers or something. I’m not myself when I’m hungry to be fair.
BY FEATURES AND OPINIONS
EDITOR CIAN WALSH
I have this friend from school. We’ll call him Ned. I have never once seen him stressed in the many years I’ve known him. It’s infuriating. How dare he? Does he not know that I’m currently wrestling with a bunch of made up issues in my head that have spiralled so far out of control that my only viable option for rehabilitation could be actual rehabilitation? I’m envious of him, the same way I’m sure Kurt Cobain was of the many people in his life that weren’t self-burdened with ideas of life’s purpose and the failures of mankind in what is the most advanced period of technology and capability that the world has ever seen. Damn you, Ned. Would swap places with him in an instant all the same. He’s still got a ridiculous work ethic, pays his own way where he needs to and knows where he stands with the world. When he’s finished up what might be a 10 or 11 hour work day, he knows the rest is up to him. He’s got the little things to get him through until tomorrow. Whatever those little things could be. Maybe it’s a drink with your friends, a night in with a loved one, maybe it’s having nowhere in particular to be. I would really enjoy having nowhere in particular to be right about now.
It’s a strange crossroads to be at where you want to be driven by your passions and give enough time and effort into the things that matter to you. You wonder though if there’s a level of diminishing marginal returns from trying so hard and giving that much of yourself to something. Maybe this is the point where we try to take a step back and enjoy those little things for the novelties they are.
It’s a strange crossroads to be at where you want to be driven by your passions and give enough time and effort into the things that matter to you.
You wonder though if there’s a level of diminishing marginal returns from trying so hard and giving that much of yourself to something. Maybe this is the point where we try to take a step back and enjoy those little things for the novelties they are.
It is not to say that the blissfully happy aren’t driven and caring in their everyday lives. It’s the total opposite, in fact. Those people who live without regular stress, such as our good pal Ned, are just the ones who have figured out what that balance is between the big and little things. The hard days get done as they have to and then the world is their oyster. Many college students wrestle with themselves in finding that balance. In letting go of their envy–whatever it may be. We all see this balance differently, however. I’ll use myself as an example given that this article doesn’t yet meet my criteria of self-involvement. I live at home and I have done so for all of college. As far as I’m aware, I’ll never experience living out of home for college. I didn’t do an Erasmus either. I may never know that experience either. I’m not regretful of the life I've had since August of 2022 but I’m curious about the one I didn’t. I’m envious of those who got to do either or both of those things. Probably for nothing more than novelty alone.
I wanted to know what those things are like simply because I don’t. Simply because I’ve never woken up on college road or in Bróga house and scrambled myself together for a lecture that starts in 15 minutes. I’ve always worried about bus times or where I’ll park my car; how much I need to pay for that parking. I’ve never had a single friend in my life who lived within a walking distance. Or at least a safe one. The Mallow road is a scary place lads. That being said, I’m also not paying an obscene rent price for moldy bathrooms and lead in my water just so I could have experienced all the very menial things I’ve mentioned. Novelties, eh? Oh how they would make a 21-year-old man with hyperfixations and a platform go a bit crazy.
With the remainder of this article I’d like to end what’ll likely be my last piece in Motley magazine on a more positive, God forbid, even more wholesome note. There was a great level of novelty doing this at the beginning. I had said to myself that I would submit to Motley ever since first year because my older sister may or may not have been the editor at one point. That was one of those envious from afar sort of moments I mentioned before. It was cool to think her name would be at the forefront of great articles every month that anyone could read at any time. Now, my name is at the forefront of some, dare I say, half-decent and meaningful ones. The novelty never actually wore off. It’s always pretty cool to have your name at the top of something you care about. As well as that, it’s pretty cool to care. Whether it be for the big things or the little ones.
FROM FRESHERS TO FIRSTS
UCC’s Student and Young Alumni Engagement Officer Ali O’Mahony talks us through the highly anticipated next step of becoming a UCC Alumnae and gives us insights into the support the UCC Alumni Community can provide during such an invigorating, and daunting time.
Remember your first day at UCC? The panic of getting the perfect ID photo, the frantic hunt for the right lecture hall while lost in the ORB, and the sheer excitement of having complete control over your own schedule (most of which was probably spent trying to work out your class schedule). Fast forward a few years, and suddenly, you’re standing on the grass of the quad (a novelty in itself) in a cap and gown, clutching a degree and thinking, “Wait... now what?”
Welcome to new-grad life, where the unfamiliarity doesn’t cease, it just shifts into an entirely different (and slightly terrifying) gear. If university was all about discovering who you are, the first few years after graduation are about figuring out what you want to do with that newfound sense of self!
THE HONEYMOON PHASE:
The first few months’ post-graduation can feel exhilarating. No more assignment deadlines, no more 9am lectures, no more panic surrounding what referencing style to use. Whether you’ve landed a dream job, started a postgraduate course, or are taking a gap year, it all feels new and exciting. You might even feel like you’re on top of the world, with everything falling into place. But life has a way of keeping things interesting, and that’s part of the adventure.
THE REALITY CHECK:
Then, maybe some of the newness wears off. You realise that “work” doesn’t always come with a Christmas break or a reading week. The rent doesn’t magically disappear. Sunday “scaries” take on a whole new meaning, and you're consumed with meal prepping lunches to bring to the office. Some friends move away, nights out become rarer, and suddenly, you miss the comfort of student life. Especially a classic Main Rest chicken roll!
THE PLOT TWIST:
But here’s the good part, once you push through the post-college transition phase, you start to find your rhythm. You make new connections, learn to balance work and play, and discover what actually excites you outside of lecture halls and night’s out. The best part? There’s no set syllabus anymore, you get to define what success looks like.
WORDS OF SUPPORT FROM YOUR ALUMNI COMMUNITY
Navigating a period of change is always difficult and you shouldn’t have to do it alone. We asked a few recent UCC graduates to share their best advice for navigating the new-grad rollercoaster. Here’s what they had to say:
Navigating theofNovelty Newly Graduated Life
By Ali O Mahoney
“Everybody does things at their own pace. Somebody from your course will have a job, others will be travelling, others will move home but it’s all valid. There’s no rush after graduation to find the next thing to do.”- 2023 Graduate
To quote a cliché saying; “we are all doing the same race with different destinations.”
“Stay in touch with your UCC connections.” – 2020 Graduate
The friendships and networks you built in college are invaluable. You worked tirelessly for the duration of your degree, not only in completing assignments, and exams, but in the extra-curricular activities you were involved in. All these connections will stand to you in your graduate life. UCC’s Alumni Relations team also hosts events, networking opportunities, and mentorship programmes. Be sure to utilise the support available to you.
“Take some time to see what you actually want to do. There’s a lot of pressure from society to do drastic things after your undergrad. Take a step back and think about what is important to you and what will make you happy.”- 2023 Graduate
Sometimes, the best step is taking a breath. Moving at a fast pace does not always equal success. Figure out your passions. Once you’ve set out some routes you’d be interested in, connect with alumni that hold similar trajectories, and talk it out.
“Think outside the box with what doors your degree can unlock for you. Just because no one has pursued a certain career path using your degree doesn’t mean you can’t!”- 2022 Graduate
Your degree is more than the content you studied. Did you show up to your lectures on time? Did you write multiple assignments? All of these skills are multi-disciplinary. Your degree didn’t merely teach you information on a particular subject but taught you invaluable skills to develop your sense of self.
So, to all the new, or soon to be grads out there feeling a bit lost... welcome to the club. Being lost isn’t always a negative. In the words of Thoreau;“not until we are lost do we begin to find ourselves.” Being lost, like change, can of course feel uncomfortable, but that feeling forces us to question what we truly want, and allows us to gain a deeper level of self-awareness.
The uniqueness of new-grad life is weird, wild, and wonderful. You’ve made it through your years of university. You’ll make it through this too (even if it takes a few moments of questioning along the way). As you navigate new-grad life, remember that UCC’s Alumni Team is always here to support you. The Alumni Relations Team is part of the UCC Advancement Office, and offers a wealth of resources, from career guidance and networking opportunities to exclusive events and mentorship programmes, so stay connected by visiting our website, and signing up to UCC Alumni Online (the Alumni Portal), attending alumni events, and following all our social media channels to make the transition that bit smoother. UCC’s alumni family is always there to welcome you back, and help you grow!
trinkets CharmsAND
How Overconsumption Clutters our Minds
BY FASHION EDITOR STEPHEN O’BRIEN
With the rise of 00s nostalgia in film, fashion, and music, trinkets and accessories like charms and little toys have too made a return. Back in the day, phones would be bedazzled and adorned with bright rhinestones, and their built-in charm hooks would hold chains. Nowadays, the rhinestones have been replaced with stickers and CASETIFY cases that show off Taylor Swift lyrics, Barbie-Pink bubbles, or whatever other cultural iconography the owner wants to showcase.
Sonny Angels – a Japanese toy from Dreams Inc, which debuted in 2004 but gained serious attention through TikTok in 2023 –are another accessory for both phonewear and shelf decor, and released a collaboration with the aforementioned CASETIFY in 2024 for phone cases that matched the ‘Harvest’ series of Angels. Whilst primarily being a ‘blind-box’ toy, a series of Sonny Angels called ‘Hippers’ were released in 2021, and attach to phones in a similar vein to a pop-socket. Accessories like the digital pets Tamagotchi have too made a return as a ‘vintage’ novelty, with sales doubling between 2022 and 2023 and a dedicated store opening in the UK, almost 30 years since they debuted. The fascination with cute, decorative toys that harken to childhood and bright colours is both sweet yet a bit unnerving; are people embracing the silly, or are they just trying to escape reality?
It’s undeniable that Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour led to the modern day ‘friendship’ bracelets craze, which has become a staple of not just her concerts, but of the concerts of most pop stars. It’s all a bit of fun, and the eye-catching bright plastic colours are a way to make yourself stand out… but what exactly are the repercussions of this? Well, when it comes to the plastic beads of friendship bracelets and charms, they are created from plastic nurdles – which about 200 kilotons of them leak into the ocean each year – and are a large contributor to the microplastics being found in marine life, and crucially our own bodies.
Sources:
• 2nd paragraph, plastic waste, nurdles in ocean Friendship bracelets are more popular than ever, but are they eco-friendly? | CBC News
• Temu lead necklace ‘Unacceptable Levels’ of Hazardous Substances in Temu Products
• Temu cadmium chain Temu: Documentary finds products contain dangerously high levels of harmful metals, have false certificates | Stuff
Of course, the culture around friendship bracelets is to trade them, and to recycle and reuse the beads you buy and collect. Unfortunately, with the quickening of trends and the end of the Eras Tour last December, will these beads continue to be reused, or will they end up in landfills like 50% of all plastic waste?
The worry about what comes after the trend is up is not just applicable to friendship bracelets, but also to the cheap accessories and jewelry from sites like Temu and Shein, that decorate the hair, wrists, and necks of teens and young adults trying to keep up with the exponential rate of trends. AChannel 4 documentary “The Truth About Temu: Dispatches”, exposes the levels of lead in a $4 ‘silver’ necklace to be 10 times greater than the amount allowed in products in the UK. Over 25 times the legal amount of cadmium was also found in a faux-gold chain – cadmium is linked to bone degradation and kidney damage. Not only is this dangerous to the health of the young consumers that these apps target, but this low quality turns the jewelry from wearable to worn thin, fast…
The recent obsession with accessorizing outfits, phones, and handbags with charms and trinkets, in an almost kitschy way, may have spawned from a desire to ‘return’ to childhood and the comfort of sentimentality. This consumerist approach of fixating on the bright cutesy colours of plastic is only leading to mass production of these items, which will ultimately end up not as the pretty decorative clutter of charms and keychains, but as a harmful waste poisoning our planet, as well as ourselves.
Nostaligia in Novelty
BY DEPUTY EDITOR-IN-CHIEF TIERNÁN BERHE
Novelty is what keeps life exciting, whether you’re an adrenaline junkie who must try more and more daring
tricks or reach further and further into the unknown. Novelty is what pushes people to travel and try new things. That being said, in recent years people of my own age, Gen Z or people born between 1997 and mid to late 2010’s, have begun to look back. Aside from any political reasons to revise our past behaviours and actions, our generation has led the way to Noughties Nostalgia.This includes low rise jeans and the digital camera.
Nostaligia Novelty
These things acknowledge our youth, however in many cases we were too young to remember, so these fashion trends are a novelty to most twenty-something year olds who embrace them. This is not a new trend, the use of the past for new and novel experiences is as old as the Romans, who once copied classical Athens.
Twelve hundred years later an Italian architect named Andrea Palladio would lead the way in the classical revival we now call Palladianism which stood as a testament to the joy of nostalgia for the upper classes of sixteenth century Europe. The Palladian revival represents our own generation's desire to take fashion inspiration from the past, which is a desire for an idea of the past's simplicity, a time when everything seemed simpler even if it wasn’t.
While we have not reached this point yet, the revival of Palladianism led to the greatest era of architecture in the Neoclassical style. While the idea of finding comfort in the past and allowing it to shift into something new and wonderful is something that shouldn’t be discouraged completely, a common thread in this evolution is its links with the upper classes of this world. While the roots of Palladianism and its evolution into Neoclassicism were the elites, our current societal structure means that it is in fact the middle class who are leading the way in this revival of the noughties and earlier fashion trends. This is evident in this trend’s price tags for pieces meant to replicate earlier trends being extortionate in an attempt to make the new trend of low rise and miniskirts high end.
The issue doesn’t end with new pieces on sale, even thrifting culture that has emerged recently has been co opted by the middle class causing what was once a niche market for both the working class and a peculiar set of ‘artsy’ folks, but recent efforts by the, middle class have forced the markets original target consumers out of the market.
In the world of sports the desire to experience nostalgia for this current generation has manifested in the enjoyment of past matches on youtube and the new found love for classic players like Charlie Gallagher (who played football for Cootehill Celtic GAA and Cavan GAA) and Tom Kiernan (who played fullback for Cork Con, UCC, Munster and Irish Rugby). This love for the past of the games has seen the rise in belief of true athleticism when sports like the GAA were truly amateur. From a fashion perspective this has resulted in the joy of buying retro jerseys not just actual 2005 British and Irish Lions jerseys but this trend has forced manufacturers to reproduce kits. For example Canterbury of New Zealand 2005 home IRFU jersey and most Premier League clubs have a retro range available now. Making retro styles get another run out in nightclubs leading to a strange new aesthetic on a Friday night in the club. Overall this is a trend that I like many others I do not begrudge, but the price of these pieces whether first hand or thrifted have become an issue and speak to a larger, social issue with fashion in our society which seeks to gate keep style for a certain few.
I HAVE HAD SIX DELICIOUS HOURS OF OBLIVION; I HAVE WOKE UP WITH MY MIND COMPOSED
sinead_sher
Photographer Abby Fisher
Model/ Sinead Sheridan
tinnitus promtions presents Ora Cogan MAY 23 CORK
with support from Elaine Malone NUdes CRafts and Cocktails
April 27th 15 euro
